Obama pledges urgent aid to Oklahoma town

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama pledged urgent government help for Oklahoma Tuesday in the wake of "one of the most destructive" storms in the nation's history.

"In an instant neighborhoods were destroyed, dozens of people lost their lives, many more were injured," Obama said from the White House State Dining Room. "Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew ? their school."

The president added that the town of Moore, Okla., "needs to get everything it needs right away."

Obama spoke following a meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and top White House officials. On Monday, he spoke with Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican Rep. Tom Cole, whose home is in the heavily damaged town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

The president has also declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate was due in Oklahoma later Tuesday to ensure that federal resources are being properly deployed.

The state medical examiner's office has revised the death toll from the tornado to 24 people, including seven children. Authorities had said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon's more than half-mile-wide twister.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-21-US-Oklahoma-Tornado-Obama/id-7a5608ea7be34e4a921b3bb11f9533ea

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Jedi jeans! Buy Luke Skywalker's 'hero pants'

Pop culture

Kurt Schlosser TODAY

2 hours ago

Nate D. Sanders

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, the famed "Star Wars" Jedi whose pants could make you a hero, too.

If it's been a while since you referred to your office khakis as "hero pants," perhaps it's time for you to step into the costume Luke Skywalker wore in "Star Wars."

Yes, Luke put his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, but these pants "are one of the most recognizable props in movie history." So says the Nate D. Sanders auction house, which is hoping to fetch $70,000-$100,000 for Mark Hamill's weathered duds from the 1977 sci-fi classic.

The sand-colored Levi's have all the wear and tear associated with a life fixing droids on a desert planet. "Tattered by Tatooine" would be a good way to describe them. And with a 29" waist, it's clear that young Luke wasn't getting fat on Aunt Beru's blue milk.

Hamill himself once said the pants were just "bleached Levi's with the tag still in them." The tag on the inseam is from the London costumier who added Jedi style to the prop: "Berman & Nathan's / 40 Camden St. / London N.W. 1." (Luke, I am your tailor!)

With just over a day left on the auction, there are eight bids on the pants and the current high is $22,413. If the pants do reach $100,000, that would pay for roughly 1,300 pairs of men's Levi's from the denim giant's website.

Here's a short look at Luke in action in the pants. We can't vouch for whether wearing them will make you, too, whine about wanting to go to Tosche Station to pick up power converters. If they do, then maybe wait to bid on Han Solo's vest instead.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/jedi-jeans-luke-skywalkers-hero-pants-could-sell-100-000-6C9996708

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Moon explosion as humongous rock strikes lunar surface

Moon explosion: An explosion on the moon could be seen on Earth in March as a boulder-sized object smashed into the lunar surface at 56,000 miles per hour.?

By Clara Moskowitz,?SPACE.com / May 20, 2013

This artist's illustration shows a meteor crashing into the surface of the moon. Scientists say hundreds of space rocks impact the lunar surface every year.

NASA

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The moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it.

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The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a bright flash of light that would have been visible to anyone looking at?the moon?at the time with the naked eye, NASA scientists say.

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said in a statement. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before." [The Greatest Lunar Crashes Ever]

NASA astronomers have been monitoring the moon for lunar meteor impacts for the past eight years, and haven't seen anything this powerful before.

Scientists didn't see the impact occur in real time. It was only when Ron Suggs, an analyst at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., reviewed a?video of the bright moon crash?recorded by one of the moon monitoring program's 14-inch telescopes that the event was discovered.

"It jumped right out at me, it was so bright," Suggs?said.

Scientists deduced the rock had been roughly 1-foot-wide (between 0.3 to 0.4 meters) and weighted about 88 lbs (40 kg).The explosion it created was as powerful as 5 tons of TNT, NASA scientists said.

When researchers looked back at their records from March, they found that the moon meteor might not have been an isolated event.

"On the night of March 17, NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on Earth," Cooke said. "These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between Earth and the asteroid belt."

Though Earth's atmosphere protected our planet's surface from being hit by these meteors,?the moon?has no such luck. Its lack of an atmosphere exposes it to all incoming space rocks, and the NASA monitoring program has spotted more than 300 meteor strikes that reached its surface since 2005.

Part of the motivation for the program is NASA's eventual intent to send astronauts back to the moon. When they arrive, they'll need to know how often meteors impact the surface, and whether certain parts of the year, coinciding with the moon's passage through crowded bits of the solar system, pose special dangers.

"We'll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-Moon system passes through the same region of space," Cooke said. "Meanwhile, our analysis of the March 17th?event continues."

The scientists also hope to use NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to photograph the impact site to learn more about how the crash occurred.?

Follow Clara Moskowitz on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/6APM3g8zVpU/Moon-explosion-as-humongous-rock-strikes-lunar-surface

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LG to demo 5-inch unbreakable and flexible plastic OLED panel at SID

LG's got quite a bit in store for us this week at SID's annual display exhibition in Vancouver. In addition to that 55-inch curved OLED TV we first heard about last month, the company will be demonstrating a very nifty 5-inch OLED panel. Created for mobile devices, the display is constructed of plastic, making it both flexible and unbreakable -- certainly a welcome quality when it comes to smartphone design.

Also on display will be 5- and 7-inch HD Oxide TFT panels. That first size features a bezel that's just 1mm wide, enabling a borderless frame when installed in smartphones. Both displays are lightweight and consume less power than their traditional equivalents. Finally, LG will have a 14-inch 2560x1440-pixel laptop panel on hand, along with LCDs designed for use in refrigerators and automotive dashboards. We'll be live from the SID show floor later this week -- check back for our hands-ons with all of these new LG panels, and quite a bit more.

Filed under: Displays, HD, LG

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2hMmBw2nwrM/

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Spurs rout Grizzlies 105-83 in West finals opener

Memphis Grizzlies' Mike Conley (11) is defended by San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, center, as he tries to score during the first half in Game 1 of a Western Conference Finals NBA basketball playoff series Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Memphis Grizzlies' Mike Conley (11) is defended by San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, center, as he tries to score during the first half in Game 1 of a Western Conference Finals NBA basketball playoff series Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan (21) grabs a rebound as Memphis Grizzlies' Mike Conley (11) and Tony Allen (9) look on during the first half in Game 1 of a Western Conference Finals NBA basketball playoff series, Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Memphis Grizzlies' Marc Gasol, center, is defended, from left, by San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, and Matt Bonner during the first half in Game 1 of a Western Conference Finals NBA basketball playoff series, Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili, right, of Argentina, looks on as Memphis Grizzlies' Keyon Dooling recovers the loose ball during the first half of Game 1 of the Western Conference final NBA basketball playoff series, Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker (9), of France, shoots as Memphis Grizzlies' Tony Allen, right, reached over to defend him during the first half in Game 1 of a Western Conference Finals NBA basketball playoff series, Sunday, May 19, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SAN ANTONIO (AP) ? The San Antonio Spurs opened the Western Conference finals resembling the past champions who've been there so many times before.

The Memphis Grizzlies looked like the first-timers still trying to adapt to their first conference finals appearance.

Tony Parker had 20 points and nine assists, Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points and the Spurs struck first by beating Memphis 105-83 on Sunday.

San Antonio raced out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter, then came up with a response when Memphis rallied to get within six in the second half. Both teams pulled their starters with over 5 minutes left and the Spurs leading by 21.

"I can promise you this: Nobody's happy in our locker room, because we were up 2-0 (in the West finals) last year and we lost," Parker said. "It's just one game. It means nothing. We still have a long way to go."

The Spurs avoided a repeat of their Game 1 loss when the teams met two years ago in the first round. The Grizzlies went on to knock San Antonio out of the playoffs as the top seed that time.

Memphis has lost its opener in each round in this year's playoffs, recovering from an 0-2 hole in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers and an 0-1 deficit against Oklahoma City in the West semifinals.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in San Antonio.

"We just didn't play well. It's not anything specific," coach Lionel Hollins said. "It's just that we were running too fast, we missed some layups, we were taking bad shots and our defense was really awful. And the Spurs played well."

The NBA's stingiest defense wasn't up to its usual standards, allowing the Spurs to hit 53 percent of their shots and a franchise postseason-record 14 3-pointers while All-Star power forward Zach Randolph struggled. Randolph had just two points, getting his only basket with 9:26 left in the game.

He had a playoff-best 28 points and 14 rebounds in his last game, as Memphis eliminated defending West champ Oklahoma City in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

"Obviously, he's their best scorer. He's a beast inside," Parker said. "We know he's not going to play like that every game. It's just sometimes it happens."

The Grizzlies started to rally as soon as Randolph came out of the game for the first time in the second half.

Quincy Pondexter made a baseline cut for a layup off Darrell Arthur's pass, then hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a 10-0 burst. Jerryd Bayless' two-handed, fast-break dunk off a steal got the Grizzlies within 62-56 with 3:43 left in the third quarter.

The comeback was short-lived, though.

Bayless missed a 3-pointer on the next trip, and Manu Ginobili was able to make one at the opposite end to spark an 11-1 response that immediately restored the Spurs' lead to 16 by end of the quarter. Leonard hit a pair of 3-pointers and Gary Neal had one as San Antonio kept pouring it on in the fourth.

The four regular-season meetings were all won by the team with more points in the paint, but perimeter shooting proved to be a bigger factor in the playoff opener. Memphis, which was second in the NBA by holding opponents to 33.8 shooting on 3-pointers, let San Antonio make 13 of its first 24 from behind the arc and finish 14 of 29.

Danny Green connected three times and scored 16, and Matt Bonner hit four of his five attempts for 12 points.

"We did a good job of moving the basketball, finding each other, trusting each other," Green said. "Luckily we made some today."

Pondexter led Memphis with 17 points, Marc Gasol scored 15 and Mike Conley had 14 points and eight assists.

"We were just so hyper, just running all over the place on defense," Hollins said. "We'd have four guys in the paint and nobody would be out on the perimeter guarding anybody. And that's not how we play defense."

The Spurs asserted themselves early, scoring on their first seven possessions and also getting a couple head-to-head defensive stops from their veterans while claiming a quick 23-8 lead. Parker swiped the ball from Conley on Memphis' second possession, running out for a layup, and Hollins burned a timeout in the first 2 minutes.

Tim Duncan snuffed out the ensuing play by blocking Randolph's shot, and the Spurs' strong start continued. Bonner hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 17-point edge late in the first quarter, and San Antonio pushed out to a 43-23 advantage following consecutive baskets by Parker with 6:06 left before halftime.

It was the largest first-half deficit for the Grizzlies during the playoffs.

"Every time we made a mistake defensively, they made us pay every time," Gasol said, who had three baskets in a push that helped Memphis get within 51-37 at halftime. "It was over-help or no help or whatever it was, they made you pay."

Notes: Memphis' only other deficit larger than 20 this postseason came in the first-round opener against the Los Angeles Clippers. L.A. didn't lead by 20 until the final minute of a 112-91 victory. ... Tracy McGrady got a standing ovation when he checked in with the Spurs up by 20 midway through the fourth quarter. ... The Spurs had 13 3-pointers in Game 1 of their second-round series against the Clippers in last year's playoffs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-19-BKN-Grizzlies-Spurs/id-aa90a65a3a91453599b9028332fc2538

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Can Medical Bills Cause Bankruptcy? | Finance on Deann Aproach ...

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Source: http://josinarahman2.blogspot.com/2013/05/can-medical-bills-cause-bankruptcy.html

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Foc.us headset claims to shock the brain for better gaming, we go ...

We've seen a number of headsets tap into the mind, to geotag your mood, grant you remote control over gadgets or simply let you wiggle a pair of cat ears. None of those are quite like the foc.us, however, which serves up transcranial direct-current simulation (tDCS) -- a controversial form of neurosimulation that transmits current to a particular area of the brain. Originally used to help patients with brain injuries, tDCS has supposedly been found to increase cognitive performance in healthy adults. These claims haven't been proven yet though, and shocking your own cranium isn't exactly FDA approved.

Still, the foc.us is one of a few tDCS headsets designed for the consumer market and can, the inventor Michael Oxley claims, improve your working or short-term memory when the electrodes are placed on your prefrontal cortex. A low-intensity current is passed through the different nodes, exciting that part of the brain. Interestingly, Oxley is positioning it as a way to boost your video gaming prowess for the "ultimate gaming experience," a concept we found a little odd. That said, you don't actually have to wear the headset while shooting up bad guys or other brain-draining tasks. The idea behind the foc.us headset is to put it on your noggin, fire it up, and wait for around five to ten minutes, then take it off and go about your day. We did just that and all the gory details are after the break.

foc.us

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5 Photos

The model that we tried was only a prototype and, as you can see from the pictures, the device has four copper electrodes that are designed to sit on your forehead via four saline-soaked sponges, which are there to prevent your skin from burning. (You are getting about a milliamp of current zapped across your cranium after all.) A touch sensor on the back turns the headset on when held down and activates the tDCS when double tapped.

We strapped the headset on for ourselves at a recent event, and we found it to be a weird experience. There was a strange, almost burning, sensation on the right part of our forehead, while the rest merely tingled. Oxley told us that it was normal for some people to feel it more on one side than the other, and that tDCS does take some getting used to. After about eight minutes, the tingling sensation remained even after we removed the headset. We didn't really feel our powers of concentration improve that much afterward, but it's hard to say after such a limited time.

The final product will be made out of polypropylene and polycarbonate, while the sponges will be of a much higher-grade. The final foc.us kit will include a headset (available in black or red), a case, eight reusable sponges and a micro-USB cable. For those who want to take tDCS a step further, you can get additional electrodes that can be attached elsewhere on the head. The default setting is 1.0mA for five minutes, but if you pair it with the iOS app it's configurable from 0.8 to 2.0mA and sessions can last up to 40 minutes (for when you really need to cook those brain cells). If you're a tDCS believer, then be prepared to pay hypochondriac prices for your latest toy, as it'll set you back $249 in the US and ?179 in the UK. The first batch should ship by July, while subsequent orders are set to arrive starting in October.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/17/focus-headset-tdcs/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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