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Part 3 of the pre-49ers game SI Fan Nation All Dolphins mailbag:

From Edward Thruston (@edfins13):

What do you think is the best way to attack the 49ers defense to win the game???? I Think there will be a lot of quick passes….

Hey Edward, yeah, for sustained success, I think the quick passing has to be highlighted, but the Dolphins would be foolish not to take a shot or two down the field when they’ve got that crazy speed outside with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

From Chip Paucek (@chippaucek):

My mailbag question: Yes, I know the offense is great. Even without Armstead, I have confidence they will figure it out. But what has me more excited than a great Eddie Van Halen guitar solo is the defense. Is it ascending the way I think it is or is that just me being a total homer? Chubb with Phillips, Ingram and AVG seems to change the way the whole thing comes together.

Hey Chip, love the EVH reference (always enjoy mixing music and football)! I do believe there’s reason to be enthusiastic about what the defense could do down the stretch with the edge-rushing group the Dolphins have assembled, but there’s one hurdle that needs to be cleared in my eyes, and that’s putting together a dominant outing on the road. The Dolphins have had some good performances on defense this season, but all of them (NE, BUF despite the yards given up, PIT) have come at home.

From Jorge boyd (@raga1922):

Hi Alain, do you think Mike McDaniel is going to adjust the offense with quick passes to offset the 49ers pass rush or will he stick with what has worked so far, which could possibly put Tua in danger. Will the Dolphins be able to get away with a dink-and-dunk offense?

Hey Jorge, I am always confident in McDaniel’s ability to come up with something creative and I’m pretty sure he’ll have a good plan in place in the event Terron Armstead can’t play to deal with the 49ers pass rush — even if he does play. I do expect the Dolphins to take some shots downfield during the game, though it also would figure they’d emphasize the quick-passing game more.

From Kyle Ontis (@DolphinsSwag618):

If the 49ers run the same type of running scheme as the Dolphins, wouldn’t we just prepare to play ourselves in that sense?

Hey Kyle, pretty much. And it works the same the other way around. But this is where playing against tendency can work in a coach’s favor here. And, also, the bottom line is it’s one thing to have an idea what’s coming in, you still have to win your battles physically to stop it.

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FOR EVEN MORE COVERAGE ON THE MIAMI DOLPHINS, CHECK OUT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’S MIAMI DOLPHINS PAGE ON SI.COM.

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From Jeff (via email):

Hey Alain, I just finished listening to an interview you had done talking about the status of the team. You discussed a few topics, but what I noticed was your enthusiasm talking about matchups and how the teams compared this week. What is your favorite thing to discuss when it comes to football? What is your niche in your view when it comes to covering the game? Second question if I may… Have we heard anything about the team staying on the West Coast for the next 3 games? Do you think it actually matters?

Hey Jeff, answering last thing first, the Dolphins are staying on the West Coast between the games against the 49ers and Chargers and then coming home before flying back out to Buffalo. And it absolutely does make sense to do that. As for the other question, which I appreciate and find very interesting, I think my niche would be finding stats applicable to a certain matchup and then also putting context to certain stats on the surface can be manipulated to support a viewpoint.

From Mario Gonzalez (@MarioGo76776156):

Which one do you prefer the most, chip blocking, screen passes or max protection?

Hey Mario, I’m flattered that you want to know which one I prefer because Mike McDaniel didn’t even bother asking me. LOL. Of the three options you mentioned, I’m a fan of screen passes when it’s done well as a way to slow down a pass rush, but it’s gotta be executed well. The Dolphins already do a lot of wide receiver screens, but I wouldn’t mind them incorporating more running back screens moving forward.

From Joe Burns (via email):

Hi Alain, thanks for the great coverage and unbelievable insight and for the taking the time to answer our questions, much appreciated. My question is with Armstead out, why move Shell from right tackle when has played pretty solid all year? Why not have Austin Jackson take over left tackle duties? A. It is his natural position B. It’s not Tua’s blind side C. It involves the least amount of disruption on the line from the previous five weeks. Just a thought. I know there is no replacing Terron but I think the least amount of moving parts the better.

Hey Joe, first off, thanks. And you make a very solid point in regards to the Shell/Jackson situation in replacing Armstead, but the one element you left out is that Jackson likely practiced only at right tackle during the Houston week and Shell likely practiced with the starters at left tackle with Armstead missing a good chunk of the reps because of his toe injury. I think that supersedes everything else and if there was a full week of practice before your scenario would emerge, then maybe Jackson would be on the left side.

From Brandon Quinn (via email):

Next two weeks with no #72 or 73 has my Fins anxiety through the roof. Still think it was a mistake to cut Kindley over Deiter, for this exact scenario. Shell can handle RT, and I’d love to be able to bump Hunt outside the next two weeks – but we can’t fill his spot. Should we just bench Tua against the Bosas the next two weeks simply to protect him for the more winnable games with 72 back? LOL. If not, give me some reasons to hope Alain! Bonus – any PS flyer type interest in newly released (again) Abram to fill the Brandon Jones role?

Hey Brandon, yeah, LOL indeed. Here are your reasons for hope. First, Armstead might not even miss two weeks because he’s not even been ruled out of the 49ers game yet. Second, Mike McDaniel is a creative savant (to use the words he used himself while talking about Tua) who likely will come up with some sort of game plan and scheme to make up for the absence of Armstead if he indeed has to miss time. Lastly, not exactly sure why you’re missing Kindley because, no offense, he’s such a valuable player that he’s not on anybody’s 53-man roster right now. As for Abram for the P.S., that’s a no for me. Ask yourself why two teams have cut him in recent weeks.

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Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Dolphins news and analysis year-round. Also, you can follow me on Twitter at @PoupartNFL, and that’s where you can ask questions for the regular All Dolphins mailbags. You also can ask questions via email at fnalldolphins@yahoo.com.

BASSFIELD, Miss. (WDAM) – Bassfield is getting in the Christmas spirit as the city is set to host “Christmas in the Park” on Dec. 10.

Bassfield Mayor Angie Ladner said the event is the biggest of the year.

“Oh, it just brings us together,” Ladner said. “I mean, it’s just one more time for us to show our love.

:Bassfield certainly has had its issues over the years, but we are one big family, and. I say that every time I speak to anybody about Bassfield.”

“Christmas in the Park” will feature activities for all ages, including a trackless train, karaoke and live music.

The day also will include a Christmas parade that begins at 2 p.m. on Dec. 10.

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Alexandria City Public Schools is in the initial stages of organizing a collective bargaining effort for thousands of its employees.

The school system has more than 2,400 employees and pays $11.6 million in salaries, with funds approved by the City Council. That means that any agreement reached between ACPS staffers and the school system will have to be approved by Council.

“In this case, you’re going to be negotiating a collective bargaining agreement for about 80% of your costs,” Mayor Justin Wilson said at a joint City Council/School Board Subcommittee meeting on Monday (Nov. 28).

Wilson continued, “Without some special structure put together, you’re going to be doing so without coordination with the entity that is going to pay those bills. So, I think we need to figure out how we hold hands and put together a process where we can all do this together somehow.”

The news comes shortly after the city and police department came to a collective bargaining agreement. As part of that agreement, which was nearly a year in the making, police officers will get significant salary raises, as well as bonuses for longevity and specialized skills.

Education Association of Alexandria President Dawn Lucas says that her organization is ready to get to work.

“We are ready and willing to work closely during this process,” Lucas told the School Board on Nov. 10. “We believe that having strong collective bargaining will make us more competitive than other school divisions when it comes to retaining and recruiting the very best educators and staff.”

In the meantime, the school system is proposing a 2.64% step increase and 2.5% market rate adjustment for all staff in the upcoming fiscal year 2024 budget. Healthcare costs are also projected to increase 8% and dental care costs will increase 2%.

Interim Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt told Wilson that she will work closely with City Manager Jim Parajon’s office in creating a collective bargaining structure. No timeline has yet been presented.

“We will keep you informed as we are educating our staff on what it’s going to look at , as well as a timeline,” Kay-Wyatt said.

City Council adopted its collective bargaining ordinance last year.

Crisp, brisk air and sparkling frost signal the start of the holiday season each year. But for local shop owners, preparing for their busiest months began well before the first holly was hung. Finding out the up-and-coming trends, purchasing the perfect holiday gifts and staging their stores is a year-long process to help make shoppers get in the holiday spirit while searching for the perfect gifts.

“Most of my income comes in November and December so I do have to do the prep work beforehand to make that happen,” The Farmer’s Wife owner Bonnie Terpstra said. “It is a lot of work and my storage is up the stairs but you have to do it to make the reward.”

Terpstra’s store on the northwest corner of Newton’s downtown is transformed into a holiday wonderland, a little bit of something for everyone’s taste. But she doesn’t wait until the end of summer work on the holidays, it’s a process that kicks off just as the last holiday season wraps up.

“For looking, it’s always right after Christmas. I’ll go to market in January and order most of it there,” Terpstra said. “You can kind of see what is trending in all of the show rooms. I have my favorites that I like to buy from. Also, what’s trending, what sold well for me the past Christmas. Things change and evolve and you’ve got to move with the new colors or whatever they come up with on the designs.”

Market can be in Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta or many other large cities across the country. Stacy Barney from Fine Things on the south side of downtown Newton said owner Julia Prendergast is always prepping for the holidays, finding different pieces throughout the year.

“She does go to market and she has companies that she uses,” Barney said. “Most shows for any store will be spring and winter.”

Along with purchasing items from outside companies, Stephanie Moran owner and designer at Silverado Jewelry, makes her own products, an ongoing project as the trends evolve.

“The year before, we will make notes of things we want to do differently for the following year, what we want to buy, what we want to look for. Then, a couple of months ago actually buying things and figuring out how we are going to decorate and position things,” Moran said. “We get inspiration from different influencers, trying to see what the market in going towards. We want to have the right colors, right fit, the right textures, that is all important to us.”

Once the products are secured, getting the store ready is the next big task. Shoppers who might want to start decorating their own house begin to look for pieces before the holidays start, giving shop owners the opportunity to begin teasing what is coming for the season.

“I always start decorating Oct. 1 because I have large store,” Terpstra said. “I start at the back and move forward. Each section has a different theme. We have the farmhouse, the kitchen area, a black, white and silver and the front is usually a lot of sparkle and glam that Christmas comes with.”

Terpstra hinted at trends flowing in a boho direction incorporating a lot of wood tones and naturals for the upcoming season. Of course, the traditional reds and greens can also be found through each store, too.

“We try to hold back a little bit … once we get into the first of November, within the next couple of weeks everything will be out,” Barney said. “We’ll be good and prepared by then.”

By mid-November, shops are completely transformed to winter wonderlands, filled with holiday cheer and plenty of goodies to keep patrons busy. With several shopping weekends offering specials and deals along with extra activities in the downtown, shop owners are eager to welcome the hundreds of shoppers looking to celebrate throughout the holiday months.

“It is so incredible the support we get from the community,” Moran said. “It is indescribable.”

The Black Friday weekend is traditionally one of the biggest of the year for online sales, but those sales hinge on the ability of retailers to keep their e-commerce sites going and to fend off threats from cybercriminals.

The stakes are undoubtedly high for retailers, as well as all kinds of companies, and so are the risks. Cybercriminals know that many IT security professionals will be home eating turkey instead of keeping an eye out for online attackers over the long weekend, making it a good time for them to launch an attack.

That’s why the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Wednesday reminded companies, especially those that involve critical infrastructure, to keep their guard up, reiterating guidance it issued last year.

The message isn’t lost on Jon Hocut, head of information security at Brooks Running, who plans to stay close to his laptop the entire weekend. He’s charged with protecting the personal information of the runners who buy his company’s products, as well as guarding Brooks’ overall corporate systems from online attackers.

In terms of sales, the “cyber five” stretch, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a huge sales event for the 100-year-old company known for its running shoes and apparel. Its e-commerce team expects traffic on the company’s retail site to jump 30% to 50% over those peak days. 

If the site were to crash over the weekend, it could mean millions in lost sales and throngs of disappointed runners, but the Seattle, Washington-based company has more to worry about than that. Its computer systems also hold “shoe secrets” that need to be kept confidential, as well as the software that sends and tracks shipments to retailers.

The ransomware problem

The “worst nightmare” for many companies, Hocut said, would be a targeted ransomware attack, probably involving a Russian criminal gang staffed with cyberexperts, that would quietly infiltrate a company’s systems, then move through them without being detected.

The attackers would figure which systems are most critical, then find and compromise the company’s backed-up data. Everything would appear to be OK until around midnight on Thanksgiving, when the company’s incident response team is home, stuffed full of turkey and nearly asleep, he said.

“That’s when they start hitting all of your systems and taking them down,” Hocut said. “When you’re at your least ability to respond.

“That’s the nightmare, and that’s what we have to keep from happening.”

Ransomware really is nightmare stuff. The attacks, which have locked up entire computer systems at businesses, schools, hospitals and elsewhere, are getting more frequent, more successful and more expensive.

According to Sophos’ State of Ransomware report earlier this year, 66% of organizations surveyed said they were hit with a ransomware attack in 2021, up from 37% in 2020. And 6% of those attacks were successful in encrypting their victims’ data, up from 54% the year before. On top of that, the average ransom paid by organizations for their most significant ransomware attack grew by nearly five times, to just over $800,000, while the number of organizations that paid ransoms of $1 million or more tripled.

A big part of preventing that is making sure systems are locked down and there are enough people to respond if something does happen over the holiday weekend, Hocut said. At Brooks, the entire incident response team will be on call 24/7 over the holiday weekend.

The company also recently hired the cybersecurity company Illumio to help shore up its defenses. The idea is to segment off Brooks’ systems so that the damage is limited if a system is breached, said  PJ Kirner, Illumio’s co-founder and chief technology officer.

Kirner likened the company’s systems to the structure of a submarine, noting that subs are built in compartments, so that if one part of a sub is breached, it can be sealed off and stop the sub from sinking. If a company can quickly detect a breach and prevent the attackers from moving through its systems, it also can limit the damage, he said.

The idea isn’t a new one. The inability of companies to silo off their most precious data has long been blamed for some of history’s most massive data breaches. But segmenting massive computer systems is easier said than done, Kirner said.

That’s particularly true for Brooks, Hocut said. The century-old brand, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has seen significant growth in recent years. In 2021, its revenue totaled $1.11 billion, marking its first year over the $1 billion mark.

The threats companies face have also changed, Kirner said. While the thought of a massive data breach might have kept security professionals awake at night just a few years ago, the major threat now is the kind of ransomware attack Hocut described.

“If you look at attacks maybe five years ago, they were data confidentiality issues,” Kirner said. “You got the customer list, you got emails, you got credit cards. They were about a breach of confidentiality.”

Ransomware, in comparison, is about a company’s operations.

“Why are we talking about retail now? Because Thanksgiving is the most impactful operational day of the year,” he said, adding that customer data is just as valuable to cybercriminals any other day of the year. 

It’s those operational threats that will keep Hocut and his staff on “maximum paranoia mode” at least through the end of the weekend. They’ll be taking a close look at any alerts that pop up and will be very grateful and happy when they turn out to be false positives, he said.

Other IT professionals may not be so lucky.

“I expect that 90% of my friends who do incident response as a specialty will probably be working on somebody’s painful experience this holiday weekend,” Hocut said.

Thousands of people expected for Thursday’s annual meal

DULUTH, Minn — It’s a job that some people may not like. For others it’s the exact opposite John McDonald, a chef at Mid Coast Catering is one person who enjoys potato peeling.

McDonald said, “There’s something Zen about peeling potatoes, you know, it just makes the time fly by.

So, if you enjoy peeling potatoes or enjoy helping others, the DECC kitchen was the place for you. Nearly 2,000 pounds of potatoes were peeled and sliced to make real, home-made mashed potatoes for the 6,000 to 7,000 people expected on Thursday.

The organizer of the DECC event is Monica Hendrickson from the College of St. Scholastica and she described the events of the day.

“Today, it’s potatoes, potatoes and stuffing and everything made with love, a lot of love and lots of butter. We’ve gone through a lot of butter, ” said Hendrickson.

More than two dozen volunteers, many from Minnesota Power and others from Mid Coast Catering were peeling the potatoes on Tuesday.

This is the 33rd year for this meal and there is a lot of food to cook.  Hendrickson said, “We cook for three days straight and everyone pitches in.”

The effort is led by the College of St. Scholastica with donations of cash, time and food coming from throughout the community to make Thanksgiving a little better for a lot of people.

Hendrickson summed up the reason for the effort that’s put into this one meal, “for us it’s getting kind of back to our roots, of really having that home-cooked meal like if you went to your grandmas or your moms.”

SOUTHINGTON, CT (WFSB) – As temperatures go downhill into the winter months, ski and snowboarding resorts are ready to thrive.

Eyewitness News stopped by Mt. Southington to see how they’re getting ready.

“It’s just really fun in the snow but I don’t like being cold but I don’t feel cold when I ski,” said Ella Stratton, skier.

“I was excited and surprised that there’s already snow because it’s early,” said Paige Straub, skier.

Mt. Southington isn’t open yet but usually opens in mid-December.

“This year we have both new and used with every seasonal rental kids come in and purchase we give them two lift tickets worth $68 a piece,” Monti Montana, Seasonal Rentals and Social Media.

General Manager Jay Dougherty said they are working hard. They already tested out their first blast of snow.

“Last night we had some temperatures that allowed us to test fire our snow gums pump some water up the hill we did a lot of work to our snow making system over the summer and it’s good to see it all come out great so we’re happy,” said Jay.

Now they’re looking ahead to a busy season. Usually thousands visit and they’ve got about 100 snow making machines ready to go.

“Planning for every season starts at the close if the previous season so it’s a lot of work all through the summer we have a lot of crew that does it we are working on our chair lift we’re working on our rental equipment we’re working on our snow making system but it all comes together in November so it’s a really exciting time of year,” Jay said.

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