Latest news with #Renton
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Seahawks training camp takeaways: Injury updates on Uchenna Nwosu, Ken Walker
RENTON, Wash. — Mike Macdonald's second training camp with the Seattle Seahawks began with Hall of Famer Warren Moon raising the 12 Flag, and it ended with the head coach declaring that his team has the best training camp atmosphere, due to the fans, the weather and the overall vibe. 'All of the above is second to none,' Macdonald said Wednesday afternoon at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Advertisement Macdonald referred to this initial stage of training camp as the 'ramp phase' and 'execution phase,' adding that the Seahawks are not 'physically competing' against one another, so full evaluations of the team's progress will take time. That said, Wednesday's session and Macdonald's post-practice news conference were the first since mid-June, so let's dive into a few notes and takeaways from opening day. On Thursday, Seattle placed outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu on the physically unable to perform list because of an offseason procedure on his knee. It is unclear when Nwosu, who restructured his contract and took a pay cut this offseason, will be cleared to play. 'We'll see,' Macdonald said when asked about Nwosu's return timeline. 'We're going into the season, probably. Throughout the rest of camp, and then we'll go from there. We'll hold on to the timeline right now, but we're not necessarily close.' Nwosu has been limited to just 12 games over the past two seasons because of multiple injuries. Seattle has other promising edge rushers such as Boye Mafe, Derick Hall and free-agent signee DeMarcus Lawrence, but Nwosu has a different skill set that the team hasn't been able to adequately replace. The lack of clarity regarding Nwosu's timeline could result in another in-season move to address the team's depth chart on the edge. After Nwosu suffered a torn pectoral muscle in 2023, Seattle signed Frank Clark and traded for defensive tackle Leonard Williams. Last year, Seattle traded for defensive linemen Trevis Gipson and Roy Robertson-Harris after a pair of Nwosu injuries, a sprained MCL in his knee in the preseason finale and a quadricep tear in his first game back in Week 5. The Seahawks have nearly $35 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, and that is more than enough to make a splash similar to the Williams trade if Nwosu's recovery continues well into the regular season. General manager John Schneider has a history of making a flashy move to replace an injured player, notably doing so to acquire defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson (because of Malik McDowell's head injury) and left tackle Duane Brown (because of George Fant's torn ACL) in 2017. Does Schneider have eyes on another move, either via free-agent signing or trade? Advertisement Ken Walker III was limited during the spring with an ankle injury but was a full participant Wednesday and looked fine running around and catching passes from quarterback Sam Darnold with the rest of the starting unit. 'He looks great,' Macdonald said. 'He's in a great spot mentally. Just awesome to see him do all the things we wanted him to do from the get-go. I know he's really excited about what's going on. Great first day.' In other injury news, cornerback Shaquill Griffin didn't practice due to an illness. Nose tackle Johnathan Hankins will soon be placed on the non-football injury list because of a back injury, Macdonald said. Hankins' injury isn't expected to be a long-term issue. Seattle released tight end Noah Fant on Sunday. The move cleared $8.9 million in salary-cap space and pushed AJ Barner and second-round rookie Elijah Arroyo up the tight end depth chart. Macdonald declined to offer an explanation for releasing Fant. 'I'm not going to tell you exactly why,' he said. 'There's multiple reasons.' In 2024, Fant caught 48 passes (21st among tight ends) for 500 yards (18th) and one touchdown (tied for 41st), which came in the regular-season finale. The 27-year-old was entering the final year of his contract, and his cap charge of $13.4 million was to account for 4.7 percent of the team's salary cap. The timing of the release was curious, given the Seahawks didn't need immediate cap space and, as Macdonald said, they have yet to fully evaluate the new players on offense because they're not wearing pads. Regardless, the door is now open for either Barner or Arroyo to take over as the lead man at the tight end spot. 'It's understood what we're trying to achieve as a football team,' Macdonald said when asked if he spoke with Barner and Arroyo following Fant's release. 'We love Noah, wish him the best. But we also love the guys that are still here. They know what's at stake, and it's going to be a lot of fun watching that competition in the tight end room.' Advertisement Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak are mixing up the offensive line rotations, with centers Jalen Sundell and Olu Oluwatimi and right guards Christian Haynes and Anthony Bradford all receiving opportunities in front of Darnold and the starting offense. Macdonald said they'll continue mixing up the rotations through next week when they begin padded practices. The interesting name in that bunch is Haynes, a 2024 third-round pick whose inability to crack the starting lineup last season was due to a lack of play strength, at least according to former play caller Ryan Grubb. Haynes is a good athlete, and Seattle drafted him with the 81st pick believing he'd be a starting-caliber guard. Haynes should, in theory, be one of the players to benefit from the switch to a wide-zone-based run game. Those first few practices in pads will be very telling. The offensive line will make or break this season, which Macdonald expects to cap with a Super Bowl victory. Macdonald said he's most excited to see his offense run the ball well this year, and that starts up front. 'We want to play our style of ball, let the O-line do their thing, get Sam on the move, separate the defense, all those things,' he said. 'It's fun to watch these guys put it together and how they drill it, go from individual (periods) to group and how it all fits together, all the rules. It's really exciting.' (Photo of Seahawks running backs: Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Hopeless romantic' Welsh sends his gang looking for love
But it is the characters he created for Trainspotting that he keeps returning to – even if their latest adventures may be something of a departure for Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie. Read more: The fourth sequel to Trainspotting, which picks up shortly after the end of the first novel, sees them leaving heroin behind in pursuit of romance and raves. And Welsh has admitted he has drawn on his own experience as a 'pretty hopeless romantic' for the novel, which sees the characters seeking sex and looking for love in London, Amsterdam, Paris and their home city of Edinburgh, where Welsh suddenly emerged as a major new literary voice in the early 1990s. Irvine Welsh shot to fame with his debut novel Trainspotting in 1993. (Image: Getty) Within three years of Trainspotting's publication, it had been turned into an acclaimed feature film starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Jonny Lee Miller, who were reunited in 2016 for a sequel set around 20 years on from the original. Men In Love, Welsh's latest novel, is the second Trainspotting novel since the movie sequel, although the new book unfolds as the 1980s are drawing to a close with Margaret Thatcher still Prime Minister and rave culture sweeping the UK. Welsh said: 'I've never really left these characters behind. They are in my head as the go-to guys that I'm always writing stories about to try to understand the world. 'To write a novel I really need to have a theme. I really wanted to write a positive book as there is so much hate in the world just now. I wanted to get people thinking about the more emotional and romantic side of life.' Welsh has been working on Men In Love since getting married for a third time, in 2022. He said: 'I was thinking back to that era when guys in their twenties first get serious about romance and their partner becomes more important than their mates, but they are not really equipped for it. 'I was looking back and thinking about how useless most guys are at that time. I thought I'd get the most useless guys of all and see how they shape up. 'I think I've always been quite serious about relationships. I was always obsessed with any women who were daft enough to go out with me. I've always been a pretty hopeless romantic at heart.' Welsh, who worked in Edinburgh City Council's housing department before pursuing a career as a writer, said he had never intended to create a whole series of books on the Trainspotting characters. The author told The Herald: 'I don't know if it is a blessing or a curse, but I have always lived in the present. I don't really have the ability to look back or forward. 'When I go out with pals they come out with all these stories and tell me what I was wearing 35 years ago. I can't even remember what colour of underpants I put on in the morning. 'I always said in the past that I was done with the characters from Trainspotting, but I'm not going to say that now. I will probably revisit them again. 'But I've just written a contemporary book, which is coming out next year, which is set in Las Vegas and has a whole new cast of characters. It's a very different book, which has been incredibly freeing to write.' While his new book offers Welsh's fans a nostalgic trip, the author bemoans the impact of new technology on younger generations, society, culture and nightlife. The author said: 'Things have changed massively, when I think about the freedom that we had. We could do anything. 'The internet was supposed to be this great liberation, but it's become such an intrusive and confining thing now. We are being monitored all the time and we are policing each other. 'I do think about how much more boring my life would have been if we had had the internet, surveillance technology and all that kind of stuff back then. I do really feel for the youth of today. They are not really allowed to transgress in any way. 'Nobody has really got money to do anything now. That's the main reason pubs are shutting down. 'So many music and literature festivals have shut down this summer because people just don't have the money to go to them. 'The internet is also driving us to a post-culture society where a lot of people, particularly working-class people, are not engaging in culture in any way. It's a horrible development.' Welsh's interest in music has seen him co-write a Trainspotting stage musical, which is hoped to be launched next year, and release a disco-inspired Men In Love album to coincide with the release of his new novel. After his book launches in Edinburgh and Glasgow this week, he will also be performing late-night DJ sets at the official after-parties. Welsh will also be making further appearances in his home city over the next few weeks, with a Men In Love book festival event and the world premiere of a new documentary, Reality Is Not Enough, made by Edinburgh-based filmmaker Paul Sng, who followed the author around the world for more than a year. The film, which is described as 'a gripping and revealing deep dive' into the mind of the author, is said to find Welsh 'at a crossroads, acutely aware of his own mortality.' Welsh said: 'By god, it makes me look interesting, which is quite an achievement. 'You spend so much time in your own head, you don't really perceive of yourself as someone who has an interesting life. 'You are in all these locations, talking to different people and doing different things. You don't really think of it as being particularly glamorous as you are transit all the time. 'But I have met so many interesting people down the years. 'In some ways, watching the documentary was like meeting a version of myself for the first time.' Welsh is launching Men In Love days before the main Edinburgh Festival season gets underway. He said: 'It's great that the Festival happens, but the downside of it is that we put all our eggs into the one cultural basket. It's an importation. There's not really a living, breathing thing going in the town.'
Geek Wire
2 days ago
- Sport
- Geek Wire
Go deep! Watch an autonomous robot paint the lines on the Seattle Seahawks practice field
A Turf Tank Two autonomous sports field-marking robot. (Turf Tank Photo) The Seattle Seahawks have found an exceptionally efficient route runner. While Turf Tank might have a perfect football name, it won't be suited up as a player on Sundays. But the autonomous robot is already part of the team — and is even sporting Action Green. A new video on social media shows how the programmable, GPS-enabled, four-wheeled device has been deployed in time for training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Wash., which kicks off today and runs through Aug. 12. 'One more sleep 'til training camp begins, and the field's never looked better,' the Seahawks said on Instagram Tuesday night alongside a video that showed Turf Tank painting white yard lines, sidelines and hash marks. According to the Danish company's website, Turf Tank — which costs as much as $60,000 — is being used by more than 5,000 organizations worldwide, and can paint 120 different layouts for a variety of sports, including football, soccer, baseball, lacrosse and rugby. The device — which can also draw numbers, letters and logos — is designed to stripe fields more accurately than human-powered line markers and save the amount of time and paint it takes to prepare a surface. It works on grass, artificial turf and infield dirt. The Seahawks told GeekWire they've been using the machine for about three years at VMAC (no deployment at Lumen Field) and that it takes a little under two hours to do all of the markings. The Seahawks video shows a Turf Tank Two in operation, and a video on the company's website describes the software program that is used to set up and control the robot via a tablet. Founded in 2014, Turf Tank says one of its first prototypes was built using another iconic Danish invention — LEGO.
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Men in Love by Irvine Welsh review: 'his paciest, funniest book in years'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The early stages of drug dependency and romantic love have such similar rushing, all-consuming power that scientific studies of their comparative neurological effects have been made. That a book about one group of young men's devastating heroin habits should be followed by another about their often self-destructive pursuits of sex and relationship highs therefore makes plenty of sense. Thirty-two years have passed since Leith tearaways Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie first leapt off the pages of Irvine Welsh's darkly delirious million-selling masterpiece Trainspotting. Danny Boyle's 1996 film adaptation subsequently made icons of the characters and their creator. There have been numerous prequel, sequel and spin-off novels and short stories of varying merit, plus an iffy follow-up movie (2017's T2, set decades after the original). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Irvine Welsh At the outset of Men In Love, merely weeks have expired since Trainspotting's end, when Renton chose life by ripping off his mates in a drug deal before disappearing with their cash. The mixture of guilt, rage, betrayal and confusion each man feels is as fresh as the sweat on Renton's brow, as he goes cold turkey in Amsterdam trying to get clean. He, Sick Boy and Spud are estranged, yet largely united in their resolve not to fall back on the smack (Begbie's tangential compulsion for violent mayhem, meanwhile, rages unchecked). But what should fill the void? Foreshadowing 2002's Porno, the book that inspired T2, pseudo-sophisticate Scots Italian manipulator Sick Boy is in London building a career in adult entertainment, while using and abusing various women to different ends. Including Amanda, an upper-class dropout he encounters at drug counselling. She forces him to feel forbidden feelings no natural born shagger should feel. The thickest yet most morally sound of them all, Spud, is in a relationship with Sick Boy's ex Alison, whom he showers with a desperate, cloying love she can't requite. In Amsterdam, Renton becomes immersed in the burgeoning acid house club scene, and a world of fluid sexual and romantic relationships he may not be emotionally equipped for. Begbie's devotion remains only to Leith, the blade and the bottle. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The raw, gritty, trippy urgency and hyper-realism that drove Welsh's debut novel has long-since faded from his writing. Some of his graphic descriptions of oftentimes squalid sex may leave you needing a shower. But the simple ease and joy with which he reinhabits these vivid characters makes this his paciest, funniest, most page-turning book in years. If there is a love to be felt, it's Welsh's for his Leith young team, who for all their flaws and indeed evils, he never leaves without hope of redemption - be it Sick Boy in his battle of wits with Amanda's toff hypocrite father in the build up to their wedding, or Begbie, the world's worst best man, hanging over the climactic posh nuptials like a black cloud, threatening to rain either rough class justice or purely psychotic chaos.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Air India says no issues in locking mechanism of fuel control switches in Boeing fleet
The Boeing logo is displayed at the company's factory, Sept. 24, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) NEW DELHI — Air India said Tuesday that it had completed precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of fuel control switches for select Boeing aircrafts, with 'no issues' found. The announcement came days after a preliminary investigation into last month's Air India plane crash stated that the switches shifted and flipped within seconds, starving both engines of fuel. Air India operates a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners for long-distance operations, while subsidiary and low-cost unit Air India Express operates the Boeing 737 jets for short-haul flights. The airline said in a statement that it carried out inspections on its entire fleet of both types of aircraft. 'In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism,' it said. The investigation by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau into the London-bound plane that crashed in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad on June 12, killing 260 people, is centered around the fuel control switches on the Boeing 787 jetliner. One person survived the crash. Last week, India's aviation regulator ordered all airlines operating several Boeing models to examine fuel control switches and submit their findings to the regulator by July 21. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet, and Air India Express operates 75 Boeing 737 jets. In the past few weeks, the airline has faced disruptions in services amid heightened scrutiny and additional safety inspections, leading to flight delays, cancellations and growing passenger anxiety. On Monday, an Air India Airbus 320 flight veered off the runway as it landed during heavy rainfall at Mumbai International Airport, partially damaging the underside of one of the plane's engines and leading to a temporary runway closure. The flight had flown from Kochi in the southern state of Kerala. The airline said in a statement that all passengers and crew members disembarked safely and the aircraft was grounded for checks. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the debt-saddled national carrier to private ownership after decades of government control. The $2.4 billion deal was seen as the government's effort to sell off a loss-making, state-run businesses. It also was in some ways a homecoming for Air India, which was launched by the Tata family in 1932. Since the takeover, Air India has ordered hundreds of new planes worth more than $70 billion, redesigned its branding and livery and absorbed smaller airlines that Tata held stakes in. The company additionally has committed millions of dollars to digital overhauls of aircrafts and refurbishing interiors of more than five dozen legacy planes. Rajesh Roy, The Associated Press
