Brazil legend Pele has praised Barcelona star Lionel Messi, but noted
that the 24-year-old still has a long way to catch the football legend.
Argentina
international Messi became the second player in the history of the
Ballon d’Or to win the prestigious award three times in a row when he
lifted the title earlier this month in Zurich.
Pele acknowledged that he is a fan of Messi, but stressed that the diminutive attacker faces a hard task to equal him.
“Technically speaking, we are practically at the same level,” Pele told Le Monde. “We have both received a gift from God.”
“Records
are made to be broken, but it will be hard to break mine. When Messi
has scored 1,283 goals and won three World Cups, then we will talk.”
“People ask me all the time when there will be a new Pele. I tell them: ‘Never’. My parents shut down the factory.”
Fables, fantasy and spirituality inspire many of the performances in
the 40th annual Hong Kong Arts Festival, which runs through March 8.
This year’s festival features over 160 productions, staged at 17 venues.
For
“Of Mountains and Seas,” a play by the Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian that
draws heavily on ancient myths in a Chinese classical text, the Chinese
director Lin Zhaohua infuses elements of Nuo opera, which is rooted in
primitive religion. Mythology also takes center stage in Shakespeare’s
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo performing
the fairy tale comedy. Another
show involves the work of Osamu Tezuka, often called “the god of manga,”
who composed fantastical tales in comic form. His stories come to life
in “TeZukA,’’ a multimedia show by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, a Belgian
choreographer. “TeZukA’’ uses dancers’ movements as one would use a
calligraphy brush in this video homage to the pioneering Japanese
artist.
“Faith Healer,” by the Irish playwright Brian Friel, takes
a deeper look at the nature of art and belief through the monologues of
a traveling faith healer, Francis Hardy; his wife, Grace, and his
manager, Teddy. Mr. Friel has described the play as “a metaphor for art,
the craft of writing, and the great confusion we all have about it,
those of us who are involved in it.”
The austere spirituality of
the desert infuses the music of Tinariwen, whose members are Tuareg
nomads from the Sahara. Tinariwen mixes African, Arabic and Western
styles to produce haunting, rhythmic music whose lyrics recall the
hardships of life in the desert and of political struggles.
And fantasy and fashion come together in “The World of WearableArt,”
a New Zealand production that is making its international debut in Hong
Kong. Each year, “The World of WearableArt” showcases more than 150
costumes by New Zealand designers in a two-hour theatrical extravaganza.
The 70-minute event at the Hong Kong festival displays the best
creations from past shows.
Jim Balsillie, chief executive of Research in Motion, the Canadian company
behind the BlackBerry, believes there is a market for smaller tablet
computers, despite Apple’s claims.
During a quarterly earnings call on Monday, Steve Jobs, Apple’s
chief executive, provoked the ire of rivals by claiming that 7in tablet
computers were so small as to be unusable, and that the category would be
“dead on arrival”.
It prompted Jim Balsillie, Research
in Motion’s chief executive, to respond
with a blog post in which he criticised Apple’s “reality distortion
field”. He said that the iPad’s lack of Flash support meant it didn’t fulfil
the needs of customers, and that Apple was only telling people “half the
story”.
RIM has recently unveiled the PlayBook, it’s answer to the iPad, which uses a
7in display and supports Adobe Flash.
“For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we known that
7in tablets will actually be a big portion of the market, and we know that
Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web
experience,” wrote Balsillie.
“We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain
a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and
customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of websites that
use Flash.
Morocco is set to become the first African country to host the Club World Cup.
FIFA has confirmed that the 2013 and 2014 editions of the tournament will be held in the north African country.
The
news comes after South Africa, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
all withdrewtheir bids, leaving the north Africans as the sole bidders
for the tournament.
It means Morocco will have two chances to
prepare for the 2015 African Cup of Nations as well as whiichever of
their clubs are defending league champions in 2013 and 2014 will get to
participate in the event.
“I think it’s great. It’s not only great
for football in Morocco, but for football in Africa,” Moroccan Olympic
team coach Pim Verbeek told the BBC.
“The fact that you can have such a prestigious tournament, if you see the interest from the media about a tournament like this.”
“In
Morocco, they love football, and they love watching the best European
teams playing against the other best teams in the world.”
“They have the African Cup of Nations in 2015, and now they have the best club teams in the world two years in a row.”
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he was confident that Morocco would successfully host the event.
“We
were given a presentation by the Moroccan Federation and I expect the
tournament will be excellent in all aspects – logistical, cultural and
financial,” he said.
This year is the 25th anniversary of Berlin’s alternative media arts festival, Transmediale. This five-day event, which starts on Tuesday at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt
contemporary arts center, has a rich international program of artworks,
installations, video screenings, workshops, performances and an
interdisciplinary symposiums, all organized by various guest curators.
The
Festival for Adventurous Music and Related Arts (CTM) will run
concurrently in different venues around Berlin, and in collaboration
with various Transmediale events. For festivalgoers interested in
exploring audio and visual mediums outside of a gallery or screening
room, check out the performance program Ghosts in the Machine, curated
by Sandra Naumann.
One of the highlights is the performance on Wednesday
by the Joshua Light Show, the
visual artists who appeared alongside the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi
Hendrix and The Doors. The founder, Joshua White, will draw on a cache
of slide projections, archival footage, an assortment of light
reflective objects and other things to create a performance combining
both analog and contemporary digital elements. The group, appearing for
the first time in Europe since the 1960s, will feature the band
Supersilent and the guitarist Stian Westerhus.
Also, to mark the
festival’s quarter-century anniversary, the program will be peppered
with the history and evolution of media and art culture over the years
in Germany’s capital, and all of the eight video programs will begin
with a notable work from the Transmediale archive.
Officials in southern China
appear to have averted environmental calamity by halting the spread of a
toxic metal that had threatened to foul drinking water for tens of
millions of people, the state media reported Monday.
Officials said they had successfully diluted the concentration of
cadmium, a poisonous component of batteries, that has been coursing down
the Longjiang River in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The spill, which first occurred two weeks ago, prompted a rush on
bottled water in several downstream cities and prompted worries that the
contamination could reach as far as Hong Kong and Macao.
The cadmium, a substance used in the production of paint, solder and
solar cells as well as batteries, has been traced to discharges from a
mining company in Guangxi that has since halted production, said Xinhua,
the state-run news agency.
Cadmium poisoning can cause kidney and liver damage and weaken bones.
Officials in the city of Liuzhou said workers neutralized the cadmium
contamination over the weekend by dumping tons of other chemicals into
the river. The chemicals, polyaluminum chloride and sodium hydroxide,
are supposed to bind with the cadmium and settle to the river bottom.
City officials said they would later dredge the river sediment.
Despite what appears to have been a disaster avoided, the episode
highlighted China’s continuing struggle against contamination of its
waterways. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has acknowledged
that half the nation’s rivers and lakes are unfit for human contact, and
news reports of chemical and oil spills are commonplace here.
Although the central government has invested more than $3 billion to
improve water quality in recent years, officials estimate that more than
300 million people still do not have access to clean drinking water.
Cadmium poisoning has been a persistent problem, especially among those
working at battery plants or living near them. Last year, a study by
Nanjing Agricultural University found that 10 percent of the nation’s
rice crop contained excessive cadmium levels. In several southern
provinces, 60 percent of rice samples were found to exceed the national
standard for the heavy metal, researchers found.
Beyond stricter enforcement of existing antipollution regulations,
environmental advocates say Chinese officials must embrace greater
transparency when it comes to accidents like the one that fouled the
waterways in Guangxi. Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and
Environmental Affairs in Beijing, said that by concealing news of the
spill for nearly two weeks, officials had allowed the damage to spread.
“Only when fish started dying did they publicly acknowledge there was a
problem,” Mr. Ma said. He also criticized the initial cleanup efforts,
saying that officials upstream had hastened the cadmium’s reach by
releasing water from a dam while officials downstream were struggling to
contain those same waters in a reservoir.
On Monday, officials in Liuzhou proclaimed that water from the Longjiang
was safe to drink, but residents of Liuzhou, a city of three million,
were unconvinced, or at least confused.
“We get a text message on our phones every few hours from the city
government telling us the cadmium level at three places on the river,
but I don’t know what the numbers mean,” said Zhang Ying, who works at a
supermarket in the city.
Liao Ming, the owner of a local cafe, said that he would stick to
bottled water for now but that he would probably continue using tap
water to bathe. “You can’t be too picky when you are Chinese,” he said
in a telephone interview, noting that his neighborhood’s air was
regularly tainted by discharges from a local paper factory. “If you go
down that road and get serious about this kind of stuff, you won’t have
time to live.”
Most of you probably already know that FC Barcelona defeated Real Madrid last night.
Last night’s clash was the fourth El Clasico of the 2011-12 season, with the Catalans winning three and drawing one.
At this point, it’s clearly safe to say that Barcelona still have the upper hand on Los Galacticos.
That being said, Real Madrid are probably the second best football club in the world.
In
honor of the El Clasico rivalry, I will be selecting an El Clasico
dream team, consisting of stars from Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Without further ado, here is the El Clasico dream team.
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
Casillas, who is captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, is arguably the best goalkeeper on the planet.
For that reason, Casillas was the obvious selection over Barcelona’s Victor Valdes.
Right-back: Dani Alves
Brazilian international Dani Alves beat out Sergio Ramos for the right-back spot on the dream team.
Alves’ marauding runs make him an extremely potent attacker, while his pace allows him to recover at the back if need be.
Center-back: Gerard Pique
The former Manchester United center-back has established himself as one of Europe’s top defenders since leaving Old Trafford.
He wasn’t great last night, but as usual, he did the job in a winning effort.
Center-back: Carles Puyol
Pique’s partner in crime, Carles Puyol, also cracked the dream XI.
It was Puyol’s brilliant diving header that drew Barcelona level early in the second half.
From then on, you surely fancied the Catalans to emerge victorious.
Left-back: Fabio Coentrao
Newly acquired left-back Fabio Coentrao has been very solid for Jose Mourinho this season.
Coentrao, a former winger, has proven to be more than capable in defence, while simultaneously adding attacking prowess.
Defensive Midfielder: Xabi Alonso
Alonso
is one of the premier midfielder’s in Europe. The former Liverpool star
is a formidable tackler, a pass master and packs a fantastic long-range
shot.
Central Midfielder: Xavi
In my opinion, Xavi is the best midfielder in Europe at the moment.
His passing, vision and combination play make him nearly impossible stop.
Oh by the way, he turned in another great shift last night.
Central Midfielder: Cesc Fabregas
Not many people are talking about Fabregas at the moment.
Nonetheless, he has been in superb form since leaving the Emirates in favor of the Camp Nou.
The former Gunners captain has bagged 12 goals and five assists for the Catalans in all competitions this season.
Winger: Andres Iniesta
Despite not scoring in La Liga this season, Spain’s World Cup hero has netted four goals and four assists for Barca in all competitions.
I knew there was a reason why I chose Iniesta.
Winger: Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo is the most complete footballer on the planet. That is all.
Striker: Lionel Messi
He’s the best in the game, and that means everything.
THERE are certain mathematical realities associated with New York City
private schools: There are more students than seats at the top-tier
schools, at least three sets of twins will be vying head to head for
spots in any class, and already-expensive tuition can only go up.
Way up.
Over the past 10 years, the median price of first grade in the city has
gone up by 48 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared with a 35
percent increase at private schools nationally — and just 24 percent at
an Ivy League college — according to tuition data provided by 41 New
York City K-12 private schools to the National Association of Independent Schools.
Indeed, this year’s tuition at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory ($38,340 for 12th grade) and Horace Mann
($37,275 for the upper school) is higher than Harvard’s ($36,305).
Those 41 schools (out of 61 New York City private schools in the
national association) provided enough data to enable a 10-year analysis.
(Over all, inflation caused prices in general to rise 27 percent over
the past decade.)
The median 12th-grade tuition for the current school year was $36,970,
up from $21,100 in 2001-2, according to the national association’s
survey. Nationally, that figure rose to $24,240 from $14,583 a decade
ago.
With schools already setting tuition rates for the 2012-13 school year —
Brearley’s is $38,200 — parents at Horace Mann, Columbia Grammar and Trinity are braced to find out whether they will join families at Riverdale Country School
in the $40,000-a-year club. (Riverdale actually charges $40,450 for
12th grade.) In fact, it appears to be a question not of “if,” but
“when.”
“Within one to two years, every independent school will cost more than
$40,000,” said one board member at a top school who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because the school had not yet set tuition.
And that is before requests for the annual fund, tickets to the yearly
auction gala and capital campaigns to build a(nother) gym.
Parents are reluctant to complain, at least with their names attached,
for fear of hurting students’ standing (or siblings’ admissions
chances). But privately, many questioned paying more for the same. “The
school’s always had an amazing teacher-to-student ratio, learning
specialists and art programs with great music and theater,” said one
mother whose children attend the Dalton School ($36,970 a year). “It was
great a decade ago and great now.”
“They are outrageous,” said Dana Haddad,
a private admissions consultant, referring to tuitions. “People don’t
want to put a price tag on their children’s future, so they are willing
to pay more than many of them can afford.”
Administrators at several of New York’s top schools attributed the
tuition inflation to rising teacher salaries, ever-expanding programs
and renovations to aging buildings. They noted that tuition still
covered only about 80 percent of the cost of educating each child (that
is what all the fund-raising is about). As at most companies, a majority
of the costs — and the fastest-growing increases — come from salaries
and benefits, especially as notoriously low-paying private schools try
to compete with public school compensation.
“Some New York schools have had a 5, 10 or as high as 30 percent
increase in the cost of their medical plans,” said Mark Lauria, the
executive director of the New York State Association of Independent Schools.
“Parents are just expecting more and more of independent schools,” said
David B. Harman, the headmaster at Poly Prep. “Trying to meet that
demand, that expectation, is expensive.”
But some parents and school consultants note that many of the schools
have long had lush facilities and expansive academic and extracurricular
offerings. What keeps the prices rising, they say, is the seemingly
endless stream of people more than willing to pay them.
The median number of applications to New York schools has increased 32
percent over the past decade, according to the association, and in some
schools the acceptance rate is staggeringly low. At Trinity, only 2.4
percent of children from families with no previous connection to the
school were admitted to kindergarten last year. Far from being deterred
by the sticker prices, more families seem to be hiring consultants — at
an additional cost — in hopes of getting a leg up.
One consulting firm, Manhattan Private School Advisors,
said it worked with 1,431 families this school year, up from 605 three
years ago. The company’s fee has gone up, too: It was $21,500 this year
and $18,500 three years ago.
A drought that a government official called the most severe Mexico
had ever faced has left two million people without access to water and,
coupled with a cold snap, has devastated cropland in nearly half of the
country.
The government in the past week has authorized $2.63 billion in aid,
including potable water, food and temporary jobs for the most affected
areas, rural communities in 19 of Mexico’s 31 states. But officials
warned that no serious relief was expected for at least another five
months, when the rainy season typically begins in earnest.
Among the more seriously affected communities are tribal areas of the
Tarahumara indigenous community in the Sierra Madre, in the north. Known
for endurance running and self-reliance, the Tarahumara are among
Mexico’s poorest citizens. When false reports of a mass suicide brought
on by hunger surfaced recently, journalists and aid organizations poured
in to shed light on the situation.
“I think it has really become extreme poverty,” says Isaac Oxenhaut,
national aid coordinator for the Mexican Red Cross. Mr. Oxenhaut
recently visited the Indian communities where, he said, the land was too
dry to grow any crops the Tarahumara usually depend on for their
livelihood. “They don’t have anywhere to harvest absolutely anything,”
he added.
Nearly 7 percent of the country’s agricultural land, mostly in the north
and center, has suffered total loss, according to Victor Celaya del
Toro, director of development studies at the Agriculture Ministry.
The drought, which has been compounded by freezing temperatures, has
already pushed up the cost of some produce, including corn and beans.
The governor of the Central Bank, AgustÃn Carstens, speaking last week
at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, cautioned that it
might cause inflation to rise later this year.
But government officials have said they do not expect the price of exports to be affected.
Some of the most devastated areas are hard to reach, slowing the flow of
aid to a trickle. The Red Cross is sending 70-pound sacks of rice,
beans and sugar, as well as winter clothing.
“A cargo bus will not fit,” Mr. Oxenhaut said. “You have to do it with
four-wheel drives or donkeys, or the people who take it on their backs.”
Even illicit crops have suffered in the drought. Pedro Gurrola, army
commander in the state of Sinaloa, told reporters on Monday that many marijuana crops had dried up but that the harvest of what remains has continued.
FC Koln have completed the signing of striker Jong Tae-Se from Bochum, the German club revealed on their official website.
The Bundesliga
side decided to act after star striker Lukas Podolski picked up a
serious injury and they have now signed the North Korean striker for an
undisclosed fee.
The 27-year-old, who is also known as ‘Asian Rooney’, has thus been given a chance to prove his worth at the highest level.
“Jong
Tae-Se is precisely the kind of player we were looking for,” said
Koln’s sporting director Volker Finke on his club’s website. “He is
extremely strong in the air and has a good goalscoring instinct.
“We are pleased that we have been able to agree a transfer of Jong Tae-se from Bochum and that we have been able to gain additional quality for our attack.
“We have been watching the player for a long time and we are convinced of his qualities as a striker.”
The
North Korean made a name for himself in the Japanese league, playing
for Kawasaki Frontale, and he signed for Bochum after the impressive
showing for North Korea at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Tae-Se
scored the total of 14 goals in 39 Bundesliga 2 appearances, but he
never quite managed to show his full potential at Bochum.
The 27-year-old is considered one of the best players in North Korea national team and has 15 goals in 28 caps for his country.
Got pain? Pregnancy wishes? Confidence issues in the sack? We have a
position for all that! We spoke to top female sexual health experts to
hear their recommendations about the best positions for the most common
sexual health concerns. Get ready to meet your new favorite moves.
The Best Position for Baby-Making While
it’s true that you can get pregnant from all kinds of sexual positions,
there is one that health experts frequently recommend as the way to
increase your odds of becoming pregnant, and that’s the “missionary”
position (male on top) with a “pelvic tilt,” says Amy Levine, a New York
City–based sex coach, certified sexuality educator and founder of SexEdSolutions.com.
“Putting a pillow under the tush can help elevate your pelvis, and
create a slide effect—providing an easy path for his swimmers to make
their way through your cervix on their journey to your ovum,” she says.
“Typically, women who try this tend to maximize the ejaculation, since
it stays in their body a little longer compared to positions in which
you're upright, allowing the semen to drip out of the vagina.” And,
don’t forget to orgasm, says Ava Cadell, a sex educator and founder of
Loveology University in Los Angeles. “She is more likely to get pregnant
if she climaxes,” she says.
The Best Position to Help Women Build Confidence in Bed Maybe you feel insecure in the sack and could use a move that can help you feel more confident and in control? If so, Debby Herbenick, PhD, author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction, has a suggestion for you. Memorize these three words, she says: you on top.
“It can be confidence-building because it physically helps women to be
in control,” she says. “Make sure to do it your way, though. Woman on
top can be done kneeling, squatting, facing forward or facing backward,
so show off whatever you or he loves most about your body.”
The Best Position for Most Female Pleasure Gals,
are you ready for this? Dr. Herbenick says the position that provides
the most female pleasure may be a move you’ve never even tried! It’s
called the coital alignment technique. “This is a wonderful variation on
missionary and one of the few sex positions that has ever been
researched and found to be helpful for women who would like to orgasm
during sex,” she says. “It involves the guy sliding himself forward,
with his shoulders past yours, and your pelvic areas grinding and not
thrusting so much. This targets more stimulation on a woman’s clitoris,
making it easier for some women to feel pleasure and possibly orgasm.”
The Best Position for Long-Lasting Sex While
premature ejaculation is a medical condition that your guy may need to
seek treatment for, there are positional tricks you can try to help him
increase his staying power. According to Levine, the missionary position
(again, guy on top) may be the key to helping your partner last longer.
“It can work for him if he has trouble going the distance,” she says.
“The key is that he's in an easy position to stop and start when his
arousal is increasing at a fast rate, and can take it down a notch so he
can last longer.” Want to vary the missionary position a bit? Try this
idea from Cadell. “The ‘fox’ position is a variation of missionary, in
which the woman’s legs go all the way up and over her lover’s
shoulders,” she says. “Penetration of the vagina is very deep in this
position. She is contained in the boundaries of his body and he can dive
totally inside her, maintaining his arousal and lasting longer.”
The Best Position for Women Who Experience Pain with Intercourse There
are often few quick fixes for intercourse-related pain; however,
consider these two ideas that can help improve your intimate
experiences. First, be sure to use lots of water-based lubricant, says
Dr. Herbenick. Second, if pain is an issue, it’s important that you keep
the reins, so to speak, in your hands. It’s why Dr. Herbenick, and
other experts, recommend the woman-on-top position. “It gives the woman
more control over taking sex at a pace that is comfortable for her.”
The Best Position If Your Guy Is Well-Endowed Looking
for more “oh”s than “ouch”s? Here’s your move: “The guy lies on his
side; she lies perpendicular to him with legs spread as they rest over
his body,” Dr. Herbenick explains. “This allows her to hold the base of
his shaft if she wants to limit his range of motion, and allows her to
use pelvic rocks to create an in-and-out sensation.” Levine says that
women whose partners have “lengthy penises” love this position because
“they can control how much of him will penetrate her, and can create
pleasurable sensations for both without the cramping and discomfort that
can happen when he hits her cervix during intense thrusting.”
The Best Position for Small Penises Experts
are quick to point out that penis size is a very minor part of a
satisfying sex life, yet there are certain positions sex therapists
recommend more often when a man has a smaller penis. The best? Woman on
top, says Levine. But here’s the key: “You need to gyrate on him rather
than move up and down, or else he's likely to slip out,” she says.
“Missionary can also help, with your legs up on his shoulders. This
allows him to penetrate you deeper, making the most of his size.”
I'd rather spend my Sunday doing just about anything other than
watching a football game — unless it's the Super Bowl. That annual event
is all the justification I need to indulge.
This Chili-Cheese Dip makes
me turn into my gluttonous twin (seriously, I need to step away from
the tortilla chips). The Buffalo-Chicken Quesadillas are a mouthwatering
spin on traditional wings. And for my insatiable sweet tooth: the
Peanut-Butter-Cup Brownies. If I were the betting type, I'd wager that
these treats pull a disappearing act before halftime.
Buffalo-Chicken Quesadillas
1 store-bought rotisserie chicken, shredded
¾ c. buffalo sauce (available in a jar at the grocery store)
1½ c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
12 soft flour tortillas (taco size)
Nonstick cooking spray
Blue-cheese dressing
Celery sticks
In a large bowl, combine chicken with sauce, and stir until evenly
coated. Add cheese, and toss to combine. Divide mixture on six
tortillas, and top each with one of the remaining tortillas. Coat a
large skillet over medium heat with cooking spray. Cook quesadillas, one
at a time, about 3 to 4 minutes per side, using a spatula to turn. Cut
into quarters, and serve with blue-cheese dressing and celery sticks.
It would
probably take more than a quarter-million dollars to convince Ken Pilat
to part with his 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner, complete with its stock 426
hemi and dual-quad carbs.
Then again, he probably would not make the sale.
The car
originally sold for $4,029, according to the sticker. The hemi added an
additional $713 to the bill. He recently turned down an offer of
$275,000.
Pilat's show-stopping Roadrunner was one of 1,800
classic cars on display at the 43rd Annual Devereaux-Kaiser Antique Car
Show, held Sunday at the Westfield Sarasota Square mall. There were
acres of classic cars at what has become Florida's largest car show.
Some
were notable for their provenance, such as a 1922 Oldsmobile 43A that
was once owned by Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the 26th president's son.
Others
commanded attention for other reasons, such as the 1941 Willy's "slot
grill" Jeep, owned and restored by Dominick DeRosa, which was equipped
with a dummy machine-gun mounted in the bed and a Thompson
submachine-gun mounted to the dash.
"I wait all year for this show," DeRosa said. "We're lucky to have it here."
Ron Chilton's 1922 Ford Model-T was converted to a pickup long ago by a farmer outside of Allentown, Pa.
Its four cylinders produce 20 horsepower.
It
takes some re-learning to drive, Chilton said, since the gas is on the
left and it has only two forward gears. Downshifting and a hand brake
are the only way to slow or stop.
It takes a few good turns on the cranking handle to start the motor.
"There's no neutral, so if you don't have the brake on when you crank it, it's going down the road," Chilton said.
The truck's top speed of 25 mph is more than sufficient.
"How fast do you want to go on wooden wheels, with no brakes?" he asked.
The expert gods are really on our side this month. First, they tell
us that we actually can eat Aunt Suzie's uber fatty pecan pie on
Thanksgiving-as long as we eat it slowly.
Um, score. And now, the experts at ACE Fitness released their Fitness
Trend Report for 2012, where they told us that using technology to help
us exercise is one of the biggest trends for the year ahead. As in, our
my-phone-is-attached-to-me habits will actually help us lose weight.
Here are five cool ways to get tech-y during your workouts.
1. Speed up your beats. There's an awesome new music service called "U-Mixit"
that allows you to download popular workout songs into your iTunes for
$1.50 and then literally speed them up so they're actually up to eight
beats faster than normal. Then, you can transfer them to your iPod or
phone. This is cool for a couple of reasons: 1) Experts say upbeat
tempos help push you to exercise longer, and 2) Who doesn't want to rock
out on the treadmill to some Alvin & The Chipmunk-style jams?
2. Hit up Skype and/or FaceTime. You don't need to go to
the actual gym anymore to work with a personal trainer-more and more
trainers are starting to offer virtual services through FaceTime (on
MacBooks and iPhone 4s) and Skype for the same price. That means you
can go on vacation and still do your workout from the privacy of your
hotel room, or just bum it in your living room if you're not in the mood
to hit the gym-but since they're watching you, you're still held
accountable for your moves. (Translation: No slacking.) Ask your gym to
see if their personal trainers offer virtual sessions.
3. Personalize Your Workout. Virtually. But if you're one
of those people who can't stand the thought of a personal trainer
watching you sweat balls (yeah, it's really not for everyone), then you
can still get the personal effect through a fitness app called Fitnad,
which will be released sometime in January or February. Developed by the
credible experts at ACE Fitness (read: you know it's legit), it's an
app that lets you enter in your info (age, what exercises you like to
do, and what you want to get out of your workout), and the trained
experts at ACE actually develop a routine for you. Just for you. Then,
you can stream the routine directly to your Smartphone, so you can bring
it with you when you hit the mats, or you can even print out the
instructions if you want to go all oldschool. ACE is still developing a
price, but it will probably be around $10 per month.
4. Or bust out your iPad. Fitness DVDs are a thing of the
past-it's all about using your iPad now. A fitness company called
PumpOne offers a program called Fitness Class,
which allows you to choose from over 230 popular fitness classes you
can take on your iPad (like Bollywood Booty, for instance). To help you
choose which class you want to buy (you can download each one
individually or buy a few in a group bundle), each class has a
description that lists the instructor's brief bio, the equipment you'll
need, and the calories you'll burn. There's even a video preview of each
class, so you can see if that "ballet kickboxing" class is worth
trying.or if it's just a faceplant waiting to happen.
5. Twitter To Be Fitter. As more and more companies and big
gyms are joining the social media world, it's super easy to use Twitter
and Facebook to achieve your fitness goals. Follow your gym's Facebook
and Twitter feeds to scope new classes you may want to check out, and
consider tweeting and/or Facebooking about your fitness goals so your
friends hold you more accountable. Or so the dude you're dating thinks
you're a fitness goddess and wants to, um, see the results up close and
personal. Either way.
The dust had barely settled on Novak Djokovic's Australian Open victory
over Rafael Nadal and the Serbian was already talking up his chances at
Roland Garros.
Djokovic outlasted Nadal on Sunday in an epic five-set encounter
which lasted five hours and 53 minutes to make it the longest grand slam
final in history and the longest match ever staged at this tournament.
The
world number one, who retained the Melbourne title he won last year at
the start of a remarkable 12 months which also saw him win at Wimbledon
and the US Open, was then quick to turn his attention to the French
Open, the only major to so far elude him.
"I am prioritising the grand slams this year, as every year, and the Olympics," he said.
"That's also one of my highest goals. That
doesn't mean I'm not going to prepare well and perform my best at the
other tournaments but it's the grand slams that matter the most. So I want to do well and get to my first final at least in Paris.I have never been to the final there and I have a feeling that I am ready this year to achieve that."
Currently nothing seems unachievable for the 24-year-old.
The
victory over Nadal meant he became just the fifth man in history to
claim three successive grand slam crowns and the will-to-win displayed
here was remarkable.
He added: "You are in pain, you are
suffering, and you are trying to activate your legs, you're trying to
push yourself through another point, just one more point, one more game. You're
going through so much suffering your toes are bleeding. Everything is
just outrageous but you're still enjoying the pain. I am a professional tennis player and I am sure any of my colleagues would say the same: we live for these matches."
"We
work every day and are trying to dedicate our lives to this sport to
come to the situation where we play a near six-hour match for a grand
slam title."
Following his exertions here, the Serbian is going to take some time off.
"I am going to try to enjoy this victory as much as I can," he said.
"Then it is back to the office, back to work. There is much that awaits me but I should definitely enjoy the present."
Nadal may not have won the match but he felt there was a lot he could take away from Melbourne.
He has now lost his last seven matches with Djokovic but he felt this was as close as he has got in the previous six.
"I wanted to win but I am happy with how I did," he said.
"I had my chances against the best player in the world and I played one against one. I didn't play at a lower level than him and that's a positive for me. I am happy that I am on the right path."
