POPE LIVE: Ready for departure, final meetings

"Pope Live" follows the events of the final day of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy as seen by journalists from The Associated Press around the world. It will be updated throughout the day with breaking news and other items of interest.

___

LAST TASKS

The big speeches are done. It's almost time to go.

In just a few minutes, Pope Benedict XVI meets with his cardinals this morning on the day he heads into retirement. No major speech is expected during his morning farewell with his closest advisers, just a simple greeting to each one inside the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

Shortly before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict will leave the palace for the last time as pope, head to the helipad on the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and fly to the papal retreat south of Rome. And there, at 8 p.m. ? the exact moment Benedict's resignation goes into effect ? the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the pope now finished.

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QUICKQUOTE: JOHN KERRY

"The United States sends its best wishes to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as he leaves the Vatican after years of service and dedication to God, the Catholic Church, and world peace. As the papal conclave assembles, I look forward to continuing our important relationship with the Vatican and working with the new pope to foster dialogue and promote human rights and human dignity throughout the world."

? New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Rome for a conference on Syria as part of his first diplomatic tour abroad.

___

A GLIMPSE INSIDE

Victor L. Simpson, Rome bureau chief for The Associated Press, reflects on his decades of covering the papacy:

___

One thing that sets the Vatican apart from other places: You can't just stroll around and poke your head in everywhere.

As many as 18 million people pass through Vatican territory each year, but their visits are effectively limited to St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museums. Aside from the Vatican's 492 residents and its 4,700 employees, everyone else needs a pass, even to drop by the Vatican pharmacy for medicine not sold in Italy (bring a doctor's prescription please) or to buy back copies of the Vatican paper at the offices of L'Osservatore Romano.

After all these years, I still feel a tingle of excitement to be let in through the Bronze Door, escorted past Swiss Guards in full regalia, and taken up to the pope's apartment on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace for a papal audience with a dignitary. These meetings have given a rare peek inside Vatican diplomacy.

? Victor L. Simpson

___

TOWN TOUR

The town where Benedict is spending his last hours as pope and his first hours as the first pontiff in 600 years to retire is one of several picturesque "castle towns" known as the "Castelli," less than an hour's drive from Rome. Nestled in the Alban Hills, southeast of Rome, it is an area that is volcanic in origin. One of the volcano's old craters became Lake Albano, whose shores include Castel Gandolfo.

The volcano's no longer active, but the Castelli area gets its share of earthquakes, generally fairly mild and doing no damage. The rich volcanic soil helps produce inexpensive white wines that are a favorite in local trattorie as well as in restaurants in Rome.

The town is older than Christianity. The papal residence grounds include ruins from an imperial Roman villa, which itself had been on the site of ancient temples built several centuries before the ancient Romans came to check out the cool breezes and views.

The sprawling papal grounds, which as Vatican property enjoy extraterritoriality, include a working farm. Coffee bars in town have been known to serve milk from the farm's cows. (Yes, it's already been said: "Holy Cow.")

? Frances D'Emilio ? Twitter http://twittter.com/fdemilio

___

GOODBYE, RED SHOES

The red shoes are being retired.

The Pope is giving up the trademark that briefly made him a fashion star, trading in his snappy ruby-red loafers for a pair of hand-crafted brown ones made for him by artisans in Mexico. He will wear those in retirement, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says.

The flash of red sparked (unfounded) rumors he was wearing Prada and helped make him Esquire magazine's accessorizer of the year in 2007. The actual designer? An Italian craftsman who had previously created a pair for Pope John Paul II, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

A former Vatican official assured The Associated Press back in 2005 that Benedict was no clothes horse, advising that the pontiff "wouldn't know Gucci from Smoochi."

? Matt Surman ? Twitter http://twitter.com/apsurman

___

LAST DAY AS POPE

Pope Benedict XVI is making history today, becoming the first pontiff to retire in nearly 600 years.

Only a handful of popes have ever done so.

The last was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism, a dispute among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294; Dante placed him in hell for it.

Benedict is saying farewell this morning to his closest advisers in Clementine Hall at the Apostolic Palace. Then shortly before 5 p.m., he will leave the palace for the last time as pope and fly by helicopter to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

Exactly at 8 p.m. ? when his resignation takes effect ? the doors at Castel Gandolfo will close and the papacy that began on April 19, 2005, will come to an end.

? Nicole Winfield ? http://twitter.com/nwinfield

___

Follow AP reporters on Twitter where available.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-live-ready-departure-final-meetings-094739179.html

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Your health: perfect and intact?

A Christian Science perspective.

By Lyle Young / February 26, 2013

Your health is perfect and intact ? no matter how you may feel, look, or sound.

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Now, before you conclude that this is a preposterous statement, let me explain.

The conventional way of thinking is that life is material, that we develop over time, having our own thoughts and bodies ? and thus our own state of health ? all of which are governed by genes and by our life experience. According to this way of thinking, we live biologically and are governed by organic laws that dictate that illness is normal and self-evident reality. Logically then, at best we try to manipulate the body with surgery or drugs or with less invasive methods such as physiotherapy or change of diet.

But instead of considering that all that I?ve just described is reality, could it be that it?s actually a state of consciousness, a way of thinking that we may have unwittingly adopted but that we can consciously change?

The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, contributed not only to journalism but also to health and health care. Sick for years, she teetered between living and dying. But in the Bible, her solace, she saw that the healings of Jesus were not miraculous but a natural expression of his understanding of the true nature of health. In the 1860s, when she was in her late 40s, she came to understand her way out of the health theories prevalent at that time. This restored her health, allowing her to serve society vigorously for another four decades. She began to teach this understanding, both in person and through her books. (Her main work, ?Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,? was first published in 1875.) Soon, many of her students were practicing this method of healing, and teaching others, too. Her method of healing is not faith healing as it?s popularly known. Rather, it?s based on deep spiritual insights about the nature of identity, insights that Mrs. Eddy found in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

Eddy, a keen observer of human thinking, identified the kinds of thoughts that lead to illness. She saw that sickness is an unnatural, unconscious deviation from the perfection of God and of each one of us as His image and likeness. She came upon a place in thought at which individuals adopt a concept of themselves that leads either to discord and sickness or to holiness and health. She discovered that everyone can become aware of their thoughts and respond obediently to thoughts from God, those thoughts being spiritual, pure, and healthy. For her, mental self-awareness is key ? just as knowing how you?re spending money is essential to sound personal finance.

Most especially, Eddy discovered in the Bible that there?s a reliable source for healthy thoughts ? God, the one divine Mind ? that knows each of us, God?s children, as spiritual, perfect, free, and well. This fundamental truth, though not visible physically, gives each of us a strong platform from which to claim and even demonstrate that we are healthy.

Try this: Instead of assuming that you?re largely a set of body parts that can become ill, feel your oneness with this purely good, infinite Mind as its spiritual reflection. Start from the standpoint that your health is intact because goodness and wellness are inherent in this one infinite God that you reflect. This way of thinking has made a vast difference in my life, giving me both a more moral approach to living and better health. It can do the same for you.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/2inm-XDvkws/Your-health-perfect-and-intact

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Video: Captain Shermin: 'We have been good stewards of this resource'

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Focus on Making People Laugh, Even If You're Bad at It

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, learned an important skill when dealing with other people: try to make them laugh, even if you're bad at it, because it distracts everyone from the negative aspects of your personality. Craig explains:

I'm a nerd, seriously hard-core, and sometimes that translates into being a know-it-all. People got tired of that while I worked at an IBM branch office in Detroit in the eighties.??My boss told that that it had become a real problem with about half my co-workers. However, he said that my saving grace was my sense of humor. When trying to be funny, well, didn't matter if I was funny of not, at least I wasn't being an asshole. The advice was to focus on my sense of humor and worry less about being exactly right. For sure, don't correct people when it matters little.

The good news is that in Craig's experience, you don't actually have to be funny because it's the attempt that matters. As with many things, trying is often more important than success. For more about Craig's experiences, check out the full post over on LinkedIn.

Best Advice: Make 'em Laugh ? or They'll Kill You | LinkedIn

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NJLjY4rfvwQ/focus-on-making-people-laugh-even-if-youre-bad-at-it

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Amazon Cloud Player for iOS arrives on the iPad

As timely updates go, this one's a bit long in the tooth. After introducing its Cloud Player for iOS to the iPhone and iPod touch last summer, Amazon's finally gotten around to rolling out a version for iPad owners. The updated app, which is seeing a version bump to 2.0, now sports a tweaked UI and a cache size management tool. Other than that, it's still the same "free" streaming music service, offering 5GB of complementary storage, access to Amazon mp3 purchases (AutoRip CDs included) and any AAC-tracks from your current iTunes library. You can grab it now at the source below. Go ahead, it might mend Norah's little broken heart(s).

Filed under: Tablets, Software, Apple, Amazon

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Lab instruments inside Curiosity eat Mars rock powder

Feb. 25, 2013 ? Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars.

Curiosity science team members will use the laboratories to analyze the rock powder in the coming days and weeks.

The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments received portions of the sample on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23, respectively, and began inspecting the powder.

"Data from the instruments have confirmed the deliveries," said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The powder comes from Curiosity drilling into rock target "John Klein" on Feb. 8. One or more additional portions from the same initial sample may be delivered to the instruments as analysis proceeds.

During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 science instruments to assess whether the study area in Gale Crater on Mars ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

More information about Curiosity is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/TFvKVl-JZCI/130225185603.htm

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Contribute 401k vs taxable accounts. And roth vs traditional - Early ...

Ok so max out the 401k is the consensus. Are there any good calculators or articles to help work out what bracket I could expect to be in when I retire. That is such a hard thing to figure out for me

The best calculator I have seen is Esplanner. It's not free, but it covers the most. It will calculate your federal and state taxes each from now until your estimated date of death. It will also calculate SS payouts, RMDs, and much, much more.

You should max out your 401k as others have suggested. The 1% management fee in the funds is not the most important consideration. Most Americans will only stay in their current job for 5 years. Therefore the average American will only pay excessive 401k fees or have to cope with limited investment options for a few years after which (once separated from the company) he will roll it into an IRA to live for decades.

Tax-deferred accounts, including 401Ks, have benefits beyond the company match even if your marginal tax rate is not lower in retirement, although it will be for most people. The right way to think of a 401k is that you could make the contribution now and pay the tax immediately. Or you could contribute to the 401k both your own ultimate money plus the taxes that you will eventually pay to the govt. In exchange for agreeing to manage the govt's money your own money will grow forever tax-free. If your tax rate in retirement is the same as while working (not very likely, but possible) you will end up paying the govt its original tax plus the gains and income your management has achieved for that money. You will get to keep your own contribution and all it has earned forever.

Here's an example:

current bracket: 25%
401k contribution: $8,000
portion of contribution that belongs to govt: $2,000

you invest and at retirement that $8,000 has grown to $16,000
retirement tax bracket: 25%
you draw out all of the money:
tax due: $4,000
portion that is not taxed: $12,000

Of course, if your tax rate is lower, you would do even better since you would get to keep some of the govt's gains. Plus you might have moved out of an income tax state into a no-income tax state or abroad. In that case you would never pay the state anything.

How much of a benefit that is depends on how long the 401k lives including its life as an IRA after your separation from the company and possibly as a Roth IRA. The tax-deferred money might live as long as you, but it could live as long as your wife or your children.

The reason you should contribute to the 401k now despite the temporary disadvantages, is that the 401k lets you contribute a lot more per year than an IRA or any other vehicle, unless you are self-employed.

For those who can afford to save for retirement, the 401k is by far the best deal available now.

Source: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/contribute-401k-vs-taxable-accounts-and-roth-vs-traditional-65341.html

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Reluctant Restaurant Review ? The Industry, South Philly | It's just ...

February 25, 2013 by G-LO

Earlier this week, Mrs. G-LO made an administrative decision and informed me that the boys would be spending Saturday night at my In-Laws. This decision led to a scheduled?date night?which meant that there were more decisions to be made?

1. Where will we eat?
2. Will anyone join us?
3. Should we try to squeeze in a movie?

Since this is a reluctant restaurant review (I?ll explain the reluctant part shortly) of The Industry, you already know the answer to the first question. As far as the second question, I tried to pull together the Crafty Day crew, but sadly, they weren?t able to join us due to prior commitments (click here to read about our last Crafty Day crew dining out experience), so we decided that it would be a casual dinner for two. And as far as squeezing in a movie, we went to a 3:45 screening of Silver Linings Playbook, which proved to be the perfect film for this past Saturday night since it (a) takes place in and around the Philadelphia area, and (b) ends at the Ben Franklin House which is where Mrs. G-LO and I lived when we first got married.

So why is this a reluctant restaurant review? This is a reluctant restaurant review because?I had no intention of writing a restaurant review when we first decided to head out to dinner, but thanks to Mrs. G-LO mentioning the blog to the waiter, here I am, writing a review while it?s all fresh in my mind. After Mrs. G-LO?s not so subtle mentioning of the blog, the waiter came over with a pen and paper, asking me to write down our blog?s name and web address. One of the owners (Dave Garry) even came over to say hello, so after all that, I feel obligated to write about our dining experience. Here goes?

The Industry, which opened in June of 2012, is located in the Pennsport section of South Philadelphia on the corner of Moyamensing Avenue and Reed Street (just one block away from Mummer?s Central, i.e. 2 Street), and is owned by Dave Garry and Heather Gleason,?the husband and wife team that also own one of my favorite eating and drinking establishments in Center City Philadelphia, Good Dog Bar. I have been to Good Dog (aka My Happy Place!) on at least a dozen occasions and have yet to be disappointed, so with all of that in mind, to say that I was excited to eat at The Industry would be a serious understatement.

When we first arrived, there were quite a few people seated at the bar, but the dining area was mostly empty (there was one other couple seated at the front). Since Mrs. G-LO subscribes to the ?an empty dining room is never a good sign? theory of fine dining, there was a mild look of panic on her face when we were first seated. Once the tables started filling in a few minutes later, she quickly relaxed and started formulating a dining strategy as I looked over the beer menu. After ordering our first round (a Rodenbach Original for Mrs. G-LO and a Lagunitas Sucks Brown Shugga Substitute Ale for yours truly. Both were delicious!), we started discussing our food options. If we had the Crafty Day Crew with us, we would have ordered everything on the menu, but since it was just the two of us, we took a more restrained approach to Saturday night?s dinner.

Before I start talking about the food, let me tell you a bit about the layout of the room, i.e. what you see when you walk in the front door. The Industry is essentially one big rectangular room with the bar along the far right wall, a somewhat open kitchen in the back, and seating along the front, middle and sides of the room. The dining room and bar are separated by a long high top table that runs along the center of the room which has seating for at least 16 people on either side. Mrs. G-LO and I were seated in the dining area. Much like Good Dog, there is an excellent mix of music playing (loud enough to hear it clearly, but not so loud that it drowns out the conversation)?and everyone working was very helpful and looked like they were actually enjoying their jobs.

About 15 minutes after ordering, our appetizers were delivered to our table. We decided to begin our meal with the Crispy Pig Ear Lettuce Wraps and Arancini. The Lettuce Wraps were made with?Frank?s Red Hot seasoned, ?deep fried pig ears, topped with lightly pickled julienned vegetables, and layered atop a leaf of bibb lettuce. The Arancini (fried rice balls) were made with saffron infused?Risotto, English peas, and served with a mildly spiced basquaise dipping sauce on the side. While I truly enjoyed both dishes, the Lettuce Wraps were particularly memorable. The crispy pork with just a hint of heat from the Frank?s Red Hot paired beautifully with the lightly pickled vegetable julienne, and cool crisp lettuce leaf. I was expecting this dish to fall apart when I picked it up, but thankfully, the lettuce leaf managed to hold it all together. As far as the Arancini, they were also extremely delicious. Crisp and golden brown on the outside. Warm and gooey on the inside.

After finishing our appetizers, there was about a 15 minute wait for our entrees. If this were my lunch hour, I would have liked the food to come out a bit faster, but since our plan was to have a relaxing Saturday night meal, I welcomed the time between courses. There is nothing worse than feeling like you?re being rushed out of a restaurant! While I waited, I finished my first beer and ordered a a Green Flash Rayon Vert to enjoy with the rest of my meal.

For our entrees, Mrs. G-LO considered getting the burger and fries but instead went with one of the specials which was Braised Short Ribs served with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, baby carrots, and saut?ed cipollini onions, while I went with the other special of the day which was Pan Seared Scallops served atop a bed of herbed farro. Once again, we were not disappointed. The Short Ribs were fork tender and incredibly toothsome while the Scallops were cooked to perfection, i.e. buttery smooth and delicious. Let?s just say that cleaning our plates was not a problem since we both enjoyed our selections immensely.

Instead of something sweet, we decided to end our meal with a cheese plate. This would prove to be the only part of our meal that garnered any criticism from The Wife and I. While the three cheeses (simply described as ?goat, sheep, and cow?)?and accompanying honey, kumquat marmalade, and sliced apple were delicious, the bread that was served alongside it left much to be desired. The menu said that it was supposed to be a baguette, but it looked and tasted more like a cold and undercooked ciabatta. Slicing the bread thinner and toasting it a bit would have been most welcome. Other than that modest misstep, the cheese plate was a great way to end our meal.

Overall, we truly enjoyed our dinner at The Industry and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone seeking a reasonably priced and incredibly satisfying dining experience. A warm and inviting room, great service, and delicious food and drink. Who could ask for anything more? I look forward to going back soon so that I can dig deeper into their very tempting menu.

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Source: http://boozedancing.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/reluctant-restaurant-review-the-industry-south-philly/

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Scientists Discover 'Ghost Continent' Under Layers Of Rock In Indian Ocean

Melissa Block speaks with Sid Perkins, a freelance writer specializing in earth sciences, about the recent discovery of a "lost microcontinent" submerged beneath the Indian Ocean.

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Deep underwater, entombed under layers of volcanic rock on the Indian Ocean floor lurks a ghost continent, or at least that's what a team of geologists now thinks. Among the clues are tiny crystals found in the sand on island beaches. The scientists called the ancient continent Mauritia. They believe it broke away from India and Madagascar and sank into the seabed tens of millions of years ago.

This is all laid out in a new scientific paper, and Sid Perkins of the journal Nature joins me to explain what the scientists found. Sid, welcome to the program.

SID PERKINS: Hi. Thank you.

BLOCK: And why don't you paint a little bit more of this picture for us? This ancient continent that scientists think now is resting at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, where exactly do they say it is?

PERKINS: Well, when you look at the ocean floor between Madagascar and India, there are areas that are rather broad and much thicker than the normal ocean crust. Ocean crust is typically 5 to 10 kilometers thick, and these are substantial areas that are somewhere between 25 and 30 kilometers thick. And they probably add up to something that was about the size of the nation of Costa Rica altogether.

BLOCK: So pretty tight. They're calling it a microcontinent.

PERKINS: Yes, yes. It's a microcontinent. And what they're looking at is, again, when tectonic activity kind of ripped apart Madagascar and India, India kept going, crashed into South Asia. Madagascar was left behind kind of close to the African continent. And then what this continent of Mauritia is presumed to be was a kind of a small fragment or an archipelago that was kind of abandoned in between the two. And as the ocean crusts thinned, those bits were fragmented and then submerged, and then now they're at the bottom of the ocean.

BLOCK: We mentioned that the scientists are looking for clues, and they found them, they think, in these tiny crystals in sand on beaches, on the island of Mauritius. What was it about those crystals that made them think, aha, there's a lost continent on the ocean floor?

PERKINS: The crystals that they found are vastly older than they believe the island to be. So if the island was nothing but, you know, lava erupted to the surface and then waves beat on the lava, you expect the sands that you find to be no older than the island itself. But what they found instead were these zircons that were anywhere from 660 million to 2 billion years old, which is vastly older than the island is presumed to be, which is only around 10 million years.

BLOCK: Let me see if I understand this right. Is the idea that the only way to explain how these zircon crystals ended up on the sands of Mauritius, is the only explanation for that that they came from part of the continental crust that is actually on the ocean floor, this lost continent that we're talking about?

PERKINS: Yes. They're saying that they weren't brought in by human activity. They were windblown. So the mystery is to figure out where these zircons came from. They're saying that - process of elimination of all the other things that they don't think is likely - that these zircons were actually brought up from the ocean floor. When the lava was erupting to the surface, it snatched bits of fragments of that ancient continental crust that had been buried on the seafloor and then brought unto the surface to be subsequently found on the beach.

BLOCK: Do scientists assume that there are lots and lots of lost continents that are on the ocean floor?

PERKINS: Sure. When I talked to one of the scientists, he was saying well, you know, it's very likely that these are kind of a common thing scattered across all the ocean basins where you've got ocean floor spreading that, you know, had ripped things apart.

BLOCK: Sid Perkins, thanks so much for talking to us.

PERKINS: OK. Thank you, ma'am.

BLOCK: Sid Perkins has written in the journal Nature about a lost continent believed to be on the floor of the Indian Ocean. That research appears in the publication Nature Geoscience.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/26/172998762/scientists-discover-ghost-continent-under-layers-of-rock-in-indian-ocean?ft=1&f=1007

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Open house on 3/3/2013 at 1 Ridgewood Street Ashland, MA 01721 ...

From: 3/3/2013 12:00:00 PM to 3/3/2013 4:00:00 PM??
For Directions: click on the map image or feel free to contact me.??
For more information: click here for the full details??

New construction. Houses to be built. Starting at $520,000 base price, approx 2000 sq.ft. and going up to as large as you care to build, this new development has 68 lots and multiple house plans. Buyers can pick a plan, make their alterations, design their kitchen, select their options, and build ?Their House, Their Way?. Beautiful wooded setting surrounded by Open Space to be deeded to town. Close to Ashland?s ?T? station, just off historic High Street. Open house Sat & Sun noon to 4pm.

Source: http://blog.homesconnection.com/open-house-on-332013-at-1-ridgewood-street-ashland-ma-01721/

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4th round of talks start over Iran nuclear program

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, left, and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev greet each other prior their talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Iran and six world powers, five permanent U.N. Security council members and Germany, are set to hold talks in Kazakhstan this week on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.(AP Photo/Pavel Mikheyev)

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, left, and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev greet each other prior their talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Iran and six world powers, five permanent U.N. Security council members and Germany, are set to hold talks in Kazakhstan this week on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.(AP Photo/Pavel Mikheyev)

Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, left, shakes hands with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev prior their talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. Iran and six world powers, five permanent U.N. Security council members and Germany, are set to hold talks in Kazakhstan this week on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.(AP Photo/Pavel Mikheyev)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) ? World powers began their fourth round of high-level talks with Iranian officials on Tuesday as negotiators from both sides pledged to offer new ways to break a years-long impasse over Tehran's nuclear program and its feared ability to make atomic weapons in the future.

Few believe the latest attempt to reach compromise will yield any major breakthroughs, and negotiators refused to detail what the new solutions might be. Instead, officials described the latest diplomatic discussions as a way to build confidence with Iran as it steadfastly maintains its right to enrich uranium in the face of harsh international sanctions.

"The offer addresses the international concern on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, but it is also responsive to Iranian ideas," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the negotiations. "We've put some proposals forward which will hopefully allow Iran to show some flexibility."

Mahmoud Mohammedi, a member of the Iranian delegation, said Tehran also is prepared to make an offer of it's own to end the impasse but refused to provide any details.

The Obama administration is pushing for diplomacy to solve the impasse but has not ruled out the possibility of military intervention in Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And Israel has threatened it will use all means to stop Iran from being able to build a bomb, potentially as soon as this summer, raising the specter of a possible Mideast war.

A senior U.S. official at the talks said on Monday that some sanctions relief would be part of the offer to Iran but also refused to detail it. The new relief is part of a package that the U.S. official said included "substantive changes ? whether you'd call them super-substantial, I'll leave to history." The official acknowledged reports earlier this month that sanctions would be eased to allow Iran's gold trade to progress, but would neither confirm nor deny they are included in the new relief offer, and spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic talks more candidly.

In a statement before the talks began Tuesday afternoon, Interfax news agency cited Russia's envoy as saying easing of sanctions is possible only if Iran can assure the world that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes.

"There is no certainty that the Iranian nuclear program lacks a military dimension, although there is also no evidence that there is a military dimension," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

Officials from both sides have set low expectations for a breakthrough in Almaty ? the first time the high-level negotiators have met since last June's meeting in Moscow that threatened to derail the delicate efforts.

The talks are being held in private at a hotel in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, and were deemed so sensitive that reporters were not allowed on the premises Tuesday save for a small handful of TV cameras and photographers allowed to watch Ashton, who is leading the negotiations, greet Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Tehran maintains it is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes, and insists it has a right to do so under international law. It has signaled it does not intend to stop, and U.N. nuclear inspectors last week confirmed Iran has begun a major upgrade of its program at the country's main uranium enrichment site.

Negotiators hope that easing some of the sanctions will make Tehran more agreeable to halting production of 20 percent enriched uranium ? the highest grade of enrichment that Iran has acknowledged and one that experts say could be turned into warhead grade in a matter of months. The six world powers ? United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany ? also want Iran to suspend enrichment in its underground Fordo nuclear facility, and to ship its stockpile of high-grade uranium out of the country.

Over the last eight months, the international community has imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran that U.S. officials said have, among other things, cut the nation's daily oil output by 1 million barrels and slashed its employment rate. Western powers have hoped that the Iranian public would suffer under sanctions so badly that the government would feel a moral obligation to slow its nuclear program.

But an analysis released Monday by the International Crisis Group concluded that the web of international sanctions have become so entrenched in Iran's political and economic systems that they cannot be easily lifted piece-by-piece. It found that Tehran's clerical regime has begun adapting its policy to the sanctions, despite their crippling effect on the Iranian public. Doing so, the analysis concluded, has divided the public's anger "between a regime viewed as incompetent and an outside world seen as uncaring."

Iran has been unimpressed with earlier offers by the powers to provide it with medical isotopes and lift sanctions on spare parts for civilian airliners, and new bargaining chips that Tehran sees as minor are likely to be snubbed as well. Iran insists, as a starting point, that world powers must recognize the republic's right to enrich uranium.

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Follow Peter Leonard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pete_leonard and Lara Jakes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-26-Iran-Nuclear/id-26f9a15295a54733b79ddf3e4c8bad9f

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Do You Believe In Quick Golf Fixes? | Content for Reprint

Author: RoseannaLeaton | Total views: 191 Comments: 0
Word Count: 597 Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 7:48 PM

One of the key aspects about the sport called golf is that without a considerable amount of practice you can find hitting the ball as you wish is a somewhat elusive dream!? This tends to hold true for both beginners and the more seasoned golfer.? Thus it is no wonder that so many golfers avidly seek to find any or every type of quick golf fix that they can feast their eyes or lay their hands upon.

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The million-dollar question is whether or not such quick golf fixes have a hope of working.? I suspect that the majority of golfers soon discover that whilst their currently favored fix might work to a degree for a short period of time, its effectiveness quickly fades and disappears.?

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Fewer golfers hold an appreciation of the very real potential for the supposed "quick fix" to morph into a golf nightmare.? Unless you fully understand the how and why of a swing change, be it related to rhythm, tempo, swing plane, wrist cock, length of backswing or follow through, etc., you are running the risk of making a change that puts you further off course than on.??

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Additionally most "quick" golf fixes are not actually quick to apply.? The various parts of your golf swing are linked together like a row of dominoes.? As you change one tiny little component, be it by just a fraction of a millimeter, it will inevitably affect every domino along the line.? Most golfers will be only too aware of those times when they feel like their swing has totally collapsed.? You do not ever want that to happen again.

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The exception to this rule applies to mental focus.? You can in fact change your mind about something literally "at a moment's notice".? Women are frequently accused of this; it is a woman's prerogative to change her mind!?

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In golf, the application of correct mental focus will prove to be a very effective fix indeed.? With your attention correctly placed and your emotions kept under control, the numbers written upon your scorecard are likely to be very pleasing indeed.? What is even better is that there is no negative side effect.? Correct mental focus simply cannot cause your game to fall apart!

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But, if you forget to focus or apply your mind correctly, then you will miss out upon the advantages that this confers to your current shot.?? Even though you can change your mind in an instant, and gain good mental focus simply by thinking about it, what really pays off is to make this ideal focus into a habit.?

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The creation of a habit, even one that is mental in nature, is not a quick fix.? It takes time and effort.? But this time and effort put into the mental side of golf is worth its weight in gold.? It is also something that can be worked upon at home or in the dark and for just a few minutes at a time.

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Roseanna Leaton, golf addict and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the GolferWithin golf mind training system.

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P.S.? Discover how to focus your golf mind and play winning golf through golf hypnosis.? Check out my website now.

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Grab a free hypnosis mp3 from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and check out the acclaimed GolferWithin series of golf mind training aids.

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Blackhawks' streak at 19 after OT win over Oilers

CHICAGO (AP) ? Marian Hossa skated along the boards, pumping his right arm as the United Center roared its approval.

Go ahead and give two more points to the streaking Chicago Blackhawks.

Hossa scored 1:44 into overtime and the Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Monday night to stretch their NHL-record opening points streak to 19 games.

Patrick Sharp set up the winning goal with a quick turn along the boards and a drive to the goal that led to two stops by Nikolai Khabibulin. Hossa picked up the second rebound and was again stuffed by Khabibulin before he poked it in for his ninth goal of the season.

"It is a great feeling, obviously," Hossa said. "It doesn't matter who's scoring and lately we have a lot of different guys scoring. We try to enjoy the streak, keep playing a simple game and try to find a way to win."

Patrick Kane and Viktor Stalberg also scored for Chicago (16-0-3), which has won six straight and nine of 10. Ray Emery made 17 saves to remain unbeaten in eight starts this season.

The Blackhawks have earned 35 of 38 possible points so far this season.

"It was a great third period," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had the puck in overtime, too. Great pay by Sharpie going to the net, great patience and presence with Hossa to finish."

Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petry had the goals for Edmonton, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn't hold on for its fourth consecutive victory over the Blackhawks. Khabibulin had 31 stops in the opener of the Oilers' franchise-record, nine-game road trip.

"Of course you feel pain, having the lead going into the third period," Edmonton coach Ralph Krueger said. "It's definitely something you dream and believe you can close it. But they are an amazingly powerful team. They are very strong on the puck and they never, never let up, at all."

Edmonton grabbed the lead for the last time in the second, taking advantage when Brandon Saad was sent off for high sticking. Yakupov, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft, one-timed a pass from Sam Gagner into the right side of the net at 14:17 for his fourth power-play goal and sixth overall.

Chicago looked listless for much of the second, but rebounded quickly in the third. Michal Rozsival was behind the net when he sent a pass in front to Stalberg, who poked the puck into the mouth of goal as Khabibulin went to his knees to try for the stop.

The call on the ice was no goal, but replays showed the puck crossed the line before Khabibulin could make the play and Stalberg was awarded his fifth goal of the season after a short review.

The pace picked up after the tying goal, and each team had a couple of solid chances to move in front. Yakupov shot off the post on one power-play opportunity, and Khabibulin stopped Hossa on a short-handed chance.

"I think for us it would have been a big statement game if we were able to break the streak," Gagner said. "But at the same time, once we didn't do that, we wanted to find a way to get it in overtime and were unable to do that as well. So it was unfortunate we kind of squandered the lead there."

Edmonton moved in front in the first period after Duncan Keith lost his footing and coughed up the puck deep in Chicago's end. Lennart Petrell picked it up and skated in all alone on Emery, who stopped his backhand attempt. The rebound went out to Petry, who sent it over the prone goalie at 4:28.

Just over a minute later, Kane skated to the middle of the ice and beat Khabibulin with a slick backhander for his 10th goal of the season. It was his first goal since Feb. 10 at Nashville, ending a six-game drought.

"We keep finding ways to win," said Sharp, who picked up his 400th career point on the assist in overtime. "That's important at any time of the year. Those one-goal games, we're on the right side of them. We were thankful to pull it out today."

NOTES: Chicago closed out a 6-0-1 homestand. ... Edmonton F Taylor Hall served the second of a two-game suspension for his hit on Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck on Thursday. ... Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Chicago also scratched D Sheldon Brookbank and LW Brandon Bollig for the second straight night. ... Ds Ryan Whitney and Theo Peckham were the other scratches for the Oilers. ... The Blackhawks improved to 10-0-3 in one-goal games.

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Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackhawks-streak-19-ot-win-over-oilers-041550376--spt.html

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Scientists find surprising new influence on cancer genes

Feb. 24, 2013 ? Small stretches of DNA in the human genome are known as "pseudogenes" because, while their sequences are nearly identical to those of various genes, they have long been thought to be non-coding "junk" DNA.

But now, a new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows how pseudogenes can regulate the activity of a cancer-related gene called PTEN. The study also shows that pseudogenes can be targeted to control PTEN's activity.

Published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the team's findings suggest a much larger role for pseudogenes than previously thought -- a discovery that changes our understanding of the internal landscape of living cells, adding a new layer of complexity to an already crowded topography marked by multiple, overlapping, interacting gene networks.

Understanding how pseudogenes interact and control gene networks in the human body may lead to new ways of addressing diseases tied to problems that arise due to disruptions in these gene networks, said TSRI scientist Kevin Morris, PhD, who led the research in collaboration with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

"This has improved our knowledge of how genes in cancer are regulated and how we may now be able to control them," Morris said.

Genes and Pseudogenes at Work

The focus of the human genome project, which decoded our entire DNA sequence a decade ago, was largely on genes -- the genetic sequences that encode proteins and thus control processes that govern and regulate all biological functions. But these genes are only a small part of the genome. The vast majority of DNA in the human genome is non-coding, meaning that it does not make protein.

In the early days of molecular biology, scientists called these vast stretches of DNA "junk" because of their presumed inactivity. Pseudogenes, which make up vast swaths of non-coding DNA, were considered part of the junk -- even though they resembled genes -- because they did not code for proteins.

The results from the new study contradict that view by showing these bits of genetic material playing a profound role in controlling the activity of human genes. The control or loss of control of genes can make the difference between healthy and diseased tissue. In cancer, for instance, some genes become more active, while other genes that should normally shut down a cancerous growth become suppressed.

In the new work, Morris and his colleagues showed that pseudogenes can influence the activity of a human gene known as the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). PTEN has long been implicated in cancer and is categorized as a "tumor suppressor" gene, meaning that it has the ability to arrest the growth of a tumor. But in many forms of cancer, PTEN is shut down, allowing the tumor to grow unchecked.

Intriguing Possibilities

Morris and his colleagues found that pseudogenes sharing sequences in common with PTEN can regulate the gene in two ways -- knocking it down by suppressing the "promoter" for the PTEN gene, preventing the gene from being expressed, or soaking up PTEN-targeted regulatory micro-RNAs affecting the PTEN protein after the gene transcripts have been expressed.

Some companies are already looking at pseudogenes such as PTEN as targets of potential new drugs, Morris said, and the new work is a proof of principle that targeting pseudogenes can modulate the growth of cancer cells grown in the laboratory.

The same principle may be applicable to other diseases where the aberrant activity of a normal human gene is in play -- or in infectious diseases, as a way of shutting down certain crucial genes belonging to viruses or bacteria.

Morris noted, however, there are many practical issues with controlling pseudogenes. Designing a drug targeting pseudogenes directly would be difficult to administer with current technology, as these drugs would need to be delivered into the exact cells where they are needed without spreading to other, healthy tissues where they could be toxic.

The article, "A pseudogene long noncoding RNA network regulates PTEN transcription and translation in human cells," by Per Johnsson, Amanda Ackley, Linda Vidarsdottir, Weng-Onn Lui, Martin Corcoran, Dan Grand?r, and Kevin V. Morris appears in the February 24, 2013 issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Cancer Institute, both components of the National Institutes of Health, though grants #R56 AI096861-01, #P01 AI099783-01, #R01 CA151574 and #R01 CA153124. Additional support was provided by The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, The Swedish Cancer Society, Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder, the Karolinska Institutet PhD support programme, Vetenskapsr?det, and the Erik and Edith Fernstrom Foundation for Medical Research.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Scripps Research Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Per Johnsson, Amanda Ackley, Linda Vidarsdottir, Weng-Onn Lui, Martin Corcoran, Dan Grand?r, Kevin V Morris. A pseudogene long-noncoding-RNA network regulates PTEN transcription and translation in human cells. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2516

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/0-xoCUXm59A/130224142821.htm

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SideCar Says Three Philadelphia Drivers Caught In ?Sting,? But It Plans To Continue Operations

It sounds like ridesharing startup SideCar is facing another regulatory challenge. According to a company blog post, the Philadelphia Parking Authority cited three SideCar drivers and impounded their cars in an "orchestrated sting operation." The citation supposedly describes SideCar as an "unauthorized service provider," which the company says is inaccurate:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vHlYzXBxaA4/

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Intel?s Dual-Core CloverTrail+ Atom Z2580 Impresses, But Likely Won?t Be Intel?s Smartphone Savior

Intel officially launched its new dual-core "CloverTrail+" Atom system-on-a-chip today at MWC in Barcelona. The CloverTrail+ is a direct successor to Intel's first smartphone SoC, Medfield, but gets its name from the company's tablet-focused CloverTrail platform. The Atom Z2580 dual-core processor is the top-of-the-line SKU in the new lineup, which you can see powering a mobile graphics rendering demo featuring Epic Citadel in the video above.

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Can escape clause save voting rights provision?

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration and civil rights groups are defending a key section of the landmark voting rights law at the Supreme Court by pointing reformed state, county and local governments to an escape hatch from the law's strictest provision.

The Voting Rights Act effectively attacked persistent discrimination at the polls by keeping close watch, when it comes to holding elections, on those places with a history of preventing minorities from voting. Any changes, from moving a polling place to redrawing electoral districts, can't take effect without approval from the Justice Department or federal judges in Washington.

But the Voting Rights Act allows governments that have changed their ways to get out from under this humbling need to get permission through a "bailout provision." Nearly 250 counties and local jurisdictions have done so; thousands more could be eligible based on the absence of recent discriminatory efforts in voting.

The viability of the bailout option could play an outsized role in the Supreme Court's consideration of the voting rights law's prior approval provision, although four years ago, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said the prospect of bailing out had been "no more than a mirage."

The court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case, which is among the term's most important, in a challenge from Shelby County, Ala.

Opponents of the law say they no longer should be forced to live under oversight from Washington because the country has made enormous racial progress, demonstrated most recently by the re-election of President Barack Obama. They object in particular to the 40-year-old formula by which some jurisdictions, most in the Deep South, are swept under the law and others remain outside it.

The administration and its allies acknowledge that there has been progress. But they say minority voters still need the protection the law affords from efforts to reduce their influence at the polls. Last year, federal judges in two separate cases blocked Texas from putting in place a voter identification law and congressional redistricting plan because they discriminated against black and Hispanic residents.

Obama himself talked about the case in a radio interview last week. He told SiriusXM host Joe Madison that if the law were stripped of its advance approval provision, "it would be hard for us to catch those things up front to make sure that elections are done in an equitable way."

Also, the law's defenders say places that have changed their ways can win release from having to get Washington's blessing for election changes. Governments seeking to exit have to show that they and the smaller jurisdictions within their borders have had a clean record, no evidence of discrimination in voting, for the past 10 years.

Shelby County has never asked to be freed from the law, but would seem to be ineligible because one city in the county, Calera, defied the voting rights law and prompted intervention by the Bush Justice Department.

Yet places with a long, well-known history of discrimination probably could find their way out from under federal monitoring, according to a prominent voting rights lawyer who used to work for the Justice Department.

"Birmingham, Ala., where they used to use fire hoses on people, may well be eligible to bail out," said the lawyer, Gerry Hebert. Birmingham officials said they've never considered asking.

The Supreme Court made clear its skepticism about the ongoing need for the law when it heard a similar case in 2009. "Past success alone, however, is not adequate justification to retain the preclearance requirements," Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court. That ruling sidestepped the constitutional issue and instead expanded the ability of states, counties and local governments to exit the advance approval process.

At that point, so few governments had tried to free themselves from the advance approval requirement that, in 2009, Thomas said the "promise of a bailout opportunity has, in the great majority of cases, turned out to be no more than a mirage."

At the time, Thomas said, only a handful of the 12,000 state, county and local governments covered by the law had successfully bailed out.

The overall numbers remain low, but the Obama administration argues that "the rate of successful bailouts has rapidly increased" since the high court last took up the Voting Rights Act nearly four years ago.

In the past 12 months, 110 local governments have been freed from the requirement to show in advance that their proposed election changes are not discriminatory. Places that have won their release from coverage include Prince William County, Va., with more than 400,000 residents, and Merced County, Calif., and its 84 municipalities.

Shelby County says that even with the recent jump in bailouts, "only a tiny percentage" of governments have found their way out of oversight from Washington.

The advance approval was adopted in the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.

The provision was a huge success, and Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent time was in 2006, when a Republican-led Congress overwhelmingly approved and President George W. Bush signed a 25-year extension.

The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan and New Hampshire. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaskan Natives and Hispanics.

The 10 covered towns in New Hampshire are poised to become the next places to win their release from the law. An agreement between the Justice Department and the state is awaiting approval from a federal court in Washington.

Critics of the law contend the Justice Department is highlighting the escape hatch and agreeing to allow places such as the New Hampshire towns to exit to try to make the entire law look more palatable to the court.

Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty says in his court filing in support of Shelby County that the Justice Department "commonly agrees to bailouts for jurisdictions that are not legally entitled to receive them."

But supporters of the law argue in response that the federal government's willingness to agree to free places from the need to get permission shows that the voting rights act is flexible and helps focus attention on potentially discriminatory voting schemes.

___

Online:

Voting Rights Act: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/about.php

Supreme Court: http://tinyurl.com/a4kmqsd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/escape-clause-save-voting-rights-provision-132218205--politics.html

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Iran says it has captured a foreign 'enemy drone'

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that it captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

Gen. Hamid Sarkheili, a spokesman for the military exercise, said the Guard's electronic warfare unit spotted signals indicating that foreign drones were trying to enter Iranian airspace. Sarkheili said Guard experts took control of one drone's navigation system and brought it down near the city of Sirjan where the military drills began on Saturday.

"While probing signals in the area, we spotted foreign and enemy drones which attempted to enter the area of the war game," the official IRNA news agency quoted the general as saying. "We were able to get one enemy drone to land."

Sarkheili did not say whether the drone was American.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

State TV said the Guard's military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, involved ground forces of the Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. State TV showed tanks and artillery attacking hypothetical enemy positions. He said various systems, including unmanned planes that operate like suicide bombers, were tested.

"Reconnaissance as well as suicide drones, which are capable of attacking the hypothetical enemies, were deployed and their operational capabilities were studied," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-captured-foreign-enemy-drone-183530547.html

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Horrifying crash at Daytona exposes risks to fans

Kyle Larson's car (32) gets airborne during a multi-car wreck on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Graham)

Kyle Larson's car (32) gets airborne during a multi-car wreck on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Graham)

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne into the catch fence in a multi-car crash including Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88), Parker Kilgerman (77), Justin Allgaier (31) and Brian Scott (2) during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Kyle Larson's car is on fire as he slides down the track with Regan Smith after being involved in a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Kyle Larson climbs out of his car after being involved in a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Track workers repair the safety fence along on the front grandstands, where Kyle Larson's car hit it on the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? The risks of racing extend beyond the drivers.

Fans can wind up in the danger zone, too.

A horrifying crash on the last lap of a race at Daytona International Speedway injured at least 30 fans Saturday and provided another stark reminder of what can happen when a car going nearly 200 mph is suddenly launched toward the spectator areas.

The victims were sprayed with large chunks of debris ? including a tire ? after rookie Kyle Larson's machine careened into the fencing that is designed to protect the massive grandstands lining NASCAR's most famous track.

"I love the sport," said Shannan Devine, who witnessed the carnage from her 19th-row seat, about 250 feet away. "But no one wants to get hurt over it."

The fencing served its primary purpose, catapulting what was left of Larson's car back onto the track. But it didn't keep potentially lethal shards from flying into the stands.

"There was absolute shock," Devine said. "People were saying, 'I can't believe it, I can't believe it. I've never seen this happen, I've never seen this happen. Did the car through the fence?' It was just shock and awe. Grown men were reaching out and grabbing someone, saying, 'Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!' It was just disbelief, absolute disbelief."

From Daytona to Le Mans to a rural road in Ireland, auto racing spectators have long been too close to the action when parts start flying. The crash in the second-tier Nationwide race follows a long list of accidents that have left fans dead or injured.

The most tragic incident occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, when two cars collided near the main stands. The wreck sent debris hurtling into the crowd, while one of the cars flipped upside down and exploded in a giant fireball.

Eighty-three spectators and driver Pierre Levegh were killed, and 120 fans were injured.

The Daytona crash began as the field approached the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction, and rookie Kyle Larson hit the cars in front of him and went airborne into the fence.

The entire front end was sheared off Larson's car, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Chunks of debris from the car were thrown into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

"I thought the car went through the fence," Devine said. "I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think. I'm an emotional person. I immediately started to cry. It was very scary, absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."

The fencing used to protect seating areas and prevent cars from hurtling out of tracks has long been part of the debate over how to improve safety.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti lost close friend Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas in the 2011 IndyCar season finale, when Wheldon's car catapulted into the fencing and his head struck a support post. Since his death, IndyCar drivers have called for studies on how to improve the safety barriers.

Franchitti renewed the pleas on Twitter after the Daytona crash, writing "it's time (at)Indycar (at)nascar other sanctioning bodies & promoters work on an alternative to catch fencing. There has to be a better solution."

Another fan who witnessed the crash said he's long worried that sizable gaps in the fencing increase the chances of debris getting through to the stands.

"I've always thought the netting was very wide and pieces could fly through," said Lenny Brown, who was attending races at Daytona for the fourth time.

Among the most frightening accidents involving fans:

? In 1987, Bobby Allison's car lifted off the track at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama while running over 200 mph, careening into the steel-cable fence and scattering debris into the crowd. That crash led to the use of horsepower-sapping restrictor plates at Talladega and its sister track in Daytona, NASCAR's fastest layouts. As a result, the cars all run nearly the same speed, and the field is typically bunched tightly together ? which plenty of drivers have warned is actually a more dangerous scenario than higher speeds.

? That same year, at the Indianapolis 500, a fan was killed when struck by a tire that came off Tony Bettenhausen's car. The tire bounced off the front of Roberto Guerrero's car and flew to the top row of the grandstand.

? In 1998, three fans were killed and six others were injured in CART's IndyCar race at Michigan International Speedway when Adrian Fernandez crashed, sending a tire and other parts into the stands.

? The following year, three fans were killed at Charlotte Motor Speedway during an Indy Racing League event when debris from an accident flew into the stands. The track never held another IndyCar race.

? In 2009, Talladega was the scene of another scary crash during a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Carl Edwards' car sailed upside-down into the front-stretch fence on a furious dash to the finish line, showering the stands with debris. Seven fans sustained minor injuries.

? In 2010 at a National Hot Rod Association event in Chandler, Ariz., a woman was killed by a tire that flew off Antron Brown's crashing dragster at Firebird International Raceway. The wheel bounced a couple of times and soared over the grandstands ? missing the bulk of the spectators ? before it hit the woman.

? Also in 2010, at an off-road racing event in the Southern California desert, a truck flew off a jump and landed on a group of spectators, sending bodies flying. Eight were killed, 10 injured. There also have been deaths at the Baja 1000 and Dakar Rally, the two most famous off-road races, though multiple-death crashes into the crowd like the one in the Mojave Desert are rare.

? Last year, in a rally car race in Ireland, a car went out of control on a rural road and crashed into a crowd of about 30 spectators, killing two people and seriously injuring seven. Witnesses said the car crashed through a fence and into the onlookers before coming to rest on its side beside a home.

At Daytona, workers scurried to patch up the damaged fencing and left little doubt that the biggest race of the weekend, Sunday's Daytona 500, would go on as planned.

Brown, who saw the crash from his 38th-row seat in the Petty grandstand, said he would be back in the same section for the season-opening Sprint Cup event. He has no qualms about his safety, sitting so high up, but said he would think twice about the seats he had for the race two years ago.

"The last time I was here, we were only about six rows up," Brown said. "I had even told some people before the crash, 'I would never sit that close to the track ever again.'"

But someone surely will ? mindful of the risks but eager to be among more than 100,000 fans cheering on stock car racing's biggest stars.

"Here we are, playing money to sit next to cars going 195 mph," Devine said. "We do it because we love it. That's what we expect."

___

Associated Press writer Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-23-NASCAR-Fan%20Accidents/id-bf9b9040418c440ea68802cc194933d3

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