Biffle holds on to win again at Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) ? Greg Biffle gave Ford a milestone victory ? right down the road from company headquarters.

Biffle raced to his second straight Sprint Cup win at Michigan International Speedway, easily holding off Kevin Harvick after points leader Jimmie Johnson smacked the wall in the final laps Sunday. It was the 1,000th victory for Ford Motor Company across NASCAR's three national series ? Cup, Nationwide and Truck.

"What a great moment this is," said Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing. "We couldn't be prouder to have this moment come here today at Michigan in front of so many of our Ford friends. What a great race and a great day for Ford."

It was Biffle's first win since he overtook Johnson to win at MIS in August. Johnson's engine faltered with six laps left in that race. This time, he was about a second behind Biffle with three laps to go ? but a tire give way, and he dropped all the way to 28th.

"I don't want to see anybody wreck," Biffle said. "It makes you feel good when you push the guy over the edge. He made a mistake, and that's what makes you feel good. You outsmarted him, or you beat him at his game."

Harvick was second, 3 seconds behind Biffle. Martin Truex Jr. was next, followed by Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart.

Johnson wasn't the only big name who ran into trouble. Jeff Gordon was out of contention almost immediately when he hit a spinning Bobby Labonte less than 10 laps into the 200-lap, 400-mile race. Gordon finished 39th, one spot behind Kasey Kahne, who led at the halfway point but appeared to blow a tire and went sliding into the wall.

Kahne's car caught fire, but he was able to climb out quickly.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won at MIS last June, finished 37th Sunday. He led for 34 laps, but his engine acted up about two-thirds of the way through the race.

There were eight cautions for 38 laps.

Biffle cruised to the finish in his No. 16 Ford. He finished second to Johnson the previous weekend at Pocono, but this time there was nobody left to challenge him at the end.

It was Ford's third Cup victory of the year ? Carl Edwards and David Ragan won at Phoenix and Talladega. Sunday was Ford Motor Company's 110th birthday.

"There have been a lot of great teams and a lot of great drivers, a lot of great engine builders that have contributed to Ford's success," Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush said. "I'm just proud and honored to be part of that."

This was the second Cup win of the year for Roush Fenway.

It's been an emotional week for the racing community after the death of driver Jason Leffler on Wednesday at a dirt-track race in New Jersey. Biffle was quick to acknowledge Leffler while he celebrated his Father's Day victory.

"We are thinking about little Charlie Leffler that doesn't have a father today," he said.

Biffle earned his 19th career victory and boosted his chances to reach the Chase for the Sprint Cup, moving from 10th to eighth in the standings. Biffle finished in the top 10 for the 13th time in 21 races at MIS, which is about 60 miles from Ford headquarters in Dearborn.

Edwards finished eighth. Kurt Busch qualified second but went into an early spin and finished 35th.

Johnson still has a comfortable lead in standings, although Edwards closed the gap at the top from 51 points to 31. Johnson had a chance at his fourth victory of the year before scraping the wall late.

Johnson has still never won a Cup race at MIS.

"I thought this would be the year," he said. "Most of the time we're leading and something happens, but I thought, 'OK, maybe coming from behind would be the difference.' But something happened."

Johnson's late mishap in his No. 48 Chevrolet did not result in a caution, so Biffle maintained his comfortable lead over Harvick.

"I wasn't catching the 16 and didn't really feel it necessary to have a tire failure or an issue at that particular point," Harvick said. "So our best bet at that point was the 48 catches the 16 and something happening as those two guys were racing. But we just maintained and managed our gap between us and (Truex) to just hold that track position and not have anything silly happen."

Harvick moved up one spot to fourth in the standings. Earnhardt fell from fourth to seventh.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/biffle-holds-win-again-michigan-202832238.html

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A Very Public Sociologist: How Not to Cover Abusive Relationships

How Not to Cover Abusive Relationships

If you're yet to see it, the piece is very uncomfortable. Readers who've experienced and survived domestic violence might want to give it a miss, so keep that in mind before you click this link. But it's fair to say the photographs of Charles Saatchi gripping the throat of Nigella Lawson, pushing at her nose and reducing her to tears leave little to interpretation. No amount of context can spin this as anything other than an assault.

While some might be tempted to see the splash as a good thing, I don't think the Sunday People have done Nigella nor anyone else a service. While anyone with a progressive bone in their body would welcome the raising of the profile of domestic violence, in this case and for whatever reason, Ms Lawson has hitherto kept it a private matter.?

Until she and her husband were papped, that is.?

What Nigella must have felt while she endured the public assault must be compounded and magnified by the coverage. She now faces the prospect of everywhere being tagged a victim and, should she decide to refrain from commenting, or not leave Saatchi; Nigella runs the risk of being seen to be undeserving of support, sympathy and solidarity. In the delightful double standards of our culture, it's down to the woman to leave her abusive male partner - not the latter's responsibility to reflect on and address his violent conduct. Even worse, it's her behaviour that is now subject to scrutiny. For she will be persistently dogged by will she/won't she separation tittle-tattle and speculation. Far from helping Nigella, the Sunday People have put her under the kind of spotlight she neither sought nor asked for. Any agency she had has been stripped out as they've boxed her into a corner in which her every move will be scrutinised.

I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but surely this isn't the position you'd want to put anyone who suffers domestic violence in.

Source: http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-not-to-cover-abusive-relationships.html

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Current, former officials back secret surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Current and former top U.S. officials on Sunday defended the government's collection of phone and Internet data following new revelations about the secret surveillance programs, saying the operations were essential in disrupting terrorist plots and did not infringe on Americans' civil liberties.

In interviews on Sunday talk shows, guests ranging from White House chief of staff Denis McDonough to former Vice President Dick Cheney and former CIA and National Security Agency head Michael Hayden said the government's reliance on data collection from both Americans and foreign nationals was constitutional and carefully overseen by executive, legislative and court authorities.

All three branches of government, using "aggressive internal checks inside the administration, from inspectors general and routine audits, are overseeing how we do these programs," McDonough said. He added, "I think that the American people can feel confident that we have those three branches looking."

The latest reassurances came as a new Washington Post report Sunday described the massive intertwined structure of four major data collection programs that have been set up by the government since the 9/11 attacks. The Post report follows earlier stories based on documents provided by NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Two secret programs, the Post reported in its new disclosures, are aimed at phone and Internet metadata, while two more target contents of phone and Internet communications.

Metadata includes logs and timing of phone calls and lists of Internet communications, but does not include the actual contents of communications. Even without knowing those contents, intelligence officials can learn much from metadata, including likely locations and patterns of behavior.

A previously reported surveillance program aimed at the phone logs and location information of millions of Americans is called Mainway, the Post reported. A second program targeting the Internet contact logs and location information of foreign users is called Marina.

A third program, which intercepts telephone calls and routes their contents to government listeners, is called Nucleon.

A fourth program, Prism, exposed recently by Snowden, forces major Internet firms to turn over the detailed contents of Internet communications. Prism is aimed at foreign users but sometimes also sweeps up the content of Americans' emails and other Internet communications, officials have acknowledged.

"The metadata story does touch upon Americans in a massive way with phone records but not the content. The Prism story is about foreigners and it is about content," Hayden said told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Rep. Mike Rogers, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said that any phone metadata from Americans swept up in the surveillance is held under careful safeguards, kept in a "lockbox" that can only be accessed if it becomes relevant to terror investigations. U.S. officials also said Saturday that gathered data is destroyed every five years.

"This is a lock box with only phone numbers, no names, no addresses in it, we've used it sparingly," Rogers, R-Mich., said on CNN's "State of the Union".

But one Congressional critic of the secrecy surrounding the government's surveillance raised doubts about the effectiveness about the widespread collection of Americans' phone metadata.

"I don't think collecting millions and millions of Americans' phone calls ? now this is the metadata, this is the time, place, to whom you direct the calls ? is making us any safer," said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado. Udall said he would introduce a bill this week to narrow the reach of that collection to only "those who have a link to terrorism."

Hayden said he worried that news reports about the programs have often provided erroneous information, "much to the harm of a rational national debate." He did not specify those concerns.

The disclosures, provided in recent days by both the Post and the Guardian newspaper, came from classified documents exposed by Snowden, 29, who was working as a private contractor with the NSA and later said he grew disenchanted by what he saw as a growing secret American surveillance apparatus. After working with the two newspapers, Snowden turned up in Hong Kong, prompting concern that he might cooperate with Chinese authorities.

"I am very, very worried that he still has additional information that he hasn't released yet, the Chinese would welcome the opportunity and probably willing to provide immunity for him or sanctuary for him, if you will, in exchange for what he presumably knows," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday."

Cheney added that he has "trouble believing" Snowden had access to all the materials he has disclosed, suggesting the possibility that Snowden had an accomplice inside U.S. security circles.

"I think you have to ask that question," Cheney said.

McDonough, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," declined to speculate on Snowden's dealings with China or his access to secret documents, citing a law enforcement investigation. But he cautioned against "some of the hyperbole that now is being thrown around from him and from others involved in this debate that would somehow cast a pall on the intelligence community."

But McDonough also disputed Snowden's claim that he had the ability to listen in on any phone conversation, including the president's.

"That's incorrect," McDonough said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/current-former-officials-back-secret-144925965.html

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The Torah and the Self: "The Good Death"

There is a humorous story told of a man who is dying at home. His daughter is sitting by his bedside offering care and comfort. She says to her father, "Daddy,I love you. Is there anything I can do for you? Her father whispers,"My daughter, you know how much I always loved your mothers ruggelah. I can smell them now baking in the kitchen Please go and bring me one." The daughter leaves and a few minutes later comes back to her father empty handed. She sits again next to the dying man and with a shrug says, "I am sorry Daddy. Mommy says they are for after!".

This week we find in the Torah too a story about dying, the death of Aharon, brother to Moshe and Kohen Gadol, High Priest. Only in our story the relevant word is "before" not "after". In the death story of Aharon, he, Moshe and Aharon's son Elazar ascend Hor haHor, the mountain on which Aharon is to die. At G-d's command, Moshe is told to remove the priestly clothes from Aharon just prior to his death and place them on Elazar. Then sorrounded by the two persons closest to him, Aharon lays down and dies. It is a beautiful death scene, and indeed a beautiful death. So much so that the Sages tell us that Moshe wished his death experience could be similar. And in concert with his request G-d told Moshe when his time came to die, later in the Torah, "...and you shall die as did Aharon your brother".

The story of Aharon's death also give rise to important Jewish laws concerning the dying. According to halacha,the dying are never to be left alone. The assumption is that it is a great comfort for the dying to spend their final moments around family and community.
The importance of a "good death" has given rise to the hospice movement, a movement that emphasizes the importance of being able to die at home sorrounded by one's loved ones.

Yet the matter may not be as simple as it first appears. Some years ago studies were done on the time patients tended to die in hospitals.
It was found that people seemed to die when no one was around. Even if they were attended by family they typically died at the times when attending family left. The family could be at the bedside 23 hours a day and the patient would die on the 24th hour, when they were left alone. Moreover it is often reported that Native Americans had quite a different idea about the "good death" than we find in hospice theory or halacha.When a Native American felt it was his time to die, he would go out from the camp into the woods, lay under a tree, and wait for his demise, alone!

And we might wonder about what seems an inconsistancy in the Torah itself. We mentioned above, that according to Tradition, Hashem promised Moshe the same death experience as Aharon. Yet in the story the Torah gives us no two experiences could be more different. Aharon died the "good death" sorrounded by those he loved and who loved him. Moshe died entirely alone. No one went with Moshe when he expired. He left the camp and simply walked away, very much like the Native American tradition. How could the Torah tell us the deaths were similar?

True we might argue that when Hashem told Moshe that his death would be like Aharon what He was referring to was the dying instant, that Moshe would know death as a "kiss" with the least possible pain. But that seems inadequate if Moshe really aspired to the "good death" experience Aharon had. If Moshe did not want to be alone when he died, true his moment of death may have been as easy as possible, but still he had no one with him, no companionship in his dying. That would be painful in and of itself!

I think what we are seeing from the Torah narrative is a great truth about dying and our responsibility to care for the dying. Yes, Aharon had the 'good death" in the classic sense. He had his loved ones by his side. But that death was good because that was the way Aharon lived. Aharon was a man of the people. He lived in community. He was invested in the personal lives of others. He was a peacemaker between husbands and wives. For him to die alone would be painful. He cherished his family, his friends and his community and invested in them. The "good death" for Aharon was exactly as the Torah describes it.

Moshe was different. He lived apart. He was separated even from his wife. He taught the People. He was their leader. But he was not of the community. His communion was with G-d. He had no friends, save perhaps Aharon his brother. And by the time Moshe died Aharon was already dead. For Moshe the "good death" , the death of Aharon, meant precisely to die alone, because that is how he lived.
Truth is there is no one model for the "good death". For some it means being enveloped in the web of family life. For others it means being left to solitude. I suspect our preference will be reflective of what we prefered when we were alive and well. Did we more prefer to be with others or more prefer our own space. The "good death" should be consistent with what we would have seen as the "good life".
And those of us who care for the dying as family and friends should make sure we understand what the "good death" will look like for the dying before we decide how to attend to them!

But I need to share one other very important point about the "good death". Even for those who lived amongst family and friends and want to die as they lived, its important that those who attend the dying know their role. When I quoted the study above that showed that patients in hospitals tended to die alone, when family was no in the room, it was not because those patients did not want family around them when they died. I am sure many of them would have preferred to have a "good death" with a son or daughter holding their hand as they died. The reason they 'chose' to die when no one was present was more often because the family made them feel it was not okay to die!
The dying person, in so many cases, even when they want loved ones with them, need those loved ones to give them permission to die, rather than encourage them to fight and live on when its clear their time has come.

Even when the "good death" that one wishes for includes being in the midst of loved ones. those loved ones need to know that their role is to facilitate death in the best way possible, not deny it or pretend it isn't happening!

The Torah gives us two stories of the "good death", this week of Aharon and at the end of the summer the story of Moshe. They were different deaths but they were both "good". We who live and love have our own obligation to make possible, as much as we can, the "good death" for the ones we love. To do that we need to know which story is most fitting. And if indeed it is the story of Aharon that fits, then to remember we are living with our loved one a story of death, and not to pretend or deny so that the one dying cannot feel it okay to play their part in the story and meet their end!

Shabbat Shalom

Source: http://thetorahandtheself.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-good-death.html

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Hands-on with Hyperkin's Retron 5: emulating nine classic consoles with help from Android

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo might be all about the next generation of gaming hardware, but not in Hyperkin's E3 booth: these guys are looking backwards. We dropped by to check out the Retron 5, the outfit's latest machine to traverse the library of older gaming titles. All told, this iteration strolls through half a dozen hardware cycles, offering compatibility for a full nine video game systems. It's more than a simple hardware emulator, however -- this machine offers save states, cheats and visual filters too.

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GfuwfPbwSKk/

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Patrick Schwarzenegger? Fit Like Dad | Health Tips, Fitness Advice ...

Arnie's son is all grown up and it looks like he's taking up his bodybuilder dad!?Arnold was 20, only one year older than his son now, when he won the coveted Mr. Universe title.?While Patrick still has a way to go before he'll be buff enough to rock a pair of teeny-tiny briefs like his pops did, he's well on his way.

Patrick Schwarzenegger vs Arnold Schwarzenegger

Patrick plans to gain 7 pounds this summer, wonder if he's putting his muscles to work to tackle an action flick or join a bodybuilding contest in a few years? Either way, I'm jealous that he's able to maintain his diet by eating?Pepperidge FarmGoldfish, Oreo cookies, Pop-Tarts, and other sugary snacks (check out?his?tweet). Enjoy it while you can, before age and metabolism catch up!

Source: http://www.withlovefay.com/2013/06/patrick-schwarzenegger-fit-like-dad/

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Sources: Booker, Pallone in US Senate race in NJ

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has used his social-media and political savvy to gain national prominence, is in the race to finish the U.S. Senate term of the late Frank Lautenberg, along with two Democratic congressmen and a Republican former mayor.

In a three-way Democratic primary so far, Booker will face U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, who can count on support from labor, and Rep. Rush Holt. Candidates have until 4 p.m. Monday to enter the race to fill the seat for the rest of the term.

Booker, who scheduled kickoff events in Newark and Willingboro for Saturday, is the early front-runner, though anything could happen in a time-constrained summer primary election, when few people are expected to vote.

Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, announced after Lautenberg died Monday that there would be party primaries Aug. 13 and a special election Oct. 16, less than three weeks before the general election that features his own re-election bid.

Christie says he made the election schedule to allow voters to choose their representation as soon legally possible, but critics believe he also does not want to be on the same ballot as Booker, even if the two are running for different offices. The two are by far the most notable politicians in the state and have significant national profiles.

Christie has appointed state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa to serve in the Senate until after the October special election. Chiesa won't run in the election.

The only Republican running so far is conservative Steve Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor who runs the New Jersey office of Americans for Prosperity.

A wealthy self-funded candidate could still emerge.

Booker, 44, is an unconventional politician with a penchant for tweaking the establishment and unconventional following.

He has 1.4 million followers on Twitter ? or five for every resident of the city where he's the mayor. He tweets frequently, answering questions about city services, posting about his workouts and, perhaps most often, trying to provide inspiration. For instance, late Thursday night, he sent this message: "We were born original without limitation, live your truth don't die an imitation."

He's always been good at getting attention, including a 10-day hunger strike years ago to protest open-air drug dealing and, last year, living on a food-stamp budget for a week.

In 2012, he rescued a neighbor from a burning home.

Booker has a running start in the race because he got in it early, even before Lautenberg announced in February that he would not seek re-election in 2014. As of March 31, Booker had raised $1.9 million.

Pallone, however, had more: $3.7 million at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Pallone, 61, has been a congressman since 1989. He has considered runs for senator before but never officially started a campaign for the office.

The other Democrat running is Holt, 64, a research physicist who was assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory before he entered the House in 1998. He told The Star-Ledger of Newark he's the best candidate to "continue the passionate advocacy for progressive values that Sen. Lautenberg exemplified."

Last year after Booker ? a rising star in the Democratic party ? made known his intentions to run for Lautenberg's seat in 2014, Pallone and Holt also said they were interested.

Booker, who grew up in suburban Harrington Park as the son of civil rights activists who were among the first black executives at IBM, went to Stanford, was a Rhodes Scholar, earned a law degree from Yale and took a job with the Urban Justice Center, which provides legal and other services to the vulnerable. He also moved to a public housing complex in Newark.

Booker's early days in politics pitted him against a lion of New Jersey politics. He was elected to the city council soon after moving to Newark and in 2002, he ran for mayor against the city's longtime leader, Sharpe James. He lost, but made a splash, and the campaign was documented in the film "Street Fight."

Four years later, he was elected mayor of the state's largest city. Under his watch, the city budget has been more stable and downtown redevelopment has picked up steam.

Booker is a liberal on most social issues ? a supporter of allowing gay marriage, for instance. Pallone and Holt are also associated with liberal causes.

But he's also in favor of expanded educational choices for families in cities, including using public money to send children to private schools. That's a cause that unites some urban liberals with conservatives and infuriates teachers unions and, often, school district officials who believe the policy would take money from public schools that need it badly. New Jersey does not have scholarship program that does that, though Christie is pushing to start one.

Booker's critics in Newark see him as an ambitious interloper who spends too much of his time outside the city.

A Star-Ledger analysis last year of Booker's social media postings found that from the start of 2011 until the middle of 2012, he was out of New Jersey or the New York City area at least 119 days.

Booker's campaign has said that the networking he does ultimately helps the city.

In 2010, he was seated next to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at a dinner during a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Two months later, Zuckerberg announced a $100 million donation to improve education in Newark.

____

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Associated Press writer Katie Zezima in from Newark contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sources-booker-pallone-us-senate-race-nj-215853627.html

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