Two triple doubles by Curry and Green leads to sweep, by Golden State Warriors over Portland Trailblazers

Tonight, history in the NBA has been created. Golden State Warriors won the Western Conference Finals for the 5th straight year. They swept Portland in Portland, as Stephen Curry and Draymond Green had triple doubles each in their victory. The next game for the Golden State Warriors will be May 30, in the NBA Finals. In the Eastern Conference finals, Milwaukee is winning by the series score of 2-1. Toronto won game 3 in Toronto last night. Hopefully, the Raptors will win game 4 tomorrow night in Toronto. Furthermore, the Golden State Warriors won tonight without Kevin Durant; DeMarcus Cousins; and Andre Iguodala. All three of these players were injured, but their services were not needed by the victorious Warriors. Tonight's game went into overtime, and the warriors defense came through in the 4th quarter and overtime. In the extra period, Draymond Green hit a clutch three pointer to extend Golden State's lead to 4 points. After that final basket by Green, Portland scored the final two points of the game. The Trailblazers could not tie the game, as they went for the win on a three point attempt. Yet, Damian Lillard could not hit the final three pointer. Next, the Golden State warriors get a well deserved rest. In game 1 of the NBA finals, the warriors will be in better shape if Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala are back in the starting lineup. Cousins may come back to play in the NBA finals, which would help the Warriors tremendously. As for home court advantage, the Bucks would have this huge benefit in the NBA Finals if they win the Eastern Conference Finals. If Toronto wins the Eastern Conference finals, the Golden State Warriors will have home court advantage. In this penultimate paragraph, the Golden State Warriors are the first team to reach five straight NBA finals since the 1966 Boston Celtics. For the third straight game, the Warriors overcame a huge double digit second half deficit to persevere in the overtime period. The Warriors had five players scoring in double figures, and Stephen Curry led the way with 37 points. The Warriors started Jordan Bell and Alfonso McKinnie, in place of the injured Durant and Iguodala. This new lineup worked out for the Warriors, as they were down by four points only at halftime. In closing, Klay Thompson's big three pointer at the end of the 2nd half was a huge bucket as the regulation ended with the score at 111 apiece. In the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors will be going for their 3rd straight finals victory. It could be the 4th finals ring for Livingston; Green; Curry; Thompson; and Iguodala. Enjoy the picture of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, as the splash brothers played another solid game. The NBA finals will have a new champion emerging from the Eastern conference, and the Raptors or Bucks will give the Warriors a run for their money. Peace!!

My encounter with El hefe as he met Neil Armstrong; yet his love interest questioned g. ripley more

Last night, g. ripley met a beautiful couple at a nearby watering hole. The nba basketball game between Milwaukee and Boston was on the huge TV, in front of g. ripley and the pretty waitresses. At the beginning, g. ripley was cheering at the tv as boston scored. Then, the man known as el hefe started chatting to g. about sports and economics. Later, he and his girlfriend were so nice to give g. ripley their names and what they did for a living [profession or career]. Sometimes, the privacy sets in and people don't want to disclose this information. Next, there was a woman that was singing on the stage and she is a nice female crooner. The blonde female singer gave us her business card. Her headshot was beautiful, and she looked super cute. At some point, the man told the author that he was going to see 'Apollo 11' movie. G. Ripley asked him and his girlfriend, cortney native; if they had seen the 'first man' movie. It is a good movie with Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, and Kyle Chandler. In addition, the overt friendly couple mentioned that they had met some famous people over the years. El hefe mentioned that he was at the 1999 fiesta bowl game at sun devil stadium; in Tempe, AZ. At this game, el hefe was running the field with a friend that was a reporter for Thomson Reuters Corp. in the Tempe stadium. One of the famous people that El hefe stood next to was Neil Armstrong. The astronaut happened to be on the sidelines like el hefe, so they stood together for about four minutes without any words between the two of them. El hefe mentioned that he was quite hesitant to say anything to the first man on the moon. Furthermore, there was one more famous person that El Hefe felt the need to discuss. He happened to be next to Bobby Bowden, the legendary coach of the Florida State Seminoles football team. Again, g. ripley asked them 'did you say anything to Bobby?' Yet, once again El Hefe's response was 'no.' As g. ripley decided that his line of questioning was over, there was a perplexed expression from cortney native. She mentioned that it may be good to say nothing sometimes. This information is so true, as silence can be golden. In this penultimate paragraph, cortney native asked ripley 'what is your plan in the next hour?'. G. ripley mentioned that he had to leave for another bar/restaurant to meet a beautiful vixen. At the time, cortney asked g. ripley 'why don't you invite your female friend here?'. G. ripley mentioned that there is a special place that he has to be with lindsay d. In contrast, cortney was shocked that g. ripley did not reveal the location of the next bar. Luckily, El Hefe distracted cortney with some canoodling; so that she would not ask g. ripley any more pressing questions about the female. In closing, females and males interact with each other in inconsistent ways. The female can cling to the male, in each way. Or, the male wants to express his love in a different, silent way than his partner. Last night, g. ripley observed that the best relationship with a female can happen in unexpected ways. It is better to be overt with the woman about most information, that you seek to be with. Expressing affection to your partner can be a huge key to keep the romance going. The best advice is to keep the romance private, and don't be so overt about it with everyone. Thank you for tuning in to another fun adventure that g. ripley had the pleasure of experiencing. Enjoy the picture of planets, as this story did contain information on space; romance; and social interaction. Au revoir mes amis.

NASA; climate change; and how three speakers at JPL informed me about greenhouse gases

Last night, G. Ripley checked out the JPL in la canada flintridge, CA. NASA JPL is jet propulsion laboratory. Brian W. was the host of the Von Karma Lecture on 'NASA: climate change in the 21st century and beyond.' The three speakers were Dr. Graeme Stephens; Dr. Kate Marvel; and Dr. Brian Kahn. Graeme is from Australia and South Africa; and he spoke about radioactive impacts plus cirrus cloud frequency. He spoke about water cycles, and how 97-98% of the earth is covered with water. He spoke about albedo also, which is the sunlight of the earth. After Dr. Graeme S. spoke, the next speaker was Dr. Brian Kahn. Brian talked about ECF, effective cloud fraction. He mentioned the ABI, which is the advanced baseline imager. Both acronyms are important in climate change. Brian mentioned that there is a 41 degree shift in Fahrenheit, over the past 10 years. This huge increase in the temperature is part of global warming. He mentioned that clouds will not save us from global warming. He mentioned that carbon dioxide is emitted, and this is CO2. His last question to everyone was 'will climate change be bad for the world?'; and the crowd was very happy to hear this question in such a relevant topic. The last speaker was Dr. Kate Marvel. She spoke about water vapor, which is H2O. She is from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies. She mentioned that emissions have to be cut. She mentioned that clouds and storms on a weather map are effective. The clouds on a weather map, are good for forecasting also. There are geostationary satellites, which are important in the sky and in space. The two major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, and water vapor. After she finished her speech, all three of the speakers answered questions from the crowd. It was a very informative night for me. I asked a question to Dr. Marvel; and to Dr. Kahn. Both of them answered my questions, about greenhouse gases and ECF. As G. Ripley closes this piece, the reader will find out different parts of climate change to be interesting. It was my first time at JPL; and the 75 minutes there were fun and exciting for me. The JPL has a visitor center, which covers the nine planets and telescopes/satellites too. As this weblog post comes to an end, enjoy the picture above of a space satellite. Good bye, earth citizens!!

Javascript; Netscape; and Brendan Eich make G.Ripley discover more on WWW

Today, G. Ripley covers Javascript; Netscape; and Brendan Eich. Javascript is a programming language, that is commonly abbreviated as JS. Javascript was created in 10 days, by Brendan Eich during his working life at Netscape in 1995. Javascript was supposed to complement Java, yet it became a language that you could stick right into a web page. Javascript became a success, as more web developers wanted to use it to create powerful websites. Javascript is connected to all parts of a web browser, even though it had many bugs and it was a rushed, get it out the door product. One of the main goals of Javascript was to implement this new language, into the Netscape Navigator web browser. At the time, Netscape and Microsoft had started the web browser wars. Next, let's look at Netscape and its origins. Netscape is widely known by its three major leaders/founders: 1. Jim Clark; 2. Marc Andreessen; and 3. James Barksdale. Barksdale served the company in the role of CEO, while Andreessen is the man that hired Brendan Eich. Jim Clark has a PhD, and he is a career entrepreneur. Jim Clark founded Silicon Graphics; Netscape; Healtheon; and myCFO. He is also the main subject [focus] in the book, 'The New New Thing' written by Michael Lewis in 1999. Third, Marc Andreessen helped Kipp Hickman to create SSL at Netscape Communications. SSL is secure sockets layer. It is a standard secure protocol for making encrypted links between a web server; and browser in online communication. Andreessen received his bachelor's degree in computer science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1993. These days, Andreessen is a huge part of Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm in modern day Menlo Park. Andreessen is very much known for founding other startup companies such as Opsware [later renamed to Loudcloud], and Ning. Fourth, Netscape Communications was sold in Fall 1998 to AOL for $4.2 billion. Yet, the Netscape navigator disappeared in 2002. Brendan Eich became the co-founder of the mozilla community. The mozilla community is part of the mozilla foundation, which started the firefox web browser. Firefox is an open source project, and one of the top web browsers in 2018. For the reader, the last paragraph will cover Javascript again. Finally, JavaScript is one of the major pieces that advertisers use for web tracking. Brendan Eich is the CEO of Brave software, which has a main product that is written in Javascript; C; and C++. Brave is that cool product. It is an open source web browser created by Brave software co.; based on the chromium web browser. The WWW is the world wide web, and enjoy the image above of Brendan Eich and the mozilla firefox logo. Hope the reader enjoyed another story replete with facts on Javascript; Netscape; Brendan Eich; and Marc Andreessen. Au revoir!!

One night with an erudite man, who informed me about SLAC and biomedical engineering

Four nights ago, g. ripley was at a festive dinner for a friend. At this small restaurant, a man and his wife came to the dinner along with their young baby daughter. The man had a PhD [doctorate] in biomedical engineering, and his name will not be disclosed in this post. He is a very brilliant person, who told me that biomedical engineering is a medley of different facets of engineering. He mentioned that biomedical can be a mixture of biology, and medical engineering. Yet, he mentioned that three fields are affected by this major emphasis. The three fields are biology, medicine, and engineering. Next, his current work struck my mind as something unheard of. He explained that he works with people that had completed projects at SLAC, the original acronym of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. SLAC is based in Menlo Park, CA; close to the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. SLAC has changed its name to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which works under the direction of U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science operated by Stanford University. In other words, SLAC is a department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory. In addition, SLAC research covers a gamut of topics such as atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, and medicine using X-rays from synchrotron radiation. SLAC is more than 55 years old, as it was founded in 1962. It has its actual address/location on Sand Hill Road, which will be mentioned further in another adjoining paragraph. Third, let's go back to Synchrotron radiation and its use in a significant Stanford project. Synchrotron radiation is electromagnetic energy emitted by charged particles. This complex form of energy moves at the speed of light, as their paths are changed by a magnetic field. Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP) used electromagnetic radiation (EMR) generated by particles circling in SPEAR (stanford positron electron asymmetric ring) to explore samples on a minute scale. One of the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser, later called the linac coherent light source is a cutting edge facility at SLAC. LCLS mixes ideas from Synchrotron Radiation and x-ray laser, to inform the public of a far advanced X-ray laser without electrons. LCLS has been in operation since 2009. In this penultimate paragraph, Sand Hill Road is mentioned as it is a mecca for venture capital firms. Venture capital and private equity firms fund small technology companies working in biotech; information tech.; and cleantech. One day, one of these small tech. companies or startups will become a huge minted corp. that can revolutionize the world. The prominent venture capital (VC) firms in Menlo Park, located on sand hill road are Accel-KKR; mayfield fund; Andreessen Horowitz; Kleiner Perkins; Sequoia Capital; and khosla ventures. Employees of these partner driven workplaces are entrepreneurs in residence (EIR). Entrepreneurs in residence is a new term which has expanded in law firms; business schools; and startup accelerators. In closing, the main goal of the author is to enrich the reader on four topics. The four pieces are SLAC; Synchrotron Radiation; Venture Capital; and sand hill road symbolism. Hope my audience enjoyed another informative writing project, which g. ripley endeavored upon. Enjoy the picture above of SLAC, nestled on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Ciao bella!!

The Jeff Skoll way: mixing technology [ebay], business [stanford univ. business school], and film production [participant media] into billions

If you have heard of Participant Media, then you may have read about Jeff Skoll. This film production company was founded by Jeff Skoll in 2004. Jeff Skoll graduated from Stanford University Business School, with an MBA at the Palo Alto campus. He found a way to make his MBA work for him, when he started working at Ebay with Pierre Omidyar and Margaret 'Meg' Whitman. As some of you know, Ebay started in the mid 1990s as a pure e-commerce auction website. Many netizens would peruse on Ebay to buy art, or to get other cool products through an internet auction. Ebay had their competitors too, including Amazon. Ebay would become one of the most popular auction companies, on the internet. Ebay stood for electronic (or echo) bay. Meg Whitman was the CEO of Ebay for 10 years, from 1998 to 2008. Pierre Omidyar is one of the main founders of Ebay. In the late summer of 1995, he and other coworkers decided to start Ebay as an electronic marketplace for sellers and buyers of various products. One of Pierre's coworkers was Jeff Skoll. With Jeff on board to help Pierre, it seemed that Ebay might only be a two man shop. Nope!! Jeff S. and Pierre O. decided that Meg Whitman was the right person to be the CEO. Meg W. became one of the few tech. female CEOs in Silicon Valley that steered the company in the right manner, through the recession in 2001 and the end of the .com [.dot com] boom in 2000-2002. Next, Meg decided that 2008 would be her last year with Ebay. But, it was ok for her to leave the internet juggernaut. Ebay had become a huge company with upwards of $5-$8 billion in sales. She would leave to start her new career as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, a huge computer reseller/software corporation. Let's go back to Jeff Skoll, as he is the main reason why I am writing this internet journalism story. Jeff Skoll has his name on the basc/mba emphasis [program] at university of toronto, which is his alma mater. The Rotman School of Management at university of toronto campus is one of the best colleges in Canada, thanks to the basc/mba program emphasis. Some of you may wonder why Participant Media means so much to me, and to the great Jeff Skoll. It is a film production company that helped Albert (Al) Gore, former VP of the US; to educate the world about Global Warming. Davis Guggenheim directed the movie, 'an Inconvenient Truth'; in 2006, and Al Gore helped the documentary further to win two Academy Awards in 2007. As for Jeff Skoll and participant media, there have been a few hits like 'Syriana;' 'Good Night, and Good luck;' plus 'North Country.' Syriana garnered an academy award for best supporting actor for George Clooney. Finally, let's circle back to Jeff Skoll. Participant Media has helped Jeff to branch out of tech. and business, to movie making which he loves to do. The other hits of Participant Media are 'Fast Food Nation' (2006), 'The World According to Sesame Street' (2006), Waiting for "Superman" (2010), 'Lincoln' (2012), and 'Spotlight (2015).' At the 2016 academy awards ceremony aka the oscars, Spotlight won the best picture academy award. In 2019, Green Book won the best picture award and they were helped by Participant Media. Finally, today's young internet entrepreneurs should look to Jeff Skoll and the future. Jeff may be in his fifties, but he has gained the knowledge of IT and business since the late 1990s. This era to today is almost 20 glorious years or more, of how the internet changed the lives of many netizens [portmanteau for network and citizens]. As this story written by G. Ripley comes to end, the readers should think of Jeff Skoll as one of the few tech. minds that will continue to teach humans how to improve their career; and work life. Remember that Meg Whitman; Pierre Omidyar; and Jeff Skoll are workers in the IT industry. Yet, they are philanthropists that care about the world becoming a better place for the next 100 years. Good bye to all my tech. and non-technology folks. You are the future, that helps an app. support analyst like myself to stay in this business driven world replete with new technologies that expand the internet and mankind.

Time to discuss bank mergers, transactions, etc. as SunTrust and BB&T are getting married!!

Today is another historic day in the banking/finance world. SunTrust and BB&T are merging in a $66 billion deal, which will form the 6th largest bank in the US. For the average reader, it may be time to ask 'where do I bank, and which bank is the biggest in America?' Or, maybe you don't have checking or savings account. Just joking! The top five banks in this country are: 1. JP Morgan-Chase; 2. Bank of America; 3. Wells Fargo; 4. Citi; 5. U.S. Bank. The new combination of SunTrust and BB&T will operate under a new name. BB&T stands for Branch Bank and Trust. The nouveau corporate headquarters will be in Charlotte, North Carolina. In addition, the southeastern financial institution will have significant operations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Atlanta. Together, BB&T and SunTrust will see the deal closing in late 2019. Of course, this beautiful financial marriage is pending regulatory approval. The merger marks the first major banking sector deal, since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Bank of America is where Rahulio G. and G. Ripley want to spend their money. BofA knows how to handle the money of big ballers, you dig. BofA CEO Brian Moynihan said at the World Economic Forum (WEF)in Davos, Switzerland last month that it would take a round of US bank mergers to produce a new rival in financial banking. JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) brought in more than $120 billion combined in profit last year. Banks contend with rising technology costs, which is a problematic trend for financial tech. firms and huge financial institutions. JP Morgan has 50,000 employees working in IT, and this number is quite high for a well known global bank. Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan CEO; believes that there are too many banks already. His point is very valid, as banks were merging in the 2000s and other previous decades. The amount of mergers in the 2000s, 1990s; and previous ones is more than double this current decade. In closing, this SunTrust and BB&T deal should have a new name of BBSuntrust. That is a name which will not be picked, unless G. Ripley is CEO of the new banking firm. Enjoy the picture of SunTrust above. Keep spending that money, USA!!