Researchers 'nanoweld' by applying light to aligned nanorods in solid materials

Friday, February 22, 2013

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a way to melt or "weld" specific portions of polymers by embedding aligned nanoparticles within the materials. Their technique, which melts fibers along a chosen direction within a material, may lead to stronger, more resilient nanofibers and materials.

Physicists Jason Bochinski and Laura Clarke, with materials scientist Joe Tracy, placed specifically aligned gold nanorods within a solid material. Gold nanorods absorb light at different wavelengths, depending upon the size and orientation of the nanorod, and then they convert that absorbed light directly into heat. In this case, the nanorods were designed to respond to light wavelengths of 520 nanometers (nm) in a horizontal alignment and 800 nm when vertically aligned. Human beings can see light at 520 nm (it looks green), while 808 nm is in the near infrared spectrum, invisible to our eyes.

When the different wavelengths of light were applied to the material, they melted the fibers along the chosen directions, while leaving surrounding fibers largely intact.

"Being able to heat materials spatially in this way gives us the ability to manipulate very specific portions of these materials, because nanorods localize heat ? that is, the heat they produce only affects the nanorod and its immediate surroundings," Tracy says.

According to Bochinski, the work also has implications for optimizing materials that have already been manufactured: "We can use heat at the nanoscale to change mechanical characteristics of objects postproduction without affecting their physical properties, which means more efficiency and less waste."

The researchers' findings appear in Particle & Particle Systems Characterization. The work was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and Sigma Xi. Graduate students Wei-Chen Wu and Somsubhra Maity and former undergraduate student Krystian Kozek contributed to the work.

###

North Carolina State University: http://www.ncsu.edu

Thanks to North Carolina State University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126975/Researchers__nanoweld__by_applying_light_to_aligned_nanorods_in_solid_materials

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La Roche women?s basketball again aiming for NCAA tournament

Clairton native Kamela Gissendanner guided the La Roche women's basketball team to a 22-2 record and the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular-season title with a 17-1 conference record in her first season as coach.

By Chris Adamski

Published: Friday, February 22, 2013, 1:51?a.m.
Updated 3 hours ago

Six months into her tenure as a first-time head coach, Clairton native Kamela Gissendanner has some advice.

?You're never ready to be a head coach,? she said, ?until you've been a head coach.?

Apparently, Gissendanner was born ready. At least if early success is any indication.

The La Roche College women's team completed its regular season 22-2 and won the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference regular-season title with a 17-1 record. The Redhawks will be the No. 1 seed in the AMCC tournament, which begins Tuesday.

All this despite not accepting the position until mid-August. And being only 27 years old. And having a significantly short-handed roster compared to her team's rivals.

?Most teams that are successful, they have a 12- to 15-man roster. We've been doing this with seven or eight girls game in and game out, which is pretty unheard of,? Gissendanner said. ?So that's why it's been a little difficult for us.

?I'm happy but not satisfied yet. That's how I feel right now. We have a lot to look forward to still.?

La Roche's roster size ? because of recruiting ? was affected by the late coaching change. The Redhawks also have lost players since preseason practice began for a variety of reasons.

But being undermanned hasn't meant being uncompetitive.

?We're very happy with the way this season's gone,? said guard/forward Amanda Garland, a Woodland Hills graduate. ?It's a lot different from years past when we'd have almost 20 girls, but that's meant in practice we're moving the whole time. And so when it comes to the game, nobody gets tired.?

Gissendanner took over the Redhawks program after serving as an assistant at St. Francis (Pa.) from 2009-11. That followed a playing career that included professional stops with the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA and pro teams in Norway and Slovakia.

She also was a decorated player in high school and in college at Penn State.

That depth and breadth of experience doesn't always translate into head coaching success. But, in the case of Gissendanner, the early returns suggest otherwise.

?She's a lot of fun,? Garland said. ?There's a lot of bonding on the team that goes on because of her, and we relate to her well.

?She doesn't accept failure. As the coach, she wants everybody to know she's not going to let up on us. She always expects the best from us.?

Gissendanner expects the best out of herself and her program. Take her philosophy on recruiting at the NCAA Division III school: ?We want to have good players who are recognized not only regionally but nationally. And that is honestly my goal for the program, year in and year out.?

?We're trying to recruit heavily,? she said. ?We'll have a couple surprise guests on our roster next year whom people will enjoy watching them play.?

The Redhawks have that kind of talent already this year, including three players from the Mon Valley. A junior guard/forward, Garland is tied for third in scoring (11.7 points per game) and is second in rebounds (4.8).

Junior forward Jessica Pitts, a West Mifflin graduate and Duquesne native, is second in points (15.2) and the team leader in rebounds (11.0) and assists (5.6). Steel Valley alumnus Leslie McPherson, a junior guard, is second on the team in assists (4.0) and averages 7.7 points per contest.

Add in talents such as junior Casie Cygan and sophomore LaShauna Brothers, and Gissendanner is thinking big in how she wants to cap her inaugural season.

?At La Roche, they're used to being good,? Gissendanner said. ?So this isn't anything new for them. Obviously the past two years they've gotten to the NCAA tournament.

?Our goal is to make a lot more noise this year once we actually get into the tournament.?

Chris Adamski is a freelance writer.

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NASA's SDO shows a little 'rain' on the sun

Feb. 20, 2013 ? Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the sun's atmosphere, the corona.

On July 19, 2012, an eruption occurred on the sun that produced all three. A moderately powerful solar flare exploded on the sun's lower right limb, sending out light and radiation. Next came a CME, which shot off to the right out into space. And then, the sun treated viewers to one of its dazzling magnetic displays -- a phenomenon known as coronal rain.

Over the course of the next day, hot plasma in the corona cooled and condensed along strong magnetic fields in the region. Magnetic fields, themselves, are invisible, but the charged plasma is forced to move along the lines, showing up brightly in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 Angstroms, which highlights material at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. This plasma acts as a tracer, helping scientists watch the dance of magnetic fields on the sun, outlining the fields as it slowly falls back to the solar surface.

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More tests needed in LA hotel water tank death

Water tanks seen on the roof of the hotel Cecil on Wednesday Feb. 20,2013 where police say the body of a woman found wedged in one of the water tanks on the roof was that of a missing Canadian guest. Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late Tuesday. A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Water tanks seen on the roof of the hotel Cecil on Wednesday Feb. 20,2013 where police say the body of a woman found wedged in one of the water tanks on the roof was that of a missing Canadian guest. Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late Tuesday. A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

FILE - This file photo released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows Elisa Lam of Vancouver, B.C. Los Angeles police say a body has been found on the roof of the Cecil Hotel where Lam, a Canadian tourist, was last seen last month. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department, File)

Hotel Cecil in Los Angeles is seen in a Wednesday Feb. 20,2013 photo. Police say the body of a woman found Tuesday wedged in a water tank on the roof of the Hotel Cecill is that of a missing Canadian guest. Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late Tuesday. A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A visitor arrives at the hotel Cecil on Wednesday Feb. 20,2013 where police say the body of a woman was found wedged in one of the water tanks on the roof was that of a missing Canadian guest. Investigators used body markings to identify 21-year-old Elisa Lam, police spokeswoman Officer Diana Figueroa said late Tuesday. A maintenance worker at the Cecil Hotel found the body earlier in the day after guests complained of low water pressure. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A man, left, leaves the Cecil Hotel with belongings as Michael and Sabina Baugh, both 27, of Plymouth, England, wait for transportation as they leave the hotel in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Early Tuesday, police discovered the body of a Canadian woman at the bottom of the historic hotel's water tank, weeks after she was reported missing. The Baughs, on a 14-day tour package, had been there eight days and had showered in and drank the water. The couple's tour operator was less than cooperative in finding them other accommodations. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? More testing must be done to determine the cause of death of a 21-year-old Canadian tourist whose body was found wedged in a water tank atop a downtown Los Angeles hotel, authorities said Thursday.

An autopsy performed Thursday didn't provide definitive answers into whether Elisa Lam was killed or if she fell victim to a bizarre accident. Coroner's officials will await toxicology tests before making a final determination.

Lam's body was found Tuesday in a water cistern atop the downtown Cecil Hotel. Police have called her death suspicious.

Guest complaints about low water pressure prompted a maintenance worker to make the gruesome discovery.

Before she died, hotel surveillance footage showed her inside an elevator pushing buttons and sticking her head out the doors, looking in both directions.

Meanwhile, water tested from the hotel didn't contain any live bacteria that would cause illness.

Although county health officials issued a do-not-drink order, the results that came back Thursday indicated the water was safe from a "microbiological standpoint," said Angelo Bellomo, the county's director of environmental health.

"We can't say what the quality of the water was prior to the samples," taken Tuesday, Bellomo said. "We can only say that the water met the standard at the time it was sampled."

Chlorine in the water likely killed any bacteria in the tank where Lam's body was found, Bellomo said. Two standard water tests were performed and samples were taken from throughout the hotel.

Bellomo said the hotel has retained a consultant who submitted a plan to sanitize the water lines that will be retested before they are put back into operation. Only water for toilets is flowing for hotel guests currently.

Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, traveled alone to Los Angeles on Jan. 26 and was last seen five days later by workers at the 600-room hotel near Skid Row. She intended to travel to Santa Cruz, about 350 miles north of Los Angeles.

High school classmate Alex Ristea, of Vancouver, called Lam's death shocking and said she was one of the friendliest people he knew.

"This is the last person I expect out of all my friends to have something like this happen to her," Ristea said.

University of British Columbia spokesman Randy Schmidt confirmed that Lam had attended summer school at the university, but she was not registered for the current session.

Ristea said he believes Lam had just gone to California for a holiday, saying she had posted pictures on Facebook from tourist locations such as the San Diego Zoo.

Reached by phone, a man who confirmed that it was Lam's home of said he was busy and hung up when asked to speak about her. A woman reached later at the same number, when told it was a reporter calling, also hung up after saying, "Sorry."

___

Associated Press writers Jeremy Hainsworth in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Surveillance video: http://bit.ly/Yq5K1y .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-21-US-Hotel-Roof-Body/id-0f9064612fe140ca9c617a08fe914843

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Long-missing WWII medal awarded in LA

This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel with his bride, Celia Markel. Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel with his bride, Celia Markel. Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

HOLD FOR STORY MOVEMENT - This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel with his bride, Celia Markel. Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel. Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

This undated image provided by Hyla Merin shows 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel. Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died in 1945. Markel was killed on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment. (AP Photo/Hyla Merin)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hyla Merin grew up without a father and for a long time never knew why.

Her mother never spoke about the Army officer who died before Hyla was born. The scraps of information she gathered from other relatives were hazy: 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel was a rabbi's son, brilliant at mathematics, the brave winner of a Purple Heart who died sometime in 1945.

Aside from wedding photos of Markel in uniform, Merin never glimpsed him.

But on Sunday, decades after he won it, Merin received her father's Purple Heart, along with a Silver Star she never knew he'd won and a half-dozen other medals.

Merin wiped away tears as the Silver Star was pinned to her lapel during a short ceremony attended by friends and family at her home in Westlake Village, a community straddling the Ventura and Los Angeles county lines. The other medals were presented on a plaque.

"It just confirms what a great man he was," Merin said tearfully. "He gave up his life for our country and our freedom. I'll put it up in my house as a memorial to him and to those who served."

Merin's mother, Celia, married Markel in 1941 when he already was in the military. They met at a Jewish temple in Buffalo, N.Y.

About four months ago, the manager of a West Hollywood apartment building where Merin's mother lived in the 1960s found a box containing papers and the Purple Heart while cleaning out some lockers in the laundry room, Merin said.

The manager contacted Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit organization that returns lost or stolen medals to vets or their families.

A search led to Merin.

She became "kind of emotional, because I don't have a lot of pictures, I don't have a lot of stories, and I've always been a crier," she said. "My mother was always the stoic one, very strong."

Markel was killed in the last days of World War II on May 3, 1945, in Italy's Po Valley while fighting German troops as an officer with the 88th Division of the 351st Infantry Regiment, said Zachariah Fike, the Vermont Army National Guard captain who founded Purple Hearts Reunited.

"The accounts suggest that he was out on patrol and he got ambushed and he charged ahead and basically took out a machine gun position to save the rest of his guys," said Fike, whose organization has returned some two dozen medals. "For that, he paid the ultimate sacrifice."

He was awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star posthumously, but for some reason the family never was told about the Silver Star and it was never sent to them, Fike said.

Merin's mother never talked in detail to her daughter about Markel.

"It was a very difficult topic for her. When my father died, she was seven months pregnant with me," Merin said.

Her mother briefly remarried when Merin was 10 but her stepfather died three years later, Merin said.

Her mother moved into the apartment in 1960 and may have placed the Purple Heart in the locker then, Merin said. Her mother lived there until 1975 before moving away, and Merin's aunt lived there until 2005. Another aunt lived there until 2009.

They never spoke about what was in the locker, and the family must have missed the box when they took away the aunts' possessions in 2005 and 2009, Merin said.

Merin said that in addition to the Purple Heart, which Pike kept for framing, the box contained letters and other papers, and her father's Jewish prayer book.

"I found it very hard to look at. A lot of them were condolence letters," she said.

Merin's mother was told about the discovery of the Purple Heart but didn't live to see it ? she died Feb. 1 at age 94.

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-17-Lost%20Purple%20Heart/id-b70158a988bb42f7a193090481d6369a

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5,000-year-old temple unearthed in Peru

Peru Ministry of Culture

Excavators stand near a newly discovered temple at the archeological site El Para?so in Peru.

By Live Science

Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered what they believe is a temple, estimated to be up to 5,000 years old, at the site of El Para?so, north of Lima.

Inside the ruins of the ancient room, which measures about 23 feet by 26 feet (7 meters by 8 meters), there's evidence of a ceremonial hearth, where offerings may have been burned, archaeologists say. The temple also had a narrow entrance and stone walls covered with yellow clay, on which traces of red paint were found, according to a statement from Peru's Ministry of Culture.

El Para?so, located on the central coast of Peru, just north of Lima, is a site made up of 10 buildings stretching over 123 acres (50 hectares). It's one of the earliest known examples of monumental stone architecture in the Americas, dating back to the Late Preceramic period (3500-1800 B.C.). The newly found building is thought to date back to 3000 B.C., which should be confirmed with a radiocarbon analysis.

Rafael Var?n, Peru's deputy minister for culture, said in a statement that the discovery of the temple "has particular importance because it is the first structure of this type found on the central coast." It suggests that the Lima region had more religious, economic and political importance during this early period than previously thought, Var?n added.

Peru Ministry of Culture

The ruins of El Para?so in Peru, estimated to be 5,000 years old.

Previously, man-made mounds shaped like orcas, condors and even a duck were discovered in Peru's coastal valleys, including at El Para?so, by anthropologist Robert Benfer, professor emeritus of the University of Missouri, who spotted the mounds in satellite photos. One curious mound found in El Para?so in the Chill?n Valley was of a condor head whose burned-charcoal eye was likely the place where offerings were once burned. The condor was also positioned to line up with the most extreme orientation of the Milky Way as seen from the Chill?n Valley. [See Photos of the Animal Mounds]

A second mound, right next to the condor, looked like a combination of a puma and alligatorlike cayman, Benfer said. That one was oriented toward the spot where the sun rises on the day of the June solstice, the start of summer.

Dating to more than 4,000 years ago, the structures may be the oldest evidence of animal mounds outside of North America, Benfer said last year. The previous oldest animal structures date to about 2,000 years ago, part of the Nazca Lines. These lines are simple stone outlines of animals decorating the Nazca Desert in Peru.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/14/16965477-5000-year-old-temple-unearthed-in-peru?lite

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Stricken Carnival cruise ship nears Mobile, Alabama

As the damaged Carnival cruise ship limped towards the Alabama coast, passengers talked about the overwhelming stench and described the trip as hellish.

By Kaija Wilkinson,?Reuters / February 14, 2013

The cruise ship Carnival Triumph is towed into Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island, Ala., Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013.

Dave Martin / AP

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Reeking of raw sewage, a crippled cruise ship carrying more than 4,200 people was limping into Mobile, Alabama, on Thursday as passengers awaited the end of a vacation voyage some described as hellish.

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The Carnival Triumph was being towed into port by tugboats as the drama played out live on U.S. cable news stations, creating another public relations nightmare for cruise giant Carnival Corp. Last year, its Costa Concordia luxury ship grounded off the coast of Italy, with 32 people killed.

Passengers described an overpowering stench on parts of the ship four days after an engine room fire knocked out power and plumbing across most of the 893-foot (272-metre) vessel and left it adrift in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship, which went into service in 1999, was on a four-day cruise and on its way back from a stop in Cozumel, Mexico.

After the mishap, toilets and drainpipes overflowed, soaking many cabins and interior passages in sewage and turning the vessel into what some have described as a giant Petri dish.

"The thing I'm looking forward to most is having a working toilet and not having to breathe in the smell of fecal matter," said Jacob Combs, an Austin, Texas-based sales executive with a healthcare and hospice company.

Combs, 30, who said he had been traveling with friends and family on the Triumph, had nothing but praise for its crew members, saying they had gone through "hell" cleaning up after some of the passengers on the sea cruise.

"Just imagine the filth," Combs told Reuters. "People were doing crazy things and going to the bathroom in sinks and showers. It was inhuman. The stewards would go in and clean it all up. They were constantly cleaning," he said.

Terry Thornton, a Carnival Cruise Lines senior vice president, told reporters in Mobile that additional provisions were laid in on Wednesday and the ship was now "in excellent shape."

Passenger Donna Gutzman said those aboard the ship were treated to steak and lobster for lunch on Thursday afternoon.

"Our basic needs are being met. For the most part, they are making us happy," Gutzman told CNN.

The ship was expected to arrive in port around 10 p.m. CST (0400 GMT Friday), Carnival said. A senior Carnival official said it could take up to five hours to remove all the passengers from the ship, which has only one functioning elevator.

More than 100 buses were lined up waiting to drive some passengers the 490 miles (790 km) back to Galveston, Texas, while other passengers had elected to stay overnight in hotels in Mobile before flying home, Carnival said.

The ship is negotiating a narrow channel to reach Mobile, and officials said it would be the largest cruise liner ever to dock in the port.

Operated by Carnival Cruise Lines, the flagship brand of Carnival Corp , the ship left Galveston a week ago carrying 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew. It was supposed to return there on Monday.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xeqTKoqlI3A/Stricken-Carnival-cruise-ship-nears-Mobile-Alabama

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As All-Star Weekend Arrives, Miami Heat Increases NBA Title Odds

All-Star Weekend is always a time in the NBA when analysts start to solidify their choices to win the NBA title. Over the past few seasons, the Miami Heat have been the team that have been the popular choice to win it all.

This season, Miami is making it even easier for experts to stake their claim to a Heat title. Miami is rolling into the all-star break, and it appears that no team in the league is going to be able to dethrone the defending champs.

LeBron James has widely been considered the best player in the league for nearly a decade. This season, James has taken his play to a level that even he did not know was possible. The Heat forward has scored 30 or more points in six straight games, while shooting over 60%. That is something that has never been done in the history of the game.

Early in the season, it looked as though Oklahoma City had the fire needed to win a championship. Coming off losing in last year's finals to Miami, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook appeared on a mission to start the season.

As the season wore on, however, the Thunder have come back to the pack a little. With OKC struggling, Miami has taken full advantage to remind everyone who the defending champion is.

Another team that had high hopes early in the year was Los Angeles. In most seasons, that would be the Lakers, but in 2013 it is the Clippers with title aspirations. Like the Thunder, the Clippers have also slowed down and are dealing with injuries to Chris Paul.

The one team that is not getting much love from anyone is the team with the best record in the league. San Antonio has played nearly .800 ball for the first half, and Tony Parker and Tim Duncan are playing at an MVP level. If the season ended today, only the Spurs would have home court advantage over the Heat.

The aforementioned Lakers, who many predicted would be battling for the top spot in the West, has had a nightmare of a first half. Their four stats have been unable to stay on the court together, and L.A. must now deal with the prospects of not having Pau Gasol for at least another five weeks. The Lakers are currently in the ninth spot in the Western Conference in the race to make the playoffs.

February 15, 2013
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China calls in North Korean ambassador over nuclear test, demands an end to provocations

BEIJING - China's foreign minister called North Korea's ambassador in for a dressing-down Tuesday and demanded his country's cease making further threats, in a show of Beijing's displeasure over its earstwhile ally's latest nuclear test.

Yang Jiechi delivered a "stern representation" to Ji Jae Ryong and expressed China's "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" to Tuesday's test, the ministry said in a statement posted to its website.

"Yang Jiechi demanded that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea side cease talk that further escalates the situation and swiftly return to the correct channel of dialogue and negotiation," the statement said. It did not say if Ji made any response. Calls to the North Korean Embassy rang unanswered Tuesday.

Yang reiterated China's desire for peace and stability on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and said issues should be resolved within the framework of long-stalled denuclearization talks involving North Korea, China, the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The appeals were contained in an earlier statement from the ministry calling on North Korea to abide by its denuclearization pledge, and not to "take additional actions that could cause the situation to further deteriorate" ? echoing the wording of China's responses to previous North Korean nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Yang's meeting with the ambassador shows China's anger and frustration over North Korea's actions since the ministry calls in foreign diplomats only in cases of extreme pique, such as U.S. arms sales to Taiwan or Japan's nationalization of a disputed island group. However, neither statement pointed to any specific actions Beijing would take in response to Tuesday's nuclear test, the North's third.

The meeting also followed a warning from North Korea that the test was merely its "first response" to what it called U.S. threats, and that it will continue with unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity" if Washington maintains its hostility.

Despite being the North's biggest source of aid and diplomatic support, Beijing has been reluctant to back more severe measures that could destabilize the North's hardline regime, which serves as a buffer between China and democratic South Korea backed by U.S. forces.

China's patience appears to be wearing thin, however, and Beijing reacted in unusually strong terms to the North's December rocket launch by agreeing to tightened United Nations sanctions on the country, a move that brought criticism from Pyongyang.

China had repeatedly called on the North not to conduct a test, and Pyongyang's decision to proceed anyway will likely strengthen Beijing's arguments that it has little power to influence its neighbor and that harsh actions against the regime will have only a negative effect.

Although Beijing hasn't proposed any concrete plans to punish the North, disgust with Pyongyang's defiance and lack of gratitude is growing in. Tuesday was a public holiday in China, but the nuclear test was widely criticized on the country's popular Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service, with users calling it inhuman and anti-social and urging the government to reconsider its assistance to the regime.

Many found the test offensive because it took place less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Chinese border and came on the third day of the Lunar New Year, when most work stops for family gatherings.

"We're all celebrating the new year, but it feels like someone just tossed a hand grenade at my front door. North Korea is just too crazy," said a Beijing office worker standing outside a downtown McDonald's restaurant, who would give only his surname, Ke.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/world/190817871.html

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Rape Trial Begins For Jordan Johnson, Ex-Quarterback At University Of Montana

MISSOULA, Mont. -- The rape trial of a former University of Montana quarterback is about a woman who was betrayed by someone she trusted, not about the school's football program, a prosecutor said Monday in his opening statement.

Jordan Johnson's attorney responded that the woman wanted a relationship with the "star quarterback," then made false accusations when one did not develop after the two had consensual sex.

Johnson, 20, is accused of assaulting the woman as they watched a movie together at her home last year. The trial began amid continuing NCAA and federal investigations into how the school and the city of Missoula respond to rape allegations on campus.

Prosecutor Adam Duerk told the jury the woman tried to stop Johnson after they began kissing in her bedroom, but he forced himself on her.

"This case is about a young woman who was horribly betrayed," Duerk said.

Johnson's attorney, Kirstin Pabst, made reference in her opening statement to comments by former U.S. Rep. Pat Williams on the eve of the trial that the university's recruiting system let "thugs" into the program.

Johnson is no thug ? nor did he rape his accuser, Pabst said.

The woman "wanted to have a relationship with the star quarterback. That's why she gave him sex. But the fact that he did not give her a relationship does not make what happened a crime," Pabst said.

Williams, a member of the Board of Regents that oversees the university system, has said he was not referring to Johnson.

Jury selection took a day and a half and involved screening more than 150 potential candidates. The final panel features seven women, five men and five alternate jurors.

The two sides made their opening statements, and then the alleged victim took the stand.

Under questioning, she told the jury about her background and how she and Johnson became acquainted. She said she was attracted to him, they had gone on dates and kissed, but then fell out of touch for a while until the weeks before she invited him to watch a movie at her home on Feb. 4, 2012.

She said she wasn't planning to have sex with him that night. Before she could testify about what happened, the proceedings ended for the day.

Her testimony is expected to continue Wednesday.

An outside investigator was hired by the university in December 2011 after two students reported being drugged and raped.

The investigator found nine alleged rapes or sexual assaults involving students had occurred between September 2010 and December 2011, including at least two that hadn't been reported.

Two more allegations were made after the investigator's report, including the claim against Johnson, which surfaced in March 2012 when the woman obtained a temporary restraining order against him.

Johnson led Montana to the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals as the 2011 starting quarterback.

In a separate case, former Montana football player Beau Donaldson pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The university received a grant from the DOJ Office of Violence Against Women that provides it with training in mandatory education for students and for disciplinary boards, community response teams and campus law enforcement, spokeswoman Peggy Kuhr has said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/rape-trial-jordan-johnson_n_2666316.html

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Heavy Rain creator details the difficulties of game engines and what he hopes the future holds

Heavy Rain development studio Quantic Dream is notorious for long development times. The studio's also notorious for critically-loved games with strong cinematic cores, and games that often look very different from the competition. Part of that is game design, but another major piece of the puzzle is the engines driving those games -- each game that Quantic Dream makes is built in a unique game engine, which is both very expensive and very time-consuming. The studio's founder and lead, David Cage, explained as much to us in an interview at DICE 2013.

"Quantic Dream is a very special company in the sense that we do a lot of things that wouldn't make any sense in any other company. We haven't done any sequels so far, we work on new IPs each time. And we pretty much develop a new engine each time we develop a new game."

But Cage doesn't harbor much love for that last part -- the game engine bit. He says that his studio opted out of the current console generation's game engine of choice (Unreal Engine 3) because, "we work with Sony, [and] we want to create the best technology for the hardware and see how far we can go." As a result, even Cage's latest work (Beyond: Two Souls) is crafted in a new engine -- the same one used to build the Kara demo we saw last March -- intended to show off the PlayStation 3's late-generation graphical and processing chops. Yes, even with the next PlayStation (codenamed "Orbis") waiting in the wings, his second-party Sony studio is still showing off the aging PS3's prowess. Beyond: Two Souls is more than just a showpiece, of course, with Quantic Dream employing actress Ellen Page to motion performance-capture the game's main character, and the same emphasis on storytelling the studio's practiced previously. Still, Cage hopes for a future where technology isn't something he and his studio need be concerned with.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Sony

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Get ready for a facehug! 'Aliens' gets an (interactive) sequel

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Todd Kenreck , NBC News ? ? ? 35 days

2012 was a great year for video games, but one game stood out from all of the rest. NBCNews.com's Todd Kenreck reports. Play video

Winda Benedetti , NBC News ? ? ? 1 hr.

It's been almost three decades since "Aliens" first arrived in theaters, but on Tuesday the iconic science fiction film filled with evil aliens, badass space marines and nefarious corporate shenanigans is getting a brand new sequel.

It just so happens that this sequel is one you can play.

It's called "Aliens: Colonial Marines" and it's a video game ? but it isn't your average game/movie tie-in. The development company behind "Colonial Marines" ? Gearbox Software ? is calling it the "true sequel" to the beloved second film in the Aliens series. And the Hollywood studio in charge of the franchise ? 20th Century Fox ? officially considers the game canon in the Aliens universe.

What that means is, "Aliens: Colonial Marines" is carving itself a unique place in the increasingly blurred space where film and games meet. It also means that if you've ever wanted to set foot inside the wondrous, horrifying, Xenomorph-infested Aliens universe (and fend off a deadly alien facehugger or 20) then here's your chance.

"Everybody at Gearbox wanted to do something in the Aliens universe, but we didn't want to just kind of play around in it," John Mulkey, Design Director at Gearbox Software, told me in a recent interview. "We wanted to do something really meaningful."

Of course, one of the things that made the 1986 James Cameron-directed "Aliens" such a memorable thrill-ride of a film was the colorful cast of space marines who joined Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) on her journey to the planet known as LV-426. Mulkey says Gearbox has set out to continue that Cameron vision. With that in mind, "Aliens: Colonial Marines" not only expands on the film's story, it sets out to extend the marines' experience to the audience. And it does both in some unique ways.

For starters, to fire up the game is to step into the boots of one Cpl. Christopher Winter. He and his team have been sent to find out what happened to Ripley and the crew of marines dispatched to the colony of Hadley's Hope in the "Aliens" film. And that means players find themselves (virtually) walking around in places last seen in the movie.

Among the locales Gearbox has meticulously recreated: the U.S.S. Sulaco space ship, the planet LV-426 and Hadley's Hope ? or at least what remains of it (you may remember that it went kaboom at the end of "Aliens"). In fact, these locales have been recreated with such attention to detail that it's worth putting the game's first-person shooting action on hold to take an appreciative gander.

Remember that scene from "Aliens" where the android Bishop does the high-speed trick with the knife? Go to the mess hall in the game, look for the table and you can see the marks where the blade struck, Mulkey points out. Meanwhile, go to the operations post where Ripley and the marines made their stand against the aliens, and you?ll see the spot in the floor where the creatures pulled Private "GAME OVER, MAN!" Hudson (aka Bill Paxton) through the grates.

"It?s just a little extra layer of love we added to the game," Mulkey says.

Of course, any hardcore fan of the Aliens movies is going to want to play "Colonial Marines" just to see what the game's story has to reveal about what happened in the films.

"I don?t want to spoil anything, but as you?re playing through you?ll start to discover some really interesting twists on what you thought had occurred " Mulkey says. "There are some exciting things with the narrative and the characters that play upon events in both 'Aliens' and 'Aliens 3'."

In fact, he says, "One of our goals is that ? once you play our game ? 'Aliens 3' will be a better movie." ("Aliens 3," of course, was the critically panned film sequel to "Aliens" and the movie that found Ripley on a prison planet.)

We aren't naming any names here, but let's just say that Aliens fans will see some familiar faces making some surprising returns in the game. And players will learn a lot more about what those alien-studying corporate baddies ? the Weyland-Yutani Corporation ? have been up to.

But perhaps the most important thing is, "Aliens: Colonial Marines" looks, feels and sounds like an interactive Aliens movie.

Jump into "Colonial Marines" and you'll find yourself ensconced in an eerily familiar world of futuristic machinery choked by dank alien growth. You'll immediately get your hands the alien-sensing Motion Tracker you saw in the movie. You'll quickly take down Xenomorph after Xenomorph with a Pulse Rifle -- its bursting metallic buzz taking you on an audio trip down memory lane.

You'll also step into a Power Loader (the iconic machinery that Ripley used to grapple with the Xenomorph queen in "Aliens.") And you will most certainly find yourself desperately trying to keep the famed Alien facehuggers from jamming their egg-planting tentacles down your throat. (Good luck with that.)

"We spent a lot of time and a lot of effort really try to get the details right," Mulkey says.

Of course, creating a sequel ? a video game sequel no less ? to "Aliens" doesn't come without significant pressure.

Says Mulkey, "It?s a great responsibility to be pulling this together and putting it out there for everybody, because you really want to do it proud, you know?"

Winda Benedetti writes about video games for NBC News. You can follow her tweets about games and other things on Twitter here @WindaBenedetti and you can follow her on Google+. Meanwhile, be sure to check out the IN-GAME FACEBOOK PAGE to discuss the day's gaming news and reviews.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/get-ready-facehug-aliens-gets-interactive-sequel-1B8310245

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The Etheridge Family Parties With Yo Gabba Gabba! Live ? Prissy ...

This past weekend DJ Lance and the Yo Gabba Gabba! crew were in New Jersey for some dance party fun! ?We were so excited to receive tickets to attend the show as it is a favorite in our household! It wasn?t our first time seeing Yo Gabba Gabba, however. ?You may recall that a couple years back we attended a fun dance party in the city and Chase had a chance to meet DJ Lance then. ?Even though he loves to look at pictures from that event, I?m pretty sure he doesn?t remember it anymore. ?So I was so glad to have the opportunity to check out the?YO GABBA GABBA! LIVE! GET THE SILLIES OUT! Show, as the boys really do enjoy it. You should hear how excited they both get when I play our ?Music is Awesome??cd driving home from work.

The show took place Friday afternoon at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. ?For the occasion we all donned hats from our Yo Gabba Gabba! Halloween costumes that we wore a couple years back.

Bryce enjoyed the show thoroughly (he?s a HUGE Yo Gabba Gabba! fan), but he was just excited about the snacks!

So cool that Chase was flagged and invited to beat-box with the legendary Biz Markie and then take part in the dance party on stage!

Chase waiting his turn to beat-box on the mic with Biz. #classicphoto

The show ended on a dramatic, snowy note!!! ?The boys were so happy and had an amazing time! ??If your kids (or YOU!!!) love Yo Gabba Gabba! then you must, must, must go see this show LIVE!!! It?s an incredible experience, for both kids and adults, and one they won?t forget for a very long time.

For a complete list of tour dates, cities and show times, tickets, and a preview of the show, visit?www.yogabbagabbalive.com. ?You can also check out the Yo Gabba Gabba! crew on?Facebook?and follow them on?Twitter.

YO?GABBA?GABBA! LIVE! GET THE SILLIES OUT! Tour

The sillies are crazy little creatures that live inside of us and need to be shaken out! DJ Lance Rock and everyone?s favorite cast of colorful characters are calling all fans to get ready to jump, shake and shimmy them out at the new live tour?Yo?Gabba?Gabba! LIVE!: Get the Sillies Out!.?Yo?Gabba?Gabba! LIVE!: Get The Sillies Out!?tour will visit more than 50 cities across the U.S. in 2013.??Yo?Gabba?Gabba! LIVE! is touring in support of their first national beverage launch, a new line of toys, a new line of kids sportswear and a DVD/ CD collectors? edition.

Source: http://prissyreviews.com/2013/02/yo-gabba-gabba-live-2.html

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At least 18 dead in stampede at massive Indian Hindu festival

ALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - At least 18 people were killed in a stampede in the Indian city of Allahabad on Sunday as Hindus returned from a river dip at the world's largest religious festival.

An overcrowded railway station footbridge buckled and a railing collapsed, sending some people slipping down the stairs and triggering the stampede, a top state government official told Reuters, not wishing to be quoted by name.

"I can confirm that 18 people have died and 13 have been injured," said the official.

Once every 12 years, tens of millions of pilgrims stream across India to the small northern city of Allahabad for the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Grand Pitcher Festival, at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet a third, mythical river.

In the two months from the start of the festival in January, officials believe as many as 100 million people will have passed through a temporary city that covers an area larger than Athens on a wide sandy river bank.

Hindu holy men and pilgrims bathe in the sacred Ganges to wash away lifetimes of sins. Sunday was believed to be the most auspicious day of the festival.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock at the tragedy and promised financial assistance to the families of the dead.

(Reporting by Sharat Pradhan; Editing by Matthias Williams and Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-18-dead-stampede-massive-indian-hindu-festival-182346494.html

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Watch talks from Gabe Newell to Ray Muzyka in the collected DICE 2013 presentations, right here

This year's DICE was especially heavy on great speakers, and we're happy to say that a partnership between The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and entertainment trade publication Variety means that most of the great speeches were captured for all to see on YouTube. That means everything from Valve head Gabe Newell's speech on his company's next steps in the hardware realm to Microsoft's discussion of the latest, greatest Halo game -- and even a surprise appearance from the recently retired BioWare doctor, Ray Muzyka -- was recorded. We've dropped the available talks just below the break; sadly, the first day's J.J. Abrams / Gabe Newell back-and-forth on storytelling was an in-person exclusive. We'll have a variety of interviews from DICE with many of the speakers seen beyond the break in the coming days -- keep an eye out (or a bookmark here, of course)!

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

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Snedeker finally gets a win

Brandt Snedeker poses with his trophy on the 18th green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. Snedeker won the tournament after shooting a 7-under-par 65 to finish at total 19-under-par. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Brandt Snedeker poses with his trophy on the 18th green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. Snedeker won the tournament after shooting a 7-under-par 65 to finish at total 19-under-par. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Brandt Snedeker, left, prepares to putt on the seventh green during the final round of the Pebble Beach Golf Course after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Brandt Snedeker, second from right, follows his shot from the fairway up to the fourth green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links as playing partner Toby S. Wilt, right, watches during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Chris Kirk, foreground, follows his shot from the fairway up to the fourth green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander hits out of a bunker onto the second green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? With one last birdie, Brandt Snedeker finally had a chance to catch his breath at one of the best places in golf.

He was on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach with a three-shot lead Sunday as he gazed into the sun at an endless ocean and tried to grasp just how far he has come in the past few months.

There was that big win at the Tour Championship to claim the $10 million prize as the FedEx Cup champion.

He played in his first Ryder Cup.

In his past nine tournaments, he has six finishes in the top three, including back-to-back weeks as the runner-up to Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

Snedeker wasn't about to let anyone get in his way at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

"Just hard to put into words, to have a stretch of golf like I had the last couple of months," Snedeker said after his two-shot win. "Something you dream about. Something you think that you can do, but you don't really know until you actually put it together. And I have.

"I'm really enjoying this, and hopefully can parlay this into the best year of my career."

He was the best all week at Pebble Beach, finishing at 19-under 267 to break by one shot the tournament record. Mickelson (2007) and Mark O'Meara (1997) each had a 20-under 268 when Poppy Hills was still in the rotation.

Snedeker built his lead in the final round by playing the opening seven holes in 5 under, fired at the flag on the par-3 17th to set up his last birdie and closed with a 7-under 65, his 10th consecutive round in the 60s.

A tap-in par on the 18th gave him a two-shot win over Chris Kirk, who stayed in the hunt all day without ever putting too much pressure on Snedeker.

The hottest player in golf, Snedeker finally has a trophy to show for it.

"The last two weeks, playing great but running into two Hall of Famers, really motivated me to go out and prove that I can handle the lead," he said.

With his fifth career win ? and fourth over the past 22 months ? Snedeker improved to a career-best No. 4 in the world, making him the second-highest American in the world ranking behind Woods.

"Sneds is officially the best golfer on the planet right now," Ian Poulter tweeted from home in Orlando, Fla. "Some serious golf he is playing."

In five starts this year, the 32-year-old from Nashville already has a win, two second-place finishes and a third. He never had much of a chance against Woods at Torrey Pines or Mickelson at the Phoenix Open, who each had big leads going into the final round.

Snedeker was tied with James Hahn, a 31-year-old rookie from the Bay Area, and seized control with an eagle and three birdies on the opening seven holes. Snedeker responded to his only bogey, a three-putt at No. 9, by rolling in birdie putts on the next two holes.

Hahn was looking forward to learning something from his debut in the final group, and he saw Snedeker put on a clinic.

"I learned that he is a better guy than he is a golfer. The dude is world class," Hahn said. "He's obviously one of the best, if not the best golfer right now, and possibly for the last year. But how he conducts himself as a person on an off the golf course, that's also world class. He deserved to win today. ... I'm sure if you ask him, it was never a doubt that he was going to win the golf tournament."

Snedeker concurred.

"I definitely didn't want to do anything but win today," he said. "I was out there for one purpose and one purpose only, and I was extremely focused all day. I did a great job of staying patient and I did a great job of playing the golf course the way you're supposed to play it."

He now heads off to a vacation on Maui before returning for the stretch run leading to the Masters.

Winning a major is the next step for Snedeker, who has emerged as a veritable threat wherever he plays with a confident putting stroke and a dramatic increase in hitting fairways off the tee.

Kirk never got closer than two shots of the lead, missing an 8-footer on the 16th that could have put some pressure on Snedeker. He closed with a 66 to finish at 269, a score that would been good enough to win all but four times at Pebble Beach since this event began in 1937.

"We've had a lot of tournaments like that on tour this year where somebody has really just kind of blitzed the field," Kirk said. "I felt like I played well enough to win a golf tournament and came up a little bit short."

Hahn wound up with a 2-under 70 and tied for third with Jimmy Walker (66) and Kevin Stadler (65). The day wasn't a total loss for Hahn. He previously tied for fourth at the Humana Challenge, and his tie for third gets him into Riviera next week. He hasn't missed a cut this year and is already 11th in the FedEx Cup standings.

The only drama on a pristine day on the Monterey Peninsula came from Patrick Reed. His 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole gave him a tie for seventh with Fredrik Jacobson, and kept Jacobson from qualifying for the Match Play Championship by 0.0002 points.

The final spot in the 64-man field based on the world ranking instead goes to Shane Lowery of Ireland, who did not play this week.

Even better for Snedeker was leaving with two trophies. He and his amateur partner, Nashville investor and longtime friend Toby Wilt, tied for first in the pro-am. Wilt endowed a golf scholarship at Vanderbilt, and Snedeker was the first recipient.

Snedeker has come a long way and might just be getting started.

"I would love to be known as the best American golfer," Snedeker said. "I've got a long way to go to do that, but this is a great start to the year. Couldn't have scripted much of a better one, except for maybe winning the last two weeks if the guys (Woods and Mickelson) hadn't played."

Mickelson, the defending champion, hit two more balls in the ocean on the 18th hole, but at least this time he didn't slip on the rocks. He closed with a 72 and tied for 60th.

Snedeker kept to his strategy of attacking the opening seven holes, the key to scoring at Pebble Beach.

He hit a 4-iron that caught the collar of the green and rolled to 4 feet on the par-5 second hole for an eagle, matched birdies with Hahn on the fourth hole, and then hit a 3-wood that skirted the collar of the green on the par-5 sixth and settled 20 feet away for a two-putt birdie.

From there, the FedEx Cup champion had to worry about the rest of the field. Kirk, Walker and even Retief Goosen all tried to make a run, and it looked as though Snedeker might help them out when he gunned his birdie putt past the hole and off the green at the ninth for a bogey.

Snedeker made five bogeys this week, and answered with a birdie four times. He rammed home a 25-foot birdie on the 10th, and then followed that with a 15-foot birdie on the 11th to expand his lead to four shots.

From there, it was a battle for second place ? and for the final spot in the Match Play Championship. Mickelson already has said he won't be playing in two weeks, so the top 65 are eligible.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-10-GLF-Pebble-Beach/id-6ccb9949606a4c82980b9f8b1b9532a0

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OUYA following mobile model: 'There will be a new OUYA every year'

There will be a new OUYA next year, and the year after that, unlike the traditional game console model, where new hardware ships in five- to seven-year generational increments. "Our strategy is very much similar to the mobile strategy," OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman told us in an interview this afternoon, following her DICE 2013 speech. "There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3," she added. One potentially featuring the recently revealed Tegra 4, perhaps, rather than the Tegra 3 powering the first units? It sure sounds like it. "We'll take advantage of faster, better processors, take advantage of prices falling. So if we can get more than 8GB of Flash in our box, we will," she explained.

But don't fret, nervous game buyer. Uhrman assured us that "all the games will be backward compatible" going forward. When pushed on how this will work, she said, "The games will be tied to you, the gamer," (like Steam is now) rather than tying your game licenses to the hardware you purchased (like, say, Nintendo's Wii U).

The first OUYA, set to launch for Kickstarter backers this March and at retail in June, comes with a quad-core A9 Tegra 3 that's been maxed out to 1.6GHz. Uhrman pointed out that, because of OUYA's home console form factor (which plugs into a wall, rather than relying on a tiny battery), the console will be, "the best Tegra 3 device on the market." It also doesn't hurt that OUYA's working directly with the Tegra 3's manufacturer, NVIDIA. She said that NVIDIA has a group of folks dedicated solely to getting the chip driving the OUYA to run at its highest capacity ever. We'll find out what that means when we get our hands on the console later this year. Should you like to hear more from Julie Uhrman ahead of that launch, she'll be speaking at Engadget's Expand event this March. Grab your tickets right here!

Filed under: Gaming, HD, NVIDIA

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/

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