Category Archives: History

The game of football has been around for over 100 years. Over the course of that time the game has evolved in a multitude of ways, the style and pace of play, the physical makeup of the players, etc. What hasnt changed is the importance that head coaches have on the game and their team.

Down below is my list of the top 10 coaches in NFL history. There may be some names on this list that some people have never heard of. But now, you are going to embark on a history lesson and learn about some of the greats that have anchored the sidelines in NFL history.

1. Bill Belichick

First off, this is an easy one. Bill Belichick is without a doubt the greatest football coach of all time. Since taking over the New England Patriots he has won the most Super Bowls (six), most playoff wins (31), and has the third most wins of all time with 290, and much more to his resume.

He was the genius who saw something in Tom Brady when no one else did, and has overseen one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports. In 22 seasons with the Patriots he has missed the playoffs only four times, one of those seasons he went 11-5 with Matt Cassel having to fill in for Brady.

Over the course of his tenure he has managed to continuously win, without spending a lot of money, and getting the best out of players that arent regarded as stars, while also finding ways to replace star players when they depart.

He may be boring, his assistants may stink when they become head coaches, but hes undoubtedly the goat.

2. Vince Lombardi

The Super Bowl trophy was named after Vince Lombardi for good reason. Although he was only a head coach for ten years, (nine with the Green Bay Packers, one with the Washington Redskins) he accomplished a whole lot in that short amount of time.

In nine years with the Packers he won five tiles, three NFL titles (what they called the championship before the Super Bowl), and two Super Bowls. He lost ONLY ONE playoff game with a record of 9-1 in the postseason. His regular season record was 96-34-6, which is equivalent to a 74% winning percentage.

Lombardi was known as a great leader, who knew how to inspire his players with rousing speeches, and made his players work extremely hard to be better than everyone else. He always thought that his role as a coach was similar to a teacher, and he felt it was his job to teach his players the skills they needed to win.

One of the things that worked well for Lombardi and made him such a great leader was that he didnt play favorites among his players and always emphasized a team first mentality. He made each player believe that they could accomplish anything.

Lombardi was one of the original quote machines in football, except instead of saying things that were controversial, he said things that were motivational. When he spoke, people listened, his quotes are used constantly, not just in sports but in all forms of life.

3. George Halas

George Papa Bear Halas entire life revolved around the game of football. For 40 years Halas coached the Chicago Bears. In that time he won eight NFL titles and 324 games. He coached on and off from 1920-67, and left a mark on football that cannot be understated.

Halas was the first person to start holding daily practice sessions, watch film of opponents, place assistant coaches in the press box, put tarp on the field, publish a club newspaper, and to broadcast games on radio. The Bear legend was also an owner for a long period of time, which means that his influence and power over the franchise was absolute in many ways.

Halas was a master of his craft, and the Bears havent really been as dominant since. They had periods of success with Mike Ditka who won a Super Bowl in 1985 and Lovie Smith who got the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006, but none have been able to come anywhere close to filling the shoes of Halas.

4. Don Shula

There are few better than this man in the picture above in the stylish glasses and sleek teal jacket. Don Shula was the man for the Miami Dolphins for 25 years from 1970-1995. Prior to that he was the head coach of the Baltimore Colts for 6 years from 1963-69, finishing his Colts tenure with a record of 71-23-4 winning 76% of his games. In Baltimore he established himself as one of the best young coaches in the sport. He coached superstar players like Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, John Mackey, and many more.

But it was Miami where he was most known. Shulas greatest achievement was going 14-0 in 1972 and winning the Super Bowl with the Dolphins. Nobody has been able to go undefeated and win the Super Bowl since. Many have tried and all have failed. They went on to win the Super Bowl in 1973 as well.

The biggest thing that hurts Shulas legacy is the fact that he was never able to win a Super Bowl with Dan Marino, one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. Another was losing to the 1968 New York Jets in Super Bowl III, in a game where the Colts were significant favorites and the much better team on paper.

But, Shula is the winningest coach in NFL history with 347 total wins when you combine the regular season and playoffs which gives him a winning percentage of .665.

Another thing that I think shows Shulas impact is the fact that in the 25 years since he retired the Dolphins have MADE the playoffs seven times. When Shula was the coach they made the playoffs 15 times. They havent been anywhere close to as good since his retirement.

5. Tom Landry

The man in the silhouette was always dressed for success with his fedora, suit and tie. For 29 seasons, Tom Landry led the Dallas Cowboys to great success and made them Americas Team.

For the first six seasons, Landry failed to get the upstart Cowboys into the playoffs. But over the course of the next 19 seasons, the Cowboys missed the playoffs only twice. In that stretch they also made four Super Bowl appearances, winning two.

He invented the 4-3 defense which is commonly used in the NFL today, as well as the shotgun offense. His 250 wins put him fourth on the all time wins list. He had 20 consecutive winning seasons and during that time, he won 13 division titles and had 18 playoff berths.

Excerpt from:

Top 10 Coaches In NFL History - The Wright Way Network

This stretch of football has been an unending nightmare for Jets fans

The New York Jets have played a lot of bad football in their time. They rank 27th all-time in win percentage among all NFL franchises, winning only 414 games compared to 527 losses and eight ties. However, the last six years have been especially difficult for Jets fans.

Since the Jets missed just playoffs in 2015, the team has exceeded five wins in a season only once (2019). They have bottomed out the division in all seasons except that 2019 campaign.

So is this truly the worst six-year stretch in Jets history?

I look at total wins, losses, win percentage, and point differential to find that answer.

If the Jets win at least six games in 2022, the worst six-year stretch in team history will finally be over. From 2016 to 2021, the Jets have won 27 games to 70 losses with a horrific point differential of -817. They have been outscored by 21 points or more a whopping 16 times.

All those numbers are by far the worst in team history. The last time the Jets had only 27 wins in six years was from 1972 to 1977 when there were only 14 games in a season.

These past six years have been a wild ride, to say the least. The fall of Fitzmagic, Josh McCowns career year, the rise and fall of Jamal Adams, the anointment and eventual trade of Sam Darnold, and finally the first year of the Douglas Saleh Wilson era.

Now, only two players remain from pre-2019: long snapper Thomas Hennessy and defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd. Its small consolation that the Jets are mostly removed from that time, but the last three years havent been much better.

When zooming in on three-year runs, though, these last three seasons constitute merely the second-worst stretch in team history. From 1994 to 1996, the Jets won only 10 games vs. 38 losses. That time was lowlighted by a 1-15 season in 1996. 2019-21 is not that far off, though: the Jets were outscored by 491 points over the last three years, compared to 382 from 1994 to 1996.

Enough about the worst stretch in Jets history, though. What was the best?

Quarterback Zach Wilson has his work cut out for him if this is to be the case, as the Jets would need to win at least 11 games for the next five seasons. On the bright side, the Jets best six-year stretch came immediately after the second-worst six-year stretch in Jets history.

After winning only 30 games from 1991 to 1996 (31.25% win percentage), the Jets would win 57 games from 1997 to 2002 (59.38% win percentage). The Jets also had their best point differential in this stretch, outscoring opponents by 246 points.

Unfortunately, that did not equate to postseason success. The Jets would make it to the playoffs three times in those six seasons, finishing 2-3 in the playoffs.

The Jets next-most successful six-year stretch came from 2008 to 2013. Over this stretch, the Jets won 51 games (53.13% win percentage) and made it to the playoffs three times. In that period, they went 5-3 in the playoffs, finishing a game away from the Super Bowl twice.

Its been a rough few decades for Jets fans, as the team has struggled to shake the narrative of the Same Old Jets. Despite these struggles, the last 10 years have been the worst in franchise history.

However, general manager Joe Douglas has given the Jets franchise hope for a bright future.

In total, the Jets have drafted 26 players from 2020 to 2022 since Douglas took over. In that time, they have made an astounding six first-round picks. The last time this occurred was from 2000 to 2002. Those drafts set up the Jets for their best decade, as the team made playoffs six times from 2000-10.

Now its up to the new generation to have similar success.

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Was this the worst stretch in the history of the New York Jets? - Jets X-Factor

While both the Atlanta Braves and now-L.A. Dodger Freddie Freeman miss each other dearly, new Braves first baseman Matt Olson has (so far) been a slight upgrade offensively and been just as good defensively as Freeman was in ATL. On Monday night, though, Olson let what should have been a routine ground ball into right field, allowing two Philadelphia Phillies runs to score (the Phils eventually won, 6-4).

If you read that without seeing the highlight, you'd assume that Olson cost the Braves the game, thus putting them two games out of first place in the NL East after cutting the New York Mets' lead to 0.5 games. You'd be incorrect in that assumption, however. This was no Boston Red Sox-blooper, but rather an act of sorcery that Olson might never be able to explain as long as he lives.

Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Philadelphia's Bryson Stott, a .190 hitter, chopped one down the first base line with two outs and runners on second and third. What should have been an inning-ending groundout to Olson turned into a two-RBI single thanks to what we can only describe as the strangest hop in baseball history, and we say that without a hint of hyperbole:

I mean, what can you even say. That was side sauce a PGA Tour pro couldn't even generate. Olson's face summed it up pretty perfectly:

Not much he could have done other than lay down and block it like a NHL goalie. Brutal bounce, even more brutal outcome.

Read the rest here:

No hyperbole, this might be the strangest hop in baseball history - GolfDigest.com

In early June 2018, I landed at Kansai airport in Japan, with a full day of travel ahead. A few hours later, I was sitting on a Shinkansen the high-speed train connecting Osaka to Tokyo. Jetlagged, I tried to concentrate on the countryside as it streamed by at over 300 km per hour. Water was everywhere: a steady flow of wetlands, historical paddy fields, embankments. It was a watery procession, occasionally interrupted by a tangle of power lines and packed houses, the scars of centuries of hydraulic struggle.

What I saw was the symptom of a universal story. All societies are locked in a dialectic relationship with water over time. It falls from the sky, comes from the sea, flows over land: floods, droughts, storms are expressions of Earths climate. People respond, finding solutions to protect themselves. It is a story of action and reaction, of water encroaching on daily life, of catastrophic failures, of people organising to shift waters course or hold its force at bay. What propels this story forward over centuries is the fact that the solutions of any age are transformed or rendered obsolete by the changing expectations of those who follow, in a never-ending human dance with water.

The traces of that dance are etched into the landscape and institutions of society: the memory of what past generations did shapes what current generations can do. The question, in an age of unprecedented climate change, is whether this past has anything to contribute to the struggle we face. As the floods and droughts that define the extremes of everyones water experience become more frequent and intense than ever before, what role does our historical relationship with water play? As the music changes, do the steps we learnt over centuries help us in this new dance with water?

Answering this question is harder than one might think: the traces of past water solutions are often hard to detect. During the 20th century, most rich countries deployed exquisite skill and vast resources to sever their relationship with their water past, creating the illusion that water on the landscape is nothing more than a modern, inert stage on which life plays out at the rhythm of the industrial economy. They wished to engineer away water, along with its unpredictability, burying it under a modern control of nature. For the most part, they succeeded.

No one in London (or anywhere else in the developed world beyond the UK, for that matter) wades a river going to work. The ancient tributaries of the Thames the Walbrook, the Fleet, the Tyburn and the Westbourne are lost inside the citys sewers. In the US, Manhattan has forgotten flowing water altogether, as Manahatta the island once watered by countless streams and springs lies under a thick layer of 20th-century architecture. Most citizens of Tokyo or Osaka experience water from taps, a familiar jutting feature of bathrooms or kitchen walls everywhere in the rich world.

But as the train sped through Japans constructed landscape, I realised that its relationship with water had a singular characteristic. Water, though controlled, had not disappeared. Japans millennial landscape proudly bore centuries of visible scars from fighting with it. The past was in full view. Its legacy the paddy fields, river development, levees constructed over centuries seemed to be still central to the security infrastructure of the present.

Japan is not entirely alone in having integrated its water past visibly into the present. The Dutch, for example, rely on centuries of water management and associated historical infrastructure in their modern relationship to water. It is inevitable: the Netherlands is at the mouth of continental rivers and much of it is well below sea level, facing the same existential problems it faced in the 10th century. But it is an exception, alongside a few places like Venice, the ancient water city.

The country is supplied by infinite moisture

In most countries, water management is a modern solution to a contemporary problem. For the most part, the historical plumbing of Europes landscape is buried under the cultivated fields of a land that enjoys a benign climate. Places with far more complex hydrology India, the Amazon, even the Western US once had rich Indigenous traditions of water management, but colonisation all but erased them. Modern infrastructure is a discontinuity entirely unrelated to their hydraulic past. China and Russia were transformed by communisms 20th-century ideological enthusiasm for hydraulic engineering. Almost everywhere, waters past is archeologically interesting, culturally important, but appears to be functionally obsolete, making it hard to read in the present.

But not in Japan. Conditions there are an unusual mix of difficult hydrology and historical continuity. The climate of this large, rich country is among the most diverse in the world, stretching from fully tropical latitudes at roughly 20 degrees north (south of Okinawa) to 45 degrees north, at the tip of Hokkaido, where midlatitude storms dominate. Its topography adds complexity. During the rainy seasons, water collects in about 3,000 unforgiving, short rivers, draining all sides of the young, steep mountains that cover most of Japans territory, leaving marshes and swamps on what little flat land is left.

The country is supplied by infinite moisture, surrounded to the west by the warm waters of the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, and the Pacific to the east. It is as if someone cut out the middle of the continental US, squeezed east and west coasts together, and drenched that thin strip with more water than the US or Europe receive at similar latitudes.

These conditions produce singularly complicated water problems. Tokyos metropolitan area, for example, is home to more than 37 million people, among the largest in the world, crammed in one of Japans few lowlands. It receives as much water as famously wet tropical locations such as Darwin in Australia. Because Japan is on the edge of the Ring of Fire (the seismically active Pacific Ocean rim), Tokyos infrastructure is at greater risk of earthquakes than San Francisco or Los Angeles. Its citizens face typhoons as much as people in Florida risk hurricanes, and tsunamis as destructive as those that threaten Alaska or Hawaii.

Delivering any illusion of water control in these circumstances is an extraordinary challenge, one that has accompanied Japan for centuries. Indeed, Japan is one of the few developed nations that exhibits a long history of adaptation to these unusual conditions. Its history is on display in what one can see from the train: centuries of evolution in a remarkable environment.

As the bullet train sped through the glistening countryside, I wondered how these layers of water history the paddy fields, constructed wetlands and more would behave when marshalled to defend Japan from a changing climate. Would that history reveal itself to be an ally? Or would it fail, proving that modern infrastructure is the only answer? As the frequency and intensity of storms, droughts and floods change, what does the resilience of the past tell us about the challenges of the future?

These would have remained jetlag-fuelled musings had it not been for the events that unfolded only a few weeks later.

On 29 June 2018, three weeks after my train ride, Prapiroon was born as a tropical storm east of the Philippines, 400 nautical miles south-southeast of Okinawa. It headed west, then veered north, as these storms often do, aiming for Korea and Japan. Three days later, on 2 July, it had grown into a typhoon. Over the following three days, climate change conspired to turn Prapiroon into one of the most destructive typhoons to ever hit Japan.

The Arctic had been unusually warm that summer an event widely attributed to the increasing temperature of the planet. This had an unexpected effect. Ordinarily, weather in the mid-latitudes the latitudes of New York or Hokkaido is a sequence of high- and low-pressure systems, roughly 1,000 km wide, slowly drifting from west to east across our weather maps. That summer though, high temperatures over the polar region halted their parade in the Pacific, turning them into standing waves, ridges and troughs in the atmosphere that produce persistent, immobile areas of high and low pressure.

Other moving air masses tend to interact with these standing waves as if they were actual mountains and valleys. As Prapiroon passed over the East China Sea, heading north towards the Tsushima Strait, a filament of air wrapped itself clockwise around the stationary high-pressure centred north of Japan, flowed around it, reaching Prapiroon from the southeast, drawing moisture from the warm water of the south and rapidly fuelling its core.

Everybody was caught by surprise as the skies of southern Japan came crashing down

By 3 July, Prapiroon, strengthened by the added moisture, was just west of Kyushu, ominously skirting around Japans southern prefecture. By 4 July, it entered the Sea of Japan, east of Korea. As it moved northward towards Hokkaido, it pushed against the stationary high pressure to the north, squeezing against the mountain of air. Updrafts lifted ever more water into the atmosphere. Climate change and Japans unique water geography had conspired to create a perfect storm. On the fifth day of July, it started to rain. A lot.

Torrential rains overwhelmed the country. Everybody was caught by surprise as the skies of southern Japan came crashing down. The reports of the Meteorological Agency read like a blow-by-blow war bulletin. Soils were already saturated due to a wet June. By the end of that first day, floods and landslides had multiplied. On 6 July, the Meteorological Agency issued emergency evacuation orders for more than 2.5 million people. A further 4 million were advised to follow. From Shikoku in the west to Honshu in the east, almost 2 metres of water dropped from the sky.

When the authorities gave the order to evacuate, many were caught unprepared. Most people did not know where to go or ignored warnings. Roads went under water. In some areas, floodwaters reached 16 feet, forcing people to scramble for the roofs. The hardest hit, Hiroshima and Okayama, cut utility services almost immediately. Some 300,000 homes lost water supply and electricity instantly, as supermarkets ran out of food.

On Sunday 8 July 2018, as waters receded, Japans then prime minister, the late Shinzo Abe, warned of a race against time to rescue survivors. The evacuation was difficult, as one of the richest countries in the world resorted to jerry cans and portable toilets to assist its own citizens in makeshift refugee camps. Many faced sanitation and heatstroke problems.

When it was all over, more than 8 million people had been told to evacuate across 23 prefectures, and 225 had lost their lives. By September, insurance companies had paid more than 60,000 claims. Insured losses amounted to $2.5 billion, and the total economic costs neared $10 billion. A wealthy, powerful nation had been rattled to the core.

So far, this has been the modern story of this typhoon. But when Prapiroon poured water over countless paddy fields and wetlands, it also crashed into some of the most universally recognisable, historical features of the countrys water landscape. The force of water awakened Japans past, as countless rice farmers bore the brunt of the typhoons force.

Rice is Japans primary staple and depends on plentiful flowing water. It came from afar, from the middle Yangtze valley, where it was domesticated possibly before 5,000 BCE. It then spread into the Korean peninsula, crossing from there into Japan around 300 BCE. With rice, Japans landscape went through a profound water transformation. Swamps and flooded marshlands turned into productive fields, and eventually into paddy fields. As the population grew, hills and mountains were converted too. But because sloped terrain cannot hold the depth of water needed to grow rice, streams were transformed into terraced paddies, giving rural Japan its characteristic landscape.

To prevent armies from covering great distances on foot, rivers were left shallow

Then, in the 8th century, Japans political system began to evolve towards the rise of the shogunate in the 12th century, by which time power was divided: Kyoto was the seat of the Japanese emperor, but the shogun the governments principal executive was based in Edo (todays Tokyo). This division of power belied a deeply fractured country. For centuries, much of the nation was ruled by feudal lords, each with their own army of samurai, the famous warrior class. The landscape reflected this fragmentation. In theory, all land in Japan belonged to the emperor. In practice, the roughly 300 lords held all the power. Peasant farmers had rights to cultivate certain plots, if they paid their taxes as a large fraction of the rice yield.

Because much of the military resources was in the hands of the feudal lords, the shogun needed to protect himself by pre-empting any large-scale organised military campaigns. To prevent armies from covering great distances on foot, rivers were left shallow, unnavigable, unfit for transport, and the construction of bridges was forbidden: the only option for crossing was to do so on someones back. Thus, Japan committed to centuries of landscape fragmentation.

The product of these economic and political processes over centuries over a millennium, in this case are the many small, intensively cultivated patches of land that Prapiroon encountered on its way to wreak havoc. Rice farmers were the first victims of the 2018 floods and suffered some of the worst impacts. Around Hiroshima, for example, 90 per cent of paddy fields were destroyed. In Japan, water had created the opportunity to build a rice economy, supporting the countrys development over time. That same development also set the stage for Prapiroons first victims. Todays impacts were not just a failure of modernity: they were the consequence of choices made long ago.

Not everything in Japans historical relationship with water was overwhelmed by the typhoons wrath, however. Kyoto, the ancient capital, told a different story, one that dated from the 17th century, when Japan fell under the powerful Tokugawa Shogunate. At the time, the countrys economy began growing, becoming more integrated. A wealthy merchant class emerged. Land holding concentrated. Wealthy farmers turned into moneylenders, acquiring the rights to land by providing mortgages to impoverished farmers. Capital accumulation made the first investments in infrastructure possible.

The shogunate encouraged trade, particularly with Vietnam: mineral resources from Japan in exchange for silk and other goods from Asia. As a result, the port of Osaka became a strategic coastal centre. But Kyoto, which sat upstream of Osaka, could not benefit from the ports success because its rivers, as most rivers in Japan, had been left too shallow to navigate. At best, timber could float downstream. Everything else had to be carried by road.

Suminokura Ryoi a wealthy 17th-century Kyoto entrepreneur, who came from a family of moneylenders and doctors knew that improving fluvial infrastructure would allow him and others in Kyoto to capture the wealth flowing towards Osaka. He had money. He transformed the city.

Kyotos ability to deal with natures onslaught was a consequence of investments made three centuries earlier

First, he cleared a segment of the Katsura river that runs through Kyoto, allowing for the transit of flat riverboats. In a significant feat of civil works, he then forced the redirection of the Takase to join with the Yodo and run through the centre of Kyoto parallel to the Kamogawa. The resulting channel allowed timber, firewood, charcoal and other goods to be transported to and from Osaka. Then, he opened the Fujikawa River and the Kamogawa waterway. Suminokuras investment was amply paid back by the concession of shipping rights he acquired from the emperor, which gave him the monopoly of this infrastructure. Suminokuras projects amounted to a re-plumbing of the city of Kyoto and the surrounding landscape.

In water security, path dependence is pervasive. But path dependence the fact that the present is highly dependent on choices made in the past, under different conditions does not necessarily lead to vulnerability. The unintended consequences of past decisions are not always bad.

When the flood waters of 2018 washed downhill, Suminokuras canals provided routes that drained the city of water, ensuring it remained more or less unscathed. Kyotos ability to deal with the onslaught of nature had been the consequence of investments made three centuries earlier, and which had begun with a re-engineering of Kyotos rivers to serve the citys economy. That re-engineering had turned into a safety valve that helped protect it from harm.

In 2018, Thailand earned naming rights for the typhoon. It was an extraordinary coincidence that they chose to give it a name of great consequence for its victims. Phra Phirun was the Thai god of water, rain and the oceans. In the ancient Vedic text of the Indo-Aryan tradition, the Rigveda, he is Varuna, the god responsible for providing water to animals and crops, a divinity that made its way into Japanese Buddhist mythology as Suiten, Varunas Japanese name.

Suiten was then absorbed in the Shinto tradition, Japans indigenous belief system, with the name Suijin. The continued reverence for this divinity in Japan and for the related Ryujin, the dragon god of the sea is testament to the fact that water is central to Japanese identity. It is the same cultural role that made water a favourite subject for Ukiyo-e, the woodblock printing genre that enjoyed great fortune during the Tokugawa Shogunate, producing some of the most iconic images of Japanese art, such as the celebrated 19th-century print The Great Wave by the artist Hokusai.

During the last centuries of the shogunate, the sophistication of Japans relationship with water grew alongside its aesthetic fascination for this existential substance, setting the stage for the countrys modern landscape as a mix of historical and modern infrastructure. Again, Kyotos story illustrates the profound path dependence of this extraordinary journey.

Suminokuras 17th-century canal system played a central role in Kyotos economic efflorescence, becoming a springboard for subsequent industrialisation. Eventually, Kyotos vibrant textile industry transport needs outgrew the canals that Suminokura had built. If Kyoto was going to take advantage of global markets, it needed more and larger transport infrastructure. But, for that, it needed more water.

Lake Biwa, about 15 miles east of Kyoto, was a 4 million-year-old tectonic lake that could provide water to increase navigability in Kyotos waterways. The question was how to take the water over, or through, the mountains that separated the great lake from its potential uses.

While damaged, Kyotos canal system allowed the floodwaters of 2018 to flow through the city

Discussions about a Biwa canal had been ongoing since the 12th century, but nothing had come of them, as the project seemed far too expensive. Then, the 1867 International Exposition in Paris fuelled a Western craze for everything Japanese potentially an enormous market for Kyotos textiles and the economic incentives to capture that opportunity became too strong to resist. The time for the Biwa Canal had finally come.

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, power was re-centralised away from the shogun into the hands of the 16-year-old emperor, Mutsuhito. The Meiji government committed to modernising the country, abolishing feudal domains and the samurai class. Ownership of all farmlands was given to farmers, whose names were inscribed on title deeds. People were free to buy, sell and mortgage real estate, creating a modern market, in this land of water.

The fifth article of the Charter Oath with which the imperial family was restored to government declared that knowledge shall be sought throughout the world in order to promote the welfare of the empire. Western experience was making its way into the country. For example, in 1882, Ito Hirobumi, who would become one of the most prominent prime ministers of the age, travelled to the US and Europe to study local constitutions, selecting the Prussian model limited parliamentary powers and a powerful emperor for Japan. The same happened for water.

In 1888, the Japanese engineer Tanabe Sakuro visited the hydropower station in Aspen, Colorado in the US. At the time, hydropower was the new, dominant generating technology, making rivers the blueprint of industrialisation. In the late 19th century, this technology was in its infancy, but Tanabes gift must have been foresight. He proposed a canal to connect Lake Biwa and Kyoto, incorporating Pelton wheels to harness its hydropower. Under those terms, a scheme that had always seemed impossible the Dutch consultant Johannis de Rijke doubted it could ever be financed or the costs recouped became viable.

Tanabe was awarded the direction of the project. He created a modern integration of water control, transport infrastructure and energy generation. To overcome the mountain ranges that sat between the lake and the city of Kyoto, he designed three tunnels one of them the longest in the world at the time dug using a mix of ancient Japanese and modern Western technology, so that wooden canal boats transporting rice and other goods came down from the lake. By the early 20th century, the project generated enough electricity to bring streetlights and streetcars to Kyoto, powering its mills.

Delivering security means recognising the dialectic relationship that all generations have had with water

Tanabes project was the beginning of Kyotos hydraulic transformation. It introduced an idea of landscape that Tanabe had seen in the Western US, and kicked off Japans water modernisation, integrating its past with the future. By the time the 2018 floods happened, the countrys Water Agency in Kyoto had at its disposal the legacy of centuries of infrastructure development: the historical infrastructure, legacy of Suminokuras 17th-century canals, and the modern infrastructure that had begun with Tanabes projects.

The stock of landscape interventions had increased the resilience of Kyoto. While damaged, Kyotos canal system allowed the floodwaters of 2018 to flow through the city, leaving its buildings mostly unscathed. Prapiroon hit the city hard Kyoto was one of the heaviest-hit prefectures but the infrastructure that made Suminokura rich and Tanabe famous contributed to saving Kyoto.

Japans experience, so evident in the landscape that entertained me as I travelled through the country in early June, turned out to hold a crucial lesson. Water comes from the sky; it comes from the sea; it flows over land. When it does, delivering security means recognising the dialectic relationship that all generations have had with water. Japans story reveals just how profound that dialectic is, how deep its roots are, and how unexpectedly consequential it can be. Most countries have forgotten their water past. But hidden behind the dams, levees, canals and countless wetlands and fields that have replumbed the world in the past century lie deep, complicated grooves: the foundations of contemporary water security.

Below the surface, Europes landscape still bears the scars of choices made over millennia. Italys northern plains drain water along canals designed by Roman farmers, medieval monks, or dug by the Venice Republic during its inland expansion. It is this dendritic, historic system that feeds or starves, as the drought of 2022 in the Po River has so plainly shown the grains and vines grown here today. The German villages that, in the summer of 2021, were tragically engulfed by the Ahr, a tributary of the Rhine, were settled centuries ago, when proximity to the dangerous river was a matter of economic survival.

The mid-stem of Chinas Yellow River travels 10 metres above ground. Thousands of years of hydraulic control on the Loess Plateau have forced the river to flow ever faster, scouring sediment and dragging it downstream. When the latter eventually settles, accumulating on the riverbed, it condemns China to build ever-taller levees to chase its Mother River as it rises towards the sky. And the great Mississippi, Old Man River, exists as the lymphatic system of the plains that once supported complex civilisations, whose legacy of corn and maize cultivation seeded Americas breadbasket.

Japans lesson is universal: vulnerabilities and solutions develop sometimes unexpectedly over long periods of time. A societys survival depends on protecting itself from the first, and taking advantage of the second. When it comes to its functional role in society, the landscape spans both space and time. Its hydraulic design, which emerges over successive generations, has no single planner, but constitutes a complex, sophisticated infrastructure that is inextricable from society.

As nations face a renewed fight to confront the overwhelming power of water in a changing climate, it is essential that they recognise their evolving relationship with water. We are bound to history through our inescapable dialectic with water. We dance with water over time. And it is a dance that matters a great deal.

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How can history help the never-ending human dance with water? - Aeon

CENTERVILLE, Utah The suspect named in a Centerville home invasion of an elderly couple that turned into an arson has a violent criminal history that involves attacking other random people in their homes in the past.

Centerville police announced Tuesday that Ammon Jacob Woodhead was transported from the hospital to the Salt Lake County Jail on a Board of Pardons warrant, where hes expected to face charges in the horrifying attack and fire.

The couple told KSL TV that the man who broke into the home threatened to burn it down if they didnt give him money. After enduring a violent fight with the suspect, the couple worked to get the homeowners 87-year-old father out of the basement and to safety as the house went up in flames.

Centerville family recalls the home invasion, arson attack

A quick search of Woodhead turns up a lengthy criminal history, including a rampage he went on in 2012 in a Murray neighborhood. According to court documents, Woodhead broke into a home, tried to attack someone with a hatchet as they slept in their bed, then fought with another person in the home. He moved on and tried to break down a neighbors door with the hatchet. Woodhead ended up on the roof of a third home, where police eventually cornered and arrested him.

Woodhead pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison, but since then, theres been a whole host of issues in various police jurisdictions, with arrests, drug charges, and other dealings with officers. In a 2019 West Valley City case, Woodhead was labeled as being at risk of committing a violent crime.

The consequences could have been really serious. Thats what causes a lot of concern you have a person who is supposedly a repeat offender who is now engaged in conduct that could have resulted in death or serious injury to someone, said Greg Skordas, a former prosecutor and attorney not connected to the case.

He explained that a lot of people may look at a case like this and think that the person fell through the cracks of the justice system.

People might look back and say, Why wasnt he locked up before? Why wasnt he committed before? And the answers is that, he was, Skordas explained. But he was able to convince the authorities that he was better, that he had been rehabilitated, that he was safe. And so, he was allowed to be placed in the community again, with unfortunately terrible results.

Woodhead and his mother have said in past letters to the court that he has a history of mental illness and drug addiction.

Skordas said that resources are lacking in the criminal justice system for those with mental illnesses, and that it can be hard to address that.

Oftentimes we, what we call, warehouse people, we just put them away for a couple years in jail or prison. We know that society is safe from them, but we dont address the underlying problem, Skordas said. And ultimately, they are released. And ultimately, they are back in society and sometimes they reoffend.

Thats what allegedly happened with the case in Centerville, with more victims who could have lost their lives.Skordas said that unfortunately, it sometimes takes a serious incident to put someone in a hospital or prison setting.

Centerville police said before the home invasion and arson, they believe Woodhead committed a residential burglary and two vehicle burglaries in a different area of Centerville.

Woodhead is now in the Salt Lake County Jail on the Board of Pardons warrant. Centerville police said charges are being screened with the Davis County Attorneys Office against Woodhead, including aggravated attempted murder, aggravated arson, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, residential burglary, vehicle burglary, assault on a peace officer, and possession of a controlled substance.

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Centerville home invasion and arson suspect has lengthy, violent criminal history - KSLTV

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray addresses the media, Friday, July 22, 2022, in Tempe, Ariz.Photo: Rick Scuteri (AP)

Theres an awful story that gets repeated anytime someone brings up a high NFL draft pick who turns out to be a potential bust. JaMarcus Russell, drafted first overall in 2007 to be the then Oakland Raiders quarterback/savior, was quickly labeled as too undisciplined to lead an NFL squad. His coaches routinely gave him DVDs to do some independent film study as homework and quizzed him on their offensive concepts. One day they handed him the NFL equivalent of a placebo, a blank DVD with no film, no concepts, no nothin. Lo and behold, Russell returned to practice and answered questions about the DVD as if he had actually watched and digested key information provided by his coaches.

Russell lasted three awful seasons in the NFL and is widely regarded as one of the biggest busts in league history, not the least of which because the Raiders handed him a then-massive six-year, $61 million contract that included $32 million in guarantees. They got seven wins and 18 losses in return.

This is not a story about JaMarcus Russell. It is a story about another quarterback, a Black one, who was also a first-round NFL pick and who recently signed a record-setting contract extension worth $230.5 million with the Arizona Cardinals.

This is a story about why that quarterback, Kyler Murray, has, in effect, a homework clause in that giant contract requiring him to do a minimum of four hours of independent film study per week, and what it says that an NFL team would demand such a thing from any quarterback, but especially from a Black quarterback in the year 2022.

From ESPN.com

The addendum also states that Murray will not get credit if hes not studying or watching the material while it plays on his tablet or if hes doing something that can distract him or draw his attention elsewhere while the material is playing, such as playing video games, watching TV or browsing the internet.

Failure to meet the addendums requirements will mean Murray will be deemed to be in default of his contract, per the wording in the agreement. The addendum kicks in this season and lasts through 2028, which is when the Cardinals can pick up a club option.

Teams routinely put clauses in contracts that require players to attend offseason workouts, reach certain weight goals or other tangible goals, but its believed that a clause requiring a player to study more outside of team meetings is unusual, if not unprecedented.

Its embarrassing and perplexing for a team to insist on such a clause in a contract for any starting quarterback, since independent film work is as essential to the position as playing catch. It suggests that the Cardinals dont trust Murray, who through three years has already won triple the games Russell did in his entire career, to do the bare minimum. And that calls into question their judgment in making Murray the second-highest paid player in the NFL, behind future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, on an annual salary basis.

Worse than that, the homework clause infantilizes Murray and recalls an eraif it ever endedwhen Black quarterbacks were always questioned about their intellectual capability to play whats considered the most mentally challenging NFL position. Black quarterbacks throughout the leagues historyor at least since the NFL finally allowed James Shack Harris to become the first one to start a season at the position in 1974have had their intelligence interrogated. Theyve been routinely lauded for their athletic acumen while white QBs are celebrated as cerebral.

Theyve been doubted to the extent that Warren Moon, an eventual Hall of Famer, had to decamp for Canada to start his career and prove that the NFL should have drafted him at his natural position. Theyve been exiled, like Colin Kaepernick, and race-normed, like the hundreds of other Black retired players who had their baseline intelligence assumed to be lower than white players so the NFL could give them less money in a concussion settlement.

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None of that makes the Cardinals organization racist for requiring Murray to account for the work he puts in to improve the mental aspects of his game. Itd make little sense to offer a wealthy, long-term extension to a player they could easily allow to walk in free agency after next season, or one they could have not drafted at all.

But the team surely could have done better than this. They didnt need to expose their own franchise QB to the speculation that he might like playing Madden more than playing real football or that the teams execs were holding their nose while extending a guy whose commitment to his craft they thought stunk.

At minimum, they should have known better than to treat the face of their franchise, a Black face in the brightest spotlight in sports, like he was remedial in a world thats always been ready to dismiss talent like his.

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Kyler Murray's 'Homework Clause' and the NFL's Racist History With Black QBs - The Root

Performed by NYCers Quinera Bumgardner from Stone Church of the Brethren in Huntingdon, Pa., and Jeffrey Copp from Columbia City (Ind.) Church of the Brethren; written by Walt Wiltschek

In seventeen-oh-eightWrite that down, thats the dateTheres a guy called Alex Mack;Said the church is out of whack.So this group, they made a vow,In the town of Schwarzenau.Its not going like God planned,So we have to take a stand.

Eight dunked in the Eder,Spite the law and the haters;Faith put to the test,So they looked to the west,Took a ship, crossed the ocean,And they put their church in motion;Praised the Lord, settled down,In a place called Germantown.

Macks son and Peter BeckerStart to do some work together,Do a Christmas Day baptismNeath the ice of Wissahickon.Sauers printing what they could,Glory to God, my neighbors good;Count the cost of non-resistanceWhen the war gets in your business!

Make sure all have what they need,But well do fine without a creed.Conrad Beissel stirs up strife,Goes to live a cloistered life.Mission trips head for the hills,Preach the Word and do Gods will;Elder Wolfe says, Dont stop there,and they head for the frontier.

John Kline goes to South and North,Till hes shot while on his horse;Henry Kurtz breaks out his pen,And Sarah Major shames the men.Annual meetings, hear the Spirit,Change is coming, will we fear it?Breaking bread, a feast of love,On earth like heaven up above.

Mattie Dolby, Samuel Weir,Saying things we need to hear.Colleges and Sunday school,While Holsinger says, Just be cool!Guidance came from old James Quinter,But the church began to splinter,Anabaptist, PietismThree-way split, we have a schism.

Goshen statement, thats seditious,Brethren shaking in their britches;Bethany starts training pastors;Camps and homes, were growing faster!Kulp and Helser, Ryan, Stovers,Spread the church the whole world over;Seeds still growing till this day,And Africa now leads the way.

In the wake of devastation,Brethren show cooperation.M.R. Zigler, Anna Mow,Dan West says, Hey, have a cow!And when each disaster strikes,Brethren go by car or bike.One bold call starts BVS;When we serve, were at our best.

Move to cities from the farm,C.O. status, Vietnam;Studebaker doesnt run:I want a shovel, not a gun.We respond to global hunger,While we care for kids and younger;From our gifts we keep on giving,Its another way of living.

Staff in Elgin and New Windsor,Our small size will never hinder.As the decades keep on moving,We find God goes right on provingThat were strongest when we see usTry to do the work of Jesus.Thats the word, three centuriesAnd here we are at NYC. Peace!

Walt Wiltschek is serving as one of the worship coordinators for National Youth Conference 2022, where this rap was performed during the morning worship service on Tuesday, July 26. He is executive minister of Illinois and Wisconsin District and on the editorial team for the Church of the Brethrens Messenger magazine.

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Brethren history in three minutes (more or less) News - Church of the Brethren Newsline

The small forward position is always one of prestige. A lot of great athletes have played the position from Larry Bird to LeBron James to Julius Dr. J Erving. The position is marked by greatness and guys who can do a lot of different things and for the Philadelphia 76ers, that goes for them as well.

Considering the free agency frenzy is done, and the offseason moves for the Sixers are just about wrapped up, now is the time to debate some basketball of the past and Philadelphia history.

We have already made our lists for the top five point guards in the franchises history as well as the list for the shooting guards. Naturally, we move on to the small forwards as we go down the list of positions.

Kyle Korver, 2003-07

Korver turned out to be a second-round steal for the Sixers as he became a legitimate 3-point bomber next to Allen Iverson. He averaged 10.5 points in Philadelphia and he shot 40.9% from deep and he is third on the Sixers list of total 3-pointers made with 661. He is only behind the next honorable mention on this list and Iverson who has the most made triples in Sixers history with 885.

Robert Covington, 2014-18

A true champion of the Process, Covington turned himself into a starter in the NBA. With Philadelphia, he averaged 12.9 points and 5.6 rebounds and he is second on the Sixers list in 3-pointers made with 707. He was also named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team in 2018.

Weatherspoon was a part of the 90s Sixers teams that were pretty bad, but he was one of the few reliable parts of that team. He averaged 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds with 2.0 assists during his time in Philadelphia. He wasnt flashy, but he kept his nose to the grind and he worked hard for everything he got.

A Hall of Famer, Walker was a big part of the 1967 title team. He was an All-Star three times in Philadelphia and he averaged 16.2 points and 7.9 rebounds in a Sixers uniform. He was an important piece next to Wilt Chamberlain back in those days.

Iguodala gets a bad rep amongst Sixers fans due to his inability to step up and be the man the team was hoping he would become, but his impact on the franchise cannot be understated. He was named an All-Star in 2012, hes fourth in Sixers history in steals, hes sixth in assists, and hes ninth in points. He was a good 2-way player.

Cunningham was a tweener as he was able to swing between both the 3 and the 4 and he was able to produce at either spot. He spent the first seven seasons of his career in Philadelphia before leaving for the Carolina Cougars of the ABA for two seasons before returning. He averaged 20.8 points and 10.1 rebounds in his time with the Sixers and was named an All-Star in four seasons.

Just like with Iverson and the shooting guards list, was there any doubt who number 1 was going to be? The good doctor threw the Sixers on his back on plenty of occasions and he averaged 22.0 points and 6.7 rebounds while being named an All-Star in all 11 of his seasons in Philadelphia. When the Sixers won the title in 1983, the MVP may have gone to Moses Malone, but there was no doubt that that was Ervings team.

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Ranking top 5 small forwards in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers - Sixers Wire

Bandle City is a mysterious League of Legends location which isn't even included on the official League of Legends Runeterra map. The origin place of yordles, this city is bound in mystery.

For those mortals who have somehow managed to find Bandle City, their senses are overloaded. As the city is designed for yordles, any other species struggle with the bright colours, the great food, and crystal clear water.

However, let's take a look and try to unravel the mystery behind the place which is Bandle City.

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The location of this mystery location is unknown. Additionally, it has been said that it shifts every time somebody tries to travel there. However, some explorers have said they have entered a magical portal to end up in the place.

The dream-like feel of the place is full of enchantment, especially with the bundle of items scoured from the top of Runeterra. However, Yordles, who reside here, have built great numbers of portals to enter the physical realm from the spiritual realm where the city is.

Tristana - Tristana used Bandle City to navigate her way around Runeterra. The explorer in her was able to expand with the use of the passageways in Bandle City.

Veigar - Veigar is a sorcerer yordle from Bandle City. He was wickedly abducted by Mordekaiser who made it so he could not travel outside the mortal world.

Teemo - Teemo is another yordle whose key purpose is to protect Bandle City. His split personality means he is great in war-like situations.

Yuumi - Yuumi was the cat of an enchantress in Bandle City. The portals in the city can only be used on specific occasions. However, her Book of Thresholds made it so she can access other portals easily.

Rumble - Rumble's early life in Bandle City was full of bullies. However, his resourcefulness during this time makes him a strong opponent today.

Although there are a bunch of champions most commonly associated with Bandle City, there are others who have had scrapes there. Here is a list of champions who have visited the city...

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League of Legends History: What is Bandle City and Which Champions Come From There? - RealSport101

A giant pipeline spewed millions of gallons of fuel into a nature preserve for more than two weeks until two teens on four-wheelers noticed the spill and alerted authorities.

The teenagers discovered the leak in the Colonial Pipeline in August 2020 in the Oehler Nature Preserve outside Charlotte, North Carolina, E&E News reports. Just how massive the leak actually was about 2 million gallons came to light recently on Friday, July 22nd.

Colonial Pipeline Company was required to give an updated estimate of the damage because of a recent consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The company had previously reported that the spill released 63,000 gallons of gasoline shortly after the spill was discovered.

Now we know the spill is actually about 30 times larger than originally estimated. That makes it the largest onshore fuel spill in the nation, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. But E&E notes that its likely the largest pipeline gas spill since a ruptured storage tank let out 2.3 million gallons of gasoline in East Chicago, Indiana, back in 1986.

Colonial says that it collected about 75 percent of the 2 million gallons it spilled, as well as nearly 10 million gallons of water that came in contact with the petroleum. Fortunately, the company says its testing has confirmed no impacts to water supply wells.

The pipeline is already notorious for other reasons. With 5,500 miles of pipeline transporting 100 million gallons of fuel a day between Texas and New York, Colonial Pipeline is the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the US. In May 2021, the pipeline had to be taken offline for five days following a ransomware attack, triggering higher gas prices, panic, and gridlocked traffic outside gas stations. The fiasco showed how vulnerable the nations energy infrastructure is to hackers, who used a compromised password to get into Colonials network.

Apparently, most pipelines arent very technologically sophisticated when it comes to detecting spills either. Most leaks are found by people, as was the case with Colonial, E&E News reports.

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Teenagers spotted the largest gas pipeline spill in US history - The Verge