WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says the San Francisco Giants are making a "habit" of dropping in at the White House.
Obama welcomed the 2012 World Series champions Monday at a South Lawn ceremony honoring their victory and their community service work. The Giants swept the World Series in October, defeating the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in the final game after being nearly knocked out in the playoffs.
The president says their second title in three seasons was because of stellar pitching, defense and timely hitting. But Obama didn't predict that finish. On the campaign trail last year, he anticipated a World Series between the White Sox and the Washington Nationals.
The crowd of well-wishers included Giants Hall of Famer Willie Mays, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Higher variability in visit-to-visit blood pressure readings, independent of average blood pressure, could be related to impaired cognitive function in old age in those already at high risk of cardiovascular disease, suggests a new article.
All Critics (65) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (2)
It not only delivers astonishing, suspenseful footage that makes it a legitimate thriller, but also serves up thoughtful meditations about using wild animals for our own entertainment.
It's hard to imagine anyone coming out of this movie and not swearing off the next vacation trip to Orlando, San Antonio or San Diego.
Unfortunately, this feels like a ten-minute news segment blown up to theatrical proportions.
While Cowperthwaite's film opens with a simple question about the behavior of a single killer whale, it ends up mounting a persuasive ethical argument against keeping orcas in captivity.
"Blackfish" is no trumped up horror story fueled by Hollywood brand names and special effects. In this riveting documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, all of the creatures are real, and all seem entitled to the serious chip on their shoulders.
The film may be depressing. But even with a terrible, watery musical score, it's also good.
Cowperthwaite juxtaposes to devastating effect official PR spin with news reports and eye-witness accounts of marine park tragedies.
[An] impressive, often gripping documentary ...
Engrossing when offers alarming CSI-type forensic analysis into the death of a whale trainer [but] the narrow focus on SeaWorld raises more questions that aren't considered.
Through interviews with whale scientists and several former Sea World trainers, [Cowperthwaite] paints a disturbing picture of the profit-minded climate of deceit that prevailed at the company.
Puts 'killer whales' into wildlife and humanitarian perspective while giving you all of the dangerous action sequences you could possible want. Free Willy, it ain't.
Blackfish marries biography, activism and psycho thriller into a pleasing cinematic shape, starting with a single whale and the trainers who worked with him.
Some of the archive footage is exceedingly harrowing, but the case against commercially condoned cruelty is made without sensationalism, and few will be able to watch this without a growing sense of outrage.
Cruelty begets cruelty and whales don't belong in the circus.
It is never less than gripping, and devastatingly undermines the notion of performing whales as wholesome family entertainment.
Damning and disturbing viewing.
It's a strong piece of video journalism in which images and the interviews deliver the information, and we reach our own conclusions.
A horrifying, heartbreaking eye-opener about human inhumanity to other intelligent and emotional beings who share our planet.
As horribly gripping as a serial-killer thriller, though the real villain is not the ostensible culprit, but its human captors.
An acclaimed and chastening documentary about what happens to human beings - injury, mutilation, death - when they pen orcas in sea parks.
Important, informative, imperfect.
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TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Explosions rocked the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Sunday in what appeared to be attacks on judicial buildings, a security official said, sparking protests a day after more than 1,100 inmates escaped during a prison riot there.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Benghazi's streets denouncing the latest violence, according to residents.
Thirteen people were slightly wounded in one of the blasts which targeted a court in the north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Rami Kaal.
Mohammed al-Hijazy, a spokesman for Benghazi security operations, added: "Assailants threw an explosive device under a car as it was parking in front of the court."
Hijazy said another explosion occurred in front of an office belonging to the justice ministry, but it was not immediately clear what had happened in that incident.
Both blasts happened around the time families were breaking their Ramadan fast.
Residents living near the court said the building, and others nearby, had sustained significant damage. Windows were blasted out and rubble was scattered on the ground.
"It was very loud and I saw the smoke," resident Hassan Bakoush said. "Some balconies of nearby buildings are damaged."
Armed violence and lawlessness, caused in part by militia groups who often do as they please, has hobbled governance in large areas of the oil-producing North African state following the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Protesters took to Benghazi's streets shouting anti-government and anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans, demonstrator Abdulhay Mohammed said, echoing scenes from two days ago.
"We are protesting against weak security. People are angry," he said. "People are shouting 'Benghazi wake up', 'The people want the Muslim Brotherhood out' and 'Zeidan gather your belongings'," he added, referring to Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.
ASSASSINATIONS PROMPT PROTESTS
Hundreds of protesters had attacked the Benghazi and Tripoli offices of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood and the headquarters of a liberal coalition in the capital after demonstrations turned violent late on Friday.
Those protests were prompted by the killing of a prominent political activist and critic of the Brotherhood, Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, shot after leaving a Benghazi mosque. Two military officers were also killed in the city on Friday.
"These were professional killers, not normal criminals," Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani told reporters in Tripoli after visiting Benghazi, referring to Friday's assassinations.
He added that the government wanted a team from "friendly" countries and U.N. Security Council members to investigate the violence.
Zeidan has said he would reshuffle his cabinet and reorganize the government to cope with the "urgent" situation in the country. A spokesman for Libya's legislature said its members would hold an emergency meeting on Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, officials said that about 100 inmates out of 1,117 who escaped during a riot in Kuafiya prison on the outskirts of Benghazi on Saturday had been recaptured.
Officials said there had been an attack on the jail compound from outside as well as a riot inside after which some prisoners set their cloths and bed sheets on fire. Guards opened the gates to let them escape the fire, Marghani said.
Residents had helped guards to arrest some escapees.
Mohammed Sharif, head of security in Benghazi, said some prisoners had turned themselves in and others had been captured.
Officials said the escapees included criminals from other African states.
Benghazi has seen a wave of violence since last year with attacks on security forces as well as foreign targets, including the assault on the U.S. mission last September in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed.
(Reporting by Feras Bosalum, Ghaith Shennib, Ulf Laessing and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
Beaumont Health System launches research trial of bioresorbable heart scaffoldPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Angela Blazevski angela.blazevski@beaumont.edu 248-551-0445 Beaumont Health System
1 of a select number of US centers testing a 'disappearing' device that's absorbed by the body
Beaumont Health System has joined a multicenter, international research study of a new temporary heart device that helps keep an artery open following angioplasty, then is broken down and absorbed by the body.
The research will compare the effectiveness of the new "disappearing" device, the AbsorbTM Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold made by health care company Abbott, with drug-eluting, metal stents that are commonly placed in heart arteries as a permanent implant. Absorb is referred to as a scaffold to indicate it is temporary in nature, unlike a permanent metallic stent. It is made of polylactide, a material commonly used in medical implants such as dissolving sutures.
Coronary artery stents were approved for use in the United States in 1994. Similar to a mesh tube, stents prop open a heart artery after a blockage is cleared with a procedure called angioplasty.
In angioplasty, a doctor threads a catheter, or hollow tube, into the arteries of the heart through a small incision in the groin or wrist, with a tiny balloon at its tip that, once inflated, pushes a blockage against the artery wall to open the artery and improve blood flow to the heart. Angioplasty is often followed by insertion of a stent coated with medication, called a drug-eluting stent, at the site of the blockage to keep the vessel open and prevent renarrowing. Metallic stents are a permanent implant in the wall of the artery.
"Stents have revolutionized the treatment of heart blockages by helping many patients to avoid having repeat angioplasty procedures and in some cases open-heart surgery," says Amr Abbas, M.D., Beaumont's director of interventional cardiology research and the study's principal investigator. "This new bioabsorbable vascular scaffold is the latest technique in heart treatment in interventional cardiology."
Research has shown that the support of a coronary stent is only needed for a few months after implantation while the artery wall is healing. Although researchers hoped to create a temporary scaffold that dissolved after doing its job, there were many scientific challenges. A decade ago, scientists at Abbott started development of Absorb and now Abbott is the first company in the world to begin testing a bioresorbable vascular scaffold in patients in the United States.
The Absorb BVS is available in Europe, Middle East and parts of Asia. It is an investigational device not available for sale in the U.S.
ABSORB III will enroll approximately 2,250 patients, the majority in the U.S.
###
For more information on the Beaumont study, including enrollment criteria, call Diedre Brunk, Beaumont Cardiology Research at 248-898-5580.
About Beaumont Heart & Vascular Care
Beaumont is Michigan's, and one of the nation's, most experienced providers of heart care, recognized on U.S. News & World Report's 2013-14 "America's Best Hospitals" list for cardiology and heart surgery. The Beaumont Heart and Vascular Center is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art facility that's dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart problems. Beaumont's Ernst Cardiovascular Center offers a collaborative approach to treating and managing the most complex heart and vascular conditions, including atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease, heart failure, aortic aneurysm and dissection. The center offers low-cost, preventive heart screening for adults and high school students. Beaumont's Ministrelli Women's Heart Center is the first in Michigan devoted exclusively to the prevention, diagnosis, and research of heart disease in women. Find out more at http://heart.beaumont.edu/
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Beaumont Health System launches research trial of bioresorbable heart scaffoldPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Angela Blazevski angela.blazevski@beaumont.edu 248-551-0445 Beaumont Health System
1 of a select number of US centers testing a 'disappearing' device that's absorbed by the body
Beaumont Health System has joined a multicenter, international research study of a new temporary heart device that helps keep an artery open following angioplasty, then is broken down and absorbed by the body.
The research will compare the effectiveness of the new "disappearing" device, the AbsorbTM Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold made by health care company Abbott, with drug-eluting, metal stents that are commonly placed in heart arteries as a permanent implant. Absorb is referred to as a scaffold to indicate it is temporary in nature, unlike a permanent metallic stent. It is made of polylactide, a material commonly used in medical implants such as dissolving sutures.
Coronary artery stents were approved for use in the United States in 1994. Similar to a mesh tube, stents prop open a heart artery after a blockage is cleared with a procedure called angioplasty.
In angioplasty, a doctor threads a catheter, or hollow tube, into the arteries of the heart through a small incision in the groin or wrist, with a tiny balloon at its tip that, once inflated, pushes a blockage against the artery wall to open the artery and improve blood flow to the heart. Angioplasty is often followed by insertion of a stent coated with medication, called a drug-eluting stent, at the site of the blockage to keep the vessel open and prevent renarrowing. Metallic stents are a permanent implant in the wall of the artery.
"Stents have revolutionized the treatment of heart blockages by helping many patients to avoid having repeat angioplasty procedures and in some cases open-heart surgery," says Amr Abbas, M.D., Beaumont's director of interventional cardiology research and the study's principal investigator. "This new bioabsorbable vascular scaffold is the latest technique in heart treatment in interventional cardiology."
Research has shown that the support of a coronary stent is only needed for a few months after implantation while the artery wall is healing. Although researchers hoped to create a temporary scaffold that dissolved after doing its job, there were many scientific challenges. A decade ago, scientists at Abbott started development of Absorb and now Abbott is the first company in the world to begin testing a bioresorbable vascular scaffold in patients in the United States.
The Absorb BVS is available in Europe, Middle East and parts of Asia. It is an investigational device not available for sale in the U.S.
ABSORB III will enroll approximately 2,250 patients, the majority in the U.S.
###
For more information on the Beaumont study, including enrollment criteria, call Diedre Brunk, Beaumont Cardiology Research at 248-898-5580.
About Beaumont Heart & Vascular Care
Beaumont is Michigan's, and one of the nation's, most experienced providers of heart care, recognized on U.S. News & World Report's 2013-14 "America's Best Hospitals" list for cardiology and heart surgery. The Beaumont Heart and Vascular Center is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art facility that's dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart problems. Beaumont's Ernst Cardiovascular Center offers a collaborative approach to treating and managing the most complex heart and vascular conditions, including atrial fibrillation, heart valve disease, heart failure, aortic aneurysm and dissection. The center offers low-cost, preventive heart screening for adults and high school students. Beaumont's Ministrelli Women's Heart Center is the first in Michigan devoted exclusively to the prevention, diagnosis, and research of heart disease in women. Find out more at http://heart.beaumont.edu/
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MIAMI Jose Fernandez was the first one in the postgame interview room Sunday, and rightly so. He established the organization's single-game rookie strikeout record (13) in a 3-2, series-clinching win over the Pirates.
Per its history, little good that happens to the MarlinsGet your Marlins Tickets now! goes unencumbered. Not long after Fernandez concluded, President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest entered and brusquely announced the Marlins had accepted the resignation of hitting coach Tino Martinez.
A source confirmed Martinez for months had been at odds with several players and staff members, including manager Mike Redmond. It recently came to Redmond's attention that Martinez engaged rookie Derek Dietrich in an inappropriate physical manner less than a week after his arrival in the big leagues.
Martinez denied reports that he put his hands around Dietrich's neck, saying his grabbed his jersey. The incident was serious enough that the Major League Baseball Players' Association was made aware of it well after the fact.
A stunned Dietrich, who was optioned to Double-A Jacksonville last week, was at a loss about how to handle the situation. He chose to keep quiet and somehow produced despite unimaginable duress. Dietrich ultimately relayed the story to Redmond. One other person witnessed what happened in the batting cage and corroborated Dietrich's account.
"I want to say that I never physically touched anyone by the neck," said Martinez, who apologized for his behavior. "That never happened. I have made some comments to certain players at certain times that I thought were more constructive criticism on separate occasions. Obviously they didn't feel that way and it kind of backfired on me.
"I just thought with some young players you needed to be a little firmer and try to get them on the right track, but obviously I made a mistake and I apologize for that to the Marlins' organization, my family and everyone involved."
Had owner Jeffrey Loria not stepped in and tried to mend the situation, Martinez likely could have avoided a blemish that no doubt will follow him the rest of his baseball life. Instead, Martinez's otherwise fine reputation as a two-time All-Star and 1997 American League Most Valuable Player runner-up is marred. Further, Loria takes the hit for pushing the hire instead of letting Redmond choose.
A source said several hitters complained about Martinez's demeanor and abusive behavior. Martinez and Redmond recently engaged in a verbal altercation. Redmond made it clear to management he wanted Martinez out. That Martinez was not Redmond's hitting coach choice was a point that stuck in his craw.
"[Resigning] was the right thing to do," said Martinez, who forfeits the remainder of a three-year contract. "[Loria] thought there were other options, but no, that's the right thing to do.
"I was frustrated at times the way players were behaving. When I asked them to do something they wouldn't do it. I thought the way to get them to do it was by being firm with them. I probably used some four-letter words. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I obviously wasn't."
The Dietrich incident wasn't isolated, the source said. Martinez in spring training berated minor league infielder Matt Downs for working with then minor league hitting coordinator Greg Norton. Martinez took offense that Downs would take instruction from an unaccomplished big league hitter like Norton, who recently left the organization to become the hitting coach at Auburn.
Since spring training Martinez has displayed erratic behavior and mood swings that prompted some to question whether he is bi-polar. Another person who's received firsthand accounts of Martinez's abuse wondered how a 16-year veteran and core player of the New York Yankees' dynasty of the late 1990s with almost 2,000 career hits could harbor such insecurity.
Martinez also had incidents with several other players, including Chris Valaika and Casey Kotchman, who Martinez at one point challenged to a fight.
Another player with more than a decade in professional baseball told the source he's never had a coach curse at him until Martinez did so this spring.
"We're all disappointed in the outcome and I think we're focusing right now on moving forward," Redmond said.
Tuesday, the Marlins are expected to name minor league field coordinator John Pierson their interim hitting coach.
jcrodriguez@tribune.com or @JCRMarlinsbeat on Twitter.
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Public release date: 29-Jul-2013
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