Part-time Businesses add up to Full-Time Fun for ... - Franchising.com

March 28, 2013 // Franchising.com // Janet Irven is a single mother and former oil and gas executive who was looking for a way to strike a balance between work and being there for her 10-year-old son when she discovered the magic of being a part-time entrepreneur.

Last year she started a DVDNow Kiosks (www.DVDNowKiosks.com) business ? a self-serve movie rental business that allows her to earn passive income as people rent or buy movies and games from her kiosks.

This year, she launched her TapSnap (www.tapsnap.net) business ? a special event phototainment system that has revolutionized the photo booth for the social media era.

?I think work should be fun. I spent years working all hours as an oil and gas executive. Now I want to do work that makes people happy, provides entertainment and adds joy to their lives,? says Irven, who lives in Peterborough, Canada.

Both businesses are part-time, flexible and require limited hours, so Irven can concentrate on what matters most ? being there for her son.

A Chartered Accountant by trade, and former VP of Finance for an oil and gas marketing firm, Irven?s movie rental company Express Cinema (www.expresscinema.ca) operates three movie rental kiosks in Peterborough ? one at Charlotte?s Pantry bakery/grocery store in downtown Peterborough, another at MacEwen convenience and gas bar, and a third at Daisy Mart. She also has a fourth kiosk in Ottawa at a new MacEwen location.

?Peterborough had almost nothing for a year when Blockbuster and Rogers shut down,? she says. ?So now we?re giving people a chance to rent discs again ? for a fraction of the cost.? Her main competition is the corporate giant Redbox, which has said they would add as many as 2,500 kiosks in Canada during 2013. So far there is only one in Peterborough at the Walmart Supercentre.

Her main advantage over the Coinstar(CSTR)-owned Redbox and over video-streaming services like Netflix(NFLX) is that she is able to offer new releases up to 28 days sooner than the competition because she isn?t bound by studio distribution contracts.

When she heard DVDNow Kiosks was launching TapSnap, she was among the first to get on board with the new franchise.

?As a former event planner, I could immediately see the potential TapSnap has to add a huge boost of excitement to any party or event ? from graduations to milestone birthdays to bar and bat mitzvahs to weddings and more,? says Irven.

TapSnap will be at the Peterborough Flavours Festival at the Morrow Building downtown from April 28, 2013, from 12 pm to 6pm.
The TapSnap phototainment system is a giant 42-inch screen instantly connected to social media so it actively encourages event guests to create a social media profile for an event by sharing their pictures ? a tool Irven says is useful for event planners who want to give their event a social media profile.

With a touch of a fingertip on the screen, guests can compose and take their photos like magic, draw and write personal messages on them, and add digital props like googly eyes and funny hats.

Each TapSnap kiosk comes with a minimum of one staff person to manage the machine, and is priced in packages from two to six hours or more.

Irven?s TapSnap franchise is serving the Peterborough market, as well as Pickering, Oshawa and Whitby and the Toronto area.
?TapSnap brings instantaneous fun to any event, especially corporate events where sometimes people are a little nervous or they don?t know everyone,? says Irven. ?It removes people?s inhibitions and helps them loosen up. Unlike a photo booth, it?s out in the open and spontaneous. And the real-time social media aspect is huge.?

About DVDNow Kiosks

DVDNow launched in June of 2006 and quickly became the leading provider of independently operated DVD rental kiosks. Today, with operations in over 16 countries, DVDNow has the largest independently operated DVD rental kiosk network in the world.

DVDNow Kiosks, Inc. www.dvdnowkiosks.com 1-877-849-4272 x714

About TapSnap

TapSnap brings sophistication to the concept of the photo booth. Open-concept and instantly connected to social media, TapSnap blends a high-tech product with an innovative franchise model, and is based in Vancouver, Canada.

www.TapSnap.net 1-877-577-0566 ext. 731

SOURCE?DVDNow

Media Contact:

Yurika Kuroki
DVDNow
1-877-849-4272 x714

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Certain breast cancers have a trait that could be attacked by new therapies

Mar. 27, 2013 ? More than 100 women per day die from breast cancer in the United States. The odds of developing breast cancer increase for women taking hormone replacement therapy to avoid the effects of menopause. New research by University of Missouri scientist Salman Hyder may lead to treatments for breast cancers associated with taking these synthetic hormones. Hyder, along with an international team, found that hormone-therapy-related breast cancer cells have a physical feature that could be attacked by cancer therapies.

"We identified a specific cell membrane protein that blocks cell death in breast cancer cells and allows these cells to grow in response to hormone replacement therapy," said Hyder. "Others have observed an over-abundance of these proteins in a population of breast cancer cells which may explain increased risk of breast cancer in women who consume hormone replacement therapy. Therapies could be developed that would block the activity of these cell membrane proteins, which would make cancer cells more likely to die. The membrane protein is known as PGRMC1."

The proteins identified by Hyder and his colleagues were affected by progestin, one of the hormones given to women to stave off the effects of menopause. Progestin is a synthetic chemical which mimics the hormone progesterone. In hormone replacement therapy, doctors prescribe progestin along with synthetic replicas of the hormone, estrogen.

"Every progestin type that we have tested has negative effects," said Hyder. "A growing body of evidence suggests women should be wary before taking progestin. However, if women take only synthetic estrogens, such as estradiol, it leads to a higher risk of uterine cancer. Hence, the two must be taken together, but even then they seem to still increase cancer risks in post-menopausal women."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Hans Neubauer, Xiangyan Ruan, Helen Schneck, Harald Seeger, Michael A. Cahill, Yayun Liang, Benfor Mafuvadze, Salman M. Hyder, Tanja Fehm, Alfred O. Mueck. Overexpression of progesterone receptor membrane component 1. Menopause: The Journal of The North American Menopause Society, 2012; : 1 DOI: 10.1097/gme.0b013e3182755c97

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/top_news/~3/SHkVesu6mas/130327163258.htm

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New system to restore wetlands could reduce massive floods, aid crops

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive system to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning tool, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region's historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.

Using this approach, the researchers found they could capture the runoff from 29 percent of a watershed using only 1.5 percent of the entire area.

The findings were published in Ecological Engineering, a professional journal, and a website is now available at http://wrestore.iupui.edu/ that allows users to apply the principles to their own land.

The need for new approaches to assist farmers and agencies to work together and use science-based methods is becoming critical, experts say. Massive floods and summer droughts have become more common and intense in the Midwest because of climate change and decades of land management that drains water rapidly into rivers via tile drains.

"The lands of the Midwest, which is one of the great food producing areas of the world, now bear little resemblance to their historic form, which included millions of acres of small lakes and wetlands that have now been drained," said Meghna Babbar-Sebens, an assistant professor of civil and construction engineering at Oregon State. "Agriculture, deforestation, urbanization and residential development have all played a role.

"We have to find some way to retain and slowly release water, both to use it for crops and to prevent flooding," Babbar-Sebens said. "There's a place for dams and reservoirs but they won't solve everything. With increases in runoff, what was once thought to be a 100-year flood event is now happening more often.

"Historically, wetlands in Indiana and other Midwestern states were great at intercepting large runoff events and slowing down the flows," she said. "But Indiana has lost more than 85 percent of the wetlands it had prior to European settlement."

An equally critical problem is what appears to be increasing frequency of summer drought, she said, which may offer a solid motivation for the region's farmers to become involved. The problem is not just catastrophic downstream flooding in the spring, but also the loss of water and soil moisture in the summer that can be desperately needed in dry years.

The solution to both issues, scientists say, is to "re-naturalize" the hydrology of a large section of the United States. Working toward this goal was a research team from Oregon State University, Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, the Wetlands Institute in New Jersey, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They used engineering principles, historic analysis and computer simulations to optimize the effectiveness of any land use changes, so that minimal land use alteration would offer farmers and landowners a maximum of benefits.

In the Midwest, many farmers growing corn, soybeans and other crops have placed "tiles" under their fields to rapidly drain water into streams, which dries the soil and allows for earlier planting. Unfortunately, it also concentrates pollutants, increases flooding and leaves the land drier during the summer. Without adequate rain, complete crop losses can occur.

Experts have also identified alternate ways to help, including the use of winter cover crops and grass waterways that help retain and more slowly release water. And the new computer systems can identify the best places for all of these approaches to be used.

###

Oregon State University: http://www.orst.edu

Thanks to Oregon State University for this article.

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Astrophile: Mighty Trojan found marching with Uranus

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse

Object: A 60-kilometre-wide asteroid

Location: 3 billion kilometres ahead of Uranus, in the planet's L4 Lagrange point

Uranus has a forbidden friend. The first asteroid to share the planet's orbit has been found, despite claims that Jupiter's mighty gravity should steal such companions away.

The finding hints that more of these asteroids, called Trojans, lurk around unexpected worlds. Since Trojans don't always stay in place, finding new ones improves our picture of how space rocks migrate around the solar system. It also means there may be super-sized Trojans sharing orbits with massive exoplanets.

Mike Alexandersen of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and colleagues discovered the 60-kilometre-wide Trojan, named 2011 QF99, from an observatory in Hawaii. It lives in a Lagrange point, where the gravitational tugs from the sun and Uranus balance out.

There are five possible Lagrange points around two massive bodies, such as the sun and a planet. The ones called L4 and L5 sit ahead of and behind the planet, respectively, in its orbital path. These points have long been known to act as dust-gathering niches. Jupiter's L4 and L5 points host more than 3000 asteroids of various sizes. They are the original cosmic Trojans, named after the legendary fighters of ancient Troy.

Exo-Trojans

Since the Jovian discoveries, Trojan asteroids have also been spotted near Neptune, Mars and even Earth. But they were thought to be extremely unlikely for Saturn and Uranus, because massive Jupiter would have sucked in any space rocks leftover as the solar system formed.

Uranus's Trojan is probably a temporary companion captured later in the planet's history. The asteroid should jitter around the L4 region for about 70,000 years before becoming unstable enough to be ejected.

The discovery means that many more Trojans may lurk near other unexpected worlds, says Rudolf Dvorak of the University of Vienna in Austria. Such an array of Trojans in our solar neighbourhood strengthens the case that other star systems host larger versions of these orbital companions. "There could be planets in this Trojan configuration like our Earth," he says, perhaps even in the habitable zone, the region around a star in which a planet could support life.

Journal reference: arxiv.org/abs/1303.5774

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Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day, study says

Nidhi Subbaraman , NBC News ? ? ? 1 hr.

People with smartphones check their Facebook pages an average of 14 times each day. They scroll through news feeds while running errands, comment on friends' posts while shopping or at the gym, post a photo of their food plate before dinner. This adds up to an average of about 32 minutes of Facebook time on their phone ... every day.

These details come from a new study, sponsored by Facebook and conducted by data crunchers at the analytics firm IDC. The company surveyed Android and iOS users in the U.S., and 7,446 men and women between the ages of 18 and 44 shared details about their daily Facebook and smartphone habits.

On average, this group spent about two and a half hours every day on their smartphones. The most frequently used application on a smartphone? Email, followed by Facebook.

Almost half the group ? 44 percent ? used their phones as an alarm clock (I know I do), and 79 percent checked their phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up (guilty, once again).

When was the last time your phone wasn't next to you or in the same room? 25 percent of the survey group couldn't remember the last time that happened. And 79 percent of the group admitted their phones were out of reach for just two hours every day.

As you might imagine, social phone time in general doubled on weekends, when folks texted their friends and significant others, and called or emailed their parents and kids.

Seventy percent of their study group accessed Facebook from their phones ? to catch up on news feed updates, mostly ? and 61 percent used it daily. On average, Facebook took up a quarter of social time on people's phones, the rest used up mostly by calling and texting.

Do you do things differently? Let us know in the Discussion section below.

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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In the wee hours, Putin orders impromptu Russian war games

The Black Sea naval operation, called for in an order delivered to the defense minister at 4 a.m., is seen by experts as a demonstration of Russia's growing capacity for quick responses.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / March 28, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS 2013 Summit in Durban, South Africa, on Wednesday. Mr. Putin?s spokesman says the Russian president on Thursday ordered a surprise, immediate military exercise in the Black Sea.

Alexei Druzhinin/Presidential Press Service/RIA Novosti/AP

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President Vladimir Putin has surprised Russian military leaders by issuing a snap order to initiate immediate Black Sea war games ? which experts say is a sign that the country's armed forces are becoming capable of defending the country on, literally, a moment's notice.

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The command was delivered in a sealed envelope to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at 4 a.m. Thursday morning, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

A note posted on Mr. Putin's official website said the exercises will be held in the Black Sea, and involve "up to 7,000 military personnel, over 30 warships based in Sevastopol and Novorossiisk, aviation, rapid deployment airborne troops, marines and the special forces of the General Staff.... The exercises' main objective is to assess combat readiness and coordination among the various branches of the Armed Forces."

Russian security experts appear to overwhelmingly approve the move, which they say is a sign that Russia's reformed and rapidly rearming military forces are shaking off their post-Soviet torpor.

They insist that, under international conventions, Russia is not obliged to inform NATO, or any neighboring countries, about war games that involve 7,000 personnel or less.

"Sure it was a sudden order. Good. That's the way things were done in the Soviet Union," says Viktor Baranets, a former defense ministry spokesman who now writes a regular security column for the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"This is a perfectly normal practice. We aren't violating any agreements," he adds.

However, no one seems to know whether Russia should have informed Ukraine, on whose sovereign territory major elements of Russia's Black Sea Fleet are based at the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

"It is odd that no one seems to know if Russia is obliged to inform Ukraine about any sudden movements of forces that are based on Ukrainian soil," says Alexander Golts, deputy editor of Yezhednevny Zhurnal, an online newspaper.

"If you undertake exercises on your own territory, no one cares. But in the Black Sea region we have Georgia, with whom Russia fought a war in 2008, and these exercises will be staged partly from Ukrainian territory. It's a far more complicated thing," Mr. Golts adds.

Phone calls to the office of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the headquarters of Ukraine's navy in Kiev on Thursday produced no answers. A secretary at the navy's press office told the Monitor to "write a letter asking your question, and we'll get back to you."

Kiril Frolov, a Ukraine expert at the official Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moscow, says that all issues concerning Russia's freedom to act out of Sevastopol are covered by the 2010 Kharkov Agreement, under which Mr. Yanukovych agreed to extend Moscow's lease on the Crimean naval base for 25 years in exchange for discounts on the price of the natural gas that Russia sells to Ukraine.

"Russia doesn't have to warn Ukraine about exercises in the Black Sea," says Mr. Frolov. "The Black Sea is a zone of Russian interests, and the Kharkov Agreement envisages exactly this sort of situation."

Just last month Mr. Putin warned his military chiefs that external threats to Russia are on the rise, and the armed forces will have to undergo a "drastic upgrade" to meet the new challenges.

Earlier this year, Russia announced its biggest ever war games since the Soviet era to take place in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

Many analysts saw those, and a previous set of exercises in the Mediterranean, as a possible cover for a potential mass evacuation of tens of thousands of Russian citizens, and their dependents, from civil war-torn Syria.

But most experts say today's snap war games are just part of the newly capable and combat-ready Russian military, and everyone should just get used to it.

"We have been having almost nonstop exercises in the Black Sea lately, certainly on a bigger scale than in the past. But that's how it should be," says Sergei Mikheyev, director of the independent Center for Political Assessment in Moscow.

"There is absolutely nothing unusual about this."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/tqeitf0GwEc/In-the-wee-hours-Putin-orders-impromptu-Russian-war-games

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John Green contributes to book about cancer victim

NEW YORK (AP) ? Young adult author John Green has written an introduction for a book about the teen cancer victim to whom he dedicated his best-selling novel "The Fault in Our Stars."

Penguin Young Readers Group announced Thursday that it will publish "This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl" in early 2014. Along with Green's introduction, the book will compile writings and sketches by the girl from Quincy, Mass., known for the YouTube video journal about her terminal illness.

Esther died in 2010 at 16.

Green and J.K. Rowling were among her admirers.

The book is named for the foundation started in Esther's memory, "This Star Won't Go Out." Penguin will donate to the foundation, which aids families with children who have cancer.

___

Online:

Foundation: www.tswgo.org

Associated Press

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Panasonic plans $2.7 billion of fresh restructuring

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp said it will spend 250 billion yen ($2.7 billion) over the next two years on a fresh round of restructuring to revive the sprawling electronics giant, but did not indicate if that spending would cover any possible job cuts.

At Thursday's news conference in Tokyo, President Kazuhiro Tsuga said he wants to expand the firm's automotive and housing development businesses as it pulls back from consumer electronics under the company's mid-term business plan.

Like Sony Corp and Sharp Corp, Panasonic's TV unit has been battered by lower-cost Korean rivals able grab market share with cheaper high-quality products. Japan's biggest commercial employer - set to report its second straight annual net loss - is under pressure to dump weak businesses and trim its payroll that even after more than 40,000 job losses in the past two years still comprises more than 300,000 people.

"Panasonic has talked about selling assets, but without cutting workers too, it will come across as a restructuring plan that lacks teeth," said Makoto Kikuchi, the CEO of Myojo Asset Management in Tokyo. "Panasonic does not have the sort of corporate culture which you would expect to see serious layoffs."

Since peaking at $97 billion in 2007, sales have contracted by a fifth. Over the past decade, Panasonic's cumulative net loss adds up to about $13 billion.

Panasonic will also seek external investment in its healthcare business, which Tsuga said he will personally oversee. Panasonic will also sell its majority stake in a logistics business to Nippon Express Co Ltd.

For the next business year, Panasonic expects its net income to reach 50 billion yen, and targets an annual operating profit of 350 billion yen and a margin of 5 percent by March 2016. ($1 = 94.3700 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/panasonic-plans-2-7-billion-fresh-restructuring-093607070--finance.html

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These Clever Packages Can Turn Crates of Coke Into Boxes of Life-Saving Medicine

It's one thing to have life-saving medicine, but it's quite another to get it delivered to where its really needed. And what better way to make sure it gets to the furthest reaches of the world than by packing it in with a truly vital necessity like Coke. More »

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Syrian opposition plunges into disarray

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013 file photo, Syrian opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib speaks during a press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, not pictured, following an international conference on Syria at Villa Madama, Rome. The leader of the Western-based Syrian opposition coalition has resigned, citing frustrations with the body's ability to advance the fight against President Bashar Assad. Khatib said in a statement posted on his Facebook page Sunday that he would continue to serve the opposition's cause outside of the "the official institutions." (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013 file photo, Syrian opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib speaks during a press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, not pictured, following an international conference on Syria at Villa Madama, Rome. The leader of the Western-based Syrian opposition coalition has resigned, citing frustrations with the body's ability to advance the fight against President Bashar Assad. Khatib said in a statement posted on his Facebook page Sunday that he would continue to serve the opposition's cause outside of the "the official institutions." (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's opposition plunged into disarray Sunday as its president quit and its military chief refused to recognize the newly elected prime minister of an interim government for rebel-held areas.

The moves reflected deep splits in the body the U.S. and its allies hope will emerge as the united face of the opposition and advance the fight to topple President Bashar Assad's regime.

The missteps of the opposition's mostly exile political leadership drew little notice inside Syria, where rebel fighters dismissed it as ineffective and pushed ahead with their offensive to gain ground near the country's southern border with Jordan. Nearby, the Israeli military in the Golan Heights responded to fire by shooting back at targets inside Syria.

The first blow to the opposition Syrian National Coalition was the surprise resignation of its president, who said he was quitting in frustration over what he called lack of international support and constraints imposed by the body itself.

Mouaz al-Khatib, who rose to prominence as a preacher in Damascus' most famous mosque, said in a statement posted on his Facebook page that he was making good on an earlier vow to quit if undefined "red lines" were crossed.

"I am keeping my promise today and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition so that I can work with freedom that is not available inside the official institutions," he said.

He also blamed world powers for not offering Syria's rebels the support they demand and complained that "international and regional parties" tried to push the Coalition toward negotiations with the Assad regime ? something most members refuse.

"All that has happened to the Syrian people ? from destruction of infrastructure, to the arrest of tens of thousands, to the displacement of hundreds of thousands, to other tragedies ? is not enough for an international decision to allow the Syrian people to defend themselves," the statement said.

Despite electing a new, U.S.-educated prime minister last week to head a planned interim government, the Coalition has failed to make much of a mark inside Syria, where hundreds of independent rebel brigades are fighting a civil war against Assad's forces.

Reflecting the growing dissension over that move, the head of the Coalition's military branch, Gen. Salim Idris, said his group refused to recognize the new prime minister, a little-known IT professional from Texas, because he lacked broad support among the opposition.

"For the purpose of giving power to a prime minister to unite the revolutionary forces and lead the Syrian revolution toward certain victory, we unequivocally declare that the Free Syrian Army ... conditions its support and cooperation on the achievement of a political agreement on the name of a prime minister," Idris said in an online video.

An aide to Idris, Louay Almokdad, said many prominent Syrian opposition figures opposed the election of Ghassan Hitto, who received 35 out of 48 votes cast by the Coalition's 63 active members.

While al-Khatib's resignation surprised many Coalition members, some said it reflected problems that have caused five other members to resign in the past week.

Coalition member Rima Fleihan told The Associated Press in Cairo that the body did not accurately represent Syrians.

"We have problems internally with the structure of the Coalition and decisions being taken undemocratically," she said.

Another recently resigned member, Walid al-Bunni, accused the Gulf state of Qatar, which heavily finances the opposition, of using pressure to install its candidate for prime minister. Others have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of exercising outsized influence.

Late Sunday, the Coalition distributed a statement saying it had rejected the resignation and asked al-Khatib to keep doing his job.

Secretary of State John Kerry said he regretted al-Khatib's resignation, but said it won't affect U.S. aid to the Coalition.

Speaking to reporters during an unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry also said he had confronted Iraq, Syria's eastern neighbor, about allowing Iran access to its airspace for flights the U.S. believes are ferrying in weapons and fighters to the Assad regime.

In a small victory for the opposition, senior Arab diplomats said they would transfer Syria's seat at the Arab League to the Coalition. The Syrian government's membership was suspended earlier in the crisis. The Coalition said it would send a delegation to a league summit that begins Tuesday in Qatar.

The Syrian government, which contends the civil war is an international conspiracy being carried out by terrorists to weaken Syria, did not comment on the Coalition developments. Instead, it hosted a "National Dialogue Forum" in Damascus that included none of the forces seeking Assad's ouster.

Few of the rebels inside Syria paid any attention to the exile opposition's problems, saying the Coalition had never done much for them anyway.

"All this stuff that happens outside never makes any difference to us," rebel fighter Firas Filefleh said via Skype from the northern province of Idlib. He said he and his colleagues respect al-Khatib as a religious figure but that he and the Coalition were ineffective.

"The Coalition has never made any difference for the fighting brigades," he said. "They brought some flour and some canned goods but have never done more than that."

Filefleh said he had no opinion of Hitto and said he had never heard of Gen. Idris, who purports to be the rebels' highest military leader.

Late Sunday, the Coalition circulated videos it said showed Hitto during his first visit to Syria since his election. The videos showed Hitto in a sport coat and jeans, shaking hands in an unnamed town in Aleppo province.

Meanwhile, rebels tried to advance their campaign to gain ground along the southern border with Jordan.

Since last summer, the opposition has seized large swathes of land near the Turkish and Iraqi borders to the north and east, and has used them to organize and build supply lines.

Victory in the south could allow them to do the same there. They have recently seized army checkpoints along a 15-mile (25-kilometer) strip of the border. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels clashed Sunday with forces at a checkpoint and military base in the area.

Also Sunday, Israel's military said soldiers on patrol in the Golan Heights were fired upon and responded by firing back into Syria. It did not say if the Syrian fire was from rebels or the government.

Rebels have been making gains on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed.

The U.N. says more than 70,000 people have been killed since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.

____

Associated Press reporters Aya Batrawy in Cairo, Matthew Lee in Baghdad and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-24-ML-Syria/id-effa828595294647bc19f9d2bfb62115

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Classic Retweet Adds Old Retweeting Option to Twitter's Web Interface

Chrome: If you want to add some commentary to someone else's Tweet, Classic Retweet for Chrome adds the option for an old-style retweet option to Twitter's web interface.

The extension adds a "Classic Retweet" button next to Twitter's standard retweet button in your timeline. Clicking it brings up a new tweet window with "RT," the user, and the tweet already filled in, allowing you to add your commentary or make edits. It's a simple concept, but it can save you a few seconds of copy and pasting. A lot of Twitter clients have this feature built in, but with Twitter shutting them down left and right, it's nice to have the option on the web interface.

Classic Retweet (Free) | Chrome Web Store via AddictiveTips

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/nj9EKnaiwNo/classic-retweet-adds-old-retweeting-option-to-twitters-web-interface

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Cardinals count down to conclave with final talks

Cardinals, including U.S. Roger Mahony, left, and Timothy Dolan, third from left, arrive for a meeting at the Vatican, Monday March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Cardinals, including U.S. Roger Mahony, left, and Timothy Dolan, third from left, arrive for a meeting at the Vatican, Monday March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, taken on Saturday, March 9, 2013 and made available Monday, March 11, 2013, firefighters install the top of the Sistine Chapel chimney that will signal to the world that a new pope has been elected, at the Vatican. Cardinals gathered for their final day of talks Monday before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs more of a manager pope to clean up the Vatican or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful at a time of crisis. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

In this photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, taken on Saturday, March 9, 2013 and made available Monday, March 11, 2013, firefighters install the top of the Sistine Chapel chimney that will signal to the world that a new pope has been elected, at the Vatican. Cardinals gathered for their final day of talks Monday before the conclave to elect the next pope, amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs more of a manager pope to clean up the Vatican or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful at a time of crisis. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer arrives for a meeting at the Vatican, Monday March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn arrives for a meeting at the Vatican, Monday March 11, 2013. Cardinals have gathered for their final day of talks before the conclave to elect the next pope amid debate over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager pope to clean up the Vatican's messy bureaucracy or a pastoral pope who can inspire the faithful and make Catholicism relevant again. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? On the eve of their conclave to select a new pope, cardinals held their final debate Monday over whether the Catholic Church needs a manager to clean up the Vatican or a pastor to inspire the faithful at a time of crisis.

The countdown underway, speculation has gone into overdrive about who's ahead in the papal campaign.

Will cardinals choose Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, an Italian with serious intellectual and managerial chops who hasn't been tainted by the scandals of the Vatican bureaucracy?

Or has Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the Capuchin monk from Boston who has charmed the Italian media worked the same magic on fellow cardinals?

Most cardinals already knew Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet since he heads a powerful Vatican office. But maybe over the past week they've gotten a chance to hear him sing ? he has a fabulous voice and is known for belting out French folk songs.

Whoever it is, there were strong indications that plenty of questions remained about the state of the church and the best man to lead it heading into Tuesday's conclave: Not all the cardinals who wanted to speak were able to Monday, and the cardinals were forced to take a vote about continuing the discussion into the afternoon.

In the end, a majority of cardinals chose to cut short the formal discussion, and the cardinals who did speak shortened their comments, according to the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

"This is a great historical moment but we have got to do it properly, and I think that's why there isn't a real rush to get into things," Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier from South Africa said as he left the session.

Cardinal Javier Luis Err?zuriz of Chile was more blunt, saying that while Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had tremendous support going into the 2005 conclave that elected him Benedict XVI after just four ballots, the same can't be said for any of the candidates in this election.

"This time around, there are many different candidates, so it's normal that it's going to take longer than the last time," he told The Associated Press.

One of the main presentations Monday came from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican No. 2 who heads the commission of cardinals overseeing the scandal-marred Vatican bank. He outlined the bank's activities and the Holy See's efforts to clean up its reputation in international financial circles, Lombardi said.

The Holy See's finances, and particularly the work of the Vatican bank have been under the spotlight during these pre-conclave meetings as cardinals seek to investigate allegations of corruption in the Vatican administration and get to the bottom of the bank's long history of scandal and secrecy.

There's no clear front-runner for a job most cardinals say they would never want, but a handful of names are circulating as top candidates to lead the 1.2 billion-strong church at a critical time in its history.

Scola is affable and Italian, but not from the Italian-centric Vatican bureaucracy. That makes him attractive perhaps to those seeking reform of the nerve center of the Catholic Church, which was exposed as corrupt and full of petty turf battles by the leaks of papal documents last year.

Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer seems to be favored by some Latin Americans and the Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy. Scherer has a solid handle on the Vatican's finances, sitting on the governing commission of the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works, as well as the Holy See's main budget committee.

As a non-Italian, the archbishop of Sao Paolo would be expected to name an Italian insider as secretary of state ? the Vatican No. 2 who runs day-to-day affairs at the Holy See ? another plus for Vatican-based cardinals who would want one of their own running the shop.

The pastoral camp seems to be focusing on two Americans, Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and O'Malley. Neither has Vatican experience, though Dolan served in the 1990s as rector of the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary up the hill from the Vatican. He has admitted his Italian isn't strong ? perhaps a handicap for a job in which the lingua franca of day-to-day administration is Italian and the pope's other role as bishop of Rome.

If the leading names fail to reach the 77 votes required for victory in the first few rounds of balloting, any number of surprise names could come to the fore as alternatives.

Those include Cardinal Luis Tagle, archbishop of Manila. He is young ? at age 55 the second-youngest cardinal voting ? and was only named a cardinal last November. While his management skills haven't been tested in Rome, Tagle ? with a Chinese-born mother ? is seen as the face of the church in Asia, where Catholicism is growing.

Whoever it is, the new pope will face a church in crisis: Benedict XVI spent his eight-year pontificate trying to revive Catholicism from the secular trends which have made it almost irrelevant in places like Europe, once a stronghold of Christianity. Clerical sex abuse scandals have soured many faithful on their church, and competition from rival evangelical churches in Latin America and Africa has drawn souls away.

Tuesday begins with the cardinals checking into the Vatican's Domus Sanctae Martae, a modern, industrial-feel hotel on the edge of the Vatican gardens. While the rooms are impersonal, they're a step up from the cramped conditions cardinals faced before the hotel was first put to use in 2005; in conclaves past, lines in the Apostolic Palace used to form for using bathrooms.

Tuesday morning, the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, leads the celebration of the "Pro eligendo Pontificie" Mass ? the Mass for the election of a pope ? inside St. Peter's Basilica, joined by the 115 cardinals who will vote.

They break for lunch at the hotel, and return for the 4:30 p.m. procession into the Sistine Chapel, chanting the Litany of Saints, the hypnotic Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints to help guide the voting. They then take their oath of secrecy and listen to a meditation by elderly Maltese Cardinal Prosper Grech.

While the cardinals are widely expected to cast the first ballot Tuesday afternoon, technically they don't have to. In conclaves past, the cardinals have always voted on the first day.

The first puffs of smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney should emerge sometime around 8 p.m. Black smoke from the burned ballot papers means no pope. White smoke means the 266th pope has been chosen.

___

Reporter Jorge Pina contributed.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-11-EU-Vatican-Pope/id-0ee999e64bf842aba926c773536ca16a

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6 Celebrities Whose Hot Bods Need Their Own Insurance!

Jennifer Love Hewitt knows she has some valuable assets! The Client List star told USA Today that she'd happily insure her breasts for $5 million, if such a policy were offered to her.

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Judge strikes down NYC ban on supersized sodas

NEW YORK (AP) ? A judge struck down New York City's pioneering ban on big sugary drinks Monday just hours before it was supposed to take effect, handing a defeat to health-minded Mayor Michael Bloomberg and creating uncertainty for restaurants that had already ordered smaller cups and changed their menus.

State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling said the 16-ounce limit on sodas and other sweet drinks arbitrarily applies to only some sugary beverages and some places that sell them.

"The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of this rule," Tingling wrote in a 36-page ruling that examined the scope of power that should be afforded an administrative board for regulations. The ruling was seen as a victory for the beverage industry, restaurants and other business groups that called the rule unfair and wrong-headed.

In addition, the judge said the Bloomberg-appointed Board of Health intruded on the City Council's authority when it imposed the rule, citing in part a case from the 1980s which questioned whether a state public health council had the authority to regulate smoking in public places.

The city vowed to appeal the decision, issued by New York state's trial-level court.

"We believe the judge is totally in error in how he interpreted the law, and we are confident we will win on appeal," Bloomberg said, adding that the city would emphasize to higher courts "that people are dying every day. This is not a joke."

For now, though, the ruling means the ax won't fall Tuesday on supersized sodas, sweetened teas and other high-sugar beverages in restaurants, movie theaters, corner delis and sports arenas.

"The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban," the American Beverage Association and other opponents said.

While some eateries had held off making changes because of the court challenge, some restaurants had begun using smaller glasses for full-sugar soda. Dunkin' Donuts shops have been telling customers they will have to sweeten and flavor their own coffee. Coca-Cola has printed posters explaining the rules.

Frames Bowling Lounge developed ? and is keeping ? a slate of fresh-squeezed juices as an alternative to pitchers of sodas for family parties, investing staff time, buying new glasses and changing menus.

"All that cost a lot of money ? but you have to go with the flow," executive general manager Ayman Kamel said. Customers have started calling about the new juices, and "we're all very excited about it," he added.

Bloomberg urged businesses to comply despite the court ruling, and not just because the city may yet prevail.

"If you know what you're doing is harmful to people's health, common sense says if you care, you might want to stop doing that," he said.

The first of its kind in the country, the restriction has sparked reaction from pizzeria counters to late-night talk shows, celebrated by some as a bold attempt to improve people's health and derided by others as another "nanny state" law from Bloomberg during his 11 years in office.

On the "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday night, Bloomberg defended the ban but he also joked about his own "addiction."

"As long as you don't ban Cheez-Its," he said. "Cheese-Its are OK. That's my addiction."

On his watch, the city has compelled chain restaurants to post calorie counts, barred artificial trans fats in restaurant food and prodded food manufacturers to use less salt. The city has successfully defended some of those initiatives in court.

Because of the limits of city authority and exemptions made for other reasons, the ban on supersized beverages doesn't cover alcoholic drinks or many lattes and other milk-based concoctions, and it doesn't apply at supermarkets or many convenience stores ? including 7-Eleven, home of the Big Gulp.

The rule, if upheld, would create an "administrative leviathan," warned Tingling, who was elected to the Supreme Court bench in 2001 as a Democrat.

The health board has considerable regulatory power, but its limits will likely be a central question in the appeal.

"I think it turns on whether the appellate division feels that the mayor has gone too far in ruling by decree in bypassing City Council," said Rick Hills, a New York University law professor who has been following the case.

In defending the rule, city officials point to the city's rising obesity rate ? about 24 percent of adults, up from 18 percent in 2002 ? and to studies tying sugary drinks to weight gain.

The judge acknowledged the impact of obesity on the city's residents, and noted that those bringing suit likewise didn't dispute obesity is a significant health issue, but questioned how much sugary drinks can be blamed for it. Ultimately the judge said whether the issue of obesity is an epidemic is not the key issue here, but whether the board of health has the jurisdiction to decide that obesity is such an issue that it could issue a cap on consumption of sugary drinks.

The judge found that the regulation was "laden with exceptions based on economic and political concern."

Critics said the measure is too limited to have a meaningful effect on New Yorkers' waistlines. And they said it would take a bite out of business for the establishments that had to comply, while other places would still be free to sell sugary drinks in 2-liter bottles and supersized cups.

The city had said that while restaurant inspectors would start enforcing the soda size rule in March, they wouldn't seek fines ? $200 for a violation ? until June.

The ruling "serves as a major blow to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's incessant finger-wagging," said J. Justin Wilson at the Center for Consumer Freedom, created by restaurants and food companies. "New Yorkers should celebrate this victory by taking a big gulp of freedom."

Jose Perez, a fifth-grade special education teacher in Manhattan who was getting a hot dog and can of soda from a street vendor, called the ruling "dead-on."

"Really, I think it's just big government getting in the way of people's rights," he said. "I think it's up to the person. If they want to have a giant soda, that's their business."

___

Associated Press writers Meghan Barr and Deepti Hajela contributed to this story.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-strikes-down-nyc-ban-supersized-sodas-000343273--finance.html

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Survivors of Calif sailboat race accident released

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Five sailors who survived when their boat smashed into rocks during a race in storm-churned seas off Southern California, killing a fellow crewmember, have been released from San Diego hospitals.

The survivors were treated for cuts, bruises and hypothermia, Chuck Hope, commodore of the San Diego Yacht Club, told UT San Diego Sunday (http://bit.ly/14KsMEg). The yacht club was a co-host of the 139-nautical-mile Islands Race.

The five crewmembers of the Uncontrollable Urge were rescued after the 32-foot sailboat lost its steering and the craft began drifting toward San Clemente Island, where it broke apart, Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Gawrelli said Saturday.

Craig Thomas Williams, a 36-year-old architect from Serra Mesa, was killed. Race officials identified the other crew members as James Gilmore, the skipper and owner of the boat; Mike Skillicorn; Doug Pajak; Ryan Georgianna; and Vince Valdes.

On Friday night, the crew radioed the mayday call and also activated a feature on the boat that provides authorities with GPS coordinates and other crucial information, she said. But the crew then declined assistance and instead requested a tow boat. Stormy conditions, however, kept the tow boat from getting to them.

"They were not in immediate danger and thought they would be able to manage completing the race and get assistance on their own," Hope said. "Then things got worse."

He said the crew couldn't deploy a life raft or anchor the boat. They abandoned ship when the boat entered the surf line and broke apart.

When the Coast Guard reached the crew, they found Williams unresponsive in the water, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said. He and the other five crew members were hoisted into a helicopter and flown to a hospital.

Williams was a member of the Silver Gate Yacht Club in San Diego, where the Uncontrollable Urge is docked, said Carey Storm, the club's commodore.

"This is a very difficult time for the Williams family, the skipper of Uncontrollable Urge and the other surviving crew members," Carey Storm said. "(The club) and the entire Southern California racing community is a close family, and the loss of one of our members impacts us all greatly."

Carey said Sunday that a memorial fund has been established to help support Williams' young daughter and wife, who is pregnant.

Gilmore, the owner of the Uncontrollable Urge, tweeted Friday that he was taking the new boat on its first race, and noted that the forecast called for 25-knot winds.

"Gonna see what this boat can do!" he tweeted.

Hope said the Uncontrollable Urge was known within the sailboat racing circuit and that its crew and skipper were experienced.

"Those guys been around, they're very good sailors," he said. "This was not a case of someone getting in over their head."

He said stormy conditions in the open seas caused equipment failures for two other boats, forcing their crews to drop from the race. The Uncontrollable Urge crew radioed that the boat's rudder failed.

"This was not an isolated incident," Hope said. "Conditions were pretty fierce."

The overnight race began in Newport Harbor in Orange County on Friday and was to take participants around Catalina and San Clemente islands before finishing off in San Diego's Point Loma.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-10-Sailboat%20Race%20Death/id-eefe600fb7b04c76b14052f91317a904

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How the daffodil got its trumpet

Mar. 9, 2013 ? The daffodil is one of the few plants with a 'corona', a crown-like structure also referred to as the 'trumpet'. New research suggests that the corona is not an extension of the petals as previously thought, but is a distinct organ sharing more genetic identity with stamens, the pollen-producing reproductive organs.

The origin of the corona has long been a subject of debate in botany, and in the 1930s botanist Agnes Arber claimed that it was an extension from the petals. With its colourful petal-like appearance, it's easy to see why this was believed for so long. Yet by studying the corona's development and genetic information, this new study has shown that it is in fact related to stamens.

Dr Robert Scotland of the University of Oxford led the research, and was supported by colleagues at Harvard University, the United States Department of Agriculture and the University of Western Australia. The researchers were funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the United States National Science Foundation. The study is published online in The Plant Journal.

By studying the development of daffodil flowers, the researchers found that the corona only begins to form after the other parts of the flower are fully established. "This shows that the corona could not be a straightforward modification of either petals or stamens," explains Dr Scotland. "Since it develops independently of both, it is more accurately described as a separate organ."

The different parts of daffodil flowers are located on a small cup-like platform termed the 'hypanthium'.

The researchers analysed genetic activity in all parts of the daffodil flower, and found that daffodil coronas were genetically similar to the stamens and hypanthium, but not the petals.

"We found that the corona develops from the hypanthium, and is not simply en extension of the petals or stamens," says Dr Scotland. "The corona is an independent organ, sharing more genetic identity with stamens, and which develops after the other organs are fully established."

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Journal Reference:

1. Mark T Waters, Anna M M Tiley, Elena M Kramer, Alan W Meerow, Jane A Langdale, Robert W Scotland. The corona of the daffodil Narcissus bulbocodium shares stamen-like identity and is distinct from the orthodox floral whorls. The Plant Journal, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/tpj.12150

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/1TTT7YekiGA/130309160248.htm

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No. 13 Oklahoma State edges No. 9 K-State 76-70

Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart (33) dunks in front of Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez (13) and forward Nino Williams (11) and Oklahoma State's Le'Bryan Nash (2) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart (33) dunks in front of Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez (13) and forward Nino Williams (11) and Oklahoma State's Le'Bryan Nash (2) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma State forward Philip Jurick, left, fouls Kansas State forward Nino Williams as he shoots in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber, center, talks to his team during a time out in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart (33), Michael Cobbins (20), Markel Brown (22), Brian Williams (4) and Kansas State's Angel Rodriguez watch as Oklahoma State's Phil Forte (13) takes a free throw in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Kansas State forward Thomas Gipson (42), guard Angel Rodriguez (13) and Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart (33) watch a loose ball in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 9, 2013. Oklahoma State won 76-70. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) ? Coach Travis Ford can't be certain whether NBA prospect Marcus Smart has played his last home game at Oklahoma State.

If he did, he went out with one of his typical beyond-the-box-score plays, changing the game and the Big 12 championship picture.

Smart scored 21 points, but perhaps none of his plays were as big as the charging foul he drew that turned the momentum as the 13th-ranked Cowboys beat No. 9 Kansas State 76-70 on Saturday.

After officials had stopped the game to review a Smart jump shot and rule that it was not a 3-pointer but a 2, he got between Angel Rodriguez and the sideline and drew the foul as Rodriguez tried to catch an inbound pass.

Smart ended up with six points ? plus drawing Rodriguez's foul ? during the decisive 14-1 run for the Cowboys (23-7, 13-5 Big 12).

"The momentum changed for us, and we opened the game up," Smart said.

Smart's heady play came as no surprise to Ford, who has seen his freshman point guard develop into a Big 12 player of the year candidate without needing to be his team's leading scorer.

"He is going to be in the middle of the action and more times than not, he's going to make a positive play. ... That's just his game," Ford said. "That's just his nature. That's the way he plays."

Le'Bryan Nash contributed 24 points and Markel Brown scored 16, including seven free throws in the final 2 minutes for Oklahoma State.

The Wildcats (25-6, 14-4) came into the day tied with rival Kansas for the conference lead, but were left needing the Jayhawks to lose on the road at Baylor later Saturday to come away with their first regular-season conference title since 1977 in the Big Eight.

K-State led by as much as nine in the second half and was up 61-57 following Rodney McGruder's three-point play with 4:45 remaining. The Cowboys didn't allow another field goal for more than 4 minutes and hit 13 straight free throws during crunch time to come away with the win.

It was 61-59 when Smart drew the charge, then got fouled by Thomas Gipson on a 3-point attempt and hit two free throws to tie it. Nash followed with a driving layup to put the Cowboys ahead to stay at 63-61 with 2:47 remaining.

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber called Rodriguez's charge the "big, changing play" of the game.

"I bet if you went and watched it, it wasn't an offensive foul. So, that changed the game, the momentum a lot," Weber said. "But then they made plays and we didn't."

McGruder led the Wildcats with 22 points. He had a big game when the teams met in the Big 12 opener, scoring 28 points and making all five of his 3-point attempts to lead K-State to a victory. He couldn't match that this time, connecting on only six of his 15 shots.

Thomas Gipson chipped in 15 points and Angel Rodriguez scored 10, but also struggled to a 3-for-16 outing.

"They've got some pretty good athletes that can guard and defend, and they made their focus ? there's no doubt ? to make sure that Rod and Angel were jammed up as much as possible," Weber said.

The Wildcats allowed Oklahoma State to shoot 57 percent while making just 39 percent of their own shots, but still managed to hang in until the final minutes for a chance to stretch their winning streak to seven and ? more importantly ? win an elusive conference title.

"We had an opportunity to be regular-season conference champs," McGruder said, "and we let that opportunity slip."

After McGruder's three-point play and Rodriguez's charge, Kansas State missed eight straight attempts. Smart said there had been some build-up to the call, with referees warning both Smart and Rodriguez to stop pushing off.

"At that moment in time, he gave me a little nudge that was enough for the referee to blow his whistle," Smart said. "Actually, I wasn't trying to fall. I actually slipped and it just looked like I fell, like I tried to make it a flop. But I actually slipped. It was a nudge but it wasn't enough to make me fall."

The Wildcats will be the No. 2 seed in next week's Big 12 tournament. Oklahoma State will be the third seed and face Baylor in the opening round.

Shane Southwell and Martavious Irving hit 3-pointers to get the Wildcats going after trailing 36-30 at halftime, and soon they put together a 14-1 blitz to charge into the lead. Rodriguez had two baskets and two free throws during the run, and Nino Williams made a jumper along the left baseline to put K-State up 50-41 with 13:12 left.

The Cowboys responded by pushing the pace in transition, and Nash had a two-handed slam and a pair of layups during an 11-0 comeback. Smart's three-point play off a driving runner along the right side of the lane put OSU back up 56-53 with 6:21 remaining ? and fans chanted "One more year!" to the NBA prospect as he hit the free throw.

Smart said he has tried to block out that kind of chatter all year long.

"If I was them, I want him to come back. No question," Ford said. "But I've seen him in a different perspective probably a little bit. I want what's best for him. I've read, and everybody thinks he's gone for sure. He might. I don't know. It has not been discussed. I wouldn't be surprised either way."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-09-BKC-T25-Kansas-St-Oklahoma-St/id-d3be61d54624402cb58fa7d6c785e0e9

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