Wilfork: Losing Seymour like losing family

Wilfork: Losing Seymour like losing family

A sleepy Sunday morning was turned upside down for members of the Patriots defense when they learned that defensive end Richard Seymour had been traded to the Oakland Raiders for a 2011 first-round pick.
Seymour woke up linemates and friends nose tackle Vince Wilfork and defensive end Ty Warren to let them know he had been traded.
"Big Sey", as his teammates affectionately called him, was saying see ya.
A melancholy Wilfork said losing Seymour was like losing family, both on and off the field and that he will be missed. Wilfork lamented the breakup of one of the best defensive lines in the NFL, but said he and the team have no choice but to move on.
"We're all professionals. Change happens all the time. Every year you have change, you have roster change, you have everything changing," said Wilfork. "This is another change and we're going to have to deal with it. I don't care how you feel about it. You got to deal with it and move on. We're getting ready for the most important game of our season, Monday night against a divisional rival, so we have to put everything aside and work."
Warren said that Seymour had confided in him that he thought the writing was on the wall regarding his Patriots career and that something like a trade could happen before the season.
"Sey felt like something was going to happen along these lines," said Warren. "He mentioned that to me months prior to this happening. I didn't put much thought into it."
Warren, who said he was in a hotel room at the Renaissance Boston Hotel & Spa at Patriot Place when he got the news, said that he thought Seymour was joking with him at first.
"I just told him, 'Stop lying. It's Sunday. Man, you serious? It's Sunday. Don't be coming at me like that.' I took a nap and woke up and there were 10 more text messages. I was like alright let me look into this deal and then it was true," said Warren.
"He will definitely be missed. I got his phone number. It won't be hard to talk to him, but as far as a teammate he'll definitely be missed, but again it's the nature of the business. He knew that. It came to fruition and that's what it is."
On the surface it's hard to see how the trade makes the Patriots a better team in the short-term, losing a five-time Pro Bowl defensive end. Warren was asked if you have to trust the organization.
"Absolutely, only they know where we are and where we're going, so you got to trust them to know what they're going to do," said Warren.
Warren said he's not going to change his game to try to compensate for Seymour's loss opposite him at defensive end.
"I blaze my own trails. What one person does doesn't determine what I do. What I do is pretty much in stone," said Warren "They know what they're going to get out of me. I'm not really a rah-rah guy. I don't feel like I'm going to need any extra rah-rah. I'm just going to do what Ty Warren does and that is stick to the plan, work hard. That's kind of my motto."
Warren said there are veteran players who can pick up the leadership slack for Seymour. But young players will be asked to do that too, including second-year linebacker and preseason defensive captain Jerod Mayo.
Mayo admitted the business side of the NFL, as compared to college, has been eye-opening
"I've only been here two years and I'm surprised every day, especially today and yesterday," said Mayo.
Mayo said he is not going to change his leadership approach because of Seymour's absence.
"Not really. I'm just going to come to work every day and keep chipping at the rock, trying to get better and learn my teammates," said Mayo. "They're changing every day, and hopefully we can get some consistency here soon and compete [next] Monday night."
Wilfork, who seemed the most upset by the trade, said the shipping out of Seymour to Oakland is a stark reminder that the business side of the game is never going away.
"It is what it is. Don't get it twisted, it is a business and you have to move on," said Wilfork. "We will. As a defensive lineman, as a friend of his, as an organization and a team, we have to move on from it and we will. This is shocking, but at the same time that's the business side to it. That's nothing but business and you just move on from it. Forget how you feel about it. You have to deal with it."

Walter released

Walter released

The Patriots have released backup quarterback Andrew Walter. The move was confirmed via email by Walter's agent, Jeff Sperbeck.
Walter's release leaves the Patriots with just Tom Brady and rookie Brian Hoyer at quarterback and could be a precursor to the acquisition of a veteran backup QB.
Walter was clearly agitated in the locker room following the Patriots' 38-27 victory over the New York Giants, a game in which he didn't play a snap as Hoyer went the distance.
"I'm ready every week," said a red-faced Walter, following the game. "As far as any other questions I think the guys who played should be the ones to answer the questions."
Walter then tried to end the interview and was asked one more question -- Do you feel with the time you've gotten you would be prepared to play in the regular season?
"It's my job to be a pro, so I'm going to leave it at that," said Walter before walking away.
The Patriots picked up Walter on Aug. 3 after he was released by the Oakland Raiders on July 30.
He played in two preseason games for New England, the opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, and last Friday against the Washington Redskins, when he came on for one series.
Walter was 5 of 9 for 62 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in exhibition game action for the Patriots.

FOXBOROUGH

FOXBOROUGH - The Patriots had a busy day, besides trading defensive end Richard Seymour.
The team signed veteran guard Kendall Simmons to the active roster and started piecing together its practice squad, adding a potential third quarterback in Isaiah Stanback.
Simmons, 30, spent the last seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who selected him in the first round of the 2002 draft out of Auburn.
Simmons started 81 regular-season games for Pittsburgh and was a starter on their 2005 Super Bowl title team.
The 6-foot-3-inch, 315-pound Simmons started four games at right guard for Pittsburgh last season before he suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury that ended his season.
Terms of his deal were not released.
Stanback, a 2007 fourth-round pick by Dallas, was a quarterback for the University of Washington, but the Cowboys converted him to wide receiver. According to an NFL.com report, the Patriots, who only have Tom Brady and Brian Hoyer at quarterback, want to move Stanback back to QB on the practice squad.
The Patriots brought back a pair of released players - defensive lineman Darryl Richard, a seventh-round draft choice, and wide receiver Terrence Nunn.
They also added rookie defensive back DeAngelo Willingham. According to reports, the team had put a waiver claim on Willingham when he was released by the Buccaneers, but that claim was awarded to the Cowboys. The Cowboys cut the University of Tennessee product Saturday.
Morris lined up Running back Sammy Morris, who suffered an undisclosed injury in the first exhibition game Aug. 13 and didn’t return to practice until Aug 31, said that if Thursday’s exhibition finale against the Giants had been a regular-season game he could have played.
Morris said despite playing in just the one exhibition and having 12 rushes for 45 yards he thinks he’ll be ready for the season-opener against Buffalo next Monday.
“I’ve been doing this a while. My body feels in good shape, so I’ll go from there,’’ said Morris.
O’Connell to Jets Former Patriots quarterback Kevin O’Connell was traded by the Lions to the Jets. O’Connell, waived by the Patriots last Monday, was claimed by the Lions, who used the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft to take Matthew Stafford. O’Connell might not be long for the Jets, either, since New York has rookie starter Mark Sanchez, Kellen Clemens, and Erik Ainge. It’s possible Jets coach Rex Ryan wants to pump O’Connell for info on the Patriots, their Week 2 foe . . . The Eagles released A.J. Feeley, who has been mentioned as a possibility to be the Patriots’ backup QB . . . The Chiefs were awarded tackle Ryan O’Callaghan off waivers from the Patriots . . . Safety/special teams ace Matthew Slater was seen in the locker room without a cast or brace on his injured left arm, but the arm was hanging limply to his side.

Kickboxing

Kickboxing

Kickboxing refers to the sport of combining the grace and style of boxing with kicking. Kickboxing is a standing sport and does not allow continuation of the fight once a combatant has reached the ground.
Kickboxing is often practiced for self-defense, general fitness, or as a full-contact sport. In the full-contact sport the male boxers are bare-chested wearing shorts and protective gear including: mouth-guard, hand-wraps, 10-oz. boxing gloves, groin-guard, shin-pads, kick-boots, and optional protective helmet (usually for those under 16). The female boxers will wear a tank top and chest protection in addition to the male clothing/protective gear. In European kickboxing, where kicks to the thigh are allowed using special low-kick rules, use of boxing shorts instead of long trousers is possible.
In addition, amateur rules often allow less experienced competitors to use light or semi-contact rules, where the intention is to score points by executing successful strikes past the opponent's guard, and use of force is regulated. The equipment for semi-contact is similar to full-contact matches, usually with addition of head gear. Competitors usually dress in a t-shirt for semi-contact matches, to separate them from the bare-chested full-contact participants.
Kickboxing is often confused with Muay Thai, also known as Thai Boxing. The two sports are similar; however, in Thai Boxing, kicks below the belt are allowed, as are strikes with knees and elbows.
There are many arts labelled kickboxing including Japanese kickboxing, American kickboxing, Indian, Burmese boxing, as well as French savate. The term kickboxing is disputed and has become more associated with the Japanese and American variants. Many of the other styles do not consider themselves to be 'kickboxing', although the public often uses the term generically to refer to all these martial arts.
The term kickboxing was created by the Japanese boxing promoter Osamu Noguchi for a variant of Muay Thai and Karate that he created in the 1950s. The term was later used by the American variant. When used by the practitioners of those two styles, it usually refers to those styles specifically.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey (frequently simply called hockey in countries where it is the most popular form of hockey) is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover, such as Canada, the northern United States, the Nordic countries (especially Sweden and Finland), and Russia. With the advent of indoor artificial ice rinks it has become a year-round pastime in these areas.

Ice hockey is one of the four major North American professional sports. Worldwide the National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level for men and the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) and the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) are the highest level for women. It is the official national winter sport of Canada, where the game enjoys immense popularity. While only six of the thirty NHL franchises are based in Canada, Canadians make up a slight majority of the league's players.
While there are 66 total members of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), 162 of 177 medals at IIHF World Championships have been taken by seven nations: Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States[1][2]. Of the 63 medals awarded in men's competition at the Olympic level from 1920 on, only six did not go to the one of those countries. All nine Olympic and 27 IIHF World Women Championships medals have gone to one of those seven countries.[3][4]

Beach Football (Beasal)

Beach Football (Beasal) is a variant of association football. The game itself is played on a beach, or some form of sand, and emphasises skill, agility and shooting at goal.
Whilst football has been played informally on beaches for many years, the introduction of beach soccer was an attempt to codify rules for the game. This was done in 1992 by the founders of Beach Soccer Worldwide, a company set up to develop the sport and responsible for the majority of its tournaments to this day. This was a major foundation for what we now know as beach soccer and what has led to the sport rapidly growing in populartity.
The irregularity of the soft-sand playing surface leads to a totaly different style of play which is played in football, where players must improvise. The compact pitch, much smaller than a regular football pitch, allows players to score from anywhere on the sand. This leads to high scoring games, with an average of sixty attempts at goal in a single game, with an average scoring rate of one goal every three or four minutes, which means around eleven goals are scored in total per game.

Beach Soccer (Beasal) started in Brazil, more precisely at Leme beach, Rio de Janeiro, and has grown to be an international game. The participation of internationally renowned players such as flamboyant Frenchman Eric Cantona, legendary Spanish strikers Michel and Julio Salinas and Brazilian stars such as Romario, Júnior and Zico has helped to expand television coverage to large audiences in over 170 countries worldwide, making Beach Soccer one of the fastest growing professional sports in the world and converting it into a major showcase for international commercial opportunity.
Beach Soccer had been played recreationally all over the world for many years and in many different formats. In 1992 the laws of the game were envisioned and a pilot event was staged by the founding partners of BSWW in Los Angeles. By 1993, the first professional beach soccer competition was organized at Miami Beach, with teams from the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Italy taking part.

GrowthBeach Soccer (Beasal) started in Brazil, more precisely at Leme beach, Rio de Janeiro, and has grown to be an international game. The participation of internationally renowned players such as flamboyant Frenchman Eric Cantona, legendary Spanish strikers Michel and Julio Salinas and Brazilian stars such as Romario, Júnior and Zico has helped to expand television coverage to large audiences in over 170 countries worldwide, making Beach Soccer one of the fastest growing professional sports in the world and converting it into a major showcase for international commercial opportunity.
Beach Soccer had been played recreationally all over the world for many years and in many different formats. In 1992 the laws of the game were envisioned and a pilot event was staged by the founding partners of BSWW in Los Angeles. By 1993, the first professional beach soccer competition was organized at Miami Beach, with teams from the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Italy taking part.

Kayaking

Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving across water. Kayaking is generally differentiated from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is defined by the International Canoe Federation (the world sanctioning body) as a boat where the paddler faces forward, has their legs in front of them, and uses a double bladed paddle. Almost all kayaks have big decks, however, there are many sit-on-top kayaks, and these boats are growing in popularity. A canoe is defined as a boat where the paddler faces forward and kneels in the boat, using a single bladed paddle. Canoes can be closed deck or open deck.
Whitewater kayaking involves taking a kayak down rapids. Sea kayaking sometimes also referred to as Ocean Kayaking involves taking kayaks out on to the ocean or other open water e.g., a lake. Sea kayaking can involve short paddles with a return to the starting point or "put-in" or expeditions covering many miles and days. Kayaking of all kinds has continued to increase in general popularity through the 1990s and early 21st century.

Kayaks are classified by their intended use. There are six primary classifications: polo, slalom, whitewater, surf, touring/expedition, light touring/day tripping and general recreation. From these primary classifications stem many sub-classes. For example, a fishing kayak is simply a general recreation kayak outfitted with features and accessories that make it an easier kayak from which to fish. Or a creek kayak is a certain type of whitewater kayak, designed to handle narrow gully type rivers and falls. Also within these classifications are many levels of performance which further separate the individual models. In other words, not all touring kayaks handle the same.
There are two major configurations of kayaks - "sit on tops" which as the name suggests involves sitting on top of the kayak in an open area and "cockpit style" which involves sitting with the legs and hips inside the kayak hull and a "spray deck" or "spray skirt" that creates a water resistant seal around the waist. Whether a kayak is a sit-on-top or a cockpit style has nothing to do with which classification it falls under. Both configurations are represented in each of the five primary classifications. While most kayaks are designed to be paddled by a single person, other configurations include tandem and even triple cockpit boats.
Because of their range and adaptability, Kayaking is popular amongst divers, fishers, and adventure enthusiasts.

The Boat Race

The Boat Race

The Boat Race, also known as the University Boat Race and The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club. It is rowed annually between competing eights each spring on the Thames in London. The event is a popular one, not only with the alumni of the universities, but also with rowers in general and the public. An estimated quarter of a million people watch the race live from the banks of the river, around seven to nine million people on TV in the UK, and an overseas audience estimated by the Boat Race Company of around 120 million,[1] however, other estimates[2] put the international audience below 20 million. The first race was in 1829 and it has been held annually since 1856, with the exception of the two world wars.
Members of both teams are traditionally known as blues and each boat as a "Blue Boat", with Cambridge in light blue and Oxford dark blue.
The 2009 boat race took place on 29 March at 15:40 BST, with Oxford (on the Middlesex station) winning.[3]

ORIGIN

The tradition was started in 1829 by Charles Merivale, a student at St John's College, Cambridge, and his schoolfriend Charles Wordsworth who was at Oxford. Cambridge challenged Oxford to a race in Henley. The second race occurred in 1836, with the venue moved to be from Westminster to Putney. Over the next couple of years, there was disagreement over where the race should be held, with Oxford preferring Henley and Cambridge preferring London. Cambridge therefore raced Leander Club in 1837 and 1838. Following the formation of the Oxford University Boat Club, racing between the two universities resumed and the tradition continues to the present day, with the loser challenging the winner to a re-match annually.
The race in 1877 was declared a dead heat. Legend in Oxford has it that the judge, "Honest John" Phelps, was asleep under a bush as the crews came by leading him to announce the result as a "dead heat to Oxford by four feet", but this is not borne out by contemporary reports.
Oxford, partially disabled, were making effort after effort to hold their rapidly waning lead, while Cambridge, who, curiously enough, had settled together again, and were rowing almost as one man, were putting on a magnificent spurt at 40 strokes to the minute, with a view of catching their opponents before reaching the winning-post. Thus struggling over the remaining portion of the course, the two eights raced passed the flag alongside one another, and the gun fired amid a scene of excitement rarely equalled and never exceeded. Cheers for one crew were succeeded by counter-cheers for the other, and it was impossible to tell what the result was until the Press boat backed down to the Judge and inquired the issue. John Phelps, the waterman, who officiated, replied that the noses of the boats passed the post strictly level, and that the result was a dead heat.
—The Times
Cambridge produced one of the legends of the Boat Race and of rowing worldwide, Stanley Muttlebury, whose crew won the race in the first four of the five years he was a member, 1886-1890. He was viewed as "the finest oarsman to have ever sat in a boat".[citation needed]
Contemporaries writing to The Times to add to his 1933 obituary called attention to his extraordinary physical prowess and natural aptitude for rowing, traits accompanied by mildness, good manners, and natural kindness:
Muttlebury had a natural aptitude which amounted to a genius for rowing, and, as he was not only massively large and full of courage but herculean in muscular strength, it was inevitable that he should be an outstanding exponent of oarsmanship. Added to this, he came to his prime when rowing was in a transitional stage, when the old methods of the straight back and the body catch suited to the fixed seat and the short slide, had necessarily to be superseded by methods required by the long-slide. I consider that long-slide rowing sprang suddenly to perfection in Muttlebury, that on him this new (or partially new) art was built...
"Muttle", as he was known at the varsity and later in life, was one who strove never to hurt (The Times), but there have been two instances where later generations of oarsmen have rebelled against the leadership of the Boat Club President and their coach. Both have involved Oxford University Boat Club and in both cases American oarsmen played a pivotal role.

Sudoku

Sudoku is a logic-based,[1][2] combinatorial[3] number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid. Completed puzzles are usually a type of Latin square with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions.
Sudoku was popularized in 1986 by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, under the name Sudoku, meaning single number.[4] It became an international hit in 2005.[5]

History

Number puzzles first appeared in newspapers in the late 19th century, when French puzzle setters began experimenting with removing numbers from magic squares. Le Siècle, a Paris-based daily, published a partially completed 9×9 magic square with 3×3 sub-squares on November 19, 1892.[6] It was not a Sudoku because it contained double-digit numbers and required arithmetic rather than logic to solve, but it shared key characteristics: each row, column and sub-square added up to the same number.

From La France newspaper, July 6, 1895.
On July 6, 1895, Le Siècle's rival, La France, refined the puzzle so that it was almost a modern Sudoku. It simplified the 9×9 magic square puzzle so that each row, column and broken diagonals contained only the numbers 1–9, but did not mark the sub-squares. Although they are unmarked, each 3×3 sub-square does indeed comprise the numbers 1–9 and the additional constraint on the broken diagonals leads to only one solution.[7]
These weekly puzzles were a feature of newspaper titles including L'Echo de Paris for about a decade but disappeared about the time of the First World War.[8]
According to Will Shortz, the modern Sudoku was most likely designed anonymously by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana, and first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku). Garns's name was always present on the list of contributors in issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games that included Number Place, and was always absent from issues that did not.[9] He died in 1989 before getting a chance to see his creation as a worldwide phenomenon.[9] It is unclear if Garns was familiar with any of the French newspapers listed above.
The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984[9] as Suuji (or suji) wa dokushin ni kagiru (数字は独身に限る?), which can be translated as "the digits must be single" or "the digits are limited to one occurrence." At a later date, the name was abbreviated to Sudoku by Maki Kaji (鍜治 真起, Kaji Maki?), taking only the first kanji of compound words to form a shorter version.[9] In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 32, and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells). It is now published in mainstream Japanese periodicals, such as the Asahi Shimbun.

ludo

LUDO

LUDO (from Latin ludo, "I play") is a simple board game, similar to Tock and Sorry!, for two to four players, in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to dice rolls. The game is a simplification of the traditional Indian Cross and Circle game Pachisi. The game is popular in many countries and is known as "Ludi" in the Caribbean, "Fia" in Sweden and "Mens-erger-je-niet" in The Netherlands.

HISTORY

Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century[1]. The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta[1]. This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a notable example being that of Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, who played living Pachisi using girls from his harem[1]. Variations of the game made it to England during the British Raj, with one appearing under the name Ludo around 1896, which was then patented [1]. In Germany this game is called "Mensch ärgere dich nicht" which in English means "Man, don't get mad".

RULES

At the start of the game, the player's four pieces are placed in the start area of their colour.
Players take it in turn to throw a single die. A player must first throw a six to be able to move a piece from the starting area onto the starting square. In each subsequent turn the player moves a piece forward 1 to 6 squares as indicated by the dice. When a player throws a 6 the player may bring a new piece onto the starting square, or may choose to move a piece already in play. Any throw of a six results in another turn.
If a player cannot make a valid move they must pass the die to the next player.
If a player's piece lands on a square containing an opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is captured and returns to the starting area. A piece may not land on square that already contain a piece of the same colour (unless playing doubling rules; see below).
Once a piece has completed a circuit of the board it moves up the home column of its own colour. The player must throw the exact number to advance to the home square. The winner is the first player to get all four of their pieces onto the home square.

High jump

High jump

The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of any devices. It has been contested since the Olympic Games of ancient Greece. Over the centuries since, competitors have introduced increasingly more effective techniques to arrive at the current form. Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) is both the indoor and outdoor world record holder in this event with jumps of 2.43 metres (7 ft 11.67 in) and 2.45 metres (8 ft 0.46 in), respectively. Sotomayor's record, set in 1993, is the longest standing in the history of the men's high jump. Stefka Kostadinova (Bulgaria) has held the women's world record 2.09 metres (6 ft 10.28 in) since 1987, the longest-held record in the event.

History

The first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century. Early jumpers used either an elaborate straight-on approach or a scissors technique. In the latter, the bar was approached diagonally, and the jumper threw first the inside leg and then the other over the bar in a scissoring motion. Around the turn of the 20th century, techniques began to modernise, starting with the Irish-American M.F. Sweeney's Eastern cut-off. By taking off as if with the scissors, but extending his back and flattening out over the bar, the Sweeney achieved a more economic clearance and raised the world record to 6 feet 5.625 inches (1.97 m) in 1895.
Another American, M.F. Horine, developed an even more efficient technique, the Western roll. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Horine increased the world standard to 6 feet 7 inches (2.0 m) in 1912. His technique predominated through the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03 metres (6 ft 8 in).
American and Russian jumpers held the playing field for the next four decades, and they pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their (belly-down) torso around the bar, obtaining the most economical clearance up to that time. Straddle-jumper Charles Dumas broke the elusive 7 feet (2.13 m) barrier in 1956, and American John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23 metres (7 ft 4 in) in 1960. Valeriy Brumel took over the event for the next four years. The elegant Soviet jumper radically sped up his approach run, took the record up to 2.28 metres (7 ft 6 in), and won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, before a motorcycle accident ended his career.