Growth Spurt

Experiencing a growth spurt in high school is like winning the lottery. It changes everything. Goals are revised, dreams are renewed, ambitions are refocused. Russell Westbrook of Lawndale Leuzinger is a senior guard who is riding a wave of positive evaluations as he continues to benefit from a growth spurt of two summers ago. What a difference a few inches can make in the performance of a basketball player. Feats he couldn't accomplish when he was 5 feet 10 are finally within reach at 6-3.

Ukrainian Leonid Stadnik is the tallest person in the world at 8 feet 5 inches, overshadowing 7-foot-9 Bao Xishun of China, who had held the title since 2005, Guinness World Records spokeswoman Amarilis Espinoza said. Stadnik's growth spurt started at age 14 after a brain operation apparently stimulated his pituitary gland, which produces human growth hormone. He is now 37 and a former veterinarian. He lives with his mother in northern Ukraine, taking care of their house and garden.

Do I have this right? If a high school player declares for the NBA draft and goes undrafted, he cannot enter the draft again. He can then go back to school, play for a few years and, if good enough, entertain offers as an unrestricted free agent. If he is drafted, say in the low second round and does not wish to sign, he can attend school with the drafting team retaining his rights until one year after he has withdrawn from college. If he improves, he can drop out of school, wait a year and re-enter the draft, hoping to go in the first round.

Steve Rubenstein recently resigned after 14 years as president and CEO of the Conejo Valley Chamber. He was quoted as saying that "most everything is built out or we know where the build outs will be." The fact that our community's most ardent promoter of growth believes we have entered our post-built era is a very dramatic statement. I applaud his years of effort for the business community, his dignified departure and his tremendous insight regarding the arrival of the Conejo Valley's post-build out era. Communities like humans are born, move through various stages and eventually die. I believe our community is now passing through the awkward and unattractive phase of puberty as demonstrated by Dos Vientos, Seventh-day Adventists' project, the Sport X proposal, 70 movie theaters in progress, an $86-million Civic Arts Plaza and 90,000 square feet of civic center virtual reality on the board.

Nearly 3,000 business and political leaders from around the world packed into a heavily guarded Manhattan hotel Thursday to hear economists, scholars, bankers and diplomats paint a not terribly cheery picture of the prospects for global growth and stability in the coming year.

POP & HISS Vinyl album sales growing The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million.

The Westside is in the midst of one of its biggest building spurts in decades, heightening concerns of residents and community leaders that the area has reached saturation and that its clogged roads cannot tolerate further intense development.

China's racing economy sped up late last year, beating expectations but fanning worries that it may overheat in 2004, and the government Tuesday forecast continued strong growth this quarter. Gross domestic product surged 9.9% in the fourth quarter of 2003 compared with the same period a year earlier, and for the year grew 9.1%, which the government said was its fastest annual growth rate since 1997.