How sweep it is: Giants finish off Tigers

The San Francisco Giants celebrate defeating the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of baseball's World Series on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won the World Series 4-0. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Paul Kitagaki Jr.) MAGS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT (KCRA3, KXTV10, KOVR13, KUVS19, KMAZ31, KTXL40); MANDATORY CREDIT

The San Francisco Giants celebrate defeating the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of baseball's World Series on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won the World Series 4-0. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Paul Kitagaki Jr.) MAGS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT (KCRA3, KXTV10, KOVR13, KUVS19, KMAZ31, KTXL40); MANDATORY CREDIT

San Francisco Giant's catcher Buster Posey and pitcher Sergio Romo celebrate defeating the Detroit Tigers in Game 4 of baseball's World Series on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won the World Series 4-0. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Paul Kitagaki Jr.) MAGS OUT; LOCAL TV OUT (KCRA3, KXTV10, KOVR13, KUVS19, KMAZ31, KTXL40); MANDATORY CREDIT

San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Sergio Romo (54) and catcher Buster Posey and celebrate after striking out Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera (24) to win Game 4 of baseball's World Series Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won 4-3. (AP Photo/Tim Donnelly)

San Francisco Giants celebrate after the Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, in Game 4 of baseball's World Series Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won the World Series 4-0. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

San Francisco Giants celebrate after the Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, in Game 4 of baseball's World Series Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, in Detroit. The Giants won the World Series 4-0. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

DETROIT (AP) ? Kung Fu Panda, The Freak, The Beard and all their seed-throwing buddies are on top of baseball ? again.

They may be under the radar, unappreciated and unexpected. But they're unassailable, the winner of two World Series titles in the last three years.

Their sweep of the Detroit Tigers, completed Sunday night with a 4-3, 10-inning win, was simply historic.

No National League team had swept a World Series since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds.

No NL team had won twice in a three-year span since the Big Red Machine in 1975-76.

"I'm numb, really, the fact that we've won two World Series in the last three years," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "This will sink in, but right now, I'm kind of speechless on that."

This happens in the NL only slightly more often than appearances of Haley's Comet. They are just the fifth NL team to accomplish the feat since the 1907-08 Chicago Cubs, joining the 1921-22 New York Giants, the St. Louis Cardinals of '44 and '46, the Los Angeles Dodgers of '63 and '65, and that Big Red Machine.

And these Giants did it with small ball, becoming only the fifth big league team ? and the first since the 1982 Cardinals ? to win the title after finishing dead last in home runs during the regular season.

"Our guys had a date with destiny," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said.

Marco Scutaro delivered one more key hit this October, a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning against Phil Coke.

On a night of biting cold, stiff breezes and some rain, the Giants sealed the title when Sergio Romo got Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera to look at strike three for the final out.

"Tonight was a battle," said Giants catcher Buster Posey, the NL batting champion. "And I think tonight was a fitting way for us to end it because those guys played hard. They didn't stop, and it's an unbelievable feeling."

Posey, the only player in the starting lineup when San Francisco win the 2010 clincher at Texas, celebrated with his teammates in the center of the Comerica Park diamond. In the clubhouse, they hoisted the trophy, passed it around and shouted the name of each player who held it.

"World Series champions!" hollered outfielder Hunter Pence, who started the pregame seed-tossing ritual.

Pedro Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda, was benched for most of the 2010 Series and then went 8 for 16 this year, including a three-homer performance in Game 1, to win MVP honors.

"I was ready for the moment," he said. "I was waiting for the opportunity to be in the playoffs again."

Cabrera delivered the first big hit for Detroit, interrupting San Francisco's run of dominant pitching with a two-run, wind-blown homer over the right-field wall in the third.

Posey put the Giants ahead 3-2 with a two-run homer in the sixth and Delmon Young hit a tying home run in the bottom half.

San Francisco then won a battle of bullpens.

Ryan Theriot led off the 10th with a single against Phil Coke, moved up on Brandon Crawford's sacrifice and scored on a shallow single by Scutaro, the MVP of the NL championship series. Center fielder Austin Jackson made a throw home, to no avail.

"We were very adamant that we have to step on their throats," Giants pitcher Barry Zito said. "We saw what they did to New York."

Santiago Casilla got one out in the ninth for the win. Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th for his third save of the Series.

The Giants finished the month with seven straight wins and their seventh Series championship. They handed the Tigers their seventh straight World Series loss dating to 2006.

"Obviously, there was no doubt about it," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "It was freaky. I would have never guessed we would have swept the Yankees and I would have never guessed the Giants would have swept us."

The Giants combined for a 1.42 ERA, outscored the Tigers 16-6 and held them to a .159 batting average ? third-lowest in Series history ahead of only the 1966 Baltimore Orioles (.146) and 1966 Dodgers (.142).

"This was the worst day of my career," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "They played great, and we didn't. It's that simple."

The NL has won three in a row for the first time in 30 years. San Francisco won six elimination games en route to the title.

Once again, San Francisco took an early lead. Pence hit a one-hop drive over the center-field fence for a double and Brandon Belt tripled off the right-field wall on the next pitch for a 1-0 lead in the second.

The next inning, Cabrera gave the Tigers a reason to think this night might get them back on track to end a title drought dating to 1984.

With two outs and a runner on first, Cabrera lofted an opposite-field fly to right ? off the bat, it looked like a routine out shy of the warning track. But with winds gusting over 25 mph, the ball kept carrying, Pence kept drifting toward the wall and the crowd kept getting louder.

Just like that, it was gone.

Cabrera's homer gave Detroit its first lead of the Series, ended its 20-inning scoreless streak. Trailing for the first time since Game 4 of the NL championship series, Posey and the Giants put a dent in Detroit's optimism. Scutaro led off the sixth with a single and clapped all the way around the bases when Posey sent a shot that sailed just inside the left-field foul pole for a 3-2 lead.

Young, the ALCS MVP against the Yankees, made it 3-all with another opposite-field homer to right, this one a no-doubt drive.

But other Tigers disappointed. Prince Fielder, signed to a $214 million deal last winter, finished 1 for 14 (.071) against the Giants without an RBI. Cabrera, the first Triple Crown winner in 45 years, was 3 for 13 (.231) with three RBIs.

"You just don't get to write your own script," Fielder said.

San Francisco did. The Giants overcame a 2-0 deficit against Cincinnati in the best-of-division series by winning three straight on the road. They overcame a 3-1 hole against defending champion St. Louis in the league championship. And then they became the first champion that hit the fewest home runs in the majors since St. Louis in 1982.

Brian Wilson ? aka The Beard ? missed nearly the entire season. Tim Lincecum ? aka The Freak, was ace of the staff during the 2010 title run. He morphed into a middle reliever who held the Tigers hitless in a pair of outings.

Sandoval said "heart" was the critical ingredient.

"It's amazing what they accomplished," Bochy said. "I think when you look at this club, the terms 'teamwork,' 'team play,' and 'play as a team,' that's used loosely, but these guys truly did. They set aside their own agenda and asked what's best for the club. And we put guys in different roles, nobody ever said a word, complained or anything, and that's the only way it got done."

NOTES: Detroit 2B Omar Infante broke his left hand when he was hit by a pitch from Casilla in the ninth. ... Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was at the game. ... In addition to the bat Sandoval used for his first two homers in the opener, the Hall of Fame received Ryan Vogelsong's jersey from his Game 3 win, Bochy's warm-up jacket, Gregor Blanco's glove, Pence's bat ? named "Tim" ? Scutaro's spikes, Brandon Crawford's cap and Matt Cain's spikes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-29-World-Series/id-3ad9c1cb6fc34d5791af173765f60703

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Silvio Berlusconi convicted in Italy of tax fraud

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012 file photo, Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi reacts during a press conference in Rome, Italy. A court in Italy has convicted, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012 file photo, Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi reacts during a press conference in Rome, Italy. A court in Italy has convicted, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

In this photo released by the Berlusconi press office Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi tapes a video message where he announces he will not run for a fourth term as premier in spring elections. Berlusconi has until now been coy about his intentions. But the three-time former premier posted a statement on his movement's website yesterday, under the headline: "I won't run for premier.", following today with a video where he confirmes his intentions. (AP Photo/Livio Anticoli, Berlusconi press office)

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2012 file photo, Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi wipes his forehead during a press conference in Rome, Italy. A court in Italy has convicted, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2011 file photo, Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi grimaces during a press conference in Rome, Italy. A court in Italy has convicted, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four years in prison. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)

File- In this Thursday, March 8, 2012 file photo, then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, center, and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, right, smile during their meeting in the mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana near the Black Sea resort of Sochi, southern Russia. A court in Italy has convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced him to four-years in prison. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service)

MILAN (AP) ? Just two days after announcing he won't run in spring elections, former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years in prison Friday in a verdict that could see him barred from public office for five years.

Berlusconi, after dominating Italian politics for nearly two decades, has seen his power weakening in the last year as a sex scandal tarnished his image and he was forced to resign as premier after failing to convince financial markets that he could come up with convincing reforms to shield Italy from Europe's debt woes.

In the latest blow, the 76-year-old billionaire media mogul received the stiffest sentence among the four co-defendants convicted in a scheme that involved inflating the price his media empire paid for TV rights to U.S. movies and pocketing the difference. And the sentence was more than the three years and eight months sought by prosecutors.

The court, which began hearing the case in 2006, also said Berlusconi could not hold public office for five years or manage any company for three years, penalties that would take force only if the conviction is upheld on two levels of appeal.

In a statement, Berlusconi's lawyers condemned the verdict as "absolutely incredible," and said they would appeal. Berlusconi is expected to remain free while two levels of appeal are exhausted.

However, a corruption bill drafted by the technical government headed by Premier Mario Monti, who replaced Berlusconi, would bar anyone convicted at the trial level from seeking office.

Berlusconi denounced the conviction as "unreal" and the case as politically motivated ?as he has the numerous charges against him mostly for business dealings since entering political life in 1994. Berlusconi stayed away from the Milan tribunal, where his lawyers on Friday were defending him in a separate courtroom on charges of having paid for sex with an underage Moroccan teen and trying to cover it up.

"It is a political conviction that I can define perfectly well as incredible and intolerable," Berlusconi said in a phone call to his Italia 1 private network Friday evening.

He denied that there was any connection between his decision to step aside and allow another center-right candidate to seek the premiership in spring elections.

"My lawyers and I never thought that such a conviction would be possible," Berlusconi said.

The court read its reasons for the conviction immediately in court, a rare occurrence given they have 90 days to write them. It was a sign that the judges want to speed the case along to the appellate level before the charges expire, sometime next year or early 2014.

"He has been around this particular block more than a few times," said Alexander Stille, who has written several books on Italy. "I don't see ? partly given his advanced age and the nature of power in Italy ? him doing jail time."

Berlusconi has been convicted in the past at the trial level. But the convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or seen the statute of limitations run out.

Roberto D'Alimonte, a political science professor at Rome's LUISS University, said Italians won't change their minds based on the conviction.

"Foreigners will be surprised, but not Italians," D'Alimonte said.

The real impact will be in whether the provision barring those convicted at the trial level from office will make it through Parliament in the corruption bill. "It is something to monitor," D'Alimonte said.

Prosecutors allege the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private television network and falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes. They said the defendants then inflated the price for the TV rights of some 3,000 films as they relicensed them internally to Berlusconi's networks, pocketing the difference amounting to around ?250 million.

A total of 11 people were on trial.

Three were acquitted, including a close associate of Berlusconi, Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset.

Berlusconi and three others were convicted, including a Hollywood producer, Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence. The four convicted must deposit a total of ?10 million ($13 million) into a court-ordered fund while the appeals proceed.

Four defendants were cleared because statute of limitations had run out on their charge.

Berlusconi is not the first former Italian premier to be convicted of criminal charges.

Former Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi eluded an arrest warrant and turned up at his villa in Tunisia in 1994 after a court in Italy charged him in a corruption case. He was tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison, never returned to Italy and died in exile. Craxi was considered Berlusconi's mentor thanks to his opening to private television in Italy from a state monopoly.

Former seven-time Christian Democrat premier, Giulio Andreotti, was convicted of involvement in a Mafia murder. But he was cleared on appeal and never went to jail.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-26-Italy-Berlusconi%20Trial/id-2ade18968692403480a84e922ed10f33

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Glitch halts South Korea's third attempt at rocket launch

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea called off the launch of a space rocket on Friday after a glitch in the Russian-built booster halted preparations five hours before the scheduled lift-off.

It was South Korea's third attempt to put a satellite into orbit and comes after North Korea succeeded in launching a rocket in April that it said was carrying a satellite, only to abort the mission early in its flight.

Friday's failure also puts South Korea far behind economic rivals China, India and Japan.

South Korean officials at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) that is conducting the launch said Russian engineers had found a leak in the sealing while injecting helium gas into the first-stage booster.

The rocket will be taken off its launch pad and moved to a hangar to repair the faulty seal, which will require at least three days, the officials said.

"If the problem is serious, we may not be able to launch in the current window," KARI President Kim Seung-jo said. South Korea has set a launch window of October 26 to 31. The officials indicated a new window may have to be set.

South Korea's second launch attempt in 2010 ended 137 seconds into flight when the rocket exploded before sending its payload into orbit. The first attempt in 2009 also failed when the rocket failed to release the payload.

South Korea's launch attempts have riled North Korea, which had been hit with U.N. sanctions for its rocket tests, which the reclusive state says are aimed at putting a satellite into orbit, but which critics say are tests for a ballistic missile program aimed at delivering a nuclear payload.

North and South Korea remain technically at war after an armistice rather than a peace treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/glitch-halts-south-koreas-third-attempt-rocket-launch-033202248.html

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Tabby - Orange - Corey - Medium - Baby - Male - Cat | Arlington ...

Tabby - Orange - Corey - Medium - Baby - Male - Cat

If you are interested in adopting this cat, please fill out our cat adoption questionnaire <http://homewardtrails.org/adopt-a-pet/pet-adoption-forms?utm_source=petfinder&utm_medium=adoptionforms&utm_campaign=cats> and e-mail it to [email removed] .

Adorable yung orange and white kitten who is social and healthy. Corey must be adopted into a home that has another young cat or can be adopted with one of our kittens. Please check out Nellie or Loki for a great match. Breed Estimate: Tabby orange and white De-Clawed: no Approximate weight: around 2.5 lbs Approximate age: 10 weeks mid Oct. aprox The adoption fee for this cat is $50.00, which helps with the cost of routine vet care. This fee DOES NOT INCLUDE spay/neuter surgery If the animal you are adopting is not already spayed/neutered, you will be required to sign a contract legally obligating you to have the animal altered. If you are interested in adopting this cat, please fill out our cat adoption questionnaire <http://homewardtrails.org/adopt-a-pet/pet-adoption-forms?utm_source=petfinder&utm_medium=adoptionforms&utm_campaign=cats> and e-mail it to [email removed] Thank you for contacting Homeward Trails Animal Rescue and helping to save a life! Want to meet a handful of cats in person? Check out a list of our upcoming pet adoption events <http://www.homewardtrails.org/event-list?utm_source=petfinder&utm_medium=events&utm_campaign=cats> . You can save animals like this one by becoming a foster! Fosters are like way stations between high kill shelters and forever homes. We need fosters so that we can save cats before they are euthanized at the shelters. If you are interested in becoming a foster, please check out our information about fostering <http://homewardtrails.org/foster-a-pet/dog-and-cat-foster-program?utm_source=petfinder&utm_medium=fosterinfo&utm_campaign=cats> .

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Google cameras map popular Grand Canyon trails

3 hrs.

Felicia Fonseca , The Associated Press

Google and its street-view cameras already have taken users to narrow cobblestone alleys in Spain using a tricycle, inside?the Smithsonian with a push?cart and to British Columbia's snow-covered slopes by snowmobile.

The search giant now has brought its all-seeing eyes ? mounted for the first time on a backpack ? down into the Grand Canyon, showcasing the attraction's most popular hiking trails on the South Rim and other walkways.

It's the latest evolution in mapping technology for the Mountain View, Calif., company, which has used a rosette of cameras to photograph thousands of cities and towns in dozens of countries for its Street View feature. With a click of the mouse, Internet users are transported virtually for a 360-degree view of locales they may have read about only in tourist books and seen in flat, 2-D images.

"Any of these sort of iconic, cultural, historical locations that are not accessible by road is where we want to go," said Ryan Falor, product manager at Google.

Google announced the trekker earlier this year but made its first official collection of data this week at the Grand Canyon.

The backpacks aren't ready for volunteer use, but Google has said it wants to deploy them at national forests, to the narrow streets of Venice, Mount Everest and to ancient ruins and castles.

The move to capture the Grand Canyon comes after Apple chose to drop Google Maps from its mobile operating systems and opted to use its own mapping program that was derided for, among other things, poor directions and missing towns.

Steve Silverman, operations manager for Google didn't directly address the competition in saying: "Just trying to document a trail, it's going to be hard to beat this."

Google launched its Street View feature in 2007 and has expanded from five U.S. cities to more than 3,000 in 43 countries. Google teams and volunteers have covered more than 5 million miles with the Street View vehicles on a scale that other companies haven't approached, said Mike Dobson, president of Telemapics, a company that monitors mapping efforts.

"You could safely say that it's a standout, well-used application and they don't really have any competition," he said.

As the sun rose Monday, Luc Vincent, Google engineering director, strapped on one of the 40-pound backpacks and set down the Bright Angel Trail to the Colorado River ? a nearly 10-mile hike that goes from 6,900 feet in elevation to 2,400 feet. He hiked back up from Phantom Ranch, which can be 30 degrees warmer than at the rim, through the South Kaibab Trail and also gathered data on other trails.

The so-called trekker captures images every 2.5 seconds with 15 cameras that are 5 megapixels each from the rest areas, the steep switchbacks, the change from juniper trees to scrub brush and the traffic that moves aside as a courtesy to mule riders.

The GPS data is limited, so Google must compensate with sensors that record temperature, vibrations and the orientation of the device as it changes, before it?stitches?the images together and makes them available to users in a few months, Falor said.

Hikers that were on the trail when the data was gathered will have their faces blurred ? an attempt by Google to ensure privacy. Street View has run into problems in places like Europe and Australia for scooping up information transmitted over unsecured wireless networks.

A removable hard drive on the trekker stores the data gathered at the Grand Canyon. Tourists looked at the trekker strangely this week, as if it was something from outer space.

Sharon Kerfoot, a first-time visitor from Alberta said being able to view the terrain ahead of time, gauge the difficulty of the hike and know just how wide the path is would benefit those considering a trip to the Grand Canyon. She and a group of friends headed down the same path as Vincent but on mules, not foot.

"I think it's an excellent idea to give people a broader perspective on what they're getting into," she said.

What the images won't tell visitors is how much water they should carry down the trails, how to prepare for temperature changes, what type of food to bring and how much, and how best to protect the natural resources, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said.

"Stitched together with other information out there, the technology could be valuable," she said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/travelkit/google-cameras-map-popular-grand-canyon-trails-1C6643654

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Modular Homes Built to Ship Inexpensively | Daily Business News

JetsonGreen reports Los Angeles-based Connect:Homes has developed a patented system for delivering their modular homes to reduce the overall expense. Noting costs to ship a prefabricated home cross country can amount to $100,000, but to send a container with 64,000 pounds of goods around the world for $5,000, founders Jared Levy and Gordon Stott have developed a framework that allows their homes to be transported by the intermodal shipping container network. Additionally, to circumvent the cost of renting a crane to offload the home at its site, which can run $15,000 a day, giant castors are used to roll the modules onto a foundation. As MHProNews has learned, Connect:Homes include LED lighting, recycled content glass countertops, insulation to maintain interior comfort in any climate, and other features that build credits toward LEED Certification. Homes start at $140 per square foot out of the factory.

(Photo credit: Bethany Nauert-West End/JetsonGreen)

Categories: Business, Company News, Factory-Built Homes, Green, Modular, News Item Tags: castors, comfort in any climate, crane, cross country, founders, glass countertops, insulation, interior comfort, intermodal shipping, jared, levy, MHProNews, modular homes, patented system, shipping container, square foot, stott

Source: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/daily-business-news/modular-homes-built-to-ship-inexpensively/

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CSN: Tigers expect crazy crowd in SF

October 23, 2012, 6:45 pm

SAN FRANCISCO ? The Detroit Tigers deserve to win a Bay Area baseball Mr. Congeniality award.

When talking about what they expect from the AT&T Park crowd, many Tigers managed to compliment both Giants and A?s fans in the process.

?Hopefully that Oakland series prepared us for this,? Austin Jackson said. ?Just watching [the NLCS] on TV it was loud, so I can?t imagine how it?s going to be live.?

ALCS MVP Delmon Young compared the scene in Oakland during the Division Series to an international soccer match.

?If they?re anything like Oakland, it?s going to be a crazy series because that was the most intense scene I?ve ever seen. That was like playing in FIFA World Cup soccer. The only thing that separates them is a bridge so I think it?ll be crazy.?

The noise at AT&T Park during Games 6 and 7 forced Fox announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver to raise their voices during the game broadcast and the auxiliary press box in the third deck would shake during big moments.

Tigers catcher Gerald Laird is expecting more of the same, or worse, in the World Series.

?We expect the worst. We see how the Bay Area is. It?s loud. Oakland was great; it was a great atmosphere. We expect the same here in San Francisco.?

Laird said he was really impressed while watching the end of Game 7 by the fans that embraced a strong rain like it was a hot shower.

?You can tell last night no one left and it was a downpour for the last out. So we know how much they love their baseball here. But after going through Oakland, we feel like we can play in any stadium because it was probably the loudest we?d been in all year.?

The Giants helped their crowd get loud in Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS because they scored early in each game. Marco Scutaro, the NLCS MVP, was a big reason why the fans had something to cheer about early, whether it was the age-old ?Let?s go Giants!? chants or the ?MVP! MVP!? encouragement for Buster Posey when he came up with ducks on the pond.

So how do the Tigers plan on keeping Scutaro, who hit .500 over 28 at-bats in the NLCS, off base in front of Posey?

?It?s tough; you?ve got to pitch to your pitcher?s strengths,? Laird said. ?We felt like the Cardinals made a lot of mistakes to him and he didn?t miss it. That?s what good hitters do. We have to execute pitches to him, we?ve got to make him feel uncomfortable in the box and I feel like we have the right-handed pitching to do that.?

Game 1 starter Justin Verlander has been known to quiet opposing crowds with his electric stuff, but even when he was cruising through the A?s lineup in Game 5 of the ALDS, the crowd in Oakland was relentless.

The Giants and their fans will likely still be riding the high from a Game 7 win, and the Tigers are well aware of that.

?They?re definitely going to have some momentum going into this next game,? Jackson said. ?I think it?s going to be a good matchup. I really think it?s going to be a tough battle for both teams.?

Source: http://www.csnbayarea.com/10/23/12/Tigers-expect-Oakland-style-craziness-fr/nbcsportsgiants.html?blockID=792601&feedID=2796

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EU regulators charge Microsoft over browser breach

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MM: Vegan MOFO wtf

Well, silly me. I just realized it's October which is ?Vegan Month of Food.... better late than never?
What's Vegan MOFO?? You basically write as much as possible about veganism and/or vegan food- recipes, stories, favorite products, etc. From the website:
The idea is to write as much as you can all month, about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related ? your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu ? you get the idea, right?

Check here for previous Vegan MOFO entries including an AWESOME little series from Rikki Cupcake of Seitanic Vegan Heathen.

Now, I'm not vegan (though I try to eat vegan fairly often) but it is something that is important to me and I try to do my best to limit items like cheese and dairy. I do eat eggs somewhat often (thank you chickens!). I don't drink milk and I rarely indulge in things like yogurt, sour cream, etc. We use a lot of vegan?substitutes?in our house like Vegenaise and Earth Balance vegan butter. I just love examining and making vegan meals because of the simplicity of it all. Of course there is vegan?junk food?and highly?processed?vegan options, but the vegan meals that really get me goin are the simple, fresh ones that use just a few ingredients. ?Here are some vegan recipes I been collecting on Pinterest. I can't wait to try them.?

Spinach Pancakes- Whaaaattt??
Cocoa Roasted Cauliflower with Grape Farro- sounds weird and strangely yummy. I've seen a lot on?Pinterest?lately about roasted grapes. I have to try this.?
Jack-o-pumpkin Breakfast?Sandwich- OMG.
Vegan Nachos with Cashew Cheese- I can't wait to try to make my own cashew cheese. I'm kinda obsessed with the thought of it but keep forgetting to try.?
Raw Lasagna- This is a perfect example of simple food that lets the vegetables/ingredients shine.?

If you do Vegan MOFO let me know! I'd love to check it out.?I'm?thinking about doing a post on my journey to vegetarianism. We will see how that turns out.

Source: http://merrymayblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/vegan-mofo-wtf.html

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Chris Webby Challenges Rappers To 'Step Their Bars Up'

'There's definitely a few meanings that you could use with it,' Webby tells Mixtape Daily or his new tape, Bars on Me.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Ade Mangum

Chris Webby
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696013/chris-webby-bars-on-me-mixtape.jhtml

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How highway bridges sing -- or groan -- in the rain to reveal their health: Just a drop of water can indicate the stability of a bridge

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) ? A team of BYU engineers has found that by listening to how a highway bridge sings in the rain they can determine serious flaws in the structure.

Employing a method called impact-echo testing, professors Brian Mazzeo and Spencer Guthrie can diagnose the health of a bridge's deck based on the acoustic footprint produced by a little bit of water.

Specifically, the sound created when a droplet makes impact can reveal hidden dangers in the bridge.

"There is a difference between water hitting intact structures and water hitting flawed structures," Mazzeo said. "We can detect things you can't see with a visual inspection; things happening within the bridge itself."

The study presents a more efficient and cost-effective method to address the mounting safety concerns over bridge corrosion and aging across the U.S. and beyond.

While impact-echo testing for bridges is nothing new to engineers, the BYU researchers are the first to use water droplets to produce acoustic responses. Current testing relies on solid objects such as hammers and chains.

The idea is to detect delamination, or the separation of structural layers, in a concrete bridge deck. The most common method involves dragging a chain over a bridge and marking spots where dull, hollow sound is produced.

However, this method can take hours to carry out for a single bridge and requires lane closures that come with additional complications.

"The infrastructure in the U.S. is aging, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done," Guthrie said. "We need to be able to rapidly assess bridge decks so we can understand the extent of deterioration and apply the right treatment at the right time."

The study results, published in the October issue of Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation International, could help transform deck surveys into rapid, automated and cost efficient exercises.

The method is as simple as dropping droplets of water on the material and recording the sound. The acoustic response indicates the health of the concrete.

"The response gives you an indication of both the size and the depth of the flaw," Mazzeo said.

Mazzeo said the method could be used to test materials beyond bridges, including aircraft composites, which are susceptible to delamination.

Though the current research is preliminary, the researchers envision a day where bridge deck surveys would take only a few moments.

"We would love to be able to drive over a bridge at 25 or 30 mph, spray it with water while we're driving and be able to detect all the structural flaws on the bridge," Mazzeo said. "We think there is a huge opportunity, but we need to keep improving on the physics."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham Young University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Brian A. Mazzeo, Anjali N. Patil, W. Spencer Guthrie. Acoustic impact-echo investigation of concrete delaminations using liquid droplet excitation. NDT & E International, 2012; 51: 41 DOI: 10.1016/j.ndteint.2012.05.007

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/3PdGixgyWSg/121022162701.htm

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Matabeleland Tuskers v Mid West Rhinos ? Zimbabwe Domestic ...

Matabeleland Tuskers v Mid West Rhinos ? Zimbabwe Domestic Twenty20 Competition ? Match Update

Solid bowling performances from Glen Querl and Njabulo Ncube saw the Matabeleland Tuskers claiming a 15-run win over the Mid West Rhinos in the ongoing Zimbabwe Domestic Twenty20 Competition, at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on October 21.

The Rhinos won the toss and elected to field first, and their bowlers launched a successful attack, led by Richard Muzhange (3-0-13-3), Ed Rainsford (4-0-15-2) and Graeme Cremer (4-0-20-2), which saw the Tuskers reduced to a paltry total of 96 by the end of 20 overs.

Openers Craig Ervine (4) and Brian Chari (23) were both insipid, and found themselves dismissed early, by Rainsford and Malcolm Waller respectively. Sean Ervine top-scored for the team with 30, but he, alongside wicketkeeper batsman Charles Coventry (2), was snapped up by Muzhange in the 13^th over.

The next over saw two more wickets falling, this time at the hands of Cremer, who sent both skipper Keegan Meth (1) and Terry Duffin (1) back to the pavilion, reducing the Tuskers to 64 for 6. With the exception of Glen Querl (16) and Godwill Mamhiyo (14), none of the remaining batsmen managed to contribute decent scores, and by the end of 20 overs, the Tuskers posted a final total of 96.

However, the team? made up for their dismal batting performance by launching an effective bowling attack. Led by Querl (4-0-15-3) and Ncube (4-0-11-2), with Meth (4-0-17-1), Chris Mpofu (3.2-0-19-1), and Thabo Mboyi (2-0-12-1) chipping in with supporting performances, the Tuskers managed to limit the Rhinos to 81, all out, by the 19^th over of their innings.

Opener Vusi Sibanda was trapped, lbw, on duck by Meth in the very first over, and his dismissal set the tone for the rest of the innings. Only four batsmen ? Mark Vermeulen (10), Malcolm Waller (11), Steven Trenchard (14), and Remembrance Nyathi (20) ? managed to reach double figures, and the highest partnership on the Rhinos side was a 16-run stand between Cremer (2) and Trenchard. The rest were unable to stand up to the opposition?s bowlers, and the Rhinos? batsmen failed to support the effort their bowlers had put forth.

By the 19th over, the team was all out at 81, and the Tuskers, saved by their bowling attack after a poor performance with the bat, went on to claim a 15-run win over the Rhinos.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Matabeleland-Tuskers-v-Mid-West-Rhinos-Zimbabwe-Domestic-Twenty20-Competition-Match-Update-a196708

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Foods That Lower Anxiety Levels. | elephant journal

When you think about stress or tension, where does your mind go?

A lot of us think about stress being manifested in our physical bodies because we?ve just exercised. Maybe we?ve gone for a long run or it?s the first time we?ve exercised in awhile?or, it could be due to a lack of activity (sitting at a desk all day). Our muscles feel tight; there may be tension in our shoulders, necks or hips.

But very often it is our emotions that are wreaking havoc on our bodies?much more than any amount of exercise we can do?and they are stressing our internal organs.

Do you ever notice how wrecked you feel after a fight you?ve had with your partner, after the death of a loved one or after you?ve encountered some terrible news??Or maybe it?s anxiety over a situation at work or with your children.

Now, the stress is manifesting itself in your digestive system. Symptoms can include bloating, gas, nausea or constipation?your gut is literally telling you something is wrong.

When we feel stressed, we often reach for foods that actually higher our anxiety levels. Coffee or other caffeinated beverages can seem appealing. Sugary, processed foods or simple carbohydrates become our ?comfort? foods.?Unfortunately, these foods and beverages can make everything worse; our liver goes into over-drive, we have trouble sleeping and our symptoms increase.

So, what?s the solution? Can we manage the disaster taking over our bodies? Yes! We have a choice in dealing with stress head on.

The first step is to listen:?What is your body saying to you? It?s smarter than you think. The second step is to not ignore your symptoms anymore: take initiative and move the stress out. The third step is to reach for foods that actually lower anxiety levels.

Here are a few foods that have actually been proven to lower stress levels:

1)?Blueberries:?The high potency of antioxidants in these berries counteracts the production of cortisol, the number one chemical that is released during a stressful time.

2)?Peaches:?This fruit is a fantastic super food. Peaches include phytonutrients that give you healthier skin and help fight cancer. They also have a natural sedative that can help reduce stress and anxiety. Plus, since they are sweet, they can work wonders when you need that sugary treat.

3)?Acacia berries:?This superfood that should not be ignored. The acacia berry has phytonutrients that have been shown to enhance your mood. They have additional health benefits, such as leveling your blood sugar which therefore reduces sugar cravings.

4)?Cacao:?Raw cacao is the ingredient found in chocolate. It is high in flavonoids. Flavonoids are potent with relaxation properties. It also contains phenethylamine, a chemical that enhances mood. You can add raw cacao to your smoothies, your macaroons or you can get the nutrients by eating a dark chocolate bar. The darker the chocolate, the more of these substances you are getting. Generally, opt for bars with 70% cacao or higher.

5)?Maca root:?Maca root is a powder made from a Peruvian root and can be found in certain supplements and drink mixes. Maca root, in its unprocessed form, contains a phytonutrient that helps ward off anxiety and depression. Some studies have found that maca root is just as useful at fighting depression as prescription antidepressants, since it contains so many mood enhancing nutrients. Another plus is that maca root is natural and does not have as many of the risks and side effects prescription anxiety medication. Maca root powder can be made into a tea or sprinkled over other foods to give you the maximum health benefits. You actually need very little?I add half a teaspoon to my smoothies.

6)?Spinach:?This lean, green leaf is high in magnesium, improves your body?s overall response to stress and stops your blood pressure from spiking.

7)?Sunflower seeds:?Sunflower seeds contain a high source of folate, which help your body produce the feel-good brain chemical, dopamine. Normal levels of dopamine help control of your emotional responses.

8)?Walnuts:?It has been shown that eating at least one ounce of walnuts a day can prevent your blood pressure from rising and keep your anxiety levels in check. If you tend to have higher levels of adrenaline and anxiety, make sure you get some of these delicious nuts into your diet so you?re not make your heart work more than it needs to. Walnuts can be a great addition to any salad or salad dressing.

These super foods are now everywhere, if you know where to look. And since we are becoming more and more aware of our health and how what we eat affects our mood, these foods are becoming easier to find.

If you have been feeling tension or stress, consider adding some of these super foods to your diet; they will have a calming effect on your body and help relieve feelings of anxiety.

Try using these super foods as alternatives for the more processed and less nutritious foods in your diet?particularly those high in fat, calories, and processed sugars.

You won?t believe the results!

~

Editor: Bryonie Wise

Like health & wellness on Facebook.

---

Incorrect source, offensive, or found a typo? Or do you want to write for Elephant?

Growing up in Philadelphia as an athlete with tremendous drive, Hayley?s life was marked by accomplishment; achieving elite status as a competitive triathlete and earning a law degree from Rutgers. After moving to LA to practice law. Hayley found yoga seeking balance from the impact on her body from intense training in swimming, cycling and running. Soon after, while rehabilitating from an injury, she was also introduced to pilates for core strengthening and re-alignment for future injury prevention. As a classically trained athlete she was amazed at how much stronger and better she felt. The combination of practicing yoga and pilates together had such an incredible impact, by strengthening muscles that never had even had a chance to work before due to lack of flexibility or range of motion. Her mind/perspective shifted from ?push harder? to ?continuous evolution? her experience and results was life changing. Hayley left her job as a lawyer to instead empower others to discover and take control of their true potential and freedom of movement that lives within them. A lifelong student of holistic nutrition, Hayley understands the role of food in ones life achieving peace and results toward a life of vitality. Initiated by a personal health scare, she recently extended her training and education in health coaching and preventative health. With her unique specialization in the combination and complement of pilates, nutrition and yoga, Hayley offers a cocktail of lifestyle changes that produce real and lasting results. Hayley has been featured in Pilates Style Magazine, Natural Health Magazine and Triathlete Magazine. She currently lives in Boulder, CO with her husband, former world-ranked triathlete, Wes Hobson and their two beautiful daughters, Makenna and Madeline. Connect with Hayley on Facebook and Twitter, or on her site: www.hayleyhobson.com.

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/10/foods-that-will-lower-your-anxiety-levels/

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No longer a blank slate: Obama, 4 years later

Nearly four years after Barack Obama was elected to the most powerful office in the most powerful country in the world, the question remains: Who is he?

He seemed to come out of nowhere. He had served seven years in the Illinois Senate, and less than four years in the U.S. Senate ? a meager political resume, augmented by a stirring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

His was an exotic story, at least by the standards of the 42 white men who preceded him in office. Son of a black African and white Kansan, born in Hawaii, raised there and in Indonesia, he was something new, and America seemed ready for him. He won almost 9.5 million votes more than John McCain.

And yet, "there was the feeling that we knew less than we needed to know" about our new president, says Janny Scott, author of "A Singular Woman," a biography of Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's mother. "He didn't fit a comfortable template."

Four years have passed. We have watched Obama as commander in chief, waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ? and we have seen him accept the Nobel Peace Prize. We have seen him grapple with a dismal economy and a relentless opposition. We have been spectators to a grueling fight over health care from which he emerged victorious ? if only just barely. All of this in the glare of a fierce and unyielding media spotlight.

By now, we should have a fix on the man who is asking for a second term.

But still we ask: Who is Barack Obama?

___

On the last night of April in 2011, Obama put on his black tie for the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton. Obama was in good form that night; he congratulated Donald Trump, then considering a run for the Republican nomination, on his recent decision to fire actor Gary Busey on "Celebrity Apprentice."

"These are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night," Obama said, to peals of laughter. "Well-handled, sir. Well-handled."

What his audience didn't realize ? what few people knew at that moment ? was that Obama had, just hours before, given the go-ahead for the mission that would claim the life of America's Public Enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden. It was a huge gamble, perhaps the biggest of Obama's presidency.

"If that failed, it really would have been a political disaster," says historian Robert Dallek, who has written books on presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. "It would have been reminiscent of Jimmy Carter and the helicopter going down in the Iranian desert" in an ill-starred effort to rescue American hostages from Tehran.

If Obama was nervous, he kept it hidden. In fact, he played nine holes of golf the next morning, before returning to the White House to monitor the unfolding mission during what he later described as "the longest 40 minutes of my life."

It was retired Air Force Chief of Staff Tony McPeak, an Obama supporter, who first called him "No-Drama Obama" during the 2008 campaign. The nickname stuck, perhaps because sang-froid is central to Obama's personality.

"That measured approach to everything characterizes a lot of what he has done," says David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. "It's kind of remarkable how he has stayed in character, as if he were the calm, cool grown-up in the room."

This has not always worked in his favor; at his first debate with Mitt Romney, he appeared detached, almost professorial, and he took a beating in the polls. Repeatedly, he has frustrated supporters who say he does not express righteous anger when he should.

Kennedy recalls that in 1936, when FDR was running for his second term, he declared the start of the second New Deal ? and pronounced himself ready to take on the many, moneyed powers aligned against him: "They are unanimous in their hate for me ? and I welcome their hatred."

Obama, Kennedy says, is "temperamentally incapable" of taking that kind of stand. "It's just not in his bloodstream."

___

Not that everyone believes the Obama story.

This summer, if you drove along Interstate 78, near Fredericksburg, and you saw a billboard in the gentle, rolling hills of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. It bore just five words: "Where's the real birth certificate?" ''Real" was in red, the rest in black.

The name "Barack Obama" was nowhere to be found, but there was no mistaking the message. More than a year after the White House released copies of the birth certificate on file in Hawaii, a conservative website still questioned whether the president is an American.

The "birthers" are easy to marginalize; a Gallup poll in 2011 found that only 13 percent of Americans believed Obama was probably or definitely born in another country. But how to account for a recent Pew Research Center poll that found that only 49 percent knew Obama is a Christian? Perhaps it's just that his name sounds unusual to many American ears.

The fact is, as certified by the state of Hawaii, Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. His birth certificate lists his mother's race as "Caucasian" and his father as "African." In June of the next year, his father ? a brilliant economist from Kenya ? would leave his young family to study at Harvard. He would never return.

His wandering mother took him to Java, the main island of Indonesia. His education there taught him not to show his emotions, author Scott says, and the story of his life with (and without) Ann Dunham explains a lot about her son.

Barack Obama would tell the story in his own memoir, "Dreams from My Father," and it would be retold ? with additions and amendments ? by others, including Scott, New Yorker editor David Remnick and Washington Post writer David Maraniss. The outlines basically remain the same:

?How he spent his youth alternately in the care of his grandparents in Hawaii and his mother, who moved to Indonesia and a short-lived marriage to a geologist there. In Indonesia he would eat dog and snake; in Hawaii he would sample marijuana, and sample it some more.

?How he went on to Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law, and along the way struggled to come to terms with his identity as a black man of mixed heritage in a white society. Genevieve Cook, a girlfriend of Obama's from New York, told Maraniss how "he felt like an impostor. Because he was so white. There was hardly a black bone in his body." And that she would later realize that, "in his own quest to resolve his ambivalence about black and white, it became very, very clear to me that he needed to go black."

?How he ended up in Chicago as a community organizer, working on the South Side. In doing so, he would credit his mother and her work in Indonesia as his inspiration.

Much has been made of the omissions and inaccuracies found by Obama's biographers in his memoir. For example, Obama did not identify Cook, and would acknowledge later that he conflated her with another girlfriend. Some of Obama's opponents saw these discrepancies as evidence of slickness, or even con-artistry.

In her research, Scott found that Ann Dunham did not lack health insurance when she was dying of cancer, as her son would claim in pressing for his health care overhaul. Instead, she lacked disability insurance that would have paid other expenses.

"I don't see these things as an indictable offense," Scott says, chalking it up to a "failure of memory."

___

It is instructive that Obama, now 51, brought his own personal narrative ? his most powerful weapon ? to the health care fight. It is the signal achievement of his first term, but it came at great cost: time and energy and political capital in the midst of a raging recession.

"The president is an intellectually ambitious man who is temperamentally cautious," says Sean Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton.

For health care, he was all in.

"I don't think a system is working when small businesses are gouged and 15,000 Americans are losing coverage every single day; when premiums have doubled and out-of-pocket costs have exploded and they're poised to do so again," Obama told a gathering of Republican lawmakers in 2010. "I mean, to be fair, the status quo is working for the insurance industry, but it's not working for the American people. It's not working for our federal budget. It needs to change."

The Republicans did not agree, and though his party had control of the House for the first two years of his presidency, Obama had to compromise again and again to ensure that he could hold on to every Democratic vote in the Senate, because he needed every vote.

In 2008, Obama offered the promise of a post-partisan age. That glimmering vision died in the debate over health care.

All along the way, Obama encountered lock-step opposition from Republicans. The most dramatic example, perhaps, was the 2011 confrontation over raising the debt ceiling, in which the country came perilously close to defaulting on its obligations. Obama thought he had reached a "grand bargain" with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to cut spending and raise revenues, but then Boehner walked away. The Republicans insist they never neared an agreement.

Some opponents have charged that Obama was advancing socialism. His government did take over much of the auto industry for a time, seeing General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy. He did press for stronger regulation of the financial industry in the wake of the crisis that launched the Great Recession, and like most Democratic administrations his government is generally more bullish on regulation than are Republicans.

But daunted by the challenge of winning congressional approval, he sought a smaller stimulus than many thought necessary. His efforts to protect homeowners threatened with foreclosure have come up short. Surprisingly few bankers ? and no high-level executives of major banks ? are in jail on charges related to the financial crisis.

___

So he's not a socialist. In some ways, it's easiest to define Obama by what he's not.

He is clearly not a pacifist, though he was elected on a pledge to end the Iraq War, and he did.

But he also sent men to kill bin Laden. He helped engineer the international campaign that ended the life and regime of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. He decimated the leadership of al-Qaida, cutting them down from above with a drove of drones.

And he escalated the war in Afghanistan, threading the needle between generals who wanted an even larger force and his own vice president, Joe Biden, who wanted to pull troops out. In his book, "Obama's Wars," Bob Woodward describes a president who is deeply involved in planning, one who recoiled when military leaders tried to convince him that his only real option was to send 40,000 troops with an open-ended commitment.

"I'm not going to make a commitment that leaves my successor with more troops than I inherited in Afghanistan," Obama said.

In the end, he decided to send 30,000 more troops immediately, and to begin to withdraw them in July 2011.

He would later tell Woodward that he was too young to be burdened with "the baggage that arose out of the dispute of the Vietnam War" ? he didn't feel any adversarial relationship with the military, or "a hawk/dove kind of thing."

Nor was he worried about defeat. "I think about it not so much in the classic, do you lose a war on my watch? Or win a war on a president's watch? I think about it more in terms of, do you successfully prosecute a strategy that results in the country being stronger rather than weaker at the end of it?"

This is a man, remember, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, before he had even served a year in office. When he was informed of the award, he seemed abashed, describing himself as "surprised" and "deeply humbled."

When he accepted the prize, though, he gave an acceptance speech like no other. First, he noted the irony of accepting a peace prize even as he was commander in chief of a military waging two wars. Then, he went on to explain that, while he revered Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., he could not follow their example in every way.

"I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms. ...

"And yet this truth must coexist with another ? that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier's courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause, to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such."

___

The Oslo speech was widely praised. It was an exception in that way; in his first term, Barack Obama rarely delivered the kinds of extraordinary speeches that sent him to the White House in the first place. Instead, he offered well-written, logical addresses that were rarely memorable. The irony: Elected as a master communicator, he is sometimes criticized for failing to use his skills to enlist the public in his causes, like health care reform.

"Most people thought he would let his rhetoric do the work for him," says Douglas Brinkley, a historian whose books include biographies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

But "he hasn't told his story well enough," Brinkley says. Obama himself has said as much: "The mistake of my first term ? couple of years ? was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right," he told CBS' Charlie Rose in July. "But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people."

Many thought that in electing Obama, Americans had chosen a president who would be bold and steadfast in pressing his agenda. Instead, he has drawn criticism from both the right and the left for being too coy, too willing to step back and let others lead.

"Instead of drawing clear lines and putting forward detailed proposals," conservative columnist Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times after the debt ceiling fiasco, "the president has played Mr. Compromise ? ceding ground to Republicans here, sermonizing about Tea Party intransigence and Washington gridlock there, and fleshing out his preferred approach reluctantly, if at all."

All agree that he does work hard, and is truly engaged by his work. CBS Radio's Mark Knoller keeps track of presidents' comings and goings. This past May, he said Obama had spent all or part of 54 days at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. At the same point in his first term, George W. Bush had been there for all or part of 256 days.

This is not to say that Obama is averse to regular-guy moments of fun, like a quick trip to a burger joint with the vice president. He remains an ardent basketball fan. He startled an audience at a fundraiser at Harlem's Apollo Theater by breaking into a few bars of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

But the informal Obama is not necessarily convincing. When white police Sgt. James Crowley arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates as he tried to get into his own home and charged him with disorderly conduct, Obama said Crowley had "acted stupidly." (He later would say the phrase was ill-chosen.) To settle the issue, Obama held a "beer summit," inviting Gates and Crowley to come to the White House for a few brewskies. The event was lampooned: "This could be trouble, because the last time Obama got a few beers in him, he bought General Motors," said comedian Conan O'Brien.

Mostly, he remains a dignified and graceful figure ? graying, like many of his predecessors, under the weight of office. He is, at heart, a dad, and Brinkley thinks that is one of the reasons his popularity ratings remain high.

"His strongest suit may be in the end that he is such a tremendous husband, a tremendous father," says Brinkley. "Even his mother-in-law lives in the White House."

There's also first lady Michelle Obama; and 11-year-old Sasha and 14-year-old Malia; and there is Bo, the Portuguese water dog the girls were promised as a reward for leaving Chicago to move to the executive mansion.

Obama's fatherly impulses have surfaced at many of the most painful moments of the past four years. When he visited the victims of the shootings in Aurora, Colo., and their survivors, he said he was doing so as a "father and as a husband." And after the killing of a black teenager, Trayvon Martin, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., Obama spoke not only of his feelings as a parent, but as a man who understood firsthand the possible consequences of skin color:

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

No other president could have said those words.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-longer-blank-slate-obama-4-years-later-142741869.html

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Autism Awareness: I see you everywhere - OC Moms - The Orange ...

I know what the numbers say.?1 in 88.

Some feel panic.?Some feel insulted that there's panic.?Some don't feel nearly enough.

PHOTO COURTESY MORGUEFILE.COM

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Me??I feel privileged to be my son's parent.?I feel petrified about his future.?I feel too exhausted to get in the middle of the ongoing drama that continues to play out in our enormous and diverse community.

To me, you are more than a number, more than an ongoing debate about the proper terminologly to use when regarding your diagnosis, more than the bickering ad nauseam playing out on unfiltered internet connections every single day.

Instead, I'd rather take the time to reassure you.?To let you know that I see you;?I see you everywhere.

You sit next to me as I get a haircut, your body squirming as the well-meaning woman who wouldn't know autism if it bit her from behind turns on the blow dryer. I watch as your father rushes over, feeling guilty for the overshight as he sets you free from your sensory nightmare and tells you it?s okay.

I want to tell you it?s okay too.

I see you alone on the playground, walking on your toes. You don?t belong to anyone?s game, too clumsy to climb the monkey bars, just different enough that potential friends notice and turn away. I want to rush to your side, aid in your defense, or start a gentle conversation with your mother.

I see you in the store, waiting in the checkout line, your hands covering your ears, your body swaying as it tries to find balance in an unstable world. My arms instinctively want to reach out and hug you, though my head knows better. All the same, if I could I would somehow find a way to make you feel safe.

I see you in my son?s classroom, so different from him, yet so the same. Predictably unpredictable, an awesome force to be reckoned with, a refreshing glimpse into what it means to be pure of heart, no strings attached.

I see you, and there is a connection.?Sometimes it lasts mere seconds, and sometimes I cannot get you out of my mind for hours, days, weeks, months, ever.

I am comforted by your familiarity, especially the way you gaze at something I cannot see - maybe because I?m too busy, maybe because I don?t know how, maybe because it?s just not meant for me.

I think of your parents and I pray for them, because if they?re anything like me and feel for you what I feel for my son with autism, they love you so much they?re guaranteed to make a few mistakes.

I pray that they are always guided by their hearts and instincts.?I pray they will find a way to forgive themselves for the helplessness they often feel.?I pray you will find a way to forgive them should you ever need to.

As we silently part ways, I hope that whoever is blessed enough to have you in their lives will truly know how lucky they are. I hope they take the time to listen to you, especially when you aren?t talking. I hope they bask in your unfiltered joy and respect your raw frustration. I hope they?re doing the very best they can today, and will wake up tomorrow and vow to do even better.

I hope they know you?re not just a statistic.

I watch you one last time, my heart lingering a moment as you leave my field of vision, and I give you a cosmic high five.

I see you.

You matter.

And from where I sit, we?re in this together; you, and I.

* * *

This Modified Life is a column by Jo Ashline for and about the families in Orange County living with special needs. Jo is a freelance writer and married mother of two. She writes regularly for OC Moms, the Orange County Register's parenting section.

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/feel-375283-see-ongoing.html

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McGovern an unwavering, often unrequited, liberal

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) ? George McGovern was an unwavering, often unrequited advocate for liberal Democratic causes. He pursued those goals in plainspoken, usually understated, Midwestern style. He was a dedicated, decent man, a devoted Democrat even when the party establishment turned away from him in defeat.

He wasn't good at political gamesmanship. He suffered his worst blunders when he strayed from straight talk in his doomed 1972 presidential campaign. It didn't fit the man and it shook the credibility he treasured.

McGovern was a partisan without the poison that increasingly infected American politics. In his career-long quest for programs to feed the hungry, in the U.S. and worldwide, he worked in partnership with Bob Dole, a former Republican leader of the Senate, where they'd both served.

During his years of political retirement ? he lost his South Dakota Senate seat in 1980 ? McGovern remained active, lecturing, teaching and writing. He even waged a token presidential campaign in 1984. He'd also run briefly for the 1968 nomination after the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

In his 2011 book, "What It Means to Be a Democrat," he summed up his credo:

"Above all, being a Democrat means having compassion for others. ... It means standing up for people who have been kept down ..."

That was the essence of his program during four terms in the House, three in the Senate, and a doomed and crushed presidential campaign in 1972. By the time he was nominated for the White House, McGovern had been marginalized by rivals in his own party, who argued that he was too far left to be elected. That probably was so, but President Richard M. Nixon was the overwhelming favorite against any Democratic challenger.

McGovern got just 37 percent of the vote to Nixon's 61, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Embittered, he considered whether to even stay in politics, especially as other Democrats made him a symbol of what ailed them and kept him off their stages. McGovernite became a label for losers. But he went back to the Senate, and within months he could joke ruefully about his landslide loss.

"I opened the doors of the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out," McGovern later joked of his reform commission, which had broadened the nominating process, driven out the old party bosses and ultimately made the presidential primaries the arenas for choosing nominees of both parties.

There was nothing strident about McGovern; even when his words were harsh, his delivery tended to be bland. As a young man, he had been a warrior, and a heroic one. As a senator, he opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam from the beginning, in 1963. Arguing in 1970 for legislation to cut U.S. war spending and force troop withdrawal, he offended his colleagues by telling them, "This chamber reeks of blood," vehement words delivered in the matter-of-fact McGovern style. His 1972 presidential campaign proposals included withdrawal from Vietnam, amnesty for draft evaders and steep cuts in the Pentagon budget.

For a time, he also advocated a $1,000 tax grant to every American to replace complex welfare and income support programs, saying the needy could spend it and the wealthy would pay it back in taxes. It came with no numbers, no estimate of the cost, although McGovern claimed, against arithmetic and logic, that it would balance out at zero. He dropped that idea, but the Republicans never did.

That spoke to one of his chronic political problems. He was an idea man, not a manager. Witness the uncontrolled chaos of his nominating convention, dramatized when assorted Democratic interest groups spent so much time talking that McGovern did not get to deliver his own acceptance speech until 2:48 a.m., long after the TV audience had gone to bed.

But one of his best-remembered, and most unfortunate, lines came later ? after his unvetted selection of Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate turned into a political disaster with the disclosure that Eagleton twice had undergone electric shock therapy for depression. McGovern said he was "1,000 percent" for Eagleton and wasn't dropping him from the ticket. But he had to. Then he had to shop for a running mate, with five Democrats declining before Sargent Shriver finally said yes.

So if there'd been any doubt about his outcome against Nixon, it was erased before the fall campaign even began. McGovern was frustrated because Nixon stayed at the White House and seldom campaigned at all. McGovern called him the most corrupt president in American history, as The Washington Post published a succession of Watergate disclosures. Nixon just denied it all.

The political pain would ease. More devastating was the death in 1994 of his daughter, Teresa, who had suffered mental illness and alcoholism, and froze to death in a snowbank near a bar where she'd been drinking in Madison, Wis. "You never get over it, I'm sure of that," he said. "You get so you can live with it, that's all." McGovern and his wife Eleanor, who died in 2007, had four daughters and one son.

McGovern wrote a book, "Terry," about his daughter's life struggle, the family impact and his own worry that his political preoccupations had somehow contributed to her troubles. He used the proceeds to open the Teresa McGovern Center in Madison to help others afflicted by addictions.

As a candidate, McGovern had to fend off conservative claims that he was weak on national defense, a naive peacenik ? that he had, according to the far right, shirked combat, which was a lie. He was a decorated World War II pilot with 35 combat missions in B-24 bombers.

It could have been a campaign asset, but he talked little about it. He did in a Labor Day speech: "I still remember the day when we were hit so hard over Germany that we were all ready to bail out. So I gave this order to the crew: 'Resume your stations. We're going to bring this plane home.' I say to you and to people everywhere who share our cause: 'Resume your stations. We're going to bring America home.'"

That last line became the standard closing of his campaign speech. But he didn't repeat the details of the mission that won him the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing his crippled B-24. Perhaps he should have said more about his service, he said later, "but I always felt kind of foolish talking about my war record ? what a hero I was."

That he did not was typical George McGovern.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Walter R. Mears, who reported on government and politics for The Associated Press in Washington for 40 years, covered George McGovern in the Senate and in his 1972 presidential campaign.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mcgovern-unwavering-often-unrequited-liberal-114807671--politics.html

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