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When Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz vehemently denied that he “knowingly” used steroids in an essay published by the Players’ Tribune in March, the Boston Globe was blindsided. |
The Globe had planned to publish similar comments from Ortiz in April, but the newspaper scrambled to run the piece shortly after the Players Tribune posted the essay. |
Globe sports editor Joseph Sullivan told the New York Times that he had concerns that the newspaper would be scooped. |
U.S. tax revenues at record high. Who’s paying? |
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A fire broke out in a reformer at Alon Energy USA's 80,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery on Thursday morning, but on-site emergency responders had it under control within 11 minutes and no one was hurt, a company spokesman said. |
"We do not have a cause at this time and operational assessment is under way," Alon Energy spokesman Blake Lewis said of the fire, which broke out at the unit in Krotz Springs, Louisiana. |
A spokeswoman for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office said earlier that workers were being evacuated from the plant as a precaution. |
A Krotz Springs Fire Department spokesman also said the department was on standby to help with the fire, but had not been called in to help. |
Tanzania champions Simba will be on a revival mission when they face Egyptian giants Al Ahly in a Group D Day 4 clash on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam. |
Simba suffered humiliating 5-0 losses in the previous games away to AS Vita and Ahly, and need nothing short of victory against the former to remain in contention for a place at the next round. |
Midfielder Haruna Niyonzima is upbeat about their chances against the Cairo-based guests who sit at the top of the group with seven points, four richer than Simba. |
"Our victory against Mwadui on Thursday (in a league match) is a big boost for us, at least we see the opportunity to win Tuesday's clash. The last two away games were tough but now we will play at home and many things will change," said Niyonzima. |
The Rwandese has described the Ahly clash a 'do or die' game, and has rallied his colleagues to live up to the billing. |
"If we lose on Tuesday it means that we will lose our chance of qualifying to the quarter finals. We are taking this serious as players and we believe that we still have chance to win," he insisted. |
Having conceded heavily in their last two games, Simba Assistant captain Mohammed Hussein is hoping the midfield efforts at training will be brought to the fore against Ahly. |
"We made several mistakes in our previous games but we have worked on our defense and are hoping to play well this time. It will be a tough game but our fans should come to support us to make good use of our home advantage," he said. |
Simba trainer, Patrick Aussems, added that they will stick to their target of winning all their home games, and eight-time winners will be next on the line. |
"We knew from the first day that the two away games will be very tough. I didn't expect too much from it but now we are back home and are looking for the crucial three points. |
"Almost all my players are available for the game. We will play tough and very competitive. We need to use our opportunities and score goals, which is the only way to win," Aussems concluded. |
Algerian debutants Saoura will host AS Vita in the other Group D clash in Bechar. |
BG Group is targeting production increases from its megaprojects in Brazil and Australia to help it boost flagging profits. The UK company’s operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2012 was down 12% year-on-year to $1.8 billion, mainly because of lower output from its North Sea and Egypt operations. The company’s pr... |
Revenue and other operating income fell by 5% to $4.8bn in the fourth quarter of 2012, due to fewer liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo deliveries and a 2% decrease in overall production in the period, BG said. The group’s full-year income was just under $19bn, an increase of 7% from 2011. |
Increased LNG output boosted BG’s total full-year production by 3%, to 657,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d), as strong Japanese demand drove up margins. Production fell in the fourth quarter, to 640,000 boe/d, as shortfalls from the shutdown of the Elgin-Franklin and Buzzard fields in the North Sea, as well ... |
Finlayson added BG was now aiming for production of 630,000-660,000 boe/d this year but uncertainty surrounding when Total will restart production from the Elgin-Franklin field, which has been offline since March 2012, remains a key uncertainty for the group’s production capacity. Reduced output from Egypt has also wei... |
BG plans to drill 18 wells at the field this year, targeting 2 trillion cubic feet (cf) of gas. The first wells are expected on stream in 2014. |
BG signed an agreement with state-run Egypt General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) in 2011, which partly links BG’s revenue to its production levels, in particular the volume of gas allocated for export as LNG. |
BG’s LNG business, however, was boosted by strong demand from Asia. The LNG business’s full year operating profit, excluding liquefaction costs, was up 13% to $2.6bn. This was mainly due to higher margins from strong Asian demand which offset higher shipping and operating costs. Sustained high LNG demand in Japan, as t... |
BG expects its LNG business to make $2.5bn- $2.7bn in profit this year, slightly up from 2012. BG’s LNG supply capacity this year will however fall by 300,000 tonnes this year, to around 11.3m tonnes, mainly because of lower supply from Egypt. |
BG’s is pinning its hopes for production growth on its Australian and Brazilian operations and in exploring new frontiers, such as Tanzania. The company will bring seven major projects on stream in 2013, including its Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) project in Australia. First gas from QCLNG is expected the end of 2013. ... |
Meanwhile, BG said it expects its total production to decline until the fourth quarter of 2013, when two Brazilian developments are expected to ramp up production. The company drilled 18 wells in the Santos basin, offshore Brazil, last year. First production from the prolific Lula field is expected in the second quarte... |
BG began commercial production from the Sapinhoá field, also in the Santos basin, in January. Output has reached around 120,000 boe/d. The Cidade de São Paulo floating production and storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), in the Sapinhoá field, is producing about 15,000 boe/d, BG said, which will eventually increase to ... |
BG is also looking to Tanzania, where it is sitting on recoverable resources estimated at close to 10 trillion cf of gas across five discoveries. The company said there is “extensive further potential to be explored” within its remaining prospects and acreage in Tanzania. |
– Following Roman Reigns’ announcement on Raw that he is once again fighting leukemia, several members of the WWE roster took to social media to offer their support. You can see posts by a ton of members of the roster below, including Kevin Owens, Booker T, Ric Flair, Sonya Deville, Alexa Bliss and more. |
Reigns relinquished the WWE Universal Championship, which will be up for grabs in a match between Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar at WWE Crown Jewel. |
Roman is one of the best I’ve ever been in the ring with and one of the guys I respect and look up to the most in this industry. |
Thank you Roman 🙌 my love and prayers go out to you and your family 💜 we are with you! |
…. He will fight, he will win, he will return stronger, and I will be waiting…. |
Hillary Clinton is right: Some nominations don't get settled until June - or later. Consider 1972, when Hillary Rodham worked on Sen. George McGovern's campaign. |
McGovern's campaign manager, a brilliant young man named Gary Hart, had helped write the delegate selection rules and he knew how to use them. He ran an insurgent campaign, built on young anti-Vietnam War activists, dedicated to wresting the Democratic Party away from union bosses and big city machines. |
California was a winner-take-all primary that June, so even though McGovern won just 55 percent of the vote, he grabbed all 273 delegates. Those delegates put him over the top, but his opponents, led by Hubert Humphrey, wouldn't concede. Humphrey had won more popular votes than McGovern, they argued. McGovern was too l... |
"They carried the battle all the way to the convention floor," McGovern recalled in a recent New York Times oped column. "I was on the telephone night and day, calling delegates and asking them not to change the rules after the votes were in. My campaign staff and I staggered into the convention exhausted. We had spent... |
The convention was a disaster. McGovern made his acceptance speech at 3 a.m. McGovern had wanted Ted Kennedy to be his vice-presidential candidate, but Kennedy turned him down. McGovern turned to Sen. Tom Eagleton of Missouri, who was later discovered to have had mental illness treatment and was replaced on the ticket.... |
One result of that defeat: the Democrats invented "superdelegates," - elected officials and party brass who would automatically be seated at the convention - to provide a voice for the party establishment and to keep insurgent campaigns from ever again driving the party off a cliff. |
Today's Democrats have good reason to want to avoid another fight over rules that goes all the way to the convention floor. That's why some compromise on the Michigan and Florida delegations was expected to come out of yesterday's Rules Committee meeting. |
It will probably involve seating half the delegates or giving them each half-votes. That's the sanction Terry McAuliffe, who is Clinton's campaign chair, threatened to impose on Michigan delegates when that state considered moving up its primary in 2004, back when McAuliffe was chairman of the Democratic National Commi... |
Obama can afford to be gracious. As of Friday, he was 42 delegates short of clinching the nomination, and even if including Florida and Michigan moves the finish line, he'll still be about 200 delegates closer to it than Clinton. |
Clinton's fast-fading hope is that superdelegates will become convinced she's the stronger candidate and flock to her, but they've been trickling in Obama's direction for months. Obama may have started with an insurgent campaign, but he's now got at least as much of the party establishment on his side as she does. |
The disastrous convention of 1972 - along with the similarly fractious conventions in 1968 and 1980 - still haunt senior Democrats. They want the August convention in Denver to be a well-staged infomercial, not a bare-knuckled brawl. |
That's why Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are leaning on uncommitted superdelegates to announce their decisions this week, after Tuesday's last two primaries. Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, will press the superdelegates who are party officials. Reid, the Senate Majority leader, and Pelos... |
Not all will choose Obama, but most of them will, and as they do so, they will shower Hillary Clinton with love and admiration. Dean and Pelosi, who will chair the convention, will offer her a prime-time speech. Reid may offer her a plum Senate assignment - with some Democrats suggesting she'd make a good majority lead... |
"By this time next week, it will all be over," Reid said Thursday, and most Democrats - even many Clinton supporters - hope it's true. |
This isn't 1972, when Americans were divided by war, when generations were divided by culture and when Democrats were torn between the establishment and the insurgents. It's 2008, a year that began with Democrats pleased with their cast of contenders and should end with a party headed toward November with the wind at i... |
The primary campaign is ending amid exhaustion and bitterness, with both candidates bruised. But it is ending - or should be, at least - with time to heal before the convention. |
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $200 million to 57 organizations through the Agricultural Trade Promotion Program (ATP) to help U.S. farmers and ranchers identify and access new export markets. The ATP is one of three USDA programs created ... |
President Donald J. Trump authorized up to $12 billion in programs to provide assistance to U.S. agriculture through a trade mitigation package announced by Secretary Perdue on September 4, 2018. In addition to the $200 million allocated to the ATP, the package also included the Market Facilitation Program to provide p... |
All sectors of U.S. agriculture, including fish and forest product producers, were eligible to apply for cost-share assistance under the ATP. FAS evaluated applications according to criteria that included the potential for export growth in the target market, direct injury from the imposed retaliatory tariffs, and the l... |
The Astro A10 is a new budget-friendly gaming headset. It is solidly built, with stereo sound, a flip-to-mute microphone, and over-ear earpads. It is adjustable, sturdy, and lighter than the A40 but still has very clear sound and some directionality. The bass wasn’t as strong as I would prefer, but the sound wasn’t dis... |
The audio cable is detachable, replaceable, and has a volume knob. The replicability of that cable is a definite must-have if you have any pets at home that enjoy nomming on audio cables (my cat particularly enjoyed that hobby), and there’s also an adapter included for those of us who have rigs that have separate audio... |
The microphone is clear, and the flip-to-mute feature is useful. The headset is comfortable for long gaming sessions, but while it muffles external sounds, it doesn’t mute out nearby voices, making it not the best choice for someone who games in a loud environment. |
Comparing it specifically to the A40tr, it is significantly lighter and not made to be modded. For some, the lack of an ability to personalize it might be a minus; but for me it just means I don’t have to worry about losing track of anything else, such as the speaker tags or boom mic. The A40tr’s Dolby 7.1 sound create... |
For the budget-conscious gamer, I would very much recommend the A10 as an on-the-go headset for everyday use. It has quality sound, a decent mic, and is sturdy enough to survive being shoved into a backpack with your laptop and not get deformed. |
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council on Monday authorized action against illicit oil exports from Libya until February 2020, and it added planning and committing sexual and gender-based violence as reasons for sanctions over objections from Russia and China. |
The vote in the U.N.'s most powerful body on a resolution that also renewed asset freezes and travel bans on Libyan political spoilers was 13-0, with Russia and China abstaining. |
"This sends a powerful signal that the international community will not tolerate such crimes," senior British diplomat Stephen Hickey, whose country drafted the resolution, said of the addition of sexual and gender-based violence. |
Libya plunged into chaos after the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and is now governed by rival administrations in the east and west. It has also become a haven for armed groups, including several from neighboring countries, which survive on looting and human trafficking. |
The Netherlands and Sweden pushed for including "planning, directing or committing acts involving sexual and gender-based violence" as criteria for sanctions, citing the increasingly worrying problem in Libya especially against migrants trying to reach Europe. |
Dutch Ambassador Karel Van Oostrom told the council after the vote that such violence "is directly connected to the issues of peace and security we are discussing today." |
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia strongly disagreed, saying sexual and gender-based violence is a crime that is dealt with by national governments and is considered at the U.N. Human Rights Council and the Commission on the Status of Women. It is not a threat to international peace and security that the Security Cou... |
"We are under the impression that the countries pushing this into the Security Council agenda are attempting to gain domestic political capital through the imposition of sanctions regimes against other states," Nebenzia said. "The facts of such crimes perpetrated against migrants in Libya only confirm our premise that ... |
U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen said the resolution should have been adopted unanimously and "be sending a clear message to the Libyan people — that we are united behind you and that we on the Security Council will hold Libyan spoilers to account for their actions." |
In June, the Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on six leaders of criminal networks engaged in human trafficking and migrant smuggling from Libya, and in September it slapped sanctions on Libyan militia leader Ibrahim Jadran for attacking Libyan oil facilities in the summer. |
The resolution adopted Monday extended authorization for U.N. member states to board suspect vessels and return illegally seized oil to the Libyan government until Feb. 15, 2020. The initial resolution was adopted in March 2014, three days after U.S. Navy SEAL commandos seized a tanker off Cyprus containing Libyan oil ... |
The resolution also calls on U.N. member states to report to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Libya on their implementation of the measures, including those recently adopted. It also extended the mandate of the panel of experts assisting the committee until Feb. 15, 2020. |
Neem is a shady tree native to India and Burma with spreading shade branches and honey-scented white flowers. Neem oil smells fresh, clean and light with a trace of sweetness–so fresh in fact that you imagine it as a wonderful air freshener even if, like me, you don’t as a rule use them. Learning that the seeds and lea... |
Neem is a plant revered and even worshipped in India, and Mahatma Gandhi felt it was the most nutritious plant ever studied. Neem has remarkable powers in many arenas, not the least being to control insects, which is how I have come across it most referred to in my research. |
1. Neem is one of the most promising botanical pesticides. It is known to kill wool moths, prevent insect bites and infestations, and more. Try adding 1 teaspoon of pure neem oil to the detergent in a steam carpet cleaner to kill moth larvae. |
2. Because neem kills bacteria, mold, and germs, you can make a homemade deodorizer using 1 teaspoon pure neem oil to 1 cup of water in a spray bottle to use in the bathroom and kitchen. |
3. Infusions of seeds and leaves of neem are widely used for medicinal reasons in India, to treat everything from ringworm to in Ayurvedic medicine as a “cure all” for some childhood diseases. Many in India uses neem twigs for tooth and gum care. Used as a plant spirit medicine, neem flower essence is considered to hel... |
Neem leaves boiled in water and the cooled water when churned with sour curd makes an excellent pesticide for agricutural spraying. |
Annie, you are one clever lady. thank you. |
where we can buy this oil? |
We use neem oil for organic pest control for our veggie garden, but it is so wonderful to know that you can use it for many other things. |
Where can I find pure Neem Oil? |
While neem harbours all the positive attributes (and many,many more) mentioned in the article above, we should be very careful about becoming too enthusiastic about them and start planting these trees where they are a non-native species. Time and time over humans have introduced exotic species(whether it be animals or ... |
BTW: I use neemseed oil for cleaning my chickencoop (amongst other alternative cleaning agents) to keep parasites at bay but the fresh smell it supposedly generates,as mentioned in the article, is something I've never noticed. I really think it smells disgusting, and always use teatree oil afterwards to mask the neem o... |
Most scientists agree that an asteroid impact killed off almost all the dinosaurs and some 70 percent of all other species living on Earth about 66 million years ago. |
But two Dartmouth researchers including an Indian origin scientist have argued that a high-velocity comet led to the demise of the dinosaurs. |
The asteroid impact theory of extinction began with discoveries by the late physicist and Nobel Laureate Luis Alvarez and his son, the geologist Walter Alvarez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 they identified extremely high concentrations of the element iridium in a layer of rock known as... |
While iridium is rare in the Earth's crust, it is a common trace element in rocky space debris such as asteroids. Based on the elevated levels of iridium found worldwide in the boundary layer, the Alvarezes suggested that this signaled a major asteroid strike around the time of the K-Pg boundary?about 66 million years ... |
The scientific community today looks to the deeply buried and partially submerged, 110-mile wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan as the place where the death-dealing asteroid landed. The 66-million-year age of Chicxulub, discovered in 1990, coincides with the KT boundary, leading to the conclusion that what caused... |
Professors Jason Moore and Mukul Sharma of the Department of Earth Sciences do agree with fellow scientists that Chicxulub was the impact zone, but dispute the characterization of the object from space as an asteroid. |
The Dartmouth duo compiled all the published data on iridium from the K-Pg boundary. They also included the K-Pg data on osmium?another element common in space rock. In sifting through all this they found a wide range of variability, so consequently kept only the figures they demonstrated to be most reliable. |
"Because we are bringing a fresh set of eyes into this field, we feel our decisions are objective and unbiased," said Sharma. |
For example, they deleted data drawn from deep ocean cores where there were very high amounts of iridium. "We discovered that even then there was a huge variation. It was much worse in the oceans than on the continents," Sharma said. |
"We figured out that the oceanic variations are likely caused by preferential concentration of iridium bearing minerals in marine sediments," he added. |
In the final analysis, the overall trace element levels were much lower than those that scientists had been using for decades and being this low weakened the argument for an asteroid impact explanation. However, a comet explanation reconciles the conflicting evidence of a huge impact crater with the revised, lower irid... |
"We are proposing a comet because that conclusion hits a 'sweet spot.' Comets have a lower percentage of iridium and osmium than asteroids, relative to their mass, yet a high-velocity comet would have sufficient energy to create a 110-mile-wide crater," said Moore. |
"Comets travel much faster than asteroids, so they have more energy on impact, which in combination with their being partially ice means they are not contributing as much iridium or osmium," he added. |
They described their somewhat controversial findings in a paper presented to the 44th Lunar and Planetary Conference last month. |
People may be buying The Goldfinch and The Hunger Games in droves, but how many actually finish these books? How far do readers get? According to mathematician Jordan Ellenberg, his Hawking Index will let you know! |
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