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Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reports that George Sfairopoulos, agent for Portland Trail Blazers international forward Kostas Papanikolaou, doesn't believe his client is in the organization's plans for the 2013-14 season. "As of now, we don't have any sign that leads us to believe that Kostas will go to Portland," Sfairopoulos told CSNNW.com. "Therefore, we believe that he will not be in the plans of the organization next season and probably will be traded." Earlier this month, Rigas Dardalis of EuroHoops.net offered this report. Blazers followed him closely throughout the season, but at this point it seems that "Pap" in not on the immediate plans of Neil Olshey. Portland (besides starter Nicolas Batum) also has another talented European forward with Spaniard Victor Claver and is no need to "overload" the small forward position. In fact Olshey didn't travel in London, where only Blazers' scout Jason Filipi was present. So there is a strong chance that the Blazers will trade his rights and many teams has shown interest. Spurs and Mavericks are among them, as well as the Knicks who drafted Papanikolaou on No 48 of last year's draft. The Blazers acquired Papanikolaou's rights from the New York Knicks in a July 2012 sign-and-trade involving Raymond Felton. Papanikolaou said in a March interview that he dreams of playing in the NBA and there was some chatter last fall that he might be brought over for the 2013-14 season. I noted back on May 1 that that talk had subsided. Thanks to tyeforshee in the FanShots. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

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On November 10th, the Panthers will travel to Candlestick Park to face last years NFC champs, the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately for the Niners, they will be without one of their most dynamic playmakers in Michael Crabtree after he suffered a torn achilles in OTA's this past Tuesday. Although the Niners don't expect Crabtree to miss the entire season, he will most certainly miss the majority of the regular season, and one could only assume would only participate if the Niners were to be in contention for a playoff spot or a deep playoff run. It's a crushing blow for the Niners and Crabtree, who developed an immediate rapport with QB Colin Kaepernick, grabbing 86 receptions for 946 yards and 9 td's in their 11 starts together last year. For the Panthers however; it's a bit of a break for a team that's traveling across the country to face one of the NFL's best teams. On November 10th, the Panthers will travel to Candlestick Park to face last years NFC champs, the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately for the Niners, they will be without one of their most dynamic playmakers in Michael Crabtree after he suffered a torn achilles in OTA's this past Tuesday. Although the Niners don't expect Crabtree to miss the entire season, he will most certainly miss the majority of the regular season, and one could only assume would only participate if the Niners were to be in contention for a playoff spot or a deep playoff run. It's a crushing blow for the Niners and Crabtree, who developed an immediate rapport with QB Colin Kaepernick, grabbing 86 receptions for 946 yards and 9 td's in their 11 starts together last year. For the Panthers however; it's a bit of a break for a team that's traveling across the country to face one of the NFL's best teams.

Astronauts aboard the ISS took some incredible shots of Alaska's Pavlof volcano, which began erupting on May 13, 2013, and has been disrupting air travel up near the Aleutian arc where it is situated, approximately 625 miles south of Anchorage. When photograph ISS036-E-2105 (top) was taken, the space station was about 475 miles south-southeast of the volcano (49.1° North latitude, 157.4° West longitude). The volcanic plume extended southeastward over the North Pacific Ocean. Two more shots, AFTER THE JUMP...

Dear allSo when I last put pen to paper sort of we were just getting ready to go on our Tundra Wilderness tour. We jumped on a bus and headed off into Denali national park. It39s 6 million acres and its one of the most impressive things we have ever seen. Alaskans have strict rules about how many people go in and out and it39s kept in its true wild form. That39s what we loved about it.

Fans of the vine-swinging, barrel-bashing, chest-thumping Wii favourite will be glad to hear that Donkey Kong Country Returns…returns? This time in 3D. On your 3DS, naturally. DKCR was a blast from the past in 2010 as Nintendo revitalised the SNES classic with travel between foreground and background, rich and vibrant level graphics, and a fun, vibrant style that collided retro sensibilities with modern production values. Now the update has been updated, with 3D graphics and new content for mobile gamers on the 3DS platform. The aptly named New Mode is…well, new, but aimed at first-time gamers to the platform genre, giving Donkey and Diddy an extra life heart each making the ease in a little better for newbies. Other helpful items include the ability to constantly switch between the two apes, Green Balloons to protect against falling off a cliff or a ledge, and Crash Guards, which render the cheeky chimps invulnerable during mine cart and rocket barrel areas. Veterans will be able to play the game as it was originally released. DKCR:3D also includes a whole new “Cloud” world complete with eight new stages available after players complete the main game, along with the facility for two local players to team up as Donkey and Diddy over wifi. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is released tomorrow on May 24th for 3DS, so go bananas! Check out the official site for more information.

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Nation that suffered an embarrassing Euro 2000 now boasts both Champions League finalists thanks to a system that values coaches and nurtures indigenous talentRobin Dutt has a lovely problem on his hands. Sat in his office in Frankfurt, the man who replaced Matthias Sammer as the sporting director at the German Football Association last August, taking on responsibility for the development of young players and coaches, doubts there is any room for improvement. "We are at the top level and it's difficult to go above that," Dutt says. "If we are in the year 2000 and we are at the bottom it is OK. But nobody sees anything wrong here."A decade or so after the DFB travelled the world in search of best practice, Dutt smiles at the irony that other nations are coming to them for advice these days. Dan Ashworth, the Football Association's newly appointed director of elite development, was among recent visitors, spending three hours with Dutt, the former Bayer Leverkusen and SC Freiburg coach, in a meeting that must have been enlightening.German football is booming, reaping the rewards of the strategy drawn up after their dismal performances at Euro 2000, when Germany finished bottom of their group. Forced into an overhaul of youth football, the DFB, the Bundesliga and the clubs decided that the development of more technically proficient homegrown players would be in everyone's best interests. This led to the creation of academies right across the top two divisions.The fruits are there for all to see. Joachim Löw, Germany's coach, is blessed with a generation of gifted young players – Julian Draxler (19), Andre Schürrle (22), Sven Bender (24), Thomas Müller (23), Holger Badstuber (24), Mats Hummels (24), Mesut Ozil (24), Ilkay Gundogan (22), Mario Götze (20), Marco Reus (23), Toni Kroos (23) … the list goes on – and Dutt says there are more coming through in the under-21 side who will travel to Israel for the European Championship next month.As for Saturday's Champions League final at Wembley, the DFB proudly points out that 26 of the players Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund named in their Uefa squads this season are homegrown and eligible to play for Germany. More than half of those players came through the DFB's talent development programme, which was introduced in 2003 with the aim of identifying promising youngsters and providing them with technical skills and tactical knowledge at an early age. Covering 366 areas of Germany, this impressive initiative caters for children aged 8 to 14 and is served by 1,000 part-time DFB coaches, all of whom must hold the Uefa B licence and are expected to scout as well as train the players. "We have 80 million people in Germany and I think before 2000 nobody noticed a lot of talent," Dutt says. "Now we notice everyone."Some youngsters attending the development programme are already affiliated with professional clubs but others may be only turning out for their local junior side, which means the weekly DFB sessions are also a chance for Bundesliga teams to spot players.It is the opposite of what happens in England, where the FA relies on clubs to develop youngsters. Dutt smiles when it is suggested to him that the DFB are doing the clubs' recruitment for them. "But if we help the clubs, we help us, because the players of our national teams – the youth teams and Joachim Löw's team – come from the clubs," he says.The incredible depth of Germany's coaching resources, as well as the DFB's close relationship with Bundesliga clubs, helps to make the programme. According to Uefa, Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence and 1,070 (115) with the Pro licence, the highest qualification. It is little wonder that Ashworth said last month that there will be no quick fix for English football. The country that invented the game has forgotten that we need people to teach it.For Germany, post-Euro 2000 was about changing philosophies as well as employing more f

With over 770 million GPS-enabled smartphones, location data has begun to permeate the entire mobile space. The possibilities for location-based services on mobile go beyond consumer-facing apps like FourSquare and Shopkick. It's powering advertisements, and many other services — from weather to travel apps. In a recent report from BI Intelligence on location-based data, we analyze the opportunities emerging from this new local-mobile paradigm. We specifically examine how location-enabled mobile ads have generated excitement, look at how location-based feature have boosted engagement for apps, and demystify some of the underlying technologies and privacy issues. Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >> Take a look at this infographic: A pure GPS approach and the "lat-long" tags it generates is considered the standard for location data. But there are at least four other methods, sometimes used in combination, for pinpointing location: Cell tower data: When GPS signals can't reach the device's GPS chip, which often happens indoors, the device will often report its location by communicating with the cell tower it's connected to and estimating its distance. It's less accurate than pure GPS data. Wi-Fi connection: It's an accurate method but requires an active Wi-Fi hotspot. Wi-Fi locations are matched with GPS coordinates. It can pinpoint a user to a specific storefront, which is why many retailers are rolling out free public Wi-Fi to enable in-store mobile ads. IP address: Location can be gauged by the IP address associated with the data connection. The accuracy of this approach varies between carriers, and is far less reliable than the above methods. User-reported: When users sign up for emails or register for mobile apps and services, they often enter their addresses and zip codes. This data can be translated into GPS coordinates to build a geolocation profile of a single user or user base. The ability to collect user location data and track it has raised some concerns over privacy. However, Android and iOS give users the ability to opt out of location tracking altogether via their settings. As we detail in our report, there are many opportunities emerging from this new local-mobile paradigm, including location-enabled mobile ads, search, and features that boost engagement for apps. To access BI Intelligence's full report on The Big Potential Of Mobile And Local, sign up for a free trial subscription here. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »