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Monday, April 22, 2013

A strong return to Fenway

Boston fans pour into Fenway, TD Garden as sports resume in shaken city

By JIMMY GOLEN

updated 10:14 a.m. ET April 20, 2013

BOSTON - A defiant David Ortiz stood on the Fenway Park infield and told the crowd, "Stay Strong," bringing a rousing cheer from Bostonians weary from a week of bombings, stay-at-home orders and a manhunt that locked down the city for a day.

Playing at home for the first time since two bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and wounded more than 180 others, the Red Sox honored the victims and the survivors with a pregame ceremony and an emotional video of scenes from Monday's race.

"We will run another marathon, bigger and better than ever," public address announcer Henry Mahegan said. "We are one. We are Boston Strong."

MORE COVERAGE FROM BOSTON

Neil Diamond came out in a Red Sox cap in the eighth inning to give a live performance of "Sweet Caroline," the Fenway staple that has been adopted on the road as opposing ballclubs show their support for the city of Boston. Fans followed it up with a chant of "U.S.A.!"

Bomb-sniffing dogs and military in camouflage fatigues joined the police patrolling the ballpark, and long lines of fans waited to be scanned by metal-detecting wands. Many were still waiting to get in when the Red Sox and Kansas City Royals lined up along the base-lines for the pregame ceremony.

The Red Sox went on to beat the Royals 4-3 on Daniel Nava's three-run home run in the eighth inning.

With Boston Athletic Association volunteers in their yellow and blue jackets lined up in front of the Green Monster and police and public officials encircling the mound, ballpark organist Josh Kantor played The Star-Spangled Banner, with the crowd singing along. A giant U.S. flag was draped over the 37-foot-high Green Monster left-field wall, temporarily covering the "B Strong" logo newly painted in left-center field.

Pictures of the victims, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, were shown on the scoreboard, along with pictures from the marathon and the aftermath. Some of the biggest cheers were for the police who tracked down the suspects.

Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, along with other law enforcement officials and rank-and-file, circled the mound for three ceremonial first pitches: From firefighter Matt Patterson, who rushed to the site of the bombings; from Steven Byrne, of Lowell, who was injured in the explosions, and from Marathon stalwarts Dick and Rick Hoyt, a father-and-son team that has participated in the race the last 21 years. Rick, who has cerebral palsy, is pushed by his father the whole way.

Ortiz, who had been on the disabled list all season, took to the microphone at the end of the pregame ceremony and showed fans the specially designed uniforms saying "Boston" on the front instead of the "Red Sox" they have worn for decades.

"This is our ... city," he said, using an expletive that elicited a huge cheer.

The Red Sox said the uniforms would be autographed and auctioned off to raise money for the One Fund Boston, the charity established to help the victims.

Police identified two suspects in the bombings; one was killed and the other was captured during a manhunt that shut down the city and surrounding area for most of Friday.

The Red Sox postponed Friday night's game against the Royals; it will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader on Sunday. The Boston Bruins, who played on Thursday night, pushed back Friday's game against Pittsburgh to Saturday afternoon; the Penguins won 3-2.

"At least we could all breathe a little easier and sleep a little easier," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "And now it's, hopefully, time to work ourselves into trying to get things back to normal again, but it will always leave a scar somewhere."

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma met with reporters before the game wearing a black T-shirt with words "Boston Strong" over his shirt and tie.

"I feel like we're playing with the Bruins today, not against them," Bylsma said before the game. "I know I share their pride yesterday in their city and their people and certainly their law enforcement yesterday. I'm certainly not a Bostonian, but I certainly share in that pride and hope to today with them as well."

The Bruins took the ice for their pregame warmup wearing baseball caps for the Boston and state police, along with one for the police in Watertown, where the suspect was captured, featuring the Bruins' "Spoked B" logo and the word "Strong" on the back.

Security was tight at Fenway and at the TD Garden, as it was when the Bruins made their emotional return after the bombing on Thursday night.

A SWAT team member with a German shepherd stood guard at the doorway to the tunnel leading to Royals dugout about 2 1/2 hours before game time. A man in military fatigues checked all of the players' lockers and the many cracks in the ceiling tiles with a flashlight.

Outside, fans milled around, waiting for the gates to open. Several of them were wearing Boston Marathon jackets dating back as long as a decade.

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Nadal, Djokovic seal third final in Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO (Reuters) - Eight-times champion Rafael Nadal will lock horns with world number one Novak Djokovic for third time in the Monte Carlo Masters final after both sailed through their semi-finals with relative ease on Saturday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51604708/ns/sports-other_sports/

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Thunder Rout Rockets 120-91 In Game 1 Of Playoff Series

OKLAHOMA CITY -- As awkward as he felt going up against his former teammate, Kevin Durant didn't have a problem quite literally standing in James Harden's way in the NBA playoffs.

Durant scored 24 points and drew a rare offensive charging foul, and the Oklahoma City Thunder routed Harden and the Houston Rockets 120-91 on Sunday night in Game 1 of their playoff series.

Durant, who's known more for his three NBA scoring titles than for stepping in the way of oncoming opponents, got in Harden's way on a transition drive in the third quarter in a standout defensive effort for the Thunder against the league's second highest-scoring offense.

"It was all about giving your all every possession," Durant said.

Hours before going head-to-head with Harden, Durant said that "we're not looking at him as a friend right now." But even right before tipoff, the situation didn't seem natural.

"It felt a little awkward just looking across there during the national anthem and seeing him with another team, but we've got to get past that. We're competing against his team, and he wants to win so bad," Durant said. "We know him personally, so we know how hard he competes and he knows how hard we compete."

After letting Houston wipe away an 11-point deficit in the first half, the Thunder regained control with a 14-1 surge just before halftime and kept pouring it on.

Just after a fan nailed a half-court shot to win $20,000 in the break after the third quarter, Durant drove for a two-handed slam while getting fouled and Oklahoma City was soon up by 30.

Harden, playing against the team that traded him away just before the season started, had 20 points but the Rockets were held 15 points below their regular-season scoring average while shooting 36 percent. Houston, which set a franchise record for 3-pointers during the regular season, finished 8 for 36 (22 percent) from behind the arc.

"We were trying to be solid on the defensive end," Durant said. "We knew they were a great scoring team. We just tried to pack the paint and get out to their shooters. We had to make the second and third efforts, and I think we did that."

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

"We really don't have an excuse anymore," said Jeremy Lin, one of three Houston starters making their first career playoff apperance. "We've gotten it out and played terrible all the way across the board ? offensively, defensively. That one's over with."

The Thunder were already up by 23 when Larry Hill connected on the half-court shot and went bounding toward Oklahoma City's huddle in celebration, getting congratulated by Thabo Sefolosha before the team's bison mascot pulled him back away.

Durant's dunk sparked a string of seven straight points for Oklahoma City, and Harden never even came off the bench in the fourth quarter. Coach Scott Brooks called timeout and pulled Durant a few moments later, and reserves finished out the game for the Thunder.

"We wanted to take care of our home court," Durant said. "We didn't do anything yet."

Russell Westbrook ended up with 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Serge Ibaka chipped in 17 points and Kevin Martin, Harden's replacement in the sixth man role, had nine of his 16 points in the fourth quarter with the game already in hand.

It was an impressive playoff opener for top-seeded Oklahoma City, which made it to the NBA Finals last season before losing to Miami in five games. The Thunder led by as much as 35 before Houston's reserves cut into the lead in garbage time.

Harden didn't get much help the rest of his starting lineup, which features players with a total of three career playoff starts, all by center Omer Asik. None of the other starters scored in double figures and the unit went 17 for 50 from the field, with Harden making just six of his 19 attempts.

It was Houston's first playoff game in four years.

"James, on this team, has to shoulder a ton of responsibilities for us and he's been great all year long," coach Kevin McHale said. "He's had an all-pro type of year. ... He'll play better, just like everybody.

"We ask him to do an awful lot for us ? handle the ball, score the ball, pass the ball, make plays. I think that he had it going there for a little bit, but it wasn't James. It was us in general as a team. We never really caught a flow at all tonight."

Oklahoma City scored the first six points of the game and opened a 13-2 lead as the Rockets failed to make a basket for the first 6 minutes of the game and started out just 1 for 13 from the field. Houston eventually settled in and charged back with a 13-2 push spanning the break between the first two quarters, with Chandler Parsons providing the final five points on a two-handed putback jam and a 3-pointer.

Patrick Beverley pulled the Rockets even at 38 with a transition 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Rockets couldn't pull ahead before Oklahoma City's next surge.

Sefolosha had a two-handed slam on a fast break and also assisted on Kendrick Perkins' two-handed dunk during the burst, which extended Oklahoma City's lead to 60-45 before Harden's driving layup in the final second before halftime.

All but the first basket in the Thunder's run came after Asik joined Parsons on the bench with three fouls apiece.

The Rockets never recovered.

Notes: The game ball got switched out in the second quarter after it went into the stands and a drink was spilled on it. ... Harden scored a career-high 46 points in the Rockets' only regular-season win against Oklahoma City, but said he didn't gain any secrets from that performance to carry over into the playoffs. "I'm not going to lie. I was just making shots," he said. ... The Thunder improved to 18-5 in playoff games in Oklahoma City.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/thunder-rockets-120-91-game-1-nba-playoffs_n_3129624.html

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Lyrid Meteor Shower Is Peaking Now

The annual Lyrid meteor shower will peak tonight (April 21) and early Monday, but the moon's bright light may spoil the celestial fireworks display.

The Lyrid meteor shower occurs each year in mid-April when the Earth passes through a trail of dusty debris from the Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), which orbits the sun once every 415 years. Humans have been observing this particular meteor shower for at least 2,600 years.

Typically, the Lyrid meteor shower is a relatively faint stargazing event, though observers with clear dark skies away from city lights can usually spot up to 15 or 20 meteors an hour. The meteors appear to radiate out of the constellation Lyra (hence their name), which can be found in the eastern night sky tonight. [Amazing Lyrid meteor shower photos of 2012]

The moon is expected to spoil much of this year's Lyrid meteor display because it is currently in its bright gibbous phase, with the lunar disk nearly 85-percent illuminated, according to SPACE.com's stargazing columnist and meteorologist Joe Rao. That means that moonlight will likely wash out fainter Lyrid meteors, with only the brightest streakers being visible.

The best time to seek Lyrid meteors is actually in the wee hours of Monday morning (April 22) after the moon has set, but before the sun rises. This observing window opens at about 4 a.m. your local time and can close by about 4:30 a.m. At that time the Lyrid radiate will nearly directly overhead in the night sky, Rao explained.

Here are some tips to view the Lyrid meteor shower:

Don't stare directly at Lyra:?Focusing on the radiant point of the meteor shower sounds like a good idea, but the Lyrid that tend to occur there appear to have short tails and look more like unimpressive dots, NASA scientists have said. A better technique is to lie on your back (or a comfortable reclining chair) and look straight up.

Get comfortable: It can be a long, cold night without warm clothes or a blanket, depending on your location. Also, don't expect to just step outside and see some meteors. Make sure to give yourself at least 40 minutes to allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Get away from city lights:?They really can spoil a meteor shower, and this year that potential is doubled since the moon is already interfering with the display.

The Lyrid meteor shower is not the only celestrial event occuring this week. On Thursday (April 25) the moon will pass through part of the Earth's shadow in a partial lunar eclipse. The eclipse will be primarily visible in its entirety from parts of?eastern Europe or Africa, central Asia and western Australia, according to NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak.

Editor's note:?If you snap a great photo Lyrid meteor shower that?you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him?@tariqjmalik?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lyrid-meteor-shower-peaking-now-113307419.html

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Syria opposition voices frustration with international backers

By Mariam Karouny and Nick Tattersall

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian opposition figures voiced frustration with their international backers on Saturday in the face of reluctance from some to supply the rebels with weapons and a call for them to distance themselves from extremist forces.

Speaking at a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Istanbul, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany was skeptical about supplying weapons to the rebels but said the subject should be discussed by the European Union.

One senior opposition figure said arms were already being sent from some countries but acknowledging this at the meeting would provide cover for countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar to openly help the rebels.

"The world must know if they don't agree on our right to receive weapons this will be the last meeting the opposition attend. We will not attend any meetings after this," he told Reuters.

Washington plans to provide about $100 million in new non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition that could include for the first time battlefield support equipment such as body armor and night-vision goggles, a U.S. official said on Friday.

Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to announce the new aid package, which would mark a recalibration of U.S. policy toward Syrian rebel groups at Saturday's meeting. Fresh U.S. humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees is also likely.

The new assistance would stop short of supplying weapons to rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is also far less than what is sought by Syrian opposition leaders, U.S. allies Britain and France and some U.S. lawmakers.

The senior opposition official called on those reluctant to supply weapons to say so openly, which Westerwelle did on the sidelines of the meeting.

"We expect from the opposition that they clearly distance themselves in Syria from terrorist and extremist forces," he told reporters.

"We are skeptical as the German government when it comes to delivering weapons because we are concerned that weapons could fall into the wrong, namely extremist, hands, but it is a matter that must now be discussed in the European Union."

NEGOTIATION RULED OUT

Another senior opposition source rejected the idea of any foreign interference in the future of Syria.

"The international community cannot ask us for anything. What country we have after Assad is for us the Syrians to decide it is not for the international community," he said.

"After two years of this and the regime now using Scud, chemical weapons and getting help from Iran and Russia they come and tell us they want guarantees from us? How could they do this?" he added.

The 11-nation "core group" of the Friends of Syria, including the United States, European and Arab nations, has been deadlocked over how to remove Assad, whose security forces killed and arrested thousands of protesters who took to the streets to demand democratic reforms in March 2011.

Syria's opposition said earlier it hoped the Istanbul meeting would give teeth to a tacit agreement that arming rebel groups is the best way to end Assad's rule.

One Syrian rebel leader said on Saturday only force could end the country's two-year conflict and ruled out the possibility of any negotiation with Assad's administration other than over its exit.

"There is no solution with this regime through negotiation. This (conflict) will not be settled other than by force," Brigadier Selim Idris, head of a military command, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Istanbul.

"Maybe in its final stages, when the regime feels it has lost everything, it might want to negotiate for its exit."

More than 70,000 have been killed in the revolt and subsequent civil war. But a military stalemate has set in and much of Syria is left in ruins because of a divided and ineffective opposition, a lack of action by foreign allies and Assad's ability to rely on support from Russia and Iran.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Reporting by Nick Tattersall; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-opposition-voices-frustration-international-backers-175133037.html

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56 Dead, 600 Injured in China Earthquake (Voice Of America)

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Piki, Minibar, and More

Whether your unquenchable thirst is for knowledge or something a little more... alcoholic, this week's set of apps will have you covered. And once you're saturated with either, there's even something to help you keep it all together—which you'll be especially thankful for where the latter's concerned. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nK1sAkmg2mQ/piki-minibar-and-more

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Engineer working to put more science behind bloodstain pattern analysis

Apr. 18, 2013 ? Daniel Attinger paused before handing over a photo of a crime scene.

"Are you bothered by the sight of blood?"

There was good reason for his question: The photo showed blood pooled and smeared on a floor. Blood drops ran down a nearby wall. A single shoe was left in the evidence of violence and pain.

"You can see some of the blood has started to dry," said Attinger, an Iowa State University associate professor of mechanical engineering. "There are elliptical stains, all pointing toward the pool. On the wall, the stains indicate the region of origin of the blood spatter."

The size and distribution of the bloodstains offers clues to whether a violent crime was caused by a gunshot, a stabbing or a beating, he said. The drying patterns also provide clues to the timing of the attack.

"A solid forensics expertise can help find the bad guy, or can help keep the good out of jail," Attinger said.

Analysis of bloodstains, for example, has played a role in the murder investigation and charges against Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee sprinter who raced in the Olympics for South Africa.

But current techniques in bloodstain pattern analysis need more science behind them. As evidence, Attinger cites a 2009 report published by the National Research Council, "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward."

"Scientific studies support some aspects of bloodstain pattern analysis," the report says. "One can tell, for example, if the blood spattered quickly or slowly, but some experts extrapolate far beyond what can be supported ?. The uncertainties associated with bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous."

Attinger and a research team he's leading are using a three-year, $632,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to take some of the uncertainty out of the analysis.

Uniquely qualified Attinger's engineering career includes studies of the shape and deformation of ink-jetted drops, the evaporation of droplets on solid surfaces and even identification of wine stains with sophisticated pattern-recognition algorithms. His field is multiphase microfluidics, which includes precise studies of fluid dynamics, heat transfer and mass transfer.

"During these projects supported by the National Science Foundation, I developed a unique set of skills related to fluid dynamics, the generation of drops, their flight, impact and drying on a surface," Attinger said. "I look at these phenomena and try to explain how they happened."

And so Attinger was ready when he learned of the Justice Department's call for scientific studies of bloodstain pattern analysis and other forensic sciences.

Within one month, he assembled a research team that includes Shih-Fu Chang, the Richard Dicker Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Columbia University in New York, a senior vice dean for Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science and director of the university's Digital Video and Multimedia Lab; Adam Donaldson, an assistant professor of chemical engineering who specializes in computational fluid dynamics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Craig Moore, detective constable with the Niagara Regional Police Service in Ontario, Canada, who's a bloodstain pattern analyst. Other collaborators include Howard Stone, the Dixon Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Attinger's team is also working with the Midwest Forensics Resource Center, a collaboration of state crime labs, the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State's Institute for Physical Research and Technology. Several Iowa Staters in the department of mechanical engineering are also part of the team: Jin Xu, a post-doctoral research associate; Miles Hayes, a senior student; and Ying Xing, another senior.

The team is working to understand the physics behind the impact and drying of blood drops. It is also working to develop portable tools that crime-scene investigators can use to analyze and interpret bloodstains.

"Our research goal is to make forensic science a bit more based on the principles of fluid dynamics," Attinger said.

Inside the lab A tiny drop of horse blood appeared at the end of a slim tube. And with a push of a button, the drop was atomized into a spray that sent droplets flying across the lab and onto a long sheet of white paper. A high-speed camera takes up to 100,000 images per second to monitor the process.

Xing and Xu track the bloodstains across the paper to analyze and ultimately understand the trajectory of blood droplets through the air.

"The challenge is to reconstruct the curved trajectory of the blood," Attinger said. "It is a problem that was described 75 years ago. It's very complicated. Nobody has found the way yet."

His team is also building a larger instrument that will slam a piston into a pool of blood, sending blood splashing and spattering. Data from the instrument will help the team understand bloodstains from beatings.

The research team is also working to develop a 3-D measurement device to quickly and easily measure the thickness of bloodstains at a crime scene. Attinger said that would help investigators more accurately locate the blood's point of origin by estimating the impact velocity.

It's not all high technology in the lab. Attinger said some of the studies involve blood sprayed by the hammer of a mouse trap. Researchers are also making painstaking counts of the tiny spikes that radiate from drops of blood thrown to a floor or wall.

Attinger said this forensics project is interesting for him and for his lab.

"I always want to show people how important engineering is to help people with their lives and with society," he said. "I always try to find projects that are useful to society. I think engineers can do a lot to make the world a better place."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Iowa State University.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/wjAYh8Wt74k/130418213930.htm

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