Broncos Tender Top Tackler Brandon Marshall, 2 Others

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) The Denver Broncos have tendered their three exclusive rights free agents, a group led by top tackler Brandon Marshall, who will receive $585,000 in 2015. Tackle Paul Cornick and guard Ben Garland will each receive $510,000.

The Broncos have two more restricted free agents in cornerback Tony Carter and linebacker Steven Johnson, and they must make a decision on them by the start of free agency Tuesday.

Marshall is a fourth-year pro and was a first-time starter last season. He led the Broncos with 110 tackles in 14 games despite missing the final 2 1-2 games with a sprained right foot that also hampered him in the playoffs. He posted 88 solo tackles, two sacks, an interception, nine pass breakups and one forced fumble.

Marshall, who entered the league as a fifth-round draft choice of the Jacksonville Jaguars after a standout career at Nevada, is expected to play strongside linebacker in new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips 3-4 scheme.

Marshall didnt require surgery on his injured foot and he expects to be ready for the start of offseason training next month.

Marshall went from practice squad member to backup to every-down linebacker, and he said he sees his breakout 2014 season as a precursor to bigger things in 2015.

I see myself as a well-rounded linebacker that can play the run and play the pass well and can pass rush pretty decent, Marshall said as he headed into an offseason of rest and rehab. My tackling got way better, so if I just keep working on all those things, then Ill be good.

Cornick is a second-year pro who played in a dozen games for Denver last season, making three starts at right tackle and three as a blocking tight end down the stretch as the Broncos became more run-oriented.

Garland, a former Air Force lineman, played in eight regular season games plus the playoff game after spending the previous two years on the Broncos practice squad. He originally signed with Denver as a free agent in 2010 before a two-year military stint.

The tenders came a day after the Broncos signed another of their restricted free agents, long snapper Aaron Brewer, to a four-year, $4 million deal.

Also Friday, the Broncos announced the hiring of Mitch Tanney as director of football analytics, a newly created position. Before working in a similar capacity with the Bears from 2013-14, the former Monmouth College quarterback served as a manager of football products and sports analytics at STATS LLC.

By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Pro Football Writer

( Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/03/06/broncos-tender-top-tackler-brandon-marshall-2-others/

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Aim�e Osbourne: Jetzt ist sie am Zug

Aime Osbourne, 31, verffentlichte heute das Musikvideo zu ihrer ersten Single "Raining Gold" ihres Projektes ARO. Fr ihre Karriere will die Tochter von Schock-Rocker Ozzy Osbourne, 66, und dessen zweiter Ehefrau Sharon, 62, allerdings am liebsten komplett auf den Promi-Bonus ihrer berhmten Familie verzichten.

Der (fast) komplette TV-Clan rund um Oberhaupt Ozzy wurde durch die MTV-Serie "The Osbournes" weltberhmt. Doch anders als ihre kleine Schwester Kelly, 30, die sich bereits als Sngerin ausprobierte und Hits wie "Papa Don't Preach" verffentlichte, wollte Aime die Show nie als Sprungbrett nutzen.

TV-Show ohne Aime

Daher kapselte sie sich auch vllig von der erfolgreichen Sendung ab und zog wegen der Dreharbeiten sogar aus dem Elternhaus aus. Nur wenige Male sahen sie die TV-Zuschauer in der beliebten Serie neben Kelly und ihrem gemeinsamen Bruder Jack, 29, - aus gutem Grund. "Ich wollte eine Sngerin sein und ich dachte mir, dass ich sofort in eine bestimmte Ecke gestellt worden wre, wenn ich mich an "The Osbournes" beteiligt htte", uerte sich Aime laut "Blabbermouth" in einem Interview zu dem Thema.

Der Rckendeckung ihrer Familie kann sich Aime aber sicher sein. Mama Sharon rhrte schon auf ihrem Twitter-Account fleiig die Werbetrommel fr den neuen Song ihrer ltesten.

Der Kampf gegen die Musik

Zunchst wollte Aime ihre wahre Leidenschaft, die Musik, allerdings gar nicht wahrhaben und berhaupt nicht in die Fustapfen ihres berhmten Vaters ("Dreamer") treten. "Es ist ganz natrlich, gegen das rebellieren zu wollen, was die Eltern tun. Sobald ich akzeptierte, dass die Musik mein Weg ist, rebellierte ich, indem ich es auf meine eigene Art machen wollte." Darber hinaus wollte die junge Sngerin nicht annehmen, dass sie auf den Erfolgszug des berhmten "Black Sabbath"-Stars einfach aufspringen knnte.

Vermutlich hat sie sich auch deshalb so viel Zeit mit ihrer ersten Song-Verffentlichung gelassen. In das Lied "Raining Gold" steckte sie ihr ganzes Herzblut und lie sich dafr offensichtlich von vielen persnlichen Erfahrungen inspirieren. "Ich wollte, dass der Song ausdrckt, wie erdrckend und isolierend es sich anfhlt, andauernd missverstanden zu werden und gleichzeitig die Wichtigkeit der Entscheidung, sich davon zu befreien und an sich selbst zu glauben", fasste die junge Knstlerin gegenber dem "Rolling Stone"-Magazin die Botschaft des Liedes zusammen. "Das "Raining Gold"-Video widmet sich dementsprechend einer dieser Botschaften, nmlich nie irgendetwas ber jemanden oder eine Situation anzunehmen, nur weil es uerlich einen bestimmten Anschein erweckt."

Dementsprechend darf man wohl noch viel von Aime Osbourne erwarten.

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Source: http://www.gala.de/stars/news/aimee-osbourne-jetzt-ist-sie-am-zug_1221741.html

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Let's Not Oversimplify Kim Kardashian's b**t Appeal

Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Yesterday, Complex, jumping off a study by Turkish researchers covered in The Daily Mail, ran a piecetitled "The Evolutionary Reason Why You Love Kim Kardashian's b**t." It was, as the name suggests, an attempt at understanding why Kardashian's posterior has been an object of such fascination for so long, up to the point of it basically breaking the internet last month.

Complex explained the concept like this:

According to researchers from Bilkent University in Turkey (you guys are the real MVPs), the reason we're so attracted to serious curves goes all the way back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. You see, a woman having a back that curves approximately 45 degrees above the top of her b**t means she would have had an evolutionary advantage in pre-civilized society. At least that's what science says.

"[The curve] would haveenabled ancestral women to shift theircenterof mass back over their hips during pregnancy, a time during which there is a dramatic forward shift of theircenterof mass," Dr. David Lewis toldThe Daily Mail. "Consequently, ancestral women who possessed this degree of lumbar curvature would have been able to forage longer into pregnancy and would have been able to carry out multiple pregnancies with a reduced risk of spinal injury."

There's something intuitively appealing about this story maybe because it takes a phenomenon that comes down to s*x, a very primal subject, and explains it in terms of caveman urges that linger in our species to this day. That doesn't mean the story's accurate, though. In fact, it's a good example of a pretty questionable type of evolutionary-psychology-based explanation for human behavior.

Why Men Always Think Women Are Flirting With Them Why Do Men and Women Get Jealous About Different Things?

Evolutionary psychology, or evo-psych, refers to a branch of psychology that attempts to explain modern human behavior in terms of what would have been adaptive back in the days when natural selection determined the path of our species (natural selection still is doing that, of course, but thanks to our fancy medicine and technology, we're tending to die in different ways than our ancestors did). To take a simple example, early humans (or ancestors of humans) who were really, really chill and never scared of anything probably didn't survive for long, because if you don't react to that saber-toothed tiger rustling the bushes near you with a bit of fear, you are going to be its dinner. Fear is an adaptive response to an environment in which stuff is trying to eat you, and so those who have some fear in them are more likely to survive and pass on their (somewhat fearful) genes.

Fair enough: It would be silly to think that the distant past doesn't still affect our behavior in certain ways. But the problems arise when you get too creative or perhaps specific with these explanations, which tends to happen when they're not handled with care. I emailed Hunter Honeycutt, a psychology researcher at Bridgewater College in Virginia who has written at length about evolutionary psychology, to get his thoughts on this.

To Honeycutt, one of the clearest rebuttals to an evo-psych explanation for the Kardashian phenomenon is, as he put it, that "attractiveness is socially constructed, var[ying] among human populations across the globe and across generations." In other words, if big butts are in today, but skinniness is seen as a desirable characteristic in women in other times and places, it doesn't really make sense to say that it's evolution that's primarily shaping these preferences culture is just a much more straightforward explanation.

Honeycutt also noted a number of other problems with this story line, some of which stem from the actual source study itself. For one thing, "men in the study were less attracted to larger rumps that resulted from fat or excess muscle" the men's preference had to do with spine curvature, not b**t size, which would seem to conflict with the notion that Kardashian's body is setting off some sort ofprimevalsex-bells.

But more important, Honeycutt nicely summed up the issue not just with this explanation, but with a lot of evo-psych stories:

The problem with such speculation is that I can come up with an equally plausible alternative scenario where this spinal curvature is maladaptive. For instance, it is reasonable to believe that foraging was a relatively dangerous activity in our distant ancestors, so women who foraged longer (particularly those who were pregnant and thus, heavier) would be at a significant increased risk of injury or death.

Speculation about what would or wouldn't be adaptive in an ancient setting is "difficult (if not impossible) to validate given how little we know about the social and environmental conditions in which our ancestors lived," Honeycutt said. So just because a given story feelsright or we find it appealing doesn't make it true, especially when we can just as easily come up with debunking alternatives.

What's most likely is that human behavior is an incredibly complicated mix of nature and nurture, and the "nature" part surely includes a lot of stuff that was partially a result of evolution. Evo-psych can help us untangle all this it's a discipline that has some useful concepts to teach us. But humanity's response to Kim Kardashian's b**t, it would appear, resists any overly simple explanations.

Source: http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/03/dont-oversimplify-kim-kardashians-b**t-appeal.html

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See Photos of Children Celebrating Purim in the 1950s

In a 24-page feature on Judaism in 1955, part of a multi-issue series on world religions, LIFE Magazine introduced the religions holidays to readers in order of their spiritual importance. First came the high holy days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, followed by Passover (which Charlton Heston would bring to the silver screen the following year) and Simchat Torah (which celebrates the end of the annual cycle of reading the Torah). Fifth on the list, just edging out Hanukkahs festival of lights, was Purim.

Purim (February or March) finds the children dancing and dressing up, recalling how beautiful Queen Esther saved the Jews from persecution at the hands of a politician named Haman. Thats all the real estate the holiday received, accompanied by a black and white photo of a Hasidic man dancing in Jerusalem. Left on the cutting room floor were a number of color photographs made by Alfred Eisenstaedt of Israeli children wearing costumes for the celebration. Some dress as the characters in the Purim story (Esther, no surprise, is a crowd favorite), while others, like one little Lone Ranger, draw from popular culture.

The celebration itself centers around the reading of the Book of Esther, which begins with the Persian King Ahasuerus banishing his wife Vashti for disobeying orders. He arranges a beauty pageant to find a new wife and selects Esther, who keeps her Judaism a secret. Esthers cousin Mordechai, leader of the Jews, gains Ahasuerus favor by alerting him to an assassination plot, but incurs the wrath of anti-Semitic prime minister Haman, who issues a decree ordering all Jews to be killed. Esther valiantly stands up to Ahasuerus, disclosing her true identity and leading to Hamans hanging on the gallows built for Mordechai.

Purim is a favorite among children, who for just one day are encouraged to indulge in several activities that might otherwise be frowned upon. Dress-up hour is extended to a full-day activity. Cookies are offered up in abundance, their triangular shape conjuring evil Hamans hat. And noisemakers are distributed, with children instructed to exercise their full vocal capacity whenever Hamans name is uttered.

But Purim is not just for the kids. Adult revelers are urged to drink until they cant tell the difference between Mordechai and HamanTalmuds orders.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

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Source: http://time.com/3731931/purim/

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Victoria Beckham Makes Time In Her Busy Schedule For An Evening Out With ...

We should all strive to have a love like David and Victoria Beckham's!

These two have such jam-packed schedules, it's a wonder how they make time for each other!

But like some people say, if you're really invested, you'll make time for them that's how that goes, right??

The Beckhams were spotted enjoying a night out on the town at the Haig Club without their kids on Sunday evening in their hometown of London!

It was actually an event for David's Haig Club whisky brand, but it totally doubles for a fancy date!

[ Related: The Entire Beckham Clan Supports Victoria At Her Show! ]

The former soccer stud shared the beautiful photo (above) of the two of them lounging around in the club after their dinner:

"Great to have my beautiful wife in attendance at my Haig Club London dinner. #HaigClubLondon"

Ugh, relationship goals!

[Image via David Beckham/Facebook.]

Tags: anglophilia, date, david beckham, dinner, event, facebook, haig club london, london, love line, night out, sighting, victoria beckham, whisky

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Source: http://perezhilton.com/2015-03-03-david-beckham-victoria-beckham-dinner-date-london-beautiful-wife-comment-facebook

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DineEquity Continues Its Transformations of Applebee's, IHOP

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Diners may soon notice more big changes at their Friday evening happy hour spot, DineEquity (DIN - Get Report) owned Applebee's.

Long known as a suburban staple with a menu featuring tried-and-true entrees and cocktails, Applebee's has been undergoing a transformation of its menu and dcor during the last few years. Since December 2007, 90% of the Applebee's menu has been upgraded or changed, according to the company.

The makeovers at Applebee's and fellow DineEquity-owned chain IHOP have certainly attracted the notice of investors, who have sent DineEquity shares to a 52-week high recently, spurred by a strong finish to last year.

In the fourth quarter, Applebee's reported a 2.8% increase in same-store sales, its best showing since the second quarter of 2011. IHOP's same-store sales rose 6.1% in the fourth quarter, representing its highest quarterly sales increase since the first quarter of 2004.

Together, the two chains account for about 70% of DineEquity's total annual revenue.

As part of its revamp, Applebee's is now advertising its shareable and pub plate bar snacks, which includes novel, chef-inspired dishes such fried shrimp with BBQ spice & sriracha chile lime sauce (see photo below), as well as desserts such aschurro s'mores. At the bar, drinks such as the Fireball Whiskey Lemonade are sure to appeal to thirsty millennials.

Applebee's restaurants are also receiving a facelift. Franchisees are rolling out sleeker-looking bars with more modern seating, and dining sections for families that are devoid of funky patterned cushioning.

"We have made progress on this notion of the modern grill and bar," said DineEquity Chairman and CEO Julia Stewart in an interview with TheStreet at the world's largest Applebee's,locatedin New York City. DineEquity expects Applebee'ssales to rise by 1% to 4% this year due to improvements to the chain's dcor and menu. Stewart also sees a significant opportunity for Applebee's to expand internationally. As of the end of 2014, there were 1,870 domestic Applebee's locations, with 26 franchisees operating just 147 sites internationally.

"The international side of the business is small, but a huge opportunity for us in terms of growth," said Stewart. "Internationally, we really have a lot of malls, especially in the Middle East, as it's the place to entertain and go, so Applebee's in a mall is an opportunity."

According to DineEquity's latest annual report, the Applebee's development agreements currently in place call for the opening of 102 domestic restaurants and 19 international restaurants in 2015 and 2016. DineEquity does not disclose same-restaurant sales for international locations. Meantime, IHOP is also about to undergo a menu revamp, and is starting to roll out a new prototype restaurant. According to Miller Tabak restaurant analyst Stephen Anderson, IHOP's performance has been the main driver of DineEquity's surging stock price, while Applebee's has more work left to do to close the gap with rivals such as Chili's, which is owned by Brinker International (EAT - Get Report). "I think Chili's has done a successful job of focusing back on its Tex-Mex roots within the mid-scale bar-and-grill segment," Anderson said.

For the quarter ended Dec. 24,Chili's produced a 4.2% same-restaurant sales increase at franchised locations in the U.S.Must Read: Go Inside Dunkin' Donuts Plans to Dominate the K-Cup Industry

Source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/13066369/1/dineequity-continues-its-transformations-of-applebees-ihop.html

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Analysis / Netanyahu's speech leaves rivals at a loss

Minutes after the last standing ovation in Congress subsided, Israels politicians were trying to grab back the narrative of a local election campaign that had been hijackedby Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 9,500 kilometers away in Washington, D.C.

In Jerusalems downtown Mikes Place bar, Zionist Unions candidate for finance minister, Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg, was engaged in earnest conversation with about 20 young voters on banking controls and housing policy.

It was the sort of campaign event that rarely features in the media one that dealt with the actual details of issues impacting on Israelis lives. The white-haired Trajtenberg, a newcomer to politics, seems to have quickly adapted to his new environment, compressing a complex economic issue into sound bites.

He tried to avoid referring to Netanyahus speech, but just before he left, he said,Enough of this fearmongering. We have a real crisis in housing now, which is affecting our real lives.

Outside, someone suggested to him that Zionist Union would have done better to invite the television cameras to his meeting than to party leader Isaac Herzogs lackluster speech at the Gaza border.

Herzog, looking pale and slightly out of breath in a small hall with bad acoustics, could not have done more to highlight the contrast between a global statesman holding the worlds attention for a nearly hour-long speech at the most prestigious venue, and a local politician.

The painful truth is that behind the applause, Netanyahu remains alone, said Herzog. Israel remains isolated and the talks with Iran continue without any Israeli involvement.

He was right, but the lingering impression was of a lonely and forlorn Herzog. It was an unfair match, and a stark reminder that Netanyahus strategy of fighting this election over the issue on which the Israeli public still view him favorably seems to be working.

Likuds campaign had a couple of dismal weeks with the state comptrollers reports on the misuse of the prime ministers official residence budget and the ongoing failure of successive governments to deal with the housing crisis.

In the polls, a small gap opened in Herzogs favor. But the trip to Washington blew the plan to hold Netanyahu accountable for his domestic failings out of the water. With 12 days of campaigning left, what can Zionist Union and the other parties challenging Likud do to grab back the narrative and reclaim the agenda?

Bennett, Dery: If you can't beat him, join him

Two of Likuds natural partners are not even trying any more. Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett joined Netanyahu in Washington and has done everything possible to prove himself a mini-Bibi. Shas chairman Arye Dery on Tuesday night abandoned his partys policy of not recommending a candidate until after the elections and announced at the partys largest campaign rally, Mr. Prime Minister, we want to be with you and we want you to be prime minister.

Bennett and Dery are both aware that many of their potential voters are essentially Likudniks, and to keep them from voting for Netanyahus party, they are reduced to embracing him and promising that, no matter what, they will support him as prime minister.

For the other parties trying to present themselves as alternatives to Likud and appeal to voters who would like to replace Netanyahu, the question is how to move the discussion forward.

The two comptrollers reports are already old news, other domestic issues such as overcrowding in hospitals, which Herzog and his party colleagues tried to play up yesterday, are difficult to politicize and besides, the health minister in the last government was Yesh Atid's Yael German, so it will be difficult to pin this problem on the prime minister.

If the polls this weekend show that the speech had no effect on the electorate, Netanyahu will be in trouble. But all he needs is about 30,000 Likudniks who were planning to vote for Moshe Kahlons Kulanu party and a similar number who were thinking of voting for Habayit Hayehudi to return home, and he will be in pole position again. What else can be done in 10 days for Likuds rivals to regain momentum?

Of course, Iran could be a double-edged sword for Netanyahu. If, despite his efforts, a deal is signed before Israelis go to the polls, his opponents will be in a position to accuse him of damaging relations with the United States with nothing to show in return. But while some Western diplomats (not all) believe an agreement is imminent, it is highly unlikely to be signed before the deadline at the end of the month. Netanyahus rivals just want Iran to disappear for the next 10 days.

Next week the last full one of the campaign Zionist Union, Kulanu and Yesh Atid will all fire off their last salvos before Election Day organization becomes the name of the game.

They have no idea how to take hold of the agenda. At this stage, they are undecided even whether to target Netanyahu or each other.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.645359

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