Cow’s Life - Thinking Outside Of The Barn

It looks like the struggling Tommy Hilfiger has to put itself up for sale and Wal-Mart is the biggest bidder among all. Now talking about bad merge and odd couple, this pair certain makes to the top of that list if the deal goes through. My 2 cents are that if Hilfiger wants to keep its not-so-hot brand image as it is if not any worse, STAY AWAY FROM WAL-MART!

Frankly speaking, I don’t like Wal-Mart. It’s noisy, dirty, crowded and … crowded. It kills local retail businesses and drives out little unique stores from the neighborhood. I used to shop there but I don’t go there anymore. It’s not worth the time to drive 20 minutes one way while the much cleaner Target is within walking distance.

Some people ask me, “How do you survive without Wal-Mart??!!” To a lot of folks (my own folks included), I am like this alien from Mars with two horns because I don’t shop in Wal-Mart. Hey! There are a lot of alternatives. Target, grocery stores, small family retail stores, etc… There is definitely a world outside of Wal-Mart.

Hilfiger has already started selling products on walmart.com. I personally think Hilfiger makes pretty good clothe such as man shirts. I always buy a few for my family members now and then. If the brand gets absorbed into Wal-Mart, I don’t know if I would trust the quality anymore. I think Wal-Mart would first ditch its design studio so a pair of Jeans could be sold at a Wal-Mart price like $19.99. This is just all wrong!

The long snapper. Probably one of the most underappreciated position on any NFL team. Guys make a career of it and teams are more than happy to have this specialist on their team.

But why? All they do is hike the ball!

Ahh yes, this common misconception. However, being bent over backwards, throwing an oddly shaped ball between your legs 10 yards back and hitting a target less than a square yard is a lot harder then it sounds. Sure, if you practice hard enough at it, you probably can become a tight end who also can do this somewhat consistently. But not all the time.

Football is the ultimate team sport. For one play to work, everyone has to be in sync and have perfect timing on the play. Many fans just see a running back going through the middle for a 4 yard gain, but what they may miss is the offensive lineman adjusting to a blitz, a tight end pulling double duty with a left guard, the fullback covering an incoming cornerback and a wide receiver running a route just to give the safety the illusion a pass may be coming his way.

And this is only for a run.

For a field goal kick, the concept of teamwork goes into over drive. From the time of the snap to the time of the kick, to get the play off you only have three seconds, often less. What needs to happen is
1) The long snapper has to hike the ball behind him 10 yards and have it land in the hands of the holder who is kneeling at the spot of the kick. That means you have less than a square yard window to hit. Anywhere outside this and there is a good chance the kick will fail.
2) After the ball is hiked, the long snapper has to immediately block the opposing line. He literally needs to adjust within a split second from having his head and arms between his legs to a blocking position to hold off a 280 lbs linebacker who is trying to collapse the pocket and block the kick.
3) The holder sets the ball, the kicker kicks it. (there is more to it than that, but we are focusing on the under appreciated long snapper here)

To have this quickness and this accuracy and to do it every single time, is a skill. If a person messes up a snap two or three time, he is sure to lose his job since this would cost a team anywhere between 3 and 9 points. That’s why long snappers such as Mike Bartrum is such a valued resource on the Philadelphia eagles roster. He is one of the most consistent long snappers in the league and has earned his spot on the roster for years to come because of this. My friend Kevin in Denver, being a typical the rabid eagles fan, proudly sports his #88 Mike Bartrum jersey every Sunday.

Finally, to touch on Yuna’s main point, why not just take a linebacker or tight end and make them the long snapper? As I mentioned above, it’s a precision position that cant just be taught during a training camp. Plus, you must take into account how often players change on a team (See the Philadelphia Eagles, this is the first time in 5 years they had the same 3 people at the linebacker position to start the season as they did to finish the season). Inconsistency at long snapping can potentially cost your team at least one kick per game, and in a league where many games are decided by a field goal or less, this is unacceptable. It could turn a 10-6 playoff team to being a mediocre 8-8 team.

And there is some multitasking at the long snapper position, but just opposite to what Yuna has suggested. Instead of a Tight End doing long snapping duty’s, a long snapper may fill in for a Tight End from time to time. Look at Mighty Mike Bartrum. He has almost a 50% rate of receptions for touchdowns (4 for 9) and a 66% rate of receptions for first downs (6 for 9).

To relate to the buisness spin that Yuna placed on it, the Moral is, sure, its good to be flexable, however, if it can cost you the big game over and over again, its good to have a specialist on hand.

So, on every nfl Sunday, I am at home rooting for you, Mr. Long Snapper. Because somebody has to!

IMDB has a news on Michael Jackson’s plan to undergo a major makeover:

My prediction of the makeover results:

Another reader submission from Paco:
To find out how you can submit a story or a link, check here.
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One of the many magazines I read a month is Wired. Here is an article that captured my attention and has me talking about the subject for over a month.

The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea
Unlimited energy. Fast-growing fruit. Free air-conditioning. John Piña Craven says we can have it all by tapping the icy waters of the deep.

…

Running the frigid pipes through heat exchangers produces unlimited air-conditioning that costs almost nothing. Draining their sweat yields an endless supply of freshwater for drinking and irrigation. The cold water also creates a temperature difference between root and fruit that Craven believes speeds growth. And by turning the flow on and off, Craven has found he can further accelerate the plants’ growth cycle by forcing them in and out of dormancy - he can get three crops of grapes a year and pineapples in eight months instead of the usual 18. Feeding some of the water through a contraption Craven calls a hurricane tower generates clean electricity. “What the world doesn’t understand,” says Craven, still zigzagging through the parking lot, “is that what we don’t have enough of is cold, not heat.”

…

click here for more of this article

Link to original Article

Hotlines: Coke’s Calorie-Burning Enviga Slated for 2006 Debut

NEW YORK Coca-Cola is planning to launch Enviga, a soda that is said to burn 50 to 100 calories just by drinking a 12-oz. serving, next year, per one executive.

Enviga, a green tea-based, caffeinated, carbonated drink, is in clinical testing and is said to speed up the user’s metabolism. The beverage will target active lifestyle consumers. A Coke rep said, “Some [of our projects] may find their way to market and some may not.” Studies have shown that drinking green tea may promote weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories.

link to the original article

A Kenyan official has attempted to win the hand of Bill Clinton’s daughter by offering him 40 goats and 20 cows.

Chelsea Clinton was offered the animals as a traditional African dowry by Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor who wrote to the former president via Kenya’s foreign affairs minister.

The love struck electrical engineering graduate said: “Had I succeeded in wooing Chelsea, I would have had a grand wedding.

“I would have invited Archbishop Desmond Tutu to preside at the ceremony.”

He added that he would be willing to travel to the US to meet Chelsea and her family and was looking forward to meeting Hillary Clinton, who he admired for standing by her man through the Monica Lewinksy scandal “like an African woman”.

The man also gave the names of former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi and two of his college buddies as character references.

Chelsea is reported to have been flattered by the offer.

Wrap your brian around this little puzzle Apparently this is an IQ test given to job applicants in Japan: “Everybody has to cross the river”.

The following rules apply:
Only 2 persons on the raft at a time.

The father can not stay with any of the daughters without their mother’s presence.

The mother can not stay with any of the sons without their father’s presence.

The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member if the Policeman is not there.

Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft.

To start click on the big blue circle on the right.

To move the people click on them. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

Use your mouse and drag the person around. Pure physics, yeah? It doesn’t look like a true 3-D model. But hey… this stuff is cool!
Thanks to Paco for providing the link!