Staples Boys Lacrosse Routs Hall High School 19-3 in CIAC State Tourney Opening Round
This photo sums up the opening round CIAC tournament match between Staples and Hall High School on Wednesday.
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The Boys LAX team, ranked #2 took charge on the field from the first face-off and after scoring their first goal in less than two minutes, they kept their foot on the gas scoring 8 more goals and hold #15 Hall High School of West Hartford to only a single goal in the CIAC State Tournament opening round on Wednesday at home.
Staples had balanced scoring from Leo Sequenzia, with 3 goals, Ben Burmeister also with 3 and Gavin Rothenberg led the scorers with 4 goals.Same Eigen added two with Adam Udell and Tristan Schaefer also adding to the total.
Also finding the Hall net were Will Fleming, Dixon Scherer, Owen Bessey, Tim Herold and Will Fleming.
Westport Comes Out In Force To Honor Our Veterans On Memorial Day
A beautiful, sunny day in the 70's on Monday made for a perfect setting for Westport's annual Memorial Day parade which wound it's way through town delighting the thousands of spectators from Riverside Avenue, across the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Memorial Bridge and finishing up after passing Town Hall.
Photos and story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery
Every, or nearly every civic and community organization in town participated, with the award winning Staples High School band and the Suzuki Music School providing the soundtrack. Staples Varsity Cheerleaders pumped up the crowd, the Westport-Weston Y's Gymnastics team did flips and handstands and youth sports teams from the little leagues to softball and lacrosse waved to the admiring crowds.
Revolutionary War officer Miggs Burroughs marched promoting the Yankee Doodle Fair, the minuteman statute on Compo Rd. we all pass by all summer long rode through a float through town looking suspiciously like RTM member Andrew Colabella.
American flags waved in the breeze, vehicles decked out in the Red, White and Blue accompanied A.J. Penna's flatbed carried the Westport Rotary's Giant Duck reminding us of the annual Great Duck Race along with a very large lobster giving thoughts to the Rotary's annual Lobsterfest which seems a long way off at the unofficial start of summer.
Members of all the service branches and veterans of the Korean War, Viet Nam and even World War II, like Grand Marshall Ben Pepper who is 99 years young this year reminded us of why why were gathered; to honor the service and sacrifice of those who returned from wars and especially this who did not.
Check back tomorrow for more parade and Memorial coverage.
Photos and story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
50th Westport Fine Arts Festival Draws Thousands Downtown
Westport kicked off the Memorial Day Holiday weekend with the always exceptional Westport Fine Arts Festival, now in it’s 50th year.
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Westport's downtown was filled with art lovers and appreciators of the spectacular gallery quality Painting, Watercolor, Photography/Digital Art, Sculpture, Drawing (Pastel, Pencil, Ink), Printmaking, Mixed Media, Glass/ Ceramics, Jewelry, Wood and more. The event, larger than ever featured new artists and multiple music performances from classical to a little bluegrass, a food court with several gourmet food trucks and bars serving libations.
Photos By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Creating Art At The Festival
Children at the festival were invited to help create the "Whale" mural in chalk, part of the vanishing species concept popular in the art world. Vanishing refers both to species and the fact that the images, done in chalk outdoors will eventually vanish completely. Also created by visitors, a paint-by-numbers tile mural which featured a beach scene with an ariplane towing a banner thanking Our First Responders which will be installed on noted Westport Developer David Walden's building in town.
Sailing Regattas mark Memorial Day Weekend
Members of several local yacht clubs got together today to race off of Westport’s coast as gusty winds moved the vessels along at quick paces. WestportLocal.com photo
Mr. Calise and his Jeep on Parade
Longtime Westporter Mike Calise, and his famous green Jeep, were on parade today as the community came together in Downtown Westport to celebrate the memory of service members lost
Little Leaguers Show Patriotism for Memorial Day Parade
Members of the Cubs little league team were all smiles this morning on Myrtle Avenue as their trailer slowly pulled them along the parade route while they waived to passersby. WestportLocal.com photo
Choppy Sound brings Water Skiing to Saugatuck Harbor
With heavy chop on the Sound, Saugatuck Harbor continued to be a safe haven for water sports enthusiasts for the next generation of Westporters as one tried their luck at water skiing off of Stony Point. WestportLocal.com photo
Sunset Season hits Compo Shoreline
The last bits of golden warmth bask over Compo Beach this evening as the last of the barbecuers and sun-seekers began to pack up their belongings for the trip home. With warm temperatures, brisk winds and relaxing surf - this Memorial Day was a perfect day to spend with family and friends along the shoreline. WestportLocal.com photo
Tech Guru David Pogue Presentation At The Westport Library Shows Both Sides Of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
In just over an highly informative and entertaining hour Westport resident David Pogue, well known as the five-time Emmy award winner for his stories on the very popular CBS Sunday Morning, as well as a New York Times best selling author, and for five TED talk appearances also as host of 20 Nova science specials on PBS. His tech bona fides are well established having co-written more than 120 books, including dozens in the Missing Manual tech series which he created in 1999, six in the For Dummies series of books as well as iPhone Unlocked and Mac Unlocked.
He was welcomed to the Trefz Forum stage of the Westport Library by the Y's Men of Westport/Weston and presented a well structured series of topics on both the up and much discussed down sides of the recent boom in the use of Artificial Intelligence in many areas of our everyday life. The Y's men, now 400 strong is composed of retired and semi retired men who are involved in various community oriented activities and presentations.
He began the presentation with a recording of one of the first interactions with AI he experienced where a Google AI program called a hair salon and booked an appointment with the salon receptionist. This actual conversation included a back and forth to set a date and time and discuss the details making it appear to the salon employee the she was actually talking to a "Lisa", a female client, complete with questions punctuated with the occasional "mum". The response once this came to light was alarm and fear of the implications of this kind of technology. There are many professions which may potentially be at risk including commercial and consumer art, architecture, fashion, interior and graphic design, photography and other professions which currently provide a living for many.
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Rogue then opined about the ChatGTP program which is according to studies, already being used to create essays such as one his son had recently written for college admissions. When he asked ChatGTP to create such an essay the program produced essay was very similar to his son's. Pogue said states and institutions have already begun banning its use. Pogue related that this is virtually impossible to enforce as this ChatGTP style software will soon be available in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. He described an interaction a friend had with ChatGTP that lasted a couple of hours and the ChatBot started getting frustrated and began saying things that were nothing short of bizarre and alarming.
He next demonstrated how artwork can be created by simply telling an AI program named Dall-E2, named for the artist Dali combined with the title of the the Pixar movie WALL-E which he said had been described "as terrifying". The company that developed DALLE-2, Open AI, which was co-founded by a group which included Elon Musk in 2015. The company "trained" the software by feeding it 600 million labeled images from the internet. He asked the audience to suggest the parameters which were, create a water-color pink taxi in Times Square. He then showed the real world impact of such technology by sharing a clip from one of his four CBS Sunday Morning segments on AI which included an interview with a very successful artist raising the question, "why would someone pay a lot of money to an artist" when this kind of tech can do it for very little money.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
One of the ore amazing facts was well illustrated in his slide was showed article headlines discussing not only the Top 30 emerging AI firms, but the Top 100, which begs the question, just how many companies around the world are engaged in developing artificial intelligence applications!
To see the entire presentation click on the Youtube link below.
Pogue addressed the fear of catastrophic consequences with this of this new tech with his segment, "Every New Invention Predictably Triggers Panic" Argument which presented quotes and comments through the years with every new "radical" invention, be it radio, television, electricity even telephones. Dire effects were predicted when those inventions entered everyday life, however it may seem now that these new technologies may have a substantial impact, for good or for not-so-good on our everyday quality of life.
Pogue addressed the fear of catastrophic consequences with this of this new tech with his segment, "Every New Invention Predictably Triggers Panic" Argument which presented quotes and comments through the years with every new "radical" invention, be it radio, television, electricity even telephones. Dire effects were predicted when those inventions entered everyday life, however it may seem now that these new technologies may have a substantial impact, for good or for not-so-good on our everyday quality of life.
There is so much more to Pogue's presentation than can be properly described here and have justice done to it.
The Westport Library has made the entire fascinating presentation available on Youtube, visit: https://youtu.be/G-z9a86Bclc
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com