Johan's Blog

NBA postseason a changing of guard

2011-04-10T12:58:00.000+07:00

FINALLY, IT'S almost time to pay attention to the NBA.

The NCAA tournament is behind us, as is baseball's opening day. Once the Masters champion slips on his green jacket tonight, about the only other interesting diversion between now and summer will be the NFL draft, where players are picked for a season that may never come to pass.

So let's savor the upcoming NBA playoffs. If you're a fan of a certain age (or at least a fan of players of a certain age), the next two months may be your last chance to enjoy an era that's ending soon.

Shaquille O'Neal is 39 and may or may not suit up for the Boston Celtics as he chases a fifth ring. Shaq returned last Sunday after missing 27 games with a strained left Achilles tendon--only to limp off the floor after only 5 minutes, this time with a strained right calf muscle.

It's remarkable, really, that O'Neal's legs have held up for 18 seasons, given the sheer weight and force that they've had to bear. Celtics coach Doc Rivers said O'Neal should be ready for the playoffs (which start this week), but he's not sure how much he can count on the Big Nickname.

Even though O'Neal has become a defensive liability (especially against the pick and roll), Boston will need him at least for short spurts after trading away starting center Kendrick Perkins in February.

And this isn't just the last hurrah for O'Neal. Ray Allen is 36. Kevin Garnett turns 35 next month. Paul Pierce is 33. Chances are, this is their last real shot at winning a second title together--especially since coach Doc Rivers has been noncommittal about his future plans.

Plus, there's young blood ready to push aside the aging Celtics.

Led by 22-year-old Derrick Rose, the presumptive league MVP, the Chicago Bulls are the East's No. 1 seed. The road to the finals goes through the United Center--that is, assuming the Celtics survive a first-round series and a probable second-round matchup with Miami's Big Three.

And let's not overlook the Heat, whose stars are all in their prime and have been pointing to the playoffs all along. While the Heat have struggled all season against the NBA's elite, Miami may have enough to put a coda on the Celtics' final hopes.

The situation is similar in the West. Kobe Bryant's Lakers are the two-time defending NBA champions and must be regarded as the favorites until someone knocks them off.

But Kobe has a lot of mileage on his 32-year-old legs and, while he's still one of the league's stars, has shown unmistakable signs of slowing down. He won't be able to carry the Lakers to another title by himself. He'll need Pau Gasol's consistency and for Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest to show up for the playoffs.

Like Rivers, Lakers coach Phil Jackson seems likely to be elsewhere next season. Bryant would love to give Jackson his fourth three-peat, but it won't be easy.

That's because there are other veterans looking for a last hurrah--and a precocious young team that doesn't want to wait.

Tim Duncan is 35 and has gone from being the top-seeded Spurs' main man to one of several vital cogs. He'd love a fifth ring, and with the emergence of George Hill as a complement to Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, he might get it.

Or Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki might get their first. Kidd, 38, is one of the NBA's all-time best playmakers. Nowitzki, 32, is his generation's Dominique Wilkins or George Gervin--a stellar scorer who never had enough support to win a championship. This could be their last legitimate shot.

Or the Oklahoma City Thunder could spoil it for all the West's veterans.

At 22, Kevin Durant is poised to become the NBA's youngest repeat scoring leader. Emerging star Russell Westbook is also 22. Sixth man supreme James Harden is 21. And Perkins gives the Thunder the big body they lacked last year, when they pushed the Lakers to six games in the first round.

A Bulls-Thunder finals would have great appeal for a new generation of NBA fans. But there are a lot of spectators (not to mention players) who would love to delay the inevitable for another year.

Red Sox Beat Yankees, Snap Six-Game Losing Streak; Mets Lose Home Opener

2011-04-09T14:08:00.000+07:00

Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a run- scoring double in the fifth inning as the Boston Red Sox won their first game of the season with a 9-6 home-opening victory against the New York Yankees.

At Citi Field in New York, the Mets lost their Major League Baseball home opener 6-2 to the Washington Nationals.

The Red Sox, who lost their first six games, avoided matching the 0-8 record they set in 1945.

“I just came in here thinking, ‘We need to find a way to win. I don’t care how we do it. I don’t care if it’s the ugliest win of all time. We need that win,’” Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. “But we played great, man.”

Robinson Cano doubled in the first to give the Yankees (4- 3) a 2-0 lead. Pedroia hit a home run to left field in the first that closed the gap to 2-1 for Boston (1-6).

“He gave us a huge lift,” manager Terry Francona said. “We’re down two, he takes a good swing and kind of gets at least a little bit of momentum, a little bit of excitement going.”

Alex Rodriguez’s home run tied the game 6-6 in the fifth inning for the Yankees before Saltalamacchia drove in Kevin Youkilis in the bottom of the inning.
‘Great Team’

J.D. Drew hit a two-run single in the seventh to seal Boston’s win.

“They’ve got a great team,” Yankees catcher Russell Martin said. “(Going) 0-6 is not a good indication of how they’re playing. You’re not playing the record.”

John Lackey (1-1) got the win for the Red Sox despite giving up seven hits and six runs in five innings.

New York’s Bartolo Colon (0-1), who relieved starter Phil Hughes in the third inning, allowed two hits and two runs in 4 1/3 innings for the loss.

Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann hit a two-run single to right in the second inning to give Washington a 2-0 lead against the Mets, who got a run in the fourth when Ike Davis scored David Wright on a sacrifice fly.

“I don’t know what happened there,” said Zimmermann, a .167 career hitter with four runs batted in. “I was trying to get the barrel on the ball.”
‘Awesome Job’

Michael Morse walked with the bases loaded to score Jayson Werth in the fifth for Washington. Ivan Rodriguez hit a two-run single and Ian Desmond grounded out to score Danny Espinosa three innings later for the Nationals (3-4).

Zimmermann (1-1) gave up six hits and two runs and struck out four in 5 1/3 innings for the win.

“I was battling pretty much all day” Zimmermann said. “I handed it over to the bullpen and they did an awesome job.”

R.A. Dickey (1-1), who split the nail on his index finger in the first inning, got the loss, allowing six hits and three runs while walking five over five innings as the Mets (3-4) fell to 31-19 in home openers.

“I’m not going to say (the split nail) led to every walk,” Dickey said. “It was just very tough to get the feel.”

In the American League, it was Detroit 5, Kansas City 2; Minnesota 2, Oakland 1; Tampa Bay 9, the Chicago White Sox 7; Toronto 3, the Los Angeles Angels 2; and Cleveland 12, Seattle 3. The game between undefeated Texas and Baltimore, postponed because of rain, will be played today as part of a doubleheader.

In the National League, it was San Francisco 5, St. Louis 4 (12 innings); Florida 4, Houston 3; Atlanta 6, Philadelphia 3; the Chicago Cubs 7, Milwaukee 4; Pittsburgh 4, Colorado 3 (14 innings); and Arizona 13, Cincinnati 2.

Being Dwight isn't easy

2011-04-09T14:02:00.000+07:00

While an MVP showdown between Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose would have been nice for the fans of Orlando to see, Sunday's off day might not be such a bad thing for Howard.

After his 18th technical foul of the season netted him a one-game suspension, Howard won't be available for the 1 p.m. ET tip, but it's probably best for the superstar big man and his team that he gets an afternoon off, anyway.

Because being Dwight Howard isn't easy.

Howard has played 2,862 physically taxing minutes in 76 games this season, for an average of 37.7 minutes per game. He is 10th in the NBA in total minutes played and 12th in the league in minutes per game. Among true centers, Howard is the league leader in both categories.

Other players – Monta Ellis, Blake Griffin, LeBron James and Kevin Durant, to name a few – may have spent more time on the court, but there isn't a player in the world – not a center, not a guard, not a forward – who absorbs the punishment Howard endures night in and night out.

Put an average NBA player in Howard's shoes and he's lucky to survive the season with all of his limbs still attached, much less excel the way Howard has this season. But Howard has persevered and averaged a career-high 23.1 points per game while pulling down 14.1 rebounds a night.

There's not a way to quantify the beating Howard takes on a nightly basis, but all you have to do is watch one Magic game to get the idea. He gets scratched, punched, kicked, grabbed, smacked and worse on a nightly basis.

Every game brings new blood and new bruises for the league's top center, but not once this year has an official decided that the contact Howard takes is excessive. Howard hasn't been on the receiving end of a single flagrant foul this season, a statistic that completely baffles Howard and his coach, Stan Van Gundy.

Need tangible evidence to support the claim that Howard takes more abuse than anyone else in the league?

Howard averages 11.8 free-throw attempts per game; the next most attempts belong to Durant, Griffin and Dwyane Wade, who all average 8.6 per night.

Howard has taken 898 free throws this season – 217 more attempts than Griffin, the next-most fouled player in the NBA. And trust me, each one of Howard's trips to the foul line was well earned. Players make sure they get their money's worth when they put Howard on the line because the other option is an easy two points for the Magic.

This is not a new phenomenon for Howard. Last year, he averaged nearly 35 minutes per game and was third in the league in free-throw attempts per game. In 2008-09, he averaged nearly 36 minutes per game and led the league in free-throw attempts per game.

Howard is hurt and exhausted – understandably – and he's said he needs the rest. And the Magic need him to be at the top of his game when the playoffs start next weekend.

So while it's frustrating in the short term, maybe Sunday's suspension will be a blessing in disguise in the end.

NBA roundup: Bulls win, clinch top spot in East

2011-04-09T13:59:00.000+07:00

CLEVELAND -- Carlos Boozer scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Chicago Bulls clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a 93-82 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.

Chicago, which has won six straight and 18 of 20, will have home-court advantage in the first three rounds of the playoffs. The Bulls hadn't finished with the best record in the East since 1997-98.

New York 116, New Jersey 93: Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the visiting Knicks won their sixth straight to end a franchise-worst streak of nine straight losing seasons.

Indiana 114, Atlanta 102: Danny Granger scored 28 points for the host Pacers, who have won five of their past six and ended a nine-game losing streak against the Hawks.

Philadelphia 98, Toronto 93: The host 76ers, who already clinched their first playoff appearance in two years, snapped a three-game losing streak, and with 41 wins and two games left, they can finish with a winning record for the first time since 2004-05.

Miami 112, Charlotte 103: Chris Bosh scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Dwyane Wade returned from injury to score 27 more for the host Heat.

Boston 104, Washington 88: Rajon Rondo scored 20 points and with 14 assists for the host Celtics. Pierce and Kevin Garnett also had double-doubles for Boston, which remains tied with Miami for the Eastern Conference's second spot.

NEW JERSEY: The NBA has fined the Nets $50,000 because hip-hop mogul and part-owner Jay-Z went into the Kentucky locker room after the Wildcats clinched a berth in the Final Four. League spokesman Tim Frank confirmed the fine Friday before the Nets played the New York Knicks at the Prudential Center. NBA rules prohibit team personnel from having contact with players who are not yet draft eligible.

Teemu Selanne leads Ducks into playoffs

2011-04-09T13:52:00.000+07:00

Teemu Selanne looked at his surroundings a little more intently Friday at Honda Center, as if he were committing everything to memory in case it turned out to be his last home game as a Duck.

But Selanne, who will be 41 this summer a few days after his contract expires, wasn't ready for the team's season — or his stellar career — to end just yet.

The Finnish right wing scored twice against the Kings on Friday to give the Ducks a 2-1 victory that locked up a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, beating goaltender Jonathan Quick for the decisive goal thanks to a spectacular, off-balance pass from compatriot Saku Koivu 5:54 into the third period.

It's the first time the Ducks and Kings have qualified for the playoffs in the same season and makes their rematch Saturday at Staples Center slightly less dramatic but still important because it will determine where each will finish among the top eight.

For the Ducks, who started the season slowly and lost several key players at various times — they had to start Dan Ellis in goal Friday because Ray Emery had a lingering lower-body injury — earning an extension of the season was a hard-earned reward.

"It has been grinding the last three months and I really believed this team deserved to be in the playoffs," Selanne said after scoring his 30th and 31st goals and moving up to 27th place on the NHL career scoring list with 1,340 points.

"That's why this was a big step forward. Now at least we can breathe a little bit."

The Kings had secured their spot earlier in the week but were motivated by the possibility of finishing fourth in the West and gaining home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

They played a hard, fierce game before a sellout crowd at Honda Center that included a loud contingent of Kings fans, but even the Kings acknowledged they had been beaten by an extraordinary effort by an extraordinary player.

"You do anything you can do to slow that guy down," said defenseman Matt Greene, who tried to get a body on Selanne at every opportunity and often succeeded.

"He's a Hall of Famer and rightfully should be. He still brings it every night…. He just gets the job done night in, night out. He's a stud."

Kings winger Wayne Simmonds, who again teamed with Kyle Clifford and Brad Richardson on the team's most dangerous line, also paid tribute to his rival.

"Selanne is a great player," Simmonds said. "Let him get a shot from the slot and no telling what can happen, and tonight he got two."

Simmonds had an excellent chance of his own from the slot late in the first period, with the Kings holding a 1-0 lead on Ryan Smyth's rebound of a Dustin Brown shot, but Ellis leaned forward to stop him. "A game-changer," Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle called it.

Selanne brought the Ducks even at 9:55 of the second period. Jason Blake dug the puck out and passed it to Luca Sbisa, whose long shot was blocked by Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi. The rebound came to the right side to Selanne, who lifted it past Quick.

Blake started the play that turned into the winner by taking the puck along the left-wing boards in his own zone and passing to Koivu, who saw Selanne on the right side. Though Koivu was falling he managed to pass to Selanne, who lifted a shot from the inner edge of the right circle.

"You look at him and you don't think he's 40 years old," Carlyle said of Selanne. "He's in his happy place."

The Kings were less than happy about another low-scoring game — they've scored only 10 goals in six games without the injured Anze Kopitar and their power play, no great shakes with Kopitar in the lineup, is 0 for 16 without him. They're sixth and the Ducks seventh entering Saturday's rematch.

"We kind of let our foot off the pedal in the second half of the game," Simmonds said. "I think we could have done better."

No one did it better than Selanne on Friday.

Gbagbo loyalists regroup in Ivory Coast attacks

2011-04-09T13:02:00.000+07:00

The development represented a dramatic reversal of fortune for Gbagbo, who earlier this week appeared on the verge of defeat after the United Nations and France launched attacks against his military bases and other vital installations in an effort to suppress his ability to target his enemies.

The United Nations is weighing whether to begin a fresh round of attacks against Gbagbo’s forces if they move against president-elect Alassane Ouattara or continue to attack civilians, according to Alain Le Roy, the U.N. undersecretary general for peacekeeping.

After briefing the U.N. Security Council on the crisis, Le Roy said an offer Tuesday by Gbagbo’s top generals and other loyalists to surrender their weapons and begin negotiating Gbagbo’s departure was a “trick.”

“At the end, Mr. Gbagbo rejected any peaceful solution the next day, Wednesday, and they restarted shelling at our headquarters and. . .the civilian population,” said Le Roy, a French national.

Le Roy said Gbagbo’s supporters had used the “lull” in fighting provided by the negotiations to reinforce their positions in the neighborhoods of Plateau and Cocody, a Gbagbo stronghold in the commercial capital of Abidjan where most of the foreign embassies are located.

Gbagbo’s forces targeted the French Embassy with mortar and rocket fire Friday afternoon, the second time they have done so in the past 48 hours, according to a communiqué issued by the embassy.

As the fighting intensified, the United States, Israel, India, China and 19 other countries requested U.N. support in relocating embassy personnel to safer locations.

Le Roy voiced concern that Gbagbo’s forces may be advancing toward the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara and his supporters have been residing in recent months under the protection of U.N. blue helmets.

The violence that erupted in Ivory Coast in recent weeks came more than four months after Gbagbo, who has led Ivory Coast for a decade, lost a U.N.-certified election to Ouattara.

Gbagbo refused to accept the results of the vote and launched a campaign of violence against suspected supporters of Ouattara and the more than 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers stationed in the country.

Since the election, the peacekeepers have protected Ouattara and his backers at the Golf Hotel. Ouattara, meanwhile, plotted a military response.

Last month, a coalition of former rebels and disaffected police and soldiers who back Ouattara struck back at Gbagbo’s forces, easily seizing town after town until they entered Abidjan last week.

The two sides had fought to a stalemate until the United Nations, backed by French troops, attacked Gbagbo’s heavy weapons sites. Gbagbo and his family then sought refuge in a bunker beneath the presidential palace, which Ouattara’s forces have surrounded.

But Le Roy said Gbagbo’s troops had preserved much of their arsenal of heavy weapons.

“We understand the forces of Mr. Gbagbo have had time to regain terrain,” Le Roy said. “While we speak, they might be very close to the Gold Hotel.”

Israeli President remains critical of Goldstone report

2011-04-09T09:36:00.000+07:00

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres on Friday remained critical of Justice Richard Goldstone's refusal to fully squash a United Nations report accusing Israel of intentionally targeting civilians.

Goldstone, a South African justice who led a UN fact-finding mission into hostilities of Israel's three-week military offensive during the Gaza war of 2008-2009, recently recanted the conclusion of his report that accused Israel of committing war crimes, but did not indicate any intention to retract most of the report.

Following a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Peres said the contents of the report amounted to "libels" against Israel and criticized Goldstone for not amending the report.
"When (Goldstone) was asked to act in order to correct the mistake in the conclusions, he says no, he regrets the article," Peres told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"You cannot regret the fact that you were wrong and now regret the fact that you said that you were wrong," he added.

Goldstone's retraction came in a Washington Post opinion editorial, in which he praised Israel for conducting its own investigations into alleged rights abuses during the fighting. Israel did not participate in the investigation led by the UN fact- finding mission.

In the article, Goldstone said if he knew what he knows now at the time of the fact-finding mission, the report would have been different. "The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion," he said.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations to revoke the Goldstone Report following Goldstone's retraction of the conclusions.

Peres on Friday dismissed the basis of the report and UN inquiry, alleging that the Islamic Hamas movement began shooting at Israeli forces in provocation as Israel proceeded to withdraw from Gaza.
"This is not a matter of judicial details, this is a very clear situation," said Peres.

Source:news.xinhuanet.com

Arizona House passes law allowing guns on campuses

2011-04-08T10:17:00.000+07:00

Arizona House passes law allowing guns on campuses

The Republican-led House voted 33 to 24 to allow firearms to be carried in the open or concealed in public rights of way, such as campus streets and roadways.

"We're allowing people to defend themselves," said Rep. David Gowan Sr., a Republican, who voted for the bill.

"The purpose of carrying a gun with you is to defend yourself against that aggressor," he added.

The measure now goes to Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer. She has not said if she will sign it into law but has been a strong gun-rights advocate in the past.

If the measure is enacted, Arizona would join Utah as the only states to specifically allow such gun rights. Utah goes one step further, allowing firearms inside campus buildings.

The move comes as opponents and supporters face off across the country over gun laws, with nine states this year seeking to broaden citizens' rights to tote firearms on campuses.

Supporters of Arizona's bill argue that a person's constitutional right to bear arms should not be taken away just because he or she is on a campus. They claim that allowing guns there could save lives in the event of a campus shooting.

But the bill faced widespread opposition from college and university administrators, faculty and law enforcement officials.

Opponents claimed it would put campus police at a dangerous disadvantage in trying to prevent campus shootings.

Faculty groups at the state's three universities passed resolutions against the bill.

Rep. Steve Farley, a Democrat, said the idea strikes at the heart of higher education and will make it hard to attract top-flight faculty and staff.

"I don't believe this is a good move for us," he told legislators during the vote. "I think it compromises the key core goal of our universities ... (to) have a free and unintimidating exchange of ideas."

Other lawmakers questioned the bill because it does not specifically define what constitutes public rights of way. They said a legal challenge is likely.

Source;http://www.reuters.com

Japan nuclear crisis ebbing, U.S. experts say

2011-04-08T10:13:00.000+07:00

Japan nuclear crisis ebbing, U.S. experts say

Although the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has not yet been stabilized, there is no evidence that overheating during the last month has resulted in any melting of the reactor vessels or their containment structures, Obama administration officials said Thursday.

If that assessment is correct, then significant additional releases of radioactivity into the environment will be limited, and emergency crews should have a far better chance of preventing further damage to the plant's reactors.

The assessment, provided to The Times on background, suggests that the plant is unlikely to suffer a complete meltdown, in which uranium fuel gets so hot that it melts through the bottom of the reactor and containment vessels, spewing high-level radiation into the plant's underlying foundation.

"We are a long way from a point where anybody would say this is stable," a senior administration official said. "But it is not a runaway. For a long time, we will be at a declining level of risk."

The conclusions by Obama administration experts appear more optimistic about the outcome at Fukushima than recent reports that have leaked out of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which have suggested that the situation is increasingly risky and dangerous.

Separately, the staff of the NRC came under heavy questioning Thursday by the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, a panel of outside experts, academics and nuclear industry officials that provides guidance to the agency.

At a committee meeting, NRC officials were asked about the scientific basis for their agency's advice that Americans evacuate a 50-mile zone around the plant. NRC officials said they couldn't provide an explanation and would have to get back to the committee.

NRC officials were unavailable for comment afterward.

Meanwhile, northern Japan was rattled by a 7.1 aftershock, the strongest since March 11, when the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck the region and set in motion the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

Authorities blamed two deaths on Thursday's 11:30 p.m. earthquake, which triggered a new tsunami warning that was later canceled. A 79-year-old man died of shock, and a woman in her 60s perished when a power failure turned off her oxygen tank, Japanese media reports said. More than 130 people were injured, police said.

The operator of the battered nuclear plant said there were no indications that the aftershock caused any new problems or injuries there.

The information filtering out of Japan increasingly appears to be setting a boundary for the severity of the problem at Fukushima — though no doubt it is going to take years, if not decades, to remediate the damage already caused.

The most telling evidence about the condition of the reactors is the absence of heavy radionuclide contamination around the plant, which would indicate that uranium fuel became so overheated that it vaporized heavy fission products such as strontium and technetium, experts said.

Instead, the main contaminants have been isotopes of iodine and cesium, which are water soluble and are not held in the uranium fuel itself.

The Obama administration experts said it appears that three reactors could be leaking radioactive water and other contaminants into areas of the plant that should be free from radioactivity, although the cause of breaches is not yet known.

"We don't know how the containment failed," one expert said. "It is more of a leak than a massive rupture. There is an extremely low probability of a melt-through of the reactor vessel. There is no conclusive evidence of a melt-through."

Temperature gauges at the bottom of the reactor vessel recorded levels of 300 degrees Celsius, far below the 1,500-degree melting point of steel. Even if that level were reached, the experts said they are confident that water in the containment structure would have prevented any melt.

Instead of a melt-through, the experts said the leakage from the reactors might be coming through various pieces of equipment that enter the heavy-gauge steel reactor vessel, including mechanical systems that operate control rods or pipes.

Obama holds out hope US government shutdown can be avoided

2011-04-08T10:06:00.000+07:00

Obama holds out hope US government shutdown can be avoided

President Barack Obama expressed hope that a US government shutdown can be averted on Saturday after late-night talks with the Republicans at the White House on Thursday night aimed at agreeing a budget deal.

Obama, after meeting the House Speaker, John Boehner, a Republican, and the Senate leader, Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the two sides had narrowed their differences and staff would work through the night to try to close a deal.

Obama said: "I have just completed another meeting with the Speaker. We made some additional progress this evening."

He said he expected to announce Friday that the shutdown had been averted. But, he added, there remained significant differences. "I am not prepared to express wild optimism," he said. "But I think we are further along today than we were yesterday."

With the federal government due to shut down at midnight Friday, Obama said contingency plans would have to be put in train to begin closing services and so he needed an answer from Boehner early Friday.

Without a deal, about 800,000 federal staff face being suspended without pay and a range of government services will be withdrawn as hundreds of agencies either continue with a reduced operation or close altogether.

Boehner and Reid issued a joint statement confirming they had narrowed their differences but they had not yet reached agreement and that their staffs would work through the night.

Obama postponed a trip Friday to Indiana where he planned to make a speech which has been postponed because of the budget crisis. The president wants to be on hand for any further budget negotiations.

The US Congress has begun sending out letters warning staff they will be suspended from this weekend along with hundreds of thousands of other workers as part of a looming federal government shutdown.

The letters inform staff whether they are regarded as essential – necessary to maintain security and keep Congress running – or non-essential. The process will be repeated at the White House, the Pentagon and hundreds of federal agencies that are preparing to scale back or cease operation from midnight on Friday.

If no last-minute agreement is reached, the government will begin stopping everything from tourist visits to the Statue of Liberty and Alcatraz to wages for about 800,000 federal employees. In Washington, libraries will close, there will be no parking attendants and, for one week, no rubbish collection, and the University of the District of Columbia would also be shut.

One of the most emotional issues is that troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere would not receive pay cheques until the crisis is resolved. But they would at least continue earning during any shutdown, unlike civilian employees.

The Republicans want a cut in the federal deficit of $40bn (£24bn). The Democrats made a compromise offer of $34.5bn on Wednesday. The new sticking points are mainly the areas where the Republicans want cuts – abortion programmes and environmental protection, on which the Democrats refuse to give way.

Reid, speaking in the Senate early on Thursday, said: "The numbers are basically there. But I'm not nearly as optimistic – and that's an understatement – as I was 11 hours ago. The numbers are extremely close. Our differences are no longer over how much savings we get on government spending."

He added: "The only thing holding up an agreement is an ideology." He said the Republican leadership had drawn a line in the sand over abortion and clean air, issues he said had no place in a budget bill.

But Boehner's office disputed that there was even agreement on the numbers.

The House, which is controlled by the Republicans, passed a bill that would keep the federal government going for at least another week. But the Senate, which is Democratic-controlled, will not pass it and Obama said he would veto it anyway.

The Democrats say they are not interested in another stop-gap measure and insist is only a Republican attempt to avoid blame for a shutdown. As evidence, they say that the bill includes $12bn in cuts.

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Rooney lines blown out of proportion

2011-04-07T15:49:00.000+07:00

Rooney lines blown out of proportion, says Manchester United star Ferdinand

Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand received a team-mate Wayne Rooney has made a mistake - but insists important that people remember him only a footballer.
Rooney is set to discover the extent of punishment for the four-letter blast at West Ham on Saturday that threatened to rule him out of the FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City at Wembley on April 16.
He put the matter behind him by netting goals in just 1-0 Champions League quarter-final first leg win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that left the favorites States to book last-four clash with either Inter Milan or, more likely, Schalke end of this month.
But Rooney continues to attract negative. Confirm it has no lucrative sponsorship contract with Coca-Cola renewed last year emphasized the bad headlines that have been steady her and scolding her weekends only attract more.
Ferdinand was already spinning out of proportion.
'Wayne Rooney swore at the TV, like I do not condone, is not front page news, "he said.
'There are things happening in the larger world. Some things happened in Libya and the Ivory Coast and we are talking about Wayne Rooney at the front pages of newspapers because he swore at the cameras.
"We must follow him as a football player instead of continuing to hang him for a lot of things going," he said.
"I would not say he was not guilty of many things that have happened but sometimes because of who he can react on it."
As it stands now, Rooney will miss Saturday Premier League clash with Fulham at Old Trafford next to the semifinals.
He could face further punishment even if the FA had considered a challenge to be reckless.
FA is thought to have informed their decision States before kick-off on Wednesday night.
However, the decision of the Red Devils want to keep hidden until the morning and it seems the players they were under instructions to follow in the footsteps Ferguson and said nothing.
'Hopefully the decision will go, "said Ferdinand." I do not feel sorry for him. He developed off the attention.
"But he was developing off the attention of football than anything outside. He loves playing football. That's what he wants to be assessed based on and talk about."

Japan injects nitrogen into the nuclear reactor to prevent hydrogen explosion

2011-04-07T15:37:00.000+07:00

TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO began pumping nitrogen gas into a stricken reactor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Thursday to prevent the risk of a hydrogen explosion.

Workers injected nitrogen gas into the containment vessel of the plant's No. 1 reactor in process that could take several days, according to the embattled utility firm.

But following the firm managing to stem the flow of radioactive water from flowing freely into the Pacific Ocean yesterday, the latest move was described by Japan's nuclear safety agency as " preventative."

"It is necessary to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel and eliminate the potential for a hydrogen explosion," Hidehiko Nishiyama, Deputy-General of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told a press briefing.

Nishiyama added that the risk of further hydrogen explosions that previously blew apart reactor buildings No. 1 and No. 3, causing dangerous levels of radioactive substances to be released into the atmosphere, was "extremely low."

That said, due to fears that the outside casing of the reactor vessel has been damaged, while an explosion remains unlikely, the scenario has not been completely ruled out, the nuclear safety agency said.

"Under these conditions, if we continue cooling the reactors with water, the hydrogen leaking from the reactor vessel to the containment vessel could accumulate and could reach a point where it could explode," a TEPCO official was quoted as saying Thursday.

A total of 6,000 cubic meters of the inert gas will be pumped into the No. 1 reactor and TEPCO will repeat the process for reactors No.2 and No. 3, in a bid to make the six-reactor complex more stable, officials said.

TEPCO have said, to the condemnation of neighboring countries like South Korea, that they intend to pump a further 10,000 tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean by this weekend, to free up yet more storage space at the complex to shift more highly- contaminated water into the facility's containment units.

Hence domestic and international fears remain rife as the utility firm has confirmed that 70 percent of the No. 1 reactor's fuel rods, 30 percent of the No. 2 reactor's fuel rods and 25 percent of the nuclear fuel rods at the No. 3 reactor have been damaged.

Previous hydrogen explosions were caused as a result of high levels of hydrogen accumulating following melted nuclear fuel rods reacting with steam produced from the reactors' coolant water.

Huge amounts of water have been poured into the reactors and their spent nuclear fuel pools as an emergency means to cool them down and avert a full meltdown, but the excess water, as well as seawater from the March 11 tsunami coming into contact with exposed fuel rods has caused contaminated water at levels ranging from hundreds to many million times over the legal limit being detected in and around the plant, including in seawater samples taken from the Pacific.

A seawater sample taken near the No. 2 reactor water intake on Saturday showed a radioactive iodine-131 concentration of 7.5 million times the maximum level permitted under law.

As well as neighboring countries voicing concern, local fishing and marine industry associations have lambasted the government for permitted radioactive water to be released into the sea.

The National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives Associations called the move an "outrage," as radioactive cesium has been found at levels above safety limits in tiny kounago fish in waters off Ibaraki Prefecture, south of Fukushima, and in young launce in the sea near the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture.

Hotmail desktop notifications in IE9 From Microsoft

2011-04-02T11:52:00.000+07:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer software to increase internet explorer 9 to provide desktop notification for Hotmail.

Although Hotmail does not include applications, can be embedded into Windows taskbar in the latest version of the web browser, effectively providing a variety of useful features that were previously only seen in a Windows program.

It works by signing in to Hotmail from Internet Explorer 9 and then dragging the Hotmail tab to the taskbar. After completion of this act as a pointer directly to Hotmail, directly open a web page in Internet Explorer 9 without opening your browser first.

Another useful feature is the context menu that appears when users right-click the icon on the taskbar Hotmail them. This provides the option to write a new email, view the calendar, check list and so on, save time to go through a long route.

The best feature to date, however, is a desktop notification, with the Hotmail icon displays the number of new email received. This saves users from having to constantly check email regularly to see if something new has arrived, as the taskbar itself will keep them up to date.

FireFox 4

2011-04-02T11:38:00.000+07:00

FireFox 4
    running over time, Firefox continues to carry out the action to always improve its performance in the world of browsers. With no less formidable competitor is google chrome which certainly produced from google and or internet explorer 9 results processed from Windows, and also the final version of the opera with which the opera was 10.63 also issued a beta version of its version 11

Excess Firefox 4

    Compared with firefox version 3.6.12, there is little in terms of appearance ato some changes on this browser, more minimalist and elegant. Almost similar to the opera version 10.
    Supports HD-quality video format HTML5 WebM
    By default the menu tab placed on the bottom of the menu bar.
    When the menu bar is not enabled then it will be replaced with the existing firefox button on the top left.
    There was feedback that is addressed to the Firefox [Firefox Firefox made me happy and made me sad]
    There is an additional group settings tabs on the feedback button above.

Lack of Firefox 4 CR

    If you facebook users, and facebook chat when you are using a browser, you will experience an uncomfortable feeling due to frequent off on off on its own. Unlike in previous versions that tend to be more stable when doing chat on facebook.
    Additional features group settings which represents the excess of this firefox I think is an additional less significant. Less so there is no benefit, possible only to classify it ato may hide the tabs are opened.
    Most of the add on for firefox version 3.6 does not support the Firefox version 4.

UN Condemns Deadly Attack on Staff in Afghanistan

2011-04-02T09:09:00.000+07:00

The U.N. Security Council and the Secretary-General have expressed their strong condemnation of an attack on a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan on Friday that killed seven staff members.

Several hundred demonstrators had gathered outside the U.N. compound in Mazar-e-Sharif to protest the burning of the Muslim holy book - "the Quran"- by a pastor in the U.S. State of Florida 10 days ago.

U.N. Peacekeeping Chief Alain Le Roy briefed the council on details of the attack, which he received from the U.N.’s top diplomat in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, who went immediately to Mazar-e-Sharif to oversee the investigation.

"There was an important demonstration, and part of the demonstrators rushed into our compound with weapons; and they stormed the compound, they put fire on it and they killed several of our staff."

LeRoy told reporters the dead included three civilian staff - a Swede, a Norwegian and a Romanian - as well as four Nepalese guards contracted to protect the compound. He said no Afghan employees were among the dead.

Le Roy said right now the indication is that the attackers were looking to strike an international target.

"We are not sure at all that the U.N. was a target. It happened that U.N. were there, the demonstrations were there. I just discussed myself with SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary-General] Mr. de Mistura, and his impression as far as now, that the U.N. was not the target. They wanted to take a target, so of course they used this one. They wanted maybe to find an international target and the U.N. was the one here in Mazar-e-Sharif."

He said the U.N. would be temporarily evacuating staff in Mazar-e-Sharif while security there is reviewed. Le Roy also announced that two senior advisers of the Secretary-General, as well as the head of U.N. Security, would leave Friday night for Kabul.

Speaking earlier in Nairobi, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack as "outrageous and cowardly" and said it cannot be justified under any circumstances.

And in a statement, the Security Council also strongly condemned the attack and called for the Afghan authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

This news I get from the source http://www.voanews.com/

CNN won't air 'hateful' interview with pastor who burned Quran DO YOU THINK

2011-04-02T08:53:00.001+07:00

On CNN's John King USA show Friday night King said he had a "lengthy interview" with Pastor Terry Jones, who has presided over burning the Quran earlier this month. But viewers will never see King's interview.

Describing the tape, King says he reminded Jones that this fall -- after international, interfaith outcry over Jones' plans to burn a Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 -- the pastor told King he would "never burn the Quran."

Jones had been well warned about the potentially lethal repercussions to U.S. and international forces in the Middle East if he did burn the Islamic holy scriptures.

And then he did it anyway, with a reporter from Agence France-Presse present whose story went world wide.

Reaction traveled below the radar initially, until the photos of a burning book turned up on Jone's Dove World Outreach Center web site -- a site that gave a church of 30 people a worldwide presence as an online provocateur.

And now, as Jones was forewarned. People have been killed in the angry aftermath. A mob charged a U.N outpost in Afghanistan and as many as 12 were killed.

hat did Jones say to that? Plenty, says King. But it was all "too hateful" to air. After long discussion within CNN, King told viewers, the interview would not be shown, even though, King says, he "pushed back hard" at Jones' anti-Islamic remarks.

I think this is a different situation than the decision to post coverage of the Quran burning when it happened, something I brought up in an earlier post. That news was already loose in the world and not telling Americans about it wouldn't bring it back. Silence would also mean shutting off any opportunity to speak up as they did in September to denounce Jones.

That said, the CNN interview decision is a different call. King's push-back could easily have been edited out to create a fake broadcast of anti-Islamic rhetoric to accompany the inflammatory photos.

Worse, Jones,as reported by King, has nothing new to say. No apology. No regrets.

This news I get from the source http://content.usatoday.com/

Pressure mounts on Japan to widen nuclear exclusion zone

2011-03-31T13:29:00.000+07:00

Pressure mounts on Japan to widen nuclear exclusion zone

UN nuclear watchdog suggests Tokyo consider widening its 20-km zone after high radiation detected at twice that distance from Fukushima plant; Sarkozy to be first leader to visit since disaster.

TOKYO - Pressure mounted on Japan on Thursday to expand the evacuation zone around its stricken nuclear power plants after high levels of radiation were found outside the zone and radioactivity in seawater reached more than 4,000 times its legal limit.

The UN nuclear watchdog suggested Japan consider widening its 20-km (12-mile) zone after high radiation was detected at twice that distance from the facility.

Nearly three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing heavy criticism for sticking with the original exclusion zone.

The government has encouraged those living in a 20-30 km ring, a population of 136,000, to leave but has not ordered them to do so, advising only that they remain indoors.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation at Iitate village, 40 km (25 mile) from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, exceeded a criterion for evacuation.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said an extension of the zone should be considered, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano gave no indication that the government was poised to do it.

"At the moment, we have no reason to think that the radiation will have an effect on people's health. We need to closely monitor the situation and see if the radiation is consistently high," Edano told a news briefing.

The safety agency said radioactive iodine levels found in seawater near the damaged plant was now 4,385 times more than the legal limit -- the highest level recorded since the nuclear crisis started on March 11 -- and it was possible that radiation was flowing continously into the ocean.

Sarkozy heads to Tokyo

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive on Thursday, the first leader to visit since the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Sarkozy, who currently chairs the G20 and G8 blocs of nations, is due to meet his Japanese counterpart to show support for Japan's efforts to overcome the crisis.

France, the world's most nuclear-dependent country, has flown in experts from state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva , while the United States has offered robots to help repair the damaged Daiichi nuclear plants north of Tokyo.

Japan is also facing a humanitarian calamity triggered by the earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 27,500 people dead or missing.

Concerns over radiation spreading beyond Japan grew again after Singapore detected radiation nine times the limit in cabbages imported from Japan, while the United States reported "minuscule" levels of radiation in milk samples on its west coast.

This news I get from the source: http://www.jpost.com

Ohio State Tressel apologizes again,Fickle named interim football coach

2011-03-31T08:53:00.000+07:00

Jim Tressel Wednesday apologized for letting the supporters down football program violated NCAA rules, which did not report some players to sell the memorabilia items with their benefits also received.

Tressel, 58, who directs Ohio State to three BCS National Championship Game since assuming the post head football coach in 2001, showed Wednesday when he addressed the media for the first time since March 8, when the violations were revealed, that he had "some last month difficult. "

Tressel, who has apologized after the announcement of initial suspension for violating NCAA rules earlier this month, said through USA TODAY, "The biggest regret I had in my life have been when I've disappointed people, when I 'have let people down."

"Mistakes I made very disappointing. I apologize for that, as I have mentioned many times," he added.

Initially, Tressel hands next season and fined two match ban for failing to inform the school that he knew some players who sell goods and memorabilia before the school learned of the potential violations.

His sanction then increased earlier this month. Ohio State has recommended to the NCAA that Tressel suspended the first five games next season.

Tressel, who guided his 2002 squad Buckeyes to the title, national, has developed a 106-22 overall mark at Ohio State, including seven Big Ten Conference championship. He also has a bowl record of 6-4 and 5-3 in BCS bowl games.

Also at the press conference, Tressel linebackers coach Luke Fickell introduced as a replacement during the first five races of the 2011 season.

A former Ohio State player, Fickell, who also co-defensive coordinator, who in our 10th year on staff Buckeyes.

This news I get from the source http://www.allheadlinenews.com

Libya's Foreign Minister Resigns, Arrives in Britain

2011-03-31T08:42:00.000+07:00

Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa has arrived in Britain and has declared he is leaving Moammar Gadhafi's government.

The British foreign office said Wednesday that Koussa traveled from Tunisia to London under his own free will, telling officials he is resigning his post. British officials urged Mr. Gadhafi's other supporters to desert him as well.

A Libyan government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, denied the foreign minister has defected, saying he is in Britain on a "diplomatic mission." Libya's justice and interior ministers resigned early in the conflict and joined the rebels fighting in the east.

U.S. officials called Koussa's resignation "very significant," and an example of growing splits inside the Libyan government. The foreign minister has been a close confidant of Mr. Gadhafi and served as his intelligence chief for more than a decade.

In Washington, the White House repeated that no decision has been made to provide arms to rebel forces in Libya. Wednesday's statement was issued amid reports that President Barack Obama has approved a secret authorization for covert efforts to support anti-government rebels.

The New York Times reported that the CIA has put an unknown number of operatives into Libya to gather intelligence and make contact with anti-Gadhafi forces. The newspaper said the CIA declined comment on the report, which quoted what it called current and former British officials as saying British special forces and intelligence officers also are in the North African nation.

Earlier Wednesday, troops loyal to Mr. Gadhafi drove anti-government rebels from key coastal cities they had seized days before, reversing opposition gains made since international airstrikes began.
Libyan rebels retreated amid intense fighting around the strategic oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega. Many opposition fighters fell back to the city of Ajdabiya, from where residents were seen fleeing along the road toward the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

Pro-Gadhafi forces were shelling Brega and a rebel military spokesman said he expected the loyalists to enter the city by Wednesday night.

The spokesman ((Colonel Ahmad Bani)) also said as many as 3,600 heavily armed members of the Chadian Republican Guard are now fighting alongside Gadhafi loyalists. He dismissed concerns that members of al-Qaida are fighting with the Libyan rebels.

On Tuesday, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis told a congressional hearing that groups such as al-Qaida and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia have a small presence among the Libyan opposition. He also said the opposition leadership appeared to be "responsible men and women" fighting the Libyan government.

A prominent U.S.-based rights group said Wednesday that Mr. Gadhafi's forces have laid land mines around Ajdabiya when the coastal city was under their control earlier this month. In a statement from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Human Rights Watch said a civil defense team found more than 50 anti-vehicle and anti-personnel mines in a heavily traveled area.

A U.S. military spokesman said coalition airplanes resumed bombing pro-Gadhafi troops Wednesday, although the timing and location of those strikes was not specified.
Western nations began enforcing a United Nations-authorized no-fly zone over Libya on March 19 to protect civilians from harm.

This news I get from the source http://www.voanews.com

Japan nuclear: Fukushima seawater radioactivity rises

2011-03-30T14:06:00.000+07:00

Nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama briefed journalists

Seawater near Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has a much higher level of radiation than previously reported, officials say.

In one section, radioactive iodine stood at 3,355 times the legal limit, said Japan's nuclear safety agency.

However, an official said the iodine would have deteriorated considerably by the time it reached people.

Meanwhile, the president of the Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tepco has been admitted to hospital.

Masataka Shimizu is being treated for high blood pressure and dizziness, a Tepco spokesperson said.

Mr Shimizu has barely been seen in public since the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March which damaged the Fukushima plant.

Engineers are battling to restore power and restart the cooling systems at the plant.

Tepco has been accused of a lack of transparency and failing to provide information more promptly. It was also heavily criticised for issuing erroneous radiation readings at the weekend.

Tepco officials have announced a news conference for 1500 local time (0600 GMT).
'Unpredictable'

Earlier samples had put the iodine level in the sea at 1,850 times the legal limit.

The new readings were near reactor No 1 - 300m from the shore.

Much lower - but still elevated levels - of the same radioactive element have been found in seawater as far as 16km to the south.

The BBC's Mark Worthington in Tokyo says the discovery is the strongest indication so far that highly radioactive water is leaking into the sea.

Tepco and the safety agency say the exact source of the leak is unknown.

"Iodine 131 has a half-life of eight days, and even considering its concentration in marine life, it will have deteriorated considerably by the time it reaches people," Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's nuclear safety agency told a news conference.

Radioactive materials are measured by scientists in half-lives, or the time it takes to halve the radiation through natural decay.

Iodine 131 was blamed for the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan discussed the crisis at Fukushima with US President Barack Obama.
Continue reading the main story
A child holds bottled water in Tokyo, Japan (24 March 2011)

Q&A: Health effects of radiation

Mr Obama also pledged to help the people affected by the earthquake which damaged the Fukushima plant earlier this month, the Jiji news agency reported.

Workers at the Fukushima plant are trying to prevent radioactive water from seeping into the sea.

Highly radioactive liquid has been found inside and outside several reactor buildings.

Small amounts of plutonium have also been detected in soil at the plant - the latest indication that one of the reactors suffered a partial meltdown.

But, like the discovery of plutonium, the high levels of radiation found inside and outside reactor buildings are likely to have come from melted fuel rods.

Theories for the leak centre on two possibilities - steam is flowing from the core into the reactor housing and escaping through cracks, or the contaminated material is leaking from the damaged walls of the water-filled pressure control pool beneath the No 2 reactor.

The plutonium - used in the fuel mix in the No 3 reactor - is not at levels that threaten human health, officials said.

Source:www.bbc.co.uk

Japanese power company chief hospitalized

2011-03-30T13:53:00.000+07:00

Tokyo (CNN) -- The president of the embattled utility that owns the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been hospitalized due to "fatigue and stress," the company said Wednesday.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu was hospitalized Tuesday. The company has not released further details about his condition.
Shimizu made a public apology several days after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems at the plant. The last time he was spotted in public was at a March 13 news conference.
Reporters peppered company officials with questions about the president's whereabouts Sunday. A spokesman said Shimizu had been staying inside the company's Tokyo headquarters.
His physical condition had been on the decline from overwork, the spokesman said Sunday.

Japan: Trace of plutonium not a threat?

Radioactivity 100,000 times normal

Setback at nuclear plant?

NGOs critical of Japan's quake response

Living near a nuclear plant

News of Shimizu's hospitalization comes a day after an inspector for Japan's nuclear safety agency described austere working conditions at the plant.
Workers were sleeping in conference rooms, corridors, and stairwells on leaded mats intended to keep radiation at bay, safety inspector Kazuma Yokota said.
They were also eating only two meals each day -- a carefully rationed breakfast of 30 crackers and vegetable juice, and for dinner, a ready-to-eat meal or something out of a can.
"My parents were washed away by the tsunami, and I still don't know where they are," one worker wrote in an e-mail that was verified as authentic by a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
"Crying is useless," said another e-mail. "If we're in hell now, all we can do is crawl up towards heaven."
In a statement released March 18, Shimizu said the company was taking the crisis seriously.
"We sincerely apologize to all the people living in the surrounding area of the power station and people in Fukushima Prefecture, as well as to the people of society for causing such great concern and nuisance," he said.
Meanwhile, tests revealed radioactive iodine at more than 3,000 times the normal level in ocean water near the plant -- a new high, Japan's nuclear safety agency said Wednesday.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said monitoring data collected Tuesday afternoon detected the I-131 isotope at 3,355 times the normal level.
The sample was taken 330 meters (1,080 feet) away from one of the plant's water discharge points, the agency said.
Radiation readings from seawater outside the plant have fluctuated. They spiked Sunday, then dropped a day later.
Officials did not pinpoint a particular cause for the higher readings.
But officials and experts have noted that workers at the plant face a difficult balancing act as they struggle to keep reactors cool and prevent radioactive water from leaking into the ocean.
Water has been a key weapon in the battle to stave off a meltdown at the facility. Workers have pumped and sprayed tons of water to keep the plant's radioactive fuel from overheating, and the plant is running out of room to store the now-contaminated liquid.

"They have a problem where the more they try to cool it down, the greater the radiation hazard as that water leaks out from the plant," said Jim Walsh, an international security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source

Google launches in-app billing for Android

2011-03-30T13:44:00.001+07:00

Now available for developers of Android App billing! Google announced on its developer blog that makes available at its service-billing app for Android, an arrival of a few days earlier than expected. This highly anticipated feature will let users make purchases in the application and bring Android equivalent to IOS. It's also a new way for developers to monetize applications. Instead of adding advertising or selling application with a high purchase price, the developer can add value-added content in the application and attract users to make purchases.

If you are a user and want to test these features, several developers including Disney Mobile, ComiXology, Glu Mobile, and Trendy Fun given early access to billing in-app. This group has updated the application chosen to support this new feature. This application is specially selected, including the popular Tap Tap Revenge, Comic, Gun Bros., Deer Hunter Challenge HD, WSOP3, and Defender Dungeon: FW Deluxe.

If you're a developer, what are you waiting for? Point your browser to the Google Android development site where you can download the sample code, documentation, and began work this new revenue stream into your application. Happy coding!

Source

Anti-radiation potassium iodide nuclear

2011-03-30T11:26:00.001+07:00

Potassium iodide: mythology in a bottle?

"There are a lot of mythology about the use of potassium iodide as a protection against radiation poisoning", said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and disaster preparation specialist at Columbia University.
Dr. Redlener continued by saying that this drug is limited to the effects of radiation, and even then only against thyroid cancer is more common among children.
Be that as may, diagnosed cases of thyroid cancer is very common after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 the rector, of which more than 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed among children who have been exposed to radiation levels from the event.
Although the work to develop a "vaccine" against the so-called radiation disease is underway in places like Israel Weizmann Institute, the results so far are still not convincing. The best way to overcome the effects of radiation, is still to understand the different types of radiation that is harmful to humans, especially those strontinium like 90 (which found its way into the bone, especially bone marrow, causing cancer).
Radiation levels are also very important to monitor, especially for those located closer to the source of radiation.
Being educated as what the various types and levels of radiation, and what the effects on the body is a good idea.
In the short term, avoiding contact with radiation is the best case scenario. Hopefully, the research for radiation sickness serum made by people like Dr. Andrei Gudkov, it will eventually bear fruit. Dr. Gudkov was chief of staff at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York as well as a researcher at the Cleveland-Bio Labs, a branch of the Cleveland Medical Institute in the United States.
As for what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, it is definitely a race against time.

Review Iphone Game Pes2011

2011-03-30T01:10:00.000+07:00

In much the same way, there are regular changes in the guard on the iPhone. PES 2010 looks very serious on its rivals by the end of last season, shot and arguably a narrow lead at the top of the table.
Now it seems the people at Konami can not handle the pressure, Indeed, the surface similarity between the two games made a surprise PES 2011 and the failure of its a.
Everything from display in the game with control of PES 2010 has brought this new edition, with a virtual thumbstick and two-button approach to passing, attacking, and overcome as comfortable as expected.
The two one-touch and accelerometer controls to make the display, with intuitive approach to convert the former touching anywhere on the screen to pass through the same logical or fire reached here as in PES 2010.
What is different at the speed of play. focus on the sly movement combines with a precise pass to open the opponent's defense. PES 2010 is almost perfected this approach, which has a fluidity and frankness.
For comparison, PES 2011 play like the early beta of its predecessor. To begin with, Players timid play slow tempo. Moving the same time, in the end, it is still possible, but they seem less realistic here, with players stumbled around the field like a team who lack confidence.
Violations have also taken a step back. It's not unusual to see two or three penalties awarded every game for what seems perfectly legal to handle in the box.
Rare is the game that ended with a full list of men on both sides. Red Cards are usually fair, but the deal that guarantees they come too often from computer-controlled players.
Slip and slide
None of the defects completely ruins the game - it's still very possible to have a good kickaround with PES 2011 - but they are especially strange considering that they could not be found when attempts were rolled into town last year.
Konami has taken what is a step forward and walk back. At almost every level, PES 2011 stood in the shade of his predecessor.
Each one level but. PES 2011 multiplayer welcome to the fold, delivered either via wi-fi and Bluetooth. This is extra important, giving added life to play PES 2010 could be said deficiency.
Indeed, when added to the mode of League, Cup, and training standards - Konami's license UEFA Champions League again ensure the appearance and the European League - PES 2011 is a big package.
It is also far from disaster. Newcomers will, more than likely, almost no attention to what's going to feel like a step backwards for those who enjoy PES 2010. However, those looking for the best PES will do well to turn the clock back to June, due to PES 2011 is sad evidence of a series of slowly slipping back to the table.

Disco a Group Texting Application For iPhone

2011-03-29T15:54:00.000+07:00

What's this? A new Google application, but not Android For iPhone, This is a pretty crazy for At understand it, so they can hang out with us here. Several years ago, Google acknowledged the company by the name of Slide, and before this week, there is absolutely no mention of how the company will be rolled into the plans of Google. But now, it seems the company has quite a bit to do with mobile applications, and Disco looks to be launching the first of them.
Disco will be launching the first application as an application of IOS, which is certainly ironic. A Google subsidiary launched an application for a rival platform before Android? Certainly strange. But maybe that Slide has invested heavily in IOS development, and given the huge user base, Google still stand to gain some serious market share. No need to hold grudges if you can draw multiple platforms, right?

Disco is a group texting service which basically allows multiple users to the text around each other. Think of it as the group Twitter account, in which only a select group of people received the message. But of course, not the Tweets, this is the text. You can now sign up for group texting Disco number in order to get things started, and if you have a school project or a group of colleagues you need frequent contact as a group, this looks like a great choice.
Own application for the iPhone, but it is important to note who can take advantage as long as they register and have text-capable phone. Initial reports on the application itself shows that things are crashing quite regularly, but you can always just register on the website itself. Something tells us it's just a matter of time before all of this communication group / social network is a wrapper to the service, that's all.