Djokovic, Nadal, Serena Williams advance in Rome Comment
ROME (AP) ? A week after Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal made early exits in Madrid on an experimental blue court, both showed they remain a force on red clay Friday by reaching the Italian Open semifinals.
The top-ranked Djokovic struggled with his serve in the opening set but found his range to eliminate fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 6-1. Nadal defeated seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-5.
“In the second set I played one of the best sets on clay this year and this is encouraging for the challenges to come tomorrow and with Roland Garros,” Djokovic said. “I am playing and feeling better every match I play.”
Nadal was equally pleased.
“It was a big match and one of the higher quality matches this year because the level of the opponent is high and he plays with big confidence and I played under pressure all the time,” he said. “I hit a few fantastic shots and this kind of shot comes with confidence.”
Djokovic, the defending champion, will next play the winner of the match between Roger Federer and Italian hope Andreas Seppi. Nadal’s semifinal opponent is sixth-seeded David Ferrer, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Among the women, Serena Williams reached the last four after Flavia Pennetta quit with an injured right wrist while trailing 4-0 in the first set. Williams’ winning streak is up to 17 matches following titles in Charleston, S.C., and Madrid. She also has two victories in Fed Cup. Her next opponent is French Open champion Li Na, who eliminated No. 14 Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Defending champion Maria Sharapova beat Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3. She will play No. 12 Angelique Kerber, who defeated Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-1.
While Djokovic has not been as dominant as he was last year ? when he had a 43-match winning streak ? the Serb still finds a way to win without playing his best. Serving at 5-5 in the first set, he saved a potentially decisive break point with a serve and volley. Then he took six straight points.
“I really don’t compare with 2011,” Djokovic said. “This is a new year and I had great results so far in and I’m playing good in Rome so far. I’m increasing the level as the tournament goes on and this is important.”
Down to No. 3 in the rankings this week, Nadal broke in the opening game to take control of the first set. He recovered a break midway through the second set before pulling ahead for good. Berdych was coming off a runner-up performance at the Madrid Open. He lost to Federer, who then replaced Nadal at No. 2.
Pennetta called for the trainer after falling behind 3-0. Her wrist was retaped but the Italian conceded during the fifth game after 28 minutes of play.
“I felt pain during the second or third point of the opening game,” Pennetta said. “Something happened on the backhand. … Then not being able to serve and attack like usual, there wasn’t much else to do.”
For Serena, who won this tournament 10 years ago, the quick match was welcome.
“I have played every day and I haven’t had a day off,” she said.
Kvitova has an abdominal injury and needed to be bandaged again after losing the first set. That seemed to work. She stormed through the second set, easily winning the first five games.
Kerber, however, came back in the final set and took the match when Kvitova netted a ball. The victory put Kerber into her sixth semifinal of the year and into the top 10 in the rankings for the first time in her career.
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Football stadium to host world’s largest solar eclipse party Comment
The eclipse will occur in the afternoon and early evening on Sunday, during which time the moon will pass between Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on the planet.?
The moon passes between the sun and the earth during a partial solar eclipse in Moscow January 4, 2011.
Grigory Dukor/Reuters
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A solar eclipse will blot out part of the sun this weekend, and astronomers in Colorado are organizing what they hope will be the world’s largest viewing party in one place. Their venue: an entire football stadium.
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The eclipse will occur in the afternoon and early evening on Sunday (May 20), during which time the moon will pass between Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on the planet. This weekend’s event is called an?annular solar eclipse?(from the Latin word “annulus,” meaning “little ring”), because the moon will not completely cover the sun, but will leave a fiery ring around its circumference.
At its peak, the moon will block roughly 94 percent of the sun’s light. This potentially spectacular?solar eclipse?will be visible from much of Asia, the Pacific region and North America, provided the weather cooperates.
The University of Colorado, at Boulder, will be hosting a free eclipse-watching event at the campus’ Folsom Stadium, beginning at 5:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. EDT; 2230 GMT). Special protective glasses will be sold at the football stadium, but organizers suggest planning ahead in case supplies run out. [Solar Eclipse of May 20 (Photo Observing Guide)]
Attendees will be treated to hot dogs, and have the opportunity to participate in trivia contests and giveaways. But the main attraction will, of course, be the show in the sky, which promises to be the best solar eclipse the U.S. has seen in more than a decade, said?event organizer Doug Duncan, an astronomer at the University of Colorado, and director of the school’s Fiske Planetarium.
“After leading eclipse expeditions since 1970 I got tired of people not being prepared to watch, so as leader of the country’s top university planetarium I went into action,” Duncan said in a statement.
The campus’ Fiske Planetarium and Sommers Bausch Observatory will also celebrate “Astronomy Day” on May 20, featuring hands-on displays and telescope activities.
The event has already received a strong response, and Duncan is expecting between 10,000 and 20,000 people to attend the viewing party (the stadium seats roughly 40,000 spectators).
“As of right now, we have sold 39,000 pairs of eclipse glasses,” Duncan told SPACE.com. “We?ve been selling them at the planetarium and a local hardware store, and they’ve sold out.”
He reminds observers that it is extremely important to protect your eyes before viewing the eclipse. Skywatchers should never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or through?telescopes or binoculars?without the proper filters.
“The sun is very powerful, so you need to protect your eyes,” Duncan said.
The eclipse will occur in the late afternoon or early evening of May 20 throughout North America, and May 21 for observers in Asia. This?solar eclipse skywatching guide?has more specific information about viewing locations and times.
To safely view the annular solar eclipse, you can purchase special solar filters or No. 14 welder’s glass to wear over your eyes.?Warning:?Standard sunglasses will NOT provide sufficient protection. Astronomers use special filters and glasses to observe the sun safely.
Another safe and simple technique is to watch the eclipse indirectly with the solar projection method. This involves using your telescope, or one side of your binoculars, to project a magnified image of the sun?s disk onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.
Several U.S. national parks are also planning their own?observing events for the solar eclipse, and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. are sending a group of researchers to the Grand Canyon.
Editor’s note: If you snap any amazing eclipse photos that you’d like to be considered for use in a story or gallery, please send them to SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik at?tmalik@space.com.
You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter?@denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
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Super PAC’s reported anti-Obama ad sparks backlash, quick denial (CNN) Comment
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Nielsen Explores Where We Watch TV, Use Gaming Consoles Comment
Eighteen-to -34 year-olds may be famous for their voracious appetite for Internet connectivitiy. But as Nielsen researchers observe in a recent blog post,? those in the 12-17-year-old age group have more of an appetite for gaming.
The 12-17 demographic ?represent an outsized share of game console usage, more than triple that of their share of TV or DVR usage,? according to a May 17 Nielsenwire blog post. They?re also prone to playing just about anywhere in the home, including basements and garages.
More than half (52%) of 12-17 year-olds? gaming time is spent with a gaming console, and in either non-traditional spaces or bedrooms, while they spend 48% of their gaming time in more social environs, such as a living or family room, according to Nielsen research.
Being teens, 12-17 year-olds also spend a lot of time watching TV, and they?re spending about the same amount of time doing so in bedrooms as they are in family rooms. Teenagers spent 47% of their total TV viewing time in their bedrooms as compared to 48% in family rooms, Nielsen found.
In contrast, 35-64 year olds spend 62% of time watching TV in shared spaces and 31% in the bedroom. Adults 65 and older spend most of their time watching TV (69%) in a family or living room.
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Comcast to start charging heavy downloaders extra Comment
NEW YORK (AP) ? Comcast Corp., the country’s largest Internet service provider, is going to start charging extra when customers go over a certain monthly data limit.
That limit, however, is very high, starting at 300 gigabytes for basic Internet plans. Only a tiny fraction of Internet users use that much data in a month.
Comcast Corp. said Thursday that it will test charging $10 for every 50 gigabytes over that limit.
Comcast has previously limited use to 250 gigabytes per month, but hasn’t charged those who exceed that limit. Instead, it’s warned them, and threatened repeat offenders with cancellation of their service.
Other home Internet service providers like Time Warner Cable and AT&T have experimented with lower data caps and charges for going over limits, but abandoned those after meeting fierce resistance from consumers and politicians.
Internet service providers say they need to have some sort of cap to prevent “data hogs” from slowing down service for everyone.
Comcast said it will be testing the new approach in a few areas. In the meantime, Comcast is abolishing the 250 gigabyte cap, even where it’s testing out the new approach.
David Cohen, an executive video president of Comcast, said the new, more flexible approach should help customers get wider access to Internet content, without a hard cut-off.
Data caps are seen as inhibiting the growth of non-cable video services like Netflix Inc., which uses a lot of data. However, Comcast’s 300 gigabyte cap is high enough to deter only the very movie-hungriest Netflix users: It’s enough to stream about 10 hours of Netflix content per day for a month.
Sandvine Corp., a company what supplies traffic measurement and management equipment to cable companies, says North American households are consuming an average of 32 gigabytes of data per month. A few households account for much of that usage, though: The median figure is much lower, at 10.3 gigabytes.
Comcast’s own Netflix-like service, Xfinity TV, doesn’t count against the data cap when it’s viewed on its app on the Xbox game console. That has raised questions about whether Comcast is unfairly favoring its own product over those of competitors like Netflix. Comcast says the reason Xfinity TV doesn’t count is that the video doesn’t come from the Internet, but from Comcast’s own equipment.
Video from XfinityTV.com does count toward the limit.
Comcast, which is based in Philadelphia, has 18.6 million Internet subscribers, accounting for nearly one in every four U.S. households with broadband.
Associated Press
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Organize Your Travel Papers with the Bellroy Travel Wallet Comment
Bellroy, a company that specializes in Better Ways to Carry, have developed a Travel Wallet that’s small enough to fit in your pocket.? The Travel Wallet is made of midnight or cocoa leather, and it has multiple pockets to organize your tickets, cards, and passport.? (Doesn’t hold the double-thickness passports, only standard ones.)? It holds [...]
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‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse visible from China to Texas Comment
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they’ll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.
It’s been almost two decades since a “ring of fire” eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties.
The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time. Weather permitting, millions of early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan and southeast Japan will be able to catch the ring eclipse. Then it creeps across the Pacific with the western U.S. viewing the tail end.
The late day sun will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle where it will occur at sunset on Sunday. For 3 ? hours, the eclipse follows an 8,500-mile path. Viewing, from beginning to end, lasts about two hours. The ring phenomenon lasts as long as 5 minutes depending on location.
Outside this narrow band, parts of the West, Midwest and South ? and portions of Canada and Mexico ? will be treated to a partial eclipse. The Eastern Seaboard will be shut out, but people can log online to sites such as the Slooh Space Camera, which plans to broadcast the event live.
A ring eclipse ? technically called an annular solar eclipse ? is not as dramatic as a total eclipse, when the disk of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon. As in a total solar eclipse, the moon crosses in front of the sun, but the moon is too far from Earth and appears too small in the sky to blot out the sun completely.
“A bright ring around the sun at mid-eclipse is still pretty cool,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.
Asia is abuzz over the event. In Japan, cable cars will run early to give tourists an unobstructed view from the mountains. Ferries will make special trips so that others can enjoy the scene offshore. The Taipei Astronomical Museum will open its doors at dawn while Hong Kong’s Space Museum will set up solar-filtered telescopes outside its building on the Kowloon waterfront.
The last time this type of eclipse was seen in the U.S. was in 1994. This year’s solar show offers ringside seats at 33 national parks along the eclipse path including the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. A partial eclipse can be viewed from another 125 national parks.
For die-hard sky gazers, six U.S. locations will see the moon cover about 95 percent of the sun’s diameter. They include the Petroglyph National Monument, Redwoods National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Zion National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Wherever you are, do not look directly at the eclipsed sun or you can get a serious eye injury. Wear specially made protective glasses that can be bought online or create your own contraption by punching a small pinhole in a cardboard box.
If you buy special eyewear, you can recycle it. Two weeks later, Venus will crawl across the face of the sun ? a rare occurrence known as the “transit of Venus” that will also require viewers to take precaution.
Veteran eclipse chaser Jay Pasachoff has traveled to remote corners of the globe to see the moon take a bite of the sun. This time, the Williams College astronomer will travel to New Mexico with his students to collect data.
Sunday’s event will be his 14th ring eclipse and 55th solar eclipse overall. So what does someone who has seen it all look forward to?
Seeing “the symmetry of a ring of sunlight around the dark silhouette of the moon,” Pasachoff said in an email.
The next ring eclipse won’t be visible in the U.S. for more than a decade ? October 2023.
___
AP writers Eric Talmadge in Japan, Peter Enav in Taiwan and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
___
Follow Alicia Chang at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia.
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Girlfriend is questioning : Relationship Forum Comment
In life, things are never clear cut or black and white. There are many long distance relationships that do work quite successfully.
If you are moving away to study or work, then your reasons are very valid. What direction the relationship takes from here is up to the two of you. You may need to ask yourself some questions, with a pen and a piece of paper.
Your relationship has progressed to the point where you are now living together, which means that you are both showing some signs that you like some kind of commitment. Your girlfriend broke down and cried when you were intimate, which means that she has been doing some thinking about the relationship and obviously has some feelings for you, or she wouldn’t have cried. Her lack of orgasm was obviously because of her feelings about the situation, and perhaps her fears of the relationship ending. It could also be that she had convinced herself that her feelings were wavering as a defence mechanism against being hurt and losing you. You won’t know any of these answers, and you will both be fearful about the outcome if you don’t COMMUNICATE. Communicating is essential. Imagine how awful it would be if you both threw away the potential love of a lifetime simply because you didn’t communicate, or if you drifted along in a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere, simply because you didn’t communicate openly and honestly with each other. Neither of you are mind readers, and assumptions can be very dangerous in a relationship. You will need to set some time aside, to talk openly and honestly about your expectations from each other, both of your fears etc etc.
Would it be asking too much to ask your girlfriend to come with you, or is she tied to where you live now because of family, work and other commitments? Would she be prepared to do this, or would she resent having to give up a lot? You both need to talk about this, with neither of you putting any pressure on the other, or emotionally blackmailing each other by saying things like “If you loved me you would……..”(fill in the blank here, you get my drift). Would it be possible for you to arrange to be together at a definite point in the future? Is your work or study likely to be long lasting and permanent? Will you be close enough to visit at weekends or once a month? Would either of you cheat, or fear cheating from the other partner? If so, what could you do to prevent this? Do you love each other enough to remain together whilst being apart? Is one of you likely to fall out of love or to find the distance and separation too much? Is it really necessary to work away? (If you chose not to, this should be because of YOUR personal choice, not because of pressure) If you missed out on this opportunity and the relationship didn’t work out would you always feel a bit regretful and even resentful?
You may also like to add your own questions to the questions above.
I wish you both well, whatever the outcome, and hope that you both make a decision that is right for you. Please think about things very carefully. All the best. Let us know how things go.
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The Best Weight Loss Tips In The World! Comment
When working on weight loss, be sure to take your weight once a week. This will show your results. Keep a notebook of your weight loss progress. Those who keep such records generally experience more weight loss success.
When you start feeling hungry, drink a glass of water and wait fifteen minutes before eating. Often times boredom or thirst can be mistaken for hunger. Take a short walk or have some water. If you are still hungry after that, go ahead and eat.
Variety is the spice of life, and it is a great way to keep your diet interesting. Consuming the same thing over and over again does get tedious, and it may cause you to fall off your diet plan. Make sure you?re eating a balanced diet and that you?re not denying yourself.
Avoid the traditional, three meals approach. You can easily surpass the the limit of calories you should eat in order to lose weight. As an alternative, eat several smaller meals throughout the day. Try to keep your ?mini-meals? at or around 200-300 calories each.
Set aside enough time in the morning to eat breakfast. When time is tight, it is often more convenient to eat a calorie-packed, hand-held pastry during your commute. These types of items will fill you with unnecessary calories. You should eat a fruit or some oatmeal to get your day started with a healthy meal.
You can get some exercise while you are chatting on the phone. Move around when you?re on the phone vs sitting down and talking. You don?t have to perform strenuous exercises. You can walk across the room or take care of some chores. Burning a few calories here and there can really add up!
A great food option to aid your weight loss goal is yogurt. Try to opt for plain or yogurts low in fat. You can create delicious and nutritious dishes with yogurt. For example, using plain yogurt as a dressing for cucumber salad. Fresh fruit is great on yogurt and is low on processed sugar. Yogurt is a good source of calcium; calcium will help you have stronger bones.
It is essential that you avoid food that triggers your appetite. To do so requires self-control and making healthy choices about your surroundings. Reduce the amount of contact that you have with foods that make you want to eat. By simply having that food around, you might be tempted to eat it.
Pound any bulk meats that you purchase. Then you can divide large amounts of meat into small portions to freeze, cook and eat later. Pounded meat is easier to cook: feel free to add healthy sauces or to try new ways to cook your meat.
It is crucial that you consume nutritious foods even when you are watching what you eat. When dieting, it?s easy to eat low-calorie foods that don?t offer many nutrients. Improving your health should be a higher priority than losing weight.
Try talking as much as you can when you are eating at a restaurant. You will be able to digest your meal that you are eating and perhaps eat less. Conversation helps to keep your mind off eating for the moment so that you do not consume too much.
If you miss Italian food, you can try making spaghetti without the pasta. Use veggie meatballs instead of beef or pork and add tomato sauce, vegetables such as zucchini, and oregano. You will find this dish to be as yummy as spaghetti, minus the carbs and calories. You don?t have to be deprived on your weight loss journey.
Switch to baked potato chips. Baked versions of your favorite foods offer great taste with less fat and calories.
Losing weight is likely to be a challenge, but using the tips in this article can make it less of a burden. Use these tips consistently, and keep your goals in mind. Thinking positively is the best way to successfully lose weight. You, and only you, can make your body the way you want it to be. Follow these tips and everything else should be easy.
Lose Weight And Keep It Off For Good If you actually really are in any way really serious about dropping weight everyone highly recommend you take a look at Diet solution Program Lasting weight loss can sometimes seem unattainable. One of the hardest things to do is to get started. The next hardest thing to do is to do it again. What can you do to make sure you?re a success?Having goals is paramount for a good fitness plan. Would you like to see a huge change in your body size, or do you just want to get firmer and tighter? Are you hoping that regularly workouts will give you more energy? What do you want to accomplish? You are able to Find out more regarding extreme weight loss diet. Keep records of your weight loss from week to week. Write down everything you eat to keep track of your food intake every day, even if it is a little bite. When you write down what you have eaten, you will feel that you are holding yourself accountable for it. Writing inspires you to continue making healthy choices when it comes to the foods and drinks you consume.
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