Syracuse on to Final Four, beats Marquette 55-39

Syracuse forward James Southerland (43) lands on Marquette guard Junior Cadougan (5) as Syracuse center Baye Keita (12) looks for the rebound during the second half of the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Syracuse forward James Southerland (43) lands on Marquette guard Junior Cadougan (5) as Syracuse center Baye Keita (12) looks for the rebound during the second half of the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Syracuse forward C.J. Fair (5) falls on Marquette guard Junior Cadougan (5) during the first half of the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Syracuse forward C.J. Fair (5) cuts down the net following their 55-39 win over Marquette in the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Marquette forward Steve Taylor Jr., (25) and Syracuse guard Michael Carter-Williams (1) reach for a loose ball during the first half of the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Syracuse guard Brandon Triche (20) heads towards the basket as Marquette guard Vander Blue (13) watches during the first half of the East Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Jim Boeheim calls this year's Syracuse team his best defensive group ever. Hard to argue, based on the suffocating performances that put the Orange in the Final Four.

Using its trapping, shot-challenging 2-3 zone to perfect effect for 40 minutes, No. 4-seeded Syracuse shut down No. 3 Marquette 55-39 in the East Regional final Saturday to earn Boeheim his first trip to the national semis since a freshman named Carmelo Anthony helped win the 2003 NCAA title.

"It's a great thing," Boeheim joked afterward. "We go once every 10 years."

Fittingly, a matchup between schools from the soon-to-break-apart, rough-and-tumble Big East became quite a struggle on the offensive end. Syracuse (30-9) was led by senior forward James Southerland's 16 points. Michael Carter-Williams, a 6-foot-6 guard who is out front in the zone, was named the regional's top player after having 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists Saturday.

Marquette (26-9) hadn't scored fewer than 47 points all season ? and, indeed, put up 74 in a victory over Syracuse on Feb. 25. But this time, Marquette kept turning the ball over, seeing its shots blocked or just plain missing.

"They beat us from start to finish. We collectively tried everything we knew to try," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. "It is the zone, and it is the players in the zone."

Much like what happened Thursday in the regional semifinals, when Syracuse knocked off top-seeded Indiana by limiting it to a season-low output, too.

"I don't think we've played as good defensively as these last two games," senior guard Brandon Triche said. "We held some good teams down."

All told, Marquette made only 12 of 53 shots ? 23 percent ? and was 3 for 24 on 3-pointers. Vander Blue, who carried Marquette to the round of eight, was held to 14 points on 3-for-15 shooting. The Golden Eagles' 39 points were a record low for a team in an NCAA tournament regional final since the shot clock was introduced in 1986.

"They cover ground really good. You've got to get the ball in the middle, you've got to play inside out, you've got to get to the free throw line and wear them down with the 3-pointer when you can," Blue said. "They're really good at what they do in that zone."

In the national semifinals at Atlanta next week, Syracuse will face the winner of Sunday's South Regional final between Florida and Michigan.

Last season, Syracuse fell a victory short of the Final Four, losing to Ohio State in the round of eight.

"We wanted to get over the hump," Southerland said. "That's what I told the guys: We've still got two more to go."

The Big East is transforming radically before next season. Syracuse is heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Marquette is one of seven basketball-centric schools departing the conference to form a new league that is taking the Big East name with it.

But talk about a last hurrah.

Not only is Syracuse on its way to the Final Four, but the league also could have a second representative because Louisville is in the Midwest Regional final Sunday against Duke.

In this very same building, exactly three weeks ago, Syracuse wrapped up its final Big East regular-season schedule with a bad-as-can-be performance in a lopsided loss to Georgetown, scoring 39 points ? the Orange's tiniest total in a half-century.

Thanking fans after Saturday's victory, Boeheim said: "I'm sure some of you were here, three weeks ago today, when it didn't turn out so good."

That was Syracuse's fourth loss in a span of five games, a stumbling way to head into tournament play. Since then, though, Boeheim's team has won seven of eight games.

"When you bounce back like that, that says a lot about your kids, your team and your character," Boeheim said. "This is a heck of a bounce back."

And the secret to success? Defense, naturally.

"We got the right personnel for each key position," C.J. Fair said. "We got big long guards, we got big long forwards that can cover ground and our centers do a good job holding down the inside."

Syracuse really needed only one run on offense in the second half, making five shots in a row during a spurt that gave it a 41-28 lead with 9? minutes left.

With President Barack Obama ? a basketball enthusiast who picked Indiana to win the title ? and NFL Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins sitting in the crowd, Syracuse harassed Marquette into missing 14 of its first 15 tries from beyond the 3-point arc.

Marquette started 1 for 10 overall on field-goal tries, with Blue's 3-pointer about 1? minutes in the only make. He celebrated as though it came at the end of the game, not the outset, punching the air and tapping defender Triche on the back while heading to the other end of the court.

After Blue's 3, Marquette missed its next seven shots.

Davante Gardner ended that drought by scoring inside. Still, four of Marquette's next five possessions ended with turnovers: Gardner couldn't handle a teammate's pass, and the ball bounced off his face; Blue was called for traveling; Fair drew a charge from Blue; Junior Cadougan lost control of his dribble on a wild foray into the lane with the shot clock expiring.

That was part of a stretch ? disappointing for Marquette, delightful for Syracuse ? in which the Golden Eagles went nearly 6? minutes without a single field-goal attempt. Forget about putting the basketball through the net; Syracuse was so smothering, Marquette did not even manage to shoot.

That helped Syracuse build a 19-7 lead.

Enter Gardner, a 290-pound reserve forward.

He scored a career-high 26 points in Marquette's February victory over Syracuse, and he went right to work Saturday.

A 7-minute gap between baskets for Marquette was snapped by Gardner, who grabbed the rebound of his own missed free throw and sank a jumper, beginning a bunch of highlights for him.

Another jumper was followed by a defensive rebound, then an assist on Chris Otule's bucket. Gardner high-stepped back down the court, yelling and punching a fist, before chest-bumping Otule.

It was part of a run in which Marquette cut its deficit to 21-18 on yet another jumper in the lane by Gardner.

The thing is, the Golden Eagles can play defense, too ? what Big East team can't? ? and the teams combined for four turnovers, two blocks and 3-for-16 shooting in the early minutes. For the first half, Marquette shot 27 percent ? take away Gardner's 4 for 5, and his teammates were under 15 percent ? while Syracuse was at 36 percent.

Indeed, as Gardner almost single-handedly got his team back in the game with half of Marquette's initial 18 points, Syracuse went through an 0-for-6 blip.

But Southerland hit a 3, off a pass and screen by Carter-Williams, to put the Orange ahead 24-18 at halftime.

After helping cut down the net to celebrate Saturday, Southerland was asked whether he thought this sort of thing was possible when his team was leaving the same arena on March 9 after losing meekly to Georgetown.

"We just did a good job of recovering from that," Southerland explained, "and not sulking."

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-30-BKC-NCAA-Syracuse-Marquette/id-fc181dca6c1e474a9a102111a6435831

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PFT: Collin Klein thinks his draft stock's rising

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New Dolphins DT Vaugn Martin says he had offers from the Pats, Eagles, Chargers, Chiefs, and Seattle.

Former Bills QB Frank Reich will hold his annual Call to Courage Award Breakfast on April 6; this year?s event includes a 20-year look back at the greatest comeback in NFL history.

WR Danny Amendola will wear No. 16 with the Pats, if it?s available.? (For now, it isn?t.)

The Jets won?t be hosting the Honey Badger before the draft, a fact that typically has little bearing on whether the player will be picked by the team in question.

Ravens secondary coach Teryl Austin is upbeat about the teams defensive backfield.

The Bengals will now try to find a safety, via free agency or the draft.

The Browns have ?very mild interest? in free-agent WR Domenik Hixon.

Former Steelers OL John Wiley died this week at the age of 92.? (He played in the first publicly-televised college football game, which was broadcast in 1939 by NBC.)

Former Texans LB Connor Barwin took out a newspaper ad thanking a variety of folks who helped his career in Houston ? including Jaguars QB Blaine Gabbert and ?my cleaning lady.?

Over the next couple of months, new Jaguars coach Gus Bradley will establish his vision for the team.

Colts QB Andrew Luck is among the candidates for the cover of an overhyped, underperforming football video game that inexplicably continues to sell millions of copies every year.

Someone actually believes that Ryan Fitzpatrick is an upgrade over Matthew Hasselbeck at backup quarterback for the Titans.

The Broncos hope to play as fast as possible on offense in 2013.

The Chiefs have explained the convoluted title of the man who once used the phrase ?programmatic non-fit? with a straight face.

Here?s a look at the Raiders? draft options with the third overall pick in 2013.

The agent for former Chargers LT Marcus McNeill says McNeill isn?t considering a comeback.

Cowboys QB Tony Romo talks about his new contract in a video that includes an image of Romo in front of a collection of trophies many think he?ll never touch and Romo?s young son rebuffing owner Jerry Jones? high-five attempt.

RB Tim Hightower?s workout with the Giants will occur early next week.

The Eagles reportedly have some lingering interest in OT Eric Winston.

The Redskins reportedly are eyeballing Miami CB Brandon McGee and Nevada safety Duke Williams.

The contract signed by new Bears OL Matt Slauson is worth more than the minimum salary.

Lions Hall of Famer Lem Barney has sued a former employer after he was fired for signing too many autographs.

CB Loyce Means, out of football in 2012, could be signed by the Packers early next week.

Should the Vikings focus on improving their front four?

The supposedly ultra-talented Falcons have a major hole at cornerback.

The effort to upgrade the Panthers? stadium with public money?continues to face opposition.

New Saints LB Victor Butler says that he was simply looking for a ?chance to compete and be a part of a winning team.?

How good will the Buccaneers? offensive line be in 2013, and beyond?

The Cardinals won?t be going to Flagstaff for training camp.

The Rams are ready to pull the plug on this year?s Pro Day circuit.

So who will be No. 2 on the depth chart behind Colin Kaepernick?

The Seahawks have put together 25 thinks to like about CB Richard Sherman on his 25th birthday.? (?Humility? is not on the list.)

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/30/collin-klein-thinks-his-draft-stock-is-trending-upward/related/

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Big depositors in Cyprus to lose far more than feared

By Michele Kambas

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Big depositors in Cyprus's largest bank stand to lose far more than initially feared under a European Union rescue package to save the island from bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the terms said on Friday.

Under conditions expected to be announced on Saturday, depositors in Bank of Cyprus will get shares in the bank worth 37.5 percent of their deposits over 100,000 euros, the source told Reuters, while the rest of their deposits may never be paid back.

The toughening of the terms will send a clear signal that the bailout means the end of Cyprus as a hub for offshore finance and could accelerate economic decline on the island and bring steeper job losses.

Officials had previously spoken of a loss to big depositors of 30 to 40 percent.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday defended the 10-billion euro ($13 billion) bailout deal agreed with the EU five days ago, saying it had contained the risk of national bankruptcy.

"We have no intention of leaving the euro," the conservative leader told a conference of civil servants in the capital, Nicosia.

"In no way will we experiment with the future of our country," he said.

Cypriots, however, are angry at the price attached to the rescue - the winding down of the island's second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, and an unprecedented raid on deposits over 100,000 euros.

Under the terms of the deal, the assets of Laiki bank will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus.

At Bank of Cyprus, about 22.5 percent of deposits over 100,000 euros will attract no interest, the source said. The remaining 40 percent will continue to attract interest, but will not be repaid unless the bank does well.

Those with deposits under 100,000 euros will continue to be protected under the state's deposit guarantee.

Cyprus's difficulties have sent jitters around the fragile single European currency zone, and led to the imposition of capital controls in Cyprus to prevent a run on banks by worried Cypriots and wealthy foreign depositors.

"CYPRUS EURO"

Banks reopened on Thursday after an almost two-week shutdown as Cyprus negotiated the rescue package. In the end, the reopening was largely quiet, with Cypriots queuing calmly for the 300 euros they were permitted to withdraw daily.

The imposition of capital controls has led economists to warn that a second-class "Cyprus euro" could emerge, with funds trapped on the island less valuable than euros that can be freely spent abroad.

Anastasiades said the restrictions on transactions - unprecedented in the currency bloc since euro coins and banknotes entered circulation in 2002 - would be gradually lifted. He gave no time frame but the central bank said the measures would be reviewed daily.

He hit out at banking authorities in Cyprus and Europe for pouring money into the crippled Laiki.

"How serious were those authorities that permitted the financing of a bankrupt bank to the highest possible amount?" Anastasiades said.

The president, barely a month in the job and wrestling with Cyprus's worst crisis since a 1974 war split the island in two, accused the 17-nation euro currency bloc of making "unprecedented demands that forced Cyprus to become an experiment".

European leaders have insisted the raid on big bank deposits in Cyprus is a one-off in their handling of a debt crisis that refuses to be contained.

MODEL

But policymakers are divided, and the waters were muddied a day after the deal was inked when the Dutch chair of the euro zone's finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said it could serve as a model for future crises.

Faced with a market backlash, Dijsselbloem rowed back. But on Friday, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot, a fellow Dutchman, said there was "little wrong" with his assessment.

"The content of his remarks comes down to an approach which has been on the table for a longer time in Europe," Knot was quoted as saying by Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad. "This approach will be part of the European liquidation policy."

The Cyprus rescue differs from those in other euro zone countries because bank depositors have had to take losses, although an initial plan to hit small deposits as well as big ones was abandoned and accounts under 100,000 euros were spared.

Warnings of a stampede at Cypriot banks when they reopened on Thursday proved unfounded.

For almost two weeks, Cypriots were on a ration of limited withdrawals from bank cash machines. Even with banks now open, they face a regime of strict restrictions designed to halt a flight of capital from the island.

Some economists say those restrictions will be difficult to lift. Anastasiades said the capital controls would be "gradually eased until we can return to normal".

The government initially said the controls would stay in place for seven days, but Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Thursday they could last "about a month".

On Friday, easing a ban on cheque payments, Cypriot authorities said cheques could be used to make payments to government agencies up to a limit of 5,000 euros. Anything more than 5,000 euros would require Central Bank approval.

The bank also issued a directive limiting the cash that can be taken to areas of the island beyond the "control of the Cypriot authorities" - a reference to Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus which considers itself an independent state. Cyprus residents can take 300 euros; non-residents can take 500.

Under the terms of the capital controls, Cypriots and foreigners are allowed to take up to 1,000 euros in cash when they leave the island.

(Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-depositors-cyprus-lose-far-more-feared-012924300--business.html

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Daily Kos: President Obama considering putting social insurance ...

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are reporting that President Obama is "strongly considering" including cuts to social insurance program benefits in his budget. The budget is slated to be released on April 10, the same day Obama is having yet another charm offensive dinner with Senate Republicans. Because this strategy has been working so well for him.

According to the WSJ,

Such a proposal could include steps that make many Democrats queasy, such as reductions in future Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security payments, but also items resisted by Republicans, such as higher taxes through limits on tax breaks, people close to the White House said. [...]

Including entitlement curbs would be notable, as Republicans often have criticized the White House for offering such steps in private negotiations but never fully embracing them as part of an official budget plan.

Well, since Republicans are criticizing him for not fully and officially embracing his desire to cut benefits to the poor and elderly, by all means he has to make the offer. Included in that, reportedly, is the chained CPI for Social Security and an idea from Eric Cantor for restructuring Medicare that would combine Medicare?s coverage for hospitals and doctor services, creating a single deductible that could increase out-of-pocket costs.

But here's just one rub in the plan:

But several liberal allies, some of whom advise White House officials, said Republicans could seize on the White House-endorsed spending cuts and try to implement them into law without any of the tax increases. That would put the White House in the uncomfortable position of opposing spending cuts it formally endorsed in its own budget.

That should be considered a certainty, rather than a possibility. That goes along with the certainty that Republicans are going to use an official White House proposal to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits in 2014 to run against Democrats. Republicans aren't engaging in any of the budget negotiations in good faith. They didn't do so in Obama's first term, and they have no intention to do so now, regardless of the 2012 election.

The Senate has rejected a chained CPI for Social Security, but that vote was non-binding. All those Democratic senators who voted against it need to take their opposition to the White House and tell President Obama that he will not have their votes.

Send an email to President Obama and congressional leadership telling them to strengthen Social Security instead of cutting it.

Originally posted to Joan McCarter on Fri Mar 29, 2013 at 10:18 AM PDT.

Also republished by Daily Kos.

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Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/29/1197888/-President-Obama-likely-to-put-social-insurance-cuts-in-his-budget

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T-Mobile to start offering iPhone 5 on April 12

T-Mobile CEO John Legere speaks during a news conference Tuesday, March 26, 2013 in New York. T-Mobile will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12, filling what Legere said was "a huge void" in its phone lineup. The company is currently the only major U.S. carrier not to offer Apple's popular smartphone. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

T-Mobile CEO John Legere speaks during a news conference Tuesday, March 26, 2013 in New York. T-Mobile will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12, filling what Legere said was "a huge void" in its phone lineup. The company is currently the only major U.S. carrier not to offer Apple's popular smartphone. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

T-Mobile CEO John Legere speaks during a news conference Tuesday, March 26, 2013 in New York. T-Mobile will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12, filling what Legere said was "a huge void" in its phone lineup. The company is currently the only major U.S. carrier not to offer Apple's popular smartphone. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert holds brochures if competitors' plans as he speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, March 26, 2013 in New York. T-Mobile will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12, filling what company CEO John Legere said was "a huge void" in its phone lineup. The company is currently the only major U.S. carrier not to offer Apple's popular smartphone. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

T-Mobile CEO John Legere gestures as he speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, March 26, 2013 in New York. T-Mobile will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12. The company is currently the only major U.S. carrier not to offer Apple's popular smartphone. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) ? T-Mobile USA on Tuesday said it will start offering the iPhone 5 on April 12, filling what its CEO said was "a huge void" in its phone lineup.

T-Mobile, the fourth-largest of the national U.S. phone companies, has been losing customers to the bigger companies, which all sell the iPhone.

"This is a big deal for us," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at an event in New York.

The company is charging $100 up front for the iPhone 5, then another $20 per month for two years. That's on top of service fees for voice, text and data that start at $50 per month. The total monthly cost starts at $70 per month, a substantial discount to prices offered by bigger companies.

T-Mobile's network has, until recently, not been able to offer high-speed data service to iPhones. It's now able to deliver high-speed data to iPhones in some cities, and it has lured over 2.1 million off-contract AT&T iPhones, executives said Tuesday.

The company also announced that it is firing up an even faster data network, based on so-called "LTE" technology, in Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, Calif., and Washington. Unofficially, the network is also active here and there in New York, as demonstrated at the event. By the end of the year, T-Mobile says it will be available where two-thirds of the nation's population lives. The iPhone 5 can access the LTE network for faster data downloads.

T-Mobile is the last of the four major carriers to launch an LTE network, but already has a relatively fast "4G" network. It's been hamstrung by a lack of space on the airwaves, but gained some room last year from AT&T as part the compensation for a failed buyout attempt.

T-Mobile also said it will start selling the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on or around May 1. That's the successor to the Galaxy S III, which has been the chief competitor to the iPhone.

The announcement comes just days after T-Mobile ditched its conventional contract-based plans in favor of selling phones on an installment basis. It's separating the cost of the phone from the service, and when a phone is paid off, usually after two years, the monthly fee for the phone disappears from the billing statement.

On traditional contract-based plans still used by the other carriers, the buyer is deemed to have "paid off" the phone after a certain period, at which point the customer becomes eligible for a new, subsidized phone. The monthly payments, however, don't decline if the customer keeps the old phone. There's no service contract, so customers are free to jump from T-Mobile to another carrier at any point, but they'll still be paying off their T-Mobile phone in monthly installments.

T-Mobile is positioning the change as a radical departure from industry practices, and is basing a new advertising campaign on being the "Uncarrier."

"We're cancelling our membership in the carrier club," Legere said.

As before, T-Mobile's prices generally undercut those of the bigger phone companies. The chief weakness is that its data network coverage is poorer in rural areas.

"T-Mobile realizes that they have to change the rules of the game, because under the current rules, they're losing, and they're going to continue to lose," said telecommunications analyst Roger Entner at Recon Analytics. He's skeptical that the plans, alone, can change its fortunes.

"Even if they're $5 cheaper, will that be enough? They're already charging a significant discount to Verizon and AT&T, and they're losing customers," Entner said.

T-Mobile is a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, which has agreed to merge it with No. 5 carrier MetroPCS Communications Inc. That deal faces opposition from shareholders of MetroPCS, which provides only prepaid service. By coincidence, the shareholders are voting on the merger on April 12, the same day T-Mobile starts selling the iPhone.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-26-US-TEC-T-Mobile-USA/id-1f92b75eef3946228e2d16c6827343f3

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Sens. Claire McCaskill, Mark Warner announce support for gay marriage

"Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality," Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill wrote Sunday on her blog. On Monday, Virginia Senator Mark Warner called marriage equality "the fair and right thing to do."

By David Lieb,?Associated Press / March 25, 2013

Sen. Claire McCaskell (D) of Missouri, seen here in October 2012 outside a St. Louis school, says she now believes that gay couples should be allowed to marry, a change from her stance during her 2012 re-election campaign in which she defended the right of Missouri voters to outlaw same-sex weddings.

Jeff Roberson / AP / File

Enlarge

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill says she now believes that gay couples should be allowed to marry, a change from her previously nuanced stance during last year's re-election campaign in which she defended the right of Missouri voters to outlaw same-sex weddings.

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The Democratic senator's support for gay marriage is a matter of both personal belief and public policy, her spokesman said Monday. McCaskill declared her position on her blog Sunday evening.

"I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love," McCaskill said on her Tumblr site. "While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry."

On Monday, another senator joined the growing chorus of support for marriage equality.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who describes himself as a centrist, announced on Facebook that he now supports gay marriage.

Like McCaskill, Warner has seen his position evolve over time. He had previously supported civil unions that confer some of the rights and privileges of marriage. In the waning days of his term as governor, Warner became the first governor to ban discrimination in hiring and workplace protection for gay state employees.

In 2010, he backed ending the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the military.

On Facebook, Warner says he supports marriage equality "because it is the fair and right thing to do."

These statements are coming out just as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the topic: Tuesday they will hear arguments on Prop. 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, then arguments Wednesday concerning a part of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act that bars same-sex couples who are legally married from receiving federal tax, pension and other benefits available to other married people.

Missouri voters overwhelmingly adopted a constitutional amendment in 2004 defining marriage as between a man and a woman. During her unsuccessful campaign for governor that year, McCaskill said she opposed gay marriage but also opposed the constitutional amendment, because Missouri already had a similar state law.

"I just didn't think it was an appropriate thing to put in our constitution," McCaskill said during an October 2004 gubernatorial debate.

McCaskill has generally shied away from discussing gay marriage during her Senate campaigns. But she defended Missouri's right to ban gay marriage when asked last June about a federal appeals court decision striking down certain parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

"It's been decided in Missouri. It's in our constitution. I don't quarrel with that decision," McCaskill said nearly 10 months ago. "I, for one, think it's much better for these decisions to be made at the state level, like we have here in Missouri."

McCaskill acknowledged in her Sunday posting that "my views on this subject have changed over time."

"But as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality," McCaskill said. "Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality."

President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage last year. Other politicians also have recently followed suit, including former Democratic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

Former President Bill Clinton signed the federal Defense of Marriage Act ? which requires the federal government to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages ? but he recently wrote an op-ed saying it's time to overturn it.

Follow David A. Lieb at: http://www.twitter.com/DavidALieb

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/wd7UeshXsC8/Sens.-Claire-McCaskill-Mark-Warner-announce-support-for-gay-marriage

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Toobin: Court divided (CNN)

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SD Sen. Tim Johnson retirement opens door for GOP

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic officials say Johnson intends to announce his retirement on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, a decision that gives Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in 2014. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democratic officials say Johnson intends to announce his retirement on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, a decision that gives Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in 2014. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? The anticipated retirement announcement from South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson gives Republicans one of their best chances of picking up a seat in their quest to regain control, as the veteran moderate Democrat steps aside.

Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is expected to say Tuesday afternoon that he will not seek a fourth term in the Senate next year.

The fifth Senate Democrat to call it quits, Johnson was facing a potentially difficult challenge from popular Republican Gov. Mike Rounds and still coping with the constraints of a 2006 brain hemorrhage that left his speech impaired and limited his mobility. The absence of the well-funded former congressman who has never lost an election in this GOP-trending state pushed the race to the top of the priority list, Republican strategists said.

"I believe South Dakota moves into the top slot as the most likely Republican pickup," said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster and past consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Johnson was scheduled to speak Tuesday at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

For weeks, Johnson's longtime aides and allies have suggested the 66-year-old would step down in 2014, despite his return to the Senate after the life-threatening hemorrhage. His recovery has been significant, though his speech remains impaired and he sometimes uses a motorized scooter.

Johnson's re-election in 2008 after the brain injury sealed his reputation for resilience. But long before, he had established a profile as a loyal Democrat but with an independent streak that made him a formidable candidate. He won re-election to the Senate against the popular Republican U.S. Rep. John Thune, now South Dakota's senior senator, after voting against the resolution to authorize the use of military force in Iraq and despite campaigning for Thune by Republican President George W. Bush.

Johnson has sided with Democrats on key issues such as the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He also has been an environmental advocate. But he has supported the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which is mapped to cross South Dakota and fiercely opposed by environmentalists.

He also has $1.2 million in his re-election campaign account, a healthy nest egg for a state where television advertising is relatively inexpensive. He retains a robust fundraising network, thanks to his deep-pocketed committee connections.

Despite those advantages, Johnson joins Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey as seasoned and influential Democrats departing the chamber, where Republicans need to gain six seats to take control. Among those states, West Virginia was carried by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year.

Two Republican senators have announced their retirements, both in Republican-performing states Georgia and Nebraska.

South Dakota, a reliably independent state just a decade ago, has trended sharply Republican in the past decade. Where Democrats once boasted two influential Democratic senators, Republicans now control the Legislature, governorship, the lone U.S. House seat and the other Senate seat.

But Democrats dismissed the notion that Johnson's retirement opens the door for a GOP senator. In last November's election, some Republican Senate candidates who appeared to be the heavy favorites ended up losing to Democratic rivals ? including Rick Berg, who lost to Heidi Heitkamp in neighboring North Dakota.

"I reject the idea that somehow the Republicans have a lock on this state," South Dakota Democratic Party Chairman Ben Nesselhuf said. "By no means is this an impossible task, or even improbable."

Devotees say Johnson's personality ? reserved and contemplative ? has been the key to the respect and influence he has amassed.

Bernie Hunhoff, minority leader in the South Dakota House, described Johnson as a pioneering advocate for women's and children's issues during his early days in the state Legislature. Johnson set the standard for Democrats, by staying true to progressive principles, while also reaching out across the electorate in a politically diverse state, said Hunhoff.

"He's more progressive than the average voter, but they obviously set that aside because they liked what they saw," Hunhoff said. "I think you'd describe Tim as a typical South Dakotan ? quiet, stoic, practical ? a good neighbor."

Despite contentious congressional and campaign battles, Johnson has remained "a gentleman," known more for thinking than talking, former South Dakota Democratic Party Chairwoman Judy Olson Duhamel said. "He's earned the respect of everybody he's ever worked with or for," she said.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Johnson through his top Senate staff were unsuccessful. Johnson aides would not confirm the retirement but said the senator would announce his political plans Tuesday in Vermillion.

Aware that Johnson might decide to retire, Democrats in South Dakota and nationally have discussed possible successors on the ticket, including Johnson's son Brendan, South Dakota's U.S. attorney. The younger Johnson said Monday in an interview that he was unaware of his father's decision and declined to discuss whether he would seek the office.

Former U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a contemporary of Brendan Johnson and another heir to a South Dakota Democratic legacy, also is looking at running. A granddaughter of former South Dakota Gov. Ralph Herseth, Herseth Sandlin served six years in the U.S. House before being defeated for re-election in 2010.

Brendan Johnson, appointed U.S. attorney in 2009, has never held elected office and faced questions about his father's involvement in the confirmation process. Assets for the younger Johnson include his father's advisers and donor base.

Herseth Sandlin also has an in-tact network and following in South Dakota, but she could face some problems in a potential primary with Johnson. She opposed the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a position that is out of step with a majority of party loyalists.

___

Brokaw reported from Pierre, S.D.; David Espo contributed from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-26-US-South-Dakota-Senate/id-586050e10e254e2781e865028fc076e0

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Speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates: Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Two forthcoming European Physical Journal D papers challenge established wisdom about the nature of vacuum. In one paper, Marcel Urban from the University of Paris-Sud, located in Orsay, France and his colleagues identified a quantum level mechanism for interpreting vacuum as being filled with pairs of virtual particles with fluctuating energy values. As a result, the inherent characteristics of vacuum, like the speed of light, may not be a constant after all, but fluctuate.

Meanwhile, in another study, Gerd Leuchs and Luis L. S?nchez-Soto, from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, Germany, suggest that physical constants, such as the speed of light and the so-called impedance of free space, are indications of the total number of elementary particles in nature.

Vacuum is one of the most intriguing concepts in physics. When observed at the quantum level, vacuum is not empty. It is filled with continuously appearing and disappearing particle pairs such as electron-positron or quark-antiquark pairs. These ephemeral particles are real particles, but their lifetimes are extremely short. In their study, Urban and colleagues established, for the first time, a detailed quantum mechanism that would explain the magnetisation and polarisation of the vacuum, referred to as vacuum permeability and permittivity, and the finite speed of light. This finding is relevant because it suggests the existence of a limited number of ephemeral particles per unit volume in a vacuum.

As a result, there is a theoretical possibility that the speed of light is not fixed, as conventional physics has assumed. But it could fluctuate at a level independent of the energy of each light quantum, or photon, and greater than fluctuations induced by quantum level gravity. The speed of light would be dependent on variations in the vacuum properties of space or time. The fluctuations of the photon propagation time are estimated to be on the order of 50 attoseconds per square meter of crossed vacuum, which might be testable with the help of new ultra-fast lasers.Leuchs and Sanchez-Soto, on the other hand, modelled virtual charged particle pairs as electric dipoles responsible for the polarisation of the vacuum.

They found that a specific property of vacuum called the impedance, which is crucial to determining the speed of light, depends only on the sum of the square of the electric charges of particles but not on their masses. If their idea is correct, the value of the speed of light combined with the value of vacuum impedance gives an indication of the total number of charged elementary particles existing in nature. Experimental results support this hypothesis.

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Journal References:

1. Marcel Urban, Fran?ois Couchot, Xavier Sarazin, Arache Djannati-Atai. The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30578-7
2. Gerd Leuchs, Luis L. S?nchez-Soto. A sum rule for charged elementary particles. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30577-8

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/matter_energy/physics/~3/OKTioXXFUZ8/130325111154.htm

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Powerball mystery: Officials say winner has yet to claim big prize

N.J. State lottery official Carole Hedinger tells members of the media she and her staff are still waiting for the winner ? or winners ? of the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, who purchased the ticket at Eagle Liquors in Passaic, to come forward and claim their prize.

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

New Jersey lottery officials announced Monday that the winner of one of the largest Powerball drawings in history -- $338 million -- has yet to come forward.

The newly-minted multi-millionaire bought the lucky ticket at Eagle Liquors?in Passaic, N.J., according to Carole Hedinger, executive director of the New Jersey Lottery.??

"We are waiting for the winner, or winners, to contact us,"?Hedinger told reporters at a press conference at lottery headquarters?in Lawrenceville, N.J.?"Whoever they are should sign the back of that ticket immediately and keep it in?a safe place."

"Most people take their time, seek professional advice, and wait to know exactly what they're doing before they come in," Hedinger added.

The winning numbers in the Saturday drawing were: 17, 29, 31, 52, 53, 31.

Lottery officials said the windfall was the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. The winner stands to net a $221 million lump sum payout.

Hedinger said reports that the sole winning ticket was sold at a Bordentown, N.J., gas station were erroneous.

"Somebody called the place in Bordentown and claimed to win a ticket, and perhaps somebody jumped to a conclusion," Hedinger said.

NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

?

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World Photo Caption Contest: Obama In Israel

US President Barack Obama waves as he arrives at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

US President Barack Obama, second right, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netayahu, right, and Israel' President Shimon Peres, during a welcoming ceremony upon Obama's arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

President Barack Obama, left, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, during his arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

US President Barack Obama reviews an honor guard upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

US President Barack Obama, center, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Israeli President Shimon Peres, second left, laugh as they walk during a welcoming ceremony upon Obama's arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

President Barack Obama, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, tour the Iron Dome Battery defense system at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tour the Iron Dome Battery defense system, at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

US President Barack Obama, left, and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, walk after a welcoming ceremony upon Obama's arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

US President Barack Obama speaks with a Muslim clergy man during a welcoming ceremony upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take a bite of matzah as they tour the Technology Expo in Jerusalem, Israel,Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Palestinians rip an American flag during a protest against the visit of the U.S. President Barack Obama in Gaza City, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Israeli soldiers scuffle with a Palestinian activist wearing a mask of U.S. President Barack Obama during a protest in the West Bank town of Hebron, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Palestinian man holds a poster during a protest against the visit of the US President Barack Obama in the West Bank city of Jenin, Wednesday, March. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas).

An Israeli salesman watches the arrival of US President Barack Obama in an electronics store in Ashkelon, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov)

A Palestinian activist is detained by Israeli soldiers after a protest in the West Bank town of Hebron, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

US President Barack Obama delivers a speech to the Israeli people at the Jerusalem International Convention Center in Jerusalem, on March 21, 2013 on the second day of his 3-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama shields his eyes as he looks up at a person who shouted out during his speech to the Israeli people at the Jerusalem International Convention Center in Jerusalem, on March 21, 2013 on the second day of his 3-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama waves as he walks off stage after delivering a speech to the Israeli people at the Jerusalem International Convention Center in Jerusalem, on March 21, 2013 on the second day of his 3-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama is welcomed by Palestinian girls during his visit to Al Bera Youth Center March 21, 2013 in Ramallah, the West Bank. This is Obama's first visit as president to the region and his itinerary includes meetings with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders as well as a visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. (Alaa Badarneh-Pool/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a joint press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, March. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

President Barack Obama waves to media as he walks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, as he arrives at the Muqata Presidential Compound Thursday, March 21, 2013, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Palestinians smoke water-pipes at a coffee shop as U.S. President Barack Obama appears on television in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theopilos III after receiving a gift during a tour the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where tradition says Jesus was born, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on March 22, 2013, on the final day of Obama's 3-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

In this handout photograph supplied by the Government Press Office of Israel (GPO), U.S. President Barack Obama pays his respects at the grave of Theodore Herzl after Marines layed a wreath on his behalf during a visit to Mount Herzl on March 22, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO via Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama visits the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Israel's Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev and Israel's President Shimon Peres on March 22, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

In this handout photograph supplied by the Government Press Office of Israel (GPO), U.S. President Barack Obama pays his respects in the Hall of Remembrance as marines lay a wreath on his behalf during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Israel's President Shimon Peres, Israel's Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev during a visit to Yad Vashem at Mount Herzl on March 22, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images)

U.S. President Barack Obama (4R) visits the Church of the Nativity with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (5R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (5L) on March 22, 2013 in Bethlehem, West Bank. (Atef Safadi-Pool/Getty images)

US President Barack Obama (R) hugs Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) alongside Israeli President Shimon Peres prior to departing from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 22, 2013. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama walks down the steps of Air Force One upon his arrival at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, on March 22, 2013. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Barack Obama speaks with Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) during a meeting at Al-Hummar Palace in Amman on March 22, 2013. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) reviews an honour guard with US President Barack Obama during a welcoming ceremony at Al-Hummar Palace in Amman on March 22, 2013. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

A Jordanian activist burns a representation of a U.S. flag, during a protest in front of the U.S. embassy against a visit by President Barack Obama to the kingdom, in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

U.S. President Barack Obama pays his respects in the Hall of Remembrance in front of Israel's President Shimon Peres, Israel's Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau after marines layed a wreath on his behalf during his visit to the Yad Vashem on March 22, 2013 in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/24/world-photo-caption-contest-obama-israel-speech_n_2944866.html

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?The Business Of Literature Is Blowing Shit Up? | TechCrunch

If you love books?heck, if you even like ?em?run, don?t walk, and read this magnificent, magisterial essay by Richard Nash on their past, present and future. It?s long. Don?t be frightened. But even if the Internet has shredded your attention span, at least scroll down to its epic final paragraph. Go on. I?ll wait.

It?s been a rotten decade for book publishers, newspapers, and anyone else clinging to that 15th century technology called the printing press. Marc Andreessen has advised the mighty New York Times to ?burn the boats? and shut down their presses. His partner Ben Horowitz claimed last year that ?babies born today will probably never read anything in print.?

Meanwhile, Borders is dead, the tablet is killing the e-reader, and Barnes & Noble?s Nook has gone from investor darling to dead-weight albatross. The ?Big Six? publishers may seem to be surviving nicely, but check out this graph:

If publishers are at war with Amazon, the undisputed king of e-commerce?and they certainly think they are?then that remarkable trend does not bode well for them.

Authors aren?t doing so well either. ?For large parts of the year it only takes a few hundred copies a day, not a few thousand, to get to the top of Amazon?s daily charts.? ?My novel shot to the top of the site?s bestseller list last summer. You won?t believe how little I got paid.?

Nowadays, when authors dream of financial success, they dream more of Hollywood or TV adaptations than slots on the New York Times bestseller list. Movies and television have held up remarkably well under the onslaught of the Internet, thanks largely to ever-more-lucrative foreign markets, while book publishing has quietly become far more hit-and-miss than Hollywood. Last year each book in E.L. James? Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy sold more than 15 million e-book copies. Only one other book, Gillian Flynn?s Gone Girl, broke a million. Which is more than it sold in print, incidentally.

For the last five years, in the face of this spreading transformation, the publishing industry has been caught in a tawdry and depressing spiral of denial and decay, constantly attempting to reject new media, new technologies, and new business models until they can fight back no more. (Disagree? Name some publisher-driven innovations.) Evan Hughes? recent Wired piece is the latest in a long line of eulogies. If it seems incredibly musty and tired to you, you?re not alone. I?m faintly amazed that it was published in Wired in 2013; my own contribution to the genre dates back to 2007.

That?s why Nash?s essay is such a breath of revolutionary air. The publishing industry will never be the same, but why can?t it be better? Why can?t a whole new model of publishing be created, rather than this false dichotomy between ?published? and ?self-published?? So the king is dying; well, long live the king!

The Internet opens up new ways of connecting with readers that authors have never dreamed of before? and that publishers seem to barely even consider. Take Wattpad. A few months ago they put a couple of my novels up on their site for free. (They did ask permission, even though they didn?t need to; after the rights to the books in question had reverted from their initial publishers, I released them under a Creative Commons license.)

And I?m delighted that they did. A cool million chapter-views of my back-catalog hacker thriller Invisible Armies later, I know far more about how people read the book than I ever did before:

Hughes seems to be arguing that authors will choose to self-publish. Charles Stross disagrees:

Yes, I could do it. But it?d suck up a huge amount of time I would prefer to spend doing what I enjoy (writing) and force me to do stuff I do not enjoy (reading contracts, accounting, managing other people). The only sane way to do it would be to hire someone else to do all the boring crap on my behalf. And do you know what we call people who do that? We call them publishers.

Indeed. But wait: why do all of those people have to work under the same corporate aegis? Why can?t Stross hire a separate editor, copy editor, publisher and marketer? Why must their end-product be viewed as a thing that is complete and engraved in stone, rather than a living beast amenable to A/B testing and weeks-to-months of optimization, like a Broadway play in previews? If a book isn?t a sheaf of papers any more?and given that the bestselling e-books are now outselling the sheaves, it clearly isn?t?then what is it?

I?ll take a swing at that one: a book is a story told in the size and shape that fits most deeply and tightly into the human brain. Everyone keeps waiting for Amazon Singles and short stories to take off, and waiting, and waiting. But I believe novels will remain the dominant form of written storytelling so long as our brains remain substantially unchanged.

Maybe the existing system of publishers and booksellers will collapse. Maybe our collective ability to filter the good from the bad will be challenged. Maybe, as more and more books are written, and more and more made available for free, full-time authors will become an endangered species.

Doesn?t really matter. Books will remain, and because they?re books, because they?re that razor-barbed size and shape, they?ll remain a genuinely powerful and subversive medium. Richard Nash is right: whatever tidal wave of change comes next, whatever economic system or sociopolitical order, you can bet that books, in one form or another, will be at its disruptive heart.

Image credit: Booksplosion, by azrasta, on Flickr.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/23/the-business-of-literature-is-blowing-shit-up/

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Exxaro miners to end strike: union

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African mining firm Exxaro has resolved a dispute with striking workers who will on Monday resume production, which was halted more than two weeks ago at five of its collieries, company and union officials said on Saturday.

The stoppage had threatened supply of coal to state power utility Eskom , which uses the commodity to generate 85 percent of the electricity for Africa's biggest economy. Exxaro is Eskom's second-largest coal supplier.

"The issue was resolved at midnight and all workers will return to work on Monday. The dispute was over a bonus and that bonus was granted," said National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka.

Exxaro spokesman Hilton Atkinson confirmed a deal had been reached in the early hours of Saturday.

"At this stage it's hard to say when we will get to full production ... probably a few days after production resumes," he told Reuters.

Exxaro had said on Wednesday it could dismiss the 3,200 coal miners participating in the illegal strike if they refused to return to work by next week.

The strike turned violent earlier this week, with police firing rubber bullets at strikers at one mine.

The strike started at two mines on March 5 and spread to other operations as workers pressed for bonuses the company refused to pay because targets had not been met.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exxaro-miners-end-strike-union-085752347--finance.html

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Activists: Clashes in Syria near Jordan border

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Syrian activists say rebels continue to press ahead with their offensive in the southern province of Daraa on the Jordanian border.

A rebel victory there would be significant because it would deprive President Bashar Assad of control over Syria's southern border with Jordan. In the past few months, rebels seized control of much of the western border with Turkey and made significant gains along the eastern border with Iraq.

Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says heavy clashes were continuing Sunday at two towns near Daraa.

A Jordanian border official says he is hearing heavy artillery and seeing smoke rising from areas in the province's Yarmouk Valley.

On Saturday, rebels seized several army checkpoints, clearing a 25-kilometer (15-mile) stretch along the Syrian-Jordanian border.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/activists-clashes-syria-near-jordan-border-093807647.html

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Gmail update lets Jelly Bean users archive and reply to emails from notifications

Got a relatively recent version of Android on your smartphone? Good, because today, Google's giving Jelly Bean users another reason to be happy. In the company's latest update to Gmail, users will now find the ability to archive, delete and reply to incoming mail directly from the notifications drawer -- a small improvement, but we'll gladly take it. What's more, users of Ice Cream Sandwich and above will benefit from faster searches (online and off), along with a few performance improvements and bug fixes, too. So, time to tap that update button, eh?

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: Official Gmail Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/-dxUvb0sn6w/

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Australia Eases Sanctions, Grants Aid to Burma (Voice Of America)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Rap artist Tone Loc collapses on stage in Iowa: reports

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Grammy-winning rapper Tone Loc reportedly collapsed on stage late Saturday night during a performance in Des Moines, Iowa.

Amateur video posted Sunday on the Des Moines Register newspaper website showed several emergency personnel kneeling over a prone body on a stage at the Bridge Bash, a St. Patrick's Day concert featuring Loc and other hip hop artists.

The condition of Loc, who was born Anthony Terrell Smith, was not known on Sunday. A representative did not immediately return a call for comment.

The newspaper said on Sunday that several news staffers attending the event reported that Loc completed a song and then fell onto the stage. The audience was ushered out of the stage area about five minutes later, according to the report.

The singer, whose hits include "Funky Cold Medina" and "Wild Thing," collapsed on stage in Florida in 2009 and in Atlanta in 2011, according to NBC News.

Loc burst onto the music scene in the late 1980s. He received two Grammys in 1990 for Best New Artist and Best Rap Solo Performance. He has also starred in more than a dozen movies, including "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and "Heat."

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rap-artist-tone-loc-collapses-stage-iowa-reports-172127965.html

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Sony Xperia ZL Hits the FCC, With AT&T Compatible Bands

The Sony Xperia ZL, which is a slightly modified version of the Xperia Z flagship has just reached the FCC, in an AT&T compatible version. It supports all the needed bands, including LTE bands 2, 4, 5 and 17, plus HSPA over 1900, 1700 and 850 MHz frequencies.

It appears that Sony may decide to sell the device unlocked, so don?t expect it on AT&T. For those who don?t know, the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL were announced at CES 2013 and were given hands on experiences at MWC 2013. We?re testing the Xperia Z right now and we?ll be back with a review ASAP. By the way, the Xperia ZL measures 9.8 mm in thickness, so it?s a bit thicker than the Xperia Z and gives up the all glass back panel in favour of textured plastic rear cover.

The ZL keeps the same quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, camera and software features of the Z, but it doesn?t have its water resistant abilities. Sony will be launching the Z and ZL with Android 4.1 on board and its custom user interface, with modified launcher, homescreen and lockscreen.

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