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A star is born
Thanks to a team of vets and keepers, careful genetic calculations, and a dash of plain luck, a very special baby gorilla arrived at Franklin Park earlier this month.
If you'd visited Franklin Park Zoo late last December, you might have been privy to a rare sight: two gorillas in the act of baby making.
A winter weekday is typically a slow day at the zoo, and December 29 was no exception – 135 visitors, compared with the several thousand who might appear on a summer Saturday. Still, the Tropical Forest, where the gorillas live, is the zoo's most popular exhibit, and also the warmest. So even with the low turnout, dozens of surprised visitors were there to watch Kitombe, the male, who is known as Kit, and Kiki, the female, mate three or four times that day. Some parents, in response to inquisitive children, explained that the animals were "playing leapfrog" or "wrestling." Others took the opportunity to tell their kids about the wonders of nature. "It's pretty quick," says assistant curator Jeannine Jackle, who manages the Tropical Forest and who has worked closely with the zoo's gorillas for just over two decades. "Thirty seconds. I've never timed it exactly, but it's pretty short."
Twenty-three days before, zoo staffers had stopped hiding a daily birth-control pill, the same kind used by humans, in Kiki's morning oatmeal. Over the past few days, the gorilla had been showing signs of estrus. "We'd go up into the gorilla holding area in the morning, and you could smell it," Jackle says. "It's kind of a skunky, musky smell, which the males key in on right away."
Some gorillas will mate even when the female is on the pill, but Kit and Kiki, for whatever reason, do not. So, before today, neither had mated in more than five years. Their daughters, Kira, then 10, and Kimani, 5, were there to see the initial attempt at Kit's "wrestling" with Kiki, and neither reacted well to the sight. "They ganged up on him," Jackle says. "They jumped on him and bit him. Either they didn't know what was going on or they didn't like it." There were no flowers, no music or candlelight. When it was over, both gorillas went back to their business as if nothing had happened – until they decided to get together again a few hours later.
* * *
This was a beginning, of sorts – though the zoo's new star attraction wouldn't be conceived for a month or so. But the real beginning occurred long before. What happened between Kit and Kiki that winter day involved years of planning, the cooperation of 52 zoos, and the creation and maintenance of an elaborate family tree tracing the genetic background of the 350 gorillas now in captivity all over North America. The recent breeding at Franklin Park Zoo took place under the guidance of a Species Survival Plan, or SSP, run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a network of accredited institutions. An SSP manages the captive population of a species and works to ensure its genetic diversity; there are now 116 SSPs for 172 species.
The SSPs are part of a reinvention of zoos that began more than 40 years ago. Before the 1970s, zoos mostly saw themselves as entertainment venues. Those who ran them tended to devote little thought to the fate of species or to the emotional well-being of individual animals. The idea was for visitors to get a close-up look, and if that meant keeping an animal in solitude in a cage with bars, so be it. Experts have since learned that animals are far more complex than we'd imagined. They have interior lives, and they can get bored and stressed.
Zoos in the last few decades have dramatically changed their exhibits, says Rory Browne, a zoo historian at Boston College who is a board member of Zoo New England, the group that operates Franklin Park Zoo in Dorchester and Stone Zoo in Stoneham. Many modern displays attempt to mimic the wild. They're larger and give the animals more breathing room. And instead of mere funhouses, today's zoos promote themselves as agents of conservation, players in the great fight against the extinction of species.
And the western lowland gorilla is critically endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. To be "critically endangered" means that a species is one rung above "extinct in the wild." Experts estimate that there are fewer than 200,000 gorillas in the wild, mostly in western and central Africa. Many gorillas have been killed by the Ebola virus, and their habitat has been largely destroyed by human encroachment. Roads make it easy for people with guns to access the deep forest where the gorillas live. They're hunted and killed for what's called bushmeat – for food. "It's a cultural thing," Jackle says. "For certain holidays, a family will want to have gorilla. Just like we want to eat deer or lobster. And unfortunately, it becomes an endangered species, and people still want to eat it."
* * *
On February 3, a dozen zoo employees – vet techs, curators, keepers – gathered in the zoo's veterinary building in a fluorescent-lit exam room dominated by a stainless-steel table and loaded with tubes, hoses, wires, monitors, and surgical tools. It's strictly clinical, but that morning the room had the feel of a party. An hour earlier, the keepers had given Kiki a little extra apple juice. The resulting puddle of urine was syringed off the floor of her enclosure and brought here. A vet tech poured the liquid over a Clearblue pregnancy stick, purchased at
These breeding attempts don't always work out, despite all the planning. As with people, animals can have fertility problems. And they prefer to like each other. "That's the part science hasn't solved," says John Piazza, the zoo's mammal curator.
Last year, the zoo received the OK from the SSP to breed one of their bongos, a rare and beautiful species of forest-dwelling African antelope. In the summer of 2009, the zoo arranged for Annakiya, a 6-year-old female, to meet Junior, a 3-year-old male from a zoo in South Dakota. The introduction was uneventful, but a few months after Junior's arrival, he charged Annakiya, and the animals had to be separated. They've since been cautiously reintroduced, but so far, no baby.
When young do arrive, there can still be problems. In recent years, a ring-tailed lemur pair named Tango and Lulu has twice mated successfully. But Lulu failed to nurse the offspring, so the zoo staff was forced to bottle-feed them until they were old enough to return to the group. This keeps the animals alive, but can cause them to identify with humans.
Even Kiki has had her troubles. For eight years in the 1990s she had access to a male named Vip. Genetically speaking, they were a good match, but they would not mate. "She refused to breed with him," Jackle says. "Vip went off to the zoo in Seattle and fathered five female babies. Kiki wanted nothing to do with him, but in Seattle the gorillas thought he was great. Then we brought Kit in, and the first day they were introduced, Kiki bred with him. So go figure."
* * *
On March 18, there was another pregnancy test for Kiki in the same exam room, but this time just a few people showed up to watch. Sharon O'Keefe, who oversees the zoo's veterinary nursing staff, pulled on a pair of blue rubber gloves and poured the urine over the stick. It's supposed to take 3 minutes, but the result showed up almost immediately. "There you go," she said. "She's having a baby."
Every year, about 30 mammals are born at Franklin Park Zoo, but few get as much attention as a baby gorilla. We're fascinated with gorillas "because they're like us," Jackle says. The glass barriers at the Tropical Forest let you get up close, sometimes within inches, and you can see how the eyes of a gorilla, or its hands, are remarkably human, and yet very different.
And you can get to know their personalities. Jackle says she's closest with Gigi, the oldest female, who is shy and reclusive. Little Joe, the most impressive physically and possibly the smartest of the group, likes to strut and flex and throw back his shoulders and glare. Okie is playful but thoughtful. Kiki's warm and mothering, but she can hold her own, even with the males. Kira, the oldest of Kit and Kiki's daughters, is strong and confident. Kimani is still maturing, small enough to get special treatment from the grown-ups. Kit mostly minds his own business. You'll see him on exhibit munching on his kale (gorillas are vegetarians), oblivious to whatever's happening on the other side of the glass. Jackle calls him a "gorilla's gorilla," meaning he doesn't care about people. "He just likes gorillas." But then Kit was raised by his gorilla parents. The other adults were raised at least in part by zookeepers.
Jackle laughs when someone asks if the gorillas wonder what the hell is going on. "They only know this," she says. "This is what they were born into. I don't think they think twice about it. When there aren't any guests, they'll sit at the windows and they'll look for them, and if you're the only one in here, you'll get a lot of attention."
Zoos are well aware of this mutual attraction, which means they don't view gorillas as just another animal. "At zoos, we like to say that gorillas are the most political of the species," says John Linehan, president of Zoo New England. Visitors like them, so zoos want them. But there are only so many to go around. A female gorilla will give birth only once every four or five years. That's their natural cycle. And there's limited enclosure space: enough for about 400 gorillas in North America. Financial factors keep this number steady. In the past, a zoo might have put a gorilla in a cage that would cost a few thousand dollars. Today's exhibits that mimic the wild can cost $20 million.
The desire for gorillas has sometimes led to "spitting matches" between zoo directors, Linehan says, "Especially with the older directors, the ones that came from that 40-year-ago period, who think of themselves more as showmen. They will fight harder in spite of the biological needs of the species. But it's gotten less political as some of those characters have left the business."
Every so often, a zoo baby becomes a phenomenon. In 2005, Tai Shan the panda cub spawned massive crowds at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. In 2007, Knut the polar bear became a sensation at the Berlin Zoo after the mother rejected the cub and zookeepers hand-reared him. An attendance frenzy ensued, and the zoo's revenue increased by 5 million euros that year. In American money, that would have been nearly $7 million – more than the entire $5 million budget that Zoo New England received from the state this year.
Linehan says he'd love that kind of attention, but not at the cost of betraying the zoo's mission. "There are ways we could try to replicate that," he says. "If we had a baby gorilla that we hand-raised, we could carry it around the city and take it to talk shows. We could do that for a year, at least, and that would create a phenomenon. But we can't do that. That's where the business end of things and the ethical mission clash."
Fifty years ago, a zoo that wanted a new gorilla might have just captured one from the wild. When Linehan started at Franklin Park 30 years ago as a keeper, cleaning out cages and feeding the animals, his boss would tell stories from the old days about going to Africa and capturing animals from the back of a jeep with a noose. "It's a different world now," Linehan says.
Nonetheless, given the zoo's budget crisis last year (Governor Deval Patrick planned to cut Zoo New England's state funding from $6.5 million to $2.5 million, but later restored it to $5 million), the go-ahead to breed Kit and Kiki might seem like more than a happy coincidence: The budget crisis happened in July. The breeding recommendation arrived in August. But Linehan says the two events were not linked in any way. He says the coordinator of the gorilla SSP, the person ultimately responsible for the decision, probably wasn't even aware of the zoo's money troubles.
That coordinator, Kristen Lukas, a gorilla expert at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, says the zoo's financial situation didn't enter her mind. "Oh, goodness, no, we don't look at anything like that," she says. "There may have been a time, a long time ago, when it was more about politics, but that time is long gone."
A breeding recommendation, she says, is based on the SSP's "stud book," essentially an elaborate family tree that includes every captive gorilla in North America. The SSP tries to match gorillas that don't have a lot of brothers and sisters and cousins at other zoos. "So if you have a lot of relatives in the population, then you have what's called a high mean kinship, and that means you are less desirable for breeding," Lukas says.
Gigi, Okie, and Little Joe have lots of relatives at other zoos. Kit and Kiki do not.
* * *
On June 24, Kiki was due for a weight check. This was done on a scale inside the gorilla holding area, a part of the Tropical Forest that isn't open to the public. It is essentially a large room divided by heavy-gauge galvanized mesh from floor to ceiling. The keepers can reach through the mesh and touch the animals with their fingers and spoon-feed them oatmeal or little biscuits made of corn and wheat and soy, known as monkey chow. At her last weight check, Kiki was 206 pounds, up from a starting weight of 185.
The gorillas have been trained, via positive reinforcement, to sit still on the scale. Rachel Jakosalem, a senior keeper, hunched down opposite the scale, pointed her finger upward, and drew a few quick circles in the air, like an umpire signaling a home run. This prompted Kiki to sit on the scale with her back against the mesh. Jakosalem held a few fingers against Kiki's back, a signal to sit still. Above Kiki's head was a digital weight readout. After a couple of seconds, Jakosalem removed her fingers and Kiki got her reward: a few spoonfuls of oatmeal.
Getting the weight is no easy thing. A second keeper had to distract the other gorillas in the enclosure with treats. But gorillas are playful and inquisitive and mischievous, and they want to know what's going on. They jumped on Kiki and banged the wall, then ran into the corner and acted innocent. It took a good 10 minutes to get three weight readings on Kiki, enough to persuade Jackle that the readings were accurate.
But Kiki only weighed 200 pounds. She'd lost 6 pounds in two weeks. Jackle suspected that there was nothing to worry about, since Kiki had shown no signs of illness and was eating well. Jackle thought maybe the weight from two weeks ago was inaccurate. But she didn't really know.
Kiki is older for a gorilla mother. At 29, she's the rough equivalent of a woman being pregnant at 40. And many things can go wrong with a gorilla birth – often the same sorts of problems that humans can encounter. The baby can get wedged in the birth canal, for instance, or the placenta might detach early and block the baby's way.
And yet Eric Baitchman, director of veterinary services at Franklin Park Zoo, anticipates none of these problems and won't examine Kiki at all during the pregnancy. A thorough examination would involve putting the animal under anesthesia so he can draw blood – something he'd prefer to do as rarely as possible even with an animal that isn't pregnant. He's never been present for a gorilla birth and won't be there for this one. "We're not going to sit there and stare at them," Baitchman says. "That will just make them uncomfortable. The animal doesn't want you there anyway. They're looking for a quiet area and a quiet time with no people around. Usually you just come in in the morning and there's a fresh baby there."
Eleven years ago, when Kiki was pregnant with Kira, things weren't nearly so relaxed. One concern was that Kiki had been hand-reared at the Bronx Zoo and later the Philadelphia Zoo. This wasn't unusual in the early '80s, but zoos now operate on the principle that gorillas learn best from other gorillas. So the zoo staff was frantic that Kiki wouldn't know what to do with the newborn. One zoo staffer's wife had just given birth, and they brought her in twice a week for a month to breast-feed in front of Kiki, just to show her how it was done. Keepers camped out at night next to the gorilla holding area in case the baby came in the middle of the night.
They were right to be afraid. Kira arrived healthy, but Kiki didn't know how to nurse. "It was painful," Jackle says. "She was a good mom, she held it, but she didn't know what to do with it. She'd never held a baby before, so she held it on her head, she held it everywhere she could put it, but not on her breast. And then finally 36 hours later the milk came and somehow she got the baby in the right position by accident."
When Kimani was born five years later, the zoo staff mostly left Kiki alone to do her thing. They were confident that she knew what to do. Shannon Finn, a senior keeper who works almost exclusively with the gorillas, arrived one morning and Kimani was just there. Finn was the first person to see her. Kiki held the baby. The other gorillas, especially the males, kept their distance.
* * *
By late July, Kiki's weight was up to 215 pounds and everything appeared to be coming along fine. Finn would notice Kiki walking "a little slower in her step, but that's really about it." By early August, visitors started asking if the plump-looking gorilla was pregnant.
By mid-August Kiki had gained another 4 pounds. Jackle says she has no idea what the average weight gain is for a pregnant gorilla. "It's like with humans, it's individual," she says. "Some women gain 15 pounds, some women gain 50 pounds."
On August 16, the zoo began promoting the upcoming birth. It announced that Kiki was expecting and invited the public to a "baby shower" at the zoo, asking visitors to bring donations for a charity benefiting human babies. It also made plans for a baby-naming contest.
* * *
Kiki's baby will live its life in captivity. It's a nice idea, that a zoo can keep a certain population of a species intact in order to repopulate the wild. And that does, in fact, happen, in small doses. Linehan points to Zoo New England's role in helping to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf into the American Southwest.
But gorillas are more problematic. Deforestation means there's less wild for them to go back to. And it's questionable that a captive gorilla would have the skills to survive in the wild. Kiki's baby will likely travel one day, but it will only be to another zoo, a different enclosure.
Which leads to the question: Should we even be breeding wild animals in captivity? If there are 350 gorillas in captivity in North America and fewer than 200,000 left in the wild, how much of an effect can a zoo-based breeding program have on a species?
Some experts say: not much of one. Among these critics is David Hancocks, a former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, and author of A Different Nature: The Paradoxical World of Zoos and Their Uncertain Future. Hancocks argues that zoos took a wrong turn with the emphasis on conservation. He thinks preservation of habitat should be the main focus and says zoos are being disingenuous when they imply that their breeding programs have a measurable effect on wild populations.
"Zoos have to breed the animals," Hancocks says, "because they can't do it like they did in the old days. They can't go out into the wild and capture gorillas. So it's really just a basic sensible business plan. They're keeping the shelves stocked. But it's got nothing to do with ensuring the survival of gorillas in the real world."
Even those within the zoo community concede that the effect that zoos can have on what's happening to animals outside captivity is minimal. Piazza says, "With a lot of these programs, it's a wish and a prayer that we can someday get them back into the wild." Browne says that the best a zoo breeding program can hope to achieve is "a drop in the bucket" compared with the problems animals face in the world.
But Linehan argues that zoos do, in fact, have an important role to play – even if the target of their effort ends up being less the gorillas than the people who come to see them.
"For too many people, zoos are about the only link they have with nature," Linehan says. "We're creating an appreciation for the other living things on the planet. So our first and foremost role is in influencing people's understanding and appreciation for populations in the wild and getting them to behave in ways that support what's left."
* * *
By early September, Kiki was six or seven months pregnant – nobody knew for sure. Gorilla gestation is typically 8 1/2 months. After the initial breeding activity in late December, Kit and Kiki mated again in late January and early March. So the baby could arrive in six weeks or 2 1/2 months.
The zoo staff can't gauge the likelihood of a due date based on looks. Gorilla babies are smaller than human babies – 4 to 5 pounds, on average, so gorilla mothers don't show as much. And gorillas tend to look beer-bellied anyway. The vets could do an ultrasound, but that could be stressful for Kiki, and the larger goal was to act as if nothing were happening. So they waited and played a guessing game.
Baitchman, the vet, says Kiki herself won't signal that anything is about to happen until it's almost happening. On the day of the birth she might seem slightly agitated. Just prior to the baby coming Kiki will experience the same thing a human mother might: some vaginal discharge, the water breaking, frequent urination. This will likely happen at night, with no one to see but other gorillas.
* * *
But then, things don't always turn out like you think they will. On the morning of November 3, Finn checked Kiki's enclosure for a baby, as the keepers had done every morning for weeks, and found nothing. A little later, she shifted Kiki into a small den with her two daughters and left to prepare their breakfast. When she returned, at around 8:40 a.m., there was a small streak of blood on the floor and a tiny damp gorilla in Kiki's arms.
She immediately called Jackle, who arrived in time to see Kiki deliver the placenta. "Its gums and hands and feet were nice and pink, so you could tell it looked good," Jackle says. "Very strong, moving around, arms and legs kicking. It was crying quite a bit. Its eyes were open."
Kiki licked the baby clean. Kira and Kimani, who'd seen everything happen up close, were blase. They mostly seemed interested in breakfast. But after a while, Kimani got a good long look at her new sibling. "Mom allowed her to get pretty close, where she can sniff the baby's head, but she's not allowed to touch," Jackle says. "If she reaches her hand out, mom will push her away."
An hour later, Kit got his first glimpse of the newborn. "It almost looked like she showed him the baby," Jackle says. "She kind of picked it up and presented it. I don't know what her intention was, but that's what it looked like." Kit made noises Jackle calls purring and what Finn calls a happy grumble – a sign of contentment.
The next day, the baby's first on exhibit, was a dreary rainy weekday with not much of a turnout, not unlike the day the previous December when Kit and Kiki had been observed mating. The gorillas tend to sleep a lot when it's dim and rainy, so it was a quiet day. Kiki held the baby constantly and spent a lot of time away from the others, just her and her newborn. On the morning of the baby's third day, the keepers observed a good long bout of nursing, which means Kiki can raise the baby herself.
"She seems content," Jackle says. "She's doing a lot of the behaviors that we see when they're – I hate to be anthropomorphic – but when they're happy. They wiggle their toes, they wiggle their arms. She's holding the baby and walking back and forth. And if I can say that's a happy gorilla without being too anthropomorphic, that's a happy gorilla."
Timothy Maher lives in Somerville. His fiction has been published in the Massachusetts Review, and he's almost done writing his first novel. Send comments to email@example.com.


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The CST University Publication Award is an annual grant to university institutes and researchers for their work in the application of 3D EM field simulation. The winners are awarded with extensions to their CST STUDIO SUITE installations.
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Submissions were evaluated on a number of criteria including originality of the application or the theory, clarity of presentation, as well as the skillful usage of CST software features. There is a special award for short papers which acknowledges the importance of short conference papers in promoting the practical application of simulation.
Each prize consists of a one year free upgrade of the existing CST software license. The abstracts of these papers and of many more publications using CST software can be found in our references list.
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Expanded Test Capability of MD8480C Designed to Improve Development Cycle of HSUPA Chipsets and Expedite Roll Out of Technology
Anritsu Company continues to lead the way in 3G test solutions with the introduction of HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) testing capability for its MD8480C signaling tester, the market's leading 3G base station simulator. The HSUPA testing capability is the ideal signaling extension of the MD8480C, the industry's first HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) signaling tester and the only one that meets the full HSDPA specifications. It creates a single solution that allows chipset developers to verify the performance of their HSUPA chips faster and more efficiently, improving the overall time to market for HSUPA technology.
With the new capability, the MD8480C provides a single platform to test user equipment (UE) accurately and quickly in accordance with Release99 through R5 and R6. It fully supports all six categories defined in Release 6 and can thus test up to the 5.74 Mbps theoretical maximum HSUPA reverse link throughput. The MD8480C also supports HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) for testing data throughput or Tx diversity in handover testing.
Users can also add GSM/GPRS testing functionality and use the MD8480C as an InterRAT testing solution as well as a HSUPA/HSDPA/W-CDMA base station simulator. The MD8480C has measurement functions for the Enhanced Uplink (EUL) physical channels, Layer 1 and 2 signaling, and MAC-E/S entities to enable developers to analyze the full performance of EUL-enabled devices.
The HSUPA testing capability is a natural progression of the MD8480C. The signaling tester has unique high internal processing speed so it has full testing capability up to 14.4 Mbps • as much as 30x more than other signaling testers. It achieves a fast 200 ms response on the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, creating a stable connection for improved transmission during conformance tests, and greatly reducing the occurrences of re-transmission requests that are common with other instruments.
Combining physical layer testing with call processing analysis functions, the MD8480C can simulate GSM/GPRS/W-CDMA and HSDPA base stations (BTS). The MD8480C also allows OCNS (Orthogonal Channel Noise Simulation) to be loaded for each BTS. This meets the 3GPP test requirements for interference and noise tests, and reduces the time required to conduct verification tests. Additionally, the MD8480C has a measuring function for monitoring throughput and block error rate (BLER), so the tester can efficiently conduct debugging tasks.


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DIXON � Since first being handed a football at 4 years old by one his brothers, Malik Simmons has always liked to run.
DIXON � Since first being handed a football at 4 years old by one his brothers, Malik Simmons has always liked to run.
He was so young no one asked him to throw the ball or catch it � or block or tackle.
�So I just ran the whole time. Ever since then I liked running,� Simmons said. �I used to get this feeling in my legs. It made my legs real happy.�
Last year, Simmons made plenty of Dixon football fans happy after moving into the area from Houston to be with his mother, rushing for 1,006 yards while being hampered for about half the season with an injured left hamstring.
Simmons, who averaged 7.6 yards per carry and ran for 5 touchdowns, was part of a backfield that produced two 1,000-yard rushers � senior quarterback C.D. Hansley had 1,287 yards on the ground � and helped the Bulldogs (7-4) to their best season ever.
Hansley has graduated � and the 5-foot-10 Simmons has bulked up, adding 10 pounds of �lean muscle� thanks to an offseason routine that included a strict protein-heavy diet recommended by a friend who is a trainer.
�He told me the leaner you are the faster you are,� said Simmons, a senior. �So that�s what I did.�
Simmons looks like a player who has big-time potential and will be a �workhorse� for Dixon in 2013, said interim head coach Brandon Iseman, who was effusive in his praise of the well-spoken 17-year-old.
�He�s definitely somebody we want to touch the ball 15 or 20 times a game,� Iseman said. �He�s got all the tools. He�s strong. He makes great reads. He�s a great zone back, and he�s got some speed. He�s a definite first-option guy.�
What makes him good, Iseman said, is not just his physical skills but his focus.
�He�s so focused on his goals. He sets goals and pushes himself. He really brings the mental aspect to the game. He�s really a student of the game. He always wants to get better. He�s always asking, �Was I doing this right? Was I running behind my pads?�� Iseman said.
�As physically ready to play as he is, he�s equally mentally ready to play football.�
As he sat on a picnic table adjacent to the practice field after a nearly three-hour practice, Simmons was asked about his goals this season. At first, Simmons seemed to want to shy away from giving specifics, saying only that he wanted to get �a lot of yards.�
Then he defined what, for him, is a lot of yards: 5,000, to be exact.
�When I get older, I want to be the best, so I have to challenge myself. So I figure this year � people say it�s impossible � but I want to get 5,000 yards,� Simmons said in a matter-of-fact tone. �I told coach Iseman that, and I told my mom and dad that.
�They said, �Why do you want to do that?� I figured nobody else has done it, so why not? It�s not impossible.�
Actually, it is impossible � or has been so far in the history of high school football. The national record is 4,756 yards (set in 1950) and the North Carolina record is 3,794, according to the N.C. Athletic Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Simmons said he�s done the math and knows in an 11-game season (without any playoff games) he�d need to average more than 450 yards a game to reach his goal.
�You never know what�s going to happen during a game,� he said. �The only thing I can do is I can hope and pray I get blessed and do what I want to do.�
The more likely scenario is, with Hansley gone, Simmons could reach 2,000 yards rushing (or more), which would still be in rarefied territory, not just in the history of the Bulldog program but in the area as well.
A year ago, Simmons came out of nowhere (well, actually, Texas) and wore two different numbers � No. 3 on the road and No. 6 at home. He has no idea what number he�ll wear this year and really doesn�t care, although you can bet opponents will know the digits on his jersey.
It was a mixed bag of a season for Simmons, who hurt his hamstring about midseason and was never 100 percent after that. But he displays no frustration or thoughts of what might have been had he been healthy all season.
Of course, he feels he could have added to his yardage total and perhaps helped the Bulldogs win another game or two. But he said he�s healthy now, having concentrated during the offseason on strengthening his hamstring with a number of exercises, including a heavy dose of squats and integral running on his heels.
�And I try to eat right so I could build up the muscle more,� he said.
What Simmons said he hasn�t tried to build up is himself since arriving at Dixon in a move to be with his mother after his parents divorced. While the 5,000-yard goal may seem arrogant to some and elicit a, �Yeah, right,� response from others, Simmons comes across as a teenager mature and humble beyond his years.
Perhaps that�s because there was a time, Simmons said, when he wasn�t.
In Houston, Simmons played for a 5-A program and while he played the same position as he does for Dixon, he said he was �a different kind of kid.�
�I wish I knew now what I knew back then because I wasn�t as humble. I saw other people, they were cocky so I figured maybe if I were cocky maybe that would help me, and it didn�t help,� he said. �I figured that you got to be more humble. I figured if you were more humble, God would bless you more.�
Simmons said he went through a personality transformation, realizing the cocky persona he�d adopted wasn�t him.
�Yeah, that�s basically it,� he said. �I was like I shouldn�t be doing this.�
While he didn�t know Simmons when he lived in Texas, Iseman said he�s been �nothing but great for us.�
�He�s definitely a great leader. It comes with his maturity,� Iseman said as he sat in the weight room. �He�s like coaching an adult. He�s just mature. He�s a guy you don�t yell at. You instruct him on something and he does it.
�He�s one of those guys that he makes a mistake once. He makes it once and you correct him and he doesn�t make that mistake again. He makes all of us look good for sure. There�s no doubt about that. He�s not like a 17 year old. Mentally, physically, he�s just not.
�He�s just one of those special kids. If you get everybody act and approach the game like him, I�d be somebody.�


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Well now, isn't there just a ton of Mists of Pandaria information floating around out there?
If you're like me, I'm sure that you're a little bit overwhelmed but worry not! We'll get you up to speed on the latest tanking class that will be joining our ranks with an overview of some of the abilities that the Monk, and more specifically, the Brewmaster, will be bringing to the party.
We won't be covering every single ability that they have available in this two part article, but we'll go over the broad sweeps of the class to get a bit of an idea as to what kind playstyle they'll make available to you.
So glancing over the classe's baseline abilities, we immediately see the dynamic between energy and chi. There are a number of abilities that cost energy and generate chi for you to use. Energy appears to be the same as the rogue and druid resources while chi seems to function sort of like death knight runes with the exception that they appear to only be generated through hitting with various abilities.
Alternatively, there are some abilities that cost a certain amount of chi and then refund a smaller amount on use.
One example of an interesting utility skill is Disable where you can stack it on a target up to three times, each stack increasing the clow until the third stack ends up rooting the target for 8 seconds.
Another example of a utility skill is Quaking Palm which strikes a target and CCs them for 4 seconds or until they're hit again. Such a skill would be essential when it comes to controlling loose adds or to prevent something nasty from tearing off the face of your healer.
Monks also have interesting variations of the classic skills such as Spear Hand which serves as the Monk's version of the spell interrupt. What makes this intersting is that it's a conditional attack. If used against a target while they're casting, it will cancel the cast and lock them out of that spell school for 5 seconds, pretty typical of an interrupt. However, if the opponent is facing you when they get interrupted, they're also locked out of all of their spell schools for the duration instead of just one.
Another interesting ability that can prove to be extremely situationally useful is the Touch of Death, overdramatic name and all. This ability comes with a decent cooldown of a minute and a half and costs 4 chi to activate but the description reads that it will instantly kill any non-player target that has equal or lower health than you. While all of the ramifications of the ability are a little unclear at this point, the wording suggests that it might also be usable on the pets of pesky warlocks and hunters and the like which could prove to be an incredible advantage in the PvP areas, not to mention troublesome adds and monsters one might run into in the world.
That's it for the overview of the baseline Monk abilities so check back next week where we dig into the specifics of the Brewmaster, the tanking spec for the upcoming Monk class in Mists of Pandaria.


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ARLINGTON, Va. — There's been an open season on Russia leading up to the Sochi Games, and that clearly strikes a nerve with Alex Ovechkin.
For hockey fans, he will be the face of his nation at next month's Winter Olympics. He has been called, at various times in his career, the greatest player in his sport, and he has three Most Valuable Player trophies from the NHL to help drive home that point.
He was also the most public in his defiance when there was doubt over whether the NHL would allow its players to go to Sochi. Ovechkin said he would play anyway. There was absolutely no way he was going to miss the Olympics in his home country.
So it's inevitable that his views will be sought on anything and everything Sochi-related. Never mind that he's a hockey player first and foremost, a fun-loving, 28-year-old guy who has kept his thoughts to himself when it comes to politics, social issues or the environment.
Nevertheless, when asked in an interview about misconceptions people have about Russia — and whether he'd like to clear some of them up — his tone became serious. The criticisms clearly bother him.
"To be honest with you, I don't like to hear what the people say about Russia," Ovechkin told The Associated Press after a recent practice at the Washington Capitals practice facility. "Because lots of people say good things, lots of people say bad things."
Asked what he's heard that hurts him the most, he let out a deep sigh.
"Again," he said. "I don't want to talk about it."
He said that if he expresses an opinion — and the hot topics right now are gay rights, terrorism and Russian president Vladimir Putin — that "it's going to be forever," something that will get a lot of attention and that he can't take back.
He did take one emphatic stand, however, one familiar to people no matter the nationality.
"I'm kind of the guy who supports my country," he said. "Whatever happened has happened. And there's nothing I can do, nothing you can do."
Where Ovechkin does have influence is on the rink, where he has made it his mission to get Russia back to the top of the Olympic podium. The Soviets dominated the sport for decades at the Winter Games before the breakup of the union. The last Russian-led gold was won by the "Unified Team" of former Soviet republics at Albertville in 1992, which means Russia also hasn't won gold since NHL players began participating in 1998.
Four years ago, the Russians were embarrassed 7-3 by host Canada in the quarterfinals in Vancouver. It was arguably the low moment of Ovechkin's career. Certainly, he seemed to take it far worse than any of the Capitals' meltdowns in the NHL playoffs.
"I don't like to lose," he said, "and especially if it's a big tournament, it's a Stanley Cup or Olympic Games or world championship, it's one or two days you're going to be down. … It's bad, but nothing you can do about it.
"You have to forget about it and move forward."
The expectations will be higher this time, and the pressure enormous back home. Ovechkin said he's tried to ignore such thoughts during the daily grind with the Capitals, but he expects the pressure to be a strength for the Russian team once the Olympics begin.
"Olympics are probably the most important thing for Russians than any other athletes in the whole world," he said. "And since I was a little kid and since everybody was a little kid, their dream was playing in Olympic games, especially if we have a chance to represent our country in Sochi in Russia, it's unbelievable and it's going to a great thing. That's what I mean it's a strength. I don't think somebody (is) going to (think) their mission is done to be just on Olympic team. Our mission is to try to win gold medal."
It's hard to tell if the distractions of Sochi have affected Ovechkin's play with the Capitals. He's having another solid offensive season, with 32 goals in 43 games through Sunday, but his plus-minus rating of minus-15 was by far the worst on the team.
"To be honest with you, I don't think about Sochi a lot," he said. "I give 100 percent what I can to help Caps to win. And as soon as I play my last game before the Olympic Games, I'm going to concentrate on Sochi."
A diplomatic answer, for sure, but he saved his best statesman-like response for last, when he was asked which of the two elusive prizes he'd like to win most — the Stanley Cup or the gold medal.
"Both," he said with a smile.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Photograph by Sam Abell
The green countryside of County Kerry, Ireland, slowly reclaims a castle near the village of Kilgarvan. Taking its present name from the Irish Cill Garbháin, or Church of St. Garbhan, Kilgarvan rests on the banks of the Roughty River, which flows into Kenmare Bay.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Ireland on Fast-Forward," September 1994, National Geographic magazine)


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Description: These husbands can't resist the str8 bait. What will happen when their wives find out they're fucking men in secret? It doesn't matter, because the desire is too strong and their balls need draining!
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Posted by Thomas Nephew on 30th December 2012
That poor woman.
This has saddened the whole world. Today, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon released this statement, and bless him for it:
The Secretary-General expresses deep sorrow at the death of the 23-year old Delhi student who was gang-raped by six men in a moving bus in New Delhi on 16 December. He offers his sincerest condolences to her parents, family and friends, and utterly condemns this brutal crime. Violence against women must never be accepted, never excused, never tolerated. Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected.The Secretary-General welcomes the efforts of the Government of India to take urgent action and calls for further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice. He also encourages the Government of India to strengthen critical services for rape victims. UN Women and other parts of the United Nations stand ready to support such reform efforts with technical expertise and other support as required."
This, from a Wall Street Journal article, was heart-breaking:
A 12-year-old girl wrote a message to the deceased rape victim in black crayon: "You are lucky. Many people pray for you." The girl said there were countless women in India who get raped and assaulted daily, but few get any attention. She said she wanted to grow up in a society that is safe for women.
I hate for 12 year olds to need to know and worry about such things, let alone be surprised that a victim is even noticed and remembered. I hate for 14 year olds to, too; I need to talk with ours, she's been following the story and is of course upset by it. I don't know what we'll tell her exactly, I guess I'll wait to see what she wants to ask and say.
In the last few years I'm more reluctant than I used to be to be judgmental about other countries' shortcomings – we have quite a lot of our own. But like the Secretary General suggests, I think it's fair to guess that more rapes happen the more women are disrespected, not valued, considered lesser human beings; we can try to resist that everywhere. Things may (well) be worse in India than they are here, but it's not the only place where there's violence against women, or inadequate pursuit of justice against their assailants; yesterday, NPR reported "Years Delayed, Detroit Starts Testing Rape Kits For Evidence."
UPDATE: Also, what many Indian women are saying is no different from what any of us anywhere can agree with. Via The speech that explains India's outrage over a gang rape—and how women are treated every day (S. Mitra Kalita , Quartz.com), here's just part of what Kavita Krishnan, secretary, All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) had to say:
…I believe even if women walk out on the streets alone, even if it is late at night, why should justifications need to be provided for this, like 'she has to work late hours' or 'she was coming home from a BPO job or a media job'? If she simply wants to go out at night, if she wants to go out and buy a cigarette or go for a walk on the road — is this a crime for women? We do not want to hear this defensive argument that women only leave their homes for work, poor things, what can they do, they are compelled to go out. We believe that regardless of whether she is indoors or outside, whether it is day or night, for whatever reason, however, she may be dressed — women have a right to freedom. And that freedom without fear is what we need to protect, to guard and respect.
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Last weekend, a group of 16 Warlpiri women, including one three-month-old infant, travelled the 300 kilometres from Yuendumu to Alice Springs, to receive training in swimming skills and first aid, as they are about to become Yuendumu's first life guards, ready for when the community's new pool arrives in July.
However, the manager of the establishment that they had booked, the Haven Backpackers' Resort, asked them to leave. The reason she gave, when challenged, was that since they were aboriginal, other guests had complained of being frightened by them.


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Science Friday® is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Science Friday® and SciFri® are registered service marks of Science Friday, Inc. Site design by Pentagram; engineering by Mediapolis.
In late March, the Texas State Board of Education held several days of debate over new curriculum requirements scheduled to take effect in 2010. The school board eventually decided to accept evolution as accepted, mainstream science -- but the standards were modified to instruct that students examine "all sides of scientific evidence" on a range of topics. Critics of the school board say that phrases such as 'all sides' and 'examine the strengths and weaknesses' (a phrase rejected by the board after debate) are code words that would allow the teaching of creationism in the science classroom.
The large state of Texas is considered a crucial battleground in the fight over teaching evolution, as its purchasing power gives the state's curriculum standards a good deal of influence over the content of textbooks sold around the country. We'll find out how the topic of evolution will be taught under the new standards.


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Famed chef shutters his Market restaurant
Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten owns 11 restaurants in New York City, two in Las Vegas, a pair in Shanghai, another in Paris, and has a hand in more than a dozen other popular dining establishments in the glittering capitals of the world.
But the famous chef and restaurateur has turned out the lights at his only Boston establishment. Market, Vongerichten's highly rated farm-to-table restaurant in the W Boston Hotel, closed in late December.
"It proved to be a challenging operating environment," said Max Buccini, a spokesman for Culinary Concepts Hospitality Group of New York, which owns the restaurant and collaborated with Vongerichten. "Due to the rising costs of labor in the hotel landscape in Boston, it became increasingly difficult to operate."
Buccini declined to comment further on the reason for the closure.
Market opened in October 2009 to considerable fanfare, with some calling it a homecoming for the now world-renowned chef.
Boston was Vongerichten's first stop when he came to the United States 30 years ago. He cooked at Le Marquis de Lafayette, a few blocks from the W now stands, and later moved on to New York.
Market received a 3-star review from the Boston Globe and was named one Boston's best restaurants by Improper Bostonian and Boston Magazine in 2010 and 2011.
But many believe its location in the Theatre District presented a challenge too difficult to overcome.
Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, said restaurants in the Theater District often fill up early before the shows and then struggle to pull in guests as the night progresses.
"Location is a critical feature of any successful restaurant," he said. "In theory, would I choose to go to a 7:30 p.m. dinner in the Theatre District if I wasn't going to the theatre? I would not."
Its place within a hotel did not help much either.
Andrea Foster, vice president of PKF Consulting USA, said trends in hotel restaurants are changing.
Now instead of wanting to eat at a traditional sit-down restaurant in a hotel, guests prefer convenience.
"Think of it as Starbucks on steroids," she said.
"They want to have a drink, maybe get a meal, and sit and eat with people and be social. They want to have an Internet connection to sit and work while they eat," she added.
Travelers who want to dine at a traditional restaurant have many choices in Boston and are more likely to venture off to well-known restaurant neighborhoods like the Back Bay or the North End, instead of the restaurant on the main floor of their hotel, she said.
"I don't think Market was top of mind to a lot of people," Foster said. "Hotel guests tend to want to get out and see the city and explore."
The closure does not appear to be related to the performance of the hotel, which is said to have stabilized after struggling earlier.
Just months after the W opened, the owner of the property filed for bankruptcy in 2010, dragged down by slow sales of high-priced condos.
The hotel was purchased by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
A spokeswoman for Starwood said the residences are now more than 90 percent occupied and hotel room occupancy is greater than 80 percent.
Paul Sacco, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, said he was not surprised to learn of Market's closure.
"All hotel restaurants, even though they have an excellent product and service, always struggle for the bottom line," he said. "It's a very fragile market."
A spokeswoman for the hotel said it will continue to serve breakfast in the restaurant and increase lunch and dinner options at the existing W Lounge. The hotel intends to bring a new tenant to the space in the future.
Taryn Luna can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @tarynluna.


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Originally Posted by cwessel47
Crazy person that I am, I took the day on Tuesday to make 336 Flying Geese rectangles. This is how....
So many of you have asked for this. I will share the method I use again. I have copied and edited my very first post on this board - so I didn't have to write it all out again. This time I will include some pictures as most of us are visual people. It can't just be me who knows how to make these simple and accurate flying geese. I read instructions for cutting off corners, or working with triangles, or expensive rulers and I just don't get it. Instead....
Add 7/8" to the finished height of the small triangle. Cut 4 squares this size.
Add 1 1/4" to the finished base of the large triangle. Cut 1 square this size.
On wrong side of small squares: Draw diagonal, then draw sewing line 1/4" from both sides. There are awesome 1/2" rulers that make this a snap.
Place 2 small squares on top of one large square across one diagonal- right sides together. Sew on marked sewing lines (both sides), chain piecing all the way. Cut on diagonal, press. (I usually press to the darker fabric.) Place the remaining squares in the blank spot of the resulting pieces. Sew on the sewing lines. Cut again on the diagonal. Press over that last triangle and - voila! - Flying Geese!
You now have 4 completed geese, no waste, and accuracy beyond belief.
A few examples:
For a 2" x 4" goose - cut 4 @2 7/8, cut [email protected] 5 1/4. Makes 4.
For a 2 1/2 x 5 goose - cut 4 squares @ 3 3/8" and cut 1 square @ 6 1/4". Makes 4
This is really simple math. Anyone can do it. No waste is a fabulous thing.
Try it. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Nice. It took me til the fifth picture before I could see the 'flying geese'. Thank you for your idea. I saw the instructions from different ones to someone enquiring about bookmarking and I can't see the word author or where to bookmark.. I have just been saving them to 'favourites' on my computer's menu bar.
Great method of doing the flying geese.


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Published Aug 5, 2013
Where do you go to get toned, long, and lean?
Yoga builds strength and aids in flexibility. Tell us your choice for the... see the Top 5 →
Zumba is a great way to stay in shape. Where do you dance away those... see the Top 5 →
Where do you go to enjoy a meal al fresco? see the Top 5 →
These restaurants take old ideas and melt them into tasty new ones. Who... see the Top 5 →
Who knows what's hot when it comes to creating something brand new and... see the Top 5 →
Cakes, cookies, brownies, fruit pies. Who bakes up the most mouth... see the Top 5 →
The 2013 Boston A-List awards are based on more than 81,000 votes from local Boston-area experts.


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WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The White House was full of celebrities Sunday evening when U.S. President Barack Obama played host to this year's five Kennedy Center honorees.
Among the entertainers spotted attending the East Room reception were John Lithgow, Robert DeNiro, Andre Previn, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Matthew Broderick, Sara Jessica Parker, Smokey Robinson, Stanley Tucci, Christine Baranski, Michelle Lee, Itzhak Perlman and Florence Henderson.
There were plenty of political power brokers, too, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
The Kennedy family was represented by Vicki Kennedy, Jean Kennedy Smith and Caroline Kennedy.
Obama called this year's honorees -- singer-actress Barbara Cook, pop singer Neil Diamond, cellist Yo Yo Ma, jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins and actress Meryl Streep -- "five giants from the world of the arts" being honored for "a lifetime of greatness."
He joked Ma is at the White House so often, "We need to give him a room."
Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein highlighted the reasons the five were selected.
"With her sublime voice and rich performances, Barbara Cook has defined all that is best and brightest in the Great American Songbook," he said. "Neil Diamond's songwriting genius has created one of the most enduring catalogs of American popular music and his live performances have captivated audiences for five decades. Yo-Yo Ma's sterling musicianship makes him one of the most versatile and popular classical music performers in the world and his Silk Road Project has inspired students across the world to love and honor music. Saxophonist Sonny Rollins' masterful improvisation and powerful presence have infused the truly American art form of jazz with passion and energy. The sheer brilliance and breadth of Meryl Streep's performances count as one of the most exhilarating cultural spectacles of our time."


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Hartsville, SC- Chris Wallace may not have gotten the press his two Hartsville High School teammates got for their work on the mound this past year, but the Hartsville senior did enough to catch the attention of Coker College head baseball coach Dave Schmotzer.
"What really attracted us was that Chris is a pretty good two-way player, with him you get two players in one," Schmotzer said. "We were very attracted by the success he had in the Red Foxes' championship run, he threw three good games in the playoffs. He is a good student and a good citizen, which are two qualities we really look for here at Coker."
Wallace was second on the team in wins, posting a 7-1 record with a 1.27 ERA. In 42 1/3 innings, Wallace allowed 14 runs of which eight were earned. He allowed 23 hits, striking out 38, while walking 12 batters.
He threw the Red Foxes' lone no-hitter of the season, holding
Wallace has signed a national-letter-of-intent to attend
"Coker is a perfect fit for Chris," said Hartsville head coach Corey Lewis. "He is the first player from
"We are looking for him to do big things at Coker. Maybe this will open the doors for some more of our kids to go to Coker in the future," Lewis said.
Wallace chose
"I liked the way Coach Schmotzer talked," Wallace said of his decision to stay in Hartsville to play baseball. "I think he will help me mature in baseball."
Wallace added that he was happy to be still playing in Hartsville.
"It is going to be nice playing in front of a bunch of faces that I know," Wallace said.
Schmotzer has had a lot of success landing
"Having a local kid is a goose bump experience, he will bring recognition to the program, and he will bring fans to the stands," Schmotzer said. "He falls right into that mold of great local players like Michael Camak and Greg Batchelor. It's not about recruiting just a local kid, it's about recruiting the five-star local kids and we got that in Chris."
Wallace's numbers on the mound could have been better, but he spent the majority of his time behind the plate as the Red Foxes' number one catcher. He batted .265 with a home run and 21 RBIs.
While Wallace played in a pair of positions at Hartsville High, Schmotzer is expected to use him as pitcher, a move about which Wallace is happy.
"We expect him to have an immediate impact on the mound for us," Schmotzer said. "We think he will come in and immediately get some good innings on the mound for us. I look for him to get some big innings for us pitching this year, while he backs-up senior catcher Julio Gomez. It is important that we don't put too much pressure on his arm to start."
"Coach Schmotzer told me that I will have the chance to be a weekend starter, and that is something that I would want to do my first year," Wallace said. "Plus, they have a senior doing the catching now."
Lewis feels that Wallace would be able to play either position for Coker the next four years.
"He is more than capable of doing both jobs at Coker," Lewis said. "From what I understand they are going to look at him primarily to pitch. He has command of three pitches and excellent control. When he is on, he is as good as we had this year. He can step right in and get hitters out at that level.
"Everybody understood that Chris was really better than a number three pitcher. He was just stuck in that role, because he was more valuable to us a catcher. He did throw two really good games for us in the playoffs."
Wallace said that Schmotzer told him to start running to get ready for next season.
"I will be throwing out of the bullpen later this summer," Wallace said.
Schmotzer said the main thing that Wallace has to work on is the mental part of the game, which is the biggest difference between high school and college ball.
"He needs to work on his strength, which will come with maturity, and his conditioning, just like all players," said Schmotzer. "He will also have to work on making a mental adjustment to the college game. In college you have to be ready to play every day mentally, so that will be an adjustment at first, but I feel Chris will catch on quickly."
Wallace was happy the way his senior season ended at Hartsville. Not only did the Red Foxes win the state title, but he was selected to play in the North/South All-Star baseball game.
"It (winning the state championship) brought a lot of recognition to Hartsville," Wallace said.
Wallace hasn't decided what he is going to major in at Coker.


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The cinfo data structure records the content information for a file.
typedef struct { char *type; /* Identifies what kind of data is in the file*/ char *encoding; /* encoding identifies any compression or other /* /* content-independent transformation that's been /* /* applied to the file, such as uuencode)*/ char *language; /* Identifies the language a text document is in. */ } cinfo;


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Species In-Depth
At the Aquarium
The mountain lion is illustrated on a mosaic tile mural on The Wave fountain. The fountain, mural, and accompanying graphics illustrate the story of our Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. Although not on exhibit in the Aquarium, this mammal is included in our website animal database to expand on the images and information presented in The Wave fountain exhibit.
Geographic Distribution
Throughout North and South America. Abundant in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada; south through Wyoming to California, and in east and west Texas. Sparse east of the Mississippi River.
Mountain lions can inhabit any area with adequate cover and abundant prey but they generally prefer mountains up to 3048 m (10,000 ft) elevation, swamps, tropical and subtropical forests, and semi-arid areas. Male territories average about 280 km2(108 mi2 ), while females inhabit territories of only about 140 km2 (54 mi2). Males do not overlap territories with other males, but they may overlap with several females.
Physical Characteristics
Mountain lions have a large, sleek, lithe body with a relatively small head, long heavy legs and big feet with sharp, curved, retractile claws. Their skull is broad and their forehead highly arched. They have massive teeth designed for stabbing and tearing. The short coarse fur of adults is pale brown to tawny colored above and a blend of white and buff below. The bases of their whiskers, the backs of their short rounded ears, the tip of their long tail, and the border of their pinkish colored nose are black. The spots on the coats of juveniles start to disappear when the lion is about six months old and are totally gone when it is a year old.
These "cats" range in size from 1.5 to 2.75 m (6 to 9 ft) in length. They weigh 34 to 25 kg (75 to 275 lb). Their 53 to 92 cm (21 to 37 in) tails make up about 1/3 of the length of their bodies. Males are larger than females. The size of both species is dependent on climate, elevation, vegetation, and food supply.
These animals are top predators, preferring to eat large mammals such as white-tailed deer. They also prey on coyotes, porcupines, beavers, mice, marmots, hares, raccoons, birds, large insects such as grasshoppers, domestic animals, and roaming livestock. In the north, food sources include elk, moose, and bighorn sheep.
They locate prey by scent and sound. Although they sometimes lie in wait in a crouched position with tail twitching and ears upright to ambush passing prey, more often they track their prey for long distances. If tracking, they stalk to within about 9 m (30 ft) of their prey, then take two to three great running bounds, leaping on the victim's back. Standing on their hind legs, they kill their prey by breaking its neck with a powerful bite on the animal's neck below the base of its skull. They drag the killed animal to a safe place before eating. Uneaten food is cached by covering it with sticks and leaves. They return to the cache repeatedly for another meal. It is estimated that they kill a deer a week if prey is plentiful. The yearly food consumption of a single mountain lion is estimated to be 860 to 1300 kg (1896 to 2866 lb) of large prey animals.
Usually avoiding humans unless cornered or especially hungry, they have been known to occasionally attack humans, especially small children.
Although mountain lions can breed all year, males do not mate until they have established their own breeding territories. Females use what have been called "bloodcurdling screams" to advertise their readiness to mate. Breeding pairs stay together for one to about 14 days. Females locate their protected maternity dens in rock shelters, caves, cervices, piles of rocks, and thickets where they line them with moss or other soft plant materials. After a gestation period of 84 to 106 days (typically 94), the female delivers 1-6 (average 2-3) cubs that are covered with blackish-brown markings.
Newborns weigh about 40 gm (14 oz) and have spotted coats that begin to fade at 12 to 14 weeks. They are blind, deaf, and toothless for the about the first 10 days when their eyes open, ears unfold, first teeth erupt, and they begin to play. Their eyes, blue at birth, turn brown later. They are weaned when about 40 days old after which they begin to begin to hunt with their mothers. They remain with the female until about 18 to 26 months old.
Mountain lions use trees as scratching posts. They mark their territory with "scrapes". Scrapes are formed by the lion using its hind feet to push together piles of dirt, pine needles, leaves, or other debris. After forming the scrape, they mark the pile with urine spray or, occasionally, a deposit of scat. Adult males make scrapes when courting females.
These animals are vocal. Because of their bone structure, they can purr but cannot roar. They use low-pitched hisses, growls, yowls, and screams depending on the circumstances. Treed or cornered, they show their alarm with a shrill piercing whistle. Females call their cubs with a similar whistle. The cubs chirp to call her. They also communicate by licking, rubbing, and touching, and smelling—all important in the bonding of the female and cub.
The combination of rear leg muscles and optimum overall size and weight result in mountain lions having extraordinary jumping ability. While running they can take long jumps that exceed 13.7 m (45 ft). They can take vertical leaps up to 4.6 m (15 ft) which enables them to be excellent tree climbers.
The typical live span of mountain lions in the wild is believed to be about 12 years, however, some may live 18 to 20 years in their natural habitat.
California Fish and Game lists mountain lions as a species of special concern. The status of mountain lions in California has changed from "bountiful predator' from 1907-1963 (state paid money for every lion killed) to game mammal from 1969-1990 to specially protected mammal from 1990 to the present. Under California law it is unlawful to take, injure, possess, transport, import, or sell a mountain lion or a part of it. An animal can be killed if it is a risk to people, property, pets, or livestock. The protected Florida subspecies population, P. concolor coryi, is listed as endangered. Mountain lions are also fully protected in South Dakota. Elsewhere they are classified as game animals.
At one time mountain lions roamed almost all of the lower 48 but are now larger contained to the western states. They also ranged from northern British Columbia to southern Chile and Argentina. Today persecution, hunting, and urban sprawl have pushed them into the west, often close to highly populated areas where they can be encountered by hikers are mountain trails and often enter residential developments.
Special Notes
The combination of rear leg muscles and optimum overall size and weight result in mountain lions having extraordinary jumping ability. While running they can take long jumps that exceed 13.7 m (45 ft). They can take vertical leaps up to 4.6 m (15 ft) which enables them to be excellent tree climbers.
From a game management point of view, as a result of their amazing hunting abilities that enable them to prey on a wide range of animals, mountain lions play an important role in keeping deer and other prey species populations in control.


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Christine Dolen
Summer Shorts shows off its 10-play collection at Miami's Arsht Center
City Theatre's Summer Shorts, the first of the two big back-to-back theater festivals at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, is up and running on the newly christened Susan Westfall Playwrights Stage in the Arsht's Carnival Studio Theater. (Next month, the XXIX International Hispanic Theatre Festival moves in.)
Ten little plays make up the 19th edition of Summer Shorts, and as usual, the programming is a mixture heavy on comedy but with just enough drama for those who crave meaning and emotional impact even in the shortest of plays.
Tying such disparate material together is just one of the challenges that producing artistic director John Manzelli and his creative colleagues face each year. Last summer, the pieces were presented as though they were works of art in a gallery.
This time, we get a Summer Shorts fashion show. Jodi Dellaventura's minimalist set is dotted with mannequins in slinky black gowns, and erector-set metal towers frame the back of the open playing area. The pieces are described as coming from different "collections," and five attractive young dancers keep a glitzy party vibe going between plays. It's a concept, alright, but it doesn't work nearly as well (nor make as much sense) as the gallery idea.
But the plays, of course, are the thing at Summer Shorts.
This year's batch includes world premieres, scripts from a pair of play-writing contests, and pieces first done elsewhere. Depending on the play, the writing is clever, funny, touching or not quite as tight and satisfying as the playwright imagines. While there aren't any outright misses in the group, neither is the program loaded with brilliant examples of the short-play form at its most hilarious or moving.
Under the direction of Margaret M. Ledford, Paul Tei, Ricky J. Martinez and Manzelli, veteran Shorts actors Irene Adjan, Tom Wahl and Elizabeth Dimon deliver rock-solid performances alongside newcomers David Perez-Ribada, Niki Fridh, Mcley Lafrance and Mary Sansone. No one in the company indulges in scene-stealing shenanigans; instead, the seven pros serve up varied characters, accents and attitudes appropriate to each piece. Costume designer Ellis Tillman gives the actors a huge assist with an array of outfits that communicate class, character and style before the first line is uttered.
In Mira Gibson's Old Flame, a woman (Fridh) runs into her ex (Perez-Ribada) at the grocery store, and despite each having moved on (she with Wahl, he with Sansone), the hint of a still-smoldering spark flares. Lafrance, who co-directed (with Manzelli) and performs Richard Dresser's monologue Halftime, plays a middle school basketball coach whose mid-game pep talk becomes a funny study in personal over-sharing.
John Minigan's It's the Jews, an inside-theater play, pits Perez-Ribada as an earnest playwright against Dimon as a comically insensitive, skillfully manipulative artistic director. Leslie Ayvazian's The Click, full of low-grade midlife angst, features Adjan and Wahl as a long-married couple on an unsatisfying getaway. A cat takes over the lives of two roommates (Lafrance and Perez-Ribada) in Shock and Awww by Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta, who imagine what might happen if felines ruled the world as thoroughly as they dominate YouTube.
Miami playwright Theo Reyna portrays the possible breakup of Scotland and the United Kingdom as a domestic split in The Scottish Play, a piece with humor and heft and fine performances by Dimon (as Scotland), Wahl (as the U.K.), Lafrance (as the United States) and Sansone (as the warring couple's defiant teen daughter Oil). Another highlight of this year's group is Paul Rudnick's My Husband, dominated by the way-funny Adjan as a Jewish mom who would love nothing more than to see her decidedly unattached gay son (Perez-Ribada) pop up in the New York Times' Sunday weddings section.
Arlitia Jones' Tornado, winner of City Theatre's 2014 National Award for Short Playwriting, features Wahl as a dad talking to Lafrance as a clerk in a sporting goods store. The play takes a sharp, devastating turn, yet it's jammed with so much detail that it ultimately isn't as powerful as Jones intends. Holli Harms' Make John Patrick Shanley Go Home, another inside-theater piece, features Dimon and Adjan as Shanley-style sisters trying to emotionally rally their sis (Fridh) when she spots the Oscar- and Pulitzer-winning playwright at a restaurant's bar. The program's closing play, Steve Yockey's hilariously ghoulish Joshua Consumed an Unfortunate Pear, was cut short at Saturday's opening when a theatergoer (who is OK) had a medical emergency and the performance was halted.
Overall? The 19th Summer Shorts is short on standouts but long on journeyman work.


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OAKLAND — All but 14 customers have had power restored to their homes after thousands were without power after a tree took down power lines, according to PG&E.
At about 6 p.m., a tree reportedly fell on three sets of power lines, causing outages to range from the Oakland Hills over to Highway 24 and from Highway 13 over to Skyline Boulevard, said PG&E spokesperson Jana Morris.
While PG&E initially reported that over 4,000 customers were affected, PG&E later reported that in fact only 1,500 customers were without power at the time the power lines went down.
PG&E crews only have 14 customers currently without power.
Morris said there is no estimated time of restoration.
It is unclear if the high winds caused the tree to fall over.
Check back for updates.
Contact Katie Nelson at 925-945-4780 or follow her at Twitter.com/katienelson210.


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I blogged a couple of months ago about hosting and facilitating a conference stream at the Anarchist Studies Network's conference, Making Connections, about the relationship between anarchism and social technology. We had two presenters come along and discuss their research which focused on and explored some novel theoretical approaches to social media and technology from a distinctly anarchist or libertarian communist perspective.
Aaron Peters spoke about the network society, public-private spheres and Paolo Virno's 'Soviets of the Multitude' in relation to the networked social movements we've seen emerge around the globe post-economic collapse. While Thomas Swann discussed the potential for cybernetic theory to be brought into play to account for the decentralised organising seen during last year's riots and what this might mean for a conceptual model of anarchist organising. You can get download Aaron's paper via Scribd here and Thomas' paper here.
Aside from facilitating, I presented a short paper that aimed to contextualise what Gordon (2008) has described as the "ambivalent relationship" between anarchism and technology. This ambivalence as one of the reasons we proposed the stream originally as despite the conference organisers citing the #Occupy and Arab Spring movements as powerful, contemporary anti-authoritarian social media-enabled forces rising from the grass-roots, there were few attempts to engage with and analyse technology directly within the conference's extensive agenda. My paper attempts to understand why this is and suggest what might might be done:
Ultimately, the paper – and the wider conference stream – aimed to kick-start a debate about the role technology plays (and the potential it possesses) in political resistance and social struggles as well as to stimulate renewed theoretical as well as practical engagements with the topic. What this might look like, I'm not entirely sure yet – although I'm fairly soundly convinced it will need to include a greater level of scholarly and activist reflection and praxis – but I'd love to hear any suggestions.


text: 2014-15 Spain Away World Cup Shirt (A.Iniesta 6) - Kids. Official Andres Iniesta - Kids football shirt for the Spanish national team. This is the new Spain away shirt for the 2014 World Cup tournament finals which is manufactured by Adidas and is available in adult sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL and kids sizes small boys, medium boys, large boys, XL boys. This Spain football shirt is black in colour and comes with Andres Iniesta - Kids shirt printing on the jersey, including the front number.


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Traditional retailers—whose days seemed numbered as e-commerce "pure plays" multiplied—are looking very much alive. In fact some are using digital to exploit their unique strengths. Learning from up-start innovators like Rebecca Minkoff and Argo Tea that successfully blended digital and store channels from the start, large scale retailers are using digital to transform both the customer experience delivered and their operating models, strengthening both the top and bottom lines in the process.
What to focus digital investments on first?
In three words: Making. Shopping. Easier. We believe digital success lies in targeting the inconveniences that have bugged shoppers for generations.
Where is my size/item? Linking inventory availability for the store (and nearby stores) into a mobile app allows associates and consumers to quickly and easily find the product that they want. Each year billions of dollars in markdowns result from consumer demand inefficiently matched or not matched at all to retail inventories.This benefits size-intensive sectors-like shoes and apparel categories-where broken size runs badly disappoint customers and can drive up markdowns. Selling even a fraction of that inventory at full price would bolster the top line.
Where is an associate? Cavernous big box and department stores struggle with covering their real estate in a cost effective way; this forces customers and staff to make service tradeoffs. If an Uber driver can track you to your exact physical location in midtown Manhattan, an associate must be able to locate a confused consumer who has opted-in for help at a store. Bonobos always stations staff near fitting rooms and at the front of the store. Nordstrom offers a "call-an-associate" feature in its stores. Tablets stationed around the store feature a call-for-help button that guarantees a human to help you in a few minutes.
Why do I have to wait in that line? You probably shouldn't have to. Video analytics can help monitor queues growing where traffic counters have failed us for decades. Point of sale lanes can be scheduled based on observational data to move consumers through faster. Or, skip the line altogether with solutions like Apple's self-pay.
During the "dotcom boom", pundits thought that the golden age of retailing was over. They were wrong in many ways. While many retailers were slow out of the blocks to adopt and integrate digital into their stores, they are seeing what works and trying to close the gap quickly. Consumers, sales associates and investors are all winners now, and have reasons to look forward to a new, and better, generation of retail stores.


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What's next for marijuana laws?
Less than two weeks from now, on Dec. 6, anyone over the age of 21 will be able to light a joint in Washington state and, practically speaking, there's nothing the government can really do to stop that. The same will be true in Colorado within a matter of weeks.
Smoking marijuana there will soon be legal under state law because of the two initiatives -- Initiative 502 in Washington and Amendment 64 in Colorado -- that passed on Election Day with strong support. The push to legalize recreational marijuana was so successful, in fact, that the Colorado amendment received more votes than President Obama did on the Nov. 6 ballot in that state.
Public sentiment, however, doesn't change the fact that marijuana use -- whether it's recreational or medical -- is still very much against federal law. As these two states begin to set up a framework to tax and regulate the drug, they will at some point have to confront the conflict they've created with Washington.
Mr. Obama's Justice Department has yet to say how it plans to respond. The department could take any number of actions -- among its options are filing a lawsuit against the states, taking law enforcement into its own hands, or taking a more hands-off approach.
In the meantime, lawmakers are waking up to the fact that their constituents are clearly calling for some kind of change in the nation's drug laws. A group of congressmen is urging the federal government to leave Washington and Colorado alone for now. Additionally, some lawmakers have filed legislation to amend the Controlled Substances Act.
"It's just a matter of time for the laws to catch up to reality," Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., told CBSNews.com.
What happens next
Until those laws catch up with reality, state lawmakers are going to respect voters' demands and start implementing the new laws.
In Washington, adults will be free to possess up to an ounce of marijuana starting Dec. 6. The Washington State Liquor Control Board has until Dec. 2013 to draft all the rules pertaining to growing, processing, retailing and possessing marijuana. After that, the board will be in charge of licensing retailers.
In Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper has until Jan. 5 to sign a proclamation making Amendment 64 part of the state constitution. The governor has said he'll honor the election results, even though he opposed the amendment. Once the proclamation is signed, adults will be permitted to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and up to six plants. From there, the state legislature and agencies like the Colorado Department of Revenue have about a year to draft regulations and prepare for the retail sales of marijuana.
Federal officials, meanwhile, are discussing the matter with Hickenlooper and Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire. The only public comment released so far simply acknowledged that the new state rules violate federal law.
"The Department's enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said in a statement. "In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. We are reviewing the ballot initiatives and have no additional comment at this time."
For the time being, individual marijuana users in Colorado and Washington should be "well insulated" from federal authorities, according to Sam Kamin, a professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law who researches marijuana policy.
"The federal government still criminalizes a lot of that behavior but has said it's not interested in individual users," he told CBSNews.com.
Furthermore, the federal government can't force states to criminalize marijuana use. What it can do is charge that Colorado's or Washington state's retail provisions conflict with the Controlled Substances Act -- that's essentially the tactic the feds used to sue Arizona over immigration, Kamin explained.
"While they couldn't force Arizona to enforce immigration laws, they could sue against provisions in direct conflict with it," he said.
In addition to suing the states, the federal government could threaten to withhold state funding to state and local law enforcement until they enforce federal laws. It could also make life difficult for marijuana retailers through the IRS or other legal outlets.
A medical marijuana precedent?
There's always the chance, though, that the federal government could opt to let the states carry out their experiment with recreational marijuana.
"We hope they will allow Colorado and Washington to be the laboratories of democracy," said Art Way, the Colorado senior drug policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. "The fact that 3 million people voted for I-502 and Amendment 64 shows they need to take another look and change their stance."
If not for high-minded reasons such as supporting democracy, the federal government could leave the states alone for practical reasons. Way pointed out that the federal government hasn't bothered to sue any of the states that have legalized medical marijuana (after the 2012 elections, 18 states plus the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana use). "Hopefully it's because they don't believe they have a strong case," Way said.
In 2009, Mr. Obama's Justice Department released the Ogden memo, explaining it would not make going after medical marijuana users a priority, even though any marijuana use violates the Controlled Substances Act. Nevertheless, the Obama administration has cracked down on hundreds of marijuana dispensaries, particularly in California, including sites that were in full compliance with state laws. In a 2011 memo, the Justice Department clarified that the Ogden memo was meant to apply only to individual medical marijuana users -- "not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana."
The federal crackdown focused largely on California's medical marijuana operations, and not Colorado's, because Colorado has more stringent regulations in place, both Kamin and Way said. "Colorado tried to keep the criminal element out of it, tried to keep it out of the hands of children... We sort took all the precautions that California did not."
Added Way, "The fact that the Colorado non-medical initiative in many ways mirrors the current medical marijuana framework is a positive for Colorado."
While it may be a good sign, Kamin said supporters of recreational marijuana shouldn't hold their breath. The establishment of a commercial marijuana market, he said, "is exactly what the federal government has said it won't permit."
Congress steps in
With that in mind, a handful of bipartisan congressmen led by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., introduced the "Respect States' and Citizens' Rights Act," which would amend the Controlled Substances Act, barring the federal government from overriding state marijuana laws.
Rep. Polis, DeGette and 16 other congressmen also sent a letter to the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency, asking them to respect those in Colorado and Washington who follow the state laws.
"Statutory changes are required in the long run, but the process of lawmaking is very slow," Polis told CBSNews.com. "In the meantime, it is absolutely critical that the Justice Department... implement something like the Ogden memo."
If Congress doesn't feel compelled to act just yet, it may in the future as other states pursue legalization -- Rhode Island and Maine are among the states that could take up the issue in 2013.
"We're moving toward a situation where the law in the states is so different from federal law, something has to give," Kamin said.


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By Paul Carsten | Reuters –
By Paul Carsten
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's biggest personal computer maker, said net profit jumped over a third to a quarterly record as it extended its cruise into smartphones and data servers to offset a global decline in PC sales.
Reporting net profit rose a better-than-expected 36 percent in July-September, Lenovo said on Thursday it will continue to chase acquisitions while mining growth in the market for cloud computing and back-end information storage that's lured companies from rival IBM to Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc.
The ambitious company was among a range of suitors to approach BlackBerry Ltd before the troubled device maker took itself off the market, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Lenovo, with a 17.3 percent share of worldwide PC shipments according to research firm IDC, reported net profit of $ 219.7 million for its fiscal second quarter, its highest for any quarter, extending its streak of more than three years of double-digit quarterly profit growth.
The profit compared with $ 162 million a year earlier, and with a $ 199.12 million consensus forecast on Thomson Reuters Starmine SmartEstimate.
Lenovo has been aggressively pushing into smartphones and servers as it seeks alternative channels of income to the shrinking PC market, which contracted 7.6 percent in the quarter ended September, according to data from research firm IDC.
"Given its strong financial position, will continue to actively look for inorganic growth opportunities that would supplement its organic growth strategy and accelerate future expansion," Lenovo said in its earnings statement.
The company also said it remains confident the Chinese economy is recovering.
Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chief executive, hasn't shied away from expressing his eagerness to use a corporate server business as a way to bundle more PCs into packages it sells to customers.
That would make low profit margin business like selling computers more lucrative, while competitors like Acer Incorporated and Asustek Computer Inc bear the brunt of blows from the downturn in the PC market.
The company has been successfully navigating a course away from PC manufacturing for years. Revenue from mobile phone sales more than doubled in the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2014 compared with the same period in the previous year.
Mobile phone sales accounted for 14 percent of total revenue of $ 18.6 billion in the first half of the fiscal year ended September. For the year ending March 2010, that share of revenue was just 0.5 percent.
Lenovo was the fourth-largest smartphone vendor worldwide with a 4.7 percent share of a market that shipped over a quarter of a billion smartphones in the quarter ended September, according to IDC data.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)


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Local educators hope to winnow nearly 150 applicants down to about one-tenth as many remaining slots, in the first class of local small business owners and executives who start training later this month under the 10,000 Small Businesses program of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Orientation is March 28 for the first of what is expected to be 14 classes of 40 or so small businesses over the next five years, under the program that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein announced in Detroit last November as part of its nationwide, $500 million initiative.
Ned Staebler, vice president for economic development at Wayne State University, and Julie Jurmo, business services manager at Oakland Community College, said faculty members from OCC and Macomb Community College recently completed training in Florida to begin instruction March 29.About two dozen owners or managers of local small businesses have already been enrolled in the program, Staebler said, and the university could hold interviews for nearly 150 people to fill the remaining 15 or so slots. Goldman Sachs is committing $15 million of lending capital to support small businesses community in Detroit and the surrounding region, under the Detroit component of the national program. The remaining $5 million is an education grant to Wayne State and the community colleges to train businesses, Staebler said. The program will host two classes of small businesses this year, and three more for each of the next four years. Goldman has launched the program in 18 local U.S. markets since 2010 and offered educational and lending assistance to more than 2,000 businesses since inception. "Every model in local markets is a little different, but typically they (Goldman) structure it in each market to work with at least one community college on the education program," Staebler said. "And that was their plan here, but because WSU was centrally located and had an urban mission, we felt we fit well into hosting the program and that it was easier to have all participants come here." Wayne State will host training sessions for the first class using three full-time faculty from OCC and one full-time MCC instructor and some adjuncts, to advise business owners and managers on marketing, financial statements, access to capital, legal and human resources, finding growth through operations and other subjects. Staebler and Jurmo said the community colleges could host teaching modules for future classes. "We are working actively on outreach and marketing the program to entrepreneurs, at the community colleges, and it's our hope we'd also have an opportunity to host the entrepreneurs, which they also call scholars," Jurmo said. "We're talking about the potential for eventually having sessions and bringing them here as well." Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796, [email protected] Twitter: @chadhalcom