2012年5月22日星期二
You have to be very strong with the ball
There had been a pattern in the first four games of the series, as Sixers coach Doug Collins saw it noted. The team that won the third quarter in each of the games went on to the victory. He mentioned that fact Monday afternoon, not long before the Celtics and Sixers took the Christian Louboutin Heels court for crucial Game 5.
And, as it turned out, that pattern held. Though the Sixers mostly had control of the game through the first half, it was the Celtics who took over after the break. (Or, rather, Brandon Bass.) That was when the Sixers crumbled, when they stopped making the shots that had been falling so easily in the first half. That was when they lost the ball and lost the game.
Just as Collins had predicted.
Those were the first words out of the coach’s mouth in his postgame news conference, as he reiterated the truism of the series.
“You can’t play like that,’’ Collins said. “You can’t play one-handed against this team. You can’t make careless, one-handed passes. They’re too good, they’re quick . . . We did not do a good job of that. I thought we did not meet the tenacity that they played with from the middle of the third quarter on.’’
There was a moment, even more specific than the third quarter, that turned the game in the Celtics’ favor. With the Sixers holding a 4-point lead, Paul Pierce was called for a clear-path foul four minutes into the quarter. That should have given Philadelphia 2 points on free throws and possession of the ball.
But Andre Iguodala missed the free throws - he went 1 for 4 from the line in the game - and the Sixers turned the ball over. It set off a stretch in which the Sixers turned the ball over on five of their next six possessions.
By the time the Sixers took their second timeout of the period with 4:48 left, the Celtics were up by 6 points, and wouldn’t trail again.
“That was the deciding point in the game,’’ Collins said. “They were the aggressors, and it started really, I thought, after that clear-path foul.’’
Elton Brand, who led the Sixers with 19 points, said his team knew what might happen, knew the Celtics would turn it up, especially at home. But as Boston sped up the game, Philadelphia wasn’t able to recover.
“We do have to recognize [the aggression] more,’’ said Brand. “We know what we have to do - we watched tape, we went through it in shootaround - but we didn’t do it. Hopefully it can be corrected.’’
Despite shooting 54.8 percent in the first half, the Sixers were up by just 3 points at the break. They had left the door wide open for the Celtics. And, as they turned the ball over, as they played too fast for their game, the Celtics took advantage.
Part of it was that the Celtics became more aggressive. Part of it was that the Sixers became careless, gave in to that aggression. Asked which was more crucial, Evan Turner said, “It was 50-50. They played great defense. They amped up the defense. We had to get our connection back together, be on a string with one another, and we didn’t really do that.’’
“You have to be very strong with the ball,’’ Collins said. “I didn’t think we were strong with the ball tonight. They’re too good. Once they get into the passing lane, you can’t take that pass back.’’
And those passes, the bad ones, generally ended with a basket on the other end.
“We just had a bad third,’’ Lou Williams said. “We had a bunch of turnovers, and they scored on all of them. It’s hard to compete like that, especially in that building with an experienced team like that. We didn’t help ourselves none in that third.’’
Said Spencer Hawes, “It started off time and time Christian Louboutin Wedges again with our turnovers. That got those guys rolling.’’
The Sixers didn’t respond well. They didn’t pick it up when they needed to. They committed the mistakes that allowed the Celtics to take the lead. They couldn’t stop the turnovers when they started, and a game that they were winning turned into the loss that put them on the brink of season’s end.
2012年1月9日星期一
Now several Republican congressmen now want to use the Iran issue
In the 1980s, the US backed the Contra rebels to fight Mr. Ortega's communist Sandinista government – a dark chapter in christian louboutin heels both countries' history that closed when Ortega was swept from office in democratic elections in 1990.
Since Ortega's return to power by ballot box in 2007, Washington's response has been limited. The US has criticized his antidemocratic power-grab and cut $64 million in Millennium Challenge development aid, but generally tried to work with the Ortega administration while turning a deaf ear to the Sandistas' "Anti-yanqui" diatribes.
Now several Republican congressmen now want to use the Iran issue to turn up the heat on Ortega and reclassify him from State Department bugbear to national security threat – a dubious distinction the Sandinista government hasn’t had since the 1980s.
Are you up on Latin American news? Try our quiz.
“This trip by Ahmadinejad to Nicaragua reaffirms why the Obama administration’s lack of action regarding the undemocratic and fraudulent measures taken by the Ortega regime in the last election in Nicaragua are not only misguided, but could pose a threat to our national security as a State Sponsor of Terrorism is given a warm welcome in our backyard,” Florida Congressman David Rivera (R), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Monitor.
Late last year, former Costa Rican Ambassador Jaime Daremblum testified before a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Iran is using Nicaragua to establish a “strategic presence” close to the United States’ borders, just like the US has military troops stationed in the Middle East in close proximity to Iran.
“Iran wants to the do exactly the same thing with its presence in Nicaragua,” Mr. Daremblum said, starting a buzz that continues to reverberate in Washington.
What Iranian presence?
But back in Nicaragua, it’s hard to see what the hubbub is about.
Since Nicaragua and Iran renewed diplomatic Christian Louboutin High Boots ties in January 2007, the relationship has hardly evolved beyond lofty promises and ideological commiserating. Iran’s unlikely promises to build a $230 million hydroelectric plant and a $350 million deep-water port in Nicaragua are just as implausible today as they were in 2007.
Iran’s diplomatic mission in Nicaragua – three guys sharing a rented house – is “the smallest diplomatic mission in the entire American continent,” according to Iranian Ambassador Akbar Esmaeil Pour.
And contrary to rumors that Iranians are flooding into Nicaragua without visas to establish a beachhead against the United States, Pour insists the “Iranian colony” here is less than 40 people, many of whom have been here for decades.
The only visible Iranian investment in Nicaragua so far has been a $1.5 million health clinic, which poses more of a threat to flu symptoms than US national security.
Rhetorical support
But what the Nicaraguan-Iranian relationship lacks in substance, it makes up for in rhetoric.
“Our two countries have common interests, enemies and goals,” Ahmadinejad said during his first visit in 2007, after touring a poor slum in Managua. “We may be far apart, but we are close in heart.”
Sandinista official Jacinto Suarez, the party’s secretary of international relations, said Ahmadinejad will be “welcomed” back here on Tuesday, and that Nicaragua sympathizes with Iran’s plight. “Iran is being demonized and persecuted – the country is a prisoner of the new colonial wars,” Suarez told wire service Acan-Efe.
Sandinista officials stress that Nicaragua is a sovereign nation that can confederate with any country it wants, including Iran.
Despite the concerns abroad, Ortega is riding a wave of popular support here.
The former revolutionary was recently reelected with a commanding 62 percent of the vote, and Nicaragua’s economy – feathered with $500 million of annual largess from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – is growing steadily. The ruling Sandinista Front, a well-oiled political machine whose apparatchiks operate in lockstep obsequiousness, also won a supermajority in the legislature, giving Ortega full control over all four branches of government. Even the president’s public-approval rating is uncommonly high, despite opposition claims that his reelection was illegal.
Ortega the contrarian
But critics claims some of Ortega’s foreign policy moves – such as recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, backing Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi until the bitter end, and publicly expressing its “profound condolences for death of dear leader Kim Jong-il” – appear to driven more by contrarian instinct than national interest.
"In light of how little Daniel Ortega Christian Louboutin Suede Fringe Pumps has gotten from Iran since he befriended Ahmadinejad, it's hard to figure out this relationship,” says former opposition lawmaker Francisco Aguirre, the outgoing president of Nicaragua’s congressional foreign affairs committee. “At least Hugo Chavez forks over a half a billion dollars a year to President Ortega, but Ahmadinejad does not appear to offer anything more than moral support. Go figure!”
Since Ortega's return to power by ballot box in 2007, Washington's response has been limited. The US has criticized his antidemocratic power-grab and cut $64 million in Millennium Challenge development aid, but generally tried to work with the Ortega administration while turning a deaf ear to the Sandistas' "Anti-yanqui" diatribes.
Now several Republican congressmen now want to use the Iran issue to turn up the heat on Ortega and reclassify him from State Department bugbear to national security threat – a dubious distinction the Sandinista government hasn’t had since the 1980s.
Are you up on Latin American news? Try our quiz.
“This trip by Ahmadinejad to Nicaragua reaffirms why the Obama administration’s lack of action regarding the undemocratic and fraudulent measures taken by the Ortega regime in the last election in Nicaragua are not only misguided, but could pose a threat to our national security as a State Sponsor of Terrorism is given a warm welcome in our backyard,” Florida Congressman David Rivera (R), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Monitor.
Late last year, former Costa Rican Ambassador Jaime Daremblum testified before a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Iran is using Nicaragua to establish a “strategic presence” close to the United States’ borders, just like the US has military troops stationed in the Middle East in close proximity to Iran.
“Iran wants to the do exactly the same thing with its presence in Nicaragua,” Mr. Daremblum said, starting a buzz that continues to reverberate in Washington.
What Iranian presence?
But back in Nicaragua, it’s hard to see what the hubbub is about.
Since Nicaragua and Iran renewed diplomatic Christian Louboutin High Boots ties in January 2007, the relationship has hardly evolved beyond lofty promises and ideological commiserating. Iran’s unlikely promises to build a $230 million hydroelectric plant and a $350 million deep-water port in Nicaragua are just as implausible today as they were in 2007.
Iran’s diplomatic mission in Nicaragua – three guys sharing a rented house – is “the smallest diplomatic mission in the entire American continent,” according to Iranian Ambassador Akbar Esmaeil Pour.
And contrary to rumors that Iranians are flooding into Nicaragua without visas to establish a beachhead against the United States, Pour insists the “Iranian colony” here is less than 40 people, many of whom have been here for decades.
The only visible Iranian investment in Nicaragua so far has been a $1.5 million health clinic, which poses more of a threat to flu symptoms than US national security.
Rhetorical support
But what the Nicaraguan-Iranian relationship lacks in substance, it makes up for in rhetoric.
“Our two countries have common interests, enemies and goals,” Ahmadinejad said during his first visit in 2007, after touring a poor slum in Managua. “We may be far apart, but we are close in heart.”
Sandinista official Jacinto Suarez, the party’s secretary of international relations, said Ahmadinejad will be “welcomed” back here on Tuesday, and that Nicaragua sympathizes with Iran’s plight. “Iran is being demonized and persecuted – the country is a prisoner of the new colonial wars,” Suarez told wire service Acan-Efe.
Sandinista officials stress that Nicaragua is a sovereign nation that can confederate with any country it wants, including Iran.
Despite the concerns abroad, Ortega is riding a wave of popular support here.
The former revolutionary was recently reelected with a commanding 62 percent of the vote, and Nicaragua’s economy – feathered with $500 million of annual largess from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – is growing steadily. The ruling Sandinista Front, a well-oiled political machine whose apparatchiks operate in lockstep obsequiousness, also won a supermajority in the legislature, giving Ortega full control over all four branches of government. Even the president’s public-approval rating is uncommonly high, despite opposition claims that his reelection was illegal.
Ortega the contrarian
But critics claims some of Ortega’s foreign policy moves – such as recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, backing Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi until the bitter end, and publicly expressing its “profound condolences for death of dear leader Kim Jong-il” – appear to driven more by contrarian instinct than national interest.
"In light of how little Daniel Ortega Christian Louboutin Suede Fringe Pumps has gotten from Iran since he befriended Ahmadinejad, it's hard to figure out this relationship,” says former opposition lawmaker Francisco Aguirre, the outgoing president of Nicaragua’s congressional foreign affairs committee. “At least Hugo Chavez forks over a half a billion dollars a year to President Ortega, but Ahmadinejad does not appear to offer anything more than moral support. Go figure!”
2012年1月4日星期三
The Samsung Series 9 was one of the first Windows ultrabooks to launch
At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, you couldn’t throw your schwag bag across the show floor without hitting a 3-D television or Android tablet. This year’s hottest gadget? It looks like it christian louboutin heels will be the ultrabook.
Super thin and remarkably light, ultrabooks are expected from all the major PC manufacturers. Tablets aren’t going away by any means, but you can expect CES 2012 to be dominated by this emerging notebook category that’s being heavily pushed by Intel.
Intel, in fact, coined and trademarked ultrabook as a marketing term, using it to differentiate high-performance, ultra-portable, Intel-based notebooks from more mainstream, bottom-feeding notebooks and tablets. Apple proved to the world that this product category has legs via the success of its MacBook Air, and now Intel (and its partners) want a piece of the action too.
Intel says that to qualify as an ultrabook, a notebook must meet stringent criteria: It must weigh no more than 3.1 lbs, be no more than 0.71 inches thick, and provide five-plus hours of battery life. Even more germane to the consumer experience, it must boast flash-based storage, and incorporate Intel’s Rapid Start Technology for speedy boot times.
At CES 2012, you can expect to see 30 to 50 ultrabook models from Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Asus and Lenovo, a few of which already have ultrabooks in their arsenals of shipping products. Most of next year’s ultrabooks will be in the $1,000 to $1,200 price range, and that’s a problem, according to Display Search analyst Richard Shim, who says these devices need to be priced around $699 to appeal to mainstream consumers.
“The challenge is that you’re trying to make a premium product mainstream,” Shim says. “It’s sort of an oxymoron, because as soon as it’s mainstream, it’s not premium anymore.”
Forrester analyst David Johnson says, “Apple has proven that people will pay a premium for style, but only time will tell if that magic can be applied to ultrabooks intended for Windows.”
Although ultrabooks are a response to consumer demand for more tablet-like computing experiences, they won’t be displacing the tablet at CES 2012. “I think ultrabooks and tablets will share dual billing,” Shim says of this year’s CES. “They offer kind of the same experience, so ultrabooks might be the headliner, but tablets are the next act.”
Forrester analyst David Johnson adds, “While the ultrabooks are thin, light and offer instant-on convenience, the tablet will still have a place in the computer bag for reading, reviewing documents, and informal discussions or presentations.”
As far as specs and features announced at next week’s CES, don’t expect any huge changes from the ultrabooks we’ve already seen. Your average ultrabook will have a 14-inch screen, Intel Core i5 processor, and between 128GB and 256GB of SSD storage.
“At this stage, it’s still hardware design and price competition. Who can get thinner, lighter,” Shim says. So, while we probably won’t see any one-pound ultrabooks this year, there are other ways an ultrabook might distinguish itself from the competition.
The Samsung Series 9 was one of the first Windows ultrabooks to launch. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired
Manufacturers could use more “exotic case materials and innovative designs,” Johnson says. Samsung’s Series 9, for example, is made of Duralumin alloy, a material that is also used in aircraft manufacture. Battery life, display quality and screen resolution are other areas that ultrabook makers can capitalize on.
Johnson hopes to see a few models built to AMD’s “Ultrathin” standards, potentially based on the company’s new Brazos platform Christian Louboutin Bags and Radeon HD 7000 graphics. Though, of course, lacking Intel silicon, these models won’t really be dictionary-definition ultrabooks.
“Ultimately, the real value will be when you complement that with software, and Windows 8 will help with that,” Shim says.
Windows 8 won’t be shipping until mid-2012 at the earliest. This means ultrabooks won’t really begin to shine until later this year and early next year — we’re just in the “build-up phase” right now, Shim says.
Johnson says Intel’s 22nm Ivy Bridge processors will drive a new crop of Ultrabooks towards the middle of 2012. We could also see “retina”-quality displays up to 2880×1800 resolution arriving toward the end of the year. Other updates to expect: higher-capacity Lithium-Polymer batteries and ever larger SSD capacities becoming available as new models are released.
Super thin and remarkably light, ultrabooks are expected from all the major PC manufacturers. Tablets aren’t going away by any means, but you can expect CES 2012 to be dominated by this emerging notebook category that’s being heavily pushed by Intel.
Intel, in fact, coined and trademarked ultrabook as a marketing term, using it to differentiate high-performance, ultra-portable, Intel-based notebooks from more mainstream, bottom-feeding notebooks and tablets. Apple proved to the world that this product category has legs via the success of its MacBook Air, and now Intel (and its partners) want a piece of the action too.
Intel says that to qualify as an ultrabook, a notebook must meet stringent criteria: It must weigh no more than 3.1 lbs, be no more than 0.71 inches thick, and provide five-plus hours of battery life. Even more germane to the consumer experience, it must boast flash-based storage, and incorporate Intel’s Rapid Start Technology for speedy boot times.
At CES 2012, you can expect to see 30 to 50 ultrabook models from Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Asus and Lenovo, a few of which already have ultrabooks in their arsenals of shipping products. Most of next year’s ultrabooks will be in the $1,000 to $1,200 price range, and that’s a problem, according to Display Search analyst Richard Shim, who says these devices need to be priced around $699 to appeal to mainstream consumers.
“The challenge is that you’re trying to make a premium product mainstream,” Shim says. “It’s sort of an oxymoron, because as soon as it’s mainstream, it’s not premium anymore.”
Forrester analyst David Johnson says, “Apple has proven that people will pay a premium for style, but only time will tell if that magic can be applied to ultrabooks intended for Windows.”
Although ultrabooks are a response to consumer demand for more tablet-like computing experiences, they won’t be displacing the tablet at CES 2012. “I think ultrabooks and tablets will share dual billing,” Shim says of this year’s CES. “They offer kind of the same experience, so ultrabooks might be the headliner, but tablets are the next act.”
Forrester analyst David Johnson adds, “While the ultrabooks are thin, light and offer instant-on convenience, the tablet will still have a place in the computer bag for reading, reviewing documents, and informal discussions or presentations.”
As far as specs and features announced at next week’s CES, don’t expect any huge changes from the ultrabooks we’ve already seen. Your average ultrabook will have a 14-inch screen, Intel Core i5 processor, and between 128GB and 256GB of SSD storage.
“At this stage, it’s still hardware design and price competition. Who can get thinner, lighter,” Shim says. So, while we probably won’t see any one-pound ultrabooks this year, there are other ways an ultrabook might distinguish itself from the competition.
The Samsung Series 9 was one of the first Windows ultrabooks to launch. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired
Manufacturers could use more “exotic case materials and innovative designs,” Johnson says. Samsung’s Series 9, for example, is made of Duralumin alloy, a material that is also used in aircraft manufacture. Battery life, display quality and screen resolution are other areas that ultrabook makers can capitalize on.
Johnson hopes to see a few models built to AMD’s “Ultrathin” standards, potentially based on the company’s new Brazos platform Christian Louboutin Bags and Radeon HD 7000 graphics. Though, of course, lacking Intel silicon, these models won’t really be dictionary-definition ultrabooks.
“Ultimately, the real value will be when you complement that with software, and Windows 8 will help with that,” Shim says.
Windows 8 won’t be shipping until mid-2012 at the earliest. This means ultrabooks won’t really begin to shine until later this year and early next year — we’re just in the “build-up phase” right now, Shim says.
Johnson says Intel’s 22nm Ivy Bridge processors will drive a new crop of Ultrabooks towards the middle of 2012. We could also see “retina”-quality displays up to 2880×1800 resolution arriving toward the end of the year. Other updates to expect: higher-capacity Lithium-Polymer batteries and ever larger SSD capacities becoming available as new models are released.
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