Jimmie Johnson races to record 4th All-Star win

Jimmie Johnson celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Jimmie Johnson celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, May 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Jimmie Johnson (48) leads Kasey Kahne (5) during the final laps of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 18, 2013. Johnson won the race. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Jimmie Johnson celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Jimmie Johnson (48) does a burnout after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Jimmie Johnson (48) takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) ? Cross another milestone off of Jimmie Johnson's list. He stands alone in All-Star history.

"Five-time" became the first four-time winner of NASCAR's annual All-Star race, breaking a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt and teammate Jeff Gordon on Saturday night.

"To beat Jeff and Earnhardt, two guys that I have looked up to my whole life, two massive icons of our sport, this means the world to me," Johnson said.

He also joined the late Davey Allison as only the second driver to win back-to-back All-Star races.

It was fitting that he did it at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the track Johnson, the five-time NASCAR champion, has dominated since his 2002 rookie season. Johnson has won six points races at Charlotte, led more than 1,600 laps and the win in the $1 million Sprint All-Star Race was his second straight, fourth in 12 years. He also won in 2003 and 2006.

"The only four-time All-Star champion ? I am very proud of you," crew chief Chad Knaus radioed after Johnson took the checkered flag.

A day after Johnson overshot his pit stall during qualifying to earn a poor starting spot, his Hendrick Motorsports crew changed four tires in 11 seconds on the mandatory final spot to send Johnson back onto the track in second place for the final restart.

He lined up inside of teammate Kasey Kahne for the final 10-lap sprint to the cash, and the two battled side-by-side for a little more than a lap before Johnson cleared Kahne completely. He then sailed away to an easy victory.

"We are doing great things and we are amazing ourselves in the process," Johnson said.

Joey Logano finished second and Kyle Busch, who won two of the first four segments, was third as neither had a shot at running down Johnson once he got his No. 48 Chevrolet out front.

"The 48, once he got that clean air, he was gone," Logano said. "Second isn't anything to hang your head, but it's about the million bucks tonight."

Kahne faded to fourth and Kurt Busch, who also won two segments to give the Busch brothers a sweep, was fifth.

It was disappointing for both Busch brothers, who had the cars to beat through the first 80 laps. New scoring rules designed to stop sandbagging sent the drivers onto pit road for the mandatory final stop in order of their average finish in the first four segments.

The Busch brothers tied with an average finish of 2.0, and Kurt went down pit road as the leader based on the tiebreaker of winning the final segment.

But the two Hendrick cars beat everybody off pit road, Kyle Busch exited in third and a poor final pit stop dropped Kurt to fifth.

"Ultimately, it came down to pit road, where my guys always prove their worth," Kyle Busch said. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the best of stops and to come out third, well, that was the race right there. You have to be on the front row if you're going to win this thing."

Johnson didn't think he had a shot at winning the All-Star race after botching his qualifying run and starting 20th in the 22-car field. By staying patient through the four 20-lap segments, he was in position at the end to make his move.

"Worked our way through there and got the job done," Johnson said. "It's just dedication and drive from every member of this Hendrick Motorsports team. When we started on the front row for the last segment, I knew we had a great shot at it."

The win capped a big day for Chevrolet, which swept the first 10 spots in Indianapolis 500 qualifying shortly before racing began at Charlotte. Then Johnson, the current Sprint Cup points leader, put the manufacturer in Victory Lane.

Jamie McMurray won the 40-lap Sprint Showdown before the All-Star race to transfer into the main event, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished second to earn the other berth.

Danica Patrick won the Sprint fan vote to claim the last open spot in the race. It wasn't a big surprise that Patrick won the vote ? her fans last year elected her most popular driver of the Nationwide Series ? and her public relations team was ready with a "Thank You Fans" bumper sticker she slapped on the side of her Chevrolet before the All-Star race began. She finished 20th.

Before the race, she said she wasn't sure why her fans so ardently support her.

"I've said many times that I'm not sure what it is people like or see in me or why they cheer for me," Patrick said. "To some degree being different, being a girl, there are things there. But what is it? There are a lot of different and unique drivers out there. All I know is that I try do my best to be myself all of the time. I try to be honest with the fans and at the end of the day, even if they don't agree with what I say or do, they can respect my honesty."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-19-CAR-NASCAR-All-Star-Race/id-da7d12f0caff45e5b174b7bce57a7546

gary carter died cmas cmas tcu dr. oz heart attack grill las vegas the heart attack grill

North Korea fires three short-range missiles

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said, but the purpose of the launches was unknown.

Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise.

"North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast," an official at the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman's office said by telephone.

The official said he would not speculate on whether the missiles were fired as part of a drill or training exercise.

"In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert," he said.

A Japanese government source, quoted by Kyodo news agency, noted the three launches, but said none of the missiles landed in Japan's territorial waters.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month after running high for several weeks following the imposition of tougher U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

North Korea conducts regular launches of its Scud short-range missiles, which can hit targets in South Korea.

It conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile last December, saying it put a weather satellite into orbit. The United States and its allies denounced the launch as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

During the weeks of high tension, South Korea reported that the North had moved missile launchers into place on its east coast for a possible launch of a medium-range Musudan missile. The Musudan has a range of 3,500 km, putting Japan in range and possibly the U.S. South Pacific island of Guam.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-fires-three-short-range-missiles-080959746.html

zac brown band aubrey born to run pranks pregnancy test april fools day 2012 ja rule

Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, CNN And Evernote Apps Coming To Google Glass Today

Google announced a number of new partner apps today on stage at Google I/O during the "Developing for Glass" session. Facebook and Twitter were the highlights of the list, which also included Evernote, Tumblr, Elle and CNN, in addition to the previously announced NYT and Path apps.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/uWF1MS1Rwxc/

Dick Morris Daily Show provisional ballot

Singer Kat Edmonson gets creative with financing her music

By Jeremy Gaunt

LONDON (Reuters) - If Kat Edmonson ever becomes a household name, she can put it down not just to her talent as a jazz singer, but to some decidedly modern financing as well.

The 29-year-old Texan, an old-school chanteuse with a contemporary lilt, has funded production of her second album via a community workshop and through crowd-sourcing, essentially getting the people who like her to pay for it.

The album, "Way Down Low", has now been picked up by Sony which is "launching" the singer outside the United States as an up-and-comer in a more traditional manner.

It is a far cry from her first album, which Edmonson simply charged to her credit card.

"Go into debt and pay it back (was the idea)," the singer told Reuters in an interview after performing at a church in central London.

The 2009 album was relatively successful and she garnered enough attention to appear with Lyle Lovett on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" on U.S. television but she was still pretty strapped for cash. So her second album came about differently.

First, she hooked up with METAlliance, a U.S. community foundation of established music producers and audio engineers who record artists they like for free, and paid for by having music fans come in to watch how they did it.

After that, however, Edmonson needed to pay for the music to be mixed. She wanted it done by Al Schmitt, whose credits include working with Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall and a host of jazz and rock greats.

So Edmonson put a video of her work on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter, offering incentives ranging from future downloads to performances at private parties in exchange for funding pledges.

"I raised $50,000," she said, and watched the album rise in the United States to No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart for new or developing acts.

SENSIBLE SHOES AND DRINKING

Edmonson doesn't call herself a jazz singer, but only out of modesty. She says she would be loathe to so link herself to the greats of the genre.

"I would be (embarrassed) to enter into a room full of scat singers," she said, referring to the jazz technique of using the voice as an improvised musical instrument.

Instead, she simply says she sings the "American Songbook" - a catalogue of generally mid-20th century songs, many from musicals. She sings them with a soft, enchanting voice that is full of expression - and jazzy, whether she likes it or not.

The traditional songbook style is on display throughout "Way Down Low", particularly on the tracks "Champagne" and "I'm Not In Love", which include witty lyrics about never drinking again and about going through life wearing "entirely sensible shoes".

But it also includes a couple of more contemporary tunes in "I Don't Know" and "Lucky", which are closer to something a muted Adele or Duffy might come up with.

The latter song has already made its mark in the United States. It has been sold for television, film and commercials and is on the soundtrack of the Tina Fey comedy film "Admission" that was released in March.

In Europe, Edmonson is planning concerts in Germany and Britain and then is scheduled to perform in July at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the same bill as George Benson.

(Reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-kat-edmonson-gets-creative-financing-her-music-104012668.html

10 year old gives birth c. difficile carmelo anthony nurse jackie nurse jackie peeps nhl playoffs

'We saved the ship': WWII vets from stricken aircraft carrier gather, likely for last time

Terry Pickard / NBC News

Surviving sailors from the USS Franklin hold a reunion at Patriots Point in Charleston on Friday.

By Terry Pickard and Carlo Dellaverson, NBC News

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Two dozen surviving veterans from the World War II aircraft carrier USS Franklin gathered on Friday, probably for the last time, to honor and remember one of the most remarkable naval episodes of the war.

It was before dawn on a late winter morning in 1945 when a Japanese dive bomber dropped two 500 pound bombs on the Franklin. The year-old carrier nicknamed ?Big Ben? was serving in the Pacific theater and, at that moment, had maneuvered closer to Japan than any other U.S.-flagged carrier during the war.

Sam ?Dusty? Rhodes was asleep in the ship?s bunk area when the bombs hit. Rhodes was a water tender 3^rd class and was responsible for operating the ship?s massive boilers ? and with debris from the massive explosions raining down on him, that is just what he did.

Rhodes said he and other crew members ran to the one of the unaffected firerooms and attempted to raise enough steam to light the remaining boiler. When the flame caught from Rhodes? Zippo lighter, ?that?s when the ship?s heart started to beat again,? he recalled.

Above on the flight deck, the scene was nothing short of catastrophic. The Franklin was dead in the water, listing to one side and cut off from communications as fires burned everywhere. More than 800 sailors died in the attack, with hundreds more wounded.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

Flags line the walkway to the USS Yorktown, where a '13' was painted to honor the number of the USS Franklin.

But the Franklin didn?t sink, and that is the legacy crew members like Rhodes like to remember. The Franklin would become the most heavily damaged aircraft carrier of the war to make it back to port.

?We saved the ship,? Rhodes said. ?In the Navy, you save the ship. It?s your home.?

William Schauer was a Naval electrician and fireman 1^st class, just out of high school when he reported for duty on the deck of the Franklin, three months before the attack. Looking back on that day 68 years later, he said he was certain he was going to go down with the ship that morning, and ?that was the end.?

?But we were there for a purpose,? and despite suffering such heavy losses, Schauer says he still considers their mission ? keeping the ship afloat ? accomplished.

At the reunion on Friday, Medal of Honor recipient and retired Gen. James Livingston saluted the assembled veterans. He said their ?refusal to allow her to sink? allowed the Franklin to limp back to port instead of ending up buried forever on the ocean floor. ?That?s a testimony to what you are as men,? he said.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

The tattered battle flag from the USS Franklin hangs on display at the USS Yorktown.

In the belly of the USS Yorktown, another decommissioned carrier that saw battle in the Pacific and now survives as the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval Museum in this bucolic Charleston suburb, a tattered and smoke-tinged flag is mounted overhead. It was the original battle flag that flew on the mast of the Franklin?s flight deck the day of the attack -- the same flag that Rhodes remembers looking up and noticing through the haze of black smoke after the bombs hit. Seeing it meant they still had a chance, he remembered, ?because we would strike the colors before abandoning ship.? ??

?Big Ben? made it all the way back to New York for repairs, where it sat on V-J Day when the war finally ended. It never saw action again, and was sold for scrap in the 1960s. The flag, along with the bell and a gun turret also on display at the Yorktown, are all that remain of one of the most momentous spectacles of heroism and fortitude of World War II. And with what could be the final gathering of the men who saved the ship, it is up to a new generation to remember the Franklin.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2c12bec2/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C170C183253590Ewe0Esaved0Ethe0Eship0Ewwii0Evets0Efrom0Estricken0Eaircraft0Ecarrier0Egather0Elikely0Efor0Elast0Etime0Dlite/story01.htm

PlayStation 4 michael jordan Safe Haven Robbie Rogers WWE Rita Ora Meteor Russia

Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors

May 16, 2013 ? Whether we're listening to Bach or the blues, our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the melodies make us feel, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. For instance, Mozart's jaunty Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his dour Requiem in D minor is more likely to be linked to dark, bluish gray.

Moreover, people in both the United States and Mexico linked the same pieces of classical orchestral music with the same colors. This suggests that humans share a common emotional palette -- when it comes to music and color -- that appears to be intuitive and can cross cultural barriers, UC Berkeley researchers said.

"The results were remarkably strong and consistent across individuals and cultures and clearly pointed to the powerful role that emotions play in how the human brain maps from hearing music to seeing colors," said UC Berkeley vision scientist Stephen Palmer, lead author of a paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using a 37-color palette, the UC Berkeley study found that people tend to pair faster-paced music in a major key with lighter, more vivid, yellow colors, whereas slower-paced music in a minor key is more likely to be teamed up with darker, grayer, bluer colors.

"Surprisingly, we can predict with 95 percent accuracy how happy or sad the colors people pick will be based on how happy or sad the music is that they are listening to," said Palmer, who will present these and related findings at the International Association of Colour conference at the University of Newcastle in the U.K. on July 8. At the conference, a color light show will accompany a performance by the Northern Sinfonia orchestra to demonstrate "the patterns aroused by music and color converging on the neural circuits that register emotion," he said.

The findings may have implications for creative therapies, advertising and even music player gadgetry. For example, they could be used to create more emotionally engaging electronic music visualizers, computer software that generates animated imagery synchronized to the music being played. Right now, the colors and patterns appear to be randomly generated and do not take emotion into account, researchers said.

They may also provide insight into synesthesia, a neurological condition in which the stimulation of one perceptual pathway, such as hearing music, leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a different perceptual pathway, such as seeing colors. An example of sound-to-color synesthesia was portrayed in the 2009 movie The Soloist when cellist Nathaniel Ayers experiences a mesmerizing interplay of swirling colors while listening to the Los Angeles symphony. Artists such as Wassily Kandinksky and Paul Klee may have used music-to-color synesthesia in their creative endeavors.

In the first experiment, participants were asked to pick five of the 37 colors that best matched the music to which they were listening. The palette consisted of vivid, light, medium, and dark shades of red, orange, yellow, green, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, and purple.

Participants consistently picked bright, vivid, warm colors to go with upbeat music and dark, dull, cool colors to match the more tearful or somber pieces. Separately, they rated each piece of music on a scale of happy to sad, strong to weak, lively to dreary and angry to calm.

Two subsequent experiments studying music-to-face and face-to-color associations supported the researchers' hypothesis that "common emotions are responsible for music-to-color associations," said Karen Schloss, a postdoctoral researchers at UC Berkeley and co-author of the paper.

For example, the same pattern occurred when participants chose the facial expressions that "went best" with the music selections, Schloss said. Upbeat music in major keys was consistently paired with happy-looking faces while subdued music in minor keys was paired with sad-looking faces. Similarly, happy faces were paired with yellow and other bright colors and angry faces with dark red hues.

Next, Palmer and his research team plan to study participants in Turkey where traditional music employs a wider range of scales than just major and minor. "We know that in Mexico and the U.S. the responses are very similar," he said. "But we don't yet know about China or Turkey."

Other co-authors of the study are Zoe Xu of UC Berkeley and Lilia Prado-Leon of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Yq01Vu1AcRQ/130516151256.htm

Jake Dalton London 2012 field hockey Missy Franklin Hunter Pence NBCOlympics Danell Leyva Ye Shiwen

Cannes festival hit by $1 million jewel heist

Jewel thieves have stolen $1 million worth of Chopard jewelry from a hotel right off the Croisette, and while the theft being called by Deadline one of the "biggest heists to go down in recent Cannes history," it's not actually?that?unexpected.?

RELATED: Cannes, Bucking the Trend, Applauds 'The Beaver'

The Hollywood Reporter?reported that the jewelry,?set to be loaned to celebrities for their red carpet appearances,?was stolen was stolen from a= Chopard employee's hotel room in the Novotel, and that?"whole safe was taken out of the wall in the hotel room."?Police are also telling?THR?that the heist "may be an inside job" and are questioning hotel employees.?According to Le Monde?the crime occurred at?5 a.m. The festival itself was quick to note that their top prize the Palme d'Or, which is supplied by Chopard, is safe, according to the AFP.?

RELATED: Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' Is Now the 'Where's Waldo' of Hollywood Smut

Burglaries at the festival and on the French Riviera itself do not lack historical context. Let us not forget, as Scott Feinberg of?The Hollywood Reporter points out on Twitter, Alfred Hitchcock's?To Catch a Thief, which starred Cary Grant as a cat burglar took place in that locale. And there are real-life examples too.?

RELATED: Lars Von Trier Acts Out at Cannes: 'I Understand Hitler'

Earlier this year the AFP reported that thieves had stolen a million euros worth of luxury watches from the store on the Croisette's promenade in Cannes. In 2009 armed robbers stole millions of euros worth of jewelry from a Cartier shop in the city.

RELATED: You Will Now Be Jealous You're Not in Cannes

Last year at the festival two Senegalese soccer stars reported??400,000 worth of wristwatches and jewelry and???30,000 in cash stolen.?In their guide to the festival, Indiewire advises: "Also beware of pickpockets. We know of regulars who, after leaving a window open, have had all of their belongings stolen from their rented hotels and flats while they were away." Take this as you may wish, but back in 2010 Lindsay Lohan claimed her passport had been stolen at Cannes, rendering her unable to go to court.?

RELATED: Cannes Downgrades Lars Von Trier To 'Persona Non Grata' Status

Perhaps one of the more ironic parts of this recent theft?and one that has not escaped the media and the jokesters on Twitter?is that it happened as Sofia Coppola's movie about teenager burglar's stealing from stars,?The Bling Ring, screened at the festival. Somehow we don't see Emma Watson being?that?method.?

?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-festival-hit-1-million-jewel-heist-142412037.html

grenada Sikh Sanya Richards Ross decathlon Honey Boo Boo Child marilyn monroe Nathan Adrian