It scares me, actually, how much Glass in repose resembles any another hunk of obsolete technology found around the house that will eventually be thrown away. Discarded not by the culture, but by me, the person who bought it and who already from time to time aimlessly holds onto dozens of gadgets and chargers and wires that, though once greeted with erotically high hopes, will be scrapped with the coffee grounds, unrecycled.

But I should not race ahead. Because now is the time of treasuring and pageantry for Google Glass. The first wearable Internet unit is having its moment. No one but real jerks are talking ashes to ashes, or Segways to Segways, when it comes to Glass. Were not anywhere near that.

*

I was just fitted with Google Glass on Friday, at an undisclosed location: spacious, minimalist, done in exposed ducts, painted pipes and reclaimed wood. A bar lined one wall; espresso on ice was offered. Spunky grass-fed humans, of various hues and gender-codings, in non-GMO cotton, danced attendance on me. I am a so-called Glass Explorer, chosen to try out Glass on the strength of my (admittedly overworked) 140-character application to Project Glass from February 27. In this tweet, I told Google what I would do were they to endow me with an early pair of Glass:

I'd sound out its poetry without ignoring its griefs. I'd no longer pretend I live in New York; I'd document the hallucination.

I read what you wrote, said Norm, my warm and adorable Glass Guide, as he greeted me in Glasss organic-modern loft in Manhattan. I really liked it.

It occurred to me that I had never liked a person more than I liked Norm, for that moment. I had tweeted something, and connected with Norm through words like poetry and grief, but connected so exactly that heand Father Google, of whom Norm was an emissarywanted to mark that connection by giving me the companys finest and newest invention: the Internet, strappable to the human skull.

By give, of course, I mean I had the exquisite privilege, along with several thousand other contest winners, of paying $2000 for Glass, plus accessories. Because it is nearly summer I chose the white color called cotton, which spoke to me more than orange tangerine or blue sky or shale or charcoal. I asked Norm about the silliness of the color names, and he told me they were meant to invoke nature.

Were bringing the humanity back to technology, he added, just as I tried to imagine what Google was bringing the nature back tobut I didnt ask.

He asked me what app I was most looking forward to using on GlassNorm just said Glass, never your or my Glassand I told him Twitter.

I use Twitter a lot, too, Norm said. Currently, though, you cant initiate tweets. You can only retweet and favorite, not actually tweet from Glass, he explained, looking sanguine as he expertly moved me through some minor fitting and Wi-Fi hookup, which involved pointing the Glass eye at a kind of barcode on a laptop screen. It lamped the bar code and prestoconnected! Amazing! Who cares if I couldnt initiate tweets?

Wait, that means I cant tweet.

But Norm was onto the next thing: taking photos and videos. He showed me a burnished late-afternoon early-summer view of ravishing Manhattan, from the broad and high Google window in Chelsea, looking south. He instructed me to speak the magic words" -- OK, Glass -- which activate the system and precede any command.

OK, Glass, take a picture, I said. It dida hologram the size of an olive pit with an image of the golden Big Apple suddenly framed that image and froze it. The photo, somehow, flew to Google+.

As I half-expected, I am having to finally learn about Google+. Ive , or however long its been around, but now that its the main depot for all things shareable from Glass, Im committing to it. This is partly because currentlyas my savior Norm has taught me to sayFacebook and Twitter and the other social networks play only warily with Glass.

Like a lot of things. In addition to Twitter and Facebook, here are some more things Glass currently plays only warily with: Third-party apps; stuttery users (on Glass, I managed to look up um on Google seven times, and now I am a budding expert on UM, The University of Miami); and network names that have special characters like hyphens in them. I was not able to access Wi-Fi by the beach, because the network I typically use (Guest-Cottage) contains a hyphen.

But somehow this didnt bother me, all the things that Glass is currently stymied by. Its in my wiring, after all, to believe that something works when it doesnt, or doesnt properly, especially when its new. And I never, ever think anythings creepy: not cloning, not Mars expeditions, not Google Glass. If I sense that something is fresh and exciting, like Google Glass, everything in me wants to move heaven and earth to spin it into bliss.

Now, I am holding onto the last sales line that Norm -- who was both cheerful and sphinx-like, come to think of it, like an oracular character from Inception or Vanilla Sky -- gave to me. His parting advice about Google Glass was the koan: Ease into it.

Ease into it?! I said. What does that mean? Like a psychological thing?

Like an epilepsy thing? A brain control thing? asked my boyfriend, Jamie, who had come as my plus-one.

Nothing but dogged reiteration from Norm. Just ease into it, he said. Ease into it. Its new. Its like anything else. Just. Ease. Into. It.

And then Norm was gone.

Still, as I left my Friday initiation with Jamie, I fairly tripped out into the sunset. In a way that has never happened to me before, people actually stared at us, with me in the medical-cyborg headgear, as I snapped photos of Manhattanites with my cotton-colored Glass; waiters and taxi drivers and teens on the sidewalk evinced a childlike sense of wonder.

Lifes too short to be blas about -- or to ease into -- Google Glass. Isnt it?

*

Im going to keep documenting my efforts here in The Glass Menagerie, to find the poetry and grief and hallucination in Google Glass. Next entry up: My experience as a Glass Pariah in Brooklyn -- where I live; where they cherish 1870 and 1940; where they avert their eyes from all things futurish; and where now, thanks to the Glass on my head, no one will talk to me.

Eleven of the Fed's banking districts reported "modest to moderate" economic growth, according to the Beige Book survey released Wednesday. The 12th, in Dallas, reported strong growth.

The survey is based on anecdotal reports. The mostly favorable results of the latest survey suggest that the economy and the job market are improving despite tax increases and government spending cuts that took effect this year.

But the modest or moderate improvement reported for most regions appears to fall short of the strong and sustained growth that several Fed members have said is needed before the Fed starts tapering its bond purchases. Those purchases have helped keep interest rates at record lows.

"The Fed's Beige Book wasn't too downbeat, but it wasn't too upbeat either," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "It points to generally modest growth in the second quarter."

Manufacturing activity expanded in 10 districts, the survey noted. But there were concerns that government spending cuts might slow factory activity, particularly in defense industries.

Most districts reported gains in consumer spending during the survey period, but some said colder weather had slowed retail sales.

Home sales and prices increased throughout the country, and several districts noted that buyers were receiving multiple offers. Auto sales kept rising, too, although some districts reported shortages of used cars for sale.

Hiring was described as rising at a "measured pace," with a few districts reporting pockets of stronger activity.

The Fed has been assessing the job market's health in considering when to start scaling back its support for the economy, including $85-billion-a-month in Treasury and mortgage bond purchases. The information from the latest Beige Book will discussed along with other economic data at the Fed's next policy meeting on June 18-19.

Investors are paying closer attention to the Fed after minutes of the past meeting showed that several members favored reducing the bond purchases if the economy demonstrates strong and sustained growth. And Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional panel last month that the Fed could slow the pace of the bond purchases over the next few meetings, if the job market shows "real and sustainable progress."

Still, most of Bernanke's testimony last month focused on the many risks the U.S. economy still faces and the help the Fed's support programs have provided.

Recent economic reports have painted a mixed picture of the economy's health.

The housing recovery looks sustainable and the auto industry is on pace for another solid sales year. Both have benefited from the Fed's low interest-rate policies, which have helped make mortgages and loans cheaper.

Steady job growth and low inflation have allowed consumers to keep spending, even after higher Social Security taxes have reduced their paychecks this year.

Still, wages are barely increasing. A measure of U.S. factory activity fell in May to its lowest level since the last month of the Great Recession. And while the service sector is still growing, a closely watched survey of those firms showed many held back on hiring last month. Service firms have been the main source of job gains in recent months.

The government releases the May employment report on Friday. Economists forecast that employers added 170,000 jobs, roughly in line with April's pace, while the unemployment rate remained at a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the January-March quarter but many analysts believe growth is slowing in the current April-June period to around 2 percent.

Doctors reported the results Sunday at a cancer conference in Chicago. Experts called the outcome "amazing" and said this quick, cheap test could save tens of thousands of lives each year in developing countries by spotting early signs of cancer, allowing treatment before it's too late.

Usha Devi, one of the women in the study, says it saved her life.

"Many women refused to get screened. Some of them died of cancer later," Devi said. "Now I feel everyone should get tested. I got my life back because of these tests."

Pap smears and tests for HPV, a virus that causes most cervical cancers, have slashed cases and deaths in the United States. But poor countries can't afford those screening tools.

This study tried a test that costs very little and can be done by local people with just two weeks of training and no fancy lab equipment. They swab the cervix with diluted vinegar, which can make abnormal cells briefly change color.

This low-tech visual exam cut the cervical cancer death rate by 31 percent, the study found. It could prevent 22,000 deaths in India and 72,600 worldwide each year, researchers estimate.

"That's amazing. That's remarkable. It's a very exciting result," said Dr. Ted Trimble of the National Cancer Institute in the U.S., the main sponsor of the study.

The story of research participant Usha Devi is not an unusual one. Despite having given birth to four children, she had never had a gynecological exam. She had been bleeding heavily for several years, hoping patience and prayers would fix things.

"Everyone said it would go away, and every time I thought about going to the doctor there was either no money or something else would come up," she said, sitting in a tiny room that serves as bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room for her entire family.

One day she found a card from health workers trying to convince women to join the study. Devi is in her late 40s and like many poor Indians doesn't know her date of birth. She learned she had advanced cervical cancer. The study paid for surgery to remove her uterus and cervix.

The research effort was led by Dr. Surendra Shastri of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. India has nearly one-third of the world's cases of cervical cancer more than 140,000 each year.

"It's just not possible to provide Pap smear screening in developing countries. We don't have that kind of money" or the staff or equipment, so a simpler method had to be found, Shastri said.

Starting in 1998, researchers enrolled 75,360 women to be screened every two years with the vinegar test. Another 76,178 women were chosen for a control, or comparison group that just got cancer education at the start of the study and vouchers for a free Pap test if they could get to the hospital to have one. Women in either group found to have cancer were offered free treatment at the hospital.

Still, this quick and free cancer screening was a hard sell in a deeply conservative country where women are subservient and need permission from husbands, fathers or others for even routine decisions. Social workers were sent into the slums to win people over.

"We went to every single house in the neighborhood assigned to us introducing ourselves and asking them to come to our health talks. They used to come out of curiosity, listen to the talk but when we asked them to get screened they would totally refuse," said one social worker, Vaishnavi Bhagat. "The women were both scared and shy."

One woman who did agree to testing jumped up from the table when she was examined with a speculum. "She started screaming that we had stolen her kidney," Bhagat said. Another health worker was beaten by people in the neighborhood when women realized they would have to disrobe to be screened.

"There was a sense of shame about taking their clothes off. A lot of them had their babies at home and had never been to a doctor," said one health worker, Urmila Hadkar. "Sometimes just the idea of getting tested for cancer scared them. They would start crying even before being tested."

But screening worked. The quality of screening by health workers was comparable to that of an expert gynecologist, researchers reported. The study was planned for 16 years, but results at 12 years showed lives were saved with the screening. So independent monitors advised offering it to the women in the comparison group.

An ethics controversy developed during the study. The U.S. Office for Human Research Protections faulted researchers for not adequately informing participants in the comparison group about Pap tests for screening. A letter from the agency in March indicated officials seemed to accept many of the remedies study leaders had implemented.

Others defended the study.

"We looked at the ethics very carefully" and felt them to be sound, and visited the project in India, said Trimble of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Sandra Swain, a cancer specialist at Medstar Washington Hospital Center, also defended the research. She is president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the research results were presented at that group's meeting in Chicago on Sunday.

"There really was no wrongdoing there," she said. "They have no screening anyway," so there is no standard of care now.

Officials in India already are making plans to expand the vinegar testing to a wider population.

Many poor countries can't afford mammograms for breast cancer screening either. The India study also has been testing breast exams by health workers as an alternative. Preliminary results suggest breast cancers are being found at an earlier stage, but it's too soon to know if that will save lives because not enough women have died yet to compare the groups, said Trimble of the National Cancer Institute.

More progress against cervical cancer may come from last month's announcement that two companies will drastically lower prices on HPV vaccines for poor countries. Pilot projects will begin in Asia and Africa; the campaign aims to vaccinate more than 30 million girls in more than 40 countries by 2020.

___

Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione reported from Chicago.

Yukiya Amano's unusually blunt language in comments to delegates at the opening session of a 35-nation IAEA board reflected his frustration at the lack of progress. Experts of his International Atomic Energy Agency have met Iranian counterparts 10 times since early 2012 in attempts to gain access to sites, documents and persons linked to the IAEA investigation, without tangible headway.

The IAEA had hoped that the meetings would lead to a restart of its investigation that stalled in 2007.

While not putting direct blame on the Islamic Republic, Amano suggested the fault lies with Tehran's perceived refusal to cooperate with IAEA experts looking to investigate the allegations. He appealed to the Islamic Republic to engage with his agency on the probe "with a sense of urgency."

International exasperation with the IAEA-Iran stalemate is compounded by deadlock in repeated attempts by six world powers to persuade Tehran to curb uranium enrichment a technology that can generate both nuclear power and the core of nuclear weapons. Iran denies any work interest in such arms and insists all of its atomic activities are peaceful. It has been hit by U.N. Security Council and other sanctions for its refusal to halt enrichment.

Amano frequently urges Iran to cooperate. But his departure from softer diplomatic language appeared to be a prelude to a push by the U.S. and its allies for tougher action on Iran that goes beyond the usual critical speech making.

The Security Council first took up Iran's nuclear file on the basis of an IAEA resolution in 2006 suggesting it was not in full compliance with the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and the agency has since sent several other resolutions to the council.

Western diplomats have said that unless there is progress in the IAEA probe their countries could push for another resolution reporting Tehran to the Security Council. That would add diplomatic pressure on the Islamic Republic and give traction to any attempts by the United States, Britain and France the Western permanent council members to lobby for possible new sanctions.

Amano specifically urged Iran to cooperate on IAEA attempts to probe allegations that Tehran worked on explosive triggers for a nuclear blast at the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran, at a site that the agency suspects may now be undergoing a cleanup.

In comments to reporters Amano mentioned soil removal, asphalt work and "possible dismantling of infrastructures" at Parchin.

Because of such work, he said "it may no longer be possible to find anything even if we have access to the site."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Jean Stapleton, best known for her Emmy-winning role as the good-hearted housewife Edith Bunker in the groundbreaking 1970s television comedy "All in the Family," has died at age 90, her family said on Saturday.

Stapleton died on Friday of natural causes at her home in New York City, her son, film and television director John Putch, said in a statement.

"It is with great love and heavy hearts that we say farewell to our collective Mother, with a capital M," Putch and his sister, Pamela Putch, said in a joint statement. "Her devotion to her craft and her family taught us all great life lessons."

The actress won three Emmys, U.S. TV's highest honor, for her role as Edith, the long-suffering, unsophisticated but understanding wife of the reactionary and often racist Archie Bunker, played by the late Carroll O'Connor, in the hit TV sitcom.

"All in the Family," inspired by the British program "Till Death Us Do Part," was a success with audiences even as it helped usher in a new era for U.S. television by confronting contentious topics such as racism, the Vietnam War and the feminist movement.

Archie, a working-class New Yorker, often clashed over politics and social issues with his adult daughter, Gloria, and his liberal son-in-law, Michael Stivic, whom he called "Meathead."

Edith spoke in a nasal, high-pitched voice, and seemed confused at times by the social changes going on around her. Her gentle nature contrasted with her husband's mean streak. Although Archie often called her a "dingbat," she patiently stood by him.

In a nod to the generational conflict on display in the show, the program, aired on CBS, began with Archie and Edith at a piano singing the nostalgic "Those Were the Days."

"No one gave more profound 'How to be a Human Being' lessons than Jean Stapleton," Norman Lear, the producer of "All in the Family," said in a written statement released to Reuters.

Film director Rob Reiner, who played Edith's son-in-law, said in a statement to CBS News that Stapleton was "a brilliant comedienne with exquisite timing."

Stapleton appeared in "All in the Family" from 1971 to 1979, and continued her role for a time in the 1979 spinoff show "Archie Bunker's Place."

MAKING EDITH FUNNY

Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in New York in 1923 to an opera singer mother and a businessman father. She would later use her mother's maiden name, Stapleton, as her stage name.

She worked during World War Two as a typist for the British War Ministry Office in New York and made her professional stage debut in 1941. In the 1950s and 1960s, she acted in a number of Broadway productions, including a part in "Damn Yankees" that got Lear's attention and her role in "All in the Family."

Sitting alongside O'Connor for a 2000 interview on the talk show "Donny & Marie," Stapleton said she developed her nasal voice to play an oddball in "Damn Yankees" and decided to use it again in "All in the Family," after behind-the-scenes work that saw Edith go from abrasive to daffy.

"As we developed and found the characters, which was in the rehearsal process and which was very stimulating, very exciting and a learning process, as these elements came to us, something else developed," Stapleton said. "And one was, I think I'll use that nasal voice because it's funny."

O'Connor, who died in 2001, said in the same interview that if Stapleton had followed the British version of the show and played Edith as sharp-tongued, the program would have been less successful. "She had to be what she created in order to make Archie work," he said.

After "All in the Family," Stapleton played former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in a 1982 television movie, and had a supporting role in the 1998 romantic comedy "You've Got Mail."

She maintained a lifelong love of the theater, and in 1990, received the Village Voice newspaper's Obie Award for her performances in Harold Pinter's Off-Broadway plays "Mountain Language" and "The Birthday Party."

She spent a number of years living and working in Los Angeles, but returned to her native New York in 2002 to live permanently.

Stapleton is survived by her son and daughter. Her husband, William Putch, died in 1983.

(Writing and additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney)

The Guardian newspaper published an interview Monday saying that Douglas attributed his illness to the HPV virus from oral sex. When asked about his cancer, Douglas said "without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), which actually comes from cunnilingus."

But spokesman Allen Burry said later that Douglas never said that was the cause of his cancer. He said Douglas was discussing what causes oral cancer during the interview.

Health officials say smoking and alcohol are the main causes of oral cancer. The human papillomavirus, however, has been linked to one kind of throat cancer.

The 40-page suit to be filed Thursday will name as defendants the NCAA and its president, Mark Emmert, and Oregon State President Edward Ray, who was chair of the NCAA's executive committee, according to a statement released by attorney Wick Sollers and other family representatives late Wednesday night.

The planned litigation also seeks to shine a light on the withering report prepared by former FBI director Louis Freeh, whom the university tapped to lead an investigation into the scandal, and calls into question how and why the NCAA used the report as a basis for its sanctions in July, according to Sollers.

College sports' governing body acted with uncharacteristic speed in levying landmark penalties that included a four-year bowl ban and steep scholarship cuts less than two weeks after Freeh released his findings.

The NCAA, Emmert and Ray "acted in clear and direct violation of the organization's own rules based on a flawed report" by Freeh, the statement said. The report pointed blame in part on Paterno and three former school officials.

"This case is further proof that the NCAA has lost all sense of its mission. If there was ever a situation that demanded meticulous review and a careful adherence to NCAA rules and guidelines, this was it," Sollers said. "Instead, the NCAA placed a premium on speed over accuracy and precipitous action over due process."

Paterno's son, Jay Paterno, and Bill Kenney are two former Paterno assistants taking part in the action against the NCAA, the statement said. Also joining in the suit are five trustees, four faculty members and nine ex-Penn State players, including Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, according to the statement.

Sollers said the suit was to be filed in state court in Centre County, home of Penn State's flagship campus. The family planned to post the complaint on www.paterno.com after it was filed.

Freeh accused Paterno and three former university officials of concealing allegations against Sandusky, a retired defensive coordinator. Sandusky was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison after being convicted last year of dozens of criminal counts of abuse, including allegations on and off campus.

Paterno died in January 2012. His family and the former school officials have vehemently denied they took part in a cover-up.

The suit is designed "to redress the NCAA's 100 percent adoption of the Freeh Report. ... The reality is that consent decree was imposed through coercion and threats behind the scenes, and there was no ability for anyone to get redress," Sollers told Bob Costas in an interview that aired on the NBC Sports Network's "Costas Tonight" early Thursday morning.

"There was no board approval, there was no transparency, and there was no consideration of this consent decree."

Dick Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general and Pennsylvania governor, also was interviewed by Costas. Thornburgh was an author of a critique released in February and commissioned by the Paterno family that called Freeh's work a "rush to injustice."

The family's lawsuit would be the latest filing in a tangled web of litigation related to the sanctions. Most prominently, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, which also has faced criticism for a botched investigation of Miami and departures in the enforcement division.

The penalties against Penn State included a $60 million fine. The NCAA also vacated 111 wins from Paterno's record, meaning he would no longer hold the title of major college football's winningest coach.

The lawsuit lodges six counts against the NCAA, Emmert and Ray, including breach of contract, civil conspiracy, defamation and commercial disparagement, according to Sollers' statement.

Sollers, in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, said the suit would ask for the sanctions and agreement between school and the NCAA to be deemed unlawful and the penalties overturned.

The lawsuit also would ask for unspecified damages and court costs, Sollers said, though the family would donate any net proceeds to charity.

"The broader goal is to get the truth out," Sollers told the AP. "This narrative that's in public that was perpetuated by the NCAA's adoption of the deeply flawed Freeh report ... cannot stand."

The NCAA said Wednesday it had not received any such lawsuit and could not comment.

"Despite our request, the Paterno family has not shared any information about its planned legal action," chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement. "We remain committed to working with Penn State toward the continued successful completion of our voluntary agreement with the university and to working" with the NCAA's independent monitor, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.

Penn State spokesman Dave La Torre said the school was not a party to any litigation that might be filed by the Paterno family and remained committed to "full compliance" to the sanctions.

"We look forward to continuing to work with Sen. George Mitchell and recognize the important role that intercollegiate athletics provides for our student athletes and the wider university community," the statement from La Torre said.

Sollers said Freeh is not named as a defendant in the case, but is listed as a "co-conspirator" in the lawsuit, and that there were close communications between the NCAA and Freeh's team throughout the investigation.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Wednesday for a spokesman for Freeh.

Costas said Freeh and Emmert declined to appear on his show.

___

Online:

http://progress.psu.edu/the-freeh-report

Government spokesman Albert Camara said Monday that in addition to the 12 dead, 26 people were hospitalized with injuries from the violence last week.

Hospital workers said the death toll is actually higher, at 18, because some families took their dead from the morgue for immediate burial.

The clashes on Thursday and early Friday were the latest in the ongoing fight between the country's opposition and the ruling party over the details of a much-delayed parliamentary election.

Opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla on Sunday denounced the "unprecedented violence."

A-Rod's business partner, Jose More, confirmed that the sale closed Friday.

Rodriguez bought the 54,000-square-foot piece of waterfront land for $7.4 million in 2010. Using his own construction company, Newport Property Construction, he spent another $7.6 million building a nearly-20,000-square-foot mansion.

The sale one of the highest ever in Miami-Dade County will earn Rodriguez a $15 million profit.

More says Rodriguez decided to sell because the buyer, who More wouldn't name, made A-Rod an offer he simply could not refuse. More says Rodriguez also loves the design process and is already planning to buy another home in South Florida with a little more privacy.

A-Rod is recovering from surgery on his left hip.

University spokesman Colin Riley declined to provide the student's name or other identifying details.

The other two victims killed in the back-to-back blasts near the finish line of the storied distance race were Martin Richard, 8, and Krystle Campbell, 29, both from the Boston area. More than 170 other people were hurt by the two explosions.

(Reporting By Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Scott Malone)