Any tech that allows humans a new type of insight is inevitably turned on ourselves. We want to know what else we can find out from peering in on our bodies or minds in a new way. Of course, x-ray machines were pretty much used from the start for that purpose, but it's amazing to see these 1908 photos examining how a fashion trend was impacting health.
Even with countless anatomical mysteries to image for the first time, the French doctor Ludovic O?Followell chose to look at and write a treatise on the corset, publishing Le Corset in 1908 (x-rays were discovered in 1895). His images reveal how significantly corsets deformed the lower ribs, pushing them into each other in really gross ways. And even though organs don't show up on x-rays, it's pretty clear that the space left for them was inadequate. Even after seeing these, O?Followell just advocated for modified corsets, not getting rid of them all together. Baby steps, people. [The Public Domain Review via Digg]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Edward Snowden was in a "safe place" in Hong Kong, a newspaper reported on Saturday, as the United States prepared to seek the extradition of the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor after filing espionage charges against him.
The South China Morning Post said Snowden, who has exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs including new details published on Saturday about alleged hacking of Chinese phone companies, was not in police protection in Hong Kong, as had been reported elsewhere.
"Contrary to some reports, the former CIA analyst has not been detained, is not under police protection but is in a 'safe place' in Hong Kong," the newspaper said.
Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang declined to comment other than to say Hong Kong would deal with the case in accordance with the law.
Two U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, which is part of China but has wide-ranging autonomy, including an independent judiciary.
The United States charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, according to the criminal complaint made public on Friday.
The latter two offenses fall under the U.S. Espionage Act and carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
America's use of the Espionage Act against Snowden has fueled debate among legal experts about whether that could complicate his extradition, since Hong Kong courts may choose to shield him.
Snowden says he leaked the details of the classified U.S. surveillance to expose abusive programs that trampled on citizens' rights.
Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies such as Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.
They also showed that the government had worked through the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather so-called metadata - such as the time, duration and telephone numbers called - on all calls carried by service providers such as Verizon.
On Friday, the Guardian newspaper, citing documents shared by Snowden, said Britain's spy agency GCHQ had tapped fiber-optic cables that carry international phone and internet traffic and is sharing vast quantities of personal information with the NSA. [ID:nL5N0EX3JA]
STEALING DATA
The South China Morning Post said on Saturday that Snowden offered new details on U.S. surveillance activities in China.
The paper said documents and statements by Snowden show the NSA program had hacked major Chinese telecoms companies to access text messages and targeted China's top Tsinghua University.
The NSA program also hacked the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which has an extensive fiber-optic network, it said.
"The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data," Snowden was quoted by the Post as saying during a June 12 interview.
President Barack Obama and his intelligence chiefs have vigorously defended the programs, saying they are regulated by law and that Congress was notified. They say the programs have been used to thwart militant plots and do not target Americans' personal lives.
Since making his revelations about massive U.S. surveillance programs, Edward Snowden, 30, has sought legal representation from human rights lawyers as he prepares to fight U.S. attempts to force him home for trial, sources in Hong Kong say.
The United States and Hong Kong signed an extradition treaty in 1998, under which scores of Americans have been sent back home to face trial.
The United States and Hong Kong have "excellent cooperation" and as a result of agreements, "there is an active extradition relationship between Hong Kong and the United States," a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters.
However, the process can take years, lawyers say, and Snowden's case could be particularly complex.
An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.
Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by James Pomfret, Venus Wu and Grace Li in HONG KONG, Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Editing by Eric Beech)
A poll by Northwestern in Qatar, due out tomorrow, shows growing trust in regional news outlets across the Arab world.
By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / June 17, 2013
Palestinian journalists are seen through a glass window at the offices of the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 2009. Arabs say the quality of their regional media is on the rise, led by Al Jazeera, which is making inroads in the US as its profile soars, a new poll shows.
Fadi Arouri/Reuters/File
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Although American trust in media has plummeted according to poll after poll, Arabs say the quality of their regional media is on the rise, led by Al Jazeera, which is making inroads in the US as its profile soars.?
Skip to next paragraph Ariel Zirulnick
Middle East Editor
Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?
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According to a sweeping Arab world public opinion survey by Northwestern University in Qatar that will be released tomorrow, 61 percent of respondents said that the "quality of reporting in the Arab world" has improved in the last two years. But while regional media basks in goodwill, less than half of respondents (48 percent) consider their own country's media credible and only 43 percent say the media can report without interference.
Twenty-six percent of respondents ranked Al Jazeera as their top news source. Broadcaster Al Arabiya trailed at 15 percent. After that, news consumption fragments to a handful of international and local news organizations.?
Northwestern in Qatar's first major regional survey since opening its doors in 2008, polled roughly 1,250 people each in eight countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates) on issues of the Internet and the media in the Arab world. The findings will be presented at the International Communications Association conference in London tomorrow. (Editor's note: The paragraph has been edited to make clear that 1,250 people were surveyed in each of the eight countries.)
Northwestern in Qatar receives funding from the Qatar Foundation, founded by Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who also funds Al Jazeera.
Everette Dennis, dean and CEO of Northwestern in Qatar, said that he has seen the regional media improve by leaps. Major broadcast networks like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are "doing a more detailed job of covering their own region" and "Some of the newspapers that were more kept cats or very cautious, subsidized media, are doing a better job, a more transparent job."
What propelled them forward may have been the arrival of hordes of members of the international media during the Arab uprisings, which exposed regional and local journalists to high-quality coverage on a part of the world they knew well, Mr. Dennis says.
"When you see outsiders doing a better job covering your region than yourself, that's embarrassing," he says.?
Puff pieces
Even before then business magazines, which used to be filled with press releases and "self-serving puffery" had become more critical, he says.?The wealthier Arab countries are becoming much more a part of the global economy, but they couldn't be there if their business publications were not publishing more accurate information, he says.?
The survey also shed light on the region's complicated opinions on freedom of expression.?Sixty-one percent of respondents agreed with the statement "It is okay for people to express their ideas on the Internet, even if they are unpopular," but?less than half (46 percent) think they should be able to criticize their government online.?
While people in the region may agree with freedom of expression on the internet in the abstract, practically speaking many support greater regulation. Half (51%) of the participants in the study believe there is not enough awareness of the ?laws, regulations and moralities that control one?s activities on the internet?, and, perhaps consequently, half (50%) also feel the internet in their country should be more tightly regulated than it is now.
Perhaps even more telling, only 16% overall disagree that the internet in their country should be more tightly regulated, ranging from a low of 7 percent disagreement in Egypt to a high of just 25 percent disagreeing in Bahrain. These low levels of disagreement suggest that there is no strong opposition to internet regulation in any of the eight countries under study.
"There is a paradox between?people saying they wanted almost absolute freedom of expression online ... and at the same time saying there ought to be regulation in some instances," says Dennis.?
While poll respondents often favor something in the abstract, when it is brought down to a personal level the answer often changes, he says. And it comes down to more than that in this region, he says.?
"The meaning is much deeper in the Arab world," he says. "I?think it's a tension between tradition and modernity."
"The younger, presumably more modern people do tend to favor almost unlimited expression online. They say ?Let it rip.? ? Their?parents, people who are older, tend to say yes, there should be a lot more freedom, but not in the case of criticizing Islam, for example.?
The survey did not include followup questions that allowed the university to get at the root of the contradictions; Dennis says they plan to explore it in a future survey.
An interactive website with the full survey results can be found at?menamediasurvey.northwestern.edu.
This Monday, June 24 at 7:00PM EST, I?ll be interviewing The Survival Mom about her book, her business, and her life. ?While doing research for the interview (which will air here), I ran across a fantastic article on her page about prepping for pets. ?Since I?m a huge animal person, for companionship and working, I thought I?d re-post this, as we ramp up the promotion for the on air interview.
If you have pets, take a moment to read this fantastic post from The Survival Mom, and leave your thoughts below!
?
Guest post by Laura McLain Madsen, DVM Originally published June 15, 2013 at The Survival Mom?s Blog
Do you own one (or more) of the 69 million pet dogs and 74 million pet cats in America? Or the 8 million pet birds, 4 million horses, or 2 million pet turtles? For some people, these are merely animals, but for 60% of Americans they are beloved furry (or feathery, or scaly)?family?members. For some families that decide not to have children or to postpone having children, the pet?is?the child.
Take photos of your pet as part of your evacuation prep. Image by Laura McLain Madsen.
Some preppers only keep animals if they can protect the?family, protect the food, or be food themselves. I think animals serve a broader function as companions. A disaster is by definition a stressful event, and an animal companion can relieve stress and provide comfort, especially for children.
Plan ahead for the logistics of evacuating with your pet. Does your dog get carsick? Do you have a secure carrier for your cat? Do you have a trailer for your horse or can you borrow a neighbor?s? How will you clean up the droppings from your pet goat? Does your pet iguana attack people it doesn?t know?
In general, shelters for people do not accept animals except for service dogs. The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act was enacted after Hurricane Katrina and mandates that communities include animals in their disaster planning, but that doesn?t guarantee that there will be housing for your pet. Local animal organizations may set up animal shelters adjacent to human shelters (called ?co-sheltering?) but you will be responsible for feeding, watering and walking your pet.
Each pet who will be evacuating with your family should have its own 72-hour kit. In it you should include:
Food: Dry kibble in labeled zip-top bags, or cans (check the expiration date and don?t forget a can opener). A few companies even make pet energy bars; these aren?t nutritionally balanced for long-term feeding but for the short-term they provide calories and nutrients. For a horse, you?ll need to transport hay and grain or know a source to buy them at your destination.
Water: Just as you plan one gallon per person per day, you should also plan one gallon per pet per day for dogs and cats. If you have a large animal like a horse, they will need a much larger amount. Industrial garbage cans can be used to hold water for large animals.
Important papers:
Description of the animal (name, species, breed, color, sex, age, distinguishing features).
Proof of vaccinations. Shelters will typically require vaccinations, and immunizations will keep your pet safe from contagious diseases. Talk to your veterinarian about recommended vaccinations for your pet; these may include distemper, parvo and rabies for dogs, distemper and rabies for cats, and West Nile and rabies for horses.
Proof of a Coggin?s test for horses (a test for equine infectious anemia, a contagious blood disease).
Registration?and licensing papers.
List of shelters, boarding facilities, equestrian centers, stables, and pet-friendly hotels within a 50-mile radius.
Current photos of the pet. Ideally, include photos taken from both sides (see photo), the front and the back, with the animal standing in good lighting. Also include photos that show you and your pet together, to help establish ownership.
Bedding, towels, blankets.
Bowls for food and water (light-weight, collapsible bowls are available in pet and camping stores).
Cage, carrier or kennel for each pet. Collapsible kennels might be easier to store, or you can use the carrier to hold the pet?s 72-hour kit until you need it.
Litter box and kitty litter for cats. Look for a small plastic litter box that can fit in the cat?s carrier/kennel.
Trash bags, paper towels.
Can opener.
Muzzle. Even gentle pets can become aggressive if they are stressed or in pain. Soft cloth muzzles are available at pet stores.
Brushes for longer-haired pets.
Leash, extra collar, harness, etc.
For large animals: hoof care tools, fly spray, halters, lead ropes, pans, buckets, twitch, leg wraps.
First aid kit (see photo):?
Bandage material and nonstick wound dressings.
Scissors.
Claw clipper.
Styptic powder to stop bleeding (e.g., from a torn claw).
Diphenhydramine for allergic reactions (liquid or tablets).
Eye wash (sterile saline, not contact lens solution).
Cortisone cream.
Triple antibiotic cream.
Syringe with tsp and ml markings.
Hydrogen peroxide (3%) to induce vomiting in case of poisoning.
Any current prescription medications (such as for pain, inflammation, seizures, heart, etc.).
Probiotic. Many dogs get diarrhea from stressful events and a probiotic (the ?good? intestinal bacteria) can prevent this. You can use a probiotic meant for humans, such as Lactobacillus (1 billion cells per day for dogs).
Pepto Bismol for diarrhea.
Meclizine for motion sickness.
Flea/tick preventative medication.
Image by Laura McLain Madsen
It?s also important to make sure your pet has positive identification at all times. This will help ensure your pet is returned to you if you get separated, and will be proof of ownership if the animal is stolen. Identification might include:
Tags on the collar for dogs and cats.
Tags on the halter for horses or other large animals.
Microchip: A microchip is a tiny RFID chip that transmits a number when scanned with a radio frequency scanner. The number links in a database to your contact information. Microchips are about the size of a grain of rice and are implanted with a syringe and needle (under the skin on the back of the shoulders in cats and dogs, in the breast muscle in birds, and in the neck muscle in horses). Any species of animal can be microchipped.
Ear tags for cattle, which also utilize RFID technology.
Permanent marker on the shell or scales of a turtle or other reptile.
Spray paint on the hooves of large animals.
Leg band on birds.
Tattoos.
Brands for large animals.
Finally, you should take your pets with you?any?time you have to evacuate. Even a small-scale, supposedly short-term evacuation, such as a gas leak in your neighborhood, could turn into a larger scale or longer term incident. You may not be allowed by authorities to return to your home to collect your pets if the evacuation is prolonged.
Vital Google services down for you? Well, you're not alone. Tips have been pouring in this AM that many of Mountain View's apps are down, including Gmail and Drive. We were able to independently confirm the partial outage and Google's App Status Dashboard has been updated to reflect the "service disruption." The down time isn't affecting everyone, however. Most of those hanging around the Engadget compound are still able to check their hate mail and Caskers notifications. Are you having trouble getting through to Google's servers? Let us know in the comments.
Android/iOS: Zombies, Run! is one of our favorite running apps because it motivates you by tasking you with escaping from zombies instead of just throwing stats at you. Now, the sequel, Zombies, Run! 2 adds a ton of improvements to the core experience including more missions and a redesigned interface.
Zombies, Run! 2 sees new missions come in the form of an in-app purchase for season 2 that's currently on sale for $1.99 (if you haven't tried Zombies, Run! yet, the app itself is also on sale right now for $3.99). You'll get seven of the new missions for free, and then an extra mission will be added weekly starting later this month.
On top of a bunch of new missions for season 2, the entire app was overhauled for a much cleaner look, and improvements to the base building element add a new task to take care of when you're not running. The overhaul to the interface makes the app a lot easier to use, and if you had trouble getting into Zombies, Run! when it was first released because it was a little ugly, it might be worth another look. Zombies, Run 2 is a free update for current users, but you'll need to snag the season pass to get access to all of the new missions.
Zombies, Run 2 ($3.99 on sale, $7.99 regular) | Google Play
Zombies, Run 2 ($3.99 on sale, $7.99 regular) | iTunes App Store
Apr. 17, 2013 ? Astronomers using a world-wide collection of telescopes have discovered the most prolific star factory in the Universe, surprisingly in a galaxy so distant that they see as it was when the Universe was only six percent of its current age.
The galaxy, dubbed HFLS3, 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is producing the equivalent of nearly 3,000 Suns per year, a rate more than 2,000 times that of our own Milky Way. The galaxy is massive, with a huge reservoir of gas from which to form new stars.
"This is the most detailed look into the physical properties of such a distant galaxy ever made," said Dominik Riechers, of Cornell University. "Getting detailed information on galaxies like this is vitally important to understanding how galaxies, as well as groups and clusters of galaxies, formed in the early Universe," he added.
To accurately determine the galaxy's distance and characteristics required observations with 12 international telescope facilities, including both orbiting and ground-based telescopes. The telescopes ranged from visible-light telescopes, to instruments working at infrared, millimeter-wave, and radio wavelengths. The National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) provided information about cold molecular gas from which new stars are being formed and the radio waves emitted by the remnants of deceased, short-lived, very massive stars.
The scientists found that the galaxy has a mass of stars nearly 40 billion times the mass of the Sun, and gas and dust totalling more than 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, all surrounded by enough mysterious dark matter to eventually build an entire cluster of galaxies.
"This galaxy is proof that very intense bursts of star formation existed only 880 million years after the Big Bang," Riechers said. "We've gotten a valuable look at a very important epoch in the development of the first galaxies," he added. The Universe currently is about 13.7 billion years old.
"Key information about the massive amount of gas in this galaxy came from the VLA observations of radio emission from Carbon Monoxide," said Chris Carilli, Chief Scientist of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, who was not part of the research team. "The techniques used by this team, along with improved technical capabilities available now and coming in the future, will allow the study of more such galaxies, and provide a much better understanding of how the first galaxies formed during the Universe's youth," Carilli added.
"We anticipate learning more about such galaxies using both the VLA and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)," Riechers said. "The VLA can give us information about the cold gas and radio emission in these galaxies, while ALMA can tell us about the warmer gas and dust," he added.
In addition to the VLA, the astronomers used the Herschel Space Observatory, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, the Submillimeter Array, the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the William Herschel Telescope and Gran Telescopio Canarias, the Keck Observatory, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The large research team included astronomers from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. The scientists reported their findings in the journal Nature.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
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Journal Reference:
Dominik A. Riechers, C. M. Bradford, D. L. Clements, C. D. Dowell, I. P?rez-Fournon, R. J. Ivison, C. Bridge, A. Conley, Hai Fu, J. D. Vieira, J. Wardlow, J. Calanog, A. Cooray, P. Hurley, R. Neri, J. Kamenetzky, J. E. Aguirre, B. Altieri, V. Arumugam, D. J. Benford, M. B?thermin, J. Bock, D. Burgarella, A. Cabrera-Lavers, S. C. Chapman, P. Cox, J. S. Dunlop, L. Earle, D. Farrah, P. Ferrero, A. Franceschini, R. Gavazzi, J. Glenn, E. A. Gonzalez Solares, M. A. Gurwell, M. Halpern, E. Hatziminaoglou, A. Hyde, E. Ibar, A. Kov?cs, M. Krips, R. E. Lupu, P. R. Maloney, P. Martinez-Navajas, H. Matsuhara, E. J. Murphy, B. J. Naylor, H. T. Nguyen, S. J. Oliver, A. Omont, M. J. Page, G. Petitpas, N. Rangwala, I. G. Roseboom, D. Scott, A. J. Smith, J. G. Staguhn, A. Streblyanska, A. P. Thomson, I. Valtchanov, M. Viero, L. Wang, M. Zemcov, J. Zmuidzinas. A dust-obscured massive maximum-starburst galaxy at a redshift of 6.34. Nature, 2013; 496 (7445): 329 DOI: 10.1038/nature12050
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.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? An Israeli court on Tuesday delivered two consecutive life sentences to a U.S.-born Jewish extremist for the murder of two Palestinians and the attempted murder of others.
Originally from Florida, Jack Teitel was living in the West Bank when arrested in 2009. He was convicted in January for the 1997 killings.
The Jerusalem District Court gave Teitel additional time for other charges, including weapon violations and incitement to violence. He was ordered to pay compensation to victims' families.
The indictment said Teitel sought to avenge the deaths of Israelis killed by Palestinians.
In addition to his Palestinian victims, Teitel also targeted a dovish Israeli professor with a pipe bomb and messianic Jews who venerate Jesus. A teenager was injured when opening a booby-trapped package.
Alex Morgan, of the US celebrates on the shoulders of Sydney Leroux after scoring the opening goal against Germany during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. The US defeated Germany 2-0 in the final. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Alex Morgan, of the US celebrates on the shoulders of Sydney Leroux after scoring the opening goal against Germany during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. The US defeated Germany 2-0 in the final. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Christen Press, left, of the US, fights for the ball with Germany's Babet Peter during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal.The US defeated Germany 2-0 in the final. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Alex Morgan, 4rd right, of the US, celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Germany during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. The US defeated Germany 2-0 in the final. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Alex Morgan, 3rd right, of the US, celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Germany during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Christen Press, center, of the US, challenges Germany's defense during their Algarve Cup women's soccer final match Wednesday, March 13 2013, at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
The United States gave Tom Sermanni a title in his first tournament as coach of the American women's team.
Alex Morgan scored twice in the first half, and the U.S. defeated Germany 2-0 Wednesday night in the final of the Algarve Cup at Faro, Portugal. The Americans won the prestigious tournament for the ninth time in 18 appearances.
"It's great to continue the winning tradition that the U.S. team has," said Sermanni, who took over this year after Pia Sundhage left to coach her native Sweden. "At least I haven't been a jinx in the short term."
The Americans have won three straight Olympic gold medals, including two under Sundhage, but have not won the Women's World Cup since 1999.
"It was such a good foundation for us. Now we just need to work off that," defender Ali Krieger said. "Tom has done such a great job with us, and he has a lot of knowledge of the game and we need to let it all soak in."
Backup goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart protected the lead with some strong saves in the second half. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe was selected tournament MVP despite missing the final after straining a muscle in pregame warmups.
"This is obviously very unexpected. I thought I was getting punked when our liaison told me," she said.
Morgan started the scoring in the 13th minute. Sydney Leroux sent a cross that Germany central defender Josephine Henning tried to clear with a header. But the ball fell to Morgan just inside the area and she scored with her left foot.
Morgan connected again 12 minutes later. A mix-up between goalkeeper Almuth Schult and her defense let Morgan steal the ball and she rolled a shot into the empty net from the edge of the box.
"It's been a different lineup every single game, so I think that it's good for him to evaluate players and good for us to get games," Morgan said, referring to Sermanni. "Other than a World Cup or Olympics, we never really get this many games in this short a time."
Forward Abby Wambach came off the bench for the first time since March 9, 2011, against Iceland at the Algarve Cup. She entered in the 75th minute for Christen Press, but did not score. She remained at 154 career goals, four shy of tying Mia Hamm's international record.
NOTES: Three-time Olympic gold medal winner Heather Mitts announced her retirement. The 34-year-old defender made her international debut in 1999, played her last match in December and had two goals in 137 appearances. She had been allocated to the Boston Breakers for the new National Women's Soccer League. ... The United States has won Algarve Cups in 2000, '03, '04, '05, '07, '08, '10, '11 and '13. ... The Americans have not lost in 29 games, including victory at last year's London Olympics. Their last defeat was in this event a year ago to World Cup champion Japan. ... Tobin Heath started in Rapinoe's place and assisted on the second U.S. goal.
LONDON (AP) ? World leaders sent in their congratulations and Catholics around the world were celebrating Wednesday after the Vatican announced the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to the papacy ? making him the first pontiff from the Americas.
As bells tolled and crowds cheered across Latin America, President Barack Obama offered warm wishes to Pope Francis and said the selection speaks to the strength and vitality of the New World.
"I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis," Obama said. "As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than 2,000 years."
In Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also issued statements of congratulations.
Wednesday was "a momentous day for the 1.2 billion Catholics around the world," Cameron said in a message posted to Twitter, while Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, said millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike would be looking to the new pope for guidance not just in questions of faith but in matters of peace, justice and protecting creation.
Merkel said she was particularly happy for Christians in Latin America, who now had one of their own called to be pope for the first time. Francis was elected after German-born Pope Benedict XVI stepped down last month, saying he lacked the strength to continue in the job.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he looked forward to cooperation with the Holy See under Pope Francis' "wise leadership," while European Union leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso wished the new Catholic leader "a long and blessed pontificate."
The atmosphere across Latin America brimmed with excitement and surprise, with people bursting into tears and cheers on streets from Buenos Aires to Caracas, Venezuela.
"It's incredible!" said Martha Ruiz, 60, who was weeping tears of emotion in the Argentine capital. She said she had been in many meetings with the cardinal and said, "He is a man who transmits great serenity."
At the St. Francis of Assisi church in the colonial Old San Juan district in Puerto Rico, church secretary Antonia Veloz exchanged jubilant high-fives with Jose Antonio Cruz, a Franciscan friar.
"It's a huge gift for all of Latin America. We waited 20 centuries. It was worth the wait," said Cruz, wearing the brown cassock tied with a rope that is the signature of the Franciscan order.
Arcilia Litchfield, a 57-year-old tourist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was walking down the cobblestone streets when they glanced at a TV and saw that a new pope had been chosen. She and her husband then went to the San Juan Cathedral, where the remains of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon are buried.
"It's historic. It's the first time a pope has been chosen from this part of the world," she said. "It hasn't sunk in yet."
Even in Communist Cuba, there was pride as church bells rang to celebrate the news. Elsewhere on the continent, people traded stories about the new pontiff.
"You would see him taking public buses," said Maurizzio Pavia, an Argentine now working in Puerto Rico, who said he was familiar with Bergoglio because they both came from the same region. "He would cook his own food. He would not let anyone serve him."
In the United States, the archbishop of Philadelphia said the new pope is a man of "extraordinary intellectual and cultural strengths."
Archbishop Charles Chaput calls Francis a "wonderful choice" who comes from the "new heartland of the global church."
Despite the overwhelming outpouring of joy and goodwill, not everyone thought the news was positive.
Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute in New York said the choice of Bergoglio was an example of "superficial change."
"Once again, a conclave has made a bold geographical move while choosing a doctrinal conservative," he said. "To paraphrase an old saying, the more things change in the Roman Catholic Church, the more they stay the same."
On Twitter, the pope's mothballed account was revived and read: "HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM," a reference to the cardinal's new name: Pope Francis.
___
Associated Press writers from across the globe contributed to this report.
Drinking just two cups of coffee a day is associated with the risk of low birth weight. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have conducted a study on 59,000 women in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Expectant mothers who consume caffeine, usually by drinking coffee, are more likely to have babies with lower birth weight than anticipated, given their gestational age. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, conducted a study on 59,000 pregnant Norwegian women in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
"The correlation between intake of caffeine and fetal growth was established even among women who followed the official recommendation that they limit caffeine consumption to 200 milligrams a day (two cups of coffee)," researcher Verena Sengpiel says.
The medical term used in this connection is "small for gestational age" (SGA), which is associated with an elevated risk of morbidity and death.
The new results are consistent with previous international studies but are based on a considerably larger cohort. The participants were healthy and had uncomplicated pregnancies until delivery, while the results were adjusted for age, smoking, body mass index, nicotine consumption, alcohol use and other variables that affect fetal growth.
"We need to stress that our study did not examine whether caffeine is the specific mechanism substance by which responsible for the fetus is being at greater risk of low birth weight," Ms. Sengpiel says. "Nor did we look at whether these babies actually had special health problems during the neonatal period. Additional research is needed before we can say for sure what our finding actually means for pregnant women and their babies."
The other purpose of the study, which is being published in BMC Medicine, was to determine whether women who consumed caffeine during pregnancy were more likely to give birth prematurely. Such a correlation could not be established.
The research team is hoping to conduct more in-depth studies about the cause-effect relationship between caffeine use and SGA, as well as any correlation between SGA and neonatal morbidity and death.
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University of Gothenburg: http://www.gu.se/english
Thanks to University of Gothenburg for this article.
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Contact: Kathryn Hansen kathryn.h.hansen@nasa.gov 301-286-1046 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Vegetation growth at Earth's northern latitudes increasingly resembles lusher latitudes to the south, according to a NASA-funded study based on a 30-year record of land surface and newly improved satellite data sets.
An international team of university and NASA scientists examined the relationship between changes in surface temperature and vegetation growth from 45 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. Results show temperature and vegetation growth at northern latitudes now resemble those found 4 degrees to 6 degrees of latitude farther south as recently as 1982.
"Higher northern latitudes are getting warmer, Arctic sea ice and the duration of snow cover are diminishing, the growing season is getting longer and plants are growing more," said Ranga Myneni of Boston University's Department of Earth and Environment. "In the north's Arctic and boreal areas, the characteristics of the seasons are changing, leading to great disruptions for plants and related ecosystems."
The study was published Sunday, March 10, in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Myneni and colleagues used satellite data to quantify vegetation changes at different latitudes from 1982 to 2011. Data used in this study came from NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) onboard a series of polar-orbiting satellites and NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
As a result of enhanced warming and a longer growing season, large patches of vigorously productive vegetation now span a third of the northern landscape, or more than 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers). That is an area about equal to the contiguous United States. This landscape resembles what was found 250 to 430 miles (400 to 700 kilometers) to the south in 1982.
"It's like Winnipeg, Manitoba, moving to Minneapolis-Saint Paul in only 30 years," said co-author Compton Tucker of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The Arctic's greenness is visible on the ground as an increasing abundance of tall shrubs and trees in locations all over the circumpolar Arctic. Greening in the adjacent boreal areas is more pronounced in Eurasia than in North America.
An amplified greenhouse effect is driving the changes, according to Myneni. Increased concentrations of heat-trapping gasses, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane, cause Earth's surface, ocean and lower atmosphere to warm. Warming reduces the extent of polar sea ice and snow cover, and, in turn, the darker ocean and land surfaces absorb more solar energy, thus further heating the air above them.
"This sets in motion a cycle of positive reinforcement between warming and loss of sea ice and snow cover, which we call the amplified greenhouse effect," Myneni said. "The greenhouse effect could be further amplified in the future as soils in the north thaw, releasing potentially significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane."
To find out what is in store for future decades, the team analyzed 17 climate models. These models show that increased temperatures in Arctic and boreal regions would be the equivalent of a 20-degree latitude shift by the end of this century relative to a period of comparison from 1951-1980.
However, researchers say plant growth in the north may not continue on its current trajectory. The ramifications of an amplified greenhouse effect, such as frequent forest fires, outbreak of pest infestations and summertime droughts, may slow plant growth.
Also, warmer temperatures alone in the boreal zone do not guarantee more plant growth, which also depends on the availability of water and sunlight.
"Satellite data identify areas in the boreal zone that are warmer and dryer and other areas that are warmer and wetter," said co-author Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Only the warmer and wetter areas support more growth."
"We found more plant growth in the boreal zone from 1982 to 1992 than from 1992 to 2011, because water limitations were encountered in the later two decades of our study," said co-author Sangram Ganguly of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute and NASA Ames.
###
Data, results and computer codes from this study will be made available on NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), a collaborative supercomputing facility at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. NEX is designed to bring scientists together with data, models and computing resources to accelerate research and innovation and provide transparency.
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Contact: Kathryn Hansen kathryn.h.hansen@nasa.gov 301-286-1046 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Vegetation growth at Earth's northern latitudes increasingly resembles lusher latitudes to the south, according to a NASA-funded study based on a 30-year record of land surface and newly improved satellite data sets.
An international team of university and NASA scientists examined the relationship between changes in surface temperature and vegetation growth from 45 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. Results show temperature and vegetation growth at northern latitudes now resemble those found 4 degrees to 6 degrees of latitude farther south as recently as 1982.
"Higher northern latitudes are getting warmer, Arctic sea ice and the duration of snow cover are diminishing, the growing season is getting longer and plants are growing more," said Ranga Myneni of Boston University's Department of Earth and Environment. "In the north's Arctic and boreal areas, the characteristics of the seasons are changing, leading to great disruptions for plants and related ecosystems."
The study was published Sunday, March 10, in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Myneni and colleagues used satellite data to quantify vegetation changes at different latitudes from 1982 to 2011. Data used in this study came from NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) onboard a series of polar-orbiting satellites and NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
As a result of enhanced warming and a longer growing season, large patches of vigorously productive vegetation now span a third of the northern landscape, or more than 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers). That is an area about equal to the contiguous United States. This landscape resembles what was found 250 to 430 miles (400 to 700 kilometers) to the south in 1982.
"It's like Winnipeg, Manitoba, moving to Minneapolis-Saint Paul in only 30 years," said co-author Compton Tucker of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The Arctic's greenness is visible on the ground as an increasing abundance of tall shrubs and trees in locations all over the circumpolar Arctic. Greening in the adjacent boreal areas is more pronounced in Eurasia than in North America.
An amplified greenhouse effect is driving the changes, according to Myneni. Increased concentrations of heat-trapping gasses, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane, cause Earth's surface, ocean and lower atmosphere to warm. Warming reduces the extent of polar sea ice and snow cover, and, in turn, the darker ocean and land surfaces absorb more solar energy, thus further heating the air above them.
"This sets in motion a cycle of positive reinforcement between warming and loss of sea ice and snow cover, which we call the amplified greenhouse effect," Myneni said. "The greenhouse effect could be further amplified in the future as soils in the north thaw, releasing potentially significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane."
To find out what is in store for future decades, the team analyzed 17 climate models. These models show that increased temperatures in Arctic and boreal regions would be the equivalent of a 20-degree latitude shift by the end of this century relative to a period of comparison from 1951-1980.
However, researchers say plant growth in the north may not continue on its current trajectory. The ramifications of an amplified greenhouse effect, such as frequent forest fires, outbreak of pest infestations and summertime droughts, may slow plant growth.
Also, warmer temperatures alone in the boreal zone do not guarantee more plant growth, which also depends on the availability of water and sunlight.
"Satellite data identify areas in the boreal zone that are warmer and dryer and other areas that are warmer and wetter," said co-author Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Only the warmer and wetter areas support more growth."
"We found more plant growth in the boreal zone from 1982 to 1992 than from 1992 to 2011, because water limitations were encountered in the later two decades of our study," said co-author Sangram Ganguly of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute and NASA Ames.
###
Data, results and computer codes from this study will be made available on NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), a collaborative supercomputing facility at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. NEX is designed to bring scientists together with data, models and computing resources to accelerate research and innovation and provide transparency.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
All three of these men (ish) will go down in history as Old Spice's strange assortment of spokesmen.
"Old Spice was looking for someone to market its new wild collection of scents, someone from the wild," Mr. Wolfdog, Old Spice's new chief director of marketing, explains via a voice machine in the ad.
Mark Pritchard, the global brand-building officer at P&G said in a statement, "We look forward to tapping his unparalleled animal instincts to further enhance the launch of new Old Spice Wild Collection. We continuously strive to hire the most dynamic talent on earth, and given Director Wolfdog's fierce track record, he is sure to be a force to be reckoned with at P&G."
Giving celebrities new brand marketing roles is now all the rage. Alicia Keys is Blackberry's global creative director, Justin Timberlake is Bud Light Platinum's new creative director, and Marc Jacobs is Diet Coke's creative director "exclusively" for 2013.
Wolves were first introduced in Old Spice's ad campaign for its Super Bowl spot that just ran in Juneau, Alaska. But this is the first wolf to really make it big with the company. He even has a Twitter account and an old school professional website.
LONDON (Reuters) - Canadian singer Justin Bieber has canceled one of two planned concerts in Portugal this week, the venue in Lisbon said on its website on Monday.
A source close to the singer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cancellation was not linked to Bieber's collapse on-stage in London last week, which forced the teen sensation to take a 20-minute break for oxygen and later to visit a hospital.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin Bieber was forced to cancel the second performance in Portugal, March 12," a statement said on the website of the Pavilhao Atlantico.
"The Canadian singer is eager to play for the Portuguese fans on March 11," it added. Ticket holders for the canceled gig were entitled to a refund if they claimed it within a month.
The Bieber source did not give a reason for the cancellation, but local media in Portugal reported that tickets sales for the March 12 gig, which was added to his itinerary in February, were lower than organizers had hoped.
Bieber described his visit to London as a "rough week".
As well as the collapse, the 19-year-old was caught on film in an expletive-filled altercation with a photographer, showed up nearly two hours late for a show leading to widespread anger and was labeled a "pop brat" by a leading tabloid.
Discovered on YouTube in 2008, Bieber has built an online following of tens of millions of fans and is one of the pop world's biggest stars. In February, he became the youngest artist to land five chart-topping albums in the key U.S. market.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Additional reporting by Andrei Khalip in Lisbon; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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Our outdoor cycling group, the Cycle e Club, will having it's first ride of the spring season.? See the attached info for all the details.? The ride will start at 10060 Market Circle at Hastings Market Place, Manassas, VA 20110.? Share the joy of outdoor cycling with us and bring a friend.?
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer arrives to celebrate mass in the Sant' Andrea al Quirinale church, in Rome, Sunday March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. Scherer, the Archbishop of Sao Paulo, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer arrives to celebrate mass in the Sant' Andrea al Quirinale church, in Rome, Sunday March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. Scherer, the Archbishop of Sao Paulo, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
U.S. Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley hoists a book of prayers as he celebrates Mass in his titular church of Santa Maria alla Vittoria in Rome, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Cardinal Angelo Scola celebrates a mass in Rome's Santi Apostoli church, Sunday March 10, 2013. Cardinals from around the world gather this week in a conclave to elect a new pope following the stunning resignation of Benedict XVI. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. Yet several names have come up time repeatedly as strong contenders for the job. Scola, the Archbishop of Milan, is among those considered to have a credible shot at the papacy. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican insists that the cardinals participating in the upcoming conclave will vote their conscience, each influenced only by silent prayers and reflection. Everybody knows, however, that power plays, vested interests and Machiavellian maneuvering are all part of the game, and that the horse-trading is already under way.
Can the fractious Italians rally behind a single candidate? Can the Americans live up to their surprise billing as a power broker? And will all 115 cardinals from around the world be able to reach a meeting of minds on whether the church needs a people-friendly pope or a hard-edged manager able to tame Vatican bureaucrats?
This time there are no star cardinals and no big favorites, making the election wide open and allowing the possibility of a compromise candidate should there be deadlock.
While deliberations have been secret, there appear to be two big camps forming that have been at loggerheads in the run-up to the conclave.
One, dominated by the powerful Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia, is believed to be seeking a pope who will let it continue calling the shots as usual. The speculation is that the Curia is pushing the candidacy of Brazilian Odilo Scherer, who has close ties to the Curia and would be expected to name an Italian insider as Secretary of State ? the Vatican No. 2 who runs day-to-day affairs at the Holy See.
Another camp, apparently spearheaded by American cardinals, is said to be pushing for a reform-minded pope with the strength to shake up the Curia, tarnished by infighting and the "Vatileaks" scandal in which retired Pope Benedict XVI's own butler leaked confidential documents to a journalist. These cardinals reportedly want Milan archbishop Angelo Scola as pope, as he is seen as having the clout to bring the Curia into line.
The other key question to resolve is whether the pope should be a "pastoral" one ? somebody with the charisma and communication skills to attract new members to a dwindling flock ? or a "managerial" one capable of a church overhaul in a time of sex-abuse scandals and bureaucratic disarray.
It's hard to find any single candidate who fits the bill on both counts.
Italy has the largest group of cardinal electors with 28, and believes it has a historic right to supply the pope, as it did for centuries. Italians feel it's time to have one of their own enthroned again after 35 years of "foreigners," with the Polish John Paul II and the German Benedict.
But Italians are divided by which Italian church groups they have been affiliated with, and which leaders they follow. A dispute that pitted the followers of the archbishops of Genoa and Florence is said to have cost them the papacy in 1978 after 455 years of Italian popes.
Andrea Riccardi, a founder of the Sant Egidio community and minister of cooperation in the Italian government, says Italian cardinals should get the first look.
"The pope is bishop of Rome," Riccardi said. "Only if the selection of an Italian becomes impractical should it be the case to look in another direction."
From one point of view, the Italians have already suffered a setback. The selection of Tuesday for the conclave to begin is considered a victory for the "foreigners" who had sought more time to get to know get to know one another amid pressures to begin voting as early as Sunday.
And the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which polled experts on Saturday, found Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley topped their list of papal favorites ? ahead of both Scherer and Scola.
Two other Americans ? Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington ? also emerged as potential popes in the survey. That was a surprise since Americans had largely been written off because of potential negative perceptions of electing a superpower pope. Vatican watchers have also noted that an American pope would likely have difficulty dealing with anti-Christian violence and persecution in the Islamic world.
But there are 11 American cardinal-electors, second in number only to the Italians, and they are being talked up for their perceived managerial skills.
The American reputation may have been boosted by the Vatican's decision to silence their daily pre-conclave news conferences. The American eagerness for transparency has been well received among Catholics ? and cast in sharp contrast to the secrecy-prone Italians.
There is one more camp, which presumably commands enough votes to influence the election.
It is the "Benedict faction," the 67 voting cardinals who owe their red hat and presence in the conclave to the most recent pope. They make up more than half of the voters.
Their loyalty to Benedict could damage the ambitions of any cardinal thought to have damaged his papacy and been part of the "divisions" that Benedict lamented in his final addresses.
Who might that be? Their names are presumably listed in a secret report prepared for Benedict about the "Vatileaks" scandal.
Only a few people have seen that report. None of the cardinals who will be voting are among them.
CONWAY, S.C. (AP) ? Liberty coach Dale Layer doesn't care how many losses it took to get his players to the NCAA tournament.
The Flames became just the second 20-loss team to reach college basketball's marquee event, beating Charleston Southern 87-76 Sunday to win the Big South Conference title. Liberty opened the season with eight straight losses and had never won more than three in a row until this week. Yet, it joined Coppin State in 2008 as the only schools with 20 or more defeats in the field of 68.
The Flames' .429 winning percentage (15-20) is the lowest for an NCAA tournament team since Oakland (Michigan) had a 12-18 record (.400) in 2005.
"That's awesome," the fourth-year coach said of his team. "We've got the hats, right?"
Yes, you do, Coach.
The Flames finished their best stretch of basketball this year, winning their fifth in a row ? and their fourth game since Tuesday ? to take their first Big South tournament crown since 2004. John Caleb Sanders led the way with 27 points and tournament MVP Davon Marshall had 20 off six 3-pointers.
Marshall and Sanders got things going in a hurry over top-seeded Charleston Southern (19-12) with 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds ? and the Flames barely lost their outside touch. Marshall was 6 of 7 from beyond the arc and Liberty finished 9 of 18 on long-range baskets.
The performance ended a hard-to-imagine run through the field where Liberty defeated home-standing Coastal Carolina and both Big South divisional winners in High Point and Charleston Southern. Sanders said the team began to believe when they topped the Chanticleers 78-61. "When you can beat Coastal by 20 on their home floor, we knew we could beat anybody in this tournament," he said.
That played out over the week at the HTC Center with the improbable run.
"We've played four of our best games in these four games of the tournament," Sanders said. "Talk about peaking at the exact right time."
Count on Liberty being near the bottom of the 68 NCAA seeds and a likely candidate for the tournament's first-four contests. Sanders says he and the Flames don't care which opponent they face.
"I feel like if we do us, we can give them a game," he said.
Saah Nimley had 18 points to lead the Buccaneers, who as the Big South's regular-season champs will play in the NIT.
The Flames and their cheerleaders rushed the court when the game ended, the players piling on top of each other in celebration. And why not, since Liberty was among the longest of longshots to be cutting down the nets in this one?
Liberty will try and pull off a Big South tournament double later Sunday when its top-seeded women's team takes on Longwood for that NCAA berth. The Flames women have won 14 of the past 16 Big South tournament titles.
The Flames fell behind for a final time, 40-37, on Arlon Harper's 3-pointer with 18:10 lead. That's when Sanders' jumper started a 17-7 run the next six minutes to take control. The charge was capped by Marshall's long 3-pointer that put Liberty ahead 54-47. The lead eventually grew to 14 points as the Bucs could not match Liberty's success from the field.
Charleston Southern was just 9 of 28 from behind the arc and Nimley, who made the all-Big South Conference team, was just 1 of 7 from three. The Bucs finished with five players in double figures.
Buccaneers coach Barclay Radebaugh said he told people after his team's 79-75 victory at Liberty on Jan. 26 that he wanted no part of what the Flames were building a second time.
"I think they're lying in wait," he said. "That's a scary team. They've got size, they've got depth. They're guards are good. They're strong."
Charleston Southern came in the tournament's top seed and would have hosted this final under the Big South's old home-court format. The league began a three-year deal to play at the recently opened, $35 million HTC Center on the campus of Big South member Coastal Carolina ? about 10 miles or so west of South Carolina's Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach resort area.
The Buccaneers hadn't been to a Big South final since 2005 and last won in 1997, also the last time they advanced to the NCAA tournament. They got to the championship by defeating Winthrop in the tournament opener and rallied from 5 points down at the half to oust VMI, 71-65.
Charleston Southern had gone from nine victories in 2009 to back-to-back 19-win seasons the past two years. Both their leading scorers in Nimley and Harper are sophomores so Radebaugh believes the Bucs aren't done contending for Big South crowns. First things first, though.
"I'm really looking forward to the NIT," Radebaugh said. "It's not going to be a show up game for us."
Liberty was next to last in the Big South's six-team North Division. That's when the Flames found their game, topping host Coastal Carolina in the opening round before knocking off one of the tournament favorites in High Point, 61-60, in the quarterfinals. The Flames led throughout against High Point, taking a 19-point lead and holding on.
Liberty kept the run going on Saturday with a win over Gardner-Webb.
The Flames didn't let up against Charleston Southern. Sanders, the team's leading scorer this year at 13 points a game, nearly reached that mark with 12 points in the period while Marshall added 11.
Tavares Speaks hit a bucket as the halftime buzzer sounded that put the Flames ahead 35-34 heading into the break. Speaks ended the game with 18 points.
Layer previously led Colorado State into the NCAAs back in 2003. He said it was difficult to compare experiences and chooses to concentrate on his happy players, snipping away at basketball nets to take back to campus.
"It's life changing. I'm just looking at their faces and trying to soak in every moment," he said. "That's what you're doing this for."
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Public release date: 11-Mar-2013
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