Monday 3-30-09

268, 058, 362, 817, 713, 308, 813, 525, 070, 262

462, 352, 372, 613, 633, 346, 694, 688, 582, 280

738, 690, 086, 359, 918, 037, 1206, 1031, 3357

1058, 4522, 1089, 3497, 7582, 2467, 8982, 2318

Midday & Evening

** until 4-2-09 **

012  017  026  035  039  048  057  089  125  129  134  138  147  156  179  237  246  269  278  345  359  368  458  467  489  579  678  003  008  116  224  228  233  336  044  449  255  557  066  566  669  377  188  588  399  899  111  444  777 

Midday & Evening

** until 4-2-09 **

012 017 026 035 039 048 057 089 125 129 134 138 147 156 179 237 246 269 278 345 359 368 458 467 489 579 678 003 008 116 224 228 233 336 044 449 255 557 066 566 669 377 188 588 399 899 111 444 777

 

:l Selene's Day l: Midday 3-30-09 Evening

** until 4-1-09 **

016 025 029 034 038 047 056 079 124 128 137 146 169 178 236 245 259 268 349 358 367 389 457 479 569 578 002 007 011 115 119 223 227 133 335 344 448 155 556 466 668 277 677 088 488 889 299 799

 

Monday 3-30-09

525, 238, 118, 954, 613, 394, 497, 349, 601

937, 001, 268, 298, 290, 688, 513, 801, 792

147, 691, 692, 327, 223, 923, 023, 351, 908

431, 242, 622, 184, 777, 3497, 3357, 1089

Carolina cruises to 2nd straight Final Four

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Tyler Hansbrough deferred to his teammates — just as he’d hinted he might.

This was no one-on-one matchup down low. Instead, North Carolina rolled past Blake Griffin and Oklahoma with a total team effort.

Ty Lawson scored 19 points and top-seeded North Carolina overcame a quiet game from Hansbrough to beat the Sooners 72-60 Sunday in the South Regional final.

North Carolina (32-4) advanced to the Final Four for the second straight year and will play Villanova in the national semifinals.

“This is what we work for,” the Tar Heels’ Wayne Ellington said. “We put so much work in and sweat in the offseason to get not to this point, but past this point. It means a lot to be able to get to this point and have an opportunity to win the whole thing.”

Danny Green scored 18 points for the Tar Heels and Deon Thompson added 10. Hansbrough was in foul trouble early and finished with only eight points, but he’d said the previous day he wasn’t going to be caught up in a head-to-head battle with Griffin.

Griffin scored 23 points with 16 rebounds for second-seeded Oklahoma, but the Sooners (30-6) went 2-for-19 from 3-point range.

“One thing about Blake is I think he’s tough down low to box out,” Hansbrough said. “I think one thing about him is he’s one of the best rebounders I’ve played against and so that was very tough. I think he gets a lot of stuff off offensive rebounds and his rebounding ability was something I think I’m not really used to seeing.”

Still, it was Hansbrough who was standing on the court after the game, posing for pictures while the Tar Heels cut down the nets. That’s a routine this program has down pat.

North Carolina reached a record 18th Final Four. UCLA has been to 18, but the Bruins’ 1980 appearance was later vacated by the NCAA because of rules violations.

This will be the Tar Heels’ second Final Four in a row and ninth in 19 seasons — and it will be played at Detroit’s Ford Field, where they routed Michigan State 98-63 in December. Earlier Sunday, the Spartans also reached the Final Four.

 

North Carolina lost in the semifinals last season.

“This team has dealt with a great deal of adversity and a great deal of expectations from other people and they have us going to Detroit,” coach Roy Williams said.

North Carolina led 61-40 before Oklahoma scored nine straight points, including its first 3-pointer after 15 misses to start the game. Lawson made a couple free throws with 4:12 to play to halt that run.

“We fully believed we were going to win this basketball game today, but this is how life is sometimes. It doesn’t happen the way you want it,” Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. “I thought the game would’ve been a lot more interesting if we could’ve made some shots, but I thought we had some really good looks.”

Hansbrough was The Associated Press player of the year in 2008, and Griffin has made an impressive bid for this year’s honor. It wasn’t much of a contest on the stat sheet, but the Tar Heels set the tone by swarming Griffin early with double teams. He didn’t score before making two free throws with 8:29 remaining in the first half.

“That’s something we faced as a team all year,” Griffin said. “Teams might not have as many guys like that.”

Both teams appeared tight at the start, but the Tar Heels loosened up quickly. Lawson pulled up for a jumper from the free throw line that gave North Carolina a 13-2 lead and forced Oklahoma to take a timeout less than six minutes in.

 

At first, Griffin was content to pass out of the double teams, and Oklahoma accomplished one of its goals by controlling the pace. North Carolina didn’t have many early fast breaks and even tossed up several uncharacteristic air balls.

 

At the other end, however, the Sooners were stagnant. After a 3-pointer by Green put the Tar Heels ahead 28-16, the shot clock ran out on Oklahoma when Griffin was double teamed and the Sooners didn’t react quickly enough.

With his teammates shooting poorly, Griffin became more aggressive, scoring Oklahoma’s last seven points of the half, but the Sooners still trailed 32-23 at intermission — their lowest-scoring half of the season. Oklahoma scored all its first-half points from the paint or the foul line.

Green scored 14 points in the first half. Hansbrough picked up two fouls in the first seven minutes and played only nine in the half.

North Carolina made its first six shots of the second half, and the Tar Heels were able to maintain a comfortable lead even as Griffin threw down a powerful, one-handed alley-oop dunk at the other end.

North Carolina eventually went ahead 53-38 on a 3-pointer by Lawson.

“It’s not hard to see how talented they are throughout the year. I’ve always been impressed with them,” said Taylor Griffin, who scored four points for the Sooners. “They’re as good as advertised, I think.”

On Saturday, Williams uttered perhaps the week’s most prescient quote:

“If you say, Tyler, you’re going to have eight points and seven rebounds but North Carolina is going to win, he’s going to be the happiest guy in town.”

Hansbrough had eight points and six rebounds, and he and his teammates were happy and headed back to the Final Four.

“It’s a different team,” Green said. “It’s a new year, a new day. It’s a new game, and we know what our goals are.”

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

- Thomas A. Edison -

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt -

Friday 3-27-09

327, 812, 713, 659, 329, 819, 810, 384, 306

308, 570, 364, 893, 764, 559, 973, 281, 291

194, 716, 197, 629, 190, 564, 964, 443, 543

333, 444, 4540, 4894, 6611,0050, 2200

The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back. 

-- Marcus Annaeus Seneca --

Experimental vaccine used in Ebola exposure case

BERLIN – It was a nightmare scenario: A scientist accidentally pricked her finger with a needle used to inject the deadly Ebola virus into lab mice. Within hours, members of a tightly bound, yet far-flung community of virologists, biologists and others were tensely gathered in a trans-Atlantic telephone conference trying to map out a way to save her life.

Less than 24 hours later, an experimental vaccine — never before tried on humans — was on its way to Germany from a lab in Canada.

And within 48 hours of the March 12 accident, the at-risk scientist, a 45-year-old woman whose identity has not been revealed, was injected with the vaccine.

So far, so good. If the woman is still healthy by Thursday, she can consider herself safe.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever, seen mostly only in Africa, is one of the world's most feared diseases. It begins with flu-like symptoms, followed by bloody diarrhea and vomiting. Days later, some victims begin bleeding through the nose, mouth and eyes. Depending on the strain of virus, it can kill up to 90 percent of victims.

There is no cure. The virus is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person.

Dr. Stephan Guenther, head of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, where the researcher was working, said tests so far show the scientist is healthy and free of the virus.

The peak period for an outbreak during the 21-day Ebola incubation period passed this week, he said.

"We are now on the downside," Guenther told The Associated Press, noting that with each passing day the chance of infection taking root diminishes.

It's not entirely clear the researcher was actually infected with the virus. At the time of the accident, she was wearing three layers of protective gloves, and though the needle stuck her, the plunger of the syringe was not pushed so it's not certain the virus entered her bloodstream.

That means scientists may never know if the vaccine worked or she was just lucky.

There are two other known accidents involving researchers who came into direct contact with a similar strain of Ebola. A Russian researcher died, and a British scientist became ill but survived.

After the needle stick, Guenther knew he had to act swiftly.

He rushed an e-mail to fellow scientists in the Ebola research community. One was Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of the virology laboratory at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a U.S. National Institutes of Health research facility in Hamilton, Mont.

"We considered this as serious as (the Russian) case, in terms of the exposure," Feldmann told the AP in a telephone interview last weekend.

Feldmann was part of an international group of experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Canadian Public Health Agency, Boston University and the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Feldmann, Guenther and several other experts took part in the teleconference debating the options. These included a live vaccine never before tried on humans, another treatment designed to interfere with the virus' ability to multiply, or an anticoagulant that Army research found had saved the lives of monkeys exposed to Ebola.

The option that emerged as the strongest was the vaccine, which had been developed by Feldmann and collaborating researchers at several institutions. Much of the key work was done about nine years ago at a microbiology research lab run by the Canadian government in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Feldmann worked at the time.

Although the vaccine is based on a different kind of virus, researchers used genetic engineering to make the virus look like Ebola, triggering an immune system response.

In a 2008 study, Feldmann and other researchers showed that when given 20 minutes after a lethal dose of Ebola virus, four of eight monkeys survived. There were no side effects, Feldmann said.

"The group came very swiftly to agreement that this vaccine would be the best ... because it had showed an effectiveness when used after exposure," Guenther said.

In the end, the scientist whose life was at risk made the decision herself. She took the vaccine about 48 hours after the accident. Within 12 hours, she had a headache, muscle pain and a fever, but recovered quickly.

"Those are normal reactions to live attenuated vaccines," Feldmann said.

While future study of the woman's immune response may help to clarify whether the vaccine saved her life or she was never infected with Ebola in the first place, it will most likely remain open to interpretation.

Either way, Feldmann said scientists cannot draw conclusions about the experimental vaccine's safety or effectiveness.

There's a long history of researchers testing vaccines on themselves or people close to them. Edward Jenner, the English physician who first invented a smallpox vaccine, included his own son among the children he first gave the immunization. And Jonas Salk, an inventor of polio vaccine, reportedly gave the vaccine to himself and his entire family before making it public.

This case is somewhat different. Using the experimental vaccine, "was to save her life, that was the priority," Feldmann said. It might have been five years or more before it was tried on humans because of additional animal studies and production issues, he added.

Guenther expressed hope the case would attract funding for more research in the field of such vaccines.

"Of course, we can't just go to Africa, now that we have seen such a vaccine went well when used on a human," Guenther said.

"Perhaps this will be like a little push, where one says, yes, it's possible. Everything that we are doing on an experimental level can actually be put into practice."

Man puts finger in gas tank, gets stuck for hours

SAGINAW, Michigan – A Michigan man has learned not to stick his fingers in certain places. Victor Harris, of Saginaw, Michigan, was pouring a fuel additive into his Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicle Thursday when a piece of paper fell into the gas tank. Harris tried to fish the paper out, but his index finger became stuck in the gas tank.

WJRT-TV reported Harris tried to extract his digit for two hours before friends called the fire department. It took another two hours before emergency responders cut the gas tank tube out of the vehicle.

Doctors later removed Harris' finger from the tube. He received two stitches.

Harris said he's learned his lesson and won't put his finger back in the gas tank.

Midday & Evening

** until 3-29-09 **

250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259

048, 148, 248, 348, 448, 548, 648, 748, 848, 948

070, 071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 076, 077, 078, 079

242, 622, 111, 222, 444, 666

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Clijsters ends two-year retirement
Associated Press

BREE, Belgium -- Kim Clijsters will return to professional tennis after two years in retirement, saying she has regained the competitive hunger that led to the No. 1 ranking.

 

"I still have that craving," the 25-year-old Belgian said Thursday. "I look forward to the challenge."

 

Clijsters, who retired in May 2007 to get married and start a family, announced her comeback at the tennis facility where she has been practicing. She plans to enter the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 31 -- her first competition at Flushing Meadows since winning her only Grand Slam singles championship there in 2005.

 

 

She asked for a wild card into the U.S. Open, along with WTA hard-court tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto earlier in August.

 

"I want to be back at my peak as soon as possible, but I know that is not logical to ask that," Clijsters said. "I will have to take it match by match."

 

The U.S. Tennis Association is setting aside a spot in the main draw for Clijsters, who won 34 career singles titles overall and was the runner-up in four major finals.

 

"We have been in contact with Kim regarding her comeback and have committed a 2009 U.S. Open wild card to her," tournament director Jim Curley said. "As a past U.S. Open champion and former world No. 1, Kim has been a great ambassador for our sport. We are excited about Kim's return to tennis and look forward to welcoming her to New York this summer."

 

Rising to the top at the same time as fellow Belgian Justine Henin -- who also retired early -- Clijsters held the No. 1 singles ranking for 19 weeks.

 

"I am not coming back to lose in the first rounds," she said. "Otherwise, I might as well go on holiday."

 

Clijsters returns at a time when the WTA tour is wide open and without a singles player dominating the rankings.

 

"I am amazed how many players I don't even know," she said. "There are even many names I do not know how to pronounce."

 

Clijsters, who is married to American basketball player Brian Lynch and gave birth to her daughter Jada last year, is convinced she has the maturity to juggle marriage, motherhood and top tennis.

 

"Now I have the right balance and I feel good," she said.

 

Clijsters refused to commit herself beyond the U.S. Open, preferring to make an assessment at that stage. Her career was marred by a series of injuries, including to her hip and back.

 

"I know a lot, lot more about my body," Clijsters said, adding that she has an exercise regimen designed to prevent injuries.

 

Earlier, Clijsters had announced she will join Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi and Tim Henman for a series of exhibition matches at Wimbledon on May 17 under the new retractable roof on Centre Court.

 

She said preparing for the Wimbledon exhibition honed her competitive edge. Soon, she was spotted at the training center putting in long hours.

 

"I have never trained harder," she said.

 

Clijsters is also scheduled to play an exhibition June 14 against Michaella Krajicek in the Netherlands, along with two matches for the St. Louis Aces of World Team Tennis in July.

Thursday 3-26-09

648, 381, 281, 517, 481, 127, 316, 242, 858

291, 801, 089, 511, 627, 716, 713, 820, 920

072, 093, 932, 739, 538, 638, 630, 530, 444

4984, 4540, 5984, 5540, 3984, 6611, 6706