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Thursday, January 3, 2013
Turn Your Brain Off and Watch This Mesmerizing Lego Machine Sort Axle Pieces
Manchester United cruises to 4-0 win over Wigan
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:34 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2013
WIGAN, England (AP) -Two goals apiece from strikers Robin van Persie and Javier Hernandez gave Manchester United a routine 4-0 victory over Wigan at the DW Stadium on Tuesday that maintained the visitors' seven-point lead in the English Premier League.
Hernandez opened the scoring in the 35th minute with a strike from close range before van Persie doubled the advantage eight minutes later.
Hernandez added his second in the 63rd and Van Persie matched the Mexico international in the 88th when he closed out the scoring.
Van Persie's brace moves him to 64 goals in 76 league games since January 2011. His 18th goal in all competitions this season was one of his best, calmly stepping inside Ivan Ramis before firing into the corner with his supposedly weaker right foot. And as he tapped Danny Welbeck's square ball into an empty net in stoppage time, Van Persie extended his recent record to eight goals in his last eight games.
"Robin is a completely rounded footballer. He has great international experience, he's played for Arsenal for seven years and he came to us at the very peak of his career," said United manager Alex Ferguson, who spent 24 million pounds (then $38 million) on signing Van Persie from Arsenal in August.
"His ability to make and take goals is fantastic. His play for his first goal was absolutely magnificent, his turn, his balance, no drawback, just side footed it in. It was a really good goal."
United's failure to get to grips with Wigan's three-man defence in the corresponding fixture last term that condemned them to a defeat, which triggered the downward spiral that cost them the title last season.
And they were in no mood to be similarly exposed this time around.
Ferguson filled his midfield, denying Roberto Martinez's men the space to implement their preferred passing game.
"We didn't have the legs or the reaction and you have to congratulate Manchester United," Martinez said. "They had the luxury of making changes and Van Persie and Hernandez looked brighter and sharper. In the end it was a mismatch."
The Latics were forced into far more long balls than normal and though the first 25 minutes lacked penalty-box action, slowly United were draining the life out of their opponents.
And when Jonny Evans nipped in front of Arouna Kone to intercept Gary Caldwell's poorly-hit clearance, the Northern Irishman advanced far enough to divert Tom Cleverley's square ball into the path of Patrice Evra.
After an air shot, Evra let fly with a low stinger that Al Habsi could not hold, allowing Hernandez to pounce from close range.
It was the Mexican's 11th goal of the season and his 30th overall in the Premier League for United. Remarkably, all 30 have come from inside the area.
With the visitors now turning the screw, Wigan desperately needed to reach the interval without conceding again.
But Van Persie ensured they did not make it.
After a mix-up in midfield gifted United possession deep inside the Wigan half, the hosts could not afford Ramis' slip, which allowed Van Persie a couple of extra seconds to decide what to do with Hernandez's pass.
Ramis recovered his ground, only for Van Persie to step inside the defender and find the far corner with a right-footed effort of unerring accuracy.
Other than a close offside call that went against Kone, who tapped home Franco di Santo's low cross, the visitors were completely dominant.
No one could begrudge them their third, just after the hour, when Van Persie's free kick deflected into Hernandez's path. The striker was once again in the box to deliver the first-time finish.
And fittingly it was Van Persie who had the last word two minutes from time.
The win gives United a seven-point cushion over defending champions and Manchester rivals City. Wigan drops to 17th.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsQPR ends 30-year slump
??Shaun Wright-Phillips condemned former club Chelsea to a surprise 1-0 loss in the Premier League on Wednesday and gave bottom-place Queens Park Rangers its first victory at Stamford Bridge in 30 years.
Transfer spec? Start with Sneijder
CFT: January is here, and that means the transfer speculation and scuttlebutt that was on low simmer through the last weeks of 2012 will now be on full boil for the first month of 2013.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/47021543/ns/sports-soccer/
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Omega-3s may not protect against faulty heart rhythm
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sorry, Charlie, but fish oil supplements did not prevent atrial fibrillation in patients who had already experienced episodes of the heart rhythm malfunction, a new clinical trial has found.
The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, adds to a growing pool of disappointing evidence regarding the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids on heart health.
"The results for atrial fibrillation are important negative findings, answering key clinical and research questions," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an omega-3 expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the current study.
The new research, combined with other trials, "indicates that short-term fish oil use is unlikely to prevent recurrent atrial fibrillation," he said.
But if the supplements don't prevent heart rhythm problems, they don't appear to be dangerous, either. "In all these studies, fish oil was safe and well-tolerated, with no evidence for increased bleeding," Mozaffarian told Reuters Health.
Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart's upper chambers beat out of step with those below, affects nearly one in 10 Americans in their 80s. The condition is linked to potentially life-threatening strokes and heart failure.
Although doctors prescribe certain medications to treat the condition, none to date has proven particularly effective. As a result, most drug treatment focuses on preventing strokes by administering blood thinners to dissolve clots caused by the fibrillation.
Some evidence suggests that omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish like sardines and tuna, might reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation, although exactly how they would produce their effect is not clear.
A study published earlier this year in Circulation, for example, found that people with the most omega-3s in their blood had a 30 percent lower chance of developing an irregular heart beat than those with the lowest concentrations of the substances (see Reuters Health story of February 1, 2012).
That 30 percent difference would work out to eight fewer cases of atrial fibrillation per 100 people - which would be a meaningful benefit if it could be enjoyed by those with fibrillation or at risk for it, just by consuming more omega 3s.
But the latest study suggests that it probably can't. The trial included 586 men and women with a history of atrial fibrillation who were given a gram a day of fish oil or dummy capsules for a year. Participants also were allowed to take other drugs to control their heart rhythms, as prescribed by their doctors.
At the end of the study period, about 24 percent of the people who took fish oil, and 20 percent of those who did not, had experienced a recurrence of atrial fibrillation - a difference so small, statistically, it was likely due to chance.
The supplements also did not appear to reduce the risk of other cardiovascular ailments - including stroke, heart attack, heart failure - or death from any cause.
The findings on atrial fibrillation echo results from a study led by Mozaffarian published in November, of patients recovering from heart surgery.
Even so, Dr. Alejandro Macchia, a cardiologist at the GESICA Foundation in Buenos Aires, who led the current study and collaborated with Mozaffarian on the previous one, said fish oil may still prove beneficial for heart health, at least in some patients.
"I am not sure the story is over," Dr. Macchia told Reuters Health. "I think we have enough evidence to say that there is no role of (omega-3 fatty acids) for the prevention of atrial fibrillation" in patients with a history of the condition, he said. "However in the context of primary prevention - those people who had never had a previous episode of atrial fibrillation - there is a reasonable room for a well-designed and very large clinical trial."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/VrTKiY Journal of the American College of Cardiology, online December 19, 2012.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/omega-3s-may-not-protect-against-faulty-heart-152528483.html
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Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Why Harry Reid Was Sidelined for Joe Biden
The critical conversation between the offices of Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell came early Sunday afternoon, about 36 hours before Congress was set to teeter over the fiscal cliff.
Reid, the majority leader, had been negotiating and trading ideas with McConnell, his minority counterpart, since Friday evening. But the soft-spoken Nevada Democrat drew a bold line in the sand midday Sunday: he had no more counter-offers to give.
Suddenly and irreversibly, the talks veered into a new direction. Within minutes, the Kentucky Republican was dialing up Vice President Joe Biden, elevating his old colleague to the Democrats new negotiator-in-chief. It was the fateful decision that put the Senate and White House on the pathway to deal. It also left Reid standing on the sideline stewing.
?We know that when McConnell has hit a wall with Reid, he calls Joe Biden to get some more candy,? said a senior Senate Democratic aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the vice president.
It was a good-cop, bad-cop routine that Reid wanted no part of. ?We thought it was unnecessary,? the aide said of Biden?s involvement. ?We had a lot of leverage.?
Reid and McConnell had been bargaining about how to avert the cliff, ever since a White House summit on Friday, when they agreed to take charge of negotiating an accord. Talks between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had collapsed by then. The president and congressional leaders had agreed that a last-minute compromise, if there was to be one, had to be forged in the Senate.
The opening Senate GOP offer from McConnell to Reid came at 9:30 p.m. on Friday night, only hours after the White House meeting, according to congressional officials with knowledge of the negotiations.
Reid?s team sent back its first counter-offer at around 3 p.m. on Saturday. A flurry of activity followed as McConnell was cloistered in his office on Capitol Hill. Aides shuttled between the leaders? offices, as a GOP counter-proposal was drafted by 4 p.m. A Democratic reply to that arrived only an hour and a half later, according to the sources. At 7:10 p.m. Saturday, McConnell said he sent yet another offer to Reid and the Democrats.
Then radio silence.
Reid?s office had suggested another counter-offer would come in the morning, but the clock soon ticked to afternoon without one. Instead, Reid?s office told McConnell?s at about 1 p.m. that he was done with the back-and-forth.?At this stage, we are not able to make a counteroffer,? Reid announced soon after on the Senate floor.
Reid was playing hardball. With polls showing that the public was far more likely to blame congressional Republicans than the president if the nation jumped off the fiscal cliff ? and billions in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts went into effect ? Reid rightfully knew that McConnell wanted a deal ? and badly.
Reid felt that he?d compromised enough, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the discussions and the senator?s thinking. Besides, if no accord was reached, Obama and Reid had said they?d push the president?s plan to stop tax hikes for those earning below $250,000 and extend unemployment insurance to the floor. Republicans could block that and be responsible for everyone?s taxes spiking at their own peril.
Around the same time Sunday, a story popped about a ?major setback? in talks ? that McConnell had demanded a reduction in the Social Security benefits formula, known as ?chained CPI,? be included in a deal. True, that had been part of the 7 p.m. Saturday GOP offer. But Reid was now using it as political cover to withdraw from talks. ?We are not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn't seem appropriate,? the Democratic leader announced later Sunday on the floor.
McConnell?s negotiating options with Reid had narrowed. Either he could let Congress veer off the cliff, take Reid?s latest offer or accept the president?s tax-hike package for those earning more than $250,000. Instead, McConnell sought a familiar and friendlier face across the negotiating table ? his old colleague Joe Biden. He called and left a message to open talks with the vice president.
?We have yet to receive a response to our good-faith offer. I am concerned about the lack of urgency here. I think we all know we are running out of time,? McConnell said on Sunday of his talks with Reid. Then he revealed on the floor that he?d called Biden ?to see if he could help jump-start the negotiations on his side.?
?I need a dance partner,? McConnell said.
Those words appeared to be a swipe at Reid, echoing Reid?s comments the day after the election when he had said, ?It's better to dance than to fight. It's better to work together.? McConnell was saying that Reid wasn?t willing to dance, after all.
In his negotiating two-step, McConnell had found a willing partner in Biden. The phone call to Biden set off a fresh round of offers, counter-offers and concessions. They spoke as late as 12:45 a.m. on Monday, retreated for a few hours of sleep, before another call that began before 7 a.m. Within about 24 hours, Biden and McConnell had settled on what amounted to the framework for an agreement ? though they never engaged face-to-face.
At 9:15 p.m. on New Year?s Eve, Biden trekked to the Hill to huddle with Senate Democrats to pitch the compromise he had reached with McConnell. The plan would make permanent the Bush tax cuts for those earning less than $450,000, expand certain tax credits for low-income Americans, set the estate tax at 40 percent, and revise the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Reid didn?t plan to do the heavy lifting of selling the deal he didn?t cut. That job was left to Biden. ?I suspect he?s doing most of the talking,? Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said of the vice president as the meeting was underway.
The final package, which cleared the Senate in the early hours of 2013, also included concessions that Reid had refused, including a delay of the automatic cuts, known as the sequester, for only two months instead of at least a year.
?We gave too much away,? the Senate Democratic aide said of the accord. It passed in an 89-8 landslide, including Reid?s aye vote, anyway.
For Biden, it was a triumphant moment. It was his latest major compromise crafted with McConnell in recent years, following the two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts in 2010 and the debt-limit deal in the summer of 2011. Biden has earned the nickname the ?McConnell whisperer? across Washington.
?McConnell is far more comfortable cutting deals with the vice president than he is with Senator Reid,? said Jim Manley, a former top Reid adviser.
Biden is considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate and the episode amounted to a presidential moment: He was called to swoop in at the last minute to save taxes from rising on nearly all Americans and succeeded--at least in the Senate. ?No doubt about it, this could be very helpful to him if he decides to run in 2016,? Manley said.
But just beneath the surface there is some quiet grumbling among some Senate Democrats and the left that Biden was as interested in striking a deal as its details.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, one of the eight no votes, has been one of the few to speak out publicly against the concessions that Democrats made to strike a compromise. He has complained that the administration traded permanent GOP-friendly tax policy? the extension of tax rates for those below $450,000 ? for temporary Democratic priorities. ?In essence, this agreement locks in a tax structure that is grossly unfair to middle-class Americans,? Harkin said in a statement after the vote.
But with Obama?s and Biden?s imprimatur it passed the Senate with ease. Asked on New Year?s Eve what he was telling Democratic senators to win their support, Biden told reporters, ?I said, ?This is Joe Biden and I?m your buddy.?? He was back the next morning doing the same with House Democrats.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-harry-reid-sidelined-joe-biden-185717368--politics.html
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Palestinians will outnumber Israeli Jews by 2020
JERUSALEM (AP) ? The Palestinian statistics bureau estimates that Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land by the end of the decade, a scenario that could have grave implications for Israel.
The bureau said Tuesday that 5.8 million Arabs live in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. That compares to about 6 million Israeli Jews, according to Israeli data.
It said that based on current birth rates, the two populations would be equal in 2016, and in 2020, Arabs would outnumber Jews by 7.2 million to 6.9 million.
The demographic issue is a main argument for Israeli backers of creation of a Palestinian state. They say relinquishing control of the Palestinian territories and its residents is the only way to ensure Israel's future as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
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Dozens killed in Ivory Coast fireworks stampede
By Reuters
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast --?About 60 people were crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks display, the government said on Tuesday.
The incident took place near Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said.
One of the injured, speaking to Reuters at a hospital, said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.
"The provisional death toll is 60 and there are 49 injured," Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said in a statement broadcast on national television.
President Alassane Ouattara, visiting injured people at the hospital, called the incident a national tragedy and said an investigation was underway to determine what happened.
A Reuters correspondent said blood stains and abandoned shoes littered the scene outside the stadium on Tuesday morning.
"My two children came here yesterday. I told them not to come but they didn't listen. They came when I was sleeping. What will I do?" said Assetou Toure, a cleaner.
She did not know if her children had escaped unhurt.
The incident was the worst of its kind in Abidjan since 2010, when a stampede at a stadium during a football match killed 18 people.
Ivory Coast, once a stable economic hub for West Africa, is struggling to recover from a 2011 civil war in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
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