'X Factor' Exclusive: Bieber Fever Hits Rehearsals

MTV News' Jim Cantiello takes us backstage as the top 12 prepare to perform.
By Jim Cantiello


Justin Bieber (file)
Photo: FilmMagic

MTV News' own Jim Cantiello is exclusively covering "The X Factor" rehearsals. Read on for his fly-on-the-wall backstage report!

Bieber Fever has hit the halls of "X Factor"! On Tuesday, when Justin Bieber was performing on neighboring production "Dancing With the Stars," all the teenage "X Factor" ladies were on a mission to meet the Biebz.

It seemed like a no-brainer to orchestrate a Drew/Justin meet-up — her audition was all about how obsessed she is with him — which sparked a smidge of jealousy from the other teen contestants. One even playfully griped overdramatically, "But I'm a bigger fan than she is!" All the backstage drama was for naught: Drew didn't get to meet Bieber after all.

Also spotted Tuesday: Senior "X Factor" producers whistling and catcalling at a shirtless Derek Hough, who was rehearsing his "Dancing" results-show routine in the CBS hallways. Derek was unfazed.

Inside the house, Nicole Scherzinger was sitting in on the girls' rehearsals, even though she's mentoring the Over 30s. Was she scoping out the competition? Where was girls' mentor Simon? Turns out, Cowell sat in for Nicole's category, since she was overseas performing on the U.K. "X Factor" when her singers were booked to rehearse. Simon joked backstage: "Her Over 30s were relieved to have me."

As showtime approached, the expected last-minute wardrobe tweaks were in full effect. One group was spotted getting magic tape applied to their glamorous footwear to prevent slippage. (Am I evil for hoping that they fall on live TV anyway? I love a good spill.)

Two weeks into the live shows, the contestants are still getting along swimmingly. They're so comfortable with one another that one of the girls was able to have a pretend diva fit over being jealous about one contestant's over-the-top set piece, and everyone could laugh about it. We'll see if the chummy vibe continues as the competition heats up, especially now that the singers' fates are in voters' hands. Eek!

And here's a little tidbit: Keep your eyes peeled for one of the male contestants' arms tonight. In his (little) free time, he ran to a local tattoo parlor for new ink!

Happy viewing!

You can catch Jim on the "X Factor Pepsi Pre-Show," streaming at 7 p.m. ET tonight on TheXFactorUSA.com!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673656/x-factor-rehearsals-justin-bieber.jhtml

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Climate scientist sparks protest

MINNEAPOLIS ? The annual meeting of the Geological Society of America isn't the type of affair one might associate with outrage among the citizenry ? or anyone, really.

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At the recent four-day meeting, scientists of all ages, nationalities and sartorial sensibilities sat in darkened conference rooms, laughed at bewildering jokes, presented research and bonded in the permanent, interminable line at the single place in the airport-sized convention center that sold coffee.

Save for some particularly nerdy jokes shouted at a local pub, the people of Minneapolis might never have noticed the 6,000 or so scientists suddenly in their midst.

Yet on the final day of the conference, a knot of protestors gathered outside the convention center, chanting and pumping signs in the air. Only nine protestors, but still ? what had sparked their ire? [ 10 Historically Significant Political Protests ]

One man. In fact, one Michael E. Mann, the protestors said, as a cool afternoon drizzle wilted signs that read, "Erik the Red and thousands of Vikings can't be wrong," and "What happened to the medieval warming period?"

Warming history
The signs were taped to hockey sticks ? mostly child-sized hockey sticks ? a symbol of grand significance among those who dispute that anthropogenic climate change is real, and one that, given the locale, is likely plentiful.

The signs referenced a time about 800 to 1,000 years ago when, scientific research indicates, a combination of natural forces appear to have brought on a period of planetary warmth comparable to the toasty mid-20th century, but cooler than global temperatures today. Evidence of the warm period has become a rallying point for those who don't think human activity is affecting the global climate.

"We heard he was coming, and we are interested in scientific integrity," said Kim Crockett, an elegantly dressed woman with a silvery bob hairstyle who was in charge of the protest. "We feel he has not practiced that with his hockey stick graph."

What is now known as the hockey stick graph was published in a 1999 paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and represents temperature in the Northern Hemisphere between the years 1000 and 2000 A.D. The line is vaguely flat until the early 20th century, when it begins a precipitous climb, similar to the shape of a hockey stick.

Mann, a climate researcher and director of Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center, was one of the lead authors of that paper. The overall findings ? that the rapidly increasing temperatures glimpsed in the latter half of the 20th century are anomalous and historically significant ? have been backed up again and again by subsequent research.

Mann was also one of the scientists involved in the now infamous "Climategate" incident, which involved stolen emails that allegedly, according to some climate change skeptics, revealed a degree of data fiddling. Several independent investigations found no scientific malfeasance was afoot.

Science in public
While the protestors walked in a tight circle on a traffic median, Mann was inside the convention center delivering a talk entitled, "Climate Scientists in the Public Arena: Who's Got Our Backs?"

Several hours earlier, long before the protestors appeared, Mann sat down with a cup of coffee in the sundrenched lobby of a nearby hotel to offer a brief preview of his talk. Mann said he'd been giving some version of it for the last couple of years.

"I've been asked to, and frankly, I think it's incumbent upon me to speak out ? first of all about the strength of the underlying science, and the efforts to attack the messenger because the message is inconvenient," Mann said. [Read: Climate Change Debunked? Not So Fast ]

When asked why he thinks the attacks have persisted, and if there was a precedent for the present embattled position of climate scientists, Mann looked to the not-so-distant past.

"I think we're seeing in the area of climate change what we saw with tobacco, with pharmaceuticals, any area of science where there are powerful, vested interests who may feel threatened by the findings of science," Mann said. "And in the past we have seen those special interests do all they can to manufacture false controversy and to try to distort the public discourse ? to confuse the public about the reality of these problems."

Mann said the reality of the problem is clear.

In fact, just recently a physicist and skeptic of global warming, Richard Muller, reportedly now agrees the phenomenon is real. His conclusion comes after two years of study to figure out if climate scientists were wrong, according to an Associated Press article.

"To debate whether or not humans are warming the planet is, frankly, silly," he said. "No serious scientist will try to argue that with a straight face in front of fellow scientists. To argue how much future warming we might expect, depending on future fossil fuel burning, there are some uncertainties there," Mann said.

Some of the biggest uncertainties that climate scientists have uncovered in recent years, Mann said, are in the polar regions, where the speed and magnitude of the changes have been unprecedented.

Arctic sea ice has disappeared faster than many models predicted; the ice sheets, glaciers and ice shelves in Antarctica and Greenland appear to be at the mercy of forces scientists don't entirely understand.

"There's reason to believe there are processes that are not represented in the models that have caused us to be overly conservative in the projections we've made," Mann said.

In the end, he said, how global climate change will manifest itself isn't well defined. There's a wide spread of possible outcomes, including more extreme weather in some areas.

"It may be that the upper-end models are right, and it may be that the lower-end models are right. We typically go with the middle," Mann said, referring to a spectrum of warming scenarios predicted from computer models. "But what if one of these extremes is right?"

Mann said that means it's important for humans to take decisive action to control the forces that drive climate change, as a kind of insurance policy for the planet against future catastrophe.

"The worst-case scenarios may be unlikely, but they're not negligibly unlikely, and we have to take measures to hedge against the possibility that the changes will be at the upper end of the distribution," Mann said. "So we could be having that worthy discussion about real uncertainty, and how it translates into risk assessment and vulnerability, but instead we're still stuck ? at least in the public discourse ? in this silly debate about the reality of the problem."

Signs of the time
That afternoon, back at the convention center, as Mann delivered his talk, scientists milled around in the main entryway, while the protestors marched in a circle.

One young scientist in a T-shirt stopped short, looking confused, and asked, in heavily accented English, "What is this about? Are they against us?"

Scientists took pictures of the protestors, while the protestors took pictures of themselves.

Mostly everyone smiled puzzled smiles, or shook their heads, and some stopped to talk to the marchers, who happily obliged.

"The main objection is that Michael Mann created the hockey stick chart, which is kind of the basis for the global warming theory," said a mustachioed and bearded protestor."We don't believe in the theory of global warming, in general ? anthropogenic global warming," he said.

Protest leader Crockett spoke up.

"Even if you grant the theory of anthropogenic global warming, I reject the so-called solutions that people are proposing, because I think that they are immoral," she said. "If you took the money that people are talking about, and applied it to other significant human suffering throughout the world, it would be much, much better spent ? things like mosquito nets to stop malaria."

She also pointed to programs in Minnesota designed to make roads more user-friendly for pedestrians, cyclists, the elderly, and public transportation (called Complete Streets), and legislation that requires 25 percent of the state's energy come from renewable sources by the year 2025 (Renewable Portfolio Standards), both of which were signed into law by former governor Tim Pawlenty. "They're a very bad idea," she said.

As for Mann ? they'd come out just for him?

"It's a great opportunity to just welcome him to Minnesota, and say, 'We're paying attention,'" she said.

Added the bearded protestor, "We're not all drinking the Kool-Aid."

You can follow staff writer Andrea Mustain on Twitter: @andreamustain. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter@livescienceand on Facebook.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45107032/ns/us_news-environment/

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Greek vote plan sends stocks tumbling (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Greece's shock decision to hold a referendum on its euro zone bail-out package sent investors scurrying for safer investments on Tuesday, hammering stocks and punishing the euro.

It scotched any immediate expectations for an end-of-year stock rally.

An unexpected fall in PMI data for China's manufacturers also hurt investor risk-taking sentiment as did Monday's failure of U.S. trading firm MF Global Holdings Ltd due to euro zone debt exposure.

European stocks were down close to 3 percent and MSCI's all-country world stock index shed 1.7 percent.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's announcement on Monday that he will put Greece's bailout to a referendum immediately cast doubt on the euro zone's plan to hand Athens 130 billion euros and arrange a 50-percent write-down on its huge debt.

It raised the possibility of a disorderly default on its debt if Greeks vote against the plan.

But more broadly it also threw into chaos the euro zone's wider attempts to stop the debt crisis spreading to more significant economies such as Italy.

Attempts to get countries such as China and Brazil to fund an enhanced euro zone rescue fund, for example, will have hit a major barrier, given that it is not clear that the euro zone's grand compromise agreed last week will stand.

"The risk is that a 'no' from the Greeks will completely derail the rescue efforts," one Paris-based trader said.

Furthermore, the referendum -- details of which have not been announced -- is not expect until the beginning of next year, which means uncertainty is likely to continue throughout November and December.

"We can kiss the year-end rally goodbye," the trader said.

The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of top European shares was down 2.7 percent after tumbling 2.2 percent in the previous session.

Euro zone banks were hammered, with Italy's UniCredit (CRDI.MI) down 8 percent and France's Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) down 11.5 percent.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei (.N225) closed down 1.7 percent.

EURO KNOCKED

On foreign exchange markets, the euro fell more than one percent versus the dollar and yen as investors cut exposure to the common currency, fearing a disorderly default.

The dollar dipped slightly versus the yen, however, having pulled back from a three-month high as the impact of Japan's massive intervention on Monday faded a touch. It last traded down 0.1 percent at 78.10 yen, with market players wary of further yen selling by the Japanese authorities.

"The Greek referendum is a real curve ball, nobody saw it coming and it injects a lot of uncertainty," said Steven Saywell, head of FX strategy at BNP Paribas.

Some analysts, meanwhile, said investors would be wary of buying the dollar too aggressively given a two-day Federal Reserve meeting that concludes on Wednesday and key U.S. jobs data due on Friday. Any hints that the Fed is considering further monetary easing, or signs the economy is flagging, could drive the greenback lower.

Worries about the impact of the Greek decision on other euro zone countries sent the difference between yields on Italian and Belgian 10-year bonds and those of benchmark German counterparts to lifetime highs.

(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson and Nia Williams; editing by Stephen Nisbet)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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Millions at risk due to North Korea food crisis: UNICEF (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) ? Millions of children and women of child-bearing age in North Korea face malnutrition which can leave them at higher risk of death or disease, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The agency urged donors to help prevent a "nutrition crisis" in North Korea due to its funding shortfall. UNICEF has received only $4.6 million out of $20.4 million needed for its emergency programmes in the isolated country this year.

"If the funding does not arrive and we are unable to keep our nutrition programmes to treat those children who are severely malnourished, these children will suffer irreversible consequences on their growth and development capacity," Bijaya Rajbhandari, UNICEF's representative in North Korea, said in a statement.

UNICEF spokesman Chris Tidey had no immediate information on which governments had contributed to its funding appeal so far.

One in five North Korean children under the age of 5 already suffer from moderate malnutrition which can cause stunting and also hamper their cognitive development, Tidey told Reuters, citing a December 2010 survey.

This translated into an estimated 88,400 children who are moderately malnourished and deemed at risk of becoming severely malnourished, he said.

Severely malnourished children are particularly vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections which can be fatal, especially to those under five years old.

One in three North Korean children under five are moderately stunted and it is estimated that 11,400 children die each year before their fifth birthday, Tidey said.

Some 28 percent of North Korean women between 15 and 49 are under-nourished, according to UNICEF data.

"This greatly increases their risk of delivering infants with low birth weight who are at higher risk of mortality and diseases, increasing widespread chronic malnutrition with catastrophic long-term effects on children's development," UNICEF said.

Maternal mortality rates are also high, with 85 women dying in childbirth for every 100,000 live births, Tidey said.

UNICEF provides school feeding programmes, supplemental feeding for outpatients, and counseling for pregnant and nursing women to encourage breastfeeding.

Valerie Amos, the top U.N. humanitarian official who visited North Korea last week, urged regional powers to put politics aside amid a worsening food crisis there, saying the smattering of aid which has reached the country was making a difference.

North Korea's chronic food shortages have been compounded since the end of 2008 by an about-face in policy by the South Korean and U.S. governments, which suspended food assistance over the North's nuclear programme and food-monitoring problems.

At the same time, China is believed to have also sharply cut food aid to its ally, a nonpartisan report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in June.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been in a vicious cycle where the general population's chronic malnutrition has been unchanged for a long period of time. Should no sustainable action be taken, children in the DPRK will never realize their full potential," said Rajbhandari.

North Korea suffered a crippling famine in the 1990s that killed an estimated 1 million people.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/wl_nm/us_korea_north_food

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In Some States You Must Tell Buyers Your House Is Haunted [Laws]

If you're planning on moving because some paranormal activity chewed up and spat out your dog you might have some extra paperwork to fill out. Some states require that sellers warn buyers about weirdness that could affect property value. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PYR-FTW4Qiw/in-some-states-you-must-tell-buyers-your-house-is-haunted

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Rethinking equilibrium: In nature, large energy fluctuations may rile even 'relaxed' systems

Rethinking equilibrium: In nature, large energy fluctuations may rile even 'relaxed' systems

Monday, October 31, 2011

An international research team led by the University at Buffalo has shown that large energy fluctuations can rile even a "relaxed" system, raising questions about how energy might travel through structures ranging from the ocean to DNA.

The research appeared online Oct. 21 in Physical Review E.

In their study, the scientists used computer simulations to model the behavior of a closed, granular system comprising a chain of equal-sized spheres that touch one another and are sandwiched between two walls. Energy travels through this system as solitary waves, also known as non-dispersive energy bundles.

When the system was disturbed by multiple energy perturbations -- imagine someone tapping on each of the walls -- the energy spread unevenly through the system.

Distinct hot and cold spots with an energy much higher and lower than the average energy per sphere persisted over short periods of time, and some regions remained cold over extended times. This held true even in simulations that lasted for several days, demonstrating that the system's eventual state was something very different from what is traditionally thought of as equilibrium.

Like many systems in nature, the system the scientists simulated is subject to strong, nonlinear forces, which vary sharply as a system evolves.

"This work shows that the concept of equilibrium should be broadened," said Surajit Sen, PhD, the UB physics professor who led the study. "When you have strongly nonlinear forces in finite systems, as you do in the granular system, the energy may not be equitably distributed.

"Nature may be capable of showing far greater energy fluctuations even in the equilibrium/tranquil state than we might ordinarily expect," Sen continued. "We know that in the open ocean, there are large, rogue waves that can cause ships to go down. Where do these enormous, rogue waves come from? Another question is whether external stimulations that lead to these kinds of large fluctuations can arise in confined, biological systems, such as DNA, and subsequently affect their properties."

Sen's collaborators on the project included Edgar Avalos of Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan; Diankang Sun, a postdoctoral fellow at New Mexico Resonance; and Robert L. Doney, a physical scientist at the U.S. Army Research Labs at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Avalos is a former UB Fulbright Fellow. Sun and Doney studied at UB as PhD candidates working with Sen.

In their simulations, the researchers modeled a granular system that was lossless, meaning that the system continuously retained all of the energy added to it through perturbations. While all real-world mechanical systems inevitably lose energy over time, an effectively lossless system may be realized as a nonlinear circuit.

In addition to identifying persistent hot and cold spots in the granular system, Sen and his colleagues confirmed the findings of a group of researchers who described how solitary waves can grow their energy content when passing through each other in such a system.

###

University at Buffalo: http://www.buffalo.edu

Thanks to University at Buffalo for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114771/Rethinking_equilibrium__In_nature__large_energy_fluctuations_may_rile_even__relaxed__systems

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Bosnia raids homes after embassy attack

Special police units raided homes Saturday in a Bosnian village linked to the gunman who fired an automatic weapon at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in what authorities called a terrorist attack. The raids came as 17 suspected associates of the shooter, all said to be members of the ultraconservative Wahhabi Muslim sect, were briefly detained in Serbia.

A convoy of police vehicles entered the isolated northern village of Gornja Maoca, known to be inhabited by many Wahhabis, and officers wearing black masks and camouflage uniforms surrounded several houses, according to an Associated Press video. The reporter saw the security forces enter some homes before officers asked him to leave.

The gunman, identified by police as 23-year-old Mevlid Jasarevic, is accused of shooting at the embassy building in Sarajevo for at least 30 minutes Friday, wounding a policeman guarding the facility, before a police sniper immobilized him with a shot in his leg.

An amateur video obtained by the AP shows what appears to be Jasarevic roaming a deserted intersection, waving his gun and occasionally turning toward the embassy building, shooting at the fence and facade. Another video caught him dropping on the ground after the sniper shot him.

Jasarevic is believed to be a follower of the Wahhabi sect, and police said he visited Gornja Maoca several times this and last year. Both the gunman and the police officer were hospitalized and their wounds weren't considered to be life-threatening, authorities said.

Bosnian and Serbian police have coordinated the response to the embassy attack, and the raids in Bosnia on Saturday were part of a joint operation. The village appeared blocked with police setting up checkpoints, stopping cars and searching them.

Police were searching several locations in Bosnia and questioning people, State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said.

"We are cooperating with colleagues in Serbia, working with them and the U.S. Embassy," he said.

Houses searched, items confiscated
In Serbia, police said in a statement that as part of the detentions of suspects, some 18 houses were searched and computers and mobile phones confiscated. The 17 people held were later released after questioning, police said.

Wahhabism is a very conservative branch of Islam that is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Police raided Gornja Maoca in February 2010 because its residents were accused of posing a security threat in Bosnia by promoting racial and religious hatred and illegally possessing weapons.

Many Bosnian Muslims are extremely protective of their relations with the U.S. because it was the driving force behind NATO military intervention against the Serbs during the 1992-95 war and brokered a peace agreement that ended the conflict.

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Furious callers on live radio shows suggested the Wahhabi movement should be banned and its members expelled.

"Here I am searching the newspapers every morning looking for news about foreign investments so this place can move forward and then an idiot like this comes and destroys everything. It will take years for us to wash this," cab driver Ismet Besic said.

"It looks as if he was just waiting for cameras to show up, to be seen all over the world," Nermin Muftic, 38, said watching videos of the shooter on YouTube on his mobile phone with his friends during morning coffee.

"He just wanted to pull this show and hurt Bosnia. Who knows what people in the world think of us now," he said.

Islamist extremists joined Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.

Bosnian intelligence officials have said last year that at least 3,000 Wahhabis live in Bosnia.

Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement Friday condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."

"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.

U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Patrick Moon told reporters "this is a regrettable incident," and that his country has full confidence in Bosnian police and judicial authorities. He pledged "full cooperation" in the investigation, adding that an FBI team will arrive in Bosnia to assess the damage to the embassy.

Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45087991/ns/world_news-europe/

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Fan: No regrets about returning Game 6 homer ball

By JIM SUHR

updated 3:44 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2011

ST. LOUIS - As hordes of other St. Louis Cardinals fans turned out Sunday to swaddle themselves in their team's improbable World Series title, Dave Huyette was counting his blessings rather than the riches he might have received had greed overtaken sportsmanship.

Just three days earlier, Huyette briefly held history in his hands from a World Series game considered one for the ages, winning the dash to a walkoff, 11th-inning home run ball David Freese plunked onto a grassy knoll behind Busch Stadium's center-field fence, propelling the Cardinals into the decisive Game 7 they won the next night.

The Illinois radiologist with a 5-year-old son could have cashed in, given that iconic home run balls have fetched tens ? at times hundreds ? of thousands of dollars on the memorabilia market. But Huyette would have none of that, knowing that giving the ball to Freese "was the honorable thing to do." So he did.

On Sunday, there were no regrets.

"I'm not financially needy, and I knew I didn't want any money," Huyette, 39, told The Associated Press by telephone from his home in Maryville, Ill., figuring hawking the ball stood to make him "an enemy in my town."

Freese ? named the MVP of the World Series and the NL championship series before it ? rewarded Huyette after Thursday night's game with an autographed bat, a baseball signed by the Cardinals and a picture with him. An auto-parts company threw in tickets for Huyette to the series' finale.

Valuable spoils indeed, all of them partly because Huyette ? an Iowa native attending his first-ever World Series game ? had positioned himself for that rare moment when luck and history collide, even if initially he wasn't even planning to be there.

Huyette had shelled out nearly $1,100 for tickets to Game 6, which he planned to attend with Chicago Cubs-loving pal Jeremy Reiland only to see it postponed for a day to Thursday because rain loomed in St. Louis. Huyette mulled selling the tickets, voicing to Reiland indifference about going. Reiland talked him out of it.

From their right-centerfield seats on Thursday night, Huyette and Reiland ? two in a record crowd of 47,325 ? had an inkling a home run ball would come their way and for each of the last four innings they waited for it. They knew chasing down a home run ball could get them ejected, but they waved that off.

"At least half-jokingly, I was putting my foot up over the rope as if I was going to be springing onto the grass," recalled Huyette, who even texted a half dozen people to watch for them on television going after a home run ball.

"I just kinda had a feeling," he said. "I'm not sure why."

With two outs and down to his last strike as the Cardinals trailed by two in the bottom of the ninth, Freese bounced a game-tying triple off the right-field wall. With the score again knotted at 9 in the bottom of the 11th, as Reiland was returning from a restroom run, Freese turned heroic.

"I just heard the crack of a bat," then the wild cheering as the trajectory of the ball headed his way. Huyette was on the grass before the ball hopped to a stop there, then quickly gobbled up the souvenir.

Huyette, fearing others would try to wrestle the keepsake away from him, stuffed it down his pants ? "outside the underwear," he joked.

"I worried that if I held the ball up, someone would take it or rip my arm off," he said. "Jeremy is a lot more of a (baseball history) aficionado than me. He said, 'You have to get the ball back (to Freese). You'll be on TV ? that's enough.'"

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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