Until he came out of skating hibernation this season, Evgeni Plushenko had settled himself in for a long winter’s nap - three years long, in fact. But when Mother Russia needed him back for the Olympics, the defending champion dutifully rubbed his eyes, dusted off his skates and emerged from retirement with his jumping skills still intact.
“I am nervous today because it i… Continue

Six-times world champion Magdalena Neuner of Germany landed her first Olympic gold medal after coming from behind to win the women's 10km pursuit at Whistler Olympic Park on Tuesday.
Trailing Slovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina by two seconds after Sunday's 7.5 km sprint, the 23-year-old Neuner took control after a flawless display in the first… Continue

Am I the only one to notice the coincidence that the Tea Party Convention met in Nashville, which is also the title of a 1975 Robert Altman movie about (among other things) an anti-establishment presidential candidate? Hal Phillip Walker, the standard-bearer of the Replacement Party, would have felt at home last weekend in Nashville.
Walker's populist platform included forbidding lawyer… Continue

In the first midterm election of the year, with the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by President Barack Obama up for grabs, voters sent a moderate five-term congressman from a wealthy suburb to face off against a 33-year-old state Treasurer who used to play basketball with the president.
Mark Kirk, the Republican congressman, won his primary by nearly 40 percentage points, according… Continue

Runners who eschew shoes may be less likely to do serious injury to their feet, because they hold their feet differently, Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and colleagues found.
Writing in the journal Nature, they said runners who wear shoes tend to hit the ground with their heels first, whereas barefoot runners put the balls of the fe… Continue