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Friday, 8 June 2012

Recari, Sergas, O'Toole lead LPGA Championship

Beatriz Recari celebrates her birdie on the seventh green during the first round of the LPGA Championship golf tournament at Locust Hill Country Club, Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Shawn Dowd) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

Cristie Kerr waves after her birdie on the ninth hole during the first round of the LPGA Championship golf tournament at Locust Hill Country Club, Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Shawn Dowd) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

Stacy Lewis hits on the 17th hole during the first round of the LPGA Championship golf tournament at Locust Hill Country Club, Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

Yani Tseng, of Taiwan, chips to the 11th green during the first round of the LPGA Championship golf tournament at Locust Hill Country Club, Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

Stacy Lewis tees off on the 10th hole during the first round of the LPGA Championship golf tournament at Locust Hill Country Club, Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle, Shawn Dowd) MAGS OUT; NO SALES

PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) ? Yani Tseng isn't accustomed to this: 4-over par in an LPGA Tour major.

Luckily for the 23-year-old Taiwanese star, the winner of five majors already, there are three rounds to play on a course she dominated a year ago.

Tseng is chasing a trio of unlikely leaders in Beatriz Recari, Ryann O'Toole, and Giulia Sergas, who each shot 3-under 69 on Thursday to tie after the opening round of the LPGA Championship.

Despite matching her worst score of the year at 76, Tseng, the top women's player in the world, was only seven shots off the lead after a round that included six bogeys and only two birdies.

"I just couldn't hit a shot, couldn't hit on the green, couldn't hit on the fairway," Tseng said. "It was really tough for me out there. I was very disappointed. I love the golf course and I know I can have a low score here."

She did just that a year ago, shooting 19 under and winning by 10 shots. Duplicating the feat will be a challenge if she doesn't snap out of her recent slump. In the Sybase Match Play Championship, she was knocked out in the round of 16, and last week tied for 12th at the ShopRite LPGA Classic ? nine strokes behind winner Stacy Lewis.

"I know it's my mental problem," said Tseng, who won three of the first five tournaments on the LPGA Tour this year. "I'm hitting so well on the driving range, and when I get on the first tee there's something wrong. I need to get my mental setup like before at the beginning of this year."

The second major of the season was shaping up as a tight affair. Only 16 players broke par on a sun-splashed day that had only the hint of a breeze, and there was a virtual logjam behind the leaders.

Jeong Jang reached 5 under but bogeyed four of her final five holes to finish in a tie at 70 with Mika Miyazato, Cristie Kerr, Se Ri Pak, Na Yeon Choi, Ai Miyazato, and Paula Creamer. Lewis, who has won two of her last three starts, had a 72.

Michelle Wie, trying to break out of a season-long slump, opened with a 74.

Hitting it straight off the tee is always critical on the narrow Locust Hill Country Club course, especially this year because the rough is measurably more difficult than it's been in the past.

"It's just gobbling up the golf balls," said Kerr, the winner by a record 12 strokes in 2010. "Even with sand wedges, it's a lot tougher."

Tseng, who started at No. 10, had three bogeys on the difficult back nine, managing to hit just two fairways before making the turn.

One of Tseng's birdies came at the par-4 third hole, but she gave it right back at No. 5, an uphill par 3. Lewis made a tap-in birdie after a brilliant tee shot and Creamer settled for par after lipping out a long birdie try, but Tseng's tee shot had sailed well past the pin and she three-putted for bogey after leaving her initial putt well short of the hole.

Tseng hit six of 14 fairways and needed 30 putts.

"I didn't play well. The course is pretty easy out there with no wind," Tseng said. "It was really tough. I didn't make putts. If you can't hit it on the fairway on this course, it's kind of tough to hit a low score. I was very surprised the scores didn't go very low today, so at least I have a little chance to get it back tomorrow."

Recari, from Spain, bogeyed No. 11, her second hole, made great par saves at the next two holes, then rolled in three straight birdies to make the turn at 2 under.

"It definitely feels great. It feels almost relieving because I have been playing really well for a long time," Recari said. "The scores didn't happen the way I wanted. I would sum up the round as very confident off the tee. I had a great feeling on the greens. I was just seeing the line, putting a good stroke and most of them dropped in."

Kerr had four birdies on the front nine, using her 7-iron to set up three of them. After driving into the rough at the par-5 fourth hole, she hit to 8 feet and made birdie, then sank a 3-foot putt for birdie at No. 5 and made the turn at 3 under after a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 9.

Three bogeys, the last at the par-5 17th hole after she hooked her second shot under a tree in the rough, put something of a damper on her round. Kerr was pleased with the result, nonetheless.

"I just managed well. I ended up being patient, and I'm happy with that," said Kerr, who finished her round with a nifty chip for a par save. "If I got in trouble, I played smart, which is what you have to do."

Pak, sidelined since early April with a slight tear in the labrum of her left shoulder, bogeyed Nos. 3 and 6 to start, then reeled off three straight birdies to start the back nine and move up the leaderboard.

"I feel great to be back," Pak said. "I never expected it would be a solid round today. I'm trying to get the feel for it. Low expectations help a lot. Even though I feel 100 percent perfect, you never know."

Cheyenne Woods, niece of Tiger Woods and playing on a sponsor's exemption, shot a 3-over 75 in her first event as a professional. Woods, who played here as an amateur in 2009, also qualified last week for the U.S. Women's Open and was beaming despite an erratic round.

"I've been waiting, waiting for this moment. I couldn't wait to get out here," said Woods, who had three birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey. "I was a little nervous starting off, but it felt good to be out there and finally playing.

"I'm pretty happy with how I played. I had a few blips. There's a lot more eyes on me right now, but I've been having to deal with media for a long time having the last name of Woods. It's nothing I'm not used to."

Kerr also shot 19 under in her blowout victory in 2010. After one round and with that thick rough beckoning at every turn, another runaway didn't seem so likely.

"It's a lot tougher," she said.

Associated Press

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Wednesday, 6 June 2012

Hanoi opens 3 MIA search areas, releases letters

This image released through the Department of Defense shows the photo used for the obituary of Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty, 22, who was killed in Vietnam in 1969. Letters that Flaherty was carrying when he was killed were taken by the Vietnamese after his death and were returned to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday, June 4, 2012, in exchange for a Vietnamese soldier's diary that was taken from his body by an American GI. (AP Photo/Department of Defense)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, participates in an arrival ceremony with Vietnam Minister of Defense Phung Quang Thanh at the Ministry of Defense in Hanoi, Vietman, Monday, June 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)

The personal letters of U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty, who was killed in action in 1969, rest on a table at Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, June 4, 2012. Vietnamese Defense Minister Phuong Quang Thanh presented the letters to U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a press conference at the defense ministry. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, center right, participates in an arrival ceremony with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh at the defense ministry in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, June 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, second left, participates in an arrival ceremony with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, left, at the Ministry of Defense in Hanoi, Vietnam Monday, June 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Watson, Pool)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? "If Dad calls, tell him I got too close to being dead but I'm O.K. I was real lucky. I'll write again soon."

That poignant message never reached the mother of Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty. He was killed in Vietnam in 1969 before he could mail the letters he was carrying, including one he might have been writing when he died. The letters were taken by the Vietnamese after his death, U.S. officials said in releasing excerpts on Monday.

The letters, chronicling the carnage and exhaustion of war, were given to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in exchange for a Vietnamese soldier's diary that was taken from his body by an American GI. The letters will be returned to Flaherty's family in South Carolina.

Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh and Panetta made the exchange in a ceremony in which the Vietnamese also agreed to open three new sites in the country for excavation by the United States to search for troop remains from the war. Acidic soil in Vietnam erodes bones quickly, leaving in many cases only teeth for military teams to use to try and identify service members.

Ron Ward, U.S. casualty resolution specialist at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hanoi, said there are at least four U.S. troops believed to be lost in the three areas that are being opened. That leaves eight sites still restricted by the Vietnamese, he said.

Memories of the Vietnam War are fading for many Americans, and the war is the stuff of textbooks for others. But it is brought vividly alive in Sgt. Flaherty's letters. The mail from the Columbia, S.C., native to his mother, Lois, and two women identified only as Mrs. Wyatt and Betty, offer emotional accounts of his fear ? and also his determination.

"I felt bullets going past me," Flaherty writes to Betty. "I have never been so scared in my life."

"We took in lots of casualties and death," he writes. "We dragged more bodies of dead and wounded than I can ever want to forget."

"Thank you for your sweet card. It made my miserable day a much better one but I don't think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having. ... RPG rockets and machine guns really tore my rucksack."

By 1969, the war was sharply dividing Americans back home, but Flaherty tells Mrs. Wyatt he still believes in the mission.

"This is a dirty and cruel war but I'm sure people will understand the purpose of this war even though many of us might not agree," he writes.

In another section of the letter to his mother, Flaherty reassures her that he will get some rest.

"I definitely will take R&R," he wrote. "I don't care where so long as I get a rest, which I need so badly, soon. I'll let you know exact date."

Flaherty, who was 22 when he was killed in March 1969, was returned home for burial. Assigned to the 101st Airborne, he died in the northern section of South Vietnam.

It's clear he saw some heavy combat.

"Our platoon started off with 35 men but winded up with 19 men when it was over," he tells his mother. "We lost platoon leader and whole squad."

Officials said parts of Flaherty's letters were read in propaganda broadcasts by the Vietnamese during the war.

This is the first time such a joint exchange of war artifacts has occurred, they said.

Vietnamese Col. Nguyen Phu Dat had kept Sgt. Flaherty's letters, and last August he mentioned them in an online publication.

Early this year, Robert Destatte, a retired Defense Department employee who had worked for the POW/MIA office, noticed the publication, and the Pentagon began to work to get the letters back to Flaherty's family. Flaherty's sister-in-law, Martha Gibbons, 73, of Irmo, S.C., said she learned of the letters' existence about six weeks ago.

Gibbons said her husband met Flaherty when the boy was a 6-year-old living in a Japanese orphanage and her husband persuaded his mother, with whom they lived, to adopt the child. He grew up to be a well-liked, athletic boy, who dropped out of college to join the Army despite a baseball scholarship.

"He decided to enlist in the Army and go fight for his country in Vietnam and he didn't make it back, " said Kenneth L. Cannon, 80, of Prosperity, S.C., Flaherty's uncle. "It was very hard to take. It was hard."

Cannon said the family was told that he was in a field, taking a break to eat lunch or write letters.

"He never let us know how afraid and scared he was," Gibbons said. "He was in danger. We knew it was bad. We just didn't know how bad, I guess."

She's thrilled the information has been released.

"I had a very emotional morning all over again. But it was a wonderful emotion this time. It's good for both countries. It's good for all the soldiers who were killed for both countries." Gibbons said the family would store the letters with Flaherty's medals, scrapbook and flag.

Defense officials reviewing the packet of papers given to Panetta said it appears there are three sets of letters, including the four written by Flaherty. It was not clear how many other service members' letters were there, but officials were going through them Monday

The small diary belonged to Vu Dinh Doan, a Vietnamese soldier who was killed in a machine gun fight, according to defense officials. They said a Marine, Robert "Ira" Frazure of Walla Walla, Wash., saw the diary ? with a photo and some money inside ? on the chest of the dead soldier and took it back to the U.S.

The diary came to light earlier this year when the sister of a friend of Frazure's was doing research for a book and Frazure asked her help in returning the diary. The sister, Marge Scooter, brought the diary to the PBS television program "History Detectives."

The show then asked the Defense and State departments to help return the diary.

There are nearly 1,300 cases of troops still unaccounted for, and officers briefing Panetta said about 600 of those remains could be recoverable.

Ward said that opening the three new sites will enable the U.S. to try to find:

? Two Air Force members who were lost when their plane was shot down in Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam in 1967.

? An Army private first class who went missing when he was out with his unit on a search-and-destroy mission in 1968 in the tri-border area of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

? A Marine whose plane went down in Quang Tri Province. Another Marine on the plane ejected and was rescued.

___

Jones reported from Columbia, S.C. Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed from Washington.

___

Online:

To see excerpts, go to: http://bit.ly/Mbse3S

Associated Press

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The-Dream Defends Gwyneth Paltrow Over 'N---as In Paris' Flap

'I typed 'N---as in Paris for real' from Gwen's phone, my bad,' singer/producer tweets.
By Gil Kaufman

Beyoncé and Gwyneth Paltrow
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Gwyneth Paltrow has a long-established reputation as a woman who has it all together. From her flawless beauty to her lean-and-mean diet, impeccable acting chops and limelight-avoiding marriage to Coldplay's Chris Martin, Paltrow has rarely been the type to make embarrassing public gaffes.

But when she attended the much-hyped show by the Throne in Paris over the weekend featuring her pal Jay-Z, a surprising tweet from backstage sent the Internet into overdrive with accusations that the actress had crossed a racial divide.

You see, because she's besties with Jay and Beyoncé, Paltrow has the kind of pull that allowed her to watch alongside B from the stage while Jay and Kanye West were performing hit single "N---as In Paris."

Singer/songwriter The-Dream apparently snapped and tweeted a picture of Gwyn grooving onstage, with a caption that read, "Ni**as in Paris for real @mrteriusnash (the dream) tyty, beehigh."

That comment, sent from Paltrow's account, set off a firestorm on Twitter, where fans and bloggers ripped the actress for seemingly using the n-word. The blog Bossip.com wondered if, "Gwyneth might be getting a little too comfortable around her black friends."

Paltrow hit Twitter on Sunday with a response that read, "Hold up, It's the title of the song!" That defense elicited responses ranging from, "People are such babies. It's a freaking song title," to one that read, "It's not the title of the song when you use it to refer to people you know in real life. Don't play dumb."

The-Dream, however, stepped in to defend his pal, explaining, "Fyi Sorry for the Confu I typed Ni**as in Paris for real from Gwens phone. My bad I was Fkd up please excuse it! We were lit!"

He then went on to post a series of peeved tweets in reaction to fans calling him out for his defense of Paltrow. "N---a doesn't have any power over me which is why this will be the last thing I say about it," he wrote. "A word means something when u react to it! ... Context is everything. Meaning it in the context as a Song which is how we Sold it to the world!!!!!! It is what it is ... And actually N---az was in Paris! LOL. Stop wasting God's time and do something with your life. Love not war."

Later, He once again took blame for posting the caption and promised his followers that, "Trust me. If I felt a mfkr was trying me on that tip that was that close to me I would've been arrested. Be nice." The arguments kept coming and finally this week, The-Dream summed up his feelings on the top by writing, "WE GIVE THE WORD TO MUCH POWER!"

What do you think of the Gwyneth/"Paris" flap? Tell us in the comments.

Related Artists

The-Dream

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Monday, 4 June 2012

Lil Wayne says he feels 'unwanted' at Okla. Arena

Grammy Award Winning Hip Hop Icon Lil Wayne and Professional Skateboarder Stevie Williams celebrate the launch of their contemporary clothing lines TRUKFIT and DGK at Macy?s stores on Friday June 1, 2012 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Katy Winn/Invision)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lil Wayne said that after a recent NBA playoffs ticket dispute he felt unwelcome and "unwanted" at the Oklahoma City arena and isn't planning to return.

The rapper said two Thunder players ? Kevin Durant and James Harden ? had reached out to offer him tickets to Saturday's fourth game of the Western Conference Finals.

"That's not the point, though," he told The Associated Press in an interview Friday night. "It's the players stepping up but of course the players aren't white. I don't want to be sitting there on behalf of you and I'm sitting next to a (person) that's like 'I don't want this (guy) sitting next to me.' (Forget) you ... I'm in Forbes," he said, laughing.

Lil Wayne claimed in a tweet Thursday night that he had been "denied by the team to be in their arena." The team responded by saying the seats he wanted were already taken.

But the Grammy-winning rapper, appearing at a Macy's store in Los Angeles to promote his Trukfit clothing line, described a more complicated scenario.

He said he typically procures tickets for such games "from this guy named Mike." Lil Wayne said Mike had requested special security, parking and entrance for the rapper, but Mike said the team responded that they would only sell the seats for Mike's personal use.

Lil Wayne said a manager had advised him not to return to the city's arena for sports events or concerts, but "I never say never."

He said he felt welcome at other arenas including Miami, and likes being able to energize players ? many of whom are fans of his music ? on their home court.

"That's like me going on stage and ... seeing LeBron (James) in the crowd with his hand up. I'm going to perform a little bit harder," he said.

But in Oklahoma, he said that while "the players want me there, I don't want to feel ? I'm going to still feel unwanted."

"Of course, when someone tells Lil Wayne, 'No,' that he can't come in, 'We're sold out,' you feel a certain way. Unfortunately, it had to go down like that," said Durant, the three-time NBA scoring champion.

"We'd have loved to have him here in Oklahoma City. We'd have welcomed him with open arms. Hopefully, we get past that and next time he can come and enjoy a game."

A team spokesman has said Lil Wayne's representatives insisted that he sit in the front row, and none of those seats were available. Oklahoma City sold out every home game during the regular season and playoffs.

"It was just a misunderstanding. We were sold out of tickets, I heard, and we didn't come through," Durant said. "He knows a few of us on the team and he knows it's nothing like that. We offered him tickets to tonight but he had to do something. He's a superstar in his own right, so he can't just pick up and go to a game.

"He had something to do, but I'm sure if his schedule was free, he would have came tonight. We're still inviting him to games ? maybe not this year. Next year or whatever."

___(equals)

AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.

Associated Press

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Bayer says drug shows promise vs. gastrointestinal cancer

FRANKFURT | Mon Jun 4, 2012 12:04am EDT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German drugmaker Bayer said trials showed its potential blockbuster regorafenib prolonged the lives of patients with an aggressive type of gastrointestinal cancer without their tumors worsening, and it will seek approval for wider use of the drug.

The 199-patient late-stage trial showed the drug prolonged the lives of patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GIST, by almost four months on average without a worsening of their condition, Bayer said.

The median survival period without tumor growth among patients on regorafenib was 4.8 months while for the control group on placebo it was less than a month.

The trial involved only patients whose disease had progressed despite prior standard treatment with Pfizer's Sutent and Novartis drug Gleevec/Glivec.

Detailed results of the trial were presented at the annual congress of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago over the weekend. First results were published in April.

There was also some evidence of a better overall survival rate but the trial was not designed to show that on a statistically reliable basis.

Bayer said it plans to start filing for marketing approval for use of the drug to treat GIST in the second half of this year. Last month it filed for approval in the United States and the European union for regorafenib as a treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Onyx Pharmaceuticals is the U.S. marketing partner for regorafenib. The companies also cooperate on a compound similar to regorafenib called Nexavar.

Bayer is testing regorafenib against a number of tumor types including kidney cancer and is targeting annual peak sales from the treatment of more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). ($1 = 0.8089 euros)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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Saturday, 2 June 2012

From the Writer's Desk: Leaping from science news to science books

In the series, ?From The Writer?s Desk,? I?ll describe what I do for a living as a writer and ideas I have for advancing my craft.

I?m working on a science book, and I?m kind of terrified of the prospect. I?m used to writing 500- to 1,000-word stories, not 80,000-word books. A good strategy when facing any new problem is to use what skills you have, and I know how to question the bejesus out of people. With that in mind, I figure authors of science books probably work at least somewhat like writers of science news, although they might ask different questions.

As such, as a contributor to The Open Notebook, an excellent nonprofit that seeks to tell the stories behind the best science stories, I quizzed six science authors about what questions they might ask that the average science journalist might not. You can read that article at this link as well as below.

Thanks very much to The Open Notebook for letting me repost this!

Deborah Blum, author most recently of The Poisoner?s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

Aside from the obvious things ? the difference in rhythm, and pacing, and depth ? is that writing books really became my laboratory for thinking about narrative writing. Mostly that?s because when you are writing a narrative book, you find yourself obsessed with how to structure it ? how many story lines do I have, how many characters, how many points of view? How do I weave those together? Rebecca Skloot talks about this in her ?braided narrative? discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

If you look at The Poisoner?s Handbook, you?ll see that it actually has two different internal structures. One is the chronological narrative of two crusading scientists. The other is an actual handbook of poisons, with every chapter focusing on a different toxic compound or element. And woven through that is the story of the Prohibition era.

All of this has influenced the way I teach writing. For instance, in my magazine writing classes, I always require my students to write using different structures on their blogs ? a zipper narrative, a diamond-shaped narrative ? so that they can start thinking early about the art of craft of story structure.

David Dobbs, author most recently of Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral and writer of features and essays for The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Wired, the Guardian and others.

The questions I ask when writing a book are of two kinds.

First, I ask all the kinds of questions I?d ask writing an article on the same subject ? very much the sorts of questions you?ve outlined in your article at Scientific American [CQC: which you can read here].

Second, over months and months I ask another huge string ? a pile, a truckload, a Nile of questions ? that are hard to characterize outside the context of a particular project. Why? Because these additional questions usually follow from the answers to the first line of questions. Their entire point is to get past that first layer to other, deeper, hidden layers ? to many, many., many details about the science (90% of which I won?t use), as well as details and background and motivations of the people in the book (ditto).

I tend to write about science that is pushing the edge of evidence ? it involves tensions that I feel are at the heart of science and reveal a lot about why both humankind and individual people get into science. When I wrote about such arguments taking place in the 19th century, I could know how the argument turned out, and getting the science right was relatively easy. It?s a lot harder when writing about cutting-edge science being done today. I?m not here to adjudicate who?s right; that?s not my call ? it?s history?s. But I need to understand the science ? science that confuses and confounds and divides researchers ? well enough to get a sense of how far the more aggressive people are leaning out over the evidence. That?s the tension I?m after, and to know it I need to see all the strands. This is hard, if you?re doing it right, and of course the science is advancing as I study it. It?s a bit crazy.

Anyway, that same difficulty produces tension in the scientists? lives, and to get that I need to ask them a lot of questions. I ask them questions about the science and about themselves to the point of them getting sick of me, in some cases beyond. I ask questions that seem to have nothing to do with anything ? this seems to bother scientists particularly ? and I ask questions that I?ve asked before. I do that partly because I may get more information and partly because their thinking might change. (Just last week, someone told me, ?Actually I have changed my thinking a bit on that.?) And I want to know them as people, and that takes a lot of questions, both direct and indirect, about where and how they grew up and how they got started and other questions it?s better to keep to myself for now.

Take all that together and you can see why it?s hard to name particular questions I?d ask in a book that I wouldn?t for an article; it?s like predicting what you?d be talking about 20 days into a 400-day conversation. It gets detailed. It gets personal. It gets repetitive and also, sometimes because it?s repetitive, it goes places you don?t expect. The questions can seem weird taken out of context.

But they?re also fun. So here are a few questions that I?ve asked various people just over the last month, for instance, as I work on my book about the genetics of temperament. These come from different parts of different interviews; no two shown consecutively here were asked in any given interview.

Is that a real skull?

So just how full of shit are they ? like, completely?

How many monkeys we talking about?

Is that thing poisonous?

These guys jump out of airplanes at night at 10,000 feet into combat, and they?re scared to swim?

In what sense is the science getting too far in front of itself?

Would a really big canoe impress you?

So in three months he went from being a disorganized jerk to a focused machine. What changed?

What do you mean when you say you still feel a ??cautiously optimistic vaguely skeptical pessimism??

How did she do it?

So is gene expression a downstream trait ? or is it the stream?

I want to make sure I have this: the frogs with the longest legs migrated farthest and fastest, to make a migratory wave-front; mated with other long-legged frogs at the front; and so over generations the frogs at the front became even more longer-legged. Right?

Five minutes ago you said geneticists don?t like to talk about ?why? ? but you just did. Why?

Wait: The truck actually took you all the way from Ohio to Miami, then broke down at the end of the exit ramp? Like the very end?*

These are the kinds of questions I get to ask. This is one of many reasons I love my job ? and why it?s often hard, especially when writing a book, to stop asking questions and write the damned book. You know there?s more gold out there ? and all you have to do to get it is ask the right question.

*The guy whose truck broke down, by the way, said it did indeed break down at the very end of the exit ramp, and he rented an apartment in a rundown apartment house right by the exit ramp and carried his stuff over. The answers to the other questions, in order, were (usually paraphrasing): Yes; Completely; 49; Not any more; Some of them are; It?s complicated; Definitely; ?He grew up.?; ?Just what it sounds like.?; [Too distressing to relate here]; Both; Right; I didn?t.

Matthew Hutson, author of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane and onetime news editor at Psychology Today.

One question that I pushed myself to answer while writing my book about magical thinking was, ?How has writing this book changed me?? (One answer that I offered in the epilogue was that without sacrificing my skepticism, I?ve tempered my cynicism.) This is not the type of question you normally ask yourself when writing a blog post or news story, and often not even while writing a feature. But when you give your life over to an investigation for a period of years, it?s going to change you. And the reader wants to know how the journey has affected the narrator, who to some degree is also the protagonist.

Maggie Koerth-Baker, author of Before The Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us and science editor of BoingBoing.net.

Here are some suggestions for good questions:

a) Who are the main characters in this story? What happens to them?

You can write a non-fiction book that is mostly polemic, if you want. And you can write a non-fiction book that is really a collection of mostly unconnected essays. But those books aren?t as enjoyable to read as a book that tells a story through the eyes of a character. Basically, you don?t just want to write a book, you want to tell a story. And to do that, you have to ask yourself some questions about what the key narrative events are and whose journey this is going to be.

b) Why does this topic need to be a book?

Not everything does. When I read non-fiction books that are dull or tedious or that don?t feel like somebody telling me a story, it?s usually because the author had something important to say, but didn?t need 85,000+ words and a storytelling format to explain it to me. You will have some key points that you?ll have to make ? if your book had an ?executive summary,? this would be it. But there should be something going on beyond that executive summary material. There should be a reason for me to read the whole book, not just the executive summary. Asking, ?Why do I need to write a book about this topic, as opposed to a long feature, or a short feature,? is a really good place to start.

Maryn McKenna, author most recently of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, blogger for Wired and columnist and contributing editor for Scientific American.

I transitioned from being a newspaper reporter to writing books and magazine pieces, and shortly afterward, blog posts as well. The most important questions for me were, ?What do you uniquely bring to this subject, and what do you have to say about it that can?t be said by someone else?? These were hard questions for me to contemplate, because as a straight news reporter I?d been trained to not offer an opinion, in fact to keep myself out of the story as much as possible. I had to learn that, to make a book worth a reader?s time, I had to go beyond straight news reporting into interpretation and, I guess, active curation ? that is, letting the reader into my POV and making my thought process visible. I still struggle with this.

Carl Zimmer, author most recently of Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed and writer for The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, Scientific American, Science and Popular Science, among others.

I guess the one big question I ask with a book is ?What is the history of this story? There isn?t space in a news piece to get into history, which is unfortunate, since the effect is an impression that new scientific research just pops out of the void. It?s much more interesting to trace the whole saga, and books provide the space in which to do so.

You can email me regarding From The Writer?s Desk at toohardforscience@gmail.com.

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Gonzalez hits 4th straight HR in Rockies' win

Associated Press Sports

updated 11:50 p.m. ET May 31, 2012

DENVER (AP) - Carlos Gonzalez is heating up right when the Colorado Rockies need him the most.

Gonzalez homered again to tie a major league record, Michael Cuddyer and Jordan Pacheco had three hits apiece and the Rockies beat the Houston Astros 11-5 on Thursday night.

Gonzalez's 14th homer made him the first Rockies player to go deep in four consecutive at-bats. It was the 22nd time a major league player has homered in four consecutive plate appearances and the 38th time for four straight official at-bats.

"I don't play for records. Records just happen," he said. "I'm happy I'm part of a record, but at the same time I'm not thinking about anything else. The only record I look for is our team record."

Gonzalez's big offensive night helped soften the blow of losing All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki for at least two weeks. Tulowitzki was placed on the 15-day disabled list after he strained his groin during Wednesday's 13-5 victory.

Tulowitzki felt pain after running out of the batter's box when he grounded out to second during the Rockies' six-run sixth inning.

"This is the right thing to do, this is the right move to make," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "I don't think it's anything structurally bad. However, he's very sore and very tender."

Gonzalez, who homered in his last three at-bats Wednesday, hit a three-run shot in the first inning against Bud Norris. He came to the plate in the second with a chance at history, but he insisted that wasn't on his mind.

"I hit three (Wednesday) and I wasn't even thinking about hitting a home run, so why would I think about hitting another one?" Gonzalez said.

With Dexter Fowler on second, Norris went to 2-0 on Gonzalez before the Astros decided to intentionally walk him.

"I can promise you, I wasn't going to give him the take sign if he went to 3-0," Tracy said.

Gonzalez also doubled in the fourth, singled in the eighth, stole a base and scored three runs. The talented left fielder is 13 for 20 with six homers and 10 RBIs in his last five games.

"He's been an absolute terror," Norris said. "Good luck trying to cool him off."

Marco Scutaro also homered for the Rockies, who had 15 hits overall and pounded Houston pitchers in the four-game sweep. Colorado finished the series with 40 runs and 56 hits after scoring just 20 runs in its previous five home games.

Every position player had at least one hit Thursday.

"CarGo's in another world, Cuddy puts in a good at-bat every time and drives somebody in," Rockies starter Jeremy Guthrie said. "One through eight is a tough at-bat right now."

J.D. Martinez homered for the Astros, who have lost six straight.

The Rockies didn't need Tulowitzki in the series finale. They led 4-0 before Norris (5-2) recorded an out in the first inning.

Colorado led 5-0 after one and added four more in the second before Norris was replaced by Rhiner Cruz. Norris allowed seven hits in 1 2-3 innings and his ERA jumped from 3.34 to 4.52.

"Tough start. They've scored 15 runs in the first inning these four games," Houston manager Brad Mills said. "That'll put you behind the 8-ball pretty early. That was troublesome."

Martinez homered in the second to get Houston on the board. Juan Castro had an RBI triple, pinch-hitter Justin Maxwell doubled in a run and Jose Altuve added an RBI single in the Astros' three-run fourth.

Cuddyer had an RBI single in the fourth and Scutaro connected in the sixth, helping Guthrie (3-3) earn his first win since April 22. The right-hander, who was 0-2 with a 4.41 ERA since returning from a right shoulder strain, gave up five runs and 12 hits in seven innings.

"I gave up a lot of hits, maybe a career high, but our bats have been really hot, gave us a nice cushion and continued to tack on, which is so big," Guthrie said. "We outscored them tonight."

NOTES: The Rockies activated INF Chris Nelson (wrist) from the 15-day DL to take Tulowitzki's place on the roster. ... Houston sent pitcher J.A. Happ home early Thursday in anticipation of his start against Cincinnati on Friday. ... The Rockies will start LHP Josh Outman (0-1) in Friday's series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

More newsJim Rogash / Getty Images

Something to smile about

Prince Fielder tripled and the Detroit Tigers avoided a four-game sweep with a 7-3 win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

Greinke pitches Brewers to sweep of Dodgers

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Gomez each hit a two-run homer, Zack Greinke pitched effectively for six innings and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Thursday night to complete a four-game sweep.

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