Auckland romp to win over nine-man Ba

Auckland City did their part to set up a Super City derby in the final of the Oceania Champions League, smashing Fijian side Ba 6-1 at Kiwitea St today.

With Waitakere United managing a commanding 2-0 win in the first leg of their home-and-away semifinal in Vanuatu yesterday, Auckland were even more dominant and now need to only avoid disaster in next weekend's return leg to make a third successive final.

Auckland were given a huge helping hand from their reckless opponents today, with two dangerous stamps met by two red cards and leaving the visitors to play half an hour with nine men.Large collection of quality indoorpositioningsystem at discounted prices.

Ba were well in the game at 1-1 when the first dismissal arrived, making the ill-discipline even more inexplicable. Manel Exposito had given Auckland the lead before Ba grabbed a precious away goal, but the red mist descended and the Fijian champions had no one to blame but themselves.

Emiliano Tade gave his side another lead before the second red card, leaving Auckland to cash in against an over-matched opposition.

Exposito snatched a second, substitute Darren White scored a brace and centre-back Mario Bilen got in on the action to all but seal Auckland's place in the May 19 final.

Waitakere are in a good position to meet City in the one-off match at Mt Smart Stadium, securing two away goals against Amicale to take charge of the tie. It would be a fitting finale to the season for the two rivals to clash for a spot at the Club World Cup in Morocco and the US$500,000 pay day that comes with it, giving Auckland a chance for revenge after Waitakere won the ASB Premiership in an epic extra-time final in March.

But Auckland coach Ramon Tribulietx wasn't getting ahead of himself, despite Ba needing a miracle to force their way back into the contest.

"We're not going to relax,'' he said. "We would be making a big mistake if we thought it was already done. There's still 90 minutes to be played and anything can happen - we still have to make sure that we compete.''

Ba were competing well in the first half today, looking menacing on the break and refusing to let Auckland relax in possession. The 3000 fans at Kiwitea St consisted of a sizeable Fijian contingent and they would have been impressed by their side, until Avinesh Suwamy's X-rated tackle on Takuya Iwata.

Auckland began to make the most of the numerical advantage in the second spell and the lively Tade notched a well-earned goal, before Meli Codro matched his teammate's brain explosion. Having completed an innocuous challenge on Exposito, Codro trod on the striker's back right under the nose of Tahitian referee Norbert Hauata, completely transforming the tie.

I used this space a few years ago to proclaim my disdain for all things social media, but I have since come around to a different point of view. I see, now, the usefulness of Facebook and Twitter. Both have come in handy in my professional life, though neither can supplant the importance of human interaction.You must not use the moulds without being trained. But they do serve a useful purpose both on the job and off, so I'm happy to have them. I'm just not going to turn my life over to them.

I take technology, like anything else, with a grain of salt. Not everything that comes down the pike is a worthwhile investment of my time.

For example, Words With Friends. It's a cool game, and I used to have several games going at once all the time. But I recently quit playing because I didn't like the amount of time I was spending on it. It was fun, but I decided to find better uses for my time -- things that didn't involve staring at my phone. Now, if I want to play a word game, I visit Merriam-Webster's website -- there are some great games on there.

Technology has brought us some cool stuff. Square, the credit card swiper that turns any smart phone into a cash register, is brilliant. "Checking in" on Foursquare? Umm, not so much.

When I covered the Longmont City Council retreat about a week ago, one of the guest speakers was a guy named Dave Maney, who talked about the technological revolution that's going on.

In Maney's view, the technological revolution -- which is, he says, still in its infancy -- is going to be the biggest fundamental change to the world's economy in hundreds of years. He contends that only two other times in history have things changed so much: when the industrial revolution hit and, thousands of years before that,The rtlsis our flagship product. the transformation of mankind from being cavemen into an agrarian society that used tools and invented math and science.

I think he's right.Please click the images below to view more pictures of ultrasonicsensor tiles!The term 'earcap control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. But things aren't changing as rapidly as some would have you believe. We still don't have driverless cars, and I still can't go into a store and buy a jet pack to use for my commute. And digital music still does not sound as good as analog music.

Sometimes the next big thing really is game-changing, such as the killer app MapMyRide. I use that thing almost every day. Sometimes, the next big thing is Windows 8, which I plan to never use. Like I said, just because it's an idea doesn't make it a good idea.

Whether the zoo and its aviary provide birders with a respite from the weather during a rain event, or just make up a single stop on a well-choreographed birding route they have mapped out for the Biggest Week, Richard Nachazel of Destination Toledo wants to see many birders take advantage of all of the options the region presents.

Our goal is to help our visitors move around a bit, and while they are here wed like them to take in our Metroparks, the art museum, our historical attractions, Imagination Station, and of course, the zoo, he said.

Kim Kaufman, executive director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory and one of the driving forces behind the Biggest Week festival, said that while the migrating birds are the primary drawing card for many of the visiting birders, the event has always trumpeted the areas wide spectrum of assets.

We have made it a point to always sell the region, and everything it has to offer, she said. It just makes so much sense to include many partners, because that way everyone benefits.

Webster encourages visitors to the area to take in the full spectacle of the migratory warblers, and hopefully save time to spend in the aviary, which houses the fourth-largest collection of birds east of the Mississippi River.

When you see the checklist, you know thats a serious birder, but we feel that a visit to the aviary allows you to go beyond the checklist, he said. Here you are able to look at them, appreciate them, observe their behavior, and see what it is that makes that bird so exceptional.