Generation

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

This is the season of generational twaddle. At graduation ceremonies across the country, politicians, authors, actors and businessmen take to the stage to tell young people they are fantastic simply because they are young. This year, the ritual is more pathetic than usual because there's a presidential election in the offing. And because the current occupant of the White House won in 2008 in no small part due to his success with the "youth vote," he is desperate for them to repeat their blunder.

For the past few days, I've watched commentators on both the left and the right examine and analyze the reaction of the "American street" to the news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Many of those who gathered at the White House and other places of national significance have been college and university students. It is an error to compare these spontaneous demonstrations with those in the Arab world following the attacks of 9/11 or to insinuate that such demonstrations by young people were simply expressions of over-excited youth.

Saturday's editions of The Sun will include an article on Loyola junior long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff, who narrowly missed out on being named one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award after recording one of the finer seasons in recent memory. Ratliff hails from Marietta, Ga., and graduated from George Walton Comprehensive High School there. The success of Ratliff and fellow Georgia natives Darius Bowling and Rick Lewis - both at Ohio State - has garnered the interest of a younger generation of lacrosse players in the Peach State.

Steve Job's death had the same impact on the younger generation of today that the death of John F. Kennedy had on a previous generation While it is difficult to quantify the impact of one person on an entire generation, it is safe to say that the passing of Steve Jobs had the same impact on the younger generation of today that the death of John F. Kennedy had on a previous generation. For those who witnessed both events, we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when both of these heroes passed on. Paul Jankovic, Bethany Beach, Del.

J.D. Salinger, one of contemporary literature's most famous recluses, who created a lasting symbol of adolescent discontent in his 1951 novel "The Catcher in the Rye," died Wednesday. He was 91. Mr. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, N.H., his son Matthew said in a statement from the author's longtime literary agency, Harold Ober Associates, which made the announcement on behalf of Mr. Salinger's family. Perhaps no other writer of so few works generated as much popular and critical interest as Mr. Salinger, who published one novel, three authorized collections of short stories and an additional 21 stories that appeared in magazines only in the 1940s.

Bill has been my favorite nephew since he entered this world 32 years ago as the first of my parents' grandchildren, and I am certain that he would not hesitate to care for me in my declining years. It is the other 75 million members of my generation that Bill isn't interested in supporting, and the prospects of having to do so threaten to wreck an unusually harmonious relationship between generations — in many more families than mine, I suspect. You see, Bill believes there is little money left in the coffers of the entitlement programs meant to cushion the golden years of my cohorts and me, and he is certainly there won't be any when it is his turn to call on Social Security and Medicare.

Constellation Energy Group has completed the $365 million purchase of two natural gas generation facilities in Texas, the company announced Tuesday. The Colorado Bend Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Wharton, Texas, and the Quail Run Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Odessa, gives Constellation a physical presence in Texas, where the Baltimore-based corporation sells power in wholesale and retail markets. Company executives had announced in February plans to use $1 billion in cash balances to purchase additional generation facilities in areas where it sells more load than it produces.

Are you ready for some foosball? The 2012 Maryland Foosball Championships will be held Feb. 17-19 at the Holiday Inn Columbia in Jessup, with 150 enthusiasts of the table soccer game competing for $12,000 in prize money. According to tournament director Chun Lee, the competition that started in Maryland in the late 1980s will return after a year's hiatus. Lee said the event was not held last year because sponsor Tornado Table Soccer could not fit it into its schedule. Lee, who has been playing the popular indoor game for 20 years, said the type of foosball being played now is much faster than it was when he started.

Washington.-- Just a few months ago, it seemed almost certain that the president would be a man in his 70s for at least the next four years, with aides and cronies almost as, er, mature. It's shocking enough to find yourself in your 40s. The added shock of finding that suddenly the people running the country are also in their 40s is doubly cruel.The moment of truth comes with another surprise: national leadership is apparently going to involve repeated decisions about whether to send younger Americans off to risk their lives in war. Only in the last year has it become clear that the end of the Cold War will probably introduce a new era of military activism.

Horse racing's center stage, the place where the industry's best jockeys and trainers reside, is getting crowded. Ramon Dominguez, John Velazquez and current No. 1 jockey Javier Castellano may not be ready to exit stage left. Trainers Todd Pletcher, Bob Baffert and Steve Asmussen might not want to either. But evolution happens in every sport. Here's a look at a few prospects who are making waves in horse racing's next generation. For jockeys, ability and toughness count In the jockey world California-based Joel Rosario, New York-based Rosie Napravnik and Kentucky Derby winner Mario Gutierrez are muscling for space.

Solar power is gaining a toehold in the Mid-Atlantic region.  As of this month, the amount of photovoltaic electric generating capacity installed surpassed 1 gigawatt, according to PJM Interconnection , which oversees the electricity transmission grid stretching from Delaware to northern Illinois and western Kentucky. That's enough - when the sun is shining - to power 800,000 to 1 million homes. Solar capacity has more than doubled in each of the past two years, PJM reports.

They pass through the tiny row home at a steady clip, 50,000 pilgrims a year on a mission to visit their mecca. Here, in a second-floor bedroom of a narrow little residence on Emory Street, on a bitter cold day in 1895, George Herman Ruth was born. Humble digs, indeed, for one who'd grow up to be larger than life. But as Lorie Vaughan toured Babe Ruth's birthplace on Tuesday, she said the locale wasn't as important as the aura around it. "I've been to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home)

Here's a new topic area for BaltTech: Guns. Specifically, Adcor Industries BEAR automatic rifle. I wrote a story today where I covered Adcor , a Baltimore company, has designed a cutting-edge automatic rifle that's currently in the middle of a major Army competition that could replace the M4 carbine (a cousin of the M16.) I toured Adcor's office and machining facility last week, with the owner, Jimmy Stavrakis, and Michael Brown, the inventor of the BEAR. (BEAR stands for Brown Enhanced Automatic Rifle.)

Baltimore MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeis asking the City Council to grant generous property tax breaks for the developers of the long-stalled Superblock project on the west side of downtown, calling it a linchpin of her long-term strategy to grow the city's revenue base and increase its population by 10,000 families over the next decade. That may be overstating the impact of any one project, and it is bound to revive a long-simmering debate about the value and wisdom of the city's practice of providing tax incentives to big developers.

Many observers are well aware that Johns Hopkins has scored three goals in its last six quarters, a trend that has contributed to the No. 13 Blue Jays' back-to-back losses to No. 8 Maryland and unranked Navy. But while the spotlight is squarely trained on the lack of offensive punch, coach Dave Pietramala said the team's woes aren't limited. “Everybody's quick to point fingers at the offense,” he said Wednesday. “This is a team thing, and I understand that we gave up eight goals [in the six-goal setback to the Midshipmen]

College students may not agree with everything Paul Rogat Loeb has to say about them, but they have to admit he's done his homework.That's more than he can say for some of you.Mr. Loeb began researching this book in the early '80s while lecturing on college campuses about citizen involvement in critical public issues. He followed this up with hundreds of student interviews from 1987 through 1993. The observations and questions that arose from those interviewed, and Mr. Loeb's passionate analysis of his subjects' responses, make up the bulk of "Generation at the Crossroads."

Win or lose the nomination, Sen. Robert Kerrey of Nebraska and Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas set a Democratic theme this week for the 1992 effort to oust George Bush from the White House."

A fellow named Joseph contacted me the other day. He's one of Baltimore's many drug addicts, still alive at 33, clean for once, and looking for a job. "I started smoking crack at the age of 14, shooting heroin at the age of 16," he says. "I am on parole and probation, and I can't find a job anywhere ... It seems like every time I get an interview, everything is great until they do a background check. I'm going to [violate my parole] soon due to non-payment of the [parole] supervision fees.

If you didn't see the debut of HBO's"Girls" Sunday night, here's some advice: Do whatever it takes to see it. Smart people are going to be talking and talking and talking some more about it for weeks. In 30 years of writing about television,  I cannot remember five other TV comedies that have blown me away the way this one did. I am sure I am only about the 50th reviewer to compare it to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show. " But I watched that one as a twentysomething baby boomer feeling for the first time that prime-time TV was speaking to and for my generation in a meaningful way. I am guessing "Girls" will have that same kind of electricity and cultural thunder for people who are in their 20s today.