Or Maybe "Old Maid" Could be the Next Family Card Game!

Happy Old Maid's Day! I suppose this is the day we celebrate, in Jane's words, the days "when women either married or shriveled up and blew away." This was Daria's self-predicted fate in Is It College Yet?, too, as she informs Quinn that she expects to turn into "an old woman alone in a one room apartment filled with thirty-year-old newspapers and cats."

Today is also the anniversary of the first airing of "Aunt Nauseam" in 2001. Erin nearly got divorced, the Barksdale sisters nearly killed each other, and Quinn nearly had a nervous breakdown. Fun times.

Fanfic Update!

• At the Crossroads...(Chapter 10), by oni (COMPLETE!): "'Where the hell is Brooke, Sammy,' the one on the counter asked in a panicky tone. Sammy, the redhead, only grunted in response. After hearing the grunt, the brunette?s paranoia increased when she went on to add, 'She was supposed to be here yesterday. What are we going to do about the money? What are we...'"


• Blessings of the Moon -- Chapter 7, by Fhujeth_x (part 1): "'Stacy...' Darkness filled Stacy Rowe's bedroom as the light from the disappearing moon leaked through her window, 'My friend, my sweet, blissful little friend...' The voice was smooth and feminine, drifting into Stacy's mind like a thought, 'Do not fear, my dear... We meet again.'"


• The Chronicle of Daria Morgendorffer, Living Saint of the Adepta Sororitas (Crossovers Still Crossing Over), by Grifter74: "Records of the early life of Saint Daria are spotty before she joined the Schola Progenium in Lawndale and then the Ecclesiarchy. While we do not know where she was born, we do know that sometime between her 10th and 12th year, St. Daria and her family lived in the town of Highland, on the planet of *******."


• Clique Swap, by psychotol (COMPLETE!): "Scene: Lawndale High Football Pitch, Lawndale Lions are training in their new uniforms which are now red with black markings to mimic the Sith tattoos. Voiceover: 'another change that has since arisen is that Tiffany Blum Deckler has been put in charge of school decor and style.'"


• Daria - Double Down, by neonhomer (part 42): "Daria stopped. Jane kept walking for a couple of steps, and then came back. 'Quinn said I should break up with Trent.' 'Okay.' Said Jane. 'That?s it? Okay? You have tried since we went to Brittany?s party to get me with Trent. Now that I am, you just say okay?' Jane stepped close to Daria. 'You have to do what makes you happy.'"


• Ethan Yeager in Lawndale: Ch 7 Chaos Theory, by Shiva (parts 1 - 3): "Ultimately however Tori had agreed to a compromise, if the stuff that leaked proved to be insufficient to get Ms. Li at least fired, then the grade fixing would be the next thing sent out. 'I just hope we don?t have to go that route,' Tori thought to herself while some alt-rock song played on the radio, 'Because if people do find out that we are involved, we?ll become the most hated people in Lawndale.'" (Part 2) (Part 3)


• Family New, by RLobinske (part 4): "'Amy, I know we haven't gotten along too well, but can you come down here to Lawndale and help with things for a few days?' 'Oh, crap. I've got...no, work be damned. I'll be there tomorrow morning. I know I have the address around here somewhere.' 'Thanks, Amy. I'm really feeling overwhelmed with all this.'"


• Hide and Seek (Scream Scenes), by thatLONERchick (COMPLETE!): "She huddled in the closet, breath muffled by her skirt where she pressed her mouth against the material, and prayed. The heavy, erratic footsteps were getting closer."


• Last Rights (Scenes no Daria Fanfic should ever have-Now Springtime Fresh), by thatLONERchick (COMPLETE!): "'Well, well,' Anthony gasped, grinning past the pain. 'Time for my last rights, is it Father?' Father Timothy O'Neill paced timidly into the room and sat on the small stool at Anthony's bedside. 'If you're ready.'"


• Lawndale School of Magic Bad End 1: Upchuck Wins (Scenes no Daria Fanfic should ever have-Now Springtime Fresh), by Reven384 (COMPLETE!): "Daria's spell failed. She didn't know how it failed, but she must have messed it up somehow. Now she was completely at Upchuck's mercy. 'Let my sister go and I'll make the vow, but you have to make the vow to. You have to vow to let my sister go,' she said."


• A Mad Scientist's Big Mistake (Scream Scenes), by Shiva (COMPLETE!): "In a grey light laboratory constructed inside an abandoned castle from Romania that had somehow found it's way to the outskirts of Lawndale County, an older gentleman with grey streaks in his hair and an eye that popped right out of it's socket on every other syllable, cackled with glee while gazing at the restrained figures down on their tables."


• Operation Glitterberries, by BF110C4 (parts 4 - 6): "'This... this is not my body.' The words leave her lips almost against her will, there wasn?t any other reasonable answer, but it sounded crazier that even the utter nonsense that was published by James Bond. Not even Codename: 707 had faced something as weird in his literary career." (Part 5) (Part 6)


• Prelude to The Avengers, by Reven384 (parts 1 and 2): "Ms. Barch took the test and left the classroom. She?d have to see just how smart Daria was. If she was as smart as Li thought then she?d be a major asset to Hydra. They?d have to hide that of course, but Barch wasn?t all that interested in Li?s goal anyway. She had her own plan." (Part 2)


• A Resentful Cynic Ch. 3 The curse of Middleton, by ST91 (part 7): "'WAIT DAD!' Cried Charles. 'What is it Charles?' He asked slowing the car. 'Mom just came out from the door.' He said indicating the outline of a blonde woman. Immediately Charles II stopped the car and looked in the rear-view mirror, saw his wife leaving the house, put the Jaguar in reverse and came back."


• Return to Highland, by neonhomer (parts 4 and 5): "'Why are you in such a hurry for? This town isn?t going anywhere.' Said Daria, as she was being drug along by Tilly. 'You grew up here. I didn?t. I want to see what this place is all about.' Said Tilly. 'You didn?t miss much.'" (Part 5)


• Sexy Daria: Sexesteemers, by Shiva (COMPLETE!): "Daria then inched herself closer to the couple as well, and only then noticed that they were all within a few inches of each other, the air so thick with tension you could cut it with a knife. 'Instead I think I should ask... Are you two, interested in me?'" (Part 9)


• Skylar Feldman's Idea of Fun (Scenes no Daria Fanfic should ever have-Now Springtime Fresh), by Shiva (COMPLETE!): "'They look so beautiful...' Skylar Feldman said while stroking the hair of one his favorite pets, the son of the wealthy Feldman family smiled and made a sound of pure bliss as he took in the sight, the product of several hours of careful surgery on the part of his pet doctors."


• Star Trek: Voyager An Alternate Journey 01: Time of Mystery (Non-Daria), by cfardell_Brenorenz29 (COMPLETE!): "'Fascinating,' Janeway said. She wondered how two humans from the 20th century could gained a hold of the ship that was now in Voyager?s shuttlebay. 'They are simply asleep,? the Doctor said. 'Can you wake them?' Janeway asked. 'Certainly,' the Doctor said. 'Do so,' Janeway said. The Doctor then used a hypospray to inject a stimulant into the sleeping patients. They began to stir..."


• This Year's Muffins (Pie, Pie, My Darling), by Smijey (COMPLETE!): "Romonica looked at what had her partner thrilled, and her jaw dropped. 'Holy crap!' she said, in a decidedly non-French voice. 'I mean...she is perfect!' Her voice had returned to its pseudo-French accent as quickly as it had abandoned her. 'So waif-like...so pouty...' Claude gushed. 'So...round!' Romonica observed, walking around to see Daria from the other angle. 'Forget the class, we've found our contract winner!'"


• Undying Love, by BrownEyedBagel (part 6): "Another explosion sounded through the house, this time the sound of their front door becoming splinters accompanied the noise. Jane clearly wasn?t agreeing to stay behind. The look on her face sent that message across, and Daria?s aura fading away from her dark haired companion?s body reminded her. Jane recollected her weapon of choice and responded with a very familiar tone."


• Unnamed story (Iron Chef: The Invention of Lying), by Typhon (COMPLETE!): "Though my cluelessness, self-pity, spinelessness and ridiculous methods make me an utter failure as a teacher, I have deluded myself into thinking I could be the mentor of someone with real intellect, talent and skills."


• Unnamed story (Scenes no Daria Fanfic should ever have-Now Springtime Fresh), by Charles RB (COMPLETE!): "Daria stared at her bills, willing them to shrink by at least one figure, but they remained, vast and terrible."


• Vivian, by ST91 (part 4): "For a moment Vivian said nothing. She was furious about the offer and wanted to shout at Steve ... but in her heart she knew that this was her own fault, so she merely said, 'I do not want your money. I've never wanted it.' 'Well you have two choices. You can take my money and go away from here, or go away from this house without a penny. In any case you will not see my children again.'"


• X-Woman Strikes Again...and Again, by Aloysius (part 1): "The call ended and Daria sipped more coffee. Her gaze then settled on a newspaper that sat on her desk. The headline read, 'RESTAURANT ASSAILANT STILL AT LARGE'. 'Idiotic headline writers,' she muttered. 'The restaurant was never assaulted. Just the moron with the phone.'"

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Merkel embraces idea of European banking union

BERLIN (AP) ? Germany's chancellor says creating a European banking union can be a medium-term goal because the continent has to deepen its political integration.

Angela Merkel said Monday ahead of private talks with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that they will discuss how systemically important banks could be put under the supervision of a Europe-wide authority.

The proposal was floated by the EU Commission last week and would comprise a Europe-wide deposit guarantee. That would calm jittery markets, but rich countries such as Germany were initially lukewarm about it because of fears it could lead to them bailing out other countries' banks.

Merkel said the 17-nation eurozone "needs more Europe, not less" but initiatives like a banking union can only be "medium-term goals" and not quick fixes to the debt crisis.

Associated Press

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Pour votre iPad ou votre iPhone, Snapseed est offert cette semaine !

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

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Danville CA Real Estate Market Update May 2012 Median Home Price

?2012 Bay East. ?2012 CCAR. ?2012 EBRD. All rights reserved. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This information is provided from three separate sources: Bay East, CCAR and EBRD. The listings presented here may or may not be listed by the Broker/Agent operating this website. Information last updated on 6/3/12 9:29 AM PDT.

This IDX solution is (c) Diverse Solutions 2012.

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Angels beat Rangers 3-2 to trim AL West lead

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher C.J. Wilson throws to the plate during the third inning of their baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher C.J. Wilson throws to the plate during the third inning of their baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish, of Japan, throws to the plate during the second inning of their baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout, left, and right fielder Torii Hunter celebrates after they defeated the Texas Rangers 3-2 in their baseball game, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout, left, slides in under the tag of Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba on a sacrifice fly by Kendrys Morales during the seventh inning of their baseball game, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba reacts after Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout was called safe at home on a sacrifice fly by Kendrys Morales during the seventh inning of their baseball game, Saturday, June 2, 2012, in Anaheim, Calif. Torrealba was thrown out of the game while arguing with the umpire on the play. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? In a game full of significant plays and misplays, it came down to the Los Angeles Angels' most effective reliever against the Texas Rangers' most dangerous hitter.

This time, Ernesto Frieri got the better of Josh Hamilton.

C.J. Wilson pitched six scoreless innings against his former teammates, Alberto Callaspo singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and the surging Angels held off Texas 3-2 Saturday night to pull within 3? games of the AL West-leading Rangers.

Bobby Cassevah (1-0) got two outs for the victory, Los Angeles' 10th in 11 games. Frieri, the fifth Angels pitcher, worked 1 1-3 innings for his fourth save in four chances after the Rangers scored an unearned run in the eighth against Scott Downs.

Frieri ended it by striking out Hamilton with the bases loaded after an 11-pitch walk to Ian Kinsler and a throwing error by Gold Glove shortstop Erick Aybar on a routine grounder by Elvis Andrus kept the inning alive.

"That was awesome. I can't believe that I struck him out," Frieri said. "He's a good fastball hitter, but I made a really good pitch to him, a fastball up in the zone. I wasn't trying to strike him out ? just get out of that tough inning. They have so many good hitters in that lineup. That was an amazing at-bat by Kinsler."

The Rangers have lost four straight for the first time since a five-game stretch last June, which was their longest skid of 2011. Manager Ron Washington held a closed-door meeting after the game to air out his concerns.

"You'll see tomorrow if I made a difference," Washington said. "So much happened out there that was totally uncharacteristic of what we are, and it just opened up opportunities for the Angels to get some runs on the board. Yu Darvish did a heck of a job out there tonight, and we didn't support him because we didn't make the plays. It was a very ugly performance."

Aybar, robbed of a home run by center fielder Craig Gentry in the third, led off the Angels' two-run seventh with a bunt single and stole second with one out. Andrus fielded Mike Trout's grounder to shortstop with Aybar cutting in front of him and immediately started motioning to the umpires that the ball grazed Aybar ? instead of making the throw to first.

The speedy Trout was credited with a hit, and Washington came out for a brief discussion with second base ump Ted Barrett and third base partner Marvin Hudson before play resumed. Callaspo then lined a single to right over a drawn-in infield to regain the lead for the Angels.

Darvish (7-3) walked Albert Pujols, and Kendrys Morales followed with a sacrifice fly against Koji Uehara. Right fielder Nelson Cruz's throw home was on target, and Yorvit Torrealba tagged Trout as he slid in. But umpire Tim McClelland called him safe and Torrealba was ejected after throwing a tantrum.

Washington joined the argument, and Torrealba resumed his position behind the plate ? not realizing that he had been tossed. Once he finally got the message, he threw another tantrum before heading to the dugout.

"I thought he was definitely out. I thought the throw beat him and I know I tagged him," Torrealba said. "I was trying to block the plate, but I don't think he was in the right position to tell if he was out or safe. Obviously it happened so fast. I'm an emotional player, and I went off.

"I didn't really say anything bad, but I got tossed because I threw my mask down. That's what he said. I was frustrated because he missed the call. I went back behind the plate because I knew I didn't say anything bad to him. I was like: 'No way! No way! You missed the call!' I didn't know I was ejected until I threw the ball to Elvis and (McClelland) said: 'You've got to go.' Then Ron told me: 'Yeah, you have to go.'"

Darvish was charged with three runs ? two earned ? and five hits over 6 1-3 innings. He struck out seven, walked three and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

"He's got great stuff," Trout said. "He's got a bunch of pitches, so you can't just sit on one. It was definitely better this time because we already saw him in Texas. He was battling just like we were. You just try not to miss your pitch."

Pujols led off the sixth with a popup that first baseman Mike Napoli misjudged with the wind blowing out toward right field, and it fell behind him for a two-base error as Pujols slid under the tag of second baseman Kinsler.

"I just screwed it up, basically," Napoli said. "I kind of drifted back, rather than running to a spot, and I turned around too early."

Pujols stole third as Morales struck out, then scored the game's first run when three-time Gold Glove third baseman Adrian Beltre fielded Mark Trumbo's grounder, thought about throwing home and dropped the ball before recovering too late to get the runner at first. Trumbo was credited with an RBI.

The Rangers tied it in the seventh after loading the bases with none out against Jordan Walden. Michael Young was erased at the plate on a fielder's choice grounder to third baseman Callaspo, who nearly threw the ball away and was bailed out by Bobby Wilson's diving grab with one foot on the plate. Cassevah relieved Walden and gave up pinch-hitter David Murphy's sacrifice fly.

C.J. Wilson threw 104 pitches, allowing five hits and striking out five ? including Beltre his first three times up. The left-hander, who signed a five-year, $77.5 million contract with the Angels in December after helping pitch the Rangers to consecutive AL pennants, has allowed one run in 20 innings over his last three starts.

After grounding into three double plays for the first time this season during Friday night's 4-2 loss, the Rangers matched that total in the first three innings. Torrealba's double play ended the second after a double by Cruz and a walk to Napoli. The Angels executed another double play in the fourth when Cruz struck out and Bobby Wilson threw out Young trying to steal second.

Gentry, who has shared center-field duties with Hamilton, timed his leap perfectly on Aybar's towering fly to left-center and reached over the 8-foot fence to grab it.

NOTES: The Rangers' pitching staff has given up 30 unearned runs, tying San Francisco for the most in the majors ? and 27 of them have come since May 1. ... Beltre had to bail out of the on-deck circle in the eighth when Hamilton struck out against Downs and his bat went flying out of his hands.

Associated Press

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Las Vegas ? Entertainment Capital of the World | Digital Entertainment

Las Vegas city is also famous as entertainment capital of the World. It is a globally popular as major destination for shopping, gambling and fine dining. Las Vegas is the very famous city in Nevada. Situated in the Mojave desert, this place has a typical semitropical desert condition. Summers from them months of June to September are very dry and mostly hot, but humidity is very at low level. Las Vegas is a outstanding place that has so many things for every individual from fine dining, luxurious hotels, wonderful live entertainment, to the state of the trade displays and art convention. There is sufficient entertainment to those people who are not a devouring gambler. It is one of the main attractions for various shows and gambling. Fountain display at Bellagio is a splendid display for every 15 minutes in the evenings and also each hour on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Botanical Garden at Bellagio is one of the best and significant site to visit. Within the casino, there is a marvelous flower garden where shows are changed every month or two. Picture gallery of Fine Arts at Bellagio is a spot worth watching. You need to pay to get entry into this place. Southern Nevada Zoological and Botanical Park has more than150 species of plants and animals and it is worth to view. Flamingo Garden is a 15 acre that is full of garden with Flamingos and other different birds. So if you do not want to spend much time, buy travel packages to Las Vegas and have the exotic vacations. The city is specked with many stupendous mega casino hotels, adorned with benevolent attention and care to give the place a fantasy-like ambiance. The casinos are remarkably based on myriad themes that creates mystery and romance. These are situated far away and exciting locations where generally the rich people visit, as it is a very much costly affair to visit such spots. For those family people who loves holiday packages the outdoors, adventure in Las Vegas for children includes nature tours both on the air and on the ground. A Red Rock Canyon day journey offers a halt at the Calico Hills sandstones and writings of Willow Springs. You can also get high on board with the helicopter tours that give a exciting view of the popular Grand Canyon then set down for trek on beautiful paths. A small extra fee inclines the air tour to include an airplane ride with impressive vistas of the widest and deepest part of the Dragon Corridor, the Grand Canyon and the awesome Colorado River. This is preceded by ambles along national state parks for some souvenir hunting and picture-taking at the shops. The Madame Tussaud?s tour package Wax Museum is ever a preferred with kids and the parents. This is a museum that attributes wax figures of real people. Some of the figures that enhance this museum are Speed Demons like Evel Knievel and Dale Earnhardt; Popstars like Britney Spears, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg and Jennifer Lopez; Cultural Icons like Elvis Presley, John Wayne and Hugh Hefner; World Icons like Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, George Bush and John F Kennedy; and Hollywood Stars like Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp holidays and Angelina Jolie. This is a great way for one to take pictures home with the stars. They look as if they are real.

This entry was posted in entertainment and tagged Capital, entertainment, Vegas, World. Bookmark the permalink.

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SEC teams' penalties for drugs not created equally

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) ? Players testing positive for marijuana in the mighty Southeastern Conference do not face the one-year suspension that comes from getting busted by the NCAA.

In the most successful league of the BCS-era, players routinely get third, fourth and even fifth chances before they're booted from the team; failed drug tests administered by the NCAA result in the automatic suspension.

The finding comes from an Associated Press examination of the drug policies at 11 current members of the SEC. Vanderbilt, a private institution, declined to make its rules available.

All the SEC schools the AP looked at had far more lenient drug policies than the NCAA, though the penalties varied widely.

The NCAA conducts its own drug checks and leaves testing policies to the schools, but the governing body released a report in January saying that more than a quarter of college football players admitted in 2009 that they smoked marijuana in the previous year.

Just how many suspensions for recreational drug use are handed down in the SEC or any NCAA-affiliated conference is unknown because privacy rules prohibit schools from disclosing positive tests. They're not even required to tell the NCAA.

However, several SEC standouts have been in the news recently.

Former Auburn running back Mike Dyer testified in an April court case involving a teammate that he consistently smoked synthetic marijuana during his Tigers career, LSU star Tyrann Mathieu was suspended one game for violating the team's drug policy last year and Georgia All-America safety Bacarri Rambo could miss a game or two next season for failing a drug test.

Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork, who was hired in March, is hoping to strengthen his school's policy by the middle of the summer. Currently, a second positive test at Mississippi might simply mean the loss of free tickets for family and/or community service.

A third positive requires suspension for three games or events. Subsequent violations call for three games tacked onto that, though the athletic director and head coach can dismiss the athlete or opt not to renew the scholarship.

"We need to tighten it up quite a bit and come up with a good policy for everyone involved," Bjork said.

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said a conference-wide standard has been discussed at least twice during his 10-year tenure but that league members have opted against one to this point.

Drug testing was briefly discussed at the SEC meetings this week in Destin, Fla. Presidents and athletic directors agree action needs to be taken and say it will be a priority at their meetings in October once they have gathered more conference-wide data.

In the meantime, schools are left to handle situations.

"The issue is to make sure that our institutional drug testing programs are adequate," Slive said before the meetings. "This is something that comes up on a regular basis."

Athletes at Georgia and Auburn who test positive for marijuana a second time face the prospect of losing half their season to suspension.

Arkansas and Florida, by comparison, suspend athletes for 10 percent of a season for a second positive.

The NCAA said 90 percent of Division I schools have their own drug-testing programs, while the governing body tests some 13,500 athletes a year. Mary Wilfert, the NCAA's associate director of health and safety, said the NCAA's testing is focused more on performance-enhancing drugs.

"The NCAA is not in the position to provide intervention throughout the year, but schools are," Wilfert said. She said schools rely on their own needs and philosophies to set their drug testing policies, which are "complementary" to those of the NCAA.

Wilfert said Football Bowl Subdivision teams are tested at least once, sometimes twice a year by the NCAA.

The SEC schools' policies focus more on recreational drugs, with five of the 11 having stronger penalties for anything beyond marijuana.

Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi State are the only ones with suspensions for athletes' first positive test for marijuana, 10 percent of the season for each. Kentucky includes possible dismissal for each of the first two positives, with a(half-season suspension for No. 2).

The policy variations continue beyond the first positive test.

Six of the schools have a three-strike-and-you're-out method. At Florida, you might get a fifth strike. At Arkansas, four. And Ole Miss doesn't have a defined number.

The use of recreational drugs is a growing concern around all of college football.

The NCAA report released in January found 26.7 percent of football players said they smoked marijuana in 2009 ? the latest year available ? 5 percentage points higher than in 2005.

Most SEC schools have had to deal with the problem.

Even the comparatively stiff penalties at Georgia haven't been completely effective as deterrents. The Bulldogs might open next football season without two defensive backs.

Bulldogs cornerback Branden Smith was charged with marijuana possession in March. Rambo failed a drug test after, his high school coach said, inadvertently eating marijuana-laced brownies on a spring break trip to Florida.

"If you look at other people's policies, ours is much tougher than just about anybody's policy I've seen," Georgia coach Mark Richt said in late March. "Because some people end up with a game suspension or whatever it may be, a kid at another school may do the same thing and their policy maybe doesn't say it has to be that way.

"I don't care what they do, all I'm saying is I think it's important how we handle it and our goal when our guys make mistakes is to find out the truth about it and then discipline it properly."

Dyer, a former Auburn back who has transferred to Arkansas State, took the stand in the trial of the first of four fellow members of the 2010 national championship team charged with armed robbery, allegedly committed after a night of using the drug.

All four were immediately dismissed from the team. Auburn has since updated its drug testing policy to specifically include synthetic marijuana, which was legally sold in Alabama stores until last October.

Florida athletes are suspended for 20 percent of a season for a third positive and 50 percent for a fourth. A fifth means dismissal.

In January, Florida defensive tackle Leon Orr became the sixth Gators player arrested on marijuana charges since head coach Will Muschamp's hiring after the 2010 season. All six cases ended with deferred prosecution.

The program created by Florida's University Athletic Association focuses on education, testing, treatment and deterrence, Gators spokesman Steve McClain said. Each Florida athlete faces one random test each semester while they're in school, anywhere from two to four times a year, McClain said.

The schools' coaches or administrators can often impose stricter penalties.

Alabama allows the athletic director, head coach and its Sports Medicine Committee to determine what, if any, penalty is warranted after a first positive test. The second means the athlete will be sidelined for 15 percent of the season and/or a suspension of up to 30 days, and the third a one-year ban from games.

One observer without ties to the SEC believes it's essential to have an outside organization to police the drug issue and establish uniform methods and policies.

Bob Copeland, athletic director for Canada's Waterloo University, compares the current system to having each country control its own testing for its Olympic athletes.

"There's a lot of value to having third-party experts," said Copeland, who ordered his entire football team tested after a player was arrested for possession and trafficking of anabolic steroids. "They can look at what's called intelligent testing and generally apply that across the nation."

Georgia held a mandatory meeting with every student-athlete before spring break addressing drugs. Athletic director Greg McGarity said a question was raised at a staff meeting this spring: "What else is there?"

"We've got 600 young men and women in our programs," McGarity said. "When someone steps outside the lines, then we have to self-evaluate. Is there more we could have done? But I think at the end of the day it comes down to more accountability for the student-athletes."

___

AP Sports Writers Charles Odum, David Brandt, Pete Iacobelli, Teresa Walker, Kurt Voigt, Mark Long and Brett Martel contributed to this report.

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Cancer Drugs: Better, Cheaper | www.ucsf.edu

June 1, 2012

Cancer drug development is known to be too slow, costly and fraught with failure. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is issuing recommendations for breast cancer trials that would substantially accelerate patient access to new medications while lowering the time and cost of drug development. The new regulatory guidelines are based in part on groundbreaking, national breast cancer research led by UCSF.

Laura Esserman, MD, MBA

The FDA ?draft guidance,?? issued last week, is aimed at helping medical researchers gain swifter approval for promising drugs in the early stages of development for breast cancer. The guidance represents the federal agency?s ?current thinking on this topic,?? according to the draft.

The guidelines are discussed in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The FDA?s new approach is based on a trial design being tested in a clinical study known as I-SPY 2, launched by UCSF in conjunction with a private-public partnership that includes the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers.

I-SPY 2 combines personalized medicine with a novel investigational design to identify women at high risk of early breast cancer recurrence. It is underway at 19 major cancer research centers around the country.?

?Better options for patients with high-risk breast cancer are urgently needed,?? said Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA. ?The FDA guidance explains how a promising drug identified in trials such as I-SPY 2 could be evaluated for FDA approval, so patients could have rapid access if the drug proved better than current treatments.??

Traditionally, patients with early-stage breast cancer must wait years to receive new cancer drugs, which are generally tested first in patients with later stage metastatic disease and approved for use in more curable, early stage cancer only after additional clinical trials.

It can take more than a decade to bring a new cancer drug to the market and cost more than $1 billion.

The need for new regulatory approaches was discussed in a December 2011 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) co-authored by Woodcock and Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

?The major losers in this inefficient approach are the patients who would benefit from new treatments,?? wrote Esserman and Woodcock in their JAMA article.

But combining novel trial designs with new approaches for accelerated approval would hasten the pace through the research pipeline to bring medications to patients at far lower costs, the authors wrote.

The new FDA recommendations would speed up approval of drugs tested prior to surgical removal of tumors in certain types of high-risk patients with localized, early stage disease. The guidance centers on neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer ? the administration of therapeutic agents prior to surgery. The FDA said it may now grant approval to medications that have shown clinical benefit, based on data from patients receiving this type of neoadjuvant treatment whose invasive cancers have disappeared by the time of surgery, termed ?pathologic complete response.??

In I-SPY 2, a patient?s cancerous tumors are left in place for approximately six months, rather than being immediately removed surgically. Several new agents are tested in combination with standard chemotherapy in an effort to improve the chance of the tumor shrinking and completely disappearing ? before surgery ? in women with high risk breast cancer. The trial is designed to learn which patients will have the most benefit from new targeted therapies, which will help to speed access under the FDA?s new guidelines.

I-SPY 2 can test new treatments in half the traditional time, and with significantly fewer participants which will dramatically lower costs.

?We are truly excited to see that the FDA is supportive of trials like I-SPY 2,?? said Esserman, the co-principal investigator of I-SPY 2. ?This really moves us much closer to getting the right drugs to the right patients at a time when they can be cured.???

The FDA is accepting comment on the new recommendations through July.

?This guidance represents the work of literally hundreds of individuals who are dedicated to harnessing the best of science and medicine to achieve real progress against cancer,?? said Anna D. Barker, PhD, professor and director of Transformative Healthcare Networks and co-director of the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative at Arizona State University. She is the former deputy director of the National Cancer Institute.

Scientists from the National Cancer Institute, FDA, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as breast cancer patient advocates also contributed to the design of I-SPY 2, which is managed by FNIH and Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative with support from Quintiles, a global biopharmaceuticals service provider. Funding for I-SPY 2 is provided by non-profit foundations including The Safeway Foundation, several pharmaceutical companies, and other private sector and philanthropic donors.

Related Links:

I-SPY 2

Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center

US Launches Novel Clinical Trial to Rapidly Screen Promising Drugs for Breast Cancer Patients

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Train Your Puppy With One Of These Great Tips | Burberry outlet will ...

Taking on the task of education your dog may feel intimidating when you have in no way tried it prior to. There are numerous ideas and ideas out there, and also the sheer quantity of information might be overpowering. This article will provide together with you a number of ideas to help you begin.
Make sure that your household pets are prepared early with regard to their vet trips. Stroke him gently, giving admiration when he reacts within a positive method. Prepare him to get more tolerant with getting his paws handled with his fantastic pearly whites looked at. See if your mates will help, as well.
You need to use good motivation when you find yourself education your pet dog. Incentive your dog often if it obeys your training commands. Depending a lot of on negative support or punishments will just make the canine worry you, that makes further more coaching more challenging.
Mentally stimulating your dog is very important to its health and happiness. Strolls away from the lawn, peanut butter loaded Kong games, and active your bones are fantastic activities for the animal. A pet dog that lacks something to do may start nibbling in your individual items.
When instruction your dog, make sure you have a good time with him way too. When you fiddle with your pet dog, it fortifies the connection involving you and them, therefore inspiring the family pet to keep good in the course of training. Education could be an exciting process, but it?s also very good to experience your time and efforts together with your canine.
Decide on an individual phrase to use when housebreaking your new pup. Inform the canine a phrase, like ?go potty!?, any time you go outside the house to assist your dog maintain the objective of proceeding outside the house at heart.
If you plan on using a crate in your puppy?s training routine, bring in the apparatus and its? functions really gradually. Once your dog is used to being in the kennel, consider closing the door and providing your furry friend a treat with the cable. Start off with small intervals, by way of example 10 secs roughly, and progressively improve kennel time. When they grow to be upset, you might be moving too fast.
Do not fasten up your pet dogs way too closely. Doing this could cause personal injuries for the pet dogs should they grow to be entangled within the chains and attempt to free on their own. Circumstances similar to this could cause pet dogs of varied sizes to result in fatal personal injuries or else effectively monitored. Generally err along the side of care.
Dogs will have a 1-keep track of thoughts and keep focused on something up until you crack your pet out of it. With repeated practice, your pet dog will quickly give attention to you together with the signs you might be supplying him instead of other interruptions.
Given that the people who are thinking about coaching their new family pet canine have, with a little luck, acquired some new tips, they may begin successfully pass them together for their pets. After a puppy is on its strategy to studying, the owner will begin to enjoy the dedication that she or he has demonstrated for performing the right factor for man?s good friend.

There is more content available on electric treadmill for dogs see Aletha A. Vanderstappen?s site there?s a lot of details not covered in this article, visit Author?s blog to locate additional details.

This entry was posted in Lung Mesothelioma Asbestos and tagged dog, dog training. Bookmark the permalink.

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Dragon mission ends with splashing success

The Dragon space capsule returned to Earth from the International Space Station, capping off its historic mission with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. NBC's Mark Barger reports.

By Alan Boyle

SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule parachuted to a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean today, ending the first-ever commercial mission to the International Space Station.

The gumdrop-shaped Dragon made history last week as the first U.S. craft to reach the orbital station since last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet, and it made history today as the first commercial craft to return a shipment from orbit.

The billionaire founder of California-based SpaceX, Elon Musk, told reporters that the nine-day space station resupply mission was "like a grand slam" in baseball, and repeatedly voiced joy and surprise at how well it went.?"There are a thousand ways that it could fail, so this may sound sort of odd, but when you see it actually work, you're sort of surprised," he said.

---

The 14.4-foot-high (4.4-meter-high) capsule came down about 500 miles west of Baja California, within a mile of its target point, Musk said. When he saw the first pictures of the craft bobbing in the Pacific, he said his reaction was, "Welcome home, baby. ... It's like seeing your kid come home."

Michael Altenhofen / SpaceX via AP

A photo from SpaceX shows the Dragon spacecraft floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of Mexico's Baja California today.

The demonstration flight will almost certainly earn a go-ahead for SpaceX to start space station resupply missions in earnest under the terms of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program, said a few more items needed to be marked off on the list of criteria, but he voiced nearly as much satisfaction about the results as Musk did.

"It is very easy to see that this satisfies, I believe, 100 percent of those criteria," he said.?

The demonstration flight began on May 22 with the Dragon's launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission?reached its climax last Friday when astronauts used the space station's robotic arm to?pull the Dragon in to its docking port on the the station's Harmony module. On the following day, when station crew members entered the Dragon for the first time, NASA astronaut Don Pettit gushed over its new-car smell.

Over the days that followed, the station's crew unloaded a half-ton of food, equipment, experiments and other supplies?? then loaded it back up with more than 1,300 pounds (620 kilograms) of non-essential Earth-bound shipments.

What happened today
Today, astronauts reversed the process they went through last week.?The robotic arm pulled the Dragon out from its port and positioned it for release at 5:49 a.m. ET. SpaceX's craft then executed a series of engine burns to take itself out of the station's neighborhood and descend from orbit.

The final engine burn slowed the Dragon's orbital velocity by 100 meters per second (224 mph)?? enough to drop it into a fiery descent through the atmosphere.?The craft's bottom is coated with a layer of protective material called PICA-X, which SpaceX's engineers say is resilient enough to weather a return to Earth from Mars. At its peak, the heat shield had to endure temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius).

The suspense built during a few minutes of scheduled communication blackout, but eased when infrared imagery from airplanes circling the projected splashdown site showed the Dragon's parachutes opening. For some observers, the sight of the red-and-white main parachutes sprouting from the capsule sparked a flashback to the days of the Apollo moonshots.

Michael Altenhofen / SpaceX

A photo taken from a recovery ship shows the SpaceX Dragon's parachutes floating in the air after the cargo craft's splashdown.

At 11:42 a.m. ET, SpaceX's controllers confirmed that the craft made a successful splashdown.?NASA mission commentator Josh Byerly observed that the Dragon mission "ended like it began ??which is, fairly easily."

A pre-positioned flotilla of recovery ships loaded up the Dragon and will bring it back to the port of Los Angeles, near SpaceX's Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif. Some high-value experimental payloads will be unloaded in L.A. and delivered to NASA within 48 hours, but the bulk of Dragon's cargo will be taken off after it's transported to SpaceX's test facility in MacGregor, Texas.

Over the past few years, NASA has paid out about $300 million to help SpaceX develop the Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has invested a similar amount of its own capital. This test mission should clear the way for SpaceX to start in on the $1.6 billion station resupply contract, which covers 12 flights through 2015. Musk said he expected the first full-fledged Dragon cargo run to lift off late this summer.

Another company, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., is working on an alternate commercial delivery system, but that system hasn't yet gone through flight testing.

Grand plans for NASA and SpaceX
Such deliveries are part of NASA's grand plan in the post-shuttle era to transfer space station resupply operations to commercial companies, at what is expected to be a cost far less expensive than space shuttle operations. Theoretically, that would free up money for NASA to concentrate on developing a more powerful heavy-lift rocket and a more capable Orion spacecraft for missions beyond Earth orbit ? heading toward asteroids, the moon and eventually Mars.

SpaceX and three other companies?? Blue Origin, the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp.?? are working on spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to and from the station, and NASA expects those ships to be available for its use as early as 2017. SpaceX's crew-carrying craft will be an upgraded version of the Dragon that was used for the current cargo mission.

Musk said Dragon 2.0 would have a thruster system capable of making near-pinpoint, helicopter-style landings. That system is due for testing later this year, and could be ready for NASA in three to five years.?Such a system would be a must-have for landings on other worlds, Musk noted.

Musk, a dot-com billionaire who made his fortune with PayPal, ?founded?SpaceX?in 2002 as part of his own grand plan to help humans get to Mars and become a "multiplanet species."

Today he noted that the company, known more formally as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is under contract for about 40 launches, including the 12 planned Dragon cargo missions for NASA as well as commercial launches. Just this week, SpaceX announced a deal with Intelsat to put a telecom satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit using the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is still under development. SpaceX also hopes to win some launch contracts for the Falcon Heavy from the U.S. military.

Some veteran observers of the space effort, including Apollo moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, have been critical of NASA's move toward commercialization. Cernan, for example, complained to Congress that commercial space companies "don't know what they don't know." But Musk said the Dragon mission demonstrated that "commercial spaceflight can be successful." He voiced hope that SpaceX's efforts would inspire a new generation of engineers and explorers.

"We're really at the dawn of a new age of space exploration, where there's going to be a huge amount of opportunity and a lot of exciting things happening," Musk said.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden expressed similar sentiment in a post-splashdown statement: "This successful splashdown and the many other achievements of this mission herald a new era in U.S. commercial spaceflight. American innovation and inspiration have once again shown their great strength in the design and operation of a new generation of vehicles to carry cargo to our laboratory in space. Now more than ever we're counting on the inventiveness of American companies and American workers to make the International Space Station and other low-Earth-orbit destinations accessible to any and all who have dreams of space travel."

More about the mission:

---

This item was last updated at 4 p.m. ET.

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the?Cosmic Log?community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?or adding?Cosmic Log's Google+ page?to your circle. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

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Presidential campaign ad spending tops $87M

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An Efficient Product to Help You Learn Languages

May 30th, 2012

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Entry Filed under: Reference and Education

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