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Twelve years later, L.P. is 35 years old and still playing in the NFL. |
When an NFL team falls backwards into a deep snapper, they will keep them forever just so they don’t have to worry about the position. Since LP became the long snapper for the Cowboys in 2005, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips and now Jason Garrett have not had to sweat a single deep snap. |
The infamous field goal snap that Tony Romo bobbled in the Cowboys’ wild card playoff loss in Seattle in ‘06 was not L.P.’s fault. Romo just didn’t come up with the ball clean. |
To be a snapper requires an array of obscure particulars to align. He must be big enough to be an offensive lineman, but built more like a tight end and have the skills to hit the spot with the snap every single time. He’s the specialist with no statistical value yet whose worth is invaluable to a kicker or punter. |
L.P. hopes to be able to do this until he’s 40, so he obviously doesn’t mind the longer commute. |
If Gorilla's Death Moves You, Consider Other Animals' Plights After the shooting death of Harambe the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, NPR's Scott Simon reflects on the living conditions and deaths of other animals, such as the ones we raise for food. |
Zoo visitors look at protesters and mourners from a walk bridge during a vigil for the gorilla Harambe outside the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. |
The shooting death of Harambe, the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, after a 3-year-old boy fell into his cage at the Cincinnati Zoo, is a tragedy in all ways. |
Harambe delighted zoogoers, and may have meant the boy no harm. |
The little boy's parents say they are grateful their son survived and is doing well. But many people on social media platforms have attacked the mother as neglectful. |
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said on his blog that the debate over how Harambe died reminds him of old dorm room discussions where people would pose imaginary questions that weighed the life of an animal against a human being's. |
But if some of the people who snarl at the boy's parents on social media want to do something more for animals, they may need to look no further than their own dinner. |
We have heard a lot in recent years about the 8.5 billion chickens that are slaughtered for food in the United States every year. The ones that live on factory farms are kept in cages about as large as a sheet of copy paper. Their feet never touch the ground. They never see the sun or sky. They never play or mate. Thei... |
Harambe's death might also remind us how more than 100 million pigs are raised for food in the United States. The ASPCA points out that pigs, who are known to be as intelligent as dogs, are one of the few animals Americans both keep as pets and raise for food. |
Most pigs are kept in windowless sheds on factory farms, in cages so small they cannot turn around; so they will grow fat. They live in their own manure, and the air is so heavy with ammonia that many pigs develop lesions on their lungs. |
Female breeding pigs are put into what are called gestation crates, where they are artificially inseminated. They give birth, then are inseminated time and time again; and when they can longer get pregnant, they're slaughtered. |
We could go on. But it is not necessary to become a vegetarian to change what we eat to consume fewer animals, which is probably healthier anyway. |
What happened to Harambe was a catastrophe, but one so rare as to be almost unprecedented. The treatment of so many millions of animals raised for food can be just business as usual. |
Absolutely So stuck on determined fashion to lift the Group Three spoils in the Betway John of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock. |
The Andrew Balding-trained seven-year-old, third in this race in 2015, revelled in the rain-softened conditions to go two places better. |
That Is The Spirit set the pace but he was the only one to stick to the far side when the field hit the straight. |
Jallota led the near-side group, but he could never go clear under his 3lb penalty. Though he kept on going, Charlie Hill’s charge was unable to hold Absolutely So (6-1), who got the verdict by half a length to give David Probert a double after his earlier success on Handsome Dude. |
Jallota was second with So Beloved only a neck away in third. |
Probert said: “He’s such a tough character, he doesn’t know how to run a bad race. |
Balding has now missed his three biggest winners of the season having been absent at Chester when Montaly claimed the Chester Cup and Blond Me won the Middleton Stakes at York. |
His wife, Anna Lisa, said: “David really did give him a lovely ride and I’m so pleased for the owners, the Smith family, they’ve been very patient as he’s not been that straightforward with a few niggles. |
“It’s brilliant seeing him win a nice race, it’s just reward for them. |
Bateel struck for French trainer Francis-Henri Graffard with a smooth success in the Betway Pinnacle Stakes. |
Richard Kingscote showed patience in the saddle as he had to wait for a gap to appear in the straight, as it was apparent the four-year-old filly was going well. |
Henry de Bromhead’s Irish raider Island Remede took the field along with Dubka and Ajman Princess on her heels, and Bateel pounced when the leader began to fade. |
Leading inside the final furlong the former David Simcock-trained 2-1 favourite justified strong market support to win by a length and a half from Dubka. Ajman Princess was third. |
Johnnie Peter-Hoblyn, racing manager for Bateel’s owners, Al Asayl Bloodstock, said: “We’ve been waiting for this ground for a long time. |
“We moved her to France from David Simcock for soft ground and ironically we end up at Haydock. |
Waitrose has been accused of copying chocolate bars sold by high-end confectioner Hotel Chocolat. |
The supermarket giant’s new range of “Luxury Chocolate Bars” has come under fire for their striking resemblance to the curvy slabs sold at Hotel Chocolat. |
Angus Thirwell, co-founder of the premium chocolatier, hit out at the similarity on Twitter. |
He said his brand’s distinctive wavy-edged design had been registered with the EU Intellectual Property Office. |
Mr Thirwell told The Grocer magazine that he had written to Waitrose “asking them to do the right thing”. |
He added: “I designed it and it’s what built the Hotel Chocolat brand. |
“All over social media people are saying ‘I didn’t think Hotel Chocolat made bars for anyone else but they’re making these’. |
Waitrose told The Grocer it takes the intellectual property rights of other businesses “extremely seriously” and was looking into the points raised by Mr Thirlwell. |
Coming in October 2013 from Crown Forum is the long-awaited collection of Charles Krauthammer’s writings. Things That Matter will present his penetrating and surprising reflections on everything from embryo research to entitlement reform, from Halley’s Comet to border collies, from Christopher Columbus to Martin Luther... |
Krauthammer has for decades dazzled readers with his keen insight into politics and government. Now, the best of Krauthammer’s intelligence, erudition and wit are collected in this one volume. With a special, highly autobiographical introduction in which Krauthammer reflects on the events that shaped his career and pol... |
One of the old-school games from back in the day that hasn't been shown a lot of love is Battletech. Well, that was until recently when Harebrained Schemes announced that they would be reviving the old turn-based mech sim for today's generation of gamer. |
Over on the official Battletech website Harebrained Schemes has announced that they will be resurrecting the series for the crowd-funding era. It will appear on Kickstarter later this fall, this follows close on the heels of Harebrained Schemes' recent crowd-funding project, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, which was quite succes... |
Jordan Weisman, the creator of BattleTech and MechWarrior, is back with the first turn-based BattleTech game for PC in over two decades. Steeped in the feudal political intrigue of the BattleTech universe, the game will feature an open-ended Mercenaries-style campaign that blends RPG ‘Mech and MechWarrior management wi... |
For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Battletech started as a tabletop game and evolved over time. It laid the foundations for MechWarrior, which eventually became the more popular of the two. |
The difference is that Battletech is all about the strategic battlefield skirmishes between the mechs, where-as MechWarrior is about the actual combat simulation. Battletech games were usually turn-based, tactical military style games where players would have a series of mechs under their command, along with various ot... |
You could basically think of the relationship between Battletech and MechWarrior games on the same lines of Firaxis' XCom compared to Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines. They're both alien-hunting games but done in very different ways, although there have been some strategy-oriented MechWarrior games such as MechComman... |
During the height of the brand's popularity in the early 1990s there was even a 3D television show based on Battletech but it never really got off the ground like some of the other sci-fi series back then. As MechWarrior grew in popularity, Battletech faded away... until now. |
With Harebrained Schemes at the helm of the series, and creator Jordan Weisman guiding the team, I can only imagine what kind of game they have in store for fans. I do wonder if they'll be reviving the old hexagon maps and customizable mech micromanagement that made the older games so popular? |
I always envisioned Battletech as the American version of Front Mission. Both series have departed from their origins a great deal but Harebrained seems to want to give the brand a shot in the arm in the same way that they did with Shadowrun Returns. |
We'll likely get more details about the revival of the franchise as the Kickstarter phase begins to ramp up and the campaign eventually gets underway. For now I imagine a lot of gamers will be pestering Harebrained Schemes with a lot of questions formed from an insatiable amount of curiosity. |
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Once he congratulated Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, LeBron James left the floor following Game 5 and found Kyrie Irving waiting for him. |
Cleveland's two stars embraced, and as they headed toward the locker room and Queen's "We Are the Champions" played inside thundering Oakland's Oracle Arena, James delivered a message to his teammate and the world. |
"We'll be back," he said. "We'll be back." |
They were fabulous and flawed defending NBA champs, their deficiencies in depth and defense exposed by a superior team in the Finals. |
One year after their historic comeback, James and the Cavaliers couldn't catch the Golden State Warriors. |
Unable to defend their title despite the league's highest payroll, rampaging through the Eastern Conference playoffs and James' brilliance against the free-wheeling Warriors for five games, the Cavs are no longer the team to beat. They're still championship caliber, but a step or two behind a glittering ... |
At 32, and playing as well as ever in 14 seasons, James has a possible dynasty blocking his path. |
"I need to sit down and figure this thing out," said James, who averaged 33.6 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in his seventh consecutive Finals. "They're going to be around for a while. Pretty much all their guys are in their 20s. Pretty much all their big-name guys are in their 20s, and they don't show an... |
The Cavaliers aren't constructed for the same longevity. |
James is under contract for one more season, and there's no guarantee the three-time champion and five-time Finals loser will sign a long-term deal in 2018 with Cleveland despite his deep devotion to Northeast Ohio. Last week, James said he didn't know how many years he has left. It's possible that his o... |
That's down the road. A more pressing concern for the team is the status of general manager David Griffin, whose contract expires on June 30. |
Aided by having James to build around and owner Dan Gilbert's willingness to spend, Griffin has assembled and overseen a roster that has made three straight Finals and is positioned to stay atop the East. |
Griffin has been with the club since 2010, taking over as GM when Chris Grant was fired in 2014. He's the one who persuaded Irving to sign a long-term deal with Cleveland before it was known that James was coming back and Griffin pulled off the trade for Kevin Love. He acquired veterans J.R. Smith and Iman Shumper... |
Gilbert and Griffin are expected to meet again this week. Griffin has been linked to past openings in Orlando, Atlanta and Milwaukee, but his preference is to stay with Cleveland as he and his wife, Meredith, have immersed themselves in the community. |
Once the front office situation is settled, the next priorities are addressing Cleveland's weaknesses: defense, an aging bench and backup point guard. |
The Cavaliers couldn't stop the Warriors during critical stretches in the Finals, and there were warning signs long before Durant got free for dunks, Curry drained wide-open 3-pointers or Golden State averaged 121.6 points. |
Cleveland's defense was suspect all season, ranking among the worst in statistical efficiency. The Cavs often outscored their mistakes, but the lack of a rim protector (Bogut was injured in his first minute on the floor) and a defensive commitment proved costly. Both areas must be fixed. |
Korver, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson and Deron Williams contributed during the regular season and earlier rounds against Indiana, Toronto and Boston, but with the exception of Jefferson, the seasoned vets were overmatched against the younger, quicker Warriors. Cleveland needs an infusion of young blood to fix a sec... |
Then there's Love, who went just 2 of 8 in Game 5 and had 1-of-9 and 4-of-13 shooting performances earlier in the Finals. The All-Star forward has been the subject of trade rumblings in the past and his name is certain to surface this summer as contending teams look for that missing piece to close the gap on Golde... |
For James, second place is no consolation, not when success is measured by championship rings. There was no shame in falling for the second time in three years to the Warriors, a 73-win team that needed Durant to dethrone James. |
His new challenge is to get back on top. |
"Teams and franchises are going to be trying to figure out ways that they can put personnel together, the right group of guys together to be able to hopefully compete against this team," he said. "They're assembled as good as you can assemble, and I played against some really, really good teams that was assembled ... |
Esquire hacks its way through the digital jungle to find the ultimate fully integrated electronic system — guaranteed to keep you (not to mention your PC, PDA, and portable phone) connected. |
Remember the eMate? No? How about the revolutionary Network Computer? Didn't think so. And what about . . the Newton? Did you think the Newton was the answer to all your information-processing problems? Lots of people did, till Apple pulled the plug on the ill-fated handheld. |
Such is life in the premillennial silicon crapshoot, where expensive equipment is outmoded at the flip of a binary switch and where digital dead ends are an ever-present danger. And even if you manage to buy the right gizmos, getting them to play nice with one another can be a huge headache. |
One day this may not be a problem. Bluetooth, a short-range wireless standard currently in development, promises to make all of your electronics--phone, laptop, coffeepot--exchange information among themselves automatically. No more compatibility hassles. No more weed garden of wires. The high domes at IBM, a Bluetooth... |
But fear not, digital man. On the following pages you'll find the ultimate cybersystem, suitable for land, air, and interstate. Made up of hardy, cutting-edge technology, it won't be bound for the landfill before you're finished dusting the packing peanuts off your trousers. Its components are as stylish as they are fu... |
It all begins with a brain, in this case the latest in a long line of venerable ThinkPad portables, the 570. This 366MHz Pentium II system is tremendously versatile, with performance and object value in spades. It can be broken down into various components that allow the machine to morph into everything from a svelte o... |
The Palm IIIx ($369) is a recent addition to the insanely popular PalmPilot line of personal digital assistants. The Palm has one-button access to a calendar, address book, to-do list, and notepad. Hundreds of other free and commercial programs can be added. The sleekly designed Palm IIIx offers a crisper screen and mo... |
If you insist on checking your stocks from the back of a cab or sending a follow-up e-mail from the elevator of the client you just visited, you're a candidate for a wireless modem (and probably a stress pill). The Minstrel III snaps onto the back of your IIIx and connects to a wireless Internet service using CDPD, a m... |
The future is flat: flat TVs, flat stereos, flat speakers, and flat monitors. Mitsubishi's new LCD 51 flat-panel monitor ($1,299) is everything you need in a monitor (fabulous image quality, full adjustability, and automatic setup and image correction) in a smart-looking futuristic package that takes up minimal desk sp... |
Epson has a reputation for making innovative small-office/home-office printers at extremely affordable prices. The Stylus Color 740 produces photo prints so gorgeous they could stump a Fotomat clerk, but it can also crank out black-and-white business fodder at a respectable six pages per minute. The 740 uses new USB-po... |
Good technology scales gracefully--easy to use right out of the box, loaded with advanced features you'll get to as you become a more seasoned user. The Epson PhotoPC 800 ($699) is good technology. Part of a new generation of 2-megapixel cameras, the PhotoPC 800 features high-speed USB connectivity so you can download ... |
Mobile phones have become modern fetish objects, and no phone arouses more gadget lust than the Nokia 8800. This elegant and tiny four-ounce wonder gleams, all coated chrome and black accents. A keypad cover glides down to bring the mic closer to your mouth and, when closed, protects the keys so you don't mistakenly sp... |
Mobile Computing magazine recently completed drop tests on computer bags and found that almost none of them actually protected their expensive cargo. Except the Brenthaven, which took home the gold. We like its latest bag, the Urban Backpack (top, $295), a handsome soft briefcase (or shoulder bag) that can be converted... |
This black zippered-case kit ($69; not pictured) contains all of the adapters, cables, and testers you need to connect from the road. It has a line tester to make sure you're not plugging directly into a digital phone system (which will fry your modem), a polarity-reversing jack (so that if the Einstein who wired your ... |
Kanye West has revealed the artwork for his next album which drops on Friday, Kids See Ghosts, a joint collaboration with Kid Cudi. |
This makes album number three in the series of albums that Kanye produced and is releasing over the next few weeks, all of which feature seven tracks. The artwork for each has been the subject of much-discussion, right along with the music. |
First, there was Pusha T's Daytona, which was changed at the last minute to an $85K picture of Whitney Houston's drug riddled bathroom. Next, was his own album, Ye, which he shot on his iPhone hours before the album dropped, and features the simple text "I hate being bipoloar. It's awesome." |
Now, the artwork for his joint album with Cudi looks to continue the streak of interesting art, as Kanye recruited Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to create the work. Murakami is known as the "Warhol" of Japan, lauded for his use of bold graphics, anime and manga cartoon style. He's also collaborated with Louis Vuitto... |
Kid's See Ghosts is the latest in a line of consecutive releases produced by Kanye, following Daytona and Ye. It is scheduled for release on Friday, June 8. |
Boyle scores two as Tampa Bay roar back to beat the Bruins; Islanders record first win in Brooklyn. |
The Tampa Bay Lightning spotted the Bruins two early goals but roared back and ended a 10-game losing streak in Boston with a 6-3 victory over the Bruins. |
Forward Brian Boyle scored two goals to lead the Lightning. |
The Boston loss, giving the Bruins their first 0-3 start since 1999-2000, came in the season debut of defenceman and captain Zdeno Chara, who missed the first two games with an upper body injury. |
Elsewhere, centre John Tavares had a goal and two assists as the New York Islanders earned their first win in Brooklyn by defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-2. |
Goaltender Thomas Greiss earned his first win as an Islander by stopping 22 shots. |
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