And David Villa seems to be the man at the top of Andre Vilas-Boas? wishlist.
The Spanish star has just one year left on his contract at Barcelona, with the 31-year-old striker looking for a fresh challenge after a frustrating last few seasons at Barcelona.
A bad leg break and loss of form have hampered Villa?s appearances since the 2011-12 season, but he would be a steal at $15-18 million, as is rumored to be the price tag around his neck.
But do Spurs really need a striker? Oh yes.
For most of last season Gareth Bale was their one and only option for goals. He managed 21 in the league from a deep-lying position on the wing or in midfield.
Think how well Spurs could?ve done if they had a 15-20 goal striker to add to Bale?s dominance? That is scary. Only Everton from the EPL?s top seven scored less than Spurs? 66 goals last season.
AVB knows he?s not too far away from building a side that can compete with the top two. Spurs just need an extra spark up front if they?re going to get to that next level.
Can Villa provide that? Perhaps. He is a quality finisher, has won just about every trophy in the land and a change of scenery and new challenge could be the making of him. Here is a little visual reminder of what the former Valencia star can do. Enjoy.
If you look at Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor this season, Tottenham?s two main strikers, they scored 16 league goals between them. If you are challenging for a top four spot, you should be expecting 16 goals from each of your main strikers.
That proved to be the difference for Spurs as they narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification to North London rivals Arsenal on the final day of the season.
Sorry for the painful reminder, Spurs fans.
So Villa could be the answer. If not, AVB knows he needs to strengthen going forward. But with Clint Dempsey injured for vast swathes of the 2012-13 season, maybe he can provide the answer to boost Tottenham?s goalscoring prowess?
Just throwing that out there. Regardless, it would be great to see Villa suit up in the EPL.
May 28, 2013 ? Scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have designed tiny spherical particles to float easily through the bloodstream after injection, then assemble into a durable scaffold within diseased tissue. An enzyme produced by a specific type of tumor can trigger the transformation of the spheres into netlike structures that accumulate at the site of a cancer, the team reports in the journal Advanced Materials this week.
Spherical nanoparticles labeled with red or green dye shift their shapes and accumulatte into netlike structures when they encounter a protease secreted by some kinds of cancerous tumors (Click on image for larger view).
Targeting treatments specifically to cancerous or other diseased cells depends on some means of accumulating high levels of a drug or other therapeutic agent at the specific site and keeping it there. Most efforts so far depend on matching a piece of the drug-delivering molecule to specific receptors on the surface of the target cell.
Inspiration for this new strategy came from biological systems that use shape to alter the ability of something to lock in place or slip away and escape, said Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who led the project.
"We wanted to come up with a new approach," Gianneschi said. "Specifically, we wanted to design switchable materials that we could inject in one shape and have them change to another between the blood and tumors."
Some cancerous tissues produce high levels of a class of molecules called MMPs, for matrix metalloproteinases. These enzymes change how other proteins behave by altering their molecular configuration, leading to metastasis. Gianneschi and colleagues harnessed this ability to alter their nanoparticles in ways that would cause them to linger at the site of the tumor.
"We figured out how to make an autonomous material that could sense its environment and change accordingly," Gianneschi said.
Each nanoparticle is made of many detergent-like molecules with one end that mixes readily with water and another that repels it. In solution, they self assemble into balls with the water-repellant ends inside, and in that configuration can easily be injected into a vein.
When mixed with MMPs in vials, the enzymes nicked the peptides on the surface of the spheres, which reassembled into netlike threads.
The team tested the concept further by injecting their new nanoparticles into mice with human fibrosarcomas, a kind of cancer that produces high levels of MMPs.
To mark when the spheres broke down to form other structures, the chemists placed one of two fluorecent dyes, rhodamine or fluorescein, inside the spheres. In close proximity, the dyes interact to create a specific light signal called FRET for F?rster Resonance Energy Transfer, when energy jumps from rhodamine to fluorescein.
Within a day they detected FRET signals indicating that the spheres had reassembled at the sites of the tumors, and the signal persisted for at least a week.
The treatment is not inherently toxic. It did not appear to change the tumors in any way, and liver and kidney, the organs most vulnerable to collateral damage from treatments because they clear toxins from the body, were normal and healthy eight days after injection.
Different versions of these nanoparticles could be designed to respond to signals inherent to other types of cancers and inflamed tissue, the authors say. The spheres can also be engineered to carry drugs, or different diagnostic probes.
Right now, this same team is developing nanoparticles that carry an infrared dye, which would enable them to visualize tumors deeper inside the body along with other materials that can be imaged with instruments commonly available in the clinic.
Co-authors include Miao-Ping Chen and Matthew Thompson in Gianneschi's group, and Christopher Barbak and David Hall in UC San Diego School of Medicine's Department of Radiology. Funding agencies include National Institutes of Health, Army Research Office and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Gianneschi was also supported by a New Faculty Award from the Henry and Camille Dreyfus Foundation and a Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
LUBBOCK, Texas ? A Marine killed after going on a shooting spree that left one person dead and several hospitalized in Texas also is suspected of fatally stabbing his wife, whose body was found in a North Carolina motel room hours after the rampage, police said Tuesday.
Rubi Estefania Smith of Bakersfield, Calif., was found dead Sunday afternoon in a motel room near Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, N.C., police said in a news release. She was the wife of Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith, a 23-year-old Marine who died Sunday in a gunfight with Texas authorities.
Police spokeswoman Beth Purcell said Rubi Estefania Smith appears to have died from a knife wound.
A veteran of two combat tours in Afghanistan, Esteban Smith is suspected in a West Texas shooting rampage that left one woman dead and five others wounded. Authorities have said the victims were likely randomly targeted but have not said why Smith made the 1,500-mile trip to the town of Eden or where he may have been going.
An assault rifle, handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from Smith?s vehicle.
A West Texas sheriff wounded by the shooter told The Associated Press the shootings appeared to be indiscriminate.
?This guy was intent on killing anybody and everybody,? Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane, who was shot near his left ear. ?None of it makes sense.?
Doane said he is uncertain whether Smith killed himself or was killed by law enforcement.
Smith, who was also from Bakersfield, was stationed with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. Base spokesman Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress said investigators have determined the firearms used in the shootings were not issued by the military.
Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Maureen Krebs said Smith enlisted in November 2008. He returned from his second tour as an infantry rifleman in Afghanistan in November 2012. He was awarded several decorations, including a Combat Action Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Krebs said.
The Texas shootings began about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, when the gunman shot a passenger in a car carrying three people in their 20?s in the Eden area of Concho County, about 210 miles southwest of Dallas, Doane said
Doane said Smith pulled up behind the trio?s car and started firing at them.
?They thought he was throwing rocks at them and he was actually shooting at them,? Doane said.
The driver slammed on his brakes, turned around and headed toward Eden where he hid the vehicle in a car dealership lot. That move probably saved their lives, Doane said.
Over the next 90 minutes, two more people were shot while sitting in a car at a convenience store in adjacent McCulloch County. Both were treated and released from a hospital, Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said.
Shortly after 6 a.m., Alicia Torres, 41, was found dead in her car in Eola, just east of San Angelo, Vinger said.
Doane said when authorities discovered the shooter was headed toward Eden again they had to act quickly.
?We made a decision we can?t let him back to town,? he said.
The suspect fired on the Doane?s vehicle when the sheriff came upon him north of Eden, according to DPS.
Doane?s wound was non-life-threatening wounds and he was released from a San Angelo hospital early Tuesday, Shannon Medical Center spokeswoman Suzi Reynolds said.
Rubi Smith?s remains were found about 2 p.m. Sunday at the Sunset Inn, a motel advertising low rates and Jacuzzi tubs near the gates of the sprawling Marine base on the North Carolina coast. Purcell said Jacksonville police were called to the scene by authorities with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, who discovered the body.
Injured in the shooting spree were Laura Mandanas, 26, of New York; Casimiro Solis, 48, and Charlotte Feldman, 43, both of Brady, Texas; and Eric Kothmann, 52, of Menard, Texas. All were treated at hospitals and released, Vinger said.
Without stops, it is more than a 22-hour drive from Jacksonville, N.C. to Eden, Texas.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two rockets fired at Hezbollah-controlled southern Beirut bring Syria's escalating civil war deeper into the heart of Lebanon and closer to unrestrained regional conflict.
The two-year-old conflict in Syria has already tumbled into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, exploded into deadly street fighting in its northern city of Tripoli and driven half a million refugees across the same porous border to escape the bloodshed.
But Sunday's rocket attack, which wounded five people in a Shi'ite neighborhood of Beirut, marked the first apparent targeting of Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the capital and raised memories of years of civil war in the city.
The rockets struck hours after a defiant Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his guerrilla group, waging war alongside President Bashar al-Assad against Syrian rebels, was fighting for victory whatever the cost.
Both events were milestones in the creeping contagion of a conflict which has already killed 80,000 people within Syria's borders and fuelled sectarian tension from Beirut to Baghdad. It has sucked in regional rivals Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq and Israel and polarized major powers - the U.S. and Europe siding with the opposition and Russia and China with Assad.
"It is hugely alarming. It points to the fact that there are a decreasing number of brakes that can be applied to this situation," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"It's spiraling out of control, moving deeper and deeper within Syria but clearly now across Lebanon and the region."
No one claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack but it was widely assumed to be a response to Nasrallah's speech by Syrian rebels or their sympathizers.
One Syrian rebel described it as a warning to Lebanese authorities to rein in the Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group, which is armed and financed by Iran, or face further consequences.
WARNING TO REBEL BACKERS
By dropping any ambiguity about Hezbollah's determination to keep Assad in power, Nasrallah may have been laying down a marker to the Syrian leader's Western and Arab foes that any increase in support for rebels would be futile.
The European Union is considering whether to amend sanctions on Syria to allow EU states to send weapons to the rebels and a U.S. Senate panel voted last week to arm them - though it is not clear whether any such bill could ever get through Congress.
"The message Hezbollah is trying to send is a signal that both Iran and Hezbollah are willing to match any increase in support to rebel groups," said Ayham Kamel, Middle East analyst at the consultancy Eurasia Group.
"If the conflict is expanded, Hezbollah and Iran are willing to support the regime no matter where it leads".
Nasrallah's comments also follow weeks of counter-offensives by Assad's forces around the capital, in the southern province of Deraa and around the town of Qusair on the Lebanese border, which have strengthened Assad's hand ahead of planned peace talks which Damascus says in principle it is ready to attend.
Kamel said Hezbollah's impact on the Syria's civil war was not as dramatic as believed in some Western capitals and that reorganizing Assad's armed forces, most likely on the advice of his international allies, to confront the rebels had been a greater factor behind his recent battlefield gains.
"There has been a strategic plan to restructure the Syrian military and its divisions to make them more effective for urban warfare and to establish new forces," he said referring to units which had been formed out of local militias and which together added up to additional forces of tens of thousands.
"The restructuring is important ... the additional forces have been important, and I'd put Hezbollah third on that list. All are indispensable for the regime, but there are different levels," Kamel said.
The number of Hezbollah fighters in Syria so far was likely to be in the "low thousands", Barnes-Dacey said, with plenty more in reserve. Nasrallah himself said on Saturday Hezbollah could summon "tens of thousands" with a couple of words.
"I don't think Hezbollah would leave themselves exposed in their own backyard to secure Assad, but clearly they have a significant fighting force and could increase what they are sending to Syria to quite a large degree before they have to make those choices," Barnes-Dacey said.
Assad's Western foes are already reluctant to commit to intervention in Syria or military support for the rebels, who include al Qaeda-linked groups equally hostile to the United States and Europe as they are to the Syrian president.
Closer to Syria, Assad's enemies are less constrained.
Sunni Muslims from the Lebanese port of Tripoli cross into Syria to fight Assad while their city itself has endured a week of fighting in which 25 people have been killed, showing how Syria's neighbors can simultaneously suffer from the spread of its conflict and further fuel the fighting within its borders.
"When Hezbollah sent fighters to Syria and occupied Sunni villages, that provoked the Sunnis," said Sunni Muslim preacher Sheikh Salem Rafei, referring to the area around the Syrian border town of Qusair where Hezbollah fighters and the Syrian army are waging a week-long assault to drive out rebels.
"Our brothers in Qusair appealed for our help, so it was our duty to call on those who could do so to perform jihad to support them," Rafei told Reuters in Tripoli.
Banners in a Tripoli square celebrating the "martyrdom" of local fighter Ahmad al-Shihab in Qusair highlight how the two towns are effectively twin battlegrounds in the same war. "There's no doubt that what is happening in Tripoli is an echo of what is happening in Syria, especially Qusair," Rafei said.
LEAVE LEBANON OUT
Both Rafei and Nasrallah urged Lebanese fighters to keep their battle within Syria, reflecting near universal anxiety in Lebanon to avoid a repeat of its ruinous 1975-1990 civil war.
"Those who want victory for the Syrian regime and those who want victory for the opposition should go and fight in Syria instead. Leave Tripoli to itself," Nasrallah said on Saturday.
Lebanon, a Mediterranean state of 4 million people, made up of a mosaic of Christian, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim sects, is struggling to cope with an estimated million Syrians including refugees, labourers and their families.
Still saddled with a heavy debt burden from its post-war reconstruction and suffering a sharp slowdown in economic growth, Lebanon is also in political limbo after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati two months ago.
Mikati's successor, Tammam Salam, has so far failed to form a new government and squabbling over a parliamentary electoral law means next month's election will be delayed - threatening the country with political vacuum.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Sunday parliament should be extended for at least a year, since political stability was a priority if Lebanon was to overcome its security challenges.
"There is still some minimal level of commitment by the mainstream Sunni Muslim, Shi'ite Muslim and Christian parties not to let Lebanon become a battleground," Kamel said. "But this has become a regional conflict, so the risk of uncalculated scenarios has gone up."
For now, Hezbollah's unquestioned military ascendancy in Lebanon itself means that the group which fought Israel to a standstill in a 34-day war seven years ago is unlikely to face a sustained challenge from domestic rivals.
But its deepening war in Syria may prove more challenging than anything it faced in three decades fighting Israeli troops, said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group.
"Hezbollah will soon realise that this conflict is far bloodier than anything it has seen before. This is a very deadly conflict. If they go all in, they will have huge losses".
In an attempt to illustrate the harmful effects of using crack cocaine, Talent, a Brazilian ad agency, created a series of posters featuring images of people living with addictions that are slowly eaten away and destroyed by Flour beetle larvae?or mealworms.
The posters were actually made of thin sheets of dough instead of paper, to encourage the larvae to thoroughly consume them. And the results are incredibly unsettling, particularly as portions of the faces are eaten away leaving what looks like scars and other signs of physical wear and tear. The ads were run in an area of Sao Paolo known for its crack use, but maybe they should have run the ad in Toronto as well?
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The clearinghouse for all stock options said Thursday it will adopt a policy aimed at abolishing a dividend-linked trading strategy that critics say could destabilize markets if left unchecked.
The change at Chicago-based OCC is likely to hurt market share at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's biggest options venue, where nearly all of U.S. dividend-linked options trading takes place.
"The new policy will likely result in a significant reduction in dividend plays," OCC said in a statement.
Gary Katz, who runs Nasdaq rival the International Securities Exchange and is a longtime critic of the practice, was more direct, calling the policy "the beginning of the end for dividend trades in the U.S. options industry."
Dividend plays account for about 8 percent of all U.S. options trades, OCC said. They account for as much as a quarter of trading at Nasdaq-owned PHLX, ISE estimates, although official figures from OCC are not available.
The policy change comes after years of lobbying by Deutsche Boerse's ISE and CBOE Holdings Inc , which say the trades make PHLX look busier than it really is and could leave traders on the hook for losses if they go awry.
Nasdaq's PHLX has long countered that dividend trades are safe, and regulators have never barred the practice.
PHLX, formerly known as the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, accounted for more than 20 percent of trading in U.S. options on individual stocks so far in May, more than any other options exchange.
CBOE and ISE have each handled about 17 percent of the 263 million stock-options trades so far this month.
PHLX's market share includes a large number of dividend plays, in which professional traders buy and sell massive blocks of options just before the day when investors are required to hold a stock in order to get the dividend.
Professional traders convert those options to shares and collect dividends, taking advantage of less-savvy investors who fail to convert their options in time.
The change at OCC will require approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission and is unlikely to be put in place for several months, if not more.
Spokesmen from Nasdaq and CBOE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(With additional reporting by Doris Frankel in Chicago; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
SWARTHMORE, Pa. (AP) ? Student activists at more than 200 colleges are trying a new tactic in hopes of slowing the pace of climate change: They are asking their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.
The Fossil Free campaign argues that if it's wrong to pour pollution into the air and contribute to climate change, it's also wrong to profit from it. The strategy, modeled after anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, aims to limit the flow of capital to fossil fuel companies by making their stocks morally and financially unattractive. In theory, that could lead to a slowdown in how much fossil fuel is burned and indirectly speed investments in renewable energy.
The students say it's hard for colleges and universities to ignore the arguments when scientists are teaching classes about the threats of climate change, and when the core mission of such institutions is to prepare young people for the future.
"We know this is something that's going to really matter in our lifetimes," said Sophie Harrison, an 18-year-old freshman at Stanford University. "The world that we're going to be raising our kids in is going to be very different from the one we were born into."
It is far from certain that the campaign will help change the behavior of fossil fuel companies or public attitudes about climate change.
And unlike apartheid, the target of previous divestment campaigns, there is no ready alternative to fossil fuels. The global economy is powered by coal, oil and natural gas. Affordable, low-carbon alternatives to these fuels aren't widely available.
Campaign organizers acknowledged their efforts may take years to have any effect, but they are frustrated, they said, that not enough has been done to address climate change.
The campaign targets companies that own most of the world's coal, oil and natural gas reserves. While many schools argue divestment would harm their endowments, an analysis conducted for The Associated Press casts doubt on that. The research firm S&P Capital IQ found that by one measure, endowments would have been better off had they divested 10 years ago.
The firm calculated the total returns of the broad U.S. market as tracked by the S&P 500 index, with and without the companies singled out by Fossil Free. An endowment of $1 billion that excluded fossil fuel companies would have grown to $2.26 billion over the past 10 years, but an endowment that included investments in fossil fuel companies would have grown to $2.14 billion. That extra $119 million could pay for 850 four-year scholarships, assuming tuition of $35,000 per year.
The stakes are even bigger for some schools. Fossil Free is targeting Stanford's $17 billion endowment, and last year 72 percent of Harvard University's student body voted for divesting its $30 billion endowment. Harvard officials responded by saying they have "a strong presumption against divestment."
Financial giants such as HSBC, Citibank and the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's have raised concerns about the financial stability of fossil fuel companies ? if the world decides to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
But that's a big "if," and Wall Street analysts who cover oil company stocks are unconcerned. Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., says there is "no way" that a campaign like this could change a company's energy mix, let alone the entire world's.
Endowments don't have enough financial clout to affect the flow or cost of capital for fossil fuel companies, he said, and fossil fuels are too integral to the world economy.
"Let's see when these kids get a job, if they are going to walk to work or drive," he said.
Industry groups and observers say going fossil-free would involve much more than just divestment.
"We all bear some of the blame for continued use of fossil fuels ? it is not fair to put the blame solely on the oil companies," Harvard professor Daniel Schrag, director of the school's Center for the Environment, wrote in an email to the AP.
Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, argued that oil and natural gas fuel the economy "in the most efficient and reliable way possible."
But Fossil Free is growing, and it's backed by some powerful interests.
Major foundations ? including the Rockefeller Family Fund ? have donated more than $8 million to 350.org, Fossil Free's parent group, and a network of influential advisers and volunteers are building a global network to support the campaign.
The campaign started in 2010 at Swarthmore College, a liberal arts school outside Philadelphia. It has spread to private and public schools across the nation, including Harvard and Stanford, as well as Yale, Cornell, Ohio State and the University of Colorado. Five schools ? Unity College and College of the Atlantic in Maine, Hampshire College in Massachusetts, and Sterling and Green Mountain colleges in Vermont ? have already voted to divest, and student votes are pushing for action at dozens more.
The original Swarthmore group was motivated by a visit to mining sites in West Virginia, where companies were removing entire mountaintops to get at coal.
"It's devastating. It's people's land, people's livelihoods being ripped out of the ground, literally," said Kate Aronoff, a Swarthmore junior from New Jersey and student activist. Aronoff said the student group returned to Swarthmore and quickly "came to divestment as something that lines up with our priorities."
During the 1980s, more than 225 U.S. companies stopped doing business in South Africa as public and stockholder sentiment turned against maintaining ties because of the country's institutionalized racism, or apartheid. At least 27 states, 88 cities and many universities adopted policies restricting investments, leading to a loss of billions of dollars of capital in South Africa.
Some of the people who oversee endowments say the issues aren't so clear-cut this time around. An analysis at Swarthmore found that fossil fuel divestment would cost the endowment $11 million to $14 million a year, said Gil Kemp, a member of the Swarthmore Board of Managers.
"I don't think that there is a single board member that doesn't agree with students that climate change is a huge issue for our world. The difference is in choice of tactics," said Kemp, who donated $20 million to the school in February.
In 1986, after years of pressure from student groups, Swarthmore agreed to eliminate investment links to South Africa. After that divestment, the board changed the school's policies, and Kemp said it now makes a practice of "not using the endowment for non-financial purposes."
The Fossil Free campaign is also attracting older people, including an influential Wall Street veteran whose views have changed over time. Bevis Longstreth's first public offering as a young Wall Street lawyer was for a coal company.
"I thought coal was magnificent," he said.
Longstreth is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, a former commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and a former member of the American Stock Exchange Board of Governors. He was appointed to the SEC by President Ronald Reagan. He now argues fossil fuels are damaging the environment and thinks the divestment campaign can help change that.
"I believe the pressure will build" on fossil fuel companies, Longstreth said, adding that two things always get Wall Street's attention: the possibility of making a lot of money ? or losing money.
"There's going to be a tipping point. And when that happens we're going to have the mother of all crowds jamming one exit" to sell fossil fuel stocks, he said. "The smart fossil fuel companies will diversify."
___
Begos reported from Pittsburgh. AP Energy Writer Jonathan Fahey in New York contributed to this report.
Lindsay Lohan may have finally checked into her court-mandated rehab program, but now she's facing a different kind of legal drama.
An apparel manufacturer that partnered with Lohan's leggings line 6126 is firing back at the actress' 2013 lawsuit over a licensing dispute, claiming that the embattled star's tarnished reputation severely hampered the company's ability to suitably peddle her clothing line to buyers.
NEWS: Lindsay Lohan doing "really well" at Betty Ford
In a $5 million breach-of-contract counter claim filed against Lohan Friday in a California U.S. District Court and obtained by E! News, clothing company DNAM alleges that while the starlet's leggings line initially enjoyed some success at department stores in 2010, buyers eventually began to pull back "because they did not want to be associated with Lohan's drug addled image."
The complaint states that in the spring of 2011, buyers canceled appointments and customers canceled orders, noting that "no one would touch the line." Lohan, who was in rehab at the time, was unable to endorse the brand or provide feedback, the lawsuit alleges.
PHOTO: Lindsay Lohan's "Mean Girls" costar rocks a "Go to Jail Lindsay" T-shirt
The company claims that Lohan's legal troubles and her supposed drug and alcohol addictions devalued the brand, and it its seeking $5 million in damages.
Kristi Kaylor, Lohan's business partner on 6126, refutes the allegations, claiming that it was DNAM that breached their licensing agreement.
PHOTOS: See Lindsay Lohan's court style
"The DNAM countersuit against 6126 is frivolous and misrepresents the facts," Kaylor tells E! News exclusively in a statement. "DNAM knows that it is in breach of the 6126 licensee agreement, and this suit is clearly nothing more than a transparent defense maneuver. Lindsay and I worked for over three years to build the 6126 brand and ensure its success; DNAM is merely trying to get out of honoring its financial obligations."
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Point guard George Hill will be a game-time decision as the Pacers try to close out the Knicks.
After Indiana's shootaround Saturday morning, coach Frank Vogel did not say whether Hill had passed his concussion tests. Hill must do so before returning to action. Vogel says he is preparing to be without Hill for Game 6 on Saturday night.
Hill missed Game 5 after complaining of headaches. Trainers later diagnosed him with a concussion, holding him out of a game the Pacers lost 85-75. They still lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals 3-2 and play at home Saturday. The Pacers are 5-0 in home playoff games this season, winning each by at least 11 points.
The Pacers started D.J. Augustin in Hill's spot Thursday night.
One of the unfortunate benefits of growing older is lower back pain and it can be because of an injury, or just the result of years of lifting children, groceries, or bending over constantly cleaning the house, or doing dishes. While there can be a lot of different causes you are going to see that one of the principal causes of back pain would be the fact that individuals lose their elasticity over the years. One way that people can in fact contend with this issue is by doing proper stretching every day.
The way plenty of folks live their life, it is inevitable they are going to end up with back pain. Folks who play loads of sports early in life, and then continue them as they age, will find a time when their bodies are in loads of pain. Individuals who are in car accidents do not have a lot of control over their pain unless of course their careless driving caused the accident. Most individuals prefer to deal with their back pain with prescription medication, which can be helpful, but at the same time very detrimental. An additional thing you need to remember about these medications is that they don?t actually cope with the cause of your back pain they basically hide the pain leaving the original problem there. In the event you never get the issue fixed, but only contend with signs and symptoms, the problem will never go away.
Should you be one of the folks looking to solve the cause of your back pain you will probably find that stretching can do this. Stretching is really something that could cure your back pain, nevertheless you are going to see that will take dedication and many folks would rather take a pill than put in the work. The very best advantage of stretching is that it?s a natural solution and you will not become addicted to pain medication and its damaging side-effects.
You are additionally going to see that you are able to actually prevent injuries to your back by stretching as you will be strengthening both your stomach and also back muscles. One of the risks of actually taking drugs to deal with your pain, is that your back might feel fine which could end up causing you to cause more damage to your back. Along with stretching you?re going to discover that other exercises that will help strengthen your core will additionally alleviate back pain. If you have the ability to stretch and move your back you are going to discover that your pain will minimize. Another main cause of people?s back pain is simply because their back muscles are so tight, and stretching is something that can increase the flexibility of your muscles.
One more thing to remember in relation to stretching and doing core exercises is that these two things can have positive effects on your overall health and well being. You need to understand that while you are exercising and stretching regularly your cardiovascular system is in addition going to be strengthened improving your state of health. Instead of taking pills each and every day to be able to deal with your back pain, try and remain active and get in as much stretching as you can as this will be your best option.
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People who happen to have ear issues no longer have to deal with the problem of having to bear with the condition and the inconveniences that it brings alone. These days, people can now choose to get special devices that will allow them to enjoy the joys of being able to hear once more, all they have to do is find the right hearing aids.
There will be a lot of things that one is expected to do before he should determine if indeed these devices would be the best choice for him. He cannot just walk through clinics offering these instruments and have one be attached to his ears right away. There will be preparations that need to get done first.
Check ups are crucial before people should opt for the use of these devices. They cannot just choose to start wearing these appliances because they feel like they wanted to. They need to make sure that they get to see a reliable ear doctor first before they should decide whether wearing one is a god idea or not. Though theirs is the final decision, it is up to the doctor to recommend whether the appliance is necessary.
People should know that there have been many instances when problems like these have been checked by ear doctors and it turned out that they are only temporary. This is a good thing as oftentimes, with the right prescription medicines issued by the medical providers, it will be easier for people to properly cope with the situation. So, proper check up is always highly necessary.
You need to rely on the suggestions of your ear doctor if he will find whether the hearing aids are going to be beneficial for you or not. It is up to him to decide whether it would best for you to start wearing it. Thus, consulting with a really reliable professional, a highly qualified provider and an efficient ear doctor is always crucial towards making sure that you get the most out of the experience.
Be sure to take note of the specifications of these devices. You cannot expect to find a certain unit lying around and expect it to offer you the kind of relief that you require just to ensure that you will have your issues properly corrected. No. It doesn?t always work that way. You need to make sure that you will get one suitable for your current condition first for it to even work.
You need to check out the style in which these devices are made of. Sure, you are buying them for the practical purposes that they serve. However, , ore importantly, you want to ensure too that when you start wearing them, they won?t be as noticeable as possible. Some people might jeer at you or throw snide comments at you for your handicap. So, making sure that you get to lie low on things will often help.
Buy hearing aids which you will be able to easily afford. You would prefer to be going for units that are considered competitively priced. This way, you are confident that the item you will need to purchase will be something which you shouldn?t have a hard time covering for. Financially, that is.
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The upcoming Battlefield 4 will not require an online pass to access multiplayer, unlike its predecessor.
EA is dropping online passes on its new titles following feedback from its players.
Talking to VentureBeat, EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg confirmed that no new titles from EA will feature an online pass requirement to access online functionality.
'Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn't respond to the format,' said Reseburg, speaking to VentureBeat. 'We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.'
The player response cited is curious as at the time of the program's launch in 2010, EA reported that there was no 'significant pushback from the user' in a statement regarding the company's commitment to the program.
Reseburg was specifically talking about the upcoming Battlefield 4 and the online pass is not being discontinued on titles that already require them, only not implemented on future titles.
Games that currently use the online pass include Battlefield 3 and most of the entries in the EA Sports catalogue and there are no reported plans to phase these out at this time.
The move does not necessarily mean that EA is backing away from developing online features with Reseburg commenting that the company will still be committed to creating content and services that make players want to keep playing a title beyond its initial play through.
Judging by the success that EA often trumpets with regards to The Simpsons: Tapped Out, there's a possibility that this continued content creation could take the form of micro-transactions for its more traditional triple A titles, something that the company has experimented with before on Dead Space 3.
Online Pass Online passes are an attempt to fight the second hand game market. As accessing online features requires this one-use activation code, if a second hand title is sold without an un-used code then a replacement can then be bought from the publisher directly, ensuring a revenue stream from used games. Other publishers including Activision and Ubisoft also use online passes.
GRANBURY, Texas (AP) ? Officials awaited daybreak to fully assess the scope of the destruction left in the wake of a deadly tornado in Granbury.
Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said he hoped the death toll from the tornado would hold at six, with about 50 people injured and 250 people left homeless.
The twister was part of a swarm of tornadoes unleashed on North Texas, devastating two neighborhoods in southern Granbury and a neighborhood in nearby Cleburne.
"I've been assured by my deputies on the scene that they're pretty confident with the six that they found, but there was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we're going to have to search the area out there," he said.
About 50 people were taken to a Granbury hospital, where 14 were admitted for treatment of injuries and two were transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, about 35 miles to the northeast, Deeds said.
About 50 people gathered in the Oak Wood Elementary School after nightfall Wednesday to have their injured children examined by paramedics. Five were taken away by ambulance.
As many as 100 people were injured, said Matt Zavadsky, spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare. His company sent three ambulances and a medical bus from its Fort Worth base to Granbury.
Deeds said officials were trying to account for 14 people, but it was not clear if they were missing or were away from the area for other reasons.
Hardest hit were two neighborhoods, Rancho Brazos Estates and DeCordova Ranch, in the southern end of the town of about 8,000 residents about 65 miles southwest of Dallas.
Behind one house in the storm's path sits a detached garage stripped of much of its aluminum siding have with its garage door stove in and its roof torn off. Siding was scattered up to 50 yards away, and bits of fiberglass insulation draped on a fence. A tree behind the house was stripped of most of its branches, and a vacant doublewide mobile home on an adjoining lot was torn apart.
Deeds spoke of a county road operations supervisor who lives in the affected area.
"I've been told his home is destroyed but he was OK, so he was ready to go to work to help his neighbors. But he can't find his truck. The winds were strong enough out there that he still doesn't know where his truck is," Deeds said.
Ambulances from as far away as Fort Worth were being called to Granbury, said Tye Bell, Richland Hills police spokesman who was heading to Granbury on Wednesday night.
The same storm spawned another tornado that storm spotters told the National Weather Service was a mile wide. That twister tore through the southwestern quadrant of Cleburne, a courthouse city of about 30,000 about 25 miles southeast of Granbury.
There were no reports of deaths in that storm, Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said, "but we do have the potential for some injuries." He had no estimates.
Cain had no estimate on the number of homes damaged, but he said he expected the number to soar into the dozens based on his inspection of damage ranging from roof damage to total destruction.
Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.
Hail as large as grapefruit also pelted the area around Mineral Wells on Wednesday evening. A police dispatcher reported only minor damage.
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Associated Press writers Terry Wallace and Jamie Stengle in Dallas and freelance photographer Mike Fuentes contributed to this report.
The U.S government's green car program has been under scrutiny with the recent failure of two of the companies that received the loan, including coverage of a $675 million lawsuit by an inventor claiming he was denied funding for his inflatable electric car company because of politics. What hasn't gotten much scrutiny is the unsuccessful serial inventor behind the lawsuit.
Pretend you?re the U.S. Department of Energy for a moment. Your job is to hand out billions in taxpayer-funded loans to companies who want to produce green cars. An entrepreneur comes to you seeking $40 million to develop an electric car made out of an inflatable polymer foam instead of metal. Would you do it?
This is exactly what Scott Redmond, CEO of now-dissolved California startup XP Vehicles, did in 2008. The Energy Department turned down his request, and now Redmond has filed two lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and U.S. District Court against the government seeking a combined $675 million in damages.
But until now, no one's coverage of the suit has appeared to mention that Redmond is a serial entrepreneur with a 20-year history of building hype and then getting funding for unrealistic tech ventures that never go anywhere.
XP Vehicles appears to be one of them, as does his other venture Limnia Inc., which he said was to manufacture batteries for the cars.
Still, what makes Redmond?s lawsuit interesting is his claim that he was turned down because his company lacked ties to the Obama administration and several Democratic elected officials. He claims that the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program was compromised by political bias at the top, and that the car was turned down because they weren?t connected to the right Democrats like people involved with Tesla and Fisker were.
XP was hardly the only company turned down for an Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan. Scores of startups jumped at the chance to apply for the loans, but only five companies ? Ford, Nissan, Tesla, Fisker and the Vehicle Production Group ? were awarded any money.
Those five received a combined $8 billion between the five of them, with Ford and Nissan getting the lion?s share. The program has received a great deal of scrutiny as of late with the failure of Fisker and now also VPG, since there are doubts as to whether those companies will be able to pay their loans back.
Compared to those companies, however, Redmond?s proposed car was far more questionable, and his claims about its feasibility are in line with other bizarre statements he has made online in the past.
But does his claim that ATVM's loans were awarded based on politics hold any water?
The Inflatable Car
The ATVM program was first established in 2007 with strong bipartisan support in Congress The goal was to help American manufacturers develop the next generation of fuel-efficient automobiles and add thousands of new jobs across the country.
According to their lawsuit, XP Vehicles pitched an SUV concept to the Energy Department in late 2008 that would be driven by easily-swappable batteries running motors in the rear wheels and ultimately cost less than $20,000. They said they and Limnia had been working on the technology behind the car since the early 2000s along with the government-run Sandia National Laboratory. They said in the lawsuit that they offered the Energy Department $100 million in independently-verified collateral as security for the loan.
Here?s the real kicker. They said the four-seat SUV, which looked like an elongated Smart car, would weigh a mere 1,400 pounds but would be as safe as any car on the market. It would supposedly pull this off by being an ?inflatable? car ? the car was made from a flexible polymer foam material.
XP?s argument was that since the technology had already been developed for use in boating equipment, and perhaps most famously, on the Mars rover?s landing system, all they had to do was apply it to the automotive world.
It?s not the first time they had pushed for this technology to be used on a car. Previously, XP had floated concept drawings for a small, sub-$5,000 electric sports car for the southeast Asian markets they called the ?Whisper.?
The inflatable Whisper seemed to be mostly hot air, but XP got somewhat more realistic with their SUV, and that?s what they pitched to the Energy Department. They say it would have the best power-to-weight ratio of any car on earth, and it would be capable of running 125 miles on a single electric charge ? all while carrying passengers around in total safety and comfort in an inflatable body that rides on skinny bicycle-like tires. (For his part, Redmond denies that the car was "inflatable," though his company described it that way in earlier news releases.)
For years, the car made the rounds on various tech and automotive websites, only occasionally with a hint of skepticism. But when we?re talking about a car company that can be realistically developed, built, brought to market and then sold to a wide audience of consumers, doesn?t it sound far-fetched?
It?s all par for the course for Scott Redmond.
Is This Thing For Real?
At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas, Redmond unveiled what was at the time one of his latest ventures known as Peep Wireless, a service that promised free phone calls and mobile Internet.
As is common in the world of tech journalism, early coverage was enthusiastic and hardly questioning (although CNET described the company as less of a startup and more of a "psychotic" Bell Labs.) But then our sister site Gizmodo explored the fact that the Peep Wireless technology was essentially impossible, and then went through a number of Redmond?s other ventures that never panned out in any way. Here?s what they said in their story, "The Greatest Scam in Tech":
The pattern is easy to pick out: This dude shows up whenever there's a bubble or hot trend in the tech business world that has yet to make it to the marketplace. Then he strings together a bunch of technical jargon that hardly informs what he's doing, and presumably gets some kind of funding. After that, he generally forms not one but two companies around said bubble. (Peep Telephony has Peep Wireless; Limnia, a fuel cell company, Fuel Sell; Clever Homes, FabModern). All the companies are listed at the same address in San Francisco.
Ultimately, the companies just disappear, legacies reduced to comically vague blurbs on Redmond's resume?if that. There's no point trying to ascribe motives to what Redmond does, and we don't want to make this about character or intent. Point is, these ventures rarely?if ever?work. And through the harsh lens of hindsight, some look like they weren't ever meant to.
Redmond wasn?t happy about that story, although he and Peep Wireless never returned requests for comment until after it was published. Even when Gizmodod published Redmond?s rebuttals on top of their original story, he still filed a libel lawsuit.
Gizmodo?s story even mentions ?an inflatable car? and Limnia, about which Redmond said that government funds were in negotiation. That would be XP Vehicles. And like Redmond?s other ventures, there?s not much evidence to suggest that the car was anything more than a product of his imagination.
Even his own website, which promises "strategic innovation" consulting, lists numerous projects but offers very few details as to whether they were ever actually commercialized or completed. His Twitter account is the same thing: mostly links to photos of supposed projects on his Facebook page without real proof of their existence.
His XP Vehicles obviously wasn?t the only car company to get turned down for a government loan. Carbon Motors? BMW diesel police car was rejected, as was Aptera Motors? ultra-aerodynamic three-wheeler, and hybrid vans made by Bright Automotive. But those companies had working prototypes by the time they applied for Energy Department assistence; the buff bookseven drove some of them.
But besides some patent filings and some extremely unconvincing mockups of the car ? which appear to be such a blatant Smart car knockoff it would make a Chinese automaker blush ? XP does not appear to have had a whole lot. Most of the images of the XP SUV (and the Whisper, for that matter) seem to have been made with simplistic, shimmery computer graphics that would have looked dated on a Nintendo 64 game.
Even XP?s promotional videos, if you want to call them that, look more like something that came out of the Super Replicas garage than a legitimate, professional car company that wants millions in taxpayer money. I have seen no proof that an actual car had been made, was being made, or even could be made.
When Jalopnik asked XP Vehicles for comment about these issues, we received this response:
Scott Redmond sued Gawker, which runs Jalopnik, and is assisting federal law enforcement with their investigation of Gawker regarding the hired hit on Mr. Redmond By Gawker and is unable to comment at this time.
Gawker Media is not under federal investigation for a "hired hit on Mr. Redmond."
It?s hard to believe that anyone ever considered the XP SUV to be a viable concept based on all of this, and so it seems fitting that the company was turned down for a taxpayer-backed loan.
But why exactly was XP denied the funding? According to their lawsuit, that depends on who you ask and when.
The Lawsuit
In their lawsuit, XP says that the denial of their loans came as a shocking surprise after months of dealing with the Energy Department. During that time, they say government officials assured them things were going fine and that XP met the criteria for a loan.
XP was turned down in August 2009. According to exhibits filed with their lawsuit, in the first rejection letter they received, ATVM director Lachlan Seward told the company that the department could only choose ?applications that are most likely to use the limited loan proceeds in a way that will best achieve the goals of the program.? That was all the explanation they got.
Seeking further clarification, XP says in their lawsuit that they called Energy Department official Chris Foster, who told them told them they were denied because their car was not designed for government fleet sales, was ?too futuristic? for commercial use, that it was a ?hydrogen vehicle? and did not run on E85 ethanol as they said was required for a loan.
If true, these are curious reasons for a denial. After all, XP?s vehicle supposedly ran on electricity, not hydrogen, and how much E85 ethanol does one of Tesla?s cars use?
XP discounts each of the government's claims in their suit. They say Seward wrote them a letter with contradictory reasons about why the car was turned down, saying their proposal seemed not ready for commercialization and production within three years, calling their design ?high risk? and ?far too early in the development process to qualify.?
XP disputes that by saying their technology was already in use in other applications, including cars and the retail market. They also claim they were at least as far along as Tesla and Fisker, although XP seems to have lacked a concept or even a prototype car.
As for battery maker Limnia, the lawsuit claims they were denied because Seward said their components did not appear to be designed for use in an ?advanced technology? vehicle. Limnia was also turned down for a separate DOE loan for failing to pay the $18,750 application fee, which they claim Energy Secretary Steven Chu agreed to waive in a conference call ? a promise they say he later reneged on.
In the Energy Department's response to the lawsuit in which they asked a judge to dismiss, attorneys said Limnia's application remains under review, so they have no grounds for a lawsuit. In addition, they said that as a dissolved corporation under California law, XP Vehicles is not eligible for the relief they seek in the suit.
Getting Political
According to XP?s lawsuit, the real reason the company never received the funding they say they deserved wasn't because little proof exists that Redmond's car was anything more than fantasy.
It was politics ? specifically, that Energy Department money was set aside for those with the right connections to the right Democrats like Tesla and Fisker had. (Citing the ongoing litigation, an Energy Department spokesman declined to comment for this story.)
?...the taxpayer-funded ATVM Loan Program and LGP became cash cows for government cronies,? the lawsuit reads. ?Politics and political pressure infected these programs, shaping, in whole or in part, the judgment of the agency?s ultimate decision makers."
In particular, the XP lawsuit points to Steven Westly, a venture capitalist and onetime Democratic contender for governor of California who sat on the Tesla Motors board during the time the company received its $465 million loan. Westly was also a high-dollar fundraiser, or ?bundler? in political parlance, for President Obama?s reelection campaign.
On the Fisker side of things, the lawsuit says, there was venture capitalist and former ?undisputed king of Silicon Valley? John Doerr. His firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers raised $1.4 billion in private investments for Fisker; former Vice President Al Gore is a partner at that firm, and Doerr himself has donated heavily to Democrats including Obama, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and others, according to a search of Federal Election Commission records.
XP?s lawsuit nails Fisker and Tesla for not hitting their performance targets. Although that?s somewhat less true of Tesla now, what with them having posted their first quarterly profit and generally receiving rave reviews.
It is the case with recently-failed Fisker, which, as the lawsuit (and the Congressman who took Henrik Fisker behind the woodshed in April) notes, received a commitment of $359 million from the government to develop the car that came to be known as the Atlantic even though no prototype had been shown to the public and the Karma had not completely gotten off the ground.
(The lawsuit also alleges that XP and Limnia technology was hijacked by the Energy Department and shared with ?government cronies? General Motors and Ford, although their supposed proof appears more anecdotal than anything else.)
XP Vehicles themselves have become more political as well, having hired Washington-based nonpartisan watchdog group Cause of Action to represent them in the suit. The group, according to Fox News, has been linked to conservative issues in the past.
Do Fisker and Tesla?s connections to powerful Democrats prove beyond a doubt that the ATVM process was compromised politically? It's not unreasonable to assume that wealthy people, venture capitalists or not, would donate to political candidates.
But it certainly looks bad, if on the surface if nothing else. It makes the loan process seem like ?Washington politics as usual? at best, and outright government corruption and cronyism at worst.
This isn?t the first time the ATVM program has been accused of being swayed by politics. The allegation was repeated by members of Congress when they called Fisker to the carpet in hearing last month.
However, given Scott Redmond's track record, it is hard to believe that XP Vehicles and Limnia could have ever actually put a car together had they been granted the loan money. And while Redmond claims the Energy Department was contradictory in their claims about why XP was turned down, the letter from Seward does say their technology was considered too risky.
The ATVM program, for its many faults, could have been in even more trouble had they loaned Redmond the money.
Who knows? Maybe he'll win his $675 million and the world will get an inflatable car after all.
In new research published online May 13, 2013 in Advanced Materials, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to report that synthetic silicate nanoplatelets (also known as layered clay) can induce stem cells to become bone cells without the need of additional bone-inducing factors. Synthetic silicates are made up of simple or complex salts of silicic acids, and have been used extensively for various commercial and industrial applications, such as food additives, glass and ceramic filler materials, and anti-caking agents.
Silicate nanoplatelets cause stem cells to become bone cells, as determined by the formation of bone matrix (in red). Image courtesy of Khademhosseini lab.
"With an aging population in the US, injuries and degenerative conditions are subsequently on the rise," said Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, senior study author. "As a result, there is an increased demand for therapies that can repair damaged tissues. In particular, there is a great need for new materials that can direct stem cell differentiation and facilitate functional tissue formation. Silicate nanoplatelets have the potential to address this need in medicine and biotechnology."
"Based on the strong preliminary studies, we believe that these highly bioactive nanoplatelets may be utilized to develop devices such as injectable tissue repair matrixes, bioactive fillers, or therapeutic agents for stimulating specific cellular responses in bone-related tissue engineering," said Akhilesh Gaharwar, PhD, BWH Division of Biomedical Engineering, first study author. "Future mechanistic studies will be performed to better understand underlying pathways that govern favorable responses, leading to a better understanding of how materials strategies can be leveraged to further improve construct performance and ultimately shorten patient recovery time."
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Brigham and Women's Hospital: http://www.brighamandwomens.org
Thanks to Brigham and Women's Hospital for this article.
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