Franklin, Ledecky shine, but US misses Phelps

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? With Michael Phelps cheering from the stands and a big assist from a teammate, Missy Franklin got off to a thrilling start in her own quest to win eight gold medals at the world championships.

Too bad the U.S. men didn't have Phelps for their relay.

Megan Romano turned in a brilliant anchor leg to ensure Franklin of a gold in the women's 400-meter freestyle relay Sunday evening, chasing down the Australians in the last, furious strokes.

Coming off a starring role at the London Olympics, Franklin is now one-for-one in Barcelona.

Seven more to go.

"Oh, my gosh, it was amazing!" said Franklin, who clutched hands with teammate Natalie Coughlin at the edge of the pool as they cheered on Romano. "We knew Megan could do it."

Overall, it was good start for the American team on the first night of pool swimming at the arena atop Montjuic. Katie Ledecky, still only 16 and preparing to start her junior year of high school, nearly broke the world record while winning the women's 400 free. Connor Jaeger pulled out a bronze in the men's 400 free, which was won in dominating fashion by China's Sun Yang.

It looked as though the final race of the night would produce another red, white and blue celebration.

Turns out it did ? but it was Le Tricolore that waved throughout the Palau Sant Jordi when the French rallied to snatch the gold away from the Americans in the men's 400 free relay.

In a repeat of their stirring comeback at last summer's Olympics, Jeremy Stravius chased down Jimmy Feigen to set off a wild celebration among the huge French contingent in the stands.

"I actually didn't even see them until the last five meters," Feigen said. "Maybe I should have paid more attention to them."

Maybe the result would have been different if Phelps had not retired after London. He is in Barcelona to make some promotional appearances and attend the evening finals, but only as a fan. The swimming world is abuzz with speculation that he's planning a comeback, but not yet.

"He was texting me," said Bob Bowman, coach of the U.S. men's team and Phelps' longtime mentor. "He was disappointed we got beat. He was just giving me his critique. It was right on."

Of course, Phelps was on the relay team that lost in London. He helped give the Americans what looked to be a commanding lead, but Ryan Lochte couldn't hold off Yannick Agnel's furious charge for gold on the anchor leg.

This time, Agnel went out first for the French, and he was next-to-last when he handed off to Florent Manaudou. France was still only fourth after a blistering 100 by Fabien Gilot (the fastest of the night, 46.90). The U.S. was slightly ahead of the Australians when Anthony Ervin passed it off to Feigen.

He couldn't hold off Stravius, who touched the wall in 3 minutes, 11.18 seconds. The Americans took silver in 3:11.42, while Russia claimed the bronze in 3:11.44. The Aussies faded to fourth.

Phelps was in no shape to swim, even if he wanted to. He arrived at the arena wearing a boot cast on his right foot, having sustained some sort of minor stress fracture that apparently worsened from playing golf.

"I tried to get him on the relay but he didn't want to do it," U.S. assistant coach Mike Bottom said jokingly. "Bob actually was giving him a tough time. He was like, 'Hey, you ready to go? Let's go.' But he was limping around."

Even so, Agnel was asked whether he was glad to see Phelps in the stands rather than in the pool.

"I don't understand the question," the Frenchman quipped.

No swimmer has ever won eight golds at the world championships. Phelps came oh-so-close in 2007 when he won his first seven events but never got a chance in the eighth. The Americans were disqualified in the preliminaries of the 400 medley relay while Phelps was resting up to swim in the final.

The following year, of course, he won a record eight golds on a much bigger stage, the Beijing Olympics.

Franklin, now 18 and getting ready to go off to college at Cal-Berkeley, won four golds and a bronze in London. She just missed out on medals in the 100 and 200 free ? events she will again swim at the worlds along the 50 back, a non-Olympic event.

"I'm right where I was last summer, which gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the meet," Franklin said. "I think I am a little stronger in my backstrokes than my freestyles, but I've done a lot of work on my freestyle the past year so I really hope that it's going to be up there."

She was far behind on the opening leg after a blistering start by Australia's Cate Campbell. Coughlin and Shannon Vreeland chipped away at the Aussie lead before Romano finished the job. She edged Coutts by 0.12 seconds with a winning time of 3:32.43. The Netherlands finished another 3 seconds behind for the bronze.

"I just love to race. And relays are awesome," Romano said. "It's great competing for these girls next to me. I was doing it for them. It's fun and I love it. I can't not go fast."

Ditto for Ledecky, who's also planning a grueling program at these worlds that includes the 800 and 1,500 free. It looks likes she can handle the load, her star still on the rise after a stunning gold medal in the 800 at the London Olympics when she was a complete unknown internationally.

"It is easier," she said. "I am a lot more relaxed on the international stage after having the Olympics as a first international competition. It's just great to get back to a top international competition and to do well."

The only drama in her race was whether the world record would fall. She was on pace much of the race before winning with a time of 3:59.82 ? a mere 0.67 seconds off the mark set by Italy's Federica Pelligrini back in 2009 in one of those rubberized suits that are no longer allowed.

Melanie Costa of Spain took silver in 4:02.47, while the bronze went to New Zealand's Lauren Boyle in 4:03.89.

"I'm still in shock over the time," Ledecky said. "The U.S. has such a great tradition of distance swimmers, so I'm just trying to do my best to live up to that."

Sun looked as though he barely exerted himself winning the first final of the night.

The towering swimmer hopped out of the pool and flexed his fists for the crowd after winning the men's 400 free in 3:41.59, far ahead of silver medalist Kosuke Hagino of Japan (3:44.82). Jaeger was next in 3:44.85.

"I had a pretty good time for me because I don't have a major challenger here," said Sun, who won two golds, a silver and a bronze at the London Games. "If I had had one, I would have gone a lot faster."

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/franklin-ledecky-shine-us-misses-phelps-203542653.html

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Tomorrowland 2013: Great Guns! 'Super' DJs Laidback Luke, Martin Solveig Hit Stage On Day 2

MTV News was in Belgium with Luke and Super Solveig as they donned superhero capes and debuted 'Blow' on the Super You & Me stage.
By Sarah Karp Ward

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711389/tomorrowland-2013-laidback-luke-martin-solveig-day-2-recap.jhtml

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Zimbabwe faces poll with little violence this time

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) ? At the age of 89 President Robert Mugabe is on the campaign trail, seeking to extend his grip on Zimbabwe in an election next week that observers fear will be marred by fraud. But the opposition is gambling that there is enough discontent to unseat the wily political survivor, who has been in power for 33 years.

In the run-up to voting on July 31, rival supporters are seen wearing their party symbols in township bars and markets without the aggression and violence that has marked previous polls.

"There is more tolerance this time," Clive Nyakurerwa, a 30-year-old self-employed plumber, said.

But supporters of the challenger, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and pro-democracy groups warn it will be a mistake for the vote to be seen as credible just because there is little violence.

"There has been no transparency in the voters roll, no free media access and no freedom for political meetings. As we speak, our organizers are being harassed by police," said Martin Jambaya, a Tsvangirai party official from the northeastern Kotwa district.

It appears to be a tight race and Zimbabweans are hotly debating how this nation of 13 million will vote.

"Will it be for a new broom that citizens can put hopes and expectations on? And one that they can remove if it doesn't live up to those hopes?" asked civic activist Thabani Nyoni. "There has never been so clear a choice before."

Tsvangirai on Friday said he is deeply disturbed by chaotic preparations for the elections. He said the state election commission appeared not to be ready for Wednesday's vote.

"The credibility of this election is at risk. The chaos will lead to inconclusive and contested results" Tsvangirai said.

Tsvangirai sharply criticized Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the South African chairperson of the continent-wide African Union organization, for declaring that that AU observers are "satisfied" with arrangements so far.

Mugabe led the nation to independence in 1980 after a bitter war against the white minority Rhodesian regime of Ian Smith. An avowed Marxist, Mugabe took the reins of one of Africa's most prosperous economies and ? after regional leaders at the time urged him not to destroy it ? he pledged racial reconciliation, tolerance and sound management.

His lengthy rule, however, has become authoritarian, scarred by the brutal use of force to crush an armed uprising in the 1980s in which thousands of civilians were killed. Mugabe, and his ZANU-PF party, have stayed in power through elections every five years, bolstered by his sweeping control of the police and military, which are led by comrades who fought in the bush war against Rhodesia.

Now Mugabe is opposed by Tsvangirai, 61, a former labor leader, and his party, the Movement for Democratic Change. Despite widespread support, Tsvangirai has lost every election since 2000 amid evidence of violence and vote rigging. Mugabe's victory in 2008 was so disputed and violent, regional leaders forced him to form a shaky coalition with Tsvangirai.

For years Mugabe's government has been restricted by sanctions but now it appears the international community wants to re-engage with Harare, say analysts.

"The outside world wants to see a country that can manage its own electoral processes and inspire confidence. They want to work with a government that is freely elected and accountable," said Nyoni, a senior research official with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an alliance of 70 independent rights, civic and church groups.

Mugabe, increasingly frail, scheduled 10 campaign rallies up to voting day. Tsvangirai has been on a punishing campaign tour almost every day since July 4 when the nation's highest court ordered the poll to go ahead at the end of July.

Harare voter Regina Musa, 71, said Mugabe led a heroic fight for an end to white rule and was seen as the savior of the black majority, drawing massive crowds to his first public appearances then. But in this election, she said, his ZANU-PF party had to resort to drawing crowds by closing shops and markets to force people to attend his rallies.

She said those who attend get free T-shirts, baseball caps and food but have little enthusiasm for Mugabe's long "lectures" on his party's history of four decades and its liberation credentials instead of anything new to offer.

"Our lives have got worse. Schools and clinics have gone down, and there is hunger," said Musa, a market stall holder. "I can't manage to get enough food for my family."

About 9,600 voting stations are to be set up across the country for the poll, monitored by some 600 African observers. Mugabe has refused to allow Western observer missions into the country, accusing Britain, the former colonial power, and the United States of backing and funding Tsvangirai as part of their "regime change agenda."

Mugabe blames Western economic sanctions ? travel and banking bans on him and his party leaders to protest a decade of human and democratic rights violations ? for collapsing the economy.

Young voters in the impoverished western Harare township of Highfield, however, say they have tired of political rhetoric and want jobs.

"We are looking for a better future. Since I was born, I have never enjoyed life," said Tarisai Chitanda, 22, unemployed and a member of the "born free" generation that has grown up since independence.

But Edmore Sibubi, 30, said he supported Mugabe's black empowerment program that gave many young people dreams of sharing the nation's abundant mineral wealth, natural resources and potential business assets.

Critics of black empowerment and Mugabe's often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000 insist that few have benefited except an elite of Mugabe party loyalists. Many prime farms still lie idle and this former regional breadbasket now imports most of its food and more than 1 million people rely on foreign-donated food handouts.

Zimbabwe's state broadcasting monopoly controlled by Mugabe has aired his 90-minute rallies live on its four radio stations and main television channel. The nightly news on one of those days allotted Tsvangirai just three minutes, mostly of derogatory comments about him.

In another development, mobile phone companies have been ordered by the state telecommunications body to block bulk text messages that have been successfully used by Tsvangirai's party and independent civic groups to circulate election information, said Kubatana, a group of civic organizations.

This new ban on mass cell phone messages is seen as a way that ZANU-PF is trying to stop the effectiveness of Tsvangirai's campaigning through social media.

Nyoni, the civic activist, said it is feared voting will be chaotic but not necessarily to Mugabe's advantage saying inducements or threats and long voting lines will likely anger voters.

"You have the land but you don't have the economy," he said. "People are connecting to this and they don't want to be told what to do when they get into that polling booth."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-faces-poll-little-violence-time-132253340.html

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Lew says stubborn Congress risks repeating U.S. fiscal wounds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Sunday warned Congress against manufacturing a crisis over federal spending in the months ahead, as looming deadlines set the stage for a repeat of the political deadlock which two years ago triggered worldwide financial market turmoil.

In coming negotiations with Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, Democratic President Barack Obama will focus on ways to create economic gains for the middle class over spending cuts, Lew said.

"We have already done a lot of deficit reduction," he said in an interview on NBC. Lew spoke on four TV talk shows, setting out Obama's priorities ahead of an expected showdown this fall.

By early November, Congress must raise the legal limit on the country's borrowing authority or risk an unprecedented default on the government's debt.

A debt ceiling showdown in August 2011 between Obama and congressional Republicans sparked wild stock market swings and cost the United States its top-tier AAA credit rating.

"We need to get the debt limit extended in a way that doesn't create a crisis," Lew said.

Republicans see the debt ceiling as the their best leverage in winning a deal with Obama that would cut federal government spending to lower the deficit.

Lew, who was Obama's budget director in 2011, reiterated the president's stance that he would not consider short-term spending cuts, nor would he offset defense spending cuts with reductions in other government programs.

"The president has made crystal clear, he's not going to negotiate over the debt limit," Lew said in an interview on ABC.

The debt ceiling is one of two fiscal deadlines facing Obama and Congress. By October 1, they must agree on a stop-gap measure to keep the government funded or face a shutdown.

Republicans have eyed this budget deadline as a way to roll back steep spending cuts for defense programs. But that is not an option, Lew said.

"The across-the-board budget cuts that kicked in are not good policy," Lew said in a Fox News interview. "We think they should be replaced by sensible, alternative entitlement and tax reforms."

Congress is scheduled to leave town August 2 for a five-week recess.

Asked about the possibility of a federal response to Detroit's recent bankruptcy declaration, Lew threw cold water on any chances the struggling city will get federal aid.

"Detroit is going to have to work with its creditors on this," Lew told ABC.

(Reporting By Patrick Temple-West; Editing by David Storey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lew-says-stubborn-congress-risks-repeating-u-fiscal-131024700.html

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Vice President Joe Biden touched down in Hawaii Saturday for a short stay on Oah...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151749933055479&set=a.446167765478.235705.192156350478&type=1

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Kim Kardashian Baby Obsession: Absolutely Fabulous!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/kim-kardashian-baby-obsession-absolutely-fabulous/

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Plan Your Exclusive Visit To The Beautiful Sri-lanka

Sri Lanka, also known as Pearl shaped Island is one of the most beautiful Islands of the world. It has wide range of beaches, wild life sanctuaries, national park, waterfalls, and many monuments. The end of civil war in the country has boosted the tourism industry. The number of tourists visiting this country every year is increasing and it is expected to double up in next couple of years. There are many magnificent places in Sri Lanka that are worth visiting.

Visitors can tour the entire country and enjoy the scenic beauty of the place, without any fear. Amongst all other interesting places, Anuradhapura Shri Mahabodiya is one of the interesting places that has unique story to tell to its visitors. It is believed that the tree is more than 2500 years old. That makes it one of the oldest and firmly standing trees of the world.

Nature lovers will have a great time exploring the flora and fauna of the country, which is abundant here. Sigiriya is one of the interesting and fascinating places of Sri Lanka. It still is viewed as a puzzled place, and many scientists across the world are working on finding the facts about the place. This rock has beautiful images, sculptures, and things that have been designed with creativity and uniqueness.

There are many forest and wild life sanctuaries where you can feel closeness to the nature. Besides the greeneries, you can also enjoy the viewing some of the wild animals that are in habitants of this forest. Sinharaja Rain forest has been listed as the World Heritage. It is known for its scenic beauty and peacefulness. It is indeed a Paradise, which will make your visit to this beautiful country remarkable.

Yala National park is located on the lowland dry scrub of Sri Lanka. It is known for the recreational activities that are quite often organized here for tourists. You can have a look at some of the wild animals life leopard and other wild animals that are only seen here. this place is located quite close to the capital city of the country, Colombo. Tourists can have a surfing experience here, which is organized at Arug. The other parks that are located here are Wilpattuwa and Minneriya Park. You can easily reach this place without any hassle.

If you are planning to visit this magnificent country, then it is necessary to plan well. There are many tour Sri Lanka holiday packages that will allow you to visit maximum places, without missing any of the scenic beauty. Also there are good hotels and accommodation that are available here. You can gather all the required information about the Sri Lanka holiday location and packages by visiting their official website.

About the Author:
Author is an associate editor for Sri Lanka tour packages and gives us all information on Sri Lanka National Park tour and beautiful holiday destination of Sri Lanka including safari ride packages.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Plan-Your-Exclusive-Visit-To-The-Beautiful-Sri-lanka/5516038

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'Conjuring' home residents can't conjure privacy

Movies

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper NBC News

20 hours ago

"The Conjuring," which topped last week's box office, was called "too scary" by some critics, who noted that the haunted-house film was given its R rating by the MPAA not for gore or language, but for pure fear potential. Now it's become a real-life horror for the family who lives in the Harrisville, R.I., home that inspired the movie.

Norma Sutcliffe, who said she is in her 60s, told Jim Baron of the Rhode Island newspaper The Woonsocket Call that fans of the film have been making pilgrimages to her home. The visits are disturbing her and her 70-year-old husband, who isn't in good health, she said.

Warner Bros.

"The Conjuring" is supposedly based on true events.

?We haven?t slept in days,? Sutcliffe told the newspaper. ?Because we wake up at 2 in the morning (and) there are people with flashlights in our yard.? People call on the phone and ask, 'Is this ?The Conjuring? house?' "

The Sutcliffes bought the house 25 years ago from the Perrons, the family depicted in the film, The Call reported. Andrea Perron wrote a trilogy of books about the supposed haunting of the house.

Sutcliffe said she received no money from the moviemakers and is angry they distributed photos of her house, making it easy for fans to find her address. A lawyer has told her she probably has no case to sue, and she said she doesn't want money, just to be left alone.

Sutcliffe told The Call she has seen the movie and doesn't think much of it. ?I just laughed at the whole thing," she told the paper. "I thought it was so ironically ridiculous. I thought it was an insult to the Perrons.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/conjuring-homes-residents-wish-they-could-conjure-some-privacy-6C10760875

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Vandals Splash Lincoln Memorial With Paint (ABC News)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/322024701?client_source=feed&format=rss

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ASUS N46VZ Intel MEI Driver 8.0.0.1262 for Windows 7 64-bit

N46VZ Specifications:

- Processor
Intel Core i7 3610QM Processor
Intel Core i5 3210M Processor
Intel Core i3 3110M Processor

- Operating System
Windows 8 Pro
Windows 8
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Home Basic

- Chipset
Intel HM76 Express Chipset

- Memory
DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion up to 16 GB SDRAM

- Display
14.0" 16:9 HD (1366x768)/Wide View Angle LED Backlight

- Graphic
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 2GB/4GB DDR3 VRAM

- Storage
2.5" SATA
1TB 5400RPM
750GB 5400/7200RPM
500GB 5400/7200RPM

- Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD
Blue-ray Writer
Blue-ray reader

- Card Reader
3 -in-1 card reader ( SD/ MS/ MS Pro/ MMC)

- Camera
HD Web Camera

- Networking
Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
Built-in Bluetooth V4.0
10/100/1000 Base T

- Interface
1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone-out jack
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
3 x USB 3.0 port(s)
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI

- Audio
Built-in Speakers And Microphone
Bang & Olufsen ICEpower
MaxxAudio support

- Battery
6Cells 5200 mAh 56 Whrs

- Power Adapter
Output : 19 V DC, 4.74 A, 90 W (i3/i5 processor) / 6.3 A , 120 W (i7 processor)
Input : 100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal

- Dimensions
34.5 x 24.1 x 2.7 ~3.2 cm (WxDxH) (i3/i5 processor SKU)
34.5 x 24.1 x 2.7 ~3.4 cm (WxDxH) (i7 processor SKU)

- Weight
2.4 kg (with 6 cell battery)

It is highly recommended to always use the most recent driver version available.

Do not forget to check with our site as often as possible in order to stay updated on the latest drivers, software and games.

Try to set a system restore point before installing a device driver. This will help if you installed a wrong driver. Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer.

Source: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/MOTHERBOARD/Intel/ASUS-N46VZ-Intel-MEI-Driver-8001262-for-Windows-7-64-bit.shtml

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Lindsay Lohan's Sultry 'Canyons' Poster: Exclusive First Look!

Screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis opens up to MTV News about Lohan's 'gripping' performance in the August 2 film.
By Jocelyn Vena

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711152/lindsay-lohan-canyons-exclusive-poster.jhtml

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Mexico clashes between police and armed drug gang leave 22 dead

But gang violence surged throughout Mexico, leaving 70,000 people in its wake when Calderon left office in December, and a powerful new cartel, the Knights Templar, emerged in Michoacan.

Osorio Chong has insisted that the strategy ordered by current President Enrique Pena Nieto will be different than his predecessor's, with a single command, close co-ordination between various authorities, greater use of intelligence assets, and a development programme.

Pena Nieto took office in December vowing to switch the focus towards reducing the levels of violence. He has since launched a crime prevention programme but he says troops will stay on the ground until the murder rate goes down.

Fed up with crime, vigilante groups have appeared in recent months and clashed with the Knights Templar cartel, notably in the Tierra Caliente region known as a hot spot of gang violence in the state of 4.3 million people.

Drug gangs have existed for decades in this western state, where they grow marijuana and opium poppies and produce synthetic drugs in makeshift labs before shipping them to the United States.

Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Barney Henderson

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568301/s/2f169760/sc/11/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cnews0Cworldnews0Ccentralamericaandthecaribbean0Cmexico0C10A1990A260CMexico0Eclashes0Ebetween0Epolice0Eand0Earmed0Edrug0Egang0Eleave0E220Edead0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Matchmaker, matchmaker: Roy Nelson and Daniel Cormier among the fights made

The matchmakers of the MMA world have been busy lately, so let's see what they have done.

-- Roy Nelson has re-signed with the UFC and agreed to a fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 166 in Houston. The Houston Chronicle reports it's the co-main event for the fight card headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos for the heavyweight belt. Cormier and Nelson have been jawing at each other for weeks, and Cormier even drew up a "fight contract" for their bout.

-- Pat Healy's suspension for testing positive for marijuana is up this week. His next fight is also set. Healy will fight undefeated lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 165 in September.

-- Kurt Pellegrino retired after his 2011 loss to Patricky Freire in Bellator. He is coming out of retirement to fight Saul Almeida at a Bellator show in Atlantic City in November.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/matchmaker-matchmaker-roy-nelson-daniel-cormier-among-fights-124158434.html

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Voters shifting right force House GOP to keep pace

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., center, and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., right, chairman of the House Education Committee, walk to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote to delay the individual and employer mandates of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 17, 2013. It's the 38th time the GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund or scale back the program since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., center, and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., right, chairman of the House Education Committee, walk to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote to delay the individual and employer mandates of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 17, 2013. It's the 38th time the GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund or scale back the program since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Chart shows exit poll data for voters supporting Republican congressional candidates since 1976; 2c x 4 inches; 96.3 mm x 101 mm;

WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Republicans feel growing pressure to steer firmly right on key issues, thanks to changes in primary-election politics that are complicating Congress' ability to solve big problems.

Independent research supports the belief by these lawmakers that they owe their jobs to increasingly conservative activists, and that it's safer than ever to veer right on many subjects rather than seek compromise with Democrats.

On the flip side, House Democrats face a more liberal-leaning electorate in their own primary elections. But the trend is less dramatic for Democrats, whose supporters are more open to compromise to help government work, polls show. And Republican control of the House makes the GOP dynamic more consequential.

The House's recent struggles to handle once-routine tasks ? such as passing a bipartisan farm bill and raising the federal debt limit ? partly stem from the millions of Republican primary voters who elect representatives with stern warnings not to compromise with Democrats. It's also a reason that efforts to rewrite the nation's immigration laws face problems in the House, where Republicans quickly dismissed the Senate's bipartisan approach.

In interviews, House Republicans often cite worries about a possible challenge from the right in their next primary. Many of them represent districts so strongly Republican that it's all but impossible for the party's nominee to lose a general election to a Democrat. Also, these lawmakers say, it's highly unlikely that a moderate Republican can wrest the party's nomination from a conservative incumbent.

"There aren't a whole lot of moderate Republicans who participate in the primary in a conservative district," said Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas.

That leaves many House Republicans with only one prerequisite to assure their re-election: Never give a hard-charging conservative enough room on the right to mount a viable challenge in the primary.

In practice, the task doesn't seem so hard. Only six House Republicans lost their re-election primaries last year. Half of them fell to fellow incumbents in redrawn districts that forced two colleagues to oppose each other. The other three lost to challengers with strong tea party support.

Rep. Jean Schmidt's loss was instructive. A conservative by almost any measure, the three-term Ohioan was attacked nonetheless for voting to raise the federal debt ceiling and for giving President Barack Obama a peck on the cheek as he entered the House for his 2012 State of the Union address.

Memories of what happened to Schmidt ? and to veteran Republican senators such as Bob Bennett and Richard Lugar, who also lost primaries to tea party-backed challengers ? come up repeatedly in political discussions, House insiders say. GOP lawmakers regularly take the temperature of their districts' conservative activists, who are crucial in primary elections, which often draw modest turnouts.

"House members are better at reading their districts than anyone else," said Republican lobbyist and pollster Mike McKenna.

McKenna said it's not unusual to discuss immigration reform with House Republicans who say, "I'm getting emails from people who vote in primaries. They say 'I don't care what the Farm Bureau says, I hate this stuff.'"

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., tracks such emails and phone calls. He said his office recently received 80 calls about immigration, "and all of them were against the Senate bill."

The Senate bill would create a pathway to citizenship ? or what many conservatives call "amnesty" ? for millions of immigrants living here illegally. Fleming, asked whether he ever worries about going too far right for GOP primary voters in his district, said: "What's the chance of a moderate Republican coming in and saying, 'Oh, I'm for amnesty'?"

Marchant, the Texas congressman, said he's a lifelong conservative who has watched GOP primary voters in his west-Dallas district lean increasingly to the right. Tea partyers who once cast their votes for Libertarian Party candidates, he said, now are full-fledged Republicans.

"The mainstream Republicans, as a result, have become more conservative," Marchant said. Tea party activists, he said, "found that they could go into the Republican primary and make a real difference."

GOP Rep. Howard Coble, elected to 15 terms from central North Carolina, dates the change in primary voters' behavior to the mid-1990s. Conservative groups, he said, "were challenging Bob Dole for not being pure enough."

"That has opened the gates to primary races" against Republican incumbents, Coble said.

Voter surveys support the view that Republican voters are becoming more conservative.

On average, from 1976 through 1990, 47 percent of people who voted Republican in House races considered themselves conservative, according to exit polls. A slightly smaller share called themselves political moderates.

During Bill Clinton's presidency ? which included bruising fights over health care, gun control, taxes and his impeachment ? Republicans' conservatism began rising. From 1992 through 2006, GOP voters were 52 percent conservative on average and 41 percent moderate.

And in the most recent House elections, 2008 through 2012, more than 6 in 10 voters who backed a GOP candidate described themselves as conservative. About a third called themselves moderate.

Meanwhile, those who vote for House Democrats have become more liberal. But self-described liberals still comprise less than half of that group. In the pre-Clinton years, 25 percent considered themselves liberal; 33 percent on average did so from 1992 to 2006; and it stands at 40 percent across the last three elections.

Michael Dimock, who tracks such trends for the Pew Research Center, said that several years ago there was a notable difference between social conservatives and business conservatives in the Republican Party. Today, he said, Republican voters are more unified ? and solidly conservative.

"The socially conservative right has adopted that anti-government, small-government principle, and it's largely consolidated," Dimock said.

Rep. David Price has watched the two congressional parties grow farther apart for decades, first as a Duke University political science professor, and for 25 years as a Democratic House member from North Carolina.

At a recent Yale University conference on Congress, Price said: "Reaching agreement was extraordinarily difficult in the 1990s. It seems almost impossible now."

___

Associated Press Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbabington

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-07-22-US-GOP-Rightward-Trend/id-218741c25ff04af4967539ef963a9b56

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Ousted Egyptian leader's family denounces military

CAIRO (AP) ? The family of ousted President Mohammed Morsi furiously denounced the military Monday, accusing it of "kidnapping" him, and European diplomats urged that Egypt's first freely elected leader be released after being held incommunicado for nearly three weeks since being deposed by the army.

The fate of Morsi, who has been held without charge, has become a focus of the political battle between his Muslim Brotherhood and the new military-backed government.

The Brotherhood has tried to use Morsi's detention to rally the country to its side, hoping to restore its badly damaged popularity. The interim government, in turn, appears in part to be using it to pressure his supporters into backing down from their protests demanding his reinstatement.

Those protests again turned violent Monday, with clashes breaking out between Morsi supporters and opponents near Cairo's Tahrir Square, and between pro-Morsi demonstrators and police in a city on the capital's northern edge. At least four people were killed.

So far, however, the outcry over Morsi's detention seems to have gained little traction beyond the president's supporters, without bringing significantly greater numbers to its ongoing rallies around the country.

Millions of Egyptians filled the streets starting June 30, demanding the president's removal after a year in office and leading to the coup that ousted him. Anti-Brotherhood sentiment remains strong, further fueled by protests that block traffic in congested city centers and by media that have kept a staunchly anti-Morsi line. Egyptian human rights groups have said he should either be freed or charged.

Behind-the-scenes talks have been taking place through mediators between Brotherhood figures and the interim government ? centered around releasing Morsi and other detained leaders of the group in return for an end to protests by his supporters, according to Mohammed Aboul-Ghar, head of a liberal political party that backed the president's overthrow.

The military fears that Morsi's release "would only increase protests and make them more aggressive," he told The Associated Press. At least five other prominent Brotherhood members have also been detained. The military also has said that there is no way the measures taken against Morsi will be reversed.

The Brotherhood so far seems unlikely to make a deal, saying it cannot accept a military coup. It and other Morsi supporters vow they will not stop protests until he is returned to office, and they have said there will be no negotiations with the new leadership unless it accepts his reinstatement. They have denied any back-channel talks are taking place.

In a toughly worded statement Monday, the Brotherhood laid out a plan for resolving the crisis that was little changed from what Morsi proposed in his final days in office. It said Morsi must first be reinstated along with the now-dissolved upper house of parliament and the suspended constitution, followed by new parliament elections that would start a process for amending the constitution, and then a "national dialogue" could be held.

It denounced those behind Morsi's ouster as "putschists" and accused "coup commanders, with foreign support" of overthrowing "all the hopes in a democratic system."

Interim President Adly Mansour repeated calls for reconciliation in a nationally televised speech Monday evening. "We ... want to turn a new page in the nation's book," he said. "No contempt, no hatred, no divisions and no collisions."

Morsi was detained July 3, when Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the army chief, announced his removal. He is held at an undisclosed location and has had no contact with family or supporters. Government officials have said only that he is safe, is well-cared for and is being held for his own protection.

Two of Morsi's children lashed out at the military over his detention, saying his family has not been permitted to see him since then.

"What happened is a crime of kidnapping," one of his sons, Osama, told a Cairo news conference. "I can't find any legal means to have access to him."

The younger Morsi, who is a lawyer, called his father's detention the "embodiment of the abduction of popular will and a whole nation," and said the family will "take all legal actions" to end his detention.

In a statement read by Morsi's daughter, Shaimaa, the family said it held "the leaders of the bloody military coup fully responsible for the safety and security of the president."

European Union foreign ministers called for the release of Morsi and "all political detainees," saying it was among their key priorities for Egypt's new leadership.

The United States has stopped short of calling for his release. The White House repeated its call Monday for the end of politicized arrests and detentions. But spokesman Jay Carney said of Morsi: "We believe his situation needs to be resolved in a way that is consistent with the rule of law and due process and allows for his personal security."

"This is an issue that goes beyond one individual," he said, adding that resolving Morsi's situation wouldn't end the broader conflict in Egypt.

Prosecutors have said they are investigating allegations that Morsi and Brotherhood officials conspired with the Palestinian militant group Hamas to carry out a 2011 attack on prisons that freed Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders from jail during the 18-day uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

However, the prosecutors have not formally ordered Morsi detained for investigation, meaning his detention effectively remains outside the legal system.

Prominent rights activist Hossam Bahgat said a coalition of rights groups are preparing a joint call for Morsi to be indicted over the deaths of dozens of Egyptians in street riots and protests under his rule.

More than 40 people were killed in January in clashes with security forces. A month earlier, 10 others were killed when supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood clamped down on anti-Morsi protesters staging a sit-in in front of the presidential palace. Several activists, arrested in street protests, were killed during torture.

But Bahgat noted that charges on those deaths would put the new leadership in a difficult position because it would also require indicting the current interior minister, in charge of police, who held the post under Morsi as well.

Instead, authorities are turning to "more politicized cases," said Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. "All what is circulating now is more of a fiction than real."

"Now he is being held hostage to political negotiations and it depends on the deal, his fate will be decided."

Morsi's supporters have been holding protests and street marches nearly every day in Cairo in addition to sit-ins that have gone on for weeks in several cities. The marches have repeatedly turned violent, with dozens of mostly Morsi supporters killed.

Abdel-Sattar el-Meligi, a prominent former Brotherhood figure, said the group is hoping that protests can rally wider popular support. So far, however, "these are just very desperate attempts," he said.

"The Brotherhood failed to estimate the real anger in the street, the political weight of their opponents," he said. "The Brotherhood has exhausted all their credit in all levels."

On Monday, Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Brotherhood's political party, urged protesters to "besiege" the U.S. Embassy and expel the ambassador, stepping up the group's accusations that Washington backed the coup. Morsi's opponents, in turn, accuse the U.S. of supporting his presidency.

Several hundred Islamists tried to march toward the U.S. Embassy hours later, passing near Tahrir Square, where Morsi opponents have been camped. Rock-throwing clashes erupted between the two sides, and gunshots were heard, though it was not clear who opened fire. Both sides were seen to have what appeared to be homemade pistols.

One Morsi opponent was killed and dozens of others wounded, some by birdshot and two by live ammunition, said George Ihab, a doctor at a field clinic set up by the anti-Morsi camp.

Several anti-Morsi demonstrators said the ousted president's supporters attacked their people guarding an entrance to Tahrir near a bridge over the Nile River.

"They attacked us from Qasr el-Nil Bridge with birdshot and live ammunition and molotovs," said Ahmed Korashi, whose hand was burned from what he said was a firebomb.

In a tweet, the Muslim Brotherhood denied its supporters attacked, saying its protests are peaceful.

Clashes also broke out in Qalioub, north of Cairo, when pro-Morsi protesters blocked a highway between the capital and the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, security officials said. The security forces demanded the road be cleared, and protesters fired ammunition in the air. Clashes erupted with protesters throwing stones and security forces firing tear gas.

At least three people were killed, including a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old who died of gunshot wounds, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Security officials said the body of a 33-year-old textile worker, Amr Magdy Samak, was found near the sit-in with signs of torture. His body had bruises and his nails had been torn off, the officials said, adding that the death was under investigation.

In the Sinai Peninsula, suspected Islamic militants attacked security checkpoints in the town of Sheikh Zuweyid and the nearby city of el-Arish, killing a civilian and wounding three soldiers, security officials said. A string of militant attacks in the Sinai since Morsi's fall has killed 14 members of the security forces and several civilians.

___

Associated Press writer Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ousted-egyptian-leaders-family-denounces-military-220013498.html

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No signs Washington to come to Detroit's rescue

WASHINGTON (AP) ? During the bleakest days of the Great Recession, Congress agreed in bipartisan votes to bail out two of Detroit's biggest businesses, General Motors and Chrysler.

Today, however, there seems little appetite from either Democrats or Republicans in Washington for a federal rescue of the birthplace of the automobile industry. Detroit now stands as the largest American city ever to file for bankruptcy protection.

Such a bailout would be huge, perhaps as much as $20 billion. Federal resources are strained, with the national debt at $16.7 trillion and the federal government struggling under the constraints of automatic spending cuts that took effect in March.

President Barack Obama has had a hard enough time getting his present proposals though Congress, where Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate and Republicans are in firm control of the House.

"I think it would be a waste of the president's time to even propose it. His plate is so full and throwing Detroit into the mix is the last thing in the world he'd want," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University who specializes in Congress. "I think the era of big government bailouts is over."

Political leaders in Washington haven't pushed for a bailout of Detroit, which was the nation's fourth-largest city in the 1950s but since has had a declining population, accelerated by hard times for the auto industry during and right after the punishing 2008-2009 recession.

Congress is still in near-gridlock territory. Opportunities for spending vast sums of money on a bailout for Detroit seem severely limited. The White House is taking a wait-and-see approach, but clearly exhibiting little enthusiasm for another big bailout.

"Can we help Detroit? We don't know," Vice President Joe Biden said in a response to a reporter's question about a possible federal rescue. Presidential spokesman Jay Carney, when asked directly if a bailout was a possibility, appeared to rule out such assistance.

"We will, of course, as we would with any city in this country, work with that city and have policy discussions with leaders in the city, and make suggestions and offer assistance where we can," Carney said. "But on the issue of insolvency ... that's something that local leaders and creditors are going to have to resolve. But we will be partners in an effort to assist the city and the state as they move forward."

Local leaders aren't pushing for a federal bailout after the city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection Thursday, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder isn't, either.

"People should not expect bailouts at either the federal or the state level," Snyder said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We've been very diligent about this. We want to be a supportive partner at the state level. I believe the federal government does (too)."

Members of Michigan's congressional delegation aren't clamoring just yet for a federal bailout. "We just need to step back and think about it," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.

The city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, says that for now, Detroit will stay open, bills will be paid and city services provided.

But the bankruptcy case could take years to resolve. Ahead of the filing, the city's two pension funds sued to block a bankruptcy. Bankruptcy could change pension and retiree benefits, which are guaranteed under state law. The impact on current city workers is unclear.

President Gerald Ford, after threatening in 1975 to veto any bill that would bail out New York City, went along with a $2.3 billion rescue loan that had strings attached.

More recently, the federal government threw a financial lifeline to both General Motors and Chrysler (the Ford Motor Company didn't request the aid) and acted to protect major Wall Street and banking institutions from insolvency. Federal stimulus spending and rescue loans started in the final year of the George W. Bush administration and extended through the Obama presidency.

Now, with the economy slowly recovering, most of the direct government anti-recession aid has ended although the Federal Reserve continues to provide financial stimulus by keeping short-term interest rates extremely low while buying $85 billion a month in government and mortgage bonds to keep mortgage and other long-term rates low.

"The chances of a federal bailout are remote" given partisan gridlock in Washington, said Bruce Katz, a former official with the Department of Housing and Urban Development who now is director of the metropolitan policy program for the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

"But I don't think the federal government is off the hook," Katz said. "It is a substantial investor in Detroit. Whether it's community development block grants or federal contracts or assistance to nongovernmental recipients, there's a substantial amount of federal money that goes into Detroit. There's a role for the federal government. And it needs to make its resources more flexible than today and align them with the priorities of Detroit."

"A lot of this could be done administratively, but in the end it will have to have some congressional engagement. This is almost like a Hurricane Sandy situation," Katz said.

Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress with the American Enterprise Institute, said that "despite the great success with the bailout of the auto industry," such rescues by the government "are going to be hard to come by in the future."

As to extending a helping hand for Detroit, Ornstein said it would be hard to get any federal aid package past House Republicans, "who I just can't imagine have any interest in doing anything for Detroit." The city is heavily Democratic.

___

Associated Press writer David Eggert in Detroit contributed to this report.

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-signs-washington-come-detroits-rescue-170850937.html

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The PFA profile for Tom Cleverley has been updated for 2013-14 season, say Digital Sports Group

(PRWEB UK) 21 July 2013

Digital Sports Group today announced that The PFA profile for the professional footballer Tom Cleverley has been been updated. The PFA player profiles provide a unique and unrivalled insight into a professional footballers career with full career stats, news biographies and features.

A talented young attacking midfielder on the books of Manchester United?

A creative and intelligent player who can operate in the centre of midfield or on either flank, he also offers tenacity and a genuine goal threat. Tom left Bradford City?s youth set-up to join United at the age of 12, signing scholarship forms in 2005.?

A quietly impressive stint with Wigan Athletic in 2010-11 thrust him into contention for a first team place at Old Trafford last season and Tom seized his chance with some outstanding displays as United started the campaign in blistering form.

Head of Operations at DSG, Matthew Tait had this to say ?Tom Cleverley is a fantastic player and we have been working hard to provide the most fantastic resource that is both enjoyable to use and useful. Working with the PFA provides unique biographical information and insights that can be found nowhere else online. We are proud of our partnership with the Professional Footballers Association and the unrivalled access this provides us to the players.?

DSG became the official digital partner of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) earlier this year and have since launched a number of Player profile fan pages on social media site Facebook as well as providing official player pages on their football news site football.co.uk.

Source: http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10945614.htm

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Lawyers Seek to Expand Concussion Suit Against NCAA Into Class Action

Lawyers suing the NCAA over its handling of head injuries are seeking class-action status for their suit, potentially expanding it to include thousands of athletes across the nation, the Associated Press reported. The motion was made in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Friday.

An NCAA spokeswoman said on Saturday that the legal action was inappropriate and that the NCAA ?had been at the forefront of safety issues,? according to the Associated Press.

Attached to the class-action request is a report for the plaintiffs by a leading authority on concussions, Robert Cantu, who cites an internal NCAA survey from 2010. He said the NCAA found that nearly half of the college trainers who responded indicated they put athletes showing signs of a concussion back in the same game.

Read more at: bigstory.ap.org

Source: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/lawyers-seek-to-expand-concussion-suit-against-ncaa-into-class-action

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Ca?n Vel?squez y Junior Dos Santos promover?n pelea el 30 de julio en L.A. Live de Los ?ngeles

El Ultimate Fighting Championship? ha anunciado las fechas, los sitios y los peleadores que ser?n parte del UFC World Tour, una serie de acontecimientos para la prensa y los seguidores con el fin de apoyar cuatro eventos importantes de pay-per-view que cerrar?n el a?o 2013. Cuatro campeones y cuatro retadores al campeonato atacar?n a la vez 11 ciudades en un tour ?nico.

El presidente del UFC Dana White dar? una conferencia de prensa en vivo el 30 de julio en el Club Nokia a las 11 a.m. Entre los asistentes estar?n Ca?n Vel?squez, Junior Dos Santos, el campe?n de peso semicompleto Jon Jones, el desafiante n?mero uno al t?tulo de peso semicompleto Alex Gustafsson, Georges St-Pierre, Johny Hendricks, la campeona de peso gallo femenino Ronda Rousey y la desafiante n?mero uno al t?tulo de peso gallo femenino Miesha Tate.

Vel?squez y Dos Santos se frentar?n el s?bado 19 de octubre en el Toyota Center en Houston, Texas. El evento contar? con la participaci?n del campe?n de peso completo Ca?n Vel?squez (12-1, representando a San Jos?, California) y el ex campe?n Junior dos Santos (16-2, representando a Salvador, Bah?a, Brasil) en una revancha por el t?tulo de peso completo. Las entradas salen a la venta para todo el p?blico el viernes 2 de agosto a las 10:00 a.m.

Source: http://www.hoylosangeles.com/news/2013/jul/19/cain-velasquez-y-junior-dos-santos-promoveran-pele/

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Gary Marshall: Why Surface RT is Microsoft's Zune all over again

We knew Surface RT was a horror show, but we didn't know how bad a horror show it was. Now we do. It's a $900 million horror show.

Microsoft has announced an inventory write-down of $900m on the Surface RT, which means the tablets it has are worth nearly a billion dollars less than Microsoft expected. The New Radical reckons that Microsoft could be sitting on a pile of six million unsold tablets; even the most generous estimate suggests three million.

Microsoft says it is absolutely committed to Windows RT and the Surface RT, and that it'll continue promoting the Surface RT tablet as a rival to Apple's iPad. Anyone else thinking of Monty Python's Black Knight lying there, limbs lopped off, shouting "Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!"?

I think we can all agree that the BlackBerry Playbook was a disaster, but it still managed to do 1.7 million units. According to The Guardian, the Surface RT has managed just 260,000. It's easier to sell thousand-dollar Surface Pro - 750,000 of them, according to the same report - than the much cheaper and supposedly sexier Surface RT.

What's the problem?

99 problems and the kit is one

There are several problems here. The most obvious one is that the Surface RT isn't good enough: the device is sluggish, the app selection was sketchy, and the price was too high.

Windows 8.1 and the price cut help a bit, but they don't address the second, more serious issue: what exactly is Surface RT for? Why would you choose one over an iPad, decent Android tablet or a proper Windows 8 tablet?

The third problem is the most serious, though. Microsoft has just written down nearly a billion dollars because apparently, at no point did anybody say "hang on a minute! This costs more than its rivals, does less, isn't proper Windows and doesn't work very well. Are we sure we want to manufacture millions?" That's like Ford shipping cars with square wheels and being surprised when they don't sell.

Microsoft may get it right eventually - it usually does - but if we need the customary wait for version three then it's probably too late: the brand damage is already done. Surface RT is looking awfully like the Zune music player, a flawed, supposed Apple-killer that Microsoft eventually perfected. Unfortunately by the time it did, nobody cared.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/NtbOfw-fbAo/story01.htm

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FOR KIDS: Perfect reflections

FOR KIDS: Perfect reflections

Physicists design a new mirror to reflect light

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition: July 18, 2013

Physicists design a new mirror to reflect light

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition: July 18, 2013

Enlarge

Some mirror!

A light-reflecting (photonic) crystal like the one illustrated here can sometimes serve as a perfect mirror.

Credit: Bo Zhen

Physicists have built a mirror that Snow White?s wicked stepmother would certainly not appreciate. It offers a perfect reflection.
But this perfect reflector is nothing like the wall mirror we?re used to. Instead, it looks more like a tiny ceramic slab punched through with a grid of tiny holes. A device relying on this technology could be used to more efficiently transmit light beams that carry information.

Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: Perfect reflections.

---

Citations

A. Grant. ?Perfect mirror debuts.? Science News. July 10, 2013.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351700/title/FOR_KIDS_Perfect_reflections

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Google, Microsoft, and what the Dell? http://ht.ly/n6TnB

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151702910702856&id=262971987855

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College athletics: SEC commissioner wants NCAA changes

College athletics ? Slive pushes talk on bigger scholarships.

Hoover, Ala. ? Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive took time away from bragging about his thriving league to point out that "important questions need to be answered" about how the NCAA governs college athletics.

Slive used part of his annual address opening SEC media days Tuesday to reiterate his push for athletes to receive a scholarship that covers the total cost of attendance and stress the importance nationally of "innovative leadership to slash through our Gordian knot."

He said the SEC still supports the NCAA?s role in governing college athletics, but he questioned the makeup and role of the NCAA?s board of directors and called for changes to the structure to ensure major roles for school and league administrators and coaches.

However, the longtime commissioner is "bullish on the fact that this is being talked about now." Slive declined to offer specific suggestions for change.

Slive went on the offensive in pushing change and reiterated proposals he made in Hoover two years ago, including boosting financial aid for athletes, upgrading recruiting rules to fit the new technology and increasing academic eligibility requirements for incoming freshmen and transfers.

"Yeah, I pushed the agenda," Slive said after speaking at the podium. "I think this is an important time, and it?s a time when I think we all want to make sure that we have the kind of processes and governance that will help us work through the Gordian knot that I mentioned.

"We will continue to push for those issues such as full cost of attendance that we have been talking about now for two years. That?s a long time to be waiting."

He noted that multi-year scholarships and rules helping former athletes to return to school represent progress.

"These are important changes and they are in fact helpful, but the NCAA has not been successful meeting the full cost of attendance for our student-athletes, whether it?s through the so-called miscellaneous expense allowance or some other model that provides board access to additional funds," Slive said.

"Conferences and their member institutions must be allowed to meet the needs of their student-athletes. From recent conversations with my commissioner colleagues there appears to be a willingness to support a meaningful solution to this important change."

story continues below

Slive emptied his "annual brag bag" for a conference that has won the past seven BCS national titles and had teams representing half of the Top 10 at the end of the last season. He also addressed off-the-field issues that include the arrest of former Florida tight end Aaron Hernandez, who has been charged in the June killing of Boston semi-pro athlete Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.

Heisman Trophy-winning Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, who takes the podium on Wednesday, pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor stemming from a 2012 bar fight close to campus. LSU running back Jeremy Hill pleaded guilty to misdemeanor simple battery earlier this week after being arrested in June for a fight in a bar parking lot.

"We cannot ignore the recent off-the-field incidents involving both current and former student athletes," Slive said. "Not all student-athletes fulfill the high expectations we have for them. While the negative actions of the few garner headlines, the fact is that the vast majority of these young people conduct themselves appropriately.

"Notwithstanding the fact that our institutions have mechanisms in place to recognize problems, support systems to address personal issues, policies to provide implementation of discipline and the willingness to enforce these policies ? it is a crushing disappointment when despite all these efforts a young person throws away the opportunity for a promising future."

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/56604711-77/slive-athletes-ncaa-commissioner.html.csp

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Sylvia's WaterColorBot takes to Kickstarter for the usual reason (video)

Fresh from impressing President Obama, Bill Nye and LeVar Burton, WaterColorBot -- sorry, Super Awesome Sylvia's WaterColorBot -- is ready for prime time. The makers are taking to Kickstarter in order to sell the robot, which transfers vector art and trackpad daubs to paper without the mess of doing it yourself. The team needs to scrounge together $50,000, and a pledge of $295 will get you an unassembled, DIY kit. If you want to see the unit in action (hosted by Super Awesome Sylvia herself) then head past the break.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals

Comments

Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/17/watercolorbot-kickstarter/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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US court ruling in NY favors anti-terror law

NEW YORK (AP) ? A federal appeals court in Manhattan has revived enforcement of a law that permits the indefinite detention of people suspected of supporting terrorists, saying a lower court mistakenly ruled for plaintiffs who opposed it.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging the law that allows the U.S. government to detain anyone who "substantially" or "directly" provides "support" to radical forces, such as al-Qaida or the Taliban. The court found that the plaintiffs had no standing to bring the case in the first place.

In response to the decision, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Bruce Afran, accused the appeals court of failing to address the merits of the case by instead reversing the lower court's decision on technical grounds. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan had no comment.

The decision sent the case back to the district court to let the judge consider further proceedings. But Afran said it was unclear whether that would happen.

In a ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest found that the law was "unconstitutionally overbroad." She urged Congress to make it more specific so journalists, scholars, political activists and others would not worry that contacting enemies of the United States would put them in jeopardy of indefinite incarceration.

"First Amendment rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and cannot be legislated away," Forrest wrote. "This court rejects the government's suggestion that American citizens can be placed in military detention indefinitely, for acts they could not predict might subject them to detention."

The appeals court found that the plaintiffs who are U.S. citizens, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges, "do not have standing to challenge the statute" because the relevant section "simply says nothing about the government's authority to detain citizens."

Other plaintiffs, including foreign political activists, also failed to show they had ground to fear the law, even though it "does have meaningful effect regarding the authority to detain individuals who are not citizens or lawful resident aliens," the appeals panel said.

Hedges has interviewed al-Qaida members, mixed with members of the Taliban during speaking engagements overseas and reported on 17 groups named on a list prepared by the State Department of known terrorist organizations. He testified that the law has forced him to consider altering speeches where members of al-Qaida or the Taliban might be present.

Government lawyers had argued that the fears of journalists and others were unfounded. They claimed that the 2011 statute simply reaffirms powers authorized by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

But Afran said the appeals court decision "follows a disturbing and dangerous trend in which the federal courts are refusing to address the merits of civil liberties cases. It sends a message that you can't go to court unless the military is knocking at your door ready to take you into custody."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-17-Homeland%20Battlefield%20Act-Lawsuit/id-7e63498c8cdf4f249585f27c9a2d842d

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