To: encinaupdate@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 4:42 PM Subject: [Encina Update] Encina Update (challenge, pledges, reunions, siblings, bios, madrigals, internet, health, whats new, homecoming) ENCINA ALUMNI, ALUMNI CHALLENGE Steve Palmer '74 wrote: "Well, it's taken a _bit_ longer than I thought it would, but the video is finally in the "can". I have purchased the 5 VCRs and set them up in Stephanie's room. I had made a master (last) Thursday night/Friday morning, but found that my still frames flickered and have remastered and de-interlaced. I plan to give the master to Becky Hurley on Sunday and she will give it to Stephanie on Monday. She can crank between 21 and 28 tapes per day so most should be in the mail by Friday! The tape contains a short 40 second intro of stills of plays with majestic music, followed by intro titles, Channel 3 and 10 stories, player + ref intros and a short Kojima interview. This is followed by a 2:52 highlights section and 2:10 of dinner/alum interviews followed by the game. Harlan, please let folks know we appreciate their patience and to watch for the tape in the next 10 days. We're duping 7 at a time, and are not reviewing each tape. If they discover a problem, they should let us know." ALUMNI CHALLENGE PLEDGES The Encina High School Booster Club is a nonprofit organization and pledges to the Booster Club are TAX DEDUCTIBLE. The Booster Club will include their tax ID number in their letter acknowledging your pledge or donation. I've calculated the total pledge for each donor on the pledge/rsvp page: http://www.encinahighschool.com/homecoming/challenge02/rsvps.htm Please check this page to see how much you owe. Make your checks payable to the Encina High School Booster Club and send them to: Encina High School Attention: Heddy Crowder 1400 Bell Street Sacramento,CA 95825 Thank you for supporting Encina! UNCOLLECTED PLEDGES Thanks to all of you who sent your checks in! According to Heddy Crowder's spreadsheet, Encina has collected over $35,000. Here is a list of the pledges we have not received. Please note, we're not trying to point out deadbeats, but hoping that a friendly reminder helps those of you who are procastinators... 1964 Micheal Carsey ($0.50/alumni pt, $$48.50) 1965 Walter Lubiejewski ($1/alumni pt, $2/alumni pt if they win,$194) Wenzel Ruhman ($1/alumni pt,$97) 1966 Jerry Hallstrom ($50) 1970 Cathy Buchanan Ball ($1/alumni pt,$97) Paul Whatley ($250) 1972 Van Rodgers ($2/alumni pt,$194) 1973 Steve Daniel ($5/alumni pt,$485) Bruce Hunt ($2/alumni pt,$194) 1974 Gregg Magaziner ($1/alumni pt, $0.50/varsity pt,$145) 1976 Carlos X Montoya ($1.50/alumni pt,$145.50) Lad Wentzel ($1/alumni pt,$97) 1977 Bill Farley ($1/alumni pt, $97) Tom MacLaughlin ($2/alumni pt,$194) Mike Martis ($1/alumni pt,$97) Rocky Niederberger ($50) 1978 Aaron Valencia ($1/alumni pt,$97) 1980 Scott Schnackel ($1/alumni pt, $97) Jennifer Smith Tierney ($0.50/alumni pt,$48.50) Georgianna Wooley Marie ($2/alumni pt, $194) 1982 Bo Stephenson ($50 + $3/pt by Guzman or Enriquez,$143) 1984 Joe & Mike Kramer ($1/pt by Enriquez 84, $1/pt by Guzman 84,$31) 1985 Roy Colburn ($0.50/alumni pt, $48.50) 1987 David Martinez Galvan ($2/pt by James Jones,$42) 1988 Peter Casillas ($1/alumni pt, $2/pt by James Jones 87, $2/pt by Ryan Norris 89, $2/pt by Rafael Enriquez 84, $50 if alumni win, $291) 1989 Geoff Shumway ($3/pt by Ryan Norris, $90) 1992 Jason Alexander ($2.75/alumni pt,$266.75) 1993 Brian Crall ($50) Dennis Mulder ($1/alumni pt,$97) 1995 Ernestine Holmes ($1/alumni pt,$1/each pt alumni win by,$98) REUNIONS CLASS OF 1962 Event: Bicycle ride Date: Friday morning, September 27, 2002 Where: American River Bike trail Contact Randi Muller Kemper at randikemper@earthlink.net or Barbara Rea Fuller at BarbieJo44@aol.com Event: Alumni only pre-party Date: Friday, September 27, 2002 Place: Mace's Format: No host cocktail party Event: Golf tournament Date: Saturday, September 28, 2002 Place: Haggin Oaks Contact: Bill Corrie Event: Reunion party Date: September 28, 2002 Place: Del Paso Country Club Contact: Alice Braio Bogert 62 at ajbogert@yahoo.com CLASS OF 1967 No plans for a 35th reunion. Next reunion in 2007. Contact: Linda Goff 67 at ljgoff@csus.edu CLASS OF 1972 Up to the minute information and maps to all venues can be found on the Class of '72 web site at: http://www.encinahighschool.com/class72/index.html Event: Alumni Preparty Date: Friday, July 12, 2002 Event: Reunion Dinner & Dance Date: Saturday, July 13, 2002 Place: Granite Bay Golf Club Event: Family Picnic Date: Sunday, July 14, 2002 Contact: Sue Kehoe Jacobson '72 at jacobson41@msn.com Debbie Sprague Mitchell '72 at galsmail@c-zone.net Darrel Mitchell '72 at lynk0007@c-zone.net CLASS OF 1977 Date: August 17, 2002 Place: Doubletree Hotel (near Arden Fair and Cal Expo) Contact: John Hyland at johnthyland@hotmail.com Sue Levy Joslin at Jos964@attbi.com CLASS OF 1982 Date: August 9, 2002 Place: Croatian Hall Contact: Soames Funakoshi at alexusfr@yahoo.com CLASS OF 1987 Date: July 13th Place: Rusch Park Time: 12 noon to 9 pm Contact: Kris Monday Dragoo at jkdragoo@winfirst.com CLASS OF 1992 Date: Saturday, October 19, 2002 Place: Grapes Dining & Spirits, 815 11th St Contact Rochelle Karrick Laun at RochLaun@yahoo.com or Jannell Penney at penneytax@msn.com SIBLINGS Darcy Frields 78 is in contact with cousins: Margreth Frields 74 Lonnie Frields 77 Craig Frields 83 Sean Frields 86 Evelyne Jadot 84 wrote: Raoul Jadot 82 Evelyne Jadot 84 Jurgen Lew 74 wrote: Alan Lew 73 Jurgen Lew 74 Veronica Lew 76 (deceased) Monika Lew 78 Calvin Lew 79 Jeff Rust 70 wrote: Glenn Rust 67 Jeff Rust 70 Carmen Avila 86 wrote: Carmen Avilia 86 Rodolfo Avila 87 Ben Avilia 92 Cheryl Goldenberg 77 wrote: Cheryl Goldenbeg 77 David Goldenberg 78? Albert Goldenberg 82 BIOS TERRY LEVEA 80 Occupation: Owner of Island Pools and Spas, Lexi-Corp. and Fake Rock Inc.Swimming Pool Contractor, Sculptor, Manufacturing, Pre-cast, Landscape Designer. Bio: Went to college for a couple of years. Moved to Los Angeles to try my luck at a golf career. NOT!! Moved back to Sacto. and started a business. Since then I have been mostly building my companies. Inventing new product lines. Traveling the world. Raising and spending a lot of time with my beautiful daughter. Trivia: I'm not sure what would be considered trivia about myself, however I am considered one of the best kept secrets in my trade and work mainly for the very wealthy. How's that? Friends: The Varsity Soccer guys, too many to name. Steve Powell, John Reitter, George Champagne, Mark Clark and other infamous water-ballooners. Hobbies: Right now I am very busy creating a product line for Home Depot and the like. Putting Video's, CD's and a Book together teaching my sculpting talents to various trades and soon the public through them as well. My Daughter is the most important feature of my life however and so I spend as much time with her as allowed. Play golf a couple of times a year. Kids: My daughter Alexis was born in October of 1997. At the time of her birth my wife Megan and I were expecting a healthy baby, just unsure of the gender. When Alexis came out she went into immediate respiratory distress and the prognosis was very dark and grim. We were told she would not live very long and that her chances of a normal life were very bleak. Through all of the surgeries and lots of therapy, she has stunned the medical community, including thirty of the brightest minds in the world at U.C.L.A. and has surpassed all of their doubts, as well as their predictions about her future. I am proud to say that I have a newly named "miracle" child, that is now teaching the medical world things they didn't think possible. The only answer they have is that lots of love, faith and her tenacity to live has made this possible. Although there are still some minor problems, I have a wonderful daughter that is very funny. Totally beautiful and makes everybody she comes in contact with want to take her home. She's v Grade_school: Lots. Winterstein, Edison to name a couple. Grade_school_friends: John Reitter, Steve Powell, Eric Moeszinger, Larry Riggs, Danette Davis Junior_high: George Champagne, Greg Rogers, Greg Selk, Brian Bender, Mark Clark, Danny Bell Junior_high_friends: Same as the other lists. Favorite_memory: Slaughterball, What a great game! The Soccer teams and friendships I made with them. Waterballooning on weekends with friends. Senior class movie. All the nice people that went there and how we all got along so well no matter what class you were in, we all just seemed to accept each other. None of the problems of today students. Story: I think I would just like to thank them and tell them how lucky I have always felt to have had them in my life. Without them I wouldn't be who I am today, nor as successful or well balanced. Thank you all! CATHERINE RAMOS HENNAN 97 Occupation: Full time college senior Bio: I got married this march at Dunes Beach in Half Moon Bay, and in persuit of my BS this year and my Masters within this year also. Friends: They know who they are. Hobbies: I have taken up birdwatching and in the california wildlife management field of biology. Kids: NADA Memorable_teachers: THe health academy crew of teachers--they've always believed in their students. Favorite_memory: A lot---too numerous to mention. MADRIGALS / JACK CAREY I have created a mailing list for former Encina Madrigals, many of whom were students of Jack Carey. You can join the Madrigals mailing list by sending a blank message to: encinamadrigals-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Kathy Cooper 66 wrote: I see Jack Carey, long-time choral music teacher from Encina, every Sunday at our church. He recently lost his address book - and corresponding information about the many, many students with whom he has stayed in touch during all these years. He is asking that folks let him know their current address and phone number so he can reconstruct his address book. Jack does not have a PC or email. If you are interested in being in Jack's address book, please write me at harlan@rambus.com and I will collect the information and get it to Jack Carey. INTERNET >From the WSJ... FTC's Top Spam Cop Outlines Efforts to Contain Online Fraud By STACY FORSTER THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE Eileen Harrington just may be the only person in America who likes to get spam. Ms. Harrington, 49 years old, is the associate director of marketing practices for the Federal Trade Commission. As the consumer-protection agency's top spam cop, she and her team of investigators have been amassing "spam" -- the common term for unsolicited commercial e-mail -- forwarded by angry consumers. The commission has collected more than eight million messages since 1998 at its e-mailbox, uce@ftc.gov1, which it uses to track down perpetrators as well as learn about developing trends and patterns. The e-mailbox receives more than 50,000 pieces of spam forwarded from consumers each day. The FTC's role isn't to stop spam, but to enforce current fraud statutes by tracking down deceptive marketers. This year, it launched a major offensive against fraudulent e-mail, bringing two major enforcement sweeps this spring. Ms. Harrington vows to bring more this year. The Wall Street Journal Online chatted with Ms. Harrington about the FTC's efforts to contain the crooked spam epidemic. WSJ.com: Does the FTC really want all of our spam? Ms. Harrington: Yes, we do. It all goes into a computer that we call "The Refrigerator" which is dedicated exclusively to spam we receive from the public. We are able to search that spam ... and we use it to identify trends, problems, potential targets for enforcement. We absolutely want it. We need to see what people are receiving so we can keep abreast of problems that are arising in consumers' e-mailboxes. Q: When you say you search spam and look for trends, what are you looking for? A: We may be looking for the prevalence of certain kinds of claims in subject lines. For example, "Earn lots of money working from home in your spare time." We may be doing a law-enforcement sweep that focuses on fraudulent work-at-home opportunities. Our spam database is not the universe of all spam being sent or received, but it's the best proxy we have for that. There are just probably an endless number of questions that we might have that we could turn to the spam database to attempt to get at least a partial answer. Q: What are the most important lessons you've learned about spam from sifting through it? A: That a lot of it appears on its face to be deceptive or fraudulent. Now, that may be because we're the Federal Trade Commission and what consumers are sending us is deceptive or fraudulent spam. Many of the claims that are made in the subject lines that seem deceptive are similar to claims made in traditional media: "Lose weight while you sleep ... Get a loan or a credit card regardless of your credit history." In other words, representations that sounded too good to be true and weren't true in traditional media are being made in the new medium and they're just as untrue. Another thing that we've learned is that there's very widespread use of false header information. [Header information provides details about where an e-mail originated, and shows which computer servers it passed through on the way to a user's mailbox.] For example, if a piece of spam that seems fraudulent has been sent to lots of e-mail addresses, and when we go to figure out who sent the spam, it's not unusual to find that the header information is false. Even if we're able to get a correct identification on the sender, the Whois domain-name registration information is false. Q: One of the most difficult things about tracking down spammers is that it's so easy to mask where it's coming from. How do you get around that? A: Some of the techniques we use are plain old gumshoe work and sometimes we're not successful. There's no mystery to this. It's a matter of old-fashioned investigative work -- sometimes using new technologies -- but it's the same thorough, careful investigative work that we use to find the perpetrators of any deceptive or fraud schemes. Q: It seems many of the legal actions the FTC has taken occurred because the spammers were making fraudulent or deceptive claims. Do you go after them simply for being spammers, or do you target them because of the kind of business they're running? A: The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits deceptive and unfair practices. Deceptive practices mean that there's been a false or misleading misrepresentation. Unfairness means that the perpetrator has done something that causes unavoidable injury to consumers, where that injury doesn't have countervailing benefits or where the countervailing benefits are far outweighed by the costs imposed by the injurious practice. You have to look on a case-by-case basis to see if something deceptive or unfair has happened. There could be instances where the mere act of sending out spam could be an unfair practice, but that really would require carefully vetting the facts of a particular case to reach that conclusion. Sending spam is certainly not always unfair, but there are instances where it could be unfair. Q: What do you think of the case that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought against an e-mail marketing company in New York? A: From my understanding ... what we have is a company that claims that it's gotten the permission of the people on their lists to send unsolicited e-mail to them. That is kind of a back-door privacy promise and if that representation is false, then not only are the people who subscribe to the service, or who buy the lists, not getting what they bargained for, but people who never wanted to receive unsolicited e-mail in the first place now are getting even more of it. We would applaud Attorney General Spitzer for taking this action. Q: There's clearly an overwhelming number of spammers you could target. How do you decide which people to go after? A: Regardless of the media that's used by a person or a company that engages in deceptive practices, bringing enforcement action to deter similar violations is an important consideration. We never think, and no law-enforcement agency ever thinks, that it is likely to be able to prosecute each and every law violator. All law enforcement does is select cases and bring a critical mass of cases that will discourage others from engaging in similar practices. We're at the front end of what will be a long and aggressive enforcement campaign against deceptive and fraudulent spammers. It's too soon to know what kind of deterrence we're getting from the actions we've brought. But you can expect to see a very steady stream of enforcement actions from the FTC. Q: There's a debate going on right now in the Senate about the need to regulate spam. Some critics say that a law isn't necessary because the FTC already has the jurisdiction to go after spammers. Does the FTC right now have the teeth to attack the spam problem? A: We've certainly been using the FTC Act to challenge deceptive and unfair practices. So it's up to Congress to decide whether there's a need for additional enforcement tools. Q: How interested are local or state law-enforcement authorities in learning about spam? A: They're very interested. In the last 20 months, the FTC has trained 1,700 individual representatives of state, local and other federal law-enforcement agencies about how to investigate spam and other Internet-fraud problems. Now we're enlisting all of those people we trained to do consumer-protection law enforcement with us. The first of those efforts was the Northwest NetForce sweep that was announced a few months ago. [In April, a group of eight state investigation teams in the northwest U.S. teamed with the FTC and four Canadian agencies to initiate 63 law-enforcement actions against Internet fraudsters. Other regional teams are preparing further sweeps.] You can expect to see more of those sweeps launched on a regional basis. Q: One small business owner we spoke with had spammers use his servers to send out millions of messages. He managed to figure out who was using his servers, but was at a loss for who to contact in law-enforcement about it. What would you suggest? A: Certainly my advice to anyone who has a problem with fraud or deception on the Internet is to file a complaint with Consumer Sentinel, a fraud-complaint database that's available to law enforcement throughout the U.S. and Canada, and increasingly to other countries. The first thing to do is report it -- any kind of problem with fraud or deception. Go online to FTC.gov10 or call our toll free number 1- 877-FTC-HELP. Secondly, the gentleman with whom you spoke exemplifies where we are today, which is, in many instances, uncharted legal territory. The person you talked to might well have an action in trespass or theft against the people who used his server this way. But these are old legal theories that are being expanded into these new practices. Q: He did contact some legal authorities and spam experts, who said that because the damage to his business wasn't significant it would be difficult to get support from law enforcement. A: That's why complaining to the FTC is a really good thing to do because it puts the complaint in front of hundreds of law-enforcement officials. There are lots of enforcers at the federal, state and local levels who care about this, and see to it that the worst of the perpetrators are stopped. Q: What happens after individuals have contacted the FTC about spam? Will the FTC follow-up with them? A: The FTC doesn't intervene on the behalf of any individual. We use the information given to us by consumers to look for something that's outrageous, or to determine whether there are multiple complaints that sound a lot alike. Law enforcement can't identify trends and practices that warrant further investigation unless people complain. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't take their own action with local law enforcement as well. Q: What are the most important things consumers can do to prevent getting spam or protect themselves from it once they do get it. A: First of all, they should make full use of their Internet settings and their mailbox settings and filters to use whatever tools are available to them to filter out spam. Second, they should be very leery of promises that sound too good to be true, no matter what the medium used by the sender. They should know what kinds of things to be on the lookout for. We have put out a consumer alert warning11 of the most likely scams to arrive by bulk e-mail from our review of the spam that people sent to us through the spam mailbox. Q: How do you work with the Internet service providers? A: They have a very strong economic incentive to reduce the amount of spam because it cripples their ability to provide good service. They often help us in identifying bad spammers, and they also do a pretty good job of shutting down spammers when they can. When they see that all of a sudden there's a huge amount of e-mail coming from one account, they shut it down and they've been very good at posting consumer education information. It's a good partnership. Q: Do you get spam in your own e-mail account, and how much do you get? A: On my home e-mail account, I probably get 5 to 6 pieces a day. Q: That's not much... A: Yes, I don't put my e-mail address all over the Internet. Q: What's the funniest or most memorable piece of spam you've received? A: The most memorable was the chain letter that said if you have any doubts about the legality of this chain letter, contact the associate director of marketing practices at the FTC -- that's me. Write to Stacy Forster at stacy.forster@wsj.com12 Updated June 3, 2002 10:15 p.m. EDT HEALTH I'm including this unrelated article because the implications are fascinating. Staggering even. Lean Times: The Surprising Rise Of Radical, Calorie-Cutting Diet Could Self Deprivation Be the Secret To a Longer, Albeit Famished, Life? By LAURA JOHANNES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL If there were a magic elixir that extended life to 150 years, most people would drink it gladly. But as scientists begin to uncover the secrets of longevity, they are finding a prescription for long life that few will want to take: a diet so low in calories that to most Americans, it would feel close to starvation. The diet, dubbed "calorie restriction" in the clinical parlance of science, would be called severe deprivation in any other lexicon. Calorie restriction was first shown to create exceptionally long-lived rats in the 1930s. It later had the same effect in guppies, water fleas, yeast, spiders and a microscopic water invertebrate called the rotifer. Last month, Labrador retrievers became the first large mammals to join the list. Now, scientists appear on the verge of a finding that calorie restriction also extends the lifespan of monkeys, who share more than 90% of their genes with humans. At the National Institutes of Health, where researchers have been studying a colony of 120 rhesus monkeys for 15 years, evidence for calorie restriction is mounting. The control animals, fed a healthy lowfat diet, are dying at a normal rate, while animals fed 30% less appear to be living far longer -- and avoiding age-linked maladies. One of the underfed monkeys is 38 years old, the human equivalent of 114 years. "Calorie restriction has worked in every species in which it has ever been tested," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Leonard Guarente. "I'd be shocked if it doesn't work in humans." Catalyzing Change Calorie restriction appears to create biochemical changes in the body that have a more-profound effect on lifespan than simply avoiding diseases caused by excess fat. No one knows for sure how it works. It might lower the levels of free radicals, or potentially toxic particles created by the breakdown of food. Other scientists believe it triggers a state of emergency called "survival mode" in which the body eliminates all unnecessary functions to focus only on staying alive. If scientists could figure out what the changes are and bottle them as a drug, "we'd have it made," says Roger McCarter, a scientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Encouraged by the animal research, the NIH plans to spend $20 million to test the effects of calorie restriction on hundreds of Americans. Some people have seen enough evidence already and have started self-depriving. Bob Cavanaugh, a 54-year-old landscaper from Morehead, N.C., has trimmed his intake to two meals a day, totaling 1,500 calories. Breakfast consists of one cup of quick oats, two tablespoons of toasted wheat germ, one cup of skim milk and blueberries. For dinner, he eats vegetables, fruit and a small portion of fish. "I'm hoping to see my great, great grandchildren," he says. Mr. Cavanaugh's diet may sound extreme, particularly since at 5-feet 9-inches tall and 158 pounds, he isn't overweight. But over the next several years, if the monkey results hold up, they could represent a major shift in how we view food and nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the average sedentary woman should eat 1,600 calories a day and the average man 2,200 -- benchmarks already significantly overshot by most Americans. Minimal Intake But those guidelines are based on ideal weight, and a calorie-restricted diet has nothing to do with weight. Rather, the NIH monkey experiments limit food intake to the minimum necessary to prevent negative effects on health -- or at least 30% less than the current "healthy" diet. Translated into human terms, that would be 1,120 calories a day for the average woman, or 1,540 for a man. For the average American, eating at that level would create deep hunger pangs. One meal at McDonald's -- a Big Mac, supersize fries, and small Coke -- weighs in at 1,450 calories. And if a woman on 30% calorie restriction had a cappuccino and a large muffin during her morning commute, she would already have consumed 75% of her allocation for the day, says Cathy Nonas, director of the Van Itallie Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. In the NIH tests, which will last as long as three years, volunteers will be asked to cut their current intake by 20% to 30%. Since many of those chosen will likely be overeaters, theirs will be a modest effort by comparison with the NIH monkeys. Still, to ensure compliance, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., will initially require volunteers to eat only food provided by the scientists -- and two of the three daily meals must be eaten in the laboratory cafeteria. Scientists will catalog the test subjects' metabolism and other biochemical markers, such as blood sugar, lipid levels and body temperature. The goal of the tests, says Evan Hadley, head of geriatrics at the National Institute on Aging, is to give scientists insight into how deprivation changes body chemistry. Residents of developing countries eat very low calorie diets. Their nutrition is so poor, though, that any positive effects are masked by medical problems caused by malnourishment, scientists say. But a study of the Japanese island of Okinawa -- whose 1.3 million inhabitants have traditionally eaten a spartan, but nutrition-packed diet of about 1,800 calories a day -- provides some evidence for calorie restriction. On Okinawa, where the diet consists of soy, vegetables and small amounts of fish, meat and rice, there are 34 centenarians for every 100,000 people -- more than triple the U.S. rate, says Bradley Willcox, a gerontologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The oldest person in the world, 113-year-old Kamato Hongo, lives on a nearby island, he adds. The Okinawa data fall short of a controlled experiment, because genetics or other factors could be at work. In rats, the effects of calorie restriction have been shown repeatedly, and they are dramatic. University of Wisconsin researcher Richard Weindruch says that broadly speaking, a 30% calorie restriction results in a 30% increase in maximum lifespan. Translated into human years, that would mean that the oldest members of the species would make it to about 150 on such a diet. Even more striking is that the caloric intake of the rat, not its weight, matters most. Well-fed rats kept lean by regular exercise are less likely to die prematurely of disease than well-fed sedentary rats -- but their maximum lifespan remains the same. Primates, similar enough to humans that they have been used to study everything from congenital vision defects to Alzheimer's disease, remain the gold standard for proof when human experiments aren't practicable. But monkeys haven't been easy to study, because they live to be around 25, compared with three years for rodents. At the NIH facility in Poolesville, Md., in a bucolic area about 40 miles from downtown Washington, scientists are growing increasingly excited about the results they are seeing. The experiment began in 1987, with monkeys of various ages. They were divided into two groups. One group was fed a normal low-fat diet, equivalent to the healthy diet recommended by nutritionists for humans. The other group received 30% less than that, or just barely enough to stave off starvation. And that's the group that's thriving. Today, 14% of the calorie-restricted monkeys have died, compared with 22% of the monkeys on the normal healthy diet, says Mark Lane, a co-investigator on the study. Those figures exclude monkeys whose deaths were deemed accidental, such as when a batch of overcooked food caused a fatal stomach ailment called gastric bloat. "We're very excited," says Dr. Lane. "We think it's working." Healthier Monkeys Not only do the calorie-restricted monkeys appear to be living longer, they also seem to be healthier. Only 14% of them have developed an age-related disease, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or failing kidneys, compared with 32% in the control group, Dr. Lane says. Also, calorie restriction staved off the normal age-related decline in a multifunctioned hormone called dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. DHEA, sold as a dietary supplement, has touched off a craze among Americans even though many scientists say there is no proof it will forestall aging. It's too early to predict what the maximum lifespan will be in either group. But one of the calorie-restricted monkeys, a rhesus from Indian stock who goes only by the name given him by his breeders, C58, turned 38 in January. That makes him one of the oldest rhesuses ever recorded. The University of Wisconsin, widely believed to have housed the oldest-ever rhesus, says the oldest monkey for which it had a firm date of birth lived to be 36. Another animal, still alive but without a well-documented birthdate, is believed to be about 39 years old. Neither of those monkeys were on calorie-restricted diets. C58 looks thin but not gaunt. He weighs 17 pounds, compared with an average of 24 pounds for elderly control monkeys. Other than a touch of arthritis and a cataract, he appears in excellent health. Each day, he eats about 3.7 ounces of monkey chow -- dried pellets compressed from wheat, corn, soybean, alfalfa, fish and brewer's yeast. In his younger days, scientists say, C58 was an aggressive "alpha male," reaching out of his cage to grab passersby. But he's mellowed in his old age. On a recent day, he sat quietly, munching contentedly on a handful of chow and gazing out of his cage with mild curiosity. A small group of humans are practicing C58-style calorie restriction in the hopes that it will provide a fountain of youth. These people, who communicate through an online chat group with 800 participants, call their philosophy "Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition." Its practitioners, who dub themselves Cronies, follow their own personalized diets, which share the common goal of minimal calories. Many draw their inspiration from the Biosphere 2 project in the early 1990s. Volunteers attempting to live a self-contained existence in a glass-enclosed community were forced to reduce their calories sharply when food became unexpectedly restricted. One of the volunteers on Biosphere 2 was Dr. Roy Walford, a scientist at the University of California Los Angeles who is one of the pioneers of calorie restriction. Michael Rae, a six-foot-tall 31-year-old from Calgary, Canada, weighs a gaunt 115 pounds after three years on a strict calorie-restricted diet. "I'd much rather weigh 50 more pounds, but I want to live longer and this is the only proven way to do it," says Mr. Rae. "Every calorie you eat is a second off your life." Cronies monitor their vital signs carefully. Like the Biospherians, their blood sugar, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels have dropped. They draw hope from the fact that they have few colds and flus, and that their bodies seem to be changing in ways similar to animal models. For example, just as the body temperature of rats and monkeys drops with calorie restriction, Mr. Rae's has fallen to 97 degrees, below the normal human temperature of 98.6 degrees. But many Cronies become irritable and snappish. Testosterone drops, causing some of the men to lose interest in sex. Several men have developed early signs of osteoporosis -- a disease of brittle bones commonly found in elderly women. One Cronie suddenly found himself severely anemic. He had to start taking iron supplements and eating more red meat. Families sometimes resent the enormous amount of time it takes to maintain the Cronie lifestyle. For the most part, prepackaged food is out -- because it would shoot the daily limit quickly, while providing inadequate nutrition. Dean Pomerleau, a 37-year-old technology entrepreneur from Wexford, Pa., grows sprouts -- bean, alfalfa, broccoli, arugula and a dozen other kinds -- in his basement. "If you like arugula, you'd really like arugula sprouts," says Mr. Pomerleau, who is 5-foot-8 and weighs 127 pounds. Terry, his wife, isn't enthusiastic. She told her husband the time-consuming preparation of his giant salads was dirtying the kitchen, he says. The solution: He spent $1,000 to build a mini-kitchen for himself in the basement, adjacent to the sprout farm. If scientists could discover what makes calorie restriction work, people might be able to enjoy the same effect without the hassle, and without the deprivation. One theory is that the lower body temperature caused by near-starvation somehow extends life. In case low temperature is in fact the secret, Mr. Rae avoids putting on a sweater even when he feels chilly. There is mounting evidence for another favorite theory -- that lower food intake results in fewer free radicals, or unstable particles created as a result of the breakdown of food. These particles can seriously damage genes and proteins, resulting in potentially fatal diseases. Advocates of this theory got a major boost when samples of thigh muscles from the calorie-restricted monkeys at the University of Wisconsin were shown to have suffered remarkably little free-radical damage, says Dr. Weindruch. NIH scientists have also found preliminary evidence for the "survival mode" theory. The scientists found that human and rat cells grown in the blood of calorie-restricted monkeys are enormously resistant to heat and toxins -- suggesting there is something in the blood that is fighting dangers aggressively. Several groups of researchers are now racing to find which genes are "expressed," or turned on, during calorie restriction. In mice, the "gene-expression profile," or the list of genes whose functions are turned on and off, is strikingly similar in calorie-restricted animals to younger animals -- indicating that calorie restriction may be directly reversing age-related biochemical changes. In monkeys, so far, dozens of genes have been found turned on or off as a result of calorie restriction. But in preliminary data, the gene-expression profile of the restricted monkeys doesn't appear to mirror that of younger animals, says Stephen Spindler, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California at Riverside. Write to Laura Johannes at laura.johannes@wsj.com2 http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1023051597575192280.djm,00.html WHAT'S NEW 6/6/02: Terry Levea 80/bio, Susan Smith 72 update, Jeff Rust 70, Glenn Rust 67, Rick Thomas 64, Linda Thomas 66, Bob Thomas 69, Douglas McCaleb 82 bio, Kaye Garrison 77, Carmen Avila 86, Rodolfo Avila 87, Ben Avila 92, Roberta Climent 64 update, Pamela Waterbury 87 update, Tim Clark 86 6/3/02: Jurgen Lew 74, Alan Lew 73, Veronica Lew 76, Monika Lew 78, Calvin Lew 79, Marla Foulk 72, Evelyne Jadot 84, Raoul Jadot 82, Will Lewis 81 update, Wanda Myrick 82 update, Sharon Snider 87, Heidi Studt 62, Trish Cauley 75/76 5/31/02: Randy Headrick 64 update, Margreth Frields 74, Lonnie Frields 77, Craig Frields 83, Sean Frields 86, Brenda Horsley 90 update HOMECOMING PARTY Congratulations to Candy Mleczko 94, who is the FIRST alumni to rsvp for this year's homecoming party! Candy wrote: I've got spirit, yes I do! I've got spirit! How 'bout you?? I can help set-up for rally/party/whatever! Let me know if any help is needed!! I miss those days!! Decorations/whatever!! The current date is Friday, November 1, 2002 versus San Juan. Please make a note of the date of the Homecoming 2002 party! Don't forget to submit your contact information or bio: contact: www.encinahighschool.com/directory/submit_contact.htm bio: www.encinahighschool.com/submit_bio.htm Harlan Lau '73 Encina HS alumni webmaster www.encinahighschool.com harlan@rambus.com