Up over 31,000 some time this morning...

Some time this morning this weblog crept up over 31,000 visitors since its birth in September 2003.

A welcome to all. To Wegmans for coffee!

Joe Paterno is a tough man, who probably is a contumacious patient...

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno suffered injuries to his left leg after being involved in a collision along the sidelines during a Penn State football game at Wisconsin. Paterno suffered a tibial plateau fracture of his left leg (top of shin bone) and tore the medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament in his knee, for which he has surgery involving, among other things, insertion of screws into the tibia. He was released from the hospital five days after his surgery.

According to his wife, Paterno is ready to get back to coaching and has returned to practice. He has refused anything more than one Tylenol a day since his operation. He is one tough guy. He is 79 years old -- going on 80 in December. At that age, can you imagine taking a hit as he has, having surgery, and getting back into the thick of it again?

Paterno made the announcement on the Nittany Lion Hotline radio show that he would be back at this week's game against Michigan State. "I'm feeling much better," Paterno said. "I got out to practice the last three days. I'm going to take a while before I am able to get up on this bad leg, but I feel good."

Paterno did not specifically say he would be coaching Saturday against the Michigan State Spartans, but Penn State spokesman Jeff Nelson said Thursday night he expects that will be the case. "I would anticipate that he plans on doing some coaching while he is there," Nelson said.

Hey, try to stop him. The man is a force of nature.

It might be close to "Deer Day," but I'll tell ya, Toots and Pappy, them deer is fightin' back and they're startin' right here in Pennsylvania...

Couple mauled in deer attack
By Pete Bosak
pbosak@centredaily.com

CLINTONDALE, Clinton County -- A white-tailed buck run amok gored a man and dislocated both of his shoulders Wednesday morning before attacking a woman who tried to save him from the raging six-point deer.

Two state police troopers based in Lamar are credited with saving the unidentified couple's lives after the highly unusual and prolonged attack that began about 7:30 a.m. along Fishing Creek Road, between Clintondale and Mackeyville.

It began when a woman tried to exit her back door Wednesday morning and the door hit the buck, which would not let her out. So the man she's residing with went outside to chase the deer away, but, instead of running, the deer attacked him.

At this point the woman called for help.

State police Cpl. Todd Brian was running out of the Lamar barracks to his cruiser when he encountered Trooper Steve Wilcox, who had just arrived. Brian told Wilcox that a deer was attacking a couple, and both troopers raced to the scene.

"To be honest, I never expected to show up there and see a deer," Wilcox said. "Deer just don't do that. To look for a confrontation with human beings, that's just unheard of."

When Brian and Wilcox arrived at the Fishing Creek Road home and got out of their patrol cars, the two troopers heard someone screaming.

They raced around the house and saw the man was lying motionless in the yard. The buck was on top of the struggling woman, still trying to gore her. As it turned out, after she called police, the woman grabbed a steak knife, ran outside and tried to save the man, Wilcox said. Instead, she wound up a second victim.

The troopers both drew their weapons but, at first, could not use them.

"The deer was hunkered down on her, so neither of us could get a shot off safely," Wilcox said.

So Brian grabbed the rampaging buck by its antlers and wrestled it away from the woman, Wilcox said.

Finally, the troopers were able to shoot safely.

While the man suffered dislocated shoulders and numerous lacerations and bruises, the woman likely will lose an eye, Wilcox said. She had been gored in the face and had suffered lacerations and bruises all over her body, police said.

But they were alive, said Warren "Quig" Stump, the state Game Commission's Northcentral Region law enforcement supervisor.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the immediate response and action of Cpl. Brian and Trooper Wilcox saved the lives of the two victims," Stump said.

Game Commission officials were at a loss Wednesday to explain why an apparently healthy buck would attack. The carcass was taken by Clinton County Wildlife Conservation Officer Kenneth Packard for a full necropsy by Dr. Walter Cottrell, a Game Commission wildlife veterinarian based at Penn State.

"While this appears to be a healthy deer, we have taken samples of the deer to conduct various tests for any sign of disease, including chronic wasting disease and rabies," Cottrell said.

Packard said another possible cause is that deer are in the fall mating season, when bucks become single-minded and more aggressive -- but toward each other, not people.

"That is not behavior normally associated with wild deer, as they almost invariably keep their distance from people," the Game Commission said in a release.

Yipes. Watch your backs! Load my gun!

Our presentation at USC...

Rose Baker and I today made a teleconference presentation at Measuring Your Talent and Organization: Beyond the Basics in the CEO 2006 Teleconference Series on Human Resources and Metrics sponsored by the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Was an interesting and difficult-to-manage presentation. Our audio feed occurred over a leased teleconference line, which worked very well. Participants worldwide listened on their telephones and stayed muted until they were asked to participate periodically with Q & A or with comments and observations. Delivering our slides was tough. The Marshall School of Business did not have a webinar resource available. Therefore, as we often do, we created our own. The result is at:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/dlp/uscThrough this page we provided an interface by which we "pushed" our slides at the participants through their web browsers. We used a widget that allowed us to control the pages that opened in their web browsers. Our slides were available as a large Adobe PDF file. Also, we provided our slides in Flash animation files served in two formats through SlideShare.net:

 

Fifty plus participants. Some great questions. Might lead to some follow-up business. Institutional coffee right now.

A wonderful little poem I just heard Garrison Keillor recite on the radio...

A Little Prayer in November

That I am alive, I thank
no one in particular;
and yet am thankful, mostly,
although I frame no prayer
but this one: "Creator
Spirit, as you have come,
come again", even in November,
on these short days, fogbound.

It is a nice little poem, but it doesn't quite hold for me because I have many--and some in particular--to thank for being alive. Winter has a cold cargo if you must bear it alone.

And, fogbound it is today in central Pennsylvania. The grip of fall has won over the leaves and sky. Gray. Flat. Trees poking at the sky, bare and metal gray and wet. The squirrels are done scurrying about. The acorns are either collected or rotted into my front lawn.

The deer are moving away from bow hunters stalking them through the Pennsylvania woods. "Deer day" is here the Monday after Thanksgiving. Then, it's rifles chasing you, Bambi, to make you into deer chilli, deer sausage, or deer steak.

According to CNN, deer-related car crashes, including wrecks involving elk and moose, are up almost six percent compared to last year's deer season. eer collisions become more frequent during fall and winter due to deer migration and mating season, which typically occur from October through December.

About 1.5 million deer-vehicle collisions happen each year in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Those accidents cause about 150 deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage annually, according to NHTSA. For instance, State Farm Insurance Company policy holders were involved in 192,877 deer-related collisions this year versus 182,458 last year. The average property damage cost was $2,800, $300 more than last year.

According to State Farm's claim statistics, the 10 states with the most deer crashes between June 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006 account for more than half of all such claims:

1. Pennsylvania
2. Michigan
3. Illinois
4. Ohio
5. Georgia
6. Virginia
7. Minnesota
8. Texas
9. Indiana
10. South Carolina

Yep, Pennsylvania tops the list.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol:

Stay alert, pay more attention to the road and roadside, and intentionally look for deer. Be especially alert at dawn and dusk, the peak movement times for deer and when visibility is low.

Slow down at deer-crossing signs, which are posted where deer-vehicle collisions have repeatedly occurred, and near woods, parks, golf courses, and streams or creeks. At a reduced speed, you have a better chance of avoiding a deer.

Deer usually travel in groups. When one deer crosses the road, there may be others about to cross. Slow down and watch for others to dart into the road.

Slow down when approaching deer standing near roadsides. They have a tendency to bolt, possibly onto the roadway. Use emergency flashers to warn oncoming drivers after you see deer near a roadway.

Always wear your seatbelt. Statistics show that most people injured or killed in deer-related collisions were not wearing seat belts.

The most serious accidents occur when drivers lose control of their vehicles trying to avoid an animal. Do not take unsafe evasive actions. It is usually safer to strike the deer than another object such as a tree or another vehicle.

Motorcyclists need to be especially careful; fatality rates are higher in deer-motorcycle accidents than in deer-car crashes.

Come back safely!