Sunrise Update Brings Foursquare, CrunchBase, And Google Maps Integration To The Already-Smart Calendar

Sunrise, the Google-friendly calendar app that focuses on design, may have some competition coming from iOS 7, but even with the added pressure, the Sunrise team is clearly making strides. Today, Sunrise was updated in the App Store to add support for foursquare check-ins, CrunchBase and Google Maps, along with some design tweaks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kb5L39EfL80/

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UK's Cameron rallies world leaders to NIreland

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? British Prime Minister David Cameron says leaders gathering for the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland should reach speedy agreement on trade and tax reforms ? and draw inspiration from the host country's ability to resolve its own stubborn conflict.

Cameron says he expects formal agreement Monday to launch negotiations on a European-North American free trade agreement. He says a pact to slash tariffs on exports would boost employment and growth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Leaders from the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Italy and Japan are joining Cameron for trade-boosting talks ahead of Monday's ceremonial opening of the summit at a lakeside golf resort near the town of Enniskillen.

During a later working dinner, foreign policy issues ? especially Syria ? will be on the menu.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uks-cameron-rallies-world-leaders-nireland-052659289.html

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TC Cribs: Quirky, The NYC Startup Where Unique Inventions Are Brought To Life

More and more jobs deal in the virtual realm, and are done by people sitting down at desks at computers. Desk work can be made interesting in its own ways, but it's always fun to visit a company that's actually making physical stuff. So for this episode of TechCrunch Cribs, we jetted over to New York City to check out the headquarters of Quirky, a startup founded back in 2009 with the aim of "making invention accessible." Quirky is a company that crowdsources ideas for unique physical products -- gadgets, kitchenware, furniture, and the like -- and manufactures them at large-scale production so that they can be actually sold in stores.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ugRYE4hcWbw/

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LederMann Bridle Leather Briefcase review

Being a techie junky, I’m always on the lookout for a good satchel or briefcase-type bag to carry all of my gear. ?I’m a computer technician, so something sturdy and roomy with lots of pockets is something I always need for work. I was given the chance to review the Bridle Leather Briefcase from LederMann [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/17/ledermann-bridle-leather-briefcase-review/

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The Beat Announces Closure, Will Remain Online-Only Business ...

(Source: The Beat Facebook Page)

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ? The Beat announced via social media Friday it would be closing its doors and remain an online-only business.

After nearly 20 years at its midtown location at 17th and J Streets and 31 years in Sacramento, the independent music store will be closing after failing to find a new location to call home.

?Thank you to all our loyal customers for enabling us to build our dream record store and all the support through the years,? the business wrote in part on its Facebook page.

The business was served with an eviction notice in March and says it will close sometime this month.

Source: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/06/14/the-beat-announces-closure-will-remain-online-only-businees/

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Creative Writing Lesson Plan ? Friday 6/14/13 | Young Peoples ...

We have been using multiple intelligences in this class. we read, speak, talk, write, interact. And one of our subtopics has been the connections between all art and creatibe writing. Continuing that discussion, film critic?Jim Dalrymple writes that? Il Postino (1994) is the kind of film:

that?s unwaveringly committed to its story, while somehow also managing to be heartwarming and charming. The story depicts a chapter Chilean poet Pablo Neruda?s exile, as well as the fictional relationship that he forms with an Italian postman. As the postman delivers mail to Neruda he learns about the power of poetry, first in love and eventually in politics. Neruda?s poetry is affective and simply amazing, and few films that include poetry are as overtly about it as Il Postino. However, and perhaps most importantly, Il Postino ultimately makes the argument that poetry matters as a force for good in the world.

The writing of poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language?such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre?to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle?s Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively-informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.

Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images?a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today?s increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.

____
Introducing Poetry throughout the School Day

For millennia ? even before Homer started reciting The Iliad and The Odyssey ? we humans have been telling one another poems. Even today, children and adolescents often spontaneously make up poems to tell one another, in jump-rope rhymes, insults and comebacks, riddles, and other verses. What is it about poems that so appeals to us?

On the other hand, many adults today feel turned off to poetry, never venturing to scribble a verse and rarely listening to it, except when tuning in to a song?s lyrics. What happened to make us so wary of poems?

Why Poems?
Poems intrinsically appeal to us because of their rhythm, their rich imagery, and and their ability to extract the pot-liquor from the boiling cauldron of our experiences. Here?s an example: Fog by Carl Sandburg. Click here for the full text of the poem.

How does Sandburg do that ? capturing the essential images and impressions of fog in twenty-one small words? To be honest, we can?t tell you exactly how he does it. Perhaps we have to admit that ? like electricity ? it seems to happen as if by magic.

The secret to the magic isn?t in the topic he chose. In the many anthologies containing Sandburg?s poems, you may find a wealth of other poems about almost any classroom topic you and your children can think of. For instance, you may find Sandburg?s poem in Jack Prelutsky?s (1983) anthology, The Random House book of Poetry for Children (p. 96), New York: Random House.

Prelutsky?s anthology also includes poems on ferns, wind, George Washington, smells, boa constrictors, Halloween, being rude, basketball, waking up, cockroaches, the taste of purple, feeling frightened, a hog-calling competition, family members, unicorns, toasters, flying, and so on ? even poems on the whole universe.

Dalrymple continues:

The Raven (1963) ? This film is classic Vincent Price: campy, funny in a strangely knowing way, and macabrely delicious. The fact that it also stars the the legendary Boris Karloff is icing on the cake. ?It?s based, rather loosely, on Edgar Allen Poe?s long poem ?The Raven, which you may have read in an English class. Or, you may be familiar with the poem from The Simpsons? episode ?Treehouse of Horror,? in which it was read by the velvet-voiced James Earl Jones. In any case, Price?s version of ?The Raven? provides a good introduction to two cultural essentials: classic poetry, and classic B movies.

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Source: http://youngpeoplespavilion.com/2013/06/14/creative-writing-lesson-plan-friday-61413/

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Peep This Awesome Real-Time Map of the World?s Bike Shares

Sick and tired of hearing about New York?s bike share and the irresponsible weirdos that populate it? Well, here's a change of pace: this excellent real-time map illustrates 85 different bike share systems from all over the world.

According to The Atlantic Cities, the map was built by one Oliver O?Brien, a software developer at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, in London. It updates every two to ten minutes, pulling data from over 200,000 bike docking stations in cities as far afield as Kaohsiung and Tel Aviv. What?s really great about O?Brien?s color dot system is that it shows us multiple values: Each circle?s diameter denotes how many bikes are in the system, while its color shows the ratio of in-use and out-of-use bikes.

The funnest part, maybe, is seeing which cities have the most night riders. Vienna and Madrid seem to have quite a few Friday night cyclists, and Moscow ain?t bad either, despite the fact that, according to a recent New Yorker story about the city?s new program, it?s far scarier riding in Russia than it is Manhattan. [Bike Share Map via The Atlantic Cities]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/peep-this-awesome-real-time-map-of-the-world-s-bike-sha-513490922

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It's about to get crowded at your local Best Buy, they plan to open Windows Stor...

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Bloomberg targets political donations in latest gun-control push

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his latest bid for tougher gun control, is urging the city's legions of Democratic donors to withhold funds from four Democratic senators who opposed a background checks bill earlier this year.

The letter, sent to hundreds of the city's major donors on Wednesday, targets the four Democrats who joined Republicans in blocking a compromise bill designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group Bloomberg founded and largely funds.

The bill reached the Senate floor just months after a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, prompting gun control advocates to push for significant changes to U.S. gun laws.

Most senators - 54 - approved the measure, which polls indicated was backed by more than 80 percent of Americans, when it came up for a vote in April.

The plan to expand background checks to sales made online and at gun shows failed to become law after Republicans threatened to use a filibuster to block any gun proposal that did not get 60 votes in the 100-member Senate.

It was a stinging defeat for the billionaire mayor, who had aggressively used his personal wealth and political bully pulpit to push the measure. At the time, Bloomberg called the defeat a "damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington." He said his group would work to defeat opponents of gun control in the 2014 midterm elections. Wednesday's letter, first reported by the New York Times, targets Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

"I am writing to ask you: the next time these four Senators want you to support them with donations to their campaigns, tell them you cannot. Until they show that they will stand up for the American people and not the gun lobby, tell them you cannot support their candidacy," the letter says. "These "no" votes were a slap in the face to Americans everywhere."

In scathing language, the letter criticizes the senators for undermining efforts to keep Americans safe, at the same time as they approached New York donors for contributions.

At least one of the senators targeted by Bloomberg said he relishes the challenge.

"In Alaska, having a New York mayor tell us what to do? The guy who wants to ban Big Gulps?" Begich told the New York Times. "If anything, it might help me."

The four senators were not immediately available for further comment.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bipartisan background check plan the Senate blocked, told reporters he would like to see more money going to "gun culture states" to finance an information campaign about why Americans should not fear the background-check expansion.

"It's well-intended, they all have different approaches and they have a right to have that approach," he said of Bloomberg's letter.

Others said the effort could backfire, especially if Republicans win back control of the U.S. Senate, making new gun control legislation all but impossible.

"Mark Pryor is the only Democrat who could win in Arkansas," said one senior Democratic aide. "Making it less likely that he will win, will make it more likely that Republicans take control of the Senate, which would doom the prospects for expanded background checks for the foreseeable future."

The aide said that in some states, Democrats targeted by Bloomberg could use the liberal New York mayor as a foil to campaign against. Still, the aide quickly added: "It is never good to have someone spend millions of dollars against you."

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bloomberg-targets-political-donations-latest-gun-control-push-185837931.html

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Breaking: Incontrovertible Proof of FSM?s Existence Revealed (Balloon Juice)

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Kate Thomas: Great Make-Out Spots in London (VIDEO)

In the British capital, I got in touch with Sarah Bennetto, a popular comedian and radio DJ. Like I do with all the locals I connect with in my videos, I asked her to show me a slice of her city that most visitors probably don't know about.

Initially, we were going to go to her favorite coffee shops in East London. But then we got to talking and realized that wasn't nearly as exciting as showcasing her growing list of great spots to make-out around town. It wasn't easy to narrow down her selections. After all, London is a very romantic city. But I think we did a good job.

Watch the video and tell me what you think? Would you take a date to any of these locations?

Find more Travel with Kate videos on my Youtube Channel.
Follow me on Twitter.
And Like me on Facebook.

Here is info on the three main spots we highlighted:

1. Towpath Cafe
Along the Regents Canal at De Beauvoir Rd
Closest tube stop is the Haggerston Overground

2. Bridge Cafe
In Shorditch, 15 Kingsland Road
The closest tube: The Hoxton Overground

3. Islington New River Walk
It runs parallel to Essex Road in Canonbury Grove
The closest tube is Highbury and Islington Station (Victoria Line and London Overground)

And Hampstead Heath, well, that's off the Northern Line at Golder's Green. But finding the actual hollow tree is not easy!! It took us over an hour of wondering about, following the directions below. This was all we had to go on!

"Walk down the long path from The Spaniards Road (Jack Straws Castle end), and carry on past Constable's Firs and The Vale Of Health, on the right.
Then take the right fork at The Battery and proceed down The Viaduct Path.
The famous Mock Tudor public conveniences are on the left.
Just beyond the conveniences is a path sharp right."

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Follow Kate Thomas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@KateLThomas

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-thomas/great-makeout-spots-in-lo_b_3422452.html

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A look at Turkey and its widespread protests

ISTANBUL (AP) ? Turkey's Islamic-led government is facing its biggest protests in years as demonstrators and police clashed Tuesday for the 12th straight day. Here's a look behind the scenes:

Q: What's going on in Turkey?

A: Demonstrators were camping out in a park in Istanbul's landmark Taksim Square, protesting plans to cut down trees and redevelop the area when police went in May 31 to clear them out. That heavy-handed raid ignited protests that have since spread to dozens of Turkish cities. On Tuesday, police went into the square again, pulling down protesters' makeshift barricades and chasing some with tear gas and water cannons.

Q: Is this just about trees ? or something else?

A: Protesters are venting pent-up resentment against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in office for 10 years. Many secular Turks see him as an authoritarian figure trying to force his conservative religious Islamic views on them. Erdogan rejects those accusations. Still, he has spoken out against Caesarean births, said women should have at least three children, and backed laws to curb the sale of alcohol.

Q: What does Erdogan say?

A: The prime minister says the protests are being instigated by extremists who want to blacken Turkey's international image and he has lost patience with them. "For those who want to continue with the incidents I say: 'It's over,'" Erdogan said Tuesday. "Not only will we end the actions, we will be at the necks of the provocateurs and terrorists, and no one will get away with it."

Q: Why should other nations care about Turkey?

A: Turkey, a largely Muslim nation that straddles Europe and Asia, is a stable democracy, a key U.S. ally and an important regional influence. It has taken in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing that country's civil war.

Turkey's economy is worth $1.3 trillion annually, almost as much as Canada's. It also has a flourishing tourist industry that welcomed nearly 38 million visitors last year to ancient historical sites and ruins, wide sandy Mediterranean beaches and stunning regions of natural beauty.

Q: How is Turkey a key U.S. ally?

A: Turkey borders Iran, Iraq and Syria. The U.S. needs Turkey's help to quell the violence in Syria, stabilize Iraq and stem Iran's nuclear ambitions. Turkey also played a key role as the U.S. military went after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Erdogan visited the White House last month for talks with President Barack Obama.

Q: What's next? Will Turkey see an Arab Spring revolution?

A: Turkey holds a presidential election next year in which Erdogan ? who will hit his term limit as prime minister ? could run against the current president. Despite the protests, Erdogan is unlikely to fall. His backing by rural conservative voters ? the so-called silent majority ? still appears to be strong.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-turkey-widespread-protests-205032279.html

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Sometimes it seems the only people the Obama administration doesn?t spy on are themselves (Michellemalkin)

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Why bother with self-improvement? | Martina McGowan

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

?

?

Make your lives a masterpiece, you only get one canvas.

E. A. Bucchiameri?

?

A?lot of people?continue to search for the secrets to ways to?improve their way of life and to deepen their perspective and outlook.?And, there are many who simply don?t see the value or purpose of going on this journey. Additionally, even though we write a lot about this topic, the truth of the matter is that most of the answers probably already lie within you. Making these ?improvements? means?deepening your understanding and expanding your perspective about your life.? It helps you?develop vision, energies and enables us to determine what direction we are taking in our life.? People who have achieved personal mastery testified that they would feel a positive change in their life.

There are many different tangible benefits that an individual may gain from this journey:

? Clarify your decision making

Once you can get a?clear vision on your purpose and your mission in life, decision making becomes much easier, and at the same clearer. Once you know where you want to go, each action that you decide to perform is either moving you toward your goal, or away from it.

? Stronger?leadership

Knowing who you are, where you are going, and how you plan to get there helps you develop into a stronger, surer and more creative?leader. Because you care about yourself and your goals, you will work to improve your?communication skills and confidence as a such leader.?Effective leaders also need to be able to manage their emotions and not let them?get in the way of making sound judgments.

? Increase your emotional intelligence (EI)

Being the master of your emotions can?be difficult at times, especially during period of stress, difficulty and challenges. Mentoring, coaching and counseling can help you improve how you?develop and learn to master your emotions.

? Improved your work life balance

Learning who you are and sorting out what is truly important to you can have?significant effects on how you?handle your?life, and the choices you make for yourself and those you care for and about.?As we talked about last week, there will be spill-over or run-off from your self-improvement efforts into?your career and interpersonal relationships.

? Decrease your stress levels

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and being thoroughly grounded in the reality of life should help?lower stress levels.?And, handling your emotional side better?helps you learn to?accept change and become more flexible about things. Understanding clearly which things in your life are negotiable, and which are not should aid you in dealing with? stress and?being able to?reduce it.

?

One of the great things about self-improvement principles is that they?can be applied to?personal life, your career, your leadership style and goals, and to?your organization.? Personal mastery can even help you with career, whether you would like to change your path or would like to improve your performance in the current career you are in.

Self-improvement,?contrary to what the title literally says, is not just for your own personal growth. Improving yourself could mean a lot. You are a part of a whole.?Your improvement can influence others and eventually change the world into something better.

Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs via Compfight cc

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About Martina

Servant, MD (gynecologist), blogger, businesswoman, seminary student, mother, grandmother, sexual assault survivor's advocate, minister, speaker, teacher, leader, writer, occasional haikuist

Source: http://martinamcgowan.com/2013/06/why-bother-improving-you/

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U.N. mediator sees breakthrough in Guinea election talks

CONAKRY (Reuters) - The Guinean government and opposition parties in the West African nation have made a breakthrough during talks on Sunday that could end a violent political impasse and pave the way for legislative elections, a United Nations envoy said.

President Alpha Conde's government and Guinea's opposition parties are locked in a United Nations-mediated talk over the organization of a long-delayed legislative election.

More than 50 people have been killed in three months of rallies by activists who accuse Conde of preparing to rig the poll, scheduled for June 30, in the world's largest bauxite exporter.

Said Djinnit, a U.N. envoy mediating the talks between government and opposition in the coastal capital of Conakry, said the parties have made significant progress over their demands and there were reasons for hope.

Djinnit said in return for some guarantees, Guinea's opposition parties have agreed to rejoin the electoral process, dropping a demand that South African company Waymark, charged with updating the voter register, be replaced.

The opposition accused the company of stuffing the electoral roll with the names of Conde's ethnic Malinke supporters, charges the company denied.

The opposition had also called for Guineans living overseas to be allowed to vote.

"Regarding the vote of Guineans abroad, the presidential camp, which had reservations on the issue, have lifted their opposition. It was agreed that Guineans living abroad could participate in elections," Djinnit said.

Decisions from the talks, if concluded, could affect the date of the election, he said.

Guinea's government was not immediately available for comment, but a spokesman for the opposition told Reuters that a minimum consensus had been reached and they were waiting for concrete actions from the government and Guinea's electoral commission.

"We have reasons to be cautiously optimistic," said opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla.

Political instability in Guinea following a military coup in December 2008 has deterred some investors, despite the country's large deposits of iron ore, bauxite, gold and other minerals.

(Reporting by Saliou Samb.; Writing by Bate Felix; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-mediator-sees-breakthrough-guinea-election-talks-222806512.html

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Nadal beats Ferrer for record 8th French Open win

Spain's Rafael Nadal bites the trophy after winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Spain's Rafael Nadal bites the trophy after winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Spain's Rafael Nadal clenches his fist after scoring against compatriot David Ferrer in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. Nadal won the tournament in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Spain's Rafael Nadal, left, holds his head after defeating compatriot David Ferrer, right, in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Spain's Rafael Nadal greets compatriot David Ferrer after defeating Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

PARIS (AP) ? If Rafael Nadal truly was going to be challenged, if his bid for an unprecedented eighth French Open championship would be slowed even a bit, this might have been the moment.

Leading by a set and a break 70 minutes into Sunday's final against David Ferrer, another generally indefatigable Spaniard, Nadal faced four break points in one game. The last was a 31-stroke exchange, the match's longest, capped when Nadal absorbed Ferrer's strong backhand approach and transformed it into a cross-court backhand passing shot.

Ferrer glared at the ball as it flew past and landed in a corner, then smiled ruefully. What else was there to do? Dealing with Nadal's defense-to-offense on red clay is a thankless task. His rain-soaked 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ferrer was Nadal's record 59th win in 60 matches at the French Open and made him the only man with eight titles at any Grand Slam tournament.

"I never like to compare years, but it's true that this year means something very special for me," Nadal said, alluding to the way he managed to come back from a left knee injury that sidelined him for about seven months.

"When you have a period of time like I had," he added, "you realize that you don't know if you will have the chance to be back here with this trophy another time."

But he does it, year after year.

He won four French Opens in a row from 2005-08, and another four in a row from 2010-13.

"Rafael was better than me," said Ferrer, who had won all 18 sets he'd played the past two weeks to reach his first Grand Slam final at age 31. "He didn't make mistakes."

A week past his 27th birthday, Nadal now owns 12 major trophies in all ? including two from Wimbledon, one each from the U.S. Open and Australian Open ? to eclipse Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver and equal Roy Emerson for the third-most in history. Nadal trails only Roger Federer's 17 and Pete Sampras' 14.

"Winning 17 Grand Slam titles, that's miles away," Nadal said. "I'm not even thinking about it."

This was Nadal's first major tournament after a surprising second-round loss at Wimbledon last June. Since rejoining the tour in February, he is 43-2 with seven titles and two runner-up finishes. He's won his past 22 matches.

"For me, it's incredible," said Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach. "When I think of all that Rafael has done, I don't understand it."

No one, perhaps not even Ferrer himself, expected Nadal to lose Sunday.

That's because of Nadal's skill on clay, in general, and at Roland Garros, in particular, but also because of how Ferrer had fared against his friend and countryman ? and video-game competitor ? in the past.

Ferrer entered Sunday 4-19 against Nadal. On clay, Nadal had 16 consecutive victories over Ferrer, whose only head-to-head win on the surface came the first time they played, in July 2004, when Nadal was 18.

Nadal had yet to make his French Open debut then, missing it that year because of a broken left foot. On May 23, 2005, Nadal played his first match at Roland Garros, beating Lars Burgsmuller 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-1 on Court 1, known as the "bullring" because of its oval shape.

And so began the reign.

Nadal won a record 31 consecutive matches at the French Open until the fourth round in 2009, when Robin Soderling beat him. In 2010, Nadal started a new streak, which currently stands at 28.

There was occasional shakiness this year. Nadal lost the first set of each of his first two matches and was pushed to a tiebreaker to begin his third.

He barely edged No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic in a thrilling semifinal that lasted more than 4? hours and ended 9-7 in the fifth set Friday.

By any measure, that match was far more enjoyable to take in than the final, akin to dining on a filet mignon accompanied by a well-aged bottle of Bordeaux one day, then grabbing a hot dog and can of soda from a street vendor 48 hours later.

Under a leaden sky that eventually would release a steady shower from the second set on, Ferrer felt nerves at the outset, he acknowledged later. But after the players traded early breaks, Ferrer held for a 3-2 lead.

That's when Nadal took over, winning seven games in a row and 12 of 14. His court coverage was impeccable, as usual, showing no signs of any problems from that left knee, which was supported by a band of white tape. His lefty forehand whips were on-target, accounting for 19 of his 35 winners and repeatedly forcing errors from Ferrer.

When Nadal did have lapses, he admonished himself, once slapping his forehead with his right palm after pushing a lob wide. But what's demoralizing for opponents is the way Nadal slams the door when they have openings, then rushes through when he gets the slightest chance.

He was at his relentless best on key points, including those four break chances for Ferrer at 3-1 in the second set. Immediately after, Nadal broke to 5-1 on a forehand winner down the line.

As Nadal prepared to serve in the next game, a man wearing a white mask and carrying a fiery flare jumped out of the stands nearby. The intruder quickly was shoved to the ground by one security guard, while another went to protect Nadal.

"I felt a little bit scared at the first moment," Nadal said, "because I didn't see what's going on."

It happened within a few minutes of other actions by protesters, including chanting from the upper deck that briefly delayed play. Police said seven people were held for questioning.

Nadal got broken in that game, then broke back right away to take the second set.

The third set was similar to the first. It was 3-all, then suddenly over. Nadal took the last three games, ending the match with a forehand winner before dropping his racket and falling on his back, leaving a rust-colored smudge on his white shirt and flecks of clay on his stubbled cheeks. Soon he was standing, holding his index finger aloft.

Yes, Nadal is No. 1 at the French Open. When the ATP rankings are issued Monday, however, he will be No. 5, because of points he dropped while hurt.

Ferrer will be at No. 4.

"Yeah, it's strange, no? I lost the final against Rafael, but tomorrow I am going to be No. 4 and him No. 5," Ferrer said with a grin, then delivered his punch line: "I prefer to win here and to stay No. 5."

Sorry, David. This is Nadal's tournament.

Now the question becomes: Is eight enough?

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-09-French%20Open/id-ffb465d03239482cbbf6a3f538e7c0b9

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