NEW : Cincinnati Shocked by Chris Henry’s Death

As you know , we always get the latest interesting news :

To describe the life of former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry as turbulent is to engage in understatement. Henry’s brief NFL career featured five arrests, three NFL suspensions and a host of second chances. At age 26, Henry seemed finally to be straightening things out off the field while contributing steadily on the field before suffering a season-ending injury in Week 9. On Wednesday, news broke that a domestic dispute with his fiancee somehow led to Henry falling or being thrown from the back of a pickup truck and suffering serious injuries. Henry died of those injuries on Thursday morning, leaving Bengals fans and teammates to puzzle over the confusing legacy of his short, troubled life.

Reuters

Chris Henry, seen during a playoff game against Pittsburgh in this 2006 file photo.

There surely will be more to read about Henry and his strange story in days to come, but for the time being we have to substitute emotional response for context. “I saw a tall, lean, quiet, kid who wanted to get better as a football player and was doing all the right things to make it happen,” the Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Erardi writes. “A kid.”

Longtime Bengals beat writer Chick Ludwig writes at Cincinnati.com that he’s having a hard time maintaining journalistic detachment this morning. “I’ve never come across an athlete as talented or as troubled as Chris Henry,” Ludwig writes.

Garey will have more on this topic tomorrow.

* * *

Only the most ardent and blinkered of college-football loyalists are under the illusion that their coaches of choice are particularly admirable people. There are exceptions to the general rule, of course, but for the most part football coaches — leaders of men and master strategists though they might be — are as flawed as any/everyone else. While it’s not necessarily surprising to hear about college-football coaches being brutish or churlish, the scandal currently surrounding University of South Florida coach Jim Leavitt stands out. That’s partially because of the allegations against Leavitt — that he throttled and twice struck in the face a sophomore walk-on named Joel Miller at halftime of a Nov. 21 game — but more notably for the way the story has changed shape in recent days.

Former Tampa Tribune reporter Brett McMurphy based the FanHouse story that broke the whole thing on quotes from five eyewitnesses as well as Miller’s father and Miller’s high-school coach. The story raised some eyebrows because of Leavitt’s alleged bad behavior and what McMurphy described as the coach’s subsequent attempt to snuff the story out.

Getty Images

Jim Leavitt

The confusing part came later, as Miller and his father — who, remember, was a quoted source in the original story — disavowed the whole thing. (Leavitt has always denied any wrongdoing.) On Wednesday, McMurphy reported that Miller’s brother was not entirely willing to toe the family’s new line on the incident, and stuck to a version of the incident in which Leavitt was decidedly the villain.

So, what actually happened? We may never know, in large part since Miller’s football life depends on him continuing to stick to his latest story. In the Tampa Tribune, Martin Fennelly hopes that the truth in this strange tale will out. “There needs to be a real investigation here,” Fennelly writes. “There are coaches, bigger names, longer legends, who have been fired for doing what Leavitt is accused of doing. … It’s hard to imagine something more serious than a coach bullying his players. It’s hard to imagine why any university would want such a coach, or why any parent would send their son to such a university.”

Elsewhere in the Tribune, Joe Henderson decries South Florida’s stonewalling on the story. “The longer everyone waits for a resolution, the more likely that positions will be hardened,”Henderson writes. “The damage to the football program and university, while already substantial, will get worse. Then when USF finally does have something to say, you wonder if anyone will be listening anymore.”

In the St. Petersburg Times, Gary Shelton argues that only a thorough inquiry into the charges can repair the damage to Leavitt’s reputation. “At this point, only a vigorous, determined investigation will convince everyone that Leavitt’s side of the story is the truth,” Shelton writes. “And at this point, only such a truth can clear Leavitt’s name.”

* * *

The Fix picks the NFL’s Thursday game, ahead of its Friday picks for the weekend:

It’s a nice debate to face: Should you turn your perfect regular season over to the scout-teamers and headset-wearers while resting the stars for the postseason, or gun for the win? The New Orleans Saints could be mired in their own Cajun-inflected version of this debate if they keep winning and clinch home-field advantage in the playoffs over the Minnesota Vikings. In Indy, the debate has arrived early, because the rest of the AFC didn’t put up much of a fight for the No. 1 seed.

Indianapolis (-3) at Jacksonville: Indianapolis hasn’t lost yet this season, as you might’ve heard. But Jacksonville might be the more admirable team in this game. The Jaguars’ roster is loaded with rookies, their home stadium is regularly half-empty and their fate seemingly was sealed before the season’s first coin flip. But the Jags have worked their way into the playoff picture by beating teams worse than them while losing to more talented teams with such predictability that it’s hard not to admire the extent to which they have fulfilled — if never really surpassed — their potential. The bad news for Jacksonville is that the Colts are also playing up to their potential, and are by far the better club — and one seemingly inclined to follow the pundits’ decree and play their stars down the stretch, record be damned. The good news? The Jags are officially this year’s NFL working-class heroes. That counts for something, right?

Pick: David: Indianapolis, Garey: Indianapolis, Al Toonie: Jacksonville

* * *

That the NFL has a head-injury problem is news only to those who went out of their way not to know it over the last decade or so. But while the NFL has acknowledged and addressed that problem recently — breaking from a years-long “more research needed” slow-walk that was impressive even by congressional standards — the National Hockey League has generally ducked its own concussion issue. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Ray Ratto suggests that the NHL address its serious and seriously under-addressed brain-trauma problem as soon as possible.

“People are in just that sort of mood on skull shots — even football fans, who grew up worshiping them as the highest form of entertainment, are getting the message,” Ratto writes. “The NHL needs not to get the message, it needs to give it, and it needs to give it with a knee right to the nethers, so that no owner, general manager, coach, player or fan can mistake it for anything other than what it should be.”

* * *

So much sports journalism is about reaction and overreaction: trashing players, calling for the heads of coaches or GMs, over and over and over. While that stuff can be entertaining sometimes, none of us would be following sports — or reading the Fix, most likely — if the bigger narratives of sports didn’t matter to us at least a little bit.

While ESPN’s 24-hour news cycle does much to keep the more unsatisfying elements of the sports discourse front and center with its ginned-up debates and facile controversies, it’s worth taking a moment to credit ESPN.com’s E-Ticket, a unique Web feature that allows ESPN’s stable of writers to stretch out and write long features on stories that don’t fit within the instantaneousness that defines ESPN. Wright Thompson’s fascinating story on Jimmy Robinson, a boxer who fought Muhammad Ali before facing some much scarier demons later in life, is a fine example of just how good E-Ticket can be. It’s a great, sobering read.

source :

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2009/12/17/cincinnati-shocked-by-chris-henrys-death/

NEW : Redskins shakeup: Bruce Allen is GM, Cerrato quits

Look at the latest news :

ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Redskins overhauled their front office Thursday morning, hiring Bruce Allen as general manager after the resignation of Vinny Cerrato.

Allen becomes the first person hired by owner Dan Snyder to hold the general manager title, a notable milestone after a decade of various front office arrangements that usually centered around Snyder and his good friend Cerrato.

But changes were needed for a team that is 4-9 this season, and Cerrato has been widely criticized for his roster decisions since getting the title of executive vice president of football operations two years ago.

Snyder is also expected to be hiring a new coach in a few weeks, and Allen could be the bridge to that change as well.

The son of legendary Redskins coach George Allen, Bruce Allen was the general manager for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for five seasons. He and Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden were fired in January, and the pair could renew their association if current coach Jim Zorn is fired as the end of the season.

For players, the news was just the first of many anticipated changes.

"That's a start — that's a change right there," cornerback Carlos Rogers said. "There's going to be change in personnel. There's going to be change all over. It'll probably be more changes coaching-wise, so I guess that's the first change right now. You never know what Mr. Snyder got up his sleeve. Personally, I'm worrying about me, and that's all I can worry about."

Tampa Bay won two division championships under Allen. He previously worked for nine years in the Oakland Raiders' front office.

"Bruce Allen is the personification of an NFL winner," Snyder said in a statement released by the team. "Our fans know his heritage; we know his abilities. He is the right person to lead our club."

The Redskins said Allen would begin work immediately.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity with one of the world's most successful sports franchises," Allen said. "I love everything about this assignment; I know what it means to be dedicated to the Redskins. I can't wait to get to work."

Cerrato has been Snyder's right-hand for most of the last 10 years, but even their tight friendship couldn't overcome the team's recent struggles.

"We agreed that the franchise needs someone different in this position," Cerrato said in a separate statement released by the team. "I'm thankful to Dan Snyder and other members of his ownership team for the opportunities I've been given over the years. Of course, I am disappointed with this year's results, but I strongly believe that with outstanding draft picks and encouraging performance by our younger players, we have laid a strong foundation for the franchise."

Cerrato added that he has "had the pleasure of working with some great coaches such as Joe Gibbs, Greg Blache and Sherman Lewis" — notably leaving out Zorn.

Cerrato has been a favorite punching bag for fans in recent years, receiving criticism often in tandem with Snyder. One fan infamously used a pair of signs to refer to the pair as "Dumb" and "Dumber" at a game this season.

Cerrato was one of the first major hires after Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999. He was fired in 2001 by coach Marty Schottenheimer after Schottenheimer was given control of football operations. A year later, Snyder fired Schottenheimer and rehired Cerrato.

Although Cerrato's title changed over the years, he remained a significant front office voice in player decisions. The results have been far from encouraging: The Redskins have won only one playoff game since 2000.

Cerrato's power within the organization increased after coach Joe Gibbs' resignation two years ago, and there have been plenty of hits and misses among his player choices.

This year, Cerrato gave Zorn an offensive line without a single reserve who played in the NFL last year — even though two starters were coming off significant injuries. Both of those starters soon were out for the season, and the resulting scramble for a starting five hampered the development of the offense.

"He is my friend, and he has always been there for me and the Redskins," Snyder said. "He's the consummate optimist and has always made decisions based on what would be the best for the team."

source : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR-Q6tLGFFuzCPcwYtycCOHcMK0QD9CL7A280

NEW : GONZALEZ DEAL UNLIKELY … FOR NOW

Hi all ,

As you know I type the newest news here in the blog . So I wanted to share this with you :

According to multiple major-league sources, there’s very little likelihood of a deal between the Red Sox and Padres involving Adrian Gonzalez in the near future. As has been the case since last summer, the Sox continue to check in with the Padres on Gonzalez and to monitor his availability, but the team has not made a concerted push for the slugging first baseman in the aftermath of signing pitcher John Lackey and outfielder Mike Cameron. Indeed, one source suggested that there was absolutely nothing to the idea that a deal might soon be hatched.

That said, the Sox are in a position of greater strength than they were before the signings to explore a deal. Sox GM Theo Epstein noted in the press conference to introduce Lackey that his club is in better position to explore deals now that it has added two pieces to its 2010 puzzle.

“We like the position we’re in right now. We have some depth, some options, and some flexibility going forward,” said Epstein. “This puts us in a position to have some flexibility if we need to make a move down the road to have some offense.”

Lackey could, for instance, allow the Sox to consider moving a pitcher like Clay Buchholz as the centerpiece of a package. The signing of Cameron to a two-year deal gives the Sox four outfielders — Cameron, Jacoby Ellsbury,J.D. Drew and Jeremy Hermida (the latter of whom the Sox believe will receive his fair share of playing time, in contrast to the possibility that Hermida would be limited to spot bench duty had the Sox signed Jason Bay or Matt Holliday) — who are under team control for the next two years. With Cameron’s arrival, the Sox would find it easier to deal some of the young, athletic outfielders in their system, such as Josh Reddick, Ryan Kalish and Ryan Westmoreland, whom the Padres would be almost certain to seek, along with complementary players to add to a potential package. (It is worth noting that some in the Sox organization consider Westmoreland nearly untouchable.)

Even so, there is no sense that there is a fit right now between the clubs. The Padres, understandably, would seek a Brinks truck return for Gonzalez, whose skill set (40-homer power, Gold Glove caliber defense) and salary ($4.75 million in 2010, $5.5 million in 2011) make him as desirable a trade target as there is in the game. San Diego has shown little inclination to compromise on its asking price.

That may change during the season. If the Padres conclude they will not contend either in 2010 or 2011, then they would likely make Gonzalez available before this year’s trade deadline. At that time, the Padres would have a greater incentive to deal the first baseman, since they would face the prospect of dealing him before this year’s deadline or trying to move him next offseason, when the potential return would be diminished by the prospect of getting just one year of Gonzalez’ services, rather than two. And if the Padres do make Gonzalez available, the Sox would undoubtedly be one of the most aggressive teams to pursue his services.

The Sox have a strong track record in adding major position players mid-year, as evidenced by the acquisition ofJason Bay in 2008 and Victor Martinez in 2009. No doubt, they would love to continue that trend with Gonzalez.

But for now, it would seem, such a trade scenario remains far more likely to unfold during the season than it is this offseason. Padres GM Jed Hoyer and manager Bud Black are both on record as saying they expect Gonzalez to remain in San Diego at the start of next year, and there has been little evidence that there has been a status change amidst the swirl of events at Fenway Park in recent days.

source : http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2009/12/16/gonzalez-deal-unlikely-for-now/

NEW : Quantum mechanical version of Borromean Rings finally proved

First let us take a look at the "Borromean Rings" from wikipedia :

In mathematics, the Borromean rings consist of three topological circles which are linked and form a Brunnian link, i.e., removing any ring results in two unlinked rings.

Although the typical picture of the Borromean rings (left picture) may lead one to think the link can be formed from geometrically round circles, they cannot be. (Freedman & Skora 1987) proves why a certain class of links including the Borromean links cannot be exactly circular. Alternatively, this can be seen from considering the link diagram: if one assumes that circles 1 and 2 touch at their two crossing points, then they either lie in a plane or a sphere. In either case, the third circle must pass through this plane or sphere four times, without lying in it, which is impossible; see (Lindström & Zetterström 1991).Mathematical properties

It is, however, true that one can use ellipses (center picture). These may be taken to be of arbitrarily small eccentricity, i.e. no matter how close to being circular their shape may be, as long as they are not perfectly circular, they can form Borromean links if suitably positioned: for example, Borromean rings made from thin circles of elastic metal wire will bend.

Standard diagram of the Borromean rings

A realization of the Borromean rings as ellipses

Coat of arms showing padlocks locked in Borromean rings configuration

Linking

There are a number of ways of seeing that the Borromean rings cannot be unlinked.

Simplest is that the fundamental group of the complement of two unlinked circles is the free group on two generators, a and b, by the Seifert–van Kampen theorem, and then the third loop has the class of the commutator, [a, b] = aba⁻¹b⁻¹, as one can see from the link diagram: over one, over the next, back under the first, back under the second. This is non-trivial in the fundamental group, and thus the Borromean rings are linked.

Another way is that the cohomology of the complement supports a non-trivial Massey product, which is not the case for the unlink. This is a simple example of the Massey product and further, the algebra corresponds to the geometry: a 3-fold Massey product is a 3-fold product which is only defined if all the 2-fold products vanish, which corresponds to the Borromean rings being pairwise unlinked (2-fold products vanish), but linked overall (3-fold product does not vanish).

Hyperbolic

The Borromean rings are a hyperbolic link: the complement of the Borromean rings in the 3-sphere admits a complete hyperbolic metric of finite volume. The canonical (Epstein-Penner) polyhedral decomposition of the complement consists of two ideal octahedra.

Connection to braid

The standard 3-strand braid corresponds to the Borromean rings.

If one cuts the Borromean rings, one obtains one iteration of the standard braid; conversely, if one ties together the ends of (one iteration of) a standard braid, one obtains the Borromean rings. Just as removing one Borromean ring unlinks the remaining two, removing one strand of the standard braid unbraids the other two: they are the basic Brunnian link and Brunnian braid, respectively.

In the standard link diagram, the Borromean rings are ordered non-transitively, in a rock-paper-scissors order. Using the colors above, these are red over yellow, yellow over blue, blue over red – and thus after removing any one ring, for the remaining two, one is above the other and they can be unlinked. Similarly, in the standard braid, each strand is above one of the others and below the other.

History of origin and depictions

Valknut on Stora Hammar stone

The Borromean rings as a symbol of the Christian Trinity, from a 13th-century manuscript.

A monkey's fist knot.

The Discordian "mandala", containing five Borromean rings configurations.

The name "Borromean rings" comes from their use in the coat of arms of the aristocratic Borromeo family in Italy. The link itself is much older and has appeared in Gandharva (Afghan) Buddhist art from around the second century C.E., and in the form of the valknut on Norse image stones dating back to the 7th century.

The Borromean rings have been used in different contexts to indicate strength in unity, e.g. in religion or art. In particular, some have used the design to symbolize the Trinity. The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan famously found inspiration in the Borromean rings as a model for his topology of human subjectivity, with each ring representing a fundamental Lacanian component of reality (the "real", the "imaginary", and the "symbolic").

The Borromean rings are also the logo of Ballantine beer.^[1]

Partial Borromean rings

In medieval and renaissance Europe, a number of visual signs are found which consist of three elements which are interlaced together in the same way that the Borromean rings are shown interlaced (in their conventional two-dimensional depiction), but the individual elements are not closed loops. Examples of such symbols are the Snoldelev stone horns and the Diana of Poitiers crescents. An example with three distinct elements is the logo ofSport Club Internacional.

Similarly, a monkey's fist knot is essentially a 3-dimensional representation of the Borromean rings, albeit with three layers, in most cases.

Balancing knives

Using the pattern in the incomplete Borromean rings, one can balance three knives on three supports, such as three bottles or glasses, providing a support in the middle for a fourth bottle or glass.^[2]

Multiple Borromean rings

Some knot-theoretic links contain multiple Borromean rings configurations; one five-loop link of this type is used as a symbol inDiscordianism, based on a depiction in the Principia Discordia.

Molecular Borromean rings

Crystal structure of molecular Borromean rings reported by Stoddart et al. Science 2004, 304, 1308–1312.

Molecular Borromean rings are the molecular counterparts of Borromean rings, which are mechanically-interlocked molecular architectures.

In 1997, biologists Chengde Mao and coworkers of New York University succeeded in constructing molecular Borromean rings from DNA(Nature, volume 386, page 137, March 1997).

In 2003, chemist Fraser Stoddart and coworkers at UCLA utilised coordination chemistry to construct molecular Borromean rings in one step from 18 components. This work was published in Science 2004, 304, 1308–1312. Abstract

Quantum-mechanical rings

A team of physicists led by Randy Hulet of Rice University in Houston achieved a quantum-mechanical version of Borromean rings predicted by physicist Vitaly Efimov and published their findings in the online journal Science Express.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings

Now let us check the news : 

Houston, Dec 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Physicist Vitaly Efimov’s theory has finally been proved after almost 40 years. Efimov had predicted a quantum-mechanical version of Borromean rings, a symbol that first showed up in Afghan Buddhist art from around the second century. The symbol depicts three rings linked together and if any ring were removed, then they would all be undone.
Efimov had theorized an analog to the rings using particles: Three particles (such as atoms or protons or even quarks) could be bound together in a stable state, even though any two of them could not bind without the third. The physicist first proposed the idea, based on a mathematical proof, in 1970. Since then, people have tried their best to prove this theory but they didn’t succeed for almost 4 decades.
But now physicists at the Rice University have used atoms at temperatures colder than deep space. And they have delivered concrete proof for a once-ridiculed-at theory that’s become a hotbed for research some 40 years after it first appeared in 1970. In a paper available online in Science Express, Rice’s team offers experimental evidence for a universal quantum mechanism that allows trios of particles to appear and reappear at higher energy levels in an infinite progression. The triplets, often called trimers, form in special cases where pairs cannot.
“It’s such a remarkable phenomena,” said team leader Randy Hulet. “There are examples, like the Borromean rings, where having a third component is crucial. Any two of the rings will unbind if the third is removed, and these trimers are similar. The particles want to bind, but no two can do it. They need the third one to make it happen.”


source : http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/quantum-mechanical-version-of-borromean-rings-finally-proved_100290497.html