Today's Current Links--March 15-16, 2021

For an email notice that the latest links have been uploaded

send and email with your email address. to 

jbsolock1@gmail.com

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Today's Gems

Comedy

Charlie Berens (comedy)

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Culture and Science

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian


This 75-minute teacher webinar focused on the ways in which the Maya have used the Sun to track time for thousands of years. Ancestral calendars are relevant today to millions of Maya communities in Mesoamerica, who us their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics to time ceremonies and to plan their agricultural cycle. The content in the webinar connects to the Living Maya Time online resource (http://maya.nmai.si.edu/​), featuring videos of solar alignments with ancestral pyramids and an interactive Maya math activity where students solve a mystery and obtain clues by practicing their Maya math skills. Dr. Isabel Hawkins (Astronomer) led the session and provides an optional hands-on strategy for students to measure time and find the cardinal directions by tracking shadows using commonly available items from around the house. Designed and recommended for teachers of upper elementary and middle school students (grades 5–8) in the subjects of history, social studies, and STEM. The Native Knowledge 360˚ webinar was hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Education Department on February 22, 2021.

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Film--Documentary

Syrie - Watani : My Homeland (Arabic (?) with French Subtitles)

From resistance to exile, Marcel Mettelsiefen followed for two years the daily life of a family in Aleppo whose destiny was upset by the war. 2014, in besieged Aleppo, residents decided to stay and fight, whatever it was, against the forces of the regime. In a landscape of chaos, they strive every day to maintain a normal form of life. Journalist Marcel Mettelsiefen has visited Syria fifteen times to document the civil war. In "Watani" he follows the family of Abu Ali and his wife Hala. They have three daughters, Hélène, Farah, Sarah, and a son, Muhammad. Abu Ali was then in command of a Free Army battalion in Aleppo where they decided to stay with their children, despite the fighting. Two years later, Abu Ali, was kidnapped by Daesh and his wife ends up choosing exile with her children. Marcel Mettelsiefen returned to film their escape, during a trip that will take them to Germany, to Goslar, where their new life is being organized today. Watani: My Homeland was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 in the documentary category.

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Sports: Fencing and Kendo: Two major Competitions. 

Fencing:

FIE (Federation International d'Escrime) (International Fencing Federation) (Fencing) (Ninh explains)
Context: FIE complete World Cup results (men and women, click on the competition to open both gender results).
The above link contains preliminaries and finals in both individual and Team competitions. The Team finals are labelled "Team World Cup Finals." The individual finals have more cryptic labels, but the length of the bouts indicate that they are finals. Below are all of the preliminaries. "Piste" means the matches fought on a certain mat color. All in all, there are over 200 hours of competition videos. If you are curious about fencing, sabre fencing in particular (see the Ninh explains above), this is as good a place to start as any. An absolutely staggering resource. 

Kendo:

All Japan Kendo Association (kendo) (Ninh explains)
For both Tournaments scroll click on "Open" and then scroll past the competition tree to the match listings. Then click on the red arrow for link to the Youtube videos. 
68th Men's All Japan Kendo Championship (63 matches) 

59th Women's All Japan Kendo Championship (63 matches)

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For complete blog coverage of the March (Haru) Basho (Sumo Wrestling Tournament) aimed at the new and curious fan, see my Tournament Blog.
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ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News




Agence France Presse
Aljazeera English





ARTE (France/Germany)
Bright Side

CBC News (Canada)
CUNY TV


Professional Darts Corporation (darts) (Ninh explains)

Euronews (in English) (European Union)




Fascinating Horror

Federacion de Pelota de Espana Campeonato de Espana de Clubes 
Week 9 Honor category (4 matches) (Spanish)
The video contains 1st Partidos Paleta Cuero (leather ball paddle) and Pala Corta (short bat); 2th partidos Mano (hand) Individuel and Parejas (Pairs)
Context: Results and Team standings (scroll to 9 Jornada for Results and click on classification honor for team table

FIS Alpine
Grand Old Opry

Guinness Six Nations (Rugby Union) (Ninh explains) 
Extended Match highlights in chronological order (Round 1-4, earliest at the top of the playlist)

Every Try from Round 1-3

Context: Fixtures, Tables News (GSNSuper Rugby (Rugby Union) (Ninh explains) 

This is the premier Northern Hemisphere International Rugby Competition. Contesting Nations are England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, and Italy. It is a single Round Robin Tournament.

Super Rugby (Aotearo--New Zealand; Australia) 
Highlight Playlists 

Aotearoa (Updated through March 15)
Australia (Updated through March 15)
Context: Scores, Standings, Fixtures, News (this page may have more up to date highlights than the playlists

This is the premier Southern Hemisphere Domestic Club Competition. It is usually contested as one League with Teams from Australia, New Zealand (Aotearoa), and South Africa. Due to the Pandemic, South Africa dropped out this year and the other two countries are having separate competitions.

Indigo Traveller

Info Garazi Officiel
Federation Francais de Pelota Basque (FFBP) Championnat de France par Equipes (pairs) Main Nue (naked hand).Matches played to 40 points. Info Garazi matches are full match videos. Pilota Ttiki are the same matches, but condensed, with everything between points edited out. IG matches have commentary (in Basque or French), while condensed matches give selected scores in a crawl across the bottom of the screen.

Group matches

Group B: 
Condensed Full match (Pilota Ttiki)

Group A:
Condensed Full Match (Pilota Ttiki) 

Group A:
Condensed Full Match (Pilota Ttiki Youtube)

Group A:
Condensed Full Match (Pilota Ttiki Youtube)

Context: Tournament Information and Schedule (French,.pdf format)
Context: Results (French, .pdf format)

Jai Alai Channel
Jai-Alai H2H - Day 11 (Jai Alai) (Ninh explains)
Context: Rules, standings

Korea Now (South Korea Yonhap News)

NDTV (India)


Letters and Politics (Mitch Jeserich)

The Lincoln Project

MLB (baseball)
Context: Variety article.

Nature Bats Last (Guy McPherson)
Context: Guy McPherson (University of Arizona)

NBA (Basketball)



Pilota Godella (Valencian Pelota)

PSA SquashTV (Squash Rackets)
CIB PSA Black Ball Open (Cairo, Egypt, March 12-25, 2021) Playlist (Highlights of each day's play) (highlights are all from the Women's Tournament. Men's Tournament begins March 19--Women's Tournament has reached the Quarter-final stage). 
Context: (News, results, seeding, etc.) (PSA World Tour)

Rabbitholebd--Gtv (Gazi Satellite Television) (Cricket) (Ninh Explains)

Afghanistan Cricket Board (cricket) (Ninh explains)

Highlights:


Cricket for the baseball fan.

Final Score:  
Afghanistan
1st Innings  545 for 4 outs (declared innings over) and 
4th Innings 108 for 4 outs (won the game)

Zimbabwe
2nd Innings 287 (all out--10 outs) and
3rd Innings 365 all out--10 outs) 
(following on because they trailed by more than 199 runs after their 1st Innings and Afghanistan took the option of making them bat again). 

Afghanistan scored the winning run with 4 outs in their 2nd Innings. They won by 6 wickets. Final score was 653 to 652. 

A 6 wicket win is a big win. If you average Afghanistan's runs per wicket in this match 652/8 that means that they scored 81.5 runs per wicket (out). Multiply that by the 6 wickets they didn't need to use (it's more complicated than that because the further down you get in the batting order the less effective the batters are) and you get an idea of just how comprehensive their victory was...except, and there is always an "except" in cricket, this match went far closer to the time limit than would have been comfortable for Afghanistan. Afghanistan needed to bat 26.1 overs (157 legal deliveries ("pitches") because Zimbabwe was able to stretch their lead from 8 yesterday to 107 today (for the loss of their last 3 wickets (all bowlers and not good batsmen--see Sean Williams achievement below), and they took a long time to score the 90 runs. They batted for 42.5 overs (257 legal deliveries). Afghanistan scored the winning run after 69 total overs of play today, about 45 minutes into the last (15th) 2 hour session of the match. And that makes this match a lot closer than the score indicated. Zimbabwe made Afghanistan toil in the field for 240.2 overs (about 2.7 days--17 hours without respite. That is 1,442 deliveries. It was a great fightback by Zimbabwe to try to save the match. They came up about an hour short of succeeding in a match that lasted about  a little less than 29 hours. 

Final statistics: 
 
Afghanistan batting: 160.4 and 26.1 overs: 186.5 overs (1,121 legal deliveries
Zimbabwe batting : 91.3 and 148.5 overs: 240.2 overs (1,442 legal deliveries)
Match total: 427.1 overs (out of a theoretical 450 maximum overs). 2,563 deliveries out of a theoretical 2,700 maximum.

Afghanistan: 81.5 runs per wicket (out)
Zimbabwe : 32.6 runs per wicket (out)

Notable: 
Afghanistan: Hashmatulla Shahidi (200 runs not out, batted for 9 hours and 50 minutes, faced 443 deliveries--see below).

Afghanistan: Rashid Khan bowled 99.2 overs (596 legal deliveries) in this match, all without respite during the almost 3 consecutive full days his team was in the field. Almost 1/4 of all the deliveries bowled by the 11 full time bowlers in the match. His team got a short water break every hour, and the four intervals (2 lunch--40 minutes apiece) and 2 tea--20 minutes apiece). When Khan wasn't bowling, he was playing in the field. He took 11 wickets (outs). Khan is a "slow" bowler, and he relies on flight, bounce, and "turn" off the ground. He must snap his wrist with every delivery (he is a "leg spinner" or "wrist spinner" but can make the ball turn on the bounce either way  (leg spin--away from the right handed batsman or "googly"--into the right handed batsman--cricket's screwball). His outs were as follows 

6 Leg Before Wicket--ball hits the batsman and the umpire judges that it would have gone on to hit the sticks if it hadn't (cricket's called strike)

3  Catches by Short Fielders (in front or behind the wicket, usually within 20-25 feet of the batsman, and for the ones in front of the wicket, much closer--5-10 feet away

1 caught behind (by the wicket keeper)

1 Outfield

10 of the outs came because he bamboozled the batsman into missing completely or "edging" (almost missing completely). He is well known as one of the best bowlers in the world in short matches (20 overs a side), but no one really knew how he would fare in the long game. He missed the First Test match of this series due to injury. 

It was a phenomenal performance. Taking 10 wickets in a match or 5 in an innings (he took 7 in Zimbabwe's 2nd innings) are both marks of bowling excellence in the long format. 

Zimbabwe: Sean Williams: 2nd Innings: 151 not out (batted for 7 hours and 45 minutes, faced 309 deliveries). Williams, Zimbabwe's Captain (player-manager) did all he could to save the match. In the end, he ran out of partners about 1 hour short of the time he needed to bat to save the match. 


Cricket for the baseball fan.

Zimbabwe began the day in their 2nd innings (following on--batting again) after their first innings left them more than 199 runs behind Afghanistan. They began Day 4 at 24 runs for 0 outs, still trailing Afghanistan by 242 runs. 

End of play on Day 4: 

Zimbabwe 266 for 7 outs (106 overs--636 legal deliveries in the innings so far).
Day 4: 93 overs bowled (558 legal deliveries deliveries), 7 outs, Zimbabwe leads by 8 runs. This means Afghanistan will have to bat again. Overs bowled through 4 days 357.1 (2,143 legal pitches). Wickets (outs)--21.

Afghanistan has now been in the field for 197.3 consecutive overs (1,185 legal deliveries since the middle of Day 2. Zimbabwe are effectively 8 runs for 7 wickets in their 2nd innings, so Afghanistan should wrap this up early tomorrow morning, but few thought the match would last this long.


State of the match at "stumps" (end of play) on the third day (of a maximum 5 day match).

Innings 1: Afghanistan 545/4 declared Innings over--see below (160.4 overs--964 legal deliveries--pitches) Zimbabwe 287 (91.3 overs--549 legal deliveries) 

1st Innings: 14 wickets (outs) and 1,514 deliveries. Runs per wicket: 59.4. (Afghanistan: 136.25; Zimbabwe 28.7). Afghanistan leads by 258 runs after the 1st Innings.

Innings 2: Zimbabwe (following on--in International Tests, if one team has a lead of more than 199 runs at the end of an Innings in which it batted 1st, that team can "invite" the trailing team to "follow on"--bat again. Changing the order of teams batting is a tactic used to try to A) give the leading team as much time as possible to dismiss the trailing team again; B) a bit of "in your face" psychological warfare. Z must score 258 runs in their 2nd Innings in order to make A  bat again. Otherwise they lose by "an innings" and n runs; i.e. A will score more runs in one Innings than Z will score in two.

Z 24 for 0 outs (13 overs--78 legal deliveries). Afganistan leads by 242 runs. Number of legal deliveries  on Day 3: 86.3 overs--519. Total through 3 days: 264.1 overs (1,585 legal deliveries--a little more than 6 MLB baseball games by number of pitches). A=964 (batting), Z=627 (batting--everything regarding "pitch counts" in cricket is relative to the batting team--same thing for the names of fielding positions--but that is another story). It's beginning to look like a big Afghanistan victory. They have 1,080 deliveries over the last 2 days to get 10 wickets (outs). Z has basically no chance to win, but they can "save" the match (a "draw"--and win the 2 match series, as they won the 1st match) by batting long enough to "run out the clock" before A can get the 10 outs, or get the number of runs they would need to equal Z's total. Possible outcomes: Afghanistan win: 98%; Draw: 1.9%; Zimbabwe win: 0.1% (my estimate).


Afghanistan  545 for 4 outs--declared innings over--160.4 overs in their innings (964 legal deliveries) Top Scorer: Hashmatulla Shahidi: 200 runs (not out); 443 balls faced, 590 minutes (9 hours 50 minutes), 21 FOURS, 1 SIX, highest score in history of Afghanistan Test cricket. Ran 110 runs (batters do not run boundaries) off his own batting. Equivalent of 18 times around a baseball diamond. He also ran all the non boundary runs of his three partners. One of those, Asghar Afghan, scored 164 runs, of which 68 came on boundaries. So Hashmatulla had to run 96 of Afghan's runs as well. So a partial total of 206 times he had to run up and down the pitch. So that would make 34 times around the bases, not counting his other two partners.  Quite an at-bat.

Zimbabwe 1st innings 50 for 0 outs. 17 overs. 87.4 overs on the day. Total through 2 days. 177.4 overs (1,066 legal deliveries through 2 days)

Afghanistan wins the toss and bats: 307 for 3 outs. 90 overs (540 legal deliveries--see the Current Links "Today's Gems" for March 9, 202

RT (Russia Today)

Context: More information about Maslenitsa (into-russia.co.uk blog)


WFTDA: Women's Flat Track Derby Association

Windiescricket.com (Cricket) (Ninh Explains) 


Final:

Sri Lanka 274 for 6 wickets (outs)
West Indies 275 for 5
West Indies wins by 5 wickets (5 outs when the winning run scored), with 9 balls to spare (48.3 overs--291 balls. West Indies wins the 3 match series 3-0

Highlights | West Indies vs Sri Lanka | Tense Finish to End the Series! | 2nd CG Insurance ODI 2021  Played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua. 


Final:

Sri Lanka 273/8 (wickets-outs) v West Indies (274/5--49.4 overs) West Indies win by 5 wickets with 2 balls to play). West Indies leads the 3 match series 2-0.

Highlights | West Indies vs Sri Lanka | Brilliant Hope Hundred Earns Win! | 1st CG Insurance One Day International (50 overs--300 pitches per side, about the the length of a baseball doubleheader. Played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua. 


Final: 

Sri Lanka 232 (all 10 out 49 overs) v West Indies (236/2 wickets--outs--47 overs)
West Indies win by 8 wickets with 18 balls to play. West Indies leads the 3 match series 1-0.

WTA (Women's Tennis Association)
Context: WTA GuadalajaraTournament information

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