Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sports: Bigger, faster, stronger: Hockey, baseball, football vs. track and field

Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy law profs' blog (Jan28,2k110



Posted: 28 Jan 2011 12:37 AM PST
(Ilya Somin)

In this recent Boston Globe article, sportswriter Paul Kix argues that human sports performance is close to reaching its maximum limits because track and field world records have plateaued over the last two decades:
In the sports that best measure athleticism — track and field, mostly — athletic performance has peaked. The studies show the steady progress of athletic achievement through the first half of the 20th century, and into the latter half, and always the world-record times fall. Then, suddenly, achievement flatlines. These days, athletes’ best sprints, best jumps, best throws — many of them happened years ago, sometimes a generation ago. 
“We’re reaching our biological limits,” said Geoffroy Berthelot, one of the coauthors of both studies and a research specialist at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Sports Epidemiology in Paris. “We made major performance increases in the last century. And now it is very hard.”
I am skeptical of this claim. If you look at most other sports, it’s clear that performance is steadily improving. Anyone who follows baseball, basketball, or football, for example, can see that today’s players are stronger, faster, and more agile than those of a generation ago. Consider Wayne Gretzky’s recent comments about the development of hockey since his heyday in the 1980s:
“The game in my era was a completely different game [than] it is today,” Gretzky said. “The players today are so much bigger and faster and stronger, but that’s evolution. It just means our game is getting better. Fifteen years from now, these guys will look back and say, ‘What a different game.’...“
If Gretzky were playing in the NHL today at the same level as when he was in his prime, he would still be a great player. But he probably would not dominate to the overwhelming extent that he did back in the 1980s, when he was simply head and shoulders above the competition (at least until Mario Lemieux began to challenge him towards the end of the decade).

I think the hockey experience is more typical than that of track and field.

Moreover, a key reason why the track and field records of the 1980s and early 1990s have proven difficult to break is that that period was the era when the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs was rampant in the sport. With the fall of the Soviet bloc (the Soviets and East Germans were especially egregious cheaters in this field), and the rise of tougher testing, today’s track stars are less likely to be juiced than those of a generation ago, and therefore have trouble surpassing the records set in that era.

I recognize, of course, that steroids use also probably improved performance in other sports over the last 20 years, including baseball and football. So one could argue that these sports would have stagnated but for the availability of PEDs. But the standard of play in all of them remains much higher than in the 1980s, despite recent enforcement crackdowns.

In the medium to longterm, I think progress will continue as a result of improvements in preparation, strategy, and conditioning. It’s theoretically possible that today’s techniques are the best that can possibly be devised. But that seems unlikely. Eventually, genetic engineering could also provide a big boost.


-- Ilya's VC blog-entry reposted by Sportikos

Friday, January 28, 2011

Music: Pop classic 1980s: Dave Bowie sings 'Let's Dance" video-ed in Australia



YouTubeService.  Check it out at yUT2ube, partner with refWrite.

-- Musikos

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sports: Soccer: Japan and South Korea seen as competitive in what world calls 'football' 2022

Japan and South Korea lead way for Asian soccer 

South Korea's defender Cha Du-Ri (L) fouls Japan's forward Shinji Okazaki during their 2011 Asian Cup semifinal match. AFP photo

South Korea's defender Cha Du-Ri (L) fouls Japan's forward Shinji Okazaki during their 2011 Asian Cup semifinal match. AFP photo


















Qatar will host Asia's second World Cup in 2022, but only two teams from the region have any chance of winning it, according to Asian Football Confederation President Mohammed bin Hammam.
"We have two very good teams or, let me say, good practices in Asia: Japan and South Korea," Bin Hammam told The Associated Press. "If there will be any, I believe Japan or Korea can be our team which lifts the World Cup."
Many felt the quality of Japan's Asian Cup semifinal win over South Korea on Tuesday was worthy of a final, and the two countries continue to reap the benefits of co-hosting the 2002 World Cup.
-- AP via Hurriyet intro posted by Sportikos

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Sports: National Football League: Packers fan wears wrong necktie

Booker Rising [jan25,2k11]


Chicago Car Salesman Fired 

For Wearing Packers Tie


I told ya that we Bears fans take the Bears-Packers rivalry – the oldest 
rivalry in the NFL, going strong since 1921 – seriously. How ya gonna wear a Green Bay tie to work in the day after that big game, when you work with the Chicagoland public?! Putting your job at risk, in this economy?! From the Associated Press: "A car salesman in suburban Chicago has been fired for refusing to remove a Green Bay Packers tie that he wore to work the day after the Packers beat the Chicago Bears to advance to the Super Bowl. John Stone says he wore the Packers tie to work on Monday at Webb Chevrolet in Oak Lawn to honor his late grandmother, who was a big Green Bay fan. The sentimental gesture did not impress his boss, Jerry Roberts."

More: "Roberts says the dealership has done promotions involving the Bears and he was afraid the tie could alienate the team's fans and make it harder to sell cars. Roberts adds that Stone was offered five chances to take off the tie but he refused."

-- Shay Riley, editor, Booker Rising
-- reposted by Sportikos

Sports: Hockey: New York Islanders suspend star goalie Nabokov

HuffPost [jan25,2k11]


World-class goaltender Evgeni Nabokov has beensuspended indefinitely by the New York Islanders, one of the NHL's worst teams, for failing to report.
Nabokov was released by his Russian pro league team in December and had hoped to return to America for a run at the Stanley Cup. He signed with Detroit on Friday but a bizarre NHL rule forced him to pass through waivers first. The Islanders scooped him up Saturday, but Nabokov refused to report to the team.
The Islanders aren't happy and today they announced the star goalie has been suspended.
Heading into Tuesday night play, the Islanders arethe NHL's third worst team with a measley 37 points and just 15 wins through 47 games.
Nabokov, 35, played all nine NHL seasons with San Jose before bolting for Russia's KHL at the end of last season. His all-time NHL record is 293-178-29 with a 2.39 GAA and .912 save percentage. He has never won the Stanley Cup but came close last year, falling in the Western Conference Finals to the Chicago Blackhawks.



And a look under the mask [on Russian TV, with some game footage].




-- Huffstuff and YouTube on refWrite [yUT2ube] posted by Sportikos

Monday, January 24, 2011

Fashion: Paris runways: Armani goes futurist, Galliano retros

Montreal Gazette [jan24,2k11] Click up to savour lots more images by Getty organization.




A model presents a creation by Giorgio Armani Prive during the Spring-Summer 2011 Haute Couture Collection Show on January 24, 2011, in Paris.

Sports: Hockey: Washington Capitals star is comeback kid against Toronto Maple Leafs



Ovechkin’s hat-trick lifts Caps past Leafs


 

 
 
 
 
Alex Ovechkin #8 and Nicklas Backstrom #19 of the Washington Capitals celebrates goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during game action at the Air Canada Centre.
 
 

Alex Ovechkin #8 and Nicklas Backstrom #19 of the Washington Capitals celebrates goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during game action at the Air Canada Centre.

Photograph by: Abelimages, GettY Images

TORONTO — One was sort of expected. The other was not.
Alex Ovechkin scored his first hat trick of the season in a 4-1 win Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the story of the night belonged to Washington Capitals rookie goaltender Braden Holtby, who stopped 30 shots for his fourth career victory.

The three-goal output was just what Ovechkin needed. Heading into Saturday’s game, the two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner had scored just once in his last seven games and was on pace for 27 goals this season — the lowest of his NHL career.

It turns out he just needed to play in Toronto.


more:http://www.montrealgazette.com/Ovechkin+trick+lifts+Caps+past+Leafs/4151137/story.html#ixzz1C0I5alXD

Music: Country Music USA: Weekly chart has my fave Carrie Underwood at the top, again

Top 20 Country Countdown
GAC email newsletter


This Week’s Chart:

1. Carrie Underwood — “Mama’s Song”
2. Blake Shelton — “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”
3. Bo Bice — “You Take Yourself With You”
4. Jason Aldean feat. Kelly Clarkson – “Don’t You Wanna Stay”
5. Taylor Swift — “Back To December”
6. Josh Turner — “I Wouldn’t Be A Man”
7. Sara Evans — “A Little Bit Stronger”
8. Zac Brown Band feat. Alan Jackson — “As She’s Walking Away”
9. Keith Urban – “Put You In A Song”
10. Lady Antebellum — “Hello World”
11. Reba McEntire — “Turn On The Radio”
12. Brad Paisley — “This Is Country Music?”
13. Tim McGraw — “Felt Good On My Lips”
14. Chris Young — “Voices”
15. Joey + Rory — “That’s Important To Me”
16. Toby Keith — “Bullets In The Gun”
17. Loretta Lynn, Sheryl Crow & Miranda Lambert — “Coal Miner’s Daughter”
18. Miranda Lambert — “Only Prettier”
19. Gwyneth Paltrow — “Country Strong”
20. Jason Aldean – “My Kinda Party”
GAC’s Top 20 Country Countdown premieres every Friday night at 8/7c with re-airs throughout the weekend.  Click here for a complete schedule.

-- Country Music Gal

Sports: National Football League: Pro football's Most Valuable Player 2011

Margae, a sponsor of the great blog Bookerista Rising, excellently edited by Shay Riley, presents a summary of the prospects of the leading players of leading teams in the National football league's lead-up to the Super Bowl, February 6.

-- Sportikos

"As the NFL playoffs continue, most people are chatting about who’s going to play in the 2011 Super Bowl. But looking back at the regular season, though, it’s interesting to have the Most Valuable Player debate – especially since Tom Brady and his New England Patriots failed so miserably in the postseason. 
Here are our Top 3 picks for NFL MVP this season:

1. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles

Let’s face it: the Eagles would have been nothing without Vick, who redeemed himself and posted his best season as a pro in 2010. At the beginning of the season, Kevin Kolb was supposed to be the future in Philadelphia but the Eagles were lucky that he was injured because it gave an opening for Vick to step in and light the world on fire. 

Take a look at these numbers:
-3018 passing yards
-21 passing touchdowns, six interceptions
-676 rushing yards
-9 rushing touchdowns

And by the way, all of that damage was done in just 12 games played.

The Eagles are nothing without Vick this year never mind NFC East champs. If that’s not MVP credentials, I don’t know what is.

2. Darrelle Revis, New York Jets 

Make no bones about it: the Jets are a defense-oriented team. And clearly, they may be the best defensive team in the NFL.

If that’s the case, then why shouldn’t the best defensive player on the best defensive team be named as the league’s MVP?

Time and time again, coaches are lauding Revis as being the best defensive player in the league. Opposing quarterbacks don’t even want to the throw the ball his way.

He probably won’t win it because the stats aren’t there (cornerbacks are generally graded by their number of interceptions) but Revis has a huge impact every single game he plays. He deserves plenty of credit for MVP.

3. Arian Foster, Houston Texans

It’s time to give the little guy some love. He’s been getting plenty from fantasy football players all season long but Foster deserves some serious consideration for MVP.

Foster is the NFL’s leading rusher, finishing with 1616 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. But that’s not where his work ended. He was also second on the team with 66 receptions for 604 yards and a couple more touchdowns.

When you do the math, Foster had the most yards from scrimmage (2220) of any player in the league and he himself accounted for 138.8 yards of offensive per week. 

While the Texans didn’t accomplish much this season, Foster’s stats hover around astounding and he deserves some MVP merits.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Sports: Rugby: Glasgow Warriors whack the Wasps in shocking realignment of Heineken Cup playoffs

The Scotsman [jan17,2k11]


Glasgow serve up a Heineken Cup shock to leave Wasps facing exit

Published Date: 17 January 2011
GLASGOW coach Sean Lineen was the least surprised man at Firhill yesterday after his side pulled off another of the great Heineken Cup upsets by beating Wasps, leaving the English Premiership side struggling to qualify for the quarter-finals.

• Colin Gregor scored Glasgow's try as the Warriors beat Wasps convincingly at Firhill. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Lineen had seen it before, notably two years ago when Glasgow stunned Toulouse in France, while Wasps, fresh from winning the Heineken Cup, also came to grief in Edinburgh five years ago. Yesterday, he needed his charges to restore some pride in Scottish rugby after a campaign with just one win in four games and a demoralising thumping for Edinburgh at Northampton on Friday night.
----
lots more on the click-up

Coming -- 2011 RBS Six Nations tournament


-- Sportikos

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Arts: Paintings: Cardinal Borghese's collection, with focus on elder Lucas Cranach 91472-1553]


 


new york review of books [jan15,2k11]
The Worldly Temptations of Lucas Cranach

Ingrid D. Rowland


The phrase “Renaissance man” tends to conjure up images of Italians in tights, like Leonardo da Vinci, or that tireless fifteenth-century self-promoter Leon Battista Alberti. Yet the real early modern masters of a thousand arts seem to have come from parts farther north. Peter Paul Rubens was famously both a student of philosophy and a diplomat as well as painter, but no artist may have diversified his talents as widely as the elder Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), mayor of Wittenberg, tavern keeper, and, more than incidentally, court painter for more than half a century to the Electors of Saxony. Cranach is best known now, as he was in his own day, for his paintings of women—impossibly long-legged coquettes with catlike eyes and purring expressions, one of whom, a Venus clad in nothing but a red velvet hat and a gossamer veil, is the centerpiece of a special exhibition being staged this winter within the permanent collection of Rome’s Borghese Gallery.\

Sports: Soccer: Philadelphia; Soccer team studs refuse to wear 'Bimbo' label

Philadelphia soccer fans protest sponsorship deal
Fans of the Philadelphia Union soccer team are up in arms over a sponsorship deal under which players will take the field in shirts emblazoned with the word "Bimbo." The club bagged $12 million in a four-year deal with Bimbo Bakeries USA, an offshoot of a Mexican baked-goods giant, but fans say the pile of cash isn't worth the jeers they'll suffer. "We're going to be [the] laughingstock of the league," complained one Union supporter. The Philadelphia Inquirer (1/12) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story



-- Sportikos posting Leadership SmartBrief item, email newsletter [jan13,2k11]

Friday, January 14, 2011

Music: Facebookey thing: Electro, trance, the usual avant stuff, well, the string work gets quite gloriously intense


 

Thanks for the tip from Gregory Baus about this sound by 'Sebastien Sex Legs Grainger' in his remix of All to All, and a  Hat Tip to globetrotter Baus.  The current album is entitled Broken Social Scene.  A free download.



-- Musikos



Music: Chapman stick: New instrument, great sound, fine musicianship by Kevin Keith


 




New instrument, great sound, fine musicianship.  Keep an eye out for this artist, Kevin Keith. And the Chapman Stick, a kind of guitar.  yUT2ube , our partner at YouTubeService.  Check out Kevin Keith and the ejeband.com  

-- Musikos