text:
A new video posted on the official Windows blog tests the cameras of two Windows Phone 8 flagship handsets against Apple's iPhone 5 and an Android device.
Ever wondered how the camera of Windows Phone 8 device stacks up against Android and iOS? A new promotional video from Microsoft called "Meet Your Match" pits HTC's Windows Phone 8X and Nokia's Lumia 920 head-to-head against Apple's iPhone 5 and HTC's Android-based myTouch.
Microsoft's Ben Rudolph showcased the Windows Phone 8X camera by taking a photo of a family of five in Santa Monica, Calif. known as the Cooks. Rudolph snapped one photo with the Windows Phone 8 device and another with the myTouch handset, which belonged to a member of the Cook family.
The results showed that the image taken with HTC's Windows Phone 8X produced a larger photo with better lighting and more background, while the myTouch photo appeared squished and slightly too dark. The second test compared Nokia's Lumia 920 and Apple's iPhone 5, and produced a similar conclusion.
In addition to demonstrating the quality of the photos, Rudolph also shows users how to share a photo using either of these Windows Phone 8 devices. At the end of the trial, each participant was able to keep the Windows handset used in the demonstration if they chose to do so. The test was derived from a similar "experiment" Microsoft held at last year's Consumer Electronics Showcaseknown as "Smoked by Windows Phone." According to the official Windows blog, Microsoft has held more than 250,000 challenges in 54 countries since then.
Though we can't trust a WP8 camera test funded by Microsoft, the company is smart to highlight the photography features built into these Windows Phone 8 devices. For Nokia's Lumia 920 , the camera is one of the device's standout features, as it packs an 8.7-pixel PureView camera into its body. HTC's device also has a camera worth bragging about. As we acknowledge in our review of the Windows Phone 8X, its 8-megapixel rear facing camera features a dedicated ImageSense camera-processing chip, which means that it's one of the higher-end camera phones on the market.
While the video does well to capture the enhanced photography features that come with these Windows Phone 8 devices, it begs the question as to whether or not an improved camera is enough to sway avid Android and iOS users.
As Microsoft releases these video advertisements for its Windows Phone 8 flagships, a number of users have reported bugs with both the Lumia 920 and HTC Windows Phone 8X. Owners of the devices have said that the 8X randomly reboots itself, and the 920's battery appears to be performing poorly. Some users have also said that freezing sometimes occurs with Nokia's Windows Phone 8 variant.
Check out the videos below to get a glimpse of the camera performance on both devices.


text:
Permit Process for Large-Scale Water Withdrawals Proposed
Governor Jennifer Granholm is seeking approval from the Michigan State Legislature on an ambitious, broad-ranging water protection offensive.
The cornerstone of the offensive, which was launched Tuesday, is a permitting process designed to regulate large-scale water withdrawals from the state's lakes, streams ang groundwater stores.
According to the Detroit Free Press, it also proposes protections for some small wetlands, beefed-up standards for septic systems, a prohibition on disposing of contaminated dredge spoils in lakes, and new fees on municipalities and businesses that discharge pollutants to waterways. Granholm also vowed to lobby for more federal funds, and possibly to join a lawsuit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ship ballast water -- a major source of Great Lakes invasive species.
The Michigan Water Legacy Act, as Granholm dubbed the plan's centerpiece, would require permits for water withdrawal that exceeds 2 million gallons per day -- or 100 million gallons per year -- from the state's lakes, streams or groundwater.
This legislation was written in response to controversy surrounding the Nestle Waters/Ice Mountain water bottling plant, which activists say is depeleting the state's watere supply too quickly. However, under the Legacy Act, existing water users would be grandfathered and not subject to the permits unless they seek an expansion of pumping capacity, Granholm aides said.
Still, the governor's actions have met with approval on many fronts.
"We've been critical of the governor's role in [some] areas, but today we're incredibly excited," said Noah Hall, water resources program manager with the regional office of the National Wildlife Federation.
Former DEQ Director Russ Harding, on the other hand, said the plan is regulatory overkill.
"We have abundant groundwater. This could have a chilling effect on industry," Harding said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Style # 207605
With a structured square frame, chainlink adorned handle and a lock and key ornament, this bebe leather tote bag is the epitome of Park-Avenue chic. Crafted from durable and scratch resistant leather. A chain strap allows you to carry this tote on your shoulders if your hands are too full. The best part? It's a perfect work-to-weekend bag.
- Leather
- H 13" (33 cm) x W 15" (38 cm) x D 5" (13 cm)
- Handle drop: 6" (15 cm)
- Custom bebe logo padlock hardware detail
- Custom interlocking key charm detail
- Versatile chain link shoulder strap
- Luxurious jacquard logo lining
- Media compartments
- Imported
Lock Leather Tote is rated out of 5 by 7.
Rated 5 out of 5 by NikkieGiovanni from Great quality purse! This purse looks like money. I love the fact that Bebe is going back to their leather roots! It is sturdy but that will change once you break it in. I have it in black and I dress it up with heels and down with boots. Get it while it's gone!
Date published: 2013-07-24
Rated 5 out of 5 by missbettyboop3088 from sooooo beautiful. This handbag is beautiful and very roomy. I have no coins about this handbag but in the future if you continue to make this style bag make it in a violet purple I would buy in a heartbeat! The price is excellent compared to the mk bag!! Buy this bag while you can because its worth the money!!!
Date published: 2013-07-10
Rated 5 out of 5 by danicalifornia0405 from My new favorite purse I ordered this bag last week and am so glad that I did. It is beautiful, very comparable to the Michael Kors Hamilton bag but at a much better price point. I love the size and shape as well as the quality of the bag. I have used it twice so far and received numerous compliments.
Date published: 2013-05-15
Rated 3 out of 5 by pinkglamxoxo from Cute bag I was expecting a lot for $198. The bag is very cute. But in person its just a plain white bag. Super sturdy to the point where its like the bag wont even move when you go to get something out of the inside. I have to take the lock off, to expand the bag. Which that way it made it a tad roomy. The picture online makes it look better, in person its just plain. Returning the bag. It also very tall. I know the dimensions were online, but I didn't check, and when i got it, it was just to big (tall)
Date published: 2013-05-13
Rated 5 out of 5 by JJ89 from Exquisite!!! Absolutely Gorgeous!!! Comparable to high end versions, this purse is a must have. Very versatile and classy. I love it.
Date published: 2013-05-10
Rated 5 out of 5 by BooRedford from Nice Large Bag! Nice leather bag! Goes great with the BeBe White Leather blazer. Statement piece!
Date published: 2013-05-07
Rated 5 out of 5 by KQUEEN from Fabulous Bag! Love this purse! On the website, it appears more orange, but in person its actually brown. Definitely would recommend it!
Date published: 2012-11-15


text:
Puzzle Help Items 061-072
Puzzle Projects
Puzzle Help
Fifteen Puzzle™
Ring Puzzles
Victorian Puzzle
Jigsaw Puzzles Online
Puzzle Orchard
Oxbow Puzzle - MC20
Troublesome Triangle
Nine Dots Puzzle and Its Family
Puzzles: Big, Bigger, the Biggest
Word Downsizing - MC19
Jumble Puzzle Books
072 Fifteen Puzzle™
i have a question that a lot of my friends are arguing if it is possible or not. We have a 2 dimensional number puzzle that starts out looking like....
01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08
09 10 11 12
13 14 15
This is in a 16 space square where you can slide the numbers around. Is it possible to make it look like....
15 14 13 12
11 10 09 08
07 06 05 04
03 02 01
I say this is possible they say it is not. Let me know if it is....
Unfortunately we have to say that it's really impossible to make from the start position:
01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08
09 10 11 12
13 14 15
the final position you're asking about:
15 14 13 12
11 10 09 08
07 06 05 04
03 02 01
The best thing you may get is something like this:
15 14 13
12 11 10 09
08 07 06 05
04 03 02 01
I'm trying to find an old puzzle that was shaped like a square, and had 15 tile-like pieces in it with one empty space. The object being to move the tiles around to get them in numerical order. Hope you can help. Thank you
Judy R.
An old puzzle you're trying to find is the Fifteen Puzzle - one of the World's best known puzzles. Its object is exactly as you've described: just scramble the 15 numbered tiles in a square tray 4x4 with one vacant space, and then slide them into correct numerical order.
Originally introduced more than 120 years ago it instantly made the whole World crazy. Recently the Fifteen Puzzle was recreated by Binary Arts Corp. in smooth, polished metal and decorative enamel, just as it appeared during the 1930s. A booklet featuring over 30 additional challenges is enclosed as well.
The Fifteen Puzzle can be found and purchased in our Gift Shop:
There you may go directly to the page with
the Fifteen Puzzle
I have recently bought this puzzle and enjoy spending time playing with it. Is there an enthusiasts site for this puzzle? I'd like to learn some of what I think could well be, classic moves!
Cheers Virginia.
We aren't aware about any enthusiasts site for the Fifteen Puzzle. But we're planning to organize a section at our site about this great classic puzzle, and give there some details and tricks about the puzzle and its solving. We'll remember your interest in this, and will let you know when this happens.
071 Ring Puzzles
I have a 5 piece ring puzzle (Harem wedding band) that I am looking for instructions for. It seems to be a common ring, with a single wide band locking ring. Can you point me in the direction of directions. Thank you,
Anne N.
Perhaps, the best place to learn how to put together a 5-band puzzle ring is the
Jewelry by José Grant
site. José Grant, a retired TWA airline pilot, is America's number one maker of puzzle rings, who since 1940 has been handcrafting puzzle rings of the highest quality. There is a special
Puzzle Ring Instructions
page with puzzle ring instructions (including video instructions) at that site.
There you'll find a great variety of free puzzle ring instructions - provided with great step-by-step photos - for puzzle rings in range 4 bands through 9 bands, and chain puzzles.
If you aren't sure what type of puzzle ring is yours, there you'll find a lot of designs which can be very helpful, before you choose a particular instruction.
The greatest thing about the Jewelry by José Grant site is that it's, perhaps, the only site that shows the solutions for odd-number-band puzzle rings with 5, 7 and 9 bands. These rings are considered (and they really are!) to be the most challenging puzzles.
Speaking of the 5 band puzzle rings, at the site you'll find instructions to two different types of these rings -
5 Band Instructions©
5Q Instructions©
, so we hope you'll be successful in finding what you're looking for.
Also you can order the instructions to your puzzle ring if they aren't presented online.
There are some more good places showing different instructions how to assemble puzzle rings - mostly with 4, 6, and 8 bands.
Puzzle World
describes (with step-by-step illustrations) how to put together a
4 band puzzle ring
. This method can be generalized for puzzle rings with more bands, although for different rings there may be some exceptions like with the odd-number-band puzzle rings.
Walsh Brothers
site shows in detail how to put together a
6 band puzzle ring
site devoted to puzzle rings crafted by Norman Greene, Puzzle Ring Artist, presents
animated puzzle ring instructions
. You can even run them step-by-step in the Animation Slowed Down mode. There are 4, 6 and 8 band puzzle ring instructions, and chain ring instructions.
At the
Puzzle Rings by Liza
site you can learn how to solve
4, 6, and 8 band puzzle rings
following their step-by-step illustrated instructions.
070 Victorian Puzzle
Am looking for information on "Victorian Puzzle." What was it? What is it? What is premise behind the puzzle? Can they be obtained today? Any information would be appreciated?
Jon S.
Victorian Puzzle or The English Sixteen Puzzle was very popular in Victorian England and Europe. As a puzzle kind it's a Sequential Movement Puzzle/Jumping Peg Puzzle.
You can see what this puzzle looks like (and even play it!) at our site; we have it presented in Our Collection. It's a Java puzzle applet written a couple of years ago by
Bob Kirkland
as a birthday present for our
site - "
There is a few books that describe this puzzle under different names.
1. Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5,000 Puzzles, Tricks and Conundrums, 1914, 1974 (reprint).
-- Fore and Aft Puzzle, page 108.
2. Creative Puzzles of the World by Pieter van Delft and Jack Botermans, 1978.
-- The Moving Peg Puzzle, page 166.
3. Mathematical Puzzles and Other Brain Teasers by Anthony S. Filipiak, 1942.
-- Sixteen Peg Puzzle, page 29.
4. Hoffmann's Puzzles Old and New, by Professor Hoffmann, 1893, 1993 (reprinted and reedited by Edward L. Hordern).
-- The "English Sixteen" Puzzle, page depends on the edition. The 1993 edition on page 188 contains a nice photo of an old sample issued by Messrs. John Heywood, of Manchester, 1880-1895.
069 Jigsaw Puzzles Online
I am in search of free jigsaw puzzles to do online. Do you have anything of this sort on your site? I couldn't find any.
As far as we know, the best place on the Web with a lo-o-o-t of free online jigsaws is the JigZone -
. Enjoy!
Modified: April 10, 2006
068 Puzzle Orchard
You need to arrange nine (9) trees in an orchard. The puzzle is to end up with 10 rows containing 3 trees. The rows can be horizontal, diagonal, vertical. Can anyone help me with the solution?
Thanks, Gary
Fortunately, we have this puzzle at our site. Just not with trees but with coins. Its name is "
In Puzzleland
." Another puzzle gem by Sam Loyd!
067 Oxbow Puzzle - MC20
Our first Mini-Contest with the
sector. Simultaneously, the names of the solvers of the puzzle are presented here at the Puzzle Help sector too.
Mini-Contest 20 is Finished
It was our twentieth mini-contest. Now we'd like to propose this contest's results and some details about
the puzzle
and its
. With this Mini-Contest 20 is finished.
It was our first Mini-Contest with
sector, and you, our fellow visitors, were extremely active. Actually we have the site's record in the right answers to our Mini-Contests. We thank you for this, and look forward to the next Mini-Contests. Happy Puzzling!
Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Horst Karaschewski.
2. Jon Black.
3. Alison Thompson.
4. Joey Hwang.
5. Jensen Lai.
6. Michele Ely.
7. Meltom F. Gonzales.
8. Mark Sunter-storey.
9. Amit Chawla.
10. Wisline Legros.
11. Josh Anderson.
12. Wade Kaple.
13. Blake.
14. Buddy Dorman.
15. Barbara Algarin.
16. Mohamed Sabry.
17. Yensing.
18. Jugvinder Singh.
19. John Birch.
20. Kiruthika K.
21. Bruce A. Hedge.
22. Robyn McCabe.
23. Andersen.
24. Rajesh Kumar Sinha.
25. Chris Baynton.
26. Ed Peacock.
27. Jana Pomeroy.
28. Anna Zachariasson.
29. Jon Dyer.
30. Sumanth.
31. Mysterymeat1749.
32. Veron Cheung.
33. Tony R. Buonopane.
34. Elizabeth Johnston.
35. Dan Blobaum.
36. Jeff Rogers.
37. lucas land.
38. Steve Gomes.
39. Dan Cheek.
40. Diane.
41. Charlie.
42. Summy S.
43. PZorz.
44. Anup Aravind.
45. Sandip Agarwal.
46. Girish Nehate.
47. Benjamin Osuna.
48. Amiee Marcel.
49. Bogdan Knezevic.
50. Adam Davies.
51. Jamie Sanderson.
52. litlscooby.
53. Jeff LaGrone.
54. Ian Pedder.
55. Emrah Baskaya.
56. Brian M. Dailey.
57. Naiem A. S.
58. Nigel Wilson.
59. Carol.
60. Marcus Dunstan.
61. Sue Hinman.
62. Tierrie.
63. Russell Baum.
64. Eric Lafontaine.
65. James.
66. Alan Lemm.
67. Michael Lever.
68. Jim Tarsi.
69. David Atkinson.
70. Colleen.
71. Shlomo Baime.
72. William Hill.
73. Matt Benton.
74. Dave Schnizlein.
75. Trevor Graham.
76. Sweta Singh.
77. Jennifer Cheong.
78. Suhas Subramanya.
066 Troublesome Triangle
I found this triangle problem on the internet today. I have been looking at it for a while and I am baffled. I feel silly not being able to figure it out, but nevertheless I am stuck. Unfortunately the web site I pulled it from did not have solutions to any of their problems. You may already have this problem on your site, but I could not find it. I have attached a picture of it.
Thanks for any help.
Jim B.
Troublesome Triangle
We guess we know the site you "pulled" this puzzle from; it might be "Eli's Math and Logic Puzzles and Interesting Finds" at:
At that page it's stated that this puzzle is "...from Nat Beagley, AKA Mr. Beaglesworth..."
In fact this triangle version of the vanishing area paradoxes was proposed by Martin Gardner, based on the great paradox invented in 1953 by Paul Curry, an amateur magician from New York City.
Martin Gardner describes a lot of similar paradoxes and their history in his famous book - Mathematics, Magic and Mystery.
We have at our site one of the most interesting version of these paradoxes, presented as a geometrical trick "
Magic Triangle
There you can find
the explanations
how this trick (paradox) works. Same is true and for the simple 4-piece triangle version you sent us, since the trick by Martin Gardner, we have at our site, is based on this simpler version.
Also we got two messages from our visitors with their explanations of this paradox. Thank you very much!
<<The answer to this problem is fairly simple. The two "triangles" are actually optical illusions, because the green triangle and the red one are not in equal proportions. The red one is 8x3 squares, and the green one is 5x2 squares. Therefore, in the two complex "triangles" the hypotenuse is not a straight line. In the first example it bends downwards slightly, and in the second one it it bends upwards slightly. The difference between these two lines is the "extra" square in the lower drawing.
Lionel Isaacs>>
<<This puzzle works because the longest leg of the big triangle is not straight. Therefore it's not actually a triangle. It changes angle between the two smaller triangles that make the long leg.
Proof: The 2 smaller triangles have different rise/run slopes of their longest legs, so when they are put together, they cannot form a straight line.
-Lee Root (A.K.A. Ultrageek)>>
065 Nine Dots Puzzle and Its Family
There is a dot puzzle that you have to connect the dots without lifting up your pencil. The trick is that you have to draw outside the line of the dots and "think outside of the box." I can't find the puzzle and cannot seem to design it. Do you know what this puzzle is. Thanks for any help.
granddaughter needs this for school today. nine dots on paper three in a row and three down. how can they be connected with only four lines and your pencil can not leave the paper?
Richard F.
Okay you have 3 rows of 3 dots. You have to make all the dots connect with only 4 lines and with out lifting your pencil. HELP!
. . .
. . .
. . .
you have to conect all 9 nots without moving any of them with only 4 straight lines. Please get back with me if you find the solution. Its a puzzle my mother-in-law got from a friend. We have played with it and we think there is no solution. PLEASE HELP US!!!
. . .
. . .
. . .
i have a puzzle that has a 3x3 square of dots and it says draw exactly 4 lines to connect all the dots without lifting your pencil
It's all about the Nine Dots puzzle. We have it, called "
Nine Points
," at our site.
There is a lot of similar puzzles with more than nine dots (like the 4x4 version described below), but we believe the 3x3 dot puzzle is most puzzling one of this kind.
Is it possible to connect 16 dots arranged in a square without going beyong the box, nor lifting the pencil and doing it with 6 lines?
Karen K.
We have a puzzle I've seen many times but can't remember the solution. A square of 16 dots arranged in 4 rows of four, you must draw through all dots, using 6 lines without lifting the pencil or retracing. Can you help?
We know this great classic puzzle. You may see its solution at the
Modified: January 26, 2006
064 Puzzles: Big, Bigger, the Biggest
I am looking for a puzzle consisting of animals, the puzzle must be 3000-4000 pieces. Do you have one for me. Thank you
Thank you for your query. The best place to find 3000+ piece jigsaws is Nancy Ballhagen's Puzzle Store at
. There look for the "3000 to 4000 piece Puzzles" section
. We saw there Kittens in Toy Basket - 3000 piece Jumbo puzzle which, perhaps, is the most close to what you're looking for. Its picture is at:
Also there is a 3000 piece puzzle L'Arche de Noe (Noah's Ark) - an artistic view of animals of Noah's Ark existing in harmony. The animals depicted include a horse, lion, tiger, goat, camel, monkey, ostrich, parrot, peacock, and numerous other birds. You can find it at the
site; there go to:
Our senior citizens group would like to buy the puzzles with large pieces. Any whereabouts or catalogs would be appreciated.
Hubie R
Perhaps, the best puzzles with large pieces are M.C. Escher Puzzles at:
At that site you can find really wonderful puzzles such as Mosaic II Puzzle or Sun and Moon Shape Puzzle based on M.C. Escher's incredible works. Also they have the Lizards of M.C. Escher Soft Puzzles in two color sets and two sizes. The large set has its pieces measuring 12.25" x 11.75" x .5" each, and the small set has pieces measuring 4" x 3.5" x 3/8" each.
063 Word Downsizing - MC19
I need help solving this puzzle---- There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?
Hopefully you will be able to figure this out THANKS!!
~ Kristi ~
Mini-Contest 19 is Finished
It was our nineteenth mini-contest. Now we'd like to propose this contest's results and some details about
the puzzle
and its
. With this Mini-Contest 19 is finished.
We thank you for your participation, and look forward to the next Mini-Contests. Happy Puzzling!
Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Mary Gambrel.
2. Jon Black.
3. Neil Myska.
4. Michele Ely.
5. Marcelino Rancaño.
6. Sandy.
7. Philippe Guglielmetti.
8. Anju Saseendran.
062 Jumble Puzzle Books
I enjoy Jumble Puzzle Books, but have a very difficult time finding them. I recently finished one that I had for some time that was stashed away in a box and I found it when we recently moved. It was an older book and now I can't seem to find this kind of puzzle book anywhere. Any suggestions?
We believe that the best place to find some good Jumble Puzzle Books is the
site, and their Books section at:
Also there is another place to find Jumble Puzzle Books at:
061 Top-Spin®
Hello I recently bought (second hand) a puzzle. It is oval and consists of 20 numbers. a round circle moves 4 numbers at a time. object of puzzle to put numbers in order. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. PLEASE help. What is the logical way to do this one?
Congratulations! Now you're a happy owner of the Top-Spin® puzzle. This puzzle is also sold as No. Crunch™.
Top-Spin® is one of most challenging mechanical puzzles ever. Designed by a teacher, and first introduced by Binary Arts in 1988, this puzzle become an American classic... over a million was sold.
The object is simple - just put the number in order. For this slide the 20 tokens with numbers around the track, flip the turnstile to rearrange them... Easy, 'til it comes to that last number!
Despite the fact that Top-Spin® can produce approximately 2,432,902,000,000,000,000 combinations, any its challenge can be solved with only 20 moves! And that is what makes this puzzle so challenging!
How to solve Top-Spin® you can see at
Jaap's Puzzle Page
with this really unique puzzle.
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text:
OTTAWA (AP) There was a sense of celebration in the Ottawa Senators' dressing room, and the happy feelings went way beyond simply beating the Winnipeg Jets.
The Senators' 4-1 victory on Sunday was satisfying in its own right, but even more so because it snapped Ottawa's 11-game streak of one-goal games.
Jakob Silfverberg scored twice to power the Senators to the rare multi-goal victory. Guillaume Latendresse and Kyle Turris added goals for Ottawa (15-8-6), which got 25 saves from Robin Lehner.
``It was nice not being a one-goal game for once,'' said Turris, who scored his eighth of the season. ``We played our game and finished strong.''
Zach Bogosian scored the lone goal for the Jets (15-12-2). Ondrej Pavelec made 38 saves, but Winnipeg's three-game winning streak was snapped.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the third, the Jets finally beat Lehner at 3:26 as Bogosian's shot from just inside the blue line made it through traffic and just under the crossbar.
Evander Kane had a great chance to tie the game midway through the period on a 2-on-1 break, but was robbed by Lehner, who made a great pad save.
``We've seen a lot of good things from Robin, but maybe Lehner is Irish,'' Senators coach Paul MacLean joked. ``He was outstanding. The difference in the game was Robin.''
Ottawa had a scare when Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien knocked Lehner down, and the goalie needed a few moments to gather himself before he got back up.
``I don't remember much,'' Lehner said. ``It was a big body coming at me, and he hit me in the head, but fortunately I felt good after a little while and could finish.''
The Senators made it 3-1 with a power-play goal by Turris, and 1:15 after that, Silfverberg scored his second of the game to give Ottawa a three-goal edge.
Ottawa went 2-for-4 on the power play, an impressive feat because the Jets had gone 11 games without giving up a power-play goal.
``They made some nice plays,'' Jets coach Claude Noel said. ``They made a dot-to-dot play that's really tough on your goalie. You've got to give them credit. They can make those plays.''
Fatigue seemed to be a factor for the Jets, who played for the third time in four days. Ottawa dominated the first period, jumping out to a 2-0 lead and outshooting Winnipeg 19-6.
``I think the fact we played three games in four days, and not really playing with enough of four lines really caught up with us,'' Noel said. ``I can't fault the players for their effort. I thought they worked hard and tried to come back in the second period. It was a factor, no doubt.''
The Senators opened the scoring at 3:44 when Daniel Alfredsson fought his way down the side boards to the front of the net where the puck bounced in off Latendresse.
The Senators made it 2-0 with a power-play goal with 1:21 remaining in the period. Sergei Gonchar made a pass across the crease to Silfverberg, who managed to handle a bouncing puck and beat Pavelec up high.
``It wasn't our best game, that's for sure,'' Pavelec said. ``They came in hard on us, and I think they were a better team.''
Gonchar extended his point streak to seven games with assists on goals by Silfverberg and Turris.
NOTES: Senators LW Kaspars Daugavins was a healthy scratch. Ottawa is without G Craig Anderson (ankle sprain), D Mike Lundin (concussion), D Dave Dziurzynski (concussion), D Erik Karlsson (Achilles), C Jason Spezza (upper body), LW Milan Michalek (knee), D Jared Cowen (hip). ... Winnipeg D Paul Postma, C Alexander Burmistrov and G Al Montoya were healthy scratches. The Jets were without D Tobias Enstrom (shoulder), D Zach Redmond (leg), RW Anthony Peluso (hand), C Jim Slater (upper body).


text:
Stuttgart Rotary Club Education Committee chairperson Elizabeth Skinner said students must meet a number of criteria, including service to the community and being a member of Interact, the SHS club sponsored by Rotary, to be chosen for a scholarship
The Stuttgart Rotary Club awarded $15,000 in scholarships to 43 Stuttgart High School students during the club's weekly meeting Tuesday at the Stuttgart Country Club.
Stuttgart Rotary Club Education Committee chairperson Elizabeth Skinner said students must meet a number of criteria, including service to the community and being a member of Interact, the SHS club sponsored by Rotary, to be chosen for a scholarship
"We want the student to be well rounded," Skinner said. "We also want the student to give back to the community in which they live."
The committee also gives scholarships in the name of Pauline Hahn, a longtime piano player for the Stuttgart Rotary Club, to students who are pursuing higher education in music.
Dale Goetz, SHS teacher and Interact sponsor, and SHS counselor Jane Ferguson were given certificates of appreciation, as well.
"We meet once, sometimes twice a month to discuss projects and fundraising events," Madison Simpson, president of the Stuttgart Interact Club and a recipient of a scholarship, said. "We have over 50 members."
The officers of the SHS Interact Club besides Simpson as president are Dontrell Brown, vice president, Jay McGee, secretary and Taylor Daniels, treasurer.
The students receiving scholarships this year are Latayvia Alexander, Mariah Allen, Kathryn Allison, Jake Baden, Matthew Bardwell, Dontrell Brown, Halley Brown, Triston Brownell, Cameron Boyd, Consuelo Butler, Abby Carle, Anna Coker, Victoria Connally, Regan Counce, Jon Curtis, Taylor Daniels, Spencer Dickson, Gere Elam, Emily England, Shana Fruge, Cassidy George, Kaliyah Haynes, Bailey Heinzelman, Chris Hooks, Pearl Jangjivarat, Waymon Johnson, Bobby Keller, Robert Knight, Cody Mashburn, Matthew Mitchell, Kyjano Moore, Jay McGee, Ben O'Neal, Abby Prislovsky, Justin Rice, Chelsea Richards, Kristal Rogers, Johnna Seeman, Rachel Selig, Madison Simpson, Allison Sites, Britni Weaver and Alli White.
"We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to give these scholarships to deserving seniors," Lynn Keller, president of the Stuttgart Rotary Club, said.
The scholarships are funded by two fundraisers that are held during the year — the Donald Oliver Memorial Barbecue Fundraiser and the annual Stuttgart Rotary Club Auction.


text:
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12 December 2018 7:57 am
12 December 2018 7:42 am
12 December 2018 0:01 am
11 December 2018 3:05 pm
This week, we were once again gripped by a parliamentary committee hearing, this time featuring the formidable Mike Ashley.
Entries are now open for the Drapers Digital Awards - recognising the best of the best in ecommerce across the fashion industry in the UK and Ireland.
11 December 2018 9:56 am
10 December 2018 4:20 pm
10 December 2018 4:08 pm
Since becoming CEO of Hugo Boss in 2016, Mark Langer has been reconfiguring the brand for the future.
Drapers Footwear Awards 19 will recognise and celebrate the footwear's very best from across the UK and Ireland.
We have 18 exciting categories up for contest, including International Footwear Business of the Year and Best Sustainable Initiative of the Year.
7 December 2018 3:57 pm
7 December 2018 3:55 pm
7 December 2018 3:36 pm
7 December 2018 3:31 pm
Having worked at labels such as Saint Laurent, Chloé, Marni, Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney, accessories designer Estelle Orilland has launched her own brand – Stée.
10 December 2018 4:28 pm
7 December 2018 7:00 am
6 December 2018 5:26 pm
5 December 2018 7:29 am
With the launch of footwear on the cards and a Beijing flagship about to open, luxury outerwear brand Canada Goose is primed for growth.
Taking place on 29 November 2018, the Drapers Awards recognises and celebrates the best of the best in the fashion sector.
Book your table now before it's too late
11 December 2018 11:54 am
11 December 2018 11:03 am
5 December 2018 4:09 pm
22 June 2013
By Ian Wright
As you will see from our preview of Berlin, the number of shows squashed into four days in the German capital promises to make for the busiest season yet.
EMAP Publishing Limited Company number
7880758 (England & Wales) Registered address:
7th Floor, Vantage London, Great West Road,
Brentford, United Kingdom, TW8 9AG
Site powered by Webvision


text:
jayjayjay needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 149 designs submitted by 35 freelance designers.
We need a modern, sophisticated logo for a research company. We help companies improve their websites (research consultants) and we work with some of the top internet companies in the world - so we need a compelling logo that looks fresh and professional and will be memorable!
Customer Experience Labs
Customer Experience Labs is an innovative research company that does consumer research with some of the world's leading brands. We are launching our new website next month and we need a logo to lead the way. There is no website for you to look at. We will tweak the color palette to match your logo.
Our company does consulting and research for well known household brand names so this is your chance to have your logo seen by companies like Dell, Expedia, Hotels.com and other Fortune 500 companies...
The partners of this company are very serious hardworking guys - but we also like to have fun and have a playful side too.
Design should be simple and not too busy. Needs to be clean and fresh and professional, trending towards modern fonts and design, as we deal with many technology and companies who use the web as a major channel. Logo must be scalable (vector) to use on business cards, powerpoint decks. NOTE: If your design is chosen, final deliverable must include versions that will work on both black and white backgrounds (and a copy as a png file). Please read through feedback on current designs. ***NOTE*** we are not asking for a black and white version. Some designers may have misread that part of our design brief early. We definitely need a version with a white background and a version that will work with a black background. If you'd like to provide a 3rd black AND white version that's fine but that's above and beyond the requirements.
- no rainbows or unicorns please :)
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Major revisions for design and measurement of comfortable spaces are included in a newly published ASHRAE 2013 thermal comfort standard. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2013, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, combines the 2010 standard and 18 published addenda into a consolidated standard.
The core of the standard in Sections 4 and 5 specifies methods to determine thermal environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, air speed and radiant effects) in buildings and other spaces that a significant proportion of the occupants will find acceptable at a certain metabolic rate and clothing level. Section 7 includes new requirements for measurement and evaluation, and is also applicable to commissioning.


text:
This time I'll introduce you the new business card design suitable for any agency, company and studio. Yes, also for personal use.
1. EPS format
2. AI Format (CS3, CS4 and CS5)
3. 3.5 inches X 2.0 inches with bleed
4. Print and bleed ready
5. Fully Editable
Font Used: 2. Standard Rockwell 3. Bebas Neue – http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Bebas
1. Standard Calibri


text:
Every Tuesday, Thursday, 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Visit the Food Bank of the Rockies website for other food pantry locations : find.foodbankrockies.org
or call the Hunger Free Hotline at 720-382-2920
Food Bank Operates: Tuesdays & Thursdays from 2pm - 3:45pm
Want to help? A list of needed Items can be found at the Ministry/Welcome Centers. For more information email Cindy Pakiz at .
More info:
|Especially needed:
|Always appreciated:
|Canned Meats
Canned Fruit
Canned Mixed Vegetables
Cereal (Dry)
Spagetti Sauce
Spaghetti Noodles
Boxed potatoes or stuffing


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DU loses at North Dakota 4-3
DU got a late goal from freshman Jason Zucker, his second of the night, but the Pioneers couldn't overcome some neutral-zone turnovers and perhaps a quicker reaction or two by freshman goalie Sam Brittain in a 4-3 loss at North Dakota. The Pios committed three of the game's four penalties and didn't go on the power play until early in the third. The Sioux's power-play goal early in the third stood up as the game-winner.
Tough nights for forwards Jesse Martin and Luke Salazar (both minus-3) and defenseman William Wrenn (minus-2). But Zucker and classmates Beau Bennett (first career point) and David Makowski (plus-3) were very good in their first NCAA experience at Englestad Arena.
I'll produce a couple more blogs tomorrow, but here's some goal-description copy to chew on:
The Sioux broke a 2-2 tie to take their first lead of the game at 16:43 of the second period. Just after DU's all-senior line of center Jesse Martin, Kyle Ostrow and Anthony Maiani was reunited, it opposed North Dakota's top trio of Knight, Jason Gregoire and Brett Hextall. The Sioux broke into the DU zone on a 3-on-2 rush and Hextall sent a circle-to-circle saucer pass to Knight, who tucked the puck under the sideways-sliding Brittain and into the net.
DU earlier couldn't build on leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Zucker got the game's first goal by one-timing Shawn Ostrow's behind-the-net feed past Aaron Dell 6:29 into the game.
After UND freshman defenseman Dillon Simpson scored his first career goal to tie it, defenseman Matt Donovan put the Pioneers back ahead with a back-hander through Dell's legs, after skating end-to-end with the puck.
Six minutes later, Mike Cichy's long wrist shot through traffic beat Brittain high to the glove side.
Down 4-2, Zucker beat Dell with a rebound off a Beau Bennett shot. Bennett, the freshman who was Pittsburgh's first-round draft pick in June, was credited with an assist for his first career point.
DU coach George Gwozdecky finished with Zucker and Bennett playing with sophomore center Drew Shore. That threesome and the all-senior line were outstanding last weekend against Wisconsin, and seemed to create some energy against the Sioux. Gwozdecky said he might keep those two groups together for Game 2.
If I were the skipper, I'd definitely keeps Shore with the two blue-chip freshmen, and I'd like to see the senior trio make amends and create some goals tomorrow.
Read more of Mike Chambers at All Things Avs.


text: eXpansys still offers the Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Solo Headphones in White, model no. BEATSOLOWHT, for $139.99 plus $3.99 for shipping. That's tied with our mention from last week and the lowest total price we could find by $23. They feature ControlTalk, a folding design, carry pouch, cleaning cloth, and more.


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By Fernando Duarte
Until a couple of weeks ago, the only people to recognise Dante's hefty frame walking around his hometown of Salvador during the Bundesliga's winter break would be some German tourists. On Wednesday, though, as he prepares to make his debut at the heart of the Selecao defence against England, that will all change.
After leaving his homeland as a virtual unknown almost 10 years ago, Dante has had a long road to the top, but after becoming one of Bayern Munich's signings for the 2012-13 season, he is likely to get his maiden cap alongside fellow floppy-haired defender David Luiz.
The biggest surprise, though, is not that he is in contention for a place in the Brazil squad for the 2014 World Cup, but that it took so long for him to be noticed. Long before becoming an integral part of the Bayern defence which has conceded just seven league goals in 20 games, he had done enough to be selected.
During his three seasons at Borussia Monchengladbach, he was a star performer in the team who went from relegation candidates to Champions Leauge qualifiers in 2011-12.
While one could point out that former Brazil coach Mano Menezes never suffered from a shortage of good stoppers, he seemed oblivious to the rise of Dante. But when Luiz Felipe Scolari announced his first squad for his second spell in charge of the country, he could not ignore him any longer.
"Dante has been outstanding for Bayern, and we would like to get a closer look at him," Felipao stated two weeks ago.
For the 29-year-old's part, the coach's praise vindicated his belief that he could represent his country with a little hard work.
"I knew that if I did my homework at Bayern, a chance would come up," Dante exclusively told Goal.com. "I am obviously over the moon to be called up, but the hardest part, which is making the next squads, starts now.
"It doesn't bother me that people in Brazil don't really know who I am. It's actually more important that the coach knows what I can do."
Dante certainly has quite a task on his hands. Aside from David Luiz and Dante, the defenders called up are Atletico Madrid's Miranda and Roma's Leandro Castan. Paris Saint-Germain star and captain Thiago Silva has not made the squad due to a thigh injury.
Short of a disaster, though, Dante is likely to find a place for himself among Scolari's troops. With his penchant for passing and apparent hatred for hoofing it up-field, Dante has been compared to the great Aldair, who shone during Brazil's 1994 World Cup winning campaign.
|"A lot of people thought I would just disappear from the squad. I guess proving them wrong became part of my to-do list"
- Dante
Besides, Dante is also thriving in a league where defenders have to excel physically. "I have been in Europe for almost 10 years, and I believe my experience can help the group," he noted. "The important thing for me now is to soak up the atmosphere, get to know the other players a bit more, and work as hard as I can on the pitch.
"It's your sweat, rather than your name, that can get you a place in this team."
That view is born from his rise at Bayern. After making his €5 million switch, it was assumed that Dante would dissolve into obscurity behind the more established names of Holger Badstuber, Daniel Van Buyten and Jerome Boateng.
"A lot of people said I would just disappear into the squad, that I was too low in the pecking order," he continued. "I guess that proving them wrong became part of my to-do-list. But the players were always very nice to me from the beginning. I have no complaints about the reception I got."
He and Luiz already look like kindred spirits with their instantly-recognisable hair cuts, but Dante was quick to claim ownership of the afro. "I have worn my hair like that for longer than David," he joked. "I remember he was short-haired when he arrived at Benfica."
Before moving to Germany, he spent time at Lille in France and Belgium, and given his form, he could attract interest from England when he faces the Three Lions, or when Bayern clash with Arsenal in the Champions League, and he is looking forward to his excursion on British soil.
"I really admire English football and it will be quite exciting to have the chance to soak up the atmosphere at Wembley with Brazil and then come back to London for the Champions League tie. It doesn't get much better than that, and I'd prefer to experience it before worrying about the future."
He is aware that his status as a Selecao player would ruin the anonymity he has enjoyed in Salvador, though: "Not even my haircut used to catch attention. But it might be a bit trickier to walk around now. I am almost regretting it!"


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The Internet of Things (IoT)—the network of intelligent machines and devices which can sense and interact with each other over the Internet—has, quite literally, hit home. Devices that automate, monitor and control individual homes are proliferating. By 2016, the global connected home market is expected to reach $235 billion.
For insurers, the IoT can provide value in the form of new insurance models and products—based on deeper insight into the customer's needs—and a higher level of customer satisfaction derived from dynamic risk monitoring and improved claims handling. The IoT also creates opportunities for insurers to lower costs and improve operational efficiency.
This report looks at the complex connected home ecosystem, the potential for insurers, and the steps they should consider to take advantage.


text:
If your download does not start automatically, choose a download location to start your download.
Articles Picks: Corporate Mail Manager - Business, Ocean Mail Server, TVedia media center and more Picks: FileCrypt Desktop Pro, iDo Wedding Couple Edition, IDimager Professional Image Manager, Novagraph Chartist Flowchart, and more
Software Diagram Designer MindMapper 5.0 Pro
Novagraph Chartist Flowchart 5.1
file size: 3.43 MB
A comprehensive flowchart and org charting package for Win 2000,XP.
Published by:
Trial Period:
Limited number of objects.
2k / XP / 2003 / Vista
Cow Rating:
Support URL:
Features full color and font support, multi symbol and border styles and auto routing of lines in multi styles. Multiple document support, drag and drop objects between documents. Also supports hyper text jumps, import of graphics into symbols and export of data to other applications, including standard clipboard formats and OLE. Support for international Unicode text.


text:
I am using one of the MAX31855 breakout boards on a oven controller I'm building and went to the github site for the Adafruit code. I found a number of issues with the existing code, to the point that I rewrote it and posted the revised code on my website: http://www.seanet.com/~karllunt/max31855.html
Note that my code is C, not C++. If you are heavily into Arduino, this is going to look very different from the sketches you're used to.
One question I had with the code is it doesn't appear to handle negative thermocouple values correctly in gcc-avr. It does seem to handle negative reference values properly, but that doesn't help you with the thermocouple.
Specifically, this code in Adafruit_MAX31855::readCelsius(void) seems wrong:
// get rid of internal temp data, and any fault bits
v >>= 18; <-- this does not sign-extend in the gcc-avr compiler
//Serial.println(v, HEX);
// pull the bottom 13 bits off <-- actually, the bottom 13 bits plus 1 sign bit
int16_t temp = v & 0x3FFF;
// check sign bit
if (v & 0x2000)
temp |= 0xC000;
double centigrade = v; <-- again, sign is not extended (in gcc-avr) so centigrade is always positive
// LSB = 0.25 degrees C
centigrade *= 0.25;
return centigrade;
Notice that the true sign bit of the data value is tested and recorded in temp but is never subsequently used.
There is a println() immediately after the right-shift of v, so this code was tested under at least some conditions; was it tested with negative temperature values generated by the device? Does the Arduino compiler do sign-extension on right-shift? (I don't use that toolset so can't test.)


text:
Ron van den Boogaard
There are various comparable solutions floating around. This reminds me most of Blueprint, which sports 24 columns. Both feel like they take a print-based appraoch.
I do have a preference for Yahoo Grids in this respect. By using percentages rather than absolute widths it feels more webbased and allows for greater flexibility and elasticity. The trade-off lies in the fact that this requires a slightly more complicated mark-up.
Semantically all of the solutions I have seen are disappointing. There also I favor the more neutral mark-up of Yahoo Grids (e.g. yui-b yui-g) to lay-out describing class-nemes indicating a position (e.g. left and right). The obvious solution is to choose names that give an indication of the type of content that goes into a certain container. But that defeats the purpose of a grid based lay-out and would prevent the carry-over of the template from one project to the next.


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A Review of Recent United States Army Corps of Engineers Chief's Reports and Post Authorization Change Reports
2167 Rayburn House Office Building
This is a hearing of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
Summary of Subject Matter
Official Hearing Transcript
Witness List:
Hearing on "A Review of Recent United States Army Corps of Engineers Chief's Reports and Post Authorization Change Reports"
April 29, 2014
(Remarks as Prepared)
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Congress is prepared to re-engage in the development of the nation's water resources and carry out our role in prioritizing projects and activities carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Historically, water resources legislation has been enacted every two years to provide oversight and policy direction to the Corps of Engineers and to authorize need project improvements. But since such a measure has not been enacted since 2007, Congress has been silent on needed reforms and has failed to take action to develop, maintain, and support our nation's vital water infrastructure needs.
One of our top priorities in the development of our Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) legislation in the House, and in our work in conference with the Senate, has been the importance of strengthening oversight, transparency, and accountability.
Over the last year and a half this Committee has held numerous of public educational forums, roundtables, and hearings on the Corps of Engineers program. This process included an oversight hearing on June 5, 2013 that provided Members the opportunity to review Chief's Reports submitted to Congress and was integral to the development of the House WRRDA bill that passed by a "slim" margin of 417-3.
Today's hearing continues our strong oversight of the Corps of Engineers and will provide Members the opportunity to review the 11 Chief's Reports and eight Post Authorization Change Reports submitted to Congress since that June 5, 2013 hearing.
This oversight hearing will be extremely valuable to our work in conference, which we are hopeful is very near to resolution. And once we finish this WRRDA bill, it is critical to get WRDA's back on two-year cycles to ensure Congress has a fundamental role in the development of Corps of Engineers projects and in the oversight of the agency.
I want to thank Chairman Gibbs for holding this hearing, and I want to thank General Peabody for his service to the nation. If this were an easy job, Congress would not have given the mission to the Army.
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
Today we are holding our second hearing this Congress to review Army Corps of Engineers Chief's Reports, the process the Corps undertakes to develop these water resources development projects, and some of the steps the Corps is carrying out internally to accelerate the process.
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is the federal government's largest water resources development and management agency. The Corps began its water resources program in the 1800's when Congress for the first time appropriated money for improving river navigation.
Today, the Corps of Engineers constructs projects for the purposes of navigation, flood control, beach erosion control and shoreline protection, hydroelectric power, recreation, water supply, environmental protection, restoration and enhancement, and fish and wildlife mitigation.
The Corps of Engineers planning process considers economic development and environmental needs as it addresses water resources challenges. The planning process addresses the nation's water resources needs in a systems context and explores a full range of alternatives in developing solutions that meet both national and local needs.
The U.S Army Corps of Engineers is subject to all federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and all previous Water Resources Development Acts, Flood Control Acts, and Rivers and Harbors Acts. These laws and associated regulations and guidance provide the legal basis for the Corps of Engineers planning process.
For instance, when carrying out a feasibility study, NEPA requires the Corps of Engineers to include an identification of significant environmental resources likely to be impacted by the proposed project, an assessment of the impacts, a full disclosure of likely impacts, and a consideration of a full range of alternatives, including a No Action Alternative and Action by Others alternatives.
NEPA also requires a 30-day public review of any draft document and a 30-day public review of any final document produced by the Corps of Engineers.
Additionally, when carrying out a feasibility study, the Clean Water Act requires an evaluation of the potential impacts of a proposed project or action and requires a letter from a state agency ensuring the proposed project or action complies with state water quality standards.
The Army Corps of Engineers also has to formulate alternative plans to ensure all reasonable alternatives are evaluated, including plans that maximize net national economic development benefits and other plans that incorporate other federal, state, and local concerns. Mitigation of adverse impacts is to be included in each of the alternative plans reviewed in the study. The Corps of Engineers is also responsible for identifying areas of risk and uncertainty in the study, so decisions can be made with some degree of reliability on the estimated costs and benefits of each alternative plan.
These planning efforts do not take place in a back room somewhere. There are public meetings as well as interagency meetings involving local, state, and other federal agencies.
Typically, the plan recommended by the Corps of Engineers is the plan with the greatest net economic benefit consistent with protection of the nation's environment. However, the Corps does have the discretion to recommend another alternative if there are overriding reasons for recommending another plan, based on other federal, state, or local concerns.
By now many of us have seen the actual size of typical studies carried out by the Corps of Engineers. While these are complex projects that need to be reviewed by the public and other state and federal agencies, the level of analysis required by other laws and regulations are crippling the project delivery process.
We are literally studying infrastructure projects to death, but this is not solely the fault of the Corps of Engineers.
Congress needs to change the way the Corps of Engineers carries out its business. It is no longer acceptable that these studies take dozens of years to complete. Ultimately, the federal taxpayer is on the hook for these studies and for the length of time it takes to carry them out, delaying the benefits these projects are ultimately supposed to provide.
As we have constructed a policy-heavy Water Resources Development Act, both the House and Senate conferees focused on accelerating the study and project delivery process, as well as better prioritizing these worthwhile investments that the American public has relied on for decades.
# # #


text:
By Jack Rico
News Headlines
04.22.2009 | By Jack Rico | No Comments">No Comments
Rated: G
Release Date: 2009-04-22
Starring: Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield, Leslie Megahey
Film Genre:
Country: USA, Germany, UK
Official Website: http://www.loveearth.es/
Go to our film page
'Earth' is the first film from Walt Disney's new movie studio "Disneynature". It is very similar to the documentaries that Discovery or National Geographic create except that Disney was the first to create this genre of film 60 years ago. If you have seen 'March of the Penguins' and 'Arctic Tale' along with the bevy of nature documentaries from PBS amongst many other television networks, you are not missing anything new or innovative.
"EARTH," narrated by James Earl Jones, tells the story of three animal families and their journeys across Earth. We watch as a polar bear mother struggles to feed her newborn cubs as the sun melts the ice beneath their feet. The determination of an elephant mother as she guides her tiny calf on an endless trek across the Kalahari Desert in search of fresh water. We follow a humpbacked whale mother and her calf as they undertake the longest migration of any marine mammal—4,000 miles from the tropics to the Antarctic in search of food.
The film is released today, Earth Day, April 22, a logical marketing tactic, along with the "Buy a ticket, Plant a tree" initiative which has Disney planting a tree for everyone who sees EARTH between April 22-28. As of now, 500,000 trees will be planted.
My father loves these grandiose, awe-inspiring nature documentaries, but he would never pay money to see it in a movie theater when he can view a show similar to this on TV, in the privacy of his own home. You see, the only downside to 'Earth' is that television has been the propagator of the genre for a very long time. Nevertheless, seeing it in IMAX is a whole different conversation. Overall though, many won't see or tell the difference with these nature films or its television brethren. Keep your money and rent on DVD 'March of the Penguins' or 'Arctic Tale' to get your fix of animals roaming on Earth but with a great quotient of entertainment.


text:
Vizio has launched its Co-Star Stream Player that uses the latest version of Google TV to turn HDTVs into smart TVs, merging live and streaming entertainment.
With the Co-Star Stream Player, users get instant access to thousands of apps, full-screen web browsing capabilities – via Google Chrome with Adobe Flash Player and HTML 5 support – and streaming entertainment.
The Co-Star connects to a cable or satellite box to allow live TV along with the web, apps, OnLive cloud gaming, and other streaming entertainment. This integrated experience along with the universal touchpad remote with keyboard eliminates the need to switch TV inputs or remotes to access alternative content.
Matt McRae, Vizio's chief technology officer, says Vizio has "combined the powerful features of Google TV with an intuitive and easy to use interface" with Co-Star.
The added benefit of Google TV's search feature lets viewers browse websites, hunt for streaming movies or locate their favorite TV shows; and with picture-in-picture technology, it can all be done while simultaneously watching live TV action.
In addition to favorite apps such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, M-GO, YouTube and iHeartRadio, the Co-Star is the first stream player to offer video games on demand through the OnLive Game Service. OnLive allows users to demo, watch and play hundreds of video games directly from "the cloud" via their Vizio Co-Star, eliminating the need for an independent game console.
The Co-Star also includes a universal Bluetooth remote with a touchpad for touch, tap, scroll and drag control, and a full QWERTY keyboard. The unit supports 1080p and 3D entertainment, built-in 802.11n Wi-F, and an integrated USB port. The company is taking pre-order online for $99.99 with introductory free shipping.


text:
Avalanche send Kings to second straight lossby Rick Sadowski
DENVER -- The Los Angeles Kings are finding out that wearing the Stanley Cup crown can be a heavy burden.
The Kings fell for the second time in as many games as defending champions Tuesday night, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche, who won all four meetings between the teams last season, struck for three third-period goals to wipe out a 1-0 deficit for their first win of the young season.
"I don't worry," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "It doesn't solve much, does it?"
Los Angeles lost a regular-season game when leading after two periods for the first time since April 2, 2009, at Phoenix. The Kings went 86-0-9 in 95 games when leading after 40 minutes during that stretch.
The Avalanche got goals from new captain Gabriel Landeskog and David Jones 95 seconds apart early in the third to grab a 2-1 lead.
Landeskog, last season's Calder Trophy winner, tied the game at the one-minute mark and Jones broke the stalemate with a power-play goal at 2:35.
Landeskog scored while standing to the left of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick after Matt Duchene passed to Jan Hejda for a shot from the left point. The puck caromed off the boards to Landeskog, who swept it by Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi and inside the near post.
"It's always good to get that first one and tie it up against the defending champions," Landeskog said. "We knew if we got the first one, we could've kept going."
Jones wired a shot past Quick off a pass from Paul Stastny after the Kings turned the puck over in their own end with Dustin Penner off for holding.
The Avalanche used the boards as an advantage again at 8:16 to hike the lead to 3-1. Ryan Wilson fired the puck from the left point off the boards and Erik Johnson slipped it to PA Parenteau in front for the two-goal advantage.
"It was a big goal for our team," said Parenteau, who signed as a free agent July 1 after collecting a career-high 67 points last season with the New York Islanders. "It's a great feeling to score your first goal in your first home game. I think as the game went on, we played a real strong game. It's always great when you play a good defensive team like that and get a two-goal lead in the third instead of a one-goal lead."
The Avalanche also got a solid performance from goalie Semyon Varlamov, who stopped 28 of 29 shots, with 21 of his saves coming in the first two periods.
"I think it's huge for us," Varlamov said of the win. "We know L.A. has such a good team offensively and defensively, and they have a great goalie. It was a big game for us."
The closest the Kings came to cutting the deficit in half came with 7 1/2 minutes remaining when Alec Martinez clanged a shot off the left post during a power play. The Avalanche killed all six of the Kings' man advantages.
"It was outstanding, the penalty killing tonight," Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said. "We don't want to take six penalties in a game; we've got to cut down on the number of opportunities for the opposing team. The guys dug in and we had some huge kills at very important times of the game. Your best penalty killer is your goalie and Varly was outstanding, not just on the PK, but overall in general the whole game."
Quick, who faced 22 shots Saturday in the Kings' opening 5-2 home loss to Chicago, wasn't taking anything for granted with a 1-0 lead heading to the third period, even after his teammates killed off a two-man disadvantage in the second.
"You never think ahead of yourself. You take it one shift at a time," he said. "After you get out of a 5-on-3 with no goals and going into the third period with a one-goal lead, you take it shift by shift. They're a quick team with a lot of pace."
The Kings welcomed the return of star center Anze Kopitar, who missed the opener with a sprained knee sustained while playing in Europe during the lockout. He didn't register a shot on goal in 19:54 of ice time and was a minus-1.
"The line had a really tough night," Sutter said of Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams. "It was Kopie's first game, but the other two have had two tough games in a row."
The Kings had a 1-0 lead thanks to a first-period goal by Kyle Clifford and some outstanding penalty killing late in the second. Clifford scored at 15:52 after Jordan Nolan fired a shot while skating down right wing. Varlamov made the stop, but the rebound went to Clifford driving into the slot for an easy goal.
The Kings failed to capitalize on power plays, but stayed in front by killing off a two-man disadvantage that lasted 1:29 in the second period with Penner (hooking) and Drew Doughty (high sticking) sitting side-by-side in the penalty box.
Avalanche left wing Steve Downie limped off the ice at 2:33 of the second period with a knee injury after a hit in the corner with Kings defenseman David Drewiske. Downie didn't return and will be re-evaluated Wednesday.


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Filed under: war-machine | Tags: anarchy, biopolitics, bloggin, communism, death, historical materialism, IEF, redemption, the end of history, the proletariat, walter benjamin
From the IEF blog:
"Theres a man goin' round taking names and he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won't be treated all the same."
The fold of our history is either death or redemption. The history of the vanquished and the history of preemptive alienating and policing apparatuses yearn to conclude. We all have a door and a rotting carpet; a family and a dynasty of fuck ups; advanced social dissolution from worlds and senses to answer for. They say men make history, but not in conditions of their choosing. If it is our sensuous activity within a world, a praxis, which generates a world, then by what means do we confront the millions of potentialities which are taken from history? Those souls who are irrevocably lost, or worse yet, rendered bare life through processes of subjectivation, are prepared to be judged, not by history, but by the police. Each death is a tragedy because in "each" there is a shame of separation. The private life only becomes public in death. But this public death is itself a technique of exposure, which links the family and society to the church, to the school, to the prison. The tragedy which the living are constantly exposed to is not merely their own telos but capitalism's continuous merciless holiday. In this society, no one dies. Everyone is murdered.
What is pathetic in death is not the loss of a container of memories and affects or the fleeting away of another productive member of the family, of society, but the loss of the capacity to speak. Death acts like a nightmare on the living. Conjuring images of "once upon a time," the living attempt to answer for the horror of a brisk wind which extinguishes light in one subtle swoop. But the sad conclusive cough of a body judged guilty of living in capitalism is repeated and shared. Each voice is rendered mute. Each potentiality perfectly aware of what strangles it daily. The tears of the living for the dead, while representing a real sadness, never conjoin to form the flood which will redeem the past. Instead, the mouth opens, limbs shake with anxiety; our small, light-colored hairs stand up searching for a warmth which is not in this world. And in the end, what could be communicated—the single gesture of communicability itself—is once again lost, irretrievable, amidst blinking lights and the flow of commodities which live so much longer than any of us.
What is redemption in such circumstances? Is it forgiving our trespasses, and forgiving those who trespass against us? By what means do we admit a presence which annuls memories, scars, blood?
My family is connected through Facebook. The eulogy for my grandmother stumbled on her truth. She took on a predictable position of women married to husbands in the twentieth century. She mothered many children and formed the foundation to a family whose care was held by a second-generation Italian pater. She, and all the other shes of the family, suffered only the absence of en-courage-ment. It is not surprising: they all left. My grandmother quietly lived as if she had been redeemed, doing the books to my grandfathers photography business, never once elaborating her own passions for paint on canvas. The eulogy concluded, as my grandmother often would, that if anyone felt despondent, the eulogist would happily go shopping with them. The analogy to government orders following the events of September eleventh to go shopping is not lost on me. There were some really good sales at Macy's
On the other side of the family, between drinks, and with far too many teenage mothers, I learned cousin Ian had been sentenced in 'Oh-four. My absence from Facebook excluded me from hearing this bullshit earlier. Was it three-strikes you're out? Did he have guns too? How long is a life-sentence? The silence of social death touches even the Midwestern Irish working class. My other cousin, who used hockey like how the black body uses football or basketball, or how southern whites use the military, received a terrible back injury and was sentenced to a fancy new oxycodone addiction. Again, if only I had Facebook… One of my sisters still clings to the myth that we're different because we didn't grow up in these fucked up conditions, but she conveniently forgot about all the suicides and boredom; the drive-by's and the addictions, even the empty refrigerators, which painfully illustrate our miserable upbringing. We all ran too, and we ran for a reason.
The fold of this history is uncertain. On the one hand, everything about today, and even yesterday, just points toward the production of death. Enduring high school, when anarchy was merely a secret which Propagandhi attempted to whisper to me through power chords; or when struggle was just some band that that dude from the Locust was in, Columbine seemed perfectly reasonable. We sketched pictures of it all the time. We searched our history books, attempting to discover any time when the underdog wreaked its vengeance. We had no voice then, no words to call our own, and no world which affected us. We had only the conditions of all of that dissolving. In that time, many of us were quite literally unwanted children; and judging by the fields we set on fire, the plots to blow up schools, the churches we vandalized, and unfortunately, the animals which we tortured, we were capable of some fucked up shit. The youth of today are even worse.
On the other hand, maybe we can once more be affected by "Death to death!" Which is not to say, "peace." But more specifically, our time, capitalist time, is a time of living-dead. Techniques of government expose life's limits to itself and generate bare life. No one knows sovereignty better than the life which is judged not worth living by the police or the life which is let to live by its manager. And because of Biopower and the Spectacle, it's increasingly difficult to separate any of these figures. Redemption in this world is not repaying a debt, atoning for guilt which we owe society. Capitalism is guilt. We owe them nothing. Redemption is giving them just that.
Walter Benjamin writes: "For we have been expected upon this earth. For it has been given us to know, just like every generation before us, a weak messianic power, on which the past has a claim. This claim is not to be settled lightly." The day after my grandmother died, I set off for New York to do a panel about the messianic analogy within the proletariat. The day before my grandmother's funeral, I spoke of becoming sensitive to the imperceptible civil war which has taken place as class struggle and now takes place as social war. In the conditions of social war, this civil war can be felt as a war between normality and its cracks. The proletariat within this civil war is a force who is contingent on history but whose possibility lies outside of it. The proletariat cancels and fulfills history through its own self-negation. At one time, in the conditions of industrialization, classical politics, and a strategically positioned portion of the oppressed, the proletariat took form in the messianic-gesture, what Benjamin called the "divine violence" of the general strike. The proletariat, who was contingent on "a class of civil society but not of civil society," was expressed as the industrial working class using their own labor-power—what produced value—to negate value and class society itself: redemption.
Benjamin continues, "nothing that has ever happened should be regarded as lost for history. Only a redeemed humankind receives the fullness of its past. Which is to say, only for a redeemed humankind has its past become citable in all moments. Each moment it has lived becomes a citation a l'ordre du jour [order of the day]—and that day is Judgement Day."
"The hairs on your arm will stand up. At the terror in each sip and in each sup. For you partake of that last offered cup, Or disappear into the potter's ground. When the man comes around.
Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers. One hundred million angels singin'. Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum. Voices callin', voices cryin'. Some are born an' some are dyin'. It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come…
Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still. Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still."
The insurrection which comes is not generated from the desire for a better world: there is none. It is not even the accomplishment of democracy. It is the nightmare of the past holding the future hostage, and publicly killing and feasting on it on youtube, over and over again. In our conditions, that of an absolute social war, insurrection and its total extension is the rhythm we must collectively write and impose on capitalist society. Through these experiments and repeated gestures we develop a new sentimental intelligence and different sensuous praxis which no longer accepts our shameful conditions. We impose different collectivities beyond family, nation, and society exactly at the point of their negation. We find we are not alone, exactly at the point we lose our selves. We share exactly at the point when we begin to seize. When each funeral loses what was attempting to kept it a private affair—when newspapers are terrified to write a single obituary because the will of the dead keeps leaving ruin in its wake—then we will begin to know what redemption entail.
-Liam Sionnach | IEF | Jan '10
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Why all this interest in shame, guilt, and redemption?
Is insurrectionary anarchism following one of the typical trajectories of social movements? Y'know the veer towards suicide cult.
I don't like the linguistics of "proletarianized humanity". Turning humanity into proletariat and then saying that redemption is death of the proletariat seems like a weird circuitous metaphysical approach, inelegant, full of marxist and catholic baggage, and ultimately more obfuscating and intellectualizing than useful. (but then, so is most of what comes from Liam)
Why not simply say: we need to become a radically different class in order to overcome the capitalist class relationships? That seems like a far more straightforward practical way of saying basically the same thing.
Being full of tantrums is reasonable. Failing to channel that energy into something useful and choosing instead to attack what is most immediately available (including yourself) is not reasonable. It's immature.
See, that's where it gets all silly and distasteful for me. When we start deconstructing the self through mystical frameworks (whether catholic or jewish or whatever) it starts looking more like an intellectual exercise (or worse, a spiritual one).
If i were interested in purely intellectual exercises, i'd go to the library. If i were interested in spiritual exercises, i'd go find "peace" by meditating. Either way, i'd end up in pretty much the same place as if i had "deconstructed myself" (ie right here in capitalist society).
When we assume that all production is capitalist production and all logic capitalist logic, we close off any possibility of working in material or social reality, and consign ourselves to solipsism and that doesn't go anywhere.


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Sue Keever Watts
Owner, The Keever Group
Blog: http://keevergroup.wordpress.com/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/sue-keever-watts/0/aa/b60
Twitter: @SueKeever
50 Rules Your Children Won't Learn in School was written by Charles J. Sykes in 1996. Sykes offers honest, sometimes harsh advice to students about the real world. Whether you're about to say goodbye to students for the summer or hello to graduates who will soon join your organization, it's a good time to revisit a few of Sykes' words of wisdom.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: You think your teacher is tough? Wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping—they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Read more from Sue Keever Watts.


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The Carthage College football team (3-1, 0-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) opened its CCIW schedule on Saturday, Oct. 1 with a 24-0 loss to defending-conference-champion and No. 9 North Central College (3-1, 0-1 CCIW) at Carthage's homecoming game at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.
North Central took a 7-0 lead at 4:09 first period on a 14-yard carry by Nick Kukuc. The three-play, 33-yard scoring drive was set up a one-yard Carthage punt by Chris Schulz, which gave the Cardinals the ball at the Red Men's 33-yard line. North Central made it a 14-0 game at 5:04 second period on an 80-yard touchdown run from scrimmage by quarterback Jordan Tassio. Carthage's first drive of the second half reached the North Central 32-yard line before quarterback Pete Djurickovic was sacked for eight yards on fourth-and-four. The Cardinals took over and scored on a 23-yard field goal by Nick Dace at 12:19 fourth period to up the lead to 17-0. The next Red Men drive ended when a Chris Schulz punt was blocked by North Central, and the Cardinals' Kane Thompson ran the ball five yards for a touchdown and the final, 24-0 margin.
North Central collected 287 total offensive yards, 221 passing and 66 yards rushing, while Carthage totaled 208 yards, 131 on the ground and 77 in the air. The Red Men had a giant lead in time-of-possession, 35:36 to 24:24. North Central quarterback Jordan Tassio ran for 140 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while running back Nick Kukuc rushed for 80 yards on nine carries. Red Men quarterback T.J. Trepanier (Jr., Winthrop Harbor, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) ran for 53 yards on 13 carries, with tailback Reggie Miller (So., Downers Grove, Ill./South) running for 39 yards on nine carries. Defensively, the Cardinals middle linebacker Joey Michaels had eight tackles (6 solo, 2 assisted), including a sack, while Red Men outside linebacker Brandon Mecozzi (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) collected six tackles (5 solo, 1 assisted).
"This loss was hard to take," said Carthage head coach Tim Rucks, "because we actually did everything we wanted to do. We wanted to run the football, control the time-of-possession, not turn the ball over and let our defense play some football. The only thing we didn't plan on was not getting any points. I thought we had a good game plan, but you have to score to win. North Central is probably the best football team we'll play all year. They're so athletic and so fast. They have speed all over the field. They're pretty good. Valente Garza and Willie Hayes are the best pair of defensive ends I've seen in the league in a long, long time. We played toe-to-toe with a top-10 team, but we just couldn't score. We thought we could win this game, but we think there are a lot of wins left in this team, this year."
Carthage travels to Decatur, Ill., on Oct. 8 to take on Millikin University in a 1 p.m. clash at Frank M. Lindsay Field.


text: I am trying to set up snort on my winxp pro box and I am just lost. I don't know how to configure. I turned it on and played with the ruleset file but I don't understand it. I simply want it to log everything that happens on my home lan and my internet link. I have a motorola sb4100 cable modem plugged into a linksys router to share the connection. How do I get it to monitor everything but no alerts. I already have norton personal firewall set to alert me.


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What's the ultimate destination for the retiree who wants to live abroad? According to the Annual Global Retirement Index of the publication InternationalLiving.com, the answer is Ecuador.
Every year, the InternationalLiving.com editors evaluate information gathered by experts, who explore countries that are the most popular with American and Canadian retirees. Among the factors they weigh are the climate, the cost of living and how friendly the people are. Ecuador scored high on all of them, and then some.
Dan Prescher, Special Projects Editor for InternationalLiving.com, offered his insights into why Ecuador, the country that he calls home, took top honors this year. While he said in an e-mail that the South American country offers amenities that anyone could enjoy, retirees receive discounts that make life there pleasant and affordable.
"Ecuador is inexpensive for everyone, but especially so for retirees," he said. "Seniors residing in Ecuador qualify for half-price entertainment and local transport, discounted airfares, and refunds of sales tax."
Read ahead to find out more about Ecuador, and see if it's the retirement destination for you.
By Daniel Bukszpan
Posted 18 January 2013


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On an almost daily basis, we see advertisements and press releases encouraging us to "un-tether" our devices, to unravel ourselves from our wiry bondage. That kind of sentiment sounds seductive, but stripping away the wires doesn't always make a device better. In fact, sometimes it can even make a device a less attractive buy. Though this may sound like heresy, or akin to asking a cop to slap the cuffs back on just after you've been let loose, let us play devil's advocate for a moment and make a case in defense of wires.
This is perhaps the strongest case in favor of wired electronics. If you're looking to buy a high-quality, expensive device, naturally you'll want that device to last. Unfortunately, Lithium-ion batteries (the current standard for rechargeables) have a shelf life of roughly three years, regardless of how often or how seldom you charge them. If you're getting ready to shell out $400 or $500 dollars for a portable speaker, that's a pretty troubling thought. Sure, you can still plug it in, but you've lost the benefit of portability until you shell out big bucks for a replacement battery – and that assumes that the battery is replaceable, which is not always the case.
In case you haven't noticed, many of our so-called wireless devices moonlight as wired ones. That's largely because one piece of technology seems to be dragging it's feet into the future: the rechargeable battery. To be fair, let's give credit where it's due and acknowledge that today's rechargeable batteries are amazing feats of technology, with years of research and millions of dollars behind them. It's not as if engineers are missing some obvious solution to our power needs, it's just that developing a truly long-lasting, quickly-re-chargeable, and affordable battery is a trickier nut to crack than you might think.
So, for now, that battery icon on your wireless gizmos will remain a looming, foreboding reminder that if you don't head to an outlet, you device will surely die. OK, perhaps we're being a bit dramatic – maybe macabre, even. But take a moment to consider the percentage of the time you find that your supposedly-wireless device must be plugged in.
True Wireless
There does exist, however, a purer form of wireless. Those devices that have dispensed with wires entirely. We're referring to, of course, entirely battery-operated electronics. These devices never have to be plugged into the wall, but with all this talk of modernity, it's interesting that the typical battery-powered electronic device operates on either ridiculously heavy and expensive D batteries (introduced in 1898) or slightly less cumbersome AA batteries (standardized in 1947). True, they're longer-lasting and more efficient than in years past, but perhaps not to the degree we'd like them to be. Bottom line: This business of constantly buying and replacing alkaline batteries is costly, inconvenient and, frankly, annoying.
Sound & Speed
Many visitors to our site are self-identified audiophiles: consumers or professionals that are obsessed with sound-quality. If you count yourself among the ranks of this group, you know that wireless audio can't quite compete with wired audio. Streaming your music wirelessly means you must rely on various wireless codecs – some better and more expensive than others – as well as a device's DAC (Digital to Analog Converter). As we all know, there's always something lost in that translation, but a poor DAC does more damage to sound than almost anything else in the signal chain.
Furthermore, interference issues can quickly throw a wrench into the gears of your gathering, as music can cut out at random if multiple wireless signals get crossed – but we'll get back to that later.
To be fair, some wireless audio systems are capable of delivering outstanding bit depth and sample rate, but the components required to do so are cost-prohibitive and hard to come by for most people. The one exception, perhaps, is the Audio Engine D2, but, as a standalone component, it is hardly convenient and certainly not portable.
The bottom line is this: For a fraction of the price of portable, wireless audio, you can almost always get a wired alternative that will sound superior – a point which leads nicely into our next section.
Bang for your buck
Speaking of costly, wireless devices upcharge for the convenience of portability as a rule. Take Xbox controllers as an example: Virtually nobody buys the wired versions anymore. But if you did, you'd save a nice chunk of change. At Sears for instance, a wireless controller will set you back $50, while a wired version costs only $40. But wait, there's more: The price of the wireless version does not include the cost of an optional play-and-charge kit ($15), which features a rechargeable battery and – you guessed it – a wire. Plus the wired version has a cord that stretches almost ten feet; how often are you playing from further away than that, anyway?
At first take, wireless devices may seem more convenient than their wired alternatives, but the question is: How much more convenient are they, really? Is it worth paying a premium for a device just because it comes sans wires? Or, more importantly, is it worth buying a product of inferior quality, just because it happens to be wireless?
Sending signals through the air is a tricky business. For a signal to navigate unsullied from point A to point B, it has to avoid being interfered with. Interference happens when two waves that are at or near the same frequency come together, and a change in amplitude results. For now, that's not terribly important, just know this: interference results in dropped, spotty, or slow signals. Since many wireless devices operate on at a 2.4 GHz radio frequency, interference among your household's wireless devices is not uncommon. Furthermore, the problem is exacerbated as you add more and more wireless devices, as the saturation of signals increases the chances of interference.
The wireless revolution is coming, but it's not ready yet
Look, we don't mean to be that old curmudgeon in the rocking chair, obdurately adhering to the way things were done when he/she came of age. We fully understand the appeal of wireless technology and many of us have fully embraced it in our day-to-day lives. Our goal is merely to warn against the "because we can, we should" attitude that often prevails in the arena of consumer electronics. If wireless tech confers a true advantage to you with respect to a particular purchase, you should – of course – buy accordingly. We just want to be careful not to cast off the old before the new has truly made it obsolete. Wires – pesky, unsightly, and hazardous as they may be – certainly have their place, even in this brave new wireless world.


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Alan Cumming is best known for his appearances in movies such as X2: X-Men United, Son of the Mask and Nicholas Nickleby. This winter on the Sci Fi Channel, he stars alongside Richard Dreyfuss in Tin Man, a miniseries based on The Wizard of Oz.
In most of his films, Cumming takes the roles of creeps, geeks or crazies. "Subtlety's not my forte," he says. "I think you can be as big as you like as long as you mean it." But in real life, he is a glamorous and charming figure. Even though he's in his 40s, a boyish enthusiasm infects everything he does—and he does a lot. A native of Scotland, he now splits his time between Manhattan and upstate New York; in between acting jobs, he oversees his various other projects. His latest, Suffering Man's Charity (which he directs and stars in), is making the rounds of the film festival circuit. He's also a well-known campaigner in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and a novelist. His book, Tommy's Tale, was published in 2003, and he's currently at work on the screenplay.
All in all, perhaps, not the sort of celebrity who would have a lot of time for a dog, you might think. But in fact, Alan is crazy about canines, and it's all thanks to his dog Honey. To find out more, Bark caught up with him on a recent visit to the UK to ask him a few questions about life with his beloved doggie companion.
Bark: Did you have any dogs before Honey?
Alan Cumming: As as child, I had two West Highland Terriers. They were my constant companions growing up. But no dogs as an adult, which seems crazy to me now. I can't imagine life without one.
B: How did you come by Honey?
AC: A friend was working at Cause for Paws, a charity in New York that rescues dogs from dog pounds on the day they would have been put down. They foster them out, and Honey was fostered with my friend. The weirdest thing was, I had no intention of getting a dog. But Honey was so amazing, I had to have her.
B: What do you think her background was?
AC: I think it was pretty difficult. At first, Honey was quite freaked out—she had paint all down her side and she slept the whole time. She was scared of bin bags [garbage bags] and skips [Dumpsters] —and she loved homeless people! My theory is that she was thrown in a skip and homeless people looked after her.
B: What does having a dog bring to your life?
AC: Obviously a huge great amount of love. And also, there's a new kind of responsibility. I really enjoy having to make time to walk her—it's not only about me anymore. And when I'm on walks, I see parts of the city I never would have seen otherwise, and talk to different people. A new world of camaraderie has been unlocked that I just didn't notice as a non-dog-owner. But I can find myself getting judgmental too: I'll see someone being rough with their dog or something and think, There's no need to talk to him like that!
B: Honey has been forging her own show biz career recently.Can you tell us about it?
AC: Well, she helped me with my makeup on X2—it took four hours every morning to get that blue face! (Cumming played the role of Nightcrawler). Honey had her own chair, although she hated sitting on it. Last year, she played herself in a film called Sweet Land, about rural Minnesota in the 1920s. I play a farmer, she plays my dog. I got her a part in another film but she was cut out of it, so I was determined that it wouldn't happen in Sweet Land. I made sure she was in the film's biggest scene, which happened to be everyone running towards the camera, so it suited her quite well.
Honey also has her own show on the Sundance Channel, Midnight Snack. She and her stepbrother Leon (Cumming married his boyfriend—Leon's dad— last winter in London) review all the new DVD releases. Honey puts her paws up or down, depending whether she likes the film or not. Leon (he's a Chihuahua) howls if the films meet his approval. To get Leon to sing, we had to record the sound of a fire engine. It's so funny! When we press play, he starts looking interested in the tape player, then he just goes crazy.
B: What do Honey and Leon request backstage? I know some celebrities can be quite demanding.
AC: They have their own dressing rooms, with their own beds in them. They have their own rider: dog food. There are special rules too. For example, you can't leave tape in Honey's dressing room because she'll eat it. And she doesn't like noise either.
B: Does Honey travel with you when you are on location?
AC: Quite a lot. She has her own passport and chip and her own account with Virgin—you can get doggie air miles. At first she was frightened about traveling in the hold in a cage, but now she's a seasoned traveler; she knows it's going to end. Sometimes, if I'm working in Vancouver, I travel with her across the U.S. in my campervan. It's a great way to see the country.
B: Describe a typical day in Honey's life when she's not on the set.
AC: She's up late, forced out of bed by Dad. Then off to Tompkins Square dog run [in Manhattan] to see her friends. Leon goes to the little dog park—they're quite strict; no dog over 23 pounds is allowed in the little dog park. So if I have both, I have to position myself where both dogs can see me.
Also, non-dog-owners are frowned upon, but a few come in just to look. I see Moby there sometimes and I think to myself, I'm sure you haven't got a dog! At the weekend, everyone hangs over the fence to ogle the dogs. It's great, it's very sociable. I often see the same dogowners and we chat.
After the dog park, Honey takes a walk around the East Village. Then she goes into the office to hang out with my assistant and deal with her correspondence. Then she'll probably take another walk before dinner.
B: What's the most expensive thing you've bought for Honey?
AC: Swimming pool steps. I was so worried about her drowning that I installed these special steps she can climb up to get out. She goes swimming with me a lot; she's quite trepidatious at first, but she gets into it.
B: What are Honey's best traits?
AC: She's aloof. She's not a dog who seeks love from everyone—she doesn't need affirmation all the time. But when she sees someone she knows, she just goes nuts.
B: Her worst?
AC: She's a scavenger. She'll make a dive for something even though I'm trying to pull her away from it.
B: If Honey was a person, who would she be?
AC: A posh English actress. She sits in the window with paws crossed looking out like a character in a Bergman film. We joke that when Leon tries to hump her, she looks as though she's calling for her agent to come and deal with him.
B: What kind of dog would you be if you had to come back as one?
AC: A Scottie. Happy all the time, but also feisty.
B: If you could be a dog for a day, what would you do?
AC: I would be in my house in upstate New York. It's become Honey's place— it's great for dogs. There was a deer standing there the other day and Honey was furious, as though she was saying, "Get away from my house!" I'd love to know what she saw and what she smelt and heard. It would be great.
Editor's Note: Unfortunately, Honey was diagnoised with cancer and passed away in 2014. Alan has adopted a new dog Lala and you can check out their adventures on his instagram page.