Hail to the Redskins

The Washington Redskins officially start their season as camp begins Saturday. The  Redskins dipped into their glorious past this winter and signed Joe Gibbs to a five-year contract to return as head coach of the franchise he led to three Super Bowl victories. The decision by Gibbs, 63, to return to the Redskins' sideline after an 11-year absence was met with surprise around the National Football League and delight from the team's fans. He became a Washington sports icon by taking the Redskins to Super Bowl triumphs after the 1982, '87 and '91 seasons. But he retired from football after the 1992 season and settled into a less-stressful life centered on his family and his successful auto racing teams. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder attracted him back, however, with a recruiting effort that began just after Steve Spurrier resigned after last season's Redskin team went 5-9. Expectations are high for this year's Redskin team with the addition of  NFL Allstars Mark Brunell at Quarterback and Clinton Portis at Runningback. Hall of Famer Gibbs was known for his around-the-clock work schedule, his offensive wizardry and his ability to adjust on the move during games. He will have to demonstrate that the game didn't pass him by while he was away. Listed below is the 2004 Redskins schedule.

Preseason
Sat 8/14 Carolina 8:00 pm
Sat 8/21 at Miami 7:30 pm
Fri 8/27 at St. Louis 8:00 pm
Fri 9/3 Atlanta 7:00 pm
Regular Season
Sun 9/12 Tampa Bay 1:00 pm
Sun 9/19 at NY Giants 1:00 pm
Mon 9/27 Dallas 9:00 pm
Sun 10/3 at Cleveland 1:00 pm
Sun 10/10 Baltimore 8:30 pm
Sun 10/17 at Chicago 1:00 pm
Sun 10/24 bye week
Sun 10/31 Green Bay 1:00 pm
Sun 11/7 at Detroit 1:00 pm
Sun 11/14 Cincinnati 4:05 pm
Sun 11/21 at Philadelphia 4:15 pm
Sun 11/28 at Pittsburgh 1:00 pm
Sun 12/5 NY Giants 4:15 pm
Sun 12/12 Philadelphia 8:30 pm
Sat 12/18 at San Francisco 5:00 pm
Sun 12/26 at Dallas 4:15 pm
Sun 1/2 Minnesota 1:00 pm

Thinner and thinner

It seems like the trend is still to be as thin as possible. Some have gone too far. One being Brittany Murphy. She looks terrible in the ads I have seen for her new movie "Little Black Book". Here are two side by side pictures of her from 2000 and 2004.

There is an article on MSN Entertainment with pictures of some stars and how they looked "then" and "now". Some have actually gained weight back, including Calista Flockhart. See and read more here

Faster and faster

The Defense Department has agreed to buy a 2,944-processor IBM supercomputer for naval simulations, including war simulation and weather forecasting. The computer will be deployed at the Naval Oceanographic Office Major Shared Resource Center in Mississippi, IBM said. IBM did not disclose the exact financial terms of the deal but said it was valued in tens of millions of dollars. The supercomputer consists of 368 powerful computers connected together with a total of about 3,000 64-bit microprocessors made by IBM. The supercomputer would run on IBM's Unix operating system -- the AIX. The flagship system is a cluster of 386 eight-processor p655 machines, which use IBM's Power4+ processor and its AIX version of Unix, according to IBM. It also includes a 55-terabyte FastT storage system. The system, called Kraken, will perform at a peak speed of 20 teraflops, or 20 trillion mathematical operations per second. That means the supercomputer will be able to accomplish in just one second what it would take a person with a calculator 1.2 million years. IBM expects the computer to be ranked among the world's 10 fastest computers when the next list of the top 500 computers is released. IBM is several years into a campaign to topple Hewlett-Packard, the No. 1 company in the high-performance computing market. Big Blue has had some success, returning to the top spot in the Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers this June. The Top 500 list of fastest computers is compiled and published twice a year by Jack Dongarra from the University of Tennessee, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim (Germany). The fastest computer, according to the most recent list, was the Earth Simulator Center in Japan made by NEC Corp. The Navy office is an established supercomputer customer. In 2001, it purchased a Cray SV1ex for the task, and in 2002, added an IBM machine called Blue Ocean.
Read more... on supercomputers and... top 500 supercomputers

Lance is da man!!!

Lance Armstrong enjoyed an almost leisurely ride into Paris on Sunday, sipping champagne with teammates as he cruised to a sixth consecutive Tour de France victory. Armstrong became the first six-time winner in Tour history in dominating fashion, winning five stages and never facing a serious challenge. Read more... here

Andy's a Dick

In Andy Dick's MTV reality show, "The Assistant", The actor-comedian is searching for someone who wants to make it in the entertainment business. There are 12 young people hoping to be the one selected. The show is still being broadcast but filming is over and someone was selected as "the assistant". But word now comes out that Andy Dick is dating one of the contestants. It seems he gave his cell phone number to the group after the show was over. Well one of the girls called him to hang-out and now they have had a few dates.

Jessica Simpson a genius?

Playing a dim bulb has proved a very smart career move for Jessica Simpson, so we're stumped as to why the girl who made it big by asking if "Chicken-of -the Sea" is tuna or chicken is suddenly trying to convince the world she's brainy.

In the latest issue of Vanity Fair, Jessica Simpson's mom(Tina) proposes that Mrs. Nick Lachey's IQ is actually in the 160s - which would make her a genius. Maybe all those dumb questions and statements are just made for TV on her MTV "reality" show. Jessica insists she doesn't mind being called a ditz, since it usually works to her benefit. "Growing up I was always the blonde that everybody made fun of," she tells Vanity Fair, "and I just played into that, because that was how I got the guys. That's how I charmed people."

Top 10 things to do

MSN City Guide editors ranked these as the top 10 things to do in the US before you die. How many have you done?(or would you want to do?)

Wrigley Field- Chicago, Ill. Sip an Old Style and cheer on the Cubbies from the lively bleacher seats of this historic stadium.

Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, Calif. Walk across the bridge at sunrise; just don't forget your comfortable shoes for the two-mile trek.

Mardi Gras - New Orleans, La. Witness the revelry: Ride a Mardi Gras float on Fat Tuesday.

Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic - Austin, Texas Celebrate the U.S. of A. singing along to "Whiskey River" with Willie and 30,000 of his closest friends.

Tournament of Roses Rose Parade - Pasadena, Calif. Camp out on Colorado Boulevard on New Year's Eve and wake up to the sounds of a marching band.

Empire State Building - New York, NY Meet the love of your life at midnight atop New York's most romantic skyscraper, a la "An Affair to Remember" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

Pat's King of Steaks - Philadelphia, Pa. On a Saturday night at 2am, wait in line for a cheese steak at the birthplace of Philly's signature sandwich.

Pike Place Market - Seattle, Wash. Grab a latte at the flagship Starbucks and watch the beloved public market open for the day.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Indianapolis, Ind. Walk 16th Street the night before the Indianapolis 500--it's Mardi Gras, a bachelor party and an insane asylum rolled into one.

Wayne Newton - Las Vegas, Nev. After a 12-hour gambling binge at the Stardust, join a cult-like crowd of fans to hear the croonings of Mr. Las Vegas.

For the top 10 of 39 cities read this...

Tag 'em - track 'em

Japan school kids are to be taged with RFID chips. These RFID(Radio Frequency IDentification) chips will be put onto kids' schoolbags, name tags or clothing to track the kids' movements. Delata airlines is also planning to tag travelers luggage so it can be traced. And Walmart wants to tag all its high-cost products with tracking tags. Hey, what's next?? Tag your "mate" and keep track of where they go? And I thought call-phones imposed on our personal life.

Move over music down-loaders

Music is no longer the download of choice for Internet file swappers, according to a new study on online file sharing. Video(mainly movies) and software are now the most down-loaded media.

For the first time last year, music swapping on the Internet was outpaced by the copying of movies and other non-audio files, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD).

Across the OECD's 30 industrialized member countries, music accounted for 48.6 percent of files shared online, compared with 62.5 percent in 2002, according to excerpts of the report seen by The Associated Press.

Video accounted for 27 percent, up from 25.2 percent.

The findings will do little to reassure movie studios, which are worried that they will be the next victims of the ever speedier Internet connections and compression technologies on offer to consumers.

Online piracy through sites like Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus - which let computer users connect directly to one another to exchange files - has already been blamed for a five-year decline in CD sales that has hurt music labels.

A separate global study by the Motion Pictures Association found that about one in four Internet users had already downloaded a movie. Most said they would pirate more if they took less time to download.

Despite a growing number of paid-for services like Apple's music site iTunes, however, experts say the vast majority of file downloading is still unauthorized.

The biggest growth in downloading last year was in "other files"( neither music nor movies ) which almost doubled their share to about a quarter of all downloads. The category includes software and pornography.

Ancient Art of Letter Writing

According to an article on CNET, letter writing with a pen and paper is returning. The cause for the return to the "ancient art" is because of the increase in computer viruses, spam and other "high-tech communication obstacles". The author states that Bill Clinton wrote his 900 page book, "My Life" using pen and paper.

When was the last time you wrote a "pen and paper" letter to someone? I can't remember the last one I wrote or to whom. You can read the article ...here

Mud Day in Michigan

I missed this!!! Looks like it could have been a lot of fun. Well, they say a picture is worth a 1000 words so you be the judge.

Rule of Four

For Two Young Authors, a Happy Beginning
Friends' First Novel Has Become a Bestseller

By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 28, 2004; Page A01

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason grew up in Northern Virginia believing that books can change lives. With that in mind, they wrote a novel, "The Rule of Four," a mystery in which lives revolve around -- and are lost because of -- an ancient book. The novel is a smash. This weekend it moves to No. 5 on The Washington Post's fiction list. And yesterday it was the top seller at Amazon.com.

Turns out, the lifelong friends are onto something. Books can change lives. Theirs will be forever altered by the success of their first novel.

They got a taste of the new life Wednesday when they came home for a reading at Borders Books & Music at Baileys Crossroads. As the store filled with more than 200 people -- many old friends and teachers and family members -- the co-authors drank ice water in the cafe and talked about their long, strange trip to overnight literary stardom.

To keep them straight: Caldwell -- taller, glasses, light shirt -- grew up in Annandale, went to Princeton, lives in Newport News and has a fiancee. Thomason -- smaller, glasses-less, dark shirt -- grew up in Falls Church, went to Harvard, lives in New York and has a girlfriend.

They are both 28 years old, bright, soft-spoken, mannerly, complimentary of each other and somewhat shell-shocked by fame.

They met at Belvedere Elementary School in Falls Church circa 1984 and discovered they had a lot in common. They lived across Columbia Pike from each other. Caldwell was not allowed to cross the street by himself; Thomason was. They played together in Caldwell's room, which was in the basement. "We became fast friends," Caldwell said.

They played soccer on the same team, coached by Caldwell's father, Ray, and they co-wrote a play, "The Klutzy Kidnappers," in Marie Baglio's third-grade class. They went on to be classmates at Glasgow Intermediate School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Through the years they co-wrote other things, including song parodies and a speech Thomason delivered at their high school graduation.

"It was terrible," Caldwell said.

"We're interested in similar things in different ways," he said.

Thomason added, "We were never competitive."

They stayed in touch while in college. In the middle of their senior years they decided to write a novel together. "We didn't know what we were doing," Caldwell said.

The summer after graduation, they set up computers, side by side, in Caldwell's basement and began writing "The Rule of Four."

In the novel, a quartet of friends at Princeton sets out to break the code of the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (pronounced Hip-ner-AH-toe-MAHK-ee-a Poh-LIH-fill-lee), a wide-ranging and esoteric tome about love, architecture and a whole bunch of weird stuff, written in seven languages and published in 1499. They hope to discover an ancient treasure. Along the way there is murder and surprise.

Thomason and Caldwell thought they could finish the novel in three months. When fall rolled around, Caldwell took a job at McLean-based MicroStrategy, and Thomason went to medical school in New York. They also kept working on their book.

They would talk on the phone, long into the night, about what needed to be written next. They divided the labor. Each would write a draft based on the ideas. They exchanged revisions and critiques. "We definitely disagreed on things," Thomason said.

After working on it for more than two years, they found an agent who sent the manuscript out to publishers.

Nobody bit.

But one editor, Susan Kamil at Dial Press, met with the co-authors and made some suggestions. "We spent about a year addressing those concerns," Thomason said. "By the time we finished, our agent had retired."

They found another, Jennifer Joel, a classmate of Thomason's, who sent the book out to publishers once again. Dial bought the book in 2002 at auction for a reported $500,000.

Published this month, "The Rule of Four" is not as ambitious as "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, or as textured as "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco, but it has been compared to both.

The reviewer at Publishers Weekly wrote that it is more cerebral and better written than Brown's bestseller. But there's no doubt that Caldwell and Thomason are riding on Brown's codetails.

The reviewer for Booklist wrote that the authors "have made an impressive debut, a coming-of-age novel in the guise of a thriller, packed with history (real and invented) and intellectual excitement. But despite their command of language and arcana, the book occasionally betrays its origins as a post-college project."

It's a smart, safe book for booksellers to recommend to people who liked "The Da Vinci Code."

"The combination of history and mystery is very popular right now," said Lisa Greig, a marketing manager for Borders.

Another inspiration, the co-authors said, was "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt, also a mystery set on a privileged campus.

Caldwell and Thomason have been inspired by books their whole lives. "My parents were both avid readers," Caldwell said. "My earliest memories are of my mother reading aloud to me."

Thomason said his grandfather Robert Thomason, a longtime college counselor and English teacher at Sidwell Friends, was instrumental in his love of learning. "I used to go to his house," Thomason said, "and talk about books I had read."

The co-authors each read aloud from "The Rule of Four" at Borders. After Caldwell finished, he turned the microphone over to Thomason -- whom he called Dusty. Thomason read a scene about college life. Here's an excerpt: "Gil glances over at us and smiles. He's been pretending to study for an economics exam, but Breakfast at Tiffany's is on, and Gil has a thing for old films, especially ones with Audrey Hepburn. His advice to Charlie is simple: if you don't want to read the book, then rent the movie."

Then they took a few questions.

Someone asked if they were working on something new. They said yes and that it will be set in the present, but will hinge on a mystery of the past. Something, they said, that will be easier to pronounce than "Hypnerotomachia."

Thomason said he took a writing course from Jamaica Kincaid at Harvard. Caldwell said he learned to write by trial and error, and by buying every "How to Write" manual from the very Borders he was speaking in.

"I don't know what it would be like to write alone," Thomason said.

Their advice: Never give up.

Afterward, they sat side by side -- as they did when first writing the novel -- and signed copies.

Nearby, Thomason's parents greeted friends and relatives. Robert Thomason, Dustin's grandfather, smiled. In a seersucker jacket and tortoise-shell glasses, the white-haired man recalled reading drafts of the novel. "When an editor suggested a love interest," he said, "I said, 'Go for it!' "

Initially Thomason, 76, was concerned that the book would be too esoteric for most people because it is filled with literary arcana. But, he said, laughing, "I suppose that many just skip over it and look for the blood and what little sex is in it."

A couple of Thomason family friends, Stanley Horowitz and his wife, Carole Kitti, stopped to get some books signed and to snap a photograph.

Cameron Brent, 28, who works in marketing in Arlington, said she has known the co-authors since elementary school.

"They're very clever," she said. "They are witty young men. Always have been."

Killer CD

Forget Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and Velvet Revolver. The Killers debut album, Hot Fuss, is the "killer" album of the summer.. The Killers may even be the best band from America right now. The Killers are Brandon Flowers (voice/keyboard), David Keuning (guitar), Mark Stermer (bass), and Ronnie Vannucci (drums). The Killers met in Las Vegas two years ago, after Brandon left his previous band. Last summer they were playing shows in England. Now they are in big demand in the UK. After shows at Coachella, CMJ, and Weenie Roast, The Killers are starting to get notice in America.. Once you get past their name(don't know why they chose it) you realize that this band is going to be special. If you like "The Strokes" then you will probally like "The Killers". The two songs "Jenny" and "Midnight Show" are part of a murder trilogy(third song is not on the album). The song "All These Things That I've Done" has a gospel choir breakdown in the middle of the song. "Somebody Told Me" has already been a hit in the UK. All 11 songs are excellent and Brandon Flowers is an amazing songwriter and frontman. For a debut this album is great. Listen to "All These Things That I Have Done" and see if you agree. May take a few seconds to load, so be patient.

More Maria

WIMBLEDON (Reuters) - In defiance of menacing, black storm clouds and the most intimidating of champions, a glorious new Wimbledon era dawned on Saturday as 17-year-old Maria Sharapova donned the women's singles crown.
With the poise and grace of a super-model and the punch of a super-heavyweight, the Siberian teenager smashed twice-champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4, to become the first Russian to win a singles title at the All England Club.
The youngster could scarcely believe it. Dropping to her knees she held her head in her hands, striking a pose destined to become as iconoclastic as that of another ice-cool Wimbledon blond, Bjorn Borg. "Oh my God ... it's unreal ... it's unreal," she shrieked, tear tracks streaking her cheeks. "It's amazing really... it was always my dream but I never in a million years thought this would happen so quickly.
"I didn't think (about winning) but I kept believing in myself... I kept faith. It's just amazing. "To tell you the truth I don't know what happened in the match, what the tactics were or how I won. I was in my own little world out there."
In only her second visit to Wimbledon, Sharapova became the third youngest champion in the event's 120-year history.
She became the first 13th seed to win the title and only Monica Seles and Tracy Austin had won grand slam titles with less experience of top flight tennis.
Endless as the statistics are, they do not come close to illustrating the youngster's exploits over the last two weeks. To reach the final was extraordinary in itself. When she lined up opposite Serena Williams -- unbeaten at Wimbledon since 2001 -- nobody could have guessed what would happen.
The two players could hardly be more different. Sharapova is willowy to the point of scrawniness, yet to fill out her 6 ft frame. Her long, blonde hair swings behind her as she scampers around the court dressed in a simple white outfit.

MOTHER TONGUE

Fledgling fashionista Serena would, no doubt, have a term for it -- an LWD perhaps, in a twist on the ubiquitous LBD or Little Black Dress.
Where Sharapova is slight, Serena is a picture of unharnessed power. Her muscular physique is shown off to it's most impressive effect by her complex, self-designed outfits.
Eight centimeters shorter than the Russian, she has a lower center of gravity and uses it well, hammering the ball low from the baseline. They build them tough in Siberia, though, and despite Sharapova's frail, angelic appearance she has a fierce kick herself and began impressively, clattering groundstrokes away for winners.
She could hardly have been more at home had she been practicing on a local court near her new home in Florida as she peppered Serena's territory with winners.
She streaked into the lead as the Russian element of the crowd roared her on in her mother tongue -- "davaitye, Masha!" Sharapova responded in her adopted Floridian twang -- "C'mon." She got her first break after 12 minutes for 3-1 and another for 5-1. Serena looked to the heavens for help but could find none.
Scrapping and clawing like a wildcat, Serena fought to stay with Sharapova but the Russian beat her off, clinching the set on her fourth set point.

DARK CLOUDS

For once it was not the screech with which she accompanies each mighty swat of the ball which had the decibel monitors going off the scale but rather the roaring, cheering center court crowd thrilled by Sharapova's tennis.
Even the weather seemed enraptured by her play. The dark clouds which had threatened to wash out the women's final cleared, leaving a patch of blue above Center Court.
Serena needed a slice of luck and in the sixth game she looked to have got it, breaking Sharapova for the only time in the match for a 4-2 lead. Just as she looked to have turned a corner, if not the tide, Sharapova hit back breaking the champion immediately. A game later she was level.
Sharapova was unstoppable. Serena needed all her grit and heart just to stay in the match. She fought off three break points in the next game before succumbing on her fourth, slipping as she was about to strike the ball and sending a forehand wide.
Moments later the match was finished and along with it the Williams family's stranglehold on grand slam tennis. Serena's defeat leaves the Williams family without a grand slam singles title in the family for the first time since 1998.
"I'm definitely going to triple my efforts, do everything I can to play better next time," the six-times grand slam champion smiled. "I didn't play great and I didn't win. I put a lot of stress on myself. I think I put too much stress on myself going into it."

Sharapova wins Wimbledon!!!

WIMBLEDON (Reuters) - Teenager Maria Sharapova stunned champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday to become the first Russian to win a singles title at the championships.

The 17-year-old also became only the second Russian woman to win a grand slam title, less than a month after Anastasia Myskina became the first at Roland Garros.

In the Open era, only Martina Hingis (news) was younger than Sharapova when she won the women's singles title. The Swiss was 16 when she beat Jana Novotna in 1997.

Playing in her first grand slam final, Sharapova showed no early nerves and drew first blood by breaking the defending champion's serve to lead 3-1 after Serena ballooned a backhand long.

Serena, 22, was seeking her third successive Wimbledon singles crown but was unable to cope with the brute force of the 17-year-old's groundstrokes.

Sharapova broke again for 5-1 with a searing backhand winner and kept her composure to take the first set on her fourth set point when Serena netted a forehand service return.

The 13th seed maintained her momentum at the start of the second set and a shell-shocked Serena was struck on the nose by the ball after one particularly venomous groundstroke from the Siberian.

With both players troubled by the gusty wind, Serena thought she had wrested away the initiative when she broke for 4-2 but Sharapova defiantly broke straight back.

In a epic ninth game, Serena grittily saved three set points but Sharapova secured the decisive break when the American slipped and hooked a forehand out.

The fearless Russian then completed an astonishing victory on her second match point when Serena netted a forehand and she greeted her triumph by collapsing to her knees in tears in disbelief.

Sharapova's victory is the first for a non-American in the women's final since Czech Novotna in 1998, which is also the last year neither Venus or Serena held one of the four grand slam titles between them.

 

 

Finals anyone?

OK, so Serena Williams beat the French woman and is in the finals of Wimbledon. But, so is Maria Sharapova who beat Lindsay Davenport today. Maria is only 17 and is the second youngest to reach the Wimbledon finals. Can't wait to watch the match on Saturday. Serena will be a heavy favorite to win her third Wimbledon in a row, but I would not count Maria out of this. She is that good and if she is not awed to be in the final than it could be a great match.

Britney marrying for love

Spears: Marrying for Love

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- This time, she's marrying for love, Britney Spears said of her recent engagement to dancer Kevin Federline.

"Marrying Kevin was the last thing I was thinking about doing," Spears tells People magazine in its July 12 issue. "But then I said, `You know what? This is my life and I don't care what people think. I'm going to get married. I'm in love with him.'"

Spears, 22, and Federline, 26, began dating a few months ago, after her Las Vegas wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander in January.

That marriage was annulled 55 hours later.

Of the quickie Vegas ceremony, "That thing was a total ugh," she says. "I was not in love at all."

This is different, says Spears, who's wearing a five-carat diamond set atop two slender platinum, diamond-encrusted bands on her left finger.

Federline popped the question on an airplane while flying with Spears from Ireland to New York after the European leg of her tour. "I'd known for a while that she's the one," he says.

"I kissed a bunch of frogs and finally found my prince," says Spears. "I feel like I've found my happily ever after."

Federline, who performed as a backup dancer for Justin Timberlake, Spears' former boyfriend, previously was involved with Shar Jackson, star of TV's "Moesha." They have a 2-year-old daughter and are expecting another baby.

"I plan to meet his daughter," Spears says. "I love little ones. I think the situation is good."

The singer says she wants children of her own someday. "I'm not pregnant. (But) I definitely want to have some kids. I see myself with four or five."

She adds: "We're starting with a dog. I just got a Maltese named Lacy."