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OPM Director John Berry calls for a new performance-management system, without big changes to the General

Schedule. Six talking points, including the art of fielding, the importance of atmosphere, the debate over bats and the issue of no-ballsBall one – Good noise and bad noiseA full house at The Oval, with some drink taken and plenty to shout about, made a tremendous din – and the moment the ball rose, so did the volume. But, as ever, the marketing men – who probably have no feel for the game, maybe none for sport in general – insisted on playing a selection of deafening hooks from "That's What I call Music CXXVII" at every opportunity. There are times when a crowd needs geeing up, but Tueday night was not one of them. Sport is so great because it makes its own atmosphere, creates its own narratives, drives its own drama – but sport isn't trusted to do that these days.
Spend an hour with the BBC's coverage

of any sport and find out how little the organisation that defined sports coverage in the UK trusts its audience to simply enjoy sport for sport's sake.
And, after the Olympics is now etched in stone as the best way to present sport (live and on TV), there is no going back now.Ball two – Fielding is a

spectacle in itselfResurrect one of the many all-time great cricketers who have played on this grand old ground and they would find much about this match unrecognisable.
But perhaps the one aspect of today's cricket that would stun them the most is the excellence of the fielding from every man on the paddock. It's no exaggeration to suggest that (bar a Derek Randall or a Jonty Rhodes), the best fielders in an XI of a generation or so ago would have to up their games to be the worst fielder in one of today's teams.
If all T20 offered as a spectacle was its fielding, it would still be one helluva sight.Ball
three – Bats may need to be reined inAdvances in sports equipment technology have led to extended golf courses and

the heavy, fluffy balls at Wimbledon that have turned grass court into hard court tennis because the old balls traveled too fast.
Trampoline bats have caused plenty of murmurs about whether things have gone too far in cricket, but there's no real thirst for restrictions on batmaking processes.
Brendon McCullum may have hastened such discussions becoming more prominent by top-edging a six over the keeper's head and up on to the second tier of The Oval Pavilion. Now that's a very big hit indeed. Of course,

who doesn't like a six? But baseball – which likes a home

run just as much – outlawed cork bats and an unpressed cricket bat appears to be much the same thing.Ball
four – No boring middle oversNobody told New Zealand that the middle overs of T20 matches in England

are reserved for the poke and the prod as both sides settle for six singles and the occasional boundary.
McCullum and Rutherford ignored the fielders and simply smashed pretty much every ball, trusting a bit to luck and a bit to the difficulty of catching a ball moving at that kind of speed.
It built a great platform for the Kiwis and, perhaps more importantly in front of a capacity crowd, was tremendously entertaining.Ball five – No-balls need sorting outHard on the heels (literally) of Stuart Broad's very close call for a no-ball that wasn't, which decided the Champions Trophy match between these two sides (by sending back Kane Williamson), Mitchell McClenghan was pinged for overstepping on a landing that looked much more behind the line than Broad's. Given

the inexplicable desire of bowlers to land as close to no-ball territory as possible, a smudgy, flaky line isn't much good for the onfield umpire or the man upstairs watching replays on the HD TV.
With an extra ball and a free hit (and sometimes a wicket) at stake, these decisions need to be more certain – and that's a matter for the lawmakers, not the umpires who have been given a hospital pass on this one.Ball six – Jos Buttler is more than a stopperBeing second choice to Craig Kieswetter at Somerset is hardly a ringing endorsement of wicketkeeping skills. Such was Jos Buttler's fate at the start of the forex growth bot Kieswetter injured and England's selectors already favouring the younger man, Buttler has worn the gloves in more matches

this season that he expected.
He is more than a stopper, as his impressive catch to give Boyd Rankin his first international England wicket showed. If he improves as much as Matt Prior did after his 22nd birthday, England will have a very decent player.•
This is an article from our Guardian Sport Network• This article first appeared on The 99.4 Cricket Blog• Follow Gary Naylor on TwitterCricketTwenty20England cricket teamNew Zealand cricket teamGary Naylorguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
| Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    Post reporter Keith L. Alexander bids goodbye to the air travel industry beat with some recollections and parting observations.
Patrick Fitzgerald’s “Gibraltar,” an adaptation of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” focuses on Leopold and Molly Bloom.     Plus Apple's creepy new Madrid store, Google relents on offline maps, penny investments ahoy, and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamThe Microsoft Reorg v Google: lots of engineering, no ads & social or search execs >> Marketing LandDanny Sullivan: Microsoft is all about engineering, whereas Google is more product-focused, it seems. And unlike Microsoft, Google

has top management positions to cover its ads and social efforts, plus "Knowledge," Google's fancy name for

search. Let's take a look.For
this comparison, I'm largely drawing off Microsoft's memo today and comparing that to Google's management page, to see what correspondences, if any, there are.Microsoft's
now seems to be more functionally organised: there are "applications & systems", and there are "devices & studios".Introducing uberX // Same Uber quality but cheaper than a black cab >> Uber BlogEffective today, uberX prices are 40% cheaper than Addison Lee and 30-50% cheaper than a Black Cab, depending on the tariff level*. We're merging the value of minicabs with the efficiency and instant gratification of Uber.
That means you can still make an entrance at the club tonight in the backseat of an UberLUX Jag XJ or S-Class but tomorrow morning you

can nurse your hangover on the way to work in a lower-cost uberX

BMW 3 Series or Toyota Prius equivalent.Note that asterisk after "tariff level" in the first sentence. Except quite what it means - especially the comparison to a black cab - isn't explained anywhere.


Uber still makes more sense in the US, where there isn't much of a cab business outside metropolitan centres, than in London.Dance in a Year >> 'Karen'Hi, I'm Karen.
I leaned to dance in a year.People
who watch me dance today sometimes assume I've been dancing for many years.
I made this video so you could see the awkward body that started just one year ago.Here's
my secret: I practiced everywhere.
At bus stops.
In line at the grocery store. At work —

Using the mouse with my right hand and practicing drills with my left hand.
You don't have to train hardcore for years to become a dancer. But you must be willing to practice and you better be hungry.This isn't a story about dancing, though. It's about having a dream and not knowing how to get there — but starting anyway. With fantastic video which will surely go viral.Ebook ruling gives Amazon an advantage >> NYTimes.com"The Justice Department's guns seem pointed in the wrong direction," Mr. [Paul] Aiken [executive director of the Authors' Guild] said.But the more pressing concern for the industry is the fate of Barnes & Noble. When Borders collapsed

two years ago, analysts said there was an unexpected consequence to the loss of 400 stores: the e-book growth rate began to taper off, as readers could no longer examine new titles before ordering them from Amazon.E-books,
in other words, were not a magical technology that could shed all the existing infrastructure

of publishing. They needed the existing ecosystem.Apple
store unearths hospital ruins >> EL PAÍSApple's new flagship Spanish store — a 6,000-square-meter building in the center of Madrid — contains a genuine treasure trove in its basement.
Along with stacks of mobile phones and other 21st-century gadgets designed in California and made in China, sit the remains of a hospital built six centuries ago.The
teen horror movie pretty much writes itself, doesn't it?We've been happy to hear so many of you fat burning furnace pdf interface >> Google Maps on Google+We've been happy to hear so many of you enjoying the interface and features of the new Google Maps app for Android, but we know some of you are missing an easy way to access maps offline.
That's why our engineering team has been working around the clock to add a "Make this map area available offline" card below the search box for easier access.
And, if you still want some #thumbercise, typing "ok maps" will work too!Wouldn't it have made more sense to include the dedicated card in the first place, instead of just the easter egg, since it had been decided there was demand for the feature? Classic "forty shades of blue" process from Google.Follow
the money: Twitter fundraising is now legal >> Fast CompanyStartups can now announce

that they're seeking funding and investment via social media and print publications. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the change earlier today.
It's the result of section 201(a)

of the JOBS act, which reverses 80-year-old limits on fundraising advertising. While the bureaucratic details may be boring, the implications aren't: Startups can now solicit funding from the general public - and everything that entails.This is going to make those penny stock spam emails look like a tea party.Your digital game library will be accessible from any PlayStation 4, says Sony"You can visit your friend's house you can log into your account and play any game from your digital library," he said. Paired with

the console's "Play As You Download" functionality, [Sony R&D leader Dan] Brown promised that users will be able to instantly jump into their full library of digital games from any PS4 after signing in with their PSN ID.
"This makes a digital library a practical option in the real world," he added.You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on PinboardTo suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.MicrosoftAppleGoogleCharles Arthurguardian.co.uk
© 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
| Use of this content is subject to our Terms

& Conditions | More Feeds     Increasing the stakes in the smartphone battle, the South Korean manufacturer showed off the Galaxy S IV, the latest version of its flagship device. Kamila Shamsie is impressed by a visceral debut about Iran's darkest momentsChildren of the Jacaranda Tree is a novel with a great weight of history attached to it. This much is made explicit by

the author's note that accompanies the proof copies, telling readers that this is "an attempt … to shed light on this dark moment in Iranian history, on its tales of violence, prison and death … to give voice not only to the victims of this atrocity but also to the ordeal of their families and their

children".
The "dark moment" is 1988, when thousands, or tens of thousands, of political prisoners were assassinated in Iran; their number included Sahar Delijani's uncle.
Her parents were fortunate to have been released from prison prior to the "purge".At the start of the novel it seems that Delijani has placed too great a pressure on herself to find the language and structure to relate such a terrible tale. The first chapter tells the story of a political prisoner giving birth in Tehran's Evin

prison, knowing that her child will soon be taken away from her. The language is too overheated to be convincing, and there are a confusing number of character names mentioned – several women prisoners, their unseen relatives, a male guard. Many of these characters play, at most, a minor role, and the author's lack of control seems the most obvious explanation.But as the book continues it becomes apparent that there is a clear purpose behind the naming. Each chapter tells the story of a different person connected to that original prison cell, and every named character from the first chapter becomes significant, directly or through their children, at some point in the book.
At the centre of

the web of connections are three women prisoners – Azar, who gives birth in prison; Firoozeh, who is known to have turned informant in exchange for prison privileges; Parisa, who has one child growing up outside prison and is pregnant with a second. Through these women and their families a narrative emerges that is more effective than one that cleaves to an individual. The pain of women prisoners who have to give up their google sniper review pain of parents and sisters who don't know what is happening to those they love who are imprisoned; the pain of letting go of the nephews and

nieces you've been raising, when their mothers are finally released from prison; the pain of suppressing the truth; the pain of discovering the truth; the

pain of leaving Iran, the pain of staying and the pain of return: all these are held within these linked stories.The
novel is at its best with the stories of the younger generation – the children who spent their childhoods separated from their imprisoned parents.
Some of them have moved away from Iran, others have stayed, but the ties that bind them to each other and to their country remain strong. It is this second generation that takes to the streets in Iran's "green  revolution" of 2009 and faces the violent reprisals that follow. In the final chapter, Neda – who was the baby whose birth opens the novel – is in Italy, the country that has become her home, along with an Iranian man, Reza, who has recently arrived in Turin.
The fascination and slight edge of guilt with which an expatriate approaches someone who has continued to be part of their shared nation's history is well evoked, as is the moment when Reza speaks of his shock at the regime's brutality and Neda's response is anger – "Your worst nightmares came true twenty-three years ago", she wants to shout at him. Although the English-speaking world may be the first readers of this novel, it seems clear that Delijani's more immediate concern is with reminding Iranians (expatriate or otherwise) of their own history – this is not an "explaining Iran to those who don't know it" book, but something far more visceral.Though there are migrants in this novel, it doesn't follow the familiar trajectory of characters escaping a place of brutality for the safety of the west – characters flee to Italy, Germany and America, but it is always Iran that remains central. In the safety of a Turin cafe, when Neda hears Reza talk about the green revolution, instead of feeling gratitude for being in a place of greater security, she feels "a shiver of envy at the thought of him having been there, having partaken in that moment when history turned".
It makes her question her own right to "tell any story, speak of any memory that is larger than that".
But by the time the book draws to

a close, with far greater power than it opened, Delijani has done the work of showing us how those stories and memories are all entwined, and should never be forgotten.• Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows is published by Bloomsbury.FictionIranMiddle East and North AfricaKamila Shamsieguardian.co.uk
© 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     A six-term Pennsylvania congressman, Mr.
Edgar was also a general secretary of the National Council of Churches and the president of the lobbying group Common Cause.     Up a hill, off a narrow road that winds past historic homes and the ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute, sits a secluded neighborhood of clapboard houses.
The bride is a buyer at Bloomingdale’s; the groom is a senior vice president of an investment bank.     The former top Justice Department

official whose office wrote memos blessing harsh interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects told congressional investigators that CIA interrogators might have exceeded the legal limits set by those memos.
Researchers at the Schneider Children's

Medical Center of Israel find that parenting styles and attitudes play a big role in how well teenagers manage their

diabetes. It’s fitting that Mr.
Roth dominates the screen in the new documentary “Philip Roth: Unmasked,” given that his great subject has always been himself.
Chilean police on Thursday evicted student protesters from 21 Santiago schools that

will be used as polling stations for weekend primary elections, a day after a massive march for education reform in the capital.    
Bernhard Langer, a three-time Champions

Tour player of the year, said he's never had a better start to a season.     Long before Ravensworth Shopping Center, Ravensworth Estates, Ravensworth Elementary School and other places were built in southern Fairfax County, William Fitzhugh's 21,996-acre tobacco plantation, Ravensworth, encompassed three mansions and their support buildings, including two now-joined log homes that stand as a quaint reminder of the colony's largest cash crop.
micro niche finder election debate had focused on concern that companies are exploiting the country’s resources without benefit to the Mongolian people. Later this month, the Opera of the Future Group at the MIT Media Lab will premiere Death and the Powers, an opera more than 10 years in the making.
Featuring life-sized singing robots and a musical chandelier, the opera could redefine how technology can enhance live performance and

help reestablish opera’s spirit of innovation.Created by composer and MIT Media Lab Professor Tod Machover, who has designed customized instruments for musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and Prince, the one-act opera will premiere Sept. 24-26 in Monaco (the city-state’s ruler, Prince Albert II, is the honorary patron of the project and will attend the gala opening).
More than 60 students and collaborators are traveling with Machover to help stage the complex production. The Atlanta Falcons have found their replacement for Michael Turner by agreeing to terms with free agent Steven Jackson

on a three-year, $12 million deal. There is no limit to what you learn about schools if you listen to teachers. Did you know, for instance, that Fairfax County, the Washington region's largest school district, is using 10 days a year of valuable instruction time on do-what-you-like recesses for high school students? A federal appeals court held that the agency must disclose, at least to a judge, a description of its records on drone strikes in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties

Union.
Q. The bathroom grout in our 14-year-old house has become stained, and we haven't been able to clean it with various products, including bleach.
How do we restore the color? -D. Lilly The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has announced that Thomas Jessell of Columbia University is the winner of the 2013 Edward M.
Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience. The $100,000 prize, which is endowed through a gift from Merck, is awarded annually by the McGovern Institute to recognize outstanding advances in the field of neuroscience.Jessell
received the award for his research on the embryonic development of the nervous system.
His primary interest is the development of the spinal cord, which because of its relative simplicity and evolutionary conservation offers an ideal system for understanding general principles of central nervous system development. Jessell’s work has revealed the molecular mechanisms responsible for establishing the spatial organization of the spinal cord.
He has identified diffusible signaling molecules that act during early development to provide "positional information" to embryonic cells, instructing them to differentiate in ways that are appropriate for their specific locations within the cord. Jessell has

also studied the molecular mechanisms by which developing cells respond to these positional cues. This work has led to the identification of a transcriptional code, whereby a set of regulatory genes act in combination to specify the many different cell types that comprise the mature spinal cord.
The discovery of these genetic mechanisms has made it possible to identify and manipulate the activity of specific classes of neurons with great precision, and Jessell has used this approach to reveal the

link between functional circuitry and motor behavior. In addition to fundamental questions, Jessell’s work has important practical implications for the emerging field of regenerative medicine. There is great interest in stem cells as a renewable source of cells for transplantation therapy and drug discovery, but for this approach to succeed, stem cells must be converted to the desired cell type. Jessell’s work on transcriptional control of neural identity provides a roadmap for such efforts, and he has demonstrated its feasibility by converting embryonic stem cells into spinal motor neurons, the same cell types that degenerate in diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The implications of his research go well beyond motor neuron diseases; many disorders of the nervous system affect particular cell types, and the ability to convert stem cells to specific classes of neurons may eventually find wide applications in clinical neuroscience.The McGovern Institute will award the Scolnick Prize to Dr. Jessell on Monday, April 1, 2013. He will deliver a lecture entitled “Sifting Circuits for Motor Control" at 4 p.m. that day, to be followed by a reception, at the McGovern Institute in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, 43 Vassar Street (building 46, room 3002).
The event is free and open

to the public. Other than Robinson Cano, question marks abound among the top 10 second basemen and