Latest news with #Ricard
USA Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
30 Most Important Ravens of 2025: No. 22 Patrick Ricard
Every day from now until the start of training camp, we're counting down our 30 Most Important Ravens for the 2025 season. The Baltimore Ravens are gearing up for the 2025 NFL season, which features plenty of new and returning faces within the organization. Several players, coaches, and front-office members are crucial to the team's success this season. Every day from now until the start of training camp, we're counting down our 30 Most Important Ravens for the 2025 season. We'll recap their 2024 season, look ahead to 2025, and tackle the most significant question facing them this year. Next up is star fullback Patrick Ricard, a veteran leader, valuable asset, and Pro Bowl road grader. Background Position: Fullback Age: 31 Experience: 9th-year pro 2025 cap hit: $1,422,500 2024 recap A Pro Bowl fullback, Ricard recorded three catches on five targets for 22 yards and a touchdown in 17 regular-season games in 2024. He did not log any carries. 2025 outlook Hours after agreeing to a deal with Ronnie Stanley, the Ravens reached an agreement with fullback Patrick Ricard to remain with the franchise. Baltimore star running back Derrick Henry, who ran for nearly 2,000 yards last season, made it clear during free agency how much he loved having the 300-pound fullback clearing the way in front of him. The Ricard-Henry duo was nearly unstoppable as Henry ran for 1,324 yards (6.2 per rush) and 15 touchdowns last season when Ricard was on the field. "Any time 42 [Ricard] is in front of me, I'm comfortable," Henry said. "I've got to make something happen." Biggest question: Will Ricard play more than 30% of the snaps? Ricard played in all 17 of Baltimore's regular-season contests for the third straight season. He proved his value by making the Pro Bowl without carrying the football for the second consecutive campaign, and his three receptions were his fewest since 2018. Even with the Ravens embracing a pass-heavy offense in key situations, Ricard has found a home in Todd Monken's scheme over the past two seasons, playing 39% of the offensive snaps in both years. 30 Most Important Ravens of 2025 We're counting down our 30 Most Important Ravens of 2025. Check back every day leading up to the start of training camp. No. 30 QB Cooper Rush, No. 29 OLB Tavius Robinson, No. 28 Keaton Mitchell, No. 27 Trenton Simpson, No. 26 Mike Green, No. 25 Travis Jones, No. 24 Daniel Faalele, No. 23 Andrew Vorhees
Vox
07-07-2025
- Health
- Vox
The spiritual life calls out to me. But is it self-indulgent?
is a senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect and co-host of the Future Perfect podcast. She writes primarily about the future of consciousness, tracking advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience and their staggering ethical implications. Before joining Vox, Sigal was the religion editor at the Atlantic. Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form or email Here's this week's question from a reader, condensed and edited for clarity: I graduate college soon, and like everyone around me, I'm working hard to find a job. But unlike those around me, I have a sense for how inactivity enlivens me — I get lots of joy from silence, reflection, and complete agency over my mind. I've quit most social media, and I got into meditation a while ago and never looked back. This awareness makes me tilt towards a life that optimizes for this. But I also have very altruistic leanings, which could become serious scruples if I don't do good in the world. Should I be trying to balance the pursuit of two seemingly opposed life goals — pursuing true happiness through inactivity and contemplation (as hypothesized by thinkers like Aristotle and Byung-Chul Han) and striving to do good in the world through robust goal-oriented action? The first is indifferent to which ends (if any) one's life contributes to, as long as it is blanketed in leisurely contemplation and true inactivity. The second invites and rewards behaviors that are constantly opposed to prolonged inactivity (working efficiently, constantly learning, etc). So I really don't know how to handle this. Dear Contemplative and Caring, Matthieu Ricard is known as the 'world's happiest man.' When he lay down in an MRI scanner so scientists could look at his brain, they saw that the regions associated with happiness were exploding with activity, while those associated with negative emotions were nearly silent. The scientists were stunned. How did his brain get that way? The answer: 60,000 hours of meditation. See, Ricard grew up in France, earned a PhD in genetics, and then, at age 26, abandoned a bright scientific career in favor of going to Tibet. He became a Buddhist monk and spent nearly three decades training his mind in love and compassion. The result was that one stupendously joyous brain. But what if he'd instead spent 60,000 hours bringing joy to other people? Philosopher Peter Singer once put this question to Ricard, basically asking if it was self-indulgent to spend so much time in a hermitage when there are problems in the world that urgently need fixing. Ricard gave a complex answer, and I think looking at all three components of it will be helpful to you. Have a question you want me to answer in the next Your Mileage May Vary column? Feel free to email me at or fill out this anonymous form! Newsletter subscribers will get my column before anyone else does and their questions will be prioritized for future editions. Sign up here! For one thing, Ricard pointed out that there are many different values in life. Helping other people is absolutely a wonderful value. But there are others, too: art, for instance. He noted that we don't go around scolding Yo-Yo Ma for the thousands of hours he spent perfecting the cello; instead, we appreciate the beauty of his music. Spiritual growth through contemplation or meditation is like that, Ricard suggested. It's another value intrinsically worth pursuing. Ricard also emphasized, though, that helping others is something he values very deeply. Just like you, he prizes both contemplation and altruism. But he doesn't necessarily see a conflict between them. Instead, he's convinced that contemplative training actually helps you act altruistically in the world. If you don't have a calm and steady mind, it's hard to be present at someone's bedside and comfort them while they're dying. If you haven't learned to relinquish your grip on the self, it's hard to lead a nonprofit without falling prey to a clash of egos. Still, Ricard admitted that he is not without regret about his lifestyle. His regret, he said, was 'not to have put compassion into action' for so many years. In his 50s, he decided to address this by setting up a foundation doing humanitarian work in Tibet, Nepal, and India. But the fact that he'd neglected to concretely help humanity for half a century seemed to weigh on him. What can we learn from Ricard's example? For someone like you, who values both contemplation and altruism, it's important to realize that each one can actually bolster the other. We've already seen Ricard make the point that contemplation can improve altruistic action. But another famous Buddhist talked about how action in the wider world can improve contemplation, too. That Buddhist was Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen teacher and peace activist who in the 1950s developed Engaged Buddhism, which urges followers to actively work on the social, political, and environmental issues of the day. Asked about the idea that people need to choose between engaging in social change or working on spiritual growth, the teacher said: I think that view is rather dualistic. The [meditation] practice should address suffering: the suffering within yourself and the suffering around you. They are linked to each other. When you go to the mountain and practice alone, you don't have the chance to recognize the anger, jealousy, and despair that's in you. That's why it's good that you encounter people — so you know these emotions. So that you can recognize them and try to look into their nature. If you don't know the roots of these afflictions, you cannot see the path leading to their cessation. That's why suffering is very important for our practice. I would add that contact with the world improves contemplation not only because it teaches us about suffering, but also because it gives us access to joyful insights. For example, Thich Nhat Hanh taught that one of the most important spiritual insights is 'interbeing' — the notion that all things are mutually dependent on all other things. A great way to access that would be through a moment of wonder in a complex natural ecosystem, or through the experience of pregnancy, when cells from one individual integrate into the body of another seemingly separate self! At this point, you might have a question for these Buddhists: Okay, it's all well and good for you guys to talk about spiritual growth and social engagement going hand-in-hand, but you had the luxury of doing years of spiritual growth uninterrupted first! How am I supposed to train my mind while staying constantly engaged with a modern world that's designed to fragment my attention? Part of the answer, Buddhist teachers say, is to practice both 'on and off the cushion.' When we think about meditation, we often picture ourselves sitting on a cushion with our eyes closed. But it doesn't have to look that way. It can also be a state of mind with which we do whatever else it is we're doing: volunteering, commuting to work, drinking a cup of tea, washing the dishes. Thich Nhat Hanh was fond of saying, 'Washing the dishes is like bathing a baby Buddha. The profane is the sacred. Everyday mind is Buddha's mind.' But I think it's really hard to do that in any kind of consistent way unless you've already had concerted periods of practice. And that's the reason why retreats exist. Buddhist monks commonly do this — sometimes for three years, or for three months, depending on their tradition — but you don't have to be a monk or even a Buddhist to do it. Anyone can go on a retreat. I've found that even short, weekend-long retreats, where you're supported by the silent company of other practitioners and the guidance of teachers, can provide a helpful container for intensive meditation and catalyze your growth. It's a lot like language immersion: Sure, you can learn Italian by studying a few words on Duolingo alone each night, but you'll probably learn a whole lot faster if you spend a chunk of time living in a Tuscan villa. So here's what I'd suggest to you: Pursue a career that includes actively doing good in the world — but be intentional about building in substantial blocks of time for contemplation, too. That could mean a year (or two or three) of meditative training before you go on the job market, to give you a stable base to launch off from. But it could also mean scheduling regular retreats for yourself — anywhere from three days to three months — in between your work commitments. More broadly, though, I want you to remember that the ideas about the good life that you're thinking through didn't emerge in a vacuum. They're conditioned by history. As the 20th-century thinker Hannah Arendt points out, vita contemplativa (the contemplative life) has been deemed superior to vita activa (the life of activity) by most pre-modern Western thinkers, from the Ancient Greeks to the medieval Christians. But why? Aristotle, whom you mentioned, put contemplation on a pedestal because he believed it was what free men did, whereas men who labored were coerced by the necessity to stay alive, and were thus living as if they were enslaved whether they were literally enslaved or not. In our modern world, Arendt notes, the hierarchy has been flipped upside down. Capitalist society valorizes the vita activa and downgrades the vita contemplativa. But this reversal still keeps the relationship between the two modes stable: It keeps them positioned in a hierarchical order. Arendt thinks that's silly. Rather than placing one above the other, she encourages us to consider the distinct values of both. I think she's right. Not only does contemplation need action to survive (even philosophers have to eat), but contemplation without action is impoverished. If Aristotle had had an open-minded encounter with enslaved people, maybe he would have been a better philosopher, one who challenged hierarchies rather than reinforcing them. It can be perfectly okay, and potentially very beneficial, to spend some stretch of time in pure contemplation like Aristotle — or like the Buddhist monk Ricard. But if you do it forever, chances are you'll end up with the same regret as the monk: the regret of not putting compassion into action. Bonus: What I'm reading Not only does modern life make it hard to think deeply and contemplatively — with the advent of AI, it also risks homogenizing our thoughts. The New Yorker's Kyle Chayka examines the growing body of evidence suggesting that chatbots are degrading our capacity for creative thought. This week, I learned that rich Europeans in the 18th century actually paid men to live in their gardens as…' ornamental hermits '? Apparently it was trendy to have an isolated man in a goat's hair robe wandering around in contemplative silence! Some scholars think the trend took off because philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau had just argued that people living in a 'state of nature' are morally superior to those corrupted by modern society. Twentieth-century Trappist monk Thomas Merton was a great lover of stillness. His poem ' In Silence' is mainly an ode to the contemplative life. But he ends the poem with these cryptic lines: 'How can a man be still or listen to all things burning? How can he dare to sit with them when all their silence is on fire?'
Irish Independent
19-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Jameson owner Pernod Ricard says it's ‘committed' to Ireland amid global review
France's Pernod Ricard owns Irish Distillers, with Jameson being a leading global seller for the group. It also owns brands such as Absolut and Martell. 'Pernod Ricard announced a reorganisation project aimed at creating a more agile and simplified organisation aligned with our strategic objectives and the current evolution of our business,' said a spokesperson. 'Given that we have just begun this process, we are not in a position to comment any further at this stage,' they said. The spokesperson added: 'Jameson is a strategic brand for Pernod Ricard, and we remain committed to Ireland, the Irish whiskey category and the growth of our whiskey brands on the global stage.' Jameson looks set to retain a leading role in the company's high-profile portfolio. Pernod Ricard told staff this week that it has launched an "internal project to create a more agile and simplified organisation". It had already announced job cuts in China, where steep anti-dumping duties on its Martell cognac label have hit sales hard, as well as a plan to cut €1bn in costs by its 2029 financial year. In a staff memo, chief executive Alexandre Ricard said the project, dubbed 'Tomorrow 2', was intended to "further advance the simplification of our organisation". Mr Ricard told staff in a video that the restructuring, which includes bundling administrative tasks rather than having brands operate individually, would lead to "departures", two sources said. There were no further details about the impact on jobs. In the presentation slides, the company said it would organise its brands into two main units, named Gold and Crystal. ADVERTISEMENT The Gold division would include champagne and brands such as Martell cognac and Jameson, while Crystal will include Havana Club, Absolut vodka and some French aperitif brands. The company plans to implement the changes, including voluntary departures, in the last three months of 2025, the slides showed. "These changes imply the launch of local consultation processes with our social partners and employees where necessary," Pernod Ricard said, without commenting on the number of jobs affected or the plan to group brands into two units. Last month, the master distiller at Pernod Ricard's Irish Distillers unit, Kevin O'Gorman, said a new €250m distillery at Midleton in Co Cork won't now open until 2027. It had been expected to open this year. Last month rival LVMH's wines and spirits division announced plans to shrink its workforce by nearly 13pc. Pernod, Guinness maker Diageo and Remy Cointreau have also had to adjust their growth expectations as the boom in sales enjoyed after the Covid pandemic has gone into reverse. All three companies have scrapped or reduced ambitious sales targets for the coming years. Remy and other rivals, such as Jack Daniel's maker Brown-Forman have also cut jobs. Diageo, the world's largest spirits maker, also plans to cut $500m in costs and make substantial asset disposals by 2028.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pernod Ricard launches reorganisation plan
Pernod Ricard has launched "an internal project" aimed at creating "a more agile and simplified organisation" at the Olmeca Tequila maker. Reports from Reuters yesterday (18 June) suggested the group was looking to streamline its operations. Internal company presentation slides viewed by the publication reportedly suggested Pernod Ricard plans to group its brands into two main divisions. When asked about its plans, the group told Just Drinks: "At Pernod Ricard, we work on an ongoing basis to adapt our organisation and ways of working to the fast-evolving business environment. "That is why we have announced to all our employees an internal project aimed to create a more agile and simplified organisation aligned with our strategic objectives and the current evolution of our business. "These changes imply the launch of local consultation processes with our social partners and employees where necessary, therefore we cannot comment any further at this stage'. It is unclear how many employees may be affected by the move. According to a staff memo, seen by Reuters, CEO Alexandre Ricard said the project, called Tomorrow 2, looks to "further advance the simplification of our organisation". Two sources also told the publication Ricard informed staff in a video the group's restructuring would bring about "departures". Several major distillers have been facing pressure on sales amid slowing demand in important markets including the US and China. Trade tensions have also weighed on consumer sentiment and shaken supply chains. In May, LVMH's Moët Hennessy also reportedly revealed plans to lay off thousands of its employees. Pernod Ricard's two new business divisions are allegedly called "Gold" and "Crystal", with the former including Champagne, and brands such as Martell Cognac and Jameson whiskey. The latter would feature Havana Club rum, Absolut vodka and French aperitifs. According to Reuters, the changes are expected to be brought into force in the last three months of this year. In its third-quarter results, released in April, Pernod Ricard booked €2.38bn ($2.7bn) in net sales, declining 3% on an organic and reported basis. Nine-month net sales dipped 4% organically and by 3% in reported terms to €8.5bn, hit by a €145m foreign-exchange impact. Volumes in the nine months were up 1%. In Pernod Ricard's third quarter, its net sales in the US were up 2%, although the company said organic net sales were "ahead of sell-out supported by wholesalers' orders ahead of tariff announcements". In China, net sales declined 5% and were down 22% in the first nine months of the financial year. At the time, the group said it was facing a 'macro context' that 'remains challenging'. Speaking after Pernod Ricard reported its third-quarter results, CFO Hélène de Tissot said the company expected China to weigh on its annual performance. 'For the fiscal year '25, the main impact of tariffs is China, which we are completely assessing. That's why we are confirming our ability and our confidence to sustain the operating margin," she said at the time. "Pernod Ricard launches reorganisation plan" was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
NBC Sports
11-03-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Patrick Ricard agrees to re-sign with Ravens
Fullback Patrick Ricard is set to return to the Ravens. Dianna Russini of reports that Ricard has agreed to a one-year deal that will keep him in Baltimore. Ricard has been with the Ravens since 2017 and he was named a first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career in 2024. Ricard, who has also been named to five Pro Bowls, had three catches for 22 yards and a touchdown while also serving as a key blocker in the team's offense. The Ravens also agreed to a new deal with left tackle Ronnie Stanley over the weekend, so two longtime members of the offense will be back in 2025.
