Powerful blast injures at least 35 in Prague

PRAGUE (AP) ? A powerful blast believed to be a gas explosion ripped open an office building in the center of Prague on Monday, injuring at least 35 people and sending shockwaves through the Old Town tourist district.

The blast shattered windows in the scenic area of charming streets and postcard-pretty buildings, sending glass flying. Authorities closed a wide area around the site and some tourists were stranded on street corners with baggage-loaded trolleys, unable to get into their hotels.

Authorities said two or three people were still believed to be missing, but sniffer dogs searching the rubble had not indicated that anyone was buried and the prime minister said it appeared no one had died.

An AP cameraman filming at the time of the blast said the physical impact could be felt on the famed 15th-century Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, which was packed with tourists.

The explosion occurred on Divadelni Street at about 10 a.m., in one of a row of several-story tall brick buildings dating back about a century. The street was covered with rubble and police evacuated people from nearby buildings.

"It's really immense and huge, almost like after an air assault or a bomb explosion," Prime Minister Petr Necas said after visiting the scene. "So, if we really prove what we think right now, which is that nobody died, it was very lucky."

Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda ruled out a terrorist attack, saying the blast was a gas explosion.

Prague is a major tourist capital, visited every year by legions of students, backpackers and others from around the world. In 2012, a total of 5.4 million people visited, with a large majority from outside the country ? many from Germany, Russia and the United States.

Officials had estimated that up to 40 were injured, but Zdenek Schwarz, head of rescue service in Prague later narrowed that down to 35. He told reporters that 30 of the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment, two of them with serious injuries.

He said five people were treated at the scene, some bandaged and with faces still bloody.

Rescue workers and firefighters search the area after an explosion in Prague April 29, 2013. The explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials ... more? Rescue workers and firefighters search the area after an explosion in Prague April 29, 2013. The explosion in central Prague on Monday, probably caused by gas, injured as many as 40 people, officials said, and neighbouring buildings - including the National Theatre - had to be evacuated. REUTERS/Petr Josek (CZECH REPUBLIC - Tags: DISASTER) less? ?

Among the injured were two Portuguese women, another two women from Kazakhstan, a man from Slovakia and a German woman, although none of their injuries was serious, the rescue service said.

City Hall spokeswoman Tereza Kralova said the cause of the incident will be thoroughly investigated and "we believe it won't negatively affect tourism."

Windows in buildings located hundreds of meters from the blast were shattered, including some in the nearby National Theater, an ornate 19th-century structure that is one of the most important cultural institutions in the Czech Republic.

"There was glass everywhere and people shouting and crying," Vaclav Rokyta, a Czech student, told the AP near the scene.

The Faculty of Social Sciences of Prague's Charles University and the Film and TV School of the Academy of Sciences of Performing Arts are located next to the damaged building. Students had to be evacuated.

"I was in the bathroom, no windows, the door was closed. Honestly, if I had been in my bed I would have been covered in glass," said Z.B. Haislip, a student from Raleigh, North Carolina, who was in a nearby building.

The road closures caused major traffic disruption and confused thousands of tourists.

Rescuers were still searching the rubble, using sniffer dogs. Two or three people were still believed to be missing, firefighter spokeswoman Pavlina Adamcova said.

The building likely belongs to the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic, said Richard Klima, spokesman for the state-run company that provides air traffic information for civil aviation in the country.

Klima said about six other firms rented office space in the building.

The Prague blast comes the day after a possible gas explosion ripped off the side of a five-story residential building in France's Champagne country, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others

In 2006, another gas blast in Prague killed two men.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/powerful-blast-injures-least-35-prague-144836642.html

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FAA: Air traffic system soon at full operation

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Federal Aviation Administration said that the U.S. air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening after lawmakers rushed a bill through Congress allowing the agency to withdraw furloughs of air traffic controllers and other workers.

The FAA said Saturday that it has suspended all employee furloughs and that traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours. The furloughs were fallout from the $85 billion in automatic-across-the-board spending cuts this spring. The bill, passed on Friday, allows the FAA to move as much as $253 million within its budget to areas that will allow it to prevent reduced operations and staffing.

The furloughs started to hit air traffic controllers this past week, causing flight delays that left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious. Planes were forced to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

The FAA had no choice but to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts that must be achieved by the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30.

Flight delays piled up across the country Sunday and Monday of this week as the FAA kept planes on the ground because there weren't enough controllers to monitor busy air corridors. Cascading delays held up flights at some of nation's busiest airports, including New York, Baltimore and Washington. Delta Air Lines canceled about 90 flights Monday because of worries about delays. Just about every passenger was rebooked on another Delta flight within a couple of hours. Air travel was smoother Tuesday.

Things could have been worse. A lot of people who had planned to fly this week changed their plans when they heard that air travel might be difficult, according to longtime aviation consultant Daniel Kasper of Compass Lexicon.

"Essentially what happened from an airline's perspective is that people who were going to travel didn't travel," he said. But canceled flights likely led to lost revenue for airlines. Even if they didn't have to incur some of costs of fueling up planes and getting them off the ground, crews that were already scheduled to work still had to paid.

"One week isn't going to kill them, but had it gone on much longer, it would have been a significant hit on their revenues and profits," Kasper said.

It's also a toll on travelers. At New York's LaGuardia airport on Friday, traveler Roger Bentley said "getting on a flight and being delayed really puts people on the spot. It puts people on the edge and makes people edgy and that's not something I want."

The challenges this week probably cost airlines less than disruptions from a typical winter storm, said John F. Thomas, an aviation consultant with L.E.K. Consulting.

"I think the fact that it got resolved this week has minimized the cost as it was more the inconvenience factor," Thomas said.

The budget cuts at the FAA were required under a law enacted two years ago as the government was approaching its debt limit. Democrats were in favor of raising the debt limit without strings attached so as not to provoke an economic crisis, but Republicans insisted on substantial cuts in exchange. The compromise was to require that every government "program, project and activity" ? with some exceptions, like Medicare ? be cut equally.

The FAA had reduced the work schedules of nearly all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers and technicians who keep airport towers and radar facility equipment working. That amounted to a 10 percent cut in hours and pay.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of forcing the furloughs to raise public pressure on Congress to roll back the budget cuts. Critics of the FAA insist the agency could have reduce its budget in other ways that would not have inconvenience travelers including diverting money from other accounts, such as those devoted to research, commercial space transportation and modernization of the air traffic control computers.

President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern, dubbing it a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to the spending cuts known as the sequester.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said, singling out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both chambers.

He scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/faa-air-traffic-system-soon-full-operation-172947164.html

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FBI removes boat used by Boston bombing suspect

By Karen Brooks

(Reuters) - Investigators have removed from its Watertown, Massachusetts, backyard the now-famous boat used as a hiding spot by one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, and have taken it to an evidence storage facility, the FBI said on Saturday.

The boat was the scene of high drama when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen charged with the April 15 bombing that killed three people and wounded 264, was captured by authorities on April 19 after a tense day of searching in the Boston area.

The owner of the boat called police after he lifted the tarp of the boat stored in his backyard and saw blood. Police found a wounded Tsarnaev inside the boat.

The boat was processed for evidence at the scene and then moved on Friday to an undisclosed FBI facility for storage, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is also a suspect but was killed by police on April 18.

Also on Friday, the FBI concluded their search at a landfill in New Bedford for evidence connected to the bombings, she said. Eimiller declined to say what evidence investigators hoped to find and whether they found anything.

"We were seeking evidence but we are not commenting on the nature of what was being sought or what was found," she said. "We can confirm that we were there Thursday, Friday and left yesterday."

The landfill is near the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, attended by the younger Tsarnaev.

Local media reported the FBI were trying to find the younger Tsarnaev's laptop.

(Reporting By Karen Brooks; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-removes-boat-used-boston-bombing-suspect-storage-152132969.html

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Police: Boston suspects planned to attack New York

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Boston Marathon bombers were headed for New York's Times Square to blow up the rest of their explosives, authorities said Thursday, in what they portrayed as a chilling, spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart when the brothers realized the car they had hijacked was low on gas.

"New York City was next on their list of targets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother decided on the spot last Thursday night to drive to New York and launch an attack. In their stolen SUV they had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon, Kelly said.

But when the Tsarnaev brothers stopped at a gas station on the outskirts of Boston, the carjacking victim they were holding hostage escaped and called police, Kelly said. Later that night, police intercepted the brothers in a blazing gunbattle that left 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead.

"We don't know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston," the mayor said. "We're just thankful that we didn't have to find out that answer."

The news caused New Yorkers to shudder with the thought that the city may have narrowly escaped another terrorist attack, though whether the brothers could have made it to the city is an open question. They were two of the most-wanted men in the world, their faces splashed all over the Internet and TV in surveillance-camera images released by the FBI hours earlier.

Dzhokhar, 19, is charged with carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing April 15 that killed three people and wounded more than 260, and he could get the death penalty. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston, would not comment on whether authorities plan to add charges based on the alleged plot to attack New York.

Investigators and lawmakers briefed by the FBI have said the Tsarnaev brothers ? ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the U.S. for about a decade ? were motivated by anger over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Based on the younger man's interrogation and other evidence, authorities have said it appears so far that the brothers were radicalized via Islamic jihadi material on the Internet instead of any direct contact with terrorist organizations, but they warned that it is still not certain.

Dzhokhar was interrogated in his hospital room Sunday and Monday over a period of 16 hours without being read his rights to remain silent and have an attorney present. He immediately stopped talking after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered the room and gave him his Miranda warning, according to a U.S. law enforcement official and others briefed on the interrogation.

Kelly and the mayor said they were briefed on the New York plot on Wednesday night by the task force investigating the Boston bombing.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in a CNN interview that the city should have been told earlier.

"Even though this may or may not have been spontaneous, for all we know there could be other conspirators out there, and the city should have been alerted so it could go into its defensive mode," he said.

Asked about the delay, Bloomberg said: "There's no reason to think the FBI hides anything. The FBI does what they think is appropriate at the time, and you'll have to ask them what they found and what the actual details of the interrogation were. We were not there."

Kelly, citing the interrogations, said that four days after the Boston bombing, the Tsarnaev brothers "planned to travel to Manhattan to detonate their remaining explosives in Times Square."

"They discussed this while driving around in a Mercedes SUV that they hijacked after they shot and killed the officer at MIT," the police commissioner said. "That plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle they hijacked was low on gas and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station."

A day earlier, Kelly said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had talked about coming to New York "to party" after the attack and that there wasn't evidence of a plot against the city. But Kelly said a later interview with the suspect turned up the information.

"He was a lot more lucid and gave more detail in the second interrogation," Kelly said.

Kelly said there was no evidence New York was still a target. But in a show of force, police cruisers with blinking red lights were lined up in the middle of Times Square on Thursday afternoon, and uniformed officers stood shoulder to shoulder.

"Why are they standing like that? This is supposed to make me feel safer?" asked Elisabeth Bennecib, a tourist and legal consultant from Toulouse, France. "It makes me feel more anxious, like something bad is about to happen."

Above the square, an electronic news ticker announced that the Boston Marathon suspects' next target might have been Times Square.

Outside Penn Station, Wayne Harris, a schoolteacher from Queens, said: "We don't know when a terrorist attack will happen next in New York, but it will happen. It didn't happen this time, by the grace of God. God protected us this time."

In 2010, Times Square was targeted with a car bomb that never went off. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad had planted a bomb in an SUV, but street vendors noticed smoke and it was disabled. Shahzad was arrested as he tried to leave the country and was sentenced to life in prison.

With tens of millions of dollars in federal homeland security funding at stake, Bloomberg and Kelly have repeatedly sought to remind the public that New York remains at the top of terrorists' wish list. They have said the city has been targeted in more than a dozen plots since 9/11.

Kelly said Dzhokhar was photographed in Times Square with friends in April 2012 and was in the city again in November 2012, but "we don't know if those visits were related in any way to what he described as the brothers' spontaneous decision to hit Times Square."

He said the police intelligence division is trying to establish Dzhokhar's movements in the city and determine who might have been with him.

Meanwhile, the Tsarnaev brothers' father said he is leaving Russia for the U.S. in the next day or two, but their mother said she was still thinking it over.

Anzor Tsarnaev has expressed a desire to go to the U.S. to find out what happened with his sons, defend the hospitalized son and, if possible, bring the older son's body back to Russia for burial.

Their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer, said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested, but was still deciding whether to go.

___

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-boston-suspects-planned-attack-york-182015679.html

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Boosting the powers of genomic science

Apr. 25, 2013 ? As scientists probe and parse the genetic bases of what makes a human a human (or one human different from another), and vigorously push for greater use of whole genome sequencing, they find themselves increasingly threatened by the unthinkable: Too much data to make full sense of.

In a pair of papers published in the April 25, 2013 issue of PLOS Genetics, two diverse teams of scientists, both headed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, describe novel statistical models that more broadly and deeply identify associations between bits of sequenced DNA called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs and say lead to a more complete and accurate understanding of the genetic underpinnings of many diseases and how best to treat them.

"It's increasingly evident that highly heritable diseases and traits are influenced by a large number of genetic variants in different parts of the genome, each with small effects," said Anders M. Dale, PhD, a professor in the departments of Radiology, Neurosciences and Psychiatry at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. "Unfortunately, it's also increasingly evident that existing statistical methods, like genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that look for associations between SNPs and diseases, are severely underpowered and can't adequately incorporate all of this new, exciting and exceedingly rich data."

Dale cited, for example, a recent study published in Nature Genetics in which researchers used traditional GWAS to raise the number of SNPs associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis from four to 16. The scientists then applied the new statistical methods to identify 33 additional SNPs, more than tripling the number of genome locations associated with the life-threatening liver disease.

Generally speaking, the new methods boost researchers' analytical powers by incorporating a priori or prior knowledge about the function of SNPs with their pleiotrophic relationships to multiple phenotypes. Pleiotrophy occurs when one gene influences multiple sets of observed traits or phenotypes.

Dale and colleagues believe the new methods could lead to a paradigm shift in CWAS analysis, with profound implications across a broad range of complex traits and disorders.

"There is ever-greater emphasis being placed on expensive whole genome sequencing efforts," he said, "but as the science advances, the challenges become larger. The needle in the haystack of traditional GWAS involves searching through about one million SNPs. This will increase 10- to 100-fold, to about 3 billion positions. We think these new methodologies allow us to more completely exploit our resources, to extract the most information possible, which we think has important implications for gene discovery, drug development and more accurately assessing a person's overall genetic risk of developing a certain disease."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California, San Diego Health Sciences, via Newswise.

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

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Journal References:

1. Andrew J. Schork, Wesley K. Thompson, Phillip Pham, Ali Torkamani, J. Cooper Roddey, Patrick F. Sullivan, John R. Kelsoe, Michael C. O'Donovan, Helena Furberg, Nicholas J. Schork, Ole A. Andreassen, Anders M. Dale. All SNPs Are Not Created Equal: Genome-Wide Association Studies Reveal a Consistent Pattern of Enrichment among Functionally Annotated SNPs. PLoS Genetics, 2013; 9 (4): e1003449 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003449
2. Ole A. Andreassen, Wesley K. Thompson, Andrew J. Schork, Stephan Ripke, Morten Mattingsdal, John R. Kelsoe, Kenneth S. Kendler, Michael C. O'Donovan, Dan Rujescu, Thomas Werge, Pamela Sklar, J. Cooper Roddey, Chi-Hua Chen, Linda McEvoy, Rahul S. Desikan, Srdjan Djurovic, Anders M. Dale. Improved Detection of Common Variants Associated with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Using Pleiotropy-Informed Conditional False Discovery Rate. PLoS Genetics, 2013; 9 (4): e1003455 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003455

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/W-16k4bufPw/130425213754.htm

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Czechs to send funds to blast-hit Texas town

PRAGUE (AP) ? The Czech Republic plans to donate 4 million koruna (some $200,000) to help the Texas town of West recover from a devastating fertilizer plant explosion.

The government decided to the provide aid in solidarity because a significant number of people in the town of 2,700 have Czech roots. The blast damaged numerous homes in the town.

The Foreign Ministry says Czech Ambassador to the U.S. Petr Gandalovic visited West last week and talked to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, West Mayor Tommy Muska and other officials about how to help.

A ministry statement Wednesday said the money will go toward repairing property in the town.

Thousands of Czechs, mostly from the eastern part known of Moravia, settled in Texas more than 100 years ago.

A housing complex, destroyed by a deadly fertilizer plant explosion, is pictured in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, April 21, 2013. Authorities said the death toll from the explosion on April 17, ... more? A housing complex, destroyed by a deadly fertilizer plant explosion, is pictured in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, April 21, 2013. Authorities said the death toll from the explosion on April 17, 2013 remained at 14 in West, a community of some 2,700 people, with 200 people injured. REUTERS/Michael Ainsworth/Pool (UNITED STATES - Tags: DISASTER ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE) less? ?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/czechs-send-funds-blast-hit-texas-town-181551812.html

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Wall Street ends mostly flat; Boeing supports

Jon Stewart is pretty great a skewering Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is pretty good at typing on an electronic device in order to post a short message on Twitter. Trump struggles in this asymmetrical warfare. On Wednesday, he lowered himself ? a major feat in itself ? to outing Jon Stewart as a Jew. "I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz - I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated," Trump tweeted. He then defended his hair, claiming it is not a wig.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-jumps-recovery-twitter-led-drop-012743441--sector.html

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Pentax WG-3

The Pentax WG-3 ($299.95 direct)?is the latest in the company's line of go-anywhere point-and-shoot?cameras. The 16-megapixel shooter offers numerous upgrades compared with last year's WG-2 GPS?including a faster, sharper lens, sensor shift image stabilization, and overall improved image quality. Its photos are a bit noisy, and they don't look quite as good as images captured by our current Editors' Choice rugged camera, the Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS. That model has been replaced by the Olympus TG-2, which we haven't tested? yet?the TG-2 features the same lens, image sensor, and imaging engine as the TG-1, so we expect it to perform similarly.

Editors' Note: This review is based on tests performed on the Pentax WG-3 GPS, a camera that adds a GPS radio, inductive charging, and a front information LCD, but is otherwise identical. While we didn't perform lab tests on this specific model, we expect similar performance.

Design and Features
The WG-3 is one of two version of this camera that are marketed by Pentax. The other, the WG-3 GPS for $50 more; it adds a GPS, support for Qi wireless charging, and a monochrome front information display. The WG-3 GPS is available in green or purple, while the WG-3 can be had in orange or black. Otherwise, the cameras are identical.

The WG-3 features a bold design that combines bright, metallic colors with a body style that's a bit wider than most compact cameras. It measures 2.5 by 4.9 by 1.3 inches and weighs 8.1 ounces. Compare this with the funky, rugged Canon PowerShot D20, despite having some curvy lines as part of its design, the D20 is more traditionally proportioned?it measures 2.8 by 4.4 by 1.1 inches and weighs 8 ounces. In addition to a standard flash, there are six LEDs that surround the lens to provide even illumination when shooting in macro mode. They can be activated via the menu, and automatically turn on when you set the shooting mode to Digital Microscope?a special setting that lets you focus on objects as close as 1 centimeter from the lens.

The lens is a 4x zoom design that is fairly wide when zoomed out. The 25-100mm f/2-4.9 (35mm equivalent) zoom is also quite bright at the wide end, which is helpful for underwater shooting. As a general rule of thumb, you'll want to get as close as possible to what you're photographing under the sea, as even the cleanest water will cloud your field of view when you're further away from the fish or coral reef that you're trying to capture. The lens doesn't capture as much light when zoomed in, but that shouldn't be an issue when using the camera outdoors in the daylight.

The shutter release and power button are located on the top of the WG-3, with other controls on the back to the right of the LCD. There's a zoom control button, a dedicated movie button, as well as controls to activate the self-timer, enable macro shooting, change the shooting mode, and control the flash. It's a Pentax camera, so you also have the company's trademark Green button, which brings up a software menu that has four customizable functions, each mapped to a different direction on the standard four-way control pad. By default these adjust ISO, EV Compensation, the focusing area, and enable automatic macro shooting, but you can customize them to best suit your shooting style.

The 3-inch 460k-dot LCD is wider than what you'll usually see on a point-and-shoot camera. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio, the same as HD video. The image sensor is actually a 4:3 design, but there's a crop mode that records 12-megapixel 16:9 images if you prefer to shoot wider. It's not as crisp as the 610k-dot OLED found on the Olympus TG-1 and TG-2, but it's much crisper than the 230k-dot display found on the budget-minded Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS20.

The camera is rated for use in water as deep as 45 feet, which is five feet deeper than the previous model. It's strong enough to withstand pressure of up to 220 foot-pounds and to survive drops from heights of 6.6 feet. And it can shoot in temperatures as low as 14?F, good news for those who live in or enjoy spending time in frigid environments. It can go a bit deeper than the Olympus TG-1, that's limited to 40 feet, but the newer TG-2 hits 50 feet.

Performance and Conclusions
The WG-3 starts and captures an in-focus shot in about 2.5 seconds, can fire off shots continuously with 0.7 second between each photo, and records a 0.2-second shutter lag. The Canon D20 is faster to operate?it starts and shoots in 1.4 seconds, fires off a photo every 0.5 second, and records a 0.2-second shutter lag.

The WG-3's startup speed is hindered by a bit of human reaction time that normally isn't a factor in our testing. Holding down the shutter release all the way after hitting the power button is our usual methodology, but doing so with the WG-3 activates a pan focus function that focuses on distant objects and doesn't engage the autofocus system. The camera is able to start up and grab a shot in this mode in about 1.8 seconds, which is still not the speediest result. If you don't take care when shooting a photo while you're out and about you can fall into the trap of accidentally triggering pan focus when you'd rather focus on something closer. You can disable it by engaging the macro shooting function?it will always confirm focus when capturing a photo if that is on. Unfortunately, the camera does not remember to leave macro on after powering down.

I used?Imatest?to check the sharpness of photos captured by the WG-3's lens. At its widest angle and aperture it scored 1,948 lines per picture height. This is better than the 1,800 lines we require for a photo to be sharp, and it's an exceptional score for a rugged camera with such a fast lens.? This is one area in which the Olympus TG-1 struggles; it only scored 1,656 lines, mainly due to softness at the edges and corners of photos.

As you increase a camera's ISO it becomes more sensitive to light, but with that extra sensitivity comes noise in the form of graininess and loss of detail. The WG-3 doesn't do a great job in this regard; it can only keep noise below 1.5 percent through ISO 200. Detail is pretty decent at ISO 400, even with 1.7 percent noise, but once you've set the camera to ISO 800 or above, image quality deteriorates quickly. Images are a huge step up from the WG-2, but can't keep up with competitors in this class at higher ISO settings. The Canon D20 controls noise through ISO 800 and its images at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 are much better than those from the WG-3.

Video quality is a mixed bag. The WG-3 does capture footage at 1080p30, 720p60, or 720p30 in QuickTime format. Footage is sharp and colors are accurate, but the sound of the lens refocusing is audible on the soundtrack. In fact, if you zoom in or out, the sound of the lens moving is overwhelming.

There's a micro HDMI port, housed in the battery compartment, as well as a proprietary USB port. The latter doubles as the connector for in-camera charging. There's no dedicated battery charger included. Standard SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards are supported.

The WG-3 is one of the more interestingly designed tough cameras on the market. Its lens is fast and sharp, it can go deep underwater, and the LED lights around the lens are a great tool for macro photography. Its image quality is noticeably better than the WG-2, but it still lags behind the Olympus TG-1 at medium to high ISO settings. It lacks the inductive charging and GPS that are available on the WG-3 GPS, but is priced at $50 less. If you generally shoot in brighter light, you'll be quite happy with the images you'll get from the WG-3, but if you find yourself in situations where you need to shoot at a higher ISO the Canon PowerShot D20 is a better choice, but it is a little bit more expensive.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/68cYcQ6rU58/0,2817,2417965,00.asp

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Futures move higher on strong earnings

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stock futures rose Thursday with U.S. corporate earnings continuing to impress.

Dow Jones industrial futures rose 58 points to 14,673. The broader S&P futures added 7.8 points to 1,581.90. Nasdaq futures are up 18 points to 2,842.

On top of strong earnings from the likes of Harley-Davidson, Southwest Airlines and Dow Chemical, the government said that unemployment benefit applications fall to 339,000, second-lowest level in 5 years.

That was better than most economists had expected and further tamped down apprehensions about a terrible jobs report from March.

There are more earning on the way in one of the busiest weeks of the quarter for U.S companies.

Also reporting Thursday are UPS, United Continental, Starbucks and Expedia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/futures-move-higher-strong-earnings-114431990--finance.html

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Predictions of ECB rate cut grow as growth fades

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Evidence that Europe's economic downturn is weighing more heavily on its strongest member, Germany, has convinced more and more experts that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates soon.

The latest downbeat sign came Wednesday from the closely watched Ifo index of German business confidence. It fell to 104.4 points in April from 106.7 in March, more than the modest dip foreseen by market analysts to 106.2. That follows surveys earlier this week indicating Germany's manufacturing sector is contracting.

The Ifo index remains at a high level, and the institute's survey chief, Kai Carstensen, said it only means that "the German economy is taking a breather."

But outside analysts said there was now enough doubt about Europe's economic recovery for the ECB's 23-member governing council to cut its key rate from the record low of 0.75 percent, either at its May 2 meeting or on June 6, when it will have new staff economic projections to help justify any decision.

The ECB's benchmark, called the refinancing rate, is what it charges to lend to banks. Through them, the rate influences a host of other rates that determine how much it costs businesses and consumers to borrow.

Low rates in theory encourage borrowing to spend and invest, stimulating the economy. A rate cut also can push investors toward buying stocks and other assets, both in anticipation of growth and by making interest-yielding investments less attractive.

Investors prepared for such a move by buying heavily into European stocks. Germany's stock index is up 3 percent in two days, France's almost 4.5 percent.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in April that the bank remained "ready to act" in case the economic indicators worsened.

In a sign that support for a rate cut may be growing, the head of the German central bank, which has typically been more reluctant to back rate cuts, said last week that a cut could be warranted if economic indicators worsen. Since his comments, they have.

The strength of the German economy is key to the ECB's rate decisions because of its size ? it accounts for 28 percent of the 17-country eurozone's total output. It shrank 0.6 percent in the last three months of 2012.

Germany has been one of the more resilient economies in the eurozone. A slowdown in its economy would make it harder for the region to climb out of recession. The ECB expects the eurozone to contract 0.5 percent for all of this year, with a gradual upturn near year end.

"Resistance to a rate cut will be crumbling," said Christian Schulz, an analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, after the Ifo survey was released.

Analysts at Swiss bank UBS have changed their forecasts and now predict an ECB rate cut on May 2. They had previously expected rates to remain unchanged through the end of next year. Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland and Nomura also shifted their prediction to a cut to the May meeting.

Other signs of trouble in Europe include unemployment at 12.0 percent, the highest since the euro was introduced in 1999, and auto sales that have fallen for 18 straight months, measured against the same month the year previously.

Analysts say a rate cut might be mostly symbolic and do little to spur lending directly. It could, however, lower the euro's exchange rate, which would help exporters.

Lower rates can push down the euro's exchange rate because they lower the yield on many interest-bearing investments denominated in euros. That reduces demand for the currency.

The ECB has also been looking at unspecified new way to help the economy that go beyond interest rates. Analysts say the ECB might take steps to try to increase bank's willingness to make loans to small and medium size businesses, which provide most of the eurozone's jobs. Ideas that have been floated include loan guarantees from another European Union agency, or permitting banks to bundle loans to small businesses as securities and use them as collateral to get cash loans from the ECB.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/predictions-ecb-rate-cut-grow-growth-fades-114550626--finance.html

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87 dead in Bangladesh garment factory collapse

Rescue workers and people look for survivors after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

Rescue workers and people look for survivors after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

Rescue workers pull a woman out from the rubbles after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

A man who was trapped in an collapsed eight-story building housing several garment factories is reccued in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

Relatives mourn a victim at the site after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

Rescue workers carry a young victim's body after an eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Dozens were killed and many more are feared trapped in the rubble. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh's capital Wednesday morning, killing at least 87 people and trapping many more in a jumbled mess of shattered concrete and bricks, officials said.

The collapse stirred memories of a fatal fire at a garment factory in November that killed 112 people and raised an outcry about safety in the nation's $20 billion-a-year textile industry, which produces clothing for global fashion brands worn around the world.

Workers in the Rana Plaza building said it had developed such severe cracks the day before that it had been reported on local news channels. They hesitated to enter the building Wednesday morning, said Abdur Rahim, who worked in a garment factory on the fifth floor.

But a manager from the factory assured them there was no problem, so they went inside, he said.

"We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly," he said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside the building.

Among the businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd., New Wave Bottoms Ltd. and New Wave Brothers Ltd. garment factories, companies that make clothing for brands including Benetton, The Children's Place and Dress Barn. Workers said they didn't know what specific clothing brands were being made in the building because labels are attached after the products are finished.

Sumi, a 25-year-old worker who goes by one name, said she was sewing jeans on the fifth floor with at least 400 others when the building fell. "It collapsed all of a sudden," she said. "No shaking, no indication. It just collapsed on us."

She survived because she managed to reach a hole in the building through which rescuers pulled her out.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members. Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors.

An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs. Colorful sheets of fabric were tied to upper floors of the wreckage, presumably so those inside could climb or slide down and escape.

An arm jutted out of one section of rubble. The lifeless body of a woman covered in dust could be seen in another. A firefighter carried the body of what appeared to be a teenager from the area.

Rahim said his mother and father, who worked with him in the factory, were trapped inside.

"I have no idea what is going on," he said.

Mosammat Khurshida wailed as she looked for her husband. "He came to work in the morning. I can't find him," she said. "I don't know where he is. He does not pick his phone. Oh Allah, what will I do now?"

In addition to the factories, the building also housed a bank and shops.

Zahidur Rahman, director of public relations at Enam Medical College and Hospital, said by Wednesday evening 87 people had been confirmed dead in the collapse at the building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said another 600 survivors had been rescued.

Reports indicated the death toll could rise.

"We had sent two people inside the building and we could rescue at least 20 people alive. They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor," said Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories.

The collapse happened about 8:30 a.m. and since garment factories in the area routinely work 24 hours a day, it appeared likely that the four housed in the building were staffed at the time.

The November fire at the Tazreen garment factory drew international attention to the conditions workers toil under in Bangladesh's textile industry. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation.

Tazreen lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.

Clothes with Disney, Wal-Mart and other western labels were found at that factory.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-24-Bangladesh-Building%20Collapse/id-b4f3082a05ff4d37b781395e79d07215

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Asian carp DNA not widespread in the Great Lakes

Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)

'DNA from Asian carp has been found only in areas where Asian carp have been caught, i.e., Chicago area waterway and the western basin of Lake Erie'

SOUTH BEND, IND. Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy, and Central Michigan University presented their findings of Asian carp DNA throughout the Great Lakes in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. "The good news is that we have found no evidence that Asian carp are widespread in the Great Lakes basin, despite extensive surveys in Southern Lake Michigan and parts of lakes Erie and St Clair," said Dr. Christopher Jerde, the paper's lead author and a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, "Looking at the overall patterns of detections we remain convinced that the most likely source of Asian carp DNA is live fish."

Some recent reports regarding environmental DNA have suggested that birds, boats, and other pathways, but not live fish, are spreading the bighead and silver carp DNA. Jerde points out, "It's really very telling that the only places DNA has been recovered are where Asian carp have been captured. If birds or boats were commonly spreading the DNA, then we should be detecting DNA in other places we have surveyed in the Great Lakes. "

According to the USGS, in 2010 commercial fishermen captured a 20 lb. bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 30 miles above the electric barrier meant to block the advancing carp from the Illinois River. Lake Calumet is 7 miles of river away from Lake Michigan. Likewise, in 1995 and twice in 2000, USGS records indicate that bighead carp were captured in the western basin of Lake Erie. "It shouldn't be surprising that we found evidence of Asian carp in these areas where Asian carp were already known to exist from captures, " said Lindsay Chadderton, co-author on the paper and Director of The Nature Conservancy's Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species program.

This study builds upon a growing area of research to find invasive species when they are at low abundance and when they can be potentially managed. Professor David Lodge, Director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative and author on the paper said, "Catching these fish by net, hook, or electrofishing is ineffective when the fish are at low abundance that's why we were asked to deploy this eDNA approach in the first place. If we wait for the tell-tale signs of Asian carp jumping out of the water, then we are likely too late to prevent the damages. Environmental DNA allows for us to detect their presence before the fish become widespread."

Dr. Andrew Mahon, co-author and Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University, said "when we first discovered DNA from Asian carp at the Calumet Harbor and Port of Chicago, we were concerned that Asian carp may already be widespread in the Great Lakes. But because of our collaborations with State and Federal partners, we now have a better picture of the Asian carp distribution, and we are optimistic that with continued vigilance, it will be possible to prevent Asian carp becoming established in the Great Lakes."

###

This work is part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project funded through the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help develop a program of invasive species surveillance of the Great Lakes. This research grew out of a formal partnership between the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy, one of the world's largest and most established conservation organizations. The mission of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative is to conduct innovative research that helps to solve complex environmental problems regarding invasive species, land use, and climate change, focusing on their impacts on water resources.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. For more information or to watch a video, visit http://nature.org/carpscience. The Notre Dame-TNC partnership is designed to develop science-based solutions to environmental problems.

The Institute for Great Lakes Research (IGLR) at Central Michigan University is committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. IGLR partners with other institutions and agencies to leverage our expertise and training and takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes basin.

The Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) is one of the world's top fisheries journals and is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. CJFAS is published by Canadian Science Publishing and is part of the prestigious NRC Research Press journal collection.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jenny Ryan
jenny.ryan@nrcresearchpress.com
Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press)

'DNA from Asian carp has been found only in areas where Asian carp have been caught, i.e., Chicago area waterway and the western basin of Lake Erie'

SOUTH BEND, IND. Scientists from the University of Notre Dame, The Nature Conservancy, and Central Michigan University presented their findings of Asian carp DNA throughout the Great Lakes in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. "The good news is that we have found no evidence that Asian carp are widespread in the Great Lakes basin, despite extensive surveys in Southern Lake Michigan and parts of lakes Erie and St Clair," said Dr. Christopher Jerde, the paper's lead author and a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, "Looking at the overall patterns of detections we remain convinced that the most likely source of Asian carp DNA is live fish."

Some recent reports regarding environmental DNA have suggested that birds, boats, and other pathways, but not live fish, are spreading the bighead and silver carp DNA. Jerde points out, "It's really very telling that the only places DNA has been recovered are where Asian carp have been captured. If birds or boats were commonly spreading the DNA, then we should be detecting DNA in other places we have surveyed in the Great Lakes. "

According to the USGS, in 2010 commercial fishermen captured a 20 lb. bighead carp in Lake Calumet, 30 miles above the electric barrier meant to block the advancing carp from the Illinois River. Lake Calumet is 7 miles of river away from Lake Michigan. Likewise, in 1995 and twice in 2000, USGS records indicate that bighead carp were captured in the western basin of Lake Erie. "It shouldn't be surprising that we found evidence of Asian carp in these areas where Asian carp were already known to exist from captures, " said Lindsay Chadderton, co-author on the paper and Director of The Nature Conservancy's Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species program.

This study builds upon a growing area of research to find invasive species when they are at low abundance and when they can be potentially managed. Professor David Lodge, Director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative and author on the paper said, "Catching these fish by net, hook, or electrofishing is ineffective when the fish are at low abundance that's why we were asked to deploy this eDNA approach in the first place. If we wait for the tell-tale signs of Asian carp jumping out of the water, then we are likely too late to prevent the damages. Environmental DNA allows for us to detect their presence before the fish become widespread."

Dr. Andrew Mahon, co-author and Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University, said "when we first discovered DNA from Asian carp at the Calumet Harbor and Port of Chicago, we were concerned that Asian carp may already be widespread in the Great Lakes. But because of our collaborations with State and Federal partners, we now have a better picture of the Asian carp distribution, and we are optimistic that with continued vigilance, it will be possible to prevent Asian carp becoming established in the Great Lakes."

###

This work is part of a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project funded through the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help develop a program of invasive species surveillance of the Great Lakes. This research grew out of a formal partnership between the University of Notre Dame and The Nature Conservancy, one of the world's largest and most established conservation organizations. The mission of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative is to conduct innovative research that helps to solve complex environmental problems regarding invasive species, land use, and climate change, focusing on their impacts on water resources.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. For more information or to watch a video, visit http://nature.org/carpscience. The Notre Dame-TNC partnership is designed to develop science-based solutions to environmental problems.

The Institute for Great Lakes Research (IGLR) at Central Michigan University is committed to promoting and facilitating collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. IGLR partners with other institutions and agencies to leverage our expertise and training and takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes basin.

The Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS) is one of the world's top fisheries journals and is the primary publishing vehicle for the multidisciplinary field of aquatic sciences. CJFAS is published by Canadian Science Publishing and is part of the prestigious NRC Research Press journal collection.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/csp-acd040413.php

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Facebook Home event replay now available

The live stream for the Facebook Home event has wrapped up, but the replay is available for those of you that want to really know the ins and outs, but missed the show the first time around. The short version is, Facebook is making a launcher that has a bunch of in-depth customizations for notifications, news feed, and chat. It's not a whole new operating system, but it does promise to be a unique experience - at least for those of us that spend a lot of time on Facebook. 

So, notice anything especially interesting from the live event that hasn't really been highlighted yet?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/a2UY0fIP8BI/story01.htm

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Setting featured in Haylock & Cockburn's new edition of - Early Years

Last June, my setting was lucky enough to play host to Derek Haylock (an?education consultant and author; he worked for over 30 years in teacher education and was Co-Director of Primary Initial Teacher Training, responsible for the mathematics components of the primary programmes at the University of East Anglia in Norwich) whilst he conducted observations for the new edition of the popular mathematical education book.

You can find Mr Haylock?s blog here?and the edition that my pre-school is featured in here.

Review to follow.

Synopsis:

?In this indispensable book, the authors help teachers understand mathematical concepts and how children come to understand them, and show how to develop your own confidence with mathematical activities.

Each chapter of this book includes:

- real-life examples and illustrations from children and teachers;

- the research behind some of the concepts and teaching approaches discussed;

- pauses to reflect and discuss your own mathematical knowledge and experience;

- age-appropriate classroom activities to try with your class or group.

This is an essential student text and professional reference work for teachers of children aged 3 to 8 years.?

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Source: http://newtonoakley.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/setting-featured-in-haylock-cockburns-new-edition-of-understanding-mathematics-for-young-children-4th-ed/

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Swedish MMA Federation says Alexander Gustafsson vs. Gegard Mousasi is a no-go for UFC on Fuel 9

The question of this week has been will Alexander Gustafsson would be allowed to fight Gegard Mousasi on Saturday after he sustained a cut in training. We don't have to wonder any longer. As was first reported by MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani, the Swedish MMA Federation announced that Gustafsson will not be cleared to fight at UFC on Fuel 9 on Saturday.

Here's what they had to say:

The SMMAF Medical Committee has today reviewed the circumstances regarding Gustafsson and his injury. The SMMAF Medical Committee recognizes that a competitor cannot be medically cleared earlier than the day before the match. However, bearing in mind that a correct medical examination that met the regulatory demands has been performed, nothing in the SMMAF regulations hinders the SMMAF Medical Committee from making a decision to stop Gustafsson from competing. As it is clear that Alexander Gustafsson will not be fit to compete as planned and cannot be medically cleared on Friday the 5th of April, the SMMAF Medical Committee has today decided that Alexander Gustafsson will not be allowed to participate in the planned match on April 6th.

Basically, the commission's medical committee looked at his cut today and decided it wouldn't be miraculously healed by Saturday. The cut is reportedly under his left eyebrow. If it were to break open during the bout, which is a likely occurrence in a fight, the bout would be in danger. Cuts on the eyebrow bleed into fighters' eyes and impair their vision. It's the right move by the commission.

But it being the right move doesn't make it any easier on Gustafsson or the UFC. For Gustafsson, his fight with Mousasi was supposed to be a stepping stone to a title shot. And the UFC now doesn't have Sweden's most popular fighter fighting on a card in Stockholm. They can try to cobble together a main event on four days notice in Europe, but it won't be easy to get a fighter is healthy, who can make weight and get to Sweden on such short notice.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/swedish-mma-federation-says-alexander-gustafsson-vs-gegard-174028817--mma.html

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Does anyone know what insurance companies are covering home ...

Specifically, I am starting a home-based e-commerce store, and my insurance broker has told me that he is unable to find any carriers that will cover product liability for a home-based company. I know there must be some carriers out there that will, because there are thousands of similar companies to mine out there. Any suggestions?

All the companies I represent for commercial insurance do not have a problem with home based businesses per se. It all depends on exactly what service or product you are offering.

This type of insurance needs to be done by an independent local agent that specializes in commercial insurance ? none of the big name companies that specialize in auto and home insurance will likely help you with this, i.e. Allstate, State Farm, etc.

You can find a local agent through the website for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America at http://www.iiaba.net/agentlocator/findagent.aspx. All you need to do is type in your state and zip code, i.e. they do not keep any of your information or farm your information to anyone. Once you type in your state and zip code, you will be able to pull up a list of agents that are local to you and review their websites, the companies they represent and their specialties so that you can choose the agent that will best serve you.

I hope this information helps and wish you the best of luck with your business.

Source: http://www.bid4insurance.com/auto-insurance-reviews/does-anyone-know-what-insurance-companies-are-covering-home-based-businesses

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April Fools': Google's smell-o-vision, electronics for cats and bacon ...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) ? April Fools? Day is here, and the usual suspects are at it again with fake product launches.

Google announced the launch of a new smell search feature, Google Nose. It?s still in beta mode, but its ?aromabase? of more than 15 million ?scentibytes? is sure to entertain, featuring such wondrous odors as airport terminal, used napkin and garlic breath.

That?s not all from the jokers at Google. The company also launched a new version of Maps called Treasure Mode, where the general public can take part in the hunt for Scottish sailor William ?Captain? Kidd?s long lost treasure. It looks like a yellowed 17th Century scroll, and the usual Street View mode is now equipped with a telescope-like filter.

Sony unveiled its new ?Animalia? electronics line, designed exclusively for pets. Cats will have their own feline-fitted headphones and dogs are sure to love the paw-friendly TV remote control. And what hamster wouldn?t want a hamster wheel equipped with a home entertainment system?

Twitter announced its site is now a paid service, and that only ?premium? users will get to use vowels. Everyone else will be forced into consonant-only microblogging on Twttr, encouraging an even more ?efficient and dense form of communication.? Wrtng shrtr twts mght nt b tht bd.

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson wrote on his blog that Virgin will soon offer the world?s first glass-bottomed plane.

?I can?t wait to experience the first flight for myself with my family and other natural born explorers,? Branson said.

Toshiba said it?s built an inflatable laptop ? essentially a computer on an inner tube. It?s available in lobster red, mother of pearl and a few others.

Subaru took a stab at humor with the announcement of its new BRZ sports car, which will boast just about every feature that?s been rumored on the Internet. It?ll be an all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo, two-seater convertible that?s a hybrid and also runs on diesel.

The company stated it?s ?tired of fighting off the constant speculation about what?s ?next,? and so we are just giving in and delivering all the speculation in one vehicle.?

Last on the list is Scope, with its new bacon-flavored mouthwash. Procter & Gamble, the company that owns the Scope brand, isn?t officially declaring it an April Fools? joke ? yet. It even took out a half-page ad in today?s USA Today.

But a quick chat with the public relations agency hired by P&G to handle the announcement was suspicious indeed. MSL New York publicist Stephanie Friess politely said she wouldn?t answer any questions and redirected this reporter to the brand?s website.

?I can give you more information later this week,? she promised. ?But I think it?s a really fun thing to share!?

? & ? 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Source: http://fox59.com/2013/04/01/april-fools-googles-smell-o-vision-electronics-for-cats-and-bacon-mouthwash/

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