First baseman Mark Teixeira (strained wrist) received six more at-bats in a simulated game. Teixeira wrote on his Twitter account he went 2-for-4 with two walks.

Infielder Kevin Youkilis (lower lumbar strain) also took six at-bats in a simulated game. But Girardi indicated an exact return date could not be established.

“I think you’d have to give him a few days in a row before you evaluate to make sure his back is healed, and it doesn’t come back,” Girardi said before Thursday night’s game against Baltimore. “The last two days have been pretty good. So he’s getting closer.”

• The Yankees have charted a course that would have starter Andy Pettitte (strained trapezius muscle) ready to pitch very close to June 2, when he is eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list. Girardi expects Pettitte to play catch either Thursday or Friday. After long tossing and throwing a bullpen, Pettitte would likely work in a simulated game.

• CC Sabathia will start on Sunday, with Vidal Nuno still slated to pitch on Saturday. Nuno gave up a walk-off homer in relief on Tuesday night.

• Alex Rodriguez (hip surgery) had a day off from his rehab, Girardi said.

• Starter Ivan Nova (triceps inflammation) threw another bullpen session Wednesday, but Girardi indicated the team was still deciding the next step for him.

“I’m not sure exactly what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’ll make sure he feels okay, and then we’ll go from there.”

The team initially penciled Nova in for a big-league return on May 13 in Cleveland. It is unclear if the Yankees intended to use him as just a spot starter, optioning him to Triple A after the doubleheader, or if he was to regain a roster spot.

But Nova experienced tightness in his left side while preparing for that outing. He was scratched, and the team is being cautious with his return.

“We’re able to be patient, because we want to make sure he’s healthy when he comes back,” Girardi said.

Plus, new fifth starter David Phelps (3.83 ERA) has out-performed Nova (6.48 ERA) thus far.

• Starter Michael Pineda (shoulder surgery) could be ready to start a rehab assignment after two more appearances in extended-spring games. Pineda threw about 50 pitches in his last outing. The team wants him built up to 75 pitches before he begins rehab games, and he raises his pitch count by about 15 each time out.

The rehab assignment lasts 30 days. If the team does not need Pineda in the majors then, he could continue to work in the minors.

• Reliever Joba Chamberlain (strained oblique) threw an inning in an extended-spring game.

***
Catcher Chris Stewart (sore groin) had yet to test himself by running. He still hoped to return to action this weekend against the Rays.

***
Here are the lineups as Hiroki Kuroda (6-2, 1.99 ERA) faces Jason Hammel (5-2, 5.72 ERA):

YANKEES (28-17)

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Robinson Cano, 2B
3. Vernon Wells, LF
4. Travis Hafner, DH
5. Lyle Overbay, 1B
6. David Adams, 3B
7. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
8. Reid Brignac, SS
9. Austin Romine, C

BALTIMORE (24-21)

1. Nate McLouth, LF
2. Manny Machado, 3B
3. Nick Markakis, RF
4. Adam Jones, DH
5. Chris Davis, 1B
6. Matt Wieters, C
7. JJ Hardy, SS
8. Chris Dickerson, CF
9. Alexi Casilla, 2B

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Originally published: May 22, 2013 8:39 PM
Updated: May 22, 2013 9:52 PM

By ERIK BOLAND
 erik.boland@newsday.com

Photo credit: Getty | Curtis Granderson gestures to the Yankees’ dugout between innings late in a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. (May 18, 2013)

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BALTIMORE — Curtis Granderson ended his hitless stretch at 12 at-bats last night, smacking a single, double and home run in his first three plate appearances.

It was the exception for how things have gone for the outfielder since he returned May 14 from a broken right forearm.

But, Granderson said before the game, one in which he played center, it’s no different than if he had a slow first week of the season. Which, of course, this technically has been for him.

“It’s just like an opening week of the season. I had an Opening Day [May 14],” Granderson said. “I’ve played six games up to this point. There’s no point in getting too high or too low regardless of what has happened to this point.”

The first six games have been mostly low. Granderson entered last night hitting .174 (.208 OBP) with no homers or RBIs.

“There really isn’t anything,” Granderson said of what specifically he’s been working on with hitting coach Kevin Long. “It’s just a matter of just getting back and comfortable and getting timing right and getting into a rhythm and going from there.

“It’s just kind of one of those baseball things, you can’t really pinpoint it exactly, it’s just going to end up happening one day, could be one swing, could be one at-bat, could be one day.”

Granderson started in center and, as Joe Girardi promised two weeks ago, has played all three outfield positions in the last week.

“Defensively doesn’t matter to me,” Granderson said. “I’ve played all three outfield positions before, it’s just a matter of when and where.”

Pressed, however, Granderson said he “definitely” considers himself a centerfielder, which he’s been the vast majority of his career.

But, he was quick to add: “I also think of myself as a baseball player. So wherever that happens to be, any one of the nine positions, I’d love to try them all out.”

Stewart targets tomorrowChris Stewart, who has missed the last five games with a groin injury, hopes to return to the lineup Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla. against the Rays.

“I feel good right now,” Stewart said before Wednesday night’s game.

Stewart took full BP Wednesday and will work out at the team’s complex in Tampa Thursday.

Austin Romine started a fifth straight game in Stewart’s place.

Tuesday he became the first Yankees rookie to start four straight games behind the plate since Jorge Posada started 11 in a row from Sept. 5-16, 1997.

Joba throws

Joba Chamberlain (oblique) threw one scoreless inning in an extended spring game Wednesday. He threw 13 pitches, nine strikes, and will have at least one more rehab appearance before being activated.

CT scans can reveal a remarkable amount of useful medical information, but more studies underscore the need to balance the benefits of that knowledge with the risks of being exposed to the scans’ small amounts of radiation.

Being able to peer into the human body without making a single incision is undeniably a major advance of modern medicine, and doctors and patients are taking full advantage of the latest techniques to scan our internal organs with CT, MRI, ultrasound and more. But as more studies show, that ability comes with a price.

Between 1996 and 2010, according to a study published in 2012, the use of computed tomography (CT) scans nearly tripled, from 52 scans per 1,000 patients to 149 scans per 1,000 patients. And those images certainly provided valuable information to help doctors diagnose internal injuries, infections and other hidden conditions that wouldn’t have been possible without the added insight. But CT scans generate those detailed images using small amounts of radiation, and while the absolute risk of that exposure is small, on a population level, increased reliance on the scans could drive a slight bump in cancer risk from CT.

That risk is especially concerning among children, for several reasons. Not only are their still-developing tissues more vulnerable to radiation’s effects, but they have more years to live after their exposure, which increases their chances of developing cancers related to the radiation they received.

That’s exactly what the latest study, published in the BMJ, found. It’s the largest study to date  — involving 10.9 million people born between 1985 and 2005. A team of researchers from Australia and Europe studied the cancer rates of Australian patients from birth to 19 years old who had CT scans in early childhood, and compared them to those who did not receive the scans.

(MORE: Too Many Scans? Use of CT Scans Triples, Study Finds)

Most of the cases were followed for 10 to 17 years, and by the end of the study period, 3,150 of the 680,000 patients exposed to CT scans during childhood and young adulthood developed cancer and 57,542 of the remaining participants, who were not exposed, developed cancer. After matching the cases for age, sex and birth year, those who were scanned had a 24% greater risk of cancer than those who did not receive them, with the risk increasing by 16% for each additional CT.

The risk was highest for children who received scans before age five; they showed a 35% increased chance of developing a cancer during the study period than those who weren’t scanned at this age, and brain cancers were the most common among youngsters who had the scans. Because the researchers assumed that children receiving brain scans might have needed the CTs because their doctors suspected a brain tumor, they re-analyzed the data excluding those who received brain CTs. Even after removing this information, the increased risk of all cancers remained higher among those who were scanned compared to those who were not.

How necessary are these scans? While this analysis did not delve into the reasons that the doctors ordered the CTs, previous research showed that many of the scans that are ordered, particularly for young children, may be more precautionary than necessary. And that raises concerns about the risks that the latest study measured. Describing the study that found rates of CT use have tripled in recent years, TIME’s Alice Park wrote:

So why the soaring rates? Part of the reason is medical: advanced imaging tests are a powerful way to diagnose internal injuries following a major trauma or accident without having to do surgery. The scans can also identify hidden causes of illness, such as infections in the abdomen that cause patients vague pain that isn’t obviously triggered by anything the physician can see.

Another powerful reason: the fear of malpractice lawsuits. Because CT scanning technology is ubiquitous, and because it is so effective, many doctors order the tests as a fail-safe, to protect themselves in case they might have missed some potentially life-threatening condition. In fact, many patients come to the doctor expecting to be scanned, and feel they haven’t been provided adequate care if their doctors don’t order a CT.

“We’ve lowered our threshold, so now we use [CT] so frequently and for any reason that we probably tipped the balance toward using it more than is clinically indicated or necessary,” says [Dr. Rebecca] Smith-Bindman, [the study's lead author and a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California San Francisco]. It’s often easier for a doctor to order an imaging test than it is to spend more time with the patient discussing his or her symptoms to determine whether the test is really necessary, she says.

Most children receive CT scans after an accident or trauma, primarily to the head, to rule out potentially serious problems like internal bleeding that may require immediate surgery. In a previous study to track the benefit that CT scans conferred in treating children with head injury, 2% showed a positive result that required some type of additional treatment. That means that 1 in 50 children benefited from the head CT, compared with the 1 in 10,000 who might develop brain cancer or leukemia from the same scan, according to calculations in the latest study. “That’s what people need to realize, that there is a 200-fold difference between the benefit of a scan and the risk,” says [Dr. Donald] Frush, [chief of pediatric radiology at Duke Medical Center].

(MORE: CT Scans in Childhood Can Triple the Risk of Cancer)

It’s also worth noting that the amount of radiation emitted by CT machines has dropped since the participants in the current study were imaged. Manufacturers have been modifying their devices to produce the sharpest pictures possible using the lowest amount of radiation, so most scanners now use up to 50% less ionizing radiation than those from a decade ago, and many centers that scan children now adjust doses for their smaller body size.

Researchers are even working on ways to counteract the cancer-causing effects of CTs. Scientists at the University of Toronto recently reported that a cocktail of antioxidants that patients could take before getting scanned could reduce the radiation damage from CTs by as much as 50%.

That research is still on-going, however, and in the meantime, doctors and patients are left to find the delicate balance between how necessary scans are to diagnose disease, and their potential risk of causing cancer, which, most experts say, is still very small. Being aware of this risk, however, as confirmed by a large study such as this one from Australia, should help to inform that decision. “All parties, including patients and families, need to work together to ensure that CT scans are limited to situations where there is a definite clinical indication, and where every scan is optimised to provide a diagnostic CT image at the lowest possible radiation dose,” the authors write. Only then will the benefits, they say, outweigh the risks of exposure.

It’s one of a oldest sales ploys going. But if it sounds too good to be true, it substantially is.

An internet dating site that offers a guarantee of no-strings-attached “hook-ups” has been forced to tie adult a vetting procedures after it was suggested that reduction than 0.2% of a users were women seeking infrequent sex.

The Plenty of Fish website, that depends a membership during 55 million people worldwide, is to throw a “intimate encounters” duty after it became apparent that many of a womanlike users were not what they seemed.

Markus Frind, a owner of a site Plenty of Fish, pronounced he had taken radical movement after complaints of nuisance by women, and a find that many of a womanlike profiles were bogus.

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In an email to all users of a site, Frind pronounced he had systematic an renovate after anticipating that usually 6,041 of a site’s 3.3 million daily users were women looking for a one-night stand.

“Intimate encounters on POF can be summed adult as a garland of excitable group articulate to a garland of excitable group sanctimonious to be women,” pronounced Frind. “The ones with prohibited cinema are mostly group sanctimonious to be women.”

Frind also changed to diminish members’ ability to hit other users where a age opening was some-more than 14 years.

“There is no reason for a 50-year-old masculine to hit 18-year-old women,” he said. “The infancy of messages sent outward those age ranges are all about hook-ups.”

Founded in 2003, Plenty of Fish is now one of Britain’s biggest dating sites, with 24 million messages sent any day, and a turnover of £6.6 million.

Frind said: “When we combined POF, we wanted it to be all about anticipating relations with a right person. For a initial 7 years, this worked unequivocally well. we got a site to 10 million users though any employees and POF was generating a ton of relationships.”

The site had led to a birth of an estimated one million babies, Frind claimed recently.

But a augmenting use of smartphone apps had enabled a tiny core of group to use a site exclusively for infrequent “hook-ups”, heading many women to protest of harassment.

An estimated 2% of a site’s masculine users “started to use POF as some-more of a hook-up site, mostly due to a infrequent inlet of mobile phone use”, Frind acknowledged.

One 21-year-old user told a Independent: “I used to get all sorts emailing me, seeking to be my worker and seeking for sex. we wouldn’t use it again. It seems people only wish infrequent fun.”

Another, aged 29, said: “At initial we was shocked, though it happened so often, it only became laughable. we wouldn’t contend I’m really appealing though we was removing about 53 emails a day from men. 

“Sometimes we would get alerts during 3am, from group revelation me their mother wanted a threesome. I’ve given warned my friends not to go one a site since guys only wish to offshoot adult for sex.”

To news problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail:
To hit a editor, e-mail:

Mr Frind, who founded a website in 2003, pronounced he wants it to concentration on “meaningful
relationships”, a Independent reported. Plenty of Fish now has a
turnover of some-more than $10 million, or £6.6 million, a year.

The businessman has also motionless to forestall users from contacting other
members where a age opening is 14 years or more.

“There is no reason for a 50-year-old male to hit 18-year-old women.
The infancy of messages sent outward those age ranges are all about
hook-ups,” he wrote.

He estimated that 2 per cent of a group had “started to use POF as more
of a hook-up site, mostly due to a infrequent inlet of mobile phone use”
following a augmenting recognition of smartphone apps.

The site has some-more than 55 million members worldwide and some 24 million
messages sent each day, with Mr Frind recently braggadocio that an estimated
one million babies will have been innate since of people joining through
his website.

Would Fed Tapering Collapse The Market?

Agustino Fontevecchia
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David Tepper: Fed Needs To Taper

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SP Earnings Yield Triple That Of 10Y Treasury

Steve Schaefer
Forbes Staff

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Stocks looked to be off to the races Wednesday, rallying out of the gate then marking fresh highs as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered prepared remarks on Capitol Hill that seemed to indicate no end to the central bank’s stimulus effort is in sight.

Things got dicey when the lawmakers got their shot to question the Fed chief though, and once Bernanke acknowledged the possibility that tapering of asset purchases could begin before Labor Day the market hit a rough patch.

Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting exacerbated the fall with indications that the level of accommodation could be lowered. Bernanke and the FOMC have maintained that such action will only be taken when warranted by data, but there appears to be enough of an expectation that the punch bowl will at least be drained (albeit not taken away) to jar the market.

Treasury yield backed up, with the 10-year moving above 2% and prompting speculation that the acceleration of Wednesday’s selloff was driven by a program primed to sell stocks when the yield rose above the dividend yield of the SP 500.

Minutes before the close the index itself was off more than 1%, down 17 points at 1,652, after rising by a similar amount earlier in the session. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 104 points to 15,283, while the Nasdaq, which reversed before its fellow indexes, slid 48 points to 3,454.

Wednesday’s afternoon slide did not discriminate much between sectors. Defensive corners of the market were reeling – telecom and utilities were the SP’s worst-performing groups – but energy and tech were also down sharply.

Some recent high-fliers were deepest in the red, with First Solar First Solar off 6.9% and Netflix Netflix 4.2% lower, while in something of a curious twist some stocks that would seem to be hurt by a less accommodative Fed were rallying. JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase gained 0.9% and housing-linked Home Depot Home Depot added 1.2% to pace a small group of Dow winners led by Pfizer Pfizer’s 1.8% gain.

Cisco, down 2.9%, and Bank of America Bank of America, 1.6% lower, were in the worst shape among the Dow 30.

Wednesday’s slide, which comes after an incredible rally that pushed the SP 500’s year-to-date gain above 17% Tuesday, needs to be kept in context. While the severity is notable, it is worth remembering that the Fed policy is not going to reverse as dramatically as some seem to fear.

A multi-trillion dollar balance sheet is like an ocean liner, not a speed boat; it doesn’t turn on a dime.

Follow @SchaeferStreet

In an attempt to draw a line under a bumpy few weeks in which Eurosceptics demanded a toughening of his policy and Tory traditionalists criticised him for pressing ahead with a gay marriage bill, the prime minister said he would stand firm.

But Cameron, who spoke of his pride in legalising gay marriage, tried to reach out to the right by saying he would now focus on the “big picture” issues of the economy rather than social issues.

“Is this the first now of many other issues like that,” he asked in an interview on the Today programme on Radio 4. “No it isn’t. The government now is going to be absolutely focused on the big picture which is fixing our economy, reforming welfare, making sure there are good schools for our children to go to.”

But the prime minister adopted a different tone as he rejected calls from Eurosceptics to hold a referendum before the planned date of 2017, or even to hold two votes. David Davis, the former Tory leadership contender, is calling for an initial “mandate” referendum to give the prime minister authority from the British people to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership.

Cameron said: “On 24 January I set out a very clear, very compelling policy for the country towards Europe, which is to renegotiate our relationship with Europe, to make the European Union more open, competitive and flexible, and then to offer the British people something they haven’t had for decades – an in-out referendum. It’s a very clear, very decisive policy.

“Let me say, this policy, it doesn’t matter the pressure I come under from outside the Conservative party, or in Europe, or inside the Conservative party, this policy isn’t going to change. The question isn’t going to change. The number of referenda isn’t going to change. The date by which we hold this referendum isn’t going to change. The fact is, it’s the right policy for the country.”

The prime minister also joined forces with Nick Clegg in vowing that the coalition would last the full five-year term. He said on Today: “That is absolutely my intention and has always been. To anyone who doubts what life there is left in the coalition, I would argue there is more to come – very bold reforming, and strong government, and that is what we’ll be right up until polling day.”

Clegg urged the Conservatives not to shift to the right in a doomed bid to head off Ukip. The deputy prime minister warned Tory MPs off “arcane, shrill and tongue-twisting manoeuvres in parliament”, saying it distracted the public from the government’s main goal of sorting out the economy.

Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, Clegg told the Conservatives they were wasting their time trying to stir up a leadership crisis in his own party, but admitted long-term differences between the two parties over Europe would continue.

Insisting he was confident of his place in the coalition, he said: “Anyone who is wargaming about what may or may not happen in my party is wasting their time. I am going to be leader of this party up to, through and beyond the next general election. The Liberal Democrats, despite all the predictions to the contrary, have proved to be the calmest, most resilient and most united party in British politics today.”

Cruiser motorcycles competence not be really renouned in India, though there
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there are utterly a few alternatives. Earlier this year, DSK Motowheels launched a Hyosung GV650 Aquila Pro, that offers utterly a lot to a cruiser enthusiast. Priced during Rs. 5.46 lakhs (Mumbai), a GV650 is poignant value.

After divulgence she’d combined an online dating form on Match.com, a 71-year-old domestic noble explains because she’s singular on Thursday’s part of The Dr. Oz Show.

“I was married for 30 years to a smashing male who went nuts and left me,” she says. “I mean, can we suppose withdrawal Martha? we can’t suppose it.”

Trying his palm as matchmaker, Dr. Oz suggests some probable suitors.

Reading that Stewart’s form says she’s looking for a male who “relishes journey and new experiences”, he says, “I suspicion Liam Neeson could assistance with that.”

“That’s a good idea, I’ve always been captivated to him,” Stewart replies.

Things take an worried spin when Dr. Oz asks Stewart if she’s looking for adore or looking for sex.

“Um,” she replies. “We’ll speak about that later.”

The video for the heavy metal song, which was directed by Ai with cinematography by acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Doyle, depicts Ai’s 81 days in secretive detention in 2011, which sparked an international outcry.

“There was one thing I thought was interesting. When I was detained, there was a paramilitary officer standing there very seriously watching me, and he asked me quietly if I could sing a song,” Ai told Reuters at his home in northeastern Beijing.

“At the time I felt extremely frustrated, because I felt terrible, and I realized that in a situation like that, these guards felt just like me, they wanted to hear songs,” he said.

The video features Ai having his head and signature beard shaved by his son, and appearing in lipstick and a dress.

The lyrics rail against the authorities, as befit a man who has repeatedly criticized the Chinese government for flouting the rule of law and the rights of citizens, and are also dotted with obscenities.

The album, called “Divina Commedia” after the poem by Italian poet Dante, is a reference to the nickname given Ai by his supporters.

PETAR KUJUNDZIC/REUTERS

Ai Weiwei is best known as a Chinese artist but has now released his first album ‘Divina Commedia.’

The rest of the six-track heavy metal album is due to be released next month, and contains songs about internet censorship and blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose escape from house arrest last April and subsequent refuge in a U.S. embassy embarrassed China and led to a diplomatic tussle.

Ai said he was not worried about persecution for the album but he is gloomy about the prospects of it being sold in China, and is only distributing it online.

“My songs will certainly be blocked. Not just my songs, but my photograph and my name are all blocked. But there’s no problem,” he said.

He is also realistic about the aesthetic qualities of his music, but is determined to improve.

“It doesn’t sound very good, because I don’t have any real skill… And I found that in making music, I have a lot of difficulties,” he said. “But I am trying very hard, and I will keep doing it, and I have hope to become someone who sings comparatively well.”

Ai has already been in the studio recording his second album, which will be a collection of love songs, he said.

He has no immediate plans to perform live, but hopes one day to perform on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, arguably China’s most sensitive location due to its central role in the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.

“On Tiananmen square one day, maybe. I’m sure it will happen,” he said.