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your-dietician · 3 years

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2021 NFL Divisional Power Rankings: NFC West takes top spot, Cowboys in the basement with rest of NFC East

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2021 NFL Divisional Power Rankings: NFC West takes top spot, Cowboys in the basement with rest of NFC East

Now that the month of July is here, that means the dead part of the NFL offseason is officially upon us and although things can get kind of boring during that period, we’ve decided to spice things up and we’re doing that today with some divisional power rankings.

If you’ve ever wondered which division is the best one in the NFL, you won’t have to wonder much longer because we’re going to answer that question for you. Some divisions — like the NFC East — are easy to rank because, well, let’s be honest, it was the worst division last year and it doesn’t look like things are going to be much better this year.

On the other hand, there are some divisions that are nearly impossible to rank, cough, NFC North. No one knows if Aaron Rodgers is going to be playing for the Packers this year, which is one reason why it’s tough to rank that division.

So how did everything shake out?

Let’s get to the rankings.

8. NFC East

I’m not sure what rock bottom is in the NFL, but the NFC East was definitely trying to find out last season. This division was so bad in 2020 that even NFC East fans were willing to admit that their favorite division was horrible.

If you need a quick refresher on how bad the NFC East was last year, just consider this: Washington won the division with a losing record (7-9). Overall, the NFC East finished with a 10-29-1 non-divisional record last season, which was tied with the 2014 NFC South for the worst non-divisional record since the NFL realigned the divisions in 2002. Also, the NFC East combined to go 23-40-1 overall, which was the second-worst overall record ever for a division (The 2008 NFC West went 22-42).

Unfortunately for the NFC East, it doesn’t look like things are going to get much better in 2021. The Eagles are still a mess and they have a first-year coach in place who’s going to have to clean things up. The Giants should be better, but that’s going to come down to whether Daniel Jones can take the next step. The Cowboys will be getting Dak Prescott back, but who knows if that will actually help. In the four games where Dak was healthy last year, the Cowboys went 1-3. As for Washington, the Football Team still has a strong defense and they upgraded at quarterback, so they could be better, but not enough to move the NFC East out of the basement.

Eventually, this division will get better, but this probably won’t be the year where that happens.

NFC East out-of-division record in 2020: 10-29-1 (1-3 vs. NFC North, 2-2 vs. NFC South, 4-12 vs. NFC West, 4-11-1 vs. AFC North) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC South and AFC West (One game vs. AFC East)

7. AFC South

This might be the most top heavy division in the NFL this year. On one hand, you have the Colts and Titans, who should both be playoff contenders. On the other hand, you have the Jaguars and Texans, who might end up finishing the season with the two worst records in football.

Right now, Houston is a total disaster. The team has a quarterback who doesn’t want to play for them, but they can’t trade him due to his legal issues. With Deshaun Watson’s status up in the air, the Texans will likely be turning things over to Tyrod Taylor at quarterback. In Jacksonville, the Jags should be better — because it’s not possible to get much worse after a 1-15 season — but with a rookie quarterback and first-year coach in Urban Meyer, this doesn’t feel like a team that really has a chance to finish the season above .500.

Although the Titans and Colts are both expected to be good this year, this division could end up as the worst one in football if either of those teams falter, which isn’t completely out of the question. The Colts have no idea what they’ll be getting in Carson Wentz and the Titans defense will need to be better than it was last year.

AFC South out-of-division record in 2020: 15-25 (8-8 vs. NFC North, 2-14 vs. AFC North, 3-1 vs. AFC East, 2-2 vs. AFC West) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC West and AFC East (one game vs. NFC South)

6. NFC North

The NFC North was the hardest division to rank this year and that’s because no one has any idea if Aaron Rodgers is going to be in it. If Rodgers is playing for the Packers, you could probably make the case that this division should be ranked fifth or maybe even fourth, but with Rodgers status up in the air, we’re dropping them all the way to sixth.

Outside of the Packers, no other team in this division finished above .500 last year. The Bears were on the cusp of being good, but their quarterback situation always seems to hold them back and this year might not be any different. Coach Matt Nagy has been insisting that Andy Dalton will be the team’s Week 1 starter, which actually might be for the best, because the Bears are playing the Rams. If the Bears start Justin Fields in the opener, he might take so many hits from Aaron Donald that it will scar him for life.

In Minnesota, the Vikings should be better after beefing up their defense. The defensive line alone will have four players this year who didn’t play a single snap for the team last year in Danielle Hunter (injured), Sheldon Richardson (2021 free agent signing), Dalvin Tomlinson (2021 free agent signing) and Michael Pierce (Opted out in 2020 due to COVID). As for the Lions, they’re still the Lions and they’re a big reason why this division is ranked so low.

NFC North out-of-division record in 2020: 21-19 (8-8 vs. NFC South, 8-8 vs AFC South, 3-1 vs. NFC East, 2-2 vs. NFC West) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC West and AFC North (one game vs. AFC West)

5. NFC South

If these rankings were based solely on how good the best team in your division is, then the NFC South would probably be ranked first this year and that’s because they have the defending Super Bowl champions. However, that’s not how things work around here. For our divisional rankings, we take into account all four teams, which definitely doesn’t work out in the NFC South’s favor.

Although the Buccaneers feel like a lock to make the playoffs, the same can’t be said about any other team in the division. The Saints actually won the NFC South last year, but it’s hard to see them repeating as champs and that’s mainly due to the fact that their starting quarterback is either going to be Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill.

The Panthers (5-11 last year) and Falcons (4-12 in 2020) should both be better, but even if both teams improve by three wins, they’ll still be under .500. This feels like a division where every team except for the Buccaneers is probably going to finish with somewhere between six and nine wins.

NFC South out-of-division record in 2020: 20-20 (8-8 vs. NFC North, 8-8 vs. AFC West, 2-2 vs. NFC East, 2-2 vs. NFC West) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC East and AFC East (one game vs. AFC South)

4. AFC East

For most of the past 20 years, the AFC East was basically just the Patriots beating up on three bad teams, but that all changed in 2020. With Tom Brady no longer in New England, the Patriots domination finally ended and because of that, the AFC East is now a much more well-rounded division.

The Bills used to be the laughing stock of the division, but now, they’re laughing at everyone else after a 2020 season where Josh Allen led them to the AFC title game. Since hiring Sean McDermott in 2017, the Bills have been steadily improving every year and heading into Year 5 of his regime, they now feel like an actual Super Bowl contender, which is something that no one has been able to say about the Bills in more than 25 years.

Although the Patriots got knocked off the top of the divisional perch last season, they’re not going away. During the offseason, Bill Belichick basically went out and signed anyone he could get his hands on in hopes of wrestling the division title back from Buffalo.

As for the Dolphins, thanks to their 10-6 finish last season, this feels like a division that has at least three playoff contenders. Some day the Jets will turn things around, but until that day comes, it will be hard to rank this division any higher (The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since 2010, which is the longest active streak in the NFL without a postseason appearance).

AFC East out-of-division record in 2020: 20-20 (8-8 vs. NFC West, 7-9 vs. AFC West, 4-0 vs. AFC North, 1-3 vs. AFC South)

2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC South and AFC South (one game vs. NFC East)

3. AFC West

It’s not easy to rank the AFC West and that’s mostly because it’s almost impossible to gauge how good this division is outside of Kansas City. Look, we know the Chiefs are unstoppable and they proved that last year during the regular season. Not only did they go 14-1 in games where their starters played, but they went UNDEFEATED (10-0) against non-divisional opponents (To put that in perspective, only three other teams have pulled that off over the past 10 years: 2012 Falcons, 2015 Panthers and 2016 Cowboys).

The problem with the rest of the division is that none of them finished above .500 last year, which makes the AFC West the only AFC division that had three teams finish at .500 or below. On paper, all three teams should be better this year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I mean, on paper, I think I look like Brad Pitt, but no one actually thinks that in real life.

The Broncos have a strong defense and some talented skill players, but they don’t have a quarterback. The Chargers have talent everywhere, but we have no idea if their first-year coach can actually coach. As for the Raiders, their defense was bad last year and they didn’t do much to improve it.

That being said, it does feel like feel like all three teams could compete for a wild-card this year. I mean, if this woman can make the Raiders logo out of rice, then surely the Raiders can compete for a playoff berth.

AFC West out-of-division record in 2020: 22-18 (8-8 vs. NFC South, 9-7 vs. AFC East, 3-1 vs. AFC North, 2-2 vs. AFC South)

2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC East and AFC North (one game vs. NFC North)

2. AFC North

Of all the divisions in the NFL, only one of them sent three teams to the playoffs last year and that was the AFC North, which has consistently been one of the best divisions in football. As a matter of fact, over the past 10 years, there have only been five instances where a division sent three teams to the playoffs and the AFC North has accounted for three of those (2011, 2014, 2020)

Last season was a banner year for the division and there’s a chance that things are only going to get better for everyone in 2021, well, except for maybe the Steelers. On the Browns’ end, Cleveland has finally found a competent coach in Kevin Stefanski, which means the Browns could take a big step forward. The Browns already took a huge step forward with Stefanski — they won their first playoff game since 1994 — but now that they’ve tasted victory, expectations are even higher in Cleveland.

As for the Ravens, they’ve been nearly unstoppable on offense with Lamar Jackson and that will likely continue this season. The Steelers are the team with the biggest question marks in the division and those questions mainly revolve around whether Ben Roethlisberger can make it through an entire season unscathed. If he can, there’s no reason the Steelers can’t return to the playoffs.

The worst team in the AFC North is the Bengals, but they might not be the worst team much longer. With Joe Burrow returning from his ACL injury and a revamped defense, it won’t be surprising if the Bengals win several more games than they did last year.

With the NFL playoffs now open to 14 teams, it will now be possible for a division to send ALL FOUR of its teams to the playoffs, and if the Bengals can improve, the AFC North might be able to make history in 2021.

AFC North out-of-division record in 2020: 26-13-1 (11-4-1 vs. NFC East, 14-2 vs. AFC South, 1-3 vs. AFC West, 0-4 vs. AFC East) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. AFC West and NFC North (one game vs. NFC West)

1. NFC West

The NFC was arguably the best division in football last year and the reason they’re still at the top this year is because you can make the argument that every team in the division has gotten EVEN BETTER heading into 2021.

The worst team in the division last season was the 49ers and when a team two years removed from a Super Bowl berth is your worst team, that is a pretty strong argument that you have one of the best divisions in football. The 49ers got rocked by injuries last year, but with everyone healthy in 2021, this is a team that should be a Super Bowl contender.

The only other team that didn’t finish above .500 in the NFC West last season was the Cardinals, but that could change in 2021 after their explosive offseason. Arizona went out and signed everyone, including J.J. Watt, A.J. Green and Malcolm Butler. They also added some protection for Kyler Murray in the form of center Rodney Hudson.

Of course, the biggest move in the division came from the Rams, who traded for Matthew Stafford, who should be a huge upgrade over Jared Goff. In four seasons with Goff, Sean McVay averaged 10.75 wins per season, so don’t be surprised if he tops that number with Stafford.

As for Seattle, as long as Russell Wilson’s relationship with the team doesn’t implode, the Seahawks should be a playoff contender like they have been in every single season since 2012 when he took over the starting job. .

If there’s one division in the NFL where it feels like any of the four teams could end up in a conference championship game, it definitely feels like this one.

NFC West out-of-division record in 2020: 24-16 (12-4 vs. NFC East, 8-8 vs. AFC East, 2-2 vs. NFC South, 2-2 vs. NFC North) 2021 out-of-division schedule: Four games vs. NFC North and AFC South (one game vs. AFC North)

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Corona Vs Corona: It’s 100 Days Until The Rare Eclipse Coronavirus Is Named After. Will You See It?

https://sciencespies.com/news/corona-vs-corona-its-100-days-until-the-rare-eclipse-coronavirus-is-named-after-will-you-see-it/

Corona Vs Corona: It’s 100 Days Until The Rare Eclipse Coronavirus Is Named After. Will You See It?

Chinese couple wear protective masks to prevent COVID-19 as they look through protective glasses … [+] while watching the sun during the annular solar eclipse outside the Forbidden City on June 20, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Getty Images

In 100 days—on December 14, 2020—a magnificent totality comparable to 2017’s ‘Great American Eclipse’ will sweep across South America in 24 spell-binding minutes.

For 2 minutes 9 seconds, from locations in Chile and Argentina under the 56 miles/90 kilometres wide shadow of the Moon, a grand totality will send shivers across the skin—and down the spines—of eclipse-chasers from across the world gathered close to Pucón, Chile and south of Neuquén in Patagonia, Argentina.

Or, at least, that was the plan until you-know-what cast a long shadow over international travel. It threatens to turn one of the celestial highlights of 2020 into a “Great Domestic South American Eclipse.”

“We had an eclipse cruise planned with Holland America to take us to the Chilean fjords, Antarctic peninsula, and to view the eclipse off the Argentine coast,” said Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Michael Zeiler, a map and globe-maker who runs the eclipse website GreatAmericanEclipse.com. “Now we have no plans to see this December’s eclipse because of the COVID risks involved—we don’t want to subject ourselves to long distance travel with the chance of being exposed to the virus.”

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It will be the first total solar eclipse Zeiler has missed since 2010. He won’t be alone among eclipse-chasers in following this one online.

Totality from the “Great American Eclipse in 2017 from Bethpage, Tennessee.

getty

For the record, I have flight tickets and I am still planning to go, with many travel agents and independent eclipse-chasers waiting to see what happens. After all, both Chile and Argentina are on the cusp of opening their borders to international travelers.

However, some high-profile eclipse tour groups have already been canceled. One is Prescott, Arizona-based TravelQuest, which has been running total solar eclipse tours and astronomy-themed travel for over 20 years.

“We cancelled our 2020 eclipse trips to Argentina and Chile because we were just not seeing the virus subside around the world like we all hoped it would,” said Aram Kaprielian, President and Founder of TravelQuest. “The current COVID-19 situation in the USA certainly did not help. Add to that the COVID-19 situation in South America and ultimately the decision to cancel, for us, was actually an easy one for us to make.”

Kaprielian himself had planned to join his company’s Chile land tour including the Atacama Desert and Torres del Paine. “It was to have been my 18th total solar eclipse,” he said. “It’s disappointing.”

The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like. … [+] (Photo by: IMAGE POINT FR – LPN/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Etymologically speaking, it’s ironic that an eclipse is being affected by a coronavirus. The real prize for eclipse-chasers during totality is to get a brief, but heart-wrenchingly beautiful view of the the Sun’s magnificent corona—the hotter, outer part of the Sun’s atmosphere that’s usually hidden by its glare. Corona is Latin for crown, though it’s actual named after Spanish astronomer José Joaquín de Ferrer, who coined the term. The corona in coronavirus comes from the appearance of the virus under a microscope; its surface resembles the solar corona.

Talking of science, 2020’s total solar eclipse has not yet been struck-off by solar physicists. “We still have our group’s and scientific team’s reservations on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, and we continue to prepare and upgrade our scientific equipment,” said Jay Pasachoff, Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, Massachusetts, who’s witnessed no less than 67 total solar eclipses. “But we are dependent on admission to Argentina, and I just don’t know what the situation will be in December … I’m not confident, but I hold onto diminishing hope.”

Pasachoff has seen or worked on every total solar eclipse since 1966, except for 1976, and every eclipse of all types for at least a decade until COVID-19 prevented him from seeing June 21, 2020’s annular solar eclipse. That didn’t prevent him from collecting observations from fellow scientists in the path of totality through Asia that day.

“I am a professional solar astronomer, so my main regret would be missing the scientific return from the 2020 total solar eclipse, and the gap in our continuity of studying the shape of the corona over the sunspot cycle,” said Pasachoff.

MORE FROM FORBESNeed To See Another Total Solar Eclipse? Here’s When, Where And How To See One In The Next 20 YearsBy Jamie Carter

However, there’s two things about total solar eclipses we can be sure of; they will happen and they will be experienced by those who live in, or can travel to, the path of totality, and there’s always another total solar eclipse.

After Chile and Argentina has enjoyed—and, hopefully, broadcast live—their second total solar eclipse in 532 days, the next total solar eclipse will occur on December 4, 2021 somewhat further south in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica.

Think cruise ships. Think vaccines. “We are booked on an Antarctic cruise for December 2021 and do have some confidence in that trip given the likelihood of either a vaccine or effective therapeutics by then,” said Zeiler.

Can the travel industry envisage handling events like a total solar eclipse in a remote corner of the world? “As doom and gloom as the travel industry appears right now we at TravelQuest remind ourselves of our industry’s resilience after September 11, and the financial meltdown in 2008,” said Kaprielian. “Seeing and experiencing the wonders of this amazing planet and the heavens above is what drives us to develop our very specialized group tours.”

How group tours will need to change in a post-COVID-19 world is an unknown, and the travel industry is taking it one day at a time.

All we do know is a total solar eclipse will occur before lunch on December 14, 2020, and eclipse-chasers from South America—and hopefully beyond—will find a way to make a pilgrimage to be part of one of the greatest experiences our planet has to offer.

Disclaimer: I am the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and author of Total Solar Eclipse 2020: A travel and field guide to observing totality in Chile and Argentina on December 14, 2020

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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erickjack-blog1 · 5 years

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How Much RAM Do You Really Need?

“How much RAM do I need?” It’s one of the most frequent questions asked by anyone buying or upgrading a desktop or laptop, and while there are some reasonable stock answers that people usually share, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and very little of the advice you do see has any real testing to back it up.

We’re here to fix that. By testing a variety of use cases on different amounts of RAM, we can get a very good idea what sort of uses can be comfortably done with how much RAM, and even give you an idea of how you can stretch the RAM you’ve got.

What is RAM and how does it work?

Let’s start with the most basic elements of the question. RAM is where data is stored before processing. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and it consists of dynamic memory chips that can be written and rewritten with data very quickly. Unlike your hard drive, however, the memory used for RAM is also volatile, meaning that it only holds onto that data while the chip is powered, so it’s not designed to hold information long term.

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Essentially, RAM is the memory that actually lets you work with the data needed to run programs and open files. Whenever your computer loads a program or opens a file, it opens up that data in RAM. Even your operating system uses RAM when it’s running. If you want to run a program, it pulls the data from long-term storage on your hard drive to short-term storage in RAM, where it can be accessed quickly enough for smooth operation.

This flow of data between the disk and the RAM is controlled by the computer, which manages the writing of data to physical locations on the memory chip, and that it needs a certain amount of free space to function. For each program you run, it will actively use some of the space for in-use memory and allocate some of the available space as standby memory, essentially reserved space for potential operations.

Once you hit the limit of what your RAM can hold, then your computer will compensate with a swap file, putting some of the data onto your storage drive. It will try to use this swap file in the same way it does RAM, constantly reading and writing the data during operation, but the memory in your storage drives simply isn’t designed to move data as rapidly as DRAM. A swap file still lets you get some things done, but will be dramatically slower.

The bottom line is that RAM is essential to the smooth operating of your computer, particularly for things like multitasking and accessing multiple files at one time. While your overall performance will largely be dictated by the capabilities of your processor and graphics hardware, your memory allotment will directly impact how well you can take advantage of that performance. Too little RAM creates a bottleneck that slows everything down, and the basic rule of thumb is that more RAM is always better.

How Much RAM Do I Need?

The answer to the question of how much RAM you need always will come back to what you want to do with it. While opting for more RAM is always good advice, it doesn’t answer the more specific questions of how much RAM is needed for specific uses, or what you can reasonably expect to do with the RAM your laptop already has. To answer these questions we performed some testing, looking at specific use cases, identifying the basic memory requirements for each and providing some hard numbers to back our advice.

To help you find the best answer for you, we tested for five specific use cases, each common but distinct in its memory demands:

Office productivity

Web browsing

Media streaming

Photo editing

Gaming

Each of these uses is common, but has distinctly different hardware requirements and memory demands. We broke down each of our five use cases, finding the memory demands for both basic and heavy use, and matched that to common allotments of RAM. Want to edit photos, but you’re not much of a gamer? Want to do some document work and web browsing but still want the option to do more? Whatever your mix of uses, we can give you a very good idea of how much memory will be enough to meet the demands of the task.

Putting RAM To The Test

For use case testing we used an Alienware 15 R3, equipped with an Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX970M graphics card. To obtain data on memory usage, we used Windows Resource Monitor, one of several tools built into Windows to view system information and tracking the performance of various components. We chose Resource Monitor because it provides more granular information than Windows Task Manager, but both tools are helpful for getting an idea of how memory is used as you run processes and programs.

Office Productivity

While creating and editing documents is generally a low-resource task, office productivity gets much more demanding as you open multiple files in multiple programs. For this test we looked at various programs in Microsoft’s Office Suite, examining how large files stress memory as well as using multiple productivity programs at once. If you want to make the most of your multitasking, these are the tests to look at.

We started with smaller files in multiple programs, opening Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files and photos. Whether we had one Word doc open or 10 files open across 5 programs, working with standard small documents barely exceeded 5GB of memory in use, and never exceeded 7GB of memory in use and in standby.

Large documents were another matter. We tested with a number of documents with upward of 1,000 pages. Whether looking at a single text file or a handful of documents (Word Docs, PDF, Text files) and larger Excel files (multiple sheets, each with 100+ columns of data), the memory usage ranged between 3,283 and 3,971 MB. The standby memory, however, jumped to nearly 10GB.

Key takeaway: You can do a lot of work with only 4GB of memory, but if you need to work with extremely large files, you’ll want to bump up to 8GB or more.

Web Browsing

Basic web browsing can be done on almost any connected device, but loading up multiple browser tabs will use up your memory. To test the memory demands of web browsing we used Google’s Chrome browser, which is notable for being both popular and a notorious memory hog. For our tests we assumed that normal browsing behavior included the use of multiple browser tabs, with no additional measures taken to cut down on data usage; meaning no ad blockers, no special permissions for media, and no other data-saving measures. We started with a list of 10 popular websites and then opened new tabs of these same websites in batches of 10.

This test was rather eye-opening in how clearly it showed the impact of web browsing on memory use. The initial 10-tab test used 3,333 MB of memory, with an additional 3,963 MB in standby. Those 4GB of standby memory held throughout testing, but every additional 10 tabs used roughly a full GB of memory.

Key takeaway: If you’re a heavy web user, you can get by with 4GB of RAM, but will definitely see a benefit from a larger allotment, such as 8GB. If your open tabs routinely hit the 30+ mark, you’ll want at least 10GB of memory; more if you want to multitask in other programs as you browse.

Media Streaming

Streaming music or binging on videos is a slightly different use case than simple web browsing, putting its own stresses on memory. We looked at both audio and video streaming, across several services, to see how much memory was impacted by video, be it cat videos, news clips, or high-definition movies.

Surprisingly, the overall memory demands weren’t that different from regular browsing. Whether listening to multiple audio streams or watching multiple videos, the overall memory use didn’t change much. Single audio or video streams from Spotify or YouTube used less than 3GB of memory (2,747 MB and 2,532 MB, respectively), and you had to bump that up to 4 or more simultaneous streams to get above the 3GB mark. At that point, you’re streaming an unenjoyable cacophony of sight and sound, but you can add more if you want.

Key takeaway: If your primary uses for a system will be streaming media, a basic 4GB should do the trick just fine.

Photo Editing

Photo editing is far more demanding than basic office or web functionality, and is usually right on the cusp of what an affordable system can do well. We decided to test photo editing with Photoshop CC, Adobe’s current offering, and used unedited photos from a smartphone, each with 5312 x 2988 resolution, and measuring 5-6 MB each.

Our initial testing showed no real impact on memory usage from actual use, with little to no difference between viewing open photos, simply cropping photos or performing complex edits with multiple layers. That said, as a general rule, Photoshop is a bit of a memory hog, and will put as much memory into stand-by as it can get. Adobe recommends your system have at least 2.5GB of RAM to run Photoshop CC in Windows (3GB to run it on Mac), but in our testing it used 5GB just to open the program and leave it running.

Where things really get interesting, however, is when you’re working on multiple photos. Opening a single photo changed our in-use memory from 5,049 MB to 5,310 MB, but opening 10 photos bumped that up to 6,511 MB. Subsequent sets of 10 increased the in-use memory to 7,699 MB for 20 photos and 8,828 MB for 30 images.

Key takeaway: The bottom line here is that you can use Photoshop CC with the minimum 2.5GB required, but you’ll see smoother performance and better photo handling with larger allotments of RAM. We’d recommend a minimum of 8GB for anyone who expects to regularly edit photos.

Gaming

Finally, there’s gaming. While every gamer knows that the best gaming laptops need to have impressive graphics and processing hardware, the place of memory in that overall equation is something of a mystery. We look at how gaming impacts memory use, what the requirements are for various current titles, and whether or not it’s worth getting memory that is optimized for gaming.

First, we tested how much memory was used opening and running a game. For this we used Grand Theft Auto V. It’s not the newest game on the market, but it’s still relatively demanding, requiring a decent graphics card to handle all the visuals. According to the hardware requirements reported by Rockstar Games, you’ll need at least 4GB of RAM to run the game, but the developer recommends a minimum of 8GB.

When we ran the game on our Alienware 15, we saw that firing up Steam and opening GTAV from our games library resulted in 5,324 MB of in-use memory, with 9,319 in standby. On a 16GB system, that’s a sizable chunk of memory to dedicate to a single program. Those numbers held fairly steady throughout actual gameplay, so there’s no appreciable difference between running the game and playing the game that we could see. For this particular game, we’d echo the recommendation to have 8GB of memory or more, and think our 16GB system probably hits the sweet spot for playing demanding AAA titles.

But not everything is quite so demanding, and you can find games that will run on nearly any laptop out there. Low-end gaming doesn’t require much in the way of hardware, letting you play games like Cuphead, Minecraft or Overwatch without investing in a purpose-built machine. These games can generally run on 4GB of memory (sometimes less), and don’t require discrete graphics card.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Cuphead 2 2

League of Legends 2 4

Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 1

Minecraft 0.5 1

Overwatch 4 6

Portal 2 0.5 1

Rocket League 2 4

Shovel Knight 2 2

Star Wars: The Old Republic 2 2

World of Warcraft 2 4

Mid-range gaming may require a GPU to handle the visuals, but titles like Tacoma or Dragon Ball FighterZ don’t demand an upgrade to the latest Nvidia or AMD offerings. Memory demands stay quite reasonable, running smoothly with 4-8GB of RAM.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Dark Souls 3 8 8

Destiny 2 6 8

Dragon Ball FighterZ 4 8

Elite: Dangerous 4 4

Far Cry Primal 4 8

For Honor 4 8

Grand Theft Auto V 4 8

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain 4 8

Tacoma 4 8

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 2 4

The area where you’ll most want to maximize your memory is current AAA titles, like Far Cry 5or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. These are games built to make the most of current hardware, and a tricked out system will need a decent amount of RAM to accompany the high-end graphics and processing hardware. For this level of gaming, 16GB seems to be the sweet spot, meeting all of the memory needs for unimpeded gameplay without throwing extra money into an already-expensive system.

Minimum GB Recommended GB

Far Cry 5 8 8

Street Fighter V 6 8

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds 8 16

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6 8

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 8 16

Forza Horizon 3 12 16

Gears of War 4 8 16

Mass Effect: Andromeda 8 16

Prey 8 16

Star Wars: Battlefront 8 16

One of the other things we looked at was how memory use impacted game performance, and how much memory you might need in order to multitask while gaming. While most people won’t be doing much photo editing in the middle of their next battle royale, it’s not uncommon to chat with friends or pull up a YouTube tutorial. So long as your gaming rig can handle the game, these simple uses should work without a memory upgrade.

Key takeaway: Opt for 8GB of RAM if you want decent performance on less demanding titles, but go for 16GB if you want to play the latest and most resource intensive hits. If you want to do things like stream to Twitch, we’d recommend opting for the 32GB options offered on many gaming PCs.

Multitasking

While these five use cases are all common, they’re also relatively simple in the sense that the testing focused on one or two specific uses at a time. But what about those times you need to jump back and forth between programs, flipping back and forth between files and tools? This sort of flexibility is where you’ll get the very most out of your memory, as larger allotments of RAM facilitate exactly this sort of behavior.

To test multitasking we started by simple adding one use case on top of another, and ran the same test on three different systems: An inexpensive Dell Inspiron 11 2-in-1 with 4GB of RAM, a mid-range Dell Inspiron 17 5767 with 8GB of RAM and the Alienware 15 R3 with 16GB of memory.

First, we started at a basic level. We opened all of our office files, maxing out the least demanding test we ran. Then we opened up 10 browser tabs, followed by 2 media streams (one audio, one video). On our 4GB system, this was enough to overwhelm the laptop, causing the system to slow to a crawl, and basic functionality to become inconsistent. Mouse clicks failed to register, simple documents struggled to scroll smoothly, and even gathering the screenshots we used to document our testing became difficult.

As we were able, we also ran Photoshop, with 10 photos open. We did this on both the Dell Inspiron 17 and the Alienware 15, without trouble. Photoshop is a notorious resource hog, and while you can use it for a quick photo crop or similar simple edit with 4GB, you’ll definitely want a system with 8GB or more if you expect to do routine edits or work on multiple photos.

Then, on the Alienware 15 R3, we also ran our gaming test, using Grand Theft Auto V. While it was the only system equipped with the graphics capability needed to run the game, it was also interesting to see how demanding the game was, especially when run in conjunction with our other tests. Simply running the game uses an additional 2GB of memory, but with little difference in memory load between running and actively playing the game, we simply left it running for the duration of testing.

Once these baseline tests were running, we proceed to ratchet up the memory demands incrementally, first by adding another 10 browser tabs, then another 2 audio streams, followed by an additional 10 photos in Photoshop. The 8GB Dell Inspiron 17 continued with normal functioning. On the Alienware we checked back in on GTA V and found everything running smoothly.

We did this again, bumping up to 30 tabs, 6 stream and 30 photos. Everything still worked, including the game. At this point, on both the 8GB Dell Inspiron 178 and the 16GB Alienware 15, you’ll notice that the amount of standby memory changes, reprioritizing things to briefly open up additional free space.

We repeated the increasing demands, stepping up to 40 Chrome tabs, 8 media streams and 40 photos in Photoshop. The Dell Inspiron’s 8GB of memory was effectively maxed out, and once we hit that 8GB choke point, performance became erratic. Switching between windows became difficult and the laptop finally locked up when we tried to open more browser tabs or photos.

The 16GB Alienware 15 held strong, but the in-use memory approached the 14GB mark, while the amount of free memory dwindled to nearly zero. At this point we started to see programs slow down, with jittery navigation and slowness in loading files as they were opened. GTA V continued to run, and we enjoyed a shootout and a car chase before moving on to the next level of multitasking torture.

We ratcheted up to 50 tabs. Then 10 media streams. Everything was holding thus far. Finally, we opened 10 more photos in Photoshop, bringing the total to 50. At this point, programs started to lock up. Windows popped in and out of view of their own accord, and our clicking and typing lagged considerably. When we tried to reopen the still-running game, the system locked up and refused to cooperate. With 13,625 MB of memory in use and 2,562 MB in standby, we had reached the limits of our 16GB of RAM. Only after closing one of our programs did function return to normal.

Key takeaway: Multitaskers should really opt for 8 GB of RAM when possible, and those running multiple applications along with a ton of tabs should opt for 16 GB.

Lessons Learned

The moral of this story is pretty straight forward; you want to have more memory than you’ll actually use. As you approach the limits of your memory, the impact on your productivity and user experience will be felt more and more, right up until you can’t do much of anything. The good news is that, as PC components go, RAM is easy to install and extremely affordable. If you want a quick way to upgrade your laptop, adding a stick of RAM is a great place to start, and is something even a novice can do in very little time.

The 4GB laptop hit that limit after simple opening some documents and a handful of browser tabs. The 8GB system did better, providing good support for photo editing in addition to a healthy number of browser tabs and simultaneous media streams, while the 16GB system supported dozens of tabs, an unreasonable number of concurrent media streams and even offered usable gaming right up to the end. Unless you plan on doing a huge amount of multitasking while gaming, there’s little reason for most gaming rigs to go beyond 16GB of memory.

From that we can knew, if you want to the best performance, you’d better have 16GB RAM, you will use it for gaming, working, anything you want.

So here the smallest ultrabook GPD P2 MAX is used 16GB RAM and 512GB ROM, to ensure all your working and gaming is run smooth.

#ram #laptop

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ashtrohealth · 7 years

Text

I’m fat.

I’m not 100% sure where to start, but I suppose that I have to start somewhere. I guess I should introduce myself.

Hi! I’m Ashley. I’m 21 years old as of 05/11/2017. I’m an introvert, a Leo/Virgo cusp, an ISFJ personality type… I’m also not someone that believes any of those three things have any determining factors in someone’s personality. I’m extremely analytical. I’m sarcastic. I’m a regular concert-goer and road-trip taker. I’m a millennial. I like to think I’m a writer. I’m a personal chauffeur to my brothers.

I’m a good listener. I was a good student when I was in school. I’m a daughter, a big sister, a best friend, and a dog-mom.

I’m all of these things, and then more. There are so many different words one could use to describe me. So many different labels that could be slapped on me. But what’s the most prevalent in my life?

I’m fat.

In my family growing up, it was a bad word. You may as well have said “Fuck” as far as my mother was concerned. I get where she was coming from- I was an overweight child and she didn’t want people to use that word to describe me. Bullying was enough of an issue growing up, didn’t need it in my home as well.

It’s weird. Because on one hand, a large part of me is asking myself why fat is the worst thing a person can be? There are people in the world who abuse puppies and cheat on their significant others and rape people and murder people… and “fat” is the word that’s bad? Or the word that describes the thing that we aren’t supposed to talk about?

Except we talked about it all the time. All the fucking time. Without being allowed to use the word, it was still single-handedly one of the most prevalent factors in my life. Rightfully so- there was something wrong with me. There is no reason that anyone has been able to come up with that explains why I was always so overweight. Starting as a toddler and continuing into my twenties, it’s never stopped. No matter the diet or exercise regimen… No matter what medications I was on, what surgeries I had, or what doctors I went to…. Nothing changed.

It started as 10-15 pound weight gains per year… occasionally if I was especially active one summer (on top of my daily aerobics), I may lose 5 pounds… but they’d just come right back and then not budge for another year.

Then it was 20-pound weight gains a year. And then randomly it was 100 pounds in a year. Then I’d go down 10-15 if I did everything but starve myself. Then I’d still find a way to gain 2o. and It’s a cycle that has never ended… Some years were worse than others. Most notably 2009-2010 and 2014-2015

I can recall my weight at various months of different years better than I could tell you what I was studying in school at the time, or who my friends were, or anything else that was happening in my life. Everything else in my life is a blur the older I get, but my weights at various times in my life never change. I’ll forever remember that I was 160 when I quit soccer when I was 13. Or that I was at my highest weight of almost 285 at the end of 2010.

I’ll never forget when I was 9 years old and had lost 5 pounds for the first time and I was at 95lbs at just under 5ft and how elated my family and doctors were.

Or even better- I remember exactly when I first noticed stretch marks. (I was eight years old.) I remember the first time I felt a double chin. (I was fifteen. And then it went away and then now I can feel it again at twenty-one.) I remember when I stopped wearing bras because I didn’t know where to find any that were big enough of a band size for me. (That’s since changed, but that happened when I was fifteen.)

What does that say about me? That while I have a relatively good memory, I’m able to pinpoint that more than anything else? It was such a key factor in my life. It still is.

To this day, doctor’s are still stumped. I tell dietitians how I eat, and I show them my food logs, and I know they don’t believe me. They never have.

I tell doctor’s what meds I’m on, and they assume I’m non-compliant and don’t take them like I’m supposed to because the lab work doesn’t reflect it.

That has been a constant in my life. It’s gotten to the point where I’m just physically and mentally exhausted. I’ve just accepted that I’m going to be the fat friend, the fat daughter, the fat sister, the fat woman walking her dog…. Which is funny, because while that was never how I was meant to see myself growing up but now it’s all I see. I recognize that there is more to a person than their outward appearance, I’m not even remotely close to being that shallow. But this isn’t just my outward appearance anymore. It’s me being afraid to fly because I’ve heard horror stories of people who are bigger than me needing seatbelt extenders, and I don’t know if I’d need one. It’s me being consciously aware that I’m taking up more space than the girl next to me at a concert, and trying hard to hunch my shoulders and hold my arms in front of me and take up as little space as possible. It’s me being aware that everyone in my family, any of my friends, anyone I’m around can see what I’m eating and is either a) assuming that’s why I’m fat or b) assuming that I’m purposely eating less when I’m around people- depending on what it is I’m eating or who I’m around.

It’s when I tell my dad that I think one of my hormone levels might be off and my meds might need adjusting because I’m having trouble losing weight and my acne is getting really bad again, and he says “Well you don’t really exercise very much anymore.”

No, I don’t. But if I only eat 1000 calories a day… just because I spend most of my day driving or behind a computer, does that mean I should be gaining excessive amounts of weight? No. I don’t think it does.

I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’ve gone to doctors about my weight since I was a toddler. The weight gains were never justified by how much I was or wasn’t eating, or how much I was or wasn’t exercising. I know this. If the simple calories in-calories out principal was accurate then I should not be the weight I am today. Simple as that.

But I don’t understand why I’m where I am. I don’t understand why that doesn’t apply.

I have friends who have had weight loss surgery, eat like crap, and still lose weight. I’ve had friends who went to the same weight loss clinics that I did when I was 10 who follow the same dietary and exercise guidelines set forth to everyone who went lose weight when I never did. I have brothers who eat like trash and manage to maintain or lose weight while I can eat like a rabbit while doing p90x and still manage to gain 10 pounds.

I understand that there’s room for error, or whatever… depending on how many calories a particular person’s body burns at rest. Or if one person has a particularly slower metabolism than another, but I feel like that can only account for so much. I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. I’ve just seen enough of them to recognize that nothing adds up.

While I can hope that one day one doctor will believe me and have an answer as to why I’ve struggled with this my entire life, I’m not at all optimistic. I’ve accepted that I’ll likely stay like this my entire life and that’s just how it’s going to be…

However- since I was a child I’ve been someone who needs answers to things. I need proof. I was that obnoxious kid who asked “Why?” in regards to absolutely anything I could. I wrote a letter to our president when I was 11 years old asking why we were at war because I understood that our country was but no one would explain why- in terms that made sense to me. I’m not religious despite being raised to be so because I need physical proof of something in order to believe it. I’m a very analytical person in every sense of the word… So despite me accepting that the reality is that I’ll likely never get an answer as to why my weight has played such a huge (no pun intended) role in my life? Part of me still wants one. I guess that’s why I still go to doctors. I guess that’s why I haven’t completely thrown in the towel on my diet. I guess that’s why I still go and pick up the prescriptions for pills that I hate taking.

I just keep telling myself that there are people who have it worse. At least I’m alive to be the fat friend, daughter, sister, and dog mom though. Right? I have no right to complain about this when there are people dying all over the world from curable diseases because of lack of access to treatments. There are people starving to death in impoverished countries. There are people I know personally dying of cancer. I should be thrilled that this is my only problem. Or at least that’s how I rationalize it to myself.

Maybe one of these days someone will have an answer for me. In the meantime, I guess I just need to continue accepting myself as-is. I’ve got to stop beating myself up for not being able to lose weight. No one can ever say that I haven’t tried.

And in the meantime? I’m fat. That was such a dirty word growing up… but what’s the definition exactly?

Fat: (noun) 1. a natural oily or greasy substance occurring in animal bodies, especially when deposited as a layer under the skin or around certain organs.

(adjective) 2. (of a person or animal) having a large amount of excess flesh.

That is, in fact, a word that accurately describes me. So I’m taking away the negative connotation. Yes, it’s not healthy to be morbidly obese. That’s correct. But it’s also not healthy to hate myself. While I currently am struggling to do anything about the weight? I’m also struggling to not hate myself for not being able to do something that should be so simple. Working on trying to not hate myself for something that for the time being appears to be out of my control- seems like a slightly more attainable goal at the moment, so we’ll see what happens.

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biofunmy · 5 years

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Why Stephen Curry (Not LeBron) Is the N.B.A. Player of the Decade

The New York Times is reflecting on the past decade in the N.B.A., which has evolved perhaps more than any other major sports league.

The choice for the N.B.A.’s player of the decade came down to just two superstars — Stephen Curry and LeBron James. Which of the two should it be?

After all, if it wasn’t Curry holding a championship trophy in recent years, the expectation was that it would be James instead. Nine of the decade’s N.B.A. finals featured at least one of them, and their teams claimed six of the championships. They won half of the past decade’s Most Valuable Player Awards. If one of them wasn’t on national television on a given night, then the other one was. With the previous generation’s biggest stars fading, they boldly staked their claim to the spotlight.

But when it came to picking the player of the decade, our writers’ decisions were pretty clear.

The Case for LeBron James

Victor Mather

Senior staff editor and reporter

Let’s see: the most points in the decade, the most field goals, the top rating in most advanced stats, the most Most Valuable Player awards (three), the most finals M.V.P. awards (three). LeBron James even led the decade in minutes played.

Or you could be a contrarian and choose, maybe, the blocks-per-minute leader, JaVale McGee. Probably not the right pick, though.

Scott Cacciola

Sports reporter

Three N.B.A. championships, including the first for the city of Cleveland. Three more M.V.P.s to go with the one he won last decade. More highlight-reel dunks and chase-down blocks and signature moments than any of his peers (no offense, Steph).

But beyond merely being the most dominant player of the decade, James was the figure around whom the rest of the league orbited. For potential title contenders, his presence — in Miami, in Cleveland, in Los Angeles — figured into every calculation other teams made. Which players could they acquire to help vanquish the King? Which picks could they package to trade for more depth, more star power, more scoring and defense?

Now in his 17th season, and on the cusp of a new decade, James is still going strong, positioning the Lakers for their first deep playoff run since the days of Kobe Bryant. Staggering but true: James’s greatest feat may still be ahead of him.

The Landslide for Stephen Curry

Harvey Araton

Hall of Fame sportswriter

Stephen Curry. Heresy, right? Maybe not. Curry’s impact on the way N.B.A. games are played now — from deep and deeper — has been more profound than James’s impact, though the King was unquestionably the decade’s best overall player and biggest newsmaker.

Just for the record, Curry was a two-time M.V.P., won as many titles (three) as James — all against James’s team — and was the most dynamic talent for a Warriors team that set the record (73) for most games won in a season. He was the most breathtaking long-distance dialer of a far-out decade.

Marc Stein

Hall of Fame sports reporter

This one is impossible. LeBron took his Miami and Cleveland teams to eight consecutive N.B.A. finals and ushered in the player-empowerment era with “The Decision” in 2010 — followed by two more landscape-altering free agencies — when he returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 and then bolted to the Lakers in 2018. Stephen Curry rewrote the boundaries of acceptable shooting distance as the 3-pointer became this sport’s weapon of prominence, and he served as the face of a team that went to five consecutive finals and won three championships.

A tie is the fairest result here, but I grudgingly concede that ties aren’t allowed. So I’m going with Steph, as the starriest force most synonymous with the Team of the Decade, by the narrowest of margins.

Kevin Draper

Sports business reporter

LeBron James was undoubtedly the best player of the decade, but Stephen Curry defined it. Writing about the 3-point revolution has become stale and trite, but Curry really did change the game. It was not all that long ago that shooting pull-up 3s, or shooting from more than a foot or two behind the arc, was verboten. But Curry and the Warriors redefined what needed to be defended, warping and breaking defensive schemes in the process.

Oh, and he also won three championships, two M.V.P.’s and led the Warriors to the best regular-season ever in 2015-16. Let’s not talk about what happened next.

Shauntel Lowe

N.B.A. editor

It feels weird not to pick LeBron James here, what with him being the best player in the world and all, but Stephen Curry was the defining player of this decade. No one changed basketball the way he did, and no one captivated the world as he did. Suddenly, here was a player for whom there was no such thing as a bad shot. That’s not true for anyone besides Curry. He’s the one.

Benjamin Hoffman

Senior staff editor

Try to imagine Stephen Curry playing in any other decade.

The record for 3-pointers in a season when Curry joined the N.B.A. in the 2009-10 season was 269 by Ray Allen, and only 21 players had ever topped 200. In the 11 seasons since, Curry has topped Allen’s record five times, setting a potentially unbreakable record of 402 in 2015-16.

But Curry didn’t benefit from this era — he created it. Before him, it was unheard of to ignore the shot clock and hoist 30-footers off the dribble with ease. And even though he has his share of imitators (Damian Lillard, Trae Young, etc.), no one has mastered the art nearly as well.

Curry was at the heart of the decade’s best team, winning three titles in a five-year period of total dominance, and his size and smile helped him become the face of the N.B.A. for a new generation of fans.

Sahred From Source link Sports

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azveille · 6 years

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Protein-slaying drugs could be the next blockbuster therapies

When Craig Crews first managed to make proteins disappear on command with a bizarre new compound, the biochemist says that he considered it a “parlour trick”, a “cute chemical curiosity”.

Today, that cute trick is driving billions of US dollars in investment from pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Pfizer, Merck, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. “I think you can infer that pretty much every company has programmes in this area,” says Raymond Deshaies, senior vice-president of global research at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, and one of Crews’s early collaborators.

The drug strategy, called targeted protein degradation, capitalizes on the cell’s natural system for clearing unwanted or damaged proteins. These protein degraders take many forms, but the type that is heading for clinical trials this year is one that Crews, based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, has spent more than 20 years developing: proteolysis-targeting chimaeras, or PROTACs.

Large and unwieldy, PROTACs defy conventional wisdom on what a drug should be. But they also raise the possibility of tackling some of the most indomitable diseases around. Because they destroy rather than inhibit proteins, and can bind to them where other drugs can’t, protein degraders could conceivably be used to go after targets that drug developers have long considered ‘undruggable’: cancer-fuelling villains such as the protein MYC, or the tau protein that tangles up in Alzheimer’s disease.

“This is new territory,” says Alessio Ciulli, a biochemist at the University of Dundee, UK. “We’re breaking the rules of what we thought would be druggable.”

The field has reason to be optimistic. In 2014, scientists discovered that the myeloma treatment lenalidomide (Revlimid), one of the world’s best-selling drugs, works in a similar way to protein degraders to chew up two formerly untouchable proteins1,2.

Yet the field lacks published data confirming that PROTACs and other emerging compounds can make undruggable proteins disappear. And there are questions about where and how these odd-looking molecules will work in the body.

For now, all eyes are on Arvinas, a biotech company in New Haven, Connecticut, founded by Crews. It’s scheduled to begin testing a PROTAC for prostate cancer, albeit attacking a protein that’s been targeted successfully by other drugs. “We’re on the cusp of proving these PROTACs can be drugs,” says Ian Taylor, senior vice-president of biology at Arvinas. “Right behind that will be: can we do this with an undruggable?”

An academic exercise

In diagrams, PROTACs often look like dumb-bells. They are molecules made up of two binding ends connected by a thin tether.

The action happens on the ends. One grabs on to the target protein, while the other latches on to a ubiquitin ligase — part of the cell’s natural rubbish-disposal system that labels defective or damaged proteins by slapping a small protein called ubiquitin onto them (see ‘Marked for destruction’). Ubiquitin tags act as sort of ‘Please collect’ stickers that instruct the cell’s protein shredder, called the proteasome, to do its thing.

Proximity accounts for a lot in biology, so by simply bringing together the ligase and the target protein, a PROTAC ensures that the target will get marked for destruction. Ligases are efficient and ubiquitin, as the name suggests, is plentiful, so a single PROTAC should be able to perform its catch-and-release function repeatedly throughout the cell, suggesting that only a small amount of such a drug is needed for potent activity.

The earliest-known published description of a PROTAC-like molecule is in a patent filed in 1999 by two scientists at Proteinix, a biotechnology company in Gaithersburg, Maryland. In the patent (see go.nature.com/2vyjf9l), John Kenten and Steven Roberts proposed co-opting the cell’s protein-degradation system. Colleagues dismissed the idea, saying that Kenten and Roberts were complicating drug discovery by trying to bind to two proteins — the unwanted protein and the ligase — at once. “There was not a lot of enthusiasm internally for it,” recalls Kenten, now research director at Meso Scale Diagnostics in Rockville, Maryland. Proteinix did not pursue the approach.

But on the other side of the United States, another pair of minds was mulling the same idea. During a research retreat in 1998 at a scenic resort on Semiahmoo Bay in northwest Washington, Deshaies paused in front of a poster by Crews to listen to him talk about using small molecules to link two proteins together. Deshaies, then a biochemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, was knee-deep in the study of ubiquitin ligases. The human genome encodes roughly 600 of them, which need to form a complex with other proteins to do the tagging. About a year earlier, Deshaies had co-discovered3 a protein family now known to contain 250 ubiquitin ligases.

“It wasn’t that big of a leap to come to the idea of, well, gee, if you could link things to ubiquitin ligases then you could potentially drive the ubiquitination of a protein — and its degradation,” recalls Deshaies. He and Crews continued to chat all weekend and parted ways with a plan to find funding to explore the idea.

At the time, Crews was developing a drug that worked in the opposite way to PROTACs. It blocked the ubiquitin system in cells, causing proteins to build up to dangerous levels and eventually trigger cell death. The result of that work, carfilzomib (Kyprolis), is now used to treat the blood cancer multiple myeloma. “I thought the flip side would be equally as interesting,” says Crews. “That certainly has turned out to be the case.”

Crews and Deshaies soon published a study demonstrating that their first PROTAC, Protac-1, successfully grabbed and led to the degradation of a cancer-associated protein called METAP2 in extracts from Xenopusfrog eggs4.

Still, Protac-1 was far from being a drug, says Crews, who called the paper an “academic exercise”. First-generation PROTACs had low activity in human cells, probably because the compounds struggled to get inside. They relied on big, unwieldly peptides to bind to the ligases. The scientists had to find a way to make the ligase-binding ends more drug-like — “Something that had potential to be a pharmaceutical,” says Crews. Or they needed to move on.

With funding and research support from GlaxoSmithKline in London, Crews pushed ahead, mainly targeting one particular ligase, the von Hippel–Lindau disease tumour suppressor (VHL). In 2012, Crews, together with his graduate student Dennis Buckley and Ciulli, a former visiting fellow in Crews’ lab, reported on a small-molecule binder for VHL5. Crews finally began to believe that PROTACs really could become drugs.

Fishing for small molecules

Crews wasn’t the only one chasing protein degraders. In 2010, while at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, chemical biologist James Bradner read a paper by a team of researchers in Japan, led by Hiroshi Handa, then at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Yokohama6. Handa had been trying to understand why the infamous drug thalidomide, approved in some countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s to help with nausea in pregnancy, caused problems with limb development. (It is now approved to treat multiple myeloma and a skin condition.) Using thalidomide as the bait to fish for proteins in cells, Handa discovered that the drug hooks on to and blocks the activity of a ubiquitin ligase called cereblon. That inhibition, his team found, affects limb growth and development in zebrafish and chicks6.

Bradner realized that if thalidomide binds to a ubiquitin ligase — no easy feat, because such enzymes are notoriously difficult to grab — then perhaps he could find a way to bind to the same ligase but target it to proteins implicated in disease. In 2013, Buckley joined Bradner’s team as a postdoctoral researcher, and they began the search for small molecules that bind to cereblon.

In May and June 2015, three teams — led by Bradner, Ciulli and Crews — published five separate papers describing small-molecule PROTACs with potent, drug-like activity7–11. With Ian Churcher at GlaxoSmithKline, Crews bound a PROTAC to VHL and used it to degrade the levels of several proteins to less than 10% of those present in untreated cells7. Bradner and his colleagues bound cereblon to their PROTAC to reduce levels of a cancer-causing protein8, and Ciulli, by then at the University of Dundee, and his team degraded the same protein, using VHL as the ligase9. The protein degraders worked both in cells in a dish and in human tumours in mice.

As well as designing drug-like protein degraders, Crews and Bradner’s teams have both built systems — HaloPROTACs10 and dTAG12, respectively — that enable researchers to put targeted protein degradation to work as a tool in the laboratory, using genetic tags to mark proteins for destruction in cultured cells and in mice. With dTAG, “you can deplete a protein in minutes or hours and monitor what happens”, says Behnam Nabet, a chemical biologist who led development of the system with Nathanael Gray at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “This gives you a lot of power to study oncogenes and kinases and proteins that have very rapid activity.” The dTAG materials are currently freely available: more than 150 academic labs use the probe to investigate the effects of depleting specific proteins in cells, says Nabet.

Bradner, who left Dana-Farber in 2016 to become president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, estimates that around 30 separate tools already incorporate the technology. “The path to chemical probes is now well established,” he says. “But the challenge to make real-world medicines from these ligands is significant.”

Gold rush

Following the 2015 flurry of small-molecule PROTACs, Deshaies, who had left the field, penned an opinion piece declaring that PROTACs had the potential to become a major new class of drug, possibly surpassing two of the hottest drug-development areas of all time — protein kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies13. “The gold rush is on!” Deshaies wrote at the time.

Since then, he says, it has only intensified. He joined Amgen in 2017 and now oversees the company’s work in the area.

The Arvinas trial, expected to begin by mid-2019, will include 28–36 men with metastatic prostate cancer and will last around 9 months, says Taylor. It is usual for any new class of drug to go after a well-known target, where the biology and toxicology are well-understood, and Arvinas’s first candidate is no exception. It degrades the androgen receptor, a protein that is already targeted by a handful of approved drugs. The company hopes that by degrading rather than inhibiting the receptor, its PROTAC will be able to treat people who have become resistant to or see no benefit from existing drugs. And if the candidate succeeds, the field will finally have the clinical data that everyone is looking for. Arvinas will have shown that a PROTAC can be a drug.

That’s crucial because there has been considerable doubt about whether protein degraders can work in humans. Fully assembled PROTACs break well-known rules of thumb for drugs. Chief among them is size. A good small-molecule drug typically has a mass of less than 500 daltons. Current PROTACs range upwards of 1,000 daltons. Yet the molecules can still enter cells7,10,11. Crews suspects that this is because they are probably recognized by the cell membrane as two smaller molecules that happen to be tethered together, rather than a single large one.

“We’re throwing out preconceived notions we’ve had about larger-than-average small molecules,” says Taylor.

Also out of the window are preconceived ideas about undruggables. The problem with many of these tough protein targets is that most small-molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies need to bind to an active site on an enzyme or a receptor to work. But an estimated 80% of proteins in human cells lack such a site. PROTACs, however, can grab a protein by any nook, cranny or crevice — they don’t need to be sitting in an active pocket to work. So they could make those proteins accessible.

There’s already some evidence to support this approach. Last year, a team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London produced a small molecule that can bind to a transcription-factor regulator that doesn’t have an active site14. They were able to create a potent PROTAC by attaching a binder for the ubiquitin ligase cereblon.

The field still lacks published evidence of a PROTAC that can target and degrade a valuable undruggable protein. Deshaies says that Amgen has a PROTAC effective in both cultured cells and animals against an unnamed high-value cancer target that has been historically tough to bind. Arvinas claims to have in vivo evidence of PROTACs degrading tau in the brains of mice. On its website, the company says that injecting its tau-protein degrader directly into the mouse hippocampus reduced levels of tau by 50%.

By developing PROTACs for an array of diseases, including those that affect the brain, Taylor says that many researchers hope to show that the technology is “therapeutic-area agnostic”. Various teams are also working to expand the pool of ligases that protein degraders can recruit. There are only four main ones used at present, including VHL and cereblon, and a wider variety of available ligases could enable drug developers to match the most potent ligase–PROTAC combination with their cell type or protein of interest. “Potentially, any ligase can be hijacked through this approach,” says Ciulli, who is collaborating with German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim on the development of PROTACs.

Buoyed by fresh targets, improved potency, and a clinical trial about to begin, researchers are ready to prove that protein degraders can be more than a parlour trick. “The sky is the limit,” says Ciulli. “It is just a question of when.

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thrashermaxey · 6 years

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20 Fantasy Hockey Thoughts

Every Sunday until the start of the 2018-19 regular season, we'll share 20 Fantasy Thoughts from our writers at DobberHockey. These thoughts are curated from the past week's "Daily Ramblings".

Writers: Michael Clifford, Ian Gooding, Cam Robinson, and Dobber

1. Will people still consider Nicklas Backstrom a premier asset heading into drafts this season? Last year, he was the 20th player off the board in Yahoo leagues. This was after he produced an 86-point campaign in 2016-17. That season, he played around 60 percent of his even-strength minutes next to Alexander Ovechkin. He produced 36 power-play points and hadn’t yet turned 30.

Heading into 2018-19, things aren’t so rosy. His production dipped to 71 points in 81 games. His power play production was the lowest per-game since 2010-11 and he’ll be 31 by the time puck drops this fall. His five-on-five time with Ovechkin was around 580 minutes – roughly the same percentage as the year prior.

The big playoff run will help ease some GMs concerns about taking the Swedish pivot early. However, the emergence of Evgeni Kuznetsov cannot be overlooked. The younger Russian played roughly 475 even-strength minutes with Ovechkin last season. But the two were connected at the hip down the stretch and throughout the playoffs. The results were fruitful.

Backstrom has proven to be a reliable performer. His ability to generate offense away from Ovechkin is admirable. However, it’s not at the same level it could be if he was consistently dishing the puck to this generation’s greatest goal scorer. With the extreme depth at the centre position, there’s no need to jump up and grab Backstrom in the first two rounds. Hell, I may even wait until closer to the 35-spot to take a swing on him. (aug11)

2. One of the most underrated players of this generation, Blake Wheeler has been lethal on the power play for the Jets (having Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele helps). Can he replicate the 40 power-play points (!) he had last year? That’s a pretty tall task. Seems likely he comes down to the 75-80-point range he had been the previous couple seasons. Then again, there is a lot of talent on that top power-play unit. He has one year left on his deal and will be 33 years old for the 2019-2020 season. (aug7)

3. Is anyone else a little concerned that Dallas Stars’ new bench boss, Jim Montgomery, will be inclined to split his top line to spread out the offense? We can assume at least one of Jamie Benn or Alex Radulov will get to live next to soon-to-be potential upcoming unrestricted free agent, Tyler Seguin, next season. But, will the other end up driving offense from the second line to help get Jason Spezza and company going?

The Stars top line produced 103 of the team’s 231 total goals. Seventy-three (73) of those goals came at even-strength, where the team scored 187 total goals. That’s 40 percent of the team’s offense during five-on-five play. Meanwhile, no other forward cusped the 20-goal or 35-point mark. The secondary scoring is non-existent in Big D.

It’s certainly a situation to watch carefully. Seguin will reap the best of everything as he’s the focal point of the attack down the middle. The team will also be looking to give him every reason to sign a massive extension before testing the market next July. Benn and/or Radulov could be seeing their even-strength production take a dip next season if they end up away from the top line. (aug11)

4. How much does Shayne Gostisbehere’s value depend on Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek's ridiculous power play production? Giroux has a history of racking up massive production on the power play. Over the past five seasons, he’s averaged 34 points on the man-advantage. And his 168 total PPPs over that time are tied for most in the league with Nicklas Backstrom. Voracek has been a little more inconsistent, producing 23 power play points in three of the last five seasons. But, he's sprinkled in 33 in 2014-15 and 35 last season.

Gostisbehere saw his average powerplay deployment dip by 15 seconds per night last season. Yet, his power play production shot up from a previous career-high of 23 to the 33 he experienced last season. That result led all blueliners and has propelled him to being one of the best fantasy hockey blueliners out there.

For those who concern themselves with Ivan Provorov breathing down Gostisbehere's neck, don’t. Let's say the Flyers decided to promote Provorov to the top unit. The increase in his level of production would pale in comparison to the deficit that moving Gostisbehere off of it would cause. This is a Kevin Shattenkirk–Alex Pietrangelo situation all over again. The club will play their players to their strengths. That means Gostisbehere gets all the fun minutes and Provorov remains an all-around stud who is limited offensively due to his deployment. Until the Philly power play begins to show signs of slowing, Gostisbehere will remain an elite producer. (aug11)

5. In case you’re wondering where Brady Tkachuk might fit in now, the Sens have a number of established NHL-level players at the left wing position. But, with the departure of Mike Hoffman, the Sens also lack a true top-liner at that position. So, Tkachuk could receive an opportunity to latch on to a scoring line right away.

It's anyone’s guess whether Tkachuk would stay in Ottawa for the full season or not. But it’s worth mentioning that brother Matthew went straight to the Flames right after being drafted and stayed the entire season. So, it’s possible that Brady is trying to follow the same path. But ultimately it will be the Senators’ decision. If the Sens are a Canadian tire fire again, then playing in London would be a better option for the 2018-19 season. (aug12)

6. One left wing that Tkachuk will be battling for minutes with will be Ryan Dzingel. With all the turmoil in Ottawa last season (and stretching into the offseason), it’s easy to overlook the fact that Dzingel tied for the team lead in goals with 23. There’s lots to like with Dzingel as a potential deep sleeper. Not only is he playing for a contract, but he is also entering his fourth season (if you count his 30-game 2015-16 season). His production climbed as the season went on, which was at least partially due to his deployment with Matt Duchene later in the season.

At this point Dzingel might be the preferred choice on the top line while Tkachuk becomes accustomed to the NHL either this season or next. But long term, he’s probably keeping the seat warm for Tkachuk. In the meantime, you can have fun saying the name "Dzingel!" Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? (aug12)

7. Dylan Larkin inked a five-year contract extension worth 6.1 million per season. That's a nice chunk of change coming to the 22-year-old. Larkin epitomized the dreaded sophomore slump in 2016-17. After taking the NHL by storm in the first half of his rookie campaign, things turned a little sour for the former University of Michigan standout. He witnessed a dip in goals, assists, points, shots, and time-on-ice. A great deal of that can be explained by his transition to the middle of the ice and the responsibility that comes with it.

The 2017-18 campaign was the re-emergence. He posted more than double his previous season point totals (31 to 63) and was a force at even-strength. His 53 points at five-on-five were good for 23rd in the league. Wedged between Steven Stamkos and Evgeni Kuznetsov. (aug11)

8. I’ll be very interested to see what the Arizona Coyotes do with their top power-play unit this year. If we look at their PP line combinations from Frozen Tools, their three most-common PP lineups had three forwards and two defensemen. However, with the addition of Alex Galchenyuk and the hopeful emergence of Dylan Strome, as well as the lack of scoring talent down the lineup, it would make sense for the team to run a heavily-used four-forward top PP unit.

They could go with Galchenyuk-Clayton Keller–Derek Stepan-Strome-Oliver Ekman-Larsson and just play them 70 percent of the time. It would give them four lefties but that’s not really a huge issue. You can have Galchenyuk on his off-hand wall, Strome or Keller on their strong-side wall, the remaining forward and Stepan playing low/high in the slot with OEL on the point.

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but it seems to me they finally have the offensive pieces necessary to run a very threatening top PP unit. Arizona was bottom-10 in five-on-four goals last year and if this team wants to earnestly push for a playoff spot, a boost on the PP would go a long way in helping. It’ll be curious to see what they run in exhibition games. (aug10)

9. Eric Staal has been lights out for the Wild since they signed him, culminating with 42 goals last year, 11 of them on the power play. For reference, he had 12 power-play goal totals from 2014-2017 combined. He hadn’t cracked the double-digit goal mark on the PP since 2010-11.

Minnesota is a team that splits their power-play units to a degree which, as written above, is a concern. He shot 28.12 percent at five-on-four last year. If that comes down to 10 percent, or so, in 175 five-on-four minutes, that’s a huge crash in production. Just that loss in PP goal production alone would knock him down to 35-ish goals. I don’t think anyone expects him to repeat 42 goals again but just be aware of where the goal drop will come from. In leagues that count PP goals (or even PP points), it could be a double-whammy as the loss in production will likely come from the man-advantage side. (aug10)

10. With the Sedin twins gone, there is presumably two open spots on Vancouver’s top power-play unit. Sven Baertschi signed a three-year deal with the Canucks and though they have some young guys coming up among their proven, top-end forwards, they have two. And one of them is a sophomore. Does Baertschi crack that top unit? There is Adam Gaudette, Elias Pettersson, and Jonathan Dahlen, but how many rookies do they want to put on PP1? Surely, Baertschi won’t shoot 30 percent at five-on-four again,but if he can manage to skate with Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat at 5v4 for most of the year, that extra ice time could mitigate some of the percentage drop. We’ll see. There are a lot of moving parts in Vancouver this year. (aug10)

11. Ryan Johansen has a 33-goal season to his name, which was followed up with a 26-goal season. His last three seasons, though, have seen totals of 14, 14, and 15. His last two years have seen fewer total power-play goals (five) than either of his seasons with the Blue Jackets from 2013-2015. Now, when you skate with Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson, there really aren’t many shots left to go around and Johansen doesn’t need to be a scorer. That doesn’t mean he can’t pop a handful of power-play goals this year, though, especially if his five-on-four shooting percentage rebounds from a six-year low of 3.7 percent.

Again, Johansen isn’t a scorer now, and he doesn’t need to be. With a bit of good fortune at five-on-four, though, he could push for 20 total goals. That’s not overly impressive, but it’s better than what he’s done lately. (aug9)

12. Once a prolific goal scorer on the power play, Bobby Ryan had just one PP goal last year and two the year before. When you look at just five-on-four power plays, he had zero goals in 2017-18 and two in 2016-17. That’s two goals at 5v4 over a span of 124 games and 302 power-play minutes. This is from a guy who once posted back-to-back double-digit 5v4 goal seasons.

Ryan’s hand injuries over the last few years are lengthy and well-documented. It’s a wonder if he’ll ever get over them again. With the exodus of talent in Ottawa of late, there should be a lot of PPTOI available for Ryan if he can stay healthy. And that is a big, big if. (aug9)

13. Helen St. James covers the Red Wings and states that the team wants to be competitive this year, which reads as playoff aspirations to me. In that vein, she thinks Jimmy Howard’s starts could be reined in with the signing of Jonathan Bernier. Howard’s 57 starts in 2017-18 were the most for him since 2011-12 and largely due to the underperformance of anyone else they tried to use. If Bernier can perform at the level he did the last couple years, this could be a split-start situation rather than Howard starting 50-plus again. Even if Howard performs well, he could be a trade deadline casualty.

Though there’s nothing from management or coaching staff, she would like to see Filip Zadina play alongside Henrik Zetterberg if – IF – Zetterberg is healthy enough to play this year and Zadina makes the roster out of camp. Given that Zetterberg still possesses good playmaking abilities, this makes sense. There is a lot of time between now and the start of the season, though, so this is obviously just speculation for now. (aug9)

14. Though there’s no official update on Ryan Suter’s status, Minnesota Wild beat reporter Michael Russo said he talked to Suter and recent scans on his ankle/foot came back clean and he’s been doing very light on-ice work. Suter’s expectation is that he will be ready for training camp. Now, what an athlete believes and what actually happens are often two very different things but that’s what we have for now.

Russo also believes we could see Nino Niederreiter on the third line this year. He says Bruce Boudreau wants to be able to throw three scoring lines at the opposition and that means there’s going to be a very skilled player on the third line. That might be Niederreiter. In which case, it’s a downgrade. No offense to Joel Eriksson Ek but he’s not Eric Staal. If Nino has third-line minutes and split power play time, returning to his 57-point performance in 2016-17 will be tough to accomplish. He also had Charlie Coyle on that third line as well, which kind of makes sense if you want to balance things out. (aug9)

15. For anyone concerned about Vladimir Tarasenko’s off-season surgery, there was some news that came out late Monday night in that regard. Long story short, there shouldn’t be much to worry about from one of the league’s elite snipers.

Months ago, I wrote in these Ramblings about how he could be a bounce-back candidate. That was before the shoulder injury, but I still stand by it. His average draft position (ADP), as it does with all players, will ultimately determine how much value he can return, but the revamped lineup with some natural progression from last year makes me a believer.

As with all returning injured players, though, there’s always risk attached. It’s up to the individual fantasy player how much, or how little, risk you want to assume in the draft. Every player has injury potential but one of the better indicators of future injury is prior injury. Tarasenko coming off long-term shoulder injury obviously fits that bill. If you’re really concerned about a second- or third-round pick only playing 65 games then he can be avoided. Again, each fantasy owner is unique so the decision is ultimately up to the individual owner. (aug8)

16. I remember a week ago (or so) that fellow writer Cam Robinson was on Twitter discussing Jake Guentzel and his hopes that he would see top PP minutes this year. As a Guentzel owner in multiple keeper leagues, nothing would delight me more. Patric Hornqvist’s proficiency on the power play, however, is going to be a big stumbling block. He does a very good job at playing that Wayne Simmonds-type role around the net and Guentzel is more of a slot shooter like T.J. Oshie. Guentzel isn’t going to replace any of the other forwards, so it’s hard to see him getting consistent top PP minutes without someone suffering an injury. (aug7)

17. Sam Reinhart is going into his fourth season (something we love around here at DobberHockey), will almost certainly play on Jack Eichel’s wing (good spot to be), and is going to be on the top PP unit again. How the team fares without Ryan O’Reilly or Evander Kane in the fold is another story but the ice time and quality linemates should be there for Reinhart. Will a true breakout follow? (aug7)

18. The John Gibson signing – already discussed at length (by Ian Gooding here) but I’ll chime in – was a good cap hit for the Ducks, of course, given his consistent top save percentage. But, eight years is a risk given his injury history. He had always been a little under-ranked as a prospect goaltender on my list because he was injury prone. And this was before he stepped a skate onto NHL ice!

– 2014-15: He missed the middle of the season with a groin injury – 21 games; – 2015 playoffs: Missed seven games with a UBI; – 2015-16: Missed two games with a UBI; – 2016-17: Thirteen (13) games with a LBI (two injuries, or the same one twice, I don’t know); – 2017 playoffs: He missed the last game with an LBI and then had all summer to heal, so who knows how much time he would have missed; – 2017-18: Missed one game (concussion), four games (LBI), three more games (LBI), three more games (UBI).

In four seasons in the NHL, Gibson has sustained nine injuries after having a reputation as being injury-prone well before he even turned pro. And now he’s locked in for eight years. Good luck, Anaheim! Hope it pans out for you and he stays healthy. If so, it’s a steal. (aug6)

19. While looking at the Ducks, Jakob Silfverberg popped out at me because he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer. Here’s a guy in his mid-20s who possesses more offensive talent then he’s shown and is under-used offensively because he’s so good defensively. Players like him always surprise in a UFA contract year – Josh Bailey and Evander Kane sure did it last year. The latter two had expected production of 50 points and they certainly exceeded that. Silfverberg is in that ballpark, too. Kevin Hayes another one. In fact, I’m just going to list the guys I think best fit this mold as I go through Cap Friendly. In no particular order: Silfverberg, Hayes, Derick Brassard, Gustav Nyquist, Marcus Johansson, Richard Panik, Joonas Donskoi.

The latter two names would be pushing the term ‘breakout’ but if they get into the high-50s, I’d call that a contract year. Jeff Skinner isn’t on this list because he’s already had huge seasons. But, I’m willing to bet two or three of the above players really surprise us in a good way. (aug6)

20. Did William Karlsson just sign the same contract that Kevin Hayes signed? That’s pretty nuts. Yeah, I know, it’s the ‘only one year’ thing…but okay, take two years then. Karlsson had 103 points in two years to Hayes at 93 and he’s a year younger and scored 49 goals to 42 (game winners he’s up 9-8, too). I think Vegas got a bit of a deal there but at the expense of possibly getting taken to the cleaners next summer. But the Rangers? They overpaid Hayes just a little and they let him become unrestricted at the end of it, too. You’d think they’d get a discount from his agent for helping him do that. (aug6)

Have a good week, folks!!

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts/20-fantasy-hockey-thoughts-36/

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thepoolscene · 7 years

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The Pool Scene - Carlo Biado, Roland Garcia - World Pool Billiard

New Post on http://thepoolscene.com/?p=22739

BIADO FINALLY REACHES POOL’S MOUNTAINTOP

The Philippines’ Carlo Biado wins his first World 9-ball championship with a 13-5 win over fellow Filipino Roland Garcia.

By Ted Lerner WPA Press Officer Photos Courtesy of Bo Bader

(Doha, Qatar)– For the last 12 years the Philippines’ Carlo Biado did everything he needed to do to put himself on the road to being a champion. He dedicated endless hours in practice, money games, tournaments, and worldwide travel all in the hopes of one day reaching the top of the sport. And he also endured plenty of massive disappointments and near misses in big time events, including in more than a few world championships.

Those hard knocks and long days and nights finally paid off on Thursday afternoon in Doha, and in the biggest way possible, as Biado captured his very first WPA World 9-ball title, after a relatively easy 13-5 victory over fellow Filipino Roland Garcia in the final.

One could easily see the sense of relief and triumph on Biado’s face as the last nine ball fell and he realized he had finally accomplished his long cherished goal. Only two years ago, Biado came within a whisker of winning the World 10-ball crown in the Philippines, only to lose right at the wire to Taiwan’s Ko Pin Yi.

The humble and smooth shooting Filipino kept at it, however, and dedicated himself even more. He finally got his US travel visa and honed his skills in the States. Earlier this year he achieved his biggest triumph to date when he won a gold medal at the World Games in Poland.

It was clear all week in Doha that that win in Poland this summer had infused the Filipino with the type of confidence that would soon take him all the way to the pool mountaintop. With a dead-eyed, smooth stroke, cool demeanor and fast pace, the 34 year old Biado has all the tools and time to take this win to even further heights of greatness in the coming years.

For Garcia, his appearance in the final was a welcome revelation to pool fans who may never have heard of the hot shooting 36 year old. He grew up in the same Philippine town as the legend Efren Ryes, and learned much of the game from the Hall of Famer. Those who knew Garcia knew he always possessed surreal skills, and he was a favorite on the Philippine money game scene for years. In 2006 he played in the World Pool Championship in Manila but was way in over his head and fell out in the group stages. He had never produced much on the tournament circuit until he began traveling more in the last three years and he started to get some results. He has spent the last two years living and working in Thailand as a house pro.

This was Garcia’s first ever trip to the World 9-ball Championship since the event came to Doha in 2010 and what a week it was for the Filipino. Up until the final Garcia produced one master class after the next, including beat downs of Niels Feijen, Ko and young gun Klenti Kaci. There’s no doubt the pool world will be hearing more from this exceptionally talented Filipino.

That two Filipinos ended up in the final of the World 9-ball Championship may have been a happy coincidence for Pinoy fans around the world, but it was certainly far from a guarantee when play began at 10am local time on Thursday. That’s because the two opponents of Biado and Garcia were also playing lights out throughout the week here.

Biado’s opponent, Wu Kun Lin, has, over the last six months, established himself as the new man to beat among a plethora of incredible Taiwanese talent. The 22 year old from Taipei had recently grabbed semi-finals spots at the China Open and the World Pool Series and looked primed for a possible finals spot today. But several racks into their match today were enough to show who was boss. Biado’s experience was telling and he grabbed an early lead, pounced on several of Wu’s errors, and played brilliant 9-ball to win going away, 11-6.

On the TV table at the same time, Garcia came into his match with the Albanian Kaci a slight underdog and justifiably so. Kaci’s clinical style has proven impenetrable lately and in just a few months the 18 year old has rocketed to an unlikely spot at the higher echelons of the pro ranks. But the Filipino didn’t let a few early mistakes get him down and once he found his rhythm, he produced a breathtaking performance that was as good as one could ever want to see. Garcia blew away Kaci in the blink of an eye, streaking to an 11-6 win and a spot in his very first world championship final.

#gallery-5 margin: auto; #gallery-5 .gallery-item float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; #gallery-5 img border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; #gallery-5 .gallery-caption margin-left: 0; /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

With two Filipinos going for the title, the intensity and drama that is usually associated with a World 9-ball final seemed to be missing even before the race to 13, alternate break match began. The great Filipino players always travel together, and all of them are friends. And while each dearly wanted to be crowned world champion, the match seemed to proceed at a more casual pace than otherwise would have been.

Biado quickly established his control of the proceedings and never looked back. After taking the first two racks, Biado pounced on three straight glaring mistakes from Garcia to quickly move up 5-0. Slick shooting by Biado and another mistake by Garcia brought the score to 7-0. Garcia notched his first rack to make it 7-1, but a poor safety by Garcia led to another Biado frame and an 8-1 lead.

Garcia seemed to mount a comeback and won two straight to make it 8-3. But a break and run by Biado and an inadvertent scratch on the break by Garcia put the score at 10-3. Biado then moved it to 11-3 before Garcia countered with two of his own. At this point, however, the result was just a formality and indeed Biado quickly closed the deal. He wrapped up the proceedings with a fine break and run to claim his very first World 9-ball title.

Afterwards, as he posed for photos and celebrated with the many overseas Filipinos who live and work in Qatar, the new World Champion couldn’t help but think back on what had brought him to this very moment.

“I’m very very happy right now,” and overjoyed Biado said. “It’s been a long time. I worked very hard, had many disappointments. And now finally I won the world title.

“In the semis I had a bit of pressure against Wu but I got lucky in one of the racks when I missed the bank shot on the four ball but it went in the other pocket. So I got lucky.

“There was less pressure in the final because even if I don’t win, at least a Filipino will get the title. I was very comfortable that’s why I played well. Also the balls were always in an easy position after the break.

“When I won the world games there was a lot of pressure, more than here because there were so many people watching. After I won in Poland against Jayson Shaw I just felt so good and so much more confident when I entered other events. That was a really big help to my confidence and I know it definitely helped me this week and today.”

For Garcia, the loss after being on the cusp of an unlikely world crown didn’t seem to sting too much. He was just happy that a Filipino had taken the title. And he was sure to use the experience to achieve success in future events.

“It’s still a wonderful feeling to be a part of this prestigious event,” Garcia said. “And the fact that my friend and fellow countryman Carlo wins means I’m also a winner. I’m very proud of Carlo. He deserved it more than I do.

“I had mixed emotion going into the final playing another Filipino. It’s not easy. And the pressure didn’t seem like it was there like in other matches. Of course I was trying to be the world champion but I started out with a few mistakes and he took advantage and that was it. Anyway, I’m really happy. This is my first time that I joined this event and I made it this far. Hopefully next year I can use this experience to have more success in future tournaments.”

For now, though, it was Biado’s time to take a bow. When he was reminded that he now joined Filipino greats Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano as World 9-ball Champion, all he could do was think back on all the difficult toil that had brought him into such illustrious company.

“I’m so proud to be one of them. This is the best thing that could ever happen to me. I have worked very hard for many years and now my dream has come true.”

The 2017 World 9-ball Championship was hosted by The Qatar Billiard and Snooker Federation(QBSF), and is sanctioned by the The World Pool Billiard Association, the governing body of the sport of pool.

The players competed on Wiraka DYNASTY Tables with Simonis 860 Cloth, Electric Blue Color and using Aramith Tournament Pro cup TV Pool Balls featuring the new Duramith Technology.

Fans can interact with us through the WPA’s official Facebook Page for the event at this link;https://www.facebook.com/worldpoolbilliardassociation/

The WPA is also on Twitter; @poolwpa

Visit the official website of the WPA at www.wpapool.com

Results

Final Carlo Biado (PHI) 13 – 5 Roland Garcia (PHI)

Semi Finals Carlo Biado (PHI) 11 – 6 Wu Kun Lin (TPE) Roland Garcia (PHI) 11 – 6 Klenti Kaci (ALB)

Prize Fund Payouts

Winner US$ 40,000

Runner Up US$ 20,000

3rd & 4th Place US$ 8,000 each

5th to 8th Place US$ 5,000 each

9th to 16th Place US$ 3,000 each

17th to 32nd Place US$ 2,000 each

33rd to 64th Place US$ 1,000 each

65th to 96th Place US$ 500 each

Total US$ 200,000

#Carlo Biado #Roland Garcia

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beverlymunoz · 8 years

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Profile of a Possible Savior: Archie Miller

ARE YOU READY? CAUSE I'M READY!

WE BACK! I SAID OH YEAH, WE BACK! Big bro TVP and I are pleased to reprise our roles as purveyors of POAPS to the Backing the Pack masses. Because there is nothing that a State fan loves more than pure, unadulterated hope tied up in the form of a coach that we will inevitably fire in 5-7 years. So without further ado…

Today’s possible savior: Archie Miller, who is 38 and in his sixth season as head coach at Dayton. We all remember Archie, the face of the pre-Julius Hodge years of the Herb Sendek era, a scrappy, diminutive point guard who notably led the Pack (along with Anthony Grundy and a young Hodge) back to the NCAA tournament in the 2001-2002 season for the first time since the 1990-1991 season. After graduating from NC State, Archie spent time as an assistant for Darrin Horn at Western Kentucky, Sendek back at his alma mater and at Arizona State, two seasons for Thad Matta at Ohio State and finally two years at Arizona for brother Sean until landing his first head coaching gig at Dayton in 2011.

Important Questions, In Rough Order Of Importance:

1. Has he coached teams that have won a national title, made multiple deep NCAA tournament runs, and/or consistently been highly ranked?

No. However, Archie did take Dayton to the Elite Eight in 2013-2014, has made the tournament three straight years (and is on the cusp of a fourth straight year this season), and has had the Flyers in-and-out of the Top 25 during the last four seasons.

2. Has he built a program from the ground up?

Sort of. While the Flyers have been consistently competitive since the turn-around engineered by Oliver Purnell that began in the mid-1990’s, Archie has arguably taken them to a level not seen under Purnell (who coached at Dayton from 1994 to 2004) or Brian Gregory (who coached from 2003 to 2011). Irony that both Purnell and Gregory left Dayton for ACC jobs (Clemson and GT), but I digress. Purnell guided the Flyers to the Big Dance twice (2000 and 2003) and won one A-10 tournament title in 2003; Gregory also took Dayton dancing twice (2004 and 2009, plus a NIT title in 2010. But Archie’s Elite Eight, soon-to-be four straight tournaments, and A-10 regular season championship in 2016 point to him being more of a builder than caretaker.

3. Has he substantially improved the program from when he took over?

See #2 above but I gave this an emphatic yes. After two winning seasons but no Big Dance in his first two years, Archie has Dayton playing at the highest level since the mid-60s.

4. Has he succeeded at more than one head coaching job?

Nope, only one job so far so.

5. Does he have significant high-major experience as either a head coach or an assistant?

Yes, as outlined above he was an assistant at high-major programs including ours (if it still is one at this point), Arizona State (if it ever was one?), Ohio State (that sounds better), and Arizona. Notably he was an assistant for not only widely respected X and O coaches, but also guys who can recruit (Thad Matta and Sean Miller).

6. Is his team one of the best in its conference right now?

Yep. The Flyers tied for 2nd in the A-10 in 2015 and were co-conference champs in 2016. They are currently tied for 1st in the A-10 this season at 9-2 with VCU.

7. Do his teams actually play, what is this thing called, "defense"?

Side note: I stole these questions from when we were in the process of ultimately hiring Gottfried. Like the pine trees in my backyard, NC State’s inability to play defense is evergreen.

Yes! They do, they really do! Dayton is currently ranked 22nd in Adjusted Defense per KenPom, which is just a hair worse than FSU. Would you take that? I’d take that. And this is no fluke: they finished 2016 at 15th and 2015 at 31st. For comparison, the Pack is currently 225th.

8. So how about offense?

While not blowing anyone away, Dayton has been consistent. In tempo-free stat terms, the Flyers are currently 66th at about 1.12 points per possession. Last year was a little rougher at closer to 1.06 PPP, and in 2015, 1.07. The Flyers average 68 possessions per game, which is pretty average. But they are decently efficient, and matched with their stellar defense, it has been a recipe for success.

9. Any indication that he can recruit McDonald’s All-American-type players?

All-American? Not sure at this point, though he has been in the presence and on staffs at Ohio State and Arizona that did just that. At Dayton, he pulled in a four-star PF Kostas Antetokounmpo over an offer from Florida (and interest from other high-majors) in 2016, but otherwise has seemed to make a living off of three-star guys who were offered by other similarly situated mid-major schools (like VCU, Butler, etc.).

10. Does he have any connection to NC State, North Carolina, or the ACC?

You could say that…

11. Any other random red flags or positives?

Is a connection to Herb a red flag? Some would say yes, others would say no. Some youngsters amongst us would say "who is this Herb you speak of?" Archie doesn’t run the Princeton O at Dayton (mercifully). Given that his teams have surpassed Herb’s best season…I’m not concerned.

Summary:

Would he be better than Gottfried?

Hard to say. His track record at Dayton is impressive so far – but without head coaching experience in a conference as rough-and-tumble as the ACC it would be a bit of a leap.

Would he be better than Sid?

Yes. (Kept this question just for funsies).

Would he take the job if offered?

Argh. Here it is. I’ve been told that Archie’s dream job is here in Raleigh. I’ve been told that Sean never gave us much consideration last time because he didn’t want to take his brother’s dream job. I’ve been told he would love to come back and coach here and move his family back to Raleigh. There are also rumors that he wouldn’t work for Yow. And there is the inevitable NC State Sheeeeeeeeet that makes me feel like we will inevitably watch a smiling Archie give an interview with the local TV station in Dayton, talking about how he is committed to the Flyers and how happy he is to coach there the rest of his career. I hope he would. It certainly is a step-up from Dayton.

How would I feel if he were hired?

Elated. He has connections to State. He has shown to be a good coach on his own merits. He has high-major coaching experience as an assistant. Outside of the pipe dream of some big name coming here, Archie is my first choice.

How would the fan base as a whole feel if he were hired?

Some skeptics would be clamoring for why we didn’t hire Coach Cal, but otherwise I feel like they would be generally pleased. He would win the press conference, which is always a big deal (at least at first).

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#NC_Feed_B

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ds4design · 8 years

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Can an Ethnic Beverage Brand Challenge Coca-Cola in India?

Paper Boat, a fledgling Indian brand from Bangalore-based Hector Beverages, is aiming to hold its own in the country against global giants like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. But can traditional Indian drinks really give popular colas and juices a run for their money?

When Neeraj Kakkar, a former Coca-Cola executive, turned entrepreneur in 2010 and set up Hector Beverages, competing with the cola giants was the last thing on his mind. Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Kakkar zeroed in on the beverages market (after rejecting ideas in areas like education, child care and women’s empowerment) simply because it was familiar territory; he had worked with Cola-Cola in India for seven years and was part of its senior management in the country. As an entrepreneur looking at the growing popularity of functional beverages worldwide, he felt it had potential in India, too. It was just a business decision.

But today, Kakkar sees himself and Paper Boat as “protectors” of traditional Indian beverage recipes. “At Hector Beverages we believe that if we don’t do something now these recipes will disappear in the next 20 to 30 years.”

Management consultancy firm Wazir Advisors estimates that the unorganized market for ethnic beverages in India is around $200 million to $250 million, while the organized market is barely 1% of this. Paper Boat is the dominant brand in this segment with the largest portfolio of flavors. Others include Dabur India, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Parle Agro. These players have only the one or two flavors — primarily mango or lemon.

V.T. Bharadwaj, managing director at Sequoia Capital, an investor in Hector Beverages, considers Paper Boat to be a “path breaking” product which has the “potential to transform the beverages landscape in India.” He points out that unlike the U.S., which has traditionally been dominated by colas, India has a short cola history. “India has a rich history of traditional beverages and it’s a shame that no one has tried to present them in an attractive and aspirational manner.” According to Bharadwaj, branded ethnic beverages are a category that was “waiting to be created” in India. “It is category that is waiting to explode and has the potential to break the back of the cola market.”

According to market estimates, in the first half of 2016 Coca-Cola and Pepsi were pushed out of the top five highest sold beverages in modern trade outlets in India by fruit juices from Dabur and PepsiCo, and the decades-old rose drink Rooh Afza from Hamdard. Commenting on this in a media interview, Devendra Chawla, president, food and FMCG brands at Future Group, said: “Traditional drinks and tastes have come out of the shadows. The past few decades saw high decibel marketing and commitment of resources from global brands, but consumers are going back to favoring what they perceive are healthier and traditional flavors.”

“Branded ethnic beverages are a category that is waiting to explode and has the potential to break the back of the cola market.” –V. T. Bharadwaj

Global trends also show cola growth slowing down. In another media interview, Euromonitor India country manager Janaki Padmanabhan said: “Globally, cola carbonates have received a lot of negative publicity due to high sugar content and lack of nutritional value.”

On the Traditional Trail

Interestingly, Kakkar and his co-founders Suhas Misra and Neeraj Biyani (both former colleagues at Coca-Cola) and James Nutall (a packaging industry professional in the U.S.) thought of Indian beverages only after their first two product launches — Frissia, a protein drink (in 2011) and Tzinga, an energy drink (in 2012) — failed to create waves. Even as the co-founders were grappling with what to do next and exploring other functional beverages such as vitamin water and smoothies, they hit upon the idea of traditional Indian drinks serendipitously. (Misra and Nutall later exited the company in 2014 and 2015 respectively.)

In the summer of 2012, Nutall’s parents were visiting India and he wanted to buy Aam Panna for them — a refreshing raw mango drink that Misra’s mother used to send daily with his lunch to help him keep cool during the scorching heat of New Delhi. (Hector Beverages moved its headquarters from New Delhi to Bangalore in 2014.) While Nutall’s colleagues cautioned him against buying Aam Panna from street vendors to avoid “Delhi belly” (an upset stomach), despite searching in various shops Nutall couldn’t find a safe alternative. “This is when we realized that traditional Indian drinks could have a great market if produced and packaged hygienically. We didn’t do any formal market research. We just followed our instincts,” says Kakkar.

Paper Boat has sailed a long way since then. From two flavors in 2013 — Aamras (sweet mango) and Jalzeera (cumin and lemon) — Paper Boat currently has a portfolio of 13 flavors, each comprising specific Indian spices and condiments. The flavors include Aam Panna (raw mango), Jamun Kala Khatta (Indian black berry), Kokum (a berry belonging to the mangosteen family), Anar (pomegranate), Chilli Guava (guava), Neer More (curd-based) and Thandai (milk-based). While all these flavors are available in 250-milliliter doy packs (sealed flexible plastic bags designed to stand upright), the company recently launched Aamras and Anar in 500 milliliter tetra carton packs also.

All Paper Boat drinks are made without preservatives, added color or carbonation, and on average it takes the firm 18 months to develop a flavor from idea to launch. Currently, 11 flavors are in the pipeline in different stages of development and are scheduled to be launched by the end of 2017.

Hector Beverages has two manufacturing plants — one in Manesar near New Delhi and the second in Mysore near Bangalore. Manufacturing capacity has increased from one million packs per month in August 2013 to eight million packs per month at present, while distribution has increased from 20,000 outlets to 120,000. Kakkar and Biyani are looking to double capacity by the end of 2017.

Last year, the company partnered with Indo Nissin Foods for distribution and with this they expect to further ramp up their distribution substantially. Funds, they say, are not a constraint. So far, Hector Beverages has raised $42 million from angels and venture funds like Sequoia Capital, Catamaran Ventures and Foothills Ventures. While Kakkar is tightlipped about sharing any details on revenue and profitability, he says the company has been “growing more than 100% year on year.”

Making Traditional Contemporary

So what is the secret of Paper Boat’s success? Kakkar lists authentic recipes right on top. In food, he notes, the central piece is getting the recipe right. “The traditional way to develop a product is at the center of different nodal points. But in a country as diverse as India, trying to satisfy all groups doesn’t work. So when we develop a recipe we try to get it as close to any one group as possible,” says Kakkar. Adds Biyani: “We are extremely strong in product development. Whether it is identifying the right vendors, sourcing at the right time or establishing the right processing standards, we have developed a very strong knowledge base.”

“Paper Boat has used differentiation as the cornerstone of its brand strategy.” –Harish Bijoor

Biyani cites an example. For making Aamras, the firm uses only naturally ripened mangoes in order to produce the most authentic taste. This requires that each mango must be monitored individually from when it should be plucked to whether it should be put on hay or on coconut leaves for ripening to deciding when it is ready for processing. All this in turn depends on natural factors like temperature, humidity, rainfall and so on. “We buy thousands of tons of mangoes and for every single mango to be individually monitored not only requires a large and trained manpower but also passion and dedication. This is true for each of our products,” says Biyani.

The other key pillars of Paper Boat’s success are its design, packaging and messaging. Infusing tradition and authenticity with a contemporary feel has been central to Paper Boat’s philosophy. Shripad Nadkarni, formerly director of MarketGate Consulting, a strategic business and market consultancy firm and creator of Paper Boat’s brand DNA, recalls that right at the beginning the firm realized that “traditional” and “authentic” had the inherent danger of being perceived as “old and stodgy.” To safeguard against this, they added the concept of “alive.”

“The balance between ‘alive’ and ‘authentic’ is very important,” Nadkarni says. “We were clear that whatever we do must connect with today’s consumers. So while the product itself is traditional and the recipe and ingredients are all about authenticity, the packaging, design elements and communication, etc. are all contemporary.”

Nadkarni, too, is a former Coca Cola executive. From 2000 till 2005 he was vice president of marketing and head of new beverages at Coca-Cola India. After quitting Coca-Cola, he set up MarketGate, which he later sold to the Publicis Groupe. Nadkarni, who is an angel investor in Hector Beverages, set up Fingerlix, a ready-to-cook food startup earlier this year.

Nadkarni believes that India is “at the cusp of a taste revolution.” He notes that as a society, India has long suppressed the need to indulge. “It is only now discovering the whole aspect of indulging in taste and we are seeing this in food and beverages.” Adds Bharadwaj: “Products like Paper Boat are also tapping into a sense of a confident India that is now comfortable with its roots and product history.”

Harminder Sahni, founder and managing director of Wazir Advisors, agrees. “Indians are now proud of being Indians. I see this trend gaining ground especially with xenophobia becoming stronger in the Western world. Also, India has so much diversity and therefore variety in all things ethnic — food, drinks, clothes, handicraft, music, etc. This offers a huge opportunity.” Sahni adds that Paper Boat is on the right track in tapping into the “ethnic mood” of the Indian market. “Paper Boat has a unique positioning and a great understanding of consumers leaning towards ethnic products with modern packaging and hygiene. Haldiram’s in sweets, snacks and fast food, and Patanjali Ayurved in FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] are on the same track.”

Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of consulting firm Third Eyesight, points out that food flavors are “deep-rooted in our psyche” and “familiarity and habit” attract us to flavors that we grew up with. He believes that Paper Boat has “very successfully tapped into this need for familiar flavors, while riding on smart branding and modern packaging for convenience, safety and shelf life.”

Ramesh Kumar, professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, says: “Paper boat entered into the psyche of consumers in a unique manner — nostalgic emotions associated with cultural origins and ingredients. The brand’s strengths are associated with ethnic taste and recipes of the bygone era that are vanishing in a world of fast-foods.” Pointing out that Paper Boat “implicitly” offers a “healthy lifestyle,” Kumar adds that the brand’s pouch-style packaging and other design elements definitely give it a “contemporary appeal.”

Harish Bijoor, brand-strategy specialist who runs his own firm, Harish Bijoor Inc., also thinks that Paper Boat’s strength is that “it is different in every way. It has used differentiation as the cornerstone of its brand strategy. Ethnic drinks was a rebel space — a rebel space against the carbonated cola beverages for sure. The packaging, which is unique, functional and efficient, led in this space. The pricing is premium and the advertising stance with conversations with consumers is unique as well.”

“We are way ahead in product development and are working on products others would not even been thinking of.” –Neeraj Biyani

Bijoor, however, inserts a note of caution. Pointing out that more than 60% of India’s population is below 35 years, he suggests that Paper Boat’s evoking of memories and its nostalgia for a simpler, carefree life is risky and could result in its being perceived as “geriatric.” He adds: “Classy and conversational is nice, but the volumes are not there. And while margins may be there for now, these will be under pressure as mass distribution needs will eat into them.”

Coping with Headwinds

Having tested the waters well, the challenge now for Paper Boat is to sail full steam ahead. Nadkarni observes that at present the brand value of Paper Boat is much more than its business value. “The brand value makes one think that it is a Rs. 1,000 crore ($150 million) brand whereas it is only a fraction of that. The big challenge for the team is to commercialize the strong bond that consumers have with the brand and bridge this gap,” he says.

Distribution will play a key role in this. Juices and cold drinks have a universe of around five million outlets in India. Paper Boat is available in only around 2.5% of those. For an impulse purchase such as Paper Boat, visibility and accessibility are very important.

This is even more critical as other players with strong distribution networks have spotted the potential in the segment and are making their moves. Dabur, a leading Indian FMCG firm and a leader in fruit juices, for instance, has recently launched traditional drinks under the brand Hajmola Yoodley. Hajmola is a popular brand of digestive tablets from Dabur comprising traditional Indian herbs, spices and edible salt and is estimated to have around 50% of market share in this segment. Interestingly, like Paper Boat, Hajmola Yoodley is also sold in doy packs with colorful graphics. While Yoodley is yet to make its mark, experts feel that it is only a matter of time.

“What was unique to Paper Boat has been usurped by others and has closed the several windows of differentiation it had opened,” Bijoor says. “The brand now needs to think differently to grow and stand apart from the rest.”

Paper Boat co-founders however are not fazed. Says Biyani: “We are way ahead in product development and are working on products others would not even be thinking of. Our processes are very different and are a strong competitive advantage. We are at a great place and the sky is the limit. We believe that we can actually give a run to the currently dominant beverages.” Adds Nadkarni: “There is no doubt that the category will grow dramatically. But Paper Boat has the first mover advantage and being the leader will benefit the most.”

Meanwhile another challenge is the price point. At Rs. 30 for a 250-milliliter pack, Paper Boat is a premium beverage and priced more than double that of Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s products. Pointing out that Paper Boat’s price is intimately linked to the product quality, Bharadwaj says the company needs to address this challenge with ingenuity. According to him, if Paper Boat continues as a premium, aspirational category it can certainly grow to become a Rs. 1,000 crore brand. However, if it can break the price barrier it has the real opportunity to break open the cola market. “But you can’t break the cola market at this price point,” he notes.

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thepoolscene · 7 years

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The Pool Scene - Carlo Biado, Roland Garcia - World Pool Billiard

New Post on http://thepoolscene.com/?p=22739

BIADO FINALLY REACHES POOL’S MOUNTAINTOP

The Philippines’ Carlo Biado wins his first World 9-ball championship with a 13-5 win over fellow Filipino Roland Garcia.

By Ted Lerner WPA Press Officer Photos Courtesy of Bo Bader

#gallery-1 margin: auto; #gallery-1 .gallery-item float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; #gallery-1 img border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; #gallery-1 .gallery-caption margin-left: 0; /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

“I’m very very happy right now,” and overjoyed Biado said. “It’s been a long time. I worked very hard, had many disappointments. And now finally I won the world title.

“In the semis I had a bit of pressure against Wu but I got lucky in one of the racks when I missed the bank shot on the four ball but it went in the other pocket. So I got lucky.

“I’m so proud to be one of them. This is the best thing that could ever happen to me. I have worked very hard for many years and now my dream has come true.”

The players competed on Wiraka DYNASTY Tables with Simonis 860 Cloth, Electric Blue Color and using Aramith Tournament Pro cup TV Pool Balls featuring the new Duramith Technology.

Fans can interact with us through the WPA’s official Facebook Page for the event at this link;https://www.facebook.com/worldpoolbilliardassociation/

The WPA is also on Twitter; @poolwpa

Visit the official website of the WPA at www.wpapool.com

Results

Final Carlo Biado (PHI) 13 – 5 Roland Garcia (PHI)

Semi Finals Carlo Biado (PHI) 11 – 6 Wu Kun Lin (TPE) Roland Garcia (PHI) 11 – 6 Klenti Kaci (ALB)

Prize Fund Payouts

Winner US$ 40,000

Runner Up US$ 20,000

3rd & 4th Place US$ 8,000 each

5th to 8th Place US$ 5,000 each

9th to 16th Place US$ 3,000 each

17th to 32nd Place US$ 2,000 each

33rd to 64th Place US$ 1,000 each

65th to 96th Place US$ 500 each

Total US$ 200,000

#Carlo Biado #Roland Garcia

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