Tonight's New Orleans Saints vs. New England Patriots game at the Superdome promises to be one giant spectacle.
The Saints coming in at 10-0 against the Patriots, at 7-3, which have been the franchise that has dominated football the past decade.
So are the Saints for real? Maybe we'll see tonight.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Saint's can they go all the way?
The New Orleans Saints are treading dangerously by committing so many turnovers
By Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune
November 17, 2009, 4:00AM
One day after the Saints held on for an uninspiring 28-23 victory against the lowly St. Louis Rams, the mood still hadn't changed in the Saints' locker room.
Jeff Roberson / The Associated PressRams safety Oshiomogho Atogwe intercepts a pass intended for Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey during the first quarter Sunday in St. Louis. New Orleans had three turnovers against the Rams, upping the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games. Players on Monday continued to figuratively kick themselves over the mounting turnovers. They openly chastised themselves for yet another sloppy performance. Somberly, they reflected on the penalties and the mistakes. This certainly didn't appear to be the locker room of one of the NFL's two 9-0 teams (the other is the Indianapolis Colts), one with a four-game lead in the NFC South.
"The victory is obviously great, but you still feel that kind of sourness in the back of your mind that OK we are winning but we have some things that we need to correct, " Saints running back Reggie Bush said. "It's fixable. It's not like it's not fixable. It's something that we can correct, and we are going to work on correcting.
"And it's something we have no choice but to correct because if we don't we are going to find ourselves losing games here pretty soon."
Several players said they were happy to see the locker room in a stupor following Sunday's performance in which they committed three turnovers, six penalties and allowed host St. Louis to post season highs in points and yards. Last season at this time, the Saints were 4-5 and were talking about how their postseason chances were slipping away. Now, they've been left to talk about how their errant ways have resulted in victories by narrowing margins.
"You know what I like?" right tackle Jon Stinchcomb said. "We are at a point in the season where we can start analyzing how we are winning games. I've been around here enough years to know that winning isn't easy."
But nearly every player said it's even tougher when New Orleans continues to suffer from the same glaring problem during the past four games -- turnovers.
The three turnovers against the Rams pushed the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games -- and a couple were nearly costly. Receiver Marques Colston fumbled as he attempted to cross the goal line in the third quarter, robbing the Saints of a touchdown. And Drew Brees' second interception of the game -- and seventh in the past four weeks -- led to a Rams field goal.
"We've been turning the ball over the last few games, " Colston said. "And more often than not that's going to get you beat, but we've been able to pull some close games out here lately. But it's something that if we don't get corrected it's going to come back and bite us in the butt."
Said Bush: "Turnovers to all of us are the No. 1 reason teams lose games. If you don't turn the ball over it doesn't guarantee a win, but it at least gives you a chance. When you turn the ball over as much as we have these last few games, for the most part, you end up losing those games. But fortunately enough we've been able to make plays when needed."
The Saints can't continue to be so careless with the football, and Coach Sean Payton has told his players this much.
Payton, however, realizes that harping ball security to his team isn't nearly enough.
While some turnovers can't be avoided, Payton said he and his staff plan to devote more time to preventing the miscues, even if it means adding drills to practice sessions.
"I can tell you don't turn the football over, but we need to look specifically at ways to practice it," Payton said. "And if that means an additional period, we'll do that, because I don't think you can just say don't turn the ball over. And I think part of what we do is teaching, show me what you mean. Show me how. I think those are things we look at.
"It is concerning. I have to do a better job, and offensively we have to do a better job of not just preaching it, but spending more time on it."
The players said they have to do their part as well.
"It's just about focusing," running back Pierre Thomas said. "We haven't really been focusing. That's the only thing we have to do is just focus and take everything slowly and play our game. I don't know what can be the cause of it or what may be the problem. But what we have to do is just focus and stop these penalties and stop turning the ball over. If we eliminate that then we'll be back to like we used to be."
By Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune
November 17, 2009, 4:00AM
One day after the Saints held on for an uninspiring 28-23 victory against the lowly St. Louis Rams, the mood still hadn't changed in the Saints' locker room.
Jeff Roberson / The Associated PressRams safety Oshiomogho Atogwe intercepts a pass intended for Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey during the first quarter Sunday in St. Louis. New Orleans had three turnovers against the Rams, upping the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games. Players on Monday continued to figuratively kick themselves over the mounting turnovers. They openly chastised themselves for yet another sloppy performance. Somberly, they reflected on the penalties and the mistakes. This certainly didn't appear to be the locker room of one of the NFL's two 9-0 teams (the other is the Indianapolis Colts), one with a four-game lead in the NFC South.
"The victory is obviously great, but you still feel that kind of sourness in the back of your mind that OK we are winning but we have some things that we need to correct, " Saints running back Reggie Bush said. "It's fixable. It's not like it's not fixable. It's something that we can correct, and we are going to work on correcting.
"And it's something we have no choice but to correct because if we don't we are going to find ourselves losing games here pretty soon."
Several players said they were happy to see the locker room in a stupor following Sunday's performance in which they committed three turnovers, six penalties and allowed host St. Louis to post season highs in points and yards. Last season at this time, the Saints were 4-5 and were talking about how their postseason chances were slipping away. Now, they've been left to talk about how their errant ways have resulted in victories by narrowing margins.
"You know what I like?" right tackle Jon Stinchcomb said. "We are at a point in the season where we can start analyzing how we are winning games. I've been around here enough years to know that winning isn't easy."
But nearly every player said it's even tougher when New Orleans continues to suffer from the same glaring problem during the past four games -- turnovers.
The three turnovers against the Rams pushed the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games -- and a couple were nearly costly. Receiver Marques Colston fumbled as he attempted to cross the goal line in the third quarter, robbing the Saints of a touchdown. And Drew Brees' second interception of the game -- and seventh in the past four weeks -- led to a Rams field goal.
"We've been turning the ball over the last few games, " Colston said. "And more often than not that's going to get you beat, but we've been able to pull some close games out here lately. But it's something that if we don't get corrected it's going to come back and bite us in the butt."
Said Bush: "Turnovers to all of us are the No. 1 reason teams lose games. If you don't turn the ball over it doesn't guarantee a win, but it at least gives you a chance. When you turn the ball over as much as we have these last few games, for the most part, you end up losing those games. But fortunately enough we've been able to make plays when needed."
The Saints can't continue to be so careless with the football, and Coach Sean Payton has told his players this much.
Payton, however, realizes that harping ball security to his team isn't nearly enough.
While some turnovers can't be avoided, Payton said he and his staff plan to devote more time to preventing the miscues, even if it means adding drills to practice sessions.
"I can tell you don't turn the football over, but we need to look specifically at ways to practice it," Payton said. "And if that means an additional period, we'll do that, because I don't think you can just say don't turn the ball over. And I think part of what we do is teaching, show me what you mean. Show me how. I think those are things we look at.
"It is concerning. I have to do a better job, and offensively we have to do a better job of not just preaching it, but spending more time on it."
The players said they have to do their part as well.
"It's just about focusing," running back Pierre Thomas said. "We haven't really been focusing. That's the only thing we have to do is just focus and take everything slowly and play our game. I don't know what can be the cause of it or what may be the problem. But what we have to do is just focus and stop these penalties and stop turning the ball over. If we eliminate that then we'll be back to like we used to be."
Saturday, August 1, 2009
GaBbY UnIoN
I checked out a movie last night on line Netflix. Neo Ned.
Looking for belonging, young Ned (Jeremy Renner) falls in with a group of neo-Nazi skinheads and soon lands in a mental asylum after getting entangled in a racially driven homicide. But the arrival of a beautiful black woman (Gabrielle Union) -- who believes she's possessed by Adolf Hitler -- sets the stage for an unlikely romance and plants the seeds of Ned's redemption. Cary Elwes also stars in this engaging indie gem.
It's OK very interesting.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bill Gates of Microsoft envisions fighting hurricanes by manipulating the sea
If you thought domination of the world's software market was cool, get a load of Bill Gates' next technological vision: giant ocean-going tubs that fight hurricanes by draining warm water from the surface to the depths, through a long tube.
A second tube could simultaneously suck cool water from the depths to the surface.
Microsoft founder Gates and a dozen other scientists and engineers have a patent pending for deploying such vessels, which they say would collect water through waves breaking over the walls of the tub. Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water.
As many as 200 vessels could be placed strategically in the predicted path of a hurricane, and they could be designed to be reused or to sink in place and decompose underwater. The vessels could be moved into place by towing or by dropping from airplanes.
A second patent application describes how part or all of the cost of building and maintaining the hurricane-killer ships could be raised by selling insurance to coastal residents whose risk would be reduced by using the new system.
A second tube could simultaneously suck cool water from the depths to the surface.
Microsoft founder Gates and a dozen other scientists and engineers have a patent pending for deploying such vessels, which they say would collect water through waves breaking over the walls of the tub. Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water.
As many as 200 vessels could be placed strategically in the predicted path of a hurricane, and they could be designed to be reused or to sink in place and decompose underwater. The vessels could be moved into place by towing or by dropping from airplanes.
A second patent application describes how part or all of the cost of building and maintaining the hurricane-killer ships could be raised by selling insurance to coastal residents whose risk would be reduced by using the new system.
The hurricane-killing ideas, contained in a half-dozen related patent applications, were made public by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday, with Gates listed as one of the inventors on each. The applications were submitted by Searete LLC, a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures of Bellevue, Wash., and created by former Microsoft executives to both buy up existing patents and develop patent applications for new ideas.
The hurricane-killer system isn't expected to be rolled out any time soon, however, according to a posting on the Intellectual Ventures Lab Web site.
Paul "Pablos" Holman, whose job title is listed as "hacker, " said the system would be feasible only if other responses to more active hurricane seasons or more intense hurricanes caused by global warming do not work.
"This type of technology is not something humankind would try as a 'Plan A' or 'Plan B, ' " he wrote. "These inventions are a 'Plan C' where humans decide that we have exhausted all of our behavior changing or alternative energy options and need to rely on mitigation technologies.
"If our planet is in this severe situation, then our belief is that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating mitigation options, " he wrote.
The water-moving vessels would not be limited to killing hurricanes, however. The applications also suggest the "wave induced downwelling" could stir up nutrient-rich sediment on ocean floors to promote plant and animal growth in environmentally-degraded areas.
"This may be used for developing wildlife preservation areas, wildlife recreation areas, restoring wildlife destroyed by natural or man-made causes, etc., " according to the patent application.
Another proposal calls for moving nutrients and other material from the ocean floor to the surface to promote growth of algae to trap carbon as a tool in fighting global warming.
Intellectual Ventures was created in 2000 by Nathan Myhrvold, who was Gates' chief technology officer at Microsoft, and Edward Jung, who was Microsoft's chief software architect. In a May article on the unveiling of Intellectual Venture's own patent laboratory, the Seattle Times reported that the firm has earned $1 billion in licensing revenue from patents it has acquired and about $80 million from patents for ideas it has created since its founding in 2000.
"We consider ourselves basically an invention business, " said Marelaine Dykes, a spokeswoman for the company. "We're a non-practicing entity, a non-manufacturing entity because we don't produce products, per se."
But the new laboratory does produce prototypes of some of its new inventions, she said, and subsidiaries like Searete are being formed to handle a variety of categories of the patents held or developed by the company.
The hurricane killing plan was the product of a gathering of scientists and invention developers more than a year ago.
"These are brainstorming sessions where we come up with and develop ideas around particular topics, " she said. "We bring in smart people from all over, depending on the topic."
Gates, an investor in Intellectual Ventures, has attended several of the invention salons, resulting in his name being added to the ensuing patent applications.
Others listed on those patents include a nuclear reactor designer, an aerospace engineer who has designed reusable launch vehicles, and a climatologist researching ways of increasing water droplets in upper-level clouds to reflect sunlight into space to fight global warming.
New Orleans residents might be keen on at least two other ideas for which Gates and his allies have sought patents: an insulated container that can be used as a beer keg and a fence using photons -- particles of light -- to shoo mosquitoes away from homes.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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