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Monday, August 5, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
SMU Mustangs NCAA Football Gambling Odds & Predictions
June Jones is an established coach and when he left Hawaii for SMU big things were expected. After a disastrous 1-11 start the Mustangs have played .500 or better each season since, participating in bowl games the last 4 seasons ? winning 3.
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SMU Mustangs
Coach: June Jones
2012 Record: 7-6
Odds of winning BCS Championship: +2000 (Field)
Odds From Bet DSI
Now they are leaving Conference USA for the experiment that is the American Athletic Conference. A stellar introductory season is not expected given the state of the program though.
As Jones is an ?offense guy? Hawaii and SMU have generally been very good on that side of the ball especially throwing it. Last year they dropped off dramatically in that area not even ranking in the top half of teams nationally in that category.
The defense actually wound up carrying them, especially in their bowl victory over a good Fresno State team, but you can bet Jones will be working hard to get things back on track offensively this season.
It just might be a struggle even for a noted offensive mind like him.
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Senior QB Garrett Gilbert is a classic transfer story. He wasn?t going to be the guy at Texas so he transferred to a place where he could play and improve his NFL stock after being highly touted as a recruit. SMU seemed like a great fit for him but last year he just wasn?t as efficient throwing the ball as you would expect from a QB in Jones? system.
He completed just 53% of his passes with only a 15/15 TD/INT ratio. If he is not better than the Mustangs are sunk because the quality of defenses in their new league should be higher than what they are used to.
It would be helpful if the Mustangs had a solid ground game but that seems unlikely given that Zach Line(another transfer), the second leading rusher in program history (behind Eric Dickerson) has graduated.
Also not helping is that the line returns just 2 starters . They are trying to replace Line with another Longhorns castoff in RB Traylon Shead who played a year in junior college before matriculating to SMU.
Shead has looked good on the practice field but will need to produce in games in the fall.
Surprise, last year SMU had the third best scoring defense in C-USA and was #1 in the conference against the run.
On the flip side they were #11/#109 against the pass which is why it is a bit of a mixed bag that all the starters returning from the unit are in the back seven. Teams from the former Big East are generally pretty balanced on offense so SMU will have to find some linemen that can stuff the run and hope that experience will help a secondary that was torched at times last season.
C-USA was a passing league so those numbers could be a little inflated ? maybe.
2013-14 Record Projection: 3-9
Unfortunately I think this is going to be a down year for SMU.
The defense is likely to take a big step back this season and I am not sure the offense is ready to pick up the slack. QB Gilbert would need to have a super efficient season and I am just not sure he has it in him.
He does have a couple of starting wideouts returning but it might not be enough if the ground game doesn?t produce. Also not helping matters is a tough schedule. The non-conference is probably a 1-3 deal with games against Texas Tech and @Texas A&M and @TCU (plus a visit by Montana State). Even if they can split those there are at most three victories in their AAC slate as they have some tough home and road games and will be facing some unfamiliar opponents.
It doesn?t look very promising right now and this is probably a team to forget when it comes to wagering.
2013 Mustangs Schedule
AUG 30 ? Texas Tech
SEP 7 ? Montana State
SEP 21 ? @Texas A&M
SEP 28 ? @TCU
OCT 5 ? Rutgers
OCT 19 ? @Memphis
OCT 26 ? Temple
NOV 9 ? @Cincinnati
NOV 16 ? Connecticut
NOV 23 ? @South Florida
NOV 29 ? @Houston
DEC 7 ? UCF
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Fleeing Syria, Palestinians find little support from their brethren in Lebanon
Palestinians in Lebanon resent the additional competition for jobs and housing, already scarce because of discrimination.
A Palestinian child refugee, who fled the violence in Syria, stands outside a tent in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Beirut, March 21, 2013. The tent was set up as part of a sit-in to seek help from UNRWA to improve the living conditions of refugees.
Jamal Saidi/Reuters
EnlargeEvery morning, residents of Ain al-Halwah, Lebanon?s largest Palestinian refugee camp, scour the scattered leaflets advertising jobs for painters and menial laborers.
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Their ranks include both Palestinian refugees recently arrived from Syria and those who have lived in Lebanon for decades. As the number of Palestinian refugees from Syria swells, competition for the few odd jobs available to Palestinians in Lebanon intensifies, undercutting already abysmal wages, driving up housing costs, and aggravating tensions in the camp.
The burden on residents already living in dire poverty is straining Lebanon?s Palestinian refugee camps like never before. Vulnerable and resource-strapped themselves, Palestinians in Lebanon simply can?t absorb the unprecedented number of refugees arriving to their camps.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) estimates the number of Palestinian refugees from Syria may reach 100,000 by the end of 2013 ? a 20 percent increase to the number of Palestinians in Lebanon overall, which totaled about 450,000 before the Syrian war began. According to Fathi Abu al-Ardat, the representative of both Fatah and the PLO in Lebanon, the camps can only handle 35,000 refugees this year. It already hosts double that number and 6,000 Palestinians are arriving monthly.
At capacity
The Palestinian community in Lebanon has made it through numerous conflicts, and camp residents have grown accustomed to hosting the newer waves of displaced Palestinians.
But only 7 percent of Palestinian refugees from Syria have regular income, and almost all of them are living with host families whose employment prospects are equally dismal because Palestinians in Lebanon are banned from working in the public sector and in many professional fields, says Yasser Daoud, executive director of the child advocacy nonprofit Naba?a, which works in eight Palestinian refugee camps, including Ain al-Halwah.
The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon now exceeds 1 million, according to Lebanese officials. Some 65,000 of them are Syrians of Palestinian origin, who are often only welcome or able to find housing in the camps that have housed Palestinians in Lebanon since they arrived following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Syria had 486,000 Palestinian refugees of its own before the war. They began fleeing in large numbers in July 2012, when fighting first broke out in the Damascus suburbs where several large camps are located. Most Palestinians arriving from Syria settle in one of Lebanon?s 12 Palestinian refugee camps.
The sheer number of arrivals has created an untenable situation, Daoud says. On July 17, Mr. Ardat, the PLO representative, warned that the influx of refugees into the Palestinian camps in Lebanon could lead to clashes inside the camps or the exploitation of vulnerable refugees by sectarian militias in need of fighters.
His fears were exacerbated last month when Palestinian gunmen from the outskirts of Ain al-Halwah joined militants loyal to the radical Sunni cleric Ahmed al-Assir in a battle with the Lebanese military that left 18 soldiers dead.
?The issue is not just worrying, it is dangerous,? Ardat says.
'Stay out' policies
Palestinians arriving from Syria must grapple with the same discrimination as their 1948 predecessors.
In Syria they had many of the same rights as citizens. This is not the case in Lebanon, where refugees rely primarily on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which administers the camps and provides assistance, protection, and advocacy for registered Palestinian refugees.
Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from owning property or entering several desirable occupations. This forces residents of the camps of both Lebanese and Syrian origin to compete for menial jobs in the informal economy. Poor Palestinians from Syria are undercutting the already abysmal wages of their Lebanese counterparts.
The Lebanese government maintains that the Palestinian refugee presence in the country is temporary, even though many of them have been there since 1948. The rules for the new arrivals are consistent with that "stay out" policy. To enter Lebanon, Palestinians from Syria must first collect a $5 form from the interior ministry in Damascus, which can be prohibitively expensive for the poorest refugees, explains Catherine Richards, Field Project Officer for UNRWA.
?This means that if you?re Syrian, and, God forbid, your house is burned down and you want to run, you can,? Ms. Richards explains. ?But if you?re Palestinian, you have to first go to Damascus, go to the Ministry of Interior to pick up this coupon, and only then are you able to leave Syria.?
Upon arrival at the Lebanese border, Syrian nationals are granted free six-month visas with one renewal, effectively granting them legal residency for one year. But Palestinians must purchase a?five-day visa that costs $17 and can't be extended more than 10 days, although UNRWA says that recent lobbying has prompted the government to waive this fee, at least temporarily.
After that, they must purchase renewable three-month visas for up to a year for $33 each. After one year, both the Syrian and Palestinian refugees must pay $200 for a renewable six-month visa.
Despite the many challenges their arrival poses, Richards notes that there are no reports of Palestinians either being sent back or arrested for failing to maintain the frequent visa renewals required to maintain legal status.
But stories abound of refugees, particularly Palestinians, being refused entry elsewhere ? at Syria?s border with Jordan.
?It?s clear that the number of refugees is having an impact [in Lebanon], but they?re still letting them in,? she says. ?Sometimes, we need to also acknowledge the positives, the small victories.?
New vs. old
And in in some ways, Palestinian refugees from Syria have access to more benefits than their Syrian national counterparts. Palestinian children can attend UNRWA schools, which follow Syria?s Arabic-language curriculum. In Lebanon, lectures are in French and English, preventing Syrian children from entering school at their appropriate grade level, Richards explains.
Additionally, cash grants and other services from UNRWA tend to be higher and more comprehensive than those from UNHCR, the refugee agency responsible for Syrian nationals displaced by the conflict. Since the start of the war, UNRWA has provided four cash grants to Palestinians from Syria, totaling a few hundred dollars per family.
The grants are not available to the Palestinians who have been living in Lebanon for decades. Watching these handouts being distributed further divides neighbors, Daoud says.
?They?re the ones hosting the new refugees from Syria,? he notes. ?They?re thinking: ?We?re getting nothing while that other family is getting support from the international community.? Some people don?t complain about that, but others ask, ?What about us???
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Saturday, August 3, 2013
Small Android tablets gain as Apple 'buzz' fades
The 7-inch Nexus 7: small tablets are in.
(Credit: Google)Samsung, Amazon, and other tablet makers gained market share in the second quarter as those vendors cut into Apple's dominant position.
While Apple still holds about 43 percent of the worldwide tablet market -- by far the single largest percentage -- Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, Acer, and others saw hefty year-to-year gains in shipments during the second quarter, ranging from 228 percent (Acer) to 317 percent (Lenovo), according to a research note released Thursday by Canalys.
Overall Android shipments topped Apple.
The market researcher estimated that 68 percent of tablets shipped in the second quarter had a screen size smaller than 9 inches.
Apple's tablet shipments were down 14 percent year-to-year, the researcher reported, suggesting that Apple's heyday -- when it was practically the only tablet game in town -- is over.
"Apple's decline in shipments and share has been partly attributed to its aging portfolio," Canalys said.
"When Apple does decide to refresh its iPad...it will not experience the buzz of previous launches," Canalys Analyst James Wang said in a statement.
The reason? Tablets are mainstream products now and hardware innovation doesn't wow consumers like it used to, according to Canalys. Moreover, branded Android tablets -- like the just-released second-generation Nexus 7 that starts at $230 -- are inexpensive, luring buyers to that platform.
Samsung, which saw shipments jump 295 percent, had the second largest share with 22 percent on the back of 7.4 million units shipped in the quarter.
Canalys had this to say about Apple versus Android apps:
Despite its 53% share, Android still lags far behind iOS in the availability of fully-optimized tablet apps, and tablet app downloads from the Apple App Store dwarf those from Google Play.
But Android is expected to continue to close the ecosystem lead iOS has in tablets and increase share in coming quarters. 'Developers can and will quickly switch their priorities as different opportunities evolve and improve,' said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd. '
And what about Apple profitability versus the rest of the pack? "While it is true that Apple is losing its stranglehold on the tablet market in terms of volume, it will remain its most profitable vendor for years to come," Canalys added.
Updated on August 2 at 12:05 a.m. PDT: corrects Samsung shipment numbers.
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Friday, August 2, 2013
All work and no play makes my smartphone something something - Talk Mobile
There was a time when the smartphone was a tool of the businessman. The BlackBerrys and Treos and Windows Mobile smartphones were connected corporate networks - and often issued by those corporations. Over the last several years that has changed dramatically, with smartphones becoming the province of the consumer.
So prevalent has smartphone usage become among the general public that corporations are beginning to perform a 180 on smartphone policy. They're increasingly comfortable with you hooking up your personal device to their secured corporate network.
Does that mean we need a new breed of device, something that can balance the needs of the personal user and the business user? Or do we already have the smartphones and tablets that can do that? And how do you manage the distraction of the personal at work and the work at home? Would we be better off just shoving the phone into a drawer throughout the day, or is there benefit to being able to pick it up and get in a quick Facebook check?
Navigating the world of smartphones and business, work and personal, isn't the easiest thing, but there's got to be a solution, right?
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Riley Cooper's Future in Philadelphia Depends Solely on Football
If the Philadelphia Eagles cut wide receiver Riley Cooper, the reason will be simple: His risk outweighed any potential reward.
According to PhiladelphiaEagles.com, Cooper has been excused from all team activities while he undergoes counseling in the aftermath of his now-viral racist epithet at a Kenny Chesney concert in June.
If Cooper ever plans to return to the team, it will be a football decision by the front office and coaching staff, not a social statement one way or the other.
From the apology perspective, Cooper has seemingly done everything he can.
According to a tipster at Deadspin, Cooper had been drinking since 11 a.m. before the night concert and was upset that he was not allowed backstage. His inebriated state and anger led him to say some terrible things he would later regret.
Cooper's apology seems to echo the sentiment that he was not in full use of his mental faculties at the time. First, he took to Twitter:
Then, Cooper released a statement (released widely, here via the Associated Press) explaining that he "was raised better than that" and "this isn't the type of person I am." In all likelihood, Cooper could be telling the 100 percent honest truth, and it isn't really fair to cynically impugn his motives or question his sincerity.
Sadly for Cooper, his apology and sincerity mean little to his future with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Although quarterback Michael Vick has shown support for Cooper (via Phillymag.com's Sheil Kapadia), it's notable that Vick's statement included these words:
We all have an understanding that the most important thing for this football team is to learn to move forward as of right now, and that?s what we?re focusing on.
Understand what Vick means there?Cooper isn't more important than the overall goal of the Eagles, and neither are the personal feelings of his black teammates (or his white teammates, for that matter). The purpose of a football team is not to create harmony amongst its members like a group therapy session, nor is it to help settle racial tensions in America.
The purpose of a football team is to win football games, period. Where the lines get blurred is when issues like this hurt the chemistry, morale and makeup of a football team. You know, things like this:
The Eagles can probably win football games without Cooper and running back LeSean McCoy inviting each other over for tea and crumpets. They don't have to reenact the scene from Remember the Titans where Ryan Gosling attempts to make black teammate Earl Poitier appreciate Buck Owens' music?though maybe McCoy can get Cooper a spot in the next music video he's in.
If only it were just the two of them, maybe then we could hope for a Disney-themed end to this drama. According to ESPN.com's Ashley Fox, that isn't the case:
After every drill?Riley Cooper?ran in practice Thursday, he jogged to the sideline and stood by himself. He didn't interact with teammates. He didn't talk. He was a man among 89 others, yet he was alone. ...
No one was playing with, much less for, Cooper in practice Thursday. It's hard to envision that changing, which is why the Eagles are going to have to cut him.
This is head coach Chip Kelly's first season in the NFL. This is his first major NFL scandal. He's already got a team in the spotlight because of an innovative tempo and offensive scheme that he's bringing to the pros from his time at Oregon. The quarterback battle has the cameras pointed firmly at the practice fields, and he's thinner at wide receiver because of the injury to Jeremy Maclin.
So, if Kelly says the locker room needs to heal, it'll heal.
It'll heal just like the Denver Broncos' locker room found a way to heal when Bill Romanowski reportedly made racist remarks overheard by a teammate and told to Sports Illustrated. That locker room healed because Romanowski was a former Pro Bowl linebacker who had helped lead the team to a couple of Super Bowls.
If it doesn't heal, it's going to be because Cooper isn't nearly as important to the 2013 Eagles as Romanowski was to the 2000 Denver Broncos. It doesn't make what Cooper said any better or worse; it means that his usefulness was outweighed by the risk of keeping him around.
Should the Philadelphia Eagles Cut Riley Cooper?
-
Yes
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No
Should the Philadelphia Eagles Cut Riley Cooper?
NFL teams draft and put up with players that may strain the locker room. Frankly, they do it all the time. However, they don't do it when the player isn't talented enough to warrant the risk. That's where Cooper's fate ultimately lies.
Now, separated from both his teammates and the practice field, Cooper's chances are going to be that much slimmer. He's taken a passive role in the process. He can't show that he's needed by the team. He'll need to hope that the rest of the Eagles receivers do that for him by either lackluster play or injury.
Although he is set for a big season and a big role in the Eagles' depleted receiving corps, Cooper has never caught more than 23 passes and three touchdowns in a season. He wasn't a first-round pick; he was a fifth-round pick. That same fifth round in 2010 included Ricky Sapp, a talented pass-rusher out of Clemson later cut by the Eagles because of injury.?
Fifth-round picks who only catch 23 passes don't get to divide the locker room. That's not how the NFL works. It never has and never will.
If the Eagles keep Cooper around, it won't be a whitewashing of what he did. It won't be a tacit approval of his actions or some sort of tribute to his sincerity. It will be because they need him on the football field.
If they cut him, it will not be a social statement. It will be because Cooper?as a part of the Eagles?was deemed not as important as the team that employs him.
What Cooper said was objectively and morally wrong. Some don't think it was actually that bad?they're wrong. Some forgive him. Some will forgive him in time. Others never will.
All of that, however, is academic. Cooper's future has nothing to do with any of it. This is a football team, and if Cooper's actions alongside his lack of elite talent have made him expendable, that's a reality he'll have to live with.
?
Michael?Schottey?is the NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and a?member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff at?The Go Route.
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