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leahhuetemaines · 11 months

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NEW FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS: HORSETHIEF MEADOWS: The Collected Poems of Alex Leavens

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/horsethief-meadows-the-collected-poems-of-alex-leavens/

ONE LAST WORD PROGRAM

Alex Alan Leavens, was born on July 30, 1975 and raised in Portland, Oregon, as a fourth- generation Oregonian, whose great-grandfather arrived in 1895. He developed his interest in the outdoors as a child, and attended Prescott College in Arizona, where he lived for a year in a wickiup he designed and built. He also attended the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, which led him to start two businesses: the Old Federal Ax Company and the Oregon School of Survival and Tracking. He taught skills ranging from making primitive pottery of the Anasazi tradition to animal track identification. He also served as a firefighter in Arizona, southern California, and the Olympic National Park.

Alex later received a Bachelors degree in English Literature at Portland State University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He honed his craftsmanship skills at properties he and his family owned in Portland, volunteered at the Portland Museum of Art, became an expert baker and charcuterist, and hunted and fished throughout the Oregon backcountry. He also began writing–first a novel, The Border, and then poems infused with his devotion to craftsmanship, art, and a unique perspective on nature. In just a few years, Alex published numerous poems in literary magazines, including Cathexis Northwest, Cirque, Clover, The Ekphrastic Review, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Montana Mouthful, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Perceptions Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, and Windfall. Sadly, as his career as a poet began to flourish, Alex Leavens died by suicide on August 13, 2021. The poems he left behind are gathered here. –Eric le Fatte

PRAISE FOR HORSETHIEF MEADOWS: The Collected Poems of Alex Leavens

As with John Haines, Alaska’s poet of the wild, or Gary Snyder, Alex Leavens is a poet of deep #ecology. His posthumous collection, Horsethief Meadows, brings poems of reverence, wisdom and precision in observation of the natural world, as with these lines: “…the mountain lion had the same tint as the moon ….” With felt grief as wildfires burn out of control, Leavens observes that “flames climb into treetops to ferry substances, no longer bound to earth…”

–Sandra L. Kleven, publisher/editor, CIRQUE: A Literary Journal, and Cirque Press

In the work of the late Alex Leavens, the reader finds compelling poetry of place with a poet who serves as guide and teacher to the backcountry Pacific Northwest. But also found in his poems is a student of witness: we experience the “behaviors and talents of the cold,” see tracks of bears “that won’t heal over,” admire a “thin, wet brush” of a mink at “that lake nobody knows.” With maturity and métier, Alex held a steady gaze over difficult landscapes of harsh seasons, centuries of human intervention, and increasingly, traumatically, fire.

–John Miller, author of Olympic

The poems in Alex Leavens’ collection, Horsethief Meadows, measure the human against the “circumference of the world.” Leavens’ narrator is a shapeshifter moving through that world, helping us to remember we are all one: “and the wind/ found its way down/ into the dry mouth of the badger’s sett,/ down into the earth/ to remind the grove/ to stay joined/ at the root,/ to speak as one living thing.” In poetry “equal to the horizon,/ equal to the morning sun,” Leavens puts us there at the center of things—circling with the hawk overhead, wandering with the cougar down through a streambed, or sunning our wings with the butterfly. A lyric work of interconnectedness between the human and the natural worlds, Leavens’ poems burn like a fire, showing us the way in “that small matter/ of living/ at the center/ of the dark.”

–Peter Grandbois, author of Last Night I Aged a Hundred Years

Please share/repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #read #poems #literature #poetry

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blogsbyankur · 2 years

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Agricultural Robots Market Size 2022 | Opportunities, Demand and Forecast to 2030

Recent Developments:

In August 2021, John Deere acquired Bear Flag Robotics for USD 250 million. Bear Flag Robotics was founded in 2017 and specialized in autonomous farming heavy machinery.

In July 2021,AGCO Corporation launched the pilot of its Precision Ag Line (PAL) program, a tool designed to streamline support services for farming customers using AGCO solutions with mixed-fleet operations. PAL makes precision farming expertise available to farmers using products from widely-used AGCO brands such as Challenger, Fendt, Gleaner, Massey Ferguson, and Precision Planting.

In June 2021, CNH Industrial acquired 100% of the capital stock of Raven Industries Inc. at USD 58 per share. The acquisition results from a long partnership between London-based CNH Industrial and Raven Industries, enhancing CNH's position in the global agriculture equipment market by adding strong innovation capabilities in autonomous systems and precision agriculture.

The global Agricultural Robots Market size valued to USD 7.57 billion in 2021, is expected to garner USD 35.93 billion by 2030, with a growing CAGR of 18.3% from 2022-2030.

Access Full Description of this report at:

The Agricultural Robots refer to Agbots and the continuous technological advancement equipment, machines and applications in across the globe for enhancing the productivity of the farms act as the major factors driving the agricultural robot market. The deployment of these agricultural robots for several functions based on the configuration of the robots including fruits picking robots, weed control, cloud seeding, harvesting, environmental monitoring and soil analysis and the utilization of Agbots is being done with the purpose of reducing the human efforts.

The rise in the utilization of precision agriculture by farmers across the globe for the purpose for collecting and processing data which assists in making better decisions on fertilizing, harvesting crops and planting and the increase in demand for the technique to enhance crop yields and profits in order to cater the food and water crises act as the major factors driving the agricultural robot market. The rise in the requirement for monitoring crop health with the purpose of yield production, the increase in government support to make cultivators to adopt modern agricultural techniques and trend of maximizing agricultural resources in a sustainable manner accelerate the agricultural robot market growth. The high utilization of IoT in various industries such as transportation, manufacturing, agriculture and others and the dependency of agriculture industry on the technology, engineering, and physical and biological sciences using IoT in research projects influence the agricultural robot market. The rising labor wages and untrained labor encouraging automation among farmers, the impact of COVID-19 accelerating the use of robots in the agricultural sector and maturing IoT and navigation technologies also boost the agricultural robot market. Additionally, growth population, high food demand and increasing age of farmers positively affect the agricultural robot market.

Some of the key players in the agricultural robots market are: Autonomous Solutions Inc., Clearpath Robotics, Delaval, Gea Group, Harvest Automation, John Deere, Lely Holding S.A.R.L, AGCO, Trimble and Boumatic Robotic.

Request sample copy of this report at:

About Next Move Strategy Consulting

Next Move Strategy Consulting is an independent and trusted third-platform market intelligence provider, committed to deliver high quality, market research reports that help multinational companies to triumph over their competitions and increase industry footprint by capturing greater market share. Our research model is a unique collaboration of primary research, secondary research, data mining and data analytics.

We have been servicing over 1000 customers globally that includes 90% of the Fortune 500 companies over a decade. Our analysts are constantly tracking various high growth markets and identifying hidden opportunities in each sector or the industry. We provide one of the industry’s best quality syndicate as well as custom research reports across 10 different industry verticals. We are committed to deliver high quality research solutions in accordance to your business needs. Our industry standard delivery solutions that ranges from the pre consultation to after-sales services, provide an excellent client experience and ensure right strategic decision making for businesses.

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too-much-john-seed · 3 years

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“He took advantage of me… of my success and my money and my life… i was blind. I didn’t see…. And he took advantage of me!!

…. I trusted him. I believed in him… and he used me…”

- John Seed on Joseph’s

manipulation

#MY BOI #I love him #it’s gonna be okay 😭#Joseph clearly used his wealth to make the cult #John Seed July 2021 Collection #john seed #far cry 5 #fc5 #far cry photomode #far cry #far cry edit #one (1) sinful reaper #gaming #joseph seed

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daggerzine · 4 years

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You Gotta Lose? Hell, Some Of Us Ain’t Dead Yet by Mary Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fz3FVBlOE

NRBQ has done so many amazing songs. I never thought much about “Roll Call,” from Tiddlywinks - for one thing, it has a lighter, almost Billy Joel sound that’s more about latter day Terry Adams style than what I think of as the classic Q. Yet just as Adams’ work has grown on me, this track has made its way into my consciousness. The lyrics speak to me more in 2020 than they did when Tiddlywinks was released in 1980, before the D.C.-area music scene had lost Robert Goldstein (Urban Verbs), Kevin MacDonald (brilliant visual artist and scene stalwart who helped me design and layout [The] Infiltrator), Danny Gatton disciple/guitar maverick Evan Johns, bassist Michael Maye from the original H-Bombs, Rick Dreyfuss (Half Japanese/Chumps/Shakemore), Libby Hatch and Michael Mariotte (Tru Fax and the Insaniacs), Sally Be/Berg - REM/Egoslavia/SHE/Robert Palmer), Nurses member Marc Halpern (heroin, 1982), Lorenzo (Pee- Wee) Jones (Tiny Desk Unit) and hybrid rocker Jim Altman (HIV, 1990s). Goldstein, Dreyfuss, Maye and MacDonald succumbed to cancer, while Evan Johns’ deterioration followed years of touring, hard drinking and pushing himself past the limit.

(Top to bottom: Tommy Keene, Kevin MacDonald, Susan Mumford)

Those named above have been joined by Tommy Keene (the Rage/the Razz/solo/Paul Westerberg/Matthew Sweet - cardiac arrest at the age of 59; 2017), TDU’s Susan Mumford (cancer, 2018), David Byers (Psychotics/H.R./Bad Brains), and Skip Groff (Yesterday and Today/ Limp Records/Dischord - seizure, 2019). This is just an imperfect/incomplete naming of D.C.-area losses - I’m sure journalists from other cities could make lists. A horde of New Wave and early alternative musicians have died within the past few years. Whether through the stress of hard living/poverty, substance abuse, cancer or Covid-19, we’re seeing artists pass much earlier than I, anyway, expected them to.

(Top to bottom: Fred "Freak” Smith, Michael Maye with Evan Johns, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs)

We’re already past the loss of all the original Ramones. All the Cramps less Poison Ivy. Joe Strummer. Robert Quine. Hilly Kristal. Lou Reed. As of July, 2020, since 2018 we’ve also lost Andy Gill, Ivan Kral, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Schlesinger, Danny Mihm, Ric Ocasek, Daniel Johnston, Kim Shattuck, Lorna Doom, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Ranking Roger, Mark E. Smith, Glenn Branca, Randy Rampage, Hardy Fox, Pete Shelley, Matthew Seligman, Bill Rieflin, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider, Ian Dury, Benjamin Orr, Kirsty McColl and David Roback.

(Top to bottom: Sally Be/Berg, Ranking Roger, Danny Mihm)

Talking about the deaths of talented, gifted creatives is a helluva way to start a column. But here we are. Older performers don’t always get the attention afforded newer, so the rest of this piece shares and celebrates artists from the original New Wave/punk scenes who are still around and active. Many are from the D.C.-area cornucopia I know best, while others have just come to my attention, or seem especially noteworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED9_XK_JVQ

The Zeros’ Javier Escovedo has been steadily emitting tasty Americana-ish rock while occasionally dropping some Zeros sturm-’n’-drang - most recently with Munster Records single “In The Spotlight” and a track on Burger Records’ Quarantunes compilation. Quarantunes is a seven-album affair featuring 140 alternative/punk performers old and new, all of whom wrote songs between March-April 2020. A cursory listen to Volume 2 reveals the recorded version of a good night at a very wild bar, with Zeros still handily kicking ass of all ages.

https://velvetmonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/legacy-of-success?fbclid=IwAR0lJyS0YDE4e3o7LJiITEtw1lhBWMkUX47Vuag1Lf9fs2QozJJKD1lwkes

Velvet Monkeys/B.A.L.L. player and Sonic Youth/Teenage Fanclub producer Don Fleming reports, “We’ve put out new tracks ‘Theories of Rummanetics’ and ‘Legacy of Success.’ Jay has written a few ‘modules’ and Malcolm and I are having fun doing the music,” adding, “I play some electric six string on the new Rob Moss album - it’s fun to be on, with lots of guitar slingers from the DC daze.”

Yup, Rob Moss of Skin-Tight Skin has solicited contributions from Fleming and from Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys), along with a pile of talent including Stuart Casson (Psychotics/Dove/Meatmen), Franz Stahl (Foo Fighters/Scream), Billy Loosigian (Nervous Eaters, the Boom-Boom Band), Nels Cline (Wilco) and Saul Koll (the guy who made guitars for Henry Kaiser and Lee Ranaldo). The set is called We’ve Come Back To Rock ‘n’ Roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIB8a_0Q4c

Chumps/Workdogs/Jam Messengers player Rob Kennedy apparently has too much energy to throw in the towel - he’s kept recording, performing and making various sorts of lo-fi, DIY mischief that never loses that fresh, ‘70s feeling. Jam Messengers released Night And Day on vinyl in 2017. One of my fave Kennedy tracks, “A Low Down Dirty Shame” speaks to this moment as well as any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CRBEGVLE4

Former Tiny Desk Unit/Fuji’s Navy/Rhoda & the Bad Seeds members Bob Boilen, Kevin Lay, Michael Barron and Bob Harvey have released a new Danger Painters joint, Thank Speak Love This Record. Lay joked, “I have a voice made for Morse Code” before revealing his recent work with Rhoda and the Bad Seeds material, released June 30 as Live at Nightclub 9:30. Boilen continues to introduce artists both vital and obscure via Tiny Desk Concerts and All Songs Considered/NPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ1GajwfB0

I’ve seen David Arnson play recently and can attest to his proclivity for unfettered growth via Insect Surfers, the instrumental group that originally had some trouble establishing cred. with younger D.C. punks. The Surfers’ most recent release was Living Fossils (2019). Arnson celebrated the band’s 40 years of existence with a European tour in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkIuWIZVkM

Jad Fair says, “Half Japanese will have a new album released in November on Fire Records.” Jad’s art was recently featured at the Hiromart Gallery/Tokyo, while David has created a Facebook page where fans can pick up his colorful images for, well, mere bags o’ shells, as far as we can see - https://www.facebook.com/David-Fair-Painting-107055447700859/

Despite health issues for several members, Bad Brains has collaborated with Element to make BB themed skate wear https://www.elementbrand.com/mens-collection-bad-brains/ and added some killer live tracks to its YouTube channel.

Former WGTB programmers John Paige and Steve Lorber have been presenting Rock Continuum on WOWD-LP FM 94.3 since 2017.

Mike Stax continues to give excellent motivation for hunting down a pair of Beatle boots - Munster released the Loons’ 7” EP, A Dream In Jade Green, last year. The latest issue of Ugly Things, said by Stax to be heavily focused on the Pretty Things’ Phil May, was reported in early July to be nearing publication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jSc7gEAv0

Razz (the) Documentary will tell the story of how an uncommonly combustible rock band - especially with the Bill Craig/Abaad Behram line-up - helped spread the Flamin’ Groovies gospel while throwing down oddly compelling originals and taking the two-guitar thing up several notches - the producers are purportedly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether anyone can ever recreate the experience of being in an altered state via obsessive, sometimes conversational repetition of certain chords, anchored by Ted Nicely rethinking just what can be done with a bass guitar, given girth by Doug Tull’s intuitive drumming; with Mike Reidy the heat-seeking missile somewhere near the center... well, I doubt it. ‘Cause at this point you’re feeling no pain and it’s not about drinking; there is no room for anything but water - the beer will be knocked over when you’re this busy matching David Arnson’s other-side-of-the-front-line’s leaps into joydum while PCP’d out yahoos from the sticks learn the hard way that hugging Marshall amps can lead to lifelong repercussions. There (in case nothing I want to say about [the] Razz makes it into the film) - I’ve said it.

Discussions among old friends have confirmed that I’m not alone in being happily surprised at this development - we never expected our actions - which led to the hardcore explosion that’s received a lot more attention... would ever make it into any history book. Yet coverage of many of the D.C.-area musicians featured in this piece also comes with Punk The Capitol, A History of D.C. Punk and Hardcore, 1976-1983. Spring 2021 is the projected date for streaming/DVD release.

Ivan Julian came back from a scary 2015 bout with cancer to do a show in New York in 2016. The cancer has returned. Friends have organized a GoFundMe to raise money for surgery and basic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDB_3by-xkI

The Shakemore fest also refuses to fade, promising “eight hours of streaming steaming video” on August 1. Sounds will be provided by R. Stevie Moore, Velvet Monkeys, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Half Japanese, Johnny Spampinato, Weird Paul and the Chumps, among many, many others.

Despite having played at CBGB and other alternative venues in 1979, at the height of the New Wave, Gary Wilson’s work is so distinctive, he’s rarely been included with any musical genre other than the oft-vague “experimental” category. Folks were too unmoored by his visceral performances to get behind him. Wilson’s 14th album, Tormented, was released by Cleopatra in February.

Paul Collins recently published a book that he wrote with Chuck Nolan; I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (Hozac Books).

As “Heath,” Michael Layne Heath, a journalist who contributed to (the) Infiltrator and many other ‘zines, published My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed in May (Hat & Beard Press).

In April, X released its first album in 35 years; Alphabetland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1I-laItPI

As exciting for me as any of the above is Richard Hell with the Heartbreakers’ 2019 release of Yonkers Demo 1976. Hell’s “You Gotta Lose” is one of my picks for best punk/new wave singles of all time. The Heartbreakers version is, predictably, messier than the Robert Quine guitar-spiked classic. Its more excessive charms are growing on me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QnsysCN_A

This piece could go on and on - compiling it has been exhausting. The best part has been the response to my social media call for any info I didn’t have re: the D.C.-centric scene I left for New York in 1983. Musicians anxious to keep their compadres’ names alive have hammered that post with 138 comments to date. Urban Verbs percussionist Danny Frankel, who’s played with a colorful spread of artists including Beck, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, John Cale and k.d. Lang, made a point of being sure I knew about the passing of Marc Halpern, a source of obvious pain. People were worried I wouldn’t mention John Stabb (Government Issue - 2016), rockabilly player Billy Hancock (2018), Fred “Freak” Smith (Strange Boutique/Beefeater - murdered in Los Angeles, 2017), John Hansen (Slickee Boys - 2010), record store owner/Wasp Records starter/music supporter Bill Asp, Jimmy Barnett of The Killer Bees, and David Byers.

One of the hardest for me to write about is Chris Morse, whose 1984 passing from a drug overdose wrenched so many - I managed to get an obituary into, I think, The New York Rocker (that physical trek was part of a long-ago blur; a very hot day of traipsing over steaming concrete in a narrow-skirted dress to deliver the copy). Chris popped up in my dreams for years - one “visitation” pushed me to write a poem about it in the ‘90s. Morse, who played in Rhoda & The Bad Seeds and worked as a doorman at The Pyramid after moving to NYC in the early ‘80s, was on one of the Urban Verbs’ early flyers. I’m on another.

(Top to bottom: Me in an early Verbs flyer/photo shot at the Atlantis; Chris Morse on another Verbs flyer)

I ended up getting so burnt out on the responsibility of populating this sad roll call, I’ve started a memorial page for them all on Facebook. The nature of truly alternative music is such that many of its lights still fail to fill the pages of major publications. Many of these lights gave a great deal of their lives, if not everything, for the art they believed in. It’s good to remember them, and those heady early days. It’s good to enjoy what we still can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA3IfK76mmI

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tkmedia · 3 years

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For Popovich and USA it's gold or nothing

After their first Olympic defeat since 2004 in their opening game against France and without many of their best players, the US men's basketball team face an uphill struggle to leave Tokyo with the gold medal. Gregg Popovich knows better than anyone that nothing less will do

By Huw Hopkins Last Updated: 26/07/21 4:44pm

Kevin Durant and Gregg Popovich during the USA's opening defeat to France on Sunday The last time Gregg Popovich worked with Team USA at an Olympics was 2004. He was an assistant coach for the men’s team that won bronze, and his first foray at the Olympics as head coach might be heading towards a similar outcome. In 2004, his superstar power forward Tim Duncan for the San Antonio Spurs was a leader on the USA roster. Duncan was also one of the few top Americans to have not dropped out of representing the country after the FIBA Americas Cup, where the team had romped to an undefeated championship a year earlier. So if Team USA go out sad are we finally going to have to have a conversation that maybe it was just Tim Duncan’s greatness and not Coach Pop that made San Antonio so great for so long? 👀— Mo Mooncey (@TheHoopGenius) July 25, 2021 But without Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal, Vince Carter, Mike Bibby, Ray Allen and Elton Brand - all top players at the time in the NBA - or other elite players such as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett or Chauncey Billups, the USA fielded a group of young men without much professional experience and only B-grade talent.When you look back at the names that joined Team USA, it’s not a terrible list: rookies LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony were there, as was sophomore Amar'e Stoudemire. But so too was Emeka Okafor, who hadn’t played a minute of professional basketball. They were joined by Shawn Marion, Richard Jefferson, Lamar Odom, Carlos Boozer - none of whom were ever the best guy on a good team - and a pair of dominant ball handlers in Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson. And of course Duncan, who was arguably the best player in the NBA.Had all these players been brought in at their peak this could have been a gold medal team, but the mix of inexperience and lesser talent wasn’t enough to support the duelling superstars that represented chalk and cheese on the hardwood, Iverson and Duncan.The Dream was over

Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan at the 2004 Athens Olympics It was the worst iteration of what some were still calling the ‘Dream Team’. The moniker came from the 1992 Olympics when professional basketball players from the NBA were first allowed to suit up for their nation. The men’s USA team comprised Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullen, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen, and, in a nod to the college athletes that previously represented the USA at the Olympics, Christian Laettner. Aside from the latter, there had never been a better collection of basketball talent put together.Vice-President of NBA Europe Ralph Rivera believes it was this moment that acted as a catalyst for the rest of the world catching up to the USA in terms of talent. “It was pivotal,” he told Sky Sports earlier this year.“I think you can trace back the big bang of the NBA to the Dream Team in 1992. Pau Gasol talked about the fact that it happened in his hometown and inspired him and a generation of kids like him to follow the players and the league. In fact, that was the impetus as well for opening the European office two years later in 1994.”The Dream Team nickname had probably worn off by 1996, but there were still top players on each incarnation, and some still used the term going into the 2004 Olympics, when the talent had taken an undeniable dip.

The 1992 USA Men's Basketball Team The NBA had also seen an influx of internationals as a result of the first Dream Team inspiring other nations to pick up the orange ball. Detlef Schrempf became the first European All-Star in 1993, and his fellow German Dirk Nowitzki had become a good player in the early 2000s. Serbia’s Peja Stojakovic as one of the NBA’s leading scorers in the mid-2000s, China's Yao Ming had become an international sensation and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili had joined Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich's Spurs from France and Argentina, respectively.These days, the floodgates of international NBA talent are well and truly open with around a fifth of the NBA’s roster spots being taken by players overseas.There hasn’t been an American Most Valuable Player since James Harden in 2018, and the Defensive Player of the Year Award hasn’t been presented to someone from the USA since 2017.With the likes of Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert and Joel Embiid cementing their status as All-Stars, as well as leading their respective teams to top seeds - and Giannis leading his to an NBA championship - during a season when 107 NBA players were born outside of the USA, the growth and influence of overseas talent within the league is clear.Even so, several top international players are now finding they can make more money as a star in a league in their home country rather than accepting a similar amount to play limited minutes in the NBA.Simply put, the USA needs its best players to turn up year after year if they want to compete for gold.Get worse before you get better

Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson are awarded their bronze medals in Athens It almost seems like the USA needs to lose an Olympics before the country reworks its international programme. After missing out on a gold medal in 1988, then NBA Commissioner David Stern worked closely with USA Basketball and the Olympic Committee to bring in professionals. It took three Summer Games of succeeding before gold eluded them again in 2004.Many complained that the players had stopped taking it seriously when Tim Duncan’s team settled for bronze, as there was a mentality for some to rock up one year before the Olympics took place, play a tournament to get used to FIBA rules, then win the big one.After 2004, the USA scrapped the coaching staff and started from scratch with the players. That meant assistant coach Gregg Popovich was out of the fold - he was considered for the top job but apparently didn’t show enough hunger for the position - and Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski took over on the proviso that he would stick around to set up a pathway.Players were also told that they have to commit to multiple summers, attend training camps, compete in tournaments and be part of a wider group that would be selected on merit closer to the time. There was no guarantee they would be selected and they would have to give up their time.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony with their gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade were NBA veterans in 2008. They had become the best players (or certainly on the top tier) and they returned to Team USA to avenge their rookie-year embarrassment on the national stage. The big guns were brought in: Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd were now elder statesmen in the league but they set the tone for a ‘gold or nothing’ mentality. And a few younger players - such as Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Dwight Howard - learned from the best.This is when the Dream Team was officially retired. In came the Redeem Team.It ushered in three more Olympic gold medals, but when Krzyzewski retired from international commitments after Rio, Gregg Popovich finally got his run as head coach.The problem? The top players were beginning to tire of giving up their free time.Wade and James completed their third Olympic cycle and stepped away from 2016. Anthony stayed on but that would prove to be his last. That team successfully ushered in a new generation that included Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Paul George and Jimmy Butler, but after the Rio Games, some of the top stars had lost motivation to attend training camps and tournaments each summer.At the FIBA World Cup in 2019, in his first major tournament, Popovich was left without much star power and a lot of youth. The result was a defeat to France in the quarter-finals and a miserable seventh-place finish.No LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, James Harden, nor Kevin Durant. The scoring was instead falling onto the shoulders of 22-year-olds Donovan Mitchell and Jaylen Brown, and a 21-year-old Jayson Tatum.

Donovan Mitchell at the 2019 FIBA World Cup We might look back on some of those names one day with the same appreciation that we do with Wade, Anthony and James today, but they were not reliable superstars at that point. The only hope is that some of them will have been able to use that experience at Tokyo 2020, when some of the truly elite players will have returned.Covid-19 threw a spanner in that plan. With the Olympics delayed and such a short turnaround between the 2019-20 season and the 2020-21 season, more players opted for rest this summer, and many of the best players were simply not available. Popovich was once again given one or two superstars, supported by a number of players who are second, third, and even fourth, fifth and sometimes sixth or seventh options on their NBA teams.The USA men’s Tokyo 2020 roster is not the Dream Team. It’s not even the Redeem Team. And the loss against France in their opening contest, as well as losses to Australia and Nigeria during warm-up exhibitions, shows that Popovich might not have the best luck when it comes to international competition. The rest of the world has officially caught up to the USA’s men’s teams, and if a nation can’t put out it’s best players, it will be tough to get on the podium.If they don’t win gold, it could mean another overhaul at USA Basketball to regenerate the enthusiasm that top American-born players need to show up and represent their country. And if Popovich is ousted, it could put a permanent dent on the career of someone who many consider as the best basketball coach of all time. Read the full article

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bppwhalon · 3 years

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The pure in heart

Sermon on the Feast of John Keble

14 July 2021

Lamentations 3. 19-26

Matthew 5: 1-8

The Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon

In May 2010, Geoffrey Rowell, sometime Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, suggested that the annual meeting of the Old Catholic bishops and the Anglican bishops in Europe be held in his native land, the Hampshires, as a (mostly) walking retreat.

We began at Winchester Cathedral, warmly welcomed by then-Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt and his wife Louise, and we wandered from there, visiting churches and abbeys, all under the expert tutelage of Bishop Geoffrey. He was a rather singular fellow, confirmed bachelor, inveterate traveler, brilliant historian especially of Newman, professor at Keble College, Oxford, and had first been Bishop of Basingstoke, Suffragan of Chichester Diocese, before translating to the Diocese in Europe. We met on the first day of our respective episcopates, All Saints Day, 2001, and resolved “come hell or high water” — that’s what we said — to become friends. And so we did until his death in 2017.

Geoffrey had carefully and knowingly constructed our retreat, not telling us where we were going until we got there. And so, to the great pleasure of my fellow bishops and me, we ended at John Keble’s grave, in the little town of Hursley. We spent the day wandering around his parish church with a young and knowledgeable guide. I was struck by how humble the church is, how low the pulpit. And yet from this obscure place a great light shone, and in some ways it shines still.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” In some respects, Keble’s life reminds me a little of the effect of the ministry of Jean Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, who was sent to a remote village “where he could do no harm”, and yet had a tremendous effect well beyond the little town of Ars-sur-Forman.

John Keble is considered the initiator of the Oxford Movement, a revival of the ancient catholic roots of the Church of England. The first seeds had already been sown by John Henry Hobart, third Bishop of New York, whose sermons preached in England in 1823 had made a great impression, especially coming from a suspect bishop of the former colonies. On July 14, 1833, in the annual sermon preached for the opening of the Assizes, the law courts in Oxford, Keble launched into an indictment of the Church of England as apostate, sold out to being nothing more than a government fixture. It was an immediate sensation, especially coming from a professor of poetry and not some weighty churchman in high office. Soon Keble was joined by other authors of “Tracts for the Times”, including notables such as Edward Pusey and John Henry Newman. And thus was born the Oxford Movement.

I don’t think I have to tell this congregation about the effect of that movement, not only for Anglicans but also for the wider Church including the Roman Catholic and many Reformed churches. But it did cost Keble. Calling the Church and England together “apostate” is no way to win friends in high places.

For instance, one promising young priest was told by his mentor, “Now remember if you become Keble’s curate, you will lose all chance of preferment for life.”[1] Besides being attacked for his apology of the Catholic Church in England, Keble had many personal tragedies, including remaining childless with his beloved but frail wife Charlotte. She outlived him by six weeks and is buried next to him under an identical tombstone. The verse from Lamentations surely fits Keble’s spirituality: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

Besides the slow but growing recognition of his personal holiness and tender care of his flock, Keble’s parish preaching eventually became famous, and people traveled long distances to hear him. 12 volumes of sermons were published after his death in 1866. His 1830 volume of poetry for Sundays and holy days, The Church Year, was a smash hit, selling out 158 editions by 1873. Along with another collection, Lyra Innocentium: thoughts in verse on Christian children, Keble made enough money to fully refurbish his church building. He edited the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Richard Hooker’s magnum opus, and I have used his edition for 38 years now. He also translated the works of the second-century martyr-bishop Irenaeus, the Psalms from the Hebrew, created the hymnal ancestor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, and wrote a very consequential treatise on eucharistic adoration, a vigorous argument that the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is and always has been consonant with the doctrine of the Church of England.

Above all, what struck me that day at All Saints, Hursley, were words inset in the steps leading to the chancel: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” This sums up the man and the effect he had on others, for those who see God help others find God as well.

The worst day of his life, he once said, was in 1845 when he received word from Newman that he was leaving for Rome. And yet in Keble’s last year, Newman visited him in Hursley along with Pusey. Only Keble could have pulled that off…

We just sang “Blest are the pure in heart”, whose first and third stanzas are Keble’s own.

1 Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see our God; the secret of the Lord is theirs, their soul is Christ's abode.

3 Still to the lowly soul he doth himself impart, and for his dwelling and his throne chooseth the pure in heart.

May the Holy Spirit work such purity in our hearts. Amen.

[1] See a delightful history of Keble and his town, by Charlotte Yonge, his contemporary: "John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne", at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6405/6405-h/6405-h.htm#page1

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upinternet · 3 years

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The Artists for Digital Rights Network (A4DRN) announces participants for Artists for inaugural Artists for Digital Rights Program

The Artists for Digital Rights Network (A4DRN) is hosting the Artists for Digital Rights Program 2021, a program that invites artists from the Philippines and Indonesia to undergo workshops on disinformation and produce an output that surfaces the complexities of disinformation in their local contexts.

Selected by a jury composed of advocacy workers from the Philippines and Indonesia, the following artists working across different disciplines such as video, photography, performance, creative writing, computer science, and architecture, will be presenting their work in an artistic publication and roundtable discussion to launch at the end of July. The program was made possible after receiving seed-funding from Doublethink Lab (DTL) and Innovation for Change-East Asia (IC4-EA).

Sofia Tantono (Indonesia)

Sofia Tantono is a writer whose works have been published in Anak Sastra, Yuwana Zine (Issues 2 and 3) and Klandestin. Besides literature, her interests span politics and various humanities disciplines from sociology to theology. When not writing, she can be found reading, browsing the internet and keeping herself updated on the news. She can be found on Instagram @sofias.writing and her blog https://sofiatantono.wordpress.com/. For her project, Sofia Tantono will be presenting a short story titled "Our Favourite Liar", which will explore disinformation as a socio-cultural phenomenon in Indonesia through three epochs in the country's landscape: Suharto's New Order, the year before the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election and the COVID-19 pandemic. She aims to illustrate how disinformation that benefits powerful groups often festers in an Indonesian civil society distrustful of the government when said disinformation comes from sources purportedly not of large institutions.

Gabriel Brioso (Philippines)

Gabriel Brioso is an interaction designer, visual artist and architect based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He graduated Cum Laude in De La Salle - College of St. Benilde's (DLS-CSB) BS-Architecture program in 2017. His work operates on the central theme of exploring the intersections of art, architecture, craft, and design. He has been involved in several noteworthy exhibitions during the past years including The Oxymoron of Patterns in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2015), The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018), and the Authenticity Zero Collective in the Gateway Gallery in Cubao (2019). He has collaborated with DLS-CSB's Center for Campus Art (CCA) on several exhibitions including The Oxymoron of Patterns (2016), Architecture=Durable (2016), and Naichayu (2017). Gabriel Brioso’s project is a digital AR object: “The Disinformation Interface” which aims to probe the allure of the social media experience in parallel with the underlying withdrawn disinformation structures that operate within it.

Marian Hukom (Philippines)

Marian Hukom is a Manila-based visual artist. A graphic designer by profession and illustrator by craft, she loves making and publishing her own comics. Her books usually range from neon autobiographies, fantasy, slice of life, and also advocacy driven content. Once an avid gig and convention goer, Marian is now a homebody doodling the night away. As a virgo workaholic, she keeps busy with her organizations, multiple hobbies, and ongoing books. Marian Hukom will be working on an autobiographical comic "Screen time", depicting her own experience with disinformation. With screens flowing as vertical narrative panels, it aims to show a POV of this experience and it's journey.

Kiki Febriyanti (Indonesia)

Kiki Febriyanti is an artist and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Kiki holds a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Indonesian Literature, she also completed John Darling Fellowship 2015 “Visual anthropology” at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and had held artist residency at the International Center of Graphic Arts MGLC in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. Recently her video work took part in the Every Woman Biennial London 2021 exhibition. Her works are focusing on the topics of gender, human rights, and culture. Kiki will be working on her project "Click Bite" which explores the instant consumption habits of people on the internet that cause cyber-bullying.

Waki Salvador (Philippines)

Waki creates experimental work through the different mediums he chances upon - digital, traditional, film, music, and code. He blends these together to create noisy and brash art. Currently, he is focusing on creating net-based installations that explore disruptive aesthetics and themes. Visit him on social media @urlcompost. Waki is working on his project "Constructed Misdirection", a website that visualizes the descent into the rabbit hole of links being clicked due to disinformation.

Adrian Mulya (Indonesia)

Adrian Mulya is an independent photographer based in Jakarta. A self-taught photographer who explores humanity through pictures. He published Winners of Life (2016), a photobook of Indonesia women who survived the 1965 genocide. He also worked on a collective memory project about his Chinese Indonesian identity So Far, So Close. Adrian Mulya will work on a project called “Serabutan”, exploring the work conditions of people in the gig economy era. The project starts with exploring how the media is glorifying the merger of 2 tech companies Gojek and Tokopedia, contrasting it with the lived experiences of the drivers

Mariah Reodica (Philippines)

Mariah Reodica is a filmmaker, writer, media archivist, and musician based in Manila, Philippines. Her background as a musician–not formally trained, but ouido,–reflects in her practices of filmmaking and writing. She was awarded the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism at the 2019 Ateneo Art Awards, and currently maintains the column Platforms in The Philippine Star’s Arts and Culture section. She has been an artist-in-residence at Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2018); Load na Dito Projects (2020); WSK (2019); and Larga Artist Residency, Silay City (2019). Reodica is affiliated with the COCONET Digital Rights Network and Imagine a Feminist Internet-SEA. Her band The Buildings recently released their second album on Japan-based label Call and Response Records. Mariah Reodica will be working on a written artistic response to the transmission of ideas and conversations via online spaces, taking the internet as more than an abstract appendage to reality, but a public space in itself.

Alfred Marasigan (Philippines)

Heavily inspired by emotional geography, slow television, and magic realism, Alfred Marasigan conducts serendipitous research and transmedial practices in real time. Guided by time as storage, the moment as artwork, and self-evidence as knowledge, he orchestrates live collaborative ensembles of audiences, histories, actions, materialities, agents, and phenomena ultimately as ongoing efforts to create spaces for various makeshift, convoluted, and anachronistic Filipino queer narratives, among them his own. Marasigan graduated in 2019 with an MA in Contemporary Art from UiT Arctic University of Norway's Kunstakademiet i Tromsø and is a Norwegian Council of the Arts Grantee for Newly Graduated Artists. Currently based in Manila, he is now a faculty member of Ateneo de Manila University’s Fine Arts Department for 6 years. Alfred will work on his project, The B.A.O.A.N.G Directory. The B.A.O.A.N.G (Bertud, Agimat, Orasyon, Albularyo, Nyoroscope, at Gayuma) Directory is a live, developing database of pages dedicated to alternative medicine, folk belief, and contemporary spirituality in the Philippines. Drawing from the garlic (bawang in Tagalog and bawang putih in Indonesian) as method, it ultimately seeks to remap the potential roots of cultural resistance to standard counter-disinformation strategies and present time-tested yet left-field approaches to online truth-seeking epistemologies.

Christina Lopez (Philippines)

Christina Lopez is a 25 year old visual artist based in Manila. Her contemporary art practice ranges from the traditional sense of image production to methods more involvedwith new media. She is interested in the capacity of art to present alternative possibilities; to theorise, to test certain boundaries that are currently in place. There is specific intent to explore power, including its relations, structure, and implications. Recently, she has been producing work that utilizes paranoia as a tool for divination, one that navigates through the obfuscation omnipresent in the production and dissemination of new technologies. The forms she chooses to represent these concepts often involve digital-physical fusion, reflecting that the virtual is inseparable from material realities. By grasping at what is seen and unseen progress is viewed as something that is neither good nor evil, and arguments are presented with commitment to what the future could be. Her work can be found inside and outside of privatised spaces and institutions. She has exhibited in Hong Kong,UK, and the Philippines. She shares her ongoing project: “I will be working on a new iteration of my previous work titled “Portraits (Proxies)”, with a renewed focus on the delineation between humans, trolls, and automata. I am particularly interested in how one can decide and establish what is real from that which is not real in terms of identity and being, and whether or not this delineation should exist in the first place. The work will still make use of StyleGAN generated portraiture, and alongside I will work with a text generation GAN to create ‘profiles’.”

Mirjam Dalire (Philippines)

Mirjam Dalire is a multidisciplinary artist based in Negros Oriental, Philippines. She works with photography, internet-based installation, video, sound, and painting. Mirjam often uses virtual spaces as a staging point for confrontations with her immediate environment, employing satire and humor in her process. Mirjam Dalire will be working on her work, “Death of NoSTrAdAmUs_420” which she will be revisiting “The End by NoSTrAdAmUs_420” a video work on conspiracy theories that she made in 2019. In this new project she will be exploring developing local online hoaxes, two years after The End was released.

*UP Internet Freedom Network President Mac Andre Arboleda is the Project Lead of the Artists for Digital Rights Network

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blogsbyankur · 2 years

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Agricultural Robots Market Size, Growth, Trends and Demand 2022-2030

Recent Developments:

In August 2021, John Deere acquired Bear Flag Robotics for USD 250 million. Bear Flag Robotics was founded in 2017 and specialized in autonomous farming heavy machinery.

The global Agricultural Robots Market size valued to USD 7.57 billion in 2021, is expected to garner USD 35.93 billion by 2030, with a growing CAGR of 18.3% from 2022-2030.

Access Full Description of this report at:

The Agricultural Robots refer continuous technological advancement equipment, machines and applications in across the globe for enhancing the productivity of the farms act as the major factors driving the agricultural robot market. The deployment of these agricultural robots for several functions based on the configuration of the robots including fruits picking robots, weed control, cloud seeding, harvesting, environmental monitoring and soil analysis and the utilization of Agbots is being done with the purpose of reducing the human efforts.

Request sample copy of this report at:

About Next Move Strategy Consulting

For more insights, please visit, https://www.nextmsc.com

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too-much-john-seed · 3 years

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“sᴏ. ʏᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ ᴛᴀᴋᴇɴ ᴍʏ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴀᴍᴇ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ "ʀᴇsɪsᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ". ᴀʜ, ɪғ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟs ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛᴀʟᴋ... ᴡᴇʟʟ, ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴀᴄᴄᴜʀᴀᴛᴇʟʏ sᴄʀᴇᴀᴍ... ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ɢᴇᴛ ɪᴛ ʙᴀᴄᴋ - sᴏᴏɴᴇʀ ᴏʀ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ. ᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ ᴅᴏ, ᴍᴀʏʙᴇ ɪ'ʟʟ ʜᴀɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ sᴋɪɴ ᴀs ᴀ ᴛʀᴏᴘʜʏ ᴀʙᴏᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴᴛʟᴇ.”

—; John Seed

#John Seed July 2021 Collection #far cry 5 #john seed #fc5 #far cry photomode #far cry #far cry edit #one (1) sinful reaper #gaming #jacob seed #joseph seed #one (1) holy daddy #john seed x you #far cry 5 john seed #john seed art #john seed rp

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junker-town · 5 years

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The Bulls are headed in the right direction. Really

In a summer filled with revelations, the Chicago Bulls’ display of restraint came out of nowhere as one of the NBA’s most frustrating franchises made a subtle turn back towards relevance. They filled a position of need in the draft with point guard Coby White and spent free agency doling out reasonable contracts to useful veterans like Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky who can help on the court and inside an impressionable locker room.

For the first time in a long time, the Bulls showed foresight. Their best window to capitalize in free agency before their own young talent starts to eat that cap space is the summer of 2021. The Bulls appear to be embracing a concept they’ve willfully ignored for the past 20 years: pragmatism.

Before an organizational sea change occurs it must be mentioned that recent history elicits extreme skepticism from every Bulls’ fan alive. After Michael Jordan’s second retirement, dysfunction, controversy, and multiple false starts became the club’s calling card. Since 1999, they own the NBA’s eighth-lowest regular-season winning percentage, and have only won five playoff series.

Unforeseen obstacles — like Derrick Rose’s body breaking down — caused suffering. Yet the deepest wounds were self-inflicted by a belief system that’s long prioritized marginal financial gain over team success. John Paxson and Gar Forman don’t strike out every time they step to the plate, but heading into this summer the duo was synonymous with bizarre moves that delayed progress indefinitely.

They turned Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris into Doug McDermott on draft night in 2014, and flipped McDermott (along with the second-round pick that became Knicks’ center Mitchell Robinson) for Cameron Payne. They deemed combining headstrong vets like Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler with neophyte coach Fred Hoiberg a good idea. It’s been one stubborn decision after the next that eventually stripped the organization of all the deference it took generations to establish.

So long as they don’t get in their own way, the Bulls can afford to be (cautiously) optimistic about the future. Combine this summer’s signings with a gifted young roster, future cap flexibility, and the everlasting truism that large NBA markets lead a less complicated life than small ones, and what you have is a sleeping giant.

If last year was rock bottom -- the Bulls had their fifth-worst winning percentage in franchise history, and won their fewest games since 2002 -- then organization-wide progress will be judged by the development of their core: Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Coby White, and Chandler Hutchison.

The best-case scenario will yield a franchise point guard, center, and power forward, with an athletic wing on the side. There’s upside in that group and Markkanen, who averaged 18.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game last season, should crack several All-Star games.

Factor in some offensive punch provided by 24-year-old Zach LaVine and 26-year-old Otto Porter Jr., and the Bulls can market themselves as the Eastern Conference’s most intriguing Team of Tomorrow. Particularly if someone else hits beside Markkanen. (The Atlanta Hawks will have something to say about that, but it’s a debate worth having.)

Reasonable top-to-bottom infrastructure matters — along with head coach Jim Boylen’s ability to enforce a culture everyone can get behind — but genuine talent is the NBA’s most powerful ingredient. It can alter a franchise’s entire reputation if harnessed the right way.

Assuming everyone is able to get on the same page and stay healthy, Chicago is feisty enough to scrap at the bottom of the playoff picture in 2020. That’s mostly thanks to internal improvement, but also a few key signings from earlier this month.

Young, who is as savvy and perceptive as any defender in the league, climbed aboard on a three-year, $41 million deal. He may not start, but his versatility and experience will open doors to different lineup combinations that were previously unavailable.

In-game mentorship when sharing a frontcourt with Markkanen or Carter Jr. will pay dividends for each down the line. Young is a basketball monk who won’t look for shots or worry about padding his own stats. That brand of altruism is worth every penny

He and Satoransky — who signed his own three-year deal for an affordable $30 million — will raise Chicago’s collective IQ and function as reliable role players. The fact that neither was given a fourth year on their contract is as crucial as anything.

We don’t know what the exact salary cap will be in two years, but assuming they don’t re-sign Porter Jr. and thanks to non-guaranteed third years on Young and Satoransky’s contracts, a conservative estimate will still let the Bulls sign at least one max free agent that summer. Move on from LaVine (whose contract will be entering its final year) and two max stars might be possible, with Markkanen, White, Carter Jr., and Hutchison still in the fold.

In July 2021, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, LeBron James, Bradley Beal, Blake Griffin, CJ McCollum, Jrue Holiday, Victor Oladipo, and several more franchise-altering figures can become unrestricted free agents. In other words, the Bulls have two seasons to mold themselves into a desirable destination.

Certain advantages (i.e. Chicago is a big city with a humongous fanbase and historical NBA relevance) are already caked in as a draw. The path to becoming a desirable destination exists.

A tremendous amount of luck is required for any team to succeed in free agency. So long as the Bulls don’t sacrifice their financial flexibility for the sake of something relatively insignificant, like a fruitless push for the No. 8 seed, they might be able to end their rebuild overnight. Much like the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers just did. The similarities are there, and a case can be made that Chicago is in an even more advantageous spot than those two clubs were.

The Bulls have more work to do before they can permanently shake their reputation, but the opportunity for change is real. All they need is a little more patience.

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