“Lions legend Dick LeBeau finally on brink of Hall of Fame - detnews.com” plus 4 more

---

• Lions legend Dick LeBeau finally on brink of Hall of Fame - detnews.com
• KSU's GeoBowl team places 1st - Topeka Capital-Journal
• Poor Education May Lead to Poor Health - Yahoo News
• Things to keep in mind for a stock portfolio - MSN India
• Next Apocalypse? Mayan Year 2012 Stirs Doomsayers - US News and World Report

Lions legend Dick LeBeau finally on brink of Hall of Fame - detnews.com Posted: 10 Oct 2009 02:09 PM PDT Sunday Special Tim Twentyman / The Detroit News Allen Park -- Dick LeBeau wasn't the fastest defender roaming the secondary for the Lions in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. He wasn't the strongest or most athletically gifted, either. What LeBeau had that set him apart in his era was an uncanny ability to anticipate and break on the football. From 1959 to 1972, LeBeau recorded 62 interceptions for 762 return yards and three touchdowns. His 62 picks are the most by any player in Lions history, and they are tied for seventh all-time in NFL history. Advertisement But, amazingly, LeBeau, 72, is still not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- not yet, at least. LeBeau, who returns to Detroit on Sunday as defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers, finally is getting his shot at the Hall of Fame as a senior committee nominee for the Class of 2010. The Hall of Fame will make its decision on new members in February. "I don't think I'm the kind of guy that would be walking around saying I ought to be in the Hall of Fame, so I never really thought about it," said LeBeau, whose Steelers face the Lions at 1 p.m. (CBS). "It's the type of honor that's almost too good to be true. So if it happens, great. But I don't think you ever really think you should be in there. I just was grateful for my career and the people I played with." LeBeau was a staple in the Lions' secondary for 14 years, during which time he shared the defensive backfield with Yale Lary (1952-64), Lem Barney (1967-77) and Dick "Night Train" Lane (1960-65). All three of those players are in the Hall of Fame. "I think it's great that the three that are in there are in there," LeBeau said. "They were surely three of the best football players that ever played. Night Train and Lem at the corner, and then Yale was a great safety and a tremendous punter -- I think the best punter I've ever seen. "So yeah, we've got some Hall of Fame guys there from my group. But it would be unusually great if we could get that fourth guy in there. I wouldn't be against that." The interceptions speak for themselves, but the longevity of his career is something a lot of people don't appreciate. LeBeau still holds the record for consecutive starts at cornerback with 171. "My consecutive games played record -- I think that says I was a guy who would come to work and play every week and didn't have to be in perfect health to play," he said. "I'm very proud of that. In fact, that's the only thing from playing I ever talk about." The zone blitz When LeBeau was with the Lions, his defensive coordinator was Jim David. David liked to blitz and pressure the quarterback frequently -- a philosophy that no doubt helped contribute to a few errant passes being rushed LeBeau's way. When LeBeau started his coaching career in 1973, that same pressure philosophy stayed with him. "He liked to blitz the quarterback, and of course that's kind of my philosophy," LeBeau said of David. LeBeau started his coaching career with the Philadelphia Eagles on special teams. He coached defensive backs in Green Bay and got his first defensive coordinator gig with Cincinnati in 1980. But it's been his two stints with Pittsburgh where he's really left his mark on the league. LeBeau was hired by the Steelers in 1992, left for a brief stint as the Bengals' head coach from 2000-02, and returned to the Steelers, where he still coaches today. As an assistant, LeBeau is credited with inventing the "zone blitz" defense, which employs unpredictable pass rushes and pass coverage from various players out of a 3-4 defense. "There's not many new ideas. And everybody borrows from other people and steals ideas. But the zone blitz was a new idea, and that was Dick LeBeau's invention," said Lions coach Jim Schwartz. "And every single defensive coordinator in the NFL has stolen that scheme to some extent. "Those credentials speak for themselves. He was a great player, he's been a great coach, he's had a long career, and I hope I look that good when I'm his age." More than football Football consumes the lives of most coaches, but not LeBeau. He is an avid music fan and plays the guitar. LeBeau and Joe Schmidt produced a record that got some play on local radio stations. "My dad was a drummer. My brother is a professional musician. My aunt was a music teacher and a piano player. So I got the short end of that stick, but I still love music and I still play the guitar," he said. LeBeau also dabbled in Hollywood as a stunt double for Michael Caine in the 1970 movie "Too Late the Hero." LeBeau at one time held a +1 handicap and contemplated a pro golf career before he played a round with Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. "After playing with Jack and Tom, I decided I better really, really concentrate on football," he said. That was probably the best play LeBeau could have made, and it might take him all the way to the Hall of Fame. ttwentyman@detnews.com

KSU's GeoBowl team places 1st - Topeka Capital-Journal Posted: 10 Oct 2009 11:46 AM PDT Kansas State University's GeoBowl team recently placed first at the annual Association of American Geographers Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division. K-State knocked off defending champion University of Wyoming to finish first at the divisional level. Team member Tyra Olstad, a doctoral student in geography from Tonawanda, N.Y., also tied for first place in individual scores for the GeoBowl. She will be on the team representing the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division at the World Geography Bowl, a part of the national meeting of the Association of American Geographers, April 14 to 18 in Washington, D.C. The division team is selected from top individual scorers. For the first-place finish at the divisional level, Olstad was joined by team members Melissa Belz, doctoral student in geography; Samantha Hartley, master's student in geography; Colton Youngs, freshman in philosophy, all from Manhattan; and Jim Wells, doctoral student in geography, Averill Park, N.Y.

Poor Education May Lead to Poor Health - Yahoo News Posted: 10 Oct 2009 01:41 PM PDT SATURDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with a poor education are also likely to have poor health, a growing body of evidence suggests. Study after study has confirmed the link, and now experts are zeroing in on the reasons for it and what can be done. "Persons with a higher education tend to have better jobs, and better income, better benefits," said David R. Williams, a professor of public health at the Harvard School of Public Health and staff director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America. Those benefits, he said, go beyond health benefits to include such other factors as having the leeway to take a day off or part of a day to see a doctor. People with higher levels of education "tend to have more resources to cope with stress and life, to live in better neighborhoods," Williams said. They have stress, of course, but also more resources to cope with it -- such as access to a health club to exercise away the stress -- than do people with less education, he said. Being better educated also means that a person is more likely to understand the world of modern medicine, said Erik Angner, an assistant professor of philosophy and economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who has researched the link between literacy and happiness. "Modern medicine is incredibly complex," Angner said, "and if you lack the constellation of skills -- including basic reading and numerical tasks -- required to function adequately in the health-care environment, you might find it harder to effectively request, receive and understand your [medical] care." A report issued in May by Williams's commission found that, compared with college graduates, adults who did not graduate from high school were 2.5 times as likely to be in less than very good health. High school graduates, it found, were nearly twice as likely as college graduates to be in less than very good health. The report suggested that factors outside of the medical system play an important role in determining people's health, including how long they will live. Access to medical care is crucial, the report authors said, but it isn't enough to improve health. What's needed, they suggested, is increased focus on schools and education -- encouraging people to obtain more education -- as well as more promotion of healthy living in the home, community and workplace. From a "big picture" perspective, Williams said, health promotion should be emphasized and taught more -- and earlier -- in schools. Health habits in adulthood, he said, are built during childhood. It's also crucial, he said, to have a healthy neighborhood and workplace. Angner said that he's found in his recent research that the older adults he has studied who could read and answer questions on medical forms without assistance were likely to be happier than those who could not. Improving literacy -- and thus improving the ability to read and understand medical forms -- could boost health among adults, he said. For adults whose education was stopped early, returning to school might help their health as well as their job prospects, the experts say. And if that's not an option, Angner said, simply trying to improve reading skills should make a difference. More information The National Institute for Literacy has more on literacy services.

Things to keep in mind for a stock portfolio - MSN India Posted: 10 Oct 2009 10:06 AM PDT First of all, retail investors must recognize that they are competing against the pros. Therefore, you should not do this if you do not have the time or resources to match the research and analytics done by the pros. Secondly, you must have an investing philosophy that guides you irrespective of the prevailing market conditions. Recognize whether you are a day trader, punting on every rumour that you come across, or if you are a value investor who buys and holds for at least a minimum of 4-5 years. Are you trading on the fundamentals and operating performance of the companies, or are just following trends and the prevailing flavour of the month. If you stick to your investment philosophy then you will be disciplined to look at investment opportunities in a consistent way. Thirdly, understand your risk profile. Are you risk averse? Or are you willing to take on extra risk in order to earn higher returns? Most retail investors ignore that high returns cannot be earned without exposing oneself to higher risk, and then get upset when they end up losing their money. Does your risk profile match the stocks that you own in your portfolio - do you know why certain stocks are in your portfolio? Is it because your neighbour gave you a tip, or because you are confident that these stocks will help you to fulfill your financial goals based on your criteria? Finally, what are you doing towards risk management? This is where the pros really stand out because they understand that managing a portfolio is all about risk management on a daily basis. When the price moves higher or lower than your expectation, do you buy more or do you start selling? Do you recognize that your exposure to one sector or stock might have gone up or down a lot due to market price changes? What do you do in this situation? Doing nothing is not option. Source: Reuters More on news

Next Apocalypse? Mayan Year 2012 Stirs Doomsayers - US News and World Report Posted: 10 Oct 2009 01:19 PM PDT MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY—Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world. Or is it? Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff." It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House. At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared. "It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up." Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas. A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years. But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes "predictions" from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?" It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or "Planet X." But this one has some grains of archaeological basis. One of them is Monument Six. Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted. It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation. However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible. Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky." Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772. And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012. "If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. "That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain." The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012. "It's a special anniversary of creation," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six." Bernal suggests that apocalypse is "a very Western, Christian" concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are "exhausted." If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off. But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth's axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon.

You are subscribed to email updates from Philosophy - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610