block hendrik: September 2012

Monday, September 24, 2012

Chemist may hold key to building a better toxin 'mousetrap'

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) ? A Florida State University chemist's work could lead to big improvements in our ability to detect and eliminate specific toxic substances in our environment.

Featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), Sourav Saha's specialized work to strip electrons from the toxic chemical known as fluoride is producing a variety of unique results.

"I started out with the very basic premise of trying to find new ways to detect toxic fluoride in solutions," said Saha, an assistant professor of chemistry at Florida State. "As I got further into that work I was able to create a compound that could actually strip the electrons right off the molecule, producing a variety of tangible benefits such as toxin detection and removal."

Saha's initial fluoride-detection work led to a $100,000 grant from the Petroleum Research Foundation to further explore the possibilities of his research. Using that money, he was able to bring in additional expertise and build his "fluoride-robbing" compound that is the central feature of the work featured on the JACS cover.

"This work is very exciting and novel because the results are surprising," said Timothy Logan, chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State. "Molecules always have affinity for electrons, with some molecules having a greater affinity than others. Flouride has the highest electron affinity of all, so the ability to strip off electrons from fluoride, especially in the presence of other molecules with lower electron affinity, is truly unique."

Although Saha is excited about the possibilities of his new compound in toxin cleanup, he sees a huge variety of potential applications for his research.

"I think toxin removal is one of the most obvious and relatable benefits my work could lead to, but in reality, there are many additional implications this work could have on daily life," Saha said. "For instance, we could develop this research to create all new types of plastics that could exhibit unique qualities, or improve the effectiveness of devices, such as batteries, that are used to store and transfer energy."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Florida State University. The original article was written by Tom Butler.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Samit Guha, Flynt S. Goodson, Lucas J. Corson, Sourav Saha. Boundaries of Anion/Naphthalenediimide Interactions: From Anion?? Interactions to Anion-Induced Charge-Transfer and Electron-Transfer Phenomena. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012; 134 (33): 13679 DOI: 10.1021/ja303173n

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/JtkdjOmWfgs/120924145147.htm

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Apple iPhone 5: Top Tips to Increase Battery Life

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Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/387115/20120923/apple-iphone5-tips-increase-battery-life-ios6.htm

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Romney campaign trails in crucial ground game

LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Richard and Jessi Constantine were alone recently as they wheeled their 1-year-old son in a stroller around a Las Vegas subdivision, knocking on doors to promote Mitt Romney's candidacy. Yet legions of volunteers working to re-elect President Barack Obama are a pervasive presence in the state.

In one office park on the eastern end of the metropolis, dozens of union members fanned out to canvass for Obama and Democratic campaigns. To the north, members of the 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union emerged from their union hall for their daily door-knocks on the incumbent's behalf.

In Obama campaign offices to the northwest and north, throngs of workers and volunteers heard rousing speeches from San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to fire them up before they hit the streets to register new voters and argue the president's case to undecided ones.

The Obama campaign's dominance of the ground game ? the volunteer-driven nuts and bolts of electioneering that ranges from registration drives to door-to-door canvassing ? contributed mightily to his 2008 victory. His campaign is banking on its advantage on the ground, assisted by a new array of digital innovations, to deliver victory once again.

"Our massive grassroots organization will make the difference on Nov. 6," Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher said.

Republicans are scrambling to narrow the gap and say they will improve greatly over what they acknowledge was a dismal performance in 2008. They contend that the Obama campaign's dominance on the ground is largely a public relations construct.

"We are just rocking it on the ground game out there," said Rick Wiley, the Republican National Committee's political director.

There are no independently verified numbers documenting how the campaigns are doing on the ground, but a discrepancy can be found in the internal data each side promotes.

The RNC released a memo last week boasting it has made 20 million voter contacts ? phone calls and face-to-face conversations. At the Democratic National Convention this month, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told the crowd the re-election campaign had, to date, made 44 million phone calls alone.

The Democratic campaign boasts nearly three times as many offices in eight swing states.

In Colorado, the Obama campaign has 55 offices to the Romney organization's 14. In Iowa, it lists 65 compared with 14 for the Republican candidate. In Nevada, the margin is narrower, 25-11, with the Romney campaign scheduled to open a new office this weekend. Nonetheless, this state, where Democrats have dominated on the ground for eight years, sharply illustrates the imbalance.

Obama operatives launched their most recent voter registration drive here in April 2011. The Romney campaign at that time was fight for the Republican primary and didn't start its own drive until July. As a sign of the Obama campaign's lead, Democrats have a 61,000-voter edge over Republicans in registration, according to the Nevada secretary of state's office.

That is close to the edge that Democrats had in 2010, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid narrowly won re-election amid the Republican wave that swept many of his colleagues out of office, though not as large as in 2008, when Obama notched a 12-point victory in the state.

Romney's campaign notes that the contest looks very different this time, despite the Democrats' persistent registration edge. With Nevada boasting the highest unemployment rate in the nation, polls show the Republican candidate remains within striking distance.

"They have a head start, but I feel good about where we are," said Romney's Nevada state manager, Chris Carr. "They're trying to recreate what they had in '08, and they don't have it."

Republicans also are trying to eat into the Obama campaign's technological edge, but the Democrats appear to still have the lead.

The Obama campaign, which pioneered the use of social media in its 2008 campaign, released a smartphone app in July to allow volunteers and supporters to track events, see how the president's policies benefited their neighborhoods and find other voters to contact. The Romney campaign came out with an app just last week to let people find out about local campaign events.

Both sides agree that, in Nevada, Democrats have had the upper hand since 2004, when Reid's re-election campaign began to build a major campaign infrastructure in the state and the Nevada GOP melted down under infighting that persists to this day. This year, the national Republican Party put staffers in the same offices as the Romney campaign to essentially stand in for the absent state party. It is rushing additional staff members from Washington and neighboring, noncompetitive states for a final push..

Americans For Prosperity, a conservative group, watched in alarm as the Obama campaign and its allies in the labor and immigrants' rights movements continued to dominate in voter registration and canvassing. It hired 100 people through a private vendor to try to beef up conservative voter registration.

"They've had this going on since 2004," said Adam Stryker, AFP's Nevada director. "We're definitely up against a formidable foe."

Last weekend, the Romney campaign office was active, with volunteers swinging by to pick up a canvassing packet. Several others, like the Constantines, had grabbed their material Friday night and were already on the streets.

On Tuscan Sun Drive in the Mountain View subdivision, the Constantines, who just moved here from Minnesota, remained optimistic, even though they found no voters willing to listen after an hour of door-knocking. "The people we've run into who are going to vote for Romney are very excited," said Richard Constantine, 25.

Romney's staffers estimated they had about 100 people out knocking on doors. But the low-key push contrasted sharply with nearly a half-dozen organizing events the Obama campaign was holding, partly to capitalize on a parade celebrating Mexican Independence Day that would draw tens of thousands of Hispanics.

Even at the Obama supporters' locations, however, it was obvious that the contest would be close.

At a union office in the eastern suburb of Henderson, John Martinez, co-state political coordinator for the United Steelworkers, acknowledged that, despite the Democrats' numerical superiority on the ground, the vibe is different than in 2008.

"People haven't been into the ball game yet," he said. Still, he added, "things are picking up. That feeling is coming back."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-campaign-trails-crucial-ground-game-121307959--election.html

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Aileen Suzara Cracks Open Filipino Cuisine in Coconut Cooking ...

Aileen Suzara

Coconut is the new pomegranate. Touted for its health benefits, it?s popping up everywhere. Electrolyte-rich coconut water has replaced Gatorade as the new sports drink and claims abound that coconut oil boosts the immune system, thyroid and heart. But the reason I took the Cooking with Coconut class at Oakland?s Asian Cultural Center (OACC) was less about health and more about taste. I?m cuckoo for coconuts (the unsweetened natural stuff). I also wanted to broaden my knowledge of Filipino cuisine, beyond adobo and lumpia.

I know it?s risky to spread the word on the insider cooking classes at OACC, because they may all sell out before I get a ticket, but this is an amazing hidden pearl for DIY ethnic food fans: intimate hands-on workshops, most priced under $50 for a three-hour class that includes lunch. (A few months ago, I savored Thy Tran?s Steamed Asian Sweets class at OACC.)

When I arrived in OACC?s kitchen on a recent Sunday and surveyed the ingredients for Cooking with Coconut arranged on tables around the room, I was puzzled by the absence of the familiar brown hairy globes. Turned out we were using young or immature coconuts, which take the form of squat white cylinders with pointed tops.

young coconuts Collage

Aileen Suzara, a 2nd generation Filipina American, guided eight of us through three coconut-centric recipes from her culture:

Binakol: a chicken soup, featuring fresh coconut water, shallot, garlic, ginger, mushrooms and young coconut slices.

Laing: a green vegetable dish traditionally made with taro leaves, coconut milk and chilis. Suzara opted for fresh kale leaves instead of taro and upped the ante with coconut cream, plus plenty of garlic and ginger.

And for dessert, Palitaw: simple rice flour dumplings rolled in sesame seeds and chopped coconut.

To round out the meal, she shared some precious heirloom black rice a friend had brought back from the Philippines.

Against a background of resounding drumbeats from OACC?s Lion Dance class next door, Suzara demonstrated the ease of cracking open the stocky, young coconuts. A few decisive whacks of a cleaver, and coconut water came gushing forth. Then she showed how easy it is to scoop out the soft, slimy white flesh with just a spoon. While some of us scraped out coconut meat, others chopped ginger, as directed by Suzara, ?in pieces big enough to slap you in the face with a burst of ginger.?

busy hands

As soon as Suzara spooned a dollop of coconut oil into the hot wok, followed by the chopped shallots, ginger and garlic, a symphony of aromas filled the room. Chicken thighs browned and then slowly simmered in the coconut water collected from the half-dozen young coconuts. Black peppercorns, and lemongrass were added to the soup and finally oyster mushrooms and the white coconut meat.

adding coconut Collage
Adding coconut cream to the laing and young coconut meat to the binakol

Suzara, who encouraged us to cook with our senses instead of relying exclusively on recipes, modeled how to cheerfully roll with the punches of a few kitchen mishaps. These ?teaching moments? -- as she referred to the pop-up surprises -- included: a little cut here, a minor burnt wooden board there and a rice flour mixture that was too liquid, so she changed desserts mid-course.

serving time
Our lunch of binakol, laing and palitaw

While we enjoyed our collectively created lunch, Suzara shared a little about herself. After studying environmental science, she worked with non-profits on environmental re-education, catered Filipino cooking and completed a program at UC Santa Cruz in ecological horticulture.

She is active in social justice and agricultural education and wants to help her community make wise food choices. She cites the impact that 400 years of Spanish and US colonization has had on the traditional Filipino diet, resulting in, for example, a switch to refined flour and convenience foods and fried dishes which were traditionally enjoyed for just for special celebrations (like lumpia) that have become defining dishes of the cuisine.

(This reminded me of a similar struggle in African American food culture portrayed in the film, Soul Food Junkies.)

As we cleaned up the kitchen, I interviewed Suzara about how she learned to cook Filipino food, her involvement in agricultural education and her future plans.

aileen Collage

Why did you pick coconut as the focus of this class?

Coconut is close to my heart. My father is from Bicol, a region of the Philippines famous for its coconut dishes, so cooking with coconut is in my blood. In the Philippines, coconut is called the ?Tree of Life? because you can use every part it. Its trunk and leaves provide building materials and home d?cor, its oil is used in beauty products and is very healthy for cooking, coconut sugar is better for diabetics and coconut milk is used all over South East Asia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.

I grew up in five different states but spent my adolescence on The Big Island Hawaii, so I ate the local coconuts there. When I was a freshman, they held a school ?Olympics? with running and swimming events but somehow even though I was the scrawniest 14-year old, they put me in the coconut cracking and husking competition. Of course, I was slower and lost to a bunch of big boys, but I got the process down.

Did you learn to cook Filipino specialties from your parents?

Yes and no, I?m somewhat self-taught. My hardworking parents worked long hours as a nurse and doctor. When I was about eight, they gave me free reign in the kitchen and I started cooking for the family. At first I did scrambled eggs but later moved on to soups and stews. Then I found some old Filipino cookbooks, including one that my mom brought when she immigrated at 23. It was in English but there were all these words for ingredients that I had never seen before. I wanted to learn what it all meant.

Growing up, meals were flavored by my parents? ?post-WWII diet? of American imports -- things like Spam, Vienna sausage, corned beef -- and of course, fish and rice. So that?s the kind of thing they cooked. But when I was eight, we took a trip back to the Philippines and I met my grandparents and extended family. They took me to these huge markets. I tasted everything and fell in love.

Didn?t you just come back from living and working on a farm?

Yes, first, I spent six months in an apprenticeship program at UC Santa Cruz in ecological horticulture. Here?s a video from the Filipino channel interviewing Aileen about her experience working on the organic farm.

ADOBO NATION. Sustainable Farming. from Jeremiah Ysip.

And I just returned from Pie Ranch, an educational farm in Pescadero with a youth program that teaches young people to learn where their food comes from. I helped care for their 250 chickens, goats and 15+ acres of wheat, squash and other crops.

What are some of your future plans?

If there?s anything I learned from experiences in the food world, it?s that we need more culturally relevant models. I hope to be part of developing new programs to engage Asian-Pacific youth. Filipinos have a long history of leadership in the food movement that unfortunately, not enough people are aware of. In the early 1900s thousands came and worked on California farms. And while many people have heard of the United Farm Workers, they may not know of Filipino organizers like Larry Itliong, who worked alongside Cesar Chavez and co-founded the movement.

I?d like to grow traditional ingredients used in Filipino cuisine and work with my community for more access to healthy fresh food and on health issues linked to food. It?s the immigrant paradox, as what we may now think of as a typical Filipino diet has steered away from plant-based foods, which have always been part of our traditions, one reason why heart disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension have all become so common.

I just moved back to Oakland. This week, I start my new job as Garden Coordinator for a green school program at a San Francisco elementary school.

Watch for Aileen Suzara to teach more classes at OACC and share her cooking in a pop-up sponsored by West Oakland?s People?s Grocery to celebrate Filipino American History Month in October.

Aileen Suzara's website: Kitchen Kwento
Twitter: @kitchenkwento

This entry was posted by Anna Mindess on Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 7:59 am and is filed under asian food and drink, bay area, chefs, cooking techniques and tips, culinary education and classes, farmers and farms, food and drink, gardening and urban farming, health and nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
tags: Aileen Suzara, coconut, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut water, cooking classes, Filipino cuisine, OACC, Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Source: http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2012/09/21/aileen-suzara-cracks-open-filipino-cuisine-in-coconut-cooking-class/

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Monday, September 17, 2012

New School Nutrition Standards Recipe For ProblemsYour Health ...

From NECN?..

In his gut, Kurt Myers knows when a student arrives at school on an empty stomach.

He can see it on a cold Monday morning in the coat that remains zipped and the hat that stays pulled down, in the rush to eat school breakfast as if it?s the student?s first meal in days.

And in the Reading School District, where 92 percent of students received free or reduced-price meals in 2011-12, Myers knows it doesn?t take a food services director such as himself to realize that ?when a student looks like he hasn?t eaten all weekend, he probably hasn?t eaten all weekend.?

For that reason, Myers traditionally has had the district offer more than the required servings of protein at lunch, knowing it could be the last filling meal of the day for many students.

But this year, new lunch standards set by the national Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act are changing the way lunches are served and limiting the amount of protein city schools can serve.

Approved in 2010 and championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the law handed the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to mandate a menu makeover for 2012-13, introducing new grain and protein restrictions and more fruits and vegetables.

GOOD INTENT, TOUGH SELL

Berks County food service administrators have welcomed the law in spirit, embracing its combination of whole grains, fruits and vegetables as a way to combat childhood obesity.

But they are concerned that the act could prove a recipe for wasted food that will leave students anything but hunger-free even as it raises the average Berks school lunch price by 11 cents, from $2.22 to $2.33.

?If Johnny gets three-quarters of a cup of carrots and doesn?t like carrots, he?s going to dump the carrots in the trash,? Myers said. ?He?s going to go home. He?s going to be hungry, and he?s going to plop on the couch and bust open a bag of chips.?

And if Johnny receives free or reduced-price lunches and refuses to take a fruit or vegetable, the district will not receive its government reimbursement for the meal.

However, for every meal that complies with the new requirements, schools can receive an extra reimbursement of 6 cents, even if a student pays the full price.

To read the full story?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=4447

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Friday, September 14, 2012

Nintendo Wii U gets December 8th release date for Japan: 26,260 yen for basic set, 31,500 yen for premium

The Nintendo Wii U arrives on Japanese shores on December 8th starting at 26,260 yen (around $340), Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced this morning via Nintendo Direct's video stream. A presentation later today in New York City starring Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime will reveal pricing and release dates for the rest of the world, but you'd be right in guessing it won't be too far from the Japanese launch.

A basic set (only in white) and premium set (only in black) were revealed, with the darker option adding more storage; 32GB, up from 8GB on the cheaper bundle. The Premium set (priced at 31,500 yen, or about $405) consists of the console, GamePad, a charging stand, play stand, and yet another stand for the Wii U itself. Those GamePads will also be available standalone for 13,440 yen, which could see American gamers paying around $173 for the luxury of a spare.

The Wii U pro controllers are priced at 5,040 yen ($65) each, while the Wiimote will continue to be priced at 3,800 yen (around $50), now in a range of colors. Likewise, the nunchucks will come in three color palettes. The GamePad charging stand will also be available to buy separately -- setting you back around 1,870 yen -- around $25. Naturally, there's going to be some international variance in these prices so we'll be updating once we get those global prices cemented.

We've been given a little more detail on the technical specifics too, with the Wii U packing 1GB of its own ("main") memory alongside 1GB for running games. Two titles, New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land will both debut alongside the console -- we're expecting to hear even more software details later today.

Ben Gilbert contributed to this post.

Gallery: Nintendo Wii U pricing revealed

Gallery: Nintendo Wii U announcement event

Continue reading Nintendo Wii U gets December 8th release date for Japan: 26,260 yen for basic set, 31,500 yen for premium

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/nintendo-wii-u-price-release-date/

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A Conversation With Terence Winter

Kelly Macdonald, Steve Buscemi in the Season 3 premiere of Boardwalk Empire.

Kelly Macdonald, Steve Buscemi in the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire.

Photo by Macall B. Polay/HBO.

When the credits rolled on the final episode of Boardwalk Empire?s second season last December, Atlantic City?s Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) was still the exclusive supplier of Irish whiskey to bootleggers and gangsters from Philadelphia to Chicago, but almost everything else in his life had been upended. His rival and former mentor Commodore Louis Kaestner was dead, as was his young prot?g? Jimmy Darmody. He?d married Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), who then sabotaged a long-hatched property scheme by signing thousands of acres over to the local Catholic church,? and his brother Eli was sitting in jail.

Slate spoke with the show?s creator and showrunner?and former Sopranos writer?Terence Winter, about the new season, which premieres on HBO this Sunday at 9 p.m.

Slate: Is there an overarching theme for Season 3?

Terence Winter: It?s the night before the morning after. Like a wild party, before the chickens come home to roost and there?s a reckoning.

Slate: Why did you jump so far ahead in the future in Season 3?

Winter: If we picked the series up the day that Nucky got home and found out Margaret gave his land away, I knew everything that happened. There?d be a huge fight??How could you do that?? And then there?d be the fallout from Jimmy?s death. I just feel like I?m not all that interested, because I already know it. So I said, ?All right, where are these people a year from now?? I don?t know. They could be anywhere. That was interesting to us as writers. It was much more challenging, because we had to sit around and say, ?Well, it can be anything.? Settling on one thing took a while of us sitting around and eating potato chips and talking.

Slate: I?m fascinated by Boardwalk Empire?s tagline, ?You can?t be half a gangster.? In the Season 2 finale, Nucky Thompson crossed a line, and killed Jimmy Darmody, but he still seems to be holding back from being a full gangster. And he?s especially prone to being undone by love. In Season 2, he married Margaret, and she gave away all the property he?d spent years accumulating. In Season 3, he?s again distracted by a woman. Are you saying that romantics can?t be ?real? gangsters?

Winter: Not necessarily. Any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster. Nucky?s still carrying around a lot of psychological damage from having killed Jimmy, who was essentially a surrogate son. In Season 3, there are some psychological ramifications that show he?s still haunted by this. I think people, whether they realize they?re doing it or not, seek out distractions to take their minds off what they know is bad behavior. And Nucky does that with women.

Slate: Nucky is the only male character who doesn?t seem to be a psychopath. Am I wrong about that?

Winter: Certainly in that world, being a psychopath is a big benefit. There are varying degrees of social dysfunction, raging from psychopath to sociopath to just plain idiot thug. Even the politicians aren?t a whole lot better than the blue-collar criminals. It?s a world inhabited by colorful and often ugly personalities.

Slate: Speaking of which, in Season 3, you introduce a fabulous but terrifying character, Gyp Rosetti, who is definitely a psychopath. Was there really a Gyp Rosetti?

Winter: No, he?s completely fictional. Gyp represents a new breed of gangster. Things got progressively more competitive and more violent as the 1920s progressed. When Prohibition was first enacted in 1920, most people stockpiled alcohol, thinking they?d have enough to last them for years. By 1923, that was starting to run out, so your average person started to rely more and more on criminals. Hence the profits in the alcohol game went up, and the competition and the violence increased as well. You had people like Gyp Rosetti, who were essentially low-level criminals starting to work their way into the game.

Terence Winter, the creator of the hit prohibition-era television show 'Boardwalk Empire.'

Writer Terence Winter, creator of Boardwalk Empire

Pierre Verdy/AFP/GettyImages.

Slate: This seems like the last time criminals could succeed on their own. A guy like Nucky would need more of a family or ethnic or tribal support system just a few years later. Am I wrong in seeing Prohibition?or this particular part of it?as the end of the gangster meritocracy?

Winter: Yeah, the gangster world has changed quite a bit. This season, Joe Masseria is really frustrated that Lucky Luciano works with the Irish and Jews?Lucky?s really an equal-opportunity gangster. It?s not about ethnic lines for him. I think things got much more ethnocentric as time went on. It really became more about the Italian mob, and the black mob, and the Irish mob. Back then, people hadn?t affiliated themselves exclusively along ethnic lines, though it was certainly moving in that direction.

Slate: Are there any female characters in Boardwalk Empire who are happy?

Winter: It?s not a very happy world that we?re depicting, so I don?t know that that?s exclusively about women.

Slate: But the only way for women to get anything is by manipulation and deception.

Winter: Women had just gotten the right to vote. I think the world that they have to negotiate often includes trying to figure out how to work your way around the male-dominated society to get what you want. Also, a lot of our female characters aren?t exactly role models. They?re showgirls and whores, so they?re already people who are prone to bad behavior. You?ll get some manipulation and skullduggery there, just as part and parcel of who they are and what they do.

Slate: There are some obvious similarities between Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos, the success of which you played a big part in. They?re set in New Jersey, they involve mobsters and illegal activity, they focus on the criminals? family and interior lives. What drew you to return to that territory, and how do you distinguish the two stories?

Winter: One of the first lines, if not the first line, that Tony Soprano says in the entire series is, ?I feel like I came in at the end of something.? This is the beginning of that something.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=af90c4d4d6c3393f6fd74c4b0ebf1fef

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Sunday, September 9, 2012

Aggies trust new QB 'Johnny Football'

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Johnny Manziel doesn't run from the big moments. He craves them.

Those expecting the redshirt freshman to be overcome by the gravity of the moment when he steps on the field for the first time as Texas A&M's starting quarterback as the Aggies host No. 24 Florida in their first Southeastern Conference game might be surprised.

Confidence, swagger -- whatever you call it -- Manziel has it, according to those around him.

"He has the feel of a kid that has always expected this moment," offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said. "I think he?s just one of those kids that has that type of vibe about him that nothing?s too big for him."

As the Aggies prepare to make their SEC debut at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Kyle Field, there will be a lot of new: a new head coach (Kevin Sumlin) and coaching staff, a new offense, a new defense and even new uniforms. Add Manziel to that list; the Kerrville (Texas) Tivy product is the new starting quarterback for Texas A&M, winning a competition in fall training camp.

Listen to teammates, coaches and former coaches talk about Manziel, and the same words continue to pop up: competitor, confident, leader, winner.

"Probably one of the greatest competitors I've ever been around," said Mark Smith, his coach at Tivy who is now coaching at Converse (Texas) Judson. "I mean the boy wants to compete and he wants to excel and do well. And he made everybody else around him better. Those things have always stood out to me."

Manziel's leadership already has been seen during practices after Sumlin and Kingsbury named him the starting quarterback in August. Whether it's correcting mistakes or ensuring that everyone is on the same page, Manziel is getting it done.

"He's doing a real good job of stepping up and being real vocal," said Texas A&M senior center Patrick Lewis, one of the team's four captains. "Quarterbacks are normally in charge of the offense and he tells us what he wants and what he expects. For him to be so young and to demand that attention from us so early, it's really impressive to me.

"He'll come out there and give his little speech to the offense before we start practice and he demands perfection already. I'm proud of him; I'm happy for him. I can't wait to see what he can do once we start playing games."

At Tivy, Manziel -- sometimes called by his nickname, "Johnny Football" -- was a bona fide superstar. He was a Parade All-American and was named the Texas Class 4A Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press as a senior. He broke the San Antonio area's single-season record with 3,609 passing yards and tied an area record with 45 touchdown passes. Not only that, he ran for 1,674 yards and 30 touchdowns while leading the Antlers to a 10-2 record. As a junior, Manziel carried his team to the Class 4A Division II state semifinals.

Throughout his high school career, in which he threw for more than 12,000 yards, Manziel would cause jaws to drop by making plays with either his arm or his feet.

"I don't know if I can count them all," Smith said. "He found ways to do stuff. ... He made some throws sometimes that you just don't know how he made them. And he did it. Or he made a run that made you go 'Holy cow.'"

?
I'd take him in a heartbeat. I wouldn't even blink. I think he has all the tools that are necessary for him to be successful and to lead a football team.
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-- Mark Smith, who coached Manziel at Kerrville (Texas) Tivy.

He originally committed to Oregon the summer before his senior season. The distance from home was a concern for Manziel, who wanted his family and friends to be able to see him play. When Texas A&M extended him an offer and he had an opportunity to see what the Aggies had to offer, he switched his commitment.

"When he sat down and made the decision to go to A&M, he came into my office on a Sunday night ... we came in and just sat down and talked and put down what's important," Smith said. "And family is important to him. Being close to his family so that his mom and dad are able to see him [was important], and when you got down to it, that was the underlying factor to him going to A&M."

Manziel isn't perfect. Kingsbury said that in the spring the 6-foot-1, 200-pound quarterback was "reckless with the football." Manziel operates with the confidence that he can make any throw or any play at any time. Kingsbury and Sumlin's high-powered, up-tempo offense, which is rooted in Air Raid principles, only functions effectively if the quarterback is taking care of the ball and distributing it to the playmakers around him.

When Manziel arrived for fall camp in August, the coaches could see significant improvement from him, particularly in that area.

"With Johnny, it's probably that he thinks he's the best player out there every time he steps out," Kingsbury said. "So he wants the ball in his hands and wants to do everything with it. He has a great cast around him, he's got to get it to those guys and let them make plays. Like I said, just reeling him back in from the spring, he showed up and was making the routine play and that's what we want from him."

Off the field, Manziel had a hiccup in the summer. He was arrested in the Northgate bar district and charged with disorderly conduct, failure to identify and possessing a false identification card, all misdemeanors.

Sumlin set forth parameters that Manziel had to meet to have a chance to remain part of the team. Sumlin said Manziel met all of them and got back in good graces. Not only that, he won the staff over enough that they felt comfortable tabbing him as the quarterback who will lead the Aggies in their first SEC season.

"No doubt, like everybody else, I was disappointed, because you expect more of him," Smith said. "And I think once you understand the whole story and get down to it, really he probably got caught at the wrong time, doing the wrong things. And he's just like any other 19-year-old kid on a college campus. We'd like these guys to be model citizens and do all the right things and they don't always do [that]. He made a decision, but he owned up and that's the first thing he said, 'I was wrong.' And I think that's the first mark of a man, to be able to hold yourself accountable and say 'I made a mistake.'

"For him to come back out and overcome the adversity he's had, shows his perseverance and his willingness to be committed to Texas A&M and make them a better program and make himself a better player."

Texas A&M senior receiver Ryan Swope took it upon himself to speak with Manziel over the summer to help him adapt to the college game and learn the ins and outs of what it takes to play at this level. They didn't just talk about football. They talked about life as well.

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Swope said the team believes in Manziel.

"I've got trust in him," Swope said. "I feel like our whole team does, and that's important. As a senior coming back, I've talked to all the receivers, and a guy like Johnny, we have full trust in. We're very excited for him and we just can't get complacent, and that's what we tell him. He's got to work every day because we've got three guys [Jameill Showers, Matt Joeckel and Matt Davis] right behind him that are wanting that spot, so it's important that he goes out and works hard every single day."

Sumlin said he's relying on the veteran offensive players around Manziel to help ease the transition as he gains game experience.

"Until you?re in a game with game speed and the intensity level, that?s where your experience comes from," Sumlin said. "He?s an inexperienced player and because of that, our surrounding cast of our offensive line or our running backs or our skill people on the perimeter who have experience, have to play well and create a quarterback-friendly atmosphere for him. Fortunately we?ve got experienced players in those positions.?

Smith, who was one of the first people Manziel called when he was officially named the starter in August, has no doubt that "Johnny Football" will succeed.

"I'd take him in a heartbeat," Smith said. "I wouldn't even blink. I think he has all the tools that are necessary for him to be successful and to lead a football team."

Source: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/colleges/florida/post/_/id/8736/aggies-trust-new-qb-johnny-football

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Monday, September 3, 2012

Jewish settlers leave West Bank outpost

The residents of Migron, the largest and oldest Israeli settlement outpost in the West Bank, evacuated the site on Sunday ahead of a court-ordered deadline, police said.

The outpost in the occupied West Bank, built without Israeli state permission, is on private Palestinian land and in August 2011 Israel's Supreme Court ordered that it be cleared.

The evacuation has been repeatedly delayed in the face of fierce settler opposition, but last week the court said the 50 families resident in the outpost had to be out by the end of Tuesday.

"All the families are gone," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP, noting that most left on their own while some passively resisted and were removed by police forces. "Everything is quiet here."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was pleased that the evacuation of Migron "was concluded via dialogue, in a responsible fashion and without violence."

"This is how it should be, and how it will also be in the future," he said at a ceremony near Tel Aviv, in remarks relayed by his office.

Most families left for temporary housing in the nearby settlement of Ofra, where they will be housed until homes being built for them in the new settlement of Givat Hayekev are ready.

The army then declared the outpost a closed military zone, a spokesman said, a move aimed at preventing theft of the property left behind and keeping out rightwing activists.

Defence ministry employees were at work packing the residents' belongings, a ministry spokesman said.

A handful of mostly women and children were seen leaving their homes early on Sunday, although none appeared to be taking any luggage, an AFP correspondent reported.

Graffiti and signs on their homes sounded defiant tones. "Migron, we shall return," and "We will never forget Zionism," slogans read.

But the outpost's residents were largely silent, trying to avoid being questioned or photographed by the media scrum.

The Israeli military said implementation of the court order began overnight.

"Several families began leaving Migron voluntarily during the night," a spokeswoman said.

Early on Sunday, officials began distributing the evacuation orders to the families, with scores of police officers on hand to prevent unrest.

In anticipation of police attempts to forcibly move the families, around 70 young settler activists, who do not live in Migron, took over a caravan at the site and barricaded themselves in, while others could be seen on the roof.

Samri said the youths were eventually removed from the site, and police arrested eight of them.

Last week, the Supreme Court said Migron must be cleared of all residents by September 4 and all the buildings removed by September 11, after rejecting an appeal by 17 families who argued they had legally purchased the land where their homes stood.

Settlement watchdog Peace Now welcomed the ruling as a "victory for the state of law," but the settlers described it as a "brutal rape."

Israel outlaws settlement outposts being built without government approval and often sends security personnel to demolish them. They usually consist of little more than a few trailers.

The international community considers all settlements built in the occupied West Bank -- including annexed Arab east Jerusalem -- to be illegal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jewish-settlers-leave-west-bank-outpost-152215765.html

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