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Richard Sherman gave Tom Brady an earful and trolled him on Twitter a few years ago. Now the All-Pro cornerback says the star quarterback isn't really a choir boy. Sherman vs. Brady. Jeremy Lane vs. Rob Gronkowksi. Doug Baldwin vs. the world. This Super Bowl between the New England Patriots (14-4) and Seattle Seahawks (14-4) will feature some epic yapping from some of the best trash-talkers in the NFL. ''I think people get a skewed view of Tom Brady, that he's just a clean-cut, does-everything-right (guy), and never says a bad word to anyone, and we know him to be otherwise,'' Sherman said. Sherman said he dared Brady to throw his way during Seattle's 24-23 win over New England in 2012. He didn't like the three-time Super Bowl champion's response. ''He was pretty much saying that we were nobodies and that we should come up to him after they get the win,'' Sherman said. Sherman intercepted one of Brady's passes in that game and got in his face after Seattle rallied to win on Russell Wilson's touchdown pass to Sidney Rice in the fourth quarter. Sherman then posted a picture of the confrontation on Twitter with the caption: ''U mad bro?'' ''In that moment of him being himself, he said some things and we returned the favor,'' Sherman explained. ''Unfortunately, he apparently didn't remember what he said.'' Brady was too busy talking about deflated footballs to fire back this week. But he'll get plenty of chances in Arizona before the teams meet next Sunday. ''I just thought he came up and said, `Good game.' So that was all a bit of a surprise to me,'' Brady said about Sherman's postgame taunting in 2012. Brady doesn't back down from anybody and is quite animated during games so expect to see these two go back-and-forth in the Super Bowl. It also will be interesting to see if Gronkowski tries to bounce Lane after the slot cornerback dissed the All-Pro tight end. ''I actually don't think he's that good,'' Lane said Thursday. Those are fightin' words for Gronkowski. When Sergio Brown riled him up in November, Gronkowski tossed aside the Colts' safety and joked that he ''threw him out of the club'' because he was talking too much. Then there's Baldwin, the wide receiver known as ''Angry Doug'' to teammates. Baldwin launched into a tirade directed at reporters after Seattle's overtime win over Green Bay in the NFC championship game. Baldwin claimed the media counted the Seahawks out when they were 3-3 and also took a shot at Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who criticized Seattle's receivers. Here are some of the best trash-talking moments from past Super Bowls: JOE NAMATH: Broadway Joe guaranteed the underdog New York Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl. The Colts were 18-point favorites against the Jets, but Namath made his bold prediction three days before the game. Namath backed up his declaration, leading the Jets to a 16-7 victory. LYLE ALZADO: The intense defensive end was one of the NFL's wilder personalities. Alzado tried to intimidate opponents and often backed up his brash talk. Before the Los Angeles Raiders played the Washington Redskins in the 1984 Super Bowl, Alzado said: ''I'm gonna take off Joe Theismann's head.'' Alzado didn't get any of the six sacks on Theismann, but his Raiders beat the Redskins 38-9. THOMAS ''HOLLYWOOD'' HENDERSON: The flamboyant linebacker known for his self-promotion caused a stir before the Dallas Cowboys played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1979 Super Bowl. Henderson questioned Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw's intelligence: ''Bradshaw couldn't spell `cat' if you spotted him the `c' and the `a''' Henderson said. Bradshaw got the last laugh, leading the Steelers to a 35-31 win. SHANNON SHARPE: The Hall of Fame tight end never stopped yapping throughout his career. After Atlanta Falcons cornerback Ray Buchanon said Sharpe looked like a horse before the 1999 Super Bowl, Sharpe responded: ''Now I know he ain't talkin' with them big teeth in his mouth. I think he's ugly.'' Sharpe had just two catches, but his Denver Broncos beat Atlanta 34-19. JERRY JONES: On a team with notorious trash-talkers Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders, the Dallas Cowboys' owner irked some of the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 1996 Super Bowl when he said: ''Nothing against the Steelers, but we are the better team.'' Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Irvin and Sanders made sure Jones didn't eat crow. The Cowboys beat the Steelers 27-17, handing Pittsburgh its first loss in a Super Bowl after starting 4-0. --- AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org --- Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP-RobMaaddi
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Are you moving to a new city or country? While you may wantto obsess about paint colors and unpacking, you might not even notice that themove may be affecting your skin. In fact, after you move, you might seerashes, dryness, abnormal sensitivity and increased breakouts or oil. Water,climate, food (yes, food!), stress and pollution are the major culprits inthese changes. Here is my expert advice for adapting your skin to your new life,should you experience some problems after moving. Water In this case, I'm not referring to drinking water, but ratherthe water you use on your body and face. The quality of this water may affectyour skin when washing your face and showering. If you've moved from somewherewith hard water to an area with soft water, something as simple as cleansingyour skin may cause some changes. Cleansers don't rinse off as well in softwater and, therefore, residue may be left on skin. Conversely, if your skin is usedto soft water and now you're using hard water, it may be harsher for those whosuffer from dry skin. Using an alcohol-free toner after cleansing becomes an even more important step to remove drying chemicals,salts and chlorine found in tap water, as well as cleanser residue, which couldprevent serums and moisturizers from performing at their best. Climate It's a fact that when seasons change, the skin is affected(negatively or positively); however, weather tends to be a slow transition, so theskin can adjust more effectively. The challenge with moving to a new city,state, or country is that you are immediately thrown into a new climate withdifferent humidity levels, and your skin may initially have a hard timeadapting. When the air is dry, it looks for moisture wherever it can get it,which means taking water from the deep layers in the skin. Dehydrated cells cancause a buildup that can trap oil underneath, leading to an increase inbreakouts. If you move from a humid region to an area with low humidity, youmay need to switch to a heaviermoisturizer to ensure your skin retains hydration. On the other hand, amore humid environment will call for a lighter moisturizer .Temperatures can also impact the skin, as heat can causeredness and more visible capillaries. Using products with white tea, chamomileand bisabolol will help to soothe the skin and reduce sensitivity. Hotter temperatures can also cause an increase in oil production,which can lead to clogged pores and blemishes. Food Food may come as a surprise, but in certain areas, you may be exposed to various foods that you may not have been previously. For example, since moving to Texas, I eat far morecheese and sour cream (from all the amazing Tex-Mex restaurants) than I didwhen I lived in the Northeast. Dairy may have an impact on skin because of thehormones given to cows, resulting in hard, sore cystic blemishes that developunder the skin and can linger for weeks. If, after a move, you experience morebreakouts, you may want to examine how your diet has changed. But, this rule goes for those not moving too: A change in diet may cause achange in the skin. Stress No matter how big or small, moving can be quite stressful. Aperiod of high stress can wreak havoc on the skin and affect skin conditions suchas eczema, acne, and psoriasis. Also, extreme stress increases cortisol levels,which causes an increase in oil production that can lead to breakouts. Duringstressful times, if you find you're getting more breakouts, be sure toincorporate products with salicylicacid into your routine to help minimize breakouts. Also, if it's possible,try to take a few minutes out of your day to relax. It really will help yourskin. Pollution Moving to a new city with high levels of air pollution andsmog (such as Los Angeles) can increase damaging oxygen-based free radicals,which contribute to a breakdown in the skin's collagen and may leave the skinlooking dull and sluggish. They attack all areas of our cells, deform DNA,destroy skin's moisture barrier, and even can lead to acne and redness. To keepthe skin looking fresh and bright, and to prevent the air from doingharm, I recommend investing in a well-formulated antioxidantserum with high levels of stable vitamin C (magnesium ascorbyl phosphate ismy favorite form of C) and using it faithfully every day under sunscreen. VitaminC, when applied topically to the skin, can slow down environmental damage. Movingis a big enough hassle, so don't let aggravated skin become one more thing you have to deal with during this time. If you find your skin is actingdifferently, it's important to assess your new environment and adjust your skincare regimen accordingly. Now is the time to see an aesthetician or other skin-care professional in your new area to help address your skin's changing needs.
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Whose reputation has taken more of a hit because of Deflate-Gate: Bill Belichick or Tom Brady? #120Talk
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) bemoaned the Obama administration's foreign policy priorities in the final speech of the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday. The winner of the 2008 caucuses criticized President Obama's indifference toward foreign threats throughout much of his speech, slamming his State of the Union address this week for singling out climate change as the greatest threat to the country. "Not to diminish anything about the climate at all, but Mr. President, I believe most of us would think that a beheading is a far greater threat than a sunburn," he said, echoing criticism the president took last year for not taking seriously enough the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) amid the beheadings of journalists. Huckabee is exploring another run for president, recently ending his eponymous Fox News show to do so. That anticipated time conflict was one reason the former governor was given the final slot of the evening, so he could have made it from New York City to speak to the conservative gathering. Instead, the audience that had been there since early morning had thinned out and was much more muted, something the former Baptist preacher even joked about. "They that endure to the end shall be saved," he said, referencing scripture. Huckabee used his time to defend his conservative positions, many which have been under fire from activists who see him as insufficiently conservative on fiscal and education issues. While the former pastor's social credentials have never been assailed, with a diverse field and a party that's moved further to the right than when he was the insurgent favorite seven years ago, it's a weakness he has to address. He bemoaned Democrats assailing the GOP about income inequality, blaming over-burdensome regulations and government overreach for stunting economic growth. "Sometimes I think the greatest challenge we face economically is intelligence inequality," Huckabee said to laughs. "We will never be able to build a strong economy when we punish productivity." Huckabee also defended his past support for Common Core standards, saying he supported them when they were controlled at the state level but that once the federal government got involved, he grew opposed. "Education is not a federal function-- it is a local function," he said.
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WACO, Texas (AP) -- Lester Medford had 17 points, Rico Gathers provided the rim-rocking highlight in a game-clinching run and No. 21 Baylor went on to a 69-58 victory over No. 19 Oklahoma on Saturday night. Medford hit a 3-pointer in a late 10-0 run that finally put the Bears (15-4, 3-3 Big 12) ahead to stay. Then came a long defensive rebound by Kenny Chery and a pass ahead to Royce O'Neale, who grabbed the ball while in the air and in one motion passed to Gathers for a run-punctuating slam for a 56-49 lead. Chery's 3-pointer with 6:45 left had tied the game at 49. Oklahoma (12-7, 3-4) didn't score again until Frank Booker's 3-pointer with 3:29 left ended a 4 1/2-minute scoring drought. Chery finished with 13 points. Taurean Prince had 12 and O'Neale 10. Buddy Hield and Jordan Woodard had 12 points each for the Sooners, who three weeks earlier beat Baylor by 10 at home. Ryan Spangler and Tashawn Thomas had 10 points each. Oklahoma played its national-high ninth Top 25 opponent already this season, and the sixth ranked opponent in Big 12 play which began with that Jan. 3 game against the Bears. The Sooners opened the second half with a 7-0 run, with Hield turning a steal into a breakaway two-handed slam before Isaiah Cousins hit a 3-pointer and Thomas a jumper to go ahead 31-30. They later scored nine consecutive points, with Thomas' two free throws breaking a 40-all tie before his inside basket. Baylor led 9-2 less than 4 minutes into the game after Gathers took a ball away from Spangler underneath the Oklahoma basket and fed O'Neale for a layup. The Bears were up 27-18 on a layup by Prince with 3:36 left in the first half. They didn't score again until Kenny Chery's 3-pointer from the left wing with 6 seconds left. During that 3 1/2-minute stretch when Baylor missed its only shot and committed three turnovers, Woodard and Hield had layups for Oklahoma before Thomas had a floater on a nice pass from Woodard, cutting the deficit to 27-24. TIP-INS Oklahoma had its fewest points at halftime this season, down 30-24. The Sooners scored 23 points in the second half of consecutive games in the Bahamas at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Thanksgiving weekend. Baylor recognized Jerry Mallett, who was in attendance three days after his single-game record of 27 rebounds was broken by Gathers. Mallett set his record on Feb. 1, 1955, making the nearly 60-year-old record the team's longest-standing record until Gathers' 28-rebound game against NAIA school Huston-Tillotson. UP NEXT Oklahoma is home Wednesday night against Texas Tech. Baylor plays Tuesday night at Oklahoma State.
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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard will meet in the Australian Open quarterfinals after advancing with contrasting wins on Sunday. Second-seeded Sharapova was broken once in the first set before winning the last eight games of her 6-3, 6-0 fourth-round victory over No. 21-seeded Peng Shuai. Seventh-seeded Bouchard, who reached the semifinals or better at the first three Grand Slam tournaments last year, won nine of the first 10 games against Irina-Camelia Begu, but lost seven of the next nine to be pushed to a third set for the first time in the tournament. After serving a double-fault on set point to end the second, Bouchard took a short break before returning to complete a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 win over No. 42-ranked Begu, who had taken out No. 9-seeded Angelique Kerber in the first round. "I gave myself a good, long hard look in the mirror," Bouchard explained of her brief absence from Rod Laver Arena. "I said, `Genie, this is unacceptable.' I really kind of kicked myself in the butt a little bit." After three straight-sets wins, Bouchard joked that she went three sets for a couple of reasons. "Clearly I need more practice!" she said, then turned to the section of fans known as the Genie Army who support her in Australia. "It's not horrible playing longer on this court. I just wanted to do that for you guys, and for them to practice more songs." Five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova has a 3-0 career record against Bouchard, including a comeback semifinal win at the French Open last year. She had a rougher road to the quarterfinals in Melbourne Park, though, having to save match points in her second-round win over Russian qualifier Alexandra Panova. Sharapova lost in the fourth round at Melbourne Park last year, when Bouchard reached the semifinals in her tournament debut. "I feel like something or someone gave me another chance," Sharapova said. "Last year I lost in the fourth round here, getting to the quarters is really special." Sharapova said Bouchard was the most consistent player at the Grand Slams in 2014, and she had to be at her best to beat the 20-year-old Canadian. "She's playing really well, confident tennis. So aggressive," Sharapova said. "I have a tough match ahead of me, but I always look forward to that." In the other quarter of the draw, No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova had a 6-3, 6-2 win over Julia Goerges to reach the last eight, where she'll play the winner of a Sunday night match between No. 3 Simona Halep and Yanina Wickmayer.
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MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) The two quarterfinalists from Group D at the African Cup of Nations just might be decided by luck. The Ivory Coast was held to 1-1 by Mali on Saturday at Malabo Stadium, and Cameroon was held to the same score by Guinea a few hours later. That makes four straight 1-1 draws in the group, giving each team two points and nothing to separate them in the standings. ''We fear no one and I'm confident that we can qualify and do something big for our country,'' said Guinea captain Ibrahima Traore, who scored the equalizing goal on Saturday. In the last set of group matches on Wednesday, Cameroon will play Ivory Coast in Malabo, while Guinea faces Mali in Mongomo. If both matches are again the same even score, then officials will decide which teams advance. If two of the teams win, then goal difference could decide who finishes first in the group and who gets second. But if the winning scores are the same in both, the drawing of lots will decide who finishes first. In the event that one match produces a winner and the other is a draw, then the two teams with three points will go to the drawing of lots to see which advances and which is eliminated. For the Ivory Coast, which is playing without the suspended Gervinho, tactical changes again helped to avoid defeat on Saturday. First-half substitute Max Gradel beat another substitute, Mali goalkeeper Germain Berthe, in the 87th minute to rescue the Ivorians this time. ''We had to adapt as the game went on and make formational changes,'' said Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard, who also made a late decisive change in the 1-1 draw with Guinea in the opening match. The Malians took an early lead when Bakary Sako blasted in a cross from Sambou Yatabare in the seventh minute. But as time was winding down, Renard made his final two changes - and it worked again. Renard brought on Gradel to replace Ismael Diomande in the 39th. The midfielder was the player who lost possession when Mali created its goal. The last two changes came in the 83rd when forward Salomon Kalou came on for defender Wilfried Kanon and in the 84th when forward Junior Tallo replaced Wilfried Bony, another forward. ''It's two points lost, make no mistake,'' Mali captain Seydou Keita said. ''Yes, Ivory Coast have a big reputation but we care nothing about that, we have lost two points.'' Gervinho will also miss the match against Cameroon. He was given a straight red card in the opening match and subsequently handed a two-match suspension. In the second match, Traore scored the equalizer late in the first half to hold Cameroon to the eighth 1-1 draw of the 16 matches so far at the tournament. Traore scored just before halftime, collecting a pass in the area and then turning and shooting past Cameroon goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa. ''We've played two of the favorites of the competition and not lost,'' said Traore, who also helped his team draw 1-1 with the Ivorians on Tuesday. ''We just have to continue the way we're playing. We have what it takes to qualify.'' Benjamin Moukandjo gave Cameroon the lead in the 13th direct from a corner kick. And Vincent Aboubakar had several chances throughout the match to add more but couldn't convert. ''We had about 120 chances in the second half,'' Cameroon coach Volker Finke said. ''But they had chances, too.''
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By Rachel Wold New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady doesn't have much support out there among former NFL quarterbacks when it comes to accusations that he was involved in deflating the footballs used in the AFC Conference Championship Game. However, former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who spent nine years with the Patriots and was replaced by Brady, is appalled at the way other NFL quarterbacks are outwardly stating that Brady is lying. Here is what Bledsoe had to say in an interview with Boston.com. "I was really frustrated. Because Mark Brunell is a friend of mine. And Troy Aikman is a friend of mine. And I like these guys and respect them. But I think it was really irresponsible of both of them to go make accusations that Tom's lying without the facts. "Put it this way, if I thought Tom was cheating, or lying, I simply wouldn't say anything until I knew all the facts. But for guys to stand up and say that he cheated and that he's lying about it without having all the facts in hand, I think that's pretty irresponsible. I really do." Bledsoe cited the sacred "quarterback fraternity" when he sent Brady a supportive text message. Bledsoe further showed his passionate support for Brady stating this… "Tommy and I are friends. When he took my job, it was tough. I didn't like that. But it never had anything to do with Tom. He always conducted himself with class. When I see people come out and accuse him of being a cheater and a liar, I've got to stand up and say something. It's just not true. It's not who he is. It's not what he's about." Bledsoe is perhaps the closest support system that Brady has going for him right now when it comes to former and current NFL players. Let's hope for Bledsoe's sake Brady has been honest, because that's a major friendship burner should things take a sour turn for Brady.
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The American space agency's (Nasa) mission to Pluto is about to get under way in earnest. Its New Horizons probe will take the first of a set of critical pictures on approach to the icy world on Sunday. At a separation still of 200 million km, Pluto will be hardly discernable in these images - just a speck of light against the stars. But the mission team says this view is needed to help line up the spacecraft correctly for its flyby on 14 July. "Optical navigation is one of those techniques where we image Pluto repetitively on approach to determine the position of the spacecraft relative to Pluto," explained Mark Holdridge, from the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) in Baltimore. "We then perform a number of correction manoeuvres to realign our trajectory with the reference trajectory, thus ensuring we hit our aim point to travel through the Pluto system." Any initial correction is likely to be made in March. When New Horizons arrives at Pluto it will be moving so fast - at almost 14km/s - that going into orbit around the distant world is impossible; it must barrel straight through instead. One complication is that the seven different instruments aboard the spacecraft need to work at different distances to get their data, and so the team has constructed a very elaborate observation schedule for them all. But what this means is that very precise timing will be required to make sure the flyby runs smoothly. Closest approach to Pluto is set for around 11:50 GMT on 14 July - at a miss distance of roughly 13,695km from the surface. Mission planners want the exact timings nailed to within 100 seconds. New Horizons will know then where and when to point the instruments. The Pluto mission is being billed as the last great encounter in planetary exploration. For people who grew up with the idea that there were "nine planets", this is the moment they get to complete the set. Robotic probes have been to all the others, even the distant Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is the last of the "classical nine" to receive a visit. Of course, this 2,300km-wide ice-covered rock was demoted in 2006 to the status of mere "dwarf planet", but scientists say that should not dull our enthusiasm. The dwarfs are the most numerous planetary class in the Solar System, and Nasa's New Horizons probe is one of the first opportunities to study an example up close. The first set of navigation pictures may not be anything special, but by May, the probe will be returning views of Pluto that better anything from Hubble. Come July, the view should be spectacular, said Andy Cheng, the principal investigator on the probe's main camera, which is called LORRI. "The most recent surprise we had was with the Rosetta mission. Hubble had made a 'shape model' of Comet 67P but no-one expected it to look like a rubber duckie," he told BBC News. "I am more than hopeful that we will get similar surprises with New Horizons - it's what we should expect." Those surprises could include yet more moons (five are currently known) and possibly even rings like those seen around some of the bigger planets. Pluto is currently 5bn km from Earth. It has taken New Horizons more than nine years to get to the dwarf's doorstep. Once the flyby is complete, the probe will be targeted at an even more distant object in the Kuiper Belt - the name given to the icy domain beyond the main planets. Scientists think this region of space may contain many thousands of Pluto-like objects, some of which may even rival Mars and Earth in size. The first optical navigation images should be back on Earth by Tuesday at the latest. They will show Pluto with its largest moon, Charon.
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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- Przemek Karnowski and Gary Bell Jr. each scored 13 points as No. 3 Gonzaga routed Pacific 91-60 on Saturday night, extending the nation's longest home winning streak to 36 games. Silas Melson added 12 points and Byron Wesley 11 for Gonzaga (20-1, 9-0 West Coast), which is off to the best start in program history. The Zags have won 13 consecutive games since their only loss at No. 7 Arizona in overtime. Eric Thompson and T.J. Wallace scored 12 points each for Pacific (10-11, 2-7), which lost its second straight. Mark Few has never failed to win at least 20 games in 16 seasons as Gonzaga's coach there. Gonzaga, which leads the nation in field goal shooting at 53 percent, shot nearly 67 percent in the first half to build a big lead. Gonzaga led 45-27 at halftime after shooting 66.7 percent (16 of 24) in the first half, and making half of its 10 3-point attempts. Pacific shot just 9 of 30 in the first, including 3 of 13 from 3-point range. Gonzaga opened the second half with a 16-1 run, including 3-pointers by Pangos, Bell and Melson, for a 61-28 lead. Pacific did not make a field goal in the second half until Ilias Theodorou's 3-pointer with more than five minutes gone. Gonzaga finished the game shooting 60 percent, to 33 percent for Pacific. After Dulani Robinson's 3-pointer put Pacific up 3-2, Gonzaga scored 10 consecutive points, including 3-pointers by Kevin Pangos and Bell, and never trailed again. The 7-foot-1 Karnowski, who dominated the shorter Tigers in the early going, scored two more baskets as the Zags built a 26-10 lead. At that point Gonzaga had made nine of 11 shots. Bell hit another 3-pointer to put Gonzaga up 36-18 with 7:25 left in the first. Wesley's steal and layup put Gonzaga up 41-21 with just under 5 minutes left in the first, and got the student section yelling "up by 20!" TIP INS Pacific: Coach Ron Verlin's twin brother, Don, is head coach just down the road at Idaho. ... Pacific averages 6.6 3-pointers per game. ... Pacific is 1-6 all-time against Gonzaga. Gonzaga: Freshman Domantas Sabonis is averaging a double-double and shooting 75 percent over the previous five games. ... Gonzaga has not lost a home game since Dec. 8, 2012. ... Few is the only coach in WCC history with 200 conference wins, and now is 203-24 in league play. ... Gonzaga has six players averaging at least 8.3 points per game. NEXT UP Pacific hosts Pepperdine next Thursday. Gonzaga hosts Portland next Thursday.
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Feeling like you hit the gym pretty regularly but aren't seeing results? One of these post-workout habits may be sabotaging your weight-loss results. You reward yourself too much: The workout's done, the sweaty clothes are off, and you've been eyeing that piece of cake for a while. While occasional indulgences are smart - and necessary - using your workout as an excuse to help yourself to junk food is not going to get you the results you're after, so don't use the fact that you've just burned 300 calories as an excuse to indulge in twice that much. You skip the stretch: You may think of the cooldown as a waste of time, but regularly skipping your post-workout stretches will put you at risk for injuries that will sideline your weight-loss progress by keeping you out of the gym. You recover with a sports drink: Sugary sports drinks can replenish electrolytes, but if you've just finished a short workout, the extra calories are probably unnecessary. Save the sports drinks or coconut water for intense workouts lasting more than an hour or for workouts in hot weather. You use it as an excuse: Monday's boot-camp class was so hard, so you can be forgiven for nursing your sore muscles until the start of next week, right? Not the best idea if you want to see pounds dropping on the scale. Make sure you get at least 300 minutes of vigorous exercise every week in order to stay on the right weight-loss track. You wait too long to eat: Refueling soon after a workout is crucial because it's what helps you rebuild muscle after a workout. Since the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism, make sure you fit a snack of carbs and protein into your post-workout ritual. You don't schedule the next one: You should pat yourself on the back for finishing this workout, but don't let your self-congratulations get in the way of scheduling your next workout. You'll only see progress if you make exercise a consistent part of your week.
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BuzzFeed's Chris and Keith aim to find out in their #chickenwatch2k15 adventure.
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NFL has threatened to flag Marshawn Lynch if he does his signature crotch grab in the Super Bowl. Time for Pete Carroll to tell Beast Mode no more celebrating?
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Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen was the star of the Breakaway Challenge in Columbus on Saturday.
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Devin Booker's 18 points off the bench helped Kentucky beat South Carolina and improve to 19-0 on the season.
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The Pro Bowl serves as an opportunity for the NFL to experiment with some new rules. In an interview with Broncos TV, Drew Brees, Adam Vinatieri and Cody Parkey weigh in. To see more Broncos videos download the Broncos DeskSite.
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Someone used four tons of Velveeta and 2,000 bags of tortilla chips to build the world's largest snack stadium.
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RENTON, Wash. (AP) For all the importance placed around finding the right quarterback, the trade that brought Marshawn Lynch to Seattle part way through the 2010 season could be considered the most important transaction Pete Carroll made in the makeover of the Seahawks. Lynch brought more than just skills as a running back. Lynch provided the Seahawks an attitude that spread through the locker room. ''I kind of love his act,'' Seattle general manager John Schneider said. All that Lynch has provided the Seahawks makes it seem unfathomable that next Sunday's Super Bowl against New England could be his finale in Seattle. No more showers of Skittles. No more Beast Mode moments. No more cat-and-mouse game avoiding the media. Both the Seahawks and Lynch have decisions to make in the offseason. Whether it's time for Lynch to move on or if he'll play out the final year of his contract with Seattle. If Lynch returns under his current contract, it would cost Seattle $8.5 million against the salary cap, a number that would be unusual for a to-be 29-year-old running back. Seattle could attempt to restructure or extend Lynch's contract to take less of a hit against its salary cap. They could decide it's time for backups Robert Turbin and Christine Michael to get their opportunities as Seattle's featured running backs. Or Lynch could follow through on rumors that have followed him for nearly a year and decide to walk away from football. Only one of those options is particularly pleasing to Seahawks fans and that's seeing Lynch continue. They've come to revel in the toughness and fight and refuse-to-be-tackled style with which Lynch runs. ''Beast Mode'' is an attitude Seattle has never had on the football field. ''He's a dog. His whole demeanor,'' Seattle safety Earl Thomas said. ''He's a man (among) boys out there.'' A case could be made that 2014 was Lynch's best season of his career and it started under an umbrella of speculation about his role. Seattle coaches hinted in the offseason that backs such as Turbin and Michael could have more of a role in the offense and training camp began with Lynch holding out for the first week. But once Lynch got on the field, his importance became clear. He rushed for more yards two seasons ago, but this season was a display of how Lynch has become more than just a ball carrier. ''It's been an extraordinary season that he's put out here because he's been so consistent for so long and he's been so physically right for so long,'' Carroll said. Lynch's 17 touchdowns in the regular season, including four TD catches, were a career high. He caught 37 passes for a career-best 367 yards, becoming a more reliable receiving option out of the backfield. He's consistently been a capable blocker in pass protection. ''The thing that he brings to our offense is his versatility,'' quarterback Russell Wilson said. ''People underestimate I think his ability to catch the football, his ability to block, his ability to run after contact. Just what he does in the backfield I mean I don't think there's another football player like him in terms of the running back position.'' But that's only part of Lynch's story. Where his value is understated, and possibly most appreciated, is the ability to make something out of nothing. To break tackles before he gets to the line of scrimmage and create a 3-yard gain out of what should be a 3-yard loss. It's a skill others can try and emulate and never truly duplicate. Of the 1,306 yards rushing this season for Lynch, 771 came after first contact according to STATS. That was the second-highest total in the league, but Lynch averaged 2.8 yards after contact per attempt - the best in the league for any running back. In each of his four full seasons with Seattle, more than 600 yards rushing each season has come after Lynch was first hit. And 2014 was his highest total. In the NFC title game last Sunday, Lynch's 157 yards rushing became a footnote to all the other craziness that occurred in Seattle's comeback. How good was Lynch's performance against the Packers? He was one of five running backs in the past five seasons to rush for more than 150 yards in a playoff game. If Lynch is back in 2015, he'll be facing the history that often catches up with running backs as they inch closer to age 30. Only 18 different running backs in NFL history have rushed for more than 1,300 yards in a season after turning 29. But Lynch seems to be a different type of running back. ''He's hands down the best back in the game,'' New England defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said, ''because he can hurt you any time he has the ball in his hands.'' --- AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL
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The game between TCU and West Virginia saw a wild, crazy finish. Jevon Carter was fouled with 0.9 remaining, and hit the game winning free throws for West Virginia. The final 11 seconds featured three lead changes.
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In May 2013, Sen. John McCain caused a stir when he took the risky step of venturing briefly into war-torn Syria to meet with opposition leaders whom he and many other Western backers considered the best hope for toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Nearly two years later, 12 of the 15 Syrian commanders McCain met on the trip are dead, proof in the senator's eyes of President Obama's failed approach to the conflict spreading across the Middle East. Now, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain has the chance to amplify his critique of Obama's handling of Iraq and Syria and, by doing so, test the panel's influence over military policy and operations. "We are probably in the most serious period of turmoil in our lifetime," said the 78-year-old Republican from Arizona, whose control of the committee is the culmination of decades of tenacious advocacy for a muscular foreign policy. "Everything I've predicted, unfortunately, has come true, whether it be in Iraq or whether it be Syria." McCain, speaking in a recent interview, sees no shortage of defects in the foreign policy record of the man who edged him out in 2008 to become commander in chief . Beyond the Middle East, McCain has characterized Obama's response to the conflicts in Ukraine and Afghanistan as weak and inadequate. Iraq is a particularly compelling cause for McCain, a proponent of President George W. Bush's troop surge during the last war there . Today, McCain argues that Obama's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 set the stage for Islamic State militants to take over much of the country in 2014. "We've got thousands of foreigners over there in the largest caliphate in history," he said. Despite months of airstrikes by the United States and its allies against the group in Iraq and Syria, McCain said, "they're not losing." In recent months, the senator has advocated expanding the U.S. force in Iraq, from about 2,300 now to 10,000 to better help Iraqis combat the Islamic State. He and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), whom McCain is urging to run for president in 2016, also are calling for U.S. service members, mostly confined to bases and headquarters, to be sent closer to the front lines to direct airstrikes or take other steps to aid local troops struggling to expel the well-armed militant group. The lawmakers want to establish safe zones or no-fly zones in neighboring Syria and expand aid for moderate Syrian rebels to help them fight back against Assad, who appears buoyed by the months of U.S. and allied strikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Obama has ruled out sending troops back into combat, but U.S. service members are inching closer to the fight as they begin their renewed mission in Iraq. Military leaders such as Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have suggested they might recommend that U.S. troops take on expanded activities as the battle for Iraq unfolds. From his new pulpit, McCain probably will attempt to tease out hints of such recommendations from uniformed officials who appear before the committee in coming months. As Armed Services chairman, he controls the pace and topics of oversight hearings and will determine which witnesses provide their views. "That's a huge arrow in his quiver he didn't have before," said Shawn Brimley, a former Pentagon and White House official who is at the Center for a New American Security. "There will be a heck of a lot attention on current dynamics in the Middle East." Perhaps even more significantly, McCain will be able to shape the annual defense authorization bill. The measure which can run hundreds of pages and contains provisions on items as varied as overseas operations and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is one of the few pieces of major legislation that passes reliably each year. In this year's bill, for example, lawmakers authorized the administration to start a program to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State. McCain's staff will lead the drafting of the Senate bill, effectively setting the parameters for subsequent debate among lawmakers. "He's acutely aware of all the advantages that the chairman has, and I expect he will use them to the full," Andrew Philip Hunter, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of McCain. McCain thinks that recent events such as the Islamic State's beheading of Western hostages and the attacks in Paris have increased support for a muscular response to extremism overseas. But support for a major American military return to the Middle East appears limited, even within a Republican Party that is deeply divided on foreign policy issues. Although Congress controls the Pentagon's purse strings, that power appears most effective in constraining military action rather than compelling it. And despite forceful advocacy from McCain and others, there appears to be little appetite in the White House to expand the military mission against the Islamic State, let alone pick a fight with the Assad regime. As McCain noted wryly, even a powerful Armed Services chairman can exercise only limited influence over military operations that are given ultimate approval by the president. "By having this position, I am able then to, I think, contribute to our nation's defense in a way which otherwise would not be possible particularly since I am obviously not the choice of the American people to be their commander in chief," he said.
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Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina dinged Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday, looking to boost her own possible bid for the GOP nomination. "Like Hillary Clinton, I too have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe," Fiorina told the crowd. "But unlike her, I have actually accomplished something. Mrs. Clinton, flying is an activity, not an accomplishment." The former computer executive said her international business experience gives her more foreign policy experience than Clinton, slamming her tenure as secretary of State. She ridiculed Clinton's 2009 attempt to start fresh with diplomatic relations with Russia by giving the foreign minister a symbolic "reset" button. "I have met Vladimir Putin and know that it will take more to halt his ambitions than a gimmicky red 'reset' button," Fiorina said. "Having done business in over 80 countries and having served as the chairman of the external advisory board at the CIA, I know that China is a state-sponsor of cyberwarfare and has a strategy to steal our intellectual property," she added. "I know Bibi Netanyahu and know that when he warns us, over and over and over again, that Iran is a danger to this nation as well as to his own, that we must listen." Fiorina also took a shot at Clinton over the Benghazi scandal. "Unlike Hillary Clinton, I know what difference it makes that our ambassador to Libya and three other brave Americans were killed in a deliberate terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 and that the response of our nation must be more forceful than the arrest of a single individual a year later," she said.
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Bryce Petty and Sean Mannion impressed under center in the Senior Bowl while Ameer Abdullah and Cameron Artis-Payne stepped up in the backfield. The North team topped the South squad 34-13.
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B-Mac caught up with Lil Jon at the Pro Bowl, and asked him who he thinks will win Super Bowl XLIX.
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Following a visit from animal control, 76-year-old Renetta DeBlase was forced to give up 23 of her cats, which she took in off the streets. DeBlase was allegedly told they would be given homes, but later discovered 22 of them had been euthanized.
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Saturday's 2015 Senior Bowl was filled with standout performances from running backs and did nothing to dismiss the notion that this year's NFL draft is thin on viable franchise quarterbacks. The North team defeated the South 34-13 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, as the top ball-carriers stole the show. Nebraska standout Ameer Abdullah showed off an impressive all-around game, exploding for 62 yards on five carries along with four receptions for 40 yards before halftime. SiriuxXM NFL Radio noticed Abdullah's explosiveness and also mentioned how he won the game's MVP award: Ameer Abdullah @Ameerguapo @huskers shows nice burst of speed for North - 20 yard gain @seniorbowl @SiriusXMNFL Ch. 88 SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) January 24, 2015 Ameer Abdullah @Ameerguapo Named MVP of Senior Bowl @seniorbowl 7/73 yds 1 TD, and 4 rec for 40 yds @Huskers SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) January 25, 2015 NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah wasn't ready to rank Abdullah higher than a Day 2 draft pick, though: Late 2/early 3 " @drakeshanle : What round will Ameer Abdullah get drafted? #AskDJ " Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) January 24, 2015 Another Big Ten star in Minnesota's David Cobb imposed his will in the game as well, eclipsing Abdullah for the game-high rushing total and scoring on a four-yard jaunt to put the North ahead 20-10 near the end of the third quarter. That was only a two-play, 11-yard drive, sandwiched between two interceptions from South QB Bryan Bennett in as many attempts. Turron Davenport of the Baltimore Times lauded the efforts Miami of Ohio cornerback Quinten Rollins made to snag the next pick off Bennett, a former Oregon backup QB who transferred to Southeastern Louisiana: There goes Quinten Rollins. Nice INT there. He showed excellent ball skills this week, esp vs Devin Smith on go routes. TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_PPI) January 24, 2015 Miami Athletics tweeted footage of Rollins' sensational interception: Miami's @QRollins2 had an interception in today's Senior Bowl https://t.co/pgrApoH7wq Miami Athletics (@MiamiRedHawks) January 25, 2015 Charles Davis of NFL.com liked what he saw from Auburn standout Cameron Artis-Payne on the South side, the key cog in the Tigers' run-heavy attack this last season: Cameron Artis-Payne, RB Auburn showing run/receiving ability on first drive of Senior Bowl...good power/vision. Charles Davis (@CFD22) January 24, 2015 Another less dynamic but underrated all-purpose back emerged in Northern Iowa's David Johnson, who scored the South's only touchdown on a 19-yard scamper in the first quarter to open the scoring. ESPN's Chris Sprow and Josh Norris of NBC Sports Network gave Johnson strong reviews: David Johnson has great vision, as you see there, but also exceptional hands. Nice late day-two option. #SeniorBowl Chris Sprow (@SprowESPN) January 24, 2015 Very nice vision and patience from David Johnson. Would not be surprised to see him be used as a passing down HB/RB early, which is uncommon Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) January 24, 2015 For more focus on the other side of the ball, Iowa defensive tackle Carl Davis stood out with his outstanding motor, pursuit and athleticism. After underwhelming a bit this last year, Davis has boosted his stock in a big way. Joe Everett of DraftScouts.com was impressed with how Davis' practice-field work carried over to live game action: #Iowa DL Carl Davis parlaying his excellent week into the game. Strong hands and great motor. #SeniorBowl #NFLDraft Joe Everett (@JoeWEverett) January 24, 2015 Tony Pauline of DraftInsider.net fed the notion that Davis lit it up in practice even prior to the game: After Carl Davis no defender has helped themselves this week more than Owamagbe Odighizuwa/UCLA. Should be in 1st round conversation. Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) January 22, 2015 Among the big-name quarterbacks on the field, Bryce Petty of Baylor was the most prominent one who got the longest look. Prior to the game, the Bears star expressed plenty of faith in his own abilities on Wednesday, per Newsday's Kimberley A. Martin : I feel like I'm No. 1. I really do. That's not a cocky thing, it's not an arrogant thing. It's just me being confident in what I do and understanding that I have a learning curve [to adjust to]. ...But at the same time, I'm really like a little kid in a candy store. I love the idea of playing chess instead of checkers, which is what we've been playing in college. So beating you with my mind and my arm is an aspect that I haven't had the opportunity to do, so I'd love it. Although there were some encouraging signs, concerns about whether Petty's spread-style game will translate to the NFL gridiron won't go away after Saturday. Petty did complete nine of 13 passes for a game-high 123 yards, yet missed badly on a seam throw that was high, behind the intended target and intercepted by TCU cornerback Kevin White. Rob Rang of CBSSports.com analyzed Petty's game after the ill-fated throw: This is the inaccuracy we saw from Bryce Petty (and every other QB) all week. Why I anticipate there will be zero Sr QBs drafted in top 100. Rob Rang (@RobRang) January 24, 2015 The South's big notable was Blake Sims of Alabama, who completed four of 11 pass attempts for 50 yards but also showed athleticism with 23 yards on three rushing attempts. Oklahoma State's Sean Mannion is a product of a similar spread offense. Mannion threw the only TD pass of the game to Notre Dame tight end Ben Koyack in the second quarter, winding up 9-of-14 passing for 71 yards. Shane Carden of East Carolina has an unconventional throwing motion that impacts his ability to get the ball out on time, so his numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Optimum Scouting's Alex Brown tweeted his take on Carden: Shane Carden is jumpy w/base, begins motion off straight front leg, lets lead shoulder fly open. So many moving parts & arms ball downfield Alex Brown (@OS_AlexBrown) January 24, 2015 More often than not, that long delivery gives free defenders a quick jump on the throw. Tough to break those habits, so timing must be on pt Alex Brown (@OS_AlexBrown) January 24, 2015 Helping the North's victorious efforts was LSU offensive lineman La'El Collins. Norris believes the big man is nimble enough to be a franchise left tackle, while Draft TV's Shane P. Hallam likes Collins' ability to play guard in the pros: I don't understand what keeps many from believing in La'El at LT. He has good movement skills... Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) January 24, 2015 I think LSU OL La'El Collins can play OT or OG. Top 15 pick for me, and wouldn't sniff if he goes higher. Powerful, moves to 2nd level. Shane P. Hallam (@ShanePHallam) January 24, 2015 Collins came from a pro-style offense under coordinator Cam Cameron at LSU, with experience at both guard and tackle. He did nothing to harm his stock in Mobile, and could be the highest selection of the entire lot of talented prospects. Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel highlighted a lesser-known strong blocker on the North side in offensive guard Ali Marpet from Hobart College: Hobart's Ali Marpet with the seal block on Cobb's TD. And he's on the field for most of Cobb's big runs. He can play! pic.twitter.com/enDgmSyiSR Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) January 24, 2015 Yale Football was pleased when its prized fullback/tailback Tyler Vega found pay dirt twice in the fourth to help bust the game open: Tyler Varga TD Run!!! 23rd TD of the year for #30 #oneplaywarrior Yale Football (@Yale_Football) January 24, 2015 Tyler Varga scores his 24th TD of the season and 2nd of the day at the Senior Bowl!!! #dominatetheday Yale Football (@Yale_Football) January 25, 2015 The hard, hungry running on display from multiple running backs in this game offered a good showcase for the offensive linemen involved. It also showed some of the depth NFL teams can pick up later in the draft in the backfield. Running backs have been devalued in the modern NFL because of the grueling wear and tear players at the position endure, along with the rules that favor teams with prolific passing offenses. It's still remote possibility that any ball-carriers hear their names called on Day 1 of the draft, but plenty should yield outstanding value in the second, third and fourth rounds. Among the QBs, Petty appears to be the most promising of the bunch, if only for his collegiate production and demonstrated confidence. What will be interesting to see is how he and other signal-callers bounce back after a week in Mobile that saw no one distinguish themselves.
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@DrewSwagSurfin is wondering if Lane Kiffin made the right decision by returning to Alabama instead of pursuing an NFL job.
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@CBrienne is wondering if Bill Belichick's Sports Science press conference helped with his image.
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TACOMA, Wash. A 32-year-old Tacoma man is facing animal cruelty charges after police say he kicked his small dog so hard that it died. Nicholas Tresness was booked Friday night into the Pierce County Jail on investigation of first-degree animal cruelty and other charges. Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool says he got into an argument with his girlfriend on the phone and was so angry that he kicked over a highchair. He then stormed into his room. Cool says that when his Chihuahua, Duke, followed him, Tresness kicked the pet, killing it. KOMO reports that when police arrived at the house, Tresness told the officers he didn't mean to kill the dog. ___ Information from: KOMO-TV, http://www.komotv.com/
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Scott Dixon took control in the opening hours of the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Saturday while actor/race car driver Patrick Dempsey received an early penalty that put his Porsche team in a deep hole. Dixon, in the No. 02 ''star car'' for Chip Ganassi Racing, passed pole-sitter Ozz Negri Jr. at the start of the twice-round-the-clock endurance race at Daytona International Speedway. Although Michael Shank Racing, in its new Ligier JS P2 Honda, was the fastest car in every on-track session this week, Dixon had no problem getting by Negri. The New Zealander, hoping to lead his Ganassi squad of all-star drivers to their first Rolex win since 2006, held down the top spot through his stint of almost two and a half hours. He turned the car over to Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, with Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan and reigning Sprint Cup rookie of the year Kyle Larson waiting for turns. ''It's hard to tell this early on who is holding back and who has something in their back pocket,'' Dixon said. ''We just need to keep out of trouble. Whenever we had someone catching us, we just tried to turn up the pace to see what they had.'' Right behind Dixon was Ganassi's No. 01 car, driven by five-time winner Scott Pruett in the opening stint. Although the No. 02 team gets most of the attention, Pruett's No. 01 team has won four Rolex races since Dixon's car last went to Victory Lane. Pruett is seeking sole possession of the career wins mark, which he currently shares with Hurley Haywood. ''I told Scott if he's leading and I'm second, I'd give him my watch just to win the race,'' Pruett joked after his stint. ''But right now we're just staying patient and letting the hours tick by.'' The Shank team felt strongly it had a solid shot to win the race, and Negri wasn't concerned after turning the car over to teammate John Pew. Also driving the Shank car is AJ Allmendinger and newcomer Matt McMurry, a 17-year-old who raced last year at Le Mans. ''I feel things are looking pretty good,'' Negri said. ''We are having a little issue with fuel flow, but we've got the pace and are just looking after the car right now. The car is fast enough to win the race.'' Shank moved to the Ligier and Honda after using Fords since 2008. Meanwhile, Dempsey was the second driver behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT, but he was flagged for improperly passing during a wave around. He has kept a low profile at Daytona since he and wife Jillian Fink announced Friday night they were divorcing after 15 years of marriage. Dempsey had done some press interviews on Friday, but skipped Saturday's driver autograph session and wasn't on the starting grid with his teammates before the race. The penalty on Dempsey dropped his team nine laps behind the leaders, but only six laps down in the GT class. It was another abbreviated run for the notorious DeltaWing. The odd-looking car, which showed impressive speed early, retired after just 42 laps Saturday. The DeltaWing left the track with transmission failure and never returned. It was the second straight year the funky-looking sports car failed to finish at Daytona. The DeltaWing retired after 16 hours in 2014 because of transmission failure and finished 61st out of 67 cars. The car was poised to finish 52nd out of 53 cars this time around. The latest run was so short that drivers Gabby Chaves, Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas didn't even get behind the wheel. Andy Meyrick drove the opening stint and was battling the leader before he punctured a tire. He battled back from the setback, but then stalled on the 3.56-mile road course with transmission trouble. The team took it to the garage and never returned. ''We had had a fast car today, but it was not to be,'' the team posted on its Twitter page. ''Proud of the job by the whole team this week.''
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Feeling like you hit the gym pretty regularly but aren't seeing results? One of these post-workout habits may be sabotaging your weight-loss results. You reward yourself too much: The workout's done, the sweaty clothes are off, and you've been eyeing that piece of cake for a while. While occasional indulgences are smart - and necessary - using your workout as an excuse to help yourself to junk food is not going to get you the results you're after, so don't use the fact that you've just burned 300 calories as an excuse to indulge in twice that much. You skip the stretch: You may think of the cooldown as a waste of time, but regularly skipping your post-workout stretches will put you at risk for injuries that will sideline your weight-loss progress by keeping you out of the gym. You recover with a sports drink: Sugary sports drinks can replenish electrolytes, but if you've just finished a short workout, the extra calories are probably unnecessary. Save the sports drinks or coconut water for intense workouts lasting more than an hour or for workouts in hot weather. You use it as an excuse: Monday's boot-camp class was so hard, so you can be forgiven for nursing your sore muscles until the start of next week, right? Not the best idea if you want to see pounds dropping on the scale. Make sure you get at least 300 minutes of vigorous exercise every week in order to stay on the right weight-loss track. You wait too long to eat: Refueling soon after a workout is crucial because it's what helps you rebuild muscle after a workout. Since the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism, make sure you fit a snack of carbs and protein into your post-workout ritual. You don't schedule the next one: You should pat yourself on the back for finishing this workout, but don't let your self-congratulations get in the way of scheduling your next workout. You'll only see progress if you make exercise a consistent part of your week.
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Greeks are voting in a general election which could result in Greece trying to renegotiate the terms of its bailout with international lenders. The leftwing Syriza party, which is tipped to win, wants part of Greece's huge debt written off and austerity measures revoked. This has spooked money markets and raised fears of a Greek exit from the euro. But the governing New Democracy party says the economy is recovering. Greece has endured tough budget cuts in return for the bailout negotiated with the so-called troika of lenders - the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB). The economy has shrunk drastically since the 2008 global financial crisis, increasing unemployment and throwing many Greeks into poverty. Polls across Greece opened at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and will close at 19:00. There are nearly 10 million eligible voters, who are electing the country's 300-member parliament. First exit polls are expected immediately after the voting ends. 'Dignity' Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras says his party will restore "dignity" to Greece by rolling back on cuts to jobs, pay and pensions which have hurt millions of people across the country. The possibility of a Syriza victory has sparked fears that Greece could default on its debt and leave the euro - the single currency of 19 EU members. This is despite the fact that Syriza has moderated its stance since the peak of the eurozone crisis, and says it wants Greece to stay a member of the currency. Meanwhile, the leader of centre-right New Democracy and PM Antonis Samaras has promised to work "day and night" to keep the country standing. Syriza, he argues, could force the country from the euro by its policies, serving what he called the "drachma lobby", a reference to the former Greek currency. He also warns that Greece could miss out on a massive programme of quantitative easing unveiled by the ECB last week to help stimulate the eurozone economy. The centrist To Potami and the right-wing Golden Dawn party are expected to fight for third place in the elections. Greek economy in numbers Average wage is €600 (£450: $690) a month Unemployment is at 25%, with youth unemployment almost 50% Economy has shrunk by 25% since the start of the eurozone crisis Country's debt is 175% of GDP Borrowed €240bn (£188bn) from the EU, the ECB and the IMF
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MILWAUKEE (AP) Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings had to be helped to the locker room late in the third quarter of Saturday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks with an apparent lower left leg injury. Jennings fell to the floor while planting on his left leg while guarding an inbounds pass. He immediately clutched the leg above his sneakers while writhing on the floor in pain. Play was stopped after the Bucks scored on the other end of the court with 1:03 left in the quarter. Jennings left with 16 points playing against the team that drafted him in the first round in 2009. He set a career high and NBA season high with 21 assists on Wednesday in a 128-118 win over Orlando.
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Being a customer service consultant is at times like being a professional banger of my head against the wall. A specific frustration is the difficulty of convincing business leaders I work with to think in a less transactional, less fractured manner about the customer experience. They seem to think that working on improving different pieces independently is enough, as if customers will logically tally up every aspect of working with their company and then dispassionately rate it. This, of course, isn't how the customer mind the human mind operates. Instead, a customer either decides that she enjoys working with you or decides that she doesn't. Your challenge in business, therefore, is to achieve this state of enjoyment: to picture what that will look like and then and only then get to work on the individual pieces that will make up this whole. One approach I've had success with in getting this through the heads of leaders is to ask them to think of directing a movie with their customer as the star. Once you decide to direct such a movie, and to put the customer (rather than your business, its processes, its internal org chart) in the starring role, we can get to work creating a tremendous customer experience. Thinks this is fluffy stuff you can't take to the bank? The Ritz-Carlton would beg to differ. There's nothing more potentially interchangeable than a hotel room. Rectangular, built to particular safety standards, available at a particular price point. What infuses a hotel room, and the surrounding property, with life is the experience of the guests within it. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company works every day to escape the commodity rut by taking the idea of moviemaking seriously, to the point of set design, music, lighting, and the rest. In Ritz-Carlton lingo, their approach is called "scenography." An advantage that can't be copied What "scenography" consists of is a little bit soft-focus, gauzy, hard to pin down. And that's the magic of it. Scenography isn't about features. Spec sheets. Room upgrades, and other easily-copied competitive advantages. It's about creating a feeling. Scenography involves creating a property-wide theme and supporting it with accompanying design elements, lighting, cast participation and so forth (I think you get the theatrical metaphor here, so I won't belabor it). This overlying theme supports the specific hotel or resort's "sense of place," its uniqueness, even its quirkiness, something that has been an important change at the Ritz-Carlton brand from its earlier, more cookie-cutter incarnation. For example, Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, perched as it is above the Pacific Ocean, has a theme going on related to sunset. Candles. S'more kits around the firepits. A bagpiper who plays as the suns go down. Or look at (listen to, really) what's going on at Ritz-Carlton's Dove Mountain Resort, in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Guests having cocktails outside its Ignite bar will suddenly hear the melodies played by a Native American musician (pictured below), perched on a hill some ways away from the hotel, on a handmade wood flute in a way that makes use of the answering echoes from the opposing mountains. Giving an auditory guide, in a sense, to the local landscape. The thing is, I'm laying out these component elements for you individually because, well, it's my job as a customer service consultant to break things down into their individual components to see how a "whole" was created. But in practice, if you ask a Ritz-Carlton guest what they dug about their visit Dove Mountain or Half Moon Bay, the answer is by and large is "it was great," not "the bagpiper played a modal air for eight repetitions before retiring for the evening." Because the elements are designed and executed in a way that lets the guest, the "star," go about their activities, but with critical enhancements that you wouldn't necessarily notice until they're gone. Creativity carries the day To succeed with scenography requires first and foremost creativity on the part of the hotel staff. This creativity has to reach all the way up to the traditionally RevPar (revenue per available room)-obsessed General Manager and throughout the ranks of the employees. Rather than there being a list of "ten rules for successful scenography," the rules that matter are more like "1. Leaders, be more creative!" and 2. "Empower your employees to be more creative as well." The Ritz-Carlton's commitment to scenography goes so deep that they've written into their business plans that every year each individual hotel GM has to deliver three unique scenes as part of this scenography. Let me say that again: this fluffy, fuzzy, idea of scenography is required now as part of each property's business plan, to lay out that "These are the scenes we are going to be working on this year, and here's the date by we'll have put them into motion." The thing about the creativity requirement is that it's not just required to create these scenarios. The requirement for staff creativity continues to be important in implementation, in keeping each hotel property from becoming a slave to its pre-determined theme. Because every guest is unique, and the concept of creating, directing, supporting scenes needs to be modified, sometimes on the fly, based on the nature of the guest and the visit. For example: If you're not much of a drinker, you can count on Half Moon Bay's empathetic staff to pick up on this and not force their "red wine by the firepit" theme down your throat. Ditto for smaller touchpoints, each instance of which may require adjustment for each guest: A stressed and jet-lagged exec arriving at two in the morning needs one "scene" while leisurely lovers arriving midday need another, and so forth. The same approaches apply: preparing for likely scenarios (such as these two) and throwing out the script if something even more unusual is called for. Creativity, again, carries the day. Micah Solomon is a customer service consultant, customer experience consultant, hospitality industry keynote speaker and bestselling business author, most recently of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service
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travel
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(Bloomberg) -- F-16 fighter jets escorted two passenger planes to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport following a bomb threat, officials said, reporting no significant delays at the site. A Delta Air Lines Inc. flight and another operated by Southwest Airlines Co. landed safely after airline officials received a "credible" bomb threat, Stephen Emmett, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Atlanta, said by e-mail. Explosives units are sweeping the aircraft and debriefing passengers, Emmett said. CNN reported that the threats came from a Twitter account. There were no departure or arrival delays of more than 15 minutes at the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said on its website. One runway was shut and operations are otherwise normal, Reese McCranie, a spokesman for Hartsfield, said by e- mail. Southwest Airlines Flight 2492 from Milwaukee "taxied under its own power to a remote area of the airport" where 86 customers and the aircraft are being rescreened, Southwest said in an e-mailed statement. A sweep of Delta Flight 1156 from Portland, Oregon, has concluded and customers have been transported by bus to the terminal, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said by e-mail. Hartsfield is the world's busiest passenger airport, averaging more than 250,000 passengers and 2,500 arrivals and departures a day, according to the airport's website. To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Buurma in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at [email protected] Stephen West, Nancy Moran
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Alex Rodriguez met with soon-to-be MLB commissioner Rob Manfred without any attorneys or MLBPA representatives. Smart move by Rodriguez?
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From Ellen's record-breaking pic at last year's Oscars to the holiday rise of the "selfie stick," it's clear the self-taken photograph isn't going away anytime soon. The selfie again took centerstage during Saturday night's NHL Skills Competition in Columbus thanks to St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott. On his teammate Vladimir Tarasenko's first attempt in the Breakaway Challenge, Elliott turned the situation on its head, ignoring Tarasenko's shot and instead taking a selfie, which he then tweeted. Despite Elliott's best efforts, he couldn't help Tarasenko win the competition, as Blue Jacket Ryan Johansen got the crowd pumped with a nod to the Ohio State Buckeyes and was crowned the Breakaway Challenge champ.
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Eugenie Bouchard will spend Monday 'cramming' for one of the toughest exams of her fledgling career when she faces second seed Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open quarter-finals. The Canadian advanced to the last eight at Melbourne Park on Sunday following a 6-1 5-7 6-2 victory over Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu in the first match on Rod Laver Arena before Sharapova took to the court and dispatched China's Peng Shuai next up. Bouchard, seeded seventh, was pleased to have got through her seesaw battle with the Romanian and while she knew that one practice was not going to fix some of the mistakes she made on Sunday, it would help her confidence to work out some kinks. "I believe in cramming," Bouchard said with a grin. "Obviously, yeah, one practice can't do much. But it's just about going out there, having a good feeling, hitting the ball, and trying to get ready for the next match." Last year Bouchard was a finalist at Wimbledon, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park and she also made the last four at Roland Garros, where she lost to Sharapova. She is the most high profile player in a small group of young challengers to the established order of women's tennis. The 20-year-old was aggressive from the start on Sunday against Begu but her intensity dropped as the Romanian threw caution to the wind and forced a third set. Bouchard said it was a lesson learned. "I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen next time," Bouchard said. "I'm happy that I could regroup and play a bit better tennis in the third. "I want to build on that for the next match and I want to try to impose myself as much as I can. "I'm not going to be passive like I was today." The loss to the Russian last year at Roland Garros had also been a valuable lesson, she added. "I didn't feel like I was playing great tennis the whole time ... but that's what it's about: trying to win and trying to always play better, get through it, even if you're not playing your best," Bouchard said. "I think I was close. It was just a tough battle. "But I think I've progressed a lot since then ... and I am going to really kind of take it to her, go for my shots." (Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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SPOKANE, Wash. -- Gonzaga and Pacific scheduled a West Coast Conference basketball game Saturday night, but the Bulldogs decided they'd rather hold a clinic. The third-ranked Bulldogs shot 60 percent from the field by dominating Pacific inside and bombing away from the perimeter in a 91-60 romp at the McCarthey Athletic Center. Five Bulldogs finished in double-figures and two more scored nine in the decisive win. Gonzaga committed only five turnovers, and the Bulldogs sank 11 of 25 shots (44 percent) from 3-point range. "They moved the ball as well as any team we've played this year," Pacific coach Ron Verlin said. "When we get ball movement," Gonzaga point guard Kevin Pangos said, "they don't know who to guard." Guard Gary Bell Jr. and center Przemek Karnowski each scored 13 points for Mark Few's led Bulldogs (20-1, 9-0 WCC). Freshman guard Silas Melson tied his season high of 12 points, Wesley scored 11 and freshman forward Domantas Sabonis added 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds off the bench. "That's the great thing about our team: We're so deep and have so many talented players," said Wesley, who led USC in scoring as a junior last season before opting to transfer after graduating from USC. "Like Coach Few told us at the beginning of the year, it can be anybody's night any game." Guard T.J. Wallace and forward Eric Thompson both scored 12 points to lead Pacific (10-11, 2-7). Guard Dulani Robinson added 11 points for the Tigers, who have lost two in a row and five of six. The Bulldogs cruised to their 13th straight win, and 36th straight at home, after building a 45-27 lead at the half. Gonzaga buried 13 of its first 16 shots. Verlin said Pacific's defense was "very soft" against Gonzaga, but he gave props to the Bulldogs. "They're very, very good," he said. "They've got a lot of weapons. They can shoot the 3 very well. They can score the ball inside." The Bulldogs outscored Pacific 12-3 at the start of the game and 16-1 to open the second half. The smaller, younger Tigers were outrebounded by only one, but they shot just 33.3 percent from the field and gave up plenty of easy baskets. The 31-point loss was the worst for Pacific this season. The 91 points allowed were second worst behind the 93 that BYU scored in a 93-80 win over Pacific on Jan. 15. Pangos, who sat out much of the second half along with the Bulldogs' other starters, tied Blake Stepp's school record of 288 career 3-pointers. Pangos went 3 of 5 from long range for all of his nine points. Gonzaga started the day ranked first in NCAA Division I in field-goal shooting percentage (53.0), second in average scoring margin (20.2), fourth in assist-turnover ratio (1.61), 10thin rebound margin (9.0) and 13th in scoring (81.2). Midway through their WCC schedule, the Bulldogs are outscoring league rivals by an average margin of 78.9-61.6. Only two of Gonzaga's nine conference games have been decided by less than 12 points. The standard McCarthey sellout crowd of 6,000 watched the Bulldogs post their 32nd consecutive WCC home win. NOTES: Pacific C Sami Eleraky, a 7-foot sophomore, missed a second straight game with a sprained knee. ... Pacific graduate Pete Carroll, who will coach the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl next Sunday, met with Pacific's basketball team when the Tigers played Washington in Seattle in November. Carroll, a standout free safety at Pacific in the early 1970's, got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant with the Tigers. ... Through Friday, Pacific ranked ahead of only five of the 345 teams in NCAA Division I men's basketball in steals per game (3.9) and fewest in personal fouls per game (22.7). ... F Gabriel Aguirre, Pacific's only senior, came off the bench Saturday. The Bulldogs start three of their four seniors (Gs Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell Jr. and Byron Wesley), one of their two redshirt juniors (F Kyle Wiltjer) and one true junior (C Przemek Karnowski). ... Eleraky, a native of Denmark, is one of four foreign players and five junior college transfers for the Tigers. -----------------------------------------------
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Frank Kaminsky and his Wisconsin Badgers kept their cool after a last-second shot sent them to overtime. Kaminsky scored eight of his 22 points in the extra session, and No. 6 Wisconsin held off Michigan 69-64 on Saturday night. The Wolverines tied the game on Derrick Walton's 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left in regulation, but the Badgers went right back to their 7-footer, and Kaminsky put Wisconsin ahead to stay with a three-point play to open the scoring in overtime. "He's one of the best players in the country," Badgers coach Bo Ryan said. "I don't say that very often because I let other people judge. Frank means a lot to this team." Michigan (12-8, 5-3 Big Ten) is without standout guard Caris LeVert, who is out for the season following foot surgery, but the Wolverines pushed Wisconsin throughout with an inspired effort. The Badgers led by 11 in the second half before Michigan rallied. Sam Dekker scored 15 points for Wisconsin. Walton scored 17 points for Michigan, and Zak Irvin added 12. "The pats on the back about `good game' -- I absolutely hate after a loss," Wolverines coach John Beilein said. "At the same time, when we go over what needs to be fixed tomorrow, we'll also be showing what's been fixed." Wisconsin led by four in the final minute of regulation but helped the Wolverines by missing a couple free throws. Then the Badgers left Walton a bit too open on the left wing for the 3-pointer that tied it at 57. Ryan said his team will occasionally foul with a three-point lead, but there is concern about accidentally fouling someone in the act of shooting in that situation. "That quick twitch, that's all you have to do and you can get a shooting foul," he said. After tying the game in dramatic fashion, Michigan still had to deal with Kaminsky. Even when the Wolverines were in a zone defense, he was a threat near the basket, and Wisconsin took care of the ball down the stretch. The Badgers turned it over six times in the first half but only twice after that. After Kaminsky's three-point play early in overtime, a 3-pointer by Josh Gasser put Wisconsin (18-2, 6-1) ahead by six. "Josh hit some big baskets and I was able to make a couple," Kaminsky said. "We had some new guys step up, too, but you always want to have veterans in a situation like that." Wisconsin scored the final nine points of the first half, taking a 30-23 lead on a 3-pointer by Nigel Hayes in the final seconds. It was 38-27 before the Wolverines scored 11 straight points to tie it. Michigan conceded a few open shots from the perimeter, and the Badgers had a hard time taking advantage, finishing 7 of 21 from 3-point range. ------ BY COMMITTEE Ricky Doyle, Mark Donnal and Max Bielfeldt combined for 19 points and 13 rebounds for Michigan, holding their own inside against Kaminsky. "We had some follow-up baskets," Beilein said. "That's the way it's going to be -- collectively, they're going to have to give us as much as they can." The Wolverines' NCAA tournament hopes took a major hit when they lost LeVert, but the Crisler Center crowd did its best to boost the home team, and when the game was over, there was a fair amount of applause even though Michigan had lost. FILLING IN Wisconsin also lost a key player recently when Traevon Jackson injured his foot at Rutgers on Jan. 11. The Badgers have won three in a row since then. Bronson Koenig made his fourth start of the season Saturday and played 40 minutes. He scored 13 points with a team-high four assists. TIP-INS Wisconsin: The Badgers have won 14 of their last 16 against Michigan. Michigan: The Wolverines' bench outscored Wisconsin's 26-0. UP NEXT Wisconsin: Plays at No. 25 Iowa next Saturday. Michigan: Hosts Nebraska on Tuesday night. Gonzaga hosts Portland next Thursday.
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The NHL announced that the World Cup of Hockey will be makings its return in 2016. Check out what some players who might play in the event have to say about the competition.
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sports
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- In a span of just 48 hours, LaMarcus Aldridge resigned himself to thumb surgery, reversed himself and decided to play through the pain, then led the Portland Trail Blazers to victory over the Washington Wizards. "He can't sit out. He doesn't want to sit out. He loves this game and figures if he's got something to give, he's going to give," teammate Wesley Matthews said. BOX SCORE: TRAIL BLAZERS 103, WIZARDS 96 The Blazers surprised many on Saturday when the team announced on Twitter that Aldridge had decided to put off surgery and would play that night against Washington. He responded with a team-high 26 points and nine rebounds in a 103-96 win to snap a two-game losing streak. He was sore after the game but said he was OK. "I'll just play until it's intolerable. Tonight, I thought it was tolerable," he said. "It was hurting a little but it wasn't too much. I'll just keep going until I feel like I'm not playing as good as I can, or I can't take it." The 6-foot-11 power forward leads Portland with averages of 23.3 points and 10.2 rebounds. He's one of just three NBA players averaging at least 23 points and 10 rebounds. Aldridge had said on Thursday that he needed surgery to repair a ligament in his left thumb and was expected to miss from six to eight weeks. He hurt his thumb when his hand came down on the knee of Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins in the second quarter of the Blazers' 98-95 victory on Monday night. "You can't say enough," coach Terry Stotts said about Aldridge's return. "That was big time. Not only coming back and playing through the injury but then not favoring it, going hard, not shying away from contact, being aggressive on both ends of the court -- I mean, that was big time." The injury looked like a big blow to the Blazers, who were already dealing with a depleted front line. Center Robin Lopez is out with a fractured right hand and center Joel Freeland is sidelined with a strained right shoulder. Starting small forward Nicolas Batum left Thursday night's 90-89 loss at home to the Boston Celtics after he aggravated a right wrist injury that had been bothering him. Batum did not play against Washington. Going into Saturday's victory, Portland had lost five of six games. Aldridge said the close loss to the Celtics impacted his decision, and that his doctors told him there was "no harm in giving it a shot." In the past two days he'd been able to move his thumb, which also factored into the decision. "My idea now is to play the rest of the season," he said. "But if it gets too much where I can't handle it or I'm not playing at a very good level then I'll stop. But hopefully it goes well for us." If he gets through the season, he'll have the surgery in the offseason, he said. In his ninth NBA season, all with Portland, Aldridge recently moved into second on the franchise list for both points (11,782) and rebounds (5,095). He trails only Clyde Drexler with 18,050 points and 5,339 rebounds. Blazers guard Damian Lillard said he greeted Aldridge with applause when he came into the locker room after his return was announced. "I can't even sit here and tell you how big it is just for him to be out there," Lillard said. "Sixty percent, 70 percent LaMarcus Aldridge is better than no LaMarcus at all." The Blazers embark on a four-game road trip that starts Monday against the Nets.
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Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios fought back from match point down to overhaul Andreas Seppi in five sets and reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday. The 53rd-ranked Kyrgios defeated the 46th-ranked Italian, who beat Roger Federer in the last round, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) 8-6 and will play either Andy Murray or Grigor Dimitrov in the final eight. Kyrgios fought off a match point at 5-6 in the fourth set and went on to force a tiebreaker before downing Seppi in a titanic fifth set in front of a charged home crowd on Hisense Arena. It will be the second quarter-final inside a year for the 19-year-old after he reached the last eight at Wimbledon, becoming the first male teenager to reach multiple Grand Slam quarter-finals since Roger Federer in 2001. Kyrgios staged a pulsating comeback and finished with 66 winners, 25 of them aces, and 74 unforced errors given his make-or-break playing style. He broke Seppi's serve three times and lost his service three times. Kyrgios said when he faced match point he thought back to his match with Frenchman Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon when he saved nine match points before going on to win. "It feels so good," Kyrgios said. "This is my favourite court I've ever played on." Kyrgios is a fast-rising star in the game and is the first Australian to reach the quarter-finals of his home Grand Slam since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
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Oscar hopes for "Birdman" got an enormous updraft over the weekend with big wins from the acting and producing guilds, possibly sending the comedy soaring over the perceived Academy Awards front-runner "Boyhood." Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's elegantly crafted backstage romp won best ensemble Sunday night at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild, a day after it also won the top honor at the Producer Guild Awards. Both guilds are seen as highly predictive of which film will triumph at the Oscars, which will be held Feb. 22. Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," the acclaimed indie made with the unprecedented real-life time-elapse of 12 years, has long held as the awards seasons favorite. But "Birdman" fills the role of a classic Oscar winner, like "Shakespeare in Love," as a celebration of showbiz. Its fortunes look especially bright considering the last seven Producers Guild Awards winners have also won best picture at the Academy Awards. "Actors love this movie for showing the courage actors have to kind of go out there and lay it on the line," ''Birdman" star Michael Keaton said backstage at the SAG Awards. He accepted the best ensemble award with his co-stars including Emma Stone, Edward Norton and Zach Galifianakis. Yet Keaton also lost at the SAGs, held Sunday at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Instead, most outstanding actor went to "The Theory of Everything" star Eddie Redmayne, whose exceeding technical performance as Stephen Hawking has equally drawn raves. Looking down at his blue statuette "this very wonderful skinny man," he said Redmayne dedicated the SAG Award to sufferers and victims of ALS. The other Oscar favorites Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette and J.K. Simmons all cemented their front-runner status in a glamorous, self-congratulatory ceremony that can serve as a test-run for acceptance speeches. Moore, widely considered the best-actress favorite, won most outstanding actress for "Still Alice," in which she plays an academic with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. Accepting the award, she recalled an early lesson on the soap opera "As the World Turns," in which she played twin sisters, good and evil. "Then I realized it was super boring to act by myself," said Moore. Accepting the award for most outstanding supporting actor for his performance as a domineering jazz teacher in "Whiplash," Simmons thanked all 49 actors who appear in the drama. "All of us actors are supporting actors," said Simmons, a veteran character actor. "Each of us is essential, completely crucial to the story because if there's one false moment, the train comes off the rails." "Boyhood" star Arquette added the latest in a nearly uninterrupted string of supporting actress awards. "This little movie is about human beings and it's about bringing real life onto the screen," she said backstage. Because actors make up the largest portion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the SAG Awards are considered one of the most telling Oscar previews. Individual acting winners usually mirror each other exactly, or very nearly. Last year, the top four winners Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong'o, Jared Leto all went on to win Academy Awards after first scooping up SAG awards. The predictive powers of the SAGs have been more checkered in matching its top award with eventual best-picture Oscar winners. In the last six years, SAG best-ensemble and Academy Award best-picture winners have lined up three times ("Argo," ''The King's Speech" and "Slumdog Millionaire"), while diverging just as often. Last year, the actors chose "American Hustle" over eventual Oscar winner "12 Years a Slave"; in 2011, they picked "The Help" over "The Artist"; and in 2009, "Inglourious Basterds" defeated "The Hurt Locker." So Sunday's SAG Awards made two things clear: the Oscar race will be a nail-biter that likely pits "Birdman" against "Boyhood"; and the other best source of drama will probably be Keaton and Redmayne vying for best actor. Sunday's show kicked things off with a pair of wins for the Netflix prison series "Orange Is the New Black," honoring it as best ensemble in a comedy and naming Uzo Aduba most outstanding actress in a comedy series. Aduba won over a number of veteran stars, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Veep") and Edie Falco ("Nurse Jackie"). Best ensemble cast in a drama series went to "Downton Abbey," the second time the series has won the category. Two actors who usually reside on the big screen won the SAG awards for performances in a miniseries or TV movie: Mark Ruffalo (for HBO's "A Normal Heart") and Frances McDormand (for HBO's "Olive Kitteredge"). Kevin Spacey ("House of Cards"), William H. Macy ("Shameless") and Viola Davis ("How to Get Away With Murder") also collected awards. Davis thanked the producers of the legal dram "for thinking that a sexualized, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old, dark-skinned African American woman who looks me." Debbie Reynolds, the "Singin' in the Rain" star, was honored with the SAG lifetime achievement award, which her daughter, Carrie Fisher, presented. The 82-year-old Reynolds embarrassed Fisher with a story, recalling that her bun in the famous musical led her to warn her daughter ahead of playing Princess Leia in "Star Wars." "I said, 'Well, Carrie, be careful of any weird hairdos,'" said Reynolds. "So luckily George gave her two buns." She also remembered one of her favorite films, 1964's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." "In that movie I got to sing a wonderful song 'I Ain't Down Yet,'" said Reynolds. "Well, I ain't."
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entertainment
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On a sunny summer day in July 2013, a 5-year-old boy and his family visited relatives in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. The last thing on their mind was a brain-eating amoeba. The boy played outside for much of the day on a slip 'n slide, as kids do. All was well until nine days later, when he start to vomit and complained of an excruciating headache. He developed a high fever: 104 degrees. Tylenol didn't help. The symptoms were concerning, but still could have passed for a bad case of the flu. But then the boy had two brief "staring episodes," where for a few seconds each he gazed straight ahead, unresponsive. His family took him to a New Orleans hospital, where his condition worsened. The doctors suspected meningitis, a swelling of the membranes surrounding the brain, which can be caused by infection of viruses or microorganisms like bacteria, and he was put on several antibiotics. They performed a CT scan, a spinal tap and other tests to try and narrow down the particular type of infection, but got no clear answer. Several days later he suffered seizures and doctors performed emergency brain surgery. But the infection whatever it was and the inflammatory immune response was just too much. He was declared brain dead and the family agreed to cut off life support, five days after the boy was first admitted. Tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) soon suggested that the culprit was Naegleria fowleri , also known as the "brain-eating amoeba." It has earned that moniker for a good reason, since it can effectively digest neural tissues, says Jennifer Cope, a medical epidemiologist for the CDC in Atlanta. While the microorganism is normally harmless and found in warm freshwater lakes throughout the South, it can infect the brain if it gets far up into the nasal passages. Once there, it passes through a porous bone separating the sinuses and the brain and begins to break down nerve cells. This triggers brain-swelling, and the resulting syndrome, called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), is nearly always fatal. Luckily, it's always very rare, killing between zero and eight people each year in the United States. In a study published this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases , researchers from the CDC and elsewhere confirmed the boy died of PAM and described the case in full. This is the first confirmed instance in which somebody acquired the deadly infection from tap water, says Cope, a study author. In the majority of cases, the amoeba is acquired when people swim in warm lakes in the summer and get water up their nose. Victims tend to be disproportionately male and young, with a median age of 12. But in the past few years, new routes of transmission are popping up, including this instance. Two years before this case, two people who also happened to live in Louisiana died of PAM after using neti pots, which are used to flush the sinuses with salty water. One of these cases also occurred in St. Bernard Parish, and researchers suspect it may be due in part to the fact that Hurricane Katrina inflicted lasting damage to the water system, making it more prone to leaks and contact with soil (where these amoebae can also be found). But they can't say for certain that the storm was to blame no water system is a completely "closed loop," and microorganisms from the environment often find their way into the water, Cope adds. In 2012, a Muslim man practicing ritual ablution (which includes cleansing the sinuses with water) also came down with the fatal infection in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The CDC generally now recommends using bottle or sterilized water for nasal rinses, though the relative risk of getting PAM from a sinus rinses is very, very small. You are much more likely to get struck by lightning, for example, Cope says. Water systems use chlorine to kill these microbes, but in this case it appeared that the chlorine levels in the house were low due to evaporation of the water-dissolved gas. Since 2013, Louisiana has started more aggressively chlorinating and testing for N. fowleri , and there hasn't been a case in the state since then. The amoeba is on the move, perhaps because temperatures are increasing. Once only found in the South, the microbe and the infection it causes have popped up in Minnesota, Kansas and Indiana. Perhaps strangely, given its spread, the number of cases of PAM don't appear to be increasing. Francine Marciano-Cabral, a microbiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies N. fowleri , is investigating how the amoeba becomes infectious. "This is a free-living amoeba that doesn't have to infect anybody, it's perfectly happy feeding on bacteria," she says. "What we want to find out is why in some people is it so pathogenic and deadly and what makes it that way?" No answers have yet emerged. Perhaps surprisingly, most people that have been tested (albeit in a few small studies in the South) have antibodies against this amoeba, suggesting they've been exposed to it at some time in their life, Marciano-Cabral says. This study will help doctors to be more aware of PAM, despite its rarity, says Marciano-Cabral, who wasn't involved in the work. In suspected PAM cases the CDC now makes available a drug called miltefosine on an emergency basis, which has some effectiveness against the amoeba. Use of this drug, which isn't yet commercially available, may have helped cure a Kansas girl infected with the amoeba in 2013. She is one of only three known American survivors of the affliction.
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Paul Pogba hit his fourth goal in as many games to inspire Juventus to a 2-0 win over Chievo as the Serie A champions moved eight points clear of Roma on Sunday. Roma face a resurgent Fiorentina in Florence later on Sunday looking to reduce the gap to five points. Juventus's hopes of a fourth consecutive scudetto were given a huge boost last week when Roma suffered a second successive draw. But Massimiliano Allegri's men had Pogba to thank for ending their frustrating search for goals in an entertaining encounter in Turin, where a stubborn Chievo kept the scoresheet clean until Pogba broke the deadlock on the hour. In the opening half Carlos Tevez, Alvaro Morata and Arturo Vidal all spurned chances to break the deadlock against Rolando Maran's well-organised visitors. Juve continued to dominate after the restart and Claudio Marchisio went close with a bouncing shot from outside the area. Bizzarri was finally beaten by a piece of Pogba magic, the Frenchman taking Tevez's short pass and nutmegging one Chievo player before unleashing a dipping shot with his left foot that beat the 'keeper at his near post. It was Pogba's fourth consecutive goal in as many games, having also scored one in one in Juve's 6-1 Italian Cup last 16 drubbing of Verona last week. Three minutes later Bizzarri did well to block Pogba's control and volley in the area but Stephan Lichsteiner rushed in to bundle the ball home and all but wrap up the points for the defending champions. Juventus's 15th win of the campaign sees them on 49 points, eight ahead of Roma and 15 in front of third-placed Lazio, who outclassed a sorry AC Milan side 3-1 late on Saturday. Coach Massimiliano Allegri insisted a fourth consecutive league title is a long way off, but praised his side's composure. "There are still a lot of games to play before we can talk about the title," Allegri told Radio Rai. "Hats-off to the lads because they stayed patient against a Chievo side that were on a par with us throughout the opening half. "Then we upped our game a little and they didn't follow. It wasn't an easy win but we needed to earn three points like this because recently we've been used to sealing our wins earlier on." Sampdoria, held 1-1 at home by Palermo after Franco Vazquez levelled Eder's sixth-minute opener for Sinisa Mihajlovic's men, sit fourth on inferior goal difference. Napoli, in fifth a point further adrift, can reclaim third place with a win at home to Genoa on Monday. Inter Milan had been looking to capitalise on their city rivals' misfortunes to steal a march in what is shaping up to be a tight race for the third and last Champions League qualifying spot. But Roberto Mancini's men failed to capitalise on their few real chances and were stunned in the last minute of added time when Emiliano Moretti stooped low to beat Samir Handanovic with a low header after Maxi Lopez had headed a corner towards goal. It was Torino's first win over Inter at the San Siro since 1988 and handed Inter their third defeat in eight games, since Mancini took over at the end of November. "Conceding a goal like that in the last minute hurts," Mancini told Sky Sport. "But we can't drop our heads. I believe we're on the right road. Now we just have to roll up the sleeves and get down to work." Inter are one place above Milan but both Milan giants are eight points off Lazio and Sampdoria. Torino's sixth win of the campaign moved Giampiero Ventura's side up one place to 12th, just one point further adrift. Elsewhere, hosts Parma suffered another blow in their bid to beat the drop after conceding late on as fellow strugglers Cesena ran out 2-1 winners at the Ennio Tardino stadium. Roberto Donadoni's men were hanging on for a share of the spoils after Cesena midfielder Emmanuel Cascione's 76th minute own goal levelled Nico Pulzetti's 21st minute opener. However the hosts were stunned a minute from time when Spanish striker Alejandro Rodriguez struck for the visitors.
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(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will go "everywhere I'm invited" to warn against a nuclear deal with Iran, as criticism mounted over his planned speech on the negotiations to the U.S. Congress. "As prime minister of Israel, I am obligated to make every effort to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons that would be aimed at Israel," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem today. "This effort is worldwide and I will go anywhere I am invited in order to enunciate the State of Israel's position and in order to defend its future and its existence," he said according to an e-mailed statement from his office. Netanyahu accepted House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to address a joint session of Congress on March 3, in a move that wasn't coordinated with President Barack Obama's administration. Critics say the measure is meant to undercut Obama's efforts to negotiate a deal with the Iranians and will hurt Israel by damaging ties with the White House. They also say the speech will give the prime minister an unfair boost before Israel's March 17 elections. "This is a poke in the eye" of the Obama administration, "and ultimately a blow to Israel," said lawmaker Shelly Yachimovich of the opposition Labor party. "In exchange for giving a campaign speech, Netanyahu is prepared to hurt our relationship with the U.S.," Yachimovich said today on Israel Radio. Republicans and some Democrats in Congress seek new economic and diplomatic sanctions on the government in Tehran, a move that could kill any nuclear deal. Obama said in his State of the Union address that he would veto any proposed legislation that increases sanctions. Netanyahu backs tougher penalties. Sanctions were imposed to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons technology. Iran says its nuclear program is designed only for energy and medical uses, and other Middle Eastern nations say Israel harbors the region's only atomic arsenal. Israel neither confirms nor denies possessing atomic weapons. Netanyahu's former ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, called on him to cancel his Congressional address. "His behavior over the last few days created the impression that this is a cynical political move, and it could hurt our attempts to act against Iran," said Oren, now campaigning for parliament on the list of the newly formed Kulanu party, in an interview Saturday on Channel 2 television. Ties between Netanyahu and Obama have historically been strained over issues including peacemaking with the Palestinians and how to contain Iran's nuclear program. Obama won't meet Netanyahu when he comes to Washington to deliver his speech because it's too close to the Israeli elections, the White House said. To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at [email protected] Amy Teibel, Bruce Stanley
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On Saturday Reddit user sharpinator posted some evidence that ESPN NBA draft expert Chad Ford's prospect rankings have frequently changed after the fact . Using archive.org, the evidence shows that each of Ford's "final" top 100 rankings from 2008 through 2013 were altered once rookies began their NBA careers. More damning is that in each case, players who performed well in the NBA were moved up in the rankings, while players who didn't live up to the hype were dropped. Ford's top-100 rankings are not the same as his mock draft. In the mocks, Ford tries to predict where players will be picked. In the top-100, Ford is laying out who he feels are the best prospects available, in order. Here's an example of the changes made to Ford's rankings: a cached version of Ford's 2013 rankings from July 2013 shows Giannis Antetokounmpo ranked No. 17 in the class. As of Saturday, the living version of Ford's 2013 rankings had Antetokounmpo at No. 9. It appears that Ford is revising his own rankings after the fact to make them look better. Other players to move up in the six years sharpinator looked at: Rudy Gobert , Gorgui Dieng , Michael Carter-Williams , Damian Lillard , Draymond Green , Kawhi Leonard , Klay Thompson , Nikola Vucevic , Paul George , Greg Monroe , Eric Bledsoe , James Harden and others. Some of the players who moved down in Ford's revised rankings: Jonny Flynn , Hasheem Thabeet , Luke Babbitt , Xavier Henry , Jimmer Fredette , Austin Rivers (moved down 12 spots), Sergey Karasev and Shane Larkin . The neat organization of those names -- the good ones moved up, the bad ones moved down -- means we can rule out that this was a random glitch, like some sort of reversion to a prior version of the rankings (which are updated frequently during the draft season). So we're left with two explanations: some other glitch altered Ford's rankings unbeknownst to anyone at ESPN, or someone at ESPN -- possibly Ford himself -- systematically tweaked his rankings after the fact to make them look better. The only technical glitch that could explain what happened is if some rookie rankings Ford or ESPN.com published fed data into these draft rankings. That seems like a stretch considering Ford doesn't do rookie rankings. Occam's razor suggests ESPN actively edited the rankings to make them look better. If that's the case, the question becomes one of intent. Ford is very high profile. He's the most well-known NBA draft expert in the world. Did he (or whoever did this) really think no one would notice Giannis moving up from No. 17 to No. 9 after the fact? And does it really help Ford's status anyway if it did become common knowledge that Ford rated Giannis at No. 9, well ahead of where most placed him? It's just a ridiculous, needless thing to do given the circumstances. Ford doesn't need to doctor the results to bolster his notoriety. And, in fact, all this will do is give him a different sort of notoriety. It appears that Ford's rankings have now all reverted to their original draft day forms. We've reached out to Ford for an explanation. This post will be updated when, and if, we get one.
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Astronauts at the International Space Station and scientists on Earth are embarking on a bit of a quirky experiment: growing bones in space to test new bone loss treatments. A group of 40 rodents will call the International Space Station home for two months, during which scientists will test a bone-growth molecule on them in a microgravity environment. Microgravity , which happens when an object (or rodent) is in free fall. It lets scientists produce changes in bone and organ systems that can't be replicated on Earth. Microgravity is helpful for studying bone loss because of a bone's calcium balance is thrown off in space. A bone's calcium balance, or the difference between how much calcium is absorbed and how much is excreted, is about zero on earth. It decreases significantly during a long stay in space. UCLA researchers are leading the experiment, and they're testing a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1. NELL-1 directs stem cells to create bones and prevent bone decay. Stem cells don't have a specific function, but can give rise to specialized cells, like these that form bone. NELL-1 promoted bone regeneration when tested on mice on Earth. The molecule also helped increase bone volume and density when used with bone grafts in sheep. Scientists hope this experiment will give them a better understanding of how to prevent bone loss. The biggest cause of bone loss is osteoporosis, which affects about 10 million people in the US. It's a disease marked by weak bones and decreased bone mass, and makes people more susceptible to bone fractures. Bone loss is actually a problem for astronauts themselves. It's a cause for concern on long flights in microgravity conditions.Astronauts aren't as physically active as people walking around on a planet with gravity, and because of that, they're not forming bone mass like we are. Crew members on those flights work out for 2.5 hours per day, six days a week, to prevent significant bone loss. Physical exercise can't combat the problem alone, though. The study hopes to gain insight into better ways to prevent bone loss for astronauts on long flights and for patients back on Earth. The research, which will begin on the ground sometime soon, is funded by grants from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and National Institutes of Health.
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With its chunk-a-chunk sound, whispery nylon strings, and diminutive body, the ukulele is having a moment. Or maybe even a decade. Zooey Deschanel strums one while crooning sweetly with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Tony Blair disrupts Labour Party conventions with one. When Eddie Vedder impulse-bought one on a trip to Hawaii, he was compelled to record a whole album of Ukulele Songs . (It won a Grammy, of course.) And then a Hawaiian ukulele prodigy played a Beatles cover in Central Park, and the video went viral but more on that later. Despite a long history that once included a reputation as an exotic and highbrow instrument, the ukulele has also endured decades of snubbing from both the pop music scene and the more cultured world of classical music. But with the help of trendsetters and tastemakers, it's making a strong comeback the National Association of Music Merchants reported a 54 percent jump in ukulele sales in 2013 that can be traced in large part to the instrument's accessibility, affordability, YouTube popularity, and celebrity esteem. The instrument's renewed appeal can be seen in the rise of ukulele music festivals, which have cropped up in places like Reno, Milwaukee, Napa, Port Townsend, Washington, and Rockville, Maryland. Take New Jersey's second annual Ukefest last August at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Hall, which kicked off with 86 beginners tackling their first piece, "Surfin' USA." During the festival, the rented church was awash with love for the novices a kind of generosity rarely seen at a piano or guitar convention. "Strum with your index finger or thumb whatever feels good," ukulele teacher, author, and songwriter Jim Beloff told the beginners. "There are no ukulele police." True enough, cases plastered with stickers like "Ukes Heal" and "I'm Pro Ukulele and I Vote" were sprawled out throughout the rooms. The inner sanctum offered a hodgepodge of instruments on display: ukes fashioned from indestructible polycarbonate and painted in retro pastels, cigar-box ukes, and the classic natural wood Hawaiian models. Participants lapped up advice on fingerpicking, playing by ear, and songwriting in workshops with titles like "Something in the Way She Ukes" and "Game of Ukes." *** This isn't the ukulele's first brush with mass popularity. The instrument, with its four plastic strings and a short neck, originated in Europe and was introduced to Hawaii in 1879 when a Portuguese immigrant named Joao Fernandez jumped off the boat and started strumming and singing with his branguinha (a small guitar-like instrument, sometimes called the machete). The crowd of Hawaiians were so impressed by his fingerboard prestidigitations that they called the instrument "ukulele," which translates to "jumping flea." Fernandez and the instrument became a local sensation, and the reigning monarch Kalakaua even learned how to play it. By 1900, the sound of the ukulele was ubiquitous across the Islands, where it was pronounced by Hawaiians as "oo-ku-lay-lay." The ukulele got its first taste of mainland popularity in the 1900s when the Panama Pacific International Exposition lured over 17 million visitors with hula dance and song at the Hawaii Pavilion. What mainland Americans lacked in understanding of their exotic territory's music, they made up for in enthusiasm. In 1913, a reporter for the Hartford Courant described how "the wonderfully sweet voices and weird melodies of these ukalele (sic) players strike a plaintive heart-note never to be forgotten once heard." Cutesy Hawaiian kitsch became big business. By the 1920s, Sears Roebuck and other department store catalogs offered ukes for a couple of dollars and sometimes even for free with the purchase of lessons. Tin Pan Alley songsmiths cranked out dozens of "Hawaiian" novelty hits like "On the Beach at Waikiki," followed by parodies of those same hits ("Oh How she Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo.") Soon came an avalanche of inexpensive, mainland-made plastic ukuleles, ukulele method books like "Hum and Strum," and "Beach Boy Method Hawaiian Style," pandering to the appeal of faraway Hawaii as an exotic paradise. For four decades, the sounds of Hawaii drifted over the air to hundreds of radio stations. The Great Depression provided another gateway for the ukulele. As sales of pianos, accordions, and other pricey instruments soared, saving and scrimping Americans helped boost the ukulele to peak popularity in the 1930s. Indeed, bluegrass music took off during that period as well, and the ukulele is still strongly associated with the string-band phenomenon. Television offered a golden opportunity for the instrument. In 1950, the popular television host Arthur Godfrey, sporting a Hawaiian shirt, actually gave lessons to millions of viewers right in their living rooms. Plastic ukuleles proliferated $5.95 each and 1,700,000 ukulele players were born. Even Americans who'd never picked up an instrument couldn't help developing a soft spot for the uke when it was played by Bing Crosby, Betty Grable, and Elvis Presley. ( Blue Hawaii was Presley's biggest box-office hit, and the soundtrack was number one on the Billboard charts for 5 months.) For a while it seemed like the ukulele had it all: a high-class reputation on the silver screen and folksy appeal as the people's instrument. Then came the ukepocalypse. For kids doing the Twist and rocking around the clock, the ukulele looked and sounded like a toy, compared to the thunderous electrified guitar sounds they heard from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. "If a kid has a uke in his hand, he's not going to get in much trouble," Arthur Godfrey had said, apparently unaware that he'd put his finger on the uke's fatal weakness. Even as early as 1951, the National Association of Music Merchants attributed swelling guitar sales to "the desire of persons who learned to play the ukulele in its recent popularity upswing to master the more advanced instrument." And on February 9, 1964, 74 million viewers of a popular variety show watched a typical ukulele act a music hall artist clad in gold lame and singing and strumming her heart out followed by four teens from Liverpool. As if the Fab Four playing "She Loves You" on Ed Sullivan weren't crushing enough for the little uke, Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips on late-night television in 1967, consigning the ukulele to a two- decades-long image of creepy emasculation, absurdity, and plain irrelevance. *** Then, decades later, a new generation of musicians jaded by electric guitars and mostly unaware of either the uke's squareness or its Tiny-Tim-related disrepute began to tinker with the instrument. Beginning in the 1980s, some rock 'n' rollers began to introduce the ukulele in some instances, to sound a note of folksy authenticity; in others, to explore more intimate, spontaneous and personal aspects of music making. Paul McCartney strummed one on his 2002 tour as a tribute to fellow Beatle George Harrison, a serious ukulele player and a devotee of the British music hall ukulele tradition. Harrison later gave his blessing to the ukulele revival by penning an introduction to Jumpin' Jim (Beloff)'s 60s Uke-In Songbook : "Everybody should have and play a uke. It's so simple to carry with you and it is one instrument you can't play and not laugh! It's so sweet and also very old." The pop artists most identified with the ukulele, however are Steven Swartz of Songs From a Random House, Zach Condon of Beirut, and Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. In some cases, these artists have attempted to replace the ubiquitous guitar with a sweeter and gentler sound, in others, a less familiar sound that would surprise audiences. "When you have a guitar, people are going to make judgments about what they're going to hear, but with ukulele, the field's open, and it's a much more musically versatile instrument that people are aware of," Swartz has said. Those looking to validate their choice of instrument via celebrity association can point to a bevy of uke-playing luminaries Cybill Shepherd, William Macy, and Pierce Brosnan along with politicians (Tony Blair) and business executives (mega-zillionaire Warren Buffett). The ukulele has made a number of unique cameo appearances, appearing in the Flying Karamazov Brothers' juggling acts and the Rockettes' annual Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. In ads for products like Yoplait and Canadian Tires, it's featured as the primary instrument of whimsy, along with glockenspiel, tinkly piano and tuneful whistling. Another unexpected driving force for the ukulele was the Hawaiian music revival of the 1980s and 1990s. Hawaiian youth had previously fallen for rock just as hard as mainlanders. Local interest in the uke and traditional Island music had waned in the 1960s, and the dwindling numbers of students enrolling in Hawaii's ukulele studios were mainly interested in learning Beatles songs. But then Hawaiian artists rediscovered the ukulele on their own terms, exploring the instrument in a new way, blurring the boundaries between Hawaiian folk and mainstream pop that had helped to marginalize the instrument. There were Kelly Boy Delima of Kapena, Troy Fernandez of the Kaau Crater Boys, and Israel (Iz) Kamakawiwo'ole, who inspired audiences with both pyrotechnics and politically conscious songs that protested the second-class status of Native Hawaiians. His ukulele medley "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" was featured on the television show ER as well as on movie soundtracks and ads, boosting his Facing Future album to platinum sales (a first for a Hawaiian artist). Even more unexpected was the YouTube-driven stardom of 20-year-old Hawaiian artist Jake Shimabukuro , who posted a video of himself playing elaborate, introspective variations on George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on a ukulele. One of the first YouTube videos to go viral , it helped dispense with the stereotypically kitschy images that Hollywood had imposed upon both Hawaiian music and the ukulele. The ukulele, one could say, has returned from pop-culture purgatory. The eight-member Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain composed of self-proclaimed "anarcho-syndicalists of the ukulele world" draws sellout crowds with an eclectic repertoire ranging from the Sex Pistols and Nirvana to Bach and Beethoven. The modern Canadian movement, with deeper pedagogical roots than either Britain's or America's, thrives thanks to school-based programs that advocate using the ukulele to teach music. The Langley Ukulele Ensemble, made up of high-school artists in British Columbia, has nurtured such luminaries as award-winning artist/ukulele advocate James Hill. And few nations have more rabid fans than Japan, where Shimabukuro spends half of the year touring and where members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain get stopped on the street to sign autographs. Despite its higher profile, the ukulele still plays its role as everyman instrument quite convincingly. "The ukulele has always fascinated me because it doesn't intimidate other people," says Shimabukuro. Indeed, the scores of beginners at Ukefest New Jersey reaffirmed this statement. Hardly as long a kid's arm, the miniature instrument is so inviting, and its sound so wispy and sweet, that it was hard to keep from strumming while teachers were talking at the workshops. Not everyone can tackle the guitar, with its bulky size and six metal strings; comparatively, the ukulele's four plastic strings appear more manageable and less painful for the left-hand fingers on the neck. Because of its accessibility, the uke has managed to attract the huge grassroots following it struggled to draw before the Internet hooked up players and enabled Uke Meetups, jam sessions, and YouTube uke tutorials. Marcy Marxer, two-time Grammy-award winning folk artist who performs on ukulele and other string instruments with her partner Cathy Fink, says that what makes the uke so popular now "is the friendliness of the community. There's no hierarchy of advanced players, just wide-open acceptance. Since so many people are new to the instrument, they remember what it was like to be a beginner." In other words, people don't expect you to uke with your teeth or up in the air, like virtuoso Stuart "Stukulele" Fuchs does in his solo acts. George Hinchliffe of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain attributes his supergroup's (and possibly, the instrument's) success to the worn-out appeal of high-tech shows, and performers who stare at a laptop. "We yearned for a gig in which people simply play the music," he said, "and [the ukulele] is open to all. The audience goes home and thinks, 'I could do that.'" This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/though-it-be-little-the-rise-of-the-ukulele/384453/
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You may have already started receiving tax forms in the mail. You know what I'm talking about the envelopes are marked in big block letters, "IMPORTANT TAX DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED." If you haven't received any yet, you should soon, and for some people, you'll be getting many pieces of mail like that over the next few weeks. Getting your taxes done quickly and accurately requires you to organize your necessary documents and know when something's missing, and looking at last year's tax return is a good way to help you do that. "Unless things change dramatically, if it was on last year's tax returns it will be on this year's," said Howard Rosen, a CPA with Conner Ash Certified Public Accountants & Business Consultants in St. Louis. Rosen said that approach helps most people, but even if you've opened a new bank account or switched jobs, knowing how things changed from last year will help you put together a checklist of documents to expect. When you're getting everything together you need to file your taxes , you'll want to watch your mailbox (physical and electronic) for these items. 1. Your W-2 You can expect Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, from your employer by the end of January, Rosen said. He recommends reaching out to your employer if you haven't received it by the of the month. Paul Herman, who owns Herman & Co. CPAs in White Plains, N.Y., said to give employers a little more time. "It's not unusual for them to be received in early or mid-February," Herman said. "Some people send them out later." If you're trying to file your taxes as soon as possible and you're waiting on your W-2, ask about it in February, but know there may not be much you can do to speed up the process. 2. Any 1099s There are many kinds of 1099s, but some of the most common ones consumers get are 1099-MISC, for miscellaneous income; 1099-INT, for interest income; 1099-S, if you sold real estate in the past year; and 1099-R, if you received distributions from a retirement plan. There are dozens more, including the dreaded 1099-C , which means you have to pay taxes on canceled debt. Basically, you'll get a 1099 if money considered untaxed income has been reported to the Internal Revenue Service. 1099s usually come out by the end of February, Rosen said. 3. 1098s These are more welcome forms than 1099s, because 1098s usually means you get a tax credit. Common forms are 1098 for mortgage interest, 1098-E for student loan interest and 1098-T for tuition paid during the tax year. Banks and loan servicers tend to make these forms available quickly, particularly because many people manage paying these accounts online. If you haven't received your form by the end of January, contact your loan servicer. 4. Charitable Receipts You should receive letters from charitable organizations to which you donated in 2014 documenting how much you gave. Those are just a few, typical examples of the many forms you might receive. As you get these things, either in an envelope or to your email inbox, gather them in a common place. Perhaps that's a folder on your computer and a physical folder in your filing cabinet, including a checklist of what you're waiting on before you can file your taxes. Mark your calendar for when you anticipate receiving tax documents so you can inquire about them if they haven't arrived as expected. "I do think people struggle with it if they have more than just a couple of forms because it's tough to keep track of all these things," Herman said. He gives his clients tax organizers (folders, really) to help them manage the paperwork, and he repeatedly emphasized the importance of looking at the previous year's return to help plan for this year's. Rosen said the same. "I think most people worry than they need to, to be honest with you. They're thinking, 'Do I have everything? Do I have everything?'" Rosen said, mimicking a stressed consumer. "For most folks, just using last year as your guideline is a great way to start." This article originally appeared on Credit.com .
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The Atlanta Falcons are expected to name Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn as their next head coach the day after the Super Bowl, according to D. Orlando Ledbetter of Atlanta Journal-Constitution . Per league rules, Quinn cannot be officially offered the job until Monday, Feb. 2 because he's still under contract with the Seahawks, who are set to play the New England Patriots in Super Bow 49. Quinn will replace another defensive-minded coach, Mike Smith , who was fired after seven seasons in Atlanta. The Falcons finished 6-10 in 2014, the second straight season they've missed the playoffs. Quinn's biggest challenge to getting the Falcons back to the postseason will come on the defensive side of the ball. Atlanta ended the regular season with a top-10 offense, but the defense struggled all year long. The Falcons finished at the bottom of the league in total defense, giving up nearly 400 yards per game, and were also the worst at defending the pass. Fortunately for his new team, Quinn has had plenty of success in both areas with Seattle and will continue to call defensive plays in Atlanta. The 44-year-old took over as the defensive coordinator of the Seahawks in 2013 after Gus Bradley left to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars . In each of Quinn's two seasons at the helm, the Seattle defense allowed the fewest total yards, passing yards and points per game. The Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII on the back of their dominant defense and shutdown "Legion of Boom" secondary, and then used the same formula to make it to the Super Bowl this season. Quinn's second trip to the Super Bowl will only boost his value for the Falcons, who have been very patient in order to get their man. The Falcons interviewed Quinn multiple times, including the day after the Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship . Prior to his stint in Seattle, Quinn was the defensive coordinator at the University of Florida and the defensive line coach of the San Francisco 49ers , Miami Dolphins , New York Jets and Seahawks. This will be his first head coaching job.
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Forget about the 21-point thumping the North Team laid on the South in Mobile, Ala. on Saturday in the 2015 Senior Bowl. Few care about the team aspect of the game, preferring to focus more on individual game-day efforts and workouts throughout the entire week. The entirety of the Senior Bowl is about the player. Who can show NFL coaches and scouts in a week's time that they deserve more of a look (read: more money from a higher draft slot) than the year's worth of game film they produced? Second-rounders can turn into first-rounders. Small-school stars can emerge on the NFL scene. Solid players can show a brief glimpse of enormous upside that peaks the interest of a scout, thus elevating draft stock. The name of the Senior-Bowl game is improving one's worth in the eyes on an NFL team. Here are the stars that did the most to improve their draft stock while at the Senior Bowl. Danny Shelton, DT -- Washington Shelton came to Mobile as a likley first-round prospect. He left as a potential top 10 draftee and a force to be reckoned with on the inside of the defensive line. The only way to slow Shelton down this week was to double team him, or grab him. By the third day of practices, the numbers on his jersey had been pulled off from all the holding offensive linemen did in the trenches. Any offensive lineman that spoke on the subject, mentioned Shelton as the hardest interior lineman to go up against. Shelton greatly reduced the amount of time he's going to have to wait on April 30. Laken Tomlinson, G -- Duke One of the guards that sang the praises of Shelton was Duke's Tomlinson. While he was battling with Shelton, however, Tomlinson was showing that he deserved a lot more draft-day attention. Tomlinson didn't always win when matched up against Shelton, but he didn't lose often either -- and he was never manhandled. Tomlinson was offered as the toughest guard to play against during practices at the Senior Bowl, and that should go a long way toward helping Tomlinson. As a guard, Tomlinson won't be a first-round pick. But after the Senior Bowl, he won't have to wait terribly long on Day 2 to hear his named called. Nate Orchard, DE -- Utah The 2015 draft is rich with pass-rushers. And because of how he performed in Mobile, Orchard could now be considered a first-round draft pick. Orchard finished second in the nation with 18.5 sacks in 2014, and showed folks at the Senior Bowl that those numbers could be replicated against the best talent available. He was one of the defensive ends that continually blew by linemen with his speed, and when power was necessary he showed the strength to be a bully too. Not only did Orchard prove he could get after a quarterback, he offered soft hands (he picked off a poorly-thrown screen pass in 11-on-11 drills) and made an impressive play by staying with his assignment and closing down to back end of a play and thwarting an end-around. Powerful, agile and football smart are good traits to have in a pass-rusher. Cameron Artis-Payne, RB -- Auburn Artis-Payne didn't finish as the top Senior-Bowl rusher (he gained 43 yards on 10 carries and caught three passes for 35 yards), but he did have a truly impressive opening drive where he showed power running and a keen pass-catching ability. With the kind of vision and burst Artis-Payne exhibited, he should rise in the ranks of running backs in the 2015 draft, a draft class rich with talent. To grab the attention of NFL teams, a running back needs to be able to run with force, and possess good hands. Dual-threat isn't just for quarterbacks anymore. Phillip Dorsett, WR -- Miami Dorsett didn't play in the Senior Bowl because of an injury, but he was one of the most impressive receivers in practice, and those sessions were extremely valuable to the former Miami star. With the ability to absolutely blow by defensive backs with his world-class speed, Dorsett should climb up draft boards in the pre-draft process on his wheels alone. But he also ran crisp routes in practice, showed good hands and fought for the football, and won, against defenders with more size. Dorsett is explosive off the line, and drew comparisons all week to T.Y. Hilton and Brandin Cooks. Carl Davis, DT -- Iowa Davis was always thought to be more athletic than his film portrayed, but he never showed that at Iowa. He sure did in Mobile, however. In addition to his strong base and being a tough player to move off his spot, Davis revealed a knack at getting penetration into the backfield. He was one of the most disruptive interior forces in practice, and many offensive linemen paired him almost equally with Danny Shelton in terms of being difficulty to handle. Davis was a Day 2 prospect prior to the Senior Bowl, but could have worked his way into the first round. Shaq Mason, G -- Georgia Tech In the time he spent with the Yellow Jackets, Mason learned well how to explode into his assignment and work effectively with angles in a zone-blocking scheme. His skills were on display in Mobile. There was little doubt Mason could move forward, but how would he handle pass protection? He used awesome strength and an ability to leverage himself into a winning week at the Senior Bowl. Many scouts watched Mason and thought center instead of guard. Everyone looked on and saw a prospect that incredibly improved his draft stock.
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KIEV, Ukraine Ukraine's president said Sunday that intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russia-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded the southeastern city of Mariupol and killed at least 30 people. The attack on Mariupol, a strategically situated port city that had been relatively quiet for months, alarmed the West and looked likely further to aggravate relations with Russia. Putting the blame squarely on Moscow, President Barack Obama said the U.S. would work with its European partners to "ratchet up the pressure on Russia." European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini later announced that EU foreign ministers would hold an "extraordinary" meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking separately with Mogherini and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, told them the Ukrainian government bore responsibility for the latest military escalation, according to statements released by his ministry. Lavrov did not, however, directly address who had carried out the attack on Mariupol and said that it should be investigated. Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko initially announced that his forces had begun an offensive on the government-controlled city of Mariupol. But after the extent of civilian casualties became known, he backtracked and blamed Ukrainian forces for Saturday's carnage. The rocket attack came a day after the rebels rejected a peace deal and announced they were going on a multi-pronged offensive against the Kiev government in Kiev in a bid to seize more territory. The rebel stance has upended European attempts to mediate an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has cost at least 5,100 lives since April, according to United Nations estimates. "The intercepted radio and telephone conversations, which were given to me by Ukraine's security services, irrefutably prove that the attack was conducted by the terrorists, who, unfortunately, are supported by Russia," President Petro Poroshenko said during an emergency meeting of his Security Council. The Organization for Security and Cooperation's monitoring mission said Saturday that the Grad and Uragan rockets that hit Mariupol were fired from areas under rebel control. The OSCE said its Permanent Council would meet Monday in Vienna "in light of the rapid deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine." In Mariupol on Sunday, emergency workers disposed of rocket fragments left by the attack. Police said two unexploded rockets were found in a bank and an apartment building. U.N. refugee agency workers handed out blankets to people left homeless or without heat because of the shelling, which hit schools, homes and shops. "The city is in shock," Mariupol resident Yelena Khorshenko said by telephone. "The streets are empty, and people are boarding up their windows and preparing for the worst." Mariupol lies between Russia and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Heavy fighting in the region in the fall raised fears that the Russian-backed separatists would try to capture the city to forge a land link between the two. In Kiev, hundreds gathered on the central square in memory of those who died in Mariupol. In addition to the 30 people killed, 95 people were wounded. A peace deal signed in September in Minsk, Belarus, envisaged a cease-fire and a pullout of heavy weapons from a division line in eastern Ukraine, but both sides have repeatedly violated the pact. The U.S. is "deeply concerned about the latest break in the cease-fire and the aggression that these separatists with Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian training and Russian troops are conducting," Obama said during a visit to New Delhi. "And we will continue to take the approach that we've taken in the past, which is to ratchet up the pressure on Russia and I will look at all additional options that are available to us short of military confrontation and try to address this issue." Obama said the U.S. would work "in close consultation with our international partners, and particularly European partners, to ensure that they stay in lock-step with us on this issue." The U.S. and EU have imposed sanctions on Russian individuals, businesses and entire sectors of the economy over Russia's annexation of Crimea and role in fomenting the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Lavrov, in the separate calls with Kerry and Mogherini, attributed the latest violence to stepped-up operations by the Ukrainian military. He urged the West to pressure Ukraine to engage in comprehensive talks for a political solution to the conflict, the ministry statements said. Kerry told Lavrov that the U.S. was ready to participate in serious efforts to settle the conflict, but made clear that "Russia will be judged by its actions and that the costs to Russia will only increase of attacks continue," the State Department said. In another indication of Western alarm over the latest violence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called both Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Merkel expressed her condolences to Poroshenko for the latest civilian deaths, her spokesman Steffan Seibert said. "During her call with President Putin the chancellor urged him to avoid a further escalation and to exert influence on the separatists in order to achieve the implementation of the Minsk agreement," the spokesman said. Fighting also has intensified for control over Debaltseve, a government-held town and railway hub about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Donetsk, the main city under separatist control. Ukraine military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said rebel shelling had killed an undetermined number of civilians and damaged 60 residential buildings. He said there was no electricity or heat in the city of 25,000 people. Four Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 17 wounded over the past 24 hours, Lysenko said. ___ Associated Press reporters Evgeniy Maloletka in Mariupol, Julie Pace in New Delhi, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Raf Casert in Brussels and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Action Express Racing, which stopped with fuel pressure problems nine hours into the Rolex 24, emerged in the lead Sunday with five hours remaining in the 53rd annual 24-hour sports car race at Daytona International Speedway. Joao Barbosa, who was driving when the car sputtered to a stop shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, had it in the lead on a restart shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday. Barbosa is teamed with Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais. After overnight repairs, the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP regained the lead. With less than five hours remaining, Barbosa was back behind the wheel and leading another Corvette DP, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP driven by Jordan Taylor. He's teamed with Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli. Two Chip Ganassi Racing cars with Felix Sabates Ford-powered Rileys followed the two Corvettes in the early morning hours. Tony Kanaan had the Ganassi No. 02 entry in third, while Scott Pruett was in fourth in the Ganassi No. 01 car. The race, which features competition in four classes around the 12-turn, 3.56-mile Daytona road course, will conclude at 2:10 p.m. ET.
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Resurgent second seed Maria Sharapova's Australian Open campaign kicked into overdrive on Sunday as young guns Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep scraped into the quarter-finals. Five-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova demolished China's Peng Shuai to set up a glamour final eight showdown with Canada's Bouchard, whose form continues to blow hot and cold as she chases a maiden major. Third seed Halep of Romania ground out a tough straights win over unseeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer and will face dangerous Russian 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova, who continued to glide through almost unnoticed. But it was a fired-up Sharapova, wounded and determined to make a point after almost bombing out in the early rounds, who stamped her authority on the bottom half of the draw. The 27-year-old routed 21st seed Peng 6-3, 6-0, looking tense and aggressive as she wore down some early resistance from China's top-ranked player to storm into the quarters at Melbourne Park for the eighth time. The Russian, who won the Australian title in 2008, can snatch the world number one ranking off arch-rival Serena Williams if she repeats the feat this year. She has defeated Bouchard in their previous three meetings but was wary of the threat the 20-year-old seventh seed poses, recalling their most recent meeting in the French Open semi-finals last year. "It was a really tough three setter. She's been playing incredibly well -- confident aggressive tennis," she said of the player touted as her heir apparent as the world's most marketable female athlete. "She's a big competitor. An aggressive player that likes to take the ball early and dictate points." - 'Perfect doesn't exist'- Bouchard, who idolised Sharapova as a child and shares her unrelenting drive, vowed to hit the practice courts after an alarming mid-match slump against unseeded Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu. The rising star book-ended her match with scintillating tennis in the first and last sets but relaxed in the second. "I let my level drop. It's disappointing for me because I want to play so well and I want to be perfect," she said, pledging to avoid making the same mistake against Sharapova. "I definitely want to keep playing my game no matter what. Really kind of take it to her, go for my shots. That's what I want to do on the court. And it's more fun when I play that way too." Halep also faced a torrid time in her 6-4, 6-2 victory over world number 80 Wickmayer. The 23-year-old Romanian, a quarter-finalist in 2014, dug deep for a win, putting the result down to experience gained last year when she also reached the final at Roland Garros and the semis at Wimbledon. Halep raged at herself when the match did not go according to plan after she made a strong start, shouting and gesticulating after mistakes. "Some moments of the match you are frustrated, but it's normal. I have to accept my mistakes," she said. "I just want to be perfect on court, but it's not possible -- perfect doesn't exist." In contrast, Makarova was positively serene against unseeded German Julia Goerges, barely breaking a sweat as she defeated the world number 73 6-3, 6-2 to make the quarters for the third time in four years. The 26-year-old, a US Open semi-finalist last year, has progressed virtually unnoticed, with none of the pressure that comes from being under the spotlight, a situation Sharapova said would not last. "She's a player that's always gone a little bit under the radar, but has produced some really good results in her career, especially at the US Open and here," Sharapova said. "I don't think she should shy away from that."
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The weird world of phobias While some people have the fear of cooking, some are afraid of cats or the moon. Click through to find out some of the strange and unusual phobias that people may exhibit. Androphobia: Fear of men People who suffer from this phobia feels uncomfortable or nervous when talking to men. Some even avoid men. Achluophobia: Fear of darkness This phobia, which is usually seen in young people, makes the person sick or behave differently. Acrophobia: Fear of heights This phobia is quite common. The phobic gets a panic attack or an anxiety reaction while standing at a height. Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders People who suffer from this phobia experience symptoms like sweating, chest pain, hot or cold flashes, and a feeling of choking. Anemophobia: Fear of winds This phobic is scared of strong winds or storms. The attack symptoms includes rapid breathing, sweating, dry mouth and nauseous sensations. Barophobia: Fear of gravity People suffering from this phobia feel that gravity might crush them. They fear falling down. Bathmophobia: Fear of stairs or steep slopes This phobia is associated with the fear of falling and losing the balance. Chionophobia: Fear of snow This weather phobia makes the sufferer dislike snow. Catoptrophobia: Fear of mirrors People suffering from this phobia have an abnormal fear of mirrors or one's own reflection. Coulrophobia: Fear of clowns The phobic is scared of excessive makeup, red nose and colored hair. Dendrophobia: Fear of trees This phobia makes the sufferer scared of trees. The attack symptoms include panic attack and anxiety. Dentophobia: Fear of dentists This most commonly-found phobia makes the person fear dental care. Ecophobia: Fear of the home This fear of home leads to difficulty of breathing, panic attacks, sweating and crying. Entomophobia: Fear of insects The phobic fears all kinds of insects, irrespective of whether the insect is harmful or not. Felinophobia: Fear of cats People who fear cats have the following symptoms: dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think, and anxiety attacks. Gamophobia: Fear of marriage People who suffer this phobia can't get married or remain committed to a single person for life. Hydrophobia: Fear of water People who suffer from this phobia have an extreme fear of water. Latrophobia: Fear of doctors The fear of going to a doctor is quite common in children, and sometimes it's found in adults too. Koinoniphobia: Fear of rooms This phobia makes a person feel uneasy in shared spaces, including streets and public halls. Lachanophobia: Fear of vegetables Some people are scared of eating vegetables because they think that if they swallow a seed by mistake, it will grow inside them. Mageirocophobia: Fear of cooking A person suffering from this phobia is scared of two things: burning themselves and cooking food incorrectly. Megalophobia: Fear of large things The phobic suffers from panic attacks when he/she looks at objects larger than themselves. Mysophobia: Fear of dirt and germs Mysophobia, which is often related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), compels the person to wash hands frequently. Nosocomephobia: Fear of hospitals The person suffering from this phobia has an irrational fear of hospitals because he/she relates them with accidents, and at times, death. Obesophobia: Fear of gaining weight This phobia, also called Pocrescophobia, is easy to find in cultures that value thinness. It can also lead to bulimia (eating food and throwing it up) or anorexia. Ophidiophobia: Fear of snakes The degree of Ophidophobia, which is very common, varies from person to person, with some being scared of all types of snakes while some being scared of just the big ones. Ochlophobia: Fear of crowds The phobic is scared of densely-populated places. They even turn incapable of escaping large gatherings. Papyrophobia: Fear of paper People suffering from this phobia often think that paper can take many shapes and forms. Pyrophobia: Fear of fire In this phobia, the sufferer feels deeply afraid of fire. Even the smell of smoke can trigger an anxiety attack. Quadrophobia: Fear of the number four This phobia is very rare. In it, the sufferer fears of things that come in fours. Rhytiphobia: Fear of getting wrinkles People who want their faces to be perfect have this extreme fear of getting wrinkles. Selenophobia: Fear of the moon Often related to superstition that dangerous creatures appear once the moon is out, the phobic gets scared when the sun is about to set. Tonitrophobia: Fear of thunder It's a fear that primarily arises from thunder and lightning. The phobic is also impacted by gales, heavy rain and hail. Uranophobia or Ouranophobia: Fear of heaven This unusual fear relates to religious factors. Venustraphobia: Fear of beautiful women It's a fear that disallows a person from speaking to beautiful women. The phobia is often connected to having bad experiences with women in the past. Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches and witchcraft A person suffering from this phobia associates witches to dark arts and black magic. Xenophobia: Fear of strangers or foreigners Often connected to racism, Xenophobia also compels the phobic to be distrustful of new neighbors. Stretchophobia: Fear of yoga It's a fear of twisting the body into tough postures and foreign shapes. Usually a person suffers from this when they are new to yoga. Zoophobia: Fear of animals A very common phobia, the sufferers usually have negative childhood memories involving animals.
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ATHENS Greek voters handed power to a radical leftist party in national elections on Sunday, a popular rebellion against the bitter economic medicine Greece has swallowed for five years and a rebuke of the fellow European countries that prescribed it. With nearly all votes counted, opposition party Syriza was on track to win about half the seats in Parliament. In the wee hours of the morning, it clinched a coalition deal with a small right-wing party also opposed to Europe's economic policy to give the two a clear majority. "Today the Greek people have written history," Syriza's young leader and likely new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said in his victory speech late Sunday. "The Greek people have given a clear, indisputable mandate for Greece to leave behind austerity." A Syriza victory marks an astonishing upset of Europe's political order, which decades ago settled into an orthodox centrism while many in Syriza describe themselves as Marxists. It emboldens the challenges of other radical parties, from the right-wing National Front in France to the newly formed left-wing Podemos party in Spain, and it sets Greece on a collision course with Germany and its other eurozone rescuers. Within minutes of the close of the polls, Germany's powerful central-bank chief, Jens Weidmann, pushed back. "It is clear that Greece will remain dependent on support and it's also clear that this aid will be provided only when it is in an aid program," he said in an interview with television broadcaster ARD. A message on U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's usual Twitter account, meanwhile, warned that the Greek result will "increase economic uncertainty across Europe." Mr. Tsipras staked his campaign on resistance to the policies of fiscal austerity budget cuts and tax increases demanded by Germany in return for a €240 billion ($269 billion) bailout, and many Greek voters embraced him. "Europe is self-destructing," said Polyxeni Konstantinou, a 56-year-old public-sector worker voting in central Athens. "I voted for Syriza because I hope that it will help change the tragic circumstances that now govern Europe. Will Syriza be able to achieve everything it says? Probably not. But whatever it does achieve, then that will be good for Europe." It may be less positive for financial markets, which had reckoned on a narrower victory that would have tempered Syriza's ambitions by forcing it to seek partners in a coalition. The euro slid slightly in the very earliest whispers of trading in New Zealand overnight. "Greece is two years ahead of the curve" when it comes to politics, said Bill Blain, chief strategist at Mint Partners, a brokerage. "Other countries' [radical parties] are all going to have their day fairly soon and it's really about markets trying to anticipate how other countries will follow Greece." Europe's financial markets are far more resilient today than they were three years ago, when troubles in Greece sent investors fleeing from government bonds of other troubled countries. Nonetheless, the specter of strained conflict in Greece could cause a selloff of riskier assets. Mr. Tsipras has promised to roll back austerity, first with a spending package aimed at Greece's struggling poor, and to win forgiveness of some of Greece's towering debt. He will have a mammoth task at home and abroad. For one thing, Syriza is a broad coalition of the left that includes factions that believe Greece should leave the eurozone. Those factions would pressure Mr. Tsipras if he moves to compromise with Europe. The pressure to compromise will be intense. Under the bailout program's rigorous schedule, Greece is required to complete a review of its progress with the so-called troika of bailout inspectors by the end of February. Mr. Tsipras has said he doesn't recognize the troika's authority. If negotiations to revive the bailout falter, Greece would be without an umbrella of protection. That program ensures that Greece's government has access to a stream of cheap financing, and ensures Greek banks have access to cheap funding from the European Central Bank. The next hurdle will be €7 billion in bonds held by the ECB that mature in July and August. Greece doesn't have the cash to repay them, and failure to do so could ultimately lead to Greece's exit from the eurozone. The country is already deeply strained. In the past three months, Greece's main stock index has shed roughly a fifth of its value, while nervous depositors have withdrawn several billion euros from the country's banking system. At the same time, the rest of Europe is financially healthier even as it is mired in economic stagnation. The ECB's newly announced program of government-bond purchases, while primarily designed to boost sagging inflation, will likely "muffle any contagion effects" by damping financial-market volatility, said Lucy O'Carroll, chief economist at Aberdeen Asset Management. After midnight local time, with more than 98% of the ballots counted, Syriza had 36.3% of the vote, trouncing the incumbent New Democracy party, with just 27.8%. The polls also showed voters backed a handful of smaller parties including the extreme-right Golden Dawn party and the centrist To Potami party. But in the early hours of Monday, even before the final votes were counted, Syriza officials said a deal had been struck with the Independent Greeks a party that shares little common ground with Syriza except for its rejection of the austerity measures. The party, which is poised to win 13 seats in Parliament, would mean the coalition would have at least 162 seats a comfortable governing majority in Greece's 300-seat legislature. A meeting between Mr. Tsipras and Independent Greeks party leader Panos Kammenos is scheduled to take place Monday morning, Syriza officials said. Since first seeking a bailout in 2010, Greece has undertaken broad economic overhauls and cutbacks that have helped mend its public finances and nudged the economy back to growth following six years of deep recession. Those cutbacks have come at a cost: Some 25% of Greeks remain jobless, while a quarter of households live close to the poverty line. Syriza has promised to change all of that, pledging immediate relief to the poor, rolling back unpopular taxes and negotiating a debt write-down with the country's creditors to free up spending on social programs. Write to Charles Forelle at [email protected], Nektaria Stamouli at [email protected] and Alkman Granitsas at [email protected]
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday India was not under pressure on climate change after the US and China signed an emissions deal, but added global warming itself was reason to take action. India, the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has resisted pressure to commit to a timeline for capping emissions after China and the United States announced a bilateral pact in November. "India is an independent country. There is no pressure as such," Modi said after talks with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi. "But there is a pressure of a different kind, the pressure of what kind of legacy we want to leave for our future generations," Modi said, standing alongside Obama. "Global warming is a pressure... We understand this pressure and we are responding to it," he added. Obama has been keen to clinch a deal with India ahead of a key climate summit in Paris late this year. Under last year's ambitious joint plan between the world's two largest economies, the US set new targets for carbon emission reductions while China said it would cap emissions and get more of its electricity from renewable energies. India relies hugely on coal to generate its electricity, while its population is set to overtake that of China's by 2030. Since coming to power in May, Modi has pledged to increase India's renewable energy in a bid to lower coal use and bring electricity to more than 300 million poor people without power. The Modi government set a target in November for as much as 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022, five times the previous goal. Modi said Sunday that clean energy was a "personal and national priority" for him and that he was looking forward to a "successful" Paris conference in December. Obama said the two leaders had made a "personal commitment" to work together and pursue a strong global climate agreement at the event. The Paris summit will see some 195 countries hold talks to find ways to curb the fossil-fuel gases warming the planet.
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YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) An Eastern Michigan University women's basketball player and another student were killed early Sunday when their car crossed the center line of a road and hit an oncoming vehicle, authorities say. The collision happened about 1 a.m. in Ypsilanti Township, west of the school's Ypsilanti campus, the Washtenaw County sheriff's department said in a statement. Shannise Heady, a 21-year-old junior forward for the Eagles, was driving when her car veered into the vehicle of a 22-year-old driver, who was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the sheriff's department said. Heady, of Hazel Crest, Illinois, and her 23-year-old passenger, Jordan Hopkins, an Eastern Michigan senior from Dexter, died. The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation, the sheriff's department said. ''This is a tragic loss,'' said Eastern Michigan University President Susan Martin. ''Our thoughts and prayers are with Jordan's and Shannise's families and friends at this difficult time.'' Heady transferred to the Eastern Michigan in January 2013 from Seton Hall University, in northern New Jersey. She appeared in 22 games for the Eagles last season, averaging 5 points in 14.4 minutes. In 17 games this season, she was averaging 23.2 minutes and 7.9 points. ''Obviously this is one of our toughest days as a program ... as we mourn the loss of Shannise,'' coach Tory Verdi said in a statement. ''We are truly devastated. ... Shannise was not only an inspiration to all of us, but she brought energy and liveliness to our team.'' Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon A. Steinbrecher said he ''was shocked and saddened to learn of this tragic event.'' The university said it would make counseling available to those who seek it.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio Soon enough, TV coverage of the NHL will be changed by technology that will go much further than broadcasts. "This is not the glowing puck," NHL COO John Collins said. "That is not the intended use of this technology." Sportvision, the company that brought the "FoxTrax" glowing puck of 90s hockey broadcasts, has much more up its sleeve these days. They've created a puck with infrared emitters and use "active tracking," a set of 10 infrared cameras fixed to the catwalk at the top of an arena, to keep tabs on it. Thirty times a second, data is collected from the puck and "player tags" that are slipped into the backs of players' jerseys. "The ability to put a chip in a puck and not alter the science of the puck and the reaction of the puck was a big step and took quite a while," said Hank Adams, CEO of Sportvision. "We'll review the data and the experiences of the players after this and we'll figure out a plan together going forward." Sportvision is a company that is mainly used to aid television broadcasts. It's the same company that's responsible for tracking pitches in baseball games and superimposing the yellow first-down line for football games. "At a base level, what this would do is give an accurate, digital record consistent across the league, of what happens on the ice," Collins said. "Right now we have a real-time scoring system, which has served us well and is the basis for everything we do in the stats area right now." With that, though, there's human involvement and a certain subjectivity as to what constitutes a hit, giveaway, turnover or even shot on goal. This new technology could aid that, including video review to show if a puck has crossed the goal line even if it's underneath a goalie. "It's not ever gonna replace the formal decisions," Adams said. "There may be times where we'll see it and it hits off a goalie's skate and crosses the line and for whatever reason the camera angles didn't catch it." That may be getting a bit too ahead of things, though. Right now, the NHL and Sportvision only have the equipment being used for Sunday's All-Star Game and Saturday's skills competition. Imagine the possibilities, though. The NHL has. This technology is capable of adding an extra level of analytics that is more concrete more precise than what's out there now. Instead of measuring possession by proxy via shot attempts as is the case with advanced statistics like Corsi and Fenwick the new puck can measure the actual time a team is in a team's offensive or defensive zone. "Yes, from that standpoint, we certainly can," Adams said. "When we get into who's in possession of the puck, that has to be a human involved in it because we don't have electronics on the sticks. There's only so much you can really use this stuff to replace. A human being is going to have to get involved at a certain point and make these judgment calls." Stats will change, too. Soon, the NHL will revamp its website with statistics that lend more to the advanced metrics that have been quantified by some on the Internet. "You'll see in February we've got a number of partners we're beginning to roll out, people like SAP, like Microsoft, who have a real B2B story on how their technology really helped hockey sort of take it to the next level," Collins said. "You'll see on NHL.com over the next couple of months it will be a complete restage of all that data. It will be much deeper, much richer, much more usable from a fan standpoint." What exactly do the players think about this? These new stats and the availability of them thanks to the tags they'll wear and the emitters in the puck, could shed light on things they never have before. "This is the first step, but these are the discussions we're having with the players right now," NHLPA special assistant Mathieu Schneider said. "Will coaches coach by statistics on the bench with an iPad? It's next to impossible maybe we'll get to it, I don't know to measure hockey IQ, hockey intelligence. We all know that Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull were not the fastest skaters on their team. They weren't the strongest guys, but two of the best players to ever play the game. There still needs to be that sense from the guys that it's not going to be overused or used improperly." There's undoubtedly huge potential here, but the NHL and Sportvision don't yet have a real arrangement after the hockey world leaves Columbus for All-Star festivities. Dave Isaac writes for the (Cherry Hill, N.J.) Courier-Post
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Duke's big second half helped Coach K pick up his 1,000th career win. Freshmen Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor combined to score 39 points in the 77-68 win over St. John's.
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Brandon Jennings will miss six to nine months with a torn Achilles, according to a tweet from Jennings himself . The Detroit Pistons point guard injured his left leg in the third quarter of a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 24. He was carted off the court in a wheelchair. Jennings was playing some of the best basketball of his career for the surprising Pistons, one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA at the time of his injury. After starting the season 5-23, the Pistons waived Josh Smith , the big man who never fit into a lineup with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. From there, the Pistons thrived, winning 12 of their next 16 games to climb to 17-27, right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff hunt. Jennings was a key to the team's recent success. The Pistons' leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, he was averaging 6.6 assists per game and hitting big shots down the stretch. (See: his game winner against the San Antonio Spurs .) In the 15 games following the dismissal of Smith, Jennings was playing some of the best basketball of his career. He was averaging 20.1 points per game while shooting 39.4 percent from beyond the arc. His loss will be a huge blow to the Pistons' playoff chances. D.J. Augustin will fill the role of starting point guard. Augustin is averaging 8.4 points and 4.2 assists in 21.4 minutes per game. He has playmaking ability, but has big shoes to fill. Spencer Dinwiddie , a second-round draft pick who is currently playing for Detroit's D-League team, could find himself on the roster as a backup point guard.
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Two-time world champion Sebastien Ogier won the Monte Carlo Rally on Sunday, the Volkswagen driver holding off his Finnish team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala for the Frenchman's third success in the iconic opening leg of the world rally championship. It was an all-Volkswagen podium for the 83rd edition with Andreas Mikkelson claiming third. The last time the first three places fell to the same constructor was in 2003 when Sebastien Loeb took third in a Citroen 1-2-3. "This event had the best atmosphere I have experienced on a rally. When I drove the stage close to my home village, the atmosphere was magical," said Ogier who was born near the host town of Gap. Loeb, a seven-time Monte Carlo winner, posted the fastest time in one of Sunday's closing three stages, the other two going to his Northern Irish team-mate Kris Meeke. Loeb, the nine-time world champion who lost time after a crash on Friday when Ogier took the lead, came in eighth overall after topping the timesheets in five specials. Ogier's previous wins in the Principality came in 2009 at the wheel of a Peugeot when the rally was part of the International Rally Challenge, and last year. "Winning Monte-Carlo means a lot for every driver, but especially for me," said the 31-year-old, who after seeing his lead cut on Saturday wrapped up the win comfortably in the end by 58sec from Latvala with Mikkelson over two minutes behind. "It's the most important rally of the season. The weather makes it a huge challenge but the satisfaction is great when you make it." The WRC season moves next to the snow-covered roads of Sweden starting on February 12, the only true winter test on the calendar.
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Nine years after leaving Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft is at last drawing close to Pluto and on Sunday was expected to start shooting photographs of the dwarf planet. The first mission to Pluto began in January 2006 when an Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida and hauled the piano-sized New Horizons craft away from Earth and on a three-billion mile journey. "New Horizons is set to begin imaging Pluto today, but with the spacecraft still approximately 130 million miles from Pluto, the pictures will be distant," Mike Buckley, a spokesman for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory outside Washington, told AFP. "Pluto and its largest moon Charon will still appear as dots against a background of stars," he added. NASA scientists took the spacecraft out of hibernation in December to get it ready for its upcoming close-ups of Pluto and Charon. The craft will pass closest to Pluto on about July 14, 2015. Buckley said he expects the first photographs to be received back on Earth this week, and they will be released to the public shortly after. Despite the weak light levels reflecting from the surface of the dwarf planet, discovered in 1930, New Horizons should be able to gather enough data from the surface of Pluto and Charon and create topographic maps. The craft carries onboard seven instruments including infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a multicolor camera, a high-resolution telescopic camera and a space dust detector. After New Horizons finishes its six-month investigation of Pluto, it will pass near other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of debris left over from the solar system's birth some 4.6 billion years ago. Pluto is about 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) in diameter, smaller than Earth's moon, and has a mass about 500 times less than Earth. Pluto and its five moons circle the sun every 247.7 years. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union withdrew Pluto's status as a planet given its small size, reclassifying it as a dwarf planet and leaving the solar system with eight planets.
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The Islamic State group confirmed Sunday its militants have executed Haruna Yukawa, one of two Japanese it has been holding hostage, following the release of a video announcing his death. "The Islamic State has carried out its threat... it has executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the expiry of the deadline given," the Sunni extremist group said on Al-Bayan radio, which broadcasts in areas under its control in Iraq and Syria. "The second hostage (Kenji Goto) is calling on his relatives to put pressure on the (Japanese) government for the release of our sister Sajida al-Rishawi, held in the jails of the oppressors in Jordan, in exchange for his release," it said. Rishawi is a would-be Iraqi female suicide bomber on death row in Jordan in connection with triple hotel bomb attacks in Amman that killed 60 people on November 9, 2005. Her name emerged Saturday in a video released by the Islamic State that shows images of Goto holding what appears to be a photograph of the slain body of his compatriot Yukawa. The video was released with an audio recording in which a man claiming to be Goto blames Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his fellow captive's death because he failed to pay IS a $200 million ransom by the end of the 72-hour deadline it announced Tuesday. The voice also reveals a new demand for the release Rishawi, saying the militants are no longer demanding money to save his life, but want "their sister" to be freed. "It is simple. You give them Sajida and I will be released," the voice says. The Amman bombings were claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq who was killed in a US air raid there in June 2006. His group was a precursor of the IS, and Rishawi's brother, Samir Atruss al-Rishawi, who was also killed in Iraq, was one of Zarqawi's lieutenants. Earlier on Sunday, Japan's prime minister Abe branded the murder of Yukawa, a self-employed security contractor, as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded IS to immediately release Goto, a freelance journalist. World leaders have also denounced the murder, with US President Barack Obama calling it "brutal" and British Prime Minister David Cameron branding it "murderous barbarity". Japan dispatched a minister to Jordan earlier this week but Abe has declined to comment on whether he would ask Amman to release Sajida.
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Chip Ganassi bristles when his No. 02 team is called the "star car." Truth is, the moniker couldn't be more appropriate right now. Ganassi's all-star driver lineup of three-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan and NASCAR's reigning top rookie Kyle Larson won the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday to give the team owner his record-setting sixth victory in 12 attempts. Ganassi made it clear he doesn't endorse the "star car" nickname, and he and team manager could pick their eight drivers names out of a hat to set the vaunted two-car lineup. "I don't know who named it, but I don't approve of that name," he said. "That's like any other car on our team." It didn't look like any other, team, though as Dixon drove a gritty and lengthy final leg Sunday as his three teammates confidently believed he'd pull out the win. Dixon relieved Larson with 3 hours, 32 minutes remaining in the twice-round-the-clock endurance race, and set out to conserve fuel, make no mistakes and follow the Ganassi strategy down to the checkered flag. The Iceman delivered, and made it look easy, too. He totaled more than seven hours behind the wheel of the Target/Ford EcoBoost Riley Prototype and carried the heaviest load on the team. "We had such a good group of guys driving, an awesome team," McMurray said. "It's about Scott Dixon to me. It's really hard to appreciate the talent that guys have from other series until you race with them, and it's crazy the pace that Scott is able to have in the car. It's so much fun to sit up there and watch it." It was the second win for Dixon, who was part of the 2006 victory with Casey Mears and Dan Wheldon. After picking up his second watch, the New Zealander downplayed his role. "The car was very consistent, and I think we had good speed, but everybody pulled their weight," he said. "Everybody did what they needed to do, and that's what gets you through this 24 hours. Everybody kept the car in one piece. "I can't emphasize how big of a team effort it is. It's not one person that ever wins this race. It's everybody involved, and this weekend everybody on the 02 team did their best job, and that was obviously enough to get the victory." It was the first Rolex win for McMurray, Kanaan and Larson, who felt he was so underwhelming in his debut last season that he let his team down and never wanted to return to the sports car race. Instead, he drove his own impressive three-plus hour stint in the middle of the night, then put together a brief but error-free run Sunday morning to get the team into the time window to turn the car over to Dixon. "It's crazy how much a year can do. I hated this race last year. I was terrible," Larson said. McMurray joined AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti as the only drivers to win the Daytona 500 and the Rolex, while Kanaan joined a limited list of drivers to win both Indy and the 24 Hours. "It's awesome, man. I love watches," Kanaan said. "I always bought them, so I've finally got one for free today." Ganassi beat defending race winner Action Express Racing, which was driven by Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais, by 1.33 seconds. Wayne Taylor Racing, runner-up the last two years, lost a shot to challenge Dixon when it realized under a caution with 20 minutes remaining that Jordan Taylor had exceeded his allotted time allowed in the car. He was forced to pit from second to let older brother Ricky Taylor close out the final 9 minutes of the race. "It's a bit disappointing, but we win and lose as a team," said Taylor. Ganassi's other entry, the No. 01 led by five-time winner Scott Pruett, was in the mix for the victory until the clutch broke and the team was forced to retire with under two hours remaining. Corvette Racing won the GT Le Mans class with drivers Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports won the Prototype Challenge class with drivers Mike Guasch, Andrew Novich, Andrew Palmer and Tom Kimber-Smith. It appeared that CORE Autosport had that win locked up until Colin Braun's fiery crash with roughly 20 minutes remaining brought out the final caution and ended what seemed an easy victory. CORE Autosports owner Jon Bennett could only shrug. "We did 23 hours and 46 minutes very successfully," he said. "I think we had small contact with another car, which caused Colin to have a tire going down. We were trying to get back, we didn't a splash of gas, anyway. That's how racing is, I love it." The GT Daytona class was won by Riley Motorsports and drivers Ben Keating, Dominik Fambacher, Al Carter, Kuno Wittmer and Cameron Lawrence. Keating, who is a Dodge Viper car dealer and driver for the SRT team, choked back tears after the win.
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Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) on Sunday blasted President Obama's tax proposal, calling it an "attack on the middle class." "I wasn't surprised because he has been proposing taxes and big government since he's been president," he said. "I think you're going to see more and more of that." "We've heard them before. Most of them don't work. I don't believe they're going anywhere," Shelby said. The Alabama Republican said the president was "real defiant" in his State of the Union address last Tuesday. "I believe instead of helping the middle class, he's attacking the middle class," he said, pointing to raising the tax on capital gains and taxing college saving plans. "This is an attack on the middle class. It's not helping the middle class. Most of the middle class want to be left alone, they want to not have to be overtaxed and over-regulated. He's doing quite the opposite," Shelby said. "He's doing quite the opposite." "The president is saying one thing and doing another. I think most people will see through that. I know the Republican Senate and House will," Shelby added.
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Coach 1K. How grand. Mike Krzyzewski earned his 1,000th career win Sunday, making him the first NCAA Division I men's coach to reach the milestone, when No. 5 Duke surged past St. John's in the second half for a 77-68 victory at Madison Square Garden. Tyus Jones scored 22 points and the Blue Devils (17-2) went on an 18-2 run down the stretch to put Krzyzewski in four figures on his first try. Jahlil Okafor had 17 points and 10 rebounds, combining with Jones and Quinn Cook (17 points) to fuel the decisive spurt after Duke trailed by 10 with 8 1/2 minutes remaining. When the final horn sounded, Blue Devils players engulfed Krzyzewski in front of their bench, and he received a bear hug from assistant Jeff Capel. Players were given T-shirts that read "1,000 and Kounting." "We were so gritty in the last 10 minutes," Krzyzewski said. "It was tough to get involved with 1,000. I was just trying to survive this game, which is how you get to 1,000." A public address announcement offered congratulations to Krzyzewski from St. John's, and Duke fans at a packed Garden chanted his name and held aloft "K" signs. "I'm in it right now. I wasn't in it until now," he said. "You know, to see the happiness of my players makes it good. We have to keep it in perspective. It makes us 17-2 and we've got to go to Notre Dame on Wednesday, but for this moment, for basketball, for the game and for this program, we'll enjoy this one right now." Sir'Dominic Pointer had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Red Storm (13-6), who were looking for a huge win to put on their NCAA tournament resume down the road. They were in position to get it, but got worn down by Duke late and let this one slip away. Rysheed Jordan scored 18 points, and Phil Greene IV added 13. Leading scorer D'Angelo Harrison was held to 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting, his third straight subpar performance as he plays through a strained calf. No. 1,000 came about 500 miles from the cramped and cozy confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium, but Coach K was hardly on unfamiliar soil. After all, Madison Square Garden was where he notched win No. 903 against Michigan State in November 2011, breaking the Division I record previously held by his college coach and mentor, Bob Knight. Krzyzewski improved to 1,000-308 in a 40-year coaching career that began in 1975 at his alma mater, Army. He is 927-249 in 35 seasons at Duke, guiding the Blue Devils to four NCAA titles and 11 trips to the Final Four. By midway through an entertaining first half, the 67-year-old Krzyzewski was on his feet in front of the Duke bench as St. John's erased an 11-point deficit. Wearing a blue suit and white sneakers to support Coaches vs. Cancer, Krzyzewski stalked after the officials at the end of the first half to argue that Harrison's buzzer-beating 3-pointer came after the shot clock expired. Coach K didn't get the call, and the Red Storm went into the locker room leading 43-39.
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ATLANTA Federal law enforcement officials are continuing to pursue a suspect after recent bomb threats targeted two jets bound for Atlanta, prompting F-16 fighter jets to escort the planes, an FBI agent said Sunday. "We certainly take these types of threats seriously and we're pursuing them aggressively," Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Stephen Emmett told The Associated Press, a day after the threats were made. "We are continuing to pursue leads in the efforts to locate this individual," he added. Airport officials said Saturday's threats targeted Southwest Airlines Flight 2492, which arrived at Atlanta from Milwaukee; and Delta Air Lines Flight 1156, which arrived from Portland, Oregon. No bombs were found in searches of both planes after they landed safely Saturday in Atlanta. The threats had been posted on the social media network Twitter, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command. After being alerted, military officials sent two F-16 fighter jets from a base in South Carolina to escort the commercial aircraft to Atlanta.
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CEO of Bulletproof Dave Asprey uses sensors and apps to retrain his children's behavior. Laurie Segall reports.
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Designed by Elliot Salazar. "Here's to not being 30!" my new 23-year-old Australian friend Georgia proclaimed, tipsily clinking her drink against mine. "Yup!" I downed my drink quickly, so she couldn't see the look on my face. I was six weeks shy of my 32nd birthday. I was also single, unemployed, and 10 weeks into a four-month-long backpacking adventure. A year prior, I'd been working in a corporate high-rise, dating men I thought were "marriage material," and attending weddings and baby showers on weekends. When I went on vacation, I stayed in hotels, brought a suitcase, and spent afternoons buying heavy tchotchkes to display in my sunny one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. But, then, I'd lost my job, ended my relationship, and realized that I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity staring me down. No more cramming my travel into just two weeks a year. I had cash socked away, plenty of free time, and a bucket list of places to go. So, last May, I booked a flight to Croatia, settling in at a surfer-owned hostel in the party island of Hvar. "Hello, mate!" A fellow traveler called to me, inviting me to sit down and join him in sharing a bottle of Karlovacka, the cheap local brew. We began swapping our biographies, which is when I suddenly realized that my new friend had just celebrated his 20th birthday. "How old are you?" he asked me in return. "31." He wrinkled his nose. "And, you're backpacking by yourself?" The way he said it made it sound more like I'd just announced I enjoyed spending my weekends clubbing baby seals. "Yeah. I never did it when I was your age, so..." I trailed off, wincing. When I was your age? I was 31, not 91! It was too late. He gulped his beer, mumbled a see ya later, and maneuvered his way to a table of 19-year-olds talking about their respective universities. After that, I began lying about my age, getting younger as my clothes got dirtier, my sunburn got redder, and my tolerance for rakia, the 40% proof local Croatian liquor, got higher. I was 28 in Bosnia, 27 in Montenegro and now, on a booze cruise in Budapest, I was a 24-year-old, cheers-ing my (not-quite) youth. Despite a few close calls (I could never remember my fake year of birth) nobody questioned my lie. From swapping travel tips to talking about craziest stories from the road, the conversation never ran dry with my new twentysomething (and, gah, teenage) friends. But, I did feel a twinge of guilt when I met fellow 30- and 40-year-old backpackers. They didn't apologize for their age, and I couldn't help but notice how they often were the center of attention in hostel lounges, sharing stories of their hard-won experiences with an eager audience. I wanted to be like that, able to share my own wisdom when conversations got philosophical between the twentysomethings: I wanted to tell them that finding a job was scary but not impossible, that adulthood wasn't the end of fun and adventure, that it would all be okay. And then, I ended up in Lahinch, a tiny seaside town on the West Coast of Ireland. It was a dismally rainy Sunday and a dearth of waves had made my surfing plans impossible. So, I found myself bored and drinking a cup of tea in the hostel kitchen. "Can I join you?" A gravelly voice asked. I looked up to see a man with wiry gray hair and formidable, caterpillar-like eyebrows hovering over me. He was soaked. I could see the drops of water dripping off his face and forming constellation-like patterns on the linoleum table. His name was Karl, he was 75, single, and had just spent the past five hours biking in the driving rain. "Tea? Ugh. Let's have a pint!" he said cheerfully, mentioning the bar next door. I shrugged. I wasn't thrilled about spending my evening with a senior citizen, but the hostel was nearly empty and I hadn't seen anyone close to my age during my first lap around town. Hanging out with someone was better than no one. One pint turned into five, which turned into Karl regaling me with fascinating stories of a long, rich life. He had spent a summer in the '70s hitchhiking between Dead shows; at one point Jerry Garcia knew him by name. He spent the '80s cultivating an organic farm in Germany. Now, divorced with grown children, he spent summers biking wherever he could. He'd already crossed Canada, and this trip "just a small one" had taken him from his German hometown across Europe, and now, to one of the western-most points of Ireland. Clearly, Karl didn't deserve to be dismissed a senior citizen. Karl was awesome. His stories were wilder than any I'd heard so far on my trip, and he didn't care what he "should" be doing with his life. The next day, Karl headed up to Northern Ireland, and I moved on to a new hostel in Lisbon, Portugal. I knew our paths would never cross again, but I'm thankful for the life lessons he imparted specifically, that there's no such thing as "acting your age," but there's also no discounting the power of owning up to your age. And, I haven't fibbed about my age since.
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When it comes to science, there is only one Bill whose theories hold water.
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If two is company and three's a crowd, then four might be a good problem to have if you're the Detroit Red Wings. Injured goaltenders Jimmy Howard and Jonas Gustavsson will accompany the Red Wings to their two-game road trip to Florida this week. Both are rehabbing serious injuries. Gustavsson, out since he dislocated his left shoulder on Nov. 5, is close to returning; Howard, who suffered a slight groin tear on Jan. 10, is at least a couple of weeks away. Initially, the Wings forecast that he'd return in two to four weeks, but since they've adjusted that to three to five weeks. They expect both to be back with the team for practices this week, after which they will deliberate on how to proceed, General Manager Ken Holland said. "With Gustavsson, the plan right now is for him to practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then we'll sit down on Thursday and have a conversation about what to do," Holland said, acknowledging that if Gustavsson is cleared to play there's a good chance he'll get a game or two with Grand Rapids before returning to the Detroit roster. "With Howard, we're hoping he's to a point where he could do some off-ice work with our trainers," Holland said. "He just had five days off for the All-Star break. If he didn't go to Florida, he'd be looking at 9-10 days by himself. I would think he'd come with us so we can slowly start ramping him up." Howard and Gustavsson, of course, started the season as Detroit's goaltending tandem. Howard was rebounding nicely from an injury-riddled season a year ago and was enjoying one of the best years of his career. He had learned he was selected to play in the All-Star game just an hour or so before he was carted off the ice in Washington. Gustavsson was the hero down the stretch last season, winning several important games to help Detroit stake claim to its 23rd straight playoff appearance after many had writing the Wings off. In their place, Petr Mrazek and Tom McCollum have performed admirably. Mrazek has proven beyond doubt that he has a bright future in the NHL. And in the one game in which he didn't perform well, McCollum earned his first NHL win in relief when the Wings stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to beat Buffalo. Mrazek and McCollum began the season as the top tandem with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League. There was some speculation that McCollum would return to Grand Rapids while the NHL went on break last week. But Holland explained that NHL rules stipulate that all teams must have two healthy goaltenders on their rosters at all times -- even during breaks like these. With both Howard and Gustavsson on injured reserve, McCollum got to stay and continue drawing a much larger NHL paycheck. In their absence, Jared Coreau was getting the bulk of the work, but his record slipped to 6-6-1 amid a four-game losing streak. On Friday, Pat Nagle, who spent most of his season with Fort Wayne of the East Coast Hockey League, earned his first AHL win to help the Griffins beat Utica. In both Detroit and Grand Rapids, four goalies have won games this season. The goalie glut is a good problem to have, Holland acknowledged. With both Mrazek and Gustavsson playing well, it means that the Wings don't have to rush Howard back into action from an injury that can tend to nag goalies. They're thinking at some point in a nine-day span between the Feb. 5 game at Colorado and the Feb. 14 game against visiting Winnipeg, Howard should be ready to return to the starting lineup, Holland said. Howard won't need a rehab assignment in Grand Rapids because he was playing regularly before his injury. Gustavsson would benefit from a game or two in the NHL, Holland explained, because he has played in just three games this season. In the meantime, expect Mrazek to get both starts in Florida, with McCollum continuing to serve as his backup.
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Gus Johnson's final call for Coach K's 1,000th win.
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DURHAM - It was June, and Mike Krzyzewski was sitting in a hidden room just a few feet from the court in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The conversation was winding down, and he was talking about something that he swore he would never do 10 years ago. "Actually Sunday, I broke my own record by a long shot of texting because it was Father's Day," he said. There was his family, of course. Every current player got a text or call. Every recruit got a text, including a new batch of rising juniors. And then there were the texts from all the former players, too. "The good thing is you can dictate," Krzyzewski said about his phone. "That helps me immensely. I've got to do that more, because that's how kids communicate. You can call a kid, and he won't answer, and you text a kid" - Krzyzewski snaps - "and he answers right away. So you text him and say, 'Can I call you?' "We've got to be careful that you develop relationships strong enough, that are more than texts. But you have to do what you have to do." Jeff Capel, who played under Krzyzewski from 1993-97 and is now his assistant coach, remembers a big dinner with former players when texting became popular. "And I remember him saying that I'm never going to text, I'm never going to do this stuff, whatever," Capel said. "And now he's doing it. But that's him realizing that I have to adapt. I have to be up to it. This is the way these kids communicate. And if I don't, I'm going to be left behind. That's the thing, he doesn't want to be left behind." Krzyzewski's reversal on texting highlights the main quality many former players pointed to as a key factor in his longtime success: His ability to adapt. Krzyzewski's methods have changed since he arrived at Duke in 1980 as the times have changed. As Krzyzewski has aged - he's 67 now - and the players' ages have stayed the same, he hasn't lost his ability to communicate with them, to reach and inspire them. Krzyzewski doesn't live in the past - unlike some coaches, he can't recall details in nondescript games from years ago - and that allows him to be entirely devoted to the present. This year, for example, he is only wearing his West Point college ring and his wedding band, leaving his four NCAA championship rings at home "because all the others are in the past," he said. Staying in the moment prevents Krzyzewski from relaxing and becoming content with his legacy, allowing that to cover any current flaws. As assistant coach Nate James put it: "That's why he always tells the guys, look, it's not about me winning my next. It's about you guys winning your first." "It's funny, when he recruited me in the late '80s, one of the things that was contagious about him, and you could really feel it in our conversations and the meetings I had at Duke, was just how hungry he was," Grant Hill said. "The program had taken great strides, gotten to the Final Four and then come up short. He was just so hungry. You could feel it. You could sense it. "That hunger is still there. Watching him in action, I can see it watching him talk to me and others about his current team and what he wants to accomplish, it's still there, that fire. It hasn't changed. And that fire may even be stronger now. All the years that have passed, and all the successes, he is still driven, very much so." K's secret: Instilling confidence Last summer, Krzyzewski was holding court at his annual fantasy basketball camp, which doubles as a reunion for former players. During a presentation about USA Basketball, Jay Bilas turned to his former college roommate, Mark Alarie. "I'm taking all these notes and I leaned over and I said, 'Was he this profound when we played for him? Were we just too dumb to realize it?'" Bilas said. "The funny part is he was great when we played for him, and that's why we went to play for him. We knew he was great. But it's hard to fathom how good he is now, and how much better." Bilas and Alarie were part of Krzyzewski's 1982 recruiting class, the one ranked No. 1 in the country that served as the foundation for the program's future success. But Krzyzewski's way of communicating connected in Durham before their arrival. "We sat with him, and his first meeting with us was beautiful because he talked to us like we were men," said Gene Banks, a senior on Krzyzewski's first team in 1980-81. "We didn't have to test him or anything like that. We kind of put ourselves in check, knowing that, OK, we can't try him like that, even though we could have tried him. We opted not to because of the way he came at us and spoke to us like we were men." Banks remembered Krzyzewski telling him that yes, there was a lot of work to do, but the Blue Devils would be OK. That reassurance resonated with Banks - he became the first of many Blue Devils to take comfort in the fact that Krzyzewski believed in him. Twelve years later, Bobby Hurley became another. With UNLV up by five in the 1991 Final Four game with two minutes to play, Hurley hit a 3-pointer to make it a one-possession game. Duke won, of course, 79-77 and beat Kansas in the final to give Krzyzewski his first title. In 2011, Krzyzewski called Hurley's shot the biggest he has seen a Duke player make. "I'm just glad I felt I had the confidence to shoot the shot," Hurley said. "That doesn't happen because you believe in yourself all alone. You have to feel like your teammates and your coaches have your back. "I appreciated Coach's ability to really relate to his players. You don't get guys to really play hard and run through walls for you unless you're doing everything in your power to make their college experience the best possible thing." Players pass torch, continue legacy Because of what Hill, Hurley and Christian Laettner accomplished, winning consecutive NCAA titles in 1991 and 1992, Krzyzewski and Duke basketball morphed into a national brand. And that attracted the attention of an elite young player from Detroit. "After I saw Grant Hill play against Arkansas in the 1994 championship - that was when I knew I wanted to go to Duke," said Shane Battier, who arrived in 1997 and led the Blue Devils to the 2001 title. That 2001 championship introduced the Blue Devils to another generation of young players, including one across the country in Oregon. "I actually knew a lot about Duke basketball, but I didn't know where it was. I remember I looked it up," Kyle Singler said. "When Coach was recruiting me, he left such an impression on me that it didn't really matter where Duke was, it was probably the school that I was going to." Once Singler arrived in Durham, he helped lead the program to its fourth national title in 2010 and finished his career ranked fourth on Duke's all-time scoring chart. "What I've always taken away from Coach since Day 1 is just his energy that he brings to the team," Singler said. "You never feel that Coach will shortchange you or won't be prepared for the game that we have coming up." Over the years, that energy has taken on several forms. As recently as a few weeks ago, Krzyzewski, a former point guard under Bob Knight at Army, dropped to his knees to slap the floor as his team went on defense against Toledo. At halftime of a game from the Singler and Jon Scheyer era, Krzyzewski had a manager roll a ball on the locker room floor before diving after it, showing his players the effort he wanted on the court. That move - diving for balls - was more common when he was about 25 years younger, on the court with Hurley. Nate James referred to the more old-school Krzyzewski style as "bringing the thunder" - something that happens less often now than when he played in the late 90s and early 2000s. "He has mellowed because of the culture of the players he has," current assistant coach Jon Scheyer said. "That is where he has grown. You can't coach these guys the same as he coached Bobby Hurley and those guys. To his credit, he has done an unbelievable job of relating and connecting." But Hill still remembers the thunder. "We lost at UVa, we got embarrassed, and it was our first ACC game my freshman year," Hill said of the 81-64 loss in 1991. "And we got off the bus, and we had a practice. It was the worst practice I've ever been associated with at Duke in the sense that it was the hardest. And I broke my nose in that practice. And I remember that. At the time, it was maybe not a fun thing, but it was certainly a lesson." The learning never ends While Krzyzewski's methods of delivering his message may have softened, he hasn't budged on his standard of excellence. The means to the end, on and off the court, are constantly under evaluation, from learning how to text to even embracing a zone defense against Louisville to pick up win No. 998. And that's what Krzyzewski would prefer to focus on: Duke's current challenges. Going back to June, he already was focused on this season and all that would await him with such a young team. "It's hard for me to even fathom the success we've had. And that's why I don't like to think about it. Because let's go to the next thing," he said with a laugh. Six months later, he was in the same mindset. "It's trying to get into the moment of the kids that you have an opportunity to coach right now," Krzyzewski said. "Instead of them being in your moment, you're going to win 1,000 games, or if we won the NCAA championship, it would be our fifth - forget it. These kids, it's about them and being in their moment. Our moment will come." Keeley: 919-829-4556; Twitter: @laurakeeley
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Equatorial Guinea coach Esteban Becker described the host nation's achievement in reaching the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations as a "Cinderella story" after they beat Gabon 2-0 on Sunday. "It's a Cinderella story, the poor team beating the rich team on merit, thanks to their sacrifice, their commitment, their pride and their passion," said the Argentine, whose side progressed from Group A as runners-up behind Congo Brazzaville with a win and two draws. It is a remarkable story given that Becker himself was only appointed as coach at the start of this month. "This squad only came together 20 days ago in Madrid, then we went to Lisbon and put in place a style of play with optimism. "We were convinced in every training session that we could go far. To be in the top eight in Africa is an honour for such a small nation." Former Real Madrid player Javier Balboa, whose penalty opened the scoring against the Gabonese, rejected opposition claims that he dived to win the spot-kick. "I'm delighted for my country, my team and for myself. Today is a great day for the whole of Equatorial Guinea," he said. "The penalty was the right decision. I did not dive. Yes it changed the game but we scored two goals."
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Toto, which packed arenas with 1980s hits such as "Africa" and "Hold the Line," will release its first album in nearly a decade in March followed by an extensive tour. The Los Angeles-area rockers said they regarded "Toto XIV," their first album of new material since 2006, as a sequel to 1982's "Toto IV," which jumpstarted the band's career. "This is opposite of going through the motions," said keyboardist Steve Porcaro, the last of three brothers from the original lineup. The band wants to "make the best music we can. Entertain people... is what we were put on this Earth for," he said in a statement. Toto has sold more than 35 million albums and became a mainstay on a diverse array of radio stations by bringing elements of hard rock and the blues to pop songs. "Toto XIV" -- which aptly is the band's 14th album if including the soundtrack to the movie "Dune" -- will come out between March 20 and 24 around the world. The album features the return of original bassist David Hungate. Mike Porcaro, who joined on bass after "Toto IV," is suffering from neurodegenerative Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS. The band initially reformed in 2010 to play benefit shows for Mike Porcaro. Toto announced a European tour to promote its latest album, starting in Glasgow on May 21 and closing in the French city of Vienne on July 16, with appearances at the Sweden Rock Festival and France's Festival de Nimes. The band said it would also tour North America and Asia later this year with dates to be announced.
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LONDON (AP) After one of the most startling days in the FA Cup's 144-year history, three Premier League clubs restored order Sunday with fourth-round victories to stem the flow of upsets. Arsenal, West Ham and Aston Villa beat lower-league opponents a day after Chelsea and Manchester City were among five of the Premier League's top nine clubs to be ousted. Juventus and Lyon, meanwhile, tightened their grips on first place in the Italian and French leagues. A look at the best of the action in Europe's top leagues: --- ENGLAND Arsenal beat second-tier Brighton 3-2 after being set on its way by early goals from Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil. Tomas Rosicky was the other scorer for Arsenal, which is looking to retain the trophy and as the fifth-place team in the top tier is the highest-ranked club guaranteed a spot in the last 16. Senegal striker Diafra Sakho came off the bench and scored an 81st-minute header to send West Ham to a 1-0 victory at Bristol City, which is second in English soccer's third tier. Villa won at home 2-1 against second-tier leader Bournemouth. Carles Gil, with his first goal since moving from Valencia, and Andreas Weimann scored for the Premier League team. The draw for the fifth round is Monday. --- ITALY Paul Pogba scored in the 60th minute and later set up a goal by Stephan Lichtsteiner to send Juventus to a 2-0 victory over Chievo Verona. The result left the defending champions eight points ahead in Serie A. Second-place Roma visits Fiorentina later. Palermo had a goal ruled out in a 1-1 draw at Sampdoria, with the home team's new signing Samuel Eto'o in attendance. A stoppage-time goal gave Torino a 1-0 win at Inter Milan, its first since 1988. A late goal also saw Cesena beat Parma 2-1 in the relegation race. Hellas Verona downed Atalanta 1-0, with Javier Saviola scoring his first Serie A goal. --- SPAIN Malaga rallied for a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish league, four days before the two meet for a spot in the Copa del Rey semifinals. Abel Resino debuted as Granada's manager in a 2-2 draw at Deportivo La Coruna. The league's last-place club went a 16th round without a victory. Bilbao's Mikel San Jose headed in Markel Susaeta's corner kick at the near post in the 70th minute. Eight minutes later, Javi Guerra tapped home Miguel Torres' low cross. Bilbao stayed in 13th place, its winless run in the league reaching seven rounds. Malaga remained in seventh after four rounds without a victory. --- FRANCE Alexandre Lacazette scored his league-leading 21st goal of the season and then limped off injured in Lyon's 2-0 victory over 10-man Metz. Lyon maintained its four-point lead in the French league. Lacazette hurt his hamstring stretching for the ball two minutes after putting Lyon ahead on a penalty kick in the 31st minute. It was his 13th goal in the past nine games. Corentin Tolisso added the other goal late in the second half. Later Sunday, third-place PSG was at fourth-place Saint-Etienne, with one point separating the teams.
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It's time for the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards -- the only awards show to exclusively honor TV and film performers. 'Cause who else is going to give these poor unrecognized souls the attention they deserve? Some big names were up for major awards Sunday night (January 25), from Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Ruffalo - who were nominated in both TV and film categories, not that they showed up - to Jennifer Aniston, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and the casts of "Game of Thrones," "Downton Abbey," "Homeland," etc. It's kind of like the Golden Globes, if the Golden Globes just focused on the pretty people and left out the lesser-known and potentially less attractive producers/directors/writers. SAG Awards 2015 aired live from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on TBS and TNT. Unlike most awards shows, it actually ended slightly early. (Is that what happens when no one hosts?) Here is the full list of winners, and the nominees who almost won: Performance By a Cast in a Motion Picture "Birdman" - WINNER "Boyhood" "The Grand Budapest Hotel" "The Imitation Game" "The Theory of Everything" Performance By a Female Actor in a Leading Role Julianne Moore, "Still Alice" - WINNER Jennifer Aniston, "Cake" Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything" Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl" Reese Witherspoon, "Wild" Performance By a Male Actor in a Leading Role Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything" - WINNER Michael Keaton, "Birdman" Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game" Jake Gyllenhaal, "Nightcrawler" Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher" Performance By an Ensemble in a Drama Series "Downton Abbey" - WINNER "Boardwalk Empire" "Game of Thrones" "Homeland" "House of Cards" Performance By a Female Actor in a Drama Series Viola Davis, "How To Get Away With Murder" - WINNER Claire Danes, "Homeland" Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife" Tatiana Maslany, "Orphan Black" Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey" Robin Wright, "House Of Cards" Performance By a Male Actor in a Drama Series Kevin Spacey, "House Of Cards" - WINNER Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire" Peter Dinklage, "Game Of Thrones" Woody Harrelson, "True Detective" Matthew McConaughey, "True Detective" Performance By a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries Frances McDormand, "Olive Kitteridge" - WINNER Ellen Burstyn, "Flowers In The Attic" Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Honorable Woman" Julia Roberts, "The Normal Heart" Cicely Tyson, "The Trip To Bountiful" Performance By a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries Mark Ruffalo, "The Normal Heart" - WINNER Adrien Brody, "Houdini" Benedict Cumberbatch, "Sherlock: His Last Vow" Richard Jenkins, "Olive Kitteridge" Billy Bob Thornton, "Fargo" Performance By a Male Actor in a Supporting Role J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash" - WINNER Robert Duvall, "The Judge" Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood" Edward Norton, "Birdman" Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher" Performance By a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood" - WINNER Keira Knightley, "The Imitation Game" Emma Stone, "Birdman" Meryl Streep, "Into The Woods" Naomi Watts, "St. Vincent" Performance By an Ensemble in a Comedy Series "Orange Is the New Black" - WINNER "The Big Bang Theory" "Modern Family" "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" "Veep" Performance By a Male Actor in a Comedy Series William H. Macy, "Shameless" - WINNER Ty Burrell, "Modern Family " Louis C.K., "Louie" Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory" Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family" Performance By a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Uzo Aduba, "Orange Is The New Black" - WINNER Julie Bowen, "Modern Family" Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie" Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep" Amy Poehler, "Parks And Recreation" Action Performance By a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture "Unbroken" - WINNER "Fury" "Get On Up" "The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies" "X-men: Days Of Future Past" Action Performance By a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series "Game Of Thrones" - WINNER "24: Live Another Day" "Boardwalk Empire" "Homeland" "Sons Of Anarchy" "The Walking Dead" Lifetime Achievement Award Debbie Reynolds
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) After more than 23 1/2 hours of racing, Jordan Taylor figured he was in prime position for a victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Then his team made a major miscalculation. Wayne Taylor Racing erred when it put Taylor back in the car at 12:17 p.m. Sunday. Between Taylor's previous driving stint - 2 hours, 35 minutes - and the amount time left in the race (1 hour, 53 minutes), he would have exceeded series rules that prevent drivers from being behind the wheel for more than four hours over a six-hour span. It was a costly mistake. Instead of having a chance to pass leader and eventual champion Scott Dixon on a restart, the team had to swap drivers with 11 minutes to go in the twice-around-the-clock endurance race. Older brother Ricky Taylor replaced Jordan, and since the switch happened under caution and with pit road closed, it prompted a pass-through penalty that dropped the No. 10 Chevrolet way behind Dixon. It also led to a third consecutive oh-so-close finish at Daytona. ''Having that last restart opportunity was like a golden ticket,'' Jordan Taylor said. ''And we haven't had that the past three years.'' The Wayne Taylor Racing team finished third for its third straight podium finish, but still shy of the elusive top spot. The team finished second the previous two years. ''It was just a small miscalculation, an unfortunate one because we were right where we kind of wanted to be, second place on the restart,'' Jordan Taylor said. ''I think we had a stronger car on restarts on cold tires, so it was a perfect opportunity to make something happen.'' Making matters worse, the team was in position to win after overcoming a major mechanical issue. The car's electrical system failed all weekend, and the engine was cutting out in the opening leg of the race. But the same engineers who couldn't fix it in practice or qualifying found a solution during the first pit stop. ''We were having all sorts of electrical issues, and I thought, `You know, we might not finish,''' Ricky Taylor said. ''But the guys did an incredible job ... and they finally nailed it on the first stop of the race and gave us an absolutely incredible car. ''It's just a shame that after all that effort we weren't able to produce a result for them.'' Jordan Taylor looked as if he would bring it home with about 20 minutes to go. He was on new tires, and like so many times before in the previous 23 hours, he thought he would be able to get by one of the Chip Ganassi Racing cars. Then he got the call over the radio - and it changed everything. ''Obviously, when you're about to restart with 10 minutes to go, you're not expecting to get out of the car,'' Jordan Taylor said. ''I figured I kind of had an idea about what it could have been. There's no other reason for that to happen.'' Ganassi sympathized with the Taylors after winning his sixth Rolex 24 in 12 tries. ''They were right there,'' Ganassi said. ''They were doing everything it took to win. ... It was unfortunate they had to make a driver change. Obviously, that team knows how to win races and they know how to win this race and they know how to win championships and they're a good measure for any team in automobile racing.''
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Toni Kroos believes there is not a great difference in quality between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. The midfielder joined the Spanish giants from Bayern in the summer after the Blancos won the Champions League, demolishing the Bundesliga side 5-0 on aggregate. Kroos has already won the UEFA Supercup and the Club World Cup in his first season with Carlo Ancelotti's men and is targeting more success this term, but admits he has not made a massive step up in moving from Bavaria to the Spanish capital. "Playing with stars like Cristiano Ronaldo has been brilliant," he told the DFB website. "But at Bayern I also shared a dressing room with world class players. As for the sporting level there is not much difference between the clubs. Both are top teams. So far I'm having a great time. The first half of the season was good, but I hope we have a very successful season finale. "I feel very comfortable here. Of course I had to adapt to some things. The mentality and way of life here are very different than in Germany, but I get along very well with everyone and I am very happy."
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- David West had 20 points, reserve Damjan Rudez added a career-high 18, and the Indiana Pacers snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 106-99 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night. The Pacers trailed by seven entering the fourth quarter, but got 16 points from Rudez in the final 12 minutes. They outscored the Magic 31-17 in the quarter. BOX SCORE: PACERS 106, MAGIC 99 George Hill had 17 points and six rebounds for Indiana in just his second game back from a left groin strain. Nik Vucevic led four Magic players in double figures with 27 points. Victor Oladipo scored 18. It was the ninth straight Orlando opponent to score at least 100 points. The Magic fell to 5-20 this season when their opponent reaches triple digits. The Pacers took a 95-91 lead on a basket by Ian Mahinmi with less than five minutes to play. But Vucevic made two foul shots to tie it at 97 with 2:23 remaining. Hill then scored the next four points on a layup and a dunk off a steal. Orlando was trailing 102-99 when Indiana ran down the shot clock and got Rudez free for a 3 from the corner with less 30 seconds remaining. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game that he hoped the insertion of rookie Aaron Gordon into the starting lineup for the first time this season would inspire his team to rededicate itself on defense. A faster start offensively was on Pacers coach Frank Vogel's wish list. Neither got what he wanted early on. Indiana started sluggish, before settling in offensively on their way to a 51-49 halftime lead. Orlando couldn't keep the Pacers out of the paint, allowing Indiana to shoot 54 percent (23 of 42) for the half, and 51 percent for the game. --- TIP-INS Pacers: Indiana had eight steals and five blocks. ...C.J. Miles sat out with a sore left groin. He is day to day. Magic: Orland had 22 assists on its 38 field goals. ... The Magic had zero offensive rebounds in the first half and nine for the game. UP NEXT Pacers: Host Toronto on Tuesday in the opener of a five-game homestand. Magic: At Memphis on Monday.
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CLEVELAND Josh Gordon's troubles have deepened. He may be out of chances and time. The wide receiver for the Browns has failed yet another drug test, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday. Gordon, who has twice been suspended by the NFL for drug violations, could be banned for one year, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the testing. ESPN, citing anonymous sources, first reported Gordon's failed test. Cleveland's patience with Gordon has been pushed to its limits. "Clearly we are very disappointed to hear the latest report regarding Josh," a Browns spokesman said Sunday in a release. "At this point, due to the confidential nature of the NFL's substance-abuse policy, we have not been made aware by the league of a failed test. We are in the process of gathering more information and will provide further comment at the appropriate time." Agent Drew Rosenhaus said he could not comment on his client's situation. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy declined comment. "I keep in touch with Josh a lot," Browns cornerback Joe Haden said Sunday night at the Pro Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. "He's actually renting my spot right now back in Cleveland. But I don't know about that. I'll find out about that in a little bit. "I don't really know what the situation is, but I'm going to figure it out." Gordon's latest misstep could lead to the team releasing the talented 23-year-old. A Pro Bowl selection in 2013, he was suspended 10 games last season because he tested positive for marijuana. He returned for five games but failed to deliver the spark the Browns had hoped. He was then suspended by the Browns for violating team rules before the Dec. 28 season finale at Baltimore. Gordon had missed the team's walk-through the previous day, and following the season coach Mike Pettine revealed that Gordon had been guilty of multiple violations during the season. Gordon missed the first two games in 2013 but still led the league with 1,646 yards receiving and emerged as the one of the league's top playmakers. Last year, he received a one-year suspension that was reduced to 10 games after the league and Player's Association revised its drug policies. A second-round pick in the 2012 supplemental draft, Gordon signed a four-year contract worth $5.3 million as a rookie. He figured to cash in with a bigger contract following his monster '13 season, but Gordon's legal issues he was arrested for drunken driving during his suspension last season have clouded a bright future. Gordon failed several drug tests while in college, but the Browns couldn't ignore his talent and gave up a second-round pick to select him three years ago. It seemed like an ingenious move when he was shredding defensive backfields, but now Gordon's days as a pro could be over. ___ AP Sports Writer Rob Maaddi and AP freelance writer Mike Cranston contributed to this report. ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said he had never played in a game as high-scoring as the 2015 NHL All-Star Game, even in youth hockey and probably in any shinny game. Maybe no one has ever played a game quite as offensive as this one. The NHL set a record for the highest-scoring game in All-Star Game history when John Tavares scored four goals and Jakub Voracek added three to pace Team Toews to a 17-12 win against Team Foligno. That's not a misprint. "I feel for the goalies, I do," said Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar. PHOTOS: 2015 NHL All-Star Game RELATED: Voracek gets hat trick, bragging rights It was the highest-winning score in league history. John Tavares tied an All-Star record for goals in a game that was previously held by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and three others. Voracek, currently the NHL's leading scorer, tied Lemieux's record of six points in a game. "That's what fans want to see," Stamkos said. "They want to see goals and scoring opportunities." What fans didn't see was any hitting, and any defensive play. It was like pond hockey being played by many of top puck wizards in the game. "It feels like summer hockey," said Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, who had a pair of goals. Clearly fans had fun, booing former Columbus Blue Jackets player Rick Nash when the New York Ranger scored two goals. His sin was that he asked to be traded three years ago. The fans razzed Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, playing for Team Foligno, as he was getting lit up for seven goals on 16 shots in the second period. They cheered mockingly every time he made a save. "(Fleury) actually came to me on the first TV timeout," Florida Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo said. "I don't know what that meant. He was looking for some comfort words or something from me. He wasn't on my team, so I wasn't going in for him. What are you going to do? It's an All-Star Game." Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen was named the game's MVP on a fan vote after registering two goals and two assists. It undoubtedly helped his vote total that he was playing in his home arena. As a young player, the game probably had more significance for Johansen, who is still establishing his reputation as a rising star in the game. "He has sweet hands for sure," Kopitar said. "He's a big boy and he's very strong on the book." Johansen is the foundation of the Blue Jackets' hope for success. "I think people are starting to pay attention to him," Stamkos said. "Maybe he flew under the radar a little bit last year. To have the combination of size and skill ... he has played great for these guys. He's a tough guy to play against when he is on his game." It wasn't NHL-caliber hockey, but it wasn't supposed to be. Players all said they enjoyed the event, except maybe the Civil War-style cannon fire that is used to celebrate goals. "I hate the cannon," said Philadelphia Flyers center Claude Giroux. "It gets me every time." The boom is always loud and startling even though everyone knows it is coming when the home team scores. "It's loud enough that it gets on your nerves pretty quickly, especially when they score 12 or so goals," Chicago's Jonathan Toews said. "It gets to you a little bit." The All-Star Game is always more like a convention than a competition. It's a chance for players to bring their families to an NHL event. Players hang out with each other. Said Stamkos: "Sometimes you just need to get away from the grind a little bit, and guys were able to do it a little bit this weekend." Contributing: Hemal Jhaveri PHOTOS: 2015 All-Star Game
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House Republicans have weathered three tough weeks to start the 114th Congress, and this week won't be any easier, as GOP leaders try to tamp down conservative opposition to a border security bill meant to be the core of the party's immigration reform plan. Republican leaders are billing the legislation which Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul called the "toughest border security bill ever as the gateway to their long-promised, step-by-step immigration rewrite. But Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called it "extreme to the point of being unworkable," meaning Democratic support will be hard to come by, and that may confront Republicans with a dilemma in which they don't have enough votes in their own party to pass it. The controversial immigration bill comes just days after GOP leaders pulled an antiabortion bill from the House floor amid complaints from women and moderates. The party has also had to endure a an earlier immigration vote that saw more than two dozen GOP defections, and a divisive reelection vote for Speaker John Boehner. Passing the McCaul bill through a House Republican Conference that has long espoused a secure-the-border-first approach to immigration reform will not be intuitively easy, either. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading voice in the far right on immigration issues, has been rallying opposition, and that may translate into problems with House conservatives. "No enforcement plan can be successful that does not block the president from continuing to release illegal immigrants into the United States and provide them with immigration benefits," Sessions said in a statement. "A 'border security' plan that does not include these elements may end up as nothing more than a slush fund used by the administration to resettle illegal immigrants in the U.S. interior." In response to those concerns, McCaul and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued a rare joint statement Thursday noting that interior issues, such as electronic verification of employment eligibility, are under Judiciary's jurisdiction and will be dealt with in turn. "We join our colleagues to secure our borders and ensure our immigration laws are not unilaterally ignored by President Obama and future presidents," they said. "We will continue working on these issues, and the Judiciary Committee will work on legislation to deliver results on interior enforcement." Such objections have Republicans and Democrats alike privately musing that this is the exact reason leaders had sought to rework the immigration system in a comprehensive manner. But the problems for leaders do not end there. Some conservatives have openly questioned whether the bill is merely the first step toward uncertain and unpalatable immigration changes. There is a also growing sentiment on the right that the border bill is a ruse meant to smooth passage of a DHS funding bill that has yet to see Senate action. The worry is that GOP leaders will tack it on to the funding bill instead of measures targeting Obama's relaxed immigration-enforcement policies, which are not able to pass the Senate although leadership sources emphatically deny that is the plan. Also troublingly, support for the border-security bill has been waning among the same single-issue groups whose approval leaders touted as reason to support the DHS funding bill in the first place. The border bill would require DHS to have the southwest border under "operational control" in five years. If the department fails at that objective, the legislation dictates that political appointees at the agency cannot travel in government vehicles, be reimbursed for nonessential travel, or receive pay increases or bonuses. For their part, Senate GOP leaders are endorsing the House's border legislation. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, has introduced a border-security bill identical to the House measure with Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Flake has supported broader immigration legislation in the past, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This year, however, he has said repeatedly that President Obama opened the door for a piece-by-piece approach to immigration when he created an executive-branch program to defer deportations. The border-security bill is a good first step, he says. In the Senate, leaders in both parties are well aware that the February deadline is approaching for funding DHS, but it's anyone's guess how they will handle it. Minority Leader Harry Reid has asked for "clean" bill that would continue funding for the agency through September without additional provisions. But first, Senate Republicans want to try to pass the House bill, which would stop Obama's deferred-deportation programs for unauthorized immigrants. That effort is almost certain to fail, and it will take up valuable floor time. It is unclear whether the border-security bill will also be part of that debate. Competing priorities have Republican leaders in a quandary about what will happen once the current debate authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline is over. In theory, the Senate's next votes will be on putting additional sanctions on Iran if the ongoing nuclear-disarmament talks stall. Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby says he expects his panel to vote on an Iran sanctions bill this week after a hearing on the issue slated for Tuesday, gift-wrapping the bill for the floor. Given the first three weeks of chaotic debate on the Senate's top priority, authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline, it's hard to imagine an Iran sanctions debate being much shorter. That would leave the Senate very little time to finish a DHS bill. Senators are struggling with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's open-amendment process, which has had a few hiccups since Congress convened. The Senate has voted on dozens of amendments, including several addressing a high-priority Democratic issue of climate change. But Democratic leaders say they have a lot more on tap. Left unfettered, the Keystone debate could go on for the rest of the year. Realizing this, McConnell moved to cut off debate minutes before midnight last on Thursday, with Democrats howling in protest, putting the bill on a path to final passage this week. Energy The two chambers are taking up different energy bills designed to speed exports of liquefied natural gas by reforming the Energy Department's permitting process for export terminals. The House is set to vote on a bill from Republican Bill Johnson of Ohio that would set a 30-day deadline for a permitting decision after the administration completes an environmental review of an export facility. Meanwhile, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on a bipartisan bill from Wyoming Republican John Barrasso and New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich that sets a 45-day timeline after environmental review, with plans to advance the bill in the coming months. Defense Ahead of the administration's budget release early next month, the Senate Armed Services Committee will discuss the impact of sequestration on defense spending at a hearing Wednesday. Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, Gen. Mark Walsh, the Air Force's chief of staff, and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Marine Corps commandant, are expected to testify. Pentagon leaders have been vocal about their concerns that sequestration will lead to a less-ready military force, requiring them to shed programs and personnel. One area in which Congress and the Defense Department agree they could save money is the Pentagon's procurement process. The committee also begins a series of hearings on global challenges to national security this week, with former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, and Madeleine Albright slated to testify on Thursday. Former Army, Marine Corps, and Naval officers will testify on Tuesday. Veterans After grilling Veterans Affairs Department officials last week on the growing number of benefits decisions being appealed, members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee are looking into the "quality and cost of VA health care" on Wednesday. The VA's health care system suffered a massive scandal last year after allegations of fake wait lists and veterans' deaths first surfaced at a Phoenix clinic. Members of the committee's Economic Opportunity Subcommittee will also examine the transition assistance program, known as TAP, which soldiers participate in when they leave the military. Veterans advocates have repeatedly raised concerns that service members are not adequately prepared to find a job in the civilian workforce. Unemployment for post-9/11 veterans was at 6.9 percent in December, compared with national unemployment of 5.6 percent. Technology The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Tuesday morning to consider data-breach legislation. In the wake of the attacks on Target, Home Depot, and Sony Pictures, President Obama has urged Congress to require companies to disclose breaches of personal information within 30 days. Businesses and Republicans have been supportive of the proposal because it would preempt the patchwork of state notification laws. The Federal Communications Commission will meet on Thursday to consider requiring cellular carriers to provide more accurate location information to 911 call centers. Health The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Tuesday called "Examining Public Health Legislation to Help Patients and Local Communities." The committee will review a series of bills related to domestic public health. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on employer wellness programs. The Affordable Care Act allows companies to offer employees higher financial incentives to join wellness programs and achieve specific health goals, and employers are increasingly penalizing workers who decide not to participate. White House President Obama starts the week with a big parade in India before he returns home to huddle with congressional Democrats to plan party strategy. The parade marks Republic Day and is the symbolic high point of the president's time there. After seeing the Taj Mahal, he returns to Washington early Wednesday. Later that day, he will participate in the ceremonial send-off for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. On Thursday, he will go to Philadelphia to meet with House Democrats gathered there.
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If the Supreme Court tears apart Obamacare this summer, the president won't be able to put it back together all by himself. Executive action is all the rage in the White House these days, and it's hard to imagine a better candidate for unilateralism than fixing the Affordable Care Act in the wake of a crippling Supreme Court decision. That scenario would check every box: Republican intransigence; a top priority for Obama; and severe disruption in real people's lives. There's just one problem: A good administrative solution might not exist. "There are no administrative fixes that are realistic," said Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress. "We don't believe there's any administrative fix." The high court is expected to rule this summer in a lawsuit over Obamacare's insurance subsidies, which more than 80 percent of enrollees are receiving. The challengers argue that the Affordable Care Act only authorizes subsidies in states that set up their own insurance exchanges--not in the 36 states that punted the task to the federal government. A ruling in the challengers' favor would devastate Obamacare--millions of people could lose their coverage--and could wreak havoc on the non-Obamacare insurance markets in those 36 states. The repercussions would be severe enough to demand a fix. But a fix would be hard to come by. The goal for the White House would be to simply and cleanly restore the law's subsidies, nationwide. But Congress wouldn't be willing to do that--and the White House wouldn't be able to on its own, health care and legal experts said. "If the government loses this case, there will be considerable pain, and theres no easy, clean, quick fix," said Nichols Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan who has written extensively about the case. Without a fix in Congress or a good administrative option, the only solution would be to convince the states to set up their own exchanges. That would involve convincing Republican governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures, all of whom have already refused to set up their own exchanges once, to cooperate. "Given the political composition of most of the states that are not operating their exchanges, that's going to be a problem," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington & Lee University and an Obamacare supporter. "There's nothing the administration can do to change that dynamic." What the administration could do, though, is make it easier for states to take control of their own exchanges. That's the biggest policy lever the White House would have, experts said, but it comes with serious limitations. The case before the Supreme Court centers around a section of Obamacare that authorizes subsidies within "an exchange established by the state." So, if the court invalidates subsides in federally run exchanges, the best chance to restore those subsidies would be to transfer those exchanges to their respective states. "The administration won't just be able to wave a magic wand and make the problem go away. States will still have to do something to establish an exchange … it's just not clear what that will be," Bagley said. The logistics of that switch wouldn't be easy, but they're not the hardest part. Several health policy experts said the Department of Health and Human Services could probably figure out a way to keep running most of the exchanges' technical systems, most likely as a contractor. "States are going to have to establish exchanges, whatever that means. But whatever it means, it probably means the state would have to take some kind of affirmative action," Jost said. The Affordable Care Act sets certain rules for what an exchange has to do--like certifying that insurance plans meet the law's standards, operating a program to help people navigate their coverage options, and covering its own administrative costs. But it doesn't specifically define what constitutes an exchange "established by the state"--most of the details were left to HHS. So, if HHS does end up needing to transfer federally run exchanges to the states, it could probably hang on to some of the work. But it would be difficult to argue that an exchange is state-run unless the state has taken some action to authorize the marketplace. "I hope that there are solutions. I expect that HHS is giving that some thought. But in the end, HHS can't create state-operated exchanges." Jost said. Because HHS had considerable flexibility in certifying state exchanges, it might be able to soften some of its standards to make it easier for states to take control of their marketplaces after a Supreme Court decision. It could ignore or loosen the requirement that states give six months' notice before taking over their exchanges, for example, and make it easy for states to contract with the federal government to run complicated computer systems. But those steps would only go so far. "I just don't know how far they could go with that," Jost said. A handful of state legislatures have passed laws prohibiting their governors from setting up exchanges through executive orders--so they're unlikely to take any sort of affirmative steps, however loosely defined, toward setting up their own marketplaces. Several more state legislatures aren't scheduled to be in session by the time their residents would start losing coverage. And setting up a new system for regulating insurance plans isn't free--states that initially set up their own marketplaces were eligible for unlimited planning and establishment grants from the federal government, to help them get off the ground. But that funding has expired; states would now have to spend their own money. Furthermore, the looser the standards HHS adopts, the more likely they are to draw another legal challenge. "It could just become a never-ending series of lawsuits," Jost said.
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BATA, Equatorial Guinea (AP) Host Equatorial Guinea is into the quarterfinals at the African Cup of Nations, and so is one of the big outsiders in Republic of Congo. Equatorial Guinea eliminated Gabon with a second-half surge to take its place in the knockout stages of its home tournament on Sunday as Javier Balboa and Iban Edu scored in a 2-0 win in the last round of games in Group A. The victory caused wild celebrations by the home fans at Bata Stadium, who roared, stamped their feet down on the metal floors of the stadium, and even caused riot police to be scrambled around the field at the very end just in case the wild celebrations got out of hand. ''It's magnificent,'' Equatorial Guinea's Argentine coach Esteban Becker said. He put it down to ''the passion'' of his young team. Republic of Congo's progress - as winner of the group - was more surprising as the team had not even qualified for the African championship in 15 years, and last won a game at the African Cup in 1974. Now, the team has won twice in four days. Republic of Congo followed up its 1-0 win over Gabon with a 2-1 victory over Burkina Faso in Ebebiyin to seal a spot in the quarters. Fabrice N'Guessi grabbed the Congolese winner with a header three minutes from the end, and a minute after Burkina Faso had equalized, to further improve French coach Claude Le Roy's outstanding record at the Cup of Nations. Le Roy is coaching in a record eighth African Cup. In Bata, the host had to ride its luck as Gabon strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Frederic Bulot had gilt-edged chances in the first half but were denied by outstanding Equatorial Guinea goalkeeper Felipe Ovono. The game changed in the second when Javier Balboa won and converted a penalty for Equatorial Guinea in the 55th minute, emptying the bench as the entire squad raced out to celebrate with him. As Gabon pushed desperately for an equalizer that would have sent it through instead, it left holes at the back. Iban Edu pounced with four minutes to go to make sure of the victory, and the place in the quarters. While the country celebrated, a bitterly disappointed Gabon coach Jorge Costa and captain Aubameyang lamented referee Doue Noumandiez's decision to give the penalty that led to the first goal. ''There you go. It's football,'' Aubameyang said. --- Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP
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Last season, the Seattle Seahawks' run to the Super Bowl was fueled by belief. This repeat trip has been more a matter of suspending disbelief. Last season, they rode the thrill of exploring new territory and were steadily adrenalized by the joy of discovering the strength of their unity and common purpose. Playing for their brothers, they called it. "We all we got; we all we need," they chanted, while quarterback Russell Wilson frequently asked: "Why not us?" This season, skeptics frequently offered an answer to Wilson's question. It can't be you because follow-up seasons always amount to greased chutes toward disappointment. You can't make it back to the Super Bowl because nobody else has, not in the past 10 seasons, and only once since the turn of the millennium. So it was written. So it was told. And yet the Seahawks ignored it all as irrelevant, as if such things don't apply to them. "It was our mindset - we weren't defending the championship, we weren't defending anything," tackle Russell Okung said. "That's because we weren't the same team. We were different players in a whole new season. We were just starting the chase like everybody else. That's what we talked about: Being in the chase." That was the approach from Day One. No, wait, this compulsion started well before Day One of the season. Wilson claims his focus on the 2014 season started "... as soon as I started lowering the (Lombardi) trophy" after it was handed to them immediately following the win over Denver in the Super Bowl. Wilson conceded that some would find him a "buzzkill" for starting thinking about the next challenge before he had even showered off the sweat from earning the first title. "It's just the way I think: How can I get prepared for the next opportunity? How do I get back there? How do we get prepared?" Wilson said he didn't think in terms of a "repeat," because that is a long-term context that minimizes the daily struggle. Instead, he sought ways "to be the best in the game of football, again, as a team." That kind of focus, it seems, is not always shared by defending champs. For an analysis story during training camp, I interviewed a number of players and coaches familiar with the challenge of earning back-to-back trips to the Super Bowl. One of the main pitfalls, all agreed, was complacency. Human nature insists that we work harder to attain something than we do to keep it. Seattle linebackers coach Ken Norton laughed at the notion. "You have to understand that these guys are always trying to improve themselves," Norton said. "They're always fighting back. If you're a true competitor, at your heart, it doesn't matter what the external forces are." Teams that win the Super Bowl are faced with the inevitable staff loss and player defection via free agency. It's the best chance to cash in. But the Seahawks kept their key staffers and limited their talent losses. Starters Golden Tate, Red Bryant, Chris Clemens, Brandon Browner and Breno Giacomini were lost or not resigned. But landing veteran defensive lineman Kevin Williams and drafting receiver Paul Richardson helped in the replacement, while other incumbents assumed larger roles. The injury contagion that often strikes teams that extend their previous seasons into February struck the Seahawks, as 17 players ended up on the injured-reserve list, including stars such as tight end Zach Miller and nose tackle Brandon Mebane. "We lost so many different guys along the way," defensive lineman Michael Bennett said. "Being able to come back and have the new guys come in and play at a high level and still sustain the kind of defense we had last year, or even better, is a great challenge, and we stepped up." Super Bowl-winning teams are beset by swelling egos. How could they not be, with all the attention, endorsements and praise? "If egos were a problem, guys kept it pretty well hidden, and eventually got rid of it," defensive end Cliff Avril said. "Football is the ultimate team sport. People have to understand, for me to be good, my (defensive backs) have to be good, and vice versa. We know that. If there were any egos, I think all that got put aside once we got into the season." Without question, a world championship causes opponents to take note, and to approach games against the Seahawks as the ultimate challenge even if the rest of their season is without highlight. Cornerback Byron Maxwell didn't see any difference, from the Seahawks' perspective, as they went from the hunter to the hunted. "I never felt like that," Maxwell said. "You're always trying to eat, so you're always the hunter." Okung noted that if opponents are bringing greater energy to games against the Seahawks than any other week, "they've got an issue bigger than us." "That's why we always talk about having a championship mentality," Okung said. "And a big part of that is going out every day and giving it your best. We talk about that all the time, going out every day, every week, and giving it your best. Regardless who we're playing against, we're going to go out there and play hard." The season was not without distraction, though, as expected star Percy Harvin was traded to the New York Jets five games into the season. The offense had been shaped to meld his receiving talents with the core strength of the Marshawn Lynch-led rushing attack. But when he was traded, it came to light that Harvin had locker-room issues with teammates, and was not a fit that promoted team success. It contributed to a slump in the early season, and threatened the kind of unraveling that has derailed other hopeful repeaters. To maintain the status quo at that point likely would have assured a middling season. But the offense was retooled in his absence, and Carroll brought in a core of team leaders to urge a reunification. It sparked the six-game winning streak that led to the NFC West Division title and the top seeding heading into the postseason. "We went through a lot of changes as the season went on," Bennett said. "But with good leadership, we stood the test of time. Everybody expected us not to be in the championship game, but we were always expecting to get back where we were supposed to be." Getting this far as a defending champ was more common in the pre-free agency era, as 11 teams have been to back-to-back Super Bowls. From an historical perspective, the good news for the Seahawks is that once a champ returns, it generally wins. Eight of the 11 have repeated. Asked about the recent curse of the defending champ, Avril discounted it. "Most of us never even listened to that kind of stuff so we didn't know it was impossible to get back," he said. "For most of us, it was just about improving as a team, and that starts by looking in the mirror and improving ourselves as individuals, improving what you can bring to the team. That's what makes anything possible." The experience of having been through the demands of a championship season helps the second time, Maxwell said. "You understand you can get stronger as the season goes on ... the mentality we've got around here helps." But it didn't make it easier, Maxwell stressed. "It felt like, at certain times last year, nobody could mess with us. This year, it was definitely harder." Either way, though, is fine with Maxwell because "once you get in, and the confetti is falling, it's all the same." Dave Boling: 253-597-8440
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Coffee drinks youâll love a latte.
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PHOENIX (AP) -- Blake Griffin and Chris Paul scored 23 points each and the Los Angeles Clippers used a 15-0 fourth-quarter run to beat the Phoenix Suns 120-100 on Sunday night. BOX SCORE: CLIPPERS 120, SUNS 100 J.J. Redick scored 20 and DeAndre Jordan added 18 for the Clippers, who are 3-0 against the Suns this season. Los Angeles has won nine of its past 11 against Phoenix. Isaiah Thomas scored 25 points and Eric Bledsoe added 17 for the Suns, who have lost two straight after winning seven in a row at home. Marcus Morris gave the Suns a 64-63 lead on a layup with 7:47 to go in the third quarter. But the Clippers, led by a 20-foot step-back jumper from Griffin and five points from Paul, outscored Phoenix 11-1 over the next two minutes to open a 74-65 lead. Spencer Hawes gave the Clippers their biggest lead to that point, 85-72, with 1:52 left in the third with consecutive 3-pointers. The Suns made a final rally early in the fourth. After Paul gave the Clippers an eight-point lead with 8:19 left, Isaiah Thomas and Gerald Green hit consecutive 3-pointers to pull Phoenix to 96-94 with 7:30 to go. But Redick hit a 3, Paul scored four points and the Clippers had their 15-0 run to open a 111-94 lead with 3:53 to play. TIP-INS Clippers: Griffin shot 19 of 19 from the floor and added seven assists and six rebounds. ... The Clippers won for only the second time in eight road games when trailing at halftime. Phoenix led 57-55 at the half. ... Los Angeles, which plays host to Denver on Monday, is 5-6 in the first half of back-to-back games this season. ... Matt Barnes, who entered the game averaging 9.8 points per game, finished with four on 1 of 9 shooting, including 0 for 4 from 3-point range. He also was hit with a technical foul after getting called for an offensive foul in the second. Suns: The Suns fell to 4-2 over the first six games of their franchise-high eight-game homestand. ... Phoenix was without reserve forward Brandan Wright, out with a sore foot. Wright had averaged 4.4 points in 18 minutes over his past five games. ... Guard Goran Dragic played the second half with a golf ball size knot on his right elbow. Dragic collided with Clippers guard Chris Paul and fell hard to the court late in the first half, leading to the swelling. GET A ''T'', GRAB SOME PINE Phoenix forward Markieff Morris was whistled for a technical foul following a play on which he was pushed in the air while on a fast break by the Clippers' Matt Barnes. Morris sank both free throws and played another 33 seconds before going to the bench, where he spent the final 21 minutes-plus of the game. Morris is the second Suns player in two games to be benched after getting a technical. Goran Dragic sat out nearly all of the second half on Friday after he was whistled. CLIPS' JORDAN KEEPS ROLLING Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, who entered the game shooting 86.8 percent from the floor in his last five games, was 4 for 4 on Sunday. Jordan's range slipped only at the free-throw line, where he tossed up an air ball in the first quarter. Jordan, who is on pace to post the highest single season field goal percentage in league history, raised his percentage to 73.3. UP NEXT Clippers: Host Denver on Monday. Suns: Host Washington on Wednesday.
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I've got six (unnatural) holes in my ears, and I'm not afraid to use 'em (that is, bejewel them with small studs and hoops). Admittedly, though, I wish I could get a bit more creative with the placement of my earrings and the pieces themselves. It's just tough to know where to start. So, I went back to the place that punctured me to begin with: NY Adorned, our city's go-to piercing and tattoo shop. There, two pros served up some serious earring inspiration and gave me examples of what to pierce and with what. From simple piercings on the lobes to more involved hardware on the cartilage, their advice was super comprehensive. Not only did I get a diagram with official lingo for each ear part ("daith," anyone?), but I also went home with some custom-made sketches that you can bring on your next adventurous trip to the piercer or the jewelry store. Tragus, Daith, Helix? Who knew the piercing-ready parts of our ears had such cool, futuristic names? This simple silhouette replaces the traditional side-by-side earrings with one on top of the other. If you have three holes, try an earring that connects the upper two. If you're looking for an additional piercing, one on the inner ear is pretty unexpected. All kinds of hoops, studs, and dangly doodads make this otherwise standard sketch stand out. Now we're getting a bit more advanced. Opt for simple lobes and dress up the front helix and inner ear for a unique look. We like the idea of this spaced-out design for someone who's ready to get a bit more adventurous with the placement of their earrings. Now, we're getting advanced. Seven piercings in one ear, but with simple gems like the ones from NY Adorned that come in gold, silver, or rose gold) it's not overdone. Nine piercings, y'all! This all-over-the-ear look may not be for everyone, but we're fans. It's also cool to see studs on bottom, hoops on top.
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Ernie Accorsi made a point about the NFL during his 30-minute chat with the Tribune on Friday that should help all Bears fans rest easier as another Super Bowl week begins without their team. "The business is the matter of judgment," Accorsi said. "You have to be able to make proper judgments on your acquisitions of players and your manipulation of the roster." Bull's-eye. Leave it to the consultant with four decades of NFL experience to so concisely lay out why the Bears finished 2014 in ruins and how they can build themselves back up. It was understandable that some around the league shook their heads when one of the NFL's first families needed outside help finding direction. But with Accorsi using that mantra as the Bears' compass, they can be proud they did what it took to achieve the results they did this month. The Bears will end January a better team because of the upgraded coaching staff. By hiring a proven NFL head coach in John Fox and well-established offensive coordinator Adam Gase and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, the Bears positioned themselves well for the next step. And that one, as Accorsi indicated, is where NFL success is centered. Now it's time for new general manager Ryan Pace to dive into the roster, to judge players with the expertise on which he built his reputation with the Saints. The Bears' future depends on his ability more than any other factor. The club can't afford more incorrect player evaluations. Guaranteeing $54 million to an erratic, unproven quarterback? Using high-round draft picks on defensive players who don't consistently make game-changing plays? Miscalculating intangibles such as leadership when piecing together the roster and coaching staff? That's how a team ends up fractured and 5-11. Whether Pace can correctly evaluate acquisitions and manipulate the roster from the GM perch is the Bears' great unknown. But there is significant upside in his outsider's perspective. The Bears' choice of Pace over Chris Ballard suggests Accorsi, Chairman George McCaskey and President Ted Phillips appreciate the value of a clean slate. Pace brings no predispositions, no prior experience in the Halas Hall draft room, no relationships that should affect his decisions. Pace's reputation isn't tied to anyone on the roster. He can move freely in that regard. However, he does inherit some contracts that dictate reality. For example, if he cuts quarterback Jay Cutler before March 12, Cutler would count a whopping $19.5 million in dead money against the 2015 salary cap. It was interesting to hear opinions about Cutler from several offensive and defensive coaches on other teams last week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. Around a league suffering from a dearth of quality quarterbacks, there remains an appreciation for Cutler's physical abilities. Apparently, the FieldTurf really is greener on the other side. Does that mean the Bears could find a team willing to trade for Cutler? Does it mean outsiders such as Pace, Fox and Gase will cling to whatever upside they perceive in him? Accorsi offered a clue Friday when asked how interested GM candidates were in Cutler. "They're willing to make this work. All of them were," Accorsi said, declining to provide specifics. That's not to say any decisions have been made. On the contrary, flexibility and open-mindedness are positive traits Pace must apply to his evaluation. And, just as importantly, he has a clear sense of this team's widespread talent deficiency. He'll have Fox's help, and that's where the Bears' forward momentum can strengthen. Accorsi quickly detected trust and compatibility between GM and coach, noting those essential components to NFL success. Pace said Fox's criteria for players - intelligence, toughness, physicality - mesh well with his. Maybe that's just coachspeak, but at least their vision is united. "That's one of my strengths," Pace said Jan. 19. "And everything I know about him, that's one of his strengths, too - working relationships, communication. I'm really not concerned with that at all." That's an auspicious starting point. Pace lifted the Bears to it this month by aggressively pursuing Fox and leaning on respected, accomplished advisers such as Accorsi. Now he must show he has the discerning eye the Bears' roster desperately needs. And maybe next year, when Super Bowl week rolls around, the Bears' involvement won't seem so unrealistic. [email protected] Twitter @Rich Campbell
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The appointment was set. LaMarcus Aldridge would spend Tuesday in Cleveland, where the torn ligament in his left (non-shooting) thumb was scheduled to be surgically fixed and the Portland Trail Blazers' wildly successful season would likely be broken as a result. Instead, there's this bit of midseason NBA drama, one that will make the already-compelling Western Conference race even more-so down the stretch: the Aldridge return. As one Blazers fan so aptly put it on a sign inside the Moda Center where Aldridge's 26-point, nine-rebound, three-assist performance sparked a 103-96 victory Saturday night against the Washington Wizards, "(The) NBA. Where LaMazing Happens." One day after his decision to play through the pain paid off just as he'd hoped, Aldridge whose six-to-eight-week absence had been announced by the team and seemed to be set in stone gave a hearty thumbs-up about his status for the foreseeable future. "(The thumb is) a little sore, but not too bad," Aldridge told USA TODAY Sports by phone Sunday. "I thought last night went well, because I really didn't have too many moments where it got too painful. I thought our medical staff did a good job of getting me a brace that could kind of protect, and they taped it in a good position where if it got hit it wouldn't take too much of a pounding. I thought it was good last night." He's still headed for Cleveland, of course, but not until he joins his Blazers teammates in Brooklyn for a game on Monday night. The game at the Cavaliers is on Wednesday, with the sensational Atlanta Hawks and much-improved Milwaukee Bucks next up on this Eastern Conference road-trip that is suddenly so much more intriguing. Deep and talented though the Blazers may be, the prospect of playing without the 29-year-old big man who is averaging 23.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game was frighteningly problematic for Portland (32-13, third place in the West). They are 11-8 in games without him in the past two seasons, and the impact of his absence would have been compounded considering the absences of center Robin Lopez (out with a hand injury since mid-December, expected back next month) and small forward Nicolas Batum (right wrist, return timeline unknown). Portland has also been without reserve big man Joel Freeland (shoulder) since Jan. 3 and he isn't expected to play on this road trip. Aldridge, who will be a free agent this summer but who has consistently indicated he wants to stay put in Portland, was already beloved by Blazers fans. But this latest slice of hoops heroics took the admiration to another level yet again, with Aldridge deeming their reaction on Saturday "surreal and very humbling." He received a standing ovation in warm-ups on Saturday ("How many times do you get an ovation just coming out to warm up?," he said with a laugh) and the love-fest continued once his name was announced in the starting lineup. "They definitely got behind me, supported me and let me know that they didn't take my gesture for granted," Aldridge said. "They let me know that they appreciated it, and they had love for me, and that was one of the better moments of my career. I felt like they embraced the moment and what I was trying to do." Aldridge who is certainly hoping to be named to his fourth consecutive All-Star team when reserves are announced on Thursday is as surprised as anyone that he's back at it again. After suffering the injury in a game against the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 19, Aldridge suffered through those following days away from the game and started to question his decision to go under the knife. The schedule came into play when it came to his decision, as he figured he could still keep the Tuesday appointment to have surgery if his return game on Saturday didn't go well. "It was just me (making the decision)," he said. "I hadn't played in ... five or six days, and it was just getting to me. So when I went to shoot-around (on Saturday), I wanted to try to shoot with (the injured thumb). Then they taped me up, and I shot with it. So then, I was like, 'Well, I want to play one-on-one,' and I played one-on-one with one of the (assistant) coaches full court. And that felt good. After that, I just felt like, 'You know, I want to give it a try.' " Because surgery will be required at some point, the reality is that Aldridge can't do any more harm to his thumb that couldn't be fixed by the forthcoming procedure. The Blazers' season, of course, was at risk in ways that Aldridge wasn't ready to accept. "This wasn't a one-game thing," Aldridge said. "Once I said I was going to try, then I was back. And if it became too much, then I was going to have surgery. ... So as of now, I'm back. But if I get it whacked or if something happens where I can't tolerate it and I'm not playing at a good enough level to help the team, then I'll have surgery. But as of now, I think they have done a good job of protecting it, so I'm back for the season and then I'll just have surgery in the offseason."
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Butler coach Chris Holtmann sees signs of a good team. His thoughts were reinforced in the Bulldogs' 77-57 blowout of No. 24 Seton Hall on Sunday. "I think we responded really, really well," Holtmann said. "These guys have pressured us way more than any time that they have played us in recent years." When the Pirates took a lead in the second half, Butler responded with an 18-2 run to move ahead for good. Andrew Chrabascz scored 15 of his 16 points in the first half, Kellen Dunham added 15 points, and Roosevelt Jones had 12 and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs (15-6, 5-3 Big East), who have won four of five. Brandon Mobley finished with 15 points and Desi Rodriguez added 12 for the Pirates (13-6, 3-4), who have lost a season-high three straight. The Bulldogs regained the lead when Kelan Martin scored to put Butler ahead 52-49 with 10:48 remaining. "If you give them easy buckets, you're going to struggle," Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. "They did a good job in transition and got some easy buckets." It took Butler overtime to beat ranked Seton Hall 79-75 in the first regular-season series meeting between the two teams on Jan. 13. Things have been going Butler's way, lately. The Bulldogs are 4-2 against Top 25 opponents this season. They also beat a ranked St. John's team back on Jan. 3. Seton Hall made a run at Butler at the end of the first half. Mobley scored to cap a 10-1 run to put the Pirates within a point before Alex Barlow made a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 32-28 lead at halftime. Mobley made a 3-pointer in the second half to tie it at 34 and then scored another 3 to put the Pirates ahead 37-34 with 15:42 remaining. Then Butler went on its big run to take the lead for good. "We just focus on possession by possession," said Barlow, who finished with 11 points. "Sometimes we get caught up in a good run and celebrate too much. I think what we really do is just try to focus on making sure our next possession is a good one." Kameron Woods converted a three-point play to tie it and Jones scored the go ahead layup before Dunham made a basket and a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 44-37 lead. TIP-INS Seton Hall: The Pirates got off to a slow start from 3-point range. They missed eight straight 3's before Sterling Gibbs made one at the 4:26 mark in the first half to pull the Pirates within nine points. ... Seton Hall is the top perimeter defending team in the Big East, but Butler is No. 2, holding teams to 26 percent from behind the arc. ...The Pirates finished 4-24 from 3-point range. Butler: The Bulldogs relied on Chrabascz to get the team off to a good start. He scored Butler's first seven points of the game and reached double figures by halftime after finishing with 13 in a 64-61 win over Creighton on Wednesday. UP NEXT Seton Hall: is at Marquette on Wednesday. Butler: will travel to Marquette on Saturday. FREE THROW WOES Butler is No. 9 in the Big East when it comes to free throw percent and the Bulldogs struggled from the line against Seton Hall. "Our free throw coach needs to be fired," Holtmann joked. "And that's me actually." The Bulldogs shot 51.6 percent, but got off to a slow start and was just 4 of 14 from the line at halftime. MOMENT OF SILENCE On the final day of Coaches vs. Cancer week where coaches wear tennis shoes to raise cancer awareness, Hinkle Fieldhouse fell silent twice. Butler student Eric Day told his story in the first half of being diagnosed with a brain tumor his freshman year. On Sunday his book "Stay Positive" was available to fans. In the second half, former Butler players Andrew Smith and Erik Fromm urged fans to support cancer research. Smith recently battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Fromm's father passed away from cancer.
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No matter when you eat your biggest meal of the day, your calories should still work for you. These meals are jam-packed with nutrients - from energy-sustaining protein to disease-fighting antioxidants - while still ensuring you keep calorie counts low. Each of these comforting and filling meals are well under 500 calories, meaning you'll be full and satisfied afterward without sacrificing weight-loss goals. Check out the recipes below! Taco Salad The homemade cilantro-lime dressing gives this taco salad a fresh and zesty flavor perfect for the warmer weather. The layered ingredients also offer almost 25 grams of both protein and fiber. This is a great dinner when you need something fast after a hectic day: prep in advance and store in your fridge for a ready-to-go dinner.Calories: 468 See our full nutritional database: http://www.msn.com/en-sa/health/nutrition Sweet Potato Pizza Cut the carbs but not the comfort with this high-protein, vitamin-A-rich sweet potato crust pizza. Calories per serving (half a pizza): 351 Vegan Bean Salad After a hard workout, this vegan bean salad is the perfect, protein-packed refreshing meal. It has more than 13 grams of fiber and nearly 17 grams to fill you up and help your muscles recover. Calories: 349 Avocado Shell Salad No need for the oven for this refreshing dinner - avocado shell salad. It has 60 percent of your recommended fiber for the day, aids in digestion, and may even diminish belly fat. Calories: 468 Baby Kale Sesame Salad Kale may be a nutritious powerhouse, but its flavor is anything but timid. If you're tried of making soups, smoothies, and salads from the dark green roughage, baby kale makes an excellent alternative. The little leaves are tender, mild in flavor, and don't require the prep (chopping and massaging) required for their more mature counterparts, but it still contains the disease-fighting nutrients you need. Baby kale, baby spinach, and chard make a perfect delicate combo for this sesame chicken salad.Calories: 414 Crockpot Mexican Chicken For a healthy, protein-rich meal that doesn't rely on dairy for flavor, try this delicious Mexican-style chicken crockpot recipe full of fresh ingredients. This preparation results in an absolutely delicious, fall-off-the-bone piece of meat.Calories: 381 Coconut Curry Butternut Squash This comforting, creamy coconut curry butternut squash soup is cream-free and the perfect way to add a few metabolism-boosting spices like cumin and turmeric to your diet. Calories: 372 Sweet Potato Burger With Creamy Avocado Spread So robust in flavor, these hearty veggie burgers are made with the goodness of sweet potatoes, black beans, millet, and corn. The creamy avocado sauce on top adds the perfect touch.Calories: 367 Gluten-Free Veggie Pasta Bake Using a mix of veggies like zucchini, spaghetti squash, and other veggies instead of penne means you can load on the cheese and still enjoy a low-calorie, ooey-gooey, cheesy bowl of steamy pasta. Even better? This veggie pasta bake is gluten-free.Calories: 208 Oven-Fried Chicken Fried chicken is the definition of Southern comfort, but just one piece can weigh in at over 700 calories. Skip the classic, and opt for this lower-calorie, just-as-delicious fried chicken alternative that's baked in the oven. Calories: 335 Creamy Flat-Belly Soup If your digestion needs a reset, opting for high-fiber, antioxidant-rich foods will help you feel better from the inside out. This creamy chard and spinach soup is easy to make and full of belly-relieving nutrients. Leafy greens, almond butter, and bell pepper will help soothe your stomach and shrink your belly. Adding a touch of low-fat cream cheese turns this soup into a creamy concoction without adding a lot of calories.Calories: 194 Citrus Chicken Salad This version of Trader Joe's citrus chicken salad tastes better than the original and is just as low in calories. A mix of digestion-relieving cabbage and papaya and hydrating, antioxidant-rich daikon - along with a tangy, Thai-inspired citrus dressing - makes for a flavorful, filling lunch that's high in protein and low in fat and calories.Calories: 223 Spicy Sweet Potato Salad High-fiber sweet potatoes in this spicy salad recipe can regulate blood sugar and help you lose weight, while a spicy, antioxidant-rich red pepper and jalapeño dressing ties everything together.Calories: 270 Vegan Bolognese A comforting bowl of spaghetti bolognese is often what's needed after a long day (or any day, really). Loading down on beef, however, can leave you feeling heavy and tired. Solve this problem - and cut back on calories, fat, and cholesterol - with this recipe for vegan bolognese.Calories: 257 Cream-Free Potato Leek Soup You can do without the butter and cream of the classic potato leek soup recipe and go for this dairy-free potato leek soup, made velvety smooth from pureed beans and potatoes instead.Calories: 255 Apple Cabbage Detox Salad For a lightened-up take on classic coleslaw, whip up this detox salad instead. Apples marry with the dynamic duo of red and Savoy cabbage, combining for a fiber-filled meal that aids in digestion. The addition of fennel seeds adds to the fiber factor, plus a kick of cayenne boosts your metabolism.Calories: 289 Paleo Stuffed Peppers For a warming, quick supper, look to these Italian-style Paleo stuffed peppers for inspiration. With just a few ingredients and less than 30 minutes, you can create a fresh, clean meal with more than 30 grams of protein! Calories: 285 Hemp and Cabbage Detox Salad If you're on the hunt for a quick and tasty detoxifying recipe, this crunchy cabbage and hemp salad is for you. If you haven't tried them yet, it's time to give hemp seeds a try. They're a great source of omega-3s and vitamin E for vegans and vegetarians, and the combination of the cold-pressed oil and seeds in this recipe gives this fresh salad a nutty flavor you'll love. Calories: 381 Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese If you're looking to lighten things up the next time you dig into a comforting bowl of mac and cheese, opt for this twist on tradition that amps up the nutritional value as it cuts back on calories and carbs. Versatile and nutrient-rich spaghetti squash lays the base to this recipe, while broccoli adds more vitamin A.Calories: 296 Eggless Kale Caesar Salad For just the same addictive taste as the original with an added bonus - vitamin A-rich superfood kale - opt for this lighter Caesar salad dressing instead. This recipe omits the egg yolk and a lot of the cheese for a lower-calorie dressing that tastes exactly like the classic. Using kale instead of romaine lettuce increases the nutrients and adds texture and flavor and allows the salad to keep in your fridge without going limp.Calories: 175 Broccoli Slaw Pasta This cheesy, garlicky "pasta" from healthy chef Hungry Girl is the best of both worlds - it's just as fast to make as any simple pasta dish and doesn't come overloaded with carbs. And since it's a similarly low-calorie and low-carb pasta alternative as spaghetti squash (one whole bag of broccoli slaw is only 100 calories and five grams of carbs) without all the prep, it's perfect for any gluten-free girl on the go.Calories: 134 Cumin-Spiced Lentils Settle in with a large, comforting bowl of cumin-spiced lentils; packed with protein and fiber, this gluten-free meal satisfies no matter how hungry you are.Calories: 370 Tofu Scramble Versatile, quick, and perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, a basic tofu scramble is a great go-to meal. This vegan tofu scramble brings the Southwest to your table, fast. Calories: 135 Panko-Crusted White Fish This protein-packed, simply prepared panko-crusted white fish recipe is the perfect post-workout dinner.Calories: 442 Blueberry, Quinoa, and Kale Salad This colorful salad has a bit of everything: blueberries, carrots, tomatoes, almonds, nori, kale, and quinoa, all blended with an Asian-inspired soy ginger dressing. Talk about eating the rainbow!Calories: 377 Toasted Quinoa and Cabbage If you need a break from a weekend of heavy meals, then make this digestion-aiding lemony toasted quinoa and wilted cabbage dish. Calories: 348 Spicy Cauliflower Lasagna Red pepper flakes, cinnamon, and roasted cauliflower give this healthy version of lasagna amazing depth of flavor. Calories: 324 Vegan Split Pea Soup One-pot meals like this vegan split pea soup definitely don't lack dimension. With plenty of spices and sweet potatoes, a large bowl will fill you up for hours. Calories: 326 Mac and Cheese Yes, you can have delicious, healthy mac and cheese. This version owes its low calorie count - and appropriate orange hue - to pureed butternut squash. Calories: 285 Cheddar Soup A hearty bowl of creamy cheddar soup can soothe the soul, but it's not always so great for the waist. This healthy cheddar soup recipe keeps the texture you crave but nixes calories by using cauliflower to create a creamy soup base. Calories: 247 Chirashi Bowl A light, refreshing meal is perfect for hot Summer days. Try this chirashi bowl, made with fresh vegetables, brown rice, and sushi-grade tuna, to cool off in the heat.Calories: 403 Red Pepper and Lentil Bake High in vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber, red bell peppers make a perfect accompaniment to protein-rich lentils in this low-calorie recipe. Even better news? You'll be surprised at how large an under-250-calorie portion of this cheesy red pepper and lentil bake really is.Calories: 233 Cauliflower Rice Fried rice should definitely not be on anyone's healthy-eating menu, so get the taste - and kill the cravings - with this paleo perfect cauliflower fried "rice" recipe instead.Calories: 278 Spaghetti Carbonara Lighten up traditional carbonara with this whole wheat spaghetti carbonara made with low-fat milk and, yes, a healthy dose of parmesan cheese.Calories: 376 Healthy Chicken Salad Traditional chicken salad clocks in at 500 calories, but this healthy chicken salad is 139 calories a serving. The secret? A simple swap of Greek yogurt for mayo. Serve with one or two slices of bread (like wheat bread, 220 calories for two slices).Calories (with two slices of wheat bread): 359 Thai Peanut Soba Noodles Make this Thai-inspired soba noodle salad for dinner, enjoy it for lunch the next day. The flavors develop with time, making this protein-rich and fiber-full cold dish perfect as leftovers. Calories: 424 Turmeric-Spiced Mushroom Pilaf Turmeric might just be a super spice: it's been known to boost immunity, relieve digestive discomfort, and possibly prevent disease. This turmeric-spiced mushroom pilaf is made with a generous dose of turmeric added to a brown rice and mushroom mixture. The result is a mildly spicy, satisfying one-pot meal that helps you feel your best.Calories: 201 Paleo Meatballs Serve these paleo meatballs on a salad or bed of zucchini noodles, and you'll still hit your under-500 calorie goal. Calories: 244 Sweet Potato, Chickpea, and Quinoa Burger This sweet potato, chickpea, and quinoa veggie burger is perfectly spiced and completely satisfying. At 202 calories per patty, you can add a 120-calorie whole wheat bun and lettuce, tomato, and ketchup (34 calories) and still come in at well under 500 calories. Calories (with bun and fixings): 356 Cauliflower Crust Pizza Yes, you can eat half a pizza without guilt. This cauliflower crust pizza features a gluten-free crust and fresh tomatoes, skim mozzarella cheese, and basil leaves for a healthy take on a classic. Calories: 272 No-Mac and Cheese What's the secret to making a pasta-less mac and cheese just as irresistible as the classic? Cauliflower, the perfect vehicle for a cheesy, creamy sauce made from cheese, coconut milk, butter, and coconut flour. While this gluten-free no-mac and cheese is under 400 calories, note that it's high in saturated fat, so enjoy this comforting dish in moderation.Calories: 376 Zucchini Noodles Aglio et Olio For those days when you're craving nothing but pasta, reach for a huge bowl of this garlicky zucchini pasta dish. A sprinkle of almond meal instead of breadcrumbs takes this recipe over the top. Calories: 257 Chicken and Vegetable Quinoa Bowl For nights when you don't have time to spend in the kitchen, this chicken and sweet potato quinoa bowl comes together fast. With 40 percent of your recommended daily intake of fiber and 20 grams of protein, it makes an ideal post-workout meal. Calories: 409 Sweet and Sour Chicken Save money and hundreds of calories by opting for a lightened-up version of Chinese takeout. This sweet and sour chicken recipe is light on calories and fat.Calories: 348 Chickpea and Kale Soup Make a big batch of this chickpea and kale soup on the weekend, then enjoy hearty, healthy lunches or dinners all week.Calories: 502
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Getting focused The Seahawks' Richard Sherman arrives for a team walk-through Jan. 31 in Tempe, Ariz. Seats for $14,000 Ron and Tammy Chu of Boston look at a seating chart after picking up their Super Bowl tickets Jan. 31 in Phoenix. The couple spent $14,000 for their two tickets. "It was on his bucket list," says Tammy. "Now he can check it off." Travelin' twelves Seattle Seahawks fans wave 12th Man flags at the Seattle Seahawks 12Fest in the Desert at Chase Field Jan. 31 in Phoenix. Bruins back Pats Zdeno Chara and his teammates on the Boston Bruins wear New England Patriots hats during warm ups before the game against the Los Angeles Kings Jan. 31 in Boston. Super street Fans in the downtown area outside the NFL Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center on Jan. 31 in Phoenix. Bodies moving Pedestrians walk past a mural of an Arizona landscape as a banner of the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy decorates a building Jan. 31 in Phoenix. Masked fan A masked Seattle Seahawks fan walks around in the downtown area outside the NFL Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center on Jan. 31 in Phoenix. Nice Pats hat Bo Kennedy from Massachusetts walks around with fans in the downtown area outside the NFL Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center on January 31, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona, on the weekend leading Super Bowl XLIX. Play-dog party A celebrity dog poses with the Playboy Bunnies on the red carpet at the Playboy Party at the W Scottsdale on Jan. 30. Pre-game jitters Four-year-old Sadie wears a Patriots jersey as she walks in downtown Phoenix Jan. 30. Well, this is awkward Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick during a joint press conference for Super Bowl XLIX at Phoenix Convention Center on Jan. 30. Dance of the twelves Gene Tagaban, a Tlingit tribal member, dances while wearing a ceremonial "Spirit of the Hawk" mask at a rally for Seattle Seahawks' fans Jan. 30 at the Burke Museum in Seattle. Eyes wide open Patriots wide receiver Josh Boyce catches a pass during practice Jan. 30 in Tempe, Ariz. Shoulder pads are back in Maura Wilson poses behind a life-size football player in the uniform of the San Francisco 49ers at the NFL Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center on Jan. 30 in Phoenix. Roger that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at a press conference before Super Bowl XLIX on Jan. 30 in Phoenix. Anchorman assault Sam Adams from KHQ-TV in Spokane, Wash., runs a drill at the NFL Experience Jan. 30 in Phoenix. Shades-on selfie Singer Lenny Kravitz takes a self portrait with actor Jamie Foxx after an appearance on Foxx's SiriusXM show Jan. 30 in Phoenix. Doug digs in The Seahawks' Doug Baldwin stretches during a team practice Jan. 30 in Tempe, Ariz. Undersea support Nicole Killebrew wears a Seahawks jersey as she interacts with young visitors during a dive in the Seattle Aquarium's Window on Washington Waters tank Jan. 30 in Seattle. Friday warm-up Duron Harmon #30, Tavon Wilson #27, Patrick Chung #23, Nate Ebner #43 and Chris White #59 of the Patriots warm up during practice on Jan. 30 in Tempe, Ariz. Partying with Nelly Nelly performs during the Madden Bowl XXI Super Bowl Party on Jan. 29 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Breakfast of champions A young fan poses with green and blue Seahawks-colored Skittles at the NFL Experience Jan. 29 in Phoenix. Katy cometh Singer and songwriter Katy Perry attends the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show Press Conference on Jan. 29 in Phoenix. Hot tickets A fans holds Super Bowl XLIX tickets at the StubHub ticket center in the Glendale Renaissance on Jan. 29. Stretch and stare Seattle Seahawks' Christine Michael stretches during a team practice for NFL Super Bowl XLIX Jan. 29 in Tempe, Ariz. Slingin' singer National Anthem performer Idina Menzel poses onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show Press Conference on Jan. 29 in Phoenix. Working on his game face Patriots quarterback Tom Brady practices Jan. 29 in Tempe, Ariz. Dave raises the flag Musician Dave Matthews raises the Seahawks' 12th Man flag Jan. 29 on the roof of the Space Needle in Seattle. Marshawn speaks The Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch talks with Richard Sherman during a team practice for NFL Super Bowl XLIX Jan. 29 in Tempe, Ariz. What up, dog? Puppies tussle with a plush football at an event promoting the "Puppy Bowl" in Phoenix Jan. 29. The event was part of a drive by the Animal Planet television channel and the Arizona Humane Society to encourage adoptions ahead of the televised "Puppy Bowl" that will air on game day. Handy man The New York Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. catches a pass from New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees while setting the Guinness World Record for the most one-handed catches in one minute with 33 Jan. 29 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Practice makes perfect Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) runs during a Super Bowl practice session at Arizona State University on Jan. 28 in Tempe, Ariz. All together now New England Patriots players, including wide receiver Brandon LaFell (19), center Bryan Stork (66), quarterback Tom Brady (12), guard Cameron Fleming (71), and practice squad offensive lineman Caylin Hauptmann (68), warm up during a Super Bowl practice session on Jan. 28 in Tempe, Ariz. Something is funny New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick smiles as he answers questions during a Super Bowl press conference at Chandler Wild Horse Pass on Jan. 28 in Chandler, Ariz. Big event, big logo People walk past the logo for the upcoming Super Bowl XLIX between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots on Jan. 28 in Phoenix. Always in a happy mood Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll smiles as he answers a question during a Super Bowl press conference on Jan. 28 in Phoenix. Getting grilled by a teammate New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty (left) uses a television microphone to ask a question of tight end Rob Gronkowski (foreground) during a Super Bowl news conference on Jan. 28 in Chandler, Ariz. My lips are sealed Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks attends a Super Bowl news conference on Jan. 28 in Phoenix. Everyone's smiling now Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman speaks during a Super Bowl news conference on Jan. 28 at the Arizona Grand Hotel in Chandler, Ariz. Center of attention Rob Gronkowski #87 of the New England Patriots addresses the media at Super Bowl XLIX Media Day Fueled by Gatorade inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Obligation fulfillment Marshawn Lynch #24 of the Seattle Seahawks addresses the media at Super Bowl XLIX Media Day inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Pats in a row A general view as the New England Patriots address the media at Super Bowl XLIX Media Day inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Showing his muscle Seattle Seahawks' Russell Wilson gestures during media day for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. A face in the crowd The New England Patriots QB Tom Brady is surrounded by media during the NFL Super Bowl Media Day on Jan. 27, 2015 in Phoenix. In depth explanation Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is interviewed during media day for Super Bowl XLIX at US Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Momentary truce New England Patriots' Danny Aiken dances with a Seattle Seahawks cheerleader during media day for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Putting his media face on New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick ponders a question during media day for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. You asked me what? Richard Sherman #25 of the Seattle Seahawks addresses the media at Super Bowl XLIX Media Day Fueled by Gatorade inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. 12s out in force Seattle Seahawks fans cheer during media day for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. In the spotlight New England Patriots' Vince Wilfork answers a question during media day for NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Seahawks face the media Russell Wilson #3 of the Seattle Seahawks addresses the media at Super Bowl XLIX Media Day Fueled by Gatorade inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. They got the wrong sport NBC correspondents Tara Lipinski, right, and Johnny Weir in attendance during media day for Super Bowl XLIX at US Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Some fans a year late Fans watch Super Bowl XLIX Media Day Fueled by Gatorade inside U.S. Airways Center on Jan. 27 in Phoenix. Super send-off New England Patriots fans cheer during a send-off rally at City Hall in Boston on Jan. 26. The Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday's Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Ariz. Gronk makes a grab New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski takes a Super Bowl hat as he arrives at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Jan. 26. Defending the Patriots New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft makes a statement during a news conference on Jan. 26 in Chandler, Ariz. Kraft defended his team regarding allegations of deflating footballs. Get me out of here New England Patriots fan Anthony Monaco, of Boston, waits in line for his flight to Phoenix, at Logan Airport in Boston on Jan. 26. Monaco, who has Super Bowl tickets, was hoping to fly out of the Boston ahead of a major snowstorm. Always more questions New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady addresses the media during a press conference after their arrival in preparation for Super Bowl XLIX at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Hotel near Phoenix. Belichick cracks a smile New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick laughs at a question during a news conference on Jan. 26 in Chandler, Ariz. The Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks in NFL football Super Bowl XLIX Sunday, Feb. 1, in Phoenix. How would I know? Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll addresses the media during a press conference in preparation for Super Bowl XLIX at the Arizona Grand Hotel on Jan. 26. Coach has landed New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick arrives with his partner Linda Holliday at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Jan. 26 for Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks. Let the circus begin Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson answers a question at a news conference on Jan. 25 in Phoenix. The Seahawks play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. 12th Man has landed Fans await the Seattle Seahawks on Jan. 25 before a press conference at the Arizona Grand Hotel in preparation for Super Bowl XLIX. Finding the limelight Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman fields and answers questions during at press conference at the Arizona Grand Hotel on Jan. 25 iin preparation for Super Bowl XLIX. The stadium awaits The Super Bowl XLIX logo is displayed on the University of Phoenix Stadium on Jan. 25 in Glendale, Ariz. The venue will host Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. Pete touches down Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll arrives on Jan. 25 at Sky Harbor Airport for Super Bowl XLIX in Phoenix. The Seahawks play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1. Man in black Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson walks to the team bus after arriving at Sky Harbor Airport on, Jan. 25 in Phoenix. The Seahawks play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. Super-small fan Two-year-old Kai Ezell-Tapia, from Phoenix, watches a video display at the Super Bowl XLIX NFL Experience Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, in Phoenix. Plenty of pressure Wilson Sporting Goods Co. employee Ryan Ulrey checks the air pressure of a replica Super Bowl XLIX football at the NFL Experience on Jan. 24 in Phoenix. The company set up a production line to manufacture the footballs which are sold to the public at the event.
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Eugenie Bouchard's career in photos Another first round exit Eugenie Bouchard reacts during her match against Ying-Ying Duan on day two of The Championships Wimbledon at the AELTC on June 30, 2015 in London, England. Finding the groove Eugenie Bouchard of Canada hits the ball during her match against Ying-Ying Duan of China at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, on June 30, 2015. Wimbledon warm up party Eugenie Bouchard attends the WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party at Kensington Roof Gardens on June 25, 2015 in London, England. All in Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in action during her third round match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland on day four of the Aegon International at Devonshire Park on June 24, 2015 in Eastbourne, England. Backhand return Canada's Eugenie Bouchard returns the ball to Alison Riske of the US during their women's singles second round match at the WTA Eastbourne International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, southern England on June 23, 2015. Bouchard won 7-6, 6-3. French (missed) connection Eugenie Bouchard of Canada returns a shot during her women's singles match against Kristina Mladenovic of France on day three of the 2015 French Open at Roland Garros on May 26, 2015 in Paris. Bouchard lost the first round match, 4-6, 4-6. Toss it high Eugenie Bouchard serves against Barbora Strycova during their first round match on day two of the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament at the Caja Magica on May 3, 2015, in Madrid, Spain. Running down the ball Eugenie Bouchard runs down a ball during a match against Coco Vandeweghe on day eight of the BNP Paribas Open tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 16, 2015, in Indian Wells, Calif. Waiting to volley Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in action against Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic during day six of the BNP Paribas Open tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 14, 2015, in Indian Wells, Calif. Q&A time Bouchard talks to the media during day three of the BNP Paribas Open tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 11, 2015, in Indian Wells, Calif. Hanging with Hollywood From left, singer Justin Bieber, tennis player Eugenie Bouchard, comedian Will Ferrell and comedian Kevin Hart celebrate with Moet & Chandon at the 11th annual Desert Smash at La Quinta Resort and Club on March 10, 2015, in La Quinta, Calif. Eugenie Bouchard in focus Eugenie Bouchard of Canada makes a forehand return to Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands during their second-round match at the Australian Open on Jan. 21, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia. Fun with the fans Eugenie Bouchard of Canada takes a selfie using a spectator's phone after defeating Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands during their women's singles second round match at the Australian Open on Jan. 21, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia. Red carpet arrival Eugenie Bouchard of Canada arrives for Crown's IMG@23 Tennis Players' Party at Crown Entertainment Complex on Jan, 18, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia. View from above Eugenie Bouchard of Canada serves in the mixed doubles match partnered with Vasek Pospisil against Fabio Fognini and Flavia Pennetta of Italy during day five of the 2015 Hopman Cup at Perth Arena on Jan. 8, 2015, in Perth, Australia. On a different court Eugenie Bouchard attends the game between the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors on Nov. 11, 2014, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Glamour girl Eugenie Bouchard poses for a photograph at the WTA Year End Gala Party at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel during the BNP Paribas WTA Finals at Singapore Sports Hub on Oct. 25, 2014, in Singapore. In the light Eugenie Bouchard in action against Ana Ivanovic of Serbia during day three of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals tennis at the Singapore Sports Hub on Oct. 22, 2014, in Singapore. Meet the press Euginie Bouchard attends a press conference ahead of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) championships in Singapore on Oct. 19, 2014. Keeping cool Eugenie Bouchard walks inside to cool off after the first set of her match against Ekaterina Makarova of Russia on day eight of the 2014 U.S. Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 1, 2014, in New York. At the U.S. Open Eugenie Bouchard of Canada returns a shot to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic during their women's singles match at the U.S. Open on Aug. 30, 2014, in New York. Second-place silverware Eugenie Bouchard holds up the runner-up trophy after her match against Petra Kvitova at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club on July 5, 2014, in London. In full swing Eugenie Bouchard during her ladies' singles fourth-round match against Alize Cornet of France on day seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 30, 2014, in London. Slam semi Eugenie Bouchard returns the ball to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their women's semi-final match at the French Open at the Roland Garros stadium on June 5, 2014, in Paris. Bouchard lost in her second straight appearance in a grand slam semifinal. French success Eugenie Bouchard reacts after winning her women's quarterfinal match against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain at the French Open at the Roland Garros stadium on June 3, 2014, in Paris. First kiss Canadian Eugenie Bouchard kisses the trophy after defeating Czech Karolina Pliskova at the WTA final on May 24, 2014, in Nuremberg, Germany. Bouchard won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, to claim her first WTA title. Fed Cup action Canada's Eugenie Bouchard reacts after losing a point against Slovakia's Kristina Kucova during their Fed Cup match at the PEPS stadium at Laval University on April 19, 2014, in Quebec City, Canada. Toss up Eugenie Bouchard serves against Sara Errani, of Italy, in their match at the BNP Paribas Open on March 9, 2014, in Indian Wells, Calif. Bouchard won 6-3, 6-3. In front of the cameras Eugenie Bouchard poses during an interview session with local press January 27, 2014 in Singapore. Support of a nation Supporters of Canada's Eugenie Bouchard wait for her semifinal against Li Na of China at the Australian Open on Jan. 23, 2014, in Melbourne, Australia. Local wildlife Eugenie Bouchard of Canada holds a baby wombat in the players lounge at the Australian Open on Jan. 22, 2014, in Melbourne, Australia. Time out for charity Eugenie Bouchard attends The 2nd Annual Raonic Race For Kids Fundraiser Benefitting The Milos Raonic Foundation on Nov. 19, 2013, in Toronto. First final appearance Eugenie Bouchard serves the ball against Australia's Samantha Stosur in the final of the Japan Women's Open in Osaka on Oct. 13, 2013. Stosur defeated Bouchard in the final 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Victory yell Eugenie Bouchard celebrates beating Serbia's Ana Ivanovic during their women's second-round match on day three of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club on June 26, 2013, in Wimbledon. Bouchard won 6-3, 6-3. Ready to party Eugenie Bouchard attends the annual pre-Wimbledon party at Kensington Roof Gardens on June 20, 2013, in London. A grand first time Eugenie Bouchard returns against Russia's Maria Sharapova in their second-round match at the French Open at Roland Garros stadium on May 30, 2013, in Paris. Bouchard lost the match in her first senior grand slam tournament. Representing her country Canada tennis team Eugenie Bouchard, Sharon Fichman, Stephanie Dubois and Gabriela Dabrowski celebrate victory over Ukraine at the Fed Cup match on April 21, 2013, in Kiev, Ukraine. First WTA quarterfinal Eugenie Bouchard returns volley to Sloane Stephens during their match at the Citi Open tennis tournament on Aug. 2, 2012, in Washington. Stephens won the match. Belle of the ball Girls singles champion Eugenie Bouchard attends the Wimbledon Championships 2012 Winners Ball at the InterContinental Park Lane Hotel on July 8, 2012, in London. Early triumph Eugenie Bouchard celebrates with her trophy after winning the girls singles final against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships on July 7, 2012, in Wimbledon, England. In the flow Eugenie Bouchard of Quebec, Canada returns a shot to Andrea Petkovic of Germany at the Rogers Cup women's tennis tournament on Aug. 9, 2011, in Toronto. Junior days Eugenie Bouchard of Canada plays against Ons Jabeur of Tunisia during day eleven of the 2010 U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 9, 2010, in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
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CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Blackhawks have placed forward Kris Versteeg on the long-term injury list because of a left hand injury. The left wing was hit in the hand by a shot during the Winter Classic at Washington on New Year's Day. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said then that Versteeg would be out about a month. Versteeg has nine goals and 18 assists in 34 games this season. Also on Sunday, the Blackhawks say they have recalled forward Dennis Rasmussen from Rockford of the American Hockey League.
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Emma Stone took a major fashion risk in Dior at the SAG Awards tonight and that's not the only one she took. Stone also did something we definitely believe was a red carpet first: She told a story involving both Meryl Streep and cocaine during her interview with E! Maria Menounos brought up Stone's current gig in Cabaret on Broadway, and said that Eddie Redmayne mentioned getting anxious when he knew there was a famous person in the audience. (Side note: We hope Menounos picked up that name she dropped on her way out.) Is it the same for Stone?, Menounos asked. Turns out, not really. "I don't really look out in the audience that much. Usually the people are sitting a few rows back so you don't really see them," Stone said. She did have one minor freakout over a fellow thesp coming to watch her perform, though. "Meryl Streep came last week, and my voice was gone," Stone confessed. "I freaked out and she was so sweet about it." It turns out that Meryl Streep is every bit as awesome as you think, and she had a ready-made excuse for Stone. "She was like, 'It's the cocaine!'" Stone took a moment to clarify to anyone watching, saying "I don't do cocaine," before continuing with her story about Streep. "I was like, 'Thank you for making the excuse for me; my voice is gone.'" Her Meryl-induced, no-voice meltdown may have been terrible at the time, but Stone has now had some time to reflect on it. She realizes what an amazing story it will be going forward. Plus, "I got cocaine on E!," she gleefully stated. And that, dear friends, is a story about the time Meryl Streep jokingly blamed Emma Stone's lack of voice on cocaine.
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TORONTO (AP) -- Jonas Valanciunas had 20 points and 11 rebounds, DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points and the Toronto Raptors held on down the stretch to beat the short-handed Detroit Pistons 114-110 on Sunday night. Amir Johnson scored 17, Greivis Vasquez had 13 and Lou Williams 12 as the Raptors won for the third time in four games and snapped a two-game losing streak at home. BOX SCORE: RAPTORS 114, PISTONS 110 The Pistons, who lost for the third time in four games, learned earlier Sunday that guard Brandon Jennings will miss the rest of the season after he ruptured his left Achilles tendon. Jennings was injured in the third quarter of Saturday night's 101-86 loss at Milwaukee. Starting in place of Jennings, Detroit point guard D.J. Augustin scored a career-high 35 points. Greg Monroe had 21 points and 16 rebounds for the Pistons, who suffered their third straight road defeat. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 16 and Andre Drummond had 14 for Detroit. Augustin's layup with 3:07 left brought Detroit to within four at 101-97, but Johnson followed by tipping in Kyle Lowry's missed shot. Toronto had a chance to stretch its lead after Lowry rebounded a missed 3 by Jodie Meeks, but Johnson couldn't convert a layup from Lowry's long pass, leading to a fast-break dunk by Caldwell-Pope to make it 103-99 at 2:10. After Toronto called timeout, DeRozan pushed the lead back to six with a pair of free throws. Meeks missed another 3 and DeRozan followed with a turnaround jumper on the baseline, putting the Raptors up 107-99 at 1:23. Caldwell-Pope kept Detroit alive with a 3 and, after Toronto lost possession on an offensive foul by Johnson, Augustin cut it to 107-104 with a pair of free throws. Caldwell-Pope converted a four-point play with 15 seconds left as Detroit shaved the deficit to two, 112-110, but Terrence Ross answered with two free throws. Caldwell-Pope got two more attempts from 3-point range in the final seconds, but missed them both. Toronto led 18-9 at 5:30 of the first, but Augustin scored nine points as the Pistons closed the quarter with a 16-8 spurt to cut the deficit to 26-25 after one. Augustin scored 11 in the first while Valanciunas had eight for the Raptors. Monroe scored 13 points in the second, but the Raptors closed the quarter on a 9-3 run to lead 58-53 at halftime. Toronto opened the third with six straight points to take their biggest lead of the game at that point. Valanciunas had eight points and five rebounds in the third as the Raptors took an 89-79 lead into the final quarter. TIP-INS Pistons: Jennings had 34 points and 10 assists in a 114-111 win in Toronto on Jan. 12. ... Jennings spent Sunday night in Milwaukee before returning to Detroit Sunday. ... The Pistons said there is no timetable for Jennings' return, but the guard tweeted a message Sunday afternoon saying ''6/9 months.'' ... With Jennings out, coach Stan Van Gundy spoke to general manager Jeff Bower on the telephone Sunday morning and said he'll look to add a third point guard to the roster ''fairly soon.'' Van Gundy and Bower plan to meet Monday for further talks. Raptors: Playing at home for the first time since being voted an All-Star starter, Lowry thanked fans in a pregame address at center court. ... Valanciunas leads Toronto with 14 double-doubles this season. ... Johnson started despite a sore left shoulder. UP NEXT Pistons: Host Cavaliers on Tuesday night. Raptors: Visit Pacers on Tuesday night.
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