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"What fresh hell is this?" – Dorothy Parker
The notion of buying your social media audience has come up many times before.
There was that awful, lame-brained PayPerPost thing back in 2007. At the other end of the spectrum, there was a much earlier (and far more ethically-constructed) experiment by Marqui to sponsor bloggers directly – a program that generated A LOT of noise at the time (disclosure: I ran product management at Marqui, so I'm kind of biased).
But yesterday I stumbled across something different. Something very, very different and unquestionably, immeasurably worse: an organization that sells social media fans and followers in bulk.
Make a cup of tea and get comfortable. I'm going into a full-on, extended rant here.
Here's the background:
One of our clients was trying to figure out how a competitor of theirs went from a scant few hundred to over 14,500 Twitter followers in a matter of weeks.
Even more odd, when we looked into it, was the fact that the competitor appeared to have added the exact same number of new followers every day for a period of several weeks.
Here's a chart from TwitterCounter that shows the growth (click to embiggenify):
The tell-tale signal here: this looks entirely inorganic.
Nothing that exists in social media is inorganic – it's lumpy, unpredictable, and delightfully human. By definition.
This account was flatlined at 3,416 followers for months, then suddenly started adding precisely 138 followers a day, between September 5th and November 7th. On Monday of this week, something else happened – they've added exactly 1,422 followers each day since. That kind of steady, predictable community growth just doesn't happen naturally.
It all smelled decidedly fishy to us, and sure enough – it is.
When we looked deeper into the competitor's Twitter profile, their follower list included a host of sketchy-looking accounts with tiny follower numbers and (in many cases) few or zero tweets.
With help from Sysomos and some team smarts, we took a sizeable cross-section of the new followers and did some profile comparison.
The curious thing we found about many of these followers: lots of them seemed to be following all of the same companies and other accounts on Twitter.
Many of them, for example, follow this list:
… and a host of other over-lapping or related accounts. That seemed more than a little weird in itself, but the plot… curdles.
ALL of these accounts also have one shared account that they follow in common. An account called BuyFansToday which links to the site of the same name.
This is, as the name so clearly announces, the epicentre of some industrial-grade skullduggery.
At the BuyFansToday site you'll learn 10,000 Twitter followers can be bought for a mere US$699.95. Want Facebook fans? 10,000 shiny news ones will set you back US$849.95
Just… wow.
In case it isn't immediately obvious, here are three reasons why this is just a hideously, almost criminally bad idea:
The marketing rhetoric on the BuyFansToday site states:
Having a Facebook fan page with lots of fans can do wonders for any product that needs customers. A community of real fans will buy and use the product, as well as notify their friends, who will then go on to use the product as well, and to notify their friends, creating a continuous cycle of promotion.
In itself, that's a reasonable explanation of how real network effects can drive business to companies through social media. But there is nothing about the approach BuyFansToday is taking that generates "real fans".
Elsewhere on their site they claim:
We don't use dummy twitter accounts when you buy Twitter followers from us.
As we've seen above, what you're buying is a network of shell accounts. Fake Twitter followers (and, no doubt, equally bogus Facebook fans, YouTube fans, and so on) seemingly created for the sole purpose of fulfilling a contractual obligation to follow a certain quota of other accounts. It's a tissue-thin pyramid scheme.
It's entirely likely they have legitimate (albeit woefully misguided) social media users in their database. I don't doubt it. However, from an unscientific, but statistically valid, sampling of the followers for this competitor's account, we saw an average of 9 tweets (all time) per follower, 29.85 followers, per account.
Most of the Twitter accounts we analyzed are less than 100 days old, and many of them only tweeted a few times at the beginning and have been entirely dormant since.
Analyzing a selection of tweets, a lot of them are just pure gobbledegook – spam-like phrases stuffed through the Twitterpipes to synthesize a gauzy illusion of real activity.
Three random examples pulled from three different Twitter handles:
– "Yeah, TheClevelandShow komt terug."
– "Never stop it ahahhaa."
– "Smh these twitter beefs need to last longer lol now the tl back to being dead."
These are, by any rational assessment, dummy accounts. Pun intended.
These aren't real people, you idiots. They don't care about your company, they're not even actually following you – not in any real sense of the word.
It's all a rather pathetic lie.
Marketers naturally assume that the bigger the network, the better. Nope.
For more than 100 years, the business of marketing has been predicated on reach, on scale. Impressions counts, audience volumes, counting eyeballs (eww) – if we can get our message in front of a big enough audience, we're sure to hit our target. Spray and pray.
But this is advertising-led thinking. It's the economic logic of spam. And that's just not how social media works.
In social media, Metcalfe's Law seems to be the idea many marketers chase after:
The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system.
Sure, there seems to be value in having a big following; in achieving a certain critical mass. But here's the thing: in order for the value part of the equation to work in a social network context, the connected nodes actually need to be contributing something and communicating with each other; else they're just dead links.
My corollary to Metcalfe's Law would be:
The value of a social network is proportional to the square of the number of engaged contributors to the system.
Note: it's "contributors to" not "users of".
In any audience group, only a percentage of the members will be active participants. In a social media audience group you've acquired through BuyFansToday, that percentage is going to be vanishingly small.
Indeed, it's questionable whether the word "audience" is even valid in this context. If these people aren't actually looking at you, they ain't an audience.
It's like you sold out the Albert Hall, only to walk on stage and discover only six people were actually in their seats. Oh, and you didn't even sell the tickets – you paid people to be there.
I was chatting about this episode with a good friend and colleague at another agency, who commented:
"…through their eyes, they have 14,000 followers so they are sitting on top of a goldmine…but are they? If you look at their following through a qualitative lens, they are really sitting on top of a fool's goldmine (yes…I just went there)."
Nicely put. It's the quality versus quantity point that is most important here. Followers and fans are only of any value if they:
- have consciously chosen to follow or Like you, and;
- are engaged in spreading the word about you among their own circles of influence
The followers you're buying wholesale through scams like this clicked a button, got paid, and have absolutely no interest in who you are or what you do. They may never visit your site, are not sending you any traffic, are not buying your products, and will almost certainly never even see any of your tweets – let alone respond to them or share them among their (questionable) networks.
That dog don't hunt.
Contrary to what the founders of organizations like BuyFansToday evidently think, people aren't sheep. And this is the key thing:
Social Media is like Soylent Green. It's made of people.
When those people see you inflating your audience numbers with spammy behaviour, they will judge you.
Prudent, intelligent, thoughtful people (the kind, I hope, you'd want to number among your fans and followers) make decisions to follow brands, in part, based on the influence of their peers, friends and others they aspire to emulate. When they look at your followers and see an endless list of spambots, fake accounts, and anonymous weirdos – how well does that reflect on who you are?
Looked at this way, you can think of your followers as reputation votes. When someone credible awards you the gift of a Like or Follow, it reflects well on your brand. When you hoover up hundreds of dummy followers through some automated system, it makes you look lame and foolish.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, you're an up-and-coming new line of innovative sports equipment. If sports is my thing, and I hear about your products, I'm going to be interested to see who else is following you in social networks. Pro athletes, perhaps? Coaches? At the very least, I'd expect to see a bunch of like-minded sports fans in your lists.
If I look at your Twitter profile and all I see is an endless parade of sketchy-looking accounts, with typos in their bios and no apparent connection to sports performance, I'm going to feel, at best, confused.
More likely: I'll conclude that your online behaviour seems to be attracting spam accounts, for whatever reason, and I'll opt not to follow you. I'll also think a lot less of your brand because of the unflattering pall being cast upon you by the quality of your followers.
That sounds arrogantly dismissive, perhaps, but I'm human. Understand this: your brand isn't what you say. It's what people say it is.
*deep breath… exhale*
So… yes. I know I've ranted long and hard about this, but it just really, truly frosts my nuggets. Hard.
Why? I think it's rooted in that Soylent Green analogy.
Social media is people. The Internet is people. Forget about the fact that there are billions of dollars and huge corporations all over this thing and go right back to where we started. Go back and read the Cluetrain again:
Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.
If we lie down and just let clueless douchenozzles like BuyFansToday corrupt and pollute the communities and spaces we're building online, then we've squandered the whole point and true potential of social media. It's just wrong, dammit.
Do you like how advertising and marketing worked back in the unidirectional, broadcast-only, pre-Internet world? Do you really want to return to that?
If not, then I believe it's your duty to spread the word about clueduggery such as this as far and wide as possible. Alert your clients. Friends don't let friends dunk their budgets in crazy.
My apologies, by the way, for being coy about the name of my client (and their competitor) here. Cluelessness benefits from sunlight, I know, but I'm not comfortable directly outing the competitor for what, I hope, was simply a really bad decision based on a poor understanding of how this stuff works.
Buying a service like this is, I'm convinced, utterly misguided – but we can't blame the ill-informed clients for the fact that such a service exists. They just took bad advice.
And yes, I know, I'm probably being hypocritical by directly linking to a number of the other BuyFansToday users, above. I'm astonished that even respectable institutions such as London's Saatchi Gallery seem to have fallen for this particular variety of snake oil.
Perhaps they'll come across this post in their analytics and come to understand the error of their ways.
UPDATE: Related reading from the latest Inc. Magazine (thanks to Heather Kernahan for the tip): Does it pay to buy a Twitter following?


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Various properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file can be used to enable load balancing. Edit the properties that apply, according to the location of the load balancer or load balancers in your deployment, as follows:
Load Balancers in Front of Both the Web Agent and Access Manager
When a load balancer is deployed in front of Access Manager and a web agent interacts with the load balancer, the following properties must be edited:
com.sun.am.naming.url com.sun.am.policy.am.login.url com.sun.am.load_balancer.enable
This example illustrates property settings in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file that can be used to enable load balancing:
com.sun.am.naming.url = LB-url/amserver/namingservice com.sun.am.policy.am.login.url = LB-url/amserver/UI/Login com.sun.am.load_balancer.enable = true
where LB-url represents the load balancer URL. The following example is a conceivable load balancer URL:
In many cases, when a load balancer is deployed in front of the web agent only the following property must be set:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.fqdnMap = valid|LB-hostname
where LB-hostname represents the name of the machine on which the load balancer is located.
However, if SSL-termination or a proxy server is used in the deployment, all the following properties in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file should be set in addition to the preceding property:
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_protocol com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_host com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_port com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.agenturi.prefix
This example illustrates how properties can be set to enable load balancing when the protocol, hostname, and port number of the load balancer differ from that of the web agent. However, if the load balancer and the web agent share one of these characteristics, such as the protocol or hostname, then the respective property would be left blank instead of being assigned a value of true.
com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_protocol = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_host = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.override_port = true com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.agenturi.prefix = LB-url/amagent
where LB-url represents the load balancer URL. The following example is a conceivable load balancer URL:
This scenario is simply a combination of the scenarios described in the preceding sections. See Load Balancer in Front of Access Manager and Load Balancer in Front of Web Agent.

subset: commoncrawl


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They can put a smile on your face. Some even have the power to literally put a spring in your step. Within our bags they form an analog cloud which stores our thoughts and things, accessible wherever we are. We love our objects. For this reason we've created a game which celebrates the things that help us to express our personalities.
Portray yourself through your objects. Lay out the contents of your bag: all the important things that you take everywhere. Things that keep you organised, things that inspire you, and things that bring you happy memories. Your unique collection of pens, keys, notebooks, music files, bookmarks, contacts and circuits that depicts your mood, personality and interests. Take a picture of your arrangement and share it with the world to tell them who you are and what you're about.
This is the #MyAnalogCloud game. It is this relationship which we have with our things that will be explored in a talk and workshop by Maria Sebregondi, VP of Brand Equity and Communications at Moleskine as part of Munich Creative Business Week 2013.
Munich Creative Business Week
16 - 24 February 2013
What does your bag and its contents say about you? Share your analog cloud online using the tag #myanalogcloud.
Watch out also for #MyAnalogCloud events coming soon to stores near you.


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Daily Archives: November 29, 2011
Timoga Spring Resort Olympic Size PoolPosted on
Fair vs Famous: Of Journalism And PromotionsPosted on
People are naturally inclined to listen to the bad side of others. Itching ears are everywhere. That is why gossip magazines are very popular. It gets the reader to be on top of the situation. "Ah, she is worse than I am." "He is no better than someone else I know, how can they be so bad?" That feeling of superiority adds somehow to the self-confidence of the reader.
Knowing that human weakness, it is the target of journalists to make the itch worsen that will surely make them scratch and scratch harder. With just the T.V. news, highlights will be said by the newscasters by asking questions to leave doubt in the hearer's mind. Did he, really? It makes the listener wait till the news is over…just to find out it was just as hook. Try to listen from start to end, especially the gossip part.
Recently, the issue with the Big Bad Blogger has proliferated the internet and enraged many of the Philippine bloggers. It was on print. It made the Philippine blogging network angry because the news item generalized the scope. It was not even proven whether the story is true or simply created. How about the Davao judge that shot the sheriff? Media got busted by critics for falsely accusing Judge Robillo with the Inquirer's error in its title and sub title that somehow have even reached media abroad, which has made the judge look terrible. Although Inquirer has managed to correct their mistakes, still, damage has been done. Plus, they only issued an erratum, not an apology.
Another one would be the Lopez Group on DBP Loans, where two writers from the same publication wrote about it, on the same day and using the same words, about certain loans that were said to be written off. According to Salvador Tirona, President of the Lopez Holdings, PR operatives who desperately want to muddle the current Senate investigation on the DBP scandal by diverting its focus, are behind said publicity. And weeks later, Oscar Lopez wrote The Lopez Group in Ordinary Times to explain their side. So all these three stories have a common denominator: wrong information by journalists that can somehow be said to be due to lack of research or one that is meant to stir chaos in the land.
Whatever issues, if they are thrown by media, gets sensationalized and sadly, bears with them a negative impact on whoever is caught in between. Personally, I think this kind of blunder should take a halt as it will never do anyone, or anything any good. It's what will add up to the already chaotic environment we have. But then, you think journalists are the only ones doing this? How about false promotions to get more sales but deliver way below what is worth?
A friend booked a Cruise ship eat-all-you-can buffet at the price of P545/person. All that's in their mind was the a once-in-a-lifetime experience of a dinner in a cruise ship. They booked online and waited for the day. Well, the ship's advertisements was quite appealing and who would not grab this privilege ?To their dismay, not only was the cruise ship old and rusty , all of them waited a long line just to get your food. The cruise ship offered only three main course which were not enough for the people aboard the ship.
Is it safe for me to say that even big food establishments attract customers with those delicious foodstuff plastered on their menus, with big posters hanged on their walls. The posters are so appealing that customers flock to buy it only to find that what they offer is much, much smaller that what appears on your.
Let us all be fair in giving the public what is due to them. Honest, unbiased promotion or advertising that will not discredit others contribution to the well being of our society. We are in this together, media groups, journalists, writers, T.V. personalities, radio commentators and bloggers…we all do what we love for the love of our fellowmen and for the transformation of our country. Positive change is what we should offer best.


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ZAC RINALDO said he let his emotions get the best of him.
With his team trailing by a touchdown in Wednesday night's Game 4, Rinaldo wanted to flatten someone. Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek just happened to get in the way.
With 3:17 to go in the second period, Rinaldo ran into Michalek on the endboards and cross-checked him in the back. While Michalek sat on his knees to get up, after the whistle had blown, Rinaldo shoved him back down to the ice.
The referee had already made an original, two-minute minor call on Rinaldo for the cross-check.
With the subsequent blow, right in front of the referee, Rinaldo was handed an additional roughing penalty, a game misconduct and a 10-minute misconduct. Rinaldo has played 19:44 in total ice time this series; he has been whistled for 46 minutes in penalties.
Rinaldo will apparently not receive any supplementary discipline from the league. No hearing had been scheduled with Brendan Shanahan's overwhelmed Department of Player Safety as of Thursday afternoon.
"Frustration came out on me," Rinaldo said Thursday. "It happens in hockey, you see it all the time. I'll roll with the punches. Whatever happens, happens."
Rinaldo said he did not regret his hits.
"I don't regret doing it. I play with my emotions," Rinaldo said. "I don't think I put my team down. It was already 9-3 when I went out there. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I was really frustrated that we were getting blown out of the water, so I took matters into my own hands."
Rinaldo said Michalek never did anything antagonistic.
"It was just personal frustrations," Rinaldo said. "He didn't do anything."
Zac Rinaldo has written a daily playoff blog for Philly.com in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Read more of his posts here. Follow Zac Rinaldo on Twitter: @RinaldoZac.


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Tool Test: Ashley Iles Turning Tools
By Steve Shanesy
Page: 30
From the April 2005 issue #147
Buy this issue now
Although highly regarded and widely distributed in England, turning tools from famous toolmaker Ashley Iles have been scarce as hen's teeth on this side of the Atlantic. Now, speciality tool online retailer Tools for Working Wood is changing all that and turners here should take note.
This line of well-made tools include the standard offerings of most turning tool manufacturers such as spindle and bowl gouges, parting tools, scrapers and skews. But Ashley Iles also offers some specialty tools and hefty versions of the more common tools, like standard traditional pattern spindle gouges, and a long and strong 1″ bowl gouge.
From the April 2005 issue #147
Buy this issue now


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Mojo News @ 6 pm (06.12.2017) Special package for Ockhi victims
December 6, 2017, 05:40 PM IST
Disclaimer: Kindly avoid objectionable, derogatory, unlawful and lewd comments, while responding to reports. Such comments are punishable under cyber laws. Please keep away from personal attacks. The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of readers and not that of Mathrubhumi.


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The average combined 2013 SAT score for Henderson County Public Schools exceeds state and national averages, according to a news release issued this morning.
Area students score above state, national averages on SAT
Henderson County ranks 16th among state's 115 public school districts in SAT results
From staff reports
The average combined 2013 SAT score for Henderson County Public Schools exceeds state and national averages, according to a news release issued this morning.
The release from the school district office says the average 2013 combined SAT score of 1,514 is higher than the state combined average score of 1,479, and above the national combined average score of 1,498.
Though Henderson County students' scores remained in the top 20 school districts in the state, the county's ranking slipped slightly when compared with 2012.
This year's score was the 16th highest out of the state's 115 school districts, according to the release. In 2012, Henderson County Public Schools had the ninth-highest SAT score. In 2011, the district had the 10th highest.
The SAT is an assessment that provides educators an important measure of academic achievement as students prepare for post-secondary college and career opportunities. Typically, students take the test during their junior and senior years to assess their ability to reason, solve problems and gauge the knowledge and skills they develop in their high school course work, according to the College Board, which develops the test.
In 2013 testing, the school system's seniors posted an average critical reading score of 510, higher than the state and national averages. The state average critical reading score was 495, and the national score was 496.
The average mathematics score for Henderson County Public Schools was 513, which is above the state average and one notch below the national average. The average state mathematics score was 506; the national was 514.
The average writing score for the schoo system was 491. North Carolina's senior class of 2013 had a writing score of 478, and the national writing score was 488.
Local students scored the ninth-highest performance on the other major college admissions test, American College Testing, or ACT, according to the release.
The ACT has been selected as North Carolina's new college readiness measure for high schools and reflects scores for the entire student population. The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement test consisting of five exams in English, reading, mathematics, science and writing.
Henderson County Public Schools had 423 seniors take the SAT in 2013. North Carolina has in the past been considered an "SAT state," with the vast majority of college-bound students favoring this admissions test, according to the school district's release.
In 2012, all high school juniors took the ACT for the first time as part of the state's new READY accountability model. This means that students can use their ACT results for college admission and not have to pay to take a college entrance exam. Henderson County Public Schools had 840 students take the ACT.
The school system's composite score of 19.6 for the ACT was the ninth-highest among the state's public school districts, and the score was above the state average of 18.7. The average score was lower than the national average.
The national average of 20.9 includes scores from states that do not require all students to take the test, as well as from states that do require all students to take the test, according to the news release. North Carolina is now one of only nine states requiring all students to take the ACT.
Kathy Revis, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the fact that county schools' continued high ranking when compared with other state schools reflects "the high-quality preparation of our students and their parents across the county. We are very proud of all the schools in the county."
Revis added that about 20 percent of students countywide take advantage of "SAT boot camps" that take place before and after school.
Assistant Superintendent Bill Parker agreed. "I think it's yet again affirmation of the high-quality education our students receive in Henderson County public schools," he said.
Frank Edney, principal at North Henderson High, said, "These scores and these tests are extremely important to prepare students for college, but they still leave out items like work ethic and determination, which are extremely important to being successful in anything. You can have all the accountability in the world, but if you don't have a solid work ethic and determination, your chances of success are diminished."


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NEW ORLEANS - The Manning Award, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, announced its 10 finalists for this year's award on Tuesday. The winner will be announced after the bowls in January and will be honored at a ceremony in New Orleans. The Manning Award was created by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning. It is the only quarterback award that takes the candidates' bowl performances into consideration in its balloting.
The finalists for this year's Manning Award are:
Tajh Boyd, Sr., Clemson
Teddy Bridgewater, Jr., Louisville
Derek Carr, Sr., Fresno State
Jordan Lynch, Sr., Northern Illinois
Johnny Manziel, So., Texas A&M
Marcus Mariota, So., Oregon
AJ McCarron, Sr., Alabama
Aaron Murray, Sr., Georgia
Bryce Petty, Jr., Baylor
Jameis Winston, Fr., Florida State
While the statistics for the group are exemplary, one stat stands out above the rest - they have combined to win nearly 90 percent of their games with an overall record of 96-12; six of the quarterbacks have already led their teams to double-figures in wins. The finalists average over 3,000 passing yards and 28 passing touchdowns while averaging less than six interceptions each. Showing the increasing number of dual-threat quarterbacks, three of the finalists have rushed for over 500 yards this year, while the full group has totaled 64 rushing touchdowns.
"This has been another great year for quarterbacks; and it's getting more interesting as the games get bigger," Archie Manning said. "We really appreciate our selection committee's work in choosing this outstanding group of finalists. I'm looking forward to seeing how they all do over the next couple of weeks and through their bowl games as we prepare to honor our 10th winner in January."
This year's group includes six returning finalists from last year (Boyd, Lynch, Manziel, Mariota, McCarron and Murray). There are five seniors on the list, as well as two juniors, two sophomores and one freshman. The finalists come from seven different conferences, including the Southeastern Conference with three honorees, the Atlantic Coast Conference with two, and the American Athletic, the Big 12, the Mid-American, the Mountain West and the Pac-12 with one each.
The winner is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
The Manning Award will be recognizing its 10th winner this year. USC's Matt Leinart was the inaugural winner of the award in 2005, followed by Texas' Vince Young in 2006. Both went on to be top 10 NFL draft picks. In 2007, LSU's JaMarcus Russell earned the award and was the NFL's No. 1 draft pick. Boston College's Matt Ryan claimed the award in 2008 and was drafted No. 3, quickly becoming the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. In 2009, Florida star Tim Tebow earned the honor - he also went on to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. The 2010 winner was Texas signal-caller Colt McCoy, then the winningest quarterback in college football history, who was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the draft. McCoy was followed by top-two NFL Draft picks - Auburn's Cameron Newton earned the award in 2011, prior to being selected No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers and then Robert Griffin, III, from Baylor, was the 2012 winner prior to being the No. 2 overall pick by the Washington Redskins. This past season's winner was Texas A&M star Johnny Manziel, who became the first freshman to earn the honor.


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AP Images
Sen. Ted Kennedy passed away after a long battle with brain cancer on August 25, 2009. This 2002 profile by the late Jack Newfield captures the essence of what this legend meant to the progressive movement.
When Ted Kennedy arrived in Washington at the close of 1962 as the freshman senator from Massachusetts, he was welcomed with derision and low expectations. Just 30 years old, the President's kid brother, he had accomplished nothing in his life to earn the prize of a seat in the US Senate. Most pundits saw him as a dummy who had cheated on an exam at Harvard to stay eligible for football and who was dependent on an excellent staff to compensate for his inexperience.
Now, forty years later, Ted Kennedy looks like the best and most effective senator of the past hundred years. He has followed the counsel of his first Senate tutor, Phil Hart of Michigan, who told him you can accomplish anything in Washington if you give others the credit. Kennedy has drafted and shaped more landmark legislation than liberal giants like Robert Wagner, Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver and Herbert Lehmann. He has survived tragedy and scandal, endured presidential defeat, right-wing demonization, ridicule by TV comics. Now, at 70, he has evolved into a joyous Job. His career has become an atonement for one night of indefensible behavior, when he failed to report the fatal 1969 accident in which he drove off the bridge at Chappaquiddick, leaving a young woman to drown in the car. He has converted persistence into redemption.
In 1985 Kennedy forever renounced seeking the presidency, declaring, "The pursuit of the presidency is not my life. Public service is." By abandoning higher ambition, he found a form of liberation. He had nothing left to lose. The weight of the country's–and his family's–expectations was lifted from his shoulders. His motives were perceived as less calculating and self-aggrandizing. He could settle into the Senate for the long march. He could become a patient and disciplined legislator without feeling like a failure. When the GOP won control of the Senate in 1994 and some Democrats, like George Mitchell, quit after losing their leadership posts and committee chairmanships, Kennedy stayed and fought in the trenches.
Now, as the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, and as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, he is at the center of the action. Soon his domestic economic priorities, which were on the front burner prior to September 11–raising the minimum wage, enacting a patients' bill of rights, creating jobs and "passing national health insurance, bit by bit"–will come around again.


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This week in Island history
The news of 10 and 15 years ago is from the Jamestown Press. The news of 100 years ago came from the collection of the Newport Historical Society.
100 years ago From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 24, 1909
The no-school signal was rung this morning for the smaller children and the one-session signal this noon for those who went to school, so that the last day before Thanksgiving vacation was rather abbreviated. Neither the public nor the parochial schools will have sessions tomorrow or Friday.
From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 29, 1909
Arrangements have been made to open the unused north school house as a waiting room for the school children who congregate in that vicinity daily to take the conveyance which brings them to the school in the village.
75 years ago From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 28, 1934
By the close vote of 110 to 100, the special financial town meeting held in Jamestown Nov. 24 authorized the sale of 109 parcels of land for failure to pay taxes. It was specified that the sale price be at least the taxes due, plus expenses and interest. The sum of $6,000 was voted, 96 to 21, for unemployed relief in order to qualify for state and federal grants.
From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 30, 1934
(At the school committee meeting) bills were ordered paid as listed. The tuition bill of Rogers High pupils for the first term was $3,189.38. The committee commented on the better marks as shown by the Rogers first report cards of the year, and that fewer pupils showed lack of application than last year. …The committee studied figures recently released by the State Education Service, showing per capita (pupil) cost per year. Based on the total average membership of all Jamestown pupils, both grades and high, Jamestown spent $86.18 per pupil in the school year 1933-34, and stands eighth in a list of 39 towns and cities in the state. Jamestown dropped from fifth to eighth place.
50 years ago From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 24, 1959
The possibility of assessing intangible taxes on residents having large investments in bonds, stocks and securities was considered at a meeting of the Jamestown town council last night.
Councilmen expressed concern at the increase in traffic accidents on the island and a proposal was discussed for an 8 p.m. curfew in the Ft. Getty area, which appears to offer a challenge to youths. The police department was directed to prosecute violators on this town property to the fullest extent of the law, and to intensify its patrol of the area.
Referring to the proposed Newport-Jamestown bridge, (the council president) pointed out that discussion on such a span has been going on for years but said Jamestown would have little to say about it, because planning would be at a state level. He said a Jamestown representative should sit on the Bridge Authority.
25 years ago From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 27, 1984
(The Town Council) granted Rollins Cable Co. permission to use public rights-of-way to construct the cable television system which will serve Jamestown. From the Newport Daily News, Nov. 30, 1984
The cross-island road connecting the new Jamestown Bridge with the Newport Bridge will have a green median with some type of barrier. The Jamestown Design Study Committee voted Nov. 7 for a 25 to 30-foot median strip in order to have a planted separation rather than a hard jersey barrier divider.
15 years ago From the Jamestown Press, Nov. 23, 1994
Despite rainfall last Saturday that raised the height of the North Pond reservoir by four inches, the town may have to buy drinking water from North Kingstown by the first week of December.
10 years ago From the Jamestown Press, Nov. 24, 1999
The Harbor Management Commission wants to make $1.15 million worth of repairs to the town's waterfront property, and it wants one-third of those costs to come from the town's general fund. But whether or not the Town Council decides to ante up $375,000, at the rate of $75,000 a year over five years, remains to be seen.
(photo caption) Second graders at the Jamestown Melrose Avenue School on Tuesday presented their annual Thanksgiving play.


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Sept. 30, 2012
RALEIGH, N.C. – Top-ranked Florida State (11-0-0, 4-0-0 ACC) registered its 11th straight win to remain undefeated on the year with a 2-0 victory over NC State (5-8-0, 0-4-0 ACC) Sunday afternoon inside the Dail Soccer Complex.
Dagny Brynjarsdottir and Tiffany McCarty provided all the goal scoring for the Seminoles on Sunday as the Seminoles defeated the Wolfpack for the 12th time in a row, while FSU extended its unbeaten streak in the series to 14 (12-0-2). It also marked the sixth straight win for Florida State over the Wolfpack in Raleigh.
The Seminoles outshot the Wolfpack 21-3 for the match as the Florida State defense limited NC State to just one shot on goal en route to its sixth straight shutout and ninth in 11 matches this year.
"Anytime you go on the road in the ACC and come away with a win or in this case two wins this week, is a very good road trip," said head coach Mark Krikorian. "Overall, I thought our performance was solid today. Pretty good defending for the most part, a lot of different ways of attacking; it was nice to score a couple of goals and nice to get another shutout."
The shutout also ran the Seminoles' consecutive shutout minutes streak to over 618 minutes. FSU has not allowed a goal since the first half against Cal State Fullerton back on September 7. The school record for consecutive shutout minutes stands at 799:29 set in 2003. Florida State has given up just three goals in 11 matches this year.
FSU has yet to allow a goal through its first four ACC matches outscoring the opposition 5-0.
With the win, the Seminoles extended their ACC win streak to seven (dating back to last year) to tie a school record (2005 & 2008). Florida State also tied school records on Sunday for consecutive team shutouts at six (2003), consecutive road victories at five (1996 & 2005) and consecutive ACC shutouts in a season with its fourth (2003 & 2008).
"If we limit the opponent's chances and keep them off the board, the opportunity for a win is significantly greater," said Krikorian. "I think overall our goalkeeping and collective defending has been as solid as can be. We just have to continue to build upon it and along with that I would like to see us put a couple more balls in the back of the net, but we will just have to keep on working."
Jamia Fields assisted on both goals for her second multi-assist game of her career. Her first two-assist game came in a 6-2 victory over Clemson last year. Casey Short was also credited with an assist in the win setting up Florida State's first goal of the game by Brynjarsdottir.
Florida State broke through with the first goal of the game in the 15th minute as Brynjarsdottir put away a rebound from close range off an initial shot by Fields to give the Seminoles the early 1-0 lead. Short started the scoring play as she sent a long cross from the left side of the field to Fields, who ran in on the ball. The sophomore midfielder beat her defender with a nice quick move to her right before slotting a low-lining shot on goal toward the near post forcing NC State goalkeeper Victoria Hopkins into a diving save. The keeper could not hang on to the ball as Brynjarsdottir one-timed the rebound into the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season.
The Seminoles went into the locker room with a 10-1 advantage in shots over the Wolfpack, while FSU took seven corner kicks to NC State's zero.
McCarty gave the Seminoles a two-goal lead early in the second half finding the back of the net in the 49th minute for her team leading fifth goal of the season. The Laurel, Md., native took a pass from Fields on the right side of the pitch and slotted the ball into an empty net after side stepping a Wolfpack defender to create space for the goal.
Brynjarsdottir finished the match with a game-high four shots, while Fields tallied three shots including two on goal.
FSU keeper Kelsey Wys started between the posts and earned her 10th victory of the season as she did not allow a goal in over 80 minutes of play. Taylor Vancil entered in the 81st minute and kept the shutout in tact as she made the lone Seminole save of the game on a shot by Caroline Gentry with just under four minutes to play.
The top-ranked Seminoles will return home to face Clemson on Thursday, October 4 at 7:00 p.m. Florida State will be wearing pink jerseys for the match in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. Fans will have a chance to bid on the jerseys online at Seminoles.com following the match. Live stats for the match will be available via gametracker, while fans can always receive in-game updates on Twitter @FSU_Soccer. Also, do not forget to like the Seminole Soccer team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FSUSoccer.


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January 21, 2013
Baby, it's cold outside.
Outfit Details:
hat – Urban Outfitters
orchid double breasted cape – c/o Corey Lynn Calter
vintage dress – The Loved One
gloves – DKNY
lipstick – MAC Girl About Town
I've been keeping it bright to stave off the winter blues. It's amazing what a little bit of color can do.


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Monday, January 4, 2010
{Better for Babies} Product Focus
Better For Babies started out more like a concerned parent than a for-profit business. Leah and her husband Zac paid a lot of attention to the health and environmental aspects of what they eat and what they wear. When it came time to buy cloth diapers and other baby products, they couldn't find exactly what they wanted, so they brought out the sewing machine and drafting paper to make their own! As they've learned more about organics, fair trade and the world in general — they've become increasingly committed to designs that unite planet-friendliness with innovation. It really is possible to make better products that also are good for the world.
When Zac was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological illness, Leah and Zac made Better for Babies their family business so Leah could stay at home with the children, help Zac out and run the operations. The course of Zac's illness was (and is) devastating. But the family learns peacefulness, acceptance, and love from him each and every extra day they get to spend together.
Their first product, the acclaimed Little Beetle Fitted cloth diaper takes its inspiration from the ladybug, a critter Leah and Zac greatly admire. The ladybug has an outer wing to trap moisture and protect its soft hind wings and underside. They're very proud that the ladybug-inspired diaper has become the number-one rated fitted cloth diaper on DiaperPin.
The Little-to-Big wool covers were invented and released last year, and are made of 100% domestic organic merino wool. Our colored wool is dyed with 100% non-heavy metal, low-impact, environmentally-friendly, fiber-reactive dyes.
The LtB wool cover is hand made in the US from scrumptiously soft, fashion grade Organic Wool Jersey (wool is certified under NOP/USDA). Elegance in a turned and top-stitched design. These covers provide a great natural cloth diaper cover option. They are designed to fit best over Little Beetle Fitted diapers or a similar trim low rise diaper. They also work well with most prefolds.
We find that design intelligence and environmental intelligence go hand in hand. All {Better for Babies} products are 100% natural and organic, reusable, and all are either fair trade or domestically grown and made - providing high quality products designed fit your little one every step of the way!
* Little-to-Big Beetle {fits now - grows later} One Size Fitted Diaper and Wool Diaper Cover
* Little Beetle Learners {training pants}
* Wool Wet Bags and much more!
7 comments:
- Megan said...
Hearing their story makes me really want to support their business. I'm glad it's going so well for them. I've just recently journeyed into the world of fitteds after having only pockets. I'm still not sure what I think.
- January 4, 2010 at 10:42 AM
- Owen's Mom said...
I love Merino wool! It is my favorite fiber to knit with and I would love to try one of those covers.
I am inspired to hear your story. I decided to stay home because of my children's medical conditions (manageable but time consuming) so, I love to hear other stories like this. Thank you!
- January 4, 2010 at 6:47 PM
- Christina said...
I've been wanting to try wool, and this just might be where I start! Also, I'll definitely be praying for Leah and Zac's family!
- January 4, 2010 at 8:55 PM
- The Jacobsen Family! said...
I have to agree with Megan... Their story makes me more eager to support them! Thanks for sharing!
- January 5, 2010 at 12:45 AM
- Kim Day said...
I have been thinking about trying wool for nighttime diapering. When I finally make a wool purchase, Better for Babies will be my first one! Supporting a family like Zac and Leah's gives even more meaning to cloth diapering.
- January 6, 2010 at 8:37 AM
- Arizona Girl said...
They sound great. Now another product to add to my growing wish list.
- January 6, 2010 at 1:21 PM
- Alycia said...
What a great story! I love our Little Beetles Hemp Fitteds and now I just love them that much more knowing how they came to be.
Stories like this are what really portray what cloth diapering truly is!
- January 6, 2010 at 9:37 PM


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Jan 2012 22:55 UTC
"The fragmentation of Android is very real and very problematic for end users, developers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, and Google. However fragmentation does not mean Android is going to 'die' or 'fail' as some seem to think. On the contrary I think we can count on Android playing a significant role in our world for a long, long time. I also am confident that Google has already lost control of Android and has zero chance of regaining control. This post explains why I'm so confident about this."


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2013-11-22 Radioshow
Stereo Productions Podcast :: Dj Chus In Stereo Radioshow [week 47] 2013 :: Chus+ceballos Toolroom Knights Session
Hola Hola Amigos! Welcome aboard to my weekly Radioshow, today we have a new Toolroom Knigt Mix by Chus+Ceballos, including our new tracks in Toolroom Records, "Nobody Freak like Us" & "Lambestic" and also tracks by Rafa Barrios, Cristian Varela, Victor Vera, Kaiserdisco among others. Pump Up the volumen and enjoy it! Subscribe Here [Week47]… read more


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Plumbing and Ventilation
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Duct Tape
Selection, quantities and rebates may vary from one store to another. The clearance items cannot be transferred between stores. This offer is valid at participating locations only and cannot be combined with any other offer.
Flexible duct tape. 48mm width and 50m length. Ideal for air conditioning and heating conducts. Easier to use than foil tape. Silver
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Please note that if you change stores, prices and availability shown on the website may vary and your shopping cart will empty.


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- Inside Athletics
- Tickets
- Fan Zone
- Media Zone
- Social
- Shop
- E Fund
MACON, Ga. (Nov. 5, 2012) – Sophomore Meredith Hardy (Kingsport, Tenn.) helped guide the ETSU volleyball team to a pair of wins this past weekend, resulting in the Blue and Gold securing their spot in the Atlantic Sun Tournament, and the Buccaneer middle blocker was recognized for her efforts as she was named Player of the Week, announced the league office on Monday.
Hardy – who has recorded at least one block in 55 consecutive games – averaged 4.12 kills and 2.12 blocks on the weekend en route to the Bucs defeating Florid Gulf Coast (3-2) and Stetson (3-0).
On Friday, the Kingsport, Tenn. native just missed recording a double-double after totaling a match high 20 kills and nine blocks – including a career-best four solo blocks in the five-set win over Florida Gulf Coast. The win over the Eagles snapped FGCU's school record 15-match winning streak, while it also punched ETSU's ticket into the conference tournament. Meanwhile, Hardy followed that performance up with a 13-kill, 8-block effort in the sweep over Stetson Saturday afternoon inside Brooks Gym – marking the third straight win for the Bucs and the seventh in their last nine matches.
For the week, Hardy generated 17 of ETSU's 24 blocks, and broke the A-Sun single-season record for total blocks in conference games. Hardy broke Callie Churchwell's (Kennesaw State) record of 88 blocks in 2009 as the Buccaneer blocking machine moved her season total to 90.
This marks the first weekly honor for Hardy and she becomes the second ETSU player to win the award this season. Junior Megan Devine (Kingsport, Tenn.) won the first Player of the Week award of the season back in August.
The Bucs return to action Tuesday night when ETSU hosts Kennesaw State. Game time is set for 7 p.m., inside Brooks Gym.
ETSU fans wanting to receive Buccaneer news, score updates, in-game promotions and much more sent to their mobile device can do so by signing up for "Buc Updates." Click here to sign up today!
For more information on Buccaneer volleyball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the volleyball page.


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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Just as the East Coast dug out from a canopy of wet, heavy snow that again shut schools and emptied workplaces, another hit was expected to sock the Midwest.
The National Weather Service said Monday's storm, which brought 8 inches of snow to New York City, 3 to 9 inches to the Philadelphia area and up to 9 inches to central New Jersey, will be followed by a new storm in the Midwest on Tuesday. The heaviest accumulations are expected in Kansas and Missouri.
The double whammy continues for the Northeast late Tuesday into early Wednesday when the storm brings up to a foot of snow in northern Pennsylvania and 5 to 9 inches in Boston. The New York area could get 4 to 7 inches of snow followed by rain, freezing rain and sleet — possibly creating a messy morning commute.
And even though it's days away, the weather service said there's a chance of even more of the cold, white flakes beginning Saturday and continuing into Sunday on the East Coast. It could be a trifecta of foul weather.
"This winter has been a pretty amazing winter across a whole lot of the country," said Joseph T. Pajor, deputy director of the department of public works and utilities for the city of Wichita, Kansas, which was expected to get about 2 inches of snow overnight and another 6 inches on Tuesday.
On Monday, government offices, courts and schools were closed in parts of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; scattered power outages were reported throughout the region. Speed limits were reduced on many major highways.
At least two deaths and one serious injury were blamed on the storm. In western Kentucky, where the snow began falling Sunday, a 24-year-old man died that night when his car skidded into a snowplow. On Monday, a 73-year-old New York City man was fatally struck by a backhoe that was moving snow.
A 10-year-old girl was in serious condition after she was impaled by a metal rod while sledding north of Baltimore.
In Ohio, where the storm dumped as much as 10 inches on the state Monday, there were numerous traffic accidents, none serious. "It was mostly bent fenders and hurt feelings," said Kim Carver, director of the Scioto County Emergency Management Agency in Portsmouth.


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Mass Effect 3 Review
Pages PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NEXT
The vast majority of user reviews are giving the game zero out of ten. They're calling it "the worst game ever." Why the discrepancy? Because hyperbolic idiots outnumber professional journalists a thousand to one.
For what it's worth, The Escapist is my favorite gaming site, and I understand that money's required for a site such as this. I love the video series you guys do, I love the editorials and the articles. I also enjoy all of your reviews. They're well written, always point out the reviewer's qualms with the game, and seem to rate every game fairly. No, not every review will be accepted by the general population (For example, I have yet to find a reason for me to dislike DA2, in the few hours I played of it. Combat was intense, it was literally hack n slash Mass Effect combat, without covers. But I do believe you rate games fairly, with honest opinions, and without a skewed scale (Sorry GI, 7 is NOT "average". 5 is average. You guys are the first site I go to for reviews, and you're usually spot on with them. Keep up the good work!
I love all the implications in this thread that anyone who didn't enjoy the game is what, doing it on purpose so they can look cool?
Sorry, nope. The game is, not subjectively but objectively, a let-down. You cannot give an "it's amazing lolz buy it" review to a game which bases an entire franchise on a sweeping and involving story where player choice is everything and everyone creates their personal continuity through gameplay, which then put out an ending which A; has so many plot holes it literally makes no sense at all, B; doesn't take any account of the player's previous actions, and C; doesn't actually conclude the story, and expect people to just put that down to "personal taste".
Here by spoilars, be ye fairly warned;
Who or what is "the Catalyst"; is it supposed to be an AI itself, an ascended organic intelligence, God? Is it the unknown force that Javik intimated was behind The Cycle, or is the Catalyst itself just another servant of it like the Reapers? Half of the shite they spring on you at the end would have been known by the Prothean VI; so why the hell didn't it tell you? How the fuck does the Normandy get from Earth orbit helping EDI with targeting, to the surface to pick up some/all of your crew(I'll get to this issue in a moment), and then out to the relay in time to already be in-transit when the energy wave hits them in less than ten minutes? How does Joker, a man who breaks a bone if you look at him funny, survive such an evidently brutal crash? If the Mass Relays are all destroyed, does that mean you've consigned every Quarian and Turian in the combined fleet to a slow and painful death through starvation, since they can't eat the same food as humans?
Those are just the question that ran through my mind in the ten or so seconds I stared at the credits in disbelief. By the time I skipped the credits to see the little badly acted vignette at the end that seems designed purely as a clumsy way of plonking you back on the Normandy right before the final assault so you're perfectly placed for whatever DLC they decide to shit out, I started thinking about just how unsatisfying a conclusion it is, and how poor the whole concept is beyond the gaping plotholes.
Where's the payoff? I mean, they crafted the entire second and third "acts" of the trilogy in order to attempt to get the player to invest emotionally in the characters and the story, and then they neither inform you what happens to those characters(other than the ones they arbitrarily kill off between the two without telling you why or how, or the ones they kill off during gameplay), nor provide any conclusion to the story itself beyond "everything you've done, everything you've struggled for, is all meaningless". Indeed, it's not a conclusion at all, but a cliffhanger!
It feels like the ending was the product of some ungodly committee composed of Michael Bay, his producers, one of the developers' emo teenagers, and several French surrealists. It was the ending for a sci-fi "cautionary tale" short story of the kind you get in the "Bumper Sci-Fi Omnibus - Airport Lounge Edition" type of collections, not an epic trilogy.
When you as a reviewer can look at that and give an unequivocally positive view, and add the Escapist's unrelenting praise of WoWTOR and Dragon Age 2, the inEscapable(ahaha) conclusion is that you're either blind fanboys(and fangirls? or is there a gender-neutral word?) who will vacantly praise anything with a Bioware logo on the box despite the fact that they're not Bioware anymore and haven't been for some time(rather they are "EA RPG and WFSWWTR(Whatever Flagging Series We Want To Relaunch) Division"), or you are under some financial imperative to provide said blind approbation.
I love the people (hint: no, I don't) who attempt to tout their subjective experience as objective, passing off their perspectives as facts. Even the professional journalists here don't lay claim to that.
I think if people are going to get this cynical about reviews: Don't listen to the Metacritic trolls giving 10s and 0s. If you guys think that Susan and Greg and whatever were being paid off, don't watch their reviews or listen to what they say. Play the demo, or buy the game. And then play through it more than once. First impressions sometimes change, and it's fairly easy to assume that with an average time of about 30-40 hours, the reviews on Day 1 of release were little more than first overall impressions, even if they were pirates.
My game is almost finished being shipped, I'm really eager to find out whether or not these gripes are exaggerated. And then I'll probably play it a second time before trying to pass a personal judgement. I do have three characters, after all 8D
Also, slow figuring is slow, but
You just compared my anonymous usage details given to a large money-making corporation, to Jews registering their full identities to a genocidal dictatorship.
This is what I mean about extremist principle. I already know what the worries are about Origin, but why don't you backpedal on some of that hyperbole before an actual Jewish victim speaks up and makes you feel like an idiot?
I think it's fair to say that both the Metacritic scores are equally useless.
Except that your details aren't anonymous (only information passed on is anonymised, they make no other promises with their snooping and storing), and the dictatorship wasn't genocidal when it asking for info. I don't care if you find the analogy distasteful or whatever, it's the same assumption that everyone is by default benevolent when really there are no safeguards, no protection, no oversight.
I imagine facebook could do some absolutely horrendous blackmail if it so wished, and one day its ceo might decide that the long-term damage that would do to the company is out-weighed by the short-term gain. It's unlikely, but there's very little anyone can do to stop it. We expect Steam to keep allowing us access to our games, but they can decide at the drop of a hat to delete our collections. They don't (generally) because of good business sense, but again, there's no higher power watching out for us. So yeah, welcome spy-ware with open arms if you wish, and cross your fingers that it never becomes more profitable for the company to sell your info than to merely collect and anonymise it, but please never assume that some mysterious caped crusader is going to swoop in and save you if they do decide to take liberties with the fig-leaf of pseudo-security you so desperately cling to.
I am annoyed... not at your post in particular but by the stupid assumption by many people (not just on this site) that a game they don't like getting a good review means someone was bought off.
This seems especially stupid when you remember it's the final chapter of one of the most critically acclaimed series of all time. OF COURSE it was going to get good reviews. It's an incredible experience for most people who play it, despite its flaws.
I completely understand.
But the problem is people don't seem to be taking Susan's word for it when she explains her side, which annoys the shit out of me. If people want to throw snide insinuations around they should be prepared to give benefit of the doubt.
And any argument about advertising 'influencing' the staff and all that jazz is rendered utterly void in my mind by the fact that every week the site's most popular show takes the absolute piss out of the same developers and games advertised here, sometimes viciously so.
All reveiwers are useless. Only you, or someone that knows you can tell you that a game is good for you or not. Bugs are the only objective part of game reviewing, and even they are subject to case by case scrutiny.
The ending part you are died right on. Man i was dissappointed I wanted to see the little blue kids running around at the end.
I was mostly wondering if the demo was indicative of the final quality of the game. I really wasn't that impressed with the demo, so I wanted to know if people felt like the demo didn't do the actual game justice.
That depends on a few things. The gameplay is like the demo, but things like animations and textures are better in the final game. Environments are larger in the game, with more options to take different paths and flank your enemies. The game feels a lot less like a hallway than in 2, with some areas being quite large and varied.
There's also more weapons, armor and mods in the game than in the demo. Currently, 24 hours in and I have at least 5 different pieces of armor for every slot(I also have sets which you can buy in the store), most of which only effect my playstyle rather than being flat out better. Similarly I have between 5-8 different weapons per slot (I have 8 different shotguns, and like 9 assault rifles). and each weapon type has some interesting mods to better customize each weapon.
If you played the game and didn't like it it's really your loss since EA already has your money. Otherwise it's kind of pathetic to go out if your way to trash a game you have know intention of playing just because you don't like the developer. So far I'm loving this game and my only real complaint is the dlc rifle is a recoiling piece of shit.
Well if the reviewers fail to catch the fuck-ups or just outright ignore them, it's logical to conclude that either the reviewer was bought off or is just incompetent. Can we expect perfect analysis? No, but from what I've seen and read, (I won't get ME3 because I refuse to have Origin on my system) Susan was wrong about the game being the "ending the series deserved" because of the actual endings. Her opinion? Sure, but it seems to be one of a very small minority that praised the endings.
When people are willing to pay to see the game unfucked, you know the developer did something wrong.
Yes, but that's Yahtzee. Yahtzee's a special case not necessarily because he's a acerbic, but because he actually critiques a game and occasionally provides solvency to its problems. If you don't believe that, I fall back on him being motherfucking Yahtzee. Influencing the Escapist is far simpler than influencing Yahtzee because the body of the Escapist has less notoriety than he does. If he gave praise to a game that was panned, people would pick up on this and Yahtzee isn't stupid enough to compromise his journalistic integrity for a few extra bucks or some publisher threatening to pull funding. Everyone else (save for Bob) on the Escapist? I'd have never heard of any of the Escapist staff if it wasn't for Yahtzee. Much easier to assume direct control with.
I find that when my name isn't on any of the information being collected by Origin, it sounds like anonymity to me.
I also don't make the "assumption that everyone is by default benevolent". I like to think that as an adult I'm not so naive as to believe that EA can only do good things with the information taken from my computer. But at the same time, I'm not so cynical to believe right off the bat that the beaurocracy is going to ruin me by selling my entire private life to the highest-bidding megacorporation that wants to see the manila folder containing my deepest, darkest secretsm just so they can flood my interwebs with advertising. See, exaggeration, metaphors, and heavy prose! Two can play at that game.
People have gotten enraged over the 'what it could be doing' as opposed to 'what it's doing now'. I'm still hopeful that there are people out there who realise that the eventuality is quite unlikely, like you said.
The ending essentially takes a sh*t on the entire ME story.
This is the one game I allowed myself to get my hopes up for (at least in regards to the story), and it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments I've ever experienced.
I seriously felt my heart sink when the credits started to roll, and the first thing I thought to myself was "Seriously? That's it?".
So, if that's the ending fans deserve, you hate Mass Effect series' fans? ;P
I was thinking this exact thing.
I'm reminded of the KotOR 2 ending (Obsidian, not bioware, but eh). Such disappointment.
Well the fans definitely aren't silent: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/355/index
Here's to hoping for DLC that will change the options presented at the end so we can have some sort of closure.
Just to point one annoying sticking point here: All the budget spent on trailers, and publicity stunts could've been put to use into actual video sequences to show the effects of your actions on the galaxy, you know, like proper endings.
Also, for better or worse, I think it's important for everyone to remember that Mass Effect 3's initial release date was postponed for more development time - so to me it's more logical to assume that the writing involved in the game wasn't a product of laziness or whatever skeptics seem to be projecting onto the writers. Bioware supposedly had a hell of a lot of time to work on this game, so in the end the majority of things people take issue with are probably purposeful, calculated design choices.
Technically, that's not what they said. Blunderboy complains about the fact that everybody who indicates that they like the game are being discredited as being "bioware fanboys", "corporate tools", etc. The ones you quote did not imply that people who dislike the game are doing it to be cool. And seriously, can you blame them for calling you guys "whiny little tossers"? Some people've been constantly trying to force their opinion of the game on other people. (As proven by the last phrase I quoted.)
On another note: no, I will not read your spoilers. I liked ME2, despite it's flaws, and I enjoyed DA II (though some parts of it made me cringe, because I really preferred DA:O), so I'll most likely enjoy ME3 as well. I haven't played the game yet, so it's quite possible that I'll be disappointed, but I'd rather give the game a try myself than read your spoilers.
EDIT: Minor change in wording, to make it less general.
I didn't like the actual ending of the game, but think that what leads up to it is so satisfying that I can forgive the last ten minutes. If you can't, fine. That's a difference of opinion, not evidence I'm dishonest or incompetent. I think the journey is more important than the destination. I'm not going to trash 35 hours of excellent entertainment because the last ten minutes are a letdown.
indeed, and this is the very reason i'll never preorder a bioware game again...twice i've been screwed by my own fanboyisum, never again
I've seen some genuinely tragic posts about how people loved the bejesus out of the series up till now, played the third and loved it. Then at the end, they feel dead and betrayed as their Shepard is invalidated by some bullshit choose your own deus ex. I read someone saying that the journey is irrelevant if the destination you end up at isn't where you wanted to be.
It`s the gameplay similar to the first game or the second game?
"Life is a journey, not a destination..." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Seriously, sure, the last 10 minutes are pretty bad, but there's 30+ hours of great game ahead of it. That's 1800+ good minutes, and 10 bad ones.
The gameplay is great, the dialog is great, the side quests are..there..but people missed them in ME2 so they're there, the weapon customization is great, the set pieces are great, the build up is great, the characters are great.
Saying that ME3 should get a low score just because of the ending is like saying you should fail a test because you got the very last question wrong.
Mmmm... Part of me agrees with what you're saying, but GODDAMMN if the ending didn't make me walk out of there angry!! Everything that's great about Mass Effect 3 should be praised; but I'm surprised that not one of the reviewers on metacritic are calling out the bullshit in the last 10 minutes.
I mean I've been going through a million other endings in my head that are more satisfying than this.
Most trilogies are messed up in the last chapter, not the last 10 minutes.
Seriously, I know I've been saying this a lot but WTF happened?!
At the end there with Liara saying 'This is it, isn't it?'
Actual chills went down my spine.
So looking forward to this.
That's what I'm saying.
"Quotation confesses inferiority."
When the destination invalidates the journey, you're going to basically regret everything you've done. That's not just me talking, that's the testimony of a thousand posts on the Bioware forums.
Your analogy is rather poor. Mass Effect is more like sex than a test. The first was good foreplay, the second was good... fuck it, thrust, and at the last second before climax, you get a cramp, stop moving and the whole experience gets eaten by your muscles painfully tensing.
And I didn't say it should get a low score, you did. The glowing praise it's getting from the "professionals" is just as bad as the vote bombing because the reviews declare it perfect/near-perfect and there's an absolute shitstorm going on over the endings, Tali's face and the wallpaper thing. Edge, Giantbomb and Destructoid gave the best reviews because they better quantified the problems.
Even the fucking biodrones are pissed off at this shit.
But I don't feel like the ending does invalidate the journey. The ending I chose may not have been ideal, but I certainly didn't feel like it negated my efforts up until that point.
That makes you like one of five people though. Everyone else is over here.
Lemme ask something. Did you restart from the save point or cross-reference with someone else that got a different ending?
Huh? I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. I just played straight through and made my selection from the three options available to me at the end point.
I think what Freechoice means is did you reload your save from before you made your final choice, and make a different one?
No, I only played through the ending of the game once.
I believe it would have been very wise to reload the game and choose a different ending to ascertain the impact of the endings. It should have been a pretty big indication of something going amiss if the game let you choose different endings (a la Human Revolution) without regarding anything but your input at that point. Yeah, the EMS thing and squadmate choices change the tone of the ending but...
There's rumors that there is a "best" ending, (but everyone is still screwed) but the dedicated people, the ones that did everything right (peace, scanning, paragon options) still couldn't get it.
It's more important that people hear about the straight up facts than personal experience. It's fine that you enjoyed it, but as a reviewer, you should have gone back to get an idea about the alternate endings if they were readily available. You're not obligated to play the game 50 times, but something as simple as a quickload falls more under professional obligation for two reasons:
A. Because it would have taken about 20 minutes and given you a lot of foresight as to why everybody's so pissed off.
I challenge the review because it would have been obvious how serious it is that Bioware copy-pasted the cutscene with minimal inklings as to what actually happened (again, other than everyone is screwed.) People on the Bioware soc forums are clamoring for closure which they felt they didn't get. Hell, even /v/ is pissed off about that one thing in particular.
Also, it was probably worth discussing the multiplayer. Probably should have played the demo multiplayer (which was separate from the single player, I believe) because there's a metric fuckton of confusion on what EMS and GRR are and how Bioware either outright lied about not needing to play the multi or skirting the issue and making it nigh impossible (at least without an online guide or DLC, the former being immersion breaking and the latter being greed). Either way, it was a really bad design choice that should have been addressed.
With regard to the multiplayer, I didn't have access to the multiplayer that was part of the game, and couldn't in good conscience review the demo. I can't say to people "the multiplayer is a great part of the game" if I haven't actually played it, and I can't base my opinion of something in the retail copy of the game on something that isn't in the retail copy of the game.
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text:
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Self-proclaimed new pop artist Taylor Swift stole the show at the MTV VMAs red carpet on Sunday after showing up in a colorful short romper.
The "I Knew You Were Trouble" singer, 24, wore a letter-printed Mary Katrantzou onesie and Elie Saab shoes for her entrance at the awards show. Swift wore her short hair in loose waves and complemented her look with Lorraine Schwartz earrings and rings, and pave bands by Ofira.
The singer was set to give the second performance of the night and had reportedly planned an "explosive" show. Swift wore a silver ensemble for the act in which she sang her new single "Shake It Off" live for the first time alongside several men in black suits.
Swift unveiled the track last week during a Yahoo live stream where she announced plans to release her first "official" pop music album on October 27.


text: You all need to bombard Olympus with letters, emails and phone calls to their 800 number. I wrote a letter, sent it to VP in Charge of Sales, VP in Charge of Customer Relations and to Customer Service. After a month I got a call from Customer Service with the same broken record reply: "Send your camera in and for $119.00 we will look at it and let you know the charges to repair it" After I challenged her on the fact this was a manufacturing defect ( I have cut and pasted all the negatives I could find on the Stylus 400 to Customer Service and have told them the 400s are being offered on EBay for $5.) she had the nerve to say I had probably broken it by trying to get it to work. I explained that I had seen where others had held down the door on the front and could take pictures so I tried it. She said I broke the camera at that point. This is an insult to all of us to have a camera we bought in good faith and now we can't use it. Get those cards and calls going!!!!!!!


text:
WATERLOO, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- Bruce Newell uses 3D printers to make prosthetic hands and arms. He gives the prosthetics away for free, and to any person in need.
"I wonder if we're bent too tight on here," Newell said.
He says each prosthetic needs to fit comfortably.
"Does it hurt on that side?"
Six-year-old Jack Williams is in for his third fitting. Together, they are making the arm a perfect fit.
Jack's arm is just the latest in more than 100 prosthetics Newell has made. Newell's production became so large, he even opened up a shop in the basement of Waterloo's Goodwill store.
"I had been printing out my garage, which wasn't real nice but it worked," Newell said.
After retiring, Newell says he began to notice how many children don't have arms or hands. That reason alone made him want to help.
"I got to watch myself. When you see them get a hand on and you see them move and they've never had it, it'll bring tears to your eyes I guarantee that," Newell said.
Kiddos like Jack, who lost his arm at just one month old.
"He was a premature baby. He was born with a sore on his arm and we didn't know what it was, and it ended up being a blood clot in his armpit, impeding blood flow in his arm," Michelle Williams, Jack's mom, said.
The Williams contacted Newell about three weeks ago. And he says the prosthetic will be ready to use in just a few days, after the last fitting.
"We'll get it for you yet, I promise you that," Newell said.
Then this rambunctious six year old will be ready, with both arms, for summer vacation.
"Do a front flip with two hands," Jack said.
Newell is partnered with the national nonprofit, "Enabling the Future."


text:
The Claremont Institute is coming to Washington, D.C. Beginning tomorrow and extending through Saturday, it is putting on nine panels on an assortment of political issues. Most of the events will take place at the Wardman Park Marriott hotel. Here is the schedule. These panels are part of a larger get-together, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.
I will participate on two panels. The first (tomorrow at 10:15 a.m.) focuses on Justice Thomas, particularly his thinking with respect to (a) looking to foreign law for constitutional guidance and (b) the Establishment Clause. Professors Jeremy Rabkin and Vincent Phillip Munoz, respectively, will discuss papers they have written on these topics. I will provide comments. Then, on Friday at 10:15 a.m., Scott and I will participate, along with Bill Gertz of the Washington Times and Nina Easton of the Boston Globe, in a discussion on blogging and politics.
On Saturday, Scott will appear on a panel about Woodrow Wilson. The discussion will revolve around R.J. Pestritto's new book Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism, which Scott tells me is one of the best pieces of intellectual history he has ever read.
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