Monthly Archives: July 2017

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle

Damian Jones had an up-and-down rookie year, spending nine stints with the Santa Cruz team.

Damian Jones had an up-and-down rookie year, spending nine stints with the Santa Cruz team.

Damian Jones (left) defends against the 76ers Markelle Fultz on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Damian Jones (left) defends against the 76ers Markelle Fultz on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones and James Michael McAdoo during practice at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones and James Michael McAdoo during practice at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones, JaVale McGee and Matt Barnes during NBA Finals Media Day at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 31, 2017.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones, JaVale McGee and Matt Barnes during NBA Finals Media Day at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 31, 2017.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones and Zaza Pachulia against Portland Trail Blazers in Game 4 of NBA Western Conference 1st Round Playoffs at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on Monday, April 24, 2017.

Golden State Warriors' Damian Jones and Zaza Pachulia against Portland Trail Blazers in Game 4 of NBA Western Conference 1st Round Playoffs at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon on Monday, April 24, 2017.

Warriors Damian Jones showcasing progress in Summer League

LAS VEGAS The turning point came Jan. 6 in Santa Cruz. As he posted 13 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks in a 126-124 loss to the Grand Rapids Drive, center Damian Jones on assignment with Golden States Development League affiliate stayed out of foul trouble and didnt commit a turnover in 30 minutes.

Casey Hill, then the Santa Cruz Warriors head coach, smiled each of the three or four times a winded Jones asked to come off the court. Because after weeks harping on the 7-foot, 245-pound rookie to give consistent effort, Hill finally was seeing Jones motor match his physical tools.

That was a great sign, Hill said at the time. If he can go hard like that every night, hell be in the NBA for a long time.

With ideal size, strength and speed for an NBA center, Jones has long wowed scouts with his upside. Now, after a rookie year spent largely in the D-League (now the Gatorade League), he has a shot at cracking Golden States frontcourt rotation.

In the Warriors 95-93 loss Saturday night to Philadelphia in the Las Vegas Summer League, Jones looked like an NBA contributor. He scored 13 points and swatted three shots in 24 minutes. Midway through the third quarter, Jones volleyball-spiked an Aaron Harrison layup attempt into the first row.

The two 18-foot jumpers Jones made reinforced an important development: Anchored to the post in his limited NBA minutes last season, he is at ease enough to attempt the shots in games on which he works in practice. The Warriors hope is that his offensive game will only expand over the next week-plus in Las Vegas.

With free-agent center JaVale McGees status still in flux, Golden State could need Jones to play meaningful minutes next season. The Warriors, who will fill their 15th and final roster spot probably with a big man, want to continue rotating through three centers. After playing only 85 NBA minutes as a rookie, Jones could be the third option behind Zaza Pachulia and David West.

I think that if guys like David West and Zaza start talking to him over the summer and tell him to start preparing, he might slide into a role, guard Patrick McCaw said. I think hell be more than ready for it.

Jones tore his right pectoral muscle while lifting weights 12 days before going 30th overall to Golden State in the 2016 NBA draft. After finally getting cleared for contact work in late November, he logged nine stints in Santa Cruz.

It was a humbling experience for a player who got by on athleticism in his three seasons at Vanderbilt. Many nights, after watching a Warriors home game from the bench, he made the winding ride down Highway 17 to Santa Cruz. In his first few D-League assignments, Jones whose four-year rookie contract is worth up to $5.9 million labored against players earning $19,500 or $26,000, the D-Leagues two annual salary levels.

Hill outlined modest goals for Jones: crash the glass, improve his defensive footwork and, above all else, go hard every play. By that measure, his repeated requests for a breather Jan. 6 against Grand Rapids were a breakthrough. Jones was named the D-League Player of the Month in March and April after averaging 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds in 12 games.

A week removed from Golden States second NBA title in three years last month, Jones was back at the teams practice facility in downtown Oakland. Now, he is more than a 7-foot project: Jones is a work in progress.

I feel a lot better, Jones said. Everything comes more natural now.

Added Chris DeMarco, the Warriors Summer League head coach: He plays hard. Im really happy about the way hes playing.

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron

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Warriors' Damian Jones showcasing progress in Summer League - SFGate

In Brief A smart home device in New Mexico called and alerted the police to an in-progress domestic assault. Thanks to the device's 911 call, the mother and child were found safe but it does raise questions about the fine line between security and privacy where AI is concerned. Smart Call

Calling for help at the right moment during an emergency can spell the difference between a life lost or a life saved. Thankfully, for a mother and daughter in a New Mexico residence, it was the latter. Except they didnt make the call their smart home device did.

Authorities from the Bernalillo County Sheriff Department were alerted to analleged in-progressassault after a 911 call was made by a smart home device. The operator heard a confrontation in the background presumably from a violent domestic dispute involving Eduardo Barros and his girlfriend. Barros, who was house-sitting that day, allegedly pulled a gun on his girlfriend and then asked: Did you call the sheriffs? The smart device heard it as a voice command to call the sheriffs and then made the call, Deputy Felicia Romero told ABC News.

A SWAT team arrived at the scene and successfully apprehended Barros after hours of negotiation. The girlfriend was injured, according to the police, but the daughter was unharmed.

In a statement sent to ABC News, Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III expressed his appreciation for the technology. The unexpected use of this new technology to contact emergency services has possibly helped save a life. This amazing technology definitely helped save a mother and her child from a very violent situation, he said.

Indeed, this isnt the first case that shows how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be helpful in matters of the law. Back in 2016, Amazon handed over data to authorities from one of its Echo devices, which served as a key piece of evidence in a2015 murder investigation. Although Amazon obliged eventually, they didprotest initially, saying their artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistant Alexa has First Amendment rights.

While the question of giving AI rights is still one to be settled, its clear that these smart devices are always listening. For both the incident inNew Mexico and the 2015 murder investigation, this all-hearing presence proved to be a good thing. However, there may be instances when smart devices are overhearingtoo much. The task at handacross the industry where AI is concerned will be tofind a good balance between device security and privacy.

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A Smart Home Device Successfully Reported an In-Progress Crime - Futurism

The tenor Paul Appleby (who has also sung the role at the Metropolitan Opera) embodied both Toms eagerness and his blankness, singing with a fresh and sweet lyric tenor that easily projected in the large, mostly outdoor theater. But he was poorly supported by the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Eivind Gullberg Jensen, whose muddy and imprecise performance, particularly in the first act, failed to complement Mr. Applebys rhythmic energy. (Mr. Jensen was a late replacement for the injured Daniel Harding.)

Toms adventures in London society, more Dionysus than Dickens, get a flashy modern gloss here. With projections and a group of actors, including more tearing through walls, Mr. McBurney creates vivid vignettes of clubs, skyscrapers, a brothel (including the amusing Hilary Summers as madam Mother Goose), a stock market crash and Toms medley of sexual partners (both women and men). The irony and sharp edges of Stravinskys score, as well as the humor of the madcap staging, keep us at a distance from the action, able to witness Toms downfall with a cool, critical eye.

But the soprano Julia Bullock, as Anne, gave the proceedings a beating heart. Though her voice was sometimes lost in the large theater and her high notes sometimes squeezed, Ms. Bullock made her saintly character sincere without being cloying. She was at her best in the haunting final scene, when her slim, nuanced soprano had a simple honesty.

At the insistence of Nick, Tom marries a local freak of nature, the bearded lady Baba the Turk, whose only asset is her fame. (The projections imply that Tom essentially does it for the Instagram possibilities.) The role of a hectoring sideshow attraction is not the operas most ingratiating element, but this production puts a twist on it. Though written for a mezzo-soprano, here the role is performed by the countertenor Andrew Watts in the spirit of Conchita Wurst or a RuPauls Drag Race runner-up, a funny and appropriately campy choice. (Mr. Watts, though, struggled with the roles large range.)

Mr. McBurneys targets may be on the obvious side, but the staging succeeds through its visual wit and sudden swerves into pathos. When Tom sits in front of his bed and sings I wish I were happy, the music is chilly and austere, and the white box surrounding Mr. Appleby seems to offer no comfort at all. As the auctioneer Sellem, the bald and spectacled Alan Oke bore some resemblance to Stravinsky, dispassionately selling off the 18th-century artifacts of Tom and Babas house or relics from the warehouse of music past.

Despite its humor, everything in this production leads to death and loss. As Nick pushes Tom ever further down the path of debauchery, and eventually penury, the tears in the paper walls multiply. By the third acts Don Giovanni-like graveyard scene, in which Tom plays a card game for his soul, the walls are scarred from his ordeals, implying both psychic damage and hard-won experience.

His voice underlined by a creepy harpsichord, Tom wins his soul, but Nick takes his mind. The final scene, in which Tom wanders through Bedlam, is acted with haunting economy by Mr. Appleby on a scarred, bare stage.

The epilogue echoes Don Giovanni as well: The whole cast reminds the audience of their storys moral, and warns against idle hands and hearts and minds. In other words, get off Twitter.

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Review: A 'Rake's Progress' for a Fame-Hungry Internet Age - New York Times

Firefighters are slowly but surely getting an upper-hand on some wildfires burning in Colorado.

Associated Press , KUSA 1:13 PM. MDT July 10, 2017

(Photo: Inciweb)

DENVER (AP) - Firefighters are making progress battling wildfires burning in Colorado.

As of Monday, crews have been able to build containment lines around 85 percent of the fire that forced the evacuation of hundreds of people near Breckenridge last week. Some firefighters and equipment from the Peak Two Fire are being sent to other fires burning around the West.

People who live in homes near the mountain town 80 miles (129 kilometers) west of Denver are no longer on standby to evacuate.

In northwestern Colorado, a wildfire burning near Dinosaur National Monument is 40 percent contained. Managers say the eastern side of the 20 square mile (52 sq. kilometer) Peekaboo Fire has spread into steep, rocky terrain without a lot of fuel. Firefighters hope to able to work on containment on that flank in the coming days.

2017 KUSA-TV

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Firefighters make progress on Colorado wildfires - 9NEWS.com

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Visitors at Penn State's Ag Progress Days, Aug. 15-17, likely will spend most of their time taking in the wide variety of demonstrations, commercial and educational exhibits, presentations and other activities around the 135-acre expo.

But for those willing to wander farther afield, free bus tours to other parts of the surrounding Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center and to other nearby facilities will offer a glimpse of Penn State research and extension programs addressing topics such as water quality, pasture and grazing management, industrial hemp, high-tunnel fruit and vegetable production, woodlot management, wildlife habitat and biofuel feedstocks.

Most tours require some walking or standing, and all tours require free tickets that can be obtained at the boarding area, which is located at the corn crib on Main Street, near the headquarters building at the Ag Progress Days site.

This year's tours feature the following topics:

American Chestnut Foundation Plantings (1.25 hours)

This tour will take visitors to breeding orchards, where they will learn about the history and demise of the American chestnut tree, see how to plant and maintain chestnut trees, and learn about The American Chestnut Foundation's citizen scientists and programs working to restore the species to Eastern forests.

Habitat Management for Deer and Other Wildlife (1.5 hours)

This tour will focus on food plots and natural habitat management practices used on public or private property as part of a Quality Deer Management System to improve habitat for many wildlife species while producing healthier and larger deer. Visit habitat demonstration plots in the woodlot and neighboring fields.

Dairy Beef Feedlot (1 hour)

The tour will focus on the use of implants in beef production. Participants will see calf-fed Holsteins that have been implanted and compare them to their nonimplanted pen mates. Penn State Extension specialists, industry experts and cattle buyers will be on hand to answer questions.

High Tunnels (2 hours)

High tunnels are inexpensive structures used for extending the growing season and improving yields and quality of vegetables, berries and cut flowers. At Penn State's High Tunnel Research and Extension Facility, visitors will see strawberries and raspberries being grown in containers in 15 tunnels, with five types of plastics to better manage plant growth, temperatures and pests. The tour also will highlight solar-powered, automated venting options to better manage heat load.

Adaptive Grazing and Soil Health (1.5 hours)

This tour will focus on adaptive grazing management, in which tall grass or high stock density grazing can drastically transform mediocre fields into highly productive pastures that can extend the grazing season well into winter. Experts will discuss the benefits of frequent animal moves; fencing and watering considerations; forage benefits of tall grass grazing; diverse cover crop mixes for use in cropping or grazing systems; and other topics.

Industrial Hemp (1.5 hours)

This tour will showcase Penn State's first industrial-hemp project in more than 60 years. Researchers will discuss crop-management issues and potential markets for hemp, and visitors will see trials that evaluate several varieties of hemp being grown for seed. Participants also can evaluate hemp produced with no-till methods and look at the impacts of seeding rates, planting dates and fertilizer rates on commercial hemp production.

Short Rotation Woody Crops for Biomass (1 hour)

What are short rotation woody crops? How do they contribute to biomass feedstock? Why are they being promoted for marginal planting sites? What type of species should you grow and who will buy it? Find the answers by visiting a demonstration plot with fast-growing willow and poplar trees. Learn how to grow, harvest and produce this crop as an alternative income opportunity that helps provide sustainable energy supplies.

Multifunctional Stream Buffers and Native Grass Fields (1 hour)

This tour will focus on planting and maintaining trees and shrubs to create a multifunctional stream buffer that will improve water quality, wildlife habitat, livestock health and property value and that will provide edible or medicinal plants. Visitors will learn about the "three Ps" of tree establishment preparation, planting and protection; see livestock practices such as fencing and stream crossings; learn about financial assistance programs; and get tips on how to plant native grass fields to increase sustainability and help declining pollinators and beneficial insects.

Woodlot Management: Decisions and Actions (1.5 hours)

Visitors can explore the 150-acre Penn State Demonstration Woodlot and gain insights into how management decisions affect future values. The woodlot is managed for multiple objectives, including timber production, wildlife habitat, water quality, recreational activities, research and educational demonstrations. Forestry and wildlife professionals will be on hand to answer questions and identify resources to help forest landowners steward Pennsylvania's woodlands.

Russell Larson Research Center Farms (2 hours)

This tour will visit each of the research farms at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center: horticulture, plant pathology, agronomy and entomology. Farm managers will answer visitor questions and present a brief overview of the farm history, current research and student involvement.

Penn State Deer Research Center (1.5 hours)

Visitors can view live deer and learn about deer biology, deer management and current research. The center, near the University Park campus, will open for tours at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. Guests provide their own transportation and must preregister at the tour registration area at the Ag Progress Days site.

Sponsored by Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Progress Days is held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, 9 miles southwest of State College on Route 45. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 15; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Aug. 16; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 17. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, visit the Ag Progress Days website. Twitter users can share information about the event using the hashtag #agprogressdays, and Facebook users can find the event at http://www.facebook.com/AgProgressDays.

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Science and best practices featured on Ag Progress Days tours - Penn State News

BRISTOL Camille Sene had never seen anything like it before.

The pageantry of hometown floats, military vehicles, the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department color guard and the rhythmic drumming of school marching bands filled the air outside the village hall where she was standing and helping children catch candy tossed their way.

This is so cool, said Sene, a foreign exchange student from Ren, France, who was attending her first Bristol Progress Days Parade Sunday afternoon. Its cute. Im impressed. In France, we dont do anything like this.

Sene said where shes from, they do fireworks, but not a parade, on Frances independence day.

The annual Bristol Progress Days parade, is among the most popular activities of the three-day annual festival touted as the biggest small town celebration in the state. Despite road construction on Highway 45, large crowds attended its events, culminating with fireworks at dusk Sunday night.

Mike Saad, of Bristol, who has been playing host to Sene as she is preparing to attend Kenosha Unified high school classes this fall, said the parade is something he and his family have enjoyed each year.

Weve been coming out here for 15 years now. Its family tradition, he said. This has always been a time for the community to get together and celebrate so we get to see some of the older community members. Its a big kinda family, community get together.

Saad said Sene just arrived a few days ago and thought the gathering would give her an idea of a true hometown celebration.

For Lori Stanford, the Bristol Progress Day parade tops them all.

Its the best parade of the year, said Stanford, of Kenosha. This one is my favorite because its very family-oriented and my kids like the candy.

The candy, of course, is among the highlights for children of all ages.

Ah, this is hilarious, said Elizabeth Johnson, of Pleasant Prairie, who was enjoying the Elvis impersonator in the procession.

She said she was attending her first Bristol Progress Days parade awaiting the Kenosha Unifieds Rambler middle school marching band, where her daughter, Amy Maurina, 14, was performing.

She plays the trumpet and loves it, she said.

Mike Block, of Yorkville, Ill., couldnt wait to see his grandaughter Riley Achteroff, of Kenosha, who was in the parade with her Girl Scout troop.

Its fantastic. Were really having a good time, he said. It moves along and its entertaining and its really nice.

Katie Molinaro of Kenosha said that while the parade is longer than most that she and her kids Hailie, 4, and Haiden, have attended the family was having a good time.

I enjoy it. They enjoy it, she said.

Lisa Hufnagle, who played the trumpet in grade school and was in Central High Schools marching band, was also in the parade last year handing out candy and promoting her church. She said shes loving being a spectator for once.

I think its great. Im really enjoying this, she said.

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Progress Day impresses with pageantry, sweets and more | Local ... - Kenosha News

(TNS) -- Columbus took its biggest step onto the national stage a year ago when it was dubbed America's Smart City.

The distinction came with a big prize. The city received a $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and another $10 million from Vulcan Inc. to turn Columbus into the test track for intelligent transportation systems.

It also came with a ticking clock: four years to follow through on a wide-ranging proposal and produce data showing what pieces succeeded or failed.

A year later, autonomous vehicles, universal fare cards and hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations haven't yet materialized. But officials say the city has made progress, even if you can't see it on the streets.

"I think a lot has been accomplished in the last year, but it's been more of the internal workings," said Michael Stevens, Columbus' chief innovation officer.

The internal workings didn't exist in Columbus before it won the grant.

The city signed grant agreements with the federal government in August and with Vulcan in April. It spun off Smart Columbus from the Department of Public Service and paired up with the Columbus Partnership, a collection of the city's private-sector executives, to run the program at the Idea Foundry in Franklinton.

Those two groups split responsibilities, though they work together. The city's primary job is to make sure it fulfills the promises made for the $40 million federal grant. The Partnership is handling a lot of the plans around promoting electric vehicles as required by the $10 million grant from Vulcan.

They've also spent time rounding up other commitments and partnerships that total more than $500 million. About $23 million of that is cash.

It includes about $262 million in related projects, such as American Electric Power's plan to install "smart meters" in homes, and $218 million in research commitments. Some of those projects already were in the works but dovetail with Smart Cities.

The goal is to sustain the initiative beyond the four-year grant period.

"It's the first 10 feet of a 10-mile race," said Mark Patton, the Partnership's vice president overseeing Smart Columbus. "It's going to play out over years."

Some of the related projects are likely to be among the first to hit the streets. For example, the Central Ohio Transit Authority plans to update its fare boxes in the fall to accept payment with a cellphone or "smart" card that can be loaded with money on the internet.

COTA already was planning that $6.5 million project, but it aligned with the Smart Columbus plan to produce a fare card that works across multiple forms of transportation, including buses, bike shares and others, CEO Curtis Stitt said.

More electric vehicle charging stations likely will start popping up soon, too. The seven-county central Ohio region has 118 stations now, but Smart Columbus plans to add 305 by the end of the grant.

Patton said he already is working with members of the Columbus Partnership to convert their fleet vehicles to electric and to create incentives for employees to buy electric cars. They could provide better parking and charging stations to encourage workers to buy electric, he said.

The "demonstration projects" the city promised in its grant application are moving slower. During 2017 and 2018, the city will turn ideas such as autonomous shuttles at Easton, universal fare cards and a clearinghouse for transportation data into projects it could eventually produce.

The so-called integrated data exchange has never been produced before, Stevens said, and Smart Columbus has to figure out how to build it.

Smart Columbus should start purchasing equipment needed for the projects in 2018. They will do internal testing and start projects in 2019 and 2020, he said.

Stevens acknowledged that some of the projects are going to fail, and Smart Columbus has to provide the data and process to the government so it can either replicate them elsewhere or avoid the same mistakes. Parts of the plan have been evolving even as the city works with the U.S. Department of Transportation because of rapid changes in technology, he said.

"You don't want to use Betamax when everyone else is using VHS," he said.

2017 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Columbus, Ohio, Official Says Smart City Progress in First Year Consists of 'Internal Workings' - Government Technology