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The Ravens ultimately may have been dumb not to get quarterback Joe Flacco signed last year, but it?s not as if they didn?t try.

In an excerpt from his book regarding the team?s second Super Bowl run, Nestor Aparicio of WNST in Baltimore details a 45-minute, face-to-face meeting between Flacco and owner Steve Bisciotti aimed at getting the deal done before the 2012 season.

?I had never, ever ? not for one minute ? even spoken to Joe about the contract,? Bisciotti said.? ?That was for Pat [Moriarty] and Ozzie [Newsome] to do, but I wanted to take one more swing at it and try to understand the situation.?

Bisciotti?s final offer included a rolling $1 million bonus if Flacco won a Super Bowl at any time during the life of the deal.? It moved to $2 million per year if he won a second one.? Flacco wasn?t interested.

?There are two things here that I don?t understand,? Bisciotti said to Flacco, per Aparicio.? ?I don?t understand why you?re walking away from this deal?? As maligned as you are in the press and as little faith as so many pundits have in you, we?re offering you a $90 million deal and you can go wave that in their face and say, ?F**k you guys!? See, the Ravens DO believe in me!??

Flacco didn?t flinch.? ?I really don?t care about my criticis,? he said.? Flacco then explained that agent Joe Linta wanted a contract free from incentive clauses.

?I?m offering you a better deal than the one you?re asking me for if you?re planning on winning the Super Bowl,? Bisciotti said.? Flacco still didn?t want it.

?I figured if he?s fine with it then I should be fine with it,? Bisciotti said.? ?I wanted it behind both of us.? I guess I didn?t really understand how different a guy he was.? I told him, ?You are a different cat, man!??

The Ravens ultimately lost the gamble, but they won a Super Bowl.? For Flacco, the worst-case scenario included neither money nor a championship.

?My agent said to me, ?Think about the worse possible situation and if you?re OK with that then hold your position,? Flacco said.? ?If I got hurt, I got hurt.? That?s the nature of the game.? I was willing to look in the mirror and live with that.?

So Flacco went all in, making his own final offer to the boss.

?I told him, ?You should give me four or five million more now because if I win the Super Bowl? ? and I did say ?if? ? ?then it?s gonna cost you $20 million.??

He did.? And it did.? In hindsight, though, it wasn?t dumb for the Ravens to take the risk.? (It was far dumber, in our view, to publicly call them dumb.)? Still, winning the Super Bowl became the equivalent of buying a house that Bisciotti will be paying for via Flacco?s contract for years to come.

But think of it this way:? Flacco still had the Ravens over a barrel even if the 49ers had decided not to throw the ball three times inside the five with the game on the line.? Winning the Super Bowl only underscored the reality that other teams (like the Browns) would have gladly chased Flacco and given up two first-round picks to get him under the non-exclusive franchise tag.? With the exclusive version putting the Ravens on a year-to-year path that quickly would have gotten ridiculously expensive, the Ravens had no good alternatives.? They had to give Flacco market value.

In other words, Bisciotti would have been paying for the house without even getting it.? Now, that would have been dumb.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/30/broncos-receivers-say-peyton-mannings-arm-is-stronger/related/

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Vatican bank chief's priority: clean up reputation

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The new head of the Vatican bank says his top priority is to clean up the bank's reputation, saying the institution hasn't served the pope well but provides valuable financial services to the Holy See and its clients that should continue.

Ernst von Freyberg was named president of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) in February, replacing Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, an Italian banker ousted by the bank's board last May for incompetence and other failings.

Von Freyberg's appointment was part of the Vatican's efforts to shed the bank's image as a secretive tax haven and improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals, including a money-laundering investigation launched by Rome prosecutors in 2010.

In interviews published Friday, Von Freyberg said he had hired a leading firm, Promontory Financial Group, and the U.S.-based law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to ensure that the bank complies with anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing standards. He also hired an outside public relations expert, saying a big part of the bank's problem was its failure to communicate.

"When I came here I thought I would need to focus on what is normally described as cleaning out and dealing with improper deposits," he told Vatican Radio. "There is - until now - nothing I can detect. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything, but it means that it is not our biggest issue.

"Our biggest issue is our reputation," he said.

Some of the sharpest calls for reform of the Vatican bureaucracy that accompanied the March election of Pope Francis focused on the bank and came from cardinals who suggested it needn't exist at all, given its shady reputation.

Von Freyberg, a 54-year-old German industrialist and aristocrat, said the bank's 18,900 customers choose to stay with the IOR because it provides "very, very safe" investment returns and other services such as asset management and wire transfers.

"They want us to be there," he said of the customers. But he acknowledged: "We haven't rendered a good service to the Holy Father with the reputation we have, and this reputation obscures the message. And that I consider my first and most important task to address."

Earlier this month, Von Freyberg announced the bank would publish its annual report online for the first time on Oct. 1.

In a parallel bid to show greater transparency, the Vatican's new financial watchdog agency published its own annual report last week, revealing that six suspect transactions had been reported in 2012, two of which were forwarded onto Vatican prosecutors for further investigation.

Von Freyburg said so far another seven suspicious transactions have been reported by the bank in 2013.

The IOR was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works. Located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, it also manages the pension system for the Vatican's thousands of employees.

The IOR on Friday provided preliminary figures for 2012, saying its net profit was 86.6 million euros ($112.6 million), with total assets under management of 7.1 billion euros ($9.23 billion).

It didn't provide figures for 2011, saying only its average net profit from 2009-2012 was 69 million euros ($89.7 million). The bump was due in large part to the performance of Italian government bonds last year.

The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and diplomats accredited to the Holy See, though its customer base has long been the subject of speculation that Italians were hiding money there to avoid paying taxes. Currently, each account is being checked to ensure the owner belongs there.

As part of its transparency bid, the Vatican agreed to an independent evaluation process to ensure it was complying with international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing norms. It passed the first evaluation of the Council of Europe's Moneyval process last summer, though it received poor or failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and the IOR, specifically the bank's ability to ensure that its customers and transactions were clean.

Von Freyberg has set a July 31 deadline to come up with norms for customer checks, after the bank missed its December deadline.

"We are late and I will do my utmost to catch up," he said in an email via his Munich-based spokesman Max Hohenberg of CNC Communications.

Von Freyberg, a member of the Roman Catholic charitable group Knights of Malta, was named IOR president after a months-long search by a headhunting firm ? a novelty for the Vatican where backroom deals, nepotism and patronage appointments are common.

His appointment initially raised eyebrows since he is also chairman of German shipbuilder Blohm + Voss. Von Freyberg chairs the company's civilian branch, but that unit is part of a consortium building four frigates for the German navy.

The Vatican and its bank have traditionally steered clear of investments in companies that manufacture weapons or contraceptives.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-bank-chiefs-priority-clean-reputation-103714597.html

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USSR's old domain name attracts cybercriminals

MOSCOW (AP) ? The Soviet Union disappeared from the map more than two decades ago. But online an 'e-vil empire' is thriving.

Security experts say the .su Internet suffix assigned to the USSR in 1990 has turned into a haven for hackers who've flocked to the defunct superpower's domain space to send spam and steal money.

Capitalist concerns, rather than Communist nostalgia, explain the move.

"I don't think that this is really a political thing," Oren David, a manager at security firm RSA's anti-fraud unit, said in a recent telephone interview. David noted that other obscure areas of the Internet, such as the .tk domain associated with the South Pacific territory of Tokelau, have been used by opportunistic hackers.

"It's all about business," he said.

David and others say scammers began to move to .su after the administrators of Russia's .ru space toughened their rules back in late 2011.

Group-IB, which runs one of Russia's two official Internet watchdogs, says that the number of malicious websites hosted across the Soviet Union's old domain doubled in 2011 and doubled again in 2012, surpassing even the vast number of renegade sites on .ru and its newer Cyrillic-language counterpart.

The Soviet domain has "lots of problems," Group-IB's Andrei Komarov said in a phone interview. "In my opinion more than half of cybercriminals in Russia and former USSR use it."

The most notorious site was Exposed.su, which purportedly published credit records belonging to President Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, Republican presidential challengers Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, and celebrities including Britney Spears, Jay Z, Beyonce and Tiger Woods. The site is now defunct.

Other Soviet sites are used to control botnets ? the name given to the networks of hijacked computers used by criminals to empty bank accounts, crank out spam, or launch attacks against rival websites.

Internet hosting companies generally eliminate such sites as soon as they're identified. But Swiss security researcher Roman Huessy, whose abuse.ch blog tracks botnet control sites, said hackers based in Soviet cyberspace can operate with impunity for months at a time.

Asked for examples, he rattled off a series of sites actively involved in ransacking bank accounts or holding hard drives hostage in return for ransom ? brazenly working in the online equivalent of broad daylight.

"I can continue posting this list for ages," he said via Skype.

The history of .su goes back to the early days of the Internet, when its architects were creating the universe of country code suffixes meant to mark out a website's nationality. Each code ? like .fr for France or .ca for Canada ? was meant to correspond to a country.

Some Cold War-era domain names ? such as .yu for Yugoslavia or .dd for East Germany ? evaporated after the countries behind them disappeared. But the .su domain survived the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the creation of a .ru domain in 1994, resisting repeated attempts to wipe it from the Web because, unlike other defunct domains, those behind .su refused to pull the plug ? on both commercial and patriotic grounds.

With more than 120,000 domains currently registered, mothballing .su now would be a messy operation.

"It's like blocking .com or .org," said Komarov. "Lots of legitimate domains are registered there."

Among them are stalin.su, which eulogizes the Soviet dictator and the English-language chronicle.su, an absurdist parody site.

But experts say many are fraudulent, and even the organization behind .su accepts it has a problem on its hands.

"We realize it's a threat for our image," said Sergei Ovcharenko, whose Moscow-based nonprofit Foundation for Internet Development took responsibility for .su in 2007.

Ovcharenko insisted that only a small number of .su sites are malicious, although he acknowledged that criminal sites can stay online for extremely long periods of time. He said his hands were tied by weak Russian legislation and outdated terms of service. But he promised that stricter rules are on their way after months of legal leg work.

"We are almost there," he said. "This summer, we'll be rolling out our new policy."

Meanwhile .su has become an increasingly notorious corner of the Internet, an online echo of the evil empire moniker assigned to the Soviet Union by U.S. President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago.

David, the RSA manager, said the emergence of a Communist relic as a 21st century security threat was a bizarre blast from the past.

"I thought that the Berlin Wall and my grandma's borscht are the only remnants of the Soviet Union," he said. "I was wrong."

___

Online:

Group-IB: http://www.group-ib.com

Roman Huessy's website: http://www.abuse.ch

RSA: http://uk.emc.com/domains/rsa/index.htm

Foundation for Internet Development: http://www.fid.ru/english

___

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ussrs-old-domain-name-attracts-cybercriminals-070143935.html

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Crest urges Clearwire ditch Sprint deal after Dish bid

By Sinead Carew and Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crest Financial, one of the biggest minority shareholders in Clearwire Corp, on Thursday urged the wireless company to recommend against Sprint Nextel Corp's buyout offer after Dish Network Corp made a counter bid.

Crest, which holds about 8 percent of Clearwire shares, said Clearwire should open itself to competitive bidding, and said even though Dish's bid appears superior it may still prove inadequate to shareholders.

Clearwire is expected to postpone its shareholder vote on Sprint's $3.40 per share offer after Dish's counter bid of $4.40 per share, according to two sources familiar with the situation who asked not to be named.

Clearwire said its board would review the latest offer, but has not confirmed if it will adjourn the shareholders meeting.

The new offer further muddies the waters in what was already a complicated consolidation scenario in which Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen is competing against Japan's SoftBank Corp to buy Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider.

Sprint is the majority owner of Clearwire.

Some analysts speculated as to whether the Clearwire bid meant Dish would be happy with an investment in the smaller company or a spectrum purchase from Clearwire.

Dish said it was not backing down from its bid for Sprint. "Our Clearwire offer in no way diminishes our interest or vision for a combined Dish/Sprint," a Dish spokesman said.

On the same day that Dish made the bid for Clearwire, Ergen and other Dish executives involved in the Sprint bid were holding meetings at Sprint's Overland Park, Kansas, campus as part of the due diligence process for that offer, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Whatever Dish's motivation for the Clearwire bid, analysts said it spells trouble for SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and his efforts to gain approval for Softbank's $20.1 billion bid for Sprint at a shareholder vote on June 12.

Softbank had approved Sprint's bid to buy Clearwire.

BTIG telecom analyst Walter Piecyk said SoftBank should come up with a higher bid for Sprint soon, as Dish's Clearwire bid effectively reduces the value of Softbank's bid for Sprint.

"If Masa doesn't figure out how to regain control of the Clearwire process he may have a much harder time convincing Sprint shareholders that his Sprint offer is superior to Ergen's," Piecyk said.

SoftBank gained clearance to go ahead with its Sprint offer earlier this week from a key U.S. government committee but needs more regulatory approvals.

Dish, which had tried to buy Clearwire in January, appeared to strengthen its case with Clearwire's board by excluding conditions from the new bid that had made it very difficult for Clearwire to accept the previous offer.

Clearwire had said it could not act on a January offer from Dish for $3.30 per share because some of the bid conditions went against previous agreements that Clearwire had with Sprint.

Since Dish removed some of the conditions in its new bid, the source said Ergen appeared to have "made a serious offer that is actionable" and that the board and its special committee will have to review the proposal carefully.

"This is a much improved offer from Dish, not just the dollar amount," said the source. "He's got himself in the game now."

A money manager at one big Clearwire shareholder sounded happy with the latest offer from Dish on Thursday even as the person declined to comment specifically on the price.

Five months ago, when Dish made its first bid for Clearwire, "I don't think anybody on the special committee would have thought that we would be where we are today," the money manager said. "That's largely because of the resolve of Clearwire independent shareholders."

Clearwire shares rose 26 percent to $4.40 on Thursday after Ergen started advertising his tender offer to Clearwire shareholders.

Any purchase of Clearwire would need approval from more than 50 percent of Clearwire's majority shareholders.

Before the latest Dish offer, many shareholders had said they were unhappy with Sprint's bid for Clearwire - even after it recently raised the price to $3.40 per share from $2.97 per share. Crest Financial has been leading a proxy battle against the deal.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clearwire-postpone-vote-sprint-bid-sources-144628664.html

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Re: Old Injury. New State - Workers Compensation Insurance . com

My workers compensation claim was made in the State of: Texas

Hello, I'm Bryan and new to the forum...

Hopefully someone can help me. It would be much appreciated!

In 1992 I was a bricklayer and fell from a scaffold about 7 feet. I fell on my back hitting the concrete. Hit my hips first, then my head. Ended up with lower back problems and a closed head injury, which both, for the most part have healed. I would throw my back out fairly often, which I never did before the accident. Took 2 years to get my head back on strait....

Forward to today... I have had constant lower back pain for 13 months now. It just won't get better. I called Texas Workers Comp. and they did say if my current pain is due to the '92 injury, the claim would kick back in.

Here's my problem: I need to see a doctor to see if this pain is due to the past injury, but I now live in Washington State. I have been unemployed for sometime now. No insurance for the last 4 years. I need to find a doctor here who is certified (i suppose) for Texas Workers Comp. Of course, not having insurance or job makes it even harder.

Any suggestions? Thanks for reading!
Bryan

Source: http://www.workerscompensationinsurance.com/forum/showthread.php?49854-Old-Injury-New-State

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Threatening letter to Bloomberg tests positive for ricin (CNN)

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

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Gas prices falling in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Gas prices in Minnesota have eased a bit as increased supplies have caused prices to drop after hitting an all-time high last week.

The travel group AAA says the average gas price peaked at $4.28 a gallon last week statewide, but dropped to $4.05 Monday. That's still well above the national average.

AAA Minnesota-Iowa spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says the state should soon be in line with the rest of the nation. Midwest refineries that were closed for maintenance are resuming operations and fuel is arriving from other parts of the country.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gas-prices-falling-minnesota-160153361.html

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Engadget HD Podcast 351 - 05.28.13

It was a holiday weekend, but news takes no vacations, and so the HD Podcast soldiered on. Aside from following up on the Xbox One, Ben recalls his time in the import racing scene, while Richard analyzes the totally believable fake physics in Tokyo Drift. All that and the top HD stories from the past week are ready for your listening pleasure below.

Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh (@bjdraw), Richard Lawler (@rjcc)

Producer: Joe Pollicino (@akaTRENT)

Hear the podcast

Filed under: Podcasts, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/28/engadget-hd-podcast-351-05-28-13/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Cut military spending and ensure the Department of Defense fulfills the role its...

Libertarian Party (LPNational) on Twitter

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The latest from Libertarian Party (@LPNational). The Official Twitter Account of the Libertarian Party. America's third largest political party. We promote free markets, civil liberties, and peace. USA

Source: http://www.facebook.com/libertarians/posts/10151614624537726

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Apple Settles iPhone Water Damage Lawsuit

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Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323855804578511720535072276.html?mod=rss_Technology

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European stocks claw back ground as markets steady

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks, bonds and the dollar traded more calmly on Monday after last week's turbulence, though another 3 percent dive in Japan's main share index kept investors on edge.

UK and U.S. holidays kept European equity and bond markets quieter than usual, but with last week's falls tempting buyers, the Euro STOXX 50 was up 0.8 percent and Italian and Spanish bonds eyeing their first gains in three sessions.

The dollar was also steadier, though it slid back to 101 against the yen as the latest lurch in Japanese equities encouraged investors who have been unwinding their dollar hedges on share portfolios and heading for bonds.

The 3.2 percent drop on Tokyo's Nikkei brought its losses since Thursday to more than 10 percent, although the index is still up 35 percent this year.

Last week's shakeout of equity, bond and currency markets was triggered by concerns the U.S. Federal Reserve could wind in its monetary support sooner than had been expected, weak Chinese data, and doubts over how low Japan will allow the yen to go.

But despite the wobble, analysts largely foresee a period of moderation in risk assets, rather than a big correction.

"The transition to a post U.S. QE (quantitative easing) world will be turbulent," said J.P. Morgan global strategist Dan Morris. "But with fundamental drivers for equities still supportive, investors should tighten their seatbelts instead of reaching for the parachute."

CHILLY TO SUB-ZERO

Whereas the Fed appears to be eyeing an exit from its crisis measures, the European Central Bank may still have some scope to counter a long-running euro zone recession triggered largely by efforts to contain the bloc's sovereign debt crisis.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will release its review of countries' debt-cutting policies, which will confirm that the likes of France, Spain and Slovenia are to be given more time to trim their budget deficits to target. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will publish a review of major economies on the same day.

Three Italian government bond auctions this week will also test demand after the talk of Fed stimulus withdrawal.

Italian and Spanish bonds were caught in the sell-off in risk assets last week but yields on both have eased back as focus turns to the ECB's next step.

Policymaker Joerg Asmussen said the bank would remain accommodative "as long as needed" although he sounded cautious about charging banks to put money on deposit at the ECB, something that could help hold down national borrowing costs.

"One should be very cautious regarding the discussion if the ECB could introduce negative deposit rates ... This can have advantages, but it can also have disadvantages," Asmussen said in a speech in Berlin.

OIL SLIPS

The mood was once again cautious in the commodities markets. Brent crude slipped towards $102 per barrel, extending last week's 2 percent drop, as the patchy economic outlook in a well-supplied market pressured prices.

The broader market nerves also helped safe-haven gold firm to $1394.39 an ounce as it built on last week's best run in a month, while growth-attuned copper fell 0.2 percent.

After disappointing data from China last week dimmed the outlook for global oil demand, oil producer cartel OPEC is expected to keep policy unchanged at a meeting on Friday.

The shale revolution in the United States, still the biggest oil consumer, may even bring an end to the relentless rise in fuel prices seen over the past decade.

"OPEC is in a hard situation," said Chakib Khelil, Algeria's oil minister from 1999 to 2010. "The demand for OPEC oil is going down, while increasing demand is being met by others..."

(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Peg Mackey; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-stocks-still-shaky-nikkei-slides-3-percent-003037377.html

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Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival | Suffolk Produce | The Suffolk ...

Live cooking demonstrations are a great part of the festival

Over 80 Suffolk food and drink producers; demonstrations from leading chefs including Daniel Clifford, Valentine Warner, Henry Harris and Sarah Raven; a weekend of hands-on workshops, over 50 fringe events and a conference chaired by BBC Radio 4?s Sheila Dillon: these are just some of the highlights of the 2013 Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival.

Now in its eighth year, the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival is a two-week celebration of the best food and drink in the county. Considering the inimitable quality of local produce in this part of the world, it?s no surprise that Aldeburgh is consistently rated as one of the best food and drink ?festivals in the UK.

?There isn?t a better, more enjoyable, more educational, more beautiful food and drink festival in Britain,? says Sheila Dillon, presenter of BBC Radio 4?s The Food Programme.

The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival runs over the weekend of the 28^th and 29th September at Snape Maltings. There will be demonstrations from Valentine Warner, Henry Harris, Sarah Raven and Lucas Hollweg. East Anglia has its fair share of well-known chefs who?ll also appear, including Galton Blackiston (Morston Hall, Norfolk & Saturday Kitchen); Paul Foster (Tuddenham Mill, Young Chef of the Year, Observer Food Monthly 2012); Daniel Clifford (Midsummer House, Cambridge, 2 Michelin Stars) and Madelene Bonvini-Hamel (British Larder, Woodbridge, International Gourmand Award for Cookbook of the Year by a female chef.)

Chaired by Sheila Dillon, the Festival Conference returns this year. Food Security for the Nation and Suffolk. The conference will explore how with a growing world population, more pressure on our natural resources and an uncertain climate, both science and local communities have a role to play in ensuring we don?t go hungry in the future. Keynote speaker, renowned agricultural economist, Sir Gordon Conway of Imperial College, London and author of One Billion Hungry will discuss global food security and the role of science. Other speakers will raise national and regional challenges of food security, sustainability and agricultural production.

The location of the Festival is very special. Snape Maltings has a stunning setting by the River Alde where reed-covered marshlands stretch into the distance. It is also home to Aldeburgh Music, who celebrate their founder Benjamin Britten?s centenary this year. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal, and despite receiving over 12,000 visitors in 2012, there is always space to sit back and enjoy a beer from the main sponsors Adnams or a glass of cider from sponsors Aspall.

Suffolk has?wonderful produce and producers and the festival draws together many of the best in the region. With more than 80 local food and drink companies exhibiting it is a food-lovers heaven. There is a packed programme of workshops from bread or pasta making, to wine and spirit tasting.

The Fringe Festival extends the celebrations for a further two weeks and offers unique opportunities for farm walks, behind-the-scenes visits to producers, celebrations dinners, workshops and talks.

Source: http://www.thesuffolkcoast.co.uk/the-suffolk-coast/food-drink/the-aldeburgh-food-and-drink-festival/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-aldeburgh-food-and-drink-festival

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Obama should end up on Mount Rushmore say a third of George Washington profs surveyed

According to a survey of George Washington University professors, some 30 percent generally endorse the eventual addition of President Barack Obama?s face to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

The survey, conducted and reported by The College Fix, is hampered by an extremely limited sample size. Nonetheless, the results are fascinating. Of the 10 history and political science profs queried, three suggested that Obama may eventually be added to the huge sculpture of four enormous presidential heads carved into the granite face of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Professor Paul Wahlbeck, who chairs the political science department at GW, apparently believes that Obama could become some sort of affirmative-action addition to the monument.

?History undoubtedly will accord President Obama a special place by virtue of being the first African-American President,? Wahlbeck told The College Fix via email.

Wahlbeck added that he is, of course, ?reluctant to venerate political leaders while or shortly after they served.?

History and public policy professor Edward Berkowitz offered a similar sentiment.

?Historical judgments take time to form and Obama is still in office,? said the social welfare policy specialist. ?It could be that he will be one of the great presidents, worthy of having his likeness carved on a mountain, but certainly not yet.?

The third prof, Robert Stoker, also cautioned against premature sculpting.

?I recall how unseemly it was when Republicans started a premature campaign to cement President Reagan?s legacy by naming everything they could find after him,? the political science professor said.

Out of the seven other faculty members survey, six simply replied ?no,? Obama does not belong on Mount Rushmore. The remaining professor refused to respond to the survey at all.

Mount Rushmore currently contains four presidential faces: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.?Those were the four faces on the federally-funded monument when it was dedicated in 1941. None have been added.

Right now, the national clamor to carve Obama?s likeness into Mount Rushmore is somewhere between unnoticeable and nonexistent.

There is a Facebook page, of course, called ?Campaign to Put President Obama on Mt. Rushmore!? It was started in March 2010 and it boasts 634 likes.

?With the numerous accomplishments that President Obama has achieved in under 15 months in office, including The Health Care Bill, We The People feel The President should be honored and recognized by his bust being placed on Mt. Rushmore,? a statement ? signed by one Greg Jones ? near the top of the page says.

Facebook commenter Amber JakaTigger Andrews contends that the photo at the Facebook page is the ?worst photoshop job ever.?

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Obama should end up on Mount Rushmore say a third of George Washington profs surveyed

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-end-mount-rushmore-third-george-washington-profs-140606279.html

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Year later, Serena Williams seeks more in Paris

Serena Williams of the United States adjusts her hair during a press conference for the 2013 French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Friday May, 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Serena Williams of the United States adjusts her hair during a press conference for the 2013 French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Friday May, 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2013 file photo, Serena Williams watches her return to Russia's Maria Kirilenko in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. Rafael Nadal's sustained excellence on clay and Serena Williams' current winning streak mean little thought is being given to the sort of surprises the French Open used to produce regularly. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

Serena Williams, of the United States, right, flanked by Belarus' Victoria Azarenka poses with the trophy after winning her final match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Sunday, May 19, 2013. Serena Williams won her fourth consecutive title of the year in dominating fashion Sunday, beating third-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3 in the Italian Open final. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Russia's Maria Sharapova adjusts her cap during a training session for the 2013 French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Saturday May, 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Serena Williams, of the United States smiles during a press conference for the 2013 French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Friday May, 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

PARIS (AP) ? In the moments immediately following her stunningly early exit from the 2012 French Open, as her eyes welled with tears and she bemoaned how she's "been through so much in my life," Serena Williams could not possibly find anything positive to take from the experience.

How could she?

For the first ? and, so far, only ? time in her career, Williams lost her opening match at a Grand Slam tournament. Not merely that, but a woman many considered the favorite to leave with the title lost to a woman ranked 111th and with 20 first-round losses in 46 previous major championships. And, surely adding to her disappointment, Williams lost after having been two points from victory against France's Virginie Razzano.

When the 31-year-old American returns to Court Philippe Chatrier to play Anna Tatishvili on Sunday ? the schedule for Day 1 of the 2013 French Open also features Williams' older sister, 30th-seeded Venus, and 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer ? she will do so with a different understanding of what went wrong 12 months ago, and even a bit of appreciation for the disappointing result.

"Sometimes I think, 'Should I be happy that I lost last year?' You never know what can happen in your career and why things happen," said Williams, who is ranked and seeded No. 1 in singles and got a wild card Saturday to play doubles with her sister. "So it's been great for me just realizing that every match counts."

At that point she paused, perhaps hearing her own words and what they implied.

"I have always realized that," Williams continued, "but also realizing what I need to do to get better and to stay on top and to be, you know, the best tennis player that I can be."

Rare is the professional athlete, no matter the sport, who readily acknowledges taking victory for granted against a supposedly inferior opponent. That, though, is what it sounded like Williams was doing.

There are, to be sure, other explanations for what she has done on the court since that defeat: good health, which her mother, Oracene Price, calls the biggest single contributor to Williams' recent success; working with a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who directed her training session Saturday on Court Suzanne Lenglen; and what Williams sums up as "really just staying relaxed and calm" during matches.

But it certainly can't hurt to take every match seriously, including against players such as Tatishvili, who is 2-10 this year, 0-2 at the French Open for her career and never been ranked better than 50th.

"You just have to always ... be ready to play," Williams said, "and expect anything."

So now she is back at the French Open, which she won in 2002, and is playing as well as, or perhaps even better than, ever. Williams is on a 24-match winning streak, part of a 36-2 record with a tour-leading five titles this season. Since that loss to Razzano, Williams is 67-3, including championships at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that boosted her career haul to 15 Grand Slam titles.

With three more, Williams would match Hall of Fame members Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert at 18.

Evert thinks Williams will eventually surpass that total, and continue climbing up the list that Margaret Smith Court leads with 24 major championships, followed by Steffi Graf's 22, and Helen Wills Moody's 19.

"It's still a reachable goal for her to win 22 and match Steffi," Evert said. "If she plays another two, three, four years healthy, she can break all those records."

Evert, who will analyze French Open matches on TV for ESPN2, took her assessment of Williams a step further.

"With her serve and her athleticism, her power, her court mobility ? I just think when she's on, she's the greatest player we've ever seen. Ever," Evert said. "Now, whether her record is the greatest remains to be seen, because she hasn't retired yet. But I think she is really the greatest player, (and) I have seen Martina and Steffi at their best."

It's that serve that might very well be Williams' greatest advantage over her contemporaries.

She leads the tour this season in most significant serving categories: 227 aces, nearly 80 more than the next-highest count; 85.4 percent of service games won; 75.7 percent of first-serve points won; 68.4 percent of break points saved.

Williams still seems to bring out her most compelling tennis when across the net from the game's other top women: She is a combined 25-4 for her career against current No. 2 Maria Sharapova, the French Open's defending champion, and No. 3 Victoria Azarenka.

That includes a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Sharapova in Madrid, and a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Azarenka in Rome ? both in finals, both this month, and both on the same red clay used in Paris.

"She's been really consistent, playing on a high level. Because, you know, we all know the level she can play at," Azarenka said. "It wasn't maybe as consistent as it is now, so I think that's maybe the big difference."

Now the question becomes whether Williams can carry that over to Roland Garros, where the tough footing and shot-slowing surface give her far more trouble than the grass or hard courts used at other Grand Slam tournaments. While she's won Wimbledon and the Australian Open five times apiece, and the U.S. Open four times, Williams is stuck on one French Open title.

That's also her only appearance in the final. She hasn't even made it to the semifinals in France since the year after that, a decade ago.

"It's long overdue, her second French Open win," Evert said. "It's mind-boggling to me that she hasn't been in the final since 2002."

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-25-TEN-French-Open/id-0a6e41d2876c4aaa9c05d21dcd91d545

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Communist rebels ambush Philippine police, kill 7

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Philippine police say communist rebels set off a roadside bomb and opened fire on a truck carrying police, killing seven and wounding seven officers.

The regional police director in the northern Philippines, Chief Superintendent Rodrigo de Gracia, said Monday's attack targeted members of the elite Special Action Force who were en route to a hospital in Allacapan for a regular medical test.

He said the police returned fire but were overpowered by the rebels who were hiding in the bush along the road. The rebels later fled with weapons from the slain officers.

The rebel New People's Army has been fighting for a Marxist state for 44 years.

The government has recently suspended peace talks brokered by Norway after the rebels rejected an immediate cease-fire.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-27-Philippines-Communist%20Rebels/id-f9eb70e30ed94963ac4f79ea87694891

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What will be the key functions of health and fitness? | Curious ...

Everyone knows how vital it is to workout. Exercise and diet play an essential part in assisting you to lose weight in a healthy and balanced way. Those who do exercise and diet every day end up burning out calories. Because of this, you can stay healthy as well as fit. You will end up extra weight when the calories that you eat are under the calories that you burn up. You?ll lose calories only through physical exercise. Swimming as well as walking are different sorts of regular activities. If you feel exhausted to work out in the health club, they you can try swimming or walking. They are the efficient cardio vascular workout routines. When you exercise swimming as well as walking, you can lose more calories. If you love music as well as dance, then you can try that because dancing is an ideal exercise activity. Women usually love to dance. Therefore, they mostly would rather dance than any other workout routines. You will definitely burn up a lot of calories.?

You will get toned body through workout routines. Cardio vascular exercise helps you to burn more calories. Weight bearing which includes weight training, weight lifting and interval training can tone your body. After you are successful in dropping your weight and getting toned body, you will feel more confident than before. It is must to exercise the routines not less than half an hour per day. If you exercise in the treadmill for an hour, then you can burn 400 calories. When you want to lose one pound it is similar to losing 3500 calories. That will come down to dropping 500 calories daily when you want to shed one pound in one week. You should not aim to lose more than 500 calories everyday. If you do so, then it will hurt your body.?

Some people stick to drastic weight reduction techniques. Fat burning supplements is one such method. You may see momentary results in weight reduction whenever you take up fat burning dietary supplements. As soon as you stop taking these supplements you?ll be gaining all the lost weight back again. You will get additional calories as well. If you are new to exercise then you need to take it slow in the beginning. http://discountcape.com/nutrisystem/ This indicates that you must not resort to rigorous workout routines from the first day itself. You will then end up with muscle injury. That will make you immobile for several days and you will lose all the advantage that you acquired.?

Source: http://www.xx-sanhex.planetorange.eu/what-will-be-the-key-functions-of-health-and-fitness/

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In case of an emergency, this old Pan Am life raft can double as an iPad skin

So did I pique your interest, or have you come to expect this sort of babble from me? If the former is true then you may want to check out the new line of iPad skins from Station Supply Co. The newest offering from them, the iPad 2,3,4 Life Raft w/ text cases?are old, repurposed [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/05/25/in-case-of-an-emergency-this-old-pan-am-life-raft-can-double-as-an-ipad-skin/

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Rebuilding rules as rain soaks Jersey shore

Workers dismantle shattered concrete in front of a storm-wrecked house on the beachfront in Manasquan, N.J., Saturday, May 25, 2013. Communities that were hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy, including Manasquan, are hoping for a profitable summer season to help them recover. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

Workers dismantle shattered concrete in front of a storm-wrecked house on the beachfront in Manasquan, N.J., Saturday, May 25, 2013. Communities that were hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy, including Manasquan, are hoping for a profitable summer season to help them recover. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

In this Friday, May 24, 2013 photo, Ryan Murphy, center, carries a surfboard and Kenny Dougherty stands guard on a lifeguard stand near the Casino Pier which was ripped apart by Superstorm Sandy, in Seaside Heights, N.J. The Jersey Shore beaches officially opened for the summer on Friday, after rebuilding following the destruction left behind by Superstorm Sandy last fall. The storm caused $37 billion of damage in the state. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A surfer leans into a wave in Manasquan, N.J., Saturday, May 25, 2013. The rainy, cold weather was still suitable for surfing as the holiday weekend got off to a slow start. Communities that were hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy, including Manasquan, are hoping for a profitable summer season to help them recover. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

In this Friday, May 24, 2013 photo, Jasmine Wilker, 15, of Robbinsville, N.J., takes a photograph of writing she put on the sand on the beach, in Seaside Heights, N.J. The Jersey Shore beaches officially opened for the summer on Friday, after rebuilding following the destruction left behind by Superstorm Sandy last fall. The storm caused $37 billion of damage in the state. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Joggers run past a house damaged by Superstorm Sandy on the Manasquan, N.J., beachfront, Saturday, May 25, 2013. Communities that were hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy, including Manasquan, are hoping for a profitable summer season to help them recover. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

MANASQUAN, N.J. (AP) ? Saws and sledgehammers joined beer and barbecues ? under covered porches ? as a fixture of the first Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey shore since Superstorm Sandy roared through.

Seven months after the devastating storm pummeled large swaths of the shore, the tourists made their way back, though many substituted porch parties for a day at the beach on Saturday due to rain that has lingered since Thursday.

Though most shore towns have mounted Herculean efforts to rebuild boardwalks and restore beaches, thousands of homes remain damaged, including many along the beachfront.

Jennifer Kornas of Neshanic Station, N.J. and her husband own one in Manasquan. Sandy washed away its stairs and wrecked the furnace, but the home itself escaped without the kind of catastrophic damage that ruined the smaller home next door.

"The devastation was unthinkable," she said Saturday as her three children scampered in and out of the house in a light rain. "We're just praying for no nor'easters this summer because the dunes are all gone. They're coming back, but not until September."

There was never a question of selling the house.

"I have three kids that I raised here," she said. "This is what we do; this is my life. I'm going to do everything I can to stay here. It's going to be tough, but we'll stick together and it'll be OK."

Nearby, Meghan Wisniewski of Sayreville rented a house for the summer for the first time with three fellow 20-somethings.

"When we first talked about getting a house, we didn't know what the shore would be like by summer," she said. "It almost looks back to normal."

Lauren Liberatore, one of her housemates, said their rental was ideally located for a great summer.

"It's 100 yards from the beach and 100 yards from Leggett's," she said, referring to a legendary Jersey shore bar.

Throughout their neighborhood, groups of young people filled rentals, spilling out onto porches as the rain fell, red and blue plastic cups in hand. Surfers took advantage of wind-whipped waves near the Manasquan Inlet, and fishermen still ventured out onto the rock jetty to cast lines for fluke and bluefish.

But the beaches were deserted; badge-checkers were not even on duty Saturday for the unofficial summer kickoff. Lifeguard stands were turned upside down, and only a handful of hardy souls braved the blowing sand that stung the eyes and scoured the skin along Manasquan's paved beach walk, which was just rebuilt a few weeks ago.

Rainy weather and below-normal temperatures were forecast to continue Saturday, with things improving somewhat Sunday. Monday is forecast to be the best weather of the holiday weekend, with the sun finally breaking through and temperatures climbing into the 70s.

Shore towns are counting on strong summer season to help recover money lost to the storm, and even more so than usual, good weather is seen as crucial this year.

On Long Beach Island, most of the beach near Steve Sweeney's home remains badly eroded. Neighbor David Denenberg said he can't believe what a difference a few months makes considering the street was littered with mattresses, furniture and people's belongings right after the storm.

Denenberg said he knew things were getting back to normal not when cleanup efforts began but when a local convenience store opened.

"It was like, victory! We're back!" Denenberg said.

Victory is more elusive at the southern tip of the island, where the township's Holgate section remains badly damaged. Only a few people bundled in sweatshirts walked on the beach, and scores of houses remained in ruins.

Pat Darcy said despite the removal of 25 tons of sand and 54 inches of water from her Holgate house, and repairs under way to a garage where walls were blown out by the storm, things still don't feel right.

"I don't feel like we're normal yet," Darcy said as she sat on her front steps and pointed toward an empty lot where a house used to be ? it had floated up the street and is still sitting on the bay, turned sideways.

Darcy and her husband Sid spent at least two days a week all winter making repairs and replacing belongings. The home is now close to being done, "slowly but surely," Sid Darcy said.

Kathy Waldron, of Livingston, was working with her husband Bob on the first floor of their Holgate home, which they gutted down to the studs. Her husband was hammering nails and installing insulation.

"This is as far as we got in seven months," she said, standing in what was her living room. "It's getting better; we can see it getting better. If you just entered Holgate, you'd think, 'What a disaster.' This is such an improvement."

___

Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-25-Superstorm-Jersey%20Shore/id-4220b00bf11340e7a43d940072f3f870

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Man finds first Superman comic stuffed in wall

9 hours ago

NBC News

Its quality isn't as high as the one pictured here, but the Action Comics No. 1 book found stuffed inside the wall of a damaged home by David Gonzalez is still special because it's an original.

In these energy-efficient times, most of us understand the value of properly insulating our homes. But one remodeler in Minnesota is learning that even old-school forms of insulation can be worth a mint.

As he was gutting a house in Elbow Lake, Minn., David Gonzalez, 34, made a startling discovery: In among the old newspapers insulating a wall was an original Action Comics No. 1 book from June 1938. On the cover, a brand new character wore a flowing red cape and lifted a car over his head: Superman.

?I knew it was worth money,? Gonzalez told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. ?But I had no idea how much.?

It turns out that the comic book is worth much, much more than the entire house. An online auction on the site ComicConnect.com has reached $127,000 with 34 bids ? and the auction still has 19 more days to go.

By way of comparison, Gonzalez told the Star Tribune that he paid $10,100 for the damaged Elbow Lake home so he could gut it and fix it up.

The quality of the comic book Gonzalez found isn?t high ? 1.5 on a 10-point scale ? but it?s still considered special because it?s an original. The ComicConnect site describes the edition as ?the most important comic book in the history of comic books? and ?the introduction of the archetype of all other heroes to come.?

In 2011, a pristine copy of the same comic book with a grade of 9.0 made headlines around the world when it sold for the record price of $2.16 million.

ComicConnect co-owner Vincent Zurzolo told the Star Tribune that most known copies of the Action Comics No. 1 book have been documented and resold multiple times over the years ? yet another detail that makes Gonzalez?s find so unusual.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a super-septuagenarian! Superman turns 75

?It?s so hard for anyone to fathom that, in this day and age, you could still discover a comic book that nobody has known about because this book was in a wall of a house for more than 70 years,? Zurzolo said. ?It?s pretty miraculous that it even survived and it?s only had one owner.?

When first published back in 1938, the comic book sold for 10 cents.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2c5796c1/l/0L0Stoday0N0Cbooks0Cman0Efinds0Efirst0Esuperman0Ecomic0Estuffed0Ewall0E6C10A0A55554/story01.htm

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The Xbox One Misses the Perfect Set-Top Box Target

The Xbox One could have been the true center of your TV universe that let you throw all those other boxes away.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/05/xbox-one-tv/

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How to Make Your Own Self-Destructing Laptop That Blows Up

When a laptop or a phone blows up it's usually because of some dangerous exploding battery. But what if you want to make a laptop self destruct and blow up on its own? You'll have to make something that Q from James Bond would invent, basically. The genius Caleb Kraft did just that.

Caleb from Hack a Day used thermite to make the laptop catch on fire to destroy the hard drive. Burnt up hard drive means all your files are secure, right? Right! Caleb's system has its own self destruct mechanism to catch on fire. But because thermite is really hard to light, he had to get creative. He says:

What I finally landed on was an ignition system that uses model rocket igniters, gun powder, and magnesium to light the thermite. The model rocket igniter can be set off from the 12v line inside your computer. However, it isn?t hot enough to light magnesium shavings, much less thermite. To get it to work, I needed to add some gunpowder. A small amount of gun powder would get hot enough to light the magnesium shavings, which in turn were hot enough to light the thermite. I had to be careful though, because too much gunpowder would cause a rapid expansion, blowing the thermite everywhere instead of lighting it. You can actually see some red thermite being blown out of the external hard drive and the laptop as the gunpowder ignites.

Caleb also made the awesome fire breathing Piranha Plant from Super Mario Bros so we should trust him on all things fire or explosions or explosive fire. [Hack a Day via BoingBoing]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-make-your-own-self-destructing-laptop-that-blows-509828075

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U.S., China factories struggle; Fed hints at less stimulus

By Andy Bruce and Steven C. Johnson

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese factory activity declined in May for the first time in seven months and U.S. manufacturing grew at its slowest pace since October, suggesting it may take a while before the global economy starts to pick up steam.

Thursday's downbeat business surveys from the world's two largest economies came a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spooked markets by hinting that the U.S. central bank could soon scale back monthly bond purchases, provided the economy maintained its recent momentum.

Stock markets around the world tumbled after Bernanke's remarks and extended losses after the Chinese factory data was released.

MSCI's world equity index <.miwd00000pus> was down 1.4 percent, while Japan's Nikkei index <.n225> plummeted 7.3 percent and the benchmark S&P 500 index fell about 0.5 percent.

Separate surveys showed the downturn in the 17-country euro zone eased slightly this month, though businesses continued to suffer from a chronic lack of new orders, which should inhibit a near-term recovery.

Financial data firm Markit said that in the United States, falling overseas demand and domestic belt-tightening pushed the U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index to a seven-month low of 51.9 in May from 52.1 the previous month. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist, said the data suggested that manufacturing, which had its best quarter in two years during the first three months of 2013, would provide only a modest boost to overall U.S. growth in the second quarter.

But recent improvement in the U.S. labor market and rising home prices have suggested the U.S. economy is recovering more quickly than its peers.

That has raised the prospect that the Fed could, as Bernanke suggested, reduce its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases at one of its "next few meetings," a scary prospect for stock and bond investors who have grown accustomed to support from the U.S. central bank.

"You can argue both sides, as you see some indicators that are clearly improving and others that are still weak, and that shows how difficult a position the Fed is in," said Omer Esiner, market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange. "But the propensity seems to be to wind down sooner rather than later."

CHINA STUMBLES

Policymakers in Beijing are also facing a dilemma, which was underscored by the HSBC flash Purchasing Managers' Index that showed growth in China's massive manufacturing sector contracted in May for the first time in seven months.

Officials must decide whether to provide stimulus of their own to boost the sector or tolerate a slowdown while focusing on reducing China's dependence on exports and investment, changes economists say would bring long-term benefits.

Yao Wei, economist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong, said the debate favors policy inaction from Beijing for now - as long as economic growth remains above 7 percent.

"We don't think it will trigger any cyclical policy move as long as the job market is fine," she said. "China is really on a path of structural deceleration. It's possible (to meet the official growth target), but it's becoming increasingly difficult."

"Hopes of a significant recovery (in China) are looking misplaced," added Andrew Kenningham, global economist at Capital Economics in London. "If you look at the global picture overall, it's slightly weaker than expected but not dramatically so."

LIGHT AT THE END OF EUROPE'S TUNNEL?

The euro zone PMI suggested the bloc's economy is likely to contract again in the second quarter.

Markit's flash Eurozone Services PMI, which surveys around 2,000 companies ranging from major banks to caterers, rose in May to 47.5 - a three-month high - from 47.0 in April.

While that was a little better than economists polled by Reuters had expected, the PMI has now spent 16 straight months below 50, the threshold that divides growth and contraction.

"We see this as confirmation of our expectation that the euro zone economy will end its downtrend in the spring," said Christoph Weil, analyst at Commerzbank.

"That said, a noticeable recovery is still not in sight; the economy will only grow slightly in the coming quarters and it will continue to feel like a recession," he added.

Survey compiler Markit said the surveys pointed to a second quarter contraction similar to the 0.3 percent dip the euro zone suffered between January and March.

(Additional reporting by Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing in Beijing; editing by James Dalgleish, Chizu Nomiyama, G Crosse)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/warning-signs-china-fed-hints-curbing-stimulus-105330075.html

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Baby's life saved with groundbreaking 3-D printed device that restored his breathing

May 22, 2013 ? Every day, their baby stopped breathing, his collapsed bronchus blocking the crucial flow of air to his lungs. April and Bryan Gionfriddo watched helplessly, just praying that somehow the dire predictions weren't true.

"Quite a few doctors said he had a good chance of not leaving the hospital alive," says April Gionfriddo, about her now 20-month-old son, Kaiba. "At that point, we were desperate. Anything that would work, we would take it and run with it."

They found hope at the University of Michigan, where a new, bioresorbable device that could help Kaiba was under development. Kaiba's doctors contacted Glenn Green, M.D., associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology at the University of Michigan.

Green and his colleague, Scott Hollister, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery at U-M, went right into action, obtaining emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to create and implant a tracheal splint for Kaiba made from a biopolymer called polycaprolactone.

On February 9, 2012, the specially-designed splint was placed in Kaiba at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. The splint was sewn around Kaiba's airway to expand the bronchus and give it a skeleton to aid proper growth. Over about three years, the splint will be reabsorbed by the body. The case is featured today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"It was amazing. As soon as the splint was put in, the lungs started going up and down for the first time and we knew he was going to be OK," says Green.

Green and Hollister were able to make the custom-designed, custom-fabricated device using high-resolution imaging and computer-aided design. The device was created directly from a CT scan of Kaiba's trachea/bronchus, integrating an image-based computer model with laser-based 3D printing to produce the splint.

"Our vision at the University of Michigan Health System is to create the future of health care through discovery. This collaboration between faculty in our Medical School and College of Engineering is an incredible demonstration of how we achieve that vision, translating research into treatments for our patients," says Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., U-M executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the U-M Health System.

"Groundbreaking discoveries that save lives of individuals across the nation and world are happening right here in Ann Arbor. I continue to be inspired and proud of the extraordinary people and the amazing work happening across the Health System."

Kaiba was off ventilator support 21 days after the procedure, and has not had breathing trouble since then.

"The material we used is a nice choice for this. It takes about two to three years for the trachea to remodel and grow into a healthy state, and that's about how long this material will take to dissolve into the body," says Hollister.

"Kaiba's case is definitely the highlight of my career so far. To actually build something that a surgeon can use to save a person's life? It's a tremendous feeling."

The image-based design and 3D biomaterial printing process can be adapted to build and reconstruct a number of tissue structures. Green and Hollister have already utilized the process to build and test patient specific ear and nose structures in pre-clinical models. In addition, the method has been used by Hollister with collaborators to rebuild bone structures (spine, craniofacial and long bone) in pre-clinical models.

Severe tracheobronchomalacia is rare. About 1 in 2,200 babies are born with tracheomalacia and most children grow out of it by age 2 or 3, although it often is misdiagnosed as asthma that doesn't respond to treatment.

Severe cases, like Kaiba's, are about 10 percent of that number. And they are frightening, says Green. A normal cold can cause a baby to stop breathing. In Kaiba's case, the family was out at a restaurant when he was six weeks old and he turned blue.

"Severe tracheobronchomalacia has been a condition that has bothered me for years," says Green. "I've seen children die from it. To see this device work, it's a major accomplishment and offers hope for these children."

Before the device was placed, Kaiba continued to stop breathing on a regular basis and required resuscitation daily.

"Even with the best treatments available, he continued to have these episodes. He was imminently going to die. The physician treating him in Ohio knew there was no other option, other than our device in development here," Green says.

Kaiba is doing well and he and his family, including an older brother and sister, live in Ohio.

"He has not had another episode of turning blue," says April. "We are so thankful that something could be done for him. It means the world to us."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Ez9mfi50NQA/130522180102.htm

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