L'équipe flop:

Gardien: Nikopolidis

Défense: Fritz - Thuram - Materazzi - P. Ferreira

Milieux: Simao - Rolfes - Barnetta - Malouda

Attaque: Toni - Gomez

Banc: Cech; Dellas, Sagnol; Ivanschitz, Toulalan, Hitzlsperger; Benzema, Baros

Entraineur: Raymond Domenech

Gardien: Meilleur gardien de l'Euro 2004, Antonis Nikopolidis a été très loin d'afficher la même sécurité lors de ce tournoi. Constamment à côté de ses pompes et coupable d'une bourde grossière sur le but concédé face à la Russie, le George Clooney du football grec a perdu toute son aura de héros de l'Olympe en 3 matchs. Dommage quand on sait qu'il s'agissait de ses derniers matchs sous le maillot national.

Défenseurs: Auteur d'un match lamentablissime face à la Croatie, Clemens Fritz aura semblé perdu sur le terrain. Ni pur arrière droit, ni pur milieu droit, le joueur du Werder Brême n'a finalement jamais trouvé sa place. Joachim Löw l'a choisi pour lui et ce fut le ban(c) dès le 3eme match. Avec ses 142 sélections nationales, Lilian Thuram eut sans doute mérité une autre sortie que celle qu'il a connu en Suisse. Complètement dépassé par la vitesse de ses opposants, le capitaine des Bleus a sans doute prester son plus mauvais match sous le maillot tricolore face aux Pays-Bas. Ce grand joueur quitte le football international à bout de souffle avant de ne pouvoir signer au PSG en raison de problèmes cardiaques... Comme compagnon de l'axe de la lose, je ne pouvais que lui associer Marco Materazzi. Le dernier héros du mondial allemand n'aura guère brillé. Rien à faire pour contrer les oranges mécaniques même pas un coup de boule. Le crédit de Matrix auprès de Donadoni n'aura duré qu'une mi-temps. L'arrière gauche est un...arrière droit. Paulo Ferreira qui a du changer d'aile en raison de la concurrence ne s'est jamais trouvé à son affaire à gauche. Placement défectueux, apport offensif nul et fautes grossières et dangereuses. Le tout gros maillon faible de la sélection portugaise.

Milieux: Que fait donc Simao dans le 11 portugais alors que des Nani et des Quaresma qui lui semblent bien supérieurs cirent le petit banc. L'ancien capitaine de Benfica n'a jamais été dans le coup tout au long de cet euro et semblait avoir oublié son inspiration et sa vitesse en Lusitanie. Remplaçant de Torsten Frings blessé face aux Portugais, Simon Rolfes avait plutôt bien tiré son épingle du jeu lors de ce match. Mais 3 jours plus tard face aux turcs il sombrait totalement au point que son entraineur préféra le substituer par un Frings légèrement blessé à la mi-temps. Rolfes semblait surtout une erreur de casting car il ne possédait pas les mêmes qualités que Frings. Classé dans le top 6 des meilleurs joueurs du mondial allemand, Tranquillo Barnetta avait séduit les amoureux du ballon rond. Celui-ci avait même remplacer Alexander Frei dans le coeur des supporters suisses. Mais il faut bien avouer que la star helvétique est passé à côté de son sujet. Barnetta a été transparent, incolore, inodore. Florent Malouda avait lui aussi épaté lors de cette dernière Coupe du Monde. Mais depuis cette saison plus rien ne va pour l'ailier gauche des bleus qui a semblé constamment rechercher sa place et son inspiration dans le dispositif de Domenech. Après 2 matchs, Florent avait le blues et retrouvait la même place qu'à Chelsea, celle du petit banc.

Attaquants:Attaquant brillant et prolifique, Luc Nilis marquait avec ses clubs comme à la parade au point de figurer longtemps dans le top 3 des joueurs en activité les plus prolifiques. Mais chaque fois qu'il revêtait le maillot des diables rouges, son efficacité se transformait en maladresse chronique. Serait-ce le même mal qui frappe Luca Toni qui a beau scorer tant et plus en club avec la Fiorentina ou le Bayern mais qui reste bloqué à 2 petits buts en 11 matchs de compétions internationales avec les azzuri. Toni maladroit a tout essayé, ne pouvant que cacher son mal être derrière une moustache censée conjurée le mauvais sort. A ses côtés, l'attaquant de Stuttgart Mario Gomez est apparu comme l'imposture du siècle. D'une maladresse digne des plus grands avants centres de Roulers et de Waasland, le jeune attaquant allemand semblait aussi responsable du déchet en zone de conclusion de son compère de l'attaque Miroslav Klose. Et en effet, Gomez hors des pieds dès les 1/4 et l'attaquant d'origine polonaise retrouvait son sens du but.

Entraineur: Roi des excuses foireuses et des schémas tactiques statiques, Raymond Domenech n'a jamais su donné le tonus nécessaire à ses joueurs. Ses pitoyables interventions devant la presse en auront fait les choux gras des journaux français et des parodies sur le net.

• El 'Roadrunner' de IBM duplica la velocidad del anterior récord

Imagen del superordenador 'Roadrunner'. (Foto: IBM)

MADRID.- ¿Qué ocurriría si se produjera un accidente o un ataque terrorista en los arsenales de armamento atómico de Estados Unidos? Quizás sea uno de los mayores problemas imaginables, por lo que no parece descabellado que la mayor máquina del mundo, el nuevo supercomputador IBM 'Roadrunner', se vaya a ocupar de la seguridad de las instalaciones nucleares desde el desierto de Nuevo México.

El 'Roadrunner' ('Correcaminos') está equipado con cerca de 12.000 procesadores tipo Cell, que se diseñaron originalmente para la consola Sony PlayStation 3, y acaba de batir la codiciada marca del petaflop (es decir, mil billones, o 10 elevado a 15, o un 1 seguido de 15 ceros) de operaciones por segundo. Con ello, sus creadores confían en que pronto encabezará la lista mundial de supercomputadores, que se actualiza dos veces al año.

Se calcula que los 6.000 millones de personas que hay en la Tierra, provistas de calculadoras caseras y trabajando sin interrupción, tardarían 46 años en completar los cálculos que el 'Correcaminos' realiza en un día. En comparación con otras máquinas de su calibre, la nueva supercomputadora ha duplicado con creces el anterior récord de velocidad, que hasta ahora conservaba la 'IBM BlueGene L', situada en el laboratorio californiano Lawrence Livermore y dedicada también a la seguridad del 'stock' nuclear estadounidense.

El nuevo rey de los ordenadores, que ha costado 133 millones de dólares (85 millones de euros) y ha sido desarrollado por ingenieros de IBM y el Laboratorio Nacional de Los Alamos, empezará a trabajar próximamente en Nuevo México, el lugar donde se construyó la primera bomba atómica y cuya ave nacional, el correcaminos, ha dado nombre a la nueva máquina.

Al simular con supercomputadoras los posibles ataques o accidentes y el modo en que envejece el armamento nuclear, se evitan las pruebas atmosféricas que se realizaban antes, con el consiguiente riesgo para el entorno. "No se trata, como se ha dicho en la prensa, de la simulación de nuevas armas, sino de la seguridad del arsenal", explicó Juan José Porta, arquitecto de computación de IBM.

Diseñada mediante un nuevo sistema híbrido, la supercomputadora combina una versión modificada de los 'chips' de videoconsola con otros 7.000 procesadores convencionales Opteron de AMD. De este modo, consigue con cerca de 20.000 'chips' el doble de potencia que su antecesora 'BlueGene L', pese a que ésta contiene más de 200.000 unidades de procesamiento.

Esta mejora de la eficiencia se debe a que los 'chips' Cell actúan como aceleradores, o turbocargadores, que multiplican la potencia del resto de procesadores. Así se logra más velocidad de computación que si se acumulara una mayor cantidad de pequeños 'chips', como se hacía antes. Consume aproximadamente unos tres megavatios de potencia eléctrica, el equivalente a un centro comercial de suburbio estadounidense.

La máquina requerirá 92 km. de fibra óptica cuando esté instalada y, además de vigilar los silos nucleares, se ocupará de áreas de la ciencia como la astronomía, la genómica o el cambio climático. El objetivo, desde el punto de vista de la computación, es siempre el mismo: simular condiciones complejas que se dan en la realidad y observar sus consecuencias.

El nuevo récord, que previsiblemente será oficial cuando se publique la próxima lista de 'Top500', el próximo día 17 de junio, ha supuesto "un salto simbólico", en palabras de Juan José Porta. "Es igual que en su momento los 100 metros en 10 segundos", añade este experto, quien recuerda que aproximadamente cada 10 años se multiplica por 1.000 la potencia de los supercomputadores. Por ello, se espera que dentro de una década, los sucesores del Correcaminos alcancen el siguiente hito del trillón de operaciones por segundo (o 10 elevado a la 18).

Pero antes de eso, ya hay anunciados otros tres proyectos -dos de las compañías Sun y Cray y otro más de IBM- que pronto se sumarán al Correcaminos en superar la barrera del peta (o los mil billones).

España, por su parte, cuenta ya con uno de los supercomputadores más rápidos del mundo (el decimotercero en la actual lista), el Mare Nostrum de Barcelona, así como con una red de supercomputación, que se usa para toda clase de investigaciones, siempre ajenas en este caso al ámbito militar.

El 'Top 5' de la computación.

• 'Roadrunner' ( 'Correcaminos'), IBM, Laboratorio Nacional de Los Alamos, Nuevo Mexico, EEUU. Acaba de conquistar el nuevo récord, alcanzando 1.026 teraflops (cada teraflop es igual a un billón de operaciones por segundo).
• 'BlueGene/L', IBM, Laboratorio Nacional Lawrence Livermore, California, EEUU. 478,2 teraflops.
• 'JUGENE-BluGene/P', IBM, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Alemania. 167,3 teraflops.
• 'SGI Altix ICE 8200', SGI/New Mexico Computing Applications Center, Wisconsin, EEUU. 126, 9 teraflops.
• 'EKA-Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c', Hewlett Packard, Computational Research Labs, Pune, India. 117,9 teraflops.

.....

Autor: MIKEL JASO

Publicado por ANDRÉS PÉREZ, Corresponsal en París, en Público.es, 09/06/2008

Ni usted, ni este corresponsal hasta hace unos días, sabemos nada de petaflops. Y, sin embargo, esa palabra extraña se nos va a hacer muy familiar a partir de este mes de junio. La inminente publicación de la nueva lista anual del Top500, que detalla los superordenadores con mayor potencia de cálculo del planeta, va a recoger indicios sobre lo que muchos informáticos consideran una gesta heroica, y muchos políticos, una pieza clave del futuro. Por primera vez, equipos en diferentes lugares del planeta están acercándose al increíble poderío de cálculo de 1 petaflops. Es decir, la friolera de 1000.000.000.000.000 (10 elevado a 15) operaciones por segundo.

Las jornadas Ter@tec organizadas en la región de París a principios de mayo por la sección matemática del Comisariado de la Energía Atómica (CEA) francesa fueron la ocasión de que saltara a la luz la guerra industrial en la que están enzarzados varios países por el dichoso superordenador petaflóico. Estados Unidos y Japón van en cabeza. China e India también lo buscan. Y varios países de la UE están formando coaliciones para alcanzar esa máquina cuya potencia de cálculo podría alcanzar el umbral de los mil billones de operaciones en coma flotante por segundo.

"Las supercomputadoras son las catedrales de la ciencia moderna, herramientas para ensanchar las fronteras de la investigación al servicio de la prosperidad y el crecimiento europeos", clamó el miércoles en plan lírico la comisaria europea de la Sociedad de la Información, Viviane Reding, en la inauguración de Ter@tec.

Sin ser tan líricos, lo cierto es que la comunidad de las ciencias duras considera que necesita más y más potencia de cálculo. Para simular las evoluciones climáticas y sus efectos antes de que se produzcan. Para estimar el comportamiento de nanomateriales en desarrollo. Para modelizar totalmente el genoma de seres vivos complejos. Para estudiar la migración de los radionucleidos en una central nuclear por desmantelar antes de que nos pete -esta vez sí- en la cara. Para conocer con precisión la resistencia de naves espaciales en condiciones extremas. O, más simplemente, para efectuar en una fracción de segundo cálculos que hoy llevan meses.

Objeto inalcanzable

Alcanzar el petaflops no es un asunto de calderilla y bricolaje. Requiere poner a trabajar en paralelo miles, e incluso decenas de miles, de procesadores. Algunos de ellos pueden ser tan simples como los que equipan una Playstation, pero todos deben trabajar como esclavos y obedecer a otros pocos procesadores que, a su vez, se comportan como el amo dominador.

Hasta ahora, el petaflops era un objetivo inalcanzable precisamente porque el amo dominador, superada cierta cantidad de esclavos, se saturaba. Según filtraciones, retomadas por Peter Sayer, del servicio especializado IDG News Service, al menos un laboratorio habría encontrado ya la solución a ese problema.

"Parece que Roadrunner, la máquina de IBM y del laboratorio de Los Álamos (EEUU), ha alcanzado el petaflops", afirmó Rick Stevens, codirector de un centro estatal norteamericano, el Argonne National Laboratory, con ocasión de Ter@tec. El Roadrunner, creado por IBM, tiene 6.912 procesadores Opteron dual-core de AMD y 12.960 Cell desarrollados por la propia IBM, Toshiba y Sony, como los que equipan la Playstation3.

En el Laboratorio Nacional de Los Álamos, toda esa maquinaria, que ocupa un hangar entero de 557 m2, se dedica a tareas menos divertidas: simula armamento nuclear y efectúa tareas de seguridad nacional. Por cierto: lo hace con una tecnología que sólo ha podido desarrollar después de haber sido puesta a prueba en el superordenador Marenostrum instalado cerca de Barcelona.

En el Top500 del año pasado, la máquina más rápida era el BlueGene, también de IBM, instalada en el Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, que alcanzaba los 470 teraflops, es decir, casi medio petaflop. Japón sigue de cerca con su Next Generation Supercomputing Center, que ha costado desde 2006 unos 900 millones de euros y podría alcanzar el petaflops en 2012. La UE, a través del programa PRACE, planea instalar cinco supercomputadores petaflópicos a partir de 2010. Francia y Alemania, de un lado, Reino Unido, España y Holanda, de otro, son candidatos.

Fórmulas para medir el rendimiento

Qué es un flops
Es una medida de rendimiento para ordenadores que se utiliza en cálculos científicos. Es el acrónimo de ‘Floating Point Operations Per Second’ (Operaciones en Coma Flotante por Segundo).

Unidades superiores
MegaFLOPS (106 FLOPS), GigaFLOPS (109 FLOPS), TeraFLOPS (1012 FLOPS), PetaFLOPS (1015 FLOPS),Exaflop (1018 FLOPS)

Cuestión de tiempo
Desde la oficina de seguridad nuclear de EEUU se afirma que los 6.000 millones de habitantes de la Tierra, con una calculadora simple, tardarían 46 años en realizar los cálculos que Roadrunner realiza en un día.

Inversión
Roadrunner ha costado 133 millones de dólares.

La unión hace la fuerza
La informática distribuida utiliza Internet para conectar millones de ordenadores personales y conseguir un rendimiento similar al de un superordenador. Los proyectos más conocidos son los de SETI@home y Folding@home.

Crecimiento
El rendimiento de las computadoras más rápidas se multiplica por mil cada 11 años. El primer ordenador que superó el teraflops es del año 1996.

Los ordenadores más potentes

1
Blue Gene/L
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, EEUU. 478,2 teraflops.212.992 procesadores.

2
Blue Gene/P
Forschungszentrum Juelich, Alemania.
167,3 teraflops.
65.536 procesadores.

3
SGI Altix ICE 8200
SGI/New Mexico Computing Applications Center, Wisconsin,EEUU.
126,9 teraflops.
14.336 procesadores.

4
EKA - Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c
Computational Research Laboratories, Pune, India.
117,9 teraflops
14.240 procesadores.

5
Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c
Agencia gubernamental sueca.
102,8 teraflops.
13.728 procesadores.

6
Red Storm-Sandia/ Cray Red Storm
NNSA / Sandia National Laboratories, EEUU.
102,2 teraflops.
26.569 procesadores.

Blue Gene/L es el ordenador más potente. EFE

Publicado por ANDRÉS PÉREZ, Corresponsal en París, en Público.es, 09/06/2008

El director de supercomputación de HP Iberia, Isidro Cano, ha colgado en su blog www.tendencias21.net lo que podría catalogarse de manifiesto petadisidente.

En el artículo El Petaflop, un sueño, una ambición o un despilfarro, colgado en marzo pasado, el ingeniero -que cuenta con casi 30 años de experiencia en el sector- ofrece razones estrictamente informáticas para abandonar la carrera al petaflops, como, por ejemplo, la posibilidad de crear redes colaborativas de máquinas de cálculo en lugar de "petaColosos de Rodas". Pero también aduce razones financieras: los supercalculadores que entran en el Top500 cuestan auténticas fortunas, se financian con dinero público y, todo ello, para finalmente caerse de la lista de la supereficacia al cabo de sólo seis o siente años y quedar obsoletos.

El petadisidente también añade razones ecológicas a su disensión. Los superordenadores, dice, son grandes consumidores de electricidad, y cierto es que el Roadrunner, por ejemplo, chupa 3,9 Mw. Según Cano, no habría que medir la velocidad petaflópica sino la ratio entre potencia de cálculo y consumo.

Cano, en todo caso, trabaja para HP, una de las grandes rivales de IBM (la reina de la supercomputación, hoy por hoy), aunque no es, ni mucho menos, la única interesada en ello. Otras multinacionales y organizaciones gubernamentales andan interesadas en la carrera del petaflop.

Escuela de verano
El programa europeo PRACE ha abierto las inscripciones para su escuela de verano, que tendrá lugar en agosto en el Instituto Real de Tecnología de Suecia, país que dispone del segundo supercalculador europeo más potente, de unos 102 teraflops, sólo 15 teraflops por debajo del de Hewlett-Packard en Pune (India).

Todo aquel que se sienta preparado para abordar la programación masiva paralela de supercomputadoras, en el marco del programa europeo, está invitado a inscribirse antes del 28 de junio en la página de la escuela. Por otra parte, la NASA firmó a mediados de mayo un acuerdo con Intel y Silicon Graphics Industries para desarrollar, a partir del superordenador de su Ames Research Center, un supercalculador con la potencia de un petaflop a partir de 2009. El organismo espacial estadounidense prevé disponer, en 2012, de otro de 10 petaflops.

.....

The Science Fiction Channel + Technorium.
History: The Roadmap to the Future

How did we find that for back substitution the computational time is approximately proportional to $latex n^2/2$?

The amount of time it takes to conduct back substitution depends on the number of floating point operations (FLOPs) needed. Depending on how many FLOPs the computer can execute in a second called FLOPS (note the upper case S to distinguish between FLOPs and FLOPS), that will the determine the actual computational time. (A typical Pentium 4 PC conducts to the order of $latex 10^{9}$ FLOPS; a state-of-art supercomputer conducts to the order of $latex 10^{15}$ FLOPS; in 1983 the PC with a 8087 chip may have conducted to the order of $latex 10^{5}$ FLOPS).

To keep things simple, let's only count the multiplication/division FLOPs in back substitution as time used by multiplication and division is higher than addition and subtraction (Multiplication may take twice and division as much as thrice the time it takes for addition and subtraction).

In back substitution, we start with the last equation. The last equation involves one division, second last equation involves one multiplication and one division, the third last equation involves two multiplications and one division, and so on. So the number of multiplication/divisions FLOPs is 1 for last equation, 2 for second last equation, 3 for third last equation, that is, for all equations, $latex 1+2....+n=n^2/2+n/2 $. For large n, this number is approximately $latex n^2/2$.

This post brought to you by Holistic Numerical Methods: Numerical Methods for the STEM undergraduate at http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu

Here's a great example that the influx of soccer-playing European and S. American players have had. Manu Ginobili touches Bonzi Wells' shoulder which then repels him 6 ft. in the air.

And then, Ginobilli gets a taste of his own medicine.

1.  Buy cheap solid color flip flops.  Buy cotton fabric (or use fabric scraps) in different shades and patterns that blend well together.  For each pair of flip flops you will need approximately 1/4 of a yard of combined material.  (We have also made these using old t-shirts).

2.  Cut strips of fabric approximately 1" wide x 8" long.  For younger kids cut the strips 5/8" wide and 6" long.  You'll need about 35 strips per flip - flop ... 70 for the pair.

3.  Place a fabric strip underneath the top part of the flipflop and bring the two edges together so they are even.  Tie the fabric onto the top of the flip flops and then knot it one time.  Tug the strips so the two pieces fall forward - toward the front of the flipflop.  Repeat until the entire top of the flip - flops are covered.  

My daughter made these because her school colors are black and red.  Make yours with bright yellows, reds, aquas and greens - or any color that matches your theme. 

You'll find more party ideas, games, activities and crafts on our website - Birthday Party Ideas 4 Kids

Fun Sleepover games, activities and crafts

Send in pictures of the funky flip-flops you made and we'll include them on the website! 

     There isn’t really much to say about my play either. In a word I’m a rock. No one plays tighter than I do and no one probably ever has. In Phil Helmuth’s Black Belt poker course he categorizes players by five different animal types. I’m the little mouse trying to get the cheese out of the trap without getting caught. I play perfect textbook poker, and I can do that for hours at a time if necessary, until the blinds and antes get big enough that I’m forced to play. I could have played in the game T.J. Cloutier used to play in down in Dallas, where if a player had a baby pair it was Queens, and I would have been right at home. If everyone played like I do there would be two Hold-Em games in the entire United States, one on each coast.

     As I’m finding out this style has its downside and I’m probably going to have to loosen up my game if I’m going to make any progress. If you’re not willing to learn in whatever business you’re in you will be left behind.

     With that caveat in mind I will cover a few miscellaneous poker topics regarding mistakes made by others and myself.

     The first mistake I notice a lot of players make is they play with no regard for position. I’m a fanatic about position. I routinely fold hands as strong as Ace Queen off-suit in the first three positions. If I get a big pair in early position I’m disappointed because I figure its only going to cost me money. If I raise and someone calls behind me and draws out I figure to lose a lot of money. If I raise, and no one calls I don’t make any money, but at least I didn’t go broke. I rarely limp in with them but if I do and several people call behind me I don’t get real interested unless I flop a set. It’s as T.J. Cloutier says, “if you limp with Aces you never go broke with them.” I’m always aware of the number of players behind me and play accordingly.

     The next big mistake I see a lot of is a player flops top pair, bets, gets re-raised, and proceeds to lose a lot of chips with that hand. I know about that because I’ve done it a lot myself. For instance say I raise with Ace King, a player calls behind me, the flop is Ace, six, seven. I make a pot size bet at it and the player behind me raises all in. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone broke with that hand before I learned better. About one time in a hundred you will run into Ace Queen and win, but mostly you run into sets and Ace six or Ace seven two pair. The way I play a hand like that now is to remind myself I’m out of position and don’t get overly ambitious. Especially don’t get broke with it. Ask yourself the following question. Would this player really be raising me if he couldn’t beat top pair? Most of the time the answer is no.

     The last big mistake I’m going to cover is overplaying Ace King. I know about that one too because I used to do it a lot. In fact I’m going to include the play of big pairs in this topic. The thing about all of these hands is for the most part you won’t win real big pots with them. Doyle Brunson pointed that out in Super System. Real big pots only happen when one player has Aces and another one has Kings and they both go all in before the flop, or one player flops a big hand and another player flops a big draw. If I have Aces and the flop comes six, seven, eight, I don’t like my chances very much.

Having said all of those basic things here’s about what I use big pairs and Ace King for. I like to use them late in the tournament to attack the small stacks. That way if you get them cracked you don’t burn up a lot of chips. Of course you also like to get them when you’re short stacked, but my experiences along those lines goes something like this. I get Aces or Kings and push all in with my short stack. A player with a mountain of chips calls with seven two and flops trips and busts me out. That’s about par for the course.

     I’ll close this section with the main idea that works for me. Play good cards in good position. It’s rare that you get both of them together but you should always keep that in mind, and strive towards those goals.

I came across one of these plants—cleavers— in my yard and thought I'd share a picture. Not sure if this will be enough for you to identify it. Consider looking up more photos. It's bright green and the leaves are a little fuzzy. It's not so good fresh—a little tough—but dried, it makes a tea high in vitamin C.

Another non-garden food source: sprouts! We grew some wheat berry sprouts for our salads. They taste a little nutty. Sprouts are a superfood—and according to Wikipedia—are the most nutrient-dense food. But the claim is missing its citation. For shame! Anyway, they're good for you and fun. I use the Easy Sprout Sprouter. My first attempt was with hulless barley. That was unsuccessful. They started smelling horrid because I wasn't shaking enough of the water out after each rinse. You must shake vigorously. I have heard of, but not done much research on, making breads with sprouted wheat berries. I guess the heat does not damage all of the nutrients in that fragile little sprout? I will have to look into this because I don't think we will be able to eat this entire batch of sprouts.

When wheat berries were first offered in the co-op, I was confused. What is a wheat berry? I have learned that a wheat berry is another term for the grain that develops from the grass we know as wheat. It's the kernels in the ear. The ear is that spiky thing at the top of the stalk shown in those quintessential Americana photographs. Wheat berries are milled into flour. The wheat berry is made of the bran, endosperm, and germ. In white flour, the berries are milled and the germ is sifted out because it contains the unsaturated fat that can go rancid. White flour can more easily survive our food supply system.

So, it's the seed, it's the kernel, it's the grain, it's the wheat berry. I was very familiar with wheat berries—I just didn't know them by name.

And while I wasn't thrilled with the way the game was called yesterday, I don't think it was as horrible as some people have been saying. Calls were going both ways. The only call, or non-call I should say, that really bothered me was when Bryce Salvador was holding Avery down to the ice as the play went the other way. Salvador had pretty much put his knee into Avery's back and pinned him to the ice. The ref was right there but didn't call the penalty. And if you think that non-call is not related in any way to Avery's antics in game 3, you're crazy.

Plus, any ref who calls a diving penalty on Brodeur is OK with me. Now, if you could just explain to me how they called a goalie interference penalty on the same play, we'll be all set. There. I complained about the reffing. Happy?

That's where we come in , our sea collection consists of not just plain sea collection but also sun collection, since the rash tops which we carry have in built UV protection , with stretch materials that guarantee the exact fit, you'd be jumping around carelessly feeling comfortable and protected.

And speaking of jumping around , our flip-flops don't just get you around the beach but rather around the globe, if you do transcontinental journeys that is. :)

What are you waiting for then? Come down to our store and grab your swim/sports wear right now from
Al-Safeera Leather Fashions

Our timings are 10 am to 1pm and from 5pm to 11pm. Sat -Thursday

5pm to 11pm on Fridays.

See you there!

I guess my dream to do consistent fantasy blogging has been dowsed - pretty much like Phoenix's formerly scorching up-tempo offense.

Well inconsistency IS an issue you deal with rookies...

"I guess there's always next year..." - I'm sure that that also resonates in the minds of players in teams that are NOT making the playoffs and are off to the lottery to seek for fresh blood to build/re-build their beleaguered franchises around.

Well the year isn't over yet. I dragged my aching bones out of bed and decided I might as well be one of the early birds who will recap the fantasy year that was. So I might as well do it, do it now, and go out with a BANG! So let's get this party started...

In Fantasy Hoops LeBron maybe KING, but Chris Paul is a Fantasy GOD!

LeBron can really put up those fantasy numbers and even stuns fans and managers alike with his occasional, sick triple-doubles. He and Kobe Bryant made great MVP rivals throughout the season. Both superstars were great this year, but let's address the big white elephant in the room. Who would have thought it possible that from the ashes of the Deron vs Chris Paul debates would arise the hands down BEST fantasy basketball player around today? Well I had an inkling it was coming. You all know about the sick, sick - did I mention SICK? - numbers CP3 churns out. If you own him, you obviously know what I mean as you watch him stamp his seal as being the number one PG in fantasy ball night in and night out. If you don't own him, you can wipe that drool off your slobbering chops as you scheme on how to make sure you acquire him next year! He single handedly takes the top spot as having the biggest fantasy swing impact coming from this year's draft. Come on! Who can resist 21 PPG at 49.6 FG% (awesome for a PG), 85,2% FT, 11.5 APG, 2.7 SPG? Plus don't forget he leads the league with most games with 20+ points and 15+ assists... interesting stat for head to head players out there. It would be incomplete to appreciate Chris Paul's "Stockton-like" (as his numbers closely resemble John Stockton's all-time numbers) stats without giving some credit to his "Malone". David West quietly produced a monster of a year in terms of stats in his own right, as he set new career averages in points, rebounds, blocks and FT%. David's great performance simply reflects, again, on how great a player CP3 really is; as it shows that Chris has that knack that only the greatest players of the game (Magic, Jordan, Bird, Nash) have - the ability to make his teammates BETTER.

It's good to be GAY! - Year of the G/Fs

Honorable mention to CP3's stellar performance this year is the bumper crop of many guard-forwards who out performed their respective fantasy draft positions to end up drastically boosting their real life and fantasy teams. Guys like Rudy Gay, Mike Dunleavy, Hedo Turkgolu are some key players who really stepped up their games this year. Across the board, their numbers made considerable leaps and bounds as these players found themselves finding and fitting more comfortably in their respective roles in their teams. Of the 3 players I mentioned, it is Rudy Gay who has the greatest load to carry as we wind down the season. He has been christened by the Grizzlies as its new "franchise" player, opting to build a new team around him. This was sealed as the team shipped off their former franchise player, Pau Gasol to the LA Lakers. Rudy seems up to the task as he even stole some of Pau's "thunder" early in the season as he emerged as the team's most productive and most impactful player. It will be interesting to see next season if Rudy will truly be up to the task of carrying the franchise. Will he fold under the pressure or will he fully blossom into the superstar everyone is expecting him to be? I can't wait to find out! - So what round will you be drafting Mr. Gay next year?

The Big Men

Before the season started, I had Pau Gasol pegged to be the best center at the end of the year. Sadly his injury-plagued and frankly uninspired play while he was with the Grizzlies sort of put out that torch. In the end, props have to be given to 3 guys in particular; Amare Stoudemire, Marcus Camby, Dwight Howard.

Amare takes the trophy for No. 1 center as far as I'm concerned. He started off slow while he was hampered by an injury early in the season, but soon consistently produced new career high averages in points, blocks and FG%. Then he simply went wild when the Suns traded away Shawn Marion (who eventually fell from fantasy grace), officially secured being the primary recipient of Steve Nash's awesome dishes! Now, with Shaq in the team, Amare's PF eligible again; and THAT my friends just spikes his value even more as it makes him even more versatile (fantasywise at least).

Marcus Camby had only ONE true drawback coming into this season as a fantasy pick, his durability. Now that he's played majority of the season, managers that gambled on him are beaming with pride as their teams, more likely than not took down the top spot in the block category in their respective leagues - a guy with a 3.7 block average has a tendency to have that effect. It was a pretty solid year for Camby this year, as he complemented his block average with an impressive 13.3 RPG all at only 1.5 TOs/PG. Amare simply contributes in much more cats and Marcus's efficient and dominant defensive numbers aren't enough to compete. Nonetheless, stay healthy Marcus! You're still a beast on those big man numbers, keep it up!

Shaq v.2.0 and then some - that's pretty much how I'd describe Dwight Howard this year! Mr. "Slam Dunk Champion" may sting your team in the FT and TO departments but 14.4 RPG and 20.8 PPG at a hair under 60FG% is just sick! It doesn't hurt that he leads the league in double doubles too! Most "experts" don't like Dwight because of his drawbacks, but I'm fond of him because of the outlook for his future improvement. Remember how everyone was saying the the sky's the limit in terms of what LeBron can achieve a couple of years back? Well, Dwight's got a foothold on the center version of that outlook as far as I'm concerned. He just need to step up his "D", work out on the 15-foot line, and watch those TOs and perhaps we'll eventually see the emergence of the new true "most dominant" big man around...

FLOPS of the YEAR

Gilbert Arenas - An early to mid definite first round fantasy pick this year, Agent Zero turned out to be a fantasy ball equivalent of his nickname; as injuries (knee surgery) allowed him to play a measly 8 games this year. It stings when your first rounder burns you out like that, but hey; injuries are part of the game and "there's always next year..." Unfortunately this year's performance, or lack there of; as the case may be, will weigh heavily on Gil's free agency aspirations this coming season. This season will also ripple into his next season's draft position. He'll definitely be on my High-Risk/Reward pick list. At what point in next year's draft would YOU pick him?

Yao Ming - Just when you thought it was FINALLY going to be his year... he's suddenly out for the rest of the season, disappointing his many fantasy owners who were relying on him as their front-court cornerstone. In my book, Yao officially DOES NOT HAVE NBA DURABILITY! That being said, he's officially off my first round options. Sorry, but at the way things are going with Yao's unreliable health; I would rather take a second round pick in Al Jefferson's almost complete season to a Yao Ming's frailty-ridden half season performance.

Jermaine O'Neal - What a wuss! He starts out the pre-season with statements that he's in great shape and looking forward to the coming season, etc. etc. BS, BS, etc... Plays a a few crappy games and then leaves the majority of the season, blaming "whoever" it is that "rushed" him back from the injury he was recovering from last season.... <as sad violin music plays in the background>. So much for this former young phenom as he's suddenly yesterday's news with NBA fans looking to the new breed of phenom in Andrew Bynum (injury set back aside). Sorry bub, you've barely escaped my "I will never draft Ron Artest" Club, but the bottomline is that I now rate and rank you somewhere in the lackluster Darko season zone; which is something like an 11th round pick next year... oh but then again, I'd still have to think about it REAL hard coz Joel Przybilla might still be available then I'd have to make a tough decision right there...

Andrea Bargnani - "Il Mago" didn't turn out to be much of a magician at all this season, in fact he seemed more like a hoax more than anything else. After being drafted this year in the 6th or 7th rounds by most teams in fantasy this year, this former No.1 NBA draft pick, turned out to be a HUGE disappointment. He started out the season as the Raptors' starting center, but wound up finding himself erratically starting games at that position and from the bench. This was most likely due to his highly inconsistent play which was often characterized by him getting into early foul trouble in many a game. Hey Dre! You're not a rookie anymore! So stop doing those cheap rookie fouls! He and doctors attributed his poor performances to fatigue, as he played all summer in the Euro Basketball tournament for Italy. This only exemplifies his lack of physical and psychological maturity as a player. Sorry Il Mago, but you're going to have to take your disappearing act somewhere else next season's draft day, as you will definitely be nowhere in sight as far as I am concerned.

I'm keeping my eye on these guys for next season's draft:

Here's a list of guys (in no particular order) I'm hoping to snag in next year's draft, at the right round of course...

Rudy Gay, Devin Harris, Andrew Bogut, Hedo Turkgolu, David West, Danny Granger, Andre Miller, Jamal Crawford, Samuel Dalembert, Mo Williams, Brandon Roy, Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Peja Stojakovic, LaMarcus Aldridge, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Andrew Bynum, Andris Biedrins, Antawn Jamison, Manu Ginobili

The End

That's pretty much it from me for this season's fantasy writing. Again, I apologize for my disappearing act. I'll try to do a better job next season. See you all then...

P.S. Chris Paul RULEZ!!!

This sucked in a major way, in fact on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most annoying thing that could have happened to me today, I would say this was definitely an 8, maybe even a 9.

So now my feet hurt and I’m pissed that I lost one of the shoes somewhere, so I’m delighted when I get out of my car and it’s lying on the floor. I throw it in my bag, go in the house, throw my bag on the bed, and a few minutes later I notice that the shoe is on the floor in my room, so I throw it in the closet. Then I go downstairs (with the bag) and realize that one of the shoes is in the bag. Now I can’t decide if I keep losing and then finding the same shoe, if I have in fact created a pair, or if I keep alternately finding and losing another shoe.

I put this one in the closet, confident that I now have a pair, except that I just went to put them on and I can’t find either of them. Just flipping weird.

Moral of this story:  Haste makes waste. That's what my mother says. Where I went wrong was (and the part of the story that I conveniently left out) I hit snooze one, or three, or five times too many. Which made me get up late, which should have shortened my shower by ten minutes but it didn't, which should have convinced me to buy my lunch instead of making it, and to not try on three different jackets, but no again. My problem is I am a chronic poly-chron. Time is fluid for me which is why I am always running late and why I make silly mistakes that make my day that much more crazy.  That entire ordeal could have been avoided by getting up on time and getting my crap together!

Arguably the most famous Apple flop of all, the Newton (which was actually the name of the OS and not the device) started out as a top-secret project with a lofty goal: to reinvent personal computing. During its development, the Newton took on many forms, such as the tabletlike "Cadillac" prototype, before its eventual release in 1993 as a smaller and considerably less revolutionary PDA. Although the Newton was available for six years (longer than most other Apple flops), it was a prime example of an idea that was simply ahead of its time, and sales never lived up to Apple's expectations. When Steve Jobs resumed his stewardship of Apple in 1997, one of the first things he did was to axe the subsidiary Newton Systems Group. By the following February, the Newton was dead.

From their "Learning from Failure: Apple's Most Notorious Flops" lineup.

Apple has been riding high for a while now and days ago reported their best quarter ever.

But...things haven't always been so positive for the boys and girls in Cupertino.

Wired has put together a story about some of Apple's most notorious flops. Here, for your enjoyment, are these flops combined with a little extra research from Wikipedia:

The Newton:

Some consider the Newton the biggest flop of all for Apple. Released in 1993, the Newton was to re-invent the personal computer. It didn't do that, but it did live in retail for 6-years.

Way longer than Steve Jobs would have allowed if he was at Apple during that period (the Newton was released while Steve was not with the company).

In fact, one of the first things Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple was to sack the Newton Systems Group at Apple and kill the Newton product.

The Pippin:

In 1996 Apple entered the video game market.

Does anyone remember that?

The Pipped was co-marketed by Apple and toy maker Bandai who had been looking to enter the computer video game market. The goal of the Pippen was to be an inexpensive video game system that could also be a network computer.

By the time the Pippin was released, the big players in the video game market had already began dominating (the Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation and soon the Nintendo 64) and the Pippin didn't really have a chance...not that it otherwise wold have.

Production of the Pippin was so limited that more keyboard and modem accessories were produced than actual systems.

In May 2006, the Pippen was named by PC World Magazine as one of the 25 worst tech products of all time.

In 1997 the Pippin was killed off.

The TAM (Twentieth Anniversary Mac):

The TAM, released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Apple (not of the Macintosh), was...unique. The TAM debuted in March of 1997, but was overpriced and underpowered.

Cool: It featured a 12-inch active matrix LCD display.

Crappy: It could only handle a video resolution of 800 x 600 with 16-bit colors depth and was not compatible with any version of the Mac OS released after 9.1.

The TAM was initially marketed as an elite system, but before long the price was reduced and the product was finally killed off roughly one year after its initial release.

Macintosh TV:

Introduced in late 1993, the Macintosh TV was Apple's first attempt at combining a computer and a television, fusing an Apple Performa 520 computer with a Sony Trinitron television.

Its biggest problem? You couldn't watch television in a window...on something called the Macintosh TV. Oops.

Only roughly 10,000 were ever produced and it was killed off in 1994.

G4 Cube:

What's 8 x 8 x 8 and suspended in 10-inches of Lucite? The Apple Power Mac G4 Cube, of course.

Still sought after today by some as a collectors item, the G4 Cube was released in 2000 and featured a vertical slot-loading DVD-ROM or CD-RW drive and used a silent, fanless, convection-based cooling system.

Despite its award-winning design (by Jonathan Ive), the Cube was overpriced and sales were slow. Early Cube's suffered from a design flaw that resulted in faint lines appearing in the clear plastic case.

In an attempt to increase sales, Apple dropped the price and bumped the specs but those moves didn't help enough and the product was killed in 2001.

Apple IIc:

The initial Apple II was a giant, beige monster with lots of empty space inside.

Released in 1984, the Apple IIc was Apple's fourth model in the Apple II series and technically was an Apple IIe in a smaller case. Much smaller, actually.

Weighing in at 7.5 pounds, the Apple IIc was considered a closed system as it lacked any internal expansions slots and direct motherboard access, but this fit the target audience for this machine--first-time users with little or no technical knowledge.

The Apple IIc "featured" one of the worst displays around, barely readable in low light, let alone bright light.

The Apple IIc was killed in 1988.

The 'Hockey Puck' Mouse:

Perhaps the worst mouse design ever, the 'hockey puck' mouse shipped with iMac G3 computers in May 1998.

The 'hockey puck' mouse was a USB mouse that featured a 2-foot cord that was just long enough to plug into the USB port on the iMac G3's USB keyboard.

Not just ugly but also very uncomfortable to use, iMac G3 users with the 'hockey puck' mouse sometimes found themselves holding it upside down, a position where it was not so effective. Apple introduced the Apple Pro Mouse in 2000 and the 'hockey puck' mouse was killed shortly after.

Apple Lisa:

A follow-up to the Apple II, the Apple Lisa began life in 1978 as the Lisa project with the long-term goal being to create a powerful personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) targeted at business users.

The Apple Lisa was an ambitious system and in many ways was more advanced than the Macintosh, but featured a complex operating system and slow processor, resulting in it feeling sluggish.

Released in January 1983, the Lisa was one of the first commercial computers that used a GUI and mouse, but it was priced at nearly $10,000 (just over $20,000 in 2007 dollars).

Business users balked at the Lisa's high price and instead opted to use IBM PC's, already on its way to dominating business desktop computing.

The Macintosh was released in 1984 and received a big marketing push. Two more models of the Lisa appeared (the Lisa 2 and the Macintosh XL, which wasn't in fact a Macintosh but a Lisa), but it was killed off in 1985.

[Via Wired]

1)Flasche Wein bei Klausurvorbereitungen?

2)Flip-Flops im Club?

3)World of Warcraft?

4)Männliches Ringen?

5)Überlaute Volksmusik in tiefergelegten Golf2?

I made this just before Christmas as a cozy holiday meal for Matt and me before we headed out of town. And we took the leftovers with us to share with my family in Texas.

:: 1 lb. lasagna noodles
:: extra olive oil for coating the pasta, brushing the potatoes, and greasing the dish
:: 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds (We were lucky to get some beauties from Crestview Farms back in October.)
:: 2 T butter
:: 2 T olive oil
:: 3 medium Spanish or other sweet onions, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rings
:: 1 t sugar
:: 1 large egg, slightly beaten
:: 3 T chopped fresh basil, or 2 t dried basil
:: 1 T chopped fresh oregano, or 1 t dried oregano
:: 2 cloves garlic, minced
:: 1 t salt
:: 3 c ricotta cheese
:: 1/2 c mixed grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses
:: 1/2 lb. butternut squash, cooked and mashed
:: 1 lb. mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
:: freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain, and coat with enough olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking. Set aside. NOTE: I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the non-boil type of noodles to save time.
2. Preheat the oven to 475˚.
3. Spread the sweet potatoes in one layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle a little oil (about 1/4 t) over the potatoes and turn to coat both sides. Bake for 15 minutes, until cooked and lightly golden. Remove and set aside. Reduce the oven heat to 375˚.
4. Melt the butter along with the 2 T oil in a large skillet. Stir in the onions and sugar and sauté over medium heat for 20 minutes, until soft and beginning to turn golden. Set aside.

5. Place the egg, basil, oregano, garlic, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together. Add the ricotta and grated cheeses and whisk to smooth. Add the squash and mix to blend well. Set aside.

6. To assemble the lasagne, lightly oil a 13x9-inch deep baking pan. Line the bottom with a layer of noodles. Spread some of the cheese and squash mixture over the noodles. Add a layer of sweet potatoes, then a layer of the onions. Top with a layer of mozzarella and sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Continue until all the ingredients are used and the top is a layer of onions lightly covered with mozzarella.

7. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until bubbly and golden across the top. Remove and cool for 5 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

To take the dish in a more savory direction, you can sub other potatoes, such as russets or Yukon Golds, roasted in the same way.

Obviously, this isn't a weeknight recipe; it's very time-consuming. Granted, you could chop the potatoes and onions and roast the squash ahead of time. Still, it's pretty involved, and worth it about once a year.

We also had Cranberry Sauce with Coriander, a recipe I clipped from Natural Health magazine a few years back. The dish had a weird flavor; I think from the red wine. Anyhow, it was more weird bad than weird good, so I doubt I'll make this cranberry dish again. In fact, I think I'll just toss this one out.

I'll share the recipe anyway. Perhaps you'll want to try it for yourself.

:: 3 c fresh cranberries
:: 1 c red wine
:: 1/2 c sugar
:: 1 orange, sliced
:: 1/2 t whole coriander seed, toasted and crushed (I used ground coriander, because, well, that's all I could find)

1. In a large bowl, combine cranberries, wine, and sugar; let stand about 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350˚. Pour cranberry mixture into a large ovenproof dish, top with orange slices and sprinkle with coriander seeds. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes, or until bubbling.

Frank Farian klotzte in Berlin für angeblich 12-14 Millionen Euro den "Boney-M.-Theaterpalast" neben den Ostbahnhof: 70 Meter Durchmesser, 58 Meter breite Eingangsfassade, Platz für 45 Künstler und 2058 Zuschauer. Drumherum ein Disco-Zelt, ein Restaurant-Zelt und ein Empfangs-Zelt. Größer, bunter, schriller, teurer. Farian eben.

Vom 26. April an wollte Farian mit einem spektakulären Musical über Boney-M. beeindrucken. Getreu dem Motto: Was ABBA kann, kann Farian schon lange. O-Ton Farian: "(Die Investoren) kriegen ihr Geld auf jeden Fall zurück. Zinslos. Bei Erfolg gibt’s 400 Prozent Rendite."

Am 24. Juni fiel der letzte Vorhang. Frank Farian bedankte sich kleinlaut "bei ca. 60.000 begeisterten Zuschauern." Das heißt, bei ca. 1.000 Zuschauern je Tag. Macht eine Auslastung von 50 Prozent. Adieu, Rendite.

Schuld ist angeblich die Berliner Umweltbehörde. Ab 22:00 Uhr mußte Farian die Lautstärke drosseln. Das ist simpelster Lärmschutz in Wohngebieten. Kennt jeder Konzertgänger und Veranstalter -- nur der Weltmann Farian nicht. Dabei ist Boney M. ohne zugedröhnte Ohren wie ein Kaiser ohne Kleider: Plötzlich hört man den ganz ordinären Plastikschrott hinter all dem Remmidemmi. Für bis zu 87,00 Euro je Ticket.

Am 22. April durfte Farian noch mit den Worten zitiert werden: "In Berlin fühle er sich 'sehr willkommen'." Vor Tische liest sich's eben anders.

Zombies des Jahres:
Wir sind Helden

Der Niedergang der neuesten Neuen Deutschen Welle ist im vollen Gange. Wenn auch der Absturz manch obskurer Band länger dauert als erwartet, kann man für eine Zombie-Kapelle der übleren Art das Totenglöckchen wieder einpacken: Wir sind Helden sind schon tot, die brauchen kein Geläute mehr.

In nackten Verkaufszahlen ihrer drei CDs (2003, 2005, 2007): 800.000 -- 500.000 -- 100.000. Zum Vergleich die CDs von Silbermond (2004, 2006): 600.000 -- 800.000 oder Juli (2004, 2006): 1.000.000 -- 500.000. Die Bands, die als Nachahmer einer angeblich von der Holofernes-Gang angestoßenen Deutsch-Pop-Welle bezeichnet werden, sind ungleich erfolgreicher als die Initiatoren.

Erstaunlich ist nur, daß Wir sind Helden mehr CDs verkaufen konnten, als ihr Familien- und Freundeskreis groß ist. Das dürre, platte Stimmchen von Judith Holofernes, die sich mit monoton gehetzten Sprechgesängen über beinahe jeden Song retten muß, nervte vom ersten Takt ihrer ersten EP an.

Holofernes wäre aber nicht Holofernes, wenn sie diese Peinlichkeit nicht noch steigern würde. Sie müht sich soooo tapfer, den Ton der Straße zu treffen, und landet nur beim jugendtümelnden Verschlucken der Vokale. Tolle Sache. Klingt wie Gute-Laune-Frühstücksradio. Aber das ist ja auch von Gestern.

Sollten Wir sind Helden tatsächlich ihren Plattenvertrag behalten und eine vierte CD produzieren, wird es Zeit, sich Romeros "Night of the Living Dead" wieder anzusehen. Man will ja nichts falsch machen, wenn man den Zombies auf der Straße begegnet.

Placebo des Jahres:
Joanna Newsom

Kein Entrinnen. Seit 2006 wird die 25jährige Kalifornierin hierzulande als messianische Erlösung gefeiert, als komplexes Songwriter-Wunder, das angeblich keine Zeile doppelt singt und auf klassische Refrains verzichtet. Ah! Oh! Wie grandios! Und sonst? 2007 tourte die Harfenistin durch Deutschland. Noch mehr Ah! und Oh! Warum eigentlich?

Newsoms Folk klingt weder neu noch gut geklaut. Ihre eklektische Melange aus Melanie Safka, Kate Bush und dem artifiziellen Gekickse von Björk wird nicht origineller, wenn sie dabei in die Harfe greift und auf ihrer CD "Ys" Großväterchen Van Dyke Parks die Arrangements notieren läßt. Und Steve Albini, der zweite große Pate von "Ys", produzierte in seinem Leben auch schon einen respektablen Haufen Schrott. Aber vielleicht genügt inzwischen die Nennung der "Ich trage einen großen Namen"-Veteranen in den Linernotes, um vor Ehrfurcht erstarren zu müssen, wer weiß.

Newsom zirpt und zilpt sich angestrengt durch ihre akademische Kunstwelt, eisern bemüht, jede Silbe nicht etwa zu singen, sondern zu intonieren. Sie flüstert und haucht, zwitschert und schreit, näselt und preßt, gackert und summt. Sie wechselt rasant Tempi und Tonlage. Das kann nicht jeder, keine Frage. Das Resultat wirkt aber so lebensprall wie eine Puppenstube mit Porzellanfiguren, über denen geschrieben steht: "Bitte nicht berühren."

Man könnte Newsoms quälenden Manierismus achselzuckend abtun, wäre da nicht der immer wiederkehrende Vergleich mit Devendra Banhart. Und dieser Vergleich ist mehr als albern. Auf der einen Seite die Hobby-Elfe, auf der anderen der großartige Inspirator der neuen Folkmusik. Was Devendra Banhart auf einer einzigen CD aus seinem Bart schüttelt, wird Newsom weder in dieser Welt noch nach ihrer Reinkarnation als Waldelbe von Lórien zustande bringen.

Besonders drastisch ist der Unterschied live zu erfahren: Devendra Banhart lebt. Joanna Newsom könnte auch in Las Vegas spielen, fünfmal pro Woche im "Caesars Palace".

Nun ist es durchaus möglich, daß ältere männliche Redakteure angesichts des Newsom'schen Elfengewispers und ihrer jungmädchenhaften Physiognomie in Wallung geraten, erstaunt eine Reaktivierung ihrer erschlafft geglaubten Schwellkörper registrieren und entzückt eine Lobpreisung Newsoms in die Tastatur hauen.
Das kennt man vom Placebo-Effekt: Schnieke Verpackung + dürrer Inhalt = tolle Wirkung.

Für Testosteronschübe gibt es aber die Centerfolds im "Playboy". Die haben zwei Vorteile: Sie sehen besser aus -- und sie sind stumm.

Sie heißt Galadriel und herrscht über die Waldelben von Lórien.

Sie heißt Joanna Newsom und hat nur spitze Ohren.

It dawned on my why the sauce is so runny! I used the wrong type of tomato. Sometimes I think I am inexplicably wise and dismiss instructions because (in the zeal of the moment) I doubt they are founded on anything besides mere preference. Ah, foolish confidence!

Well, here I am a complete novice food preserver, and I decide to use the generic, red, round tomato since that was all that was available through the Co-op. Had I opted for a paste tomato, such as a Roma, my virgin tomato sauce would be just that—a sauce, rather than a soup!

So, instead, I add a little canned tomato paste to my too-runny sauce and make do. The pizza was delicious along with the red wine we picked up at the Summerside Winery on our way home from Missouri over Thanksgiving. We tasted several types, but the Route 66 Red was our favorite.