John Farrell Enjoys Free Pass In Wake of Red Sox Woes

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The Red Sox fell off our collective radar about 15 minutes after news broke of the Jon Lester trade.

Rusney Castillo is just that - a ruse. His arrival was a nice deception to throw us off the scent. A scent that really stinks. Last year, the Red Sox magic number turned out to be 95 - as in those 95 years since they had won an World Series at Fenway Park.

This year, it's 70 - as in 70 wins. The benchmark has shifted from wiping out a century-long drought of home-won championships to barely squeaking past the futility of Bobby Valentine.

Whether the Red Sox win 68 or 72 games this season is just a numerical anomaly. The 2014 and 2012 seasons were completely different collapses. In 2012, things fell apart because the team stopped trying and the manager became disengaged.

This year, the failure of the Red Sox is much more concerning. And potentially, much more troublesome.

The Red Sox never stopped trying this year. They cycled in and out young players and newcomers, all of whom were presumably fighting for jobs and/or roster spots here or elsewhere. The 2012 Red Sox were full of underperforming and overpaid "superstars" who mailed it in. The 2014 Red Sox were full of underperforming mediocre players who continued to care long after the rest of us moved on to football season.

Valentine became the personification of the 2012 Red Sox. In 2014, meanwhile, the visage of John Farrell has faded from public view quicker than those "Call Me Maybe" college videos or the #BostonStrong hashtag. Farrell continues to bank on his straight-shooting "John Wayne" persona in the public eye. His body language remains stoic. He squeezes out the right words at each opportunity, maintaining his composure while those few remaining fans watching the games on TV or in person unload a fusilade of expletives and incentives after each tepid performance.

There has to be a place somewhere beneath the Red Sox clubhouse where Farrell goes and takes it all out on a game of "Whack-A-Mole" featuring pop-up heads of A.J. Pierzynski, Will Middlebrooks, Stephen Drew and Clay Buchholz.

Farrell stayed in the background as 2013's "Band of Bearded Brothers" pulled off a worst-to-first title run. In retrospect, that was a very wise move for the Duke. How can we "blame the manager" for the catastrophe that is 2014 when he avoided his share of the credit in 2013.

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John Farrell Enjoys Free Pass In Wake of Red Sox Woes

The Blacklist Season 2 Premiere Recap: Red's Back, And So Is His Wife

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Red's back! Coming off of an explosive first season, NBC's The Blacklist returned on Monday, Sept. 22, and kicked off season 2 with a bang (or three).

After months away from the FBI searching for the mysterious Berlin, the world's biggest con artist managed to get himself picked up by child soldiers and taken to their leader in Cameron. In less than five minutes, Red (James Spader) pulls an "I'm the captain now" by dropping hellfire missiles on their camp and weasels the information he wants out of the leader. Who needs Olivia Pope? Red's got it handled.

PHOTOS: Sharp men in tuxes

He's now on the search for Lord Baltimore, the hustler Berlin has hired to find him at any cost. Enter Agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), who now spends her days walking around in her undies and taping pictures of Red and her sociopath ex-hubby Tom to her ceiling not creepy at all.

She's still working with the FBI and follows Red's Lord Baltimore lead to a data engineer named Rowan (played by a surprisingly serious Krysten Ritter), who claims she was targeted by Lord Baltimore for her bank account info. Meanwhile someone with tortoiseshell rimmed glasses is trailing Agent Keen, and his name probably rhymes with "mom."

Red pays a visit to the injured Director Harold Cooper, who is unwilling to return to working the Blacklist cases, but Red can be rather persuasive.

PHOTOS: Celeb men in uniform

Just when it looks like Rowan's actually working with Lord Baltimore, she comes up with the theory that dun, dun, dun her twin sister Nora is still alive, working with Lord Baltimore, and plotting against her. This should be the part where everyone rolls their eyes and arrests her, but instead the camera keeps panning to random bushes and windows, hinting that the evil Nora is in our midst.

But alas, Nora has been there all along, acting like Rowan in some bizarre trance that's only broken using an old record, like the old lady with Alzheimer's in The Notebook. It's called dissociative identity disorder, and it allows her to flip back and forth between being Rowan and Nora. She snaps back to her old, evil self and heads out to kill Red's long-lost wife (Mary-Louise Parker), who has made a new life for herself.

PHOTOS: Costars reunited

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The Blacklist Season 2 Premiere Recap: Red's Back, And So Is His Wife

BIG RED AMBITION | Five Reasons Why You Should Complete the Big Red Ambition

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By CAITLAN SUSSMAN

As the semester heads into full swing, and the days of wearing flip-flops to class and tanning on the Arts Quad give way to Ithacas notorious precipitation and less-than-warm weather, you may be tempted to sit in your room with the heat on, lamenting the black cloud of prelims that looms around the corner, or to curl into a ball on a comfy couch in Mann Library equipped with a onesie and a 20 oz. can of red bull. I am here to tell you that both of these are bad ideas.

This is not to say that studying is not important. We came to Cornell first and foremost to learn. But learning does not simply come from hours spent in a classroom or a library. Seeing academic accomplishments as the only goal of our time in college neglects the fact that we live on one of the most beautiful and exciting campuses in the world, located in a city that offers so many cultural, artistic and personal growth opportunities. So what better way to get the full Ithaca/Cornell experience than to cross items off the Big Red Ambition list?

For those of you unfamiliar with this staple of Cornell life, the Big Red Ambition is a compilation of 161 items that Cornellians should see or do in their four years here. Some are inappropriate (re: the infamous #1) and some are illegal (#123: pizza from a blue light phone, anyone?), but most will genuinely enrich your experience at Cornell and provide a welcome distraction from the monotony of your daily routine. This is not necessarily a list to be completed fully, but can be seen more as a set of guidelines to supplement your time at Cornell. But the more you complete, the more rewarding it will be for you.

This week, I am here to give you five reasons why you should complete the items on the Big Red Ambition list. Trust me: Ive done 87 of them.

[Disclaimer: I do not condone or support any activities on this list that may be unlawful or potentially disruptive to others.]

1. Work Towards New Goals

We set ourselves goals in college every day: Study for a certain number of hours, ace that History paper or get above the mean in that Bio prelim. However, setting your sights on purely academic goals can become stifling and overwhelming. The Big Red Ambition allows you to feel the same sense of achievement, but in a way that is not primarily competitive in nature and does not come at the expense of others. Whether its completing the Pinesburger Challenge (#99; quite the spectacle) or charging your Banfis meal to CornellCard (sorry, Mom and Dad!), youll feel great about yourself afterwards, and get a welcome break from school.

2. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

It is far too easy to get stuck in the Cornell Bubble on the Hill. We are so immersed in our education that trying new things and having new experiences outside of academics get pushed to the sidelines. Everyone needs to take risks once in a while. The Big Red Ambition list lets us step outside of this comfortable place, without leaving upstate New York. Sledding down Libe Slope (#5), experiencing the Apple Festival in The Commons (#23; the homemade apple cider is delicious!) or seeing an opening at the Johnson Museum (#45), have the potential to greatly expand your horizons, both personally and intellectually. That, if nothing else, is why we are here at Cornell.

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BIG RED AMBITION | Five Reasons Why You Should Complete the Big Red Ambition

[NASA] Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-4 for International Space Station – Video

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[NASA] Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-4 for International Space Station
SPACEX COVERAGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH5EErE8QnI SpaceX launched their 6th Falcon 9 rocket of the year today and 13th overall at 05:52 UTC, September 21st 2014 from Space Launch...

By: SpaceVids.tv

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[NASA] Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-4 for International Space Station - Video

"NASA’s Maven spacecraft is set to orbit Mars and collect data" : Chad Myers explains. – Video

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"NASA #39;s Maven spacecraft is set to orbit Mars and collect data" : Chad Myers explains.
NASA spacecraft set to orbit Mars Smarter. Faster. More Colorful. Subscribe for daily videos to keep you in the know. The Worldwide Leader in Sports ESPN. Welcome to the official ABC News Channel,...

By: USA TODAY (NEWS)

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"NASA's Maven spacecraft is set to orbit Mars and collect data" : Chad Myers explains. - Video

BREAKING: NASA Spots 5 Mile Long UFO Beneath The Sea. UFO Sightings Are Off The Charts! Rapture? – Video

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BREAKING: NASA Spots 5 Mile Long UFO Beneath The Sea. UFO Sightings Are Off The Charts! Rapture?
http://youtu.be/1ZWSIiYG-pE https://www.youtube.com/user/EndTimesNewsHeadline https://www.facebook.com/NightAndDayWatchman Pray this prayer sincerely to know your saved Jesus, I believe...

By: dockidds

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BREAKING: NASA Spots 5 Mile Long UFO Beneath The Sea. UFO Sightings Are Off The Charts! Rapture? - Video

NASA'S MAVEN spacecraft succesfully arrives at Mars

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Artist's impression of MAVEN orbiting the Red Planet (Image: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has successfully completed a maneuver designed to place the robotic explorer in Mars orbit. The achievement is the crowning moment in a 10-month journey through deep space, representing the culmination of millions of dollars and over a decade of planning and hard work by NASA mission operators.

"NASA has a long history of scientific discovery at Mars and the safe arrival of MAVEN opens another chapter," stated astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld. "Maven will complement NASAs other Martian robotic explorers and those of our partners around the globe to answer some fundamental questions about Mars and life beyond Earth."

The orbital insertion maneuver centered around a 34-minute, 26-second burn (11 seconds more than originally planned, but all things considered still impressively accurate) that successfully decreased MAVEN's velocity enough for the probe to be caught in Mars' gravitational pull. The spacecraft will now begin a six-week commissioning process during which time NASA mission operators will calibrate and test the orbiter's scientific payload, finally maneuvering the probe into her operational orbit.

Once the period of testing is complete, the orbiter can begin its one-year primary scientific mission of helping us to understand the composition and evolution of the Martian atmosphere in relation to the Sun's solar wind, with the hope of shedding light on just how the Red Planet came to lose the majority of its atmosphere.

During the primary mission phase, MAVEN's perapsis (the lowest point in the spacecraft's orbit) will be lowered from 93 miles (150 km) to roughly 77 miles (125 km). This will allow the probe's impressive array of scientific instruments to characterize the depleted upper atmosphere of the Mars in a far more comprehensive manner than if the probe remained in a static orbit.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden puts a more practical edge on the data to be collected by MAVEN, stating that the readings may well be put to use to "better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s."

Source: NASA

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NASA'S MAVEN spacecraft succesfully arrives at Mars

MCB Concentration Updates Receive Good Reviews

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Administrators behind the revamping of Molecular and Cellular Biology did not have to wait long to gauge the popularity of their new programs, courses, and requirement changes, said Alexander F. Schier, department chair of MCB.

MCB 60: Cellular Biology and Molecular Medicine, our new gateway course, has enrolled more than 100 students, twice as many as expected, Schier said.

After bringing on more teaching fellows to accommodate high enrollment, Schier, along with his MCB 60 teaching partners Vladimir Denic and Briana Burton, was eager to begin the new class, which implements curricular changes that relate lessons from the classroom to the science seen in news stories.

The changes we made became possible because molecular and cellular biology has become highly relevant for understanding human physiology and disease, said Schier. It is now possible to directly connect most of the biological mechanisms we teach to human disease, ranging from cancer to Ebola.

The teaching team has worked to leverage the increasing relevance of science at the molecular level to stories of outbreaks and popularly reported science. Highlighting these connections will help make the material more accessible to a broad range of students, Schier said.

When you spend all your time in the classroom, youre not paying as much attention to where it will lead you, said Chris D. M. Mukasa 17, a prospective MCB concentrator. Its really helpful to see how people who have graduated with similar degrees make use of their education in productive ways.

The new gateway course is part of MCBs concerted effort to engage concentrators by highlighting the application of MCB to real-world science in addition to fostering a concentration community. Besides MCB 60 and MCB 63: Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, concentration administrators have launched associated programming, like MCBs inaugural movie night.

The administrators organized a showing of the film Contagion for concentrators and pre-concentrators of MCB and Chemical and Physical Biology. Halfway through the movie, a panel of public health experts led a discussion on the epidemiology and biology featured in the movie. The students and the panelincluding Barry R. Bloom, professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and members of Pardis C. Sabetis lab, who have worked on sequencing the Ebola genome this fallarrived at a consensus on the films science.

We MCB concentrators thought they could have done a better job making it seem like an actual pathogen, said Bianca Mulaney 16, an MCB concentrator who attended the event, of the fictional disease in Contagion.

Despite disputes with the technical accuracy of the film, Mulaney said that she thought the movie screening was an effective way to open discussion of MCB topics to a broader undergraduate audience.

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MCB Concentration Updates Receive Good Reviews

Alicia Keys: Why the need to be naked?

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OPINION: Imagine, if you will, that Chris Martin, is feeling fed up with howgrimthe worldis rightnow,(a valid response, I think we can all agree) so he decides that, in order to raise awareness, he'll upload a photo of himself to his social media platforms. He's wearing, well, nothing, save for a peace sign on his tummy, with his hands artfully covering his manhood.

"It's time to get people's attention" is how he explains himself to the New York Times. "People won't be able to ignore this visual!'

I'm not sure about you but my first thought would be 'Chris, you're a critically acclaimed, incredibly popular, talented, intelligent man. I know many people consider you attractive, but why you gotta go nude?"

Now, let me tell you what's really happened: acritically acclaimed, incredibly popular, talentedand intelligent singer, Alicia Keys, has gone and posed nude for her fans. In an interview with theNew York Timeson Sunday, she used those exact words above about not being able to ignore the visual.

You mean the nude pregnant woman visualpioneered by Demi Moorethat celebrated its 23rd anniversary this year?

Now, because she is a compassionate, socially conscious woman, Keys is following up on her nude pic by donating $NZ1.2 million of her own money to a dozen worthy causes.It's all part of the grass roots campaign she's launching calledWeAreHereMovement.com

And yet, the question remains on high rotation in my brain: why you gotta go nude?

It's funny isn't it, that when we ask it of a hypothetical Chris Martin, we're asking it in terms of relevancy. Why would such a man strip?

But if it's a woman then we know her body is part of the package. Thisis what it is to be a female singer in a hyper-sexualised landscape: at some point or another you gotta go nude.

Putting aside the 'awkward family photo' associations that drawing on a pregnant belly calls to mind; let's get down to some facts here. Keys has a new single to promote - it's called We Are Here and it fits, snug as a Tetris wall, into the larger social justice campaign she's launched.

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Alicia Keys: Why the need to be naked?