Even in spring, not much hope for Astros, Marlins

By PAUL NEWBERRY

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 5:40 p.m. ET Feb. 28, 2013

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) - Spring training is supposed to be a time of hope.

Unless you're the Houston Astros. Or the Miami Marlins.

With no-name rosters and in the midst of massive rebuilding jobs, Houston and Miami are more likely to be remembered as among the worst teams in recent history than make an improbable run at the playoffs.

The Astros lost 107 games last year, after 106 defeats in 2011. Houston's main goal will be trying to avoid becoming the first team since the expansion New York Mets in the 1960s to lose at least 106 games in three straight seasons.

"No one expects us to do well," Lucas Harrell said Thursday, after pitching in a spring training game against the New York Yankees. "So, when we do well, it's going to be kind of like, `Oh, wow.' I definitely think we have a chance to shock a lot of people this year."

Brave words, especially when the Astros face the additional burden of moving from the NL into what looks like the toughest division in baseball, the AL West. They'll be matched regularly against two 2012 playoff teams - Oakland and Texas - plus the high-priced Los Angeles Angels, who have three of the game's most dynamic players: Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout.

Down in Miami, owner Jeffrey Loria totally dismantled the Marlins after a disappointing debut season in a new stadium paid for largely with public tax dollars. He's now a pariah in south Florida and a laughingstock through the rest of the baseball, settling for a roster that might do pretty well in Triple-A - but not in the big leagues.

"I'm still trying to learn their names," said Davey Johnson, manager of the NL East champion Washington Nationals. "I'm not even sure what position the names are going in."

He's not the only one.

After trading away nearly all their high-priced players in one stunning offseason, the Marlins are prepared to send out a lineup that includes five players with less two full seasons in the big leagues, plus a rotation that has only one starter with as many as 10 wins in a season.

"I feel like we have a plan," first-year manager Mike Redmond said. "Will it take a few years? Maybe. But we feel like we have a plan that's going to work with a lot of young players and a lot of young talent. I'm looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity."

Redmond keeps reminding his players he was one of 19 rookies on the 1998 Marlins, the remnants of a World Series title team that was torn apart by a previous owner. Five years later, many of those young players were the centerpiece of another championship squad.

Of course, Redmond probably doesn't tell his team how the Marlins finished in `98 - 54-108.

"It's a fresh start," he said. "At the end of the day, man, nobody gives us a chance to do anything. We have the ability to go out and surprise some teams. I think we're a better team than people give us credit for. But at the end of the day, we're got to go out there and prove that."

According to STATS, only 21 teams have finished with a winning percentage of .300 or less since 1900 - just two of those (the 1962 New York Mets, in their first season, and the 2003 Detroit Tigers) in the 162-game era. To avoid joining that infamous list, Miami and Houston will have to win 49 games this season, which might be a challenge.

Certainly, both teams can expect to play before lots of empty seats.

Last season, the Marlins drew 2.2 million to their retractable roof stadium, which was the third-highest total in franchise history but ranked only 12th in the NL and was far below expectations. Not surprisingly after the offseason purge, season-ticket sales have slumped badly and Miami won't come anywhere close to drawing that many fans in 2013.

Houston's attendance plummeted to a NL-worst 1.6 million last season, its lowest total in 17 years, and the lack of major moves during the offseason is likely to send it dipping even more.

Redmond doesn't think the ill will toward Loria will have any impact on the players. After all, it's not their fault Miami traded away anyone making a significant salary.

"Players are a lot more resilient to that stuff than people think and give them credit for," he said. "When you get in the flow of the season, all you're focused on is playing the game and doing what you're in control of, and that's how you play. I don't foresee any distractions."

Then, he added, "Would it be nice to have 40,000 in the stands every night? Absolutely. But we can't control that."

The Astros reached the World Series for the first time in franchise history just eight years ago, but that came as a winning era led by Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell was winding down. Suddenly, those guys were gone, and Houston's farm system fell on hard times. The bottom fell out two years ago, and the ownership decided to rebuild with youth rather than go for a quick fix.

That may be the right decision long-term, but it's painful to watch at the moment.

Last season, Houston's payroll dipped as low as $21.3 million. This year, it won't be much higher. Not with a rotation that has only one pitcher coming off a year with double-figure wins (Harrell, at 11-11). Not with a lineup that includes no one who hit even 20 homers a season ago. Not with a new closer (Jose Veras) who is on his fourth team in four years and had all of one save in 2012.

It certainly looked like the Astros had thrown in the towel on another season when shortstop Jed Lowrie was dealt to Oakland just before the start of spring training, yet another payroll-cutting move.

Even so, Harrell said he looks forward to going against the AL West powerhouses.

If nothing else, it will show the Astros just how far they have to go.

"It's one of the best divisions in baseball, and we're moving into it," the pitcher said. "We want to kind of see where we're at, who can make it, who can stick. It's a great division to be in. Either we'll have success or not."

Bet on the latter.

---

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50997644/ns/sports-baseball/

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Gael Garc?a Bernal anchors the film as the materialistic, half-bright but ultimately goodhearted Ren?

Photo by Tom?s Dittburn/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Pablo Larra?n?s No, the story of a Chilean advertising executive who half-unwillingly joins forces with a campaign to oust dictator Augusto Pinochet, was one of the nominees for this year?s Best Foreign Film Oscar. In a year when there was only one foreign film on everyone?s lips?Michael Haneke?s austere old-age drama, Amour?it?s not surprising that No, a sly political satire with a deliberately scruffy visual aesthetic, neither won the prize nor got a lot of Oscar-season attention. (Did we even get an audience-reaction shot of Gael Garc?a Bernal in a tux? And if so, can someone please send me a GIF?) But I really hope No?s nomination helps get people into theaters to see it, because it may be the best movie I?ve seen this year?although given the quality of most January and February releases, that feels like wan praise. Put it this way: There will have to be a hell of a lot of good movies released in 2013 for No not to make my list of the year?s 10 best.

What I love about No is how seriously it takes the humor of its premise. Larra?n (who also directed Tony Manero, a bizarre but unforgettable character study of a John Travolta-obsessed loner in Pinochet-era Santiago) is interested in the parallels between commercial advertising and political propaganda. But Larra?n's aim isn?t limited to pointing out those parallels and then encouraging us to laugh hollowly at the crassness of modern consumer society. Instead, the film explores the productive tensions between two competing sets of assumptions about mass media: The rebels? passionate belief that simply telling the grim truth about the Pinochet regime will be enough to mobilize public sentiment against it, and the ad exec?s pragmatic conviction that such truths tend to go down better with an extra-large spoonful of sugar.

The movie opens in 1988, when Pinochet?who had been installed in a coup with the help of the CIA 15 years earlier?decided to shore up his international legitimacy by holding a plebiscite election to decide whether he should continue as president. Though there was widespread suspicion the election would be rigged, it nonetheless served as an opportunity for the Chilean resistance to marshal public opinion: The Pinochet regime agreed to give the opposition 15 minutes of time per night on state-run television to make its case for the dictator to step down.?

After dispensing with this historical setup in a few cleverly designed title cards, the movie introduces us to Ren? Saavedra (Bernal), the son of a Chilean dissident long exiled in Mexico. Now back in Santiago, Ren? is working as a well-paid ?creative? at a large ad agency. When we first meet him, he?s showing some clients an ad campaign for a soft drink called Free. His pitch is interrupted by leftist organizer Jos? Tom?s Urrutia (Chilean TV star and Tom Wilkinson look-alike Luis Gnecco), a contemporary of his father, who?s trying to recruit him to design the campaign for the resistance movement?s nightly 15 minutes of fame. Meanwhile, Ren??s boss at the ad agency (Alfredo Castro, or, as Tony Manero viewers will shout in unison, ?Tony Manero!?) is hired as a consultant for the other side. Ren??s lack of interest in politics is matched only by his lack of comprehension of it?asked by his boss if he?s a Communist, he responds indignantly, ?No! I?m ? the other one?? He?s more motivated by the prospect of winning back his ex-wife (Antonia Zegers), who comes over almost nightly to tuck in their son?and who?s actively involved in the political struggle he?s being paid to package and sell.

What ensues is a darkly hilarious volley of escalating rhetoric from both sides, as the drama among the real-life players alternates with long excerpts from the nightly propaganda battle on television. This middle section masterfully weaves archival footage into fiction, a commingling that?s enabled in part by the fact that Larra?n shot the whole film on washed out, cruddy-looking ?80s-era video that matches the visual style of the clips. The catchy ?We Are the World?-style anthem Ren? commissions from a jingle writer for the campaign really did exist, as did the manically upbeat music video that goes along with it. What we see are imagined behind-the-scenes moments during the making of these Chilean cultural landmarks, as Ren? contends with poor shooting conditions, shoestring budgets, and the dismay of his colleagues on the campaign. Some of the more militant leftists leave the cause in disgust at his saccharine, populist, and politically empty strategies for mass outreach. It?s not torture expos?s or interviews with the families of desaparecidos that will win their side victory, he insists, but rainbow T-shirts, upbeat platitudes, and sexy girls.

Garc?a Bernal anchors the film as the materialistic, half-bright but ultimately goodhearted Ren?. Like the younger Brad Pitt, he is one of those actors who's so outrageously beautiful he rarely gets the chance to play ordinary dudes, even though it's a style of character he happens to excel at. Sporting a scraggly mullet with a little rat-tail at the back, his relatively small stature left more apparent than it is in most of his movies, Garc?a Bernal gets to tests his range as a comic actor. He proves to be not only consistently hilarious, but also able to pivot on a dime from comedy to drama as the tension between the regime and the resistance, and between Ren? and his ex-wife, heat up in the movie?s last act.

No has been a highly controversial film in its country of origin, for reasons that recall the debate about Argo and its representation of the Iran hostage crisis. Many who were involved on the ground with the Chilean resistance in 1988 feel that the movie warped history by exaggerating the importance of this particular ad campaign, and advertising in general, in the eventual success of the movement. And Larra?n himself?who, though he was still a child when the regime ended, is the son of a well-known right-wing politician and businessman?has been criticized for trivializing real-life political struggle by turning it into comedy. As a non-Chilean, I can only say that this portrait of a slick salesman who turns crisis into opportunity strikes me as anything but opportunistic and slick. It?s the rare political satire that can sound the depths of irony as No does and still end on a note of ambivalent hope.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=7998365ee5b4a03d09c1641eacf5bdb8

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Discoveries suggest icy cosmic start for amino acids and DNA ingredients

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dave Finley
dfinley@nrao.edu
575-835-7302
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Important prebiotic chemicals found in interstellar space

Using new technology at the telescope and in laboratories, researchers have discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space. The discoveries indicate that some basic chemicals that are key steps on the way to life may have formed on dusty ice grains floating between the stars.

The scientists used the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia to study a giant cloud of gas some 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The chemicals they found in that cloud include a molecule thought to be a precursor to a key component of DNA and another that may have a role in the formation of the amino acid alanine.

One of the newly-discovered molecules, called cyanomethanimine, is one step in the process that chemists believe produces adenine, one of the four nucleobases that form the "rungs" in the ladder-like structure of DNA. The other molecule, called ethanamine, is thought to play a role in forming alanine, one of the twenty amino acids in the genetic code.

"Finding these molecules in an interstellar gas cloud means that important building blocks for DNA and amino acids can 'seed' newly-formed planets with the chemical precursors for life," said Anthony Remijan, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

In each case, the newly-discovered interstellar molecules are intermediate stages in multi-step chemical processes leading to the final biological molecule. Details of the processes remain unclear, but the discoveries give new insight on where these processes occur.

Previously, scientists thought such processes took place in the very tenuous gas between the stars. The new discoveries, however, suggest that the chemical formation sequences for these molecules occurred not in gas, but on the surfaces of ice grains in interstellar space.

"We need to do further experiments to better understand how these reactions work, but it could be that some of the first key steps toward biological chemicals occurred on tiny ice grains," Remijan said.

The discoveries were made possible by new technology that speeds the process of identifying the "fingerprints" of cosmic chemicals. Each molecule has a specific set of rotational states that it can assume. When it changes from one state to another, a specific amount of energy is either emitted or absorbed, often as radio waves at specific frequencies that can be observed with the GBT.

New laboratory techniques have allowed astrochemists to measure the characteristic patterns of such radio frequencies for specific molecules. Armed with that information, they then can match that pattern with the data received by the telescope. Laboratories at the University of Virginia and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics measured radio emission from cyanomethanimine and ethanamine, and the frequency patterns from those molecules then were matched to publicly-available data produced by a survey done with the GBT from 2008 to 2011.

A team of undergraduate students participating in a special summer research program for minority students at the University of Virginia (U.Va.) conducted some of the experiments leading to the discovery of cyanomethanimine. The students worked under U.Va. professors Brooks Pate and Ed Murphy, and Remijan. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, brought students from four universities for summer research experiences. They worked in Pate's astrochemistry laboratory, as well as with the GBT data.

"This is a pretty special discovery and proves that early-career students can do remarkable research," Pate said.

The researchers are reporting their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dave Finley
dfinley@nrao.edu
575-835-7302
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Important prebiotic chemicals found in interstellar space

Using new technology at the telescope and in laboratories, researchers have discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space. The discoveries indicate that some basic chemicals that are key steps on the way to life may have formed on dusty ice grains floating between the stars.

The scientists used the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia to study a giant cloud of gas some 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The chemicals they found in that cloud include a molecule thought to be a precursor to a key component of DNA and another that may have a role in the formation of the amino acid alanine.

One of the newly-discovered molecules, called cyanomethanimine, is one step in the process that chemists believe produces adenine, one of the four nucleobases that form the "rungs" in the ladder-like structure of DNA. The other molecule, called ethanamine, is thought to play a role in forming alanine, one of the twenty amino acids in the genetic code.

"Finding these molecules in an interstellar gas cloud means that important building blocks for DNA and amino acids can 'seed' newly-formed planets with the chemical precursors for life," said Anthony Remijan, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

In each case, the newly-discovered interstellar molecules are intermediate stages in multi-step chemical processes leading to the final biological molecule. Details of the processes remain unclear, but the discoveries give new insight on where these processes occur.

Previously, scientists thought such processes took place in the very tenuous gas between the stars. The new discoveries, however, suggest that the chemical formation sequences for these molecules occurred not in gas, but on the surfaces of ice grains in interstellar space.

"We need to do further experiments to better understand how these reactions work, but it could be that some of the first key steps toward biological chemicals occurred on tiny ice grains," Remijan said.

The discoveries were made possible by new technology that speeds the process of identifying the "fingerprints" of cosmic chemicals. Each molecule has a specific set of rotational states that it can assume. When it changes from one state to another, a specific amount of energy is either emitted or absorbed, often as radio waves at specific frequencies that can be observed with the GBT.

New laboratory techniques have allowed astrochemists to measure the characteristic patterns of such radio frequencies for specific molecules. Armed with that information, they then can match that pattern with the data received by the telescope. Laboratories at the University of Virginia and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics measured radio emission from cyanomethanimine and ethanamine, and the frequency patterns from those molecules then were matched to publicly-available data produced by a survey done with the GBT from 2008 to 2011.

A team of undergraduate students participating in a special summer research program for minority students at the University of Virginia (U.Va.) conducted some of the experiments leading to the discovery of cyanomethanimine. The students worked under U.Va. professors Brooks Pate and Ed Murphy, and Remijan. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, brought students from four universities for summer research experiences. They worked in Pate's astrochemistry laboratory, as well as with the GBT data.

"This is a pretty special discovery and proves that early-career students can do remarkable research," Pate said.

The researchers are reporting their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

###

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/nrao-dsi022813.php

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Slickdeals' best in tech for February 27th: Sony NEX-6 bundle and Klipsch Image E1 in-ears

Looking to save some coin on your tech purchases? Of course you are! In this round-up, we'll run down a list of the freshest frugal buys, hand-picked with the help of the folks at Slickdeals. You'll want to act fast, though, as many of these offerings won't stick around long.

If you've been thinking about splurging on a mirrorless camera, now might be your chance. A Sony NEX-6 bundle hits the list today with memory card, lens, $50 gift card and Adobe software in tow. Of course, there are four other stellar deals waiting just past the break too. Coupon codes are required for a number of today's selections, so be sure to include those at checkout.

Filed under: Cameras, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Portable Audio/Video

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Silver nanoparticles may adversely affect environment

Thursday, February 28, 2013

In experiments mimicking a natural environment, Duke University researchers have demonstrated that the silver nanoparticles used in many consumer products can have an adverse effect on plants and microorganisms.

Fifty days after scientists applied a single low dose of silver nanoparticles, the experimental environments produced about a third less biomass in some plants and microbes.

These preliminary findings are important, the researchers said, because little is known about the environmental effects of silver nanoparticles, which are found in textiles, clothing, children's toys and pacifiers, disinfectants and toothpaste.

"No one really knows what the effects of these particles are in the environment," said Benjamin Colman, a post-doctoral fellow in Duke's biology department and a member of the Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT).

"We're trying to come up with the data that can be used to help regulators determine the risks to the environment from silver nanoparticle exposures," Colman said. CEINT's research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency

Previous studies have involved high concentrations of the nanoparticles in a laboratory setting, which the researchers point out, doesn't represent "real-world" conditions.

"Results from laboratory studies are difficult to extrapolate to ecosystems, where exposures likely will be at low concentrations and there is a diversity of organisms," Colman said.

Silver nanoparticles are used in consumer products because they can kill bacteria, inhibiting unwanted odors. They work through a variety of mechanisms, including generating free radicals of oxygen which can cause DNA damage to microbial membranes without harming human cells.

The main route by which these particles enter the environment is as a by-product of sewage treatment plants. The nanoparticles are too small to be filtered out, so they and other materials end up in the resulting wastewater treatment "sludge," which is then spread on the land surface as a fertilizer.

For their studies, the researchers created mesocosms, which are small, man-made structures containing different plants and microorganisms meant to represent the environment. They applied sludge with low doses of silver nanoparticles in some of the mesocosms, then compared plants and microorganisms from treated and untreated mesocosms after 50 days.

The study appeared online Feb. 27 in the journal PLOS One.

The researchers found that one of the plants studied, a common annual grass known as Microstegium vimeneum, had 32 percent less biomass in the mesocosms treated with the nanoparticles. Microbes were also affected by the nanoparticles, Colman said. One enzyme associated with helping microbes deal with external stresses was 52 percent less active, while another enzyme that helps regulate processes within the cell was 27 percent less active. The overall biomass of the microbes was also 35 percent lower, he said.

"Our field studies show adverse responses of plants and microorganisms following a single low dose of silver nanoparticles applied by a sewage biosolid," Colman said. "An estimated 60 percent of the average 5.6 million tons of biosolids produced each year is applied to the land for various reasons, and this practice represents an important and understudied route of exposure of natural ecosystems to engineered nanoparticles."

"Our results show that silver nanoparticles in the biosolids, added at concentrations that would be expected, caused ecosystem-level impacts," Colman said. "Specifically, the nanoparticles led to an increase in nitrous oxide fluxes, changes in microbial community composition, biomass, and extracellular enzyme activity, as well as species-specific effects on the above-ground vegetation."

The researchers plan to continue to study longer-term effects of silver nanoparticles and to examine another ubiquitous nanoparticle ? titanium dioxide.

###

Duke University: http://www.duke.edu

Thanks to Duke University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127060/Silver_nanoparticles_may_adversely_affect_environment

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Charity once tied to Armstrong says will survive

CHICAGO (AP) ? The president of a cancer charity founded by Lance Armstrong insists that the organization will persevere in the wake of the cyclist's admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

The Livestrong Foundation's president, Doug Ulman, was scheduled to deliver what the organization described as a "major 'State of the Foundation' speech" on Thursday in Chicago.

"Our success has never been based on one person," Ulman said in remarks prepared for the annual gathering of Livestrong charity leaders, grantees and others. "Will the Livestrong Foundation survive? Yes. Absolutely, yes. Hell, yes."

Armstrong stepped down as chairman of the charity in October, saying he didn't want his association to damage the foundation's ability to raise money and continue its advocacy programs on behalf of people with cancer.

Originally called the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the cyclist created the organization in Austin, Texas, a year after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. Doctors gave him 50-50 odds of surviving.

Armstrong admitted during an interview with Oprah Winfrey this year that he used performance-enhancing drugs when he won seven straight Tour de France titles. He told Winfrey that leaving Livestrong was the most "humbling" experience after the revelations about his drug use broke.

"I wouldn't at all say forced out, told to leave," he told Winfrey about Livestrong. "I was aware of the pressure. But it hurt like hell.

"That was the lowest," Armstrong said. "The lowest."

Armstrong's personal fortune had sustained a big hit days earlier. One by one, his sponsors called to end their associations with him: Nike; Trek Bicycles; Giro, which manufactures cycling helmets and other accessories; Anheuser-Busch.

"That was a $75 million day," Armstrong said.

"That just went out of your life," Winfrey said.

"Gone," he replied.

___

Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/charity-once-tied-armstrong-says-survive-135912093--spt.html

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Clint Eastwood signs pro-gay marriage brief (cbsnews)

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