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Brasilia Palace Hotel, Federal District (state)
- Free buffet breakfast, free WiFi, and free parking
Main amenities
- 153 guestrooms
- Restaurant
- Outdoor pool
- Fitness center
- 24-hour front desk
- Air conditioning
- Daily housekeeping
- Self-serve laundry
- Multilingual staff
- Luggage storage
- Tour/ticket assistance
- Porter/bellhop
What's around
- National Congress of Brazil (2.9 mi / 4.6 km)
- Brasilia Art Museum (0.3 mi / 0.5 km)
- Alvorada Palace (0.7 mi / 1.1 km)
- Square of the Three Powers (2.6 mi / 4.2 km)
- Liberty Pantheon (2.6 mi / 4.2 km)
If you like Oscar Neimeyer's architectural style this hotel is for you.
Excellent stay in a quiet rural area.The accomodatio is contemporary style with attention…
Enter dates to check prices
Hotel Info: 020 3027 9803from £33
- Standard Twin Room
- Deluxe Double Room
- Deluxe Single Room
- Deluxe Twin Room
- Standard Double Room
- Standard Single Room
Recommended hotels
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 153 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 3 floors
- Check-in time starts at 2:00 PM
- Check-out time is noon
Required at check in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
- Minimum check-in age is 18
Travelling with others
- Children (2 years old and younger) stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding
- Parents must have child's birth certificate and photo ID *
- Pets not allowed
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free WiFi in rooms
- Free self parking
- Accessible parking
Nearby Three Star Federal District (state) hotels
In the hotel
- Free buffet breakfast daily
- Restaurant
- 24-hour room service
- Outdoor pool
- Pool sun loungers
- Fitness facilities
- 24-hour front desk
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Laundry facilities
- Luggage storage
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Year Built 1956
- Disabled parking
- Accessible path of travel
- Accessible bathroom
- In-room accessibility
In the room
- Climate control
- Air conditioning
- Minibar
- Balcony
- Private bathroom
- Shower only
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- 32-inch TV
- Desk
- Free WiFi
- Phone
- Daily housekeeping
- In-room safe
Top Federal District (state) hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in Federal District (state)
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Nearby hotels
Special features
DiningRestaurante Oscar - Overlooking the pool, this brasserie serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Brasilia Palace Hotel, Federal District (state)'s small print
Parents traveling with a child under 18 must present the child's birth certificate and photo ID (passport for foreign visitors) upon check-in. If only one parent or legal guardian is traveling with the child, that parent or legal guardian must also present a notarized consent of travel signed by both parents. Visitors who plan to travel with children should consult with a Brazilian consulate office prior to travel for further guidance.
Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms.
Mandatory fees
You'll be asked to pay the following charges at check in or check out:
- Tourism fee: BRL 3 per accommodation, per night
We have included all charges provided to us by this hotel. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.


text:
There,couple things ,just wanted to share with You!
That 4G-wirless device,that have on the computer.....does work better...!
everthing runs faster.....
But what Kelly Girl and You share last night,also myself.....
around my time 9:00pm MICE CHAT really bad and drag and frezz up....
I know it there program forsure........
the other....
Swampy,I Glad you are part of R C M C !
You been a Joy to have around.......JIM
Soaring like an EAGLE !
hello all
Thanks Jim.
I thought you were talking about a new phone.
You have a wireless modem you plug into your computer. Do you have unlimited data? If not be careful, watching video or playing lonline games can really take a bite out of your data limit.
Afternoon rex.
I'm going to go outside for a bit. It's a nice part of the day so I want to take advantage. We'll see how far I get.
I have been researching rental car companies for my April trip to Disney World. There is a whole lot of differences in prices. I don't drive, but friend Annette does, and she is coming over on Tuesday, so we can make our plane reservations. If I book directly with United it's only about $288. Not bad, from Chicago to Orlando, nonstop.
Disneyland Here I Come Again!
October 1, to October 6, 2015
That didn't last long. It's a lot colder and windier outside than it looks through the window.
yes wireless modem
No I do not have unlimited data
Iam careful, watching video or playing longline games ......
I never use what they give me any how........only Half
it just chatting here mostly,were it burn.......
I play games like slots machines which is on disk anyway......
and RCT 3...........
Have to say you are very Smart as well!
You are full of information!
Soaring like an EAGLE !
back from sunday funday. and got a talk time in with the new man in my life.. life is good. today is good! got my v-day treats wrapped up for certain people. i made chocolate nut clusters with some sprinkles

subset: commoncrawl


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Posted at: 10/22/2012 9:06 AM
By: J.P. Murrieta, KOB Eyewitness Sports 4
University of New Mexico football coach Bob Davie discussed his quarterback situation on 610am this morning. "If I had to guess, Cole (Gautsche) will be back, I doubt we'll have B.R. (Holbrook)," said Davie.
Holbrook suffered concussion-like symptoms Saturday at Air Force in the second quarter after his head hit the turf. He did not play in the second half against the Falcons. Gautsche missed last week because of a similiar injury against Hawaii.
"The trainers had him (Gautsche) on the field Sunday and ran him through some conditioning drills," Davie added.
"B.R. came in today and saw the trainers," said Davie on Sunday. "He had some concussion symptoms. It occurred with about 14 minutes left in the second quarter. He got sacked, similar to Cole's (Gautsche). His head went back on the turf."
Davie said Holbrook didn't let him know before halftime about the severity of the hit to the head. "At halftime he felt nausiated and a little dizzy and the doctors decided to hold him out."
Backup quarterback Quinton Mccown replaced Holbrook in the second half.
Holbrook completed 5-of-10 passes with one interception in the 28-23 loss to the Falcons.
The Lobos will host Fresno State on Saturday at 1:30pm.


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Photograph - Great Ocean Road, Lorne, Victoria, circa 1920 Reg. No: MM 107497
- Summary:
- Sepia photograph taken by photographer AE Jarratt featuring a seascape in the Victorian seaside locale of Lorne, circa 1920.
Some of Jarratt's photographs of Lorne and Mt Buffalo were exhibited at the Fine Art Society's Galleries at 100 Exhibition Street Melbourne, from October 9 to October 31, 1921.
- Description:
- Panoramic photograph printed on textured cream paper with border around the edge and stamped with photographer studio details on reverse.
- Description Of Content:
- Panoramic photograph of beach scene with a dirt road in foreground sweeping around a small bay. The road is lined by trees and by a fence on the far side of the road. Past the fence a small tree is protected by a wooden box. Electricity wires run along the road as well, and an electricity post is clearly visible at right. At far right is a pier stretching out into the ocean.
- Acquisition Information:
- Unknown from Unknown
|100 mm (Height), 325 mm (Width)
More information
|Tagged with:
|electricity, beaches, fences, trees, roads, seascapes, photographers, oceans, photographic exhibitions, postcards
|Themes this item is part of:
|Images & Image Making Collection
|Primary Classification:
|Secondary Classification:
|Tertiary Classification:
|Back, sideways at proper left hand side, printed, black ink: [in oval frame] 'A.E. JARRATT / [decorative line] / Photographic Artist / [decorative line and two stars on either side ] / LORNE'
Back, at proper left hand side, facing upside down to stamp, handwritten, pencil: '1/9'
|Photograph: Sepia
|A.E. Jarratt - Photographic Artist, Lorne, Victoria, Australia, circa 1920
Jarratt exhibited some of his works in 1921 so the latest possible date is possibly 1921.
|Place & Date Depicted:
|Lorne, Victoria, Australia, circa 1920
See State Library of Victoria catalogue of AE Jarratt's exhibition in 1921: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/artpam/0/1/8/pdf/ar0185.pdf
A review of the exhibition can be found here for The Argus, Thursday 20 October 1921: http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4633549
'Exhibition of photographs from Lorne and Mt. Buffalo by A.E. Jarratt : October 9th to 31st, 1921, held at the Fine Art Society's Galleries, 100 Exhibition Street, Melbourne', Jarratt, A. E. , Victorian Printing Works, 1921. [held at State Library of Victoria, call number 238070]
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Miley Cyrus Leaves Party With New Guy — and Without Her Ring! See Pics
Is Miley Cyrus just being Miley — or is serious trouble brewing in her relationship with Liam Hemsworth?
Miley attended a house party with a mystery man in L.A. on March 7, and she wasn't wearing her engagement ring for the second straight day, according to Us Weekly.
Miley and the guy — who has been identified as Paul Khoury — arrived at the party together. Then, after spending some time at the shindig, the two got into Miley's car and drove away.
Pics of Miley and Paul — including one of them in the car — can be seen here.
Miley had also been photographed the day before without her wedding ring.
Sources say Miley and Liam have hit a rough patch, and that they are fighting over their competing careers and Miley's major image makeover, among other things.
"He's not happy," a source says of Liam. "She says she's over it."
Miley took to Twitter earlier this week to confirm that the wedding is still on, although rumors are swirling to the contrary.
This follows rumors that Liam hooked up with January Jones at an Oscar party.
Is the party over for Miley and Liam? Let's hope not, but things certainly aren't looking good.
Source: Us Weekly, X17 Online


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It's no wonder that Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old "Kindle millionaire" who says she's sold almost a million electronic copies of her self-published paranormal romance books, earning her close to $2 million, has been reluctant to embrace her role as self-publishing's e-queen and diss the traditional publishing industry. She just signed on to St. Martin's Press, according to The New York Times.
Hocking, who will reportedly receive a $2 million advance, is signed on to write four books.
Considering that Hocking says she has made this amount already from her self-published books, it's a little odd why she would suddenly turn traditional, but a $2 million advance does guarantee that if her four-book series tanks, she still walks away with a barrel load of cash. And despite the lessening stigma of self-publishing, most media outlets still won't cover books that aren't traditionally published, so this gives Hocking the chance to reach a much wider audience. And, hey, who doesn't like to see their book on a nice big shelf in Barnes & Noble?
The news comes just as another successful author has decided to take the opposite tack: bestselling writer of thriller fiction, Barry Eisler, recently turned down the offer of a $500,000 advance from a publishing house in order to self publish.
On her blog, Hocking explained her decision this way:
"I want to be a writer," she said. "I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Right now, being me is a full time corporation."
But you know what they say: wherever you go, there you are. Hocking is sure to discover that her workload won't lessen over at St. Martin's Press. But at least she will already have the moola in the bank for her time and effort.
Whether St. Martin's recoups its investment is anyone's guess, despite Hocking's track record of success. Electronic sales at a .99 cent to $2.99 price point do not equal paper success at a $15 price point. Or, God forbid, a $30 hard cover.
I have a feeling part of Hocking's appeal (and she has said so herself) was her cheap price and easy delivery. I'm not sure those who go in for vampire romance want to trudge to the local bookstore and shell out $30 for a book—and make no mistake, the traditional publishing world still relies on big bookstore sales.
Then again, it worked for Twilight.
Kiri Blakeley writes about women, pop culture, and media. Her traditionally published book, Can't Think Straight: A Memoir of Mixed-Up Love, is on sale now. Visit her at kiriblakeley.com. Follow on Twitter.


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Federer, Azarenka advance as Aussie heat wave arrives; Isner out
Roger Federer kept his cool on a scorching second day at the Australian Open, starting his record 57th consecutive Grand Slam tournament with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory in his first match with Stefan Edberg as a coach.
Federer was the second match on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday, and the temperature topped 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) during his win over Australian wild-card entry James Duckworth.
Two-time defending women's champion Victoria Azarenka played the previous match on the center court at Melbourne Park, and said it felt "pretty hot, like you're dancing in a frying pan or something like that."
After her 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over No. 91-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden, Azarenka went back out to practice and said she planned an ice bath later as a recovery.
Asked how he handled the heat, the 32-year-old Federer said: "I'm here. I'm speaking. Actually, it's not crazy. I'm feeling OK right now."
He now owns the record for playing the most consecutive Grand Slam events, another milestone in a career that has already netted 17 major titles for the Swiss star.
He kept the points as short as possible, and only gave No. 133-ranked Duckworth one look at a break point in the 1-hour, 46-minute match.
He said it was "great fun" to finally play in front of childhood hero Edberg, who he hired on a part-time basis last month.0
"I used to watch his matches and get inspired," Federer said, then added: "He warmed me up .... I won!"
Conscious of the time and the temperature, former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki and No. 11 Simona Halep raced to straight-sets wins.
Wozniacki said the court was so hot in her 6-0, 6-2 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino, which started at 11 a.m., that it seemed to melt her plastic water bottle.
In her first Grand Slam match since her New Year's Eve engagement to golfer Rory McIlroy, she did everything she could to keep cool.
"Every time in the changeovers, ice bags, ice towels, everything; and then in the second set I could feel they were starting to heat up even more," Wozniacki said. "I put the bottle down on the court and it started melting a little bit underneath, the plastic, so you knew it was warm."
Halep had a 6-0, 6-1 win over Polish qualifier Katarzyna Piter, while American Christina McHale advanced 7-5, 6-4 over Taiwan's Chang Yung-jan and No. 16 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain beat Vania King of the United States 6-3, 6-2.
Players draped bags of ice over their necks and shoulders and sat under covered seats in the changeovers across Melbourne Park. They retreated into the shade at the back of the courts between points.
A hot, gusty breeze swirled across the venue all day, making conditions more challenging instead of cooler. Spectators on outside courts covered their heads and shoulders with damp towels to cool off and queued up to stand in front of large electric fans blasting water at their faces.
As well as the heat, there were injuries and retirements. No. 13 John Isner, the only seeded American man in the draw, retired after losing the first two sets 6-2, 7-6 (6) against Martin Klizan. He called for the trainer after the tiebreaker, tapped his racket on the ground three times while deliberating whether to go back out, and only played on for a few minutes in the third set.
Isner attributed it to the same right ankle problem which bothered him on the way to the title at Auckland, New Zealand last week.
It was the second retirement in as many matches on Court 6. No. 25 Alize Cornet only had to win one game before Polona Hercog of Slovenia retired with an undisclosed injury.
Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany didn't make it onto court, withdrawing before his first-round match due to a strained left hamstring.
The No. 21-seeded Kohlschreiber was replaced in the draw by Frenchman Stephane Robert, who beat Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-0.
Among the other men advancing were No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 11 Milos Raonic, No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 16 Kei Nishikori, who needed five sets to beat Australian Marinko Matosevic.
Isner out of Australian Open due to ankle injury
John Isner's stay in Australia has been cut short by injury for the second year in a row.
The 13th-seeded American retired with a nagging right ankle injury during his first-round match at the Australian Open on Tuesday after losing the first two sets to Slovakia's Martin Klizan 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Last year, Isner was forced to withdraw before the Australian Open even began with bone bruising in his right knee.
Both injuries happened in the same unlucky place for the American — the Hopman Cup in Perth, a team exhibition event that is one of the warm-up tournaments for the first Grand Slam of the season.
"I know movement is not the best part of my game," the 2.08-meter (6-foot-10) Isner said, "but at a certain point I've got to be able to move without pain and I wasn't able to do that today."
Isner was the only American man seeded at this year's Australian Open. (Canada, by contrast, has two — Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil — both of whom won their first-round matches.)
The big-serving Isner has struggled with injuries to his knees over the past year, retiring from his second-round match at Wimbledon with a left-knee injury after pulling out of the Australian Open with the right knee injury.
But he was feeling confident coming into the new season, largely because his knees felt fine.
He said after he tweaked the ankle in Perth, he decided to play another warm-up tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, last week to see if it would feel better. He was in pain the entire week, but remarkably went on to win the tournament.
"I was able to win my first match and didn't feel good afterwards and then I won again. The whole thing in Auckland was bizarre because I never expected to win that tournament," he said.
"I didn't come down here to win Auckland. I love that tournament but I came down here to try to do well here and that wasn't the case."
Isner said the injury isn't serious — he had an MRI in Perth and it didn't reveal any bone fractures.
He's returning to the U.S. to rest in a bid to be ready for a Davis Cup match against the Andy Murray-led British team in early February, which will be played at a makeshift clay court set up in the outfield at Petco Park, a baseball stadium in San Diego, California.
"I feel like I will get over (this injury). It doesn't concern me as much as some knee issues I've had in the past," he said. "I fully intend to get ready for Davis Cup."


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© 2015 AC Voice. All Rights Reserved.
(Ryan Arnold)— In an interview with the Office of Public Affairs, Patricia O'Hara (Dean of New Students) was asked what effect the SMOC report and "last year's dialogues surrounding sexual misconduct" had on this year's orientation:
As the SMOC Report highlighted, Orientation is a really critical time for us to communicate with students about standards, responsibilities, resources, expectations. So we have done a lot of work surrounding the discussion having to do with students' rights and responsibilities. Those discussions are Tuesday and Wednesday of Orientation. We've recruited a national expert in dialoguing about diversity and inclusion, which is an aspect of our Honor Code… He has been at the Amherst College campus, speaking to the LEADS program, and they recommended him highly, so we brought him on board. [emphasis mine]
Here's the description for "Community Values and Inclusion," the event Dean O'Hara is referring to:
Values are important for understanding who you are and how you relate to yourself, others and your environment. A significant part of your time at Amherst College will be figuring out which values you wish to keep and which values you will have to develop as you begin to experience new life situations and demands… Our goal for this session is to begin a discussion about how you will take part in building a diverse and inclusive campus community.
Dean O'Hara, on behalf of the administration, suggests that an hour and a half-long talk about values and inclusion is the best way to incorporate the knowledge gained from last year into Orientation, and consequently that it reflects the College's present attitude toward sexual assault. The latter is remarkably true – the absence of any single event dedicated to examining sexual assault on the Orientation '13 schedule is less bewildering when viewed beside the College's mistaken beliefs about sexual assault, its slow rate of response, and our shared desire to choose comfortable ignorance over painful reality.
There was no room for sexual assault in the Orientation '13 agenda because of the College's fetishistic fantasy about alcohol and student experience. A fetish is the most powerful kind of fantasy: the desire to escape from an impregnable and traumatic loss causes a fracturing of perception and an introversion (literally "to turn inward") of consciousness away from external experience. In this case, the site of trauma is last fall: the struggle to respond to primary and secondary experiences of sexual assault was eventually lost to ambivalence, and we got tired of arguing. This comforting denial creates gaps in perception, which are then replaced by the fantasy of mastery – reality gains imaginary control over the formerly uncontrollable. The very existence of a fetish object implies the paradoxical recognition that we are powerless to master what hurts us ("je sais bien, mais quand-même"). From this paradox comes the process of fetishistic denial, where the truths in conflict with fantasy are either refused completely and repressed, or are incorporated into the fetish object itself.
A student's first-year orientation is one of the most dangerous times in her or his college career; it's the first time that many students decide with impunity to do things like drink or have sex (both of which, by the way, are totally normal behaviors that should not be shamed). This is a fact that Amherst recognizes, and the staff in charge of Orientation goes to great lengths to ensure that nothing bad happens during this period of self-exploration and discovery. However, freshmen women are traditionally viewed as predatory targets by older male students – the younger women are presumed to be naïve and sexually inexperienced, and thus easy conquests. This is a trope as old as the marriage between college and drinking, and while it isn't exclusive to Amherst, it is alarmingly present here (my friend has a story about his former teammate shouting "SEND US YOUR DAUGHTERS!" at a group of parents and prospective students touring the campus). Given the College's effort to protect its students, this year's Orientation programming did an injustice to the new members of our community.
Fetishes are audibly acts of desperation; they echo the scapegoating that followed from the publication of Angie's narrative. When confronted by abhorrent reality, we impulsively move to identify the pathogen responsible for trauma and highlight it through opinion – athletes, fraternities, Title IX staff, drunk women, Crossett Basement, football, the counseling center, etc. This turns a communal or spiritual problem into an intellectual dilemma. What's great about intellectual dilemmas is that they're dispossessed of any pathos; their consequences are felt less because the stakes are hypothetical. Further, intellectual dilemmas are resolved through cogent arguments, which are reached faster, require less effort, and are more persuasive than palpable changes within culture. Amherst is a place that more likely to side with rhetorical might over moral right. But this creates a circle of pedantic opinions repeatedly voiced until the weary nihilism sets in. When that happens, we want to escape; if anyone last year had asked me why I was drinking, "debate-induced spiritual fatigue" would have been the reason.
The planning for Orientation '13 was plagued by miscommunications about the College's desire for a dry campus. The end result was a clause in the contract signed by student Orientation Leaders, promising to "refrain from the use of alcohol and drugs during the orientation period." It was an impotent and unenforceable request, but the logic makes sense – by modeling abstinence, older students could help the College "move to a safer Orientation"; it would also theoretically decrease the availability of alcohol to new students.
The fetish's most identifiable administrative protuberance is eCHUG, that profoundly stupid piece of teetotaler propaganda prescribed by Amherst for the Class of 2017, which only becomes more offensive in the intellectual vacuum of Orientation programming. eCHUG serves one purpose: to shame each participant who confesses to drinking alcohol. It accomplishes this goal through a variety of unimaginative tactics, most of which are stolen from Regan's echelon of "scared straight" failures. eCHUG works by exploiting the inherent guilt felt by the adolescent citizens of a culture that presumes (if not expects) they drink while simultaneously highlighting its illegality. If that's not enough to get you running to The Rooms, eCHUG makes sure you know exactly how many calories alcohol has added (it literally says "How many CHEESEBURGERS did you DRINK last month?") to the prescribed monthly intake. eCHUG previously shamed people for having "unwanted sexual experiences" while drunk, but has since removed this language from the program.
The link that eCHUG works to establish (despite the token revision that was made to its language after Ethan's article) is the link generated by the administration's fetish object – since the resolution of sexual assault would require a restructuring of Amherst's entire psychical landscape, it is easier for it to be subsumed by a fetish umbrella. The result is the mythic and inimical belief, frequently expressed by members of the administration (and by society at large), in a causal relationship between alcohol and rape. This is the pure fantasy of the fetish, to be able to metonymically control sexual assault by controlling alcohol; by getting rid of one, we will take care of the other.
The problem, of course, is that all of this is total and absolute bullshit. Alcohol doesn't cause rape; survivors who were raped while drunk are no more responsible for what was done to them than a pedestrian who happened to be drinking before getting run over by a drunk driver. Amherst's decision to prioritize alcohol over sexual assault is ethically negligent at best, and willfully ignorant at worst. To suggest that sexual assault can be combatted through discussions of personal values is an insult to the intelligence of the students of Amherst College; it's the path toward moral relativism. It means there are no higher principles governing how we should or shouldn't treat each other, which is a dangerously ignorant way to live. Not all opinions are equally valid; some things are wrong unequivocally, and are legitimate positions for debate.
President Martin, in the Convocation address she gave on Monday evening (which marked the end of Orientation '13), spoke at length about the place of ignorance in our culture. In order to contest ignorance, we must be guided by principles and be willing to subject our own beliefs to the same scrutiny we use to evaluate the beliefs of others. "The undoing of ignorance," said Biddy, "requires awareness and guts." I share President Martin's enormous gratitude for being here, which is why I will conclude by repeating her words back to her:
Ignorance is not the absence of information. It is not a simple emptiness waiting to be filled… Ignorance is active, even willful, though often unconsciously so; it is structured by configurations of power and distribution of resources; it works through us by virtue of the ways we are enfolded in those configurations. It is cemented by bonds of love—by the attachments and loyalties that shape us, and sometimes lead us around by the nose. The undoing of ignorance requires awareness and guts, which depend on the fellowship, the guidance, and support of others who are committed to rigorous analysis… It is possible to make of it [diversity] a kind of fetish when it is not connected the work of the institution and the vision for our relations with one another. It becomes a fetish when the responsibility for it is left to those who seem to represent it, rather than being assumed by every one of us.
Amherst College must renew its commitment to this "rigorous analysis." The gulf between the reality of student life and the administration's perception is startling, but it has not yet become impassible. We must subject each other and ourselves to our analyses; our fetish is not simply "diversity" or "drinking culture," but all of the easy answers. A fetish is, after all, the fantasy of ignorance. We must stop entertaining ignorance, no matter how cogent its formulation. My dreams for this year fill my heart with hope, love, and possibility, and with conviction I look through my fears toward the difficult questions that are waiting for us.
i don't mean to be antagonistic here at all (i would love for amherst to have a more lenient policy towards drinking and i would love even more for sexual assault to stop on campus) but i have a hard time believing that there is NO causal relationship between alcohol and sexual assault. i of course accept that alcohol is not always involved or to blame.
secondly, and again im not trying to start a fight, what would an actual solution to the problem be? if discussion about sexual assault wont work, and reducing alcohol on campus wont work, what will? you said " since the resolution of sexual assault would require a restructuring of Amherst's entire psychical landscape" but what does that mean in practical terms? is there any way we could actually fix anything?
Another meaningless ACVoice article. Lots of big words, no solution.
Your article is meaningful to me both for its recognition of our administration's troubling sidestepping of a genuine struggle against sexual assault, and on a broader level for its recognition of what seems to be our tendency (among students and administration alike) to restrain confrontations with troubling aspects of our lives to the realm of the academic in order to avoid the pain of confronting them in the realm of feeling and emotional weight. Amherst needs more thinkers like you. Please continue writing.
-Pleased Reader : )
however, it is a veritable truth that there exists no causal relationship between drinking alcohol and sexual assault. alcohol doesn't cause people to rape others; the cause of rape is inside the rapist, not a bottle.
I notice you keep trying to hammer down this statement for mainly ideological reasons. It's not wrong, by any means: sure, the cause of rape is "inside the rapist" not a bottle, if you're talking about immediate causes. But we recognize indirect causes which may contribute to this hypothetical rapist's state of mind when she is about to commit the rape. You yourself cite "a culture that permits (if not encourages) rape through degrading depictions of women…" If we were using your logic, then I would answer: "What does such a culture have to do with solving the problem of sexual assaults? After all, "degrading depictions of women culture" doesn't cause rape, just like "drinking culture" doesn't cause rape. The cause of rape is inside the rapist, not the culture!"
Do you see the inherent contradiction in the implications of your post here? Your logic is not tenable in many other sorts of situations either, E.g., "Why are blacks on average poorer than whites? Oh, no, it has nothing to do with culture, the cause of poverty is in the minds and bodies of black people themselves!" In a nutshell: you're making no sense, because you're comparing direct causes (the causes "inside the rapist" before she is about to commit rape) and indirect causes (the influences from culture and other environmental factors which lead to the direct causes).
Now I don't necessarily entirely disagree that maybe the administration has overemphasized alcohol as contributing to the occurrence of sexual assault. But your way of expressing this viewpoint is to take wild swings at the very basic concepts of causality, resulting in an incoherence which is only masked by your polemical rhetoric and casual use of vulgarities. This does not help the situation at all.
I agree that colleges (and actually even more so high schools) focus too much on preventing drinking and not enough time on preventing sexual assault. But even if the link is not directly causal, if alcohol creates circumstances in which sexual assault is significantly more likely to happen, reducing alcohol would probably have some positive effect, right? (I mean that in a let's not get people who would rape to be more likely to do so and let's have people more aware of themselves for safety, not in a 'it's your fault if you were drunk sense,' obviously.)
Also, if consent is impossible when a person is too drunk to give it, then technically alcohol would directly cause rape in that it would make any sex had while drunk into non-consensual sex, yes?
As I understand it, there were actually several events during Orientation that related to sexual assault (the Can-I-Kiss-You skits/discussion, queer queries, elements of the RC show, the She skits)… did you even look at the schedule, or did you just make an assumption that suited your rhetorical needs?
And your assertion that the school has "suggest[ed] that sexual assault can be combatted through discussions of personal values" is an obvious straw man tactic (a favorite of yours, it seems). Come on, man.
I personally think that Amherst's response to the problem of sexual assault has been sickeningly negligent, but your masturbatory response adds less to an intelligent discussion than it detracts by its deceptive use of misinformation and slippery polemic. The forced Freudian analysis bit is almost comical, too, mostly because it relies upon the deliberate ignorance of the facts that I mentioned above; next time, save it for your cultural anthropology professor and spare us. Or, if you can't resist busting out last semester's psychoanalytic theories in your op-eds, at least get your facts straight and avoid the rudimentary logical fallacies, my dude.
Thank you for this cogent critique that uses the actual tools of logic. As I am less experienced with those tools, I will add only my complaints about the tone and implications of this masturbatory, puerile article.
First off, read as a whole, the article has an sense of moral superiority that is both embarrassing and academically disingenuous. A few examples: describing the eCHUG thing as a "profoundly stupid piece of teetotaler propaganda", accusing Amherst of being " a place that more likely to side with rhetorical might over moral right", and diagnosing the supposed absence of sexual assault awareness during Orientation as due to " the College's fetishistic fantasy about alcohol and student experience".
That superior sentiment would be excusable if this article was content with being a simple op-ed and if it were explicitly labeled as such, perhaps right next to that patronizing trigger warning (another argument entirely), but it was apparently written in the spirit of actually trying to effect change, in order to "stop entertaining ignorance, no matter how cogent its formulation" in its own words. Trying to do so from such an unobjective and uncogent position, however, is silly, counter-intuitive and indeed masturbatory. After all, how is anyone supposed to logically believe in something that so purposefully attempts to guilt them into it with its holier-than-thou, I-am-the-sole-moral-authority attitude betrayed by such sentences as "Not all opinions are equally valid; some things are wrong unequivocally, and are legitimate positions for debate"? We here at Amherst are supposedly taught to be critical of everything, especially absolutes. Writing off whole opinions and different views as "wrong unequivocally" and not "equally valid" is absolutely antithetical to this academic spirit. If we subscribe to the closed-off ideals of the author, then why care about any position that's not considered by him to be correct?
If anything, this piece fetishizes the idea of change and evolution in the College's policy so ardently wished for by the author without providing any tangible or credible solution to back it up. The irony inherent in writing this article is lost on the author even as he himself declares "To suggest that sexual assault can be combatted through discussions of personal values is an insult to the intelligence of the students of Amherst College; it's the path toward moral relativism". What is this article if not a gussied-up discussion of his personal values and how they should be implemented in order to fix the college? And how is his attitude of "not all opinions are equally valid" anything but him thrusting upon us his moral vision, thereby contributing to the College's canvas of moral relativism which he himself purports to dislike? I do agree wholeheartedly with the first half of the above quotation, though. I feel that my and every other critical reader's intelligence has been insulted due to the author's addition of yet another logically toothless voice to add to the din of pointless manufactured hysteria already present on campus.
The article seems to take issue with the administration's crackdown on alcohol by suggesting that it's not exactly a solution for the sexual assault problem. Not that I agree with the specific steps taken by them to address the alcohol problem, or the manner in which they've carried this out, but perhaps the alcohol policy is simply this: an alcohol policy. Whatever you think about the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault (let's be clear here though: alcohol clearly impairs judgment = drunk people more likely to do bad things they'd regret, e.g. rape), it is undeniable that (a part of) Amherst has a problematic and unhealthy alcohol culture. If you don't believe so, you need to step back, observe, and reconsider.
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text:
25 November 2013
Posted in DinoDigs
Gasps of awe and wonder as children enter DinoDigs will now be joined by another sound — squeals of delight — as they uncover fossils in Jurassic Ridge, a 540-square-foot excavation site.
Most dinosaur exhibits have a look-but-don't-touch policy, but Jurassic Ridge encourages hands- (and feet-) on learning. Become an honorary paleontologist and carefully explore this fragile dig site to help Orlando Science Center discover unique fossils from the Jurassic period.
Photo Credit: RF Photography
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text:
"That je ne sais quoi."
—Prince of Persia's British beauty Gemma Arterton (dressed to majorly impress in a nude gown at Monday's Prince of Persia premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre) on what makes her costar Jake Gyllenhaal so damn sexy.
Is that French for "he's got a six pack that will make you drool and an ass you could bounce a quarter off of"?
Nope, it translates to "That, I don't know." But the striking babe isn't confused—far from it if the sexy biting of her finger she gave after letting slip the French phrase tells us anything.
The saying's more "it's unexplainable," if you will.
Might we give you a few suggestions, Gem? Besides that aforementioned killer bod, Jake's goofball 'tude (when he's not trying too hard to be Hollywood) and dimples for days are total turn-ons. Hey, the dude may be a dating disaster, but, we can't help but love him.
And can we just say how much we hate Gemma? She's pretty drop-dead gorge herself (she's definitely got a helluva lot of je ne sais quoi and then some) and she's racked up onscreen time with the hottest dudes in the buis: Jakey-poo, Sam Worthington, and Daniel Craig. No!
Who's next? It's like G.A.'s sitting at home checking unattainable guys off her own Last Real Man checklist.


text:
A headset for communication with a device is configured for processing audio signals captured by the headset to detect user speech and transmitting, to the device, sampled representations of the captured audio signals generally only when user speech is detected.
1. A system for wireless communications using speech recognition comprising:
a device configured for processing speech signals using speech recognition circuitry, the device including at least some back end speech recognition processing circuitry;
a headset with a microphone for capturing audio signals to be processed, the headset configured for performing front end speech recognition processing by initially forming sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals and processing the sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals using speech detection circuitry to determine that the captured audio signals include user speech as opposed to extraneous noise;
the headset including switching circuitry that is operable to facilitate selectively wirelessly transmitting, to the device, the sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals when user speech rather than noise is detected from the spectral transforms and to not allow transmitting to the device when user speech is not detected;
the back end speech recognition processing circuitry of the device using the spectral transforms transmitted by the headset to complete the speech recognition of the system.
2. The system of
3. The system of
4. The system of
5. The system of
6. The system of
7. The system of
the headset configured to process signals generated by the first and second microphones to detect speech of the user as opposed to extraneous noise.
8. The system of
9. The system of
10. A method for wireless communication between a headset and device using speech recognition, the method comprising:
capturing audio signals with a headset having a microphone;
processing the captured audio signals and performing front end speech recognition by forming sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals at the headset and using speech detection circuitry to analyze the sampled spectral transforms to determine that the captured audio signals include user speech as opposed to extraneous noise;
using switching circuitry for selectively wirelessly transmitting sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals to the device when user speech rather than noise is detected from the spectral transforms and for not transmitting to the device when user speech is not detected;
at the device, using back end speech recognition processing circuitry of the device to process the spectral transforms transmitted by the headset to complete the speech recognition.
11. The method of
12. The method of
13. The method of
14. The method of
15. The method of
16. The method of
17. The method of
18. The method of
19. A headset for communication with a remote device for use in speech recognition, the headset comprising:
a microphone system configured to capture audio signals including user speech; and
front end speech recognition circuitry responsive to the output of said microphone system to form sampled spectral transforms of the captured audio signals in order to reduce the amount of microphone system output data that is communicated to said remote device;
switching circuitry coupled with the front end speech recognition circuitry and configured to facilitate selectively transmitting the sampled spectral transforms of the audio signals to the device when user speech is detected as opposed to extraneous noise and not transmitting to the device when user speech is not detected;
the sampled spectral transforms being in a form usable by back end speech recognition processing circuitry in the remote device to complete the speech recognition.
20. The headset of
21. The headset of
This application is related to the application entitled "Apparatus and Method for Detecting User Speech" by Byford, U.S. patent application 10/671,142, filed on Sep. 25, 2003, now abandoned, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
This invention relates generally to mobile or portable computer terminals and headsets used in voice-driven systems having speech recognition capabilities.
Wearable, mobile and/or portable computer terminals or devices are used for a wide variety of tasks. Such devices or terminals allow workers using them to maintain mobility, while providing the worker with desirable computing and data-processing functions. Furthermore, such terminals may provide a communication link to a larger, more centralized computer system, which further handles the organization of the tasks being performed. An overall integrated system may involve a combination of a central computer system for tracking and management of the tasks, a plurality of mobile devices or terminals and associated peripherals and the people ("users") who use the terminals and interface with the terminals and/or the computer system.
To provide an interface between the central computer system and the workers, wearable terminals and the systems to which they are connected are oftentimes voice-driven; i.e., are operated using human speech. As such, the central computer and terminals incorporate speech recognition technology. To communicate in a voice-driven system, for example, speech signals must be passed into and out of the portable devices or terminals to provide the proper speech interface with a user. Through the speech interface, the workers are able to receive voice instructions, ask questions, report the progress of their tasks, and report working conditions, such as inventory shortages, for example. Using such terminals, the work is done virtually hands-free without equipment to juggle or paperwork to carry around.
There are various ways to pass the speech signals into and out of a terminal or other device. In one scenario, a microphone and speaker located on the actual portable terminal may be used. However, such a device may not be practical in many environments. As may be appreciated, such systems are often utilized in noisy environments where the workers are exposed to various extraneous sounds that might affect the quality of their voice communication with their terminal and the central computer system. A portable terminal, mounted on a belt or other device to secure it to the user may be too far away from the user's mouth for effective communication. Therefore, more isolated or directional voice-capture techniques, such as headsets have to be utilized.
Traditional wired headsets are somewhat popular for portable terminals or devices and require a wire that extends from the headset to the terminal. A headset typically includes a microphone and one or more speakers. The terminal includes an appropriate socket for coupling with a connector or plug of the headset wire and also includes audio processing electronics for processing the speech signals sent from/to the headset. Such a traditional set-up has some drawbacks. For example, the wire from the terminal to the headset is often inconvenient as it may get caught or snagged, interrupting the work flow. Furthermore, the terminal must be configured specifically for the headset and, therefore, is limited to use with a specific headset and vice versa. Further still, if the terminal's audio processing electronics are limited, the terminal's performance will also be similarly limited as a voice-driven interface device, because the headset provides only a microphone and speakers for handling pure audio signals.
To address some of these issues, such as the headset-to-terminal wire, it is proposed to use a wireless peripheral, such as a wireless headset, to communicate with the terminal. A wireless headset (e.g., using Blue Tooth WPAN hardware) eliminates the need for a specific connector and for a headset wire. However, such a wireless system also has various drawbacks.
For example, such a headset using traditional wireless technology, such as Blue Tooth, must transmit signals continuously to the mobile terminal. This requires that substantial amounts of data be sent and the requisite transmission cycles. This has several implications. Constant transmission rapidly consumes the necessarily small battery that would be utilized in a wireless headset. Furthermore, such continuous transmission exposes a full-time user (i.e., forty hours per week) to continuous RF transmissions proximate the user's head. This may not be desirable.
In addition, using existing wireless headset technology for a voice-driven system requires that the terminal be configured to handle the significant task of all audio processing in addition to speech recognition processing. Therefore, wireless headsets would not be useful with terminals that do not have certain audio capabilities or processing power. As such, wireless headsets with current technology are not suitable in voice-driven systems that utilize speech recognition technology. Furthermore, such continuous transmission between the wireless headset and the wireless terminal is still necessary with existing systems, as putting a complete "industrial strength" speech recognizer and synthesizer into a headset is not practical.
Therefore, there is a particular need for addressing the various drawbacks in the prior art. There is a further need for achieving the benefits of a wireless headset within a voice-driven system without the full-time transmission characteristics now required. There is a need to provide wireless headset communication in a cost-effective manner that ensures proper operation of the speech recognition characteristics. The present invention provides solutions to such needs in the art and also addresses the drawbacks of various prior art solutions.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the invention.
Referring to
The portable terminals 10 operate in a voice-driven system and permit a variety of workers 11 to communicate with one or more central computers (see
In one example embodiment, terminal 10 communicates with central computer 20 or a plurality of computers, such as with a wireless link 22. To allow the user to communicate with the system, one or more peripheral devices or peripherals, such as headsets 16, are coupled to the terminals 10. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, headset 16 is coupled to the terminal by a wireless link 19. The headset 16 is worn on the head of the user/worker and allows hands-free operation and movement throughout a warehouse or other facility.
Specifically, the terminal 10 for communicating with a central computer may comprise processing circuitry, which may include a processor for controlling the operation of the terminal and other associated processing circuitry. The processing circuitry will incorporate audio processing circuits such as audio filters and correlation circuitry associated with speech recognition. One suitable terminal for implementing the present invention is the Talkman® product available from Vocollect of Pittsburgh, Pa. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the terminal is used in a voice-driven system, which uses speech recognition technology for communication. The headset 16 provides hands-free voice communication between the worker 11 and the terminal 10. To that end, digital information is converted to an audio format, and vice versa, to provide the speech communication between the device or system and a worker. For example, in one typical system, the terminal 10 receives digital instructions from the central computer 20 and converts those instructions to audio to be heard by a worker 11. The worker 11 then replies, in a spoken language, and the audio reply is converted to a useable digital format to be transferred back to the central computer of the system.
The present invention addresses drawbacks in the prior art by providing an enhanced headset that does more than simply capture the voice signal with a microphone and direct that pure audio signal to the terminal 10. In one embodiment, the headset and system of the present invention provide preliminary audio processing and a speech detection algorithm right at the headset for making the determination of when it is appropriate to transmit the user's speech to a terminal. Therefore, the headset is not constantly transmitting. This provides a data transmission reduction in the communication between the headset and terminal. Additional speech recognition processing is then handled by the terminal or central computer. The present invention further accomplishes transmission reduction by processing sampled representations of the audio signals and sending those to the terminal rather than pure audio. The present invention addresses various of the drawbacks of present invention wireless headsets utilizing other wireless protocols, such as Blue Tooth, and specifically addresses power consumption issues, data transmission issues, and reduces the amount of time that the headset is transmitting to the terminal or to some other device. Specifically, referring to
Headset 16 incorporates a microphone device 40 configured for capturing audio signals, such as the speech of a user. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the headset 16 incorporates processing circuitry 30, which is configured for analyzing digitized representations of audio signals captured by the microphone 40. To that end, the processing circuitry will include suitable digitization circuitry for providing appropriate representations of the audio signals for further processing. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the processing circuitry 30 includes speech detection circuitry 46, which is configured to analyze the sampled representations of the audio signals to detect speech of the user. The processing circuitry 30 includes circuitry, or interfaces with circuitry, which is configured for transmission of the digitized or sampled representations to a device, such as portable terminal 10, when speech is detected. In one aspect, the circuitry transmits only when user speech is detected. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the circuitry generally does not transmit to the portable terminal 10 when user speech is not detected. In that way, the headset does not simply transmit continuously, but transmits when it has user speech to send.
The present invention provides several stages of data transmission reduction with respect to the communications with portable terminal 10. The term "data transmission", as utilized herein, generally refers to the amount of information that must be transferred between the headset 16 and the portable terminal 10. In prior art systems, headsets that transmit pure audio signals require transmission of all of that information and, therefore, significant data transmission to affect the communication between the headset and the terminal. The present invention provides several levels of data transmission reduction at different stages in the operation of the headset 16. In one aspect, headset 16 is configured to digitize the audio signals captured by the headset and to further process and sample the digitized signals, such as with audio filters, discussed further herein below, to provide digitized or sampled representations of those signals. When the headset 16 transmits the digitized or sampled representations, it requires significantly less data transmission than with transmission of the pure analog audio signals. Another level of transmission reduction is provided by the processing circuitry because it only transmits when user speech is detected. That is, user speech is discriminated from extraneous sounds or audio signals. Therefore, the transmission is not continuous unless the user is continuously speaking. In a typical voice-driven application, the duty cycle of user speech may be less than 10% that a user is operating the inventive system. Therefore, a significant data transmission reduction is provided, by discriminating at the headset, to transmit when speech is detected, but also generally not to transmit to a device when speech is not detected. The inventors have estimated that the invention may provide a data transmission reduction of several orders of magnitude over a traditional headset transmitting analog audio signals.
Referring to
For conversion between digital and analog audio, the digitization circuitry 42 may include an audio coder/decoder chip or CODEC. One suitable audio circuit, for example, might be a UDA 1341 audio CODEC available from Philips. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the processing circuitry 30 further includes audio and/or speech analysis circuitry and signal processing circuitry for analyzing and further processing the digitized audio signals or speech signals. For example, headset 16 may include spectral transformation circuitry, or audio filtering circuitry, such as Mel scale filters 44, which create a spectral transform of the digitized audio signals and provide a series of sampled representations or values associated with the digitized audio signals. Mel scale circuitry, including Mel scale filters 44, are known components for audio processing and provide generally a less sampled spectral transform of the digitized speech. In accordance with the data transmission reduction aspect of the present invention, headset 16 utilizes the audio analysis and processing circuitry, such as the Mel scale filters 44, for reducing the amount of data or information sent to the terminal. In that way, power consumption is reduced, and the transmission time from the user-worn headset is also significantly reduced. That is, the audio is processed at the headset into a form which may be used by a device, but which takes less time, and therefore less power, to send to the device.
For example, in a typical headset, which seeks to transmit essentially a raw audio signal, it may require a rate of 64 kilobits for such audio transmission. However, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the audio processing circuitry, such as the Mel scale filters, provides a more crude, or less sampled spectral transform of the speech for transmission. This may reduce the bit rate to significantly less than one-tenth of the 64 kilobit rate. Therefore, the amount of data to be transmitted can be reduced by a factor of 10 or more, or at least one order of magnitude, while preserving the information in the signals for further speech recognition processing.
Referring to
Headset 16 of the invention still provides audio information in a form that may be utilized efficiently by terminal 10 or computer 20 for speech recognition. By providing audio processing of the signals directly at the headset, the present invention provides another advantage over the prior art. Specifically, it reduces the processing power that is necessary in terminal 10 for speech recognition processing. In that way, less intelligent or less powerful (and therefore less expensive) devices might be utilized with the inventive headset 16 to provide speech recognition capabilities. For example, a portable device may be available but may not have the ability to properly process audio signals from the microphone. Therefore, while the portable device has suitable processing power for handling back-end speech recognition processing, it may not be able to properly do so because the quality of the digitized signal extracted from a traditional wireless headset and microphone may not be of a suitable quality for speech recognition processing. The present invention overcomes that by performing audio processing at the headset so a stream of suitably digitized information, or bits, is provided to the portable device to be handled. Such pre-processed digitized information as provided by the inventive headset is much easier to process than the raw audio signals.
In another aspect of the present invention, a wireless version of headset 16 eliminates the need for having a portable device with a suitable connector for coupling with the wire of a headset.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, additional benefits are obtained with further reduction in the information transmitted to the remote device or terminal. Generally, data is transmitted from the headset only when user speech has been captured by the headset. Specifically, the processing circuitry 30 in one embodiment is configured for analyzing the digitized or sampled representations of the audio signals, such as the filter value frames, to detect if the audio signals represent speech. To that end, the processing circuitry incorporates speech detection circuitry 46, which provides a detection algorithm to detect whether the audio signals represent speech from a user wearing the headset. As illustrated in
The speech detection circuitry 46 analyzes the filter values or "frames" from the filter circuitry 44. Various such speech detection algorithms are known and may be utilized to provide a control signal 52 for controlling the processing circuitry components 48 to determine whether the frames or some other sampled representations should be transmitted to the terminal. When user speech is detected, the processing circuitry is configured to transmit the frames or sampled representations to the terminal. Alternatively, when user speech is not detected, the processing circuitry 48 will generally not transmit the frames or sampled representations to the terminal. Of course, it is conceivable that there will be times when extraneous speech signals are detected as speech, but are not actually representative of the user speech of the headset user, and that those signals may be inadvertently transmitted to the terminal. However, in a general sense, the speech detection circuitry 46 and the processing circuitry 48 operate for primarily transmitting the sampled representations only when speech is detected. An alternative embodiment noted below discriminates extraneous noises from user speech.
As such, the processing circuitry represents an additional order of magnitude of data transmission reduction, with respect to the information transmitted to the terminal. That is, not only are those signals sent to the terminal reduced by the headset audio processing (e.g. reduced filter frames or samples) but the sampled representations will not even be sent to the terminal unless they represent user speech. Of course, such a data transmission reduction would depend upon the duty cycle of the user who is speaking into the headset. For example, if an application requires the user to talk all the time, there may be a less significant data transmission reduction provided by the speech detection circuitry 46 and processing circuitry 48 because the headset will be constantly processing and sending the speech of the user. However, the majority of applications require a user to speak only a small fraction of the time, and thus the present invention provides a significant additional reduction through the speech detection circuitry and control of when the headset actually transmits to the terminal or other remote device.
Referring now to the terminal 10 as illustrated in
The example embodiment described herein uses a headset 16 to communicate with terminal 10. Alternatively, as shown in
Referring to
For example, the speech recognition processing circuitry 62 might include cepstral processing circuitry 64. The cepstral processing circuitry 64 provides a spectral transformation of the frames received from the headset 16 in accordance with known cepstral transformation principles. Additional back-end processing circuitry includes code book lookup circuitry 66 and pattern matching circuitry 68 to handle the remaining steps of speech recognition technology for the terminal 10. Primarily, cepstral processing circuitry outputs a range of values in the form of a transform that are routed to the code book lookup circuitry. The code book lookup would generate a set of code book values that are correlated with the output values of the cepstral transform circuitry 64. That is, for a particular cepstral transform of the signal, a set of code book values is output from the circuitry 66. As is well known in speech recognition technology, code book values are representative of sounds, such as words, that have a particular meaning within the operation of the overall system. The pattern matching circuitry 68 makes the determination of whether the output code values are actually indicative of a specific word that was said. For example, a set of code book values may be output that represent the word "one," or possibly the word "two. The pattern matching circuitry 68 looks at the incoming vectors, or values, from the code book lookup circuitry 66, and determines if the word "one" or "two" was spoken.
More specifically, the code book values output by the circuitry 66 are a string of values that represent the sounds that occur when a particular word is spoken. An array of those values represent a particular word. A stream of such values is generated, based upon the frames transmitted by the headset, and the stream of values is compared by the pattern matching circuitry to word sets that are in the vocabulary of the pattern matching circuitry. Upon the detection of speech through the pattern matching circuitry 68, the information might be processed further by the circuitry 62, such as in a stand-alone terminal or computer, or may be forwarded to a central computer, through an appropriate link, such as by a wireless transceiver or wireless transmitter 70 (see
In the illustrated examples, some of what might be considered "front end" speech processing circuitry/hardware is positioned in the headset. However, in alternative embodiments, additional circuitry, such as the cepstral transform circuitry 64 or some of the "back end" circuitry like the codebook lookup function might also be implemented in the headset. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated showing specific speech recognition circuitry in the headset, and different functional circuit blocks might be utilized in the headset and a remote device to provide the benefits of the invention.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, user speech maybe discriminated with respect to extraneous speech noises. The data is then not transmitted unless user speech is detected. To that end, headset 60 may include another microphone, such as a second microphone 41, as illustrated in
Accordingly, the present invention provides significant benefits and addresses various of the drawbacks of the prior art. The invention reduces the data transmission that is required to transmit necessary information from the headset to a nearby device, which performs speech recognition. The invention further makes some of the audio processing independent of the technology. Power consumption is reduced, as is exposure to a headset wearer to RF transmissions. The headset of the present invention may be utilized with speech recognition devices that do not have a specific headset connection or plug. Furthermore, the present invention provides high quality speech signal for use by a speech recognizer by providing some speech processing at the headset. Other benefits not specifically set forth are also provided by the invention.
While the present invention has been illustrated by a description of various embodiments and while these embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicant to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and method, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicant's general inventive concept.
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March 19, 2013
Box Score
BEAUMONT - The line-up took care of business on Tuesday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium as the Cardinals improved to 19-3 on the season with an 8-6 victory over visiting Houston Baptist.
With the win, the Cardinals have now taken home 15 of the last 16 games. Houston Baptist dropped to 6-10-1.
Each of the top four hitters in the line-up registered multiple hits, led by three-hit outings from both Jude Vidrine and Darian Johnson. Vidrine ended 3-for-4 with a pair of runs, and Johnson was 3-for-5 with two scores as well.
"I had a rough couple games over at Pan-Am last weekend," Vidrine said. "I felt like I had to come out and be aggressive. I took a lot of pitches that I could've hit over there, so tonight, I tried to go after it a little more."
V.J. Bunner had Brad Picha each had two-hit days. Seth Dornak, the five-hole hitter, went just 1-for-4, but made up for it with four runs batted in, and as a team, the Cards out-hit the Huskies 16-12.
"Our line-up did pretty well tonight," head coach Jim Gilligan said. "We loaded the bases a couple times early, but we couldn't get the hit, and we have to get better about that. We haven't opened up some of the games that we could have this year, but in this game, the same guys came back up later in the game and got the big hit. I have to tip my hat to them."
David Carver got the nod on the mound, and tossed four innings. The junior southpaw gave up two earned runs on three hits and struck out four to improve to 4-1 on the season.
HBU answered in the ensuing frame as Samm Wiggins tripled and later scored on a Carver wild pitch to bring the Cards' consecutive scoreless innings streak to an end at 19.2.
The Huskies added another score in the fourth after loading the bases without recording an out. Mike Chamberlain brought the run across with a fielder's choice, but Carver was able to avert any more damage, inducing a fly ball out by Curtis Jones and striking out Christian Cokinos.
The HBU lead would be short-lived as Lamar broke through for a five-run frame in the second half of the inning. After Bumpers led off with a single, he moved to third on a wild throw from center on a Garret Autrey fly out. Brandon Provost hit into a fielder's choice to bring the equalizer home, but that was only the beginning for the Cards.
Bunner earned a two-out walk, and both Vidrine and Johnson followed up with singles to hand the lead back to Lamar. It looked as if the Huskies would get out of the frame, but a dropped foul ball by shortstop C.J. Jarvis kept the inning alive. Picha pounced on the second opportunity, singling to left to double the advantage, and Dornak came through once more with a double to put LU up 6-2.
"We don't really panic when we get down," Vidrine said of the comeback. "That's been the story of the season so far. Tonight was a good example of that. We got a little bit going there in the fourth, especially with two outs. V.J. walks, I get a two out hit, and then the rest of the line-up did what it was supposed to do and drove in the runs."
The Cards tacked on two more with a Picha double and Dornak fielder's choice in the sixth.
The Huskies struck for four scores off of Cardinal relievers Chase Angelle, Ben Coram and Hunter Perry over the final three innings, but Travis Moore was able to close the door with a fly out and strike out to pick up his first career save.
Lamar and Houston Baptist will square off once more on Wednesday at Vincent-Beck Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.


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Teacher preparing for last year in classroomWritten by Lauren Bee | | firstname.lastname@example.com
cher and educational technology resource teacher at Glendale-Feilbach Elementary School, is getting ready for her last first day of school.
With more than 29 years of teaching to her credit, Repp will retire after this school year.
"I had two goals in life," Repp said. "One of them was to be a teacher; the other one was to be a lawyer. I did the teaching one first."
Repp, 56, started her teaching career in January 1980, when she joined the faculty of Kaiser Elementary School as a sixth-grade teacher. She would continue with Toledo Public Schools (TPS) for the remainder of her career, teaching all elementary grades, except kindergarten.
"I think that teaching has been a wonderful, rewarding, challenging career," Repp said, who will end her career as an educational technology resource teacher. "I have felt that every year. I start out thinking, 'What can I do to help the kids and make them better?' And even this year, knowing that the end is near, it's not any different."
During her employment with TPS, Repp saw many big changes, namely standardized testing and computers.
The introduction of computers into public schools in the late '90s led to a new position at TPS for Repp. She became an Educational Technology Trainer (ETT) and her job was to go into the classrooms and teach the teachers about using the technology and help them introduce the students to computers. Repp was an ETT for two and a half years, until the funding for the program was gone.
"As an ETT, being out of the classroom gave me a fresh experience," she said. "You know what the best part of being out of the classroom was? Seeing the great teachers in the other schools. People have no idea.
"I don't think Toledo realizes what good teachers they have. A lot of teachers don't get to go out and see other teachers working, and with that job, I got to do that."
After retirement, Repp would like to influence changing standardized testing at the state level.
"I'd like to be involved with how they do the testing. I want to make it fair. It's not fair to the regular kids; it's not fair to the special ed kids; it's not fair to big districts like Toledo. I think we could make the most change at the state level."
Another change Repp noticed at TPS, over the years, was a decrease in enrollment because of the introduction of charter schools.
"I guess I'm not afraid of competition, but I wish [charter schools] were graded on the same kind of scale we are," she said. "They take the test, but they don't have to publish their scores."
Repp said her experience with the Ohio Proficiency Test and Ohio Achievement Test has affected her view of teaching.
"It's not mastery; it's just giving them the information," she said. "I felt the kids before the test learned just as much. And now it's, 'Oh well, you didn't get it; we've got to go on.' I like standards; I think it's great to have a list of standards, but I think it's too many standards."
Repp recommended that new teachers find a mentor in their building.
"You need somebody in your building, someone you feel like you can go to, not just to ask about teaching questions, but logistic questions," she said.
As for not becoming a lawyer, she has no regrets.
"I did pursue trying to become a lawyer, but I had three kids. If I were to be a lawyer, it would have taken a lot of family time away, and I just didn't want to do that."


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Hold down Control (PC) or Command (Mac) key + mouseclick to select more than one option
|Avg. Dinner Entrée
|Greater than $25
|$18.01 - $25
|$12.01 - $18
|$7.01 - $12
|Less than $7
Posted by zackie on 09/03/2013
We live in walking distance from Bleecker Street Pizza and we often host out of town guests in our home. EVERYBODY loves Bleecker Street Pizza and looks forward to their next NYC trip so they can stroll over for another slice whenever they want to. Our San Francisco friends think the fresh mushroom slice is the best , maybe in the Universe ? I am partial to the Nonna Maria pizza. It's fresh motz and awesome home-made Marinara sauce. We have been reliably told that the Food Network staff loves this thin -crust slice of heaven the best. Anytime you are in the Village give this place a try ! Whether you want pizza ,baked zitti , a salad or a hero you will be more than pleased.
Posted by food lover on 01/21/2013
Ill keep it nice and short. If you think this place is good, go to sacs pizzaria in astoria. I promise you its a lot better then this place and cheaper.
Posted by babs on 07/01/2012
If the pizza is fresh, it is ok! Don't ask for it to be heated, you get major attitude. They have the unfriendliest people working there!
Posted by don't do it on 06/27/2012
I live literally two block from this place and after multiple attempts, i can safely say that is place is POOR for delivery. i keep trying because there are limited options in this part of the city. If you go there you will get a slightly above average slice (only if fresh)... if you are getting delivery then... good luck!
Posted by zack! on 05/31/2012
My friends and I LOVE Bleecker Street Pizza ! Wherever we go in the City we include a stop here. Their Grandma slice ( thick and square with rich sauce and fresh basil ) is our favorite . It's cool to watch how a fresh Grandma pie gets ordered slice by slice so fast it disappears before your eyes. This place always has a line of hungry people and not too many tables but people's love of excellent pizza overrides a short wait !
Posted by Lysa P on 04/24/2012
I've lived in NYC for 15 years and always go here for the best pizza. They have fresh amazing pizza - the cheese is delicious and everything is always flavorful.
Posted by David on 12/11/2011
I have lived in the West Village for years and every time I walk by this restaurant, I am saddened to see all the people being tricked into thinking this could possibly be good pizza. I truly think there is a conspiracy about their so-called awards. The pizza here is of the lowest quality. The crust tastes like cardboard and the sauce is way sub-par. If anyone believes this is good pizza, I feel bad for you. Try going to Pepe's, Sally's, or Modern Pizza in New Haven to try real pizza. There are also tons of great places around the West Village area that makes a good pie. John's, Keste, and Arturo's to name a few. Avoid this place like the plague and don't be tricked by fake reviews and people not from here that don't know the first thing about pizza. More than angry, it makes me sad to think of the thousands of people that have been tricked into thinking this can pass for apizza.


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Only hotels in Herzliya are listed below. Find discounted hotel accommodations in or close to Herzliya, Israel for your upcoming personal or group travel. We show the best Herzliya motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Herzliya area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Herzliya hotels. Group booking? Search Herzliya Group Hotel Rates
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Dallas Invisalign Doctors
Dallas Invisalign cost
Average cost in US: $5,000
Average cost in Dallas: $4,175
Dallas Invisalign reviews
80% of Dallas reviewers said Invisalign was worth it
Dr. Gupta and his staff are very friendly and helpful. They will ask any questions you may have. The office visits were also timely. I did not have a wait time at all when I visited the office. The staff is great. I will highly refer them to other in need of any ortho treatment. FYI. My teeth look great and the invisaligns are great for adults needing braces but not wanting the... more
"50 Years Old, Two Kids, One Husband..."
So there I was at 49 years old, sitting on the couch- feeling defeated. What was happening to my body? Who said nature could sneak in and wrinkle my skin, fatten my stomach and cause me to need bifocals? How could this happen? My mind still felt 30! Unwilling to sit by and let nature take its course with my body, I decided that it was time to take action. The big question was where to... more
"College Student, Front Gap &..."
For as long as I can remember I have always had a front gap. Though, when I was younger I never gave much thought about it, as I grew older I would notice people staring at my mouth as I spoke. I started pronouncing words differently and eventually I started to hide my smile. This irked me! Finally after great yearning today I began the process of Invisalign! I had my molds taken of my mouth.... more
"I'm Halfway Finished, and I Love It..."
My teeth have gradually shifted since I got a back tooth pulled about 10 years ago. I've been thinking about Invisalign for a while, and decided to do it when I saw a good price at a local dentist. I'm 10 weeks into my total of 20 weeks (10 sets of aligners), and my teeth started looking better after just a few weeks. Invisalign, for me, has not produced pain, just some "discomfort" when I... more
Pros: You can take them off to eat and brush. Cons: Everything else was a lie. Originally, it was said that it would take less than a year. 2 1/2 years later I am still dealing with them. I am trying to finish them up, and as usual, I am having to wait a ridiculous amount of time for my retainer - going on 10 weeks. Regular braces would have been easier, quicker, and my front two teeth would... more
"Has Been a Trying Process, but Still..."
I had braces as a teen, but got them removed early because i didn't want to go to college with them on. My teeth since then began to crowd again so 10 years after getting my braces off I decided to get invisalign. The Dentist told me I should be a simple case, and after I got my fist set they said I should be finished in 20 weeks, and I only had three buttons. I was excited...But at... more
"Braces an Eye Sore but They Do What..."
So last April I went back to my Original Orthodontist because my teeth were overlapping one another mostly my fault because two years prior I had just got a set of braces off but some how lost both clear retainers. Thinking here I go to pay another $2200... I was surprised because they have a lifetime warranty on my teeth.. funny when you think about it. But they only end up charging me $900... more
"Invisalign - Not Worth the Money"
40 year old who has had a gap in front two teeth all my life. As teenager had crowns put on to close the gap, but as adult pulled a back molar which left a hole and the gap returned. Had a bridge put in the back molar hole to 'fill' the place the molar had been removed from and then got Invisalign. Worked very well. Gap closed in 6 months, problem is within a week of finishing... more
"Invisalign Worked for Me - 8 Years..."
When I got my Invisalign, there were only two orthondists in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that offered it. I had 22 trays total. My bottom teeth were extremely crowded/crooked and of my two front teeth on top one was crooked overlapping about a third of the other front tooth. Being one of the first patients my orthodontist had for Invisalign, I did go through a period in the middle of the... more
"Invisalign is Worth It!!! 6 Months..."
Fantastic results. After 6 months my teeth are almost straight.I am going to have one refinement tray, but it was really worth it. more
Through my works FSA I am able to use pretax dollars to help pay for my Invisalign which is a real bonus. I am now paying 200 a month to my dentist interest free and it is not reflected on my credit report. I have had Invisalign for a year now. They are wonderful overall. I can leave mine out for hours and occassionally spend a night or two every two weeks without them in and my... more


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Rainbow Light, Nutri Stars, Food-Based Multivitamin, Fruit Punch Flavor, 120 Chewable Tablets
Items 21-25 of 159 total
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Rainbow Light, Nutri Stars, Chewable Multivitamin, Excellent product
Posted by Reviewer2707259 on Jul 12, 2013
Excellent product. Good price, excellent choice of vitamins. the daughter loves a little sour taste.
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Note: iHerb does not imply any medical claims from this review. Disclaimer.
Like Candy
Posted by Reviewer1811316 on Feb 10, 2012
Rainbow Light always has great naturally sourced products... our kids love these and we have to remind them that they are vitamins not candy and to only take two per day!
My kids love it
Posted by Reviewer1336307 on Feb 29, 2012
And I love it too. Love the ingredients, very healthy and natural.
The kids simply can't get enough of this!
Posted by Reviewer2129080 on Mar 20, 2011
My kids (9,7 and 4) LOVE the fact that these are star-shaped. Even though I don't think they taste great, my kids seem to think they do and just gobble them right up. Hooray. Packaging and delivery all good too.
Posted by Reviewer2649189 on Apr 06, 2011


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Keen to paint. but your drawing skills let you down? This book provides pull-out tracings for five beautiful floral paintings, along with full step-by-step instructions for how to bring them to life with watercolour paint. A clear guide on how to transfer the tracings to your watercolour paper is included, along with a helpful section on what materials to use. Wendy Tait's new book makes painting flowers simple and accessible, and offers guidance on how you can develop your new painting skills. 72-page paperback.
We have a 3-5 day in-house process. There will be an additional 1-7 days for delivery.
**During peak Holiday Seasons (Mother's Day & Christmas) it can take an additional 1-2 business days to get your order shipped.
We do not accept International orders online.
To place an order with an International billing or shipping address:
You will need to order by calling 405-745-1275. Customer Service is available Monday - Friday 8:00-5:00 CST.
Your order will need to ship to a US Destination, such as a freight forwarder. By doing so your order will be eligible for our US shipping rates which often include free shipping.
If you would like for us to ship your order directly to you, you will be charged the actual postage amount. That amount is calculated once your order is picked, packed and ready to ship. International shipping address are excluded from all shipping discounts. All orders shipped to an International location are charged the actual cost of shipping.
Please note that this policy does not include Military Addresses, Guam, Puerto Rico & the US Virgin Islands. We will accept and ship orders to these destinations.
Expedited shipping is unavailable at this time.
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Sunday, October 20, 2013
The 2013 Youth Honoree for the Mount Pleasant Jingle Bell Run is a 4-year-old little boy by the name of Blake Doossche. When Blake was 20 months old, he began waking up at night with severe leg pain and was demonstrating difficulty grasping crayons due to decreased range of motion in his fingers. Blake went to several doctor appointments and through many tests until he was diagnosed with Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis in July of 2012 and began treatment. Today, Blake is a joyful 4-year-old who loves playing baseball and soccer, going to the beach and playing with his little brother.
The Arthritis Foundation always like to honor a youth honoree for all of the Jingle Bell Run's, which is a nation-wide series of 5Ks that is aimed to fight arthritis. People are often surprised to learn that children can get arthritis too, and when people hear the word "arthritis" they think of it as an elderly person's disease.
The third annual Mount Pleasant Jingle Bell Run/Walk will be held Saturday, Dec. 14 at Roper St. Francis Mt. Pleasant Hospital, 3500 Highway 17 N.
This 5K Timed Run/Walk begins at 9 a.m. The Rudolph Run begins at 10 a.m. The Dancer Dash begins at 10:15 a.m.
5K Awards by TrySports will be given to the Top three overall and each age group. Male and Female.
Awards will also go to the Top Fundraiser, Top Team, Largest Team and the Best Costume.
Raise money and Win Prizes.
If you raise $100 you can earn a JBR ornament, hat or backpack. More prizes can be found at www.jbrprizes.afgear.org.
Register to run at www.mpjbr.kintera.org. For more information contact the Arthritis Foundation at 843-686-7399 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Sponsorships are available.
Entry Fees
5K Timed Run: $30 ($35 after Dec.1)
5K Walk: $25 ($30 after Dec. 1)
Rudolph Run (12 & Under): $15 ($20 after Dec. 1)
Dancer Dash (4 & Under): $10 ($15 after Dec. 1)
Entry fees include long-sleeve shirt, food, beverage, music.
Shirt and Packet Pick Up at TrySports, 1708 Towne Centre Way
Medical Honoree: William Carroll, MD, Charleston Bone & Joint
Kids Activities
• Rudolph Run, .75 Mile (12 and under)
• Dancer Dash, 100 meter (4 and under)
• Costume Contest
• Photos with Santa
• Crafts by Art Buzz
• Face Painting, Holiday Music
There will be free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, BiLo bagels, fruit and bars, Cookies by Cristo cookies. Each child registered receives a free long-sleeve Jingle Bell Run/Walk shirt, free race number, free medal and free Wonder Works toy. There will be a prize for best costume. Also free photos with Santa, free crafts by Art Buzz, free face painting and holiday music.
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By John J. KruzelAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2007 If Tiger Woods weren't a professional golfer, he'd probably be a member of the military's special operations community, Woods told reporters today at the Congressional Country Club here today. (Video)
"I told Dad if I didn't make it (as a golfer) in the first few years, that's probably where I'd go," he said. "I'd probably end up going into the military – and I don't know what branch – but I'd certainly want to be in the special operations community."
Indeed, Woods underwent four days of Army special operations training at Fort Bragg, N.C., in conjunction with a golf clinic he hosted there in April 2004. Woods' late father, Earl Woods, wore the Green Beret for 12 years as a Special Forces soldier during his 20-year Army career.
"That just seems to be more of a fit considering what I grew up with, and I certainly understand it and can relate to it," Tiger said. "But somehow I ended up here. I made a couple putts in those years."
Woods is hosting the AT&T National golf tournament here July 3-8. Besides "getting a W" – or winning the tournament – Woods said honoring the men and women serving America was one of his overarching goals as the event's host.
Tomorrow morning, the world's top-rated professional golfer will play a practice round, called the Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am, with pairings that include Army Sgt. Maj. Mia Kelly and Air Force Master Sgt. Andrew Amor.
Woods said he is excited about playing alongside the servicemembers.
"I'm really looking forward to it," he said. "I've seen their bios, but I haven't met anyone yet, so I'm really looking forward to that, and hopefully I won't get beat too bad."
The golfer said that when he turned 10 years old, he began to play on military golf courses, using his status as a "military dependent."
"I had my little card, and I could flash that and get on the golf course," he said. "The only frustrating thing was a lot of military bases had an age limit of 10. I thought I could play before that."
Woods has since hit the links on many of America's military courses, and he especially likes the Air Force Academy's course in Colorado Springs, Colo., he said.
"I've played a lot of military facilities around the country. For one, they're cheaper," he joked.
As a tribute to golf fans in the military, Woods has arranged for tournament sponsors to distribute 30,000 free tickets to active U.S. military personnel. Those attending will be able to enjoy the view from a special seating gallery, and snack on discounted concessions after showing military identification.
"I know I can't serve with them, but I just want to say, 'Thank you' in some way, and this is our way of being able to do that," he said.
"Even though my dad was retired, I basically grew up on a military base, and just understanding the commitment that it takes each and every day, for the service men and women, what they do for us, I just think that it was something that should be honored," Woods said.


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Photos and Review by Oyster.com Investigators
Large and luxurious, but slightly generic
The Intercontinental wows with its sheer scale: The soaring lobby, the numerous help desks (the check-in counter, the rental car counter, the business services counter, the concierge counter...), the five restaurants, the big pool complex, and Central America's largest urban spa.
But all that size and efficiency comes at a small cost -- namely, the local charm that attracts many leisure travelers to Costa Rica. A few details -- wood on the lobby ceiling, colorful furniture in Azulejos restaurant, local art for sale in glass cases -- nod to the hotel's location, but for the most part the hotel still feels like it could be an Intercontinental anywhere in the world. For some travelers, the convenience, and the luxurious accommodations in the Executive Club Tower, will amply compensate.
The hotel is located in Escazú, a short drive from downtown San José and home to malls and chain restaurants.
The InterContinental is located in Plaza Real in affluent Escazú, a suburban area six miles from downtown San Jose. Spread out on a hillside overlooking San José and Heredia, Escazú has one of the nicest views in the area. Three neighborhoods with three very different flavors compose the suburb: San Rafael is packed with shopping malls and chain restaurants; Escazú centro is more relaxed, with local shops and narrow streets; and entirely residential San Antonio offers spectacular views of the valley.
Big and luxurious, especially in the newer, nicer [/costa-rica/hotels/intercontinental-real-hotel-and-club-tower-cr/photos/the-hotel--v755382/ |Club Tower]]
The rooms are actually split between two different, connected buildings: the 274 standard rooms are in the original main building, which also houses the hotel's meeting facilities and the restaurants; and the Executive rooms and suites are in the newer Club Tower, which also houses the spa and fitness center.
Two swimming pools, a tennis court and Central America's largest urban spa
Italian cuisine, an Asian-inspired lounge and a steak and lobster restaurant
The 372-room Intercontinental is the biggest and best-equipped hotel in the San Jose area, with a pool complex, enormous spa, five restaurants, a rental car desk, and even foreign currency exchange. It's a haven for business travelers, and offers some truly luxe accommodations in its Club Tower. But it feels like a large chain hotel, so leisure travelers who want to experience some local charm might want to consider the nearby Marriott San Jose.
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Free for Haul Friday, Volume #100
Welcome to Free For Haul Friday!
- Haul: Bath & Body Works fall soaps! Mmm, pumpkin!
- Weekend plans: Re-organization/cleaning house and try to fit in a ton of nail polish swatching!
- Favorite cuisine?: Italian
Share your pet photos to the Temptalia Pets flickr group!
This week's Mellan photo…
He's totally about to roll his eyes.
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SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 1, 2012
We've collided head-on with the month of August, and today we had some interesting news stories to ring in the eighth month of the year. Surprisingly enough, we didn't have too much news about the ongoing trial between Apple and Samsung, except for the part where Samsung made Apple really angry by sending evidence that the original iPhone was inspired by Sony designs out to the press. Samsung found itself in a bit of hot water after that leak, so this evening it seems that Samsung has managed to get on Judge Lucy Koh's bad side. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said today that the Galaxy Nexus can remain on sale until August 20 despite Apple's request for its preliminary injunction against the phone to be restored, so if you've been planning to buy one, your window to do so has been extended.