alexei kovalev

alexei kovalev
 
Penguins Re-Acquire Forward Alexei Kovalev
The Penguins acquired Kovalev in a trade with the New York Rangers in 1998, with Petr Nedved being the principle piece traded the other way.  From then until 2003 Kovalev skated 345 games with Pittsburgh, putting up 347 points (149 goals, 198 assists).  In 2003, with the team plunging into economic turmoil, the Pens had to trade Kovalev back to the Rangers, with this time the principle piece being $5 million dollars coming back to Pittsburgh.

Since leaving Pittsburgh, Kovalev's reputation has taken several hits.  New York traded him to Montreal in '04, tired of his inconsistent play.  His time in Montreal would be a roller coaster of good times (like when he scored 84 points in '07-08) and bad points, again plagued by a lack of team mentality and run-ins with the Montreal media.  Then Kovalev jumped ship to Ottawa in the summer of '09, where he was mostly a bust.

This is the final year of his $5 million contract, and ironically, Pittsburgh is now one of the few contending teams that can afford him under the salary cap and was obviously willing to have him.

To acquire Kovalev at a pittance of a seventh round pick shows there was no market for him, no other bidders.  Ottawa was happy just to get something for him and clear him off the books as they move to rebuild.
What does it mean for Pittsburgh?  We told you here it wasn't crazy for the Pens to consider it, Kovalev is one of the few vets with skill that wouldn't cost a heavy price on the trade market.
Will he fit the Penguins style?  Pittsburgh wingers are notorious for being low on skill and high on work ethic/positioning and "buying in" to the team concept.  Alexei Kovalev is a polar opposite.  No one knows if he will fit on this team, but even if it doesn't work, surely he'll be benched much like Alexei Ponikarovsky, Miroslav Satan and Petr Sykora have been in recent years.  That didn't hurt team morale or cause any problems and neither will this move.

Acquiring Alex Kovalev for a 7th round pick is a low-to-no risk move with a potentially nice return.  He's not a 80-90 point guy anymore, but he can add some desperately needed skill, especially when you look at who the team has had to resort to playing on the power play lately.

space shuttle launch

space shuttle launch

Discovery's final countdown: Space shuttle launch signals NASA transition
After 27 years and more than 143 million miles, the space shuttle Discovery is poised for her final countdown.
The orbiter and its crew of six astronauts are scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:50 p.m. local time – with a packed cargo bay.

The ship is carrying an Italian-built cargo carrier re-engineered to provide extra storage space on the International Space Station. In addition, the orbiter is lofting some 5 tons of supplies and Robonaut 2, which designers envision as an eventual humanoid helpmate for future space-station crews.

Discovery's launch marks the first of three curtain calls – one for each of the remaining vessels in the shuttle fleet – as NASA's human spaceflight program enters a period of profound transition.

Final shuttle launch for Discovery: Was shuttle program worth it?

NASA is handing off the responsibility of ferrying goods and US astronauts to and from the station to private launch companies.

NASA can then focus on preparing to send human explorers beyond the space station's confines in low-Earth orbit, possibly to asteroids, the moon, and Mars.

Such missions, however, likely would be launched in the 2020s, depending on how agreeable successive administrations are to the current blueprint.
Discovery's last launch

As with the end of any long-running production, the cast and support crew behind Discovery's launch are finding this a bittersweet moment.

"She's been an amazing machine; she's done everything we've asked of her," says Michael Leinbach, the shuttle launch director.

For now, the entire team is focused on successfully completing the mission, he says.

But "landing day is going to be tough," he added during a prelaunch briefing Wednesday. "You'll see a lot of people on the runway who will probably choke up some."

Between launch and landing, however, a packed schedule remains. In addition to Robonaut 2, the orbiter is packing what missions payload manager Scott Higgenbotham calls "one big honkin' radiator," to remain at the space station as a spare, should one of the existing radiators – which shed excess heat from the station's interior – fail.

The radiator is bolted to a platform, which astronauts will attach to the outside of the station to serve as storage space for the additional spare parts slated to arrive during the final two missions.
Discovery's false starts

This launch originally was scheduled for early November. But as controllers filled the shuttle's bullet-shaped external fuel tank with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, they detected a hydrogen leak that forced them to scrub the launch.

When technicians returned to the pad after the fuel had been removed to inspect the tank, they found cracks in key structural supports, or stringers, on the tank's outer shell.

Mission managers opted to roll the orbiter back to the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building, where they discovered more cracked stringers.

Repairs went smoothly, but mission managers continued to postpone the launch until they were convinced both that they understood the reasons for the stringer cracks and that the repairs had addressed that problem.

Investigators traced the problem to stringers that were strong enough to handle the stress that fueling imparts to the empty tank, but not strong enough to handle that stress when coupled with stress unexpectedly added during construction.

Now, "the hardware is ready to fly," says Michael Moses, who heads the shuttle's mission managements team.

As for weather, "We've had some really great weather coming all the way up to launch," says Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer. Some isolated showers may pop up during the afternoon close enough to the launch site to warrant yet another postponement. But she gives that a 20-percent chance of happening.

Her bumper-sticker forecast? "Good payload, good launch," she says.

Final shuttle launch for Discovery: Was shuttle program worth it?

lincoln tunnel accident

 lincoln tunnel accident
Over 30 people were hurt in this morning’s crash in the Lincoln Tunnel.

There was a terrible accident this morning in New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel that involved a motorcyclist and three buses. It occurred at about 7:27 a.m., nearly three-quarters of the way toward Manhattan in the tunnel that connects New Jersey and New York City.

The motorcyclist is said to be the most severely injured as he was trapped under a bus and is currently listed in critical condition. At least 30 other injuries have been reported concerning people who were on the buses. NJ Transit operated two of the buses and a Monsey Tours was the third bus involved.

As one would expect, traffic was disrupted and the morning commute was still going on at noon. Luckily there have been no reported deaths.

What disturbed me upon hearing this news all over the television programs today was the complete lack of empathy for the people actually involved in the crash. There was about a five-second spot saying over 30 were injured and the motorcyclist was in critical condition and then the coverage went straight to the traffic tie-ups and wasted two minutes interviewing people stranded in their cars. Most complained how they were sick of being in traffic, how they were late for work, how they had been inconvenienced. Not one commented on the accident itself or the people involved in it.

This is nothing new. Just look at the next time television news covers accidents, even fatal ones. They invariably mention the accident and then go straight to the people in traffic.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the frustration of the people sitting in traffic for hours, but the way TV tends to tell the story places such a selfish view. It almost dismisses the injured parties. I understand that the news has to appeal to everyone, attract viewers, and also let their audience know about disruptions, but that can surely be a follow-up story outlining service disruptions, after reporting the accident itself. I don’t think we need to hear how irritated the people in traffic are at being held-up.

I remember one time watching another accident report a few months ago, when the newscaster asked an older man sitting in traffic how angry he was about being stuck. The man replied that he was surely better off than the people who were hurt and he hoped they would all be OK.

That was a considerate thought. No one likes to get stuck in traffic obviously. We try to teach our kids everyday to be considerate, to help others, and not to always think about themselves first, yet everyday we see examples of adults doing the opposite. This is just another thing to add to the list. I know it’s not a big thing and some of the newscasters probably aren’t even aware that they are doing it, and have no ill will, but it’s something that I find absurd.

Traffic is said to be easing up now and hopefully all the people who were hurt are recovering. While none of the thirty bus injuries were thought to be life-threatening, the motorcyclist was the most severely injured and could definitely use a few good wishes and prayers

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How to Improve Google Page Rank and Alexa Ranking

Increase Alexa Ranking

1. Download Alexa toolbar free. If you are using Firefox, I recommend you to use another plug-in called SearchStatus which not only displays the Alexa rank but it also shows page rank details, no follow links, meta tags, keyword density of a page etc
2. Put an Alexa rank widget on your blog. Each click will be counted as a visitor.
3. Encourage your friends or colleagues to use Alexa toolbar. Explain them about the tracking system of the toolbar. Ask them to rate your Alexa website profile.
4. Try to get dugg or stumbled. This will bring massive amount of traffic to your site and contributes a lot to your Alexa rank.
5. Write content related to webmasters. This is because most of the webmasters use Alexa toolbar. You may write and post articles related to SEO, webmaster tools. Webmasters always look for new tools and may revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Promote your articles on webmaster forums and social networking sites.
6. Buy links and banners from webmaster forums. A well displayed ad can bring lots of webmaster traffic to your site and boost your rank. But you need to have unique and good content on your blog to attract more and more visitors.
7. Write about Alexa and post in your blog. Bloggers love to know about different ways of increasing their Alexa rank. This may eventually increase traffic and your rank.
8. You may try Alexa autosurfs for a new site or blog. They may work for new sites having almost zero Alexa rank. But they are not a long term solution.

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