A modern and unique house, located in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, which features three different means of getting upstairs: an inbuilt climbing wall, ladders and more traditionally, a staircase. The house is called The 3way House, and was designed and created by Naf Architect & Design, headed by Akio Nakasa.
The house stands on a 90.71 square meters of land, and was completed in 2010. Surrounded by old and new buildings, the house stands on a corner street and conforms to the minimum building height which is 7 meters above ground. The owners of the house wanted a two-story structure made of wood, with a deck roof that resembles a room without a ceiling surrounded by two-meter walls.
The stand out feature though is the climbing wall that leads from the porch to the rooftop. The ladders go up from the living room to the hobby room, while the stairs are located and accessible from the kitchen to the sun room.? The vertical access also allows air and light to come in, which goes well with the colors and design of the rooms themselves.
The designers created this to provide the owners with versatile living space, mixing leisure and socialization in the family and with their neighbors.
Tokyo Apartments For Sale | Tokyo Apartments For Rent | Real Estate Japan
WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a warning to fellow Republicans, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that failure to pass comprehensive immigration legislation could mean continued election losses for the GOP and cause Republican-friendly states like Arizona to fall to the Democrats.
The Arizona Republican, his party's former presidential nominee and one of eight senators to sign onto a bipartisan immigration reform framework this week, said failure to act means the trend of Hispanic defections from the GOP would continue.
Latino voters supported President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney 71 percent to 27 percent in November, helping to ensure Obama's victory.
McCain said that Republicans have failed to understand the importance of immigration to Hispanic voters and that's cost the party at the ballot box.
"If you have a large bloc of Americans who believe you're trying to keep their ... fellow Hispanics down and deprive them of an opportunity, obviously that's going to have an effect," McCain said.
The Senate framework would provide a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country, secure the border, attempt to simplify legal immigration, and add requirements for employers to prevent hiring of illegal immigrants.
If no bill passes, McCain said, the forecast for Republicans is that "the trend will continue of lack of support from Hispanic voters, and also as you look at the demographics of states like mine that means that we will go from Republican to Democrat over time."
McCain spoke alongside Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, his partner on the immigration proposals, at a breakfast hosted by Politico.
Jan. 30, 2013 ? Washington State University researchers have linked orchards and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects' ability to spread the virus to birds, horses and people.
The finding, reported in the latest issue of the journal PLOS ONE, is the most finely scaled look at the interplay between land use and the virus's activity in key hosts. By giving a more detailed description of how the disease moves across the landscape, the study opens the door to management efforts that might bring the disease under control, says David Crowder, a WSU entomologist and the paper's lead author.
Since it was first seen in New York in 1999, West Nile virus has reached across the country and shown few signs of abating. Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control had the highest number of reported cases -- 5,387, including 243 deaths -- since 2003.
Roughly one in five infected people experience a fever, headache, body aches and, in some cases, a skin rash and swollen lymph glands. One in 150 people can get a high fever, headache, neck stiffness, disorientation and neurological problems.
Most efforts to figure out the ecological workings of the virus have focused on reports of infected people, "a crude indicator at best," says Crowder. Almost all victims have no symptoms or are misdiagnosed, while others can be infected far from where they file a report, he says.
Agricultural areas have seen higher percentages of infected people, but that still does not get at the underlying mechanism.
"Is that because there are more birds there?" says Crowder. "Is that because there are more mosquitoes there? That hasn't really been linked together."
Crowder, working with fellow entomologist Jeb Owen, other WSU colleagues and the state Department of Health, merged data from a variety of sources, including West Nile infections in humans, horses and birds, surveys of virus-bearing mosquitoes, breeding bird surveys, and detailed land use maps and climate data from around the Northwest.
The researchers found that habitats with high instances of the disease in horses and birds also have significantly more mosquitoes -- as well as American robins and house sparrows, the two bird species implicated the most in the disease's transmission.
"These same habitats are also resulting in much higher rates of infection within mosquitoes themselves," said Crowder.
"We find that all three of these things -- abundances of house sparrows and American robins, abundance of mosquitoes and the actual prevalence of West Nile in mosquitoes -- are increasing in landscapes with a higher proportion of land in orchard habitats." These habitats, says Crowder, include both orchards and vineyards.
It's still unclear why the habitats would create such a perfect storm for the virus. The researchers speculate that mosquitoes are drawn to orchards for plant nectar during flowering, while robins and house sparrows use them for nesting and feeding. Together, the insects and birds become focal points for the disease.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington State University. The original article was written by Eric Sorensen.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
David W. Crowder, Elizabeth A. Dykstra, Jo Marie Brauner, Anne Duffy, Caitlin Reed, Emily Martin, Wade Peterson, Yves Carri?re, Pierre Dutilleul, Jeb P. Owen. West Nile Virus Prevalence across Landscapes Is Mediated by Local Effects of Agriculture on Vector and Host Communities. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55006 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055006
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
CNN is losing managing editor Mark Whitaker and five significant political contributors to the network, FishbowlDC's Betsy Rothstein reports.
Whitaker is resigning from the network, according to a report from Alex Weprin at MediaBistro. In his outgoing memo to staff, Whitaker said he would depart because he believes incoming president Jeff Zucker "deserves his own team and management structure and the freedom to communicate one clear vision to the staff."
Meanwhile, political pundit couple James Carville and Mary Matalin will not have their contracts continued, according to Rothstein's report. And conservative contributor Erick Erickson will also leave the network for Fox News. Finally, the former Republican Secretary of Education Bill Bennett and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona are also not coming back. Cardona will remain a contributor with CNN Espanol.
The network has undergone a flurry of changes in the past month-plus. On Tuesday, the network also announced it was adding former ABC reporter and?20/20 co-anchor Chris Cuomo. In December, former ABC reporter and White House correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network.?
In November, CNN announced that Zucker would replace?Jim Walton as the network's president.
UPDATE:?CNN's Erick Erickson confirmed he was leaving CNN in a post on RedState.com, for which he is managing editor.
"Yes, I can confirm I am leaving CNN. It was a very, very difficult decision," Erickson wrote.
A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that by bringing gold nanoparticles close to the dots and using a DNA template to control the distances, the intensity of a quantum dot's fluorescence can be predictably increased or decreased.* This breakthrough opens a potential path to using quantum dots as a component in better photodetectors, chemical sensors and nanoscale lasers.
Anyone who has tried to tune a radio knows that moving their hands toward or away from the antenna can improve or ruin the reception. Although the reasons are well understood, controlling this strange effect is difficult, even with hundred-year-old radio technology. Similarly, nanotechnology researchers have been frustrated trying to control the light emitted from quantum dots, which brighten or dim with the proximity of other particles.
The NIST team developed ways to accurately and precisely place different kinds of nanoparticles near each other and to measure the behavior of the resulting nanoscale constructs. Because nanoparticle-based inventions may require multiple types of particles to work together, it is crucial to have reliable methods to assemble them and to understand how they interact.
The researchers looked at two types of nanoparticles, quantum dots, which glow with fluorescent light when illuminated, and gold nanoparticles, which have long been known to enhance the intensity of light around them. The two could work together to make nanoscale sensors built using rectangles of woven DNA strands, formed using a technique called "DNA origami."
These DNA rectangles can be engineered to capture different types of nanoparticles at specific locations with a precision of about one nanometer. Tiny changes in the distance between a quantum dot and a gold nanoparticle near one another on the rectangle cause the quantum dot to glow more or less brightly as it moves away from or toward the gold. Because these small movements can be easily detected by tracking the changes in the quantum dot's brightness, they can be used to reveal, for example, the presence of a particular chemical that is selectively attached to the DNA rectangle. However, getting it to work properly is complicated, says NIST's Alex Liddle.
"A quantum dot is highly sensitive to the distance between it and the gold, as well as the size, number and arrangement of the gold particles," says Liddle, a scientist with the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. "These factors can boost its fluorescence, mask it or change how long its glow lasts. We wanted a way to measure these effects, which had never been done before."
Liddle and his colleagues made several groups of DNA rectangles, each with a different configuration of quantum dots and gold particles in a solution. Using a laser as a spotlight, the team was able to follow the movement of individual DNA rectangles in the liquid, and also could detect changes in the fluorescent lifetime of the quantum dots when they were close to gold particles of different sizes. They also showed that they could exactly predict the lifetime of the fluorescence of the quantum dot depending on the size of the nearby gold nanoparticles.
While their tracking technique was time consuming, Liddle says that the strength of their results will enable them to engineer the dots to have a specific desired lifetime. Moreover, the success of their tracking method could lead to better measurement methods.
"Our main goals for the future," he concludes, "are to build better nanoscale sensors using this approach and to develop the metrology necessary to measure their performance."
###
*S.H. Ko, K. Du and J.A. Liddle.Quantum-dot fluorescence lifetime engineering with DNA origami constructs. Angewandte Chemie (Int. Ed.), 52: 1193?1197. doi: 10.1002/anie.201206253.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): http://www.nist.gov
Thanks to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for this article.
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Whether you?re outsourcing your Internet marketing services or building an internal Internet marketing services department, these 11 content marketing job functions are key
I?ve been running marketing services departments and companies for the better part of 30 years. Mequoda Group is an independent co-operative Internet marketing services company that currently supports 20+ client organizations. The most common marketing system configuration we?re supporting is a daily portal or blog at the core with one or more subscription websites, and an online store that sells books and videos. Our organization doesn?t produce any of the original premium content, but we do produce a lot of the affinity content that is used for audience development including white papers, blog posts, and social media. We also produce and analyze the email newsletters, email promotions, and landing pages that are used to generate revenue.
I?ve also helped a number of clients build their own internal Internet marketing services department. Unsurprisingly, the organizations I?ve helped build very closely resemble the organization that I currently manage. While I won?t tell you that the way I do it is the only way to run an Internet marketing services company, I will tell you that I?ve evolved my structure over time and that it works pretty well.
Let me share the 11 functional areas that are integral to the services we provide.
To give you a better picture of what I?m describing above, let me briefly describe each of the 11 areas and what the people in those groups do for a living.
Internet marketing strategy
This is the idea department for the organization. It?s tasked with figuring out what the Internet marketing program should be and what it should be trying to accomplish. This could involve taking a legacy magazine and looking for ways to leverage the content. A typical strategic initiative might include building a subscription website and initiating digital additions to be distributed through Apple, Amazon, and other digital retailers. Another typical initiative might be building an online portal to act as an audience development nexus that can be used to build email newsletter circulation. This same initiative would also include coming up with an email publishing and marketing program that would maximize the revenue per subscriber through product sales and advertising support.
Internet marketing operations
This is the practicality group inside the larger organization. It?s their job to measure the resources required to meet the business plan objectives and develop a financial model that validates the goals and the process. With each business plan and budget in hand, it?s their job to make sure that the plan stays on schedule and on budget. This group is also responsible for tracking all of the resources being used to accomplish the group?s goals, while making sure that corrections and modifications are being made as needed.
Internet marketing technology
You might think of these folks as the ?how? team. It?s their job to keep track of all the technology that?s available in the market place: hardware, software, and services. They are also responsible for project management and systems integration. They select platforms, build project plans, supervise their implementation, and make sure all the other players in the organization are working together to meet their common goals, schedule, and budget. Once a system is up and running, this team is responsible for ongoing troubleshooting, maintenance, and upgrades. At the highest level, this group maintains the technology roadmap that shows where the organization is going over the next three to five years, so that resources can be allocated in an efficient manner.
Internet marketing analytics
The analytics team is responsible for combing through all the data available and coming up with intelligible reports that the operators can use. The analytics can be used to measure system performance and discover system anomalies. Analytics can also be used to measure operator performance, content performance and other parameters that define the day-to-day operations of the systems. On a really good day, these are the folks that point out opportunities that can be acted on within the resources of the existing operation.
Internet marketing content development
This group is responsible for the short and long-range planning for content development related to marketing programs at all levels. On a day-to-day basis, they produce the blog posts, email newsletters, landing pages, and other materials necessary to promote the organization?s messaging and drive traffic into commerce activities and sponsor websites. This group works closely with the analytics team to evaluate the performance of their individual efforts and test and use that data to create new test programs that will maintain or improve system efficiency. While domain knowledge is helpful, the members of this team must be excellent copywriters who understand how to motivate users to take actions that could go from signing up for a free newsletter to making a purchase that costs thousands of dollars.
Internet marketing design
The design team comes into play any time a new system or module is being built or a redesign is being implemented. The team usually includes graphic artists, information architects, and usability experts. They are tasked with developing design that support and enhance the brand, and that support website functionality, usability, findability, and shareability. The design team works closely with the content team and the software team to make sure that their design fits the larger communications plan and software capabilities.
Internet marketing software development and support
The software team is responsible for choosing, supporting, and customizing the various software applications that make up the larger Internet marketing system. For us, they must be experts in WordPress and all of the various plugins that extend WordPress into a customer experience management system. They must also be experts in the third-party systems that include email management, payment processing, product fulfillment, and customer service.
While these other applications are normally freestanding systems, our software engineers must maintain the application protocol interfaces that allow those systems to communicate with the whole customer experience management system. Most sophisticated marketing systems are really a group of integrated applications that have been connected to work seamlessly under the hood. When necessary, this group also updates third party plugins and creates new plugins or software extensions that add functionality not found in the existing marketplace. For example, our software engineers currently maintain 17 proprietary plugins and support an additional 40 or so through the vetting, upgrading, and maintenance process.
System hosting and management
This group is responsible for maintaining the hardware and foundational software that keeps your website up and running. The group typically includes both lamp software engineers and hardware specialists. System security and performance are also primary job functions of this group. On a good day, this group will go completely unnoticed. It?s only when they?re not doing their job, or something gets by them, that anyone takes notice of the systems management team.
Email broadcast and management
The email team is responsible for maintaining the system that stores, segments, and tracks email usage. They support operators in the establishment of segments, tests, and other enhancements to the email marketing program. The email team is also responsible for email delivery and email security, maintaining relationships with hundreds of Internet service providers and monitoring services.
Fulfillment services
If physical books, periodicals, DVDs, or other products are part of a marketer?s mix, a fulfillment service operation becomes a requirement. The fulfillment team is responsible for the timely selection, packaging, and shipping of all physical orders that are produced by the system. In some cases, there may be multiple fulfillment vendors who are supplying this service for different types of products. In the best of cases, the fulfillment system is fully integrated with the customer experience management system and the customer service system.
Customer service
Whether your products are physical or digital, customer service will be part of the program. Your customer service team will be in the position to answer questions about missing products, product features, and even how to use a sophisticated software application or subscription website. Your customer service team will be evaluated by both the quantity of emails, phone calls, and even letters they can process properly; and the quality of service and the customer service ratings they?receive. As with your fulfillment operations, it?s possible to have multiple customer service operations that provide service on different product types that might include periodicals, products, and live events.
The process of running a modern Internet marketing services department or company is both challenging and rewarding. We are in the enviable position of pioneering new ways of bringing our product to market so that customers can access them whenever they want them, however they want them. We also have the challenge of running an organization that requires a diverse set of skills, personalities and people to make things happen on a day-to-day basis.
If you?re in the process of building an Internet marketing services department, please feel free to contact me to discuss how we might be able to help. If you?re looking to outsource your Internet marketing services or some part of it, please also feel free to contact us to discuss the alternatives.
Happy marketing in 2013!
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Kevin Jones is accused of having intimate contact with a girl starting when she was 14.
A married father of two who coaches girls' softball is accused of having a sexual relationship with his teenage daughter's best friend -- a girl who looked up to her coach as a father-like figure, according to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC10.
Kevin Jones, 34, of Fairless Hills, Pa., northeast of Philadelphia, is accused of having intimate contact with the girl starting when she was 14, according to Falls Township Police.
Police say that Jones would text and Facebook message with the girl, whom he coached on the same softball team, the Levittown Bulldogs, that his daughter played on. The girl and Jones would tell each other that they loved one another and he would refer to her as his "baby doll" and she would call him "daddy," according to a criminal complaint.
Jones allegedly told the girl, whose father left the picture about seven years ago, that she could consider him a father. "I'll be your dad from now on and I'll protect you like I'm your dad," Jones told the girl, according to the affidavit.
According to the criminal complaint, the relationship between the two started in the spring of 2012 with "flirting" as Jones would put his arm around the girl and hold her hand while speaking to her. Over time, the girl told police that their relationship progressed, first to kissing then to sexual activities and eventually to intercourse about two weeks ago.
The affidavit said that Jones' children were in his home during many of the alleged sex acts. The girl, now 15, told police that all the alleged sex was consensual and that no drugs or alcohol were involved.
Jones denies any sexual contact with the alleged victim outside of hugging and kissing that happened only in front of the girl's mother. The criminal complaint states that during questioning Jones told police, "I don't know if she thinks I touched her, we play fight."
More coverage from NBC10
The relationship was uncovered after the teenager confided in her sister about the relationship and the girls' mother in turn reported it to Falls Township Police on Jan. 9. Around that time, the victim allegedly tried to warn Jones that her mother knew of their alleged relationship in a series of texts and Facebook messages that are referenced in the affidavit.
Those Facebook messages date back to June of 2011, when the girl was just 13, and include messages where Jones threatens to kill any boy the girl has interest in, according to the affidavit.
Police planned to serve a search warrant at Jones' home on Jan. 25, but around 2 p.m. the home burned down. Jones and his family escaped the blaze and the cause of the fire remained under investigation.
Jones was arrested Monday and charged with six counts including indecent sexual intercourse with a minor, statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors and related offenses. He was arraigned and held on $2 million bail, according to court documents.
While thoes of you in New Orleans are dealing with all the fun that come with Super Bowl, I will be in Memphis (most likely freezing) and participating in the Blues Society's Internation Blues Challenge.
The 2013 International Blues Challenge will be the 29th year of Blues musicians from around the world competing for cash, prizes, and industry recognition. The Blues Foundation will present the 29th International Blues Challenge January 29-February 2, 2013 in Memphis, TN. The world's largest gathering of Blues acts represents an international search by The Blues Foundation and its Affiliated Organizations for the Blues Band and Solo/Duo Blues Act ready to take their act to the international stage. In 2012, 119 bands and 86 solo/duo acts entered, filling the clubs up and down Beale Street for the quarter-finals on Wednesday and Thursday, the semi-finals on Friday and the finals at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. We will have at least that many in 2013.
A pre-launch tour of one of the original Apple Stores back in 2001 (Tysons Corner, VA). Apple got it right. Like the Flower Power iMacs at the cash register and the red ?batphone? to call Cupertino at the Genius Bar! For more info see www.cultofmac.com
Shakopee, MN (PRWEB) January 18, 2013
CyberPower Systems, a global leader of innovative power protection and power distribution equipment, today announced it has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program. Members of the TAP program collaborate with VMware to deliver innovative solutions for virtualization and cloud computing. The diversity and depth of the TAP ecosystem provides customers with the flexibility to choose a partner with the right expertise to satisfy their unique needs.
We welcome CyberPower Systems as a valued member of the VMware TAP program, said Sheryl Sage, director, Alliance Programs, VMware. This membership means customers can take full advantage of a streamlined virtualization and cloud infrastructure experience. VMware provides an online marketplace, VMware Solution Exchange (VSX), where customers can learn more about CyberPower Systems collaboration with VMware and our continued goal commitment to developing breakthrough technologies that can transform business.
CyberPower is committed to providing IT professionals with the power protection solutions they need for virtual environments, said Jonah Cagley, Vice President of Marketing at CyberPower Systems, USA. As a VMware TAP partner we will be able to keep up with VMware vSphere developments ensuring that PowerPanel
Once winter arrives it?s ice skating time! We have a great mix of both indoor and outdoor places to ice skate in the Albany NY area and here is our list of our favorite places to go play on the ice. Please note ? some of these are outdoors and their being open will all depend on the weather.?
IvanWalsh.com, flickr
City of Albany
Empire State Plaza
Free to skate and our favorite because it?s right in the shadow of the Capitol. Skate rentals are inexpensive too.
Albany County Hockey Facility
Offers skating, hockey, skate sharpening and a concession area too.
Buckingham Pond
Weather permitting ? City of Albany checks ice periodically for safety
Washington Park Lake
Ice permitting, the City of Albany clears a portion of the lake if the ice is seven inches thick, or thicker.
Clifton Park
Clifton Park Ice Arena
Offers lessons and has?two NHL regulation rinks
Cohoes
Van Schaick Pond
Ice permitting ? call Rec Dept for info and to see if it?s open 233-2116
Colonie
The Crossings
Ice permitting, you can skate for free on the lake, starting at noon.
Delmar / Bethlehem / Selkirk
Elm Ave Park Rink
Open daily when ice is four inches thick. Free to skate
Bethlehem Area YMCA
No need to belong to the Y to use the rink ? they have public skating! $5 for adults and?various?prices for kids.
Grafton
Grafton Lakes State Park
Weather permitting ? and the pond is only cleared of snow on Friday?s, so if it snows before then bring your own shovel.
Troy
Knickerbacker Ice Arena
This arena is open year round and has skate rentals. Great for January fun or a way to cool off in July!
Frear Park Rink
Situated next to the golf course, this rink offers hockey and skating
Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC)
Admission is $3 and is open several hours a day. Check website for hours.
RPI Field House
Not always open to the public but periodically it is. Small admission fee.
Schenectady
Frank L Messa Rink
Located at Union College. Call ahead for hours and info.
Schenectady Curling Club
Ever wanted to learn how to try curling? The Schenectady Curling Club hosts open houses so you can find out!
Iroquois Lake
Maintained by NYS DEC and located in Schenectady?s Central Park. Weather permitting, free. Lights are on at night.
Scotia
Collins Park
Ice Permitting ? Free
Schenectady County Recreational Facility (Scotia)
Rink offers recreational skating, ice hockey and figure skating programs for all ages.
Saratoga
Saratoga Springs Ice Rink
Indoor rink but check website first for current month?s schedule
Saratoga Spa State Park
There are two places for skating here ? one is primarily used for hockey and is open so long as the lights are on. The other is near the Victoria Pool and is not lit, nor is hockey allowed. You can skate at both for free.
We hope you find this list helpful! Happy skating! Remembrer ? if the ice is outdoors, it?s usually skate at your own risk. Please be safe!
The Council for the Arts presents paintings by Shippensburg artist Viktoriya Hoover at?the Franklin County Area Development Corporation,1900 Wayne Road inChambersburg, January 14 through April 19, 2013. The exhibit is open to the public Monday through Thursday,?8 am-12 noon & 1-5 pm, and Friday, 8 am-12 noon & 1-4 pm.
Viktoriya?s paintings at FCDC include oils, watercolors, and pastels.? ?I love nature,? she explains, ?especially the beauty of the woods, mountains, rivers and seas.? I am inspired by the beauty ofPennsylvania, and enjoy painting ?en plein air?.?
A native ofUkraine, Viktoriya has been interested in art since her childhood, pursuing her interest by taking classes from elementary school through high school and entering her work in school art exhibits.? The artist graduated fromOdessaNationalUniversityand has her Masters Degree in biology and chemistry.? Her painting career was suspended for a time while raising a family, but resumed when her children grew up.? Since 2005 Viktoriya has been living inShippensburg,PA.? She attended the art studio of local artist Carol Reinhart and currently attends Jeff Barnhart?s art studio. Viktoriya has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and her works are placed in private collections both locally and abroad.
Exhibits at FCADC are coordinated by the Council for the Arts of Chambersburg. For more information, call the Council at 717-264-6883 or visit www.councilforthearts.net
With MyScript Calculator you can write math problems on the touchscreen rather than typing them in, making it highly intuitive and natural to use. Next is Hushed, an app for creating temporary phone numbers. Finally, bullet hell game Ikaruga fires a crazy amount of mayhem your way.
What?s it about? Simply put, MyScript Calculator is a calculator app that recognizes handwriting, allowing you to write out equations that the app can solve using your device?s touch screen.
What?s cool? It?s pretty obvious, isn?t it? Imagine writing down a math problem on a piece of paper, only to have the problem solve itself. MyScript takes the workings of a calculator out of using a calculator, allowing you to do so much more naturally just by writing. The update to the app is pretty huge, adding a lot of higher-level mathematics, like trigonometry. You can also fix mistakes by using the redo and undo buttons.
Who?s it for? If you find yourself solving math problems, either for school or just everyday life, MyScript Calculator can help.
What?s it like? Pick up RealCalc Scientific Calculator for a more traditional approach to calculating.
What?s it about? Hushed allows you to make calls and send texts from your Android device from disposable numbers, allowing you to hide your real number and protect your information should you ever lose your phone.
What?s cool? You can give out a Hushed number to a new acquaintance or someone you?re considering dating, then dispose of the number if the person turns out to be a creeper. You also can attach numbers to Android devices and use them for as long as you like, allowing you to make calls from a preferred area code or what have you. Each number has voice mail and SMS attached, so you?ll get all the features you would with a normal phone number.
Who?s it for? If you?re the kind of person who has to give out their phone number a lot, use Hushed for an extra layer of security.
What?s it like? Both Ghost Phone and Extra Phone Number offer similar services to Hushed.
What?s it about? Making the jump from Xbox Live Arcade to Android, Ikaruga brings its crazy ?bullet-hell? shooter action to the small screen.
What?s cool? In addition to gorgeous graphics and frantic shooter action, Ikaruga has a mechanic that helps set it apart. Incoming fire is all either red or blue, and you can use the corresponding color?s shield to neutralize the attacks. That means you?ll be dodging fire and strategically switching colors back and forth to avoid damage.
Who?s it for? Arcade shooter fans, Ikaruga is one of those big games that?s worth your attention.
What?s it like? There are even more bullets to be dodged in Shogun and Danmaku Death.
Filed in Uncategorized on January 28, 2013 with no comments
A Salvation Army Family Store is a wonderful place to shop for bargains. When you shop at the Salvation Army, you are not only getting a great deal; the money you spend goes to help individuals and families in your own community.
Salvation Army Family Stores carry a large inventory of clothing for all ages, including jeans, tops, dresses, jackets, coats and business apparel. You can even buy shoes, formalwear and wedding gowns at the Salvation Army. A great selection of bedding, home furnishings, drapes, kitchenware and other household necessities can also be found. Not everything at the Salvation Army has been gently used; some items are new with the original tags.
In addition to household necessities, your local Salvation Army store is a great place to go on a treasure hunt. Antiques, art, and other home d?cor items all make their way to the shelves of Salvation Army Family Stores. Artists and decorators can find beautiful,yet inexpensive, frames for their work. Salvation Army stores are a great place to shop for crafting supplies and collectibles, all priced much lower than other retail stores. Bicycles, sporting equipment and children?s toys can also be found at your local Salvation Army. So visit a Salvation Army Family Store today; you never know what treasures might be waiting.
This week saw the release of a sequel to one of the most downloaded mobile games of all time. That game is of course Tempe Run, and this sequel is no slouch. We?ve also got a wonderfully violent and zombified driving game , a brilliant action adventure game about cave diving on an alien planet, an adorable puzzle platformer, and a new spin on the role playing/match three hybrid genre. Here we go!
The Temple Run cloning was more rampant on Android than it was on iOS, with plenty of fake sequels and releases. I can tell you that not only is this Temple Run sequel real, but it?s also pretty fantastic. It expands on the last game by adding mine cart segments, zip lines, a tweaked upgrade store, and pathways that actually bend, if you can believe it. At its core, it?s still pretty much the exact same game, and will likely bore anyone tired of running games, but as it?s free, you should probably give it a shot anyway.
There?s a new trend developing in the Google Play store--driving games in post apocalyptic environments with automotive arsenals modeled after Twisted Metal plus hordes of zombies. Then again, zombies tend to invade every facet of mobile gaming these days. This is a solid game with good design, offering a lot of customization options, including several vehicles and plenty of guns to install and upgrade over the course of the story mode. It?s ?bloody good time
Gene Effect, an exploration based adventure game in which you pilot a small mining vessel around the ominous caverns of a desolate mining planet, is worth your attention. Though you quickly discover that it?s not so desolate after all, and the stakes skyrocket pretty quickly. It?s a solid game with good pacing, ambient aesthetics, and a real sense of wonderment and discovery as you learn more about this alien environment and solve the puzzles within. There are plenty of optional puzzles and secrets to uncover, and this game feels close in spirit to the excellent Waking Mars. Sold, yet?
They may be absolutely everywhere, but there?s just something about charming puzzle platformers with cute little creatures that keeps you coming back for more long after you?ve sworn off of them forever. Tupsu is a little monster with tentacles that you can move separately and attach to various surfaces to get around and solve puzzles. The gameplay is pretty good, though it?s rarely difficult, so those looking for a challenge should look elsewhere. It?s also very similar in visual style to the excellent Contre Jour, and feels like it was inspired by it heavily.
Match-three games with heavy RPG elements aren?t exactly a new idea, but you don?t see them all that often. Djorick?s Curse is a gem. After choosing between various class options, you start battling the various dark minions brought about by the curse. Matching similar tiles has an effect depending on the tile, letting you attack, heal, repair, collect gold, and more. As you play, you?ll gain experience and level up, upgrading your abilities and generally making things easier for yourself before tougher minions attack.
A gunman shot his ex-girlfriend and an employee at a Seattle bar before being killed by police Sunday night, authorities said.
The shooter walked into The Twilight Exit about 10:15 p.m. local time (1:15 a.m ET Monday) and opened fire, first wounding his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend then a 30-year-old bar worker who tried to intervene, Seattle police said in a statement.
Police said the suspect later raised his gun and fired at them. One officer returned fire, killing the man.
The victims were taken to a hospital and their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening, police said. The gunman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said there were ?"a number of witnesses" inside the bar when the shooting occurred.
The Twilight Exit's?Facebook page has more than 2,800 "likes" and customers were already posting messages of concern early Monday.
We've seen home decor do a lot of things for people. It can relax you, make you happy and even have an effect on your self-image. But can it save your marriage? According to Lauren Machling of the Wall Street Journal, perhaps it can.
In a recent article, Machling speaks of the problems that often arise in a marriage when furnishings of both partners are combined during cohabiting. She says rooms become designated as "his" and "hers" and pieces of furniture start to become known as "yours" and "mine" with a wedge being driven between the two -- if there can't be a compromise.
And according to Jay Lebow, a professor of psychology and a marital therapist and researcher at the Family Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, it's things like fighting over lamps and rugs that can make one person feel less adequate, especially if it involves one moving into another's home. "The person who was living there all along feels hurt every time something is moved or changed. And the person who moved in feels like they've lost their voice," he told the newspaper.
But Machling says that doesn't have to be the way. With books like "Luxurious Minimalism" by photographer Fritz von der Schulenburg and writer Karen Howes, newlyweds can find ways to combine their two styles and compromised. The designs in the book, Machling writes, "reflect a certain ideal?one maintained by a couple who, while equally strong-willed, have learned to make room for each other's visual style."
Of course, you can never really tell. For instance, Machling spoke with author Jackie Collins, who, after two failed marriages, refuses to share a space with a man for fear of losing her glamourous, art deco style. "I don't think I ever could do it again. I have very distinctive tastes and I'm not going to concede to anybody," she said.
Head over the the Wall Street Journal to read the full article, and comment to weigh in: Can a relationship be affected by one's furnishings?
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White Sox great Frank Thomas is satisfied to be clear of the skepticism some of his competitors face as he prepares for his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot.
Thomas, a two-time MVP who hit 521 career homers, has never faced allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs in a 19-year playing career. When he considers the era he played in, and the scrutiny that now faces Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens, Thomas has no doubt he handled it properly and has no sympathy for those who didn?t.
?Watching all the nonsense unfold and not really knowing what was going on, it makes me feel much more proud of my career,? Thomas said. ?I competed in that era and I played at a high level in that era. There were a lot of great players, but as it unfolds, a lot of it was not the real deal. I know 100 percent mine was the real deal. I wouldn?t say I feel bad for them. I respected them on the field, but they chose this. They made their own decisions off the field and they have to live with it.?
A baseball player born in a football player?s body, Thomas never faced suspicion of PED use because he was big from the moment he hit the field. Thomas not only used his 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame to gain an edge but he also worked tirelessly, said former teammate Jermaine Dye.
Dye believes Thomas is worthy of first-ballot entry into Cooperstown.
?No doubt in my mind,? Dye said. ?He never cheated the game. He always used to tell me ?Let?s get in the batting cage. Let?s go work. Get better every day.? No matter if you went 4-for-4 with two homers the night before or had a bad game, he was always about getting his work in, staying in the gym and because of that he got to where he is now.?
Thomas? resume is quite impressive. Not only did he win two MVPs, Thomas was a five-time All-Star in a league loaded with talented first baseman. He also hit a franchise-record 448 home runs in 16 seasons on the South Side and though he was limited by injury, Thomas also helped produce the team?s first World Series title in 88 years when the White Sox swept the Houston Astros in 2005. After noting how five years has flown by, Thomas said he believes he, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, all first-timers on the 2014 Hall of Fame ballot, have resumes that should immediately gain entrance into baseball?s shrine. He agrees he?s not sure it will happen after Craig Biggio didn?t gain entry on his first try -- ?he was one guy we were all shocked? -- but would disappointed nonetheless.
?I spent my whole career working my butt off and hopefully I get what I deserve,? Thomas said. ?Of course I would be disappointed. I?m not going to lie to you. Of course I will. Like I said, I think my resume speaks for itself. Losing a third MVP to a guy who admitted he was PED, I think that would have put me at another level that only a couple of guys have enjoyed ever in this game. The 12-year-run I had was incredible, very historical. So, I think I?ve done enough to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.?
As for those under suspicion, Thomas isn?t sure what he would do. He?s just happy he didn?t choose to go the same route.
?It?s really not up to me,? Thomas said. ?These guys did put up some incredible numbers, but they are fake. Any time you look at the PED situation and Lance Armstrong, you look at stuff like that and it?s serious out there. I just thank God. I?m blessed I did it the right way and have a good family base that made me outwork everyone else because that?s the only way I made it to the big leagues.?
Tags: Hall of Fame, Frank Thomas, Chicago White Sox
After John McCain picked Sarah Palin out of relative obscurity to be his vice presidential running mate, she became a political force of nature. Since then, however, her star has lost its luster within the GOP, and she?s parted ways with Fox News.
By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / January 26, 2013
Sarah Palin delivers the keynote address to activists from America's political right at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington last February. Palin is out as a Fox News Channel contributor, the network reported Friday.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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When the history of US politics in the early 21st century is written, two figures will stand out: Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.
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The election of Mr. Obama to the highest elective office ? the first African-American to win the presidency ? did not necessarily signal a new era of post-racial politics. But coming just a generation after federal troops in the South (and a federal judge in Boston) were necessary to desegregate public schools, it was a huge milestone.
Sarah Palin was not the first woman to win a major political party?s vice presidential nomination; that was US Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale?s running mate way back in 1984.
But the presence of the former Alaska governor on the GOP ticket headed by Sen. John McCain in 2008 invigorated the party ? at the time, at least. And although they lost to Obama and Joe Biden, it wasn?t the blowout that Mondale and Ferraro suffered against Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Ferraro went on to relative political obscurity, twice losing Democratic Party primaries for the US Senate. Ms. Palin, on the other hand, was just getting started when the returns for the 2008 presidential race were being counted.
How well do you know Sarah Palin? A quiz.
Over the next few years, she became a political force of nature ? stirring a tea party base that thronged to her appearances, scaring GOP incumbents deemed too willing to find common ground with Democrats, and building a very lucrative business that included (for one season, at least) her own ?reality? TV show while launching one of her five children ? daughter Bristol ? on her own entertainment career.
Meanwhile, as with some other conservative ex-elected officials like Mike Huckabee, Palin was given a sinecure of sorts as a commentator for Fox News, which built a studio in her home in Wasilla, Alaska, from which she railed against the ?lamestream media? and anything Obama proposed or did as President.
No matter that Mrs. Palin became the butt of liberal jokes, driving left-leaning bloviators nuts, and giving a huge boost to the acting career of Saturday Night Live?s Tina Fey. Her ?Grizzly Mama? persona ? a sharp-edged folksiness with the occasional rhetorical stumble ? attracted at least as many people as it turned off. ?Run, Sarah, Run!? echoed among adoring throngs urging her to run for the White House.
Although not every candidate she endorsed in 2010 won, her record was respectable.
Logitech will continue to make PC gaming peripherals despite severing its console peripheral and remote businesses.
On Wednesday Logitech announced its third quarter results for fiscal 2013, reporting that sales were $615 million, down 14-percent from $715 million in Q3 fiscal 2012. Net loss for Q3 fiscal 2013 was $195 million ($1.24 per share) compared to a net income of $55 million ($0.32 per share) in Q3 fiscal 2012.
"As we articulated when we started the third quarter, continued weakness in the global PC market was the primary factor in our disappointing Q3 results," said Bracken P. Darrell, Logitech president and chief executive officer. "These results are unacceptable and we are taking decisive action as an outcome of my strategic review."
He went on to say that Logitech plans to expand its presence in the growing tablet accessories category. However the company also plans to sustain its leadership in PC platform-related products where it has engineering, distribution and scale advantages.
"Our goal with PC-platform products is to maximize profitability, while investing selectively in growing categories," he said. "We have also identified a number of product categories that no longer fit with our current strategic direction. As a result, we have initiated the process to divest our remote controls and digital video security categories, and we plan to discontinue other non-strategic products, such as speaker docks and console gaming peripherals, by the end of Calendar Year 2013."
The first to go will be Logitech's Harmony remote business. Sales were reportedly down 24-percent with units declining by 55-percent. The high end of this market increased only 4-percent, fueled by the recently-launched Harmony Touch high-end remote.
And as stated, also out the door will be the company's line of console peripherals. These have seemingly already disappeared from Logitech's site save for the G27 and Driving Force GT racing wheels which are compatible with the PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. Most of what Logitech offers now is focused on Windows and Mac-based gaming.
"We are NOT exiting PC gaming, only console accessories," Logitech confirmed on Twitter. "PC gaming continues to be a priority for the company."
Darrell added on Wednesday that his goal is to get Logitech back to sustained profitability as quickly as possible, "This requires unwavering focus on developing great products both for large and for fast-growing markets, removing unnecessary costs and a commitment to move at least as fast as the markets in which we participate," he said.
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Magic? That's only a child's make-believe dream... Or is it? [Open]
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Marked for Power?. Anything posted here will also show up there.
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This looks great, I'll post a character at some point today.
Flexar
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Alright, spot reserved. Now off to bed I go~
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The Temple Run cloning was more rampant on Android than it was on iOS, with plenty of fake sequels and releases. I can tell you that not only is this Temple Run sequel real, but it?s also pretty fantastic. It expands on the last game by adding mine cart segments, zip lines, a tweaked upgrade store, and pathways that actually bend, if you can believe it. At its core, it?s still pretty much the exact same game, and will likely bore anyone tired of running games, but as it?s free, you should probably give it a shot anyway.
They may be absolutely everywhere, but there?s just something about charming puzzle platformers with cute little creatures that keeps you coming back for more long after you?ve sworn off of them forever. Tupsu is a little monster with tentacles that you can move separately and attach to various surfaces to get around and solve puzzles. The gameplay is pretty good, though it?s rarely difficult, so those looking for a challenge should look elsewhere. It?s also very similar in visual style to the excellent Contre Jour, and feels like it was inspired by it heavily.
