A dip into DSU’s Pool
Here’s a quick look at the teams in Pool A at the NAIA national softball championships in Decatur, Ala. Pool play begins today and ends Saturday.
Dickinson State: The eighth-ranked Blue Hawks are making their second consecutive trip to nationals. Boasting a 35-7 record, the Blue Hawks are led by junior first baseman Nikki Marcoux, sophomore third baseman Jody Lantz and freshman pitcher Sara Jane Webster. DSU has been ranked in the NAIA Top 10 all but one week this season. Over the past three seasons, the Blue Hawks have compiled a 110-22 record.
California Baptist: The Lancers are the No. 1 ranked team in the NAIA and sport an incredible 54-6 record. Erin Moore and Sarah Hurlbut have each hit 10 homers for the Lancers. They reached the 2007 national championship game before losing to rival Point Loma Nazarene 4-2 in 12 innings. During last season’s national tournament, Cal Baptist, which is located in Riverside, Calif., defeated DSU 4-0 in pool play. They face the Blue Hawks at 1 p.m. today.
Bethel: The 13th-ranked Pilots have the NAIA’s best record at 49-4 and are the Region VIII champions. Just like DSU, Bethel is led by young talent. Freshman first baseman Katie Boocher bats .507 with 65 RBI while junior pitcher Brittney Hire has 235 strikeouts and boasts a 0.90 ERA. Bethel, based out of Mishawaka, Ind., faces DSU at 6 p.m. today.
Shorter College: The seventh-ranked Hawks, who are 49-11, were the Region XIII runner-up this season. They are led by freshman pitcher Libby Munson, who ranks seventh in the nation with 26 wins and bats .429. Shorter is located in Rome, Ga. The Hawks face DSU at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Indiana Southeast: The 33-11 Grenadiers are led by senior outfielder Carmen Davis, who has hit 11 homers and 31 RBI. Indiana Southeast, which is located in New Albany, Ind., defeated Virginia-Wise to win the Region XII championship. The Grenadiers face DSU at 6 p.m. Saturday.

thedickinsonpress.com

(Edited press release)
BIG brOWN – The unbeaten Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) winner owned by IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr. is scheduled to ship from Churchill Downs to Pimlico the afternoon of May 14 on a flight with other Preakness Stakes (gr. I) runners Tres Borrachos and Racecar Rhapsody.
Preakness officials have been told the flight with Big Brown is scheduled to land at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport at 5:30 p.m. The van carrying the horses from BWI is expected to arrive at Pimlico approximately one hour later.
Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. is expected to attend the Preakness post-position draw, to be held at 5 p.m. May 14 at the ESPN Zone in downtown Baltimore.
If Gayego and Big Brown both run May 17, it will be the sixth time since Kentucky Derby horses began running in the Preakness in 1918 that only two Derby starters moved on to Baltimore for the Preakness. The last time was in 1980 when Codex defeated the Derby-winning filly Genuine Risk in the Preakness.
BEHINDATTHEBAR - The Forest Wildcat colt trained by Todd Pletcher breezed five furlongs in 1:00.13 the morning of May 11 and walked the shedrow May 12.
Behindatthebar has mainly trained and competed on synthetic surfaces. The breeze Sunday at Belmont indicated he is comfortable on a dirt track similar to what he will run over in the Preakness.
“That was encouraging that he was able to work well on the dirt,” Pletcher said. “Now we’ll see if he can adapt to having some dirt in his face. We’re pleased with the way he’s doing.”
GAYEGO – Trainer Paulo Lobo reported May 12 that Gayego is a “go” for the Preakness. The son of Gilded Time is scheduled to arrive at Pimlico the afternoon of May 13 following a cross-country flight that he will share with Preakness hopeful Yankee Bravo.

tcm.bloodhorse.com

In a world where musicians rush to lay bare the secrets of their songs on blogs, and continually mine the same historical sources – the Sixties, the Eighties – for inspiration, the Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts is an anomaly. His appropriation of antique songs calls to mind the prospecting of Daniel Day-Lewis’s oilman in There Will Be Blood: he performs the subterranean, hardscrabble toil of research, then plunges his drill down deep, coming back with black gold.
And it is black. Roberts has confessed to being so “troubled and depressed” by these ancient death ballads that he has to record them so that he can get on with writing his own material. That his own songs are as dark and deeply odd as the Elizabethan ballads makes you worry for his mental health.
Roberts himself is everything you might expect from a singer who cites Roland Barthes’s essay “Death of the Author” in relation to his performing style. Dressed in red shirt and blue jeans, he’s self-effacing and boyishly artless. “I’m just going to go and locate my cable,” he mutters after walking on stage and finding that he can’t plug in his acoustic guitar. A fruitless rummage behind a curtain later, he gives up and sings his opening song, the murder ballad “On the Banks of Red Roses”, a cappella.
The traditional arrangements he goes on to play bear out Bob Dylan’s admission that “I’ve never written anything as far-out as some of the old songs”. Infanticide and martyred cabin boys roll past tonight like characters in some medieval David Lynch nightmare, climaxing with a horrifying version of “Long Lankin”, about a stonemason who murders a lord’s wife and baby. The lady offers up her other child in return for her life, but Lankin slays her anyway. It leaves you saucer-eyed with fear.

independent.co.uk

New York Rangers right-winger Jaromir Jagr is a free agent this summer.
And he just might pack up his hockey gear and head to Russia.
Anatoly Bardin, the general manager for Avangard-Omsk of the Russian Super League, is reportedly flying to New York this weekend.
The New York Daily News reports that according to the Russian team’s website: “The main objective of the visit are the negotiations with the Czech forward Jaromir Jagr of the Rangers about his possible return to the ‘Vanguard.’ “
Jagr, who will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, scored 16 goals in 32 games for Omsk during the 2004-05 NHL lockout.
“He can come, it’s no problem — we’ll see what happens,” Jagr told the Daily News. “I’m going to meet with them for sure.”
This season, the 35-year-old has scored 20 goals and 43 assists in 77 games with the Rangers.
“It’s not nice at this stage to talk about anything,” Jagr said. “[Omsk] finished their season. They’re coming here. I played there for a year. There’s no reason not to talk to them, not to meet them.”
TORTS TO LEAD AMERICANS: Tampa Bay Lightning’s John Tortorella was named United States coach on Friday for the world championship in May.
Tortorella, who is in his seventh season as Tampa Bay coach, guided the Lightning to the franchise’s only Stanley Cup in 2004.
His team is tied with the Los Angeles Kings for last place in the league.
gagner charged: London Knights assistant coach and former NHL player Dave Gagner is facing impaired driving charges following an incident in the southwestern Ontario city Wednesday night. Gagner, 41, was involved in a rear-end collision, said London Police Const. Amy Phillipo. He was charged at the scene when police arrived.
Gagner was released from police custody and is scheduled to appear in court to answer to the two charges on April 23 in London. A first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers in 1983, Gagner spent most of his career with the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars, but also suited up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. He scored 318 goals and 401 assists in 946 NHL games.

canada.com

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Tetris was originally designed as a training tool for late Soviet-era transport interests. The idea was to reduce shipping costs by training load masters to improve the density of packing freight cars, container ships, and trucks.
This is all covered in my book, Shit I Made Up About The Russian Software Industry.
Tetris was originally designed as a training tool for late Soviet-era transport interests. The idea was to reduce shipping costs by training load masters to improve the density of packing freight cars, container ships, and trucks.
This is all covered in my book, Shit I Made Up About The Russian Software Industry.
Obviously you didn’t see the BBC documentary on Tetris (it’s available on YouTube - can’t provide a link right now). Alex created it as a variant of a popular board game with a couple extra twists according to the documentary. It then started selling, and only later did the USSR find out about it - after it had already swept through the USSR and other countries wanted to buy it. The USSR’s software group ended up sole-sourcing the market to Nintendo through some interesting twists, which through Atari for a spin as they had already pumped a lot of money into their own version of Tetris since they thought they had licensed it for the PC. Quite a good documentary.

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February 20, 2008 (KFSN) — The “Blue Man” of Madera County is back home in the Valley after appearing on several national T.V. shows.
The “Blue Man” of Madera County is home in the Valley Tuesday night after appearing on several national T.V. shows. Action News introduced you to Paul Karason in December. His use of a home medical remedy turned his skin blue. Since then he’s become an internet sensation and his latest national T.V. appearance came today on “Oprah”.
Paul calls his rise to fame “blue madness.” He doesn’t understand it, but he’s riding the wave, and learning that lots of people like him.
“Someplace I never thought I would be, Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Karason.
In addition to all the network and cable news channels have done stories, hundreds of thousands have seen Paul on you tube and he’s been featured in people magazine. “Blue madness. I can understand a certain amount of curiosity but this has just gotten way out of hand,” said Karason.
Karason’s story went nationwide shortly after Action News interviewed him back in December. The video has been watched over half a million times on YouTube.
“Everything went crazy,” Karason exclaimed, “People wanting phone interviews or, you name it, the phone never quit ringing, never quit ringing, people from all over the place, UK, Germany, Chile, Korea.”
Paul says because of his condition, he used to avoid people, but because of all this exposure, things have changed. “It was amazing, every place I’d go I’d draw a crowd, everybody was friendly, everybody was friendly.”
Local folks also seem to be accepting Paul, as he is. “They’re pretty cool, I’m not getting any astonished looks.” I’m getting looks of recognition; I get a lot of people come up and compliment me.”
Paul’s fiancée Jackie Northup has accompanied Paul on all his trips. “I enjoy when they come up to him and start going yeah Paul, c’mon blue man. And, they’ll come up and hug him and want pictures of him. The enthusiasm and the acceptance is what’s wonderful,” she said.
Acceptance is important to Paul. He moved to California, from Oregon because folks there thought he was just too weird. Now, he’s getting ready for even more exposure. “Jimmy Kimmell Live, Maury Povich, David Letterman, Leno.”
He’s not sure which show’s he will do. But TV crews from Germany and England are heading his way. And while Paul is enjoying his moment of fame, he’s not making any money on it, though a book deal and other options may be in the works. “I’ve sort of got a little faith that something good will come out of it. So, I’ll go along with it.”
Paul turned blue because he drinks a substance called colloidal silver, an old anti-bacterial medication, and rubbed it on his skin. The resulting medical condition is called Agyria, and while Paul is permanently blue, on the inside and out, so far, there’ve been no medical complications, just lots of attention.
“I should start selling instructions, how to turn blue,” joked Karason.
Karason claims that while he’s trying to make the most of his fame, he says he didn’t plan to turn blue, it happened gradually over 14 years. If he knew what he knows know, it to, he wouldn’t have turned blue.

abclocal.go.com