MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) ? Authorities have turned to the public in hopes of identifying a family that sent a series of distress calls saying their boat was sinking far off the Central California coast.
"There is still no information on where the boat was coming from, where it was going or who the people on board are," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz.
The unidentified family of four ? including two children under 8 ? had been sailing a small vessel Sunday west of Monterey Bay. Forecasters had issued a weekend advisory warning boaters of rough seas in the area, and water temperatures typically are in the 40s and 50s, making long-term survival difficult.
The group made its first distress call late Sunday afternoon, Coast Guard Lt. Heather Lampert said. Investigators used the boat's radio signal and radar to determine the call came from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey.
The boaters reported that their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and the electronics were failing.
Crews planned to search by sea and air through the night Monday to find the family, who said in the calls that they were fashioning a raft from a cooler and a life-preserver ring before they lost contact with the Coast Guard.
"We will just saturate the search area with as many assets as we can, so we can hopefully rescue them," Lutz said.
The Coast Guard released one of the family's recorded distress calls (http://bit.ly/W90cyv ), in hopes that it would lead to new information from the public that could help in the search. So far the agency has received no reports of missing persons in the case.
The agency believes the boat's name was Charmblow. In the crackling recording, a man's voice is heard saying, "Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the (Charmblow), we are abandoning ship."
Investigators determined from the broken distress calls that the family included a husband and wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin, Lampert said.
The boat's location initially was reported farther north, but Lampert said investigators now believe the call came from west of Monterey Bay, about 100 miles south of San Francisco. The boat did not have a working GPS system.
Calls to harbors in California have failed to locate the boat, and database searches have come up empty, Lampert said. The Coast Guard was expanding its search to Hawaii, the Seattle area and north into Canada.
10 Dropbox Tricks to Help You Get the Most Out of Your Cloud
Dropbox is a robust independent file syncing tool (which Apple once tried to buy) that recently hit the 100m user milestone. It?s arguably the most popular cloud service around, and for good reason. One of the key advantages of Dropbox is that it?s so easy to use?you simply set it up and then forget about it ? but if you dig a bit deeper?...?[Read More]
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Shelly's Blog
Microsoft?s Surface Pro Review: A Windows 8 Ultra Tablet
Is Microsoft?s Surface Pro an Ultrabook or a Tablet? Matt Tweety Tverberg, one of Microsoft?s Biz Dev guys in NY, calls it an Ultra Tablet. When you play with one, you?ll see his point. The Surface Pro tablet is a personal interface for Windows 8 that changes your relationship with the Windows programs you use through touch. It is profoundly different than using Windows 8 on an Ultrabook, laptop or desktop computer.?[Read More]
Shelly Palmer Digital Leadership Podcast Episode #25 ? Joe Atkin, President & CEO of Goal Zero
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A relaxed and happy John Lackey after Saturday's spring debut. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)
FORT MYERS, Fla. ? John Lackey is a changed man.
After allowing one run on one hit, one strikeout, one walk and one hit batter in his spring debut Saturday, the 34-year-old right-hander admitted to being his age, laughed about his 20-pitch outing and expressed appreciation for feeling no pain in his elbow for the first time since signing with the Red Sox before the 2010 season.
?I?ve lied, for sure, about that,? Lackey said when asked if he hid arm pain from the Red Sox in the first three seasons with the team. ?There?s definitely some pain. There were a few times when I said there wasn?t but it?s been a few years, for sure.?
Despite loading the bases with none out on the first 10 pitches he threw, he was enjoying the experience all the while on the JetBlue mound.
?I did,? he said. ?I kind of took a second before I went out on the mound and reflected on the bench on the past year and a half. It?s been a lot of work and have to thank a lot of trainers, a lot of people that helped me get back to this point. I was excited to be back out there.
?[I was] excited. It was fun. I missed playing baseball for sure. It was good to be back out there. The arm felt fine. I didn?t feel any pain in the elbow. Just keep moving forward.?
Lackey allowed one run, one hit, one walk, struck out a batter and hit a batter in a 20-pitch first inning of work, his only inning of the day.
?Results stuff I really wasn?t real concerned about today,? he said. ?Just glad to be back out there and get things going in that direction. Next time out we?ll get to working on a few other things.?
What did his manager think?
?The ball got out of his hand as we expected today,? John Farrell said. ?It?s a big step, and it?s one over the last 16 months, he was on his program, and at times, he probably felt like he was the only one going through it. And today was the first step for his building block for spring training and getting back to being a regular member of this rotation.
?I think there was a lot of anticipation on a number of people?s part, and mostly John?s. But now, he?s able to get into his five-day rotation, normal sides, normal turns through the schedule. But a good first step for him.?
Farrell said the plan is to increase to two innings for his next outing, likely in five days against the Pirates in Bradenton, and increase by one inning in each subsequent start.
?That?s the plan,? Farrell said. ?He?ll build with each consecutive outing, an inning at a time.?
Lackey admitted he had some nerves taking the mound.
?There?s definitely some for sure,? Lackey said. ?It got better as I got a little bit more tired. The ball started coming down a little bit but first couple of hitters, I was up in the zone. I was just going to throw all fastballs today just trying to build arm strength. I think I tried one changeup, that?s it. The rest of them were all fastballs. It?s a little different than throwing on the side for sure.?
Lackey said he wasn?t worried about velocity in the first game of the spring, a game in which he threw no breaking balls.
?The first game after Tommy John? No. I was just trying to hit the glove in the air today. The plan was one inning all along. I look forward to the next time for sure,? Lackey said.
(JTA) -- Israeli intelligence services notified Australian officials of Ben Zygier?s arrest immediately after he was detained, an Australian news agency reported. ?
Australia?s Fairfax Media quoted a ?well-placed source familiar with the case? as saying Israeli intelligence had told Australian officials about the 2010 arrest of Zygier, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen dubbed Prisoner X who committed suicide later that year while in prison in Israel. Zygier is alleged to have worked with the Mossad.
Fairfax Media's former Middle East correspondent, Jason Koutsoukis, said he had been tipped off by an ''Australian intelligence source'' in October 2009 about concerns that Zygier may have been facilitating the use of Australian passports by Israeli spies.He then interviewed Zygier, who denied the allegation. A week after their last conversation, Zygier was imprisoned.
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A suddenly famous self-help guru reaches out to Rick DiPietro to boost his confidence during a tumultuous time.
Brian O'Reilly, the father of unsigned Avalanche center Ryan O'Reilly and a noted man of letters, sent Lighthouse Hockey an email today. It was a heartfelt response to the news that the Islanders had placed Rick DiPietro on waivers and the senior O'Reilly wanted to give his advice to Rick and extend his best wishes toward him.
He gave us permission* to reprint that response here. Brian is a life coach, running his own business called Human Potential Plus. It has been lightly touched up for a couple minor spelling and punctuation things. Also, paragraph breaks were added so that it could be read by a human. But it reads as follows:
"I hope this finds you in good spirits. This is not about money or injuries or more injuries and never has been. As you know you don't build team based on dollars. You build a team on its Character. Rick, you are not a superstar based on skill or facial hair but Character. I know this for a fact the player you were yesterday will not be the player you will be tomorrow when your Character will continue to grow learn and thrive in Bridgeport .The world values it less and less, yet everyone is looking for those players that eat sleep and drink the game plus compete because they are intrinsically motivated for excellence by their Character. You are one of these Character players, Rick, even though you probably got hurt trying to do all of those things at once.
My children were raised in an environment of sport where Athletics was held up as something you do to develop your sense of Personhood, Qualities of-collaboration,Team play and most important the development of your Character. Unfortunately, I hear your Character was raised in the Boston area.
How many goals you give up in the last few minutes of a game or how many games you missed due to injury is not how you measure yourself. What was important was giving your best day in day out and your Leadership and Character were shown on a daily bases by treating doctors, nurses, surgeons and training staff well every time you saw them for a new procedure.
If my son was getting 95 in math, then he got hurt dropping a text book on his foot then came back and pierced his buttock sitting on a compass then came back and got a protractor stuck in his ear, then got a 65 and the rest of the students in the classroom mercilessly teased him to we would say that student has a tremendous amount of Character!
So when I looked at the New York Islanders (a team I admit I am not familiar with) and your 15-year contract l see well-prepared team, Willing to negotiate by looking at the necessity of Character and wanting to build a Longterm commitment to that Character.
Sure, it could lead to the absolute worst case scenario in which a player, signed to a lifetime deal, becomes so ravaged by injuries that he can never come close to living up to expectations while at the same time being utterly unable to attain a fresh start by taking his Character to another team. Following the example of your Character, other teams have signed similar unwieldy deals . but only the player with the highest Character can embody the most dire and depressing nightmares of all fanbases . It requires true Character to take the bullet for the entire league . Every fan of every team ought be thanking you and celebrating your surgically-repaired Character!
As a high-performance coach and I have been studying Character for a lot of years. Character, compete level , dedication, the love of the game,is what are the building blocks for dynasties. Not health or skill or talent or financial stability or the ability to bolster prospects with free agents - Character!
Everyone's character has to decide the value of their own character and the character of others by how they treat your character's character. It's as simple as that!
The New York Islanders I believe have treated you fairly. You have thirteen wonderful years with them. Where we go from here will be a matter of Character. And busses. Because that's how AHL players travel around.
Yours in Character,
Brian O'Reilly
PS: Remember: CHARACTER!
PPS: Do you have Lindy Ruff's e-mail address?
We thank Brian for his letter and will pass it along to Rick if we can.
___
*Not really. This is a hastily-written parody of the Denver Post story. I'm sure Brian O'Reilly has no idea who we are and, despite being the inspiration for this parody, is a man of Character.
Poke fun at the injuries, the contract, the beard, the losses. But very few players in the last decade or so have been as dedicated to the New York Islanders as Rick DiPietro. It didn't work out the way anyone wanted it to. Rick's body may have betrayed him, but he never betrayed the team. I wish Rick nothing but success in the future, wherever it is, and I hope to God this is the last thing I need to write about him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., left, and Brad Keselowski walk through the garage area during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto racing practice Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Dale Earnhardt Jr., left, and Brad Keselowski walk through the garage area during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto racing practice Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Daytona 500 pole sitter Danica Patrick walks through the garage area during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto racing practice Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Juan Pablo Montoya, of Colombia, waits in his garage before going out on the track during the final practice for the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Danica Patrick looks out of the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Quiet most of Speedweeks, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a little noise Saturday.
Earnhardt topped the speed chart for the final practice session before Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500.
The 2004 Daytona 500 champion turned the fast lap by averaging 198.592 mph around the 2? -mile superspeedway. David Gilliland was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola.
Pole-sitter Danica Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Tony Stewart were among 10 drivers who skipped the 1? -hour final tuneup. Patrick is trying to become the first driver win the Daytona 500 from the pole since Dale Jarrett in 2000. Only nine drivers have accomplished the feat in 54 years.
Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon, 2010 Daytona 500 champ Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek also sat out the session. So did Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.
"We don't have any plans to go out," Gordon said. "We feel like this entire week we have been able to learn everything we need to get prepared for the race tomorrow. ... We've got a great race car. We are excited. We've got a great opportunity here."
Before Saturday, Earnhardt had done little during Speedweeks. He finished eighth in the Sprint Unlimited and ninth in his qualifying race. He will start 19th in the "Great American Race," his lowest opening spot in 14 years at NASCAR's premier event.
His speed in the final practice had to boost the team's confidence.
Almirola, however, posted the best 10-lap average. He averaged 196.195 mph over 10 laps on new tires. Earnhardt was sixth on that chart.
"We are excited about this weekend and feel like we have a good car and got it driving good in that last practice session," Almirola said.
The final session involved little bump-drafting and even less side-by-side action ? no doubt because teams were leery of wrecking race cars about 24 hours before the Daytona 500.
Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski provided the most action when he hit a bird.
"I killed a Tweetie bird," said Keselowski, one of auto racing's top Tweeters.
Keselowski was 17th in the final practice.
"This is our 500 engine, so trying to get an idea of how it's going to perform," he said. "My car is really good. Definitely faster than what it was, so that's good, right? I'm definitely optimistic."
Of the teams that didn't practice, most of them valued keeping their car intact over incremental gains that could be found so late in Speedweeks.
Patrick, Stewart, Gordon and the Gibbs cars have been some of the fastest all week.
A massive winter storm is expected to move east from Kansas, where it is dumping 1 to 2 inches of snow per hour, threatening 20 states with snow and ice. TODAY's Al Roker reports.
By Erin McClam and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News
Lumbering coast to coast, a winter storm hammered Kansas and Nebraska Thursday, with more than a dozen more states in its crosshairs. Accidents were reported across the region, and an Oklahoma teenager was killed when his pickup truck skidded across a slushy road.
The Weather Channel said snow totals would be formidable: Up to a foot of snow for Omaha, Neb., 3 to 6 inches of snow and sleet for St. Louis, 8 to 12 inches of snow for Kansas City, Mo., and 3 to 6 inches of snow for Chicago.
Plows struggled to keep up with a system dumping 1 to 2 inches of snow per hour on Wichita, Kan., and a swath of the country from Ohio to Arkansas prepared for a coating of dangerous ice.
Full coverage from weather.com
Advisories for snow, ice, wind or rain were posted as far south as the Texas Panhandle, as far north as Minnesota and Wisconsin and as far east as the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Authorities urged drivers to slow to a crawl on Interstate 70, which forms a belt across Missouri, or stay off the road altogether.
The speed of the snowfall is ?going to be overwhelming even the best snow-clearing capabilities that they have,? meteorologist Tom Niziol said on The Weather Channel. ?If you don?t have anywhere to go, don?t. Please don?t.?
Along the Kansas-Nebraska state line, up to a foot and a half of snow was expected.
The University of Kansas closed for the day, as did schools in Wichita and Oklahoma City.
The storm is vast: Earlier this week, it closed roads and stranded cars in California and dusted cactus tops in Southwest. At a delayed tournament in Arizona, pro golfers threw snowballs at each other and retreated to the clubhouse for hot chocolate.
The same weather system could dump snow on New England for the third weekend in a row, and a stretch of Georgia and the Florida Panhandle could be doused by 7 inches of rain.
PhotoBlog: Golf championship play stopped due to Arizona winter storm
The storm was blamed for at least one death. An 18-year-old was killed Wednesday when his pickup skidded out of control in the slush on an Oklahoma state highway, crossed into oncoming traffic and was hit by a truck.
In Arkansas, a school bus taking kids home in the afternoon slid off a steep, snowy country road and crashed, leaving the driver and three students with minor injuries, Pope County Sheriff Aaron Duval told The Associated Press.
The storm was expected to pummel the Plains with heavy snow and ice for the rest of Thursday and move toward Chicago and Minneapolis on Friday.?
A wintry mix of snow and ice was likely to the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, including parts of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, by Friday morning, The Weather Channel reported.
This story was originally published on Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:34 AM EST
(Credit: Screenshot by Dan Terdiman) It seems Facebook is blocking links to NBC.com after the TV network's site was compromised earlier today. Some Facebook users trying to share URLs from NBC.com are running into an error message explaining that the feature isn't available at the moment. "An error occurred while processing this request. Please try again later," the message reads. The message pops up when posting from www.nbc.com. If you try to click on a link, another message pops up: "This link has been reported as abusive."
Feb. 22, 2013 ? Running cockroaches start to recover from being shoved sideways before their dawdling nervous system kicks in to tell their legs what to do, researchers have found. These new insights on how biological systems stabilize could one day help engineers design steadier robots and improve doctors' understanding of human gait abnormalities.
In experiments, the roaches were able to maintain their footing mechanically -- using their momentum and the spring-like architecture of their legs, rather than neurologically, relying on impulses sent from their central nervous system to their muscles.
"The response time we observed is more than three times longer than you'd expect," said Shai Revzen, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, as well as ecology and evolutionary biology, at the University of Michigan. Revzen is the lead author of a paper on the findings published online in Biological Cybernetics. It will appear in a forthcoming print edition.
"What we see is that the animals' nervous system is working at a substantial delay," he said. "It could potentially act a lot sooner, within about a thirtieth of a second, but instead, it kicks in after about a step and a half or two steps -- about a tenth of a second. For some reason, the nervous system is waiting and seeing how it shapes out."
To arrive at their findings, the researchers sent 15 cockroaches (one-by-one, in 41 trials) running across a small bridge onto a placemat-sized cart on wheels. The cart was attached to an elastic cord that was pulled tight like a loaded slingshot and held in place with a strong magnet on the other side. Once a roach was about a body length onto the cart, the researchers released the magnet, sending the cart hurling sideways. The force was equivalent to a sumo wrestler hitting a jogger with a flying tackle, said Revzen, adding that cockroaches are much more stable than humans.
To gather detailed information about the roaches' gait, the researchers utilized a technique Revzen developed several years ago called kinematic phase analysis. It involves using a high-speed camera to constantly measure the position of each of the insects' six feet as well as the ends of its body. A computer program then merges the continuous data from all these points into an accurate estimate of where the roach is in its gait cycle at all times. The approach gives scientists a more detailed picture than just measuring the timing of footfalls -- a common metric used today to study gait.
In kinematic phase analysis, the signals are converted into a wave graph that illustrates the insect's movement pattern. The pattern only changes when the nervous system kicks in. How do the researchers know this? In a separate but similar experiment, they implanted electrodes into the legs of seven cockroaches to measure nerve signals.
The nervous-system delay the researchers observed is substantially longer than scientists expected, Revzen said. And it runs contrary to assumptions in the robotics community, where computers stand in for brains and the machines' movements are often guided by continuous feedback to that computer from sensors on the robots' feet.
Revzen said the new findings might imply that the biological brain, at least in cockroaches, adjusts the gait only at whole-step intervals rather than at any point in a step. Periodic, rather than continuous, feedback systems might lead to more stable (not to mention energy-efficient) walking robots -- whether they travel on two feet or six.
Robot makers often look to nature for inspiration. As animals move through the world, they have to respond to unexpected disturbances like rocky, uneven ground or damaged limbs. Revzen and his team believe that patterns in how they move as they adjust could give away how their machinery and neurology work together.
"The fundamental question is, 'What can you do with a mechanical suspension versus one that requires electronic feedback?" Revzen said. "The animals obviously have much better mechanical designs than anything we know how to build. But if we could learn how they do it, we might be able to reproduce it."
More than 70 percent of Earth's land surface isn't navigable by wheeled or tracked vehicles, so legged robots could potentially bridge the gap for ground-based operations like search and rescue and defense.
For human gait analysis, Revzen and colleagues said their noninvasive, high-resolution kinematic phase approach could be valuable in the biomedical community.
"Falls are a primary cause for deterioration in the elderly," Revzen said. "Anything we can do to understand gait pathology and stabilization of gait is very valuable."
These experiments were conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, before Revzen came to U-M. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan.
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Journal Reference:
Shai Revzen, Samuel A. Burden, Talia Y. Moore, Jean-Michel Mongeau, Robert J. Full. Instantaneous kinematic phase reflects neuromechanical response to lateral perturbations of running cockroaches. Biological Cybernetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s00422-012-0545-z
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
BILOXI -- The City of Biloxi, the Mardi Gras Museum and Gulf Coast Carnival sponsored the Children's Mardi Gras Parade on Feb. 11. Hundreds of Children 12 and under participated in this annual event. Due to inclement weather the parade and contest had to be held inside at the Biloxi Community Center. Float and Costume
Contests were held, trophies and cash prizes were awarded. The theme to this year's Parade was "The Best of Times."
The float winner for first place went to Brandon Shoniwitz with the Krewe of Potluck with Chef Brandon Shoniwitz. The second place winners were the Lusk family with a float of camera and pictures. The third place winner was Cambryn Alise with a float as a circus train with Ringmaster Cambryn Alise.
Costume contest winners:
Age group 0-4 are 1 year old Brennan Wentzell won first place with 2 year old Thad Wentzell, both dressed as New Biloxi Marching Club members. The third place winner was 4 year old Chef Brandon Schoniwitz.
Age group 5-8 are 8 year old Harrison Lusk won first place as Orlando Magic picture with 5 year old Cambryn Alise winning second place disguised as a circus ringmaster. Third place winner is 5 year old Bayleigh Moody dressed as a clown.
Age group 9-12 are 9 year old Olivia Lusk as a picture of Universal Studios. Second place went to 10 year old Erin Schreck dressed in a Chinese Kimono. Eleven year old Isabella Lusk won third place with picture of Isabella and dog and also as a pirate skeleton.
Group contest winners were Penn family and the Morano family. Penn family won first place as a circus group and Morano won second place as greased lightning.
Smith and the soon-to-be free agent Laker center are apparenlty close pals, which has sparked speculation that certain teams are angling for Smith in the hopes of landing Howard this summer.
The Dallas Mavericks, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com via Twitter, are the latest team tied to the hyper-athletic Smith. Dallas spoke ?internally? about Smith, according to Berger.
Dallas is also a potential suitor for Howard with tons of cap space next season. Smith and Howard played AAU ball together before they became NBA stars, and both will garner maximum deals this summer.
Smith has been rumored to be on the trading block for nearly three seasons, with ties to the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers most recently. Last season he put a career-high 18.8 points and 9.6 rebounds. Those numbers have dipped slightly this year, but Smith is also one of the best shot blockers in the league, averaging 2.1 swats a game.
The Mavericks could have upwards of $20 million in cap space next season, and have valuable trade chips like the expiring contracts of center Chris Kaman and forward Elton Brand.
Guard Darren Collison is also a putting up a solid 12.9 points and 5.5 assists per game, and will be a restricted free agent this summer. Dallas could pitch Collison?s deal as another expiring contract, since any team that trades for him has the option of letting him walk to free up payroll.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban has publicly stated his club is not in the market for a trade, but is expected to make a run at Howard in free agency.
Berger also stated that Atlanta general manger Danny Ferry is open to moving everyone on the roster. Ferry, formerly a member of the deft San Antonio Spurs front office, pulled off a huge move this past summer that freed the Hawks from the $89 million owed to Joe Johnson.
The Hawks are also seen as players for Howard, who is originally from Atlanta, and will have even more space to sign him and several other free agents. Atlanta only has $18 million committed to player contracts next season, and that number could decrease if they decline to match offers for guard Jeff Teague and Ivan Johnson.
The Hawks may not view Smith as a huge sticking point for signing Howard, who has reportedly clashed with fellow Laker Kobe Bryant this season.
The Lakers can offer Howard $30 million more than any other club since they currently hold his rights, but Los Angeles is in danger of missing the playoffs and the apparently nasty riff with Bryant could make re-signing Howard difficult.
In the hours leading up to the Division I championship boys soccer game Saturday, Phoenix Brophy soccer coach Marc Kelly wrestled with a difficult decision.
Four of his starters had celebrated a little too much after a goal against Tolleson in the semifinal game. There wasn?t anything malicious in the celebration; nor were the players taunting Tolleson or its fans.
But they had been warned previously about the antics and told to knock it off. Also, Kelly thought their actions reflected poorly on Brophy, a Jesuit school, and its values. He wanted his players to act as if they had been there before, which they had ? plenty of times. Brophy finished 19-2, its only two losses came against out-of-state schools and it outscored its opponents 112-10.
?We?ve got a team full of seniors and we were a very, very dominant offensive powerhouse. We had guys who were scoring goals all over the place,? Kelly said. ?But for whatever reason they felt like they needed to do goal dances every time they scored.?
Kelly?s gut told him to bench the foursome ? forwards Riggs Lennon and David Lane, and midfielders Oliver Shanks and Colin Zaccagnio ? for the first half of the state title game against Phoenix Desert Vista, and he knew if he did so, he?d have the support of both his principal and athletic director.
Still, this was the championship game. All those hours, days and months of hard work had led to this moment. What if the benching cost Brophy the title? How would the kids react? How would their parents react?
?Clearly, it was a gamble,? Kelly said. ?I knew something bad could have happened, and as a result of the decision, everything could have gone down the drain.?
Kelly decided he had to do the right thing, consequences be damned. In doing so, he exemplified the ideal of high school coaching; that teaching young men and women how to conduct themselves is paramount, and character matters more than championships.
?Even though it was clearly a huge game in front of a huge amount of people, that sort of thing we just can?t stand for,? Kelly said.
Can we get an amen?
No one would have chastised Kelly had he taken the easy way out. His players didn?t commit a crime or do something so egregious Kelly had no choice but to sit them down. They celebrated a little too hard. In the pantheon of athletic bad acts, that?s barely a misdemeanor.
If the excessive celebration against Tolleson had been a first offense, Kelly might have let the foursome off with a warning. But it had been a season-long issue, and in the state quarterfinal game against Chandler Hamilton on Feb. 2, Brophy?s players celebrated a goal by putting their hand to their ear, as if to say, ?We can?t hear you.?
The display upset Brophy Principal Bob Ryan, who made it clear the team needed to behave itself. Kelly talked to his players about ?making right decisions, being stand-up guys and being respectful of your opponent.?
Five days later, after the goal against Tolleson, the four players pantomimed, in Kelly?s words, ?Creating a toilet and taking a crap on the field.?
?It was the most bizarre thing I?ve ever seen,? Kelly said. ?It wasn?t malicious or mean-spirited, but I thought it was a little rude and in really bad taste.?
Kelly struggled with his decision all day Friday. He sought advice from several people, including his father. He didn?t talk to the parents of the players; their emotional investment was too great.
?The way I viewed it, there didn?t deserve to be any punishment,? said John Lennon, Riggs? father. ?That?s my personal opinion. I think they could have handled it in a more professional manner outside the state championship game.
?That being said, Marc was getting a lot of pressure from higher-ups in the administration and he had to make a decision. I respect him for that. But the thing is I think some of those higher-ups at the school don?t really understand the kids? passion for soccer.?
Or, they understand that sportsmanship still matters.
By Saturday morning, Kelly had made up his mind, and he told his team of the decision two hours before the championship game. The players apologized and asked him to reconsider. He refused.
?I couldn?t go back on my decision,? he said. ?I didn?t think it was right to change my mind just because they wanted me to.?
Some coaches, bowing to the moment, might have. But values are meaningless if they?re compromised by circumstance.
?I think I sent a message saying I don?t like that kind of thing,? Kelly said. ?I just didn?t want to stand for it anymore.?
By the way, Brophy beat Phoenix Desert Vista, 2-0.
Reach Bordow at scott.bordow!@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-7996. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/sBordow
African-American, Caucasian women should take identical vitamin D dosesPublic release date: 12-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jenni Glenn Gingery jgingery@endo-society.org 301-941-0240 The Endocrine Society
Study finds African-American, Caucasian women absorb, metabolize vitamin D at same rate
Chevy Chase, MD African-American women battling vitamin D deficiencies need the same dose as Caucasian women to treat the condition, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Although women with darker skin tones tend to have lower levels of the biomarker used to measure Vitamin D levels, called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25OHD, the study found that older African-American and Caucasian women responded in the same way when they received vitamin D supplements.
Unlike many vitamins that are absorbed primarily from foods, the body's main source of vitamin D is sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency, which is primarily caused by inadequate exposure to sunlight and very poor diet, can result in abnormalities in calcium, phosphorus and bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children or a bone-softening condition called osteomalacia and muscle weakness in adults.
In a double-blind study that gave varying vitamin D doses to African-American and Caucasian women of similar body size, levels of the 25OHD biomarker were very similar. The findings suggest that vitamin D absorption and metabolism is the same in both groups. Researchers concluded that African-American women tend to have lower levels of the biomarker 25OHD because they naturally produce less vitamin D in the skin after sunlight exposure.
"African-American women don't have to worry about taking larger doses of vitamin D to compensate," said J. Chris Gallagher, MD, of Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., and lead author of the study. "They should follow the current medical guidelines for vitamin D supplementation suggested recently by the Institute of Medicine."
The Endocrine Society has issued a separate set of clinical practice guidelines governing vitamin D dosage. The guidelines are available at http://www.endo-society.org/guidelines/final/upload/FINAL-Standalone-Vitamin-D-Guideline.pdf.
Previously there was no research in minority populations to determine whether the same guidelines applied to them. Researchers designed this study to develop dosing guidelines for older African-American women. The study, which looked at vitamin D doses in 110 African-American women between the ages of 57 and 90, was the first randomized controlled dose response study conducted in this population.
"We saw a real need to study optimal vitamin D doses in African-American women and help their health care professionals make informed medical decisions," Gallagher said.
Although exposure to sunlight increases vitamin D levels, concerns about melanoma and other types of skin cancer necessitate avoidance of excessive exposure to the sun.
###
Other researchers working on the study include: M. Peacock of Indiana University School of Medicine, V. Yalamanchili of Creighton University School of Medicine and L. Smith of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Aging and Office of Dietary Supplements funded the research.
The article, "Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in Older African American Women," appears in the March 2013 issue of JCEM.
Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, The Endocrine Society's membership consists of over 16,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in more than 100 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endo-society.org. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EndoMedia.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
African-American, Caucasian women should take identical vitamin D dosesPublic release date: 12-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jenni Glenn Gingery jgingery@endo-society.org 301-941-0240 The Endocrine Society
Study finds African-American, Caucasian women absorb, metabolize vitamin D at same rate
Chevy Chase, MD African-American women battling vitamin D deficiencies need the same dose as Caucasian women to treat the condition, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Although women with darker skin tones tend to have lower levels of the biomarker used to measure Vitamin D levels, called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25OHD, the study found that older African-American and Caucasian women responded in the same way when they received vitamin D supplements.
Unlike many vitamins that are absorbed primarily from foods, the body's main source of vitamin D is sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency, which is primarily caused by inadequate exposure to sunlight and very poor diet, can result in abnormalities in calcium, phosphorus and bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children or a bone-softening condition called osteomalacia and muscle weakness in adults.
In a double-blind study that gave varying vitamin D doses to African-American and Caucasian women of similar body size, levels of the 25OHD biomarker were very similar. The findings suggest that vitamin D absorption and metabolism is the same in both groups. Researchers concluded that African-American women tend to have lower levels of the biomarker 25OHD because they naturally produce less vitamin D in the skin after sunlight exposure.
"African-American women don't have to worry about taking larger doses of vitamin D to compensate," said J. Chris Gallagher, MD, of Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., and lead author of the study. "They should follow the current medical guidelines for vitamin D supplementation suggested recently by the Institute of Medicine."
The Endocrine Society has issued a separate set of clinical practice guidelines governing vitamin D dosage. The guidelines are available at http://www.endo-society.org/guidelines/final/upload/FINAL-Standalone-Vitamin-D-Guideline.pdf.
Previously there was no research in minority populations to determine whether the same guidelines applied to them. Researchers designed this study to develop dosing guidelines for older African-American women. The study, which looked at vitamin D doses in 110 African-American women between the ages of 57 and 90, was the first randomized controlled dose response study conducted in this population.
"We saw a real need to study optimal vitamin D doses in African-American women and help their health care professionals make informed medical decisions," Gallagher said.
Although exposure to sunlight increases vitamin D levels, concerns about melanoma and other types of skin cancer necessitate avoidance of excessive exposure to the sun.
###
Other researchers working on the study include: M. Peacock of Indiana University School of Medicine, V. Yalamanchili of Creighton University School of Medicine and L. Smith of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Aging and Office of Dietary Supplements funded the research.
The article, "Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in Older African American Women," appears in the March 2013 issue of JCEM.
Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, The Endocrine Society's membership consists of over 16,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in more than 100 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endo-society.org. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EndoMedia.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Shelly Palmer Digital Leadership Podcast Episode #25 ? Joe Atkin, President & CEO of Goal Zero
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Public release date: 12-Feb-2013
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