Saturday, December 31, 2011

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Source: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2364661&goto=newpost&r=3f37

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

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Source: http://sitepointmarket.com/listings/82813/get-windows-phone-7-application-development-services

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Source: http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20111228/SHE02/112280440/1882&located=rss

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

2012 NFL Mock Draft: CBS Sports Has Texans Taking Dontari Poe In The First Round

More 2012 NFL mock drafts are starting to come out and the latest comes from CBS Sports' draft guru Rob Rang. Rang projects the Texans will be picking late in the first round at No. 26, and he has them taking Memphis Tiger nose/defensive tackle Dontari Poe:

No. 26 Houston Texans: Dontari Poe, DT, Memphis: The Texans have emerged as one of the NFL's best teams, but run defense remains a concern as the team doesn't have a dominant nose guard. Poe, at 6-5 and 350 pounds, possesses a rare combination of size, strength and athleticism and would surely intrigue the Texans and any other teams in search of a nose guard, should he leave Memphis early.

Source: http://houston.sbnation.com/houston-texans/2011/12/25/2660109/2012-nfl-mock-draft-texans

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Katrina In London For Christmas

Katrina In London For Christmas

Katrina In London For Christmas

Chikni Chameli Item Girl Katrina Kaif have landed in London for a short holiday. She plans to spend a week in London, celebrating Christmas and celebrating New Year with her mother and sisters. ?We?re all going to be home together,? says the Katrina. She has also taken a break from her work for a week. ?I have a lot to chat about with all of them. I haven?t had enough time to spend with them. I can?t wait to begin the celebrations at our London home, Katrina said?

Recently after doing the item number Chikni Chameli? for AGNEEPATH has become a most famous and people all over are talking about her performance in the song. For this she said ,? When I?m out
working, I try not to bring family talk to the sets. And now, while I?m on this little holiday, I wouldn?t like to bring up shop at the dinner table either.?

?I think this year has ended on a lovely note with Chikni.... I didn?t know people would like it so much. Karan Johar was extremely convinced about its reception by the audience. When I saw Ganesh Acharya?s choreography and the kind of rehearsals he took me through, I was sure we were headed in the right direction. It was an eventful year, and I hope the next has a lot of action on offer.?

Katrina Kaif have fun in london and lets see how chikni chameli works

Katrina In London For Christmas images

Source: http://www.bollywoodchaska.com/news/Katrina-In-London-For-Christmas_8949.html

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Our Strange Universe: Q&A With Nobel Prize Winner Brian Schmidt (SPACE.com)

This year, three astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering a bizarre aspect of our universe that gave rise to the concept of dark energy.

In 1998, two teams independently discovered that the expansion of the universe was not slowing down or holding steady, as expected, but speeding up. One team was led by Brian Schmidt of the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia and Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and the other was led by Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

To explain this perplexing finding, astronomers conceived an entity called dark energy that's essentially counteracting the force of gravity to pull the universe apart.

SPACE.com spoke to Schmidt after his Nobel win to find out more about the weirdness of our universe, and what it feels like to win the world's most famous science award.

How did you find out you'd won the Nobel Prize?

Well you get a call, in my case, 15 minutes before the announcement. So at 8:30 on Tuesday night here in Australia, I received a call from a woman with an impeccable Swedish accent.

I have graduate students who like to play jokes on me, so I was thinking, wow, they did a pretty good job on this one. But they told me it was a very important phone call and they wanted to make sure it really was Brian Schmidt they were talking to, and then members of the committee come on and read their announcement, and congratulate you.

In my case, I'm a wine-maker, and they asked me about my 2011 vintage of wine, and then they asked me whether or not I'd be willing to go live at their announcement in seven or eight minutes to tell the world what I'd done.

How did you feel?

Well, I kind of went weak in the knees. And I got a little queasy, 'cause it's just so intense, it's so amazing. You're excited, but you're kind of scared at the same time.

How do you think the Nobel Prize will change your work? Will it bring more opportunities?

It certainly does that.

From my perspective, if you're in a country like Australia or the United States, it brings a huge responsibility to ensure that people understand why science is important to society. And Nobel Prizes are just such an amazing opportunity to highlight everything that science brings to our civilization, and how it's taken us to a level of prosperity that I think we all take for granted.

When you began this project back in 90s, did you ever think it might lead to a Nobel prize?

No. We wanted to do a big project, we wanted to measure the ultimate fate of the universe. [Images: Peering Back to the Big Bang]

Although that as a big project, it wasn't one that was going to win a Nobel Prize, no matter what we measured. But it was an important thing to measure, at least from an astronomy point of view, the future of the universe. Was it going to expand forever, or was it going to eventually halt in its expansion?

So, a fundamental question about the universe, but I have to admit the idea of winning a Nobel Prize about it just wasn't on the radar.

When you saw the first indications that the expansion of the universe was accelerating, how long did it take for you to believe your results?

Adam Riess sent me a preliminary preview at the end of 1997, and when I saw it I just assumed we made a mistake and it would go away.

So you know, after six weeks of plotting around, it was pretty clear that the result was not going to go away, and it just sort of slowly sunk in over a period of a couple of months. At some point it kind of sinks in and you're like, 'Oh, geeze. What are we going to do now? No one's going to believe this!' [Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings]

Was it gratifying that the other team led by Saul Perlmutter found the same thing?

I was surprised because one of the reasons I was so worried back in the end of 1997 was because preliminary results from the Supernova Cosmology Project were saying not that the universe was speeding up, but rather that the universe was slowing down and slowing down quickly.

And so it's one thing to have a crazy result, and it's another thing to completely disagree with the other team doing a very similar experiment. So yeah, it was a little reassuring to see that we were getting the same thing once we found out about each other's results.

Do you think dark energy is the explanation behind this acceleration?

It's definitely hard. We are guessing that the universe is filled with energy, that's our best guess.

We're getting the Nobel Prize, not for dark energy ? we're getting it for seeing the accelerated expansion of the universe. And so while I don?t think we're absolutely sure it's dark energy, I think that's the best explanation. But it could well be something even more exotic.

How do you think the universe will end?

The fate of the universe looks pretty bleak.

The universe is going to expand faster and faster over time and the reality that we see now will eventually fade away from view. It will be so far away that we won't be able to see its light anymore.

And so, while our own galaxy and a couple of other nearby galaxies will sort of merge together to form some super-galaxy, all the stars will eventually die because they run out of nuclear fuel, so we'll have a bunch of burned out embers surrounded by a sea of nothingness.

Do you find that depressing?

It's certainly sobering. It's certainly not the way I would have chosen for the universe to end. But, you know, the universe does what it wants, and I'm just here to figure out what it's doing. I can't judge it.

What inspired you to become an astronomer?

My father was a biologist. My parents had me when they were very young, so I remember my dad starting a PhD., and I remember my dad finishing a PhD. I remember having science around me from a very young age. I always wanted to be a scientist.

I became interested in astronomy when Comet West came by in 1975. That comet made me realize that the sky was interesting to look at. My dad bought me a very inexpensive telescope that I could look through.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom?and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111226/sc_space/ourstrangeuniverseqawithnobelprizewinnerbrianschmidt

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Rapper 'Tyler, the Creator' arrested for vandalism

This police booking photo released on Friday Dec. 23, 2011, by the West Hollywood Sheriff?s Department shows Tyler Okonma, 20, known as "Tyler, the Creator." Okonma was arrested on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after authorities say he got rowdy following a show at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. (AP Photo/West Hollywood Sheriff?s Department)

This police booking photo released on Friday Dec. 23, 2011, by the West Hollywood Sheriff?s Department shows Tyler Okonma, 20, known as "Tyler, the Creator." Okonma was arrested on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, after authorities say he got rowdy following a show at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. (AP Photo/West Hollywood Sheriff?s Department)

(AP) ? The rapper known as "Tyler, the Creator," has been arrested after authorities say he got rowdy after a show at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood.

Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Arthur Famble Jr. says the rapper was arrested Thursday night after he destroyed the Sunset Strip nightclub's electronic soundboard.

The 20-year-old, whose real name is Tyler Gregory Okonma, was booked for investigation of felony vandalism and released on $20,000 bail.

The sergeant says that as the rapper was being led to a squad car, the crowd leaving the Roxy became angry and additional deputies were called in to disperse the crowd.

No one was hurt.

Telephone numbers for Okonma and his record company couldn't be found. Okonma says in a Twitter message that he wasn't arrested.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-23-Rapper%20Vandalism%20Arrest/id-ebd8295d9ca04edbaf4b6167284b40dc

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Lions rout Chargers 38-10 to clinch playoff spot

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) celebrates with fans after the Lions defeated the San Diego Chargers 38-10 in an NFL football game to clinch a playoff spot on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) celebrates with fans after the Lions defeated the San Diego Chargers 38-10 in an NFL football game to clinch a playoff spot on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola (51) hugs teammate wide receiver Calvin Johnson during the closing minutes of an NFL football game against the San Diego Chargers in Detroit, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. The Lions clinched a playoff spot with a 38-10 win. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) passes against the San Diego Chargers in the first half of an NFL football game on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (17) walks back to the bench after having a pass intercepted by Detroit Lions defensive end Cliff Avril returned four yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game on Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Detroit. The Lions defeated the Chargers 38-10 to clinch a playoff spot. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (81) scores a touchdown as San Diego Chargers strong safety Steve Gregory (28) defends in the second quarter of an NFL football game in Detroit, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)

(AP) ? Matthew Stafford led a victory-lap parade around the perimeter of Ford Field, high-fiving fans that have been waiting since 1999 for the Detroit Lions to make the playoffs.

With the crowd chanting "Play-offs! Play-offs!" as the final few minutes ticked away, Detroit clinched a postseason spot thanks to Stafford's three touchdown passes in a 38-10 win over the San Diego Chargers on Saturday.

Stafford appeared to be touched by the face-to-face interaction with fans hanging over the railing to reach his raised right hand.

"You could just get a sense of how much it meant to them," Stafford said. "It was fun to give them that kind of joy."

The Lions (10-5) have won three straight after a seven-game slump to earn an NFC wild card, turning around the franchise after it was bad enough just three years ago to become the league's only 0-16 team.

It was coach Jim Schwartz's idea to reach out and touch the fans.

"There's going to be a time that we don't celebrate getting to the playoffs, but it's not going to be tonight," Schwartz said. "It's been a long time coming."

No one has been waiting longer than owner William Clay Ford.

Ford, whose first season leading the franchise was in 1964, was handed a keepsake in the jubilant locker room.

"We gave him the game ball," said center Dominic Raiola, who endured a string of miserable seasons after Detroit drafted him in 2001.

After Raiola's postgame news conference, he gave Stafford a bear hug.

"I'm excited for them, more than for myself and some of the other young guys," the 23-year-old Stafford said.

Music blared in Detroit's locker room, where players hugged teammates and anyone else who crossed their paths. Smiles might've outnumbered beads of sweat after a lopsided win that ended San Diego's playoff hopes.

According to the Chargers (7-8), they were eliminated from playoff contention. San Diego will miss the postseason for a second straight year after making it five times in a six-season stretch.

And, that might cost coach Norv Turner his job.

"I've been concentrating every week as well as I can on getting this team ready to play and doing the things we need to do," Turner said. "We all know that's something that's discussed at the end of the year."

San Diego stayed in playoff contention deep into December by winning three straight games, but couldn't overcome its midseason losing streak.

"When you lose six in a row in this league, you're probably not going to the postseason, but we fought our way back in it," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. "You're hanging your hat on running the table, and going to beat playoff teams on the road, it's tough."

Knowing they could move into the postseason simply by winning, the Lions held San Diego scoreless until midway through the third quarter, when Rivers threw an 11-yard pass to Malcom Floyd to make it 24-7.

Detroit, though, closed strong to restore the rout.

The Lions and Buffalo Bills started the season with the league's longest playoff droughts at 11 seasons. Detroit's wait is over because a decades-long search for a franchise quarterback ended with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft.

"That's probably the key to a franchise is having a good quarterback and we'll hold onto him for a while," Schwartz said.

Coming off the league's only 0-16 season, Detroit selected Stafford and kept him healthy for the first time this season.

Stafford was almost perfect in the first half against San Diego, completing 21 of 26 passes for 260 yards with three TDs. He capped the first drive with a 7-yard pass to Brandon Pettigrew, threw a 3-yarder to Kevin Smith in the second quarter and connected with Calvin Johnson from 14 yards just before halftime to give the Lions a 24-0 lead.

"His numbers at halftime were outrageous," Raiola said. "He's the real deal."

Stafford finished with 373 yards passing to give him 4,518 this year, breaking Scott Mitchell's single-season team record from 1995. Perhaps not coincidently, that season marked the last time the Lions had double digits in wins.

The Lions will go for their 11th victory and try to improve their playoff positioning on Jan. 1 against Green Bay, a team they haven't beaten on the road since 1991.

The Chargers needed to extend their winning streak to four games to keep their postseason hopes alive, but the loss and Cincinnati's victory dashed them.

They had chances to come back.

Eric Weddle recovered an onside kick after San Diego finally scored in the third quarter, but the Chargers stalled inside the Lions 5. Cornerback Chris Houston broke up a pass in the end zone and the Chargers had to settle for Nick Novak's field goal and a 14-point deficit.

Detroit's potent offense quickly gained 48 yards on a third-quarter drive with passes to Nate Burleson and Johnson, setting up Smith's 6-yard TD and a 31-10 lead.

The Chargers then drove to the Detroit 2 and turned over the ball on downs, firing up its sideline and the fans who have been waiting a long time for a season like this one. It's the first time the Lions have made the playoffs since Ford Field opened in 2002.

"This is an accomplishment," Schwartz said. "It's a big step for our team and our organization."

San Diego, meanwhile, has taken another step back.

Rivers was 28 of 53 for 299 yards with a too-late TD and two interceptions, the second of which defensive end Cliff Avril snagged with his right hand and returned 4 yards to make it 38-10 late in the game.

Antonio Gates had four receptions to give him 588 in his career, breaking the Chargers record of 586 set by Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner, in his hometown of Detroit in front of family and friends.

"They were all here," Gates said. "It's just disappointing that we couldn't get a victory along with me crossing that milestone."

NOTES: Johnson matched a single-season team record with 15 TD receptions. ... Chargers LB Na'il Diggs, who had trouble defending Pettigrew, left the game in the third quarter with cramps in his right leg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-25-Chargers-Lions/id-125743ea0d7446cc9272cd78d1863432

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Video: Is JFK?s life relevant today?

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45770205#45770205

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Teargas fired at Chinese protesters in Haimen

Villagers protest in Haimen, China

Villages gather to protest in Haimen. Riot police fired teargas in an attempt to end the demonstrations, now running into their fourth day. Photograph: AP

Chinese riot police have fired teargas to break up a protest against a planned power station, while a state TV station showed confessions by two detained activists in an attempt to get other protesters off the streets.

Footage from Hong Kong's Cable TV showed police firing several rounds of teargas in Haimen town in the southern province of Guangdong, forcing hundreds of people to flee covering their mouths and noses with their hands.

Hours later, a local TV station carried interviews with two detained protesters, a man named Li and a woman, Yung. Sitting behind bars with their heads bowed and handcuffs in full view, the two took turns to confess. "It was wrong to surround the government and block the highway," Li said, with his eyes lowered.

"I do not know the law. If I knew, I will not block the expressway. If I could have understood this, I wouldn't have been so brash," Yung said, her voice shaking.

In an obvious attempt to end the demonstrations now running into their fourth day, the Shantou TV station also lined up several Chinese legal experts and quoted them as saying that such actions carried a maximum penalty of five years in jail, and urging protesters to surrender.

The protests in Haimen, a coastal town of about 120,000 people under the jurisdiction of Shantou city, intensified this week as people in Wukan village, about 80 miles further along the coast, called off a 10-day blockade of their village in protest against what they said was a land grab by officials.

Protests in China have become relatively common over issues such as corruption, pollution, wages, and land grabs that local officials justify in the name of development. People have become increasingly unwilling to accept the relentless speed of urbanisation and industrialisation and the impact on the environment and health.

Chinese experts put the number of "mass incidents", as such protests are known, at about 90,000 a year in recent years. While Communist party rule is not directly threatened by such incidents of unrest, officials fear they could coalesce into broader, more organised challenges to their power.

Residents of Haimen took to the streets on Tuesday to protest against plans to build a coal-fired power plant after what they complain has been years of air and water pollution from existing power plants in the town.

"Villagers complained that the current power plant had led to a rise in the number of cancer patients, the deterioration of the environment, and a drop in fishing hauls," state Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. "The Shantou city government announced Tuesday evening, shortly after the protest, that the project would be suspended. Some village residents said that they knew nothing about the announcement, while others said they had no trust in the suspension decision."

Hong Kong newspapers reported earlier that the villagers wanted the project to be scrapped altogether and have pledged to keep up their action if police did not release detained protesters. China's state news agency, Xinhua, had reported that police had detained five people for vandalism on Wednesday evening.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/23/china-protesters-teargas-fired

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Aaron Rodgers is 2011 AP Male Athlete of Year

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2011, file photo, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) scrambles past Atlanta Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton (50) on a 7-yard touchdown run during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game in Atlanta. Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year chosen by members of The Associated Press after his MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory in February and his stellar play during the team's long unbeaten run this season. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2011, file photo, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) scrambles past Atlanta Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton (50) on a 7-yard touchdown run during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game in Atlanta. Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year chosen by members of The Associated Press after his MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory in February and his stellar play during the team's long unbeaten run this season. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2011, file photo, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) celebrates with teammates after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in the NFL Super Bowl XLV football game in Arlington, Texas. Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year chosen by members of The Associated Press after his MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory in February and his stellar play during the team's long unbeaten run this season. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2011, file photo, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) celebrates with Jordy Nelson, left, after Nelson scored a touchdown during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl XLV football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Arlington, Texas. Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year chosen by members of The Associated Press after his MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory in February and his stellar play during the team's long unbeaten run this season. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2011, file photo, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) celebrates the Packers' 31-25 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers after the NFL Super Bowl XLV football game in Arlington, Texas. Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year chosen by members of The Associated Press after his MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory in February and his stellar play during the team's long unbeaten run this season. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

(AP) ? When Aaron Rodgers needs to rekindle the feelings that drove his rise from a junior college quarterback to Super Bowl MVP, he doesn't have to look too far.

Rodgers held on to the many rejection letters he received from marquee college programs as he was coming out of high school. Even today, he leaves a few of them sitting out at his house.

"I chose the couple that I thought were most demeaning to display in a space in my house that really nobody is able to see but myself," Rodgers said. "It's something that I think is important to keep fresh on your mind. Maybe not every day, but once a week your eyes might pan across it and you have a little laugh about the journey you've been on ? at the same time, remembering that there still are people out there that you can prove something to."

Good luck finding those doubters now.

Rodgers is the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year, chosen by members of The Associated Press, after he turned in an MVP performance in the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in February and then went on to lead his team on a long unbeaten run this season.

Rodgers received 112 votes out of the 212 ballots submitted from U.S. news organizations that make up the AP's membership. Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander finished second with 50 votes, followed by tennis standout Novak Djokovic (21), Carolina Panthers rookie quarterback Cam Newton (6) and NASCAR champion Tony Stewart (5).

Rodgers is one of three quarterbacks to receive the honor in the past five years. The New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees won in 2010 and the New England Patriots' Tom Brady won in 2007.

Rodgers says it still feels "surreal at times" to be considered among the biggest names in sports.

"Those guys are household names, the best of the best," Rodgers said. "(It's) special to win the award, and something I'll remember."

Through 14 games this season, Rodgers has completed 68.1 percent of his passes for 4,360 yards with 40 touchdowns and six interceptions. The Packers are 13-1, and Rodgers' play is leaving people speechless ? even his coach, Mike McCarthy.

"I'm running out of things to say about him," McCarthy said earlier this month, after Rodgers drove the Packers into position for a last-second, game-winning field goal to beat the New York Giants.

Green Bay's 19-game winning streak came to an end at Kansas City on Sunday, but the Packers remain a strong favorite to repeat as champions. That's thanks in large part to Rodgers' knack for making big plays without major mistakes.

It has been a long and challenging journey out of obscurity for Rodgers, who wasn't offered a big-time scholarship out of high school and had to play a year in junior college. Then came his agonizing wait on draft day, three seasons on the bench behind Brett Favre and a tumultuous first year as a starter.

If Rodgers' path to stardom had been smoother, he says he wouldn't be the player ? or person ? he is today.

"It's something that gives me perspective all the time, knowing that the road I took was difficult. But it did shape my character and it shaped my game as well," Rodgers said. "I try and keep that on my mind as a good perspective, but also as a motivator, knowing that it took a lot to get to where I am now and it's going to take a lot to stay where I'm at."

Strangely, earning widespread respect throughout the sports world could become a challenge in and of itself for Rodgers, who draws motivation from proving himself to his doubters and critics.

Is that becoming more difficult?

"It would only be tougher if you stopped remembering or drawing or thinking about those things," Rodgers said. "And I think a great competitor has to have at least some sort of chip on their shoulder, or at least the attitude that you have something to prove every time you take the (field)."

Unable to attract attention from a big-time college program, Rodgers played a year at Butte College in Oroville, Calif., near his hometown of Chico. His play there eventually got the attention of Cal coach Jeff Tedford, and Rodgers transferred.

Rodgers thrived at Cal and went into the 2005 NFL draft expecting to be taken early in the first round. But he didn't hear his name called until the Packers chose him with the 24th overall pick.

Once in Green Bay, Rodgers found himself backing up Favre, a revered Packer who didn't necessarily like the idea that the team had put his eventual successor in place. Favre kept fans and the franchise on their toes every offseason, flirting with the idea of retiring but always coming back.

Then came the summer of 2008, when tension between Favre and the Packers' front office finally snapped after Favre retired, changed his mind and asked for his job back ? or a chance to play elsewhere. Favre was traded to the New York Jets and Rodgers finally had his chance.

Rodgers wasn't immediately embraced by a segment of fans who supported Favre. He even was booed at the team's "Family Night" scrimmage. He stayed calm on the outside and played pretty well in his first year as a starter despite the team's 6-10 record.

But he still had his doubts.

"I had a lot of confidence in my abilities," Rodgers said. "But the doubts and worries are associated with, 'How am I going to be perceived by my teammates? How's my performance going to be scrutinized?' And you go through a point where you're reading your own clippings. You're 6-10 your first season, and you're reading some of these (Internet) comment boards, in the back of your mind, that negative voice is telling you, 'You know, you're not going to live up to any expectations you put on yourself, and you're not as good as you think you are.' Those can mess with you a little bit, but you can also draw some motivation from those negative thoughts. And I did."

Rodgers led the Packers to the playoffs in 2009 season ? then won it all last February.

"I think a weight comes off your shoulders after you win a Super Bowl, and you realize that all those doubts and worries and successes and failures you had before then, a lot of those get wiped away and the slate almost goes clean," Rodgers said. "Because you won the ultimate prize, and you had the chance to silence some of your critics, the challenges change, the way you're viewed changes. I think a lot of the things that you really worried about too much become very little in importance."

___

Connect with AP Sports Writer Chris Jenkins: www.twitter.com/ByChrisJenkins

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-21-FBN-Male-Athlete-of-the-Year/id-9a0ca6f93eda4aed93d83b3075ec0776

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Video: Road to GOP primary takes ?tumultuous? turn

Christmas wish: Little listeria victim is home

Kendall Paciorek was born three months ago, but she didn't come home until this week, just days before Christmas. The premature girl was one of the tiniest victims of a deadly outbreak of listeria in contaminated cantaloupe.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45743644#45743644

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Monday, December 19, 2011

Perfect Facebook Timeline 'cover shot' with some help

Cover Photo Finder.com

Cover Photo Finder is one of the sites that offers free art for those looking for Timeline help with their main photo.

By Suzanne Choney

If you're ready to do up your new Facebook Timeline, but struggling to make your "cover shot" significant, there's help. As the social networking site becomes more sophisticated with the addition of Timeline, a kind of scrapbook of your life, that cover photo, one that sums up your life or mindset, is larger than what your profile photo is, and hence, more significant.

There are websites that can help you. Mashable shared the sites a few months ago, when Timeline was first announced, but its rollout was delayed until this week. Among the sites that can make choosing a cover shot a snap:

  • Cover Photo Finder:?This site offers you adorable animal shots and striking nature photographs. It's got lots of choices that are perfect for cover photo's narrow, rectangular shape, kind of a wide-screen effect.
  • FaceCoverz:?Choose photos on this site by topic: Cartoons, funny, TV shows, animals, movies, games among them. There's a large, searchable index of topics and names ? "pug" and "Neil Patrick Harris" among them. There's even a Facebook (like) cover photo and a Facebook (hate) cover photo. (The latter seems a little odd, given the nature of the project, but that's duality for you!)

FaceCoverz

You can go with this nice Facebook image for your cover shot, or....

FaceCoverz

...you can even choose this one if you're conflicted about the social networking site (even though you're on it).

  • MyProfileCover:?Get your graphics fix here, including photos with motivational slogans as well as those with your favorite sports heroes or teams, plus many more categories. The downside is, you'll see MyProfileCover.com's name incorporated into the photo, sometimes in tinier fonts than others:

MyProfileCover.com

Another site, CoverPhotoz also incorporates its name into its cover shots, but it's less prominent, in general. And website Coverize.me gives you tons of categories from which to choose, including political and social awareness cover shots, like the one below:

Coverize.me

With all these options, you won't be stymied for a cover shot. And you can, of course, always change it when you want to.

?Via Mashable

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9496557-perfect-your-facebook-timeline-cover-shot-with-some-help

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Cowboys build early lead, then coast to victory

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) is hit by Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Adrian Clayborn (94) as he throws an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Miles Austin during the first half of an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. Defending for the Cowboys are offensive tackle Doug Free (68) and guard Montrae Holland (64). (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) is hit by Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Adrian Clayborn (94) as he throws an 8-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Miles Austin during the first half of an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. Defending for the Cowboys are offensive tackle Doug Free (68) and guard Montrae Holland (64). (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throws a pass over Tampa Bay Buccaneers middle linebacker Mason Foster (59) during the second quarter of an NFL football game on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett (80) and wide receiver Laurent Robinson (81) celebrate a 9-yard touchdown reception by Robinson during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Margaret Bowles)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Laurent Robinson (81) celebrates a touchdown reception as Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back Elbert Mack (33) walks off the field during the first half of an NFL football game on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Margaret Bowles)

Dallas Cowboys running back Felix Jones (28) dives over teammate center Phil Costa (67) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Geno Hayes (54) on a run during the first quarter of an NFL football game on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Margaret Bowles)

(AP) ? Tony Romo was nearly flawless in getting the Dallas Cowboys back on track in the NFC East.

Romo threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth score Saturday night, helping the first-place Cowboys beat the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-15.

Dallas stopped a two-game losing streak in which it blew fourth-quarter leads to allow a seemingly solid grip on the division lead slip away.

The victory gave the Cowboys (8-6) a half-game lead over New York. Although the Giants hold a tiebreaker advantage after beating Dallas 37-34 last week, the Cowboys can claim the division title and host a playoff game by finishing with wins the next two weeks over Philadelphia at home and the Giants on the road.

The Bucs (4-10) lost for the eighth straight time and played a miserable first half that certainly didn't do anything to help coach Raheem Morris make a case for keeping his job.

Romo threw a pair of 8-yard TD passes to Miles Austin and Dez Bryant in the first quarter, then finished a seven-play, 89-yard drive with a 9-yarder to Laurent Robinson to make it 21-0 with just under 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter. Romo made it 28-0 on a quarterback sneak in the closing seconds of the opening half.

Tampa Bay managed just one first down and was outgained 279 yards to 55 in the first two quarters, but found a way to make it interesting in the second half.

The Bucs, who had had yielded 69 consecutive points dating to the second quarter of the previous week's 41-14 loss to Jacksonville, finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter when rookie Adrian Clayborn sacked Romo from behind, forcing a fumble that linebacker Dekoda Watson returned 4 yards for a TD for a much-needed spark.

Josh Freeman's 13-yard TD pass to Dezmon Briscoe and a two-point conversion throw to Kellen Winslow trimmed the Dallas lead to 31-15 heading into the final quarter.

The Cowboys have led in the fourth quarter in five of their six losses, however there wouldn't be a late collapse this time. Tampa Bay turned the ball over on downs twice in the last six minutes, and Sammy Morris picked up a first down inside the Bucs 10 to give the Cowboys an opportunity to run out the clock.

Austin's TD midway through the first quarter was set up by Tampa Bay's NFL-leading 32nd turnover, a fumble by Freeman on the fifth play of the game.

The Tampa Bay quarterback scrambled 25 yards on third-and-5 to march the Bucs near midfield, but the opening possession of the night came to an abrupt halt on the next play when Freeman took off again for a 7-yard gain and was stripped of the ball at the Cowboys 44.

Linebacker Bradie James recovered and it took Romo seven plays to get Dallas in the end zone for the first time. The Cowboys marched 69 yards in 10 plays on their next possession, with Romo finishing the drive by finding a wide-open Bryant in the back of the end zone to make it 14-0.

In three career games against Tampa Bay ? all lopsided victories ? Romo has thrown for 908 yards, 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. He was 23 of 30 for 249 yards and was sacked twice Saturday night.

Felix Jones, back in the starting lineup after DeMarco Murray broke his right ankle last week in a 37-34 loss to the Giants, broke a 38-yard run on the drive leading to Robinson's TD and finished with 108 yards on 22 carries ? his second straight 100-yard performance had 67 yards rushing on 12 carries at halftime.

Freeman, making his second start since missing a game because of an injured throwing shoulder, was 17 of 27 for 148 yards and no interceptions. He led the Bucs in rushing with 37 yards on four attempts and was sacked three times, once by DeMarcus Ware, who notched his 16th of the season.

Thanks to a large contingent of Cowboys fans, the Bucs played before a sellout crowd at home for just the second time in two seasons. Judging by all the blue and white jerseys scattered throughout the 65,000-seat stadium, at least half the house appeared to be rooting for Dallas.

The Bucs have lost eight straight following a 4-2 start that included wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta. The skid has coach Raheem Morris on the hot seat just a year after the NFL's youngest head coach led his team to a surprising 10-6 finish that heightened expectations coming into this season.

Tampa Bay played Saturday night without starting receiver Arrelious Benn, who suffered a concussion during last week's loss at Jacksonville. He was replaced by Briscoe, who began the night with just 23 receptions yet shared the team lead in touchdown catches with three.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-18-FBN-Cowboys-Buccaneers/id-5b069ddd5689416f8fb36a9d6b55453c

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Romney back in front-runner mode in Republican race (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican U.S. presidential contender Mitt Romney, once the leader and presumed nominee, is back in front-runner mode.

Less than three weeks before Iowa kicks off the state-by-state Republican battle to find a challenger to President Barack Obama, polls show support for main rival Newt Gingrich may already be softening.

Romney also won an important endorsement on Friday from South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

With other contenders scrambling to slice up Gingrich, Romney was a model of decorum at the final Republican debate on Thursday before Iowa kicks off the nominating race on January 3.

Romney let rivals Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann lead the way in attacking Gingrich and stayed well above the fray. He even exchanged compliments at times with Gingrich, the former House of Representatives speaker who has rolled past him in polls in the last month.

"His whole goal now is to get back to being the 'safe and steady' candidate. He can let his surrogates do the work for him," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said.

"He doesn't even need to win Iowa, he just needs to make sure that Gingrich doesn't - and Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann can help him with that."

After a week of intensifying criticism of Gingrich's temperament and judgment, climaxed when Romney called him "zany," his attack machine went dark when the debate lights went on.

A Rasmussen poll showed Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has a slight lead over Gingrich in Iowa, a state Romney has largely bypassed this year after spending millions there in 2008 only to lose.

Two other polls show Paul, a libertarian Republican congressman, moving into second place behind Gingrich in Iowa and gunning for an upset that would almost certainly help Romney by stopping Gingrich's rise.

Polls show Romney also still has a commanding lead in New Hampshire, the state where he has focused his efforts, putting him in prime position to put a stranglehold on the race with strong performances in the first two contests.

'WILL GO ON FOR A WHILE'

The next contest is in conservative South Carolina, followed by the big battleground state of Florida, an expensive state for advertising where the more moderate Romney has worked hard at organizing.

"Everybody wants to win Iowa and we all hope to do that, but this process is going to go on a while," Romney told Fox News after the debate.

Romney got a boost on Friday with a much-sought endorsement from Haley, a favorite of Tea Party conservatives who had been heavily courted by Romney's rivals.

South Carolina holds the third nominating contest after Iowa on January 3 and New Hampshire on January 10.

"The election next November will have ramifications for generations," Haley said in a statement released by the Romney campaign. "Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford four more years of President (Barack) Obama, and Mitt Romney is the right person to take him on and get America back on track."

A fade by Gingrich would be fitting in a race that has seen multiple contenders - first Bachmann, then Texas Governor Rick Perry and then businessman Herman Cain - rise to the top only to fall back to the pack.

Romney, with a decided financial edge over Gingrich, will have a clear advantage the longer the race goes on. He launched a heavy wave of advertising attacks on Gingrich's temperament and electability this week.

He capped those attacks by calling Gingrich's ideas "zany" during a New York Times interview.

Gingrich obviously was paying attention.

"I'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany," he joked at one point during the debate.

In the debate, Romney sat back and let Bachmann and Paul batter Gingrich over his work for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, while former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum reminded voters Gingrich was not well liked as House speaker.

"Romney was back in front-runner mode tonight emotionally, if not statistically," Republican Dan Schnur, a former aide to John McCain's 2000 presidential bid, said of Romney's passive debate performance.

"This was the safe and careful Romney we've seen for most of the year," he said. "Maybe their internal polling is showing their attack ads on Gingrich are doing the job, so they didn't need to do it to his face."

(Editing by Alistair Bell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_romney

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

Chart shows the percentage of people by ratio of Income and resources to poverty threshold

Chart shows the percentage of people by ratio of Income and resources to poverty threshold

(AP) ? Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans ? nearly 1 in 2 ? have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

"There's no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen," Rector said. "As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work."

Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold ? roughly $45,000 for a family of four ? because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income.

States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.

The struggling Americans include Zenobia Bechtol, 18, in Austin, Texas, who earns minimum wage as a part-time pizza delivery driver. Bechtol and her 7-month-old baby were recently evicted from their bedbug-infested apartment after her boyfriend, an electrician, lost his job in the sluggish economy.

After an 18-month job search, Bechtol's boyfriend now works as a waiter and the family of three is temporarily living with her mother.

"We're paying my mom $200 a month for rent, and after diapers and formula and gas for work, we barely have enough money to spend," said Bechtol, a high school graduate who wants to go to college. "If it weren't for food stamps and other government money for families who need help, we wouldn't have been able to survive."

About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs. Doing that helped push the number of people below 200 percent of the poverty level up from 104 million, or 1 in 3 Americans, that was officially reported in September.

Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income ? about 57 percent ? followed by seniors over 65. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

Even by traditional measures, many working families are hurting.

Following the recession that began in late 2007, the share of working families who are low income has risen for three straight years to 31.2 percent, or 10.2 million. That proportion is the highest in at least a decade, up from 27 percent in 2002, according to a new analysis by the Working Poor Families Project and the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.

Among low-income families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder ? 6.9 million ? earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200 percent of the poverty level.

The majority of low-income families ? 62 percent ? spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing, surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth.

Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000.

A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors being released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.

Across the 29 cities, about 27 percent of people needing emergency food aid did not receive it. Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., Sacramento, Calif., and Trenton, N.J., were among the cities that pointed to increases in the cost of food and declining food donations, while Mayor Michael McGinn in Seattle cited an unexpected spike in food requests from immigrants and refugees, particularly from Somalia, Burma and Bhutan.

Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51 percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were elderly and 11 percent were homeless.

"People who never thought they would need food are in need of help," said Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo., who co-chairs a mayors' task force on hunger and homelessness.

___

Online:

Census Bureau: www.census.gov

U.S. Conference of Mayors: www.usmayors.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-15-Low%20Income%20America/id-bad007531a194408a6d60b504b92959c

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Shorter NBA schedule has 42 back-to-back-to-backs

(AP) ? The Los Angeles Lakers will play games on the first three nights of the NBA season, the first of 42 back-to-back-to-back sets teams will face during this lockout-shortened season.

The NBA announced the compacted, 66-game schedule on Tuesday night, one that will require every team to play on three consecutive nights at least once. And it will force every team to navigate demanding stretches that are never seen during a full season, such as the nine games in 12 nights the Atlanta Hawks face starting with their Dec. 27 opener.

The league's 66th season begins with five games on Christmas, including the Lakers hosting the Chicago Bulls. Los Angeles then visits Sacramento the next night before returning home to host Utah on Dec. 27.

Teams will play 48 conference games and 18 against the opposing conference, meaning they play only three nonconference opponents home and away. The league did preserve its most storied rivalry, with the Lakers traveling to Boston for a Feb. 9 matchup before the Celtics open a stretch of eight road games in 13 nights in March with games on back-to-back nights at Staples Center.

Dallas and Miami also will play twice, following their Christmas NBA finals rematch with a March 12 game in Miami. The Heat and Lakers also play two games.

The 50-game 1999 season featured 64 sets of back-to-back-to-backs and was plagued by sloppy basketball being played on fatigued legs. The NBA faces a similar predicament now after failing to reach a new labor deal in time to save the Nov. 1 start to the season.

Instead, a tentative agreement was reached on Nov. 26. Lawyers for the owners and players are still finalizing the rest of the deal, with both sides expected to vote on it Thursday before training camps and free agency open on Friday.

Aging teams such as the Celtics, Lakers and NBA champion Mavericks will have to pace themselves, while younger teams such as Oklahoma City figure to be better prepared for the grind.

"You're not going to have those breaks of three or four days that you sometimes got in the old 82-game schedule, when it was the normal regular schedule," former NBA coach and current analyst Mike Fratello said during the schedule announcement on NBA TV. "Now with everything being compacted, games come that much more quickly, you've got to gear up back up again, you move onto the next one immediately."

The Denver Nuggets, hit hard by free agency with three of their players in China, face another difficult obstacle in the schedule. They play five games in six nights spanning the new year, including a home-and-home set with the Lakers on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The Nuggets do not host Carmelo Anthony, whom they traded to the Knicks last February. Deron Williams, sent from Utah to New Jersey days later, is scheduled to return to Salt Lake City on Jan. 14.

Other quirks of the schedule include:

?Toronto plays a franchise-record 19 games in 31 days in January, including five games in six days from Jan. 9-14.

?Cleveland has its longest homestand ever, nine games from Feb. 8-28 ? including a visit from LeBron James and the Heat on Feb. 17.

?Philadelphia plays its first five games on the road, its longest season-opening trip ever.

Miami will appear on ABC or ESPN 16 times, the most allowable, followed by 15 appearances apiece for the Lakers and Bulls. The Lakers and Celtics each appear a league-high 10 times on TNT.

The Nets' final game in New Jersey after 35 years before heading to Brooklyn will be April 23 against Philadelphia. The Kings could play their finale in Sacramento on April 26 against the Lakers without a plan for a new arena.

The regular season is scheduled to conclude April 26 and the playoffs will open two nights later. The last possible date of the NBA finals is June 26.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-06-BKN-NBA-Schedule/id-989e47ee4ab0451da3b8045e00f4afc9

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Monday, December 5, 2011

Report: Sandusky talks about Paterno, case (AP)

NEW YORK ? Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said Joe Paterno never spoke to him about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing on Dec. 13 .

Penn State's board of trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9 because it felt the football coach didn't go far enough in alerting authorities after an assistant coach said he told Paterno he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy in the football building showers in March 2002.

During a lengthy interview at his lawyer's home, Sandusky told the newspaper he and Paterno never spoke about the alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint investigated by the Penn State campus police.

"I never talked to him about either one," Sandusky said. "That's all I can say. I mean, I don't know." He worked for Paterno for nearly 30 years.

Sandusky said he never sexually abused any child and that prosecutors have misunderstood his work with children.

"They've taken everything that I ever did for any young person and twisted it to say that my motives were sexual or whatever," Sandusky told the Times. "I had kid after kid after kid who might say I was a father figure. And they just twisted that all."

He is accused of mining the ranks of his Second Mile charity to find underprivileged boys to abuse. Sandusky also said that the charity never restricted his access to children until he became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2008.

He said he regularly gave money to the disadvantaged boys at his charity, opened bank accounts for them and gave them gifts that had been donated to the charity.

"I tried to reward them sometimes with a little money in hand, just so that they could see something," he said. "But more often than not, I tried to set up, maybe get them to save the money, and I put it directly into a savings account established for them."

"I never bought a computer for any kid; I had a computer given to me to give to a kid. I never bought golf clubs. People gave things because they knew there would be kids. They wanted to get rid of things."

Asked about his physical interaction with children who were not his own, Sandusky said that aspect of the relationships "just happened that way."

"I think a lot of the kids really reached out" for wrestling and hugging, he said.

The paper said he grew most animated when talking about his relationships with children and most disconsolate when he spoke of Paterno and Penn State, and the upheaval caused by his indictment.

"I don't think it was fair," he is quoted as saying.

During the interview, Sandusky said his relationships and activities with Second Mile children did cause some strain with Paterno. He told the paper he worried that having some children with him at hotels before games or on the sideline during games, could have been regarded as a distraction by Paterno.

"I would have dreams of we being in a squad meeting and that door fly open and kids come running through chasing one another, and what was I going to do?" he said. "Because, I mean, Joe was serious about football."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_sp_ot/us_penn_state_abuse_sandusky

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

The return of Bad Newt (Politico)

WEST DES MOINES - Bad Newt?s coming back.

The all-too-familiar character from the 1990s has only peeked out in public a handful of times so far. But already, Newt Gingrich ? flush with pride over new polls showing his left-for-dead candidacy now leading the pack ? is letting his healthy ego roam free again, littering the campaign trail with grand pronouncements about his celebrity, his significance in political history and his ability to transform America.

Continue Reading

?I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress,? Gingrich said this week on Sean Hannity?s show.

?I?m going to be the nominee,? he informed ABC News while in Iowa.

?I was charging $60,000 a speech and the number of speeches was going up, not down,? Gingrich said in South Carolina, explaining why he didn?t actually need his consulting fee from Freddie Mac. ?Normally, celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches every year. We were selling more.?

?The degree to which I challenge the establishment and the degree to which I?m willing to follow ideas and solutions to their natural consequence without regard to Republican or Democratic political correctness makes me probably the most experienced outsider in modern times,? he told Radio Iowa.

Even descriptions of his wife Callista fall prey to aggrandizement: ?She actually describes herself as being a cross between Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush with just a slight bit of Jackie Kennedy tossed in and I think there is, somewhere swirling in there, the model Callista would like to live up to.?

The economy? There?s a vainglorious boast for that, too.

?Obama is now 34 months into his presidency, and the economy has lost 1.9 million total jobs since he took office. At the same point in the Gingrich speakership (November 1997), Americans had created 303,000 jobs in one month alone, and had created 7.7 million total new jobs since he became speaker. This is an ?Obama-Gingrich jobs gap? of 9.5 million,? the former congressman said in a statement.

Longtime Gingrich watchers see clear signs that ?Good Newt? (disciplined, charming, expansive in personality and intellect) is engaging in an internal battle with ?Bad Newt? (off-message, bombastic, self-wounding) as his political fortunes rise.

?Remember, this is the man of the combination of Churchill and de Gaulle to begin with,? conservative columnist George Will told radio host Laura Ingraham. ?He?s the embodiment of a nation in deep peril. The stage has to be lit by the fires of crisis and grandeur to suit Newt Gingrich.?

?Gingrich always a fine a line between charming and brilliant on one hand, and eccentric and borderline dangerous on the other,? said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. ?He?s been ?Charming Newt? for the last several weeks. But the last couple of days have been a reminder of his other side.?

Gingrich ?only has two modes ? attack and brag,? explained one veteran GOP strategist.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1211_69669_html/43789709/SIG=11m23jhig/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69669.html

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Vegetables, fruits, grains reduce stroke risk in women

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? Swedish women who ate an antioxidant-rich diet had fewer strokes regardless of whether they had a previous history of cardiovascular disease, in a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

"Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation," said Susanne Rautiainen, M.Sc., the study's first author and Ph.D. student at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "This means people should eat more foods such as fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity."

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of cell-damaging free radicals and the body's ability to neutralize them. It leads to inflammation, blood vessel damage and stiffening.

Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotenoids and flavonoids can inhibit oxidative stress and inflammation by scavenging the free radicals. Antioxidants, especially flavonoids, may also help improve endothelial function and reduce blood clotting, blood pressure and inflammation.

"In this study, we took into account all the antioxidants present in the diet, including thousands of compounds, in doses obtained from a usual diet," Rautiainen said.

Researchers collected dietary data through a food-frequency questionnaire. They used a standard database to determine participants' total antioxidant capacity (TAC), which measures the free radical reducing capacity of all antioxidants in the diet and considers synergistic effects between substances.

Researchers categorized the women according to their TAC levels -- five groups without a history of cardiovascular disease and four with previous cardiovascular disease.

For women with no history of cardiovascular disease who had the highest TAC, fruits and vegetables contributed about 50 percent of TAC.

Other contributors were whole grains (18 percent), tea (16 percent) and chocolate (5 percent).

The study found:

  • Higher TAC was related to lower stroke rates in women without cardiovascular disease.
  • Women without cardiovascular disease with the highest levels of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 17 percent lower risk of total stroke compared to those in the lowest quintile.
  • Women with history of cardiovascular disease in the highest three quartiles of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 46 percent to 57 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke compared with those in the lowest quartile.

"Women with a high antioxidant intake may be more health conscious and have the sort of healthy behaviors that may have influenced our results," Rautiainen said. "However, the observed inverse association between dietary TAC and stroke persisted after adjustments for potential confounders related to healthy behavior such as smoking, physical activity and education."

For the study, researchers used the Swedish Mammography Cohort to identify 31,035 heart disease-free women and 5,680 women with a history of heart disease in two counties. The women were 49-83 years old.

Researchers tracked the cardiovascular disease-free women an average 11.5 years and the women with cardiovascular disease 9.6 years, from September 1997 through the date of first stroke, death or Dec. 31, 2009, whichever came first.

Researchers identified 1,322 strokes among cardiovascular disease-free women and 1,007 strokes among women with a history of cardiovascular disease from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry.

"To the best of our knowledge, no study has assessed the relation between dietary TAC and stroke risk in participants with a previous history of cardiovascular disease," Rautiainen said. "Further studies are needed to assess the link between dietary TAC and stroke risk in men and in people in other countries, but we think our results are applicable."

Co-authors are Susanna Larsson, Ph.D.; Jarmo Virtamo, M.D.; and Alicja Wolk, Dr.Med.Sci. Authors' disclosures are on the manuscript.

The Swedish Research Council for Infrastructure and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research funded the study.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Heart Association.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Susanne Rautiainen, Susanna Larsson, Jarmo Virtamo, Alicja Wolk. Total Antioxidant Capacity of Diet and Risk of Stroke: A Population-Based Prospective Cohort of Women. Stroke, 2011; DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.635557

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201163556.htm

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