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Jury hears from Jackson director, doc, in week 11
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A look at key moments this past week in the wrongful death trial in Los Angeles between Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and concert giant AEG Live LLC, and what is expected at court in the week ahead:
Jackson's mother wants a jury to determine that the promoter of Jackson's planned comeback concerts didn't properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a criminal jury for Jackson's June 2009 death. AEG's attorney says the case is about personal choice, namely Jackson's decision to have Murray serve as his doctor and give him doses of a powerful anesthetic as a sleep aid. Millions, possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.
— "This Is It" director Kenny Ortega testified about his interactions with Jackson in preparations for the shows, describing how he felt the concerts likely wouldn't happen but was more concerned with the health of his longtime friend and collaborator.
— Ortega recounted Jackson's frail condition on June 19, 2009, when he said the singer arrived at a rehearsal shivering, frail and incoherent. Ortega said Jackson's condition improved as the night went on and had seemed reinvigorated at a session just a few days later, but died on June 25, 2009.
— Ortega acknowledged that it was understandable that AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips was confused by conflicting information received from the director and the singer's doctor.
— Jurors watched the videotaped testimony of Dr. Stuart Finkelstein, a physician and addiction medicine specialist who treated Jackson on his 1993 "Dangerous" tour and said he thought that the singer had a dependency on painkillers at the time. He said he shared his suspicions with Paul Gongaware, a tour staff member who is now one of AEG Live's top executives and worked closely with Jackson in 2009.
— Handwritten notes that Jackson wrote on Neverland Ranch stationary to his nephew, Taj, and a note he received from his daughter Paris thanking him for a hug before bedtime.
— Ortega break down on the stand while reading an email he sent to AEG Live's CEO calling Jackson a "lost boy." A judge called a 10 minute recess to allow the choreographer-director to compose himself before resuming his testimony.
— "I saw a Michael that frightened me ... "He appeared lost, cold, afraid," Ortega told the jury, describing the singer's condition at a rehearsal session six days before his death.
— "I tried the doctor who I thought would be the most natural person" to help, Ortega said of efforts to help Jackson during the rehearsal. "Then I reached out to AEG, Michael's partners, to make sure they were aware of how I felt and what I saw."
— "He gave them Christmas every day of the year," Ortega said, recounting one visit to Jackson's mansion in April 2009 in which Christmas decorations were up everywhere.
— A damages expert is expected to testify about Jackson's potential lost earnings and the plaintiff's case may draw to a close.


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The Hatters made the first save and scored the first goal, but the young squad could not keep up with the more-experienced Liberty Flames.
DELAND — Stetson goalkeeper Whitney Meyers was gratified to see a large crowd turn out Sunday for the Hatters' first women's lacrosse game.
"Personally, I wanted to show our fans and the coaches and the school why they got a lacrosse team, and I wanted to show our support for them,'' Meyers said.
Meyers made the first save of the game and the Hatters scored the first goal of the game, but the young squad could not keep up with the more-experienced Liberty Flames, a fourth-year program, and fell 16-3 before a crowd of nearly 500 at Stetson's Athletic Training Center field.
"It's not about the outcome, win or lose,'' Stetson assistant coach Brittany Dipper said. "It's all about building the foundation. The girls were really excited. It was an awesome feeling all around. I'm proud of them.''
The Hatters played their first game without head coach Nicole Moore, who had been in Maine on a family emergency and could not get a flight back in time because of the winter storm in the Northeast.
"She wishes she was here so much, especially for the first game,'' Dipper said. "She loves this program and she loves Stetson, so it's hard for her not being here, but she's been talking to me all day. She was here with us in spirit, that's for sure.''
Attacker Melanie Fredericks etched her name in the Hatters' brand-new record book by scoring the first goal in program history — 9 minutes and 5 seconds into the game. The free position shot also marked Stetson's first lead at 1-0.
"It's pretty cool,'' Fredericks said. "I'm just glad we did so many eight meters (shots just outside the crease) in practice. I really didn't have anyone next to me on the hand that I needed, so I just took two steps in right to the opposite post.
"We all got pumped. I thought my team was going to knock me over. It was awesome. I'm sure it's something we'll all think about, but we won't dwell on. There's a hundred more firsts, a hundred more games.''
The lead didn't last long, as Liberty (1-0) scored two goals within two minutes and 10 seconds to go up 2-1 with 17:38 left in the first half. The Flames went on to take a 6-2 halftime lead.
Sophomore attacker Samantha Akl, one of only three upperclassmen on Stetson's roster, scored the other two goals for the Hatters, including a free-position shot 31 seconds into the second half to pull the home team to within 6-3.
But the Flames responded with 10 unanswered scores, including a final goal with one second left.
Jen Freymond scored four goals for Liberty, while Morgan Becker had three scores. Kelly Belue had four assists. Meyers had 10 saves, including eight in the first half, while Liberty goalie Kristen Massula had 14 saves.
"They had a great goalie and it was just all about moving her,'' Akl said. "This shows us what our strengths are and we have to work on, and I think that in the coming week we're going to have an analysis of both of those things to prepare us for our next game.''
While the Hatters started 10 freshmen and two sophomores, the Flames started just one freshman.
"I'm very excited about the progress we've made as a program,'' said Liberty coach Regan Denham, whose team compiled an 11-38 through its first three seasons. "Our first year we had no recruiting class and we won one game. It's tough having all freshmen.''
The Hatters, who start the season with seven straight home games, host San Diego State at 11 a.m. next Sunday.
"Even though we didn't win, I'm so proud of my team,'' Meyers said. "We all played with our hearts. There were a lot of positives. I think with time we'll learn to trust each other more and take those chances and just grow as a team.''

subset: commoncrawl


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I can't even remember because I mostly see a blurry doorway, outline of a dresser, a blurry light from my iPhone and have to feel my way to turn on the lamp because I make out the silhouette, not the actual on switch.
I've worn glasses since age 11 when I thought I was soooooooo cool to finally be able to get a pair of glasses.
Why on earth did I want glasses as a kid?
|Oh yes, that is a jean collared shirt for my 12th birthday and I still love funfetti cakes.
Before I entered 8th grade, I convinced my parents that I needed contacts so I was the frequent owner of every color from turquoise to blue to purple to green, where I consistently lost one every day because I wasn't that used to the whole thing-in-your-eye situation yet. It takes a minute to get used to contacts and I'm sure my parents loved all the extra costs I incurred as I learned to navigate the new world of contact wearing. Never mind the fact that my actual eyes are an interesting blend of blue/green with yellow in the middle but of course I didn't want my real eye color to show through. Not at all.
Seeing as I have only two pairs of contacts left, I decided to pull the trigger to sign myself up for a LASIK consultation at a fine laser eye establishment.
|serious with crooked librarian glasses; laughing about the fact that I'm wearing crooked glasses
So, for the next few days, I'll be rocking the glasses, slightly crooked I found out, as I tried to take photos of myself to prepare for what will hopefully be a successful appointment, giving me the green light to have the surgery in just a few short weeks.
Have you had LASIK? Is it one of the best things you've ever done? (I'm hoping you say an excited "yes!")
Editor's note: Thanks to all who voted me to the second round of Cleveland Magazine's blogger bracket and round two has begun. Vote for your favorites here.


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Vivian Fern "Mammaw" Kitchens
Vivian Fern "Mammaw" Kitchens, 84, of Arkoma passed away Thursday, March 21, 2013, in Fort Smith, Ark., after a courageous battle with pulmonary fibrosis.Vivian was born April 18, 1928, in Summerfield to Urba and Georgie (Hayes) Brown. She was a teacher in the Greenwood school system and was retired from the Fort Smith school system. She loved and was very passionate about her profession and her students. She was of the Baptist faith. Mammaw was a generous person who loved sewing for her family and shopping with and for them. Mammaw had style. She was an All-State basketball player in 1944.Vivian was preceded in death by her parents and sisters, Marie Newman, Esbia Ramsey, Leonora Hankins, Lorraine Barrickand Reba Maynor; and infant sisters Blue Bell and Willie. She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Neil Kitchens, three daughters and sons-in-law, Janet and Walter King, Lujane and David Buttress of Arkoma and Gregg and Joan Goss of Perkins; four grandchildren, Bo and Renea Buttress of Van Buren, Jake and Ginger Goss of Little Elm, Texas, Jarrod Buttress of Dickinson, Texas and Jaycee and Travis Elliott of Poteau; great-granddaughters, Addison Buttress and Timber Goss; sisters, Bobbie Burgess of DeQueen, Ark., and Urbia Dean and Delbert Earls of Wagoner; special niece, Thersa Hankins of Wister ; and many nieces, nephews, other relatives and loved ones. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, March 25, at Evans Chapel of Memories with Jake Goss and the Rev. Jim Cook officiating. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery, Fort Smith. The family will visit with relatives and friends at Evans and Miller Funeral Home from 2-4 p.m. Sunday.


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Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita joins a panel of election policy leaders at the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project Conference
Contact: Jen Fanger
Washington, DC - Today, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita joins a panel of election policy leaders at the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project Conference to discuss lessons learned from the 2006 mid-term elections and the potential impact of federal and state reforms currently under consideration.
Rokita has worked during the months of February and March throughout the country to ensure that Hoosier voices are heard in the growing national discussion on election policy reform.
"We've made great strides in improving the electoral process for voters, and now we need to give recent reforms time to take full effect," said Rokita. "There are some proposals circulating that would reverse reform measures at a significant cost to Hoosier taxpayers. We simply need to be certain we're weighing in and providing Indiana's perspective."
In February, Rokita joined fellow secretaries of state in Washington, DC for a conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) - a group for which he is president-elect. As the states' chief election officials discussed pending legislation, Rokita and many of his colleagues advocated that any further election reform mandates must come with full funding and ample implementation time.
Rokita sent a similar message in a February 22, 2007 resolution he drafted as one of nine Executive Board members of the Federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Standards Board. The full text of Resolution 2007-01 may be found at http://www.eac.gov/public_meeting_022007.asp
Earlier this week, Rokita participated in a three-day planning session to form the work and research agenda of The Pew Charitable Trusts Make Voting Work initiative. The work group, comprising election administrators and researchers from around the country, took part in dialogue related to voter information web sites, data and transaction standards in elections, Election Day registration and election audits.
"My objective is to bring the real interests of Indiana voters and election administrators to the table," said Rokita. "We have strong election policies and practices in place in our state. Our County Clerks and Election Boards work hard to maintain election integrity and to guarantee that every legitimate vote counts. Because of that dedication, Indiana has earned a place at the forefront of national election policy discussion."


text: Actio Corporation, a pioneer in providing Web-based chemical management services and material safety data sheets, has announced a marketing relationship with InteGreyted Consultants, a full-service environmental health and safety firm. This relationship supplies Actio's MSDS Vault subscribers the IntelligentEHS.com Web-based compliance management system. This combination establishes the industry's most comprehensive Environmental Health and Safety solution. InteGreyted will market MSDS Vault, an online chemical management subscription service, through its network of over 500 environmental health and safety consultants. InteGreyted's IntelligentEHS.com combined with MSDS Vault will enable environmental health and safety directors implementing management systems to have facility profiling tools, compliance tracking calendars, safety systems, auditing tools, and sophisticated chemical/MSDS and SARA Tier I and Tier II reporting solutions in InteGreyted's Intelligent EHS service. "The Actio/InteGreyted solution will offer unprecedented control over all aspects of environmental health and safety tracking and management," says Russ McCann, president of Actio Corporation.


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Five Employers Honored for Programs Promoting Access and Inclusion
WASHINGTON ľ Naomi C. Earp, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today presented the agencyĺs third annual ôFreedom to Compete Awardö to five employers from the private and public sectors for best practices that promote access and inclusion.
The award recipients include a leading internationally recognized hospital center, a non-profit health care provider, a major bureau of a Cabinet-level agency, a city government, and a disability advocacy organization.
ôIn todayĺs competitive global economy, employers must cast a wide net to attract the most diverse range of talent available,ö Chair Earp said at a morning ceremony at agency headquarters. ôThe Freedom to Compete Award showcases the most innovative employer programs to promote fair and open competition in the 21st century workplace without regard to race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age or disability. We applaud the 2007 winners, whose practices serve as models for employers across the nation.ö
The awards are part of the EEOCĺs Freedom to Compete Initiative, a national outreach, education and coalition-building campaign launched in 2002 to provide free and unfettered access to employment opportunities for all individuals. The central theme of the initiative is that every individual deserves the opportunity to compete and advance as far as his/her talent and ability allow without regard to discriminatory barriers. The 2007 award winners are:
Johns Hopkins Health System: For developing a series of programs to increase job opportunities for area youth with disabilities; more efficiently handling disputes among its employees, including EEO disputes; improving upward mobility for both new hires and permanent staff, including those from under-represented groups; and enhancing the skills of its service workers. Through these programs, 41 students with disabilities have been placed in internships, 259 employees have completed training programs, approximately 60 employees have earned high school diplomas, and approximately 90 percent of discrimination charges were resolved without an investigation.
Emory Crawford Long Hospital: For its ôProject Search Program,ö which was created to assist hospitals experiencing shortages of nurses and medical technicians by employing young people with developmental disabilities (DD) to assist with routine tasks that do not require medical expertise. As a result of the program, 32 students with DD have transitioned to paid jobs in a variety of hospital departments.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS): For its ôLions World Programö to facilitate the hiring and retention of individuals with visual impairments. The IRS extends commitments to hire qualified individuals with visual impairments upon successful completion of pre-employment training that utilizes adaptive equipment and assistive technologies. To date, 673 persons with significant visual impairments have been hired by the IRS through the program. The IRS has also directly hired 126 visually impaired computer programmers.
The City of Norfolk: For its ôPathways to Public Service Program,ö which was designed to remove barriers to public employment for people of color, women, and individuals with disabilities. The program targets individuals of various ages and experiences and provides mentoring and real-world work experience in the public sector. Pathways to Public Service has resulted in numerous hires for the city.
Abilities, Inc.: For its ôExperience Counts Programö to assist mature workers with disabilities or age-related limitations to regain meaningful employment. The program aims to educate employers about the value of hiring or retaining older workers and to assist mature job seekers in realigning their careers. As a result, 187 mature workers have obtained meaningful employment. Of those, over 70 percent were unemployed for more than six months prior to receiving services. Abilities, Inc. plans to expand the program to include veterans with disabilities who are returning to civilian life after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of the Freedom to Compete Initiative, the EEOC has been forging strategic alliances and partnerships with a cross-section of stakeholders to influence positive change in the workplace. Additional information about the initiative can be found on the EEOCĺs web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/initiatives/compete/index.html.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available online at www.eeoc.gov.
This page was last modified on October 1, 2007.
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Syrian rebels buckling in face of jihadis
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian rebels that the U.S. now wants to support are in poor shape, on the retreat from the radical al-Qaida breakaway group that has swept over large parts of Iraq and Syria, with some rebels giving up the fight. It is not clear whether the new U.S. promise to arm them will make a difference.
Some, more hard-line Syrian fighters are bending to the winds and joining the radicals.
The Obama administration is seeking $500 million to train and arm what it calls "moderate" factions among the rebels, a far larger project than a quiet CIA-led effort in Jordan that has been training a few hundreds fighters a month. But U.S. officials say it will take a year to get the new program fully underway. The U.S. also faces the difficult task of what constitutes a "moderate" rebel in a movement dominated by Islamist ideologies.
Opposition activists complain that after long hesitating to arm the rebellion to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad — their main goal — the United States is now enlisting them against the Islamic State out of its own interests. They have long argued that the group, which aims to create a radical Islamic enclave bridging Syria and Iraq, was only able to gain such power in Syria because more moderate forces were not given international support.
"This decision is a year and a half too late," said Ahmad Ramadan, a senior member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition opposition group. "Had it not been for Obama's hesitation all along, this wouldn't be happening in Iraq today nor would there be this proliferation of extremist factions in Syria," he added.
Meeting with Syrian opposition leader Ahmed al-Jarba in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made clear the priority in helping the rebels was to fight the Islamic State — with hopes that their battlefield successes in Syria could dilute their insurgency's power in Iraq.
The moderate opposition in Syria "has the ability to be a very important player in pushing back against ISIL's presence and to have them not just in Syria, but also in Iraq," Kerry said. A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry later said the secretary did not mean to imply that Syrian rebels would actually cross the border to fight in Iraq. The official was not authorized to brief reporters by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Al-Jarba, who leads a coalition in exile that only has nominal authority over some rebels on the ground, welcomed the aid, and appealed for more. But in Syria, opposition activists were skeptical.
The aid "will only worsen the crisis," said an activist in the northern city of Aleppo, using his nickname Abu Bishr for his own protection. "They want Syria to enter a new war" between rebels and extremists. "This will not help at all."
As the Islamic State has blitzed across much of northern and western Iraq this month, its fighters have also advanced in Syria against other rebels. They now hold most of the Euphrates River valley in eastern Syria. They have tightened their siege on the one major hold-out city in that region, Deir el-Zour.
In the past two weeks, they have also captured a string of villages in the northern province of Aleppo. Islamic State's fighters in Syria have been boosted by advanced weapons, tanks and Humvees captured in Iraq and then transported to Syria.
In a significant development, beleaguered Nusra Front fighters surrounded by Islamic State forces in the town of Boukamal on the border with Iraq defected this week and joined the Islamic State. That effectively handed the town over to the Islamic State, which controls the Iraqi side of the crossing.
The Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with largely peaceful protests against the Assad family, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades. After the government brutally cracked down on the protest movement, many Syrians took up arms to fight back. As the uprising shifted into civil war, the Western-backed Free Syrian Army emerged, a loose term for a collection of self-formed brigades and defectors from Assad's military that fight under a nationalist banner.
But Islamic fighters became the dominant force in the armed opposition, ranging from religious-minded Syrians calling for rule by Shariah law to more extreme al-Qaida-inspired ideologies. Foreign jihadis flooded into the conflict.
The Islamic State, which was at the time Iraq's branch in al-Qaida, barged into the Syria war in 2012, sending its forces and joined by foreign jihadis. At first, many rebels welcomed its experienced fighters. But they quickly turned on each other in violent clashes as other rebels accused Islamic State of using particularly brutal tactics and of trying to take over the opposition movement for their own transnational goals.
Even other Islamic extremist factions among the rebels fought the Islamic State, including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, which the U.S. has declared a terrorist group. Al-Qaida's central leadership booted the Islamic State out of its network, blaming it for clashing with other groups.
But the rebels are being eroded by the war-within-a-war with the Islamic State.
"The Syrian opposition is exhausted," said Adam al-Ataribi, a spokesman for the Mujahedeen Army, a small group fighting alongside other rebels against the extremists.
An opposition activist based in the northern town of Marea said the FSA has lost more people fighting against the Islamic State in the past year than it has against Assad's forces. "There is a steady attrition within rebel ranks," he said.
More hardline rebels currently fighting the Islamic State could follow in joining it.
"ISIL is currently the top dog with the most money in the jihadi universe. Siding with them would seem like a rational choice, at least temporarily," said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
Activists say other fighters in the nationalist-minded opposition are just abandoning the fight altogether due to frustration and disillusionment. Judging how many is difficult, but several activists in Syria speaking to the AP saw it as a growing trend.
"We have no reliable information on how many fighters have quit the FSA, but the view on the ground is that attrition is high," said Sam Whitt, principle investigator for the Voices of Syria project, which tracks public opinion from inside the Syrian civil war through survey interviews.
Abdullah, a 27-year-old former FSA fighter, said that when the Islamic State overran his hometown of al-Bab in northern Syria in the spring, killing two of his friends in the rebel ranks, he decided to quit and leave.
"The whole world has abandoned us. I realized that our uprising has been hijacked by others, and that nothing will be settled unless there is an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia," he said, speaking via Skype from Turkey and referring to the main patrons of Assad and the rebels, respectively.
"That's not worth dying for."
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lara Jakes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Ken Dilanian in Washington contributed to this report.


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Getting Back the Gym After the Flu
So you are one of the many people who have fallen victim to the flu. You have just spent the most miserable week of your life in bed. You swear that next year you will get that flu shot.
That's next year. This is now, and you are ready to resume some normal activities -- including the gym. But before you do, it's best to keep some basic guidelines in mind so that you don't relapse or worse, hurt yourself. Now working out may help you regain your strength as you recover from the illness. Listen to your body to determine when to resume regular workouts and how intensely to make them.
If you have been recuperating from a contagious illness, you should stay away from the gym until any risk of transmitting your germs has passed. A viral infection is likely to leave you with weakness in your muscles, making your usual workout more difficult to complete. (In general, exercise is still possible if you only have a minor cold, as long as you are fever-free and aren't coughing much.)
The specific symptoms you have experienced will also affect when you can reschedule the gym. Always wait until a fever is gone before exercising.
Wait for other significant symptoms to pass, such as vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, severe coughing, general aches or chills. For the best results, wait until you begin to feel an increase in your energy and muscle strength so you are able to complete a workout. If you're at all unsure, consult with your healthcare provider for some professional advice.
Your first trip back to the gym is the test of your body's strength after the illness takes its toll. Plan for a shorter workout with lower intensity. That means keeping your weights lighter and shortening the sets -- to about five or six. If you cant do the same number of reps you usually do, don't push it.
Be sure to keep hydrated by drinking even more water than usual. A slower pace is less likely to make you feel worse or cause your symptoms to reappear. If you feel dizziness, nausea or pains, end the workout early or slow down even more. Take the next day off to give your body more recovery time.
If your gym regimen includes training, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends at least two weeks to get back to full intensity. Increase your intensity slowly with each workout, paying close attention to your body for signs that you are working yourself too hard.
If you are recovering from a major illness, your strength may vary from day to day. One trip to the gym may allow for an intense workout while the next day you may feel that an easy workout is beyond you. Adjust your training schedule to accommodate how your body feels each day.
Ken Hunt is the owner of New York and Miami's Steel Gym, an AFI-certified trainer and a fitness expert with expert advice featured in The New York Times and other major media. He lectures on physical fitness here and abroad and is finishing a book, The Hunt for Fitness. Steel Gym, at 146 W. 23rd St. in Manhattan, has been named the No. 1 gym in New York by the American Fitness Institute for three straight years; awarded the New York Award for Physical Fitness Facilities for three straight years; named one of the Top 5 gyms in the U.S. by Muscle & Fitness Magazine; and given the Talk of the Town Award for Outstanding Customer Service for four straight years. Call (212) 352-9876. Steel Gym in Miami is at 5556 NE 4th. Call (305) 751-7591. You can email Ken at firstname.lastname@example.com; log on to www.SteelGym.com; on Facebook at SteelGymNYC and on Twitter @SteelGym.


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MIAMI — LeBron James is poised to take his talents to Baltimore.
Amid the recent flurry of face-offs between leading pro-am leagues during the NBA lockout, the Miami Heat forward has said he will join a group of NBA stars that Tuesday will represent the Baltimore-based Melo League and take on Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and a group of stars from the Washington-based Goodman League.
"I'm in," he told the Associated Press on Sunday.
The game, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Morgan State University's Hill Field House, follows an Aug. 8 game at St. Frances that featured Durant and fellow NBA players Brandon Jennings and Josh Selby (Lake Clifton). Tuesday's game was moved to Morgan from St. Frances to accommodate a larger crowd.


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News Releases by Email
News Release
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Media contact: Amanda Nalley, 850-410-4943 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Photos available on the FWC's Flickr site: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzBWzfa. Video available on the FWC's YouTube site: http://youtu.be/KzOua12jMX8.
Teaching children a lifelong hobby, instilling appreciation for our marine environment and providing fun, family outings are the objectives for the Kids' Fishing Clinic in Naples on March 11.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will offer a free Kids' Fishing Clinic for children between the ages of 5 and 15 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Naples Pier, 25 12th Ave. S., in Naples.
These free clinics enable young people to learn the basics of conservation stewardship, fishing ethics, angling skills and safety. In addition, environmental displays will offer participants a unique chance to experience Florida's marine life firsthand.
Kids' Fishing Clinics strive to achieve several goals, but the main objective is to create responsible marine-resource stewards by teaching children about the vulnerability of Florida's marine ecosystems. In addition, organizers hope to teach fundamental saltwater fishing skills and provide participants a positive fishing experience.
Fishing equipment and bait are provided for kids to use during the clinic, but organizers encourage children who own fishing tackle to bring it. A limited number of rods and reels will be given away to participants upon completion of the clinic.
If conditions allow, participants will have the opportunity to practice their new skills and fish from the pier. This event is a photo catch-and-release activity. An adult must accompany all participants. Preregistration is not required.
Individuals or companies interested in helping sponsor this event or volunteering at the clinic should contact the FWC's Elizabeth Winchester at 850-617-9644.
To find out more about fishing clinics for kids, go to MyFWC.com/Fishing and select the "Youth & Student" option under "Education."
FWC Facts:There are more than 800 keys, stretching over 180 miles. The longest key, Key Largo, is 30 miles long and 1/2 mile wide.
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The Galeon 640 Fly is the pinnacle of yacht technology and performance, an ultra-luxurious model designed to impress, inspire, and complete with the best in its class.
The 640 Fly, created in cooperation with design maven Tony Castro, combines thrilling performance with unparalleled luxury. The yacht's dynamic and intense character is eveident in its stunning exterior, like the massive side air intakes, the radar towering over the stern and numerous stainless steel elements. the ambitious design is an unforgettable visual experience.


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SOURCE: Horizon Pharma
December 05, 2013 16:05 ET
DEERFIELD, IL--(Marketwired - Dec 5, 2013) - Horizon Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: HZNP) today announced that on December 4, 2013 the Compensation Committee of its Board of Directors approved the grant of inducement stock options to purchase an aggregate of 80,250 shares of common stock to 14 new employees.
Each stock option has an exercise price per share equal to $6.93, the fair market value on the grant date, and vests over four years, with 25% of the shares vesting on the one-year anniversary of the applicable vesting commencement date and 1/48 of the shares vesting monthly thereafter, subject to the new employee's continued service relationship with the Company. Each stock option also has a ten year term and is subject to the terms and conditions of the Company's 2011 Equity Incentive Plan and the stock option agreement pursuant to which the option was granted.
The stock options were granted as inducements material to the new employees entering into employment with Horizon Pharma in accordance with NASDAQ Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
About Horizon Pharma
Horizon Pharma, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company that has developed and is commercializing products to primary care, orthopedic surgeons, and rheumatologists. The Company markets DUEXIS, and RAYOS/LODOTRA, and will market VIMOVO, which target unmet therapeutic needs in arthritis, pain and inflammatory diseases. The Company's strategy is to develop, acquire and/or in-license additional innovative medicines where it can execute a targeted commercial approach among specific target physicians while taking advantage of its commercial strengths and the infrastructure the Company has put in place. For more information, please visit www.horizonpharma.com.
ContactRobert J. De Vaere
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial OfficerEmail Contact
ContactRobert J. De Vaere
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial OfficerEmail Contact
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Wednesday, October 12th 2016
Check back for updates on springs-related meetings and events. Also sign up for the Springs email list for special announcements.
Use the calendar in the right column to change the date.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2016
Springs Eternal: Our Water, Our Future - Free Exhibit
Runs through Tuesday, November 8th, 2016
Time & Place
Gateway Center for the Arts; 880 N. US Highway 17-82 DeBary, FL 32713
The Springs EternalProject is an evolving series of creative partnerships initiated by Lesley Gamble, John Moran and Rick Kilby in collaboration with a diverse community of springs scientists, researchers, artists and advocates. Our goal is to inspire Floridians to value our springs and the diverse ecosystems they support as fundamental to the health and wellbeing of us all, human and non-human; to redefine these relationships in socially just and ecologically sustainable terms; and to work collaboratively to conserve, restore and protect Florida's precious waters for our children and theirs, for generations to come.
The Springs Eternal Project is a celebration of the springs we were given, a meditation on the springs we could lose, and an invitation to the people of Florida to fall in love with our springs all over again, mindful that the choices we make today foretell the Florida of tomorrow.
Explore a wealth of stories, images and information about our Florida springs and aquifer. Access the experience and wisdom of a diverse group of people, all passionately committed to researching, enjoying and protecting Florida's water. Discover why these springs are worth protecting and actions we can take, individually and collectively, to restore our springs and aquifer to vibrant, clear and sustainable health.
The individual springs featured here are selected from John Moran's exhibition Springs Eternal, Rick Kilby's Finding the Fountain of Youth, and Lesley Gamble's Urban Aquifer: Vehicles to Think With. Click on the menu to the right, or on "featured springs" in the bar above to access a drop-down menu with links to each spring.
When Moran poses the question, "Who speaks for our springs?" it's an invitation to you, to me, to all of us.
The first step is to listen to the springs themselves, to their many intricate languages: visual, biological, hydrological, geological. If you haven't done so recently, visit a spring and Dive In! Enter the flickering prisms of light, drift with the pulsing eel grass or dart like a turtle through glittering fish. You might encounter a manatee, an otter, or the mysterious fabrications of nocturnal beavers. It's still a glorious experience. But conditions aren't what they should be. Suffering from pollution and loss of flow, our springs have a lot to tell us about the state of water here in Florida.
Next, listen to the humanvoices of the springs, the people who've been researching, representing and caring for our springs and Floridan Aquifer intimately, inside and out, for many years now. There's a wealth of wisdom and experience in these pages. Contributors include biologists, hydrogeologists, environmental scientists, cave divers, artists, business owners, journalists, naturalists, springs advocates, government agency researchers and writers —people, perhaps like you, who are passionate about our springs and the Floridan Aquifer.
Finally, decide for yourselfhow you wish to respond to the current conditions. Will you be a voice? Will you speak up for our springs?
If your answer is yes, ask yourself how you can best use your time and talents on their behalf. Write and share a song or a story, create an app, stitch a quilt, paint a picture, take a photograph, make a video, contact your legislators, change your water habits to conserve more, join an advocacy group, adopt a spring, adopt a legislator, sponsor springs research, talk to your families/friends/co-workers/church members, support leaders who actively support protecting and restoring springs—and don't forget to vote!
There are as many options as people who care. Right now, our springs need the best efforts of us all. We hope you'll become a voice for our springs, too.
–Lesley Gamble
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The Detroit Lions are calling for a "blue out" in celebration of their Monday Night Football game at home against the Baltimore Ravens.
The "One Pride Blue Out" effort was announced in a news release from the Downtown Detroit Partnership today.
The Lions want downtown Detroit businesses to leave their building lights on to light up the skyline for the national TV coverage, and if possible, turn building lights blue and white.
The team is also asking fans across the state and those attending the game at Ford Field to show their support by wearing blue on Monday and posting photos on social media with the hashtag #OnePride, according to the news release.


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Shadrach Bernius had to have known at least one of the men who killed him — and trusted that man enough to open the door for him.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Cold case stories highlight an unsolved crime every month as part of an effort by the Greater Peoria Area CrimeStoppers and Peoria police to solicit fresh information on dormant investigations.
PEORIA — Shadrach Bernius had to have known at least one of the men who killed him — and trusted that man enough to open the door for him.
Bernius answered the knock at the door of the Lexington Hills apartment where he and his pregnant girlfriend were staying on June 22, 2011, after peering through the peep hole.
But once the door was open a crack, four men rushed inside. A shot rang out, then several more. Bernius was unresponsive when police arrived about 11:15 p.m. He was pronounced dead about half an hour later at the hospital.
The killing remains unsolved. Police are highlighting the homicide this month as part of an ongoing review of cold cases that seeks to draw more information from the community through CrimeStoppers.
Bernius was a relative newcomer in what Detective Keith McDaniel called the tight-knit community of Lexington Hills at the time of his death. He and his girlfriend, who was in the apartment at the time of the home invasion but scrambled out of sight, had only been staying there for a couple of months.
"He was kind of like the new guy on the block," McDaniel said. "There are people out there who know what's going on, but they're reluctant to come forward with information that could make a prosecutable case. We know that somebody knows exactly what went down."
The motive for the home invasion likely was a robbery, though after the gunshots burst, the suspects fled with little to nothing of value. Police arrived on the scene quickly without encountering the suspects in the vicinity, possibly indicating the men scattered to nearby apartments.
That activity would not have gone unnoticed, said Angela Owens, Bernius' mother. She, too, urged residents of the apartments who may have seen anything that night to speak to police.
"It's almost been three years, and it would be great if someone stood up and told what they know," Owens said. "Someone out there knows what happened."
Owens described her son as someone who tried to be a good older brother to his three younger siblings and was looking forward to becoming a father. Dominique was born in September, three months after her father's death.
If someone with knowledge of the case won't come forward for the sake of the family who did know Bernius, they should step up for the little girl who never will know her father, said Detective Shawn Curry.
"These guys ran in because they were after something they thought was valuable, but they took something too valuable for them to imagine: a man who wanted to be a parent to his child," Curry said. "They should be made to pay for that."
Matt Buedel can be reached at 686-3154 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.


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Electronic health record and billing software company ensures jobs complete on time and reduces the need for future performance upgrades with Fusion ioMemory PCIe cards.
The Challenge
Exym is a fast-growing provider of web-based software for managing mental health clinics. Its system processes well over $120 million in electronic claims each year.
Compliance restrictions require that Exym sequester all customer agency data. Consequently, its database uses a multi-tenant architecture, with separate databases for 30 separate agencies.
As a leader in a vastly complex industry, Exym's highly tuned code, combined with frequent index tuning, ensures best-in-class performance. However, even its optimized code couldn't overcome the I/O contention that its two-spindle disk system faced during nightly maintenance jobs, including backups, anti-virus, and billing processes.
When Matt DeBeer, President of Exym, discovered that nightly billing jobs were taking over two hours to complete, he promptly contacted SQL Server Consultant Michael K. Campbell to research a solution.
Michael's performance trace revealed excessive disk I/O contention as the root of the problem–causing SQL Server to routinely wait on transaction logging. According to Michael, the end result was that "logging was blocking all other processes. Billing jobs that should have taken 15 minutes per database were taking two to three hours each."
The SanDisk® Solution
Exym's hosting provider, BTInet, offered the use of its SAN to increase I/O throughput and performance. However, Michael felt that a SAN would still struggle to meet the demand of 30 complex processes vying for a limited number of spindles or drives. Plus, Exym would still have to compete with the workloads of other customers. BTInet then proposed installing a Fusion ioMemory ioDrive® card in Exym's database server. Michael had researched the SanDisk solution and knew that its approach to flash as memory instead of disk drives offered a superior solution to the latency and queuing problems that was holding up jobs. He began working with BTInet to implement this solution.
Billing On Time, Every Time
Exym's primary goal was to ensure customers' billing processes completed on time every night. The new SanDisk-powered system reduced job time from three hours to just 10 minutes.
Michael Campbell,
SQL Server Consultant, Exym
This improved performance manifested in other ways as well. Michael noted, "One large query that used to take fifteen minutes now takes just two. To this day, I still look for the SQL Server WRITELOG Wait Type in the list of resources that SQL Server is waiting on, but it hasn't appeared since moving to the ioDrive card. All issues with I/O contention at the log file level are completely gone."
Non-Disruptive Implementation
With traditional solutions, upgrading database hardware is often a complex and challenging process. Not so with the SanDisk solution.
Michael said, "BTInet performed a side-by-side deployment of Exym's new server and installed the ioDrive card for us. I installed and configured SQL Server on the new server, put tempdb files on the ioDrive card, then migrated the databases from the old server to the new server and we were done. The whole migration took only about two hours to deploy and resulted in less than 20 minutes of downtime for end users."
Performance that Pays for Itself
By delivering the performance Exym needed without a SAN, SanDisk allowed Michael to design a solution that delivered nearly 100% ROI on day one.
Michael said, "BTInet eliminated Exym's capital costs by providing Exym a lease option on the ioDrive card. The savings on man-hours to maintain and troubleshoot a SAN-based system covered the cost of the lease, which meant Exym nearly broke even out the door."
Hands-Free Growth Headroom
On top of easily eliminating Exym's current performance problems, the SanDisk- powered system delivered so much performance headroom that it will be a long time before Exym will need to upgrade its hardware to improve performance.
Michael said, "The ioDrive cards give Exym a huge buffer for growth. Exym can continue to add agencies and databases without adding hardware well into the foreseeable future."
Implementing the SanDisk Fusion ioMemory solution delivered the following benefits to Exym:
Michael told us, "I've just been tickled pink with the card. It actually lives up to the marketing claims."
About Exym
Exym simplifies the process of electronic billing (EDI), documenting and managing mental health services with intuitive, cost-effective and easy-to-use web-based software. Exym is a highly customizable and robust yet flexible clinical management solution used by more Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health agencies than any other product.


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Latent Class Conjoint Analysis
Mplus Discussion
Latent Variable Mixture Modeling
Thomas Hillig
posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 8:50 am
I would like to compare Latent Class Conjoint Analysis with other Conjoint-approaches using artificial Monte-Carlo Data generated with SAS.
Is it possible to use MPlus for this purpose?
Are there any problems with SAS data?
Thank you!
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 9:32 am
In this version of Mplus, the Monte Carlo facility cannot read data generated from other programs. This will be available in Version 3. In the meantime, you can use the Monte Carlo Utility which you can find on our homepage. This utility will read externally generated data, analyze them, and save the results from each replication.
Thomas Hillig
posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 10:53 am
Thank you very much for your quick response. Unfortunetly, I don't know Mplus too well. I think about using Mplus or Sawtooth instead. Do I have to have a good programming knowledge to implement a (Choice-Based) Latent Class Conjoint Analysis with Mplus. Is there anything about Latent Class Conjoint in the documentation?
Thank you!
posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 11:02 am
Can you briefly describe what the model is for the choice-based latent class conjoint analysis?
Thomas Hillig
posted on Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 12:07 pm
With conjoint analysis I mean the alternatives (products) are defined entirely, i.e. via a cerntain number of dimensions. The respondents choose one or none product of a given set of alternatives (choice based). Several alternative-sets are presented to each respondent. For generating the choice designs for the other Conjoint-variants I have used SAS.
The model itself:
1)The number of clusters and the clusters themselfs must be set (to intial values).
2)The logit model is used to see to which class each respondent fits best.
3)A logit solution is estimated for each group. A log-likelihood is computed given the data.
4)Steps 2 through 3 are repeated.
Then log-likelihood is computed, assuming that the respondent belongs to the first class.The individuals likelihood for each group is weighted with size of the group. By summing the weighted likelihood over the different classes the individual likelihood is obtained. Then the logs of these likelihoods are cumulated over individuals.
For more (non-technical) details:
posted on Friday, September 05, 2003 - 10:59 am
I looked at the Sawtooth document you pointed to and it lists conjoint analysis under the heading Latent Class analysis. Since Mplus does LCA in very general forms, I assume conjoint analysis can be done in Mplus, but I would have to read the marketing literature indicated to be sure. The LCA features discussed in the document all seem to be within the Mplus framework. Perhaps there are Mplus Discussion readers who can chime in here. For an overview of Mplus latent class modeling capabilities, see "paper #86" on the Mplus home page at www.statmodel.com, "Latent variable mixture modeling."
Dr Stephen K Tagg
posted on Friday, October 03, 2003 - 3:31 am
Conjoint analysis is main-effects only modelling of not completely crossed stimuli (by orthogonal design) for a series of subjects. This would require doing at least type = general meanstructure in combination with latent classes. The model would then generate parameters for each of the levels of each main effect, and do one seperately for each latent class. I'm interested in developing this but I'm not sure about the steps to follow to input the orthogonal matrix - although I've done some learning on that part of MANOVA I've not rehearsed it for decades!
posted on Saturday, October 04, 2003 - 8:08 am
If the response variables are continuous, the orthogonal matrix would be entered in Lambda or Beta to use language of the Mplus User's Guide Technical Appendix. In Mplus terms, Lambda is specified using BY statements and Beta using ON statements. Not knowing conjoint modeling, I can't say more than that. I do however have books on it and one day I hope to get time to read them.
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Global Franchise Group announced the master franchise agreement with Western Brands PVT Ltd. for the opening of the first Marble Slab Creamery locations in the country of Pakistan.
Per the agreement with Western Brands PVT, the deal calls for the development of 10 Marble Slab Creamery stores in Pakistan over a 10-year period, with the 5,000-square-foot flagship store opening up in the major city of Lahore, Pakistan.
Marble Slab Creamery is managed by GFG Management, a subsidiary of Global Franchise Group.
The opening of the Marble Slab Creamery locations in Pakistan builds upon the brand's existing momentum in the South East Asian Sub Continent.
Consistently ranked one of the top international food brands based on growth, Western Brands PVT selected Marble Slab Creamery given its proven success internationally.
Furthermore, Marble Slab Creamery is the Global Franchise Group's most requested international brand, operating in more than 13 countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
"We were looking to expand Western Brands' portfolio to include a strong ice cream concept, and were impressed with Marble Slab Creamery's international business model," says Jawad Qureshi, chief marketing officer of Western Brands. "We are excited to launch the brand with our flagship store in Pakistan and rapidly expanding our franchise locations starting from Lahore and into metropolitan cities like Islamabad and Karachi."
John Barber, chief development officer, Global Franchise Group, adds, "Global Franchise Group allows for a seamless transition for its brands into new global markets through master agreements.
"The franchisees follow a model that can be customized to meet the local tastes and needs of the specific area where they are opening stores," he continues. "Out of all of our brands, we are noticing unprecedented international interest around Marble Slab Creamery."
John Peddar, director of international development for Global Franchise Group, says, "The new locations in Pakistan are an extension of Marble Slab Creamery's existing presence in the Middle East and the South East Asian sub-continent. In a nation of 176 million people, we expect that the brand product will be well received and positioned for growth in this emerging market."
The five times weekly e-newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the latest industry news and additions to this website.


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Tour de France - Souvenir Fabio Casartelli
Stage 13
White Jersey leader the unbeatable young Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde was forced to abandon today due to a knee injury. The 24 year old Illes Balears rider is suffering from tendonitis and was doubtful to start the stage. Deciding to see how he would go today the young Spaniard found the going too tough and dropped off the back of the peloton and retired.
A great shame, nicknamed unbeatable during his youth, his clash with the rider nicknamed the Eddy Merckx of the amateurs in his youth, Popovych would have been a highlight of this years Tour.
However Alejandros disappointment is Popovychs gain and the Ukranian rider now takes the lead in the competition which now has 28 riders left. Despite the cameras focussing on Valverdes departure, it was Johan Van Summeren (Davitamon Lotto) who had most TV time for the young guns today. Once again we saw the young Belgian at the front of the peloton, working hard to bring back the break for his Captain Robbie McEwen.
It was no wasted effort today because Davitamon took first and third on the day with McEwen and Fast Freddy Rodriguez on song at the finish. Sadly Johan was not able to watch McEwen take the kisses from the misses, his efforts had taken their toll and he finished with team mate Wim Vansevenant over 11 minutes behind the peloton. Van Summeren is now the Laterne Rouge of the white jersey competition, but his team work for McEwens three victories will not be forgotten.
Kazakhstan rider, Andrev Kashechkin, moves up to second spot, just 7 seconds behind Popovych, and the duel in the forthcoming mountains between these two will be intriguing, particularly since
Kashechkin must ride for Moreau and Popovych is a key player in the Tourminator Lance Armstrongs Blue train.
At just over 13 minutes down Alberto Contador could yet still surprise in the mountain stages to come, particularly if he gets into the right break.
Young rider classification Stage 13
1 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 50.20.15
2 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 0.07
3 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 13.06
4 Maxim Iglinski Domina Vacanze 22.30
5 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 41.32
6 Jérôme Pineau Bouygues Telecom 41.49
7 Thomas Lövkvist Française Des Jeux 45.48
8 Patrik Sinkewitz Quick.Step 46.05
9 David Arroyo Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 54.29
10 Pieter Weening Rabobank 57.16
Stage 11
Alejandro Valverde maintains his lead in the competition and although everyone expected him to do well, very few can claim they expected him to do this well. Credit then to the Badger , Bernhard Hinault who wrote in the official Tour guide The presence of Karpets and Mancebo alone makes Illes Balears a team to follow. But the one rider we are waiting to see is Valverde. Frankly, if he were to win this Tour I wouldnt be surprised.
However, Valverdes team mate Vladimir Karpets had a torrid day in the saddle, and is clearly fighting hard to keep in the race. Should he recover, he will prove to be a valuable ally for Valverde and Mancebo, so his loss could be the Teams gain. Karpets dropped out of the top five and was replaced by Alberto Contador and Maxim Iglinski.
Yesterday I wrote Between the flying Spaniard Valverde and the tough Ukranian was the excellent Kazakhstan rider Andrev Kashechkin. He finished 214 down on the day and moved up into third spot. It was surprising, that he was not ordered to drop back and help his Captain Christophe Moreau, who having gone through a bad patch seemed to be making a recovery.
It would appear that Kashechkin was indeed ordered to drop back by D.S. Roger Legeay but his orders fell on deaf ears. Andrey Kashechkin claims that he had removed his ear piece and had not heard the order, not surprisingly Moreau was less than impressed, but rather sensibly decided that the matter would be decided amongst ourselves
One dreads to think what the Badger would have made of that situation.
The days stage over the Mighty Alps confirms the strongest three riders as Valverde, Popovych and Kashechkin despite faulty audio equipment. Maybe Andreis next team should be Phonak Hearing Systems?
Meanwhile, David Arroyo continues to do well, as the first Lady of the Pave, Karen Lambrecht, captured in this photo-
David Arroyo . Photo by Karen Lambrecht.
Young rider classification- Stage 11
1 Alejandro Valverde Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 42.03.13
2 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 3.09
3 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 3.16
4 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 16.19
5 Maxim Iglinski Domina Vacanze 25.39
6 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 44.18
7 Jérôme Pineau Bouygues Telecom 44.58
8 Thomas Lövkvist Française Des Jeux 48.57
9 Patrik Sinkewitz Quick.Step 49.14
10 David Arroyo Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 57.38
Stage 10
With Valverde, everybody has seen the future of cycling. He's fast, he's strong, he's intelligent. It's impressive.", a high recommendation indeed from 6 Times Winner Lance Armstrong on the new White jersey leader Alejandro Valverde, not only could the young Spaniard hold the wheel of Armstrong he also had enough power to take the stage . Of the ten stages so far, 5 have been won outright by a White jersey contender, Fabian Cancellara , Boonen (two) , Pieter Weening , the fore mentioned Valverde, and if you credit Popovych with his role in Discovery Channels team Time Trial , then 60% of this years stage victors so far have been under 25.
Popovych of course had other jerseys on his mind today. He was the last man standing in the Blue train and was clearly told to up the pace by Armstrong, his decisive turn at the front caused carnage behind, the Ukranian then had to dig deep and finished a very creditable 19th on the day and third best young rider home. Between the flying Spaniard Valverde and the tough Ukranian was the excellent Kazakhstan rider Andrev Kashechkin. He finished 214 down on the day and moved up into third spot. It was surprising, that he was not ordered to drop back and help his Captain Christophe Moreau, who having gone through a bad patch seemed to be making a recovery.
Mean while Vladimir Karpets, the defending champion , suffered on the early part of the final climb , and he, Alberto Contador and Maxim Iglinskiy formed a little group which came in 638 down, a very good placing but not good enough to keep them in contention for overall victory in the competition., unless one of the top three men falters.
Yongest rider in the race , the Swedish rider Thomas Lovkvist continues to impress , but the real hats off must today must go to Alejandro Valverde and his Illes Balears team , who now have 3 riders in the top ten, Valverde, Karpets, and moving into the top ten for the first time David Arroyo. Spain is the best placed country with Alberto Contador , Arroyo and Valverde, while Kazakhstan, the national colours being so proudly worn by Vinokourov have 2 riders represented; Kashechkin ( who finished ahead of his much more famous countryman) and the battling Maxim Iglinskiy.
Readers Question
An Ace question from the very aptly named Ace .
I have a question about the young rider's classification.
The limit of age used to be 24 years old. I've taken a look in old classifications and in 1989 there was an 25-year old Miguel Indurain. His place in the classification was higher than Fabrice Philipot, but he didn't win the young rider classification because he was already 25.
Now I'd like to know in which year the people of the Tour the France decide to move the age-limit from 24-years old to 25?
Its a very interesting question at first I thought it was because of the first appearance rule, which made the competition only open to debutees, but that seems only to have run between 1983 to 1986. Of course in 1989, the White Jersey was abolished due to the simplification policy of the Tour , but the result were still calculated. The competition was reintroduced in 2000.
None of which answers Aces question, why wasnt did Miguel Indurain, born on 16 July 1964 who finished 17th overall in the 1989 Tour de France (while Philipot finished 24th) declared the winner of the competition?
If you do know the answer to this question or have any other items of interest regarding the White Jersey please E mail in.
Young rider classification Stage 9
1 Alejandro Valverde Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 37.14.20
2 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 3.09
3 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 3.16
4 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 5.47
5 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 7.07
6 Maxim Iglinskiy Domina Vacanze 9.52
7 Jérôme Pineau Bouygues Telecom 14.58
8 Thomas Lövkvist Française Des Jeux 18.57
9 Patrik Sinkewitz Quick.Step 19.14
10 David Arroyo Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 27.38
Rest day Summary
As expected Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) was the fastest rider who was under 25 years old in the 19 kilometres time trial which opened the race on the not so windy Atlantic Coast. Armstrong passing Ullrich but Zabriskie taking the stage and yellow may be the main memory of that dramatic day between the salt pans, but remember that Cancellara was also being pushed very hard by defending White Jersey Champion Vladimir Karpets. Of course Popovych rode a great race finishing in third spot but the surprise of the day was Tom Boonen. He finished in a very strong fourth spot, and of course , Boonen reaped the rewards of the Loire valley as the race swept eastwards with two back to back stage victories.
Boonens quest for Green may have been a bridge too far, and Grand Tour racing re emerged at the Team time trial. Regardless of Zabriskies crash Popovych was clearly onto a winner being part of the Discovery team.
Of course the Team Time trial changed all that. Yaroslav Popovych not only helped Lance Armstrong back into Yellow but also took the White Young Riders jersey. Defending Champion, Vladimir Karpets , and his Illes Balears Team finished a very creditable 8th on the day which saw him stay in second spot 57 seconds down and team mate Alejandro Valverde moved up the Classification into the top ten 216 down.
However stage 8 , saw defending champion Vladimir Karpets be amongst the top men and the White Jersey went back to the defending Champion after Popovych suffered a (very comparatively) bad day.
Stage 9 saw no real change , but an unfortunate crash saw Jose Angel Gomez Marchante, who has had no luck in this race whatsoever , withdraw from the race with a broken collar bone. The young Belgian hope Philipe Gilbert , had a good day and moved into the top ten .
1 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 32.22.54
2 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 0.01
3 Alejandro Valverde Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 1.11
4 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 1.20
5 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 1.53
6 Pieter Weening Rabobank 2.25
7 Patrik Sinkewitz Quick.Step 3.34
8 Jérôme Pineau Bouygues Telecom 3.58
9 Maxim Iglinski Domina Vacanze 4.05
10 Philippe Gilbert Française Des Jeux 6.10
Stage 8
Pieter Weening was made the biggest gains following his marvellous solo effort on the final climb which showed a confidence and ability way beyond his tender years. his victory brings him into the top ten with a bullet at number 5.
Meanwhile Discoverys day of slumber on the Col de la Schlucht saw defending champion Vladimir Karpets take the White Young riders jersey for the first time this Tour moving ahead of Yaroslav Popovych , while team mate Alejandro Valverde moves into third place- just reward for the teams hard work throughout the stage.
Alberto Contador continues to be very solid in 4th spot while Andrei Kashechkin has a quite remarkable day. A member of the early break he still had the legs to finish in the second group as did Jose Angel Gomez Marchante who is now fully recovered from his fall earlier in the week and may well get stronger as the stages get tougher. Patrik Sinkewitz may have fallen out with his Quickstep Team but he also finished in the second group along with Jérôme Pineau and Maxim Iglinski (Domina Vacanze).
Karpets, Pineau and Maxim Iglinski are all their teams highest General Classification rider, which is an indication of the strength of competition.
Young rider classification Stage 8
1 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 28.08.30
2 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 0.01
3 Alejandro Valverde Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 1.11
4 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 1.20
5 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 1.53
6 Pieter Weening Rabobank 2.25
7 Patrik Sinkewitz Quick.Step 3.34
8 Jérôme Pineau Bouygues Telecom 3.58
9 Maxim Iglinski Domina Vacanze 4.05
10 Jose Angel Gomez Marchante Saunier Duval-Prodir 4.19
Stage 4
Yaroslav Popovych not only helped Lance Armstrong back into Yellow but also took the White Young Riders jersey. Defending Champion, Vladimir Karpets , and his Illes Balears Team finished a very creditable 8th on the day which saw him stay in second spot 57 seconds down and team mate Alejandro Valverde moved up the Classification into the top ten 216 down.
The Liberty Seguros trio of Luis León Sanchez, Alberto Contador and Allan Davis all benefited from their teams excellent day and increasingly the fight for the white jersey seems to be between Popovych, Karpets and Contagor.
Dont tell that to Andrei Kashechkin the Credit Agricole climber is still very handily placed in 6th spot. The poor performance of FdJ and Saunier Duval saw both Philippe Gilbert and Jose Angel Gomez Marchante loose out and both riders are now nearly three minutes down, but with the mountains looming they may yet have chance to shine.
Young riders classification Stage 4
1 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 10.00.28
2 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 0.57
3 Luis León Sanchez Liberty Seguros-Würth 1.01
4 Fabian Cancellara Fassa Bortolo 1.14
5 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 1.19
6 Andrei Kashechkin Credit Agricole 1.54
7 Allan Davis Liberty Seguros-Würth 2.06
8 Tom Boonen Quick.Step 2.11
9 Mauro Facci Fassa Bortolo 2.12
10 Alejandro Valverde Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 2.16
Tour de France - Souvenir Fabio Casartelli Stage 1
No surprise that Mr Time Trial Fabian Cancellara was the best young rider in the first stage Time trial. That said, Vladimir Karpets had a great ride finishing just 3 seconds behind him. Karpets also put nearly a minute and a half into his team leader Francisco Mancebo and was his teams best rider on the day.
Yaroslav Popovych lived up to expectations with a solid 3rd spot amongst the young riders, while both Luis Leon Sanchez and Alberto Contador (4th and 7th) out raced their team leaders Roberto Heras and Joseba Beloki. Andrei Grivko is the Champion of the Ukraine in the TT and was the 5th best placed young gun , but the big surprise was to see Tom Boonen ride so strongly and finish in 6th spot.
Todays sprint finish saw Boonen gain the bonus winning 20 seconds and leap frog over Grivko and Sanchez to move into 4th spot. Now just 27 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara , Boonen may yet take the white jersey to go with his Green one before the mountains, although the Team Time Trial will cause a big shake up and Popovych could well be in white on Tuesday evening .
So after two stages the standings are
Young riders classification Stage 2
1 Fabian Cancellara Fassa Bortolo 4.13.24
2 Vladimir Karpets Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 0.03
3 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel 0.16
4 Tom Boonen Quick.Step 0.27
5 Luis León Sanchez Liberty Seguros-Würth 0.37
6 Andrei Grivko Domina Vacanze 0.44
7 Alberto Contador Liberty Seguros-Würth 0.55
8 Mauro Facci Fassa Bortolo 0.58
9 Thomas Lövkvist Française Des Jeux 1.04
10 Bernhard Eisel Française Des Jeux 1.06
White jersey rules, history and this years riders
Unlike some rules of the Tour de France, such as the Team Time Trial, where one needs a calculator, stop watch and an honours degree in mathematics to follow the result, the Young Riders White Jersey Competition is very simple to follow. Riders competing for the white jersey must be born after January 1, 1980 to qualify. The winner is the highest placed young-rider in the overall rankings. Last year Valdimir Karpets beat Sandy Casar and Thomas Voeckler to take the jersey.
The White Jersey Young Riders competition has been a feature of the race since 1975 when the Italian star Francesco Moser became the first ever winner. However there was a White Jersey awarded prior to that for the Combination Classification, whose rules were slightly more complicated than the present day Team Time trial and was thankfully dropped. Between 1983 and 1986, the Young Riders Competition was only open to those making their debut in the race, but since 1987 the competition has remained open to anyone young enough to qualify.
Since 1997 the competition has gained a special significance, since it is called Souvenir Fabio Casartelli, in memory of the Italian rider who was fatally injured in 1995.
This year 32 riders will be eligible for the competition they are fully listed below, but these are the Daily Pelotons expected top 5:
Vladimir Karpets, José Angel Gomez Marchante, Yaroslav Popovych, Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde
With Patrick Sinkewitz, Andrey Kashechkin, Philippe Gilbert and Fabian Wegmann in contention.
Souvenir Fabio Casartelli White Jersey Young Riders 2005
Vladimir Karpets 20.09.1980 Illes Balears
Alejandro Valverde 25.04.1980 Illes Balears
David Arroyo 07.01.1980 Illes Balears
Vladimir Karpets will defend his jersey and will hope to match Marco Pantanis record of 2 jerseys. Looking good this season, he used the Giro as preparation and still finished in 7th spot. However the presence of both Valverde and Mancebo in the team may limit his options.
Alejandro Valverde is a truly charismatic rider as he demonstrated in last year's Vuelta. How he will react to his first Tour de France is a matter of great debate and discussion, but obviously a rider to watch closely. Illes Balears have three riders in the competition with David Arroyo, a double stage winner of the Tour of Portugal last year, being the third.
Yaroslav Popovych 04.01.1980 Discovery Channel
Gets into the competiton by the narrowest of margins (three days) and hard to believe that the rider who has finished 12th, 3rd and 5th in the Giro is still young enough for the Competition. Winner of the Tour de Catalogne and outstanding in Dauphiné Libéré, he is one of the favourites for the competition.
Alberto Contador 06.12.1982 Liberty Seguros
Luis Leon Sanchez 24.11.1983 Liberty Seguros
Allan Davis 27.07.1980 Liberty Seguros
Alberto Contador is without doubt the revelation of the season so far. Ranked 15th in the UCI Pro tour rankings he has demonstrated great Time Trialing and climbing talents. He got his 5th victory of the season on stage 4 Stage of the Tour de Romandie (St. Denis - Les Paccots, 146,9 km) and is a big favourite to take the White Jersey competition. Luis Leon Sanchez will probably be the second youngest rider in the race. As the team website says, There is no need to put the pressure on a 21-year old lad who has won three professional stages and also won the Down Under Tour this same year. He must ride calmly, but be aware of his huge potential. Allan Davis rides his second Tour de France and continues to develop as a strong fast man.
José Angel Gomez Marchante 13.05.1981 Saunier Duval
Joxean Matxin Fernandez, Directeur Sportif, made the following comments on his young rider who finished seventh in the Dauphiné Libéré:
"He is the rider of the future. I can imagine him wearing the white jersey in the Tour! Angel is very strong and raced an excellent Dauphiné; he even gave shivers to the favorites! Certainly an outstanding climber, but is his time trialing good enough?
Philippe Gilbert 05.07.1982 FdJ
Bernhard Eisel 17.02.1981- FdJ
Thomas Lövqvist 04/04/1984 FdJ
Francis Mourey 08.12.1980 - FdJ
No surprise to see a team of Mark Madiot with a strong youthful feel. Philippe Gilbert continues to fulfil his potential 4 victories already this season in the Tour Méditérranéen, Tour du Haut Var, the Trophée des Grimpeurs and the second stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque. Thirty-second in the Giro Italia last year, but he is more likely to be looking for a stage victory rather than the White jersey. Bernhard Eisel has three victories this year, including a great victory in the Tour de Suisse. Thomas Lövqvist is the youngest rider in the race, and is already being hailed as the next Valverde. Too young to ride the Tour? Well, if youre good enough you are old enough.
Anthony Geslin 09.06.1980 Bouygues Telecom
Jérôme Pineau 02.01.1980 Bouygues Telecom
Matthieu Sprick 29.09.1981 Bouygues Telecom
Jerome Pineau had a great season last year winning a stage and the GC of the Tour de lAin and also winning the Clasica de Alméria. Matthieu Sprick won the Tour du Doubs and finished 12th in the Tour de lAvenir . Anthony Geslin won the third stage of the Circuit de Lorraine this year. All talented team members but the Bouygues trio will not have high hopes for the white jersey.
Patrick Sinkewitz : 20.10.1980 - Quick Step Innergetic
Tom Boonen 15.10.1980 - Quick Step Innergetic
Patrick Sinkewitz looks like being the only support on offer in the high mountains for GC Contender Michael Rogers, so he may find he has his hands full on other matters. Likewise Tom Boonen will have other Green jerseys on his mind.
Fabian Wegemann 20.06.1980 Gerolsteiner
Young Fabian can certainly climb as his green King of the mountains jersey in the Giro dItalia 2004 showed. However, team duties looking after Levi Leipheimer and Georg Totschnig may be enough for young Fabian.
Michael Albasini 20/12/1980 Liquigas Bianchi
Winner of a stage in the recent Tour de Suisse , Michael Albasini is a good rouleur with a fast turn of speed at the finish .
Andrey Kaschechkin 21.03.1980 Credit Agricole
The Youngster had an exceptional Dauphiné Libéré finishing in 9th place, a very strong climber. However he will be helping team leader, Christophe Moreau so team duties may dictate tactics.
Andriy Grivko 07.08. 1980 - Domina Vacanze
Alessandro Vanotti 16.09.1983 Domina Vacanze
Maxim Inglinskiy 18.04.1981 Domina Vacanze
Young Kazakh hope Maxim Inglinskiy had an excellent Tour de lAvenir in 2004 and has won races in China, Greece, Bulgaria and Ireland while Andriy Grivko has been aggressive all season. Alessandro Vanotti had an excellent Giro dItalia and was star of the day on stage 16 when he was third at the finish line. "I attacked several times, but they always caught up with me. I was really doing well and I wanted to win, so I could dedicate the victory to my mother, who died in 2002."
Mauro Facci 11.05.1982 Fassa Bortolo
Fabian Cancellara 18.03.1981 Fassa Bortolo
Claudio Corioni 26.12.1982 Fassa Bortolo
Winner of the prologue last year, Fabian will not be thinking of the White Jersey but rather repeating last years success on the opening day. The 19 kilometre Time trial suits him ideally and he is a favourite for that part of the race, but not for the white jersey. Fassa Bortolo had to replace Paolo Bossoni at the last minute so in came young gun Mauro Facci.
Claudio Corioni won the second stage of the Setmana Catalana this year and wore the leaders jersey.
Joost Posthuma 08.03.1981 Rabobank
Pieter Weening 05.04.1981 Rabobank
Since finishing 6th in the Tour de lAvenir in 2002 with RB3, Pieter Weening has continued to impress with an excellent 9th spot in the Vuelta a Murcia this year. Likewise Joost Posthuma has joined the Rabobank Pro team via their youth system and has an excellent win on Stage 6 of Paris Nice.
Samuel Dumoulin 20.08.1980 AG2R
Simon Gerrans 16.05.1980- AG2R
Wild card team AG2R bring the gutsy Samuel Dumoulin, winner of the Tro Bro Leon in 2003 and 2004, he also won stage 2 of this years Dauphine Libere. Winner of the
Tour Finisterre, the Australian Simon Gerrans unusually makes his debut in the tour in his first full year as a pro.
Johan Van Summeren 04.02.1981 Davitamon Lotto
will be working hard for Cadel Evans as the race progresses.
White Jersey Winners
The bracket figure is the riders ranking in the overall General Classification. Two riders have won both the Yellow and White Jersey, Laurent Fignon in 1983, and Jan Ullrich in 1997. Ullrich has also won the competition most times (three) with Marco Pantani the only other rider to score more than one victory.
The lowest ranked rider on General Classification to win the event was Fabrice Philipot who finished 24th in 1989. Interestingly while some riders have gone on from winning the White Jersey to being legends of the sport (Moser, Fignon, Anderson, Le Mond and Hampsten) for other riders it was the highlight of their career (for example, Benoît Salmon). The Netherlands have most winners with 6 riders, but Russia have won the competition with Menchov and Karpets for the last two years.
1975 - Francesco Moser (Ita) (7)
1976 - Enrique Martínez Heredia (Esp) (23)
1977 - Dietrich Thurau (FRG) (5)
1978 - Henk Lubberding (Ned) (8)
1979 - Jean-René Bernaudeau (Fra) (5)
1980 - Johan van der Velde (Ned) (12)
1981 - Peter Winnen (Ned) (5)
1982 - Phil Anderson (Aus) (5)
1983 - Laurent Fignon (Fra) (1) *
1984 - Greg LeMond (USA) (3) *
1985 - Fabio Parra (Col) (8) *
1986 - Andrew Hampsten (USA) (4) *
1987 - Raúl Alcala (Mex) (9)
1988 - Erik Breukink (Ned) (12)
1989 - Fabrice Philipot (Fra) (24)
1990 - Gilles Delion (Fra) (15)
1991 - Alvaro Mejía (Col) (19)
1992 - Eddy Bouwmans (Ned) (14)
1993 - Antonio Martín Velasco (Esp) (12)
1994 - Marco Pantani (Ita) (3)
1995 - Marco Pantani (Ita) (13)
1996 - Jan Ullrich (Ger) (2)
1997 - Jan Ullrich (Ger) (1) 1998 - Jan Ullrich (Ger) (2)
1999 - Benoît Salmon (Fra) (16)
2000 - Francisco Mancebo (Esp) (9)
2001 - Oscar Sevilla (Esp) (7)
2002 - Ivan Basso (Ita) (11) 2003 - Denis Menchov (Rus) (11)
2004 - Vladimir Karpets (Rus) (13)


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Yes, Ryan Kesler may be injured and out of the Canucks' starting lineup, but Kevin V. our man with his pulse on the Vancouver sports beat is back with another edition of the Vancouver Canucks Notebook. The October 6th, 2011 edition. Wednesday night the Canucks host the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday at Rogers Arena in a fitting start to the regular season.
State Of The Canucks – Weekly Notebook | October 6th
October 6, 2011 By


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of the American Society for Information Scinece
Go to Bulletin Index
Volume 25, No. 2
December / January 1999
Human Work in a Computer AgeASIS Special Award Winner Herb Simon Addresses the Annual Meeting
by Steve Hardin
Herbert A. Simon, 1978 Nobel Prize winner, received the 1998 Special Award of ASIS inrecognition of his research in, and the magnitude of his contributions to, computer science, psychology, economics, philosophy and numerous other fields. Preceding the presentation of the award at the recent ASIS Annual Meeting, Simon spoke to the gathered information professionals.
Researcher Herbert A. Simon discussed some of the challenges facing humanity as it strives to deal with information, computers, nature and its own societal shortcomings. Simon, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, talked about Human Work in a Computer Age at the opening plenary session of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science in Pittsburgh.
ASIS President Michael Buckland introduced the Carnegie Mellon University professor by quoting from one of Simon's works:
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence awealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
Simon notes that the lot of forecasters is not easy. He points out how astrologers of old faced a deadly dilemma. If their forecasts were unfavorable, they were imprisoned, tortured or beheaded. If their forecasts were favorable, but inaccurate, they met the same fate. He says that people really do not want forecasts of the future; they want assurances of the future. They want to know everything will turn out all right. So, he notes wryly, "in inviting me here to talk about the future of our species and our work in the next millennium, you are giving me very little incentive to level with you!"
Simon notes another problem with predicting human affairs. In nature, solar and lunar eclipses take place in a particular place and at a particular time no matter what we do, but human affairs are our affairs, usually about what we do or don't do. So something is wrong with the concept of "prediction" of human affairs.
The objective really is not to make predictions but to propose futures. We want to propose futures that are desirable, certainly tolerable. We do not want to propose utopias; they cannot be realized. We cannot repeal the laws of nature. Our plans must account for the things we propose to do, the things we propose to change, the laws of nature that govern them and the laws of human nature that are so flexible they are hard to use for predictions.
We also need goals, Simon says, conditions for "satisficing" the needs of the human condition. These goals will also describe the negative things we wish to minimize. We should be careful not to include goals like perfection of human morality or intelligence or the body. Simon states there have been two great planning experiments in his lifetime. The first was the Soviet Union; the second was the People's Republic of China. Both experiments depended on and tried to bring about a reform in human character. But whatever they accomplished - good and bad - they did not change human character. Russians and Chinese still behave very much like humans in the rest of the world.
Simon turns next to information. He says he accepts without argument the premise that during the last half-century we have been passing through the early stages of a profound revolution. He also argues that there is vastly more to come. We humans spend the vast majority of our time processing information. It is as vital to our survival as processing food. Information processing begins with sensing; it ends with acting. And it involves everything that goes on inside us in between. It also involves not only our nerves, but also the "nerves" of our computers and of our communication nets.
This is the third information revolution, he says. The first was the slow one that turned apes into human beings and greatly enlarged the information processes we call thinking. It introduced language as a vital tool in thinking and communication. Maybe we should call it "evolution" instead of "revolution" - as a matter of fact, it usually is called just that!
The second great revolution was the invention of writing, the ability to make the storage of information independent of the properties of human memories. By allowing information to be recorded on durable materials, this revolution preserved it even beyond the human lifetime. If you borrowed money 7000 years ago, and your transaction was recorded, you would have to be careful that the record was still around. In the more modern era of high sulfide paper, you are safer borrowing millions, because in 50 years there will not be any evidence for the debt. And with electronic transactions, he joked, you can be safely assured that every evidence of your debt will disappear in five years!
What should be our concerns about the third information revolution? When artificial intelligence first appeared, questions arose about what we should do with human work when machines can do it better. The day when this will be true is coming. Simon says it would not surprise him if it happened in the next century. The answer is not that we will spend our time in leisure. Except for children, who must learn to become adults, and the small number of parasites, wealthy or needy, worthy or not, that societies commonly maintain, all of us have to work to survive. He noted he was not talking just about economic survival: studies of retirees show that our sense of value and worth often derive from work. Whatever early cave dwellers did, evolution saw to it that they learned to like it. He said he has not seen any studies of people's abilities to survive leisure, but he increasingly encounters - as the age of his friends increases - people who have a hard time with it.
Simon notes that the recluse scientist Henry Cavendish wrote a lot of papers. Many were not published, but Simon suspects they gave him a lot of satisfaction. Cavendish lived to be 79.
Not all of the unemployed can be Cavendishes engaged in research. What are the other outlets for human skills? Actually, Simon remarks, this problem came up first in the industrial revolution. When one tenth - to take a round number - of the population could produce the food and shelter that previously required everyone's efforts, new wants were created that the rest of the population could supply. The adjustment was not without its trials and tribulations, and we could do better, but roughly the same proportion of the population is employed now as was employed before the industrial revolution. Working hours are shorter, so we did substitute some leisure for work. . . or did we? Do we include the hours commuting by car, not just to work but to the nearest market or to ferry our children to their activities? Do we include as leisure the hours spent in home improvements or serious hobbies? People have filled their time to the point of constant complaint of too much to do. He asked how many people in the audience found themselves busier than they would like to be. Many hands were raised.
It is not fair to describe the new wants as simple "make work" artifacts. Even with all the problems of the health care system, people do live longer. People are better educated, too. Still, leisure appears to be a burden to some people, who use it in a way that some of us do not wholly approve. Forget alcohol, drugs and the fascination with weapons. They were probably around in pre-industrial times. What give us pause are the totally passive activities such as watching TV that are now acceptable. Simon says he includes most forms of surfing the Web in this totally passive category, too.
But before we start legislating for mankind, we need to determine whether work is better than these forms of leisure. The evidence that work is more pleasurable than leisure is negative. Work songs, Simon says, are all about the pleasures workers will have after their work is over. Is work more mind-stretching than leisure? The evidence is mixed. Farming was mind-stretching, particularly if you did it as an independent. But working on the assembly line was not usually intellectually taxing.
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, Simon says he personally takes a rather dim view of the couch potato. He says he would like to design a society in which people have options other than being couch potatoes. Can we create a world in which there are more person hours spent playing games and sports than watching them? Can we avoid creating illusory needs to keep people employed? Can we get people to feel good about their self-worth and to stop thinking that worth depends on keeping humankind unique and apart from the rest of nature? Instead of worrying about computers "taking over," we should be worrying about the human behavior that uses our tools for destructive ends and how to understand and improve it. Computers, by simulating human thinking, can help us in that too, he says.
The problems we are creating have little to do with computers and more to do with strengthening people's curiosity about their world and their sense of responsibility for their future, to fill the vacuum created by the loss of being needed for traditional work. Again, these are not novel issues; the leisured ruling class has always faced them. We would probably learn more about the problems of the future by reading the literature of their societies to see what they thought their problems were. Simon says his crystal ball does not portend either a grim or utopian future. The future is not to be predicted, but to be made by us. The first step is to understand what the issues are and what our resources are for dealing with them.
What about the struggle of the burgeoning human population to live in harmony with the rest of nature? The number of people who think the earth can support an unlimited population is diminishing. Most of us are convinced you cannot have exponential growth without something bad happening eventually. We will need to create societies that use resources at rates that do not have a negative impact on the earth. This issue, Simon says, is even more important than unemployment. The principal tool to handle this issue is knowledge, and computers and communication are becoming ever more essential components of this tool. In the past 10 years, computer and information scientists have made great strides in developing the tools they will need to handle these problems. Robots have come a long way in learning to deal with the complexities of the world. Until we build systems that can interact with the external environment, we are not addressing the problems we need to address. Robotics is a key field, exciting and rapidly moving. He notes parenthetically that Carnegie Mellon University has three of the world's champion robot soccer teams.
Another important area, Simon says, carries the name of data mining. We need a better name, he says, because data mining makes us think of horsepower and energy, not thinking. We need to apply intelligence to data mining.
Keyword searching is not the answer to information retrieval. He adds we cannot solve the problems by brute force. In the chess match between IBM's Deep Blue and Kasparov, the victory did not go to the brute force speed of the computer, but to the knowledge it had obtained from its human trainers that enabled it to search in a highly selective manner. Brute force is not the answer - intelligence is. That is what artificial intelligence is all about.
Artificial intelligence tries to study human intelligence and learn the sly tricks we have developed tocompensate for the fact that our brains are very slow computers. We will need to find out what we use to compensate and apply large doses of it if we are going to be successful in mining the information we want.
Simon notes that the Roman statesman Cato the Elder always ended his speeches with "Cartago delendum est" - "Carthage must be destroyed." He said he would end with a refrain, too, already suggested by Dr. Buckland in his introduction. We must keep in mind that information is not the limiting factor in what we can accomplish. Our problems will not be solved by processing more information but by processing the right information. The scarce resource is human attention, and increasingly, it will be computer attention, too. So getting the right information is essential. That principle should be at the center of all of our design of information processing, he concluded.
How to Order
@ 1999, American Society for Information ScienceLast Update: February 21, 1999


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If you are interested in using this image, please consult Acknowledging the Website.
This record was last updated on 10 May 2012
Image Reference
Maria Graham [Lady Maria Callcott], Journal of a voyage to Brazil and residence there, during part of the years 1821, 1822, 1823 (London, 1824), facing title page. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-97201)
In the list of plates of Graham's book, this scene is captioned, "Val Longo, or slave market at Rio"; street scene showing enslaved children and adults and European buyers and sellers. The engraving is derived from a painting made by the English artist Augustus Earle (1793-1838); he lived in Rio de Janeiro in 1820-1824 and executed a number of works focusing on slavery (see Earle, on this website).


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Do AV companies check each definition update against windows?
Every now and then an antivirus company releases a definition update which brings Windows to its knees. ( Example: When Webroot recently released an update which locked people out of their windows 8 machines) The AV accidentally flags a crucial system file as malicious and deletes it. How does this happen? I realize there are 100,000?s of thousands of different windows applications which could accidentally be flagged, thus they can?t test each one, but windows?
I don?t know how they check each definition update, but to me it doesn?t sound that hard. Wouldn?t it be easy to setup a few quad core machines with 2+ SSD?s in raid 0. Then each computer would contain a different bare-bones version of windows, starting with a machine that has all the latest updates. Then before the update is released they scan each machine. Because the computer is a bare install and because it?s running on an SSD raid 0 setup, the scan should only take a few minutes. If they did this before they released each update I don?t see how they could accidentally release an update that kills thousands of machines.
That's just my 2 cents.
When I said Service pack 2 I meant to say Service pack 3!