LeBron 'frustrated' by hard fouls

MIAMI -- The Heat believe that the NBA didn't go far enough in punishing Charlotte Bobcats forward Josh McRoberts for his hard foul on LeBron James during Miami's win in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday the team wasn't satisfied with the league's decision Thursday to fine McRoberts $20,000 and upgrade what was ruled a common foul during Wednesday's game to a flagrant 2 penalty for excessive contact. McRoberts was not suspended and will be available for Game 3 on Saturday in Charlotte. cRoberts fouled James with 50 seconds left in the game on a play in which he extended his elbow into James' neck to prevent him from converting a layup. James fell to the court and rubbed his neck for several moments before he got to his feet and made one of two free throws. "We're all fortunate, because that play could have been much worse, and it's not the first time this has happened," Spoelstra said after practice of what he believes has been a pattern of hard fouls on James throughout the season. "We've already expressed it with the league. We disagree with this. But you have to move on and control what you can control. We've had dialogue. They made their decision." Had McRoberts been assessed a flagrant 2 during the game, he would have been ejected under league rules and the Heat would have gotten possession after James' two free throws. Miami led by three at the time of the foul and held on for a 101-97 victory in a series that's been tougher for the two-time defending champions than many expected. James has averaged 29.5 points and 7.5 rebounds through the first two games of the series and has attempted 22 free throws, nearly three times as many foul shots attempted by any Charlotte player. He said he will continue to be aggressive and attack the basket as the Heat look to take a 3-0 series lead. But James also said he's been displeased with what he feels has been repeated excessive contact from defenders to prevent him from getting to the basket. Earlier this season, James's nose was broken when he was struck in the face by Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka on a dunk attempt. No foul was called, although James annually ranks among the league's leaders in free throw attempts.McRoberts said immediately after Wednesday's game that he did not intend to extend his elbow toward James' neck and that the contact appeared much worse than it was. On Friday, James said he's moved on from the play and would continue to focus on leading the Heat to a series win. James also said his biggest challenge is to maintain composure and avoid retaliating against hard fouls. "I mean a lot to our team," said James, a four-time league MVP. "Obviously, the game is different [today]. If this was the 1980s, I'd come up swinging. But this is not the '80s. I can't do that. Me being out of the game, it hurts us more than it's going to hurt the other team. I've got to keep my composure. I get frustrated at times, but I understand how much I mean to this team." James said that expressing his displeasure with hard fouls doesn't mean he's trying to court favor with the league or officials. Speaking after Friday's practice, James said he noticed several flagrant fouls have been called on the spot during other playoff games already. Game referees then have the option to review the play in question and either uphold the call or downgrade it to a common foul. James' biggest complaint is that the foul by McRoberts wasn't initially handled the same way, considering he was hit above the shoulders with excessive force. "I understand there's going to be contact, and if it's the right call, then I'm OK with it," James said. "My foul didn't even get checked. It was never checked, and it was at a crucial point of the game. "I don't cry for fouls. I know it's going to be a big headline tomorrow, 'LeBron is crying for fouls.' It's not that at all. If the game is played and [officiated] how it's supposed to be [officiated], then I'm OK with it."

Burnley's old-fashioned values earn rich reward with promotion

Michael Kightly celebrates after scoring Burnley's second goal against Wigan. Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images Barely 48 hours remained before the start of the season when the promotion picture in the Championship seemed to have become clear. Queens Park Rangers bought Burnley's top scorer, Charlie Austin, and while Harry Redknapp's side were already favourites to win the division, their status as the division's outstanding team appeared to be rubber-stamped by the arrival of a prolific goalscorer. This, it seemed, was all about QPR. Burnley had been one of the Premier League's one-season wonders: scrutinised, patronised and then cast aside after their relegation in 2010, and few outside East Lancashire considered the implications of the £4m forward's sale for them. Those who did wondered if another demotion was possible: after all, Austin scored 25 of Burnley's 62 league goals last season. Martin Paterson and Chris McCann, who chipped in with a further dozen between them, had already gone. It was just as well, some supporters reflected gloomily, that an otherwise undersized squad now featured four goalkeepers because they were not signing a striker. "Recognised goalscorers are in short supply," said their manager, Sean Dyche, in August. So he promoted unrecognised goalscorers. The answer did not lie in the transfer market but on the Burnley bench. One man's exit was an opportunity for two more. "It's a great opening," Dyche said then. "The immediacy is to affect it from in-house. Players should be chomping at the bit." Two were. Sam Vokes scored four goals in 36 league games last season. Danny Ings got three in 32. This season each has reached the 20-goal barrier for the first time in his career. They have dovetailed beautifully; Vokes has been the target man, Ings the predator. The latter was named the Championship's player of the year. Dyche should scoop the managerial award. His fortunes, like Burnley's, have been transformed. Sacked by Watford in 2012, when new owners preferred to appoint the more glamorous Gianfranco Zola, Dyche did not receive a rapturous reception in his early months at Turf Moor. There were gripes among fans accustomed to attacking – and sometimes defensively suspect – football under Eddie Howe, Owen Coyle and Stan Ternent that the newcomer was too focused on keeping clean sheets. Not any more. The gravel-voiced Dyche is now nicknamed the "Ginger Mourinho". He has constructed the division's tightest defence but the raiding right-back Kieran Trippier also belongs among the division's most creative players. It is part of a wider blueprint that is not remotely revolutionary, but instead reflects old-fashioned values. Dyche's side play a traditional 4-4-2 and his work ethic is reflected in a high-energy pressing game. A straightforward approach is mirrored by his players' wholehearted efforts. Their team spirit is apparent in a refusal to be beaten and Burnley lost only three times before the end of March. On the pitch, it may be a pragmatic promotion. Financially, it is a miraculous one. Dyche's transfer outgoings amount to just £450,000 and only three regulars - the goalkeeper Tom Heaton, the winger Scott Arfield and the borrowed Michael Kightly – are his signings. As the low-profile, low-spending antithesis to QPR, they have proved promotion can be accomplished on a budget. The scale of the achievement is reflected in the figures. Burnley's turnover for the 2012-13 financial year was £15.3m. Participation in the Premier League is thought to be worth £120m. It may afford Dyche a belated chance to buy but Burnley were careful not to bankrupt themselves in their last season in the top flight. With nine players out of contract, he could reshape his squad but loyalty suggests some will be retained. Burnley will begin next season without Vokes, who is sidelined by a cruciate knee injury, and, Ings and Trippier aside, their ranks may not contain too many players who are expected to prosper in the Premier League. Middlesbrough's Jonathan Woodgate said he believed a joint XI from the two teams would feature more from mid-table Boro than Burnley's promotion winners. It was part criticism, part compliment, a sign of the power of Burnley's teamwork and of their continuing capacity to confound expectations. Predictions of a swift return to the Championship will abound, and not just from those who expected them to go down to League One this year, but there is a precedent for an unglamorous British manager to focus on defensive solidity and keep up a side widely deemed to be relegation fodder. Instead of being the "Ginger Mourinho", Dyche's next task is to prove himself the goateed Tony Pulis.

David Moyes facing the sack at Manchester United

A face in the crowd at Goodison Park signals that the end is nigh for David Moyes. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images David Moyes is facing the sack as Manchester United's manager with the owners, the Glazer family, and Ed Woodward, the vice-president, in discussions over when to end the Scot's reign. United's 2-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday was the latest evidence to the executive that Moyes is the wrong man to lead the club and it is now only a matter of time before the decision is taken. Should he go before the end of the season, which appears likely, United may put Ryan Giggs in temporary charge. The 40-year-old, who is player-coach, would command the instant respect of the squad and would consider taking up the role, even if only temporary. As reported by the Guardian , Moyes has been under scrutiny since last month following the 3-0 loss to Liverpool. The chief concern for the board is how badly the side have played throughout the season, with little sign of improvement. Questions were asked at the highest level about whether he could be trusted to carry out a £150m rebuild in the summer. The club are intent on reshaping the squad in the close season and the discussions between Woodward and the Glazers centred on whether a new manager should be brought in to drive the process. Commenting on the speculation surrounding Moyes's future, the former United defender Gary Neville said: "I think the whole situation at the club right now is repulsive. The club really need to make a statement." When replacing Sir Alex Ferguson last summer Moyes signed a six-year contract, with the club determined that stability was the best policy following Ferguson's 26 years in charge. That policy is now in ruins, with deliberations already beginning over who should succeed Moyes. Borussia Dortmund's Jürgen Klopp, Diego Simeone of Atlético Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain's Laurent Blanc and the Holland coach, Louis van Gaal, will all be discussed as the next potential permanent United manager. Everton's Roberto Martínez, who has excelled in Moyes' old job, would be an outside choice.Moyes has paid the price for failings at most levels of his role as manager. Beyond a dismal title defence that has taken United from champions by 11 points to a side struggling to qualify for European football next season, are a series of off-field issues. The prime one is how the 50-year-old has alienated many of the squad he inherited from Ferguson. As the Guardian reported in January Moyes has struggled to convince some senior players of his abilities and there have been numerous disagreements with others. Over the past few days friction between him and Danny Welbeck came to a head with the striker unhappy enough to consider his future despite being a United supporter. This followed a disagreement between the pair in December. Earlier in the season Moyes claimed he had instructed Welbeck to stay behind for extra training, telling him to follow Wayne Rooney's example. Yet Welbeck subsequently questioned Moyes' claim, saying: "I have been doing that ever since I have been at United. I have been injured this season so maybe the manager has not seen me on the training pitch as much." Frustration & disappointment sums up the season so far. #Mufc — Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) April 21, 2014 Last week Moyes disciplined Welbeck, along with Tom Cleverley and Ashley Young for a night out in Manchester following the Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich. While United had no game for 10 days before the trip to Everton – and the manager had given his squad three days off – the trio are thought to have contravened a stipulation that they should not be out late within 48 hours of a game. Further evidence that Moyes has struggled for control over his players came in two episodes of indiscipline from Chris Smalling. Last month Moyes acted after the defender was photographed out in the early hours of Sunday in Manchester. This followed a transgression in January when he was forced to apologise for appearing to dress as a suicide bomber at a private party. Moyes has also proved insular, even with those in his inner circle, with his coaching team not always sure what his thoughts are, and he can often be a distant figure to those who work at the club's Carrington training complex. Speaking to MUTV in the aftermath of the loss at Everton, Moyes said: "We need to end the season on a high. We want to finish by winning all of our games. We'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen." Yet senior players voiced their dissatisfaction with the season. Rio Ferdinand, who was not in the squad at Goodison Park, tweeted: "Frustration & disappointment sums up the season so far." On his blog, Juan Mata wrote: "I feel very disappointed today. This is how you feel when you spend two weeks waiting for a game, getting ready for it, and then things don't go the way you wanted. It happened in Goodison Park and the truth is this is not the first time, as you know. I hate this feeling."

Rita Jeptoo repeats as Boston champ

BOSTON -- Rita Jeptoo of Kenya successfully defended the Boston Marathon title she said she could not enjoy a year ago after the fatal bombings. Jeptoo finished Monday's race in a course-record 2 hours, 18 minutes, 57 seconds to become the seventh three-time Boston Marathon champion. She broke away from a group of five runners at the 23-mile mark. Buzunesh Deba finished second with an unofficial time of 2:19:59. "I came here to support the people in Boston and show them that we are here together," she said. "I decided to support them and show them we are here together." American Shalane Flanagan, who went to high school in nearby Marblehead, Mass., finished seventh after leading for more than half the race. She gambled by setting the early pace, but fell back on the Newton Hills about 21 miles into the race. "It does mean a lot to me that my city was proud of me," Flanagan said. "I'm proud of how I ran. I don't wish it was easier. I wish I was better." In the men's division, Meb Keflezighi added Boston to a résumé that includes the New York City Marathon title in 2009 and a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics. Running just two weeks before his 39th birthday, Keflezighi won Boston in a personal-best 2 hours, 8 minutes, 37 seconds. He held off Kenya's Wilson Chebet, who finished 11 seconds behind. No U.S. runner had won the race since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach took the women's title in 1985; the last American man to win was Greg Meyer in 1983. Meyer and Keflezighi embraced after the race. "I'm blessed to be an American, and God bless America and God bless Boston for this special day," Keflezighi said. Another American, Tatyana McFadden, celebrated her 25th birthday Monday by winning the women's wheelchair race for the second straight year. She was timed in in 1 hour, 35 minutes, 6 seconds. McFadden was born in Russia and lived in an orphanage as a child before starring at the University of Illinois. She also won the 2013 NYC Marathon women's wheelchair race after taking the titles in Boston, London and Chicago last year. Ernst van Dyk of South Africa won the men's wheelchair division for a record 10th time. The 41-year-old crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 20 minutes, 36 seconds. Van Dyk holds the record for most all-categories Boston Marathon wins. This was his first win at this race since 2010.

Tony Romo participates in workouts

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo participated in the team's voluntary offseason program which started Monday morning, according to a source. Romo missed the final game of the 2013 season to undergo back surgery and is on target in his rehab program.In the first phase of the offseason workouts, players can lift weights, run sprints and conduct football activities without the supervision of coaches and scouts. This is the first of several offseason workouts the Cowboys will conduct. After the May 8-10 NFL draft, the Cowboys will host a rookie minicamp the following weekend. Starting on May 28, the Cowboys will have organized team activities until June 12. The offseason program ends with the mandatory veteran minicamp June 17-19. Romo's availability is expected in most, if not all, of those activities. Last summer, Romo missed several days of the offseason program as he recovered from surgery to remove a cyst from his back. But last December, Romo underwent a discectomy to repair a herniated disk after injuring his back in a Week 16 game at Washington. Team officials said Romo recovered well from the surgery. "It's going good," Romo told ESPN in March after watching a Duke basketball game."We're getting close now to [returning]. Usually takes three months, it's just the normal kinda roundabout date that they give you, and we're right on schedule. "Really ahead in a lot of ways. Just going to be ready to go here in about a month and rehab is going good, no setbacks of any kind. Mine [surgery] was just a normal small version of it, so I should be good to go here shortly." Romo finished the 2013 season throwing for 3,828 yards with 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Easter Bunny Ambushes Racing Presidents At Nationals Game

Let this be a warning to all American presidents, past, present, and future: You've got your own damn holiday, stay the hell out of the Easter Bunny's.

[Meb Keflezighi celebrates his victory in the 118th Boston Marathon.

When a great product hits the funding crunch

Building a great product is not enough Today I read a well-done article by The Verge on the shutdown of Everpix, a photo startup that’s gained a small but loyal following. It’s a great read, and I’d encourage you to check it out. There’s a lot of things to comment on, but the Everpix story is a common one these days- a lot of startups have built great initial products, and even shown some strong engagement, but ultimately not enough traction to gain a Series A. The essay on Everpix drove home a lot of recent trends in startups that have gained momentum for the last year or two. Let’s examine a couple of these trends. Funding goalposts continue to move The first thing we’ll talk about is the company metrics. One of the best things about this article was that they did a good job of covering some of Everpix’s stats on engagement, conversion rate to premium, etc. Everpix stats 55,000 total signups and 6,800 paid users Freemium biz model of $4.99/month or $49/year Free-to-paid conversion rate of 13% 4.5 star rating with 1,000+ reviews MAU/signups of 60% WAU/signups of 50% Raised $1.8M and then a seed extension of $500k Ex-Apple founders with 6 FTEs You can see that other than the top-line metric of total signups, the other metrics are quite solid. If this company were started just a few years ago, I’m convinced they would have had no problem raising their Series A. These days though, it’s gotten a lot harder. The reason for that is the “moving goalposts” on what you’re expected to do with your funding. It’s been widely noted that investing milestones have evolved quickly over time: In 1998, you’d raise $5M Series A with an idea and not much else. The capital would be spent to build the product, and hopefully you’d have some customers at the end of it, but it wasn’t required. You had to do crazy stuff like put machines into a datacenter, at this point. Then you’d raise a Series B to scale the marketing. The qualitative bar for the team, idea, and market was high. In 2004, you’d raise $500k with just an idea. Then you’d build the product and spend $5M to market it. At this point, you could use a free Open Source stack which would accelerate development. You didn’t need to build a datacenter either. In 2013, these days, you are expected to have a product coded up and ready before you raise your first substantial angel round. Maybe the product won’t be launched, but people will want to play with a demo at least. Then you raise $1-2M to get traction on your product. Then if you have millions of signups, then you get to raise your Series A of $5-10M. In fact, it’s been famously written by Chris Dixon, now a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, that 10 million users is the new 1 million users. I’ve previously written that Mobile Startups are Failing Like It’s 1999, due to the long launch cycles that the Apple Store encourages. I’ve also written about mobile getting harder and not easier over time. There’s a couple things going on: The sheer proliferation of seed-funded startups, combined with investors who want to invest post-traction, post-product/market fit. Combine this with 1999-style launches for mobile apps, and you have a big mismatch in the supply and demand for funding. Series A venture capitalists are often acting like growth investors now, where they want the entire equation de-risked before they put in much capital, and it’s reasonable to expect this given the technology stack and massive distribution channels. My question is, in 2016, will the bar be even higher? Maybe angel investors will expect a working product, reasonable traction, and product/market fit all before they put in the first $1M? How much can market-risk be proved out before any professional money is raised? Monetization won’t save you if it’s not combined with growth The Everpix story also shows that having a business model isn’t enough- after all, a 12% conversion rate to premium is stellar, which you can compare to Evernote’s 6%, as they mention. The problem is, if you have monetization in place, investors also want to see a lot of growth. Or you need enough growth and scale to be profitable without outside funding. Work backwards on the latter to see what that looks like: 6 FTEs plus operations costs about $100k/month At $5/month, you need 20k paid subscribers to break even At a 12% free-to-paid rate, you need 160k signups Turns out, 160k users is a lot, especially if you have a short runway. It’s well outside the boundary of a list of friends and family, or a Techcrunch article, or a big week of promotion from Apple . If you combine this with the rest of your schedule, like 6 months to raise VC, another 6-12 months to build the product, etc., then you don’t have much time to hit your traction milestones. In contrast to the option to hit profitability, VCs don’t care that much about small scale monetization. They understand that a freemium service can get 1-5% conversion rates, and the question is if you have enough top-of-funnel signups to make the revenue numbers big. In fact, too much focus on monetization too early can lead a red flag, since it’ll mean maybe the entrepreneur is thinking small rather than focusing on winning the market. A modern startup’s costs are all people costs The final thing that’s worth pointing out in the article is the cost structure of the company and where the money went: $565k consulting and legal fees $128k office space $360k operating costs $1.4 total personnel costs In other words, 80% of the costs went towards the employees and contractor/consultants/legal. It’s basically all people costs. You could argue that the office space is really just a function of the people too. Really, only ~15% of the capital went towards actually running the service. If anything, this trend will only continue. San Francisco housing costs continue the rise, while computing infrastructure only gets cheaper and more flexible. The nice thing about these costs, of course, is that you can always scale them down by scaling down your team. It’s complicated to do this, of course, since the value in this acquihires incent you to keep a large group of people going up until the end. But if you are convinced to work on the business for the long term, you can always scale things down to a few core folks, though it can be painful. This is another reason why increasing your cost structure can be tricky if your product isn’t working in the market already. You end up in a case where just a year or two down the road, you have to make the tough decisions to keep going, or to shut the product down. So if you are working on something that you’re really passionate about – or as they say, amazing founder/market fit – then you may want to delay the team buildout so that you don’t end up creating that situation in the first place. “Milestone awareness” and clear product roadmaps Ultimately, this flavor of startup shutdown will continue to happen. Products that hit immense traction are the exception, not the norm, for a reason. Given that, what can you do? Ultimately, every founder needs a strong sense of “milestone awareness.” What I mean by that is the ability to understand what you need to accomplish before the next round of funding, and then to work backwards on that until you can put together a reasonable roadmap to get there. You might have to cut costs if the plan doesn’t seem to work. And you’ll have to revisit this plan on a regular basis to understand how it fits together. The problem with hyper product-oriented entrepreneurs is that they often have one tool in their pocket: Making a great product. That’s both admirable, and dangerous. Once the initial product is working, the team has to quickly transition into marketing and user growth, which requires a different set of skills. It has to be more about metrics rather than product design: running experiments, optimizing signup flows, arbitraging LTVs and CACs, etc. It’s best when this is built on the firm foundation of user engagement that’s already been set up. In contrast, an entrepreneur that’s too product oriented will just continue polishing features or possibly introducing “big new ideas” that ultimately screw the product up. Or keep doing the same thing unaware of the milestone cliff in front of them. Scary. Any startups that are at the “just add water stage” should email me and I’ll connect you with the resources and people to grow. It’s funny that people take the lesson away from Apple that you should just focus on product. That’s only half the story, I think, because when you dig into why Apple is so secretive, it’s because the company is really focused on advertising and product launches. The secrecy that’s so deeply embedded in the organization facilitates their distribution strategy- can you imagine building your company culture around your marketing strategy? That’s what Apple’s done, though it’s not often talked about. Good luck, guys Finally, I want to wish the Everpix team good luck- they put together something that thousands of people enjoyed. That’s very hard, and more than most people can say. And they took away some very useful lessons that will only make them better entrepreneurs. It’s never an easy thing to shut down something you’ve worked on for years, but I was insanely happy to see such a high-quality post mortem from The Verge. Thanks for writing this up, guys!

Stop Trying to Be Hemingway: The Myth of Creative Routines

Designed by Dmitry Baranovskiy for the Noun Project The creative routines of famous creatives has been popular internet fodder this year. The Pacific Standard thinks this obsession and trend of emulating famous artist’s habits is problematic, to say the least. The larger picture, says Casey N. Cep, is that most artists did not always followed these routines they’re known for anyways. In the end they would have still produced genius work regardless of the kind of breakfast they ate, hours they worked, or whatever office supplies they used. The idea that any one of these habits can be isolated from the entirety of the writer’s life and made into a template for the rest of us is nonsense. What none of these lists tell you is that sometimes these highly creative people weren’t waking so early on their own, but were woken by domestic servants. Or that some of these highly productive writers also had spouses or children or assistants enlisted in the effort. Or that often the leisurely patterns of drafting and revising were possible only because generous familial support made the financial demands of everyday life irrelevant. Some of the more scandalous aspects of these artistic routines are also tragically stripped of context. The writer who never wrote without a few gin and tonics died young from cirrhosis. The journalist who relied on barbiturates died of an overdose. The painter who once said it was impossible to paint while listening to music married a violinist who then played constantly in his studio. We often talk about process at 99U, so we think this is a great debate. Are we interested in the routines of great artists because we think replicating parts of their process will be what we were missing to succeed all along? While we believe strongly that the creative process matters, it’s worth contemplating whether it’s our process that needs tweaking or the work itself. It’s easier to put the fault on something we can change easily and control, like a routine, than it is to dig into the deep, personal issues within the work we’re putting out.

Expectant Parents Asked the Internet to Name Their Child. And the Winning Name Is…

In January of this year, an expectant father named Stephen started the website NameMyDaughter.com, where anyone on the Internet could suggest and vote on potential names for Stephen’s forthcoming baby girl. Well, as noted by the folks at Betabeat, Stephen’s wife gave birth on April 7. And the winning name is — drumroll, please! — Amelia Savannah Joy McLaughlin. Or, sweeter than you might have expected from the feces-hurling cesspool that is the Internet? Unfortunately for those looking to have their faith in humanity restored, “Amelia Savannah Joy” did not technically win the vote. The real first-place name was “Cthulhu All-Spark.” (“Cthulhu” won the vote for first name, and “All-Spark” won the vote for middle name.) The parents, who live in British Columbia, Canada, rejected that one in favor of the second-place name, Amelia.

Lewis Hamilton eases to victory in China GP for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton took a dominant victory in the Chinese Grand Prix to win three consecutive races for the first time in his career. Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg took second, fighting back to beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso after a poor start left him sixth on Lap One. Alonso held off Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to grab third place.An unhappy Sebastian Vettel was fifth, beaten by team-mate Ricciardo for the second race in a row. The world champion refused a team order to let Ricciardo by in the middle of the race but was powerless to stop the Australian passing him. But Vettel's travails were a mere sideshow to the unanswerable pace of Hamilton, who was in a league of his own throughout. Hamilton pulled away at about a second a lap in the early stages and was in cruise control for the rest of the afternoon, with less tyre wear and better fuel consumption than his rivals as he circulated serenely at the head of the field. The win closes his deficit to Rosberg at the head of the championship to four points. "I just can't believe how amazing the car is and how hard everyone's worked," Hamilton said on the podium. "After the start it was just really racing myself. I'm really happy Nico is up here with us. Great points for the team." Hamilton is still making up the 25-point hit he took in retiring from the first race of the season in Australia while Rosberg won. The Englishman has won every grand prix since. Rosberg's race, meanwhile, demonstrated how much more difficult it is even in a dominant car such as the Mercedes if a driver finds himself out of position.A loss of telemetry before the race may have contributed to a poor start from fourth on the grid and he survived Williams' Valtteri Bottas bouncing over his front wheel on the entry to the first corner to track Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, Ricciardo and Williams' Felipe Massa on the first lap. Rosberg passed Massa on lap four, leapfrogged Ricciardo at the first pit stops, overtook Vettel on lap 22 and then set off after Alonso. The Ferrari driver leapt up to third at the first corner from his fifth-place grid position with a typically sparkling start, despite a side-on collision with Massa. Alonso hassled Vettel around the first lap, but was forced to settle into third in the opening stint. He jumped ahead of Vettel into second at the first pit stops and managed to stay there until his second and final stop on lap 33, despite Rosberg moving up on to his tail. An earlier final stop by Alonso and an error by Rosberg on his in-lap gave Alonso a five-second lead after the Mercedes driver's own final stop four laps later. But Rosberg unleashed the full pace of the Mercedes over the succeeding five laps and cruised past the Ferrari on the straight on lap 42, with 14 laps to go. That left Alonso five seconds ahead of Ricciardo and needing to keep the Red Bull driver at bay. He held on by 1.2 seconds, despite suffering from problems with his front tyres. "It was a good weekend," said Alonso. "We did improve the car a little bit compared to the first three races, so we felt more competitive. Being in the podium is a nice surprise for us. "I think I'm third in the championship behind these two guys. We didn't have the start of the season we would have liked but we are still in the fight."Vettel had admitted after being beaten by Ricciardo in qualifying that his team-mate was outpacing him fair and square, and he was outpaced again in the race. The Australian closed in on Vettel's tail by lap 23, whereupon Red Bull ordered the German to let him by. "What tyres is he on?" Vettel asked over the radio - his race engineer Guillaume Roquelin told him Ricciardo was on the same tyres as he was but had stopped later. "Tough luck," Vettel replied. It appeared as if Vettel tried to hold on but, on the more slippery outside line, slid wide allowing Ricciardo through. Vettel said he moved over to let his team-mate pass. Ricciardo simply left him behind thereafter and was more than 20 seconds clear at the end of the race as Vettel concentrated on keeping his advantage over Force India's Nico Hulkenberg in sixth. Bottas took seventh, from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who has now been beaten comprehensively by Alonso in all four of his races since returning to Maranello. Force India's Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat took the final points positions. An error by the official waving the chequered flag resulted in the race being shortened by two laps. Hamilton was shown the flag at the start of his final lap. All drivers continued to race, but the rules dictate that in those circumstances the result must be declared at the end of the previous lap. This meant that Marussia's Jules Bianchi retained 17th place despite being passed by Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi on the penultimate lap.

Liverpool opened up a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League after a hard-fought win at Norwich.

Second-placed Chelsea had lost on Saturday and the Reds capitalised, with Raheem Sterling arrowing in a long-range shot to put them ahead. Luis Suarez guided in a second only for Gary Hooper to slot in for Norwich after keeper Simon Mignolet's error.Sterling scored with a deflected shot before a Robert Snodgrass header gave the Canaries hope but the Reds held on. It was a frantic finish at a boisterous Carrow Road and the home side almost salvaged a point only for Mignolet to save a Ricky van Wolfswinkel header. Liverpool were given a scare by Norwich but managed to secure an 11th successive league win, which confirms their place in next season's Champions League, ahead of next Sunday's home game against Chelsea, a visit to Crystal Palace and a meeting with Newcastle at Anfield. Chelsea's surprise defeat at home to Sunderland on Saturday had added to the expectancy surrounding the Reds at Carrow Road. But following a storming start, they had to determinedly drag themselves over the line to earn a victory which brings closer a first title since 1990. Norwich suffered a sixth defeat in eight outings, although they can take heart from a battling display. They are two points above the relegation zone with games at Manchester United and Chelsea to come before they play Arsenal at home.The Canaries ultimately paid the price for a disappointing first half, which began with Sterling sidestepping Bradley Johnson and powering a 22-yard shot, which took a slight deflection off defender Michael Turner, past keeper John Ruddy. Joe Allen had an angled drive fended away by Ruddy as Liverpool made a typically energetic start, with a second goal not taking long to arrive. Sterling turned from scorer to provider as he bent a low right-wing ball into the path of Suarez, who guided a sidefoot home for his 30th league goal of the campaign. Norwich rallied and striker Hooper latched on to a Turner knockdown but was denied the chance to get a shot away courtesy of two tigerish Allen tackles. A swerving long range Nathan Redmond effort was also palmed away by Mignolet, with Norwich continuing to the apply the pressure after the break.The home side received their reward for their efforts when Mignolet mistimed his attempt to punch away Steven Whittaker's cross and Hooper tapped in from eight yards. Suarez could have eased Liverpool's nerves but sent a shot from just inside the box narrowly wide. It was left to Sterling to restore the visiting side's two-goal advantage, with the Reds forward racing at the Norwich defence before his effort looped in following a deflection off Bradley Johnson. The Canaries refused to be disheartened and Snodgrass had a shot palmed around the post, while a Redmond strike was diverted wide off the head of defender Martin Skrtel. The home pressure eventually told again when Snodgrass headed in - but despite going close with Van Wolfswinkel's header, an equaliser eluded them.

Dutch Cup final: Fireworks hold up PEC Zwolle win

PEC Zwolle beat Ajax 5-1 in a Dutch Cup final stopped for 30 minutes after fans threw fireworks on to the pitch. Ricardo van Rhijn put Dutch champions Ajax into a third-minute lead. Moments later the game was suspended with fireworks and smoke bombs damaging the pitch and setting an advertising sign on fire. PEC Zwolle led 4-1 at the break, with Ryan Thomas and Guyon Fernandez scoring two each, before Bram van Polen added a fifth. It is the first major trophy in the history of Zwolle, who were only promoted from the second tier in 2012. Ajax are on the verge of winning a fourth consecutive Eredivisie title. They lead Feyenoord by six points with two games left.Goalkeeper Diederik Boer, 33, has spent his whole career with Zwolle Dutch police said that 19 people were arrested before the game, which was played at Feyenoord's De Kuip in Rotterdam. But that did not stop the game being stopped for the first time almost as soon as it kicked off. Play then resumed, with Van Rhijn heading home but moments later it was again held up - this time for much longer - after more objects were thrown on to the pitch by Ajax fans. The players were taken off the pitch and Ajax coach Frank de Boer and former goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, now the club's chief marketing officer, both pleaded with fans to stop. "Stop throwing fireworks on the field, it's dangerous," Van der Sar said. "If it happens again, the game is abandoned." When the game restarted, PEC Zwolle were ahead within seven minutes with teenage New Zealander Thomas scoring twice. Fernandez then scored twice to put them 4-1 ahead after 34 minutes. Van Polen added a fifth goal five minutes after the break and Thomas almost scored a hat-trick soon afterwards as Zwolle fans chanted for "10". No more goals came but it did not stop PEC Zwolle winning in their third KNVB Cup final - having lost in 1928 and 1977.

Manchester United are rebuilding, says manager David Moyes

Manchester United boss David Moyes says the club are "rebuilding" after a 2-0 Premier League defeat to Everton. United's 11th Premier League defeat of the campaign means it is mathematically impossible for them to qualify for next season's Champions League. Last season's champions are seventh in the table with four games left. "I think that everybody knows we are on track to make changes and do some different things," said Moyes. "We are rebuilding." He added: "I understand it has not been good, I recognise it has not been good, and it needs to be better." The defeat marked a disappointing return to Goodison Park for Moyes - who spent 11 years at Everton's manager. He was given a mixed reception by the Everton fans and he admitted he did not enjoy his return. "I did not enjoy the result that's for sure," Moyes told BBC Radio 5 live."I've got to say I was so focused on my own job that I did not take anything in. I couldn't tell you if it was a good one (reception) or a bad one." Moyes was pleased with elements of his side's performance. "Bits of the performance were quite good and we certainly didn't deserve to go into the break 2-0 down," he said. "We gave away two terrible goals but prior to that we passed the ball brilliantly well, kept the ball, had great control of the game. "What we couldn't do is make enough chances but we had a great control and we got done by two stupid decisions. "We didn't have a final through pass at times, we didn't have a final finish when they came and there weren't very many of them. "That was the disappointing part, that we just couldn't do that in the final third but I couldn't fault how we played because we kept the ball incredibly well." Moyes added: "Credit to Everton - they defended deep and they hit us on the counter attack "We didn't have any killer instinct, and if you concede goals like we did today, then you are not going to win games."

Hull 0-3 Arsenal: Gunners controlled the game - Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says his side "completely controlled" the game during their 3-0 away victory against Hull . Lukas Podolski scored twice and Aaron Ramsey fired home to secure a comfortable win for the Gunners over their FA Cup final opponents. The result means Arsenal remain in control of fourth spot.

Benfica won their 33rd Portuguese league title thanks to a deserved victory over Olhanense.

Brazilian striker Lima scored in the 57th and 60th minutes to seal the championship - ahead of second-placed Sporting Lisbon - with two games left. Benfica had finished second in each of the last three seasons, having last been champions in 2009-10. They are at home again on Thursday, against Juventus in the Europa League semi-final first leg. Journeyman Lima, 30, joined Benfica in 2012 from fellow Portuguese side Braga. "This is the most important goal of my career," he said. "I am so grateful to everyone. This is the highlight of my professional life."LINEUP, BOOKINGS (7) & SUBSTITUTIONS (6) Benfica 41 Oblak 14 Maxi Pereira 34 Almeida 30 André Gomes 04 Luisão 24 Garay 18 Salvio (Markovic - 45' ) 35 Pérez 11 Lima Booked 19 Rodrigo (Cardozo - 84' ) 20 Gaitán (Djuricic - 76' Booked ) Substitutes 01 Artur Moraes 06 Amorim 07 Cardozo 10 Djuricic 33 Jardel 50 Markovic 90 Cavaleiro Olhanense 27 Belec 92 Sampirisi Booked (Bigazzi - 91' ) 06 Ribeiro Santana 19 Diakhité Booked 04 Ferreira 15 Rodrigues Fernandes Booked 20 Soares Booked (Emmanuel Balogun - 75' ) 03 Obodo 79 Dionisi 16 Viegas Silva Gomes Duarte Booked (Marreco De Gouveia - 66' ) 88 Vieira de Souza Substitutes 01 Martins Soares Pereira 10 Tuncara Gomes 13 dos Santos Bastos 21 Emmanuel Balogun 24 Bigazzi 50 Marreco De Gouveia 89 Mehmeti

IPL corruption claims: BCCI appoints investigative panel

Protests have taken place following the India's cricket board has appointed a three-member investigative panel to look into allegations of corruption in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Its members are former law enforcement agency head RK Raghavan, former high court judge JN Patel and former Indian cricket captain Ravi Shastri. It comes after an Indian court urged the board to probe spot-fixing claims against 13 players and officials. The IPL is the world's richest cricket tournament. The seventh edition of the 20-over tournament, which features eight teams of international players, began last week and runs until 1 June. India's Supreme Court recently ordered N Srinivasan to stand down as chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) amid allegations that his son-in-law was involved with illegal betting. Mr Srinivasan was elected head of cricket's world body, the International Cricket Council, in February. He is due to take up the role in July. Former India captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was installed as the interim head of the cricket board, and is responsible for overseeing the ongoing IPL tournament. The last season of the IPL was dogged by allegations of spot-fixing and betting. Spot-fixing involves players bowling wides and no-balls at certain times arranged beforehand with bookmakers.

GB's Steph Slater sets butterfly world record in Glasgow

Britain's Steph Slater set a new 100m butterfly world record as she continued to dominate at the British Para-Swimming International meet in Glasgow. The 23-year-old from Preston beat her own S8 European record in the morning heats before setting a new best of one minute 9.67 seconds. It beat America's Jessica Long mark of 1:09.79 set at last year's World Championship. "Words can't describe it - it's an amazing feeling," said Slater. "I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to break the record so I just went out there and swam the hardest I could."Slater's world record won her gold in the multi-classification event, which doubles as the trials for August's European Championships in the Netherlands, and was her fifth Euro qualification standard of the meeting. She also set a qualification time for the Commonwealth Games at the Tollcross pool last week. She was a talented able-bodied swimmer before an injury in 2010 left her without the use of her left arm. She believed her swimming career was over but after working as a Gamesmaker at the 2012 Paralympics realised that Para-swimming could be an option. "I've spent a lot of time recently working on the technical side of my strokes and it has made a massive difference," she added. "The butterfly wasn't my favourite stroke when I was competing able-bodied but I seem to have taken more naturally to it." Paralympic, World and European champion Jon Fox just missed out on breaking his own world record but still won gold in the 100m backstroke and secured the European Championship qualification time. Fox's time of 1:09.57 was just 0.05secs away from the mark he set last year in Sheffield. Bethany Firth , who switched nationalities to GB earlier this year from Ireland, continued her remarkable form at the meeting with a new world best to win the women's 100m backstroke, clocking 1:06.00 to beat the old record of 1:06.70 set by Marlou van der Kulk of the Netherlands. However, Firth is not eligible to compete at the European Championships which run from 4-10 August. There were also first European standards of the week in the backstroke for Alice Tai (S10), Hannah Russell (S12), Chloe Davies (S14), James Crisp (S9) and Aaron Moores (S14) as well as James Hollis in the S10 butterfly.

Easter's Holy Fire ceremony celebrated in Jerusalem

Scuffles reportedly broke out among pilgrims and priests jostling to get a better view Continue reading the main story Thousands of Christian pilgrims have celebrated Easter's Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Holy Fire is considered a miracle occurring every year on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. Worshippers say the flame appears from Jesus' tomb inside the church to show he has not forgotten his followers. The ancient church is believed to be built on the site of his crucifixion, burial and resurrection.http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/74335000/jpg/_74335784_021967214-1.jpgThe Holy Fire is passed between worshippers from candle to candleChristians believe the flame spontaneously ignites at Jesus' tomb every Holy SaturdayWorshippers react to a beam of sunlight filtering from the ceiling of the ancient churchPolice enforced tight security to keep crowds from surging into the churchChristians elsewhere also partook in Easter rituals, like these women who are being blessed with holy water by an Orthodox priest in the eastern Ukrainian town of Sloviansk Penitents on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife (19 April 2014)Here, Spanish penitents are seen during a procession on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife

Nigeria abductions: Headmistress pleads for girls' lives

The headmistress of a school in Nigeria has appealed to the government to do more to save teenage girls abducted by suspected Islamist militants on Monday. Speaking to the BBC, Asabe Kwambula also called on the kidnappers to "have mercy on the students". Her plea came after the military admitted that most of the girls had not been freed as it earlier stated. According to education authorities in Borno state, 85 girls are still missing and 44 in total have managed to escape. But some parents suggested the number of those in captivity was higher.It is thought militant group Boko Haram took the girls from the remote boarding school in the north-east to forested areas near the Cameroonian border. Intensive efforts to find them were continuing, an army spokesman said on Friday. 'Save innocents' Ms Kwambula said she had so far "registered" 32 students as having escaped, adding they appeared to be unharmed. "I am pleading with the government to secure the release of the children, to save the lives of these innocents," she told the BBC's Will Ross."I am with the parents, praying continuously for the teenagers' safe return." Correspondents say the raid on the boarding school is a great source of embarrassment for the Nigerian authorities, who have been saying that their military campaign against the militants is succeeding. The attack on the school in Chibok happened late on Monday, with gunmen reportedly storming the school, stealing food supplies and ordering the students on to lorries. Some of the girls later managed to jump off the trucks, while others ran from captivity during prayer time or while they were cooking. The security forces have been working with vigilante groups and local hunters to find the schoolgirls. The well-armed Boko Haram fighters have killed hundreds of civilians this year, slitting the throats of many of their victims, our reporter says. Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in north-east Nigeria have been under emergency rule since last May. Militants from Boko Haram - which means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language - frequently target educational institutions.

The ultimate guide to staying anonymous and protecting your privacy online

Whenever you browse the web, your privacy is under constant barrage. Advertisers are trying to track every move you make, and governments around the world want in on the action as well. Getting tracked by Facebook and Google is bad enough, but knowing that the NSA has its eyes on your web traffic is more than a little worrisome. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to protect your anonymity on the web, and prevent other organizations from monitoring your browsing habits, ensuring your privacy online. In this post, I’m going to highlight thirteen different methods you can use to keep prying eyes off of your web traffic. Some methods are more complicated than others, but if you’re serious about privacy, these tips will help you remain anonymous on the open web. Of course, internet security is a topic in and of itself, so you’re going to need to do some reading to remain thoroughly protected on all fronts. And remember, even the most careful among us are still vulnerable to imperfect technology. Blocking third-party cookies Third-party cookies are one of the most common methods that advertisers use to track your browsing habits. If you visit two sites using the same advertising service, rest assured that the advertiser is keeping tabs on that information. Thankfully, every major web browser offers the ability to turn off tracking cookies. Without third-party cookies, advertisers have to work much harder to monitor which pages you visit. While this is far from a panacea, it shuts down the most common vector used by advertisers to build usage profiles.Blocking location data Recently, many web sites have begun to use location data to offer specific services, and display local advertisements. Mapping applications obviously have legitimate reasons for gathering location data, but that same technique can be used to help identify who you are. Any legitimate browser should offer the ability to toggle on and off location data, and I recommend leaving it off completely. At the very least, demand that websites prompt you for access before gathering the data. That said, IP-based geolocation data is incredibly trivial to acquire, so remain vigilant. If you’re browsing the web without a proxy or a VPN, you’re effectively broadcasting your IP to every server you come across, and that information can be used against you. It’s not necessarily something you have to worry about constantly, but it’s worth keeping that fact in the back of your mind if you’re criticizing your local dictator or blowing a whistle on the NSA.Do not track The “Do not track” HTTP header is an optional message that browsers can send to web servers. You can easily enable it in your browser’s settings, but it’s rather limited in scope. For this to work at all, the web server needs to be configured to respect this flag. There is absolutely no requirement of any kind that any website needs to obey this setting, so don’t expect widespread protection from trackers. Still, you don’t have anything to lose, so there’s no reason not to take advantage of this built-in protection.Plug-in management Even if your browser is configured properly to hide your identifying information, plug-ins can still be used to endanger your anonymity. If you’re serious about remaining anonymous, you should avoid running plug-ins all together. Unfortunately, that can leave a number of popular websites completely unusable. To solve this problem, I recommend a hybrid approach. First of all, you need to configure your browser to require your approval to run any plug-in. Chrome offers this functionality in its settings, and extensions offer this capability in other browsers. Next, you need to make sure you’re running sandboxed plug-ins. While this is mostly considered a security issue, a rogue plug-in could certainly be used to gather your personal information by an organization like the NSA. Chrome can be configured to completely disallow un-sandboxed plug-ins, but it can be trickier with some other browsers. Windows users can opt to run their browsers inside of an application called Sandboxie, so even less sophisticated browsers can receive similar benefits.

How Samsung Galaxy S5′s Ultra Power Saving Mode makes 10% battery last 24 hours

As both Motorola and HTC have faltered, Samsung has taken over the Android device ecosystem with its Galaxy brand. That trend seems sure to continue with the Galaxy S5 just days away from release and meeting with favorable reviews. Samsung managed to restrain itself to an astounding degree this time — whereas the Galaxy S4 was accompanied by innumerable mediocre software features, the Galaxy S5 focuses on a few aspects in particular, one of which is battery life. In addition to the standard power saving mode, Samsung has created a new Ultra Power Saving Mode (UPSM). This feature leverages tightly integrated hardware and software to extend standby time many times over, apparently allowing the phone to squeeze 24 hours of standby time out of just 10% battery life. Early impressions indicate it works even better than expected. Samsung may have under promised and over delivered on this one, but how? Ultra Power Saving Mode is not simply a fancy way to restrict background data and dim the screen like most other OEMs do — this mode drastically reduces power drain by pulling back on almost everything the phone does. The most obvious change when activating UPSM is the switch to a grayscale display. This wouldn’t make much difference at all to a phone with an LCD, but Samsung’s Super AMOLED is playing to its strengths here. An AMOLED panel differs from LCD in that it doesn’t need a backlight. All the light is produced by the pixels, so a black pixel is simply off (uses no power). By changing to a black and white UI, the Galaxy S5 needs to light fewer pixels, thus reducing power usage substantially. It also caps brightness at a maximum of 87 nits, a big drop from over 400 nits without Ultra Power Saver. Does that make it harder to read? Not really. AMOLEDs have very high contrast, so a black and white interface — even one that is very dim — is surprisingly readable. Big changes happen on the inside of the Galaxy S5 when UPSM is engaged too. The device comes with a Snapdragon 801, which has four Krait 400 CPU cores clocked to 2.5GHz. Ultra Power Saver Mode takes advantage of Qualcomm’s custom ARM cores — two cores turn off completely, and the remaining two are downclocked and capped at 1.5GHz. To compensate for the reduction in processing power, Samsung also drops the display refresh from 60Hz to 30Hz.Samsung has designed the new TouchWiz software to be ruthless when UPSM is turned on — all running processes and services are ended, and nothing is allowed to run in the background except for the bare essentials needed for calling and messaging. You can only access a subset of apps in this mode, including the stock Samsung browser, messaging, phone, clock, and ChatOn. Of course, this might just be a devious way to get people to actually use ChatOn. With UPSM activated, the Galaxy S5 is able to drop its power usage to just 16.8mW, which could run the phone in standby for over 64 hours on a 10% charge. Samsung only claimed 24 hours, which likely assumes you’ll still wake it up on occasion. Our own informal testing showed 2% battery drain for a 15-hour overnight stretch, during which the phone was in standby the entire time. Ultra Power Saver Mode is an example of an OEM using its Android modification powers for good instead of evil. After all, Google hasn’t even bothered with a power saving mode in stock Android. There are aspects of TouchWiz that still need hammering out, but it probably has the most impressive power saving feature of any smartphone today.

Google invents smart contact lens with built-in camera: Superhuman Terminator-like vision here we come

Google has invented a new smart contact lens with an integrated camera. The camera would be very small and sit near the edge of the contact lens so that it doesn’t obscure your vision. By virtue of being part of the contact lens, the camera would naturally follow your gaze, allowing for a huge range of awesome applications, from the basis of a bionic eye system for blind and visually impaired people, through to early warning systems (the camera spots a hazard before your brain does), facial recognition, and superhuman powers (telescopic and infrared/night vision). In related news, Google Glass is publicly available today in the US for one day only (still priced at $1500). This new smart contact lens would have a tiny CMOS camera sensor just below your pupil, control circuit, and some method of receiving power wirelessly (more on that later). Because an imaging sensor, by definition, has to absorb light, it wouldn’t be transparent — but it could probably be color matched to your iris, so that your eyes don’t look too freaky.As you can probably imagine, there are some rather amazing applications if you have two cameras embedded in your contact lenses. You can’t do much in the way of image processing on the contact lens itself, but you could stream it to a nearby smartphone or head-mounted display (i.e. Google Glass), where a more powerful computer could perform all sorts of real-time magic. Google suggests that the cameras might warn you if there’s oncoming traffic at a crosswalk — useful for a normal-sighted person, but utterly invaluable for a blind or partially sighted person. For me, the more exciting possibilities include facial recognition (a la Terminator), and abilities that verge on the super or transhuman, such as being able to digitally zoom in and infrared thermal night vision. (Read: What is transhumanism, or, what does it mean to be human?)Beyond the medical- and consumer-oriented applications, you can also imagine the possibilities if police were equipped with contact lenses that could spot criminal faces in a crowd, or a bulge under a jacket that could be a concealed weapon. Oh, and the most exciting/deadly application of them all: Soldiers with smart contact lenses that alert them to incoming fire, provide infrared vision that can see through smoke, real-time range finding for more accurate sniping…This invention, from the Google X skunkworks lab, comes in the form of a patent that was filed in 2012 and was recently published by the US PTO. Earlier this year, Google announced that it was working on a smart contact lens for diabetics that provides a real-time glucose level reading from your tears. As far as we can tell, there’s no timeline for real-world trials of either variety of contact lens — but we can tell you that the technology to create such devices is very nearly here. Way back in 2011, a smart contact lens with an LED display was trialed in the lab.Moving forward, there are some concerns about power delivery (there’s no space for a battery, of course, so it has to be beamed in wirelessly), and whether it’s wise to have a wireless device implanted in a rather sensitive organ, but I don’t think these will be game-breaking problems. For now, we’re talking about fairly chunky contact lenses that are best suited to laboratory testing — but it shouldn’t be more than a few years until real, comfortable smart contact lenses come to market.

Kevin Pietersen will not earn England recall - Paul Downton

England managing director Paul Downton says there is no chance Kevin Pietersen will be recalled to the England set-up under new coach Peter Moores. Pietersen, who was discarded after the 5-0 Ashes defeat in Australia, said last week he was hopeful of a recall. Downton said there was no "smoking gun" that led to Pietersen's dismissal, adding: "The sooner we understand that Kevin has had his time, the better.Pietersen had got disconnected from the team. I don't see any going back." Former England wicketkeeper Downton was speaking in public about the Pietersen decision for the first time at the news conference to confirm Lancashire's Moores as England coach for the second time. Moores's first stint was ended abruptly in January 2009 because of an impasse with then-captain Pietersen, which led to both losing their jobs on the same day. Shortly before Saturday's news conference at Lord's, Pietersen, who is currently competing in the Indian Premier League, tweeted: "Everyone deserves a second chance!" Whether Pietersen was referring to Moores, himself or both, is unclear, but Downton was firm in his insistence that England's highest international run-scorer would not be wearing the Three Lions shirt again. "I arrived in Sydney [the venue for the fifth and final Ashes Test] on 31 December, and it was clear that there were two issues: Andy Flower's future and what we were going to do about Kevin," said Downton."I watched every ball of that Sydney Test match and I've never seen anybody so disengaged from what was going on. "After the Ashes we spoke to all the coaches, several senior players and the chairman of selectors James Whittaker, and came to the conclusion that if England were going to rebuild we had to make a decision, rebuild not for the next three months, but two years, three years, five years. "We had to invest in new players, build a new team with some core values and it was decided that wouldn't happen with Kevin in the side. "What you see on either side of me [Peter Moores and captain Alastair Cook] is the future of England cricket and I don't see any intention of going back." The England and Wales Cricket Board is yet to reveal specific reasons for Pietersen's sacking, owing to a confidentiality clause.But Downton added: "People have been looking for a smoking gun but there were no specific issues with Kevin. "We had a strong side over 10 years with strong leadership and established captains and coaches, and that side could accommodate Kevin, but that balance has shifted now," Downton said. "A new side won't accommodate Kevin. It's about the balance of what is best for England." Since Pietersen's last England appearance in the Sydney Test in January, England have lost five of eight one-day internationals and eight of 10 Twenty20s, culminating in a group stage exit from the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Moores said it was "impossible to say" whether his job would be easier or harder without Pietersen in the team, but sought to clarify the circumstances of their dispute five years ago. "I never fell out with Kevin, Kevin fell out with me," he said. "I moved on quickly and was lucky, in that I went to coach a great club. "It's time to look forward rather than look back."

Monte Carlo Masters: Rafael Nadal knocked out by David Ferrer

World number one Rafael Nadal is out of the Monte Carlo Masters after a straight-sets quarter-final defeat by fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. The eight-time champion capitulated in a first-set tie break before twice dropping his serve in the second to lose 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 to the sixth seed. Roger Federer came from behind to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and will play Serb Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Djokovic, last year's winner, beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6 6-3 6-1. Ferrer, 32, will play Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated 23-year-old Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6 6-2 in the last four. The Spaniard, who lost to Nadal in last year's French Open final, had beaten his compatriot only once before on clay, and that was a decade ago. He said: "I have had to wait 10 years to beat him on clay. It was a long wait but I am pleased with the win and the way I played." Nadal, who made 44 unforced errors in the match, said: "When your opponent is doing things better than you, the normal thing is to lose. That's what happened today. I'm not happy with how I'm playing. "All losses feel bad, but especially on clay. I'm not playing well." Federer, seven times winner of the Wimbledon title, was two points from defeat at 6-5 down in the second set against Tsonga, but recovered to beat his French opponent 2-6 7-6 6-1. After an error-strewn match in which he missed 15 consecutive break points, Federer said: "Many things went wrong at the wrong time for me: Jo playing well, me playing wrong at certain times, wrong shot selections. [But] I'm happy I found the way to tough it out.''

Laura Robson to miss French Open & Wimbledon

British number one Laura Robson will miss the French Open and Wimbledon after having minor wrist surgery. The 20-year-old world number 64 has completed just one match this year - a first-round defeat by Kirsten Flipkens at the Australian Open.Writing on Facebook, she said her surgeon, Dr Richard Berger, was "very confident" she will be back "pain-free before you even have time to miss me". The Melbourne-born left-hander reached the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2013. This year's French Open gets under way at Roland Garros on 25 May, with Wimbledon running from 23 June to 5 July. Robson, who has been as high as 27 in the world, withdrew from the ASB Classic in New Zealand in December because of a problem with her left wrist. A week later, she retired from the Hobart International with the same injury while leading her first-round match against Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer. An injury to her right wrist also forced Robson to miss the Rogers Cup last August. In March, Robson added Colombian Mauricio Hadad, who helped Maria Sharapova win Wimbledon in 2004, to her coaching team.

Fulham boss Felix Magath says he believes his side will stay in the Premier League but need to win their remaining two home games to do so. Magath's side suffered a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday and remain two points from safety. The Cottagers host Hull and Crystal Palace either side of a trip to Stoke in their remaining three games."We have to win our home games and if we make six points it could be enough. We will stay up," said Magath. "Maybe we have the chance of a point at Stoke." Fulham midfielder Steve Sidwell cancelled out Paulinho's opener for Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Saturday but goals from Harry Kane and Younes Kaboul gave Spurs victory. Sidwell also missed a late penalty as their run of two wins came to an end. "I'm confident," said Magath. "I'm sure we will stay up, because there were reasons why we weren't as good as Tottenham, but next week we will make it better. "We unfortunately have three players injured or ill so we had to change the team and that made us a little bit uncertain. "We were not quite good enough so I think Tottenham were the better team."

Champions Bayern Munich left it late to beat relegation-threatened Eintracht Braunschweig for their first Bundesliga victory in four games.

The European champions won the title by beating Hertha Berlin on 25 March but had failed to win a league game since then. For 75 minutes it looked like that run might be extended, until Claudio Pizarro converted Mario Gotze's pass. Coach Pep Guardiola sent out a strong side despite the fact they visit Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday. And substitute Mario Mandzukic sealed the victory with four minutes left as he converted a long ball from goalkeeper Lukas Raeder, the first keeper to assist a Bundesliga goal this season. Second-placed Borussia Dortmund, who will face Bayern in the German Cup final next month, beat Mainz 4-2. Their goals were scored by Milos Jojic, Bayern-bound Robert Lewandowski, Lukasz Piszczek and Marco Reus.

Irish Premiership: Cliftonville 5-0 Glenavon

Cliftonville are odds-on to retain their Irish Premiership crown after hammering Glenavon 5-0 at Solitude. With closest rivals Linfield being held at Portadown, the champions are three points clear with just two games left. Joe Gormley scored his 37th goal of the season early in the game to break the club record set by his team-mate Liam Boyce last season. Winger Martin Donnelly bagged two in the second half with Marc Smyth and Stevie Garrett getting the other goals. The Reds have two away matches left, against Portadown and Crusaders, while Linfield are at home to Glentoran on Tuesday and away to cup finalists Glenavon on Saturday, 26 April. With a goal difference advantage over Linfield of 12, the Reds could effectively seal the crown with victory at Shamrock Park on Tuesday. There was never any doubt they would see off a much-changed Glenavon side with seemingly more than one eye on the 3 May Irish Cup final. Gormley struck the sixth-minute opener after a superb through ball by strike partner Boyce. That is how it stayed until Donnelly scored direct from a free-kick in the 53rd minute, his left-foot strike going across the face of goal to beat young Glenavon goalkeeper Sean McIlhone. Defender Smyth made it three on 65 minutes, smashing in after a corner had not been dealt with. Garrett glanced in a header for 4-0 and Donnelly got his second in stoppage-time after Eamon Seydak had cut the ball back.

Liverpool owner John W Henry delighted at surprise title bid

Liverpool's title bid is "ahead of schedule", the owner of the table-topping Premier League club has said. Three wins and a draw from their final four matches will secure Liverpool's first championship in 24 years. "We had our sights set on a top-four finish because we're building," American John W Henry told BBC Sport. "It's a challenge with the way the league is structured, so if we were fortunate enough to win this year, I would say we're ahead of schedule."Henry completed his £300m takeover of Liverpool from fellow American Tom Hicks and US hedge fund Mill Financial in October 2010. In 2012, Henry appointed manager Brendan Rodgers, who has put them on course for their first title since 1990 having been given a target of reaching the top four this season. Asked if he dared to dream about the title, Henry admitted the challenge in restoring Liverpool's former glories was similar to the one facing them when they took over the Boston Red Sox baseball team in 2002 - and ended their 86-year wait for the World Series two years later. "We've been a part of something really incredibly special here [Boston] - we're beginning to feel we're apart of something really special there," he said. Henry said that, just like in Boston, when they decided to develop their historic Fenway Park Stadium rather than move to a newly-built ground, they are now following the same model with Anfield, after investigating the prospect of building a new ground in Liverpool. "The history (at Boston) is irreplaceable. It's the same at Anfield," he explained. "You've had European nights there and historic days that could never be replicated. People come from all over the world. "When (Liverpool chairman) Tom Werner and I were in Warsaw at a European Club Association meeting we were told by a number of executives from other clubs that the best experience they've ever had was at Anfield. "So, we're committed to doing whatever it takes to get Anfield to where it needs to be over the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years and its challenging but it's also rewarding and we'll get it done."