Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/309365983?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, May 31, 2013
Sources: Obama to name ex-Bush aide to head FBI
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is prepared to nominate James Comey, a former Bush administration official with bipartisan credentials, as the next FBI director. In a possible warning sign, the top Republican on the Senate committee that would review the nomination said Comey would face questions about his ties to Wall Street.
Three people with knowledge of the selection said Wednesday that Obama planned to nominate Comey, who was the No. 2 at the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. Comey was general counsel to Connecticut-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates from 2010 until earlier this year and now lectures at Columbia Law School.
Comey would replace Robert Mueller, who has held the job since shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which forced the FBI to transform itself into one of the nation's chief weapons in the war on terror. Mueller's last day on the job is Sept. 4.
The White House may hope that Comey's Republican background will help him through Senate confirmation at a time when some of Obama's nominations have been facing tough battles. But Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicated Comey's confirmation hearing would raise questions about the Obama administration's investigations of Wall Street.
Grassley said in a statement late Wednesday he had not heard from the White House about Comey's nomination but said Comey possessed a lot of important experience on national security issues.
"But, if he's nominated, he would have to answer questions about his recent work in the hedge fund industry," Grassley said. "The administration's efforts to criminally prosecute Wall Street for its part in the economic downturn have been abysmal, and his agency would have to help build the case against some of his colleagues."
The change in leadership comes as the FBI and Justice Department are under scrutiny for their handing of several investigations. Obama has ordered a review of FBI investigations into leaks to reporters, including the secret gathering of Associated Press phone records and emails of a Fox News reporter. And there have been questions raised about whether the FBI properly responded to warnings from Russian authorities about a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. The agency, meanwhile, is conducting a highly anticipated investigation into the Internal Revenue Service over its handling of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.
Comey was deputy attorney general in 2005 when he unsuccessfully tried to limit tough interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. He told then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that some of the practices were wrong and would damage the department's reputation.
Some Democrats denounced those methods as torture, particularly the use of waterboarding, which produces the sensation of drowning.
Comey's selection was first reported by NPR and was not expected to be announced for several days at least. It was confirmed to the AP by three people speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the selection ahead of Obama's announcement. Senate confirmation will be needed.
Comey became a hero to Democratic opponents of Bush's warrantless wiretapping program when Comey refused for a time to reauthorize it. Bush revised the surveillance program when confronted with the threat of resignation by Comey and Mueller.
Earlier in his career, Comey served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the nation's most prominent prosecutorial offices and one at the front lines of terrorism, corporate malfeasance, organized crime and the war on drugs.
As an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia, Comey handled the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. military personnel.
He led the Justice Department's corporate fraud task force and spurred the creation of violent crime impact teams in 20 cities, focusing on crimes committed with guns.
Comey was at the center of one of the Bush administration's great controversies ? an episode that focused attention on the administration's controversial tactics in the war on terror.
In stunning testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey said he thought Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that Comey refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the bedside of ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Comey said he refused to recertify the program because Ashcroft had reservations about its legality.
Senior government officials had expressed concerns about whether the National Security Agency, which administered the warrantless eavesdropping program, had the proper oversight in place. Other concerns included whether any president possessed the legal and constitutional authority to authorize the program as it was carried out at the time.
The White House, Comey said, recertified the program without the Justice Department's signoff, allowing it to operate for about three weeks without concurrence on whether it was legal. Comey, Ashcroft, Mueller and other Justice Department officials at one point considered resigning, Comey said.
"I couldn't stay if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis," Comey told the Senate panel.
A day after the March 10, 2004, incident at Ashcroft's hospital bedside, Bush ordered changes to the program to accommodate the department's concerns. Ashcroft signed the presidential order to recertify the program about three weeks later.
The dramatic hospital confrontation involved Comey, who was the acting attorney general during Ashcroft's absence, and a White House team that included Gonzales, Bush's counsel at the time, and White House chief of staff Andy Card, Comey said. Gonzales later succeeded Ashcroft as attorney general.
Comey testified that when he refused to certify the program, Gonzales and Card headed to Ashcroft's sick bed in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital.
When Gonzales appealed to Ashcroft, the ailing attorney general lifted his head off the pillow and in straightforward terms described his views of the program, Comey said. Then he pointed out that Comey, not Ashcroft, held the powers of the attorney general at that moment.
Gonzales and Card then left the hospital room, Comey said.
"I was angry," Comey told the panel. "I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general."
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-obama-name-ex-bush-aide-head-065811607.html
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LinkedIn status updates can now include photos, other types of files
Given how simple and common it is to do it on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you'd think being able to share images as part of a status update wouldn't be anything novel at this point. But for those inhabiting the popular (and inspiring) social networking site LinkedIn, this hasn't exactly been the case -- and that's about to change. As of today, users are able to add a little more flavor to things shared on the site, with LinkedIn letting it be known that they can now easily enclose more than just text when using the share box. And while picture uploads are certainly all the buzz, LinkedIn's also making it possible to include other file types, such as documents and presentations. Currently, the new feature only allows uploads to be done via the desktop version of the website, however LinkedIn did tell CNET that the content "will be viewable inside the mobile apps."
Filed under: Internet
Via: CNET
Source: LinkedIn
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Epoy0kQD22Q/
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman ? Review | The Novel World
Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman Age: Adult Genre: Fiction, Chick-lit Source: Publisher Publisher:?Pamela Dorman Books ISBN:?978-0670025831, 368 pages Find this book at your local library ? Teddi Overman grew up in rural Kentucky with a knack for refurbishing, and re-inventing antiques into more stylish versions of themselves. Despite her mother?s protests, Teddi forges her own path, and moves to Charleston to work for an antiques dealer she met as a youth. During her years away from home, she and her family suffered many tragedies, but no matter what she does or where she is, something keeps pulling her back home to Kentucky.
This is a very peaceful and beautifully written novel about a family struggling to understand one another. There is a disconnect between Teddi and her mother, especially in regards to how they each forsee Teddi?s future. Add to the mix the unexplained disappearance of Teddi?s brother, Josh, and the family is struggling to unite. I think Teddi is a wonderfully written, strong and independent female character. She sets her mind to something and sees it through 100%. The only part of the novel I had trouble with was the disappearance of her brother. The way it was laid out was very skeletal, so there was always a disconnect for me with that part of the story. Also, the author jumps around to different time periods in Teddi?s life. Some chapters have dates, other?s don?t. It wasn?t very clear when everything took place in the beginning of the novel.
However, this is a great and quick read. The characters are lively and interesting, and the plot has some interesting twists in it to keep the reader engaged.
If you haven?t entered the giveaway yet, you have until Friday for a chance to win a copy of this title. Sign up?HERE.
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This entry was posted in Books. Bookmark the permalink.Source: http://thenovelworld.com/2013/05/29/looking-for-me-by-beth-hoffman-review/
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Five-Star Match of the Week: John Cena vs. CM Punk - WWE Championship Match, Money in the Bank 2011
All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/five-star-match-punk-cena-money-in-the-bank-2011
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Early brain responses to words predict developmental outcomes in children with autism
May 29, 2013 ? The pattern of brain responses to words in 2-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder predicted the youngsters' linguistic, cognitive and adaptive skills at ages 4 and 6, according to a new study.
The findings, to be published May 29 in PLOS ONE, are among the first to demonstrate that a brain marker can predict future abilities in children with autism.
"We've shown that the brain's indicator of word learning in 2-year-olds already diagnosed with autism predicts their eventual skills on a broad set of cognitive and linguistic abilities and adaptive behaviors," said lead author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.
"This is true four years after the initial test, and regardless of the type of autism treatment the children received," she said.
In the study, 2-year-olds -- 24 with autism and 20 without -- listened to a mix of familiar and unfamiliar words while wearing an elastic cap that held sensors in place. The sensors measured brain responses to hearing words, known as event-related potentials.
The research team then divided the children with autism into two groups based on the severity of their social impairments and took a closer look at the brain responses. Youngsters with less severe symptoms had brain responses that were similar to the typically developing children, in that both groups exhibited a strong response to known words in a language area located in the temporal parietal region on the left side of the brain.
This suggests that the brains of children with less severe symptoms can process words in ways that are similar to children without the disorder.
In contrast, children with more severe social impairments showed brain responses more broadly over the right hemisphere, which is not seen in typically developing children of any age.
"We think this measure signals that the 2-year-old's brain has reorganized itself to process words. This reorganization depends on the child's ability to learn from social experiences," Kuhl said. She cautioned that identifying a neural marker that predicts future autism diagnoses with assurance is still a ways off.
The researchers also tested the children's language skills, cognitive abilities, and social and emotional development, beginning at age 2, then again at ages 4 and 6.
The children with autism received intensive treatment and, as a group, they improved on the behavioral tests over time. But the outcome for individual children varied widely and the more their brain responses to words at age 2 were like those of typically developing children, the more improvement in skills they showed by age 6.
In other studies, Kuhl has found that social interactions accelerate language learning in babies. Infants use social cues, such as tracking adults' eye movements to learn the names of things, and must be interested in people to learn in this way. Paying attention to people is a way for babies to sort through all that is happening around them and serves as a gate to know what is important.
But with autism, social impairments impede children's interest in, and ability to pick up on, social cues. They find themselves paying attention to many other things, especially objects as opposed to people.
"Social learning is what most humans are about," Kuhl said. "If your brain can learn from other people in a social context you have the capability to learn just about anything."
She hopes that the new findings will lead to brain measures that can be used much earlier in development -- at 12 months or younger -- to help identify children at risk for autism.
"This line of work may lead to new interventions applied early in development, when the brain shows its highest level of neural plasticity," Kuhl said.
Coauthors are Jeffrey Munson and Annette Estes, both at UW; Sharon Coffey-Corina, University of California, Davis; and Geraldine Dawson, Autism Speaks and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The research was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/X94xdaSnTU4/130529190724.htm
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Stocks fall in early trading on Wall Street
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks fell in early trading on Wall Street as investors assessed whether a rally that has pushed stocks to record levels this year has run its course.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed to a record on Tuesday and is still on track to end higher for a sixth straight month. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is on track to gain for a seventh consecutive month, its longest winning streak since 2009.
Markets jumped on Tuesday after reports showed that consumer confidence was improving and home prices were rising at their fastest rate in seven years.
Though investors were cheered by the strong reports they are also concerned that the Fed will start to ease back on its stimulus program as the economy improves.
"Investors are no better than hyperactive first graders playing musical chairs ? they're always trying to out-anticipate the other," said Sam Stovall, chief U.S. equity strategist for S&P Capital IQ. "They're now trying to figure out: 'Well, should I now take some profits and sit on the sidelines and then get back in?' "
The Dow fell 161 points, or 1 percent, to 15,247 as of 10:50 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The S&P 500 index fell 17 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,642. The Nasdaq composite dropped 32 points, or 1 percent, to 3,456.
The Fed has been buying $85 billion of bonds a month in an effort to keep interest rates low and boost the economy. That stimulus has also been a major factor supporting the rally in stocks.
In commodities trading, the price of crude oil fell 39 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $94.63. Gold rose $8, or 0.6 percent, to $1,386.80 an ounce. The dollar fell against the euro and the Japanese yen.
In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell to 2.16 percent from 2.17 percent. The yield surged Tuesday to its highest level in more than a year as investors moved out of bonds on concern that the Fed plans to start easing back on its bond purchases.
There were no major economic reports scheduled on Wednesday.
Among stocks making big moves:
? Smithfield Foods surged $6.51, or 25 percent, to $32.49 after the company agreed to be acquired by meat processor Shuanghui International Holdings for approximately $4.72 billion.
? Stewart Enterprises rose $3.33, or 34 percent, to $13.08 after the funeral company agreed to be acquired by Service Corp International for $1.1 billion in cash.
? Sallie Mae jumped $1.46, or 6 percent, to $24.41, the biggest gain in the S&P 500 index. The company, which is formally named SLM Corp., announced a plan to split into two separate companies, one that manages student loans and a consumer banking business.
? Michael Kors Holdings rose $1.19, or 2 percent, to $63.23 after the fashion company reported that its profit more than doubled on surging sales in the fourth quarter, capping another strong year for the upscale handbag maker.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-fall-early-trading-wall-street-142919610.html
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African-Americans experience longer delays between diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer
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Public release date: 28-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Amy Molnar
sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
Wiley
Among men with prostate cancer, African Americans experience longer treatment delays after being diagnosed than Caucasians. That is the finding of an analysis published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study suggests that efforts are needed to reduce racial disparities in prostate cancer care in order to provide earlier treatment for African Americans.
To see if there is a difference in the time from cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment for African American men compared with Caucasian men with prostate cancer, Ronald Chen, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare registry, which links cancer diagnosis data to a master file of Medicare records. Their analysis included 2,506 African American and 21,454 Caucasian patients diagnosed with early (non-metastatic) prostate cancer from 2004 to 2007 and treated within 12 months of diagnosis.
On average, the time from prostate cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment was seven days longer overall for African American patients compared with Caucasian patients. In the group of patients with aggressive, or high risk, prostate cancer, the average number of days from diagnosis to surgery or radiation treatment was 96 days for Caucasian patients, and 105 days for African American patients.
"This study contributes to a growing body of studies demonstrating the disparities in care and outcomes among African American and Caucasian prostate cancer patients in this country. African American patients are less likely than Caucasian patients to undergo prostate cancer screening, more likely to be diagnosed with advanced cancer, have longer delays from diagnosis to treatment, as demonstrated by this study, and are less likely to receive aggressive treatment," said Dr. Chen. "All of these factors together can contribute to an increased rate of dying from prostate cancer in African American compared to Caucasian prostate cancer patients."
Dr. Chen added that additional studies are needed to assess what personal or institutional factors may delay treatment for African American patients and to determine if any interventions can help eliminate this disparity.
###
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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: 28-May-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Amy Molnar
sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
Wiley
Among men with prostate cancer, African Americans experience longer treatment delays after being diagnosed than Caucasians. That is the finding of an analysis published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study suggests that efforts are needed to reduce racial disparities in prostate cancer care in order to provide earlier treatment for African Americans.
To see if there is a difference in the time from cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment for African American men compared with Caucasian men with prostate cancer, Ronald Chen, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare registry, which links cancer diagnosis data to a master file of Medicare records. Their analysis included 2,506 African American and 21,454 Caucasian patients diagnosed with early (non-metastatic) prostate cancer from 2004 to 2007 and treated within 12 months of diagnosis.
On average, the time from prostate cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment was seven days longer overall for African American patients compared with Caucasian patients. In the group of patients with aggressive, or high risk, prostate cancer, the average number of days from diagnosis to surgery or radiation treatment was 96 days for Caucasian patients, and 105 days for African American patients.
"This study contributes to a growing body of studies demonstrating the disparities in care and outcomes among African American and Caucasian prostate cancer patients in this country. African American patients are less likely than Caucasian patients to undergo prostate cancer screening, more likely to be diagnosed with advanced cancer, have longer delays from diagnosis to treatment, as demonstrated by this study, and are less likely to receive aggressive treatment," said Dr. Chen. "All of these factors together can contribute to an increased rate of dying from prostate cancer in African American compared to Caucasian prostate cancer patients."
Dr. Chen added that additional studies are needed to assess what personal or institutional factors may delay treatment for African American patients and to determine if any interventions can help eliminate this disparity.
###
[ | 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/2013-05/w-aae052213.php
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Einstein's 'spooky action' common in large quantum systems
May 28, 2013 ? Entanglement is a property in quantum mechanics that seemed so unbelievable and so lacking in detail that, 66 years ago this spring, Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance."
But a mathematician at Case Western Reserve University and two of his recent PhD graduates show entanglement is actually prevalent in large quantum systems and have identified the threshold at which it occurs.
The finding holds promise for the ongoing push to understand and take advantage of the property. If harnessed, entanglement could yield super high-speed communications, hack-proof encryptions and quantum computers so fast and powerful they would make today's supercomputers look like adding machines in comparison.
The mathematicians don't tell us how entanglement works, but were able to put parameters on the property by combining math concepts developed for a number of different applications during the last five decades. In a nutshell, the researchers connected the math to properties of quantum mechanics -- the otherworldly rules that best apply to atomic and subatomic particles -- to describe physical reality.
"There have been indications that large subgroups within quantum systems are entangled," said Stanislaw Szarek, mathematics professor at Case Western Reserve and an author of the study. "Our contribution is to find out exactly when entanglement becomes ubiquitous."
Szarek worked with Guillaume Aubrun, assistant professor of mathematics at Universit? Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France, and Deping Ye, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. Their work is published online in the Early View section of Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics.
The behaviors of materials down at the level of atoms are often strange, but entanglement borders on our concepts of sorcery. For example, if two electrons spinning in opposite directions are entangled, when one changes direction, the other immediately changes, whether the electrons are side by side, across the room or at opposite ends of the universe.
Other particles, such as photons, atoms and molecules, can also become entangled, but taking advantage of the property requires more than a pair or handful.
Szarek, Aubrun and Ye focused on large quantum systems -- large groups of particles that have the potential for use in our world.
They found that, in systems in a random state, two subsystems that are each less than one-fifth of the whole are generally not entangled. Two subsystems that are each greater than one-fifth of the whole typically are entangled. In other words, in a system of 1,000 particles, two groups that are smaller than 200 each typically won't be entangled. Two groups larger than 200 each typically will.
Further, the research shows, "the change is abrupt when you reach the threshold of about 200," Szarek said.
The team also calculated the threshold for positive partial transpose, or PPT, a property related to entanglement. If the property is violated, entanglement is present.
"From these two perspectives, the calculations are very precise." Szarek said.
Harsh Mathur, a physics professor at Case Western Reserve whom Szarek consulted to better understand the science, said, "Their point is entanglement is hard to create from a small system, but much easier in a large system."
"And the thing that Einstein thought was so weird is the rule rather than the exception," Mathur added.
The researchers used mathematics where analysis, algebra and geometry meet, Szarek said. The math applies to hundreds, thousands or millions of dimensions.
"We put together several things from different parts of mathematics, like a puzzle, and adapted them," he said. "These are mathematical tools developed largely for aesthetical reasons, like music."
The ideas -- concepts developed in the 1970s and 1980s and more recently -- turned out to be relevant to the emerging quantum information science.
"We have found there is a way of computing and quantifying the concept of quantum physics and related it to some calculable mathematical quantities," Szarek continued. "We were able to identify features and further refine the description, which reduces the questions about the system to calculable and familiar looking mathematical quantities."
So, if entanglement is more common in large quantum systems, why aren't they being used already?
"In the every day world, it's hard to access or create large quantum mechanical systems to do meaningful quantum computations or for communications or other uses," Mathur said. "You have to keep them isolated or they decohere and behave in a classical manner. But this study gives some parameters to build on."
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013
'Voice' singer wants to be Bond Girl for Levine
TV
2 hours ago
When Adam Levine told Amber Carrington she?d be singing the James Bond theme ?Skyfall? on Monday night?s ?The Voice,? she feared that she was done for.
?When Adam gave me that song I was kind of mad at him,? the Texas-born country artist told TODAY.com, ?because it's Adele. (I was like) 'Do you not want me to succeed at all or something???
Yet she had nothing to worry about. Amber?s performance of the Academy Award-winning title track from Daniel Craig?s latest 007 outing won her unanimous praise from the coaches. She also got to show off a Bond Girl-worthy look, slinking across the stage in a bejeweled black dress. It was no surprise that ?Voice? producers chose Amber to fill the show?s coveted closing spot.
How did Amber turn her initial concerns into such a strong finished product? She credited the ?Voice? choreographers with helping her get into character. ?They're like 'Listen, you have to get in the (right) mode (for the song), like a James Bond girl. We need to give you a name, like an alter-ego,?? she recalled.
?They were like, 'Your new name is Diamond,? and I was like, 'I can own this.' When I went up there (Monday night), I was Diamond.?
The name choice ended up being unintentionally amusing, as four of Amber?s fellow artists -- including her teammates Sarah Simmons and Judith Hill -- performed Rihanna?s ?Diamonds? earlier in the evening. That led to some playful confusion.
?Everybody kept talking about ?Diamonds,?? Amber quipped, ?and I was like, ?What? Are you talking about me??"
Amber?s performance marked the first time a ?Voice? artist has performed a song written specifically for a feature film. The fact that she did well by one of the best-loved Bond themes is even more impressive considering that she wasn't even a fan of the film franchise.
?I haven't seen the movie. I'm aware of Adele's version of the song because I've heard it, but I haven't seen any James Bond movie in my life,? she admitted. ?But I'll go watch them now.?
She could even consider it research. During last week?s show, Amber?s coach confessed that he?s always wanted to be a secret agent. So would she be open to being Adam Levine?s Bond Girl?
?I would love that!? she enthused.
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Pentagon report: Chinese hackers accessed F-35B and other advanced US weapons systems
Many of the Pentagon's most advanced weapon systems -- including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and PAC-3 Patriot missile system -- were compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a classified document obtained by the Washington Post. The list of weapons was part of an earlier DoD report condemning Chinese cyber-espionage activities, but had been confidential until now. Other systems hacked are said to include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Navy's Aegis ballistic-missile defense system, the F/A-18 fighter, V-22 Osprey and the Littoral Combat Ship used for shore patrol. Many of these form the foundation of defense systems from Europe to the Persian Gulf -- and their breach goes a long way toward explaining Washington's unprecedented dressing-down of China.
Filed under: Misc
Via: The Verge
Source: Washington Post
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nlOdA5ALYFk/
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Independent RI Gov. Chafee, ex-GOP, to become Dem
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) ? Independent Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is joining the Democratic Party ahead of his bid for a second term, two Democratic officials said Thursday.
Chafee served in the U.S. Senate as a Republican but left the GOP in 2007. He was elected as the nation's only independent governor in 2010.
The officials said Chafee plans to change his registration to join the party. They weren't authorized to disclose the information publicly ahead of any announcement from Chafee and spoke on condition of anonymity. Chafee's staff did not immediately confirm his plan.
Chafee has been saying for months that he was thinking about the switch, noting that he shares many positions with Democrats and that joining the party will help with fundraising. He is a supporter of President Barack Obama and spoke at last year's Democratic National Convention.
The move further complicates next year's Democratic primary and sets up the possibility of a three-way matchup with Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Treasurer Gina Raimondo.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Rhode Island more than three to one, although most voters aren't affiliated with any party.
Chafee is son of the late U.S. Sen. John Chafee, a former governor whose name was synonymous with the Republican Party in Rhode Island for decades. When John Chafee died in office in 1999, Lincoln Chafee was appointed to fill his seat, and then won re-election to the post the following year. In the Senate, he voted to the left of many Democrats, opposing the war in Iraq, for example, and supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage. But he stuck it out as a Republican through his 2006 re-election campaign, which he lost to democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.
He left the party in 2007 and became an independent. He made his political comeback in 2010, winning a four-way race for governor with 36 percent of the vote.
As governor, Chafee has struggled with poor approval ratings and some of his policy proposals have fizzled in the face of opposition in the General Assembly, such as an early plan to expand the sales tax.
Chafee is a reluctant fundraiser, and he has often depended on personal wealth to fund his campaigns. He told The Associated Press in December that he was considering joining the Democrats to help his chances of winning a second term.
"There is no independent governors' association throwing money around ... but there is a Democratic Governors Association," he said at the time.
___
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.
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How To Build A Thriving Business Online w/ Nicole Cooper | Josh ...
When it comes to internet marketing, Nicole Cooper is a BEAST! When you click play on the video below, you?ll see Nicole Cooper break down one simple formula for generating cash money on the internet and you?ll discover?exactly how to get people to join YOUR business! Take notes young grasshopper.
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Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Who Are The Most Powerful People In Mobile Advertising ...
Jim Edwards / BI / Company documents
A few of the people on the 2012 list.
It's time once again to rank the most powerful people in mobile advertising. And, as usual, we want your input.Take a look at last year's list, and also our list of the most powerful women in mobile advertising. And then tell us who should be on the list this year.
Perhaps just as important, tell us who from last year should NOT make this year's ranking.
Here are the rules:
- You can nominate executives in the ad agency business, from ad sales businesses, from networks and exchanges, and from device companies and wireless carriers -- as long as mobile ads are the core of their job.
- You must ALSO nominate two other executives from different or competing companies, to ensure that your nominations aren't self-serving. Those last two nominations will be treated in confidence -- no one will know who you named from other companies.
- Then send an email to jedwards@businessinsider.com explaining why you believe the executive should be on the list. Consider their achievements, the size of the business they run, and consider how closely watched they are by executives at competing companies. We will weight in favor of hard numbers over percentages, and actual dollars over "reach." (Self-serving nominations, and nominations that contain mushy, non-specific metrics will be weighted against the nominee.)
- Lastly, if you have a nice, big photo of the executive, please attach that to your email along with photo credit information and confirmation that we can publish it should the executive make the list.
- DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: June 7.
We'll combine all your nominations with our own research and contacts in the mobile ad industry, and when we feel our data is sufficiently complete, we'll publish a ranking of the most powerful people in mobile advertising.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/who-are-the-most-powerful-people-in-mobile-advertising-2013-5
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NACCHO health and racism news:Adam Goodes and Aussie stars ...
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The racist incident at the Swans vs Collingwood game last Friday night should not overshadow the magnificent performance by Adam Goodes (pictured above Friday night Indigenous Round ) nor the wonderful activities this week to celebrate the contribution of Indigenous players to the AFL, but it reinforces the need for ongoing education and the importance of calling racism out when it is witnessed.?Play by the Rules Co-Chair, Graeme Innes
The Australian Human Rights Commission?s Racism. It Stops With Me campaign and the Play by the Rules program have partnered to produce a powerful new TV Community Service Announcement (CSA) for sporting organisations to play at their events and to promote on their websites and through their social media forums.
REFER previous NACCHO communique Racism and Health consequences
??The TV CSA (and several radio CSAs) will be broadcast nationally until the start of August and will also be available on the Australian Human Rights Commission and Play by the Rules YouTube channels and websites,? said Commission President, Gillian Triggs.??
The TV CSA features an all-star cast of Australia?s best known sporting heroes including:
Sally Pearson (athletics), Adam Goodes (AFL), Liz Cambage (basketball), Greg Inglis (rugby league and NRL Indigenous All-stars), Peter Siddle (cricket), Mo?onia Gerrard (netball), AFL Indigenous All-stars, Archie Thompson (football/soccer), Cameron Smith (rugby league), Drew Mitchell (rugby union), Timana Tahu (rugby league), Nick Maxwell (AFL) and some grassroots athletes of different ages and backgrounds.
They reinforce the simple message ? Racism. It Stops With Me.
?Despite a range of programs and policies, incidents of racism and discrimination still occur on a regular basis from the elite to grassroots level across a range of sports every season.
??Sport is all about having fun, competing safely and getting a fair go, regardless of your skin colour, background or culture.
Whether you?re a player, spectator, coach or official, there?s simply no place for racism or discrimination in sport,? federal Disability Discrimination Commissioner and Play by the Rules Co-Chair, Graeme Innes said. ?The alleged racist incident at the Swans vs Collingwood game last night should not overshadow the magnificent performance by Adam Goodes nor the wonderful activities this week to celebrate the contribution of Indigenous players to the AFL, but it reinforces the need for ongoing education and the importance of calling racism out when it is witnessed.?
?Executive Director of Sport and Recreation Tasmania, Craig Martin, also a Play by the Rules Co-Chair, said, ?With the AFL, Rugby League, Netball and Rugby Union seasons all now in progress, the Football (soccer) season just finished and the Cricket Tests about to commence in the UK, this is a timely opportunity to remind everyone in sport that racism is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.?
?Racism. It Stops With Me is an initiative of the National Anti-Racism Strategy which invites all Australians to reflect on what they can do to counter racism wherever it happens. Sporting organisations can take a strong stand against racism by committing to the Racism.
It Stops with Me campaign at: itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/it-stops-with-me/support-campaign.
Clubs can also access tools and resources to stamp racism out of sport at:
www.playbytherules.net.au/component/content/article/81-resources/links/1245-racism-in-sport-toolkit?highlight=WyJyYWNpc20iXQ
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Play by the Rules is a unique collaboration between the Australian Sports Commission, Australian Human Rights Commission, all state and territory departments of sport and recreation, all state and territory anti-discrimination and human rights agencies, the NSW Commission for Children and Young People and the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA). For more information on how to promote safe, fair and inclusive participation within your sporting club or organisation contact admin@playbytherules.net.au or visit www.playbytherules.net.au .
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Media contact: Brinsley Marlay (02) 9284 9656 or 0430 366 529
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How to Use Eclipse Energies to Grow and Improve Your Life ...
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Source: http://mfirstnamegatar.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-use-eclipse-energies-to-grow-and.html
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deck post (gate) and paint/stain? - DIY Home Improvement ...
I have a deck and want to make a gate. I would like to know about the post do I screw it on to the deck or get those metal brackets for the post? I will use a 4x4 post. Has anyone use those paints that is only for decks/ If so how does it compare to stain (putting it on,lasting etc) thanks
Source: http://www.houserepairtalk.com/f135/deck-post-gate-paint-stain-16035/
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US intelligence embraces debate in security issues
FILE - In this May 1, 2011, image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to obscure the details of a document in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right with hand covering mouth, President Barack Obama, second from left, Vice President Joe Biden, left, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, right, and members of the national security team watch an update of the mission against Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room in Washington. As the world now knows well Obama ultimately decided to launch the raid on the Abbottabad compound that killed bin Laden and 21 others inside, though faced with a level of widespread skepticism from a veteran intelligence analyst, shared with other top-level officials, which nearly scuttled the raid. That process reflected a sea change within the U.S. spy community, one that embraces debate to avoid ?slam-dunk? intelligence in tough national security decisions. (AP Photo/The White House, Pete Souza, File)
FILE - In this May 1, 2011, image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to obscure the details of a document in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right with hand covering mouth, President Barack Obama, second from left, Vice President Joe Biden, left, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, right, and members of the national security team watch an update of the mission against Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room in Washington. As the world now knows well Obama ultimately decided to launch the raid on the Abbottabad compound that killed bin Laden and 21 others inside, though faced with a level of widespread skepticism from a veteran intelligence analyst, shared with other top-level officials, which nearly scuttled the raid. That process reflected a sea change within the U.S. spy community, one that embraces debate to avoid ?slam-dunk? intelligence in tough national security decisions. (AP Photo/The White House, Pete Souza, File)
FILE ? In this May 1, 2011, file photo released by the White House, President Barack Obama talks with members of the his national security team in the White House Situation Room during one in a series of meetings to discuss the mission against Osama bin Laden. As the world now knows well Obama ultimately decided to launch the raid on the Abbottabad compound that killed bin Laden and 21 others though faced with a level of widespread skepticism from a veteran intelligence analyst, skepticism shared with other top-level officials, which nearly scuttled the raid. That process reflected a sea change within the U.S. spy community, one that embraces debate to avoid ?slam-dunk? intelligence in tough national security decisions. (AP Photo/The White House, Pete Souza, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? In the months leading up to the killing of Osama bin Laden, veteran intelligence analyst Robert Cardillo was given the nickname "Debbie Downer." With each new tidbit of information that tracked bin Laden to a high-walled compound in northern Pakistan ? phone records, satellite imaging, clues from other suspects ? Cardillo cast doubt that the terror network leader and mastermind was actually there.
As the world now knows well, President Barack Obama ultimately decided to launch a May 2011 raid on the Abbottabad compound that killed bin Laden. But the level of widespread skepticism that Cardillo shared with other top-level officials ? which nearly scuttled the raid ? reflected a sea change within the U.S. spy community, one that embraces debate to avoid "slam-dunk" intelligence in tough national security decisions.
The same sort of high-stakes dissent was on public display recently as intelligence officials grappled with conflicting opinions about threats in North Korea and Syria. And it is a vital part of ongoing discussions over whether to send deadly drone strikes against terror suspects abroad ? including U.S. citizens.
The three cases provide a rare look inside the secretive 16 intelligence agencies as they try to piece together security threats from bits of vague information from around the world. But they also raise concerns about whether officials who make decisions based on their assessments can get clear guidance from a divided intelligence community.
At the helm of what he calls a healthy discord is Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has spent more than two-thirds of his 72 years collecting, analyzing and reviewing spy data from war zones and rogue nations. Clapper, the nation's fourth top intelligence chief, says disputes are uncommon but absolutely necessary to get as much input as possible in far-flung places where it's hard for the U.S. to extract ? or fully understand ? ground-level realities.
"What's bad about dissension? Is it a good thing to have uniformity of view where everyone agrees all the time? I don't think so," Clapper told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "...People lust for uniform clairvoyance. We're not going to do that."
"We are never dealing with a perfect set of facts," Clapper said. "You know the old saw about the difference between mysteries and secrets? Of course, we're held equally responsible for divining both. And so those imponderables like that just have to be factored."
Looking in from the outside, the dissension can seem awkward, if not uneasy ? especially when the risks are so high.
At a congressional hearing last month, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., read from a Defense Intelligence Agency report suggesting North Korea is able to arm long-range missiles with nuclear warheads. The April 11 disclosure, which had been mistakenly declassified, came at the height of Kim Jong Un's sabre-rattling rhetoric and raised fears that U.S. territory or Asian nations could be targeted for an attack.
Within hours, Clapper announced that the DIA report did not reflect the opinions of the rest of the intelligence community, and that North Korea was not yet fully capable of launching a nuclear-armed missile.
Two weeks later, the White House announced that U.S. intelligence concluded that Syrian President Bashar Assad has probably used deadly chemical weapons at least twice in his country's fierce civil war. But White House officials said the intelligence wasn't strong enough to justify sending significant U.S. military support to Syrian rebels who are fighting Assad's regime.
Because the U.S. has few sources to provide first-hand information in Syria, the intelligence agencies split on how confident they were that Assad had deployed chemical weapons. The best they could do was conclude that the Syrian regime, at least, probably had undertaken such an effort. This put Obama in the awkward political position of having said the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line" and have "enormous consequences," but not moving on the news of chemical weapons use, when the occasion arose, because the intelligence was murky.
Lamborn said he welcomes an internal intelligence community debate but is concerned that the North Korean threat was cavalierly brushed aside.
"If they want to argue among themselves, that's fine," said Lamborn, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. However, he also said, "We should be cautious when evaluating different opinions, and certainly give credence to the more sobering possibilities. ... When it comes to national security, I don't think we want to have rose-colored glasses on, and sweep threats under the rug."
Clapper said that, in fact, U.S. intelligence officials today are more accustomed to predicting gloom and doom. "We rain on parades a lot," he said.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials say the vigorous internal debate was spawn from a single mistake about a threat ? and an overly aggressive response.
Congress demanded widespread intelligence reform after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, to fix a system where agencies hoarded threat information instead of routinely sharing it. Turf wars between the CIA and the FBI, in particular, were common. The CIA generally was considered the nation's top intelligence agency, and its director was the president's principal intelligence adviser.
The system was still in place in 2002, when the White House was weighing whether to invade Iraq. Intelligence officials widely ? and wrongly ? believed that then-dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. By December 2002, the White House had decided to invade and was trying to outline its reasoning for doing so when then-CIA Director George Tenet described it as "a slam-dunk case."
The consequences were disastrous. There were no WMDs, but the U.S. wound up in a nearly nine-year war that killed nearly 5,000 American soldiers, left more than 117,000 Iraqis dead, and cost taxpayers at least $767 billion. The war also damaged U.S. credibility throughout the Mideast and, to a lesser extent, the world. Tenet later described his "slam-dunk" comment as "the two dumbest words I ever said."
Two years later, Congress signed sweeping reforms requiring intelligence officials to make clear when the spy agencies don't agree. Retired Amb. John Negroponte, who became the first U.S. national intelligence director in 2005, said if it hadn't been for the faulty WMD assessment "we wouldn't have had intelligence reform."
"It was then, and only then that the real fire was lit under the movement for reform," Negroponte said in a recent interview. "In some respects it was understandable, because Saddam had had all these things before, but we just allowed ourselves to fall into this erroneous judgment."
To prevent that from happening again, senior intelligence officials now encourage each of the spy agencies to debate information, and if they don't agree, to object to their peers' conclusions. Intelligence assessments spell out the view of the majority of the agencies, and highlight any opposing opinions in a process similar to a Supreme Court ruling with a majority and minority opinion.
The result, officials say, is an intelligence community that makes assessments by majority vote instead of group-think, and where each agency is supposed to have an equal voice. In effect, officials say, the CIA has had to lean back over the last decade as officials have given greater credence to formerly marginalized agencies. Among them is the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, which warned before the 2003 Iraq invasion that the CIA had overestimated Saddam's prospects to develop nuclear weapons.
Also included is the DIA, which has increased its ability during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to gather ground-level intelligence throughout much of the Mideast and southwest Asia. In an interview, DIA director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn would not discuss his agency's debated assessment on North Korea, but described a typical intelligence community discussion about "ballistic missiles in name-that-country" during which officials weigh in on how confident they feel about the information they're seeing.
"In the intelligence community we should encourage, what I would call, good competition," Flynn said. He added: "The DIA, in general, is always going to be a little bit more aggressive. ...As a defense community, we're closer to the war-fighting commanders; it may be in that part of our DNA."
Without the all the varying strands of information pieced together from across the intelligence agencies, officials now say the bin Laden raid would not have happened.
The CIA was running the manhunt, but the National Security Agency was contributing phone numbers and details from conversations it had intercepted in overseas wiretaps. The National Geospatial Agency provided satellite imagery of the Abbottabad compound ? from years past and more recently ? to get a sense of who might be living there. And it produced photos for a tall man walking the ground inside the compound ? even though they were never able to get a close look at his face.
One of the compound's balconies was blocked off by a seven-foot wall, Cardillo said, raising questions about who might want his view obscured by such a tall barrier. Officials also were keeping tabs on the people who lived in the compound, and trying to track how often they went outside.
Cardillo was vocal about his skepticism in each strand of new information he analyzed during the eight months he worked on the case, prompting colleagues to rib him about being a "Debbie Downer."
"I wasn't trying to be negative for the sake of being negative," Cardillo, a deputy national intelligence director who regularly briefs Obama, said in an interview Friday. "I felt, 'Boy, we've got to press hard against each piece of evidence.' Because, let's face it, we wanted bin Laden to be there. And you can get into group-think pretty quick."
To prevent that from happening, officials encouraged wide debate. At one point, they brought in a new four-man team of analysts who had not been briefed on the case to independently determine whether the intelligence gathered was strong enough to indicate bin Laden was there.
Their assessment was even more skeptical than Cardillo's. In the end the call to launch the raid was so close that, as officials have since said, it might as well have come down to a flip of a coin.
In most intelligence cases, the decisions aren't nearly as dramatic. But the stakes are always high.
Over the last four years, the Obama administration has expanded the deadly U.S. drone program in its hunt for extremists in terror havens. The drones have killed thousands of people since 2003 ? both suspected terrorists and civilian bystanders ? among them four U.S. citizens in Pakistan and Yemen.
The Justice Department this week said only one of the four Americans, Anwar al-Awlaki, who officials believe had ties to at least three attacks planned or carried out on U.S. soil, was targeted in the strikes. The other three were collateral damage in strikes aimed at others.
Though policy officials make the final call on when to strike, the intelligence community builds the case. Analysts must follow specific criteria in drone assessments, including near certainty of the target's whereabouts and the notion that bystanders will not be killed. They must also look at the likelihood of whether the terror suspects can be captured instead of killed.
In these sorts of life-and-death cases, robust debate is especially necessary, Clapper said. And if widespread doubts persist, the strike will be canceled.
"It is a high bar, by the way, and it should be," Clapper said. "If there is doubt and argument and debate ? and there always will be as we look at the totality the information we have on a potential target ? we damn well better have those debates and resolve those kinds of issues among ourselves the best we can."
Few have been more skeptical of the decision-making behind the drone strikes than Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee since 2001. Earlier this year, he threatened to block Senate confirmation of CIA Director John Brennan until the White House gave Congress classified documents outlining its legal justification for targeting American citizens in drone strikes. The documents were turned over within hours of Brennan's confirmation hearing.
Generally, Wyden says, spy assessments have become far more reliable over the last decade, and especially since the flawed Iraq intelligence. But he maintains Congress should be given greater access to classified documents to independently verify intelligence analysis and assessments ? and safeguard against being misled.
"Certainly, solid analysis from the intelligence community is one of the most important sources of information that I have," Wyden said in an interview this month. "And if you look back, and the analysis is incorrect or if it's written in a way that portrays guesses at certainties, that can contribute to flawed decision-making.
"That's why I felt so strongly about insisting on actually getting those documents with respect to drones," Wyden said. "I've got to be able to verify it."
Clapper, who has been working on intelligence issues for a half-century, is well aware of how jittery many Americans feel about the spy community. The internal debates, he believes, should bolster their confidence that intelligence officials have thoroughly weighed all aspects of some of the world's most difficult security issues before deciding how high a threat they pose.
"I think it'd be very unhealthy ? and I get a lot of pushback from people ? if I tried to insist that you will have one uniform view and this is what I think, and that's what goes. That just wouldn't work," he said. "There is the fundamental tenet of truth to power, presenting inconvenient truths at inconvenient times. That's part of our system."
___
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP
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Monday, May 27, 2013
How Republicans could win back the Senate in 2014 (Washington Post)
Finally! Tony Kanaan gets elusive Indy 500 victory
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Tony Kanaan had the car. He had the nerves. And he finally had the luck.
Now he has the trophy, too.
Kanaan won his first Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, ending 12 years of frustration with a crowd-pleasing victory for the popular Brazilian driver.
After coming so close so many times, he couldn't help but feel nervous on that long, anticlimactic final lap under the yellow caution flag.
"I started to check everything in my car," he said. "Do we have enough fuel? Four wheels? You kind of go crazy. The pace car guy, whoever it was, this guy is actually celebrating. I'm like, 'Go! Can you go quicker? It's going to be a long lap if keep doing that.'"
Kanaan is Indy's hard-luck loser no more. He is its champion at last, with a dose of good luck for a change.
"I have to say, the last lap was the longest lap of my life," Kanaan said.
It was one of Indy's most popular victories. As the crowd roared its approval, Kanaan flipped up his visor to wipe away tears. Then in Victory Lane he gave his bride of two months a long kiss and poured the celebratory winner's bottle of milk over his head.
The losers were pleased with the outcome, evidenced by a scene similar to rivals lining up to congratulate Dale Earnhardt when he finally won the Daytona 500 on his 20th try. Dario Franchitti, whose crash brought out the race-ending caution, stood grinning by his crumpled car, two thumbs up as Kanaan passed under yellow.
"When I saw who was leading, it cheered me up a little bit," said Franchitti, last year's winner. "He's a very, very deserving winner."
The fans thought so, too, standing on their feet, screaming, "TK! TK! TK!" as he and team owner Jimmy Vasser went by during the traditional victory lap. It felt magical to Kanaan, as if he'd given the crowd at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a gift.
"It means a lot to me because so many people, I could feel that they wanted me to win, and it's such a selfish thing to do because what are they getting from it?" Kanaan said. "I'm the one who gets the trophy. I believed that this win was more for people out there than for me.
"I wanted it all my life, but over the years I was kind of OK with the fact that I may never have the chance to win."
His chance came at the end of a history-making race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Kanaan knew he had to pounce at the green flag for the final restart with three laps to go. He did, zipping inside leader Ryan Hunter-Reay to roar into the lead ? where he wanted to be in case another caution came out.
"I knew I had to get the lead on the restart because it could be a yellow, which happened to me plenty of times here, and it did," Kanaan said. "How funny is life? The yellow was my best friend."
Kanaan had his fair share of chances to win at Indy, but came up short time and time again. He was leading when the rain came in 2007, only to lose to Franchitti when the race resumed.
In all, Kanaan went into Sunday's race with 221 laps led at Indy ? more than any non-winner except Michael Andretti and Rex Mays ? but his second-place finish to Buddy Rice in 2004 was the closest he had come to victory. He had a pair of third-place finishes, including last year ? again to Franchitti.
"It's wonderful for him," said Mario Andretti, himself a victim of bad luck at Indy. "He's raced here long enough that he deserves it, no question."
The win for Kanaan and car owner Vasser was celebrated throughout the paddock. Alex Zanardi, who came from Italy to watch the race and gave Kanaan one of his 2012 London Paralympics medals as good luck, wept behind the pit wall as Kanaan took the checkered flag.
"I tell you I'm starting to think (the medal) really works," said Zanardi, who lost his legs in a 2001 crash in Germany. "It's a dream come true to see Tony win, to see Jimmy Vasser win, my dear friend. I'm so happy, I'm so happy."
It was Vasser who brought Zanardi's medal to Kanaan before the race, telling his driver that Zanardi wanted him to rub it for good luck.
"I actually cuddled with the thing," Kanaan admitted.
Vasser, caught in the middle as a driver during the political fighting in open-wheel racing, only got the chance to run at Indy eight times in his career ? but not during his prime. He had goose-bumps on the celebratory lap with Kanaan as the crowd chanted the driver's name.
"I never won it as a driver. In fact, I couldn't win it as a driver," Vasser said, "so I had to hire the right guy to do it, get a baby Borg on my shelf," referring to the winner's Borg-Warner trophy.
It will be one adorned with Kanaan's likeness, and the driver joked he could finally "put my big nose on that trophy."
Fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves, like Franchitti shooting for a record-tying fourth Indy win, was happy for his long-time friend.
"Finally he's able to win this race. He's so close so many times, but the good news is the good old boys are still able to run fast," Castroneves said.
Carlos Munoz, a 21-year-old rookie making his first IndyCar start, finished second and Hunter-Reay was third.
"T.K. is such a fan favorite, absolutely, it's great to see him win it. If anybody is going to win it in the field, he's one of the few I'd like to see other than myself," Hunter-Reay said. "We were leading on that last restart, I knew I was a sitting duck, and I wasn't too bummed about it because I knew we had enough laps to get it going again and have a pass back. Maybe I would be third on the last lap, which is where I wanted to be."
Only there was no racing on the last lap. Franchitti brought out the caution seconds after Kanaan passed Hunter-Reay for the last of 68 lead changes ? exactly double last year's record.
On the final lap, the leaders came to the finish line all bunched up around Kanaan, saluting the IndyCar stalwart who had longed to add the final missing piece to his resume. That was about as slow as anyone had driven all day. The average speed was 187.433 mph, another Indy record.
Marco Andretti finished fourth, failing to win for the eighth time but taking over the IndyCar points lead. Justin Wilson was fifth in the highest-finishing Honda on a day that was dominated by Chevrolet. Castroneves was sixth. Pole-sitter Ed Carpenter led a race-high 37 laps and finished 10th.
For a time, it appeared the win would go to AJ Allmendinger, who led 23 laps in his Indy debut for Roger Penske.
Fired by Penske from his NASCAR ride last year after failing a NASCAR drug test, Penske gave him a second chance with this IndyCar opportunity. Seven years after leaving open-wheel racing, Allmendinger finally ran "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and was leading when his seat belt came undone, forcing him to pit.
It put Allmendinger off the pit cycle, and he was forced to stop for gas twice far in advance of the rest of the field. It meant Allmendinger had to drive his way back to the front each time, and he finally sputtered out at seventh.
"I'll be honest, pretty special moment to be leading at Indy," he said. "My body kind of went numb, my mind was racing and I could feel my heart beating really fast, and that's a special moment I'll never forget."
A year after 34 lead changes and a frantic finish created what many considered the best 500 ever, IndyCar had its hands full trying to top itself.
This one might have done it, with the slicing and dicing at the front, over and over and over again. The 68 lead changes involved 14 drivers, and 28 of the 33 cars were running at the end. With 100 miles to go, 25 drivers were on the lead lap.
"It was a hell of a race. That's all I can say," said Mario Andretti. "This is riveting competition, that's all I can tell you. It's just amazing. The reliability of the cars is there. The product is there. It's unbelievable racing, the best I've seen in years."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/finally-tony-kanaan-gets-elusive-indy-500-victory-071634051.html
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