LEBRON R. JAMES SR., THE SPIRIT OF MICHAEL JORDAN

Lebron James, USA Team

Today, The Grandma has been watching NBA on TV. She is a great fan of Los Angeles Lakers since Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played with this team. Nowadays, the great star is LeBron James, an amazing player who was born on a day like today in 1984.

Tonight, he has played another great match. Los Angeles Lakers have won against Dallas Mavericks (108-95). During the game, Six Lakers players have scored in double figures led by 23 points and nine rebounds from Anthony Davis.

LeBron James has added 13 points, six rebounds and 13 assists, bringing up his 9,000th career dime along the way.

More information: LeBron James

LeBron Raymone James Sr. (December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Often compared for the title of the greatest of all time, like Michael Jordan, his accomplishments include taking two teams to eight consecutive NBA finals appearances (2011-2018), winning three NBA championships, four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, three NBA Finals MVP Awards, and two Olympic gold medals.

James played in fifteen NBA All-Star Games and been named NBA All-Star MVP three times. He won the 2008 NBA scoring title, is the all-time NBA playoffs scoring leader, fourth in all-time career points scored, and ninth in all-time assists. He has been voted onto the All-NBA First Team twelve times and the All-Defensive First Team five times.

James played basketball for St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, where he was heavily touted by the national media as a future NBA superstar. A prep-to-pro, he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 as the first overall draft pick. Named the 2003–04 NBA Rookie of the Year, he soon established himself as one of the league's premier players; he won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2009 and 2010.

After failing to win a championship with Cleveland, James left in 2010 to sign as a free agent with the Miami Heat. This move was announced in an ESPN special titled The Decision, and is one of the most controversial free agent decisions in American sports history.

Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

James won his first two NBA championships while playing for the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013; in both of these years, he also earned league MVP and Finals MVP. After his fourth season with the Heat in 2014, James opted out of his contract to re-sign with the Cavaliers.

In 2016, he led the Cavaliers to victory over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, delivering the franchise's first championship and ending Cleveland's 52-year professional sports title drought. In 2018, James opted out of his contract with the Cavaliers to sign with the Lakers.

Off the court, James has accumulated additional wealth and fame from numerous endorsement contracts. His public life has been the subject of much scrutiny, and he has been ranked as one of America's most influential and popular athletes. He has been featured in books, documentaries, and television commercials. He has also hosted the ESPY Awards and Saturday Night Live, and appeared in the 2015 film Trainwreck.

More information: Cleveland Cavaliers

James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio to Gloria Marie James, who was 16 at the time of his birth. His father, Anthony McClelland, has an extensive criminal record and was not involved in his life. When James was growing up, life was often a struggle for the family, as they moved from apartment to apartment in the seedier neighborhoods of Akron while Gloria struggled to find steady work.

Realizing that her son would be better off in a more stable family environment, Gloria allowed him to move in with the family of Frank Walker, a local youth football coach who introduced James to basketball when he was nine years old.

James began playing organized basketball in the fifth grade. He later played Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball for the Northeast Ohio Shooting Stars. The team enjoyed success on a local and national level, led by James and his friends Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, and Willie McGee.

The group dubbed themselves the Fab Four and promised each other that they would attend high school together. In a move that stirred local controversy, they chose to attend St. Vincent–St. Mary High School, a private Catholic school with predominantly white students.

James was selected by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the first overall pick of the 2003 NBA draft. In his first regular season game, he scored 25 points against the Sacramento Kings, setting an NBA record for most points scored by a prep-to-pro player in his debut performance. 

Lebron James, Miami Heat

At the conclusion of the season, he became the first Cavalier to receive the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and with final averages of 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game, he also became just the third player in league history to average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists per game as a rookie. Cleveland ultimately finished the season 35–47, failing to make the playoffs despite an 18-game improvement over the previous year.

James earned his first NBA All-Star Game selection in 2004–05, contributing 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists in a winning effort for the Eastern Conference. Around the league, teams took note of his rapid development, with Denver Nuggets coach George Karl telling Sports Illustrated, It's weird talking about a 20-year-old kid being a great player, but he is a great player... He's the exception to almost every rule.

At the conclusion of the 2008–09 season, James finished second in NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award voting and made his first NBA All-Defensive Team, posting 23 chase-down blocks and a career-high 93 total blocks. He also became only the fourth postmerger player to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks in a single season. Behind his play and the acquisition of All-Star guard Mo Williams, Cleveland went a franchise record 66–16 and fell just one game short of matching the best home record in league history. With final averages of 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game, James became the first Cavalier to win the MVP Award.

James became an unrestricted free agent at 12:01 am EDT on July 1, 2010. During this time, he was contacted by several teams, including the Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, and Cavaliers. On July 8, he announced on a live ESPN special titled The Decision that he would sign with the Heat. 

More information: Miami Heat

James officially signed with the Heat on July 10, 2010. With the move, he became only the third reigning MVP to change teams and the first since Moses Malone in 1982.

On June 25, 2014, James opted out of his contract with the Heat, and on July 1, he officially became an unrestricted free agent. On July 11, he revealed via a first-person essay in Sports Illustrated that he intended to return to the Cavaliers. In contrast to The Decision, his announcement to return to Cleveland was well received. On July 12, he officially signed with the team, who had compiled a league-worst 97–215 record in the four seasons following his departure. A month after James's signing, the Cavaliers acquired Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves, forming a new star trio along with Kyrie Irving.

During the 2015–16 season, James was criticized for his role in several off-court controversies, including the midseason firing of Cavaliers' coach David Blatt. Despite these distractions, Cleveland finished the year with 57 wins and the best record in the East. James's final averages were 25.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game on 52 percent shooting.

LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

In the playoffs, the Cavaliers advanced comfortably to the Finals, losing only two games en route to a rematch with the Warriors, who were coming off a record-setting 73-win season.

To begin the series, Cleveland fell behind 3–1, including two blowout losses. James responded by registering back-to-back 41 point games in Games 5 and 6, leading the Cavaliers to two consecutive wins to stave off elimination. In Game 7, he posted a triple-double and made a number of key plays, including The Block on Andre Iguodala, as Cleveland emerged victorious, winning the city's first professional sports title in 52 years and becoming the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3–1 series deficit in the Finals.

James became just the third player to record a triple-double in an NBA Finals Game 7, and behind series averages of 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 2.6 steals per game, he also became the first player in league history to lead both teams in all five statistical categories for a playoff round, culminating in a unanimous Finals MVP selection.

On June 29, 2018, James opted out of his contract with the Cavaliers and became an unrestricted free agent. On July 1, his management company, Klutch Sports, announced that he would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers; the deal was officially completed on July 9.

More information: Los Angeles Lakers

James made his debut for the United States national team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. He spent the Games mostly on the bench, averaging 14.6 minutes per game with 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in eight games. Team USA finished the competition with a bronze medal, becoming the first U.S. basketball team to return home without a gold medal since adding active NBA players to their lineup.

At the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, James took on a greater role for Team USA, averaging 13.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game as co-captain. The team finished the tournament with an 8–1 record, winning another bronze medal.

Before naming James to the 2008 Olympic team, Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski gave James an ultimatum to improve his attitude, and he heeded their advice. At the FIBA Americas Championship 2007, he averaged 18.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game, including a 31-point performance against Argentina in the championship game, the most ever by an American in an Olympic qualifier.

Team USA went 10–0, winning the gold medal and qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. James credited the team's attitude and experience for their improvement, saying: I don't think we understood what it meant to put on a USA uniform and all the people that we were representing in 2004. We definitely know that now. At the Olympics, Team USA went unbeaten, winning their first gold medal since 2000.

James did not play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship but rejoined Team USA for the 2012 Olympics in London, England. He became the leader of the team with Kobe Bryant, who would soon be 34, stepping back. James facilitated the offense from the post and perimeter, called the defensive sets, and provided scoring when needed. During a game against Australia, he recorded the first triple-double in U.S. Olympic basketball history with 11 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Team USA went on to win their second straight gold medal.

More information: USAB

 You can't be afraid to fail.

It's the only way you succeed 

-you're not gonna succeed all the time,

and I know that.

LeBron James

THE FIRST ELECTRIC TRAFFIC IS INSTALLED IN CLEVELAND

First Traffic Light in Barcelona, 1929

Today, The Grandma has been driving across Barcelona. August is the best month to drive in the city, in fact, the only one because the rest of the year, as a great city, it is very uncomfortable to take the car and it is better to take the public transport.

Since the AntiChrist is managing the city, the transport is being a great problem. The City Hall has reduced important bus lines; travelling by metro is very dangerous because the pick pockets work without any kind of control and with the passive permission of the City Hall's Police and the City has been cut by hundreds of kilometres of bicycle roads with nobody driving by them but disturbing the pedestrians. The city has also a new problem. Hundreds of people are driving by bicycles, skates and roller skates by the sidewalks putting in danger the security and the lives of the pedestrians and by the roads without any respect to the traffic lights.

The city is a chaos by the terrible management of the AntiChrist, who hasn't resolved old problems and has created lots of new ones.

Meanwhile The Grandma was driving and seeing, horrified, the denigration of her wonderful city, she has crossing and emblematic place in the city, the cross between Balmes and Provença Street, the place where was installed the first traffic light in Catalonia. She has also remember Cleveland in Ohio, the city where was installed the first traffic light on a day like today in 1914.

Before driving, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 9. Inserting and Deleting Items (II) (Spanish Version)

Traffic lights, also known as traffic signals, traffic lamps, traffic semaphore, signal lights, stop lights, robots in South Africa and most of Africa, and traffic control signals in technical parlance, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations to control flows of traffic.

The world's first traffic light was short lived. It was a manually operated gas-lit signal installed in London in December 1868. It exploded less than a month after it was implemented, injuring its policeman operator. Traffic control started to seem necessary in the late 1890s and Earnest Sirrine from Chicago patented the first automated traffic control system in 1910. It used the words STOP and PROCEED, although neither word lit up.

Traffic lights alternate the right of way accorded to users by illuminating lamps or LEDs of standard colours (red, amber -yellow-, and green) following a universal colour code. In the typical sequence of colour phases:

Traffic Lights Code

The green light allows traffic to proceed in the direction denoted, if it is safe to do so and there is room on the other side of the intersection.

The amber light warns that the signal is about to change to red. In a number of European countries -among them the United Kingdom- a phase during which red and yellow are displayed together indicates that the signal is about to change to green. Actions required by drivers on a yellow light vary, with some jurisdictions requiring drivers to stop if it is safe to do so, and others allowing drivers to go through the intersection if safe to do so.

A flashing amber indication is a warning signal. In the United Kingdom, a flashing amber light is used only at pelican crossings, in place of the combined red–amber signal, and indicates that drivers may pass if no pedestrians are on the crossing.

The red signal prohibits any traffic from proceeding.

A flashing red indication is treated as a stop sign.

More information: History Hit

In some countries traffic signals will go into a flashing mode if the conflict monitor detects a problem, such as a fault that tries to display green lights to conflicting traffic. The signal may display flashing yellow to the main road and flashing red to the side road, or flashing red in all directions. Flashing operation can also be used during times of day when traffic is light, such as late at night.

Before traffic lights, traffic police controlled the flow of traffic. A well-documented example is that on London Bridge in 1722. Three men were given the task of directing traffic coming in and out of either London or Southwark. Each officer would help direct traffic coming out of Southwark into London and he made sure all traffic stayed on the west end of the bridge. A second officer would direct traffic on the east end of the bridge to control the flow of people leaving London and going into Southwark.

On 9 December 1868, the first non-electric gas-lit traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London to control the traffic in Bridge Street, Great George Street, and Parliament Street.

Los Angeles, Barcelona & Washington, D.C.

They were proposed by the railway engineer J. P. Knight of Nottingham who had adapted this idea from his design of railway signalling system and constructed by the railway signal engineers of Saxby & Farmer. The main reason for the traffic light was that there was an overflow of horse-drawn traffic over Westminster Bridge which forced thousands of pedestrians to walk next to the Houses of Parliament.

The design combined three semaphore arms with red and green gas lamps for night-time use, on a pillar, operated by a police constable. The gas lantern was manually turned by a traffic police officer with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic. The signal was 6.7 m high. The light was called the semaphore and had arms that would extend horizontally that commanded drivers to Stop and then the arms would lower to a 45 degrees angle to tell drivers to proceed with Caution. At night a red light would command Stop and a green light would mean use Caution.

Although it was said to be successful at controlling traffic, its operational life was brief. It exploded on 2 January 1869 as a result of a leak in one of the gas lines underneath the pavement and injured the policeman who was operating it.

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In the first two decades of the 20th century, semaphore traffic signals like the one in London were in use all over the United States with each state having its own design of the device.

One example was from Toledo, Ohio in 1908. The words Stop and Go were in white on a green background and the lights had red and green lenses illuminated by kerosene lamps for night travelers and the arms were 2.4 m above ground. It was controlled by a traffic officer who would blow a whistle before changing the commands on this signal to help alert travelers of the change. The design was also used in Philadelphia and Detroit.

The example in Ohio was the first time America tried to use a more visible form of traffic control that evolved the use of semaphore. The device that was used in Ohio was designed based on the use of railroad signals.

In 1912, a traffic control device was placed on top a tower in Paris at the Rue Montmartre and Grande Boulevard. This tower signal was manned by a police woman and she operated a revolving four-sided metal box on top of a glass showcase where the word Stop was painted in red and the word Go painted in white. 

William Potts' Detroit Traffic Light

An electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights.

On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.

It had two colours, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a warning for colour changes. The design by James Hoge allowed police and fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency. The first four-way, three-colour traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit, Michigan in 1920. 

Ashville, Ohio claims to be the home of the oldest working traffic light in the United States, used at an intersection of public roads from 1932 to 1982 when it was moved to a local museum. Many pictures of historical traffic lights appear at a Traffic Signal Trivia page.

More information: The New Wheels

A typical vertical traffic signal has three aspects, or lights, facing the oncoming traffic, red on top, yellow below, and green below that. Generally one aspect is illuminated at a time. In some cases, a fourth aspect, for a turn arrow for example, is below the three lights or aspects in more complicated road traffic intersections.

The simplest traffic light comprises either a single or a pair of coloured aspects that warns any user of the shared right of way of a possible conflict or danger.

-Flashing red: treated as a stop sign. This can also signal the road is closed. In France and the United Kingdom, flashing red mandates absolute stop, at the crossing of a railway line, an airport strip, a swing bridge, or a fire station

-Flashing amber: caution, crossing or road hazard ahead

-Flashing green: varies among jurisdiction. Flashing green can give permission to go straight as well as make a left turn in front of opposing traffic, which is stopped by a steady red light, can indicate the end of a green cycle before the light changes to a solid yellow, or as in British Columbia, Canada, or Mexico City, Mexico indicates the intersection is a pedestrian crosswalk

In the United States, flashing red or amber lights, known as intersection control beacons, are used to reinforce stop signs at intersections.

More information: Road Traffic Signs

 Everybody likes driving through scenic, winding roads.

It's hard to find people who like sitting in traffic in cities.

Karl Iagnemma

NEIL ALDEN ARMSTRONG: A SUCCESSFUL LIFE IN SPACE

Neil Alden Armstrong

Joseph de Ca'th Lon is in Florida, where he's visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville and Cape Canaveral. Joseph, who is a person very interested in science, wants to talk us about one of the most important astronauts around the world: Neil Armstrong, the man who  took the first step onto the Moon.

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930-August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. 

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.

More information: NASA

A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. He made his first space flight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. He performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott. This mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his reentry control fuel to prevent a dangerous spin caused by a stuck thruster, in the first in-flight space emergency.

More information: Kennedy Space Center

Joseph de Ca'th Lon in Cape Canaveral

Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as commander of Apollo 11, the first manned Moon landing mission in July 1969. 

Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module. 

Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. Armstrong and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.

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Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand. 

Neil Armstrong