2010 April 04 » The Golf Jock

4th April 2010

Europa League Quarter Finals previews Atletico Madrid – Valencia, Benfica – Liverpool, Fulham – VfL Wolfsburg and Hamburger SV- Standard Liege

Europa League Quarter Finals Thursday April 1st, 2010 Kick-off time 21.05 h – The Quarter Finals of this years edition of the Europa League seem to prove the competition is a legitimate addition to the Big Ballroom Dance of the Champions League. Games as Benfica-Liverpool, Atletico Madrid-Valencia and Hamburger SV-Standard Liege all see either former European heavyweights pitched against each other, or teams with an attraction factor high enough to want to turn your TV on.

The big game of the night is no doubt Benfica (two times European Champions and many times losing finalist) versus Rafael Benitez´ Liverpool (four times European Champions, twice winner of the UEFA-Cup). In Spain all eyes will be set on the national confrontation between the current number three of he Liga, Valencia, and Atletico Madrid, having a disappointing season but with formidable players like Forlan, Agüero and Simao in their squad. Valencia edged past what was seen as one of the most dangerous squads in the competition, Werder Bremen in the round of sixteen. After a 1-1 draw in Mestalla, all hell broke loose in Bremen in a game that ultimately ended in 4-4, but saw Valencia take a 3-1 lead, Werder equalizing in the 62nd minute, but Valencia ultimately ´victorious´ on away goals.

HSV-Standard is another attractive line-up between the former European Champions and Cup Winners Cup Champions from Hamburg (1983 and 1977 respectively) and Standard Liege, runners-up in the Cup winners Cup in 1982, losing a final played in and against Barcelona. Both teams are exponents of countries that have been improving their results in Europe the last few years, after a decade of falling ever further behind teams from either Big Money or Dirty Money Countries. Hamburg will be especially keen on reaching the final, as it will be played on their hometurf.

Wolfsburg, the surprise German Champions last season, will have to tackle Fulham, that routed Italian powerhouse Juventus 4-1 at home after losing 3-1 in Turin and falling 1-0 behind in the return game.

In order to reach the coveted final the winner of HSV-Standard will have to knock out the winner of the VfL Wolfsburg – Fulham encounter. Liverpool/Benfica takes on Valencia/Atletico Madrid, making the latter look the slightly stronger bracket.

Here under some of the highlights of this years Europa League and historic matches played by the participants.

Europa League Quarter Finals previews Atletico Madrid – Valencia, Benfica – Liverpool, Fulham – VfL Wolfsburg and Hamburger SV- Standard Liege

Europa League Quarter Finals Thursday April 1st, 2010 Kick-off time 21.05 h – The Quarter Finals of this years edition of the Europa League seem to prove the competition is a legitimate addition to the Big Ballroom Dance of the Champions League. Games as Benfica-Liverpool, Atletico Madrid-Valencia and Hamburger SV-Standard Liege all see either former European heavyweights pitched against each other, or teams with an attraction factor high enough to want to turn your TV on.

The big game of the night is no doubt Benfica (two times European Champions and many times losing finalist) versus Rafael Benitez´ Liverpool (four times European Champions, twice winner of the UEFA-Cup). In Spain all eyes will be set on the national confrontation between the current number three of he Liga, Valencia, and Atletico Madrid, having a disappointing season but with formidable players like Forlan, Agüero and Simao in their squad. Valencia edged past what was seen as one of the most dangerous squads in the competition, Werder Bremen in the round of sixteen. After a 1-1 draw in Mestalla, all hell broke loose in Bremen in a game that ultimately ended in 4-4, but saw Valencia take a 3-1 lead, Werder equalizing in the 62nd minute, but Valencia ultimately ´victorious´ on away goals.

HSV-Standard is another attractive line-up between the former European Champions and Cup Winners Cup Champions from Hamburg (1983 and 1977 respectively) and Standard Liege, runners-up in the Cup winners Cup in 1982, losing a final played in and against Barcelona. Both teams are exponents of countries that have been improving their results in Europe the last few years, after a decade of falling ever further behind teams from either Big Money or Dirty Money Countries. Hamburg will be especially keen on reaching the final, as it will be played on their hometurf.

Wolfsburg, the surprise German Champions last season, will have to tackle Fulham, that routed Italian powerhouse Juventus 4-1 at home after losing 3-1 in Turin and falling 1-0 behind in the return game.

In order to reach the coveted final the winner of HSV-Standard will have to knock out the winner of the VfL Wolfsburg – Fulham encounter. Liverpool/Benfica takes on Valencia/Atletico Madrid, making the latter look the slightly stronger bracket.

Here under some of the highlights of this years Europa League and historic matches played by the participants.

For More Spain News Sports

Let The Barcelona Reporter Know What You Think Post your comment Below

News Source © 2010 Barcelona Reporter
Text within the news headline and/or news body may be subject to copyright Barcelona Reporter does not claim copyright to any such text.unless it is written by one of our reporters :
Please refer to the URL-referenced web page (the ‘Article Source’) for further information and details of the original source from the Barcelona Reporter.com web site. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

Let The Barcelona Reporter Know What You Think Post your comment Below

News Source © 2010 Barcelona Reporter
Text within the news headline and/or news body may be subject to copyright Barcelona Reporter does not claim copyright to any such text.unless it is written by one of our reporters :
Please refer to the URL-referenced web page (the ‘Article Source’) for further information and details of the original source from the Barcelona Reporter.com web site. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

4th April 2010

5 Sure Fire Ways To Teach Your Child To Have A-Plus Manners

As a parent myself, I want the best for my child. I want her to be happy, healthy and have all her dreams become reality.

As a martial arts school owner I also want that for all my students. Of the many things we teach in our Danbury CT area martial arts school, the character skill for this coming month is one of my very favorites.

One of the foundational skills, that is just so important in life, is manners. The simple ability to say things like ‘Thank you, please, excuse me, I’m sorry’, is often times, sadly lacking in society today.

This skill requires and builds upon many other character skills. Empathy, the ability to put oneself in other people’s shoes, needs to exist in order to nurture manners. People must learn the character trait self control and respect to build manners.

How many times per day do you find yourself thinking about someone ‘How rude’? Lack of manners seems to becoming the norm these days.

We live in a technological and fast paced world where we are becoming increasingly disconnected, pardon the pun, from the very society in which we live. Face to face contact is becoming a thing of the past as text messaging becomes our basic mechanism of communication.

We have to be especially careful to teach these fundamentally human character traits so as literally not to evolve into some kind of mechanical information aged artificial life form. I think I am starting to sound like my parents.

Here are 5 sure fire ways to teach your child to develop those old fashioned manners. They really never do go out of style. Just out of practice.

1: Setup a communication standard. This is simply how you expect your child to address people.

At my martial arts school, we have a built in method for teaching manners. It all begins with our communication standard.

All students immediately understand how they are to address instructors by Mr. or Mrs. Last name. They also answer all questions by saying yes or no sir or ma’am.

At home, how do your children speak to your friends, relatives, strangers? How do they speak to you? Try having them address all people by last name. Explain why this is good manners.

2: Create a phone script. Allow your child to answer the phone. Kids love to be able to do this. Makes them feel like a grown up.

Plot out a script of what they must say. Here’s an example:

“Hello this is Hannah, who may I say is calling please?”

What happens next could be “My parents are currently busy may I take a number where they can call you back?” or “Please hold while I get my parents.”

Role play this and make sure they have it down before you let them get started. Learning by doing is much more powerful than just being told to do it.

3: Make a manners log. This is a log where each day everyone in the family writes down what they did to show good manners today.

We call ours the ‘Random Acts of Manners’ list. It turns into a fun game the entire family participates in.

Set a goal and turn it into a contest for getting to a certain amount of good manners logged in for the end of the week or month. If the goal gets hit, maybe the family does a movie night or goes to the kids favorite restaurant.

Kids love challenges. There doesn’t even need to be a prize. Just the idea that there is a goal to hit will have your kids looking for opportunities to show good manners.

4: Do stuff together. The more time we spend with our kids, the bigger influence we’ll have on them.

Look for things they do that show good manners and point it out. Be a good finder and help them to be one too!

When they do something showing bad manners, ask them how they can show better manners.

As we teach this in the martial arts school through our character education program called Powerful Words, we explain, expect but don’t lecture. We explain our expectations and then allow them to rise to the occasion.

5: Be the change in the world you want to see. This is the hardest part by all means.

This simply means that you have to walk the walk. Children most certainly learn more from our actions than they do by our words. You must be the example to your child.

If your behavior is incongruent with the desired behavior, any lesson you teach is undermined. You cannot teach kids to do as I say not as I do. They will build norms and values based EXACTLY on what they SEE you do and do not.

We constantly must be mindful about everything we say and do in front of kids. If I scream at a telemarketer and hang up on them, what lesson did I just teach my daughter? If I become irate when someone cuts me off on the highway and yell obscenities at the other driver, what will my child learn.

Practice these five methods for building better manners and you will see your children’s manners blossom.

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4th April 2010

TV Networks Profit From Pot But Won’t Talk of Legalization

Marijuana legalization is the hottest topic in the media these days. MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, FOX, NatGeo, and CBS News have presented special features on marijuana business, medical marijuana, and the marijuana legalization movement. Google Trends is showing double the interest in searches and news hits for the term “marijuana legalization”. Showtime’s hit series Weeds, about a suburban mom turned pot dealer, is entering its fifth season. Everywhere you look, corporate media are happy to profit from America’s most popular herb.

Unless you want to address marijuana’s illegality and the lives that are shattered by the effects of marijuana prohibition. In that case, the corporate media cannot have anything to do with you, even if you want to pay to broadcast the message of ending adult marijuana prohibition.

Case in point: CBS. At the end of June, CBS’s new internet radio venture, ChatAboutIt.com, contacted NORML. One of our advisory board, Ann Druyan, advertised her podcast in Talkers Magazine, an industry journal for talk radio. ChatAboutIt was interested in hosting Druyan’s show, but Druyan wasn’t interested in the offer.

This is where I come in. I am a talk radio professional, having hosted my show (The Russ Belville Show) on XM Satellite Radio and AM 620 KPOJ in Portland, for almost two years. I have guest-hosted for the extremely popular Bill Press Show in Washington DC. For the past year and a half, I have hosted NORML’s Daily Audio Stash, the organization’s daily news and interviews podcast. I contacted ChatAboutIt to discuss creating a new live talk radio show dedicated to this incredibly popular phenomenon around medical marijuana and marijuana legalization called NORMAL SHOW LIVE.

Throughout the negotiations, the salesman from ChatAboutIt was fantastic. He joined me and NORML’s executive staff by conference call. We emphasized that we are NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. We told them that we would have advertisers involved with promoting marijuana – legally, as they are co-ops and dispensaries in California and Colorado – marijuana-themed magazines, doctors, clinics, authors, musicians, and so on. We told them we would be talking about marijuana legalization, our web page would have marijuana leaves on it, callers would be talking about marijuana, and, oh, by the way, did we mention that the show was about marijuana?

It’s all good, we were assured by the salesman. He said he’d run it all by his VP and this was fine. He said we’d own all our content and we could run all our ads. We verbally agreed this was a go and all we needed to do was to raise the $6,000 necessary to pay for the first two months of broadcast. We explained that we’d need to produce some press releases to raise the money. To be sure we weren’t saying or promoting anything in any way that CBS would not approve, we submitted our release to CBS, which did make some changes. They approved of our revised release and we posted it on the NORML Blog and front page on Wednesday.

Thursday morning I receive a call from the salesman at ChatAboutIt. “People higher up” had seen the release “on the blogs” and they “will not green light your show.”

Now, CBS has all the right in the world to decide what to put on their airwaves or cyberstreams; I’m not crying “censorship”. If they want to pass up affiliation with the most recognized brand in marijuana and a professional live call-in show dealing with the hottest topic in the media, that’s their call.

What I am crying, though, is “hypocrisy”.

See, CBS owns Showtime. That very same Showtime that’s aired for the past five years the tale of Nancy Botwin, suburban pot-dealing mom on Weeds. A show that films many scenes in the legal marijuana clinics and dispensaries in California that would be our advertisers. A show that just this year signed contracts with NORML to allow display of our trademark in the scenes where it is shown in Weeds.

And it cannot be that CBS is OK with airing a dramatic interpretation of marijuana culture, but afraid of airing a serious news program about marijuana culture. CBS News has an entire web special feature entitled “Marijuana Nation” (not-so-coincidentally the tag line of NORML SHOW LIVE) devoted to all their news coverage about marijuana dating back to Mike Wallace in 1968.

CBS will show Weeds to make money off of people who like marijuana, but won’t allow its banner advertisements for Weeds to be seen on any website trying to keep those marijuana lovers from arrest and a criminal record. CBS will pepper their news coverage and websites with cannaporn* and cannabusiness, but won’t allow a non-profit organization attempting to legalize those industries to have a voice on their networks.

Case #2: In addition to hosting NORML’s podcast and social blog, I am NORML’s Outreach Coordinator. In this position I recruit activists from all across the country (even the US Virgin Islands) to organize NORML chapters. These independent affiliates host events, gather petition signatures, and provide education to the community to counteract the anti-marijuana propaganda from the government (such as our “drug czar” recently proclaiming – in California, no less – that “Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit.”)

I was contacted by the tour manager for the “Blazed and Confused” Tour. The artists performing in the most pro-marijuana concert of the summer are Mickey Avalon, Bob Marley’s son Stephen Marley, San Diego rockers Slightly Stoopid, and Snoop Dogg, probably the most recognizable person alive associated with marijuana aside from Willie Nelson. They, particularly Slightly Stoopid, wanted NORML chapters to host marijuana information tables for the concerts and offered us the opportunity for free.

I combed through my chapter listings and got them NORML booths for over half the shows. At the show in Portland I got to interview Miles from Slightly Stoopid and wander around backstage. The props for the Stoopid show were two massive five foot skulls with pot leaves on the forehead. Snoop’s show featured a huge backdrop reading “Tales from the Crip” and marijuana leaves were all around. Everyone performing at or attending this concert was very pro-marijuana legalization.

Yet this morning I’m contacted by the tour people who tell me they need to cancel the booth we have scheduled for the show last Saturday in Orlando. It seems the venue is the Hard Rock, and “because they are a Universal owned company they are much more conservative than your typical venue.”

This Universal, of course, is NBC Universal, the parent company to the MSNBC and CNBC networks that reported their highest ratings ever for their marijuana-themed news reports on the burgeoning cannabis business in California. The same NBC Universal that is happy to sell you Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, Dazed & Confused, and Half Baked on DVD. The same NBC Universal that has no problem allowing Snoop Dogg to get the crowd at the Hard Rock in Orlando to chant “Legalize It”, but somehow can’t let a couple of college kids in NORML T-shirts hand out educational fliers about why we should legalize it.

Case #3: Another marijuana legalization organization, Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), produced an excellent TV ad calling for passage of a bill to tax and regulate cannabis for adults. The governor had recently called for an open debate about legalization and MPP created this thirty second ad to begin that debate:

Certainly a sober and non-sensational way to debate the issue. Yet when MPP offered the ad to California stations, Los Angeles’ KABC (ABC) and KTTV (FOX), San Francisco’s KGO (ABC), and San Jose’s KNTV (NBC) refused to accept the ad. KNTV said their standards department wouldn’t approve the ad. KGO issued an official “no comment.” KABC and KTTV didn’t even bother give the courtesy of a “no comment” – they would not respond to MPP’s inquiries.

I’ve detailed NBC’s and CBS’s profiting from cannabis culture. You’d think ABC, being a part of the Walt Disney Corporation, would generally shy away from profiting from cannabis culture. But a little digging shows they own Miramax films, which this year released Adventureland, a comedy about teenagers smoking and dealing weed while working at an amusement park and in 2001 offered Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, the adventures of two inveterate stoners who wrote a stoner comic book. FOX for eight years aired That 70’s Show, a ratings hit whose signature sight gag was teenagers sitting in a smoke-filled basement passing around a joint or bong (never seen, however), with the camera focusing on each character as they “passed the dutchie on the left hand side.”

So it is OK for the corporate parents of CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX to profit from movies and TV shows that satirize marijuana culture, but they have a “standards and practices” problem with their broadcast affiliates showing 30 seconds of a 38-year-old woman suggesting we should tax and regulate marijuana.

Keep in mind in these cases, we are talking about one part of the big media company raking in huge profits with shows about the marijuana community, while another part of the big media company refuses the free educational fliers, paid advertisements, and pay-to-play broadcasts BY AND FOR the marijuana community. Marijuana is the modern day minstrel show – we’re allowed on the air as long as we keep on our “greenface”, shuck and jive (or would it be “smoke and pass”?), and never forget our proper place.

By the way, the NORMAL SHOW LIVE mentioned in Case #1 will still be going on the air, as promised, on Labor Day Weekend. Unlike CBS, we keep our promises to our customers. The money raised will go into promotions and producing our show through the facilities of BlogTalkRadio.com, which was happy to accept our business, and quite frankly, offers us a better production technology at one-sixth the price. Tune in every Saturday Night at 9pm Eastern for two hours of intelligent discussion about marijuana legalization.

* Cannaporn is the news specials that like to show lots and lots of pictures of big green sticky buds and the people smoking them, usually the same stock footage they’ve run for years with the most stereotypical “stoner” types they can find, lots of pictures of bongs and tie dyes, some b-roll from a music festival, or body-armored police helicoptering in to chop down marijuana plants, while intoning the reefer madness du jour about increased potency, psychosis, or clandestine cartel grows and violence that wouldn’t exist in a legal market. In other words, not what you will find onNORMAL SHOW LIVE.

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4th April 2010

Arsenal vs FC Barcelona 2 – 2 Result Score Goals Champions League Quarter Finals 31/03/2010

Arsenal vs FC Barcelona Preview Champions League Quarter Finals 31/03/2010

Arsenal vs Barcelona Champions League Quarter Finals March 31st 2010- Emirates Stadium London Kick-off time 20.45 CET – The Champions League Quarter Final encounter between Arsene Wenger´s Arsenal and Pep Guardiola´s Barcelona is not a clash of football philosophies. It is an encounter between kindred spirits, coaches who demand not only results, but also good and attractive play to go with them. Former Barcelona-trainer Rinus Michels once famously remarked that ,,Football is like war. All that matters is you win”. This cut-throat-take-no-prisoners approach is not the gospel of Guardiola and Wenger. Both prefer stylists as Messi, Iñiesta, Xavi, Fabregas and Van Persie and have shown over the years that good results do not require the much favoured defensive tactics of other succesful teams.

With attractive football Barcelona won everything there was to win last seasosn. In the summer Guardiola swapped striker Samuel Eto´o for Inter´s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, changing strength and speed for more football and tactical options. It is undeniable this years Barca is having more difficulties winning its games than last year. Real Madrid are Liga-leaders on goal difference and Guardiola´s team was knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Sevilla in the quarter finals. Still the trust is there that the Catalan side can win the two biggest prizes of the season, the national and the European Club Championship. All that is needed is to play a little better every game in the final phase in the season, said Guardiola, a feat not easily achieved.

Tonight´s game in the Emirates Stadium is a replay of the 2006 Champions League final in Paris, won 2-1 by Barcelona, a game slightly stained by an early expulsion of Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Still, a man down Wengers team took the lead and held onto it until the last fifteen minutes. Eto´o equalized in the 76th minute, Beletti sentenced the game four minutes later.

But those were other times and other teams. The Barcelona of 2006 was the Barcelona of Rijkaard, Ronaldinho and Deco, with less prominent places for today’s weight bearers Iñiesta, Messi and Xavi and newcomers like Alves and…..Guardiola, who was then in charge of the youth teams.

The face of Arsenal has changed a lot too since that memorable May night in Paris. Tonight Wenger´s starting line-up heavily leans on Arshavin and no longer includes players like Hleb, Ljungberg and Thierry Henry, who made a giant transfer to Barcelona in the summer of 2007. The Frenchman (167 goals for Arsenal) has announced he will not celebrate any goal he might make tonight, Wenger in return has promised he will be given a warm welcome at his former club.

Both sides have some injuries to cope with that might seriously dent their playing strength. Barcelona will sourly miss Andres Iñiesta, the perfect ballwinner-and-keeper with an keen eye for creating attacking chances while scoring a goal once in a while himself as well. Left defender Abidal (muscle injury) will probably be replaced by Maxwell. Gerard Piqué is in the ´doubtful´ category.

Arsenal will have to do without Robin van Persie, during most of the season a pivotal figure in Arsenals attacking line-up. Former Barcelona junior-player Cesc Fabregas, who Barcelona boss Joan Laporta would love to sign as a ´goodbye gift´ for his eight year tenure as club president, is a 50-50 proposition to play for Arsenal tonight, suffering an ankle injury.

Let The Barcelona Reporter Know What You Think Post your comment Below

News Source © 2010 Barcelona Reporter
Text within the news headline and/or news body may be subject to copyright Barcelona Reporter does not claim copyright to any such text.unless it is written by one of our reporters :
Please refer to the URL-referenced web page (the ‘Article Source’) for further information and details of the original source from the Barcelona Reporter.com web site. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

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The Golf Jock

Europa League Quarter Finals previews Atletico Madrid – Valencia, Benfica – Liverpool, Fulham – VfL Wolfsburg and Hamburger SV- Standard Liege

Europa League Quarter Finals previews Atletico Madrid – Valencia, Benfica – Liverpool, Fulham – VfL Wolfsburg and Hamburger SV- Standard Liege

5 Sure Fire Ways To Teach Your Child To Have A-Plus Manners

TV Networks Profit From Pot But Won’t Talk of Legalization

Arsenal vs FC Barcelona 2 – 2 Result Score Goals Champions League Quarter Finals 31/03/2010

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