En pleno esplendor de Hollywood donde cada película era deshuesada hasta el último punto y, en la mayoría de los casos,  finalmente desechadas por nimiedades surgió una productora capaz de imponerse a todo ello. Troma se convirtió desde 1974 en la esperanza para todos aquellos directores y actores decididos por un cine diferente, sin recursos, fuera de los lujos de los grandes estudios desde donde poder dirigir su carrera. En sus más de 30 años de lucha y con más de 200 películas en su haber, la productora ha pasado por todo tipo de etapas pero, en todo momento, su labor ha sido reconocida y admirada como pocas.

Todo barco necesita su patrón, en este caso dos, y en Troma se trataba de Lloyd Kaufman y Michael Herz, dos vidas paralelas que terminarán encontrándose. La historia de Kaufman comienza con su graduado en Yale, donde compartió pupitre con George W. Bush y Oliver Stone, y de cómo buscó la forma de que le produjesen su primera cinta, consiguiéndolo en el 69 con La chica que volvió. Tras ella tuvo que conformarse con pequeños trabajos en diversas películas, aunque algunas con enorme éxito como Rocky o Fiebre del sábado noche, lo que le llevó a reencontrarse con Herz. Y es que ambos se habían conocido en sus estudios en Yale, pero la mala relación que existía entre ambos hizo que el antiguo enemigo de Kaufman continuara sus estudios en Nueva York. Sin embargo el destino volvió a reunir a ambos en la película Cry ¡Tío!, quedando impresionados ambos con las cualidades del otro, y decidiéndose a fundar Troma.

La idea inicial era la producción y dirección de películas cómicas adolescentes de bajo presupuesto, algo que pronto fue desechado por el poco marco creativo que estos formatos permitían. Sólo un año después de su fundación, la productora crea la cinta que más éxito le daría, la que es su mascota oficial y la representación de su idea en todo el mundo: El Vengador Tóxico. Considerada como una obra maestra, tiene incluso su versión musical en el teatro, se rodaron acto seguido dos secuelas que no tuvieron ni mucho menos el éxito que la original, aunque sí contaron con gran repercusión.

Troma estaba en la cúspide y Kaufman y Herz decidieron cambiar el rumbo para adaptarse a un nuevo modelo de películas mucho más reivindicativo y de mayor presupuesto, como Troma’s War, y alejadas del gore. El mayor error de los antiguos estudiantes de Yale. Con un estado casi de quiebra, la productora tuvo que reinventarse en una empresa mucho más pequeña, de nuevo en la labor de acoger todo tipo ese cine independiente que le había llevado al éxito. El año 1995 marcó el nuevo devenir de la compañía con un ritmo de cintas mucho menor, editadas la mayoría directamente en DVD, y de bajas pretensiones.

A pesar de su incierto futuro su actividad continúa más allá de la producción. De las numerosas convenciones que da por todos Estados Unidos, destaca la celebración del Festival anual Tromadance. A la par que el famoso Sudance se celebra el de Troma, un lugar en el que se reivindica el que es, según su firme punto de vista, el verdadero cine independiente. Y todo ello por medio de clases de cine de manos del propio Lloyd Kaufman y de un concurso de libre acceso por el cual las películas ganadoras son editadas en Dvd.

Los surfistas nazis deben morir, Mad Dog Morgan o Tromeo y Julieta son algunos de sus grandes títulos. La grandeza de Troma no reside en la calidad de sus películas o de sus protagonistas sino en la valentía que a lo largo de su historia ha demostrado y en cómo, con un cine menor como es considerado el de serie B, esta pequeña productora fue capaz de llegar a la altura del gran Hollywood.

When it comes to strategy, the world of sports provides plenty of examples of what not to do. Case in point: the Harvard-Yale football game last weekend. Harvard prevailed 14-10 due to one of the biggest strategic blunders in the history of sports. Leading the game 10-7 with only 2:25 left, Yale’s first-year coach Tom Williams decided not to punt the ball on fourth down with 22 yards to go from his own 26-yard line. Yale’s fake punt was unsuccessful and Harvard marched in to score the winning touchdown.

Afterward, many including the Chicago Tribune editorial board, came to his defense, saying it was the right move. Their arguments centered on statistical analyses showing higher probability for success not punting (79%) than punting (70%). What all the supporters failed to take into account is context. Context is the current situation, which in this case showed only 2:25 left on the clock and a fourth down with a long way to go.

Good strategists know that two of the most important tools at their disposal are distance and time. Review many military battles and you’ll see how great generals used distance and time to defeat their enemies. In the case of Yale, they should have used both by having their punter (the top-rated one in the Ivy League) create greater distance for Harvard to travel in a decreasing period of time. They failed to use either and it cost them the game. 

We evaluate strategy on how well it achieves our goals. Let’s assume Yale’s goal was to win the game. Coach William’s strategy of running the ball on fourth down and 22 yards to go failed in helping them reach their goal. The Chicago Tribune editor wrote: “Even if the gamble doesn’t always work, it will almost always be more fun than dutifully kicking the ball away.” This is akin to saying air travel will almost always be more exciting if you skydive from the plane without a parachute. Exciting, yes. Effective, no. This lack of critical thinking is shocking until we recall that this is the same editorial board that endorsed Rod Blagojevich for Illinois Governor…twice!

How are you using time and distance in your strategy to outperform the competition?  

The Ohio State v. Michigan game was this past weekend.  Although I am from Ohio, I had no idea that the name of this rivalry was called “The Game.”   This caught me off guard because my undergraduate’s rivalry game is also coined as “The Game.”   After learning this, I did my research on Wikipedia and discovered that the OSU v. Michigan and Yale v. Harvard are the only two football games that use the moniker “The Game.”

Since I have been able to take part in the weekend celebrations for both games, I decided it’d be interesting to examine the similarities and differences between the two different rivalries. 

Harvard v Yale “The Game”

• Early morning wake-up for tailgating.  Themed tailgates.
• Not important to wear school colors.  Classic tailgate look: polo shirts, faded jeans, Ray-Ban Wayfarers and a blazer.
• Everyone attends the game whether it is home or away.
• Student ID is free admission.  Game rarely sells out.  Yale Bowl seats 70,870.
• Recently lopsided series.  Yale has won only once since the year 2000… but they hold the all time series record 65-53-8.
• Little animosity between schools.  Joint Harvard- Yale tailgates.   Students offer to “host” the away team’s fans if people are looking for weekend housing. 
• Both sides follow the scores to the other rivalry games while tailgating. 
• Alumni from all over the country return for The Game since it is the main Fall reunion. 
• Win or lose it is always a good time.

OSU v Michigan “The Game” (note: I have never experienced a home OSU v. Michigan game)

• Early morning tailgate.  Real tailgates: burgers, beer, cornhole, football.
• Traditions: Mirror Lake jump – Absolutely insane event on Friday night.  Students jump into Mirror Lake despite freezing temperatures and ridiculously high ammonia levels.
• Wear school colors: preferably jerseys – specifically a James Laurinatis jersey.
• Not as many people travel to the away games.  No student housing provided by the home team.
• Student IDs are not free admission to the game.  Games are always sold out.  Tickets actually have a resale value.
• Recently lopsided series.  Michigan has won only once since the year 2000… but they hold the all time series record 57-43-6.
• No joint tailgates.  The two schools hate each other – don’t wear Scarlet and Gray in Ann Arbor.
• People actually watch the game.  The tailgate is simply a buildup to the game.
• You better win to have a good day… or even a good year.

 This year’s result:  Yale loses, OSU wins…  I’ll take it.

Before I left my husband July 4^th weekend, 1974, we had planned a three week vacation in Yugoslavia. I had been captivated by photos I’d seen of its mountains and the beauty of pre-war Dubrovnik. After I had moved out of our apartment, he called to ask if I was still going. I was incredulous – of course not. He wanted me to go with him anyway, but I refused, even when he said we couldn’t get our deposit money back.

I took very little when I left and selfishly left the rest for him to sort through and dispose of. It wasn’t my finest hour, and I knew then that it was unfair and self-centered. I have no justification. I believed I was running for my life, but I knew it looked irresponsible and heartless. I didn’t tell many people at Yale the truth as to why I left, because when I told my former boss she reacted very negatively. She was the one person I thought I could count on, but I was very wrong. A staunch feminist, she took what was then a common stand against homosexuality. Where I thought feminism set me free, she thought lesbianism tainted the fight for women’s rights.

One day in late July I was in the Provost’s office talking to her assistant, someone who didn’t reject me. I explained I had three weeks of vacation coming, but didn’t have anywhere to go or a lot of money. My husband had switched his plans around with the travel agency and went to England for a couple of weeks.

My friend told me she’d just read a letter to the editor of Ms Magazine about a women’s retreat in upstate New York. She got the magazine out, and read the letter to me. The place was in Paradox, New York, and offered a place for women to go who were re-assessing their lives. That sounded like me.

We got out a map, found the town, a tiny dot outside Schroon Lake, and I copied down the address. That night I wrote the woman a letter, explaining my situation and asking what the rates were. I told her when I would be coming – I decided to go for one week since I didn’t know anything about the place or the woman running it – and a week later received a reply. She gave me the sliding scale rates and told me to call when I arrived in Schroon Lake on Sunday, August 4, 1974.

My friend Mary helped me shop for a couple of new outfits, appropriate to a less formal lifestyle. No more hose or heels for me. She told me I had to have a denim shirt. All lesbians had denim shirts, and I couldn’t be without one. I also bought a pair of burnt orange brushed velvet jeans – remember, this was 1974 – and a pair of dark brown suede boots with gum soles.

I read incessantly, but came to hate evenings and weekends because I was so incredibly lonely. Mary spent weekends and evenings with her girlfriend. I walked around the University, often through areas of New Haven that weren’t really safe, but I didn’t care. Every evening I rode my bicycle over to hear the carillon concerts at Harkness Tower. One Saturday, I rode up to the top of East Rock and back, a ten-mile trip, but I was reminded of climbs I’d made with my husband up West Rock. I was restless and anxious, waiting for the trip to New York.

The bus left New Haven at 9:15am, and Mary came down to see me off. I was more than a little annoyed when she teased me about falling for someone during the week. Neither of us knew that the trip would change my life. The bus stopped in Springfield, MA, then on to Albany, NY, where I changed for the trip up I-87, the Northway. I dozed off and on, read a book I’d brought, and wondered what I’d find at the end of the five hour ride.

A teenage girl got on in Lake George and sat next to me. She babbled quite a bit about a church group or camp located in Schroon Lake and asked if I was part of that. I assured her I was not and asked about the woman’s retreat, but she had never heard of one in the area. That made me somewhat uneasy.

When I got off in Schroon Lake, I felt I was looking at a postcard. The majestic Adirondack Mountains soared around me. A road next to a white church ran down to a beautiful deep blue lake. From my bus companion, I knew that Schroon Lake was where the movie “Marjorie Morningstar” had been filmed. The lake was dotted with white sails and the sandy beach covered with people in brightly colored swimsuits.

I took my pack and guitar and sat on the hill in front of the church. No one was there to meet me. I felt very small.

©2009 jgschenck

Take What Is Yours – a reading
we welcome you to a reading of:

Take What Is Yours
a solo play inspired by the prison days of American suffragist Alice Paul

created and performed by Erica Berg
directed by Sarna Lapine

Monday, December 7, 2009
7:00PM
at New Georges The Room
520 Eighth Avenue (between 36th and 37th Street)
Suite 326 (3rd Floor)

R.S.V.P. is requested.

The script is composed entirely from original source material, and exposes the opposition Alice Paul and her followers faced as they lobbied, demonstrated, served jail time, went on hunger-strike, and endured the torture of forced-feedings. Take What Is Yours tells the remarkable story of Alice’s dedication, passion and devotion that got American women the right to vote in 1919.

Take What Is Yours has received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Naropa University, New York Theatre Workshop (where it had its first reading), and is currently in development supported by New Georges. Berg’s last solo play, A Girl Joan, (hailed an “exquisite work of art”) was originally commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop in NYC and subsequently performed at The Culture Project, HERE Theatre, and New York Theatre Workshop.

Teetering and tottering, I arrived at Gate 11.  Through the dimly lit tunnel to the stadium, I saw blue-sweatered men and women jumping up and down, waving banners and pompoms, and yelling unrecognizable phrases, perhaps just a string of swears.  I pushed my way through the crowd formed at the entrance.  I could feel my head pounding, throbbing from the roars of intoxicated fans and dissatisfied coaches… or perhaps the half bottle of alcohol I consumed prior to arriving at the stadium.  Either way, my head was pounding… and so were the walls, floors, and any other concrete around me.  After avoiding drunkards staggering in the tunnel, I stood with full view of the stadium.  Was it that my eyes were blurry or could I really be seeing what I was seeing?  The stadium was packed… and a sea of blue engulfing the sporadic sprinkle of crimson red.  This was the annual Yale-Harvard football game, otherwise known as “The Game”. 

This year, The Game was held at Yale, hence blue dominating red.  And, as expected, everyone (and I mean, EVERYONE) was totally DRUNK!  Alumni ranging 35-60+ years old joked with their buddies over cups of beer.  The ones just a few years removed from college reenacted their college days by stumbling about the tailgates plastered.  And, the ones still in college… well, let’s just say, they were a jumble mess of drunken debauchery.

The whole event is fun, but if you ever go to Yale for The Game, you must do 3 things:

1. Tailgate
2. Have a burrito at the Burrito Cart
3. Go to Toad’s

What are tailgates, you ask?  One of the most exciting parts of going to an Ivy League football game.  (I mean, let’s be honest, they’re Ive-Leaguers…)  Before every game, but especially for The Game, residential colleges, frat and sorority houses, clubs and organizations from both schools gather with their U-Hauls outside of the stadium.  When held at Yale, each truck harbors half-a-dozen kegs, alcohol-infused fruits, hot cocoa mixed with Everclear, burgers, hot-dogs and other picnic goodies.  Starting at 7am, the trucks arrive with their treasures hidden from the eyes of the inspectors (of course, everyone, including the po-pos, understands that no one can keep out alky from the Yale tailgate, and thus turn a blind eye).  Once settled in their spots, the college students, frat bros and sorority sisters, club and organization reps all hang their banners high and mighty because part of this was a competition to see which U-Haul could attract the most drunken people.  Around 8am, the rest of campus plus all the alumni from the young twenty-somethings to the old sixty-somethings arrive to get the party started.  Remember, kickoff usually doesn’t start until noon.  So, for a good 4 hours, people are partying up a snowstorm outside the stadium.  By noon, everyone is drunk and ready to create a caucus at the game. 

Of course, after a whole day of drinking, everyone ends up starving.  The burgers and hot-dogs can barely contain a drunkard’s hunger.  Thus, everyone moves back to Yale campus for dinner.  You have your cheap but tasty Thai food, super cheap Chinese food, cook-as-you-order burgers, diner-type places, etc.  But no place, I mean, NO PLACE, beats the deliciously satisfying burrito from the Burrito Cart.  It is literally a cart standing outside Elm and York.  For $6, you get a large, expertly wrapped burrito full of marinated veggies, guac, sour cream, hot sauce and meat.  The taste is very distinct.  (After living in NYC for the past 3 years and getting burritos every chance I get, I still have yet to find a burrito as delectable as the burrito from the Burrito Cart!)  When I tasted the soft tortilla wrapped around the fresh and lightly marinated veggies mixed with the hot and tender carnitas, I was in food heaven!  Unfortunately, no verbal description of the burrito will do it justice.  That burrito has to be tasted and enjoyed.  Yes, it is THAT good!

Normally, after filling the stomach with food, most young alumni and college kids roll back to their dorms / hotels / crash pads, etc. for a mid-evening nap before embarking on a crazy night of fun (and skeeziness).  The skeeziness occurs at Toad’s, the only bar/night club in New Haven that regularly houses partying students. The club opens Wednesdays and Saturdays, and trust me, it is ALWAYS full.  The seniors usually go on Wednesdays, since no one goes to class anymore, and the underclassmen sneak in on Saturdays.  For this particular Saturday, the place is packed with people of all ages: college students who are barely (if at all) legal, alumni in their mid-twenties to early thirties, grad school students from both schools, and even townies.  They all gather in the dark and dirty room, looking and oftentimes succeeding in finding a hook-up for the night.  Each time you exit the premises, you immediately want to shower away all the griminess from the sleazy people in the club as well as the cups of alcohol accidentally thrown on you by drunk people.  You might think that you’ll never go back… but you always end up there.  That’s the beauty of Toad’s.

If you missed your chance this year, no worries, Yale will host it again in November 2011… so MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

I had to be satisfied with performing solo or with a group at college. Check out this group consisting of Sam Tsui and 5 Sam Tsui clones doing an awesome Michael Jackson medley, arranged and produced by Kurt Schneider. Both are Yale undergrads.

By David Roher

A program for The Game, from 1968. (the-game.org)

Harvard and Yale played their 126th football game (known around these parts simply as “The Game”) yesterday. We elected not to do a preview on the blog because the outcome was obviously a near certainty. However, it is worth looking at one play in The Game that drew a lot of scrutiny.

Up 10-7 in the 4th quarter but facing 4th and 22 on their own 25 yard line, Yale’s coach, Tom Williams, elected to call a fake-punt, direct-snap-reverse run, which gained them only 15 yards. The call elicited sporadic chants of “Bel-i-chick! Bel-i-chick!” from the Harvard cheering section, according to an anonymous source (fine, my roommate). Harvard went on to score a TD and win.

Compared to Belichick’s call, Williams’ is more difficult to statistically analyze for two reasons:

• To my knowledge, there is no model of win probability developed for college football, unlike the models developed for pro football.
• The play was a fake, so we can’t just look at Yale’s or any other school’s chances of gaining 22 yards based on other plays. It was a fundamentally different call based on game theory, so we would have to look only at punt fakes. Again, I don’t know if this exists in an already analyzable format.

The first problem isn’t that big of a deal, as the data from the NFL for a situation like this is probably a good enough model. But the second is very limiting. It only allows us to determine, at best, the necessary probability of a play in order to justify going for it (rather than taking the actual probability of the play itself into account).

Here’s a chart from Football Commentary showing when to go for it on your own 20 yardline, close to Yale’s field position. If you’re up by three points with 3 minutes to go, the play must have at least a 72% chance of success in order for it to be the correct call. This chart likely assumes that a failure puts the ball on the original line of scrimmage, though. Given that the chart is already 5 yards off and the fact that a failure in this situation would probably result (and did) in a gain of yardage, it’s probably better to use this chart (from the 40), which gives a 65% standard.

All we can do from there is wonder whether the play had a 65% chance or better of succeeding. Given Yale’s strong punter, whose punts had netted an outstanding average of 37 yards, and their defense, which had allowed the fewest average points in the Ivy League, that number is likely higher contextually.

Williams might have thought that the play did have that kind of chance. He said after the game that they “had set that play up all year, and felt it was worth 22 yards.” That quote implies that he thought it would probably work, though. It had to have a significantly better chance than just >50% in order to have been the right call. I have trouble believing that any play, fake or not, could gain almost a quarter of the field seven out of ten times. While most controversial calls to go for it on 4th down, like Belichick’s, are usually correct, this one probably wasn’t, although we can’t be too confident about that until someone (HSAC?) develops both an open-source college football win probability formula and a solid analysis of fake plays.

On the other hand, going for it when down by three points results in a threshold of just 20%. Perhaps Williams was, like me, confused by the fact that his team was ahead at that point.

Edit: It looks like I’ve come to a very obvious conclusion, so let me at least say this: I think the above analysis shows that the play, while not the right decision, was not The Absolute Worst Coaching Decision Ever. The real problem is that we’ll never know how justified Tom Williams was in thinking that his trick play would work. I might venture, though, that the person who has the best guess is Tom Williams. I still think he made a bad call, but perhaps not as bad as the calls we see all the time to punt on fourth and short when losing in the fourth quarter.

I’ve been on a bit of a documentary kick lately. I’ve already talked about I.O.U.S.A. and I just finished Maxed Out, which takes on personal debt and the credit card companies as opposed to the national debt. Just like I.O.U.S.A. it serves as a wake-up call for financial responsibility. I first had this wake-up call after attending a Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace class about a year ago and I can’t stress enough how important is for the individual to maintain financial responsibility. Debt is crushing people out there so I suggest you take control before it comes down on you. One probem I had with Maxed Out is that they never told the consumer to take control of their finances. All the film did was points it’s finger at the big, bad credit card companies and debt collectors and while I agree that these companies take advantage of consumers, I also believe that these consumers have the opportunity to avoid a lot of this if only they would take financial responsibility and control

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room was another pretty fantastic film. It seems like between this one, I.O.U.S.A. and Maxed Out we cover governmental financial irresponsibility, corporate financial irresponsibility, and personal financial irresponsibility. So that makes for a nice trio. It’s a very interesting film and it leaves you with a pretty good understanding of why that company was destined to fail.

I also just recently saw Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Certainly an interesting little documentary about an extremely interesting football game. It’s wild how many people are mentioned as being associated with the team, who went on to become quite famous. People like George W. Bush, Al Gore, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Garry Trudeau. I also was very impressed to learn about Brian Dowling. Dowling was the inspiration for B.D. in Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic and up to the point of that tie, there had not been a game in which Dowling had started and finished and been on the losing team since the 7th grade. That is just amazing. I do not know how he fared collegiately from a W-L standpoint after the Harvard game, but that’s a remarkable feat. He didn’t fare too well in the NFL though.

I also just watched Super High Me, which chronicles comedian Doug Benson’s “investigation” into the affects of marijuana on the human body and mind. Inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, Benson takes it on himself to not smoke marijuana for 30 days while undergoing a litany of tests. Then he follows that up with 30 days where he smokes so much that he’s high during pretty much every waking hour. I think he could have done more in the way of medical testing. I exaggerated when I used the term “litany”. There is also a point where the DEA is raiding and shutting down medicinal marijuana dispensaries and I believe he should have done more to show the legality of those actions. Yes, the filmmaker did point out it was legal with a quick message on the screen, but no one ever dared argue with the protesters who were acting so offended or even ask those tough questions to play devil’s advocate and inspire the protesters to choose their words wisely. At one point you hear a protester yell (Or maybe this is a combination of two quotes) “The DEA isn’t doing their job! Their job is to stay out of California!” …uhhh, how remarkably stupid is that? That is the DEA’s job? Well why isn’t someone paying me? I’ve stayed out of California my whole life. In this film we also see Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt (of Big Fan fame), Dave Navarro, and the apparent Prince of Pot, Marc Emery. (Who knew?)

So do I feel more educated? Well, I dunno. I certainly prefer the classroom. Not in the sense that it’s more enjoyable, or easier to have a conversation about. But in the sense that if you take a class on a topic you should leave it with a pretty solid foundation of knowledge. These films are great for digging that hole for you to pour that foundation, but they are not a foundation. For one they are almost always biased. Maybe the bias is subtle (I.O.U.S.A.) or maybe the bias is obvious (Super High Me). Either way it exists. Yes, I’m sure it exists in the classroom also, but in the class room you spend much more time on the topics, also you are usually sent out to write things like research papers, which encourage you to do your own fact finding. This leads to a more rounded informational intake. Which in itself is probably the main reason the class room is a better way to learn. The breadth of information is much wider. That can’t even be denied so I’m not gonna to even explain myself.

I have another batch of documentaries lined up to watch so maybe in a couple weeks I’ll be doing this again. I don’t see why not. I would suggest all of these if you have plenty of time. It just turns out that the way I ordered them in this blog is probably the same order I’d suggest watching them.

A nice thanksgiving themed cover on this Harvard v. Yale football program from their meetin on November 21, 1941.

website of collectableivy.com

(L’Orient le Jour)

Le Liban est arrivé en 92e position sur 216 pays dans le classement établi par les universités de Columbia et de Yale.

Le Liban est arrivé en 92e position sur 216 pays dans le classement basé sur l’indicateur 2009 de gestion des ressources naturelles dans le monde, 23e sur 30 pays à revenu intermédiaire (UMIC) et 8e sur 17 pays de la région Moyen-Orient-Afrique du Nord (MENA).

Conjointement effectué par les universités de Columbia et Yale aux États-Unis, et repris par le bulletin économique hebdomadaire de la Byblos Bank, Lebanon This Week, le classement s’est servi de l’indicateur de gestion des ressources naturelles dans le monde comme critère d’évaluation, mesurant ainsi les politiques économiques d’un pays axées sur la promotion d’une gestion durable de ses ressources naturelles.

Le but de cette démarche est de refléter le degré d’investissement d’un gouvernement afin d’augmenter la croissance économique, de réduire la pauvreté et d’améliorer la gestion des ressources naturelles. L’indicateur se base de ce fait sur quatre sous-indicateurs couvrant la protection écorégionale, l’accès à une eau plus propre, l’accès à une meilleure hygiène en plus de la mortalité infantile. Chaque catégorie est notée sur une échelle allant de zéro à 100 ; l’indicateur global ne représentant que la simple somme de ces quatre sous-indicateurs.

Le Liban a ainsi obtenu une note globale de 75,4 points qui est inférieure à la moyenne du classement mondial et des pays à revenu intermédiaire qui sont de 75,7 et 85,1 points respectivement. La notation du Liban est toutefois supérieure à la moyenne du classement régional et à celle des pays arabes, qui s’élèvent à 74,2 et 72,1 points respectivement. Notons que Le Liban était en 57e position au classement mondial de 2008 contre la 92e cette année, ce qui représente un glissement important de 35 échelons sur un an (moins 14,1 %).

À l’échelle mondiale, le Liban a devancé la Mongolie, la Polynésie française et le Zimbabwe, mais est arrivé derrière le Nicaragua, le Malawi et la Yougoslavie. Au classement des pays à revenu intermédiaire, le Liban a fourni une meilleure performance que la Turquie et l’Uruguay, mais a été devancé par la Grenade et la Roumanie.

En se basant sur les quatre sous-indicateurs précités, il apparaît que le Liban a partagé la meilleure note avec le Canada, la France, la Suisse ou encore le Japon pour l’accès à l’eau propre, devançant ainsi les États-Unis. Au niveau du classement selon le sous-indicateur de mortalité infantile, le Liban est en meilleure position que le Sri Lanka ou les Philippines, mais derrière le Vietnam et la Thaïlande. Il a également obtenu une meilleure note que l’Afghanistan ou la Bosnie-Herzégovine concernant la protection écorégionale, mais sa performance a été surpassée par celle de l’Irlande, la Mauritanie et la Somalie.

I like this team.  They’re certainly not perfect and still have some aspects to improve upon but they are finding ways to win and more importantly they are not giving up even when they go down late.  Tonight they pretty much dominated play for most of the game yet a combination of too many penalties and some bad turnovers in their zone resulted in a 2-3 deficit during the third period.  But T.J. Syner, who was a ball of energy all over the ice tonight, was able to tie it up and send it to overtime where James Marcou scored the 4-3 game winner.

Toot shook up the lines quite a bit with Carzo and Syner’s return, choosing not to reunite T.J. on the first line with Marcou and Casey Wellman but instead putting Brian Keane there and putting Carzo and Syner together with David Boehm.  It worked.  That line was everywhere tonight and Syner himself was able to get a number of opportunities on breakaways or near breakaways.  The first line played well obviously as well accounting for two goals.  Mike Marcou continues his impressive development.  He’s really starting to get a knack for knowing when to jump into a play, when to shoot, etc.  Dan Meyers got the surprise start in net and played pretty well.  He seemed to be fighting the puck a bit throughout the night but it’s hard to fault him for the goals.  The first was a tough shot that came straight off a faceoff, the second was a Yale power play, and the third was a complete defensive breakdown.  Overall he certainly did well enough to keep UMass in the game.

Yale was a better team than I expected.  Every time UMass made a mistake they were right there to do their best to capitalize upon it.  The forwards were pretty tenacious and the defense was solid.  Nick Maricic looked pretty good in net and with help from his defense was able to stifle a lot of quality chances that UMass had through the game.  It was close, probably a little too close, but in the end I’ll take an OT win over a top ten team on their ice any time.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – James Marcou
An assist and the game winner, can’t argue against that, even if it was in off a Yalie.  All that despite getting roughed up a bit as the Yale defense was certainly locked in on trying to shut him down.  It didn’t work.  Syner was a close second for the award with his all out play.

Δ

Here’s a recap from Inside Hockey and one from the Daily Collegian as well.

The Republican has a recap as well as a feature on the team by Ron Chimelis.  Oddly Ron talks about T.J. Syner being a local product on the squad without mention Kevin Czepiel whose hometown of Holyoke is actually closer to campus.

Ok, that’s it for tonight as I’m pretty drained after a long day of driving, watching hockey, and enjoying a very good drinking establishment that will be making it onto the road trip page in the next couple days.  I apologize for any major spelling or grammatical errors but I am totally toast and need to get up to go to work in the morning.

#11 Massachusetts Minutemen 7-2-0, (Hockey East 4-2-0 1st)
at
#9 Yale Bulldogs 2-1-2, (ECAC 1-1-2 T-7th)

Yale Bulldogs Official Site

Just how good is UMass?  Just how good is Yale?  Surely these are two questions being kicked around the college hockey community.  UMass is a team that was not picked to do much this year yet they find themselves at 7-2-0 to begin the year and atop the Hockey East standings.  Yale on the other hand was picked 8th in the preseason poll coming off their conference title last year, gained some traction despite not playing, and has struggled a bit to start the year.  Will the real contender please stand up?

Let’s just cut to the chase, Yale will most likely be as good as their goalie.  They rode senior Alex Richards to their NCAA berth last year and despite some other talented players they’ll have a tough time repeated that success without someone solid in net.  The Bulldogs have four goaltenders on the roster but to date have only used junior Ryan Rondeau and freshman Nick Maricic.  Maricic has put up decent numbers so far, 2.40 GAA in two games, which is surprising because he did not really impress last year in the USHL.  Rondeau has been ok with a GAA of 3.28 and save percentage just about .900.  Certainly if UMass can take advantage of the uncertainty in net it would serve them well.

Offensively Yale has looked pretty good.  Junior forward Broc Little has scored a goal a game thus far while sophomore Brian O’Neil has 7 points in Yale’s 5 games.  Thomas Dignard leads a defense that lost no one of consequence from their squad last year.

Yale’s power play to this point has been a very dismal 11.5%, only scoring 3 times on 26 chances.  Their penalty kill is also near the bottom of the pack for the ECAC at 76.2% but thus far they’ve taken very few penalties, even compared to the other shortened season Ivies.

On the UMass side of things the good news is that according to the Gazette, Toot expects to be completely healthy for this game as T.J. Syner and Rocco Carzo will be returning.  The bad news is that teams are wary enough of the team’s strong power play to do their best to stay out of the box.  Both Niagara and UNH did a pretty good job of taking a minimal amount of penalties and make the Minutemen play 5 on 5.  This will likely continue tonight since as mentioned Yale is the least penalized team in the ECAC.  That means the team will really have to work to overcome some of the even strength struggles and miscommunication that was apparent in the UNH series.  Hopefully the return of Syner and Carzo will help in that regard.

This is certainly quite an opportunity for the Minutemen to knock off a top 10 team in their own barn and legitimize the fast start they’ve gotten off to this season.  Speaking of barns I’m very much looking forward to my first trip to The Whale, one of the more storied arenas in college hockey.  Let’s hope the Minutemen make it a good memory.

Δ

The Daily Collegian has a preview of tonight’s game as well as a sidebar with notes on Boehm, even strength play, and polls.

Δ

Don’t forget to check out the Fear The Triangle twitter page as I’ll be posting updates during the game.

Caldwell had a cup with these mugs in '32

Who was Bruce Caldwell ?  That’s what I was asking, and am now asking.

The Southern New England Chapter of S.A.B.R. has collectively undertaken a book chronicling every MLB Player born in Rhode Island.  SABR members can take a crack at writing a chapter on a player.

I wanted to participate.  I didn’t want to be presumptuous and ask for a status guy like Napoleon LaJoie or Gabby Hartnett.

I intentionally chose a no-name.  A fellow named Bruce Caldwell.

How much more obscure could a ballplayer be than Bruce Caldwell ?  I never heard of him.  His MLB career was less than a cup of coffee.  He batted .184 in 45 plate appearances for the ‘28 Indians and the ‘32 Dodgers.  I thought there wasn’t much of a story to tell.

Wrong.  At one point, he was national news — before he even played pro ball.

Caldwell of the Diamond

Caldwell was a major success in the minors from 1929 to 1932.  Over 4 year minor league seasons, he logged a .356 BA and a .629 Slugging Average –  an O.P.S. of .984.

Let’s go backwards in time.

In 1932, he faded from pro baseball, choosing to attend Yale Law School after splitting the season between  Hartford & Harrisburg while notching a .301 BA for the year.

In 1931, He won the Eastern League Triple Crown with the New Haven Profs, leading the EL with a .356 BA, 38 HR, 130 RBI – and — 327 TB !  A quadruple crown.

In 1930, he batted .380 and .333 in a season split between Albany (A) and Minneapolis (AA).

While in Albany, he had the pleasure of playing with Billy Werber, a doubles-and-speed guy who went on to receive NL MVP votes in 4 seasons, and played in the 1939 & 1940 World Series for the Reds.

In 1929, with New Haven, he batted .366 with a .661 slugging average, playing with Jim Weaver, who would go on to lead the NL in shutouts in 1935, and Cliff Bolton, who batted Hubbell in the ’33 World Series as a Senator.

And in 1928……Before he ever played an inning in the minors, he made his MLB debut for the Cleveland on June 30, 1928, pinch hitting for Dutch Revsen and striking out in a 6-2 loss to Lena Blackburne’s White Sox.

You might well ask how a rookie with no minor league experience jumped immediately to the Bigs and got in the box score with Mel Harder, Joe Sewell and Lew Fonseca ?

The answer to that question is:  Billy Evans.

7 days before he struck out in his debut against Chi Sox ace Tommy Thomas, Caldwell sent a telegram to Indians General manager, Billy Evans.

The AP wire story said…. “Billy Evans, general manager of the Cleveland Indians, announced tonight that he has received a telegram from Bruce Caldwell, versatile Yale Athlete, accepting terms of a contract to play for the Indians and expressing his intention of joining the club in Chicago in a few days.”

“Caldwell waited until today’s conclusion of the Yale-Harvard baseball game before taking the plunge into professionalism, Evans said, in order to remove all question of his eligibility to compete for his alma mater.”

“While his fielding is not sure, his coach ‘Smoky Joe’ Wood, ex Cleveland and Red Sox player, considers that he will be a batting rival of Rogers Hornsby within two years, Evans stated.”

Caldwell of Yale

Smokey Joe Wood was indeed Caldwell’s Baseball Coach when Bruce was a Yale undergrad (1925-1928).  And Caldwell was a fine collegiate Baseball player.

But Caldwell’s national fame stemmed from what he did on – and off — the Yale gridiron as the starting left halfback in his senior year, Fall of 1927.

He had come to Yale from Providence, the son of working class millworkers.  He was the only member of the backfield that did not Prep at a blue blooded private school.

He made himself fit in on the athletics fields and in the classrooms.

He turned the Georgia defense inside out in an unexpected 19-0 victory.

He made All American.

He was the star of the Yale team at a time when College Football in the East was near the pinnacle of Sport in America.

But he would be thrown off the Yale team halfway through his senior season when he was declared ineligible for playing a few freshman football games for Brown in 1924.

Caldwell’s own words describe the odyssey in this excerpt by the Hartford Times from an article he authored in the Dec. 2, 1938 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, titled, “After the Ball is Over”.

“Because of the chores involved in working my way, and a broken ankle at the outset of my junior year, I got a slow footed start.  But in my Senior year, the newspapers told me that my forward passing was phenomenal, my drop-kicking and punting superb.  I averaged 5.3 yards carrying the ball.

I was getting the same kind of publicity Albie Booth, Jay Berwanger, Larry Kelley, Clint Frank, Marsh Goldberg, Sid Luckman, Whizzer White and others were to enjoy later.  Particularly after the Army Game.

The year before, Army had defeated Yale 33 to 0.  The ’27 Army team was supposed to be even stronger.  The battle was billed as a duel between Harry Wilson, then playing his eighth year of college ball, and me.

With a bale of newspaper clippings under my bed back in my room, I enjoyed the pleasant knowledge that the eyes of 72,000 people were focused on my bright number 48.  As it happened, I managed to live up to even Tad Jones’ expectations.  Tackle Sid Quarrier, now a surgeon in Hartford, shifted out of the line trickily, became an eligible receiver, and caught one of my long heaves.

“I converted for the extra point.  Then, after enjoying a couple of nice runs, I kicked a 47-yard field goal.  We won 10 to 6.  That was the year Army trimmed Notre Dame and remained undefeated, except by the Bulldog.  The sportswriters turned cartwheels for my glorification.

A few weeks later, along came what looked like a bad break, but something that caused the publicity spotlight to play on me more brilliantly than ever.

In 1924, because I wouldn’t get a (Yale) scholarship…I had entered Brown University as a Freshman. I was cut from the Brown Freshman squad on the second day.

But when books threw some of the boys for losses, they took me back.  I played for short periods against Andover and Harvard seconds, but did nothing notable and wasn’t a regular.  The next year, 1924, I entered Yale, still a Freshman.

On Nov. 8 of my Senior year, I picked up a Providence Bulletin to discover that those few minutes of playing obscurity on the Brown freshman eleven were to make me a more talked about halfback than anything I had ever done in big games for Yale.

A reporter had written about my Brown record, and cited the Yale-Harvard-Princeton agreement not to use any player who had been a competitor on any other college football team.

I was barred from Yale football immediately.  A New York paper offered me $1,000 for the story of my life.  Press and public seemed to resent the technicality which had disqualified me.  The Yale A.A. broke a rule and awarded me a letter.  After the close of the season, Ashton, R.I. took a day off to celebrate Bruce Caldwell Day.

An American Hero

Mr. Caldwell is an American story.  He rose from the Rhode Island mill town of Ashton.  He was educated beyond his class at America’s most prestigious University, where he was a star athlete, and would later return to earn a Law degree.

He would go on to serve in the Navy during the War and earn the rank of Lt. Commander.  He would be a successful lawyer in private and public practice.  He would serve in Government as the Commissioner of the Hartford Housing Authority and lead a $10 Million slum redevelopment.

He never married.

He passed on Feb. 15, 1959.

One obituary said it was cancer.  Another one said it was pneumonia.

His Death certificate indicated liver disease.

My research isn’t done.  I’ve just scratched the surface.  Any living survivor of Bruce Caldwell or anyone with a connection to him can contact me at athomeatfenway@gmail.com.

by Jennifer Schonberger, for The Motley Fool, November 18, 2009.

One year after the government bailed out Wall Street, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) are awarding record billions in bonuses. Clearly, compensation practices are just as out of line now as they were before the financial crisis. But compensation is just one part of the larger issue of corporate governance weighing on companies across America.

According to Nell Minow, editor and co-founder of The Corporate Library, a research firm that focuses on corporate governance, agency costs and conflicts of interest are the inherent problems in corporate governance today.

“If you’re going to have a large, complex organization, and you’re going to take capital from people who are not going to be in the boardroom all the time, what can we do to ensure those directors are as vitally concerned with the long-term success of the organization? That’s what corporate governance is all about,” Minow said on a recent visit to Motley Fool headquarters…(continue reading)

Kroon Hall, Yale Forestry and Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect St

The Yale University endowment is valued at “only” $17 Billion, yet their March and June, 2009 SEC 13F Filing reported total stock investments of $62.7 Billion.

Rocky yelled “Boola-Boola” and rubbed his eyes. The obscene leverage shocked him, as did Yale’s September filing which reported investments of “only” $5.2 Billion.

How was this possible? Was this some sort of novel high-frequency trading strategy engineered by David Swensen in the Yale Investment Office? Or had a Harvard student hacked into Yale’s computer system (again)?

Alas, no — Yale’s Associate General Counsel issued a press release stating that there was a “defect” in their reporting program — which caused the March and June SEC filings to be wrong by a factor of 1,000!

Rocky wonders:

1) What would happen if the decimal points on his 2009 Tax Return “accidentally” move three places to the left? Would the IRS notice?

2) What would happen on a Yale economics final exam if a student’s answer is wrong by a factor of 1,000?

Here are the SEC filings for the green-eyeshade crowd:

Yale930
Yale530

This is my I’ve-Been-Working-On-a-Roman-Architecture-Paper-For-Hours face. I just can’t physically do it anymore. Anyone have any tips for how to pump out a paper I’m incredibly bored by? Or tips for how to stop procrastinating by reloading my Facbeook page every 30 seconds and taking pictures of myself on Photobooth?

See the sadness in my eyes??

Big Brother is watching you.

In Connecticut most arrests are made when the police show up on-site and make an immediate arrest.  In many states the other method would be by a grand jury indictment, but not Connecticut.  The second method here is where police ask a Superior Court Judge to approve an arrest warrant.

That’s how Raymond Clark was arrested.  New Haven police detective Scott Branfuhr applied to Judge Roland D. Fasano for approval of a warrant charging Clark with the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le.  The warrant had originally been sealed, but last week Judge Fasano approved its unsealing and it is a foreshadowing of what the state’s case against Clark will look like.

Clark appears in New Haven Court for arraignment

Like many modern murder cases, the case against Clark is circumstantial; there is no eyewitness or confession.  This case is highly dependant on scientific DNA evidence, analysis of blood, hairs and fibers found on clothing and other items to connect samples collected to the humans they belong to.

What is most striking about this case,  however,  is how dependent it is on two forms of electronic surveillance.  Clark and Le’s physical movements at the time surrounding the alleged murder were recorded on video cameras posted inside and outside of the Yale Animal Research Center located at 10 Amistad Street in New Haven.  Their movements around the interior rooms of the lab are documented by Clark and Le’s swiping of electronic key cards at interior doors as they moved around the rooms of the lab.

This double whammy of surveillance is noteworthy for a number of reasons.  The video surveillance shows the clothing Clark wore when he was in the building where police say he committed the murder.  That allows prosecutors to link the evidence of what they claim is Le’s blood found on the boots, for example, to be the boots actually worn by Clark during the commission of the crime.  The key card swipes not only place Clark and Le in the rooms where the evidence was found, but put them there at the important times.

How often are our whereabouts documented by electronic surveillance?  How often are our movements electronically traceable by our use of a host of the variety of modern day centralized cards we all use like credit cards, toll systems like E-Z Pass, commuter system cards like Metrocard; not to mention e-mails and text messages sent?

Video cameras are everywhere now, in office buildings, stores, parking garages and on street corners.  Our comings and goings are taped wherever we go.  The combination of the video and the key card evidence New Haven prosecutors have in the Clark case are law enforcement tools I did not have available to me when I was a state prosecutor in the late 1980’s and early 90’s.   That, combined with the other electronic footprints people leave behind,  are a significant change in how people’s movements will be proven in courtrooms across America.

And it is a sobering reminder that Big Brother is watching.  Act accordingly.

Some would like to know, what, when, where, and how Hustlers are made. Well in Hustlenomics we discuss the complete lifestyle of the hustler. In this particular segment we discuss some of the more traditional institutions of America’s go-getters. Normally our lessons would come from some more unorthodox form of education deriving from experience and personal observation. In this study we allow insight on elite universities for those that this information would be ideal. Our moms and dads would love for us to go to school get a good education, go to a four year college like, Howard, UCLA, University of Florida, or some other modest university. I intend to focus on where the world’s biggest ballers got their education. Not at all sleeping on the colleges mentioned or insinuated, this is just a way for the academically inclined to shoot a little higher on their education harpoon.

Harvard tops the list by spewing out 54 of the world’s top ballers. With the most billionaires sporting Harvard’s graduation garments this training ground for the mecca don is unmatched. Harvard has graduated billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, Sumner Redstone, David Rockefeller, Sr. and William Randolph Hearst III. Bill Gates is on the list of drop outs. Bill also holds the title of the richest man in the world, so even Harvard’s drop outs ball harder than other universities’ superlatives.

Running a not-so-close second is California’s Stanford University with 25 top go-getters. Alumni from this producer of fine business people include veteran ballers like Charles Schwab.

At 3rd place with 18 Billionaires that have graced the podium (down from 27 a year ago) the University of Pennsylvania is on the list.

Columbia University is pulling a close 4th place with 16 Billionaires on its roster tied with the world famous Yale University.

With all of this said. For the young wanna-be hustler coming up in middle school or highschool, these colleges can and will get you in the running for top notch hustling. Getting the A plus on your report card all the way down is a good start but still will not get you in to these elite institutions. Extracurricular activities, student organizations, public and community services, and taking on the most strenuous courses with the top grades and reviews is the way to go. Balling isn’t just on the street, but in the board rooms. Try running the world and not just your block. Build a network with some of Americas most affluent youth when attending these schools and stay connected. You want to make the top list on Hustlenomics? Then take my advice and make it easier for yourself or learn the hard way like most of the hustlers we highlight. It’s your decision and yours only. You are the architect of your own success or demise. Take responsibility and go get it!

Buffett!!!

The Yale Daily News reports that the number of early applications to Yale has dropped 5 percent from last years number. Admissions received 5,265 applications this year, down from a record 5,556 in 2008. Dean of undergraduate admissions Jeff Brenzel, declined speculation on the reasons for this dip.

“I think speculating about small fluctuations in year to year counts is pointless,” Brenzel said in an e-mail. He also noted that figures are still 6 percent higher than the in 2007, the first year Harvard and Princeton did not allow early admissions.

Last year, Yale admitted 13.4 percent of early applicants, a record low. Brenzel expects a similar rate for the class of 2014.

Good luck, y’all.

–Maria