Medical Marijuana and PTSD: A Viable Alternative to ...

I have PTSD, and also Tinnitus. Medical Marijuana is about the only thing I have found that helps control the symptoms of these disorders. The information in this article is, preferably, to be used by people like me, who have a legal prescription for medical marijuana.

Nearly twenty years ago, I was beaten nearly to death by my ex-wife's husband, (a community college instructor), and two young men, (his students). Evidently, he was sick and tired of hearing her talk about what a great looking guy I am, ha, ha. After kicking the living daylights out of my face, head and ribs, they threw me into the back of an SUV, and, eventually, dumped me in a ditch out in the countryside. I won't go into further detail, I just relay the information to let you know how I came by the PTSD I still deal with today. The Tinnitus has been with me since the incident.

What is PTSD ?

Millions of people suffer from PTSD. Webster's defines Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as: a psychological reaction occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event, (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster), that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event. I can attest that, in this instance, Webster's knows its stuff. PTSD can be downright disabling. In fact, the only time I feel comfortable in a group setting is when I'm playing music in my band. My wife, Tammy says that's because I subconsciously know I'm sort of in control of that situation.

Doctors CanBe insensitive idiots!

I've always been strongly opposed to pharmaceuticals, but after a few years of dealing with the symptoms of my disorders, Tammy talked me into going to the doctor. Dr. Wontsayhisnamehere, (I call him the pusher-man), prescribed an anti-anxiety medication. What a disaster that was! The medicine made me break out in sweats, and I became disoriented and confused. I only took the pill twice, and that was it! Here's a partial list of side-effects that can occur when taking this particular medication: fever, stiff muscles, confusion, thoughts of hurting yourself sweating, jerky muscle movements you cannot control... and on, and on! I sometimes think doctors get together and laugh their heads off, talking about how gullible and stupid sick people are.

The right doctor can be a miracle worker!

Like many people of my generation, I smoked a lot of marijuana in my youth, and have used it occasionally throughout my life for recreation. After the turn of our new century, however, I began hearing more and more about medical marijuana, and its possible positive effect on PTSD. A few years ago, we moved out here to Colorado, and I found an awesome doctor! I told her my story, and that I wanted to try medical weed. She didn't hesitate for a moment, saying she thought it would be the perfect medication for me. We went to one of the local dispensaries and bought some pot, (pretty strange experience!). We bought some stuff called Purple Kush, and a little pipe to smoke it with, and went home to try it out. The results were amazing!

My First Experience With Medical Marijuana

I had never seen, (or smelled), marijuana like this before. The stuff I smoked was, usually, really musty smelling, and was full of seeds and stems. This was like stuff I'd seen pictured in High-Times Magazine! It only took a couple of tokes, and I felt a warming sense of calm that I had not experienced in years.

After about a week of using medical marijuana, my family and friends began to notice a marked improvement in my ability to cope with others, and with life in general. In fact just recently, I went to a junior wrestling tournament. We got there at 8:00 in the morning, and I was able to sit in the bleachers and stay till just after noon. That could never have happened before.

Hi, I'm Mark Calvert. Medical Marijuana has improved my quality of life.The prices of the medical marijuana at the dispensary are far too expensive for our budget, so we learned to grow our own high quality marijuana. It's not as sticky and stinky as the Purple Kush, but I'm pretty proud of it. Click the link below to find out how we learned marijuana horticulture:

http://growingelitemarijuanareview.com

Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/18189-Medical_Marijuana_and_PTSD_A_Viable_Alternative_to_Pharmaceutical_Medication.html

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What the World Looks Like From a Football's Point of View

February 27, 2013 5:43 PM Text Size: A . A . A With the dozens of camera angles used to show a football game on TV, why hasn't anyone ever thought of giving us a ball's-eye view? Because with the spheroid spiraling at speeds up to 600 rpm, a football-cam would produce unwatchable, nauseating footage.

But what if it didn't? Imagine the footage a football would capture if it flew down the gridiron without spinning. That's what researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo have developed, using an algorithm that analyzes frames shot by a football's built-in camera as it spirals across the field. By looking for shots of the sky, the algorithm selects and deletes all frames captured while the camera faces skyward. It then stiches together the downward shots into a panorama. The resulting video (below) is still a little twitchy, but researchers think they'll soon be able to produce instant videos with smooth, wide shots of the football field streaking by below.

Project leader Kris Kitani told PM that the algorithm was the easy part. "There's already been a lot of work on image stitching and making panoramas from multiple small images," he says, "so I just used all of that well known technology." He spent much more time prototyping the camera, which began as a spongy volleyball with a USB camera in it that Kitani rolled down a track. Eventually it became a Nerf ball with a GoPro inside. Next, Kitani hopes to see what he can do with multiple cameras inside a single ball.

Kitani was surprised to find inspiration in a 1938 Popular Mechanics article featuring a 16-millimeter film camera mounted within a balsa wood football. "When we initially started the work I did what every researcher does," Kitani says. "I went and Googled ?ball and camera' and saw what came out. When I saw the Popular Mechanics article, I was like, woah, someone already did this!" (You're welcome, Kris, though I doubt the video quality of our 1938 effort matches yours.)

Kitani says project is just one of a growing number of endeavors in the field of digital sports. "Digital sports is an area of research concerned with how technology can be combined with sports to do different things? like augment spectator experience, analyze the activities of athletes, and even create entirely new games and sports that weren't possible before." Expanding your field of vision isn't the only way to change sport spectatorship. Kitani also wants to develop a sensor to detect a football's moment of impact, which could send a signal to your cell phone to make it vibrate. "Kind of like the vibrating chairs at Universal Studios."

You can see the BallCam in action below, but heads up: The video shows both the finished product and the spinning raw footage, so it might cause dizziness.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/football/what-the-world-looks-like-from-a-footballs-point-of-view-15152650?src=rss

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White House steps up campaign to avoid spending cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House escalated a campaign on Monday to convince Americans dire consequences await if government spending cuts go ahead on March 1, warning of a slowdown in global trade, a stalled fight against cancer and Alzheimer's disease and compromised security at U.S. borders.

At the same time, prominent Republicans said President Barack Obama was overstating the potential damage of the $85 billion in government-wide cuts to frighten the public.

"There is a responsible way to cut less than 3 percent of the federal budget. It's time for the president to show leadership," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told reporters after a meeting between the president and governors. "The president needs to stop campaigning, stop trying to scare the American people."

Jindal's comments followed the president's plea for Republican and Democratic governors to press Congress to stop the cuts, telling them he was willing to compromise with Republican lawmakers.

Obama will meet leading Senate Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham on Tuesday to discuss immigration reform efforts, but a McCain aide said the talks could also delve into efforts to halt the cuts.

Graham is a member of Senate committees on appropriations and the federal budget. He and McCain both sit on the armed services panel. The McCain aide said the U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan could also be discussed on Tuesday.

But the president has given no sign that he would try to start negotiations or take steps to blunt the effect of the cuts. He bemoaned what he described as a confrontational atmosphere in Washington, where budget battles have provoked one near-crisis after another since the summer of 2011.

In recent weeks the White House has sought to highlight in stark terms the disruptions that would begin on Friday if federal programs are cut.

On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned the cuts would increase delays at ports of entry into the United States for container cargo by "up to five days."

Average wait times at customs for travelers will increase "by as much as 50 percent," she added, with even longer delays at the busiest airports such as Newark, Los Angeles and New York's JFK where delays could double to "four hours or more."

"I'm not here to scare people, I'm here to inform," Napolitano said at a White House briefing. "Please don't yell at the customs officer or the (Transportation Security Administration) officer because the lines are long," she said. "The lines over the next few weeks are going to start to lengthen in some dramatic ways in parts of the country."

Also Monday, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told reporters that the $1.6 billion cutback would hit the 240-bed NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where doctors study rare diseases and conduct clinical trials to test new drugs for conditions ranging from cancer and AIDS to depression and genetic disorders.

The NIH also predicted that a lack of funding for hundreds of new grants could jeopardize as many as 20,000 research jobs across the United States and slow vital projects to fight cancer and Alzheimer's disease, develop a universal influenza vaccine and gain fresh insights into the activities of the human brain.

The administration began ratcheting up its warnings on Friday when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood described cuts at airports that he said would cause domestic air travelers significant delays.

Over the weekend, the White House distributed state-by-state projections of lost jobs and cuts in education funding for poor children. These figures were widely reported on local news broadcasts.

HOW LONG WILL CUTS LAST?

The actual impact of the cuts will depend largely on how long they last.

Many of the projections are based on the likelihood that government employees will be furloughed - told to take unpaid days off - in order to meet the demands of the cuts.

But the furloughs won't occur for at least a month, or perhaps later, because federal rules require the government to give its employees 30-days notice.

Congress and the White House also could agree to stop or ease the cuts before they run their course.

Neither the White House nor members of Congress have offered reason to hope for a deal before Friday's deadline.

Asked Monday whether he thought the automatic cuts, called "sequestration" in Washington-speak, would take effect, House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, responded: "hope springs eternal."

Both sides have concentrated more in recent days on apportioning responsibility for the spending reductions, to which both sides agreed in August 2011 with the expectation that the sequestration would never come to pass.

The White House public relations initiative has increasingly drawn criticism from Republicans who accuse the president of exaggerating and traveling around "campaigning" instead of looking for ways to avoid the cuts.

"We heard the president say last week that he was going to be forced because of the sequestration to let criminals loose on the street if he didn't get another tax hike," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters Monday.

"Today, we're hearing discussions from the Secretary of Homeland Security that somehow we're going to have to sacrifice homeland security efforts and keeping our country safe if we don't get another tax hike. This is a false choice."

White House press secretary Jay Carney responded Monday that the administration is just trying to "highlight the impact of sequester, and by doing so, hope that attention will be brought to bear on that problem, and the need for Congress to act responsibly to avoid it."

Obama is scheduled to travel to Cantor's state of Virgina on Tuesday, to press his case at the Newport News shipyard. The cuts fall evenly on non-defense and defense spending, with states like Virginia, heavily dependent on Pentagon contracts, expected to be hardest hit.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal and David Morgan; Editing by Fred Barbash, Eric Beech, Jackie Frank, Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-steps-campaign-avoid-spending-cuts-021455164--business.html

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Muscle, skin and gastrointestinal problems cause a quarter of patients with heart disease and strokes to stop treatment in HPS2-THRIVE trial

Feb. 27, 2013 ? The largest randomised study of the vitamin niacin in patients with occlusive arterial disease (narrowing of the arteries) has shown a significant increase in adverse side-effects when it is combined with statin treatment.

Results from the HPS2-THRIVE study (Heart Protection Study 2 -- Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events), including the reasons patients stopped the study treatment, are published online February 27 in the European Heart Journal [1].

Niacin has been used for decades to help increase levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and to decrease levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (fats) in the blood in people at risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and stroke. However, it has a number of side-effects including flushing of the skin. Another drug, laropiprant, can reduce the incidence of flushing by blocking the prostaglandin D2 receptor that is involved in the process. Therefore, the HPS2-THRIVE study investigated whether combining extended-release niacin with laropiprant (ERN/LRPT), given in addition to an LDL cholesterol-lowering statin, simvastatin, could reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems in people at high risk due to existing occlusive arterial disease.

A total of 25,673 patients from China, the UK and Scandinavia were randomised between April 2007 and July 2010 to receive either 2g of extended release niacin plus 40 mg of laropiprant or matching placebo. In addition, all participants received intensive LDL cholesterol-lowering therapy with simvastatin (with or without ezetimibe). Researchers from the Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) at the University of Oxford (UK), who were responsible for designing and conducting the trial and analysing the results, followed the patients for an average of 3.9 years.

By the end of the study, 25% of patients taking ERN/LRPT had stopped their treatment, compared with 17% of patients taking placebo.

Jane Armitage, Professor of Clinical Trials and Epidemiology & Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the CTSU, said: "The main reason for patients stopping the treatment was because of adverse side-effects, such as itching, rashes, flushing, indigestion, diarrhea, diabetes and muscle problems. We found that patients allocated to the experimental treatment were four times more likely to stop for skin-related reasons, and twice as likely to stop because of gastrointestinal problems or diabetes-related problems.

"We found that, in the trial as a whole, participants in the experimental arm had a more than four-fold increased risk of myopathy (muscle pain or weakness with evidence of muscle damage) compared with the placebo group. This is highly significant. It appeared that this effect was about three times greater among participants in China than those in Europe, for reasons that are not clear. In the placebo arm (i.e. those on statin-based treatment alone), the statin-related myopathy was more common among participants in China than those in Europe. Therefore -- in combination with the greater effect of ERN/LRPT on myopathy in China -- the excess number of cases of myopathy caused by ERN/LRPT (though low in both regions) was over ten times greater among participants in China than those in Europe (0.53 percent per year compared to 0.03 percent per year)."

Dr Richard Haynes, Clinical Coordinator at the CTSU, said: "This is the largest randomised trial of extended release niacin treatment and it provides uniquely reliable results on adverse side-effects and the ability of patients to tolerate them. Although 25 percent of patients stopped the treatment early, 75 percent continued on it for approximately four years. Currently, we are analysing the final data on the cardiovascular outcomes from the trial, and once we have these we will know whether or not the benefits of the treatment outweigh the myopathy, skin and gastrointestinal problems."

The researchers will be presenting full results on the cardiovascular outcomes at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in March and these will be published in another paper afterwards [2].

The co-principal investigator of the study, Dr Martin Landray, Reader in Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant Physician at the CTSU, said: "Previous research had suggested that improving cholesterol levels in high-risk patients might translate into a 10-15 percent reduction in major vascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. In the HPS2-THRIVE study, 3,400 of the 25,673 participants suffered a major vascular event over an average of four years of follow-up. This means the study has excellent statistical power to discover the effectiveness or otherwise of the treatment."

In an accompanying editorial [3], Professor Ulf Landmesser, of the University Hospital Zurich (Switzerland), points out that although the study showed an increase in myopathy, it also showed that the ERN/LRPT substantially lowered LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by nearly 20%. He writes that these observations "raise important questions as to why niacin/laropiprant did not reduce major cardiovascular events," and he wonders whether laropiprant "is really biologically inert with respect to atherosclerosis and thrombosis."

He concludes that "niacin has failed as a valuable 'partner' of statin therapy in lipid-targeted approaches to further reduce major cardiovascular events in high-risk patients." He continues: "At present, statin therapy has been clearly shown to reduce vascular events effectively and is reasonable well tolerated in most patients. We will still have to wait for the results of ? ongoing studies to see whether another lipid-targeted intervention can further reduce vascular events in addition to statin therapy."

Notes:

[1] "HPS2-THRIVE randomized placebo-controlled trial in 25 673 high-risk patients of ER niacin/laropiprant: trial design, pre-specified muscle, and liver outcomes and reasons for stopping study treatment," by Richard Haynes, Lixin Jiang, Jemma C. Hopewell, Jing Li, Fang Chen, Sarah Parish, Martin J. Landray, Rory Collins, and Jane Armitage, The HPS2-THRIVE Collaborative Group. European Heart Journal.

[2] In December 2012 the pharmaceutical company Merck, which manufactures ERN/LRPT under the trade name Tredaptive and which funded the HSP2-THRIVE study, issued a statement saying the trial had failed to meet its primary endpoint and that "the combination of extended-release niacin and laropiprant to statin therapy did not significantly further reduce the risk of the combination of coronary deaths, non-fatal heart attacks, strokes or revascularizations compared to statin therapy." ERN/LRPT is not approved for use in the USA, and on January 11, Merck announced that it was "taking steps to suspend the availability of TREDAPTIVE? (extended-release niacin/laropiprant) tablets worldwide."

[3] "The difficult search for a 'partner' of statins in lipid-targeted prevention of vascular events: the re-emergence and fall of niacin," by Ulf Landmesser. European Heart Journal. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/eht064

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Society of Cardiology (ESC), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Richard Haynes, Lixin Jiang, Jemma C. Hopewell, Jing Li, Fang Chen, Sarah Parish, Martin J. Landray, Rory Collins, and Jane Armitage, The HPS2-THRIVE Collaborative Group. HPS2-THRIVE randomized placebo-controlled trial in 25 673 high-risk patients of ER niacin/laropiprant: trial design, pre-specified muscle, and liver outcomes and reasons for stopping study treatment. European Heart Journal, 2013 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/eht055

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Evx6aULTeDo/130226193840.htm

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GEICO Accused of Promoting Bestiality By Moms Group

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/geico-accused-of-promoting-bestiality-by-moms-group/

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Windows 7 (finally) gets Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft has (after a few months) offered access to Internet Explorer 10 for users that haven't made the switch to Windows 8 just yet. The auto-upgrade process will roll out over the next few weeks and includes better JavaScript performance and, apparently, better battery life for mobile users. Spotted by Neowin user Mephistopheles, you can sample those fresh IE10 delights at the source link below.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Comments

Via: Neowin forums

Source: Internet Explorer 10, Exploring IE

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/T6_3DhglxXI/

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Nielsen compares mobile consumers across the globe, details the differences in how we connect

Right in-time with MWC, Nielsen's latest report provides some insight into how folks in different regions are using their mobile devices. On the whole, many of the findings aren't exactly shockers. Among many highlights, owners of smartphones and feature phones don't use their respective devices for the same tasks, while developed areas are more likely to have upwards of 4G connectivity with higher smartphone adoption rates. As you'd might imagine, people in regions with under-developed infrastructure tend to gravitate toward the likes of simpler, less costly feature phones. Diving deeper with some specifics, Nielsen points out that US-based users of smartphones gravitate toward map and video apps, contrasting that those in China are hungrier for info about weather and news. If you'd like to confirm any more of your suspicions about how mobile devices are being used across the globe, you'll find all the details your noggin desires at the source link below.

Filed under: Mobile

Comments

Source: Nielsen

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/n9xpGMjE2No/

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Tackle Your Inbox Offline to Avoid Filling It Back Up Again While You Work

While getting to inbox zero doesn't have to suck, it still requires effort. That effort starts to seem endless when people reply to every email you send while you're still making your way through. Rory Vaden, writing for Fast Company, recommends going offline to solve this problem:

Do not underestimate the power of momentum when responding to emails. Nothing is more emotionally defeating than spending 2 hours in your inbox and having a net gain of only 2 emails completed because responses were coming in as fast as you were sending them out or because you got into a game of "email tennis" with someone who obviously has more time on their hands than you do. Instead, work "offline" every single time you answer emails. That way you can focus on what you are doing and you can capitalize on the synergy that comes along with getting into a rhythm of responding.

While this won't necessarily work so well if you spend most of your time in a webmail client, most desktop mail apps offer an offline mode. Find it, turn it on, and start replying. When you go back online, the app will send your messages and you won't have to worry about constant replies.

Delete This: 7 Tips For Getting Your Inbox To Zero | Fast Company via Swissmiss

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Uos0vZMuA_Q/tackle-your-inbox-offline-to-avoid-filling-it-back-up-again-while-you-work

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What Are You Reading? with Steven Sanders | Robot 6 @ Comic ...

by JK Parkin | February 24, 2013 @ 3:00 PM | 4 Comments |

Gantz

Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at the books, comics and what have you that the Robot 6 crew have been perusing of late. Today we welcome our special guest Steven Sanders, artist of such comics as Wolverine and the X-Men, Wolverine, S.W.O.R.D, Our Love is Real, The Five Fists of Science and more. He?s currently using Kickstarter to raise funds for a ?Creative Commons art book? called Symbiosis.

?Symbiosis is a world-building art book that tells the story of a woman?s travels through a world where the symbiotic relationship that we have with technology is made much more visceral,? the Kickstarter page reads. ?All sources of power are generated by bio-etheric engines, with which the operators share a direct mental link. The story-telling is loose and mostly visual. It will be told with art that uses a variety of media and formats: fully painted, colored line art, black-and-white line art, and comic art. What you do with this story is up to you. Enjoy it on its own merits, or take it and spin it off into any of a million different directions.?

To see what Steven and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below:

*****

Mark Kardwell

One Trick Rip-Off

This week I picked up a copy of Paul Pope?s The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts, a book I was initially reluctant to buy, because I thought I already owned a fair ol? chunk of it boxed up in an attic somewhere. I?m glad I did buy it, though, as it turned out there?s a lot of stuff in there that I haven?t seen before. This isn?t the book I?d recommend to absolute Paul Pope beginners (that?d still be Heavy Liquid, then quickly onto 100%, then Batman Year 100), but it is the book to demonstrate how good he got, and how quickly. There?s work in here from 1993 that?s just about alright, but by 1997 he?s on the verge of greatness. By 1999 he?s pretty much at full power.

Tom Bondurant

Folks, I gotta tell ya, it feels like I read all the comics this week. (All of them, Katie!) I read twenty-one big-publisher floppies, including Action Comics, JLA, Vibe, Green Lantern, GL Corps, Avengers, Superior Spider-Man, Indestructible Hulk, Thor, Justice League, Supergirl, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Star Trek, Star Trek: Countdown To Darkness, and the five I ended up saving for Saturday evening.

DC Universe Presents #17 (written by Joe Keatinge, drawn by Ricken) is an Arsenal spotlight. I haven?t read Red Hood and the Outlaws since the first issue failed to grab me, so I don?t know how representative this issue might be. For the first few pages it tries very hard to establish its badass bona fides, showing Arsenal as self-deprecating but capable, defiant as the bad guys beat on him, etc. Competing narrative streams (dialogue and internal monologue) also make it hard to get into the book. For a while, though, things settle down, and it?s not a bad issue. (That is, for a superhero-style comic marinated in attitude and violence, with a garnish of Starfire?s barely-contained dinners.) Then it gets into Arsenal?s ability to spit currency, and it never really recovers. Keatinge?s dialogue had a certain charm, and Ricken?s art is pretty decent (sketchy, but detailed, with a fine line). Pete Pantazis? bright, pastel-heavy colors are a nice complement too. Again, though, it didn?t make the sale.

It?s too bad that Sword Of Sorcery has been cancelled, because the Amethyst story in issue #5 (written by Christy Marx, drawn by Aaron Lopresti) was pretty good. It reveals how Amethyst?s dad died, and the political ramifications thereof, but it also ties fairly strongly into the larger DC Universe. (For one thing, it takes place just after the Justice League Dark Annual.) World-building is necessarily part of Amy learning the ropes of Gemworld, and here Marx uses backstory effectively to highlight the emotional consequences for Amy and her mom. Plus, Lopresti really puts a lot into his work here, giving the story a lot of visual appeal.

Daredevil #23

Speaking of emotional consequences, much of Daredevil #23 (written by Mark Waid, drawn by Chris Samnee) involves Matt and Foggy coming to grips with Foggy?s health issues, while Daredevil fights a gang of eerily familiar guinea pigs. The latter give the issue some very creepy moments, both for what was done to these men and for the kind of person who?d do such a thing. Another solid issue all around.

Same goes for Saga #10 (written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Fiona Staples), which is full-to-bursting with great character moments and inventive situations. My favorite was the giant flaiming gorilla flipping the bird, but there?s probably at least a three-way tie for second place.

Finally, in Adventure Time #13?s lead story (written by Ryan North, drawn by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb), Finn, Jake, and Marceline take to cyberspace to rescue BMO from an evil virus. Along the way, though, the story takes a detour into Star Trek territory (either ?The Changeling? or The Motion Picture will do), which naturally I found hilarious. It also gives Marceline a chance to explain why she knows so much about computers, when Ooo has become so magic-based. I hadn?t really wondered about that a whole lot, but it was nice to see.

And with that, my Wednesday haul is complete. Whew!

Brigid Alverson

I?m late to the party with this one, but I?m reading My Friend Dahmer for a roundtable, and I?m very impressed with Derf Backderf?s storytelling, the cinematic way he has of letting a scene unfold from a particular character?s point of view. I?m less enthused about the blocky style he uses to draw his characters, which makes them seem very static and also brings back memories of MAD Magazine, which I guess is appropriate in a graphic novel about teenage boys. Anyway, it?s a fascinating read and a good reminder to be grateful that I?m not in high school any more.

I picked up an advance copy of Popeye Classics, vol. 1, on Netgalley. This is an archive collecting the first four issues of the Popeye comics Bud Sagendorf did for Dell, and they date back to 1948. Pappy and Sweet Pea show up in some of the stories, and Popeye is a big spinach fan by now. The digital galley doesn?t include any frontmatter, but I hope the print book does; it would be helpful to place these stories in context, as I?m not a Popeye scholar by any means. However, they are pretty entertaining to read just as comics.

Finally, it?s not a quick read by any means, but I am really enjoying the first volume of American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s, by John Wells. It?s a close-up look at the comics industry, with a lot of emphasis on editors and creators, and you can see the characters and themes evolving?it?s sort of like a written version of time-lapse photography. It?s well written and lavishly illustrated, so it?s a lot of fun to read.

Steve Sanders

Collapse

Collapse Vol VII: Culinary Materialism Edited by Reza Negarestani ? The ?Collapse? series are a favorite of mine. They call the journal ?Philosophical Research and Development.? It?s currently being edited by the writer/philosopher who wrote ?Cyclonopedia,? which is another excellent book worth looking at. (Black anti-sun of oil beneath the earth manipulating mankind! Dense philosophy! Skull thrones!) These books run in lots on 1000 only, and the tend to go for a couple hundred on-line as soon as they are sold out. Which isn?t why I buy them, but it gives me something to feel smug about for no good reason. This particular volume deals with combining philosophy and the culinary into a unified whole, vs just talking about the philosophy of the culinary. For instance, there?s an article that views war as eating/food production, and follows how we make war progressing along with how our society forms, and what happens when older forms of combat/eating collide with more modern ones. Like how in Vietnam, the older ?hunter-gatherer? style of guerrilla warfare completely subverted the more conventional style America was using. It completely changed the topography of warfare. Same with terrorism. It?s really a fascinating book.

Paradigms & Fairy Tales by Julienne Ford ? I chanced across this at a used book store. It addresses epistemology through the eyes of the social sciences, and does it in a very casual manner. A lot of the philosophy is outdated, (it presses for ?common sense? regarding phenomenology, which holds to a point.. ) but it?s a fun primer in studying how we construct meaning in society.

Berserk by Kentaro Miura ? This manga has ran as one continual story since the early ?90s, and is pretty amazing. It started out as sort of Clive Barker and H.R. Giger?s European fantasy love-child, and has progressed to be a more traditional fantasy work,but it is still incredible. The artwork is detailed without being distracting. This is something that is hard to pull off. The eye treats excessive detail in the same way it does open space. It just glazes over it. So if your entire image is drawing every single line and hair on everything, you just get a big mess. Miura and his studio avoid that trap. Their design sense is well honed, as well. Really top notch conceptual design.

from Berserk

Astounding Stories of Super-Science ? Archive.org has a lot of copies of these old pulps available and they are pretty fantastic. As per the medium, they are rarely ?great? stories, but they have a certain air to them that is very evocative of a certain time and place in America?s history, and the science-fiction of the ?30s has always captivated me with its machine age view of the world. It was frequently a much more optimistic view of the world. I also like the near-magical view they had of ?rays? back then. Since X-rays were still a fairly recent discovery, there was an anticipation of the discovery of all kinds of other rays with properties that would astound humanity. That obviously didn?t happen, but the thought of such things still holds a lot of appeal for me.

Gantz by Hiroya Oku ? I?m not really quite sure what to even say about this manga. It?s hyper-violent, epic, disturbing on a variety of levels, well executed in a number of ways but also kind of lazy and sloppy in others. They use a lot of direct 3D renders in the art, in a way that is not seamless at all, and there will be super obvious rip-offs (which I cannot talk about without spoilers), and story arcs that start, go for a while, and then are suddenly dropped and are apparently never to be addressed again. Nevertheless, I find it compelling and continue to read it as soon as I can get my hands on new issues.

Tagged: Aaron Lopresti, Adventure Time, Arsenal, Berserk, books, Braden Lamb, Brian K. Vaughan, Chris Samnee, Christy Marx, Collapse, comic books, Daredevil, dc universe presents, Derf Backderf, Gantz, Hiroya Oku, Joe Keatinge, John Wells, Julienne Ford, kentaro miura, kickstarter, manga, Mark Waid, My Friend Dahmer, Paul Pope, Popeye, Reza Negarestani, Ricken, Ryan North, Saga, Shelli Paroline, Steven Sanders, Sword of Sorcery, Symbiosis, What Are You Reading?

Source: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/02/what-are-you-reading-with-steve-sanders/

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Teachers Union Endorses Racist Council Candidate

A Los Angeles teacher with close ties to the openly racist African People?s Socialist Party received the recommendation of United Teachers Los Angeles in his pursuit of a city council seat.

Ron Gochez himself has been known to disparage both America and various races in his own personal commentary. For instance, he infamously called for a Mexican Revolution in the U.S. while speaking at a La Raza rally several years ago and penned a blatantly anti-semitic letter to the editor prior to that incident.

His association with the APSP, though, is even more telling.

The group is so far to the left of the mainstream, even progressive icons Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson are too conservative.

One political organization, California Political News, compiled a list of the reprehensible statements made by the group and its members.

While some of the comments are so vulgar that any editing on my part would render them incomprehensible, I will list a few of the tamer examples to illustrate the larger point.

For a trip to North Carolina during which ?he went and worked with those honkies down there,? one APSP source considers Jackson an ?old Uncle Tom [expletive deleted].?

The greatest voice in the black community?s nonviolent pursuit of civil rights, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is derided for trying to lead his people ?back onto the plantation? by another adherent to the group.

Additionally, complaints about the Holocaust are blown out of proportion because ?those white people ? need those dead Jews to hold up in the face of any Africans and other oppressed people around the world who say look what you did to me.?

Most of the group?s complaints are utterly nonsensical, but the vitriol and hate with which they are dispersed is all too real.

Of the 12 candidates seeking the L.A. council position, Gochez represents the type of person the city?s teachers union apparently believes most closely holds its views.

If that is not an indictment of our public school systems?? continuing leftward lurch, I cannot imagine what would qualify.

Click here?to get B. Christopher Agee?s latest book for less than $5!?Like his?Facebook page?for engaging, relevant conservative content daily.

Please share this post with your friends and comment below. If you haven?t already, take a moment to sign up for our free newsletter above and friend us on Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
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Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/teachers-union-endorses-racist-council-candidate/

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Smugglers still cashing in on Michigan can refund

A Michigan deposit is shown printed on a beverage in Detroit, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Michigan lawmakers want to crack down on can and bottle smugglers they say are scamming Michigan for undeserved recycling refunds, corrupting a generous 10-cent per container payback policy once infamously portrayed in a "Seinfeld" episode and which beverage officials now claim costs the state millions of dollars annually. Lawmakers say it's a serious problem, especially in border counties, and they want to toughen penalties on people who try to return un-marked, out-of-state cans and bottles for refunds. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

A Michigan deposit is shown printed on a beverage in Detroit, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Michigan lawmakers want to crack down on can and bottle smugglers they say are scamming Michigan for undeserved recycling refunds, corrupting a generous 10-cent per container payback policy once infamously portrayed in a "Seinfeld" episode and which beverage officials now claim costs the state millions of dollars annually. Lawmakers say it's a serious problem, especially in border counties, and they want to toughen penalties on people who try to return un-marked, out-of-state cans and bottles for refunds. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

A Michigan deposit is shown stamped on a beverage in Detroit, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Michigan lawmakers want to crack down on can and bottle smugglers they say are scamming Michigan for undeserved recycling refunds, corrupting a generous 10-cent per container payback policy once infamously portrayed in a "Seinfeld" episode and which beverage officials now claim costs the state millions of dollars annually. Lawmakers say it's a serious problem, especially in border counties, and they want to toughen penalties on people who try to return un-marked, out-of-state cans and bottles for refunds. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) ? Michigan lawmakers want to crack down on can and bottle smugglers they say are scamming Michigan for undeserved recycling refunds, corrupting a generous 10-cent per container payback policy once infamously portrayed in a "Seinfeld" episode and which beverage officials now claim costs the state millions of dollars annually.

"Seinfeld" characters Kramer and Newman failed miserably in their comedic attempt to cash in on the refund, when they loaded a mail truck full of cans and bottles in New York and attempted to drive them to Michigan. But lawmakers say it's a serious problem, especially in border counties, and they want to toughen penalties on people who try to return unmarked, out-of-state cans and bottles for refunds.

"If you are intending to defraud ... then you should be held accountable for it," said Republican Rep. Kenneth Kurtz of Coldwater. He recently introduced legislation aimed at cracking down on scammers who drive car and truck loads of cans from Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio ? states that do not offer refunds ? to stores across the border in Michigan.

His legislation would make an attempt to return between 100 and 10,000 non-returnable containers punishable by up to 93 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Current law sets penalties only for those who actually return fraudulent containers.

Michigan's 10 cent-per-container refund ? the highest in the country ? was enacted more than 30 years ago to encourage recycling. Many say it's worked. The state's recycling rate for cans and bottles was nearly 96 percent in 2011. By contrast, New York, one of nine states with nickel deposits on most containers, saw only a 66.8 percent redemption rate in 2007, the most recent figure available.

Despite measures Michigan lawmakers have taken over the years, including tougher penalties for bottle scammers and new machines that kick out fraudulent cans, store owners and distributors along the border say illegal returns persist.

Mike Hautala owns Hautala Distributing, which services Gogebic and Ontonagon counties in the western part of the Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border. He said for every case of beer his distributorship delivers to a store along the border, it picks up about seven more cases of empty cans.

The state loses $10 million to $13 million a year to fraudulent redemptions, according to most recent 2007 estimates from the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association. Angela Madden, the association's director of governmental affairs, said that number has likely gone down slightly because of changes implemented since, but not by much.

Bill Nichols, store director at Harding's Friendly Market in Niles about three miles from the Indiana border, said the store takes in about $6,000 worth of cans a week. He said every week he kicks out people for trying to return large garbage bags full of cans from Indiana, a state that offers no refund.

"You can go into the parking lot and look at the license plates and see that it says Indiana," he said.

Distributors pick up the containers people drop off at stores and pay the store a dime for every container. If the distributor picks up more bottles and cans than it left ? the likely result of fraudulent redemption ? the distributor is left in the hole, Madden said. If the distributor picks up fewer cans than it dropped off, the money that does not go back to the store is sent to the state. Twenty five percent of that money is sent back to retailers and 75 percent is put in a fund that pays for things like environmental cleanup, she said.

Hautala said he lost about $25,000 last year picking up more returned containers than he delivered. He said his company will recover some of that money from distributors who sell more containers than they pick up.

In 2008, Michigan passed laws aimed at cracking down on bottle fraud. One of the primary components required manufacturers to place a special mark on Michigan cans and bottles and said those containers could only be sold in Michigan or other states that have deposit laws.

A report the Department of Treasury delivered to Michigan lawmakers last fall estimated that the technology may have helped reduce redemptions of out-of-state containers by nearly 4 percent. But that reduction could also come from decline in sales, the report said.

As containers were given Michigan-specific marks, vending machines used in stores to count the cans and bottles were formatted with new technology to read the mark and reject cans that come in from across the border.

But Madden told the committee that many retailers have not yet taken advantage of the technology. She said while the state has provided funding for business to pay for the $5,000 machine upgrade, many "just refuse." If a store has an older model machine, they might have to shell out big bucks for a brand new machine that is compatible with the new technology, she said.

Hautala said only four machines are in the two counties his company serves.

And the machines are not "100 percent fool-proof," Nichols said. If a person repeatedly puts an out-of-state can into the machine, it will often accept it, he said.

Michigan is not alone in its fight against bottle fraud. Mark Oldfield, spokesman for California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, said the state, which gives a 5-cent refund for most containers and 10 cents for those more than 24 ounces, is losing about $30 million to $50 million a year from redeeming out-of-state cans. The state's redemption rate for the first six months of 2012 was 87 percent.

Oldfield said a new law in California this year requires people who bring in more than 25 pounds of aluminum or plastic, or more than 100 pounds of glass, to report the source and the destination of the material to the state. Border patrol stations along the major highways near the border also gather license plate numbers and information of vehicles seen bringing in cans and bottles.

Despite their best efforts to clamp down on fraudulent bottles, a federal lawsuit may shake things up even more. In 2012, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati struck down the Michigan law that makes beverage companies put a special mark on cans sold in the state. It said the Michigan law is illegally affecting interstate commerce by dictating where cans can be distributed.

Joy Yearout, spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, said the office has requested a stay on the ruling and plans to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court in April.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-23-Can%20Return-Michigan/id-21478f705963420aaea434310eae3c74

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Gas prices spike across California

LOS ANGELES ? It's still February, but California gas prices are springing forward.

The average price of gasoline in the region saw one of the largest one-month leaps since 2000, the Automobile Club of Southern California said Friday. Statewide, the average price of regular gasoline was $4.22, up 12 cents from last week.

Gas prices have spiked between 57 and 59 cents over the past 30 days. The region's largest increase was 70 cents between May and June 2008.

Auto Club officials said the surge can't be attributed to a single factor, but refineries were expected to undergo a heavy maintenance schedule, and large amounts of money have been plowed into contracts speculating that the price of gas and oil will go up.

Californians, however, are used to seeing a hefty price at the pump and might be resigned to paying $4 or more for a gallon of gas.

?We've done this before,? said Auto Club spokeswoman Marie Montgomery. ?It's definitely not good for consumers.?

Last year, for instance, Californians were paying more than $4 a gallon, but there was a slower rise in prices.

Prices in Southern California now nearly match the highest cost for a gallon in the nation, which can be found on Maui. The average price of regular gasoline in the Los Angeles area was $4.316 per gallon Friday; the price in Wailuku, Hawaii, was $4.399.

The price in Los Angeles is 11.3 cents more than last week and 57 cents higher than last month. In San Diego, the average price is $4.285, which is an increase of 10.2 cents from last week and 58 cents from last month.

In San Francisco, the price is $4.22. A week ago, it was $4.08. That price has gone up 56 cents from a month ago.

Montgomery said she bought gas Thursday, and even after a discount, she paid $4.08 per gallon.

?And I should be happy with that?? she said, laughing. ?It's frustrating.?

Source: http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/ARTICLE/20130223/ARCHIVES01/130229943/1056/RSS

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Blended expo sparks business networking

Start-up entrepreneurs and familiar business faces alike mingled Friday at the Buy Local, Safe and Green Expo held at the Gainesville Civic Center.

?It?s been a very successful day. I have meetings scheduled to set up four accounts,? said Don Ansley, an account executive for Ansley Communications in Cornelia.

All that was accomplished, he said, by interacting with the other businesses who set up presentation spaces.

?It?s a great opportunity for networking between the businesses that are here,? Ansley said.

Samples of local products from coffee to carpet cleaner were distributed on the floor as businesses hawked their wares.

In the past, the expo has been held at the Gainesville Mountains Center, now taken over by Brenau University. Ansley offered positive reviews for the change of venue.

?I think this was much better,? Ansley said. ?There was a lot more floor space for exhibitors than at the Mountains Center. It was much less crowded.?

And the chamber especially needed that extra space to accommodate the ?Safe and Green? side, which in the past was held as a separate event.

Jeannie N. Copeland didn?t set up a booth, but she is a local entrepreneur who runs an organic food delivery service from her website, northgeorgianatural.com. Copeland exchanged ideas with Hal Williams, from Clean It Green, an eco-friendly carpet cleaning business.

?They have a good mix of businesses here, from individuals like him, who are starting up, to larger companies like Chrysler. It?s exciting,? she said.

Ansley said he thought combining forces with Safe and Green helped business leaders who normally might not have attended that expo, allowing them to meander over the Green side.

?Normally, a company might send one person for Buy Local, and another for Safe and Green, but we had people this year who had the chance to see both. I think that?s a change that?s beneficial for a lot of businesses,? he said.

Source: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/75/article/80118/

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Hot sauce king dies at age 68

By Jane Sutton, Reuters

Paul McIlhenny, the chairman and chief executive of the Louisiana company that makes Tabasco brand pepper sauce, has died at age 68, the McIlhenny Co said on Sunday.

McIlhenny died on Saturday, the family-owned company said in a news release that described him as "a true bon vivant" whose passions included hunting, fishing, wine-tasting and game cooking.

He was a sixth-generation member of the McIlhenny family to live on Avery Island in the southern Louisiana bayou, and a fourth-generation member to produce pepper sauces sold worldwide under the Tabasco brand.

The McIlhenny company was founded in 1868 on Avery Island. It supplies hot sauce to the U.S. presidential plane Air Force One and to Britain's royal family, the Times-Picayune newspaper said on its website.

Paul McIlhenny joined the company in 1967 and directly oversaw the production of its sauces for 13 years, expanding both its line of spicy sauces and the array of aprons, neckties and other merchandise bearing the familiar red-and-green Tabasco logo.

He spent much of his time in New Orleans and in 2006 he reigned as Rex, the first King of Carnival during Mardi Gras celebrations after the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

"All of McIlhenny Company and the McIlhenny and Avery families are deeply saddened by this news," said Tony Simmons, president of McIlhenny Co and fifth-generation McIlhenny family member. "We will clearly miss Paul's devoted leadership but will more sorely feel the loss of his acumen, his charm and his irrepressible sense of humor."

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/24/17076392-hot-sauce-king-tabasco-company-ceo-paul-mcilhenny-dies-at-age-68?lite

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Abe moving quickly after Obama meeting ? set to announce Japan entry into TPP talks

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Home / All, Asia / Abe moving quickly after Obama meeting ? set to announce Japan entry into TPP talks

Japan?s PM Shinzo Abe may announce Japan?s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks to the Diet (the Japanese parliament) on either Feb. 28 or March 1, according to sources.

Abe has faced stiff internal LDP resistance to the TPP and may have to seek exemptions for some agricultural products, and other measures to support local farmers.

Japan Times

Earlier post re the World Trade Organisation calling on Japan to implement structural economic reforms, such as freeing up trade. Entering TPP talks would be progress on this.

Source: http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2013/02/23/abe-moving-quickly-after-obama-meeting-set-to-announce-japan-entry-into-tpp-talks/

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Oscar Pistorius bail hearing nearing decision

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The lead investigator in the murder case against Pistorius faces attempted murder charges himself over a 2011 shooting, police said Thursday in another potentially damaging blow to the prosecution. Prosecutors said they were unaware of the charges against veteran detective Hilton Botha when they put him on the stand in court to explain why Pistorius should not be given bail in the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The lead investigator in the murder case against Pistorius faces attempted murder charges himself over a 2011 shooting, police said Thursday in another potentially damaging blow to the prosecution. Prosecutors said they were unaware of the charges against veteran detective Hilton Botha when they put him on the stand in court to explain why Pistorius should not be given bail in the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African judge says defense lawyers will need to offer "exceptional" reasons to convince him to grant bail for Oscar Pistorius, when a hearing resumes Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority acknowledged that the timing of attempted murder charges against a police detective leading the investigation into Oscar Pistorius is "totally weird" and that he should dropped from the case against the world-famous athlete. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? The fourth and likely final day of Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing opened on Friday, with the magistrate then to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he has to remain in custody over the shooting death of his girlfriend.

The prosecution is expected to complete its arguments opposing bail. The defense rested on Thursday, and Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair can issue a ruling on bail at any time after arguments finish.

Pistorius is charged with one count of premediated murder over the Feb. 14 killing of Reeva Steenkamp. He says the shooting was accidental because he thought she was a dangerous intruder inside his home.

Steenkamp's Valentine's Day killing has seized the world's attention and there was intense focus Friday on if Pistorius would be released, and if so, with what conditions.

Pistorius' hands trembled as he said "good morning, your worship" as the court session began in Pretoria Magistrate's Court, in South Africa's capital.

Pistorius' longtime coach Ampie Louw said before proceedings began that he is considering putting his runner back in training if he is granted bail to allow him to "get his mind kind of clear."

Louw said he realizes that the Olympic athlete might not be emotionally ready to give any thought to running.

"The change is that he is heartbroken, that is all," Louw said in the courtroom, surrounded by reporters and television cameras. "For me it is tough to see that. Not to be able to reach out and sit next to him and say 'sorry, man, it was a terrible accident.' But I cannot do it, I must just sit here in court and that's all.

"The sooner he can start working the better." said Louw, who was the person who convinced the double amputee to take up track as a teenager a decade ago.

Nair will decide if Pistorius is freed with conditions or if he is held until trial. Pistorius faces the sternest bail conditions in South Africa because of the seriousness of the charge, meaning his defense lawyers have to prove there is an "exceptional" reason for him to be freed.

He has been held at a police station in Pretoria since last week, but suspects who are denied bail are typically held in a prison.

Defense lawyer Barry Roux argued on Thursday that the evidence backs up Pistorius' statement that he shot through a toilet door at his home because he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder, killing her by accident.

"I think there will be a level of shock in this country if he is not released (on bail)," Roux said in court.

Opposing bail, prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued Pistorius was too willing to shoot. The prosecution says Pistorius planned to kill his 29-year-old girlfriend, a model and budding reality TV star, after an argument in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

"The reason you fire four shots is to kill," Nel said.

Louw said he might put Pistorius ? who overcame the amputation of his lower legs as a baby to compete at last year's London Olympics ? back on a morning and afternoon training routine if he is freed, believing it might help him to be able to run track again.

"You must give him space," the coach said.

___

AP Sports Writer Gerald Imray contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-22-Pistorius-Shooting/id-66b9b16b0d934e53bd3a9ab9a4d69bfd

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Russia, China oppose military intervention in North Korea

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and China said on Friday they would oppose any foreign military intervention in North Korea over its recent nuclear test.

The two countries' foreign ministers condemned last week's test but said any action against North Korea had to be agreed at the United Nations, where Russia and China have the right of veto as permanent members of the Security Council.

"We are against the carrying out of a nuclear test in North Korea," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told a joint news conference after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

"The U.N. Security Council should give an adequate response ... but the action should be directed towards peace on the Korean peninsula," he said.

Lavrov said China and Russia had agreed that it was "vitally important not to ... allow the situation to be used as a pretext for military intervention."

North Korea's latest test, its third since 2006, prompted warnings from Washington and others that more sanctions would be imposed on the isolated state.

The U.N. Security Council has only just tightened sanctions on Pyongyang after it launched a long-range rocket in December.

The North is banned under U.N. sanctions from developing missile or nuclear technology after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

(Reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Writing by Thomas Grove, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-china-oppose-military-intervention-north-korea-moscow-090334272.html

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Ronda Rousey is biggest news for female sports Title IX

Ronda Rousey (left) has ended five of her six fights in the first minute thanks to submissions.

Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

For every step along the path towards women's equality, there's been a paragon associated with each milestone. What Susan B. Anthony is to women's suffrage, Lily Ledbetter to equal pay, Ronda Rousey will be to sports, when, on Saturday night, she takes on Liz Carmouche in the first women's bout in UFC history.

That the UFC -- arguably the most hypermasculine, hypersexualized professional sports outfit -- headlines its UFC 157 fight card with a female fight marks perhaps the most important development for women's athletic equality since Title IX. Seriously.

But don't mistake UFC president Dana White for a modern-day Elizabeth Cady Stanton. He is less a women's activist as he is an unapologetic capitalist who recognized in Rousey unquestionable talent, unparalleled marketability, and an unprecedented opportunity to hitch his sport to her rising star and let her yank MMA further into the mainstream. "People can say whatever they want about her, people can say she shouldn't be headlining or whatever. I don't give a s--- if you're Royce Gracie, if you're Dan Henderson or [Lyoto] Machida, Tito [Ortiz], Chuck [Liddell], go through the laundry list of people who have been stars in this company, nobody in the history of this company will have more new media following them than Ronda Rousey will," White said last month, citing Rousey's interviews with Time, Forbes, and on HBO Real Sports. "If you would have told me a year ago that a female athlete would get that kind of coverage, I would have said you're out of your mind. And if they did, it would be a freak-show story. And it's far from a freak-show."

Rousey's career, however, has been nothing short of freakish. In six professional fights in the now-defunct Strikeforce circuit, the 26-year-old bronze medal Olympic judoka submitted each of her opponents in the first round via her trademark armbar, a technique in which she hyperextends her opponents shoulder or elbow past parallel. Executing the move, with the sound of tendons and ligaments snapping audible to the fighters, Rousey says, is like "When you're trying to get a turkey thing off and you feel all the cartilage and the tendons and the bones coming off, when you're pulling it, it really is that exact feeling. It's gross. But that's the way it is."

The gruesomeness of her submissions -- and the UFC's bet that audiences will be willing to watch them on the sport's biggest stage -- signals an evolution in the female athlete paradigm. Rousey's foray into the mainstream suggests we've morphed from fans who initially welcomed only the likes of figure skater Dorothy Hamill, who charmed our hearts without threatening our ideas about how women should behave as she twirled around the ice in sparkly leotards; to a fan base supporting Florence Griffith Joyner, whose long, painted fingernails received more television airtime than her races; to tennis' Williams sisters, who play in carefully selected skirts; and now, finally, to spectators willing to pay $54.95 to watch women in sports bras and bike shorts bloody and bruise each other on pay-per-view.

It's fitting the UFC's inaugural female fight occurs less than one month after the Pentagon lifted its ban on women in combat -- a ban that blocked challenger Carmouche from pursuing multiple jobs during her career as a Marine. Lifting the ban suggests the perception of what women can do is catching up with this harsh reality of what they already do: fight, whether it be in arenas as athletes, in warzones as soldiers, or in offices where women now outnumber men for the first time in American history.

One of the richest ironies in this shift is that it plays out in front of the UFC crowd, a constituency best known for its boorishness and bloodlust. Yet despite its history of leering at the ample-breasted ring girls or assailing the cadre of female writers who cover the sport, the UFC fan base is in the best position to mainline women into its sport (more than any other league) for one simple reason: It's younger. Most UFC fans fall into the 18-to-34-year-old age range, a sweet spot for advertisers and social progressives alike. Research shows younger audiences are more likely to have been raised by single mothers and support issues like gay marriage. Perhaps that explains the collective response to Carmouche, an openly lesbian fighter, whose homosexuality fans treat as a plot point in her narrative, not the thesis of it. Plus, the UFC, celebrating its 20th anniversary in November, is too new of a league to have hidebound fans, like baseball, where many still rail against the designated hitter rule 30 years after its adoption.

HBO Real Sports: Ronda Rousey

Source: SI

Jon Frankel goes one-on-one with trailblazing MMA fighter Ronda Rousey examining her fighting style and more. Real Sports premieres Tues, Feb. 19 at 10pm ET/PT on HBO.

But the most radical, equality-grabbing, earth-shaking element of the UFC's new women's division is that it isn't an addendum to its men's league like the WNBA (when does its season start?) or run by a separate governing body, playing its championships on separate days like women's pro tennis or golf. MMA fans wanting to watch, say, the highly anticipated match between Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson will have to buy the Rousey fight, too. The UFC purposely wove the women into the fabric of its main events. There is no opt-out for fight fans.

Nor is there any indication the UFC plans to back off its female integration. Last week the UFC announced the signing of four new female fighters, two of whom, Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano, will fight in April during The Ultimate Fighter 17 reality series finale, another fight card stacked with marquee male fighters and publicized weekly via the television show.

Yet the viability of female fighting in the UFC depends largely on Rousey and her ability to open pocketbooks and eyes at the same time. And she couldn't care less. When asked last week about how her performance will dictate the future of women's fighting, she said, "I really don't care so much -- I don't like anybody that much, so I care more about winning for myself than I care about winning for everybody else." Ah. A me-first approach from a budding superstar? Equality in sports, warts and all, is closer than we think.

Our experts' predictions for UFC 157

SEGURA: Ronda Rousey's trainer to work two fights in two nights

WAGENHEIM: A viewers' guide to UFC 157: Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mma/news/20130222/ronda-rousey-historic-ufc-157-fight/?xid=si_mma

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Why a NYS teachers' union is suing the state

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NCPRDailyNews/~3/xUXrCCCp1QY/why-a-nys-teachers-apos-union-is-suing-the-state

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