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Mobile World Congress 2017: Are Future Technologies Safe?
March 10, 2017 007admin Leave a comment
“Technology is very hard to predict.”
So said Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, during his keynote at this year’s Mobile World Congress when asked what his forecast was for future technologies over the next five to twenty years.
This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) was full of tech that gets us excited about the future though. From 5G, which could be up to a thousand times faster than 4G, to new real-world VR applications, the event over the years has become so much more than just a showcase for mobile devices.
We were able to check it out, and have put together a list of some of the technologies that got us most excited, and that we feel will form a big part of our future lives.
As Hervé Lambert, Global Consumer Operations Manager at Panda Security, was quick to point out though, there is a flipside. As he put it, as these new technologies advance, cyber criminals “will become more specialized with each type of attack and will go deeper into the system.” For every new exciting piece of tech, there is of course, the question of cyber security.
How will this tech shape our future and will it be one where we can feel safe in the physical and digital world?
Robots / AI
Driving home the MWC’s futurist appeal, as well as the fact that the event is more than a simple mobile device exhibition, was the amount of robots on display this year. PaPeRo, the human companion robot was demoed by various companies. Its impressive face recognition capabilities can be utilized for public safety, even being able to track lost children in shopping malls.
At the Ubuntu stall, meanwhile, REEM and REEM-C were both on display. REEM-C, which was designed by Barcelona-based PAL Robotics, is a flexible full-size humanoid biped robot that is used for different types of research, including AI.
Being connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) obviously poses potential risks.
REEM-C, for example, weighs 80 kg. In a future where robots are more widely available, a malicious attacker could cause real damage by taking control of such a heavy piece of machinery.
AI and big data analysis is actually being used today to make people safer though. During a keynote speech at the MWC, Takashi Niino, CEO and president of the NEC Corporation, described how real-time analysis with face recognition technology is being used in Tigre, Argentina to reduce crime. The highly accurate face recognition technology can be used to identify criminals, and even to detect suspicious behavior. Since the “urban surveillance system” was implemented, vehicle theft has gone down by 80 per cent in Tigre.
“AI will soon become a reality of most people’s daily lives”
As always, there’s another side to the coin though. Whilst high-speed data analysis allows law enforcement to act more efficiently, it also does the same for cybercriminals. “Cyber crime is increasingly becoming automated and the number of incidents are escalating exponentially”, said Hervé Lambert. “AI will soon become a reality of most people’s daily lives, so it is very important that its development is overseen responsibly by engineers that are specialized in intelligent security.”
Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR)
Virtual reality has been touted for a while as the next big thing in entertainment. We’ll be able to fully immerse ourselves in distant locations and invented realities. Arguably, its close relative, augmented reality (AR), is where the most life-changing innovation is going to take place though.
Several new VR/AR applications were on show at the MWC. Relúmĭno –which was on show at Samsung’s C-Lab VR projects stall– demonstrated an impressive practical application for VR. The Relúmĭno app, designed for Samsung’s Gear VR headset, acts as a smart visual aid for visually impaired people by remapping blindspots. The effect, when using the headset, can be described as seeing the world as a cartoon with edges and surfaces in your surroundings rendered as sharp black lines.
Other separate standalone projects, like Inflight VR, aim to enhance our inflight experience with VR entertainment. Flight notifications will appear at the bottom of the screen as you navigate the hand-tracking controlled system. LiveRoom, on the other hand, will allow people a more immersive retail experience with its AR capabilities, and can also be used to enhance the classroom experience.
What dangers do we face when it comes to VR/AR though?
VR and AR can be compared to social media, but on a whole other level. This means that when it comes to online privacy, the stakes will be much higher. An unfortunate example has already been seen of this in real life. Users have reported sexual harassment on VR, with inappropriate gestures by some gamers towards other players. Much like with social media, some users sadly see the anonymity afforded by their digital avatars as allowing them to act inappropriately in the digital world.
This type of problem could reverberate beyond just VR gaming though. It’s very likely that our digital avatars will become an even more important part of our lives in VR than they are now in the likes of Twitter and Facebook. If hackers can carry out ransomware attacks after retrieving information on social media, it’s possible that this type of attack will be an even bigger danger with VR in the future.
Connected and Autonomous Cars
One of the visions of the future presented at the MWC was one of people sitting back on their commute to work, in their driverless cars, as the vehicle safely takes control of everything.
Whilst this future may still be in the distance, some cars on display at the MWC are certainly taking us in that direction. Roborace showed off its “robocar” at the even, whilst Peugeot revealed its Instinct concept car, a futuristic and stylish vehicle that wouldn’t look out of place in a sci-fi movie. One of the Instinct’s capabilities is that it can change the ambience inside the vehicle, depending on the passenger’s mood. Stressed out after work? It’ll put you into a relaxed seating position and change the lighting to ‘ambient’.
As the car will connect to the IoT using Samsung’s Artik cloud platform, it will be able to seamlessly integrate your vehicle’s operating system with other devices. This could make your car remind you that a drive to the supermarket is in order, for example. Haven’t been keeping up with your fitness regime? Your car could encourage you to stop and jog the rest of your journey.
Of course there are potential risks when it comes to this technology. Though the technology doesn’t exist yet, there were many 5G demonstrations at the MWC. Most of these focused on reduced latency speeds, meaning that we’ll have a future where almost anything can be controlled in real-time. Could hackers take control of a vehicle that’s connected to the IoT and take it off course without the passenger realizing? It’s a scary prospect.
“Online security’s Achilles’ heel is the Internet of Things”
According to Panda Security’s Hervé Lambert, “online security’s Achilles’ heel is the Internet of Things”. It’s important for cyber security experts to keep up with tech innovations, as there’s no doubt that cyber criminals will too.
Lambert says that hackers aren’t the only worry though. It’s a possibility that in the future, “insurance companies could exploit driving data. This could include data about the way people drive and it could be used to increase insurance prices based on new criteria.” Insurers could have access to a huge amount of data, including where people drive and where they park.
Third-party data gathering could be taken to a whole new level. The IoT will massively benefit our lives, but sadly, it could also open a door to hackers and companies that are looking to financially exploit its users.
“Smart cities, smart factories, smart cars, and anything ‘smart’ will also create a necessity for smart security.”
There was so much tech on show at this month’s Mobile World Congress that will undoubtedly shape our futures and improve our lives in many ways.
Just as autonomous cars look to be brining sci-fi predictions to real life, IIT’s grapheme electrode prosthetic is set to change people’s lives in a way that was previously only imaginable on the big screen. Think Luke Skywalker’s robot hand in The Empire Strikes Back. Graphene, a material that is invisible to the naked eye, will allow electrodes to be embedded comfortably into a robot-like prosthetic hand; a big advance in prostheses.
Drones were also a big draw at the MWC. Though they can be used for games as well as to record things from a distance, their most prominently discussed capacity at the MWC was for use in security systems. Whilst the flying machines will allow efficient surveillance, we also face the Orwellian prospect of drone surveillance as a means for law enforcement. Will they keep us safe or be used to control us? Only time will tell.
When pushed to give an answer for his forecast of the future, Reed Hastings said, “[at Netflix] we’re not sure if we’ll be entertaining you or AI.” While such advances in artificial intelligence are still a long way away, the Mobile World Congress has shown this year that technology will increasingly become a seamlessly integrated part of our very existence. Though future predictions are largely positive when it comes to new technologies, there’s a negative side that also merits attention.
As Hervé Lambert puts it, “smart cities, smart factories, smart cars, and anything ‘smart’ will also create a necessity for smart security.”
Cyber security is undeniably a big part of the puzzle when it comes to a future of safe, smart, integrated cities.
The post Mobile World Congress 2017: Are Future Technologies Safe? appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.
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Revisiting the James Harden Trade
When the Oklahoma City Thunder traded James Harden, many pundits labeled this a move that would help the Thunder financially but hurt them on the court. The financial benefits are unquestionable but there is little evidence that losing Harden has weakened the Thunder's roster; last season, the Thunder posted the franchise's best regular season winning percentage since 1997-98, finishing first in the West. The Thunder seemed poised to make a run to the NBA Finals before Russell Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first round of the playoffs. This season, even though Westbrook has missed 10 games after reinjuring his knee, the Thunder have improved their winning percentage from .732 to .771. It is worth noting that while the Thunder have thrived without Harden they definitely miss Westbrook; they are 21-4 with Westbrook this season and just 6-4 without him, which suggests that if Westbrook had stayed healthy then the Thunder would currently own the best record in the league (they trail the Indiana Pacers by just one game).
Generally, a team that loses a franchise player--whether through injury, free agency or a trade--takes a major step back in the standings. Harden is a very good player but he is not a franchise player, not a guy whose contributions are irreplaceable; the Thunder's record without him shows this to be true and the Rockets' record with Harden further indicates that he is not an elite player, for that is the flip side of this equation: not only have the Thunder thrived without Harden, but the Rockets have not become a powerhouse with Harden. The Rockets had a .515 winning percentage in 2011-12 (34-32 record in the lockout shortened season) and after adding Harden they improved slightly to a .549 winning percentage in 2012-13 (45-37 record in a full-length campaign); the difference between .515 and .549 amounts to three "extra" games over the course of an 82 game season. Harden's arrival did not have much postseason impact, either. The Rockets missed the playoffs in 2011-12 and they sneaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed in 2012-13. Harden's uninspiring 2013 playoff performance hardly lends credence to Houston GM Daryl Morey's assertion that Harden is a "foundational player." This season, the Rockets acquired Dwight Howard, who is without question a franchise player when he is healthy and motivated--but even with Howard playing at an All-NBA level (ranking third in rebounding, fifth in field goal percentage and seventh in blocked shots) the Rockets are currently just the fifth seed in the West, on pace to post a 52-30 record.
Harden produces gaudy scoring numbers but that is because he has the ball in his hands most of the time and he has a green light to shoot; his field goal attempts per minute have significantly increased since the trade. His scoring totals obscure some weaknesses in his game; not only is Harden a subpar defender who also turns the ball over far too frequently for someone whose primary job is to shoot the ball (Harden led the league in turnovers last season and he ranks seventh in the league this season) but he has a very limited scoring repertoire: he is a big guard who rarely posts up and who does not have a great midrange game, so he primarily relies on shooting three pointers and drawing fouls by driving wildly into the lane. "Stat gurus" will tell you that layups, free throws and three pointers are the most efficient shots--and, from a numerical standpoint, that is true--but the practical downside of how Harden plays is that top notch teams can contain him in the playoffs. All you have to do is blitz Harden on screen/roll plays to prevent him from shooting open three pointers and then also sag someone into the paint to take a charge/block a shot when Harden drives. Teams that execute such a game plan can force Harden into high-turnover, low shooting percentage games; we saw this in the 2012 playoffs when Harden shot worse than .400 from the field in 10 of his 20 postseason games and we saw this again in the 2013 playoffs when Harden struggled against his old team as Houston lost 4-2 even though Westbrook missed most of the series due to injury.
Labels: Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder, Russell Westbrook
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Literary texts
The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare
$27.99 (R)
Real Author: William Shakespeare
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
John Dover Wilson
$ 27.99 (R)
John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work is available both individually and as a set, and each contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary printed at the back. The edition, which began with The Tempest and ended with The Sonnets, put into practice the techniques and theories that had evolved under the 'New Bibliography'. Remarkably by today's standards, although it took the best part of half a century to produce, the New Shakespeare involved only a small band of editors besides Dover Wilson himself. As the volumes took shape, many of Dover Wilson's textual methods acquired general acceptance and became an established part of later editorial practice, for example in the Arden and New Cambridge Shakespeares.
The princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I
The Tempest: introduction
A note on punctuation
The copy used for The Tempest
Facsimile from Sir Thomas More
The stage-history of The Tempest
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
NEW TO CAMBRIDGE IN 2016Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies is an internationally recognised, peer-reviewed journal…
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Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great
Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt
Editors and translators:
David Brakke, Ohio State University
Andrew Crislip, Virginia Commonwealth University
Publication planned for: August 2019
availability: Not yet published - available from
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Shenoute the Great (c.347–465) led one of the largest Christian monastic communities in late antique Egypt and was the greatest native writer of Coptic in history. For approximately eight decades, Shenoute led a federation of three monasteries and emerged as a Christian leader. His public sermons attracted crowds of clergy, monks, and lay people; he advised military and government officials; he worked to ensure that his followers would be faithful to orthodox Christian teaching; and he vigorously and violently opposed paganism and the oppressive treatment of the poor by the rich. This volume presents in translation a selection of his sermons and other orations. These works grant us access to the theology, rhetoric, moral teachings, spirituality, and social agenda of a powerful Christian leader during a period of great religious and social change in the later Roman Empire.
Provides translations of previously unpublished works of Shenoute, the greatest author in the Coptic language
An expert introduction to the life and thought of Shenoute
Offers access to a wealth of hitherto unpublished sources for Christianity and society in late antiquity
'The book includes footnotes, a valuable bibliography, and a useful index of names, subjects, maps, and figures. Brakke and Crislip's book is a modern and accurate translation of Shenoute's Discourses, so that it is an important contribution in the spirituality of Shenoute and his form of monasticism. Meticulously researched, this competent book provides a starting point for new investigations of the role of Shenoute in the history of Egyptian asceticism. Undoubtedly, Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great will become a significant landmark for researchers in the field.' Daniel Lemeni, Tealogia
contains: 7 b/w illus. 2 maps
Shenoute's life, times, and Discourses
Part I. Heretics and Other Enemies of the Church:
1. And it happened one day
2. As I sat on a mountain
3. I am amazed
Part II. Shenoute as Pastor and Preacher:
4. I see your eagerness
5. Some kinds of people sift dirt and Whoever seeks God will find
6. The idolatrous pagans, or And we will reveal something else
7. And let us also reprove
8. I answered
9. And after a few days
10. See how clearly revealed is the foolishness of pitiless people
11. Truly when I think
12. A priest will never cease
13. When the Word says
Part III. The Christian's Struggle with Satan:
14. In the night
15. Because of you too, O Prince of Evil
16. A beloved asked me years ago
17. As we began to preach
Part IV. The Conflict with Gesios:
18. Not because a fox barks
19. Let our eyes (translated by Stephen Emmel)
20. A26
21. God says through those who are His
22. God is blessed.
Editors and translators
David Brakke is Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and Professor of History at Ohio State University. He is the author of Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism (1995), Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (2006) and The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (2010). He is also editor and translator of Evagrius of Pontus: Talking Back: A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons (2009).
Andrew Crislip is William E. and Miriam S. Blake Chair in the History of Christianity and Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of two books on healing and monasticism in late antiquity, Thorns in the Flesh: Illness and Sanctity in Late Ancient Egypt (2012) and From Monastery to Hospital: The Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity (2005), as well as numerous articles and essays on early Christian life and thought.
Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity
Cognition and Discipline
Collecting Early Christian Letters
From the Apostle Paul to Late Antiquity
The Monks and Monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350–850
Monastic Education in Late Antiquity
The Transformation of Classical Paideia
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Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture
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Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life
How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew
Author: Steve Stewart-Williams, University of Wales, Swansea
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If you accept evolutionary theory, can you also believe in God? Are human beings superior to other animals, or is this just a human prejudice? Does Darwin have implications for heated issues like euthanasia and animal rights? Does evolution tell us the purpose of life, or does it imply that life has no ultimate purpose? Does evolution tell us what is morally right and wrong, or does it imply that ultimately 'nothing' is right or wrong? In this fascinating and intriguing book, Steve Stewart-Williams addresses these and other fundamental philosophical questions raised by evolutionary theory and the exciting new field of evolutionary psychology. Drawing on biology, psychology and philosophy, he argues that Darwinian science supports a view of a godless universe devoid of ultimate purpose or moral structure, but that we can still live a good life and a happy life within the confines of this view.
Brings together philosophy and evolutionary psychology in a way that will open up debate between the two disciplines
Goes beyond the God question to consider the implications of evolutionary theory for all areas of philosophy
Topics covered include: God, life after death, whether we are superior to other animals, the meaning of life, voluntary euthanasia, and the proper treatment of other animals
'Steve Stewart-Williams explains how evolutionary thought challenges many deep-seated assumptions about God, morality, and human superiority and raises significant questions about such things as euthanasia, suicide, and the way we treat non-human animals. While it has become commonplace for many to equate Darwin's legacy with the stripping away of the moral and the good and to replace it with unpalatable 'Darwinist' alternatives that advocate amorality, nihilism, and a world where 'might makes right', Stewart-Williams carefully and entertainingly shows that, on the contrary, the world after Darwin remains meaningful, wondrous, and intrinsically moral.' Stephen Hill, Massey University
'This is an important, accessible, and timely book for anyone wishing to understand the implications of evolutionary theory for standard views of human nature, morality and religion.' Stephen Boulter, Oxford Brookes University
1. Darwin and the big questions
Part I. Darwin Gets Religion:
2. Clash of the Titans
3. Design after Darwin
4. Darwin's God
5. God as gap filler
6. Darwin and the problem of evil
7. Wrapping up religion
Part II. Life After Darwin:
8. Human beings and their place in the universe
9. The status of human beings among the animals
10. Meaning of life, RIP?
Part III. Morality Stripped of Superstition:
11. Evolving good
12. Remaking morality
13. Uprooting the doctrine of human dignity
14. Evolution and the death of right and wrong.
Steve Stewart-Williams, University of Wales, Swansea
Steve Stewart-Williams is a lecturer in evolutionary psychology at Swansea University. Before taking this position, he did his PhD at Massey University in New Zealand, and then did a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University in Canada. His research and writing covers a diverse range of topics, including the placebo effect, the philosophy of biology, and the evolution of altruism and mating behaviour.
Visit the Author's Blog_ Stewart-Williams
Science and Spirituality
Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science
Darwinism and its Discontents
Marketing Intelligent Design
Law and the Creationist Agenda
Debating Design
From Darwin to DNA
The Ape that Understood the Universe
How the Mind and Culture Evolve
Early modern philosophy
Eighteenth-century philosophy
Epistemology and metaphysics
Nineteenth-century philosophy
Philosophy: general interest
Philosophy of mind and language
Philosophy texts
Renaissance philosophy
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Alan Flurry
Writer and Producer
What does green mean?
Posted on January 18, 2019 January 18, 2019 by alan
Alps drips dipping Rhine
With all honor to Vic, but something else loves the Alps but hates the snow:
After a prolonged summer drought, the bustling traffic at one of the shallowest points on the Rhine ground to a halt for nearly a month late last year, choking off a critical transport artery. The impact damped Germany’s industrial machine, slowing economic growth in the third and fourth quarters. It was the latest sign of how even advanced industrial economies are increasingly fighting the effects of global warming.
With its source high in the Swiss Alps, the Rhine snakes 800 miles through the industrial zones of Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands before emptying into the sea at Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port. It serves as a key conduit for manufacturers such as Daimler AG, Robert Bosch GmbH and Bayer AG.
When low water halted shipping this summer, steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG was forced to delay shipments to customers like automaker Volkswagen AG as it couldn’t get raw materials to a mill in Duisburg.
Though not nearly as important a commercial waterway, we saw this on the Elbe during the summer of 2015. ‘What did we think would happen?’ is being displaced by ‘what do we do now?’ Imagine an average teenager in a ‘borrowed’ car, three drinks more than he’s used to, dashed from the drive-through without paying but not before dinging the BK awning and hitting the highway, sees a patrol car pass in the opposite the direction, hit the lights and squall a U-turn. Our answers in a pinch of what’s best to do next might not be the most trustworthy. If we had planned for this, sure, we probably would have had the drinks but maybe not taken the car so no dine-n-dash, cops or DUI fender scuffs. But we did do all those things, in that order, the lights are flashing and sirens blaring. So what do we do now? Our lines are open, higher-than-normal rates apply.
Categoriesclimate, Earth, economics, Transportation TagsAlps, Rhine, rivers, snow, Vic Chesnutt
Previous PostPrevious A Noteful Hope
Next PostNext The Young(ish) Fogey
A collision of double entendre has caught us in the crossfire of capitalism and self-preservation. We need to sort it out. But what does Green actually mean? We look at its use to determine what we mean by green: a color, the signal to ‘go’, money, envy, erogeneity, inexperience, eco-friendliness? Green is all of these things. But today, the word is tied by all its definitions into a package, a marketing vortex urging us to keep what we have and keep it all going. We have to go back to second grade and ask which of these does not belong? The purpose for this site seems self-explanatory, but I tried to sum it up in the very first post.
alan@alanflurry.com
About Alan Flurry
Alan Flurry is an Athens, Georgia-based writer and filmmaker. He is currently an editor and producer for the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia.
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3 points by shader 315 days ago | link | parent
Yeah; I guess I didn't state it that clearly, but the sandboxing reference was from the reddit thread you linked
"Sandboxing is challenging partly because our boundaries for what is trusted shift imperceptibly over time. Browsers came out in a world where the desktop was considered the crown jewels, while browsers were considered untrusted. Over time local disk has disappeared (e.g. Chromebooks) while our lives are ruled by the browser. This has made the original design of browser security (shielding the local file system; cookies; single origin) if not obsolete then at least dangerously incomplete. So any sandboxing solution has to think about how to fight this gradual creep. No matter how you organize your sandboxes using Qubes or whatnot, something inside a sandbox is liable to become more important than other stuff inside that sandbox. And even outside that sandbox."
The idea of running tests against a live application, particularly an OS, is intriguing. It shouldn't be too hard though, since the code and its state don't have to be in the same place. So you could run the live code against separate testing data in a different sandbox or something...
Your specific example of memory management makes me think that vague "recursive subsets of resources" probably won't cut it for a lot of things. After all, if you make memory access too indirect, it would be very very slow; but if you try to use the actual CPU management interfaces, it may not allow the kind of control that we want...
How much do you really need the bootstrappable stack? There shouldn't be anything stopping you from using something that's already been bootstrapped, instead of raw hex code. E.g. existing C tools, etc. There's also the picolisp-based PilOS project; basically picolisp (which is mostly bootstrapped from an assembler they wrote anyway) running directly on the metal as a kernel. (https://picolisp.com/wiki/?PilOS)
Oh sorry, I did understand your sandboxing reference. Just meant I wasn't concerned with it when thinking about the memory allocator. Should have said, "I haven't been thinking about sandboxing.."
I'm less concerned about overhead because I'm primarily concerned about tests, which by definition don't run in production.
But I think in the case of memory allocation you can do several levels of sandboxing before you start hitting performance bottlenecks. You'd have no extra indirections when using memory, because its just a pointer and you just have an address. You'd only hit extra levels of indirection when you try to allocate and the allocator is out of memory. Then you may need to request more from your parent, who needs more from its parent, and so on, all the way down to the OS.
"How much do you really need the bootstrappable stack?"
My basic idea is that code is easier to quickly understand if you can run it and see it in operation in a variety of tiny slices. I think it would be easy to quickly modify codebases if you had access to a curriculum of logs of the subsystems you care about, click on any line to jump to the code emitting it, and so on. The curriculum would be created automatically while running tests (because tests are selected manually to capture interesting scenarios).
This idea requires being able to drill down arbitrarily deep into the traces, because we can't anticipate what a reader is trying to change. I may be trying to investigate why a certain sequence of operations causes my laptop to lock up. That may require drilling down inside a save operation to see the data structures inside the OS that perform buffering of disk writes. And so on.
Compilers are part of this infrastructure I want to drill down into. If I want to understand how the if keyword works, it does me no good if it terminates in some opaque binary that wasn't built on my computer. It's also only mildly nicer to find out that some code in this compiler I'm reading requires understanding the whole compiler. Metacircularity is a cute trick, but it's hell on comprehension. Any sort of coiling is bad. What noobs need is to see things laid out linearly.
I've looked at PicoLisp before. I even modeled Wart's memory allocator on PicoLisp. So it's great in many ways. But like all software today it's not really intended for end-users to look at the source code. Its code is intended for insiders who have spent months and years building up an intimate understanding of its architecture. That assumption affects how it's written and managed.
2 points by shader 314 days ago | link
"its just a pointer and you just have an address"
That could be true; I'm not really familiar with CPU facilities for memory isolation, but this is probably one of the most solved of the isolation challenges, since it does require CPU support.
"You'd only hit extra levels of indirection when you try to allocate..."
Good point. I wonder if there's any way to improve that, or if the worst case is rare enough that it's acceptable?
"This idea requires being able to drill down arbitrarily deep into the traces..."
That's a cool idea, and fits very well with the GNU objective of fully open and transparent source code. I'm not sure that bootstrapping is what is required to achieve that goal, however. What you really need is transparent source all the way down, which can be satisfied with self-hosted code, even if it's not bootstrapped. In fact, I'd argue that multiple layers of bootstrapping would make the drill-down process very challenging, because you'd have to cross very sharp API boundaries — not just between functions or libraries, but between languages and runtime environments. Making a single debug tool that handles all of that would be impressive, let alone expecting your users to understand it.
"Metacircularity is a cute trick, but it's hell on comprehension"
Metacircularity applies to interpreters built on interpreters, not compilers. I can agree that it makes things opaque though, because it reuses the existing platform rather than fully implementing it. A self-hosted compiler, even if written in its own language, could be fully comprehensible, however (depending on the quality of the code...). It's just a program that takes syntax and produces binary.
Interestingly, while writing this, I ran across the following paper, which may be of some interest: Avoiding confusion in metacircularity: The meta-helix (Chiba et al.) (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4319/37e467eb9a516628d47888...) I'll read more of it tomorrow, and possibly make a separate post for it.
I do think it would be really cool and possibly also useful if every compiler was self-hosted, and could be drilled into as part of the debugging process. It would mean that you could read the code, since it would be written in the language you are currently using, and the same debugger should be able to handle it.
"But like all software today it's not really intended for end-users to look at the source code"
I haven't actually looked at picolisp's source much myself, but what would it take to satisfy your desires for "end-user" readable code?
Very interesting. I'm going to read that paper as well. And think about what you said about the difference between interpreting and compiling.
> what would it take to satisfy your desires for "end-user" readable code?
See code running. My big rant is that while it's possible to read static code on a screen and imagine it running, it's a very painful process to build up that muscle. And you have to build it from scratch for every new program and problem domain. And even after you build this muscle you screw up every once in a while and fail to imagine some scenario, thereby causing regressions. So to help people understand its inner workings, code should be easy to see running. In increasing order of difficulty:
a) It should be utterly trivial to build from source. Dependencies kill you here. If you try to install library version x and the system has library version y -- boom! If you want to use a library, really the only way to absolutely guarantee it won't cause problems is to bundle it with your program, suitably isolated and namespaced so it doesn't collide with a system installation of the same library.
b) It should be obvious how to run it. Provide example commands.
c) There should be lots and lots of example runs for subsets of the codebase. Automated tests are great for this. My approach to Literate Programming also helps, by making it easy to run subsets of a program without advanced features: http://akkartik.name/post/wart-layers. https://travis-ci.org/akkartik/mu runs not just a single binary, but dozens of binaries, gradually adding features from nothing in a pseudo-autobiographical fashion, recapitulating some approximation of its git history. In this way I guarantee that my readers (both of them) can run any part of the program by building just the parts it needs. That then lets them experiment with it more rigorously without including unnecessary variables and moving parts.
* http://akkartik.name/post/readable-bad
* http://akkartik.name/about
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Home › Reunions › 1998 – Bend & Redmond, Oregon
WILLIAM CAZIER FAMILY REUNION
Bend and Redmond, Oregon
The family started to gather at Pioneer Park in Bend Oregon at 3:30 PM. The weather was a little on the cool side but good for being outside. The park is on the banks of a river with trees and lots of grass to play on. Turkey was cooked in handmade outdoor cookers. Salads, rolls and dessert were enjoyed by all that attended. About 45 were in attendance at this gathering.
Information for the next day’s activities was given out. Andy Cazier talked about the newsletter and how it is produced and asked if anyone had ideas for improving it, he would like to have some input.
On Saturday some of the families enjoyed some of the local sights, visited the volcanic park, caves and golfed.
The Genealogy meeting was held in the Redmond LDS church. Gail conducted the meeting. Vance Haws gave an invocation. We went around the room introducing ourselves and told whom we were descended from.
Bruce Bingham reported on his contact with Fern Rutledge. She is working hard on her husband’s genealogy and her health is better. Fern was the former family genealogist and did most of the work on the family compiled in the books.
Gail talked about working with and submitting information to the Ancestral File. It can be accessed in the Family History Centers. Note: At this time the Church is running a test web sight that you can access the Ancestral File information. The address is: http://www.familysearch.org/default.asp . If you discover an error in the Ancestral File send it to Gail and he can get it corrected. If we have too many people submitting files with names it has a greater chance of creating errors. Also if you have new names Gail will submit them for you.
The use of the Internet was discussed for doing Genealogy work. http://ancestry.com is a good place to go for researching names. A Cazier web page was discussed and at this time we will use Andy’s page at http://home1.gte.net/caziera until a need to grow beyond this is determined.
Gail obtained a large number of names from the Elizabeth line from Charles and Carrie Davis. We haven’t had a lot of information on this line before. Gail has been communicating with them sharing information.
Gail passed out a chart that showed the link to all the known Caziers. He commented that this might not be accurate any more, as new Caziers are being found that are not linked.
Where do we go from here? The next step should consist of a book being written on each of the children of William Cazier. Names were discussed and possible people that could be the coordinator for the project. Some suggestions were that James be coordinated by Don Cazier, Maranda and Elizabeth by Gail Cazier, David Crocket by Stanford Cazier and Charles Drake by Kem Cazier. Benjamin, Samuel and Rosannah had no recommendations.
Past Presidents Meeting
The Past Presidents meeting was held at the Redmond LDS church. The minutes were read and approved from last year’s meeting. The financial report was given as follows: On May 31st 1997 the accounts contained $2917.61. During the year expenses were $621.73. 286.34 for the Newsletter, and $335.39 for the 1997 Reunion. Deposits were interest of $57.97 and $599.00 for dues. For an ending balance of, $2952.85 on May 31st, 1998. The financial report was approved.
Andy explained the Mailing database and the gradual increase of the numbers of letters mailed. Currently about 575 active addresses are in the database and 100 that are lost and 31 that are deceased.
The family bylaws were reviewed nominations for president and potential reunion locations were discussed. David Cazier for president and Warm River Idaho for next years reunion sight will be nominated by the Past presidents.
Dinner and Program
The Family gathered at 6:00 PM at the Redmond LDS church for dinner and the evening information and entertainment. We dined on Roast Beef and Chicken with all the trimmings. After the meal Andy Cazier reported on the proceedings from last year, financial information reported and attendance taken. Roll call showed the following numbers present from the branches of William Cazier Family: James-0, Maranda-0, John-2, Benjamin-60, Elizabeth-0, Samuel-0, David-0, Charles Drake-2, Rosannah-0 for a total of 64.The turnout was smaller than most years but the fun was as good as always.
Then the business of the night started. It was stated that next years reunion was the 50th annual and would be held at Warm River Idaho, the location of the first one. Nominations were opened for the president of the organization. David Cazier (Gail Caziers son) was nominated and passed. Ivan and Don Cazier were nominated and passed for Vice President. Andy Cazier was nominated for Secretary Treasurer and Gail Cazier for Genealogist. Both passed.
Ed Gunkel was the oldest in attendance. Richard Perdue had the most children in attendance with 14.
The Perdue family sang a song and performed a skit from the production of, “Grease” named “First Day of School”. Shayla Matindal sang, as Terra Brock did cartwheels. A tin man and a crying doll were given out as prizes.
CAZIER REUNION 1999
This has been quite a year for evolving plans. The Church building that had been reserved for the use of the family in Ashton was closed for renovation and the Ashton LDS Stake Center was not available. So the main gathering place has been moved to the St. Anthony Stake Center.
We will gather Friday evening at about 4:00 p.m. at the St. Anthony LDS church building (see the map). The Warm River Park Pavilion was not available for our use on Friday night. A light supper will be available at the church. Additional information will be available for the next day’s activities.
The Warm River Park Pavilion has been reserved for our use on Saturday afternoon. Activities are being planned for the use of the pavilion for this time frame. To get to warm River State Park from St. Anthony travel North on Route 20 to Ashton, and turn right on Route 47, drive about five miles to the park. See the attached map.
Some places to stay
Comfort Inn 1565 W. Main, Rexburg, 83440 Tel: 208-359-1311.
Days Inn 271 S 200 W, Rexburg, 83440 Tel: 208-345-9222.
Super 8 Motel 231 W. Main, Rexburg, 83440 Tel: 208-356-8888
Weston Inn, in St. Anthony Telephone: 208 624-3711
Just a reminder that the “50 Years of Cazier Family Reunions” book will be available for purchase at the reunion. Also a video on the history of St. Anthony will be available for purchase.
If you have any suggestions for the improvement of the Newsletter, we would like your input. Any help at the reunions to record information for entering into the newsletter would also be appreciated. The newsletter will also be placed on my web page at http://home1.gte.net/caziera/ . Also if you have an e-mail address send it to me and I will add you to my Cazier distribution list. Note: registration can be done by e-mail.
On the address label is the last date I have a record of dues contributed from your family. The dues are still only $10 per year and can be sent to the Secretary Treasurer, Andy Cazier.
Registration Directions
In order to know how much food and how many hats to order, the registration information needs to be in by June 1, 1999. In order to simplify the registration this year, all registrations should be sent to me (Andy) at address below.
Contacting the family organization:
Current President David Gail Cazier
6343 Williamsburg Circle
Genealogist Gail A. Cazier
582 Gemini
Rexburg, ID 83440
E-mail gail.cazier@eudoramail.com
Secretary Treasurer Andrew L. Cazier
32241 24th Ave SW
E-mail caziera@gte.net
Telephone: 253 661-7758
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Love's Death
Oscar van den Boogaard
Title: Love's Death
Author: Oscar van den Boogaard
Original in: Dutch
Availability: Love's Death - US
Love's Death - UK
Love's Death - Canada
Mort de l'amour - France
Liebestod - Deutschland
Dutch title: Liefdesdood
Translated by Ina Rilke
B+ : stark novella of stark love lost
Neue Zürcher Zeitung C- 23/6/2001 Dorothea Dieckmann
Rev. of Contemp. Fiction A- Fall/2001 Jason D. Fichtel
Die Welt A 14/4/2001 Marita Keilson
"Was eine sehr einfache, sehr tragische Geschichte hätte werden können, wird also in bemühte, zusehends unplausible Konstruktionen, in Abrechnungen, Bilanzen und Parallelitäten gezwängt und in einer faden Schlussszene ganz verschenkt." - Dorothea Dieckmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
"Stylistically, Love's Death is astounding. Boogaard deftly stretches out time through acute attention to every detail, mirroring the attempts of the characters to keep ahold of something in the present. The narrative is told almost entirely in the present tense and at times with such sparseness, such directness, that the sense of loss permeating the text is truly experienced by the reader." - Jason D. Fichtel, Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Wie in Julias Herrlichkeit sind in Liebestod die Fäden der Erzählung kunst- und geheimnisvoll verschlungen." - Marita Keilson, Die Welt
Love's Death has four parts. The first centers on the events of a single day in 1973. The second and third take place some seven years later, in the winter of 1980. The final one is set in 1987.
The novel begins with a tragedy: Paul and Oda Klein's eight year old daughter, Vera, drowns in their neighbour's pool. The focus here is mainly on the neighbour, Inez, upon whom the child was foisted in the morning.
All was clearly not right in the Klein household before the death:
Sometimes Inez would find her asleep in their bedroom. The child would sneak into their house to take a nap. As if that were not possible in her own home.
The Klein's also do not seek solace in each other after the tragedy. Instead Paul flees, accepting an army posting in Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) and returning home only after seven years. Things don't improve upon his return: Oda puts him in Vera's old room rather than take him back in her bed -- and he is too weak to protest.
A minor tragedy then strikes next door, as their neighbour's house goes up in flames -- but illusory hope is found there as well, as a vision advances out of the burning building, a fifteen year old girl from the States who had been living with Inez and her husband, Hans. The Klein's volunteer to take in the girl. Her name is Daisy, and she is, of course, the same age Vera would have been were she still alive. Daisy does bring the household vaguely together, as both Oda and Paul dote on her, though they are constantly uncertain of how they should and can treat her. Independent-minded Daisy also has ideas of her own, navigating (in wide arcs) the territory between childhood and adulthood.
Another figure is also a presence -- Emil, a general in the army and a friend of Paul. Or rather "a buddy". He comes to the fore late in the novella, clearing up what was actually happening back in 1973.
It is an odd little novella, full of sad love. The loss of the child is, indeed, the death of love -- not merely the parental love for Vera, but considerably more. Not, as it turns out, that there was happiness in the cards had Vera lived. No, things were and are considerably darker than they appear.
Love fails throughout the novel. There is no happy affair here, except, perhaps, between Inez and Hans (though that isn't really clear). There's a fair amount of intimacy, but all the sex is one-off. And much of the intimacy is of a decidedly inappropriate nature.
The girls, Vera and Daisy, flail for love, easily seducing but ultimately no happier for it. The men, Emil and Paul, both hopelessly love Oda, but events make loving her practically an impossibility -- and also push them to find at least moments of happiness elsewhere. Van den Boogaard writes of Paul: "all he wants is to love her, he wants to love her every minute they are together: wholeheartedly, unabashedly, totally." But Oda won't have it, and clearly neither Paul's nor Emil's love for her were meant to be.
Van den Boogaard has written a fairly effective novella. Tragedy and melancholy are quite well done, and the efforts by those involved to fill the void left by the child's death ring fairly true. There are, however, also some decidedly creepy goings-on, especially those involving the two girls. Both Vera and Daisy are almost surreal ingénues and manipulators, and the death of innocence is rather uglier than it first appears.
The characters are odd too, and van den Boogaard's shifting focus does not help paint a clearer picture of them. The largely irrelevant Inez is too much of a focus in the first part, while Emil dominates the last simply so that he can recapitulate and explain the past.
Not one of the characters is entirely likable or sympathetic, except, perhaps (at least for much of the novel), the victim Vera. All are, at the very least, troubled -- often inexplicably so (especially the shadowy Vera). Paul, also, seems entirely too simple: "Order, armor, and routine" dominate the officer's life, and it is something that we are not allowed to penetrate. There is also never a satisfactory explanation of why he and Oda became a couple.
A quite powerful novella, Love's Death unfolds with some interesting twists and turns. It unfolds somewhat clumsily, but the writing is fairly solid. There are several surprises, and some shocking turns. A gripping read, it also leaves quite a sour aftertaste. There is little hope for love here, but unfortunately these characters don't really seem all that deserving of it.
The Capital Times (scroll down for review)
Review of Contemporary Fiction
Die Welt (German)
Oscar van den Boogaard:
Brief biography at Schrijversnet
Oscar van den Boogaard at the susijn agency
See Index of Dutch literature at the complete review
Dutch author Oscar van den Boogaard was born in 1964. He has written numerous novels. He lives in Brussels.
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Comparative Video 101
Selected Videos Of And Commentary About Some Classic Folk, Roots, And Americana Songs
¡Víva Las Mujeres Mexicanas! - "La Adelita"
Director Fred Zinneman's 1952 film High Noon is on the short list of the best westerns ever made, and in fact of the best American movies of all time. Beyond the taut drama of a decent man facing almost certain death as the clock ticks relentlessly toward noon, the film was decades ahead of its time in its depiction of good and evil, of racial prejudice, and of thoughtful and mature women. The latter aspect of the film featured the classic cinematic dichotomy between the fair-haired heroine, in this case actress Grace Kelly portraying Amy Fowler Kane, the prim Quaker bride of Gary Cooper's Marshal Will Kane, and the dark and passionate lady Helen Ramírez, played by the superb Mexican actress Katy Jurado. Ramírez owns the local saloon (purchased with money earned in a bordello) and was Kane's lover prior to his marriage.
Both women in the film are frightened by the prospect of Kane's imminent gunfight with four convicts whom he had sent to prison, and wife Amy vows to leave town rather than see her Will shot down. In a last desperate attempt to forestall the duel, Amy visits Helen an hour before the fight to enlist her aid in dissuading Kane from facing his enemies. Jurado's Helen listens in disbelief as Kelly's Amy announces her intention to depart, and then scorches the Quaker woman with her contempt by saying, "What kind of woman are you? How can you leave him like this?...If Kane was my man, I would never leave him like this. I would get a gun. I would fight."
When I first saw the movie on television some years later, that scene burned itself into my memory. I knew that in the Hollywood scheme of things (though clearly not in the subversive Zinneman's view), I was supposed to respond to the delicate, virginal, and ultimately sexless morality and beauty of the Kelly character. But it was Jurado's Helen and her fierce and undying love for the man who had been faithless to her that seized my imagination. "I would get a gun. I would fight" - now THAT was a woman.
And it is just such a woman who has been immortalized in the ever-popular Mexican corrído "La Adelita," a song as widely-known and as frequently sung in México as perhaps "This Land Is Your Land" is in the U.S. The song in its present form dates from the period of the 1910 Mexican Revolution in which Francisco Madero led a democratic rebellion against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (though it may be based on an older tune). The lyrics exist in several significantly differing variants. Some portray Adelita as the beloved of an officer in the revolutionary forces whom he must leave to fight for freedom; in many others, however, she is the very personification of the soldadera, the strong and independent woman who goes to battle herself, both for liberty and for the man she loves. In other words - "I'd get a gun. I'd fight."
Both the authorship of the song and the woman depicted in it are of uncertain origin. Some research seems to suggest that there was a woman from Durango, possibly named Velarde, whose battlefield exploits provided the raw material for the song, but this is speculative and no hard evidence exists. Nonetheless, "Adelita" came to be a term used to describe any of the women who joined the military. One soldadera recalled in a 1979 interview:
The most popular lyric sung today makes only passing reference to Adelita's courage:
En lo alto de la abrupta serranía
acampado se encontraba un regimiento
y una joven que valiente los seguía
locamente enamorada del sargento.
(In the heights of a steep mountainous range
a regiment was encamped
and a young woman bravely follows them
madly in love with the sergeant.)
Popular entre la tropa era Adelita
la mujer que el sargento idolatraba
y además de ser valiente era bonita
que hasta el mismo Coronel la respetaba.
(Popular among the troop was Adelita
the woman that the sergeant idolized
and besides being brave she was pretty
that even the Colonel respected her.)
Y se oía, que decía, aquel que tanto la quería:
Y si Adelita se fuera con otro
la seguiría por tierra y por mar
si por mar en un buque de guerra
si por tierra en un tren militar.
(And it was heard, that he, who loved her so much, said:
If Adelita would leave with another man
I'd follow her by land and sea
if by sea in a war ship
if by land in a military train.)
Y si Adelita quisiera ser mi novia
y si Adelita fuera mi mujer
le compraría un vestido de seda
para llevarla a bailar al cuartel.
(If Adelita would like to be my girlfriend
If Adelita would be my wife
I'd buy her a silk dress
to take her to the barrack's dance.)
One of the earliest recordings of the song is from Trio González, waxed in 1917:
This rendition is in the original, simple, pure mariachi style - accompaniment by strings only, with a simple harmony in thirds around the melody.
A more contemporary mariachi sound, one in a style that you'd be more likely to hear in México today, is by Pepe Aguilar, a great singer in his own right but also son of the legendary Antonio Aguilar:
The trumpet flourish that opens the song is now an almost required element in modern arrangements of corridos, and the lushness of the instrumental accompaniment indicates how sophisticated (or you could say "commercial) traditional music in México has become, as is the case here.
A fine instrumental version here from Stephane Kubiak and orchestra:
Once again, the trumpets open the number, but note both the primacy of the strings (both violins and guitars) and the polka-like tempo throughout.
"Adelita" is one of a handful of genuine Mexican folk songs that has become popular in the U.S., especially in the southwest. Though English-language versions are rare, no less of a major pop vocalist than Nat "King" Cole gave the song a try in Spanish in the late 1950s:
Though Cole is singing only the chorus, he is showing a remarkable respect for and fidelity to the source song, very unusual for a norteamericano at the time.
Cole's version almost undoubtedly inspired the Kingston Trio's loose translation of one version of the lyric where Adelita is the passive lover and not the brave fighter:
This is clearly an anglicized version of the song, but while not copying the Spanish source, it too respects the song's origin in its own way - and it is no further afield from that than many of the KT's and other pop folk groups' renditions of English language traditional songs were.
And Mexican folk has also gone country and electric, as the next two versions demonstrate. First, the Country Roland Band combines "Adelita" with a familiar country tune:
And if you're ready for it - a Mexican punk version:
To such an end folk music seems to be coming worldwide. If you know Oysterband or the Dropkick Murphys or the Pogues or the Killigans, you'll recognize the trend of electrifying and rock-ifying songs that originally were neither.
Yet even in these last versions - which are not to my taste - something of the original spirit of La Adelita survives. I think that my personal favorite of these is the very first one in this collection, for its purity and its proximity in time to the actual inspiration for the song - who in my mind will always look like Katy Jurado: "I would never leave him like this. I would get a gun. I would fight."
Comparative Video 101 is a resource for performance videos of some of the classic popular folk songs of the last several decades with personal commentary on them by Jim Moran, a teacher of literature for nearly forty years and a folk musician and writer for a decade longer. He is also co-host of the "Roots Music And Beyond" radio program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles.
Some of these posts appeared originally on the Kingston Crossroads message board, and many of the profiled songs were performed by the classic pop folk group the Kingston Trio.
The page will be updated once or more per month.
Your comments are welcome.
Important: Patience, Please
As of this writing in March of 2017, the Blogspot site that hosts CV101 has "deprecated" or made obsolete the old video code that I have been using since 2007 to make videos visible in these articles. That's ironic, since for several years Blogspot was not accepting the newer code that is now required, forcing me into a workaround that is now useless.
The upshot is this. Of the 222 posted articles, more than 200 include multiple YT videos, up to ten but averaging about seven per post - more than 1400 videos in all. The change has left me with the choice of either abandoning this project, which at its inception in 2006 elsewhere was a kind of pioneer in presenting embedded videos with commentary - or going into every single article and changing the code for every single video.
I hope that no one is surprised that I am choosing to do the latter. I do believe that there is some value in this site, and several hundred thousand people over the years have enjoyed it.
However - changing all those codes is going to take some serious time to complete, so I beg your indulgence. If you happen by here and find an article that intrigues you but that is missing all or some of the videos, please drop a short comment at the end of the post and I will get to the restoration as soon as I can.
As always, thanks for your attention to this project of mine.
Use the Google Search Bar above as you would use the Google web search. Enter the name of a song or artist, press "search," and the results will appear showing every mention of your search term in the 150+ articles on this blog. An alphabetical index of song titles is coming soon; until then, the Google Search This Blog will substitute for it.
La Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose - Shel...
For St. Patrick's Day: The Incomparable Clancy Bro...
Derroll Adams, John Stewart, And "Portland Town"
Note #2 On The Posted Articles
Since Blogspot/Google has recently begun including readership statistics as part of its service to bloggers like me, I have become aware that the readership for these pages is far more extensive and international than I had ever dreamed, usually approaching 1,000 visitors per week from literally all around the world. I am profoundly appreciative of the interest in these posts and glad that folk music fans find enjoyment and value in them.
There are currently more than two hundred articles here, and nearly all of the twelve hundred posted videos in those articles are from YouTube. Most readers will already know that because YouTube is another subsidiary of Google, the latter company is being sued for copyright infringement by a significant number of content providers like Sony-BMG and Warner's Music Group. YouTube/Google's normal response to infringement claims is to remove the disputed videos or ban them from certain countries in which the claims have been filed.
This, of course, has a profound effect on the content of posts like the ones in this blog. Videos that I have selected for any given article can be and often have been removed at any time without warning. I try where possible to replace deleted videos with other versions of the same performance or with similar renditions of the songs, though this is not always possible.
Policing the hundred plus posts to be sure that there are interesting and representative video performances is itself a major undertaking, one that involves a significant commitment of time. I hope that those of you good enough to stop by this blog will have a bit of patience. I review as many of the older articles as I can every week with the goal of maintaining the integrity of each, and sometimes this enables me to find newer, better, and more exciting performances of the songs profiled here.
Once again, thanks for the interest!
Kingston Trio Albums On Which The Songs Appeared
3rd Anni (9)
A-B (10)
AboveTheHungryI (2)
AtLarge (10)
BackInTown (6)
BestOf (1)
BobShaneSolo (2)
CloseUp (7)
College Concert (7)
GoinPlaces (8)
HereWeGoAgain (9)
HungryI (8)
KT996 (13)
LastMonth (12)
MakeWay (8)
NewFrontier (9)
NickBobJohn (8)
Other Albums (6)
Other Artists (20)
Other Groups (23)
OUAT (7)
SoldOut (8)
SomethinElse (4)
Something Special (7)
Stay Awhile (3)
StringAlong (8)
Sunny Side (5)
TimeToThink (9)
Unreleased (14)
YrEnd (12)
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Russian national carrier Aeroflot has been accused of banning up to 400 female flight attendants from their foreign routes because they are “too old, fat and ugly”.
OJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines, commonly known as Aeroflot, is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation. Photo Credit: Aeroflot Archives
One attendant Yevgenia Magurina complained: “They told us all that only the young and thin will fly abroad for Aeroflot.”
Another complained at being weighed like cows by the airline which was once the largest in the world.
A group of angry cabin staff has written to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to complain about their alleged treatment, supposedly part of a “rebranding” exercise.
Calling themselves STS – the Russian abbreviation for “old, fat, ugly” – they say they are being prevented from flying on international routes, and instead given unfashionable domestic flights.
This means the experienced and loyal crew lose money, and miss out on layovers in exotic foreign destinations.
Magurina told the Russian service of RFE/RL that she had been flying for 15 years and was a senior cabin crew member on international flights.
But in August she was reassigned to internal routes because she was not thin enough under new rules.
“We were all photographed en masse and measured – some were even weighed,” she revealed.
“This was done under the pretext of company rebranding and ordering new uniforms for staff.”
She stated: “My life changed in the middle of August.”
Others had suffered before that, she said.
Some 400 flight attendants have been hit by the new rulings.
“They stopped putting anyone on international flights if they are older than 40 or take more than a (Russian) size 48 (UK – 16),” said Magurina.
Not only is she forced to fly domestic routes to destinations in such places as Siberia, but these are often night flights, or early morning departures, which means she and others cannot sleep properly before going to work.
“When I asked what’s going on, they told me these are the new rules of the game and that I was removed from international flights because of my clothes size – it mustn’t be more than a 46, and I’m a 48,” she said.
Igor Deldyuzhov, the president of a trade union representing flight crew, said there were many complaints of discrimination over age and appearance.
But staff were scared to go to court because they have children and mortgages and fear losing their jobs.
Flight attendants are desperately trying to lose weight in order to keep their international flight work, and the higher salary that goes with it, said Natalia, 42.
“Stewardesses were fainting from hunger at the controller’s office as they tried to meet the new criteria,” she said.
“But even if they managed to lose the weight they were told, ‘You still wouldn’t get to fly to the United States or Dominican Republic because you’re a little old,'”.
She asked: “Do you know how humiliating it is when they weigh you like some kind of cow?”
Aeroflot declined to comment on the claims.
A recent report stated that one per cent of its pilots are women.
Culled from Mirror.co.uk
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Aeroflot, Airline, Europe, Flight Attendants, Russia. Bookmark the permalink.
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Is Ephemeral Marketing Set to Disappear?
February 4, 2015 Digital Marketing 0 Written by admin
There’s no denying that 2014 was the year of ephemeral messaging. Snapchat, probably the best known platform of its kind, reached 100 million monthly active users with 700 million snaps being sent every day. These statistics are even more impressive when you consider that, a little over three years ago, Snapchat didn’t even exist! While Snapchat is the most famous ephemeral platform, we’ve seen an abundance of other similar messaging services appear on the scene, including Wickr, Blink and Facebook’s Slingshot – albeit with varying degrees of success.
Given the popularity of the likes of Snapchat, it isn’t surprising that the marketing community began to experiment, distributing their content ephemerally with a view to reaching an ever-growing audience. One of the world’s most recognisable brands, McDonalds, took to the platform in February for the US launch of a new burger, while other brands and publishers, from Audi to Mashable, have also toyed with creating self-destructing content in a bid to extend their communities.
The buzz around these platforms is undeniable, one only needs to search on Google to see hundreds of thousands of results – but as a tool for the communications expert, will ephemeral messaging services go the distance or will they, like the messages they enable, disappear after the first view? Despite the buzz, in reality only 1% of communications professionals currently use ephemeral messaging as a tool to communicate about their brands. Furthermore 85% have no plans to use them in 2015, according to website socialmediaexaminer.com. So why is something that is being discussed at such lengths, not being used to the same extent?
The difficulty with using ephemeral messages for marketing is the exact thing that makes them popular in the first place – messages cannot be tracked. While marketers can see their message has been viewed, they have no real way of knowing within the app if the content resonated with the viewer. If the message is a video, it’s difficult to ascertain if the full duration has been watched and thus, if the entire message has been communicated. As marketers are pushed more and more to demonstrate the return on investment for social media activity, they can’t afford to essentially shout into the abyss with no tested way of demonstrating return. Many will argue that if a campaign appeals to the audience, they’ll save it and share it by posting to other networks. However, this in itself means that an ephemeral campaign may not be deemed as a success until its content becomes permanent – defeating the whole spirit of ephemerality in the first place.
Then there is the reputation of the platforms to deal with. Many associate Snapchat and its cohorts with “sexting” or other risqué behaviours. This instantly raises a barrier for more “family friendly” brands – which cannot risk, or do not want, such close associations with a “sexting app”. Not to mention the privacy concerns. The numerous hacking scandals within Snapchat’s short history are also a deterrent for brands.
That’s not to say that ephemeral communication is going away. The phenomenon has undeniably changed the way we think about communicating and with platforms like Wickr – an encrypted, ephemeral messaging service, gaining popularity among the business community, the evolution of ephemeral media looks set to continue. However, whether there is a future for ephemeral platforms as marketing aids remains to be seen and by 2016, for the marketers at least, it could be a case of ephemeral by name, ephemeral by nature.
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Devin Taetsch Sets Sights On Four-Digit Horsepower With Stock-Displacement LS3
December 19, 2018 / by Bradley Iger
Devin Taetsch is a 5th-gen Camaro fan and his example of the breed is headed for big power, quick. Follow along and find out what he has planned.
“When the fifth generation Camaro was announced, it was immediately my dream car,” explains Devin Taetsch, an A/V specialist from Orange County, California. “My father had gotten me into muscle cars at an early age – he had a ’68 Chevelle– and seeing him wrench on it really sparked my interest in performance.”
Taetsch’s Camaro rides on powdercoated ZL1 wheels and gets its low and mean stance from a BMR Suspension setup that drops the car 1.25 inches up front and one inch in the rear. Sway bars, trailing arms, toe links, front end links, and an assortment of bushing upgrades are part of the package as well, so it’s safe to assume this car will be buttoned down during the half-mile sprints he has planned for it in 2019.
Devin got his start in modern muscle car tuning with a Dodge Charger SRT8, adding the requisite bolt-ons like longtube headers and a cat-back exhaust, but the siren song of GM performance would eventually bring his attention back to the bowtie family. “My father and uncle always had a passion for Chevys, and I felt like I would be continuing that legacy with the Camaro,” he says. “It also didn’t hurt that the car was great to look at and turned a lot of heads.”
Taetsch took delivery of his 2011 Camaro 2SS RS in the small town of Peachtree City, Georgia, where he lived at the time. But shortly thereafter he switched coasts and relocated to Southern California, the birthplace of hot rodding.
“When I moved out here, I quickly realized that there was much larger car culture community, and I was able connect with more people who shared my interests,” he says. “That’s when I became friends with the former head of Magnuson Superchargers. He told me they were developing a new supercharger, and my car became kind of the test bed for that new system.”
To reach Taetsch’s goal of having the most powerful stock displacement Heartbeat Supercharger-supported LS3, builder James Mullenix at Mullenix Racing Engines in Simi Valley, California, will be adding AFR Mongoose 260cc cylinder heads to the mix, along with a host of valvetrain and fuel system upgrades.
Today Taetsch’s Camaro makes just over 700 horsepower at the wheels thanks to that TVS2300 blower running at about nine pounds of boost, along with a Brian Tooley Stage 4 PD camshaft, a Nick Williams throttle body, and a handful of other bolt-ons. While that’s probably more than enough grunt for most folks, Taetsch says he’s just getting started. “Our goal is to see 900 to a thousand horsepower at the wheels,” he tells us. “And we want to get there with stock displacement.”
To accomplish that goal – which would potentially make Taetsch’s LS3-powered Camaro the most powerful stock cubic-inch LS3 and Heartbeat blower combination built to date – Devin has put together a rotating assembly combination that consists of a forged crankshaft, forged H-Beam connecting rods, and Wiseco -3.2cc flat-top pistons. “Since we’re staying with the stock bore and stock displacement, Wiseco pistons were perfect for the application and the compression that we wanted, so it was a no-brainer for us,” said Taetsch.
Devin says that Wiseco’s -3.2cc flat-top pistons fit the requirements of the project perfectly, providing the strength he’ll need for the big power he has planned while also allowing him to maintain the stock bore and displacement.
He says the goal is to have the motor back together by the end of 2018 and then head to the races. “Along with hitting all the big car meets in Southern California and the next SEMA show, the car is going to be entered in a number of half-mile racing events. We expecting to see 180, maybe even 190 mph when we go through the traps.”
Topics: FEATURES, CHEVY, featured
Inside Cameron McAdoo's GEICO Honda CRF250R
Golden Gorilla: Under the Hood of Mills Racing’s Legacy 1968 Camaro
Written by Bradley Iger
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Double Crossword
By admin | June 5, 2016
We shoot the highest quality High Definition content available today. Our videos stream instantly and we also give you the ability to jump right to your favorite part of the video. Each video is created with you in mind. Our videos focus on the personality of each model. We make sure to shoot all the parts you like most by listening to your comments and requests. We know you will be extremely satisfied while watching your favorite models do what they do best. Each Video is available in the following formats, MP4 at x , MP4 at x , Mobile at x and we offer a MP4 x for slow bandwidth users. Read More Test About Our Photos The main goal with our photos is to present your favorite stars in the light you see them in.
How a Workout Buddy Can Improve Your Fitness Success
The popularity and advantages of dating on the web today can hardly be overestimated. Hundreds of single men and women prefer to surf the web looking for a mate, and with such a number of people willing to find love and affection online, you have every reason to look for a like-minded guy or girl living within walking distance of you. So, take advantage now, sign up and start your unforgettable dating adventure!
It can of course be great to browse other people as soon as you create your dating profile and imagine a romance developing in your head. But why make plans that go nowhere when you can start a new dating episode with someone who happens to live in your location?
Musician Jacoby Jennings doesn’t like online dating sites. Yet he found love over the internet anyway — through the music-streaming service Spotify.
I live by myself on one floor of the farmhouse where my family has lived since the Civil War. After my grandfather died, my grandmother Kate lived here alone. Her three daughters visited her. In , Kate died at ninety-seven, and I took over. Forty-odd years later, I spend my days alone in one of two chairs. From an overstuffed blue chair in my living room I look out the window at the unpainted old barn, golden and empty of its cows and of Riley the horse.
I look at a tulip; I look at snow. I also watch television news, often without listening, and lie back in the enormous comfort of solitude. People want to come visit, but mostly I refuse them, preserving my continuous silence.
Slideshow: Matching Federal Bowfront Servers
Polish-born Curie, who undertook pioneering research into radioactivity in the early 20th century, was voted number one, followed by Rosa Parks, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ada Lovelace and Rosalind Franklin. She remains the only person to hold Nobel prizes in two sciences. In France she was regarded with suspicion as a foreigner — and of course, wherever she went, she was discriminated against as a woman.
Parks, who helped bring about so much human rights change by refusing to give up her seat on a bus in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, in the US, was voted number two.
According to the stunning septuagenarian, a previous dating incident with a man in his 30s convinced her she needed an age cap. Still, as Stewart told Williams, the experience was plenty fun.
We are of the view that these types of arrangements are at the core of what the common employer provisions in the Code were meant to address and prevent. Bill passed in ; almost every industrial construction company in Alberta has at least two and sometimes three related arms. This can cause a union and their members to feel squeezed by the non-union and the union arms of these companies. Which are often all competing for work on the same projects and are invariably controlled, at least at a high level by the same parent company.
These arrangements have allowed companies to cynically take advantage of the stability and benefits of unionized work forces when it suites them. To avoid these supposedly exclusive bargaining relationships, the bargaining rights of the union and its members, as well as those of other legitimate trade unions, have been diluted and diminished through this corporate shell game. Double-Breasting is a practice that enables unionized employers to escape the obligations of their collective bargaining agreements and to operate non-union wherever possible.
Double-breasting undermines collective bargaining and represents a significant public problem that could be effectively resolved with thoughtful legislation. In order to give meaningful effect to these provisions, we propose the government amend, and remove all provisions related to spin-off companies in the Alberta Labour Code.
Holly Otterbein
The Australian dollar has risen to be close to US80c. Virginia Star Snare the same amount again The average Aussie can treat the typical refund as a free kick to chunk off a fair amount of the mean credit card debt, which moneysmart. At an average mozo-calculated interest rate of
Jul 16, · If it’s your smartphone you can’t find, then double tap your Tile Pro to activate your device’s ringtone, even if the phone is on silent mode.
Now that LeBron James’ signing with the Los Angeles Lakers has been made official , he has four years of Hollywood to keep him occupied when he’s off the court. Already starring in a few films over his career, he’s in the right spot now to potentially work the much-anticipated Space Jam 2. However, as his decision has been made and publicized, where on Earth is the Space Jam 2 trailer that we were promised?
We’ve waited forever to hear any news about the sequel to Michael Jordan’s classic film and now that Bron is in L. Of course, what would his inaugural appearance as a Laker be without a Kardashian co-sign? Making his way to dinner last night with his wife, Savannah, the couple double dated with LBJ’s former teammate Tristan Thompson and his girlfriend, Khloe Kardashian. They may not be teaming together on the court anymore but Bron seems to be tight with Tristan despite their apparent struggles to coexist at times.
Tristan and Khloe have had their fair share of drama over the last few months but it seems the birth of their daughter brought them as close as they’ve been in a while. The couple was cuddling up to each other on their way to the restaurant last night before linking up with Bron. Check out photos of their date here.
Village inn has a double celebration
All with the same claim; that they were the “greatest” pick-up guide available to man. But obviously they can’t ALL be the best So where on earth do you begin?? I mean we both know you know you want to improve your success with women. You want to be able to walk up to any girl and start an interesting conversation with her, then know exactly how to lead things all the way back to your bedroom.
Welcome to Aziani! Aziani was created by Rachel & Buzz Aziani in , we thought it was time to give the discriminating adult star fan what they have been looking for. Since the conception of Aziani we have always kept our commitment to quality, personality and member interaction.
For many of us, the answer is an emphatic: Earlier this year, fellow PT Blogger Michael Mills conducted a study that suggested “most women do not to ask anyone out on a first date. They have to wait for the boy to call. Angry criticism and diatribes directed against Bachmann’s outdated sexist ideals flooded the Internet.
Evolved commenters on Jezebel. How do men feel about being asked out? Well, dating expert Evan Marc Katz , who on his website pegs himself as a “personal trainer for women who want to fall in love ,” disagrees with women taking charge in procuring dates. To the question, “Should women ask men out on dates? He warned that women could come across as “aggressive, desperate, and masculine. Like Lawrence O’Donnell, does Katz get the last word?
Breaking News Stories from US and Around the World
Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribingSee our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email A welder was staggered to return from holiday to find his car had been moved onto double yellow lines that were painted while he was away – and then given four parking tickets. Martin Dodridge left his Reliant Robin parked safely in the road near his home in Brown’s Hill in Penryn when he left for a two-week break in South Africa.
But his rest and relaxation were soon interrupted by friends informing him that his car had been moved, apparently by workers for Cornwall Council contractor Cormac. However this still did not prepare him for the shock of what he foundon his return on Wednesday September Read More Man says he was ‘told to leave’ park and ride bus because he had a coffee It would appear that the roads workers were painting new double yellow lines and his car, which had all of his contact details emblazoned on the side, was in their way.
Not to be deterred from getting the job done, they somehow shifted his little three-wheeled vehicle down the road to where they had already put lines down.
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Temporary Post: More garage wall for Grace
Per a special request, here's some more nonsense from the garage wall. Part I, Part II. Warning: these are going to get awfully obscure at times.
Totoro, Kiki, Sheeta, and a bit of Johnny Chan's crazy shirt.
This is from Miyazaki's music video he did for Chage & Aska ("On Your Mark"). The singers have been replaced by He-Man villains.
This is kind of sick, but as the title implies, "Old Boy" performed by Itchy & Scratchy.
A lot here. Some of the Transformers, the two guys are a Mr. Show sketch (Three Times One Minus One), Troy McClure on top of a Cerberus (from DMC3), a soldier from JSA, Madman Comics, and the wings of Yubird.
OK, my roommate did everything here but the Care Bear. I have no idea who those top three people are, but there's Saddam Hussein golfing with Destro, who has been impaled by He-Man's sword. The care bear (not quite finished) is fighting alongside Abe Lincoln, while an archer (a William Tell mixed with Robin Hood, perhaps) is fending off a zombie with an apple for a head.
Calcifer, eating some wood (Japanese voice, not Billy Crystal).
My roommate's Katarmari picture, complete with Arabian flying carpet scene.
These last two photos are for Vinny, to better tell the tale of one of my birthday parties that starred a six-foot burrito:
Wow. That brings back some foggy memories.
Tags: Cartoons
Coyotes score last minute 3-2 win over San Jose
The Phoenix Coyotes ran up a 2-0 lead over the Sharks on Thursday night on the strength of 2 power play goals by Oleg Saprykin and Shane Doan. San Jose tightened up defensively after the poor start and worked its way back into the game.
It looked like both teams were playing out the string for overtime in the third period until Yanic Perreault scored the game winning goal with under a minute remaining. The former faceoff specialist picked up his 11th goal of the season to lead all Coyotes in scoring.
Trade rumors are swirling around Phoenix, spurred in part by this article in the Arizona Republic. David Vest reports that Mike Comrie, Shane Doan, and Ladislav Nagy could be available for the right offer. The return of defenseman Ed Jovanovski and Nick Boynton from injury will add more rumors to the mix.
The photo above is of Curtis Joseph making a painful off the mask save. A recap and photo gallery from the Sharks-Coyotes game is available here.
Posted by PJ Swenson at 9:25 PM 1 comments
Tags: Phoenix Coyotes, Photos, San Jose Sharks
Ducks Gameday—Carolina Candy Canes
Anaheim Ducks (28-5-6, 1st in west) at Carolina Hurricanes (20-15-4, 4th in east)
There’s plenty of storylines for tonight’s game:
the top team from this regular season vs. the defending Cup champs
injuries preventing an all-Conn-Smythe goaltender matchup (the Ducks’ Wall-McKee tandem has a combined 2 games of NHL experience)
The Ducks' first game this year without Francois Beauchemin (lacerated spleen)
ridiculous travel (Carolina played last night in Buffalo, while Anaheim somehow got Raleigh thrown in between stops in San Jose and St. Paul)
Rod Brind’Amour night in Raleigh commemorating his 1,000th NHL point
But I’m not even sure if tonight is a story about the Ducks as a squad, so much as it is a story about one particular Duck with understandably bitter memories of his last game played in Raleigh.
Look out, ‘Canes. It’s payback night.
Prediction: Ducks 4, Hurricanes 2. Goals by Pronger, Kunitz, Pahlsson, and Getzlaf.
p.s. Congrats to BoC all-star Mike Chen for his new work on FoxSports.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes, Chris Pronger, Game Day
Paging Dr. Duck
Well, not that this team deserves any sympathy, but Ducks are dropping like Kings lately. The injury list since Christmas reads like a list of gifts to the hockey gods:
J.S. GiGOLD—groin strain, day-to-day
FRANKINCENSE Beauchemin—a Forsbergian spleen rupture, out indefinitely
Todd MYRRHchant—abdominal strain, day-to-day
Not to mention that Ilya Bryzgalov has been out for a while with his own groin pull, and Sean O’Donnell should be returning tomorrow from his own lacerated foot issue.
Replacing Marchant shouldn’t be an issue, as Travis Green has been sitting around in the pressbox most of this year waiting for such an opportunity, but plugging the blueline and netminding holes will be a lot more interesting.
In the nets, we should be seeing a lot more of Michael Wall, yet another undrafted fellow set to prove that even a poor netminder can win behind a Norris-laden blueline. He is 2-0 this season, but a lot of his success can be credited to the fact that the Ducks are limiting opponents to less than 19 shots-per-game in front of him. In the 84 minutes that Wall has played this season, Anaheim skaters have blocked 23 shots, which matches the number of saves that Wall himself has blocked. That’s the kind of defense that turns a CuJo-like .885 sv% into a Brodeur-like 2.15 GAA.
As for the blueline, losing Beauchemin will be a challenge also, as he sits third on the Ducks in overall icetime and first overall in even-strength icetime. I would guess this means that Shane O’Brien gets to try out for a more prominent role and AHL-callup Kent Huskins gets to eat up the leftover minutes.
[EDIT: I'm not sure how related this is, but the Ducks and Blackhawks made a minor-league deal today. To Chicago: F Pierre Parenteau and D Bruno St. Jacques. To Anaheim: G Sebastien Caron, F Matt Keith, and F Chris Durno.]
I wonder how much Dr. Duck is planning on increasing the Niedermayer and Pronger dosage?
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Injuries, J.S. Giguere
Merry Fist-mas day +1. Fight clip courtesey of Hockeyfights.com. Rumors that Earl Sleek was going to be an emergency replacement to backup Michael Wall were unfounded.
Maybe the Kings can loan Anaheim a goaltender.
Posted by PJ Swenson at 9:23 AM 4 comments
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Fighting, Mark Bell, San Jose Sharks, Shawn Thornton, YouTube
Merry Fist-mas!
Merry Fist-mas to all, and to all a good fight!
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Corey Perry, Fighting, George Parros, Sean O'Donnell, Shane O'Brien, Shawn Thornton, Travis Moen
Ducks Gameday—Another 16-game point streak?
Anaheim Ducks (27-4-6, 1st in west) at Phoenix Coyotes (12-20-1, 14th in west)
What were you doing on the evening of October 12, 2003? Have trouble remembering?
Same with me, I have trouble remembering the last time the Ducks played the Coyotes and walked away with 0 points. Since then, Anaheim has gone 13-0-3 against its division buddies, another 16-game point streak to put on the line tonight.
Since former Winnipeg Jet Randy Carlyle has taken the coaching reins, the Ducks are 10-0-1 against Phoenix, outscoring them 46-23. Another former Jet Teemu Selanne has 9 goals and 13 assists in those 11 games.
No wonder Coach Gretzky is getting into fits, or why PB is less-than-enthusiastic in OFP’s game preview.
Still, you have to think that at some point, this “automatic points” thinking is going to bite us in the ass. Sometime in the new year, that is.
Right now, it is too one-sided. The Ducks currently have 2.4 times as many standings points as Phoenix, and Phoenix is the only team with more power play goals allowed (46) than Anaheim’s league-leading 44 power play goals scored.
At this point, the Coyotes need the benefit of some easier opposition, like they had at this preseason scrimmage:
Prediction: Ducks 5, Coyotes 3. Goals by Pahlsson, Marchant, McDonald, and 2 for Selanne.
(Side note: I don’t know what the injury status is for Ilya Bryzgalov, but if he were handy, I’d go ahead and throw him in for this game. Breezy has a career 6-0 record against the ‘Yotes, with a sparkling 1.67 GAA and a .932 sv%.)
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Game Day, Phoenix Coyotes
Ducks-Stars: Tales from the Penalty Box
Well, as I mentioned in the GDP, I somehow snagged the Row B tickets to the Dallas game on Wednesday, and it was a blast. Now normally I bring my pal Damndaze along, (even though he’s a Red Wings fan) because he loves taking pictures from up close. However, Damndaze was out of town on business, and I had to take my own damn photos.
Now, I’m not real dedicated to photography or anything, especially when I’ve had some beers. Damndaze goes to a game and takes like 300 photos (a lot of them garbage-smudge, though); at the end of this game I think I had taken 16 shots (a couple of them garbage-smudge also). Most of the time the camera stays inaccessibly in my pocket, so I can safely drink my beer and still bang the glass if necessary.
Nevertheless, I did get some shots of some penalized Ducks. (Side gripe: this is my fourth game of five this season/preseason, and Chris Pronger refuses to take any damn penalties.)
OK, easily the best part of this game was the 90-second beating of metapest Matthew Barnaby, courtesy of the wicked fists of Shawn Thornton. It was a drawn-out yet one-sided affair that deep-down felt really good; it’s nice every once in a while when a big yapper-pest gets the beatdown he’s had coming to him for the better part of his career. I mean, it wasn’t knock-you-out decisive, but still Thornton pretty much made him his Barnabitch. And I tell ya, the Honda Center crowd was pretty damn pleased.
Once in the box, Thornton proceeded to reassemble his playing gear while still talking it up with the persistent (I’ll give him that) Barnaby. It was pretty amusing for all of us to watch. Anyway, awesome work, Shawn.
The next two penalties were both taken by Teemu Selanne, who suspiciously enough had been quoted that morning in the OC Register, saying: “I don’t want Lady Byng. Burkie would probably trade me if I won Lady Byng.”
Any way, Teemu showed up both times pleading his innocence, and I managed only one good shot out of both visits. I yelled "Go get 'em, Teemu!" in the closing seconds of each penalty, with the exuberance only a beer-drinker can muster.
In the third period, I got another rare visitor, Cap’n Niedermayer, for another minor. I tell ya, I was really struck by the intensity sitting next to that guy. I know that’s an overused word, but Scott intensely watched the Ducks kill his penalty. It was like he was memorizing it or something, kinda kreepy, actually.
Later in the third period, both Shawn Thornton and Shane O’Brien took coincidental minors for double-roughing Barnaby (again), and Shawn spent the entire time re-enacting the earlier bout for Shane’s amusement, giving him a blow-by-blow account. It was pretty cool to watch, those guys were having a good time that night.
In this shot, he is showing O’B how to move his hands faster than a digital camera’s default shutter speed in the hands of a drunken techno-idiot. You know, the kind of idiot who can't even frame well enough to get even one guy's face in the damn shot.
Oh yeah, and outside the penalty box, Ducks won the game as well. Goals by Capt. Niedermayer, Pronger, and two by Corey Perry--on a night when Moustache was scratched, of course.
27-4-6 means 60 points (!) for the Ducks, with still two more shopping days until Christmas. One year ago today, Anaheim had 38 points, while Ottawa and Detroit led the league with 51 points.
What’s the phrase I’m looking for? Oh yeah, Holy Christ Shit Moly Smokes! Sure there's bound to be downturns at some time, but for now the outlook is cautiously awesome.
Hope you like the photos, and have a good holiday weekend, readers-who-only-read-blogs-when-they’re-at-the-office!
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Photos, Row B, Scott Niedermayer, Shane O'Brien, Shawn Thornton, Teemu Selanne
More Brilliance from Bryzgalov
The Ducks’ best interview does his best to stand up for Pronger’s leaving Edmonton, but in the end, he probably does more harm than good.
The crazy Russian has been nursing an injury lately—any ideas how can we get him to rehabilitate in the announcer’s booth for the next several games?
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Chris Pronger, Goaltending, Ilya Bryzgalov, YouTube
Ducks Gameday—Star Wars Episode II
Dallas Stars (21-12-0, t-4th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (26-4-6, 1st in west)
You know, as much as I’m about to throw numbers around about this game, the more important issue is that Sleek's going to be at HC tonight to watch Episode II of this Pacific battle. I'll be in my YouTube seats even, right next to the Ducks penalty box. This was a bit of a surprise, as it was not in my original game set, but I guess Christmas started a bit early this year.
Ho, ho, ho.
Only four teams in the league have more wins than the Stars, but two of the four are division rivals Anaheim and San Jose—the Stars currently sit 6 points back of the Sharks and 16 points back of the Ducks. But are the Stars just fooling us with their early-season record? I found this split to be interesting:
The Stars are 9-0 against the Kings and Coyotes this year, outscoring them 31-13.
Against everyone else, they are a more modest 12-12, getting outscored 55-61.
We’ll see how these top 3 Pacific teams really compare soon, as there are a lot of points yet to be disputed (6 remaining SJ-ANA games, 6 remaining SJ-DAL games, and 7 remaining ANA-DAL games).
Dallas did take the first game in Anaheim by (surprise, surprise) virtue of a shootout win, although the Ducks are still the only team in the league to have ever bested the 15-1 Stars in a shootout (how’s this for irony: the first two shooters were Rob Niedermayer and Jonathan Hedstrom, and we didn’t need a third shooter).
And for fun, here’s two bonus “Ducks Hype” notes from the 2003 playoff matchup (1st seeded DAL vs. 7th seeded ANA), back when Anaheim was constantly magical:
Clutch Ducks get it done late: In all six games of that 2nd-round series, the Stars were either tied or ahead with 90 seconds left in regulation. In all four Anaheim wins, the Ducks scored the game-winner on their final shot of the game!
Jiggy sets record in fifth career playoff game: J.S. Giguere became the first goaltender in NHL history to have two 60-save performances in one playoff year (G1 3-OT at Detroit and G1 5-OT at Dallas). For reference, Patrick Roy was the only goaltender who had two 60-save playoff performances in his career!
Heh, good times.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Stars 2. Goals by Moen, Pahlsson, Kunitz, Getzlaf, and Beauchemin.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Game Day
Ducks to make a non-Disney movie
At 26-4-6, when will this monster Duck stop growing? Go to theaters and find out!
(source material: Portraits of the Northwest Division)
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Cartoons
Ducks Flameday—Calgary brings its road woes
Calgary Flames (16-11-3, t-7th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (25-4-6, 1st in west)
Thanks for the graphic, Grabia.
Sorry this one will have to be short; not only is this game snuggled between two very high profile Pacific matchups (last Saturday’s ANA-SJS game and this Wednesday’s DAL-ANA game—I just found out that I am attending the Dallas game, btw), but I was also away from the computer all weekend. So for a better-thought-out preview probably check out Matt at BoA, Five Hole Fanatics, Double D(ion), or Real Deal Hockey.
Ducks return from an almost-perfect 5-game road trip for a battle between the top two scorers in the western conference:
Teemu Selanne, 35 GP, 19-24-43, +17
Jarome Iginla, 30 GP, 20-21-41, +12
This is a Flames team that has both gone 10-0-0 in its last 10 home games (3.70 GF, 1.10 GA), including a 3-0 shutout over visiting Anaheim, and 1-4-1 in its last 6 road games (2.33 GF, 3.00 GA), including a 5-3 loss in Anaheim to bench-door operator Michael Wall. Interestingly enough, the Ducks have yet to score a goal against Miikka Kiprusoff this season, and the Flames have yet to score a goal against J.S. Giguere this season.
Overall, the Flames are an .800 team at home (12-3-0) and a .367 team on the road (4-8-3). Only the Minnesota Wild are more home-schizophrenic (.781 at home, .281 on the road). Let’s hope the Flame-pattern holds true tonight.
Prediction: Ducks 4, Flames 3. Flames try to hold a lead, but the Ducks storm back in games six and seven. Goals by Pahlsson, O’Donnell, SNiedermayer, and Selanne, who non-coincidentally scored the four game-winners in last spring’s series.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Game Day
Sharks/Ducks...the aftermath
Jesus, everyone take a breather after that game. Seriously, that had it all -- including especially mega-angry psycho woman fan behind me who seemed to think that curse words were normal for play-by-play commentary. She's also one of those blindly homer-ish fans, so even when the refs make a call against the Sharks that is a good call (like the idiotic too many men call), she screams bloody murder and everyone in my section looks at her and mutters under their breath.
Yes, and she's there all season. Woo hoo.
Anyways, this game really lived up to the hype. Two fantastic teams going toe to toe, a soft goal by each, power play tallies, and talent really shining through. Some key things to note:
Evgeni Nabokov really hadn't let up many soft goals this season so I was pretty surprised at the stinker that went in. Still, he saved the Sharks' bacon many, many times, so no complaints here about Nabby's performance.
Obviously, I don't watch nearly as many Ducks games as I watch Sharks games, but J.S. Giguere looked pretty uncomfortable any time one of the Sharks planted himself in front of the crease.
Patrick Marleau's one of the few players who can actually skate fast enough to catch up to Scott Niedermayer and stick check the puck away.
The Anaheim power play is ridiculously patient with Pronger and Niedermayer and it's really just not fair. I met two of my buddies at intermission; though first thing both of them said to me separately was lamenting about the unfairness of the Anaheim D.
The instant I turned to my dad and said, "Why is Mark Smith on the power play?" freakin' Smitty scores. That's why Ron Wilson's coaching and I'm not.
Mark Bell is shaking off the jersey curse. Sure, he's not putting up the points, but he's working hard, hitting hard, and his fight was the turning point of the game. Now if only he wouldn't look so damn tentative with the puck.
When did Andy MacDonald get so freakin' chippy?
When did Teemu Selanne grow the balls to start jawing at Joe Thornton? Teemu's a lover, not a fighter!
Watching the Anaheim D and the Sharks D was night and day. Sure, Matt Carle and Christian Ehrhoff show flashes of brilliance, but there's no comparison. Someone needs to replace Josh Gorges and soon. And Scott Hannan, you're on my shit list for all of your bad turnovers this season.
Spotted: one "Vote for Rory" t-shirt...on a pretty hot babe to boot!
Spotted: one freakishly creepy guy in a dirty stained Santa costume.
The Sharks fans were cheering outside the tank like they had just won a playoff series. Everyone relax; it's a regular season game...in December.
We've got six more games to go and I hope they're all entertaining like this one and not craptacular like the first game (Ducks fans enjoyed the victory, but that was some ugly hockey...at least this one was spirited).
Posted by Mike Chen at 12:00 AM 6 comments
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Evgeni Nabokov, J.S. Giguere, Photos, San Jose Sharks
BoC Gameday—Parallel paths collide tonight
Anaheim Ducks (25-3-6, 1st in west) at San Jose Sharks (23-10-0, 2nd in west)
Sorry, this preview’s gotta be rushed. Instead of watching the #1 and #2 western teams duke it out tonight, I am going to be performing in a Christmas concert that starts right at game time, so my viewing will be courtesy of late night Tivo. Any way, this blog was started during last year’s playoffs, and one of my first posts took a look at the similar self-improvement patterns that the Ducks and Sharks used to leapfrog into the playoffs. If you recall last year,
Anaheim had an 8-game stretch without a win November 3-20.
San Jose had a 10-game stretch without a win November 5-30.
In fact, one year ago today, both teams sat in the 10th and 11th spots in the west, but had already begun transforming themselves from also-rans to the world-beaters we enjoy today. The chart below shows the parallel paths each team has taken in accumulating standings points since the lockout.
The Ducks are in red, the Sharks are in blue, and I have included a dashed line that is a straight-line approximation of an 8th-seeded team (95 points) for reference. Note that before this month, the furthest the Ducks and Sharks have been separated in the standings has been 7 points.
And, just for measure, here are the last 82 regular-season games for each franchise. Even these records are within 7 points of each other:
ANA: 53-17-12, 118 points, .720 win%, 277 GF, 207 GA, PP 21.2% (96/452), PK 84.9% (69/456)
SJS: 52-23-7, 111 points, .677 win%, 264 GF, 203 GA, PP 21.0% (99/471), PK 82.5% (66/378)
And once again tonight, these parallel teams shall battle again.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Sharks 4. Parallel patterns persist, but the better Thornton pots the winner.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Analysis, Game Day, San Jose Sharks
Anze Kopitar to San Jose Sharks, Fear me
Kopitar good.
Brust poke check, sit down Shark man.
The Kings dismantled the Sharks in their own house 4-2 Thursday night, with rookie Anze Kopitar potting 2 goals and a sick deke along the boards that sent a Sharks defenseman sprawling to the ice. Dismantled and demoralized, the Sharks attempted a weak comeback scoring 2 goals in the third. Brust came up big in his first NHL start, and Sopel looked impressive logging 26+ minutes and earning an assist after missing 16 games with an injury.
More from the game is available here.
I got word the Ducks were in town Thursday, awaiting their turn against the Sharks on Saturday. After getting blown out a few weeks ago in Anaheim, this is a chance for Teal Redemption. Only question, will there be a Sleek sighting in the land of Google and $6 Bud Lights? And will he rock purple and orange for the game?
Posted by PJ Swenson at 11:00 AM 6 comments
Tags: Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings, Photos, San Jose Sharks
Moustached! The Parros-Perry Effect
You know, I’m starting to come around to George Parros (awesome graphic to the left stolen from HF Boards). Not in the sense that Moustache is doing anything well on the ice, but gosh, that pornstache is a pretty cool calling card. Plus, it's tough to be that critical when the team's winning like crazy.
Still, I am worried: through 13 games Moustache has pretty much stopped production on the Corey Perry-Ryan Getzlaf line, which Vic Ferrari notes play the softest minutes in the league (actually, he is referencing a metric at the new Behind the Net stats site, which to my eye looks excellent). This type of matchup is really sort of unfair, of course; Getzlaf and Perry are way too talented for third-string defenders, and their early production numbers show it.
But that was then and this is now. Now, instead of teaming up with a fighter-who-can-play, Perry and Getzlaf get to carry around a moustache-who-cannot. This was even more evident this week when Perry scored three points against FLA—on the one day Moustache was scratched.
Here’s some even-strength statistics for Perry, separating out the time he spent playing with and without Parros Nation. I focus on Perry here because Getzlaf’s slump has been less noticeable—he too has stopped producing in Parros minutes, but he steals time and points on other lines. Note also that the "No Moustache" minutes generally means playing with Fedoruk or Thornton instead of Parros (not Selanne or anything).
Perry's Situation
Pts/hr
+/- /hr
No Moustache
Basically, without Parros Corey Perry is able to produce even-strength goals at a rate similar to Andy McDonald (2.5 pts/hr and 1.6 +/- /hr). With Parros? Not so much.
Oh, and see that one Perry goal that Moustache was on the ice for? Parros was never within one zone of the puck on that play.
Who needs goals with facial growth like this?
This is not to say that Parros serves no purpose; he will fight the big boys and allows Perry to be a snarky lad in the offensive zone. And with Parros canceling out the other team’s heavyweight, that allows middleweights like Thornton, Moen, and O’Brien to fight opponents more down in their weight class; Thornton and Moen definitely kicked some ass in Washington once Brashear was out of the way. Putting Parros in the lineup definitely comes at a cost, however, as Anaheim is now getting zero production from the easiest minutes in the game.
For reference, Todd Fedoruk in 75 minutes had 3 assists and was a +2. Shawn Thornton got 58 minutes in his first call-up, and had 2 assists and was a +5. If Parros could just find it within his moustached-heart to just not be useless, then maybe we can have the best of both worlds, just like before—production and protection.
You can do it, Moustache! Be useful!
(For more hard-hitting Ducks analysis, be sure to check out Tapeleg's take at JAHL.)
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Analysis, Corey Perry, George Parros, Moustache
Un-friggin-believable
My baloney has a first name. It’s W-W-W-O-O-W-W-W-W-O-W-W-O-W-W-W-L-W-L-O-W-W-O-W-W-W-W-W-L-W-W-W-W-W.
Ridiculous. Here’s some unnecessary gloating; maybe you can wow people at dinner parties with these tidbits:
The last 15 games (12-1-2), Teemu Selanne has 15 goals plus 12 assists (+16), and has 10 multi-point efforts. McDonald, Pronger, Kunitz, and Thornton are also point-a-game over that stretch.
9 of the last 12 wins were one-goal wins, ignoring 3 empty-net goals. The only blowouts were San Jose, Nashville, and Washington, who collectively got beaten 15-1.
J.S. Giguere won his 9th straight start, and his 21 wins (4 more than 2nd-best Brodeur) matches the season total of last year’s St. Louis Blues. 05/06 Blues: 57 points; 06/07 Ducks: 56 points and counting. The Blues actually pro-rate to an even worse total this year (49 points), and along with the Flyers (53 points), are not even projected to catch the Ducks’ current points total.
I know that scheduling still has been in favor of the Ducks thus far, but last year, no team was able to at any point have a 10-point conference lead or an 8-point league lead until April. The Ducks have more wins (25) than any team has losses—regulation or overtime (23). Anaheim also has more goals-scored (121) than any team has goals-allowed (118).
Big caveat to the Ducks' record, however: in regards to the next-top-four teams in the west (SJS, DAL, NSH, DET), Anaheim has only faced these teams once apiece, all at the Honda Center. 20 of Anaheim's 48 remaining games will be against this formidible foursome (8 at home, 12 on the road).
Still, the Ducks have now played 8 games against then-division leaders (10/18 DET, 10/20 MIN, 10/27 @MIN, 11/12 MIN, 11/24 NJD, 11/28 @EDM, 12/6 NSH, 12/13 @ATL), and are 7-0-1, outscoring opponents 24-11. Against playoff-hopeful teams in the west (SJS, DAL, DET, NSH, and the Northwest Division), the Ducks are 10-1-3, outscoring opponents 47-22 and sporting a 94% PK (4 for 66).
The Ducks do not lead the league in regulation wins, however. The Sharks have that edge, 22-21, thanks largely in part to SJ’s non-participation in overtime. Since winning their season opener in OT, the Sharks have played 31 straight decided-in-regulation games.
San Jose currently also holds a 0.0002 lead over the Ducks in power-play percentage.
This SJ baloney ain’t bad either: W-W-W-L-W-W-W-L-W-L-L-W-W-L-W-W-W-W-L-W-W-L-W-W-W-W-W-L-L-W-W-W (plus a game tonight hosting the Kings).
See ya Saturday, Sharks.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, J.S. Giguere, Teemu Selanne
Nabby says, "It's not fair!"
Ever notice how Evgeni Nabokov looks really pissed off when he does interviews these days? Well, it's not just the goal-support issue (Nabby gets about 2 goals for each game, Vesa Toskala gets almost 4.5), it's the schedule. Sure, Ron Wilson probably thinks it's fair just to alternate Nabokov and Toskala game by game, but look at the opponents in here:
Nabokov's Schedule
*NY Islanders
*Phoenix
NJ Devils
Toskala's Schedule
*St. Louis
*Columbus
*Florida
*LA
*Philadelphia
I've put an asterik next to each team that's not within sniffing distance of .500 or better (the only exception is the Islanders since Toskala played them before Ted Nolan spun straw into gold). So by my account, Toskala's got 10 fairly easy opponents while Nabokov's only had, um, 2.
Not quite fair, huh? In terms of stats, the two are freakishly identical. As of today, they both have 2.04 GAA and a save percentage that is within one 1000th of each other (.924 for Nabby vs .925 for Toskala). But if you factor in the competition and goal support in there, I'd say that Nabokov's having an even better season than Toskala.
Food for thought when we enter the post-Christmas trade rumor silly season.
Tags: Analysis, Evgeni Nabokov, Goaltending, San Jose Sharks, Vesa Toskala
Ducks Gameday—Old Friends Reunion Tour
Today: Anaheim Ducks (23-3-6, 1st in west) at Florida Panthers (10-16-6, 14th in east)
Tomorrow: Anaheim Ducks (24-3-6, 1st in west) at Atlanta Thrashers (18-8-5, 2nd in east)
Another set of back-to-backs on the Ducks’ Sherman march through the Southeast, but this time it gets a little more nostalgic. These particular games feature Ruslan Salei and Vitaly Vishnevski, some nasty defensemen who got replaced this past offseason by a monster named Pronger. These two ugly mugs combined to play over 1,000 games for the Anaheim franchise, not to mention contributed minutes in our two lengthy playoff runs, and I miss the hell out of them.
Rusty Salei, the Ducks’ first round pick in 1996 (9th overall), signed a 4-year deal last July with the Florida Panthers, where I hear he is playing admirably on a not-very-strong team. His 20 points would put him 3rd on the Ducks’ blueline, only 7 points behind Scott Niedermayer. Still, the Panthers have only won 2 of their last 10 games, which includes a stretch of being shut out in three consecutive games. Salei is tough as nails and can be a decent puck-mover when he wants to be. He definitely struggled at first with the new enforcement rules, but improved significantly towards the end of the season. He is an adorable Belarusian beast, a thorn in scorers’ sides.
Vitaly Vishnevski, Anaheim’s first round pick in 1998 (5th overall), is still a work-in-progress, I would say, after he was traded to Atlanta following his arbitration award. Vishnevski, the name proudly sewn on the back of my only Anaheim jersey, is a momentum-hit artist, with an innate sense of when to intercept and clobber an unprepared rushing forward. He’s never shown great interest in scoring, but still left Anaheim as a very popular player. It’s good to see Vitaly playing well on a division-leading Thrashers team, along with other former Mighty Ducks Steve Rucchin, Niclas Havelid, Jason Krog, and Mark Popovic. I’m being a bit selfish here, but if I could undo only one of Brian Burke’s GM moves, Vitaly would still be an Anaheim blueliner (and this jersey would still be half-relevant).
Prediction: Ducks 9, former Ducks 5. Salei pesters Selanne and Vishnevski buries Perry.
(For more on Salei and Vishnevski, see my offseason going away post or take the “Are you a Vishnevski or a Visnovsky?” quiz.)
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers, Game Day, Ruslan Salei, Vitaly Vishnevski
NHL Baloney Award of the Week forgets Teemu
I hate myself for being this petty, but NHL.com, as part of its “Hype Thyself” campaign, has once again come out with its Players of the Week, chosen by some east-coast guy with an early bedtime. This week Mr. Bedtime put together a 3-man listing of Brodeur (3 wins, 2 GA), Lecavalier (4g, 3a in 3 games), and Ovechkin (1g, 6a in 3 games).
For those that are keeping track at home, that means of the 27 weekly awards given out thus far, only 9 have gone to the western conference. Of those 9 westbound awards, only 3 have gone to non-goaltenders.
Now, to be fair, the east coast is where the scoring is at. To date, the eastern conference teams have scored 133 more goals than western conference teams, so I guess I’m not surprised that the offensive awards have been east-slanted thus far. Still, let’s take a look at last week’s stats:
V. Lecavalier
A. Ovechkin
T. Selanne
Hm, a close one, eh?
Still, as a theoretical "tiebreaker", the Ducks played both the Lightning and the Capitals last week, beating them both in regulation. In the first game, Teemu outscored Ovechkin 2-1, and in the second game, Teemu outscored Lecavalier 2-1. Says Selanne (on a different topic):
Aw, don’t worry, Teemu. I suspect you don’t really care, and neither do I. It’s just Monday and I needed something to gripe about.
Maybe I can cheer you up with a game of “What’s scarier?”
The fact that J.S. Giguere has more wins this season (19) than 26 teams?
The fact that the Ducks could sport a .500 record the remaining 50 games of the season and still have 4 more standing points than last year?
Tags: Alexander Ovechkin, Anaheim Ducks, Teemu Selanne
New Kings blog, Life in Hockeywood
Found a new Kings blog via LetsgoKings.com. Take a look at Insidesocal's Life in Hockeywood. Hope the rain gives you a nice break from the smog SoCal.
From Steven Ovadia of Puck Update (someone draft him for Battle of California), the New York Times discovered hockey in California.
Hockey Fanatics in a Land of Palm Trees - Mark Pargas.
When Dave and I worked together at a newspaper in Southern California, we got through our shifts by talking about the Los Angeles Kings, our favorite team. In the dead of winter, we ignored the bitter warmth outside by focusing on a game played with ice skates and a frozen rubber disk.
We took turns taking shots at each other with a tennis ball, using an editorial writer's glass wall as a goal. We enlisted our colleagues in a fantasy hockey league. We did everything we could to make them want to switch the channel on the office TV set from the U.C.L.A. Bruins, or the U.S.C. Trojans, or "Caddyshack," to the big game between the Winnipeg Jets and the Hartford Whalers.
We had some modest success. But there were a few skeptics. Like Steve, who loudly declared to the office that he was the Antipuck. But even he began to crack. He started quoting lines from the movie "Slap Shot," talking about "feeling shame" and "putting on the foil." Once he even announced a Luc Robitaille goal to the newsroom by placing his hands around his mouth to recreate the voice of Darth Vader: "LUUUUUC" he intoned. "Come to the dark side, LUUUUUUUUC." There was hope for the Antipuck.
Kopitar starting to get star treatment - Los Angeles Times.
Tags: Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
BoC Gameday—Battle of the Thorntons Update
Anaheim Ducks (22-3-6, 1st in west) at Tampa Bay Lightning (14-13-2, t-9th in east)
Colorado Avalanche (13-13-2, 10th in west) at Los Angeles Kings (10-16-4, t-11th in west)
Nashville Predators (18-7-3, 3rd in west) at San Jose Sharks (20-9-0, 2nd in west)
Not to mention 11 other games today, featuring everyone except the Stanley Cup Finalists Edmonton Oilboys and Carolina Candy Canes.
Anyway, I guess I’d better feature this now, while gloating is still possible.
Battle of the Thorntons
EV min
EV pts
EV pts/hr
SJS
Oops. They must have given that Hart trophy to the wrong Thornton.
Shawn, incidentally, has yet to be on the ice for an Anaheim goal-against.
[EDIT: I ran some Shawn Thornton numbers on last night's game. I think this is the first time Shawn has faced some tough minutes, as he played nearly 6 1/2 minutes against Ovechkin (about 57% of his ice time vs. AO). In fact, here's the elements of his Gordie Howe hat trick:
Goal: scored 31 seconds into his first shift. In his first game since Nov. 12.
Fight: initiated 35 seconds into his second shift. A decisive victory.
Assist: 22 seconds into his ninth shift, before the game was to the halfway point.
And the commonality? Omunchkin was on the ice for all of 'em. Sweet mother of mercy.]
Prediction: BoC 10, Challengers 5.
Tags: Alexander Ovechkin, Anaheim Ducks, Analysis, Game Day, Joe Thornton, Scott Thornton, Shawn Thornton, Tampa Bay Lightning
Ducks Gameday—Washington Salary Caps
Anaheim Ducks (21-3-6, 1st in west) at Washington Capitals (12-9-6, t-9th in east)
The Capitals come in on an impressive 4 game win streak, made all the more impressive given the opposition—at Tampa Bay, then hosting Dallas, Buffalo, and Ottawa. The Caps outscored that fearsome foursome 22-11, despite being outshot 108-155.
Last year, my brother and I went to the once-in-three-year visit of the Caps at the Pond, where Alexander Ovechkin potted his first NHL hat trick, including the OT winner. That kid worked us over that night, so probably Pronger will get the AOssignment tonight.
Two months ago, Japer’s Rink randomly took a shot at ‘Christie Prongley’ and I never quite understood why. A Caps fan jumping in on this bash-Pronger movement? Well, JP, here’s some Pronger news for ya:
Pronger is second in the western conference in overall scoring, only trailing teammate Selanne. He’s got 31 points, same as Omunchkin, and has gone without a point only three times in the last twenty games. Pronger leads the Ducks in even-strength ice time, power-play ice time, and penalty-kill ice time, and has been on the ice for 62 goals-for, 26 goals-against.
Plus Pronger can throw a baseball without making a Skeletor face.
No wonder that kid fired his agent.
CapsChick has a nice game preview, including nicknames for all the Ducks. Check out her linky bar for lots more Cap bloggers, all desperately trying to be adopted by Ted Leon$i$.
Prediction: Ducks 4, Capitals 1. Goals by Selanne, each Niedermayer, and “Screech” Pahlsson.
Tags: Alexander Ovechkin, Anaheim Ducks, Chris Pronger, Game Day, Washington Capitals
Sharks pummeled by Avalanche 5-2
Wojtek Wolski and friend hammer Marcel Goc along the boards.
Faceoff late in the third.
Christian Ehrhoff sticks his tongue out while skating past 3 Colorado players.
A recap and a few more photos of the 5-2 Colorado win are up on Sharkspage. A Caps-Ducks game day preview and pregame skate photos are up on Offwing.
Tags: Christian Ehrhoff, Colorado Avalanche, Photos, San Jose Sharks
Ducks Gameday—Ex-Captain comes home
Nashville Predators (17-6-3, 3rd in west) at Anaheim Ducks (20-3-6, 1st in west)
This also could be called the Battle of November, as the Ducks and Preds earned more standings points in the month of November than any other team in the league. They were also the two best teams in terms of goal-differential per game for that month.
Ducks November: 10-2-3, 23 points, 3.67 GF/gm, 2.47 GA/gm
Preds November: 10-2-1, 21 points, 3.69 GF/gm, 2.38 GA/gm
But aside from the prestige and the numbers, Nashville brings with it one commodity well-known to Anaheim fans, former captain Paul Kariya.
Now I’m not going to bad-mouth Kariya for the way he left us in 2003, but I do think it is interesting how similar Kariya-and-Selanne from the old days resembles McDonald-and-Selanne from today. Really, McDonald is a Kariya-clone, both playing a small-man’s game, both skating like hellfire, both wearing a visor, and even the numbers 9 and 19 at times are tough to distinguish.
Only Teemu Knows the Difference
You know, I’ve personally never booed PK, even after he left. Frankly, he put up with so much ridicule being the brave face of the Mighty Ducks during the height of their hilarity that I couldn’t bring myself to boo the guy. No matter how PK up and left Anaheim, you gotta respect the legitimacy and attitude he brought while he was here. That’s why he is #2 on my Memorial Day Top 10 Mighty Ducks list.
Hey, but that’s just my opinion; boo away, Anaheim.
As a last side note: it is entirely possible that the Ducks will be facing their former call-up Michael Leighton in this game, as Vokoun is injured and Mason has played the last five for the Preds. If so, let’s hope Leighton remembers who is paying half his goddamn salary.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Predators 2. "Kariya-clone" McDonald with a pair, along with Selanne, Pahlsson, and Perry.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Andy McDonald, Game Day, Nashville Predators, Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne
Ramble post: If I were commish...
It’s ironic—down to a man, NHL players are now more skilled than they ever were, talent dilution be damned. It is my (ignorant?) belief that a depth player from today, if transplanted to the NHL of 80s, could stickhandle and skate in that 80s league with ease. But somehow, this collection of talented individuals yields a product that is inferior to the on-ice product of the 80s. Why is this? And just as importantly, what can be done to make today's NHL on-ice product better?
Well, here’s six things NHL Commissioner Sleek would consider:
(Note: don’t read too much into these, they aren’t meant to be dead serious. Plus, if I were really commissioner I would probably just call in sick, stay home, and play with all my money.)
1. I would find a better incentive for teams to want to score goals. My first proposal: teams will qualify for the playoffs the usual way (top eight in each conference), however, the teams will be SEEDED by total goals-scored. The highest-scoring qualifying team would play the lowest-scoring, and so forth. Straight bracketing from thereon out.
My thinking here is that a lot of the problem with competitive hockey these days is that coaches (particularly western ones) stress systems that aren’t so much about chance creation as they are about chance neutralization. Maybe a little home-ice incentive will make some coaches concentrate a little more on creating risks and chances rather than avoiding them.
2. Unless you are an actual proven grandfather, put on a fucking visor. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you can’t do it, go play in some other league (which, incidentally, will make you wear one anyway). This isn’t about tradition, this is strictly about safety. Besides, the old-school “tough guy” mentality developed in an age where pucks and sticks more often than not stayed on the ice; that’s not really true any more.
Now, this mandatory visor thing is not a statement against fighting, by any means. Rather, fighters are encouraged to, in addition to dropping their gloves, also remove their helmets before engaging in fisticuffs. In fact,
3. Not only would I repeal the instigator penalty, but I would put strict language in the NHL Constitution that prevents future commissioners from touching this rule. You want a cleaner game, more respect, and less career-ending questionable hits? You want emotion, team identity, and cult heroes? You want to capture the attention of a certain male demographic, ages 12 – 40?
I’d let ‘em fight, dammit. I’d restore the code (except for that no-visor thing, of course), bring back the enforcer, and win some fans along the way.
4. I would fix the blueline. The blueline, for whatever reason, is becoming too easy to defend, both in creating off-sides situations, and in clearing the puck. To combat the former, I would widen the blue-line significantly, allowing forwards to precede the puck a couple of feet into the zone. To combat the latter, I would call immediate icings if the puck were cleared (a) off the glass, or (b) over the height of the high glass.
Six icings in a game, by the way, results in a 2-minute bench minor. All these rules can be adjusted as their impact becomes clearer. Speaking of 2-minute minors,
5. I would find a way to make sure that less overall time in a game was spent watching a team try to score on the power play. Yes, that means less penalties. The problem with the amount of penalties today is (a) they are becoming so prevalent that teams aren’t even trying to score 5-on-5 any more, rather just “skate hard” until they can draw a penalty and then try to score, and (b) nothing kills excitement that watching a bunch of no-hit, set plays where only one team is expected to score, scattered among a bunch of icings by the other team.
I’m not sure exactly how to do this scale-back, though. I’m tempted to say just stick to pre-lockout enforcement rules, but maybe I could do something like a penalty bank, where if you push the new rules long enough, then eventually the ref will make the call. However it happens, overall penalty-calling will be reduced.
6. I would mandate that salaries for players, GMs, and coaches will be cut in half, a mandatory 50% rollback. Instead, that pay will come in the form of shares in a company. This company will hold partial ownership in all 30 NHL franchises—when the teams make money, the shareholders makes money.
You see, it makes no sense that the players and the owners are on separate sides when it comes to my dollar. The players and coaches need some common incentive tied into the well-being of the sport. It needs to become their concern that hockey is entertaining and drawing fans. This "shareholder" system means the better they are able to fill seats and draw viewers, the better-off they individually become, and everyone wins. It is an alignment of incentives.
Now, as I say, I am not completely serious on these issues, in fact, I really only stand behind two of them (Can you guess which two?), and I think one of them is illegal. Anyway, here are some good gloom-and-doom state-of-the-game pieces from Reality Check and Jim Kelley, both good reads. The common tune? The on-ice game needs some re-tooling. Not all is NHL-rosy.
So, anybody want to fix my suggestions, or offer any other ideas on how to improve / sell / reinvigorate / resuscitate the watchability of this league? Or anybody want to tell me to fuck off, I like the hockey the way it is? Suggestions are welcome.
Tags: Gary Bettman
OK, math wizards, can you predict on these results?
I have done a little legwork to figure out the following frequency counts about the Ducks this year. Frequency counts are simplistic in that they do not consider how long situations last, but rather just counts how often situations arise. Anyway, see if you can solve this math puzzle:
The Ducks have been in 59 tied situations this year (29 opening whistles plus another 30 times where a game was re-tied).
35 times the Ducks took the lead (59%)
17 times the opponent took the lead (29%)
7 times the score remained tied to a shootout (12%)
The 35 times the Ducks took the lead,
18 times the lead was held and the Ducks won (51%)
17 times the game was re-tied (49%)
The 17 times the opponent took the lead
4 times the lead was held and the opponents won (24%)
So, math whizzes, just going off these numbers, what is the likelihood of a Ducks win against a dead-average team (equally likely to pull ahead/fall behind, equally likely to hold-lead/re-tie)?
------------------------------------------------------------I’m not sure if this is a real strong concept as a metric for team success, but I’ve always had some issue with goal-differential as the best measure for rating teams' ability to win. It certainly has its merits, but it has its issues with teams like Ottawa, who Matt notes likes to ‘win big’ and ‘lose close’ and thus underperforms its goal-differential-predicted win total. Also, Jeff J at Sisu Hockey shows some thought towards a notion I believe in: that teams do play differently when leading than when trailing or when tied, and these situations should be examined separately.
I know this counting method is very rudimentary and probably each of these situations should be weighted according to how much time is left in the game, but I’m not that great a number-crunching guy (at least in bulk). But what I do know is that there are three fundamental aspects to winning—coming back from behind, pulling ahead, and staying ahead—and in my opinion how they happen isn’t as important as that they happen. These three attributes, in essence, define winning.
In this counting method, it doesn’t matter if a leading team scores eight more goals or not. What matters is that given this lead, do they finish with it or not? If the game re-ties, can they re-establish a lead? If things go sour, can they come back?
Thoughts? Interest? Does any of this make any sense?
(I should note that I would like to see these numbers for other teams to compare against, but this took me a long time to do for the Ducks, and certainly there’s others on this “internet” that could produce these numbers much more easily if the concept is interesting.)
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Analysis
BoC Gameday—Teenage Mutant SoCal Rivalry
On a day that also features a local college football game (USC at UCLA) and a local basketball matchup (Lakers at Clippers), the NHL decided to also fit in with the cool kids with its own SoCal home-and-home series.
Today: Anaheim Ducks (19-2-6, 1st in west) at Los Angeles Kings (9-14-4, 11th in west)
Tomorrow: Los Angeles Kings (9-15-4, 11th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (20-2-6, 1st in west)
Oct. 6 LA 3 at ANA 4, Kopitar scores 2 goals, Kunitz nets the game winner. Oh yeah, and Selanne drops a bomb.
Oct. 22 ANA 3 at LA 2 (SO), Garon gives up a softie late, Getzlaf wins the shootout in the 5th round.
Despite the fact that Anaheim brings twice as many standings points to these matchups as Los Angeles does, these games have generally been very evenly played, in fact, probably the Kings have had the better of the play.
In the two games, the Kings have outshot the Ducks by at least 10 shots each game (75-53 total), but have been outscored 6-5. That’s particularly impressive since the Ducks generally run the shot count the other way. Anaheim is 2nd in the league in shot differential (6.7/gm); Los Angeles is 4th (4.8/gm).
6 of the top 10 western conference scorers come from the Battle of California. Selanne and Pronger are 1 and 2, if you can believe it, followed by SJ’s Marleau and Thornton, followed by L.A.’s Frolov and Cammaleri, with some other guys sprinkled in for effect.
I noted in the post below that in the month of November, the Kings were 3rd in goals-per-game, 1st in PP efficiency, and 3rd in shot-differential (western conference ranks). During that same month, though, Ducks were 2nd in goals-per-game, 3rd in PP efficiency, and 2nd in shot-differential.
The main difference? The Kings were the only team in the league last month to surrender more than four goals per game. The Ducks instead used reliable goaltending, namely Giguere, who has six more wins than the Kings’ combined netminders do.
Prediction: I’m actually calling a split here. One game the Ducks will beat the Kings, and the other game the Kings will beat themselves.
C’mon, you know the difference.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Cartoons, Game Day, Los Angeles Kings
Mathieu Groin pulls his Garon, or something like that
I don’t really have to emphasize too much the importance of quality goaltending in ice hockey, but maybe my neighborhood L.A. Kings could use a quick primer.
When news broke this week that goalie Mathieu Garon had injured his groin in practice, I chuckled at the thought of the die-hard Kings fan, cursing the heavens and saying “please not THAT groin!” You see, coach Marc Crawford has been ever-so-stubborn about platooning his goaltenders, despite the huge disparity of play (a disparity so wide, I believe it is visible from space).
Here’s a quick look at what I’m talking about:
Mathieu Garon, 5-5-2, 2.65 GAA, .903 sv%
Dan Cloutier, 4-8-2, 3.85 GAA, .862 sv%
How far apart is this? Well, if Cloutier (pictured above in his classic pose) wanted to match Garon’s GAA and sv%, he would need to stop the next 164 shots-on-goal over the next 376 minutes (more than six regulations!). Cloutier in 16 appearances has only 3 games where he stopped 90% of the shots he faced.
See, what gets lost in the shuffle a bit is that the Kings (netminding aside) are a pretty strong team, especially lately. In the calendar month of November, the Kings played 13 games, going 5-6-2. They scored 3.46 goals-per-game (3rd in the west), had a PP efficiency of 33.3% (1st in the west), and had a shot differential of 5.4 shots-per-game (3rd in the west).
The problem? Goaltending, all around. Kings goalies had a collective 4.03 GAA and an .848 sv%. Even Garon’s awesome October (1.72 GAA, .941 sv%) turned into an awful November (3.61 GAA, .856 sv%), though that was still markedly better than Cloutier’s numbers (4.35 GAA, .839 sv%). Had there been a .900 sv% goaltender in all 13 November games, the Kings would have projected to a 9-1-3 month (assuming they lose all 3 OT games), and would be currently sitting in the 6th spot in the west with 31 points.
The Kings need quality goaltending badly, and they certainly are not getting it from Dan Cloutier (the worst goalie in the world, now with a two-year extension!). Now Garon is hurt, and the Kings are prepping for a home-and-home with their neighborhood bully Anaheim Ducks.
In related news, I'm having real trouble getting this ear-to-ear grin off my face. Go get 'em, Ducks.
Tags: Analysis, Dan Cloutier, Goaltending, Los Angeles Kings, Mathieu Garon
Happy Joe Thornton Day!
Thanksgiving? LAME! Christmas? Overdone. No, the holiday us Sharks fans should observe is 11/30 -- JOE THORNTON DAY! One year ago today, we got a gift from the hockey gods (or a steal from Mike O'Connell, depending on how you look at it). Joe's the gift that keeps on giving, at least until he probably hits 33 or 34 and starts to slow down.
As for my own Joe Thornton Day memories, I remember that night quite vividly. It was a dreary unending losing streak and I sat down to watch a Tivo-ed (half an hour delay) version of the Sharks/Stars matchup. FSN Bay Area had flashed the line combos on the bottom, but I noticed right away that it didn't match up what was on the ice. Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda soon picked up on it too, and they started speculating about the missing Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and Brad Stuart. I remember thinking that the Bruins were rumored to be shopping Sergei Samsonov, and I briefly wondered about Thornton before telling myself there was no way.
My girlfriend, whose favorite player at the time was her "German Cowboy" Marco Sturm, was getting ready to leave for a nightshift at work. I told her that this looked like Marco got traded, but I'd call her and let her know. Needless to say, she wasn't really happy when she left for work.
Then, between the first and second period, Randy Hahn said the infamous words. "The Sharks now have two Thorntons. Joe Thornton." My jaw literally and figuratively dropped. I had spent the whole time before then bashing Doug Wilson on my blog about how he didn't do crap. I took everything back the next day.
I remember Drew Remenda looking really disturbed talking about it, probably because Stuart and Sturm were really beloved by Sharks fans. Still, it was Joe Freakin' Thornton. I had no bones about it -- Doug Wilson totally ripped off the Bruins. The next day, Bob McKown's show on Toronto's Fan 590 was filled with pissed off Leaf fans saying "Why didn't we get Joe?" Listening to whiney Leafs fans is always entertaining.
My girlfriend called me on her break and I told her that I had good and bad Sharks news. She instantly yelled a very Luke Skywalker "Nooooooooooooooooo!", but I assured her that Joe Thornton was ridiculously better than her beloved Marco. It took about two games to make her forget that #19 ever beloned to Mr. Sturm.
With Brad Stuart and Marco Sturm telling the media that they'll probably test free agency, it looks like the Bruins will get absolutely nothing for trading their franchise player (though SI has a good take on how it shook the mentality of the club). As for Sharks fans, make sure you have a drink in honor of Joe Thornton Day!
Tags: Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks, Trades
Ducks Gameday—Vancouver Five-O
Oh yeah, we have a real game tonight, huh? Anaheim Ducks (18-2-6, 1st in west) at Vancouver Canucks (12-12-1, 8th in west)
Don’t have time for too much today, but Tom Benjamin asks the question: Why does the NHL continue to lose ground in the United States? In the comments, there is some discussion about the move from ESPN to Versus, which naturally moves the sport out of the public consciousness.
Well check out how we got it in Southern California, which has two sports networks (Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket) to split among four winter teams (Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Ducks). For us Duck fans, that means that excess games get shifted to KDOC-TV, a local time-capsule station that serves us all a hot helping of TV nostalgia. Look at today’s schedule, for example:
9:00 am Little House on the Prairie
10:00 am Rockford Files
11:00 am Quincy, M.E.
12:00 pm Perry Mason
1:00 pm Matlock
2:00 pm Hawaii Five-O
3:00 pm Magnum, P.I.
4:00 pm The Nanny
4:30 pm Mad About You
5:00 pm Becker (twice)
6:00 pm Cheers (twice)
7:00 pm NHL Hockey
9:30 pm Cheers
10:00 pm The Twilight Zone
Did you miss it? No no, that’s not the 70s sitcom “NHL Hockey” at 7 pm, but rather tonight’s NHL contest. Hey, I for one am glad that KDOC picks up the local coverage baton, but really, who’s going to be accidentally watching tonight’s game? The guy who lost his Nick-at-Nite channel? (Note also that televised hockey is on the decline in Canada also; maybe it's not just us).
At any rate, three weeks ago today the Ducks won 6-0 in Vancouver, but that was a pretty deceptive score, as the Ducks scored on their 2nd, 4th, 9th, 17th, 22nd, and 23rd shots. That probably won’t be happening again tonight.
Still, the Canucks have scored 3 goals or more only twice in their last 14 games. The Ducks have scored 2 goals or less only twice in their last 16 games.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Canucks 0 (to keep with the post title). Goals by Kunitz, Pahlsson, Shannon, O'Donnell, and Moustache.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Game Day, Television, Vancouver Canucks
Ducks Simulated Game Day—Buffalo Sabres
Tom L at Sabre Rattling has pointed to a Damien Cox ESPN piece that asks a good question: which team is better, the Buffalo Sabres or the Anaheim Ducks?
Wait, scratch that. That’s not a good question, that’s a dumb question. Who really gives a shit? These teams are playing in two separate leagues on two separate leaderboards. It matters very little how good Anaheim is compared to Buffalo; what matters is how Anaheim stacks vs. the west and how Buffalo stacks vs. the east.
That said, I will offer a little fodder for this burning question. Here, for argument’s sake, is a look at regulation standings, how teams are doing when 60 minutes are up. I only bring it up because it exposes Buffalo for the extra-point slut that it is:
Regulation Record
14-2-10, .731
18-7-1, .712
12-10-4, .538
9-8-7, .521
So what’s this really say? Well, for one, it points out that the west has a lot more separation than the east, top teams vs. bottom teams. The east is still more concentrated in the middle.
Buffalo, while still class of the east, does have less regulation wins than 6 western teams (and the same amount Calgary has), so maybe the real question that deserves to be asked isn’t which of two specific teams is better.
Rather, my question is: If Buffalo were in the west, where would it finish? Would it be a first-place club in a much more highly-contested conference?
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Analysis, Buffalo Sabres, Cartoons
NHL plays of the week on YouTube
NHL Plays of the Week are available on YouTube here. Ducks vs Flames highlights from Sunday are available here.
Tags: YouTube
An Open Letter to Edmonton Fans
(SPECIAL GUEST COLUMNIST: ROB NIEDERMAYER!)
A special thanks to Earl Sleek for allowing me this opportunity to address hardcore Oiler fans.
My name is Rob Niedermayer, sometimes called "RNieds", or "the other Niedermayer". You might remember me from the last western conference finals, although you probably had to be paying pretty good attention to notice little old me.
At any rate, I am not here to chastise the Edmonton faithful for feeling betrayed by last offseason’s mysterious Pronger departure, nor even to try to plead for a well-behaved Rexall crowd tonight. I remember when I was traded how hard it was on my fans, when later they learned that I was actually Scott Niedermayer’s brother.
No, I am writing today to emphasize a fact that I’m not sure has gotten enough publicity in the Edmonton area: Chris Pronger no longer wears number 44. Because of my impressive stature on this Anaheim team (again, Scott’s brother), I was allowed to keep the number, and Prongs instead chose number 25.
This is very important tonight, as you are stuffing your socks with loonies and pulling batteries out of your iPods, THINK BEFORE YOU THROW! For now, and for the foreseeable future, #44 is not public enemy #1 in Edmonton; it would be a shame if a well-aimed beer toss got sent to the wrong recipient tonight.
Prediction: Ducks 5, Oilers 3. Despite my efforts, I still get hit by a misguided Pronger projectile.
Posted by Earl Sleek at 8:25 AM 26 comments
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Chris Pronger, Edmonton Oilers, Game Day, Rob Niedermayer
Ducks Pre-Game Day: Countdown to the Oil
Tomorrow: Anaheim Ducks (17-2-6, 1st in west) at Edmonton Oilers (13-8-1, 6th in west)
Oh, so many things to talk about! In honor of ol' #8’s 500th goal and 600th point as a Duck, here’s 8 storylines leading into tomorrow’s game:
1. Return of the Orbs. Really, this ProngeRage is probably the most overblown part of the whole deal, but what can I do? This date has been circled on so many Edmonton calendars that you’d think Rexall was doing a PS3 giveaway. I’ve said it before; there’s plenty of room for Oilfan sympathy, but let’s not pretend they’re the only team to lose their star player days after a painful SCF G7 loss.
2. 1,000 game club. I suppose of lesser importance will be that this game will also be Scott Niedermayer’s 1,000th career regular-season game. It’ll be interesting to see how the Oil faithful will handle that announcement; will they bother to ‘boo’ or is that all being saved for Pronger? Teemu Selanne (984), by the way, is scheduled to have his 1,000th game (health-permitting) in about a month, while Travis Green (941) will likely never get there if he doesn’t start improving on his 2-appearances-in-25-games role.
3. Schedule getting tougher. I really do have to talk about strength-of-schedule when it comes to the Ducks’ success thus far. Anaheim has played 17 of its 25 games at Honda Center, and tomorrow begins a stretch of 13 of 17 on the road. From last year’s playoff teams, the Ducks have not yet this season traveled to the following cities (home record in parentheses): Detroit (6-1-3), Dallas (8-2-0), Nashville (6-1-2), San Jose (9-2-0), or Edmonton (10-2-0), so there are still a fair amount of questions to be answered about how good these Ducks really are. And the two times the Ducks have played a previous-year playoff team on the road? They got shutout in Calgary and lost a shootout in Colorado.
4. Goaltending secrecy. The Ducks do like keeping goaltending injuries a Pentagon-level secret, like last year when, out of the blue, J.S. Giguere was unavailable for the first game of the playoffs. Similar story last night, when instead of our usual Giguere-Bryzgalov tandem, the Ducks started Michael Wall (AHL), backed up by David McKee (ECHL). Per today’s L.A. Times, Giguere says he is “99 percent sure” he is starting tomorrow, but who really knows? If McKee ever gets the nod, by the way, he will join Andy McDonald, Chris Kunitz, Dustin Penner, and Ryan Shannon as Duck players this year who were never drafted, but instead signed with the team as UFAs. (Side note: apparently Nashville claimed Michael Leighton from the Ducks off waivers also, and Anaheim will be paying half his salary. Sweet.)
5. Moustache watch. George Parros, after a crummy start, has looked a lot better in the last 4 games he’s played in. He still has yet to be on the ice for an Anaheim goal-for, but at least he’s not surrendering goals and when he does fight, he’s done it well enough. Still room for improvement, though, as both Todd Fedoruk and Shawn Thornton were able to produce at even-strength as well as fight. Parros has yet to be even close to useful in a game in which he does not fight.
6. Anaheim Norris race. It’s astounding to me how much Duck message-boarders seem to be stuck on the notion that Scott Niedermayer has been this team’s MVP thus far, when the Pronger-comparison numbers really aren’t that close (well, except power-play production, since they share so many minutes there). Here’s some key stats:
Even-Strength:
CP: 435 minutes, 2-11-13, EV+ 29, EV- 14
SN: 404 minutes, 3-8-11, EV+ 19, EV- 14
Power-play:
CP: 156 minutes, 2-11-13, PP+ 22, PP- 0
SN: 154 minutes, 2-8-10, PP+ 20, PP- 0
Penalty-kill:
CP: 96 minutes, 0-0-0, PK+ 1, PK- 8
SN: 85 minutes, 0-0-0, PK+ 0, PK- 12
So overall, Pronger (in about 44 extra minutes of ice time) has been on the ice for 52 goals for and 22 goals against. Scotty, meanwhile, has been on the ice for 39 goals for and 26 goals against. I would buy the argument that Pronger being paired with Sean O’Donnell should have better defensive implications than Niedermayer being paired with Francois Beauchemin, but in terms of production, you gotta give the nod to CP here.
7. Selanne responds to criticism. Don’t forget, though, that Selanne has been on fire also, ever since I called him out in the “don’t vote for Teemu” All-star ballot post. Here’s a little split for ya, before and after I called him out.
Before: 19 GP, 4-13-17, 1.82 even-strength pts/hr
Since: 6 GP, 6-6-12, 5.99 even-strength pts/hr
Yikes. Look out, unknown performance bonuses! (Oh, and Teemu, you still haven’t gotten my vote!)
8. Changing the rules. A weird new wrinkle this year in how division leaders are selected. Assume for a second that Anaheim wins tomorrow by two goals. Per the NHL standing rules (at the bottom of this link), Minnesota would reclaim the Northwest Division lead by virtue of goal differential (Wild +9, Oilers +8) despite identical records. Problem is, these goal-differential numbers count shootout wins and losses as “standings” goals-for and goals-against, a new development this year. Minnesota’s differential is boosted by having a 5-1 record in shootouts compared to Edmonton’s 1-1 shootout record. These would not have factored in goal differential calculations last year.
Tags: Anaheim Ducks, Cartoons, Chris Pronger, Edmonton Oilers, George Parros, Scott Niedermayer, Teemu Selanne
OK, math wizards, can you predict on these results...
Mathieu Groin pulls his Garon, or something like t...
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If you think for five seconds that ATT's proposed internet video offering is going to happen quickly...
Your municipality wants some money. In fact, they want a LOT of money. They already get that from the cable companies. In return, the municipals provide "protection" for the cable companies. Think of Milk Carton Tommy with a violin case.
Local officials are debating whether AT&T Corp.'s planned Internet video service would interfere with cable TV franchises that now reap millions of dollars for municipal treasuries. It's part of a nationwide struggle between telecommunications giants that is already being fought in Congress and over the airwaves, and that is swiftly working its way into city and village halls, state legislatures and perhaps the courts.
Interesting phrase there: "would interfere with"...
Here's the trick the municipalities are playing with:
A Washington, D.C., law firm has given Milwaukee city officials a legal opinion that says U-Verse [the AT&T video offering] would meet city ordinances' definition of cable television service, the "one-way transmission of video programming or other programming services," Leonhardt says.
Time Warner Cable is paying Milwaukee $3.7 million this year, rising to $3.8 million next year, said Patrick Curley, Mayor Tom Barrett's chief of staff.
Of course, if AT&T provides better services for less money, then Time Warner loses subscribers. When that happens, Time-Warner's "contribution" to the City's coffers goes down, down, down.
How can the City stop AT&T? One way: make their equipment installations illegal:
Unlike satellite television or streaming video, however, U-Verse uses the public right-of-way, and lots of it, Curley said. Project Lightspeed has already started installing metal boxes more than 5 feet high near curbs and alleys and in boulevard medians in Milwaukee and elsewhere, to provide interfaces between fiber-optic cables and copper telephone wires, Bentoff said. Each box is expected to serve 300 to 400 homes.
Local officials fear the boxes could be unsightly and might block drivers' view of pedestrians and other cars. Downtown Ald. Bob Bauman has introduced an ordinance to give aldermen limited veto rights over boxes in their districts. Kenosha has slapped a one-year moratorium on the boxes.
Bentoff said AT&T has the right to install the boxes, under the laws governing telephone poles.
Can the municipalities get their pound of flesh? Will Gary Grunau's Time Warner cable monlith become yesterday's news and wither away? Will AT&T, with its "more service for less money" promise, prevail?
Will YOU get better service for less?
Not if the municipalities have their way. They LOVE 'hidden-tax' revenues, which is exactly what the cable companies give them in return for 'protection.' And your Gummint will fight tooth and nail to keep the money.
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Home / Blog / Search Marketing / 360i Report: The Bing-Yahoo! Search Alliance & PPC
by 360i on October 25, 2010
360i Report: The Bing-Yahoo! Search Alliance & PPC
in Search Marketing Both comments and trackbacks are closed.
360i Point of View on
The Bing-Yahoo! Search Alliance & PPC
Many advertisers have been asking the same question since the Search Alliance was announced in July 2009: “What does this mean for the ROI on my search campaigns?” Answering this question is difficult, if not impossible. The Search Alliance has many hidden complexities. While the expected increase in competition within adCenter may cause CPCs to rise over historical norms, in some cases there may be a net decrease over CPCs paid for the same term on Yahoo!’s Panama. In this POV we give consideration to a few scenarios we foresee and highlight several actions and decisions that advertisers should be prepared to make as a result.
1) adCenter competition, and thus, adCenter CPCs will increase, but impact should be minimal
Observation, backed by actual research, suggests there is a significant disparity in advertiser use of Yahoo! Panama and Microsoft AdCenter. As a result, the natural expectation is for Yahoo! advertisers, who do not currently use adCenter to migrate to the adCenter platform. The impact of additional competition within adCenter suggests cost-per-click (CPC) should rise. However, there are many unique variables which independently impact each advertiser.
What should you expect? Depending on the exact vertical, the competitive impact will likely vary. For example, retailers and financial services brands may stand to see very little CPC inflation as these categories are generally more mature on adCenter. CPG may experience more of an impact given lower category adoption of adCenter. Regardless, each category and each advertiser will see an impact on CPC. Beginning in October, daily and weekly competitive performance indicators, such as CPC and position, should be monitored closely.
2) A unified platform could expose cost savings
In the evaluation of cost and CPC, many sources have focused on increased competition within adCenter as a lone variable. Very much overlooked when considering the alliance is that adCenter is different from Panama, and performance metrics for a given keyword on adCenter are different from comparable metrics for that same keyword on Panama. Looking at a single advertiser’s CPCs on Yahoo! vs. Bing, we see the Bing CPC is 75% less than the Yahoo! CPC. We also observe a CTR which is 52% higher as a result of Bing’s ad serving algorithm (stats via SearchIgnite’s Q3 2010 Search Market Report).While the CPCs for this term may see minor increases increase on a unified adCenter platform with the influx of competition, is it likely to outpace the current CPCs paid on Yahoo!’s Panama? Possibly, but not likely when you also factor in the increased queries that adCenter will be able to serve to Yahoo! users coupled with potential of Bing’s algorithm.
This deviation in actual cost plays out for nearly every keyword in every campaign for every advertiser. It also varies greatly between brand terms and non-brand terms. Advertisers must consider many more factors than competition when estimating impact and thinking about the future of their search campaigns. Maybe, just maybe, there are cost savings in the mix.
3) Performance volatility is expected, but should be minimal
A fundamental shift of roughly 30% of any market will inevitably shake things up. This volatility should stabilize relatively quickly for most advertisers.
The phased transition of inventory should assist in masking volatility. Microsoft’s goal is to serve:
10% of Yahoo! impressions by end of week 10/3
30% of Yahoo! impressions by end of week 10/10
100% of Yahoo! impressions by end of week 10/24
Should they be successful with this approach, there is little expectation we will see rapid or sudden alteration in performance metrics.
Additionally, the rate and degree of volatility is complicated by unknown timing of advertiser migration. Many smaller and less-sophisticated advertisers may be slow to consolidate or react to the Search Alliance. Furthermore, many advertisers may find the united traffic volume and/or management complexities to be misaligned and abandon the market all together. Both of these scenarios could cause minimal blips well past the October transition period.
4) Keyword value and positions will change
Due to consumer behavior, competition and countless other factors, advertisers experience vastly different performance on Yahoo! and Bing. As a result, the value of a keyword varies considerably for each platform, and subsequently, they are managed uniquely. In the coming weeks, this ability dissipates. A single keyword on adCenter will represent what was previously two unique keywords. The potential downstream effects to performance are complex and will vary widely.
To illustrate, we’ll look at a fictitious example. The below table represents a single keyword’s unique performance:
Assuming this keyword is meeting goal at 5:1 ROAS, it is doing so at position 6 on Yahoo! and position 2 on Bing. As we approach the Alliance advertisers must be prepared to quickly re-evaluate optimal CPC and position.
Ultimately, advertisers must prepare for the convergence of volume. Those who are accustomed to seeing the same average position every week should prepare to see change as new optimal positions are sought. Fortunately, Microsoft’s phased integration of inventory will considerably minimize instability.
5) The alliance unifies more than just publishers
One of the lesser discussed components of the Search Alliance is the pending unification of MSN and Yahoo!’s search syndication networks. This move will force most advertisers into making some short-term decisions.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo!, like Google, have viewed syndication opportunistically to provide growth and increase market share. Yahoo! provided the ability to block select domains when it launched Panama in 2007. Microsoft has never developed domain blocking controls. While the capability to block domains is on the Microsoft development list, it appears that initially, all campaigns will revert to an “all or nothing” approach. This could dramatically change performance for those advertisers who have used domain blocking to improve their performance within the Yahoo! syndication network.
These advertisers must decide between traffic that may be less optimal or opting-out until domain blocking is available. Advertisers choosing to stay may be rewarded with key early benchmarks and valuable history. Additionally, there could be lower competition as other advertisers walk on the opportunity. Those advertisers opting out will face the cold reality of lost volume. Not only Yahoo!’s network, but also Microsoft’s network which they may find attractive. Additionally, they will face future decisions as to when to plunge back in.
6) Richer ad format falls temporary victim to the Search Alliance
Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) will be unavailable as the Search Alliance transition concludes. The ad format is expected to again be available in early 2011. At that time, RAIS is intended to be fully integrated into adCenter with expanded reach showing on search results for Yahoo! Search and Bing.
The news is unfavorable for advertisers who may leverage RAIS as a solution for integrating offline creative assets or for expanding their message to support multiple objectives. Retailers are among those expected to find the announcement most untimely at the onset of the holiday season. For performance impact, we encourage advertisers to evaluate on the basis of a unified platform rather than a simple comparison of Yahoo! RAIS to Yahoo! Sponsored Results. The performance expectations will vary depending on the many nuances and external factors existing between Yahoo! Panama and Microsoft adCenter.
How marketers can prepare for the alliance
Anticipate: Understand the impact issues within this article can have on your campaign.
Prepare: Have a basic knowledge of high volume terms which will move the needle and their CPC differences on adCenter vs. Panama. Monitor them closely as the transition of inventory occurs.
Optimize: React. It shouldn’t take long to adjust. Move quickly.
Change is coming — and the scope and degree of changes caused by the Search Alliance remains opaque. However by preparing, knowing what to expect and reacting quickly, advertisers can emerge on the other side just fine.
Contact your strategic advisor at 360i for more information on how the Bing-Yahoo! Alliance stands to influence your brand’s search marketing efforts.
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University ›
Google to oversee webmail after UT confirms contract
Published on March 9, 2011 at 12:00 am
By Shamoyita DasGupta
Students can say goodbye to the clunky orange UT webmail interface and claim a new University e-mail account hosted through Google next month. After students complained for years about the inefficiency and lack of space, the Universitys Information Technology Student Advisory Committee prepared proposals to send to different vendors to create a new interface. After reviewing three finalists, the University signed its contract with Google last week. It became clear that Googles services were both technically and aesthetically what students would probably like best, so we decided to pursue a relationship with them, said Student Government President Scott Parks. Through Gmail, students accounts will hold up to seven gigabytes of space and be easier to navigate, said Liz Aebersold, Director of Communications and Strategy Management for Information Technology. [Students will have] larger inbox sizes and a more modern interface, Aebersold said. In the past, students had to stop using their UT e-mail once they graduated. Under the new contract, they will be allowed to keep the account as alumni. The University is now focusing on finding a name for the new e-mail service. Students with ideas for names should submit them to ideas.utexas.edu. The deadline for idea submissions is Friday.
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Vale Phil Burgess
My former colleague Dr Phil Burgess (in the sense that everyone in telco public policy is a colleague)has been busy talking and writing as he prepares to leave our fair shores. This has included an article in the SMH and a speech at the Lowy Institute.
I thought it was appropriate for someone to write a valedictory. It was too long just to include here, so you'll have to follow the link.
I conclude with "Phil I think will understand if I say (in the Australian vernacular and the Fullbright sense) “Mate, you are a great Australian patriot, but you’ve been wrong about a few things.” To understand that you'll need to read the item and listen to the Lowy speech.
Posted by David Havyatt at 10:29 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Poor Kevin
Glen Milne reports criticism of Kevin Rudd that he is too much of a micro-manager, while Phillip Coorey reports complaints that the Ruddbot shouldn't be travelling to New York "when the work is mounting up at home".
The latter includes the delightful criticism that Kevin in 10 months will have met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon three times and SA Senator Nick Xenophon not at all. Bizarre really - Ban Ki-moon represents all 205 or so countries in the UN, Xenophon represents about 14% (a quota) of the citizens of South Australia who are also represented by a host of Labor Senators, Penny ong among them. Plus Nick has actually been a Senator for under three months. And really the PMs message to the opposition and cross benches at tis stage should be "bring it on" - it is the PM who would be suited by a double dissolution.
As for the Milne piece, I'm trying to figure out how he has a report about a meeting carried out under what he (incorrectly) calls "Chatham House rules". There is only one rule. That, for the record, is;
"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed".
Get it right.
Posted by David Havyatt at 9:43 AM No comments: Links to this post
Strange Silence
The Senate Select Committee on the NBN has published the submissions received by the closing date (which had been extended).
The list is noteworthy for the absence of Telstra amongst the submitters. Is this because they feel they don't need to as they are in "the box seat", because they decided that to submit to an opposition committee might raise the Minister's disapproval or because they still can't really figure out their own strategy on the NBN bid.
Telstra will spin it as a version of one or two, but I wouldn't be really surprised if it is number three.
Telstra's difficulty remains that they have a position of not wanting any money from the Government but probably can't make the commitment on the 98% build on their own.
A very tricky dilemma.
Posted by David Havyatt at 10:53 AM No comments: Links to this post
What is a big share of the "innovation system"
The Government has received its report on innovation from Terry Cutler and his committee. I haven't waded through it yet - but note that no hard copies of the report are available only the online version, and the Criky story with the Cutler comment on copyright.
This blog post is about the interview Dr Cutler gave on Lateline Business. In the interview he said "First of all, focus on your strengths. I mean, Australia is a small economy in global terms; we're roughly two per cent of the world's innovation system."
I'm assuming Dr Cutler thinkks that one's share of the global economy is the same as one's share of the "global innovation system". For this he uses the 2% number most commonly used. However if you use World Bank numbers the figure and go to two decimal points the number is 1.51% (on a table revised on 10 September 2008).
While that sounds small, when you realise there are some 200 countries it makes us three times the size of an "average" economy. By rank we are the fifteenth largest economy on the planet - ahead of Sweden on 19(Ericsson, Volvo, Saab), Denmark at 27 (Lego), and Finland on 32 (Nokia).
The reality is that Australia faces another disadvantage compared to these economies in being more remote from sizeable markets. However our biggest disadvantage remains our ability to be fat dumb and happy on the back of resource endowments.
What we don't need is people writing innovation reports perpetuating the myyth that this is a small economy.
Posted by David Havyatt at 5:57 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Grocery Review
The ACCC review of grocery prices came in for mixed reviews. In fact Frank Zumbo gave it a bollocking in a piece he wrote and as quotes in another.
I have only just got around to getting a copy of the report and the skim reading disappoints me. There are so many ways. But most importantly it is the complete failure to deal with industry structure in a meaningful way. Two small examples:
The report disparages the idea of greater transparency in pricing in the supply chain as it creates the opportunity for implicit collusion or explicit cartelisation. This ignores the power of information assymetry to entrench market power and ignores the fact that the best remedy against collusion is industry structure without a small number of large players.
The second is the extent to which the report treats speciality stores as competitors to supermarkets, as if the authors have never read about so called "imperfect competition" or monopolistic competition built around no-price differentiation.
But by far the worst is that the ACCC has now concluded a grocery and a petrol enquiry and hasn't discussed the "shop a docket" fuel voucher system. So let me explain how that works to increase prices.
Assume I need to buy $100 worth of groceries and $100 worth of petrol a week. ($100 worth means that much assuming the goods are priced at cost - i.e. competitively). When I go to buy my groceries I know they will give me a voucher for a 4% petrol discount. So I'm prepared to pay $103 for my groceries because I'll still be a dollar in front.
Having bought my groceries I'm prepared to pay $103 for the petrol because I'm a dollar in front on my purchase over buying petrol at cost elsewhere. Therefore the "discount" entices me to pay $206 less my $4 discount thus spending $2 more than if I'd purchased at cost.
Each decision of the consumer is rational. Unfortunately most cases of product bundling result in this kind of outcome. Bundling does not benefit the consumer, it benefits the firm with sufficient market power in one or ideally both firms to induce customers to pay too much.
By the way - ending shopper dockets is entirely within the power of the ACCC.
Posted by David Havyatt at 11:50 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
National Consumer Law and Mobile Phones
This is a tale from the Australian Financial Review so I can't do it with links. So I need to simply quote.
AFR 16 August David Crowe
Customers will gain new rights to quit unfair contracts with businesses ranging from fitness centres to phone companies under an agreement between Canberra and the states for a single consumer protection law to apply nationwide....
Minter Ellison partner Richard Murphy said the concept of what was unfair remained "woolly" but it was a major step forward to have a single national law. He cautioned, however, that companies not operating in Victoria would have to review their contracts to ensure they complied with the new regime.
In Victoria, for example, AAPT was found to have used unfair contracts because its terms allowed it to vary phone charges without notice, apply reconnection fees for any reason, charge customers for suspended services and end a service unilaterally....
AFR Letters 20 August David Havyatt
In the item on proposed changes to consumer protection laws you note that AAPT was prosecuted in Victoria for unfair contracts (“National laws to protect customers” AFR 16 Aug). While this is factually correct the manner of its reporting is misleading.
While AAPT’s contracts were found to have unfair terms, in the judgment it was noted that the terms had never been used and no compensation or restitution was due to any customer. Nor was AAPT required to make any changes to its contracts as they had been fully revised by the time the judgment was made.
In fact Consumer Affairs Victoria was fully aware that AAPT was in the process of changing its contracts when they commenced the litigation in December 2004, and was fully apprised of progress the week following the action being brought. AAPT, along with all other telcos at the time, had been dealing with the need to comply with the Victorian legislation and to meet requirements being introduced through an industry code.
Uniform consumer protection laws will be welcome by all in industry. However, this should not come at the expense of incorporating poorly designed legislative provisions such as the Victorian unfair contract provisions.
AFR Letters 21 August David Cousins
David Havyatt's [letter of 20 August] complains about "misleading reporting" of the AAPT case and then puts his own nique spin on that case.
He suggests the judge found "no compensation or restitution was due to any customer" when Consumer Affairs Victoria did not seek such relief. I was director of CAV and initiated the action against AAPT.
The public interest declaratory and injunctive relief sought by CAV was not granted only because AAPT had included, in the changes to its consumer contracts (that were prompted by the CAV action and still did not come into effect until four months after the proceedings were started), a provision that applied the new terms and conditions retrospectively.
The critical fact is the judge found that many of the terms of AAPT's contracts, as identified by CAV, were unfair terms and, therefore, void. Rather than being poorly designed as suggested, the law was shown to be effective.
After refusing to deal with the regulator, AAPT recognised finally the writing was on the wall about its unfair contract terms and chose to fix the problem with retrospective effect. As far as the industry code is concerned, it was made to conform with Victorian law only after CAV had intervened in the code development process.
The Victorian unfair contract terms law has been designed to ensure a minimum appropriate stanard of commercial conduct for the protection of Victorian consumers and businesses.
Effective unfair contract terms provisions are essential for Australia's national consumer law.
While your original article on the prosecution of AAPT for unfair contracts was misleading, David Cousins’ [letter of21 August] contains simple untruths.
The most specific of these is his claim that the changes in AAPT’s contracts “were prompted by the CAV action” and that AAPT “recognised the writing was on the wall…and chose to fix the problem.” The facts of the matter were that AAPT was already in the process of making these changes, a fact that CAV was aware of before initiating the action and was reminded of on the day they informed us (and the media) of the action.
He engages in his own sophistry by suggesting that the basis for there being no compensation or restitution was due to CAV not seeking such relief. My recollection is that CAV did not seek the relief because there were no customers for whom they could seek relief as none of the clauses had been used.
Victorians might like to contemplate whether they got value for money from a prosecution that ultimately had no impact on telecommunications contracts. They might also like to contemplate whether the attitude of the Victorian Government in pursuing the pointless prosecution had any impact on AAPT’s decision to relocate its call centre from Bendigo to Sydney.
Summary and other points
For reasons of space the second AFR letter was shorter than I first submitted. That included the following points.
Cousins provides as a reason why AAPT was singled out for the prosecution rather than one of the other providers of mobile services who had similar contracts at the time, his assertion that AAPT refused to deal with the regulator. The facts were that the telecommunications industry at that time had already instituted a guideline on contracts, and all operators including AAPT were in the process of revising contracts and had adopted a practice of not using any contract terms outside the guideline. The industry regulator, the Australian Communications Authority, required the industry to strengthen the guideline to a code, so AAPT paused the implementation of new contracts pending the finalisation of the code.
It was in the middle of this process that CAV approached AAPT about its contracts, and AAPT advised the process we were going through and that it was wasteful to duplicate the process. To ensure the message wasn’t misunderstood I visited the Chief of Staff of CAV’s Minister John Lenders to explain the AAPT position a week after replying to CAV (I was unable to see Lenders himself because of probity issues in relation to TPAMS).
When CAV launched its action in December it was Minister Lenders who issued a press release to trumpet the prosecution of the “giant phone company AAPT”. At the time AAPT had 2% market share, and CAV did not prosecute the other mobile providers with the same contract terms.
Throughout the process of CAV trying to make a case of the telecommunications industry they refused to meet with the industry through its industry ssociation or collectively. After commencing its litigation CAV refused to meet with AAPT with a view to terminating the proceedings.
Finally it is worth noting that the recommendation of the Productivity Commission on unfair contract terms was for a version that would only see prsecutions brought in cases where customers had suffered detrimental outcomes from the unfair terms. The CAV action against AAPT would not have been brought in these circumstances.
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