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Amateur sports

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Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants, who are financially remunerated for the time they spend playing or training. In the majority of sports which feature professional players, the professionals will participate at a higher standard of play than amateur competitors. However, the majority of wordwide sporting participants are amateurs. Sporting amateurism was a zealously guarded ideal in the 19th century, especially among the upper classes, but faced steady erosion throughout the 20th century with the continuing growth of pro sports and monetisation of amateur and collegiate sports, and is now strictly held as an ideal by fewer and fewer organisations governing sports, even as they maintain the word "amateur" in their titles.

Modern organized sports developed in the 19th century, with the United Kingdom and the United States taking the lead. Sporting culture was especially strong in private schools and universities, and the upper and middle class men who attended these institutions played as amateurs. Opportunities for working classes to participate in sport were restricted by their long six-day work weeks and Sunday Sabbatarianism. In the UK, the Factory Act of 1844 gave working men half a day off, making the opportunity to take part in sport more widely available. Working class sportsmen found it hard to play top level sport due the need to turn up to work. On occasion, cash prizes, particularly in individual competitions, could make up the difference;1 some competitors also wagered on the outcomes of their matches. As professional teams developed, some clubs were willing to make "broken time" payments to players, i.e., to pay top sportsmen to take time off work, and as attendances increased, paying men to concentrate on their sport full-time became feasible. Proponents of the amateur ideal deplored the influence of money and the effect it has on sports. It was claimed that it is in the interest of the professional to receive the highest amount of pay possible per unit of performance, not to perform to the highest standard possible where this does not bring additional benefit.

The middle and upper class men who dominated the sporting establishment not only had a theoretical preference for amateurism, they also had a self-interest in blocking the professionalization of sport, which threatened to make it feasible for the working classes to compete against themselves with success. Working class sportsmen didn't see why they shouldn't be paid to play. Hence there were competing interests between those who wished sport to be open to all and those who feared that professionalism would destroy the 'Corinthian spirit'. This conflict played out over the course of more than one hundred years. Some sports dealt with it relatively easily, such as golf, which decided in the late 19th century to tolerate competition between amateurs and professionals, while others were traumatized by the dilemma, and took generations to fully come to terms with professionalism even to a result of causing a breakdown in the sport (as in the case of rugby union and rugby league in 1895).

Corinthian has come to describe the most virtuous of amateur athletes—those for whom fairness and honor in competition is valued above victory or gain. The adjective is used particularly—though not exclusively—to describe amateur sailors, perhaps owing its prevalence to the establishment of the Corinthian Yacht Club (now the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club) in Erith on the River Thames, England in 1872 with "encouragement of Amateur Yacht sailing" as its "primary object."2 To that end, club rules ensured that crews consisted of amateurs, while "no professional or paid hand is allowed to touch the tiller or in any way assist in steering."3

The earlier origins of the term are somewhat murky. Though it must certainly be linked to the Isthmian games of ancient Corinth, it more proximately originates from common slang usage in early 19th century England. Dixon Kemp wrote in A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing published in 1900, "The term Corinthian half a century ago was commonly applied to the aristocratic patrons of sports, some of which, such as pugilism, are not now the fashion."4 Evidence of this usage is found in Pierce Egan's Life In London (1821), featuring the elegant man about town "Corinthian Tom", while Egan's later Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1823) defined "Corinthians" as "the highest order of swells [gentlemen]"5

No matter the source, use of 'Corinthian' in the names of amateur sport clubs proliferated in the latter portion of the 19th century after the founding of the Corinthian Yacht Club in 1872. The Seawhanaka Yacht Club—originally founded in 1874—added "Corinthian" to its name in 1881.6 The Corinthian Football Club was founded in 1882. The Corinthian Yacht Club was founded in 1886 in Tiburon, California in the United States.7 The Yale Yacht Club (founded in 1881) was renamed the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in 1893.

Present day

By the early 21st century the Olympic Games and all the major team sports accepted professional competitors. However, there are still some sports which maintain a distinction between amateur and professional status with separate competitive leagues. The most prominent of these are golf and boxing. In particular, only amateur boxers may compete at the Olympics.

Problems can arise for amateur sportsmen when sponsors offer to help with an amateur's playing expenses in the hope of striking lucrative endorsement deals with them in case they become professionals at a later date. This may jeopardise their status as amateurs, and if allowed to let slide, may be seen as corruption or cheating rather than as true "shamateurism."

Where professionals are permitted, it is hard for amateurs to compete against them. Whether this is a triumph of the free market or an example of corruption depends on the viewer's perspective. To some an amateur means an incompetent or also-ran, and to others it means an idealist. To say that the athlete should not be paid can prevent performances only possible for an athlete who is free to pursue the sport full-time without other sources of income.

The term "shamateurism" is used to describe state-sponsored athletes. It was used as a means of funding athletes in the Eastern Bloc countries.

North American collegiate athletics

Main article: College athletics

All North American university sports are conducted by amateurs. Even the very most commercialized college sports, such as NCAA football and basketball, do not financially compensate competitors, although coaches and trainers generally are paid. College football coaches in Texas and other states are often the highest paid state employees, with some drawing salaries of over five million US dollars annually. Athletic scholarship programs, unlike academic scholarship programs, cannot cover more than the cost of food, housing, tuition, and other university-related expenses. A school can pay an athlete to attend classes. However, a school cannot pay an athlete to play.

In order to ensure that the rules are not circumvented, stringent rules restrict gift-giving during the recruitment process as well as during and even after a collegiate athlete's career; college athletes also cannot endorse products, which some may consider a violation of free speech rights.

Some have criticised this system as exploitative; prominent university athletics programs are major commercial endeavors, and can easily rake in millions of dollars in profit during a successful season. College athletes spend a great deal of time "working" for the university, and earn nothing from it at the time aside from scholarships sometimes worth tens of thousands of dollars; basketball and football coaches, meanwhile, earn salaries that can compare with those of professional teams' coaches.

Supporters of the system say that college athletes can always make use of the education they earn as students if their athletic career doesn't pan out, and that allowing universities to pay college athletes would rapidly lead to deterioration of the already-marginal academic focus of college athletics programs. They also point out that athletic scholarships allow many young men and women who would otherwise be unable to afford to go to college, or would not be accepted, to get a quality education. Also, most sports other than football and men's basketball do not generate significant revenue for any school (and such teams are often essentially funded by football, basketball, and donations), so it may not be possible to pay athletes in all sports. Allowing pay in some sports but not others could result in the violation of U.S. laws such as Title IX.

Through most of the 20th century the Olympics nominally allowed only amateur athletes to participate and this amateur code was strictly enforced - Jim Thorpe was stripped of track and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912.

Later on, however, successful Olympians from Western countries often accepted endorsement contracts from sponsors. Complex rules, involving the payment of the athlete's earnings into trust funds rather than directly to the athletes themselves, were developed in an attempt to work around this issue, but the intellectual evasion involved was considered embarrassing to the Olympic movement and the key Olympic sports by somewho?. In the same era, the nations of the Communist bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. (Cuba, North Korea, and to some extent China still do this; although China allows professionalism in popular team sports, it can be assumed that athletes in disciplines such as gymnastics from these countries are trained in state academies and have state-given stipends.)

After the 1972 retirement of IOC President Avery Brundage, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed and in many areas amount only to technicalities and lip service. In the United States, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 prohibits national governing bodies from having more stringent standards of amateur status than required by international governing bodies of respective sports.

Olympic regulations regarding amateur status of athletes were eventually abandoned in the 1990s with the exception of boxing and wrestling, where the rules for participation still require amateur status rather than professional status for the safety of the participants.

United States

See: Amateur baseball in the United States

See: Amateur status in first-class cricket

English first-class cricket distinguished between amateur and professional cricketers until 1963. Teams below Test cricket level in England were normally, except in emergencies such as injuries, captained by amateurs. Notwithstanding this, sometimes there were ways found to give high performing "amateurs", for example W.G.Grace, financial and other compensation such as employment.

On English overseas tours, some of which in the 19th century were arranged and led by professional cricketer-promoters such as James Lillywhite, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury, a more pragmatic approach generally prevailed.

In England the division was reflected in, and for a long time reinforced by, the series of Gentlemen v Players matches between amateurs and professionals. Few cricketers changed their status, but there were some notable exceptions such as Wally Hammond who became (or was allowed to become) an amateur in 1938 so that he could captain England.

Professionals were often expected to address amateurs, at least to their faces, as "Mister" or "Sir" whereas the amateurs often referred to professionals by their surnames. Newspaper reports often prefaced amateurs' names with "Mr" while professionals were referred to by surname, or sometimes surname and initials. At some grounds amateurs and professionals had separate dressing rooms and entered the playing arena through separate gates.

After the Second World War the division was increasingly questioned. When Len Hutton was appointed as English national cricket captain in 1952 he remained a professional. In 1962 the division was removed, and all cricket players became known as "cricketers".

Other countries

In Australia the amateur-professional division was rarely noticed in the years before World Series Cricket, as many top level players expected to receive something for their efforts on the field: before World War 1 profit-sharing of tour proceeds was common. Australian cricketers touring England were considered amateurs and given the title 'Mr" in newspaper reports.

In Ireland the players of Gaelic Football and Hurling play the sport without remuneration despite the sports being broadcast on national television stations and more recently on Sky Sports, who have purchased the broadcasting rights. Both sports also regularly fill Irish stadiums taking in a substantial amount of money in revenue for the GAA, the organization responsible for the care taking and administration of the sport. Many players are university students or have other jobs and often have to travel long distance to train and take part in matches. Coaches of the sport have often spoken up about their belief that the players should be paid.

Before the Partition of India some professionalism developed, but talented cricketers were often employed by wealthy princely or corporate patrons and thus retained a notional amateur status.

Women's cricket is, and always has been, almost entirely amateur.

Association football

Public football pitches are common in residential areas, such as this pitch on the Orchard Park Estate, Kingston upon Hull, England.

Boot money has been a phenomenon in amateur sport for centuries. The term "boot money" became popularised in the 1880s when it was not unusual for players to find half a crown (corresponding to 12½ pence after decimalisation) in their boots after a game.

The Football Association prohibited paying players until 1885, and this is referred to as the "legalisation" of professionalism because it was an amendment of the "Laws of the Game". However, a maximum salary cap of twelve pounds a week for a player with outside employment and fifteen pounds a week for a player with no outside employment lingered until the 1960s even as transfer fees reached over a hundred thousand pounds; again, "boot money" was seen as a way of topping up pay. Today the most prominent English football clubs that are not professional are semi-professional (paying part-time players more than the old maximum for top professionals; this includes all the major existing women's clubs, in which full professionalism has not taken root yet) and the most prominent true amateur men's club is probably Queens Park F.C., the oldest football club in Scotland, founded in 1867 and with a home ground (Hampden Park) which is one of UEFA's five-star stadia. They have also won the Scottish Cup more times than any club outside the Old Firm. Amateur football in both genders is now found mainly in small village and Sunday clubs and the Amateur Football Alliance.

American football

See: American football in the United States#Adult Amateur Football / Semi-Pro Football

Sailing has taken the opposite course. Around the turn of the 20th century, much of sailing was professionals paid by interested idle rich. Today, sailing, especially dinghy sailing, is an example of a sport which is still largely populated by amateurs. For example, in the recent Team Racing Worlds, and certainly the American Team Racing Nationals, most of the sailors competing in the event were amateurs. While many competitive sailors are employed in businesses related to sailing (primarily sailmaking, naval architecture, boatbuilding and coaching), most are not compensated for their own competitions. In large keelboat racing, such as the Volvo Around the World Race and the America's Cup, this amateur spirit has given way in recent years to large corporate sponsorships and paid crews.

Figure skating

Like other Olympic sports, figure skating used to have very strict amateur status rules. Over the years, these rules were relaxed to allow competitive skaters to receive token payments for performances in exhibitions (amid persistent rumors that they were receiving more money "under the table"), then to accept money for professional activities such as endorsements provided that the payments were made to trust funds rather than to the skaters themselves.

In 1992, trust funds were abolished, and the International Skating Union voted both to remove most restrictions on amateurism, and to allow skaters who had previously lost their amateur status to apply for reinstatement of their eligibility. A number of skaters, including Brian Boitano, Katarina Witt, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, and Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, took advantage of the reinstatement rule to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics. However, when all of these skaters promptly returned to the pro circuit again, the ISU decided the reinstatement policy was a failure and it was discontinued in 1995.

Prize money at ISU competitions was introduced in 1995, paid by the sale of the television rights to those events. In addition to prize money, Olympic-eligible skaters may also earn money through appearance fees at shows and competitions, endorsements, movie and television contracts, coaching, and other "professional" activities, provided that their activities are approved by their national federations. The only activity that is strictly forbidden by the ISU is participating in unsanctioned "pro" competitions, which the ISU uses to maintain their monopoly status as the governing body in the sport.8

Many people in the skating world still use "turning pro" as jargon to mean retiring from competitive skating, even though most top competitive skaters are already full-time professionals, and many skaters who retire from competition to concentrate on show skating or coaching do not actually lose their competition eligibility in the process.

Rugby football

Rugby has provided one of the most visible and lasting examples of the tension between amateurism and professionalism during the development of nationally-organised sports in Britain in the late-19th century. The split in rugby in 1895 between what became rugby league and rugby union arose as a direct result of a dispute over the pretence of a strict enforcement of its amateur status - clubs in Leeds and Bradford were fined after compensating players for missing work, whilst at the same time the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was allowing other players to be paid.citation needed

Rugby football, despite its origins in the privileged English public schools, was a popular game throughout England by around 1880, including in the large working-class areas of the industrial north. However, as the then-amateur sport became increasingly popular and competitive, attracting large paying crowds, teams in such areas found it difficult to attract and retain good players. This was because physically fit local men needed to both work to earn a wage - limiting the time that they could devote to unpaid sport - and to avoid injuries that might prevent them working in the future. Certain teams faced with these circumstances wanted to pay so-called 'broken time' money to their players to compensate them for missing paid work due to their playing commitments, but this contravened the amateur policy of the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

Following a lengthy dispute on this point during the early 1890s, representatives of more than 20 prominent northern rugby clubs met in Huddersfield in August 1895 to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU), a breakaway administrative body which would permit payments to be made to players. The NRFU initially adopted established RFU rules for the game itself, but soon introduced a number of changes, most obviously a switch from 15 to 13 players per side. It became the Rugby Football League in 1922, by which time the key differences in the two codes were well established, with the 13-a-side variant becoming known as rugby league.

The RFU took strong action against the clubs involved in the formation of the NRFU, all of whom were deemed to have forfeited their amateur status and therefore to have left the RFU. A similar interpretation was applied to all players who played either for or against such clubs, whether or not they themselves received any compensation. Such players were effectively barred sine die from any involvement in organised rugby union. These comprehensive and enduring sanctions, combined with the very localised nature of most rugby competition, meant that most northern clubs had little practical alternative but to affiliate with the NRFU in the first few years of its existence.

Rugby football in Britain therefore became subject to a de facto schism along regional, and to some extent class, lines, reflecting the historical origins of the split. Rugby league - in which professionalism was permitted - was predominant in northern England, particularly in industrial areas, and was viewed as a working class game. Rugby union - which remained amateur - was predominant in the rest of England, as well as in Wales and Scotland. Rugby union also had a more affluent reputation, although there are areas - notably in South Wales and in certain English cities such as Gloucester - with a strong working-class rugby union tradition.

Discrimination against rugby league players could verge on the petty - former Welsh international Fred Perrett was once excluded in lists of players who died in the First World War due to his 'defection' to the league code.9 One Member of Parliament, David Hinchliffe, described it as "one of the longest (and daftest) grievances in history" with anyone over the age of 18 associated with rugby league being banned forever from rugby union.10

Scotland and Wales

The Scottish Rugby Union was a particular bastion of amateurism and extreme care was taken to avoid the 'taint' of professionalism: a player rejoining the national team after the end of the Second World War applied to be issued with a new shirt and was reminded that he had been supplied with a shirt prior to the outbreak of hostilities.citation needed

In Wales the position was more equivocal with clubs attempting to stem the tide of players going north with boot money a reference to the practice of putting cash payments into player's footwear whilst they were cleaning up after a game. Sometimes payments were substantial. Barry John was once asked why he hadn't turned professional and responded I couldn't afford to.citation needed

Open union

Rugby union was declared "open" in August 1995 - almost exactly 100 years after the original split occurred - meaning that professionalism has been permitted in both rugby codes since that date. However, while the professional-amateur divide remained in force, there was originally very limited crossover between the two codes, the most obvious occasions being when top-class rugby union players 'switched codes' to rugby league in order to play professionally. Welsh international Jonathan Davies was a high-profile example of this switch. Since professionalism has been allowed in rugby union the switches have started to come the opposite way. Union has swiftly grown to embrace the professional game with many league players joining union to take a slice of the larger amounts of money available in the sport.

Nowadays, while rugby union no longer makes the professional-amateur distinction, the professional-amateur split still exists within rugby league with the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) strictly amateur, though it allows some ex-professionals to play provided they are no longer under contract. The most recent club to get a ban for fielding a contracted professional was Brighouse Rangers who were expelled from the National Conference League during 2007-2008 season, and the player handed a sine die ban (though in part for gouging 11), although the club itself has since been admitted to the Pennine League.

Ultimate and disc sports (Frisbee)

Australia vs Canada, ultimate players at the 2012 WUGC in Japan. Ultimate Canada

Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties. As numbers of young people became alienated from social norms, they resisted and looked for alternative recreational activities, including that of throwing a Frisbee.12 What started with a few players, in the sixties, like Victor Malafronte, Z Weyand and Ken Westerfield experimenting with new ways of throwing and catching a Frisbee, later would become known as playing freestyle.13 Organized disc sports, in the 1970s, began with promotional efforts from Wham-O and Irwin Toy (Canada), a few tournaments and professionals using Frisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events. Disc sports such as freestyle, double disc court, guts, disc ultimate and disc golf became this sports first events.1415 Two sports, the team sport of disc ultimate and disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played semi professionally.1617 The World Flying Disc Federation, Professional Disc Golf Association, and the Freestyle Players Association, are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide.

Disc ultimate is a team sport played with a flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to members of your own team, on a rectangular field, 120 yards (110m) by 40 yards (37m), until you have successfully completed a pass to a team member in the opposing teams end zone. There are currently over five million people that play some form of organized ultimate in the US.18 Ultimate has started to be played semi-professionally with two newly formed leagues, the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) and Major League Ultimate (MLU).

The game of guts was invented by the Healy Brothers in the 1950s and developed at the International Frisbee Tournament (IFT) in Marquette, Michigan. The game of ultimate, the most widely played disc game, began in the late 1960s with Joel Silver and Jared Kass. In the 1970s it developed as an organized sport with the creation of the Ultimate Players Association with Dan Roddick, Tom Kennedy and Irv Kalb. Double disc court was invented and introduced in the early 1970s by Jim Palmeri. In 1974, freestyle competition was created and introduced by Ken Westerfield and Discrafts Jim Kenner.19 In 1976, the game of disc golf was standardized with targets called "pole holes" invented and developed by Wham-O's Ed Headrick.

High school sports

Main article: Student athlete

Sports teams commonly exist at the high school level; students who participate, commonly referred to as student athletes, do so during their course of study. Occasionally, sports success in high school sports may lead to a professional career in the field.

The benefit of sports in high school is debated; some believe that they promote discipline and teamwork,20 while others find that they can cause injury.21 One study on the relationship between high school athletic and academic successes finds that, for the most part, higher participation and success rates in sports is positively related school-wide student successes on academic outcomes such as standardized test scores and educational attainment.22 The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that student athletes have a 20% higher chance of completing a college degree, and are more likely to be employed and in better health than non-athletes.23 However, a survey of high school athletes in 2006 showed that high school athletes are more likely to cheat inside of the classroom than non-athletes, especially boys participating in football, baseball, and basketball and girls participating in softball and basketball.24 The survey does not indicate to what extent cheating contributes to the greater academic outcomes of high school athletes.

Golf still has amateur championships, most notably the U.S. Amateur Championship, British Amateur Championship, U.S. Women's Amateur, British Ladies Amateur, Walker Cup, Eisenhower Trophy, Curtis Cup and Espirito Santo Trophy. However, amateur golfers are far less known that players of professional golf tours such as the PGA Tour and European Tour. Still, a few amateurs are invited to compete in open events, such as the U.S. Open and British Open.

Other sports

In Ireland, the Gaelic Athletic Association, or GAA, protects the amateur status of the country's national sports, including Gaelic football, Hurling and Camogie. Major tennis championships prohibited professionals until 1968 but the subsequent admission of professionals virtually eliminated amateurs from public visibility. Paying players was considered disreputable in baseball until 1869.

In motorsports, amateur racing is more commonly known as Club Racing, sanctioned by the SCCA and others. Some sports car racing competitions have separate classes for professionals, amateurs and pro-am driver lineups.

See also

  1. ^ (looking for citation to prizes of a trophy filled with silver dollars)
  2. ^ "140 years of amateur yachting excellence…". Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. ^ Gabe, Julius (1902). Yachting: Historical Sketches of the Sport. Lippincott. pp. 110–111.
  4. ^ Kemp, Dixon (1900). A Maual of Yacht and Boat Sailing. H. Cox. p. 546.
  5. ^ Egan, Pierce (1823). Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
  6. ^ "A Short History By past Commodore P. James Roosevelt". Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  7. ^ "About CYC". Corinthian Yacht Club. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  8. ^ "Competitive Figure Skating FAQ:Rules and Regulations". Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  9. ^ Rugby Heroes who went to War BBC Online Matthew Ferris, November 2008
  10. ^ David Hinchliffe (1994-06-26). "Do I not like that . . . / Hypocrisy has to end: David Hinchliffe MP explains why he has introduced a Bill to stop rugby union discriminating against the league code". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
  11. ^ [1]dead link
  12. ^ Jordan Holtzman-Conston (2010). Countercultural Sports in America: The History and Meaning of Ultimate Frisbee. Waltham, Mass. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  13. ^ "Freestyle Players Association". The History of Flying Disc Freestyle. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  14. ^ "World Flying Disc Federation". WFDF Official Website. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  15. ^ "World Flying Disc Federation". History of the Flying Disc. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  16. ^ "Professional Disc Golf Association". PDGA Official Website. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  17. ^ "American Ultimate Disc League". AUDL Official Website. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
  18. ^ "Ultimate Frisbee Participation [SFIA]". Sludge Output. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  19. ^ "Canadian Open Freestyle History". Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  20. ^ Naomi Fejgin. "Participation in High School Competitive Sports: A Subversion of School Mission or Contribution to Academic Goals?", Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport
  21. ^ "Injuries in High School Sports - Garrick and Requa 61 (3): 465 - Pediatrics". Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  22. ^ Bowen, Daniel H.; Greene, Jay P. (2012). "Does Athletic Success Come at the Expense of Academic Success?". Journal of Research in Education 22 (2).
  23. ^ "Who Reports Participation in Varsity Intercollegiate Sports at 4-Year Colleges?". Nation Center for Education Statistic. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  24. ^ "Survey of high school athletes: 2006". Josephson Institute Center for Sports Ethics. Retrieved 9 January 2014.

External links


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W. squash ready to take over top spot from Trinity

The women of Eli squash got a boost of confidence this weekend in anticipation of today’s match against intrastate-rival No. 1 Trinity (3-0) when the No. 2 Elis (6-0) chalked up four victories in two days by a combined score of 36-0.

The Bulldogs did not lose a single match against Bates, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, or Cornell in the unofficial tournament. The Elis dropped only four games out of the 247 they played. Frances Ho ’05 dropped one game in her 3-1 victory over her Bowdoin opponent. Lauren McCrery ’07 won a five-game marathon against her Dartmouth opponent and Sarah Coleman ’05 rebounded after dropping the first game of her Dartmouth match to win 3-1. The Bulldogs won every other match in straight sets, 3-0.

Before the squash players of Yale and Dartmouth teams were introduced to a packed Brady Squash Center late Saturday afternoon, a moment of silence was called in memory of the five Yale undergraduates lost a year ago in a fatal car accident.

Yale head coach Mark Talbott said he was obviously pleased with his team, though the results were not unexpected. Talbott felt the marathon of matches was well worth it despite the ease with which the Elis dispatched the competition.

“We won pretty handily,” Talbott said. “But it was good practice.”

Talbott sat half of his starting line-up against Bates and Bowdoin in order to give other players game experience, but he brought his best players against Dartmouth, which was expected to be the toughest competition of the weekend. Second-seed and the nation’s seventh-ranked Amy Gross ’06 was missing from this weekend’s action due to a nagging groin injury.

Gross said Monday she felt better, though was still in some pain.

“I feel a lot better today [Monday],” Gross said. “I’ll practice for 20 to 30 minutes, see how it goes, because if it still hurts, I’ll need to rest it more.”

Although Gross could not be reached on Tuesday night, teammate Michelle Quibell ’06 said Gross will be ready to play today.

Talbott said the team practiced hard Monday, but went lighter on Tuesday before today’s match against Trinity.

Last season, the Bulldogs lost both meetings to Trinity — during the regular season by a score 7-2 and in the final round of the Howe Cup Championship 9-0. Captain Devon Dalzell ’04 said the team was not calm enough in its loss to Trinity in the Howe Cup finals last season. But this weekend’s barrage of matches has helped the Elis develop their ability to maintain composure under fire, a key ingredient for Bulldog success today.

“We just need to relax,” Dalzell said. “I think last year we were way too nervous. I don’t think I even breathed the first game, it was over way to quickly.”

The Elis look to make today’s meeting last a little longer than the finals of the Howe Cup. This match could also determine the National Champion, which, separate from the Howe Cup, is determined by who has the best record in regular season play. If No. 2 Yale defeats No. 1 Trinity, the Elis will not only take over the top-spot in the national rankings, they will have taken a huge step toward claiming the national title.

“In a way it’s kind of like the national title,” Quibell said. “If we beat Trinity and win the rest of our matches, as we are expected to do, we will win the national title.”

Yale’s first-seed Quibell, who is ranked fourth in the nation, will be matched up against Trinity’s top-seed and the top-ranked player in collegiate squash, Bantam captain Amina Helal. Quibell went 1-1 against Helal last season, winning in the regular season match-up but losing in the Howe Cup finals.

Between the Bulldogs and the Bantams, Wednesday’s match will see six of the top ten ranked players in the nation competing, with Bantams at the No. 1, 2, 8, and 9 spots and Bulldogs at the No. 4 (Quibell) and No. 7 (Gross) spots.

But for Dalzell, there are no doubts about the Elis’ skill and experience.

“We’re going in there the underdogs,” Quibell said. “We have nothing to lose.”

Yale women’s squash team member Lauren McCrery ’07 (right) pauses before stepping into a forehand this weekend. The Elis defeated Bates, Bowdoin, Dartmouth and Cornell by a combined score of 36-0.
Laura Warren
Yale women’s squash team member Lauren McCrery ’07 (right) pauses before stepping into a forehand this weekend. The Elis defeated Bates, Bowdoin, Dartmouth and Cornell by a combined score of 36-0.

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Academy Awards Best Picture Oscar Winners Supercut

Posted by Hoob on February 21st, 2013
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The Academy Awards are this weekend so it’s a good time to take a look back at all of the winners from the past 85 years. How many can you name?

Don’t worry, if you don’t know them, the answers are all at the end of the video.

Academy Awards: Best Picture Oscar Winners from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Let's finish off what the French Revolution started

That seems to be President Hollande's motto and not in a good way either. He seems to be so determined to introduce égalité that, as so often the case, liberté and even fraternité are left out of his calculations. Perhaps that is because égalité is the easiest of the three to control from the centre and to impose by force.

Thanks to Instapundit we get the story of the latest proposal for educational reform in France where schooling has been on a very high standard until now, despite much of it being run by the state. There is a link to an article on the subject in the Wall Street Journal: "France to Ban Homework. Really".
François Hollande has a bold new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week at the Sorbonne, the French president declared that work "must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we want to support the children and re-establish equality."
Banning out-of-school assignments would put France on the cutting edge of pedagogical fashion, though it wouldn't be entirely unprecedented. An elementary school in Maryland recently replaced homework with a standing order for 30 minutes a day of after-school reading. A German high school is also test-running a new homework ban, after an earlier reform lengthened the school day and crowded out time for extra-curriculars such as sports or music.
Actually, banning homework is far from cutting edge. That was tried in Britain, certainly for younger children for many years, the argument being exactly the one the French President is using: it is not fair as some children might get help from parents and some might not. The result, as we know, was that generations of children grew up with large sections of them being barely literate or numerate, let alone capable of learning anything more complicated than the three Rs.

Furthermore, it became obvious that with no homework required by the school inequality became even more pronounced as it was now only those children whose parents could and would devote time and energy to educating their offspring who prospered. To some extent, I am glad to say, this practice is now being abandoned across the country but school requirements remain lamentably low.

The article is right in pointing out that substituting more activity at school for homework is not the same as deciding not to have any of either. But then, M. Hollande looks to other matters: school, he pronounced at the Sorbonne, is where the child becomes a citizen of the future. What he would really like, I suppose, is to take the children away from their parents completely and to have them brought up entirely by the state.

This, one can argue, is excellent news for Britain. At least, our undereducated children will no longer have to compete with the French. But, I suspect, the rejoicing (if there is any) will be short-lived. French parents care far more about these matters than, I am sad to say, most British ones do. They will be out in force, demonstrating against government proposals to destroy the French school system.

  1. Most homework in my experience both at state & private school was busy-work and of little use. Though banning it as a government edict seems a bit daft.

  2. It varied in my experience. But that is not the reason for the ban, as is clear. Hollande seems to be quite unhinged.

  3. It's true that large portions of the most recent generations of British children have grown up functionally illiterate.

    But I am not sure it's down to a homework ban.

    It's largely due to two things: the imposition of the absurd "child-centred education" theories of the, well, theorists and the complete breakdown of discipline in British state schools. The refusal of teachers to use phonics in teaching reading is probably a major contributor as well.

  4. And not expecting children to do any work as evidenced by the homework ban is another contributing factor, I'd say.

  5. Under so called Local Management of Schools in the late Eighties, the board of governors on which I served accepted this pearl as part of its "curriculum development statement"
    "It is the policy of the school to make the students responsible for their own learning"
    It was an infants' school!

    Whilst the document was something we were supposed to produce for ourselves, this was a draft sent by the County to "help" us. With only half a dozen dissenters, every school in the county of every age group solemnly adopted this nonsense. It was like a North Korean general election - but then, the leader of the council did go to North Korea on jollies!

    It was an interesting time for secondary head teachers. The reorganisation removed the sixth forms from most schools and the heads then had to re-apply for their own jobs, giving ample scope for selection by political affiliation and correctness.

  6. I also recall that in the late eighties a number of secondary school teachers and heads complained about the fact that children were arriving in their schools without basic reading or writing ability, never mind 'rithmetic. My own personal experience of primary school children at the time would confirm that. I recall going with a class of 10 - 11 year olds to the Museum of London and finding that a large proportion of them could not read the labels under the various exhibits. This was a very ordinary school in West London with children from all backgrounds, i.e. not ones with particular learning difficulties.

  7. My children go to a French elementary school in West London. It'll be interesting to see what if anything filters down. Currently my 7 year old gets set homework, and being in French my wife helps him do it. FWIW Hollande is right in that children whose parents give them support are already edging ahead, but holding back everyone is not only stupid, it doesn't work as Helen has explained. O/T but perhaps worth mentioning is that parents at the school are largely split into two factions,ex-pats here for a few years, and more long term English residents. The former group want English to be a bigger part of the curriculum, as they feel this is a chance for the kids to become fluent in English, and the latter who want French to be more stressed as the whole point is to give their kids a French education; they'll pick up English automatically simply by being here.

    We should also note that one of his election promises was to recruit 60,000 more teachers, who will now be even freer to teach not having any homework to mark.

  8. Why does he need 60,000 more teachers? Are there that many children coming up to school age in France? Not having home work to mark does not seem to result in more teaching. We've been there.

  9. And, of course, the equally -- if not more so -- important question concerns the subtance of the very curriculum itself...


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Light agenda marks work session, regular meeting

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Bartow City Commissioners will take up two resolutions at the Monday, July 21 regular meeting.

In the first, Resolution No. 14-3857-R, commissioners will vote whether to approve a “Final Non-Ad Valorem Assessment Roll.” This will be specifically for parcels lying within the Clear Springs Waterwater Improvement Assessment District.

Resolution No. 14-3858-R takes up the matter of fire protection services, facilities and programs. It provides authority, purpose and definitions in addition to several other aspects.

Outside those resolutions, nothing else is slated to be officially discussed. However, there will be two presentations. The first will be a proclamation that will be accepted by Interim Parks and Recreation Director Les Barr, that will proclaim July as Parks and Recreation Month.

The second will be a presentation of proclamation for the Union Academy Grand Reunion and will be presented to George Ronald Sabb, president of the Union Academy High School Alumni Association.

The work session that will take place at 5:30 p.m., prior to the 6:30 p.m., start of the regular meeting, has only two topics on the agenda. Both center around the Carver Rec Center. One involves replacing the roof while the other involves replacing the floor in the old gym.

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Author Archives: the knight of prosperity

Supre (Australia/New Zealand) vs Johnny Cupcakes

While out shopping with my girlfriend in Auckland, New Zealand today we spotted this blatant rip off of the classic Johnny Cupcakes ( shirt…

supre rip

And here’s the original Johnny shirt…

jonny cupcakes original

I have written to Johnny and told him of the steal just prior to writing this post
I will update if I hear back.

It’s so frustrating to see someone who I really respect getting ripped off by someone like Supre with chain stores across two countries.

Surely they can afford to employ someone with their own ideas….no?

Is there anything I can do here?
Obviously some injustices have been done, I want to sort them out!

Is this just an annoying copy or can we actually do something about this?


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Censorship Businesses IT Your Rights Online

You Can't Say That On the Internet 432 432

hessian writes in with a story about the arbitrary and often outdated online decency standards being imposed by companies."A bastion of openness and counterculture, Silicon Valley imagines itself as the un-Chick-fil-A. But its hyper-tolerant facade often masks deeply conservative, outdated norms that digital culture discreetly imposes on billions of technology users worldwide. What is the vehicle for this new prudishness? Dour, one-dimensional algorithms, the mathematical constructs that automatically determine the limits of what is culturally acceptable. Consider just a few recent kerfuffles. In early September, The New Yorker found its Facebook page blocked for violating the site’s nudity and sex standards. Its offense: a cartoon of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve’s bared nipples failed Facebook’s decency test."
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You Can't Say That On the Internet

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  • by vlm (69642) on Monday November 19, 2012 @09:58AM (#42026213)

    Silicon Valley imagines itself as the un-Chick-fil-A

    Eve’s bared nipples failed Facebook’s decency test

    LOL facebook is for middle aged women to check every 15 seconds for new pixs of their friends kids or pix of their "fur babies" aka over pampered dogs, and teenage girls to sling insults at each other and compete about friend counts. Guys mostly post "blackmail pixs" for fun of their buddies throwing up, getting high, or getting it on with a landwhale.

    "tits or GTFO" is not going to work on FB. Its middle aged woman / teen girl culture not online or whatever.

    Now if you posted a nice rack on a "internet culture" area like 4chan or maybe a link here on /., that would more or less work.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19, 2012 @10:24AM (#42026445)

    Perhaps if we could set our own content filters this would solve the problem? I'm uncomfortable with others deciding whose nipples I can and can't see.

    I can't tell you how many times I have tried to post something only to have it marked "[Censored]"

    Words like: "orifice", "petcock", and other words that are used everyday in polite company.

    I don't know what software these websites are using (, but their forums block the most innocuous shit. And it's not like automechanics and construction workers are known for their delicate sensibilities!

    And if anyone is offended buy words like that, they really need to get a grip.

  • Re:Simple (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BVis (267028) on Monday November 19, 2012 @10:30AM (#42026499)

    Logged in to say this. The 'moral majority' (which is neither) has decided that they know what's best for the rest of us. They terrorize politicians into implementing 'decency' rules that reinforce this belief. They pay hordes of lawyers to sue media companies that don't toe their line.

    They're a bunch of fundamentally insecure white males (and their chattel) that are so terrified of the concept of female sexuality that they move to oppress any expression of it outside of... well, actually, any expression of it at all.

    Fundamentalist Evangelical "Christians" are a plague on the United States. Hopefully the drubbing their meat puppets took in the last election will disarm them a bit; if the politicians know they can no longer win elections just by pandering to the fundies, they'll stop doing it.

  • by sycodon (149926) on Monday November 19, 2012 @10:36AM (#42026555)

    Because you are intimately familiar with almost all southern Republican politicians.

    How's the weather up there on your High Horse?

  • by poetmatt (793785) on Monday November 19, 2012 @10:54AM (#42026765) Journal

    I'm disappointed with the article headline: acting like you can't say something?
    Chick Fil-gay can and absolutely did say what they said. Freedom of speech is still alive and well, even if people don't like it (add NYT to that list for willingly censoring at the behest of the government). They simply deserved what they got in response as the market correctly responded. It's one thing to be against rights (which is repulsive to many, but still free speech), but it's another entirely to do what Apple does and willingly censor.
    Why do people start with bullshit headlines when the article is also crap?

  • by icebraining (1313345) on Monday November 19, 2012 @10:59AM (#42026815) Homepage

    No, but they might bomb you if you offend them by being in a nightclub for people with the wrong sexual orientation [].

    You may also offend them by being poor, in which case they might just steal your recently born baby [].

    Of course, these are exceptions. But so is your accusation.

  • by Cid Highwind (9258) on Monday November 19, 2012 @11:10AM (#42026921) Homepage

    "Dour, one-dimensional algorithms" didn't decide cartoon nipples are taboo in Texarkana. People did.

    Don't like it? Start making as much noise when something is censored as the prudes do when they see a bare boob on the boob tube.

  • by mcgrew (92797) * on Monday November 19, 2012 @11:36AM (#42027221) Homepage Journal

    And how is an outsider to distinguish between a Christian and someone just calling themselves one?

    Actions speak louder than words. The "God hates fags" crowd is perhaps the worst, but maybe that's because a middle-aged lesbian told me only a week ago she wished she wasn't gay because she didn't want to go to hell. I pointed out that since I'm single, it's as much of a sin for me to eat pussy as it is for her. What's worst is she hadn't been with a woman for years.

    It's amazing that so many people who call themselves Christian don't understand the core of Christianity -- forgiveness. kindness, charity. She felt bad about being a lesbian, so she was automatically forgiven. Forgive others, you will be forgiven yourself. Too bad few southern preachers and politicians understand that. They should read the bibles they thump.

  • by CanHasDIY (1672858) on Monday November 19, 2012 @11:38AM (#42027249) Homepage Journal

    Decency standards be damned, this is 100% legal to air.

    Reminds me of this Xbox 360 ad [] that was also barred from airing.

    Considering that the advert is far, far more tame than typical prime-time programming, it's beyond logic why the ad would be banned...

  • by mcgrew (92797) * on Monday November 19, 2012 @11:53AM (#42027431) Homepage Journal

    As a Christian, I forgive your hatefulness. That's what we do.

  • by stewwy (687854) on Monday November 19, 2012 @12:09PM (#42027629)
    It's funny! :-) Blurs and challenges peoples assumptions.

    I'm in the UK and for what it's worth I'm a transsexual currently growing her own boobs, (not bad, a bit more than a B cup at the moment :-) )

    The situation is interesting though, if I'm in male mode and strip my top off from there in a situation where male bare-chestedness is appropriate (say a normal beach) then that is OK as far as the cops are concerned.

    But it's not OK if I strip off from a Skirt and Bra.

    I actually find this quite an enlightened attitude. In the rare case that I'm presenting as male I'm treated as one

    When I'm presenting as female then I'm treated as one

    Which is how it should be. I do find this whole thing about nipples (in the USA ) a bit ridiculous, and to be honest a bit childish, it smacks a bit of giggling in the playground

    It is however an insidious way of introducing censorship.

    In the UK we treat sexuality ( and nipples ) a bit more seriously, strangely thanks to the murdoch press and the Sun (a low brow, very popular newspaper ) girls on page 3

    But we fall down considerably on freedom of speech at the moment ( witness the guy being arrested for a burning poppy on his FB page along with calling squaddies c*nts, as if they would care )

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to work.


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Y Blog

Early days at SXSW

March 11, 2011 by Corinne Rusch-Drutz

Arriving in Austin, you know you're in a music and tech town when there's live music in the airport and the bus schedule runs on QR codes. Unlike other parts of Texas, Austin  is not about big box culture or mega mall living, but indie life with a focus on the best use of tech to support community needs.  People are friendly and happy to host the crowd of 12,000+ that descend upon Austin for...

Tags: SXSW, Interactive, Technology, Safety Siren

Launch of UN Women

March 1, 2011 by Lynne Kent

Last week I attended the launch of UN Women in New York. In 2007, YWCA Canada wrote a recommendation to World Council to engage all YWCAs in lobbying for this new entity at the UN for the world’s women. It was incredible, and almost unbelievable, for me to sit in the General Assembly and see this beginning. I spent last week hearing horrific stories – I was going to say about women but that would be...

YWCA Canada at United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 55, 2011

February 24, 2011 by Nicole Gutowski

YWCA Canada at CSW 55, 2011 The theme of this year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is: Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work  YWCA Canada will be presenting an NGO parallel session with partners, Abantu for Development (ROWA) and Canadian Crossroads International. The session will explore how partnerships can expand capacity to mentor young...

Tags: CSW, Commission on the Status of Women, UN, UN Women, YWCA Canada, World YWCA, WITNESS, Naomi Frerotte, Abantu for Development, Canadian Crossroads International, Living Beyond Shelter

Brave girls of 2010

January 27, 2011 by Danielle Pearson

I might be stretching the timeline for 2010 reviews a bit, but I’m going with the rule that it is acceptable until the end of January.  Plus, I think it’s worth noting some of the incredible ways that frustrated girls have been fighting sexism and discrimination in 2010.  So, I have put together a short list of brave girls’ awesome actions of 2010.  Check it out: These Connecticut teens felt their cheerleader uniforms were too revealing...

YWCA Canada Announces Online Mall

September 3, 2010 by Corinne Rusch-Drutz

Announcing the launch of the YWCA Canada online mall  Shop ‘til you drop for all your favourite YWCA swag, anti-violence resources, and reports and publications.  Looking for t-shirts, buttons, Week Without Violence and Rose Campaign materials?  We’ve got ‘em!

Shop now to enjoy our virtual door crasher special, YWCA Canada t-shirt, was $25 now only $15 or two for $25!  Back to school anyone?  Wear your YW!

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Jay-Z Sued Over Alleged ‘Run This Town’ Song Sampling

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 20: Jay-Z attends a rally honoring Trayvon Martin outside One Police Plaza in Manhattan on July 20, 2013 in New York City. Demonstrators have gathered in various cities across the country to protest the acquittal of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman and press for his federal prosecution in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Kena Betancur, Getty Images

Jay-Z ran the charts with ‘Run This Town,’ but a scorned record label wants to run that town right into the ground over an alleged illegal sample. The ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’ rapper is being sued for allegedly sampling a track for his 2009 collaboration with Kanye West and Rihanna.

TufAmerica Inc., a New York record label, is suing Jigga Man and Roc Nation over what they claim is an unauthorized sample of a 1969 track called ‘Hook & Sling Part 1′ by Eddie Bo. The lawsuit alleges that ‘Run This Town’ samples the song numerous times. The New York Daily News reports that the suit requests proceeds from the hit as well as damages to be determined at trial and a court order to cease “further distribution and exploitation” of ‘Hook & Sling Part 1.’

The suit lists Hov, Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC, Atlantic Records and more among the defendants.

It’s not the first time TufAmerica has filed a claim against a major artist. Rolling Stone reports that the label has also sued the Beastie Boys and Christina Aguilera, as well as filing a suit against Yeezy in 2012 over ‘Hook & Sling’ allegedly used on multiple tracks of ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.’

You can tune in to both songs below. Here’s hoping both parties find a settlement they’re happy with … and that they pay more attention to paperwork in the future!

Next: Jay-Z + More Stars Older Than You Think

Listen to Jay-Z, ‘Run This Town’

Listen to Eddie Bo, ‘Hook & Sling Part 1′

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Cosplay of the Day: ‘The Fifth Element’ is Ruby Rhod, Clearly

Ruby Rhod Cosplay
Sony Pictures

Yeah, we know they said the fifth element in ‘The Fifth Element’ was love, but obviously they were wrong. The missing ingredient to life is Ruby Rhod, as evidenced by this fabulous cosplay.

We see a ton of Leeloo cosplay around the internet, and that’s an easy one to pull off. All you need is orange hair and strips of white cloth, and maybe a little dirt, and boom — you’re Leeloo.

But Ruby Rhod is a much more difficult costume to put together. You can’t just slather on leopard print and expect it to work out. You need a real flamboyant attitude to sell it, which is why we think Larry Smith’s Ruby Rhod cosplay is the best.

Chris Tucker‘s Ruby Rhod sports many eccentric looks throughout ‘The Fifth Element,’ but none more memorable than his exaggerated, high-collared leopard print ensemble with matching gloves and cane, and that ridiculous sculpted blonde afro quasi-beehive thing. Smith also includes accessories like a heart-shaped necklace, earrings and red-jeweled bracelet… but you guys, look at his face! He totally nails the facial expressions! And he looks like he’s having the best time ever, which is what we like to see when we check out cosplayers.

Ruby Rhod Cosplay

Ruby Rhod Cosplay

Ruby Rhod Cosplay

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Do you have cosplay photos you would like to submit for consideration? E-mail to staff [at]!

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louis ck saturday night live 'Saturday Night Live': Louis CK reflects on Sandy before taking the stageThe first “Saturday Night Live” following a major national event is always worth watching, if only for a fresh comedic perspective on something serious. This week’s “SNL” is particularly powerful, since the heart of the show beats in New York City, which is still suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. That wasn’t lost on host Louis C.K., who wrote the following heartfelt email to his fans a few hours before taking the stage.

Hello. Its louis here. I’m clacking this to you on my
phone in my dressing room here at studio 8H, right in 30 rockefeller
center, in Manhattan, new york city, new york, america, world, current
snapshot of all existence everywhere.

Tonight I’m hosting Saturday Night Live, something I zero ever in my
life saw happening to me. And yet here it is completely most probably
happening (I mean, ANYTHING could NOT happen. So we’ll see).

I’ve been working here all week with the cast, crew, producers and
writers of SNL, and with Lorne Michaels. Such a great and talented group
of people.

And here we are in the middle of New York City, which was just
slammed by a hurricane, leaving behind so much trouble, so much
difficulty and trauma, which everyone here is still dealing with every

Last night we shot some pre-tape segments in greenwich Village, which
was pitch black dark for blocks and blocks, as it has been for a week

Its pretty impossible to describe walking through these city streets
in total darkness. It can’t even be called a trip through time, because
as long as new york has lived, its been lit. By electricity, gas lamps,
candlelight, kerosene. But this was pitch black, street after street,
corner round corner. And for me, the village being the very place that
made me into a comedian and a man, to walk through the heart of it and
feel like, in a way, it was dead. I can’t tell you how that felt. And
you also had a palpable sense that inside each dark window was a family
or a student or an artist or an old woman living alone, just being int
he dark and waiting for the day to come back. Like we were all having
one big sleep over, but not so much fun as that.

This is how a lot of the city is still. I know people in queens,
brooklyn, Staten Island, new jersey, all over, are not normal yet. And
not normal is hard.

And here at 30 rock, these folks are working so hard this week.
There are kids in the studio every day, because members of the crew and
staff had to bring them to work. Many people are sharing lodging.
Everyone is tired. But there’s this feeling here that we’ve got to put
on a great show. I’m sure it feels like that here every week. But wow.
I feel really lucky to be sharing this time with these particular good
folks here at SNL.

In about 5 hours we’ll be going on the air. I’ll do a monologue.
And we’ll show you some sketches that we wrote and try to make you
laugh. I’m gonna look really dumb in some of this stuff. But I don’t
care. Its awfully worth it. And I’m really excited.

Anyway. I just wanted to let you know. If you watch the show
tonight, when Don Pardo says my name and you see me walking out, all the s***  in this email is what ill be thinking. I’m a pretty lucky guy. I
hope you enjoy the show.

Louis C.K.

Live. From new york. Its saturday night.


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julianna margulies emmy 2014 win 'Good Wife's' Julianna Margulies ribs Josh Charles, throws some cable shade during 2014 Emmys win“The Good Wife” star Julianna Margulies won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series — which still doesn’t make up for the show’s snub in the best series category, but it’s a good start — and during her acceptance speech, she was both poignant and hilarious.

Margulies says:

What a wonderful time for women on television. All the women I’m nominated with here tonight is such a testament to that. But truly this belongs to Robert and Michelle King and all our writers who never cease to amaze me with 22 episodes a year. And I have to thank our gorgeous cast, you are spectacular. Christine Baranski, you are a beacon of light to all of us. And Josh Charles, I miss you every day. What were you thinking?! …

I just want to say a big thank you to Jim McKay, who directed the episode that I submitted with such clarity. And to the two best things that ever happened to me — Keith and Kieran, best part of my day is coming home to you. I love you.

Gotta admire the poke at network vs. cable shows in re: the number of episodes each is required to produce. And yes, what were you thinking, Charles? We love Baranski’s reaction to that portion of the speech:

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This is Margulies’ second Emmy for “The Good Wife” and third overall. She won best supporting actress in 1995 for “ER.”


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Hijacking the American Plane of State

Isn’t there something strangely reassuring when your eyeballs are gripped by a “mystery” on the news that has no greater meaning and yet sweeps all else away?  This, of course, is the essence of the ongoing tale of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.  Except to the relatives of those on board, it never really mattered what happened in the cockpit that day.  To the extent that the plane’s disappearance was solvable, the mystery could only end in one of two ways: it landed somewhere (somehow unnoticed, a deep unlikelihood) or it crashed somewhere, probably in an ocean.  End of story.  It was, however, a tale with thrilling upsides when it came to filling airtime, especially on cable news.  The fact that there was no there there allowed for the raising of every possible disappearance trope — from Star Trekkian black holes to the Bermuda Triangle to Muslim terrorists — and it had the added benefit of instantly evoking a popular TV show.  It was a formula too good to waste, and wasted it wasn’t.

The same has been true of the story that, in the U.S., came to vie with it for the top news spot: the devastating mudslide in Washington State.  An act of nature, sweeping out of nowhere, buries part of a tiny community, leaving an unknown but possibly large number of people dead.  Was anyone still alive under all that mud?  (Such potential “miracles” are like manna from heaven for the TV news.)  How many died?  These questions mattered locally and to desperate relatives of those who had disappeared, but otherwise had little import.  Yes, unbridled growth, lack of attention to expected disasters, and even possibly climate change were topics that might have been attached to the mudslide horror.  As a gruesome incident, it could have stood in for a lot, but in the end it stood in for nothing except itself and that was undoubtedly its abiding appeal.

Both stories had the added benefit (for TV) of an endless stream of distraught relatives: teary or weeping or stoic or angry faces in desperately tight close-ups making heartfelt pleas for more information.  For the media, it was like the weather before climate change came along.

In response, just about anything else that could pass for news was swept aside.  Given a media that normally rushes heedlessly from one potential 24/7 story to another, this was striking.  In the case of Flight 370, for instance, on the 21st day after its disappearance, it still led NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams (with the mudslide, one week after it happened, the number two story).

In those weeks, only one other story broke their stranglehold on the news.  It was the seemingly critical question of what in the world was going on in Ukraine.  There was the Russian military move into the Crimea, the referendum on that peninsula, its annexation, the alarm of the U.S. and the European Union, the imposition of (modest) sanctions, and various warnings of a Russian military build-up and possible invasion of eastern Ukraine.  Unlike the other two stories, it seemed consequential enough.  And yet in some eerie way, it, too, came to resemble them.  It was as if with the news on Ukraine we were being sucked back into another era — that of the superpower-run twentieth century.

The question that seemed to loom was this: Are we in a new (i.e., the old) Cold War?  It was so front and center that it sent opinion pollsters scrambling and they promptly discovered that half of all Americans thought we were — itself less a testament to American opinion than to the overwhelming media narrative that we were indeed living through the Cold War redux.

Was the Soviet Union being raised from the dead?  Think of this as the Flight 370 of global political coverage.  It had everything a story needed: people in the square; a foreign leader who glowered just like a movie villain should and, for once in the twenty-first century, wasn’t a U.S. president or vice president; and fears of Russian troops entering the rest of Ukraine, with Lithuania, Estonia, or some other former satellite of the Soviet Union next in line.  Where would it end?  How could Vladimir Putin’s juggernaut be stopped?

As a story, it was a time warp miracle all its own.  After so many years, an American president was denouncing not al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, or the Iraqis, or the Iranians, but the Russians.  Once again, as in the good old bad old days, U.S. officials could decry the tyranny of a major state and its dangers to the globe with a straight face.  There was finally a black-and-white tale of international morality in which Americans could denounce an invasion.  It had the comfy familiarity of an old-fashioned script, one whose ending everybody already knew.  It implied that the world was once again easy to grasp, that everything was finally back in order — the good guys and the bad guys, East and West, freedom and tyranny.

As an old script, it had all the fearsome charms of familiarity.  While signaling danger, it actually helped tame a world that otherwise looked unsettling indeed.

As it happens, however, Soviet armies will never again threaten to plunge through the Fulda Gap.  The Warsaw Pact is long gone, never to be revived, and Germany will remain a united powerhouse, not a divided land.  Argue as you will about whether the Russians or Putin are “evil,” one thing is certain, there is no “empire” to go with it.  President Obama was on the mark recently when he referred to Putin’s Russia as a “regional power” and not a superpower at all.  Not even close.  If anything, it’s a country that, thanks to NATO, the U.S., and the European Union, already had its back to the wall, with its former “satellites” long ago stripped away, and Ukraine looking like it was about to go, too.  (After all, an American diplomat, talking tough, was secretly recorded seemingly sorting out a future Ukrainian government with the local American ambassador!)

Russia may not even quite be a regional powerhouse.  Its economy is shaky and, unlike the Soviet Union, it is now largely an oil and gas state and, worse yet, its energy reserves are expected to be in decline in future decades.

A Planet for the Taking

So, no, Virginia, Flight 370 was not commandeered by aliens and Vladimir Putin is not Joseph Stalin’s younger brother.  The U.S. is not in a new Cold War, its troops do not stand in any danger of going toe-to-toe with Russian invaders, and a two-superpower world is dead and buried, but so, it seems, is a one superpower world.  History is a powerful tool, but sometimes when lost stories and old scripts dominate the headlines, it’s worth asking whether, behind the scrim of the familiar and the empty, there might not lurk an unnerving world, a new age that no one cares to focus on.

As with a magician, sometimes you have to look where he isn’t pointing to catch sight of reality.  With that in mind, I’d like to nominate British journalist Patrick Cockburn for a prize.  In the midst of the recent headlines, in the most important article no one noticed, he pointed out something genuinely unnerving about our world.

Yes, we’re all aware that the U.S. invasion of Iraq didn’t exactly work out as planned and that Afghanistan has been a nearly 13-year disaster, even though the U.S. faced the most ragtag of minority insurgencies in both places.  What, however, about the monumental struggle that used to be called the Global War on Terror?  After all, we got Osama bin Laden.  It took a while, but SEAL Team 6 shot him down in his hideout in Pakistan.  And for years, thanks to the CIA’s drone assassination campaigns in the Pakistani tribal borderlands, Yemen, and Somalia (as well as a full scale hunter-killer operation in Iraq while we were still occupying that country), we’ve been told that endless key al-Qaeda “lieutenants” have been sent to their deaths and that al-Qaeda in Afghanistan has been reduced to 50-100 members.

Yet Cockburn concludes: “Twelve years after the ‘war on terror’ was launched it has visibly failed and al-Qaeda-type jihadis, once confined to a few camps in Afghanistan, today rule whole provinces in the heart of the Middle East.”  Look across that region today and from Pakistan to Libya, you see the rise, not the fall, of jihadis of every type.  In Syria and parts of Iraq, groups that have associated themselves with al-Qaeda now have a controlling military presence in territories the size of, as Cockburn points out, Great Britain.  He calls al-Qaeda’s recent rise as the jihadi brand name of choice and the failure of the U.S. campaign against it “perhaps the most extraordinary development of the 21st century.”  And that, unlike the claims we’ve been hearing at the top of the news for weeks now, might not be an exaggeration.

Looked at another way, despite what had just happened to the Pentagon and those towers in New York, on September 12, 2001, the globe’s “sole superpower” had remarkably few enemies.  Small numbers of jihadis scattered mostly in the backlands of the planet and centered in an impoverished, decimated country — Afghanistan — with the most retro regime on Earth.  There were, in addition, three rickety “rogue states” (North Korea, Iraq, and Iran) singled out for enemy status but incapable of harming the U.S., and that was that.

The world, as Dick Cheney & Co. took for granted, looked ready to be dominated by the only (angry) hyperpower left after centuries of imperial rivalry.  The U.S. military, its technological capability unrivaled by any state or possible grouping of states, was to be let loose to bring the Greater Middle East to heel in a decisive way.  Between that regular military and para-militarizing intelligence agencies, the planet was to be scoured of enemies, the “swamp drained” in up to 60 countries.  The result would be a Pax Americana in the Middle East, and perhaps even globally, into the distant future.  It was to be legendary.  And no method — not torture, abuse, kidnapping, the creation of “black sites,” detention without charges, assassination, the creation of secret law, or surveillance on a previously unimaginable scale — was to be left out of the toolkit used to birth this new all-American planet.  The “gloves” were to be taken off in a big way.

Thirteen years later, those plans, those dreams are down the drain.  The Greater Middle East is in chaos.  The U.S. seems incapable of intervening in a meaningful way just about anywhere on Earth despite the fact that its military remains unchallenged on a global level.  It’s little short of mind-blowing.  And it couldn’t have been more unexpected for those in power in Washington and perhaps for Americans generally.  This is perhaps why, despite changing American attitudes on interventions and future involvement abroad, it’s been so hard to take in, so little focused upon here — even in the bogus, politicized discussions of American “strength” and “weakness” which circle around the latest Russian events, as they had previously around the crises in Iran and Syria.

Somehow, with what in any age would have seemed like a classic winning hand, Washington never put a card on that “table” (on which all “options” were always being kept open) that wasn’t trumped.  Events in Ukraine and the Crimea seem to be part of this.

The Chinese had an evocative phrase for times of dynastic collapse: “chaos under heaven.”  Moments when it seems as if the planet itself is shifting on its axis don’t come often, but they may indeed feel like chaos under heaven — an increasingly apt phrase for a world in which no country seems to exert much control, tensions are rising in hard to identify ways, and the very climate, the very habitability of the planet is increasingly at risk.

When The Losers Are The Winners

Even in a losing game, there are usually winners.  One of the conundrums of this particular moment, however, is that the winners in our American world are exactly those who have repeatedly been playing the losing hands.  Their reward for one self-defined disaster after another has been yet more money, yet wider areas of everyday life to control, and yet more power.  No matter how inept they may prove as imperial players on a world stage, they can essentially do no wrong domestically when it comes to embedding themselves ever more deeply in our lives in the name of our “security” and our “safety.”  It’s a remarkable tale.  Legendary, one might almost say.  As the power of American power to accomplish seemingly anything fades, the power of the national security state only grows.

It’s true that, in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, the managers of our secret state have had to pull back in a few areas — especially the gathering and holding of phone metadata for the complete U.S. population.  But the significance of this is easy to exaggerate.  It’s worth remembering that in the wake of the Watergate era, the last time we went through a round of “reforms” of an out-of-control secret world, the national security state somehow ended up with its own secret court system and secret body of law to which all citizens became accountable even though they could know nothing about it.  Four decades later, in a situation in which that secret state is so much stronger, such reforms may once again turn out only to enhance its power.

It’s true as well that the CIA has had to pull back on some of the methods it used to such disastrous effect after 9/11, in particular closing those “black sites” it set up (though some may still exist, possibly in Somalia and perhaps on U.S. naval ships) and on the use of torture.  Nonetheless, the recent spectacle of the Agency’s attack on Senator Dianne Feinstein and the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee over a still-secret 6,300 page critical report on its Bush-era torture and black site programs should be instructive.  After all, Feinstein has made her reputation, in part, as the senator from the national security state.  She has typically supported the NSA’s secret programs as well as those of other intelligence outfits, straight down the line.  There has perhaps been no one more sympathetic among Democratic representatives in Congress.

On a single issue, a single set of programs by a single agency, however, she chose to differ and offer genuine criticism.  You might think that, under the circumstances, she would still be handled by the secret state with kid gloves.  Instead, the CIA referred her committee staff to the Justice Department for possible crimes, while she was attacked as if she were the Great Satan and finally driven to the Senate floor to denounce the CIA for potential criminal acts and infringing the Constitution.  Even the president didn’t come to her aid.

Think of this as a reasonable yardstick for measuring the real power relations between Washington’s official overseers and those who are supposed to be overseen.

Think of the overseen as now negotiating from a position of significant strength the details of their future benefits package.  And we can count on one thing: whatever changes are made, they will be largely cosmetic.  The many parts of America’s growing shadow government — secret law, secret surveillance, secret power, and the secret state — are here to stay.

From the 9/11 attacks on, that secret state and the militarized world of Washington that goes with it have shown themselves, even by their own standards, woefully incapable of handling a new and puzzling world.  Their actions have repeatedly undermined the usual sort of imperial control, instead facilitating spreading chaos.  Post-9/11, they have had a remarkable knack for creating not just blowback — the CIA term of tradecraft that scholar Chalmers Johnson put into our vocabulary — but something for which we have no word.  Think of it perhaps as just the “blow” part of that term.

The orderliness of secret power in Washington and chaos under heaven, the growth of a police state and a planet run riot, turn out to be two sides of the same coin.  If you want a news story that will glue eyes, then think of it this way: on September 12, 2001, the national security state entered the cockpit of (to modernize a phrase) the plane of state, hijacked it, and steered it directly for the Bermuda Triangle — and here was the strangest thing of all: no one even noticed.

Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com, where this article first appeared. His latest book, co-authored with Nick Turse, is Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050.

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TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative

(0day) IBM Lotus Notes cai URI Handler Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-11-051: February 7th, 2011

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

    Lotus Notes

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of IBM Lotus Notes. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists within the handling of malformed strings within cai:// URIs. The '--launcher.library' switch can be injected and directed to load a DLL from a network share. This will result in code execution under the context of the current user.

Vendor Response

IBM states:

Disclosure Timeline

    2009-12-18 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2011-02-07 - Coordinated public release of advisory

This vulnerability was discovered by:


text:
Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

German style

If you were into custom bikes and choppers in the 70s and 80s you could not go around the guys from AME. The German company took on the TUV and very strict german laws and provided chopper parts that were proved and tested, a must if you wanted to drive your bike on the streets and not get hassled by the man!! Up to this day German chopperbuilders have to let an official check every single part they bolt on their bikes! Every single bolt or modification is also documented in the registration of the bike. Think about it, it's crazy!!!

Image from a 1985 company catalog, more scans to come!

Tuesday Tankday!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Where have they gone?

all the rage in the 70s and 80s, but little seem to have survived

Nice wheels, but there seems to be a wheelgap problem!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

from the Jockey Journal

built by Jimmy Carr, its a denvers frame, front end and oil tank fender. Molding done by John Guthrie (maybe paint too)
thanks for the info Codie!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

either you're drunk or you have balls of steel to hop on this thing!
absolutely mental (if it is what I think it is...!)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Monday, September 17, 2012

King of Kustomizers

The cars were just his daytime hobby, it's the outfits that made him famous!
Mr. George Barris ladies and gentlemen!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

1982 UK built Yamaha

Built by John Reed, UK, in 1982
read the whole story here

mr. Magics ride done and sold again!

It's a 1979 ironhead, and for those that don't know: it's a tough year, many freaky one year only parts and the frame doesnt lend for something cool, its either caferacer material or tracker style and then this is the best example for the latter!!!

Blast to drive with the wide handlebars and meaty tires and because its light, it corners nice too. Many stock parts were kept to maintain that factory XR style looks.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Roth trike

looking badass with that Honda Dax wheel up front!???

Normally I don't care so much for VW powered trikes, but the roth body is pretty nice and narrow. I might have to look again for another opinion on the matter!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Weird wheel

very rare wheel mostly used in diggers, but never as a front wheel for a full dresser! Weird!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It's hard to find cool dresser pics, since it has been a while, this will have to do. It would have been far more awesome with some sort of psychedelic paintjob instead of the airbrush.

Trinkets and doodads galore!

and the obligatory nighttime ass-shot!

If you dont know, you've been hiding under a rock for all those years!
his cad-bikes are worldfamous and very much worth checking out if you havent already!
He posted this awesome pic from 1986 on facebook recently, how cool!!!!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Supercycle digger

My friend Mark B would like to know what issue this digger was in, if you know please mail me here

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

my lovely trusty FXR is SOLD!
1993 last year model. 35000km. It has dual front brakes, fully adjustable front forks and a Thunderheader.  Comes with Dyna fairing. Mostly stock otherwise, got some extra parts like rear hard bags, Lepera soloseat and the stock exhaust setup that might come with it if you like.
Bike is located in the Netherlands, buyer to arrange shipping. Contact me here for more details

Original paint

Slightly customized exhaust for more ground clearence, stock 5 speed transmission

Tuesday Tankday!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Boneshaker digger

This very pretty new build Honda digger is for sale!
built by Boneshaker choppers in the UK
it's a Honda CB550, in a one of 7/8ths rigid frame, tank is santee.. I think
Honda rear hub mounted to 16" rim with avon road runner tyre
Handbuilt Ness style rear fender / struts,
off the shelf drag pipes that have been cut about a bit
2" over 35 mm sportster front end, shaved yokes and lowers
cut down jackhammer grips on narrowed 7/8ths bars
21" spool hub front wheel with avon speed master tyre
one off loom with dyna ignition and fresh paint by Flakeys paint studio.
contact Benny at 07913325297 or 01562730429 or email here
You can also check it out at the Trip out show!


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Just got back recently from a long trip to the Grand Tetons to shoot wildflowers. I have made this trip in the past but have been too early or late. This year I got lucky and found more then my shore..thanks for looking - it is much appreciated !

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text:
Bull elephant dust bathing, with the sun behind. Linyanti River, Botswana. Canon 50D, Canon 70-200f2.8 IS, handheld. S/speed 1/400s at f/5.6, iso 400.

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On the Subject of Simple Communication

17 Mar

Is communication ever simple?

When we communicate with our fellow humans, so many things can go wrong.  We may say too much or too little.  We may use the wrong tone of voice or make incorrect assumptions about the listener.  We may thoughtlessly spread casual gossip.  We may unintentionally hurt, offend, confuse, mislead, deceive, interrupt, baffle, insult, ignore, irritate, or simply bore our audience.  When it comes to blogging and social media, mindful communication becomes even more of a concern.

I came across this verse in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town on the Prairie, and I think it speaks for itself in any century.

If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care,
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
~Your loving mother, C. L. Ingalls, De Smet, November 15th, 1881

Even in the days of covered wagons, communication was complicated and had to be handled with care.

While considering the complexity and perils of modern communication, I discovered some other interesting advice. (The quotations below are from thinkexist.com)

Good communication does not mean that you have to speak in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn’t about slickness. Simple and clear go a long way.  ~John Kotter

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.  ~ Anthony Robbins

The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.  ~Anthony Robbins

I especially like the Anthony Robbins quote about communication and differences in perception, because I find that some people respond poorly to my verbal communication style, which is more straight forward than my writing style.  I believe that honesty is the simplest policy, in most cases.  Much fuss has been made about the differences in communication styles between men and women, but I find as much difficulty – if not more – between the communication styles of different generations and different cultures, and also with a number of individuals who plainly do not share my direct approach.

When have you had trouble communicating because of differences in communication style?

Have you attributed the difficulty to sex, age, culture, or individual perspectives?

9 Responses to “On the Subject of Simple Communication”

  1. bigsheepcommunications March 17, 2011 at 10:26 am #

    I think people also have much shorter attention spans these days, so that if you talk too much or provide too much background or detail, your listener’s (or reader’s) attention will likely drift away. At the other end of the spectrum, if you’re too brief, people might interpret that as being abrupt.

    I think communicating in very straightforward manner is wonderful, as long as you do so gently.

  2. Aligaeta March 17, 2011 at 12:23 pm #

    I’ve been writing a lot about the subject. Communicating your wants, needs, and desires, or your insecurities and your disappointments; require active listeners. Well, lets face it: they don’t want to hear it. It may require action on their part. I found that lately, in my life stating a request, letting it rest, and then revisiting the request another day seems to result in action without nagging. Nice post.

  3. philgeland March 25, 2011 at 8:15 pm #

    Thanks for the inspiration.
    What a poem!

    • acleansurface March 25, 2011 at 10:56 pm #

      Glad you liked it, philgeland! So simple and yet so meaningful, it stopped me cold when I was reading aloud to my son.

  4. jdhoward April 17, 2011 at 1:29 pm #

    Great wisdom here. I tend to be a long winded person. Worst thing… I’m painfully aware of how it exhausts the attention of my listeners, but it’s the way I talk. I’m working on it though. I like the statement – Simple and clear go a long way. That is very true.

    • acleansurface April 17, 2011 at 2:14 pm #

      Thank you for your comment, jd. We all have our communication idiosyncrasies, and being aware of them is the first step toward improving our interpersonal communication.

  1. On The Subject of Simple Communication « deutsch – português – english - March 25, 2011

    […] L. Ingalls, De Smet, November 15th, 1881 Dito. from → IN ENGLISH ← Mapa das usinas nucleares na Alemanha LikeBe the first to […]

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