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Disrupt NY 2013's Hackathon took place over roughly the last 24 hours, and now the teams are ready to present. Watch along as we live stream all 164 hacks built during the event, each of which gets just under a minute to demo what they've built on stage in order to try to convince the judges they're worthy of the sponsor prizes. 164 is a lot of hacks for just under a day, and in fact it's a record for any Disrupt Hackathon to date.

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It’s been seen under a ridiculous number of different outfits, but it has finally seen the light of day. Kim Kardashian’s baby bump has been exposed, and actually caught by a photographer for you to see. Yes, it sounds creepy, because it is. But there are apparently millions of people out there who are so concerned with what Kim’s belly looks like now that she is pregnant. So far all those obsessed people have been given is the basic shape of it — and even that has been behind clothing. For the real deal, and to see her baby bump in the flesh, visit Pop On The Pop. Yes, that dude from the original 90210 is now a father! – Celeb Baby Laundry. Don’t you dare compare Kate Middleton to Diana – Celeb Dirty Laundry. These are some precious pics of Jay-Z and Beyonce with their kid! – Diva Artist. So exactly what has Tila Tequila been up to since completely falling off the face of the earth? – The Great Monkey Suit. Michael Jordan’s wedding will be EPIC – Have U Heard. The Great Gatsby is really making a splash in Hollywood, and also in the fashion world – [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/iazZt42L-PI/

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) ? As the sun creeps into the sleeping quarters of the Tustumena, passengers who take a second to look out the window wake up to volcanic topography, sky blue lakes and wildlife that looks extraterrestrial even to most Alaskans.

That ethereal experience only lasts a few seconds; the berth's stripped-down bunk beds and dreary wallpaper quickly remind passengers they are sailing on a ferry that is almost 50 years old.

Having a ship that's a vestige of another era, however, does offer one small perk: During the summer, a handful of vessels have a nature expert on board who teaches passengers about the stunning local scenery and animals.

Alaska's state-owned ferries ? which shuttle residents and tourists between remote towns on the coasts of Washington state, Canada and Alaska ? are scaling back costs by getting rid of the naturalist program on all but one of the 11-ship fleet this year.

State officials say the program may eventually be brought back, but for now, the plan is to replace them with computerized equipment and brochures on the so-called Alaska Marine Highway System, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

In light of Alaska's declining revenues and an unclear financial future, the state's various departments were asked to bring expenses down by eliminating items that do not affect core functions.

Naturalists, who are hired and paid by the U.S. Forest Service or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, make about $22,000 a season. The state provides them free room and board on the ferry, which costs about $5,000 per year, per ship, according to Jeremy Woodrow, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation, the department responsible for the ferry system.

"The core purpose of the marine highway system really is providing transportation as a highway," Woodrow said.

The Marine Highway system is an aging, bare-boned necessity. Only four of the 11 ships in the fleet were built after 1980, but they remain a crucial link connecting the state's coastal cities to the rest of the world. The only way to reach Alaska's capital, Juneau, for instance, is to fly or take a ferry. There are no roads in or out of the rugged terrain.

Many of the ferries' passengers are Alaska residents shuttling from town to town or back from the mainland. But the trips also draw adventuresome tourists looking for an off-the-beaten-path vacation.

The naturalists, called "interpreters," are a valuable tool for tourists and residents because staff members don't have time to play tour guide, according to Doug Stuart, who served as the Tustumena's naturalist for over a decade.

Stuart, 71, is now out of work for the first summer in 12 years. He gets social security, but does odd jobs in the winter to supplement his income. Without the money from the naturalist job, Stuart and his wife are selling their big house in town with a mortgage ? where they currently live together after raising five children there? and moving to a smaller one on the outskirts of town that he's been building for the last few years.

Erin Kirkland, the publisher of AKontheGO.com, a website dedicated to family travel and outdoor activities in Alaska, said she is sad to see the naturalists go because a lot more tourists are starting to take the ferries instead of cruise ships. She and her family also enjoy the interpreters when they take the ferries.

"They have all the maps. They've got all the information about the communities you're headed to, the national forests, the national parks, and they will offer very insightful information," she said. "It's just a really nice fit."

Interpreter programs on many ships began disappearing when funding from the federal government became less certain, Woodrow said.

Without knowing for sure whether the federal government would be able to pay for interpreters in the future, the Department of Transportation is now hesitant to sign a contract to rent out a room for them.

That's space that could be used to transport Alaska's tourists and in-state travelers, the department said.

This summer will be the first time in 23 years that the Tustumena doesn't have a naturalist on board, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official Larry Bell.

It's a loss for tourists because the state ferry system is the one of the few ways to see the Aleutian Islands. Cruise ships mostly travel southeast Alaska, with some venturing to Anchorage and Kodiak.

"I'm really befuddled, because to save a few bucks on what they pay for me to ride and do all the work for the passengers is eventually going to bite them," Stuart said. "I'm afraid that the state of Alaska is going to be hurt a little more deeply than just not getting ferry revenues. I think people just might not come to Alaska if they really wanted to do a ferry trip."

---

Follow Joshua Berlinger on Twitter at https://twitter.com/j_berlinger

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-28-US-Marine-Highway-Naturalists/id-613f3943b9c747d9bf80e8bc56976043

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ashlee.jhonson

The infamous Kermit Gosnell trial has revealed for those who didn?t know, or who had been living in denial, the gruesome atrocities that take place inside abortion clinics. The Daily Mail?reports that Chinese immigrant?Bei Bei Shuai is being charged with murder and feticide after ingesting rat poison which killed her eight-month-old unborn child.?

Why is Shuai?s termination of the growing, living being inside her considered murder, and abortion is not? Pro-aborts no longer seem to argue the reality that the unborn fetus, formerly known as a ?blob of tissue,? is indeed a baby. If it were simply that, why have laws governing the removal of it? Why aren?t there harsh debates about allowing people to have tumors and moles removed too? Why do pregnant women weep and become haunted with remorse and intense depression when they undergo the ?routine procedure?? The truth is, it?s no longer an issue of whether the unborn is a life, and I don?t think it ever really was.?

So what have we come to? Is it finally time to admit that the United States has legal murders?

Source: http://spectator.org/blog/2013/04/27/legal-murder

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Residents of a rural Northern California county were being told Sunday to keep their doors locked and report anyone considered suspicious as authorities continued the search for the killer of an 8-year-old girl.

Calaveras County deputies and law enforcement officials from nearby agencies were looking for a suspect after Leila Fowler was found stabbed in her Valley Springs home around noon Saturday.

The girl was found by her brother ? reported by local media to be 12-years-old ? after he encountered a male intruder in the home. When the intruder ran away, the boy found his sister stabbed. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, officials said.

Initially Leila was reported as being 9-years-old, but Coroner Kevin Raggio said Sunday that she would have turned 9 in June.

Authorities spent Saturday night and into Sunday conducting a door-to-door sweep of homes scattered across hilly terrain, checking storage sheds and horse stables, and even searching attics.

"It is a difficult area to search, it's rural, remote," sheriff's Capt. Jim Macedo said.

Reverse 911 calls and Nixle mass notifications alerted area residents about the incident and the search for the suspect, officials said.

"I was working on my tractor and a CHP copter kept flying over my house," area resident Roger Ballew, 35, told The Associated Press on Sunday, referring to the California Highway Patrol.

A SWAT team showed up at his house Saturday night and told him to stay inside, Ballew said.

"It was nerve-wracking, I didn't sleep well," he said.

Investigators on Sunday were interviewing several people, but no suspects have been named.

"It's just terrible," area resident Paul Gschweng told Sacramento television station KCRA. "What can I say about it, it's just a tragedy."

The station reported that a neighbor told police that a man was running from the girl's home after the incident.

The suspect was seen wearing a black shirt and blue pants. Authorities considered him armed and dangerous.

Investigators were asking area residents to call authorities if they had any information, or knew of anyone who may have unexplained injuries, or may have left the area unexpectedly after the girl was killed.

Valley Springs is a community of about 2,500 people in an unincorporated area of Calaveras County, about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fatal-stabbing-girl-8-prompts-norcal-manhunt-194628919.html

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ashlee.jhonson

While Pinterest is still rolling out its brand new look to users, it decided to listen to some feedback along the way and make some tweaks. Since the site relies heavily, or completely, on its users pinning things to boards like crazy, some features that were dropped from the new design were re-added due to popular demand. One of the features that caused the community to clammer the most was “Pinned By,” which let people see who originally pinned an item. This was a way to discover new people to follow and Pinterest has brought it back: Additionally, the mentioning friends feature using an @ symbol has returned, yet another way to discover new people to follow. Notice a trend here? It seems like the new design was limiting users on how they could find new friends and boards to interact with. The company says that finding friends from Twitter and Facebook that are on Pinterest is back, too. Other than the features that were reintroduced, Pinterest has improved its search functionality by adding auto-suggest, something that helps people out when looking for things. This has been a popular feature on Google’s search product, making the experience way less aggravating than looking at an empty white box for minutes: Along with search, Pinterest has moved your recent activity notifications, including older ones, to the top right corner, another move that could increase engagement. Things that the company are thinking on and might roll out soon are rearranging pins and creating a board within a board. Let’s call that feature “Boardception.” Still, it’s clear that remaining true to the original experience tops all new bells and whistles. Other social sites like Twitter and Facebook tend to roll out features slowly, getting instant feedback from people along the way before things are released to the masses. By letting users opt-in to trying out the new look, Pinterest gets beta testers who are ready, willing and able to voice their complaints, since that’s what people end up voicing anyways. If you’re still rocking the old design on Pinterest, just click “Get it now” after you log in:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/prgjDM6zOAo/

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NEW YORK (AP) ? Manti Te'o is headed to San Diego.

The Notre Dame All-America linebacker was chosen sixth in the second round by the Chargers, drawing a loud roar from the fans at Radio City Music Hall. Te'o, who led the Fighting Irish to the national championship game, was projected as a first-rounder last year. But his poor performance in a rout at the hands of Alabama, some slow workouts, and a hoax involving a fake girlfriend dropped his stock.

When former Chargers defensive back Jim Hill was handed the card to make the announcement by Commissioner Roger Goodell, he was told, "You're going to get a big cheer when you announce this pick."

It was more a mix of surprise and recognition of the most talked-about player in the draft finally finding a landing spot at No. 38 overall.

The Chargers traded up with Arizona to grab Te'o, whose tabloid-ready story of the woman who supposedly died during the season ? only for the Heisman Trophy runner-up to acknowledge in January that he had been a victim of a hoax ? made for a national soap opera.

Te'o ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, slow for a linebacker. He did better at Notre Dame's pro day, but NFL teams already had plenty of football reasons to doubt his worthiness as a first-round pick.

The regular-season dominance by the 6-foot-1, 240-pound All-American now seems so long ago. He led one of the top defenses in the country for an undefeated team. His seven interceptions were more than any other linebacker in 2012, and he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.

He was the third linebacker chosen in this draft.

___

AP Sports Writer Rachel Cohen contributed to this story.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/teos-time-2nd-round-6th-pick-san-diego-230858139.html

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ashlee.jhonson

Video isn't just on the desktop anymore, as viewers increasingly find themselves watching on mobile phones and tablets. To meet that demand, social video startup Spreecast is now available on more devices and platforms, with the launch of an iPhone app and streaming via mobile web.

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By Andrew M. Seaman

New York (Reuters Health) - Restricting the number of hours doctors-in-training are allowed to work without rest hasn't led to more patient deaths, according to a new study.

Researchers found no increase in deaths over the three years following a rules change that restricted resident doctors to working a maximum of 80 hours per week. In fact, the team reports a decline in deaths during the fourth and fifth years.

"This study is nice, because it shows that late after the 2003 changes there seems to be an improvement in mortality," said Dr. Sanjay Desai, director of the residency program at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

"But we don't know if this outcome is because of these changes or despite these changes. I think we need to know that to inform these types of decisions," Desai, who was not involved with the new study, told Reuters Health.

In 2003, concerns over errors caused by sleepy residents at hospitals led the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to restrict doctors-in-training to working a maximum of 80 hours per week.

The ACGME again restricted residents' working hours in 2011, when it said shifts can last no longer than 16 hours for the least-experienced doctors.

But reducing work hours for residents increases the number of times a patient's care changes hands, and there were concerns that would lead to more errors.

"Every time that occurs - just like every communication that occurs - there is some loss of information," said Desai. "The more hand offs there are, the more risk for an error to occur."

The new study's authors write in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that the new rules didn't have a great effect on the number of patients who died immediately after the change, but no one had looked at hospital death rates years later.

For the new study, the researchers - led by The University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Kevin Volpp in Philadelphia - used U.S. hospital data from before the first rules change in 2003, and compared that to data for the years 2003 to 2008.

Volpp and his colleagues looked at records for about 14 million people on Medicare, the government-run health insurance for the elderly and disabled, who were admitted to the hospital for heart attack, heart failure, gastrointestinal bleeding or surgery.

Overall, the number of deaths across conditions did not change significantly between the period 2000 to 2003 and the years 2003 through 2006, but deaths did fall during 2007 and 2008.

For example, about 17 percent of heart attack patients died within the 30 days following their hospital admission in 2000, before the rule change. About the same number of patients died immediately following the rule change in 2004, but that number fell to just 14 percent by 2008.

And about 10 percent of heart failure patients died within 30 days of being admitted to the hospital in 2000. As with heart attack patients, that number was about the same immediately following the rules change in 2004, but then fell to about 9 percent by 2008.

Desai said the results are reassuring, but the study cannot prove that the improvements were caused by the rule change.

"It's difficult, because it's retrospective. You can't identify how the change in policy correlates or relates to the changes they observed," he said.

Volpp and his colleagues could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Because the new study only looked at death rates through 2008, Desai told Reuters Health that it's also hard to say how this data would apply to the most recent change in maximum shift lengths dating from 2011.

"We as a community are highly interested in understanding this relationship better. These policies are in effect and changed relatively recently," he said. "I think there is a need to understand these relationships much more clearly."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/14SMPpL Journal of General Internal Medicine, online April 18, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/resident-doc-hours-not-tied-patient-deaths-study-214931933.html

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BOSTON (AP) ? The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional right to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Once Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was read his rights on Monday, he immediately stopped talking, according to four officials of both political parties who were briefed on the interrogation but insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.

After roughly 16 hours of questioning, investigators were surprised when a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney's office entered the hospital room and read Tsarnaev his rights, the four officials and one law enforcement official said. Investigators had planned to keep questioning him.

It is unclear whether any of this will matter in court since the FBI says Tsarnaev confessed to a witness and U.S. officials said Wednesday that physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the scene.

But the debate over whether suspected terrorists should be read their Miranda rights has become a major sticking point in the debate over how best to fight terrorism. Many Republicans, in particular, believe Miranda warnings are designed to build court cases, and only hinder intelligence gathering.

Christina DiIorio Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, said in an email, "This remains an ongoing investigation and we don't have any further comment."

Before being advised of his rights, the 19-year-old suspect told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently had recruited him to be part of the attack, two U.S. officials said.

The CIA, however, named Tamerlan to a terrorist database 18 months ago, officials said Wednesday, an acknowledgment that will undoubtedly prompt congressional inquiry about whether investigators took warnings from Russian intelligence officials seriously enough.

The U.S. officials who discussed the terrorist database and other details of the investigation are in addition to those who discussed the Miranda warning. They were close to the investigation and insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with reporters.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whom authorities have described as the driving force behind the plot, was killed in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar is recovering in a hospital from injuries suffered during a getaway attempt.

Authorities had previously said Dzhokhar exchanged gunfire with them for more than an hour Friday night before they captured him inside a boat covered by a tarp in a suburban Boston neighborhood backyard. But two U.S. officials said Wednesday that he was unarmed when captured, raising questions about the gunfire and how he was injured.

More than 4,000 mourners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid tribute to a campus police officer who authorities say was gunned down by the bombing suspects.

Among the speakers in Cambridge, just outside Boston, was Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis."

Investigators have said the brothers appeared to have been radicalized through jihadist materials on the Internet and have found no evidence tying them to a terrorist group.

Dzhokhar told the FBI that they were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

Dzhokhar's public defender had no comment on the matter Wednesday. His father has called him a "true angel," and an aunt has insisted he's not guilty.

Investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris and were analyzing them, officials said. One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

That evidence could be key to the court case. And an FBI affidavit said one of the brothers told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

Officials also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of a Thursday night gunbattle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, two U.S. officials said.

The officials told the AP that no gun was found in the boat. Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.

Asked whether the suspect had a gun in the boat, Davis said, "I'm not going to talk about that."

Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, did respond to the report.

"Within half a mile of where this person was captured, a police officer was shot. And I know who shot him." Schwartz said. "And there were three bombs that went off, and I know where those bombs came from. ... To me, it does not change anything. This guy was captured alive and will survive. True or not true, it doesn't change anything for me."

The suspects' parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, plan to fly to the U.S. from Russia on Thursday, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to take Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

In Russia, U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

While in the U.S., the brothers received welfare benefits.

The Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that Tamerlan, his wife and daughter had received welfare benefits up until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income.

The state also says Tamerlan and his brother received welfare benefits as children through their parents while the family lived in Massachusetts.

Neither was receiving benefits at the time of the bombing.

At MIT, bagpipes wailed as students, faculty and staff members and throngs of law enforcement officials paid their respects to MIT police Officer Sean Collier, who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing.

Biden told the Collier family that no child should die before his or her parents, but that, in time, the grief will lose some of its sting.

"The moment will come when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."

The vice president also sounded a defiant note.

"The purpose of terror is to instill fear," he said. "You saw none of it here in Boston. Boston, you sent a powerful message to the world."

In another milestone in Boston's recovery, the area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public, with fresh cement still drying on the repaired sidewalk. Delivery trucks made their way down Boylston Street under a heavy police presence, though some damaged stores were still closed.

"I don't think there's going to be a sense of normalcy for a while," Tom Champoux, who works nearby, said as he pointed to the boarded-up windows. "There are scars here that will be with us for a long time."

___

Jakes and Dozier reported from Washington. Associated Press writers David Crary, Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston, Lynn Berry in Moscow and Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Tucker, Pete Yost and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-suspect-stopped-talking-miranda-044858309.html

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ashlee.jhonson · April 24, 2013

Much left to root for in baseball's rare reclamation project's possible last stand

Elsa / Getty Images

Rick Ankiel, in a baseball lifetime ago, was one of brightest young pitching prospects the game has ever seen.

BY JOE POSNANSKI

NBCSports.com

updated 12:56 p.m. ET April 24, 2013

Rick Ankiel has lived an extraordinary baseball life. Think about his path for a moment. Ankiel was a high school phenom ? in his senior year at Port St. Lucie High, he struck out 162 in just 71 innings. He was probably the most sought after player in the amateur draft, but his agent Scott Boras set the price tag so high that no one would take him in the first round. The St. Louis Cardinals waited until they couldn?t wait any longer and drafted him in the second round, then paid him $2.5 million ? the highest signing bonus for any player in that entire draft.

He almost immediately became the best pitching prospect in the game. As an 18-year-old, he struck out 222 in 161 innings in the low minors. The next year, he struck out 194 in 137 innings. And in his third year, this time in Class AAA, he struck out 161 in 92 innings and allowed one home run. He was left-handed with a high-90s fastball and a nasty curve ? every now and again you would hear the Koufax comparison. He was, as they say, a can?t-miss.

He came up to St. Louis and finished second in the 2000 Rookie of the Year voting to Rafael Furcal. He was second in the league in strikeouts per nine. He was a phenom, plain and simple, and then he started Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Atllanta Braves and it all fell apart for him. The human brain is a baffling organ. Ankiel plowed through an uneven but scoreless first inning that included a hit and two walks. He gave up a double, but faced only three batters in the second.

Then came the third. He walked the pitcher, Greg Maddux. Induced a foul pop-out. Threw a wild pitch. Threw another wild pitch. Walked Andruw Jones. Threw another wild pitch. Struck out Chipper Jones. Walked Andres Galarraga with another wild pitch. Gave up a single. Threw another wild pitch, his fifth of the inning. Gave up a single to Brian Jordan. Walked Reggie Sanders. Gave up a single to Walt Weiss.

Then, and only then, did Tony La Russa take mercy on Rick Ankiel and pull him from the game. La Russa would say that starting Ankiel in that playoff game when he was young and seemingly invincible ? that decision will haunt him forever.

Of course, it did not have to be anything more than a one-game blip. But it turns out that something inside him had snapped. Ankiel was given a start in the NLCS against the New York Mets. He began by striking out Timo Perez. Then it was a walk, a wild pitch, another walk, an out, another walk and a double. La Russa tried to shake out whatever was cursing Ankiel by putting him into a game in relief two days later ? the Cardinals were already losing 6-0 so the pressure was seemingly off. Ankiel walked two more, threw two more wild pitches, and La Russa mournfully pulled his broken pitcher for the last time that year.

Ankiel tried to pitch again the next season, but something had been irrevocably lost. Confidence? Stability? A sense of self? No one knew then and, I suspect, no one really knows now. Ankiel walked 25 in 24 Major League innings and was sent back to the same Memphis minor league team where he had dominated just two years earlier. There ? and pay close attention to these numbers because they will seem like a misprint ? he walked 17 batters and threw 12 wild pitches in 4 1/3 innings. The Cardinals, in an act of hopelessness, sent him back to Rookie Ball. Soon after, Ankiel blew out his elbow.

He would try again as a pitcher, and try again, but it was hopeless. Then Rick Ankiel did what few players in American sports have tried to do. He reinvented himself. He announced that he was going to try to make it back to the major leagues as a hitter.

A desperate pitcher becoming a hitter has happened a few times in baseball ... perhaps most famously by Smoky Joe Wood, who was one of the best pitchers in the world when he busted his thumb trying to field a bunt. He tried to keep pitching but he was limited, so he became an every day player. He became a good big league hitter ? his comeback highlighted by his 1921 season when he hit .366 in limited at-bats for the Cleveland Indians. Of course, there are other stories of pitchers becoming every day hitters ? Babe Ruth, of course. Lefty O?Doul. You might know that Stan Musial began his minor league career as a promising pitcher, got hurt, and became a hitter. There are many more stories like that.*

*Like, you know, Roy Hobbs.

But there is no story in baseball history quite like Ankiel?s ? a spectacular young pitcher who one day lost his equilibrium trying to make it as a hitter. When he began his comeback as a hitter, a few scouts told me that Ankiel had no chance whatsoever of making it back. They said he was a good hitter ... for a pitcher. They said he was athletic enough, and he had some power, but he did not make nearly enough contact to be a big league hitter. In 2005, as a 25-year old, he hit .259 in Single and Double A, struck out one out of every six times or so, and hit 21 homers.

The next year in the minors, he hit just .267 with 90 strikeouts ? almost one per game. But he hit 32 homers. The Cardinals figured, 'What the heck?' They called him up, he hit a homer in his first game, he hit two homers in his third game, after three weeks or so he was hitting .358 (and he had ANOTHER two homer game). And the Cardinals figured: 'What the heck?'

In the end, the scouts were probably right about Rick Ankiel. He doesn?t really make enough contact to be of much value as a hitter in the Major Leagues. But that doesn?t diminish the awesomeness of his achievement. After the Cardinals gave up on him, the Kansas City Royals acquired him. After the Royals, it was Atlanta for a while. Then Washington. Now, Ankiel is in Houston. And while his career on-base percentage may be .305, he has hit 74 big league homers, and he has had more than 2,000 big league plate appearances, and it?s an inspiring story of a man who had it all, had it all taken in mysterious ways, and somehow found his way back.

Then there?s this year. This epic year. Rick Ankiel has become perhaps my favorite hitter to watch in baseball. This year, Rick Ankiel has decided to do what a friend of mine calls ?The Full Rob Deer.? You will remember Deer as a guy who swung for the fences, who hit 25-plus homers five times and who led the league in strikeouts four times. And while there have been many other players who have swung for the fences, I would say that none of them have done it with the relish, the persistence or the sheer chutzpah of Rick Ankiel.

We are talking every ... single ... at-bat.

Look at his amazing numbers.

Ankiel has come to plate 38 times this year.

He has struck out 24 of those times. Yeah. Twenty-four of 38.

He has walked zero of those times.

He has hit five home runs and two doubles and two singles.

Bob Levey / Getty Images

Now in possibly his last MLB go-around, Rick Ankiel (28) is swinging for the fences, strikeouts be damned.

Yes, of course, we?re talking a tiny sample size. But he?s slugging .684. And as MLB.com?s Matthew Leach, among others, have pointed out, Rick Ankiel has stopped at first base two times all year.

It?s utterly astonishing. You can get ridiculous playing the ?on-pace? game, but how can you not do the math for Ankiel? If he could maintain this pace for 600 plate appearances, he would hit 79 home runs, and he would strike out 379 times. He would walk, if my math?s correct here, zero times.

What is he doing? In a weird way, I kind of think I understand ? understand, that is, on a deep and personal level. Look at Ankiel. He?s 33 years old, and he?s playing on an Astros team that has a chance to be the worst team in baseball history. The Astros probably won?t become that team ? they will probably settle into just an ordinary bad team ? but so far, they have been shut out three times (one a near perfect game), they have had to pull their pitcher in the first inning twice and so on. They?re spectacularly bad.

And Ankiel, well, he?s facing the end. He has to know it. Since 2009, while playing for four teams, he has hit .234, he rarely walks and he has also slugged just .383 ? just 31 homers in more than 1,200 plate appearances. He?s not offering anything. It?s almost over ? the Astros are probably the last stop.

And he seems to have decided, like the boxer entering the final round losing on all scorecards, like the broke gambler down to a final bet, like the golfer facing the impossible shot but needing to pull it off to make the cut ? that he might as well go for everything. Maybe, just maybe, if he can hit a noticeable number of homers ? strikeouts, walks, singles, all of them be damned ? he can keep this crazy career alive.

I?m rooting for him. Ankiel?s career has always been closer to the surface than most. While other players battle their insecurities and doubts and flaws in private, Ankiel?s have always been big and bold and impossible to miss.

And now, yes, it?s almost over, and he?s raging against the dying of the light, he?s swinging with all he has at the fastball three feet outside, he?s standing up there, hoping for a mistake, a hanging curveball, a slider that doesn?t slide, a fastball in his wheelhouse, a pitch he can drive. There probably aren?t enough of those pitches in the world. But, dammit, it?s like the great Reds announcer Joe Nuxhall used to say: If you swing the bat, you?re dangerous. Rick Ankiel is swinging as hard as he can.

Joe Posnanski is the national columnist for NBC Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JPosnanski. Click here to subscribe to Joe's stories.

? 2013 NBC Sports.com? Reprints

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??DPS: Kevin Millar joins Dan Patrick to discuss if there's anything that could change Derek Jeter's legacy.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51640228/ns/sports-baseball/

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ashlee.jhonson · Apr. 23, 2013

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Even within the same school, lower-achieving students often are taught by less-experienced teachers, as well as by teachers who received their degrees from less-competitive colleges, according to a new study by researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the World Bank. The study, using data from one of the nation's largest school districts, also shows that student class assignments vary within schools by a teacher's gender and race.

In a paper published in the April issue of Sociology of Education, the researchers present the results of a comprehensive analysis of teacher assignments in the nation's fourth-largest school district, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Their findings identify trends that may contribute to teacher turnover and achievement gaps nationwide.

Previous research indicates that high-quality teachers can significantly improve education outcomes for students. However, not all students have equal access to the best teachers.

"It is well-known that teachers systematically sort across schools, disadvantaging low-income, minority, and low-achieving students," said Demetra Kalogrides, a research associate at the Graduate School of Education's Center for Education Policy Analysis and one of the study's three authors. "Our findings are novel because they address the assignment of teachers to classes within schools. We cannot assume that teacher sorting stops at the school doors."

The authors note that more research needs to be done to see whether such patterns exist within schools across the country.

The assignment of teachers to students is the result of a complex process, involving school leaders, teachers, and parents. While principals are constrained by teachers' qualifications -- not all high school teachers, for instance, can teach physics -- they also may use their authority to reward certain teachers with the more desirable assignments or to appease teachers who are instrumental to school operations.

Teachers with more power, due to experience or other factors, may be able to choose their preferred classes. Parents, particularly those with more resources, also may try to intervene in the process to ensure that their children are taught by certain teachers.

"We wanted to understand which teachers are teaching which students," said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford professor of education, the director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis, and an author of the study. "In particular, are low-achieving students more likely to be assigned to certain teachers, and if so, why?"

Using extensive data from Miami-Dade, the authors compared the average achievement of teachers' students in the year before the students were assigned to them. They discovered that certain teachers -- those with less experience, those from less-competitive colleges, female teachers, and black and Hispanic teachers -- are more likely to work with lower-achieving students than are other teachers in the same school.

They found these patterns at both the elementary and middle/high school levels.

According to the researchers, teachers who have been at a school for a long time may be able to influence the assignment process in order to secure their preferred classes -- for instance, classes with higher-achieving students. The study found that teachers with 10 or more years of experience, as well as teachers who have held leadership positions, are assigned higher-achieving students on average.

Assigning lower-achieving students to inexperienced teachers could have significant repercussions. According to the researchers, it could increase turnover among new teachers, since novice teachers are more likely to quit when assigned more low-achieving students.

In addition, it could exacerbate within-school achievement gaps -- for example, the black-white gap. Since they are lower-achieving on average, minority and poor students are often assigned to less-experienced teachers than white and non-poor students. Less-experienced teachers tend to be less effective, so this pattern is likely to reinforce the relationships between race and achievement and poverty and achievement, the researchers said.

The study also found that lower-achieving students are taught by the teachers who graduated from less-competitive colleges, based on test scores for admission and acceptance rates. This trend is particularly evident at the middle school and high school levels, possibly due to the more varied demands of middle and high school courses. Teachers from more competitive colleges may have deeper subject knowledge than their colleagues from less-competitive colleges, leading principals to assign them to more advanced courses, the researchers said.

The researchers noted that assignment patterns vary across schools. Experienced teachers appear to have more power over the assignment process when there are more of them in a school; senior teachers are assigned even higher-achieving students when there is a larger contingent of experienced teachers in the school.

At the same time, schools under more accountability pressure are less likely to assign higher-achieving students to more-experienced teachers than schools that are not under accountability pressure.

Finally, according to the findings, class assignments vary depending on a teacher's gender and race. Since female teachers are more likely to teach special education than male teachers, on average they work with lower-achieving students than their male colleagues. Also, black and Hispanic teachers, when compared with white teachers in the same schools, work with more minority and poor students, who tend to be lower-achieving.

Unlike sorting based on experience, the authors said that teacher-student matching based on race could improve student achievement because previous research suggests that minority students may learn more when taught by minority teachers.

"Our analyses are a first step in describing within-school class assignments, an important, yet often overlooked, form of teacher sorting," said Kalogrides.

The other co-author is Tara B?teille of the World Bank. The research was supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Sociological Association, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

D. Kalogrides, S. Loeb, T. Beteille. Systematic Sorting: Teacher Characteristics and Class Assignments. Sociology of Education, 2012; 86 (2): 103 DOI: 10.1177/0038040712456555

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/LKRtmDpAk4A/130423135724.htm

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ashlee.jhonson

By Ian Sager, TODAY

A live camera can be a daunting thing. Mistakes are mercilessly broadcast to often unforgiving viewers and bosses. ?The first time live on camera can be one of the scariest things that happens to somebody in this business. ?But do jitters excuse all mistakes?

A.J. Clemente ? a weekend news anchor for NBC affiliate KFYR in North Dakota ? uttered his first words as a TV anchor,?but before the young aspiring journalist knew it, he was trending for all the wrong reasons.?

When the F-bomb is dropped, especially on live TV, it's loud.

Clemente's bosses weren't amused. The fledgling anchor was first suspended, then outright fired. Monica Hannan,??KFYR's news director, apologized to viewers on Facebook:

To all of you who are writing in...I want to apologize for an incident that occurred prior to our early newscast this evening, when one of our employees used profanity on the air.

He did not realize his microphone was on, but still, that's no excuse. WE train our reporters to always assume that any microphone is live at any time. Unfortunately, that was not enough in this case. WE can't take back what was said.

But did the punishment suit the crime? Weigh in below:

Should the local news anchor who cursed on air have been fired or given a second chance?

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/23/17875531-anchor-fired-after-video-of-his-on-air-f-bomb-goes-viral?lite

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ashlee.jhonson

Never mind that a few developers spoiled the surprise last week: BlackBerry 10.1, BB10's first major OS update, is official today. The release arrives chiefly to support the BlackBerry Q10's hardware keyboard and smaller OLED screen, but it brings a swath of extra improvements that should please Z10 owners in equal measure. An HDR camera mode, which should fill out highlights and shadows in some photos, is just the start. The Hub now supports contact suggestions, PIN-to-PIN messaging and email with attached messages; notifications are more refined as well, with per-account message notifications joining options to define sound volumes and vibrations for each contact. Dive deeper and you'll also notice more granular text selection, better calendar viewing on the Z10 and the ability to copy phone numbers into (or from) the dialer. Do be patient if you're not bent on picking up a Q10, however -- the Z10 doesn't get its update until sometime in the weeks following the release of its keyboarded cousin.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ExY8HdFSUtk/

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ashlee.jhonson

This is part two of the top rules for negotiating in China. Continuing on with the list and starting at number six here are the last top rules that you will need to keep in mind when doing business in China.

6. Respect Goes a Long Way in China

Making sure that you keep the cultural norms in mind when you are doing business with the Chinese will keep you from embarrassing yourself or ruining a deal before you even get into the negotiation room. Respect is a big part of the way that business is done in China. By taking the extra effort to show the utmost respect to your Chinese counterparts you will be able to get to know them on a more personal level. This will translate into a better deal for both parties and make the whole process more personable. Leaving your ego at the door and just trying to connect with your potential business partners will help to take the negotiations to a more amicable place. Just remember to stay respectful if you end up going out for a session of baijiu drinking.

7. Use your listening skills and Sleep on any big decisions

As previously mentioned the negotiations in China tend to be drawn out in comparison to the speed of business in the Western world. Take full advantage of this slower pace by listening and digesting all of the information that the Chinese negotiation team is willing to present. Truly listening and then taking an extra night to sleep on any big decision will help you to make more informed decisions with a clearer head. The opportunity to take this extra time is a gift that you should definitely take advantage of.

8. Keep cool when they start pressuring about artificial deadlines

As the process takes a longer time you may be tempted to get frustrated and start pushing the process forward. This practice rarely ends with positive results and may be playing into the Chinese?s negotiation team?s strategy. It is far more advantageous for you to take you time and try to cooperate while still sticking to your negotiation strategies.

9. Try to Keep the Negotiations Reasonable

Again if you are getting frustrated or just want to turn up the fire on the negotiations this may bring them to a halt without much discussion on why. The Chinese negotiation team prefers to talk out and discuss with reason all of the decisions, but if you jump to an unreasonable stance without it, the whole process will start to break down. Take advantage of the extra time for communication and fully cooperate within your negotiation strategy.

10. There are plenty of other businesses to negotiate with

Keeping the option for doing business with a competitor of the company that you are negotiating with will allow you to stay more indifferent and less emotional during the negotiations. Using this in conjunction with your outcome strategy will allow you to negotiate in a way that can leverage the situation instead of feeling pressured to agree to disadvantageous terms.

What are you think about it? Please ?leave a response in comment?.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://china-business-connect.com/negotiating-in-china-10-rules-for-success-part-two.htm

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ashlee.jhonson

CAIRO (AP) ? The legal adviser of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi resigned Tuesday, alleging that the Muslim Brotherhood has monopolized decision-making and encroached on the governing of the country.

The resignation letter by Mohammed Fouad Gadallah brought the harshest criticism yet from inside the presidency. Opponents of Morsi have long accused the Brotherhood of being the real power behind the president and say the group's attempts to dominate power have fueled the country's turmoil.

Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, denied in a TV interview earlier this week that the group intervenes in decision-making.

The resignation comes amid a mounting dispute between Morsi's Islamist supporters and the judiciary, which is the sole branch of government not dominated by Islamists.

Brotherhood officials and other Islamists accuse backers of the regime of ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the courts of blocking the country's transition to democracy and are discussing a law they say will ensure the judicary's independence. But opponents fear they aim to take over the courts and purge secular-minded judges to consolidate Brotherhood power.

Two days earlier, Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki, an Islamist supporter, submitted his resignation, complaining that Morsi supporters were "trampling" on the judiciary. He too criticized the president's handling of the dispute with the judiciary and failure to reach out to critics.

The opposition and judges threatened to escalate their fight against the new legislation, while Morsi said he doesn't accept any encroachment on the judiciary.

Gadallah, who is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, served as Morsi's legal adviser since July. Presidential spokesman Ihab Fahmy confirmed that the resignation was submitted and said it was under review. He offered no other details. An email to the presidency seeking further comment was not answered.

In his three-page resignation letter, Gadallah said he wanted to shed light "on the extent of the danger facing the country," at a time when "personal interests are overwhelming national interests."

He said there is "no clear vision" in running state affairs and that "a single (political) current" monopolizes decision-making, excluding experts and the opposition. He also pointed to the current dispute over the courts, complaining of attempts to "assassinate the judiciary."

He said he had long been concerned over "the slowness of decision-making and monopolization by the Brotherhood and its encroachment on the president and governing." But he said that he had previously held back from resigning or going public with his objections out of respect for Morsi.

Gadallah said he advised Morsi against some of a series of controversial decrees the president issued in November that sparked a heavy public backlash and galvanized the opposition.

Particularly, he said he opposed a decree that temporarily granted Morsi's decisions immunity from judicial review, but he said his opinion was ignored. After the public outcry, some Brotherhood members had blamed Gadallah for those decrees.

Brotherhood spokesman Yasser Mehrez dismissed Gadallah's claims of the group dominating rule, telling the online version of Al-Ahram newspaper, "it seems (he) has been influenced by what the opposition says about Brotherhoodization."

Mehrez also said the envisioned law on the judiciary was in line with demands many, including Gadallah, have made for reform, contending that judges who protected the Mubarak regime are leading the resistance to the new law.

Gamal Heshmat, a lawmaker from the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said the group appreciates Gadallah's opinion on legal matters the presidency consults him on. "But he should only stick to what he knows," Heshmat said.

Egypt has been deeply divided for months over Morsi's rule and the political dominance of his Islamist allies, leading to repeated violence even as the country's economy continues to deteriorate.

In a quick reaction to Gadallah's resignation, opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei said he held Morsi and his supporters responsible for the polarization that is tearing the country apart.

"Egypt is a train wreck waiting to happen," ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account. "Polarization (is) at dangerous level; Morsi's aides (are) jumping ship. National reconciliation (is) crucial."

Islamists have pointed to a number of recent cases in which Mubarak-era officials have been cleared of charges as evidence of the need to reform the judiciary.

On Tuesday, a court convicted a former finance minister, Yousef Boutros-Ghali, on charges of squandering around $3.6 million during his final years in his post. The court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, is believed to be in London.

Because he has been tried in absentia, he is allowed a retrial and all verdicts can be overturned upon his return.

___

Amir Makar contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-legal-adviser-egypts-president-resigns-175758759.html

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ashlee.jhonson

Coffee has such a beneficial effect on creative activity that it should be no surprise that many artists have turned to stronger stimulants in search of bigger and more prolonged boosts. Indeed, amphetamines have their own semidistinguished artistic heritage, particularly among a swath of 20^th-century writers.

The poet W.H. Auden is probably the most famous example. He took a dose of Benzedrine (a brand name of amphetamine introduced in the United States in 1933) each morning the way many people take a daily multivitamin. At night, he used Seconal or another sedative to get to sleep. He continued this routine??the chemical life,? he called it?for 20 years, until the efficacy of the pills finally wore off. Auden regarded amphetamines as one of the ?labor-saving devices? in the ?mental kitchen,? alongside alcohol, coffee, and tobacco?although he was well aware that ?these mechanisms are very crude, liable to injure the cook, and constantly breaking down.?

Graham Greene had a similarly pragmatic approach to amphetamines. In 1939, while laboring on what he was certain would be his greatest novel, The Power and the Glory, Greene decided to also write one of his ?entertainments??melodramatic thrillers that lacked artistry but that he knew would make money. He worked on both books simultaneously, devoting his mornings to the thriller The Confidential Agent and his afternoons to The Power and the Glory. To keep it up, he took Benzedrine tablets twice daily, one upon waking and the other at midday. As a result he was able to write 2,000 words in the mornings alone, as opposed to his usual 500. After only six weeks, The Confidential Agent was completed and on its way to being published. (The Power and the Glory took four more months.)

Greene soon stopped taking the drug; not all writers had such self-control. In 1942 Ayn Rand took up Benzedrine to help her finish her debut novel, The Fountainhead. She had spent years planning and composing the first third of the novel; over the next 12 months, thanks to the new pills, she averaged a chapter a week. But the drug quickly became a crutch. Rand would continue to use amphetamines for the next three decades, even as her overuse led to mood swings, irritability, emotional outbursts, and paranoia?traits Rand was susceptible to even without drugs.

Jean-Paul Sartre was similarly dependent. In the 1950s, already exhausted from too much work on too little sleep?plus too much wine and cigarettes?the philosopher turned to Corydrane, a mix of amphetamine and aspirin then fashionable among Parisian students, intellectuals, and artists. The prescribed dose was one or two tablets in the morning and at noon. Sartre took 20 a day, beginning with his morning coffee, and slowly chewed one pill after another as he worked. For each tablet, he could produce a page or two of his second major philosophical work, The Critique of Dialectical Reason.

But perhaps the most notable case of amphetamine-fueled intellectual activity is Paul Erd?s, one of the most brilliant and prolific mathematicians of the 20^th century. As Paul Hoffman documents in The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, Erd?s was a fanatic workaholic who routinely put in 19-hour days, sleeping only a few hours a night. He owed his phenomenal stamina to espresso shots, caffeine tablets, and amphetamines?he took 10 to 20 milligrams of Benzedrine or Ritalin daily. Worried about his drug use, a friend once bet Erd?s that he wouldn?t be able to give up amphetamines for a month. Erd?s took the bet, and succeeded in going cold turkey for 30 days. When he came to collect his money, he told his friend, ?You?ve showed me I?m not an addict. But I didn?t get any work done. I?d get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I?d have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You?ve set mathematics back a month.? After the bet, Erd?s promptly resumed his amphetamine habit.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=544e3852c4528792a04dfd3a708054c7

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ashlee.jhonson

Minuum keyboard

Supporters will get access to the first beta version in June

Whirlscape started an Indiegogo campeign about a month ago to raise funds for development of their new keyboard. The fundraiser started with a goal of $10,000, and ended today with a total of $87,369 raised (almost 900% of the original goal). The solution to the problem that this keyboard proposes to deliver resonated with over 9,500 financial supporters.

The goal of the Minuum Keyboard Project is to create a keyboard that is both effective in typing and small in screen real estate. Taking down keyboard rows to just one, the Minuum keyboard allows for highly imprecise typing by using a specialized auto-correction algorithm. A magnifying function will allow for precise typing when needed, such as when entering passwords.

A second 'stretch goal' was hit once the fundraiser reached $60,000. This money will be put towards the wearable development kit (WDK). In the demo video, the potential of typing using wearable items was shown, which could be extended to peripherals like watches, glasses, or even rings. This could be the perfect complement to the upcoming Google Glass.

It's too late to get access to the early beta, but it shouldn't be long before we see a general release as well. If this keyboard delivers the functionality it promises, this could be the biggest thing in mobile typing since Swype.

Source: Indiegogo

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/-sXZq5A9Cic/story01.htm

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ashlee.jhonson

Despite more than a decade of fighting grueling and deadly wars abroad, many Americans didn't fully grasp the sickeningly destructive power of IEDs until last week

Just down the way from the Boston Marathon's finish line, not far from where two improvised explosive devices killed three people and injured more then 170, journalist and documentarian Sebastian Junger was getting ready to screen his new HBO documentary?Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington.?Hetherington, a photojournalist who made his name covering foreign wars, was killed in 2011 following an injury he sustained in Libya.

Hetherington died just weeks after he and Junger were nominated for an Academy Award for the 2010 documentary Restrepo, which chronicled a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. That movie opens with soldiers driving in a Hum-Vee while Junger is filming. Suddenly, an IED detonates and the audio cuts.

SEE MORE: From Boston, powerful truths for America

Incredibly, Restrepo's?IED?was the same type that detonated during the Boston Marathon, Junger told Fresh Air's Terry Gross. Both devices were made from pressure-cookers, Junger said. They were the same, except, of course, one went off in a war zone in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley and one near the end of a popular marathon right here in the United States.

That coincidence was enough, it seemed, to unnerve even a seasoned war journalist and documentarian like Junger.

SEE MORE: The newest dieting craze: Not eating

Until last week, most Americans didn't live in a world with improvised explosive devices. We are, by and large, a people who have been insulated from the reality and the unrelenting stress of war and constant physical insecurity of conflict.

Leaving aside one-time attacks like Pearl Harbor and 9/11, America has not fought a war on its own soil since the Civil War.

SEE MORE: Fay Weldon's 6 favorite books

Most of the United States' population does not live in the constant high-stress environment of conflict. Most of us have never been to Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Most Americans don't even think about those places much.

But then, with a sickening bombing last Monday and a citywide manhunt on Friday, the battle came home, and Americans across the nation sat glued to their televisions and their computer screens. We each jumped a bit at the sound of round after round of gunfire popping off. We cringed as law enforcement officers shouted to people in the background of news cameras. We sat glued to the police scanner as officers called out that there were "explosives everywhere." We held our breath as reports of grenades and IEDs ricocheted across social media. We rode along with local reporters as they hitched rides to the frontline of the skirmish. We listened as witness' cell phones crackled and cut out. We heard the reports of chaos. Some said they smelled gunpowder. Local television news was filled with the voices of Bostonians hunkered down in their homes, sounding alternately shocked, terrified, resolute, and brave.

SEE MORE: Mad Men recap: To have and to hold

Suddenly, and maybe only for a few hours, Americans had more in common with those faraway nations than we ever had before.

Until the Boston Marathon bombings and the ensuing manhunt, America's collective experience of urban war was limited to the stories troops brought back from abroad, or from reporters' dispatches from the front lines of a conflict. Even though America is?the major player in 21^st century conflict zones, what most of us know of that reality is extremely limited.?

SEE MORE: 10 things you need to know today: April 20, 2013

That is no longer true. Now, after an emotionally traumatic week, Americans who had never had to fear a pressure-cooker bomb, who never had to fear a hail of gunfire, are thinking about exactly these things.

For five days, the same vocabulary formerly reserved for those reporting from Kabul, Baghdad, and Misrata had to be repurposed to describe the streets of Boston, Cambridge, and Watertown, Mass.

SEE MORE: Game of Thrones recap: Revenge is a dish best served hot

We lived through an abridged version of a conflict. And so we experienced an abridged version of the acute stress that accompanies that reality.

If nothing else comes from the Boston Marathon tragedy, let it be not only a moment of collective resilience, but also a seized opportunity for our nation to truly empathize with people in conflict-plagued nations around the world.?

SEE MORE: Everything you need to know about the Bitcoin boom

We had a week, but they have had to cope with this reality every moment, every day, for years and years.

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