Serena Williams with a trophy given to her by the WTA Tour for reclaiming the world No.1 ranking.Source:AFP
Sam Stosur was eliminated at the Qatar Open on Friday as Serena Williams became the oldest woman to claim the world No.1 ranking.
The Australian was beaten 6-2 6-4 in her quarter-final by Maria Sharapova, a two-time champion in Doha.
The day, though, belonged to Williams, who was in tears after her historic 3-6 6-3 7-5 victory over Petra Kvitova.
Williams, 31, will take over from Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka as the world's best player on Monday, returning to the top spot for the first time in over two years.
Chris Evert at 30 was the previous oldest world No.1.
Williams was 4-1 down before reeling off six of the last seven games, taking the match with an ace down the middle.
Her relieved smile, heavenward gesture and tears in her moment of triumph gave lie to her earlier statement that the number one position no longer mattered.
''I am so sensitive nowadays - I am always crying, but I never thought I would be here again you know,'' said Williams in a reference to the pulmonary embolism from which she suffered in 2011, threatening her life as well as her career.
''When I was down I heard people cheering for me and I don't get that all the time. I never thought I would be number one again.''
Williams, who faces Sharapova in the semi-finals, will be the world No.1 for a 124th career week - a total only bettered by Steffi Graf (377), Martina Navratilova (332), Evert (260), Martina Hingis (209) and Monica Seles (178).
Earlier, Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka defeated Sara Errani 6-2 6-2.
The Belarusian's surprisingly emphatic win over the Italian means she has dropped a mere nine games in three matches.
Azarenka's semi-final will be a sequel to last year's contentious meeting with Agnieszka Radwanska.
The world No.4 from Poland came from 0-3 and 3-5 down in the second set to win 6-2 7-5 against Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No.1 from Denmark.
''She's a great fighter and I'm just happy to get through to the semi-finals again here,'' said Azarenka, who has established an affinity for the sea air, gentle winter sunshine and slowish hard courts in Qatar.
''I came here to practise before the Australia Open, and I shall be back here to do the same in December.''
All smiles ... Aussie Sam Stosur advances to the quarter-finals at the Dubai Open.Source: News Limited
Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska and Australia's Samantha Stosur led a parade of top seeds into thec quarter-finals on a Wednesday overshadowed by the abrupt withdrawal of Serena Williams with a back injury.
Her departure, announced 45 minutes before she was due to face 11th-ranked Marion Bartoli, came a day after second-ranked Victoria Azarenka, who beat Williams in the Doha final, withdrew with a right foot bone bruise.
"I've just had some back problems the past couple weeks. It didn't get better," Williams said.
"I thought it would get better as the week went on, but it didn't. I don't want to keep pushing it and make it worse."
Former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki joined Radwanska in the quarters, brushing aside an error-prone Zheng Jie of China 6-1 6-0.
Former US Open champion Stosur got the better of Hseih Su-wei 6-4 6-0.
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova also got past former No.1 Ana Ivanovic 7-5 7-6 (7-1).
The only upset on the day was fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber, who racked up 10 double faults in falling to
Roberta Vinci of Italy 5-7 6-1. It was the latest disappointment for the German, who crashed out of the Qatar Open in the round of 32.
Radwanska had a tougher-than-expected test in winning 7-5 6-3 against 18-year-old wild card Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Runaways ... Barcelona are on fire in La Liga.Source: Manu Fernandez / AP
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini doesn't think the Barclays Premier League title race is over yet.
The defending champions trail their city rivals Manchester United by 12 points after 27 games. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side have sauntered to their lead and Mancini – who famously ruled City out of the race last year – will be hoping for another dramatic twist in the script for the rest of the season.
"We can't think it's finished with 11 games to go," manager Mancini said after the 2-0 win over Chelsea. "It's not my mentality or the mentality of the players."
As unlikely as a United collapse is, Mancini is not alone in Europe staring down a league-lead deficit; there’s a remarkably similar pattern across three of Europe’s big leagues: big clubs are running away with the title.
The dominance of these clubs across Europe is a salute to their supremacy in their domestic leagues – and provides a fantastic discussion point when these giants are drawn in European competition.
It’s interesting to note these blow-outs across Europe at the same time:
•Premier League: Manchester United are 12 points ahead of City, 27 games played.
•La Liga: Barcelona are 12 points ahead of Atletico Madrid with 25 games played.
•Bundesliga: Bayern Munich are 17 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund after 23 matches.
It would be wrong to clump Scotland’s Premier League in that calibre of league, but as another point of interest, Tom Rogic’s Celtic are 21 points ahead of Inverness CT at the top of the table.
Elsewhere, Olympiakos lead the Greek Super League by 16 points ahead of Asteras Tripolis, while in Portugal, Porto and Benfica lead on 52 points – with the next best on 35.
To a lesser extent, Juventus sit seven points clear in Serie A, while the race is alive in France and Holland. David Beckham’s big-spending Paris Saint-Germain are three points ahead of Lyon, while the Eredevise appears the tightest three-horse race. Perennial giants PSV Eindhoven, Ajax and Feyenoord are split by three points. Russia looks a tight run-in as well, with five points splitting Zenit St Petersburg, FC Anzhi Makhachkala and league leaders CSKA Moscow.
It's an interesting coincidence - a tidbit of information coming at a time when A-League supporters question the relevance, worth and suitability of a ‘first past the post’ system.
For you, does a flat-lining title race make the run home any less exciting?
The typically uncensored “Fashion Police” host made some harsh comments about Adele’s weight during her appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman.”
When speaking about her experience attending the Oscars, Rivers gushed that she got to meet Adele. But after Letterman replied, calling the singer a “lovely woman,” Rivers held out her hands widely around her and puffed out her cheeks, taking an obvious crack at Adele’s weight.
The audience booed Rivers, who scoffed at their response.
“What’s her song? ‘Rolling in the Deep’? She should add fried chicken,” Rivers quipped.
After a moment, Letterman quickly changed the subject and Rivers followed suit.
But the comment wasn’t the first time the comedian has mocked the singer’s weight.
After the Oscars, Rivers tweeted: “On Sunday night, you could easily pick Adele's Oscar statuette out of a lineup. It was the only one wearing Spanx.”
Similarly, shortly after the signer gave birth last year, Rivers reportedly tweeted: “Congratulations to Adele on the birth of her 68 pound 8 ounces bouncing baby boy.”
Bernard Tomic ... suffers first round loss at the Rotterdam World Tennis event.Source: Phil Hillyard / News Limited
Bernard Tomic has crashed out of the Rotterdam World Tennis event in three sets.
Tomic suffered a 6-3 3-6 6-3 first-round loss to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who ended a four-match losing streak.
The match shaped as a clash between two of the best up-and-coming talents in world tennis.
World No.43 Tomic made the perfect start to the season, winning his first-ever ATP event in Brisbane before impressing in the early rounds of the Australian Open.
However, despite his return to form, controversy has continued to follow Tomic - the Australian losing his licence for speeding on the Gold Coast in January.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer welcomed the return to tennis of Rafael Nadal, but will not spend much time worrying about his long-time rival's progress as he concentrates on his own game with a Wednesday start in Rotterdam.
While Federer was making his preparations, there was disappointment on court for third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the French player went down to Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-4.
Even 14 aces could not help Tsonga in the two-hour match, with the seed converting only one of eight break point chances.
Tsonga, a finalist here in 2011, saved a match point in the final game but lost his serve a few moments later to make a surprise first-round exit.
"This is not my worst moment, but I'm disappointed," said Tsonga. "I missed four or five of the same volleys on key points. That was the difference.
"He was serving very well and I was always chasing the score. I didn't play a bad match, just missed my chances. I was missing on shots that I usually make. But I will keep working hard and try to improve things."
Tsonga's compatriot, the fifth seeded Gilles Simon moved into the second round with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 victory over German qualifier Daniel Brands.
Romanian Victor Hanescu accounted for the week's first seed with his defeat of seventh-seeded Jerzy Janowicz 7-6 (7/4) 6-3. The Pole had made a breakthrough last autumn at Paris Bercy by reaching the final after coming through qualifying.
Top seed Federer, defending his 2012 trophy said he has arrived relaxed and eager as he plays for the first time since losing a tight Australian Open semi-final to Andy Murray, then taking time off with his family in his homes in Dubai and Switzerland.
"I saw a few pictures of Rafa, last week," said Federer, who joked: "I see he's still a left-hander - and his shirts looked good."
But beyond the obvious natural curiosity, the 31-year-old with 17 Grand Slam titles has plenty on his own plate as he begins a run of events this week to be followed by the Dubai Open and the Indian Wells Masters next month in California.
"I'm happy to see him back and playing on the Tour," said the two-time Rotterdam champion.
"He seems to have good energy. I was surprised he lost a final against a player ranked outside the top 50.
"I'm sure he got a lot of information about his game last week (in Chile). He knows now how much strain he is putting on his body and how he is dealing with it."
After seven months away recovering from tendon damage in his left knee, Nadal lost both the singles and doubles finals at the VTR Open in Chile.
Singles winner Horacio Zeballos could only repeat what Nadal had been saying - that his comeback would need time.
While Nadal plays on clay in Sao Paulo, Federer will be bidding to make it a trophy hat-trick in Rotterdam, when he begins in the first round against Slovenian Grega Zemlja.
Samantha Stosur ... couldn't convert match point in Czech Republic.Source: RADEK MICA / AAP
It happened again. Sam Stosur's inability to close out matches has reached plague proportions after she blew a match point while leading world No.8 Petra Kvitova in Australia's Fed Cup quarter-final against the Czech Republic.
Stosur was leading 6-2 5-4 and was one point from victory when Kvitova drove a fast, deep second serve at the her and she couldn't get it back in court.
Kvitova then served her way out of trouble before a Stosur double fault helped the Czech secure the second-set tiebreak and roll on to take the match.
The capitulation follows Stosur's struggles the day one against Lucie Safarova, who took full advantage of a Stosur double-fault while facing a set point against the Aussie.
Stosur described the result as one of the best matches she's played in months, which says plenty.
Team captain Alicia Molik put on a brave face despite the defeat, saying the Aussies can retain a top-eight position.
"The result I don't think is a true reflection. We didn't win a match here against the Czech team, but gosh we could have ... we were right there,'' she said.
"We had the opportunity to win. But (the Czechs) bring their best tennis and you can see their team unity, I think that plays a part as well.''
The Czechs won the tie 4-0, meaning they progress to the semi-finals while Australia will face a playoff in April to remain in the world's top eight nations.
Former “Silver Spoons” star Rick Schroder got into an altercation with an airport worker, according to TMZ. The actor reportedly tried to bring three carry-on bags on a plane and argued with the worker when she told him only two were allowed onboard. She claims the former child star hit her hand during the argument.
Lindsay Lohan's attorney has suggested to prosecutors that the actress serve as a motivational speaker and perform non-jail activities to resolve her latest criminal case, according to a letter obtained Tuesday.
The letter from lawyer Mark Heller proposed several alternatives for Lohan, who could be sent to jail if a judge determines her actions in a traffic crash violated terms of her probation in a previous theft case.
His letter states that Lohan's turbulent home life has deeply impacted her and requires a different approach in the case.
The actress plans to spend time recording public service announcements and make "periodic visits to schools, hospitals, and other venues where she may provide inspirational talks, encouraging children to pursue positive goals and avoid bad habits," states the letter filed on Friday and released by the court Tuesday.
Heller also proposed the establishment of a nonprofit foundation in Lohan's name to benefit young people.
The actress "has made a commitment to herself to elevate her life and participate in activities which will advance her desire to lead a model life," Heller wrote in a motion seeking a delay in the case that returns to court on Friday. Trial is now set for March 18.
Lohan is charged with three misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, lying to police and obstructing officers from performing their duties. She has pleaded not guilty.
The actress could face 245 days in jail if she is found to be in violation of her probation.
The star of "Mean Girls" and "Freaky Friday" was sentenced to psychotherapy in November of 2011 in cases involving theft and drunken driving charges, but she has not been required to attend counseling since being placed on informal probation in March 2012.
Those terms were imposed by Judge Stephanie Sautner, who is retiring and will no longer handle Lohan's case.
The crash that prompted the current charges occurred in June on Pacific Coast Highway while Lohan was on the way to a movie shoot.
Terry White, chief deputy city attorney in Santa Monica, declined comment on the letter. He said discussions about a possible resolution are scheduled to take place this week.
Lohan, 26, was on her way to a beach shoot with another person for the TV movie "Liz and Dick" when her car crashed into the back of a dump truck. Police allege she lied about being behind the wheel.
Heller is also seeking dismissal of the charges against Lohan, arguing that police ignored her when she said she didn't want to be interviewed without her attorney present.
Lohan was at the hospital at the time, not in custody, and showed no signs of impairment when officers gave her a field sobriety test, the lawyer said.
Women who feel bloated, irritable or depressed before getting their periods — classic signs of premenstrual syndrome, or PMS — may want to pay attention to the amount of iron in their diets, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that women with aniron intakeof more than 20 milligrams a day had about a 35 percent lower risk of being diagnosed withPMSthan women who had the lowest iron intake, about 10 mg a day. To get the higher amount, a woman would only have to eat one cup of iron-fortified cereal, which typically contains about 24 mg of the mineral.
PMS affects anywhere from 8 to 15 percent of women during their childbearing years and is characterized by physical and emotional symptoms ranging from breast tenderness andfood cravingsto fatigue and moodiness.
Other research has shown that diet affects the development of PMS or may ease the severity of its symptoms. For example, diets high in calcium-rich foods have been shown to lower the risk of PMS, but little was known about the role other minerals might play in preventing the symptoms.
For the study, researchers reviewed three sets of food frequency questionnaires collected over a 10-year period from more than 3,000 American women, ages 25 to 42. All the women were enrolled in the ongoing Nurses' Health Study II, which is exploring the influence of diet and lifestyle on women's health.
Researchers compared the mineral intakes from food as well as supplements for nearly 1,060 women who had been diagnosed with PMS against those of roughly 1,970 women who had few if any PMS symptoms.
The scientists also considered other factors linked to PMS, such as a woman's age, weight, pregnancy history, use of oral contraceptives and her smoking and exercise habits.
"We were somewhat surprised by our findings for iron since no previous studies had observed this relationship," said study author Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, Sc.D., an associate professor of epidemiology at UMass Amherst.
But not all forms of dietary iron are the same. It was primarily the iron found in plant foods and in supplements, non-heme iron, that reduced a woman's chances of developing PMS. The heme iron coming from animal sources, such as red meat and poultry, did not have the same effect.
Bertone-Johnson suspects that non-heme iron had a stronger relationship with PMS because it's easier to eat a diet rich in plant and supplement sources. For example, three-quarters of a cup of fortified cereal has 18 mg of non-heme iron, and a cup of lentil or beans has between 3 and 7 mg. But a 3-ounce serving of beef has only 2 to 3 mg of heme iron, so you would need to eat a large serving of beef to meet your daily iron needs, which is not advisable considering its saturated fat content.
The study, which was published online today (Feb. 26) in the American Journal of Epidemiology, evaluated data for eight different minerals.
Potassium: A Surprising Finding
Iron was not the only mineral linked to an improvement in PMS symptoms. The study found some evidence that azincintake of more than 15 milligrams a day was associated with a lower risk of PMS. But this effect was only seen for zinc supplements and not for food sources of the mineral.
Although the role zinc may play in PMS needs to be evaluated in greater detail, deficiencies of the mineral may be linked to mood-related symptoms likedepressionand possibly menstrual cramps, Bertone-Johnson said.
Researchers found no connection between intakes of sodium, magnesium or manganese and PMS. But it was a completely different story forpotassium; high intakes of this mineral were linked to a greater risk for PMS.
"We saw a 46 percent increase in the risk of PMS only among women with the highest level of intake, which was approximately 3,700 milligrams a day. This was compared to women consuming the lowest amount, or roughly 2,300 milligrams," Bertone-Johnson said.
Potassium, found in foods such as sweet potatoes, bananas and orange juice, may increase a woman's chances of developing PMS by boosting levels of a hormone linked to water retention. The mineral may also contribute to other physical and emotional symptoms, such as bloating, depression and irritability.
"We were surprised to find that potassium intake was associated with a higher risk of PMS, as this was contrary to our expectations," Bertone-Johnson said.
Because the effects of potassium on PMS need further investigation and the mineral is an important component of a healthy diet, Bertone-Johnson said she would still encourage women who have PMS to consume the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for potassium, or 4,700 mg a day. But they should not go considerably higher than that amount.
"Our findings suggest that minerals, including iron and zinc, may be involved in PMS, but this needs to be replicated in other studies," Bertone-Johnson said.
For now, she suggests that women experiencing PMS symptoms meet the RDA for these minerals: 18 mg a day for iron and 8 mg a day for zinc. She also recommends getting 1,000 mg of calcium daily, the RDA for this mineral.
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Michelle Obama’s appearance at the Oscars surprised many viewers, but perhaps even more puzzling were the members of the military that stood behind her as she announced the award for best picture.
Obama made no mention of the group surrounding her as she spoke of this year’s influential films, and critics slammed the appearance, saying she used the military personnel as “props.”
“So...today you young men and women of the US military are to stand looking interested whilst Michelle Obama presents Best Picture #Ofcourse!” one user posted on Twitter.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin tweeted a similar sentiment: “Why was Michelle O at the Oscars and why did she use service personnel as props but not thank the military?”
Indeed, in her brief speech about the best picture award, Obama failed to make mention of the men and women standing behind her, leaving many wondering what they were doing there.
On Twitter, some accused the FLOTUS of using the members of the military as “background,” “decoration” and even “human wallpaper.”
Obama has thus far opted not to explain the military’s presence during her virtual Academy Awards appearance, though she did tweet that she enjoyed announcing the top award of the night.
“It was a thrill to announce the #Oscars2013 best picture winner from the @WhiteHouse! Congratulations Argo! –mo,” she wrote early Monday morning.
Bust-up ... Rafael Benitez denies any issue with senior Chelsea players.Source: Paul Ellis / AFP
Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez has dismissed media reports of a row between himself and some of his senior players in the aftermath of Sunday's 2-0 Premier League loss at Manchester City.
British media reports claimed there had been a flare-up involving Benitez and a posse of players led by captain John Terry, but the Spaniard insisted there had been nothing untoward.
Benitez, whose side visit Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday, said: "This was a normal meeting between players and technical staff, which happens after every game. It was normal talk, nothing else. You show your disappointment, that is normal.
"I can understand the frustrations of Terry. He is an important player for us and has been injured with his knee.
"It was very brief exchange of ideas, and that is it, nothing else. It is just a team talk after a defeat.
"We had a meeting on the pitch with my players and technical staff, which is part of our business.
"Now we have to move on and start thinking about Middlesbrough.''
Asked about his relationship with the Chelsea players, Benitez said: "It is fantastic. I have no problem.''
Chelsea's loss at the Etihad Stadium left them seven points behind second-place City in the Barclays Premier League and they were bumped down to fourth place on Monday following Tottenham Hotspur's 3-2 win at West Ham United.
The Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it has stopped all pediatric clinical trials of Amgen Inc's Sensipar after the death of a 14-year-old patient taking part in a study of the drug.
Sensipar, which is approved for adults, is used to lower dangerously high calcium levels in the blood.
The agency said it was collecting information on the circumstances of the teenager's death. It said it does not know if the Amgen drug had any role in the death.
"This communication is intended to inform health care professionals that we are evaluating the information and will communicate our final conclusions and recommendations when our review is complete," the FDA said in a statement posted on its website.
Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company, said it had sent a letter last week to healthcare providers alerting them to the trials' halt and the patient death.
"Amgen is working as rapidly as possible to understand the circumstances of what happened. This analysis is ongoing and will be concluded as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement.
Sensipar works by decreasing the release of parathyroid hormone from the parathyroid gland to lower calcium levels in the blood. High levels of calcium in the blood can lead to serious health problems.
Sensipar, which had worldwide sales of $950 million in 2012, is approved to treat adults 18 and over. The trials were being conducted to determine the safety and efficacy of the drug in younger patients.
Drugmakers also often conduct pediatric trials because they are rewarded with an additional six months of patent protection for testing medicines in children.
A new diagnostic test for patients with fibromyalgia will soon be available, but some experts question its value.
Fibromyalgia is a potentially debilitating disorder that causes chronic, body-wide pain, fatigue and “brain fog.” A diagnosis is based on a clinical exam and a patient’s symptoms, but there is no objective diagnostic test available. Fibromyalgia affects more than 12.3 million people in the United States, according to the American College of Rheumatology.
While fibromyalgia has become more widely accepted as a disorder, many patients still have difficulty getting diagnosed and are often stigmatized as depressed or hypochondriacs.
The test, called the FM test, measures production levels of certain cytokines, which are proteins that play an important role in your immune system. The test was developed by Dr. Bruce Gillis, who published a study in 2012, which found lower levels of these cytokines in individuals with fibromyalgia compared to healthy individuals.
The lower levels of cytokines were found only after they were exposed to a laboratory “challenge.”
“We’re actually seeing a pattern of immune suppression in these patients compared to healthy patients,” said Gillis, the founder of EpicGenetics.
In the study of 110 patients with a fibromyalgia diagnosis, confirmed by two separate physicians, the test was positive in 93 percent of the cases. Of the 91 control patients, all but 10 tested negative for fibromyalgia.
“We found multiple markers for this disease, but more importantly, the research legitimizes a medical condition that is real,” Gillis said.
However, several leading fibromyalgia experts question the validity of the study and the test.
Dr. Daniel Clauw, director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan, said these results are not consistent with results from previous studies, and would need to be replicated in other studies.
In addition, these cytokine findings may occur in people with other pain-related disorders, but this study doesn’t address that because it only compared those with fibromyalgia to healthy adults.
“We have no idea if these markers would be found in people with other illnesses,” said Dr. Fred Wolfe, director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Disease.
In a blog post responding to the marketing of the FM test, Wolfe wrote, “Cytokine levels are abnormal in many physical and mental conditions.”
Patients who take the test will be required to complete a comprehensive health questionnaire, allowing the researchers to see if having other illnesses affects the results.
The test costs about $750 and is not typically covered by insurance. To order a test kit, starting March 4, you can visit www.thefmtest.com.
“I can diagnose fibromyalgia less expensively with a questionnaire and asking patients about their symptoms,” Wolfe added.
Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health journalist whose work appears in the New York Times, among other national magazines and websites. She has authored several health books, including "Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility." Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Miss Delaware Teen USA has resigned Tuesday after a video surfaced online that allegedly features the 18-year-old beauty queen engaging in a sexual act.
But the beauty queen also said the woman in the video wasn’t her.
A rep for the pageant confirmed King’s resignation to TMZ, stating: "I would like to confirm the Miss Delaware Teen USA pageant has received a resignation letter from Miss King’s attorney."
King spoke to a Delaware news site and denied that she is the one featured in the sexually explicit video, posted on an adult website.
She told Delaware Online that she was aware that reports were claiming she was the woman in the video.
“There are comments saying this, however, it’s not comments that are true,” she said.
A rep for the pageant said the Miss Delaware Teen USA runner up would take King’s place.
The voice mail message for the Miss Delaware Teen USA office stated the office is currently on winter break. A rep did not immediately return FOX 411's email request for comment.
GAINESVILLE, Florida – Hyperbaric chambers have been used for decades to treat divers with the bends, burn victims and people with traumatic injuries, but in the U.S. they're increasingly being used on ailing pets.
Doctors at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine have recently used an oxygen chamber on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits and one monkey.
Veterinarian and professor Justin Shmalberg said the capsule has been used to treat animals that have been bitten by rattlesnakes, hit by cars and those with infected wounds, among other things.
"Any place we have swelling of tissue, we oftentimes are thinking about the hyperbaric chamber as something we could do to decrease that," he said.
Shmalberg said the chamber's high-pressure atmosphere of pure oxygen appears to help reduce swelling and aid healing time. He added that the school will begin clinical trials this summer to determine how - or even if - the hyperbaric chamber really is effective in speeding recoveries and healing animals.
There is little research on hyperbaric treatments and pets, although veterinarians who use the chambers note that most of the research for human hyperbaric treatments comes from trials done on rabbits and rats.
"We want to make sure there's really good science behind it," said Dr. Diane Levitan, who owns Peace Love Pets Veterinary Care in New York State. "It's not a panacea. There are specific reasons why this is helpful."
Levitan has a hyperbaric chamber in her practice and is writing an article for a veterinary journal on the treatment. Like Shmalberg, she has seen an improved rate of healing for certain conditions such as herniated discs, abscesses and even post-radiation swelling.
In humans, insurance companies will pay for hyperbaric treatment for several conditions, including carbon monoxide poisoning, crush injuries and bone marrow infections, among other things. Some insurance companies won't pay for hyperbaric treatment for wounds or ulcers, saying that it's an "unproven" therapy -- but some people swear by the treatment and seek out private clinics.
It's the same with pet owners; veterinarians with oxygen chambers say that people with sick pets often will often research the treatment and request it after becoming familiar with it through human medicine.
"It is a very new modality for treatment in veterinary medicine," said Dr. Andrew Turkell of Calusa Veterinary Center in Florida.
The devices used by UF, Levitan and Turkell are about the size of a loveseat and are manufactured by a company named Hyperbaric Veterinary Medicine. Turkell was the first doctor to sign a contract with Hyperbaric Veterinary Medicine, and estimates that he's used the chamber 750-800 times in the past year and a half.
"I find that it's really very effective for any kind of trauma," he said, adding that he's seen improvements in pets that have been hit by cars that have been subsequently treated in the chamber.
Wayne McCullough, the company's CEO, said that most veterinary offices can't afford to buy the capsules outright -- chambers for humans cost between $50,000 and $150,000 each -- so the company gives the clinics the chambers and then receives a cut on each treatment done by the veterinarian. At the UF clinic, treatment costs about $125 per session.
McCullough said that his employees deliver and train veterinarians on how to use the capsule. Working with 100 percent oxygen can be dangerous, which is why pets going inside the chamber are patted down with water before the treatment so their fur doesn't conduct static electricity and cause a fire.
In 2012, the high-oxygen chamber of a Florida equine sports medicine center exploded and caused part of a building to collapse, killed a worker and the horse inside the chamber.
The machine that exploded wasn't one of McCullough's chambers; it was a larger contraption made for horses. The horse inside the chamber apparently struck the side of the machine with its foot, which caused the spark and fire. It underscored the potential danger of the capsules.
Dr. Dorie Amour, the director of Emory University's wound care clinic, suggested that hyperbaric therapy in pets be a last-resort treatment. It "has to be a therapy used when there is no alternative. Or a therapy used for a very serious problem for which there hasn't been a solution."
Pet owners such as Mike Ray, the owner of Maggie, an 11-year-old dachshund with a gaping wound and recurring infection in her back paw, say they're willing to give it a try -- and spend the extra money to do so at the University of Florida animal hospital.
Maggie has been through a handful of hyperbaric treatments, and Dr. Schmalberg and Ray say they've noticed a difference after two sessions in the capsule. New fur is growing where raw flesh was once exposed.
"Whatever it takes, we're going do and we'll find a way to get it done," Ray said as he and his wife waited for Maggie to finish her oxygen therapy. "Because we need to get her healed."
Brain cells can live at least twice as long as the organisms in which they reside, according to new research.
The study, published Monday, Feb. 25, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that mouse neurons, or brain cells, implanted into rats can survive with the rats into old age, twice as long as the life span of the original mice. The findings are good news for life extension enthusiasts.
'We are slowly but continuously prolonging the life of humans.'
- Dr. Lorenzo Magrassi, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pavia in Italy
"We are slowly but continuously prolonging the life of humans," said study co-author Dr. Lorenzo Magrassi, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pavia in Italy.
So if the human life span could be stretched to 160 years, "then you are not going to lose your neurons, because your neurons do not have a fixed lifetime."
Long-lived cells While most of the cells in the human body are being constantly replaced, humans are born with almost all the neurons they will ever have. [10 Odd Facts About the Brain]
Magrassi and his colleagues wanted to know whether neurons could outlive the organisms in which they live (barring degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's).
To do so, the researchers took neurons from mice and implanted them into the brains of about 60 rat fetuses.
The team then let the rats live their entire lives, euthanizing them when they were moribund and unlikely to survive for more than two days, and then inspected their brains. The life span of the mice was only about 18 months, while the rats typically lived twice as long.
The rats were found to be completely normal (though not any smarter), without any signs of neurological problems at the end of their lives.
And the neurons that had been transplanted from mice were still alive when the rats died. That means it's possible the cells could have survived even longer if they were transplanted into a longer-lived species.
Life extension The findings suggest that our brain cells won't fail before our bodies do.
"Think what a terrible thing it could be if you survive your own brain," Magrassi told LiveScience.
While the findings were done in rats, not humans, they could also have implications for neuronal transplants that could be used for degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, Magrassi said.
But just because brain cells may be able to live indefinitely doesn't mean humans could live forever.
Aging is dependent on more than the life span of all the individual parts in the body, and scientists still don't understand exactly what causes people to age, Magrassi said.
Copyright 2013LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
What a derby ... the North London rivals are set for an epic.Source: Ian Kington / AFP
They checked-in dreaming off UEFA Champions League Football; all that was required was a win on the final day of season 2005-2006.
They ate lasagna and 10 players went down with food poisoning and their dreams of Europe were shattered when they lost 2-1 to West Ham.
To make matter worse for Tottenham the club that sealed a place in Europe at their expense was Arsenal.
It had Spurs fans understandably crying foul play.
The Frenchmen in charge of Arsenal seemed an obvious suspect but he insisted he was not cooking that day at the Marriott Hotel.
Wenger said if he had been they would have felt even worse.
After an investigation by the Health Protection Agency the hotel was cleared of any blame, with tests on the players showing that one was suffering from norovirus, which may have spread to his teammates.
The conspiracy theory was left in tatters and the reality was that Champions League football was not coming to White Hart Lane.
Perhaps even more hurtful was the fact that Arsenal was still the dominant power in North London.
And so it has remained with Arsenal finishing above Tottenham in every season since.
You have to go back to the 1994-1995 season for last time Tottenham finished above Arsenal.
Watch all the action unfold live on Fox Sports 1 HD, 245am (EDT) Monday.
Ahead of this weekend’s North London derby Arsenal have never faced such a challenge from Tottenham.
Last season they finished just one point ahead of their bitter rivals.
This campaign sees Tottenham come into the second derby of the season four points ahead of Arsenal.
Interestingly it is the same margin they found themselves ahead of the Gunners at the same point last season only to surrender their lead and a place in the Champions League.
It could be suggested that history will repeat itself and Spurs will wilt when Arsenal make a late charge.
But this feels like a very different Tottenham.
It was not how most predicted the campaign would unfold under Andre Villa-Boas.
Most thought it was likely to end as it did at Chelsea when the young Portuguese was fired after overseeing a poor run of form.
This has proved to be misguided, with Villas-Boas improving an already formidable squad.
The Welshmen is still deployed to the left of a front three but he has been given licence to roam across the front and come inside at every opportunity.
By allowing Bale to come inside he has increased his involvement in the game and the result has been devastating with the 23-year-old scoring 15 times in the League so far this season.
His outstanding winner against West Ham on Monday was the fourth EPL game in a row in which he has scored, leading to Villas-Boas to describe him as ‘unbelievable.’
"Players like this take responsibility at key moments, he is tremendous," the Spurs Boss said after the win over West Ham and then added.
P
W
D
L
GD
Pts
1
Man United
27
22
2
3
33
68
2
Man City
27
16
8
3
26
56
3
Tottenham
27
15
6
6
15
51
4
Chelsea
27
14
7
6
25
49
5
Arsenal
27
13
8
6
22
47
6
Everton
27
10
12
5
7
42
7
West Brom
27
12
4
11
2
40
8
Liverpool
27
10
9
8
15
39
9
Swansea
27
9
10
8
4
37
10
Stoke
27
7
12
8
-6
33
11
Fulham
27
8
8
11
-5
32
12
Norwich
27
7
11
9
-14
32
13
Newcastle
27
8
6
13
-10
30
14
West Ham
27
8
6
13
-10
30
15
Sunderland
27
7
8
12
-7
29
16
Southampton
27
6
9
12
-11
27
17
Wigan
27
6
6
15
-18
24
18
Aston Villa
27
5
9
13
-26
24
19
Reading
27
5
8
14
-18
23
20
QPR
27
2
11
14
-24
17
"The player continues to make the difference and he was tremendous once again.”
It has not been all about Bale.
The players Villas-Boas has brought-in since he was appointed in the off-season have vastly improved the squad.
Jan Vertonghen, Lewis Holtby, Mousa Dembele and Clint Dempsey have all settled quickly and have instantly made an impact.
So to have the players promoted from the club’s youth academy with Steven Caulker in particularly impressing so far this season in the heart of the Spurs defence.
In the match against West Ham there were three academy products in the Tottenham squad underlying the sense that Villas-Boas is building something for the long-term.
This has been illustrated by a run of form that has seen Spurs win three and draw two of their last five games.
Their surge into the top three would suggest they are the form team ahead of the derby.
But this is not true when you look at results alone.
Despite their poor form in the FA Cup and Champions League first leg match against Bayern Munich Arsenal are in good form in the League.
In the past five matches the Gunners have won four and drawn one.
Despite winning, as they did against Aston Villa on the weekend, their performances have been far from convincing and have added to the sense that Tottenham is pulling ahead of their North London rivals.
Bale stated his belief that this is now the case when asked about the weekend’s derby.
"Over the past few seasons we have closed that gap and I think now we have overtaken them on the pitch. I think we have the stronger squad."
Arsenal fans are likely to disagree and many have been quick to point out that Spurs are having an excellent season and the Gunners are struggling but the gap is only four points.
This may indeed be the case but if Spurs finish above Arsenal at the end of the season few at White Hart Lane will be bothered by what the margin was.
Arsenal fans may point to 16 seasons of finishing above Spurs as proof of what it takes to be number one in North London.
But finishing below Spurs will hurt, the last manager at Arsenal who did so paid for it with his job.
Wenger appears unlikely to face the same consequences but a loss to Spurs will add to the sense that his club are on the wane and that their bitter rivals are very much on the up.
Either way there have been few more significant derbies.
As President Obama prepared to highlight the impact of looming spending cuts with a trip to a Virginia military community, Republicans accused the president Tuesday of using America's service members as a campaign "prop."
Republicans in the House and Senate had tough words for Obama, as the White House sought once again to pressure Congress to avert the cuts by agreeing to new tax increases. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell claimed the president was trying to sow a sense of chaos, but he and other GOP leaders were increasingly agreeing on one thing -- the sky is not falling.
"Personally, I don't believe the world will end if the president's sequester takes effect," McConnell said. "But our country would be much better served if the Democrats who run Washington would get off the campaign trail and work with us to trim the budget in a more rational way."
McConnell suggested that despite Obama's warnings of "utter chaos," the government should be able to cut 2 percent of its budget "without inviting disaster."
Republicans on Tuesday again called Obama's visit a "road show." House Speaker John Boehner claimed the president was using military members as a "prop." Frustration showing through, Boehner also used salty language as he urged the Senate to act, arguing the House has passed two bills already to deal with the so-called sequester.
"We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass," he said.
On the other side, Senate Democratic Harry Reid said his party wants to work with Republicans on a "balanced" plan.
"But my Republican colleagues are standing in the way of a solution. They only want cuts and more cuts. They are willing to sacrifice three-quarters of a million jobs rather than ask multi-millionaires to pay a penny more," Reid said.
The Senate is expected to hold votes on a Democratic and a Republican plan later in the week. But with the $85 billion in cuts set to start taking effect Friday, hope is diminishing that any compromise could be reached before then.
Amid the gridlock, Obama was traveling to a Virginia shipyard on Tuesday to press his argument that looming government-wide spending cuts could hurt military readiness.
Obama planned to appear at Virginia's largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, to stress that the spending cuts will idle military resources like naval aircraft carriers. The president warned Monday that if cuts to naval spending take effect, the company's "workers will sit idle when they should be repairing ships, and a carrier sits idle when it should be deploying to the Persian Gulf."
The White House has warned that the cuts could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. The cuts would slash domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers.
Despite the grim outlook, both sides seem more focused on blaming each other than coming up with a deal. Obama urged Congress to compromise, but the last known conversation between Obama and Republican leaders was last week and there have been no in-person meetings between the parties this year.
Some congressional leaders have recently indicated their willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not longer. There is some breathing room for political settlement even after Friday's deadline comes and goes: Provisions are in place to preserve the most crucial services and furloughs of federal workers are at least a month away.
McConnell claimed the president has presented the country with two options: "Armageddon or a tax hike."
Echoing comments made by House Republicans a day earlier, he said this is a "false choice."
A Florida case could signal the wave of the future in voter fraud.
South Florida election officials have reportedly foiled a plot to fraudulently apply online for thousands of absentee ballots in three 2012 primaries, but the masterminds remain at large amid concern that they could be successful the next time around by making minor adjustments.
Officials in the state’s Miami-Dade region said they blocked the effort to get 2,552 absentee ballots in three August primaries because the requests rolled in just minutes apart on July 7, 2012, according to The Miami Herald, which conducted its own investigation.
A six-month grand jury probe found the requests were made under the cover of international Internet provider addresses and were limited to three races --- a congressional race in which the hackers tried to request absentee ballots for Democratic voters and two state legislative races in which they tried to get ballots for Republican voters.
But the newspaper found at least two of the requests originated in Miami and could have been further traced, which purported has prompted State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to review at least some parts of the case.
The absentee ballots still would have gone to the rightful voters. So short of stealing ballots from mailbox, the hackers’ only way to have swayed or flipped the voters would likely have been to inundate them with calls and mailers.
Officials say the ballots would not have changed the outcome of the races. But there is a concern that another attempt, with hackers slowing the pace of the requests, could go undetected.
Steven Rambam, a New York-based private investigator with experience in computer database and privacy issues, told the newspaper that the hackers -- with a little more skill -- could have included computer code to keep the program from triggering the elections department’s safeguard.
Heads must roll ... AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and chairman Mike Fitzpatrick.Source: David Caird / News Limited
Enough of the pulpit-pounding and furious finger waving ... let's see the guillotine.
As dramatic as Thursday's announcement about corruption in Australian sport was, it failed to leave the scorch marks created by naming names, dates and places.
The fear of multiple defamation cases saw the handbrake on the release of names but we have been told the curtain of deceit will eventually be ripped down and the naming and shaming will come in time.
Don't count on it. Not with the sports taking charge now.
If the Australian Crime Commission was so confident of its findings it should have blown the roof off the scandal by naming names, like the day when Melbourne Storm were exposed as salary-cap cheats.
By not outing anyone they incriminated everyone.
It is essential Australian sport learns who is dirty, if only to learn who is clean.
A decade ago international cricket had a day like this when anti-corruption chief Paul Condon released a document about widespread match-fixing in cricket, revealing threats to players' lives.
He made dam-busting headlines around the globe and was branded the great crusader but he didn't name names and the dramatic announcement was followed up with ... nothing.
Not a single charge. He was all hot air.
Heads must roll here.
On Thursday we heard probably a fifth of the story.
Beneath hard core accusations of drug peddling by unnamed sports scientists and doctors, and drug use by players, there is a disturbing appearance of words such as "suspected", "could", "potentially" and "possibly" in the report.
For goodness sake fellas, just give it to us straight. Did they or didn't they?
Sports Minister Kate Lundy, sounding like she had just had breakfast with Dirty Harry, claimed: "If you want to dope and cheat, we will catch you. If you want to fix a match, we will catch you."
Really? Can anyone name me a big-name Australian sportsman caught by Australia's drug police for performance enhancing drugs? The Storm's Rodney Howe, Richmond's Justin Charles and ... ?
Perhaps Lundy's line should have read: "If you want to dope we will catch you and then let you go, twice."
That's the thing. The AFL may be duty bound by its own system to keep their problems to themselves under its three strikes policy.
The word has been on the streets for ages that doping has been rampant in Australian sport yet barely anyone gets caught.
This was, however, a chastening day for Australia because historically our discerning gaze has been focused beyond our own shores when it comes to major drug scandals to the likes of Ben Johnson, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong.
Now it's us and we can't blame our headache tablets or our Mum's diet pills.
Australia is about a decade behind US drug police, who are far more aggressive and have dragged American sports up with their standards.
Australian sport had been so focused on testing for traditional steroids and recreational drugs it let steroid substitutes like peptides - the big issue here - sneak through its dropped guard.
Alarm bells rang for drug authorities when the detection of these drugs in customs soared 100 per cent last year.
AFL seems destined to be the hardest hit by this scandal.
You only had to watch the early episodes of Underbelly, which pitched mafia figures sitting in the grandstands at football training, to know that in Melbourne, the worlds of drugs and sport and money laundering are disturbingly intertwined.
With a 140 per cent mark-up on the sale of some illegal supplements, you can understand why the underworld are so keen to be involved, especially since if anyone gets caught the athlete may be banned for life but the man in the dark sunglasses who sold him the drug gets nothing.
It sure beats peddling cocaine.
AFL is the sport that most trusted those mysterious sports science medicos who introduced the super-supplement culture.
The paranoia that comes with fearing you are going to be left behind prompted the clubs to match your frothing test tube with my Dr Who.
AFL players were ripe for these supplements because they train to breaking point and their bodies crave artificial regeneration.
Dr Robin Willcourt, who tested the blood of the Essendon players, found they were alarmingly down in testosterone and hormones because the players were so exhausted.
The great benefit of the "bust" is not that it will catch the cheats but that it will shake up the entire system.
Fear is a much greater weapon than force. Everyone is terrified now. This season there will be players checking Minties wrappers to make sure they are clean.
Surely we will never again witness a system where Essendon players, with about as much personal willpower as a lemming following its mates over a cliff, headed off site to get injected with mysterious substances after signing a waiver form.
Essendon have got what they deserved - a shameful dressing down. It will be a surprise if coaches James Hird and Mark Thompson survive the endless inquisitions that must follow.
Never again will sports boffins be as powerful as they were in recent seasons.
Sports like cricket will surely regret handing over the core of their selection philosophy to the men in white coats, some of whom think a googly is an internet search engine.
The match-fixing allegations about as-yet unnamed sports are fascinating, as was the reaction of sports officials at yesterday's press conference where soccer and rugby union officials denied match-fixing claims and AFL and rugby league bosses sat there looking as guilty as the kids with chocolate lips when asked who stole the last donut.
It was the first of many uncomfortable moments to come.
Even the most open, democratic governments have sought laws and new forms of surveillance that many see as a new wave of censorship -- and that includes the United States.
The U.S. government asked Google for data on its users more than 31,000 times in 2012 alone, for example. And the government rarely obtained a search warrant first, Google recently revealed; in nearly all cases, the company ended up turning over at least some data.
Some argue that heightened surveillance, restrictions on Internet freedom and even censorship are necessary to protect intellectual property rights, prevent cyberespionage, fight child pornography, and protect national interests such as nuclear power plants from hackers. And here the U.S. is far from alone.
"A number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions in response to the potential legal, economic, and security challenges raised by new media," notes the Freedom House report "Freedom on the Net 2012."
Anxiety over online theft and cyberattacks is not unwarranted. Virtually every major U.S. company and media outlet has been a victim. Google was attacked back in 2009. Facebook, Apple and Microsoft revealed this month that hackers had breeched their defenses. And The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have fought off Chinese hackers for months. Indeed, dozens of countries have their own online hacking groups -- so-called cyber or asymmetrical warfare divisions.
'A number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions.'
- Freedom House report Freedom on the Net 2012
"It's been going on in China since at least at least May 2002," said Alan Paller, founder of the SANS Institute, an information security and training firm.
Consequently, lawmakers -- even President Obama in his State of the Union speech -- have been motivated to take steps to stem the hacking tide. However, the road to better security could also stifle free speech.
When the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) met in Dubai in December, some 89 member countries including Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran, supported a treaty that would give individual governments more control over the Internet's infrastructure.
Sensing a thinly veiled attempt to suppress dissent, 55 countries -- including Canada and the U.S. -- said no.
North of the border, for example, the Canadian government proposed Bill C-30, known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act. Proponents claimed the measure was designed to combat the exploitation of children, but it required Internet service providers to create monitoring systems that would allow the police to intercept and track all online communications -- without a warrant. The public reaction was so fiercely opposed to Bill C-30 that Canadian authorities were forced to withdraw it this month.
Watchdog Agencies
Far from leading to the spread of democracy and freedom online, the events of the 2011 Arab spring led many authoritarian countries to clamp down more tightly, fearful of rebellious citizens inciting and organizing online.
Here's the latest from three groups monitoring Internet freedom:
Reporters Without Borders A 2012 list of countries that are “Enemies of the Internet” notes that more than ever before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy issue.
Freedom House According to Freedom on the Net 2012, a survey by the independent watchdog group, of the 47 countries covered "20 have experienced a negative trajectory since January 2011.
Google The Web giant has been using its reach to monitor Internet openness. The Transparency Report visualizes disruptions in the free flow of information, whether it's a government blocking information or a cable being cut.
On this side of the border, the U.S. government continues to conduct warrantless online searches. Thanks to outdated laws such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and other regulations protecting copyrighted materials, U.S. authorities are increasingly looking at private online communications, often without any oversight by a judge.
Google says it has seen a 70 percent increase in requests from authorities for information about its users, information which includes private e-mails and search data. The biggest requester? The U.S. government, which sought information 8,438 times in the last six months of 2012. Google complied with those requests in roughly 88 percent of the cases.
While Google states it is against such broad government access to personal information -- dealing with such requests costs Google time and money -- where it stands on strict Internet freedoms is mutable.
Shortly before his State of the Union speech, President Obama signed an executive order designed to let federal government agencies share critical cyberthreat information with private companies to protect companies involved in supporting the nation's critical infrastructure.
“We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail," the President said in his speech. "We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy."
Even though the data shared by the government could include personal information, in this case companies have been in favor of the executive order. The reason: private firms don't have to in turn share data their data about their users with the government.
However, that may be about to change. As the President implied, Congress is working on reintroducing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). It would enable companies to divulge private information to government authorities if the companies perceived some form of "cyber threats." Any personal information -- Facebook jokes, Twitter tussles, errant Web searches -- could be handed over to a variety of government agencies if that information has anything to do with the potential vulnerability of a computer network.
"CISPA offers broad immunities to companies who choose to share data with government agencies," the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Mark M. Jaycox explained in a blog post. "It also creates avenues for companies to share data with any federal agencies, including military intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency."
While congress has yet to hammer out new, possibly more precise, language for a reintroduced CISPA bill, the powers it grants to both private companies and government authorities could end up making them partners in nationwide surveillance -- the same complaint often levied against countries like China.
Follow John R. Quain on Twitter@jqontechor find more tech coverage atJ-Q.com.
Argument ... Michu tries to calm Nathan Dyer down.Source: Adrian Dennis / News Limited
Pretend for a minute you were a Barclays Premier League manager and had to make a choice.
After winning a penalty in a cup final, does your regular penalty taker step up or do you let the youngster with two goals have a crack at a Wembley hat-trick?
That was the scenario for Swansea City in Sunday's (EDT) League Cup final.
Watch the video below and decide, then leave a comment at the bottom of the page to join the debate.
Up stepped penalty specialist Jonathan de Guzman - decision made - and the Swans extended their lead over Bradford City to 4-0.
Unfortunately, it didn't go down too well with young striker Nathan Dyer who was distraught or threw a hissy fit, depending on which side of the argument you're on.
It would have been the first hat-trick in League Cup history but professionalism won out.
Dyer pleaded, remonstrated, abused de Guzman and anyone who tried to calm him down, including Michu and referee Kevin Friend.
However, as a way of apologising Dyer gave de Guzman a hug after the penalty.
After the game Dyer said he was disappointed to miss out on a dream maiden hat-trick but was glad the team had won the title.
"I had two goals and it's not every day you get the chance for a hat-trick at Wembley so I wanted the third but I didn't get the chance and that was that," he said.
"It was disappointing but the most important thing was that we scored the goal and won the match. It's all done and dusted now."
"To get a hat-trick at Wembley in my first cup final for Swansea City, you can’t write that and I feel like it did get taken away from me a little bit.
"But we’re teammates at the end of the game and you have to move on. I haven’t scored a hat-trick in my career, so I was devastated not to have got it.
"It was hard to take and hard to swallow but we won, we won the cup and made history and that’s the main thing. I scored two goals as well and got the man-of-the-match, so I can’t really ask for more."
