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Siri is a promise. A promise of a new computing environment, enormously empowering to the ordinary user, a new paradigm in our evolving relationship with machines. Siri could change Apple's fortunes like iTunes and App Store…or end up being like the useful-but-inessential FaceTime or the essential-but-difficult Maps or the desirable-but-dead Ping. After spending hundreds of millions on acquiring and improving it, what does Apple expect to gain from Siri, at once the butt of late-night TV jokes but also the wonder of teary-eyed TV commercials?
Everyone expects different things from Siri. Some think top 5 wishes for Siri should include the ability to change iPhone settings. The impatient already think Siri should have become the omniscient Knowledge Navigator by now. And of course, the favorite pastime of Siri commentators is comparing her query output to Google Search results while giggling.
The Google comparison, while expected and fun, is misplaced. It'd be very hard for Siri (or Bing or Facebook, for that matter) to beat Google at conventional Command Line Interface search given its intense and admirable algorithmic tuning and enormous infrastructure buildup for a decade. Fortunately for competitors, though, Google Search has an Achilles heel: you have to tell Google your intent and essentially instruct the CLI to construct and carry out the search. If you wanted to find a vegetarian restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts within a price range of $25-$85 and you were a Google Search ninja, you could manually enter a very specific keyword sequence: "restaurant vegetarian quincy ma $25…$85" and still get "about 147,000 results (0.44 seconds)" to parse from. [All examples hereon are grossly simplified.]
This is a directed navigation system around The Universal Set — the entirety of the Internet. The user has to essentially tell Google his intent one. word. at. a. time and the search engine progressively filters the universal set with each keyword from billions of "pages" to a much smaller set of documents that are left for the user to select the final answer from.
Passive intelligence
Our computing devices, however, are far more "self-aware" circa 2012. A mobile device, for instance, is considerably more capable of passive intelligence thanks to its GPS, cameras, microphone, radios, gyroscope, myriad other in-device sensors, and dozens of dedicated apps, from finance to games, that know about the user enough to dramatically reduce the number of unknowns…if only all these input and sensing data could somehow be integrated.
Siri's opportunity here to win the hearts and minds of users is to change the rules of the game from relatively rigid, linear and largely decontextualized CLI search towards a much more humane approach where the user declares his intent but doesn't have to tell Siri how do it every step of the way. The user starts a spoken conversation with Siri, and Siri puts an impressive array of services together in the background:
- precise location, time and task awareness derived from the (mobile) device,
- speech-to-text, text-to-speech, text-to-intent and dialog flow processing,
- semantic data, services APIs, task and domain models, and
- personal and social network data integration.
Let's look at the contrast more closely. Suppose you tell Siri:
"Remind me when I get to the office to make reservations at a restaurant for mom's birthday and email me the best way to get to her house."
Siri already knows enough to integrate Contacts, Calendar, GPS, geo-fencing, Maps, traffic, Mail, Yelp and Open Table apps and services to complete the overall task. A CLI search engine like Google's could complete only some these and only with a lot of keyword and coordination help from the user. Now lets change "a restaurant" above to "a nice Asian restaurant":
"Remind me when I get to the office to make reservations at a nice Asian restaurant for mom's birthday and email me the best way to get to her house."
"Asian" is easy, as any restaurant-related service would make at least a rough attempt to classify eateries by cuisine. But what about "nice"? What does "nice" mean in this context?
A conventional search engine like Google's would execute a fairly straight forward search for the presence of "nice" in the text of restaurant reviews available to it (that's why Google bought Zagat), and perhaps go the extra step of doing a "nice AND (romantic OR birthday OR celebration)" compound search to throw in potentially related words. Since search terms can't be hand-tuned for an infinite number of domains, this comes into play for highly searched categories like finance, travel, electronics, automobiles, etc. In other words, if you're searching for airline tickets or hotel rooms, the universe of relevant terms is finite, small and well understood. Goat shearing or olive-seed spitting contests, on the other hand, may not benefit as much from such careful human taxonomic curation.
Context is everything
And yet even when a conventional search engine can correlate "nice" with "romantic" or "cozy" to better filter Asian restaurants, it won't matter to you if you cannot afford it. Google doesn't have access to your current bank account, budget or spending habits. So for the restaurant recommendation to be truly useful, it would make sense for it to start at least in a range you could afford, say $$-$$$, but not $$$$ and up.
Therein comes the web browser vs. apps unholy war. A conventional search engine like Google has to maintain an unpalatable level of click-stream snooping to track your financial transactions to build your purchasing profile. That's not easy (likely illegal on several continents) especially if you're not constantly using Google Play or Google Wallet, for example. While your credit card history or your bank account is opaque to Google, your Amex or Chase app has all that info. If you allow Siri to securely link to such apps on your iPhone, because this is a highly selective request and you trust Siri/Apple, your app and/or Siri can actually interpret what "nice" is within your budget: up to $85 this month and certainly not in the $150-$250 range and not a $25 hole-in-the wall Chinese restaurant either because it's your mother's birthday.
Speaking of your mother, her entry in your Contacts app has a custom field next to "Birthday" called "Food" which lists: "Asian," "Steak," and "Rishi Organic White Tea". On the other hand, Google has no idea, but your Yelp app has 37 restaurants bookmarked by you and every single one is vegetarian. Your mother may not care, but you need a vegetarian restaurant. Siri can do a proper mapping of the two sets of "likes" and find a mutually agreeable choice at their intersection.
So a simple search went from "a restaurant" to "a nice Asian vegetarian restaurant I can afford" because Siri already knew (as in, she can find out on demand) about your cuisine preference and your mother's and your ability to pay:
Mind you, all these series of data lookups and rule arbitrations among multiple apps happen in milliseconds. Quite a bit of your personal info is cached at Apple servers and the vast majority of data lookups in third party apps are highly structured and available in a format Siri has learned (by commercial agreement between companies) to directly consume. Still, the degree of coordination underneath Siri's reassuring voice is utterly nontrivial. And given the clever "personality" Siri comes with, it sounds like pure magic to ordinary users.
The transactional chain
In theory, Siri's execution chains can be arbitrarily long. Let's consider a generic Siri request:
Check weather at and daily traffic conditions to an event at a specific location, only if my calendar and my wife's shared calendar are open and tickets are available for under $50 for tomorrow evening.
Siri would parse it semantically as:
and translate into an execution chain by apps and services:
Further, being an integral part of iOS and having programmatic access to third party applications on demand, Siri is fully capable of executing a fictional request like:
Transfer money to purchase two tickets, move receipt to Passbook, alert in own calendar, email wife, and update shared calendar, then text baby sitter to book her, and remind me later.
by translating it into a transactional chain, with bundled and 3rd party apps and services acting upon verbs and nouns:
By parsing a "natural language" request lexically into structural subject-predicate-object parts semantically, Siri can not only find documents and facts (like Google) but also execute stated or implied actions with granted authority. The ability to form deep semantic lookups, integrate information from multiple sources, devices and 3rd party apps, perform rules arbitration and execute transactions on behalf of the user elevates Siri from a schoolmarmish librarian (à la Google Search) into an indispensable butler, with privileges.
The future is Siri and Google knows it
After indexing 40 billion pages and their PageRank, legacy search has largely run its course. That's why you see Google, for example, buying the world's largest airline search company ITA, restaurant rating service Zagat, and cloning Yelp/Foursquare with Google Places, Amazon with Google Shopping, iTunes and App Store with Google Play, Groupon with Google Offers, Hotels.com with Google Hotel Finder…and, ultimately, Siri with Google Now. Google has to accumulate domain specific data, knowledge and expertise to better disambiguate users' intent in search. Terms, phrases, names, lemmas, derivations, synonyms, conventions, places, concepts, user reviews and comments…all within a given domain help enormously to resolve issues of context, scope and intent.
Whether surfaced in Search results or Now, Google is indeed furiously building a semantic engine underneath many of its key services. "Normal search results" at Google are now almost an afterthought once you go past the various Google and third party (overt and covert) promoted services. Google has been giving Siri-like answers directly instead of providing interminable links. If you searched for "Yankees" in the middle of the MLB playoffs, you got real-time scores by inning, first and foremost, not the history of the club, the new stadium, etc.
Siri, a high-maintenance lady?
Google has spent enormous amounts of money on an army of PhDs, algorithm design, servers, data centers and constant refinements to create a global search platform. The ROI on search in terms of advertising revenue has been unparalleled in internet history. Apple's investment in Siri has a much shorter history and far smaller visible footprint. While it'd be suicidal for Apple to attack Google Search in the realm of finding things, can Apple sustainably grow Siri to its fruition nevertheless? Very few projects at Apple that don't manage to at least provide for their own upkeep tend to survive. Given Apple's tenuous relationship with direct advertising, is there another business model for Siri?
By 2014, Apple will likely have about 500 million users with access to Siri. If Apple could get half of that user base to generate just a dozen Siri-originated transactions per month (say, worth on average $1 each, with a 30% cut), that would be roughly a $1 billion business. Optimistically, the average transaction could be much more than $1 or the number of Siri transactions much higher than 12/month/user or Siri usage more than 50% of iOS users, especially if Siri were to open to 3rd party apps. While these assumptions are obviously imaginary, even under the most conservative conditions, transactional revenue could be considerable. Let's recall that, even within its media-only coverage, iTunes has now become a $8 billion business.
As Siri moves up the value chain from its original CLI-centric simplicity prior to Apple acquisition to its current status of speech recognition-dictation-search to a more conversationalist interface focused on transactional task completion, she becomes far more interesting and accessible to hundreds of millions of non-computer savvy users.
Siri as a transaction machine
A transactional Siri has the seeds to shake up the $500 billion global advertising industry. For a consumer with intent to purchase, the ideal input comes close to "pure" information, as opposed to ephemeral ad impression or a series of search results which need to be parsed by the user. Siri, well-oiled by the very rich contextual awareness of a personal mobile device, could deliver "pure" information with unmatched relevance at the time it's most needed. Eliminating all intermediaries, Siri could "deliver" a customer directly to a vendor, ready for a transaction Apple doesn't have to get involved in. Siri simply matches intent and offer more accurately, voluntarily and accountably than any other method at scale that we've ever seen.
Another advantage of Siri transactions over display and textual advertising is the fact that what's transacted doesn't have to be money. It could be discounts, Passbook coupons, frequent mileage, virtual goods, leader-board rankings, check-in credits, credit card points, iTunes gifts, school course credits and so on. Further, Siri doesn't even need an interactive screen to communicate and complete tasks. With Eyes Free, Apple's bringing Siri to voice controlled systems, first in cars, then perhaps to other embedded environments that don't need a visual UI. Apple having the largest and the most lucrative app and content ecosystem on the planet with half a billion users with as many credit card accounts would make the nature of Siri "transactions" an entirely different value proposition to both users and commercial entities.
Siri, too early, too late or merely in progress?
And yet with all that promise, Siri's future is not a certain one. A few potential barriers stand out:
- Performance — Siri works mostly in the cloud, so any latency or network disruption renders it useless. It's hard to overcome this limitation since domain knowledge must be aggregated from millions of users and coordinated with partners' servers in the cloud.
- Context — Siri's promise is not only lexical, but also contextual across countless domains. Eventually, Siri has to understand many languages in over 100 countries where Apple sells iOS devices and navigate the extremely tricky maze of cultural differences and local data/service providers.
- Partners — Choosing data providers, especially overseas, and maintaining quality control is nontrivial. Apple should also expect bidding wars for partner data, from Google and other competitors.
- Scope — As Siri becomes more prominent, so grow expectations over its accuracy. Apple is carefully and slowly adding popular domains to Siri coverage, but the "Why can't Siri answer my question in my {esoteric field}?" refrain is sure to erupt.
- Operations — As Siri operations grow, Apple will have to seriously increase its staffing levels, not only for engineers from the very small semantic search and AI worlds, but also in the data acquisition, entry and correction processes, as well as business development and sales departments.
- Leadership — Post-acquisition, two co-founders of Siri have left Apple, although another one, Tom Gruber, remains. Apple recently hired William Stasior, CEO of Amazon A9 search engine, to lead Siri. However, Siri needs as much engineering attention as data partnership building, but Stasior's A9 is an older search engine different from Siri's semantic platform.
- API — Clearly, third party developers want and expect Apple someday to provide an API to Siri. Third party access to Siri is both a gold mine and a minefield, for Apple. Since same/similar data can be supplied via many third parties, access arbitrage could easily become an operational, technical and even legal quagmire.
- Regulation — A notably successful Siri would mean a bevy of competitors likely to petition DoJ, FTC, FCC here and counterparts in Europe to intervene and slow down Apple with bundling/access accusations until they can catch up.
Obviously, no new platform as far-reaching as Siri comes without issues and risks. It also doesn't help that the two commercial online successes Apple has had, iTunes and App Store, were done in another era of technology and still contain vestiges of many operational shortcomings. More recent efforts such as MobileMe, Ping, Game Center, iCloud, iTunes Match, Passbook, etc., have been less than stellar. Regardless, Siri stands as a monumental opportunity both for Apple as a transactional money machine and for its users as a new paradigm of discovery and task completion more approachable than any we've seen to date. In the end, Siri is Apple's game to lose.


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Open house on construction debris facility in Round Lake Park
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring an open house today regarding a facility approved by local officials months ago that would accept and recycle construction and demolition debris.
Though accepted this past April by the Round Lake Park village board, the informational session scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. at Park School, 400 W. Townline Road in Round Lake, was prompted by inquiries by state Rep. Sandy Cole, who noted that a public hearing is not required. A permit from the state agency is required, with a decision expected by Dec. 28.
Cole contends many people may be unaware of what is coming or what it may mean in terms of truck traffic, noise, dust or other issues, for example.
"If something is classified as recycling, it doesn't require a public hearing," she said. "How are people supposed to know?"
The village in the spring approved an agreement with Groot Industries Inc. to build and operate the facility near its existing yard and natural gas fueling station at 200 S. Porter Drive, between routes 120 and 134.
Cole said she sent about 3,500 letters to residents in the Bright Meadows, Madrona Village and Bradford Place subdivisions within a mile of the proposed location.
IEPA and company representatives will be available to discuss technical issues, but zoning matters won't be addressed, as they are under local control. A form for written comments also will be provided.
Known as the Groot Industries Eco-Campus, the facility would be on about 14 acres of what historically has been farm land, according to the IEPA. The operation would be in an enclosed building and would receive and process up to 500 tons of general construction and demolition debris per day. At least 75 percent of the materials would have to be recycled and reused, according to the IEPA.
Written comments will be accepted until Nov. 30.
Recycling this type of waste is recommended by the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County -- as long as they follow local zoning ordinances, enter into a host agreement and are properly permitted -- as a way to prolong the life of landfills and boost recycling.
Materials from "roll off" containers situated at construction sites, such as wood or asphalt shingles, are common examples of what would be brought to the facility, according to Walter Willis, executive director of SWALCO.
"They won't be taking large chunks of concrete for road building. That's not the intent of these facilities," he said.
Round Lake Park Mayor Jean McCue said the host agreement with Groot addresses issues such as noise and dust.
"I don't see it as a detriment to the community, or I wouldn't have thought of approving it," said McCue, whose business is nearby. "I'm not going to ruin my life or residents' lives."
Under the host agreement with Groot, the village would receive 75 cents per ton on 75 percent of the weight of materials brought to the facility, she said.


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No. 10 Cornell Upsets No. 7 Princeton To Clinch No. 1 Seed In Ivy Tourney
May 2, 2010
Courtesy of Cornell
PRINCETON, N.J. - The No. 10 Cornell men's lacrosse team took a six-goal lead into the fourth period and held off a late Princeton run to upset the No. 7 Tigers, 10-9, this afternoon in front of a nationwide ESPNU audience and 3,133 fans at the Class of '52 Stadium in Princeton, N.J. With the victory, the Big Red earns a share of its eighth straight Ivy League title, the longest current streak of any men's lacrosse program in any conference, and earns the top-seed in the inaugural Ivy League tournament. Cornell will look to avenge its loss to Brown when it hosts the fourth-seeded Bears on Friday, May 7 at Schoellkopf Field. Friday's other semifinal will feature Princeton and Yale. Game times are to be determined.
"I'm very pleased with the way our team competed today against a very talented and driven Princeton squad," said head coach Jeff Tambroni. "To their credit, Princeton didn't give up until the final seconds, but I'm proud of how our guys hung in there. I'm also very happy for our seniors, who will have one more chance to play on Schoellkopf Field after what was a disappointing loss last weekend."
Cornell (9-4, 4-2) was led by Ryan Hurley with two goals and two assists, while David Lau finished with two goals and one assist. Chris Ritchie and Roy Lang each tallied two goals as the Big Red's only other multi-point scorers.
Princeton (9-4, 4-2) got three goals from Mike Chanenchuk and two from Scott MacKenzie, while Jack McBride handed out two assists.
The Tigers held the edge in shots, 44-40, ground balls, 23-15, and won 12-of-21 face-offs, but Cornell was a perfect 17-of-17 on clears and turned the ball over just seven times, but not once in the second or third quarters. Princeton cleared the ball successfully just 12-of-16 times and had 11 turnovers, six of which were forced by Cornell.
Both teams got solid days from their goalies with AJ Fiore making eight saves for the win, while Tyler Fiorito stopped 15 in the lost.
The Big Red wasted little time, going up 4-0 at the end of the first quarter. Cornell got on the board just over one minute into the contest when Ritchie took a pass from Lau and buried a 12-yard shot that hit the lower left-hand corner of the goal.
Just over one-minute later, Hurley took the ball behind the crease, slipped his defender, rolled to the front of the net and scored from point-blank range to give the visitors an early 2-0 lead.
On Princeton's first possession of the game, Pierce Derkac forced a turnover when he checked a Tiger shooter, and the Big Red offense rewarded its defensive leader as Lau scored on the doorstep to put Cornell up, 3-0, with 10:43 to play in the first quarter.
After being unable to convert on a man-up opportunity, the Big Red forced a Princeton turnover and converted on the other end when Lang slipped past his defender and scored on the run to make it a 4-0 game.
Chanechuk scored on a brilliant low to high shot at the 9:20 mark to open the scoring in the second quarter but a man-up goal by Ritchie, who took a pass from Hurley, and beat Fiorito low on his stick-side to return the cushion to four goals with 6:29 to play.
Just over one minute later, Jeff Froccaro ripped a low bullet shot past Fiore, but the freshman goalie redeemed himself with a brilliant save on Princeton's next possession.
The team's battled back and forth for the next four minutes before a loose ball in transition was picked up by John Cunningham and the long pole beat Fiore down low to make it a 5-3 game with just 1:26 remaining in the second quarter.
The Big Red won the restart but a save by Fiorito sent the ball the other way and a Cornell penalty gave the Tigers a man-up opportunity for the final 10 seconds of the half.
Princeton opened the third quarter with 20 seconds remaining on a man-up opportunity but couldn't convert, and after holding the ball for over two minutes, the Tigers turned the ball over and Cornell scored on transition when Andrew MacDonald found Hurley on the doorstep.
Just under one minute later, the Big Red went up, 7-4, when Hurley sent a perfect pass to Steve Mock, who was camped right in front of the goal, and converted on the doorstep.
Ross Gillum gave Cornell a five-goal lead when he rolled around the net and ripped a no-look shot over Fiorito's left shoulder to make it an 8-3 lead at the 8:19 mark of the quarter. The play was set up by an amazing hustle play from Lang, who forced a turnover near midfield with a wrap-check.
The Big Red saw another man-up opportunity thwarted by a Fiorito save, but not to be outdone, Fiore made a brilliant save on the other end to give the ball back to Cornell.
An errant Big Red shot gave the ball back to Princeton with just under four minutes to play in third quarter but another great save by Fiore gave the Big Red possession and a spectacular pass from Rob Pannell set up a Lau goal to make it 9-3 with just 55 seconds to play in the quarter.
A penalty on the restart gave Cornell a man-up opportunity, which it carried over to the final stanza.
The Big Red killed nearly four minutes off the clock in the fourth period before a blocked shot sent the ball into the Princeton end and Chanenchuk ended the 20:38 Princeton scoring drought to make it a 9-4 goal with 10:48 to play in the game.
That goal opened a four-goal run by the Tigers over the span of three minutes to put the home team back in the contest, 9-7, with 7:44 to play.
Cornell ended the run when Princeton turned the ball over after winning the face-off, giving the Big Red the ball and Lang registered an unassisted goal at the 6:24 mark when he dodged past his defender and scored on a low-to-high shot, despite being knocked to the ground.
Once again, the Tigers won the face-off, but a solid defensive effort held Princeton off the board for nearly 1:30 before Chananchuk pinged the post to make it a 10-8 game with 4:56 to play.
Cornell won the restart, but a Max Feely shot hit the post and the long rebound set up a fast-break opportunity for Princeton. The Tigers couldn't convert, but were given a one-minute man-up opportunity with just over four minutes to play in the contest.
The Big Red killed the penalty but Alex Capretta scored with a long bomb into the upper corner of the goal to make it a one-goal game with 2:56 remaining.
Princeton won the ensuing face-off but a hit post was backed up by the Big Red to give the visitors possession at the 2:15 mark.
The game was fast and furious in the final moments of the game, with each goalie registering a save, before Cornell turned the ball over with 24 seconds to play.
Princeton got the ball into Chanenchuk's hands, but his shot went high with eight seconds to play and then Froccaro's last second shot hit the post as Cornell held on for the 10-9 victory.


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Congress loses a healthcare mover, and pharma an unlikely ally on IPAB
The November elections were arguably the most important for healthcare policy in 40 years, cementing, as they did, the Affordable Care Act by awarding President Obama a second term. But with all eyes glued to the drama at the top of the ticket, many missed a major Congressional upset that could have big implications for healthcare policy.
Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat defeated by a younger intraparty rival under that state's new open primary system, was the ranking Democrat on the Health subcommittee of the powerful House Ways & Means Committee – and an architect of much of the modern healthcare policy infrastructure. He authored the provisions of the 1985 COBRA law that mandated emergency room treatment of uninsured people and established a means of insuring those between jobs. He followed that up with a series of laws in the '80s and '90s, now known as the Stark Law, aimed at curbing physician self-referrals. As chairman of Ways & Means in 2010, he played a key role in shaping and winning passage of the Affordable Care Act.
He lost his chairmanship of the committee in the midterm Republican rout later that year, but he remained one of the most informed and influential voices on healthcare policy on the Hill. He was also in support of repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board established under the ACA – a position that alienated some of his fellow Democrats and endeared him to the pharma industry with which he had frequently clashed.
"One only has to look at the ACA," he said in a March hearing, "which extended solvency, slowed spending growth, lowered beneficiary costs, improved benefits, modernized our delivery system, and created new fraud-fighting tools -- to see we've done a damn good job. I see no reason why Congress would or should hand that authority over to the executive branch. To do so undermines the separation of powers."
He grew irascible and unpredictable in recent years, and seemed not to put much effort into fundraising and fighting off his upstart challenger, which prompted speculation about his health. He may also have tired of life in the minority.
"While Mr. Stark was a vote for repeal of IPAB, his absence in a GOP-led House will have minimal impact," said Peter Pitts, former FDA associate commissioner and head of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. "His career, on the other hand, leaves a legacy stamped 'visionary leader' on American healthcare."
His replacement as top Dem on the Health subcommittee will be Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington. A psychiatrist, McDermott is an advocate of eliminating the deductibility of advertising for prescription drugs and biologics – a perennial target in Congress. That's not much of a change – Stark's Fair Balance Prescription Drug Advertisement Act of 2007 would have used the tax deduction as a de facto two-year ban on DTC for new drugs and to punish ads deemed violative by FDA – but it's sure to be a critical battle this year, as Congress looks high and low for cost-savings.
"For the first time, advertising is really and seriously at risk in the tax code," said Polsinelli Shughart's Jim Davidson, who led the defense of the tax deduction during the ACA negotiations, in a recent talk. "People see a pot of gold there." Eliminating the tax deduction, said Davidson, would raise the cost of advertising by more than a third and drive many advertisers off the air and out of print.
In another significant shift, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) is expected to take over from Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) as ranking Republican on the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions as Enzi moves on to chair the Budget committee.


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I made a simple challenge. Down the bottom of the hill is an unstoppable enemy defense (at least, until you can beat Assault Guns). You're at the top of the hill, and you need to hold out for as long as you can, or attack and destroy the enemy.
I've only tested this to make sure it loads properly, so don't be surprised if the challenge isn't well made


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An All-In-One Dirt Late Model Pump
Dirt Late Model racers who favor dry-sump motors know the all-too-real problem of not only mounting the oil pump, but the fuel pump and power steering pump as well. Well, CV Products has come up with an ingenious solution to all your pumping problems. It recently expanded its Spin Pump line to include an innovative new setup for the Dirt Late Model market-a combined oil, fuel, and power-steering pump.
In actuality, the setup is three separate pumps (oil, fuel, and power steering) tied together into a single system. The heart of the system is the fact that all three pumps are dowel pinned for proper alignment, and an integral scavenge mounting bracket makes the system extremely rigid from section to section.
The three sections of the system were designed, tested, and manufactured in the same facility. By combining them into a single unit, CV has delivered a compact and easy-to-mount system for Dirt Late Model racers. Individually, the Spin fuel pump (Spin-FP-12-200) weighs 0.900 pounds, has a gearless design, eliminating metal-to-metal contact, and regulates the fuel pressure to 25 pounds.
The Spin oil pump (Spin-OP-503-0001) possess a distinguishing feature of an internal bypass circuit that returns oil to the oil tank through the scavenge stage and not to the pressure inlet, reducing heat and aeration of the oil.
The key feature of the PTO power steering pump (SPIN-PS-300-113) is that it bolts to the back of the oil pump and is equipped with a 3/8-inch external hex shaft.
The system features a one-piece, no-weld shaft made out of 300 KSI through hardened tool steel to eliminate wear on the drive hex and reinforce the durability of the product. A performance-enhancing feature is that pump volume is maintained at lower rpms making the corners as easy to handle as the straight aways.
CV also offers a number of accessories for this pump including the SPIN-BK-1001 Mounting Adaptor and the SPIN-PS-1015 3/8-inch Drive Spud. The Mounting Adaptor allows the PTO power steering pump to be mounted to any oil pump with a universal Hilborn adaptor. This PTO Power Steering Pump and its components are race-proven and have undergone extensive validation in-house and on the track so the end user gets the highest quality products available. All pumps will be available for purchase by early Spring 2010.


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I. In Focus This Week
Scott Gessler embarks on a listening tour of Colorado
Clerks and secretary seek to improve upon state's voting system
By all accounts, Election Day 2012 went relatively well in Colorado.
According to a new report from Secretary of State Scott Gessler's office, the November election was the most successful in the state's history. It "achieved historic voter registration levels, exceeded national voter turnout numbers, and saw record-breaking participation by military and overseas voters."
And in the recently released Pew Center on the State's Election Performance Index the state scored a 75 percent overall EPI in 2010 — one of the highest in the nation — that doesn't mean there still isn't room for improvement.
But what needs improving? In order to get to the bottom of that question, Gessler recently embarked on a listening tour of counties throughout the state to hear directly from voters about their experiences with Colorado's voting system.
"The Secretary agrees that the election was a success but we also think there is always room for improvement," said Andrew Cole, a spokesman for the secretary. "So he wanted to get a firsthand account of what people saw, what they liked or didn't like about the election administration, and how we can improve going forward."
Gessler spent the last month or so visiting 13 of the state's 64 counties to speak directly with voters. Although that's a little less than a quarter of the state's counties, the demographics of the counties visited — from urban Denver to rural Alamosa — took a wide view of the state.
This week, Gessler's office also released a video providing highlights from the most recent stops on the tour and encouraging people to contact his office if they would like the tour to make a stop in their area.
So what exactly did Gessler and his team — as well as local elections officials who attended the meetings — find out about how they're doing?
"We found many people appreciate the hard work their local county clerks and election judges do to put on a successful election," Cole said.
Of course, because no election is perfect, Cole said there was definitely some negative feedback and process questions from voters. Cole noted though, that the questions and negative feedback was localized and more often than not specific to one voter or a small number of individuals.
"There were some issues with touchscreen voting machines recording votes for the wrong candidate. There were issues with high numbers of provisional ballots in some counties because many people who had requested mail ballots decided they wanted to vote in person," Cole explained. "One of the counties that had just gone to vote centers had quite a few people ask about protections against vote fraud."
Colorado's clerks haven't always gotten along with Gessler, but Pam Anderson, clerk and recorder in Jefferson County and current president of the Colorado County Clerks Association (CCCA) said the state's clerks appreciated that the secretary was conducting the listening tour and being able to attend.
"Many Clerks have attended multiple sessions," Anders said. "Also, as local elected officials administering elections at the grassroots, we work and are responsive with our voters every day and throughout every election."
Cole said that the secretary's office is still working through all of the feedback, but noted that some of the concerns can easily be addressed through better training of staff and election judges as well as better communication with voters.
"Others may need legislative or rule changes," Cole said.
Legislative changes would not be unique to Colorado. As we've seen, many legislatures throughout the country are making election reform a top priority.
In an effort to get out ahead of reform efforts and take the bull by the horns so-to-speak, the CCCA sent a letter to legislators in December signaling what items they would like to see addressed in the 2013 session.
"We have a window of opportunity this session to address real concerns and make needed updates," said Anderson. "We hope that with the pressures and partisanship of a presidential election behind us, we can come together to make improvements in the interests of voters and the people of Colorado, regardless of their party."
Some of the items the clerks would like to see discussed include greater and more systematic use of mail ballots — currently 74 percent of Colorado voters vote-by-mail, keeping the current voter registration deadline — at 29 days, the status of inactive voters and uniform tabulation.
Anderson said the CCCA is work with legislators on several bills.
"We appreciate their efforts to reach out and work collaboratively with our clerks," she said.
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Halloween events planned locally
Many Halloween and Fall themed activities have been happening this past week with many of those activities happening today and tomorrow.Texas State Technical College will be hosting the Halloween Extravaganza once again this year. The date is Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 from 6-9 p.m. in the Student Center at the TSTC Sweetwater campus. Student organizations from the TSTC campus as well as community organizations, church groups and youth groups will be providing fun and spooky games for the evening. Candy and games will be given away as prizes.Hoyt House, located at 1700 Hoyt, will host a Trunk-or-Treat from 5:30-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30. The door decoration contest winner will also be announced. RSVP to 235-5655.Avondale Baptist Church, located at 1405 Hoyt Street, will have a Trunk-or-Treat from 5:30-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30.Nolan Nursing and Rehab in Sweetwater will be having a Fall Festival Carnival from 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at their building, located at 705 NE Georgia. There will be booths with games, as well as refreshments. The event serves as a fundraiser for gifts and activities for residents during the holiday season.East Ridge Elementary School will be having their annual Trunk-or-Treat for students and their families at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, at the school.The First Baptist Church Family Fall Festival will be held Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 6-8 p.m. featuring an evening of fun for the entire family, including games and great food with the community. Park in lot on the northeast corner of 4th and Elm. Carefully cross the street and enter the parking lot on the northwest corner of 4th and Elm. All are welcome.Lamar Street Baptist Church will have a Trunk-or-Treat on Wednesday, Oct. 31, in the parking lot from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The church welcomes all children to stop by and get a treat.Church of God, located at the corner of 4th and Pine St., will have a Trunk-or-Treat on Wednesday, Oct. 31, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. All are welcome.Broadway Baptist Church is offering an alternative to taking kids out Trick-or-Treating. This alternative is Treatsville. Treatsville will be held Wednesday evening on Oct. 31, from 6:30-8 p.m. in the gym and the gym parking lot. Here are some of the events families can enjoy: face painting, trunk or treat, dessert walk and multiple games.Lighthouse Assembly of God, located at 412 Newman in Sweetwater, will have a fall festival beginning at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. There will be food, fun and prizes. Games are free and the church will be selling hamburger plates to benefit their youth and children's ministries.First United Methodist Church will have a Trunk-or-Treat and games from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in their parking lot behind McCoy Funeral Home. The event is free and open to the public.


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|Enter the sum: 5 + 27 = (What is this?)
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Gasol to the Knicks
Amare and shumpert to the Lakers
This benefits both teams because (obviously) amare would fit right in. And I think that shumpert is EXACTLY what this team needs.
Shumpert is that guy that we can put on Westbrook or any of the other athletic point guards. In this trade shumpert would be bigger for us that amare. I know it's a stretch and we are definitely getting the better end of the deal, but the Knicks are playing great without those two I think Gasol is a perfect fit with the Knicks. He's that perfect post distributor and a good post option for the Knicks when melo ain't cuttin it. I know a lot of people don't like amare, (mainly) because of his contract, but I love this trade. Also why I think the Knicks would possibly do this is because they have:
J.R. Smith
All at the guard positions so one of these guys would be under utilized.
What do you guys think.
P.S. I know a lot of you are gonna say no way in he'll the Knicks would do this but just think about the Knicks rotation when amare and shumpert come back.
Edited by MrKnowItAll, November 25, 2012 - 04:33 AM.


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Allowing for easier access to food, french door refrigerators are a style that offers the user wide shelves and big bins while a wine refrigerator offers a controlled environment for you to protect and store your wine efficiently & affordably. If it is a commercial refrigerator you are looking for with its additional storage space and durability, these refrigerators come in a variety of options which are tailored to meet the different needs of the individual or business.
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CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The King University women's wrestling team opened 2014 the same way they left off 2013, on a winning note. The top-ranked Tornado went 3-1 at the Campbellsville University Best Western Duals where they wrestled host Campbellsville and University of the Cumberlands. The King A team posted a pair of wins while the B team went 1-1 on the day.
King's started the day with a pair of forfeit wins at 101 and 109 against eighth ranked Cumberlands to take a 10-0 lead. Freshman Haley Augello extended the lead to 14-0 with an 11-0 win over Grace Paxton at 116 pounds while Sarah Hildebrandt defeated Sherri Berube 11-1 at 123 pounds. Megan Black scored four points with a 10-0 win over Darby Newman at 130 pounds, while Alli Ragan won by the same score at 136 pounds over Olivia Cepak to extend the King lead to 26-1. Amanda Hendey took a win over DeAngela Castx on a fall at 143, and at 155, Julia Salata defeated Angelica Hernandez 11-0 before the Tornado capped the 40-1 win with a forfeit at 170.
After having a couple matches off, the A team took on sixth ranked and host Campbellsville, and senior Shannon Constantine got the Tornado off to a great start. She defeated Cassidy Ferrell on a fall in 2:05 at 101 pounds to give King an early 5-0 lead. The Tigers then took a win a 109 to cut their deficit to 6-4 before Augello brought the momentum back to King with a 10-0 win over Michelle Lomas at 116 pounds. Hildebrandt followed with a 10-0 win at 123 before Campbellsville took a win at 130. Ragan extended the Tornado lead back to 10 points with a victory on a fall over Kasey Kruczek at 136 pounds, and Hendey topped Hanna Hall on a fall to stretch the lead to 28-9. Salata took a 10-0 win on a fall over Michell Organ at 155 before King capped the 33-9 win with a forfeit at 191 pounds.
Ashley Iliff got the King B team off to a good start against Campbellsville as she took a win on a fall in 1:26 over Ferrell at 101 pounds to start the match. After the Tigers evened the match with a forfeit win, Samantha Klingel gave the lead back to King with a 10-0 win over Lomas at 116 pounds. Kayla Bartosch stretched the lead to 13-5 with a 10-0 win over Kasey Ricketts at 123 pounds, and at 130 pounds, Kayla Brendlinger topped Rosemary Flores 8-5. The Tornado lead grew to 19-7 followed in a Hanna Martin 6-4 win over Kruczek at 136 pounds before the Tigers started to come back. Campbellsville took a win at 143 before the final three bouts were forfeited. The Tigers took two wins by forfeit, and King took one to make the final score 24-22 in favor of the Tornado.
King followed the win with a match against Cumberlands in which Iliff and Klingel got the Tornado off to a good start. Iliff took an 11-0 win over Sarah Allen at 101, and Klingel gave King a 7-1 lead with a 7-2 win over Grace Paxton at 116 pounds. Following a Cumberlands win at 123, Brendlinger stretched the King lead to 10-7 with a 13-4 victory over Kerstin Harmon. However, the Patriots followed with three straight wins to take a 20-11 lead before Kerri Bumpers topped Hernandez 10-0 at 170 pounds to make the final score 20-15 in favor of Cumberlands.
The Tornado will be in action again next weekend when they travel to the NWCA National Duals. The duals will take place Friday through Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
YMCA Buffalo Niagara has announces that online registration for the 117th annual YMCA Turkey Trot is now available. The race, held Thanksgiving morning (Thursday, Nov. 22) continues to be a sold out event every year. Online registration is available at www.ymcabuffaloniagara.org and will be available until noon on Nov. 15 or until capacity of 13,000 is reached.
The cost to participate is $35 through Nov.19.
This annual holiday tradition begins at 9 a.m. sharp and begins at the Delaware Family YMCA (2564 Delaware Ave.) and ends with the finish line at the Buffalo Convention Center. The race takes an 8K route where runners and walkers alike are encouraged to participate.
Proceeds from the event helps to make YMCA programs and services accessible to children and families at all YMCA Buffalo Niagara branches who would otherwise be unable to afford them.
Locally founded in 1852, YMCA Buffalo Niagara is an inclusive association of people committed to a common effort to help individuals and families reach their fullest potential in terms of spirit, mind, and body.


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Never give human medications to your cat unless you have been told to do so by your veterinarian. Most people pills, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), are toxic to felines.read more
Name: Ms.Lady
Age: 2 1/2 Years
Owner: Amanda and Larry
Hometown: Randallstown, MD
Likes: Salami
Dislikes: McDonnalds Chicken Nuggets (?)
Amanda and Larry says:
lady is special because shes beautifull and classy, hence the name Lady. Shes also very loving and attentive.
Cats reach full skeletal development when they are this old:


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When you lose a state champion to injury, it's nice to know that you have a few more on the team to help ease the transition.
The untimely injury to senior Boardercross champ Elie Meierbachtol won't be easy for the four-time OISA state champion Summit Snowboard Team to overcome.
But, the presence of fellow state champ, Lisa Page, and two returning members of the 2002 girls title team (Meghan Ferns and Grace Rickenbach) will make it difficult for the rest of the state to even approach the Summit.
"Winning state is the standard," said Page, a junior who won the 2002 Slopestyle state title and finished second to Meierbachtol in Boardercross. "We've done it before, and we'll aim for it again this year."
Meierbachtol's season-threatening ankle injury means that Page and Ferns will be relied upon even more, while young riders like sophomores Komisa Schwartzel, Mariam Appel and Rickenbach will have to step into the limelight.
"There's a lot of young blood on the team this year," coach Steve Grace said. "It's a major bummer to lose Elie, especially when she's the defending state champ. But we're still in a pretty good position to compete for the state title."
Other young riders like Bethany Hoikka and Michi Aniwanter will help the girls make up for the loss. But it won't be easy by any standard. The girls team had also hoped that freshman Brisa Jessup could enter the fray and give them some much-needed depth. But Jessup broke her wrist during practice, and may be out for the season.
"It's a little hard to assess where we're at right now," Grace said. "There are a lot of new faces and we have had very little practice time due to the lack of snowfall. We don't even have a set schedule at this point."
The first event of the season, a Slopestyle competition, was scheduled for Jan. 11, but was cancelled due to insufficient snowfall. A half-pipe event was scheduled for Jan. 30, but has been changed to a Boardercross because Mt. Hood Meadows doesn't yet have a half pipe course.
Snowfall or no snowfall, both the boys and girls Summit teams will be ready for battle when the start gun sounds.
"It's not a good thing to start so late," senior Colin Franger said. "But all the other teams are in the same boat. Plus, a lot of our guys rode through the summer at Timberline, so I think we'll be ready to defend our title when the time comes."
Franger and the boys team are supremely confident heading into the season, with each of the Varsity I team members returning — most notably, Ben Connors. The senior superstar won all three individual events at last year's state championships, and provides quiet leadership for an equally experienced team.
"It's got to come to an end at some point," Grace joked. "Ben wins everything. Tad (Hukari) has come a long way. And Colin, Paul (Rovianek) and Todd (Anderson) are also unbelievable. They will undoubtedly be the team to beat again this year."
Connors' dominance at last year's OISA state championships proved what most of his teammates already knew the year before — that he is simply the best "rider" at the state high-school level. The HRV senior also showed well at the 2001 state championships, but was denied of the combined title because of a judges' disqualification.
In essence, the ruling stated that Connors was too good, because he pulled off an "inverted" maneuver, which is a violation of OISA rules.
He toned it down just enough last year to win the Boardercross, Slopestyle and half-pipe titles, and help Summit reach a new peak. None of Connors' teammates are bold enough to say they can catch him, but if anyone in the state is going to, it will likely be one of his teammates.
"We've got a really solid core group," Franger said. "This year's Varsity I team is pretty close to what we won with last year, so we're pretty confident."
The boys expect Barlow and West Linn to give them a run for their money, but if Summit can do what it does best at the March 6-8 State Championships, there shouldn't be much drama.
"We're looking forward to the challenge," Franger said. "If we can win a fifth straight state title, that would be pretty amazing for all of us."
Page agrees: "Winning state last year was so fun," she said. "When you do it as often as we have, it's almost expected now. We believe we can do it again, and until someone proves they're better, we're the champs."
Summit will take to the hill on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Meadows for the first Boardercross race of the season.
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COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The two-word description "senior laden" is an ideal way to describe the 2012 Tennessee Tech soccer squad, as head coach Daniel Brizard heads into his third year with eight veterans in tow. Having graduated just one senior from the 2011 squad, the role that these seniors will play this season is not lost on anyone, especially Brizard.
"All of these seniors could very well be on the field at
once," Brizard explained. "A lot of our success this
season depends on them buying into what we're doing. With
eight seniors, if they don't buy into the method, it will
hurt us."
The Golden Eagles report to campus on Wednesday (Aug. 1) and open fall camp on Thursday, just nine days before beginning play with an exhibition match.
Last year, the Golden Eagles struggled finding the finishing bite, or the ability to come from behind to close out games. With a field full of talent, the team improved statistically from the year prior – the improvements were just not reflected in the win-loss record.
"We were in more games this past year, which made it harder to take the losses," Brizard said. "Our record didn't necessarily reflect the improvements and talent of the team as a whole."
In 2012, the veterans will lead the team toward the ultimate goal of any squad – to be on the same page. Often times, this is easier said than done, but a strong spring season and the dynamics that will stem from six signees have the Golden Eagles confident.
The seniors are looking to go out with a bigger legacy, and amongst those returning is two-time team MVP Kerri Reid, one of last year's leading scorers who is expected to continue her trend of leading by example on the field. Playing the role of Tech's primary center-midfielder, Reid gives the Golden Eagles what they ask for in a center mid – tenacity and consistency.
"Kerri is a good person, both on the field and in the classroom," Brizard said. "It's important for Kerri to have a good year, because the team will feed off of that.
"She's a fighter and she gets the job done. We have to pull her off the field kicking and screaming."
Tech also returns seniors Andrea Meloff up top, Kris Cambron, Sarah Gawthrop, Alex Stevenson and Jacque Watkins in the midfield, and Leigh Heffner and Julie Thompson on the back line.
THE SCHEDULE (click here to view the 2012 schedule)
The team's 2012 schedule consists of 20 matches, including an exhibition contest to get the ball rolling.
In addition to the 10-game Ohio Valley Conference slate, the Golden Eagles will play nine non-conference contests and an exhibition match. The majority of the team's non-conference schedule will be played in within Tennessee against in-state rivals, or in North Carolina.
Brizard's squad will kick off play on Saturday, Aug. 11 at Tennessee Wesleyan in a 2 p.m. exhibition match. The following Friday (Aug. 17) marks the team's regular season and home opener, a 3 p.m. game against East Tennessee State.
"As always, we've worked to put together a non-conference schedule that will complement conference play," Brizard said. "We're focusing a lot on regional non-conference competition with the goal of facing opponents that will prepare us for the OVC."
September 23 will mark the start of conference action, with the Golden Eagles playing three straight at home to open up OVC play.
"The OVC is proving to become more competitive every year," Brizard said. "With a leveled playing field narrowing the gap between the top and bottom of the conference, every game takes on more significance."
Meloff returns as the veteran forward, playing alongside junior Ellie Iaciofano. Standing 5-3 and 6-0 respectively, the duo complements one another on the attacking line.
A crafty player up top, Meloff had a promising spring season and has spent the past few seasons developing as a player to fit the mold of the Golden Eagle offense. The squad has learned to play to Meloff's strengths – her ability to get in behind a defense and find slots – which should help with transition play this coming fall.
Iaciofano developed into one of the team's primary forwards last season, making 2011 her first real experience as an attack-minded player. She recorded three goals to lead the team in scoring along with Reid, but was unlucky several times in her attempts to finish. Her taller stature complements Meloff's, giving the team a different set of strengths and options to play with, and she's expected to contribute again on the scoring front this year.
As a junior, Iaciofano already commands the respect of her teammates, and will look to be a leader the next two seasons. It will be important for her to establish herself as an effective finisher and competitor in 2012
Signee Taylor Blazei is another "cheeky" player, according to Brizard, who mimics Meloff's style of play. She's good on the ball, has a good eye and the ability to set up others. Brizard looks forward to having Blazei get a lot of experience and minutes this year, as she has the potential to fill during her career as a top forward or attacking midfielder.
The Golden Eagle midfield has one key characteristic -- depth. That's a good thing in that Brizard plans on demanding a good bit of endurance from his midfield, specifically his wide players.
"We're going to ask the midfield to be defensive and play forward, rather than have them be in attack mode and have to recover," Brizard explained. "Basically we're asking the midfield and even the outside backs to be 100-yard players, which is why we need subs.
"We have a good pool of players who are capable of contributing in the midfield, and those who are not starting will likely be asked to play significant minutes."
Seniors Reid, Watkins, Gawthrop and Cambron, junior Emily Homan and sophomore Amanda Koch will all return as midfielders for the Golden Eagles. Watkins, a tough-nosed player with the ability to overpower her opponents one-on-one, will likely continue to patrol the central portion of the midfield, along with Reid. Meanwhile, Blazei and fellow signees Mackenzie Miller and Taylor Sutton will provide the depth that the squad is looking for.
Miller is a fast, versatile athlete with the ability to get behind a defense, and will be essential in giving the Golden Eagles a good rotation of fresh legs and quality minutes in the midfield. Sutton brings a hard-nosed toughness to the position with promise to win the ball by whatever means necessary. She will be called upon to make stops, and has the potential to become an anchor in the midfield over the course of her career.
Three will return to the Golden Eagle back line, but the lost center-back experience in graduate Lindsey Reed will prove to be a tall order to fill. Last year, Reed played every minute of all 19 contests for the Golden Eagles at one of two center-back positions. Currently, Heffner anchors the Golden Eagles directly in front of the net at the other center-back position. Heffner is a technical player, good in the air and excellent at reading the attacking play. Her leadership will be key in directing the back line.
Thompson is expected to fill the role of right side defender. Her confidence has grown over the past two seasons, and her attitude – hard-nosed, driven to win – is exemplary for that position.
On the left side will be rising junior Taylor Hicks. Originally expected to be a forward, Hicks made the move to her current defensive position halfway through her true freshman season in 2010. She has settled into the position well, with her speed being her greatest asset. "You have to beat Taylor like, three times because she's so fast," Brizard said. She also has a powerful foot which will prove to be helpful in serving set-pieces from the left side.
Three sophomores in Courtney Dedrick, Hayley Morton and Katie Phillips will compete for Reed's vacated position in the center. Brizard rotated all three players into that position in the spring and will continue to assess, with the help of his returning back line, who will shoulder the responsibility in the fall. This is just another example of the depth that Brizard has available to him in the midfield area, as all three players are capable of sufficiently aiding in the defense-to-offense transition.
A consistent, reliable goalkeeper is something that Brizard has been searching for since he took the helm at Tech, and he has recruited three freshmen with the goal of bringing that ongoing search to successful find.
Jordan Brown is a promising keeper out of League City, Tex., with extensive Club and ODP experience. Brown played ODP soccer for '94 Region III and was a member of the US Regional Squad that finished second in the 2009 International Costa Rica Tournament. She was selected for the National Camp in Southern California in 2009 and the Region III Pool in 2008.
Local products Allison Barlow of Tullahoma and Nicole Hayes of Riceville will also compete for a spot in the net.
"The goalkeeper who gets the job done will play," Brizard said simply. "We're looking for someone who can provide steady goalkeeping skills that we haven't had in the past. They'll need to be someone the team can trust, and show consistency in practice and games."


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August 2001
Articles in the Newsline section were abstracted by the National Prevention Information Network (NPIN) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
NYS Senator: Bills Give Inaccurate Picture of HIV TransmissionNew York's only acknowledged HIV-positive and openly gay state lawmaker is opposing two bills designed to expand AIDS-related health benefits, claiming the measures inaccurately portray how the disease is transmitted. Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan) said that the bills, which would provide enhanced benefits for some employees who contract HIV, suggest that it is far easier to be exposed to the virus on the job than it really is.
One of the bills Duane opposes, sponsored by Sen. John Marchi (R-Staten Island), provides that New York City parking control specialists, limousine commission inspectors, campus police officers and some other employees should be entitled to receive 75 percent disability pensions if they contract HIV. The measure stipulates that it should be presumed that the workers' HIV infection was contracted on the job unless it can be proven otherwise. The second bill, sponsored by Sen. Mary Lou Rath (R-Erie County), provides the same protections for paramedics in the town of Tonawanda. And both bills include presumptions that if workers get TB or hepatitis, those illnesses were contracted on the job as well.
Duane said both bills provide a distorted notion of what the state Health Department and other agencies have recognized as the ways the vast majority of people with HIV were exposed to the virus. "It is not easy to contract HIV," Duane said. "It is close to impossible to receive HIV during the normal course of action during employment." That is especially true of such job titles as limousine commission inspector or parking control officer, Duane said. "I am by no means advocating for the denial of disability pension benefits to those who do contract HIV on the job through no fault of their own" such as when receiving a tainted transfusion following an on-the-job accident, Duane. "However, to presume HIV infection is contracted on the job is ignorant." (Associated Press (04.30.01) Joel Stashenko)
Hepatitis C Poses New Threat to Many with AIDSWhen the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first protease inhibitors for HIV/AIDS in 1996, many people believed they had been granted a reprieve from death. Yet thousands are now learning that their longevity has left them with a second disease, hepatitis C, which can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis and, in some cases, death. Up to 40 percent of Americans with HIV -- or 300,000 to 400,000 people -- may be infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Among those who have used intravenous drugs, the rate may be 90 percent. Among hemophiliacs, rates are high due to past contaminated blood supplies.
"This is emerging as a really huge problem," said Alan Franciscus, publisher of HCV Advocate newsletter and director of the Hepatitis C Support Project in San Francisco. "Before protease inhibitors, most people died too quickly from HIV-related causes to even know they were infected with HCV," which can take 20 years to become symptomatic. As the death rate from AIDS declined, liver disease from hepatitis C became the number one cause of death of those with HIV.
The hepatitis C virus is the deadliest of the three major varieties of hepatitis. Almost four million Americans have been infected and 8,000-10,000 die annually from complications of the disease, according to the CDC. Ten to 20 percent of those with the disease progress to cirrhosis or some other fatal liver disease. The treatment outlook has improved markedly, and the FDA has recently approved a new form of interferon that is performing well in clinical trials. Yet despite treatment advances, many do not benefit because of the complications of medicating two different diseases. The antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS place a great strain on the liver. Many doctors do not know how to treat the co-infection, and only a handful of physicians specialize in both diseases. It is easier to educate HIV doctors about HCV than to tax HCV doctors with the new burdens of HIV knowledge.
Transplants have not been an option for people with HIV. Transplant centers have routinely rejected individuals with HIV as organ recipients because their life expectancies were so short. But now a handful of programs are looking at the candidacy of individuals with HIV as liver transplant patients. However, according to Dr. Douglas Dieterich, chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Cabrini Medical Center in New York, "It will be years before we see what the long term result of these studies are." (New York Times (05.01.01) David Tuller)
Contraceptives Do Not Protect Against Pelvic Inflammatory DiseaseUS researchers reported recently that no barrier or hormonal contraceptive method protects women against pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Roberta Ness of the University of Pittsburgh and her team evaluated the contraceptive use of 563 women with symptoms in the PID Evaluation and Clinical Health (PEACH) study. Most of the participants were black and age 24 years or younger. They were interviewed about recent contraceptive use and had endometrial biopsy and upper genital tract isolate evaluation. The researchers found that condoms were the most common contraceptive method used, followed by oral contraceptives, medroxyprogesterone and other barrier methods. Inconsistent condom use in the four weeks before enrollment was associated with a greater than two-fold increased risk of upper genital tract infection compared with no condom use; infection rates were not affected by medroxyprogesterone or oral contraceptives. "Women whose partners are using condoms may be the group of women who are engaged in more risky sexual behavior to start with," Ness said.
Endometriosis without upper genital tract infection was related to the use of contraceptive injections in women with symptoms of PID. A slight decrease in risk was conferred by consistent (100 percent) condom use, whereas oral contraceptive use was associated with less severe PID symptoms. Since the study results suggest that consistent condom use may decrease PID risk, physicians should emphasize "correct and consistent use," urged Ness. The full report appeared in Epidemiology (2001; 12: 307-12). (Lancet (04.21.01) Vol 357; No 9264: P 1269. Marilynn Larkin)
New Therapy Promising for Genital HerpesResearchers at the 11th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases reported that "an experimental immunity-enhancing drug administered as a topical gel shows promise in substantially delaying onset of recurrent genital herpes lesions." Spotswood Spruance, M.D., of the University of Utah School of Medicine, explained the potential treatment at a symposium sponsored by 3M Pharmaceuticals, saying, "One episodic treatment seems to act like a vaccination and prolong the time to the next recurrence." If the findings are confirmed in large-scale studies, the new agent, resiquimod, "would provide an alternative to current suppressive therapy for genital herpes," said Spruance. The currently approved trio of systemic antiviral medications for recurrent genital herpes -- the nucleoside analogs acyclovir, famciclovir and valacyclovir -- "can decrease the duration of viral shedding and time to healing of lesions when patients take them at onset of symptoms. But episodic treatment -- taking the drugs only during an outbreak -- has no effect on the frequency of recurrences," said Richard Whitley, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. But resiquimod, Spruance said, appears to induce the production of certain cytokines. The effect is an altered immune response, particularly enhanced cell-mediated immunity, said Richard Miller, Ph.D., of 3M Pharmaceuticals, which is developing the drug.
Some genital herpes patients do not have recurrent outbreaks, "presumably because their immune system has succeeded in containing the virus. The rationale for treating patients with recurrent disease with immune response modifiers is that these drugs appear to have effects that can shift the ineffective immune response seen in people who have recurrences to the kind of response seen in outbreak-free individuals," said Spruance. "I believe that treating people [with the drug] at the time of an active herpes recurrence is equivalent to an autologous therapeutic vaccination with adjuvant," he said. During the outbreak, the patient's own herpes simplex virus acts as the "vaccine" by exposing the immune system to viral antigens, and resiquimod acts as an adjuvant to raise the immune response. Phase 3 clinical trials involving about 2,000 patients with recurrent genital herpes infection are now under way in the United States and Europe, results for which are expected in 2004. (Journal of the American Medical Association (05.02.01) Vol 285; No 17: P 2182-2183. Joan Stephenson, Ph.D.)
UC San Francisco Study: Gay/Bisexual Men Who Were Sexually Abused as Children More Likely to Engage in Unsafe SexAccording to a study in the April issue of Child Abuse & Neglect, men who have sex with men (MSM) are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors if they were sexually abused as children. The researchers from the University of California San Francisco's Center for AIDS Prevention (CAPS) found that 20.6 percent of all MSM experienced childhood sexual abuse -- a rate higher than prevalence estimates for the general population. The researchers found that greater severity of childhood abuse (more incidents) was associated with higher rates of risky sexual behavior. Two definitions of risky sexual behavior were used: unprotected anal intercourse with a non-primary partner, and unprotected anal intercourse with a male whose HIV status was different from their own.
The telephone sample of MSM in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles found that men reporting childhood sexual abuse were more likely (24 percent vs. 14 percent) to be HIV-positive. The study also found that men who were sexual abuse survivors had higher rates of sex under the influence of alcohol/drugs, more "one-night stands" and more intimate partner violence.
"These findings clearly indicate that there is a need to consider childhood sexual abuse in developing and delivering HIV prevention interventions," said lead author Jay Paul, Ph.D. "Messages that emphasize the avoidance of 'sex under the influence' may not be effective for those men whose use of substances may be a form of coping with the disturbing aftermath of early sexual traumatization." Paul said the findings indicate that community services should be reviewed to ensure they offer appropriate referrals to mental health, substance abuse, social and medical services. "The multiple health-related negative consequences of childhood sexual abuse emphasize the need to give this issue appropriate attention," Paul said. (Associated Press (05.03.01))
Judge Urged to Rap City on AIDS HousingAdvocates for the homeless in New York City urged a state judge to hold the city in contempt for ignoring a 1999 order to provide emergency housing for people with AIDS.
According to affidavits filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by Housing Works, a non-profit agency providing resources for homeless people with AIDS, the Human Resources Administration (HRA) routinely circumvents the law. Documents indicate that strategies used by the HRA include routing homeless individuals with AIDS to hotels where HRA bills have not been paid, non-existent addresses, shelters deemed medically unfit for those with the disease, and closing referral centers on weekends and at 5 PM weekdays.
Armen Merjian, a lawyer for Housing Works, described the daily struggle of people with AIDS to find housing as "life-threatening." She admonished the HRA for its callous treatment of people with AIDS. The HRA spokeswoman declined to comment on the court charges because she had not seen the affidavits." ((New York) Daily News (05.03.01) Helen Peterson)
More Patients Seek Drugs Through ADAPs, Creating $50 Million DeficitRecent increases in drug expenditures and the number of clients seeking help from AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) have created the potential for a crisis this summer, according to ADAP Working Group Chair Bill Arnold. "We've already written to President Bush, saying, 'We've got a crisis and need emergency supplemental appropriation in this year of $50 million,'" Arnold said. Some 600 people join the ADAP rolls each month and, thanks to the effectiveness of drug therapies, attrition is not as significant as it once was. ADAP now serves about 70,000 people nationwide, and state programs reported a 22 percent increase in expenditures in June 2000 compared to June 1999, according to a report released in March. Arnold predicted some states will feel the crunch as early as next month.
Large states, including Texas, California and Florida, are expected to experience the effects of the budget shortfall first. Small states that have historically had ADAP waiting lists, like South Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia, will also likely be in trouble. In Alabama, 340 people are already awaiting enrollment, while 59 are on the list in South Carolina. This year, Florida is receiving a $5.8 million increase in ADAP funds, yet this amounts to less than a 10 percent increase at a time when enrollment is up 13 percent. Colorado's program has no waiting list and is adequately funded but that may change this year when it revises its income eligibility requirement (at 185 percent of the federal poverty level, currently one of the nation's strictest).
New York, with one of the nation's most generous ADAP formularies and one of the largest HIV-positive populations, has not had to add restrictions or put clients on a waiting list. The state's comprehensive Medicaid program provides medical and pharmaceutical coverage to HIV-infected persons whether or not they have AIDS symptoms. But if the national ADAP program does not get the $50 million emergency increase, New York may have to transfer money from other AIDS programs. State directors also hope to see Congress pass a Medicare pharmacy benefit, which would take some people out of the ADAP system. (AIDS Alert (05.01))
HPV Strain Linked to Increased Mortality from Cervical CancerA strain of the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes 20 percent to 30 percent of all cervical cancers doubles the mortality rate when compared with cervical cancers caused by the most common version of the virus, according to a paper in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology (Vol 19; No 7: 1906-15). The population-based study confirmed that mortality rates from cervical cancers caused by HPV-18, which is the second most common cause of the disease, could be four times as high as those caused by other HPV variants, including HPV-16, which causes the majority of cervical cancers.
"What is needed now is a trial to see if measuring the presence of HPV-18 in the tumors of cervical cancer patients makes a difference in clinical outcome in terms of treatment decisions," said Stephen Schwartz, Ph.D., primary author of the study and an associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "What we need to do now is figure out what we can do with this information to help women with cervical cancer live longer."
But cervical cancer experts said that the latest study should earmark those with HPV-18 for more intense treatment. The disease is now treated with varying combinations of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but not always all three. HPV type testing is not a standard of care and is primarily used as a research tool. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a test for HPV as an adjunct screen to the Pap smear, but a test that determines the type of HPV has not yet been approved. Such a test is expected to be most useful as a diagnostic and to determine treatment strategies for cervical cancer patients. Researchers said the study would also aid the search for vaccines. There are nearly 100 varieties of HPV, but the most dangerous strains could be prioritized for vaccine development. (American Medical News (04.23.01) Vol 44; No 16: P 29, 33. Victoria Stagg Elliott)
Effect of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy on Frequency of Oral WartsThe introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been accompanied by a reduction of the frequency of many of the secondary events caused by HIV infection, including some oral lesions. This study sought to investigate the changing pattern of oral lesions associated with HIV infection and HAART among patients in the authors' referral clinic.
The researchers retrospectively studied 1,280 patients seen between July 1990 and June 1999, relating oral findings to medication use, immune function and viral load. They focused on three key oral lesions -- oral candidiasis, hairy leukoplakia and oral warts -- and studied their relation with antiretroviral therapy, with or without the use of protease inhibitors, adjusting for CD4 count and viral load. Treatment that included one or more antiretroviral agents including non-nucleosides but excluding protease inhibitors was defined as antiretroviral therapy (ART), while treatment that included one or more antiretroviral agents plus protease inhibitors was defined as HAART.
During the 9 12-month periods, oral candidosis, hairy leukoplakia and Kaposi's sarcoma decreased substantially, whereas the frequency of aphthous ulcers did not change. There was an increase in the occurrence of salivary gland disease and a "striking increase" in the rate of warts: three-fold for patients on ART and six-fold for patients on HAART. The researchers said that "the increase in the occurrence of oral warts, and its apparent association with both ART and protease inhibitors, is somewhat unexpected, although a link has been suggested previously. Some other opportunistic infections, most notably TB and cytomegalovirus retinitis, can also recur among patients receiving HAART as HIV viral loads fall and CD4 cell counts improve. (Lancet (05.05.01) Vol 357; No 9266: P 1411-1412. Deborah Greenspan; Alison J. Canchola; Laurie A. MacPhail; Behnaz Cheikh; John S. Greenspan)
Justices Set Back Use of Marijuana to Treat IllnessThe Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal law allows no "medical necessity" exception to its prohibition of the distribution of marijuana. The 8-0 decision was seen as a setback, though not a definitive blow, to the medical marijuana movement, which has succeeded in passing ballot initiatives in eight states. The ruling neither overturns those initiatives nor addresses any question of state law. Rather, it affirms that marijuana's listing as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act means that it "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." Advocates say the drug helps combat the nausea of chemotherapy and AIDS wasting syndrome.
The question before the court in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative was a relatively narrow one. Nearly three-quarters of Oakland's voters supported California's Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that enacted the Compassionate Use Act permitting the medical use of marijuana. The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative was set up with the blessing of the city's government and police department. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered Federal District Court Judge Charles Breyer to tailor an injunction permitting access to marijuana for those whose serious medical conditions could be alleviated by it. The Clinton administration, asserting that the Ninth Circuit had committed a serious error that could undermine federal drug laws, persuaded the Supreme Court to grant a stay of Breyer's ruling last August. Justice Stephen G. Breyer did not participate in any phase of the case because Judge Charles Breyer is his younger brother.
In the opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court said the Ninth Circuit had misread Federal law when it ruled that the Oakland cooperative could raise medical necessity as a defense against the federal government's attempts to close it down. But the broad language of Thomas' opinion suggested there could be no acceptable medical use of marijuana in any setting, not just in the context of distribution by large organizations. For that reason, Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to sign it, instead filing a separate concurring opinion. Stevens said that Thomas' opinion showed inadequate "respect for the sovereign states that comprise our federal union." (New York Times (05.15.01) Linda Greenhouse)
First Combo Vaccine for Hepatitis Gets OKThe Food and Drug Administration has approved the first combination vaccine that prevents hepatitis A and B. The combination vaccine uses two existing vaccines and will reduce the number of shots needed for those at risk for the diseases, according to manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline. Each year, 125,000 to 200,000 Americans are infected with hepatitis A, and 140,000 to 320,000 are infected with hepatitis B. (USA Today (05.15.01) Michelle Healy)
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Elderly PatientsThanks to improved drug therapies, more patients with HIV are surviving into older age. The researchers performed a retrospective case-control study of 58 patients who were more than 60 years old at the time of HIV diagnosis and compared them with 232 controls, who were matched by CD4+ lymphocyte count. The clinical and demographic data were obtained from the Adult Spectrum of Diseases (ASD) database at the Medical Center of Louisiana. The mean age was 32.8 years for the younger group and 64.05 years for the older group. Homosexual contact and intravenous drug use were the most common risk factors in both groups. The use of antiretroviral therapy, including protease inhibitors, was similar in both groups during the course of the study (Jan. 1, 1989 - Feb. 28, 1998).
The researcher's report does not support previous findings that older patients have lower CD4+ lymphocyte and are more likely than younger patients to die in the same month they receive an HIV-positive diagnosis. The researchers found older patients to have CD4+ lymphocyte counts similar to those of their younger counterparts, and they did not observe a significant difference in the incidence of opportunistic infections in the two groups. But the report noted that although they are "remaining sexually active well into the sixth and seventh decades of life, older patients are perceived by themselves and their physicians to be at lower risk for HIV infection." Doctors are less likely to test older patients for HIV or to talk to them about safer sex practices.
"In conclusion, elderly patients are a growing population of persons infected with HIV. Persons in this age group need to be specifically targeted for primary prevention because of a self-perceived lower risk for HIV infection and the lower likelihood of being tested for such infection by their physicians. We found that elderly patients are not having HIV infection diagnosed at a later stage, but they still have a shorter survival, possibly because of the effect of co-morbid conditions," the authors wrote. (Southern Medical Journal (04.01) Vol 94; No 4: P 397-400. Adeel A. Butt, M.D., et al.)
US Government Unveils Guidelines for the Care of HIV-Infected WomenThe US government last Tuesday unveiled the first edition of a guide intended to help physicians better understand the unique problems of women infected with HIV. The 508-page document ("A Guide to the Clinical Care of Women With HIV: 2001 -- First Edition") details how HIV infection affects women differently than men, focusing on gynecologic conditions and reproductive concerns as well as social issues such as domestic violence. The manual is intended to help primary care physicians and providers recognize that treating women with HIV is not the same as treating men with the disease, according to the guide's editor, Dr. Jean Anderson of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
"It became very clear that there were a lot of gaps in people's understanding," Anderson said in an interview. "So people who did a lot of HIV care didn't necessarily know what were the special issues for women. And providers who did a lot of health care for women didn't know much about HIV."
According to the introduction to the volume, "In most industrialized countries, women tended to have lower income, be un- or under-insured for health care, know less about HIV, are more likely to be Black or Hispanic, and to have a personal or partner history of injection drug or cocaine use. Women also appear to have more rapid progression of illness than men and to present with a different constellation of opportunistic conditions than men."
Women make up 50 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS and are a dominant feature of the evolving epidemic. Because they are often diagnosed later and generally have less access to care and medications, women tend to have higher viral loads and lower CD4 counts. Women living with HIV/AIDS must contend with issues related to reproduction and to domestic violence. Finally, women living with HIV/AIDS are usually relied upon to meet the care needs of children and other family members, many of whom are also HIV-positive. The report is available through the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. (Reuters (05.16.01) www.hab.hrsa.gov/womencare.htm)
Back to the August 2001 Issue of Body Positive Magazine.
This article was provided by Body Positive. It is a part of the publication Body Positive.


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On behalf of West & Parrish & Pedigo Funeral Home, we would like to extend a letter of gratitude and appreciation to the Owen County Highway Department not only for their hard work these last few weeks of making sure that the streets and highways have been cleared and safe for travel, but their extra effort to make sure that we could get to Hudson Hill Cemetery, despite the winter weather conditions. Our families appreciated that we didn't have to delay funeral arrangements and add stress to their grief, and we know that your extra efforts made this possible for them. So, with heartfelt gratitude from all of us here at West & Parrish & Pedigo Funeral Home, thank you to the staff of the highway department for all you do.
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The Law School Advising Program's mission is to inform students about the legal profession and about law school so students can make judicious, well-thought out decisions before selecting a law school.
Our program assists students, alumni, staff, and faculty who are contemplating a career in the legal profession. Through individual meetings with the pre-law advisor, the Law School Advising Program helps prospective applicants navigate through information, complete application requirements, and make judicious decisions about pursuing a law degree.


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High heat kanekalon is a type of synthetic fiber used for wig making, braids, and dreads. It's quite durable and tough, and has a heat resistance of 250°F (120°C), sometimes higher. It's much softer and silkier than kanekalon and can be a bit slippery. It comes in a considerably wider range of colors than regular kk, though, so sometimes it's worth the effort to work with!
High heat kanekalon does not shrink down like regular kanekalon and will stay quite soft even when it's set.
Boiling water generally isn't hot enough to seal high heat kanekalon. We recommend using a steamer or a wet wash cloth and straightener to seal dreads. High heat kanekalon is best suited for crochet dreads. For braids, it's best to seal the ends with rubber bands or thread, or use a damp cloth/straightener (like with dreads).
Length: 24" folded, 48" unfolded (60 cm folded, 120 cm unfolded).
Weight: 2.8 ounces (80 g).
Texture: Smooth, only very slightly kinky yaky texture. High heat kanekalon is very soft and somewhat slippery compared to regular kanekalon.
Brand: I Kick Shins.
Color: Stoplight (dark emerald green at the top transitioning down into yellow in the center and cool cherry red at the ends. The green at the top is very similar to Basil high heat kanekalon and Emerald Green kk jumbo braid.
The last two product pictures are color comparison shots that show the following:
- Stoplight on the left and Basil, Mustard Yellow, and Dark Cherry Red from top to bottom on the right. All four colors are high heat kanekalon.
- Stoplight on the left and Emerald Green, Yellow, Red, and Pepperoni from top to bottom on the right. Stoplight is high heat kanekalon and the other four colors are kk jumbo braid.


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This activity allows students to use radiosonde data from a weather balloon launch to distinguish the characteristics of the lower atmosphere. Step-by-step instructions for use of the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) guide students through... (View More) selecting a data set, importing the data into a spreadsheet, creating graphs, and analyzing data plots. The lesson provides detailed procedures, related links and sample graphs, follow-up questions, extensions, and teacher notes. Designed for student use, MY NASA DATA LAS samples micro datasets from large scientific data archives, and provides structured investigations engaging students in exploration of real data to answer real world questions. (View Less)
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President Barack Obama says it is "hard to say" whether his new stance supporting same sex marriage will hurt his re-election. He says there's a major difference between himself and Republican challenger Mitt Romney on the issue, but says the economy will ultimately determine the outcome of the election.
Obama made his remarks during a discussion on ABC's "The View," a daytime talk show. That interview will air later Tuesday, but ABC broadcast an excerpt on "Good Morning America."
He said churches should have the right to make their own determinations about marriage. But he said that as a matter of civil law, all Americans should be treated equally.
Obama became the first sitting president to support same-sex marriage last week. Before, he had said his views had been evolving.


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Derrick Rose would appear to be facing the most important fourth quarter of his career tonight.
That's what happens when your last two fourth quarters have been awful and your team has lost control of the Eastern Conference finals.
I mean, get a load of Rose's numbers from the last two final periods: four points, 1-for-6 shooting, five assists, two turnovers and five fouls. Lysol, anyone?
That's one basket more than Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Heck, that's one more basket than James Naismith, who's been dead for, I don't know, 70 years.
Look, if the Bulls'' Big One is barely going to outplay Mike Bibby in the only quarter that matters in the NBA, then...