"Its incredible, you just try to live an honest genuine life and the next thing you know, you've got the president calling you," he told ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday.

Collins said President Barack Obama had been encouraging in the telephone conversation.

"He was incredibly supportive and said he was proud of me and said this not only affected my life but others going forward," he said.

Asked about the scale of reaction to his decision to come out, Collins said: "That's kind of mind-boggling... I never set out to be the first," he said.

"I'm ready to raise my hand but, you know, you still look around like, 'OK, come on guys.'

"It's time for someone else in the room to raise their hand and say: 'You know what? Yeah, so big deal. I can still play basketball. I can still help the team win, and that's what's most important,'" he added.

The 34-year-old center revealed his sexuality in an article published by Sports Illustrated on Monday and said he was glad that he was now 'out'.

"I know that I, right now, am the happiest that I've ever been in my life," he said.

"A huge weight has been lifted. I've already been out to my family and my friends, but just to, you know, sort of rip the Band-Aid off and come out on my own terms."

Collins is currently a free agent after spending last season with the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards but said he expects future team-mates to welcome him.

"From my team-mates I am expecting support because that is what I would do for my team-mates, team is like a family and the NBA is like a brotherhood and I am looking it at that we will all support each other on and off the court," he said.

Asked about what advice he would give to a young gay man hoping to make it in the NBA, Collins said he should focus on the game.

"It doesn't matter that you are gay but the key thing is - its about basketball. Its about working hard, its about sacrificing for your team," he said.

Collins could well be the first of several gay players in top sports to come out but he said everyone's decision on how open to be was based on their own circumstances.

"I hope that every player makes a decision that leads to their own happiness. I know that I, right now am the happiest I have been in my life," he said.

(Reporting by Simon Evans, editing by Justin Palmer)

One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said.

It's as if Jeff Bezos told his research and development department to just build a phone with all of the trendiest, craziest features and then figure out how to make it cheap. Those features are trendy and crazy for a reason, by the way. Can you imagine the possibilities of a glasses-free 3D handheld device? That puts smartphones in Star Wars territory, if you can imagine objects floating in the air above the phone like a hologram. What if you could get the phone to beam a 3D representation of your friend into mid-air, .

RELATED:

Sure it sounds cool, but Amazon's been enabling rumors like this for years now. Nearly two years ago, the Wall Street Journal affiliate AllThingsD reported , as the company sought to compete more directly with Google and Apple. Amazon had already shown prowess in the hardware sector with the success of the Kindle and Kindle Fire and there's , so a smartphone made sense as a next step. It was a heck of a rumor at a time when iPhone 5 speculation was owning the tech blogs, and Android was systematically gobbling up market share. However well placed, though, it was just a rumor. It wasn't too crazy to assume that Amazon .

RELATED:

This latest rumor serves a similar purpose. Regardless of whether its true or not, reports about Amazon developing a 3D screen for mobile devices is a direct affront on Apple's strategy — that is, if Apple's patent history is at all indicative of the company's future plans. In recent years, Apple'sfor 3D technology, including eyeball-tracking, glasses-free displays. We wondered a couple of years ago if Apple . It didn't, so it's anybody's guess whether or not Apple will make the leap into the third dimension.  

RELATED:

Whether by design or by chance, Apple's competitors have been winning the smartphone feature war lately. Samsung's Galaxy SIV , enabling users to scroll through pages simply by moving their eyes. And if this Amazon 3D smartphone rumor is true, Apple will fall behind in that regard, too. Of course, what makes the Amazon rumor so curious isn't really about how it competes with Apple. It's about how Amazon isn't just a place to buy books any more. It's a technology company with unexpected ambitions, a zany CEO and seemingly limitless resources. .

(Reuters) - Sales of Dendreon Corp's prostate cancer vaccine Provenge declined in the first quarter despite efforts by the biotechnology drugs maker to shore up flagging volumes.

The company's shares fell 14 percent to $4.06 in morning trade on the Nasdaq. They touched a low of $3.95.

Dendreon is watched closely due to the immense potential of cancer vaccines, but Provenge sales have never really taken off due to physician uncertainty about reimbursement and limited manufacturing capacity.

The emergence of newer prostate cancer drugs have also squeezed the vaccine's potential. Competing drugs, such as Medivation Inc's Xtandi and Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga, have the added advantage of being easier to use.

Provenge is tailored for each individual patient and works by stimulating the immune system.

Competition and the lack of patient access were the main reasons for the decline in sales, Dendreon Chief Executive John Johnson said on a conference call, adding that competitors were mostly affecting its small and low-volume accounts.

Dendreon's vaccine costs more than $90,000 per patient and has been found to have extended the life of advanced prostate cancer patients by about 4 months in trials.

"Smaller accounts are more susceptible to competition for two reasons: first they are not yet as familiar with using a complex biologic as larger accounts and hence may be more drawn to oral therapies. Second, the larger competitors have a reach and frequency advantage in this setting," the CEO said.

The company expects to reach more patients through its direct-to-consumer marketing efforts, and said some of its smaller and low-volume accounts returned to Provenge in the second quarter after some initial trial with oral therapies.

"Currently, we are seeing an improvement in enrollments, a trend which began mid-way through the first quarter," Johnson said.

"As we leverage the power of our direct-to-consumer campaign, we are confident in our ability to grow Provenge year over year," Johnson said.

Product revenue, reflecting Provenge sales, fell 18 percent in the first quarter to $67.6 million.

However, lower operating expenses helped the company narrow its first-quarter loss.

The company's net loss for the quarter was $72.0 million, or 48 cents per share, compared with a loss of $103.9 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 48 cents per share on revenue of $79.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Sreejiraj Eluvangal)

PSY began addressing students and faculty by noting that his presence at the Ivy League school "is so weird."

He recalled spending four years studying management at Boston University while marveling at Harvard from afar. He joked about his academic performance while at school in Boston, saying he was known by a nickname of WWF which, he said, stands for withdrawal, withdrawal, failure.

The pop star, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, also joked that he's heard that he is the first person to make a speech at Harvard without a written script.

Harvard professor of Korean History Carter Eckert said the discussion was looking at PSY as a modern global digital culture phenomenon.

PSY cracked jokes throughout this speech and said he was very shocked as his "Gangnam Style" video went viral. He said he was overwhelmed by its success and doesn't realistically expect to replicate the feat.

"Gangnam Style" was YouTube's most-viewed video with more than 1.5 billion views, and his new single, "Gentleman" has more than 300 million views.

"Gangnam style was not normal. Gangnam was not standard ...that was an accident and accidents don't happen often," he said.

"I gotta be humble, I gotta be humble, I know I gotta be humble because this does not happen to everybody especially for Asian artists. They tried a lot knocking the door to the U.S. market, but it didn't happen," PSY said.

"I dreamed about it, but I didn't dream that was me because, as you see, I have a very special body shape," he said as his apparent reference to his stocky figure drew laughter from students and faculty.

PSY said he's tried to figure out why he was able to break into coveted global markets after other Asian artists failed to gain traction.

"There should be a specific reason why people chose me," PSY said. "They didn't choose me because I'm handsome, they didn't choose me because I'm muscular ... the reason why they chose me (is) because I have fun with the music, with the dance, with the video."

PSY wondered aloud why American TV news shows start so early, joking that he has had a brutal experiences waking up early for rehearsal for appearances on morning news shows.

He also recalled joining Madonna for rehearsal, saying he was surprised when she told him that he can touch her body anywhere while they were on stage.

"I was, like without hesitating I was asking her 'Really!'" PSY said, provoking prolonged laughter from the audience.

"I cannot say I've been the best, but I can say I've done my best for 13 years" as a musician, he said.

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Rodrique Ngowi can be reached at www.twitter.cm/ngowi

Businesses are employing people and making money on a slow shift to renewable power. In the windy Great Plains states, farmers pocket wind turbine lease money. In sunny California, there are more solar installers than actors.

It turns out that renewable energy, as popular as moms apple pie with American consumers, is also good for American business. And now jobs-conscious legislators from both parties are listening.

Renewable energy standards, or RESssometimes called Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), just to add to the alphabet-soup mixrequire electric utilities to buy a percentage of their power from renewable sources, such as solar, and wind by a certain date.

Despite their respective injury concerns, they will meet for the 16th time in a championship. Nadal leads 8-7 in their finals.

"I am not the kind of player who is stupid and says, 'I want to play against the best,'" Nadal said joking, added he would rather face an easier opponent on Sunday.

Nadal can improve upon his formidable record on the Monte Carlo red clay winner of the last eight titles and 46 consecutive match victories. He defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the semifinals on Saturday to set up a rematch with Djokovic.

The Spaniard has reached five successive finals since returning from a seven-month layoff for a left knee injury. He will go for his fourth title of the season against Djokovic, who cruised past unseeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-1.

The No. 1 player showed no sign his right ankle was bothering him, two weeks after twisting it during a Davis Cup match against the United States.

"At the start of the week, the way I felt in the first match, if somebody told me I'd be playing finals, I'd be very happy to hear that," Djokovic said. "I'm handling it much better than I was at the start of the week. It has been improving and the pain has been decreasing. It's much, much less than before."

Djokovic and Nadal have not played against each other since last year's French Open final, which Nadal won. He has won their last three encounters, after Djokovic took the previous seven all of which were tournament finals. Nadal leads their head-to-head contests 19-14.

"I need to have a very optimistic mindset," Djokovic said. "I'm not going out there to play my best; I'm going out there to win. That's how I'm going to feel tomorrow."

Nadal has been on a winning roll at Monte Carlo since 2005. His last loss here was to former French Open champ Guillermo Coria in 2003, and he missed the following year because of injury.

He insists he's still some way from full fitness, despite dropping only one set so far.

"I know I need time to be 100 percent fit," said Nadal, adding he thinks Djokovic's injury was tame by comparison. "He stopped for, what, a few days for his ankle?"

Their finals have gone in cycles: Nadal won the first five; Djokovic the next seven; Nadal the following three.

"I know what I need to do," Djokovic said. "Of course, it's easier said than done."

In Grand Slam finals, Djokovic leads 3-2.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga saved four match points and he rallied back from 5-1 down to force a second-set tiebreaker before Nadal clinched the victory with a forehand winner.

"My feeling was I played a solid first set without doing anything special, but with no mistakes," said Nadal, adding that he was hampered by the windy conditions. "It's true that for me it's better if we see a little bit more sunshine."

Tsonga started strong but missed three break chances in the fourth game including one which left him shaking his head in disbelief after Nadal scooped the ball off his ankles and whipped it back down the line. The flustered Frenchman made 17 unforced errors in the first set compared to four for Nadal.

"I always try to be aggressive when I play him. It's the only way for me. If I stay back, there's no way I can win," Tsonga said. "But I can't rush to the net either because otherwise he hits a passing shot, and 90 percent of the time I lose the point. So I have to have the right mix between patience and aggressiveness."

Fognini made 26 unforced errors against Djokovic and was jeered off the court after losing his first Masters semifinal in 52 minutes.

The Italian called for a trainer at 4-1.

But he looked demoralized and at the next changeover he called for the trainer again, pointing to his left shin as the trainer sprayed and taped it. He said he hurt it playing football tennis with his coach.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Students heading off to college in Washington state next fall will have to wait awhile to find out how much tuition they'll be paying.

Since the Legislature was set to go home without finishing the state budget, no one is sure whether Washington students will be getting a tuition increase, a cut, or neither. All three ideas have been proposed this year.

If you go to the University of Washington or Washington State University, tuition and mandatory fees already add up to nearly $13,000 a year, so plus or minus $390 may not seem like a lot to individual students or their parents.

But students aren't the only ones waiting for a decision from the Legislature. The state's college and universities are also on hold.

They can't finish putting together their budgets for next year until the Legislature finishes its work. Depending on the choices lawmakers make when they return to Olympia soon, universities are waiting to hear whether they'll get millions more from the state this year and next.

Officials at all Washington's public colleges and universities will likely have to wait a few weeks or even a few months longer before they can set tuition for next year.

For the most part, college officials say they're not chewing their fingernails over the delay.

"It's not that unusual in the first year of a biennium," said Todd Sprague, spokesman for The Evergreen State College.

Although trustees of the Olympia college usually make their tuition decision in June, they also have a July meeting scheduled and can add a special meeting if they need one, Sprague said.

"We wouldn't do anything without getting direction from the Legislature," he said.

Until then, curious students and parents can get an estimate of next year's tuition bill on the school's website, where administrators have used a 5 percent increase to help estimate costs this fall. Sprague emphasized that number is just an example, not a guess.

The college has raised tuition about 14 percent during each of the past four years, under the guidance of the Legislature.

State government support for higher education has been cut about in half over the past decade. Before the legislative session began in January, a group of college presidents said they would agree to freeze tuition if lawmakers pumped $225 million back into Washington's higher education system.

This year, the three primary budget proposals before the Legislature estimate tuition will go up 3 percent in the fall, go down 3 percent or stay the same. Lawmakers will likely return to Olympia later this spring or summer for a special session to finish the state budget and set tuition for the next two years.

The Legislature gave the state's four-year schools tuition-setting authority in 2011. Double-digit tuition increases have nearly doubled tuition at Washington schools over the past five years. While the schools now have the authority to set their tuition as high as they want, most have continued to defer to the Legislature, which has put double-digit tuition increases into recent state budgets.

Central Washington University may use that flexibility to start to build back up its own budget over the next two years, said college spokeswoman Linda Schactler.

CWU officials were expecting the Legislature to authorize a modest tuition gain of up to 5 percent and were looking at the possibility of raising tuition by an additional 3 to 7 percent depending on how much money the state allocates for the university, she said.

"We're really looking for some opportunity to start to gain ground again," Schactler said.

UW is planning to set its tuition where the state Legislature decides and the university's staff is doing some budget modeling based on all the proposals in Olympia, said UW spokesman Norm Arkans.

Although the UW regents usually set tuition in June, in other years they haven't finished their budget until July. Arkans said they need more clarity from Olympia before they can move forward.

Western Washington University also is in wait-and-see mode, said spokesman Paul Cocke, but WSU is on its own tuition path this spring.

Washington State University President Elson Floyd has promised tuition won't go up any more than 2 percent this fall. If the Legislature creates a budget based on less than a 2 percent increase, WSU will follow their lead, said Colleen Kerr, WSU assistant vice president for external affairs and chief legislative officer.

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Contact Donna Blankinship through Twitter at https://twitter.com/dgblankinship

Marquis outpitched Ricky Nolasco, Yonder Alonso had a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning and San Diego Padres beat the Miami Marlins 1-0 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.

Marquis (4-2) allowed five hits, walked one and struck out three in eight innings, his longest stint since last Aug. 11th when he had a 5-0 shutout at Pittsburgh.

"I felt pretty good," Marquis said. "I've been working real hard to get my mechanics right the last couple weeks of spring and the first probably four starts. ... It's easier now that I've figured a few things out. I have the life back on my ball, the north-south movement. (The) defense is doing a great job allowing me to pitch to contact and get some quick outs."

Padres manager Bud Black credited Marquis' sinker for the pitcher's effectiveness, especially noting the 14 outs he got on grounders.

"Today it was all about the sinker," Black said. "It was a basic Marquis mix of fastball, sliders and today with the heavy sinker down, down, down. They hit a lot of grounders and our infielders were on their toes and made some great defensive plays especially on the left side of the infield."

Nolasco (2-4) gave up one run and four hits, with one walk and a season-high nine strikeouts in seven innings.He had won his four previous decisions at San Diego, where he dropped to 4-2 with a 2.11 ERA in his career.

In the sixth, Wil Venable singled off Nolasco's leg with one out and advanced to second on Chase Headley's single to right. After Carlos Quentin drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, Venable scored on Alonso's fly to deep left field.

Headley, who also doubled in the first, extended his hitting streak to 13 games, and Venable also had two hits and a stolen base.

In the top of the seventh, the Marlins put runners on first and second on consecutive two-out singles by Justin Ruggiano and Greg Dobbs. However, Marquis struck out Derek Dietrich, who was making his major league debut, to end the inning.

Dietrich got his first career hit in his first major league at bat when he singled off Marquis leading off the third.Miguel Olivo followed with a double. However, Marquis got Nolasco to ground to third with the runners holding. After Juan Pierre coaxed a walk to load the bases, Marquis got Adeiny Hechavarria to hit a grounder back to the mound, which he turned into a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play.

"Any double play in that situation helps," Marquis said. "I was a little careful with Juan Pierre being that we've had a lot of at-bats and history against each other. I felt that the sinker that I had today against a young guy (Hechavarria) who hasn't seen me too much, I am able to make a pitch and fortunately it was hit at somebody, myself knock it down and finish it off."

"A starting pitcher gets stressed at least once, sometime twice during the course of an outing," Black said. "And Jason made some big pitches when he had to. The punchout on Dietrich (in the seventh) was a change. The first pitch was just a sinker that Dietrich swung through. And an aggressive young hitter swung at another fastball down below the zone."

Huston Street pitched the ninth to pick up his eighth save in eight chances.

The Padres have won four straight, 11 of their last 14 and nine of their last 10 at home after starting the season 5-15 overall. It was their first sweep of the Marlins at home since May 2005

The Marlins, who are last in the majors in runs scored with 99, scored just one run and had 17 hits in three games against the Padres. Wednesday was their sixth shutout of the season.

NOTES: Black confirmed that RHP Burch Smith will be called up from Double-A San Antonio and will make his major league debut on Saturday against the Rays in Tampa. ... Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia, who left Tuesday night's game with a slight right groin pull, said he was going to play catch on Wednesday and did not think he would miss his next start. Marlins manager Mike Redmond said that Sanabia could be pushed back a day or two with the team having a day off on Thursday and another day off on Monday. ... Redmond said that INF Chris Valaika, who fractured his left wrist Tuesday night will likely be out from four to six weeks. Valaika was the 11th player put on the disabled list, tied with the Yankees for the most in the majors. ... OF Chris Coghlan was pressed into service at second Tuesday night when Valaika left the game in the eighth inning. It marked the first time he played in the infield at any level since 2009. ... RHP Edison Volquez (3-3, 5.50) will pitch for the Padres in Tampa Bay Friday night against RHP Alex Cobb (4-2, 2.79). ... The Marlins head to Los Angeles Friday when RHP Jose Fernandez (1-2, 3.48) will pitch against the Dodgers' RHP Matt Magill (0-0, 7.88).

Speakers at the second annual "Humans 2 Mars Summit," running May 6-8 at George Washington University, include NASA chief Charles Bolden, Apollo moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, and space tourist Dennis Tito, who recently announced his own plan to send a married couple on ain 2015.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Space Policy Institute at George Washington and the non-profit Explore Mars organization, which aims to advance the goal of sending people to the Red Planet within the next two decades. Panels at the meeting this week will examine the challenges scientific, technological, and political of . Among the topics to be discussed are Mars agriculture and food production, propulsion and landing technologies, and spacesuit design and life support systems.

"Our goal for the summit is to not only address the challenges of humans going to Mars but also to propose real solutions," Explore Mars executive director Chris Carberry said in a statement. "With the collaboration of experts in the space and science communities and non-traditional players, we will come out of the summit enlightened, encouraged and ready to plan for a human mission to Mars by 2030."

NASA has said it aims to send astronauts to Mars by the mid 2030s. The space agency is building a giant heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System and a new crew capsule called Orion to take people beyond low-Earth orbit.

Private companies and non-profits are also aiming for Mars.

In addition to Tito's Inspiration Mars mission, the Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One foundation recently announced that it isto establish a colony on the Red Planet starting in 2023. Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp will speak at the conference as well.

Registration for the conference is open to the public, and the event will be broadcast live online. You canbeginning at 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT), courtesy of the summit's webcast.

You can also follow the webcasts directly here: http://h2m.exploremars.org/webcast/. Visit SPACE.com this week for complete coverage from the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Washington.

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