Lance Armstrong says he hopes to meet with Nelson Mandela during a visit to South Africa next week.
Armstrong is traveling to the African country Monday to take part in a local race next weekend and says meeting the former president would be "the opportunity of a lifetime."
The seven-time Tour de France champion says he has not been guaranteed a meeting since …
A year ago, Shane Matthews was preparing to start the regularseason at quarterback for the Bears. Friday he'll be hoping somebodyelse notices.
The third-string quarterback will get a final chance to showcasehimself for the rest of the league in the preseason finale againstTennessee at Soldier Field (7 p.m. Ch. 2, 780-AM).
The Bears could keep Matthews as their third quarterback, butmight get offers from other teams in need of a veteran. The Bearskept fourth-string quarterback Mark Hartsell on the roster this weekin case they got an offer they liked.
"I'm sure I'll play (Friday). But I don't know how much," Matthewssaid. "I don't really worry about it. I don't …
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria was actviated been Tuesday from the 15-day disabled list.
Longoria had been sidelined since April 3 with a strained left oblique. He said his return is like another opening day.
"It feels like I've been gone so long," he said. "I'm just happy to be back, and back in the lineup."
Longoria had four hits, including three homers, in 15 at-bats during a four-game minor league rehab assignment at Double-A Montgomery.
"I think this is one of those things, again I've never experienced this so I don't know how it will react, but I've played and felt pretty much the same coming into the ballpark …
MARANA, Arizona (AP) — First-round pairings Wednesday in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain:
Luke Donald (1), England, vs. Ernie Els (64), South Africa.
Rory McIlroy (2), Northern Ireland, vs. George Coetzee (63), South Africa.
Lee Westwood (3), England, vs. Nicolas Colsaerts (62), Belgium.
Martin Kaymer (4), Germany, vs. Greg Chalmers (61), Australia.
Steve Stricker (5), United States, vs. Kevin Na (60), United States.
Webb Simpson (6), United States, vs. Matteo Manassero (59), Italy.
Jason Day (7), Australia, vs. Rafael Cabrera Bello (58), Spain.
Adam Scott (8), …
Children at Shipham First School combined creativity withexercise by designing their own sports day kit.
The school held a competition for the designs for the shirts forLion, Tiger and Zebra teams and the winning …
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confidently deflected House Democrats' demands Thursday for details in the firings of U.S. attorneys, appearing ever more likely to survive accusations that the dismissals were politically motivated.
Republican lawmakers rushed to Gonzales' defense as the attorney general denied anew that the firings last year were improper.
The mostly muted five-hour hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee was a sharp contrast to Gonzales' sometimes testy appearance three weeks ago when Senate Republicans questioned his competence to run the Justice Department. One senator at that session joined a small GOP chorus saying he should …
Four top executives of Societe Generale have handed back 340,000 stock options that they had been awarded this year to defuse a political firestorm over the payouts, the French bank said Sunday.
The executives _ CEO Frederic Oudea, Chairman Daniel Bouton and deputy CEOs Severin Cabannes and Didier Alix _ have abandoned the options first granted by the bank's board on March 9, the bank said.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde had said she had asked top SocGen executives to give up their stock options altogether.
"To cut short the current polemic, we have decided to give up the benefit of these stock option awards, and we have informed …
Buick's big 1990 LeSabre is a worthy successor to thosewonderful old Daddy Warbucks-style Buicks of the 1950s.
The 1990 LeSabre isn't as colorful - some might use the word"gauche" - as 1950s Buicks, which came from a wild auto styling era.Those old Buicks had front fender portholes inspired by exhaust pipesof fiery fighter plane engines.
The 1990 LeSabre has no such distinctiveness. The car looks alittle too much like other big General Motors cars, such asOldsmobile's Eighty-Eight Royale and Ninety-Eight.
Still, the $17,400 LeSabre Limited sedan I recently tested ishandsome. It is even impressive-looking in some settings, if painteda dark, rich …
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Julien Benneteau will play for France in Davis Cup singles against Canada on Friday after Gael Monfils was ruled out with knee tendinitis.
Monfils was limping after losing the Montpellier final last weekend, and France captain Guy Forget didn't want to risk playing his team's second-best player on the opening day against Milos Raonic.
"When you are two days away from playing a match that big and that long, you have to evaluate the chances of your players against someone like Milos who's a really dangerous and good player," Forget said at the draw on Thursday.
Benneteau, who will …
Iraq's parliament Sunday night passed a long-delayed law necessary to hold nationwide elections, in a process that has been intensely watched over fears the holdup could delay the January contests and possibly delay the planned U.S. troop withdrawal.
The law's passage had been repeatedly delayed by sharp disagreements over how voting would take place in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, claimed by both Arabs and Kurds and a major flashpoint in the country.
The lawmakers approved the bill after a tense daylong session during which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill could be seen shuttling between various political factions, in a sign of how closely the …
Half an inch at a time, B9720, the one-legged flamingo at LincolnPark Zoo will start standing on his new artificial leg today.
B9720 had his second fitting Monday for the artificial leg madeby volunteers from Scheck & Siress, an Oak Park prosthesis firm. Heslipped around and balanced on the heel of the foot Friday, so themen who usually make artificial limbs for humans spent the weekendaltering their avian invention.
They changed the angle of the foot so it sits flat on theground, and because he had slipped, they glued to the sole a piece oftan rubber with "little tiny treads, like running shoes," said Dr.Robyn Barbiers, zoo director of veterinary medicine.For …
| East Division | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | Pct | GB | |
| Boston | 37 | 26 | .587 | — |
| New York | 34 | 27 | .557 | 2 |
| Tampa Bay | 33 | 30 | .524 | 4 |
| Toronto | 32 | 32 | .500 | 5 1/2 |
CINCINNATI - When it came time to pick a replacement foroutfielder Alex Ochoa, the Cincinnati Reds went with a proven firstbaseman. D.T. Cromer, the club's biggest surprise in April, wasrecalled from Class AAA Louisville on Thursday to fill in whileOchoa recuperates from an appendectomy.
Cromer got his first chance to play in the majors when firstbaseman Sean Casey broke his thumb in the final spring traininggame. Cromer made a lasting impression by hitting .429 through April19.
When the Reds sent him down and activated Casey, they told Cromerthat he'd be back. He took them at their word.
"I was just trying to stay sharp in case the opportunity came upagain," Cromer said.
He did just that. Cromer was batting .303 with 10 homers forLouisville when Ochoa had to go to the hospital Wednesday evening tohave his appendix removed, sidelining him for two or three weeks.
Cromer, 29, had never made it to the Majors before last April.Having success in his first call-up made it easier for him to goback down.
"You know you've finally made it here," he said. "I took theapproach to keep working hard. I had success here, but it was for ashort period of time."
That success was one of the reasons the Reds decided to bring himback up, even though he has limited experience in the outfield thelast two years.
"He gives us a little sock off the bench, which is what we needright now," McKeon said.
Cromer pinch hit and flew out in the sixth inning of a 9-7 lossto Montreal on Thursday night.
Star outfielder Matt Holliday appears headed to the Oakland Athletics in a surprising move for a franchise known more for shedding stars than adding them. Two people familiar with the proposed deal said Monday the A's and the Colorado Rockies have reached a tentative agreement. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not been finalized and details were still in the works.
It was unclear whom Colorado would get for the two-time All-Star. One of the people said reliever Huston Street, lefty starter Greg Smith and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez were among the players who had been discussed in recent days.
Holliday, MVP of the 2007 NL championship series, is due to make $13.5 million next season and then will be eligible to become a free agent.
He was scheduled to have a physical Tuesday, one of the people said. The big-hitting left fielder unexpectedly dropped in on the general managers' meetings last week in Dana Point, Calif.
The tentative trade was earlier reported by SI.com and ESPN.com.
"Talks are continuing. They're very fluid and at this point, everything's speculation," Rockies spokesman Jay Alves said, speaking on behalf of general manager Dan O'Dowd.
Oakland owner Lew Wolff, attending a regional luncheon of Associated Press Sports Editors, wouldn't confirm or deny a trade but said he had already spoken with general manager Billy Beane three times on Monday.
"Billy's doing different things right now," Wolff said.
The A's are known for making big trades, cutting payroll during a rebuilding process that Beane is committed to at all levels in the organization. Gonzalez and Smith were among the six players Oakland acquired last winter when it traded ace and All-Star Dan Haren to Arizona.
Back in January 2001, the A's acquired Johnny Damon from the Kansas City Royals in a three-team, nine-player deal _ and this might be the club's closest thing since then to the magnitude of that blockbuster move.
Oakland has watched Damon, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada and the Big Three pitchers of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito depart for big money elsewhere. Yet there is thought Giambi, now a free agent, could be back in Oakland this offseason.
The 28-year-old Holliday, playing half his games at Coors Field, has 128 homers and 483 RBIs in five big league seasons. His best year was 2007, when he won the NL batting title with a .340 average and had 36 homers and a league-best 137 RBIs in helping the Rockies reach the World Series. He was runner-up to Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins for NL MVP.
Oakland was last in the majors leagues with a .242 batting average this season and last in the AL with 646 runs.
"If we can bring a little bit of hitting talent to our current team I think the pitchers won't get as frustrated as they were late in the season," Wolff told the gathering of sports editors. "You're always rebuilding and regenerating. It's fun. We want to win. I want to win. We're going to try to be there again if we can."
The A's used eight starters in left field and finished 75-86, their worst record since 1998. Oakland advanced to the AL championship series in 2006 before being swept by the Detroit Tigers.
Street, a 25-year-old right-hander, lost his job as Oakland's closer during season and finished 7-5 with a 3.73 ERA and 18 saves in 25 chances. He joins a bullpen that includes Manny Corpas and saw closer Brian Fuentes become a free agent. Street can become free agent after the 2010 season. A message left for Street was not immediately returned.
Smith, 24, went 7-16 with a 4.16 ERA in 32 starts during his first major league season. Gonzalez, 23, was also in his first big league season and hit .242 with four homers and 26 RBIs in 302 at-bats.
___
AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York and AP Sports Writer Arnie Stapleton in Denver contributed to this report.
MONZA, Italy (AP) — Defending champion Jenson Button says the return of team orders could see him exit Formula One prematurely.
Button was quoted by British media at the Italian Grand Prix as saying he could quit the sport over a decision by the ruling International Automobile Federation to reinstate the banned regulation.
The British driver says: "I wouldn't quit straight away but it would definitely shorten my career."
Button trails McLaren teammate and overall F1 leader Lewis Hamilton by 35 points with six races left.
CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL engineer Kristi Anseth has, at the tender age of 35, already built a distinguished career in the burgeoning interdisciplinary area of biomaterials, which uses chemistry, biology, and engineering to devise replaceable body parts. The University of Colorado-Boulder professor is a leader in the development of new materials to build scaffolds, or templates, on which cells can grow to replace diseased or damaged parts, like knees, hips, and even some structures of the human heart. Now Anseth has won the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, a $500,000, three-year grant given annually to outstanding young researchers under the age of 36.
Notes Anseth: "A scaffold is really just recreated tissues, and if you think of it like a building, this is a framework from which other structures can be formed/The materials are gel-like liquids, injected into the body. Lasers shape and harden the materials into flexible scaffolds. As the cells interact with the templates and grow into new tissue, the scaffolding biodegradess. It's hoped that injectable scaffold materials will someday provide replacement body parts without the trauma of major surgery.
The NSF considers Anseth's teaching talents award-winning, too. Students she's mentored have won eight NSF Graduate Research fellowships and many other awards, as well.
B.J. Raji and Ron Brace gave three NFL talent evaluators a close look at what Boston College opponents had to handle: two of the best defensive tackles in college football.
In the bubble that covers the school's football field during the winter, they were the top players among about 40 from New England schools working out for scouts and assistant coaches for pro teams on Thursday.
"It's going to be great on April 25 to see both of us go" early in the draft, Raji said.
He is considered the top defensive tackle in the draft and could go as high as No. 4 to Seattle, which had the third-worst defense in the NFL last season. He almost certainly will be taken in the top half of the first round.
Brace figures to be chosen in the second round, giving a school known for turning out offensive linemen another strong position in the draft.
"That shows the prestige of our school, our linemen," Brace said.
Both attended the NFL combine in Indianapolis last month. Their workout Thursday was just a small part of their evaluations and lasted about 25 minutes, with the players running, displaying their footwork and rushing at a tackling pad held by Cleveland Browns defensive line coach Bryan Cox, a former NFL linebacker.
The others who watched the linemen work out were New York Jets defensive line coach Kerry Locklin and Detroit Lions assistant defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.
The Lions have the first pick in the draft and aren't expected to take Raji. Cleveland, which drafts fifth, is a more likely landing spot. New York has the 17th pick in the first round and Detroit also has the 20th.
"I was a Giants fan growing up," said Raji, who grew up in New Jersey, "but if the Jets draft me, I'm a Jets fan."
He figures at least 85 percent of the evaluation was done before Thursday's session.
"The (game) film speaks for itself," he said, "so today is not going to change (the evaluation) drastically. But it's just another form of competition that I wanted to do my best at."
Raji missed the 2007 season for academic reasons, but returned to make eight sacks and 42 tackles last season, when the Eagles went 9-5 and lost the Atlantic Coast Conference title game to Virginia Tech.
Now he's headed for the pros.
"This is something you dream of," he said. "You hope you get a shot to play in the NFL when you've been playing football for so long. And when you hear the first round, you're ecstatic. To hear the top 10, that's remarkable."
While sitting out 2007, Raji played on BC's scout team. Sometimes he went up against offensive tackle Gosder Cherulis, who was drafted last April by Detroit with the 17th overall pick.
"B.J. might be the best overall pick right now in this draft," said Cherulis, who watched the workouts. "You can draft him right now and he'll be ready for you because he's quick and smart. Ron, we didn't know what to think of him when he first got here, but he really put himself in this position."
Raji has a workout scheduled with Denver on March 20. Brace is scheduled to work out for Tampa Bay on April 2 and New Orleans on April 6. But he doesn't know which teams have the greatest interest in him.
"You never can really tell. People can send a scout who won't talk to you or could just talk to you at the Senior Bowl and got all the information there or (at) the combine," Brace said. "They could be interested in 30, 60 other players."
Still, Thursday's workout gave Raji and Brace a chance to increase the interest of three teams.
"I try not to think about it as an audition," Brace said. "I try to be more relaxed when it comes to it. I just realize it's just a game, and if you overthink it, you're going to do your worst."
'Happyness' inspires with rags-to-riches tale
*** In 2003, the ABC newsmagazine "20/20" aired a story about honorably discharged Navy veteran Chris Gardner, who had fallen on such hard times that he ended up homeless and struggling to survive on the streets of San Francisco.
In the heartbreaking segment, Gardner recounted how, after being abandoned by his wife, evicted from his apartment, having his account frozen by the IRS and having his car repossessed, he and his 5-year-old son soon bottomed out with no hope in sight. The two ate in soup kitchens, slept in church shelters and subway stations and bathed in public bathrooms until the frustrated father finally figured a way to extract them from their dire circumstances.
Gardner pulled himself up by his bootstraps, starting out as an intern at a leading stock brokerage firm. He later parlayed that position into an entrepreneurial venture, founding Christopher Gardner International Holdings, the multimillion-dollar financial services empire that still bears his name today. After watching the aforementioned "20/20" segment, actor Mark Clayman approached Gardner about gaining the rights to turn his rags-to-riches tale into a major motion picture.
The resulting film is a crowd-pleasing production called "The Pursuit of Happyness," one of those uplifting, overcoming-all-odds "miracle" movies that seem to be released every year around Christmas time. This inspirational biopic features Will and Jaden Smith as Chris and Chris Jr., respectively.
Naturally, the real-life father and son duo has no trouble generating screen chemistry, as they are already rather relaxed with each other - and as it turns out, Jaden is just as likable and as charismatic as his famous father.
Thandie Newton co-stars as Chris's fed-up ex, Linda, and the cast also includes Dan Castellaneta (best known as the voice of Homer Simpson) as Alan Frakesh, the Dean Witter executive who gives Chris his shot at redemption, as well as Rev. Cecil Williams and Gardner himself, in cameo appearances. But with respect to their castmates, the Smith men carry the film, their characters' plight contrasting sharply with the array of spectacular Bay Area locales employed as backdrops.
The movie takes its title, complete with misspelling, from the name of the Chinatown daycare center where Chris drops off his little boy each weekday until what little money he has left runs out. At the point of departure, we find Chris putting in long hours as a door-to-door salesman of an obsolete bone density machine that holds little interest for doctors. Meanwhile, his equally exhausted spouse is holding down a trio of part-time minimum wage positions, yet the couple still can't seem to make ends meet.
In short order, Chris is beset by more tests than Job in the Bible, losing everything near and dear to him except his son. Yet despite being down, he is never embittered by his predicament, even maintaining his sense of humor and quick wit during his Dean Witter interview when Frakesh asks how he should explain hiring a man not wearing a shirt to superiors - "He must have had on some really nice pants," Chris responds without missing a beat, exhibiting a charm reminiscent of the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air."
Expect to laugh as much as you cry during this touching tearjerker.
Interpol must side with either Iran or Argentina in deciding Wednesday whether to put five Iranians and a Lebanese man on the police agency's most-wanted list.
The politically charged vote being held during Interpol's general assembly meeting in Marrakech will decide whether to issue "red notices" for six men, including former Iranian officials, allegedly linked to Argentina's worst terror attack _ the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
Iran _ which also faces international pressure over its nuclear program and U.S. accusations of sending weapons into Iraq and Afghanistan _ has accused Israel and the United States of using the vote to for political ends. Tehran said the U.S. and Israel were essentially looking to discredit Iranian officials.
Strictly speaking, geopolitical questions do not concern Interpol, the 186-nation police liaison organization based in Lyon, France. Its main mission is to unite countries in the fight against crime on issues such as drug trafficking, smuggling of people and goods and fighting Mafia-style organizations and terror groups.
Argentine prosecutors have alleged that Iranian officials orchestrated the bombing and entrusted the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry it out.
Former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahian, former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei and Hezbollah militant Imad Moughnieh are among the six suspects.
Moughnieh, whose whereabouts are unknown, is wanted for his alleged role in the kidnapping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s, and suicide attacks on the U.S. Embassy and a Marine base in Lebanon that killed more than 260 Americans.
An Interpol decision to issue red notices would put the suspects on the agency's equivalent of a most-wanted list, but would not force countries to arrest or extradite them.
In March, Interpol's executive committee backed Argentina's request to put out red notices for the six. Iran objected, which sent the issue to a general assembly vote.
In Marrakech, Iranian delegates lobbied counterparts, mainly from African and Asian countries, by handing out dossiers written in several languages and explaining their case.
Among their arguments: Argentina's investigation was flawed, if not corrupt; some witnesses cited in that investigation were themselves wanted by Interpol; Iran quickly condemned the bombings; a bilateral resolution would be better.
Mohammad Ali Pakshir, a legal adviser in Iran's delegation, claimed that the United States and Israel "want Interpol to issue the red notices to be able to tell the world 'Look, they are terrorists.'"
Delegates from the United States, Argentina and Israel declined comment before the vote, with some saying they did not want to be drawn into Iran's accusations about politicizing the issue.
But a Republican aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said the U.S. was "very hopeful" the vote would go against Iran.
"The Iranians are lobbying very aggressively against this because it makes a real positive statement that they are involved in terror," he said.
No one has been convicted in Argentina in connection with the blast, in which a van stuffed with explosives leveled the seven-story Jewish center and shook Argentina's 200,000-strong Jewish community.
___
Associated Press Writer William C. Mann in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Waterloo, Ont.
An historic agreement on graduate theological studies between Conrad Grebel University College, St. Jerome's University and the University of Waterloo was signed late last year.
Since 1987, Conrad Grebel University College has been granting a masters degree in theological studies, and part of the reason for adding "university" to Grebel's name was to reflect this graduate program. The agreement with Waterloo will mean that degrees will now be conferred conjointly by Grebel and the public university. It will also offer Grebel graduate students additional support from Waterloo's graduate student program for things like health insurance and allow students to qualify for Ontario Graduate Scholarships.
Under the agreement, Conrad Grebel retains control over admissions, curriculum and faculty hiring. This development will also assist in the process of attaining accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) that monitors standards of excellence in theological education.
This new relationship with Waterloo will involve program approval and regular program review by the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies. This will strengthen the relationship with Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and the Toronto School of Theology, making it easier for students to transfer credit between these schools. This agreement will also serve to enhance what is a unique program in church leadership development in Canada and the United States.
"Our commitment to our students and to serving the church and its leadership needs will be enhanced through this new partnership with the university," suggests Tom Yoder Neufeld, who teaches biblical studies in the Grebel program.
A major component of Waterloo's "Sixth Decade Plan," announced last September, is the expansion of its graduate program from 2,600 to 8,000 students. This focus on graduate education reflects the increased funding available from the provincial government in response to recent undergraduate growth. The funding provided through this new agreement with Waterloo is based on enrolment and could net $150,000 in annual revenue for Grebel's master of theological studies program.
This program has grown significantly in recent years and now has more than 50 students enrolled. Many of them are preparing for leadership in the church, some are pastors who are continuing their education, and others are preparing for further graduate studies. Of the 53 graduates from this program to date, about one-quarter have gone on to complete doctoral studies in Bible and theology, nearly half are in the pastorate, and the rest are in a variety of professions.
-Conrad Grebel release by Jennifer Konkle
Sebastien Grosjean has retired at his home French Open, ending an injury-plagued career that peaked in the world rankings at No. 4.
The 31-year-old Grosjean, who advanced to the semifinals at the French Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open, was scheduled to play in doubles at the French this week but his partner Richard Gasquet withdrew from the tournament.
Grosjean, who reached his highest ATP ranking in 2002, said on Thursday his "body doesn't allow me to play tennis anymore" after dropping to 549th.
Grosjean won four tournaments, including one Masters Series in Paris, and helped France to win the Davis Cup in 2001.
WASHINGTON - Government forecasters called for a busier than normal hurricane season Tuesday.
National Weather Service forecasters said they expect 13 to 17 tropical storms, with seven to 10 of them becoming hurricanes.
The forecast follows that of two other leading storm experts in anticipating a busy season.
The likelihood of above normal hurricane activity is 75 percent, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
"With expectations for an active season, it is critically important that people who live in East and Gulf coastal areas as well as the Caribbean be prepared," said Bill Proenza director of the national hurricane center in Miami.
After the battering by storms Katrina and Rita in 2005 there were widespread fears last summer of another powerful storm striking, but the unexpected development of the El Nino climate phenomenon helped dampen conditions.
The El Nino has ended, however, leaving the potential for more tropical storms threatening the Gulf and East coasts.
El Nino is a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that occurs every few years. The warm water affects wind patterns that guide weather movement and its effects can be seen worldwide. In El Nino years, there tend to be fewer summer hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.
Earlier this month Philip Klotzbach, a research associate at Colorado State University, and Joe Bastardi, the chief hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather Inc., said they anticipate a more active storm cycle this year.
And, almost as if to underscore their comments, a subtropical storm formed off the southeast coast and became Andrea, the first named storm of the year, well before the June 1 official beginning of hurricane season.
Hurricane season ends Nov. 30, but the strange season of 2005 ran over into late December, as well as using up all the planned alphabetical names, forcing storm watchers to switch to the Greek alphabet to continue naming storms.
Last year, there were just 10 tropical storms in the Atlantic, and none made landfall in the United States.
Klotzbach and his colleague at Colorado State, William Gray, predict a "very active" season this year with 17 named storms, including nine hurricanes.
Bastardi called for fewer storms but agreed 2007 would be more active than usual. He expects 13 or 14 named storms, six or seven of which will strike the U.S. coast.
Bastardi said the Texas Gulf coast is twice as likely to be hit as in an average year and Florida appears four times as likely.
Katrina easily became the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with damage estimated by the National Hurricane Center at more than $80 billion. Indeed, of the 30 costliest hurricanes in this country's history, four occurred in 2005.
Katrina displaced 1992's Andrew, at just over $48 billion, as the top storm, while other 2005 storms ranked are Wilma, No. 3, at $21 billion; Rita in 9th place with damage of nearly $12 billion and, ranked 30th, Dennis at $2 billion.
And with a death toll topping 1,500 Katrina is also the third deadliest in U.S. history, following the 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston killing 8,000 to 12,000 people and a 1928 storm that claimed at least 2,500 lives in Florida.
---
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.noaa.gov
Colorado State: http://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/
AccuWeather: http://home.accuweather.com/
A state pollution agency on Thursday ruled that noise levels fromthe World Music Theater in Tinley Park have caused "unreasonableinterference" with the daily lives of neighbors and ordered that thenoise be monitored this summer.
The Illinois Pollution Control Board ordered that the theaterretain a consultant to evaluate sound levels in Matteson and CountryClub Hills, and that recommendations be made by Aug. 2, said MargaretDolan Fliss, staff attorney with the board.
The decision, based on testimony of more than 20 residents inDecember, does not order a fine or immediate changes, Fliss said.
However, the theater has made landscape changes, includingaltering earthen berms, that may already have alleviated the problem,she said.
The theater considers the noise problems solved.
"Our reaction is, it's business as usual," said Jerry Mickelson,a partner in the World. "Last year we monitored almost every showand we're going to monitor every show this year."
He said that by mid-summer the problem was "under control" andcomplaints were tapering off after the changes, includingrepositioning of speakers.
"The crickets were louder than our concerts," said Mickelson."We're good neighbors; we try to respect everybody. (Yet) there werecomplaints on nights we didn't have concerts."
About the order to hire a consultant, he said: "We were doing itanyway."
The consultant is to detail the level of noise, and, if it'sfound to be excessive, outline possible remedies and costs, Flisssaid.
BY UPGRADING AN OUTDATED NETWORK AND INSTALLING A VOIP TELEPHONY SYSTEM, SAMARITAN REGIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM IS SAVING MONEY AND REDUCING FRUSTRATION. By Mike Miller
JOB SITE SUMMARY
Samaritan Regional Health System is a community-based health care system that has been serving residents in Ashland, Ohio, and surrounding counties for nearly 100 years. The system depends on technology to support health care professionals in their efforts to diagnose, treat and heal their patients.
Until recently, Samaritan's network infrastructure was hindering that work. To resolve this critical problem, the health system deployed a backbone upgrade to facilitate secure wired and wireless access, along with a new VOIP telephony system. Network Administrator Mike Miller describes the deployment and its results.
IN IT, WE HEAR THE TERM "BUSINESS CRITICAL" often, but in the IT department of a hospital, those words take on a new meaning. In our industry, infrastructure failure can truly be a life-or-death situation. Technology is crucial for handling privacy issues surrounding patient data, as well as cost-containment efforts to rein in operational expenses while keeping the quality of patient care high.
The administrators, doctors and nurses at Samaritan and at our affiliated physician practice offices have long wanted to leverage the best, most forward-thinking technology to help them diagnose, treat and heal their patients. Until recently, our IT network was hampering that progress.
Our legacy backbone equipment was not up to the job of basic connectivity, let alone the newer technologies our staff wanted to implement. Our network infrastructure was best described as the Wild West, and it was becoming more difficult to predict where the next network failure would occur.
Inconsistent and unreliable, the network of end-of-life switches offered limited visibility into access policies. With more than 750 employees across seven locations constantly touching the network, we had little insight regarding who was logging in and out, and what they were using for resources.
Our staff spent most of their time responding to trouble tickets and trying to resolve the same old issues. The flat, static nature of our infrastructure made it impossible to direct or prioritize network resources to support more critical applications or devices. We quickly realized that we lacked the resources needed to become a proactive, strategic IT organization.
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
We started reviewing our IT goals and mapping them back to the hospital's patient care objectives. We asked ourselves:
* What are the most critical applications and services our staff uses daily, and how can we prioritize them?
* Will we have to do a complete rip-out and forklift upgrade, or can we salvage any of our existing infrastructure?
* If we can preserve any existing infrastructure, will it be compatible with whatever we deploy next?
* How can we oversee a network upgrade, learn about our new network technology and then manage a new network each day without adding more IT operations staff?
* How can we use technology to foster true collaboration between physicians, nurses, administrators and patients?
* Is there a security solution that will automate access policies based on user ID, so we can finally get a handle on network compliance?
We wanted to offer our staff quick, easy access to other caregivers and employees in the hospital network to support collaboration and information sharing. We planned to do that by consolidating the telephony system the hospital and its satellite practice offices used.
We also wanted to streamline data across departments and locations, without compromising the data's integrity and safety. Too often, one department updated a patient's record, but a lag in infrastructure stopped that information from getting to other staff members who needed it. Further, we needed to build a network that would allow us to use state-of-the-art, wire-free patient-monitoring devices. Also, we wanted a secure connection so patients and visitors could access the Internet safely.
SOLUTION WISH LIST
After looking over our network needs, we created a list of criteria for each one. A robust, unified backbone that would give us the ability to build out compatible VOIP and wireless devices on our own timetable was a must. We also required a simple, centralized management system.
In addition, we needed a solution with builtin security that would allow us to create and maintain access policies that complied with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). All this had to come at a price we could justify to the hospital's administration.
After evaluating leading infrastructure and security vendors, we went with Siemens Enterprise Communications and its network and security infrastructure division, Enterasys. We felt they had the standards-based architecture, interoperability, security, reliability and cost-performance ratio to deliver what we needed. The bonus: All the company's networking components are certified to be compatible with Dr�ger wireless patient monitors, including their heart monitors, which will be the first wire-free patient devices to be integrated into the new infrastructure.
THE DEPLOYMENT: STEP BY STEP
The deployment was relatively painless because Siemens' engineering and support team led us step by step through each phase of the deployment and empowered us to take ownership of the network once the install was finished.
The switches we chose to serve as the backbone of the network provide scalable, wire-rate support for environments like ours, which require complete multilayer switching capabilities. Support for high-density 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and dynamic routing capabilities was essential. With so many medical devices touching our network, we needed the ability to push GbE to the ports that needed them.
We also saw great value in the flow-based policy built into the switches. For the first time, our network has complete visibility. The IT staff has total control of individual users and can set up role-based access to all the voice/video/data applications.
The next step involved wireless and telephony. The wireless component was a crucial ingredient because it would drive both the wireless patient zone and the hospital's Internet connection for visitors. We chose HiPath Wireless controllers and access points for remote connectivity.
With wireless, caregivers can securely check on a patient's progress, regulate medication or add patient notes anywhere, anytime. The wireless software, controllers and access points gave us a cost-effective way to deploy 802.11a/b/g across the hospital, delivering wired/wireless integration, while supporting mobile voice, data and location-based applications.
For the telephony portion of the upgrade, we chose the HiPath 4000 VOIP solution. It united the previously fragmented phone system and has already reduced the cost of interdepartmental phone calls between the hospital's facilities.
To manage the data, wireless and telephony infrastructure, we use NMS Policy Manager. This software allows my staff to automatically centralize all role-based access policies for users, applications, protocols, virtual LANs, ports and data flows.
A final piece of our network puzzle is the Plixer Scrutinizer. So far, this tool has worked seamlessly with our Siemens hardware and software. Scrutinizer conducts sFlow and NetFlow traffic analysis to tell us which users are demanding the most bandwidth and to help us remove any latency to improve VOIP voice quality. We can also receive trending reports and set up alarms on any high-risk activity, such as internal network SYN, NULL, FIN, XMAS Scans, RST/ACK worms, P2P, ICMP Unreachable, illegal IP addresses, excessive Multicast traffic or known compromised Internet hosts.
REDUCED FRUSTRATION, HIGHER ROI
Since implementing the Siemens Enterprise Communications solution, we have seen a significant increase in network efficiency, coupled with a decrease in help desk tickets throughout the hospital. While the troubleshooting versus proactive-planning ratio was once about 80 percent to 20 percent, we have completely flipped that ratio.
Instead of spending most of the day answering phone calls and responding to issues, we can plan for future processes, technologies and applications. As a result, our hospital user-satisfaction rate increased in the last year.
It wasn't until the VOIP solution was up and running that we realized the sheer number of interdepartmental phone calls that occur each day-and the thousands of dollars per month the hospital is now saving with our new system. In addition to the modern VOIP features, the staff likes being able to call anyone within the hospital network by just pushing a button, instead of having to memorize a list of phone numbers. For the VOIP telephony segment of the deployment, we expect a full ROI in less than five years, which pleases the hospital's administration.
And because of NMS and Plixer's Scrutinizer, we now have unprecedented visibility into the network, which has enabled us to create and enforce compliance policies that are crucial in the health care industry. We've also seen a decrease in the costs associated with the hospital's energy consumption, tech support and maintenance. Another bonus: Enterasys switches come with a lifetime warranty, so we don't have to allocate funds to replace failed switches.
It's been fairly easy to implement, configure and manage the network. Today, my staff of two administrators can focus on helping our caregivers in the hospital instead of troubleshooting the network. We no longer hear the phrase, "That's a network issue."
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[Author Affiliation]
Mike Miller, network administrator, Samaritan Hospital
Mike Miller, network administrator for Samaritan Hospital, has 13 years of IT experience and manages the network infrastructure.
Mick Jagger has nothing on Conant's Allison Buckley.
After winning every top medal possible last year, Buckley stillhas no satisfaction. So the senior gymnast looked at her routinesthis past summer and changed all of them.
"That is the type of competitor she is," said Conant coachMichelle Strachn, who has coached Buckley for three years. "She hasupped everything. She has a new floor routine, changed her bars,added a new leaf series on the beam and has a new vault."
It wasn't that Buckley was tired of her routines. It is just thatshe wanted to make them even stronger and get ready to compete incollege.
"I really want to throw more skills," said Buckley, who willattend Illinois next year and study kinesiology. "I just want tokeep getting better, not just for my team. Gymnastics is a teamsport and when the team does well, so do I."
Buckley struggled at the state meet her first two years, and sodid the Cougars. She tried to rein in her diabetes, at times takingshots of insulin at the state finals. With all of that, she didmanage a first-place finish on the bars her sophomore year.
Last year everything came together for her. First she won the all-around with a 38.975. Then she won all four individual titles andher team captured the state title, giving her a state-record sixgold medals at one meet.
"I really think it was her getting a handle on the diabetes thatmade the difference," Strachn said. "She knows more about it now.She was just as good her freshman and sophomore year. It was greatthat everyone could see how good she really is. That is the girl wesee all the time."
Buckley would like to reach the 39.0 mark at the state meet thisyear. Only two other gymnasts have reached that -- Fremd's MaryAnneKelley and Stevenson's Lindsay Borkan.
"It really would be excellent to reach that," said Buckely, whohas topped the 39.0 mark twice in her career, but only in regular-season meets that do not count toward state records.
"To be able to be a part of that would be something special. Ihad the year of my life last year. I have nothing to prove to anyonebut myself. That's what drives me."
TOP GIRLS GYMNASTICS TEAMS
1. Conant: The Cougars look stronger than last year with ahealthy Brittany Lindemann.
2. Fremd: With Mary Burke and Holly Reichard, the Vikings couldchallenge.
3. Palatine: The Ference sisters (Ginia and Elissa) along withJessie Watanabe and Rachel Corcoran could give Pirates a shot.
4. Warren: Lindsey Jindra and Kacie Holop lead the Blue Devils.
5. Stevenson: The Patriots could challenge with sophomores ShanaManning, Chelsie Seplowin and Stephanie Wojton.
6. Naperville Central: The Redhawks will look to build behind all-arounder Ashley O'Brien and Christine Tardi.
7. Carmel: MaryAnn Oehlerking and Nikole Viltz have the Corsairsthinking about state again.
8. Lincoln-Way Co-op: Joann Waclawek and Loren Costello could getthe Knights back to state.
9. Sandburg: The Eagles could fly high again behind KrystynMischeck and Gia Sangosti.
10. Neuqua Valley: Bailey Prosser and Alyssa Makropolous lead theWildcats.
Top 25 all-arounders
Allison Buckley, Conant, sr; Mary Burke, Fremd, jr.; HollyReichard, Fremd, sr.; Ginia Ference, Palatine, sr.; Kacie Holop,Warren, jr.; Brittany Lindemann, Conant, sr.; Krystyn Mischeck,Sandburg, so.; Nikole Viltz, Carmel, sr.; Dana Magyarics, Riverside-Brookfield, sr.; Ashley Felicelli, Geneva, sr.; Ashley O'Brien,Naperville Central, sr.; Rachel Corcoran, Palatine, jr.; SaraRomano, St. Viator, sr.; Shana Manning, Stevenson, so.; LindseyJindra, Warren, sr.; Joann Waclawek, Lincoln-Way, so.; BaileyProsser, Neuqua Valley, jr.; Jessie Watanabe, Palatine, sr.; MaryAnnOehlerking, Carmel, jr.; Elissa Ference, Palatine, sr.; ChelsieSeplowin, Stevenson, so.; Alyssa Makropolous, Neuqua Valley, so.;Stephanie Wojton, Stevenson, so.; Kelsey Persels, Barrington, jr.;Rebecca McLaughlin, Hinsdale South, sr.
A rock slide wrecked a six-story apartment building in a Norwegian coastal city early Wednesday and rescuers feared five missing people have been killed. Fifteen people were taken to a hospital, police said.
The search for survivors was hampered by two later rock slides that hit the crumpled structure, partly built into a steep hillside in Aalesund, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) northwest of Oslo.
A propane tank caught fire and was at risk of exploding, prompting authorities to evacuate about 40 homes and apartments in the area.
The bottom floors of the apartments caved in just after 3:30 a.m (0230GMT) when the first slide slammed into the back wall.
"We first thought it was an earthquake," said Lars Aage Eldoey, who managed to escape with his wife from the top floor. When he got out on the balcony he realized what had happened.
"There were enormous rocks _ not just rocks _ half the hill had slid down into the bottom floors," he told state broadcaster NRK.
Smoke billowed from the twisted bottom floors of the collapsed building, with sagging balconies and a contorted glass entryway.
Rescuers said five people who lived in the apartments were unaccounted for and possibly buried by the debris inside.
"We fear that the missing people are dead," police rescue leader Kjell Kvenseth told the TV-2 network at the scene.
Fifteen people were taken to a hospital, two of them with moderate injuries, Aalesund police operations leader Magne Tjoennoey said.
Tjoennoey said rescuers had not been able to enter the building, which was finished in 2003, to search for the five missing people.
"We have to wait for the propane tank to burn out. That will take time. It's big, with about 4 cubic meters (140 cubic feet) of gas," said Tjoennoey.
Tjoennoey said police had not been able to confirm whether the five people reported missing were in the building, or had not been home at the time of the collapse.
"We have not been able to find out where they are," he said. "As time goes by, we increasingly fear that they are in the building."
A helicopter, rescuers and search dogs from around the region were called to the scene, including the Norwegian unit of the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group, he said.
"The bottom floors are collapsed. There is a big risk in going inside, and there is also the risk of fire," Tjoennoey said. He also said geologists at the scene saw the risk of further rock slides as small.
Once upon a time,General Motors sold three out of every five cars and trucks in North America. Now, it's less than half that. For GM, passing the competition now is its job 1. So, instead of clay, metal and wires, it now builds new cars out of math. Whether GM's effort to digitize everything it does will add up to gains in the marketplace remains to be seen.
In a brick-lined courtyard on the campus of General Motors' technical center in Warren, Mich., a team of engineers is taking a look at a newly designed truck. This is no ordinary pickup. It has the rounded fenders and arched hood of a '50s Chevy roadster, and a roof that folds into the back of the cabin. It's a convertible - the Chevrolet SSR, due in dealer showrooms this December.
This is also no ordinary setting to review a prototype. The truck rotates slowly on a turntable. Its shiny, cherry-red finish reflects the summer sunlight and the trees that border the courtyard.
When the lead designer doesn't like what he sees, he changes it. In an instant, the truck is repainted in magenta, and then black. The truck drives itself around the court- yard, so the lead engineer can see how it looks from different angles.
All this is possible because the truck and the courtyard don't really exist. This is GM's alternate universe - the GM Virtual Reality Center. When the lights come up and the engineers' 3-D eyeglasses come off, the truck - and the courtyard - fade away. The truck prototype, the paint changes, and the sunny summer day exist only on the disk drives of a Silicon Graphics supercomputer. The whole presentation has been projected on the glass walls of GM's version of a Star Trek "holodeck."
At GM, bits and bytes have replaced the clay and metal that once was used to build prototypes of new products. The SSR will be fully built in software before a single piece of sheet metal is cut.
A few years ago, reviewing a new pickup truck like the SSR would have required building multiple life-sized prototypes to get a feel for what they would look like. Changing the basic color would take three days and 100 man-hours of work. Now, using a remote control, anyone can change the color in a second.
The SSR isn't a one-hit digital wonder. To regain market share the company has lost steadily over the last 30 years, GM is trying to use technology to meet the challenge set by Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman for product development. His mandate: produce cars "that people gotta have - not ones they're willing to settle for."
To restore the thrill, GM has created a design process more akin to creating video games than automobiles. In fact, the software used by GM's designers to create this simulation - Silicon Graphics' Alias/Wavefront AutoStudio for three-dimensional surface modeling and product simulation - is cut from the same code as that used to create cars for games like Sony PlayStation's "Gran Turismo." (See Dossier on Silicon Graphics at www.baselinemag.com/sgi.)
But this isn't an arcade; it's serious business. GM is digitizing every aspect it can of the manufacture of a vehicle, from the design of the factory floor right down to assisting the implant of the last fastener.
Every aspect of the SSR's design and engineering was executed "in math" - with computer modeling and design software. The AutoStudio prototype of the SSR was turned into an electronic blueprint for building the car in EDS' Unigraphics design software, which guided the engineering of the vehicle. On-screen drawings were shared electronically with suppliers to ensure that their parts fit the design. Supercomputers used the mathematical models to do virtual crash testing.
The SSR comes the closest yet to a goal stated in 1998 by Jay Wetzel, then vice president in charge of GM's engineering operations, of designing, viewing and simulating the performance of a "virtual vehicle" without actually having to build a single physical prototype. Throughout the SSR's entire development process, only 60 prototypes were built - and the very first of them was a working concept car for the 1999 Detroit Auto Show. "It went straight from math to fabrication for the show," says Don Siefkes, virtual reality manager at GM's Warren facility.
GM is now moving toward the endgame for reaching Wetzel's goal: carrying out manufacturing in an all-digital system as well. That requires some serious computing power. Warren now is home to the 15th largest supercomputing center in the world. But the logic behind this effort isn't rocket science. By eliminating bottlenecks and errors as well as avoiding the "re-inputting" of data, Chief Technology Officer Tony Scott says GM hopes to cut years of time - and billions of dollars - from its product development cycle.
The effort to re-engineer GM's product development process began in 1995, with the launch of its global Synchronous Math-Based Process program, focused on integrating all of GM's engineering computer tools around the world with one core design and manufacturing system, EDS's Unigraphics. The efforts accelerated over the next two years as GM's new CIO, Ralph Szygenda, put together a team to consolidate the company's engineering efforts.
The point man for this effort is Kirk Gutmann, hired in 1997 by Szygenda as vice president of product development information systems.
By 1997, GM had already seen a 13% improvement in engineering productivity, and Wetzel said at the time that he expected to see another 30% improvement by 2000.
To achieve those goals, Gutmann and Wetzel proposed making GM's design process totally digital. That would mean consolidation and standardization of GM's engineering systems, and a major investment in high-speed networks and data center capacity.
The main component of the plan: a single global system for storing, tracking and managing every aspect of the information associated with each of GM's products, from concept sketch to engineering drawings of every component that goes into a finished vehicle.
Doing the Math
Digitization of design and manufacturing is no small challenge for GM and its integrator, EDS. The design of a single medium-duty truck can incorporate 86,000 data files, according to product development engineers Steve Powell and Rosemary Hamill.
But there's a big payoff in overcoming that obstacle - the digital route to vehicle design dramatically reduces the cost of developing each new vehicle, Gutmann says. In the mid-'90s, it took GM 48 months to move from "style freeze" to first product. By 1999, the digitization effort cut that to 18 months.
"The same engineering team that did one product can [now] do five in the same time," says David Cole, president of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The reduced cost also means GM can sell fewer cars and still make a profit on a product line. "It lets you drop the volume of products, so you're much better able to change directions if a product doesn't work out," says Gutmann. That means GM can design bolder vehicles like the SSR. "Risk aversion drives you toward mediocrity," Cole says.
Now this plan is being rolled out worldwide across GM's 14 engineering centers, and incorporated into the design process for GM brands such as Saab, Vauxhall and Opel in Europe, Holden in Australia, and localized versions of GM products built and sold in Asia and South America. The company's goal now is to become "the number-one benchmark company in engineering," says Gutmann.
Turning the Corner
In the 1950s, General Motors sold nearly 60% of all automobiles in North America. Now, after decades of attack from Asian and European rivals, stodgy designs and slow reactions to changing demands of customers, GM's share is down to 28%, little more than one in four vehicles sold.
But the company in 2001 reversed its market-share decline for the first time in decades. And it's beginning to lick its chops. "Every indicator we track - market share, profitability, quality, customer satisfaction, etc. - says we're headed in right direction for the first time in years," says CTO Scott.
Scott claims that GM is now number three in quality, behind Toyota and Honda, and ahead of DaimlerChrysler, Nissan and Volkswagen. With its "common-math model," as Scott terms it, the big automaker uses video and data technology to deliver desirable vehicles faster than rivals.
But there may not be a payoff. Japanese carmakers have succeeded without a big high-tech push. "When you look at Honda or Toyota, they don't have anywhere near the technical sophistication of GM," says Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Mich. "But they are masters at product development."
"Toyota and Honda don't have 50 people sign off on a design," Cole says.
As a result, Honda's development cycles now average around 14 months. At an auto industry conference this August, Honda President and CEO Hiroyuko Yoshino said the company now planned to reduce that to an average of 12 months.
"At GM, in the past, they could have a lot of stuff languish for years waiting for approval," says Cole. "And a lot of concepts, by the time they got to the approval process, were too expensive to do and wouldn't work."
Time Trials
To change that, GM now insists on a single way of doing design. Five years ago, every business unit within GM did things differently. There were four different design packages and more than 560 different engineering and simulation applications across the company. Engineering knowledge was scattered across 150 internal Web sites. Every business unit tracked its product data and project planning differently. Globally, only Opel's engineering center in Germany was linked in any way to engineering operations in the U.S.
Since 1997, GM has consolidated its engineering operations, reducing the number of servers by 80%. Four design systems have been replaced by one mandated standard for every GM engineer and first- tier supplier - EDS' Unigraphics. The 150 Web sites have collapsed to a single engineer- ing portal.
Every new GM vehicle now is managed like a software project, with its essential files - everything from the initial styling through crash-test simulations - tracked from the earliest requirements to final field modifications. This product "source code" is managed by Team Center Engineering Edition, a product-data-management applica- tion developed by EDS (with heavy input from GM). TeamCenter puts the components of every car that GM makes - and all of the tools that go into making them - into a 150-million terabyte storehouse of product information that all of GM's divisions and business partners can draw on with a click of a mouse.
The International Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE) recently partnered with Australian BodyShop News and with the Canadian publications, Bodyshop Magazine and L'Automobile Carrosserie et M�canique, as the Official NACE Show Magazines for their respective countries during NACE 2006 Nov. 1-4 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las …
Suspected Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants' grip across key mountain strongholds.
The assault highlighted the vulnerability of a vital supply route for the 65,000 U.S. and NATO forces battling a resurgent Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan. A significant amount of supplies for the Western forces go through Pakistan.
Separately, in the nearby city of Peshawar, gunmen blocked the car of an American aid worker on Wednesday and killed him and his Pakistani driver, police said.
Attacks on …
ABSTRACT
The mechanical load borne by a molecular motor affects its force, sliding distance, and its rate of energy transduction. The control of ATPase activity by the mechanical load on a muscle tunes its efficiency to the immediate task, increasing ATP hydrolysis as the power output increases at forces less than isometric (the Fenn effect) and suppressing ATP hydrolysis when the force is greater than isometric. In this work, we used a novel 'isometric' optical clamp to study the mechanics of myosin II molecules to detect the reaction steps that depend on the dynamic properties of the load. An actin filament suspended between two beads and held in separate optical traps is brought …
The recipient of the 1998 Astra Pharma Research Grant was Andre Charette, MCIC from the Universite de Montreal, Montreal, QC. This grant was provided for research in the area of 'Development and application of Novel Organometallic Reagents in Enantioselective Synthesis'.
…
Rededication
of a monument
The Flag Day ceremony at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Saratoga in cludes a rededication of a monument.
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Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari put his money where his rhetoric has been on Monday by surrendering five days' salary in support of state workers.
Canestrari, D-Cohoes, whose give back represents $725, said he took the voluntary cut because state workers' salaries have been lagged for one week as part of Gov. Mario M. Cuomo's plan to cut the state budget deficit.
Canestrari, whose base annual salary is $57,500, said he is giving back the amount he receives weekly after taxes and Social Security are …
India's prime minister has long been regarded as the consummate non-politician, a sober technocrat more comfortable with the arcane details of economic policy than the rough-and-tumble world of Indian politics.
But with his government facing a too-close-to-call confidence vote Tuesday over its landmark nuclear energy deal with the United States, Indians are about to find out just how savvy a politician Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can be.
In recent weeks, Singh and top officials of his Congress Party have reassured vacillating allies, wooed old enemies and brought wayward members back into line. When all else failed, they cut whatever deals they could: …
New Speaker in Ontario
Born in Toronto in August 1955, Gary Carr is a graduate of the business administration program at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. His career includes experience as a sales and marketing manager, a position he held within the transportation industry.
In addition, he played professional hockey in the farm system of the Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques for five years. He was a member of the 1975 Memorial Cup champions, Toronto Marlboros.
Mr. Carr was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in September, 1990, as the MPP for Oakville South. He was re-elected again in 1995, and for a third consecutive term in June, 1999, to …
WILTON, Conn. -- Beiersdorf Inc.'s Futuro division is working to change the way consumers think about health supports and support hose.
"We have flipped the category over and are looking at it a little differently," says director of marketing and Futuro brand leader Larry LaPorta.
"Consumer research has shown us that people want to live life on their own terms," he notes. "Whether they are 22, 52 or 82, they want to be vital and vibrant."
As a result, LaPorta says, Futuro has positioned its line of support products as one that can make a vital lifestyle possible for consumers rather than positioning the items as being for people who have physical …
EDUCATION Albany College of Pharmacy Ron Lesko of Albany was appointed coordinator of public relations and marketing for the Albany-based pharmacy school. For the past 3 years he worked at Sawchuk, Brown Associates in Albany. FINANCIAL Evergreen Bank N.A. Linda Cesare-Busold of Saratoga Springs was appointed vice president and commercial loan officer for the Glens Falls bank, which is part of Banknorth Group Inc. of Maine.
HEALTH CARE Glens Falls Hospital Paul Benveniste of Lake George was promoted to operations manager of behavioral health services at the hospital. Previously, he was director of the behavioral health outpatient center. Ron Zimmerman of …
Byline: Martin P. Kelly Staff writer
Proctor's Too will present four performance art events in its second season Friday, May 12, through Saturday, June 3.
The season opens with African dance troupe Urban Bushwomen, Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13; followed by Theatre Grottesco in "The Richest Dead Man Alive," Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20; David Cale in one- man show "Little Stories with Private Parts," Thursday-Saturday, May 25-27; and closes with Doug Varone and Dancers, Friday and Saturday June 2 and 3.
Theatre Grottesco is a Detroit- based, five-member group is derivative of the French physical comedy school.
Cale, whose …
U.S. businesses reduced inventories at the wholesale level for a record 12th consecutive month in August, although in an encouraging sign, sales jumped by the largest amount in 14 months.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that wholesale inventories fell 1.3 percent in August, worse than the 1 percent drop economists had expected. That followed a 1.6 percent drop in July initially reported as a 1.4 percent decrease.
But sales at the wholesale level rose a better-than-expected 1 percent, the fifth straight gain and the largest increase since June 2008.
Economists hope the rising sales will encourage businesses to begin restocking their depleted …
ABSTRACT
To assess if membrane diffusion could affect the kinetics of receptor recruitment at adhesive contacts, we transfected neurons with green fluorescent protein-tagged immunoglobin cell adhesion molecules of varying length (25-180 kD), and measured the lateral mobility of single quantum dots bound to those receptors at the cell surface. The diffusion coefficient varied within a physiological range (0.1-0.5 �m^sup 2^/5), and was inversely proportional to the size of the receptor. We then triggered adhesive contact formation by placing anti-green fluorescent protein-coated microspheres on growth cones using optical tweezers, and measured surface receptor recruitment around …
GBC Materials, a division of Morgan Advanced Ceramics (MAC), has expanded its manufacturing operations in Latrobe, Pa. GBC expanded its pressing department area by 100% to allow for new automated presses and computer equipment used for statistical process control. The pressing department is now humidity and temperature controlled, which will provide year-round pressing consistency, the company reports.
Firing capacity has also been increased with the addition of two new kilns, offering greater …
Byline: Associated Press
MARANA, Ariz. - Tiger Woods holed another crucial putt on the 17th hole Saturday, this one sending him into the 36-hole final of the Accenture Match Play Championship for the fourth time in nine tries.
Woods never trailed in a tight match with defending champion Henrik Stenson, who tied him with a 15-foot birdie on the 16th.
But the 17th hole has been somewhat of a charm for the world's No. 1 player, who might not be around if not for a 35-foot eagle putt he made in the first round or Aaron Baddeley's eagle putt that just missed to the right Friday.
After hitting a tough bunker shot to 12 feet, Woods holed the …
