Monthly Archives: September 2012

Pondexter carries Liberty to victory

Posted: September 10, 2012 at 9:14 am

Cappie Pondexter had 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, Plenette Pierson scored 17 points, and the Liberty rallied to beat the Sparks 73-71 yesterday in Newark.

Essence Carson scored 14 points, including 11 during a 21-3 run in the third quarter that gave the Liberty (12-17) the lead after they trailed by 14 points. The Liberty also trailed by 15 points in the first half.

"We fought hard," said Pondexter, who also had eight assists. "At one point we were down almost 16 points. I told the guys at halftime that if we fight back and be victorious, its going to feel even better than [just] winning."

Coupled with Chicagos 82-77 loss at Connecticut, the Liberty moved a half-game ahead of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty have five games remaining at home against Washington on Wednesday, followed by road games against the Mystics, San Antonio and Tulsa, and a home date against the Shock in the season finale on Sept. 22.

"Weve got to play like we have to win every game," Liberty coach John Whisenant said. "If we get into the playoffs with a three-game series and we play as hard as we did tonight, there wont be anybody more athletically gifted like we played tonight."

Kristi Toliver scored 17 points, Candace Parker had 14 points and 15 rebounds, and rookie Nneka Ogwumike added 13 points for the Sparks (20-10). Los Angeles, which has lost four of its last five, remained two games ahead of San Antonio for second place in the West. The Silver Stars lost 81-62 to Minnesota earlier yesterday.

Carsons 3-pointer tied the score at 70-all with 48 seconds remaining, and Pondexter made two free throws about 26 seconds later to put the Liberty ahead.

Ebony Hoffman made 1 of 2 free throws for Los Angeles with 15 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, the Sparks double-teamed Pondexter and tied her up when she received the pass near half-court, forcing a jump ball between her and the Sparks DeLisha Milton-Jones.

The Sparks grabbed the tipped ball and called timeout. Toliver then missed a 3 with about 5 seconds remaining, Pondexter corralled the loose ball, was fouled and made 1 of 2 from the line. She missed the second free throw, Parker got the ball and when she dribbled it was knocked away by Pondexter as time expired. After a lengthy video review, the officials ruled there was no time remaining when the ball went out of bounds.

"We didnt play very well in the second half," Toliver said. "It is something we are trying to battle through. We are continuing to learn lessons on the road. Hopefully we can learn, grow, and get better for the playoffs."

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Pondexter carries Liberty to victory

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Pondexter, Pierson rally Liberty past Sparks

Posted: at 9:13 am

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Cappie Pondexter had 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, Plenette Pierson scored 17 points, and the New York Liberty rallied to beat the Sparks 73-71 Sunday.

Essence Carson scored 14 points, including 11 during a 21-3 run in the third quarter that gave the Liberty (12-17) the lead after they trailed by 14 points. New York also trailed by 15 points in the first half.

''We fought hard,'' said Pondexter, who also had eight assists. ''At one point we were down almost 16 points. I told the guys at halftime that if we fight back and be victorious, it's going to feel even better than (just) winning.''

Coupled with Chicago's 82-77 loss at Connecticut, New York moved a half-game ahead of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty have five games remaining - at home against Washington on Wednesday, followed by road games against the Mystics, San Antonio and Tulsa, and a home date against the Shock in the season finale on Sept. 22.

''We've got to play like we have to win every game,'' Liberty coach John Whisenant said. ''If we get into the playoffs with a three-game series and we play as hard as we did tonight, there won't be anybody more athletically gifted like we played tonight.''

Kristi Toliver scored 17 points, Candace Parker had 14 points and 15 rebounds, and rookie Nneka Ogwumike added 13 points for the Sparks (20-10). Los Angeles, which has lost four of its last five, remained two games ahead of San Antonio for second place in the West. The Silver Stars lost 81-62 to Minnesota earler Sunday.

''We have plenty of stuff to move forward with in terms of just trying to be the best playoff team we can be,'' Sparks coach Carol Ross said. ''We still have more business to take care of before we get to the fun stuff.''

Carson's 3-pointer tied the score at 70-all with 48 seconds remaining, and Pondexter made two free throws about 26 seconds later to put the Liberty ahead.

Ebony Hoffman made 1 of 2 free throws for Los Angeles with 15 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, the Sparks double-teamed Pondexter and tied her up when she received the pass near half-court, forcing a jump ball between her and the Sparks' DeLisha Milton-Jones.

The Sparks grabbed the tipped ball and called timeout. Toliver then missed a 3 with about 5 seconds remaining, Pondexter corralled the loose ball, was fouled and made 1 of 2 from the line. She missed the second free throw, Parker got the ball and when she dribbled it was knocked away by Pondexter as time expired. After a lengthy video review, the officials ruled there was no time remaining when the ball went out of bounds.

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Pondexter, Pierson rally Liberty past Sparks

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Sparks waste 14-point second-half lead, lose to New York Liberty

Posted: at 9:13 am

NEWARK, N.J. -- Cappie Pondexter had 21 points and 12 rebounds, Plenette Pierson scored 17 points, and the New York Liberty rallied to beat the Sparks, 73-71, on Sunday.

Essence Carson scored 14 points, including 11 during a 21-3 run in the third quarter that gave the Liberty (12-17) the lead after it trailed by 14 points in the second half.

Kristi Toliver scored 17 points, Candace Parker had 14 points and 15 rebounds, and rookie Nneka Ogwumike had 13 points for the Sparks (20-10), who remained two games ahead of San Antonio for second place in the West. The Silver Stars lost, 81-62, to Minnesota earlier Sunday.

New York's win, coupled with Chicago's 82-77 loss at Connecticut, moved the Liberty half a game ahead of the Sky for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Carson's three-pointer tied the score at 70-70 with 48 seconds left, and Pondexter made two free throws 26 seconds later to put the Liberty ahead, 72-70.

Ebony Hoffman made one of two free throws for the Sparks to make it 72-71 with 15 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds play, the Sparks double-teamed Pondexter and tied her up when she received the pass near half court, forcing a jump ball between her and the Sparks' DeLisha Milton-Jones.

The Sparks grabbed the tipped ball and called time out. Toliver then missed a three-point shot with about five seconds left; Pondexter corralled the loose ball, was fouled and made one of two from the line. Parker got the ball and when she dribbled, it was knocked away by Pondexter as time expired. After a lengthy video review, the officials ruled there was no time remaining when the ball went out of bounds.

After trailing by 15 in the second quarter, New York cut the deficit to 48-36 at halftime.

Then Ogwumike made one of two free throws and scored a three-point play to give the Sparks their biggest lead of the second half at 52-38 with about 8 1/2 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Liberty then went on its big run to take a four-point lead into the fourth, with Carson's jumper with 1:38 left in the period tying the score at 55-55 and her go-ahead basket 53 seconds later giving New York its first lead of the game.

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The Land That Time and Money Forgot

Posted: at 9:13 am

(Photo: Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos/New York Magazine)

Asked if hed heard of Lloyd Blankfein, the man in the Yankees cap standing by 295 Cozine Avenue in East New York muttered, What he do?

In the projects, when someone who looks like me comes up to you, it almost has to be bad news: a cop, a process server, a guy from the Housing Authority. But no, I explained. Blankfein was the head of Goldman Sachs. They ruled Wall Street, the Trilateral Commission too, sat at the table with the Illuminati.

He used to live in this building, I said.

It was so. Son of a postal clerk and a receptionist at a burglar-alarm factory, Blankfein had grown up right there, at 295 Cozine Avenue, a redbrick building more or less exactly like the other eighteen redbrick buildings at the Linden Houses. That was in the fifties and sixties, before the white people moved out of the projects and East New York became one of the citys most dangerous neighborhoods. Still, the Goldman CEO apparently retained affection for his childhood home, once sending a post to the East New York Project, a website for people nostalgic for the days of egg creams and spaldeens. It said: Graduate of Jefferson (71), Gershwin (68), P.S. 306 (65) and the Linden Projects. Currently reside in Manhattan with wife Laura and three kids. Lloyd Blankfein lloyd.blankfein@gs.com.

King of the world, right here? the man declared. No shit.

My visit to the Linden Houses was part of a self-guided tour of what Id come to call Nychaland. As in NYCHA, the New York City Housing Authority, a.k.a. the projects.

New York might be a city of neighborhoods, but Nychaland is a zone of its own. It is almost unthinkably huge: 334 developments spread from Staten Islands Berry Houses to Throgs Neck in the Bronx178,895 apartments in 2,602 buildings situated on an aggregate 2,486 acres, an area three times the size of Central Park. The population of Nychaland is usually cited at 400,000, but this number is universally regarded as too low, since most everyone knows someone living off lease. One NYCHA employee says that 600,000 is more like it. Thats about 8 percent of New Yorkwith 160,000 families on the waiting list. If Nychaland was a city unto itself, it would be the 21st most populous in the U.S., bigger than Boston or Seattle, twice the size of Cincinnati.

Despite these prodigious stats, the projects remain a mystery to most New Yorkers, a shadow city within the city, out of sight and mind, except when someone gets shot or falls down an elevator shaftjust these bad-news redbrick piles to whiz by on the BQE.

Indeed, perhaps Nychalands most compelling attribute is the fact that it exists at all. Across the U.S., public housing, condemned as a tax-draining vector of institutionalized mayhem and poverty, whipping-boy symbol of supposedly foolhardy urban policy, has largely disappeared. Chicago knocked down Cabrini-Green, St. Louis imploded Pruitt-Igoe, New Orleans flattened Lafitte after Katrina. Only in New York does public housing remain on a large scale, remnants of the days when the developments were considered a bulwark of social liberalism, a way to move up.

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Participants: Freedom Walk a time of remembrance

Posted: September 9, 2012 at 7:12 pm

Janis Upchurch, like most, remembers exactly where she was on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

I was teaching first grade, Upchurch said. We heard about it, turned on the TV, and thats when the towers started to fall. My son was in elementary school at the time, but that event made up his mind about joining the Marines.

Upchurch, the president of Blue Star Mothers Chapter 12, was one of 50 to 75 people who participated in the 2012 Freedom Walk on Saturday morning. The event was started five years ago to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as well as honor all retired and active duty military, police and fire personnel.

Gary Young, an Air Force veteran, brought his sister and son with him for the walk. Young said he has been involved in the event for all five years, and he wouldnt miss it for the world.

I like the purpose behind it, Young said. Id like to see more people participate though. I dont think anyone has forgotten about what happened, but it would be nice if they came out and joined with us in remembrance.

There were snacks and drinks preceding the walk, as well as a short ceremony consisting of a prayer, the singing of the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the playing of taps by Muskogee High School Band Director Steve Wiles.

Oscar Ray also gave a short speech where he addressed the importance of remembering the tragedy, but also the higher importance of celebrating the heroes and their accomplishments.

Im pretty sure when the families who lost someone that day remember their loved ones, they smile, Ray said. This should be more of a celebration of life than a somber remembrance.

Thea Devers, who also is an Air Force veteran, said she spent the morning of Sept. 11 at work and couldnt believe it when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

I was a courier for the White House and the state department, Devers said. The Pentagon was one of my many stops. It could have been me in there when it happened. I thank God I missed it.

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Liberty gets best of Lewis-Palmer in boys' soccer 4-1

Posted: at 7:12 pm

September 08, 2012 9:17 PM

Liberty and Lewis-Palmer may not have been playing a boys soccer game that meant anything for conference standings Saturday afternoon, but the intensity and high level of play matched the best of rivalries.

The host 5A Lancers came away with a 4-1 win, but the bigger story is that each team looks to be talented enough to make a lot of noise in this season.

Liberty (2-2-1) would break the ice just 5 minutes into the game when Kyle Spillane beat L-P goalkeeper Fabio Eickmeier between his legs from close-range after a breakaway resulting from a turnover.

When we get going our offense can be very explosive when we string passes together and get into space, Spillane said. We have firepower everywhere, from the top to the middle and even with our defense and its real nice to have multiple scorers.

The next 15 minutes saw each team get a multitude of scoring chances, but each keeper stood tall. Eickmeier and Libertys Kyle Krumm took turns making diving saves and keeping their teams in the game.

With the next goal being huge, Liberty seized control of the game. Matt Love beat Eickmeier to his right and snuck the ball past the post and a sliding Ranger defender in the 22nd minute.

Just 4 minutes later, Taylor Whited scored on a laser from 25 yards out that found the net off the post. The strong first-half effort showed just how dangerous the Lancers can be on both ends of the field.

Kyle was really focused today and were sorry we couldnt get him a shutout there in the first half because he kept us in the game early when both teams had some good shots, Liberty coach Gregg Braha said. I think the team feels when Kyle is back there that they can make a mistake and get away with it because hes there.

Lewis-Palmer (1-2) never backed down in the game, even when it seemed like every great scoring chance was thwarted by a spectacular save. The 4A Rangers struck for their lone goal with just 6 seconds left in the first half when Brendan Heers shot ricocheted off the goal post and past Krumm.

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Liberty County civic leader, champion jelly cook dies

Posted: at 7:11 pm

C.T. "Rusty" Hight, known for his wide-ranging talents in roles ranging from a Liberty County jurist to a master gardener, died Wednesday. He was 65.

Hight learned he had a "small speck of cancer" five weeks before it took over his body, said his sister, Nelda Zbranek.

But she and others who knew him will never forget how he prayed for "God to help him do the right thing" each time he put on his black robe to serve as the 75th state district judge from 2002 to 2010.

And he didn't mind trading that robe for an apron. He loved to cook up a pot of his award-winning jelly made with the tart juice from marble-sized mayhaws, a native fruit found in East Texas swamps.

He would spend hours collecting just the right mayhaws to simmer over the stove in a rustic cabin in his backyard in Dayton.

Over the last two decades, his jelly was often pronounced the blue ribbon winner at the annual Mayhaw Festival in Daisetta.

His gardening skills were also apparent in the bountiful supply of vegetables he grew in his backyard, some so large that they looked like they could set a world record.

He also served many years as a Dayton school trustee.

One of his proudest moments came when he was able to hand a diploma to his daughter, Laura, who was still recovering after emerging from a 4-month coma.

She had been badly injured in a car accident that claimed the life of a school friend two years earlier. Medical personnel had not expected her to live.

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Space Station fixed with $3 toothbrush

Posted: at 3:11 pm

International Space Station engineers improvised a set of tools to repair a malfuctioning power unit, using spares that included a $3 toothbrush. Picture: NASA Source: Supplied

IN a move that would have made MacGyver proud, astronauts have fixed a series of electrical malfunctions on the International Space Station - with a toothbrush.

For more than a week, astronauts on the station have been trying to figure out how to replace a malfunctioning Main Bus Switching Unit, which transfers power from the massive solar panels into the station, space.com reported.

Without the 100kg MBSU the station was unable to get power from two of its eight panels. Then on Saturday another malfunction put a third panel offline - making for a nervous time on the station as they conserved power to keep vital life support systems functioning.

Last week a marathon eight-hour spacewalk failed to fix the problem, as a pair of stubborn bolts thwarted their efforts to install a spare MBSU.

A fisheye lens attached to an electronic still camera was used to capture this image of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. Picture: NASA

Experts at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston worked around the clock to figure out a solution, improvising a set of tools from existing supplies on the station that could help fix the stuck bolt. Their solution included an Allen wrench taped to a bolt, and a $3 toothbrush used to clear metal shavings from the threaded bolt hole.

"It's been like living on the set of Apollo 13 the past few days," astronaut Jack Fischer said from Mission Control in Houston, referring to the brainstorming session that figured out how to save the stranded Apollo 13 astronauts - portrayed in a movie starring Tom Hanks.

On Thursday NASA's Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide spent six and a half hours outside the space station fixing the MBSU.

Astronaut Aki Hoshide, Expedition 32 flight engineer, during a six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk to complete the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit that was hampered last week by a possible misalignment and damaged threads where a bolt must be placed. Picture: NASA

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Astronauts repair space station with help of toothbrush

Posted: at 3:11 pm

Spacewalking astronauts triumphed over a stubborn bolt and installed a critical power-switching box at the International Space Station this week, reviving electrical systems.

"Looks like you fixed the station," mission control at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston told the crew on the radio.

The problem had cut the amount of electrical power available to the orbiting lab and a variety of equipment had to be turned off.

Engineers on the ground and the astronauts in orbit scrambled over the weekend to devise makeshift tools to clean metal shavings from the socket of the troublesome bolt after last week's failed effort to plug in the new power-relay unit.

This time, NASA's Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide, part of NASA's Expedition 32 mission to the ISS, were armed with a blue toothbrush, a wire brush and other jury-rigged tools.

The two applied grease to the sticky bolt as well as extra pressure and plain old jiggling. They also brushed and blew away most if not all the metal shavings, debris that was discovered during last Thursday's eight-hour repair session, one of the longest spacewalks on record.

Wednesday's outing lasted 6 1/2 hours.

Although the space station remained stable, NASA was in a hurry to get the problem fixed because of the impending departure of Joseph Acaba, the U.S. astronaut who operated the hefty robot arm from inside. Acaba is due to return to Earth in 1 1/2 weeks.

Altogether, the space station has four of these power-switching units, which relay electricity from the eight solar wings. Being down one unit meant the orbiting complex could draw power from only six of those wings.

The power store was further degraded over the weekend when, in an unrelated problem, a tripped circuit breaker prevented full access to yet another solar panel. That left the space station running on just five wings, a vulnerable situation.

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Decoding Human DNA

Posted: at 3:11 pm

In a milestone for the understanding of human genetics, scientists just announced the results of five years of work in unraveling the secrets of how the genome operates.

The ENCODE project, as it is known, dispensed with the idea that our DNA is largely "junk," repeating sequences with no function, finding instead that at least 80 percent of the genome is important.

The new findings are the latest in a series of increasingly deep looks at the human genome. Here are some of the major milestones scientists have passed along the way.

1. An understanding of heredity, 1866

The realization that traits and certain diseases can be passed from parent to offspring stretches back at least to the ancient Greeks, well before any genome was actually decoded. The Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that "seeds" from different parts of the body were transmitted to newly conceived embryos, a theory known as pangenesis. Charles Darwin would later espouse similar ideas.

What exactly these "seeds" might be was destined to remain a mystery for centuries. But the first person to put heredity to the test was Gregor Mendel, who systematically tracked dominant and recessive traits in his famous pea plants. Mendel published his work on the statistics of genetic dominance in 1866 to little notice. [Genetics by the Numbers: 10 Tantalizing Tales]

2. Chromosomes come to light, 1902

But the painstaking work of cross-breeding pea plants wouldn't languish for long. In 1869, Swiss physician Johannes Friedrich Miescher became the first scientist to isolate nucleic acids, the active ingredient of DNA. Over the next several decades, scientists peering deeper into the cell discovered mitosis and meiosis, the two types of cell division, and chromosomes, the long strands of DNA and protein in cell nuclei.

In 1903, early geneticist Walter Sutton put two and two together, discovering through his work on grasshopper chromosomes that these mysterious filaments occur in pairs and separate during meiosis, providing a vehicle for mom and dad to pass on their genetic material.

"I may finally call attention to the probability that the associations of paternal and maternal chromosomes in pairs and their subsequent separation may constitute the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity," Sutton wrote in the journal The Biological Bulletin in 1902. He followed up with a more comprehensive paper, "The Chromosomes in Heredity" in 1903. (German biologist Theodor Boveri came to similar conclusions about chromosomes at the same time Sutton was working on his chromosome discovery.)

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Decoding Human DNA

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