text:
(NY Daily News)
James McClean Twitter 'kill threats': Ex-soldier quizzed by police. AN ex-soldier has been questioned by police over alleged threats to kill Premier League star James McClean. The Sunderland winger who comes from Northern Ireland, refused to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on his shirt during a match at Everton in November. Images of bullets were posted on a Twitter account with comments about McClean, 23, being shot...
(Mirror Online)
Matt Farmer Booted from American Idol for BS War Story. So much for Matt Farmer being crowned the American Idol Season 12 champion. Following a successful audition in Long Beach, Farmer has come out and admitted that he's one giant liar. That whole tale he told? About being injured in an IED explosion in Iraq? And being diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury? And how the medication he was assigned would supposedly make him sterile, until he ended up fathering a daughter named Cadence who joined him in front of the judges? LIE, LIE, LIE...
(The Hollywood Gossip)
North Korean Propaganda Video Imagines a Brighter World, Without Manhattan. When aliens strike, the climate goes berserk, the Russians invade, an asteroid threatens the Earth, New York City is often the first place to be destroyed. Hollywood has long used the city's skyline to demonstrate what destruction looks like in action movies and video games. It seems as if North Korea, in seeking to show how an assault on America would play out, also has Manhattan squarely in its cross hairs...
(The Lede)
Tracking Rape In Syria Through Social Media. Rape has long been a weapon of war, but documenting sexual violence usually happens after a conflict is over. Researchers are taking a new path with the Syrian conflict: tracking the incidents of rape as they occur. The Women Under Siege project is live-tracking how sexualized violence is being used in Syria. What's new is the data: information collected through crowdsourcing — reports on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from inside the country — which is then analyzed by public health researchers at Columbia University...
Military blogger cautions against PTSD speculation in death of 'American Sniper'. In his latest dispatch from the frontlines today, military blogger and photographer Michael Yon reflected on the shocking death of former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. Among his comments came a warning against knee-jerk speculation surrounding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) being a driving force behind the senseless killing:
(The Blaze)
MOH Recipient Slams Ron Paul Over Kyle Tweet. Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer criticized former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Twitter Monday night after Paul posted a controversial tweet about former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who was killed Saturday at a Texas gun range. Meyer sent his tweet in response to one by Paul that read: "Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense."
54 killed in clashes over kidnapped journalist. Manila: Around 54 people were killed, several wounded and 300 families displaced in clashes between a former separatist Filipino-Muslim rebel group and militant Islamists over the custody of a Jordanian broadcast journalist who was kidnapped in southern Philippines eight months ago, sources said...
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Nearly two weeks ago when the militant Islamist group al-Shabab was suspended on Twitter, it was already suspected that other accounts run by the terrorist group were springing up online.
Reuters reported earlier today that al-Shabab is back to tweeting, using a similar username (@HSMPress1) to their previous one (@HSMPress).
Among the online death threats and other TOS violations made by al-Shabab under @HSMPress, the group also published photographs of a dead French soldier in mid-January.
The new account, which was launched on February 3, has already gained nearly 2,000 followers.
It's unknown whether the new account is the real thing or just a copycat, but hopefully Twitter keeps better on top of these things.
The company reacts fast to shut down scam accounts, but takes forever to cleanup these types of accounts, even though they are in blatant violation of its own rules.
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Densmore committed suicide nearly two weeks ago, months after being outed for lying about his military credentials.
According to The Times-Standard, back in November 2012, "Densmore falsely claimed he was a member of the United States Seal Team One, and that he earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, two presidential unit citations, and six Navy commendation medals."
The news about Densmore was first broke by This Ain't Hell, which to date, has helped to uncover nearly 100 people who have faked military credentials and awards.
Jonn Lilyea, a blogger at This Ain't Hell, told the Times-Standard that the website receives 7,000 hits a day, and that readers of the blog are often to thank for tips and information.
Lilyea published several stores about Densmore.
In the latest post, published at the end of January, Lilyea discussed the death of Densmore, saying, "While we grieve for the family Ike left behind, we're still secure in our decision to bust him out. As I said before, he made the decision to be a phony and he made the decision to abandon his family so he could avoid the consequences of the other choices he had made."
Last June, This Ain't Hell was featured on MSNBC after outing "America's Got Talent" contestant Timothy Michael Poe, who had told the television audience and judges that he was injured in Afghanistan in 2009 by an RPG.
Read more about Ike Densmore at The Times-Standard.
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(The Washington Post)
Sharing war stories: WWII first-hand. World War II veterans had a chance to share their stories that are bigger and better than any textbook could tell. 14 veterans came together at the National Museum of World War II Aviation Saturday afternoon. A crowd of nearly 100 people, old and young, military and civilian gathered to hear their personal accounts of combat, travel and lessons learned...
Israel Strike On Syria YouTube Video: Syria Releases Footage of Alleged Israeli Attack. An airstrike in Syria raised eyebrows last week when a small convoy of vehicles was reportedly wiped off the map near Damascus, while intelligence officials privately indicated Israeli forces were likely behind the attack. Now, Syria has released footage of what they say is the aftermath...
BBC Arabic and the complexities of the Arab world. It is no secret that recent Arab uprisings have placed enormous burdens on the shoulders of BBC Arabic journalists responsible for reporting news from the region. Covering the Arab world is not always an easy task - we need to mix sensible caution with a dose of courage in covering political issues that attract so many disputed views among Arabic-speaking audiences...
Malaysian journalist killed in firearm mishap in Lebanon. Claudia Theophilus, 42, who worked as a web producer with Al-Jazeera English news agency, died after a rifle - which she was taking a look at, went off accidentally at about 2.30am local time (about 8.30am Malaysian time). The incident happened in Baakleen - located about 45km southeast of Beirut. Malaysian ambassador to Beirut Ilango Karuppannan said Theophilus died shortly after she arrived at a general hospital in the district...
(New Straits Times)
Incredible war story of pilot who survived a Russian gulag and trekked hundreds of miles to India before making it to Britain to fly Spitfires for the RAF. A Polish war hero with an incredible story of survival during World War Two has died aged 91. Flight Lieutenant Czeslaw 'Tony' Rogers braved a 830-mile trek on foot across the Soviet Union's frozen wastes to India after being freed from a prison camp before eventually making it to Britain...
(Daily Mail)
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Image of Chris Kyle via Craft International
People from all walks of life have taken to Twitter to pay their respects to former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle, who was one of two people shot and killed at a Texas gun range on Saturday.
According to news reports, "Kyle was shot point-blank" while helping another man who was recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome.
Shortly after the tragic news broke, people began paying tribute on the social networking site Twitter.
Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) wrote: RIP CHRIS KYLE. You were a great sniper, honorable navy seal, and great human being.
Eve Torres (@EveMarieTorres) wrote: I was utterly devastated to hear that American hero, and friend, Chris Kyle was taken from us today. Please pray for his wife Taya, & kids.
Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) wrote: Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and many friends of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle tonight.
SEALofHonor (@SEALofHonor) wrote: Damn Few R.I.P. Chris Kyle, "The Devil of Ramadi" NAVY SEALs and Marine Sniper 1974-2013
Nick Lachey (@NickSLachey) wrote: devastated to hear of the murder of chris kyle. i was honored to have spent time with him.....a TRUE American hero. senseless. #RIPCHRIS
Greta Van Susteren (@gretawire) wrote: Stunning that Chris Kyle / Navy Seal survived so much danger in war to die like this..very sad
Jim Norton (@JimNorton) wrote: Very sad news about soldier Chris Kyle being murdered. He was a great guest, I wish he'd come on more than once
Robert Stoneman (@robert_stoneman) wrote: Friend of mine was lost yesterday, RIP to Chris Kyle
5.11 Tactical (@511Tactical) wrote: Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of slain American Hero and friend to 5.11, former SEAL Chris Kyle. He will be missed.
Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) wrote: "My heart is breaking," said director of FITCO Cares Foundation about Chris Kyle's murder. Kyle founded the group that helps vets w/ PTSD.
John Rieber (@John__Rieber) wrote: If y'all don't know who Chris Kyle is, he's the deadliest sniper in American history, a true hero who is with God now.
WFAA-TV published an update earlier today noting that the second victim was identified early Sunday morning as 35-year-old Chad Littlefield. Eddie Routh, 25, is in custody in connection with the shootings, reports WFAA.
Rest in peace, Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.
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White House Warns: Don't Photoshop Obama Gun Pic. The White House has released a picture purporting to show President Obama "skeet shooting" at Camp David. An activity he claims he does "all the time." The White House also warns all you mischievous internet types to not mess around with the picture...
'America's most lethal sniper' dead: Best-selling author and ex Navy SEAL shot at gun range. Former US Navy SEAL and best-selling author Chris Kyle has been shot dead along with another man on a gun range, police in Texas said. Newspaper reports said Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant had confirmed that Kyle, 38, who wrote the book 'American Sniper', and a second man were found dead yesterday afternoon at Rough Creek Lodge's shooting range, west of Glen Rose, about an hour south west of Fort Worth...
(Mirror Online)
Army: Satellite network isn't for Facebook. Soldiers are using a war zone logistics satellite network to surf Facebook, Twitter and other sites that are off limits on Army computers. And the Army is ordering them to knock it off. An Army bulletin warns soldiers that the mobile satellite network is not for non-Army uses like file-swapping networks, checking e-mail or visiting non-Army web sites. Army deputy chief of staff for logistics Lt. Gen. Raymond Mason issued the message Jan. 13...
(Army Times)
Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Who Served in the Military, and How it Changed Their Work. So much of science fiction's core topics intersect with war, one way or the other. Rapid social change and technological innovation both get supercharged during wartime, and some of our greatest explorers are also warriors. So it's not surprising that many of science fiction's most well-known authors served in the military at some point — especially during the era when we had a compulsory draft. But how did serving in the military shape these writers' books? Here's a look at 15 of the authors who served in the armed forces, and how their work reflects that experience...
Red-handed: Associated Press caught inserting "assault rifle" into Alabama hostage standoff. Jimmy Lee Dykes has no business having firearms. A violent Vietnam vet with PTSD who beat a neighbor's dog to death, threatened to shoot school children, and did shoot into an occupied vehicle, that Dykes wasn't already incarcerated is a complete failure of the mental health and criminal justice system in this nation. All that happened before he murdered a school bus drive and took a 5-year-old hostage earlier this week in an on-going standoff. In reading up on the hostage situation today, however, I caught an edit to the established facts...
(Bob Owens)
"Fighter Pilot's" book panned. Hilariously. Unless you like to get pummeled in the ready room, this is exactly what you shouldn't do before you try to become a fighter pilot. Ensign Shannon Ray Anderson wrote a self-help book that promises to show anyone who is interested the path to become a fighter pilot. But there's a catch: Anderson is not a fighter pilot. Nope. He's a student at Training Wing 2, flying T-45 Goshawks...
Marine survey lists concerns on women in combat. Male Marines listed being falsely accused of sexual harassment or assault as a top concern in a survey about moving women into combat jobs, and thousands indicated the change could prompt them to leave the service altogether...
Video of protester stripped and beaten fires Egypt fury. After eight days of protests that killed nearly 60 people, a video of one demonstrator stripped naked, dragged across the ground and beaten with truncheons by helmeted riot police has fired Egyptians to a new level of outrage...
(Yahoo! News)
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I learned of this story when I visited Reddit today.
Apparently, Team Maxwell-Gunter at Maxwell Air Force Base earned very low marks for standards in 2011. "Disregarding them shows a lack of attention to detail and a lack of respect to our service. It shows disregard to our core values." writes Jeff Bergdolt of the 42nd Air Base Wing Plans Office.
While news of uniform violations may not be all that interesting, here's where the story gets juicy.
In the coming months, Maxwell AFB photographers will capture pictures of standards violations across Maxwell Air Force base and post them in the Dispatch. Then readers will be challenged to identify the violation.
Fashionistas are going to have a field day with this.
The picture above is the first photograph posted online asking readers to comment. It was also posted to the base's Facebook page. While no one commented on the picture, one reader left a separate comment about a violation they witnessed. It involves a taco.
Concerned Old Dude writes, "I saw a female at the food court today with a group of six other people during lunch who had her PT gear on including her jacket. She had the jacket sleeves tucked up to her elbows while devouring a taco. She managed to keep these sleeves up while conversing and prancing around the food court looking like a crazy. She did not pull them down until going outside only because I assume she was cold. I am wondering why she was even wearing PT gear at noon".
In case you're wondering, the photo above is not Photoshopped.
The airman is miraculously able to walk with both hands in her pockets. God willing, she made it to her destination without toppling over.
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The newest batch of blogs added to Milblogging.com includes quite an array of categories and countries. The list includes blogs written by Afghan nationals, military spouses, reporters, the Coast Guard, and more. There's something for everyone.
Endeavor to Persevere, Rebecca Johnson, United States, Military Ethics Twitter Course
Nasim Fekrat - Afghanistan Through My Eyes, Nasim Fekrat, Afghanistan, Nasim Fekrat is an Afghan blogger who has also wor...
Afghanistan's Realities, Farzad Lami, Afghanistan, Afghanistan-born Ahmad Farzad Lami (or Lameh) is a...
Mufid Perspective, Hadi Mufid, South Korea, Hadi Mufid, was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan. On th...
CPJ Journalist Security blog, Covering the news in a dangerous and changing worl...
Love and the Air Force, Marley Marie, United States, My husband and I were recently married and are now...
Buoyed Up, Ollie, United States, 3 May 2012 changed the lives of more than 176 men....
It All Fades, Jay Christopher, United States, The content posted here is a mixture of both perso...
Becoming A Navy Wife, Julie, United States, He's the "Steely Eyed Killer of The Deep" & I'm th...
My Home Is With You, Meara Bodle, United States, Sharing snippets of our ordinary lives, under extr...
Alice Swan's Blog - DCMilitary Family Life, Alice Swan, United States, So as another of your site bloggers, I hope to sha...
Navy Wives Unite, Jen Hatzung, United States, A place where Navy Wives {or husbands too} can gat...
White Coat Revolt, Unknown, United States, Adventures of a Spec Ops Flight Surgeon
The Navy's Grade 36 Bureaucrat, Ryan Haag, United States, One-stop shopping for all your questions related t...
After Action, Group blog, United States, Your military sports report
FlightLines, Group blog, United States, Air Force Times blog for airmen
Stan R Mitchell, Stan R Mitchell, United States, I often write about Afghanistan, National Security...
Jenny the Military Spouse, Jennyspouse.com, United States, Jenny follows the adventures of a young Air Force ...
The TSA Blog, United States, This blog is sponsored by the Transportation Secur...
Coast Guard Auxiliary Live, United States, This is an official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard A...
Active Duty Dad, Theron Bostic, United States, A collection of tips, thoughts, and random rants f...
Lily and the Roses ~ Creativity with Autism, Twins and Military Adventures, Lily Rose, United States, I am a composer, pianist, artist and an Air Force ...
Mal's Miles, Mallory Whitt, United States, Lifestyle blog of an Army wife, runner, teacher, p...
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A major headline that has dominated the military news this past week is "Women in Combat". It's a hot term in the news and there are literally thousands of articles on the subject.
Facebook pages have sprang up. There's a Wikipedia page dedicated to "Women in Combat". There's even a domain company called BuyDomains that has the web address for sale for $1,894.
I decided to run down some of the more interesting news headlines of the week and post them below. It gives you an idea of what journalists are thinking.
Women In Combat: What Do Troops In Afghanistan Think?
BOYKIN: Common sense, emotion and women in combat. A lack of front-line privacy would be humiliating
Why women in combat is a mistake
Jon Stewart Tackles Women In Combat Controversy (VIDEO)
Panetta's cowardice on women in combat
The Truth About Little Women Carrying Big Wounded Men in Combat
Women in combat: It's their choice
Women in combat: But don't girls just wanna have fun?
For women in combat, the big threat isn't behind enemy lines
Women in Combat: Listening to Those Who Have Been There
Women in combat no victory
Women in Combat: A Debate that Deserves More than Giggles
Women in Combat Already Here
Women in combat a dangerous experiment
A Brief History Of Women In Combat
Image credit: Defense.gov
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Al Jazeera America Has Received More Than 8,000 Applications. Within 24 hours of posting openings for the majority of their new positions, Al Jazeera America received 5000 applications for open positions, a number that has grown to 8,063 over the past three days, a network source told BuzzFeed. Al Jazeera caused a stir earlier this month when it was announced that the Qatar-based network had bought the struggling liberal channel Current from Al Gore for $500 million, and would use it to expand into American coverage...
Mark Bowden's War Stories, From the Killing of Bin Laden to U.S. Drone Bombers. The day after President Obama announced the U.S. military had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden was approached by a film producer who felt Bowden should be the one to write the movie version of the raid. So he emailed Obama press secretary Jay Carney and asked if he might be able to interview the players involved...
(Philadelphia Weekly)
Caution: Graphic Images - Sixty-Five Found Executed In Syria's Aleppo -Activists. Amateur video purports to show dozens of dead bodies with their hands bound lying by a small river. Activists said that at least 65 people, apparently shot in the head, were found dead with their hands bound in a district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday (January 29)...
Humanitarian law, ethics, and journalism in Syria. A small number of journalists reporting from Syria have recently interviewed prisoners of war under highly coercive circumstances. In doing so, they have ignored the protections that are due to prisoners under international humanitarian law, or IHL...
(CPJ Journalist Security Blog)
Group Launches Second Mil-Writing Contest, Anthology. The Warriors Arts Alliance has published a call for submissions to a second volume of military-themed fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and photography. The non-fiction category includes creative non-fiction, essay, and oral history. Both the anthology and a related contest are open to all military personnel, veterans, and military family members...
(Red Bull Rising)
In Mali, a war 'without images and without facts'. The French army is often called la Grande Muette, or "the Great Silent." The war in Mali confirms the French military's well-deserved reputation of being secretive about front-line actions. "Locking the information is more in the culture of the French army than of the U.S. army," says Maurice Botbol, director of La Lettre du Continent. In the first two weeks of military operations against Islamist militant groups in Mali, the French army has released only a blurry video of an air attack at an undisclosed location...
(CPJ Journalist Security Blog)
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Image of Brenda Marrocco via Twitter
A number of news sites and blogs, including The New York Daily News, are reporting that Brendan Marrocco, a soldier who lost all four limbs in 2009 in Iraq, is recovering after undergoing a double arm transplant and a bone marrow transplant.
But it's not just the media reporting about the transplant and recovery, Marrocco himself is sharing his story with the rest of the world through the microblogging site Twitter.
A month after the operation took place on December 18, 2012, at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Marrocco tweeted, "Ohh yeah today has been one month since my surgery and they already move a little".
Marrocco (who tweets under the username @BMarr86) joined Twitter on December 2011, and to date, has published nearly 2,000 tweets.
With a Twitter tagline of "Live Fast, Love Hard, #DieYoung #EatBacon", Marrocco has been tweeting nearly daily, only taking off a few days for the 13-hour operation.
Since the news broke yesterday about the transplant, Marrocco has continued to remain lighthearted and cheerful on Twitter, sending messages to followers that included:
"ahhhhhhahahaha!!! Seems I'm way more famous then last time. This is like legit famous"
"I guess it's a decent day to be that Brendan Marrocco kid"
"Wow front page of yahoo…maybe I really am a big deal."
Marrocco and surgeons plan to discuss the transplant at a news conference later today.
You can follow Marrocco and his amazing story on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/BMarr86
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(Washington Post)
Looking behind the sightlines of an American soldier under Taliban fire. The video would be viewed more than 23 million times, making it perhaps the most-watched footage of the Afghan war. It began last April when Pfc. Ted Daniels pressed the record button on his helmet camera.
(Washington Post)
Timbuktu library – a treasure house of centuries of Malian history. Timbuktu's main library, officially called the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research, is a treasure house containing more than 20,000 manuscripts covering centuries of Mali's history.
Twitter launches advertising services in Middle East. Twitter Inc launched advertising services in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday as the social media firm seeks to exploit a tripling of its regional subscriber base following its widespread use during the Arab Spring protests.
Group seeks World War II veterans to tell their stories. The Potomac Highlands World War II Roundtable is seeking veterans who want to tell their stories of serving in the military as part of a preservation project sponsored by the Friends of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Women train for Afghanistan frontline. The women of this Air Force group are training for the frontline of battle in Afghanistan. CNN's Don Lemon reports
Dan Nygard's war stories explore military life at home and away. There is a lot of pressure to get it right when you write a war story. You must balance humanity with violence, explain impossible politics, convey the essence of a military culture that is largely hidden from society, and move through constant tragedy without getting bogged down.
Sniper! On Embedded Journalism and the Killing of an Al Jazeera Reporter. Journalism is a tough job. It's a tough job, that is, if you aren't one of the people who are content to sit in plush air-conditioned offices regurgitating material handed to you by various interested parties or randomly pulled off the internet and passed off as "news
Iranian journalists arrested in raids on newspapers. Security officials in Iran have raided at least four newspapers and arrested several journalists in what appears to be concerted action aimed at intimidating the media in advance of the presidential elections in June.
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This e-mail just landed in my inbox:
Former Army Captain and milblogger Lee Kelley (Wordsmith at War) has landed a major book deal, which is described in a recent issue of Publisher's Weekly:
"St. Martin's Press has acquired a new book about the "first" helicopter. Michael Flamini bought world rights, at auction, to Marine Colonel Ray "Frenchy" L'Heureux's Inside Marine One: Flying the World's Most Famous Helicopter. L'Heureux, who's flown the vehicle for several presidents (from George H.W. Bush through Barack Obama), was represented by agents Todd Shuster and Jacob Moore of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary; L'Heureux is co-writing with military blogger Lee Kelley.
The book will explore the helicopter itself, as well as the elite squad that operates it (and that L'Heureux oversaw), HMX1. The book is slated for spring/summer 2014."
Click the link, then scroll down to the section titled "SMP Boards Presidential Chopper" to learn more.
If you'd like to catch up on what's been happening with Lee Kelley over the years, I wrote up a "Where are they now?" story on Kelley last June.
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Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube and other social networking sites have been used to spread information, images and video directly to the masses.
But that's not all the sites are good for…
A story published on NPR's website tells how activists have found love on Facebook during the Syrian uprising.
"Mohsen, an activist from Hama, says he first met Sara, his girlfriend of nearly two years, on Facebook.
She sent him a friend request because she saw he worked in the field of journalism, and for months they chatted casually about the Syrian uprising. Then, after government troops stormed Hama, Moshen fled to Damascus, where he and Sara finally met face to face.
"The revolution is what brought us together. ... It was the thing that pushed us toward each other," he says. "Without the revolution we were never going to meet in person."
Full story here.
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The Twitter account of the militant Islamist group al-Shabab has finally been suspended.
The Associated Press reports that Twitter suspended the account on Friday after al-Shabab used the microblogging site earlier in the week to announce a death threat against Kenyan hostages.
This has been a long time coming as I've been griping for years (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), along with plenty of others, that Twitter needs to crackdown on terrorist accounts.
It's suspected that al-Shabab has several Twitter accounts already springing up online, but this is a step in the right direction, although it's a bit ridiculous it took this long.
Al-Shabab tweeted under the username (@HSMPress). Visitors are redirected to a Twitter page stating the account has been suspended.
In mid January, al-Shabab published photographs of a dead French soldier, and then days later tried to defend themselves after an uproar.
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'Rise of the Drones' Is Mostly a PBS Infomercial for the Military Defense Industry. The widely-acclaimed PBS program, NOVA, premiered a documentary on unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. The documentary, "Rise of the Drones," was produced to explore how the technology is revolutionizing warfare and creating the next generation of cutting-edge surveillance. It was created to provide a glimpse at how the technology has advanced and how innovations might progress in the future...
(The Dissenter)
Tweeting the news: Andy Carvin test-pilots Twitter journalism. Andy Carvin's official title is Senior Strategist, Social Media Desk at NPR, but that bureaucratic fog undercuts the scale of his work. More emphatically, The Columbia Journalism Review has called him a "living, breathing real-time verification system," while The Washington Post declared him "a one-man Twitter news bureau."
(The Verge)
Time running out for old war stories. AN appeal has been launched to find the stories behind the names on St Clears's war memorial. Philip Lanc, of Tenby Road, is trying to trace information on the men whose names are etched into the Pentre Road monument. He said to many people it is just a list of names and he wants to provide the people of the town with the stories behind the men before it is too late. "At any stage we could go and look at the military service record," said the 57-year-old...
(This is South Wales)
Video Suggests Missile Hit Syrian University. At least one of the two explosions that killed more than 80 people at Syria's Aleppo University last week was caused by a missile, according to two analysts who examined new video of the attack posted online by Syrian opposition activists. Traces of what appears to be a missile descending moments before the huge blast can be seen in three still frames taken from the brief video clip, which seems to have been recorded on the university campus as the second rocket shattered a dormitory...
(The New York Times)
Almost all in Congress use Twitter; if only bills could be as short as tweets. Four years ago, when President Barack Obama was first inaugurated, the savvy social media politician was among the first to use Twitter to his advantage to get his message out to voters. Republicans also used the short-messaging blog back then to heckle the new president as he delivered a speech to Congress...
Serbia to review probes into killed reporters. THE Serbian government on Thursday appointed a team to review the probes into the unsolved murders of three Serb journalists killed during and right after the 1990s regime of strongman Slobodan Milosevic. A committee composed of prominent journalists, top police and intelligence officials is ``tasked to examine facts collected during the probes and other circumstances related to the murders of Dada Vujasinovic, Slavko Curuvija and Milan Pantic,'' a government spokesman said...
(The Australian)
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Reporter Elisabeth Bumiller writes, "The groundbreaking decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such combat roles, even though in reality women have frequently found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than 20,000 have served. As of last year, more than 800 women had been wounded in the two wars and more than 130 had died."
The New York Times tweeted a link to the story on Wednesday and the tweet ended up being retweeted by users nearly 1,000 times (749 at the time of this story being published).
People from all over the world took to Twitter to express their opinion and react to the news.
Here are a handful of the Twitter reactions, with some in favor, some against.
John McCain @SenJohnMcCain
"I respect and support Secretary Panetta's decision to lift the ban on women serving in combat"
Tammy Bruce @HeyTammyBruce
"And btw, every line in today's world is the "front line." Women *have* been fighting in combat. Now they'll get paid/recognized for it."
Desiring God @desiringgod
"A man who endorses women in combat is not pro-woman; he's a wimp. He should be ashamed" (John Piper, 2007)"
Kelly @KLSouth
"Women in Combat directly impact combat effectiveness of our military. This is an attempt to further weaken America."
The American Caliban @substitute
"Women now permitted in combat in US military; 300 Hollywood scripts start."
Malcolm Fraser @MalcolmFraser12
"Women have been unofficially involved in military combat for years"
Jen Kirkman @JenKirkman
"Once the ban is lifted on women in military combat, that draft better not come back."
MJ Rosenberg @MJayRosenberg
"Women in combat. Progress? Nothing about war is progress except ending it, not enlarging pool of victims."
Zerlina Maxwell @ZerlinaMaxwell
"women allowed in combat = Conservatives say, "but what about their safety!" 1 in 3 women raped in the military = Crickets."
Andrew Kaczynski @BuzzFeedAndrew
"146 women have died in uniform since 2001, regardless of the ban on women in combat lifted today"
Political Dissident @der_bluthund
"Personally, I think we should put all that energy used against women in combat roles into protecting civilians who get caught up in wars..."
Ron M. @Jewtastic
"I guess since there were not enough women in his White House to please his base, the President threw them into combat instead."
Jamil Smith @JamilSmith
"Seems @davidfrum was for lifting the ban on women in combat before he was against it."
Johnny Fuggin Bravo @MrFitMarine
"How I feel about women in combat? BOOTS 2 ASSES. S/O to every brave woman who takes that step."
Chris Regan @ChrisRRegan
"Women now cleared for combat! Or at least the economically-disadvantaged ones."
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Photo by Issouf Sanogo
A photograph of a French legionnaire in Mali wearing a skeleton face mask drew an angry reaction from the French military and government.
Reactions on Twitter and other social media sites range from condemnation to expressing support. One Twitter user @phillycat writes, "It's badass".
AFP photographer Issouf Sanogo took the photo on January 20th, which quickly went viral because of its likeness to the Call of Duty character "Ghost", a non-playable British character in Modern Warfare 2, who wears a pair of sunglasses and a skull-patterned balaclava, similar to the one worn by the French soldier.
Sanogo told the story behind the image to AFP:
"A helicopter was coming in to land and churning up tremendous dust clouds. Instinctively, all the soldiers grabbed their scarfs to avoid getting a mouthful of sand. It was evening, and rays of sunlight were pushing through the trees and into the dust clouds. It was a lovely light. I spotted this soldier wearing a strange scarf and took the photo. At the time, nothing about the scene seemed especially unusual or shocking. The soldier wasn't posing and there was nothing staged about the image. He was just standing there, protecting his face from the dust, waiting for the chopper to land. No one tried to stop me shooting the picture."
Here's a look at the image of the Call of Duty character Ghost.
According to the video game news site Kotaku which calls the controversy "silly", "The photographer at the heart of the controversy, AFP's Issouf Sanogo, is "surprised" by the resulting media storm."
Luke Plunkett writes, "French authorities are now trying to identify the soldier, presumably so they can reprimand/make a scapegoat out of him."
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DOD hopes to harness power of tweets, blogs and updates as intelligence tool. When is a tweet more than just a tweet? When that tweet - along with millions of other bits of digital data - is merged to create a network of real-time information, all that can be harnessed and used by the military. How to harness and interpret such massive amounts of information is the goal of an initiative through the Department of Defense's Data to Decisions program, run by the Office of Naval Research...
Veteran stands up for 2nd Amendment at Chicago anti-gun forum. After enduring hours of derision and mockery by the panelists at a Chicago-area guns "forum" Sunday, one man in the audience stood up and addressed the crowd, identified himself as a veteran, and proceeded to give a straightforward but passionate defense of his support for the First and Second Amendments...
(Legal Insurrection)
Al Jazeera Is Hiring. Looks like someone is hiring. Al Jazeera just posted a list of over 100 job openings on their website for the soon-to-launch new U.S.-based news channel. At the beginning of the year, Al Jazeera Media Network announced that it had acquired Current TV, the network founded by Al Gore, and would use the network's distribution system to launch a new U.S.-based news channel for American audiences...
Some news orgs' social media policies are on shaky legal ground. If your social media policy prevents employees from saying anything bad about the company, it might be going too far. The National Labor Relations Board has weighed in on several cases where employees lost their jobs because of social media activity, Steven Greenhouse reports. The board is standing up for the rights of workers to discuss wages and working conditions...
Production Begins on DreamWorks' WikiLeaks Project "The Fifth Estate". Principal photography has begun on the WikiLeaks drama "The Fifth Estate," it was announced today by DreamWorks Studios. The film about the controversial website stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange and Daniel Brühl as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, as well as Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten. Following Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Brühl), an early supporter and eventual colleague of Julian Assange (Cumberbatch), "The Fifth Estate" traces the heady, early days of WikiLeaks, culminating in the release of a series of controversial and history changing information leaks...
(Business Wire)
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This year, Military Spouse magazine added an installation level to the award, ensuring that each and every base, district (Coast Guard), and state (National Guard) has a representative.
Last year's Military Spouse of the Year award went to Jeremy Hilton, an Air Force Spouse.
If you'd like to learn more, here's a look at the timeline.
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text:
Need it by Christmas Eve?
Men's adidas Running Shoes
Kanadia 5 Trail Shoes
Black/Neo Iron (Q35439)
Size Chart
+ Save To Wishlist
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Zook Narrow Arch
I'm a woman who buys men's shoes for the width and fit. These shoes were really comfortable but I have on the wider side of feet for a girl. When I tried these on, I was really surprised how narrow the arch was. (The grey part of the shoe sole) I reluctantly had to send them back for that reason. I was also really surprised how narrow it is considering it's a trail shoe. Normally, I know I can always order a 8.5 Men's Adidas and they fit perfectly, perfect width throughout my foot. The actual size was still a perfect fit, just not through the arch. Still recommend these if you don't have super wide arches!
July 28, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Man On Da Run Impressive
If Style and Performance had a baby then this shoe would be their offspring!! I'm not a runner but I somehow ran 3 1/2 miles in 34 min before I realized it. As far as the fit, if you are like me who has more running shoes that are too wide then us narrow foot type runners will love it. If you think the fit is too narrow then Adidas has running shoes for the wide duck foot type. And I can run on concrete just as great as on any trail. Thank You Adidas and keep it coming.
August 11, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by Yooper Can't recommend these
I bought a pair of Kanadia TR5's from Dunham's this week. I've put about ten miles on this pair and I won't ever run in them again. On my two short runs, I spent most of the time after the first mile trying to get feeling into my feet and stop the cramping in my calves. I don't know what you did, Adidas, but these shoes are the worst running experience I've ever had.
Size was a little small, I normally wear a 9 1/2 and had to go 10. They feel *great* in the store, but I was seriously considering tossing them in the creek and finishing my run barefoot yesterday.
I'll stick with Brooks from now on.
June 13, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Hahns Solo great shoe!!!!
I just purchased 2 pair from the adidas outlet store in Ga., they were buy one get the second pair 50% off!!!!! Very sporty and snug fit! I ran 3 miles with the first pair today and they are very comfortable!
February 7, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by GabeA72 Very disappointed
This is the third pair I purchased over a one month period and yet the third disappointment. Looks like Adidas shoes run way small, and it is hard for me to understand why; after all, an inch is still an inch, and so is a centimeter. I wear a 9.5 or 10 in anything else- which is an European 43- and I don't have any issues. I purchased a Kanadia 5 Trail in 10.5 and my toes are pressed against the edges of the shoe. Size chart says 10.5 is the equivalent of European 44.7. Wrong, it doesn't even get close. More than that, the shoes run narrow, making it very uncomfortable (or impossible) to wear. I would gladly switch to a different brand, but I've been wearing Adidas for over 20 years, and all my gear is Adidas. Get your stuff together, Adidas. This is ridiculous.
April 21, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Sustos Great for the buck
I get them in an outlet Adidas store @$49 or something. At a reg price I'll might be getting another model or brand. They are a good combination of steady, trail shoes to run and average cushion to support impact. Somehow narrow in the inside because by the outside you can judge them different.
Not an all day, everyday shoe.
Run with them in trails, non pavement roads and you might be getting the best of them
August 12, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by Loyal Adidas supporter Changing what wasn't broken
For some reason Adidas chose to make changes from the Kanadia 4 to the 5. The changes they made were mistakes. For some unknown reason, they messed with the shoe size. I've worn a 7 1/2 in adidas for years but with the Kanadia 5, I'd probably have to order an 8 1/2. (I'm not going to, I'm just going to return my 7 1/2s). Also, they sewed the tongue of the shoe into the side. I've never seen this before in any shoe and it doesn't work well at all.
I love my Kanadia 4s as it seems many who are leaving reviews also do. The 5s are terrible. Don't buy them.
August 25, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5Â by Banjo runner Be careful! Good shoe. Not true to size
I have enjoyed many pairs of Kanadia 3s and 4s, but discovered early that I had to purchase shoes a 1/2 size larger than what I normally wear in order to fit properly. Once I figured that out, Kanadias became my running shoe of choice. With that in mind, I just purchased my first pair of kanadia 5, and discovered that a 1/2 size larger than my actual shoe size in the kanadia is not enough. The 1/2 size larger fits too snug, like its a 1/2 size too small. I wish I had not worn them already, because I would have sent them back and exchanged them for a shoe that's a whole size larger. I like the shoe enough to overlook the weird sizing issue, but I wish Adidas would get that right. That's a hassle when purchasing online.
April 26, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Sklass Very Narrow
These sneakers are very narrow. The tongue is sewn into the side, so good luck arching your foot to get into them. I got a half size larger than normal, but could probably use a whole size larger. After some breaking in and stretching they fit. Look very cool.
March 16, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by does it matter Way too small....
I normally wear a 10-10.5 in shoes. Knowing adidas runs small, i ordered a 11. THe shoe is still 1/2 a size too small and the shoes are WAY too narrow. THese shoes are no wider than a size 8.... so unless you have skie for feet, these wont be comfortable. I am tired of Adidas making shoes for one type of foot. Time to go buy some nikes i guess.
January 21, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Dmad72 bad sizing
I order a TON of Adidas gear, mostly golf (Taylor Made too). I probably order 3-4 golf shoes/year, ALWAYS 7.5m. I have a number of Adidas athletic shoes also, ALWAYS 7.5m. These arrived and the 7.5's weren't even close to fitting!!! When I went back on the computer to re-order the shoes in another size I found them on Amazon for $5.OO less expensive (included shipping like Adidas.com) so I ordered them from Amazon (went up a full size to 8.5 and they fit). I dont understand how or WHY the sizing would have been so far off.
November 27, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Tiger78 Not a true size
I was really excited when I put in my order. I got the shoes pretty quick, but they were a little too tight for the size I ordered. Apparently the shoe is not made true to its size. I have ordered shoes online in the past from Adidas and never had such a problem. Although I was disappointed I had no problem returning them and the store staff was very friendly and helpful. I gave it a fair review since Adidas was nice enough to honor their guarantee of customerâs satisfaction and gave me my money back.
June 28, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Cgabriel Bad sizing
I've been buying Adidas running shoes for 20 years, these are the worst sized shoes ever. The run a full size small. Shouldn't have so send back after buying 30 plus pair of shoes before with no issues. Frustrating.
February 17, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Ukooza Great pair of shoes
Due to the sharp of the sole you feel like picking up the pace with ever step.
Just a great shoes i would recommend to anyone.
February 7, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by The outlaw Runs small
I'm a 10.5 usually even in other Adidas shoes. But these where to small. Order a size larger. Other than that nice show!
March 31, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by jmbd kanadia 5
I'm very picky in my purchases, it takes me while to find somtheing I want. This was my first time ordering shoes online. I even looked at several brands before I found the Kanadia 5 tr. My size is usualy 8.5-9, so I orderd them in a 9 to play it safe , days later I got home, tried them on and the shoes where waaay to narrow. Instead of shipping them back, I took them to my local Adidas store and found new ones in a SIZE 10!!
Other than that I'm happy with my Kanadias.
May 28, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by kevv Small
I've been wearing size 14 footwear for the past 20+ years. I've always been able to fit comfortably into anything in a size 14 - running shoes, cleats, dress shoes, snowboard boots, etc.
I ordered the Kanadia 5 in my size and could barely get them on my foot. The sizing for this shoe is clearly way off. I would strongly urge others to avoid purchasing this shoe online without trying it on somewhere first to establish the size that will actually fit you.
December 4, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by terry52 great for flat feet
This shoes has a unique outside bevel of the sole under the heel. I have pronating ankles (flat feet). As I walk in these shoes, the heel strikes first on the inside, guiding the ankle over the center of the shoe as the weight transfers to the ball. It is very lightweight and a delight to my poor feet. This is the first shoe I have seen that makes sense for flat feet. I wish more shoes were designed with a beveled heel.
September 26, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by marie1330 What happened??
I have loved this particular brand of trail running shoe for the last year. I loved when I tried them on the first time and they were the perfect fit. I've gone through 3 identical pairs, SO in looking for a new pair I have noticed they are much narrower and I even went up half a size. I am so bummed about this change and now on the look out for a different brand altogether, WHY did you do this Adidas???
October 12, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by BHwhh Shoe Size
I were a size 11 in all trail running shoes that I have purchase from Adidas. This is the first and last time I will order them online. This particular shoe, while stating on the inner flap that they are US size 11, are truly size 10.5, extremely tight and not wearable. I would like Adidas to step up and send me this shoe in a size 11.5.
Thank you.
January 24, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Villee the runner Awesome Product
I am a big of a Adidas product.. i been wearing Adidas product for quite a long time. I still have for my indoor running shoes from Adidas and i had put @400 miles on that shoes and still looks great in shape. I was at Costco and i saw this pair and i was totally into it. i bought it and its only one color but i like it so i did bought it and it is very light weight and comfortable to wear.
August 28, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Kent11 Best Ever
I've run in Nike, New Balance and several other brand trail shoes and these are the best trail shoes ever by a large margin. Some of the bad reviews here seem to be more from fit than performance. They grip like glue, they are soft but not squishy, they give you a stable platform and they wear like iron. My third pair - I'll buy them until they quit making them, hopefully forever.
December 10, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Rev FM Great shoe!
I am a total Adidas fan. Everything made by Adidas fits me perfectly. I am 6'4" and need great support for extensive walking. This shoe does just that. It is a perfect fit to size. The sides have great support and the sole is perfect traction on wet or dry trails. Furthermore, I was totally shocked and pleased by the price. You won't go wrong with this shoe.
November 19, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by chrispyb Great Shoes!!
Great trail running shoes! Fit great, light weight and very comfortable. Long lasting and rugged for the price! I highly recommend!
March 2, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Alonso GREAT shoes, but indeed small
I recently bought these online - my first online shoe purchase, and I'm glad I did. These shoes are really comfortable and good looking as well. Thankfully, I read these reviews before I bought them because they are indeed small, so I bought half a sizer bigger than what I normally use and they fit perfect! (I'm a 12 and bought 12,5). Great shoes.
September 30, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Range Rover Runs very short
I bought these for my dad for Fathers Day and he loved them. The only problem was they were too small. I should have read the other reviews because they all said that this shoe runs small. I ordered the next size up and they were still too small. Now I have to return these again and find something else. My advice would be not to buy these shoes.
June 26, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by auricenterprises Great Running Shoe
Not gonna lie, all the previous criticisms by others over shoe size is true. I'm a 9.5, and these I bought are a 10 and fit nicely snug.
Barring that....I bought mine for 20 bucks at a discount warehouse in NH. I like soft cushiony shoes - and for trail runners, I got what I wanted. Hard to complain at that price anyways. A perfectly good shoe.
October 26, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5Â by chikoflako comfort
They have grate traction, but they are to narrow. I feel like I could twist my ankle when taking a curve, so I have to speed down. The soil is to narrow and the stability in not good. Also I feel like the upper part that goes arround the ankle is to hard. I can not tie my shoes to hard or my ankle will get hurt.
February 14, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by teracon Good sturdy shoe. Echoing similar sentiments, this shoe does run a bit small. For a size 9, I wish that I would have purchased a 9.5. Since it ran a bit smaller, the break-in period was somewhat longer. I would recommend this shoe to anyone looking for a good sturdy show for the trail or the street.
July 12, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Knob runner Kanadia 5
Good shoe! I listened to the previous posts and sized up a full size. I normally wear a 10 and ordered an 11. Fits pretty well. Good comfort and excellent traction on the trail. She is a good shoe and would recommend for trail running. Sizing is weird though. Happy trails!
August 18, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 5 out of 5Â by BroMoe My power walking shoes
One of three pair types I use for my daily eight mile power walk. Great support and traction as the surfaces vary from concrete to rough paths. I rotate every two days allowing the shoes to last longer. would recommend to anyone seeking great support, comfort and style.
November 14, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by kjlhoyt awesome shoe for mud runs
*You will be able to walk up the mud hills with ease.
*Easy to clean...after two mud runs they still look new.
*Center is the outsole has spikes that grip into logs when jumping or climbing over them.
*Great fit
*Did I mention how great the traction was....
September 2, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by ManUnitedfan Awesome shoes
I am very picky when it comes to shoes. These are the most comfortable shoes I have ever had. I have wide feet and they fit perfectly. I have only had them about a week, so I cannot say at this point how well they will hold up, but so far they are great.
June 16, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5Â by Rick 1 Very desappointed!
The shoe was very difficult to get in the correct size. I finally had to get a full size larger than what I usually wear. Even then it was to narrow. The shoe was not even close to being as comfortable as my original Kanadia.
December 10, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by motomanmel LIGHT AND COMFY
This is a great shoe, i have been using them for 2 years now same models just getting better.
Just remember to oder 1 size bigger and you will not have any issues.
This is one of the best shoes i have ever owned.
November 27, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by jtech259 a little tight
I love the style fit but my pair I ordered seem a little tight, I ordered my regular size 11 they just feel tight I think I'm sending them back for a .5 bigger other than that great price good shoe.
October 13, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by VLAVPP Nice Shoes But too small
I got this shoes like a week ago I love them the only one think is that when I put them on they were too small , I wear size 14.5 , and that's why I order size 15 and they feel like 13 to me.
November 23, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by nikolas71 great running shoes but not for hard surface
Great shoe definitely buy 1/2 size bigger, happy with the design and the performance they have been designed a little narow but I think that helps the runner with less pressure on the foot.
June 16, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by bheat I INITIALLY BOUGHT THESE JUST 2 "KNOCK AROUND IN" BUT AFTER WEARING THEM A FEW TIMES THEY HAVE NOW BECOME MY NEW SOFTBALL SHOES DUE 2 HOW COMFORTABLE THEY R!!
March 10, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by ndnsoftball Great Comfort
Purchased these trail shoes to play softball in. Great comfort, and great traction. Don't really like to wear cleated shoes, and these can pass as turf shoes.
August 1, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Handfull moon bounce
Every step feels like you are on the moon, so soft like cotton .these shoes are meant for walking and one of these days I'm goin to walk all over you .peace
November 21, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Deutscher Fussball Bund Kanadia 5 Trail Shoes
Great shoe all the way around!
Note - I wear a 13 shoe normally (with room) and this runs a whole size smaller so got a 14.
Be sure to go up a size!
September 12, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5Â by racquetballguy too narrow
The shoe is fine, but I needed to wear them for awhile to stretch out the width. Once the shoe was stretched width was stretched, it was fine.
August 14, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Juanda Nice shoes
They are very comfortable, the ones that I was looking for, it is the first time that I get shoes like these, Im lovin´them!
November 22, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by stork tight!!!
Generally good, but it may be too tight for broad foot. Because its tongue is fixed and that make it comparingly narrow.
July 14, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by adam r great shoes
Has great heel support. Bought the tr4 and decided to try the new tr5. Tr4 is better but tr5 is still outstanding.
January 22, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by LightsoutD My kicks
Always have been a big fan of Adidas trail runners.. These did not let me down either! You can't go wrong!!
June 12, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Ballgame Good Quality Shoes
I use them to play softball in & they have plenty of traction as well as comfort. Good pair of shoes...
June 17, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Deepdust Run small!!!
Make certain to order a size LARGER than normal, i.e. 10.5 = 11. Narrow as well. Solid construction.
April 22, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by cuki amazing look and quality of course it is an ADIDAS long lastIng shoe I have like 30 pairs of ADIDAS
January 12, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Ed Blue jeans track sneakers
Very comfortable - love the way it grips my heels. Also seems to give a lot of support to my back
January 19, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5Â by PTommy Careful - they run small
Overall good traction, good breathers, but they run small. Tongue is tearing on second wearing.
June 22, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Rob36 Love the Kanadia line
I love the Kanadia line of Adidas and have about 12 pair of them. Please keep making them.
July 19, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by TM333 Great Buy!
These trail runners are great fitting and durable for all terrain I have encountered.
November 18, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by daveNYCtoDC great shoe
They're comfortable and exactly what i expected when purchased online.
June 11, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5Â by dgtrust Don't buy
These are very cool looking but so-o poorly sized - extremely narrow
April 30, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by ajinsain review title
My fav so far pair of adidas yet, most comfortable pair by far
January 11, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Bopper416 Awesome Shoe
Fits great, love the style, and their very lightweight.
July 3, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Shimon Good Purchase
I am very satisfied with the Purchase and the service.
November 5, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by Sillivan Order a size larger
Great shoe just order a size larger.
April 18, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5Â by 73
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Andreeee8 Excelent Product
Good light weigth and confortable.
July 6, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by pillsbbury doughboy Sweet trail shoes
Light fast and fit my feet great!
November 17, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Fhernandez Good !!!
Excellent Product
November 19, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by Branto Shoes Fit Great & Love the Look
April 4, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by krlmty súper fregones
November 15, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5Â by LMIRANDA GREAT PURCHASE
November 25, 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Free Spirit News
A Cure for the Common Core
Take the guesswork out of helping students meet standards with resources that align with core content standards in English/language arts, math, social studies, and science. Many Free Spirit resources align with national and state standards as well as Common Core State Standards.
View all aligned titles.
Author Spotlight
Thomas McIntyre, Ph.D.
Thomas McIntyre, Ph.D., also known as Dr. Mac, is the author of The Survival Guide for Kids with Behavior Challenges and a professor of special education at Hunter College of the City University of New York. This month, Dr. Mac sat down to tell us a bit about his education journey and why he loves teaching.
Reviews & Accolades
Being the Best Me! Series
"These books are simply written and will empower students to turn around bad days. Affirming statements . . . are accompanied by large, cheerful illustrations that are perfect for prompting discussion."—School Library JournalDo you have a favorite Free Spirit book? Tell us why! Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
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Differentiation for Gifted Learners
Within a group of advanced learners, the variety of abilities, talents, interests, and learning styles can be formidable. Differentiating for them must go beyond adjusting content levels, task complexity, or product choice. For the first time, this book connects the unique learning differences among gifted students to the specific teaching methods used to tailor their educational experiences. Learn more.
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Free Spirit seeks early childhood educators and grades preK–12 teachers, administrators, librarians, counselors, and social workers to join its advisory board. In order to make our books and other products even more beneficial for children and teens, the advisory board will provide valuable feedback on things like content, text, and art and help us identify what educators need to support the kids they serve.
Free Spirit also seeks young people, grades 6 and up, to join its teen advisory council. In order to keep our books and other products current and relevant, the advisory council provides valuable feedback on such things as the design, art, and content of our resources for young people.
From all of us at Free Spirit, thanks for stopping by!
• View catalog online• Request a catalog


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9 HD Video Lessons
After many years of teaching knitting and crochet, Deborah discovered that weaving encompasses her love of fiber, texture, and color. Since 1996, she has worked as a full-time weaver and artist. She has won numerous awards and written articles for national publications. Her work has been commissioned by churches and is in many private collections. Since 2004, she has been an artist in residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, California. She is a popular teacher at many Stitches events. View profile »
Closed Captioning Available
with Deborah Jarchow
Deborah will lead you step-by-step through the techniques for color and weave, leno, Brooks bouquet and more. Weave along with Deborah and get a handle on managing your selvages for a tidy edge, maintaining an even tension with twisted threads, and reviewing design considerations. You'll even learn how to pick up knitted or crocheted stitches on your fabric for decorative edgings or to incorporate your work into a fabulous garment.
Included with your class are sample patterns for practice, as well as the pattern for the Log Cabin Table Runner, designed exclusively for you!
Turn your fiber into fabulous fabric - sign up for Rigid Heddle Weaving: Beyond the Basics today!
What You'll Learn


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Yea, I think they were considered "Taiwan" series. Probably got mostly funded by Taiwan companies.
But I think it still gets aired like a major series in the Mainland. In 1998/1999, Taiwan productions (or TVB for that matter) were generally considered "superior" to mainland ones. Of course, that was back in the days when Taiwan/TVB actually put effort into their series.
I cheated and looked on baidu
But then again, the "Tangren" of the late 90s was probably just Li Guo Li + buddies. I'm sure it was in combo with other production companies for funding. I mean, most certainly, the Tangren of today is much wealthier than the Tangren 10 years ago.


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Beautiful young female in sexy lingerie posing on black leather couch
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By Clara Watson
Hello Falcon Fans! It has been another fantastic week here at Ingomar! I hope everyone enjoyed their four day, Happy Columbus Day weekend!
The junior high and high school pageants were held on Oct. 8.
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Panoramic Maps
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Bird's eye view of Prairie du Sac, Sauk County, Wisconsin 1870.
Perspective map not drawn to scale. "Looking south west." LC Panoramic maps (2nd ed.), 1052 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Indexed for points of ...
Contributor: [Ruger, A.] Site/Collection: Geography and Map Division - Panoramic Maps - Cities and Towns - American Memory - Main Catalog Original Format: Map Date: 1870 View catalog record


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That Daedelic Entertainment is slanted towards adventure games is perhaps known to those who still keep an eye on this once-vibrant genre. However, instead of watching the genre fade into oblivion, Daedelic seeks to revive it.
It might have a rough start in its endeavour though. In the past, it merely published games by others and where it did produce in-house products, they were ridden with issues such as poor translation from their original German versions.
However, Daedelic Entertainment has since learned from the feedback to its past games. The result of these lessons was Deponia, the first of a series that would place Daedelic among the likes of TellTale and other game-makers that still see worth in the adventure game genre and more importantly, making considerable revenue from them.
Continuing a practice that it has learned from past criticisms that its games are not sufficiently friendly to newcomers to the genre, Deponia starts itself off with a witty tutorial that happens outside of the actual story and breaks plenty of fourth walls.
Other than the silliness of the set-up of the tutorial and the banter between the two characters that are presenting the tutorial, the lines with the actual instructions are delivered with sufficient clarity and seriousness.
The lessons that are imparted would be standard-fare to long-time veterans of adventure games, but with the addition of the tutorial, the game would seem a lot more accessible to players who have yet to know the genre at all.
After the tutorial, Deponia reintroduces itself with a short song, sung by a person that people who liked Harvey's New Eyes may well recognize. (Each chapter would then end and the next one start with a short song too, amusingly.)
Rufus lives in Kuvaq, a town in a seemingly vast trash heap as far as the eye can see on the planet known as Deponia. Kuvaq is populated by people who make the most of their lives by salvaging scrap and other stuff from the garbage that the city of Elysium above Kuvaq drops onto the surface of Deponia.
Tired of having such a life on the surface, Rufus yearns to leave and go to Elysium, his drive being the delusion that he deserves a life as one of the privileged blue-bloods that reside in the city.
Unfortunately, Rufus' callous and egotistical demeanour earns him no friends at all. Moreover, it is a self-defeating behaviour that sees him unwittingly scuttle escape plan after escape plan, among other messes.
One day though, yet another ruined plan would have him looking for means other than to physically bring himself to Elysium. However, this would get him into trouble that even he is not used to.
By default, Deponia utilizes a mouse-centric system that conveniently uses both mouse buttons for immediate manipulation and examination of objects, instead of the cumbersome palette of icons that was used in earlier Daedelic games such as The Whispered World. The mouse wheel is also used for bringing up the inventory screen, which can require some getting used to, though once the player has learned this, he/she can play the game almost entirely with the mouse.
The inventory display can also be conveniently put away by simply moving the cursor into space that it does not obscure.
Despite the pervasiveness of mouse controls, the keyboard is still useful for other purposes.
Pressing the spacebar brings up handy highlights of objects, continuing a wise trend in Daedelic's games. However, the highlight icons consist of screws with coronas of bright lights, which can obscure what they are supposed to highlight.
There are also hotkeys for bringing up the saving and loading screen, though perhaps Daedelic may not be aware of the usual (albeit not unanimously agreed-upon) meaning for the terms "quick-save" and "quick-load".
Double-clicking on doorways, corners and such brings the player instantly to another locale, without having to watch Rufus saunter over to the other place. This is a long-time tradition of Daedelic's games. However, by Deponia's time, the lack of any means to have the player character run or move any faster may be all too apparent already.
Nevertheless, the consequences of the lack of running are not too severely felt, because the locales are not too expansively big.
Being the player character, the appeal of Rufus as a character is critical to the reception of the game. At first glance, Rufus's appearance suggests that he is of the archetype of adventure game protagonists that go about seeking adventure and causing trouble. Indeed, he is one – in a sense.
Unfortunately, almost from the get-go, Rufus reveals that he has a personality that others would find unpleasant. He is self-conceited and quite pompous – but of course, players that are more experienced at story-writing tropes would know that this may well be a set-up to have events turn Rufus into a better person.
There may be some amusement to be had from the deflated sarcasm that Rufus's acquaintances have for his antics. The only exception is Toni, who is Rufus' ex-girlfriend who sternly reminds Rufus (and the player) that he is really good for nothing, and Gizmo, a character that would reveal that Rufus has long been a menace to Kuvaq.
This goes on for much of the game, until a certain scenario far into the game slaps him with a rude awakening. Then, finally, he has some character development away from the insufferably egotistical Rufus at the beginning.
During the time in-between though, the player has to be very patient with him, especially if he/she had known protagonists with far humbler demeanours. His massive ego can be easily grating on the nerves, especially when it leads him to make terrible mistakes.
(It is worth noting here that in this aspect, Rufus is the exact opposite of Sadwick, who is the protagonist of The Whispered World, an earlier Daedelic title.)
(Also, interestingly, despite Rufus's callousness, he still closes doors behind him.)
The puzzle designs in Deponia have surprisingly convincing logic progression, considering that earlier titles by Daedelic have issues when it comes to this.
This is mainly possible due to the settings of Deponia, which mostly has Rufus dealing with machines that have mostly believable engineering. There are also people who describe to Rufus how things work, albeit in a manner that is not too overtly clear. Their deficient explanation also hints at how much of Deponia's past history has been lost, though the game does not provide many answers to questions about this – at least not in the first Deponia title.
Most of the puzzles have Rufus damaging and sabotaging things with selfish mischief in his mind. There are a few puzzles where he actually fixes things, which may have symbolic meanings. Either way, Rufus would say out loud what needs to be done, and appropriately so because he does have some technical skill, despite his boasts.
Some puzzles and solutions may not have all corners covered though. For example, there is one scenario where the player needs to becalm another person so that Rufus can nick said person's things, but Rufus can only nick one certain object that is needed to solve another puzzle. If the player attempts to have Rufus steal anything else, the other person's warnings which were used before said person was becalmed would play out.
A few puzzles also resort to cheap puns to indicate to the player the solution that is needed. For example, Rufus makes a pun on the word "catastrophe" when describing a certain object to suggest that the associated solution requires certain animals.
Despite most of the puzzles being quite logical and believable, there are puzzles that can be considered rather outrageous. Granted, there is no telling whether Deponia is a world that is far removed from the real one or not, but it is hard to suspend one's disbelief when Rufus uses a certain candy on a light source to obtain the means to solve a puzzle.
With an egotistical protagonist, Deponia's writers (the main one being Jan Müller-Michaelis, who is the brains behind the story of many previous titles) have their work cut out for them. Fortunately, they managed to provide an entertaining story that is not too damaged by the narcissism of the main character.
For one, other characters' sarcasm towards Rufus's self-conceited personality has already been mentioned. This helps balance against Rufus's possibly insufferable monologues, at least early on in the story.
The writing also has many references to earlier adventure games by Daedelic. For example, a certain green sock appears early in the game, suggesting that it may be a reference to a certain other green sock that appeared in The Whispered World. There are also subtle references to other adventure games, including well-known ones like the Monkey Island titles.
Most of the lines are tightly written enough to prevent the player from knowing about solutions to puzzles in advance, but there are still holes that can be discovered by having Rufus examine things; an example about word-puns has already been mentioned earlier.
The game comes packed with voice-overs and text in English, Deutsch, Português and Español. It so happens that the latest build of Deponia has a handy button in the user interface that allows the player to switch language packs easily. On the other hand, the multiple language packs do increase the installation size of the game.
If one is willing to replay the game several times with a different language pack each time, he/she would know that the lines are delivered with satisfactory enthusiasm. However, there are a few blemishes.
Significant pauses are used as a tool of humor in the monologues and dialogues. Although these seem suitable with the comparatively slower German and English dubs, they make the voice-overs in other languages seem awkward.
The subtitles sometimes do not match what the characters are saying. Occasionally, the game may even call up the wrong text. These may be random glitches, of course, but it should be worth noting here that this problem occurred in earlier Daedelic titles.
This brings the review to more acute problems about Deponia.
Unfortunately, even though Deponia was the most refined product by Daedelic Entertainment by its time, it can still have technical issues. This is despite the game having more than a dozen playtesters for quality control.
These might stem from its use of Visionaire and Microsoft's .NET Framework 4. Although some machines are able to run the game without a fuss, yet some others do not take kindly to the game's need to install .NET Framework 4 redistributables on them.
This is not proven to be the root cause, of course. Yet there are issues that Deponia shares with its older compatriots in Daedelic's roster, which also use Visionaire and .NET Framework 4.
Although rarely, transition icons can fail to function, causing the player to be stranded to a locale. Saving and reloading does not work because the saved game is corrupted with the glitch. Occasionally, the mouse cursor may stop moving, and the only way to fix this is to disconnect and reconnect the mouse. Some voice-over lines are also randomly skipped, which can be irksome.
These problems occurred in earlier Daedelic titles, such as Harvey's New Eyes and The Whispered World. However, perhaps to Daedelic's credit, they appear to occur with much less frequency in Deponia.
Deponia was, perhaps by its time, Daedelic's most visually catching in-house-developed game. Its artstyle is cartoonish and vibrant. The influence of anime/manga can be apparent to more experienced players, but it is not too significant as to detract from the otherwise convincingly original style of Deponia.
Deponia is a junk-covered world. This much is apparent when the player gets to see Kuvaq in all its ramshackle glory for the first time. The scenery also reflects on the resourcefulness of Deponia's inhabitants, most of whom have technical knowledge to certain degrees, including even Rufus.
On the other hand, most of the scenery that the player would see is nothing but junkyards. Elysium is mentioned plenty of times in the game, but it would only be seen in the sequels.
In previous Daedelic titles, the characters have visual designs that contrast severely with the background. This is not so in Deponia. Like their environments, the characters are crafted with the same cartoonish but detailed style. Each character looks vibrant and quite unique from one another.
If there is any common visual trait to the characters, it is the lack of visible noses on the female characters. This is of course a deliberate visual design that is intended to make them look more peculiar. (It is worth noting here that such a visual design is in a significant number of anime/manga works.)
Furthermore, the animations of characters in Deponia are far better done than those for characters in earlier Daedelic titles. There are more frames of animations, as well as more illusory tricks to suggest motion on the part of the characters. Most puzzles and solutions also have their own unique animations of Rufus manipulating them.
As to be expected from a game that is set in a junkyard of a world, the sound effects are going to be mostly noises of metal clanking and machinery hissing and chugging, among other noises that are associated with the mechanical. They do not make for good aural variety, but they are otherwise appropriate for the settings.
As for the music, the best soundtracks are of course the short songs that play before the start of each chapter. They are actually part of a whole song, "Huzzah!", but have been cleverly edited by their composer, Finn Seliger, to sound like they are separate.
The admirably multi-talented Jan Müller-Michaelis (who is also the writer for the game and one of Daedelic's co-founders) provides the lyrics for "Huzzah", just as he had for "Needle & Stitch" in Harvey's New Eyes and perhaps other in-house Daedelic games in the past. Considering his Deutsch upbringing, that he could force a convincing American accent for the song is commendable.
The other soundtracks are less memorable in comparison, but they are otherwise quite pleasant to listen to and are usually appropriate for the scenarios that they are played in.
In perhaps an unabashed overstatement, Deponia is the culmination of Daedelic's past experiences in designing adventure games to keep a once-dying genre alive. Deponia may not have addressed all of the issues that occurred in Daedelic's earlier titles, but it was arguably the best game that Daedelic offered during its time.
@leon2365 said:
or also use the bottom link instead. I remember not too long ago, people were complaining that there was no link on the bottom, and that they hated having to scroll all the way to the top of the page. now that they have that one on the bottom, they would rather use the one on top.
Wouldn't they have to scroll to the bottom too anyway? XD
(Alternatively, they could know that hitting "Ctrl" + "Home" or "End" can do the same trick of bringing them to top or bottom of the page. :P )
@leon2365 said:@edgework said:
You clearly have ad-block turned on. We're expecting an ad up there to pad things. Like I said, you have a crazy plugin being stupid...
this could be the reason some people claim that the links don't work for them. maybe a post should be made to address that it isn't really a bug?
I would suggest another solution:
Have AdBlock Plus, with Element Hiding Helper, block the GameSpot logo so that it doesn't obscure the forum header link.
(Of course, if you actually use the main page and rely on that logo to get there, you may not want to do this. Personally, I just use a bookmark to get to the main page when I do want to.)
Aliens: Infestation is a fun and intense original adventure found only on the Nintendo DS platform. It takes place after the events of the "Aliens" movie, when a U.S. Marine ship named the Sephora discovers a ship called the Sulaco drifting in space near the planet of LV-426, where the exciting events of the aforementioned movie took place. The head honcho on the Sephora, Commander Steele, informs your unit of Marines that they have picked up life sign readings aboard the Sulaco. Your task is to then infiltrate the derelict ship, track down this life form, and hopefully unravel the disastrous events that took place down on LV-426 . . .
From the main menu of this game you have just two choices. The first option is your "Game Save File", where you go to start up a brand new game the first time you play this title, and forever after where you go to load your previously saved game and resume your Aliens adventure. When you have a game in progress the location of where you are currently at is displayed in this game save file, as well as your overall game completion percentage.
The adventure begins with you in the hangar bay of the Sulaco, in total there are five distinct levels in this game. You begin by making your way through the Sulaco, in search of the life form Commander Steele detected. The second level sees you touch down on planet LV-426, then you head back to the Sulaco for the third level. The moon of Phobos comprises the fourth level of the game, while in the fifth level you return to the Sulaco one last time for the grand finale! As you move through the various levels you figure out what happened on LV-426 and to your team's horror, what the greedy faction known as U.P.P. plan on doing with these alien creatures you encounter along the way. Your task in the end is pretty simple. Wipe out all traces of these strange and deadly Xenomorphs, by any means necessary. Complete all five levels and you've beaten the game, saving (at least temporarily) many innocent lives from the horror that is . . . aliens!
The second choice on the main menu is "Extras", where you will find the unlockable content included in this game, as well as some other stuff. The first sub-option here is called "Marine Roster". This sub-option becomes available as soon as you start play on this game, it's purpose is to give you information on the various Marines that can make up your fighting unit of four. In total there are 20 Marines in this game, as you meet them along the course of your journey they will then show up on this list. Given are the Marines' names, vital stats, and a short description of their background/history. The second sub-option is "Knife Trick", a bonus game that is unlocked after you complete the second level of the game (or at least that's when I unlocked it). The game has a retro arcade vibe to it, basically there is just a hand spread out on a table and you must use your stylus to hit the spaces in between the fingers in a certain sequence, mimicking Bishop's knife trick from the Aliens movie. A high score is what you're aiming for! Third is the "Credits" sub-option, which becomes available after you beat the game and lists all of the amazing people who built this masterpiece. And finally comes the "Controls" sub-option, which lists in detail the control scheme behind this game.
While you are out and about in the creepy confines of this game there are a great number of things to watch out for. First of all are your enemies. There are aliens of all types out there waiting and wanting to end your existence. From the face suckers and the little guys that pop out of people's chests, to the man sized ones that spew acid blood and spit, all the way up to the massive sized queens and more, you'll find no shortage of cretins to waste your ammo on! You also have other humans to worry about too, once U.P.P. gets involved. A very important thing to watch out for are safe rooms. These rooms are marked by a unique set of doors and there are usually quite a few in each level. When you enter these rooms your health and ammo are automatically topped up, and you can also switch your primary weapon, save your progress, or reassign which Marine you want to control (from the three or less alternative options you have at your disposal). That being said, also keep your eyes open for other stranded Marines during your journey. When a character you control dies in this game they are gone for good and can never come back. You can carry a maximum of four Marines on your active team at any given time, so when one of your soldiers dies and there is an opening, finding one of these Marines is essential in keeping your team at full strength. Whether you add a Marine to your active team or not, just finding them and talking to them is enough to add them to your Marine Roster. Elevators, lifts, doorways, and secret passageways are essential in helping you get around your environments, so always be on the lookout for the different paths you can take through each level. One of the main pickups you'll find are various types of crates lying around. Crates with the first aid (+) symbol on them help to replenish your health bar (one + gives you a slight replenish, while ++ gives you a bigger dose), crates with green orbs on them replenishes your stock of grenades, crates with yellow cartridges on them help replenish ammunition for primary weapons that use bullets (a single cartridge on the crate is a slight replenish while multiple cartridges on the crate is a more substantial replenish), crates with C8 marked on them replenishes your stock of plastic explosives, and finally crates with a red arrow on them hold a primary weapon upgrade (each primary weapon can be upgraded up to three times, which helps to seriously increase their lethality).
There are some other more one-off pickups that you'll find, and will be added to your inventory permanently. These items include key cards (they give you access to the various elevators, there are 6 different levels of key cards to be found), a wrench (used to manipulate pipes and stop them from spewing steam), a lamp (used to grant you access to areas that would otherwise be pitch black and unnavigable), a motion detector (in conjunction with your map function it detects nearby life forms and warns you about their location), a welding kit (allows you to open up previously sealed doors), keys for the loader suits (you can use the couple of loaders you come across in the game to either move very large crates or battle larger aliens), an oxygen tank (used on a space suit to head outside the Sulaco, in to space), flares (used to mark locations of prime interest on your map), and most of the primary weapons you'll use in the game. You have to find these weapons first before you can add them to your arsenal.
As for the game screens, the main game action all unfolds on the top screen. There isn't much to be aware of on this screen other than a cluster of stuff up in the top left hand corner. There is a box that shows how much ammunition you have left for the primary weapon you currently have equipped, and just to the right of this box are two gauges. The green gauge on top represents your health bar, once it runs out your current Marine perishes and you must select another from your squad to then take his or her place as leader. The red gauge underneath this one represents your stamina gauge, which is used up when you run, jump, fall great distances, etc. This gauge replenishes over time. Just below the gauges are two small icons, the one of the left representing which weapon you are currently using as your primary, and the one on the right representing which secondary weapon you currently have equipped. During cutscenes all of the text/graphics appears on this screen as well.
The bottom screen is navigated entirely with your stylus and it takes on two different incarnations. In it's primary format this screen has icons representing the four Marines in your squad across the top. When you enter a safe room, or when one of your Marines dies, you then tap on the soldier of your choice that you would like to control instead. Just below the Marines is a whole array of weaponry. On the left is a large icon indicating what you currently have equipped as your primary weapon (fyi, the weapons you can collect in this game include a shotgun, machine gun, repeater gun, and flamethrower), as well as a number below it that represents how many times said weapon has been upgraded. Below this is an icon of just a regular pistol, which is what your character reverts to using as a last resort, if he or she runs out of ammo on their primary weapon. To the right of these primary weapons is a grouping of icons that amount to all of your secondary weapons. Beside each icon will be a number representing how many of these weapons you have left in your arsenal, and they include rockets, flares, C8 explosives, and grenades. The one you currently have equipped will be lightly highlighted in blue. On the right side of the screen are two different clusters of icons. The smaller cluster that is right beside the secondary weapon icons represent some of the various one off items you can find in this game. At first each item is shaded out, but as you collect them the appropriate icon will light up. The icons here include the key card (with a number in it representing what level you've collected up to), the wrench, the keys to the loader suit, the oxygen tank, and the motion detector. As for the larger cluster of icons, they are located along the right edge of the screen and include the weld icon (once you have collected the welding kit tap on this icon when you run in to a sealed door and it will then be unsealed), the light icon (once you collect the lamp tap on this icon when you enter a dark area and it will be lit up like a Christmas tree), and the map icon (initially you'll have to find a couple different computer terminals to get your map synced up with Commander Steele, but once you do it is yours to keep forever and ever!).
Click on the map icon I last mentioned and you will then be shown the bottom game screen's second format, the map screen. The level you are currently playing will be laid out on this screen in schematic form and you can use your stylus to swipe it left or right, up or down, to view it in it's entirety. On the map screen the large light blue circle represents you character, the smaller dark blue circles that pulse are other life forms that your motion detector is picking up (if equipped), the red squares with an S inside of them indicate the locations of safe houses (once they are found for the first time), while yellow or green circles indicate the location of any objectives you may be in search of (if applicable). Unexplored corridors and rooms will appear in a dark blue colour, while areas you have already explored appear as a very light blue hue. As for the pause screen, when you halt the game action on Aliens: Infestation you are simply presented with two options: Continue or Quit.
Now for the controls, and this is a very well laid out scheme, fun to use. To move your character around his or her environments press left or right on the analog button or directional buttons. To aim your weapon upwards press up, and to crouch/duck press down. The up and down buttons are also used to engage the elevators and lifts. The L button is used to lock your character's feet in place, so you won't move while aiming/shooting your weapon at a target. The R button on the other hand is used to make your Marine sprint like his or her life depends on it! And most times it does. The A button is how you interact with various things in your environment like talking to other humans, using computer terminals, etc. The B button is used to initiate a jump, the Y button fires your primary weapon, while the X button fires your secondary weapon. Finally, the Select button cycles through your secondary weapons and the Start button pauses the game.
The presentation backing this game is amazing! The graphics are done in a cartoon style but not kiddy cartoon, they have a more realistic type look to them, and they are highly detailed. The Aliens franchise would be proud of how this game stacks up to the movies, it fits right in with the whole series and implements a lot of the same elements and storylines, at the same time maintaining it's own unique aspect. The sound is great, the game music suits the type of action that is unfolding as you move through the game and the sound effects, especially those of the aliens, are chillingly realistic. The controls are excellent as I mentioned previously, which makes gameplay very easy and enjoyable.
The pros are many in this game, and as you may have guessed the presentation behind it is one of the main ones! This game looks, sounds, and feels so good, it is just a pleasure to play it, way too much fun! I also appreciate how faithful it is to the Aliens franchise. I love the Aliens series, especially the "Aliens" movie, so this game being closely tied to those events made me really excited. The additional content was really cool, I love both the work put in to the character bios and the Knife Trick game. The motion detector I found to be a real big plus as well. That beeping sound that takes place in the movie as the Aliens got closer to the Marines is exactly the sound you find in this game, and I consider that to be one of the most recognizable aspects of the Aliens movies. It helped make this game really intense! And finally, I loved the progressive nature of the game. Of the five game levels, in three of them you are aboard the Sulaco. Each time you revisit the ship you explore it a bit further, depending on what types of gadgets and items you add to your inventory, until finally you have explored the whole ship and come to the end of the game. It's almost like a maze in a way, but not one of those confusing ones where you have no idea what you're doing and you succeed more on luck than anything else. In this one you just have to be thorough, diligent, and use your brain. On the downside the only thing I might mention here is the game's length, as it only has five levels in total. However, those five levels are all pretty long in the grand scheme of things, but even so some extra content might have been nice, but this factor doesn't bring the game down at all by any means.
In terms of tips and tricks I can offer, I do have a few. First of all, keep you map screen up at all times and only switch to your Marines/weapons/items screen when you have to. You'll want to pay close attention to where you're going, where you've been, and where you've yet to go, in order to get a grasp on the overall layout of the level. It will help speed your progress through the level with as little backtracking as possible. Second, be thorough, as every additional gadget, weapon, upgrade, etc. will just make your fight that much easier. Third, keep an eye out for the upgrade crates and use them all over time, to upgrade all of your weapons to their fullest. I find the flamethrower the best overall weapon, but they all have their uses and the more powerful they become the less damage you'll take and the easier time you'll have of it. Lastly, save often and always save before key moments like a long, hard boss fight. The longer you keep your original Marines on your roster the more you'll have in reserve for when the game truly gets nasty. Be frugal!!
To summarize, despite being maybe a bit too short, that is way overshadowed by the fact that Aliens: Infestation is one of the most exciting, well executed video games I've played in quite a while, not only for the DS but overall! I heard it didn't sell all that well, which is a shame because this game is truly a hidden gem. If you have any sort of DS system and don't own this game, go out and get it, you won't be disappointed . . .
who the hell is major nelson and why should we care? o.O
@Floppy_Jim: Man that was such a complete letdown after Warhawk. Such a shame.. hope they reboot the series this gen!
Sony fans dominate the forums what does everyone expect...
Iv never bought Nintendo products because I think its childish. Thats not a criticism, horses for courses but do they interest me as an entertainment company?...not in the slightest.