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Drink Here Now | 7x7

Comedy Confessions at Dirty Trix Saloon
Sure, your friends and family think you?re funny. But do you have what it takes to make a room full of people laugh? How about a room full of drunk people? Bring your best jokes to Dirty Trix Saloon (408 Clement b/t 5th and 6th) on Wednesday night for the weekly Comedy Confessions Open Mic party. You?ll find nervous newcomers, rowdy regulars, and copious cocktails at this Chicago-centric sports bar described by Yelp users as having ?strong, cheap drinks,? ?friendly, attentive bartenders,? and a ?certain degenerate charm.? Sign up at 8 pm if you want to perform, or show up at 9 pm to pass judgment on the amateurs. It?s free, and it will likely be crowded.

Wine and History with Flipside at The Mint
The SF Museum and Historical Society hosts yet another drinking event with a history problem. Join Wineluv and Flipside at The Mint (88 Fifth Street @ Mission) this Thursday, August 1, for an unlimited wine tasting from more than 75 wineries, plus a history lesson. Matt Reidy of Bluxome Street Winery will wax nostalgic about wine-making in San Francisco in the early 1900s. Next, Brian Kane of The Winery SF will make wine-making comparisons between SF and Sonoma/Napa. Then, Joshua Haberman of Burt Street Cellars will discuss how wine goes from the vineyard to the bottle. General admission and VIP tickets are available online, ranging from $55 to $120. General admission includes the unlimited wine tasting, the educational presentations, a custom GoVino wine glass, a photo booth by UpOut, live music, and 20+ vendors sampling chocolate, olive oil, and more. Food will be available from Off the Grid. VIP tickets include early entry with a guided tour of the Old Mint, a fully-catered VIP area, custom crystal glassware, a premium wine tasting, and gift bags.

SF Chefs DIY Cocktail Mixer
What?s the secret to some of the best cocktails in San Francisco? House-made mixers, such as grenadine, flavored simple syrups, and specialty sodas. Three of San Francisco?s top cocktail experts will be divulging some of their mixer secrets at a DIY Cocktail Mixer this Saturday, August 3, at 11:30 am at the Grand Hyatt (345 Stockton @ Sutter). Camper English of Alcademics.com will join Fine Cooking Senior Editor Denise Mickelson and two more local mixologists for a demonstration of tips and methods for making and using infused spirits and liqueurs (like vanilla-fig tequila), flavored syrups, homemade sodas, tonic water, and more. Guests will leave with a booklet of recipes so they can recreate what they?ve learned at home. Tickets are available online for $35 for this event, which is part of the SF Chefs week-long festival of food, wine and spirits.

Dubstep Dance Party at Monroe
Stop, drop and bounce this Saturday night at Hausik?s Dubstep and House launch party at Monroe (473 Broadway @ Kearney). Hausik (pronounced ?How sick?), the self-described ?nightlife concierge,? will start turning up the bass at 10 pm. The four-hour show features DJ Felnlove, DJ Kepic and Zoe Parties; a vocal performance by Those Bloody Yanks with Chant?; and go-go dancing by Valiant Vixens. If the music isn?t enough to get you moving, Monroe?s bartenders will provide some lubrication. Drink options range from beer and wine to cocktails as swanky as the Art Deco lounge itself. The cover charge amount remains a mystery, but if you whisper ?Serenity? to the doorwoman, you can get in free before 10:30 pm, or for a discount before 11 pm.

Classic Movie Night at Top of the Mark
Wind down with wine and a movie this Tuesday, August 6 in Nob Hill. Every Tuesday this summer, Top of the Mark (999 California @ Mason) hosts a free wine tasting and screening of a classic movie. The wine tasting begins at 5:30 pm and features Dazante Pinot Grigio and Marchesi di Frescobaldi Chianti. The movie starts at 7:30 pm. This week?s film is the 1963 classic, Bye Bye Birdie. The wine tasting and the classic movie are free, but it wouldn?t be very classy to pass up an item or two from the menu. Order the Eggs & Eggs ($11), which are piquillo-infused deviled hen eggs with avocado paint and trout caviar. Or try a trio of Sliders ($21), including a Dungeness crab cake, a Kobe beef burger and a Kofte potato cake.

Submit drinking events to renee@grassrootspr.com

Source: http://www.7x7.com/eat-drink/drink-here-now-18

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Dr. Jim Taylor: Build a Positive and High-Performing Sports Team Culture

Some sports are ready-made for a discussion about the influence of team culture on individual and team performance. Team sports, such as basketball, football, and soccer, require that time and energy be devoted to building a culture that will lead to success. Without this discussion, the chances of a team being successful are small.

Individual sports, however, often don't give much attention to team culture despite the fact that most individual sports are built around a team structure, for example, track and field, ski racing, and tennis. The fact is that, for individual sports, the influence that individual athletes can have on a team, whether healthy or toxic, is just as important as in true team sports. Nor do we often think about how an individual sports team can have a significant effect on the performances of its individual members.

Yet, have you ever been on a "downer" team? I'm talking about one that is permeated with negativity, unhealthy competition, and conflict. It sure doesn't feel good and it can definitely interfere with your performing your best. Whether you are an athlete on a team or one of its coaches, you can have a big impact on how your team gets along, functions, and performs.

In addition to my psychology work with athletes, I consult extensively in the corporate world where I help executives and companies to maximize individual and team performance. One of the most important areas I focus on in this work involves helping senior management to create an organizational culture that is positive and high performing. While working with the coaching staffs of several junior sports programs, it occurred to me that developing a healthy team culture is as important in the sports world as it is in the corporate world. So, in applying these concepts to sports programs, let's start with an understanding of what a team culture is and why it is of essential value.

A culture is the expression of a team's values, attitudes, and beliefs about sports and competition. It determines whether, for example, the team's focus is on fun, mastery, or winning or whether it promotes individual accomplishment or team success. The culture is grounded in an identified sense of mission and shared goals, for instance, the goal of qualifying for a regional championships or winning a state title.

Individual sports teams are complicated a bit by the fact that they aren't really team sports. Unlike true team sports such as basketball or football, the success of one athlete isn't dependent on how his or her teammates perform. Yet, I'm sure that you would agree that the culture of a team, whether healthy or unhealthy, has a real impact on its individual athletes. For example, a team that is in constant conflict or has a negative atmosphere will bring team members, athletes and coaches alike, down and this unpleasant atmosphere will also hurt individual athletes' performances. Conversely, a team culture built on positive energy, support, and fun will lift everyone up, feel comfortable and supportive, and the results will show it.

The culture creates norms of acceptable behavior on a team, either explicitly or implicitly conveying to members what is allowed and what is not. These norms can dictate to team members how to behave, communicate, cooperate, and deal with conflict. When clear norms are established, everyone on a team is more likely to abide by them.

Very importantly, the culture creates the atmosphere that permeates every aspect of a team's experience. Is the atmosphere relaxed or intense? Light-hearted or competitive? Supportive or competitive?

All of these qualities of a culture have real implications for how the team functions, how its members get along, and, crucially, how the athletes on the team perform and the results they get. When a team has a defined culture that is understood by all of its members, they feel an implicit pressure (in the good sense) to support that culture.

How a Team Culture Develops

Coaches can allow the culture of their team to develop in one of two ways. First, it can emerge naturally as an expression of its individual members. The benefits to this "organic" approach is that team members feel a sense of ownership for the culture because they created it. But there is a risk that the creation of the team be unfairly shaped by one or a few team members who may be particularly assertive or controlling, leaving other members of the team feeling marginalized and powerless. And a real danger can arise when the team culture is hijacked by a small subset of the team who are more interested in exerting their own power over the team, however unhealthy it might be. The result can be a truly toxic culture that serves neither the best interests of the team as a whole or its individual members.

The second approach, and the one that I recommend, is for coaches to take an active (though not dominating) role in the creation of a team culture. Through your leadership and open discussions with team members, your team can identify the values, attitudes, and beliefs that you and your athletes want to act as the foundation of the team culture. You can also discuss what all of you feel is important in terms of the atmosphere you want to create, the expectations the team has about their behavior, and the way in which team members communicate. This collaborative approach to team culture will ensure that members feel a sense of ownership for the culture and, as a result, are more likely to live by its dictates.

Training Group Subcultures

In addition to the over-all culture that a coaching staff fosters to best serve the goals of the entire team and the needs of all of its athletes, training groups (e.g., based on age, ability, or specialty) or position groups (e.g., football lineman or receivers) within the larger team can also create their own cultures. These training-group cultures better reflect the individual personalities of their coaches and athletes and the unique goals that they are pursuing. These subcultures also allow athletes who may be unable to take a leadership role in the team as a whole to exert influence within their group.

Questions to Ask

Coaches, I encourage you to sit down with the rest of the coaching staff and your athletes to discuss the kind of culture your team wants to have. You should ask the following questions (and any others that you think relevant). Training groups can ask the same questions:

• What values do we want to act as the foundation for our team culture?
• What attitudes and beliefs about your sport, competition, and team do you want to hold?
• What are the goals that the team wants to pursue?
• How do the athletes and coaches want to treat each other?
• What kind of atmosphere do we want on your team?

When you ask and answer these questions, you are proactively developing a team culture of your team's own design rather than leaving it to chance. In doing so, you are building a team that has its best chance of being positive and supportive and, as a result, performing at its highest level possible.

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Follow Dr. Jim Taylor on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrJimTaylor

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jim-taylor/build-a-positive-and-high_b_3659341.html?utm_hp_ref=sports

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Tourists evacuated as oil spill blackens Thai beach

By Frances Cha, CNN

updated 10:36 AM EDT, Tue July 30, 2013

Hundreds of workers and navy soldiers are attempting to clean up the oil spill on Koh Samet.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• One of the beaches on Thailand's Koh Samet island has turned black from Saturday's oil spill
• Koh Samet is a popular Thai weekend getaway destination
• Approximately 5,000 liters of oil have washed up on the island
• Spill "may be worse than first thought," says opposition MP, Greenpeace

(CNN) -- Tourists staying at Ao Phrao (Phrao Bay) on Thailand's island of Koh Samet have been evacuated as the bay turned black from an oil spill over the weekend.

Authorities estimated that around 5,000 liters of crude oil have washed up on the island, having leaked into the ocean from an offshore pipeline belonging to PTT Global Chemical, Thailand's largest petrochemical producer.

The total leakage is estimated at 50,000 liters.

Due to its beautiful beaches and proximity to Bangkok -- the travel time from the capital is a little less than four hours by bus and then boat -- the island has long been a popular Thai weekend destination.

Tourist activities on the island are largely ocean-oriented and include jet-skiing, snorkeling and banana-boating.

Gallery: Oil spill on Koh Samet

Effect on tourism

Koh Samet is known for its 14 white sand beaches. In this photo: Ao Phrao before the oil spill.

It's still unclear to what extent the spill will affect local tourism, but the damage was initially reportedly limited to one beach, at Ao Phrao. There are 14 beaches on the island.

"We've had some hotel cancellations on Samet," Rayong province tourism authority director Chuchart Oncharoen told the Bangkok Post. "Whether this has a long-term impact on the island depends on how quickly PTT cleans up the mess."

The affected beach is on the less populated Western part of the island, where resorts have closed and tourists have been evacuated to hotels in other areas.

The island is currently in its tourism low season -- the high season is from October to April.

"By far the majority of tourists who go to Koh Samet stay at resorts and hotels on the eastern side of the island," Thailand travel blogger Richard Barrow told CNN.

Gallery: Oil spill on Koh Samet

Spill 'worse than thought'

However, an opposition MP has suggested the damage from the spill may be worse than first thought, reports Australia's ABC.

"If that (50,000 litres) was the real amount, they should have already eliminated it -- they should have solved the problem fast enough before it reached Samet island," said Sathit Pitutacha, from Thailand's Democrat Party.

The environmental group Greenpeace also called the spill "massive," according to the ABC, and called upon the Thai government to end oil exploration in the Gulf of Thailand.

Some travelers to Phrao Bay have already posted about the unexpected change in their itineraries.

"The oil completely covered the beach when we woke up in the morning," wrote Tripadvisor reviewer MatJens about his curtailed stay at Lima Coco resort, one of the popular hotels in the area that has been closed.

"We rebooked to a hotel on Ko Chang and the personnel at Lima Coco were very helpful getting us there. We also got a voucher covering the days we paid in advance," wrote MatJens on Monday.

A statement from PTT Global Chemical said the company had deployed booms to contain the oil as well as oil spill dispersant.

It added that the Thai navy and approximately 300 workers from PTT Global Chemical are continuing to clean up the area.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_latest/~3/Bysx3VDWMqI/index.html

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A Social Connection | BusinessWest

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Guns in schools: Arkansas district will arm 20 teachers and staff

A small school district in Arkansas will arm 20 volunteer teachers and staff with handguns starting in the fall, reigniting debate about the best way to protect children in schools.

The district will be the first in the state to arm teachers and is doing so under a state law that allows licensed, armed security guards on campus. The school?s participants in the program, whose identities will be kept secret, will be considered security guards after undergoing 53 hours of training.

"The plan we've been given in the past is, 'Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,' " Superintendent David Hopkins told the Associated Press. "That's not a plan.?

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about the Second Amendment? A quiz.

Mr. Hopkins said a wave of parent calls after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings last December caused him to reevaluate their procedures, even though the town of 9,200 people about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock isn't known for being dangerous.

State officials have not blocked the plan, even though Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell has said that he opposes arming teachers and staff. Instead, he supports hiring law enforcement officers as school resource officers.

Participating staff in Clarksville?s schools will be given a one-time $1,100 stipend to purchase a handgun and holster. The district will pay about $50,000 for ammunition and for training by Nighthawk Custom Training Academy, a private training facility in northwest Arkansas.

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?That teacher is going to respond to one thing and one thing alone, and that's someone is in the building either actively or attempting to kill people," Jon Hodoway, director of training for Nighthawk said. "That's it. They're not going to enforce the law. They're not going to make traffic stops. If somebody is outside acting the fool, they're going to call the police."

At a recent training session teachers and administrators practiced using airsoft pellet guns to shoot a student pretending to hold another at gunpoint.

One of the student simulators, Sydney Whitkanack, said she?s not concerned about having teachers or staff armed.

"If they're concealed, then it's no big deal," she said. ?It's not like someone's going to know, 'Oh, they have a firearm.' "

Others, like former president of the Arkansas Education Association Donna Morey, strongly opposed the plan, citing concerns over a student accidentally getting shot or taking a gun.

"We just think educators should be in the business of educating students, not carrying a weapon," she said.

The Clarksville school district is the latest example of localities trying to form responses to the Sandy Hook shooting last December that killed 20 children and six teachers.

Like Clarksville, some districts have decided to beef up armed security, in line with the National Rifle Association?s recommendation for every school to have an armed security guard, police officer, or staff.

In May, a rural Colorado school district voted to allow two top administrators to carry guns. They were able to circumvent Colorado?s gun laws by changing the job title of the superintendent to security officer. In Arizona's Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio organized a posse of armed volunteers to patrol local schools, although he drew criticism for hiring a former child-sex offender.

In 2013, seven states passed legislation permitting teachers or administrators to carry guns in schools and more than 30 state legislatures introduced bills that would permit staff members to carry guns in public or private schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But most proposals to arm teachers or staff have failed, even in conservative states more likely to support an expanded role for guns, according to The New York Times.

A key reason for fewer districts arming teachers is the potential cost, according to the Times report. Some insurance companies are declining coverage to schools that allow employees to carry handguns, or are raising their premiums.

In Kansas, for instance, the liability insurance provider for about 90 percent of Kansas school districts said it would not cover schools that permit employees to carry concealed handguns. A dozen Kansas school districts that were considering arming their staff changed their minds after the decision, the state employee who oversees insurance programs at the Kansas Association of School boards told the Times.

?Some [insurance providers] are saying this is so high risk we?re not going to touch it,? Kenneth Trump, the president of National School Safety and Security Services, which discourages districts from implementing concealed carry policies told the Times. ?Others may say this is so high risk that you?re going to pay through the nose.?

? Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about the Second Amendment? A quiz.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guns-schools-arkansas-district-arm-20-teachers-staff-190939220.html

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Rome bus crash kills at least 37

ROME (AP) ? A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.

Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle.

Hours after the crash, firefighters said that they had extracted 37 bodies ? most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side , while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, state radio and the Italian news agency ANSA reported..

The radio report said 11 people were hospitalized with injuries, two of them in very critical condition. It was not immediately known if there were other survivors or any missing.

Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted metal to better probe the interior of the bus, stopping occasionally in silence to listen for any cries for help, even as the bodies were put into coffins to be taken to a morgue.

Reports said as many as 49 people had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail after slamming into several cars, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off the highway and into a ravine near a wooded area. In its plunge, the bus tore away whole sections of concrete barriers as well as guardrail. The concrete lay in large chunks in a clearing in a wooded area where the bus landed.

State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead.

Occupants of cars which were hit by the bus stood on the highway near their vehicles. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.

The highway links western and eastern Italy across the south.

Early reports said the passengers had spent the day in Puglia, an area near the Adriatic on the east coast famed for religious shrines. But on Monday, a state radio reporter at the scene said authorities told him that the bus had been bringing the passengers home after an outing to a thermal spa area near Benevento, a town not far from Avellino. Others at the scene said the passengers might have visited a town near Benevento that was the early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk highly popular among Catholics in Italy.

Passengers came from small towns near Naples, and relatives streamed to the crash site.

The bus dove off the highway near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) inland from Naples and about 250 kilometers (160 miles) south of Rome.

A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. He said some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.

A local prosecutor arrived at the crash scene to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sunjournaltopheadlines/~3/kB-GD6pXh0M/1400028

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