PFT: Hanson retires after 21 seasons with Lions

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The attack on the Redskins? name continues in Washington.

According to Politico.com, three former FCC Commissioners (along with others) have sent a letter to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder explaining that a case could be made that the team?s name is indecent.

?It is impermissible under law that the FCC would condone, or that broadcasters would use, obscene pornographic language on live television,? states the letter signed in part by former FCC Chairman Reed Hunt and former Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Nicholas Johnson.? ?This medium uses government-owned airwaves in exchange for an understanding that it will promote the public interest.? Similarly, it is inappropriate for broadcasters to use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday reporting.?

The letter never uses the term ?Redskins.?

?XXXskin is the most derogatory name a Native American can be called.? It is an unequivocal racial slur,? the letter states.? ?As the Washington Post?s Mike Wise pointed out, ?America wouldn?t stand for a team called the Blackskins ? or the Mandingos, the Brothers, the Yellowskins, insert your ethnic minority here.??

The problem with a potential indecency case is that the United States Supreme Court ruled last year that the FCC?s current rules on indecency violate due process by failing to let over-the-air broadcasters know the rules with specificity.? The FCC is still trying to determine how to proceed in the wake of that ruling.

The Redskins have shown no inclination to change the team?s name. In recent weeks, they have defended the name by pointing out that 70 high schools use the same name.? CNSMaryland.org recently did the legwork, determining that the real number is 62 ? and that 28 high schools in 18 states have dropped the name over the last 25 years.

The only number that matters for the NFL is one, and the controversy regarding the team?s name likely will continue for as long as the name remains in place.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/04/jason-hanson-retires/related/

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Network of cell mimics comes to life

3-D printed material resembles body tissue in form and perhaps function

By Rachel Ehrenberg

Web edition: April 5, 2013

Enlarge

With a custom-built 3-D printer, scientists have created networks of water droplets bound together with a cell-like lipid layer. Altering the concentration of chemicals in the droplets prompts water to move from the blue to the yellow part of the network, spurring curving.

Credit: courtesy of Gabriel Villar, Alexander D. Graham and Hagan Bayley/Univ. of Oxford

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A new tissuelike material with the squishy stiffness of fat or brain cells can be programmed to undergo delicate shape changes, akin to the unfurling of a flower?s petals.

Built with a custom-made 3-D printer by scientists at the University of Oxford in England, the ?droplet network? comprises tens of thousands of tiny water droplets connected by lipid layers. Similar artificial tissues might one day serve as scaffolding for failing tissues or be used to deliver drugs to places in the body, the team reports in the April 5 Science.?

To create the squishy, raftlike networks, the printer squirts a layer of water droplets into an oily solution. Lipids in the oil gather around microscopic water droplets like a cell?s membrane. The resulting millimeter-sized network of water droplets can be tweaked for specific functions, such as conducting an electrical signal at lightning speed, as a nerve cell does.

The researchers then put different concentrations of a compound such as salt into droplets in different sections of the network to spur a flow of water from one area to another. As one area of the network swells and another shrinks, the network deforms, going from flat to curved.

A droplet network printed in a flattened flowerlike form comes to life, spontaneously folding into a hollow sphere as water moves from the blue to the yellow droplets.
Credit: courtesy of Gabriel Villar, Alexander D. Graham and Hagan Bayley/Univ. of Oxford

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349469/title/Network_of_cell_mimics_comes_to_life

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Records: Doctor described Holmes as 'homicidal'

DENVER (AP) ? A psychiatrist who treated James Holmes told campus police a month before the Colorado theater attack that Holmes had homicidal thoughts and was a danger to the public, according to documents released Thursday.

Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Denver, told police in June that Holmes also threatened and intimidated her. It was more than a month before the July 20 attack at a movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70.

In the days after the attack, campus police said they had never had contact with Holmes, who was a graduate student at the university.

But campus police told investigators after the shooting that Fenton had contacted them, following her legal requirement to report specific threats to authorities, according to a search warrant affidavit.

"Dr. Fenton advised that through her contact with James Holmes she was reporting, per her requirement, his danger to the public due to homicidal statements he had made," the affidavit said.

University police referred calls for comment Thursday to a campus spokeswoman who did not immediately return a message.

The documents previously were sealed, but the new judge overseeing the case ordered them released Thursday after requests from media organizations including The Associated Press.

Holmes last week offered to plead guilty in the attacks. Prosecutors rejected that offer and announced Monday they would seek the death penalty.

Holmes sent Fenton a package in the days before the shooting, including a notebook that the released documents describe as a "journal." The package wasn't discovered until four days after the attack.

In court, prosecutors suggested Holmes was angry at the failure of a once promising academic career, and stockpiled weapons, ammunition, tear gas grenades, and body armor as his research deteriorated and professors urged him to get into another profession. Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson said Holmes failed a key oral exam in June, was banned from campus and began to voluntarily withdraw from the school.

The documents ? including arrest and search warrant affidavits ? were unsealed by the new judge in the case. District Judge Carlos Samour took over the case earlier this week after the previous judge, who had sealed the documents, removed himself. Judge William Sylvester handed off to Samour on Monday, saying prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty against Holmes meant the case would take up so much time that he couldn't carry out his administrative duties as chief judge of a busy four-county district.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys had raised concerns about releasing the documents. Prosecutors said they were worried about the privacy of victims and witnesses if the records were released. Attorneys for Holmes said they didn't want to hurt his chances for a fair trial.

Sylvester had said he was reluctant to release the documents before the preliminary hearing, when prosecutors laid out evidence for him to decide whether Holmes could be brought to trial. That hearing was held in January, with investigators giving the names and injuries of every theater victim in graphic detail.

Witnesses testified that Holmes spent weeks amassing an arsenal and planning the attack. They also said he set up an elaborate booby trap in his apartment designed to explode at the same time the theater attack occurred miles away.

Media organizations said there has been a "wealth of information already made public in the proceedings thus far." They argued there was no basis for the documents to remain sealed.

With the preliminary hearing over, Samour said lawyers failed to show that releasing the records would cause any harm, or that keeping the documents sealed would prevent any harm.

___

Associated Press writer Catherine Tsai contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/documents-psychiatrist-says-holmes-made-threats-234614957.html

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Has NBC learned transition lessons?

NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC's recent personnel transition in morning television was a disaster. Executives hope their luck is better late at night, and they have a year to try and make it a smooth handoff from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon at the "Tonight" show.

The network announced Wednesday what has been rumored for the past several weeks: Leno will leave the job he's had most of the time since 1992, to be replaced by "Late Night" host Fallon. The late-night franchise is also returning to its roots, leaving California for a New York studio.

The thinking is clear: Leno is 62, his hair graying. The eager Fallon is 38, looks younger, hangs with his ultra-hip house band the Roots and slow jams the news with President Obama.

All Leno does is consistently rank No. 1 in his field, a status not many people at NBC can claim these days.

The "Today" show was tops a year ago, too, or at least running neck-and-neck with ABC's "Good Morning America." Then the toppling of co-host Ann Curry spread a black cloud. Ratings tumbled, executives lost their jobs, Matt Lauer's popularity plummeted and "GMA" is now the most popular morning show.

Could history repeat itself at the same network?

"I'm sure the people at (corporate owner) Comcast and NBC are keeping their fingers crossed that it's not another public relations black eye," said Brad Adgate, analyst for Horizon Media.

NBC's hand was forced, to its perspective, by ABC when that network put Jimmy Kimmel in the time slot shared by Leno and CBS' David Letterman earlier this year. Young people are already seeking out other entertainment choices in late-night, and NBC didn't want ABC to establish itself as the network with the young, hip host right after the local news.

"We are purposefully making this change when Jay is (hash)1, just as Jay replaced Johnny Carson when he was (hash)1," said Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBC Universal, in a statement. "Jimmy Fallon is a unique talent and this is his time."

Burke was not made available for an interview to discuss NBC's reasoning and whether the network applied any lessons from the Curry mess to its late-night switch.

The most pressing question is whether Leno's fans warm to Fallon, or if they use this as an opportunity to try something else. Leno's fans did not accept Conan O'Brien in 2009 when he took over "Tonight" for less than a year. Fallon's humor is broader than O'Brien's, and would seem a better fit.

Leno also presumably won't be around for a direct comparison this time. When O'Brien worked at "Tonight," Leno was in the midst of his failed prime-time experiment on NBC.

There's no telling whether fans of Leno will resent the network's treatment of the comic the way morning viewers took out their distaste for what happened to Curry on "Today." NBC is dislodging him from late-night for the second time; what did he do to deserve the door?

Viewers might also question the network's regard for them. Why is NBC taking my favorite comic away?

Letterman, while he's been no big fan of his rival Leno through the years, was already pushing this narrative on his own show Wednesday, taped shortly after NBC's announcement.

"How many times can a guy get pushed out of the job?" Letterman asked. "What's the matter with NBC? What's the matter with these guys? You know, honestly, what are they thinking?"

He congratulated Leno on his 'Tonight' tenure, "if in fact you're not coming back."

"It's difficult to give up a program that wins its time period by 33 percent, and Jay has always been a great friend to the affiliates," said John Dawson, general manager for five NBC affiliates in Kansas. "For that alone it will be hard to give him up. But I believe in Jimmy's ability to retain Jay's viewers and to bring his own unique audience to that time period."

NBC is timing the change for maximum impact. It will happen around the Winter Olympics in Russia, which is expected to give the network a large prime-time audience that will be peppered with promos.

Barring a major change in NBC's sagging prime-time fortunes, Fallon will quickly be on his own when the Olympic flame is extinguished.

The Curry debacle was punctuated by her tearful last day as host in June, a deeply uncomfortable television moment. She has largely been silent since, as NBC has tried many different ways to convince "Today" viewers that they shouldn't blame Lauer for an unpopular decision.

NBC says privately that Fallon has tried judiciously to make sure Leno was on board with the move, and that Leno has a higher regard for Fallon personally than he did for O'Brien. A few years down the line, Leno may be more ready to end his "Tonight" tenure than he was before.

NBC has taken pride through the years in orderly transitions ? like when Brian Williams took over for Tom Brokaw, and Meredith Vieira replaced Katie Couric. It will put the machinery to work to make this one seamless, too. Or at least appear that way.

There was a rocky start. When Leno needled NBC executives about their miserable prime time ratings this winter, it hit a nerve with NBC Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt. He sent a note telling the comic to cool it. That approach backfired when the note became public and Leno hammered his network even harder.

The first public sign of the coming transition came Monday night, when Leno and Fallon filmed a genial spoof together making fun of all the late-night rumors. It aired between their two shows.

"It's clear they are trying to stave off negative reaction," said Christine Becker, an associate professor at Notre Dame University and author of the News For TV Majors blog. "I don't know whether it's going to be successful or not."

That's because of a sense that there's still something missing, she said.

"Jay is saying really nice things, but what really is the deal?" Becker said. "Did Jay tell them that he wants to go? Will he go someplace else? ... NBC is struggling to play the PR game and make it work but there are so many gaps and holes that it makes it strange."

___

Associated Press television writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-learned-transition-lessons-062312951.html

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FRANCE 24 EXCLUSIVE: Chadian troops redeploy to Tuareg stronghold of Kidal

To reach the Chadian forces stationed in northern Mali, there is only one choice.

To move its troops, Chad uses a Soviet-era Antonov cargo plane, piloted by a Serbian crew that works around the clock. ?When the commander asks us to fly, we fly,? says Sergue?, the plane?s navigator.

The town of Kidal is still not totally secure. It remains in the hands of the Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or MNLA, which is now a fragile ally of France.

The MNLA took control of Kidal, 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako, on March 30 last year as part of the Tuareg drive for the independence of northern Mali, a region known to them as Azawad.

And as the convoy makes it way through the town, the children shout, ?Long live Azawad? -- a sign that the desire for independence remains strong.

?As far as Chadian forces are concerned, we have been warmly welcomed here,? Oumar Bikimo, the commander of Chadian forces in Mali, tells FRANCE 24. ?Warmly welcomed, but not as warmly as our troops elsewhere in Mali ... some in Kidal view them more as occupiers than liberators.?

Double-cross

Fighting alongside their Islamist allies, the Tuaregs took Gao and the historic desert town of Timbuktu in the weeks following their takeover of Kidal. But the Islamists soon seized full control of the territories, undermining Tuareg hopes of independence.

French forces, now backed by African troops, launched operations to oust the Islamists on January 11. Kidal serves as a base for the French and Chadian troops that were fighting the remaining militants in the Ifoghas mountain range.

The MNLA has said it would oppose any move into Kidal by the Malian army, which the UN has accused of committing rights abuses against Mali?s Tuareg and Arab communities in its bid to rout the Islamists.

France, which has 4,000 troops in Mali, is eager to withdraw and transfer responsibility to a pan-African force, which would then give way to a UN peacekeeping mission.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon has said that up to 11,200 peacekeepers might be needed for the mission, which would be backed by a military force to battle any remaining Islamist fighters.
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Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20130405-tuareg-independence-kidal-chad-troops-mali?ns_campaign=editorial&ns_source=RSS_public&ns_mchannel=RSS&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20130405_tuareg_independence_kidal_chad_troops_mali

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New Anti-Rape Underwear Claims to Send Electric Shock Through ...

(Photo: Manisha Mohan, Niladri Basu Bal, Rimpi Tripathi via Techpedia)

Engineering students from India claim to have made underwear that could thwart would-be rapists by jolting them with an electric shock as they try to attack a woman.

The students from?SRM University in?Chennai call the prototype of the anti-rape underwear ?Society Harnessing Equipment? (SHE) and hope to someday introduce commercial versions of it.

?The lingerie with global positioning system (GPS), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and also pressure sensors, is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kV as well as alerts to parents and police,? Manisha Mohan, one of the developers, said according to Times of India.

Mohan continued that the underwear can shock up to 82 times.

?A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send an SMS on emergency number 100, as well as to parents of the girl,? she told the Times.

According to a paper about the underwear, a camisole-like garmet is what has been developed so far with the shock technology placed in the chest.

?The circuit is placed near the bosom because in the attempt of rape or road?side eve?teasing, as per survey, women are attacked first on their bosom,? the paper stated.

Currently, the students are working with the?National Institute of Fashion Technology to find the best fabric for the product that would allow it to be washed without foiling the electronics.

Watch WPIX?s report about the anti-rape underwear:

?Studying in a convent girls school, we were always taught to be good to everyone around and bear a cheerful smile,? the engineering students stated in the paper about the underwear. ?After stepping into the real, cruel world we realized that our smile could not last for long as the threat to our purity and integrity always lingered on. Since the law makers take ages to come up with just laws and even after that, women are unsafe. Hence, we have initiated the idea of self?defense which protects the women from domestic, social and workplace harassment.?

Read more about the underwear in the paper posted on Techpedia here.

Source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/04/new-anti-rape-underwear-claims-to-send-electric-shock-through-would-be-assailants/

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Detroit's Big Three off to fast sales start in 2013

Joseph Szczesny , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 2 hrs.

Anyone wondering whether the U.S. auto market could maintain the fast pace that helped deliver an unexpectedly strong close to 2012 needn?t worry.? The New Year is off to a fast and promising start based on the first sales numbers to come in for January.

Notably, Detroit?s Big Three makers all posted double-digit gains ? good news for the Motor City considering the two largest domestic brands each lost market share last year.

Chrysler Group LLC reported a 16% increase in U.S. sales in in January as the automaker continued to gain sales, while Ford Motor Co.s January U.S. sales grew 22% year-over-year, and GM jumped 22%. All three makers stressed that their higher-profit retail sales grew at an even faster pace as they continued to shift emphasis away from generally lower-profit fleet markets.

Foreign-owned makers also appear to have had a good month, analysts expecting many to report double-digit gains, as well.? While most are still crunching their numbers, the Toyota brand was up 26.6% for the month, prompting Bill Fay, general manager of the Japanese maker?s mainstream brand to declare, "The sales pace we saw in the fourth quarter of last year rolled into January, exceeding our expectations for the industry.??

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Audi missed that double-digit mark with a more modest 7.5% year-over-year increase, though January was still the German brand?s 25th consecutive month of record sales.

The maker generated particularly strong numbers for a wide range of models such as the recently redesigned Escape crossover and the F-Series pickup, the latter clearly benefiting from an upturn in U.S. housing.As for the Detroit makers, ?Our investment in fuel-efficient new vehicles ? including EcoBoost engines and hybrid technology ? continues to pay off,? declared Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. ?

Sales of all-new Ford Fusion totaled 22,399 vehicles in January, a 65% increase versus a year ago and Fusion?s best January sales ever ? breaking its January 2011 sales record by 56%. In addition, Ford?s small car sales were up 29% in January versus a year ago, with 23,171 Fiesta, Focus and C-MAX hybrid models sold, marking Ford?s best January small car sales since 2000.?

The Detroit Bureau:?Honda to Integrate Apple Siri Personal Assistant

?It?s been a good week for the Chrysler Group. On Wednesday we announced full year 2012 profits of $1.7 billion and followed that today with our January sales, up 16%, marking our 34th-consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth,? said Reid Bigland, Head of U.S. Sales.

Indeed, it has been a good month for Chrysler which won North American Truck of the Year honors for its 2013 Ram 1500 pickup ? which won similar kudos from influential Motor Trend magazine.? The maker also received praise for a number of new products revealed at January?s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

But perhaps one of the best bits of news for Chrysler was that the Dodge Dart had its best month since its launch last June. The compact sedan has been struggling, acknowledged Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, forcing the maker to recently reduce production at a Michigan engine plant supplying the Dart assembly line in Belvedere, Illinois.?

The Detroit Bureau:?Chrysler Planning 47 New Models Over Next Four Years

The Chrysler, Dodge, Ram Truck and FIAT brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in January compared with the same month last year. The Dodge brand?s 37% increase was the largest sales gain of any Chrysler Group brand in January. Chrysler Group extended its streak in January to 34-consecutive months of year-over-year sales gains.

Nonetheless, ?The year is off to a very good start for General Motors,? said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations. ?There?s a sense of optimism among our dealers that only comes when you pair a growing economy with great new products. We started to see the benefits in 2012 with vehicles like the Chevrolet Sonic, Cadillac ATS and Buick Verano. Now in 2013, we?re entering the sweet spot of our product plan in a growing economy,? he said.As for GM, it announced that it sold 194,699 vehicles in the United States in January, up 16% compared with a year ago. Retail sales were up 24% while fleet sales were down 2%. Whether that will be enough to help reverse last year?s market share decline remains to seen, however, as some of the key foreign-owned brands have yet to report their January sales numbers.

The analysts are predicting U.S. vehicle and light truck sales will come in about 15% higher than in January 2012. That would put sales on track for a seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, of 15.3 million new vehicles.

If the predictions hold up, it would be the best January in five years, further evidence that the industry is back on its feet after the brutal beating it took during the financial crisis.

?Auto makers are kicking off the year strong, staying true to disciplined incentive spending as many curtailed their spending in January as the current lineup of products speak for themselves,? said Kirsten Andersson, an analyst at TrueCar.com.

Whether the industry can maintain this pace is yet to be seen. The fact that Wall Street?s Dow-Jones Industrial Average broke the psychologically important 14,000 mark certainly could add momentum. So could the recent indicators of a long-awaited upturn in the U.S. housing market.?

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Last year reached 14.5 million sales thanks to a final holiday burst. And AutoPacific analyst Ed Kim predicts 2013 will be ?a healthy, profitable year for manufacturers.? The consulting firm is predicting the year will reach the 15.1 million mark. But some industry experts and insiders, including GM CEO Dan Akerson, have suggested the market could nudge as high as 15.5 million if the overall economy continues to rebound.

Not everything was rosy during January, however. TrueCar is reporting that the average transaction price ? the actual cost for a typically new car buyer ? dipped by $416 in January compared to the record set in December 2012. But the ATP was still up from January 2012 by $300, to $$30,812. And incentives declined an average 12% last month, as well, the tracking firm says.One of the factors that will likely contribute to strong demand through the year is that a growing number of buyers will be returning vehicles as their leases come to an end in 2013, according to an analysis by Edmunds.com. Leasing took a sharp tumble during the depths of the recession but has begun a sharp rebound.

Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this report.

Copyright 2013 The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/chrysler-posts-highest-january-sales-five-years-1B8209091

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