Category: News

The Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag-produced reality series Fist-Pumping For Love is still shopping for a network to call home — and apparently one of Connecticut’s hottest nightspots doesn’t want anything to do with it either.

Once The Hills wraps up its run on MTV later this year, The Pratts will be teaming up with professional bodybuilder and Gold’s Gym trainer Emilio Masella — the former flame of Jersey Shore’s Snooki Polizzi — for the “guido-themed” dating competition.

Think Flavor of Love for the tanned and desperate. (Yep — it’s as bad as it sounds.)

The show, which is in pre-production, is casting ladies (We use that term loosely…) who will duke it out in a series of challenges in hopes of winning Emilio’s heart. But according to Life & Style’s Scene Queens, Masella may want to start looking for a new place to film his first foray on the small screen. While the buff hunk had hoped to film many of the scenes for Fist-Pumping inside hometown hotspot Shrine at Foxwoods Casino, management for the MGM-owned club has pulled out of a plan that would have pemitted the show’s cameras to roll beyond its velvet rope.

“We are not going to do it. We refuse to be associated with this show,” a representative for Shrine curtly told Life & Style last week.

Sounds like Emilio and his Skank Parade will be missing out on quite a party. A blurb posted to the club’s website describes a posh spot, catering to the well-dressed grown and sexy crowd: “At Shrine, you’re the Star. Unlike anything the area has seen before, Shrine combines a full throttle nightlife experience with Modern Asian Cuisine and Superior Bottle Service. Boasting a custom Funktion One Sound System, DJ Booth, Multiple bars and over 35 Private VIP Tables, Shrine is quite the stimulating diversion from other nightclubs in the rural hills of Connecticut or the East Coast for that matter.”

Social shopping site Groupon has acquired European imitator CityDeal, its second acquisition this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Just as Groupon bought Mob.ly as a quick way to extend its mobile services, the purchase of Berlin-based CityDeal is intended to give it a large European presence practically overnight (or 19 months, to be exact), the company said in a blog post.

In addition to local sites in the U.S. and Canada, there will now be a Groupon geographically tailored to users in Germany, the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Turkey, Sweden. It is also working on adding sites for Norway and Belgium.

By way of explaining the reasoning behind the purchase of CityDeal Andrew Mason, Groupon’s founder and CEO explains on the company’s official blog, it was more than enough time and effort to make local sites from Miami to Philadelphia distinctive enough. To do the same for a more than a dozen country-specific sites required an established presence.

CityDeal has raised about €4 million ($5.6 million) after launching late last year. It is part of an increasingly crowded list of social shopping sites on both sides of the Atlantic, including leading sites like Gilt Groupe, which just raised another $35 million as it tries to expand its business and stay ahead of the pack. Release

Related

• Private Sales Startup Gilt Groupe Raises Another $35 Million
• Groupon Buys Mobile Development Firm Mob.ly
• Social Shopping Craze Attracting More Investment, More Candidates In Europe

Previously exhibited at Burning Man in 2006, Duel Nature, by artist Kate Raudenbush, is unique in its materials, (Plasma cut steel, steel tubing, red acrylic mirror) scale (38’ x 38’) and artistic vision. During Artown, fire dancers and spinners from Controlled Burn will entertain Tuesday evenings 8:00 – 10:00.  Hula Hoopers from Velocity Movement and […]

Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed a distinct decline in the number of posts here at Nourished Kitchen.  Don’t worry, it’s because I’ve been busy – super busy – with an exciting new project: an online cooking class.  After hearing over and over again from readers who needed an simple, but thorough way to better incorporate local foods and back-to-basics, traditional cooking into their kitchens, I began work on How to Cook Real Food, which is scheduled to launch on June 1st.  If you’ve read Nourished Kitchen for any length of time, or participated in our recent 28-day challenge, you know what a great value I place on whole, traditional natural foods, but this knowledge has taken me several years to master, and it’s always a constant process of learning, evaluating and re-evaluating.

The blog here at Nourished Kitchen offers a glimpse into my passion for real food and natural cooking – and a peek into the work my husband and I accomplish as farmers market managers, but as yet – aside from weekly recipes – there really hasn’t been an opportunity for me to truly reach out to readers and teach them the basic approaches that I take in cooking from scratch using the bounty of my local foodshed.  That’s why I’m so very excited about this new project – with an online, multimedia approach we will take a comprehensive and thorough look at learning how to cook traditional, real foods from scratch in ways that meet your family’s needs and preferences as well as the seasonal bounty and availability of foods in your area.(…)
Click here to read the rest of How to Cook Real Food: An Online Cooking Class (594 words)

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Post tags: bread, classes, cooking, education, Food, home, home economics, kitchen, natural cooking, natural food, nutrition, online cooking class, online cooking classes, personal life, real food, survival skills, traditional cooking, wholesome

GameStop’s throwing in a Harlequin character for those who pre-order Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood from their shops. How’s that for some wickedly evil fun?
 
 
 
 

Luke Timmerman wrote:

Vertex Pharmaceuticals has been in business for more than 20 years, and burned through more than $2.8 billion on a quest to develop drugs that shake up the medical standards of care. Now in the coming weeks and months, it will get the first definitive evidence that will say whether its lead drug candidate for hepatitis C has achieved its goal.

Investors, looking at data from preliminary and mid-stage clinical trials, have already pumped up the market value of Vertex (NASDAQ: VRTX) past $7.5 billion largely in anticipation that its drug, telaprevir, will transform the lives of patients with the chronic liver-damaging condition. But the operative word there is preliminary. Vertex, which is based in Cambridge, MA, and has significant operations in San Diego, is still waiting for its first proof from Phase III clinical trials, the final step of testing required by the FDA before a drug can go on sale in the U.S.

These pivotal trials began two years ago, and enrolled more than 2,000 patients combined in three studies. The results are completely blinded to doctors, patients, investors, and people at Vertex. To say all parties are in suspense for these results would be an understatement. They can’t wait to get their hands on the new data and start digging through it.

“This is a year of defining moments,” says Bob Kauffman, Vertex’s chief medical officer.

Vertex has generated the excitement around what could be a first-in-class protease inhibitor drug for hepatitis C. It has excited researchers because it has been able to double the cure rate while enabling patients to cut their standard course of treatment time in half. That means that many more of the 3 million Americans and 170 million people worldwide with chronic hepatitis C liver infections will be likely to seek out treatment, and be able to stand up to the side effects of standard therapy that causes flu-like symptoms. If Vertex can prove this idea once and for all in the three pivotal trials, Vertex could seek FDA approval later this year and bring telaprevir to the market in 2011. U.S. sales alone could amount to more than $2 billion after a couple years, analysts say.

To help our readers get ready for this data, I spoke to Kauffman for a refresher on what the three big Vertex trials were designed to ask and answer. The key point to watch for in all of these studies is what is called a “sustained viral response,” or SVR, which is recorded when researchers can’t find any sign of virus in a patient’s blood sample for a full 24 weeks after they completed their course of therapy. This is the gold standard measurement for all hepatitis C drugs, and is commonly known as a “clinical cure.”

The first study to watch for is called “Advance.” This trial, started in March 2008, enrolled 1,050 patients who had never been treated before for hepatitis C—a so-called “naïve” patient population. This study is essentially designed to confirm earlier trials called Prove 1 and Prove 2, Kauffman says. Patients either got the Vertex drug in combination with standard treatments for 24 weeks, or the standard treatments for the usual 48 weeks. The trial is designed to ask whether patients can stop treatment early with the Vertex drug, so they can avoid having to put up with the flu-like side effects of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin, Kauffman says. Results from that study should be available by the end of June, he says.

Not long after that data arrives, Vertex plans to hear results from two other key trials before the end of September. One of them, called “Illuminate,” is enrolling patients who have never before …Next Page »

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

May is National Stroke Awareness Month 

Bloomington, Ind. (May 17, 2010) – It’s the leading cause of adult disability, the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and twice as many women die from this than breast cancer each year.  We’re talking about stroke.

Stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when blood flow to the brain is stopped because of a blood clot or because a blood vessel in the brain breaks causing bleeding.  Almost instantly, brain cells begin to die without the normal flow of oxygen supplied by the blood.  Most often, this affects speech, movement and memory.  The severity of the loss depends on where in the brain the stroke occurs and how much of the brain is damaged.  The effects of a stroke can be devastating and the need for quick medical attention is very important.

“The American Stroke Association found that more than 75 percent of Americans cannot identify stroke’s most common symptom – sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body,” says Myron Lewis, executive director of Bloomington Hospital’s Regional Neuroscience Institute.  “With stroke occurring in the U.S. every 45 seconds, this lack of knowledge can be fatal.”

Recognizing the signs and symptoms of a stroke and seeking immediate care are key to preserving as much of the brain as possible, Lewis says.

Stroke symptoms include sudden:

• Numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• Trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• Severe headache with no known cause.

“If just one of these symptoms exist, there is a 70 percent chance the person is suffering a stroke.  You can use the FAST method to check for these signs of stroke – Facial droop, Arm drift, Speech, and Time of onset,” Lewis explains.  “Ask the person to smile, and look for facial droop on one side.  Ask the person to hold their arms out and look to see if one drifts back down.  Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence to test their speech and comprehension.  And, notice what time the symptoms began or the last time the person appeared ‘normal.’”

Stroke is a medical emergency, and the sooner the person receives medical attention, the better the chance for a positive outcome.  Calling 911 if you notice signs of stroke in yourself or a loved one is an important first step in the treatment process.  After calling 911, the American Stroke Association recommends making sure you are taken to a hospital certified as a Primary Stroke Center.

Bloomington Hospital is the only Primary Stroke Center certified by the Joint Commission in south central Indiana and has put a focus on ensuring it offers comprehensive and coordinated stroke care.

“One of the most important aspects of caring for stroke patients is ensuring we have one standard of care.  This means that no matter when a patient comes into the hospital experiencing a stroke, whether is at 2 in the afternoon or 2 in the morning, that person receives the same quality of care,” says Lewis.  “We have worked diligently to ensure areas within Bloomington Hospital, from the Emergency Department to Radiology to our Ambulance Service, are all coordinated when it comes to providing care for a stroke patient.”

When patients are brought to the Emergency Department at Bloomington Hospital with signs and symptoms of stroke, they are assessed by a nurse and physician who draw blood for lab tests.  Patients are then sent for a CT scan to determine if and what type of stroke they are experiencing.  The CT scan is often done within 25 minutes of the physician’s order; an amount of time much shorter than the national recommendation of 45 minutes.

The CT is not only helpful in diagnosing a stroke, but also in defining treatment options for the patient.  If it is determined a patient is having an ischemic stroke (one caused by a blood clot in the brain), the patient is assessed to see if he or she is a candidate for a “clot-busting” medication called Tissue Plasminogen Activator, or tPA.  Along with other medical-history based criteria, one of the main criteria for being eligible to receive tPA is that the onset of symptoms was no more than three hours prior.  If the patient is eligible for tPA, a neurologist will administer the medication and stabilize the patient in the Emergency Department.  From there, the patient will likely be taken to Critical Care to be monitored.

“The main takeaway in stroke education is knowing stroke’s signs and symptoms, and calling 911 immediately,” Lewis says.  “We have the teams and processes in place at Bloomington Hospital to provide high quality stroke care, but it all starts with someone recognizing the stroke and calling 911 to get the person to us for care.”

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Bloomington Hospital, a Clarian Health Partner, has been innovative in providing quality care to south central Indiana communities for more than a century. Offering a comprehensive continuum of care, Bloomington Hospital is a not-for-profit organization and has a patient base of 413,000 in 10 counties (Brown, Daviess, Greene, Jackson, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Owen and Washington). Bloomington Hospital currently operates two hospital campuses (Bloomington and Orange County) with regional specialty offerings for Heart and Vascular, Cancer, Women and Children, Neurology and Orthopedic services.  As a leading hospital in Indiana, Bloomington Hospital enhances health by advancing the art and science of medicine through the use of new technologies, procedures and care.

I’ve recently been using the analogy of selecting wine to describe the challenges of selecting software. To my delight, the analogy is catching on – to the point that within the Twitterverse, I’ve been dubbed a

One of the more interesting and surprising things to emerge from last week’s EMC World event in Boston was that the core Documentum Content Server has been repositioned into the xCP (Intelligent Case Management) product stack.

Sure she stumbled in her evening gown, but Rima Fakih — a stunning 24-year-old brunette from Dearborn, Michigan — made history Sunday night as she beat out 50 other women to be crowned 2010 Miss USA.

Rima, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, is believed to be the first Muslim and Arab American to become Miss USA, according to her hometown paper, The Detroit Free Press.

“This is historic,” Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the paper. “This shows the greatness of America, how everyone can have a chance to make it.”

Fakih won the pageant — hosted by The TODAY Show’s Natalie Morales and celebrity chef Curtis Stone — after making notable impressions in the swimsuit, evening gown, and interview competitions at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Rima earned high marks from the eight judge panel — which included Olympian Johnny Weir and NBA hoopster Carmelo Anthony — when asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should. During the competition, Fakih nearly fell while finishing her walk in a long, strapless white gown that the beauty later admitted made her look like a mermaid.

Miss Oklahoma USA, Morgan Elizabeth Woolard, was crowned first runner-up and will assume the duties of Miss USA 2010 if the titleholder is named MISS Universe 2010 or if for some reason Fakih cannot fulfill her duties. Miss Virginia USA, Samantha Casey, finished third.

Rima is also the first beauty queen from Michigan to win the Miss USA title since actress Kenya Moore took the crown in 1993.

Found under: Sony, Tablet, iPad, Apple,

Big bad Sony is considering a tablet like device that would compete with the Apple iPad but for some weird reason they are taking a coward approach to the idea they want to find out if the public would actually buy the device. To me it appears Sony is very blind the iPad is selling like hot chocolate cakes so that should be reason enough to enter the market.Now heres something really interesting for quite a number of years bow Sony have been looking into developing a tablet device

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Two weeks ago, the MyTouch 3G Slide was officially announced by T-Mobile.  But lets be honest, it’s not like we didn’t know it was coming.  Thanks in great part to the folks over at TmoNews, every leak, rumor, and picture about the device had been flowing rather steadily since early April.  On May 4th, T-Mobile dropped a press release confirming much of what we already knew, and some of what we didn’t – that the device would be released “sometime in June.”  This seemed to be the standard non-committal release date, leaving room for changes on T-Mobiles part should something go wrong.

Fortunately for us, however, TmoNews has done it once again and managed to secure some documents and rumors to take us one step closer to the date many of you have been waiting for.  As you can see above, it looks like the MyTouch 3G Slide will be available on-contract for $149.99 and off-contract for $399.99.  Additionally, TmoNews is saying that the original rumored release date was June 2nd (only a few weeks away) but they are now hearing the release has been pushed off until the 16th.  In any case, it looks like those of you who have been looking for a successor to the G1, might just have one in the MyTouch 3G Slide, and by mid-June at the latest.

Anyone plan on picking up this device come June, or will you be holding out for something a little more green (*cough* project emerald *cough*)?  Let us know in the comments!

Via TmoNews

Red Dead Redemption appears to be banned in the UAE. Or is it? We haven’t heard any official word from Rockstar or the UAE government about the ban taking place, but the buzz on the street is

Diaspora, the “open Facebook alternative” (NYT story for background if you aren’t familiar), has raised Over $170,000 from over 4600 people in just a few weeks. All for an idea.

That’s an impressive start if victory was measured in press coverage, cash, and cool. Here’s the problem: Diaspora has all the wrong things at the wrong time. Competition that kills isn’t pre-announced — it catches as unsuspecting incumbent by surprise.

They have too much money

They’re at $170,000 today (Sunday, May 16, 2010). They’ll likely continue to pile up the donations until their Kickstarter campaign ends 16 days from now. All this money without an actual product is a liability. Money gives them too much time and too much comfort to take on a fast moving incumbent like Facebook. Their cash to code ratio is out of whack. A good enough first version will take longer to produce with $170K than it would have with $0K.

The spotlight is on too early

You want attention after you’re good, not before. Obscurity is your friend when you’re just starting — especially when you don’t even have a product yet. You don’t need the pressure of outside opinion or the press breathing down your neck before you have anything to show. Millions of eyes — including your competition — watching you every step of the way doesn’t help. All this attention is a distraction. Ship, then seek the spotlight.

Expectations are too high

Some people are really pissed at Facebook right now. Those people are looking for a way to channel this negative energy into a movement. Along comes Diaspora. Diaspora becomes their horse in the race. They want that horse to win. They believe it can win. Their unlimited hopes and dreams of the anti-Facebook are transferred to Diaspora. Diaspora becomes everything and anything to anyone who wants to believe. How can anyone deliver on boundless expectations? Diaspora can’t match the fantasy of Diaspora.

I love the underdog, but I fear for the product-less underdog that has all the wrong things at the wrong time.

I think they would have been better off releasing something first. Let people play with it. Let people see that it’s possible. Then drum up press and public support. Until there’s something real to use, fantasy will just get in the way.

Wade Hansen wrote:

Life science startups are facing a lot of challenges today, and the biggest of all is the lack of capital and increased scrutiny from venture capitalists that goes with it. But over the years of booms and busts, the thing that biotech companies must have is a great management team.

That was the consensus view from life science experts Cam Garner, executive chairman of Verus Pharmaceuticals, David Hale, chairman of Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, and Fred Muto partner in charge of the Cooley Godward Kronish San Diego office, during a recent panel discussion. My firm, Cabrillo Advisers, organized this event along with Cooley Godward.

Garner and Hale, serial entrepreneurs and company founders, shared the many recent changes they have seen in the market. Both panelists agreed the issues facing the industry centered on the conservatism of venture capital groups and how they were managing their investment strategies.

Historically, entrepreneurs had to present a vision to venture capitalists of how they were going to build a company. Now, Hale said, it is more about showing how you can achieve an exit with the least amount of capital.”

One other big difference in biotech financing today is how much more work in the early days goes into market research because venture people want to see and understand the real commercial opportunity before they put the capital in, Garner said.

The panelists agreed the most important factor that distinguishes a company they are willing to work with is the management team.

Management needs to have experience, and needs to be able to attract additional financing, Hale said. This new dynamic makes it much more rare for a first-time CEO to get a shot to run a venture-backed company.

In closing, the panel was asked to present an outlook for the industry. Both Garner and Hale felt the market would remain challenging for the foreseeable future while Muto was more optimistic. While it’s unlikely that venture capital will flow to biotech like it once did, and there are some huge structural challenges, there have been times in the past when people wondered whether the whole world would end for biotech, Muto said. Obviously, it didn’t.

Found under: Google, Nexus One, Android, Web Store,

Its now safe to say to say the Google Nexus One and the Google Web Store has turned into one huge failure Sprint and Verizon doesnt want it no one is buying phones from the Web Store whoever went and did that came back disappointed so this was highly expected.Couple days ago Google wrote on their blog that the online thing had failed and now they will be focusing on getting the Nexus One into retail channels and carriers alike. According to Google once the Nexus One secures a pres

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There was but one noteworthy blown save on Sunday, and it was only noteworthy because of the unlikely victim. For just the fourth time in the past 143 trips to the hill in a regular season game, Mariano Rivera(notes) blew a save opportunity.

Called on to preserve a 3-1 lead against Minnesota with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning, Rivera walked in a run before giving up the grand slam to Jason Kubel(notes). For Rivera owners, this is a big "Whatever." It could be months before we see another blown save from Rivera. But that Kubel was the one to do the damage is intriguing.

I took some flak for putting Kubel at No. 100 on my Big Board this preseason. But I had what I believed were valid reasons. For one, he was coming off a .300/28/103 breakout campaign. He also sits pretty in the Twins lineup, closely following OBP machines Joe Mauer(notes) and Justin Morneau(notes). And he happens to share my birthday, and I always look out for my fellow Gemini. But what really piqued my interest with Kubel this offseason was when a friend from Inside Edge, a company that does insanely in-depth charting of every MLB pitch during the season, showed me a list of "Well Struck" leaders from ’09 that had Kubel among the top five, right next to Mr. Albert Pujols(notes) and other A-list hitters. Inside Edge came up with criteria for determining when a player teed off on a pitch, whether the result was a base hit or not. And Kubel was among the leaders in this category. Regardless of how much subjectivity may go into deciding a "Well Struck" ball, any player that winds up surfacing to the top of this list over the course of a 162-game season demands attention.

Unfortunately for Kubel and his owners, he’s endured a rough start to 2010, entering Sunday with a .224/2/11/8/0 fantasy line. But Sunday might be the start of nice turnaround. Kubel has a long track record of April/May struggles – his career OPS for April is .695 and his May mark is .712, while he sits in the mid-.800s for the remaining four months of the season combined. The ball he stroked over the fence against Rivera was low and inside and it was impressive that Kubel was able to drive it out of the yard. I’ve got a hunch that this could be the kind of confidence booster that sends Kubel on a roll. He only had five home runs through two months last season and then blew up with eight June bombs. If you are in the hunt for power, it’s probably a good time (although, admittedly, any point before today was better) to pitch a low-ball offer for Kubel in hopes that the June lightning strikes twice.

• If a Kubel deal seems implausible or too involved given your current situation, Luke Scott(notes) is another power play possibility – he’s available in roughly 90 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Scott hit his fifth home run of May on Sunday – it was the only blemish for Indians pitcher Jake Westbrook(notes) in his complete game victory over Baltimore. Scott has averaged 16 home runs from May through July the past two seasons, so it jibes historically that he’s starting to hit his stride now. It’s no secret that he’s available to any contender looking for some left-handed pop, and I suspect we’ll start hearing his name more prominently in the coming weeks as the trade rumor mill kicks into a higher gear.

• Storm clouds are forming around the current No. 1 player in Yahoo! leagues, Andre Ethier(notes). As an invested owner, his fractured pinky suffered Saturday night during batting practice is a potential kick in the groin with Sebastian Janikowski-type force. The Dodgers are planning to give Ethier another day to see what the level of pain is going to be before deciding on Tuesday whether he’ll require a DL stint. It’s the type of injury that will have to heal on its own, so Ethier can keep playing if he can deal with the pain and swing the bat effectively while doing so. After reading Ethier’s comments in describing the pain, I’m betting on the DL stint.

• Last week, Philly manager Charlie Manuel said it was time to start using reliever J.C. Romero(notes) more often and that he could be employed anywhere from the seventh to the ninth inning. On Sunday, with Jose Contreras(notes) having worked the two previous games, Manuel turned to Romero to close out a 4-2 game against Milwaukee. Romero proved up to the task, pitching a perfect ninth inning. Of course, facing Gregg Zaun(notes), Jody Gerut(notes), Craig Counsell(notes) isn’t exactly a high-pressure set up. But give Romero credit nonetheless. With Brad Lidge(notes) on the DL, Romero will likely continue to get the occassional ninth-inning opportunity.

• You have to feel good for Jeff Francis(notes). Because of arm troubles, he’d gone 20 months without kicking a major league rubber in a regular season game before facing off with Washington on Sunday. Francis held the Nationals to just one run, striking out six and walking two in a seven-inning no-decision. Rookie Ian Desmond(notes) was the only Nats player to produce an extra-base hit against Francis, who allowed seven hits in total.

• I’m not recommending that Francis warrants attention in anything other than very deep leagues. But his opponent on Sunday, Scott Olsen(notes), might. Olsen pitched 6.2 innings of one-run ball against Colorado, allowing five hits and one walk, while striking out three. In his past five starts, Olsen owns a 1.11 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and a 25/7 K-to-BB ratio in 32.1 IP. Olsen is relying heavily on his slider this season – throwing it nearly 30 percent of the time – and for good reason. In terms of pitch value, Olsen has produced one of the top 10 sliders among starters this season. Olsen is expected to face Baltimore next. The O’s have scored the fourth-fewest runs in the league. After that, Olsen gets the Giants (10th-fewest runs) and Houston (fewest runs). The conditions couldn’t be better for an Olsen test drive.

• Troy Glaus(notes), who homered off Bob Howry(notes) on Sunday after Atlanta rudely kicked Arizona starter Dan Haren(notes) to the curb, has received repeated mentions in my MLB Skinny columns, so I’m not going to paint the big Glaus picture here once again. I’ll just point out his Yahoo! ownership (12%) and his May numbers (.400, 3 HR, 16 RBI, 8 R, 14 games) and let you plan your own course of action.

• As a Mariners fan, I never cared much for Brandon Morrow(notes). Certainly much of my disdain for Morrow was born when M’s GM Bill Bavasi selected him instead of Seattle-area high school/college star Tim Lincecum(notes) in the ’06 MLB Draft – I’ll never relinquish the dream of a Lincecum-King Felix top of the rotation. But I always felt like Morrow had too much Nuke LaLoosh to his game. He often looked lost on the hill and his control was a threat to team mascot, the Mariner Moose. But on the occasions that he’s properly breathing through his eyelids like the lava lizards of the Galapagos Islands, like Sunday when he whiffed eight, walked one and allowed just two runs in six innings to beat the Rangers, you see why he’s a special talent. Full disclosure of Sunday’s outing, Morrow actually wasn’t breathing through his eyelids. He actually credits Shaun Marcum(notes) for correcting a mechanical flaw. Said Morrow of what Marcum discovered:

"When I’m really bad mechanically, like I was in Boston (his previous start), I have a tendency to break down on my back side and become really rotational and spin open. Today I was just a lot slower mechanically. To anybody who watched last week and this week, that was probably the biggest difference, staying tall with my body and slowing down my mechanics."

He also went on to say that the difference on Sunday was noticeable from the get-go and was like "night and day" from his previous start. He also said the performance felt "… kinda radical in a kinda tubular way. You know? But most of all it’s out there."

• In case you missed it earlier today, Andy Behrens covered the latest hot-button closer situations.

Quick hits: Although he picked up a loss, Wade LeBlanc(notes) allowed just one run in seven innings against the Dodgers, the fourth time in his past five outings that he’s pitched at least six innings and allowed two runs or less … Joel Pineiro(notes) pitched a complete game shutout against the A’s, allowing four hits and striking out five. He has a 0.84 ERA in his past 21.1 IP … Chad Billingsley(notes) continues to shake off the funk of a couple sour mid-April outings. He picked up his third win in his past five outings on Sunday, blanking the Padres for seven innings … Bronson Arroyo(notes) usually waits until August and/or September to become relevant in fantasy leagues, but he’s won three games in his past four starts, including a complete game, two-run effort against St. Louis on Sunday … Cliff Lee(notes) was masterful (8 IP, 2 ER, 10 K) in a 2-1 loss to Tampa on Sunday. The Mariners have little hope of righting their ship and you can all but count on Lee getting moved sometime in the next couple months … If you only needed 5.2 innings instead of six innings to qualify for a Quality Start, Atlanta’s Tim Hudson(notes) would be a perfect 8-for-8 in that category. He held Arizona to a run over eight innings on Sunday and only his 5.2 IP, two-run victory over San Diego on April 15th stands between him and Quality Start perfection … Howie Kendrick(notes) went 3-for-4 on Sunday. He’s been hitting in the No. 2 spot in the order of late and any kind of positive reinforcement Kendrick can give manager Mike Scioscia for making that lineup change is a good thing.

Alright, I’ve got my weekly MLB Skinny to piece together starting as soon as I awake tomorrow and knock back some Grape Nuts. So I better leave myself something to write about. Until then, the floor is all yours …

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Photos via Getty Images