Posts tagged women
50,000 Endangered Species Condoms to Be Handed Out at Year-end Events
Dec 23rd
TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity is distributing 50,000 free Endangered Species Condoms for holiday and New Year’s Eve celebrations around the country. More than 600 volunteer distributors will hand out the condoms at events in all 50 states. The condoms are part of the Center’s 7 Billion and Counting campaign focusing on the effects of rapid human population growth on rare plants and animals. “There are more than 3 billion people on the planet under the age of 25. The choices this generation makes will determine whether our planet and its wildlife and natural resource base are burdened with 8 billion or 15 billion people. The difference between these paths can be measured by how many other species are left to roam alongside us,” said Jerry Karnas, population campaign director with the Center. “Our Endangered Species Condoms are a great way to get a conversation started about how the growing human population is affecting the wild world around us, especially animals already teetering on the edge of extinction.” As part of its full-time population campaign launched in 2009, the Center has given out 450,000 free Endangered Species Condoms, featuring polar bears, panthers and other species threatened by population growth, loss of habitat and consumption of natural resources. This year, the Center is providing condoms to college health centers, nightclub owners, environmental activists, women’s reproductive-health groups and other activists around the United States. The world’s human population has doubled since 1970, reaching 7 billion in October 2011. According to the latest research, it could exceed 9 billion by 2050. In recent weeks, several federal reports have noted the impact that population is having on the natural world. A recent decision to propose Endangered Species Act protection for 66 coral species said that “the common root or driver of most, possibly all” of the threats that corals face — like climate change and changing ocean conditions — is the world’s growing human population. Another report, by the Department of the Interior, raised serious questions about the ability of the Colorado River to meet demands of a growing population in the western United States. “The evidence is mounting, and the solutions are at hand if only we’re just willing to start talking about them,” Karnas said. “Universal access to birth control, a rapid transition to clean energy, robust land-acquisition programs and much smarter growth policies can combine to forge a future for wildlife and a high quality of life for people. There’s no better time to start than in the new year of 2013.” The Center is the only environmental group with a full-time campaign highlighting the connection between unsustainable human population growth and the ongoing extinction crisis for plants and animals around the world. In 2011 the Center released a report on the top 10 U.S. species threatened by population growth. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. [includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
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Buffs Win Big, Get In The Spirit Of Giving
Dec 22nd
BOULDER – ‘Tis the season . . .
On a name-your-score night for the Colorado Buffaloes, coach Tad Boyle was more impressed by his team’s willingness to share than its point total.
Oh, CU’s points – 98 of them – were impressive, especially considering overmatched Northern Arizona managed only 51 on Friday night at the Coors Events Center.
But by halftime, Boyle’s Buffaloes had dished out 13 assists, tying their full-game season high. Sharing the ball more effectively has been on Boyle’s mind for a couple of months, and Friday night his team offered him an early Christmas present – 24 assists.
“We played unselfish . . . we made the extra pass it was contagious on our team,” a beaming Boyle said. “It’s a great way to go into Christmas break . . . a great team victory.”
On the switches-and-ashes side, the Buffs also committed 16 turnovers. Yet at halftime, when they were up 57-21, their assist-to-turnover ratio was a sparkling 13-to-5, so Boyle couldn’t leave the building overwrought about second-half ball handling that he termed “just a little careless.”
He used all 12 of his players and 11 of them scored – five reaching double figures. Askia Booker and Xavier Johnson each had 17, with Spencer Dinwiddie adding 15, Josh Scott 11 and Andre Roberson 10. Reserves Ben Mills and Beau Gamble got in the game late and scored their first points of the season.
Said Boyle: “To give them some time and minutes was something everybody felt good about.”
Added Dinwiddie: “Everybody is happy. We had people getting off the bench. We are each other’s biggest supporters. Most of the time you see the guys on the bench supporting us (starters) and it was just a great opportunity we had to be able to support them.”
CU, improving to 9-2, has one non-league game remaining before beginning Pac-12 Conference play on Jan. 3 at No. 4 Arizona. The Buffs play Hartford on Saturday, Dec. 29. It is part of a men’s-women’s doubleheader at the Events Center, with the CU women taking on New Mexico. The men’s tip time is noon.
NAU came to Boulder with a 4-6 record, a pair of losses coming against Pac-12 opponents. The Lumberjacks lost November games at Oregon (83-73) and at Arizona (93-50), and NAU coach Jack Murphy left the CEC believing CU can compete with the upper tier Pac-12 teams.
“When they shoot the ball like they did tonight, they’ll compete with anybody in the league,” Murphy said. “I think that those three teams, and I obviously haven’t seen the other nine, but those three I’ve seen are very, very good. I know right now as it stands they have the three best records in the conference and they all are well coached.
“I think Arizona’s size will present problems for a lot of teams in the league but Colorado, they have great guard play . . . and with Roberson and Scott and the high-low action in the front court, they can be really tough to beat.”
In the run-up to Friday’s game, Boyle promised that his bench would be utilized more in the Buffs’ final two non-conference games. He held true to his promise, using 10 players in Friday’s first half as CU cruised to its 36-point lead at intermission. CU’s bench wound up outscoring NAU’s 39-11.
“We really need to get those (bench) guys going,” Boyle said. “Those guys are going to be important to us throughout the season. We know pretty much what we’re going to get from our starters.”
The Buffs’ 98 points were the second most in the Boyle era, as was their 47-point margin of victory. Their 57 first-half points were the third highest for a first half since the 1954-55 season.
Booker got CU rolling early by hitting five of his first six shots. When NAU pulled to 8-6 on an inside basket by 6-8 Max Jacobsen, Booker answered with a jumper and a layup to open a 23-2 Buffs run that effectively finished the Lumberjacks.
Boyle said it was “key for ‘Ski’ to come off . . . I was hoping he could get out of his funk.” Taking extra shots has never been an issue for Booker, said Boyle: “He’ll spend time in the gym. When he gets his mojo going, he’s pretty darn good.”
Booker said his hot start “felt pretty good,” adding that the Lumberjacks defenders were “forcing me to the baseline a lot . . . their big guys are a little slower, which allowed me to get a few more open shots.”
At the 9:18 mark, CU led 31-8 and was just getting untracked. With just over 2 minutes left before intermission, the Buffs’ lead had ballooned to 40 (55-15). Consecutive layups by Sabatino Chen got CU to 55, and along the way there were plenty of highlights, including the 6-10 freshman Scott’s first three-pointer of the season. He drained his trey from the top of the key and followed with the Buffs’ next two baskets.
CU finished the half with an eye-popping 71.4 percent from the field (25-for-35) and 60 percent from three-point range (6-for-10). The Buffs shot 66.7 percent (40-for-60) for the game – the best shooting percentage by a CU team in 23 seasons – and were at 55 percent (11-for-20 from beyond the arc.
The only area that found the Buffs lacking was their free throw shooting. They made only one of seven first-half attempts, with three of the misses spoiling opportunities for three-point plays. They finished 7-of-15 from the line.
But with all else CU was doing right, misfiring from the foul stripe was forgivable. The Buffs’ defense was stifling and their board work overwhelming; they held the Lumberjacks to 31.1 percent from the field (19-of-61) and outrebounded them 45-22.
The Buffs opened the second half with as much effort and efficiency as they did to begin the night. At the 12-minute mark, they were up by 50 (78-28) and showing no signs of easing up.
About 4 minutes later, with CU ahead 83-35, Mills – the 7-foot junior center – left the bench for only the second time this season, much to the delight of the CEC crowd. He scored his first points of the season on a layup with 4:32 to play, sending CU up 90-39.
Boyle completed the emptying of his bench by inserting Gamble, a sophomore guard who attended Fairview High School, with 5:33 remaining. Gamble got in the scoring column with a three-pointer in the final 90 seconds.
The Buffs missed an opportunity to reach 100 points for the first time this season, but really didn’t care. They dribbled out the final 16 seconds without taking a shot. The crowd wasn’t overly pleased – but the displeasure passed quickly.
CU now has a four-day Christmas break, which Boyle called “an eternity” compared to previous holiday off periods he has experienced. “The most I’ve ever had was maybe three days,” he said. “These guys will have to do some cardio work at home; they can’t sit on the couch and eat ham and turkey. I trust our guys.”
COLORADO’S JEFFERY IS ANN MEYERS DRYSDALE NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dec 18th
ST. LOUIS (USBWA) – The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has selected Colorado guard Chucky Jeffery as its Ann Meyers Drysdale Women’s National Player of the Week for games ending the week of Sunday, Dec. 16. The USBWA’s weekly honor will be handed out each Tuesday through Feb. 19 this season.
As the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week, Jeffery was nominated for weekly award, which was chosen by a representative of the USBWA board of directors from a list of Division I conference players of the week.
Jeffery, a 5-10 senior guard from Colorado Springs, Colo., scored a game- and season-high 22 points as Colorado upset then-No. 8 Louisville 70-66 after scoring 14 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and dishing five assists in an 83-63 road triumph at Denver. Her play for the week resulted in the Lady Buffs crashing the Associated Press rankings for the first time since the 2007-08 season, landing coach Linda Lappe’s team at No. 25. The win over Louisville in Boulder was the first over a Top 10 opponent since the 2002 season. On the week, Jeffery averaged 18.0 points on 44 percent shooting and 9.0 rebounds in two games.
Since the 1987-88 season, the USBWA has named a National Player of the Year. At the Women’s NCAA Final Four in Denver last April, the organization announced going forward that the national and weekly player award has been named for Hall of Famer and former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers Drysdale. At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name finalists for the award, which is voted on by the entire membership of the USBWA. The winner of the 2013 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year will be announced and presented at the USBWA’s annual awards breakfast in New Orleans, site of the 2013 NCAA Women’s Final Four.
Several other women’s awards are also to be announced later this season associated with more famous names in women’s basketball history. At last season’s Women’s Final Four it was also announced that former Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who was the female recipient of the Most Courageous Award for her battle against early onset dementia, Alzheimer type, would have that award named in her honor.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected a women’s All-America team since the 1996-97 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Joe Mitch at 314-795-6821.
2012-13 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week
• Week of Dec. 9: Maggie Lucas, Penn State (Big Ten Conference)
• Week of Dec. 16: Chucky Jeffery, Colorado (Pac-12 Conference)
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