There are two things that I try never to write about and they are politics and sports. The reason is simple. I always feel as though nothing that I say will either matter or have any effect as a result. Still, it's hard not to pay attention either.
When it comes to sports I feel confident when talking about at least one of them in particular, and that's football. I played football for 5 years in junior high and high school and I've been watching the sport since I was 3 years old.
Things inside professional sports have changed over the years, and in football most necessarily. It's been said that money changes everything. If your're a fan of pro sports then you may have witnessed that this is true. But despite the changes that have taken place, as a fan, what interests us most has pretty much remained intact.
However, there was a time, back in the 60's when football was a "fan's" sport. Fans would pack places like Lambeau Field, Wrigley Field or maybe even Cleveland Municipal Stadium for a game, whether it was raining, sleeting, or snowing. Neither the high heat of late summer nor the freezing cold of mid winter could keep fans away from the game that they loved.
In the 70's, football became a players sport as we watched individual effort become the hallmark of every winning team. There were stand out players at just about every position. And some names became legend. Names like Jack Lambert, Paul Warfield, Lynn Swann, Larry Sconka, or Roger Staubach always seem to come to mind when you think of the wining or championship teams of that decade.
When the 80's rolled around, football seemed to become a more of a coaches sport. Strategy and player usage was the key to many major victories. Football became chess like as coaches strolled the sideline adjusting their game plans. Names such as Mike Ditka, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Walsh come to mind, as they coached their respective teams to championship victories.
Things were a bit different in the 90s, as the owners took the spotlight. The fate of some teams were completely turned around by a change in ownership. While other teams returned to prominence through the steady leadership of a long time patriarch. The Halas' or the Rooney's, or maybe Jerry Jones might fit this category. Most were low key and classy but they always made sure that their team maintained a high profile.
Here in the 21st century, and this is just my opinion, we've watched as football has become a corporate sport. Owners looking for the cash that they need to procure the best of the marquee players, either from the NFL Draft or from free agency, have reached out to corporations in exchange for a mention, logo placement or maybe even the rights to name the teams stadium or playing field. Lucas Oil Stadium, Sun Life Stadium or FedEx Field come to mind.
This second decade of the 21st century is only a year and a half old at this writing, so whatever will happen in pro sports and football in general still remains to be seen. One thing we can be sure of is that there will be change. One such change is about to take place in the relative future, as the Cleveland Browns are about to be sold. While this may not concern football fans on the whole, it is on the minds of those fans in Cleveland and northeast Ohio.
Many are wondering if this will mean that the team will leave town, again. Current team owner Randy Lerner has assured all, that any contract to sell the Browns will have language written into it that will stipulate that the team remain in Cleveland.
The teams has struggled over Lerner's ten year tenure, but it would seem that even the teams harshest critics are eyeing the situation with a certain level of objectivity. Will this be good or bad for the Browns? Like most of us who've been watching this expansion team version of the franchise, the most import thing that may have been forgotten, is that they are an expansion team. They like any other expansion team deserve the right to be given a chance to build and grow. While it is true that they've been in the league now for what will be their 13th season, many changes have taken place, sometimes yearly.
Yes, Browns fans have suffered mightily. Yes, it is hard to be patient when the Browns are one of only a handful of teams that hasn't won a Super Bowl, yet still have a very proud and storied football tradition. Growth has often been slow to invisible. But, this could be just another step in the evolution of what may one day become a great football franchise. We will all have to wait and see.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Red Rendezvous
Though space may be the final frontier, many of us may not know that another Mars mission is about to occur. The new Mars rover, Curiosity, is set to land on the red planet's surface at 1:31am August 6th. While this may not seem like a historical event, make no mistake about it is.
Curiosity follows in the footsteps of it's predecessors, Spirit, Opportunity, Sojourner, and Pathfinder, which first touched down on the Martian terrain in 1996. The rover got it's name form a sixth grader named Clara Ma, in 2009, as part of NASA's name the rover essay contest. Standing at 7 feet tall, it is the largest and most advance rover to date.
The vehicle, launched in November is a 2.5 billion dollar science laboratory, which if it survives it's 12,000mph plunge into Mars' atmosphere, will spend a full Martian year studying it's desolate environment. Curiosity is slated to land inside of Gale Crater and climb Mt Sharp on a "follow the carbon," trail. During the course of the mission, the rover will be using drills and lasers to bore into Martian rocks to determine what compounds they are made of, in the hopes of discovering if life once existed there.
The Spirit rover ceased transmission in May of 2011, but Opportunity is still going, having already logged 21 miles. Both rovers were part of a three month Mars mission which landed there in March of 2004. If it's landing is successful, Curiosity will send back only black and white photos of the Martian terrain during it first few days, but it is capable of recording hours of full color video of it's surroundings.
Scientist at JPL, (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) and in other locations are excited about the upcoming Mars mission. It represents a chance to go further and do more, and there fore discover more. Learning about how the solar system and the planets within it where formed may serve to deepen our understanding of how life began, at least in our part of the universe. One could only hope that some clues to how life can form will be revealed. And if so, it will help increase our knowledge about the formation of life on Earth and through out our galaxy.
Live coverage of Curiosity's landing will begin Sunday August 5th at 9pm EDT courtesy of the Space Center in Houston. It may make for some very interesting TV viewing, so if you are not able to watch, you may want to set you DVR so that you too will have a chance to see history in the making.
Curiosity follows in the footsteps of it's predecessors, Spirit, Opportunity, Sojourner, and Pathfinder, which first touched down on the Martian terrain in 1996. The rover got it's name form a sixth grader named Clara Ma, in 2009, as part of NASA's name the rover essay contest. Standing at 7 feet tall, it is the largest and most advance rover to date.
The vehicle, launched in November is a 2.5 billion dollar science laboratory, which if it survives it's 12,000mph plunge into Mars' atmosphere, will spend a full Martian year studying it's desolate environment. Curiosity is slated to land inside of Gale Crater and climb Mt Sharp on a "follow the carbon," trail. During the course of the mission, the rover will be using drills and lasers to bore into Martian rocks to determine what compounds they are made of, in the hopes of discovering if life once existed there.
The Spirit rover ceased transmission in May of 2011, but Opportunity is still going, having already logged 21 miles. Both rovers were part of a three month Mars mission which landed there in March of 2004. If it's landing is successful, Curiosity will send back only black and white photos of the Martian terrain during it first few days, but it is capable of recording hours of full color video of it's surroundings.
Scientist at JPL, (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) and in other locations are excited about the upcoming Mars mission. It represents a chance to go further and do more, and there fore discover more. Learning about how the solar system and the planets within it where formed may serve to deepen our understanding of how life began, at least in our part of the universe. One could only hope that some clues to how life can form will be revealed. And if so, it will help increase our knowledge about the formation of life on Earth and through out our galaxy.
Live coverage of Curiosity's landing will begin Sunday August 5th at 9pm EDT courtesy of the Space Center in Houston. It may make for some very interesting TV viewing, so if you are not able to watch, you may want to set you DVR so that you too will have a chance to see history in the making.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Coming Soon
Soon, many of us will decide if it's time to upgrade our operating system. If you're using a PC then that choice is going to be Windows 8. Clearly, you don't need to take my word for what it is or what it does. There are pleny of sites that are offering tech reviews of the new operating system form Microsoft. But, I'd like to share what I've found out about what's coming.
Windows 8 is designed for tablet users, but works just fine on a desk or laptop. The operating system makes use of Apps. A preview is available for download and you can get a feel for what the new approach will feel like running on your machine.
The new Metro interface features a start screen that replaces the start button. This screen offers a set of rectangles called "live tiles" that correspond to specific apps and their controls. To access the Windows desk top, just go tot the bottom left corner called the "hot corner" of the screen and click. This will bring up the familiar Windows desktop, which no longer has the start button.
There's also the new Windows Explorer which makes use of a ribbon across the top of the screen as you would have in Microsoft Office. And on the Metro Start screen there's an app that takes you to the Microsoft Apps store.
From all that I have seen and read, it sounds like Microsoft has finally given up it's obsession with security features and has tried to give users better functionality. The emphasis is more on the interface, but there are other improvements, like an all new task manager.
The new operating system is due for release in October. Those buying Windows 7 machines between Jun 2nd and January 31st can get a Windows 8 upgrade from Microsoft for just $14.99. After Windows 8 Pro launches, you'll have a chance, for a limited time, to upgrade for just $40. I think those two offers alone make this one upgrade to look forward to.
Windows 8 is designed for tablet users, but works just fine on a desk or laptop. The operating system makes use of Apps. A preview is available for download and you can get a feel for what the new approach will feel like running on your machine.
The new Metro interface features a start screen that replaces the start button. This screen offers a set of rectangles called "live tiles" that correspond to specific apps and their controls. To access the Windows desk top, just go tot the bottom left corner called the "hot corner" of the screen and click. This will bring up the familiar Windows desktop, which no longer has the start button.
There's also the new Windows Explorer which makes use of a ribbon across the top of the screen as you would have in Microsoft Office. And on the Metro Start screen there's an app that takes you to the Microsoft Apps store.
From all that I have seen and read, it sounds like Microsoft has finally given up it's obsession with security features and has tried to give users better functionality. The emphasis is more on the interface, but there are other improvements, like an all new task manager.
The new operating system is due for release in October. Those buying Windows 7 machines between Jun 2nd and January 31st can get a Windows 8 upgrade from Microsoft for just $14.99. After Windows 8 Pro launches, you'll have a chance, for a limited time, to upgrade for just $40. I think those two offers alone make this one upgrade to look forward to.
Monday, July 9, 2012
What Does This Mean?
I've been trying to keep the subject matter of this blog as close to music as I can. However, I have an interest in a great many things. One of those things is science, physics in particular. Last week, scientists at The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, in Bern Switzerland announced that they had discovered a particle which they believe to be the Higgs Boson.
The Higgs Boson is an elementary subatomic particle first theorized in the 1960s by Peter Higgs, who believed that all of space is permeated by as yet to be discovered field. Matter and energy particles passing through this field encounter the Higss Boson and are slowed down by the interaction. This results in the acquisition of mass by the passing particles.
Most of us are familiar with three of the basic subatomic particles such as the proton, electron, and the neutron. These particles and many others are what make up our physical reality. How these particles interact is what make our world appear and function as it does. For years, scientists have been looking for the one particle that they believe to be responsible for the interactions of all the other particles. The discovery of such a particle would not only explain how and why some particles have mass, but also it would deepen mans understanding of how the universe really works.
While it's still too early to say just what this will mean for humanity, some are already saying that light speed travel may one day be possible by the ability to un-mass particles. Switching off the Higgs may allow for extremely large objects to be launched into space. The implications of having actually found the Higgs are fantastic at best.
Because the discovery is so new, it is likely that the profound nature of this discover will be lost on most of us, to say the least. Some physicists such as Dr. Steven Hawking have been doubtful as to the Higgs existence. He made a $100 bet that it would never be found. As an amateur when it comes to physics, I had my doubts that such a particle existed. My reason was not so much a lack of understanding as it had been my belief that such a particle was purely an attempt to quantify space/time. However, in the past several years , I had come to believe that there has to be another kind of field that allows for the seemingly instantaneous communication between particles of a quantum entangled system, which is the subject for another blog post all it's own.
This is a very proud moment for Dr. Higgs. He didn't believe that this discovery would be made in his lifetime. He and all of his colleagues at CERN should be congratulated. If their findings hold true, mankind may be on the eve a new paradigm. For now, I think we should all keep a watchful eye and our ears tuned in to find out more about just what this means.
The Higgs Boson is an elementary subatomic particle first theorized in the 1960s by Peter Higgs, who believed that all of space is permeated by as yet to be discovered field. Matter and energy particles passing through this field encounter the Higss Boson and are slowed down by the interaction. This results in the acquisition of mass by the passing particles.
Most of us are familiar with three of the basic subatomic particles such as the proton, electron, and the neutron. These particles and many others are what make up our physical reality. How these particles interact is what make our world appear and function as it does. For years, scientists have been looking for the one particle that they believe to be responsible for the interactions of all the other particles. The discovery of such a particle would not only explain how and why some particles have mass, but also it would deepen mans understanding of how the universe really works.
While it's still too early to say just what this will mean for humanity, some are already saying that light speed travel may one day be possible by the ability to un-mass particles. Switching off the Higgs may allow for extremely large objects to be launched into space. The implications of having actually found the Higgs are fantastic at best.
Because the discovery is so new, it is likely that the profound nature of this discover will be lost on most of us, to say the least. Some physicists such as Dr. Steven Hawking have been doubtful as to the Higgs existence. He made a $100 bet that it would never be found. As an amateur when it comes to physics, I had my doubts that such a particle existed. My reason was not so much a lack of understanding as it had been my belief that such a particle was purely an attempt to quantify space/time. However, in the past several years , I had come to believe that there has to be another kind of field that allows for the seemingly instantaneous communication between particles of a quantum entangled system, which is the subject for another blog post all it's own.
This is a very proud moment for Dr. Higgs. He didn't believe that this discovery would be made in his lifetime. He and all of his colleagues at CERN should be congratulated. If their findings hold true, mankind may be on the eve a new paradigm. For now, I think we should all keep a watchful eye and our ears tuned in to find out more about just what this means.
Monday, July 2, 2012
A New Beginning
Got Ping! According to several sources, come this fall you won't much longer. If you shop for music at iTunes then you may or may not have used Ping. Ping is Apple's social network designed to share your music purchases with your online friends. Having failed to gain an adequate user base, Apple has decided to call it quits.
Starting this fall, with the next major iTunes release, Ping will no longer be included. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this latest news. I have a Ping account and in as much as I have used it from time to time, there were those occasions, while online and at other social networks, that I would forget to open my iTunes player so that I could access the interface. Perhaps, this was the same for many other Ping users. The only way to access Ping is by having an iTunes account and user ID. If you shop for music at other sites or used other music players to search for downloads, then it's likely that when you found what you were looking for, if you shared your findings, you either used Facebook or Twitter.
Ping did however allow users to sync their accounts with Twitter. But, and I'm only guessing that those who did so probably didn't do so for very long, probably not wanting Ping users to view everything that they may have been tweeting. I chose not to sync accounts, preferring to visit the iTunes store and add my info manually. I thought that in this way, I could give Ping users that follow Nprogram something that they couldn't get any where else. Sometimes this worked but often time constraints made it impossible to do anything but what I had done at the other sites. But, there are two things that I liked. I liked being able to recommend music to others, and the ability to post up to 10 songs or albums that you are listening to. In that way, at least as an artist, fans of your music can get a sense of what music inspires you. You don't get that at the other sites.
Apple is now looking to future integration with Facebook and Twitter, with the release of what may possibly be iTunes 11. Most likely, the next version of iTunes will feature the same type of integration that you find currently with Spotify. While I've used Spotify I haven't shared what I've been listening to while doing so.
But, have no fear. No doubt greater integration with existing social sites may mean that iTunes and Apple will bring with them not only more innovation, but a new beginning for social music networking.
Starting this fall, with the next major iTunes release, Ping will no longer be included. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this latest news. I have a Ping account and in as much as I have used it from time to time, there were those occasions, while online and at other social networks, that I would forget to open my iTunes player so that I could access the interface. Perhaps, this was the same for many other Ping users. The only way to access Ping is by having an iTunes account and user ID. If you shop for music at other sites or used other music players to search for downloads, then it's likely that when you found what you were looking for, if you shared your findings, you either used Facebook or Twitter.
Ping did however allow users to sync their accounts with Twitter. But, and I'm only guessing that those who did so probably didn't do so for very long, probably not wanting Ping users to view everything that they may have been tweeting. I chose not to sync accounts, preferring to visit the iTunes store and add my info manually. I thought that in this way, I could give Ping users that follow Nprogram something that they couldn't get any where else. Sometimes this worked but often time constraints made it impossible to do anything but what I had done at the other sites. But, there are two things that I liked. I liked being able to recommend music to others, and the ability to post up to 10 songs or albums that you are listening to. In that way, at least as an artist, fans of your music can get a sense of what music inspires you. You don't get that at the other sites.
Apple is now looking to future integration with Facebook and Twitter, with the release of what may possibly be iTunes 11. Most likely, the next version of iTunes will feature the same type of integration that you find currently with Spotify. While I've used Spotify I haven't shared what I've been listening to while doing so.
But, have no fear. No doubt greater integration with existing social sites may mean that iTunes and Apple will bring with them not only more innovation, but a new beginning for social music networking.
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