#Manu is team iron man

[lokilow-keystabbing]

Made poster inspired by this post

I'm team Müller

#Thomas is team Cap #Manu is team iron man #i make dumb shit like this when I'm losing my mind #fc bayern #bayern münchen #manuel neuer #leon goretzka #thomas müller #jamal musiala #joshua kimmich #harry kane #serge gnabry #leroy sane

[indomitcble]

⟨  manu rios.  cis man.  he/him.  20.  ⟩   LOADING  FILES …  did  you  know  TONY STARK AND PEPPER POTTS’  child’s  name  is  SEBASTIAN ‘BASH’ STARK?!  i’ve  seen  them  around  town  listening  to  LEGENDS ARE MADE  by  SAM TINNESZ!  they  seem  to  be  quite  charming,  but  also  incautious,  but  it  makes  sense  given  they  are  a  HEAD OF R&D  at  STARK INDUSTRIES.  i’d  watch  out  for  them,  though,  official  files  say  they’re  a  HUMAN  skilled  in  ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY MANIPULATION.  no  surprise  there  !  

𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄:  sebastian james stark

𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄(𝐒):  bash, bas, seb, mini stark, mini me 

𝐂𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒:  iron knight

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄(𝐒):  bash

𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄:  august 15, 2002

𝐀𝐆𝐄:  20 years old

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑:  cis man

𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐒:   human

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒:  he/him

𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:  biromantic

𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:  bisexual

𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌: manu rios

𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐎𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃:  right handed

𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘:  anthony ‘tony’ stark (father), virginia ‘pepper’ potts (mother), morgan stark (sister)

𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌: legends are made by sam tinnesz

𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒:  a mind capable of shaping the future , youthful arrogance masking deep-seated insecurities , self-indulgence and bad habits , fast sport cars marking the asphalt , red and gold soaring through the sky 

𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒/𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒:  genius level intellect & technology manipulation through implanted specialized nanobots 

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒:  6′1, light brown hair, green eyes

𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: he is team ‘villains suck and should chill and stop trying to destroy the world, thanks’, but he isn’t as against villain kids as it could be expected; as long as they’re cool and not following on their parents’ footsteps they can stay. there’s always a level of mistrust though. 

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘…

the son of tony stark and pepper potts, sebastian was born a prince, not one with a crown on his head but one with the world in his hands and a mind capable of thinking the future and making it happen too. he’s never wanted for anything and it shows. he was born in new york city and raised there with his older sister, morgan.

he was very young when it became clear he was way ahead of the curve, yet another stark genius. sebastian had an innate aptitude for anything related to engineering and mechanics that was only fed by his need to be close his father and answer to whatever expectation he thought the world had of him. schooling was nothing for him and with an accelerated curriculum based on his own interests, he graduated with a masters degree by the time he was seventeen.

recently out of university and ready to take the world, the teenager’s recklessness finally caught up with him. he was seventeen and leaving a party when he was involved in a car accident; the car was destroyed and bash was rushed to the hospital. after a few days in a coma, he woke up only to find out that he was now paralyzed. his doctors gave him a 40% chance of walking again with a lot of patience and physical therapy. bash, of course, didn’t like the odds and started working on a different solution.

he locked himself into his workshop and worked on his little secret project nonstop, much to his mother’s exasperation and worry. only six months later, he was ready to make a guinea pig out of himself with the help with bots that he had created himself. the goal was to use nanobots to fix the damage that had been done to his spinal cord and it did work, but it also gave him much more. it changed his nervous system completely and gave him the ability to manipulate technology around him.

up to that point, he had honored his mother’s wishes of staying away from the hero business, but once he could conjure his own suit with only his thoughts she lost that battle. bash joined the young avengers, and has been with the team for three years; he has since become one of the team leaders. and when he’s not out there protecting the world, he works at his family’s business in the research and development department where he has the freedom to play around with his craziest ideas.

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒…

his current codename is iron knight, but everyone expects that one day he will take over iron man for his father.

he has a dual sb in mechanical engineering and in electrical engineering and computer science and a sm in mechanical engineering both from mit.

he is known to be a party boy and a player who can’t seem to keep a relationship to save his life.

he can go for days with nothing but coffee and ideas. 

he can probably fix your car and your computer in under fifteen minutes.

on the outside, he is very self-confident and not rarely considered cocky but he has some deep-seated self-doubt. 

very self-critical and always expecting too much out of himself because people expect that too.

can be obsessive when he puts something in his mind. he won’t stop until he achieves his goals even if he has to kill himself in the process.

he is restless. always thinking of some new project, always doing something, never staying still for very long.

𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐖 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐒…

best friend/partner in crime 

science bros

ex-girlfriend he broke her heart

skinny love sort of deal

secret fling (villain kid, other dude who isn’t completely out)

friends with benefits 

flings (plenty, past and present)

love/hate relationship

frenemies with benefits 

[nzfhzrhwsr]

Este blog está abierto a todos vosotros

Este ao, por cierto, el Sevilla estrena proveedor: New Balance. La firma estadounidense, famosa por sus zapatillas, ha entrado de lleno en el negocio de las camisetas de fútbol. Este ao vestirá a equipos del calibre del propio Sevilla, el Liverpool, el Celtic o el Oporto.. También conoceremos a otros personajes no tan famosos, pero nike hypervenom all black cuya historia merece la pena ser contada. Y más cosas. Este blog está abierto a todos vosotros, para que aportéis datos sobre el paradero de sus protagonistas, para que contéis anécdotas o para que propongáis nombres. Es eso posible? Lo es. No es lo más frecuente del mundo, pero hay casos de deportistas profesionales que han jugado sin cruzados (me viene a la mente zattini promoção de botasel del bético y barcelonista Cuéllar). Cómo se sobrepone el organismo a ello? Con un fortalecimiento especial del cuádriceps y los isquitibiales, que son los que tienen que aportar a las rodillas la estabilidad perdida por la ausencia de este ligamento.. Catch y se quedarán con cara de poker, tratando de imaginar qué demonios significan esas siglas y si tendrá algo que ver con el mundo del Wrestling. Catch era la reina de las discotecas en los aos ochenta, número 1 de los top musicales, una rubia que despertaba las fantasías de miles de adolescentes a lo largo y ancho de toda Europa, y que competía despiadadamente con Samantha Foxpor ocupar el póster central delas revistas juveniles. Catch que, al menos para mi gusto, era más elegante (Samantha tenía otras virtudes con la que le sacaba la delantera).. According to the Pacers' schedule, that comeback would follow 45 missed games, in addition to the four he's already missed. After tiptoeing through the tulips as one of the NBA's healthiest, injury luckiest, most stable teams a season ago, the Pacers will play without their leading scorer who, while not necessarily an iron man, has missed just seven games over the past two campaigns for more than 60 percent of this year. While his minutes and play have slid a bit since his All Star peak, Granger's still been the unquestioned focal point of the Indiana offense for the past half decade, averaging 21.6 points per game and a shade under 17 field goal attempts per game over the last five seasons.. Que Phil Jackson tiene muchos anillos? Nadie lo duda, pero que sin los grandes equipos que ha tenido no los tendr tampoco lo duda nadie, por favor. Cierto, tuvo contra

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las cuerdas a los adidas stan smith j white tactile blueSuns con un equipo lamentable, pero perdi la serie, no?? A ver si ahora va a resultar que la gan Phil Jackson, si es listo, se retirar este a a ver querido, dices que phil J solo gana campeonatos por la plantilla. Y Doc no tiene igual porq llego a las finales de este a con un equipo COJO O Q? Te refresco el quintento?el banquillo?no hace falta no? Gran entrenador pero dejar de inflarlo con tonterias. Desde hace aos triunfa en Orlando, NBA City. Un lugar de culto para los millones de aficionados que pasan por Florida y donde pueden disfrutar de una hamburguesa a buen precio, mientras observan todo tipo de detalles que les envuelven en el planeta NBA. Por supuesto, no lo íbamos a olvidar, también hay una tienda oficial en su interior.. Miami tried, at the outset of both the first and third quarters, to

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establish Dwyane Wade as a decision maker (allowing him the chance to either mini melissa picole vidrodish or score off the dribble), and Chris Bosh as a finisher. Bosh showed absolutely no confidence in his offensive game throughout the loss, though. He accurately and quickly nailed a three pointer to start the contest, but the rest of his seven field goal attempts (all misses) were either paired with a hitch or hesitation or both. The Bulls held the Hawks to just five points in the second quarter and led 48 20 at the break. Ivan Johnson had a basket for the Hawks with 2:54 left in the first quarter, and Atlanta did not score again until Al Horford's tip with 5:15 left in the second. The Hawks missed 17 consecutive shots during the drought while getting outscored 14 0.. Hace menos de 24 horas, el Rayo Vallecano sorprendía a todos con la presentación de su nueva segunda equipación, kit que inmediatamente dio que hablar y que lo seguirá haciendo mucho tiempo. Confeccionada por la firma ilicitana

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Kelme, la segunda equipación es negra, y por air max 90 ultra se supuesto, lleva la tradicional franja del Rayo, pero no de uno, sino de siete colores. En efecto, el Rayo lucirá la bandera arcoiris en apoyo al colectivo homosexual en su camiseta durante todo el ao. Craig Hodges. Reputado tirador y campeón del concurso de tripoles del All Star ahora es entrenador de los Halifax Rainmen y el han dado answear sandale copiipermiso para perderse dos partidos para acudir a esta gira a sus 53 aos. Ganó dos anillos con los Bulls de Jordan y no fue renovado tras una polémica visita a a Casa Blanca con Bush. Que Manu ha sido jugador clave en minutos finales en play offs algún ao y alguna ronda no lo duda

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nadie. Que Manu haya sido "más que" Duncan o Parker en el conjunto de 6 temporadas hace dudar y por lo tanto se miran los números. Y ahí están. Calde y parker muy muy bien. Si bosch se da cuenta de que esto es un juego de equipo y sigue doblando balones fuera en vez de comerselas todas, (que est bien que encare, pero no siempre). Este equipo gana mucho. Aún me acuerdo la pedazo defensa de Lee a Harden. Lee está sorprendentemente bien ahora. Yo tengo claro como será la defensa contra GSW. From here, the typical NBA coach rides his veterans in order to secure that first or even second win in order to take a little pressure off before going back to the unstated business of collecting lottery balls for May. The problem for Wittman is that his veterans have failed him, miserably. Trevor Ariza is exactly where you think he is, missing 8 of 12 shots in the loss.

[shiftingpath]

to my Exalted Secret Santa

Three options under the cut:

Ledaal Manus, Twilight Caste Solar Spymaster Cathak Argon, “The Forge of Melted Chains”, Slayer Caste Infernal Prince Black Wings to Blot the Sky, Day Caste Abyssal Renegade

1) Ledaal Manus, Twilight Caste Solar Spymaster

Manus is a beautiful, feminine, very privileged young Dynast-turned mastermind of the clock city of Towersong. He acts as social prep/cleaner and advisor to his small Circle, and specializes in seeing everything and making people underestimate him so he can work freely.

He is extremely pretty in a soft, gentle way. He dresses in a sort of semi-Victorian style he’s borrowed from Thorns, brocade vests and slim trousers and so on. He still likes the very high collars and wide sleeves common in Realm fashion, though. He is slim and around average height. His skin is very pale (though should still be recognizably Realm in ethnicity, which for our Creation is closest to Chinese). His right eye is icy pale blue, and his left is a darker, warmer blue (having had it replaced after the original was cut out by a Lunar). His hair used to be white graded to blue at the bottom, kept in a four-foot braid down his back, but recently Ligier chopped it off in an ill-advised duel. Now it falls just below his jaw, short at the back and longer in the front, pure white, and he keeps it pinned back, sometimes with the longer front “french braided” along his scalp. (Drawing either is totally fine.) He wears small oval spectacles and especially loves wearing purple. He has a strong aversion towards displaying skin, so covers up to his neck, down to his wrists, but if it is relevant, he has a brand around one bicep- a chain with a crown linking it like a lock.

He idolizes his Air Aspect father, and often wears a piece of pale blue clothing as if it were his token. Though he has a lot more jewellery, he almost always wears a simple gold circlet on his brow, a brass gear ring nailed through his finger, and a silver pin (on his cravat or coat) of an upright-pointing clock hand, a human hand before it, an eye on the palm- a gift from his Zenith queen when she appointed him her Hand.

He is brilliant and cunning and a dedicated problem-solver, which are put to the test in his role as right hand to one of the queens of the city. (He is always up to his neck in paperwork and responsibilities and happy about it. A consummate bureaucrat, he is Bureaucracy Supernal.) He fights using the sword he pulled from a tree (fulfilling local prophecy at the time), the long and delicate moonsilver-and-starmetal daiklave Silver Riddle. Having recovered his long shorn braid from Ligier, Silver Riddle now wears it like a tassel. He also occasionally uses one of a matched set of artifact assassin blades, the Sun-and-Wind Talons. Manus’ has the image of an orichalcum sun laid over a blue jade sky, but he usually keeps it hidden under his sleeve. In combat he fights with Solar Melee and the counter attack-focused evocations of Silver Riddle, and for sneaky purposes has a little training in two separate Martial Arts styles concerning assassination.

He is a Solar Circle sorcerer, initiated in all three times via scrying into the depths of the giant clock he lives on. He has three signature spells: a clock version of Corrupted Words (which flares his eyes with a subtle emerald flash), Lost Hour’s Offering (in which he uses weird clock magic to remove memories, taking the form of him ringing an ornate hand-bell), and The Titan’s Held Breath (in which he steps between the spaces between Autochthon’s laboured breaths and can run through a strange green-hued clock dimension until he either passes out from nausea or he chooses to allow time to function again).

His anima banner is gold in the center and fluxes to reds and purples towards the edges. The image is a hand presented like the Vitruvian Man, fingers extended and closed simultaneously. An eye opens wide in the palm. Lines of proportion encircle the fingers and their joints and extend out into the rest of the world to display the symmetry of Creation.

Reference:

Normal clothes 1 2 3

His stupid yachting costume

“Savage warrior of Karn” clothes

= = =

2) Cathak Argon, “The Forge of Melted Chains”, Slayer Caste Infernal Prince

Argon’s backstory is Extremely Second Edition and will be under construction until whatever year Infernals are released. However, here is what is not confidential:

Argon was raised in House Cathak alongside his twin sister Araka, raised to believe that obedience to his superiors was right and good, and that it felt right and good, and that his superiors deserved his unquestioning loyalty and admiration. His sister learned alongside him, but all she took away was that the strong get what they want. She exalted as a Fire Aspect, and the two attended the House of Bells together, Argon praying to exalt every step of the way. Araka’s carelessness with her power and her personal abuse of his loyalty to her were key to convincing Argon that his superiors did not, in fact, deserve his loyalty. A metody, one of the acid Malfean elementals, took advantage of his onset of doubt to offer him the demons’ bargain. He exalted as a Slayer, and fled the Isle. Araka, always pressing their relationship beyond that of brother and sister, refused to accept his fate, and wastes countless resources pursuing him wherever she finds a trace of his passing.

Argon is not particularly tall, with a slim build, but is muscled like a lightweight boxer. His skin tone was originally the same as Araka’s, a natural sallow skin native to the Isle, both with brown hair, but as her exaltation brought out ruddy auburn tones in her skin and hair, Argon’s turned his more yellow, mimicking the virulent acid of his co-adjutor. His hair is pulled in a ponytail, and it writhes with uncomfortably living force; distinctly more disturbing than the way an Air Aspect’s hair might blow in unseen breezes, Argon’s seems more to twitch and curl like some strange animal. His eyes are a brilliant acid yellow, and he smells of brimstone. In all ways, he is meant to mimic a Dragon-Blood of Malfean element, with the same sort of elemental “Tells” aspected towards the demonic.

He wears essentially a House of Bells training outfit slightly pimped up to look more majestic. Grey soft clothes underneath, maroon and red tabard over top, with a bright yellow band to signify his loyalties. He bears a yellow jade short spear partially encased in basalt, the Standard of the Beggar-King. From just below the head he has flown a long pennant, bearing only a field of solid black laced with brilliant green pavement cracks. He wears a tainted iron hearthstone amulet after conquering a brutally physically punishing manse in Malfeas itself, and has set a Gem of Infernal Regeneration into it. As a result the scars he bears from his time in the House of Bells and later in Malfeas have filled with basalt; the most noticeable ones are across his nose and cheeks and one deep one in one shoulder, though several smaller ones splash across his arms and torso.

Argon tries to be patient, noble, stern and proud, and emulate the virtues of the Prince as taught in his childhood. He has come to regard the Isle as corrupt, but still believes that a good, benevolent leader exists, in the form of his patron, the Brass Dancer Malfeas, whom he knows almost nothing about and only caught a glimpse of, dancing, for a few minutes once. He believes that he is destined to be the treasured, benevolent leader of some nation, and that he just hasn’t found it yet. His surety that people want to follow strong, loving leaders is somewhat undermined by his powers, which lace him with radioactive essence and punish the slightest misstep on the part of his devoted followers. He is trying his best to believe that he hasn’t signed on to the wrong team, and steadily and stubbornly turns his eyes from any proof that he might not be the worthy leader he believes he is.

He has By Rage Recast (3rd Edition willing), so whenever he goes iconic he transforms into a gargoyle-like beast (an Argoyle), with talons on his hands and feet, a thick tail, bright yellow armored scaling, sometimes black horns, if you liked Gargoyles the feel of it is ripped right out of that. His caste mark is a searing green X as if cut by a blade, and his anima banner is a broken crown with a cracked emerald in its brow.

Reference:

1 2 3

= = =

3) Black Wings to Blot the Sky, Day Caste Abyssal Renegade

Wings was raised as a princess in one of the tiny nations of the Hundred Kingdoms. It was expected that she would be married to broker some allegience, and was made into a creature of beauty and desire, with pure white hair nearly to her knees, unblemished rosy skin, and tattooed with a pattern of white lilies down her body. She would rather have died, and she did.

The princess would have been laid to rest in a state ceremony unlike any her tiny nation had ever seen, had anyone been able to find her body. But as soon as the touch of death came upon her, she rose a different creature. Shearing their hair off, they bound their chest with a strip of cloth ripped from their closet of sumptuous gowns. Clinging to shadows, they left their realm, following the call of something deep and terrible.

Wings is small of build but raring to go. Their hair is still pure white at the sides, cropped short, but they’ve grown the rest into a wild mohawk and dyed it bright red. Their skin is an ashen grey, and they still bind with a strip of no-longer-white cloth that was once a very nice dress. They have been training in martial ways since they left home, and they wear a pair of soft, baggy pants and a red sash around their waist. They have the old style pointed deathknight ears, pierced with several silver rings, and their bottom lip has a thick silver ring as well. Their eyes are crimson, and their cheeks are tattooed with a crest of black points to denote their royalty. The lily tattoo is still in evidence, but they’ve been tattooed many more times since, marred with black bands like shackles and barbed wire from their brief time at the Walker’s side.

During that time, they dressed considerably more princely, with fine, high-necked black tunics and scarves, ornate silver armor set with jet and garnets. They left that all behind in a mirror of their exaltation, when they realized how awful the Walker really was, though they kept the oversized soulsteel smashfists he gave them. Wings has no intention of returning those, and is kind of fiercely enjoying the idea of the fight they’ll give the Walker if he tries to retrieve them. They still tend to throw on scarves sometimes, looping them over their shoulders like dark wings, and they have a weakness for garnets.

They’re a little hotblooded these days, trying to play it cool and not attract too much attention, but unable to stop themself from interfering when their temper gets the best of them. They tend to swear a lot of very earnest and compelling oaths, which they have to grudgingly follow through on in the sober light of day.

Their anima starts as a halo of ominous darkness like a storm in the evening, and culminates in a rushing cloud of bats, their detail reduced to nothing but rapid beating wings, white teeth, and shrieking horror.

I don’t have a design for the smashfists but i’d love to see them on either renegade wanderer Wings or loyal new servant Wings with their full deathknight regalia. They’re originally from a concept where all deathknights can turn into bats so like, forgive furry Wings in the references

Reference:

1 2

#exalted #exalted secret santa

[junker-town]

TITLELESS: 16 NBA teams that flamed out too soon

Were Gary Payton’s Sonics the best team to never win an NBA championship?

Our quest to uncover the best NBA team to not win a title begins with the teams that suffered mind-boggling playoff disappointments.

Our quest to uncover the best NBA team to not win a title begins with the teams that suffered mind-boggling playoff disappointments. These 16 clubs fell short of their ultimate goal due to an early-round upset, a brutal collapse, or both. Meet the Flameout Division.

As always, we will count down from worst to best. We begin with a long-forgotten upstart and end with one that has become a cultural icon.

16. 2012-13 Denver Nuggets

ERA: The Post-Carmelo trade.

RECORD: 57-25

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +5

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to No. 6 Golden State Warriors (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): None

COACH: George Karl

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Ty Lawson, Andre Iguodala, Danilo Gallinari (injured in playoffs), Kenneth Faried, Andre Miller, Wilson Chandler, Kosta Koufos, Corey Brewer, JaVale McGee

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

These guys were the victims of Stephen Curry’s loud arrival on the league’s biggest stage. The Warriors’ eventual rise and the Nuggets’ immediate demolition conspired to turn this Denver squad into a footnote. Too bad, because they were innovative, a joy to watch, and a cool example of the power of depth. If only Danilo Gallinari didn’t tear his ACL late in the regular season...

15. 1986-87 Atlanta Hawks

ERA: Dominique.

RECORD: 57-25

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.2

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to No. 3 Detroit Pistons (4-1)

KEY STAR(S): Dominique Wilkins.

COACH: Mike Fratello.

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Kevin Willis, Doc Rivers, Randy Wittman, Tree Rollins, Cliff Levingston, Spud Webb, Mike McGee, Jon Koncak, Gus Williams, John Battle.

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1987-88, 1993-94

Dominique Wilkins’ inability to even advance to a conference finals is framed as a casualty of the deep Eastern Conference. He was great, the argument goes, but his teams didn’t have enough to beat the Bostons and Detroits of the world.

That’s largely true, but 1986-87 was different. Nique’s Hawks earned the No. 2 seed in the conference, and he was lauded for improving his all-around game. With Boston wobbly due to injury and Detroit still a year or two away, this was Atlanta’s chance.

They didn’t lack for confidence. Before their second-round series with Detroit began, Hawks power forward Kevin Willis was asked if the series would go the distance. “No, I think it will go five,” he replied.

Technically, he was right. Atlanta lost Game 1 at home after Wilkins shot just 7-18 from the field, then fell behind 3-1 after Isiah Thomas drove from the top of the key for a layup in the closing seconds of Game 4.

Atlanta then blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead in Game 5 when they suddenly forgot how to score. That was their title shot, and they blew it.

14. 1946-47 Washington Capitols

ERA: Red Auerbach, pre-Boston

RECORD: 49-11

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +9.9

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in BAA semifinals to No. 2 Chicago Stags (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Bob Feerick

COACH: Red Auerbach

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Bones McKinney, Fred Scolari, Johnny Norlander, John Mahnken, Irv Torgoff

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1948-49

Meet professional basketball’s original chokers! Coached by Red Auerbach – yes, future Celtics legend Red Auerbach – the Washington Capitols were the standout team in the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America, a precursor to the NBA. They were known for their excellent team play, high-octane offense, conditioning, and unique triangle zone defense that toed the line of legality. A skinny forward named Bones McKinney was the fulcrum, while a quick guard named Bob Feerick was the offensive star.

Feerick in particular was a stylistic marvel for his time. If you have 30 minutes to spare – and I know you do – this rare footage of a 1949 Capitols-Baltimore Bullets game is a delight.

Heat check!

And contrary to popular belief, Tracy McGrady wasn’t the first player to try to pass it to himself off the backboard.

Let’s talk about that zone more. Midway through the season, the BAA banned zone defensive styles that attempted to slow the game down. (Remember, this was the pre-shot clock era.) But the Capitols’ triangle approach was still legal because it actually sped the game up. Here’s how a 1947 New York Daily News article described Washington’s strategy:

“Standing zone defenses were banned earlier this month by the progressive BAA, in the interest of more action for the fans, but this stratagem is a triangle of weaving tall men the Caps use under either backboard that insures them of nearly every rebound. The other two are used for fast breaks or give and go plays.”

So, cherry-picking. What visionaries!

So how did these dudes not win the title? After losing just one game at home during the regular season, they inexplicably dropped the first two games of their conference finals series against the Chicago Stags by double digits. Told you they were chokers.

13. 1968-69 Baltimore Bullets

ERA: Wes and Earl the Pearl, pre-Elvin Hayes.

RECORD: 57-25.

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +4.3

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East semifinals to No. 4 New York Knicks (4-0 with home court)

KEY STAR(S): Earl Monroe, Wes Unseld.

COACH: Gene Shue.

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Kevin Loughery, Gus Johnson, Jack Marin, Ray Scott, Leroy Ellis.

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1969-70

The Bullets of the late 60s and 70s were one of the league’s forgotten powerhouses. Ironically, it was their worst regular-season team — an aging 44-win unit that turned back the clock in the 1978 playoffs — that gave D.C. its lone title. I considered the 1973 trade for Elvin Hayes as the line of demarcation between eras, which made these Bullets of Earl Monroe, Gus Johnson, and a rookie Wes Unseld the obvious choice.

Their four-game series loss to the hated Knicks had a slight asterisk because Johnson missed the series due to injury. Still, the Bullets had the NBA’s best record that season thanks largely to Unseld and Monroe. They should not have been swept.

They got their revenge on the Knicks two years later to reach the Finals, but that Bullets team was just 40-42 in the regular season. The 68-69 edition was much better.

12. 2017-18 Toronto Raptors

ERA: Kyle and DeMar

RECORD: 59-23

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +7.8

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers (4-0)

KEY STAR(S): DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry

COACH: Dwane Casey

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Serge Ibaka, Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright, Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, CJ Miles, Jakob Poeltl, Norman Powell

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2015-16, 2016-17

I toyed with the idea of excluding all Raptors teams due to last year’s title, but considered the Kawhi Leonard-DeMar DeRozan trade and the firing of Dwane Casey as significant enough changes to split the era up. That means we get to flash back to a time when the Raptors were known for choking in the playoffs and getting owned by LeBron James. Ahh, memories.

11. 1976-77 Los Angeles Lakers

ERA: Kareem before Magic

RECORD: 53-29

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +2.8

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West finals to No. 3 Portland Trail Blazers (4-0)

KEY STAR(S): Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

COACH: Bill Sharman

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Lucius Allen, Cazzie Russell, Don Chaney, Kermit Washington, Don Ford, Tom Abernathy, Earl Tatum, Mack Calvin

OTHERS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

The only decent Lakers team of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era before Magic Johnson showed up was exposed as a one-man band in an embarrassing Western Conference Finals sweep. The contrast between Bill Walton’s speedy, team-oriented Blazers and Kareem’s slow, battered Lakers was stark. Kareem outscored Walton, but none of Kareem’s teammates showed up.

It didn’t help that starting power forward Kermit Washington missed the series (this was before he became a pariah after punching Rudy Tomjanovich) and point guard Lucius Allen barely played due to a toe injury.

10. 1994-95 San Antonio Spurs

ERA: Admiral, pre-Timmy

RECORD: 60-22

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West Finals to No. 6 Houston Rockets (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): David Robinson

COACH: Bob Hill

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Sean Elliott, Dennis Rodman, Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro, Chuck Person, J.R. Reid, Terry Cummings, Doc Rivers, Willie Anderson

OTHERS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1989-90, 1990-91, 1993-94, 1995-96

This was the best of the David Robinson teams Before Timmy, and also the one that suffered the most humiliating defeat. The 1995 title race was wide open, and San Antonio had home-court advantage throughout the playoffs and the league’s MVP. In the end, that MVP was outplayed by Hakeem Olajuwon in a Western Conference Finals where the Spurs dropped all three of their home games.

This was one deep team. Dennis Rodman got weird by the end, but he was still a force during the regular season. Nine players averaged at least 15 minutes a game, and each position had a top backup. They could go big or small depending on the matchup and the needs they had during each game. But all of those advantages faded away as Olajuwon dominated.

9. 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs

ERA: Post-Big 3

RECORD: 67-15

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +10.6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to No. 3 Oklahoma City Thunder (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan (last season)

COACH: Gregg Popovich

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Tony Parker, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, Patty Mills, David West, Kyle Anderson, Kevin Martin, Jonathon Simmons

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2016-17

You’re probably wondering why this team (and the 61-win version the year after that lost to Golden State when Zaza Pachulia slid under Kawhi Leonard’s ankle) is eligible for the tournament despite retaining four key core pieces and the legendary head coach from the 2013-14 title squad. Two reasons

The 2015 signing of LaMarcus Aldridge qualifies as a core-altering event.

This was the year the Spurs became Leonard’s team. His usage jumped nearly three points from 2014-15 and would leap up to beyond 30 the next season. Meanwhile, Tim Duncan ended up retiring after the season.

This was a forgotten powerhouse due to the presence of the 73-win Warriors. Ultimately, they were a paper tiger who couldn’t raise their level to get past a Thunder team that coasted in the regular season.

8. 2008-09 Cleveland Cavaliers

ERA: Young LeBron

RECORD: 66-16

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +8.9

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to No. 3 Orlando Magic (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): LeBron James

COACH: Mike Brown

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Mo Williams, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Daniel Gibson, Joe Smith

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2009-10

The regular-season fundamentals of these Cavaliers are as good as any in the tournament. Sixty-six wins, a differential approaching nine, and arguably LeBron James’ best individual season. Putting them as a No. 8 seed seems tough.

On the other hand, Mo Williams was their second-best offensive player.

7. 2013-14 Los Angeles Clippers

ERA: Lob City

RECORD: 57-25

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6.9

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in second round to No. 2 Oklahoma City Thunder (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Chris Paul, Blake Griffin

COACH: Doc Rivers

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes, Jamal Crawford, Darren Collison, Jared Dudley

OTHERS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2012-13, 2014-15, 2015-16

Choosing between Lob City teams was tough. The 2014-15 team was nearly as good as the 2013-14 edition and fell in much more excruciating fashion. The 2015-16 team wasn’t as good, but their title window was briefly opened by Stephen Curry’s ankle injury before both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin got hurt. The 2012-13 version under Vinny Del Negro has a great case, too, though there was plenty of dysfunction lurking beneath the surface.

But I chose the 2013-14 edition for three reasons:

It had the best point differential of the bunch.

It was the most well-rounded thanks to J.J. Redick’s arrival, Matt Barnes’ underrated season, and DeAndre Jordan’s improvement.

Their playoff run was the weirdest of all, from Donald Sterling’s demise to Paul’s out-of-body experience in Game 5 against the Thunder.

6. 1999-00 Portland Trail Blazers

ERA: Pre-Jailblazers

RECORD: 59-23

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6.5

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West Finals to No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers (4-3)

KEY STAR(S): Rasheed Wallace, Scottie Pippen

COACH: Mike Dunleavy

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Steve Smith, Damon Stoudamire, Arvydas Sabonis, Detlef Schrempf, Brian Grant, Greg Anthony, Bonzi Wells, Jermaine O’Neal

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1998-99

If you want to break Portland fans’ hearts, send them this video.

5. 1992-93 New York Knicks

ERA: Patrick Ewing’s Knicks

RECORD: 60-22

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6.2

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to No. 2 Chicago Bulls (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Patrick Ewing

COACH: Pat Riley

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: John Starks, Charles Oakley, Charles Smith, Anthony Mason, Doc Rivers, Greg Anthony, Rolando Blackman

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1991-92, 1993-94, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00

It’s easy to wonder in hindsight how a team with John Starks as its second-leading scorer had any shot against Michael Jordan’s Bulls. At the time, though, the Knicks seemed to have Chicago’s number, pushing them to seven games in the 1992 playoffs before upgrading their roster the next season. They led 2-0 in the East Finals and had a chance to win Game 5 before Charles Smith was stripped, stopped, stopped, and STOPPED AGAIN right under the basket.

That denied Patrick Ewing his best shot at a ring – the 93 team was comfortably better than the ‘94 team that lost in the NBA Finals and a tad more formidable than the ‘97 club that added Allan Houston and Larry Johnson to their regular core – and our chance to watch a repeat of one of the wildest brawls in NBA history.

4. 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks

ERA: Dirk, Before Carlisle

RECORD: 67-15

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +6

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to No. 8 Golden State Warriors (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Dirk Nowitzki

COACH: Avery Johnson

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Erick Dampier, Jerry Stackhouse, Devean George, DeSagana Diop

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 2002-03, 2005-06

It was tough picking between the 2006-07 edition of the pre-Rick Carlisle Mavs and the 2005-06 one that was 2-0 up on Miami in the NBA Finals before Dwyane Wade’s never-ending free-throw parade turned the tide. The 2002-03 edition that went 60-22, beat the Kings in Round 2, and battled San Antonio despite key injuries deserves more love too.

The 06-07 team ended up getting the nod because they were the clear favorites that year and because this was Dirk Nowitzki’s finest regular season. Maybe things would be different if they played anyone other than that weird We Believe Warriors team that matched up so well with them.

3. 1990-91 Portland Trail Blazers

ERA: Clyde’s prime

RECORD: 63-19

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +8.7

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in West Finals to No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Clyde Drexler

COACH: Rick Adelman

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Buck Williams, Kevin Duckworth, Clifford Robinson, Danny Ainge

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1989-90, 1991-92

The other two Portland contenders of the Clyde Drexler era made the NBA Finals, but this was their best team of the bunch. They went 27-3 to start the season, handily beat the eventual champion Bulls twice, and also won 16 in a row to end the year before giving their starters limited minutes in the season finale.

But after slipping by Seattle and routing Phoenix, the Blazers blew a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to the Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Terry Porter missed a three that would’ve tied the game, and Buck Williams bricked two free throws with 30 seconds left. The Blazers elected to defend the Lakers straight-up on the ensuing possession instead of fouling, but surrendered an uncontested dunk to Sam Perkins at the shot clock buzzer.

They never recovered from that collapse and fell in six after Magic Johnson flung the ball down the court to nobody in the closing seconds.

Imagine these Blazers in the 1991 Finals instead of a Lakers team that didn’t have a healthy James Worthy. Wouldn’t they be the favorites against the Bulls?

2. 2018-19 Milwaukee Bucks

ERA: Giannis and Bud

RECORD: 60-22

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +8.8

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in East Finals to No. 2 Toronto Raptors (4-2)

KEY STAR(S): Giannis Antetokounmpo

COACH: Mike Budenholzer

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, Eric Bledsoe, Brook Lopez, George Hill, Nikola Mirotic

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: None

Is it harsh to put last year’s Bucks on this side of the bracket considering Toronto’s eventual title? I don’t think so. Milwaukee had the league’s best point differential by a mile, a 2-0 series lead, and had Toronto on the ropes in overtime in Game 3. What happened thereafter is a collapse, even if history rewrites it as Kawhi Leonard’s triumph over a too-green Giannis Antetokounmpo.

(Interesting question: if the 2019-20 edition fails to win the title, would they be this tournament’s No. 1 overall seed?).

1. 1993-94 Seattle Supersonics

ERA: Kemp and Payton

RECORD: 63-19

POINT DIFFERENTIAL: +9

PLAYOFF RESULT: Lost in first round to No. 8 Denver Nuggets (3-2)

KEY STAR(S): Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp

COACH: George Karl

OTHER KEY PLAYERS: Detlef Schrempf, Kendall Gill, Sam Perkins, Nate McMillan, Michael Cage

OTHER SEASONS CONSIDERED FROM THIS ERA: 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98

It was tough choosing between these Sonics and the 95-96 edition that made the Finals. The 95-96 team won more games and went deeper in the playoffs. Their two stars, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, were better versions of themselves. Maybe they’d have given the 72-10 Bulls more of a series if George Karl put Payton on Michael Jordan from the start.

But the 93-94 edition had a better point differential (+9 to +7.8) in a season without expansion teams, as well as a stronger supporting cast and a much scarier trapping defense. Kendall Gill was an emerging star, Nate McMillan wasn’t injured, Sam Perkins could do more, and Michael Cage was significantly better than Ervin Johnson in the middle. Plus, Bob Kloppenburg, the architect of Seattle’s famous SOS pressure defense, was not on the staff by 1996.

It’s easy to forget how monumental that Nuggets first-round upset was at the time. Michael Jordan was retired, so the title was up for grabs. Seattle’s net rating was higher than any other team and nearly double of the eventual champion Rockets. They won 16 of their first 17 games and 30 of their first 35. They had blown out the Nuggets in each of the first two games of the playoff series. This was the peak version of one of the most enthralling non-champions in NBA history, not the 1995-96 version.

[ramajmedia]

Titans Season 2 Cast & Character Guide | Screen Rant

Get to know all of the heroes and villains that'll be appearing in Titans season 2. It's perhaps fair to say that Titans' debut season garnered a divisive reaction among fans. Opting for a no holds barred approach, Titans was a grittier take on the teenage DC superhero team that many will be used to and charted the initial coming together of Robin, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy as they attempted to unravel the mystery behind the shadowy organization hunting them down.

Titans season 1 ended on a huge cliffhanger, as the team were overpowered by Rachel's father, Trigon, but some viewers were left underwhelmed at the distinct lack of action between the four titular Titans throughout the first season. Several trailers have now emerged for Titans season 2, and the show appears to be taking a very different approach, embracing its comic book origins and bringing the Titans team firmly into focus.

Related: Titans Season 2 Review: Heroes Step Out Of The Darkness & Into A New Home

Interestingly, the Titans season 2 trailer has glossed over Trigon completely, instead showing the characters long after season 1's finale, as Robin remembers the old Titans days, builds a brand new team and comes up against Esai Morales' Deathstroke. With characters old and new to explore in the coming episodes, here's a full guide to all the cast of Titans season 2.

The focal point of season 1, Brenton Thwaites will continue to lead the Titans in season 2. Seemingly splitting into two distinct timelines, Titans will explore Robin's past as the leader of his original teenage superhero team, and Dick's present as he attempts to construct a brand new version of the Titans. In the present, Dick burned his Robin costume, which could potentially lead to a transformation into Nightwing.

Thwaites portrayed the son of Orlando Bloom's Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the Australian actor had several long-running TV roles in his homeland, most notably as Stu in Home and Away.

Rachel acted as the central plot device of Titans season 1, as baddies rushed to capture her and the protagonists strove to protect her. Season 2 looks set to retire that game of cat-and-mouse, and will see Rachel learn to control her powers and become one of Dick Grayson's new generation of Titans. Rachel has her comic book-accurate appearance in Titans season 2, complete with a red gem in the middle of her forehead.

Also Australian, Raven is Croft's first major television role, but the actress has previously appeared in 2016 science fiction effort The Osiris Child, and, much like her co-star, enjoyed a recurring role in Home and Away.

Now that Kory is aware of her extra-terrestrial heritage, new sides to the character will surely emerge in Titans season 2, with the latest trailer suggesting some trouble after members of her own race arrive on Earth. How will Kory's past impact her blossoming relationship with Dick Grayson? And will she be able to juggle her new responsibilities as a member of the Titans with whatever mission her own people thrust upon her?

Anna Diop has enjoyed a varied career thus far, appearing on TV in the likes of 24: Legacy and Greenleaf, while more recently scoring a part in the new Jordan Peele horror, Us.

Ryan Potter's Beast Boy was arguably underused in the first season of Titans, but he still enjoyed a compelling personal arc, as viewers learned his Doom Patrol origins and watched on as he hopelessly fell in love with Rachel. Unfortunately, Gar has barely featured in the Titans season 2 footage released thus far, suggesting that the character will remain more a source of comic relief than a central member of the Titans.

Cast in his Titans role after an audition for Tim Drake's Robin in forthcoming DC movie, The Batman, Potter will perhaps be best known as the voice of Hiro Hamada in Big Hero 6, a role he subsequently continued on the TV spinoff series. On the big screen, Potter also starred in the 2018 romance film, Running For Grace.

Related: Titans Season 2 Could Be Great (If It Properly Introduces Nightwing)

The exuberant and immature Jason Todd is returning in Titans season 2, this time bumped up to the status of a series regular, rather than recurring character. Todd's enthusiasm for crime-fighting sees him declare the return of the Titans live on TV, but the season 2 trailer also shows him coming to blows with Dick Grayson - an inevitable clash given their vastly different attitudes to both vigilantism and Bruce Wayne.

Curran Walters has previously appeared in several smaller TV roles, with parts in New Girl, Too Close To Home and Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever. However, Walters is also set to feature in Do Not Reply, a high school-based horror venture from Daniel and Walt Woltosz.

Although only introduced at the midway point of Titans season 1, Donna Troy quickly became an integral member of the cast, helping to link Dick's past and present while acting as his moral compass - not dissimilar to her own Justice League mentor, Wonder Woman. Donna looks set for an even more prominent role in Titans season 2, featuring in both flashbacks and the modern timeline, where she can be seen fighting alongside Starfire in the new Titans setup.

Prior to Titans, Leslie had recurring roles in The Man In The High Castle, Shots Fired and Graves, and has made single-episode appearances in the likes of Hawaii Five-0, 90210 and Elementary.

Batman briefly appeared in Titans season 1, but this was mainly during a dream sequence created by Trigon in Dick Grayson's mind. The real Caped Crusader will instead be played by Iain Glen. Grayson appeared to despise his former mentor in Titans season 1, but the famous duo look to be on better terms now, with Wayne encouraging the formation of a brand new team of budding superheroes under Dick's leadership.

Iain Glen will, of course, be most familiar to viewers as Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones, the brave and loyal knight forever consigned to the friendzone by Daenerys Targaryen. Outside of Westeros, Glen boasts an impressive resume that includes the Resident Evil movies, Tomb Raider, Downtown Abbey and Spooks.

Taking over main villain duty from Trigon in Titans season 2 is Deathstroke. This DC villain was memorably played by Manu Bennett in the Arrowverse and was originally slated to feature in the DCEU, before plans were drastically changed. Cinema's loss in TV's gain, however, as Deathstroke will be on the hunt in Titans, seemingly as part of both the past and present timelines.

Viewers may remember Morales from his starring roles in NYPD: Blue, Caprica and, ironically, Jericho. The actor also recently turned up in the Netflix series Ozark, which has been renewed for a third season.

Related: Predicting How Titans Will Do Jason Todd's Red Hood Arc

Minka Kelly as Dawn/Dove - A key part of season 1, Robin's ex-flame, Dawn Granger, will return in Titans' second season and find herself in disagreement with current partner, Hank, about whether to continue their crime-fighting lifestyle. Kelly has previously starred in Charlie's Angels, Parenthood and Almost Human.

Alan Ritchson as Hank/Hawk - Clearly still jealous of Dick Grayson's tryst with Dawn, Hank Hall is battered, bruised and ready to give up crime-fighting for good...if his girlfriend will let him. Ritchson is no stranger to major franchises, having previously appeared in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies as Raphael and as Aquaman in Smallville.

Joshua Orpin as Conner Kent/Superboy - An exciting new addition to Titans season 2, Superboy (and his dog) were seen at the very end of the first season, escaping captivity. This clone of Superman looks set to come to the Titans' rescue in their fight against Trigon. Another Australian addition to the Titans cast, Orpin is a relative newcomer to the world of film and TV.

Chelsea Zhang as Ravager - Ravager is the daughter of Deathstroke, and can be seen in the Titans season 2 trailer training alongside Dick Grayson. However, Ravager's exact loyalties are sure to come into question, despite her father being largely absent during childhood. Zhang's most prominent previous acting gig was as Brittany in Andi Mack, but she can also be seen in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Related: Titans Season 1: Ranking The Episodes

Chella Man as Jericho - Not winning any father of the year awards, Jericho is another of Deathstroke's children - one that is rendered mute in the DC comic universe by an enemy of his father's. Jericho has the ability to physically possess others via eye contact. Chella Man is best known as a YouTube personality, and has been a prominent, inspiring voice for representation of disability, sexuality and gender in the media.

Drew Van Acker as Aqualad - Aqualad is apparently part of the original Titans lineup, but no one has seen or mentioned him in the present timeline, leading some to suspect that the superhero's death may be behind the split of the first Titans' grouping. Van Acker will be familiar to fans of Pretty Little Liars as Jason, and he also starred in Training Day as Tommy Campbell.

Natalie Gumede as Mercy Graves - The presence of Lex Luther's sidekick in Titans season 2 is surely connected to the introduction of Conner Kent, and may even set up the supervillain himself for an appearance in later seasons. Aside from a single-episode stint in Doctor Who, Gumede's biggest role came in the British soap Coronation Street, playing the abusive Kirsty. She also competed on Strictly Come Dancing, the UK version of Dancing With The Stars.

More: Titans Is Better On Netflix Than DC Universe

Titans season 2 premieres September 6th on DC Universe.

source https://screenrant.com/titans-season-2-cast-character-guide/

#screenrant

[classicdaisycalico]

Mario Headcanon # 54

Alternatively titled “What the English names of all the creatures living in Sarasaland probably are!

For a long time, I kept wondering to myself why the enemies of the original “Super Mario Land” were never translated into different languages like the other Mario games before them. Of course, I later found out there was a different development team behind it, so coming up with different names in multiple languages for literally every enemy was probably not high on R+D1′s list of priorities, since it started out as their creation, after all, and they were pretty much all Japanese. Also, the team was incredibly small.

But today, I decided to document what I thought would be some halfway decent English names for some of the enemies whose names have not been changed into different languages. The Japanese names for the enemies I created names for are BOLDED AND IN ALL CAPS. The names I thought up (some of them aren’t actually “names” but I thought they’d just…fit) are bolded and italicized.

Also I’m putting this under a “Read More” so nobody scrolls through their dash for 7 hours, because this post is gonna get a bit long. If you make it to the end of this post without feeling tired, congratulations!

COMMON ENEMIES: Goombos Bombshell Koopas Piranha Plants Bullet Biffs

BIRABUTO ENEMIES: Flies BUNBUN: ….idk, probably just Bees? They look most like the ones from the “Galaxy” games since both kinds carry spears, but the only difference is that the ones in Birabuto are skinnier. (Their more aggressive behavior also seems to be like that of Africanized honey bees, more commonly called “killer bees”, which are hybrids of European and African honeybees.) GAO: Literally they’re just sphinx enemies that look like lions…Sphinx Lions? Yeah I’m gonna go with that

MUDA ENEMIES: TORION: They look like Sushi (shark enemies) so I guess they’re Sushi HONEN: Basically Fishbones MEKABON: I’m calling them Mecha-Buddies because they look so cute and are shaped like friends even if they try to throw their heads at you. Look at those big ole eyes! YURARIN (BOO, too I guess): They look like seahorses but breathe fire like dragons so I’m gonna call them Dragon-Horses GUNION: (EDIT) Apparently “Super Mario Odyssey” has some very similar octopus enemies in this game called “Gushens”, and to be honest, I’m gonna say they’re the same thing. Not only are the names similar, but they look a lot alike as well (water-based octopus enemies with Blooper-like mouths)!

EASTON ENEMIES: GANCHAN: Rocks. They’re rocks. Boulders. With eyes. Nothing else. TOKOTOKO/BATADON: Well, “Super Mario Odyssey” already gave them an English name: Moe-Eye! They even wear sunglasses, too, just like them! Some of them just have wings, is all. (Fun fact, I was looking up Rapa Nui culture and apparently at one point they practiced a religion that worshipped a bird man, or “tangata manu”, which means “man bird”. Some of the Moe-Eye in this game have wings, like birds and since Moai are supposed to resemble humans, I think it makes sense. Ironically, when tangata manu was a thing, moai were not. Also I’ve noticed that “tangata”, their word for “man” is an anagram of “Tatanga”, the name of the game’s antagonist and mysterious space ”man”. Interesting.) SUU: They look like Scuttlebugs, so I’m calling them Scuttlebugs. Kumo (yeah, I know “kumo” is just the Japanese word for “spider”, but if the Mario series can get away with calling eels in that universe “unagi” (literally the Japanese word for “ freshwater eel”), who’s to say it isn’t acceptable with tarantulas?

CHAI ENEMIES: Chickens Roto-discs Pipe-fists PIONPI: They’re based off of jiangshi (Mythical creature from ancient Chinese folklore; essentially a zombie who behaves like a vampire, except it doesn’t feed off of blood, but off of something’s life force. The body is still really stiff so all they can do to move is hop around holding their arms out for balance). So…basically they’re Jiangshi. ROKETON: They’re basically Lakitus in fighter rockets…so…Rockitu? I mean, their heads look like Lakitu heads. NYOLOLIN: Basically they’re Cobrats that don’t hide in vases. I’ve read that king cobras can live in highland forests in South China, and Chai is apparently based off of mythical ancient China…so there you go. POMPON FLOWER: It’s basically a cross between a Volcano Plant and a Ptooie…Volcano Ptooie? CHIKAKO: I know some sources call them “Glitter”, according to the wiki, but they look like computer monitors that function like air mines, except they’re airborne. Mine-itors?

BOSSES: KING TOTOMESU: Apparently “Totomesu” is just Japanese for “Thutmose” which was the name of an Egyptian pharaoh. It’s only fair that the king of the sphinx is named after an affluent ruler of a desert kingdom. So…I think that “King Thutmose” sounds about right. DRAGONZAMASU: …..probably “Emperor Draco”. “Draco” is the Latin word for “dragon”, and since this thing is the leader of the dragon-horses, I gotta give him some important-sounding title of some kind. HIYOIHOI: It was hard to think of one, but after many hours of researching the Rapa Nui and Maori languages I literally just typed “large rock” into Google Translate and “Tokanui” was the answer to all my problems. Chief Tokanui. (”Nui” means “large” and “Toka” means “rock” or “stone”. The full word itself also means “boulder”. Interestingly enough, the “Toka” part reminded me of the Japanese name of our Moe-Eye friends, “tokotoko”. It’s almost like coming full circle. Who knew?) BIOKINTON: Maybe Tatanga’s right-hand man is a really disfigured jiangshi Lakitu? Maybe this jiangshi Lakitu is a noble official from centuries past, complete with traditional garb (like many other jiangshi, who are usually noble officials from the Qing dynasty, apparently) but is so ugly he hides behind his cloud and throws chickens at things hoping his victims die so he can fully revive himself by stealing their life force? I think I’m going to name him Lieutanant General Gui. (It’s Chinese for “turtle” and Lakitus are technically turtles, since they’re a variant of Koopas. And according to Qing bureaucratic hierarchy, commanders were pretty high up in the system.) Maybe I’m reading too far into this… TAMAO: That jellyfish-looking thing with one eye who serves as Emperor Draco’s right-hand…jellyfish? I’m think I’m just gonna call it a Jelly-Clops.

And then there’s Tatanga, obviously; the alien prince, the mysterious spaceman…whatever you wanna call him. His spacecraft, called the “PAGOSU”, can arguably be anglicized as the “Pegasus”, according to the wiki. I’ll take it. Pegasi are formidable creatures in Greek mythology.

#mario headcanon #super mario land #melissa rambles #some of these aren't original names #some of them already exist actually #but they fit these enemies so well??? #anyways i hope my jumbled mess of thoughts i've been stewing in my brain for weeks makes sense now that it's all written out!

[intrepidmare]

My observations watching 🎯 Arrow 5x22 "Missing"

All I can say is ASDFGHJMNNBGFF!!! *squeals* I think that's eloquent enough to express my opinion about this episode.

Oliver:

The birthday man!! OMG! He was so freaking adorable unsure if he had a date or not with Felicity. I wanna know of who was the idea of leaving the door open for him to enter. I mean, do you even know the guy you're dealing with? And not just him! If i go someplace and find the door ajar, I get suspicious. I don't know why they didn't go with something more normal as in he ringing the doorbell and Felicity telling him is open. That was it. Oliver would've gotten in relaxed and happy and Curtis wouldn't have ended on the floor. Just sayin'! (Side note: WOW! i love the shoutout to @lordmesa-art and the cake. It was awesome!!) Anyway, he was so happy celebrating his birthday. Pity that the joy lasted so little, damn it!

Oliver killed me with all his fatherly pride. First saying that William is the purest part of him and then calling him his boy. Oh gosh too many feels

Was it just me or anyone else also found Oliver punching Adrian a little satisfying? I loved that punch hehe

My heart broke when Oliver received the call and knew they had his son! Gah! poor baby. Of course he was going to do anything for his son! His boy!

Olicity:

I know many people are going to disagree with me, but I kinda glad that Felicity told Oliver that they should take things slow. That's very, very good. (I have a couple of theories about how they'll be by the end of next episode --I'll post them later--) but taking time to rebuild their relationship is absolutely needed. I've always said since season 3 was over that I wanted to see the courtship between them. We never got to see that. We might have the opportunity now.

The scene in the bunker, omg I loved t! Oliver literally had a heart attack, and not because Felicity frightened him by pointing a gun at him, but he honestly thought she had been taken. You can see his absolute relief that she was there, safe, when he put his hand over his heart. 

And in the scene when Oliver asks Diggle and Felicity to go, I got so many 2x21 and 2x23 kinda feels

Adrian:

It was not surprise to me that everything (getting caught and all) was part of his plan. That was obvious. but damn! Adrian is so psycho, so sick, but so great that I cannot really hate him. I mean I hate everything he does but I enjoy so much watching him taunting Oliver. I loved this

Delicity:

OMG!! I LOVED the scene in the car, calling back to Isabel and 2x23!! It was the best!! I hope we get much more Delicity scenes in season 6.

Team Arrow:

Hahahaha!! Love Thea trolling Oliver about GA and dating Felicity, it was fantastic!! 

Lyla visiting her sister in Chicago... or dealing with certain flashy robber in Central City?

Aww and I love that Lance can see through Rene's mask, and he's so determined to help the guy to get his daughter back 

I wanna know what Quentin got for Oliver as a gift. I know it wasn't socks, tho lol

I gotta say I liked better the scene Felicity with the gun that was on the sizzle reel than the one the used in the final cut.

Paul Blackthorne gave a magnificent performance as Lance in all the scenes with Black Siren

If they hadn't put Malcolm in the sizzle reel, the scene when he appears in the bunker would have been truly suspenseful, but I knew it was him, so... And another thing, where was all his fatherly love when Tommy was alive??!! Cuz it's okay he loves Thea (if you can called it that) but he treated Tommy like garbbarge. My baby deserved a much better father than Malcolm, Tommy was too much of a son for him! #TommyDefenseSquadForever

OMG! How much I've missed Nyssa! We need her more often! and her entrance was the best!!

Deadstroke!! *squeals*

He got just one scene but I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo (pardon my language) FUCKING excited to see Manu again that he deserves his own section. Gosh.. there was so  much speculation about if he actually was going to be there or not. I'm sooooooooooo happy to see him!! Damn the showdown GA/Deadstroke/Prometheus is going to be beyond EPIC!!! I can't wait!!!

Memorable lines:

"Is this-- eh, this might sound a little self-serving but is tactics the only thing behind me staying down here? "Honestly?" "Yeah." "Of course not."  -- Oliver and Felicity

"I am never going to give you the satisfaction of being the man that you think I am" --Oliver

"Human connections are what keep us human" --(ironically by) Malcolm

"You can't live on a island. You've already tried. But you are always gonna have people in your life, Oliver, and they will always need you, for better or worse, baggage and all." --Malcolm (I think nobody guessed he'd be the one to say that)

"Hey, Kid. I'm glad you came back" -- Slade.

Dearies: @hope-for-olicity // @acheaptrickandacheesyoneline //  @mtb1002 // @memcjo // @almondblossomme // @smkkbert // @tdgal1 // @miriam1779 // @emmaamelia95 // @coal000 // @muslimsmoak // @oliverfel4 // @wanderingmmries​ // @nalla-madness​ // @vaelisamaza​ // @felicity-said--yes // @cris101071 // @imusuallyobsessed // @djeniiscorner // @missafairy​ // @felicityollies​ // @marytagus​ // @lalawo1​ // @scu11y22 // @bitchwhwifi // @wherethereissmoak // @smoakingarrow19 // @jaspertown // @emarasmoak // @lynslogic // @pleasantfanandstudent /

#my observations watching #arrow #arrow 5x22 #missing #review #tv show: arrow #Arrow season 5 #season 5 #spoilers #arrow spoilers #Olicity #Felicity Smoak #Oliver Queen #my babies

[omanu]

i have a few tags to do, so im gonna do them all in one post so i dont keep tagging the same ppl in multiple things idk. dont worry, you dont need to do them if u dont want to ♥

i was tagged by @nashira , the angel ♥

¤ nickname: well, irl is manu, but tbh my name is manu. i have another nickname my family uses, that is budi lol

¤ zodiac sign: sagittarius 

¤ height: the best scenario here is 167cm, idk how much that is in ft or whatever lmao

¤ orientation: ….. like everyone 

¤ favourite fruit: cantaloupe 

¤ favourite season: winter and fall

¤ favourite book: i dont think i have one, but like, the last book i read was fucking amazing everyone should read, it’s gay, it’s a series of three books, and it’s called when women were warriors.

¤ favourite flower: all of them? i love flowers in general

¤ favourite scent: RAIN, and ngl the scent of matches 

¤ favourite animal: dogs and cats

¤ favourite colour: light colors and also black and blue

¤ coffee, tea or hot cocoa: hot cocoa

¤ average sleep hours: well now i sleep a lot i would say 8-12 

¤ cat or dogs: BOTH

¤ n° of blankets: just one

¤ dream trip: ANY GOOD BEACH

¤ blog created: idr well, but 2015? or maybe late 2014. but ive been on tumblr since 2009/2010 lol

¤ favourite song: ……..dude idk rn is any song of bts, but on my last fm it’s probably a song by adam, the love of my life. and i love too many songs so i cant just write them all

Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each question. Real answers only. If the person who tagged you has the same initial, you must give different answers. You cannot use the same word twice. Once you enter your answers, tag 10 other people! i was tagged by @superunknwn​ , another angel ♥

Your name: Manu

A four letter word: mole *looks at nashira and sara* A boy’s name: … Manu An occupation: Musician Something you can wear: mittens  A place: McDonald's  A reason for being late: … idk … Moving? Medical matter? idk i used two words but they both begin with the letter m lol Something you shout: mYLES A movie title: Moana Something you drink: Martini An animal: Monkey A type of car: Mercedes  Song title: Ma City by bts lol i was just singing this

i was tagged by @bensun​ a looooong time ago sorry, but i too love doing these so why not. this one is similar to the first tag game, but im doing it anyway

Answer the questions and tag 20 followers you would like to get to know better! —————– Name: Manu

Nicknames: budi. i want new nicknames tbh, cute ones.

Zodiac Sign: sagittarius

Height: 167cm 

Orientation: same, i like all genders but the s*x part is……. uh, idrl

Ethnicity: native brazilian (indigenous) (wow i just saw this on the internet and im using it), mixed with whi*te some time in the past. i would know better if whi*es hadnt done that

Favorite Fruit: Probably blueberries or just berries in general and I loooove smoothies …. with any fruit to be honest

Favorite Season: Fall and winter

Favorite Book: to mention another one im reading the third book of the vampire chronicles, i love the second one, i love lestat

Favorite Flowers: yeah i like flowers, but idrn their names, i just love it

Favorite Color: light colors, but also black and blue again

Favorite Animal: dogs and cats

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: hot chocolate

Average Sleep Hours: 8-12 ay

Cat or Dog Person: BOTh

Favorite Fictional Character: MIDNIGHTER

Number of Blankets I sleep with: just one

Ideal trip: beach!!

Blog Created: 2015 ig 

dear @superunknwn​ tagged me on this a looooooooooooooong ass time ago, sorry ily (actually she didnt tagged me but i wanted to do this so i just saved on my drafts) 
Rules: 
1. go to this site: https://www.random.org/lists/ 2. Pick 15 of your favorite characters or favorite people from your fandoms and list them 3. Tag at least 5 people 4. Have fun with it! 
— 
1. Mom/dad: Apollo!!!!!!!!!! yes!!!!! 2. Your sibling: jim halpert lmaoo thats fine 3. Your grandma/grandpa:  michael jackson 4. Haunts you: park seo joon 5. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: adam lambert (ok…. i would prefer jhope but ok) 6. Your ex: taystee hdsfkhfdksjh 7. Your best friend: MIDNIGHTER 8. Proposed to you: MYLES KENNEDY DHJKSHFDF 9. Your boss: slash….. thats not ideal but glad that i know him 10. The random person you met at the bar: lestat fdkslsd friend 11. Your rival: seo in guk NOOOOO he is my bf wtf 12. Gave you your first kiss: rothen skljkld 13. Drunk and singing karaoke with: lzzy hale my love 14. Played 7 minutes in heaven with:  JHOPE DFHKFSDJKSFHKJSD 15. Gave you your favorite dessert: chris traeger, my favorite dessert is not raisins

tbh im not gonna tag ppl anymore, ive already tagged everybody, yall just can do it

@lionesslindsey tagged me on this a looong time ago too, no surprise

RULES: answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions. (but that’s so many D: I’m too awkward for so many) (relatable lmao) Tagging: everyone i tagged on this long ass post Whoever wants to do this though, go ahead!

1. coke or pepsi: i dont drink soda heh 2. disney or dreamworks: I love them both, but my absolute fav movie is The Lion King. lindsey i just copied ur answer bc BITCH ME TOO, just addin Mulan here 3. coffee or tea: i dont like coffee and i never really wanted to try tea lmao 4. books or movies: Both!!!!! 5. windows or mac: only tried windows 6. dc or marvel: DC pls 7. xbox or playstation: even though i dont have and console, i like ps better 8. dragon age or mass effect: never played. dont have a console lmao 9. night owl or early riser: if those are video games…. never played i dont have a console 10. cards or chess: cards! 11. chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate 12. vans or converse: converse, never owned vans bc im poor af, so i would probably like both 13. lavellan, trevelyan, cadash, or adaar: have no idea what those are 14. fluff or angst: fluff pls 15. beach or forest: beach!!!!!!! 16. dogs or cats: BOTH 17. clear skies or rain: BOTH 18. cooking or eating out: it depends on my mood tbh 19. Spicy food or mild food: both 20. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: what 21. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: a little too cold 22. if you could have a superpower, what would it be: stop time 23. animation or live action: animations 24. paragon or renegade: what 25. baths or showers: baths, even though i dont own a bathtub 26. team cap or team ironman: Iron Man 27. fantasy or sci-fi: Fantasy 28. do you have three or four favourite quotes? not really 29. youtube or netflix: youtube 30. harry potter or percy jackson: hp, but pj was pretty awesome and diverse than hp.... actually I think I only like hp more bc of the movies, but pj... is very awesome too idk 31. when you feel accomplished: 6. dc or marvel: when i finish a drawing 32. star wars or star trek: star wars 33. paperback books or hardback books: as long as i have books 34. horror or rom-com: yikes rom-com 35. to live in a world without literature or music: death 36. pastel colours or dark colours: i love both!!!!!! 37. tv shows or movies: bitch everything is both here 38. city or countryside: city, but i too love contryside 39. if any other zodiac sign could describe you, what would it be: i have no idea 40. if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be: dont ask me that omg 41. cinema or theatre: cinema 42. if you could be any fictional character’s best friend, who’d you be: midnigher’s 43. smiling or smirking: slut for both 44. are you an ‘all or nothing’ type or are you more consistent: i dont do anything so idk dude 45. playlists or your whole library on shuffle: shuffle 46. travelling or staying at home: traveling, but i would love staying at my own home 47. books or fanfiction: Both 48. If you could live in a fantasy world, what world would it be: huh, i had never thought about this, i cant answer now. but probably i would choose to live in one of my daydreaming shit 49. your favorite cartoon: idk i live irmão do jorel, a brazilian cartoon 50. name the weirdest five songs on your itunes, current or past: bruh im dont know 51. mountains or plains: both! 52. favorite anime (or tv show if you don’t watch anime): YURI ON ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 53. which social media platform are you most like yourself on: Tumblr AND youtube 54. What are some of your passions: music 56. If you have a pet, do they do anything interesting/weird (like a cat that plays fetch, a bird that can say funny things, etc)? : not really. my cat sleeps funny sometimes hsajkdhas

#honestly #i have so many tag games to do........ i forget about them. #pls dont get mad when u tag me on something and i end up not doing it #i just forget and i probably love you #also #if we are mutuals. you can tag me anytime

[paullassiterca]

A Woman's Brain Looks 3 Years Younger Than a Man's of the Same Age

Recent research1,2 from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals women’s brains appear to be about three years younger, metabolically speaking, than men’s brains of the same chronological age. The finding offers a clue as to why women tend to maintain their mental acuity longer than men. The original study3 can be viewed for free online, but is summarized by Science Daily:3

“Time wears differently on women’s and men’s brains. While the brain tends to shrink with age, men’s diminish faster than women’s. The brain’s metabolism slows as people grow older, and this, too, may differ between men and women …

The brain runs on sugar, but how the brain uses sugar changes as people grow and age. Babies and children use some of their brain fuel in a process called aerobic glycolysis that sustains brain development and maturation.

The rest of the sugar is burned to power the day-to-day tasks of thinking and doing. In adolescents and young adults, a considerable portion of brain sugar also is devoted to aerobic glycolysis, but the fraction drops steadily with age, leveling off at very low amounts by the time people are in their 60s.”

Gender Differences in Human Brain Metabolism

While gender differences have been found, it’s still unclear exactly how brain metabolism differs between men and women, and why. The team, led by Dr. Manu Goyal, assistant professor of radiology at the university’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, sought to determine how the brain uses sugar by studying 205 individuals (121 women and 84 men) ranging in age from 20 to 82.

Using PET scans, they measured oxygen flow, blood flow and glucose levels in the brain, and determined how much glucose was being used up in aerobic glycolysis in the various brain regions of each person. An algorithm was then used to identify the relationship between chronological age and brain metabolism.

Based on this algorithm, the women’s brains were found to be, on average, 3.8 years younger, metabolically, than their actual chronological age, and this was true even for women in their 20s.

On the other hand, men’s brains were found to be, on average, 2.4 years older than their chronological age. What these findings suggest is that women’s brains somehow convert more glucose to energy than men do during adulthood. Goyal told Science Daily:

“The average difference in calculated brain age between men and women is significant and reproducible, but it is only a fraction of the difference between any two individuals.

It is stronger than many sex differences that have been reported, but it’s nowhere near as big a difference as some sex differences, such as height. It’s not that men’s brains age faster — they start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life.

What we don’t know is what it means. I think this could mean that the reason women don’t experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we’re currently working on a study to confirm that.”

High-Fat Diet Helps Keep Your Brain Youthful

While these findings are interesting, it is perplexing to speculate as to what the reason is. The primary metabolic difference between premenopausal women and men would be their iron levels. Because menstruating women lose blood every month, they keep their iron levels relatively low, unlike men.

Excess iron will lead to oxidative stress that could easily contribute to some of these differences. Even though they surveyed women well beyond their last menstrual cycle, their lowered iron levels in their younger years could easily have contributed to some of the observed differences.

However, there’s no reason for men to fret as you can easily optimize your iron level, as I have discussed previously. Additionally, research clearly shows diet and other lifestyle strategies, including stress management,5 can have a significant impact on your brain’s rate of aging. It’s well worth noting that while your brain is known to use glucose for fuel, it’s not the sole fuel for your brain.

Ketones — water-soluble fats produced by your liver during the conversion of fats into energy — are actually a preferred fuel for your brain, which is in part why a ketogenic diet is so beneficial for your brain function. In fact, a ketogenic diet has been shown to protect against Alzheimer’s disease by keeping your brain healthy and youthful.

In one study,6 the researchers concluded the ketogenic diet acted as a veritable “fountain of youth,” significantly improving neurovascular and metabolic functions in lab rodents, compared to those eating an unrestricted diet, and neurovascular function and integrity plays a significant role in determining your cognitive capacity.

High-fat diets have also been shown to lower your risk of dementia by 44 percent, whereas high-carb diets increase your risk by 89 percent.7 Indeed, glucose directly contributes to atrophy of the hippocampus,8 which means that even if you’re not insulin resistant or diabetic, excess sugar in your diet may still be negatively affecting your memory.

Ketones Are Particularly Beneficial for Those With Diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other Neurological Diseases

Ketones appear to be the preferred source of energy for the brain particularly in people affected by diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, because in these diseases, certain neurons have become insulin resistant or have lost the ability to efficiently utilize glucose. As a result, neurons slowly die off.

The introduction of ketones may rescue these neurons and they may still be able to survive and thrive. In multiple studies, ketones have been shown to be both neurotherapeutic and neuroprotective. They also appear to lower markers of systemic inflammation.

The most common circulating ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, is also an important epigenetic player, having significant effects on DNA expression, increasing detoxification pathways and your body’s own antioxidant production. Beta-hydroxybutyrate also stimulates specific receptors on cells called g-proteins.

When these receptors are tagged by this beta-hydroxybutyrate during mild ketosis, it helps reduce the activation of pathways that lead to inflammation, and inflammation is a driver in most all chronic diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Diet Plus Exercise Can Turn Back the Clock on Your Brain’s Age

Exercise has also been shown to play an important role in the aging of your brain, and together, diet and exercise is a winning combination. Recent research9 demonstrating this was published in the journal Neurology in December 2018.

According to James Blumenthal, clinical psychologist from Duke University who led the research, this was the first study to look at the separate and combined effects of diet and exercise on cognitive decline in those who are vulnerable to developing dementia later in life.

In all, 160 adults (average age 65) were recruited. All had a history of high blood pressure or other cardiovascular risks, never exercised, and had cognitive challenges in executive functioning. None had a diagnosis of dementia. 

At the beginning of the study, the average cognitive skills in the participants were similar to those of individuals 93 years old — 28 years older on average than the actual age of the participants. The volunteers were divided into four groups:

The first participated in a structured aerobic exercise program for the first three months and were given exercises to do at home in the last three months

The second group were asked to eat a low sodium DASH diet (which reduces processed foods and increases intake of whole foods) but did no exercise

The third group were asked to exercise and change their diet at the same time

The fourth group served as a control and received a 30-minute educational session over the phone on how to improve their brain health, but were asked not to change their exercise or dietary habits

Here’s what they found at the end of the six-month-long study:

The first group, who exercised but did not change their diet, had greater improvements in executive functioning than the group who did not exercise

Those who followed the DASH diet with no exercise experienced no significant improvement in thinking skills

The group who changed their diet and exercised reversed their brain age by nine years, bringing their average mental age to 84

The control group’s executive function declined

Muscle Strength Indicative of Brain Health

Importantly, research shows muscle strength, especially your leg muscles, impacts neurosignaling, thereby playing a role in brain deterioration.10 This connection is why neurological functioning in patients tends to decline when their physical mobility is limited. 

In her book “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals,” Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., former director of NASA’s life science division, describes how weight-bearing against gravity is crucial component allowing human body and brain to function optimally. Another key factor is how exercise affects brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), found in both your brain and muscles.

Exercise stimulates production of a protein called FNDC5, which in turn triggers BDNF. In your brain, BDNF preserves existing brain cells, activating them to convert into new neurons and promoting actual brain growth.

You can find a list of studies demonstrating the links between your muscles and brain in my previous article, “For Optimal Brain and Nervous System Health, You Need to Exercise Your Leg Muscles.”

Grip strength is another strong indicator of the health of your brain.11 An analysis12 of data collected from over 475,000 British participants revealed the stronger an individual’s hand grip, the better they performed across every brain function test the researchers used, including reaction speed, logical problem-solving and multiple tests analyzing memory.

The analysis also accounted for age, gender, body weight and education, confirming those who were stronger indeed had better functioning brains. What’s more, the data was consistently strong both in individuals younger than 55 and those over 55.

Nutrients for Better Brain Health

In addition to a ketogenic diet, certain nutrients are also vital for brain health, while others can be helpful. Among the most important are vitamin D and marine-based omega-3, which contains two long-chained fatty acids that are vital for brain health: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Other nutrients known to influence your brain health and cognition include:

Choline — Recent research13 demonstrates the importance of choline for brain health and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Choline is a precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter required for the proper function of your brain and nervous system, and helps protect against Alzheimer’s by reducing your homocysteine level and inhibiting microglia activation.

Phosphatidylserine — This is another supplement that can help improve cognitive function14 and protect against Alzheimer’s disease.15 Phosphatidylserine is an amino acid derivative that is highly prevalent in neural tissue and plays an important role in the cellular function in your brain.

In one study,16 supplementing with 400 mg of phosphatidylserine increased the speed of calculations done in short-term memory by 20 percent in a group of healthy adults. In another, it improved cognitive function of geriatric patients at a dosage of 300 mg per day for six months.17

Acetyl-L-carnitine — This supplement has many beneficial effects on brain metabolism, protects against neurotoxic insults, and has been shown to benefit certain forms of depression.18

Vitamin B12 — Research19 shows people with high levels of markers for vitamin B12 deficiency are more likely to score lower on cognitive tests and have a smaller total brain volume, which suggests a lack of B12 may contribute to brain shrinkage. Research20 has found that supplementing with B vitamins, including B12, helps to slow brain atrophy in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment.

MCT oil — As mentioned, ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy, and a primary source of ketone bodies are medium chain triglycerides (MCT). While coconut oil is one healthy option, MCT oil is a more concentrated source of ketones, so it tends to be more appropriate for clinical uses. As noted by Mental Health Daily:21

“In small scale human trials,22MCT supplementation boosted cognition in individuals with cognitive impairment and mild forms of Alzheimer’s disease after just a single dose.”

You can learn more about MCTs and the differences between them in my previous article, “The Many Health Benefits of MCT Oil.”

Ashwagandha — Memory enhancement is one traditional use, particularly of the root. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements23 showed positive results using ashwagandha root extract to improve memory and cognitive functions in 50 people with mild cognitive impairment.

Bacopa — Bacopa (Bacopa monnieri), or moneywort, is a popular herb in Ayurvedic medicine used in India for over three centuries. The bacopa herb is commonly known as a nootropic herb, which means it can help repair damaged neurons and improve brain function. Nootropics are usually said to have the ability to “unlock” the brain when it comes to creativity and cognitive drive.24

Curcumin — A double-blind, placebo-controlled study25 included 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 with reported mild memory lapses but no dementia. Those who received curcumin supplementation saw significant improvements in memory and concentration, while the control group experienced no improvement.

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/21/womens-brain-younger-than-mens-brain.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/182953479161

[jerrytackettca]

A Woman's Brain Looks 3 Years Younger Than a Man's of the Same Age

Recent research1,2 from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals women's brains appear to be about three years younger, metabolically speaking, than men's brains of the same chronological age. The finding offers a clue as to why women tend to maintain their mental acuity longer than men. The original study3 can be viewed for free online, but is summarized by Science Daily:3

"Time wears differently on women's and men's brains. While the brain tends to shrink with age, men's diminish faster than women's. The brain's metabolism slows as people grow older, and this, too, may differ between men and women …

The brain runs on sugar, but how the brain uses sugar changes as people grow and age. Babies and children use some of their brain fuel in a process called aerobic glycolysis that sustains brain development and maturation.

The rest of the sugar is burned to power the day-to-day tasks of thinking and doing. In adolescents and young adults, a considerable portion of brain sugar also is devoted to aerobic glycolysis, but the fraction drops steadily with age, leveling off at very low amounts by the time people are in their 60s."

Gender Differences in Human Brain Metabolism

While gender differences have been found, it's still unclear exactly how brain metabolism differs between men and women, and why. The team, led by Dr. Manu Goyal, assistant professor of radiology at the university's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, sought to determine how the brain uses sugar by studying 205 individuals (121 women and 84 men) ranging in age from 20 to 82.

Using PET scans, they measured oxygen flow, blood flow and glucose levels in the brain, and determined how much glucose was being used up in aerobic glycolysis in the various brain regions of each person. An algorithm was then used to identify the relationship between chronological age and brain metabolism.

Based on this algorithm, the women's brains were found to be, on average, 3.8 years younger, metabolically, than their actual chronological age, and this was true even for women in their 20s.

On the other hand, men's brains were found to be, on average, 2.4 years older than their chronological age. What these findings suggest is that women's brains somehow convert more glucose to energy than men do during adulthood. Goyal told Science Daily:

"The average difference in calculated brain age between men and women is significant and reproducible, but it is only a fraction of the difference between any two individuals.

It is stronger than many sex differences that have been reported, but it's nowhere near as big a difference as some sex differences, such as height. It's not that men's brains age faster — they start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life.

What we don't know is what it means. I think this could mean that the reason women don't experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we're currently working on a study to confirm that."

High-Fat Diet Helps Keep Your Brain Youthful

While these findings are interesting, it is perplexing to speculate as to what the reason is. The primary metabolic difference between premenopausal women and men would be their iron levels. Because menstruating women lose blood every month, they keep their iron levels relatively low, unlike men.

Excess iron will lead to oxidative stress that could easily contribute to some of these differences. Even though they surveyed women well beyond their last menstrual cycle, their lowered iron levels in their younger years could easily have contributed to some of the observed differences.

However, there's no reason for men to fret as you can easily optimize your iron level, as I have discussed previously. Additionally, research clearly shows diet and other lifestyle strategies, including stress management,5 can have a significant impact on your brain's rate of aging. It's well worth noting that while your brain is known to use glucose for fuel, it's not the sole fuel for your brain.

Ketones — water-soluble fats produced by your liver during the conversion of fats into energy — are actually a preferred fuel for your brain, which is in part why a ketogenic diet is so beneficial for your brain function. In fact, a ketogenic diet has been shown to protect against Alzheimer's disease by keeping your brain healthy and youthful.

In one study,6 the researchers concluded the ketogenic diet acted as a veritable "fountain of youth," significantly improving neurovascular and metabolic functions in lab rodents, compared to those eating an unrestricted diet, and neurovascular function and integrity plays a significant role in determining your cognitive capacity.

High-fat diets have also been shown to lower your risk of dementia by 44 percent, whereas high-carb diets increase your risk by 89 percent.7 Indeed, glucose directly contributes to atrophy of the hippocampus,8 which means that even if you're not insulin resistant or diabetic, excess sugar in your diet may still be negatively affecting your memory.

Ketones Are Particularly Beneficial for Those With Diabetes, Alzheimer's and other Neurological Diseases

Ketones appear to be the preferred source of energy for the brain particularly in people affected by diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, because in these diseases, certain neurons have become insulin resistant or have lost the ability to efficiently utilize glucose. As a result, neurons slowly die off.

The introduction of ketones may rescue these neurons and they may still be able to survive and thrive. In multiple studies, ketones have been shown to be both neurotherapeutic and neuroprotective. They also appear to lower markers of systemic inflammation.

The most common circulating ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, is also an important epigenetic player, having significant effects on DNA expression, increasing detoxification pathways and your body's own antioxidant production. Beta-hydroxybutyrate also stimulates specific receptors on cells called g-proteins.

When these receptors are tagged by this beta-hydroxybutyrate during mild ketosis, it helps reduce the activation of pathways that lead to inflammation, and inflammation is a driver in most all chronic diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer's.

Diet Plus Exercise Can Turn Back the Clock on Your Brain's Age

Exercise has also been shown to play an important role in the aging of your brain, and together, diet and exercise is a winning combination. Recent research9 demonstrating this was published in the journal Neurology in December 2018.

According to James Blumenthal, clinical psychologist from Duke University who led the research, this was the first study to look at the separate and combined effects of diet and exercise on cognitive decline in those who are vulnerable to developing dementia later in life.

In all, 160 adults (average age 65) were recruited. All had a history of high blood pressure or other cardiovascular risks, never exercised, and had cognitive challenges in executive functioning. None had a diagnosis of dementia. 

At the beginning of the study, the average cognitive skills in the participants were similar to those of individuals 93 years old — 28 years older on average than the actual age of the participants. The volunteers were divided into four groups:

The first participated in a structured aerobic exercise program for the first three months and were given exercises to do at home in the last three months

The second group were asked to eat a low sodium DASH diet (which reduces processed foods and increases intake of whole foods) but did no exercise

The third group were asked to exercise and change their diet at the same time

The fourth group served as a control and received a 30-minute educational session over the phone on how to improve their brain health, but were asked not to change their exercise or dietary habits

Here's what they found at the end of the six-month-long study:

The first group, who exercised but did not change their diet, had greater improvements in executive functioning than the group who did not exercise

Those who followed the DASH diet with no exercise experienced no significant improvement in thinking skills

The group who changed their diet and exercised reversed their brain age by nine years, bringing their average mental age to 84

The control group's executive function declined

Muscle Strength Indicative of Brain Health

Importantly, research shows muscle strength, especially your leg muscles, impacts neurosignaling, thereby playing a role in brain deterioration.10 This connection is why neurological functioning in patients tends to decline when their physical mobility is limited. 

In her book "Sitting Kills, Moving Heals," Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., former director of NASA's life science division, describes how weight-bearing against gravity is crucial component allowing human body and brain to function optimally. Another key factor is how exercise affects brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), found in both your brain and muscles.

Exercise stimulates production of a protein called FNDC5, which in turn triggers BDNF. In your brain, BDNF preserves existing brain cells, activating them to convert into new neurons and promoting actual brain growth.

You can find a list of studies demonstrating the links between your muscles and brain in my previous article, "For Optimal Brain and Nervous System Health, You Need to Exercise Your Leg Muscles."

Grip strength is another strong indicator of the health of your brain.11 An analysis12 of data collected from over 475,000 British participants revealed the stronger an individual's hand grip, the better they performed across every brain function test the researchers used, including reaction speed, logical problem-solving and multiple tests analyzing memory.

The analysis also accounted for age, gender, body weight and education, confirming those who were stronger indeed had better functioning brains. What's more, the data was consistently strong both in individuals younger than 55 and those over 55.

Nutrients for Better Brain Health

In addition to a ketogenic diet, certain nutrients are also vital for brain health, while others can be helpful. Among the most important are vitamin D and marine-based omega-3, which contains two long-chained fatty acids that are vital for brain health: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Other nutrients known to influence your brain health and cognition include:

Choline — Recent research13 demonstrates the importance of choline for brain health and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Choline is a precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter required for the proper function of your brain and nervous system, and helps protect against Alzheimer's by reducing your homocysteine level and inhibiting microglia activation.

Phosphatidylserine — This is another supplement that can help improve cognitive function14 and protect against Alzheimer's disease.15 Phosphatidylserine is an amino acid derivative that is highly prevalent in neural tissue and plays an important role in the cellular function in your brain.

In one study,16 supplementing with 400 mg of phosphatidylserine increased the speed of calculations done in short-term memory by 20 percent in a group of healthy adults. In another, it improved cognitive function of geriatric patients at a dosage of 300 mg per day for six months.17

Acetyl-L-carnitine — This supplement has many beneficial effects on brain metabolism, protects against neurotoxic insults, and has been shown to benefit certain forms of depression.18

Vitamin B12 — Research19 shows people with high levels of markers for vitamin B12 deficiency are more likely to score lower on cognitive tests and have a smaller total brain volume, which suggests a lack of B12 may contribute to brain shrinkage. Research20 has found that supplementing with B vitamins, including B12, helps to slow brain atrophy in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment.

MCT oil — As mentioned, ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy, and a primary source of ketone bodies are medium chain triglycerides (MCT). While coconut oil is one healthy option, MCT oil is a more concentrated source of ketones, so it tends to be more appropriate for clinical uses. As noted by Mental Health Daily:21

"In small scale human trials,22 MCT supplementation boosted cognition in individuals with cognitive impairment and mild forms of Alzheimer's disease after just a single dose."

You can learn more about MCTs and the differences between them in my previous article, "The Many Health Benefits of MCT Oil."

Ashwagandha — Memory enhancement is one traditional use, particularly of the root. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements23 showed positive results using ashwagandha root extract to improve memory and cognitive functions in 50 people with mild cognitive impairment.

Bacopa — Bacopa (Bacopa monnieri), or moneywort, is a popular herb in Ayurvedic medicine used in India for over three centuries. The bacopa herb is commonly known as a nootropic herb, which means it can help repair damaged neurons and improve brain function. Nootropics are usually said to have the ability to "unlock" the brain when it comes to creativity and cognitive drive.24

Curcumin — A double-blind, placebo-controlled study25 included 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 with reported mild memory lapses but no dementia. Those who received curcumin supplementation saw significant improvements in memory and concentration, while the control group experienced no improvement.

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/21/womens-brain-younger-than-mens-brain.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/a-womans-brain-looks-3-years-younger-than-a-mans-of-the-same-age

[jakehglover]

A Woman's Brain Looks 3 Years Younger Than a Man's of the Same Age

Recent research1,2 from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals women's brains appear to be about three years younger, metabolically speaking, than men's brains of the same chronological age. The finding offers a clue as to why women tend to maintain their mental acuity longer than men. The original study3 can be viewed for free online, but is summarized by Science Daily:3

"Time wears differently on women's and men's brains. While the brain tends to shrink with age, men's diminish faster than women's. The brain's metabolism slows as people grow older, and this, too, may differ between men and women …

The brain runs on sugar, but how the brain uses sugar changes as people grow and age. Babies and children use some of their brain fuel in a process called aerobic glycolysis that sustains brain development and maturation.

The rest of the sugar is burned to power the day-to-day tasks of thinking and doing. In adolescents and young adults, a considerable portion of brain sugar also is devoted to aerobic glycolysis, but the fraction drops steadily with age, leveling off at very low amounts by the time people are in their 60s."

Gender Differences in Human Brain Metabolism

While gender differences have been found, it's still unclear exactly how brain metabolism differs between men and women, and why. The team, led by Dr. Manu Goyal, assistant professor of radiology at the university's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, sought to determine how the brain uses sugar by studying 205 individuals (121 women and 84 men) ranging in age from 20 to 82.

Using PET scans, they measured oxygen flow, blood flow and glucose levels in the brain, and determined how much glucose was being used up in aerobic glycolysis in the various brain regions of each person. An algorithm was then used to identify the relationship between chronological age and brain metabolism.

Based on this algorithm, the women's brains were found to be, on average, 3.8 years younger, metabolically, than their actual chronological age, and this was true even for women in their 20s.

On the other hand, men's brains were found to be, on average, 2.4 years older than their chronological age. What these findings suggest is that women's brains somehow convert more glucose to energy than men do during adulthood. Goyal told Science Daily:

"The average difference in calculated brain age between men and women is significant and reproducible, but it is only a fraction of the difference between any two individuals.

It is stronger than many sex differences that have been reported, but it's nowhere near as big a difference as some sex differences, such as height. It's not that men's brains age faster — they start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life.

What we don't know is what it means. I think this could mean that the reason women don't experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we're currently working on a study to confirm that."

High-Fat Diet Helps Keep Your Brain Youthful

While these findings are interesting, it is perplexing to speculate as to what the reason is. The primary metabolic difference between premenopausal women and men would be their iron levels. Because menstruating women lose blood every month, they keep their iron levels relatively low, unlike men.

Excess iron will lead to oxidative stress that could easily contribute to some of these differences. Even though they surveyed women well beyond their last menstrual cycle, their lowered iron levels in their younger years could easily have contributed to some of the observed differences.

However, there's no reason for men to fret as you can easily optimize your iron level, as I have discussed previously. Additionally, research clearly shows diet and other lifestyle strategies, including stress management,5 can have a significant impact on your brain's rate of aging. It's well worth noting that while your brain is known to use glucose for fuel, it's not the sole fuel for your brain.

Ketones — water-soluble fats produced by your liver during the conversion of fats into energy — are actually a preferred fuel for your brain, which is in part why a ketogenic diet is so beneficial for your brain function. In fact, a ketogenic diet has been shown to protect against Alzheimer's disease by keeping your brain healthy and youthful.

In one study,6 the researchers concluded the ketogenic diet acted as a veritable "fountain of youth," significantly improving neurovascular and metabolic functions in lab rodents, compared to those eating an unrestricted diet, and neurovascular function and integrity plays a significant role in determining your cognitive capacity.

High-fat diets have also been shown to lower your risk of dementia by 44 percent, whereas high-carb diets increase your risk by 89 percent.7 Indeed, glucose directly contributes to atrophy of the hippocampus,8 which means that even if you're not insulin resistant or diabetic, excess sugar in your diet may still be negatively affecting your memory.

Ketones Are Particularly Beneficial for Those With Diabetes, Alzheimer's and other Neurological Diseases

Ketones appear to be the preferred source of energy for the brain particularly in people affected by diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, because in these diseases, certain neurons have become insulin resistant or have lost the ability to efficiently utilize glucose. As a result, neurons slowly die off.

The introduction of ketones may rescue these neurons and they may still be able to survive and thrive. In multiple studies, ketones have been shown to be both neurotherapeutic and neuroprotective. They also appear to lower markers of systemic inflammation.

The most common circulating ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, is also an important epigenetic player, having significant effects on DNA expression, increasing detoxification pathways and your body's own antioxidant production. Beta-hydroxybutyrate also stimulates specific receptors on cells called g-proteins.

When these receptors are tagged by this beta-hydroxybutyrate during mild ketosis, it helps reduce the activation of pathways that lead to inflammation, and inflammation is a driver in most all chronic diseases, including dementia and Alzheimer's.

Diet Plus Exercise Can Turn Back the Clock on Your Brain's Age

Exercise has also been shown to play an important role in the aging of your brain, and together, diet and exercise is a winning combination. Recent research9 demonstrating this was published in the journal Neurology in December 2018.

According to James Blumenthal, clinical psychologist from Duke University who led the research, this was the first study to look at the separate and combined effects of diet and exercise on cognitive decline in those who are vulnerable to developing dementia later in life.

In all, 160 adults (average age 65) were recruited. All had a history of high blood pressure or other cardiovascular risks, never exercised, and had cognitive challenges in executive functioning. None had a diagnosis of dementia. 

At the beginning of the study, the average cognitive skills in the participants were similar to those of individuals 93 years old — 28 years older on average than the actual age of the participants. The volunteers were divided into four groups:

The first participated in a structured aerobic exercise program for the first three months and were given exercises to do at home in the last three months

The second group were asked to eat a low sodium DASH diet (which reduces processed foods and increases intake of whole foods) but did no exercise

The third group were asked to exercise and change their diet at the same time

The fourth group served as a control and received a 30-minute educational session over the phone on how to improve their brain health, but were asked not to change their exercise or dietary habits

Here's what they found at the end of the six-month-long study:

The first group, who exercised but did not change their diet, had greater improvements in executive functioning than the group who did not exercise

Those who followed the DASH diet with no exercise experienced no significant improvement in thinking skills

The group who changed their diet and exercised reversed their brain age by nine years, bringing their average mental age to 84

The control group's executive function declined

Muscle Strength Indicative of Brain Health

Importantly, research shows muscle strength, especially your leg muscles, impacts neurosignaling, thereby playing a role in brain deterioration.10 This connection is why neurological functioning in patients tends to decline when their physical mobility is limited. 

In her book "Sitting Kills, Moving Heals," Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., former director of NASA's life science division, describes how weight-bearing against gravity is crucial component allowing human body and brain to function optimally. Another key factor is how exercise affects brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), found in both your brain and muscles.

Exercise stimulates production of a protein called FNDC5, which in turn triggers BDNF. In your brain, BDNF preserves existing brain cells, activating them to convert into new neurons and promoting actual brain growth.

You can find a list of studies demonstrating the links between your muscles and brain in my previous article, "For Optimal Brain and Nervous System Health, You Need to Exercise Your Leg Muscles."

Grip strength is another strong indicator of the health of your brain.11 An analysis12 of data collected from over 475,000 British participants revealed the stronger an individual's hand grip, the better they performed across every brain function test the researchers used, including reaction speed, logical problem-solving and multiple tests analyzing memory.

The analysis also accounted for age, gender, body weight and education, confirming those who were stronger indeed had better functioning brains. What's more, the data was consistently strong both in individuals younger than 55 and those over 55.

Nutrients for Better Brain Health

In addition to a ketogenic diet, certain nutrients are also vital for brain health, while others can be helpful. Among the most important are vitamin D and marine-based omega-3, which contains two long-chained fatty acids that are vital for brain health: docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Other nutrients known to influence your brain health and cognition include:

Choline — Recent research13 demonstrates the importance of choline for brain health and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Choline is a precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter required for the proper function of your brain and nervous system, and helps protect against Alzheimer's by reducing your homocysteine level and inhibiting microglia activation.

Phosphatidylserine — This is another supplement that can help improve cognitive function14 and protect against Alzheimer's disease.15 Phosphatidylserine is an amino acid derivative that is highly prevalent in neural tissue and plays an important role in the cellular function in your brain.

In one study,16 supplementing with 400 mg of phosphatidylserine increased the speed of calculations done in short-term memory by 20 percent in a group of healthy adults. In another, it improved cognitive function of geriatric patients at a dosage of 300 mg per day for six months.17

Acetyl-L-carnitine — This supplement has many beneficial effects on brain metabolism, protects against neurotoxic insults, and has been shown to benefit certain forms of depression.18

Vitamin B12 — Research19 shows people with high levels of markers for vitamin B12 deficiency are more likely to score lower on cognitive tests and have a smaller total brain volume, which suggests a lack of B12 may contribute to brain shrinkage. Research20 has found that supplementing with B vitamins, including B12, helps to slow brain atrophy in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment.

MCT oil — As mentioned, ketones are what your body produces when it converts fat (as opposed to glucose) into energy, and a primary source of ketone bodies are medium chain triglycerides (MCT). While coconut oil is one healthy option, MCT oil is a more concentrated source of ketones, so it tends to be more appropriate for clinical uses. As noted by Mental Health Daily:21

"In small scale human trials,22MCT supplementation boosted cognition in individuals with cognitive impairment and mild forms of Alzheimer's disease after just a single dose."

You can learn more about MCTs and the differences between them in my previous article, "The Many Health Benefits of MCT Oil."

Ashwagandha — Memory enhancement is one traditional use, particularly of the root. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements23 showed positive results using ashwagandha root extract to improve memory and cognitive functions in 50 people with mild cognitive impairment.

Bacopa — Bacopa (Bacopa monnieri), or moneywort, is a popular herb in Ayurvedic medicine used in India for over three centuries. The bacopa herb is commonly known as a nootropic herb, which means it can help repair damaged neurons and improve brain function. Nootropics are usually said to have the ability to "unlock" the brain when it comes to creativity and cognitive drive.24

Curcumin — A double-blind, placebo-controlled study25 included 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 with reported mild memory lapses but no dementia. Those who received curcumin supplementation saw significant improvements in memory and concentration, while the control group experienced no improvement.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/02/21/womens-brain-younger-than-mens-brain.aspx

[tipsoctopus]

"Dangerous level of excited", "Can't wait" - These West Ham fans react to huge first-team boost

Manuel Pellegrini has said that Manuel Lanzini, who has been out of action since last summer, will hopefully be fit to play when West Ham take on Fulham in two weeks’ time.

The midfielder sustained a nasty knee injury in June which was expected to keep him out for 15 months, meaning that he would miss the entire 2018/19 season. However, the Argentine could at least make the bench for the clash with the Cottagers as his recovery accelerates dramatically.

With Jack Wilshere joining the diminutive attacking midfielder on the sidelines, Pellegrini was left light of options for the number 10 role, hence the signing of Samir Nasri in January.

Watch the best fails from the world of indoor football in the video below…

Lanzini’s surprisingly imminent return, though, means that the Hammers boss has a plethora of options to choose from, even with Wilshere and Andriy Yarmolenko still out of action.

Pellegrini’s £100m outlay upon his arrival saw a complete overhaul of the Irons’ approach, but we have yet to see the full potential as injury setbacks decimate the squad.

Felipe Anderson has been the star man – playing the full 90 minutes in his last nine Premier League appearances – and will surely relish the opportunity to play alongside Lanzini, who has been West Ham’s playmaker in chief since Dimitri Payet’s departure.

Here’s how the London Stadium faithful reacted to the update…

do not rush him back. please.

— jake (@jake_cleathero) February 7, 2019

finally ? we truly missed him, Welcome back @manulanzini

— Hasan Beshari (@HBeshari) February 7, 2019

?Really looking forward to seeing how our ? links up with ?Felipe! #COYI ⚒

— ⚒Adrian Smith⚒ (@adiesmith64) February 7, 2019

Absolute gem of a player

— true_blue (@Emperor_s_r) February 7, 2019

So trying to keep my feet on the ground and ease Manu back in slowly but still hoping he scores a hat trick against Fulham. One thing for sure he is a world class player on his day . Coyi

— ToneHammer (@tone_hammer) February 7, 2019

I can’t walt for a Nasri,Anderson, Lanzini combination. Makes you realise just how well West Ham have done relative to the prolonged injury list.

— StephenJL (@skyellis666) February 7, 2019

Yesssssss ????????????

— John Spencer (@Spencerjohn7) February 7, 2019

I’m a dangerous level of excited

— Stampar ? (@NStampar) February 7, 2019

from FootballFanCast.com http://bit.ly/2SDy3l1 via IFTTT from Blogger http://bit.ly/2DjUaTJ via IFTTT

#FootballFanCast.com

[jodyedgarus]

The 6 Things We’re Watching This NBA Season

Another NBA season gets underway tonight, and aside from the obvious question — can the Warriors piece together three consecutive championships? — there are several things worth watching. We took a crack at analyzing a handful of them, and how we think they might play out, just ahead of the games on opening night.

Will the Timberwolves overcome the drama to reach the playoffs again?

Minnesota coach and team president Tom Thibodeau has gone out of his way to paint the Timberwolves’ current situation as “not unusual.” But it’s hard to picture anything messier than what the past few weeks have brought this club.

Jimmy Butler, a free agent after this season, requested a trade. The Timberwolves have seemed reluctant to make that happen, confusing and frustrating interested teams. It all bubbled over last week with Butler’s outburst during a scrimmage, raising the question of why on earth the two sides still hadn’t divorced yet. And now, it seems that Butler and Thibodeau will at least start the season together after this awkward tango.

It’s painfully obvious why Thibs wouldn’t want to part ways with the player who was the team’s most valuable last year: His job(s) could be on the line if this season is a failure.

Yet even if off-court chemistry weren’t a problem, other issues remain. Minnesota has looked awful, a concerning sign even if it is a symptom of Butler’s absence. The club owned the NBA’s worst defense by far in the preseason, and three different rotation players this past week said they think the defense likely needs to switch pick-and-rolls more than it has done in order to be successful.

When I asked Thibodeau last week how the club could go about fixing its defense, he was quick to tell me that the Wolves ranked seventh in the NBA in defensive efficiency while the starting five1 was on the floor last season yet 30th (dead last) when their bench was playing.2 Knowing Thibodeau’s rotational tendencies, if that pattern repeats itself, it will likely result in his starters playing huge minutes — and not all of his starters seem to be on board with that.

No one knows how it’ll all play out. But there figures to be even less room for error now than there was last season, when Minnesota reached the playoffs on the final day of the campaign. So the fact that not everyone is on the same page — and perhaps not even reading from the same book — is problematic heading into an incredibly important year for the franchise.

Will the Lakers be able to run as much as they’d like?

It seems like every NBA coach in recent memory has said that he’d like to get out in transition more than the previous season. But with the Lakers — who have a front office led by the person who ushered in the Showtime era — that strategy will almost certainly go beyond just words.

Los Angeles finished the preseason second among NBA teams in pace, a trend that, should it hold, would allow the Lakers to rely less on their half-court offensive sets. This may take some time to iron out as Lonzo Ball and company adjust to playing alongside LeBron James — and vice versa.

Last week, we analyzed some ways the team could ensure that its pace would be among the league’s fastest. But perhaps the most surefire way for the Lakers to accomplish this is to secure defensive rebounds. And that may be a problem. The Lakers — who lack depth at center and are likely to feature several small-ball lineups this season — wrapped preseason by finishing 23rd among NBA teams in defensive rebound percentage.

L.A. will almost certainly be good in transition this year. It will run some drag screens or an occasional give-and-go, like this one that produced a LeBron-to-Lonzo alley-oop last week.

The Lakers can be successful when they crank up the tempo. The question is whether they’ll force the turnovers and secure the rebounds that allow them to play that style.

Have the Bucks really overhauled their offense?

Last season was likely an exercise in frustration for fans of the Milwaukee Bucks.

On the one hand, the franchise had Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player so multitalented that it’s difficult to put his skill set into words. On the other hand, Antetokounmpo played within an offensive system that didn’t do anywhere near enough to make the game easier for him, particularly with regards to spacing. In last season’s first-round playoff series with Boston, he’d sometimes drive to the basket only to find two extra defenders in the paint because a pair of his teammates didn’t keep their distance and dragged their men into the play by mistake.

If things go right for the Bucks this year, though, those sorts of images will soon feel like a distant memory. And that’s because the team’s offense has shown brisk signs of overhaul.

Milwaukee last year ranked just below league average in attempts that came from the most efficient parts of the floor, taking 64 percent of its shots from inside the restricted area or outside the 3-point line. But this preseason, the Bucks led the NBA in that capacity, taking a whopping 81 percent of their shot attempts from those regions. For context, the Houston Rockets, who avoid midrange shots like the plague, led the NBA last season by taking 82 percent of its shots from the restricted area and behind the 3-point line.

This change comes just months after the team hired former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, who has long prioritized four- and five-out lineups3 that not only spread the floor with great tempo but also seek to make the extra pass to keep defenses off balance.

This Bucks’ roster — with rookie Donte DiVincenzo, Pat Connaughton, Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova — has far more perimeter threats than it did last season. And because Budenholzer’s teams have always been pick-and-roll heavy, with bigs who can stretch the defense by popping as opposed to just rolling, Antetokounmpo figures to be positioned in the middle of the floor, where opponents will be able to give him considerably less attention. If they do load the paint against him, he’ll have an abundance of sweet-shooting teammates open in the corners for a change. (For what it’s worth, the Bucks managed to connect on an impressive 47 of 92 corner 3-point tries that stemmed from Antetokounmpo’s kick-out passes last season, per Second Spectrum.)

Giannis was already one of the scariest players in the league. Now, finally, he’s part of an offensive attack that may be more worthy of his vast, budding talent.

Can the Spurs really make the playoffs again, despite their injuries and departures?

Some are tip-toeing around this question out of respect for what San Antonio has done in the past, so fine: I’ll be the blunt one. I see almost no way the Spurs reach the playoffs for the 22nd straight time. I stopped just shy of that prediction last year, but I did feel pretty strongly that San Antonio would have a rougher-than-usual campaign, before we knew of the depths of the Kawhi Leonard situation.

This suggestion isn’t exactly groundbreaking, given that Kawhi is now a Raptor, Tony Parker is a Hornet and Manu Ginobili is retired. Perhaps even more of a blow, the Spurs have now lost three guards — all-defensive second teamer Dejounte Murray, 2018 first-round pick Lonnie Walker and backup point guard Derrick White — to long-term injuries, leaving the club thin at the position. (Keep in mind that this is all happening mere months after the Spurs allowed forward Kyle Anderson, a capable ball-handler, to sign with Memphis in free agency.)

The Spurs still have a number of key holdovers who are capable of giving opposing teams headaches, including LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, Patty Mills and Pau Gasol. And they’ll also have DeMar DeRozan, who came over in the Leonard deal. Coach Gregg Popovich has said that while he and his staff will work to get DeRozan up to speed on the team’s offensive concepts, he won’t try to change his game.

“DeMar is already an All-Star. He’s played a certain way. There’ll be some things we try to add to his game if he’s willing,” Popovich told reporters. “I’m not going to jump on him the way I did [Aldridge]. I tried to turn [Aldridge] into John Havlicek. I think it confused him.” (Aldridge requested a trade two years after joining the Spurs, but the two sides worked the problem out.)

Now, with a limited number of ball-handlers, the club will have to rely on DeRozan to create some looks. Aldridge can shoulder some of that responsibility from the post, too, as he drew more double-teams while posting up than any other player in the league.

What remains worth watching here, given the team’s history, is whether Popovich can squeeze another elite defensive showing out of this unit, despite not having any elite stoppers or rim protectors for once. The Spurs have had an all-defensive team selection in 30 of the past 33 seasons, including each of the past six years.

If San Antonio can cobble together a top-four defensive showing, which it’s done each of the past six seasons, perhaps the Spurs can prove me wrong. But that will be a tall task in light of all these injuries.

How long will Hayward take to jell with the Celtics?

I’m not all that big on analyzing an individual player’s preseason numbers, but I can admit that I was paying some attention to Gordon Hayward’s, given that he’s coming back from an injury.

Those numbers weren’t pretty: 25 percent shooting (5-of-20) for just 21 points in his three games. He showed a little rust on the defensive end at times, too, nearly fouling out of a game against Charlotte. It may take awhile for him to assert himself consistently, but the beauty of his situation is that it’s really not a problem since he plays alongside Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum4 and Al Horford.

Hayward’s instincts and timing looked just fine, particularly in screen-roll action with Aron Baynes. Watching their chemistry this early on suggests that Hayward will at some point flourish in his minutes with Horford because of how solid a screener he is.

Hayward has always moved well without the ball and can draw attention from the defense with his cutting ability, so he shouldn’t clash much in terms of role with Tatum or Brown. But if he or one of the other wings isn’t seeing enough shot opportunities, it won’t be difficult to find more time for that player with the second unit. All of that leads me to trust that Boston — even if it doesn’t find a rhythm right away to begin the season — will settle into place over time.

The club had the worst effective field goal percentage among NBA teams this preseason. But given all the time that Irving and Hayward missed, and the time it could take for everyone to settle into the new roles they’ll have to adopt, it shouldn’t be a big deal if the Celtics aren’t hot out of the gate. (Toronto should adopt this philosophy, too, with Leonard.) As long as they’re clicking by midseason — and I don’t doubt that coach Brad Stevens will get them there — they’ll be right where they need to be.

Which teams out West can truly push Golden State?

While the Lakers have to be taken far more seriously now with LeBron, let’s be real here: There are only two or three teams in the West that could realistically make the Warriors uncomfortable in a seven-game series.

We all know Houston should be one of those clubs, if only because of what the Rockets did last postseason, when they pushed Golden State to seven games in the conference finals. They might have won the series if not for Chris Paul’s injury or the biblical 3-point shooting drought they experienced at the worst possible time. Yet while that club almost knocked off Golden State, this one is a little different. Exit Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Enter Carmelo Anthony (who played well, and was used very well, in preseason), James Ennis and Michael Carter-Williams.

I think Houston’s chances boil down to something relatively simple: If its defense slips past the top 10 as a result of those changes, or finds itself in far more compromising positions after switching this season, it’s hard to see how the Rockets will beat Golden State. The improvement on D was what made them such a tough matchup to begin with, and I fear they might have lost too much on that end to stay on even footing with the Warriors. We’ll see.

The Jazz, on the strength of their stifling, league-best defense, are a compelling pick for many. But just like Houston had to get more consistent on D to make a real run at the West, Utah will likely have to do the same on offense. In particular, the Jazz have struggled to produce steady, consistent offense against such versatile defenses as those of Golden State and Houston, which switch pick-and-rolls repeatedly.

That dovetails with the need for a leap from Donovan Mitchell, who figures to have a greater target on his back after a historically great rookie season at the rim for someone his height. Getting the more aggressive version of Ricky Rubio that we saw in the Oklahoma City series would help Utah’s cause as well.

And while I’m not as high on Oklahoma City — primarily because of the seriousness of Andre Roberson’s injury from last year and his recent rehab setback — I can envision a best-case scenario where the Thunder make noise out West. If Roberson returns anywhere near close to form on defense, he and Paul George would immediately become the best defending wing duo in the league, much like last year. That’s exactly the sort of length you need to effectively defend the best offenses come playoff time. (Looking directly at you, Pelicans.) Also, Nerlens Noel quietly appears to be a great fit at center for OKC’s second-unit defense, while ex-Atlanta guard Dennis Schroder should get ample opportunity to help off the bench — if not start, depending on Russell Westbrook’s status after a recent knee scope.

In a worst-case predicament, either Roberson comes back and isn’t anywhere near as effective or he doesn’t come back at all, limiting this club’s defensive potential — which would be a shame, given that the Thunder probably do have enough scoring to at least hold their own with the conference’s other top dogs. (And they perhaps have fewer questions about offensive fit than last year, when Anthony was on the team.)

It will almost certainly take a Herculean effort to knock off Golden State as the Warriors bid for a three-peat. But there are plenty of other storylines to enjoy in the lead-up to all that.

Check out our latest NBA predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-6-things-were-watching-this-nba-season/

[inhandnetworks-blog]

Engin InHandGo  eers Develop a Computer That Operates on Water

www.inhandnetworks.com

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets. Their goal is to design a new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter.

Computers and water typically don’t mix, but in Manu Prakash’s lab, the two are one and the same. Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford, and his students have built a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets.

The computer is nearly a decade in the making, incubated from an idea that struck Prakash when he was a graduate student. The work combines his expertise in manipulating droplet fluid dynamics with a fundamental element of computer science – an operating clock.

“In this work, we finally demonstrate a synchronous, universal droplet logic and control,” Prakash said.

Because of its universal nature, the droplet computer can theoretically perform any operation that a conventional electronic computer can crunch, although at significantly slower rates. Prakash and his colleagues, however, have a more ambitious application in mind.

“We already have digital computers to process information. Our goal is not to compete with electronic computers or to operate word processors on this,” Prakash said. “Our goal is to build a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and manipulate physical matter. Imagine if when you run a set of computations that not only information is processed but physical matter is algorithmically manipulated as well. We have just made this possible at the mesoscale.”

The ability to precisely control droplets using fluidic co InHand Networks - Global Leader in Industrial IoT mputation could have a number of applications in high-throughput biology and chemistry, and possibly new applications in scalable digital manufacturing.

The results are published in the current edition of Nature Physics.

The crucial clock

For nearly a decade since he was in graduate school, an idea has been nagging at Prakash: What if he could use little droplets as bits of information and utilize the precise movement of those drops to process both information and physical materials simultaneously. Eventually, Prakash decided to build a rotating magnetic field that could ac router industrial  t as clock to synchronize all the droplets. The idea showed promise, and in the early stages of the project, Prakash recruited a graduate student, Georgios “Yorgos” Katsikis, who is the first author on the paper.

Computer clocks are responsible for nearly every modern convenience. Smartphones, DVRs, airplanes, the Internet – without a clock, none of these could operate without frequent and serious complications. Nearly every computer program requires several simultaneous operations, each conducted in a perfect step-by-step manner. A clock makes sure that these operations start and stop at the same times, thus ensuring that the information synchronizes.

The results are dire if a clock isn’t present. It’s like soldiers marching in formation: If one person falls dramatically out of time, it won’t be long before the whole group falls apart. The same is true if multiple simultaneous computer operations run without a clock to synchronize them, Prakash explained.

“The reason computers work so precisely is that every operation happens synchronously; it’s what made digital logic so powerful in the first place,” Prakash said.

A magnetic clock

Developing a clock for a fluid-based computer required some creative thinking. It needed to be easy to manipulate, and also able to influence multiple droplets at a time. The system needed to be scalable so that in the future, a large number of droplets could communicate amongst each other without skipping a beat. Prakash realized that a rotating magnetic field might do the trick.

Katsikis and Prakash built arrays of tiny iron bars on glass slides that look something like a Pac-Man maze. They laid a blank glass slide on top and sandwiched a layer of oil in between. Then they carefully injected into the mix individual water droplets that had been infused with tiny magnetic nanoparticles.

Next, they turned on the magnetic field. Every time the field flips, the polarity of the bars reverses, drawing the magnetized droplets in a new, predetermined direction, like slot cars on a track. Every rotation of the field counts as one clock cycle, like a second hand making a full circle on a clock face, and every drop marches exactly one step forward with each cycle.

A camera records the interactions between individual droplets, allowing observation of computation as it occurs in real time. The presence or absence of a droplet represents the 1s and 0s of binary code, and the clock ensures that all the droplets move in perfect synchrony, and thus the system can run virtually forever without any errors.

“Following these rules, we’ve demonstrated that we can make all the universal logic gates used in electronics, simply by changing the layout of the bars on the chip,” said Katsikis. “The actual design space in our platform is incredibly rich. Give us any Boolean logic circuit in the world, and we can build it with these little magnetic droplets moving around.”

The current paper describes the fundamental operating regime of the system and demonstrates building blocks for sy Industrial LTE Router  nchronous logic gates, feedback and cascadability – hallmarks of scalable computation. A simple-state machine including 1-bit memory storage (known as “flip-flop”) is also demonstrated using the above basic building blocks.

A new way to manipulate matter

The current chips are about half the size of a postage stamp, and the droplets are smaller than poppy seeds, but Katsikis said that the physics of the system suggests it can be made even smaller. Combined with the fact that the magnetic field can control millions of droplets simultaneously, this makes the system exceptionally scalable.

“We can keep making it smaller and smaller so that it can do more operations per time, so that it can work with smaller droplet sizes and do more number of operations on a chip,” said graduate student and co-author Jim Cybulski. “That lends itself very well to a variety of applications.”

Prakash said the most immediate application might involve turning the computer into a high-throughput chemistry and biology laboratory. Instead of running reactions in bulk test tubes, each droplet can carry some chemicals and become its own test tube, and the droplet computer offers unprecedented control over these interactions.

From the perspective of basic science, part of why the work is so exciting, Prakash said, is that it opens up a new way of thinking of computation in the physical world. Although the physics of computation has been previously applied to understand the limits of computation, the physical aspects of bits of information has never been exploited as a new way to manipulate matter at the mesoscale (10 microns to 1 millimeter).

Because the system is extremely robust and the team has uncovered universal design rules, Prakash plans to make a design tool for these droplet circuits available to the public. Any group of people can now cobble together the basic logic blocks and make any complex droplet circuit they desire.

“We’re very interested in engaging anybody and everybody who wants to play, to enable everyone to design new circuits based on building blocks we describe in this paper or discover new blocks. Right now, anyone can put these circuits together to form a complex droplet processor with no external control – something that was a very difficult challenge previously,” Prakash said.

“If you look back at big advances in society, computation takes a special place. We are trying to bring the same kind of exponential scale up because of computation we saw in the digital world into the physical world.”

Publication: Georgios Katsikis, et al., “Synchronous universal droplet logic and control,” Nature Physics, 2015; doi:10.1038/nphys3341

Image: Kurt Hickman

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[rickhorrow]

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 23

with Jamie Swimmer & Jesse Leeds Grant

In a thrilling final round, Francesco Molinari outdueled Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Xander Schauffelle to become the first Italian to ever win The Open Championship. But thanks to Tiger, who briefly held a one-shot lead and finished tied for sixth, there were many other winners at Carnoustie and beyond. Take KT Tape, the adhesive that Woods sported on the back of his neck on Thursday and Friday after a bad night’s sleep. Company officials claim they "sold roughly double the amount of product they sell on [an] average day" due to the "fortuitous product placement," according to ESPN. Apex Marketing Group estimated that KT Tape received nearly $4 million in "equivalent advertising from the two logos" visible on Woods' neck. Golf Channel also benefited from Woods’ presence, as total audience delivery for its Open Championship Round One was up 27% from last year and the most-watched opening round at The Open in its three years on the cable network. (And we haven’t even seen what are likely to be record-breaking numbers from NBC’s weekend coverage.) Also getting a boost is next month’s final WGC-Bridgestone Invitational held in Cleveland – Woods’ top-ten finish boosted his World Golf Ranking to 50 so he qualified. (After this year the tournament moves to Memphis.) September’s Ryder Cup in Paris is now more eagerly anticipated after Woods’ showing and the European Molinari’s win – but the biggest winners of all are golf fans, happy to once again see Tiger in the hunt at a Major on Sunday.

The NFL generated record revenue in 2017, estimated to be in the ballpark of around $14 billion, with each team receiving $255.9 million based on the current revenue sharing agreement. According to John WallStreet, the $8.1 billion in split revenue from TV deals, road-game revenue sharing, and other factors represents a new league record and a 4.9% year-over-year increase. The boom in the value of television rights largely fueled the overall growth in revenue, as did Amazon’s new Thursday Night Football deal. As summed up by John WallStreet, “It’s time we put to rest the notion that the NFL is declining in popularity. Player protests. Brain injuries. Criminal Accusations (think: LeSean McCoy). None of it has had any impact on revenue generation.” One red flag for the NFL is the White House. As the anthem kneeling controversy looks to stretch into its third season after the league’s decision to hold off implementing its new anthem policy, Donald Trump again takes to social media to voice his displeasure with the NFL and its “$40 million Commissioner.”

NFL teams return to camp this week.  Last week, college football’s media days took center stage. The heavyweight, of course, is the SEC, whose four-day summer media preview has grown to “outlandish proportions,” according to the Los Angeles Times, this year “overtaking the College Football Hall of Fame, drawing more than 1,000 reporters and photographers for four days of largely predictable questions and answers.” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who kicked off the Atlanta event by noting that “we have more people here than at the [Trump/Putin] press conference in Helsinki,” touted the SEC Network and the ongoing benefits of the conference’s multibillion-dollar deal with ESPN, which reportedly contributed almost $597 million in total revenue for the 2016-2017 fiscal year and saw the league distribute $40.9 million each to its 14 schools. The SEC also ranked first in football attendance last fall out of the Power Five conferences, averaging 75,074 fans per game. By comparison, the Big Ten averaged 66,227, and the Pac-12, 49,601. Whether NFL or college, I’m ready for some well-financed football!

Heading into training camp, the Green Bay Packers had an impressive year from a financial perspective for FY 2017-2018, turning out record revenues and expenses. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the latest fiscal year, which ended on March 31, saw the Packers bring in $454.9 million in revenue, up $13.5 million from last year’s number. Simultaneously, the team’s expenses went up as well, jumping up $44.8 million to $420.9 million largely thanks to “increases in player salaries and travel costs, plus a $5 million allowance for construction.” Revenue benefited from “additional money from shared national television contracts and growth in local income, largely as a result of new sponsorship agreements.” The team ultimately reported net income of $38.6 million this year, $34.2 million less than last year. While these numbers are impressive, the team still missed out on a potentially significant revenue driver – the playoffs. Look for the Packers’ financials to be even stronger if they make the playoffs this season.

The Iron Man is only made stronger by superhero friends. Last week, we shared that the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation would design and construct ten Youth Development Parks in five years in MLB markets across the country. They are able to do so thanks in part to a $5 million gift from Group1001. “We are incredibly honored by the commitment made today by Group1001 which will provide thousands of kids across the country with a safe place to play, learn and grow,” said Hall of Famer and Ripken Foundation Vice Chairman Cal Ripken, Jr. “Together with Group1001 and our friends at Major League Baseball, we look forward to bringing a positive environment and mentoring programs that will help guide our youth both on the field and in the game of life.” Said Dan Towriss, CEO, Group1001, “Like MLB and the Ripken Foundation, we believe in our duty to empower people to chase their dreams and to support the communities in most need of empowerment through education and sports.” Since 2009, the Ripken Foundation has 78 completed parks across the country, impacting over 280,000 kids annually.  

A potential lockout after the end of the 2021 season could be in the making for Major League Baseball if players continue to be displeased with the CBA. According to SportsBusiness Journal, labor tensions continue to escalate between MLB and the MLBPA, as MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark stated that last winter’s slower free agent market represented a “direct attack” on players’ rights. "What the players saw last offseason is that their free agency rights are under direct attack, and those rights have been a bedrock of our economic system,” said Clark. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred defended the league, noting that the slower free agency period came down to “club choices on the relative merits of the available players.” “The only purposeful behavior that took place in the labor market last year was that our clubs carefully analyzed the available players and made individual decisions on what those players were worth,” said Manfred. “That's how markets operate.” MLB has enjoyed labor peace for 25 years and counting – look for that mutually-lucrative streak to be held up in the next three years.

With Cristiano Ronaldo officially a member of Juventus, the Italian heavyweights are looking to capitalize on the financial boom that the Portuguese phenom is expected to bring to Turin. According to the London Times, the acquisition is primarily about closing the financial gap between Juve and “seemingly recession-proof clubs” like Real Madrid, Barcelona, ManU, and Bayern Munich. Despite having won the past seven Serie A titles in Italy and reaching two of the past four Champions League finals, Juventus still lags behind the super clubs from a commercial revenue standpoint. Those other clubs all bring in “well over” £250 million in revenue, while Juventus only reported £101 million in revenue during 2016-2017. Despite his age at 33, Ronaldo is “one of a handful of players in the world who can move the commercial needle single-handedly.” Since rumors started swirling of Ronaldo’s potential move to Turin, Juventus stock prices have been soaring upward. That’s not all that’s soaring. According to The Guardian, Juventus sold 520,000 Ronaldo shirts within just 24 hours of the merchandise being released – roughly $60 million worth. That’s compared to a total of 850,000 shirts sold all of last season. While Adidas gets most of that revenue, the Juventus brand gets priceless exposure.

David Beckham’s push to get an MLS team in Miami is still up in the air after its most recent roadblock. According to SportsPro, Beckham and business partner Jorge Mas are still working to secure a property on which to build a $1 billion soccer-specific stadium – which has proven near-impossible at times due to the local government’s opposition. Beckham’s plan to redevelop Melreese Country Club, the city’s only municipal golf course, was expected to be approved at this point, though he and Mas were questioned at a meeting last week “concerning the lack of transparency regarding potential increased traffic in the area, environmental impacts of the project, and assurances to do with revenue sharing between the Beckham group and the living wage of project workers.” The team would not be expected to start play before 2020 so Beckham still has time to build a stadium, but that window is quickly closing. The fate of a no-bid lease will be in the hands of voters come November, after Miami commissioners voted on a referendum last week.

According to Thuuz Sports, IBM, and FOX Sports, Spain, Croatia, and Belgium were the most exciting teams to participate in the 2018 World Cup. Thuuz Sports, an automated short form sports video production company and metadata service, teamed up with the other companies to measure how exciting all the teams and games were during the monthlong tournament. The proprietary algorithm used ranked Spain atop the table with a score of 93.5, followed by runner-up Croatia and third-place Belgium both at 91 points. Despite winning the World Cup, France came in seventh place out of 31. “Game pace, team parity, play novelty, momentum shifts, social buzz and historical context of all matchups” were used to calculate scores. The quarterfinal match between Croatia and host nation Russia was given a perfect score of 100, making it the tournament’s most exciting match.

Continuing its strong support for American tennis, Oracle is adding a Chicago event to the Oracle Challenger Series, to be held September 2-9. The Oracle Challenger Series launched this year with events in Newport Beach and Indian Wells, CA to provide up-and-coming American tennis players opportunities for ranking points and prize money. The Series will also donate $5,000 to the Chicago chapter of the National Junior Tennis and Learning network, which provides free or low-cost tennis and education programming to more than 225,000 under-resourced youth in the U.S. The Chicago tournament will be a joint ATP Challenger Tour/WTA 125K Series event and pay equal prize money ($150,000 per Tour) for a total of $300,000. The event will be free and open to the public. In other tennis news, The USTA is raising U.S. Open prize money to $53 million this year, with the men's and women's singles champion each receiving $3.8 million.

11.DAZN, the world’s largest dedicated live and on-demand sports streaming service, is coming to the U.S. According to JohnWallStreet, DAZN will hold its first fight night on September 22 at Wembley Stadium in London, when WBA, IBF, and WBO heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua will take on Alexander Povetkin. The service will launch in the U.S. two weeks prior, starting at $9.99 per month following a one month trial period. Despite not operating in the States yet, DAZN has been making headlines across sports for the past few months; in April, former ESPN President John Skipper signed on as Executive Chairman, and following that parent company Perform Group agreed to a $1 billion joint venture with Matchroom Boxing, “the largest investment in boxing history.” Just last month the company committed “nine figures to a multi-year global distribution agreement with Bellator MMA.” It won’t be long before Pay-Per-View fights are a thing of the past.

MLB took advantage of last week’s All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., relaxing its strict rules and leveraging the game as an opportunity to help its players connect more intimately with fans. According to Yahoo Sports, MLB worked hand-in-hand with players and the MLBPA prior to the All-Star Game to allow players to use cell phones on the field “in the hopes that it would encourage them to share their points of view and All-Star experiences.” After big play and during seemingly-mundane moments alike, players got together on the field to take selfies throughout the evening before sharing them online. “Fans love seeing the personalities of their favorite players come to life and [during the game] they were treated to just that,” said MLB Senior Vice President/Marketing Barbara McHugh. The league’s cell phone acceptance here shows its intent to better connect with younger fans – something that baseball has struggled with as of late.

Despite having LeBron James as an investor, brand ambassador, and franchise owner, Blaze Pizza prefers to keep its brand separate from sports. But the fast-casual pizza chain used LeBron’s departure to Los Angeles to its advantage, and it paid off. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Blaze Pizza took to social media to promote a free pizza giveaway to celebrate James’ arrival in L.A. In just one week, from July 8-14, Blaze saw its Twitter following “increase ten-fold” compared to a typical week. “Maybe this move to the Lakers can open up the door to do more,” said Blaze Social Media Manager Rahiel Dawit. “We are all Team LeBron regardless of personal opinion or your favorite team. Anything he does, we like to promote.” James initially invested in Blaze in 2012, putting in $1 million and turning that into $35 million now. The chain has grown from merely $6 million in sales in 2013 to $185 million last year with no sign of slowing down.

14.The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are only two years away and organizers are beginning to worry about the intense heat that could strike the country during the Games. According to Reuters, Japan is currently enduring an intense heatwave that has “prompted fears of similar extreme weather when the sporting showpiece takes place in the country.” This summer, temperatures have risen to as much as 104 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since 2013, resulting in more than a dozen deaths. Tokyo usually averages weather around 77 degrees at this time. Tokyo Olympic organizers and the IOC are treating this problem seriously as they “consider a raft of counter measures to battle the extreme heat.” Both technological and infrastructural solutions are being considered, from increasing the shelter provided to fans to installing Wet Bulb Globe Temperature devices designed to provide constant feedback to assess heat levels. Toyko organizers aren’t alone – this weekend, the Texas Rangers played ball in record-setting 107 and 108 degree sessions.

15.From a European perspective, the 2018 World Cup can be considered a massive success for leading broadcasters. According to SportsBusiness Journal, a total of 44.5 million people watched the BBC’s TV coverage of the month-long tournament, while there were “66.8 million match requests, including live and on demand, on the BBC Sport website and iPlayer.” England’s quarterfinal win over European counterpart Sweden turned out to be the BBC’s most online-viewed program ever, with 3.8 million viewers. In terms of traditional TV numbers, Eurodata TV revealed that viewership was equally as impressive. France’s 2-0 win attracted 163 million viewers in 20 territories across the continent. “This clearly shows once again that even at the age of mobile devices and non-linear viewing, major sports events are the only shows capable of gathering such large audiences in front of a TV set,” commented Eurodata TV Worldwide Sports Director Yassine Berhoun. Sports as appointment TV viewing remains a truly global phenomenon.

Tech Top Five

MLB and Lucid develop blockchain game. Major League Baseball has partnered with game studio Lucid Sight to develop the first blockchain game based on a global sports league. The two parties will collaborate to produce MLB Crypto Baseball, which will comprise officially-licensed digital, limited edition sports collectibles tied to Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a blockchain application platform that runs applications without downtime, censorship, fraud, or third-party interference. In MLB Crypto Baseball, Ether – the cryptocurrency used by Ethereum – will be exchanged for blockchain-secured MLB Cryptos such as interactive avatar figures and digital collectibles, featuring official marks from MLB and all 30 franchises. The Ethereum blockchain secures each MLB Crypto as an immutable asset and ensures that it has a single owner, creating the same rarity as any traditional physical collectible. A limited supply of MLB Crypto Collectibles, as created by Lucid Sight, will be made available this summer, with the full game due to launch soon thereafter. The game is similar to the most popular blockchain game, CryptoKitties, which has generated over $25 million worth of Ether.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame installs VR QB simulator. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has added a virtual reality tool for quarterbacks, QB SIM, at its Canton, Ohio site in advance of the Class of 2018 induction. QB SIM incorporates an Occulus virtual-reality headset, an actual football which is outfitted with trackers, and NFL data that simulates on-field action, displayed on a large video screen. Brian DeLong, Sports VTS chief technical officer, said QB SIM was inspired by Ted Sundquist, the company’s CEO and a former general manager of the Denver Broncos. “Ted noticed the second- and third-string quarterbacks weren’t getting enough reps,” DeLong said. “Being a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, he knew they trained their top pilots using simulators. The technology finally has caught up with sports.” Sports VTS also has several former NFL quarterbacks serving as advisers, including Jeff Garcia, a four-time Pro Bowler who once played for the Browns.

Overwatch League comes to ESPN, Disney, and ABC. Overwatch League is coming to the ESPN, Disney, and ABC family of networks, ESPN, Disney, and Blizzard Entertainment announced. The multi-year broadcast deal includes the Overwatch League playoffs, the Season 1 grand finals from the Barclays Center in New York this month, and Overwatch League Season 2 next year. In all, professional Overwatch will be broadcast in some fashion on the flagship ESPN network, ESPN2, Disney XD, ABC, and streaming services for the term of the agreement. This amounts to hundreds of hours of live and highlight programming across four networks, bringing Overwatch League competition for the first time to both linear and digital ESPN and Disney viewers. The agreement does not cancel existing distribution agreements already in place, like Twitch broadcasts. "We are turning the corner here in terms of our interest and engagement in the esports category," ESPN Vice President of Digital Media Programming John Lasker said.

Redwings and Pistons implement mobile ticketing. The Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons, through Ticketmaster's user-friendly mobile ticketing technology, will be using mobile ticketing as their primary method of entry for all home games at Little Caesars Arena, starting this fall. Mobile ticketing allows fans to use their mobile device as a game ticket, providing access to the arena through a barcode that can be scanned from a device's screen. The Ticketmaster technology, adopted in arenas throughout the country, also reduces counterfeit tickets, allows for convenient online transfer and re-sale of tickets, and provides a user-friendly platform for online ticket management. PDF tickets will no longer be accepted as a method of entry for Red Wings or Pistons games. Chris Granger, Group President, Sports & Entertainment, Ilitch Holdings, Inc., and Charlie Metzger, Pistons EVP released a joint statement noting the benefits of mobile ticketing. "Both our organizations have been testing mobile technologies throughout the last year and have received positive feedback from both sports fans and concert goers…We're excited to fully transition to the mobile ticketing process."

Roma becomes first Serie A club to broadcast live game on Twitter. Last week, Roma became the first Serie A club to broadcast a live game over Twitter. Over 100,000 fans tuned into the game via the club’s Italian Twitter account, clocking up a total viewing time of just over one year and 224 days. Said Guido Fienga, Chief Operations Officer at Roma, “When we set up Roma Studio back in 2014, our goal was to be able to control how we delivered the most compelling content to our supporters around the world. We’ve made a great effort in recent years to embrace new technology and platforms with our TV channel, radio station and social media and this season we’ll continue to innovate in a way that brings our fans closer to the club.” Two years ago, Roma became the first European club to stream an entire first team match live on Facebook when they took on Russian Premier League side Terek Grozny, and since then have gone on to pioneer a number of new media and technologies across Instagram, Snapchat, and other social and digital platforms.

Power of Sports Five

Launch of Pac-12 Team Green announced. The Pac-12 and Unifi, Inc. have ​announced a long-term partnership, with Unifi serving as the Founding Sustainability Partner of Pac-12 Team Green and as a sponsor of the Pac-12 Sustainability Conference. As part of the partnership, Unifi will provide grant funding to all 12 of the Conference’s member institutions to support sustainability initiatives and increase recycling efforts; work with the Pac-12 and Pac-12 Networks on creating custom content and media assets to feature sustainability programs and support efforts to recycle billions of plastic bottles into fiber; and will also serve as an official sponsor for all Pac-12 championship events. Pac-12 Team Green is a first-of-its-kind collegiate athletics conference sustainability platform set to promote all greening efforts taking place on and around Pac-12 campuses.​ ​The launch of Pac-12 Team Green further cements the Pac-12’s commitment to an elevated approach to enhancing sustainability efforts within collegiate athletics departments and sharing best practices to transform college sports into a platform for environmental progress.

Obama helps open basketball court in Kenya. Charlotte Hornets center Bismack Biyombo and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri were on hand in Kenya last week for the opening of the Sauti Kuu Foundation's sports and education facility, which was headlined by former U.S. President Barack Obama. Biyombo, who will play for Team Africa against Team World at the NBA Africa game on August 4, was also joined by NBA vice-president Amadou Gallo Fall, as the facility, founded by Obama's sister, Auma Obama, was opened. Addressing the crowd, President Obama said, "Three years ago, I visited Kenya as the first sitting American President to come from Kenya…Today I am really coming as a brother, as a citizen of the world, as someone who has a connection to Africa, to talk about the importance of what [Auma is] doing…I've had a chance to look around and it's a remarkable space, and I'm also very happy to see that there is a basketball court!" Obama wasted no time testing the new court out, to rapturous applause. For Biyombo, meeting Obama was a special moment, as he wrote on Twitter: "Basketball has taken me places and given me the opportunity to meet people that I never thought I would meet."

Seattle Seahawks player wins $50,000 for charity. Tanner McEvoy, the Seahawks wide receiver and special teams standout, showcased even more of his versatility this week when he took the title of Microsoft Store Pro Athlete Charity Fortnite Tournament champion to earn $50,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The inaugural competition featured McEvoy competing alongside several of his NFL brethren who were playing Fortnite from various Microsoft Store locations around the country, including Seahawks teammates Rashaad Penny, who was in San Diego, and Rasheem Green, who was in Los Angeles. The entire video game event was streamed live online. “I’ve been gaming a long time," McEvoy said. "With Fortnite coming out it's kind of taken over.” The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures for catastrophic pediatric diseases. Consistent with the vision of founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family's ability to pay.

MLB celebrates 10-year anniversary of Stand Up to Cancer. 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of MLB's relationship with the charity organization Stand Up To Cancer. Each year at the All-Star Game and World Series, MLB puts together a "placard moment" where everyone in the crowd stands up during a moment of silence to raise awareness for the organization. With its efforts, MLB has generated $43 million for cancer research. "To know that the sport of baseball shows a tremendous amount of support of the general fight against cancer is awesome," said Phillies outfielder Rhys Hoskins, who lost his mother to cancer. "I get a little bit emotional inside every time I see the (SU2C) placard moments. It's such a touching moment to see stadiums full of names of those who have been affected. For those few moments, favorite memories of my mom flash through my head just as I imagine people's memories of their loved ones are flashing through theirs.”

Minnesota Twins donate ballpark to community. The Twins are doing what they can to help grow the sport of baseball in Minnesota. In some cases, that means helping out one field at a time. The Twins Community Fund, in partnership with Cenex, reconstructs and rebuilds fields in nearby communities each season as part of the Fields for Kids program. Last week, that movement took hold in Hutchinson, MN, where the program broke ground at Northwoods Park on a project that will provide new backstops, dugouts, fencing, and field improvements. "We at the Twins Community Fund really believe that ballparks are community spaces and places that bring people together," Twins Community Fund manager Stephanie Johnson said. "Whether it's for those youth baseball and softball games or in smaller towns, it's also where there's town festivals, or church services or charity softball games and picnics." Fields for Kids, which will work with five fields in five communities this year, provided $10,000 for the Hutchinson renovation. Created in 1999, Fields for Kids has granted more than $4.3 million in matching grants and helped reconstruct 789 ballparks across the upper Midwest and Southwest Florida.