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Tag Archives: Vegas
Countdown to Vegas – Day 3
decent 'Murican breakfast. note placemat.
Day 3. The final blast. They've moved me from the rodeo shed to one of the other huge halls upstairs, and I have three new target mates. The non-championship archers are split into divisions called 'flights'. You can win some money if you finish at the top of your flight. As we've been categorised by standard so far, there's an air of slight resignation down our wing. I'm in with people who are as good as me, i.e. people who are having a slightly bad day at the office. On the other side of the hall, a remarkable three Olympic gold medalists are lining up to shoot (Jay Barrs, Simon Fairweather and JC Holgado).
But on my target, there is Bob (I'll call him Bob). Bob looks to be mid-40s and heavyset. Bob spends the entire session complaining about how bad he's shooting, how wrong everything is going and so on – coupling it with ever-increasing estimates of his own ability. "Normally I shoot like 250…" "…at home I can do 270…" "my best is like 280." Bob ends up shooting 206. Bob is accompanied by a wife or girlfriend who is absolutely lit up at 12.30 in the afternoon and calls his (and mine, and everyone else's) scores out with elan, cocktail in one hand, binoculars in the other. "You pounded that last one honey!"
Bob complains to me between literally every end. "I don't know what's happening today." "Right now I just want to throw the bow down the range?" Everything is phrased somewhere between a question and a statement. I want to strangle him, but am polite enough to recommend he takes a walk around the block (or whatever) between ends. He blurts out that he's only had one drink today at some point. "What's that drink with wine and orange juice? "Sangria?". "Nah, not that."
There is Charlie. (I'll call him Charlie). In his thirties. Looks like a decent guy with decent taste in music. Charlie is having a terrible time shooting, but thankfully expresses it non-verbally. You've seen Charlie before. The shake of the head. The mouthed 'f**k'. The flashes of anger and self-loathing. The leaning up against the wall and staring into the middle distance. At one point, I'm pretty sure he went and actually banged his head on the wall. Charlie is like me and (probably) you. Charlie came to Vegas thinking he was going to shoot somewhere near his best, and take home a proud memory. Charlie is making a few minor errors and dropping arrows all over the face. I see myself in Charlie.
I carry the octopus, that I may drink of its cunning and strength
The last of us (I'll call her Alice) is a blonde student lady barebow who is having an incredibly awesome day. She skips to the target between ends. She dances waiting for her turn to shoot. She says goshdarnit and similar folksy stuff all the time. Alice appears to be on a manic upswing, and is on form too. Needless to say, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of archery outshoots us all, slightly morose sighted recurves, by a couple of points. It's carnage. Bob stares at the final target faces and says "I've been beaten by a barebow", like it's the worst thing that has ever happened to him. (I am a member of a club with some of the best barebowers in the UK and have been beaten by them on numerous occasions, so I am less surprised).
Me? I have a day not dissimilar to yesterday, i.e. mixed to crap. Some great arrows and some minor errors which I don't have time to correct. A brief practice the day before was not enough. I desperately wish my coach was here. It's probably something dumb and correctable. I finish on a stinking 204. You could class the weekend as a first day at around my best, and two following days somewhat below it. It's more frustrating because it's almost pretty good. It's almost 260-level. Almost. But not. I'm feeling a lot more cheerful about it though. Perhaps because it's done, and I can start work on getting better.
My Vegas is over. All our Vegas-es are over. Charlie looks like someone has shot his dog. I gently say to him, "I guess you were also expecting something better, huh?" He winces, and says: "Yeah, but you know what they say. Archery happens."
You can't see the horses on TV. Just a few yards from the arena where the pro compounds are competing for the biggest cash prize in archery, there's a few beautiful horses munching hay. The South Point apparently has stabling room for up to 2000 (they usually do some of the biggest equestrian events in the USA here).
The Vegas Shoot championship showdown is the big show at the end. The audience start grabbing the best seats a few hours beforehand, and the noise level gradually ratchets up. It looks like there's a couple of thousand people here.
Richard Bowen
In the darkness at the rear of the archery arena, the eight men who shot clean – a perfect 300, every day – line up along with the 'lucky dog', one of the many more guys who shot 899 and came through a shoot-off to grab the last place available. They are all guys (although Tanja Jensen shot 900 last year). There's a lot of tension on faces, a lot of fear. Over the three days to get here, you can concentrate and pretend that you're practicing. Follow your process. It's harder to prepare for this.
Chris Perkins
This year, the lucky dog is Christopher Perkins of Canada, who manages to look more determined, and less nervous, than the eight men in front of him. They're introduced one by one, and take their spots. After just one end that sees Pagnioni take an early bath, the competition switches from 'Vegas scoring' – with the big ten counting as ten points, to championship scoring, where only the inner X ring will do. This is to speed things up.
Three arrows, and it must be thirty points. The next end sees six of the remaining eight men fall, leaving just Bob Eyler and the lucky dog Chris Perkins. But Perkins has an extra challenge – he cannot place, he can only win or lose. It's a rough rule, that reinforces what the Vegas championship is all about; the mark of absolute perfection. If you're gonna play with the big boys, you'd better stand up to them.
Nora Valdez, who finished third in the women's shootdown
After a third place shootoff that sees Kris Schaff edge out Paul Tedford, Perkins and Eyler line up again. Both drill the X ring on their first, but Perkins's third shot drifts low – way low, by Vegas standards. There's a collective sigh in the room. The audience know the game is up as long as Eyler can deliver the final X, and he does. In a little over five ends of shooting, we have a winner. Bob Eyler raises his hands. It's done. He takes the $52,000 first prize. Chris Perkins has to leave with nothing (ok, ninth place and a very small cheque). It seems harsh. It is.
Compared to many archery finals, it's pure theatre, of course. This is a show town, and the increasing popularity of the shoot as a broadcast is because it delivers drama and surprise at every turn. The Vegas Shoot has an inbuilt drama, a pressure cooker tension that is helped along by the structure of the shoot, with the constant pauses to change faces, and the TV, the lights and the commentary. It's great stuff. By the end, I'm convinced it's what the sport needs more of.
The trade show is packed away, the halls gradually empty, bow cases are rolled to the parking lot past tinkling slot machines, and Sunday finishes with food and cocktails and pai gow and cocktails and blackjack (and more cocktails and more blackjack). It's been incredible, really. It's not like anything else on earth. Where else can you see a recent Olympic gold medalist drop a few hundred at roulette at three in the morning? I'm itching to come back next year already.
I want another go.
American noir. Paris casino, North entrance.
Special thanks to Jodi Ess, all the WA comms team, and all my target mates.
I suppose I should stop calling this a countdown, but hey. Vegas kicked off today. The earliest line calls were at 7am, but luckily I managed to avoid that draw and shot my first set of 30 arrows at 12noon, in the big rodeo hall. They're all big rodeo halls.
And it went OK. I loved the moment of silence immediately before the first scoring end. The whole hall seemed still. I didn't feel seriously nervous, but during the first shot in anger, after two practice ends, I froze up. Aaagh. Eventually, eventually, I got through the clicker and got the bolt on the face. The first couple of ends were testy, after that it settled down a bit and I started to be a bit more aggressive with the expansion, and things started to group a lot tighter. Not bad.
Ignore that bad four. Practice arrow.
I also realise there was a small problem with my nocks, a couple of them have drifted around a little. You may be reading this thinking, wow, what sort of n00b idiot doesn't check his nocks before he shoots a tournament? You'd be asking an entirely reasonable question. I decided to shoot the single face rather than the three spot, like 90% of my recurve flight. Perhaps one day, the three spot. Not now.
I really like the way Vegas dances entirely to its own tune in terms of tournament rules. The 'bottom' line – the archers with their faces on the lower half off the boss – always start. Then at the halfway mark there's a switch from bottom to top – after fifteen arrows, you take the face off and replace it on the top or bottom respectively, pushing the washered nails in to the burlap with your bare and increasingly raw thumb. (Oh, apparently you're supposed use the metal part of your tab. Why did no-one tell me that?) Ow. Some people change the faces between the practice ends and the scoring ends too. Some people.
Everyone has to do this jump. Even the pros. It's a quintessential gesture of American sport. You're all in this. You're all part of it. The first end after that a handful of people invariably shoot the wrong face, so the judges have to make a sweep of the top faces to remove the rogue arrows. Duhhh. (Yeah, I almost did that).
My target mates have been here before, and everyone is super helpful. You sense how good everyone is feeling about this event. It's a big weekend off to do something you like doing, and then you can lark around in Las Vegas afterwards, the greatest playground for adults in this world. I finish on 240 out of 300, putting me comfortably in mid-table mediocrity in the flights category. Plenty of space to improve though. Two days to go.
Two people got married today, at the Mathews booth in the trade fair. In Mathews shirts. With a bucket of arrows as a bouquet. That was kinda weird.
My next line call is at 9am tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
Countdown to Vegas – one day to go
The format for almost everybody is pretty simple. Shoot thirty arrows a day, add them up. That's your competition. No head-to-heads. International teams and kids at their first tournament. Men and women all piled together. All in the same boat.
Jesus, this is huge. I'm still pretty tired; I tried to do some stretch-band work in the toilet of the creaking British Airways 747 that brought me here from London, but it really was not big enough. So I 'missed' a day of practice, but whatever. Am going to shoot what I've brought, despite waking bolt upright at 4.50am, body clock set wrongly. I post on Facebook shortly afterwards and get a reply from fellow Brit Patrick Huston saying 'can't sleep either'. Heh. Breakfast at half-past-five in the morning, why the hell not. This is the perfect place for it.
The Vegas Shoot is the largest indoor competition in the world, and regarded as the most prestigious. It actually comprises two major tournaments: the fourth leg of the indoor archery World Cup season and its grand finale, and the various categories of the Vegas Open shoot, the main event finishes in a shootdown amongst compound archers that can be summarised as 'one miss of the x ring and you're out'. Alongside that there are a dozen or so sub-tournaments; local and junior finals ringing out over the PA over the preceding days. The big dance. There's plenty more facts and superlatives, it's easier to read Andrea's excellent guide to it on the NFAA website.
All this is held in a cavernous casino hotel called the South Point, a couple of miles south of the 'end' of the famous Las Vegas Strip, which has two immense halls split into two ranges each and a further events arena for the finals. This year is the biggest gate ever, and almost 3600 archers have arrived from all corners of the USA and fifty one different countries. Today, the last day before competition begins, the buzz is rising. The place is jammed. There are queues for many things and there's a constant chatter of fat arrows rattling in quivers in every hallway. This really is tribal gathering of American archery. You sense that no-one here would rather be anywhere else.
Today (Thursday) is a free-for-all open practice: grab a target, grab some pins and find a spot at any one of the hundreds of bosses. (Vegas, even for the pros, is quite do-it-yourself and doesn't rely so much on an army of volunteers for organisation and scoring). Every hall is full of archers, and from tonight, you can practice literally around the clock in the city that, needless to say, never sleeps.
The symbol of Vegas is the iconic three-spot target, although not everybody knows that you can turn it over and shoot on a regular single ten-zone target (outside of the championship division). I haven't quite decided which one I'm going to go for yet. It seems a bit churlish to go to Vegas and not shoot the three-spot, but in practice, it's clear I'm getting the better results on the single-spot.
I watch and chat with legend-of-Sydney-2000, Simon Fairweather and Sjef Van Den Berg. Simon, like me, is shooting in the recurve 'flights' division (another unique Vegas feature of which more tomorrow). Sjef is, as usual, at the top of the pile of the championship recurves, with a lot more at stake. Unlike most events, they can practice almost anonymously here amongst an ocean of compounders. Both look almost absurdly relaxed, practicing in the vast hall at the back of the hotel that has rodeo bars at its entrance. I mean, I'm more nervous about this.
Sjef moving at quantum speed
I talk to Chris Marsh, the World Archery events director, here to supervise the World Cup event leg. "Vegas is unique, because it's the only event in the calendar that unites two worlds; the enormous NFAA with its field and hunting audience, and World Archery, which is of course focussed on target archery. It's a meeting and mingling of the two worlds which doesn't happen anywhere else." It's an immense expression of the American side of archery in one of the country's most American of cities.
yes, this man has a blade on his barebow
So I join the throng, and practice ends up going really smoothly, starting strongly in the middle and wandering off a little towards the end. I'm glad it's only thirty arrows a day, anyway. If it was sixty, I'd be in more trouble. So I'll decide tomorrow morning which side I'm going to shoot. The bow is working well and reasonably in tune, and apart from a moving clicker, fixed with a bit of brute force, is easily going to outshoot the archer. So we'll see where we are at tomorrow. It's time to face the first thirty.
the main arena, where all the action is
Countdown to Vegas – five days to go
Kate, my coach, sits on a chair and gets ready to deliver more punishment. "Again. Three more." I've seen Kate be wonderful with floundering beginners, but as you get a bit further up the food chain, she doesn't waste her charm. This evening, in a joint lesson with resident club fletcher Emma, we are expected to listen and be good, and the instructions get more curt.
We are doing an exercise involving coming up to full draw and alternately pushing and pulling with the front arm and the back muscles. Suddenly the bow feels twice as heavy. "Five more on the front, then again on the front." It's torture. "Strength strength strength this week. The most important thing." Apart from all the other important things. Kate never misses anything. There is no getting away from poor form, weak shots, that-thing-you're-doing.
It's pretty simple, but the thing that has been missing from my recurve life for many years is regular coaching, and I am lucky to be near enough to Archery Fit here in London to come and get it. It is the single most valuable thing in the sport. For all the free advice and information that the digital revolution has brought us, you can't learn archery from YouTube, and you need structure to improve. If there is no coach, nothing will change very fast.
My arm extension is looking good now. "How many pushups are you doing every morning?" I tell her. OK, I lie. Kate recommends 100 pushups every morning. I would find that difficult to impossible. "One pushup equals one shot." Still, I've been doing some, and reversals in front of the TV, and pulldowns and pullups at the gym. It's made the difference.
After four days of several hundred arrows more than I've ever shot in my life, large chunks of my upper body are aching and my back is killing me. But the strength work has made a difference. I feel more in charge of the bow, and able to hold for much longer without collapse, more able to keep… on… pulling…. Vegas is only thirty arrows a day. Thirty good arrows. That's more than doable now.
This Thursday saw a painful late change to hand position in order to fix an alignment problem that saw weaker shots start to smack into the bracer. It's a fix that kind of covers over the fact I'm still not turning my elbow over enough. But it's still better than having one in every six shots score a big fat miss to the right of the six zone. Kate is sanguine about my chances in Nevada. "Never mind about what is down the other end. The important thing is that you enjoy yourself. The rest of it doesn't matter. The point of archery is to enjoy it."
There's been some technical changes as well. I've long known my arrows were a bit stiff, and I finally managed to put in some 120 grain points to replace the 100s. Bingo. Straighter flight. Bareshaft close to bang on. Shot sounds better. Group a tiny bit tighter. Like, duhhh.
At the recommendation of my 'arrow doctor' Yulia I've added offset AAE WAV vanes to my ACGs. They worked for her indoors. I hope they'll work for me. She also shows me a vastly better method for fletching. This should be taught from the get go; part of beginners courses. I reject her kind offer to set me up with some spin wings as I don't have enough time to get used to them before Vegas. Maybe next time. You may be reading this thinking "why is he only sorting this stuff now?". You'd be asking a very reasonable question.
There's been some other work down. After a 'hangry' day at the range resulted in bad moods and worse archery, I started paying a bit more attention to diet, trying to make sure I balanced carbs and protein better. I kind of know what I need, I just don't always get it right – especially when busy. One less coffee per day too, but have brought a sack of jelly babies for instant sugar thump if necessary.
Finally, after several weeks hard-ish work, the shot is stable, the arrows are staying on the face, and the scores are starting to ratchet up. It's nothing fancy, but it's something. It's the physical expression of an internal desire. I'm starting to sense the deep magic of achievement based on solid work. I'm annoyed, but not angry if I don't see a dark flash downrange across the yellow of the target post-release.
I suppose I'd settled for being a very mediocre recurve archer too long ago, without wanting to put the effort in to not settling for making up the numbers. Now I feel a little bit more possibility in the wind. Finishing tonight with a crisp 29 left the last proper practice session on a real high. I hope I can deliver a performance out there that justifies the work and effort.
Damn, it feels good to be an archer.
Countdown to Vegas: 12 days to go
"I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have." – opening line of Andre Agassi's autobiography.
I don't hate doing archery. For the first time in a long while. The self-doubt fog is lifting. Lucky, lucky me. I have time to go and shoot, although it's being fitted around a million and one other things. And things are going…. OK. I mean…
yes, I know the Vegas ones are different, don't @ me
… you know, I'm not going to be worrying Brady Ellison come Saturday week, but they're all landing on the face, right? Which makes a marked change from my last international tournament. It's like, I have some kind of a shot, and can deliver it down range, but I'm still a bit short of the reserve strength to handle it and get that kind of consistency towards the middle.
But it's looking better than it has, ever. Archery Fit in Greenwich, who I've written about before, have been helping me down the road with some amazing coaching, as usual. I sense I'm keeping occasional pace with the better club recurves, rather than being a few minutes behind the peloton as usual. I can smash up gold paper with the best of them at 18m.
I start eyeing up the fun bits of Vegas on the internet, wondering what I'm going to do when not destroying the middle. This is gonna be goooood.
Of course, this all goes well for several sessions, until a relatively stressful Sunday and a long and tiring Monday leaves me arriving at the range feeling empty and rattled. There's a often repeated maxim, apparently attributed to Fred Bear, which goes like this:
I'm really sorry, but this is complete and utter bullshit. Unless old Fred shot blank boss all the time. Your mileage may vary, but for me it's literally the opposite situation; nothing reveals and reflects a troubled, tired mind quite like shooting a bow at a target, amplifying the struggles and marking out distraction with numerical clarity. There's loads of things I love doing to clear a troubled mind: walking on a beach, cooking risotto, listening to Eliane Radigue – but archery isn't one of them. It increases my stress levels if they're up there already.
What's wrong? I can't hit a barn door today. I rip the Vegas three-spot down and put up a piece of golden yellow A4 paper folded in half (an Archery Fit trope, apparently originally borrowed from rifle shooting drills). Today, I can barely hit that either. I have no energy and precious little willpower. I want to throw the bow across the room. Of course, I should just stand at a blank boss, but my ego – the one that was doing so well last week – won't let me. Eventually I give up and put it all back in the case and stomp off to get a beer and the train home.
A couple of hours later, I'm thinking: maybe it wasn't that bad after all. And I didn't eat properly, or plan the day right, or stop for a moment and breathe. It's part of being human, though, right? Huh.
God I hate archery. Tomorrow will be different.
Vegas here we come
I'm going to Vegas. I'm not just going there to write and report. I'm going there to shoot. Regular readers may remember this isn't my strongest point. Although I've improved a lot over the last year. Have I?
This picture, taken tonight at Thanet Archers who are currently welcoming me as a guest in east Kent, sums it up pretty well. (They always shoot a Portsmouth round on Tuesdays. I didn't wanna demand they put up a three-spot or something).
I've been working hard. Shooting. SPTs. The gym. Of course, there's the hitting of another odd plateau; the one where you know you have at least half-a-decent shot in the armoury, but can you put three of them down the range one after the other? Can you f**k. One of them will have to fall by the wayside, like some kind of mandatory offering to the archery gods.
I know there is no excuse, no cure other than disciplined practice, focus, and listening to your coach. There is no sentience in that arrow. It does not listen. It does not represent me. But nevertheless it sits there, wrong, away from the others, laughing at me. Like a little gremlin. Even if you know you've improved and moved further towards something rather strong, there's an inkling that you're still an imposter at this party. It's not fun. But I'm going to do what I can. I will stake whatever I can bring. I'll try and drag you along with me.
It'll be my first time at the Vegas Shoot, the longest running, largest indoor shoot in the world, and one that is most famous for its professional compound open division – the recurve class is very much a sideshow, and the recurve division I'll be shooting in is rather more about making up the exceptionally large numbers.
I've been to Las Vegas before, but only to play poker and gawp at the world's largest playground for adults. Will I manage to produce enough decent archery to do myself justice in one of the world's most notoriously distracting cities? Who knows.
"At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowed -and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gambler
300archery blogCrystal GauvinperfectionVegasVegas Shoot
in pursuit of perfection
Reblog of a great couple of posts by Crystal Gauvin about her experiences at the Vegas Shoot, where she finished second in the 'freestyle unlimited' division (compound) as well as the Indoor World Cup final. Compound indoors, especially at Vegas, becomes all about achieving the maximum score in each round – the magical 300 mark usually referred to as 'shooting clean' – and she gives great insight into the difficulties of trying to achieve that least human of qualities: perfection.
Read both posts here:
Aida RomanBrady Ellisoneaf2014Indoor World CupIWCTelfordkoreanSongi WooThomas FaucheronVegas
2014 European Archery Festival – photo diary
2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Telford. Christ.
This, the largest indoor archery event ever held in the UK is being held in Telford. Of all places. The four stages of the archery indoor World Cup are held (in order) in Shanghai, Marrakech, Telford, and Las Vegas. One of these things is not like the other, as even a slightly bemused BBC Midlands crew points out on the Friday night. It reminds me of the "London. Paris. Peckham." painted on the side of DelBoy's van. Telford International Centre is a huge shed dumped beside an A-road and used for all the events that matter; Ultimate Dubs, Scale Model World, and the snooker in November. Now it's being used for something important; and over 900 archers from 40 countries have turned out.
Qualifying. 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
By the time I reach the venue, we are already in the fourth qualification stage of four: sixty arrows, recurve and compound, men and women, recurve and junior – although a couple of brave souls are shooting barebow, and one guy is shooting a horsebow with wooden arrows. Whatta man. The top 32 in each category go through to the eliminations. This tournament is completely open; you are free to turn up and make a score that challenges the greats, if you can. You can almost smell the intense concentration required, as well as the dejection from less vintage performances.
Qualifying at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Qualification 'D'. 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
In the bleak midwinter. Qualifying at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Bryony Pitman. 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Alan Wills warming up. Qualification at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
I've been trying, but I can't think of another sport, anywhere, where you can just pitch up as a rank amateur and get to perform literally next to the world's number one, an Olympic medallist, or a world record holder. All these things happened in Telford. You can run in the same city marathon as Haile Gebrselassie, but they don't let you start next to him. Many other sports have open competitions, but the top people usually get a bye through. Here, you get to play with the best in the world, straight out. Disabled archers on the same field as everyone else. There's something magical there. I wander the forests of carbon with my camera, finding joy and disappointment in equal measure.
Becky Martin. 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Crystal Gauvin at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Vanessa Elzinga and Jamie Van Natta. 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Rick & Stef. Qualification 'D' at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Reo Wilde & Adam Ravenscroft at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Qualification 'D' at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Eliska. Qualification 'D' at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Eliska Starostova, a friend now on the Czech national team is sponsored as an archer by her 'other' club Fujian White Crane Kung-Fu. Despite the heroic and (usually) positive sporting associations the general public have with archery, many traditions think of it more as a martial art; a discipline. Kung-fu and archery. It's a good match-up. Self-discipline. Inner strength. Eliska beat one Naomi Folkard to win an indoor tournament last year. I watch the screens nervously as qualification wraps up while her name hovers around the cut line. Frowning with concentration, she ends up qualifying 26th in women's recurve. Safety. The work has paid off. The gilded names go on, the vast amateur field get another shot at a second-chance tournament at some ungodly hour the next morning.
Chang Hye-Jin. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
In the women's recurve, a juggernaut arrived last night. Team LH from Korea; five archers, in identical uniforms at all times, no English, terrifyingly good. LH are full-time professionals, sponsored by the state housing company. They took five of the top six spots in qualification, out of ninety-eight top women archers from all over the world. It's a bit like Real Madrid suddenly pitching up in League 2. The utter dominance of Korea in recurve archery, reinforced in spades over the last couple of years, has become a cornerstone of the international sport. As someone says to me, "I'm just glad they didn't enter the men's team. Or their compounders. Because we'd all have been f****ed."
Sjef Van Den Berg. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
As the head to head competition starts, the focus narrows, and the thousand-yard-stares come out. With no wind or rain and the short distance involved, the indoor scores at this level are so high, that the winner or loser can be decided on basically "who blinks first." Who is the first to shoot a nine rather than a ten. If your opponent can and does score thirty for a three-arrow end, you must be able to do the same. The set system allows for limited opportunities for catching up an error, but the fact remains that international archery competitions are brutal. Brutal on the nerves, brutal on the psyche. Your odds of making the final table are tiny. Poker fields. Over the PA, the results of matches are announced, the fallen are a who's-who of big names. The world champions. The ones who get featured in the programme. (And Eliska, unfortunately, hammered by a German archer in the 1/16). In barely more than ten minutes, all that work is over.
Tatiana Segina. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Aida Roman using 'video assist'. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Aida Roman and her coach watch each end back on video immediately after she finishes shooting it. She ends up beating her former coach, Song I Woo, who is one of the few archers on the line who looks like they are enjoying themselves.
Thomas Faucheron. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
I watch the quarter-final between Brady Ellison and Thomas Faucheron of France from a prime seat, a slow, ferocious battle. Brady is the huge star here. He has an immense presence on the line, slow, immensely relaxed. This Olympic medallist self-describes on social media as 'a country boy who just likes to shoot his bow'. He spends most of the time when not shooting besieged by autograph-hunters.
Brady Ellison. Recurve shootdown at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Brady's shots seem so strong, so still, so relaxed, that I wonder how he can be beaten. Faucheron holds and holds and holds (usually a road to disaster) yet somehow still manages to pull out the tens. It comes down to a one-arrow shootoff. If the preceding competitive segments were brutal, this is an even nastier weapon. Faucheron wins it, by millimetres. Brady sighs just a little and adjusts his cap, then congratulates him. Next day will be painless.
Chris Wells is the communications director for the EAF. Why Telford, Chris? "Because we've used the area before, we saw real potential in the venue, there's good transport links, hotels on site, plus we got excellent feedback from the archers who've been here before (the Back to Back tournament)." All excellent reasons. But unfortunately, it's still Telford.
Great God, this is an awful place. One of the more famous 1960s new towns, it was created by municipal parthenogenesis, when someone decided to legitimise the existence of a bunch of Shropshire towns and villages by birthing a shopping centre in the middle and uniting them all in joyful retail. A few miles to the south is the bucolic Ironbridge, cradle of the Industrial Revolution and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But here is just the urtext inflorescence of Crap Britain, a vaporous hell of Wetherspoons and Costa, an ring-road Erewhon, a post-war concrete conurban fantasy guiding all to worship at the crumbling temple complex in the middle – which now has an Asda. Deserted on a Saturday night at 9pm, you can't get from the "town centre" to the International Centre on the pavement – they've ripped it out and haven't put anything down. You have to struggle through the muddy verges or take your chances on the A-road. Everyone in local hotels is turning up with muddy shoes, including me. Telford: the town that makes Slough look like Florence. Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, California, that: "The trouble with Oakland is that when you get there, there isn't any there there." When you get to Telford, there wasn't anything there in the first place, but someone replaced it with f**k all anyway. Perhaps if you hurtle round the ring road fast enough you can achieve escape velocity from this Travelodge of a city.
Steve Anderson on the Hoyt stand at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
The other half of this festival is devoted to trade, held in the hall next door. All the big archery manufacturers and many of the British retailers have taken a stall here. Most things are pretty familiar, so I decide to look for things which are new(ish).
Fivics risers at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
New Fivics risers in pretty colours. Korean glamour.
Win & Win compound bows at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Win & Win have started producing compound bows, with the usual attention to simplicity and excellence coupled with joyfully peculiar translations.
Shibuya stabs at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Shibuya stabs in awesome bright colours.
Aurel Archery shafts at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
I spend a good deal of time talking to René Velarde Rast (above) of Aurel Archery, based in Germany, a man manufacturing some beautiful quality carbon arrows. He is gradually working on a business model based on excellent quality, personal service, and strong relationships with pro shops. Whether he can seriously challenge the Easton machine perhaps depends on long-entrenched attitudes changing; the product is obviously excellent. He is focussing entirely on target archery; no broadheads and skull penetration figures here. I would love to get a bunch of his shafts and piles down to my club; we are currently working collectively on putting together tricky components like bowstrings ourselves, and arrows are one of the more difficult elements of archery to get right (in London this is not helped by a complete lack of archery shops). Seizing control of the means of production, and reducing the import duty on American arrows would help. Rene is also producing aluminium and, uniquely, wood laminate shafts for traditional archers (below). Good show.
Aurel Archery – wood laminate shafts at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
I meet up with some of the other London archers and we rattle around the place, waiting for the denouement. I meet Patrick, the hazy genius behind Uukha. I watch a BBC 'Road To Rio' TV crew desperately try, with Songi Woo's help, to pull some quotes out of the Sphinx-like Koreans. After the junior finals have been completed, the main hall is closed off and turned round. We have been promised a special show for the big finale. Lights. Smoke. A show producer from Vegas has been pulled in. Broadcast engineers. The compound archers 'headline' this show above the recurvers, in a reversal of the usual order of events. I ask why. The focus is apparently being put on 'on-the-spot-accuracy', with tension and cameras and the like, and the inherently more accurate bow is taking centre stage – it should be noted that the main sponsors are also quite compound-oriented, too. They were hoping for more national BBC coverage, but it's a difficult sell without some Brits in the final.
Finals warm-up at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
The show is indeed a show, designed for the room more than the TV. Aida Roman is first up in the bronze medal match, and she's amazing. There's a steely look to her shooting. A more ruthless competitor. If I've watched the Olympic individual climax a thousand times… There is no mistake here. She wins looking like a rock star. (If you are really bored, you can watch the feed and see me scurry out to take the picture below.)
Aida Roman: rock star. Finals 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
After that, the Korean women put on a masterclass in form for the final, which goes to two shoot-offs. It's not so much that they look effortless; it's more that the technique is so ingrained that it looks more natural. It's learned, like everyone else. It's just better. The scores, as I check them later, would easily challenge the recurve men. Perhaps the missing media link is just that; remove men's and women's classes: totally open competition. I wonder if that's an idea whose time has come.
Team LH, finals of the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Kim Yu Mi at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
Levi Morgan v Paul Tedford at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
TRU Ball sign at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
All-American chisel-jawed superman Levi Morgan takes the bronze in men's compound, and when asked how, says he 'prayed real hard'. It's about this time I notice the slogan in very small letters underneath the headline sponsor's logo plastered everywhere. The joys of international archery; the frankly strange cultural clashes, the variety of people and stories united in a common goal. The festival has worked. The big show has come off. It wasn't perfect, and there's a way to go, but everything appears to be going in exactly the right direction. It was an event. Where does it go from here?
Erika Jones at the 2014 European Archery Festival. © 2014 The Infinite Curve
All pictures by me (except the one of Aida Roman post-release by Dean Alberga). All rights reserved. If you want to use them, ask me nicely.
Special thanks to Chris Wells. Was great to meet @StratfordArcher, @archeryashe, @martin_evans and the like. Cheers.
Stay tuned for an extensive interview with Patrick Huston, hope to bring you that tomorrow.


text:
Limited Competition for the Closeout of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Cohort Study (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
R01 Research Project Grant
Reissue of RFA-DK-14-508
July 26, 2019- Changes to NIH Requirements Regarding Proposed Human Fetal Tissue Research. See Notice NOT-OD-19-128
August 23, 2019- Clarifying Competing Application Instructions and Notice of Publication of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Regarding Proposed Human Fetal Tissue Research. See Notice NOT-OD-19-137
RFA-DK-19-507
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to complete the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Cohort Study. SEARCH has recruited a cohort of youth with diabetes who have been followed longitudinally. The purpose of this FOA is to complete data analyses and disseminate scientific findings regarding the evolution of diabetes-related complications, including mortality, and processes of care and quality of life.
All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on the listed date(s).
This FOA invites submission of a single application from the existing SEARCH Biostatistics Research Center (BRC) to undertake all scientific and administrative close-out activities required to complete the SEARCH Cohort study. This FOA builds on the nearly 20-year collaborative multi-center SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth research project. The BRC will conduct biostatistical analyses and interpretation, and support dissemination of scientific findings in peer-reviewed journals. The BRC will also provide data and sample management, specifically to transfer these to the NIDDK Central Repositories.
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas. Type 2 diabetes (T2D), once considered a disease of adults, emerged in the pediatric population in the mid-1990s, as a result of the epidemic of obesity, especially among adolescents of racial/ethnic minority groups. The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study was established to provide population-based estimates of the prevalence and incidence of diabetes by type in U.S. youth < 20 years of age. SEARCH consists of five clinical sites and a Biostatistics Research Center.
SEARCH has been uniquely poised to contribute to our understanding of the clinical course of T1D and T2D diagnosed in youth. Beginning in 2002, SEARCH recruited, through its Registry activities, a series of incident cohorts who have been followed longitudinally. These individuals have been well-characterized through a variety of surveys, questionnaires, and physical and laboratory assessments. The SEARCH cohort is diverse across racial/ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic groups. The long-term goal of SEARCH has been to understand the burden of diabetes in U.S. youth and how to decrease risk factors for diabetes-related complications. Key issues addressed in the previous award include: 1) Documenting the incidence and prevalence of acute and chronic complications of diabetes and diabetes co-morbidities by diabetes type and by race/ethnicity, and understanding the various physiologic, behavioral and psychosocial risk factors that lead to the development of complications and co-morbidities; 2) Assessing quality of life for individuals with youth-onset diabetes and modifying factors, including the use of patient-oriented outcomes and understanding the roles of hypoglycemia, diabetes-related stress and school- or work-related issues that may impact quality of life; 3) Evaluating processes and quality of care, including how care may be affected by the Affordable Care Act, and how care and outcomes have been affected by emerging treatment technologies, including continuous glucose monitoring and artificial pancreas; and 4) Determining mortality rates and causes of mortality among individuals with diabetes diagnosed in youth.
During the previous award, the BRC has been responsible for the oversight and coordination of clinical site activities, including the collection and management of all clinical and laboratory data. With all study visits completed, the BRC is now expected to provide statistical analysis and interpretation of all data, and to collaborate with the clinical sites and support the dissemination of key scientific information derived from the study through presentations at scientific meetings and in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.
It is expected that the BRC will collaborate with the clinical site investigators to review the scientific goals of the previous award and develop a list and prioritize potential manuscripts following established SEARCH Cohort Study procedures. This process requires scientific input from both the BRC and the investigators. Once this list is developed, the BRC is expected to provide the statistical and analytic support required to write the manuscripts, and develop scientific presentations, in order to disseminate the findings of SEARCH. The BRC is also responsible for ensuring appropriate progress of the manuscript development and writing process, so that dissemination can occur in a timely manner. The BRC may use existing SEARCH Cohort Study processes (e.g., the Publication Committee) to accomplish this goal or may develop alternative procedures. As in the previous award, it may be appropriate for the BRC to utilize subcontracts to support the scientific work of the investigators at the clinical sites.
The BRC also continues to be responsible for oversight of the Central Biosample Laboratory (CBL). As part of this responsibility, the BRC will work with the CBL to ensure that the SEARCH Cohort Study biospecimens are transferred to the NIDDK Central Repository, in accordance with informed consent and the protection of participant confidentiality. This responsibility may include the appropriate destruction of samples that cannot be transferred into the public domain, because of non-consent. Similarly, the BRC is responsible for transferring the study data to the NIDDK Central Repository, again in accordance with informed consent and the protection of participant confidentiality.
Renewal applications from RFA-DK-14-508
The OER Glossary and the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide provide details on these application types. Only those application types listed here are allowed for this FOA.
Not Allowed: Only accepting applications that do not propose clinical trials
NIDDK intends to commit $2 million to fund one award in FY 2020.
Application budget should not exceed $1.7 million direct costs and should reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
The maximum project period is one year.
This FOA is a limited competition for continuation of the SEARCH Cohort Study, which was previously funded in response to RFA-DK-14-508. Only the currently funded SEARCH Biostatistics Research Center is eligible to apply.
Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply. Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.
eRA Commons - Applicants must have an active DUNS number to register in eRA Commons. Organizations can register with the eRA Commons as they are working through their SAM or Grants.gov registration , but all registrations must be in place by time of submission. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.
Only the current awardee under RFA-DK-14-508 is eligible to apply under this FOA.
Only one application per institution (normally defined by having a unique DUNS number or NIH IPF number) is allowed.
It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide except where instructed in this funding opportunity announcement to do otherwise. Conformance to the requirements in the Application Guide is required and strictly enforced. Applications that are out of compliance with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.
John Connaughton, Ph.D.
Email: NIDDKLetterofIntent@mail.nih.gov
All page limitations described in the SF424 Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed
R&R or Modular Budget
Research Strategy: The application should delineate the key research questions to be addressed during the close-out phase, and should include a discussion of retention during the previous award, a detailed listing of all outcomes collected and a discussion of completeness of data. In addition, the application should describe the organizational structure and processes that will be used to accomplish the scientific goals of this award period.
Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
All applications, regardless of the amount of direct costs requested for any one year, should address a Data and Resource (Biosample) Sharing Plan.
Only limited Appendix materials are allowed. Follow all instructions for the Appendix as described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials (and when applicable, clinical trials research experience) follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions:
Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start).All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
Part I. Overview Information contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday , the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.
All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement .
Use of Common Data Elements in NIH-funded Research
Many NIH ICs encourage the use of common data elements (CDEs) in basic, clinical, and applied research, patient registries, and other human subject research to facilitate broader and more effective use of data and advance research across studies. CDEs are data elements that have been identified and defined for use in multiple data sets across different studies. Use of CDEs can facilitate data sharing and standardization to improve data quality and enable data integration from multiple studies and sources, including electronic health records. NIH ICs have identified CDEs for many clinical domains (e.g., neurological disease), types of studies (e.g. genome-wide association studies (GWAS)), types of outcomes (e.g., patient-reported outcomes), and patient registries (e.g., the Global Rare Diseases Patient Registry and Data Repository). NIH has established a "Common Data Element (CDE) Resource Portal" (http://cde.nih.gov/) to assist investigators in identifying NIH-supported CDEs when developing protocols, case report forms, and other instruments for data collection. The Portal provides guidance about and access to NIH-supported CDE initiatives and other tools and resources for the appropriate use of CDEs and data standards in NIH-funded research. Investigators are encouraged to consult the Portal and describe in their applications any use they will make of NIH-supported CDEs in their projects.
Does the project address an important problem or a critical barrier to progress in the field? Is the prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project rigorous? If the aims of the project are achieved, how will scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice be improved? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, treatments, services, or preventative interventions that drive this field?
Are the overall strategy, methodology, and analyses well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the specific aims of the project? Have the investigators included plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of prior research that serves as the key support for the proposed project ? Have the investigators presented strategies to ensure a robust and unbiased approach, as appropriate for the work proposed? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? If the project is in the early stages of development, will the strategy establish feasibility and will particularly risky aspects be managed? Have the investigators presented adequate plans to address relevant biological variables, such as sex, for studies in vertebrate animals or human subjects?
If the project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, are the plans to address 1) the protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults), justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed?
Specific to this FOA: Has the PD/PI identified research questions to be addressed during the close-out phase that are likely to advance the field? Has the retention during the previous award and the completeness of data collection been sufficient to provide a representative sample of youth with diabetes? Are the organizational structure and processes that will be used to accomplish the scientific goals satisfactorily described?
For Renewals, the committee will consider the progress made in the last funding period.
Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s) convened by NIDDK,in accordance with NIH peer review policy and procedures, using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a Scientific Review Group will be shown in the eRA Commons.
Applications will be assigned to the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications submitted in response to this FOA. Following initial peer review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the National Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council . The following will be considered in making funding decisions:
Institutional Review Board or Independent Ethics Committee Approval: Grantee institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC. To help ensure the safety of participants enrolled in NIH-funded studies, the awardee must provide NIH copies of documents related to all major changes in the status of ongoing protocols.
For additional guidance regarding how the provisions apply to NIH grant programs, please contact the Scientific/Research Contact that is identified in Section VII under Agency Contacts of this FOA. HHS provides general guidance to recipients of FFA on meeting their legal obligation to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to their programs by persons with limited English proficiency. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/special-topics/limited-english-proficiency/index.html. The HHS Office for Civil Rights also provides guidance on complying with civil rights laws enforced by HHS. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/section-1557/index.htmlhttps://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/laws-regulations-guidance/index.html. Recipients of FFA also have specific legal obligations for serving qualified individuals with disabilities. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/disability/index.html. Please contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights for more information about obligations and prohibitions under federal civil rights laws at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/about-us/contact-us/index.html or call 1-800-368-1019 or TDD 1-800-537-7697. Also note it is an HHS Departmental goal to ensure access to quality, culturally competent care, including long-term services and supports, for vulnerable populations. For further guidance on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services, recipients should review the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care at http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53.
When multiple years are involved, awardees will be required to submit the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) annually and financial statements as required in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Barbara Linder
Email: linderb@mail.nih.gov
Dianne Camp, Ph.D.
Email: Dianne.camp@nih.gov
Craig Bagdon, MPA
Email: bagdonc@mail.nih.gov
This FOA is supported under the authority of P.L. 115-123, Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018; Section 50902. Extension for special diabetes programs.

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Ian Siegal entered the industry in 2007 when he unveiled "Swagger".
Ian Siegal entered the industry in 2007 when he unveiled "Swagger". Now he has grown into his own, delivering more music in 2018 with "All The Rage". He will be playing soon, with shows in Sheffield, Derby and London.


The Dastard has exchanged his soul for a truly wonderful talent. He can go back in time and undo anything he doesn't like. Without a soul, he uses his talent to undo anything that makes others happy. Three Sorceress Princesses, Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, discover his actions and resolve to fix it, but how? They still have souls and cannot simply kill him. Anything else, and he'll undo their actions. The Dastard himself wants to marry a princess and become successful, but what princess would marry a man without a soul?
Piers Anthony (see other BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by this author) uses his Xanth series to indulge in an endless series of puns--some good, most bad. In THE DASTARD, he introduces the comic strip as a way of adding even more puns to the story line. Still, he maintains a strong narrative line with real moral challenges. What can moral people do to protect themselves from others without their moral scruples? The power of the three princesses, which starts at sorceress level but adds a power (exponent) with each princess, is a cute extension to the magic of Xanth. A number of recurring characters add to the Xanth tradition.
The Xanth series appeals especially to teens, and Anthony's continual sexual references may offend some readers. The material really is P.G., however, with all serious action taking place off the screen. A more serious problem is the dropped plot threads. Anthony makes a big deal about the magical inability to keep a secret if more than ten people are involved but never really tries to keep a secret from the Dastard or anyone else. Still, THE DASTARD is above-average Piers Anthony--which is saying a lot. (For a more serious Piers Anthony, see our review of On a Pale Horse).
Click this link and see more reviews, similar books, and other Amazon information on THE DASTARD from Amazon.com.
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text:
Q: Is "Life is tired" correct English? The sentence was found in the lyrics of a song from a Dutch-born Chinese singer so given her origins I am not entirely sure it is correct English.
On the other hand the seemingly correct expression "Life is tiring" may sound a bit too grave/over the top in a lyrical context? Again I defer to the crushing verdict of you native speakers.

A: Well life is tired would mean that the concept of life itself is tired — a slightly odd and unusual sort of personification. Life is tiring, as you suggested, is a lot more common of a phrase — it implies that life has the ability to make one tired. I'll let you figure out which one she meant...

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text:
Split Decision In Allianz Life Annuity Lawsuit
January 9, 2010 by Chris Serres
A split decision in Allianz Life annuity lawsuit: Some experts wonder if verdict gives companies a license to deceive. [Star Tribune, Minneapolis] By Chris Serres, Star Tribune, MinneapolisOct. 14–A four-year legal saga, which pitted hundreds of thousands of older Americans against an insurance giant from Golden Valley, has come to a quiet — and seemingly contradictory — end.
A federal jury ruled late Monday that Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America used deceptive practices in selling a certain type of investment product known as an equity-indexed annuity, which is linked to the stock market.
But in a surprising twist, the 11-person jury awarded no damages to the estimated 340,000 people nationwide who bought the annuities earlier this decade, noting that no one was directly harmed from the deceptive sales practices.
The verdict culminates a prolonged legal battle between Allianz Life and consumers who claimed the company enticed them into buying annuities with false promises of bonuses that never materialized.
For years, the case cast a dark cloud over Allianz Life and other major insurance companies that sell these annuities. The companies were forced to defend their reputations — and pay out millions — as an onslaught of attorneys and state regulators said they were glossing over the complex nature of the products and locking older people into contracts from which they may not live long enough to fully benefit. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson was among those who went after the company for sale of the products.
Now, the verdict puts an end to the legal squabbling but raises new questions about the lengths to which companies can go in marketing sophisticated financial products. In this case, the jury appeared to agree with one of Allianz Life's arguments during the three-week trial: People who bought the annuities fared better than if they had put their money in the moribund stock market.
The implication, some legal experts argued, is that financial companies can deceive customers but not be penalized if the products themselves do not hurt people's pocketbooks.
"Does this mean a company can be dishonest and, because of an external event, get off scot-free?" Akshay Rao, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, who testified on behalf of the plaintiffs, said in an interview Tuesday. "Had the [stock] market not tanked, would Allianz have been culpable?"
Allianz Life, a unit of Germany's Allianz SE, has strongly disputed allegations that its sales practices were deceptive and declared victory Tuesday. "We are very pleased that the jury concluded that no harm came to our policyholders," said Gary Bhojwani, president and chief executive officer of Allianz Life.
The lead plaintiff in the case was Linda Mooney, a 65-year-old retired nurse from Kansas who said she invested $216,189 in an Allianz annuity on the promise that she would receive an up-front 10 percent bonus of about $21,600. Mooney said she never received the bonus; and she incurred an $18,000 surrender charge for cashing out of a previous annuity from TransAmerica.
The original lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged buyers of the annuities had to pay surrender charges of 12.5 percent of the amount invested if they did not lock up their money for 15 years or longer, according to the complaint. Many buyers of the annuities were older.
Karl Cambronne, a Minneapolis attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the class action case, said he was "absolutely not happy" with the jury's decision not to award damages in the case. He suspects the jurors may have been influenced by the argument that holders of Allianz Life annuities might have done worse in the stock market.
"One of the major themes at trial was, 'Gee, aren't these annuity purchasers smart? Instead of suffering the 30 to 40 percent downturn [in the stock market], they were in annuities,'" Cambronne said.
The lawsuit was just the latest in a string of court cases involving Allianz Life and its annuities.
In February 2008, Allianz Life paid $10 million to settle charges that it sold unsuitable annuities to thousands of senior citizens in California. And two years ago, in a settlement with Swanson, Allianz Life agreed to return money to about 7,000 senior citizens who had purchased annuities since 2001.
In both cases, Allianz Life agreed to strengthen the way it reviews annuity applications, and insurance industry experts say the company is now a leader in disclosing the risks of annuities to its customers.
"Allianz has been a problem child in the past," said Sheryl Moore, president and chief executive of AnnuitySpecs.com, a website that tracks the index annuity market. "The brochures they used to explain these products were not written in plain language. … But they really have cleaned up their act — to the point where this is no longer an issue."
The litigation does not appear to have dampened sales of Allianz's indexed annuities. The company posted sales of nearly $1.5 billion in the second quarter, up 40 percent from the same period a year ago, according to AnnuitySpecs.com. Allianz Life is the second-largest seller of indexed annuities in the nation with a 17 percent market share.
Chris Serres –612-673-4308
To see more of the Star Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.startribune.com/.
Copyright (c) 2009, Star Tribune, Minneapolis
Originally Posted at InsuranceNewsNet on October 14, 2009 by Chris Serres.
Tori's shoe is a child's size 3; the U.S. average for women is a size 9.


12 DEC 2016: My favourite excuse for not visiting Japan, and Tokyo in particular, came from a travel insurance agent who explained that she believed "it's so crowded you can't even walk down the street". It's true that the city of 9.2 million (13.6 million in the Greater Tokyo Area) has its share of congestion. The all-direction 'scramble' crossing at Shibuya is often used as an example of crowded chaos and the subways at rush-hour can be sardine-can snug. However treasured moments of serenity can be found throughout the city.
Pilgrims, tourists and the curious stand around the Jokoro, a large incense burner, in front of Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, in the Asakusa district. The aspiration is to waft the smoke from the incense toward them, and particularly toward and around their head, in the belief that it will cleanse the body, chase away bad luck, invoke good health and even instill intelligence. It's a tiny break from reality but allows each individual a moment of escapism.
In the crowded temple grounds themselves there are small park-like areas where statues of Jizo (the Bodhisatva who protects travellers and children) and the Buddha sit in relative calm, while a nearby stream filled with Koi (Japanese Carp that symbolize love and friendship) offers colourful dashes of orange, white, yellow, gold and black to the scenery. In the autumn and early winter the reds and yellows of the leaves only enhance the feeling of visual tranquility.
Tokyo at large has a number of parks and gardens that offer respite from the crowds and city noise. A short walk from Tokyo Station, which is known as the busiest train station in the country with over 3000 trains per day, lies the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The Gardens occupy part of the original Edo Castle grounds and include the moat, walking paths, old castle walls, a grove of bamboo, streams, Koi-filled ponds and a Japanese Garden. Birders flock to the Palace grounds to see and photograph ducks, grebes, egrets, Grey Herons (we saw one!), cormorants and the Mute Swan.
Most of the accommodations in Tokyo consist of Western-style hotels. Some have a calm Japanese ambiance (try the Hotel Niwa), and many offer 'tatami' rooms, characterized by a straw-matted floor, low tables and chairs, sliding shoji screens or doors, and thick, blanketed futons laid out on the floor for sleeping.
For an authentic, serene, Japanese experience, nothing compares to the Hoshinoya Tokyo, a super-luxury ryokan (a traditional Japanese Inn) where every detail caters to the senses. The building, designed by architect Rie Azuma, features a traditional kimono pattern on the exterior to set the mood, and when guests enter, the intoxicating smell of fresh tatami mats fills the air. The hotel's soundtrack of dripping water, light percussion and calm, sets the mood as guests remove their shoes, walk on the tatami mats and take the elevator to the 8th floor family room (the Ochanoma) where registration takes place, along with an offering of soothing tea and sweet cake.
The rooms have simple decorations with comfortable, elegant, wooden furniture. Guests are encouraged to wear the kimonos, specifically designed by Jotaro Saito a Kimono master, when they walk through the ryokan and visit the onsen, or hot spring on the top floor. The 'outdoor' portion of the hot spring lies beneath a tall funnel-like tower so while soaking in the 43C waters below, you can watch the blue sky and clouds overhead. At night, we watched the stars—an almost unheard of activity--amidst the bright city lights of Tokyo.
And while some hotels promote their 'heavenly' beds, at Hoshinoya the experience was one level above heaven! The bed, designed exclusively for the ryokan, was possibly the most comfortable one I have ever experienced (and as an inveterate traveller, I've slept in a lot of beds!). The next morning, a traditional Japanese breakfast (pickles, fish, salad, rice, miso soup, tofu, egg, radish, tea) was a perfect and delicious complement to the experience of sense-fulfillment that the Hoshinoya provided. This ryokan, built to soothe and regenerate, exceeds expectations.
Umami is a term that originally referred to the savoury taste of food, but over the years, has evolved to relate to a state of total satisfaction with the delicious, fulfilling, mouth-feel, taste, smell, and look of certain foods. And while Tokyo has its fill of amazing cuisine, we got our Umami-fix at two Izakayas.
In Kappabashi, a favourite lunch and dinner spot is Wasuke, an Izakaya with ultra-fresh seafood and extremely friendly service. The menu is in Japanese, however the counter, which seats seven, entices diners with most of the fish and seafood on display. We were in proverbial seventh heaven with the huge oysters from Iwate prefecture, Ankimo (fish liver) and Shirako (cod innards) from Hokkaido, sashimi from Tokyo's Tsukiji market and Matabei, a smooth, clear, dry sake from Fukushima prefecture.
On another night we ate at Sushi no Darihan near the Yoyogi station. If I reported that the food was beyond amazing, it would be an understatement: thick, chunky pieces of Yellowtail sashimi, a ball of crispy, white shrimp tempura (lightly battered and deep-fried), cod roe with seaweed, horse mackerel, tuna belly, sole, salmon, Katsuo (skipjack tuna) with pink, Asian sea salt, and all accompanied by Rincara, a soothing sake from Niigata prefecture.
For those unfamiliar with sake, an educational outing is in order. Orihara is one of many standing sake bars (this one is near the Monzen Nakacho Metro station) and features upwards of 150 seasonal sakes. You simply grab a bottle of what looks interesting and bring it to the counter where they pour it for you. This too is a way of finding peace of mind and serenity, with the added bonus of a 15 percent-plus alcohol content.
On my 16th visit to Japan in November, I was looking for something imaginatively different to experience. On the theme of 'heavens above' I thought of return visits to the 333 meter Tokyo Tower or the 634 meter SkyTree so I could look over the city and possibly even see Mt. Fiji, but the Tokyo Visitors and Convention Bureau had a more creative suggestion. So at twilight time, I boarded a helicopter for a 15 minute flight across the city. While Mt. Fuji wasn't visible, the bright lights of nearby Tokyo Disneyland shone brightly, as did the orangey-red Christmas Tree-like image of the Tokyo Tower, and the imposing Sky Tree. It was all pretty impressive.
Without getting too maudlin, the Bee Gees song "Nobody gets too much heaven no more" keeps popping into my mind, and my only response is that in Tokyo, if you know where to look, then your own—and your clients'-- definition of heaven is not that difficult to find.
In the New Year, the goal of many travellers is to have a better understanding of the destinations they visit and to strive for personally meaningful experiences. The city of Tokyo is a strong contender and heaven knows that travel agents, advisors and consultants are the conduit for making this happen.
Small areas of tranquility in the crowded Senso-ji Temple The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace The Kiku corner room where we stayed at the Hoshinoya Tokyo Taking the helicopter flight past the Tokyo Sky Tree Noboru Shibata with wife Michiko and daughter Ayumi, at the seafood Izakaya 'Wasuke', in Kappabashi.


For the past few weeks my breakfast has taken an unusual twist. Before I crack on with work, I unscrew a small glass vial with a gold lid and down the contents. The bottle has the air of Alice in Wonderland's "drink me" potion, but the only thing it promises to shrink is my wrinkles.
This would-be youth elixir is called Pure Gold Collagen. It contains fragments of collagen extracted from fish, you can buy it on the high street, and it's just one of hundreds of new products encouraging us to sip, nibble and gulp our way to healthier-looking skin.
It is estimated that the burgeoning market for these so-called nutricosmetics will be worth $7.4bn (£4.8bn) by 2020, driven by an ageing population and a growing acceptance of functional foods. "Supplements are becoming more popular as users are becoming more aware of their advantage – the nutrients are absorbed into your bloodstream faster than any topical remedy," says Nicola Kilner, group brands director of Deciem, which produces Fountain, a beauty supplement drink sold in Boots and Net-a-Porter. As of August 2013, the company says it has been selling a bottle of Fountain every 11 seconds.
And drinks are just the start. There are cereal bars and pills, powders and syrups to stir into drinks or sprinkle on food. You can even buy Nescafé and beer with added collagen. All contain active ingredients which, we are told, will keep skin looking younger, make it healthier, boost elasticity and hydration, and improve various elements of skin function.
At face value, the idea of making skin healthier from within makes sense. It's no secret that a good diet and lots of water are key to a healthy glow. But is there really enough science – if any – to back up the seductive claims of ingestible beauty products? How do they fit into the regulatory systems set up for foods and medicines? Are they just a spoonful of pseudoscience and a dose of empty promises?
To understand many of the claims made around nutricosmetics, it's necessary to take a closer look at skin. It is made up of several layers, most notably the epidermis – the outer layer – which at the very surface consists of dead cells. Below this is the dermis, which has a blood supply and contains much of the skin's collagen and elastin fibres, which give it structure and firmness.
Beyond this basic principle, the claims vary according to the active ingredients involved. But two blockbuster ingredients are collagen and hyaluronic acid.
Collagen is the protein that makes up around 75% of skin, and is key to its structure and elasticity. But after the age of 20 or so, we lose around 1.5% of our collagen every year. Collagen is also broken down by stressors such as too much sun exposure. That damage should be made up by fibroblasts, the body's own collagen factories found in all connective tissues, but as we get older these tend to become sluggish. And as the collagen vanishes, so does skin's youthful appearance.
Collagen is already a staple of many face creams, but the jury is out on how effective these products are. Most moisturising face creams will hydrate the skin and so reduce the appearance of wrinkles, so it's hard to know whether the effects are truly because it contains collagen. "There isn't a great deal of data on this but the evidence for topically applied collagen-containing products having any benefit is scant," says Christopher Griffiths, professor of dermatology at the University of Manchester.
Nutricosmetics, on the other hand, tend to contain small fragments of collagen. This hydrolysed form, says Piers Raper, CEO of skincare drink Skinade, is more easily absorbed, especially when it is already dissolved in a liquid. Once in the body – the theory goes – these collagen fragments trick our own collagen factories into becoming more active. "New collagen seems to switch them on and they produce more," says Godfrey. And so collagen production reverts back to how it was in the days before you ever worried about wrinkles.
The idea that it is possible to kickstart collagen production is seductive, and has a kind of convincing common sense to it, but is it true? Minerva has carried out placebo-controlled, double-blind studies on hundreds of women taking its Gold Collagen drinks, using objective measures (as opposed to surveys) to assess the effects, and studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals.


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Student Environmental Resource Center
The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) is an excellent resource for students seeking to get involved in sustainability on campus.
There are 45-50 student organizations or clubs related to sustainability and the environment. A full list of environmental organizations is maintained by SERC and can be viewed here.
Housing and Dining Sustainability Advocates
"Through student-led advocacy, auditing, and peer education, we make sustainability accessible to the UC Berkeley community, improve housing and dining infrastructure, and work towards more ethical and environmentally sound practices."
You'll find peer-to-peer education opportunities from the Residential Sustainability Program.
Associated Students University of California (ASUC)
The ASUC Sustainability Team (STeam) is a ASUC-sponsored organization at UC Berkeley aimed at making the campus more sustainable. For more information, visit the STeam website.
UC Berkeley's ASUC also has its own environmental senator, Senator Sylvia Targ. For more information on Targ's ASUC Office enviornmental projects, click here.
The Graduate Assembly
The Graduate assembly offers funding to start new student groups. See the funding page of their website.
UC Sustainability Fellowships
Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Initiative
The UC President's Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Student Fellowship Program funds student projects that support UC's goal to produce zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. All 10 UC campuses participate in the program, as do the UC Office of the President, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
More information, including descriptions of past projects funded, is available on the UC Office of the President's website.
Global Food Initiatives
Student fellowships are available through the University of California's Global Food Initiative, which addresses one of the most critical issues of our time: how to sustainably and nutritiously feed a world population expected to reach 8 billion by 2025. Information about current student fellows and how to apply can be found here.
Explore Student Groups
CALPIRG, UC Berkeley's premier student public interest activism group.
Student Organic Gardening Association
SERC's Zero Waste Research Center


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September 16, 2008 7:23PM ET
Korn's Jonathan Davis Covers Lil Wayne's "Got Money"
Jonathan Davis and Korn have treated us to some unintentionally terrible cover songs over the years, from an unplugged version of Radiohead's "Creep" to a conglomerate take on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall." Now Davis, without his bandmates but with Slipknot's Jim Root, has unfurled the strangest cover of them all after attempting Lil Wayne's "Got Money." Like its predecessor, Davis' "Got Money" utilizes AutoTune vocals and is pretty faithful, except for the fact that the chorus sounds less like "Got Money (Remix)" and more like Limp Bizkit's "Nookie." This isn't the first time Davis has tried his hand at hip-hop, as Korn also covered Ice Cube's "Wicked" back on 1996's Life Is Peachy. "Got Money" is available for as multi-format download for the low price of your email address on a mailing list over at Jonathan Davis' website.
• Jonathan Davis Talks Solo LP, Future of Korn: "I'm Waving the Flag for Musicianship"
• Jonathan Davis, Serj Tankian Remember Dimebag at Ozzfest
• Jonathan Davis Talks About the Departure of Korn Guitarist Brian "Head" Welch
In This Article: Lil Wayne


Modern Clean Opener is perfect for you because it has a unique syle and has a modern simplicity into it. With clean, elegant, qnique motion elements and simple presentation you can showcase your work with style! Project is well organized and has modular structure. This project file comes with a help video with instruction text below.


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Vladimir Vladimirovich Marushevsky (; 12 July 187424 November 1951) was an Imperial Russian general, and served as the last chief of staff of the Russian Republic.

Biography

Early life
Marushevsky was born on July 12, 1874 in Saint Petersburg, into a noble family originated from the Saint Petersburg Government. In 1893 and 1896, he graduated from the Sixth Cadet Corps and the Nikolaev Engineering School respectively. After graduating, he served in several minor battalions. During this time, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1898, and staff captain in 1902.

World War I
In the first world war he commanded the 3rd Special Infantry Brigade of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France between July 1916 and May 1917.
Between 26 September and 23 November 1917, he was the last Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Empire.
He was briefly arrested in November 1917, by order of the Council of People's Commissars on charges of negotiations against the Soviet government (the same charge was brought against Nikolay Dukhonin, who was killed by soldiers at Stavka), and the sabotage of the armistice with Germany. Together with Marushevsky, General Alexey Manikovsky, who carried out the technical management of the military department, was arrested and sent to Kresty Prison. On December 1, 1917 he was released on parole, after which he fled to Finland and Sweden.

Russian Civil War
On November 19, 1918 at the invitation of the British and French military missions he came to Arkhangelsk, where he was appointed commander of the Northern Region. At the same time he was a member of the Provisional Government of the Northern Region as Governor-General and the head of the departments of internal affairs, communications, posts and telegraphs. He led the formation of the "White" Northern Army of about 20,000 soldiers. It relied in its activities heavily on the British military contingent, which took part in the Allied military intervention in the north of Russia and led military operations against units of the Red Army. On January 13, 1919, he transferred the duties of the Governor-General to General Yevgeny Miller, remaining commander of the Army (but actually served as Miller's assistant).

From May 1919 he was Lieutenant General. In the summer of 1919, he negotiated with Mannerheim about military cooperation between Finland and the Russian Northern Region. On August 19, 1919, he resigned from the post of commander of the Northern Army and on September 5, 1919, he went to Sweden.

He went into exile in Yugoslavia, and died in Zagreb in 1951.

References

1874 births
1951 deaths
People from Petergof
People from Petergofsky Uyezd
Russian nobility
Imperial Russian major generals
White movement generals
Russian military personnel of World War I
White Russian emigrants to Yugoslavia
Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree
Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery
Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 4th class
Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class
Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class
Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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When Krypton's last son crash-lands in Cold War-era Russia instead of rural Kansas, an alternate reality unfolds in this DC Elseworlds adventure. Here, we find Superman spearheading a Communist campaign to advance the ideologies of the Soviet state. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, brilliant American scientist Lex Luthor devises a plan to rein in, and ultimately destroy, the alien Soviet threat. What follows is a gripping game of cat and mouse that will leave all of humanity hanging in the balance.
Amy McKenna, Sam Liu, Jim Krieg