It's not easy to get a mental picture of the world's largest building. But tour guides at Boeing Co.'s aircraft assembly plant in Everett do their best by using some mind-blowing imagery. At 98 acres, its footprint is as big as 75 football fields — which makes it larger than Disneyland.
But there are no whirling teacups here. The massive hangar, which rises 11 stories, is where Boeing builds its wide-body jets, including the new 787 Dreamliner. Airlines are expected to begin taking delivery of the new planes later this year.
To accommodate 32,000 employees, the plant has seven restaurants, a fitness center, a store for DVD rentals and even a dry cleaner. The walk from the parking lot to a work station can be as much as three-quarters of a mile.
Visitors also get a workout on the 2/3-mile, 90-minute tour of the plant. (Electric carts are available for people with disabilities.) Given the unique experience — this is the only place on the continent where people can watch giant jets being built — it's well worth the price of admission, plus a little shoe leather.
Tours of the facility depart hourly from the Future of Flight Aviation Center in the neighboring town of Mukilteo. After viewing a short film about the assembly plant's history, visitors clamber aboard buses for the short ride to Paine Field Airport and the largest building on Earth.
Parked outside are several assembled 787s with the logos of their owners: Air India, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. The new Dreamliners are of particular interest to many visitors, for whom the tour provides a sneak preview of the future of aviation.
"This is the first aircraft to use 50% composite materials. Composites are very durable and also very light," said guide Mike Murray. Replacing aluminum with the porous composite saves 20% on fuel, he pointed out. And because the new materials don't rust, the 787s will be able to circulate air with a higher humidity level during flight.
"Maybe we will arrive at our destinations more refreshed," Murray said.
Guests also learn about other features as they watch the planes being assembled: The overhead storage bins are bigger, as are the windows. Shades are gone, replaced by technology that darkens the glass with the push of a button. LED lighting can create various scenes in the cabin, such as a soothing sunset. The 787s also have distinctive curved wingtips.
In another part of the plant, visitors look down on an assembly line where the latest version of Boeing's original jumbo jet, the 747-8 Intercontinental, is being built.
Slightly larger than its older siblings, the plane is also quieter and more fuel efficient. Tour guides boast that the 747-8 is a big improvement over its European competition, the Airbus A380. Of course, travelers will make up their own minds once the newest 747s take flight within a few months.
In April, people across the USA and the world celebrated the beauty of nature, our rivers and mountains, and wildlife. The original Earth Day was inspired by founder Gaylord Nelson, former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the devastation of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. In that era of protests against war and social Injustice, millions rallied across the US to the first Earth Day to demand change. Rivers burning, mountains clear-cut and vanishing species enraged our citizens and they gathered en masse across the nation and demanded change. This public demonstration of love for nature led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
Forty years later the rivers are cleaner, millions of acres have been established as national parks and wilderness areas and over all the air quality has improved. But what about the other 71%? Over half our oxygen comes from the ocean. Fish feed millions and the beauty and complexity of marine life leave us in awe. Yet today, a year after the ravages in the Gulf from the BP Oil spill, 90% of large pelagic shark species are going extinct from overfishing and for their fins. Whales and seals have been hunted to a genetic bottle neck and are hunted still. The wolves of the sea, the bluefin tuna, are being fished to the vanishing point. While a thousand other insults are being inflicted on Mother Ocean, where is our outrage?
New oil wells are being considered along our coast while nuclear power plants hum along our shorelines vulnerable to Tsunami and earthquakes. Recent die-offs of sardines in southern California; emaciated and sickly sea lions along the coast, vanishing salmon and stranded leopard sharks in the San Francisco Bay are bellwethers reminding us that the ocean is sick.
The ocean needs our help.
After a week of celebrating the Earth, it's time to celebrate our ocean with World Oceans Day. This day had been unofficially celebrated every June 8 since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then, WOD has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network with greater success and global participation each year. World Oceans Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world's ocean, to celebrate the all marine life.
It's time to motivate change and let our leaders know that marine life and ecosystem are worth protecting, and they need our protection now. This summer, celebrate World Oceans Day and tell our representatives we need a sea change. With our partners from The Ocean Project, Sea Stewards will be coordinating a World Ocean Day Celebration at Crissy Field in San Francisco on June 11. We will be celebrating all marine life, especially sharks, and motivate people to protect the ocean and ocean life we love.
As often happens in science, it was an accidental discovery. It solves the mystery of why a lot of people who smoke look so skinny and, more importantly, why many people who quit the habit gain weight.
"Interestingly, initially we were not looking into feeding behavior but depression," says Yann Maneur, an associate research scientist at Yale. "We were trying to find new drugs to treat depression. And as I was testing these new drugs I realized the animals were not eating as much."
At the time, Mineur and his team were testing nicotine. Curious about this unexpected effect, they looked further. Maneur says, "We found that nicotine, when it enters the brain, activates specific nicotine receptors that are located on specific neurons known to decrease feeding and increase energy expenditure when activated."
So nicotine, it turns out, triggers a brain pathway that essentially tells you: you've had enough, put that cake down. And it signals your body to start using up some energy. But does that mean people should use it to try to lose weight? "That's the trick question," Mineur says with a chuckle, "because we do not want to advocate smoking, of course."
There may be alternatives that could do the same trick. Maneur claims that there is potential for "drugs to mimic this effect to help people maybe lose weight. Or even better, when people try to quit smoking they could use drugs that are already available and known to trigger this pathway in order to potentially limit their weight gain."
The smoking cessation drug cytisine, which is sold in Eastern Europe, also triggered this brain effect on eating in this study. Developing specific drugs to do the same thing could prove to be tricky, though. The same receptors that react this way to nicotine help control the way the body deals with stress.
This study is reported in the journal Science.
One person was fatally shot and four people were wounded, one critically, near Brighton Beach this evening as hundreds of youths swarmed the area with schools closed for "Brooklyn-Queens Day."
"It’s a bad combination of guns, heat, beer and angry young men," a police source said, pointing to empty malt liquor bottles strewn all over The Boardwalk.
Cops had one suspect in custody, and an FDNY spokesman described the scene as "utter chaos."
“Just watched some idiot kid let off 8 rounds into a crowded beach,” said @djslicknick on Twitter. “I saw like 4 ambulances. It was a madhouse.”
Two of the victims, a male and female, were taken to Coney Island Hospital. The woman died some time later. The male was not expected to live.
A third, a 23-year-old male, was shot in the elbow and was taken to Lutheran Medical Center.
Witnesses described a wild scene with bullets flying and people running and screaming.
"I saw the kid that got shot in the back, he was running away and got hit. He turned, looked at me and fainted dead away," said Jorge Mela, a student.
Another saw one of the shooters taken into custody.
"The cops grabbed one who had a helmet on and he was trying to run away to his motorcycle. The cops grabbed him and threw him down and put the cuffs on," said Kendall, a student who only gave his first name.
The 5:20 p.m. shootings at Brighton 6th Street and The Boardwalk didn’t surprise neeighbors who’ve gotten used to trouble on previous Brooklyn-Queens Days.
"These kids come not to swim, they come for turf fights," said Pat Singer, president of the Brighton Beach Neighborhood Association.
"It’s a problem every year. All day long you see are hundreds of teenagers, of course you’re going to have problems," Singer said.
Cops are investigating and had few details.
But Singer said crowds of teens had swarmed the beaches throughout the steamy afternoon and police sirens could wailed almost constantly.
Tomorrow is the traditional senior cut day and neighbors are bracing for the possibility of more problems as well, sources said.
WARNING: VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE
[nyPost]
He was hired to fix their computers, but police say that Trevor Harwell instead installed spyware software that took candid photos of his clients in various states of undress.
Harwell had been a Macintosh specialist with a Los Angeles-area home computer repair company called Rezitech. That's how he allegedly had the opportunity to install the spy software, called Camcapture, on computers.
While working on repair assignments, the 20-year-old technician secretly set up a complex system that could notify him whenever it was ready to snap a shot using the computer's webcam, according to Sergeant Andrew Goodrich, a spokesman with the Fullerton Police Department in California. "It would let his server know that the victim's machine was on. The server would then notify his smartphone... and then the images were recorded on his home computer," he said.
Police say they've found thousands of images on Harwell's computers and have identified dozens of victims, all of them women in Los Angeles and Orange County. Harwell was arrested Wednesday by Fullerton police.
Harwell was formerly a student at Biola University, a small Christian university in southern California. Many of the victims were Biola students and Harwell may have compromised university systems as well, police said.
Harwell couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Rezitech representatives were unable to immediately comment for this story.
Police were tipped off last year after a Rezitech customer took her computer into an Apple Genius Bar for servicing. It had been popping up weird messages. One of them, designed to look like a Mac OS X system warning, said, "You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."
The Genius Bar technician found the Camcapture software on this victim's computer and said, "You need to call police," Goodrich said.
She wasn't the only person to get this particular message. Some victims, tricked by the pop-up warning, did take their computers with them into the shower, Goodrich said.
Victims can find the Camcapture software by looking in their /Library/WebServer/Documents folder.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com
During the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Nintendo finally revealed the details of its long-awaited the next generation Wii console, the Wii U, featured by a 6.2 inch touch-screen controller.
Wii U is Nintendo's first console that supports HD graphics, providing its gamers not only with high-quality and powerful graphics on the TV, but also with the full gaming experience on the Wii U's mobile screen by featuring an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a rumble feature, a microphone, speakers and an inward-facing camera.
Users can play games with touch-screen control, but it still has classic control scheme such as two analog Circle Pads, + Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons, and ZL/ZR buttons. These features are aimed to attract “core users.”
According to the announcement by Nintendo, the release of Wii U will be between April and December 2012. They didn't mention the price, but it is presumed around $300.
Wii, the previous model of Wii U, is one of the highest sold home video game consoles. To date, more than 86 million units of Wii have been sold. But after 5 years of its launch, its sales have vastly decreased.
This February, Nintendo released a new portable console, Nintendo 3DS to fill the gap left by Wii. But it failed to meet the sales expectations. Hence, Nintendo is now banking on Wii U's success.
It turns out there is one less crazy person out there than we thought—a Dutch woman who posted video of her sleeve tattoo featuring the profile pics of 152 Facebook friends was part of an advertising stunt, according to Dutch media.
The YouTube video by Susyj87 was posted about a week ago and went viral this week when discovered by mainstream media. But on Wednesday, Rotterdam-based tattoo artist Dex Moelker 'fessed up to the Dutch-language Telegraaf that the tattoo was actually temporary, not permanent.
"It is a try out tattoo, a transfer, that washes off in a couple of days," Moelker told the newspaper, according to DutchNews.nl. The temporary tattoo only took a few hours to apply in a single session, she said, not 30 hours as claimed in Susyj87's video.
The marketing stunt was apparently done on behalf of Pretty Social, a Dutch firm that sells Facebook-themed gifts.
Commenters on YouTube began questioning the authenticity of the tattoo when the video went viral Tuesday.
"Look near the wrist. The photos are stack[ed] on top of one another. If you look into all the other photos, they're all portraits of a single person. Not ONE photo is of a college drunk or an old lady with a dog, which anyone who uses Facebook and not clip art, knows," wrote one observant YouTube viewer.
In the end, it wasn't the most honest approach to advertising—but it certainly got results. "My Social Tattoo" had been viewed more than 480,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon.
Google pays out nearly $10,000 to flaw finders for Chrome 12, which also jettisoned Google Gears, and features better Safe Browsing and the ability to remove Adobe Flash cookies right from Chrome.
Google released Chrome 12 to the stable channel June 7, introducing a build that boasts better security, privacy and graphics.
The bug-hunting build-up to the launch earned researchers a total of $9970.
Google paid an unusual sum of $3,133 to Sergey Glazunov, a researcher who found a high-risk same origin bypass in the JavaScript V8 engine, which led to "a beautiful chain of lesser severity bugs which demonstrated critical impact," said Chrome Security Team member Jerome Kersey. "It deserves a more detailed write-up at a later date."
Google paid $2,000 to a researcher who found high-risk "use-after-free due to integer issues in float handling." The search engine also paid $1337 for a medium-risk extensions permission bypass flaw.
Several security enhancements have also been made in Chrome 12. In addition to protecting users against malware and phishing web sites, version 12 of Chrome further improves browser security by warning users before they download some types of malicious files, such as .exe files. The feature is essentially an extension of Google's Safe Browsing API, which involves querying an additional list of malicious download links.
Meanwhile, Chrome 12 is also more secure than previous versions in other ways. The company boosted its Safe Browsing technology to warn users before they download some types of malicious files.
Chrome now checks downloaded files for malware, and Google claims it has designed the feature in such a way that it doesn’t have to know which URLs you visited or which files you downloaded to be able to detect malicious files.
Google Chrome 12 is available at www.google.com/chrome. Existing users will be automatically updated to the new version in the next couple of days.
It’s not just RIM that Apple surprised with the new iMessage instant-messaging feature for iOS devices, announced during the Steve Jobs WWDC 2011 keynote yesterday. According to Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber, his sources say Apple’s carrier partners were blindsided by the iMessaging launch too.
His “well-connected” informant says the carriers only found out about iMessage when Jobs revealed the new service on-stage. It could well have significant implications to carrier revenue, too; while iMessage does use a data connection, potentially adding to the amount of data allowance each user will require, it could also significantly reduce SMS and MMS use.
Both messaging services are still huge cash-cows that the carriers have been used to milking. While third-party apps for iOS (and other platforms) have eaten into those revenues, Apple’s homegrown functionality – which will be an integral part of iOS 5, and thus hit the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd/4th-gen and the iPad/iPad 2, will be far more broadly adopted.
Gruber himself says he will be canceling his SMS plan as soon as iMessage is available, and he’s unlikely to be the only person thinking that way. iOS 5 ships this fall.
Adolescent girls who followed a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-style eating plan had lower body mass indexes (BMIs), sustained over a 10-year period, than those who did not follow this diet, a new epidemiologic.
Avoiding excessive weight gain during adolescence is a key way of preventing adult obesity and its attendant problems, say Dr Jonathan P B Berz (Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA) and colleagues in their paper published in the June 2011 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Although the DASH diet—which emphasizes increased intakes of low-fat dairy products, fish, chicken and lean meats, nuts, fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and legumes—is well-established as a healthy eating pattern for adults with hypertension and metabolic syndrome, it has been infrequently studied in children, they note.
"We found that higher adherence to a DASH-style diet resulted in a consistently lower BMI between the ages of nine and 19 years. Such an eating pattern may help prevent excess weight gain during adolescence," they observe.
In an accompanying editorial, Drs Robert C Klesges and Marion Hare (University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis) say the study by Berz et al adds "to a growing body of literature that will eventually help us to understand and hopefully treat pediatric obesity. A logical next step . . . is to test the DASH diet in children along with other efficacious adult obesity interventions."
Higher DASH score=higher energy intake, but smallest gain in BMI
Berz and colleagues evaluated the effects of a DASH-style diet on BMI in a racially diverse sample of 2237 girls aged nine years who participated in the National Growth and Health Study from 1987 to 1988 and were followed up for 10 years. Data were gathered annually, and each participant was given a DASH food group score based on individual adherence to dietary requirements, rather than simply relying on food frequency questionnaires. This method has not been used often in studies of adolescents and so represents a particular strength of this research, say the authors.
The study was performed on an assessment-only basis: higher DASH scores were associated with higher total energy intake, as well as higher average intake from each food group.
Girls in the highest quintile of DASH scores had the smallest gains in BMI during the study and had the lowest BMIs at the end of follow-up. Conversely, at age 19 years, girls in the lowest DASH score quintile had an average BMI that was greater than the threshold for overweight as defined by the 85th percentile for age.
"In particular, higher consumption of fruits, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products led to less weight gain," say Berz et al. Those who ate two or more servings of fruit per day had the smallest gains in BMI during the study years and the lowest BMI at the end of follow-up. Results were similar for whole-grain and low-fat dairy consumption—those who consumed the most of these food groups had lower BMI scores over time and a lower BMI at the end of follow-up.
The study included a socioeconomically and geographical diverse sample of girls, the authors note, adding that it included more than 50% black girls, "a population particularly beset by the obesity epidemic."
Small changes can have a large impact among children
In their editorial, Klesges and Hare say the new findings are "significant and timely," although they also point out that the figures are somewhat "dated" because the study began in the 1980s.
"The DASH diet is flexible and should meet the food preferences of most children," they observe, although they stress that for pediatric and adolescent patients, "interventions need to be simplified."
They recommend a "4 As" approach to prevent excess weight gain in adolescence: assess, advise, assist, and arrange for follow-up. "Often the goal of pediatric obesity programs is not to reduce weight but to maintain current weight so that as the children grow, BMI will decrease; therefore, small changes can have a large impact," they observe.
Simple advice includes recommending low-fat dietary alternatives and eliminating or reducing consumption of sweetened beverages, as well as suggestions to consult family websites that promote healthy eating and fun activities.
Finally, a follow-up visit to determine progress and adjust recommendations is "crucial. If your patients and their parents do not think that you believe weight control is an important issue, they will not see it as one either."
When the news hit last week that Steve Jobs would be giving the keynote address at Apple’s 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference, it seemed as though it was good news regarding his health, which has been in the spotlight since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But today at WWDC, Jobs’ trademark black turtleneck hung off an incredibly thin frame, raising even more concerns about his health situation.
From the photos emerging and the commentary on Twitter, it is clear that many think he looked gaunt and unhealthy. Many are saying that that his voice sounded weak. Leander Kahney at Cult of Mac has a different opinion, saying “There was a lot of good stuff unveiled by Apple this morning at WWDC. But the best news? Steve Jobs looked pretty healthy. Yeah, he didn’t spend much time on stage. Yes, he looks thinner than normal. Yes, he had to hitch his jeans up a couple of times. But all-in-all, I thought he looked pretty vibrant and energetic on stage.”
This reading of the situation seems to be in total opposition with the views on Twitter, with nearly every tweet I’ve seen regarding Jobs’ health saying that he didn’t look good. If you go by the market, they also seem to agree that he didn’t look too great.
It seems that Job’s poor health and appearance at the WWDC has had an effect on Apple stock. According to the AP, Apple’s stock is down 1.3% in afternoon trading. It was up this morning, but fell shortly after Jobs left the stage. Apparently investors are worried about the effect Job’s declining health may have on the company. It seems unlikely that even the unfortunate event of Job’s death would derail the company, however. Apple just became the worlds most valuable brand according to a report by Millward Brown
Jobs received a warm ovation as he took the stage, coming out to an ironic playing of James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” During the keynote, he discussed their new Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and their new cloud services entitled iCloud.
In just a few hours, Microsoft's press briefing will kick off the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo. But, as is often the case with E3 press conferences, several details about the event have already leaked, courtesy of a report in USA Today.
According to the national daily, Microsoft will use part of its media event to unveil a version of Fruit Ninja for Kinect. Already a huge hit on the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, the game from developer Halfbrick has players slice and dice fruit thrown at them via their devices' touchpads. Presumably, these motions would be replicated in the air with the Xbox 360's full-body motion-sensing system.
USA Today also confirmed speculation that surfaced earlier in the day that Microsoft was readying a partnership with the Walt Dinsey Co. for at least one Kinect game. The article confirmed the previously rumored title Kinect Disneyland Adventures, which lets players "visit a virtual Disneyland." No other details were given.
[usatoday]
There's nothing like an entire sea of sartorial goodies from an awards show to get the MTV Style squad good and excited, and Sunday's (June 5) 2011 MTV Movie Awards red carpet was nothing short of bananas!
White was a huge trend for the night, and "The Last Exorcism" actress Ashley Bell sidled up in a gorgeous embroidered, knee-length dress cut demurely at the knee with the loveliest sweetheart neckline. Selena Gomez also wore a two-piece Giambattista Valli with a printed ivory top and a beige ruched miniskirt. "Gossip Girl" and "Monte Carlo" co-star Katie Cassidy wore a gorgeous floor-length ivory crocheted dress. Pssst! Floor-length was a huge hit for the night.
Elle Fanning also threw us for a loop in a summery, saturated-hue pink romper with matching floral-printed wedge heels, both Dolce & Gabbana and marvelously age-appropriate. And though Kristen Stewart would typically, tidily slot nicely into the segment about beading, , while it did feature the glitz factor in scads, needed to be pulled out for a round of 360 mega-props. All that glittered was not gold, but row upon row of safety pins that gleamed menacingly and gorgeously. Not unlike a certain vampire's twinkling nude torso in sunlight, no? This is the skin of a killer!
Speaking of hot dudes, motorcycle jackets reined supreme on the red carpet as did dark jeans. Peter Facinelli (a.k.a. Carlisle Cullen. Team Edward forever! Also, let's face it, Team Jacob, too) wore a moto, as did Jason Bateman and Taylor Lautner in head-to-toe D&G. Spider-Man-to-be Andrew Garfield, Kellan Lutz and Robert Pattinson all wore dark denim. All the better to stealthily march into our hearts, dreams, wakeful reveries, loins ... too much?
[MTV]
Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, addressing an annual developers conference today, may give consumers a new way to access digital songs and information on smartphones and computers.
Jobs, on medical leave since Jan. 17, will make his second public appearance of 2011 at Apple’s conference in San Francisco. He will preview software updates for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Mac, as well the new iCloud online storage service, which may help those devices wirelessly share the same materials.
Apple is using iCloud to retain its dominance in the smartphone and tablet markets amid fresh competition from devices powered by Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software. The new service may improve how users can access content across different Apple devices, keeping customers from defecting to rivals, said Frank Gillett, with Forrester Research Inc.
“The world we’re headed to is where you don’t have to think about which gadget has your stuff,” Gillett said. “As people get their content organized around one of these personal ecosystems, then it will be incredibly sticky because migrating won’t be convenient.”
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, fell $2.66 to $343.44 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 3, the most recent trading day. The shares have climbed 6.5 percent this year.
Apple will scan the songs customers have purchased from iTunes and quickly mirror those collections on the company’s servers, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private.
Google and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) each introduced cloud music services in recent months, letting users upload songs to remote servers and access them from a browser or smartphone with an Internet connection. The uploading process can take hours.
Through licensing deals with record labels, Apple has entire collections on its servers. That means it can more quickly provide customers access to their songs.
The iCloud service can help all of Apple’s products and applications running on its devices work more seamlessly together, said Matt Drance, the founder of app maker Bookhouse Software and a former Apple software engineer.
By adding new Web features, Apple could loosen the need for users to regularly plug in an iPhone, iPad or iPod to keep the devices synchronized, he said. Instead, the updates could be made wirelessly.
Apple’s success in enabling customers to easily access their files and other content across multiple devices will be key to keeping customers and developers locked in to its ecosystem, said Forrester’s Gillett.
“We’re beginning a flip from which gadget you use to which service helps you manage all your information,” Gillett said.
[bloomberg]
Rafael Nadal won a record-tying sixth French Open title by beating Roger Federer at Roland Garros today, a victory that preserved his No. 1 ranking.
The Spanish left-hander retained his title by defeating Switzerland’s Federer 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-1 on the main Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris. His victory ties him with Sweden’s Bjorn Borg, who won six Roland Garros trophies from 1974 to 1981.
Federer last beat Nadal in a Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 2007. Today’s win extended Nadal’s head-to-head record against the Swiss right-hander to 17-8.
Nadal, also the reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, had started the season with a shot at becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam tennis titles at the same time. Instead, he exited the Australian Open after a ruptured thigh muscle hampered his movement in a quarterfinal loss to Spain’s David Ferrer.
The second-ranked Novak Djokovic won his second major title in Melbourne and went on to defeat Nadal in four tournament finals. Nadal’s loss to Djokovic on the clay courts of Madrid last month was the Spaniard’s first on the slow surface since Robin Soderling of Sweden handed him his only defeat at Roland Garros in the fourth round in 2009, the year Federer won his lone French Open trophy.
Full of Doubts
No. 3 seed Federer beat Djokovic in four sets in the semifinals, preventing the Serb from tying John McEnroe’s record of 42 consecutive wins from the start of a season, set in 1984. Djokovic would have been the new No. 1, replacing Nadal, if he had made his first French Open final or if Nadal had lost today.
Top-seed Nadal was full of doubts in the first week of Roland Garros, repeatedly telling reporters that his play wasn’t good enough to win his 10th major title. The Spaniard started the tournament playing his first five-set match at Roland Garros, needing more than four hours to beat John Isner of the U.S. Afterwards, he said he was feeling “anxious” and “nervous” and had been unable to transfer his practice form into his matches.
He said he regained his confidence after defeating Soderling in the quarterfinals.
Federer Drought
Federer last won a major at the 2010 Australian Open, where his defeat of Britain’s Andy Murray extended his men’s Grand Slam singles title record to 16 trophies. Nadal has now beaten Federer in four French Open finals. Before today, the two last met in a major final at the 2009 Australian Open, which was won by Nadal and reduced Federer to tears at the trophy ceremony.
Federer lost in the quarterfinals in Paris last year to Soderling, ending his record streak of 23 straight Grand Slam semifinals. He lost to Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, which was the six-time champion’s earliest loss at the All England Club since 2002. Djokovic defeated Federer in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, saving two match points. The Serb also beat Federer in the last four in Melbourne in January on the way to his second Australian Open title.
Today’s match was the 19th tournament final between the third-ranked Federer and Nadal. Only Ivan Lendl and McEnroe have played more finals against each other since tennis turned professional in 1968. It was the eighth time Nadal and Federer had met in a Grand Slam final, extending their record for the most meetings between two players in a major final.
Crews used controlled backfires early Sunday to blunt the advance of a major wildfire near mountain communities in eastern Arizona, a blaze termed "absolutely frightening" by the state's governor that has already burned through 225 square miles of forest and brush.
Fire officials still have zero containment of the Wallow Fire near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, which has forced an unknown number of people to evacuate from several small towns.
The 144,000-acre fire, the third largest in state history, has sent smoke well into New Mexico and parts of southern Colorado.
"It was unbelievable — the expansion of the smoke," Gov. Jan Brewer said Saturday after an aerial tour of the blaze and a briefing from fire team's commander in Springerville.
"It was horrific and of the likes of a fire of which I have never experienced from the air," she told reporters. "We hope that we get more encouraging news in the morning."
Brad Pitassi, spokesman for the area fire management team, said fire teams around the evacuated town of Alpine, along highway 191 and 180, were using the backfires to rob the advancing blaze of fuel.
"It's like fighting fire with fire," he told The Associated Press.
Fire managers said in a statement early Sunday that 160 firefighters were working through the night in the operation.
Pitassi said 1,300 firefighters are on the scene, including some from other states.
"We're tapping into resources across the nation, from Oregon all the way to New York," he said.
Crews have struggled to protect property and just four summer rental cabins have burned since it started May 29, the U.S. Forest Service said. There have been no serious injuries.
