Ware

All this talk about the couple who broke into the White House state dinner has been kind of interesting. But, for my money, the most fascinating gate-crasher this week on the Washington scene had to be Michael Ware. I'm talking about the CNN foreign correspondent who, though invited, descended on the cable station's otherwise temperate panels on Afghanistan like some feral creature from the vast, untamed Outback. The unshaven, unruly and apparently unfettered Aussie appeared on seemingly every one of the cable station's platforms in recent days, chiding President Obama for being unspecific, mocking the idea of anything like a clear "victory" in Afghanistan and warning of atrocities if America throws in with unsavory partners.

INDIO -- The frenzied festival atmosphere at Coachella -- where every musical act is always in competition with several others for showgoers' attention -- can lead to a bulking-up effect among artists otherwise inclined toward delicacy and refinement. Late Sunday afternoon, you could see it in sets by the English soul singer Jessie Ware (in the Mojave Tent) and the New York electro duo Tanlines (in the Gobi Tent). On record, each savors the infinite possibilities of the studio, detailing every groove with headphone-ready precision.

Beware of any product or service that is touted as "new and improved." DON WARE Sunland

Scoring is down, players leave early and the best action on television today is still probably 1980s replays of the Atlantic Coast Conference. For one Monday night, though, college basketball stood history on its head and produced high-octane magic in high definition. Louisville's 82-76 win over Michigan at the Georgia Dome was not just the school's third NCAA title and first since 1986. It seemed almost a revival and a deliverance of sorts, in front a record congregation of 74,326.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Maxine Thomas has been diagnosed by her doctors as "disabled and unable to perform her duties," and there is a possibility that she may never return to the bench, her attorney said Tuesday. But the lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., told reporters that the judge's medical problems are "in no way related to any drug or substance abuse." Thomas, 40, went on medical leave last week amid allegations that she was displaying symptoms of drug abuse.

So that I will not fall a victim to cozenage during my trip to London during the year 1600, Jacqueline Bellows, librarian at the Francis Bacon Library in Claremont, has sent me some helpful material. (You too may trip to 1600 London any day Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Dec. 6. Phone: (714) 624-6305.

This post has been corrected. See below for details. An ancient Chinese bowl that dates from the Northern Song dynasty sold for $2.2 million on Tuesday at a Sotheby's auction in New York. What makes the sale particularly noteworthy is that the sellers had reportedly purchased the bowl for just $3. The bowl was part of a Sotheby's auction of Chinese ceramics and other works of art. The sellers were a New York family who had purchased the bowl in 2007 at a garage sale for a mere $3, according to reports.

Fly toy helicopters with your mind. Be a DJ and shift musical tracks based on how you feel. Wiggle robotic cat ears by increasing your state of calm. Astonishing advances in the ability to harness brain waves have made the fantastic notion of moving and controlling objects with the mind possible. Now neuroscientists are grappling with another challenge: Find a "killer app" that will demonstrate the true potential of tapping into brain waves and ignite the neurotechnology revolution.

It was supposed to be a brief stop at the Primadonna casino, 43 miles south of Las Vegas, but one poker game led to another. By 3 a.m. May 25, 1997, Jeremy Strohmeyer and David Cash were tired of hanging around the arcade, waiting for David's dad. Bored, the two 18-year-olds decided to urinate on two coin-operated games. David chose Big Bertha, whose polka-dot dress flared when players hurled balls into her gaping red mouth. Jeremy selected a helicopter game. Then a wall socket.

The evening that brothers Kevin and Ricky Nettles were abducted outside their Los Angeles mechanic's shop, one of their employees said they were visited by an armed man who looked like a police detective. The employee, 67, described in court last week how on that November day in 1999 he saw onetime Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith stop Ricky Nettles in the street and usher him into the back of a car, where another man sat behind the wheel. "He told me he was taking [Ricky]

Kevin Ware is forever going to be linked to this year's NCAA basketball tournament. Unfortunately, the image many of us have of him is one that is sure to make us cringe. We've all seen the video by now, of the Louisville guard awkwardly coming down on his leg while trying to block a shot. The injury that followed is one that probably won't be forgotten by the millions who have seen for a long, long time. But maybe we can replace it with a much happier one. After all, Ware didn't wallow around in self pity.

Macy's Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. are back in court Monday after a month-long mediation effort in their dispute over Martha Stewart merchandise appeared to have failed. The department store chains are tussling over the rights to sell the domestic doyenne's home goods. Macy's says it was first to sign an exclusive contract with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. When J.C. Penney announced that it would open in-store boutiques featuring Stewart's products, Macy's sued both companies.

Even before the release of her debut album, the English singer Jessie Ware was attracting next-big-thing buzz with appearances on tracks by cutting-edge dance-music artists such as SBTRKT and Joker. But she wasn't born hip. "Growing up, I was the person told about things by other mates - the tastemakers," Ware admitted recently, adding that she also discovered music the way many teenagers did in the pre-YouTube era: through pop radio and MTV. "I copied every move from Jennifer Lopez's videos and studied every breakdown in Montell Jordan's songs," she said, referring to the R&B singer who hit No. 1 in 1995 with "This Is How We Do It. " "I wasn't at the forefront of new,  new  music.

Dwight Howard remembers the trauma of the broken leg he sustained after dunking in a game as a teenager. So Howard had to call Kevin Ware after seeing the Louisville player's gruesome injury in the NCAA tournament on Sunday. "I know how it feels. When I broke my leg, everybody thought that my career was done when I was 15," Howard said Friday. "Look where it got me. I'm pretty sure it's going to push him to work even harder. " Ware sustained a compound fracture of his right tibia in Louisville's 85-63 victory over Duke.

By all accounts, Louisville guard Kevin Ware was a quiet, reserved young man until Sunday, when he broke his right leg in a freak accident during the first half of the NCAA tournament Midwest Regional final game, which was broadcast on national television. Forced into the spotlight after undergoing surgery that night for the compound break, Ware has handled the media onslaught with aplomb as his Louisville teammates and family rallied around him. On Thursday night, Ware was on national television again, counting down the Top 10 List on the "Late Show with David Letterman.

Kevin Ware was a busy guy on Monday. After having surgery on his broken right leg the night before, the Louisville guard spent part of the day up and about on crutches at the advice of his doctors. He entertained numerous visitors, including Coach Rick Pitino and NCAA President Mark Emmert, and received a phone call from Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Somehow he managed to spend some time on Twitter ... a lot of time, actually, thanking all of his well-wishers -- who included NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Metta World Peace of the Lakers, DeAndre Jordan of the Clippers, LeBron James of the Miami Heat and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks, as well as rapper Lil' Wayne -- often with individual messages of gratitude.

Other inventors might spend their nights dreaming up a better mousetrap, but Marion Ruggles and Bill Nussbaum needed something they could sink their teeth into: a project with some meat; a gadget that really cooked. They also wanted a product that would fit their disparate personalities, and there are precious few things that a one-time dune buggy maker and a transplanted Queens native could possibly manufacture and market--together.

Blue Willow china, the pattern that put the "blue plate special" on the menu at American diners, also gave rise to a host of home accessories and collectors who prowl flea markets and attend china swap meets looking for variations on what must be the most ubiquitous design ever made. It all started in the 18th Century with a transfer-printed, Chinese-inspired pattern with the now-familiar willow tree, footbridge, fleeing lovers and pagoda.

Kevin Ware collapsed in front of Louisville's bench on Sunday after gruesomely breaking his leg in the first half against Duke. Next Saturday in Atlanta, if all goes well, he'll be back on the bench for Louisville's NCAA national semifinal game against Wichita State. Ware had surgery Sunday night to repair the fracture and is reportedly resting comfortably at an Indianapolis hospital. “As long as nothing happens infection-wise, we expect him to come home tomorrow to Louisville,” Coach Rick Pitino said Monday on a national conference call with the three other Final Four coaches.

Kevin Ware is already up and walking, and he has a nice souvenir to keep him company until he's cleared to return to Louisville. Cardinals Coach Rick Pitino brought the Midwest Regional championship trophy when he visited Ware, who remains hospitalized in Indianapolis after surgery to repair a gruesome fracture in his right leg. During a two-hour surgery Sunday night, doctors reset Ware's broken tibia and inserted a rod into the bone. Because the bone broke through the skin, Pitino said doctors are monitoring Ware to make sure no infection develops.