Comments

1
Nobody going to post on the transgender community's Edith Windsor?

http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20140129…

Video: Flying Solo, A Transgender Widow Fights Discrimination

by Lambda Legal January 29, 2014
Lambda Legal represents Robina Asti, a 92-year-old transgender woman who was denied survivor benefits by the Social Security Administration (SSA) after her husband’s death. The agency denied her benefits after it determined that she was “legally male” at the time of their marriage despite all the legal documents to the contrary.

Dru Levasseur, Transgender Rights Project Director, said:
"Robina’s husband passed away over a year-and-a-half ago, and at 92 years old, she should not have to wait another day for the benefits to which she is entitled. The government has recognized Robina as a woman for over thirty years, including on her passport, FAA pilot’s license and her driver’s license. For the federal government to deny her survivor benefits now is inexplicable. This remarkable woman should not have had the grief of losing the love of her life compounded by the insult of having her gender and marriage disrespected..."
2
The Bubble Screen

The Seattle Seahawks offense (besides Lynch) is nothing more than mediocre. Due to this, their bread and butter offensively is the use of wide zone runs and shallow crossing routes to move the chains, both strategies which stretch out the defense. None of Seattle’s receivers are going to keep defensive coaches up at night, and Lynch is the only real ground threat they possess.

But football is a game of sums, not parts, so let us examine the bubble screen, and how Seattle uses it to their advantage.

The zone running game is all about stretching the defense horizontally across the field, creating lots of cutback lanes for a patient runner to find and hit. This is a great system for a runner like Lynch who has the power and vision to make one cut and go, as well as playing into the above average athleticism of Seattle’s offensive line.

However, their reliance on this style can make it easy for defenses to “cheat:” playing out of position in order to get a better jump or position on an expected play. If Lynch has been gashing your linebackers to the left all day, and looks to be running that way again, you may “cheat” over to the left in order to be in a better position.

Of course, this opens you up to “constraint” plays, or plays that are not part of the “core” plays a team runs. The bubble screen is a constraint play for the Seattle Seahawks. So if you catch a linebacker cheating to the left, you run a bubble screen to the right, making him pay for his impatience.

The bubble screen is a play in which a receiver lines up wide, but cuts back to the QB after the snap to catch a quick pass at the line. The other receivers will begin blocking immediately, and you want to pull a guard or two from your offensive line so he can get to the linebackers and lay down a block or two there as well. It is a quick gain kind of play where you hope to quickly put it in the hands of a fast player so he can gain quick yards. Seattle typically runs it with Golden Tate, who is probably their most athletic receiver (when Harvin is riding pine, anyway).

From this image, we see the basic lineup of the play:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/176983…

We see Tate lined up close to the QB for a quicker pass, and McCoy and Rice lined up as blockers. Tate almost immediately turns to catch the pass, and we can see Rice and McCoy immediately begin blocking:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/176984…

From this image we can see the “bubble” form as the pulling guard, Rice, and McCoy all establish their blocks, forming a pocket of space around Tate for him to work:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/176982…

You can see from the above image how the opposing defense only has three guys in a position to make the play at the line, each one with a blocker assigned. One extra defender can easily bust this play, and if it is expected before the snap, it never works. But Seattle has played outside of their core offensive set, and it caught the defense off guard for a 13 yard gain.

Here we can see what happens when the defense sniffs the play out:

http://i.minus.com/iNT5afEyAAGK2.gif

Right off the bat, Seattle is losing the play…the defense has one unblocked linebacker coming in, and one of the receivers has missed his block. However, Tate’s athleticism allows him to hurdle one would-be tackler, and somehow the other defender misses the tackle on a leaping, off balance Tate, which allows him to pick up a decent gain. Seattle got lucky on this one.

The bubble screen is all about quickly putting the ball in the hands of a dynamic playmaker with space in front of him. Expect to see Percy Harvin on the receiving end of several bubble screens in the upcoming Super Bowl (before he hurts himself and misses the rest of the game), since Harvin is exactly the type of player you want running this play.
3
That new bullet is horrific. I wonder if some hunters will argue that it is more humane because there's less of a chance of just wounding the animal and it runs away? Mercy!
4
It says the new bullet only does superficial damage to flesh. If that's true, could it be used as a less lethal alternative for self defense or law enforcement?
5
@4, no, it's the "ballistic fiber" strands holding the bullet fragments in proximity during flight that do only superficial damage—probably because they snap on impact, whereupon the ends whip the skin but then get pulled through the wounds made by the bullet ...lets like thread on a needle.
6
On the bright side, with a single pull of the trigger you have a 3X better chance of blinding/disfiguring/killing your teenager trying to sneak into the house in the wee hours!
7
Nothing about the disgusting display of anti-semitism in Paris? Seventeen thousand marchers spewing venom against Jews. Appalling. Why aren't leaders condemning this? Where's the new pope? This is the "history repeating" we never want to talk about.
8
FYI, Ukrainians usually object to "the Ukraine," as it connotes that the country is a region (eg. the Midwest, the Berkshires, the Midlands, etc.) rather than an independent country. Given Ukraine's history of occupation, colonization, and annexation by the Russians, Poles, Austrians, et al it's hard to blame them for feeling sensitive about it.
9
"The Ukraine" Fucking nails on the caulk board. It's Ukraine. The United Kingdom, The United States, and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were/are collective nouns. Ukraine, Uganda, Cananda- these are singlar nouns. You don't say "The Uganda".
10
it's not "the ukraine", jen, any more than "the france", "the norway", or "the seattle". enough with the ignorance already.
13
@3 It's not for hunting. The range would be terrible, with at least 5 times the aerodynamic drag of a conventional bullet, and the accuracy must be a joke. It's clearly intended for very short distances.

Gimmicky projectiles like this crop up regularly for marketing as self-defense ammo to people who want to turn a handgun into a magical shotgun. Expect this to fade into obscurity soon, as usual.

http://www.winchester.com/Products/New-P…

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011/…
14
@13 Chain shot has been around for hundreds of years.

It may also be that this "new" bullet is already illegal in Florida and Illinois, under their prohibitions against bolo rounds.
15
@14: I was about to mention bolo rounds too. They should be illegal everywhere, IMO.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.