– Alzheimer's disease is being redefined for the first time in 27 years, with new medical guidelines reflecting the fact that the disease is a "continuum." Growing evidence shows that Alzheimer's starts affecting the brain years before dementia symptoms present themselves, and the new guidelines reflect that by dividing the disease into three stages: end-stage dementia, a middle phase involving mild problems, and a symptomless beginning stage where the brain has already begun to change. "I think we’re going to start to identify it earlier and earlier," says one expert. The new guidelines are concerned with measuring biomarkers, or indicators that a person will likely develop dementia, in clinical trial patients, the New York Times reports. The Wall Street Journal notes that earlier diagnosis of the disease will also allow earlier intervention, and could someday allow patients to take Alzheimer's-slowing drugs earlier.

Expand this summary.

The first update in nearly 30 years to U.S. guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease expands the definition to include patients with earlier stage symptoms and recognizes the condition as being on a continuum rather than just end-stage dementia.

 People diagnosed with Alzheimer's tend to be 65 and older, but evidence suggests that signs of the memory-robbing disease, like amyloid protein plaques and nerve cell death, may start in the brain five to 10 years before they can currently be detected. In the future, doctors hope to rely more on biomarkers, proteins and other molecules in patients' blood and tissue that are indicators of the disease.

 For now, clinical practice won't change much. Diagnosis will continue to rely on the judgment of clinicians, as it has since the diagnostic criteria were first published in 1984, according to experts, including those from the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association, who led the new guidelines that were published Tuesday.

 5.4 million Number of Americans who have Alzheimer's disease

 Still, the formal recognition that people can have less severe memory problems known as mild cognitive impairment years before full-fledged Alzheimer's could enable doctors "to investigate the ideas and eventually to find the treatments that are so necessary to avoiding the epidemic of Alzheimer's disease that we see facing us," said William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer's Association.

 Earlier diagnosis would enable patients to make plans about their lives when they are better equipped to make such decisions. And once medications become available that are proven to slow the progress of the disease, doctors hope that Alzheimer's patients can begin taking them earlier.

 "We felt that our best chance for disease-modifying therapy is to detect disease and intervene much earlier," said Reisa Sperling, a committee member and director of the Center for Alzheimer's Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

 While some experts advocate taking currently available drugs in the early stages of Alzheimer's, there is no conclusive evidence that they are effective in slowing down the disease. In recent years, several clinical trials of experimental treatments that have reached late-stage testing have been disappointing.

 Alzheimer's is thought to affect some 5.4 million Americans. An equal number of people may have mild cognitive impairment or earlier stages of the disease, though data about these individuals are lacking.

 The new guidelines detail the importance of studying biomarkers, which are considered to be key to earlier diagnosis because they don't rely on subjective judgments of patients' behavior. Such indicators could also be useful in identifying subjects for research studies.

 Though several biomarkers related to Alzheimer's have been identified already, they aren't ready for clinical usage yet owing to a lack of standardization about how the tests are performed and what should be considered the cutoff point for a normal result, said Marilyn Albert, director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

 Write to Shirley S. Wang at shirley.wang@wsj.com ||||| For the first time in 27 years, the definition of Alzheimer’s disease is being recast in new medical guidelines that reflect fast-mounting evidence that it begins ravaging the brain years before the symptoms of dementia .

 The guidelines, to be issued Tuesday by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association, divide the disease into three stages: a phase when dementia has developed, a middle phase in which mild problems emerge but daily functions can still be performed, and the most recently discovered phase, in which no symptoms are evident but changes are brewing in the brain.

 “We’re redefining Alzheimer’s disease and looking at this in a different way than had ever been done,” said Creighton Phelps, director of the National Institute on Aging’s Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Program. “I think we’re going to start to identify it earlier and earlier.”

 The drive to diagnose Alzheimer’s before it has progressed into profound dementia is also reflected in a bill introduced in Congress this month, which would create specific Medicare cost codes for Alzheimer’s diagnosis, including steps involving discussions between the patient’s doctor and caregivers, a recognition that keeping family members well-informed can result in better planning and care.

 “Early diagnosis is really the key to this,” said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and a sponsor of the bill. “Oftentimes family members notice the symptoms in their loved ones, but it’s only years later that they get diagnosed or understand what resources are available.”

 The most striking addition to the guidelines concerns methods that assess brain changes involved in Alzheimer’s, including brain scans and tests of cerebral spinal fluid. Such methods measure what are called biomarkers, physiological indicators that someone is likely to develop dementia eventually, just as cholesterol and blood pressure are biomarkers of impending heart disease.

 For now, the guidelines specify that Alzheimer’s biomarkers — including abnormal levels of the proteins amyloid and tau, and shrinkage of certain brain areas — should not yet be put into widespread use, but used only with patients enrolled in clinical trials.

 That is because scientists cannot yet standardize the results of the tests, or know “what measure is truly abnormal and what measure is not,” said Marilyn Albert, director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and a leader of one working group that developed the new guidelines.

 As many as a third of people with amyloid plaques in their brains, for example, have not developed Alzheimer’s symptoms by the time they die. The guidelines also urge caution because there is currently no drug known to halt or significantly delay the onset of symptoms, so people told they are likely to get Alzheimer’s have no effective medication to take.

 “We don’t have enough information about what to tell people,” said Dr. Steven DeKosky, dean of the University of Virginia medical school, who participated in one of the working groups. “Until you can tell a clinician, ‘If you do this test you have X amount of reliability and to do that will make a difference in the life of your patient’ — until then, it remains in the lab.”

 But the guidelines reflect a sense in the medical community that the moment when science will have more specific knowledge about biomarkers is not that far off. They are intended to encourage more research so that drugs can be developed to attack early brain changes and to identify people who might benefit from such drugs when they become available.

 The goal, said William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer’s Association, is “extending the range of our ability to investigate this disease and eventually find the treatment that is going to be so necessary to avoid the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease that we see facing us over the next 40 years.”

 In the short term, the biggest impact is likely to be seen with people who fall into the middle phase, those with mild cognitive impairment linked to Alzheimer’s. Experts say there are at least as many people experiencing this phase as the 5.4 million people estimated to have Alzheimer’s dementia. And they expect others to now ask their doctors if they are showing signs of mild impairment, which include experiencing some difficulty or inefficiency with memory, attention or other mental faculties, while still being able to function independently.

 Dr. Albert said that if patients with symptoms of mild cognitive impairment wanted to “increase the certainty” of the diagnosis by getting a brain scan or spinal fluid test, they should obtain such tests in a research trial so they have a better chance of getting accurate results.

 The guidelines also clarify diagnosis criteria for people with dementia symptoms, distinguishing Alzheimer’s from other dementias, including vascular, fronto-temporal and Lewy body. And they note that the earliest symptom of Alzheimer’s dementia is not always memory loss, but could be mood changes or problems with language, spatial perception or reasoning.

 Dr. Pierre Tariot, director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, who was not involved in drafting the guidelines, called them “a step in the right direction” that he hoped would not be “misconstrued” as a sign that biomarker tests are further along than they are. He added, “The notion that Alzheimer’s disease is a continuum that has an extensive pre-symptomatic phase is a very important message to get out.”

 Dr. Phelps said it would hardly be the last word from the medical community on Alzheimer’s.

 “We’re not drawing a line and saying this is it,” Dr. Phelps said. “What we’re saying is this is the best of our knowledge and we’re not going to wait 27 years to revisit these again.” |||||


Summarize this article:

Story highlights Of 53 known MERS-CoV infections worldwide, 30 have ended in death

 Three Italian patients are first in their country to contract the virus

 Symptoms are cold-like but are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure

 The WHO calls the virus "a threat to the entire world"

 The sometimes deadly MERS-CoV virus has spread to Italy, the World Health Organization said in statements this weekend.

 Sunday's announcement that two female patients had contracted the virus follows one Saturday that said a 45-year-old man, who had recently traveled to Jordan, had become infected. They are the first three known cases in Italy.

 Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, acts like a cold virus and attacks the respiratory system, the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.

 Of the 53 known infections with the virus, 30 have resulted in death since September 2012, the organization said. Precise data are not available on the total number of people who have been infected because it is difficult to tell how many get a mild form of the infection.

 A patient died May 28 in France after having contracted the virus during a trip to the Middle East.

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 The health agency said the three Italian patients were all in stable condition. The two cases reported Sunday were a 42-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl who are close contacts of the man, the WHO said.

 The virus is "a threat to the entire world," the WHO's general director said last week.

 It "is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself," Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

 Although many of the cases have occurred on the Arabian Peninsula, people have died of the infection elsewhere, including in four European countries and Tunisia.

 However, "all of the European cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the Middle East," the WHO said earlier this month. But "in France and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among close contacts who had not been to the Middle East but had been in contact with a traveler recently returned from the Middle East."

 Coronaviruses cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as well as a variety of animal diseases.

 Health officials do not yet know much about how the newly discovered virus spreads, which makes it hard for scientists to prevent infections, Chan said.

 The WHO is calling for the world to pull together its resources to study and tackle the virus. ||||| Story highlights "These are alarm bells," said World Health Organization director-general

 The WHO dubs the virus MERS-CoV

 Patient with novel coronavirus dies of organ failure, French hospital reports

 Half of those diagnosed with the virus have died, experts say

 A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is "a threat to the entire world," according to the director-general of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

 The so-called novel coronavirus "is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself," Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

 The world needs to pull together its resources to properly tackle the virus which, Chan said, is her "greatest concern" at present.

 "We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat," she said, and more information is needed "quickly" and "urgently."

 "We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond," she said.

 Novel coronavirus is part of a family called coronaviruses, which cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as well as a variety of animal diseases. However, the new virus is not SARS.

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 The virus had infected 44 people worldwide as of last week, most of them in the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization's most recent update Thursday. Half of them have died.

 Also in its Thursday update, the WHO appeared to have given the novel coronavirus a name: Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS-CoV.

 A 23rd death was reported Tuesday, when a French hospital and the French government reported a man diagnosed with the coronavirus had died of organ failure.

 The patient, the first of two people to be diagnosed with novel coronavirus, died at University Hospital of Lille, where he had been treated since May 9.

 The man contracted the virus while visiting the Arabian Peninsula, said Marisol Touraine, France's minister of social affairs and health, in a statement.

 The second patient, also male, was in stable but very serious condition, the hospital said. One of the patients shared a room with the other and contracted the virus.

 Joint WHO missions with Saudi Arabia and Tunisia will take place as soon as possible, with the goal of gathering the facts needed to conduct a risk assessment, Chan said Monday.

 Earlier this month, the WHO said two health care workers in Saudi Arabia became ill while treating patients.

 Novel coronavirus acts like a cold virus and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea have also been seen, according to the WHO.

 It's not yet known how humans contract the virus, experts have said. Most of the cases so far have been seen in older men with other medical conditions; precise numbers are hard to come by, as officials don't know how many people might contract a mild form.

 Cases have been identified in eight countries including France and Saudi Arabia, according to the WHO. Other European countries include Germany and the United Kingdom. |||||

– MERS-CoV, the potentially deadly virus that spread from the Middle East to France last month, is now creeping further, with three cases reported in Italy this weekend. The patients, a 42-year-old woman, 45-year-old man, and 2-year-old girl, are said to be in stable condition. The man recently traveled to Jordan, and is reported to be a close contact of the two female patients, CNN reports. Of the 52 people known to be infected with the virus since September 2012, 30 have died. The virus is "a threat to the entire world," WHO General Director Margaret Chan told the World Health Assembly this week, reports CNN. "We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat," said Chan. "We do not know where the virus hides in nature. We do not know how people are getting infected. Until we answer these questions, we are empty-handed when it comes to prevention. These are alarm bells. And we must respond."


Summarize this article:

The founder of a Miami anti-aging clinic has agreed to talk to Major League Baseball about players linked to performance-enhancing drugs, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press on Tuesday night.

 Toronto Blue Jays' Melky Cabrera takes batting practice before a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, June 4, 2013 in San Francisco. Cabrera wants everyone to know just how sorry... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This undated booking photo provided by the Miami-Dade Police Department, on Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013, shows Anthony Bosch. A person familiar with the case tells The Associated Press Tuesday June 4,... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this April 26, 2013 file photo, Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun gets ready to bat during a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles. A person familiar with the case tells The... (Associated Press)

 FILE - in this April 1, 2013, file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, who is on the disabled list after hip surgery, talks to reporters outside the Yankees' clubhouse in New York. A person familiar... (Associated Press)

 Texas Rangers right fielder Nelson Cruz walks back to position after leaping head-first over the wall trying to catch a homer by Boston Red Sox's Mike Carp in the fifth inning of a baseball game at Fenway... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this July 23, 2012, file photo, New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez watches a home run against the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game in Seattle. A person familiar with the case tells The Associated... (Associated Press)

 The person declined to be identified because the investigation was still ongoing.

 Information that Anthony Bosch provides MLB on players who came to the now-closed Biogenesis of America clinic could lead to suspensions. Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera are among the players whose names have been tied to the clinic.

 The agreement between Bosch and MLB was first reported by ESPN.

 In addition to Rodriguez, New York Yankees teammate Francisco Cervelli also was linked to the clinic. Cervelli said he consulted Biogenesis for a foot injury, but didn't receive any treatment.

 "We'll let MLB handle everything and we don't really have a comment," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after a 4-3 win over Cleveland.

 Girardi said the Yankees were still planning on Rodriguez rejoining the team after the All-Star break. The star third baseman has been on the disabled list all season.

 As for the drug cloud that has hovered over baseball for years, Girardi said: "I think we all had hoped we'd gotten through it. But obviously, we haven't."

 Yankees outfielder Vernon Wells said it was too soon to draw any conclusions.

 "Everything right now is speculative," Wells said. "We can all sit here and wonder."

 MLB has sued Biogenesis of America and its operators, accusing them of scheming to provide banned PEDs to players in violation of their contracts.

 Miami New Times reported in January that it obtained purported records detailing drug purchases by Rodriguez, Cabrera, Cruz and former AL Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon.

 Yahoo Sports reported that Braun, the 2011 NL MVP, was mentioned in the records.

 Most have denied the Biogenesis link, although Rodriguez has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career and Colon and Cabrera each were suspended for 50 games last year for testing positive for elevated testosterone levels.

 Braun failed a drug test in 2011, but his suspension was overturned by an arbitrator. He has acknowledged that he was mentioned in Biogenesis records because his lawyers had used Bosch as consultant during the appeal.

 After the Brewers' 4-3 win in 10 innings over Oakland at Miller Park, Braun said he was done talking about the clinic.

 "I've already addressed everything related to the Miami situation. I addressed it in spring training. I will not make any further statements about it," he said.

 "The truth has not changed," he said.

 Braun said the speculation was not affecting him on the field.

 "No, of course not. I've dealt with this for two years now. I'm pretty good at avoiding distractions," he said. ||||| Major League Baseball will seek to suspend about 20 players connected to the Miami-area clinic at the heart of an ongoing performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, possibly within the next few weeks, "Outside the Lines" has learned. If the suspensions are upheld, the performance-enhancing drug scandal would be the largest in American sports history.

 Tony Bosch, right, flat-out denied any knowledge of suspected PED distribution at Biogenesis, his closed South Florida clinic, in an interview with ESPN's Pedro Gomez in April. ESPN

 Tony Bosch, founder of the now-shuttered Biogenesis of America, reached an agreement this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation, two sources told "Outside the Lines," giving MLB the ammunition officials believe they need to suspend the players.

 One source familiar with the case said the commissioner's office might seek 100-game suspensions for Rodriguez, Braun and other players, the penalty for a second doping offense. The argument, the source said, is the players' connection to Bosch constitutes one offense, and previous statements to MLB officials denying any such connection or the use of PEDs constitute another.

 Bosch and his attorneys did not return several calls. MLB officials refused to comment when reached Tuesday. On Wednesday, union executive director Michael Weiner released a statement saying, "The Players Association has every interest in both defending the rights of players and in defending the integrity of our joint program. We trust that the Commissioner's Office shares these interests."

 Sources said Bosch will meet with MLB officials in New York on Friday to begin sharing information and materials. He is expected to meet with lawyers and investigators for several days. The announcement of suspensions could follow within two weeks.

 Sources said discussions between Bosch and MLB were delayed while Bosch's lawyers spoke to the U.S. Attorney's office to get a sense of what sort of legal jeopardy Bosch might face. Before he would agree to a deal, sources said, he wanted an assurance that MLB could help mitigate any criminal exposure. MLB officials promised to do what they could, but do not have the power to stop a federal criminal investigation.

 Investigators have had records naming about 20 players for more than a month. But without a sworn statement from Bosch that the records are accurate and reflect illicit interactions between the players and the self-described biochemist, the documents are little more than a road map.

 Sources did not say what other materials, such as receipts and phone records, Bosch might provide, but said he has pledged to provide anything in his possession that could help MLB build cases against the players. Sources said MLB officials were not sure how many players might end up being pulled into the scandal; the 20 or so they know of have been identified through paperwork, but Bosch is expected to provide more. (Because some players are listed by their names and some by code names, officials are not yet certain whether some are redundant.)

 The development is a major break for MLB, which has pursued the case vigorously since Bosch's name was brought to MLB's attention last summer. In exchange for Bosch's full cooperation, sources said, Major League Baseball will drop the lawsuit it filed against Bosch in March, indemnify him for any liability arising from his cooperation, provide personal security for him and even put in a good word with any law enforcement agency that might bring charges against him. Sources said negotiations over the agreement, which lasted several weeks, stalled over the last point, as Bosch wanted the strongest assurances he could get that MLB would help mitigate any prosecution.

 At the same time, MLB is trying to secure the cooperation of at least two other former Bosch associates who have spoken to MLB investigators, as well as Juan Carlos Nunez, a registered agent who worked for longtime agents Seth and Sam Levinson and who is believed to have been a conduit between Bosch and numerous players.

 MLB already has established precedent to suspend a player for two offenses in one shot: Minor league player Cesar Carrillo was hit with a 100-game suspension in March when he was confronted with Biogenesis documents containing his name and then denied having any connection to Bosch or the clinic.

 However, because Carrillo was on a minor league contract and thus not a member of the MLB Players Association, he was not entitled to an appeal through arbitration. Major league players accused by MLB are expected to fight any suspension, and efforts to charge the players with multiple offenses would take that fight to another level. In the appeals process, players are allowed to confront witnesses and evidence in a courtroom-like procedure before an arbitration panel.

 Corroborating evidence against some players could prove difficult to come by. Several sources told ESPN that Bosch dealt only in cash and usually used friends as couriers, sometimes never seeing some of the athletes he served.

 In a recent interview with ESPN, his only one since the scandal broke, Bosch said he knew nothing about performance-enhancing drugs and that media accounts of his alleged PED distribution amounted to "character assassination."

 "I have been accused, tried and convicted in the media. And so I think [I] have been falsely accused throughout the media," he told ESPN's Pedro Gomez. "I've done nothing wrong."

 But sources said Bosch has been feeling pressure from both the MLB lawsuit, which claims tortious interference, and a potential criminal investigation, and that he sees full cooperation with MLB as one of his only refuges. Several attorneys have said they don't think the lawsuit could survive a legal challenge, but Bosch likely would have to put up a costly fight in order to have the case dismissed. Several sources have told ESPN that Bosch is nearly broke, living alternately with family members and friends, and has tried unsuccessfully so far to revive his "wellness" business.

 The Florida Department of Health recently said it had sent Bosch a cease-and-desist letter and referred the case to law enforcement. MLB has tried to enlist the Drug Enforcement Agency, but no sources close to the clinic said they have been interviewed by any law enforcement agents and said they don't know of anyone who has been.

 MLB officials, though, traveled to Miami last month to take the deposition of anti-aging specialist Dr. Daniel Carpman, a former acquaintance of Bosch. Biogenesis documents from 2011 included prescription forms purportedly signed by Carpman, who previously told "Outside the Lines'' that he didn't sign the forms.

 Bosch first came to MLB's attention in 2009 after Manny Ramirez, then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone. While Ramirez appealed that finding, MLB officials discovered a prescription in Ramirez's medical file for human chorionic gonadotropin, another banned substance. The HCG prescription, sufficient evidence to suspend Ramirez, was written by Dr. Pedro Bosch, Tony's father, but sources said at the time that Tony Bosch actually had been facilitating Ramirez's drug use. MLB tried to get the DEA involved, but the agency took a pass. Ramirez was suspended for 50 games and was suspended a second time for 100 games in 2011 after he failed another test.

 Tony Bosch resurfaced last summer after several players, all with connections to the Miami area, tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone. Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal all received 50-game suspensions. When an ESPN reporter asked MLB officials about information that all three might have been connected to Bosch, MLB launched an investigation, sending several members of its Department of Investigations to South Florida, where they have repeatedly visited former Biogenesis employees and Bosch associates, even paying at least one $5,000 for information.

 Braun's name appears on at least two documents, one that lists him as owing $20,000 to $30,000 and another that says he owed $1,500 for what sources said were PEDs. Braun issued a statement saying the larger figure was to pay Bosch for consulting on his successful appeal of a 50-game suspension after he tested positive for elevated testosterone in October 2011, and Braun denied ever receiving or using PEDs. During his interview with ESPN, Bosch said he only consulted with Braun, but sources said he is expected to tell MLB he did provide the Milwaukee star with drugs.

 In the Brewers' locker room after Tuesday night's game, when informed about the ESPN report, Braun put aside questions on any link to Biogenesis.

 "I've already addressed everything related to the Miami situation," Braun was quoted as saying by USA Today. "I addressed it in spring training. I will not make any further statements about it. The truth has not changed. I don't know the specifics of the story that came out today, but I've already addressed it, I've already commented on it, and I'll say nothing further about it."

 Yankees manager Joe Girardi was asked about Rodriguez Wednesday and said that while he texts or calls him regularly to check on his rehab, he does not discuss PEDs.

 "That's something that the union I think discusses clearly with the players, and they understand that, so that's handled through the union, I'm sure. But personally, I don't," Girardi said. "Players are well-informed, that's the bottom line. You'd have to have your head buried in the sand to know that there are repercussions if you don't do things properly."

 MLBPA officials have negotiated with their MLB counterparts to offer limited cooperation from the players but have been concerned the players could expose themselves to further liability.

 Bosch's claims in his ESPN interview that he never distributed PEDs are sharply at odds with accounts from numerous sources who say he helped provide banned substances to possibly dozens of athletes. They also contradict paperwork that several sources said was handwritten by Bosch. Shown a list of athletes who allegedly received PEDs through Biogenesis, Bosch told ESPN's Pedro Gomez, "No comment. I have never seen that in my life." The list was one of dozens of documents obtained by "Outside the Lines" and is similar to the documents in MLB's possession.

 Some paperwork, taken from company computers rather than Bosch's handwritten notes, lists players by code names. Most, such as Rodriguez, Colon, Cabrera and others, have been identified in media reports, but MLB will want Bosch to say who the code names represented. |||||

– Around 20 MLB players—including stars Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun—could soon be suspended for their ties to the Miami clinic at the center of a long-brewing performance-enhancing drug scandal, inside sources tell ESPN's Outside the Lines. Clinic founder Tony Bosch is reported to have reached an agreement with the league to verify the names of the athletes to whom the now-closed Biogenesis of America supplied PEDs; he'll also reportedly provide supporting documentation. In response, sources say, the MLB will drop its lawsuit against Bosch, indemnify him against any liability, and even provide him with personal security. Bosch's cooperation has been corroborated by the AP. Bosch, who previously denied any knowledge of the PEDs, is reportedly set to begin sharing info with lawyers and investigators on Friday; assuming the league gets the evidence it needs, the suspensions announcement could come within two weeks. The suspensions may be for as long as 100 games, says ESPN, the penalty generally reserved for second doping offenses. The argument is that the players' connection to Bosch is an offense in and of itself, and their previous denials of that connection to league officials is the second.


Murkowski said that with gay marriage, 'there is a change afoot in this country.' Murkowski 'evolving' on gay marriage

 Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she’s joined the ranks of those whose views are “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage.

 “I think it’s important to acknowledge that there is a change afoot in this country in terms of how marriage is viewed,” the Alaska Republican told the Chugiak-Eagle River Star on Wednesday. “The term ‘evolving view’ has been perhaps overused, but I think it is an appropriate term for me to use.”

 Story Continued Below

 She told the newspaper that she is reconsidering her views on gay marriage “very closely.”

 ( PHOTOS: Pols who evolved on gay marriage)

 Another Republican senator, Rob Portman of Ohio, last week said he was reversing course and announced his support for gay marriage after finding out that his college-age son is gay.

 Murkowski has voted for constitutional amendments that define marriage as between one man and one woman. In October of 2010, she told a newspaper from the Anchorage Archdiocese, The Catholic Anchor: “I believe marriages should be legally defined as between one man and one woman. I have voted in support of efforts in the Senate to enact a Constitutional amendment that would have limited marriage to one man and one woman only.”

 ( ‘The Scrum’ PODCAST: Gay marriage, guns and Ashley Judd)

 Months later, however, she voiced her support for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

 Murkowski suggested children played a part in her evolution on gay marriage.

 “I’ve got two young sons who, when I ask them and their friends how they feel about gay marriage, kinda give me one of those looks like, ‘Gosh mom, why are you even asking that question?’” Murkowski told the River Star.

 “We have so many issues in this country to focus on that worry us, that I question why there is such focus on the simple right of people to love whom they will,” she added, voicing her concern for bigger issues, like the sequestration, as opposed to being hung up on marriages.

 However, the lawmaker also told the paper that her actions on the issue will remain in sync with that of her constituents in Alaska, who voted to ban same-sex marriages in 1998. “It may be that Alaska will come to revisit its position on gay marriage, and as a policymaker I am certainly reviewing that very closely,” she said. ||||| Murkowski's gay marriage views 'evolving'

 By BY MATT TUNSETH/Chugiak-Eagle River Star

 U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowsk (R-Alaska) talks to a constituent before entering the Bear Mountain Grill in Eagle River on Wednesday, March 27 in Eagle River, where she addressed the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce. Star photo by Matt Tunseth

 U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday that her views on gay marriage are "evolving" and that she's reviewing her stance on the issue "very closely."

 "I think it's important to acknowledge that there is a change afoot in this country in terms of how marriage is viewed," said Alaska's senior senator, who has in the past voted to support proposed constitutional amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

 Murkowski's comments came following an address to the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce in which she touched on a variety of topics, including sequestration, the Senate's recently-passed budget and her efforts to end partisan gridlock in Congress.

 When asked about same sex marriage — which is currently being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in two separate cases — Murkowski seemed to indicate a softening on her previous stance.

 "I've got two young sons who, when I ask them and their friends how they feel about gay marriage, kinda give me one of those looks like, 'Gosh mom, why are you even asking that question?'"

 When pressed to come out either for or against gay marriage, Murkwoski said her view is "evolving."

 "The term 'evolving view' has been perhaps overused, but I think it is an appropriate term for me to use," she said.

 Murkowski said her position may depend on what she hears from her consitutents in Alaska, who in 1998 passed an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

 "It may be that Alaska will come to revisit its position on gay marriage, and as a policy maker I am certainly revieiwing that very closely," she said.

 U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) has come out in favor of gay marriage, while Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has said he's against it.

 Murkowski said the the nation faces far bigger issues than who should be allowed to get married.

 "We have so many issues in this country to focus on that worry us, that I question why there is such focus on the simple right of people to love whom they will," she said.

 For a complete report on Murkowski's address to the chamber, see the April 4 edition of the Star. |||||

Write a summary.

– Plenty of Senate Democrats have announced their support of gay marriage in recent weeks, but so far only Rob Portman has done so on the Republican side. That might soon change: Alaska's Lisa Murkowski tells the Chugiak-Eagle River Star that her view is "evolving." Murkowski has voted in the past to define marriage as a union of man and woman, notes Politico, but like many of the other politicians having second thoughts, she cites the influence of her kids: "I've got two young sons who, when I ask them and their friends how they feel about gay marriage, kinda give me one of those looks like, 'Gosh mom, why are you even asking that question?'" She says she's still not ready to declare a flip in position, however. "It may be that Alaska will come to revisit its position on gay marriage, and as a policy maker I am certainly revieiwing that very closely."


Here is a news article: Tiger is swapping his golf clubs for a set of skis, as he has started a hot new romance with Olympic gold medalist Lindsey, and HollywoodLife.com has all the EXCLUSIVE details!

 The world’s most notorious womanizer Tiger Woods has begun his first serious relationship since his marriage to Elin Nordegren ended in 2010. The Masters winner has been dating Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn since November, and he is so crazy about her that he took her on a romantic trip to Antigua! However, Lindsey’s friends are concerned about their friend dating a man who cheated on his wife with so many women. Read on for all the EXCLUSIVE details.

 Tiger & Lindsey’s Romance

 Tiger, 37, has been seeing Olympic Gold medalist Lindsey, 28, for two months, and HollywoodLife.com can EXCLUSIVELY reveal how met. “They met through the ski community, because Tiger is an active skier,” a source close to Lindsey reveals. “Lindsey has been teaching Tiger’s kids Sam and Charlie how to ski.”

 It must be serious if she has met his kids! The pair is currently busy with their respective sports careers, but they are trying to make time for each other and their budding romance.

 “Their busy schedules mean they don’t get a lot of time together, but they constantly talk on the phone,” a Tiger source tells Star. “And Tiger has made more of a commitment to Lindsey lately — he’s pulling out all the stops.”

 Tiger visited Lindsey in Austria in mid-January, where she was participating in an Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup event. Furthermore, he and Lindsey spent a romantic vacation in the Caribbean island of Antigua.

 And what does Lindsey think of Tiger’s notorious womanizing? She was wary of him before they started dating, and “it took Lindsey a while to to trust him because of his past.” Tiger’s marriage famously broke down in 2010 after it was revealed that he slept with over twenty other women while married. According to Star, Lindsey’s friends fear that she is falling for one of the biggest cheaters of all time, and there is nothing they can do to stop it.

 Perhaps Tiger has changed his womanizing ways!

 What do YOU think, HollywoodLifers? Will Tiger be faithful this time around?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUf1nLTdZi8

 — Eleanore Hutch

 More Sports News: ||||| Tiger Woods is back on the prowl — and the scandal-scarred golfer is pursuing another blond beauty.

 Woods is seeing sexy ski racer Lindsey Vonn, a 28-year-old Olympic medalist who bears a striking resemblance to his ex-wife, Swedish model Elin Nordegren, reports said Wednesday.

 PHOTOS: A LOOK AT TIGER WOODS' ALLEGED MISTRESSES

 “He wants to marry again and thinks Lindsey could be the woman,” a source close to the 37-year-old philanderer told Star magazine.

 Imeh Akpanudosen/FilmMagic

 Ethan Miller/Getty Images

 Woods recently paid a visit to Austria, where Vonn was racing, and treated her to a romantic trip to Antigua, according to reports.

 She married fellow skier Thomas Vonn in 2007 and they finalized their divorce this month.

 Butler/AP

 Woods and Nordegren split in 2009 after he was caught cheating with long list of babes.

 dbeekman@nydailynews.com |||||
A summary of this is?

– Why anyone would enter into a relationship with Tiger Woods after this is a mystery to us, and yet: Sources tell Star skier Lindsey Vonn has done just that, according to the New York Daily News and the New York Post. They've apparently been together since November, with Tiger visiting the Olympian in Austria while she was racing, then taking her to Antigua. According to a Hollywood Life source, "They met through the ski community, because Tiger is an active skier," and Vonn has been teaching his kids how to ski. It's the first serious relationship for Tiger, 37, since his divorce from Elin Nordegren (who, the Daily News notes, looks a bit like Vonn). As for the 28-year-old Vonn, she was just divorced from her husband of six years, Thomas, this month. For some reason most of us probably wouldn't comprehend, Tiger "wants to marry again," a source explains. He "thinks Lindsey could be the woman." But "it took Lindsey a while to trust him because of his past," says a source, and her friends are reportedly concerned.


Summarize this article:

Large Libyan military convoy arrives in Niger: source

 AGADEZ, Niger — A large military convoy from Libya arrived in the northern Niger city of Agadez late Monday, a military source told AFP.

 "I saw an exceptionally large and rare convoy of several dozen vehicles enter Agadez from Arlit... and go towards Niamey," the source said, amid speculation that toppled leader Moamer Kadhafi may be in it.

 "There are persistent rumours that Kadhafi or one of his sons are travelling in the convoy," the source said.

 A journalist from a private radio station in Agadez said he saw "a convoy of several dozen vehicles crossing the city and heading towards Niamey", the Niger capital.

 The journalist said several people reported seeing in the convoy Rhissa Ag Boula, a figurehead Tuareg rebel in Niger who is close to Kadhafi.

 Another Nigerien government source earlier said prominent regime officials had fled across the border on Sunday. They included Kadhafi's internal security chief Mansour Daw, who was earlier reported to be in the loyalist stronghold Bani Walid with at least two of the fallen strongman's sons.

 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Rebels reinforcements from Tripoli celebrate as they arrive at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid, Libya, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011. Negotiations over the surrender of one of Moammar Gadhafi's remaining... (Associated Press)

 Moammar Gadhafi is determined to fight his way back to power, the toppled dictator's spokesman said Tuesday, but a large convoy of his soldiers has apparently deserted, crossing the Libyan desert into neighboring Niger.

 Also Tuesday, tribal elders in a Gadhafi stronghold were trying to persuade regime loyalists holed up inside to lay down their arms, a rebel negotiator said.

 Still, Gadhafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim was defiant.

 Gadhafi is "in excellent health, planning and organizing for the defense of Libya," Ibrahim told the Syrian TV station al-Rai, adding that both Gadhafi and his sons remain in Libya.

 "We are fighting and resisting for the sake of Libya and all Arabs," Ibrahim said. "We are still strong and capable of turning the tables on NATO."

 Gadhafi loyalists have been holed up in several towns, including Bani Walid, some 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Thousands of rebel fighters have surrounded the town, as rebel leaders tried to negotiate a surrender deal.

 Rebel negotiator Abdullah Kanshil said Tuesday that tribal elders want assurances that the rebels will not take revenge, and are trying to persuade Gadhafi loyalists to lay down their arms.

 A member of the rebel transitional council said by telephone Tuesday he was in a village near Bani Walid called al-Manasser that had just raised the rebel flag.

 "We want the rest of the tribes to do like al-Manasser to avoid bloodshed and to realize that the regime is over and it will not come back," said Mubarak Sabah, who is from Bani Walid and represents the town on the transitional council. "They should realize that their brothers around the country are enjoying freedom and that they can follow them."

 Sabah reiterated that rebel fighters would not move into Bani Walid before Saturday unless the town surrendered, so as to avoid "a bloody war" with what he said was a minority of Gadhafi supporters in the town.

 Across the desert late Monday, a large convoy of Gadhafi loyalists rolled into the frontier town of Agadez, Niger, said Abdoulaye Harouna, the owner of the local newspaper. The convoy consisted of more than a dozen pickup trucks bristling with well-armed Libyan troops, said Harouna, who saw the arrival.

 At the head of the convoy, he said, was Tuareg rebel leader Rissa ag Boula, a native of Niger who led a failed war of independence on behalf of ethnic Tuareg nomads a decade ago. He then sought refuge in Libya and was believed to be fighting on behalf of Gadhafi.

 It was not immediately clear if the convoy included any members of the Gadhafi family or other high-level members of his regime.

 Gadhafi's regime is believed to have financed the Tuareg rebellion in the north of Niger. African nations where Tuaregs represent a significant slice of the population, like Niger, have been among the last to recognize the rebels that ousted Gadhafi.

 Gadhafi remains especially popular in towns like Agadez, where a majority of the population is Tuareg. The Sahara Desert market town is the largest city in northern Niger.

 Harouna says the pro-Gadhafi soldiers accompanying Boula were coming from the direction of Arlit.

 The desert that stretches north of Arlit borders both Libya and Algeria. Some members of Gadhafi's family, including his wife, his daughter Aisha and two of his sons, recently sought refuge in Algeria.

 A rebel spokesman for Tripoli's military council said the rebel leadership was aware of the convoy but had few details.

 "It was not a large number of soldiers. We think it was a protection team of some sort," Anis Sharif said.

 A NATO official in Brussels said the alliance did not have any immediate information about the convoy.

 NATO warplanes don't normally patrol that deep south in the Sahara, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with standing alliance policy.

 NATO reported bombing several sites overnight near Gadhafi's Mediterranean hometown of Sirte, a region NATO has targeted heavily every day in recent days.

 Gadhafi's whereabouts are unknown, but speculation has centered on Sirte and the other loyalist holdouts of Sabha in the far south and Bani Walid.

 The rebels hold most of Libya and have sketched out plans for a transition to democratic rule that would begin with a "declaration of liberation" that was likely to come before Gadhafi's strongholds are defeated and he is captured.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Karin Laub in Tripoli contributed to this report. |||||

– A large military convoy consisting of 200 to 250 vehicles entered Niger from Libya yesterday, leading many to speculate it might include Moammar Gadhafi or one of his sons, reports the AFP. One report claimed the convoy was heading through Niger on the way to Burkina Faso, a country that has offered Gadhafi asylum. The convoy was reportedly carrying large amounts of cash taken from the Central Bank of Libya in Sirte. Other sources claimed that senior Gadhafi officials also crossed into Niger on Sunday, and Tuareg rebels close to Gadhafi were seen with Libyan forces. But a Gadhafi spokesman was defiant, reports the AP: The longtime dictator is “in excellent health, planning and organizing for the defense of Libya,” where both Gadhafi and his sons remain, the rep told Syrian TV. “We are still strong and capable of turning the tables on NATO."


Write an article based on this summary:

– Willy Wonka may have been on to something. Regularly eating chocolate could possibly help prevent a type of irregular heartbeat that can increase the risk of heart failure, strokes, and cognitive impairment, according to a study published Tuesday in Heart. Live Science reports between 2.7 million and 6.1 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, in which the upper chambers of the heart beat at a different pace than the lower chambers. But a study of 55,000 adults in Denmark found that those who ate chocolate at least once a month had rates of atrial fibrillation 10% to 20% lower than those who ate it less than once a month. The best results came from eating an ounce of chocolate two to six times per week. It's impossible to say based on the study whether chocolate consumption was directly responsible for lower rates of atrial fibrillation. Researchers also aren't clear how chocolate could even affect the development of the condition, but it may have something to do with things called flavanols, the Los Angeles Times reports. Atrial fibrillation is thought to be caused by molecules damaging heart tissue. The flavanols in chocolate can stop inflammation that leads to tissue damage. "As part of a healthy diet, moderate intake of chocolate is a healthy snack choice," Reuters quotes the study's lead author as saying. Though it's important to choose chocolate with a higher cocoa content. (And you should probably also take it easy on the ibuprofen.)

By Andrew M. Seaman

 A man gives a chocolate demonstration inside The Chocolate Museum in New York, U.S., May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

 Eating a small amount of chocolate every week or so may decrease the risk of a common and serious type of irregular heart rhythm, according to a new study of people in Denmark.

 People who ate chocolate one to three times per month were about 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation than those who ate the sweet treat less than once a month, researchers found.

 “As part of a healthy diet, moderate intake of chocolate is a healthy snack choice,” said lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

 The study cannot say for certain that it was the chocolate that prevented atrial fibrillation, however.

 Mostofsky and colleagues write in the journal Heart that eating cocoa and cocoa-containing foods may help heart health because they have a high volume of flavanols, which are compounds that are believed to have anti-inflammatory, blood vessel-relaxing and anti-oxidant properties.

 Past studies have that found eating chocolate - especially dark chocolate, which has more flavanols - is tied to better measures of heart health and decreased risk for certain conditions like heart attacks and heart failure, they add.

 There isn’t as much research on whether chocolate is also linked to a lower risk of atrial fibrillation, which occurs when the upper chamber of the heart beats irregularly.

 At least 2.7 million people in the U.S. have atrial fibrillation, which increases their risk for blood clots and resulting strokes, heart failure and other complications, according to the American Heart Association.

 For the new analysis, the researchers used data collected for a long-term study of 55,502 people in Denmark. The men and women were between 50 and 64 years old when it began, and they provided information about their diets when they entered the study between 1993 and 1997.

 The researchers then linked that diet data to Denmark’s national health registries to see who was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

 Overall, about 3,346 cases of atrial fibrillation occurred over an average of 13.5 years.

 Based on their diets at the beginning of the study period, people who ate one serving, about 1 ounce (28.35 grams), of chocolate per week were 17 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by the end of the study than people who reported eating chocolate less than once a month.

 Similarly, those who ate 2 to 6 ounces per week were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation while those who ate more than an ounce of chocolate a day were 16 percent less likely to have the condition.

 Among women, the biggest risk reduction was tied to eating one serving of chocolate per week. For men, the biggest reduction came with eating two to six servings per week.

 “I think our message here is that moderate chocolate intake as part of a healthy diet is an option,” Mostofsky told Reuters Health.

 The researchers caution that they can’t account for unmeasured factors, such as kidney disease and sleep apnea, that may influence the risk of atrial fibrillation. They also didn’t have data on the type of chocolate or the amount of flavanols participants ate. Their diets may have also changed over the nearly 14 years of data collection.

 The data also suggests the participants who ate the most chocolate consumed more calories but had a lower body mass index - a measure of weight in relation to height - than people who ate the least chocolate, noted Alice Lichtenstein, director and senior scientist at the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston.

 “It’s very likely - if I had to bet - that these people were more physically active,” said Lichtenstein, who was not involved in the new study.

 She said people likely can’t get around the fact that they need to have a healthy diet, be physically active and not smoke to optimize their health.

 “There is no quick fix,” she told Reuters Health.

 Drs. Sean Pokorney and Jonathan Piccini write in an accompanying editorial that the study’s findings are interesting and warrant further consideration despite their limitations.

 “A double-blind randomized controlled trial is needed to evaluate the true efficacy of chocolate for the prevention of (atrial fibrillation) and such a trial would need to incorporate quantified doses of cocoa,” write Pokorney and Piccini, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

 SOURCE: bit.ly/2q8M5xs Heart, online Mary 23, 2017. ||||| Eating chocolate has been linked with a reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, and now a new study from Denmark suggests that regular consumption of the treat may help to prevent the development of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat.

 Researchers found that adults in the study who ate chocolate at least once a month — or more frequently than that — had rates of atrial fibrillation that were 10 to 20 percent lower than those who ate chocolate less than once a month, according to the findings published today (May 23) in the journal Heart.

 Atrial fibrillation is a condition in which the heart's two upper chambers, known as the atria, do not beat at the same pace as the heart's two lower chambers, resulting in an irregular heartbeat. The condition increases a person's risk of strokes, heart failure and cognitive impairment.

 The study found that the strongest overall effects were seen in men and women who ate 1 ounce of chocolate, two to six times per week, said the lead author of the study, Elizabeth Mostofsky, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centerin Boston. [5 Surprising Ways to Be Heart Healthy]

 One ounce of chocolate is equal to about three or four small, individual Dove Bar squares, for example, Mostofsky said.

 Between 2.7 million and 6.1 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, so it's important to identify effective ways to help prevent the condition from developing, the researchers wrote in their study.

 Two previous studies have looked at the connection between chocolate consumption and the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, but the results from both of those studies suggested that any association found may be due to chance.

 Unlike those two earlier studies, whose participants were only men or only women, the new study included both men and women. And the new study also included adults who had been clinically diagnosed with atrial fibrillation rather than people who had self-reported the condition, as was the case with the previous studies.

 In the new study, the researchers analyzed data collected from more than 55,000 adults between ages 50 and 64 in Denmark. All of them were participants in an ongoing study called the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Study. [5 Wacky Things That Are Good for Your Health]

 When the participants were first recruited for the study between 1993 and 1997, they completed a detailed food-frequency questionnaire. One of those questions asked how frequently the participant ate chocolate during the past year.

 The researchers found that more than 3,300 adults were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter (a condition in which the heart beats faster than usual, but is not irregular) over the follow-up period of 13.5 years, on average.

 When researchers took into consideration other factors that could influence people's development of atrial fibrillation, such as alcohol intake, smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the study showed an association between people with a moderate intake of chocolate and a lower risk of developing atrial fibrillation.

 The study does not prove there is a cause-and-effect relationship between eating chocolate and a lowered risk of atrial fibrillation. And although the exact mechanism of how chocolate may prevent atrial fibrillation is not known, it's possible that compounds in chocolate called flavonoids may play a role, the researchers said.

 Flavonoids have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, Mostofsky said. They may limit the inflammatory process in the body, reducing the stickiness of the blood and leading to less scarring of connective tissue. All of these factors may help prevent the electrical remodeling of the heart that leads to atrial fibrillation, she explained.

 The findings showed that for women, the strongest association was seen in those who ate a 1-ounce serving of chocolate, once a week – this level of consumption was linked to a 21 percent lower risk of atrial fibrillation. For men, the strongest association was seen in those who ate two to six 1-ounce servings of chocolate weekly. These men had a 23 percent lower risk of atrial fibrillation.

 But Mostofsky cautioned that chocolate sold in Europe generally has a higher cocoa content than chocolate available in the United States. [6 Distinctive Food Guides from Around the World]

 All in all, the findings suggest that compared with some other snack choices, a moderate intake of chocolate may be a heart-healthy snack, Mostofsky told Live Science. But people should choose chocolate with a higher cocoa content, which has more health benefits and protective compounds, she said.

 One of the limitations of the study is that people in Denmark are more similar to each other in race and ethnicity than people in other countries, so the findings may not be generalizable to other populations, other researchers wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

 The chocolate consumers in the study were also generally healthier, better educated and had lower rates of high blood pressure and diabetes than the people who didn't eat chocolate, and all of these factors could lessen their odds for atrial fibrillation, wrote the editorial authors Dr. Jonathan Piccini and Dr. Sean Pokorney. Both doctors are cardiologists at the Duke Center for Atrial Fibrillation at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

 Even so, Piccini and Pokorney said "the findings are interesting and warrant further consideration, given the importance of identifying effective prevention strategies for atrial fibrillation."

 Since 25 percent of adults will develop atrial fibrillation over the course of their lifetime, there is a need to identify additional prevention targets, including lifestyle factors, to lower the risk, according to the editorial.

 Originally published on Live Science. ||||| If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||


Article:

Photo

 First, there was old-fashioned gambling on football. Then came the fantasy leagues. And now, thanks to Wall Street, fans can buy a stake in their favorite player.

 On Thursday, a start-up company announced a new trading exchange for investors to buy and sell interests in professional athletes. Backed by executives from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the sports world, the company plans to create stocks tied to an athlete‚Äôs financial performance.

 After considering a number of possibilities for its inaugural initial public offering, the company found a charismatic candidate in Arian Foster, the Pro Bowl running back of the Houston Texans. Investors in the deal will receive stock linked to Mr. Foster‚Äôs future earnings, which includes the value of his playing contracts, corporate endorsements and appearance fees.

 The company, Fantex Holdings, has grand ambitions beyond a Foster I.P.O. ‚ÄĒ it hopes to sign up more football players and other athletes, as well as celebrities like pop singers and Hollywood actors.

 But if such an investment sounds speculative, that is because it is. In a filing for the Foster deal with securities regulators, Fantex laid out 37 pages of risk factors, including a possible career-ending injury or a performance slump.

 ‚ÄúYou are potentially one hit away from losing your money,‚ÄĚ said Bradley Shear, a sports management professor at George Washington University. ‚ÄúOn any given Sunday, anything can happen to any player.‚ÄĚ

 Risks aside, the offering is intended to capitalize on the mammoth popularity of the National Football League and fantasy football, where fans draft players and score points for touchdowns, yardage and other notable plays during the season.

 If thousands of fans are willing to pay as much as $250 for an Arian Foster jersey, the thinking goes, why wouldn‚Äôt they pay up for a few shares of Arian Foster stock?

 Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the N.F.L., declined to comment on the deal.

 A market of star athletes calls to mind other unusual investments tied to entertainers. In the late 1990s, a financier created Bowie Bonds, a small bond issue that paid interest from the current and future revenue of 25 albums by the rock musician David Bowie. The brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald runs the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a marketplace for bets on the fortunes of movies and their stars, but participants use only play money.

 Fantex wants its venture to be anything but make-believe. Investors can now register with the company and soon place orders for the I.P.O. The company will market the I.P.O. in the coming weeks, offering 1.06 million shares at $10 a share, or $10.6 million worth of stock. If demand is insufficient, the company may cancel the deal.

 As for Mr. Foster, he will receive a $10 million payment from Fantex upon consummation of the offering. (The balance of the I.P.O. covers the deal‚Äôs costs.) In exchange for the payment, Mr. Foster has promised to pay Fantex 20 percent of his future earnings.

 The company is effectively financing the $10 million payment to Mr. Foster by raising money from retail investors in an I.P.O. In its filings, Fantex says it believes that the stock is intended to track the economic performance of Mr. Foster‚Äôs future brand income.

 Still, shareholders will not have a direct investment in Mr. Foster or any control over his brand. The company did say it expected to pay a dividend to holders of the Foster stock.

 Shares will trade exclusively on an exchange operated by Fantex. The tracking stock will increase in value if Mr. Foster raises his earnings potential with standout play or increased sponsorships.

 Then, the investor can try to sell his shares at a higher price. Fantex will make a 1 percent commission from both the buyer and seller on the trades.

 Buck French, the company‚Äôs co-founder and chief executive, demurred when asked to predict how the stock might behave in a secondary market.

 ‚ÄúWe don‚Äôt know how it will trade,‚ÄĚ he said.

 A graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School, Mr. French made a fortune during the dot-com boom when, in 2000, he sold OnLink, a software company he founded, to Siebel Systems for about $600 million. One of his Fantex co-founders, David M. Beirne, was a general partner at Benchmark Capital, the venture capital firm that was one of eBay‚Äôs earliest investors.

 Mr. French said Mr. Beirne conceived of the Fantex concept more than a decade ago when working on a sports-related venture with John Elway, the former Denver Broncos quarterback.

 ‚ÄúFantex represents a powerful new opportunity for professional athletes, and I wish it were available during my playing days,‚ÄĚ Mr. Elway, a member of Fantex‚Äôs board, said in a statement.

 Wall Street executives have also joined the company. Fantex‚Äôs president is John Rodin, co-president of the hedge fund Glenview Capital Management and a Goldman Sachs alumnus. Its chief technology officer is Joshua S. Levine, a former senior executive at E*Trade and Deutsche Bank.

 A big question is whether other athletes are on the sidelines awaiting a Fantex I.P.O. Mr. French declined to discuss future deals.

 On one hand, athletes and their agents could view Fantex as a compelling proposition, providing athletes with a large upfront payment for giving up a certain percentage of their future earnings. Such a payment could act as a hedge against an unexpected downturn in a player‚Äôs career.

 But advisers could counsel against trading a piece of their future earnings for a big lump sum, as some athletes are notorious for squandering money.

 Other considerations are the specter of insider trading violations, and complying with the federal securities laws. Mr. Foster, his friends and his financial team will have to be especially circumspect when discussing issues that might affect his earnings.

 A fifth-year veteran from the University of Tennessee, Mr. Foster, 27, has led all running backs in rushing touchdowns two of the last three seasons, while racking up well over 1,000 yards each year. In March 2012, Houston signed Mr. Foster to a contract worth up to $43.5 million over five years. He has a handful of endorsement contracts, including with Under Armour and Kroger Texas.

 Half Mexican-American, half black, Mr. Foster is a crowd favorite and media darling who trumpets his passions for poetry and yoga. When he scores, he clasps his hands together and strikes a namaste pose.

 ‚ÄúWe see Arian as a unique, multidimensional individual, a trailblazer,‚ÄĚ said Mr. French, who added that Fantex cold-called Mr. Foster‚Äôs agent to pitch the idea.

 Yet during the first six weeks of this season, Mr. Foster‚Äôs production has flagged. He has just one rushing touchdown. Heading into the year, there was concern over various injuries. Off the field, Foster admitted in a documentary released in September that he potentially violated N.C.A.A. rules by accepting money when he was a college player.

 Those issues underscore the risk of betting on Mr. Foster‚Äôs brand, or that of any professional athletes, especially N.F.L. players. Unlike some other sports, N.F.L. contracts often are not fully guaranteed, meaning players are often cut and forced to find a new team, sometimes for a lesser contract.

 For investors, the long-term outlook for a player will be difficult to handicap. If a player‚Äôs fortunes suffer and the tracking stock declines, there will be no rescue financing from a private equity firm ‚ÄĒ or an investor like Warren E. Buffett ‚ÄĒ to stabilize the share price.

 And unlike a stockholder of a public company, investors have no corporate governance rights.

 There are no plans to hold annual meetings with the athlete, or quarterly conference calls.

 Despite all the risks, some football fans appear poised to buy in. As one tweeted on Thursday after reading the news: ‚ÄúWow. This is awesome.‚ÄĚ ||||| Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images

 There was a time, not too long ago, when a fool who wandered into the world of investments could very well be separated from his money with the help of any number of dumb, overpriced, or downright fraudulent schemes. Then, in 2008, the economy went into freefall, and everyone who had money left held onto their checkbooks a little more tightly. Fear bred caution, and some of the worst offenders in the dumb-money chase were forced to close up shop, or at least become a little more discreet about their advantage-taking.

 Now, with five years of air between Lehman Brothers and the present, the seal has been lifted. Athletes and virtual currencies are being traded alongside Ford and General Electric. Venture capitalists are pitching start-up stocks to the unwashed masses. And later today, the SEC is expected to propose new rules that will make it even easier for companies to fleece the unsuspecting public.

 Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the age of bullshit investments is back.

 Look around today’s markets and you’ll see a surfeit of senseless investment opportunities wearing the cloak of legitimacy.

 You’ll see, on page one of the New York Times, a start-up called Fantex touting a new investment vehicle that allows fans of NFL running back Arian Foster to support his career by purchasing stock that gives them a share of his future earnings. (What didn’t make page one: Foster’s career-worst game the very next Sunday.) This investment opportunity, which will appeal mainly to those too young to remember Bowie Bonds, is a terrible idea on multiple fronts: It bases returns on the unpredictable performance of professional athletes, it gives stock that can only be traded on a private, relatively illiquid exchange, and its single-athlete stock can be converted into common Fantex stock whenever the company feels like it.

 Look harder, and you’ll see companies like Goldman Sachs throwing millions of dollars at hare-brained schemes like Motif Investing, a “theme-based stock investment platform” that allows rank amateurs to make up “motifs” of stocks they think are going to behave in a certain, coordinated way. (Professional stock traders do this all the time, without calling it a “motif” strategy — but they don’t charge ordinary people what can amount to double-digit fees, nor do they base their investment decisions on “Companies with lots of Facebook likes,” as Motif suggests.)

 You’ll see Bitcoins, the everlasting fascination of Silicon Valley crypto-geeks, being not only spoken about as an investment-grade commodity despite having higher volatility than your average Baldwin brother, but inspiring entire investment vehicles (one of which is structured by celebrity twins) that give ordinary investors as well as the tech-savvy crowd the chance to lose money when the fad runs its course. You’ll also see art dealers trying to convince you that betting on the paintings of unknown artists is a sound portfolio move.

 Some of these bad ideas spring from the normal irrational exuberance that comes with an economic bounce-back, and the fact that many investors are more willing to jump into murky waters than they were in 2008. But there are other factors in play, too. The JOBS Act, for one, was a post-crisis law that was meant to make it easier for companies to raise money. Instead, by paving the way for equity crowdfunding and making it possible for private investors to hawk their services like Cracker Jack vendors at Yankee Stadium, the law opened a Pandora’s box of truly unwise investments.

 Thanks to the JOBS Act, there are now crowd-funding bazaars that make gambling in the markets as easy as picking a Spotify playlist. There’s also the newest West Coast fund-raising trend, the venture capital syndicate, which makes it possible for average shmoes with little to no market expertise to enter into highly risky investments with early stage start-ups, and which has put the sentence “Miley Cyrus could be the next big tech investor” within the realm of the possible.

 There’s a lot to take in, between the NFL-stock-trading and the Miley Cyrus venture capital buffoonery. But the upshot is that between the rise of the social web, the recovering economy, and the deregulatory impact of the JOBS Act, it’s now easier than ever for you to lose money in fun-sounding ways. This is fine if you have disposable income to spare, which many of the people who meet the SEC’s threshold for being an “accredited investor” (someone with a $1 million net worth or an individual annual income of $200,000) do. But other accredited investors are doctors, lawyers, and workaday tech nerds who know next to nothing about the stock markets, but are gullible enough when flashy investments are shined in their faces. For these people, no number of “treat it as casino money” caveats will suffice; they will inevitably succumb to the pitch, and they will lose money.

 I’m not the only one noticing that things are getting dangerous. Felix Salmon says that years of near-zero interest rates and the JOBS Act gold rush mean that “even the smart money has started funding companies at utterly bonkers valuations.” Josh Brown, a financial advisor and CNBC regular, told me in an e-mail that the “ludicrous” investing climate “is a byproduct of the giddiness we’re seeing amongst the owners of financial assets. We’ve eclipsed the 2007 peak of household net worth but the makeup is very different. More has accrued to the upper echelon and the lesson that group has learned about the nature of investing is that even if we blow up, the Fed and Congress will ensure that come out of it in even better shape.” And the SEC has been busting record numbers of petty thefts and boiler-room schemes — many of which reflect the intersection of well-intentioned but underinformed investors with slick profiteers claiming to have access to the next big thing.

 The truly scary part of what’s happening now is that it’s not a particular asset bubble, nor the sketchy practices of a coterie of bankers, that’s endangering the investment portfolios of normal people. It’s the deregulated system itself that poses the threat. Unlike in 2008, this exuberance won’t end in a sudden crash, brought on by shady practices at large investment firms. It will be a slow flow of assets from the information-deprived to the information-rich, in the form of fees and other completely legal wealth transfers.

 Whatever the cause — be it interest rates or income inequality, the JOBS Act or simply the state of the S&P and the folly of man — make no mistake: The investment environment is as hostile to ordinary investors as it’s been in many years. The best course of action is simply to do very little — to invest in low-cost index funds, or just follow Harold Pollack’s now-famous Financial Advice Index Card. But if you must invest in things beyond the ordinary and boring, watch your wallet: Your next big mistake may be just around the corner. ||||| Bitcoins may be getting a lot of buzz, but the market for products that deal with old fashioned dollars and cents is apparently still strong.

 To wit: Motif Investing, the Silicon Valley startup headed up by Microsoft alum Hardeep Walia that lets people invest their money in themed groups of stocks called “motifs”, has raised $25 million in a new round of funding led by Goldman Sachs.

 This counts as a Series C round for Motif, bringing the total amount of money invested in the company to $51 million since it was founded in mid-2010. All of Motif’s previous investors, including Ignition Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Foundation Capital, also pitched into this new round. As part of the investment Darren Cohen, Goldman’s managing director of principal strategic investments, is joining Motif’s board as an observer.

 In an interview this week, Walia told me that Motif’s growth has been strong since it officially launched its platform to the public last summer. To date more than 7500 “motifs” have been created, which are investment indexes that let people invest in genres such as “Biotech Breakthrough” or “Housing Recovery” as opposed to buying individual stocks or putting complete trust in a mutual fund or ETF.

 Motif, which Walia bills as a “Facebook meets eTrade meets Mint.com,” does not collect management fees, which is another thing that sets it apart from traditional money management vehicles. It makes money by charging a flat $9.95 fee to make a motif (which can include up to 30 stocks) and in several other ways, such as collecting margins on investments and selling value-added services and products. In the months since launch, the platform has attracted a diverse user base ranging from “ultra high-net-worth individuals” who primarily appreciate that Motif does not charge management fees, to “newbie investors” who appreciate the site’s natural language approach, Walia says.

 With the fresh Series C funds, Walia says that Motif will work on further developing its product for financial advisors, which will let professional consultants use Motif’s investment platform with their own clients. There are other new products in the works, as well, he says. Motif’s own staff, meanwhile, has grown to 40 full-time employees, and the funding will also be used to continue to add talent (with a special focus, not surprisingly, on engineering.)

 When asked about strategic options — after all, Goldman Sachs doesn’t exactly invest in companies without an eye on getting a return — Walia said that he’s focused on building Motif as “a company that lasts and is independent, so that we can continue to disrupt this space.”

 That said, Walia, whose resume includes time on the M&A team at Microsoft, did acknowledge that Motif could make sense as an acquisition target, especially for established entities that deal in ETFs, stock brokering, and financial services. “A lot of people have found what we do quite fascinating… we are very attractive to certain players.” For now, though, Motif certainly has the vision — and funding — necessary to continue to grow as a standalone entity, and it should continue to be one to watch at the intersection of finance and technology. |||||
What is a summary?

– Hang on to your wallets, folks, because "the age of bull---- investments is back," declares Kevin Roose at New York. The collapse of 2008 put a damper on things, but today the financial world is filled with crazy schemes and iffy start-ups designed to separate suckers from their money. Want to buy stock in a football player? Have at it. Heard of "Motif Investing"? Good luck with that. Care to join the Winklevoss twins by investing in Bitcoins? Fine. "Some of these bad ideas spring from the normal irrational exuberance that comes with an economic bounce-back, and the fact that many investors are more willing to jump into murky waters than they were in 2008," writes Roose. But he also blames the JOBS Act, put in place after the financial crisis to help companies raise money, for unleashing a wave of these dumb investments. "The upshot is that between the rise of the social web, the recovering economy, and the deregulatory impact of the JOBS Act, it's now easier than ever for you to lose money in fun-sounding ways." That's fine if you've got money to burn, but ordinary investors should pay heed. Click for the full column.


Article:

After calling it Project Natal for more than a year, Microsoft finally gives its motion-control system a real name, formally unveiling Kinect during a special Cirque du Soleil performance.

 An official product shot of Kinect, formally known as Project Natal, the new motion-control system from Microsoft. The company showed it off Sunday night in a special performance in Los Angeles.

 LOS ANGELES--After more than a year of speculation, we finally know what Microsoft's new motion-control system is called. For those that have referred to it for a year as Project Natal, meet Kinect for Xbox 360.

 On Sunday night, at the University of Southern California's Galen Center here, and during a special performance by Cirque du Soleil, Microsoft finally and formally pulled back the wraps on its much-anticipated system, now known as Kinect, but originally the work of the Israeli company 3DV.

 After sitting through (actually standing, as the press was placed on the floor of the arena for a couple of hours with no seats) the performance, in which the Cirque's performers acted out and demonstrated a number of ways that Kinect can be used, my first impression is that Microsoft has hit on something with some serious potential. But at least as demonstrated Sunday, that potential hasn't been fully realized.

 It was tempting to think that Microsoft was taking Kinect a little too seriously during the performance, given the scale and scope of the event (more on that in a bit), but it's clear that the company has a system on its hands that it plans to incorporate widely across its video gaming and digital living room environments.

 And while it's too soon to tell exactly how Kinect will be used, and what software is being developed for it--Microsoft will say a lot more Monday morning at its formal E3 press conference--one thing became clear Sunday night: with Kinect, and a sports game, and an exercise game for it, Microsoft is, among other things, putting Nintendo and its Wii, its Balance Board, its Wii Fit and Wii Sports squarely in its sights.

 Clever entrance

 After waiting in line for more than an hour, the thousands of people on hand for the Sunday night event were ushered inside the Galen Center. While we didn't know what was in store, we were first taken through mock living rooms, where "normal" American families greeted us. We didn't get to sit down, however, but were clearly being led to see how Kinect, nee Project Natal, is an integral part of the living room experience.

 Everyone was then given a white poncho, with large shoulder pads, and awhile into the Cirque's performance, I looked around the arena and had a definite sense of being part of some sort of religious revival, what with thousands of people sitting and standing together, all wearing identical shimmering white ponchos. No individuality here.

 When the performance finally began, a loud, all-encompassing voice boomed out of speakers and began spelling out homilies, among them that history was about to be rewritten and that for the first time, human beings would be in control and that the machines are going to have to adapt to us.

 "After 5 million years of evolution," the voice boomed, "might the next step be the absence of an object?"

 High on the walls of the arena were large digital screens, and these became the place where we were able to really see what Kinect is all about.

 Far up one wall, a "real" living room was placed, and there, a "family" of mom and dad, brother and sister took turns playing all kinds of games and other experiences for Kinect. While not naming any of these games, it was clear that Microsoft was previewing what it would be showing off tomorrow.

 At one point, a giant, glowing Xbox symbol rose out of the stage where the Cirque du Soleil performers were doing their thing. And on top of this stood one of the kids, who raised his arms and began to show how Kinect would mirror his movements.

 The kid yelled out, "What's your name?" And the disembodied system responded, with letters jumbled on a screen and then placed in order, "Kinect."

 (Credit: Microsoft)

 A few minutes later, we saw how by walking in front of a Kinect system, your body movement is matched by that of an avatar on the screen. Then we saw how you can wave your arms to flip the pages of a large "book, "which in this case was used to embed photos Kinect was taking of the family.

 Game time

 And now it was time to play some games.

 Standing in front of the Kinect system, the young boy began miming out the movements for a river rafting game, and high on the walls, on digital representations of giant TVs, we saw his avatar riding a raft, dipping and weaving his way down a river of rapids.

 Soon, the raft morphed into a platform of sorts riding on rails and here, we saw one of the directions Microsoft and its developer partners are clearly going with Kinect: to score points, the kid had to wave his arms around in order to get his avatar to do the same and accurately hit a series of targets coming at him on different parts of the screen. If a target was high and to his left, that's where he had to put his arms. Low and right? He had to put his arms there. And so on. This looked pretty cool, and was definitely one of the things that showed the device's potential. It made me feel a little bit like it was Disneyland's Jungle Cruise on crack.

 Next up was a driving game, and not surprisingly, controlling the vehicle by miming a steering wheel with your hands.

 The game itself looked kind of cool, and at one point, as the car vaulted high into the air on the screen, it slowed down and took on freedom of movement in 360 degrees, and was able to totally change direction and aim at a different set of targets. And then it became a flying car, with wings, which was being controlled by both the "brother" and the "sister," each standing on one of the "wings."

 And then it was time for a "Star Wars" scene, and the avatar belonging to "dad" suddenly had a light saber in his hands, and "dad" was able to control it with nothing but his hands. First he was fending off Stormtroopers, and then, of course, it was time to battle Darth Vader.

 That was all well and good for the kids and for men, but what about women? Well, then it was time for a yoga scene, and sure enough, Microsoft showed how Kinect can be used for a stylish yoga regimen, with the user's avatar almost exactly mirroring her body motions. How exactly that will work in consumer software is not entirely clear to me, but I'm sure we'll see on Monday.

 By now I was seeing some of the strategy, and understanding how Microsoft seemed to be showing glimpses of its versions of the games and hardware that helped Nintendo's Wii become such a hit.

 The yoga demonstration and the flying car, for example, seemed to be aimed at Nintendo's Balance Board. And then we saw a big multi-sports competition game, in which the family faced off in sports like Hurdles (jumping), javelin (throwing), bowling, beach volleyball, soccer and the 100-meter sprint. This was Wii Sports writ for Kinect.

 There was also a dancing game, in which the performers showed how it was necessary to mimic an on-screen avatar's moves precisely in order to get points--turning most of what we'd seen so far on its head, of course, in that the humans were now following the avatar, rather than the reverse.

 And then, it was over.

 Obviously, Sunday night's event wasn't meant to unveil specifics about the kinds of games that will be available when Kinect ships, likely this fall. That will come Monday, with Microsoft's press conference. Nor did Microsoft talk pricing Sunday night.

 But what it did was issue a clear challenge, both to Nintendo and its hugely popular Wii system, and to Sony, which is also working on its own motion control system, known until now as Move. Sony will likely be showing a lot more about Move--including perhaps another brand name--with its own press conference on Tuesday. And Nintendo, too, will be showing off its goods on Tuesday. So one has to wonder how it and Sony will answer Microsoft's challenge.

 My takeaway from Sunday night, as I alluded to above, is that Microsoft definitely thinks it has a game-changer with Kinect. And I surely see the potential. I hope that it will be showing a lot more on Monday, because with what we saw Sunday night, I'm impressed, but not all that much so. It was the sign of a nice addition to the motion controller wars, but not yet anything that completely upends things. And mainly that's because nothing Microsoft showed Sunday night was all that much of a surprise. We've known about Project Natal for more than a year. This all seemed like obvious directions.

 That might change on Monday, but unless it does, I'd have to say that Microsoft is going to have to work very hard in the coming months to live up to how seriously it is taking itself with Kinect.

 On June 24, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman and his Geek Gestalt blog will kick off Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my preparations for the project on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip. ||||| Maybe it was the Cirque du Soleil acrobats dancing to taiko drums, the 9-foot tall elephant puppet or the ponchos with illuminating shoulder pads for audience members, but Microsoft’s much-anticipated Project Natal preview was a cross between a gospel revival and a Las Vegas show.

 Microsoft

 While the event was short on news, Microsoft did unveil a new name — Kinect — for Project Natal, the motion technology that lets users play videogames and interact with the Xbox 360 console with gestures and spoken commands.

 The Sunday night event, which kicked off the E3 Expo videogame industry tradeshow, was meant to be a way for audience members to get a sneak peek at Kinect. The details about pricing and availability are expected to be unveiled at its Monday press conference.

 Kinect is seen as Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo Co.’s Wii, which popularized game play. However, unlike the Wii, Kinect doesn’t require a controller at all and, according to Microsoft, it can recognize a wider range of motion and even differentiate voices.

 Audience members were handed white silk ponchos with shoulder pads upon entering the University of Southern California basketball arena. In order to reach the event, certain audience members were told to walk into one of many fake living rooms where a family greeted them and pointed the way to the main stage.

 Once there, hundreds of audience members, all wearing the white silky robes, milled about the floor of the arena until the show started. In one corner, a family sat on a sofa suspended about 50 feet in the air.

 Declaring that “history is about to be rewritten,” the show started off with Cirque acrobats, dressed prehistorically, forming a procession with Japanese taiko drums beating in the background. Then a boy rode in on what appeared to be a mechanical elephant with a screen on the side.

 Once he reached the stage, the boy demonstrated the evolution from playing games with a controller to playing games with motion as the audience oohed and aahed. The final step revealed the boy standing on a giant black ball with a neon-green “X,” the Xbox logo.

 The rest of the show was a parade of games, which the boy and “his family” demonstrated in a model living room, which occasionally rotated 360 degrees. There were also moments where the family would be playing with Kinect while what appeared to be a young girl walked upside down on the ceiling above them.

 Among the games previewed by Microsoft was whitewater rafting and a racing game, as well as virtual Tai Chi and a preview of a Star Wars game that lets players fight Darth Vader with a light saber. There was also a collection of sports games that lets players jump hurdles, run sprints, play volleyball, kick a soccer ball and bowl. Another let you train and play with a virtual tiger cub.

 The show ended with a grand finale demo of many different families playing dancing games where they learn various steps and moves with the help of a virtual instructor.

 ______________________________________________________

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 More from WSJ.D: And make sure to visit WSJ.D for all of our news, personal tech coverage, analysis and more, and add our XML feed to your favorite reader. ||||| Tonight at a Microsoft event the company announced that the official name of their new motion-sensing controller for Xbox 360 is "Kinect." As we reported earlier a number of games were unveiled in a USA Today story that went up shortly before Microsoft could officially break the news.

 From that event we've see a group of games that will accompany this new hardware that allows gamers to use their body as a controller. These games include:

 A Yoga/Tai Chi Game (official name to be announced)

 A Soccer Game (official name to be announced)

 Joyride

 A racing game where players can steer using their hands.

 Kinect Sports

 Boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.

 Kinectimals

 Play with 20 different kitties like a lion, cheetah and tiger.

 Kinect Adventures

 River rafting with multiple players that move their bodies in the raft.

 Dance Central

 A dance-em-up game made by MTV Games.

 Along with Kinect games using Disney and Star Wars characters, there were also dashboard apps showing motion controls used to interact with Netflix. The dot on the screen follow where you point.

 Users can also use motion controls to scroll through photos, start live video chats with friends, and share photos. This is done through a kinect app on the dashboard.

  |||||
What is a summary?

– Microsoft unveiled its much-hyped Project Natal motion control system—now renamed “Kinect”—at E3 last night, in a performance long on grandiosity and short on actual revelations. After walking through a set of fake living rooms, the white-poncho-wearing audience was treated to a performance by Cirque du Soleil acrobats dressed as cavemen, as a narrator declared that “history is about to rewritten” and a boy, raising his arms, used his movements usher in the new motion-based way to play games, according to the Wall Street Journal. And what was this grand historical event all about? Well, mostly mimicking the Wii, according to CNET. Microsoft’s camera-based motion controller may have potential, but the games demoed last night mostly looked like analogues for successful Wii efforts, including a yoga game, a racing game, and a Wii Sports-esque game titled—wait for it—Kinect Sports. IGN has a full list of launch titles. Microsoft is expected to reveal more details, including pricing, at its press conference today.