Thursday, April 25, 2013

Anthony, Knicks rout Celtics for 2-0 series lead

NEW YORK (AP) ? In what they considered a "must-win" game, the New York Knicks couldn't lose. Not the way they defended after halftime.

"We buckled down on the defensive end," Carmelo Anthony said, "and that's what opened the game up for us."

And they've done it two games in a row.

Anthony scored 34 points, Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith added 19, and New York took a 2-0 lead over the Boston Celtics with another dominant second half in an 87-71 victory Tuesday night.

Raymond Felton added 16 points for the Knicks, who used a 27-4 run spanning halftime to blow it open and move halfway to their first series victory since the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals. This is their first 2-0 lead since sweeping Toronto in the first round that year.

"For us, we know what type of team we are," Anthony said. "We know when we really buckle down on the defensive end, it's been hard for teams."

It's been brutally difficult for Boston.

Paul Pierce scored 18 points for the Celtics, who will host Game 3 on Friday in their first home game since the Boston Marathon bombings.

They will have to be much sharper to avoid their first opening-round elimination since 2005, before they became one of the NBA's power teams again.

"We have to figure out the offensive side of the ball and not be so stagnated," Boston's Kevin Garnett said. "Figure out ways to score more often."

Anthony had said the Knicks needed to treat the game as a "must-win," aware of the difficulty of winning in Boston on Friday with the emotional boost the Celtics will get from finally being home.

They showed that mentality after halftime, outscoring Boston 32-11 in the third quarter.

"I think guys know what's at stake. We don't have to talk about it," veteran forward Kenyon Martin said. "Guys know what it's about right now and it's about winning a championship."

Garnett had 12 points and 11 rebounds, but battled foul trouble and spent too much time walking back to the bench with a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd finally experiencing playoff success again hounding him every step of the way.

Plagued by turnovers in Game 1, when they managed eight points in the decisive fourth quarter, the Celtics watched it all fall apart 12 minutes earlier this time. They managed only 23 points after halftime, two fewer than in their 85-78 loss Saturday.

"I thought we attacked them in the first half, but they hung in there," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "They didn't let us throw a knockout punch and I thought in the second half they turned that on us and they threw a knockout punch. Several."

Anthony followed his 36-point opener by making 8 of 13 shots in the second half to finish 11 of 24 for the game.

Iman Shumpert drilled two 3-pointers to open the third and tie it before Pierce scored to give Boston its last lead at 50-48. The Knicks scored 18 of the next 20 points, with the Celtics getting just two free throws from Jeff Green over the next 5-plus minutes. Anthony's jumper with 4:25 remaining in the third capped the run before Garnett finally gave Boston its second basket of the quarter 10 seconds later

The Celtics missed 10 of their first 11 shots of the third while getting outscored 24-4 to open the period.

"I thought in that third quarter we were as good as we've been all year in terms of ball movement and pushing it and making shots," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said.

The Celtics vowed to get Garnett more involved after he shot 4 of 12 while scoring eight points in the opener. But that plan was quickly wrecked when he picked up two fouls in the first 3 minutes, 20 seconds. The Celtics shook it off and led 20-15 when Jason Terry made a 3-pointer with 1:57 left for his first basket of the series.

But the Knicks scored 11 straight to end the period. Smith, recognized before the game for the award he won Monday, kept the celebration going with five points in the final 6.8 seconds, hitting a 36-footer at the buzzer with Celtics players all over him to make it 26-20.

The Celtics quickly settled down again, ripping off an 11-0 run to take a 31-27 lead on another 3-pointer by Terry. The lead later grew to eight when Pierce made a jumper, then fired a lob pass that traveled about three-quarters of the court to a streaking Green.

They led 48-39, gave up the last three points of the half ? and probably never realized they gave away momentum for good with it.

"We made a good run in the first half, we played our style of basketball," Terry said. "But in the second half, we definitely got away from what gave us success."

Notes: Amare Stoudemire still hopes to return from right knee surgery for the second round if the Knicks advance. He hopes to be running full speed soon so he can see how the knee responds to the additional work. ... NBA TV's analysts have made their postseason awards picks, and former Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas chose Woodson, his friend and former Indiana University teammate. "That's good, but I mean, again, I'm not in this for Coach of the Year, I'm in to try to see if we can get this team to the championship round to try to win a title," Woodson said. "If that happens, it happens, but I'm not sitting here holding my breath about a Coach of the Year award." Woodson added that he and Thomas are friends and talk all the time.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/anthony-knicks-rout-celtics-2-0-series-lead-024639959--spt.html

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Hagel: Israel did not tell him of intel on Syria

CAIRO (AP) ? U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel indicated on Wednesday that he was caught by surprise when Israeli officials publicly revealed their assessment that Syria has used chemical weapons in its civil war.

Hagel told reporters that his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Yaalon, did not alert him to the assessment when they met in Tel Aviv on Monday. The assessment was announced publicly on Tuesday by a senior official with Israel's military intelligence office.

"They did not give me that assessment; I guess it was not complete," Hagel said after several hours of meetings with senior Egyptian officials on the fourth stop of a week-long Mideast tour. "So I have not seen the specifics of it" or discussed it with Israeli officials.

He said he and Yaalon discussed the issue of Syria's chemical weapons, but Hagel would not elaborate further.

The Obama administration has said Syrian government use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer," implying that it might, if confirmed, compel the U.S. to get more directly involved in the civil conflict.

Hagel said that Washington is looking for "real intelligence" on the issue of Syrian chemical weapon use.

"Suspicions are one thing. Evidence is another," he said. "I think we have to be very careful here before we make any conclusions, draw any conclusions, based on real intelligence." He said his comments should not be interpreting as questioning the validity of other counties' intelligence on Syria. The important point, he said, is that "the United States relies on its own intelligence ? and must."

After his meetings in Cairo, which included talks with President Mohammed Morsi and the Egyptian defense minister, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Hagel flew to Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf.

Hagel said his Cairo stop was important for reinforcing U.S. support for the Egyptian government's transition to democracy and its efforts at economic reform.

By including Cairo on his first Mideast tour as defense secretary, Hagel was highlighting the Obama administration's hope of preserving influence with the Egyptian military as the country struggles with its transition to democracy.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. The U.S. is deeply concerned, however, that continued instability in Egypt will have broader consequences in a region already rocked by unrest, including in the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-israel-did-not-tell-him-intel-syria-184631082--politics.html

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

NH tourism industry praises "Live Free" campaign

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? The new tourism campaign New Hampshire rolled out a year ago is working so well, state officials are planning to expand it to other areas, including economic development.

The "Live Free and ...." is a fill-in-the-blank play on the state's longstanding "Live Free or Die" motto. The state has used variations including "Live Free and Play," ''Live Free and Explore" in its advertising, and attractions statewide have been putting their own twist on it.

Speaking at a conference Monday, state Travel and Tourism Director Lori Harnois said the campaign has helped boost tourism spending, which increased to $4.4 billion in the last fiscal year. And Jeff Rose, commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development, said he plans to use a similar approach to attract new businesses to the state.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nh-tourism-industry-praises-live-free-campaign-042416977.html

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Zions, other banks teach personal finance to Utah kids | The Salt ...

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) Zions Bank CEO Harris Simmons works with fourth-graders in Paul Mulder's class at Guadalupe School in Salt Lake City Monday April 22, 2013. The banking executive visited the school to teach students about financial literacy Monday April 22, 2013.

Personal finance ? Some say required class is failing; others say it?s way too soon for a verdict.

Buying a new bottle of water every day versus refilling a container from the drinking fountain. Purchasing a new pair of jeans versus waiting until a current pair wears out.

In each scenario that Zions Bancorporation President and CEO Harris Simmons threw out to fourth-graders at Salt Lake City?s Guadalupe School, 10-year-old Audrey Palestino consistently chose the frugal option.

That is, until she had to decide between buying the next volume in the Lemony Snicket series or waiting until a library copy became available.

"That?s a need," she said.

Distinguishing between needs and wants is a lesson Simmons and thousands of volunteers from various banks and credit unions have been teaching in classrooms and after-school programs across the state as part of Financial Literacy Month.

In a state known for high rates of foreclosures, bankruptcy filings and scams, Utah leaders have targeted financial literacy ? helping students learn how to save, budget and prevent debt ? as a public policy goal. In 2008, the Utah State Office of Education developed an online curriculum to help teachers teach about money management and lawmakers made passing a half-semester financial literacy course a requirement for high school graduation. This year, legislators passed Senate Bill 43, which creates a task force to study how to improve that high school class.

It?s all a good start, but it?s not enough, says Brian Nelson Ford, a personal finance consultant and author of The 8 Pillars of Financial Greatness.

"I think we?re trending in the right direction, but we?re not where we need to be," Ford said.

Ford said many children form their spending habits and patterns well before high school. And while teachers may be well-meaning, they often don?t know enough about money management themselves.

"We need teachers who are a little more passionate and better trained in personal finance," he said. "We need to move away from ?textbook? personal finance and toward ?real world? personal finance."

story continues below

State Sen. Pat Jones, D-Cottonwood Heights, agrees. This is why she sponsored SB 43 to assess what?s working and what?s not.

"A lot of people are going online and giving us feedback like, ?it?s a waste of time? and ?it?s not meaningful?," she said. "It?s too hit and miss right now."

But that kind of evaluation is purely anecdotal at this point. Julie Felshaw, financial education specialist at the Utah State Office of Education, says the first group of students required to take the financial literacy class has only been out in the world for five years and the Legislature didn?t fund any kind of ongoing assessment.

"It?s going to be 15 to 20 years before we learn the impact of financial literacy classes," she said.

As far as teacher training, Felshaw says the state office does offer resources to boost teacher proficiency in personal finance, including an online course to help educators talk about money to various age groups. It also offers summer workshops to review standards and objectives. She said these resources are available but optional, and attendance is in the 50 to 60 percent range.

"We encourage them to attend, but in fairness to teachers, they?ve got a pretty full plate and a lot are not just teaching [personal finance]," she said.

Zions Bank?s Simmons added that while financial literacy in the classroom is very important, lessons about money should largely take place in homes.

"It?s something that parents can do," Simmons said. "Too often we rely on schools to do all of this. This is something that all of us as parents need to be teaching our kids."

jnpearce@sltrib.com

Twitter: @jnpearce

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56198388-79/financial-http-utah-literacy.html.csp

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Monday, April 22, 2013

NASA successfully launches three smartphone satellites

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

The trio of "PhoneSats" is operating in orbit, and may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown in space. The goal of NASA's PhoneSat mission is to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite.

Transmissions from all three PhoneSats have been received at multiple ground stations on Earth, indicating they are operating normally. The PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will continue to monitor the satellites in the coming days. The satellites are expected to remain in orbit for as long as two weeks.

"It's always great to see a space technology mission make it to orbit -- the high frontier is the ultimate testing ground for new and innovative space technologies of the future," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington.

"Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users."

Satellites consisting mainly of the smartphones will send information about their health via radio back to Earth in an effort to demonstrate they can work as satellites in space. The spacecraft also will attempt to take pictures of Earth using their cameras. Amateur radio operators around the world can participate in the mission by monitoring transmissions and retrieving image data from the three satellites. Large images will be transmitted in small chunks and will be reconstructed through a distributed ground station network. More information can found at: http://www.phonesat.org

NASA's off-the-shelf PhoneSats already have many of the systems needed for a satellite, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios.

NASA engineers kept the total cost of the components for the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project between $3,500 and $7,000 by using primarily commercial hardware and keeping the design and mission objectives to a minimum. The hardware for this mission is the Google-HTC Nexus One smartphone running the Android operating system.

NASA added items a satellite needs that the smartphones do not have -- a larger, external lithium-ion battery bank and a more powerful radio for messages it sends from space. The smartphone's ability to send and receive calls and text messages has been disabled. Each smartphone is housed in a standard cubesat structure, measuring about 4 inches square. The smartphone acts as the satellite's onboard computer. Its sensors are used for attitude determination and its camera for Earth observation.

For more about information about NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program and the PhoneSat mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/smallsats

The PhoneSat mission is a technology demonstration project developed through the agency's Small Spacecraft Technology Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. The directorate is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in future science and exploration missions. NASA's technology investments provide cutting-edge solutions for our nation's future. For more information about NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130422112914.htm

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Un-bagging safe solvent: A look at Martin Reisch's camera gear

Martin Reisch, aka safe solvent is iMore's go-to videographer for events like CES and Macworld, and he's just joined us in New York City for our big, upcoming [Redacted]. The moment he landed he walked in with a giant Crumpler Dry Red No. 9 gear bag, and we just knew we had to get a look inside it.

Starting at the top, Martin had his 5D Mark III, and since he's a firm believer in backup bodies, he had his 5D Mark II as well. For lenses, he brought with him his Canon 24-70 F2.8 L, Canon 50 F1.2 L, and Canon 70-200 F2.8 L.

He also packed his RED Scarlet, a massively impressive 4K camera with an EF mount that lets him use the very same Canon lenses.

Despite all that glass, Martin's daily driver is still his iPhone 5, along with a Joby Gorilla Pod GripTight. You can see samples of that work over on Instagram, and as for the work he's doing this week...

... Stay tuned!

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Ma3HIJEY-Mc/story01.htm

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Watch live: Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket to lift off on test flight (video)

Watch live: Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket to lift off on test flight (video)

SpaceX may be the only private outfit currently shepherding cargo to the International Space Station, but Orbital Sciences, which is the second party in NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services effort, is taking a step towards its own ISS resupply missions. Today, the firm's Antares rocket will undergo its very first test flight, taking off from the space agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Liftoff is slated for sometime between 5PM and 7PM, with an 80 percent chance of favorable weather, as opposed to the 45 percent odds and high-altitude winds that foiled its initial attempt yesterday. To watch Antares embark on its maiden voyage, hit the jump for a live video feed.

[Image credit: NASA, Flickr]

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Source: NASA, Orbital Sciences

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/DdiSAu5zy40/

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