James’ long anticipated return to his roots didn’t go as hoped as he shot just five-of-15 and committed eight turnovers in his first game back in a Cavaliers’ jersey after winning two NBA titles with the Miami Heat.
But the season is just getting started and James has plenty of time to adjust to his new teammates including Kevin Love, who was acquired in a blockbustre trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
James said the excitement of returning to his hometown got to him.
“I just missed some shots. I was happy when the first half was over and the emotion was less,” he said.
Love finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds in his first action with the Cavaliers, while returning star Kyrie Irving led the way with 22 points and seven assists.
“I thought we came out with energy and we started well,” Cavaliers coach David Blatt said. “We got stagnant without question. We’re good when we move the ball.”
After spending seven seasons in Ohio, the four-time MVP James left his home state for the Heat following the 2009-10 season. He led Miami to four straight championship appearances, winning two, before signing with Cleveland this offseason.
James guided Cleveland to a NBA finals loss and won back-to-back MVP awards. Cleveland has not enjoyed a major US sports title since 1964, but James is hoping to change that and made that part of the platform for his return.
On Thursday, James finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists before a raucous crowd of 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Cleveland has just two wins in eight season openers with James in the lineup.
New York used a 10-1 surge halfway through the final quarter to take a nine-point lead. Anthony capped the run with a three-pointer to give them an 80-71 lead.
With 2:20 to play, Love hit a three pointer from the left side to cut the Knicks lead to five points. Cleveland then forced a penalty and Irving hit a running layup.
On the next possession, Love could have tied it with another shot from beyond the arc. But the ball clanged off the front of the rim. At the other end, J.R. Smith got a floater to fall to give the Knicks some breathing room with 48 seconds to play.
Anthony followed a James layup with a difficult baseline jumper with 26 seconds left, and Irving’s three-point attempt at the other end spun and fell out. Jason Smith secured the rebound, and the game for New York.
- Anthony hits clutch shot -Anthony’s 17-foot dagger came at the expense of James who was trying to guard him at the time. New York’s bench also contributed, outscoring Cleveland’s 41-12.
The Knicks re-signed Anthony to a maximum contract this summer with the hope he can lead them into the playoffs. They also added basketball guru Phil Jackson to the front office who brought in new coach Derek Fisher.
Fisher’s head-coaching debut on Wednesday against Chicago was one he would like to forget as the Bulls dominated the Knicks 104-80.
Trick or treat! While youngsters dress up as ghosts and goblins and go door to door for Halloween, grown-ups across the United States are indulging in all things pumpkin spice.
What started a decade ago as a seasonal Starbucks coffee flavor — which curiously isn’t made of pumpkin — has blossomed into something of an autumn American obsession.
Supermarket shelves are bursting with pumpkin spice cookies, chocolates, marshmallows, waffles, bagels, pasta, potato chips, Greek yogurt, hummus, granola and pudding, to name but a few.
Trader Joe’s, a hip grocery chain, features “pumpkin-spiced pumpkin seeds” among its arm’s length list of edible Halloween offerings.
Craft brewers are tapping into a growing market for limited-edition pumpkin-flavored beer. Bartenders mix pumpkin spice cocktails that might go nicely with a pumpkin spice e-cigarette.
“Now, everything from your morning coffee to salad mix has some type of pumpkin flavoring,” food writer Samantha Bakall of the Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon reported.
In a bit of investigative lifestyle journalism, Bakall set out to sample every pumpkin-flavored product she could find. She stopped after 26 items, leaving 17 more untested.
“I?ve heard of realtors using pumpkin spice candles when they are staging homes as a way to make prospective buyers feel more at home,” added Karen Mishra, a marketing professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Mercifully, no one — at least, not yet — is marketing pumpkin spice tampons, after a convincing Photoshop image of a spoof pumpkin-scented Tampax box went viral online.
- Dollars for pumpkins -
Halloween is big business, with American consumers expected to drop $7.4 billion this year on costumes, decorations, candy and more, the National Retail Federation has said.
Some of those greenbacks will be spent on real pumpkins.
Last year US farmers grew 1.13 billion pumpkins, the Department of Agriculture says. Many if not most became jack-o-lanterns, lit on October 31, then dumped in the trash the next day.
For Americans, pumpkins are pregnant with symbolism, even if they’ve never been a dietary mainstay, said Cindy Ott, author of “Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon.”
As more and more Americans moved into cities, the pumpkin came to be associated with the romance of nature and the virtues of country life, the St Louis University professor said.
“It’s the meaning that people are celebrating,” she told AFP. “There’s no practical reason to put pumpkin spice in a cup of coffee or to put a pumpkin on your front stoop.”
Starbucks is widely credited for launching the pumpkin spice craze with its Pumpkin Spice Latte, or PSL, concocted in 2003 in the “liquid lab” at its Seattle, Washington headquarters.
It marries an espresso with steamed milk — that is, a latte — with pumpkin spice sauce, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, topped with whipped cream and a dash of pumpkin pie topping.
“Nobody knew back then what it would grow to be. It’s taken on a life of its own,” said Starbucks executive Peter Dukes, who spearheaded the project, in a corporate press release.
Yet it contains “absolutely no real pumpkins,” according to food activist Vani Hari.
On her Foodbabe.com blog, Hari questioned the safety of the PSL’s caramel coloring ingredient, as well as the beverage’s “toxic dose” of sugar.
Andrea Riberi, senior vice president for consumer insights at market research firm Nielsen, said it remains to be seen if the “infiltration” of pumpkin-flavored products is more than a passing fad.
- Will they buy again? -
“Given the nature that these are seasonal, it will be interesting to see if people who, say, buy a pumpkin-flavored pancake mix will buy it again,” she said.
But Melissa Connolly, a blogger, web designer and self-described pumpkin obsessive in North Carolina, dismissed any suggestion that America might be approaching “peak pumpkin.”
“That’s like asking if America is reaching ‘peak football’,” she told AFP in an email. “Pumpkin is here to stay.”
The family of Marvin Gaye has won a round in a court battle over allegations that last year’s blockbuster hit song “Blurred Lines” ripped off the late Motown legend’s work.
A US federal judge on Thursday denied a motion by singer Robin Thicke and songwriter Pharrell Williams who wanted a court to reject the plagiarism accusations made by Gaye’s children.
The ruling clears the way for the dispute to head to a celebrity trial that is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in February.
The Gaye estate says that “Blurred Lines” copied elements of the singer’s 1976 track “Got to Give It Up.”
The two sides brought in music experts who dissected the songs’ structures to debate the merits of the claim.
“Defendants have made a sufficient showing that elements of ‘Blurred Lines’ may be substantially similar to protected, original elements of ‘Got to Give It Up,’” ruled Judge John Kronstadt of the US District Court for Central California.
“Genuine issues of material fact are present as to the extrinsic similarity of the works. The intrinsic similarity of the works is a jury question,” he wrote.
“Blurred Lines” was already controversial.
The song contains the refrain “I hate these blurred lines/ I know you want it” and has been condemned by critics who say the lyrics refer to the issue of sexual consent.
The video features naked women parading before Thicke.
The R&B singer has said that he was fond of “Got to Give It Up” when he went out to record “Blurred Lines.”
But in court, Thicke insisted that he had embellished the connection as he liked being called the “white Marvin Gaye” and contended that Williams — who later recorded the smash hit “Happy”– did all the writing on “Blurred Lines.”
The judge said: “Thicke’s inconsistent statements do not constitute direct evidence of copying.”
Thicke and Williams brought to court a musicologist, Sandy Wilbur, who testified that the melody, harmony and rhythm of the songs were different. She said that only one note in the songs’ key phrases had the same pitch and placement, but did not last the same duration.
But an expert for Gaye’s family, Judith Finell, pointed to eight similarities and said that Wilbur erred in “microscopically analyzing” each musical element in isolation.
Kanye West has been criticised for not using auto-tune “correctly”.
The rapper is a fan of the vocal-correcting software and while T-Pain – who helped popularise its use – thinks the ‘Stronger’ hitmaker makes “great” music, he doesn’t think he is making the most of the voice processor.
He explained to ‘HuffPost Live’: “Kanye uses it, but he doesn’t use it correctly. He makes great music with it, but the way that I use it and the way that I’ve shown Chris [Brown] and Jamie [Foxx] to use it, he doesn’t use it that way.”
The ‘Up Down’ singer went on to explain that Kanye should use auto-tune to “catch mistakes” before they happen.
He said: “[Kanye] sings without it first and then he puts [Auto-Tune] on after he’s done with the vocals.
“You don’t know how it’s going to come out. You can’t catch your mistakes before they happen. So sometimes it gets a little bit wobbly and things like that…”
However, T-Pain admitted he was a fan of Kanye’s 2008 album ’808s & Heartbreak’, which made heavy use of auto-tune.
He said: “[808s & Heartbreak] was actually good, but I had a lot to do with that album.”
By Melanie Chisnall
It might be something from the playground, but using a skipping rope to get fit is one of the best ways to blast fat and burn a ton of calories!
Skipping for just 15 to 20 minutes can burn off the calories from a candy bar.
Not only that, but it is inexpensive to buy, it’s small enough to fit into any bag, and you can use it just about anywhere.
You can burn between 600 and 1 000 calories an hour by skipping. Even if you only do 15 or 20 minutes, that’s still a ton of calories!
If you don’t have a lot of time, or if you don’t want to commit to a lengthy gym contract, try skipping to help shed extra weight and trim down.
Skipping strengthens the upper and lower body, and it burns many calories in a short period of time.
So if you’re looking for something quick and easy to do every day to help you lose weight or get fit, give skipping a try!
A suicide prevention charity on Wednesday launched a Twitter-scanning app designed to tip people off when their friends post potentially worrying messages.
The free app from Samaritans scans for tweets involving phrases such as “tired of being alone”, “hate myself”, “depressed”, “help me” and “need someone to talk to”.
If the message poster’s Twitter followers have the application, they will receive an email which links to the tweet that has been picked up, and offers guidance on how to provide support.
Designed by digital agency Jam, the Samaritans Radar app is aimed at Twitter users aged 18-35, who are the most active on social media.
“We know that people struggling to cope often go online looking for support,” said Joe Ferns, Samaritans’ executive director of policy, research and development.
“However, there is still so much we need to learn about why this happens and how we can make the online environment safer for vulnerable people.
“By not addressing this issue we run the risk of shutting these discussions down and driving them underground.
“Instead we need to use tools such as Samaritans Radar to encourage people to look out for one another online, helping them to reach out and offer support.”
Patricia Cartes, Twitter’s global head of trust and safety outreach, hailed the Samaritans for “experimenting with new ways of supporting people in the digital space”.