IOC board to examine Armstrong and Athens doping cases, illegal ticket sales

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Four months after the highs of the London Olympics, the IOC is turning to less uplifting matters: drug-tainted medals from past games, ethics violations in ticket sales and suspension of national Olympic bodies. The fate of Lance Armstrong's bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games and doping cases involving five medallists from the 2004 Athens Olympics are high on the agenda...

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LeBron James wins Sports Illustrated annual award

(Reuters) - LeBron James of the Miami Heat was named as Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year for 2012, the U.S. magazine announced on Monday. In an outstanding year, the 27-year-old James won his first NBA championship, his third league Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, was named MVP of the NBA finals and a won gold medal with the United States at the London Olympics. He became just the sixth...

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Riders urged to cooperate to lift doping taint

LONDON (Reuters) - A lobby group campaigning to clean up cycling has invited riders to back a plan it says could remove doping suspicions undermining the sport after the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. "The assistance we are seeking from the riders will be to put in place a system that will guarantee that the winner of the major tours has not blood doped," said doctor Michael Ashenden, a leading...

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LeMond says UCI's McQuaid must stand down amid Armstrong probe, offers to serve as president

LONDON - A group of the UCI's fiercest critics called for the president to step aside Monday, and asked three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond to put himself forward to run cycling in the interim. LeMond said after Change Cycling Now's inaugural meeting that International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid can't remain in his job while a panel examines possible links between the organization...

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LeMond wants to run UCI after Armstrong scandal

LONDON (AP) -- Greg LeMond says the President of the International Cycling Union can't remain in his job while a panel examines possible links between the organization and the doping case involving Lance Armstrong. The three-time Tour de France winner said after Change Cycling Now's first meeting that he would be willing to run cycling in the interim. ''I would love to be part of the process of...

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Sony’s radical PlayStation 4 controller concept: A motion-control device you can split in half

While Nintendo (NTDOY) has been busy innovating with unique controllers on the Wii and Wii U, Sony’s (SNE) DualShock controller for its PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 has remained virtually the same since 1997. A newly discovered patent reveals Sony might be planning on a radical overhaul of the DualShock for the PlayStation 4 that’s rumored to arrive next year. U.S. patent 20120302347A1...

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How Nintendo Shaped 30 Years of U.S. Gaming

1. The Crash The video game crash of the early 1980s was caused by very few controls on hardware and software and manufacturers. Designers released poor-quality games, including big-budget tie-ins like the E.T. game for Atari, which flopped so badly that all extra copies were taken to a landfill. Artwork courtesy of MBAOnline Click here to view this gallery. [More from Mashable: 5 Ways to Get Nothing...

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Synacor partners with Zynga to bring social games to pay TV

(Reuters) - Synacor Inc, partly owned by Intel Corp, said it partnered with Zynga Inc to allow pay TV and broadband providers offer social games to their customers. Zynga shares rose about 3 percent to $2.30 in premarket trading, while Synacor shares were up about 5 percent at $6.60. Synacor said certain pay-TV subscribers will get in-game currency each month as part of their subscription that can...

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PlayStation 3 was the world’s No.1 Netflix streaming device this year

There are dozens of devices that can stream Netflix (NFLX), but only one can machine be crowned the king of the living room. According to Netflix, that device is Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 console. Without revealing any specific figures, Netflix announced on its blog “in the U.S. and globally, PS3 is the largest TV-connected platform in terms of Netflix viewing” and that “at times, PS3 even surpassed...

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25 top-rated Facebook games from 2012

Games can be both a welcome and an annoying diversion on Facebook, the world's most popular online social network. This year, Facebook crossed a big milestone — reaching 1 billion active users. Game companies such as "FarmVille" creator Zynga Inc. and Rovio Entertainment Ltd. of "Angry Birds" fame seek to tap into that vast base of users to gain more players for their games. This week, Facebook Inc....

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Should Seniors Live Alone or With Family?

Put Grandma in the garage? Yes. But a garage transformed into a well-appointed studio apartment with skylights and a patio for morning coffee. Home remodeling for those who can afford it is one answer to a growing issue: How do you take care of family members in their late-retirement and twilight years? And then, a tougher question: When a home solution won't work, what assisted-living or nursing...

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The arduous art of the chocolate taster

First study the colour, then the nose, the structure and taste: as for any good wine, tasting chocolate is both a treat and a serious art, requiring regular practice to fine-tune the senses. And who better to offer a lesson in chocolate tasting than Pierre Herme, the French master pastry chef? "You start by looking at the texture," he explained at a recent tasting organised in Paris by the "Chocolate...

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The Baby Boomer Number Game

There are 75 million baby boomers who are on the verge of retirement. For the next twenty years, an average of 10,000 people each day will reach age 65, which has historically been the retirement phase of life. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of people age 65 to 84 in the U.S. grew by 3.3 million. While 13 percent of Americans are currently age 65 or older, that proportion will jump to 18 percent...

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Spring/Summer hair trends: five new looks to try

Slicked back Get the hair gel at the ready because slicked-back styles were all over the Spring/Summer 2012 runways, with everyone from Victoria Beckham to Mugler embracing the mullet-influenced style. Labels including Giambattista Valli, Rebecca Taylor, BCBG Max Azria and Viktor & Rolf also kept tresses smoothed off the forehead for a streamlined and almost futuristic look. Candy color Hair...

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Tattooist gives nipples, new life, to US cancer survivors

Few tattoo artists tell their clients they could win a wet T-shirt contest.Then again, few tattoo artists are quite like Vincent "Vinnie" Myers. In his shop in a modest strip mall in Finksburg, a half-hour drive from Baltimore, Myers specializes in tattooing nipples and areolas onto women who have undergone breast cancer surgery. Using precisely mixed pigments, he creates a perfect 3-D illusion...

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