Daily Archives: May 30, 2017

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New book documents struggles teaching evolution in Alabama WRBL TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) A new book has been published about the challenges of teaching evolution in Alabama. The work by three University of Alabama professors and an associate is called Evolution Education in the American South: Culture, Politics, ... and more »

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New book documents struggles teaching evolution in Alabama - WRBL

Steve Nicol looks at the saga of Arsene Wenger's future, and his belief that he'll walk should he lose any personal power. Stevie Nicol believes Arsenal's FA Cup triumph over Chelsea will be enough to keep Arsene Wenger at the club. An Arsenal fan and a Chelsea fan document their journey to the FA Cup final, where only one can leave Wembley Stadium happy. Arsene Wenger reaffirms his loyalty to Arsenal after winning the FA Cup for the seventh time.

The warm afterglow of the FA Cup win will not last long for Arsenal with numerous problems to be addressed at the club, with or without coach Arsene Wenger.

The manager's future should be sorted out this week with a board meeting to discuss a new two-year contract taking place on Tuesday. He wants to stay at the Emirates and it is likely that he will be in charge when the new season starts. So much power has been concentrated in Wenger's hands that it would be unthinkable that he should leave now.

The board recognised during the course of the season that the situation is unhealthy: If the manager resigned suddenly, like Sir Alex Ferguson did at Man United, the vacuum left behind would be damaging. There is little framework in place that would adequately support a new man.

The most sensible course would be to create an infrastructure while Wenger is still in charge. Yet the problem there is that it would mean a diminution of the 67-year-old's control.

The board and manager have very different ideas about the direction of the club. Wenger has dismissed the possibility of working with a director of football and is skeptical about the increasing influence of statistical analysts. But Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive, has pledged that team's struggles this season would be "a catalyst for change." Arsenal need rebuilding, whether or not Wenger remains in place.

Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup final brought glory but only adds to the sense of instability. There are some within the club who see the FA Cup as a consolation prize, an underwhelming bauble compared with the cash bonanza of claiming a Champions League place. By the standards Arsenal's hierarchy have come to expect, finishing outside the top four, and facing a season in the Europa League, is failure despite the addition of more silverware. For Wenger, winning the cup brought vindication, though the board might not see it that way.

It's hard to deny that Arsenal underachieved in the Premier League. The season should serve as a reality check for Wenger and his methods. Certainly, he needs to change the way he operates. Some element of compromise will be needed if the manager is going to continue in his role. That will be difficult for him to reconcile.

The squad also needs an overhaul. Alexis Sanchez, the team's most important player, is in demand and will consider the overtures of Manchester City and Chelsea before deciding whether or not to commit to a new contract in North London. Wenger has always played a dangerous game when letting players run their contracts down to the final year, something he's seemingly allowed Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to do.

Robin van Persie headed to Manchester United when Wenger insisted he was not for sale and into the final year of his deal. He famously insisted that Cesc Fabregas was staying even when the midfielder was negotiating with Barcelona. It was the same with Samir Nasri. Everyone accepted that Nasri was bound for City ... except his manager. And Bacary Sagna also moved to City when his deal expired.

At times he has appeared to be in denial about losing his top players.

If Sanchez departs -- at this point, Arsenal would have to restructure their pay scale to keep him with the player reportedly demanding 300,000-a-week -- Wenger will struggle to replace the Chile international with someone of similar ability without the lure of Champions League involvement.

Ozil is in a similar position. The German may not be quite in the same demand as Sanchez, but losing him would leave a hole in the side. Despite what Wenger says about making both men fulfill their contracts and leave for nothing next summer, he cannot allow that to happen. Stan Kroenke may be a largely silent owner, but he would quickly become vocal at the prospect of losing more than 120 million's worth of players for nothing.

Arsenal do not need to sell. They need to buy. Wenger has to find the elusive dominant midfielder that he has sought for so long and so fruitlessly. He needs a centre-back and a reliable goal scorer. He knows that for all the elation and emotion of Wembley, a poor start next season would see the mood turn toxic at the Emirates.

Yet Wenger was in a bullish mood after the FA Cup final. He will be combative when he meets the board. He believes his way of working is correct and that he has the record and experience to dictate the way the club should run. For Wenger, winning that trophy only adds to his authority.

Meanwhile, the board want change and need it. They cannot afford for it to happen too fast, though, as it's hard to imagine any manager filling the void Wenger would leave. It is in no one's interests to rip up the Arsenal template and start again. Evolution, not revolution, is what is necessary.

And so, the club face a difficult balancing act. They need Wenger to provide stability while Arsenal edge toward the future. Yet the Wembley win is likely to make Wenger less inclined to compromise. It might have been cleaner, easier and better for Arsenal in the long term had Chelsea beaten them at Wembley.

As one of the so-called "experts" shamed by Ozil for our cup final predictions, I thought that the German international's tweet showing the scorelines projected by myself and a number of fellow writers was very funny. There are times when you have to hold up your hands, admit you got it wrong and congratulate the team that made you look silly.

However, the most foolish prediction I made last season was in September and October, when I was telling anyone who would listen that Arsenal would win the Premier League. Santi Cazorla was marshaling the midfield, Sanchez was superb at No. 9 and Ozil was flourishing in the space behind him. The Gunners had the best shape of any team I saw in the first three months of the campaign.

Then it all went wrong. So thanks, Arsenal, for making me look doubly daft. That's Wenger's team for you: sometimes brilliant, frequently infuriating, but never, ever predictable.

Tony Evans has been a sports journalist for more than 20 years. He writes for ESPN FC on the Premier League. Twitter: @tonyevans92a.

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Arsenal need evolution, not revolution - ESPN FC (blog)

At some point, the bubble bursts. For some of us, this may prove more traumatizing than for others, as may be the case if you happen to have SCID Severe Combined Immunodeficiency once referred to as bubble boy disease. This seemingly cutesy appellation is due not to John Travolta and the 1976 Aaron Spelling-produced, made-for-TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, but the case of David Vetter, the real-life boy who lived for 12 years in a sterile plastic bubble before dying of cancer from a bone marrow transplant in 1984. I remember sporadically watching him on the nightly news, particularly his lugubrious eyes peering through the NASA-designed inflated plastic tubing as a newscaster talked about how his parents tried to provide a semblance of normal life for him. Needless to say, the bubble did not look fun.

The story of David Vetter, both his disease and his life as a science experiment, spawned a spate of bubble movies that are as much about extreme parental attachment as they are about the illusion that free will can be contained and controlled. Unlike, say, Carrie, a film about a domineering/abusive mother and what happens next if you attempt to obviate menstrual education, these films capture not only a universal feeling of isolation, but also an adolescent sense of rebellion the idea that the membrane is by nature porous rather than plexiglass. Whats more, the technology of the bubble might change, but the tender teenage heart beating inside remains the same.

Isolation and illness aside, nothing impedes a developing crush on your sexy next-door neighbor like living in a sterile bubble. Just ask Maddy Whittier (Amandla Stenberg), the cheerful, lovely bookworm of Nicola Yoons best-selling YA novel Everything, Everything, now a film directed by Stella Meghie. Hermetically sealed inside her tony Los Angeles home if you had the be confined to a bubble, this is definitely the one you would want Maddy is 18, but has experienced zero contact with the outside world since she was diagnosed with SCID as a baby. Trapped in such sleekly schmancy environs, her entire world consists of the internet, her mother (Anika Noni Rose) and her nurse (Ana de la Reguera). That is, until floppy-haired loner Olly Bright (Nick Robinson) moves next door and bursts that bubble, baby.

Teenagers are naturally philosophical and I love being a part of that conversation, Nicola Yoon tells me at a press junket for the movie. The way Maddy understands the world first is through her illustrations and her reviews. She brings the world in to where she is, but then she sees Olly as pure physicality where she feels trapped in her own. Your first romantic love opens you up to the world.

If youve read the book or seen the previews, you know Maddy and Olly eventually hightail it to Hawaii where they have sex and eat snacks. The outside world, though hazardous, is beautiful and romantic and full of affordable resort hotels. The Big Twist at the end maintains the notion of imminent free will. Just as doctors feared what would happen to Vetter when he eventually became a teenager though he appeared cheerful with his predicament on camera, he was often sullen and angry with his doctors Maddys freedom comes with a price. Will she ever have emotional freedom? Do we all live in a bubble? And, once it pops, will there always be residue?

Maddys a positive, happy person before she meets Olly, Yoon continues. Teenagers want independence and protection. They want to explore the world but from the safety of the parents house. You cant have both.

Or you can. That is, if you live in a bubble that has wi-fi and cell service. But not if its 1976 and youre Tod Lubitch (John Travolta) and in love with your horsey, long-haired next door neighbor Gina Biggs (Glynnis OConnor). While Tod gets to leave his bubble in a mini-bubble that his friends port to the beach and then later in a space suit he wears to high school theres even an amazing scene where he graduates in the space suit with the cap and gown over it its not until he realizes his love for Gina (and possibly her horse) that he crosses the threshold of his bubble and, unprotected, walks out of his parents house, hops into the saddle and rides off into the credits. Since were in Spell-o-vision, we dont see Tod become ill. Instead hes manumitted by a combo platter of teen love and Paul Williams ballads.

Ten years later, Crystal Heart, in some ways the platonic form of this oeuvre, raised the same ethical dilemmas as the movie asked the consequent question, what do you do when the boy in the bubble becomes the man in the bubble and the next-door neighbor isnt a next-door neighbor but rock star Tawny Kitaen. How do you have sex through a glass wall while your parents are awake and in the house? And wheres the Windex?

While Maddy is the ultimate heroine kind, smart, plucky Crystal Hearts Christopher Newley (Lee Curreri from Fame) is all dark side. Though all three bubbles share a certain fishbowl quality, Maddys feels overly regulated yet homey, Tods like a science experiment and Christophers like living inside an MTV video (not for nothing is Tawni Kitaen the writhing Whitesnake mascot). When Christopher breaks free, its violent; he throws a chair through the glass, shattering the crystal heart. Maddys escape involves credit cards and airplanes that magically dont need identification for boarding. At the end of Crystal Heart, Christopher and and Alley (Kitaen) have a love montage and then he falls ill on the beach, eats her tears and dies. Thus the horseback ride of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble becomes a message that death is the only antidote to the illusion of control.

Though ultimately bittersweet, Yoons interpretation asserts a different, gentler premise that human connection is stronger than any wall and love may (or may not) set us free. Both the book and the movie engender necessary hope without being saccharine or sappy. While its predecessors turned obsession into escape routes, Everything, Everything shows the importance of the interior journey as well as the genetic imperative of contact with the outside world. After all, the princess cant stay locked up in her tower forever.

The book is a fairytale, Yoon says. It was important that Maddy be happy in her home and in her situation. Her mother made her feel safe and I didnt want her to be in a prison as much as yearning for something more, something different. At first Olly thinks shes cute and loves her optimism because his situation in his house isnt so safe. The thing I say about love is that it changes everything.

Like Travoltas character in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, David Vetter wore an actual space suit to leave his bubble (though his was more arduous to put on and had to remain attached via air-hose to the original parent bubble; apparently, Vetter wore the suit only seven times and then lost interest). When Vetter was 4 years old, he attacked the walls of the bubble, poking tiny holes in the plastic with a butterfly syringe someone had mistakenly left in one of the chambers. At that point, his treatment team decided it best to inform the boy of the invisible yet lethal dangers lurking in the outside world, where just a moment of contact might be the beginning or end of it all.

Read more:

Popping the bubble: The cinematic evolution of SCID in YA contemporary romance - Salon

The King of Clay over the years

A lot has changed since a 19-year-old Rafael Nadal became only the second man in history to win Roland Garros at the first attempt. The bulging biceps, long hair and headband remain, but the Spaniard's sense of style has certainly changed.

The King of Clay over the years

2005 Nadal went into his first French Open as an inexperienced 18-year-old and emerged a grand slam champion -- beating Roger Federer in the semifinals on his 19th birthday. The 2005 season was the birth of what would go on to be Nadal's classic look: sleeveless top and three-quarter length shorts.

The King of Clay over the years

2006 By the following year, Nadal had cemented his place among tennis' elite and was developing a fearsome reputation on clay. This time wearing a slightly less garish light blue, Nadal picked up his second consecutive French Open title by becoming the first man to beat Roger Federer in a grand slam final.

The King of Clay over the years

2007 In 2007, the then 20-year-old Nadal's status as the 'King of Clay' was sealed. Defeat to Federer at the Masters Series in Hamburg ended an 81-match unbeaten streak on clay, which remains a men's Open Era record today. At that year's French Open, Nadal opted for the reverse of 2006's top-bandana combo -- this time with matching trainers to boot.

The King of Clay over the years

2008 A year later, Nadal opted for a variation on his debut French Option look, this time sporting an all-green combo. Nadal reached world No. 1 for the first time in his career in 2008, helped by his fourth consecutive Roland Garros title -- matching Bjorn Borg's record of consecutive trophies, while also becoming only the seventh man to win a grand slam without dropping a set.

The King of Clay over the years

2009 Nadal's first dramatic transformation came in 2009. Gone were the sleeveless shirts and three-quarter lengths, in came the sleeves and fluorescent, clashing colors. Perhaps it was the sleeves restricting the powerful arms (or maybe a knee injury), but Nadal suffered the first of only two French Open defeats. Despite a shock fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling, Nadal set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros.

The King of Clay over the years

2010 In 2010, Nadal bounced back from the 2009 disappointment with a daring multicolored number. He went on to exact revenge on Soderling, beating him in the final after the Swede had upset Federer in the quarterfinals. Federer's failure to reach the semis meant Nadal regained the world No. 1 spot, while it was also the second time he won the French Open without dropping a set.

The King of Clay over the years

2011 The following year, Nadal dialed down the brightness, instead choosing to return to one of his earliest Roland Garros styles. And it worked -- he maintained his No. 1 ranking throughout the clay court season and beat perennial rival Federer in the final.

The King of Clay over the years

2012 Perhaps in an attempt to gain the upper hand on opponents by blending into the clay, Nadal opted for an orange-ish-red look for the first time at the French Open. It appeared to work, as Nadal dropped just 30 games in the first five rounds, before beating Djokovic in four sets in the final to claim his seventh Roland Garros title and surpass Borg as the tournament's most successful player.

The King of Clay over the years

2013 The 2013 French Open was the debut of Nadal's latest wardrobe change: the short shorts. In an all-Spanish final, Nadal defeated David Ferrer in straight sets -- although bizarrely dropped from fourth in the world to fifth after his victory.

The King of Clay over the years

2014 Perhaps a sign of entering into his late 20s, Nadal's colors switched from fluorescent to more mellow tones. Despite being hampered by injuries and suffering surprise defeats early in the clay court season, Nadal grinded out arguably his most impressive Roland Garros victory. Another victory in the final against Djokovic took him to 14 grand slams (level with Pete Sampras) and it was his fifth straight French Open triumph.

The King of Clay over the years

2015 Nadal's struggle to find form continued into 2015's clay court season, dropping outside of the world's top five for the first time since 2005. Looking like an athletic version of the Cookie Monster, Nadal crashed out of the French Open in the quarterfinals to Djokovic. It ended his 39-match unbeaten run and marked just his second defeat on the Parisian clay.

The King of Clay over the years

The following year, the shorts got even shorter and the two-tone top returned as Nadal exited the French Open in the third round -- although this time it was a wrist injury that defeated him. Despite the disappointment, there was another milestone for Nadal as he became only the eighth man to reach 200 grand slam wins.

The King of Clay over the years

2017 Nadal debuted his strong blue look against Benoit Paire in this year's first round on Monday. Is your money on the King of Clay to complete 'La Decima?'

Read more:

French Open: Rafael Nadal's Roland Garros evolution - CNN International