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Most of us are pretty accustomed to seeing the flash of assertive azure that the blue jay family brings to nature – but it never ceases to amaze me how exocitc these songbirds would seem if we were not so used to seeing them. Just look at the depth at that beautiful blue in this photo of a Steller's jay, taken by photo... |
The FIFA presidential election's taking centre stage in Zurich, but over the next 22 days, the FIFA Under-20 men's World Cup is being held around this country. |
Up to 200 million people across the planet are expected to watch the Cup on television, and organisers are hopeful of eclipsing ticket sales from the recent Cricket World Cup, co-hosted here and in Australia. |
The tournament's a rare chance for fans here to glimpse the future Diego Maradona, who won it in 1979 or Lionel Messi, a 2005 champion. |
Both of course became huge stars for Argentina as well as their European clubs, and the Argentineans hold the distinction of winning the Cup six times - more than Brazil, who've won it five times. |
As hosts, the New Zealand side qualified automatically - though the Junior All Whites were likely to do so anyway in their relatively easy Oceania confederation. Minnows Fiji made it through Oceania, and the Pacific Islanders now face a very tough pool: Germany, Uzbekistan and Honduras. |
The New Zealanders, led by Olympic Marseille midfielder Bill Tuiloma, have about as favourable a draw as could be hoped for, with Ukraine, the USA and Myanmar in their group - avoiding the European and Latin American powerhouses. |
They need a bit of luck - the Junior All Whites have never won a game at an Under-20 World Cup. And to make it out of their group they're likely to need a victory and a draw at least. |
The team's had the most extensive build-up ever, with a shadow Under-20 side competing in the national ASB Premiership as Wanderers SC (they came seventh in the latest nine-team competition, just behind the Wellington Phoenix's new reserve side. Auckland City defended their title). The Junior All Whites also played tou... |
A 4-2 loss in their final warmup against Austria was another reality check for national coach Darren Bazeley. |
"I think the game just shows you how big a challenge this tournament is going to be," says Bazeley. "We're going to come up against some very good players, very good teams." |
"But you know, we had our moments, what we need to now work on is having more of those moments and having those moments that last for longer, and being more consistent in the game." |
Most of the other countries competing are stacked with professional players - unlike New Zealand, who have just four overseas-based professionals, with none of them first-team players. |
By contrast, their first opposition Ukraine boast a side stacked with pros from top local clubs Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk - who regularly play in the elite European Champions League - while Brazil can field a Manchester United midfielder, Andreas Pereira, and Argentina have deadly goal-scorer Giovanni Simeone, w... |
Uruguay have another famous son in Diego Poyet, the son of Chelsea and Spurs legend Gus Poyet. |
The Junior All Whites may be dreaming about not just winning a match for the first time, buoyed by their big home support - the Ukraine opener was sold out to its 25,000 capacity - but even making the knockout stages. But they know they're playing on the big stage, and captain Tuiloma's encouraging his team to relax an... |
"It means a lot, you know, to be in this World Cup, this is my second one but other players it'll be their first one so, no I'm just going to tell them 'just enjoy it'. This is a once in a lifetime to have a World Cup on your home soil." |
Nine games including the final will be held at Auckland's North Harbour Stadium, while Wellington and Christchurch also get nine games, with the others being held in Whangarei, Hamilton, New Plymouth and Dunedin. |
HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. -- It is rare that an opponent of Jefferson's can shoot freely in the paint, so Denver Effland and the Hedgesville boys basketball team made sure to take advantage Wednesday night. |
The state's top team stayed undefeated by coming out on top in a 44-37 slugfest aided greatly by the foul trouble of Jefferson's standout center, Vance Hosby. Hosby picked up three fouls in the first half, his fourth early in the third quarter and did not score during the last 30 minutes of the game. |
"He's tough. He plays hard," said Effland, who roamed the baseline against Jefferson's 2-3 zone while Hosby was forced to play conservatively in the middle. "He picked up some fouls early. That makes the game easier for some of our guys." |
And Effland was the main beneficiary, scoring nine of his game-high 14 points in the second half. He made 6 of 11 shots, including a 3-pointer that gave Hedgesville (15-0) a 23-18 lead just seconds before Hosby picked up his fourth foul. |
Hosby was coming off what Jefferson coach Bob Starkey called "one of his best games," a 33-point, 15-rebound effort in a loss to Martinsburg on Friday. He scored just five points, all in the first two minutes, and grabbed nine rebounds Wednesday. |
"Coach (Kelly Church) wanted us to go right at him, even when he got his third foul," Effland said. "He told us not to shy away. It's when you shy away that he'll block your shot." |
But the Eagles didn't have to worry about that in the second half, even as Jefferson battled back from a nine-point deficit. |
After Justin Fagan scored five straight points for the Cougars (8-5), Effland broke the run with a bucket inside to make it 29-23 with 1:40 left in the third. The Eagles maintained the six-point cushion into the fourth quarter, which began with Effland scoring again inside to push the lead to 34-26. |
Dewey McDonald scored five straight for Jefferson, but J.R. Mayles found Effland inside for a basket, then nailed a short jumper in the lane that made it 38-31 with 3:41 left. |
McDonald scored four straight, and Fagan hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 38-37. The momentum could have continued after Jefferson came up with a steal, but Hosby's outlet pass was not anticipated by Marquise Jones, who had turned upcourt. |
The sequence led to a Mayles layup with 1:12 left that made it 40-37. Fagan passed on an open 3-pointer and missed a long 2-pointer before Mayles dunked on a side inbound play with 30 seconds left. |
Mayles scored all eight of his points in the second half, and Duane Fleetwood added 10 for the Eagles. |
"It's great, but we still have to come ready to play in the next two (sectional) games," Effland said. |
Hedgesville became just the third team to defeat the Cougars. Millbrook (16-1), the No. 1 team in Virginia's Group AA, accomplished the feat once before the Cougars avenged the loss, while 12-3 Martinsburg has beaten the Cougars three times despite trailing by double-digits in all three games. |
Fagan led Jefferson with 13 points, while McDonald rebounded from missing his first nine shots to finish with 11. As a team, the Cougars made only 8 of 18 free throws. |
Hosby missed one free throw and one shot in his scoreless second half. |
"We tried to get a couple fouls on him and get him out of the game," Effland said. "Then we could try take advantage on the post." |
JOHNSONVILLE, Wis. — One of the last pieces attributed to the late Robert Indiana has taken its place outside Johnsonville sausage company's headquarters in Wisconsin. |
The 20-foot-tall (6.1-meter) stacked red letters spell "BRAT," short for "bratwurst." The sculpture is a take on Indiana's enduring pop art "LOVE" series, with its "LO" stacked on top of the "VE." Indiana died earlier this year at age 89. |
The Journal Sentinel reports that despite questions raised about artwork attributed to Indiana near the end of his life, Johnsonville's owners are confident in the sculpture's authenticity. A federal lawsuit alleges that a caregiver and art publisher took advantage of Indiana, created forgeries under his name and sold ... |
The Johnsonville sculpture bears a copyright mark and the artist's name. |
Is it Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or a Nancy Drew mystery? "Anne of Green Gables" or "The Great Gatsby?" "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "The Cat in the Hat?" |
What's your favorite book of the last century? |
It might be something hot on today's best-seller list, or something written in the early 1900s. |
Some books have a way of sticking with you, and we'd like to know what they are. |
Tell us which titles you treasure. We'll print them Sunday, Dec. 12. |
Leave a message at 301-791-6877. |
Drop off the information at The Herald-Mail office, 100 Summit Ave., Hagerstown. |
Write in care of Books, Lifestyle, The Herald-Mail Co., P.O. Box 439, Hagerstown, Md. 21741. |
E-mail your response to lifestyle@herald-mail.com. |
Tell us your name and Include a daytime telephone number so we can call you back. |
Please submit your favorites by 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 29. |
Can you name these books? You could win $50! |
Did mandatory helmets deter cycling in NSW? |
As a consequence of the lacklustre performance of bikeshare schemes in Melbourne and Brisbane, there’s been a heated debate over the last couple of years about the wisdom of the country’s mandatory helmet law. |
Much of the evidence offered against compulsory helmet wearing relies on a handful of ‘before and after’ studies that were done in Victoria and NSW at the time the law was introduced at the start of the 1990s. These “natural experiments” are cited so many times that I thought it would be an instructive exercise to go b... |
I started with a study done in Melbourne by the Monash Accident Research Unit in 1993. You can read my analysis here. In a nutshell, rather than showing the new law devastated cycling across-the-board, I was surprised to discover the level of cycling by adults and primary school children wasn’t seriously affected. |
However there was a big fall in the high school-age youth segment (12-17 years). Youth numbers were flat in the years leading up to the law, but declined sharply in the first year after and remained at that lower level in the second year. |
Still, that’s only one study. There’s also a group of four related NSW studies that are frequently cited in this debate. They proved so extraordinarily hard to find that I doubt many of the people who reference them have actually read the originals. However thanks to the kindness of a reader I was able to access all fo... |
There were three surveys of cyclists done in 1990, 1991 and 1992 by Michael Walker from the Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, for the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority. He counted and described cyclists in urban and country NSW using essentially the same observation points and methodology in each year. |
The first was done in September 1990 prior to introduction of the law and the second in March and April 1991 after helmets became mandatory for adults (but not riders aged under 16 years – they had a further six months grace). The third survey was undertaken in March and April 1992 when helmets were mandatory for all r... |
A fourth study was done for the Roads and Traffic Authority in March and April 1993 by Nariida Smith and Frank Milthorpe from the Institute of Transport Studies, University of Sydney. It also used essentially the same locations and methodology as the preceding studies. |
As the exhibit shows, Smith and Milthorpe found the number of adult cyclists observed on roads in Sydney was not devastated by the law. Numbers were only 5% lower in 1993 than prior to introduction of the law in 1990. Indeed, numbers actually increased 22% in the first year after the law, probably because of better wea... |
The number of adults cycling for recreational purposes was only counted in 1992 and 1993 (i.e. post-law in both cases) but showed a 48% increase in Sydney and a 148% increase in regional areas. Figures for recreational cycling by children were available from 1991 (prior to the law applying to children) and show only a ... |
Yet it wasn’t by any means all good news. As was the case in Melbourne, there was also a dramatic fall in the number of students cycling to school. Between 1991 and 1993, numbers fell by a massive 64%. Unlike Melbourne where the fall was mainly limited to high school students, the drop in primary school numbers was alm... |
Cycling levels also dropped significantly at observation sites in regional NSW between 1990 and 1993 (the Melbourne study didn’t look at regional areas). They fell on average by 37%, most dramatically in regional centres like Tamworth and Lismore, where the drop approached 60%. |
So, the introduction of the mandatory helmet law in NSW was associated with a sharp and significant decline in cycling by students and regional adults. However, there appears to be no correlation between the law and the level of on-road cycling by adults in Sydney, or the level of recreational cycling by children. More... |
While these findings might give comfort to both sides of the debate, it’s important to consider the limitations of all four studies. Indeed, Smith and Milthorpe emphasise upfront that the findings of their report “should not be used to estimate total exposure or ridership”. |
The trouble is the number of observation points is very small. For example, there was only one location at which adult cyclists were counted in each regional centre. Counts of on-road adult cyclists in Sydney were based on 25 locations, with just one in the CBD and two in the entire eastern suburbs. Smith and Milthorpe... |
This constraint is highlighted by the high degree of variability between locations in terms of numbers of cyclists and other measures like helmet use and compliance with road laws. For example, counts of adult cyclists in Sydney rose by 33% at the two Ashfield observation sites over 1990-93 but fell by 50% at the two P... |
Care should therefore be taken in extrapolating from these findings to make general points about cycling in NSW between 1990 and 1993. Come to think of it, similar caution should be exercised in relation to the Melbourne study too. |
Update 30 September 2012: The NSW Roads and Maritime Services agency has made these studies, and others, available publicly. |
Not all sequels have to be about horror movie monsters and superheroes. Sometimes, even a hotel that caters to senior citizens gets a second chance on the big screen. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a follow-up to 2012's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which finds Sonny (Dev Patel) attempting to franchise out ... |
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it's making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tena Desae). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Mari... |
Art Cashin seems to think the old maxim all roads lead to Rome is alive and well today — and the country's demise is analogous for the U.S. In his note out this morning, Art Cashin picks up commentary from Dennis Gartman of the Gartman Letter. |
In his report, Gartman seems to compare the current tax structure to that of Rome, when the government over powered private industries, hiked taxes, and subsidized the poor. |
In the end, people fled. |
And this isn't the first time a trader has referenced Rome. Recently Jeff Gundlach drew parallels to the empire in his own commentary. |
Too Good Not To Pass Along - Our good friend and fellow trading floor veteran, Dennis Gartman, had an absolutely marvelous citation in the Gartman Letter this morning. Now, anything in the Gartman Letter is usually worth quoting but the timeliness of this virtually jumped off the page. It is a citation of historians, W... |
Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian. Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among the masses, and with the imminent danger of barbarian invasion, he issued in A.D. 3 an edictum de pretiis, which denounced monopolists for keeping goods from the market to raise prices, and set maximum prices and wag... |
The task of controlling men in economic detail proved too much for Diocletian's expanding, expensive, and corrupt bureaucracy. To support this officialdom - the army, the courts, public works, and the dole - taxation rose to such heights that people lost the incentive to work or earn, and an erosive contest began betwe... |
`Ronald Reagan's footprints are still here and we will follow them in a positive way.' -- Sen. Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.), as Republicans in Congress vowed Thursday to follow the former president's example and slash Americans' tax burden over the next decade. The difference is that Reagan did not have the budget surpluse... |
A collection of writings from expectant fathers who scribbled nervous notes in the days when men did not go into the delivery room. The books, compiled between 1949 and 1965, are in the museum of Northwestern Memorial Hospital downtown. |
Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), one of the chief House sponsors of legislation aimed at shielding businesses from a potential flood of Y2K computer-related lawsuits. |
U.S. District Court Senior Judge Abraham Lincoln MArovitz, as 400 immigrants become U.S. citizens Thursday during a ceremony at Navy Pier. |
Mayor Jean-Marie Bernard in the mountain village of Saint-Etienne-en-Devoluy on Thursday, after a gondola carrying workers to a space observatory high in the French Alps ripped away from its cables, killing all 20 people aboard. |
Caitlin Stork, a 17-year-old from Cleveland, one of six teens who viewed several surgical procedures Thursday at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery as part of the National Youth Leadership Forum. |
Chicago Cubs manager Jim Riggleman, when asked how long pitcher Steve Trachsel will remain a starter since the team has given up 10 or more runs in seven of their last 14 games. |
Chris Martin, of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center. |
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as House Republicans insisted Thursday that the federal budget surplus is so huge that Congress can cut taxes by nearly $1 trillion and still brace Social Security and Medicare for Baby Boomer retirements. |
The refrain of one guitar-strumming musician Thursday at a City Hall hearing on a measure to crack down on street performers by imposing fines and restrictions. The proposal's author, Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), was on hand for the serenade. |
A disqualified driver was detained by a plucky police officer as he attempted to escape through a boggy field in Ringmer. |
PC Gareth Stamp, assisted by driver PC Mat Fry, chased the silver Vauxhall Combo on foot as it struggled to gain traction on the wet and muddy terrain. |
He struck the driver’s window with his baton but it failed to smash. However, he then managed to open the driver’s door – while the vehicle was still moving – and drag the suspect onto the ground. In doing so, he sustained minor injuries to his upper body. |
The driver was identified as Joshua Field, 29, a builder, of South Street, East Hoathly. He was arrested and charged with driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance and failing to stop for police. |
Field pleaded guilty to all three offences at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (March 21) and was sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment. He was also disqualified from driving for 18 months from the conclusion of his current ban, and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge. |
Police became aware of Field when the vehicle he was driving pulled across their path at speed on the A2029 West Street, Lewes, at about 11.40pm on Saturday, March 2. |
The officers, from the Lewes Neighbourhood Response Team, pursued the van but it failed to stop and continued through to Ringmer. |
After turning into New Road, the van then went through a hedgerow parallel to Moor Lane, and into a field, where it struggled to gain any speed. |
At this point PC Stamp exited the police car, and made his way through a bush and over a wire fence, where he managed to stop and detain the driver in his van. |
Sergeant Tom Sawyer said: “This is an excellent example of how police officers can be called into action without prior warning, and required to think on their feet as they respond to an ongoing incident. |
“Using their local knowledge, PCs Gareth Stamp and Mat Fry purposely slowed prior to a sharp bend in Ringmer, which the defendant failed to manoeuvre and subsequently went through a hedgerow. |
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