An Ailing Venus Williams Exits with Sjogren’s Syndrome

Venus Williams departed the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday with downcast eyes, staring at an uncertain future after revealing she had received a diagnosis of Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain.

Williams, who missed the hardcourt season with what had been described as a viral illness, withdrew from the United States Open minutes before she was due on court at Arthur Ashe Stadium for her second-round match against No. 22 Sabine Lisicki .

Williams, 31, was unseeded for the first time since 1997, when she advanced to the final in her Open debut. Appearing in her 13th Open, she had pulled the curtain back on a game that looked robust, if a tad rusty, in her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Vesna Dolonts on Monday. She had aspired to become the first Open women’s singles champion over 30 since Martina Navratilova in 1987.

For Williams, the withdrawal brought the end to a Grand Slam season that began with a hip injury and third-round exit at the Australian Open.

She was in her match clothes when she emerged from one private room in the bowels of Ashe Stadium and, trailed by a security escort, disappeared behind a closed door of another room with restricted access.

As she left the grounds, a statement was distributed in the press room in which Williams expressed disappointment over having to withdraw. “I enjoyed playing my first match here,” she said, “and wish I could continue, but right now I am unable to. I am thankful I finally have a diagnosis and am now focused on getting better and returning to the court soon.”

Those stricken by Sjogren’s Syndrome are predominantly female and usually receive a diagnosis in their 40s, said Dr. Joanne F. Shen, an ophthalmologist at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona who treats patients with the disease because dry eyes are among the symptoms. The fatigue that characterizes the disease can be debilitating, Shen said. “It would certainly interfere with my ability to do my job,” she said, adding, “I see patients really not getting back to their previous level because of the fatigue.”

Williams, a seven-time major champion and two-time Open titlist, has played 11 matches on the women’s tour this year. After defeating Dolonts, ranked No. 91, she spoke of how she was managing an energy-sapping condition and, for most of the summer, “I just couldn’t play pro tennis.”

She added: “Just to miss so much time off tour was just disheartening. But I’m just really excited to be back.”
Throughout her 17-year pro career, Williams has consistently refused to talk about injuries or illnesses, adopting the attitude that if she is entered in a tournament, she is healthy enough to play. But her mother, Oracene, said Wednesday that Williams’s health “is something that’s been worrisome for a long time.”

Her mother waited for her daughter on Wednesday in the foyer with Isha Price, one of Williams’s five sisters. At length they were joined by Williams’s agent, Carlos Fleming, who said, “I’m worried, yeah, of course.” When pressed, he said, “I think that’s as forthright as I can be right now.”

Williams ascended to the No. 1 ranking in February 2002, becoming the first African-American woman in the Open era to reach the top. It was not long before her younger sister Serena was sprinting down the path she paved, rising to No. 1 in July of the same year. Between 2000 and 2005, the Williams sisters dominated the women’s game, combining for 11 Grand Slam singles titles and 4 Grand Slam doubles crowns.

They squared off in the Open’s 2001 women’s final, the first held at night for a prime-time audience, and again in 2002. Williams won in their first final and relinquished her crown to her sister the next year. She has not made an Open final since. Her last Grand Slam title came at Wimbledon in 2008.

“A lot of the battle is just trying to be fit and stay healthy,” she said Monday after her first-round match. “Sometimes I’ve been losing that battle a lot.”

In an aside that, in retrospect, read like foreshadowing, Williams also said, “I started to get down this summer because all these things are out of my control.”

Asked Monday if she had the stamina to play a long match, and to string six more victories together over the next two weeks, Williams said: “I don’t know. I think I can do what it takes, but I guess I’ll have to see. I think I’m O.K.”

Lisicki, who has a 1-1 career record against Williams, said she was in the locker room preparing for the match when she received the news of the withdrawal.

“I heard she practiced as usual,” Lisicki said. “I saw her in her match clothes so was fully prepared and really looking forward to the match. I hope she will be fine quick.”

Man Killed by Grizzly in Yellowstone Visiting 'Place He Loved,' Family Says

BILLINGS, Mont. — Wildlife agents were trying to capture a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park on Monday after it killed a Michigan hiker in the second fatal bear attack this summer at the famed park.


The body of John Wallace, 59, was discovered Friday in a backcountry area known for its high population of bears.


He was traveling alone and had pitched his tent in a campground along the Mary Mountain Trail on Wednesday.


His body was discovered by two hikers. An autopsy conducted Sunday confirmed that Wallace died of traumatic injuries from a bear attack.


"There was no witness to this incident, and we really don't have a lot of information to help us determine why this attack may have occurred," said Al Nash, park spokesman.


He said park rangers are conducting flyovers of the area where the attack occurred.


"The next step is to see if we can find a bear, and then determine if that is the bear involved in the incident," Nash said. "That might help them figure out why this attack happened at all."


Wallace is the second person to die of a bear attack in the park this summer. In July, a female bear attacked and killed a 57-year-old Torrance, Calif., man. Authorities let the responsible grizzly go because it was protecting its cubs.


The bear that killed Wallace is believed to be a different animal than the one in the July killing.


The earlier mauling occurred about eight miles away from where Wallace's body was found.


This time, rangers have set traps with the intent to capture and kill the bruin that attacked Wallace. Its guilt would be established through DNA analysis connecting it to evidence found at the mauling scene, park officials said.


Bear attacks are rare at Yellowstone. No one was hurt by a bear in the park last year, and before the two latest incidents, no human had been killed by a bear in the park since 1986.


There are more than 600 bears in the greater Yellowstone area, and Chris Servheen, grizzly-bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the Hayden Valley where Wallace was killed is known to have "a lot of bears."


Once a rare sight even in the wilds of Yellowstone, grizzly bears have become an almost routine cause for curious tourists lining up at Yellowstone's roadsides for a glimpse. The bears, whose population was near extinction last century, are protected from hunting even outside the park under the Endangered Species Act.


Despite the killings, park officials said the rate of dangerous encounters is extremely low given that more than 3 million people visit the park every year.


"We've averaged one encounter that has caused injuries a year for the past 25 years," said park superintendent Dan Wenk. "The record speaks for itself."


A resident of Chassell, Mich., Wallace worked for about 20 years at the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton, a city in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula. He was married and had no children, said Shawn Leche, the library director.


Leche described Wallace as a quiet, easygoing man and conscientious worker who loved books, opera and the outdoors.


He had asked for vacation time to camp and hike at Yellowstone, a park he had visited before, Leche said.

How Would NASA Evacuate the Space Station?

In the wake of a Russian rocket failure, NASA is considering evacuating the crew of the International Space Station later this year. The unprecedented move would mark the first time in more than 10 years that the orbiting outpost has gone unmanned.
The space station evacuation is one possibility following the failure of the unmanned Russian supply spacecraft just after its Aug. 24 launch — a surprise given the reliable track record of its workhorse Soyuz rocket. The vehicle’s Progress 44 cargo craft, and its 2.9 tons of supplies bound for the International Space Station, crashed in Siberia.

An investigation into the cause of the failure is under way, but until the issue is resolved NASA and its Russian partners are delaying upcoming launches to crews and cargo to the space station. The Soyuz rockets used to launch Progress vehicles are similar to ones used to launch crews into orbit, station managers said.
So if a root cause isn't found quickly, they may have to ground manned Soyuz rockets for the time being, forcing the space agencies to leave the $100 billion orbiting laboratory unmanned for the first time since 2001.
"The focus of the entire program, and in particular our Russian colleagues, is to determine the cause of the anomaly and to resolve it and to get back to flying safely," said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager, during a briefing today (Aug. 29). “We’ll focus on keeping the crews safe. Our next focus is to try to keep the ISS manned."
Only once before, after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, which destroyed that orbiter and its crew, did NASA consider evacuating the International Space Station — a process agency officials call "de-manning." In that case, though, managers decided to continue sending crews to the station on Soyuz rockets until the shuttle was ready to fly again.
The space station was designed to be able to operate autonomously, without crew onboard, if it needs to.
"If we have to de-man ISS, we do certainly have a safe way to do that as well," Suffredini said. "We’ll try to prevent that if we can."
The largest risk of evacuating the station is the possibility that some major component could break, or a significant anomaly could occur, and no astronauts would be available on orbit to fix it.
"There is a greater risk of losing ISS when it's unmanned than if it were manned," Suffredini said. "That’s why we made our decision after the Columbia accident to keep it manned, because the risk is not insignificant."
To de-man the space station would require no extraordinary preparations on the part of the six spaceflyers currently living aboard the ISS.
Most of its essential systems can be commanded from the ground. The astronauts and cosmonauts would close many of the hatches between modules to keep the individual orbital rooms isolated, for further protection against a failure in one part. External locks and docking mechanisms can even be prepared so that unmanned ships like Progress can depart and arrive robotically and autonomously, in cooperation with ground support.
"We'd prefer not to operate in that condition without crew onboard for an extended period of time," Suffredini said. "But assuming the systems keep cooperating we can command the vehicle from the ground and keep it running indefinitely." [Photos: Building the International Space Station]
In addition to the increased risk, the largest loss would be the ability of the crew to conduct research onboard, which is the main purpose of the football-field sized laboratory. Certain autonomous experiments could keep running, but most of the science research on the station would have to be shut down and postponed until astronauts and cosmonauts returned, Suffredini said.

Amazon.com to Be Apple iPad's Biggest Competitor, Analyst Says

Amazon.com may sell as many as five million tablet computers in the fourth quarter, making the largest Internet retailer the top competitor to Apple in this fast-growing niche of the consumer PC market, Forrester Research said on Monday.
Amazon.com has to price its tablet "significantly" below competing products and have enough supply to meet demand, but if the company can pull this off it can "easily" sell three to five million units in the final three months of 2011, Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps predicted.

Apple has sold almost 30 million iPads since launching its tablet in April 2010. Rival products from companies including Samsung Electronics Co, Research in Motion and Motorola Mobility, have failed to seriously challenge that early lead. This month, Hewlett-Packard scrapped its TouchPad after sales languished.
"Thus far, Apple has faced many would-be competitors, but none have gained significant market share," Epps wrote. "Not only does Amazon have the potential to gain share quickly but its willingness to sell hardware at a loss, as it did with the Kindle, makes Amazon a nasty competitor."
One problem with iPad rivals has been that developers have so far waited before creating a lot of applications, or apps, for the devices, Forrester noted.
Apple claims about 100,000 custom-built iPad apps, while Google's Honeycomb platform, which is the tablet version of the Android operating system, has attracted fewer than 300 apps, according to Forrester.

"If Amazon's Android-based tablet sells in the millions, Android will suddenly appear much more attractive to developers who have taken a wait-and-see approach," Epps said.
Amazon shares were up 3 percent to $205.29 in early afternoon trading on Monday, leaving them up more than 10 percent so far this year.
Apple shares gained 1.9 percent to $390.83. The stock is up almost 19 percent so far in 2011.


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What Do Black Bears Eat?

Black bears may be the least carnivorous of the "carnivores" of North America. They consume a wide variety of seasonally abundant herbs, forbs, fruits, berries, nuts, and other plant parts and products. The specific plants may differ among the a number of ecoregions of North America. However, certain trends are evident. Spring foods are predominantly grasses, sedges, shoots and other high-protein lush green vegetation. Deer and other carcasses may be scavenged, as well as leftover nuts. Skunk cabbage is important in Massachusetts and squaw root in the southern Appalachians. During summer, bears shift to energy-rich "soft mast" foods such as huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, and cherries. Protein-rich insects such as ants, wasps, and beetle larvae are usually taken.

Crayfish, frogs, birds' eggs, mice, red squirrels, woodchucks, snowshoe hare, and other animal food are occasionally eaten. Then, in autumn (where available), "hard mast" items including acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and similar foods are taken. Corn is also eaten where available. Bears can make tremendous weight gains in fall, as much as 3 to 4 lbs. per day. However, in northern areas, where hard mast is lacking, bears must rely only on berry crops for weight gain and den after those are exhausted. Bears, especially adult males, and especially when foods are scarce, may travel up to 125 miles outside their home range in late summer and early fall to a concentrated food source before returning home to den. A number of historical accounts from Louisiana, Minnesota, New England, Ontario, Wisconsin, and elsewhere mention these "migrations" or "forays", which often followed well-defined trails beaten down over time.
In spring and early summer, poplar catkins, leaves, and lush grasses are common foods. Bears lack a caecum and do not have any known ability to digest cellulose so the nutritional value of such foods is not apparent. However, researcher-habituated bears have been seen to relish deer scat and feed on the intestines of winter-killed deer. Perhaps by this means bears may acquire cellulose-digesting organisms which allow the bears to digest foods they could not otherwise utilize.

Several workers have suggested that the period between den emergence and the availability of summer-ripening fruits and berries is a "negative foraging period" during which bears gather enough food to sustain life, but not to gain weight. However, recent studies in Minnesota challenge this assumption. Young bears can and do gain weight from spring foods. However, lactating females may indeed lose weight due to the high energy demands of milk production. Breeding-age males may also lose weight due to changes in physiology and behavior.

Bears which feed in garbage dumps, campgrounds, or at bait stations may grow faster, attain greater weights, and have greater fertility than their wild counterparts. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, both male (224 lbs.) and female (132 lbs.) "panhandler" bears using high-energy human foods were heavier on average than wild bears of the same sex (163 and 110 lbs). Additionally, 56% of panhandler females were lactating, as opposed to 33% of wild sows. Similarly, in Michigan, "dump bears" tended to be heavier than those captured elsewhere, while garbage-fed females averaged 3.1 cubs per litter as compared to 2.0 elsewhere. One 9-yr-old male in northern Minnesota, fed daily at a bait station, grew from 410 to 620 lbs. over a 51-day period.

References: Beecham and Rohlman 1994, Bray and Barnes 1967, Cardoza 1976, Chi et al. 1998, Costello 1992, Eagle and Pelton 1983, Fair and Rogers 1990, Herrero 2002, Kilham and Gray 2002, Kolenosky and Strathearn 1987a, McDonald and Fuller 1994, McLean and Pelton 1990, Noyce 1994, Noyce and Garshelis 1994, Powell et al. 1997, Rogers et al. 1976, Rogers 1976, Rogers and Wilker 1990, Schorger 1949, Seibert 1991, Spencer 1955, Tisch 1961, Warburton 1982.

Irene Blamed for At Least 7 Deaths as It Makes Ferocious Run Up East Coast

Hurricane Irene pounded the North Carolina and Virginia coasts with fierce winds and heavy rain Saturday, killing at least seven people, including two children, and leaving nearly one million people without power as it began a ferocious run up the East Coast.
Heavy winds continued to lash the Hampton Roads region of Virginia on Saturday night as Irene maintained its north-northeast path.
The violent Category 1 hurricane slammed into Cape Lookout, N.C., at about 7:30 a.m., packing maximum sustained winds at around 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters say Irene's sustained winds have eased a bit but are still at hurricane strength as the bulk of the powerful storm starts to re-emerge over the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Irene is so far being blamed for at least seven deaths. An 11-year-old boy died Saturday when the hurricane blew a tree on his two-story apartment building in Newport News, Va., and another person was killed from a fallen tree while driving in Brunswick County. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell confirmed a third death elsewhere in the state.
In North Carolina, a man was crushed to death outside his home by a large limb blown down during high winds from the hurricane and a child died in a wreck after the car she was in crashed at an intersection where the storm had knocked out power to the traffic lights. Two other deaths in North Carolina were also reported, according to the state's Office of Emergency Management.
With most of its transportation machinery shut down, the Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan -- 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolinas to Cape Cod -- and packed wind gusts of 115 mph.
The hurricane stirred up 7-foot waves, and forecasters warned of storm-surge danger on the coasts of Virginia and Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound. In Maryland, authorities closed the Chesapeake Bay bridge Saturday night as Irene gusts reached 72 to 80 mph.

Irene made its official landfall just after first light near Cape Lookout, N.C., at the southern end of the Outer Banks, the ribbon of land that bows out into the Atlantic Ocean. Shorefront hotels and houses were lashed with waves. Two piers were destroyed, and at least one hospital was forced to run on generator power.
"Things are banging against the house," Leon Reasor said as he rode out the storm in the town of Buxton. "I hope it doesn't get worse, but I know it will. I just hate hurricanes."
By afternoon, the storm had weakened to sustained winds of 80 mph, down from 100 mph on Friday. That made it a Category 1, the least threatening on a 1-to-5 scale, and barely stronger than a tropical storm. Its center was positioned almost exactly where North Carolina meets Virginia at the Atlantic, and it was moving more slowly, at 13 mph, and back out toward the ocean.
After the Outer Banks, the storm strafed Virginia with rain and strong wind. It covered the Hampton Roads region, which is thick with inlets and rivers and floods easily, and chugged north toward Chesapeake Bay. Shaped like a massive inverted comma, the storm had a thick northern flank that covered all of Delaware, almost all of Maryland and the eastern half of Virginia.
It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2008, and came almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Experts guessed that no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people.
At least 2.3 million were under orders to move to somewhere safer, although it was unclear how many obeyed or, in some cases, how they could.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told 6,500 troops from all branches of the military to get ready to pitch in on relief work, and President Barack Obama visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's command center in Washington and offered moral support.
"It's going to be a long 72 hours," he said, "and obviously a lot of families are going to be affected."
In New York, authorities began the herculean job of bringing the city to a halt. The subway began shutting down at noon, the first time the system was closed because of a natural disaster. It was expected to take as long as eight hours for all the trains to complete their runs and be taken out of service.
On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates near the East River because of fear of flooding. Tarps were placed over other grates. Construction stopped throughout the city, and workers at the site of the World Trade Center dismantled a crane and secured equipment.
While there were plenty of cabs on the street, the city was far quieter than on an average Saturday. In some of the busiest parts of Manhattan, it was possible to cross a major avenue without looking, and the waters of New York Harbor, which might normally be churning from boat traffic, were quiet before the storm.
The biggest utility, Consolidated Edison, considered cutting off power to 6,500 customers in lower Manhattan because it would make the eventual repairs easier. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also warned New Yorkers that elevators in public housing would be shut down, and elevators in some high-rises would quit working so people don't get trapped if the power goes out.
"The time to leave is right now," Bloomberg said at an outdoor news conference at Coney Island, his shirt soaked from rain.
A day earlier, the city ordered evacuations for low-lying areas, including Battery Park City at the southern edge of Manhattan, Coney Island with its famous amusement park and the beachfront Rockaways in Queens.
The five main New York-area airports -- La Guardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark, plus two smaller ones -- waved in their last arriving flights around noon. The Giants and Jets postponed their preseason NFL game, the Mets postponed two baseball games, and Broadway theaters were dark.
New York has seen only a handful of hurricanes in the past 200 years. The Northeast is much more used to snowstorms -- including the blizzard last December, when Bloomberg was criticized for a slow response.
For all the concern, there were early signs that the storm might not be as bad as feared. Some forecasts had it making landfall as a Category 3 storm and perhaps reaching New York as a Category 2.
"Isabel got 10 inches from coming in the house, and this one ain't no Isabel," said Chuck Owen of Poquoson, Va., who has never abandoned his house to heed an evacuation order. He was referring to Hurricane Isabel, which chugged through in 2003.
Still, Owen put his pickup truck on a small pyramid of cinder blocks to protect it from the storm tide, which had already begun surging through the saltwater marshes that stand between Poquoson and Chesapeake Bay.
Airlines said 9,000 flights were canceled, including 3,000 on Saturday. Airlines declined to say how many passengers would be affected, but it could easily be millions because so many flights make connections on the East Coast. There were more than 10,000 cancellations during the blizzard last winter.
American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said it was not clear when flights would resume out of New York.
"The one thing about a hurricane is that you can prepare for it and you just have to adapt your plan based on how the storm travels," she said. "It's basically an educated guessing game."
Greyhound suspended bus service between Richmond, Va., and Boston. Amtrak canceled trains in the Northeast for Sunday.
The power losses covered 900,000 homes and businesses and were heavily concentrated in Virginia and North Carolina. Dominion Resources reported almost 600,000 customers without power and Progress Energy 260,000, with much of the outages in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, N.C.
Irene roared across the Caribbean earlier this week, offering a devastating preview for the United States: power outages, dangerous floods and high winds that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Al-Qaeda's No. 2 Leader Killed in Pakistan. U.S. Official Say

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, a U.S. official tells Fox News.
Al-Rahman was a Libyan national who was considered Al Qaeda's operational leader before rising to the No. 2 spot following Usama bin Laden's death in May.
Al-Rahman's death is a big blow to the terrorist group and comes as U.S. officials have said in the aftermath of bin Laden's killing that a few more high-profile deaths could break Al Qaeda's back.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. That's the same day a US drone strike in Waziristan.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that Al Qaeda's defeat was within reach if the U.S. could mount a string of successful attacks on the group's weakened leadership.
"Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them," Panetta said, "because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple Al Qaeda as a major threat."
Since bin Laden's death, Al Qaeda's structure has been unsettled and U.S. officials have hoped to capitalize on that. The more uncertain the leadership, the harder it is for Al Qaeda to operate covertly and plan attacks.
Bin Laden's longtime deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is running the group but is considered a divisive figure who lacks the founder's charisma and ability to galvanize Al Qaeda's disparate franchises.
Rahman has been thought to be dead before. Last year, there were reports that Rahman was killed in a drone strike but neither senior U.S. administration officials nor Al Qaeda ever confirmed them.
Al-Rahman was allowed to move freely in and out of Iran as part of that arrangement and has been operating out of Waziristan for some time, officials have said.
Born in Libya, al-Rahman joined bin Laden as a teenager in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.
After Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, they found evidence of al-Rahman's role as operational chief, U.S. officials have said.

Minnesota Dad Leaves Son Behind in Foreclosed Home

A desperate dad fleeing foreclosure left behind his 11-year-old son a week before they would have been evicted from their home, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Friday.
Steven Alexander Cross fled during the night while his son, Sebastian, slept in their Lakeville, Minnesota home, located 25 miles south of Minneapolis. The property was in foreclosure and the owner had received an eviction notice.
The father left a note of instruction for his son, telling him to take his PlayStation and go to a neighbor's house when he woke up.

"If this paper is wet, it's because I am crying so bad," he wrote to the boy before making his escape July 18. "You know your dad loves you more than anything."
Cross, 60, also drafted a second letter, explaining his struggle to find work as an architect in the down economy.
After the boy awoke to find himself all alone, he went to the home of neighbor Joanne Pahl with the letters.
"He started to cry," another neighbor said about the incident. The child is currently in protective custody and will soon be placed with a relative.
"For a parent to abandon a child under these circumstances -- it is both unusual and disturbing," Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said.
Officials still have not located Cross but he is believed to possibly be hiding in California.
He has been charged with gross misdemeanor of child neglect and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

New American Idol Music

Season 7’s fifth place finalist, Brooke White, released an EP on iTunes, called Gemini, today. The EP is a collaboration between her and Jack Matranga. The duo is known as Jack and White.

The track list for Gemini is:
1. Gemini
2. Double Trouble
3. Inside Outside
4. Telephone Games
5. Smoke and Mirrors
6. Feathers
“Double Trouble” has been selected as the iTunes “Single of the Week!” The EP will be available everywhere else a week from today, Tuesday, August 30. Get Gemini on iTunes.

Jack and White have three upcoming shows on their schedule for September:
9/14: Hotel Utah, San Francisco, CA
9/17: Luigi’s Fungarden, Sacramento, CA
9/19: Silverlake Lounge, Los Angeles, CA

Today, DJ and Music Producer David Guetta released a new song, “Night of Your Life,” featuring Season 3’s Jennifer Hudson. The up-beat track pairs Jennifer’s vocals with David’s beats and sells for $1.29 on iTunes. The song will have you dancing your way to a svelte body like Jennifer’s!

Upcoming releases:
8/30: Kelly Clarkson releases “Mr. Know It All” on KellyClarkson.com.
9/5: Kelly Clarkson releases “Mr. Know It All” on iTunes.
10/4: Scotty McCreery releases debut album, Clear As Day.
10/11: Lauren Alaina releases debut album, Wildflower.
10/25: Kelly Clarkson releases Stronger, her fifth studio album.
water contamination

Russian Space Agency Grounds Soyuz Fleet After Latest Crash

Russia grounded its Soyuz rockets after one of the unmanned craft crashed following blast-off while carrying tonnes of cargo for the International Space Station, a space official said Thursday.
"A decision has been taken to halt the launch of Soyuz carrier rockets until the reasons for the accident become clear," the unnamed Russian official told the Interfax news agency.

Wednesday's accident raised concerns over the reserves of the six crew members on board the station and clouded the future of the ISS program, which relies almost exclusively on Russia following the retirement of US shuttles.
Both Russian and US space officials took care to dispel suggestions that the accident may prompt an emergency evacuation of the ISS crew.
Space officials from both sides said the team -- which besides three Russians includes two US astronauts and a spaceman from Japan -- had at least two months worth of food and other basics.
But Russia's immediate launch schedule was thrown into doubt Wednesday when the Roskosmos space agency removed all reference to future missions from its official website.
The next manned flight to the ISS is scheduled for September 22 and a cargo vessel with new supplies is due to take off on October 28.
Both flights rely on various modifications of the Soyuz carrier rocket -- a Soviet-era model whose importance has been magnified with the retirement of the US shuttle program this year.
Roskosmos said Thursday that it was fully committed to supplying the ISS with both cargo and crew despite the setback.
The agency said its chief Vladimir Popov held an emergency overnight meeting in which he requested "additional proposals on ways to provide support for the International Space Station and unconditionally meet" Russia's commitments to it.
But some in the Russian media said the fifth launch failure in the past nine months showed that the once-proud industry was entering a period of crisis.
"The series of launch accident points to a deep crisis," the Kommersant business daily said on its front page. "More and more of Russia's craft fail to reach orbit."

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International Space Station-Bound Supply Ship Explodes, Crashes in Siberia

An unmanned Russian supply ship bound for the International Space Station failed to reach its planned orbit Wednesday, and pieces of it fell in Siberia amid a thunderous explosion, officials said.
A brief statement from Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, did not specify whether the Progress supply ship that was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan had been lost. But the state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Alexander Borisov, head of a the Choisky region in Russia's Altai province, as saying pieces of the craft fell in his area some 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of the launch site

"The explosion was so strong that for 100 kilometers (60 miles) glass almost flew out of the windows," he was quoted as saying. Borisov said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Choisky's Interior Ministry as saying the space ship crashed in a vast Siberian forest that contains small villages. Yuri Shmyrin, the chief of Karakoksha, one of those villages, told Interfax news agency that the search operation for the wreckage is not likely to start until Thursday morning.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry could not be reached for comment. A Roscosmos media officer who refused to be identified said the agency had no immediate comment.
Roscosmos said the third stage of the rocket firing the ship into space failed a few minutes into the launch. The ship was carrying more than 2.5 tons of supplies, including oxygen, food and fuel. Since the ending of the U.S. space shuttle program this summer, Russian spaceships are a main supply link to the space station. It was the 44th Progress to launch to the International Space Station.
Roscosmos said the accident "would have no negative influence" on the International Space Station crew because its existing supplies of food, water and oxygen are sufficient.
Interfax cited a Russian space analyst, Sergei Puzanov, as saying those supplies could last two to three months and that "the situation with the loss of the Progress cannot be called critical."
In the United States, NASA said the rocket appeared to function flawlessly at liftoff, which occurred right on time, but there was a loss of contact with the vehicle just over five minutes into the flight.
On NASA TV, Russian officials said the upper stage did not separate from the supply ship and that on two subsequent orbits controllers tried to contact the supply ship -- in vain. Two hours after the mishap, Russian Mission Control told the space station crew: "We'll try to figure it out."
NASA is counting on Russia as well as Japan and Europe to keep the orbiting outpost stocked, now that the space shuttles are no longer flying. The shuttle program ended in July with the Atlantis mission; a year's worth of food and other provisions were delivered.
Late this year, a commercial company in California plans to launch its own rocket and supply ship to the space station. NASA is encouraging private enterprise to make station deliveries.
There are six astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which orbits 350 kilometers (220 miles) above the Earth. They are Russians Andrei Borisenko, Alexander Samokuyayev and Sergei Volkov, Americans Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan.

"The supplies aboard the space station are actually pretty fat" after the resupply mission by space shuttle Atlantis in July, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said from Houston. "So we don't anticipate any immediate impact to the crew."
Humphries stressed that NASA was waiting to get more details from Russian space officials on what actually happened.
In July of 2010, a Progress supply ship failed in its first automatic docking attempt due to equipment malfunction, but was connected with the orbiting laboratory two days later.

Steve Jobs Gives Up CEO Spot at Apple, Tim Cook Will Replace Him

Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs Wednesday resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc in a stunning move that ended his 14-year reign at the technology giant he co-founded in a garage.
Apple shares dived as much as 7 percent in after-hours trade after the pancreatic cancer survivor and industry icon, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since Jan. 17, announced he will be replaced by COO and longtime heir apparent Tim Cook.
Analysts do not expect Jobs' resignation -- which had long been foreseen -- to derail the company's fabled product-launch roadmap, including possibly a new iPhone in September and a third iteration of the iPad tablet in 2012.
``I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,'' he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.
The 55-year-old CEO had briefly emerged from his medical leave in March to unveil the latest version of the iPad and later to attend a dinner hosted by President Barack Obama for technology leaders in Silicon Valley.
Jobs' often-gaunt appearance has sparked questions about his health and his ability to continue at Apple.

``I will say to investors: don't panic and remain calm, it's the right thing to do. Steve will be chairman and Cook is CEO,'' said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
Apple shares slid to $357.40 in extended trading after a brief halt. They had gained 0.7 percent to close at $376.18 on the Nasdaq.
Analysts again expressed confidence in the Apple bench, headed by longtime company No. 2 and supply-chain maven Cook.
``Investors are very comfortable with Tim Cook even though Jobs has been a driver of innovation and clearly an Apple success. Tim has shown Apple can still outperform extremely well when he's been acting as CEO,'' said Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross.
``I don't know if it's a health issue. I don't know if it is a shock. Most likely it was going to happen at some point. Why today versus another day? I don't know.'' (Reporting by Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan; Editing by Gary Hill)

Fire destroys private-island home of Virgin head Richard Branson

A lightning strike sparked a fire Monday that destroyed the Caribbean island home of Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson, a statement from the media mogul said.
About 20 people, including Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet, were in the house at the time of the fire, which broke out around 4 a.m., Branson said. No one was injured.
"Many thanks to Kate Winslet for helping carry my 90-year(-old) mum out of the main house to safety," Branson wrote in the e-mailed statement.
Branson said the house, located on Necker Island, the 74-acre private island the billionaire owns in the British Virgin Islands, was destroyed, along with "thousands of photographs and my notebooks."
"But all my family and friends are well -- which in the end is all that really matters," he said.
The lightning strike that caused the fire occurred in the midst of Tropical Storm Irene, which strengthened into a hurricane early Monday.
Pictures show the house completely engulfed in flames against an ominous sky.
"Currently just huddled up with family and friends in the continuing tropical storm realising what really matters in life," Branson said.
He promised to rebuild, saying "we'll create something even more special out of the ruins."
In addition to Branson's private residences on the island, Necker is also open as a luxury resort that can accommodate up to 28 guests for those who can afford the hefty $54,500-a-night price tag.
The island has been featured on such TV programs as "MTV Cribs," and TV personalities Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo were recently married on the island.

Obama: Qaddafi Regime 'Coming to an End'

President Obama said Monday that Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime is "coming to an end" but the fighting is "not over yet," as Libyan rebels brought Qaddafi's forces to the brink of collapse.
The president emerged from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard to publicly address the historic developments in Libya, where rebels moved with remarkable speed to capture control of most of Tripoli.
"The future of Libya is in the hands of its people," Obama said. "The celebrations that we've seen in the streets of Libya shows that the pursuit of human dignity is far stronger than any dictator."

Obama noted that there is still "fierce fighting" in some areas, and urged Qaddafi -- whose location in unknown -- to publicly give up power.
"Although it's clear that Qaddafi's rule is over, he still has the opportunity to reduce further bloodshed by explicitly relinquishing power to the people of Libya and calling for those forces that continue to fight to lay down their arms for the sake of Libya," Obama said.
In addressing the developments, Obama paused to remember all the Americans killed by the regime "in acts of terror in the past." And he touted the combined efforts of the United States and its NATO allies in supporting the anti-Qaddafi rebel movement since March.
"The Libyan intervention demonstrates what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one," he said. "Although the efforts in Libya are not yet over, NATO has once more proven that it is the most capable alliance in the world and that its strength comes from both its firepower and the power of our democratic ideals."
Going forward, Obama said the U.S. and its allies are working to make sure "critical supplies" reach the country. He also said Qaddafi's frozen assets will be used to support the Libyan people.
Still, Obama administration officials stressed Monday that U.S. military involvement in the country would not be expanding.
A State Department spokeswoman said this must be a "Libyan-led transition." The Pentagon said the U.S. still does not plan to send forces into Libya.
"There will not be U.S. boots on the ground," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said. "If there is going to be some type of transitional mission that remains to be seen -- whether it comes out of the U.N. or NATO, but we still do not plan any U.S. forces going onto the ground into Libya."
But a NATO official told Fox News the multi-national mission in Libya is not expected to end in the coming days -- even if Qaddafi is captured or killed.
The official said the NATO mission would end only when Qaddafi's forces withdraw to their bases or surrender; attacks against the civilian population cease; and the free flow of humanitarian goods and services is established.
The official said NATO is still preparing to transfer leadership to the United Nations. If all nations agree, this phase could include sending NATO troops into Libya as part of an effort to observe and stabilize conditions on the ground. Other countries from the Arab League or African Union could also play a part in that security effort.
The NATO official said it will remain crucial to enforce a no-fly zone and prevent illegal weapons shipments from entering the country. Qaddafi still has some forces in his home town of Sirte as well as in Brega and Sabha, the official said, though many have "lost the will to fight."
"It's over for him," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.
She also said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been "working the phones all morning" to get a handle on the developments in Libya. She said Clinton and the opposition leader "discussed ways that the international community can assist Libyans with the urgent work of protecting civilians and proving key services as well as the TNC's efforts to assemble an inclusive new government to protect the rights and aspirations of all citizens."
Nuland said that while no new funds have yet been released, the U.S. is "trying to accelerate" the release of the Qaddafi regime's frozen assets to the Libyan people. Nuland estimated the value of the assets at $30 billion, with 10 percent of it liquid.

Libya Revolution Puts Obama Administration on Alert for Pitfalls of Transition

With another Arab country on the cusp of deposing its leader, U.S. and European leaders are greeting the looming regime change in Libya with a mix of triumph and trepidation.
The Obama administration and its allies surely will cast the rebels' swift and decisive advance into Tripoli over the weekend as a vindication of their protracted intervention in a de facto civil war. Just last month, some lawmakers in Congress were trying to yank funding for the mission.
The president is expected to speak about the developments in Libya at 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

But analysts, and President Obama himself, warned that the hard work is not finished. Effectively, nobody is in charge of the country. Muammar al-Qaddafi is missing, his sons have been captured and the rebels are still pushing through pockets of Tripoli without a plan for who is the right person to take the reins of leadership.
The presumed transition, as in Egypt, raises questions about whether the government that replaces Qaddafi's will be pro-American or anti-American, Islamist or secular or somewhere in-between.
"Weeks from now, we're going to see the beginning of a tension between the more Islamist part and the more secular part of that Transitional Council," said Walid Phares, a Middle East analyst and Fox News contributor.
The latest revolution of the Arab Spring also may not be its last. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff for the Army, said the Tripoli offensive "provides energy" for protesters in Syria.
It comes after Obama and European allies increased pressure on Syria's Bashar Assad with sanctions and long-awaited calls for him to step down following months of assaults on protesters. The mounting changes in turn increase pressure on Obama to express a more detailed and comprehensive approach to the political change in the Middle East and North Africa, to impart some measure of stability on a region that has little.
"He does need a plan," said Tevi Troy, senior fellow with the Hudson Institute.
In the near-term, the NATO-led coalition in Libya will be focused on keeping the situation from spiraling out of control.
Keane said the most important order of business will be to maintain security in the absence of a stable government.
"Civil order is crucial," he told Fox News, saying a spree of looting and revenge-killing would be disastrous to the budding transition.
U.S. officials said part of that effort will be to ensure that Libya's arsenal of weapons -- including its anti-aircraft missiles and chemical weapons -- are secured and kept from falling into the wrong hands. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said the United States must "step up and lead to ensure U.S. national security interests are safeguarded."
"In particular, we must ensure that Qaddafi's stockpiles of advanced weapons, chemical weapons and explosives don't fall into the wrong hands," he said in a statement.
Offering a glimpse into where western officials will be focused in the coming days and weeks, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that his government will be working on deploying medical supplies and maintaining or repairing basic infrastructure in the country. He also said the U.N. Security Council will consider giving the Libyan rebels the "legal, diplomatic, political and financial support they need."
Obama, in a written statement, urged the Transitional National Council to show "leadership" in a way that respects the rights of Libyans. Recognizing the council as the country's official government, Obama urged its leaders to avoid civilian casualties and pursue "democracy that is just and inclusive for all of the people of Libya."
"A season of conflict must lead to one of peace," Obama said in a written statement issued from his vacation digs at Martha's Vineyard. "We will continue to insist that the basic rights of the Libyan people are respected. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners in the international community to protect the people of Libya, and to support a peaceful transition to democracy."

The perils of regime change were exemplified last week during a deadly dispute between Egypt and Israel. After Palestinian militants launched a series of attacks in a resort area of southern Israel, presumably entering by way of Egypt, Israeli forces in pursuit of the militants apparently killed three Egyptian soldiers.
The Israelis labeled it an accident, but the violence prompted fierce anti-Israel protests in Cairo and condemnation from Egypt's new government. Both sides are trying to defuse the tension as Palestinian militants say they will continue to target Israel.
Regardless of the potential for future unrest in the region, U.S. officials described the weekend's developments in Libya as unquestionably positive.
"We've seen difficulties with other countries that have made this transition, but we will be rid of a guy who has the blood of Americans on his hands," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS' "Face the Nation."
Obama said Tripoli was "slipping from the grasp of a tyrant."
The chairman of the Libyan opposition said Monday that the "real moment of victory" will come when Qaddafi is captured. He vowed that the transitional council wants to give him a fair trial.
Qaddafi's whereabouts are still unknown.
Despite the celebration Monday, Keane said western policies "protracted" the war. While the Obama administration for months has defended its slow-and-steady approach to Libya, Keane described the entire operation as a "tongue-in-cheek mission" -- one which described itself as humanitarian but sought the ouster of Qaddafi.
"The problem is we never used decisive force to do that," he said.

First Air Jet was 5 miles from Canadian airport when it crashed, killing 12

Canadian authorities are trying to determine what caused a jetliner to crash near the remote Arctic outpost of Resolute Bay, killing 12 people.
The jet, operated by Ontario-based carrier First Air, went down about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the airport on Saturday, First Air Vice President Chris Ferris told reporters Sunday. The dead included the four-member crew and eight of the 11 passengers aboard the Boeing 737-200, he said.
"At this time, the cause of the accident is unknown," he said. "The Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation, and First Air is cooperating fully."
Two of the three survivors were flown to Ottawa, more than 2,000 miles away, for further treatment, Ferris said. His voice cracked as he thanked Canadian troops for assisting in rescue efforts.
First Air flight 6560 was lost about 12:40 p.m. Saturday, about 10 minutes after its last reported communication with controllers, the airline reported. The flight took off from Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories.
Firefighters, medical teams, police and members of the Canadian military were among the first to respond to the accident, according to Dominique Verdon, a spokeswoman with Canada's Department of National Defence.
Authorities recovered the jet's flight recorders at the crash site, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported Saturday. Boeing offered its "deepest sympathies" to the families of the victims and said Canadian investigators have asked it to provide technical assistance for the investigation.

Russia's Orbital Technologies Reveals Plans for Space Hotel

This is one hotel that's truly out of this world.
A Russian company has revealed plans and sketches for a space hotel -- and it'll cost you. The hotel, designed by Russian firm Orbital Technologies, will accommodate seven guests in four cabins. It will take two days on board a Soyuz rocket in order to reach it.
But experts warn that the firm faces real challenges before it will be able to launch the planned space station.
And before you get too excited, it will cost $942,000 to visit the hotel. A five-day stay is expected to be about $157,000, plus the cost of the trip there: $785,000.

For those who can afford it, this could be one unforgettable trip. The company promises amazing views of Earth and comfort not seen in most space accommodation.
“Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station,” Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies said.
“A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through large portholes.”
When Orbital Tech first announced its plans to cater to the space tourism market in September 2010, it was unclear whether the state-controlled RKK Energia company (whiich will act as a contractor) will have the funds to carry out the project.
Orbital Technologies has yet to disclose the cost of the project, but Kostenko told the Associated Press last September that his company would turn a profit.
"Of course, we expect to make profit -- this is purely business," he said.
Jim Oberg, a Houston-based space consultant and expert on the Russian space program, warned at the time that that two stations in close orbits would put too much strain on tracking and communications resources on the ground.
In late July, the head of Russia's space agency made international headlines by saying the country planned to sink the International Space Station in the Pacific Ocean in 2020 -- comments the agency backpedaled from in the wake of an international outcry.
"The partners have agreed to continue the ISS operation until 2020. The partners will also approve an extended period of the ISS," agency press secretary Anna Vedishcheva told Russian news agency Interfax-AVN on July 28.

Orbital Technologies' station would be a commercial entity, however, and not a massive science project.
Due to open by 2016, visitors can choose beds that are either vertical or horizontal, while showers will be sealed in order to stop water going where it shouldn’t and toilets will use air instead of water to flush away waste. The air will be filtered to remove any smells and bacteria before being pushed back into the cabin.
Food will be prepared on Earth and reheated in microwaves, the company has declared. On the menu is braised veal cheeks with mushrooms, white bean puree and plum compote.
Alcohol will not be allowed and tourists will be accompanied by experienced crew.