Chip Kelly and Jeff Lurie Dominate The News At The Annual NFL League Meeting

 

I took a few minutes to talk about Chip Kelly and Jeff Lurie dominating the news at the Annual NFL League Meeting.

 

 

 

Mission Impossible?! Philadelphia Eagles Quest for The Super Bowl

I have recently stumbled upon the classic series Mission Impossible on Netflix and I'm already a big fan of the show and it made me wonder if winning the Super Bowl is a Mission Impossible for the Philadelphia Eagles.  I'm 46 and I have tasted some success with the franchise especially through the Andy Reid years but we have never won the Lombardi trophy aka Super Bowl trophy.  What's even more ironic is the Eagles are the only team who beat Lombardi in a championship game way back in 1960.  It wasn't called the Super Bowl though, it was just the NFL Championship and to be quite honest it's about time to complete this Mission Impossible. 

We have the new heavy in the league, Chip Kelly, and the networks love his swagger and arrogance some calling him the next Jimmy Johnson.  I want to wait on that comparison as Jimmy set up Dallas' revival that resulted in 3 additional Super Bowl's for the stinking Dallas Cowboys!  Ok I let my passion out and called Dallas out of their name and I shouldn't have especially knowing previous winners always get the hate. 


Eagles fans have placed their faith in Chip and have a twitter hash-tag called #InChipWeTrust and I have created one called #TaoofChipKelly after the titled book by Mark Saltveit. We are all hoping that this is definitely not a Mission Impossible or better yet a successful completion of a Mission Impossible task of winning the Super Bowl!

DSPN Launches - Philly and National Sports Blog!!

The Mancave

Let me introduce Myself, They call me DSPN and it comes from my background writing daily recaps for a 5,000 member social networking group.  My style was similar to Stuart Scott, our departed ESPN friend who turned the analyst game on its head with his style and delivery. I just did it from a writing perspective with the recaps and it caught on and now I'm moving into the blogosphere trying to see if there is room for me to do what I do.

I'm from Philly and love Philly sports so I will write about the sports scene from Philly and I will go national as well. I figure I cant be called DSPN and not talk about the sports scene from a national perspective and my brother Socks (nickname of course) reminded me of that on one of my video blogs. 

So I look forward to bringing you a slice of my personality with the sports news of the day! Stick with me please, this is a start of something different and hopefully exciting for me and you!

                                                                                                                                            DSPN

Thought Engineering

I really pulled this term out of the abyss and it sounded right so I kept using it!  So just what is thought engineering?  Simply put it's what we do everyday when we make choices and decisions in our every day life whether it's at home or at work.  The brain is such a wonderful mechanism and it performs millions of functions that we, of course, take for granted. 

Put this term on your resume when and when asked about it, use the opportunity to tell them a little more about your creative process and how that will help them.  

You dont even have to pay me for the usage either! 

                                                   

China's Contribution To Humanity

China’s Legacy

Western Culture as a whole doesn’t respect the contributions of the East!  I will give you an example and make it abundantly clear, China’s contributions to humanity are greater than any of the Renaissance contributions that are thrown up as the crème of the crop! Lets talk about that right now by looking at these contributions that China beget humanity:

The lists of contributions are gunpowder, paper, paper money, compasses, abacuses, the printing press, the planetariums, and the mechanical clock.

 

These are not all of the contributions in the form of inventions but it is a great sample of the contributions that have impacted humanity.  Gunpowder is probably the most impactful invention ever as it changed the landscape for war and introduced fire weapons and fireworks.  Paper lead to the ability to create books and China has the first recorded book ever to be written. Paper money as a way to pay for debts owed is another significant contribution that is universally used by all cultures. Personal compasses were developed by the Chinese and used for traveling which came in handy as they were great maritime travelers and are also recognized as building the first cargo ship.

Four Most Innovative Contributions

The four most innovative contributions that Ancient China passed on to humanity are gunpowder, cast iron, paper and the compass.  I chose these as the most innovative because each of these contributions were fathers of invention that bore sons that went on to become just as important. Gunpowder was first made in the Tang Dynasty and then improved in the Song Dynasty. The main ingredients were sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal.  The original purpose of this mixture was to treat skin infections but in their search for an elixir Chinese alchemists found that sulphur was flammable. The experimented with the saltpeter to control the volatility and added by charcoal to the mix they could cause an explosion. The resulting experiments with these three ingredients led to gunpowder which then led to fire weapons like cannon balls, fireworks that were used against ships, and fire arms. 

There are no clear lines for the development and creation of iron but we do know that China developed between 403-422 BC superior blast furnaces and technical apparatuses with which to produce cast iron, techniques not employed in Europe until the Middle Ages. Early iron artifacts in China included swords and other weapons as well as implements of common use, such as axes, adzes, sickles, hoes, and other equipment that revolutionized Chinese agriculture. That list alone of the implements of common use is a great reason why I have listed cast iron as one of the innovative contributions that China has passed on. 

The invention of paper is generally attributed to a Chinese court official, Cai Lun (Ts'ai Lun), in about A.D. 105, although the Chinese had probably made paper from silk fibers even earlier. Cai Lun, however, was the first to succeed in making a paper from vegetable fibers—tree bark, rags, old fish netting.  Paper made of hemp was produced by the Han and had existed for over 200 years but Lun improved both the techniques used and the quality.  This improvement led to China developing widespread literacy much more rapidly than in the West. A world without paper is unimaginable given what is produced from paper products, which I will detail shortly.

The compass is another major innovative contribution that has made a significant impact on humanity as it has allowed for maritime travels and discovery of new undiscovered land. The compass is said to be traced back to the Han Dynasty between 300-200 BC, who fashioned a rudimentary compass out of lodestone. The compass’ original function may have been to search for gems and the selection of sites for houses but heir directive power led to the use of compasses for navigation. Without the compass seamen couldn’t explore the seas with purpose and it’s for this reason that I have the compass listed as innovative and a major contribution to the world at that time and to humanity later. Improvements were made and along paradigm shifts now reveal humans as masters of the seas and travel as compasses have allowed for organized travel and discovery.

Gunpowder, Cast Iron, Paper and the Compass

Gunpowder, Cast Iron, Paper, and the Compass all have made indelible marks on society as we have seen several things born from these inventions.  Gunpowder spawned fire weapons which were key to expanding China’s influence and empire.  Their maritime operations were second to none and the fire weapons employed on the vessels they created were unlike any other and it definitely influenced European maritime operations after they witnessed the Chinese in action with their fire weaponry.  The most important of the fire weapons is in my opinion the firearm which gone on to reach incredible importance in all phases of diplomacy, protection, and expansion for established governments of the world we now live in.  Casting Iron and then being able to form it has proved to be very important in all cultures.  The ability to form iron has resulted creating structures like tools, weapons, vehicles, and buildings. I can think of many steel tools that we use and on a daily basis for example eating utensils.  Can you imagine the impact of living in today’s society without steel which is a son of iron? Weapons again are here and part of the landscape and iron and steel were made after the casting iron techniques were developed. Swords, knives, guns, cannon-balls, etc. are just some of the things that are synonymous with the 21st century that would not be available without the development of cast iron.  The formation of paper as tool for writing alone has made paper a remarkable contribution. The creation of paper with the printing press (movable type) stands out as major Ancient Chinese contributions that have made an unmistakable impact on the spread of literacy through-out the world. There is some debate about the timelines for both the creation of paper, of which some claim was a European development, and the Gutenberg Press having more impact during the Renaissance but most scholars agree that paper and printing were Chinese developments. The development of the magnetic compass made navigation of the seas possible and later on exploration of new lands.  Maritime operations and explorations allowed Europeans to explore new lands and the results of course was their discovery of the Americas. This changed the course of history as English settlers who were at odds with the King of England later built the foundation of the United States of America. 

China’s Most Important Contribution

We’ve talked about several of China’s contributions to humanity in the form of the inventions they created.  Gunpowder, Cast Iron, Paper, and the Compass were chosen as four of the most innovative contributions.  I now would like to say that out of all of these contributions I think China’s most important contribution was paper.  I chose paper because without paper widespread literacy and learning would not have not have been recorded.  There have been methods for recording language for example the Egyptians had hieroglyphics and papyrus but these items were not built for transport like paper is.  History which is the recording of events transferred for reading and understanding at a later time is not possible without paper.  These reasons are why I consider paper as China’s most important contribution to humanity. 

Amazingly, China’s contributions are not applauded as much as you hear about Europe's contributions which are often triumphed in the form of Roman's and Greek's contributions which of course include the Renaissance.  China's contributions stand side by side with those contributions and now forever in my eyes will get the glory they deserve. 

Don’t you agree?!

 

DSPN Technology Rant



Here we are in 2014 and I’m sitting here wondering how things were like in 1988 when I graduated from John Bartram High School in Philadelphia, Pa without computers.  For me it was normal to be honest, very normal in that communication was not a buzz word that could be broken down into different components. It was simply two people talking either in a conversation or over the phone. Life was, of course, much simpler and communication technology wasn’t needed like it is today. Let’s talk about life back then uninterrupted without the communication technology of today. I can vividly remember my routine as a child and it went just like this, go to school, come home and take off my school clothes, put on some play clothes, do my homework, and go outside to play which involved communicating with other kids face to face. Dodgeball, Football, Basketball, and Stickball were just some of my favorite past-times that I enjoyed and still do to this day. The news came on at 6pm and 11pm and the Television programming was basic and over after the Late Show with David Letterman. Those times seem like a millennium away now with the paradigm shifts that has occurred with communications and technology.  New technologies like cellular phones, mini computers, and internetworks have exploded onto the scene and changed the way we view and operate in the world. Are these new technologies increasing productivity for good purposes and making living a much more enjoyable experience?  Is the usage of the new technologies akin to what we have seen in the Science fiction movie series The Terminator? In that series the machines (technology) overcame the checks and balances of man and took control of the course of the world.  We seem to be on the same path as that science fiction series.