Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Gulls sink Pilgrims, capture TCCC title
5/8/2010 6:48:45 PM
Box ScoreBEVERLY, Mass. – Senior Brad Lipkvich (Madison, Conn.) and freshman Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.) each tallied three goals apiece while goalkeeper Eric Hagarty (Madison, Conn.) made 14 saves as Endicott College defeated New England College, 11-6, to win the 2010 The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship on a rain-soaked afternoon in Beverly, Mass. The conference title is the program’s sixth and its first since 2007. The Gulls now await word from the NCAA Selection Committee as to who their first round opponent will be.
A fast moving first quarter yielded just a single goal, which came off the stick of Connor McCormack 4:11 into the contest. The quick-footed attackman swept from his right to left, freezing New England College goalkeeper Nick Fischer (South Burlington, Vt.) with a hard overhand shot to give the Gulls a 1-0 lead.
The Blue and Green exploded for a four goal outpouring in the second quarter, its highest scoring frame on the day. Jonathan Prentice (Chelmsford, Mass.) scored on a short-side snipe, followed by a fast break man-up strike from Brendan McCarthy (Arlington, Vt.). Lipkvich scored his first of the day with 5:43 remaining before halftime after he gathered his own rebound off the post and shoveled the put-back past an outstretched Fischer to give the hosts a commanding 4-0 lead.
The Pilgrims got on the board 1:24 later when Matt Vozzolo (Somers, Conn.) took a feed off goal line extended from Chris Harris (Baltimore, Md.) and finally broke through Eric Hagarty with a shot to the low-right corner. The Gulls got the goal back before the intermission, however, when Colin Prescott (Norwalk, Conn.) walked out in front and stuck a bid into the upper left corner to give Endicott a 5-1 lead at the intermission.
The two sides traded goals throughout the third quarter, with each team scoring three times apiece in the frame. NEC’s Matt Carey (Medford, N.Y.) got the scoring started just 29 seconds into the third, only to have Jonathan Prentice fire back just 2:23 later. Vozzolo scored his second of the day, followed by back-to-back tallies from Connor McCormack just 54 seconds apart. John Gabriel (West Nyack, N.Y.) kept the visitors within striking distance at 8-4 heading into the fourth after he scored on an overhand shot top-shelf for the final tally of the third.
Endicott grabbed the game for good in the fourth quarter, scoring just 20 seconds into the frame on a crank shot from Lipkvich off a pass from Jack Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.). John Gabriel responded at the 9:51 mark, only to have Chris Gugino (West Hartford, Conn.) retaliate a mere 19 seconds later with a goal of his own. Lipkvich scored again, for good measure, before the Pilgrim’s Clint McDonough (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) completed the scoring for an 11-6 final.
Both goalkeepers were stellar on Saturday, with Hagarty making 14 saves and his counterpart Nick Fischer turning in his second 20-save performance of the postseason. Fischer made 14 saves in the first half, while Hagarty played his best in the second and fourth quarters, making four saves in each frame.
Brad Lipkvich led the way with three goals and one assist, while McCormack had three goals of his own. Jonathan Prentice scored twice and Jack Curtis dished out three helpers. Three other Gulls notched single tallies in the win.
New England College got a pair of goals from both John Gabriel and Matt Vozzolo. Matt Carey had one and one while Chris Harris tallied two assists.
Endicott outshot NEC at a 46-28 clip, including 30-11 in the first half. The Gulls held a 41-32 advantage in groundballs and also won 12 of the game’s 19 face-offs.
The Blue and Green return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. The Gulls will learn their first round opponent on Sunday evening, with opening round play beginning the weekend of May 15-16.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Texture in Time Art Show
Announcement- You all know that I have been working very hard at my other profession (photography) for the past few years. I was invited by the Olive Branch Art Gallery in downtown Overland Park to display some of my work. Good timing after being published on three covers of a local KC magazine during the past year or so.
Momentum, momentum....So, my friends and family, there will be an opening at Olive Branch Gallery featuring selected Kansas City artists and I am one of the lucky participants to be invited to this great event! This gallery also has lots of fine jewelry, clothes, hand crafted furniture and other visual artists. Here is the date and address:
"Texture In Time"
May 8th from 7:00 - 9:00 PM @ 7915 Santa Fe Drive, Overland Park, KS.
http://www.olivebranchartgallery.com/
Monday, May 3, 2010
College Report -- Brien McMahon graduates shining on lacrosse fields
Posted on 05/03/2010
It is onward and upward for the Endicott College lacrosse team.
Not only for this season, but probably for years to come. The Endicott College men's lacrosse team has won its first game in The Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament, beating University of New England, 16-4, in the quarterfinals.
The victory came in large part to the play of Brien McMahon grad Connor McCormack, who scored three goals.
The freshman attacker scored the first goal of the first period and the first goal of the second period. He struck at the 12:56 mark of the first and the 14:10 mark of the second. It gave the Endicott Gulls respective leads of 1-0 and 8-1. He finished his hat trick with a goal at the 9:26 mark of the third period to give Endicott a 12-3 lead.
Fellow Endicott lacrosse player Connor Prescott, a Norwalk grad, scored his only goal at the 4:50 mark of the contest. The goal gave Endicott a 5-0 lead.
Will Lomas, an Endicott freshman goal keeper, played 4:39 in goal. The Weston resident and Fairfield Prep grad made one save.
Colin Prescott, a Norwalk grad, subbed into the contest. Endicott will advance to the semifinal round with a 11-7 mark. They were 9-1 in the league.
* * *
Former Brien McMahon lacrosse player Jessica Majeski has scored a goal in three of Western Connecticut State University's last four games.
In the most recent one contest, a 19-4 WCSU win over University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Majeski had one goal and one assist. Majeski struck the back of the net at the 15:38 mark of the second half giving WCSU a 15-3 lead.
She also had an assist and a ground ball. It was the regular season final for WCSU. They will enter the Little East Conference Tournament with a 10-5 overall record. They were 3-3 in the LEC.
* * *
Corey Toby, a Brien McMahon grad, scored Elizabethtown College's second goal of their 8-6 win over Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham.
Toby, who hit the back of the net at the 11:57 mark of the second period. Toby started at midfielder and cut FDU-Florham's lead to 3-2 at the time. Elizabethtown is 10-3 overall and 8-1 in the Middle Atlantic Conference.
* * *
Brien McMahon grads Ben Mullaney and Peter NcNichols, both Quinnipiac University lacrosse players, have helped Quinnipiac post a 7-6 mark thus far.
Mullaney, a senior midfielder, has played in nine games. He has won 23 faceoffs and has 11 ground balls.
McNichols, a sophomore attacker, has five goals, three assists and two ground balls.
* * *
David Raleigh, a Brien McMahon grad and Binghamton University junior midfielder, has played in all 13 games this year. Raleigh has four goals and three assists as well as 20 ground balls. Binghamton is 4-9 overall and 1-3 in the American East Conference.
* * *
Amherst College's Matt Kellman, a Deerfield Academy grad and Wilton resident, won 4-of-6 faceoffs and had two ground balls in Amherst's 16-8 loss to Wesleyan University. Amherst is 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.
* * *
Lafayette College is 8-5 overall and 3-3 in the Patriot League. Former Brien McMahon lacrosse player Paul Hammer has started all 13 games and has 21 ground balls.
Weston grad Rob Glascott, also a Lafayette sophomore defensive player, has played in two games and has one ground ball.
* * *
Brien McMahon grad Jim Murphy had one ground ball as his college team, Western New England College, defeated Curry College 20-5.
The contest was one of the quarterfinal games in the TCCC Tournament. Western New England College will move to the semifinal round.
They are 12-5 overall. They finished the TCCC season with a 9-1 mark.
* * *
University of Hartford freshman Nick Ceme, a Brien McMahon grad, has played in eight games and made four starts. He has no stats. Hartford is 4-10 overall and 1-4 in the American East.
* * *
Forbes Fuller, a Babson College junior and Wilton grad, has played in seven games this year. He has one ground ball. Babson College is 10-6 overall and 5-2 in the Pilgrim League.
* * *
Names, names, names. Not only are we looking for names of seniors for the upcoming senior articles, but names for the 2010-11 school year, as well.
If you know of a senior that has is currently in their final year of eligibility, they are eligible to be included in a series of articles that will salute the seniors that have completed their careers this year.
If you know any athletes, please e-mail their name to dan62801@aol.com, and include the words "Norwalk Hour" in the subject line.
McCormack takes Rookie of the Week award
Connor McCormack scored three goals in his first playoff game last Saturday in a 16-4 win over UNE
Jeff Pardue, Sports Information Director
5/3/2010 3:15:00 PM
BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott attackman Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.) has been named The Commonwealth Coast Conference Rookie of the Week, as announced by Conference Commissioner Gregg M. Kaye on Monday. McCormack scored three goals in his playoff debut on Saturday.
McCormack, playing in his first career playoff game this past Saturday, scored three times on three shots in a 16-4 win over the University of New England. The rookie attackman upped his season total to 10 goals and three assists for 13 points, good for seventh-best on the top-seeded Gulls. The Blue and Green return to action on Wednesday when the Gulls host Roger Williams University at 4:00 p.m. in Beverly, Mass.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Study Shows Why You Might, and Might Not, Want to Know Your Genome
Study Shows Why You Might, and Might Not, Want to Know Your Genome
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
April 29, 2010 -- Do you really want to know all of the information encoded in your genes? A thought-provoking new study shows why you might -- and why you might not.
It's not science fiction. It now costs less than $10,000 to learn your own personal genome. Soon it will cost no more than $1,000. What might you learn? Ask Stephen Quake, PhD, a Stanford University bioengineer.
Recently, Quake and colleagues showed that a whole human genome -- his own -- could be unraveled by a single technician using a single machine.
When a 19-year-old relative died suddenly in his sleep, Quake began to wonder whether the information he collected could tell him whether he risked the same fate. He took his genome to cardiologist Euan Ashley, MD, who runs Stanford's hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center.
"This made me start thinking about what doctors are supposed to do when a patient walks into your office, shows you his whole genome, and asks, 'What is in my crystal ball?'" Ashley tells WebMD. "It's a challenge. Lots of people have looked at human genomes, but nobody had ever looked at a single patient before."
Ashley and Quake assembled a large group of Stanford's top researchers. The group pored over all available information on genetic risk and then evaluated millions of the variations in Quake's genetic code.
In the end, it turns out that Quake carries three gene variants linked to sudden cardiac death. Genetic analysis shows he's at increased risk for heart attack, clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
Does this mean Quake is particularly unlucky? No. Because of the frequency of risk genes in the population, every single person who looks into their genome will find that they carry risk genes for more than one serious or deadly disease.
"It is all bad news," Quake tells WebMD. "After all, there is no genetic basis for happiness or athleticism. It's all about things that make you uncomfortable and ill. You have to have a strong stomach."
While it isn't what you'd call really good news, Quake did learn a number of helpful things. He's genetically more likely to respond to low doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs with a lower risk of side effects (in fact, he's begun taking the drugs even though he's only 40).
And should he ever need the drugs, Quake learned that he's less likely to respond to the blood-thinning drug Plavix than to alternative drugs, and he would need a lower starting dose of warfarin.
Ethical Issues Plague Whole-Genome Test
While there's always bad news from whole-genome sequencing, the fact that a person is at higher risk of a particular disease does not mean they're destined to suffer from it.
"The genome is not destiny. Many things have a chance to influence the outcomes," Quake notes. "There is a genetic component to risk, but there is an environmental component, too. For the vast majority of things about your health, your lifestyle choices and the environment you live in make equal contributions."
Understanding genetic risk isn't easy. Even scientists like Quake need counseling to put personal genetic knowledge into perspective. And right now there are no requirements for companies that offer gene sequencing to provide such counseling, warns Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Amidst all the genome hype, people ignore environmental causes," Caplan tells WebMD. "They say, 'I don't have the gene for breast cancer, but smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and never exercise.' Not having a risk gene for a disease is false security, and having one is not a death sentence. All this has to be explained."
That could be a big problem. In an editorial published alongside their study in the April 30 online issue of The Lancet, Ashley and several of his colleagues note that the average person will discover he or she has about 100 genetic risks.
"Even if [counseling on] that information averaged only three minutes per disorder, this process would take more than five hours of direct patient contact, after many hours of background research," they calculate.
And there are only about 2,500 trained genetic counselors and 1,100 clinical geneticists in North America, all now busy with other work.
And there's another big issue: What do you tell your close relatives, who share many of your genes?
"Finding out about your own risks leads to information about your relatives, which you may try to tell them whether they need to know or not," Caplan says. "If you show up at Thanksgiving screeching about the risk for Alzheimer's you found out you have, your relatives may say, 'Hey, I didn't want to know that."
So who should get their genomes deciphered? Caplan says those who think they are interested should ask themselves some serious questions:
* Do I have a history of any genetic diseases in my family?
* If I got information I could not do anything about, would I still want to know?
* If I get information about risk and it implicates others, how will I handle it?
* Are the people I'm seeking testing from reliable?
* Am I willing to change my lifestyle to reduce the risks I learn about?
And Caplan has one more piece of advice.
"If you're just looking to learn about your overall risk, instead of getting in the car and heading over to the genetic testing facility, you may want to jog over," he says. "And while you're jogging, think about what you really are going to do to reduce your lifetime risk of disease, and jog back."
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
April 29, 2010 -- Do you really want to know all of the information encoded in your genes? A thought-provoking new study shows why you might -- and why you might not.
It's not science fiction. It now costs less than $10,000 to learn your own personal genome. Soon it will cost no more than $1,000. What might you learn? Ask Stephen Quake, PhD, a Stanford University bioengineer.
Recently, Quake and colleagues showed that a whole human genome -- his own -- could be unraveled by a single technician using a single machine.
When a 19-year-old relative died suddenly in his sleep, Quake began to wonder whether the information he collected could tell him whether he risked the same fate. He took his genome to cardiologist Euan Ashley, MD, who runs Stanford's hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center.
"This made me start thinking about what doctors are supposed to do when a patient walks into your office, shows you his whole genome, and asks, 'What is in my crystal ball?'" Ashley tells WebMD. "It's a challenge. Lots of people have looked at human genomes, but nobody had ever looked at a single patient before."
Ashley and Quake assembled a large group of Stanford's top researchers. The group pored over all available information on genetic risk and then evaluated millions of the variations in Quake's genetic code.
In the end, it turns out that Quake carries three gene variants linked to sudden cardiac death. Genetic analysis shows he's at increased risk for heart attack, clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
Does this mean Quake is particularly unlucky? No. Because of the frequency of risk genes in the population, every single person who looks into their genome will find that they carry risk genes for more than one serious or deadly disease.
"It is all bad news," Quake tells WebMD. "After all, there is no genetic basis for happiness or athleticism. It's all about things that make you uncomfortable and ill. You have to have a strong stomach."
While it isn't what you'd call really good news, Quake did learn a number of helpful things. He's genetically more likely to respond to low doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs with a lower risk of side effects (in fact, he's begun taking the drugs even though he's only 40).
And should he ever need the drugs, Quake learned that he's less likely to respond to the blood-thinning drug Plavix than to alternative drugs, and he would need a lower starting dose of warfarin.
Ethical Issues Plague Whole-Genome Test
While there's always bad news from whole-genome sequencing, the fact that a person is at higher risk of a particular disease does not mean they're destined to suffer from it.
"The genome is not destiny. Many things have a chance to influence the outcomes," Quake notes. "There is a genetic component to risk, but there is an environmental component, too. For the vast majority of things about your health, your lifestyle choices and the environment you live in make equal contributions."
Understanding genetic risk isn't easy. Even scientists like Quake need counseling to put personal genetic knowledge into perspective. And right now there are no requirements for companies that offer gene sequencing to provide such counseling, warns Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Amidst all the genome hype, people ignore environmental causes," Caplan tells WebMD. "They say, 'I don't have the gene for breast cancer, but smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and never exercise.' Not having a risk gene for a disease is false security, and having one is not a death sentence. All this has to be explained."
That could be a big problem. In an editorial published alongside their study in the April 30 online issue of The Lancet, Ashley and several of his colleagues note that the average person will discover he or she has about 100 genetic risks.
"Even if [counseling on] that information averaged only three minutes per disorder, this process would take more than five hours of direct patient contact, after many hours of background research," they calculate.
And there are only about 2,500 trained genetic counselors and 1,100 clinical geneticists in North America, all now busy with other work.
And there's another big issue: What do you tell your close relatives, who share many of your genes?
"Finding out about your own risks leads to information about your relatives, which you may try to tell them whether they need to know or not," Caplan says. "If you show up at Thanksgiving screeching about the risk for Alzheimer's you found out you have, your relatives may say, 'Hey, I didn't want to know that."
So who should get their genomes deciphered? Caplan says those who think they are interested should ask themselves some serious questions:
* Do I have a history of any genetic diseases in my family?
* If I got information I could not do anything about, would I still want to know?
* If I get information about risk and it implicates others, how will I handle it?
* Are the people I'm seeking testing from reliable?
* Am I willing to change my lifestyle to reduce the risks I learn about?
And Caplan has one more piece of advice.
"If you're just looking to learn about your overall risk, instead of getting in the car and heading over to the genetic testing facility, you may want to jog over," he says. "And while you're jogging, think about what you really are going to do to reduce your lifetime risk of disease, and jog back."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A Hug
A hug can cheer you when you’re blue
A hug can say, “I love you so”…
Or,…”I’m sad to see you go.”
A hug is,”welcome back again!”
And, “great to see you!” or,
Where’ve you been ?…
A hug can soothe a small child’s pain
And bring a rainbow after rain
The hug! There’s just no doubt about it,
We scarcely could survive without it.A hug delights and warms and charms,
It must be why God gave us arms!
Hugs are great for fathers and mothers
Sweet for sisters, swell for brothers
And chances are some favorite aunts
Love them more than potted plants
Kittens crave them. Puppies love them.
A hug can break the language barrier
And make the dullest day seem merrier
No need to fret about the store of ‘em,
The more you give……..
The more there are of ‘em
So stretch those arms without delay
And give someone a hug today!
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