"Welcome to Myrtle Manor" stars Lindsay Colbert (right) and Taylor Burt.
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
Over the course of three days, three of the stars from the docu-series "Welcome to Myrtle Manor" were welcomed to South Carolina's Myrtle Beach Jail.
It all started in the early hours of Friday morning. That's when Amanda Adams, identified on the show's website as a "turtle hunting, four wheel driving redneck," was arrested for driving under the influence.
Officers were responding to a call about a single-vehicle collision when they found Adams' damaged Jeep Wrangler next to a downed electric pole. According to a report from the Myrtle Beach Police Department, when officers asked the 26-year-old how much she'd had to drink, she told them she'd consumed three beers and one shot, though later she added three more shots to that tally.
Her blood alcohol level was .20 -- .08 is the legal limit in South Carolina.
There was more trouble on Saturday night as Taylor Burt, known as "the king of Myrtle Beach nightlife" on the TLC series, was arrested for having sex with a minor under the age of 16.
According to the police report, a 15-year-old and her mother made the allegations against Burt, 28, on Friday. The girl went on to get physical exam at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.
No further details have been made available about Burt's arrest.
But the brushes with the law continued on Sunday, with the latest incident involving 21-year-old Lindsay Colbert.
A Myrtle Beach police report reveals that Colbert was arrested for driving under the influence -- with a blood alcohol level above .15 -- and speeding.
A separate incident report described Adams' behavior as "an emotional rollercoaster throughout the procedure" and said the reality star asked the arresting officer, "Are you giving me (expletive) 'cause I am on the show?"
She was also said to have made racial slurs toward the officer.
TODAY.com reached to TLC about the arrests, but the network had no comment.
Complete Results ? PHILADELPHIA ? The Cornell women had a very successful two days of competition at the historic Penn Relays on Thursday and Friday, claiming four victories, three top-five individual finishes in Championship races, two school records, a school freshman record and several alterations to the all-time school top 10 lists. ? The Relays got off to an auspicious start in the field events on Thursday as senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi claimed the Eastern Shot Put title, coming through with a clutch sixth (and final) throw of 48' 10 1/4? to win the event, a mark that was easily an ECAC qualifier and an outdoor seasonal best. Imbesi has been on a roll this outdoor season and concluded her collegiate career at the Penn Relays with yet another great performance. ? On the track in the relays, the 4x400 claimed the Heps race for the second year in a row, winning in dominant fashion, six seconds ahead of second-place Princeton. The line-up of freshman Udeme Akpaete (55.4), sophomore Zena Kolliesuah (54.8), sophomore Katie Woodford (57.0) and junior Ebolutalese Airewele (56.3) ran 3:43.72 to add another Penn Relays wheel to the Cornell collection. ? Earlier, two other relays put in good efforts. The 4x100 of freshman Rochelle Forbes, Kolliewuah, Airewele and Woodford ran 47.76 to better the ECAC standard, finishing fifth in their heat. And a young distance medley relay team gained valuable experience, placing 11th in their heat as freshman Sarah Holl (3:41.13 for 1,200), sophomore Emily Woodford (57.85 for 400), sophomore Elyse Wilkinson (2:12.41 for 800) and freshman Kristen Niedrach (4:58.29 for 1,600) teamed up to run 11:49.67. ? Closing out relay action on Friday, the Big Red smashed the school record in the Shuttle Hurdle Relay to win the Eastern Section and earned yet more Penn Relays hardware, placing third overall out of all colleges. The team of sophomore Mina Amick-Alexis (14.3), freshman Hillary Holmes (14.3), junior Zaakirah Daniels (14.1) and freshman Kayla Wong (14.9) ran 57.59, breaking the school record set two years ago by over half a second. ? On Thursday night in the distance carnival, the Cornell women again proved to be among the best in the nation with yet another remarkable showing. All seven women finished in the top 10 of the College Championships sections, claiming Cornell's first ever win in the 3K, a runner-up in the 5K as well as a medal-winning fifth-place effort in the 3K. These performances produced five changes to the school all-time top 10 lists, as well as a school record and a school freshman record. ? Junior Rachel Sorna powered to victory in the women's 3000 Championship to earn a Penn Relays watch, dictating the tempo of the race in setting a school outdoor record of 9:20.36. Placing fifth was fellow All-American senior Genna Hartung, who set an outdoor personal best of 9:32.42 to move to No. 10 all-time at Cornell. And in eighth was freshman Caroline Kellner, who took six seconds off the old outdoor school freshman record with a personal best of 9:37.69, good for eighth place. This is Kellner's second freshman record of the year (to go along with her indoor 5K record), and she joins classmates Liz Crissy (high jump), Dina Iacone (10K) and Claire Devoe (3K steeplechase) in helping re-write the freshman record books this outdoor season. ? Earlier in the evening in the steeplechase, DeVoe had a very good debut at the Penn Relays, placing eighth in the Championship 3K steeple section, running 10:45.42, easily under the ECAC standard. ? Immediately after the 3000 Championship was the 5000 Championship, and for the second race in a row, Cornell had three in the top 10. Senior co-captain Katie Kellner battled fellow All-American Corey Conner of Maine to the very end, running a very strong race to place second, crossing the line in 16:10.85, an outdoor personal record and good for No. 2 all-time at Cornell. Kellner waged a tactical and well-executed race, finishing just behind the defending champion in the event. ? Cornell had two other outstanding performances in the race as senior Kate Rosettie closed strongly to set an outdoor personal mark of 16:35.69 to place ninth (to move to No. 8 all-time at Cornell), and junior Devin McMahon ran very well to set a lifetime personal best of 16:37.15 to place 10th (good for No. 10 all-time at Cornell). ? Cornell had several other good showings on the weekend. In the College Pole Vault, seniors Claire Dishong and Lindsey Patterson both cleared 11' 11 3/4?, while freshman Liz Crissy was over 5' 4 1/2? in the Eastern High Jump. In the College Javelin, sophomore Felicia Reid threw 98'. ? The day after the Penn Relays conclude, Cornell will finish up the regular season by hosting the Big Red Invitational on Sunday, April 28. The meet promises to be a competitive one with several college and top club teams from the Northeast and Canada entered.
Nintendo's hardware sales may be in a bit of a stupor, but its downloadable games are a different story. During today's financial results briefing, the company's president, Satoru Iwata, announced that digital sales for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended in March, cruised past ¥16 billion (around $160.9 million), more than doubling transactions from the last two years. Nintendo's frontman went on to credit the demand for downloadable game add-ons and the convenience of digital titles as contributing factors in the company's surge. Iwata also pointed out that most 3DS owners are using their systems online. This includes 87 percent of the handheld's owners in Japan and 83 percent in the US. While these numbers are impressive, the system's internet use statistics start to dwindle in Europe, where its user connectivity rate is only 57 percent. The Wii U's user base is almost as connected, with 80 percent of the platform's owners taking the system online The company's e-commerce may be thriving, but we wouldn't bet on seeing Nintendo announce a download-only console during its E3 keynotepresentation.
Someone, Mark Hatch, if I had to guess, has left a Square reader just to the left of where we've set up our cameras. It's on a table next to a small, but exceptionally diverse array of gadgets. There's a wooden book that unfolds into a desk lamp and a polymer incubation blanket for infants that's "on track to save 100,000 children's lives," according to Hatch, TechShop's spikey-white-haired CEO. But it's the little white plastic dongle that's the star of this show, through the power of sheer ubiquity, popping up in coffee shops and taxicabs everywhere. Square's modest undertaking has since ballooned to a roughly 300-person operation. The project was born in this very space, eventually moving to a building in San Francisco's SoMa district a block or so away, the mobile payment company having opted not to travel too far from the place where it was first conceived.
When it comes to proximity, Square is by no means an anomaly -- if anything, the company's strayed a bit away from the pack. TechShop's overseers have, quite cannily, begun to offer up a portion of the warehouse's 17,000 square feet as office space, giving its members a shot at some prime San Francisco real estate, a flight of stairs up from an impressive array of machine tools -- laser cutters, water jets and more 3D printers than most mortals have seen in one place. "Literally everything you need to make just about anything on the planet," says Hatch, in typically definitive terms. And while there's arguably still some sense of hyperbole in the notion of the "next industrial revolution" (as 3D-printing evangelist Bre Pettis loves to put it), it's hard to stand here in the well-lit warehouse amongst the buzz of machinery and ideas and not appreciate the sentiment.
Link between inherited endocrine tumor syndrome and much-studied cell pathwayPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA A mutation in a protein called menin causes a hereditary cancer syndrome called MEN1 (multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1). Individuals with MEN1 are at a substantially increased risk of developing neuroendocrine tumors, including cancer of the pancreatic islet cells that secrete insulin.
Yet knowing these connections and doing something to improve fighting the syndrome are two different things. Researchers still did not exactly understand how menin mutations lead to MEN1 syndrome, and more importantly, what molecular pathways might be dysregulated by menin mutations and thus can be targeted to improve therapy against this type of cancer. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that pathway, which may lead to a new treatment for patients with MEN1 and sporadic endocrine tumors.
A research team led by Xianxin Hua, MD, PhD, associate professor of Cancer Biology at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, report in Cancer Research that menin suppresses signaling in the much-studied Hedgehog pathway in endocrine organs. Menin mutations lead to increased Hedgehog signaling and cell proliferation. They found that inhibiting proteins in the Hedgehog network using drugs reduces growth of tumors in an animal model of human MEN1 syndrome.
Unlike many cancer-associated proteins, menin is neither an enzyme nor a signaling receptor. Instead, the team discovered that menin works by physically interacting with a second protein, PRMT5. The menin-PRMT5 complex binds to the promoter of the Gas1 gene, where PRMT5 (an enzyme that adds methyl groups to histone proteins) functions as an epigenetic inhibitor, tamping down gene transcription. The GAS1 protein promotes Hedgehog signaling, and thus by inhibiting Gas1 expression, menin and PRMT5 effectively dial down the pathway's tendency towards cell proliferation.
"This study uncovered a new layer of regulation of pro-proliferative genes by menin via the Hedgehog signaling pathway," Hua says. "These pro-replication genes are regulated through GAS1 and PRMT5."
Discovering the link between menin and Hedgehog was serendipitous, says Hua. Using microarray analysis, his team found that loss of menin results in increased expression of the Gas1 gene. Separately, other groups reported that GAS1 mediates Hedgehog signaling. That knowledge gave Hua's team the missing piece of information required to identify menin's normal cellular function. "We found menin linked to Hedgehog signaling by suppressing expression of GAS1, leading to the suppression of Hedgehog signaling in endocrine tissue."
Significantly, Hua's team found that menin mutant proteins associated with MEN1 cancer in patients were impaired in their ability to interact with PRMT5, and thus, in adding the methyl chemical group to the Gas1 promoter gene. What's more, treating a mouse model of human MEN1 syndrome with a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor called Erivedge (FDA-approved in 2012 for metastatic or locally advanced basal cell carcinoma) reduced proliferation of tumor cells and blood insulin levels. That, says Hua, suggests a potential new treatment for patients with MEN1 syndrome, and also likely for sporadic endocrine tumors, some 40 percent of which also contain menin mutations
"Because we show in this mouse tumor model that we can significantly suppress proliferation of tumor cells in pancreatic islets and that we can reduce the higher insulin levels with a drug, which was just clinically approved to be safe, that naturally raises the question of whether, in patients who have mutation in this gene or enhanced Hedgehog signaling, this drug can improve patient symptoms to reduce tumor progression or insulinemia," Hua asks.
First author and postdoctoral fellow in the Hua lab Buddha Gurung, PhD, adds "the possibilities of translating these findings into a viable therapeutic option is extremely exciting."
###
Co-authors include Zijie Feng, Daniel V. Iwamoto, and Austin Thiel of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute; Guanghui Jin of Xiamen University, Fujian, China; Chen-Min Fan of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, MD; and Jessica M.Y. Ng and Tom Curran of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The research was supported by Caring for Carcinoid Foundation and the National Cancer Institute (R01-CA-113962, 548 R01-DK085121; R01 DK084963).
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Link between inherited endocrine tumor syndrome and much-studied cell pathwayPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
PHILADELPHIA A mutation in a protein called menin causes a hereditary cancer syndrome called MEN1 (multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1). Individuals with MEN1 are at a substantially increased risk of developing neuroendocrine tumors, including cancer of the pancreatic islet cells that secrete insulin.
Yet knowing these connections and doing something to improve fighting the syndrome are two different things. Researchers still did not exactly understand how menin mutations lead to MEN1 syndrome, and more importantly, what molecular pathways might be dysregulated by menin mutations and thus can be targeted to improve therapy against this type of cancer. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that pathway, which may lead to a new treatment for patients with MEN1 and sporadic endocrine tumors.
A research team led by Xianxin Hua, MD, PhD, associate professor of Cancer Biology at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, report in Cancer Research that menin suppresses signaling in the much-studied Hedgehog pathway in endocrine organs. Menin mutations lead to increased Hedgehog signaling and cell proliferation. They found that inhibiting proteins in the Hedgehog network using drugs reduces growth of tumors in an animal model of human MEN1 syndrome.
Unlike many cancer-associated proteins, menin is neither an enzyme nor a signaling receptor. Instead, the team discovered that menin works by physically interacting with a second protein, PRMT5. The menin-PRMT5 complex binds to the promoter of the Gas1 gene, where PRMT5 (an enzyme that adds methyl groups to histone proteins) functions as an epigenetic inhibitor, tamping down gene transcription. The GAS1 protein promotes Hedgehog signaling, and thus by inhibiting Gas1 expression, menin and PRMT5 effectively dial down the pathway's tendency towards cell proliferation.
"This study uncovered a new layer of regulation of pro-proliferative genes by menin via the Hedgehog signaling pathway," Hua says. "These pro-replication genes are regulated through GAS1 and PRMT5."
Discovering the link between menin and Hedgehog was serendipitous, says Hua. Using microarray analysis, his team found that loss of menin results in increased expression of the Gas1 gene. Separately, other groups reported that GAS1 mediates Hedgehog signaling. That knowledge gave Hua's team the missing piece of information required to identify menin's normal cellular function. "We found menin linked to Hedgehog signaling by suppressing expression of GAS1, leading to the suppression of Hedgehog signaling in endocrine tissue."
Significantly, Hua's team found that menin mutant proteins associated with MEN1 cancer in patients were impaired in their ability to interact with PRMT5, and thus, in adding the methyl chemical group to the Gas1 promoter gene. What's more, treating a mouse model of human MEN1 syndrome with a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor called Erivedge (FDA-approved in 2012 for metastatic or locally advanced basal cell carcinoma) reduced proliferation of tumor cells and blood insulin levels. That, says Hua, suggests a potential new treatment for patients with MEN1 syndrome, and also likely for sporadic endocrine tumors, some 40 percent of which also contain menin mutations
"Because we show in this mouse tumor model that we can significantly suppress proliferation of tumor cells in pancreatic islets and that we can reduce the higher insulin levels with a drug, which was just clinically approved to be safe, that naturally raises the question of whether, in patients who have mutation in this gene or enhanced Hedgehog signaling, this drug can improve patient symptoms to reduce tumor progression or insulinemia," Hua asks.
First author and postdoctoral fellow in the Hua lab Buddha Gurung, PhD, adds "the possibilities of translating these findings into a viable therapeutic option is extremely exciting."
###
Co-authors include Zijie Feng, Daniel V. Iwamoto, and Austin Thiel of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute; Guanghui Jin of Xiamen University, Fujian, China; Chen-Min Fan of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, MD; and Jessica M.Y. Ng and Tom Curran of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The research was supported by Caring for Carcinoid Foundation and the National Cancer Institute (R01-CA-113962, 548 R01-DK085121; R01 DK084963).
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SYDNEY (AP) ? Australian police have arrested a man they say is affiliated with international hacking collective Lulz Security on a charge of attacking and defacing a government website, officials said Wednesday.
The 24-year-old senior IT worker, whose name was not released, was arrested on Tuesday night at his Sydney office, the Australian Federal Police said. The man, who police say has claimed to be a high-level member of the hacking group, was charged with two counts of unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment, and one count of unauthorized access to, or modification of, restricted data. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in jail.
Lulz Security, or LulzSec, is an offshoot of the hacking group Anonymous. LulzSec was formed in 2011 and quickly grabbed headlines after claiming responsibility for a series of high-profile cyberattacks against the CIA, Sony Pictures, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service and Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency.
Several members of the group have been arrested in recent years, including its reputed leader, known as Sabu. Sabu turned out to be FBI informant Hector Xavier Monsegur, who federal officials said helped them build a case against several other hackers. Two weeks ago, British LulzSec hacker Ryan Ackroyd pleaded guilty to several cyberattacks.
Australian Federal Police Superintendent Brad Marden said the man arrested on Tuesday hacked into an Australian government website and defaced it earlier this month. Marden would not say which website was attacked, but said it did not belong to a federal agency. Police don't believe any sensitive data stored on the site was accessed in the attack, and don't believe anyone else was involved in the hack.
The man, from Gosford ? about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Sydney ? claimed to be the Australian leader of LulzSec, Australian Federal Police Commander Glen McEwen said. But Anonymous Australia appeared to laugh off those claims on Twitter. In response to a follower asking if anyone knew who the man was, the group tweeted: "Nope not part of the usual suspects on any of our chans of communication."
Police began investigating the man two weeks ago after they discovered the government website had been hacked.
"This individual was operating from a position of trust who had access to sensitive information from clients including government agencies," McEwen said. "The AFP believes this man's skill sets and access to this type of information presented a considerable risk for Australian society."
The man was released on bail and ordered to appear in court next month.
Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, spoke at the she++ conference last Saturday, discussing women in tech, his favorite new technology, and his thoughts on startup culture. The video is above and you can read highlights of his keynote here. You can also find highlights from the conference here and see how Facebook’s presence at the conference shows a key part of its recruiting strategy.
Have you been in need of insurance cover but ended up confused on what type of insurance to take? Have you had to make a claim from an insurance company but don?t know how to go about it? Then you need an insurance broker.
Insurance brokers act as intermediaries between clients and insurance companies. Clients may be either individuals or commercial businesses and organisations. They use their in-depth knowledge of risks and the insurance market to find and arrange suitable insurance policies and arrange cover. They act in the interest of their clients and offer products from more than one insurer to ensure that their clients get the best deal
The job of a broker Insurance brokers obtain raw data from layman customers and fill in the complex forms which insurers need in order to thoroughly assess the risk they are being asked to underwrite.
The broker also assists prospective insureds with developing risk management strategies appropriate to their risk profiles. They work with insureds to find out what kinds of risks they regularly encounter, and educate insureds about what policies are available for each type of risk.
Insurance brokers also may help insureds obtain multiple layers of excess/surplus lines policies from different insurers over a primary policy, and can work through scenarios for reducing premiums with deductibles or self-insured retentions. For most individuals, multiple layers of insurance coverage are unnecessary, but they are an essential component of risk management for large businesses and wealthy individuals.
Insurance brokers play a significant role in helping companies and individuals procure property and casualty (liability) insurance, life insurance and annuities, accident and health insurance.
For example, brokers play a significant role in helping small employers find health insurance, particularly in more competitive markets.? Brokers provide services beyond procuring insurance, such as providing risk assessments, insurance consulting services, insurance-related regulatory and legislative updates, claims assistance services, and helping to resolve benefit issues.
Retail and commercial insurance brokers Retail insurance brokers usually arrange insurance policies for individuals or companies and deal directly with them. Policies range from motor, house, travel or health cover for individuals or property to employer?s liability and public and product liability insurance.
Commercial insurance brokers deal with high value and more complex insurance cover in areas such as marine, aviation, oil and gas and financial risks.
Having a good broker In Nigeria, insurance brokers are registered by the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, NCRIB, which is then regulated by the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM. A broker must be registered by the NCRIB before he can be licensed by NAICOM.
Accordingly, there is need for you to deal with a registered insurance broker who has been certified to operate by the NCRIB. Negligence on the part of insurance brokers can have severe effects upon clients when they discover their insurance coverage is worthless, which in turn illustrates why retaining a competent insurance broker is so important.
Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff.
The BCS conference commissioners announced the name of the new postseason system that starts in 2014 on Tuesday, the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel in the Rose Bowl's backyard.
They also will choose the remaining three sites for the six-bowl semifinal rotation and the site of the first championship game to be held Jan. 12, 2015, this week.
The website www.collegefootballplayoff.com is already up and running and allowing fans to vote on a new logo. And there also is a Twitter handle: (at)cfbplayoff.
"It's really simple. It gets right to the point," BCS executive director Bill Hancock, who will hold the same position in the playoff system, said at a short news conference with the 10 commissioners of the FCS conferences.
"Nothing cute. Nothing fancy. We decided it would be best to call it what it is."
Premiere Sports Management in Overland Park, Kan., was hired to help come up with a name and brand the new system. A committee of commissioners handled the naming of the new system. Hancock said they ran through "in the neighborhood of three dozen" names.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said, "We're clearly trying to make a clear break from the BCS."
Before the news was reported, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said he'd be happy with whatever was selected.
"I'm am not good with names ? obviously," Delany said with a smile, referring to the Big Ten's division names, Legends and Leaders, that produced so much negative feedback the conference has already decided to change them.
The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.
"I don't think you can ever go too wrong calling something what it is," Scott said. "Things that make sense tend to stand the test of time."
Three semifinal spots have already been decided: the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.
Four other bowls have bid for the final three spots. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers have acknowledged they are a long shot at best to land the game.
Those decisions will be announced Wednesday.
The coaches on the Big 12's spring teleconference were already talking about the Cotton Bowl having a spot in the rotation as if it was a done deal.
"I think it's really exciting for this region, for everybody, and I think all of the schools in this region, to have Dallas as one of those sites is great for everybody in this region, and exciting for everybody," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "Obviously, everybody knows what a great and quality, what an awesome stadium it is, then the location for us is an advantage, or should be."
The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls.
The site of the first national championship game in the new system will also be determined at these meetings and the finalists are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Buccaneers.
Arlington is the favorite to land that first championship game, but the competition from Tampa has been serious.
"I'm glad it has," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Tuesday. "I think it will give us a better outcome."
Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of conference commissioners and athletic directors.
Bowlsby said he expected both current and former administrators to have a spot on the committee.
"The hardest thing is making sure we're arming whoever is on the committee with the tools that it takes to differentiate among closely proximal teams," Bowlsby said. "You have to have some metrics available to differentiate between three, four, five, six and seven."
"You can't just say we like blue uniforms and not gold uniforms. You've got to arm the committee with the tools that it takes to do their job."
In a draft assessment of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, consultants for the U.S. State Department judged that building it would have no significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Because the analysts assumed the tar sands oil would find a way out with or without the new pipeline.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not agree. Keystone XL's ability to carry an additional 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day is vital to expanded production of the tarry crude in Alberta. The EPA contends that the analysis by State got the economics all wrong. In particular the consultants were too optimistic about the ease with which the oil could be moved by railroad--an alternative already in use. But such tar sands oil transportation alternatives can more than triple the cost of moving crude. State's report also neglected to consider the potential for congestion on the railroads with an uptick in oil transport, EPA contends. Of course, from a greenhouse gas perspective, transport by pipeline results in fewer emissions than transport by rail, truck or barge. The bottom line, from a climate perspective: "oil sands crude is significantly more [greenhouse gas] intensive than other crudes, and therefore has potentially large impacts," wrote EPA's Cynthia Giles about the State Department's attempts to assess the full implications of Keystone. "Lifecycle emissions from oil sands crude could be 81 percent greater than the average crude refined in the U.S.," a difference that can grow "depending on the assumptions made." The EPA also cited its experience from cleaning up after the spill of tar sands oil from a pipeline near the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. This pipeline, smaller than Keystone XL, managed to spill some 20,000 barrels in 2010, much of which ended up at the bottom of the river. Despite three years of clean up effort, the river will have to be dredged because the oil sands crude "will not appreciably biodegrade," Giles wrote. In other words, the kind of microbes that chewed up the oil from BP's blown out Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico could find no purchase on diluted bitumen from Alberta. Such heavy oil results in the tarballs ubiquitous along the Gulf Coast and, apparently, a layer of tar at the bottom of the Kalamazoo River. All of that experience suggests that would-be pipeline operator TransCanada should be required to prepare for such submerged oil in the event of a leak from Keystone XL as well as having equipment in place to deal with a spill before it happens, the EPA suggests. That's a particular concern because, despite a re-routing around ecologically sensitive regions in Nebraska, the Keystone XL pipeline would still cross over the nation's largest freshwater aquifer: the Ogallala. All of that leads the agency to object to the State Department's analysis on the grounds of "insufficient information" and "significant" environmental objections. What impact, if any, that has on the approval or disapproval of the pipeline by the Obama administration remains to be seen but the impact of Keystone XL on climate change is clear. Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news. ? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
Nope, it's not your picture of "the best duck confit I've ever had" that's causing that Twitter post to error out -- the service is down for "some users," according to a Twitter status page update. It's unknown what's causing the issue (again, probably not your photweet), but we're assured "engineers are currently working on this issue." We're experiencing some snags ourselves, usually resulting in tweets timing out before publishing. Hang tight!
But maybe don't try to while away your time on the iTunes Store or by backing up your phone to iCloud, as those services are also experiencing some downtime issues this morning. An Apple support page lists both as seeing "some users affected;" we'll just have to assume engineers are also hard at work on fixing that. As always, we'll let you know when things get better.
You?d never know it if you looked at his stats ? the Angels? slugger is hitting .317 with eight extra-base hits ? but Albert Pujols has been bothered by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. With another start at DH this afternoon, he has now started more games as the DH (nine) than as the first baseman (eight). Pujols himself admits the injury is bothering him.
?I?m dying,? Pujols said according to Bill Shaikin. ?It?s hurting real bad.?
The Angels will continue to use Pujols until he cannot handle the pain anymore.
?You?re always picking at a scab a little bit, when you?re trying to play and trying to run,? Manager Mike Scioscia said. ?Certainly, you don?t want it to regress. He?s swinging the bat real well.
?You want to keep it to where he can still DH and hopefully get him to first base at some point.?
The Angels have used Mark Trumbo at first base when Pujols has been the DH, which should be the case for the foreseeable future.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, left, talks with IMFC Chair Tharman Shanmugaratnam during the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, left, talks with IMFC Chair Tharman Shanmugaratnam during the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim arrives for the International Monetary Fund Governors family photo during the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings in Washington Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso, right, talks to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) family photo during the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings in Washington Saturday, April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
International Monetary Fund Governors pose for a group photo during the World Bank IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, Saturday April 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? World finance leaders issued a somber assessment on Saturday of the global economy, saying the recovery remains uneven with growth and jobs in short supply.
The steering committee for the 188-nation International Monetary Fund issued a final communique that called for decisive action to bolster growth. However, the major economies remained at odds over the best mix of policies to pursue.
"An uneven recovery is emerging but growth and job creation are still too weak. New risks are arising while several old risks remain," the IMF group said.
"The commodity that is in shorter supply now is confidence," Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the chairman of the IMF panel and Singapore's finance minister, told reporters. "We need to regenerate optimism and confidence."
The World Bank announced that its policy committee had approved a proposal to establish a goal of eliminating extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.25 per day, by 2030. It is estimated that there are still 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for more than one-third of the world's extreme poor.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim called this goal "an historic moment" for the world. "We are no longer dreaming of a world without poverty. We have set an expiration date," Kim told reporters at a closing news conference.
Emma Seery, a spokesperson for Oxfam, the anti-poverty group, said while the World Bank's target was welcome "we are concerned that it will duck the tough choices needed to reach it."
The spring meetings of IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank, on Saturday followed two days of discussions among finance leaders of the Group of 20 nations, composed of traditional powers such as the United States, Japan and Germany and fast-growing developing nations such as China, Brazil and India.
The finance leaders sought to project an air of cooperation even though they were unable to resolve sharp differences that have risen to the surface following an initially botched bailout of Cyprus in March. The banking troubles in the small Mediterranean island country renewed fears that a prolonged European debt crisis still poses significant risks to the global economy.
The United States was represented at the finance meetings by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The administration pushed for European nations to moderate their austerity programs of spending cuts and tax increases in favor of more stimulus to bolster growth and combat painfully high unemployment in countries such as Spain and Greece.
"'Strengthening global demand is imperative and must be at the top of our agenda," Lew said in his remarks to the IMF. "Stronger demand in Europe is critical to growth."
But this push was met with resistance from countries such as Germany and Britain, which believe that heavily indebted European nations must reduce their deficits to give markets confidence and keep government borrowing costs low.
In the end, the finance leaders sought to bridge the differences by issuing economic blueprints that left room for both the growth and austerity camps to claim victory.
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, encompassing the 17 finance ministers whose countries use the euro currency, told reporters Saturday said that European nations needed to keep pushing to reduce huge budget deficits but "we can and will adjust" the speed that the deficit cuts are implemented to take into account economic conditions.
The G-20 nations did reject proposals to issue hard targets for reducing budget deficits, a victory for the United States and Japan, who had argued for more flexibility.
The G-20 joint statement singled out the recent aggressive credit-easing moves pushed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying they were intended to stop prolonged deflation and support domestic demand.
Those comments were viewed as giving a green light to Japan's program, which has driven the value of the yen down by more than 20 percent against the dollar since October. That sizable decline has raised concerns among U.S. manufacturing companies that Japan's real goal is not to boost growth through increasing domestic demand but to weaken the yen as a way to gain trade advantages.
To address those concerns, the G-20 did repeat language it used in February that all countries should not use their currency as a trade weapon and guard against policies that could trigger currency wars.
Japanese officials said they were pleased with the support they had received at the Washington meetings for their aggressive efforts to lift the world's third largest economy out of a two-decade slump. "There has been international understanding" of our efforts, Huruhiko Kuroda, head of the Bank of Japan, told reporters.
Lew said in his IMF remarks that the Obama administration would keep working to gain approval of budget legislation that has been stalled for nearly three years in Congress. The congressional approval is the last major roadblock to implementing an overhaul of the IMF's governing structure to give more power to developing nations. The change is expected to shift two seats on the IMF's 24-member executive board from Western Europe to developing countries.
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega blasted both the United States and Europe for the delay.
"America is unable and Europe is unwilling to follow through with agreed reforms," he said Saturday in his remarks to the IMF. "The institution's major shareholders are gambling ... with the IMF's legitimacy and credibility."
Microsoft had some news today: It confirmed plans for smaller "touch devices" in coming months ? i.e., the rumored Smaller Surface ? and preemptively blamed a presumably darkening outlook for Windows on the "declining traditional PC market." It also?reported growing revenues and profits?for the quarter that ended in April.
Just as important, though, might be what Microsoft didn't say. It was mum about the performance of its flagship Windows 8 operating system, and wouldn't say how well its Surface tablet has been selling. Hmm.
By The Numbers
Microsoft reported net income of $6.06 billion (72 cents per share) on revenue of $20.49 billion for the quarter, an 18 percent increase in profits and an 18 percent increase in revenue versus a year ago. After adjusting for $1.66 billion in Windows Upgrade, Office and Xbox upgrades, and a $731 million fine assessed by the EU, Microsoft reported diluted earnings per share of 65 cents.
Analysts polled by Yahoo had expected Microsoft to report earnings of 68 cents per share, up 13% from a year ago, and grow revenue by 18 percent to $20.56 billion.?Microsoft also said that Peter Klein, the company's chief financial officer, would leave at the end of the fiscal year, or June. Microsoft will name a replacement in the next few weeks.
When all is said and done, Microsoft's bottom line is healthy ? every product division reported increased profits except for the company's online business, where losses shrank. But as the company itself admitted, the outlook for Microsoft's Windows division and Windows 8 remains, at best, uncertain.
How Many Windows 8 Licenses? Redmond Sayeth Not
Microsoft reported $5.7 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in profits for the Windows division, but once you set aside deferred revenue due to Windows upgrade offers, revenue was basically flat compared to a year ago. And then there was Microsoft's continued silence on how many Windows 8 licenses it sold.
Both IDC and Gartner blamed the slow uptake of Windows 8 for a stunning drop in first-quarter PC sales: 14% by IDC's metrics, and 11% according to Gartner. Most of the top PC manufacturers saw sharply lower sales for the first quarter, according to both firms, with Lenovo the big exception.
In January, Microsoft said it had sold more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses. That was up significantly over the number of pre-launch licenses it sold ??40 million in the first month, Microsoft said last year. And yet now the company has gone silent on the subject. This is not what you'd normally consider a good sign, particularly coupled with Redmond's oracular statement about the declining PC market.
On the other hand, Klein offered no shortage of happy talk about Windows on the analyst call. Check it out?(MS Word doc).
Surface Gets Small, But Sales Remain Numberless
Outgoing CFO Peter Klein confirmed rumors of a smaller Surface tablet in a backhanded sort of way. During Microsoft's conference call with analysts, Klein?declined to say how many Surface tablets the company had sold (again, not exactly heartening news). But, he said, the lineup will be refreshed with smaller "touch devices" in the coming months.
IHS iSuppli estimated that Microsoft sold, at most, one million Surface tablets during the fourth quarter. That's compared to a record 22.9 million Apple iPads, plus millions more Nexus 7s, Kindle Fires, and other 7-inch tablets.
Separately, Klein said that Microsoft was looking ahead toward Windows Blue, the next iteration of Windows 8 and, possibly, Windows Phone. He told analysts that Blue is designed to "further advance" Windows 8 and "in response to customer feedback." Rumors suggest that feedback may lead to the return of the Start button and an ability to boot directly to the Windows desktop, as opposed to the way Windows 8 forces all users into the tile-layout "Metro" interface.
Return To The Enterprise
Microsoft's Office division returned to growth in the quarter, with revenues up 8% to $6.3 billion. In January, Office delivered a nasty shock ? a 10% revenue decline ? apparently because the company's online service based version of the productivity suite, Office 365, hadn't performed as expected.
?Our enterprise business continues to thrive,? said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft, in a statement. ?Enterprise customers are increasingly turning to Microsoft for their IT solutions and as a result, we continue to take share from our competitors in key areas including hybrid cloud, data platform, and virtualization.?
Microsoft's rock, its Server and Tools business, reported $1.98 billion in profits and $5.0 billion in revenues. Microsoft's Entertainment business, which includes the Xbox, returned to profitability, reporting $342 million in profits and $2.5 billion in revenue. Online services only lost $262 million (versus $480 million a year ago) and reported $832 million in revenues.?
The next few quarters will be important for Microsoft, as the company's large installed base of corporate customers still using Windows XP must either switch by April 8, 2014, or else risk losing support for both XP as well as Office 2003. Earlier this month, Microsoft offered small businesses a 15 percent discount for upgrading to Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013.
Being a first time buyer, I suggest that you find a Buyer Agent to guide you through the process.? The agent can do a comparative market analysis for you and help you structure the offer.? You can offer anything you feel is reasonable, if the offer is not accepted, you can increase your offer.? Good luck!
When planning your special day, personalize it with a signature cocktail.?This movement has risen in popularity at today?s weddings, and it?s not hard to taste why. ?Not only do signature drinks have a fun appeal, they provide an opportunity for you to add a personal touch to your reception menu ? and even save a little money.
A signature cocktail allows you to express your collective personalities at your wedding reception ? and getting there is half the fun! Take some time to experiment with different ingredients and even call upon the help of a professional mixologist. Let your favorite liquor be the star of the show or choose from a myriad of ingredients and garnishes to complement your color scheme. ?The possibilities are endless! Make it your own by creating a unique name for your cocktail; what wedding guest would turn down a ?Berry Me Martini?? ?If you and your betrothed can?t agree on just one, consider serving two custom concoctions: one refined and sophisticated with champagne, another strong and sexy with bourbon, just to name a few. ?Use napkins stamped with the name of your drink: extra-chic.
If you prefer to keep your wedding alcohol free, serve up a ?mocktail? which will keep your guests talking for weeks. Seltzer can be substituted for alcohol in many recipes. Capitalize on the season and offer a signature lemonade, cider or eggnog. Or why not serve a regional beverage from your honeymoon destination? It?s your wedding so go ahead and make it your own. Viennese coffee anyone?
Believe it or not, the mixing of a signature drink can help keep bar costs down as well. ?Buying ingredients for one beverage in bulk will require less money out-of-pocket than ordering up a full bar. ?Complement your signature drink with beer and wine and ? voila! More money to spend on your honeymoon! The best part is your guests will be so delighted with your personal creation; they won?t miss a thing.
Leave a lasting (and delicious) impression on your wedding day with your very own signature cocktail. ?Anything but ordinary, your unique libation will set a festive tone for the reception and pave the way for a happy marriage to come.
There are lots of recipes for vegan-friendly cocktails, but here is one inspired by the Truce Romance signature cocktail from the experts at the Turning Stone Resort?in central New York.
Recipe for True Romance(Vegan-Friendly)
2 ounces Green Tea
1?ounce vodka (Smirnoff, Pinnacle, & Ketel One just to name a few vegan-friendly brands)
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce cranberry juice cocktail
Mix ingredients over ice. ?Serve in champagne flute or martini glass. Toast the night away!
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You?ll find Michelle spending most of her days?helping others learn about skin care, health and wellness. She also enjoys the occasional indulgence in the sweet treats she bakes!
(Add Murray victory, quotes, details) By Gregory Blachier MONTE CARLO, April 17 (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic's gamble on his injured ankle at the Monte Carlo Masters appeared to be backfiring before he dug in to battle past Russian Mikhail Youzhny 4-6 6-1 6-4 in the second round on Wednesday. While Djokovic grimaced and growled through the pain barrier to fight back from 0-4 down in the opening set, Rafa Nadal was all smiles after launching his bid for a ninth consecutive Monte Carlo crown with a ruthless 6-1 6-2 win over Australian Marinko Matosevic. ...
Law enforcement officers race into Boston's federal courthouse after a bomb threat. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Ima??
BOSTON?The U.S. attorney?s office in Boston postponed a planned 5 p.m. ET news conference about updates in the investigation of Monday?s bombings at the Boston Marathon.
A Boston Police Department spokesman made the announcement to more than 100 reporters already gathered at the Westin Hotel near Copley Square where Gov. Deval Patrick and other state and federal officials had been expected to speak.
A spokesman for the FBI's Boston office said officials hoped to reschedule the news conference for later Wednesday night.
The development came after a flurry of activity in the case, including reports that investigators had identified a potential suspect in part through surveillance video provided by a Lord & Taylor department store near the site of the second bombing.
CNN and several other news agencies reported the suspect had been arrested or that an arrest was ?imminent,? but state and federal officials later denied those reports, insisting that no one had been arrested in the case.
After scores of reporters rushed to Boston?s federal courthouse amid rumors of a possible arrest, the building was evacuated due to an apparent bomb threat. About a half-hour later, the building was declared safe. However, security in the area was noticeably beefed up, with additional officers on the perimeter and Coast Guard patrols on the water and in the air.
Sprint has just announced that its Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available April 27 for $249 with a two-year contract. If you port your number to Sprint, however, you'll get another $100.
Preorders start April 18.
Sprint's Galaxy S4 will be available in white frost or black mist, also known as the colors black and white.
As is the case with the U.S. variants, it'll be running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor at 1.9 GHz.
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Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
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Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, spoke at the she++ conference last Saturday, discussing women in tech, his favorite new technology, and his thoughts on startup culture. The video is above and you can read highlights of his keynote here. You can also find highlights from the conference here and see how Facebook’s presence at the conference shows a key part of its recruiting strategy.
