folksong curlew

Sunday, February 3, 2013

SUPER BOWL WATCH: Saints jerseys, pistol O, McGraw

New Orleans residents Stephen Boudy, left, Shiela Jones, center, Camry Boudy, top right, and Sequoia Boudy, lower right, sport Saints jerseys in New Orleans on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. Saints jerseys are such a staple on the streets of New Orleans this week, you'd think they're playing in the Super Bowl. The city hosts NFL football's Super Bowl XLVII between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. (AP Photo/Nancy Armour)

San Francisco 49ers cornerbacks Chris Culliver, right, and Carlos Rogers, left, walk onto the field for practice in the Superdome on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, in New Orleans. The 49ers are scheduled to play the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game on Feb. 3. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Around the Super Bowl and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of everything surrounding the game:

___

WHO DAT?

Wander the streets of New Orleans this week and you'd think the Saints are one of the teams playing in Sunday's Super Bowl.

Entire families are sporting Drew Brees jerseys. Women are wearing rhinestone-studded Saints T-shirts and fleur-de-lis earrings. Men are in Saints jerseys and sweatshirts.

Of course, fans in every host city show pride in their home team. But there's a special bond between the Saints and the people of New Orleans. While they're happy to welcome the Ravens and the 49ers, this city will always belong to the Saints.

?Nancy Armour ? http://www.twitter.com/nrarmour

___

THE PISTOL, EXPLAINED

You'll hear about it from the first time 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stands behind center, and listen to it be endlessly dissected in the Super Bowl.

But just what is this pistol offense San Francisco is running?

Put simply, it's a variation of the shotgun, a formation that has been in the NFL for decades. Former Nevada coach Chris Ault invented it, and gave it the name because it reminded him of a shorter version of the shotgun.

In the pistol, the quarterback lines up 4-5 yards behind the center. Unlike the shotgun, the running backs line up behind the quarterback instead of next to him so they can be in motion when they get the ball and run north and south more easily.

The tweak that makes the pistol even more effective, though, is the read-option. This what Kaepernick runs so well, and what Baltimore has spent two weeks preparing to stop.

In the read-option, Kaepernick turns to his right and tucks the ball in the belly of his running back ? all while keeping his eyes on the defense. Based on the first move the defensive end makes ? either to the outside or toward the quarterback ? Kaepernick will either leave the ball with the running back or pull it out and take off himself to the outside.

Defensive players say the move causes problems because it forces them to hesitate a split-second to see what Kaepernick does with the ball. Often, that is just enough time for running back Frank Gore to slash up the middle or for Kaepernick to take the ball around the right end down the field for a big gain.

? Tim Dahlberg ? http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

___

GET HERE EARLY

Anyone wanting a cafe au lait or a beignet from New Orleans' most famous coffee shop better be prepared to wait.

Tables were filled, and lines were stretching down the sidewalk at Cafe Du Monde by midday Saturday.

? Nancy Armour ? http://twitter.com/nrarmour

___

QUICKQUOTE: RAY LEWIS

There are many sides to Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.

Even he admits that the guy he professes to be most of the time ? deeply religious, a caring mentor, a humble leader ? is not the one you see when he puts on his helmet and pads.

"I turn into a different person on the field," Lewis said. "I am a totally different person off the field. But on the field, I'm driven to do whatever it takes for my teammates. There are so many of my teammates here today who I've honored and told them that I would do anything in my power so we can feel that confetti drop together, because that is the ultimate. For me being a leader of this team, I owe that to them."

? Paul Newberry ? http://twitter.com/pnewberry1963

___

CULLIVER SENSITIVITY TRAINING

After playing in the Super Bowl, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver is immediately starting sensitivity training.

The 24-year-old took a hit to his image this week after making anti-gay remarks to a comedian, saying he wouldn't welcome a gay player in the locker room.

Now, his public relations spokesman Theodore Palmer says Culliver will begin working with "The Trevor Project," an organization that provides crisis and suicide intervention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

Palmer says the group wants to be sure Culliver is genuine about his words.

"It's just an opportunity for him to learn about his comments and educate himself about the LGBT community, and grow," Palmer said. "It's the first step in learning about his words."

After an educational program, Culliver is expected to then pursue volunteer work related to helping gay youth.

? Janie McCauley ? http://twitter.com/JanieMcCAP

___

MCGRAW ROOTING FOR BLIND SIDE

Country music superstar Tim McGraw doesn't want to explicitly share who he's rooting for to win the Super Bowl. But he gave a pretty big hint.

"It would be nice to see Michael win and see that whole 'Blind Side' story come to completion," McGraw says.

He's referring to Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher, whose life was the subject of the film "The Blind Side." It starred McGraw and Sandra Bullock, who won an Oscar for her role.

McGraw, whose new album, "Two Lanes of Freedom," comes out on Tuesday, was in New Orleans on Friday for a very early performance at the House of Blues broadcast live on ABC's "Good Morning America."

? John Carucci ? http://twitter.com/jcarucci_ap

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? "Super Bowl Watch" shows you the Super Bowl and the events surrounding the game through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across New Orleans and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-02-Super%20Bowl%20Watch-Package/id-03f1612911ef4199b775b3ef30b8d389

adriana lima victoria secret fashion show SEC Championship Rick Majerus Cotto vs Trout Robin Givens Gus Malzahn

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Etch A Sketch inventor dies at 86

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper ? ? ? 12 hrs.

The inventor of the beloved Etch A Sketch toy, Andre Cassagnes, has died at age 86, the toy?s manufacturer confirms to NBC News. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in France.

?Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that,? said Larry Killgallon, president of The Ohio Art Company. ?His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time.?

Cassagnes, a French electrician, created the product in the late 1950s when he ?stumbled upon the idea of creating a drawing toy with a joystick, glass and aluminum powder,? the Ohio Art Company says on its website. Cassagnes originally called the item the Telecran, and it went into production in Bryan, Ohio in 1950. Owners create art by turning dials that scrape off the alumninum powder that coats the screen, leaving dark lines to outline the picture desired.

The pictures can be erased by shaking the Etch A Sketch, a process which helped the toy make headlines in March 2012. That?s when Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director for then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, compared the toy to Romney?s opinions before and after the fall.

?Everything changes,? Fehrnstrom said of the candidate?s positions. ?It?s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.?

The toy also plays a role in Pixar?s ?Toy Story? movies, and holds a place on the Toy Industry Association?s Century of Toys list.

The toy is still made today. A color version was launched in 1993 and now has versions for mobile phones and tablet computers.

apple earnings report john l smith apple earnings the glass castle jennifer hudson trial north korea threat brandon jacobs

Harvard: Dozens disciplined over exam cheating

BOSTON (AP) ? Harvard University said Friday it issued academic sanctions against approximately 60 students who were forced to withdraw from school for a period of time in a cheating scandal that involved the final exam in a class on Congress, drawing criticism from a high-profile alumnus.

The school implicated as many as 125 students in the scandal when officials first addressed the issue last year.

The inquiry started after a teaching assistant in a spring semester undergraduate-level government class detected problems in the take-home test, including that students may have shared answers.

In a campus-wide email Friday, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith said the school's academic integrity board had resolved all the cases related to the cheating probe.

He said "somewhat more than half" of the cases involved students who had to withdraw from the college for a period of time.

Harvard said that the length of a student's withdrawal period is usually from two to four terms.

Of the cases left, about half the students got disciplinary probation. The rest weren't disciplined.

Some athletes became ensnared, including two basketball team co-captains whom the school scratched from its team roster in the wake of the cheating investigation.

Past reports in The Harvard Crimson also linked football, baseball and hockey players to the scandal.

Smith's said in Friday's email that the school wouldn't discuss specific student cases. A school spokesman, citing student privacy, also wouldn't say if any athletes had withdrawn or say which teams might have been affected.

The dean said a school committee is working on recommendations to strengthen a culture of academic honesty and promote ethics in scholarship.

"This is a time for communal reflection and action," he wrote. "We are responsible for creating the community in which our students study and we all thrive as scholars."

Staples founder Thomas Stemberg, a Harvard graduate whose son is a student, on Friday criticized the school's handling of the probe.

"If you challenge the entire faculty at the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Law School to come up with a process that took more time, cost more money, embarrassed more innocent students, and vindicated guilty faculty ... that could not have outdone the process that took place," he said.

Stemberg, a supporter of Harvard's basketball team, knows some of the students caught up in the scandal and his son knows others.

He wrote a complaint letter to Harvard's president in early January claiming that the professor who taught the government class changed the rules after several exams in which "open collaboration" was encouraged.

He alleged that for the take-home exam in question, instructions to students said they couldn't collaborate with professors, teaching fellows "and others."

"If the message was so clearly expressed, why did some of the teaching fellows go over the exam in open session ... If they did not get the message, could one expect the students to understand it?"

Stemberg went on to say that while some students "went too far, literally cutting and pasting their answers," others only wrote answers from notes "derived in the collaborative atmosphere the class encouraged."

The class was known as "Introduction to Congress," and widely seen on campus as an easy way to get a good grade.

Harvard Undergraduate Council President Tara Raghuveer said Friday that the cheating investigation has been a hot topic on campus for months. She said some students started the new school year without knowing if they'd be allowed to finish it because of the lengthy period of time the probe took.

The 20-year-old junior also said there are a lot of questions about whether the take-home exam's instructions were clear enough when it came to expectations about group work. She said both students and professors are being careful to discuss collaboration policies now.

Raghuveer also said the school community should make an effort to embrace the students who withdrew for disciplinary reasons when they come back to campus.

"The students who are implicated in this scandal from last spring still need to be recognized as members of our community ... They shouldn't feel alienated from Harvard," she said. "This was an unfortunate incident. Students are being punished accordingly."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-01-Harvard-Cheating-Investigation/id-d8e0e5f1cb7e430f91a602fa54b2d10c

park slope food coop anchorman sequel safety not guaranteed lifehouse al gore la dodgers lawrence o donnell

USD/CHF: Swiss Franc trading lower this morning | GCI Forex News

GCI Forex News - USD/CHF: Swiss Franc trading lower this morning

USDCHF Movement

For the 24 hours to 23:00 GMT, the USD declined 0.15% against the CHF and closed at 0.9092.

In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 0.9104, with the USD trading 0.13% higher from yesterday?s close.

The pair is expected to find support at 0.9079, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 0.9053. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 0.9126, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 0.9147.

The currency pair is showing convergence with its 20 Hr moving average and is trading below its 50 Hr moving average.

This entry was posted in USD/CHF. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://forexnews.gcitrading.com/currencies/usdchf/usdchf-swiss-franc-trading-lower-this-morning-13.htm

emmys emmys torrey smith torrey smith oakland raiders Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3

YC-Backed Hipmob Wants To Become The Premier In-App Customer Service Tool

Using text chat to provide customer service is a pretty standard tool on the web, but when it comes to mobile apps, these chats are still very rare, despite the fact that a lot of online commerce has already moved to mobile. The Y Combinator-backed Hipmob, which offers these chat features and integration with standard IM clients and CRM tools as a service, hopes to become the "premier support service for mobile," as the company's co-founder Ayo Omojola told me earlier this week.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Nq9fVCiLi7U/

superbowl halftime show jason wu for target underwood buffalo wings superbowl kick off time 2012 new york giants hot wings recipe

Hagel to face grilling by Senate panel on Mideast, budget

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chuck Hagel will face tough questions on Pentagon spending cuts and U.S. relations with Israel and Iran on Thursday as he faces a deeply skeptical Senate panel considering his nomination to be President Barack Obama's next secretary of defense.

Another member of Obama's second-term national security team, Senator John Kerry, sailed through his confirmation before being receiving the Senate's overwhelming support on Tuesday.

But Hagel, a former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran who broke with his party over the Iraq War, can expect a much more confrontational hearing when he is grilled on a range of issues by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Although most observers expect Hagel will eventually be confirmed - barring unexpected fireworks at the hearing - Thursday's testimony will be contentious.

At least three Republican panel members, including James Inhofe, the party's leader on the committee, have said they did not support Hagel's nomination.

"We are simply too philosophically opposed on the issues for me to support his nomination," Inhofe said in a January 15 statement. Such comments have angered Hagel supporters, who say two-term senator, who would be the first former enlisted soldier to lead the Pentagon, deserves at least a hearing.

Hagel's confirmation hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) on Thursday.

In the entire Senate, which would vote on Hagel if he is cleared by the committee, only one of the 45 Republicans - Mississippi's Thad Cochran - has come out in Hagel's favor.

He is expected to face tough questioning on Israel and Iran, his view of the Pentagon budget - Hagel is known as an advocate for tighter spending controls - and relations with China.

The Middle East, which has been the most intense focus of the anti-Hagel campaign, is likely to be the toughest issue.

"There's a lot of misleading information out there about the senator's views on Middle East policy. Senators are going to want to hear from Chuck Hagel directly on what his view is and what is the administration's view," said Mark Jacobson, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

CHARM OFFENSIVE

Hagel, backed by the White House and Pentagon, has been on a charm offensive to win over recalcitrant senators since Obama nominated him this month to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Facing a public campaign against his appointment by critics seeking to portray him as soft on Iran, anti-Israel and uncommitted to equal rights for women and gays, Hagel has been pounding the halls of the Capitol to hold one-on-one meetings with 53 senators before his hearing.

Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, said on Tuesday she had spoken with Hagel for 90 minutes and been satisfied on several issues, but stopped short of endorsing him.

"We had a good discussion, but it's obvious that we have very different views on some fundamental issues," she said.

Hagel also detailed his views in 112 pages of written responses to wide-ranging questions submitted by lawmakers.

In them, he said that if confirmed as the next defense secretary, he would ensure that the military is prepared to strike Iran if necessary but stressed the need to be "cautious and certain" when contemplating the use of force.

Hagel also voiced support for a steady U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, pledged to ensure equal treatment for women and homosexuals in the military and assured the committee that the United States would maintain an "unshakeable" commitment to Israel's security.

Most observers expect Hagel will be confirmed by the committee, even if he is approved only 14-12, along party lines.

"I do think he'll be voted out of committee tomorrow and then it will be interesting to see where things go on the Senate floor," said Maren Leed, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In the face of intense lobbying by both Hagel supporters and opponents, many Republicans have said they will withhold judgment until after the hearing.

Democrats control 55 seats in the Senate and can approve Hagel with no Republican support, but they will need some backing from Hagel's party to overcome procedural hurdles that could stop the nomination.

One has already emerged. Senator Lindsey Graham, a committee member, has threatened to keep the nomination from going to the Senate floor if Panetta does not testify about a September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Democratic Senator Carl Levin, the committee's chairman, said Panetta is already due to testify, and that would take place before the full Senate voted on Hagel.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-face-grilling-senate-panel-mideast-budget-080308553.html

Olympics Opening Ceremony Katherine Jackson Olympics Opening Ceremony Time paris jackson paris jackson US weekly amelia earhart

Friday, February 1, 2013

Documentary Aims to Make Programming Cool ? Computing ...

January 31, 2013 at 1:12 am

Code.org is aimed at making programming cool, and they?re going to do it with a documentary:

Code.org?s initial effort will be a short film, currently being edited, that will feature various luminaries from the technology industry talking about how exciting and accessible programming is. Two of the most famous programmers and entrepreneurs in history ? Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, and Bill Gates, the chairman and co-founder of Microsoft ? were among the people interviewed for the film, according to a person with knowledge of the project who wasn?t authorized to discuss details about it.

Lesley Chilcott, a producer of the documentaries ?Waiting for ?Superman?? and ?An Inconvenient Truth,? is making the film.

via A New Group Aims to Make Programming Cool ? NYTimes.com.

Like this:

Be the first to like this.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: computing education, computing for everyone, jobs.

Source: http://computinged.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/documentary-aims-to-make-programming-cool/

666 Park Avenue Kara Alongi Sahara Davenport Resident Evil 6 arnold schwarzenegger revenge revenge