Former Warriors captain Steve Price is "subdividing" his head as a novel way to raise more money for the Child Cancer Foundation with a social media drive launched this afternoon.
The rugby league legend ??who is Queensland's most-capped State of Origin forward ??is an ambassador of the Child Cancer Foundation and each year hosts a charity dinner as a fundraiser.?
This year he is shaving his head to raise money for the cause, but to maximise what he can raise he is "subdividing" his head into sections.?
People who want to sponsor him can bid on the sides, front, top or back of his head.?
To help raise awareness, he will be using Twitter to drum up support under the hash tag #priceyrealestate.
The winning bidders will be hosted by Steve at his star-studded Child Cancer Foundation Dinner in Auckland on Friday, March 1.?
Andrew Ti and this weeks guest Todd Levin say fuck you to the Mummers Parade for thinking black face gets a pass for being part of a tradition. Tell us about any other racist traditions by leaving a message at (323) 389-RACE.
CHONBURI, Thailand (AP) ? Stacy Lewis shot a 9-under 63 in the first round Thursday to take a three-stroke lead at the LPGA Thailand.
The American had an eagle on the par-4 third hole and added four more birdies on the front nine at the Siam Country Club Pattaya Old Course. She had two more birdies before a bogey at No. 16.
The 2012 LPGA Tour player of the year birdied the last two holes to finish three strokes ahead of Karine Icher (66).
"I really started hitting the ball solid early on. Holed out for eagle on No. 3 and from there, I don't know, that shot just really gave me the confidence to really start swinging at it," said Lewis, a six-time LPGA winner, including the 2011 Kraft Nabisco major. "I think I missed two greens all day. I just had a ton of birdie putts and I even left a few out there."
Inbee Park, Amy Yang, Catriona Matthew and Gerina Piller were four strokes behind. Top-ranked Yani Tseng was well off the pace at 3 over after a round with five bogeys.
Lewis said she left two birdie putts a half-roll short before she made an eagle on the third hole.
"I was a little frustrated going to No. 3," she said. "I think I had about 145 to the pin and I hit an 8-iron. It landed a few feet short and all the fans' hands went up, so I knew it went in. I guess it was just perfect."
Icher had a bogey-free round, marking a vast improvement on her final round at the Australian Women's Open last week in which she shot a 75 to finish tied for 55th.
"Last week I played really well, but I missed all of the putts," Icher said. "I'm happy because I improved my putting today, and it's a good sign for the rest of the season."
This one perhaps has a slight taste of the better late than never, but the WiFi Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in Australia is now getting its Jelly Bean update. The Note 10.1 WiFi started receiving Android 4.1 in Europe -- Germany more specifically -- back in December, so eager Australian Note 10.1 owners have had a bit of a wait. However, the wait seems to be worth it, as the update now pushing out via Kies takes the tablet straight to Android 4.1.2 and the Premium Suite features that comes with it such as multi-window and air-view for the S-Pen.
As you might imagine, it's a hefty sized update, and weighs in at 505MB. Note 10.1 3G owners in Australia still seem to be waiting on, but Samsung's recent efforts with pushing software updates suggests they may not be waiting too much longer. If you've snagged a copy of the update already, be sure to hit us up in the comments or the Galaxy Note 10.1 forums and share your experiences with us.
Malique Killing knocked down a jumper from the left elbow with 0.7 second left, completing a furious Muhlenberg College rally as the Mules defeated Gettysburg 45-43 in the first round of the Centennial Conference men's basketball tournament Wednesday evening at Allentown.
The Bullets' season comes to a close at 12-14. Muhlenberg (17-9) plays top-seeded Franklin & Marshall College in the semifinals on Friday at Lancaster.
The Mules trailed 31-14 at the half, but outscored the Bullets 31-12 in the second period, including 9-1 in the final 3:21. Killing scored Muhlenberg's final nine points.
Sophomore guard Sango Amolo scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Bullets while senior Derek Brooks added 12 in his final collegiate game. Sophomore center Christian Healy grabbed a career-high nine rebounds while senior center Christian Bors, also playing his final game, made a career-high four blocked shots.
Killing led the Mules with 16 points while Kevin Hargrove finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Amolo drew a foul driving to the rim with 18 seconds left and hit a free throw, tying the game at 43 before Killing's game-winner. After the Bullets called timeout, the Mules tipped the final inbound pass and Gettysburg was unable to get off a shot.
The Bullets never trailed in the opening half. With less than 12 minutes to go, the scoreboard read just 8-2 in favor of the Bullets, but Gettysburg held the Mules to 1-for-14 shooting to open the night.
Gettysburg's
lead reached double figures when junior forward Connor Poston converted a fast-break lay-up with 8:33 on the clock. Muhlenberg trailed 23-14 after Matt O'Hara's 3-pointer with 3:40 showing, but the Bullets answered with a pair of treys to end the period and give the Bullets their 17-point halftime lead.
Muhlenberg was held to 20.7-percent shooting in the opening half while the Bullets connected on 46.4 percent of their shots. Amolo led Gettysburg with 14 points.
The Mules got back into it at the second half, outscoring the Bullets 11-2 to open the period, but Brooks; jumper made it 40-27 in favor of Gettysburg with 9:42 to go.
However, that's when Muhlenberg scored nine unanswered points to pull within four following Austin Curry's 3-pointer with 4:19 remaining.
Amolo stemmed the rally with an acrobatic layup with 3:42 showing, but Killing answered for the Mules. His 3-point play on a driving bank shot with 36 seconds left gave the hosts their first lead, 43-42, setting up Amolo's foul shot.
Three Gettysburg seniors who missed the game due to injury saw their careers come to an end. Alex Zurn finished with 1,034 points as a Bullet while Benjamin Constable and Larry Geedey also helped Gettysburg reach the Centennial Conference playoffs in three of the last four years.
Force India has formally confirmed that Adrian Sutil will test for the team in Barcelona this week as the debate over the second seat continues.
It will be the German?s first F1 mileage since his last race for the team at the end of 2011. He sat out last year but attended several races, spending most of his time in the Force India camp.
Paul Di Resta will drive on Tuesday and Wednesday before handing over to his former team mate. Jules Bianchi, who drove at the recent Jerez test, will be back in the car for the final day on Friday.
The team has indicated all winter that the choice would be between Sutil and Bianchi, the Ferrari prot?g? who had the third driver role last year.
Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ? Reports that milk in the Balkans has been contaminated by a cancer-causing toxin have triggered a major health scare throughout the region, with authorities appealing for calm before official tests are conclusive.
Senior agriculture official Goran Jesic claims on his website that out of 35 tested milk samples in Serbia, 29 had higher levels of aflatoxin than allowed. A low dose of the toxin, linked to mildewed cattle feed, is not considered harmful, but high doses are linked to cancer, especially of the liver.
Bosnian veterinary officials said Tuesday that concentrations of aflatoxin above the limit had been found in imported milk from Hungary, Slovenia and Germany and that a shipment from Serbia is also suspected. Recently, Bosnia's border controls have found the toxin in milk imported from Croatia.
President Barack Obama interacted with Americans in a Google hangout inspired by the fireside chats of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Unlike Roosevelt's one-way radio addresses, this online venue gave citizens the chance to ask the president questions about a range of topics including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). One participant asked Obama if his two daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, have expressed any interest in pursuing science or engineering fields.?
Obama said his daughters are still a bit young to have made any official decisions on their future? career paths, but they are doing well in math and science. He and first lady Michelle Obama don?t want their daughters ?to be intimidated? by the fields of math and science, and think that more women should enter STEM fields. That also means more education in these subjects must be incorporated into U.S. schools.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 12, Obama emphasized the importance of making sure students learn technical skills in high school that will prepare students for jobs. He cited Brooklyn's P-Tech school, where students graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
One of the citizens in the hangout mentioned this and asked if Obama would consider making computer programming a required language along with a foreign language.
"I think it makes sense; I really do," Obama said. "Part of what I'm trying to do here is to make sure that we're working with high schools and school districts all across the country to make the high school experience relevant for young people, not all of whom are going to get a four-year college degree or an advanced degree."
Because not everyone will go on to a four-year degree, high schools need to prepare students to start a job once they graduate. For example, programs and apprenticeships in high school for graphic design would not only give students that preparation, but also would get them more excited about learning. Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, got his start in programming because he was interested in games and taught himself how to program.
"I want to make sure that they know how to actually produce things with computers instead of just consuming things," Obama said.
As technology continues to change rapidly, one participant said small businesses were worried that if they become successful, they would be targeted by software patent trolls-- which?collect patents on technology, but do not manufacture or use the patented invention. These "trolls" essentially hijack someone else's idea and extort money from them.
For the past two years, Obama has been working on patent reform. In 2011, he signed a patent reform bill ? the first time since 1952 ? in an effort to quicken the patent process for entrepreneurs and inventors.
"Our efforts at patent reform only went about halfway to where we need to go," Obama said, "and what we need to do is pull together additional stakeholders and see if we can build some additional consensus on some smarter patent laws."
During this consensus-building conversation, stakeholders need to make sure they balance protection of people's intellectual property with making sure that the patents aren't so long that innovation is stifled. The technology is changing fast, but privacy and civil liberties need to be protected across the high-tech industry.
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Amazon Cloud Player, the company's online and mobile music streaming service fueled by purchases of MP3's, uploads and even previously bought CDs, is now going to be available in Ford SYNC AppLink-enabled vehicles. The service will allow drivers to connect their Android smartphone running the Amazon MP3 app to their SYNC system, in order to stream their Cloud Player library over the car's stereo and operate it using voice commands or audio controls.
-- Detroit manager Jim Leyland arrived at the Tigers' training camp Monday in Lakeland, Fla., marking 50 seasons since he first showed up there as a pencil-thin 18-year-old prospect.
If you were expecting sepia-tinged memories about a kid from Ohio basking in the sunshine and seeing his dream laid out in front of him, well, you don't know Leyland. Or at least not well enough.
"I remember going over to watch the big-league guys as soon as I got there and saw the caliber of play. And shortly after that, I had a good idea I wasn't going to make it ? not as a ballplayer, anyway," he recalled during a telephone interview.
He was right. Leyland's first paycheck was for $125, "and that was for two weeks," he chuckled. He went on to become, in his own words, "a Double-A backup, flunky catcher" who never hit better than .243.
"I hung around for seven years in the minors and they (the Tigers organization) decided the rest for me. First, they made me a player-coach and then one of the fellas who was supposed to manage the rookie league team wandered off somewhere, so they said, `Why don't you give it a try?' That was 1971," he added. "So things worked out pretty good.'
Leyland is so understated it's easy to get the impression that his career and all that success ? almost 1,700 wins, three manager of the year awards, a World Series title and runner-up finish in 2012 ? were little more than a string of happy accidents. In truth, for most of his career, Leyland was rarely in the right place at the right time long enough for lightning to strike.
He spent his first 11 seasons managing in five different towns at different levels of the minors, occasionally stuck with teams so bad that a half-dozen errors and 10 walks per game were routine. He endured eating in truck stops and being stranded on two-lane highways alongside buses with flat tires at 4 o'clock in the morning. When Leyland finally made it to the major leagues in 1982, with an assist from close pal and then-White Sox manager Tony La Russa, it was as a third-base coach.
"It didn't take long to see just how good he was, but I knew a little about that when we got him," La Russa said. "I managed against Jim the first time in Triple-A in 1979, and we did it a lot more than I wanted to after that. He's got a real passion for competing."
Turns out Leyland has a passion for more than just competing, though the rest of us rarely see it. La Russa laughed out loud when told how the only story Leyland recounted about his first visit to Lakeland was realizing he wasn't a good enough ballplayer to carve out a living for long.
"That's perfect," said La Russa, who retired after the 2011 season. "Jim's a funny guy, engaging and interesting and fun to be around ? when it's just coaches and players. He likes to sing, too, but almost nobody knows it, because he takes being the leader of the team seriously, at least when he thinks it's time to compete. ... So not being nostalgic, not wanting to sound distracted, that's Jim, too. It just means he's already in compete mode."
Those who don't know Leyland as well should wish he cut himself more slack. He often comes off as a baseball lifer buffeted by a series of headwinds who loves the game a lot more than it loved him back.
Leyland got his first big-league managing job in Pittsburgh and lost the NL Championship Series three years in a row. Tougher still was hanging on after the cost-conscious Pirates' organization effectively gave up, letting guys like Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds slip away, before they started cutting to the bone. Leyland eventually migrated to Miami, where he hoisted the World Series trophy and gave a brief emotional speech.
"This is for all the minor league managers, the guys in the instructional leagues. So don't give up."
But the very next season, the Marlins did, conducting a fire sale that left Leyland shaking his head and eventually fleeing to the Colorado Rockies. After a season there, convinced he'd let himself, his ballplayers and the organization down, Leyland walked away from the game.
"We've talked a lot over the years and believe me, he left money on the table there," La Russa said. "But every year, Jim and I would have the same discussion about managing, with the same questions: Are you fired up to do the job? Is the club responding to your leadership? Do you have the confidence of the front office and ownership? I'm pretty sure Jim didn't sign up for this year until he checked his gut."
General manager Dave Dombrowski, who met La Russa and Leyland when he was a young front-office assistant in Chicago three decades ago, is certain all the stars are aligned. He knows few managers could get over the way Detroit was clobbered by San Francisco in the series last year and that none would come back any hungrier.
"If most of what you know about Jim is seeing him talking after games ? giving short, gruff answers ? you wouldn't know how much baseball means to him," Dombrowski said. "He's seen just about everything and he still loves everything about it. He just doesn't always come across that way."
And that's the only shame. To make ends meet at various times, Leyland stamped out windshields at a General Motors plant, delivered mail and hauled construction materials around. But even now that he's flush and in control of one of a handful of serious contenders, he isn't about to loosen up.
"I never thought all those days ago about making it or not making it," Leyland said. "I'm just happy they kept me around long enough to find a way I could stick."
___
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him on Twitter.com/JimLitke.
In the movies, the hero who rescues the town from bandits usually isn't the guy you want sticking around to run the post office and the general store. The antivirus industry isn't so different. Some products specialize in rousting the bandits, then riding off into the sunset leaving your PC clean and ready for a different product's ongoing protection. The free Comodo Cleaning Essentials 6 is one such, and it does a very good job.
Some malware writers code their creations to actively fight installation of antivirus software. Comodo Cleaning Essentials foils such attacks with a simple countermeasure; it doesn't require installation. Download the tool, unzip it, and launch it?that's all.
Unhindered Action The similar Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.70 does require installation, but it managed to install on all twelve of my nasty, malware-infested test systems without a hitch. As noted, all I had to do with Comodo was unzip the downloaded file to a folder on the desktop.
When you launch Comodo it spends a moment initializing and checking out the system, then offers you the choice of a "smart," full, or custom scan. Whichever scan you choose, Comodo goes on to download the latest updates. On one test system, malware interfered with the update process. A full scan solved that problem, however, and when I tried a second scan the update proceeded without a hitch.
The term rootkit refers to a program that hooks deeply into Windows to hide its own presence. For example, a rootkit may redirect the standard Windows function that lists files in a folder and delete its own files from the list. After the update, Comodo automatically reboots the system and starts a scan as soon as Windows loads, before any rootkit-based threats can sink their hooks into the system.
This almost proved problematic on a test system that can only function in Safe Mode due to a ransomware infestation. When Comodo rebooted it to normal Windows, the ransomware took over. It turned out, though, that Comodo was working away in the background and managed to complete a full scan despite malware interference.
Once the scan finishes, Comodo presents its findings in a tree structure, with individual malware traces organized below the malware threat to which they correspond. Like Malwarebytes, it also fixes malicious changes to system settings such as disabling Task Manager or Command Prompt. After you give permission, it cleans the found traces, reboots again, and reports on whether everything came out right.
In most cases, the final report listed every malware traces as properly cleaned, but for a few it reported "Failed." If you find any such items in the final report, you'll need to pursue other options for cleaning. Typically, a session with Comodo Cleaning Essentials is the precursor to installing a full-scale antivirus or security suite. Once you've installed ongoing security, run a scan right away.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jennifer Aniston is joining Owen Wilson in Peter Bogdanovich's comedy "She's Funny That Way," Red Granite Pictures announced in Berlin. She will play a therapist with a mother in rehab for alcoholism in the Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach-produced the film following a married Broadway director (Wilson) who falls for a prostitute-turned-actress, then helps advance her career. Jason Schwartzman, Cybil Shepherd, Eugene Levy, Kathryn Hahn and Brie Larson co-star in the comedy (also known as "Squirrels to Nuts") written by Bogdanovich and Louise Stratten. ...
It's time for another unveil of the speaker lineup we've got brewing for Expand in San Francisco this March 16-17. We've got four more inspiring thinkers and doers who will be joining us on stage at Fort Mason Center:
Marc Raibert: President & Chief Robot Lover, Boston Dynamics
They're joining a whole host of other rad speakers including Chris Anderson (CEO, 3D Robotics and former editor-in-chief, Wired), Yancey Strickler (Co-founder and Head of Community, Kickstarter), Steve Cousins (CEO, Willow Garage), Julie Uhrman (Founder and CEO, OUYA) and many more. Stay tuned here and on our social channels (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) for more agenda reveals and other Expand news.
Plus, find out who the attendees are most looking forward to seeing...
If driving to a store and waving your phone by a terminal puts too much sweat on your brow, American Express has launched a new way to part with your money in exchange for physical goods that's even more effortless. Since last year, Amex Sync has let American Express cardholders earn discounts in return for posting tweets including hashtags about certain products, and now it's letting them buy things just by tweeting special hashtags. After signing up for the service, users can send out a tweet with a hashtag such as #BuyAmexGiftCard25, reply to the @AmexSync account to confirm their purchase and wait for the package to arrive via free 2-day shipping. As of now, the outfit is offering a $25 American Express gift card for $15, but will being offering up new products, ranging from a Kindle Fire HD to an Xbox 360, with sweetened prices starting February 13 at noon EST. Not a Twitter user? According to AllThingsD, Leslie Berland, Amex's SVP of digital partnerships and development, says the solution will head to the likes of Facebook and other platforms at some point as well.
Sunday's Grammy Awards handed out plenty of big honors, but with no dominating winner, the memorable storylines were more about onstage moments.?
The show was slow to kick in, with only one award -- Adele's win for best pop solo performance for "Set Fire to the Rain" -- being handed out in the first 40 minutes of the ceremony.
Adele was last year's big Grammy winner, and she claimed the first award of the night at Sunday's ceremony as well. The singer, clad in a red floral print dress with matching shoes, sent out "massive love" to the other nominees with her acceptance speech.
Perhaps the most surprising award of the night was one of the biggest. Folk rock group Mumford and Sons won the album of the year award for "Babel."
"We figured we weren't going to win anything because The Black Keys have been sweeping up all day, and deservedly so," said lead singer Marcus Mumford.?
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The Black Keys led the night with four Grammys, including best rock performance and best rock song for "Lonely Boy," best rock album for "El Camino," and producer of the year for Dan Auerbach.
Taylor Swift opened the show with a circus-meets-"Alice in Wonderland" performance of her song "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," and then Elton John and Ed Sheeran dueted on Sheeran's "The A Team."
Carrie Underwood claimed the award for best country solo performance for "Blown Away." Underwood, who thanked her family and "perfect husband" Mike Fisher, was wearing a $31 million diamond necklace when she accepted her award.
Underwood also won one of those memorable moments later on, performing "Blown Away" while special light effects made it appear as if butterflies, flowers and other images were dancing on her gown.
The song of the year award went to "We Are Young," composed by Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost and Nate Ruess of fun. "If this is in HD, everyone can see our faces, and we are not very young," Ruess joked.
Later in the show, fun. also picked up the award for best new artist.
Kelly Clarkson took home the Grammy for best pop vocal album for "Stronger," and gave an enthusiastic acceptance speech, first explaining why her trip to the stage took so long.
"I got stuck to Miranda Lambert," she announced. "There's a story -- and a song -- for later. After alcohol. Just kidding, children!"
Clarkson went on to thank her fellow nominees, and said to one, "Miguel, I don't know who the hell you are, but we need to sing together." She later tweeted a photo of the two singers together backstage.
Christopher Polk / Getty Images
Taylor Swift opened the show performing her hit "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."
A new award, for best urban contemporary album, went to Frank Ocean. Ocean beat out Miguel and Chris Brown just over a week after Brown and Ocean apparently had a confrontation in a recording studio parking lot. Social media sites were instantly flooded with photos showing Brown remaining seated while the other Grammy attendees gave Ocean a standing ovation for his victory.
Ocean was on stage again later in the show when the best rap/sung collaboration award went to "No Church in the Wild," from Ocean, Jay-Z, Kanye West and The Dream. Jay-Z delivered perhaps the line of the night when he said, "I would like to thank the swap meet for (the Dream's) hat," pointing at a Boyz in the Hood baseball cap The Dream was wearing over an "explicit lyrics" do-rag.
And Ocean also scored a social-media moment when he performed his song "Forrest Gump" behind a podium, with video projecting to make it appear as if he was running cross-country, as Gump does in the movie and book, while singing.
Prince brought the audience to its feet when he came on stage, complete with unexplained cane, to present the record of the year award for Gotye and Kimbra for "Somebody That I Used to Know." Before reading the winner, Prince said "I love this song."
Both singers thanked the unexpected presenter in their acceptance speeches, with Gotye saying, "A little bit lost for words, to receive an award from the man standing behind us with the cane."
The Zac Brown Band won the award for best country album for "Uncaged."
Perhaps the most welcomed performance came from Justin Timberlake, who performed "Suit & Tie" and "Pusher Love Girl" with a dramatically choreographed art deco set. The performance was televised partly in sepia tone for an old-style look before switching to color.
And the audience also came to life for a catchy tribute to the late Levon Helm of The Band, which was also dedicated to the children of Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, where 26 people were killed in a December shooting. Helm died of throat cancer in April 2012. Elton John, Mumford and Sons, Mavis Staples, Zac Brown and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes joined in the tribute, performing The Band's hit "The Weight."
Getty Images, AP
Jokes were flying both onstage and off about the infamous CBS memo ordering performers to cover up. Singer Jennifer Lopez showed a lot of leg in her black gown, and announced onstage, "As you can see, I read the memo."
"You look beautiful, you look gorgeous, and you inspired the memo," said rapper Pitbull to Lopez.
Songwriter and DJ Al Walser wore an astronaut costume -- which,?according to Zap2It, is his normal costume for performances.?Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine wore a shiny green floor-length Givenchy gown that made her look a little like a dragon.
Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the second straight year, and closed out the night by performing along with Chuck D, Tom Morello, Z Trip and Travis Barker, and honoring the late Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys.
More than 60 awards were handed out before the televised portion of the honors began. On Friday, Bruce Springsteen received the MusiCares Person of the Year award at the Grammy Benefit Gala. Swift won an early award for "Safe and Sound" from "The Hunger Games." Jay-Z and Kanye West won best rap performance and best rap song for "N----- in Paris."
North Korea reportedly tested a nuclear weapon tonight. For perspective, its recently demonstrated long-range missile could potentially deliver a bomb capable of taking out downtown San Francisco.
NEW YORK (AP) ? The zombies keep getting stronger.
AMC's hit "The Walking Dead" set a series record Sunday night with 12.3 million viewers. The show was returning from a hiatus, and the Nielsen Co. said it beats the series' previous record of 10.9 million for its third season debut last October.
More than half of Sunday's viewers, or 7.7 million, were in the youthful demographic of people ages 18 to 49. Nielsen says a cable series has never reached that big an audience in that age group.
That's impressive by broadcast standards, too. While "NCIS" on CBS was the most popular drama on the air with 22 million viewers the previous week, fewer than 5 million of those viewers were under 50.
By Dillon Davis | Published 4 hours ago Natalie Kolb / The State News
Then junior outfielder Jordan Keur prepares to hit the ball during the Penn State series game on May 18, 2012, at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field. The Spartans lost the second game in the three game series 6-5. The MSU baseball kicks off its season Friday in South Carolina. State News File Photo
With the start of another collegiate baseball season less than a week away, many teams are getting reacquainted to the familiar sights and smells of a new year.
The overwhelming aroma of freshly cut grass. The satisfying crunch of cleats chopping as they navigate the infield dirt. The distinct ping of the metal bat meeting a ball before being tracked down deep in the outfield.
It?s the long-celebrated clich? that comes along with the return of the spring.
But as McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field is covered by layer of snow and a tarp, MSU baseball head coach Jake Boss Jr. begins his year much like he has for the previous four at Michigan State ? indoors at the team?s hitting complex.
?It?s a tough time of year because it?s not quite game week but it?s starting to get a little monotonous inside,? Boss said. ?You really need to tighten the focus and stay on task and understand what we?re trying to accomplish at every practice.?
Boss spent much of the past couple weeks studying his team as they rotate from one hitting cage to the next, working on different skills. The Spartans also take part in various fielding and position drills at the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
With the team kicking off a new season against Furman on Friday in Greenville, S.C., Boss has few other options.
The Spartans open with their first 17 games on the road, hitting locations in South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and California before returning to East Lansing. The first home game of the year takes place against Oakland on March 22, which kicks off the first of a five-game homestand.
Until then, the focus for Boss is trying to keep his team fresh before departing for South Carolina on Thursday.
?You try to mix things up as far as what we do in practice,? he said. ?You try to do a different part of the game every day as far as team drills and have as much variety as possible. At the end of the day, it?s still turf and we?re not on the field. We?re stuck in the cages.
?As good as facilities as we have, it?s still not like being outside.?
Pitching prowess
Even after losing senior ace Tony Bucciferro, the Spartans return one of the Big Ten?s deepest starting rotations for the 2013 season.
Led by senior co-captain Andrew Waszak, the Spartans could prove difficult in a weekend series with the three-headed monster of Waszak, junior David Garner and sophomore Mick VanVossen. The trio combined to win 14 games a season ago while logging more than 226 accumulative innings.
Freshman Justin Alleman also is expected to step into the closer?s role and replace departed junior pitcher/outfielder Tony Wieber.
?Our three weekend starters are outstanding,? Boss said. ?Andrew?s taken the logical progression since his freshman year and has really earned that Friday spot. David Garner?s as talented a guy as there is in the conference; or the Midwest or even the nation. Mick had a great freshman year and similar to Waszak?s freshman year, he?ll be able to take that same progression Andrew did.?
Garner is drawing heavy praise from Boss, who said the junior is as talented a player as he?s ever had in the program. The Niles, Mich., native finished the 2012 season with a 6-3 record and 3.28 earned run average in 74 innings of work.
Moving into his third year with the program, Garner said he?s ready to fulfill any role the team needs for him, even if it means he?s a second ace.
?Andrew is a great pitcher and I?ve learned a lot from him,? Garner said. ?I think being able to see the game a day before being the Saturday guy (means) a lot. I feel like I?m capable of pitching Friday, Saturday or whenever they need me to pitch.?
Power potential
The success of many collegiate athletic programs comes in retooling as opposed to rebuilding in the loss of talented players. And with a combination of fresh faces and familiar ones, the Spartans again have retooled for a run at the Big Ten championship.
Second baseman Ryan Jones, third baseman Torsten Boss and Wieber all were selected in the MLB First-Year Player Draft and have left the program for a shot at professional baseball.
Sophomore infielder Ryan Richardson will replace departed senior Justin Scanlon at shortstop, sophomore Kevin Goergen and freshman P.J. Nowak will compete for time at second base and former catcher John Martinez is moving to third base to fill another hole.
The team returns senior outfielder and All-Big Ten selection Jordan Keur, along with sophomores Anthony Cheky and Jimmy Pickens to round out the outfield. Keur led the team a season ago with a 0.353 batting average and finished second in the conference in hits with 89.
After having to fill gaps in the past, Jake Boss Jr. said he expects several players to take a step in replacing guys who have left the program.
?I would think that we?d be able to step in and fill some of those holes,? Boss said. ?There were points in last year?s season where we were starting four or five freshmen. All those guys now are sophomores, and kind of like Mick, we?re hoping those guys can take the next step and contribute. A lot of young guys got a lot at bats a year ago and hopefully they?re a little more seasoned now.?
The team touts an impressive sophomore class, which includes Cheky, Pickens, first baseman Ryan Krill and catcher/designated hitter Blaise Salter, among others.
Salter said the group likely will provide a seasoned presence in a lineup decimated by losses, which only could bolster the team?s postseason aspirations.
?I think guys are capable of doing a good job of fitting in well with our offense and defense but you never know,? Salter said. ?Things change when you get outside but I don?t think it will be a big drop off.?
FILE - This July 30, 2012 photo shows Snoop Dogg posing for a portrait at Miss Lily's in New York. The rapper smoked during the BMI's annual pre-Grammy Awards ?How I Wrote That Song? panel discussion at the Roxy in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 on the eve of the Grammy Awards. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This July 30, 2012 photo shows Snoop Dogg posing for a portrait at Miss Lily's in New York. The rapper smoked during the BMI's annual pre-Grammy Awards ?How I Wrote That Song? panel discussion at the Roxy in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 on the eve of the Grammy Awards. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This July 30, 2012 photo shows Snoop Dogg posing for a portrait at Miss Lily's in New York. The rapper smoked during the BMI's annual pre-Grammy Awards ?How I Wrote That Song? panel discussion at the Roxy in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 on the eve of the Grammy Awards. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Music fans who turned out to BMI's annual pre-Grammy Awards "How I Wrote That Song" discussion got a little more than they expected thanks to Snoop Dogg ? a contact high.
The rapper smoked marijuana during Saturday's panel discussion, lighting up a large, Kush-filled blunt on stage at The Roxy. He briefly passed it off to B.o.B before methodically reducing it to ash over a 15-minute period. The panel also included Busta Rhymes and songwriters Luke Laird and Evan Bogart, all of whom abstained ? at least on stage.
Fittingly, the conversation eventually turned to Snoop's groundbreaking work on "The Chronic."
Laird recalled growing up at the end of a dirt road 10 miles outside Conneaut Lake, a small town of 700 in rural Pennsylvania. Yet Snoop's work with Dr. Dre still infiltrated his world and that of all the other country kids around him.
"Let me just say, the album everyone was listening to was 'The Chronic,'" Laird said, noting how surreal it was to be sitting on stage with Snoop.
With acoustic guitar in hand, he played a bit of his Blake Shelton hit "Hillbilly Bone" in its original form: a rap song. The Nashville-based songwriter had everyone bobbing their heads to the beat.
"Now I feel like more than ever you see these influences crossing genres," Laird said.
___
Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott at http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Designers took fashion traveling through time in New York on Saturday, displaying looks evoking the past and future to crowds undeterred by deep snow that covered the city.
Ruffian, Lacoste and Porsche Design were three of the lines showing their fall and winter 2013 collections at New York Fashion Week, which brings more than 200,000 models, design experts and journalists to the city for the semi-annual extravaganza.
Attendance at Fashion Week, where many in the audience don stylish and often outlandish looks for the occasion, appeared little touched by the storm, which left a foot of snow overnight.
"I don't see it affecting it, except the outfits have gotten more interesting," said Adam Paige, a spokesman for Mercedes-Benz, which sponsors Fashion Week shows staged at New York's Lincoln Center.
"People have had to stretch their creativity," Paige said.
Ruffian kicked off with clothes that the designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais said were inspired by images of Sherlock Holmes, saloons, opium dens and the debauchery of New York's Bowery neighborhood, brought to life with rich silks, velvets and embroidery.
Ruffian showed chalk-striped blazers, tweed jackets and high-necked blouses, perked up with corsets and floral flounces. Eye-catching pieces were made of shimmering metallic boucle.
In keeping with the theme, many models wore deerstalker hats made familiar by Holmes, the fictional 19th century London detective.
Looking into an age of futuristic exploration, Lacoste showed sweaters, ponchos, blouses and dresses in ethereal shades of gray, some with abstract prints of topographical maps.
Silhouettes featured exaggeratedly rounded, dropped shoulders.
Color appeared at Lacoste in geometric blocked dresses of black, white, green and blue. Bits of orange peeked out in turtlenecks and shirt collars in a collection that otherwise stayed close to gray, white, green and black.
Jet black ruled at the Porsche Design show, which offered sporty jackets, trousers and skirts of leather. A slight hint of color was a rich oxblood that Porsche dubbed Windsor wine.
Christian Siriano, a winner of the reality television fashion competition "Project Runway," used an opulent palette of black and gold with a splash of hot pink, unveiling his collection against a backdrop of red curtains and enormous chandeliers.
His models wore masculine buttoned-up shirts, turtlenecks and motorcycle jackets that contrasted with full skirts, skinny Capri pants, strapless peplum tops and fitted cocktail dresses with fluted hems. His textures were leather, faux shearling and fur, along with rich jacquards and brocades.
Herve Leger by Max Azria showed the line's trademark bandage dresses, refreshed with intricate beading and flared hems and paired with leather leggings.
The colors were predominantly black and shades of white and cream, mixed in with Bordeaux and a deep malachite.
Herve Leger brought out fur - a cropped jacket long in the back, and black fur sweatshirts. Models donned black wool baseball hats with leather detailing.
Fashion Week continues through Thursday with shows by Michael Kors, Tracy Reese, Ralph Lauren and others.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols, Erin Smith and Marguerita Choy; Editing by Peter Cooney)
April Palmieri digs out her car in front of her home, background left, on 17th Street after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in Bayville, N.Y. Palmieri had five feet of water in her basement as result of the rains from Superstorm Sandy. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow Saturday, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open. More than 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
April Palmieri digs out her car in front of her home, background left, on 17th Street after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in Bayville, N.Y. Palmieri had five feet of water in her basement as result of the rains from Superstorm Sandy. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow Saturday, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open. More than 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Snowbound vehicles remain stranded Saturday morning, Feb. 9, 2013 along Route 347 in Lake Grove, N.Y. Hundreds of cars were stranded on New York?s Long Island roadways as snow rapidly covered roadways. Many people abandoned their vehicles and first responders rescued motorists who chose to spend the frigid night in their vehicles. (AP Photo/Newsday, John Paraskevas)
Shop owners clear the sidewalk in front of their stores on Main St. in Irvington, N.Y., Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. The year's first major winter storm dumped up to 21 inches on the Lower Hudson Valley. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Seth Harrison) NYC OUT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, TV OUT, NEWSDAY INTERNET OUT; MAGS OUT
Payloaders clear snow from the Long Island Expressway just west of exit 59 Ocean Ave where several cars and a truck are abandoned after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 31, 2013, in Ronkonkoma , N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
Workers at a car dealership on Route 6 in Carmel, N.Y. clean snow from the cars in their lot, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013. The year's first major winter storm dumped up to 21 inches on the Lower Hudson Valley. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra Jr.) NYC OUT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, TV OUT, NEWSDAY INTERNET OUT; MAGS OUT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) ? New Englanders began the back-breaking job of digging out from as much as 3 feet of wet, heavy snow Saturday and emergency crews used snowmobiles to reach shivering motorists stranded overnight on New York's Long Island after a howling storm swept through the Northeast.
About 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity, and some could be cold and dark for days. Many roads across the New York-to-Boston corridor of 25 million people were impassable. Cars were entombed by drifts. And some homeowners woke up in the morning to find the snow packed so high they couldn't get their doors open.
"It's like lifting cement. They say it's 2 feet, but I think it's more like 3 feet," said Michael Levesque, who was shoveling snow in Quincy, Mass., as part of a work crew for a landscaping company.
In Providence, where the drifts were 5 feet high and telephone lines encrusted with ice and snow drooped under the weight, Jason Harrison labored for nearly three hours to clear his blocked driveway and front walk and still had more work to do. His snowblower, he said, "has already paid for itself."
At least four deaths in the U.S. were blamed on the overnight snowstorm, including an 11-year-old boy in Boston who was overcome by carbon monoxide as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father shoveled Saturday morning.
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee cautioned that while the snow had stopped, the danger hadn't passed: "People need to take this storm seriously, even after it's over. If you have any kind of heart condition, be careful with the shoveling."
Blowing with hurricane-force winds of more than 80 mph in places, the storm hit hard along the heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor between New York City and Maine. Milford., Conn., got 38 inches of snow, and Portland, Maine, recorded 31.9, shattering a 1979 record. Several communities in New York and across New England got more than 2 feet.
Still, the storm was not as bad as some of the forecasts led many to fear, and not as dire as the Blizzard of '78, used by longtime New Englanders as the benchmark by which all other winter storms are measured.
By midday Saturday, the National Weather Service reported preliminary snowfall totals of 24.9 inches in Boston, or fifth on the city's all-time list. Bradley Airport near Hartford, Conn., got 22 inches, for the No. 2 spot in the record books there.
In New York, where Central Park recorded 11 inches, not even enough to make the Top 10 list, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city "dodged a bullet" and its streets were "in great shape." The three major airports ? LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark, N.J. ? were up and running by late morning after shutting down the evening before.
Most of the power outages were in Massachusetts, where more than 400,000 homes and businesses were left in the dark. In Rhode Island, around 178,000 customers lost power, or about one-third of the state.
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island imposed travel bans until 4 p.m. to keep cars off the road and let plows do their work, and the National Guard helped clear highways in Connecticut, where more than 240 car accidents were reported. The Guardsmen rescued about 90 motorists, including a few who had hypothermia and were taken to hospitals.
On Long Island, which got more than 2? feet of snow, hundreds of drivers spent a cold and scary night stuck on the highways. Even snowplows got bogged down or were blocked by stuck cars, so emergency workers used snowmobiles to try to reach motorists, many of whom were still waiting to be rescued hours after the snow had stopped.
One of those who was rescued, Priscilla Arena, prayed as she waited, took out a sheet of loose-leaf paper and wrote what she thought might be her last words to her husband and children, ages 5 and 9. Among her advice: "Remember all the things that mommy taught you. Never say you hate someone you love."
Richard Ebbrecht, a chiropractor, left his office in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. on Friday and headed for home in Middle Island, N.Y., but got stuck six or seven times on the Long Island Expressway and other roads.
"There was a bunch of us Long Islanders. We were all helping each other, shoveling, pushing," he said. He finally gave up and settled in for the night in his car just two miles from his destination. At 8 a.m., when it was light out, he walked home.
"I could run my car and keep the heat on and listen to the radio a little bit," he said. "It was very icy under my car. That's why my car is still there."
Across much of New England, streets were empty of cars and dotted instead with children who had never seen so much snow and were jumping into snowbanks and making forts. Snow was waist-high in the mostly empty streets of Boston. Plows made some thoroughfares passable but piled even more snow on cars parked on the city's narrow streets.
Boston's Logan Airport was not expected to resume operations until late Saturday night.
Around the New York metropolitan area, many victims of Superstorm Sandy were mercifully spared another round of flooding, property damage and power failures.
"I was very lucky and I never even lost power," said Susan Kelly of Bayville. "We were dry as anything. My new roof was fantastic. Other than digging out, this storm was a nice storm." As for the shoveling, "I got two hours of exercise."
Some spots in Massachusetts had to be evacuated because of coastal flooding, including Salisbury Beach, where around 40 people were ordered out.
Among them were Ed and Nancy Bemis, who heard waves crashing and rolling underneath their home, which sits on stilts. At one point, Ed Bemis went outside to take pictures, and a wave came up, blew out their door and knocked down his wife.
"The objects were flying everywhere at the beginning. If you went in there, it looks like two big guys got in a big, big fight. It tore the doors right off their hinges. It's a mess," he said.
The Postal Service took the rare step of closing post offices and suspending mail delivery Saturday in New England.
Some people managed to make it to work. In Westborough, Mass., Christina's Cafe opened at 6 a.m. as usual to serve breakfast to snowplow operators. Kim Lupien was the only one of the restaurant's six waitresses who made it to work, climbing through snowdrifts from her home nearby.
"People expect us to be open, so we're open," she said with a shrug. Lupien added that she grew up in snowy Maine: "That's why it doesn't affect me much."
___
Lindsay reported from Salisbury, Mass. Associated Press writers David Klepper in Providence, Ebony Reed in Quincy, Mass., Karen Matthews in New York, Frank Eltman in Farmingville N.Y., Charles Krupa in Boston, and John Christoffersen in Fairfield, Conn., contributed to this report.
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North Korea reportedly tested a nuclear weapon tonight. For perspective, its recently demonstrated long-range missile could potentially deliver a bomb capable of taking out downtown San Francisco.