saleswomen sobriquet: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

NBA Draft 2013: Early-entry deadline decisions shift NBA, NCAA landscape

Published Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 at 11:09 am EDT Last updated 1 hour and 47 minutes ago

On both sides of the basketball divide?NBA and NCAA?Sunday was a fascinating day. Despite a relatively weak NBA draft, and despite the fact that next year?s crop looks impressive, at least nine potential first-round picks pulled their names from consideration and opted to return to college.

In order to see their decisions from both lenses, we talked with an NBA scouting director about what the players involved can do to boost their draft stock next season, and had SN?s college hoops writer Mike DeCourcy weigh in on what each player?s return will mean for the college game.

Marcus Smart, PG, Oklahoma State

If he had entered: Smart would have been a Top 5 pick, and depending on how the lottery shook out, would have had a shot at being the first player selected.

Scout?s view: ?He is a big (6-4) point guard who sees the floor and is an outstanding defender. He carried that team last year and he will have to do that again. He will be a starter from Day 1 in the NBA. But if he is going to improve his stock, the big thing is definitely his shooting, that was his weak point. He has a good stroke and he should become a good shooter, it?s just being generally more efficient.?

DeCourcy?s take: Of those who returned, Smart needed it least and might have the toughest time improving on his most recent season. Oklahoma State has its key players in place, but the Cowboys remain a bit short and light in the frontcourt. They signed an athletic JC center, Gary Gaskins, and he?d have to be one of the few such recruits to find instant success. Smart can do it all, but he can only do so much.

Alex Poythress, SF, Kentucky

If he had entered: Poythress was a bit of a mystery man last season, and front-office execs were not quite sure where he would land?he had a chance to go late in the lottery but was more likely in the 15-20 range.

Scout?s view: ?He has got talent. He just needs to show it every night. He made the right call going back, because the big question is whether he can play out on the perimeter. He hasn?t really answered that, and he isn?t big enough to play the 4.?

DeCourcy?s take: Ideally, Kentucky did not want to be trapped in a season in which there were no veterans around to show the gifted freshman what it takes to be a successful collegian. But is Poythress really that guy? He never became fully engaged with John Calipari?s demands to work hard and invest in the game. Poythress has talked the talk since the season ended, however.

Willie Cauley-Stein, C, Kentucky

If he had entered: Because Cauley-Stein is a big man in a draft that is mostly small, he probably would have been drafted anywhere from No. 10-20. That would have been based entirely on potential, because Cauley-Stein wasn?t especially productive (8.3 points, 6.2 rebounds) as a freshman.

Scout?s view: ?I like what he showed after (Nerlens) Noel went down. You?d like to see him grow a little bit offensively and really take command on defense. I am not sure what his upside is in the post, but if he can get a little going in terms of back-to-the-basket stuff, he is going to be valuable. He runs the floor very well, and he is going to be a very good defender.?

DeCourcy?s take: It is difficult for most any big guy to make an immediate impact upon stepping up from high school to college. Cauley-Stein thus provides Kentucky with the foundation of a successful inside game, enabling recruit Dakari Johnson to gradually adjust to the college game. Cauley-Stein will be a strong defensive presence for the Wildcats and can be a target in the low post.

Mitch McGary, PF, Michigan

If he had entered: McGary is a late bloomer whose production in the NCAA tournament had him shooting up draft boards in March. He would have gone in the middle of the first round.

Scout?s view: ?He just needs to back up what he did in the tournament. He is a high-energy guy he has a great build, he is not a skinny kid you need to put weight on. He is going to rebound and defend his spot, and he can hit midrange jumpers. I want him to be more assertive and show that he can score 15, 16 points and get eight or 10 rebounds every time out.?

DeCourcy?s take: He plays hard, runs well, catches everything, shoots it great, scores inside and passes like a wizard. He obviously will not be as gifted as freshmen such as Andrew Wiggins and Julius Randle, but there?s a chance he could be as effective a player as anyone now that he?s discovered what he can achieve with his wide array of skills. And, honestly, Michigan will need more from him than when Trey Burke was running the show.

Glenn Robinson III, SF, Michigan

If he had entered: Robinson is an adept scorer, and if he had put together good workouts as a perimeter player, he was slated to go in the late teens or early 20s.

Scout?s view: ?I would say it starts with ballhandling with him. He has the potential to be a good midrange shooter but he has to get better at working toward his spots. I would show him film of Paul Pierce, over and over. He needs to develop his left hand and be able to control his movements better?you know, stop-and-start, get your defender off balance, and get your shots that way.?

DeCourcy?s take: Robinson played exclusively at power forward as a freshman and might now get more opportunity to show he can defend quicker players. But the small forward position is one of the trickiest in any offense, especially for one who has yet to show he is an exceptional 3-point shooter or driver of the basketball. Robinson might find himself less comfortable on the perimeter than he expects.

Gary Harris, SG, Michigan State

If he had entered: After Smart, Harris probably had the best shot to wind up high in the draft, sure to go in the lottery, maybe even the Top 10.

Scout?s view: ?He developed quickly, that was a surprise. Everything you?d hoped he would do, he did?he put on weight, he played good defense, he was not afraid to shoot. He had some injury issues that might have slowed him down at different parts of the year, so just staying healthy and bumping up the production will be enough to keep him in the lottery.?

DeCourcy?s take: Harris had a quietly magnificent freshman season, limited perhaps only by the relatively low volume of shot attempts for someone with such impressive accuracy and also his own need to become more active attacking the goal. He didn?t attempt even 100 free throws, which will have to improve if MSU is to be a title contender. And Keith Appling will need to pass Harris the ball more.

James Michael McAdoo, PF, North Carolina

If he had entered: There wasn?t really a consensus on McAdoo heading into the offseason, but he was likely to be a No. 15-20 pick.

Scout?s view: ?Is he more than an athlete? That?s what I want to see from him. More of a face-up game, knocking down the 12-to-15 footers. He has so much raw athleticism that he is worth a high pick. But he is going to have to play away from the basket more in the NBA, and that will be the challenge for him to show he can handle it.?

DeCourcy?s take: The weirdest thing about McAdoo?s sophomore season is how little credit he received for playing out of position, battling bigger players?and still dramatically improving his production. What part of operating as a lean 6-9 center sounds appealing? Carolina should be a bigger, more conventional team and McAdoo might have a chance to be an actual power forward. He?ll be a very good one.

Doug McDermott, SF, Creighton

If he had entered: McDermott?s shooting probably would have earned him a spot in the late first round, though he might have slipped to Round 2.

Scout?s view: ?I thought he would have been a first-rounder, but maybe not. There isn?t much he is going to do as a senior that we haven?t seen. He is an incredible shooter. But the other stuff?size, athleticism?that?s not going to change. They?re going to be the question marks no matter what.?

DeCourcy?s take: It?s unlikely he?s coming back to as good a team as either of the past two Creighton squads. Guard Grant Gibbs and center Gregory Echenique were seniors last season, and both will be difficult to replace. The Blue Jays also will be taking a significant step forward into the Big East, where the tough challenges will come more regularly. They?ll need him to live in the 25-point neighborhood again.

Adreian Payne, PF, Michigan State

If he had entered: Scouts were intrigued by Payne?s versatility?he is a legit big man (6-10) who can shoot, plays solid defense and has improved drastically in three years at Michigan State. He was likely to go in the early 20s.

Scout?s view: ?I thought he should have come out. He has done a tremendous job there, he has put on a lot of muscle, he has gone from being almost nothing offensively to being a pretty good shooter. Draft-wise, I don?t know how much more he can accomplish by going back to school. If they?re a good team, though, that will benefit him.?

DeCourcy?s take: His return is the final piece, and the most essential, to Michigan State ranking with Kentucky, Louisville, Duke and maybe some others as genuine challengers for the NCAA championship. Michigan State needs an elite big to compete with the others, and Payne is the one they?ve got. He?ll still be primarily a stretch-4, but with greater responsibility to command the lane on D.

Source: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2013-04-30/early-entry-deadline-marcus-smart-doug-mcdermott-nba-draft-2013-magic-bobcats

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John Borthwick Of Betaworks Talks About Starting A Business In New York (Spoiler: It's A Good Idea)

John Borthwick and his investment company Betaworks made news last week by acquiring Instapaper, a popular read-it-later app. However, he's not just looking for companies that are situating themselves on the virtual plane. Instead, he recommends entrepreneurs seriously consider New York as a launch spot, especially if they're in the media, ad, or hardware game.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P2_JS41spDk/

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Kim Kardashian and Family in Greece: They're on a Boat!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/kim-kardashian-and-family-in-greece-theyre-on-a-boat/

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Real Estate Pro of the Week: Robin Shapiro of Rockaway Park, NY

October 29, 2012 is a date no Rockaway resident will ever forget. That?s the day Hurricane Sandy descended on this 11-mile sliver of peninsula in Queens. One of the storm?s hardest hit communities, whether The Rockaways will ever be the same is open to much speculation by locals.

One of those working hard to ensure the community?s revival is Robin Shapiro, owner/broker of Robin Shapiro Realty. With many homes damaged beyond repair, selling real estate in this storm-ravaged community over the past six months has been challenging.

This week's pro is Robin Shapiro, a real estate broker in Queens, New York ?Almost every single oceanfront house had some damage, whether it was 50 percent or 100 percent, they took the brunt,? Shapiro explained. ?In the midst of all of this a fire broke out next to the church on 129^th Street and spread to 130^th Street, and we lost about a dozen houses,? Shapiro continued.

The summer before Sandy hit, a renaissance of sorts was occurring in The Rockaways. New businesses were sprouting up; people were coming from other areas to spend the day, and the community?s future was bright.

Six months post Sandy, this area is still working on rebuilding. ?Most of the people have rehabbed their houses, mucking out their basements and gutting their first floors,? Shapiro explained.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Shapiro?s first career was as a high school physical education teacher ? in the very high school from which she had graduated 10 years earlier. It was a brief career that ended when she met her husband Steve, a Wall Street investment banker, and became a stay-at-home mom.

Like many agents, the real estate business sort of came up and tapped her on the shoulder. Through the years she would refer friends to an agent who helped her purchase her Rockaway home. Eventually, that agent asked her to join her. When her youngest child turned 12 years old, Shapiro took her up on the offer. One thing led to another, and in 2003 Shapiro opened her own brokerage.

I asked her about the challenges she faced in starting her own real estate company. ?My husband says that I just walk through life with a halo over my head,? Shapiro laughed. ?I never felt that I had any challenges. I just was very lucky and I was very good at what I did,? she said.

?The biggest personal challenge was to be thrust into this business world and realize that some people aren?t as honorable as I am and as I would expect them to be,? she continued. ?Even to this day my biggest challenge is to learn to protect myself from other people, whether clients or other brokers. I don?t do a great job of that, but I don?t want it to change who I am,? Shapiro concludes.

Shapiro decided to branch out when her children started working with her. She opened Red Hook Realty in South Brooklyn, which her daughter Rachel ran before moving to Kenya, and Robin Shapiro Realty at Trump Village in Brighton Beach.

Confirmation of the halo over Shapiro?s head comes from the story of what prompted her to open the business at Trump Village.

?My husband grew up there. It?s a Mitchell Lama Development that was built by Frank Trump, Donald Trump?s father,? she explained. ?It was for low-to-middle-income families.

?We had always heard that it was going to be privatized when they paid off their loans,? Shapiro continues. ?So I took a chance and I started a business called Trump Village Realty hoping that all of these apartments ? and there were like thousands of them ? would be privatized and the older people and the people who inherited these apartments would want to sell them.?

The hunch paid off for Shapiro. ?I?ve sold over 100 apartments there, she explained. ?When it was first privatized there were so many apartments for sale my daughter Rachel would actually set up her appointments to ? meet five clients in the lobby,? and have a mass showing, she recalled.

Today, Shapiro?s real estate empire is run with the assistance of son David and her two daughters, Rachel ? who only lives in the area part time ? and Leah.

I asked Shapiro what she enjoys most about the business. ?I like to take the stress out of real estate. It makes me happy when other people are happy. That?s my goal.?

Tagged as: agent, broker, brooklyn, career, new york, nyc, queens, real estate, rockaway, rockaways

Source: http://www.realestate.com/advice/real-estate-pro-of-the-week-robin-shapiro-of-rockaway-park-ny-29937/

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Egypt police in new protests demanding more rights

CAIRO (AP) ? Dozens of Egyptian police officers disobeyed orders and stormed a superior's office in the capital, shut down a security directorate in the north and went on strike in the south in a new round of protests Sunday that threaten to unhinge the country's already weakened security force.

It was the year's third wave of strikes by police, who demand incentives to work, like better wages, greater firepower and more benefits.

The police force has not recovered from the days of the 2011 uprising that deposed longtime President Hosni Mubarak. His police were a symbol of the regime's unchecked powers and abuses, and they were forced from the streets in the early stages of the revolt by angry protesters.

After losing much of their power, now police are demanding more rights. Last month thousands of police stopped working for several days. In some cases, citizens found police stations closed.

In an effort to show support, President Mohammed Morsi addressed riot police and attended traditional Islamic Friday prayers with them shortly after their strike ended. He praised the police for protecting security but warned them against divisions.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees police in Egypt, relies on low-ranking police to protect government buildings. Hundreds of policemen have been wounded this year and several have been killed in anti-government protests.

Many officers say they are fed up with promises of reform. Thousands of low-ranking officers have refused orders to guard courts during heated trials and protests.

On Sunday, dozens of low-ranking officers stormed the office of the deputy interior minister in charge of health care for police. His office is inside the main police hospital in Cairo's Nileside neighborhood of Agouza. They said promises of better health care have gone unfulfilled.

In the south, police at two stations in the province of Assuit went on strike, charging that the government did not fulfill any of their demands.

In the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, police locked the gate to the security division with chains, according to security officials and state media reports.

Some of the police force is also calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, appointed by Morsi in a limited Cabinet shuffle in January. Five different interior ministers have headed the force in the past two years, and none has been able to exercise full control over the unsettled ranks.

Some policemen are also protesting alleged attempts by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood to try to control the force, a charge the Islamist group denies. For decades, Egypt's police aggressively targeted the Brotherhood, and Morsi himself was imprisoned under Mubarak.

Rights activists accuse the police force of continuing its brutal tactics under Morsi. Around 100 protesters have been killed in confrontations with police this year. There are concerns that a recent decision to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols for police could lead to an even greater use of excessive force against unarmed protesters and civilians.

Officer Mohammed Mustafa was among those who stormed the deputy minister's office in Cairo on Sunday. He told The Associated Press that the group ended its sit-in after superiors vowed to look into their demands, which include purchasing bullet-proof vests and enacting stronger laws to protect them.

Policemen say they are being arrested and put on trial for using lethal force to protect themselves against well-armed criminal gangs that are smuggling weapons, drugs and antiquities. He said they do not have enough protection to go after suspects.

They also demand the same benefits available to their superior officers.

Mustafa said neither he nor his family can be treated at the police hospital where the sit-in took place. He said he has to take his four children to rundown public hospitals, and he is allowed treatment at the police hospital only if he is injured on the job.

Many police complain that their wages are too low.

Though his salary has increased by almost three-fold following the uprising, Mustafa said he still earns only $185 a month. After 15 years on the job, low-ranking officers receive just $2,000 in compensation when they retire.

"Morsi, before he was president, promised that he would solve the problems of the police force," he said. "We want action, not words."

Also Sunday, several thousand students from state universities marched through Cairo, taking their demands to Cabinet headquarters. They called for the dismissal of the Minister of Higher Education Mustafa Mosaad, accusing him of allowing violence on campuses against student protests. They also want improvements in the education system.

Muslim Brotherhood students did not join the protest.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-police-protests-demanding-more-rights-181146719.html

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Monday, April 29, 2013

White House correspondents' after-dinner jokes: Best zingers from the 'nerd prom' (+video)

Saturday night was the annual White House Correspondents? Association dinner. Here are some of the best jokes, plus a menu designed especially for Washington and Hollywood celebrities.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / April 28, 2013

President Barack Obama talks with Michael Clemente, Executive Vice President of Fox News, at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel Saturday in Washington.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Enlarge

Saturday night?s ?nerd prom? ? officially known as the White House Correspondents? Association annual dinner ? is best known for the celebrities it attracts, a reminder of Henry Kissinger?s quip: "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

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But it?s also a comedy slam of sorts as the M.C. ? late-night TV host Conan O?Brien this year ? and other notables trade quips and barbs over dessert.

(In case you?re wondering, that was a concoction called ?The Galaxy? ? rich chocolate truffle mousse layered with chocolate genoise and almond macaroon; ganache truffle center finished in chocolate glaze, garnished with fresh raspberries It had been preceded by an entr?e of Texas-rubbed petite filet with a calvados demi, paired with duo of jump shrimp seasoned with red curry, roasted haricot verts, baby pepper, patty pan squash, and tasso mache choux risotto. We don?t know about you, but Decoder goes absolutely nuts over roasted haricot verts.)

But back to the rhetorical sweets and savories at the dinner. Here are some of the best, according to a variety of sources:

"It's an honor to share this stage with the president," O?Brien said at the start of his set. "When you think about it the president and I are a lot alike. We both went to Harvard. We both have two children and we both told Joe Biden we didn't have extra tickets for tonight's event."

O?Brien had plenty of zingers for the media. Among them:

?The print media are here for two very good reasons: food and shelter?. The print media still has a big star in Bob Woodward. Earlier the waiter asked if he wanted regular or decaf. And he said, ?Stop threatening me??. TIME will outlive Newsweek the way Juliet outlived Romeo?. MSNBC?s Chris Matthews is here. He has the only show where commercials exist just so they can wipe the spittle off the lens.?

And here?s some of what political junkies said were President Obama?s best jokes:

?The media landscape is changing so rapidly you can't keep up with it. I mean I remember when 'buzzfeed' was just something I did in college around 2 a.m."

"Did you know that Sheldon Adelson spent $100 million of his own money on negative ads [in the 2012 presidential campaign]? You've got to really dislike me to spend that kind of money. Sheldon would have been better off offering me $100 million to drop out of the race. I probably wouldn't have taken it, but I would have thought about it. Michelle would have taken it. You think I'm joking."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/sBHrG6n-OYs/White-House-correspondents-after-dinner-jokes-Best-zingers-from-the-nerd-prom-video

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Ray J Releases Music Video for Kim Kardashian-Inspired Anthem

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/ray-j-releases-music-video-for-kim-kardashian-inspired-anthem/

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Fatal stabbing of 8-year-old girl prompts Calif. manhunt

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Residents of a rural Northern California county were being told Sunday to keep their doors locked and report anyone considered suspicious as authorities continued the search for the killer of an 8-year-old girl.

Calaveras County deputies and law enforcement officials from neighboring counties, as well as California Highway Patrol officers and members of the California Department of Justice, were looking for a suspect after Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her Valley Springs home around noon Saturday.

The girl was found by her brother ? reported by local media to be 12-years-old ? after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.

Initially Leila was reported as being 9-years-old, but Coroner Kevin Raggio said Sunday that she would have turned 9 in June.

Authorities spent Saturday night and into Sunday conducting a door-to-door sweep of homes scattered across hilly terrain, checking storage sheds and horse stables, and even searching attics.

"It is a difficult area to search, it's rural, remote," sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said.

Reverse 911 calls and Nixle mass notifications alerted area residents about the incident and the search for the suspect, officials said.

"I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house," area resident Roger Ballew, 35, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

A SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, Ballew said.

"It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well," he said.

Investigators on Sunday were interviewing several people, but no suspects had been named by late afternoon. Investigators were checking out tips that had come in to the sheriff's office, including leads and tips that came from outside Calaveras County, officials said.

"It's just terrible," area resident Paul Gschweng told Sacramento television station KCRA. "What can I say about it, it's just a tragedy."

The station reported that a neighbor told police that a man was running from the girl's home after the incident.

The suspect was seen wearing a black shirt and blue pants. Authorities considered him armed and dangerous.

Investigators were asking area residents to call authorities if they had any information, or knew of anyone who may have unexplained injuries, or may have left the area unexpectedly after the girl was killed.

Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, known as "Gold Country," in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.

The county became world-famous in 1865 with Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," according to the Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce website.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fatal-stabbing-girl-8-prompts-norcal-manhunt-194628919.html

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Sudan rebels attack city, push closer to capital

By Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels from Sudan's Darfur region attacked a city in a neighboring state on Saturday, taking their fight closer to the capital, witnesses said.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - which launched an unprecedented assault on Khartoum in 2008 - said it and other fighters attacked Um Rawaba in North Kordofan state, around 500km (300 miles) south of the capital.

The group did not say whether it planned to push further.

Sudan's army told state media it was still fighting rebels inside the state's second largest city. It accused the insurgents of destroying a power plant, petrol stations and a telecommunications tower.

"Battles are still ongoing," army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told state news agency SUNA.

Armed men in 20 trucks drove into Um Rawaba and looted a market and several commercial banks, residents told Reuters.

"Our forces are controlling parts of eastern North Kordofan and Um Rawaba," JEM spokesman Gibril Adam said, adding that the fighting had blocked the road between Khartoum and El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state.

"The goal of this attack is to weaken the government to realize our strategic plan to topple the regime," said Adam, who denied the rebels had looted any property in the city.

JEM forces drove across hundreds of miles of desert to attack the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman in May 2008 and were stopped just short of the presidential palace and army headquarters.

The group was one of two main rebel forces that took up arms against Sudan's government in 2003, demanding better representation for the remote western region of Darfur and accusing Khartoum of neglecting its development.

Khartoum mobilized militias to crush the uprising, unleashing a campaign that Washington and activists described as genocide. Sudan's government denies the charge and accuses the Western media of exaggerating the conflict.

JEM, which has fought the government in neighboring states before, says it also wants fairer government across all of Sudan.

It is part of an alliance with insurgents in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan, and has vowed to overthrow President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-attack-city-central-sudan-residents-104705957.html

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Even Vinny Magalhaes can?t believe a judge gave him a round in UFC 159 loss to Phil Davis

At UFC 159 on Saturday night, Phil Davis showed off the best striking of his career. The NCAA Division-I champion wrestler clearly dominated Vinny Magalhaes in all three rounds on the way to a unanimous decision win. However, one of the judges thought Magalhaes won one round, and the score was 30-27, 30-27, 29-28.

It was a surprising score. It didn't take anything away from Davis' win, but it was odd enough that Magalhaes spoke up about it.

One insane judge gave me a round... I lost all 3 fair and square...

? Vinny Magalhaes (@VinnyMMA) April 28, 2013

Davis and Magalhaes talked trash to each other for months before their bout. Magalhaes left the bad blood in the cage, and was able to give himself an honest assessment moments after the loss.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/even-vinny-magalhaes-t-believe-judge-gave-him-034024125.html

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Samsung reportedly launching new 8-inch tablet in June, Galaxy S 4 Active in July

Samsung Gulf president Young Soo Kim reportedly made casual mention of an upcoming rugged take on the Galaxy S 4 at a press event earlier in the week, but left out any details. Sources for the Wall Street Journal claim to know more of the story, and it sounds like the toughened phone won't be alone this summer. The Galaxy S 4 Active, as it's rumored to be called, would arrive in July and carry the dust- and waterproofing of spiritual predecessors like the Galaxy Xcover 2 while maintaining the GS 4's design language. A smaller, 4.3-inch parallel to the GS 4 would appear at the same time -- Galaxy S 4 Mini, anyone? The same tipsters also expect the release of a new 8-inch "Galaxy-line tablet" in June, which suggests the Galaxy Note 8.0 may get a regular Tab counterpart. We wouldn't base our buying strategies around the rumors when Samsung hasn't said anything that's truly on the record, but it might be wise to hold off if you're not in a rush.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/samsung-reportedly-plans-new-8-inch-tablet-gs4-active/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Hospital roof collapses in India, injuring 8

NEW DELHI (AP) ? Part of a hospital building collapsed in central India on Friday after its roof came crashing down, injuring at least eight people, an official said.

More than a dozen people were rescued after being trapped in the rubble of the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, state minister Babu Lal Gaur said. None of the injuries were serious.

Police officer Upendra Jain said about two dozen people were believed to be on the first floor of the women's medical ward when its roof crashed down. The cause of the collapse was not immediately known.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted local administrator Nikunj Shrivastava as saying that two people were killed in the building collapse. Shrivastava could not be immediately reached for comment.

The hospital is operated by state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Gaur said. Bhopal is about 750 kilometers (465 miles) south of New Delhi.

Building collapses are common in India as builders try to cut corners by using substandard materials, and as multistory structures are built with inadequate supervision. The massive demand for housing around cities and pervasive corruption often result in builders adding unauthorized floors or constructing illegal buildings.

Earlier this month, at least 72 people were killed when an eight-story residential building being constructed illegally near Mumbai, India's financial capital, came crashing down in the worst building collapse in the country in decades.

Another 70 people were injured when the building in the Mumbai suburb of Thane caved in on April 4.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hospital-roof-collapses-india-injuring-8-163156926.html

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After Dhaka garment factory collapse, chances for supply chain changes low

A factory collapse in Bangladesh left some 300 dead, and prompted calls for improved regulations of the country's sweatshops. But veteran campaigners to improve factory conditions say pushing for change is harder than ever.?

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / April 26, 2013

A Bangladeshi woman weeps as she holds a picture of her and her missing husband as she waits at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday.

Kevin Frayer/AP

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As Bangladeshi rescue workers continue to pull survivors and bodies from the ruins of a Dhaka, Bangladesh factory where some 300 were killed in a building collapse Wednesday, thousands of protesters took to the streets across the city to express their outrage at?negligence that has racked the world's second-largest garment-exporting country for years.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Kate Middleton Polka Dot Dress Sells Out Within Hours

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/kate-middleton-polka-dot-dress-sells-out-within-hours/

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Medica Health Turns The Clock Back With ... - Miss Eco Glam

The Crystal Fusion Light technology will be unveiled at The Anti-Ageing Show weekend at London Olympia 11th and 12th May.? The cleverly devised 'plug and play' wellness device, Theragem Eternity, truly enhances?'Beauty from the Inside Out' through its powerful synergy of colour, light, electromagnetic frequencies, crystalline energy and precious metals.

The Eternity range has been specially put together for health and beauty spas to meet the aesthetic needs of a modern age-resisting society, whilst at the same time having a profound positive effect on general wellbeing - not only will Eternity make you look fresh and revitalised but you will feel great in your body too - bringing into play the reality of Theragem's fundamental principle of 'A Happy Mind in A Happy Body!'.

Theragem's technology balances the cellular level to regenerate a cell's efficiency, supporting production of collagen whilst boosting blood and fluid circulation in the body to provide youthful skin tonality.? Treatments come via beautifully hand-crafted Gemcups filled with over 30 carats of precious and semi precious gems and pre-programmed protocols for ease of use.? One can expect sparkling eyes, diminishing cellulite, revival of the detoxification and re-oxygenation processes, and rebalancing of the endocrine and chakra systems, while lips may be plumped and the lines of time smoothed away together with daily stress.? This is a whole package of relaxation for body and mind through enhancement of the body's self-regulatory system and is available for taster sessions at the Anti-Aging Show.

Medica Health International Ltd is dedicated to providing the highest quality technology and services in the global integrative healthcare arena. ?A team of cutting edge medical advisors, scientists and engineers combine research and innovation to provide therapists around the world with the tools they need to achieve undeniable, positive and fast outcomes for their clients and patients.

Source: http://www.missecoglam.com/news/item/5506-medica-health-turns-the-clock-back-with-theragem-eternity-at-anti-ageing-show

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Hookah smoking delivers carcinogens and carbon monoxide

Along with nicotine, user gets toxic substances from water pipes

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: April 26, 2013

Enlarge

SMOKE IN THE AIR

Compared with smoking cigarettes, using a hookah (shown) sends more carbon monoxide and carcinogens into a smoker?s body.

Credit: Aptyp_koK/Shutterstock

The tobacco and fruit mixture smoked in public hookah bars might be considerably more dangerous than its pleasant scent would suggest. An analysis of people who smoked from water pipes three times a day finds that the pipes deliver more carbon monoxide and benzene, a carcinogen, than does smoking half a pack of cigarettes daily.

In an upcoming issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers document those and several other cancer-causing compounds that showed up in urine tests of the water-pipe smokers. The research calls into question a common assumption: that hookahs are safe.

?This is a great addition to the literature,? says Thomas Eissenberg, a psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He and his colleagues had previously found toxic substances in hookah smoke. The new paper extends his findings by detecting carcinogens and other bad actors in water-pipe smokers themselves, he says.

Hookah smoking goes back hundreds of years in India, the Middle East and North Africa, but it is newer in parts of Europe and North America. The substances heated in a hookah vary. In the study, researchers used pastes chosen by the participants that were 5 to 10 percent tobacco combined with honey, molasses and bits of fruit. This paste goes in the bowl of the pipe, which is covered with a perforated piece of aluminum foil and topped with a burning piece of charcoal, says study coauthor Peyton Jacob III, a research chemist at the University of California, San Francisco. The smoker then inhales.

In the new study, 13 healthy volunteers -- all smokers who used both cigarettes and hookahs -- smoked only a hookah for four days and then, after a week with no restrictions, only cigarettes. The volunteers averaged three water pipe sessions or 11 cigarettes per day.

Urine tests revealed that the volunteers had higher benzene levels when smoking hookahs than when smoking cigarettes. Benzene inhalation is associated with leukemia and lung cancer. The volunteers? tests also showed higher levels of pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon? or PAH, when smoking the hookah. Similar amounts of the probable human carcinogen acrylamide and the PAH phenanthrene showed up during cigarette or hookah smoking. Exposure to PAHs is linked to cancer and immune problems (SN: 3/23/13, p. 19).

Using breath tests, the researchers found that levels of carbon monoxide, a poisonous, odorless gas, were 2.5 times greater in volunteers after the water-pipe sessions than after cigarette smoking. The volunteers? blood samples while smoking the water pipe showed about half as much nicotine as when smoking cigarettes, but researchers estimated that the level was enough to be addictive.

Carbon monoxide and PAHs have been traced to burning charcoal, Eissenberg says. The contributions from the incompletely combusted paste are less clear.

Water-pipe smoking delivers more smoke per puff, Eissenberg says, because the taste is sweet, the smoke is cooled, and inhaling is easier when a smoker doesn?t have to drag air through a filter or tightly packed cigarette. A 2004 study done in an upper class neighborhood in Beirut found that people take 50 to 200 puffs during a water-pipe smoking session, which lasted 20 to 80 minutes. A cigarette smoker takes eight to 12 during an average smoke, the research found.

In the U.S., three in 10 university students have tried a hookah, Eissenberg and colleagues reported in a 2008 survey. Despite the apparent risks, Eissenberg says, hookah pipes and packages of hookah paste carry no regulatory warnings.

?Many water-pipe smokers tell me they know cigarettes are dangerous,? he says. ?It?s written on the pack. They say, ?I haven?t heard anything about water pipe smoking. It must be safe.? ?

Suggested Reading

N. Seppa. Tracing pollution links to asthma, allergy. Science News. Volume 183, March 23, 2013, p. 19. [Go to]

B. Primack et al. Water-pipe tobacco smoking among middle and high school students in Arizona. NeoReviews. Vol. 123, Feb. 1, 2009, p. e282.?doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-1663. [Go to]

B. Primack et al. Prevalence of and associations with waterpipe tobacco smoking among U.S. university students. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Volume 36, August 2008, p. 81. doi: 10.1007/s12160-008-9047-6. [Go to]

W. Maziak et al. Tobacco smoking using a waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tobacco Control. Volume 13, December 2004, p. 327. doi:10.1136/tc.2004.008169. [Go to]

World Health Organization, ?Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking: Health Effects, Research Needs and Recommended Actions by Regulators.? [Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349987/title/Hookah_smoking_delivers_carcinogens_and_carbon_monoxide

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Understanding the intelligence ahead of Boston bombing

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b308aee/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51669925/story01.htm

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Wall Street vs. sanity: Painting a clearer picture of AAPL

Wall Street vs. Sanity: Painting a clearer picture of APPL

In the few days that have passed since Apple?s latest quarterly results, people can?t seem to stop writing about the so-called stalled growth and ?margin collapse? that hit the company. Ok, the term ?collapse? is excessively stupid (you know who you are, stop it). Apple?s revenue is still growing, but profitability is down year over year. The profit decline is due to undeniably lower gross margin. But what does that mean?

If you look at a the last 5 quarters and put it in graph form, it looks ugly. It looks scary. It makes you wonder why anyone would own the stock. And looking at 5 quarters is a pretty typical thing to do on Wall Street. People think of this as a longer term view of things, as crazy as that sounds. Apple just reported Q2, so looking at 5 quarters means you see Q2 from last year on the left, and Q2 from this year on the right.

Newsflash: Looking at a year over year comparison in isolation doesn?t paint a very clear picture of what?s really happening. And because Wall Street suffers from attention deficit disorder, it needs to form rapid-fire decisions on things.

Most analysts do not publish long term performance charts in their reports. I don?t know why, but it?s true. Sure, they all have the data in their models. They probably all have long term charts built in Excel, but they don?t get published.

Well, I?m publishing the one I keep in my model.

This chart goes back to Q3 2007, which is the first quarter of iPhone shipments. I could have gone back further, but I don?t think it would be as relevant because the business truly has changed ever since iOS was built.

So in blue we have a line graph representing revenue. You can see that it took a while for the iPhone to make a massive impact on the overall revenue, but in 2010 things just started to rocket upwards.

Then in the last two years, you can see that the holiday quarter has stood out as massively important. There have been two such holiday quarters so far, and they define the new peaks for revenue. In other words, Apple revenue has become much more seasonal. This means the quarters in between the seasonal peaks are less important. They are not unimportant. They are just less important.

Think of it this way. When you watch a storm build in the ocean, you can see each wave becoming bigger, crashing harder onto the beach. It doesn?t make a lot of sense to evaluate each wave on it?s way down. It makes a lot more sense to think about how high each wave crest goes. And right now, Wall Street is looking at a falling wave. Revenue could easily rocket higher again. China Mobile deal? Potentially a less expensive iPhone? Continued growth of the iPad, where sales nearly doubled year-over-year?

Now let?s look at gross margin, because this is what really has Wall Street bothered. I showed margin on the green bar chart, because somehow it just seemed easier to look at in bar format.

Apple had gross margin above 40% for 8 quarters since the iPhone launch. And a full 6 of these quarters were consecutive, from the March 2011 through to June 2012 quarter. For rear-view-mirror observers, it?s horrible to see that the gross margin peak happened in March 2012, which is the year ago quarter relative to this week?s earnings report.

But Apple does not have a history of margins above 40%. The mid to high 30% range is much more common, and it seems the company is moving back into that zone. Yes, the iPhone has higher margin than the Mac or even iPad. And that?s great. But I think we all realize that Apple can?t continue to gain global market share with a product that is out of reach for most global consumers.

So Apple has done the smart thing. They?ve taken more aggressive action on the iPhone 4 in places like China. It?s quite obvious that this makes the year-over-year margin comparison look like a case of Apple failure. But if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, the margin moves really don?t look that shocking. If anything, it?s shocking to see how bloody high they climbed in the first place. This seems more sustainable.

And what if Apple had been more aggressive on pricing in the first place? The margin never would have climbed so high, and last year?s Q2 quarter never would have been as insanely profitable as it was. And we?d be looking at the most recent Q2 result saying, ?Wow, Apple keeps growing. Amazing!?

The stock market is all about comparisons. And unfortunately, the comparisons are fairly short term in nature. But even the ?fast moving? (I use that term loosely) technology sector requires a longer time frame for analysis. Apple did not build its iOS empire in a year, or even two years. Android did not grow to dominate the scene in a couple of years either. BlackBerry did not collapse in a year (and it?s potential comeback will not take one year). Things still move a lot more slowly than we all seem to think.

Apple is growing quite nicely. And if gross margin normalizes here, which seems reasonable, then next year we?ll be looking at a growth stock again. Everyone will forget about the supposed gross margin ?collapse? that we apparently just witnessed.

Since I happen to have my DSLR camera beside me right now, this metaphor seems appropriate. You don?t need to constantly take pictures with your telephoto lens set to 300mm. Sometimes the wide angle shot is better, and provides more context.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/rk0vY0YNftM/story01.htm

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Friday, April 26, 2013

Man named in poison letters case goes into hiding

SALTILLO, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi man whose home was searched in the investigation of poisoned letters sent to the president and others has apparently gone into hiding, but his attorney said he is cooperating and the FBI knows how to get in touch with him.

Everett Dutschke had his home and former business in Tupelo searched in connection with the letters, which allegedly contained ricin. They were sent last week to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge named Sadie Holland.

Charges were initially filed against a celebrity impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.

On Thursday, investigators looked through a different home about 20 miles away and a plane circled above for much of the day.

A friend of Dutschke's told The Associated Press that both he and Dutschke stayed at the home for a while Wednesday before slipping out through the woods to rendezvous with someone who drove Dutschke elsewhere. He said Dutschke was just trying to escape the news media.

"I just helped him get out of the spotlight," Kirk Kitchens said Thursday at his home in nearby Saltillo.

Dutschke has not been arrested or charged in the letters case. The FBI has said nothing about the building searches or Thursday's developments.

Dutschke's lawyer, Lori Nail Basham, said there is no arrest warrant for her client, who continues to cooperate with investigators.

Earlier Thursday, Itawamba County Sheriff Chris Dickinson said agents told him Dutschke had been under surveillance, but authorities weren't sure where he had gone. He said they were satisfied he was not at the Ozark property.

Dutschke did not answer a call to his cellphone Thursday from the AP. He had previously kept in touch with AP reporters.

It was yet another strange turn in the case that began when charges were filed against 45-year-old entertainer Paul Kevin Curtis, whose lawyers now say he was set up for the crime.

Charges against Curtis were dropped Tuesday after authorities said they developed new information. His attorney, Christi McCoy, has said she does not know what new information led the FBI to abandon the charges but that the agency acted in good faith and worked from the information it had at the time.

The focus then turned to Dutschke. He said he was cooperating.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Dutschke said Tuesday as investigators combed through his house. His business was searched the next day.

Curtis attorney Hal Neilson said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis, and Dutschke's name came up. He said prosecutors "took it and ran with it."

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on an alleged conspiracy to sell body parts on a black market. But he claimed they later had a feud.

Judge Holland is a common link between two men who have been investigated and both know Wicker.

Holland was presiding judge in a case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney in 2004. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke in the past.

Steve Holland, a state representative, said he believes his mother's only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which he did.

Steve Holland said he doesn't know if his mother remembers Curtis' assault case.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus and Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-named-poison-letters-case-goes-hiding-225547523.html

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Xing puts a Wii U at the heart of its costly karaoke machine

Sure, we've seen game consoles modified for use beyond their original purpose, but this apparatus turns things up a notch. Pictured above is the Joysound Festa, a mobile entertainment system powered by the Wii U's hardware and software. Built by Japanese karaoke machine maker Xing, this beastly console mod is controlled from the system's Gamepad and includes the gracelessly named Nintendo x Joysound Wii Karaoke U. Pre-loaded with 90,000 songs, this party starter also ships with a set of dance, exercise, yoga and brain training videos. Already reaching for your wallet? You should know that this unique setup is Japan-only, and headed to hotels and nursing homes at a hefty price of 1,580,000 yen (around $15,884). At that price, it may take around 25 years until we see one of these bad boys up for grabs on eBay.

Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo

Comments

Via: Kotaku

Source: Joysound Festa (translated)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nGQjN3gs2yg/

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Sony revises its 2012 earnings forecast, doubles expected net profits

Just like last year, we're reporting on a revision Sony's making to its expectations for last year's profits, but this time around there's some positive news. According to Sony, selling some of the buildings it owns and a weakening yen have doubled its expected net profit from 20 billion yen announced in February to 40 billion yen ($403 million). The complete results will be announced May 9th, and despite Sony managing its first profit since 2008 investors are hoping to hear how it plans to keep the streak going with business gains next year. The PlayStation 4 is expected to headline CEO Kaz Hirai's plans for future products, we should hear just how optimistic Sony is about those prospects in a couple of weeks.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Sony

Comments

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Sony (PDF)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/25/sony-revises-its-2012-earnings-forecast-doubles-expected-net-pr/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Just what makes that little old ant? change a flower's nectar content?

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Ants play a variety of important roles in many ecosystems. As frequent visitors to flowers, they can benefit plants in their role as pollinators when they forage on sugar-rich nectar. However, a new study reveals that this mutualistic relationship may actually have some hidden costs. By transmitting sugar-eating yeasts to the nectar on which they feed, ants may be indirectly altering the nectar-chemistry and thus affecting subsequent pollinator visitations.

Many species of plants benefit from interacting with ants, and some even secrete special sugary substances to attract ants. Plants produce sugar, in the form of nectar, and in exchange ants provide services such as pollination or protection from herbivores.

The main components of nectar that attract pollinators include three dominant sugars -- sucrose, fructose, and glucose -- and amino acids (or proteins). The chemical composition of nectar differs among plant species and has been thought to be a conservative trait linked to pollinator type. For example, plants pollinated by hummingbirds tend to have nectar with high amounts of sucrose. In addition, nectar composition is thought to be regulated by the plant.

"When people think about how flowers are pollinated, they probably think about bees," notes Clara de Vega, a postdoctoral researcher at the Estaci?n Biol?gica de Do?ana, Spain. "But ants also pollinate flowers, and I am interested in the role ants play in pollination since it is still poorly understood."

De Vega joined forces with Carlos M. Herrera, an evolutionary ecologist at the Estaci?n Biol?gica de Do?ana, to investigate the relationship between ant pollinators and nectarivorous yeasts. Nectar-dwelling yeasts, which consume sugars, have recently been discovered in the flowers of many temperate and tropical plant species. De Vega and Herrera have already discovered that some ant species not only carry certain types of sugar-metabolizing yeasts on their bodies, but they also effectively transmit these yeasts to the nectar of flowers they visit.

In their most recent work, published in the American Journal of Botany, De Vega and Herrera investigated whether flowers visited by these ants differed from flowers that were not visited by ants in their sugar chemistry, and whether sugar-chemistry was correlated with the abundance of ant-transmitted yeasts found in the nectar.

By excluding ants from visiting inflorescences of a perennial, parasitic plant, Cytinus hypocistis, and comparing the nectar chemistry to inflorescences that were visited by ants, the authors tested these ideas experimentally.

When the authors compared the sugar content in the nectar of flowers visited by ants versus those enclosed in nylon mesh bags to exclude ants, they found that nectar of flowers exposed to ants had higher levels of fructose and glucose, but lower levels of sucrose compared with the ant-excluded flowers.

Interestingly, in flowers visited by ants, there was a high correlation between yeast cell density and sugar content. Nectar that had higher densities of yeast had more fructose and less sucrose, suggesting that the types of yeasts change the sugar content of the nectar. Flowers that were excluded from ants did not have any yeast in their nectar.

"Our study has revealed that ants can actually change the nectar characteristics of the flowers they are pollinating," says de Vega. "The microorganisms, specifically yeasts, that are present on the surface of ants change the composition of sugar in the flower?s nectar."

"This means that nectar composition is not completely controlled by the flower -- it is something created in cooperation with the ants that visit the flower," she notes. "We also think that these ant-transported yeasts might have the potential to affect plant reproduction."

Indeed, if a plant cannot control the sugar content of its nectar, then it may lose some of its target pollinators, which would potentially affect overall seed set and plant fitness.

Moreover, if introducing these yeasts to nectar changes the chemistry of the very components that serve to attract pollinators, then perhaps ants are indirectly changing the foraging behavior of subsequent flower visitors and thereby affecting seed dispersal patterns.

This study has revealed an additional layer in the complex association between ants and flowering plants, as pollinating ants alter sugar-nectar chemistry in flowers via sugar-consuming yeasts. But the story does not end here. De Vega plans to continue researching the role that these nectarivorous yeasts play on the reproduction of plants.

"I plan to study the whole interaction of plants, yeasts, and pollinators -- how are they interrelated and what mechanisms shape these relations?"

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Journal of Botany, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

Journal Reference:

C. de Vega, C. M. Herrera. Microorganisms transported by ants induce changes in floral nectar composition of an ant-pollinated plant. American Journal of Botany, 2013; 100 (4): 792 DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1200626

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/most_popular/~3/So3AeTCfj8w/130424185232.htm

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