Y! Sports: NFL player turned boxer says fighting safer

Former NFL lineman Ray Edwards (right) is 4-0 in his professional boxing career. (Minnesotaboxing.com)The colorful characters that occupy boxing's heavyweight division have a wide range of reasons for entering the harsh world of the fight game. Ray Edwards might be the only one to do so because he thought it would reduce his chances of getting injured.

Edwards, who spent seven seasons in the NFL playing defensive tackle with the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, now makes his living squaring off against huge men intent on punching him in the head as frequently as possible.

Yet Edwards is adamant that the brutal and unpredictable nature of pro football makes his new career choice a safer option with a bigger long-term upside than putting himself on the line inside the gridiron.

"It might sound crazy to some people but for sure I believe boxing is a safer sport than football now," Edwards told Yahoo! Sports. "Football is the only sport that is 100-percent injury prone.

"[In football], you don't know what is coming, where you are going to get hit, how you are going to get hit," he continued. "You play for a long time, chances are you are going to tear your MCL or ACL. You can break your leg, snap your femur, break your arm, break your neck."

But what about boxing?

A glance at the battered faces of post-fight combatants tells only part of the story of a sport where inflicting pain and damage with the fists is an intrinsic facet of any contest.

However, while Edwards respects and understands the risks posed by his new profession, from his point of view, those dangers are more acceptable than those NFL stars face every week.

Ray Edwards played seven NFL seasons for the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings. (Getty Images)"In boxing you know where the hits are coming from ? it is the guy stood in front of you," Edwards said. "In boxing you might break your hand or break your nose and if you get knocked out you can get a concussion. But also, the referee is right there and you are more protected. In football, you never know. The game moves at such a pace that you might never see it coming. You can get hit when you are completely defenseless."

Football's dangers have never been more in the spotlight, and with all factors considered, some doctors are open-minded to the theory that it may be even more dangerous than boxing.

"I would have to agree that boxing is a more controlled environment," Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, director of the nationally recognized Michigan NeuroSport program at the University of Michigan, told Yahoo! Sports. "It is an individual sport and you see what is in front of you. Medical personnel is right there at ringside and can stop a fight, you have one medical professional who has his eyes on the two fighters at all times.

"In boxing the risk of concussion and head trauma is obviously very high but that is only one area of risk," Kutcher continued. "For sure, the rest of his body is going to prefer boxing to playing football, where the range and severity of the potential injuries is virtually without limit."

[Related: Trends in early fantasy football mock drafts]

Edwards signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Falcons in 2011, but was released in November 2012 after struggling for playing time. He says he's invested wisely enough to be able to live in comfort for the rest of his life and his foray into boxing is motivated by a desire for competition, rather than fiscal incentive.

He has fought four times as a pro ? he's 4-0 against the likes of Nick "Turbo Tax" Capes and Cory "Spare Tire" Briggs ? and insists he has no plans to return to football even if an NFL team came waving a lucrative contract in his direction.

"There is some faulty thinking there," said Dr. Anthony Alessi, a leading neurological expert who has served as a ringside physician for Connecticut boxing bouts for the past 17 years. "In football, accidents and injuries are a byproduct of the game, but the main objective is to get the ball over the line and score points.

"In boxing, the object of the sport is to neurologically impair your opponent, to injure their brain in some way to stop them from performing. It sounds graphic, but that is effectively what you are looking for ? a knockout."

Countless former fighters continue to suffer from dementia pugilistica, a direct result of taking repeated blows to the head, which includes symptoms such as slurred speech, loss of memory, declining mental ability, tremors and coordination issues.

Yet football has it own problems. The NFL is facing more than 200 legal cases brought by more than 4,000 former players accusing the league of hiding the dangers of head trauma. And a recent story in the Washington Post highlighted the plight of former NFL Man of the Year Reggie Williams, who has been financially crippled by a series of medical problems that require daily treatment, 24 years after the end of his playing career.

The level of health care support given to former players is a particular sticking point for Edwards, who claims the league's policies do not go far enough in caring for players of yesteryear. Those factors ? combined with the obscenely brief shelf life of a pro football player (3? years) ? was a critical reason behind his transition to boxing.

"The average career of an NFL player depends on your position, but it can be as short as three and a half years," Edwards explained. "Then you have still got the rest of your life.

"In boxing, Floyd Mayweather has been at the top for 16 or 17 years, and guys like Bernard Hopkins are still going even into their late 40s. I am 28, but by staying as disciplined as I am and maintaining my condition I can have a long and successful career in this."

Edwards admits he still has a long way to go before he achieves his goal of shaking up the heavyweight division. But even at this infant stage of his new career, he has stirred up a thorny talking point ? across two sports.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--former-nfl-player-ray-edwards--boxing-is-safer-than-football-152349231.html

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Digital Storm's Bolt is a beastly gaming PC with the ... - The Next Web

It?s hard to pinpoint exactly when the switch happened, but a few years ago there was a shift in computers that moved away from the massive towers in which you could fit the kitchen sink and more toward sleek, stylish systems that looked every bit at home in your entertainment center as your DVR or Xbox 360. For the past 11 years or so, Digital Storm has been making a name for itself by creating ultra-fast, high-end gaming computers that look every bit as amazing as they perform. Over the past few weeks I?ve been testing the company?s speedy and sleek Bolt system, so it?s time to tell you about what?s next.

The first thing that you need to know about the Bolt is that it?s likely the thinnest, smallest form-factor computer in its class. It?s typically whisper-quiet, but packs a ridiculous amount of power and can run any game that you throw at it. Let?s chat about specs for just a moment, because they?re important this time around:

• Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50 GHz (overclocked to 4.2 GHz)
• 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance Series RAM
• 120GB SSD, plus 500 GB, 7200 RPM storage drive
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB

What?s?interesting?is that the company uses off-the-shelf components that can readily be switched out for replacements when they become obsolete. Though you shouldn?t have to be concerned about that anytime soon because of the speed of the system out of the box, Moore?s Law is still in place for a reason. The system starts at a street price of $999, but as tested our Bolt will run $1,599.

The difficulty that you?ll face when it comes time to upgrade components is that Digital Storm uses a fully-custom case in order to get everything to fit in the smallest space possible. As such, you?ll be limited in the size of the components that you use to upgrade, so you?ll have to choose carefully. However, because of the attention to detail with the component choices from the company, the end result is a system that is downright sexy, while still managing to be an absolute beast of computing power.

What?s perhaps most impressive about the tiny, 3.6-inch wide case, is what it manages to do for cooling. The Digital Storm team has?undoubtedly?spent a ridiculous amount of time finding the ideal mixture between passive cooling and airflow fans. With massive vents along the top and sides of the case, the Bolt manages to keep itself well within operating range even while cranking out 60+ frames per second on full pretty mode Bioshock Infinite. Oh, and it does all this without letting the fans get obnoxiously loud. It?s truly a masterpiece of engineering, and the Digital Storm team deserves more than a pat on the back for what it has managed to accomplish.

While gaming performance is absolutely top notch (Maximum PC says it?s the fastest mini-tower that they?ve ever tested), the Bolt is a joy to use as a daily driver as well. I?ve had our review unit running utterly excessive amounts of open applications, while batch-processing in Photoshop and simultaneously encoding movies with Handbrake. When running by itself, Handbrake encoded MKV viles to 1080p, formatted for the Apple TV, at around 130 frames per second. No matter what we threw at the Bolt, it handled the tasks with ease.

While this is neither the time nor place to get into the console versus PC war, it?s worth nothing that many of us just want to play games and use applications where they?re most convenient. As such, having a full computer in the living room is not out of the question, and the Bolt is one that you?ll likely be happy to show off to your guests. A host of USB ports, including two of the USB 3 flavor on the front and two more in the rear, means that you can run keyboards, mice and gamepads to your heart?s content. While it?s perhaps not the traditional form factor that you?d consider for a home theater PC, this lovely, compact marvel of computing power shouldn?t be overlooked.

Facing facts, you can buy the components of the Bolt and built it yourself for less money than what you?ll pay for the system as a whole. But what you won?t get is one that?s this slim, this quiet and backed by Digital Storm?s name. While the hobbyists out there will likely scoff at the price tag of the Bolt, for those of us who want a system that looks great, is lightning fast and stays cool under pressure, you?ll be hard-pressed to find anything that can compare, regardless of price.

Source: http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/05/13/digital-storm-bolt-review/

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Authorities searching near Boston suspect?s college

Fireworks found in a backpack allegedly owned by Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (via DOJ)

Federal investigators are searching various sites around Dartmouth, Mass., near where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went to college as authorities continue to look for evidence related to the attack.

Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney?s office in Boston, confirmed the searches in an email amid local reports that law enforcement officials were spotted combing through a wooded area not far from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev was a student.

?The searches at various locations in Dartmouth, Mass., today are part of the ongoing investigation into the marathon bombing,? she said. ?Residents should be advised that there is no threat to public safety.?

The Standard-Times newspaper in nearby New Bedford quoted a local man who spied dozens of local police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searching a nature area with police dogs. A spokeswoman for the FBI?s Boston office confirmed that FBI agents also were involved in the search.

The search came as the New York Times and NBC News quoted unnamed federal officials who said Tsarnaev told authorities he and his brother Tamerlan, who was killed during a gunbattle with police on April 19, originally had planned to carry out their attack on July 4. But the bombings allegedly were moved up because the brothers completed building their explosives ahead of time.

Federal officials still are trying to figure out where the suspects built the arsenal of explosives, which included pressure cooker bombs and several pipe bombs.

On Wednesday, three college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?s were arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents. They allegedly admitted to removing a backpack and laptop from Tsarnaev?s dorm room at U-Mass after they realized he was one of the suspects in the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 200.

Federal agents recovered the backpack from a local landfill last week and found it contained several fireworks that had been opened and emptied of powder. Officials later said they also had recovered Tsarnaev?s laptop, though it was unclear where it was found.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/authorities-search-woods-near-boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-164758069.html

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GWH News and Notes: What Happened to SAW TV This Week?

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Source: http://www.gwhnews.com/2013/05/what-happened-to-saw-tv-this-week.html

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Officials: Obama naming NC's Watt for housing post

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama intends to nominate veteran Rep. Melvin Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator that oversees lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and he has chosen a former cable and wireless industry lobbyist to head the Federal Communications Commission, according to White House officials.

If confirmed by the Senate for the FHFA post, Watt, a North Carolina Democrat who has been in Congress for 20 years, would replace Edward DeMarco, an appointee of President George W. Bush, who has been a target of housing advocates, liberal groups and Democratic lawmakers.

Also on Wednesday, Obama plans to nominate Tom Wheeler, one of his top campaign fundraisers, as the country's top telecommunications regulator. He is expected to name FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to serve as acting chairwoman while Wheeler awaits Senate confirmation.

Wheeler raised more than $500,000 for Obama's re-election effort, according to data provided by the campaign. He also contributed more than $17,000 combined to Obama's re-election and to several Senate campaigns, including Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine's successful effort.

Wheeler is former head of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association and the National Cable Television Association. Since 2005, he has been a venture capitalist at Core Capital Partners. Wheeler would replace outgoing chairman Julius Genachowski, who announced in March he would be stepping down.

Obama will announce Wheeler's and Watt's appointments from the White House Wednesday afternoon. The White House officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the appointments before the president's formal announcement.

Watt's nomination comes at a crucial time for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two federally sponsored mortgage-finance enterprises that the government rescued at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 as they teetered near collapse from losses on mortgage loans gone bad.

Taxpayers have spent about $170 billion to rescue the companies. So far, they have repaid a combined $55.2 billion.

Fannie and Freddie together own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans. Those loans are worth more than $5 trillion. Along with other federal agencies, they back roughly 90 percent of new mortgages.

The nomination comes as the housing industry is making a comeback. Home prices are up, foreclosures are down and housing construction is on the rise. Moreover, Fannie Mae had its biggest yearly profit last year, earning $17.2 billion.

Watt, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, played an influential role in the passage of a financial regulatory overhaul in 2010. That legislation, however, did not address the fate of the major mortgage lenders, an issue likely to come up during Obama's second term.

Watt represents the Charlotte area, home base of behemoth Bank of America Corp. He becomes yet another high-profile African-American and the second North Carolinian nominated by Obama in three days to a top government post. On Monday, Obama nominated Anthony Foxx, mayor of Charlotte, to head the Transportation Department.

Watt, who has a consistently liberal voting record, is expected to face Republican opposition to his confirmation and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was among the first to express disappointment.

The White House was already lining up supporters who might hold some sway with GOP senators.

"This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house," Corker, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said in a written statement. "The debate around his nomination will illuminate for all Americans why Fannie and Freddie failed so miserably."

Corker added that the administration should "explicitly lay out" its plans for dissolving the government-sponsored lending companies before anyone is considered for the FHFA's top job.

The administration put forward a plan in 2011 to slowly dissolve Fannie and Freddie, with the goal of shrinking the government's role in the mortgage finance system. But Congress has yet to decide how much the government's role should be reduced.

Erskine Bowles, a fellow North Carolinian and former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, praised Watt as a first-rate selection. Both were classmates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bowles, the Democrat in a debt-tackling partnership with former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, said Watt brings "a bright mind, great work habits and an understanding of how Washington works to the job."

Hugh McColl, former Bank of America chairman and CEO, also welcomed Watt's nomination. McColl said he has known Watt for four decades, first meeting him through his brother-in-law, former Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., who attended Yale Law School at the same time as Watt.

"What he brings to everything, doesn't matter the subject, is an open mind," McColl said. "He has clarity of thought."

Charlotte is a major banking center, and the top donors to Watt's political campaigns over the years have been bank political action committees and bank officials and employees.

His nomination comes nearly a year after DeMarco, who has been acting director, stood by a decision to bar Fannie and Freddie from reducing principal for borrowers at risk of foreclosure, resisting pressure from the administration. DeMarco long has opposed allowing the mortgage giants to offer principal reduction.

In March, attorneys general from nine states, led by Democrats Eric Schneiderman of New York and Martha Coakley of Massachusetts, sent Obama a letter saying that Fannie and Freddie under DeMarco have been a "direct impediment to our economic recovery."

___

Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon and Jack Gillum contributed to this report.

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Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-obama-naming-ncs-watt-housing-post-115348865.html

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