Darvish, Texas agree to $60M, 6-yr deadline deal (AP)

ARLINGTON, Texas ? Yu Darvish is coming to America to pitch.

Japan's best pitcher and the Texas Rangers agreed before Wednesday's deadline to a $60 million, six-year contract. In addition to the salary, the Rangers will pay a posting fee of $51,703,411 to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan's Pacific League.

"We look at this as really a perfect fit," general manager Jon Daniels said. "Obviously he has yet to pitch in the major leagues, but we feel he has proven himself on a big stage. ... "It's all winning."

The deal came at the end of a 30-day negotiating window that began Dec. 19 when the Rangers' bid to negotiate with the pitcher was accepted.

Had a deal not been reached by the 4 p.m. CST deadline, Darvish would have remained with the Fighters. And Texas, which has been to consecutive World Series without winning the title, would have kept the posting fee that ends with the jersey numbers of Rangers President and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan (34) and Darvish (11).

When the deal was reached in Texas by his agents Don Nomura and Arn Tellem, the 25-year-old Darvish was home in Japan, where he returned for offseason training after his first and only visit to Texas two weeks ago. The Rangers plan to formally introduce Darvish on Friday night.

Tellem said the Rangers not only spent more time than any other team scouting Darvish, but also built a personal relationship with the pitcher while scouting him. He said the pitcher is excited about the opportunity in Texas.

"It's a great team that's been on the door step, and hopefully with Yu coming they will finally reach the goal of winning a World Series," Tellem said. "Yu is excited about helping a team that has not won achieve that goal. ... He's really thrilled to be coming here. This is where he wanted to be."

Darvish had a 93-38 record with a 1.99 ERA over the past seven seasons in Japan. The 6-foot-5 right-hander was a two-time Pacific League MVP and a five-time All-Star. He led the league in strikeouts three times, in ERA twice and won two Gold Gloves.

Ryan was impressed by Darvish's size and attitude about wanting to compete when they met for the first time earlier this month.

"The thing that stood out probably is just his passion for the game and trying to be the best he can possibly be," Ryan said Wednesday. "One of the motivations about coming to the major leagues here is it's another challenge for him, it's an opportunity on a stage that he hasn't been on to show what he's capable of doing."

The deal surpasses what Daisuke Matsuzaka got when he left Japan and signed with the Boston Red Sox just more than five years ago. Dice-K got a $52 million, six-year deal and the Red Sox also had to pay a $51.111 million posting fee that was the highest for a Japanese player before what the Rangers bid for Darvish.

When Ichiro Suzuki used the posting system in 2000 to get to the major leagues, the Seattle Mariners won the right negotiate with a bid of about $13 million, then signed him to a $14 million, three-year contract.

Through last season, 38 Japan-born pitchers had appeared in the major leagues. There were nine last season, including relievers Yoshinori Tateyama and Koji Uehara with the Rangers. Both are still on the 40-man roster in Texas.

Matsuzaka is 49-30 with a 4.25 ERA in 106 games (105 starts) in five seasons with the Red Sox since his high-profile move from the Seibu Lions to Boston in December 2006 when he was 26 years old.

He has had six stints on the disabled list, including last season when he had right elbow surgery and didn't pitch after May 16. He is going into the final season of his contract with the Red Sox worth about $10 million.

Darvish, the son of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA last season in Japan, when he made the equivalent of about $6 million. He had 276 strikeouts to lead the Pacific League.

Darvish, who turned pro at 18, pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a member of the Japanese team that won the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The right-hander has superb control and throws seven effective pitches.

The Rangers lost their pitching ace in free agency after both World Series appearances.

Cliff Lee left Texas to return to Philadelphia after the 2010 season, when he was with the Rangers just more than three months after his midseason trade from Seattle. C.J. Wilson last month got a $77.5 million, five-year contract from the AL West rival Los Angeles Angels.

Even with the loss of Wilson, Darvish becomes part of a rotation that already had at least six starting candidates going into spring training.

Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, Alexi Ogando and Matt Harrison were starters last season. The Rangers have already determined that closer Neftali Feliz will make the transition from the bullpen to the rotation this year after abandoning such plans last spring. Scott Feldman was a 17-game winner in 2009 before microfracture surgery in his right knee at the end of the 2010 season.

The New York Yankees earlier this month failed to sign Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima within 30 days after they won negotiating rights with a high bid of $2.5 million. The 29-year-old Nakajima hit .297 with 16 home runs and 100 RBIs last year with the Seibu Lions, who now retain his rights.

Nakajima and Darvish were teammates during the 2008 Olympics and on Japan's championship team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bba_rangers_darvish

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NBA's Abdul-Jabbar now global cultural ambassador

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks up at global cultural ambassador and former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the State Department in Washington. Abdul-Jabbar will travel the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks up at global cultural ambassador and former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the State Department in Washington. Abdul-Jabbar will travel the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton laughs after receiving a Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey as a gift from global cultural ambassador and former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the State Department in Washington. Abdul-Jabbar will travel the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks up at global cultural ambassador and former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the State Department in Washington. Abdul-Jabbar will travel the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(AP) ? The National Basketball Association's all-time scoring leader is now a global cultural ambassador.

The U.S. State Department announced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's appointment Wednesday.

Ann Stock, assistant secretary of state for education and cultural affairs, says Abdul-Jabbar will travel the world to engage a generation of young people to help promote diplomacy.

Stock says the appointment is part of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's vision of "Smart Power" that combines diplomacy, defense and development to "bridge the gap in a tense world through young people."

Abdul-Jabbar will travel to Brazil on Jan. 22 for a number of events centering on education, using his own experiences to help connect with young people.

The legendary center scored 38,387 points during his 20-year NBA career.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-18-People-Abdul-Jabbar/id-9c6de1e1a76e45c088ee8ca566fbb9a5

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Tenn jobless rate falls 0.4 percent in December (AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Tennessee's unemployment rate fell 0.4 percent in December to 8.7 percent, the lowest in three years.

State officials said Thursday that 11,200 people gained employment last month over November when the rate was 9.1 percent.

From November to December, professional and business services increased 5,400 jobs; durable goods manufacturing was up 1,000 jobs; and clothing and accessories stores rose by 700 jobs.

Losing jobs were leisure and hospitality, down 3,500; state government educational services, down 2,500; and mining, logging and construction, down 1,900.

It's the lowest rate since December 2008 when the figure was 8.4 percent.

The national figure for last month was 8.5 percent, down 0.2 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_jobless_jobless

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[Washington Co Roads] ALERT: Tree blocking 26th Av in Forest Grove (Sunset Dr to Hawthorne).

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Schools close, flights canceled as storm nears NW (AP)

SEATTLE ? Schools preemptively closed, crews salted down streets and more than two dozen flights into two Pacific Northwest cities were canceled as the region prepared for a potentially major snowstorm on Wednesday.

Forecasts called for about 3 to 5 inches of snow in the Seattle metropolitan area, with heavier amounts expected in communities along the Interstate 5 corridor south of the city. The city's schools canceled classes, as did their counterparts in other western Washington cities such as Tacoma, Olympia and Bellingham.

Alaska Airlines announced late Tuesday that it canceled 38 flights into and out of Seattle and Portland, Ore. The airline was waiving rebooking fees for passengers traveling Tuesday through Thursday in those cities.

Conditions on the roads were expected to be dangerous as the storm was forecast to begin dumping snow on the area just before the morning rush hour.

"Wednesday is going to be a good day to stay at home," said Brad Colman, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Seattle. "The road is going to be treacherous."

Several inches of snow have the potential to paralyze the city of Seattle, which owns relatively few snowplows. Its drivers are mostly inexperienced with driving in snow or ice.

Several downtown hotels reported all their rooms were booked. Elsewhere, shoppers stocked up on groceries.

In Everett, north of Seattle, police reported a thief broke into an Everett School District parking lot early Tuesday and drove off in an old pickup equipped with a snow plow. The faded yellow truck had the snow plow in front and a full hopper of sand in the back, Sgt. Robert Goetz said.

Snow has been falling steadily in parts of western Washington and Oregon since the weekend, but Weather Service meteorologists said the biggest amounts could be on the way.

Bec Thomas, who lives on Camano Island north of Seattle, stocked up on bottled water and food. As her children built snowmen, made snow angels and sledded in nearly a foot of fresh snow on Tuesday, she made food that could be reheated on her wood stove.

The last snowstorm knocked out her power for a week.

"We take it very seriously," said Thomas, a fine arts photographer. "We'll probably be snowed in until Thursday."

Forecasters said 3 to 6 inches of new snow could fall in the Olympia area and 1 to 2 inches north of Seattle. The Cascade Mountains could see 1 to 3 feet of new snow through late Wednesday, and officials warned of high avalanche danger there.

In eastern Washington, forecasters predicted that about 6 inches of snow could fall on Spokane by late Wednesday with several more inches falling Thursday. The Pullman area could see as much as 12 inches of new snow by Wednesday night.

State troopers advised motorists to be prepared.

"The No. 1 thing is to drive for the road conditions," Trooper Keith Leary said. "People need to slow down, take their time. If they're not prepared, don't get out on the roadways."

John Lee, a Mill Creek graphic designer decided to work from home Tuesday rather than face a snowy commute into Seattle, said it was "a bit exciting" because it was the first snow of the season.

But he added: "I hope it doesn't escalate to something bigger."

___

AP Writer Rachel La Corte in Olympia and Donna Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_us/us_washington_snow

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Oil prices rise on China economic report

(AP) ? Oil prices are climbing on signs that China's economy may avoid a sharp slowdown and keep global demand strong.

Benchmark crude rose $1.60 to $100.30 per barrel in Tuesday morning trading in New York. Brent crude fell 3 cents to $111.131 a barrel in London.

China said Tuesday that its economy grew by 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter. Retail sales and factory production improved in December. Although China's economy slowed slightly, growth was still robust, pointing to improving demand in the world's second-largest economy.

Crude's gains also followed increases on stock markets as successful bond auctions by France and Spain eased jitters over Europe's debt crisis and suggested Standard and Poor's downgrades of the countries is having little effect on investor confidence.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-17-Oil%20Prices/id-830bb534b5da40ca9d8c625392397169

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Ulcer-causing bacteria baffled by mucus: Researchers discover impact of viscoelasticity on collective behavior of swimming microorganisms

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2012) ? Even the tiniest microscopic organisms make waves when they swim. In fact, dealing with these waves is a fact of life for the ulcer-causing bacteria H. pylori.

The bacteria are known to change their behavior in order to compensate for the waves created by other bacteria swimming around in the same aquatic neighborhood. From the relatively simple actions of these individual bacteria emerges a complex, coordinated group behavior.

A new study by engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrates how introducing certain polymers -- like those found in human mucus and saliva -- into the environment makes it significantly more difficult for H. pylori and other microorganisms to coordinate. The findings raise many new questions about the relationship between the individual and group behaviors of bacteria. The study also suggests that human mucus, saliva, and other biological fluid barriers may have evolved to disrupt the ability of harmful bacteria to coordinate.

"In the human body, microorganisms are always moving around in mucus, saliva, and other systems that exhibit elasticity due to the presence of polymers. Our study is among the first to look at how this elasticity impacts the collective behavior of microorganisms like H. pylori," said lead researcher Patrick T. Underhill, assistant professor in the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer. "What we found is that polymers do in fact have a substantial impact on the flows created by the swimming bacteria, which in turn makes it more difficult for the individual bacteria to coordinate with each other. This opens the door to new ways of looking at our immune system."

Results of the study are detailed in the paper "Effect of viscoelasticity on the collective behavior of swimming microorganisms," recently published by the journal Physical Review E.

Underhill's study, based on large-scale computer simulations, leveraged the power of the Rensselaer Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI), one of the world's most powerful university-based supercomputers. These simulations involved creating a computer model of more than 110,000 individual H. pylori bacteria simultaneously occupying a small volume of polymer-infused liquid. The simulations captured all of the individual actions and interactions created as the bacteria swam through the liquid. The most difficult aspect of this kind of simulation, Underhill said, is to identify collective behaviors and extract relevant conclusions from the massive amount of data generated.

See a video of a simulation at: http://youtu.be/Yvc_3xncpME

In addition to computer simulations, Underhill employed theoretical models to understand how the addition of elasticity to liquid impacts the waves created by swimming H. pylori and, in turn, the collective behavior of a large group of the bacteria. Bacteria like H. pylori are known as pushers, as they propel themselves through water by twisting the long helical filaments that trail behind them.

Rensselaer chemical engineering graduate student Yaser Bozorgi is a co-author of the paper.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2010, Underhill received a prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) to support his transport phenomena research.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Yaser Bozorgi, Patrick Underhill. Effect of viscoelasticity on the collective behavior of swimming microorganisms. Physical Review E, 2011; 84 (6) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.061901

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120118111708.htm

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Shuttle rolls out bantam XH61 barebones PC, dares you to throw a Sandy Bridge at it

It's been a hot minute since we've seen anything compelling from the folks at Shuttle, but there's nothing like a Sandy Bridge-enabled, three-liter PC to get us back on the bandwagon. The XH61 is barely seven centimeters high, and supports second-generation Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors for the LGA1155 socket. You'll get a pair of memory banks (up to 16GB of DDR3 can be thrown in), a foursome of SATA 3Gbps slots, six USB 2.0 ports, HDMI / VGA ports and room for a laptop-sized 2.5-inch HDD / SSD. The 90-watt power supply provides all the juice this little guy needs, and the €146 ($184) price tag actually includes little more than that; being a barebones system and all, it's on you to pick out the particulars.

Continue reading Shuttle rolls out bantam XH61 barebones PC, dares you to throw a Sandy Bridge at it

Shuttle rolls out bantam XH61 barebones PC, dares you to throw a Sandy Bridge at it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/shuttle-xh61-barebones-pc-sandy-bridge/

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