So the coach hits the ball and the player just passes them, over and over, toward a netted basket.
I played volleyball, recreationally, and it was a lot of fun. I think the reason I wasn’t especially good at it was that even though I played with talented and fun people, my technique was lousy. And, also, I stopped growing. But mostly the technique. “Let this ball hit you on your forearms over and over for hours on end,” has limited appeal. And so I stopped growing and stopped improving and I never could set. But I could serve. I would have done that all day if the referee let me.
Anyway, the basketball/volleyball court is overlooked on one side by the gym at Samford. I ran on a treadmill there and then had some water and watched the passing going on below. The more I looked at the photo the more I liked it. The angle is such, and the lighting and floor just so, that all of the volleyballs can look like they’re floating. Samford volleyball is good, but maybe not that good.
Things to read … because reading makes us all look good.
Ten years ago today, Hurricane Ivan hit us. Talked about that in class the other day. I had been at al.com for just a few months by then, and we did some great work covering the storm. Here are some of the archives, looking very 2004-ish. We did something like 4 million views that day, which was easily a record for the time.
Apparently, older folks are in a boom period for narcotics use … Someday, kids are going to tell us to shut up.
Opelika’s Willie Fuller face of Johnny Ray bike ride to combat Parkinson’s:
Willie Fuller can’t tell you how many miles he has logged on a bicycle since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease about 12 years ago.
But every mile – whether it was a 440-mile trek on the Natchez Trace, the numerous round-trip rides from Opelika to Auburn or 45 minutes on his back porch exercise bike – inspires many who also live with the disease, along with those fortunate to know him.
Fuller’s love of bicycling has helped him live with Parkinson’s. He said he hasn’t had to increase his medicine dosage in 12 years.
Smartphone Experiment Shows How Your Metadata Tells Your Story:
For one short week, a Dutch volunteer named Ton Siedsma with the digital rights group Bits of Freedom agreed to allow researchers to have full access to all his smartphone metadata. This is the information the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governments have been collecting from its own citizens while insisting the information did not violate our privacy.
Few actually believe the government’s arguments, but how much can somebody figure out just from smartphone data? Thus, the experiment with Siedsma. It turns out, as has been growing increasingly clear, you can figure out a lot. According to an article subsequently published in Dutch media, researchers (from a university and a separate security firm) gathered 15,000 records in a week, complete with timestamps. Each time he did pretty much anything on the cell phone they were able to determine physically where he was. And they were able to figure out a lot about both his personal and professional life.
A few quick media links:
Is it original? An editor’s guide to identifying plagiarism
The business of building on tweets
When breaking news happens, reporters and police try to keep up with social media
There’s carrying someone’s water up the hill, and then there’s going up that hill, looking down and realize you are carrying a very leaky bucket … Obama Channels Lincoln in Campaign Against Islamic State:
Abraham Lincoln did it when he inspected troops on Civil War battlefields. Lyndon Johnson flew to Vietnam to stand with soldiers. And George W. Bush donned a flight jacket during the Iraq war and landed on a U.S. carrier to declare “Mission Accomplished.”
Projecting a sense of command has always been an important ingredient of presidential leadership, particularly during military missions. The images don’t guarantee success; they do convey grit.
President Barack Obama, with a visit to the military’s central command today after going to the nation’s disease-control center yesterday, is trying to demonstrate his resolve in fighting two international scourges: Islamic State terrorists and the spreading Ebola virus.
The man flew to Atlanta. And then Tampa.
The stops show Obama adopting a more muscular posture on foreign affairs, reversing the cautious and introspective style that has mostly defined his administration until now.
And he didn’t even pick up the visitor’s guide.
When was the last time you picked up a visitor’s guide? Been awhile, I’d bet. Did you feel like Lincoln when you did it? Me either.
