Williams, Djokovic sail in Wimbledon openers

Serena Williams of the United States plays a return during her Women's first round singles match against Mandy Minella of Luxembourg at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Serena Williams of the United States plays a return during her Women's first round singles match against Mandy Minella of Luxembourg at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Serena Williams of the United States sits court side ahead of her Women's first round singles match against Mandy Minella of Luxembourg at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia reacts after defeating Florian Mayer of Germany in their Men's first round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a return to Florian Mayer of Germany in their Men's first round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia plays a return to Florian Mayer of Germany in their Men's first round singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

LONDON (AP) ? Back in her comfort zone on Centre Court, Serena Williams delivered an overpowering statement: When her serve is steaming, she's the woman to beat at Wimbledon.

Putting aside her recent comments that led to a couple of apologies and a brief spat with Maria Sharapova, Williams looked every bit the five-time champion. She began her Wimbledon title defense with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Mandy Minella of Luxembourg.

"For me, it's the greatest moment for a tennis player, to walk out on Centre Court," Williams said after her first match at Wimbledon since winning the Olympic gold medal there last year. "That was such a great moment, too. So many great memories on this court."

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic also opened with a straight-sets victory, beating Florian Mayer of Germany 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Mayer is a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist, losing to Djokovic at that stage last year. But he was never in danger of springing another stunner following Rafael Nadal's first-round exit a day earlier.

Djokovic took a 3-0 lead in the first set and broke for a 6-5 lead in the second to take control. He served out the match to love before saluting the crowd with a fist pump.

"It was a big pleasure again performing here on Centre Court in front of the packed crowd," Djokovic said. "For the first round, it was tricky. ... I think (Mayer's) game is really well suited for grass, so it took a lot of effort."

For Williams, this was a chance to put the focus back on tennis following the verbal jousting with Sharapova over their private lives ? and comments about an Ohio rape case for which she had to apologize ? and she took full advantage.

As usual on grass, the top-ranked Williams dominated with her hard serve, winning the first set without dropping a point on her service game. Her main weapon let her down only at the start of the second set, when Minella took a 2-0 lead after Williams double-faulted on break point.

She was one point from going down 3-0 but then won 15 of the next 18 points to take a 4-2 lead, and broke again to wrap up the victory.

"I feel like I was a little rusty for some reason today," Williams said. "I don't feel like I played my best. I felt really upset when I lost my serve in the second set. With that being said, I think Mandy played really well."

Much of the pre-tournament talk was about Williams and Sharapova, the two top players in the game who are on opposite sides of the draw and can't meet before the final.

"It hasn't been a distraction. Like I said, I'm just here to focus on the tennis," Williams said. "I'm just here to play Wimbledon. It's the premier tournament in the world, of the year, so that's what's most important."

Williams improved her career record to 68-8 at the All England Club and extended her career-best winning streak to 32 matches, which included her second French Open title.

Kimiko Date-Krumm, the 42-year-old Japanese veteran, had an even easier time. She needed just 44 minutes to complete a romp over Carina Witthoeft, an 18-year-old German less than half her age and making her Grand Slam debut.

Date-Krumm is the second-oldest player to win a match at Wimbledon after Martina Navratilova, who was 47 when she reached the second round in 2004.

Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion, was knocked out in straight sets by 135th-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium on Monday ? the Spaniard's first loss in the opening round of any Grand Slam event.

The only top player Tuesday who had any difficulty advancing was French Open runner-up David Ferrer. He overcame a second-set slump and a scary late fall to beat Martin Alund of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Coming off his first Grand Slam final, the fourth-seeded Spaniard looked as if he could follow Nadal out of the tournament. Alund won the second set and pushed hard in the third. But Ferrer broke for a 6-5 lead and then went 5-1 up in the fourth. At 3-1, however, he fell and grimaced after his left foot slid backward. Ferrer went on to break Alund again. He served out the match with an ace, and afterward said his foot was fine.

Most other matches went according to plan.

Former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro made a winning return to Grand Slam competition, defeating Albert Ramos of Spain 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 after sitting out the French Open because of respiratory problems.

No. 16 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany was the highest-seeded man to lose. Kohlschreiber wasted a two-set lead against Ivan Dodig of Croatia before retiring in the fifth, citing exhaustion from the flu.

In the women's draw, last year's runner-up, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, won 6-1, 6-1 over Yvonne Meusburger of Austria while No. 6 Li Na of China and No. 7 Angelique Kerber of Germany also advanced in straight sets.

Home favorite Laura Robson delivered the biggest upset, beating No. 10 Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-4 to become the first British woman to beat a top-10 ranked opponent at Wimbledon in 15 years.

"It was nerve-racking before I served for it," Robson said. "I just wanted to focus and take it point by point. Any big win gives you a lot of confidence."

In less of a surprise, Arantxa Rus lost ? again. The 156th-ranked Dutch player equaled a WTA record by extending her losing streak to 17 straight matches with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Russia's Olga Puchkova.

"This year is not a good year for me," Rus said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-25-Wimbledon/id-7197d773a31348b1929b2452e2e409bb

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The Humiliating Fundraising Existence of a Member of Congress (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Tupac Shakur to Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/tupac-shakur-receives-star-on-hollywood-walk-of-fame/

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CIO's Perspective: A strategic approach to radio technology ? Part 2 ...

In this two-part series,?John Emerson, Chief Information Officer at Tait Communications,?looks at what a CIO needs to know when considering a radio communication system.

Last week, in Part 1, we covered some of the important pieces of the radio communications puzzle that CIOs need to address, including, open standards, coverage and reliability. This week we look at the other aspects of radio systems that need to be considered. ?

Security
With increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber-attacks, security has become a must-have. Not only is access security important, but high-level encryption has also become essential. Radio networks have very high security requirements, due to high government use, and are usually private, ensuring others cannot access transmissions as easily as they can on the public cellular network.

The level of encryption within P25 networks is specifically designed for the higher requirements of law enforcement. As an example, the S?o Paulo Police Force?s effectiveness had been previously limited by drug cartels intercepting their communications and disappearing before police arrived. The Tait P25 network commissioned in 2006 has yet to be cracked by the crime syndicates and S?o Paulo Police recognized the contribution of the secure communications to a reduction in crime of 60 percent between 2006 and 2011.

Scalability
While Public Safety entities may not be physically expanding, regional mutual support agreements are becoming increasingly common. New networks tend to expand and replace the older networks, so that all parties can communicate by consolidating on one standard. Utility CIOs understand that their companies may expand by procuring other utility companies. Either way, a smart CIO is going to make sure that the communications network can be scaled up, to cover any eventuality.

Converging on the TCP/IP communications protocol, an organization?s networks can be managed from one console, irrespective of the content of the TCP/IP packet (voice, data, etc). Such convergence has already occurred in locations from a 60,000-resident city, to the Los Angeles basin with 14 million residents. The communications can involve any device (including desktop PCs, servers, smart phones, radios, traffic signals, etc). Many regions have mutual support agreements among police and fire, partly as a result of budget cutbacks, but also to be able to project a larger response in the event of a local disaster. Integrated communications platforms are essential to support coordinated, multi-organizational responses.

Management
To perform consistently, any network requires ongoing support. User administration, security, device monitoring and network monitoring are all key to maintaining network integrity and performance. CIOs will want an extensive network management tool to be able to perform management functions effectively over the long term.

The same network management tools used for managing IT networks can be used to manage the TCP/IP based radio networks. A network-addressable radio can be remotely checked for operational status, its location ascertained, software downloaded to it and operational issues identified before the radio is rendered inoperable if required. These are the same remote management tasks that can be performed with a smart phone, providing the ability to manage all the organization?s TCP/IP mobile devices in real time. Other functions that can be performed include device security and network performance management.

Redundancy in an emergency
While redundancy is built into most modern networks, the critical nature of Public Safety and utility work functions benefit from having multiple networks that provide additional redundancy. As most organizations already use the local public cellular network for a number of functions, in the event of a disaster, key staff can be issued with a radio. The radio network is a very cost-effective way to ensure the needs of an organization coping with an emergency are met, without the cellular network.

Interfaces
CIOs know that demands for integration will increase and that stand-alone systems are becoming rare. As radios become more intelligent and IP-based, interfaces with other networks (e.g. Wi-Fi) become common. Data interfaces with IT systems also become possible through these other networks. Any radio vendor not providing open-standard interfaces to other networks and IT systems risks losing sales, as potential customers walk away from probable vendor lock-in.

These days, that is probably a career-limiting decision.

The TCP/IP based radio networks can also be used as a ?bridge? to the organization?s other TCP/IP based systems from the open standards-based legacy radio networks. This may extend the life of the legacy networks and enable the expansion of the newer TCP/IP radio networks at an easier pace, avoiding the risky ?big bang? approach.

Convergence
Over the past 30 years, IT systems and networks have both become more complex to the point where they can be very difficult to manage. Organizations wonder why their IT departments can?t get anything done, when in fact IT staff work long hours to keep many different technologies going. CIOs are actively looking for ways to simplify their networks, systems and processes.

As can be seen in the comparison table, the commonality between networks is increasing to the point where network management tools can handle both internal IP networks and radio networks on the same console.

Characteristic	Mobile Phone	IP Radio
Devices	iPhone, Android	Handheld radios
Robustness of devices	Low-medium	High
Hostile environments	Limited	Designed to function
Network	Commercial cell carriers	Radio frequency spectrum plus data network
Network customization	None; vendor only	Specific to customer, scalable
Coverage	90%	99+%
Data bandwidth	Medium	Medium
Standards	IP	IP
Security	Encryption, Authentication	Encryption, key management, radio authentication
Remote monitoring	Separate purchase	Available as an option
Network management	None; vendor only	Standard
Analog network option	None	Yes
GPS	Yes	Yes
VoIP interface	Yes	Yes
SNMP support	Yes	Yes
Wi-Fi support	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth support	Yes	Yes
Lifecycle	2- 4 years	10 ? 12 years

Cost effectiveness/lifecycle
Continual downward pressure on IT budgets and increasing demands for service can mean being the CIO is a thankless task these days. Predictable cost is essential, as well as reasonable component cost, so that there are no surprises. As radio technology is built to last more than three times as long as cellular, cost can be spread over a much longer lifecycle of 10 to 12 years.

Radio is relevant
Converging technologies between IT and the critical communications that radio networks support mean that it?s actually more closely aligned with the CIO?s domain than ever before.

Contrary to widely held beliefs, radio is by no means past its prime.

Radio has evolved significantly, and will continue to play an essential role in Public Safety and utility organizations that require mission-critical communications across challenging coverage areas. When issues such as coverage, reliability, security, robustness and cost are fully considered, a radio network offers genuine business value to many organizations.

Natural disasters
When a natural disaster strikes, commercial telecommunications company networks are immediately impacted. Cellular providers told the Federal Communications Commission that the day after Hurricane Sandy landed on October 29, 2012, more than 25 percent of cellphone service went out in the 158 counties across the 10 states most affected by the storm. Services worsened in many areas as generators serving cell towers ran out of fuel. Entire households were without communication as their bundled services (mobile phone, Internet and landline) failed completely.

In February 2011, When a Richter 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, with the third largest shock force ever recorded, the telecommunications networks were severely damaged and there was low availability within the city. The radio networks used by Public Safety agencies were quickly restored and continued to perform throughout the following aftershocks.

These examples highlight the importance of having secure, highly reliable radio networks dedicated to public safety use, capable of integrating with and operating across different technologies within a regional area.

This extract is taken from?Connection Magazine, Edition 3. Connection is a collection of educational and thought-leading articles focusing on critical communications, wireless and radio technology.

Share your views, comments and suggestions in the?Tait Connection Magazine LinkedIn group.

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Source: http://blog.taitradio.com/2013/06/25/cios-perspective-a-strategic-approach-to-radio-technology-part-2/

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Russia defiant as U.S. raises pressure over Snowden

By Lidia Kelly and James Pomfret

MOSCOW/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Russia defied White House pressure on Monday to expel former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to the United States before he flees Moscow on the next stop of his globe-crossing escape from U.S. prosecution.

Snowden, whose exposure of secret U.S. government surveillance raised questions about intrusion into private lives, was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday after Washington asked the Chinese territory to arrest him on espionage charges.

Snowden, 29, has kept out of sight in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport as Ecuador says it considers his request for asylum.

His decision to fly to Russia, which like China challenges U.S. dominance of global diplomacy, is another embarrassment to President Barack Obama who has tried to "reset" ties with Moscow and build a partnership with Beijing.

The White House said it expected the Russian government to send Snowden back to the United States and lodged "strong objections" to Hong Kong and China for letting him go.

"We expect the Russian government to look at all options available to expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

The Russian government ignored the appeal and President Vladimir Putin's press secretary denied any knowledge of Snowden's movements.

Asked if Snowden had spoken to the Russian authorities, Peskov said: "Overall, we have no information about him."

He declined comment on the expulsion request but other Russian officials said Moscow had no obligation to cooperate with Washington after it passed legislation to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russians accused of violating human rights.

"Why should the United States expect restraint and understanding from Russia?" said Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament.

Putin has missed few chances to champion public figures who challenge Western governments and to portray Washington as an overzealous global policeman. But Russian leaders have not paraded Snowden before the cameras or trumpeted his arrival.

ECUADOR'S ROLE

Since leaving Hong Kong, where he feared arrest and extradition, Snowden has been searching for a country which can guarantee his security.

Ecuador said it had received an asylum request and Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, on a trip to Vietnam, said it would be analyzed with a "lot of responsibility". He was expected to hold a news conference around 7.00 p.m. (8 a.m. EDT) in Hanoi.

A source at Russian airline Aeroflot said Snowden was booked on a flight due to depart for Havana on Monday at 2:05 p.m. (6.05 a.m. EDT). The gate for the Cuba flight was blocked and security was tightened.

A State Department official said Washington had told countries in the Western Hemisphere that Snowden "should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States".

Despite the Kremlin denials, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said Putin had probably known about and approved Snowden's flight to Russia.

"Putin always seems almost eager to stick a finger in the eye of the United States," Schumer, a senior Senate Democrat, told CNN's "State of the Union". He also saw "the hand of Beijing" in Hong Kong's decision to let Snowden leave.

But taking the higher ground after being accused of hacking computers abroad, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed "grave concern" over Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked computers in China.

It said it had taken up the issue with Washington.

CHILL

Some Russians have praised Snowden's revelations. Others fear a new chill in relations with the United States.

"We are a pretty stubborn country and so is the United States. Both are mighty countries, so I would say this has a good potential to turn into a big fuss in bilateral relations," said Ina Sosna, manager of a Moscow cleaning company.

"I guess it would be best if they just let him move on from Russia to avoid any more controversy over him being here."

Snowden was aided in his escape by WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization whose founder Julian Assange said he had helped to arrange documents from Ecuador.

Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering Assange at its London embassy for the past year.

The New York Times quoted Assange as saying in an interview that his group had arranged for Snowden to travel on a "special refugee document" issued by Ecuador last Monday.

U.S. sources said Washington had revoked Snowden's passport. WikiLeaks said diplomats and Sarah Harrison, a British legal researcher working for the anti-secrecy group, accompanied him.

Snowden, who had worked at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, had been hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance programs to news media.

Snowden has been charged with theft of federal government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow, Martin Petty in Hanoi, Sui-Lee Weein in Beijing,; Andrew Cawthorne, Mario Naranjo and Daniel Wallis in Caracas, Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Dean Yates and Timothy Heritage, Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-warns-countries-against-snowden-travel-014740817.html

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Development of nonvolatile liquid anthracenes for facile full-color luminescence tuning: Application to foldable light-emitting devices expected

June 23, 2013 ? A research team headed by Dr. Takashi Nakanishi, a Principal Researcher of the NIMS Organic Materials Group, Polymer Materials Unit, developed a full-colour tunable luminescent liquid material with excellent light stability based on an anthracene molecule, which is a general organic fluorescent dye.

A research team headed by Dr. Takashi Nakanishi, a Principal Researcher of the Organic Materials Group (Group Leader: Masayuki Takeuchi), Polymer Materials Unit (Unit Director: Izumi Ichinose) of the National Institute for Materials Science (President: Sukekatsu Ushioda), developed a full-colour tunable luminescent liquid material with excellent photostability based on anthracene, which is a general organic fluorescent dye.

In the development of full-colour display monitors, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, organic molecular and polymer materials are essentially important, as they offer advantages such as light weight, flexibility, and printability. However, in virtually all cases, the light-emitting organic molecular materials developed until now have had difficulties to demonstrate their inherent luminescent performance due to various problems, which include low photostability (durability to prevent discoloration or decolorization under photoirradiation) and aggregation of molecules in the coating process. Moreover, from the viewpoint of production of flexible devices, materials should be free of deterioration of the continuous emissive layer, even when subjected to excessive bending and folding. On the other hand, development of organic molecular materials which enable simple, low-cost manufacture of full-colour luminescence devices, in comparison with individual synthesis of organic molecular materials that display various luminescent colours, is also desired.

The team led by Dr. Nakanishi developed a blue-emitting liquid material which is free of aggregation among adjacent anthracene parts, has a melting point of approximately -60 ?C, and is thermally stable up to about 300 ?C, by attaching highly flexible branched alkyl chains around an anthracene core moiety, which is a fluorescent general dye molecule. This material is a low-viscosity liquid with viscosity of approximately 0.3 Pa-s at room temperature and is a blue-emitting with an absolute fluorescence quantum yield of ca. 55% and photostable more than 5~10 times longer lifetime than that of commercially-available anthracene dyes. Furthermore, because other luminescent dye molecules can be doped homogeneously in this liquid, it was found that full-colour luminescence tuning is available assisted by up to 96% fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) of dyes by single blue-light (365nm) excitation.

In this research, a blue-emitting anthracene liquid with excellent photostability was synthesized, and a liquid material which displays high quality full-colour luminescence and precise luminescence tuning by the facile operation of doping the liquid with other dyes was developed. Since the nonvolatile liquid material developed in this work can be coated on the surface of various substrates, production of organic multicolour devices with stable single color excitation can be expected. A continuous active emitting layer can be maintained, without breaking or interruption even when bent and folded, which is a favorable property for the development of foldable flexible devices.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/wiw-4VNFXlY/130623153502.htm

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Police Search Again Near Home Of Patriots' Aaron Hernandez

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. -- Police again searched the area near the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, a week after his friend's body was found about a mile away.

Some law enforcement officers wore wetsuits Monday while searching near both Hernandez's home and the industrial park where Odin Lloyd's body was found.

Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player for the Boston Bandits, was found slain June 17. His relatives said he was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, that the two men were friends and that both men were out together on the last night of Lloyd's life.

An Attleboro District Court official said no new documents were available in connection with the case Monday morning. The Bristol County district attorney's office also didn't release any new information about the case, which their spokeswoman called "an active, ongoing investigation."

A court official said last week that three search warrants had been issued, but none of them had been returned, meaning they weren't yet public.

Hernandez hasn't commented on the homicide investigation, but has been seen with his lawyer.

The Patriots drafted him out of the University of Florida in 2010, and last summer gave him a five-year contract worth $40 million.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/police-search-wetsuits-aaron-hernandez_n_3491094.html

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