Fast bowling

Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling. Practitioners are usually known as fast bowlers, fastmen, pace bowlers, quicks, or pacemen, although sometimes the label refers to the specific fast bowling technique the bowler prefers, such as swing bowler or seam bowler.

The aim of fast bowling is to bowl the hard cricket ball at high speed and to induce it to bounce off the pitch in an erratic fashion or move sideways through the air, factors which make it difficult for the batsman to hit the ball cleanly. A typical fast delivery has a speed in the range of 137–153 km/h (85–95 mph).

Categorisation of fast bowling

It is possible for a bowler to concentrate solely on speed, especially when young, but as fast bowlers mature they pick up new skills and tend to rely more on swing bowling or seam bowling techniques. Most fast bowlers will specialise in one of these two areas and will sometimes be categorised as swing or seam bowler. However, this classification is not satisfactory because the categories are not mutually exclusive and a skilled bowler will usually bowl a mixture of fast, swinging, seaming and also cutting balls, even if he prefers one style to the others. Also, due to pitch and weather conditions, it may be almost unsustainable to bowl to their full potential pace, meaning a fast bowler could average at a high 130 km/h instead of low 140 km/h, or a fast-medium bowler may extract more pace and bowl quicker than their average pace.

Length

In geometric measurements, length is the most extended dimension of an object. In the International System of Quantities, length is any quantity with dimension distance. In other contexts "length" is the measured dimension of an object. For example, it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire thickness.

Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, which are the distance from side to side, measuring across the object at right angles to the length. Length is a measure of one dimension, whereas area is a measure of two dimensions (length squared) and volume is a measure of three dimensions (length cubed). In most systems of measurement, the unit of length is a base unit, from which other units are defined.

History

Measurement has been important ever since humans settled from nomadic lifestyles and started using building materials, occupying land and trading with neighbours. As society has become more technologically oriented, much higher accuracies of measurement are required in an increasingly diverse set of fields, from micro-electronics to interplanetary ranging.

Length (phonetics)

In phonetics, length or quantity is a feature of sounds that have distinctively extended duration compared with other sounds. There are long vowels as well as long consonants (the latter are often called geminates).

Many languages do not have distinctive length. Among the languages that have distinctive length, there are only a few that have both distinctive vowel length and distinctive consonant length. It is more common that there is only one or that they depend on each other.

The languages that distinguish between different lengths have usually long and short sounds. According to some linguists, Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic (meaning-distinguishing) lengths for consonants and vowels. Some Low German/Low Saxon varieties in the vicinity of Hamburg and some Moselle Franconian and Ripuiarian Franconian varieties do, too.

Strictly speaking, a pair of a long sound and a short sound should be identical except for their length. In certain languages, however, there are pairs of phonemes that are traditionally considered to be long-short pairs even though they differ not only in length, but also in quality, for instance English "long e" which is /iː/ (as in feet /fiːt/) vs. "short i" which is /ɪ/ (as in fit /fɪt/) or German "long e" which is /eː/ (as in Beet /beːt/ 'garden bed') vs. "short e" which is /ɛ/ (as in Bett /bɛt/ 'sleeping bed'). Also, tonal contour may reinforce the length, as in Estonian, where the over-long length is concomitant with a tonal variation resembling tonal stress marking.

Horse length

A horse length, or simply length, is a unit of measurement for the length of a horse from nose to tail, approximately 8 feet (2.4 m).

Use in horse racing

The length is commonly used in Thoroughbred horse racing, where it describes the distance between horses in a race. Horses may be described as winning by several lengths, as in the notable example of Secretariat, who won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths (248 feet (76 m)). More often, winning distances are merely a fraction of a length, such as half a length.

Other measures

Distances smaller than that are similarly described in reference to the equine body with terms such as a "neck", and a "head", a "short head" or "nose", the smallest possible named advantage by which a horse can win. In the United Kingdom and Ireland a margin of more than 30 lengths is described as a "distance". In France the term "short neck" is used for a margin intermediate between a head and a neck. Harness race finishing margins are typically measured in meters.

Good

Good may refer to:

Common meanings

Companies

Arts and entertainment

Other uses

See also

Good (play)

Good is an award-winning play in two acts written by British playwright Cecil Philip Taylor. First published for Methuen Drama in 1982, it was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981 and was subsequently seen all over the world.Good has been described as the definitive piece written about the Holocaust in the English-speaking theatre. Set in pre-war Germany, it shows how John Halder, a liberal-minded professor whose best friend is the Jewish Maurice, could not only be seduced into joining the Nazism, but step-by-rationalised-step end up embracing the final solution justifying to his conscience the terrible actions.

Plot overview

Good (film)

Good is a film based on the stage play of the same name by C. P. Taylor and starring Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs and Jodie Whittaker. It was directed by Vicente Amorim and was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2008.

Plot

Good is the story of John Halder (Mortensen), a German literature professor in the 1930s, who is reluctant at first to accept the ideas of the Nazi Party. He is pulled in different emotional directions by his wife, his mother, his mistress (Whittaker) and his Jewish friend (Isaacs). Eventually Halder gives in to Nazism in order to advance his career. He is granted an honorary position in the SS, due to his writings in support of euthanasia. His involvement in the party makes his relationship with his Jewish friend more and more fraught. Finally, Halder finds himself working for Adolf Eichmann. Under the pretext of work he engineers a visit to a concentration camp where he imagines that he sees his emaciated friend. Seeing inmates arriving and the suffering of those at the camp he realizes what his deeds have accomplished.