Madrid's Pepe apologizes for Messi foot stomp

/

updated 4:23 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2012

MADRID - Real Madrid's Pepe has apologized to Lionel Messi for stepping on the Barcelona forward's hand during this week's Copa del Rey quarterfinal, saying that it wasn't intentional.

Pepe told Real Madrid's website Thursday that "as far as the play with Leo Messi, I want to say that it was an involuntary act."

The Portuguese defender added that "even so, if Messi is offended I ask his forgiveness because I want to defend my team and club. ... It never passed through my head to cause harm to a fellow professional."

Pepe received a yellow card in the 17th minute of Madrid's 2-1 loss during Wednesday's first leg when he barged into Sergio Busquets, but referee Muniz Fernandez did not penalize him for stomping on Messi's hand when the forward was on the ground in the 68th minute.

Pepe also fell to the field in the 65th minute clutching his face after coming into contact with Cesc Fabregas, but replays showed the Barcelona midfielder made contact with his arm and chest.

Pepe's actions, as well as Madrid's defensive tactics, have been widely criticized in the Spanish media, including the Madrid-friendly sports dailies.

Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said in the post-match news conference that he hadn't seen the incident, but that it would be "punishable" if it was done on purpose.

The 28-year-old center back has collected eight yellow cards in 11 "clasico" matches and a red card in last season's Champions League semifinal with Barcelona. Pepe was suspended for 10 games in April 2009 after lashing out at two Getafe players in a skirmish that included him stamping on the back of Javier Casquero after pushing the player to the ground, unprovoked.

The second leg of the total-goals quarterfinal will be played at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium next week.

Barcelona has beaten Madrid 10 times in their last 13 meetings. This was its sixth win against Madrid since Mourinho arrived in 2010.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement

More news

Mourinho's 'woeful Barca loss

Another loss to Barcelona has piled pressure on Jose Mourinho, with support for the Real Madrid coach ebbing after another ill-tempered and ineffective display against its biggest rival.

Robert Cianflone / Getty Images

Loyalty

David Beckham considered other offers but decided nothing was better than his adopted home with the L.A. Galaxy.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46061529/ns/sports-soccer/

how to be a gentleman how to be a gentleman iphone 5 case pawpaw pawpaw cantaloupe cantaloupe

Fruit flies watch the sky to stay on course

ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2012) ? Insects, equipped with complex compound eyes, can maintain a constant heading in their travels, some of them for thousands of miles. New research demonstrates that fruit flies keep their bearings by using the polarization pattern of natural skylight, bolstering the belief that many, if not all, insects have that capability.

"If you go out in a field, lie on your back and look up at the sky, that's pretty much what an insect sees," said Michael Dickinson, a University of Washington biology professor. "Insects have been looking up at this view forever."

Dickinson is the senior author of a paper providing details on the findings, published Jan. 10 in the journal Current Biology. The lead author is Peter Weir, a doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology.

The researchers noted that insects such as monarch butterflies and locusts maintain a constant heading while migrating thousands of miles across continents, while bees and ants hunting for food successfully find their way hundreds of feet back to the nest without a problem. That has led scientists to believe that the animals must possess a compass of sorts.

To assess how insects orient themselves, Weir and Dickinson examined the behavior of Drosophila melanogaster, a species commonly referred to as a fruit fly, in outdoor lighting conditions in a specially designed "arena" atop a building tall enough to be higher than treetops and other visual landmarks.

The researchers used a light-cured glue to attach the insects to a metal pin, which was then placed within a magnetic field that allowed the flies to move and rotate naturally but held them in place. Digital cameras tracked flight headings.

During the hour before and the hour after sunset, the headings of flies relative to the position of the arena were recorded for 12 minutes. The arena was rotated 90 degrees every three minutes, and when natural light was not altered by optical filters some of the flies compensated for the rotations and maintained a consistent heading.

When the arena was covered with a circularly polarizing filter, eliminating natural linear polarization light patterns, the flies did not shift their heading significantly in response to arena rotations.

The results indicate Drosophila has the ability to coordinate eye and brain functions for rudimentary navigation using light polarization patterns, the researchers concluded. The flies are able to hold a straighter course under normal polarization patterns than they can when those patterns are shifted.

The next step in the research is to try to determine why the flies select a particular heading.

"It's been very hard to study these processes because animals such as butterflies and locusts used in previous studies are not standard lab models," Dickinson said. "We know something about the processes, but not that much."

Demonstrating that fruit flies can navigate using cues from natural skylight makes it easier to use genetics research to better understand the complex capability and exactly how it is implemented in the brain.

For millennia, seafarers have depended on the sun to know their position in the world, but often the sun is not visible. Polarization vision solves that problem, Dickinson said, because if there's even a small patch of clear sky in a fruit fly's very broad range of view then the natural light patterns can provide location information.

He noted that fruit flies "achieve remarkable functionality" with limited resources in their brains. There are 300,000 neurons in a fruit fly's brain, and it would take 300,000 fruit flies to reach the equivalent number of neurons in the human brain.

"A lot of our research is focusing on how the fruit fly brain is multitasking in space and time to achieve remarkable effects," Dickinson said.

The research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Vince Stricherz.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Peter?T. Weir, Michael?H. Dickinson. Flying Drosophila Orient to Sky Polarization. Current Biology, 2012; 22 (1): 21 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.026

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120117161432.htm

lsat bluegrass festival cochlear implant navy football navy football 50/50 50/50

New Mars Meteorite Is Selling for $22,500 Per Ounce—10 Times the Price of Gold [Space]

Start looking for some meteorites, people: a piece of Mars just discovered by meteor hunters in Morocco has been confirmed as real by NASA. Now it's selling for up to $22,500 an ounce, ten times the price of gold. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bKQ92fUlwoA/if-youve-got-the-cash-you-can-buy-a-piece-of-mars

east river harry shum jr workaholics workaholics new iphone 5 release mary j blige cole hamels

Samsung says no interest in buying troubled RIM (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? Samsung Electronics Co said on Wednesday it was not interested in buying ailing Blackberry maker Research In Motion or licensing its operating system, refuting a tech blog report that RIM was seeking to sell itself to the South Korean technology giant.

Shares of RIM, which has been the subject of continuous takeover speculation with its stock valuation lingering at multi-year lows, jumped more than 10 percent on the report before falling back after Samsung's denial.

Product delays and profit warnings have eroded confidence in Canada-based RIM, once at the cutting edge of smartphone technology for business users, and its management.

"We haven't considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM)," Samsung spokesman James Chung said.

Chung also said Samsung had not been approached by the Canadian firm for a takeover and was not interested in licensing RIM's mobile platform.

The Boy Genius Report website cited an unidentified source as saying that RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie was meeting with companies interested in either licensing its software or buying a part or all or RIM, with Samsung leading the pack.

After Samsung's denial, Nasdaq-listed RIM shares tumbled 5.3 percent to $16.55 in extended trading, after closing up 8 percent at $17.47. The stock rose as much as 11.1 percent.

"There's no merit (in Samsung buying RIM)," said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

"An acquisition would enable Samsung to have its own operating system but the cost is too high. Samsung didn't buy HP's webOS either for the same reason... BlackBerry sales are collapsing and one plus one will not become two."

LICENSING DEAL?

Still, some analysts said there was no doubt that RIM had been talking to Samsung but that it was much more likely they had discussed licensing deals for RIM's upcoming phone software that would in turn lead to a major restructuring, according to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek.

Samsung has traditionally focused on organic growth and has no track record of major deals in recent years. In 2008, it withdrew a $5.9 billion unsolicited bid for flash memory card maker SanDisk due to the U.S. firm's deepening losses and uncertain outlook.

But it has since turned more flexible on mergers and acquisitions as the hardware-focused firm seeks to boost software capabilities to counter Apple and Google, whose Android operating system is the fastest growing mobile platform in the world.

Samsung, which has emerged as the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer on the back of booming demand for its Android-based models, said last week it plans to merge its own "bada" operating system with a platform supported by chipmaker Intel, as it seeks alternatives to Android in its devices.

Android, the world's most popular smartphone operating system, is used by a slew of handset manufacturers, including Motorola Mobility and HTC, as well as Samsung.

Jefferies' Misek said Samsung and HTC might both be interested in paying RIM $10 per device to use its new operating system. That would give them access to the 75 million-plus BlackBerry users and limit their dependence on Android.

He said RIM could announce a deal within three months and the appointment of a new chairperson could speed up the process.

A spokesman for RIM declined to comment on the report.

Balsillie and fellow chief executive Mike Lazaridis also share a role as chairman of the board, but a committee made up of the rest of RIM's board is due to report on possible changes to the unusual structure by the end of January after pressure from investors.

RIM's stock has jumped more than 6 percent four times since December 21, when Reuters reported that Amazon.com and other possible buyers had considered a bid. It is still down almost 75 percent from a year ago.

(Editing by Frank McGurty, David Chance and Jonathan Hopfner)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/bs_nm/us_rim

houston nutt peter marshall peter marshall zombie boy zombie boy harvard yale joe paterno lung cancer

WWE Raw SuperShow results for Jan. 16, 2012

ANAHEIM, Calif. ? Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis unleashed a pipe bomb of his own on WWE Champion CM Punk. First he reversed the decision of the night?s main event. Then after saying he?s sick and tired of being disrespected, he admitted he?s going to try to screw Punk at Royal Rumble. At the end of his emotional tirade, the EVP then bashed WWE Legend Mick Foley in the head with a mic!

Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler & David Otunga? def. Chris Jericho, WWE Champion CM Punk & World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan

Brodus Clay def. JTG
After dancing his way to the ring, Brodus Clay took on JTG. Relying on an aresenal of hard-hitting moves, "The Funkasaurus" made quick work of JTG.

A John Cena vs. United States Champion Jack Swagger Non-title Match ended in a No Contest
Right from the start, John Cena launched a brutal assault against the newly crowned United States Champion. After relentlessly pummeling Swagger, Cena was ready to deliver a particularly vicious blow with the steel ring steps ? when The Big Red Monster Kane appeared on the arena screen to instantly command Cena?s attention. ?I think you?re getting it,? Kane growled, referencing Cena appearing to embrace hate as their Royal Rumble Match looms. (PREVIEW)

R-Truth won an Over-the-Top Rope Challenge (WATCH)
After R-Truth revealed pictures from his trip to Disneyland (WATCH), Wade Barrett quickly lost interest. Next, The Miz and Barrett attacked Truth, but Sheamus charged in to help fend them off. Before total chaos erupted, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long emerged to announce the four would do battle in an Over the Top Rope Challenge. The first to be eliminated was Wade Barrett by all three competitors. Later, when Sheamus was poised to eliminate The Miz, Truth rushed in and flipped both Superstars over the rope to seize the win. After the bout, Sheamus dropped Miz to the arena floor with a brutal Brogue Kick.

Kelly Kelly & Alicia Fox def. The Bella Twins (WATCH)
With celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton acting as the special guest ring announcer, Hilton thwarted twin magic by causing a distraction, allowing Kelly Kelly to capture victory for her team. Afterward, The Bellas dropped Hilton to the canvas, who promptly hid behind Kelly Kelly & Fox to escape more twin wrath.

Jack Swagger def. Zack Ryder to win the United States Championship (WATCH | PHOTOS)
Even though he was injured at the hands of Kane on last week?s Raw SuperShow (MORE), United States Champion Zack Ryder was forced to defend his title against Jack Swagger. The match was made in the interest of ?fairness?? by the GM, who felt a ref made a bad call in Swagger?s match with Punk on last week?s Raw SuperShow (MORE). After punishing and humiliating his injured opponent with three gutwrench powerbombs, Swagger dethroned Ryder. The win was especially sweet for Swagger, who has been chasing championship glory since losing the World Heavyweight Championship in 2010. After the match, Interim Raw GM John Laurinaitis apologized after revealing Ryder was not medically cleared to compete.

The Interim Raw GM Laurinaitis changed the main event
The night's main event was changed by the GM to: Chris Jericho, WWE Champion CM Punk & World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler & David Otunga.

WWE Tag Team Champions Primo & Epico def. Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne (WATCH | PHOTOS)
In their first title defense since winning the WWE Tag Team Championships yesterday at a WWE Live Event in Oakland?s Oracle Center (WATCH), Primo & Epico downed former champions Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne, when Epico blasted Bourne with a backstabber. After the match, Rosa helped the duo celebrate.

Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis denied Mick Foley?s request to be in the Royal Rumble Match (PHOTOS)
After Mick Foley kicked off Raw SuperShow by expressing his desire to be in the 2012 Royal Rumble Match so that his two kids could see him compete, he was quickly criticized for such a lofty dream by former United States Champion Dolph Ziggler. Foley clarified that his goal was to be in the Royal Rumble Match to win it. After more harsh words for the WWE Legend, Ziggler told Foley to ?just go away.?

Next, Ziggler?s Royal Rumble opponent, WWE Champion CM Punk, came out to greet his fellow ?unconventional? Superstar, pointing out that neither hide behind a woman. The WWE Champion also called Ziggler out for having the Interim Raw GM in his back pocket for their match at Royal Rumble.

As tensions grew in the ring, Interim Raw GM Laurinaitis emerged and said although he considered Foley?s request to be in the Royal Rumble Match, his answer was ?no?! After the blunt answer, Vickie cackled in Foley?s face.

MATCHES

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-01-16/results

world aids day 2011 chester mcglockton chester mcglockton arsenic los angeles weather big ten acc challenge scott disick

UK: No public funding for new $92 million royal yacht

>>> it's a big year for queen elizabeth ii . she's celebrating her diamond jubilee in 2012 . 60 years on the throne. in those six decades she's experienced highs and lows both personally and politically. we have sally smith , the author of " elizabeth the queen , the life of a modern monarch." good morning.

>> good morning. great to be here.

>> kudos on the timing of the book, timing it to the diamond jubilee . you did not interview the queen but you interviewed 200 people described as being close to her -- friends, family? how close did you get?

>> her inner circle of close friends who have known her for her whole life. family members, close advisers and then a wonderful gamut of people like men who run her estate, the people who trained her dogs and her horses, the crown jeweler. it enabled me to get a 360-degree view of her.

>> as a result, the l.a. times notes despite the fact that you're writing about someone so well known over the decades there are things to be learned about queen elizabeth ii . for instance, when the queen and prince philip -- at the time they were the william and kate of their time. they had very serious battles because of her station, specifically over the naming of their children.

>> that happened right after she became queen in 1952 . she had to make a decision. her family was the house of windsor. really out of loyalty to her father and her grandfather before her, she chose that as her name. philip was upset. he wanted his family name to be the one. that hung in the air for a number of years until finally, right before the birth of their third child, prince andrew , she came one a compromise that the nonroyal successors, those who didn't have the h.r.h., her royal highness , attached to oh the name would be called mount baton windsor.

>> you say the queen saw the breakup of charles and diana as perhaps a replay of history that could threaten charles's opportunity to ever be king.

>> yes. in the middle of all the trouble she was counseled by the archbishop of canterbury . he said she never really -- her mood was always very calm. but she was worried. he said they were talking about the possibility of divorce and she said, i really worry that history may be repeating. she was obviously thinking of the duke and duchess of windsor and when edward viii her uncle abo abdicated the throne to marry her.

>> we dug through our archives and found a clip of prince philip being interviewed by barbara walters . take a look.

>> -- of the queen abdicating at some future date. is this something that's been considered or is it a rumor?

>> as far as i know it's a rumor. i mean, it has its attractions.

>> what did you learn about whether the queen would ever abdicate?

>> it's a job for life. she's made that clear from the beginning. sh she gave a touching speech when she was 21. she said, i pledge to you however long i live, whether my life be long or short i will be at your service for the rest of my life. she has repeated that over and over throughout her 60-year reign. the reason is that she has -- it's almost -- she's been consecrat consecrated. the coronation in 1953 was a solemn, important act for her. being anointed and taking the oath to serve her people for the rest of her life.

>> unless, of course, she has alzheimer's or some other failing. that would be her word.

>> one of her cousins told me that. no one's mentioned that. she said she wouldn't step down, but her son, prince charles , could step in as prince regent .

>> we have a few seconds left. you found out what's in her purse.

>> i did. the kinds of things we would think. lipstick, coin purse, kleenex, comb.

>> a practical woman. we'll have more after this.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46013514/ns/today-today_people/

blago mumia abu jamal mumia abu jamal pearl harbor alec baldwin alec baldwin rock and roll hall of fame

Miss America pageant whittles to 15 semifinalists (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? Judges and fans of the Miss America pageant have picked the 15 semifinalists who are still in the running for the 2012 title.

The semifinalists are: Miss South Carolina Bree Boyce, Miss Florida Kristina Janolo, Miss New York Kaitlin Monte, Miss Iowa Jessica Pray, Miss Texas Kendall Morris, Miss Virginia Elizabeth Crot, Miss Illinois Hannah Smith, Miss Arizona Jennifer Sedler, Miss Alabama Courtney Porter, Miss Tennessee Erin Hatley, Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler, Miss North Carolina Hailey Best, Miss California Noelle Freeman and Miss Louisiana Hope Anderson.

The semifinalists rushed backstage to change into bikinis, preparing to strut onstage at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

Miss Oklahoma Betty Thompson was announced as a semifinalist selected by an online fan vote at the start of the show.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Miss America is getting ready to transfer her crown again to one of 53 pageant queens looking to prove they've got a winning combination of looks, talent and smarts to justify a yearlong run with the title.

A panel of seven judges was set to pick the next Miss America on Saturday night during a live telecast on ABC, the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Teresa Scanlan, a Nebraskan who won Miss America last year at age 17 to become the pageant's youngest winner ever, said contestants nerves will likely be at their highest point just before the pageant.

But the young women have already given judges a first impression, she said, and largely shaped their fate through three nights of preliminary competitions at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

"You can always breathe a sigh of relief" once the live pageant begins, Scanlan said.

Scanlan said the ultimate winner will have thought not only about receiving the crown and $50,000 scholarship, but also about her plans for spending the year as Miss America, touring the country to speak to different groups and raising money for the Children's Miracle Network, the Miss America Organization's official charity.

"It's not just life ends when they place the crown on your head," Scanlan said. "Being prepared for that is even more important than just being prepared through Saturday night."

To win, each will have to impress the panel in preliminary competitions that include an extensive interview to become one of the top 15 finalists.

More contestants will be eliminated Saturday night during swimsuit, evening gown and talent competitions.

The top five finalists will answer a question posed by one of the judges, who will score each of the contestants in each competition throughout the night.

"When push comes to shove, you're out on the stage by yourself," said Miss America 1962 Maria Beale Fletcher. "All of that other well-meaning advice, all of it disappears. It needs to disappear because then you have to be prepared to rely on the inspiration that comes from within."

Pageant officials announced the winners of preliminary competitions, including Miss Hawaii Lauren Cheape, Miss Oklahoma Betty Thompson and Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler for talent, and Miss New York Kaitlin Monte, Miss Texas Kendall Morris and Miss Utah Danica Olsen for swimsuit.

Officials also said Miss Idaho Genevieve Nutting won the $2,000 Fourpoints Award, while Miss Kentucky Ann-Blair Thornton won the $6,000 Quality of Life scholarship.

The Miss America Organization touts itself as the world's largest giver of scholarships to women, with about $350,000 to be given this year at the national level.

Scanlan said she planned to use her scholarship to help pay for law school en route to a life in politics.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_en_ot/us_miss_america

ufc on fox juan manuel marquez juan manuel marquez penn state stanford oregon joe paterno velasquez vs dos santos