2012年3月31日星期六

Mahan made four birdies in six holes to climb up the leaderboard

Bruce Weber, fired as the head burberry ties coach at Illinois last month, has been hired to run the Kansas State men’s program. Weber agreed to a five-year, $8.5 million contract that will pay him $1.5 million next season. He replaces Frank Martin, who left for South Carolina last week.

The move has not met with universal approval among Kansas State supporters. Jacob Pullen, the university’s career scoring leader who now plays overseas, offered his assessment of the hiring via Twitter, even misspelling Weber’s name: “Bruce Webber didn’t think I was good enough to play at Illinois and I don’t burberry outlet think he is good enough to coach at Kansas State.”

Karin Sjodin battled the wind on Saturday to fire a four-under 68, which allowed her to join Yani Tseng in the lead after three rounds of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

The co-leaders sit at nine-under-par 207 and couldn't be much different, career-wise.

Sjodin, 28, has never won on the LPGA Tour and missed the cut last week at the Kia Classic. She also missed the cut the first three times she played this tournament.

Tseng, 23, is the world's No. 1 player and a dominant presence on tour. She has recorded 15 LPGA victories, including five major wins -- one of which was the 2010 Kraft Nabisco title. She has won back-to-back tournaments, and three times in five starts overall this season.

But she struggled with her putter on the back nine Saturday and carded a one- under 71.

"It's a great leaderboard burberry shoes for men behind me," Oosthuizen said. "It's going to be tough, but I feel like I'm ready for it."

Mahan had a 65, rebounding from a bogey on No. 9 with four birdies on the back nine.

Carl Pettersson (67) and Brian Davis (69) were three strokes back at 14 under. James Driscoll (71) was alone at 12 under. Defending champion Phil Mickelson (70), Keegan Bradley (69) and Ryan Palmer (66) were 11 under.

Three-time major champion Ernie Els, who must win to qualify for the Masters next week, was in a group at 8 under. Els hasn't missed the Masters since 1993 and knew that his chances of winning Sunday are remote.

"I needed to get to 10 or 11 under to really have a shot," Els said. "I need a 62 or 63. It's tough to do on a Sunday, but you might as well give it a go."

The tournament's schedule was pushed back by a Ray ban sunglasses thunderstorm Thursday, and 70 players resumed their second rounds Saturday morning.

Oosthuizen completed a 66 to move to 11 under, one behind second-round leader Jeff Maggert. Oosthuizen started his third round with a tee shot into a fairway bunker, leading to a bogey, then misjudged the wind off the tee on No. 2 and bogeyed again.

The 2010 British Open winner sank an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 6 to get going, then made birdies at Nos. 8 and 9 to make the turn at 12 under.

"After that, I felt really comfortable," Oosthuizen said. "I made really good swings after that."

Mahan made four birdies in six holes to climb up the leaderboard. He holed a 34-footer on No. 6 and a 15-footer on No. 7. The winner of the Match Play Championship this year, Mahan never considered Oakley sunglasses skipping Houston to go straight to the Masters.

Mahan has three top-10 finishes in five previous starts here since 2007.

"I thought about it for about a second," Mahan said. "But this is a place I've played well at, so I want to play well here and try to win here. I really didn't want to pass this tournament up. Augusta will take care of burberry kids sale itself."

Ninety players made the 36-hole cut at 2 under or better. It was the most players to survive the 36-hole cut in a non-major since 91 made it at the 1981 Travelers Championship.

Another cut was made after the third round, leaving 70 players in the field for Sunday.

Maggert missed five straight cuts coming into this week. Playing in calm, cloudy conditions on Saturday morning, Maggert finished his second straight 66 to surge to 12 under and take the outright lead.Armani sunglasses for women, cheap armani glasses for men sale.

"It's a strange game," he said. "I just had a little stretch there where I wasn't hitting it that great. Just struggled a little bit, but this week, I've certainly turned it around."

Fred Couples, who won on the Champions Tour last week, made the 36-hole cut in Houston for the 19th consecutive time. He shot a 71 louis vuitton women shoes in the third round and was 5 under.

2012年3月30日星期五

This might explain the high number of artists

When it comes to disorders of Ray ban sunglasses the mind, our society has a tendency to seek out the safety of clear-cut categories. We want there to be a bright line separating normal from abnormal, health from sickness.

Alas, the human brain is a category buster, an organ so complicated that it continues to surprise and confound.

Consider autism. In recent years, autism has received an increasing amount of attention, largely because of a dramatic increase in its incidence. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control, about 1 in 88 children is now diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders, which include "classic" autism as well as Asperger syndrome.

These diagnoses are often based on observed deficits in social interaction, such as a lack of eye contact or verbal conversation. Temple Oakley sunglasses Grandin, a noted autistic doctor, describes the experience of spending time with nonautistics as akin to being "an anthropologist on Mars."

Because of these obvious shortcomings—humans are supposed to be social animals, after all—most people regard autism as a disease, a straightforward example of an impaired mind. But there's compelling evidence that autism is not merely a list of deficits. Rather, it represents an alternate way of making sense of the world, a cognitive difference that, in many instances, comes with unexpected benefits.

That's the lesson, at least, of a new study from the lab of Nilli Lavie at University College London. A few dozen adults, both with and without autism, were given a difficult perceptual task, in which they had to keep track of letters quickly flashed on a computer screen. At the burberry handbags same time, they also had to watch out for a small gray shape that occasionally appeared on the edge of the monitor.

When only a few letters appeared on the screen, both autistic and normal subjects could handle the task. However, when the number of letters was increased, subjects without autism—so-called neurotypicals—could no longer keep up. They were overwhelmed by the surplus of information.

Those adults with autism didn't have burberry watches this problem. Even when the task became maddeningly difficult, their performance never flagged.

What explains this result? According to the scientists, autism confers a perceptual edge, allowing people with the disorder to process more information in a short amount of time. While scientists have long assumed that autistics are more vulnerable to distraction—an errant sound or conversation can steal their attention—that's not the case. As Prof. Lavie notes, "Our research suggests autism burberry ties does not involve a distractibility deficit but rather an information-processing advantage."

These perceptual perks have real-world benefits. The scientists argue, for instance, that the ability to process vast amounts of data helps to explain the prevalence of savant-like talents among autistic subjects. Some savants perform difficult mathematical calculations in their head, others draw exquisitely detailed pictures at a young age. These skills have long remained a mystery, but they appear to be rooted in a distinct cognitive style shared by all autistics. Because they can process details that elude the rest of us, they can perform tasks that seem impossible, burberry outlet mens belts at least for the normal mind.

The same logic applies to many supposed mental disabilities. In recent years, scientists have demonstrated that people with attention-deficit disorders typically demonstrate higher levels of creative achievement in the real world, such as publishing fiction or winning prizes at science fairs.

Those with dyslexia, meanwhile, are often better at peripheral perception and quickly grasping the gist of a scene, showing superior performance on a variety of visual tasks. This might explain the high number of artists and designers with the condition.

The larger lesson is that, according to the latest research, these "deficits" are actually trade-offs. Carrera sunglasses, cheap porsche carrera sunglasses, 50% sale. What seems, at first glance, like a straightforward liability turns out to be a complex mixture of blessings and burdens.

For too long, we've assumed that there is a single template for human nature, which is why we diagnose most deviations as disorders. But the Louis vuitton men shoes 2012 designer style online discount gray reality is that there are many different kinds of minds. And that's a very good thing.

2012年3月29日星期四

Amazon could go to other major contract manufacturers

In a major development for the way burberry ties Western companies do business in China, Apple said on Thursday it agreed to work with Foxconn -- an affiliate of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry -- to curtail hours, substantially improve wages, and hire tens of thousands to compensate for the reduced hours.

With enviable profit margins and the ability to call the shots with suppliers, Apple's move to better labor conditions is not expected to force it to raise prices.

But Apple's move may indirectly force more labor-intensive manufacturers in the world's second largest economy -- like clothing makers -- to spend more on wages and accept lower profits.

"As a result of electronics companies raising wages, that's going to impact the entire manufacturing sector," said Paul Martyn, vice burberry outlet president of Supply Strategy at BravoSolution.

The Apple-Foxconn agreement could affect costs for other manufacturers who contract with the Taiwanese company, including Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com Inc, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Nokia and Sony Corp.

But with labor accounting for only a fraction of those companies' costs, they are expected to face limited pressure to raise their own prices or sacrifice profit margins.

After decades of aggressive expansion in China, cheap labor no longer looks limitless and steadily rising wages have become a major concern of U.S.-based companies heavily dependent on Chinese labor.

Better wages paid in China's electronics industry have already been rippling out to less complex manufacturing sectors, like clothing, burberry shoes for men shoes and toys, where labor is a bigger proportion of overall costs.

Best Buy Co CEO Brian Dunn said he is keeping an eye on rising wages in China, but argued that whatever margin pressures the electronics retail chain faces would be felt by all.

"Whatever plays out there will be unilaterally applied across whoever sells these goods," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

Apple's new plan to hire tens of thousands of workers, clamp down on illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade worker housing is expected to eventually fuel even more pressure to improve wages across the manufacturing industry.

"Apple and Foxconn are obviously the two biggest players in this sector and since they're teaming up to drive this change, I really Ray ban sunglasses do think they set the bar for the rest of the sector," Auret van Heerden, head of the Fair Labor Association, told Reuters.

Compared to the costs of microchips, sensors, high-end displays and other components that go into a laptop or smartphone, labor is only a tiny part, believed by some analysts to be no more than 5 percent of the cost in the case of Apple's iPhone.

Dell told Reuters in an email the company was pleased Foxconn is improving its labor practices but, "We won't speculate how the reduced overtime and higher wages will affect Foxconn's costs."

In consumer electronics, changes in component prices and the launch of more profitable products tend to mask or offset rising wages for products sold by companies like Hewlett Packard, Dell and Motorola Mobility, analysts say.

"Wages in China have been increasing significantly for years and that hasn't had any effect on retail prices," said Brad Gastwirth, co-founder of ABR Investment Strategy, an independent research firm. "And there are other trends happening -- the shift to Ultrabooks and other better-margin Oakley sunglasses products that are helping offset higher labor costs."

Apple's decision comes after the Fair Labor Association said it had unearthed multiple violations of labor law, including extreme hours and unpaid overtime, disclosing its findings from a survey of three Foxconn plants and over 35,000 workers.

Apple had agreed to the probe by the independent FLA in response to a crescendo of criticism that its products were built on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers.

Shenzhen, a major manufacturing hub in southern China, increased its minimum wage by 13.6 percent in February despite warnings from factory owners and exporters already reeling from slow U.S. and European demand.

China's largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn burberry watches 2012 is in a strong position compared to its smaller rivals but it would still be difficult for the company to get customers like Apple, HP and Amazon, which makes the Kindle Fire tablet in China, to bear the brunt of higher labor costs.

"If Foxconn tries to increase prices, Amazon could go to other major contract manufacturers like Quanta, Wistron, Pegatron or Inventec to see what they could do for the company," said Mark Gerber, director of technology research at brokerage Detwiler Fenton.

To make up for rising wages, manufacturers most sensitive to labor costs, like apparel makers or toy makers, may cut corners on the products they produce, BravoSolution's Martyn said.Juicy Couture sunglasses, cheap Juicy Couture glasses sale.

For example, higher wages in electronics manufacturing could eventually spill over to factories making plastic toys and force U.S. fast-food restaurants to use lower-quality trinkets in their promotions aimed at kids, he said.

"We may see a reduction in the diversity of louis vuitton men bags products offered or a reduction in quality," Martyn said. "We may see more defects as a result of changes in some of these sectors like apparel and toys."

That target was cut several times before RIM abandoned

The contestant with the lowest number of votes would have to sing for his or her life in an attempt to convince the judges into louis vuitton sunglasses using their one save of the season.

Hollie Cavanagh, Phillip Phillips and Elise Testone, who closed out Wednesday's show with a rocking rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," were the first singers called to the front of the stage. Ryan Seacrest skipped his usual tricks and quickly revealed that Hollie was the one of the three in the bottom.

The next contestant sent to the stools of doom was Heejun Han, who staged a comeback the night before in the eyes of the judges, after Steven Tyler questioned last week whether he took the competition seriously. It wasn't enough: Heejun joined Hollie, while two of Wednesday's most emotional performers – Joshua Ledet and Colton Dixon – were deemed safe.

Jennifer Lopez told the audience Wednesday to pick up the phone and vote for Deandre Brackensick – and they did. He and Jessica Sanchez, an early favorite since she sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," were declared safe, while the show's only country singer, Skylar Laine, was told she was in the bottom three.

But Ryan quickly put Skylar and Hollie out of their misery, leaving Heejun to sing for his life. After he reprised his performance of Donnie Hathaway's "A Song For You," the judges deliberated. Then, Steven said, "Heejun, let the record show that you knew this was coming yourself. You saw it come last week ... Unfortunately, after talking, we're going to have to let you go."

RIM's shares dropped as much as 9 percent on Thursday after the company said it would no longer issue financial forecasts and was reviewing "strategic opportunities" such as partnerships and joint-venture licensing, and other ways to leverage its assets. A handful of senior executives, including former co-CEO and current director Jim Balsillie, will depart.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins, who took over from Balsillie and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis in January, said he was still focusing on a turnaround of the company, which has been hammered by competition from Apple and Google's Android in recent years.

Even so, if the review pointed in the direction of a possible sale, he said, "We would consider it, but it is not the main direction we are pursuing right now."

"I did my own reality check on where the entire company really is," he said during a conference call with analysts. "It is now very clear to me that substantial change is what RIM needs."

After Heins spoke, RIM's shares settled about 2.4 percent lower, in part because he left open the option of partnerships that analysts said could allow the company to exit some aspects of its business, such as making hardware, while focusing on software and services.

"If you look at this quarter alone ... things are certainly incrementally worse. But on the flip side, he's raised some possibilities of strategy change, which a lot of people think is called for," Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton said.

Investors may also have been encouraged by signs that Heins was putting his stamp on the company. RIM said Balsillie, who long served as RIM's public face, was stepping down as a board director a few weeks after he gave up his role as co-CEO.

Dan Dodge, former head of QNX Software, will replace David Yach as RIM's top software architect. RIM bought QNX in 2010 and is counting on the operating system to power its PlayBook tablet and redesigned BlackBerry 10 smartphones that will be launched later this year.

In addition, Jim Rowan also left as chief operating officer and RIM is looking for his replacement. It is still searching for a chief marketing officer to lead its promotional efforts.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company shipped 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 3, down 21 percent from the third quarter, but slightly ahead of analysts' pessimistic expectations.

It was the first decline in the quarter louis vuitton bangle covering Christmas since 2006 and only the second time RIM has reported the metric dropping for that crucial period.

RIM sold more than 500,000 PlayBooks in the fourth quarter, a number inflated by deep discounts offered to boost sales of the product.

The decline in BlackBerry shipments suggests that RIM, at best, is treading water until it releases its next-generation of BlackBerry smartphones. Most analysts consider that a do-or-die launch for the company as it falls further behind Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad and devices powered by Google's Android.

The company is now paying the price for failing to heed calls to move quickly to license its operating system and consider other strategies to compete with industry titan Apple, said Peter Misek, managing director of Jefferies & Co.

"It's going to be absolute gong show for the next few quarters," he said. "They're going to scramble around now for the next three to six months, and every poor shareholder that had faith in them is going to be potentially impoverished. I'm so angry as a Canadian - every Canadian investor should be angry."

While analysts generally approved of the more candid tone by Heins compared with that of his predecessors, most questioned if the new CEO would have enough time to pull off his plans.

"RIM has to orchestrate this turnaround within a shrinking window of opportunity. The market will determine how long that window stays open," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson.

"Ultimately, RIM is taking half measures, baby-stepping their way to a reorganization and they're not moving fast enough," said Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research. "They need a wholesale change in the culture and the management of the company."

RIM said its decision to no longer provide specific financial guidance reflected an inability to forecast accurately given the weakness of its U.S. business and competitive pressure in global markets as it increasingly relies on sales of more low-end devices.

RIM, which has historically provided a forecast for BlackBerry shipments, earnings per share and revenue, has faced scathing criticism in the past year for missing its targets. Last year it stopped reporting average selling prices and subscriber additions.

For its fourth quarter, RIM reported a net loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share, after booking writedowns on its legacy BlackBerry 7 phones and goodwill.

RIM last recorded a loss under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005, when it booked tax expenses and paid to resolve a patent infringement case that had threatened to shut down its U.S. operations.

On an adjusted basis excluding the writedowns, profit in the latest quarter more than halved to $418 million, or 80 cents a share, from $934 million, or $1.78, a year earlier. Revenue slumped to $4.19 billion from $5.56 billion.

Analysts, on average, had expected RIM to earn 81 cents a share on revenue of $4.54 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding several major writedowns, RIM had adjusted earnings of $4.20 per share in the full fiscal year, after forecasting a year ago it would earn more than $7.50 a share.

That target was cut several times before RIM abandoned it altogether after a spate of product delays, a global service Men louis vuitton shoes 2012 new luxury cheap outlet light gray outage and disappointing shipment numbers.

"They clearly have no fix on when this process will bottom, and until it really does, it's going to be very difficult for a lot of investors to come back in," said Eric Jackson, a hedge fund manager at Ironfire Capital in New York.

2012年3月28日星期三

Newt does think in big historic terms and thinks of himself

Former President George H.W. Bush burberry ties will make it official Thursday, formally endorsing Mitt Romney for president in a ceremony at his Houston office.

"Mitt will drop by and visit, and Mrs. Bush will join them," said Bush chief of staff Jean Becker. "Then (Bush) would like to make it official."

Former first lady Barbara Bush has formally backed Romney and recorded automated telephone calls for him earlier this month in Ohio and burberry outlet Vermont.

Their son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, endorsed Romney last week after his victory in the Illinois primary. Another son, former President George W. Bush, has not expressed a preference in the presidential primary.

The elder Bush signaled his support for the former Massachusetts governor in December in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, calling Romney "the best choice for us," but he held off making a formal endorsement until now. Becker said Bush always had been a Romney supporter, but waited to make an endorsement out of respect for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also was seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

'A big endorsement'

Bush's endorsement is another sign that the Republican establishment is uniting behind Romney and pressuring his competitors to quit the race.

"He believes it's time for this phase of burberry shoes for men the campaign to reach a conclusion and get on with regaining the White House," said Jim McGrath, an aide to the former president.

So far, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have resisted pressure to withdraw, although Gingrich announced this week that he is scaling back his campaign.

"Obviously, it's a big endorsement," said Jared Woodfill, the Harris County Republican Party chairman, "but I haven't seen an orchestrated effort by the so-called establishment to push these people out. From a local perspective, I want these people to stay in through our May 29 primary. That helps us turn people out in November."

Romney made appearances in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Wednesday and was scheduled to make appearances in San Antonio and Houston on Thursday. After meeting with the Bushes, he will attend a campaign event Ray ban sunglasses at the Hotel St. Regis.

Instead of bowing out after a string of losses, the former House Speaker has decided to cap off a historic career by spending the final weeks of the campaign in a sort of political purgatory — he’ll remain in the race, but as something less than a full-fledged candidate.

Even Gingrich’s top super PAC benefactor, Oakley sunglasses casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, said Wednesday that the candidate is “at the end of his line.”

Rather than traveling state-to-state in an attempt to win presidential primaries and caucuses, the storied politician who liberated the House of Representatives from nearly a half-century of Democratic control will devote his time to cutting cheap web videos and wooing unbound delegates more interested in Lincoln Day Dinner commitments than big ideas. And he’ll hustle whatever media attention is available to a broke candidate whose stated goal is to play in a convention he can’t be burberry kids sale nominated in without a majority of delegates from three more states.

Gingrich’s loyal cadre of advisers portrays his decision to forge ahead as what could be called the Kris Kristofferson approach: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” as the famous lyric goes.

But in paring back staff and time on the campaign trail to stanch his debt, an authentically transformational figure who’s sought to play on history’s stage since a childhood visit to Verdun has exposed himself to ridicule.

“A lot of us who were around him before and didn’t think this was a good idea from the beginning were worried this was the way it was going to end,” said Rich Galen, a top Gingrich aide in the 1990s. “He’s in danger I think of becoming a laughingstock.”

It didn’t have to end this way. Cartier eyeglasses sale, cheap cartier sunglasses for men. Gingrich could have withdrawn graciously after twice proving his resilience and relevance in a race where few gave him much of a chance at being a contender, let alone winning the nomination. But those who know Newton Leroy Gingrich well say that to think he’d retreat quietly to McLean as a lion in winter, is to fundamentally misunderstand the man. The same forces that propelled him to attempt a comeback at this late moment in his career is what keeps him in a race he almost certainly can’t win.

“Newt does think in big historic terms and thinks of himself as big, historic player,” explained former Rep. Vin Weber, a close louis vuitton women shoes friend of Gingrich in the House who now backs Mitt Romney. “The notion that he’s going to withdraw and just go away is unthinkable. He’s still looking for drama. He’s imagining the first seriously contested convention in our lifetimes.”

ATV was developed by the ESA as part of a barter arrangement

An unmanned European supply vessel carrying more than six tonnes of freight docked with the International Space Station (ISS) cheap louis vuitton mens shoes on Wednesday reinforcing Europe's role in the functioning of the ISS, space officials said.

European Space Agency (ESA) officials said the docking of Europe's third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was flawless when it eased into place without any intervention from astronauts in the space station.

They put the official docking time with the ISS at 2233 GMT and approximately 30 minutes later initial electrical connections to the ISS were confirmed.

Astronauts aboard the ISS will be able to enter the vessel after electric connections and seals keeping space atmosphere out of the louis vuitton jewelry station are checked.

"This rendez-vous and docking was the most critical phase," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the ESA, said after the docking from a mission control centre in Toulouse, France.

"No other vehicle is able to do this kind of docking," Dordain said.

The vessel, dubbed "Edoardo Amaldi" after the Italian physicist and spaceflight pioneer, is the third ATV Europe has contributed to the ISS programme.

The first docked with the space station in early 2008. A second docked early last year.

It was the first European mission to re-supply the ISS since the U.S. space shuttle fleet was retired last July.

Edoardo Amaldi was launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket from ESA's launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America on March 23.

It will remain attached to the space station until August as astronauts remove its cargo and fill it with rubbish from the station.

It will then be thrust back toward earth, burning up on re-entry. Any remaining debris will be targeted to a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

The ATV has more cargo capacity than Japan's HTV vessel also used to supply the ISS and over twice the capacity of a Russia's Progress vehicle.

American start-up SpaceX - brainchild of PayPal co-founder Elon Musk - has scheduled its first supply mission to the ISS aboard its Dragon spacecraft in late April.

The ATV will also be used as a 'space jack'. Residual gravity from the earth causes the space station to fall about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) a month. The vessel will ignite thrusters to lift the station back to a higher altitude.

ATV was developed by the ESA as part of a barter arrangement with the U.S. space agency NASA.

Instead of paying cash for its share of the station's operating costs and also to secure additional astronaut access, ESA is providing the ATV and other components.

A full ATV mission costs between 450 and 500 million euros ($585-650 million), the ATV spacecraft itself accounting for around 350 million Euros ($450 million), the ESA said.

The space station is a $150 billion project by 15 nations. Modular in design, most of the elements were transported aboard American space shuttles or Russian heavy-lift rockets. A final ISS element is scheduled to Discount louis vuitton men black shoes 2012 hot sale be delivered in late 2013 using a Russian Proton rocket.

China has so far not participated in the ISS preferring to concentrate on its own planned space station, though preliminary talks have indicated a possible change of policy.

2012年3月27日星期二

Ryan Anderson hit a career-high eight 3-pointers

Researchers are taking the notion burberry ties of a light-deflecting "invisibility cloak" into the realm of heat.

A paper in the journal Optics Express yesterday describes a method to control the diffusion of heat similar to how researchers cloak objects to render them invisible.

By controlling how heat flows, the paper's authors intend to build materials that keep electronics cool or concentrate heat for solar power generation. Prototype thermal cloaks for microelectronics are expected to be ready within months.

In the past few years, researchers have made advances in specialized materials that scatter light, sound, or seismic waves which hit an object in a way that counteracts normal reflection. In the case of light, the effect is to cloak the object from view, which can be used for military aircraft or optical instruments.

The Optics Express paper describes the how thermal cloaking can work by applying mathematics from optics. A key difference is that, unlike burberry outlet light waves, heat is diffused, moving from hot to cold. By using special coatings, researchers said they can manipulate how the heat flows.

"We can design a cloak so that heat diffuses around an invisibility region, which is then protected from heat. Or we can force heat to concentrate in a small volume, which will then heat up very rapidly," Sebastien Guenneau, a researcher at the University of Aix-Marseille and France's Centre National de la Reserche Scientifique (CRNS), said in a statement.

Guenneau expects that heat shields could protect microelectronic devices, such as semiconductors, from overheating or in the future, supercomputers and space craft. Concentrating heat from sunlight could make existing solar products more productive, too, he said.

"Our key goal with this research was to control the way heat diffuses in a manner similar to those that have already been achieved for waves, such as light waves or sound waves, by using the tools of transformation optics," he said.

The injury bug may have hit the New York Knicks burberry shoes for men at the wrong time as they cling to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

With Amare Stoudemire out and Jeremy Lin and Carmelo Anthony questionable to play Wednesday night, New York hosts the surging Orlando Magic, who have won seven of the last eight meetings.

Stoudemire is out indefinitely with a bulging disk, and Lin may miss a second consecutive game with a sore left knee. Anthony scored a game-high 28 points in an 89-80 win over Milwaukee on Monday despite a strained right groin, but it's possible the injury could keep him out Wednesday.

Anthony said he felt the need to contribute more without Stoudemire and Lin, and he helped the Knicks (25-25) extend their slim lead over Milwaukee for the last playoff spot.

New York has won seven Ray ban sunglasses of eight since interim coach Mike Woodson took over March 14.

"I've just got to step my game up," Anthony said. "We've been winning. As far as scoring the basketball, we really haven't been needing that. It's been pretty much spread out but now with them two guys, there ain't no telling what's the situation with them. So it's just time for me to step my game up in all aspects."

The Knicks have averaged 87.8 points over their last four, but they've won three times while allowing 83.5 points per game in that stretch.

Woodson has helped New York transition from the run-and-gun offense of former coach Mike D'Antoni to a defensive focus, which he said is most important if the Knicks are to contend.

They are allowing an average of 86.0 points under Woodson compared to 96.5 under D'Antoni.

"There are going to be nights where we bust loose and make shots and put up big numbers," Woodson told the team's official website. "What has to be a given has to be our defense. We have to continue to defend and rebound. If we do that, we will Oakley sunglasses put ourselves in position to win games."

New York will have its work cut out against an Orlando team that tied its season high for points in a 117-101 win over Toronto on Monday.

Ryan Anderson hit a career-high eight 3-pointers and finished with 28 points. He fell two points shy of the career-high 30 he scored in a 102-93 win at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 16, when he hit seven 3s.

Dwight Howard scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Monday for the Magic (32-18), who have won three straight.

"Dwight was dominant inside and they were leaving Ryan open on the perimeter so it was pretty easy to get shots," coach Stan Van Gundy said.

Anderson has hit an NBA-best cheap designer shawls 143 shots from 3-point range.

"That's amazing," Howard said. "I'm happy for him. We all love the way he's been playing."

Howard scored eight points in the first meeting with the Knicks, ending his string of nine straight double-doubles in the series, during which he averaged 25.4 points and 16.3 rebounds.Armani sunglasses for women, cheap armani glasses for men sale.

Anthony scored 33 points in that game and is averaging 28.6 points lifetime against the Magic - his best versus any team except the 29.9 he averaged against the Knicks while with Denver.

2012年3月26日星期一

Carlos Boozer yells across the locker room

There is a rumor that Tom Thibodeau, burberry handbags once, cracked a joke.

"Jo!," Carlos Boozer yells across the locker room, to Joakim Noah. "How many jokes has Thibs cracked in the two years we've been together?"

"Never," Noah responds.

"There's your answer," Boozer said. "Maybe -- maybe -- once."

"The Scal stuff," Noah says. "He said some (bleep) about Scal being like that guy in the movie? Will Ferrell?"

"Oh," Boozer says, remembering. "In New Orleans, Video Will Ferrell introduced us. It was 70s night. And (Thibodeau) made a joke that (Brian) Scalabrine was the guy from, remember that movie? Semi Pro? That was the joke. In two years. He's very serious."

Boozer says this well within earshot of Thibodeau, who smiles easily, and why not? These are -- relatively -- easy times for the Bulls, who have the league's best record, playing at a cool .800 clip, despite losing defending MVP Derrick Rose for several games with back and groin troubles, and without their major offseason acquisition, Rip Hamilton, giving them much of anything, sidelined for all but 16 games with a bad groin and shoulder.

They go through point guards with regularity -- and, it seems, without losing a step. They've used C.J. Watson and John Lucas III (see below) and Mike James as Rose's replacements; that trio is shooting a combined 41 percent from 3-point range and has an assist-turnover ratio of burberry shirts for women cheap 2.13 to 1. After back-to-back wins over the Raptors, the Bulls are an amazing 12-4 without Rose.

The trust the Bulls' vets have in their young guards isn't by accident. The offense requires the ballhandler attack as much as possible. And in Watson and Lucas (James' 10-day deal expired over the weekend), the Bulls have two high-quality players.

"I think it's just the way our team is built," Noah said. "I think that the Bulls, they do a great job, and character is a big thing for the GMs. [John] Paxson [the team president], Gar [Forman, the general manager] and [owner] Jerry Reinsdorf are big on character. I think we have a lot of character on this team and guys play for the right reasons."

The relatively seamless transition in point guard production has been at the heart of Chicago's excellent play all season; the Bulls are fourth in the league in points per 100 possessions (105.7 points per game). Boozer has played every game after missing 23 games last year with a broken hand.

As ever, they are locked in on defense, currently second in the league in points per 100 possessions (96 ppg), which has led to Chicago's league-best point differential of 8.9 per game.

And while the Bulls looked into acquiring Pau Gasol from the Lakers and Dwight Howard from the Magic, they never got close to pulling the trigger on either deal. Rose made it clear that he had no interest in lobbying other players to come to Chicago.

"I think D-Rose said it best," Boozer said. "A lot of guys are going to want to come to our team, 'cause we're at the top. We have a great group. There are only a handful of teams that are at the top, and we're one of them. You heard what D-Rose said. We have enough to win in that locker room. What we've got already is all we need."

That includes Thibodeau, who last week became the fastest coach in NBA history to 100 wins (130 games, one quicker than Avery Johnson). But while the Bulls will certainly pick up Thibodeau's third-year option on his two-year deal, the Bulls' coach has yet to be signed to a long-term extension. (Meanwhile, Dallas' Rick Carlisle and Oklahoma City's Scott Brooks have reached the last year of their current deals without immediate resolution from their respective teams.)Ray ban sunglasses, cheap gucci sunglasses, burberry sunglasses sale.

Reinsdorf told the Chicago Tribune last month via e-mail: "Tom does a great job with this team, and you see the results of his hard work every time the players take the court. We certainly hope and expect that Tom will be with the Bulls well beyond his current contract. However, there is nothing to announce at this time."

Thibodeau came to Chicago in 2010 with a reputation as one of the league's best defensive coaches, having spent two decades learning and shaping his defensive philosophies as a top assistant for Jeff Van Gundy and Doc Rivers. That rep has only been enhanced by his wild success in Chicago, which led to a Video Coach of the Year award last season.

His attention to detail remains uncompromising, but like every other coach in this lockout-shortened season, his flexibility has been tested. The Bulls have never been a big full-court practice team in his two seasons, but they watch more tape than ever.

And the continuity of the roster means everyone knows what Thibodeau wants. He is uncompromising in his insistence on defending without fouling: force everything baseline, no gambling for steals, proper body position, hands back and high, long contests on the shot, going straight up and down on the contest, run opponents off the 3-point line.

"It is a very exact system," guard Kyle Korver said. "We ran it all last year and this is basically the same group. I think that happens a lot. I've never been on a team that's been so, almost, monotonously drilled. This is how we're going to play. This is what we're going to do ... these rules are ingrained into our heads. We hear it in our sleep, you know what I mean? And there's no slippage, ever. He won't allow any slippage. So as long as we're out there playing hard, we're normally going to play the right way."

It is not a fun way to play. Go into a Bulls locker room after most every game, and you see an exhausted team. Circles under the eyes. Ice on knees, of course. Daily treatment is encouraged and emphasized; no team may take burberry ties more advantage of its four masseuses than the Bulls. But a coach that is 102-30 out of the gate has a cache that makes complaining pointless.

"It's hard. It's very hard," Noah said. "That's why winning is so sweet, because it's hard. And it is repetitive and you're always tired, and it's always the next one, move on to the next one ... it's emotional. Sometimes things are great, like right now. But we beat Miami last week, and then we lose to a team that just fired their coach (Portland). So it just shows you there's so much talent in this league, mindset is everything."

The Bulls' mindset is Borg-like these days (that's in reference to the collective of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", not the champion tennis player Bjorn. Although, come to think of it, they're about the same). Rose is expected back soon -- he started running in a swimming pool last week and was cleared to start doing a little more running. But the way Rose plays, he said last week, with all that twisting and turning, he wants to make absolutely sure he's completely healed.

Hamilton was finally able to lift his arm Oakley sunglasses above his head a week ago -- "it's getting better," he said -- and is doing everything short of contact. The Bulls can afford to be extra-cautious with both players considering their 10 1/2-game spread over second-place Indiana in the Central. They're now 2 1/2 games clear of Oklahoma City and 3 1/2 games ahead of Miami for best record in the league, too.

But the Heat loom. The Bulls' coach is too focused in his one-game-at-a-time approach to spend much time obsessing about the team that knocked his out of the East finals last season. The players, for the most part, echo that belief -- to a point.

"I think we think about Miami because they're the team that knocked us out last year," Noah said. "They're obviously a pretty high standard. Sometimes we're more worried about us than we are about Miami. But, yeah, all the top teams are on our minds. You know, I've been in enough basketball games to know that's the beauty of sports. In an ideal situation, I want to see Miami in the Eastern Conference finals. In an ideal situation."

But they aren't there yet. And they know it. And playing .750 ball without Rose in the regular season means nothing if Rose is in any way limited in the playoffs. And Boozer has to play better than he has in the past few playoffs. Noah has to produce. Deng has to get through the rest of the regular season without doing more damage to his already-wrecked wrist. That's a lot of ifs.

"This season is a grind, man," Korver said. "It's a grind for us, it's a grind for everyone ... we've got a demanding coach, and it's a grind of a season. Guys have responded really well, and Thibs burberry scarves 2012 has done a great job, obviously, of when to push and when to let up a little bit. We all know what's coming, and we want to be ready for it."

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The existence of this new species

The discovery of a new species of hammerhead shark may sound like bad news for swimmers. But shark bites are rare, and it turns out this may be worse news for sharks.

The shark, as yet unnamed, closely resembles www.louisvuitonoutlet.com the scalloped hammerhead shark, a species currently up for protection as an endangered species due to the high commercial demand for its fins.

The existence of this new species, originally noticed off the southeastern United States in 2005 and now confirmed as a wide-ranging oceanic shark, shows that the scalloped hammerhead may be in even worse trouble than originally thought, since many sharks counted as scalloped hammerheads were presumably the look-alike species. And the discovery suggests that the new hammerhead species may be facing extinction even before it has a name.

“It’s very important to officially recognize, name and learn more about this new hammerhead species and the condition of its populations through systematic surveys,” said Mahmood Shivji, who oversaw the new research at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center’s Save Our Seas Shark Center USA and Guy Harvey Research Institute, in a news release. “Without management intervention to curtail its inadvertent killing, we run the risk that overfishing could eradicate an entire shark species before its existence is even properly acknowledged.”

The shark was originally discovered off the South Florida coast in 2005, as Shivji and his team conducted a genetic analysis of what they thought were scalloped hammerheads. A separate team from the University of South Carolina found specimens off that state's waters. At the time, there was some question over what to make of these discoveries. But in a study published in the latest edition of the journal Marine Biology, Shivji and six colleagues from other universities and organizations, say they have found the shark off the coast of southern Brazil, site of busy commercial hammerhead fishery.

Danillo Pinhal, then a visiting graduate student at Nova, had done the lab work while researching scalloped hammerheads off Brazil, finding that his genetic identification tests weren't working on some samples.

"The finding of this species all the way down in Brazilian waters, where hammerhead sharks are heavily fished, raises concerns about the population status of both species not just in U.S. waters but throughout the western Atlantic," said Pinhal, now assistant professor at the UNESP-São Paulo State University. "It’s an international issue now and it’s essential that further research on this new species be conducted in Brazilian waters.”

The new shark and the scalloped hammerhead split from a common ancestor about 4.5 million years ago, according to the scientists’ genetic analysis. Although they resemble each other, the new species has 20 fewer vertebrae.

“It’s a classic case of long-standing species misidentification that not only casts further uncertainty on the status of the real scalloped hammerhead but also raises concerns about the population status of this new species,” Shivji said.

Maggie Miller, a biologist with the endangered species conservation section of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the fisheries service will consider the studies on the new shark as it considers whether to add the scalloped hammerhead to the endangered species list. A preliminary decision is expected in August.

Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, said the discovery argues for a broader approach to the conservation of sharks in which it's easy to mistake one species for another.

"The news bolsters conservationists' arguments that rules currently being developed under the National Marine Fisheries Service fishery management plan for sharks apply to not just overfished scalloped hammerheads but also similar looking species," she said.

Fins from the various hammerhead species command high prices in China and other East Asian countries because they have long cartilage needles that are prized for shark-fin soup.

2012年3月25日星期日

Had some really good pit strategies

But because the three-time and reigning burberry ties Sprint Cup Series champion has made sport of warming up with the weather, having two wins through five starts in 2012 is notable in showing that he can start a year as well as he finishes.

And as his victory in Sunday's rain-shortened Auto Club 400 demonstrated, any opportunity he takes typically won't be given back.

That was obvious after Stewart overtook Kyle Busch on lap 85 as the race leader got caught up with Juan Pablo Montoya, who was trying to stay on the lead lap. Stewart pounced, tailing Montoya in the outside lane and sending his No. 14 Chevrolet to first place.

"My theory has always been, 'You can't pass 'em if you're following 'em,' " Stewart said. "I went behind Juan. My car really liked the outside."

Then he poured it on before pouring rain stopped the race after 129 of a scheduled 200 laps, giving Stewart seven wins in 15 burberry handbags outlet starts, dating back to last fall's Chase for the Cup.

"It's been nice to get off to a good start this year the way we have," said Stewart, who started ninth and led 42 laps en route to his 46th career victory in NASCAR's premier series. "History shows in the last 13 years that we have not had the strongest starts the first third of the year. I'm really, really excited about the start that we've got going."

Busch was second after leading a race-high 80 laps with Dale Earnhardt Jr. earning just his fourth top-five in 20 starts at Auto Club Speedway. Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and points leader Greg Biffle rounded out the top six, and pole-sitter Denny Hamlin was 11th.

Though Busch appeared frustrated with Montoya, his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota stayed in contention through quick pit stops brought on by the urgency of approaching rain.

"Probably lap 60 or 70 we were all thinking, 'OK, we're going to race to lap 100 because that's halfway (the race becomes official a lap later)," said Busch, who passed teammate Hamlin on the second lap.

"Pit strategy kind of played into that. We actually could have went probably five more laps on fuel, but everybody started short pitting, so we kind of came in and got tires as quick as we could so we didn't lose time to the rest of the guys, get ourselves boxed out with traffic maybe a few laps later."

Any hope that Hamlin had of catching Stewart was dashed during the caution, as Stewart deftly turned back out onto the two-mile track burberry sneakers women just before the commitment line on pit road, though Stewart thought Hamlin was going to pit anyway.

"I don't think I faked him out. I'm sure he had made the decision already," Stewart said, then quipped, "It looked good though."

Earnhardt's run was a pleasant surprise given his Auto Club record. (four top-10s, five early exits coming in), to say nothing of his consistency.

He went from 14th to the top 10 within 10 laps and stayed there, drawing the biggest cheer when he vaulted to third during the caution.

"We started off moving forward," Earnhardt said. "Had some really good pit strategies, pitting a little bit earlier than most guys. (Crew chief) Steve (Letarte) brought us down pit road and we gained a little bit of time, passed some guys on pit road. We drove the car up to fifth before the weather came. We felt certain if it started to rain it wasn't going to stop."

But nobody was stronger than Stewart, who also won two weeks earlier at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and led laps for the fourth time in five starts — not bad considering he's breaking in a new crew chief Ray ban sunglasses (Steve Addington) and competition director (Greg Zipadelli, his former JGR crew chief) at Stewart-Haas Racing.

"To be able to come out of the box and carry that momentum with a new competition director and new crew chief," Stewart said, "I think it shows the depth of our program and our group of guys back at our shop."

And to think, he hasn't even warmed up yet.

Johnson's fortunate finish: Five days after a chief appellate officer overturned NASCAR's 25-point penalty against him, driver Jimmie Johnson caught another break.

With the Auto Club 400 race under caution for rain Sunday, Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet was running 10th when it started spewing smoke and leaking oil. But crew chief Chad Knaus, atop the pit box after his six-race suspension was overturned for a pre-Daytona 500 infraction, told Johnson to stay on the track in case the race was red-flagged. It was, and the five-time champion was able to keep pace under caution to rescue burberry shoes for men a 10th-place finish.

Johnson earned 35 points Sunday; added to the 25 he got back Tuesday, it was a 60-point week. He's now ninth in the Sprint Cup standings, though Friday he remained miffed that his Daytona car was ever under question. A $100,000 fine to Knaus was not overturned, giving NASCAR some vindication that its penalty for illegal C posts — the pieces of sheet metal connecting the roof to the rear quarter panel — was correct.

"I'm happy that the big issues 2012 Burberry fashion wallets cheap sale beige/pink had come down, but I share confusion as well," Johnson said. "Our message all along through Hendrick Motorsports and myself, we didn't feel that a penalty was warranted in the first place."

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2012年3月22日星期四

Gannon said he thought Sanchez could feel pressured by Tebow

On Thursday, the NHL did not visit any discipline upon the Blackhawks' Duncan Keith for his elbow to the head of the Canucks' Daniel burberry ties Sedin one night earlier, but that doesn't mean the defenseman won't be iced sometime soon.

Especially given that Sedin was flown back to Vancouver on Thursday for additional tests, according to TSN, with RDS in Canada later reporting that the winger suffered a concussion and will be sidelined for two weeks.

With Sedin officially out, that could precipitate a suspension or fine for Keith, who received a minor penalty for the first-period hit on Wednesday night. The Hawks were off Thursday and don't play again until Sunday, so the NHL also might not be moving too hastily with some time for deliberation.

"I can't comment on those things," Keith said Wednesday after the game, when asked about possible league discipline. "I'm out there playing my game. I'm not trying to hurt anybody."

Scoring Shaw: Rookie Andrew Shaw's overtime winner against the Canucks made it four goals and six points in his last three games, though three of the scores arrived via redirections. Consider everyone, Shaw included, pleasantly surprised.

"It was always my game, gritty, go to the net, try to get a stick on it," Shaw said. "If you look at my stats burberry handbags outlet from my previous years, I was never really the goal scorer. But I can't complain, right? Things have been going pretty well for me."

Said Keith: "What's kind of underrated with him is his speed. Maybe he's not the smoothest skater, but he can get to places and get to the right areas."

It often happened to Doug Flutie when his Calgary Stampeders needed a quarterback sneak. Out of the game he went, and in came a strong and physical runner named Steve Taylor to gain that final yard. The switch prevented Flutie from absorbing some big hits, but it also had an unintended consequence.

“It ruins your rhythm — both of ours,” said Flutie, now a college football analyst for NBC Sports Network. “I always worried when Steve went in that he would fumble the snap. It’s not fair.”

It is also not difficult to imagine a situation similar to what Flutie experienced playing out this season for the Jets, whose daring trade for Tim Tebow diversified their offense but complicated the dynamic at their most important position: the quarterback who played in the playoffs last season (Tebow) will back up the quarterback who sputtered as his team collapsed (Mark Sanchez).

General Manager Mike Tannenbaum has stressed that Sanchez is, has been and will be the Jets’ starter. But speaking Thursday morning on the ESPN Radio program “Mike and Mike,” Tannenbaum hinted that if their traditional offense falters under Sanchez, they could incorporate more packages with Tebow. If that were to happen, Coach Rex Ryan would undoubtedly face a barrage of questions about whether burberry sneakers women to expand Tebow’s role, which, by extension, would diminish Sanchez’s.

The former N.F.L. quarterback Kurt Warner said the burden falls on the Jets’ coaching staff, particularly Ryan, to finesse what could turn into a predicament.

“We’ve seen the polarization of Tim in the way his fans have been bold and outspoken, with the billboards they put up around Denver and everything,” said Warner, now an analyst for NFL Network. “You just wonder how it’s going to play out.”

Sanchez seems to have as many detractors and supporters as Tebow, whose role has been clearly defined but amorphously described. The Jets will install a series of plays intended to use Tebow in several ways — short-yardage, red zone, Wildcat — and their ideal result would be for him to challenge Sanchez during practices and complement him during games. Warner said the Jets will not have to worry about Tebow’s complaining about his playing time or being anything less than a model teammate.

That was how Rich Gannon said he approached the controversy that erupted in Kansas City when he and Elvis Grbac played for the Chiefs in the late 1990s. It affected the locker room and divided the Chiefs’ fan base.

“When I got onto the field, whether I was working with the first or second team, I seized the opportunity,” said Gannon, now a SiriusXM NFL Radio host. “I didn’t care about the other guy, and you shouldn’t. It was my time to shine.”

In Warner’s only season in New York, in 2004, he led the Giants to a 5-4 record before he was replaced by Eli Manning. Warner said the decision Ray ban sunglasses created tension in the Giants’ locker room because the team was entrusting its playoff hopes to a rookie.

“At the end of the day, players want what’s best for the team, and they want what’s best for the team right now,” Warner said. “Not that they didn’t want Eli playing, but more that the timing just wasn’t right.”

At Warner’s next stop, in Arizona, he slid between starting and backing up Matt Leinart, and at one point, he said, his lone role was to operate the Cardinals’ no-huddle offense.

“People would say to me, ‘Why aren’t you in there more often?’ ” Warner said. “It’s a tough dynamic. It’s so much about winning, but it’s also holding onto the confidence of all the pieces of the puzzle.”

Gannon said he thought Sanchez could feel pressured by Tebow, wondering when Tebow will come in to replace him.

“I don’t think fans in New York are thinking that he’s going to be standing on the sideline wearing a baseball cap cheap burberry shoes 2012 and holding a clipboard,” Gannon said of Tebow. “He’s going to have a role.”

And he will. If the Jets had added any other backup quarterback with the intention of designing a specific package of plays for him, there would be little attention. Because it is Tebow, Gannon said it would be imperative www.egalass.com for Sanchez to play well immediately.

“All I can tell you,” Gannon said, “is that I’ve never been on a team with a little bit of controversy and it’s turned out well.”

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2012年3月21日星期三

New Mexico and Oklahoma on a trip aimed at answering critics

The Republican establishment started to coalesce around Mitt Romney in earnest on Wednesday, with Jeb Bush and other leading burberry handbags Republicans pressuring Rick Santorum to leave the race after a thumping in the Illinois primary.

But, on what should have been a triumphant day, Romney found himself having to defend his conservative credentials anew after one of his own top advisers, Eric Fehrnstrom, remarked that "everything changes" for the fall campaign. "It's almost like an Etch A Sketch," he said. "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again."

The remark fueled criticism that Romney molds his principles to fit with political goals. Democrats pounced, and by day's end his GOP opponents were waving the draw, shake and erase toys at campaign events in Louisiana.

"The issues I'm running on will be exactly the same," the former Massachusetts governor said in Arbutus, Md., as Republicans and Democrats alike mocked him. "I'm running as a conservative Republican. I was a conservative governor. I will be running as a conservative Republican nominee — hopefully, burberry shirts for women cheap nominee at that point. The policies and the positions are the same."

It all nearly overshadowed the endorsement from Bush, the son of one president and the brother of another. He had stayed out of the race for months, and some party elders publicly had urged him to become a candidate as Romney struggled to close the deal with the conservative base of the party.

Bush refused, and on Wednesday he made his preference in the race known after Romney's double-digit Illinois victory.

"Now is the time for Republicans to unite behind Gov. Romney and take our message of fiscal conservatism and job creation to all voters this fall," Bush said in a written statement. He congratulated the other Republican candidates "for a hard-fought, thoughtful debate and primary season."

His backing comes amid fresh signs that big GOP donors and other party figures will follow Bush's lead after sitting on the sidelines for much of the primary season. Romney is on pace to win the nomination in June. Ray ban sunglasses, cheap gucci sunglasses, burberry sunglasses sale. He has 563 delegates in the overall count maintained by The Associated Press, out of 1,144 needed to win the party nod. Santorum has 263 delegates, Newt Gingrich 135 and Ron Paul 50.

Hours after Bush weighed in, Bob Dole, the former Senate majority leader and a longtime Romney supporter, suggested that Santorum must decide soon whether to stay in or surrender his bid for the nomination.

"Rick, I think, he's got a real problem," Dole, who became the GOP nominee in 1996 on his third try, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's getting close to the point where he's got to take a hard look at it."

At the same time, campaign finance reports released Tuesday showed that big donors to a GOP political organization founded by political strategist Karl Rove have boosted their financial support for Romney in recent weeks.

Bush's support came as a surprise to the Romney campaign. The former Florida governor personally contacted Romney Wednesday morning to say he planned to make the endorsement.

Romney made one quick public appearance in Maryland on Wednesday ahead of the April 3 primary there. He planned to spend much of burberry ties Thursday personally courting members of Congress and other officials in Washington.

But the Etch A Sketch remark threatened to dog him.

It happened early Wednesday on CNN when Fehrnstrom was asked if the extended primary fight "might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election."

Fehrnstrom responded: "I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again." The aide didn't back away from the comment when asked to clarify it. He said only that the general election is "a different race, with different burberry watches for women pink candidates, and the main issue now becomes" exclusively President Barack Obama.

It didn't take long for the Democratic National Committee and Romney's Republican rivals to seize on the remark.

In Louisiana, Santorum brandished an Etch A Sketch and told voters he is a candidate who stands "firmly on the rocks of freedom, not on the sands of an Etch A Sketch toy."

Gingrich stood on stage elsewhere in the state and explained to his audience just what the toys were. "Gov. Romney's staff, they don't even have the decency to wait until they get the nomination to explain to us how they'll sell us out," he said. "I think having an Etch A Sketch as your campaign model raises every doubt about where we're going."

Louisiana holds its primary Saturday. Santorum is favored in the state, though Romney's allies are airing TV ads there even though the South has proven less hospitable to Romney.

Beyond Saturday, polls show Romney has the advantage heading toward Maryland's April 3 primary.

For his part, Obama on Wednesday headed to Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma on a trip aimed at answering critics of his energy policies, sure to be a key issue in the fall campaign. His first stop was a plant in Nevada that uses solar panels to power homes, part of an effort to highlight his programs to expand renewable energy sources.

The president's GOP critics poked back at Obama before Air Force One even took off.

Gingrich issued a statement saying Obama was answering a real-world problem with a "solution that is totally burberry scarves 2012 disconnected from the practical realities of the world and has little chance of success." Crossroads GPS, the nonprofit arm of a Republican super PAC, launched an ad on TV stations in the areas on Obama's itinerary and on national cable channels faulting the president for "bad energy policies" that are driving up gasoline prices.

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2012年3月20日星期二

Houston used most of its 2011 draft picks on defensive players

The Philadelphia Eagles made a big burberry ties move to bolster the middle of their defense, acquiring two-time Pro Bowl linebacker DeMeco Ryans from the Houston Texans for a fourth-round draft pick in 2012.

The Eagles and Texans also announced Tuesday they were swapping third-round choices in 2012. The Eagles now have the 89th pick overall, while the Texans have the 77th pick.

The 27-year-old linebacker and team captain leaves Houston as the Texans' all-time leader with 637 tackles while also contributing eight sacks, six forced fumbles, eight fumble recoveries and two interceptions in his six-year career. He earned Pro Bowl honors following the 2007 and 2009 campaigns and was an Associated Press All-Pro selection in 2007.

Ryans missed most of the 2010 season after tearing his left Achilles' tendon.

"DeMeco is a proven Pro Bowl linebacker in this burberry handbags outlet league and we're excited to be able to plug him into the middle of our defense," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "He's been the signal caller and a leader on a very good Texans defense for the last several years. He's a tough, instinctive football player and he'll be a great fit for our team."

Ryans was a second-round draft pick by the Texans in 2006, the same year the team took Mario Williams with the top overall pick. Ryans made the bigger initial impact of the two stars, making 156 tackles to earn the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year honor.

He was also durable, starting all 16 games in his first four seasons. He tore his left Achilles tendon in the sixth game of 2010 and the season collapsed, with the Texans dropping eight of their final 10 games.

Houston used most of its 2011 draft picks on defensive players, and Ryans had a reduced role because of more injuries and the emergence of Brian Cushing and rookie Brooks Reed.

The Texans ranked burberry sneakers women second in total defense last season (285.7 yards per game), finished 10-6 and earned their first division title and playoff berth. But they lost key players in free agency, including Williams, right tackle Eric Winston and right guard Mike Brisiel and now Ryans, the team's union representative.

Dealing Ryans left some of the remaining players wondering about the team's direction. Defensive ends Antonio Smith and J.J. Watt talked about losing Ryans on the NFL Network on Wednesday night.

"It's a big surprise to me," Smith said. "I don't know what is going on at this moment, but DeMeco is a great player, a leader. He's going to be Ray ban sunglasses an asset to each and every team he plays for. Our defense is going to miss him.

"That's all I can say about it."

Watt, Houston's first-round draft pick last year, said Ryans was "the most respected guy on the defense, our leader."

"He's a guy that everybody turns to, especially when things are going tough," Watt said. "It's tough to see him go, but at the end of the day, what can we do? He's obviously going to go play great football for the Eagles. Now it's time for the rest of us, as a defense, to step up and find a new leader and go out there and play football. We can't do anything about that, so it's time for us to go out there and do it on our own."

Ryans played collegiately burberry outlet sale at Alabama, where he earned first-team All-America honors in 2005. He was a teammate of Eagles left guard Evan Mathis with the Crimson Tide. While in the NFL, Ryans has been a leader on and off the field and his work in the community has been highly regarded in the Houston area.

"We appreciate all the hard work and effort DeMeco burberry watches on sale invested in our organization and wish him only the best moving forward," Texans general manager Rick Smith said. "He is a class act."

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2012年3月19日星期一

The lawsuit was removed from bankruptcy court

In a settlement reached Friday and burberry ties announced Monday morning just before their federal trial was to begin, the owners agreed to pay the trustee $162 million, but that figure is likely to be reduced or wiped out altogether as the complex bankruptcy litigation involving Mr. Madoff’s investment operation plays out.

The trustee, Irving H. Picard, had initially sought $1 billion, declaring that the owners had enriched themselves over many years of profitable investing with Mr. Madoff while ignoring repeated warnings that he might have been a fraud.

The owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, had angrily decried the charges as an attempt to extort them into paying a giant settlement, one that might have burberry handbags outlet forced them to sell the Mets, one of baseball’s most valuable franchises. In an effort to stabilize the team’s finances, the Mets appear to have sold 12 minority stakes in the club for $20 million each.

The settlement — under which the owners may not have to pay the trustee anything out of their pockets — makes clear that it was the trustee who blinked at the 11th hour. A federal trial — one that would have explored whether Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Katz had been “willfully blind” to evidence of Mr. Madoff’s burberry sneakers women fraud — was set to start Monday morning with jury selection.

“I can’t wait to get back to our businesses, which I love, and the first order of business, the first priority, is getting down to Florida tomorrow, getting to that spring training camp and bringing the Mets back to the prominence our fans deserve,” a clearly relieved Mr. Wilpon said outside federal court in Manhattan.

Mr. Picard was appointed by a bankruptcy judge in 2008 to recover money for Mr. Madoff’s victims. To date, he has secured some $9 billion — or about half his goal — much of it from Madoff investors he has asserted had been unjust beneficiaries of “too good to be true” returns.

In his lawsuit against Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Katz, Mr. Picard asserted that the men were sophisticated investors who were among those illegitimate beneficiaries. But Mr. Picard suffered a number of setbacks. The lawsuit was removed from bankruptcy court, and Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court, who took over the case, both reduced Mr. Picard’s financial claims and raised the legal bar he would have to clear in order to collect.

Still, if Mr. Picard had prevailed at trial, he Ray ban sunglasses could have recouped as much as $303 million, in addition to the $83 million the Mets owners were already ordered to pay.

His decision to settle for much less was regarded by a number of experts as a kind of surrender on the explosive assertions that were central to the case. Legal experts said the settlement would most likely embolden other defendants who are fighting accusations brought by the trustee. Mr. Picard has filed several large suits that have accused defendants of misconduct, including actions against some of Mr. Madoff’s relatives and one of his primary banks, JPMorgan Chase. The cases make similar bad-faith claims to the one brought against the Mets owners.

“I certainly consider this a capitulation by the burberry kids sale trustee,” said Bradley D. Simon, a former federal prosecutor who focuses on white-collar civil litigation for Simon & Partners. “It seems quite one-sided.”

The Mets, as a baseball operation, still face significant financial trouble. The club has lost some $120 million over the past two years, has had to slash its payroll as attendance has fallen at Citi Field, and has had to put a portion of the team up for sale.

But the resolution of the suit, and on such favorable terms, ends an enormous financial threat.

“That decision removed the defendants from the sword of Damocles hanging over their lives,” Mario M. Cuomo, the former New York governor who was appointed as the mediator in the case in early 2011, said outside the courtroom. “And it will enable them to return to their work, their family and normalcy.”

Mr. Cuomo, who has www.egalass.com been mediating high-profile disputes for decades, had not appeared to make much progress as the lawsuit, complete with acrimonious filings, ground on.

But with the case headed for trial, Mr. Cuomo evidently finally made headway.

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2012年3月18日星期日

Furyk caught an awkward lie short of the fairway

Donald was starting to feel overlooked in the two weeks since Rory McIlroy replaced him atop the world ranking, and he even burberry ties allowed a few doubts about his game to creep into his head.

That changed on a steamy Sunday at Innisbrook, where Donald closed with a 5-under 66 and won a four-man playoff on the first extra hole with a 7-iron out of the rough to 6 feet below the cup for birdie to beat Jim Furyk, Robert Garrigus and Bae Sang-Moon.

"I think people … thought that my last year was maybe a little bit more of a — not a fluke, but I don't think many people thought I could do that all over again this year," Donald said. "Hopefully, I can prove them wrong."

With his fifth win in his last 31 starts around the world, Donald went back to No. 1 and will stay there until he gets to Augusta National and tries to capture his first major championship.

McIlroy wasted no time sending his congratulations through Twitter.

"Well I enjoyed it while it lasted! Congrats (at)LukeDonald! Impressive performance!" he tweeted.

He followed with another tweet that at least he won't have to change his profile picture, taken late last year with McIlroy flashing a No. 2 burberry handbags sign alongside his girlfriend, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.

"I'm sure he got a taste of the view and I'm sure he'll want more of it. He's a great player," Donald said. "I think golf is in a good spot right now. There's a lot of excitement going on."

The only fluke was how Donald returned to No. 1 — by winning a playoff, just like he did at Wentworth last May when he first rose to the top of the world ranking.

With so many possibilities in this wild final round, only the best golf was going to get rewarded.

Garrigus birdied the last two holes for a 64 and was the first to finish on 13-under 271, which turned out to be enough for the playoff. Bae, the South Korean with the fluid swing, made a 6-foot par putt on the final hole for a 68. Furyk had a 69 and was the last one to join the four-man playoff.

Missing from the burberry belts group was Ernie Els, whose bogey-bogey finish cost him a chance to win — and maybe a trip to the Masters.

Els was leading at 14-under par when he missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole, missed the green badly on the par-3 17th for a bogey, then pulled a 4-foot par putt on the 18th hole for a 67 to finish one shot out of the playoff.

The Big Easy could have secured a Masters invitation by winning. Because he tied for fifth, he only moved to No. 62 in the world. Bay Hill does not have as strong of a field, meaning Els might have to win next week or the Houston Open to get back to Augusta National.

"It's going to be tough," he said. "I'm pretty hot now, and it's difficult to talk with a straight head here. If I take stock, I think I'm playing good golf, and I've got to head into the next couple of weeks trying to get a win."

Donald felt the jangled nerves of trying to win, only it was different from Wentworth.

This was more about the trophy, not the ranking.

He started the final round three shots out of the lead, then swiftly moved into position with four birdies in a seven-hole stretch around the turn, showing off his polished iron play on a couple of those birdies.

In the final hour, there was a six-way tie for the lead until two players dropped out — Els with his bogey on the 18th, and Ken Duke with a bogey on burberry scarves the 17th when he rimmed out a 5-foot putt.

Donald had a heavy lie in the right rough, up the hill to a pin tucked over the bunker. He went with a 7-iron from 157 yards — it was playing closer to 170 yards with the elevation change — and the shot narrowly cleared the bunker and settled 6 feet below the cup. It was a remarkable shot, especially in a four-man playoff. That's what No. 1 players do.

"That shot just came out perfectly," Donald said. "You never quite know out of the rough. Sometimes it comes out soft and sometimes it comes out a little hot. That one, just when it was in the air, looked good to me."

Furyk caught an awkward lie short of the fairway bunker and hit 8-iron 40 feet past the hole. Bae, who closed with eight strong pars, missed his 18-foot birdie attempt on the low side. Garrigus hit a big drive and had a wedge to the green. It covered the flag and spun back about 7 feet away. Using a long burberry kids skirts cheap putter to help steady himself in such pressure situations, he pulled the putt.

"Made a lot of birdies today and didn't happen," Garrigus said. "Was a lot of fun, though."

That set the stage for Donald, who delivered a right uppercut when the putt curled into the side of the cup.

"I was a lot more nervous the first time," Donald said of getting to No. 1. "That certainly wasn't my focus. I was just focused on trying to win the tournament, and it worked out."

Donald and McIlroy figure to see each other next week in Palm Beach County for practice. Neither is playing until the Masters, assuring that Donald will go to Augusta National as No. 1 in the world.

Scott Piercy, who finished his 62 before the leaders teed off, joined Els (67), Ken Duke (68) and Jeff Overton (66) in a tie for fifth. Overton and Piercy had birdie chances on the 18th, neither knowing it would be enough for a playoff. Duke missed a 5-foot par putt on the 17th hole to fall out of a six-way share of the lead.

Retief Goosen showed on the opening hole that it was a minor miracle he was even tied for the lead. His back was in such pain that he could barely finish his swing. He hit his drive into the trees, took five shots to reach the green and made double bogey, a four-shot swing when Furyk holed a bunker shot for eagle.

Goosen was among the eight players atop burberry bags outlet the leaderboard at some point, though not for long. With bogeys on the last two holes, he closed with a 75. Goosen now goes to Virginia for a protein injection for his back. He could have qualified for the Masters by finishing among the top eight, and now gets an extended break.

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2012年3月15日星期四

I wanted to open the parachute after descending for a while

Skydiving superstar Felix Baumgartner rode a pressurized capsule to the dizzying altitude of 71,580 feet this morning, paused to burberry ties admire the curvature of the Earth and then … jumped.

That’s when things got really wild.

“Fearless Felix” reached 364.4 mph — more than 534 feet per second — during a freefall that reportedly lasted 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Then he pulled the cord on his parachute and landed safely 30 miles from Roswell, New Mexico at 9:50 a.m. All told, he spent 8 minutes and 8 seconds falling to earth, according to the folks at Red Bull Stratos, the name of the project.

“I wanted to open the parachute after descending for a while, but I noticed that I was still at an altitude of 50,000 feet,” Baumgartner said.

Baumgartner is only the third burberry handbags outlet person in history to have jumped from such a height. As amazing as it was, the leap from 13.5 miles was but a test run for his truly insane plan for a record-setting stratospheric skydive later this summer from 23 miles up.

Reaching that altitude is almost as impressive as falling from it.

To get so high, Baumgartner, an experienced skydiver and BASE jumper with more than 2,500 jumps under his belt, rode in a pressurized capsule dangling from a 165-foot-high helium balloon. The point of today’s jump was to test the capsule, burberry beige handbag his pressurized suit and other systems.

The ascent, jump and landing took 1 hour and 40 minutes. It all went off without a hitch, though Baumgartner said it was just a bit cold at that attitude — more than 75 degrees below zero.

“I could hardly move my hands,” he said. “We’re going to have to do some work on that aspect.”

Baumgartner, 42, burberry scarves expects to break the sound barrier and freefall for at least 5.5 minutes when he jumps from 120,000 feet. Should he succeed, Baumgartner will eclipse the record Joe Kittinger, a retired Air Force colonel from Florida, has held since jumping from 102,800 feet (19.5 miles) in 1960.

Kittinger, 83, has been a mentor to Baumgartner and is among his chief advisers, along with a former NASA flight director and an engineer who worked on the B-2 bomber.

“Felix, you’re going to have one heck of a view burberry kids skirts cheap when you step out of that door,” Kittinger told Baumgartner before the flight. “Enjoy the experience.”

Only Kittinger and Russia’s Eugene Andreev have jumped from heights greater than 13.5 miles, and both men made their dives in the 1960s. Red Bull Stratos hopes to break three other records that have been on the books for more than 50 years. They include the highest manned balloon flight, the first person to break the speed of sound in freefall and the longest freefall.

Baumgartner plans another test run, from 90,000 feet, before attempting The Big One this summer. The launch burberry bags outlet window is open from July through October.

“This test serves as the perfect motivation for the team for the next step,” he said.

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