Nose

May. 18, Post Time: 10:45AM Entries and comments provided by the Maryland Jockey Club First - Purse $55,000, AOC $25,000-$20,000, 3 yo's & up, One And One Sixteenth Miles Post, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds 1 Aussi Austin, Rosario, R.Rodriguez, 3-1 2 Bob's Gone Wild, Vargas, J.Lopez, 20-1 3 Jarrod's Commando, Karamanos, C.Garcia, 10-1 4 Warrensburg, Boyce, D.Barr, 20-1 5 Benny Or Local, Cruise, D.Kobiskie,...

I'll be honest with you. I don't know anything about Missouri Southern State nose tackle Brandon Williams, whom the Ravens picked in the third round of the NFL draft on Friday night. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. The Ravens raved about his strength and character and how he held his own at the Senior Bowl, so I'm eager to find out more about him in the next couple of days. One thing I do know about Williams is that he can do this (see video above).

Q: Which animal has a better sense of smell, dog or cat? A: Dogs, “by a nose,” and it's related to physiology. A cat has something like 50 million to 80 million odor-sensitive olfactory receptor cells in its nose, but a dog (depending on breed, with the bloodhound as champ) has a whopping 200 million to 300 million. We humans only have 5 million or so. The feline sense of smell is roughly 10 to 20 times keener than humans' - whereas a dog's nose is tens of thousands times more sensitive than ours.

In Baltimore County, like much of Maryland, tax revenues have flat-lined. State aid for such things as road resurfacing is not much better. County workers won't be receiving cost-of-living increases for the fifth year in a row. Yet amid all this austerity, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz last week proposed a budget that finances new schools and retrofits many others with air conditioning. There are millions of dollars for new school security systems, for a new family resource center on the east side of the county and for new technology for police.

''White supremacy caused Napoleon to blow the nose off the Sphinx because it reminded [him] too much of the black man's majesty.''-- Louis Farrakhan, October 16ON THE 19th of May, 1798, a young French general nameNapoleon Bonaparte set off in his flagship L'Orient for the conquest of Egypt. The Mediterranean crossing was calm, Napoleon's officers found time to read, and several chose popular romantic novels of the day: Goethe's ''Sorrows of Young Werther,'' Bernardin de St. Pierre's ''Paul and Virginia.

Occasional photo caption challenges were a staple at my old blog, and I plan on keeping the contest going here at The Baltimore Sun . The premise is simple: Come up with a clever, comical and clean caption for the picture above and you'll win a prize. With the Orioles taking the field in Sarasota today for the start of spring training, I decided I would find a fun photo of O's manager Buck Showalter. Mission accomplished (thanks to Getty Images). Whoever comes up with the best caption will get their choice of tickets to the Ringling Bros.

Looking to round out their defensive line rotation, the Ravens has signed veteran nose tackle Ma'ake Kemoeatu, the team announced Wednesday. Kemoeatu will likely replace backup nose tackle Brandon McKinney, who signed with Chuck Pagano and the Indianapolis Colts in free agency. Kemoeatu, 33 got his start as an undrafted free agent with the Ravens in 2002. A Tonga native and a Utah graduate, Kemoeatu played four seasons with the Ravens. He started 16 games and made 30 tackles in 2005, his final season in Baltimore.

The next installment of Steelers week is two months away, but Terrell Suggs took time this week to tell Sports Illustrated's Peter King how “awesome” it was when the Ravens broke Ben Roethlisberger's nose last season. Appearing on King's new weekly podcast -- Suggs was his special guest in the third episode -- the Ravens linebacker was asked to tell a story that illustrates the intensity of the Baltimore-Pittsburgh rivalry. Suggs chose the Steelers' Week 13 win from a year ago because he and Roethlisberger were both bloodied.

First Catholic Charities said that if they were forced to recognize gay marriages when it comes to offering their employees' spouses health benefits that they would stop offering those benefits altogether. Now the archdiocese will not approve the sale of vacant former school buildings to charter schools because it's too much competition for their remaining open schools ("Archdiocese won't sell or lease to charter schools," March 17). Do I hear a phrase my parents always used to say to me?

Kim and her new nose are throwing a little party to debut her readjusted cartilage. She also wants to celebrate her sobriety. Cute idea, having a coffee bar instead of a liquor bar.  The annoyed, strained smile on the barista's face when she suggested iced drinks was golden. Never have I seen so much thinly veiled disdain expressed so efficiently. Kyle comes over with Portia and Taylor's daughter Kennedy (love that name). Portia, for one, is terrified of her Auntie Kim's taped-up face.

I cannot understand why in a country like the United States politicians should have any authority over marriage or other personal preferences. Be it gay marriage, polygamy or a puff on a marijuana cigarette, these are private matters. If no one in society is negatively affected by a personal behavior, what is the concern? If a gay couple marry and have kids, and the kids are healthy and happy, what is the problem? If a man or woman want to cohabitate with multiple spouses, and their "collective family" is happy and content, why should the government be concerned?

Terri Stafford used to take Lulu, her border collie mix, to medical facilities as part of a Baltimore-based volunteer program that enabled her to share her beloved pet's affection with others in need of it. "We did that for several years until Lulu got too sick" with cancer, said Stafford, a retired registered nurse who lives in Baltimore County. "Toward the end, when Lulu wasn't feeling well, she spent a lot of time hiding in the closet. But I'd say, 'Lulu, let's go visiting.' And she'd come running out and jump in the car. She loved it. "I also used to enjoy the way people would light up when I would bring Lulu to visit them," Stafford said.

Kim and her new nose are throwing a little party to debut her readjusted cartilage. She also wants to celebrate her sobriety. Cute idea, having a coffee bar instead of a liquor bar.  The annoyed, strained smile on the barista's face when she suggested iced drinks was golden. Never have I seen so much thinly veiled disdain expressed so efficiently. Kyle comes over with Portia and Taylor's daughter Kennedy (love that name). Portia, for one, is terrified of her Auntie Kim's taped-up face.

Just when we were getting our heads around the idea that many (if not most) of us will lose brain function as we age, there is news that another one of those physical gifts we take for granted is likely to leave us. Our sense of smell. It is a bit of a blow, if you will excuse the pun. And it joins a growing list: balance, flexibility, muscle mass, strength, vision, hearing and hair, to name just a handful of the things the young take for granted. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that our sense of smell degrades as we age, reducing both pleasure and safety.

A conservation group is warning that many of Maryland's counties are skirting a new state law requiring them to rein in development of rural lands. 1000 Friends of Maryland says that more than a third of the state's 23 counties have done little or nothing so far to comply with the Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012 , which aims to restrict new housing on septic systems in rural areas. "What we have are eight counties that are in the red zone," says Dru Schmidt-Perkins, the Friends executive director.

Laurel Park Lighthouse Bay wins Smart Halo by nose Lighthouse Bay sat off the dueling leaders and then edged a 64-1 shot by a nose to win the $100,000 Smart Halo Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Laurel Park on Saturday. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche was content to sit behind front-runners Baby J and Jax and Jill before gaining the lead in the upper stretch. By midstretch Laurel Park-based Ek Haseena challenged Lighthouse Bay and the two bumped and brushed several times in the final furlong before the winner put a nose in front at the wire.

Longtime run stopper Kelly Gregg is officially gone and Terrence Cody is undeniably the man in the middle, latest in a line of nose guards who play traffic cop for the Ravens. Built more like the massive Tony Siragusa than the shorter Gregg, Cody had an uneven rookie season: He arrived overweight, quickly suffered a knee injury that required surgery and spent the first month of the regular season trying to work that big body into shape. Once he got on the field, however, he began to show why he was a steal late in the second round of the 2010 draft.

Racing doesn't get any better than the $75,000 Lady Baltimore Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park.Six horses charged to the finish line a neck apart and the placing judges needed almost 10 minutes to determine the final order of the 1 1/8 -mile test on the turf.Three noses, a head and a dead heat (for fourth place) later, Earth to Jackie was declared the winner of the $45,000 top prize.The Polish Numbers filly nipped long shot Shuttered, who earned the place by a nose over another long shot, My Papoose.

The 11-horse field in the $350,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park was packed with strong sprinters from New York and New Jersey, but when the competitors in the six-furlong race reached the wire, it was Maryland-bred Action Andy, the sixth betting choice, by a literal whisker. In a photo finish, Action Andy edged Kentucky-bred and second choice Il Villano, officially by a nose. The 5-year-old son of Gators N Bears came into the race off a win in the Maryland Million Sprint, but went off at 10-to-1 odds, paying $22.00, $9.20 and $6.60 after covering the dirt course in 1:10.61.

The men's and women's marathons in the Baltimore Running Festival on Saturday were the closest in the event's history. Stephen Muange of Kenya won his second consecutive Baltimore Marathon with a time of 2:13.08. Elfneshe Yado won by a nose to claim the women's championship in 2:38.46. chris.trevino@baltsun.com