Tuesday, December 22, 2009

“Mancini Targets Silverware At Manchester City - Modern Ghana” plus 4 more

“Mancini Targets Silverware At Manchester City - Modern Ghana” plus 4 more

Mancini Targets Silverware At Manchester City - Modern Ghana

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 08:29 AM PST

Manchester City's new boss says he is keen to end the club's 33-year wait for major silverware after taking charge at Eastlands.

The 45-year-old led Inter Milan to three league titles ending the Italian side's long barren spell and said: "I hope history repeats itself.

"Manchester is similar to Milan in its football passion," the Italian told the club website.

"I am proud to get the job because City is a good club with good players."

Mancini, who replaces Mark Hughes as City boss, guided Inter Milan, who had not won the Serie A title since 1989, to three successive league titles, two Italian Cups and two Italian Super Cups.

City's last trophy, aside from triumphs outside of the top flight, was the League Cup in 1976, with their last league title coming in 1968.

Former City striker Brian Kidd will join Mancini as his assistant, while he will add former England fitness coach Ivan Carminati, coach Fausto Salsano and goalkeeping specialist Massimo Battara to his staff soon.

"I know Brian, he is a boss in English football," said Mancini.

"I know his record as a top player for City, Everton and United. He was a striker, I was a striker; we share the same football philosophy. He has also has great coaching experience. I am sure we will gel very well."  Source: BBC

Source: Daily Guide - Daily Guide

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"The Simpsons" May Help No-Nuke Crowd - News Talk650

Posted: 20 Dec 2009 06:33 PM PST

Homer Simpson has no idea how to run a nuclear power plant.  A philosophy professor believes that may affect some people's stance on nuclear power.

Dr. Bill Irwin wrote "The Simpsons and Philosophy."

He says over the years, television and movies have hyped up nuclear problems.

"Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were both awful, awful disasters, but not nearly as bad in actuality."

The Simpsons might not be the main reason why people don't want nuclear power.

But Dr. Irwin says they might identify nuclear reactos with the image of Homer Simpson scrambling to stop a meltdown, using "eenie, meenie, minie, moe" to pick out the abort button.

Add to that the fictional power plant in Springfield has a cold, greedy owner in Mr. Burns.

Dr. Irwin also points out that the show's most intelligent main character, Lisa Simpson is a staunch advocate of the environment.

"She's very eco-friendly and very much against nuclear power and the nuclear power plant run by Mr. Burns."

He says it's disappointing to see so many stereotypes out there when it comes to nuclear reactors.

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Saban helped shape Muschamp's coaching philosophy - ESPN.com

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 01:52 PM PST

AUSTIN, Texas -- Will Muschamp wanted to get out of his house for a few hours while visiting relatives in Atlanta on Christmas Day 2000, figuring that meeting a few old coaching friends would provide a calming respite.

He called some old friends on the LSU staff that morning with hopes of watching the Tigers practice for their Peach Bowl game a few days later.

While there, Muschamp met first-year LSU coach Nick Saban. Both of their lives changed from that moment.

The then-Valdosta State defensive coordinator was hired to join Saban's staff three weeks later as a linebackers coach after a vacancy appeared on the staff.

"He wanted somebody young, from the South and who had ties with people on the staff," Muschamp said. "They brought me in for an interview and we talked that day. That night, he offered me the job."

LSU won a BCS championship barely four years later. Muschamp then followed Saban to the Miami Dolphins, where at 34, he was one of the youngest defensive coordinators in recent NFL history.

Later, Saban returned to Alabama and Muschamp became the defensive coordinator at Auburn. Muschamp eventually was hired at Texas, where his strong work has earned him the designation of Mack Brown's successor when he leaves coaching.

Back in the LSU days, Saban had a reputation as a taskmaster who was difficult for many assistants to work for.

But in Muschamp, he found a kindred spirit who enjoyed grinding away at the job as much as he did.

"Nick never asked me to do anything he wasn't doing himself," Muschamp said. "From a work standpoint, a recruiting standpoint or a coaching standpoint, if you didn't want to work it wasn't a good place to be. But I enjoyed work and I like coaching football.

"I like evaluation and I like recruiting and that's why we got along philosophically and schematically. We believe the same way in coaching and motivating. I think that's why we got along."

Today, Muschamp's players say the apple hasn't fallen too far from the tree in terms of Muschamp's dedication for work.

"I always want to try to beat him into the office," Texas defensive tackle Kheeston Randall said. "But it's hard to do. He's the first one there a lot and the last one to leave. You look out and see (Muschamp's) that white truck out there all the time."

Saban is proud of Muschamp's ascension in coaching like the development of former assistants like Michigan State head coach Mark D'Antonio, incoming Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher or Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley.

"To put it into perspective, (it's like) when one of your children does something that makes you proud," Saban said. "That's how you feel when coaches on your staff go on and do bigger and better things and have success in what they do. I'm really proud and want to see them all do extremely well."

Because of their dedication to coaching, Muschamp estimates that he and Saban talk less than once a month. They haven't exchanged pleasantries since the Texas-Alabama matchup was set when Texas beat Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game and Alabama defeated Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game earlier that day.

"It's tough during the season," Muschamp said. "He knows they are playing us and I know we're playing them. He's busy and I am, too."

Both coaching staffs have a lot of connections other than the Saban-Muschamp association. Current Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart was Muschamp's secondary coach at Valdosta State when Muschamp was hired at LSU. Alabama associate head coach/linebackers coach James Willis worked as Muschamp's linebackers coach at Auburn. And Texas running backs coach Major Applewhite worked on Saban's staff as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2007.

Saban faced a similar challenge at Miami when he faced his old mentor, Bill Belichick, when he was coaching the New England Patriots.

"I'm really proud and want to see them all do extremely well," Saban said. "We're good friends and you compete and play against each other, but you don't dislike each other and it's not you don't have the same amount of respect and admiration for them.

"You want to be helpful to those guys if you can. And even if you compete against somebody in that moment in time, you're trying to do the best you can for your team."

Muschamp learned a lot during his time with Saban. While he jokes there will be a lot of "wasted ink" written bout their relationship over the next few weeks, he remains grateful for the opportunity to join Saban's staff nine years ago.

"When you get there and get exposed to a lot schematically, that appealed to me," Muschamp said. "And that's obviously where I formed my ideas about how you play and the things you needed to do to be successful."

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Vatican praises philosophy of 'The Simpsons' - Tampa Bay Online

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 11:57 AM PST

The Associated Press

Published: December 22, 2009

VATICAN CITY - To put it as the devout Ned Flanders would, the Vatican's newspaper thinks "The Simpsons" are an okely dokely bunch.

L'Osservatore Romano today congratulated the show on its 20th anniversary, praising its philosophical leanings as well as its stinging and often irreverent take on religion.

Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters "many today wouldn't know how to laugh," said the article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut."

The paper credited "The Simpsons" — the longest-running American animated program — with opening up cartoons to an adult audience.

The show is based on "realistic and intelligent writing," it said, though it added there was some reason to criticize its "excessively crude language, the violence of certain episodes or some extreme choices by the scriptwriters."

Religion, from the snore-evoking sermons of the Rev. Lovejoy to Homer's face-to-face talks with God, appears so frequently on the show that it could be possible to come up with a "Simpsonian theology," it said.

Homer's religious confusion and ignorance are "a mirror of the indifference and the need that modern man feels toward faith," the paper said.

It commented on several religion-themed episodes, including one in which Homer calls for divine intervention by crying: "I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!"

"Homer finds in God his last refuge, even though he sometimes gets His name sensationally wrong," L'Osservatore said. "But these are just minor mistakes, after all, the two know each other well."

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Letter to the Editor: Physics and philosophy - Tulsa World

Posted: 22 Dec 2009 04:48 AM PST

"...leave faith in the realm of faith and science in the realm of science..."

Excellent advice across all boundaries.

And yet is it not interesting that so many today cannot entertain the idea that scientists can be wrong in either their individual or collective theories?

The very basis of scientific inquiry, and the history of science bears this out, is to put forth a hypothesis, formulate research and carry out experiments to determine if the hypothesis is true or false. Futher, the results are to be repeatable by others following the same steps and if not, the hypothesis is rejected.

And at the end of the experiments, when the results ultimately make their way into something like The Tulsa World, aren't most of us looking for the objective, "bet your life" kind of result such as the longer lasting light bulb or the vaccine that cures cancer?

But can science answer every question?

Our vocabulary consists of words called abstract nouns, justice, truth, mercy, good, evil, and many, many others. We use routinely use these words but how can science prove their existence?

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