It wasn't even their day - training camp begins on Sunday for Edmonton Eskimos veterans - but Steven Jyles and Kerry Joseph drew the most attention on Day 1 of the CFL team's rookie camp on Wednesday.
Jyles, who heads into camp as the No. 1 quarterback, and Joseph, designated as the backup, didn't run through drills with the slew of yellow-pinnie-wearing pivots who are taking part in rookie camp. Instead, they helped their younger counterparts with drills while familiarizing themselves with the Eskimos' offence.
"It's exciting watching these guys play," said Jyles, 29, who came to Edmonton in December as the key component of the Ricky Ray trade with the Toronto Argonauts. "I wish I could be out there throwing to them."
"It was good just getting out" said Joseph, 38. "You get that itch, though. You want to get out and try to throw the ball around. Basically, I was just seeing what was going on and trying to help the younger guys out, getting them caught up to speed on what's going on, because it's going to be new for them.
"I almost turn into a coach right now, helping those younger guys."
In trading Ray and not writing a starter's name in stone out of the available quarterbacks - Jyles, Joseph, Eric Ward, Matt Nichols, Jeremiah Masoli and, now, Brandon Summers - the Eskimos head into their main camp with the player behind centre casting a big question-mark-type shadow on the field at Commonwealth Stadium.
"I'm not going to get tired of that question," Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed said. "That's the question coming into camp. We, as a coaching staff, decided that we're going to not allow those guys (Jyles and Joseph) to throw in the rookie camp because we know that they're going to take the vast majority of the reps in the (main) camp."
Reed said that Jyles and Joseph have developed a good relationship in the off-season. With Jyles training in Texas and Joseph in Louisiana, the two were able to get together and work out.
"It's going to be a very competitive (relationship) between the two of them," Reed said. "Steven will come in, obviously, No. 1 on the depth chart, but we expect that Kerry is really going to make him work to keep that spot."
If nothing changes through training camp, that would leave the other four quarterbacks fighting for practice-roster spots. Last season, the Eskimos used Ward, 25, as the third-string quarterback and place-holder on field goals. Nichols, 25, went from the one game to the nine-game injured list, but was around the team every day last year.
Summers, another 25-year-old, signed with the Eskimos on Tuesday. He was active for one game last season with Winnipeg and spent most of 2011 on the Blue Bombers practice roster.
Reed said rookie camp is a good opportunity for the four young quarterbacks.
"It's trying to help them get acclimated to the game before the veteran guys come in and have that distinct advantage," Reed said. "This is an opportunity for the guys to have three days where everyone is on the same page and get acclimated together and also get the language down.
"A lot of guys, there are some nuances in terms of terminology coming from the States and coming from CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) and, hopefully, this opportunity to have an intimate time with the coaches will allow them to get fairly up to speed with the veteran guys."
It's also a chance to get Reed and offensive co-ordinator Marcus Crandell's attention before the reps dry up next week.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Iraq holds 4th postwar oil and gas auction
A Kuwaiti-led energy consortium on Wednesday won the right to search for oil and gas in southern Iraq as part of the country's fourth postwar energy auction. Two natural gas exploration deals meanwhile attracted no bidders.
Exploration rights in a dozen areas of the country are on offer in the two-day auction, with 39 foreign energy companies registered to compete.
The Iraqi government seeks foreign investment to build up an energy sector hit by years of neglect and violence, including the turmoil following Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster. Iraq holds the world's fourth largest oil reserves and oil revenues make up nearly 95 percent of the country's budget.
In an opening speech, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi said exploration of the areas up for bidding will increase Iraq's oil reserves and help the country develop its natural gas industry. The ministry will "spare no efforts to help and support the companies as partners to achieve the common interests," he said.
Still, conditions appeared less attractive than in the three previous rounds held since 2009.
Only areas with undetermined hydrocarbon resources are on offer, while previously the rights to known big and medium oil and gas fields were being auctioned off. Operating costs for energy companies could be high because most of the 12 exploration blocks are in remote and unsafe areas and lack infrastructure.
The government also added a clause for the first time that prevents companies from signing deals with regional authorities without the approval of the central government in Baghdad. Companies that violate the clause will have their contracts terminated, said Sabah al-Saidi, the deputy head of the Oil Ministry's Licensing and Petroleum Contracts department.
The new clause came in response to Exxon Mobil's bold move last year to sign six deals with Iraq's northern self-ruled Kurdish region without Baghdad's approval. In return, Baghdad banned the Texas-based company from taking part in the current bidding, but kept a deal to develop the 8.6-billion-barrel West Qurna Phase One oil field in the south.
Wednesday's auction started with no one bidding for an 8,000-square-kilometer block in northwestern Iraq with presumed natural gas fields. Another potential natural gas lot covering 9,000 square kilometers of southwestern Iraq also found no interest.
Government officials said the two blocks would be offered again Thursday, saying companies interested in those areas couldn't make it to Baghdad. He did not name the companies.
In a third bid, Kuwait Energy and its partners, Turkey's TPAO and the UAE's Dragon Oil, won the rights to explore a 900-square-kilometer area in Iraq's oil-rich southern Basra province. The group will be paid $6.24 for each barrel of oil equivalent they find.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry had approved 47 international energy companies to participate, but only 39 companies paid the participation fee.
Top among the approved companies are the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, UK's BP, Chevron and Occidental of the U.S., China's CNOOC and CNPC, Japan's Japex, Russia's Lukoil and others.
The blocks are expected to add about 29 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the current 126.7 trillion cubic feet in reserves, and about 10 billion barrels of oil to the current proven 143.1 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Nearly 70 percent of them hold natural gas and the rest a combination of oil and gas.
Five of the blocks are in Iraq's western Anbar province or shared between Anbar and neighboring provinces; two are in the northern Ninevah province; one is shared between central Diyala province and neighboring Wasit province while the rest are scattered throughout southern Iraq.
The bidders are vying for service contracts in which they will be paid a flat fee, rather than the more lucrative production-sharing contracts in which they receive a share of the hydrocarbons found.
Since 2008, Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals to international energy companies, the first major investments in the country's energy industry in more than three decades.
The goal was to boost daily production from about 3 million barrels now to 12 million barrels by 2017. But Iraq is mulling whether the target should be revised downward to fewer than 10 million barrels, considering a possible drop in demand on oil in the international market and infrastructure bottlenecks.
Exploration rights in a dozen areas of the country are on offer in the two-day auction, with 39 foreign energy companies registered to compete.
The Iraqi government seeks foreign investment to build up an energy sector hit by years of neglect and violence, including the turmoil following Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster. Iraq holds the world's fourth largest oil reserves and oil revenues make up nearly 95 percent of the country's budget.
In an opening speech, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi said exploration of the areas up for bidding will increase Iraq's oil reserves and help the country develop its natural gas industry. The ministry will "spare no efforts to help and support the companies as partners to achieve the common interests," he said.
Still, conditions appeared less attractive than in the three previous rounds held since 2009.
Only areas with undetermined hydrocarbon resources are on offer, while previously the rights to known big and medium oil and gas fields were being auctioned off. Operating costs for energy companies could be high because most of the 12 exploration blocks are in remote and unsafe areas and lack infrastructure.
The government also added a clause for the first time that prevents companies from signing deals with regional authorities without the approval of the central government in Baghdad. Companies that violate the clause will have their contracts terminated, said Sabah al-Saidi, the deputy head of the Oil Ministry's Licensing and Petroleum Contracts department.
The new clause came in response to Exxon Mobil's bold move last year to sign six deals with Iraq's northern self-ruled Kurdish region without Baghdad's approval. In return, Baghdad banned the Texas-based company from taking part in the current bidding, but kept a deal to develop the 8.6-billion-barrel West Qurna Phase One oil field in the south.
Wednesday's auction started with no one bidding for an 8,000-square-kilometer block in northwestern Iraq with presumed natural gas fields. Another potential natural gas lot covering 9,000 square kilometers of southwestern Iraq also found no interest.
Government officials said the two blocks would be offered again Thursday, saying companies interested in those areas couldn't make it to Baghdad. He did not name the companies.
In a third bid, Kuwait Energy and its partners, Turkey's TPAO and the UAE's Dragon Oil, won the rights to explore a 900-square-kilometer area in Iraq's oil-rich southern Basra province. The group will be paid $6.24 for each barrel of oil equivalent they find.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry had approved 47 international energy companies to participate, but only 39 companies paid the participation fee.
Top among the approved companies are the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, UK's BP, Chevron and Occidental of the U.S., China's CNOOC and CNPC, Japan's Japex, Russia's Lukoil and others.
The blocks are expected to add about 29 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the current 126.7 trillion cubic feet in reserves, and about 10 billion barrels of oil to the current proven 143.1 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Nearly 70 percent of them hold natural gas and the rest a combination of oil and gas.
Five of the blocks are in Iraq's western Anbar province or shared between Anbar and neighboring provinces; two are in the northern Ninevah province; one is shared between central Diyala province and neighboring Wasit province while the rest are scattered throughout southern Iraq.
The bidders are vying for service contracts in which they will be paid a flat fee, rather than the more lucrative production-sharing contracts in which they receive a share of the hydrocarbons found.
Since 2008, Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals to international energy companies, the first major investments in the country's energy industry in more than three decades.
The goal was to boost daily production from about 3 million barrels now to 12 million barrels by 2017. But Iraq is mulling whether the target should be revised downward to fewer than 10 million barrels, considering a possible drop in demand on oil in the international market and infrastructure bottlenecks.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
2012-13 Hunting/Furtaker Licenses To Go On Sale June 11
Roe also emphasized senior lifetime hunting and furtaker license holders, as well as senior combination license holders, must renew their licenses at this time. While senior lifetime license holders need not pay a license or transaction fee, they must obtain the current year's license and harvest tags.
While the 2012-13 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest regulations booklets won't be available until the week of June 18, a complete version of the publication will be posted on the agency's website. Those who purchase their licenses prior to delivery of the digests can return to the issuing agent of purchase and obtain a copy once the digests arrive in the store.
For the 2012-13 license year, all fees are the same as they have been since 1999. There is a 70-cent transaction fee attached to the purchase of each license and permit, which is paid directly to Active Outdoors, the Nashville-based company that runs PALS. Returning PALS customers are encouraged to provide their Customer Identification Number (CID) to speed up processing.
'PALS enabled the Game Commission to modernize the licensing system and improve security,' Roe said. 'To ensure faster processing, personal information is now recorded through a Pennsylvania driver's license scan. This eliminates data entry; provides a more secure, reliable and accurate means to gather and store license holder records; and eliminates license buyer duplicity.
'For all these reasons – and more – the Game Commission has eliminated paper applications. Nonresidents can purchase licenses through any of these venues, but the system cannot scan out-of-state driver's licenses.'
Roe noted that all license-issuing agents now are part of an integrated, real-time, cyber network that allows them to offer some specialty licenses that prior to 2009 could not be provided by all issuing agents under the old license system.
'All license agents now can issue senior lifetime licenses; reduced fee military licenses; Mentored Youth Hunting Program permits; elk drawing applications; bobcat and fisher permits; even resident landowner reduced-fee hunting licenses and Deer Management Assistance Program Harvest (DMAP) permits,' Roe said. 'Hunters also can purchase the special spring gobbler license, which allows them to harvest a second gobbler in the 2013 spring gobbler season.'
There are certain deadlines for some of these licenses and permits that hunters and trappers will need to keep in mind. Specifically, the deadline to purchase a bobcat or fisher permit is Dec. 14; and a 2013 second spring gobbler license is April 26.
Bear licenses must be purchased by Nov. 16 in order to participate in the early bear seasons and the statewide firearms bear season; but licenses will go on sale again from Nov. 22 to 25 for those seeking to participate in the extended bear seasons that run concurrent with all or portions of the first week of the firearms deer season in certain areas of the state.
Also, the application deadline to be in the public drawing for a 2012 elk license is Aug. 26; the public drawing will be held on Sept. 14.
'Hunters and trappers need to remember these deadlines if they're not purchasing these licenses or permits when they buy their general hunting or furtaking licenses,' Roe said. 'Otherwise they may miss their opportunity to purchase one of these licenses or permits before the deadline passes.'
Roe also noted, as originally envisioned by the U.S. Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly, PALS enables the agency to suspend issuing licenses to those, who through court order, have had their hunting license privileges revoked for failure to pay child support.
Roe reminded hunters that, under state law, only Pennsylvania County Treasurers may issue antlerless deer licenses. However, thanks to PALS, county treasurers now may issue an antlerless deer license for any WMU, so long as its allocation isn't sold out.
Applications for the regular round of antlerless deer licenses for residents begins July 9, and nonresidents can apply beginning July 30. An antlerless license application will be printed with every general license purchased, and an application also will be available in the 2012-13 Hunting and Trapping Digest for the first and second round of unsold antlerless deer licenses. The first round of unsold antlerless licenses will begin, for residents and nonresidents, on Aug. 6, and the second round of unsold antlerless licenses will begin on Aug. 20.
Except for Wildlife Management Units (WMU) 2B, 5C and 5D, hunters may only apply for one license during each application period. Hunters applying for antlerless licenses in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D may apply for an unlimited number of antlerless deer licenses – however, the longstanding limit of three applications per envelope remains in effect.
'Hunters must use pink envelopes to mail antlerless deer license applications to the county treasurer's office of their choice to process the applications and mail back antlerless deer licenses,' Roe said. 'Hunters will have the option of listing their first, second and third WMU preferences for doe licenses on their applications. Treasurers will fill the highest WMU preference listed by the hunter. This option will eliminate reapplication for a doe license if your first WMU preference – or second – is sold out. However, hunters do not need to list alternative WMUs if they only plan to hunt in one specific WMU.'
A list of the mailing addresses for the 65 county treasurer offices that issue antlerless deer licenses is included in the 2012-13 Digest, which is provided to each license buyer. More details on the new procedures for applying for a doe license can be found in the Digest, which will be posted in the right-hand column of the agency's website by June 11.
While the 2012-13 Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest regulations booklets won't be available until the week of June 18, a complete version of the publication will be posted on the agency's website. Those who purchase their licenses prior to delivery of the digests can return to the issuing agent of purchase and obtain a copy once the digests arrive in the store.
For the 2012-13 license year, all fees are the same as they have been since 1999. There is a 70-cent transaction fee attached to the purchase of each license and permit, which is paid directly to Active Outdoors, the Nashville-based company that runs PALS. Returning PALS customers are encouraged to provide their Customer Identification Number (CID) to speed up processing.
'PALS enabled the Game Commission to modernize the licensing system and improve security,' Roe said. 'To ensure faster processing, personal information is now recorded through a Pennsylvania driver's license scan. This eliminates data entry; provides a more secure, reliable and accurate means to gather and store license holder records; and eliminates license buyer duplicity.
'For all these reasons – and more – the Game Commission has eliminated paper applications. Nonresidents can purchase licenses through any of these venues, but the system cannot scan out-of-state driver's licenses.'
Roe noted that all license-issuing agents now are part of an integrated, real-time, cyber network that allows them to offer some specialty licenses that prior to 2009 could not be provided by all issuing agents under the old license system.
'All license agents now can issue senior lifetime licenses; reduced fee military licenses; Mentored Youth Hunting Program permits; elk drawing applications; bobcat and fisher permits; even resident landowner reduced-fee hunting licenses and Deer Management Assistance Program Harvest (DMAP) permits,' Roe said. 'Hunters also can purchase the special spring gobbler license, which allows them to harvest a second gobbler in the 2013 spring gobbler season.'
There are certain deadlines for some of these licenses and permits that hunters and trappers will need to keep in mind. Specifically, the deadline to purchase a bobcat or fisher permit is Dec. 14; and a 2013 second spring gobbler license is April 26.
Bear licenses must be purchased by Nov. 16 in order to participate in the early bear seasons and the statewide firearms bear season; but licenses will go on sale again from Nov. 22 to 25 for those seeking to participate in the extended bear seasons that run concurrent with all or portions of the first week of the firearms deer season in certain areas of the state.
Also, the application deadline to be in the public drawing for a 2012 elk license is Aug. 26; the public drawing will be held on Sept. 14.
'Hunters and trappers need to remember these deadlines if they're not purchasing these licenses or permits when they buy their general hunting or furtaking licenses,' Roe said. 'Otherwise they may miss their opportunity to purchase one of these licenses or permits before the deadline passes.'
Roe also noted, as originally envisioned by the U.S. Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly, PALS enables the agency to suspend issuing licenses to those, who through court order, have had their hunting license privileges revoked for failure to pay child support.
Roe reminded hunters that, under state law, only Pennsylvania County Treasurers may issue antlerless deer licenses. However, thanks to PALS, county treasurers now may issue an antlerless deer license for any WMU, so long as its allocation isn't sold out.
Applications for the regular round of antlerless deer licenses for residents begins July 9, and nonresidents can apply beginning July 30. An antlerless license application will be printed with every general license purchased, and an application also will be available in the 2012-13 Hunting and Trapping Digest for the first and second round of unsold antlerless deer licenses. The first round of unsold antlerless licenses will begin, for residents and nonresidents, on Aug. 6, and the second round of unsold antlerless licenses will begin on Aug. 20.
Except for Wildlife Management Units (WMU) 2B, 5C and 5D, hunters may only apply for one license during each application period. Hunters applying for antlerless licenses in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D may apply for an unlimited number of antlerless deer licenses – however, the longstanding limit of three applications per envelope remains in effect.
'Hunters must use pink envelopes to mail antlerless deer license applications to the county treasurer's office of their choice to process the applications and mail back antlerless deer licenses,' Roe said. 'Hunters will have the option of listing their first, second and third WMU preferences for doe licenses on their applications. Treasurers will fill the highest WMU preference listed by the hunter. This option will eliminate reapplication for a doe license if your first WMU preference – or second – is sold out. However, hunters do not need to list alternative WMUs if they only plan to hunt in one specific WMU.'
A list of the mailing addresses for the 65 county treasurer offices that issue antlerless deer licenses is included in the 2012-13 Digest, which is provided to each license buyer. More details on the new procedures for applying for a doe license can be found in the Digest, which will be posted in the right-hand column of the agency's website by June 11.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Nissan Murano offers mature sophistication that’s sporty and luxurious
It was nearly 10 years ago that the world first set eyes on the Murano and it was stunning to see such avant-garde styling on an SUV. What had come before were closer to enclosed pick-up trucks with stiff suspensions and basic interiors.
The Murano introduced the possibility of futuristic styling, luxurious cabins and technology plus performance and handling. This was a game-changer.
For 2012 the Murano stays the course with the introduction of its “mobile suite” interior and more advanced technology with a new package for the LE model which we tested, the Platinum Edition.
The exterior shape is still distinctively Murano-esque yet no longer exclusive to Nissan. It has been updated to carry the latest arrow-shaped rear tail lights like the sporty 370Z. The front grille and fascia is all new with an intricate mosaic of shapes combining the high-intensity discharge bi-functional projector headlights, turn indicators and chrome grille.
The front bumper has a major overbite while a pair of projector-type driving lights frame the lower grille. Massive wheel arches, filled with special 20-inch, titanium finish alloy wheels on the Platinum Edition (why not call it the Titanium Edition?), flow up to the clamshell style hood and repeat at the rear. The side profile shows off the side glass’s signature triangular shape at the rear pillar, something the Murano introduced a decade ago.
The rear window is another complex shape that follows the flowing crest of the rear fenders and matches the angular tail lights with LED bulbs. Two chrome-tipped exhaust pipes exit through the lower edge of the rear bumper, proudly claiming their place in the sport SUV class.
The “mobile suite” interior is a pleasant balance of sport and luxury, again a Murano characteristic since Day 1. The Merlot (maroon) exterior of the test vehicle was complimented nicely by the tan leather interior, but I found the light colour was quick to show dirt.
The centre stack features one of the best navigation/info displays (seven-inch touchscreen) in the business with user-friendly graphic interface, menu structure and intelligent search capabilities and a rear-view camera when reversing. A Bose stereo with 11 speakers and a subwoofer ensure that you favourite music source sounds its best.
The heated leather-faced seats have eight-way adjustments for the driver while the rear seats have powered flip-up for convenience at the touch of a button.
All of the 2012 Muranos feature Nissan’s award-winning VQ series engine – a 3.5-litre DOHC V6 with 260 horsepower and 240 foot-pounds of torque. The engine incorporates a Twin Nissan Variable Induction Control System, microfinished camshaft and crankshaft surfaces, diamond-like-carbon-coated valve lifters, plastic resin intake manifold for weight-savings, forged crankshaft, digital knock control system, and a lightweight aluminum block with aluminum cylinder heads.
The engine power is transferred through an Xtronic continuously variable transmission with adaptive shift control that provides a sporty driving experience when using the paddle shifters and the fuel economy that a CVT can offer. Every 2012 Murano comes equipped with an “intuitive all-wheel drive system” that adjusts to road conditions in the blink of an eye. The system provides increased traction by distributing engine torque, depending on the driver’s intended direction and the actual direction of the vehicle. Vehicle dynamic control with a traction control system are standard on all Murano models.
The Murano introduced the possibility of futuristic styling, luxurious cabins and technology plus performance and handling. This was a game-changer.
For 2012 the Murano stays the course with the introduction of its “mobile suite” interior and more advanced technology with a new package for the LE model which we tested, the Platinum Edition.
The exterior shape is still distinctively Murano-esque yet no longer exclusive to Nissan. It has been updated to carry the latest arrow-shaped rear tail lights like the sporty 370Z. The front grille and fascia is all new with an intricate mosaic of shapes combining the high-intensity discharge bi-functional projector headlights, turn indicators and chrome grille.
The front bumper has a major overbite while a pair of projector-type driving lights frame the lower grille. Massive wheel arches, filled with special 20-inch, titanium finish alloy wheels on the Platinum Edition (why not call it the Titanium Edition?), flow up to the clamshell style hood and repeat at the rear. The side profile shows off the side glass’s signature triangular shape at the rear pillar, something the Murano introduced a decade ago.
The rear window is another complex shape that follows the flowing crest of the rear fenders and matches the angular tail lights with LED bulbs. Two chrome-tipped exhaust pipes exit through the lower edge of the rear bumper, proudly claiming their place in the sport SUV class.
The “mobile suite” interior is a pleasant balance of sport and luxury, again a Murano characteristic since Day 1. The Merlot (maroon) exterior of the test vehicle was complimented nicely by the tan leather interior, but I found the light colour was quick to show dirt.
The centre stack features one of the best navigation/info displays (seven-inch touchscreen) in the business with user-friendly graphic interface, menu structure and intelligent search capabilities and a rear-view camera when reversing. A Bose stereo with 11 speakers and a subwoofer ensure that you favourite music source sounds its best.
The heated leather-faced seats have eight-way adjustments for the driver while the rear seats have powered flip-up for convenience at the touch of a button.
All of the 2012 Muranos feature Nissan’s award-winning VQ series engine – a 3.5-litre DOHC V6 with 260 horsepower and 240 foot-pounds of torque. The engine incorporates a Twin Nissan Variable Induction Control System, microfinished camshaft and crankshaft surfaces, diamond-like-carbon-coated valve lifters, plastic resin intake manifold for weight-savings, forged crankshaft, digital knock control system, and a lightweight aluminum block with aluminum cylinder heads.
The engine power is transferred through an Xtronic continuously variable transmission with adaptive shift control that provides a sporty driving experience when using the paddle shifters and the fuel economy that a CVT can offer. Every 2012 Murano comes equipped with an “intuitive all-wheel drive system” that adjusts to road conditions in the blink of an eye. The system provides increased traction by distributing engine torque, depending on the driver’s intended direction and the actual direction of the vehicle. Vehicle dynamic control with a traction control system are standard on all Murano models.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
To her friend, merry widow seems to be obsessed with herself
Eight months ago, after a brief illness, my 57-year-old friend's husband passed away. Their marriage had always been a bit rocky, and after his death we learned that he'd been involved in some questionable activities. Needless to say, her emotions ran the gamut from disbelief to anger to grief.
During this time, I was there for her to listen, care and encourage, and supported her decision to seek professional counseling.
But now I'm concerned she might be moving too quickly through this process. In the past five months, she's had cosmetic surgery, lost a lot of weight, traveled internationally and moved into a new home. My friend is an exceptionally bright woman, and far more capable than most. She tells me, "Life is short, and I've decided to be happy." She's excited about potential summer romances with men she's meeting online. Our conversations are now 95 percent about her: her new body, all the men who are smitten with her, how great her job is, her new house and how much fun she's having. She shows little genuine interest in my life, which I suspect she considers a bit boring.
While I'm truly glad she's not miserable, our time together has become intolerable. Her self-absorption and lack of insight into how others might react to so many radical changes so quickly are perplexing. I briefly expressed some of my concerns, but her response was, "Would you rather see me as a maudlin, grieving widow?"
Is it possible to power through so many life changes so quickly without collateral damage? And how can I handle my discomfort in spending time with her?
You can stop conflating your dismay about her rudeness with concerns about the appropriateness of her recovery.
She had her disbelief, anger, grief and counseling. Now, she's having a party. If that sums up her emotional progression accurately, then I don't have much to say about it - except, good for her.
If there's more to it, if she's suffering, unmoored, overcompensating and headed for trouble, then that's obviously a concern; laying on the distractions is one common response to grief. However, she hasn't asked you - or me - for an opinion. Until you see some sign that she's in trouble or you're invited to comment, your place is on the sideline.
Full disclosure: Her "lack of insight into how others might react to so many radical changes so quickly" is a quality I wish I could patent and sell. It's her body, passport, address and life; if only more people were willing to perplex their loved ones with a giddy burst of renewal.
When "she shows little genuine interest" in your life, on the other hand, that's not about the way she's conducting her recovery; that's about the way she's conducting her end of your friendship, and that is your business.
So the answer to your second question, how to handle your discomfort, is to treat it as separate from her merry widowhood. Accordingly, tell her of your frustration without editorializing on her boob job. As in: "I don't begrudge you your new life. It's just that when we talk about it to the exclusion of other things, I feel as if my life no longer matters to you."
During this time, I was there for her to listen, care and encourage, and supported her decision to seek professional counseling.
But now I'm concerned she might be moving too quickly through this process. In the past five months, she's had cosmetic surgery, lost a lot of weight, traveled internationally and moved into a new home. My friend is an exceptionally bright woman, and far more capable than most. She tells me, "Life is short, and I've decided to be happy." She's excited about potential summer romances with men she's meeting online. Our conversations are now 95 percent about her: her new body, all the men who are smitten with her, how great her job is, her new house and how much fun she's having. She shows little genuine interest in my life, which I suspect she considers a bit boring.
While I'm truly glad she's not miserable, our time together has become intolerable. Her self-absorption and lack of insight into how others might react to so many radical changes so quickly are perplexing. I briefly expressed some of my concerns, but her response was, "Would you rather see me as a maudlin, grieving widow?"
Is it possible to power through so many life changes so quickly without collateral damage? And how can I handle my discomfort in spending time with her?
You can stop conflating your dismay about her rudeness with concerns about the appropriateness of her recovery.
She had her disbelief, anger, grief and counseling. Now, she's having a party. If that sums up her emotional progression accurately, then I don't have much to say about it - except, good for her.
If there's more to it, if she's suffering, unmoored, overcompensating and headed for trouble, then that's obviously a concern; laying on the distractions is one common response to grief. However, she hasn't asked you - or me - for an opinion. Until you see some sign that she's in trouble or you're invited to comment, your place is on the sideline.
Full disclosure: Her "lack of insight into how others might react to so many radical changes so quickly" is a quality I wish I could patent and sell. It's her body, passport, address and life; if only more people were willing to perplex their loved ones with a giddy burst of renewal.
When "she shows little genuine interest" in your life, on the other hand, that's not about the way she's conducting her recovery; that's about the way she's conducting her end of your friendship, and that is your business.
So the answer to your second question, how to handle your discomfort, is to treat it as separate from her merry widowhood. Accordingly, tell her of your frustration without editorializing on her boob job. As in: "I don't begrudge you your new life. It's just that when we talk about it to the exclusion of other things, I feel as if my life no longer matters to you."
Thursday, May 24, 2012
AChicago’s art spaces battened down during Nato summit
As protesters clashed with police at the recent Nato summit in Chicago, barricades were erected around two of the city's public works of art, while museums and art institutions increased security or closed altogether. Despite the preparations, or perhaps because of it, although the demonstrations were heated, no works of art were damaged.
Marc Chagall’s mosaic, The Four Seasons, which was dedicated to the city in 1974 but funded by the First National Bank of Chicago (later to become JP Morgan Chase) and so is privately owned, was completely boarded up at the foot of the Chase Tower. Picasso's untitled sculpture in Daley Plaza, which dates to 1967 and is owned by the Public Building Commission of Chicago, was fenced off a week before the Nato summit (20-21 May). Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Chicago's department of cultural affairs said before the summit that it had no plans to protect the works of art in public places under its jurisdiction, including those in Millennium Park. According to Dan Simon of the Glass and Metal Alliance, who was contracted to build a protective cover for the Chagall work, companies were urged not to board up their windows and to “carry on with business as usual”.
Michelle Obama hosted a dinner for Nato spouses at the Art Institute on Sunday, while hundreds of protesters gathered outside. Riot police were deployed, forming a circle around the building. Despite a few water bottles being thrown, the protesters dispersed peacefully and no damage was done to the museum building.
The directors of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute and the Fine Arts Building closed their institutions for the weekend—some fearing damage from protesters, with others anticipating road blocks and traffic jams.
Speaking before the summit, Robert Berger, the director of the Fine Arts Building, said he was shutting his building for four days because of the anti-Nato protests. The institution, which houses studios for more than 250 artists, is usually open seven days a week. “We are taking all measures to protect our artists, staff and our building,” Berger said, adding that the 1885 high rise on South Michigan Avenue is one of the oldest in Chicago.
Blake Biggerstaff, a photographer who works in the Fine Arts Building said many artists were concerned about the demonstrations and had rallied round. “We are right in the heart of the protests,” he said. “We are very protective of the building, it's a work of art in itself.” The institution brought in extra security and built a barricade in front of the building.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, located in downtown Chicago nearby several hotels where Nato leaders were staying, also closed for the weekend owing to temporary road blocks that made way for more than 100 motorcades. A spokeswoman said the museum had also employed extra security to protect the building and its contents while the summit and the protesters were in town.
Marc Chagall’s mosaic, The Four Seasons, which was dedicated to the city in 1974 but funded by the First National Bank of Chicago (later to become JP Morgan Chase) and so is privately owned, was completely boarded up at the foot of the Chase Tower. Picasso's untitled sculpture in Daley Plaza, which dates to 1967 and is owned by the Public Building Commission of Chicago, was fenced off a week before the Nato summit (20-21 May). Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Chicago's department of cultural affairs said before the summit that it had no plans to protect the works of art in public places under its jurisdiction, including those in Millennium Park. According to Dan Simon of the Glass and Metal Alliance, who was contracted to build a protective cover for the Chagall work, companies were urged not to board up their windows and to “carry on with business as usual”.
Michelle Obama hosted a dinner for Nato spouses at the Art Institute on Sunday, while hundreds of protesters gathered outside. Riot police were deployed, forming a circle around the building. Despite a few water bottles being thrown, the protesters dispersed peacefully and no damage was done to the museum building.
The directors of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute and the Fine Arts Building closed their institutions for the weekend—some fearing damage from protesters, with others anticipating road blocks and traffic jams.
Speaking before the summit, Robert Berger, the director of the Fine Arts Building, said he was shutting his building for four days because of the anti-Nato protests. The institution, which houses studios for more than 250 artists, is usually open seven days a week. “We are taking all measures to protect our artists, staff and our building,” Berger said, adding that the 1885 high rise on South Michigan Avenue is one of the oldest in Chicago.
Blake Biggerstaff, a photographer who works in the Fine Arts Building said many artists were concerned about the demonstrations and had rallied round. “We are right in the heart of the protests,” he said. “We are very protective of the building, it's a work of art in itself.” The institution brought in extra security and built a barricade in front of the building.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, located in downtown Chicago nearby several hotels where Nato leaders were staying, also closed for the weekend owing to temporary road blocks that made way for more than 100 motorcades. A spokeswoman said the museum had also employed extra security to protect the building and its contents while the summit and the protesters were in town.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Etherios Announces The Social Machine Powered By Axeda
Etherios and Axeda Corporation are enabling real-time data from connected machines and products to automatically populate a leading customer relationship management (CRM) solution, extending the value of key asset information company-wide. Axeda is the leading cloud-based service and software for managing connected products and delivering machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. Etherios is a cloud computing expert services provider, delivering customer success for hundreds of organizations.
By extending the Salesforce Service Cloud out to the connected asset, Etherios and Axeda are redefining customer service and technical support by providing users with a 360 degree view of their customer and product interactions in one place.
“We believe that the shift to a more social enterprise is a positive disruptive force for businesses around the world,” says Mike Dannenfeldt, founder and CEO, Etherios. “A big part of this shift is what we call The Social Machine, which Axeda has brought to life. They have been at the forefront of M2M for years and it is great to collaborate with a partner that not only understands the market and technology today, but where it will be five years from now.”
“Machines and products of all types are connecting to networks at a rapid rate. Axeda delivers a virtual cloud for these connected products that allows companies to listen to machine chatter and collaborate with assets as they would with their customers and employees,” said Keith Bartlett, Axeda’s vice president of business development. “Working with an expert integration partner like Etherios to enable cloud-to-cloud CRM integration will unlock the value of The Social Machine and its business intelligence for our customers.”
Recognized as an “Innovator in the Cloud,” Etherios has deep understanding of the Customer Service and Technical Support best practices as it relates to case management, assignment, workflow, routing, escalation, collaboration, reporting and analytics. Extending these processes out to additional constituents including Sales, Product Development and Engineering, and Supply Chain truly drives value throughout the customer’s organization.
Axeda and Etherios take advantage of customer service and support processes already deployed through the CRM solution and extend them out to The Social MachineTM. Through the integration, The Social MachineTM is also mobile-enabled through the CRM platform, providing access by field service technicians to key information via mobile devices.
Etherios is a cloud computing expert services provider, having helped hundreds of organizations develop and implement their IT strategies for cloud computing in CRM, system integration, training, and custom & mobile application development. Founded in 2008 by senior technical architects and professional services executives, Etherios advises on and draws from industry-leading cloud-based technologies also including Google, Apple, and Amazon Web Services to enable Customers' success.
Etherios’ partners and clientele range from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies across a diverse array of industries. Etherios’ deep understanding of custom, service and sales cloud solutions and its expansive multi-industry knowledge enable its consulting and development teams to produce best-in-class cloud computing solutions. Etherios has offices in Chicago and Dallas providing consulting, development & training services from coast to coast in the US and abroad.
By extending the Salesforce Service Cloud out to the connected asset, Etherios and Axeda are redefining customer service and technical support by providing users with a 360 degree view of their customer and product interactions in one place.
“We believe that the shift to a more social enterprise is a positive disruptive force for businesses around the world,” says Mike Dannenfeldt, founder and CEO, Etherios. “A big part of this shift is what we call The Social Machine, which Axeda has brought to life. They have been at the forefront of M2M for years and it is great to collaborate with a partner that not only understands the market and technology today, but where it will be five years from now.”
“Machines and products of all types are connecting to networks at a rapid rate. Axeda delivers a virtual cloud for these connected products that allows companies to listen to machine chatter and collaborate with assets as they would with their customers and employees,” said Keith Bartlett, Axeda’s vice president of business development. “Working with an expert integration partner like Etherios to enable cloud-to-cloud CRM integration will unlock the value of The Social Machine and its business intelligence for our customers.”
Recognized as an “Innovator in the Cloud,” Etherios has deep understanding of the Customer Service and Technical Support best practices as it relates to case management, assignment, workflow, routing, escalation, collaboration, reporting and analytics. Extending these processes out to additional constituents including Sales, Product Development and Engineering, and Supply Chain truly drives value throughout the customer’s organization.
Axeda and Etherios take advantage of customer service and support processes already deployed through the CRM solution and extend them out to The Social MachineTM. Through the integration, The Social MachineTM is also mobile-enabled through the CRM platform, providing access by field service technicians to key information via mobile devices.
Etherios is a cloud computing expert services provider, having helped hundreds of organizations develop and implement their IT strategies for cloud computing in CRM, system integration, training, and custom & mobile application development. Founded in 2008 by senior technical architects and professional services executives, Etherios advises on and draws from industry-leading cloud-based technologies also including Google, Apple, and Amazon Web Services to enable Customers' success.
Etherios’ partners and clientele range from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies across a diverse array of industries. Etherios’ deep understanding of custom, service and sales cloud solutions and its expansive multi-industry knowledge enable its consulting and development teams to produce best-in-class cloud computing solutions. Etherios has offices in Chicago and Dallas providing consulting, development & training services from coast to coast in the US and abroad.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Dedham artists showcase works at Open Studios event
The beautiful weather was second only to the beautiful artwork that filled Dedham’s common areas on Sunday. The second annual Dedham Open Studios featured 95 artists specializing in a variety of media, all celebrating with residents and other art-lovers all over town.
“We’re so excited about so many activities happening in Dedham for Open Studios,” said founder Jennifer Barsamian. “People come from all over the surrounding areas and we’re so happy to be able to showcase Dedham.”
The artists were able to display and even sell their work out of their own homes, or can choose to show with other artists in gathering places like the Endicott Estate, Dedham Community House, Allin Church, First Church and Parish and NewBridge on the Charles.
Court Street resident David Adler is a second time participant in Dedham Open Studios, and showed his framed nature photos on the front farmer’s porch of the home he shares with wife Liz Brown. Taken everywhere from the Galapagos Islands to Antarctica to their bedroom window, Adler’s photography started as something he just did on vacation. But when others started noticing what an eye he had for composition, he began a website and started displaying his work. A snapshot of orca whales he took from a raft off the coast of Antarctica even made it into the pages of Smithsonian Magazine in 2008.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, but it matters that you have it with you when you see something great,” said Adler, who is a full time computer software designer. “I always have a camera nearby.”
Eric and Lichtaim Medwid displayed their work at Dedham Community House—he with his watercolors and Peruvian textiles and she with her hand-rolled paper necklaces, a style reminiscent of her native Peru. Eric Medwid requested the community house location because the couple lives just down the street. It is his first year participating in Open Studios.
“I began just sketching and then started doing watercolors a few years ago,” said Eric Medwid, who is a full time carpenter and painter. “We thought this would be a nice place to display and meet some local people.”
Some of the paintings he had on display included one close up of the Dedham Public Library, another of Dedham Square and a third of a Boston lighthouse.
Dedham Square was blocked off to traffic for the afternoon, and a handful of large, ceramic rabbits held court in front of the Dedham Community Theatre. A part of Dedham Shine’s Dedham Public Art Project, it’s an initiative to publicly celebrate Dedham’s artistic heritage and bring a little whimsy to the streets.
“We’re so excited about so many activities happening in Dedham for Open Studios,” said founder Jennifer Barsamian. “People come from all over the surrounding areas and we’re so happy to be able to showcase Dedham.”
The artists were able to display and even sell their work out of their own homes, or can choose to show with other artists in gathering places like the Endicott Estate, Dedham Community House, Allin Church, First Church and Parish and NewBridge on the Charles.
Court Street resident David Adler is a second time participant in Dedham Open Studios, and showed his framed nature photos on the front farmer’s porch of the home he shares with wife Liz Brown. Taken everywhere from the Galapagos Islands to Antarctica to their bedroom window, Adler’s photography started as something he just did on vacation. But when others started noticing what an eye he had for composition, he began a website and started displaying his work. A snapshot of orca whales he took from a raft off the coast of Antarctica even made it into the pages of Smithsonian Magazine in 2008.
“It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have, but it matters that you have it with you when you see something great,” said Adler, who is a full time computer software designer. “I always have a camera nearby.”
Eric and Lichtaim Medwid displayed their work at Dedham Community House—he with his watercolors and Peruvian textiles and she with her hand-rolled paper necklaces, a style reminiscent of her native Peru. Eric Medwid requested the community house location because the couple lives just down the street. It is his first year participating in Open Studios.
“I began just sketching and then started doing watercolors a few years ago,” said Eric Medwid, who is a full time carpenter and painter. “We thought this would be a nice place to display and meet some local people.”
Some of the paintings he had on display included one close up of the Dedham Public Library, another of Dedham Square and a third of a Boston lighthouse.
Dedham Square was blocked off to traffic for the afternoon, and a handful of large, ceramic rabbits held court in front of the Dedham Community Theatre. A part of Dedham Shine’s Dedham Public Art Project, it’s an initiative to publicly celebrate Dedham’s artistic heritage and bring a little whimsy to the streets.
Monday, May 21, 2012
What's the next Facebook
Facebook is trying to be the "forever network."
When the company's hoodie-wearing CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a new feature called Timeline in September, he proclaimed that Facebook would be the website - or social network or app or whatever - to catalogue life from birth to death. The site even created a place for users to upload their baby photos, to signify the start of their Facebook lives.
This, of course, has happened in Internet history before. There was a time when tech pundits thought MySpace, Friendster and AltaVista would be around (and relevant) forever, too. But what's strange about Facebook's audacious birth-to-death claim is that, to many people, it didn't seem all that strange.
Maybe Facebook can last forever. Maybe, 901 million users later, it truly is something different.
As Facebook goes public, one question the non-Wall Street crowd should ask is this: Can anything ever replace Facebook? And, if so, what might that look like? If not, what could even compete with Facebook at this point?
Some writers, including Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic, have argued it's high time for the post-Facebook era to emerge. Plenty people seem to agree with that. A recent poll from the Associated Press and CNBC found half of Americans think Facebook is a "passing fad," according to Time's tech blog.
That may all be wishful thinking, though. More likely, we're coming to a time when apps and micro-social-networks don't dislodge Facebook but at least compete with it in some respects - or even augment its capabilities. The scrappy photo-sharing app Instagram did that. So did Glancee, a "social discovery" mobile app. But, obviously, Facebook bought both of those.
Here's a list of 9 sites and apps that kinda-maybe-sorta could challenge Facebook's dominance. Or, at the very least, offer a partial alternative. Check them out and feel free to fight with us about the list in the comments.
Highlight (number of users unpublished): This "social discovery" app was the buzz at this year's South by Southwest Interactive, a conference in Austin, Texas, that makes or breaks many tech start-ups. Essentially, the app aims to give people real-time information about the people all around them. "San Francisco is a city of 800,000 strangers," Highlight founder Paul Davison told Time. "You sit on the bus next to each other. You stand in line next to each other. You go to bars and meetups to meet each other. You walk by each other on the street. And you don't know anything about anyone you see." Highlight gives users a "sixth sense" about what these people all around you like and dislike, and whether you might be friends.
Path (3 million users) Founded by ex-Facebooker Dave Morin, Path has a couple things going for it that Facebook doesn't: It's mobile-first, which is important in a world where people tend to network on their phones more and more than on their desktop computers; and it's intimate. Path caps users' friend lists at 50 people, ensuring that you're actually communicating as the real you with people who you really know in real life. "Path is really focused on close friends and family, and developing deeper and more intimate relationships between the 50 closest people in your life," Morin told CNN last year. An app redesign won Path a new wave of support from the early-adopting tech public, but a privacy snafu in February, during which it was revealed that Path stored users' phone contact lists, may have eroded the trust of some people. Morin apologized for that data slip, saying it was accidental and had been remedied.
Pinterest (11.5 million monthly active users connected through Facebook, according to AppData) A recent report from the marketing firm Experian declared Pinterest "the hottest social media start-up since Facebook and YouTube." The site lets users "pin" photos of their favorite Internet findings onto personal boards, which can be shared with friends or kept private. Pinterest actually launched in March 2010, without much notice from the tech taste makers in Silicon Valley. It surged in popularity in late 2011 and early this year and, according to Experian's report, is the third most-visited social networking site in the United States, excluding mobile usage. The site is especially popular with people who are design- and art-minded, or who are trying to plan events or decorate a new house. Also: President Obama uses it. But there have been questions of late about whether the site's popularity is waning.
When the company's hoodie-wearing CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a new feature called Timeline in September, he proclaimed that Facebook would be the website - or social network or app or whatever - to catalogue life from birth to death. The site even created a place for users to upload their baby photos, to signify the start of their Facebook lives.
This, of course, has happened in Internet history before. There was a time when tech pundits thought MySpace, Friendster and AltaVista would be around (and relevant) forever, too. But what's strange about Facebook's audacious birth-to-death claim is that, to many people, it didn't seem all that strange.
Maybe Facebook can last forever. Maybe, 901 million users later, it truly is something different.
As Facebook goes public, one question the non-Wall Street crowd should ask is this: Can anything ever replace Facebook? And, if so, what might that look like? If not, what could even compete with Facebook at this point?
Some writers, including Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic, have argued it's high time for the post-Facebook era to emerge. Plenty people seem to agree with that. A recent poll from the Associated Press and CNBC found half of Americans think Facebook is a "passing fad," according to Time's tech blog.
That may all be wishful thinking, though. More likely, we're coming to a time when apps and micro-social-networks don't dislodge Facebook but at least compete with it in some respects - or even augment its capabilities. The scrappy photo-sharing app Instagram did that. So did Glancee, a "social discovery" mobile app. But, obviously, Facebook bought both of those.
Here's a list of 9 sites and apps that kinda-maybe-sorta could challenge Facebook's dominance. Or, at the very least, offer a partial alternative. Check them out and feel free to fight with us about the list in the comments.
Highlight (number of users unpublished): This "social discovery" app was the buzz at this year's South by Southwest Interactive, a conference in Austin, Texas, that makes or breaks many tech start-ups. Essentially, the app aims to give people real-time information about the people all around them. "San Francisco is a city of 800,000 strangers," Highlight founder Paul Davison told Time. "You sit on the bus next to each other. You stand in line next to each other. You go to bars and meetups to meet each other. You walk by each other on the street. And you don't know anything about anyone you see." Highlight gives users a "sixth sense" about what these people all around you like and dislike, and whether you might be friends.
Path (3 million users) Founded by ex-Facebooker Dave Morin, Path has a couple things going for it that Facebook doesn't: It's mobile-first, which is important in a world where people tend to network on their phones more and more than on their desktop computers; and it's intimate. Path caps users' friend lists at 50 people, ensuring that you're actually communicating as the real you with people who you really know in real life. "Path is really focused on close friends and family, and developing deeper and more intimate relationships between the 50 closest people in your life," Morin told CNN last year. An app redesign won Path a new wave of support from the early-adopting tech public, but a privacy snafu in February, during which it was revealed that Path stored users' phone contact lists, may have eroded the trust of some people. Morin apologized for that data slip, saying it was accidental and had been remedied.
Pinterest (11.5 million monthly active users connected through Facebook, according to AppData) A recent report from the marketing firm Experian declared Pinterest "the hottest social media start-up since Facebook and YouTube." The site lets users "pin" photos of their favorite Internet findings onto personal boards, which can be shared with friends or kept private. Pinterest actually launched in March 2010, without much notice from the tech taste makers in Silicon Valley. It surged in popularity in late 2011 and early this year and, according to Experian's report, is the third most-visited social networking site in the United States, excluding mobile usage. The site is especially popular with people who are design- and art-minded, or who are trying to plan events or decorate a new house. Also: President Obama uses it. But there have been questions of late about whether the site's popularity is waning.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Powerful quake kills at least 3 in northern Italy
One of the strongest earthquakes to shake northern Italy rattled the region around Bologna early Sunday, a magnitude-6.0 temblor that killed at least three people, toppled some buildings and sent residents running into the streets, emergency services and news reports said.
The quake struck at 4:04 a.m. Sunday between Modena and Mantova, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north-northwest of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3.2 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
It was one of the strongest quakes to shake the region, seismologists said, and initial television footage indicated that older buildings had suffered damage: roofs collapsed, church towers showed cracks and the bricks of some stone walls tumbled into the street. As dawn broke over the region, residents milled about the streets inspecting the damage.
Italian news agency ANSA, citing emergency services, said two people were killed in Sant'Agostino di Ferrara when a ceramics factory collapsed. Another person was killed in Ponte Rodoni do Bondeno, ANSA said.
Italy's Sky TG24 showed images of the collapsed ceramics factory where the two workers were reportedly killed; the structure, which appeared to be a hangar of sorts, had twisted metal supports jutting out at odd angles amid the mangled collapsed roof.
"It was a strong one, and it lasted quite a long time," said Emilio Bianco, receptionist at Modena's Canalgrande hotel, housed in an ornate 18th century palazzo. The hotel suffered no damage and Modena itself was spared, but guests spilled into the streets as soon as the quake hit, he said.
Many people were still awake at 4 a.m. and milling about town anyway since it was a "white night," with stores and restaurants open all night. Museums were supposed to have remained open as well but closed following the bombing Saturday of a school in southern Italy that killed one person.
The epicenter was between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide but was felt as far away as Tuscany and northern Alto Adige.
The initial quake was followed about an hour later by a 5.1-magnitude temblor, USGS said. And it was preceded by a 4.1-temblor.
In late January, a 5.4-magnitude quake shook northern Italy. Some office buildings in Milan were evacuated as a precaution and there were scattered reports of falling masonry and cracks in buildings.
In 2009, a devastating temblor killed more than 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila.
The quake struck at 4:04 a.m. Sunday between Modena and Mantova, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north-northwest of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3.2 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.
It was one of the strongest quakes to shake the region, seismologists said, and initial television footage indicated that older buildings had suffered damage: roofs collapsed, church towers showed cracks and the bricks of some stone walls tumbled into the street. As dawn broke over the region, residents milled about the streets inspecting the damage.
Italian news agency ANSA, citing emergency services, said two people were killed in Sant'Agostino di Ferrara when a ceramics factory collapsed. Another person was killed in Ponte Rodoni do Bondeno, ANSA said.
Italy's Sky TG24 showed images of the collapsed ceramics factory where the two workers were reportedly killed; the structure, which appeared to be a hangar of sorts, had twisted metal supports jutting out at odd angles amid the mangled collapsed roof.
"It was a strong one, and it lasted quite a long time," said Emilio Bianco, receptionist at Modena's Canalgrande hotel, housed in an ornate 18th century palazzo. The hotel suffered no damage and Modena itself was spared, but guests spilled into the streets as soon as the quake hit, he said.
Many people were still awake at 4 a.m. and milling about town anyway since it was a "white night," with stores and restaurants open all night. Museums were supposed to have remained open as well but closed following the bombing Saturday of a school in southern Italy that killed one person.
The epicenter was between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide but was felt as far away as Tuscany and northern Alto Adige.
The initial quake was followed about an hour later by a 5.1-magnitude temblor, USGS said. And it was preceded by a 4.1-temblor.
In late January, a 5.4-magnitude quake shook northern Italy. Some office buildings in Milan were evacuated as a precaution and there were scattered reports of falling masonry and cracks in buildings.
In 2009, a devastating temblor killed more than 300 people in the central city of L'Aquila.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Hands-on with The Secret World's mission system
So The Secret World's mission system treads well off the beaten MMO path. It's pretty cool, actually, though portions of it may irritate quest-grinders who just want to blow through zones on their way to the game's equivalent of a max-level toon.
For the rest of us, there's a nifty interface, some challenging puzzles, and plenty of well-written quest text and dialogue to keep us entertained for weeks at a time.
Why should you do missions? Well, apart from the fact that they give out the game's largest ability point and skill point rewards, they're the primary thing that sets The Secret World apart from its MMO contemporaries. Funcom has poured a lot of effort into the game's backstory, and it shows in details ranging from quest text descriptions (which, contrary to quests in your typical MMO, are actually vital to understanding and completing some of the more challenging missions) to voiced dialogue to little details like pop-up phone book pages or manhole cover closeups.
There's a classic adventure game feel to The Secret World, which is no accident given the involvement of Ragnar Tornquist (creator of Dreamfall and The Longest Journey). Don't get me wrong; there are the usual MMO kill and fetch quests too, but these are fewer than you might expect, and they're dressed up quite nicely with plenty of atmosphere and a sense of purpose beyond getting to max level.
The Secret World has seven different mission types: story, action, item, investigation, sabotage, group/dungeon, and PvP. Each of these types is represented by an iPhone-style icon both on the UI's quest tracker (floating under your minimap at screen right) and hovering next to the NPC's head in the game world proper. That probably sounds a bit complicated when you read it, but the actual experience is pretty slick.
It did take me a minute to figure out that I had to re-click each icon to collapse the appropriate menu tree, but once I had that down, the NPC interface really grew on me.
Each mission is sub-divided into tiers, which consist of a series of objectives like talk to this guy, follow these clues to this location, or kill these guys. Tiers must be completed in order, and once all tiers are complete, you'll get an on-screen pop-up directing you to phone in your success to a faction representative. This is fantastic because it eliminates the tedious travel-back-to-the-NPC-who-gave-you-the-quest bollux that is so common in themepark MMOs.
Questing in The Secret World requires a completely different mindset when compared to your average MMO. You shouldn't try to finish every quest in a particular "hub" (chances are you won't be able to acquire them all anyway). Rather, concentrate on the story quest for a given area. The Kingsmouth story quest has a whopping 18 tiers, for example, and if you follow it through to completion, it will give you a comprehensive tour of the zone and lead you across other quest NPCs who will hand out supplementary mission types.
That's not to say you should ignore everything but the story quests. There are a ton of other objectives buried inside the aforementioned mission types. And while I'm thinking about them, let's go over those real quick. Rather than a big wall o' text, here's a bullet list for simplicity's sake.
Some of these missions have prerequisites (denoted by a padlock symbol). Some are repeatable, usually to the tune of a 24-hour cooldown (though this is rumored to be temporary, post-launch cooldowns may be longer). Many have spiffy cinematic cutscenes that play upon acceptance (don't skip these, at least initially, because some of them contain vital information). Funcom apparently took some criticisms on Age of Conan to heart, as these quest cinematics are evident throughout the game, whereas in AoC they stopped at level 20 aside from the destiny line.
I should also mention the quest system's limitations. Funcom has made a conscious design decision to limit a player's ability to gobble up quests and mow through them like some sort of steroid-powered MMO Pac-Man. What do I mean, specifically? Well, you can have only a single story, action, sabotage, investigation, or dungeon mission active at a given time. Item missions may be accepted in groups of three at a time. I'm not sure about PvP missions because I haven't done any yet (more on that in a later article).
It's also worth noting that you can't drop a mission. Let's say that I'm frustrated with The Kingsmouth Code investigation mission. I can either try one of the other mission types in my journal or accept another investigation mission, which will then pause The Kingsmouth Code. Whenever I feel like resuming The Kingsmouth Code, I'll need to go back to the original NPC to unpause it. If I've already completed several tiers, it will unpause with those tiers marked complete.
Now that we've got the technical nuts and bolts out of the way, allow me to give you a few impressions on questing in the game's Kingsmouth zone. Don't worry; I'm not going to spoil anything, as figuring out some of these mysteries is a large part of what makes The Secret World a unique title.
For the rest of us, there's a nifty interface, some challenging puzzles, and plenty of well-written quest text and dialogue to keep us entertained for weeks at a time.
Why should you do missions? Well, apart from the fact that they give out the game's largest ability point and skill point rewards, they're the primary thing that sets The Secret World apart from its MMO contemporaries. Funcom has poured a lot of effort into the game's backstory, and it shows in details ranging from quest text descriptions (which, contrary to quests in your typical MMO, are actually vital to understanding and completing some of the more challenging missions) to voiced dialogue to little details like pop-up phone book pages or manhole cover closeups.
There's a classic adventure game feel to The Secret World, which is no accident given the involvement of Ragnar Tornquist (creator of Dreamfall and The Longest Journey). Don't get me wrong; there are the usual MMO kill and fetch quests too, but these are fewer than you might expect, and they're dressed up quite nicely with plenty of atmosphere and a sense of purpose beyond getting to max level.
The Secret World has seven different mission types: story, action, item, investigation, sabotage, group/dungeon, and PvP. Each of these types is represented by an iPhone-style icon both on the UI's quest tracker (floating under your minimap at screen right) and hovering next to the NPC's head in the game world proper. That probably sounds a bit complicated when you read it, but the actual experience is pretty slick.
It did take me a minute to figure out that I had to re-click each icon to collapse the appropriate menu tree, but once I had that down, the NPC interface really grew on me.
Each mission is sub-divided into tiers, which consist of a series of objectives like talk to this guy, follow these clues to this location, or kill these guys. Tiers must be completed in order, and once all tiers are complete, you'll get an on-screen pop-up directing you to phone in your success to a faction representative. This is fantastic because it eliminates the tedious travel-back-to-the-NPC-who-gave-you-the-quest bollux that is so common in themepark MMOs.
Questing in The Secret World requires a completely different mindset when compared to your average MMO. You shouldn't try to finish every quest in a particular "hub" (chances are you won't be able to acquire them all anyway). Rather, concentrate on the story quest for a given area. The Kingsmouth story quest has a whopping 18 tiers, for example, and if you follow it through to completion, it will give you a comprehensive tour of the zone and lead you across other quest NPCs who will hand out supplementary mission types.
That's not to say you should ignore everything but the story quests. There are a ton of other objectives buried inside the aforementioned mission types. And while I'm thinking about them, let's go over those real quick. Rather than a big wall o' text, here's a bullet list for simplicity's sake.
Some of these missions have prerequisites (denoted by a padlock symbol). Some are repeatable, usually to the tune of a 24-hour cooldown (though this is rumored to be temporary, post-launch cooldowns may be longer). Many have spiffy cinematic cutscenes that play upon acceptance (don't skip these, at least initially, because some of them contain vital information). Funcom apparently took some criticisms on Age of Conan to heart, as these quest cinematics are evident throughout the game, whereas in AoC they stopped at level 20 aside from the destiny line.
I should also mention the quest system's limitations. Funcom has made a conscious design decision to limit a player's ability to gobble up quests and mow through them like some sort of steroid-powered MMO Pac-Man. What do I mean, specifically? Well, you can have only a single story, action, sabotage, investigation, or dungeon mission active at a given time. Item missions may be accepted in groups of three at a time. I'm not sure about PvP missions because I haven't done any yet (more on that in a later article).
It's also worth noting that you can't drop a mission. Let's say that I'm frustrated with The Kingsmouth Code investigation mission. I can either try one of the other mission types in my journal or accept another investigation mission, which will then pause The Kingsmouth Code. Whenever I feel like resuming The Kingsmouth Code, I'll need to go back to the original NPC to unpause it. If I've already completed several tiers, it will unpause with those tiers marked complete.
Now that we've got the technical nuts and bolts out of the way, allow me to give you a few impressions on questing in the game's Kingsmouth zone. Don't worry; I'm not going to spoil anything, as figuring out some of these mysteries is a large part of what makes The Secret World a unique title.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
With state weak, Libyans look to God for help
Mohamed Salem believes it was divine intervention that saved the Muslim holy site where he works from being destroyed.
In early March, word reached the keepers of the ornate shrine, the most important of its kind in Libya, that ultra-conservative Salafis were on their way to destroy it as part of a campaign to wipe out any symbols they see as idolatrous.
The curators sent for help. Volunteer militia units came from nearby towns. They surrounded the shrine complex - which houses the tomb of the 15th-century Sufi scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar - with pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft weapons, and waited to repel the attack.
Then a sandstorm, rare at that time of year, whipped up and shrouded the mosque from view. The attack never came.
"The dust was so thick and the wind so strong you couldn't see your hand in front of you," said Salem, a caretaker and religious teacher at the complex. "God protected the grave of this scholarly man and protected us from harm."
Since last year's revolt ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule over Libya, people have grown used to looking to their own resources, or to God, to help them out, because they feel they cannot count on their government.
The struggle over this shrine in Zlitan, about 160 km (90 miles) west of the Libyan capital, is the story of Libya as it struggles to re-shape itself after Gaddafi's rule.
It is the story of the battle for the right to define what it means to be a Muslim in Libya, of theological arguments being settled by weapons, and of an interim government that is so weak that it cannot impose its authority over opposing factions.
The ending has not yet been written.
The conflict over the al-Asmar tomb and hundreds of other shrines like it has not been resolved. Instead, the National Transitional Council (NTC) has postponed a decision by ordering that all the shrines be closed until it decided on a way out.
"We are keeping this subject on hold," said NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy. "We have other subjects which are more important than the graves right now."
One afternoon in March, Salem unlocked and pushed open the door to the shrine, at the centre of the complex which also includes a school and a mosque.
A burst of incense and musk greeted him as he slipped off his slippers and muttered a short prayer before entering the cool room.
The coffin of al-Asmar stood inside, covered with Turkish rugs and surrounded by intricate blue and white mosaic patterns on the wall.
Students from all over Libya come to study Islamic law and to memorize the Islamic holy book, the Koran, at the university and school built around the shrine. Now, numbers are down.
In the school halls, the voices of young boys and girls echo in unison.
"We usually have 600 girls a day come to memorize Koran, but the parents are now afraid the Salafis will attack so only 100 show up," said teacher Wafa al-Ati.
Sufism, a mystical strain of Islam, dates back to the faith's early days. Apart from the standard prayers, Sufi devotions include singing hymns, chanting the names of God or dancing to heighten awareness of the divine.
Sufis also build shrines to revered holy men and scholars and make pilgrimages to them. There are hundreds of the shrines all over Libya. Even Gaddafi, with his ambivalent attitude to religion, did not try to interfere in a practice that is so deep-seated in Libyan culture.
But since the end of Gaddafi's rule, a new trend has emerged to challenge Sufi traditions.
Under Gaddafi's rule, many Salafis were jailed for their beliefs and those not imprisoned spent years avoiding any outward manifestation of their beliefs.
Files from Gaddafi's internal security agency, seen by Reuters after the revolt, show there was a special department set up to track hardline Islamists. Anyone suspected of affiliation was denied the right to travel abroad, enroll in university or take public sector jobs.
Since that system of repression collapsed, Salafis have become emboldened. Some have acquired weapons and used them to enforce their ultra-purist view of Islam.
The Salafis believe Islam should be followed in the simple, ascetic form practiced by the Prophet Mohammed and his disciples. Any later additions to the faith -- including tombs or lavish grave markings - are viewed by them as idolatry.
They have alarmed many secularist Libyans by trying to enforce their strict moral code. The Salafis have burned down halls were parties are held and harassed women who do not cover their heads.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, organizers of a rap concert featuring a famous Tunisian artist were forced to cancel the event after being threatened by a Salafi brigade called Libya's Shield.
Worried that the Salafis would attack their joyful annual parades to celebrate the Prophet Mohammad's birthday in February, Sufi mosques sought safety in numbers and held a joint procession in Tripoli's walled old city. The event, which Salafis also consider idolatrous, went off without incident.
The main front in their campaign has been their attacks on Sufi shrines, which are a traditional part of Libyan Islam. Dozens have been demolished all around the country and the bodies of their holy men dug up and dumped elsewhere.
The defenders of the shrine in Zlitan believe a Salafi militia, called the Thalath Salafi brigade, was behind the aborted attack on the complex.
The brigade is stationed in a former military base in the nearby town of Khoms. Commanders declined an interview with Reuters but in March, a spokesman addressed an angry crowd calling for their departure from the town.
"Having any sign or tomb marking a grave is a form of infidelity and must be removed," said the spokesman for the brigade, Jalal al-Gheit. "We prefer to call it a reorganization of the graves."
The evidence of the Salafi campaign can be seen at what remains of the Sidi Gibran shrine, also in Zlitan.
Large concrete pieces attached to metal wires dangle from where the roof used to be. A hole filled with rubble remains where the grave of the holy man, after whom the shrine is named, was dug up.
The shrine's caretaker, who lives nearby, said he witnessed the desecration one afternoon when he heard the rumble of a tractor outside his house.
"I walked out and was surprised to see 16 bearded Salafis carrying Kalashnikovs, and breaking the tomb using a Caterpillar tractor," said Faraj al-Shimi. "They all ran away when I threatened to call the police."
In early March, word reached the keepers of the ornate shrine, the most important of its kind in Libya, that ultra-conservative Salafis were on their way to destroy it as part of a campaign to wipe out any symbols they see as idolatrous.
The curators sent for help. Volunteer militia units came from nearby towns. They surrounded the shrine complex - which houses the tomb of the 15th-century Sufi scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar - with pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft weapons, and waited to repel the attack.
Then a sandstorm, rare at that time of year, whipped up and shrouded the mosque from view. The attack never came.
"The dust was so thick and the wind so strong you couldn't see your hand in front of you," said Salem, a caretaker and religious teacher at the complex. "God protected the grave of this scholarly man and protected us from harm."
Since last year's revolt ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule over Libya, people have grown used to looking to their own resources, or to God, to help them out, because they feel they cannot count on their government.
The struggle over this shrine in Zlitan, about 160 km (90 miles) west of the Libyan capital, is the story of Libya as it struggles to re-shape itself after Gaddafi's rule.
It is the story of the battle for the right to define what it means to be a Muslim in Libya, of theological arguments being settled by weapons, and of an interim government that is so weak that it cannot impose its authority over opposing factions.
The ending has not yet been written.
The conflict over the al-Asmar tomb and hundreds of other shrines like it has not been resolved. Instead, the National Transitional Council (NTC) has postponed a decision by ordering that all the shrines be closed until it decided on a way out.
"We are keeping this subject on hold," said NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy. "We have other subjects which are more important than the graves right now."
One afternoon in March, Salem unlocked and pushed open the door to the shrine, at the centre of the complex which also includes a school and a mosque.
A burst of incense and musk greeted him as he slipped off his slippers and muttered a short prayer before entering the cool room.
The coffin of al-Asmar stood inside, covered with Turkish rugs and surrounded by intricate blue and white mosaic patterns on the wall.
Students from all over Libya come to study Islamic law and to memorize the Islamic holy book, the Koran, at the university and school built around the shrine. Now, numbers are down.
In the school halls, the voices of young boys and girls echo in unison.
"We usually have 600 girls a day come to memorize Koran, but the parents are now afraid the Salafis will attack so only 100 show up," said teacher Wafa al-Ati.
Sufism, a mystical strain of Islam, dates back to the faith's early days. Apart from the standard prayers, Sufi devotions include singing hymns, chanting the names of God or dancing to heighten awareness of the divine.
Sufis also build shrines to revered holy men and scholars and make pilgrimages to them. There are hundreds of the shrines all over Libya. Even Gaddafi, with his ambivalent attitude to religion, did not try to interfere in a practice that is so deep-seated in Libyan culture.
But since the end of Gaddafi's rule, a new trend has emerged to challenge Sufi traditions.
Under Gaddafi's rule, many Salafis were jailed for their beliefs and those not imprisoned spent years avoiding any outward manifestation of their beliefs.
Files from Gaddafi's internal security agency, seen by Reuters after the revolt, show there was a special department set up to track hardline Islamists. Anyone suspected of affiliation was denied the right to travel abroad, enroll in university or take public sector jobs.
Since that system of repression collapsed, Salafis have become emboldened. Some have acquired weapons and used them to enforce their ultra-purist view of Islam.
The Salafis believe Islam should be followed in the simple, ascetic form practiced by the Prophet Mohammed and his disciples. Any later additions to the faith -- including tombs or lavish grave markings - are viewed by them as idolatry.
They have alarmed many secularist Libyans by trying to enforce their strict moral code. The Salafis have burned down halls were parties are held and harassed women who do not cover their heads.
In the eastern city of Benghazi, organizers of a rap concert featuring a famous Tunisian artist were forced to cancel the event after being threatened by a Salafi brigade called Libya's Shield.
Worried that the Salafis would attack their joyful annual parades to celebrate the Prophet Mohammad's birthday in February, Sufi mosques sought safety in numbers and held a joint procession in Tripoli's walled old city. The event, which Salafis also consider idolatrous, went off without incident.
The main front in their campaign has been their attacks on Sufi shrines, which are a traditional part of Libyan Islam. Dozens have been demolished all around the country and the bodies of their holy men dug up and dumped elsewhere.
The defenders of the shrine in Zlitan believe a Salafi militia, called the Thalath Salafi brigade, was behind the aborted attack on the complex.
The brigade is stationed in a former military base in the nearby town of Khoms. Commanders declined an interview with Reuters but in March, a spokesman addressed an angry crowd calling for their departure from the town.
"Having any sign or tomb marking a grave is a form of infidelity and must be removed," said the spokesman for the brigade, Jalal al-Gheit. "We prefer to call it a reorganization of the graves."
The evidence of the Salafi campaign can be seen at what remains of the Sidi Gibran shrine, also in Zlitan.
Large concrete pieces attached to metal wires dangle from where the roof used to be. A hole filled with rubble remains where the grave of the holy man, after whom the shrine is named, was dug up.
The shrine's caretaker, who lives nearby, said he witnessed the desecration one afternoon when he heard the rumble of a tractor outside his house.
"I walked out and was surprised to see 16 bearded Salafis carrying Kalashnikovs, and breaking the tomb using a Caterpillar tractor," said Faraj al-Shimi. "They all ran away when I threatened to call the police."
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Cubemen Review
Developed by 3 Sprockets for the iPad 2 and third-generation iPad, Cubemen is a stripped-down strategy and tower defense game. The geometric cubemen of the game’s namesake are divided into two competing forces that do battle on grid-like, multi-dimensional levels. The goal of each stage is to defeat the enemy forces while defending your spawn point.
Despite the game’s simplistic art, there’s a reason why the app won’t fit onto your iPhone: Cubemen requires a great deal of precision to play, and that means fully using the iPad’s screen to see the entire scope of the battlefield and deploy your little murderous geometric troops.
In the game’s classic tower defense mode, for example, you must deploy your troops from their spawn point on the map. This requires you to tap your finger on the destination of your new soldier, an exacting gesture that would likely be lost on a smaller screen. Enemies will appear in waves from red spawn points, and knowing where to deploy your troops to maximize their abilities is key to your survival.
You’ll have seven unique soldiers to use in battle, ranging from quick and disposable pistol infantry to valuable and expensive “Lazlo” soldiers armed with powerful heavy weapons. The seven soldier types provide plenty of variety, though some are more useful tactically than others. Flamethrower troops are great in close combat but useless when not hidden by cover, and the aforementioned Lazlo troops are the most powerful units in the game—if you’re producing three or more of these, you’re usually on your way to victory.
Unlike most tower defense games, however, you’re able to redeploy your troops at will. You earn more troops by destroying enemies, so refortifying positions with more advanced troops is a must. The game is sufficiently challenging with the enemy AI to keep you entertained for hours. But be warned—the redundant soundtrack and minimalist art design almost necessitate short play sessions.
The skirmish mode pits you on equal footing with your enemy: Both you and your enemy spawn waves of grunt soldiers, while you can also augment your army by buying troops. The resulting game resembles the famed World of Warcraft mod “Defense of the Ancients” in its gameplay. The strategy lies in destroying the enemy grunts while securing your position and earning currency for more advanced units.
The catch with skirmish mode is that you can only deploy your soldiers to spaces not currently occupied or not tagged for occupation by your enemy. So if you want to deploy a soldier two spaces from your spawn point, but your enemy has already sent a trooper to that exact point, you’re out of luck. (This grows increasingly frustrating if the enemy’s soldier hasn’t even arrived yet but is on route.) I’m not sure I qualify this as a flaw in the game, but it’s certainly a tactical consideration the player must be aware of—and it does, of course, cut both ways. I’d often send waves of flamethrower troopers toward the enemy base, hoping to clear out many enemies at the same time.
There’s dearth of good strategy games on the iOS, and Cubemen is refreshing in its complexity and challenge. Succeeding on even the medium level of difficulty requires more than a single try, and the more advanced missions require some real cunning. The game’s controls are up to the task for the most part, recognizing most of my tap commands even when they were initiated in panicked moments of battle.
Aside from challenge, the game provides some elements of replayability thanks to networked multiplayer skirmish feature and the occasional appearance of colored crates that grant the player bonuses. These crates can often swing the course of battle so they’re very useful, if rare.
Despite the game’s simplistic art, there’s a reason why the app won’t fit onto your iPhone: Cubemen requires a great deal of precision to play, and that means fully using the iPad’s screen to see the entire scope of the battlefield and deploy your little murderous geometric troops.
In the game’s classic tower defense mode, for example, you must deploy your troops from their spawn point on the map. This requires you to tap your finger on the destination of your new soldier, an exacting gesture that would likely be lost on a smaller screen. Enemies will appear in waves from red spawn points, and knowing where to deploy your troops to maximize their abilities is key to your survival.
You’ll have seven unique soldiers to use in battle, ranging from quick and disposable pistol infantry to valuable and expensive “Lazlo” soldiers armed with powerful heavy weapons. The seven soldier types provide plenty of variety, though some are more useful tactically than others. Flamethrower troops are great in close combat but useless when not hidden by cover, and the aforementioned Lazlo troops are the most powerful units in the game—if you’re producing three or more of these, you’re usually on your way to victory.
Unlike most tower defense games, however, you’re able to redeploy your troops at will. You earn more troops by destroying enemies, so refortifying positions with more advanced troops is a must. The game is sufficiently challenging with the enemy AI to keep you entertained for hours. But be warned—the redundant soundtrack and minimalist art design almost necessitate short play sessions.
The skirmish mode pits you on equal footing with your enemy: Both you and your enemy spawn waves of grunt soldiers, while you can also augment your army by buying troops. The resulting game resembles the famed World of Warcraft mod “Defense of the Ancients” in its gameplay. The strategy lies in destroying the enemy grunts while securing your position and earning currency for more advanced units.
The catch with skirmish mode is that you can only deploy your soldiers to spaces not currently occupied or not tagged for occupation by your enemy. So if you want to deploy a soldier two spaces from your spawn point, but your enemy has already sent a trooper to that exact point, you’re out of luck. (This grows increasingly frustrating if the enemy’s soldier hasn’t even arrived yet but is on route.) I’m not sure I qualify this as a flaw in the game, but it’s certainly a tactical consideration the player must be aware of—and it does, of course, cut both ways. I’d often send waves of flamethrower troopers toward the enemy base, hoping to clear out many enemies at the same time.
There’s dearth of good strategy games on the iOS, and Cubemen is refreshing in its complexity and challenge. Succeeding on even the medium level of difficulty requires more than a single try, and the more advanced missions require some real cunning. The game’s controls are up to the task for the most part, recognizing most of my tap commands even when they were initiated in panicked moments of battle.
Aside from challenge, the game provides some elements of replayability thanks to networked multiplayer skirmish feature and the occasional appearance of colored crates that grant the player bonuses. These crates can often swing the course of battle so they’re very useful, if rare.
Monday, May 14, 2012
McDonald's Plans for New Town Restaurant Still Mired in Court
Superior Court Judge Dale Ratcliff recently dismissed an appeal of the Planning & Zoning Commission's approval of a McDonald's at 579 Main Street, but one shouldn't expect to see cars filling the parking lot and lining up at the drive-thru window of a new fast food restaurant any time soon.
Attorney Kevin Gumpper filed a petition for a certification to appeal, which will be reviewed and decided upon by the appellate court — a process that Monroe Town Attorney Jack Fracassini said may take over a month.
On April 2, Judge Ratcliff had dismissed Gumpper's appeal of the P&Z's approval of Real Time Investments LLC's two applications needed for construction of a McDonald's, claiming there was a lack of notice about the hearing and an inaccurate description of the property in the Town Clerk's Office.
During the P&Z hearing, Gumpper had represented Lou Berkowitz, owner of Duchess restaurant, which has a location in Monroe. But during the court appeal, he said he is only representing Donna MacKenzie, David W. Santarsiero and Colleen M. Santarsiero, who all own abutting property on Dingley Dell Road.
After reviewing Gumpper's assertion that there was insufficient public notice for the P&Z hearing on Real Time Investments' application for 79 Main Street, Judge Ratcliff determined, "The claim is without merit."
As for the description of the property, Ratcliff wrote, "The plaintiffs further claim that the property description utilized by Real Time is inadequate because it fails to account for 'jogs' in the property line. This argument is equally unavailing."
On March 17, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved Real Time Investments' applications for a zone change on a portion of the four-acre-property from a Residential and Farming District to a Design Business 1 District, as well as a special exception permit and site plan for a McDonald's.
"The decisions of the commission are supported by substantial evidence in the record," Ratcliff wrote in his dismissal of the neighbors' appeal.
Gumpper declined to comment on the decision and would only confirm that he has filed a certification to appeal.
Fracassini, who is representing the Planning & Zoning Commission, said, "I thought Judge Ratcliff's decision was concise. I thought he had a valid basis for his rulings. It upheld the town's position in this matter."
"These people had the right to bring the appeal," he added. "They were aggrieved. The basis of the appeal was not sufficient to overturn substantial evidence supporting what the Planning & Zoning Commission did and the commission had the discretion to modify its own regulations."
Real Time Investments is being represented by Attorney Peter Gelderman, who was unavailable to comment on this story.
Attorney Kevin Gumpper filed a petition for a certification to appeal, which will be reviewed and decided upon by the appellate court — a process that Monroe Town Attorney Jack Fracassini said may take over a month.
On April 2, Judge Ratcliff had dismissed Gumpper's appeal of the P&Z's approval of Real Time Investments LLC's two applications needed for construction of a McDonald's, claiming there was a lack of notice about the hearing and an inaccurate description of the property in the Town Clerk's Office.
During the P&Z hearing, Gumpper had represented Lou Berkowitz, owner of Duchess restaurant, which has a location in Monroe. But during the court appeal, he said he is only representing Donna MacKenzie, David W. Santarsiero and Colleen M. Santarsiero, who all own abutting property on Dingley Dell Road.
After reviewing Gumpper's assertion that there was insufficient public notice for the P&Z hearing on Real Time Investments' application for 79 Main Street, Judge Ratcliff determined, "The claim is without merit."
As for the description of the property, Ratcliff wrote, "The plaintiffs further claim that the property description utilized by Real Time is inadequate because it fails to account for 'jogs' in the property line. This argument is equally unavailing."
On March 17, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved Real Time Investments' applications for a zone change on a portion of the four-acre-property from a Residential and Farming District to a Design Business 1 District, as well as a special exception permit and site plan for a McDonald's.
"The decisions of the commission are supported by substantial evidence in the record," Ratcliff wrote in his dismissal of the neighbors' appeal.
Gumpper declined to comment on the decision and would only confirm that he has filed a certification to appeal.
Fracassini, who is representing the Planning & Zoning Commission, said, "I thought Judge Ratcliff's decision was concise. I thought he had a valid basis for his rulings. It upheld the town's position in this matter."
"These people had the right to bring the appeal," he added. "They were aggrieved. The basis of the appeal was not sufficient to overturn substantial evidence supporting what the Planning & Zoning Commission did and the commission had the discretion to modify its own regulations."
Real Time Investments is being represented by Attorney Peter Gelderman, who was unavailable to comment on this story.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
BMW Announces 2013 BMW 3 Series Sport Wagon
BMW has announced that it will indeed be bringing its new, 2013 BMW 3 Series Sport Wagon to America. It’s a promising bit of news for fans of the BMW wagon, which offers more versatility than the 3 Series sedan, but with better drivability than its BMW crossover cousins like the X3 and coming X1. But if you want a new 3 wagon, you’re going to have to wait a year to get one.
BMW isn’t offering specifics yet, but expect the American market 3 Series Sport Wagon to come with the same engines and options as the new 2012 3 Series sedan we’ve tested, with the key difference being the additional rear passenger and cargo room (about 10 percent more than the outgoing wagon) the 3 Series wagon offers. As is the case with the new 3 sedan, the wagon’s overall dimensions have grown slightly, its exterior and interior design have been revamped, and it is slightly lighter and more efficient.
As for powertrains, the base 2013 3 Series wagon for the U.S. should be available with BMW’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four that outputs 240 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque in the sedan. The much lauded N55 3.0-liter turbo-six with 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft in the 335i sedan should also power wagon version. Transmission options will continue to be the six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic.
The new 330d version of the wagon is powered by what BMW says is an optimized and more efficient version of its 3.0-liter I-6 diesel tuned to about 258 hp. The wagon will also be available elsewhere in the world with BMW’s 2.0-liter diesel four. We suspect a version of the 3.0-liter diesel will continue to be offered in the U.S. for the new 3 Series, but it’s not yet official.
For the first time, the 2013 3 Series wagon will get a power tailgate option as standard equipment. And if the 3 wagon’s Comfort Access package is ordered, it will come with BMW’s new hands-free tailgate, tech which is starting to become available on other cars. If you have the fob with you and your hands are full, you can swing your foot under the rear bumper and the tailgate will automatically open.
The 3 Series Sport Wagon offers a 40:20:40 fold down arrangement, with a pass through for skis and other long objects available if you’re heading to the slopes. There’s also an integrated a storage area for the wagon’s rear cargo cover so you don’t have to pull it out of the vehicle to store it. The 3 wagon as before will be available with a roof rack option and other associated equipment, and when you don’t have cargo on top, a panoramic roof option will brighten up the interior.
The new BMW 3 Series sedan starts at just under $36,000, expect the 3 wagon to start a couple grand or so higher than that when hits BMW dealerships next spring.
BMW isn’t offering specifics yet, but expect the American market 3 Series Sport Wagon to come with the same engines and options as the new 2012 3 Series sedan we’ve tested, with the key difference being the additional rear passenger and cargo room (about 10 percent more than the outgoing wagon) the 3 Series wagon offers. As is the case with the new 3 sedan, the wagon’s overall dimensions have grown slightly, its exterior and interior design have been revamped, and it is slightly lighter and more efficient.
As for powertrains, the base 2013 3 Series wagon for the U.S. should be available with BMW’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four that outputs 240 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque in the sedan. The much lauded N55 3.0-liter turbo-six with 300 horsepower and 300 lb-ft in the 335i sedan should also power wagon version. Transmission options will continue to be the six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic.
The new 330d version of the wagon is powered by what BMW says is an optimized and more efficient version of its 3.0-liter I-6 diesel tuned to about 258 hp. The wagon will also be available elsewhere in the world with BMW’s 2.0-liter diesel four. We suspect a version of the 3.0-liter diesel will continue to be offered in the U.S. for the new 3 Series, but it’s not yet official.
For the first time, the 2013 3 Series wagon will get a power tailgate option as standard equipment. And if the 3 wagon’s Comfort Access package is ordered, it will come with BMW’s new hands-free tailgate, tech which is starting to become available on other cars. If you have the fob with you and your hands are full, you can swing your foot under the rear bumper and the tailgate will automatically open.
The 3 Series Sport Wagon offers a 40:20:40 fold down arrangement, with a pass through for skis and other long objects available if you’re heading to the slopes. There’s also an integrated a storage area for the wagon’s rear cargo cover so you don’t have to pull it out of the vehicle to store it. The 3 wagon as before will be available with a roof rack option and other associated equipment, and when you don’t have cargo on top, a panoramic roof option will brighten up the interior.
The new BMW 3 Series sedan starts at just under $36,000, expect the 3 wagon to start a couple grand or so higher than that when hits BMW dealerships next spring.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Monument status for Alameda's Bruton House
Visitors who walk into the home's entry hall see a dark brown paneled staircase with a large banister and art glass windows reminiscent of another time.
The spacious backyard is dominated by a huge coastal oak tree, its branches hanging over a manicured garden with a stone fountain as the centerpiece. One can almost imagine well-dressed guests chatting, enjoying Champagne and listening to music on a Victorian afternoon there.
Welcome to the Bruton House, a landmark turn-of-the-20th-century home that has become Alameda's latest monument.
In April, the Alameda City Council approved the special designation for the home based on its architectural significance and historical background.
Built in 1897, the home is named for the affluent family whose three daughters were raised there and who became well-known California artists.
The house is located in Alameda's Gold Coast neighborhood and used to front San Francisco Bay before the surrounding area was filled in during the 1950s.
The other homes on the block were constructed between 1897-1960 and are a mix of styles, including Colonial Revival. Craftsman, (part of the Arts and Crafts movement) and ranch.
The Bruton House was built in the Colonial Revival style, and is the oldest on the block.
The backyard tree is also one of the largest in the city and is estimated to be almost 150 years old, according to Woody Minor, the architectural historian who submitted the report needed for monument designation.
Oakland and Alameda had one of the largest concentrations of oaks in the state at one time, and the city's original name, Encinal, is Spanish for oak grove. The name was later changed to Alameda because residents wanted the town to be the county seat of Alameda County, Minor said.
Alameda's neighborhoods include many homes built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the city was a commuter community serving residents who traveled to San Francisco by ferry.
The home's first owners, Daniel and Helen Bruton, were Irish immigrants who moved to Alameda from New York in 1879 when Daniel Bruton became the West Coast agent for the American Tobacco Company.
The couple's three daughters, Margaret, Esther and Helen, grew up in the home and became artists during the 1920 and '30s.
They often worked together using the attic of the home as a studio.
Margaret Bruton's best-known work is visible today: a set of circus-themed murals she painted in the Cirque Room bar at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.
Esther Bruton was a commercial artist who worked for the former I. Magnin department store for seven years.
Helen Bruton made woodblock prints and mosaics. Her 22 glazed tile mosaic murals graced the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
Like many artists of the 1930s, she worked for the federal Works Progress Administration creating a mural for the San Francisco Zoo and the UC Berkeley Student Art Gallery.
The Brutons sold the house in 1944 and the home went through several owners before the current occupant, Jeanne Graham, bought the property in 1999.
Graham and her husband, Bruce Gilliat, had restored a Queen Anne-style home on San Jose Avenue, so they knew the drill on restoring an old structure.
When she acquired the home, Graham learned of its unique history.
"They (previous owners) had this folder and they said this house was supposed to be on the national historic list," she said. "But before it becomes a national monument, it has to be a local monument."
Graham is a member of the Alameda Museum and the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society.
She uses the home for fundraising events and believes in the need to protect the city's heritage.
"People come here and they say this is really so neat and it is special," she said. "So I think I want to encourage people to find out more about their own homes."
The spacious backyard is dominated by a huge coastal oak tree, its branches hanging over a manicured garden with a stone fountain as the centerpiece. One can almost imagine well-dressed guests chatting, enjoying Champagne and listening to music on a Victorian afternoon there.
Welcome to the Bruton House, a landmark turn-of-the-20th-century home that has become Alameda's latest monument.
In April, the Alameda City Council approved the special designation for the home based on its architectural significance and historical background.
Built in 1897, the home is named for the affluent family whose three daughters were raised there and who became well-known California artists.
The house is located in Alameda's Gold Coast neighborhood and used to front San Francisco Bay before the surrounding area was filled in during the 1950s.
The other homes on the block were constructed between 1897-1960 and are a mix of styles, including Colonial Revival. Craftsman, (part of the Arts and Crafts movement) and ranch.
The Bruton House was built in the Colonial Revival style, and is the oldest on the block.
The backyard tree is also one of the largest in the city and is estimated to be almost 150 years old, according to Woody Minor, the architectural historian who submitted the report needed for monument designation.
Oakland and Alameda had one of the largest concentrations of oaks in the state at one time, and the city's original name, Encinal, is Spanish for oak grove. The name was later changed to Alameda because residents wanted the town to be the county seat of Alameda County, Minor said.
Alameda's neighborhoods include many homes built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the city was a commuter community serving residents who traveled to San Francisco by ferry.
The home's first owners, Daniel and Helen Bruton, were Irish immigrants who moved to Alameda from New York in 1879 when Daniel Bruton became the West Coast agent for the American Tobacco Company.
The couple's three daughters, Margaret, Esther and Helen, grew up in the home and became artists during the 1920 and '30s.
They often worked together using the attic of the home as a studio.
Margaret Bruton's best-known work is visible today: a set of circus-themed murals she painted in the Cirque Room bar at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.
Esther Bruton was a commercial artist who worked for the former I. Magnin department store for seven years.
Helen Bruton made woodblock prints and mosaics. Her 22 glazed tile mosaic murals graced the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
Like many artists of the 1930s, she worked for the federal Works Progress Administration creating a mural for the San Francisco Zoo and the UC Berkeley Student Art Gallery.
The Brutons sold the house in 1944 and the home went through several owners before the current occupant, Jeanne Graham, bought the property in 1999.
Graham and her husband, Bruce Gilliat, had restored a Queen Anne-style home on San Jose Avenue, so they knew the drill on restoring an old structure.
When she acquired the home, Graham learned of its unique history.
"They (previous owners) had this folder and they said this house was supposed to be on the national historic list," she said. "But before it becomes a national monument, it has to be a local monument."
Graham is a member of the Alameda Museum and the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society.
She uses the home for fundraising events and believes in the need to protect the city's heritage.
"People come here and they say this is really so neat and it is special," she said. "So I think I want to encourage people to find out more about their own homes."
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Federated Collaboration - the new world order
Business agility demands real-time collaboration and communication between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers - in a global context. It also demands collaboration between and beyond heterogeneous networks and services. As enterprises deploy unified communications applications for services such as voice, video, presence, instant messaging, conferencing, calendaring, directory, identity, and address book, the enablement of real-time collaboration across enterprises and domains demands solutions that are high-performance, interoperable, policy-regulated, and secure.
Interdomain Federation is secure, policy-regulated collaboration between multiple enterprises or public domains that enables the exchange of messaging and presence information between users. Federation is achieved by mediating between services or across a large number of proprietary or standards-based protocols. These domains may be in separate enterprises or represent subdomains within the same enterprise.
Aricent's Unified Communications (UC) Federation allows enterprises to federate their disparate UC platforms with other enterprises to create a new collaborative environment. This paper discusses the new enterprise experience, in which inter-domain federation is established between multiple UC Platforms across enterprises.
Unified Communications is becoming the solution of choice for not only high-flying enterprises with shrinking travel budgets, but for small and medium businesses as well. Adoption of UC in enterprises is accelerating as more and more enterprises embrace the need for software-powered communications beyond their network boundaries to facilitate communication and collaboration anytime, anywhere among colleagues, vendors, and customers around the globe. Forward-looking enterprises are deploying enterprise UC solutions to improve communications, increase collaboration, and improve worker productivity. A further step would be to collaborate seamlessly internally and across corporate boundaries.
The need to integrate information across IT, telephony, and mobile devices has led more and more enterprises to implement UC. Enterprises require user presence information to be reflected across fixed, mobile, and IP networks so that users are contacted at appropriate times. Presence federation becomes challenging when service providers try to integrate proprietary vendor solutions across multiple devices. The availability of diverse enterprise systems (OCS, IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Cisco, and Jabber) and public systems (GTalk, Yahoo) poses a challenge for information exchange between systems and creates the need for an integrated environment.
Because UC platforms support voice and video calls, users should be able to escalate their chat sessions to voice or video through the click of a button. Peer-to-peer and multi-party voice and video calls, and ad hoc conferences across enterprise boundaries, will add a new dimension to communication across diverse and disparate UC platforms.
In addition to presence, enterprises are looking for exchange of data between multiple UC vendor platforms, both public and enterprise. Users should be able to easily exchange documents, images, and videos across platforms subject to security and data model preferences. Also, enterprises need interoperable platforms that can seamlessly integrate with their current and future IT infrastructure, thereby minimizing the risk of platform dependency. Currently, many enterprise UC solutions use proprietary protocols, which makes the UC system very rigid. Enterprises are demanding protocol convergence across different proprietary standards. Service providers will need to start selling systems based on open standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) to serve a wide range of buyers.
Interdomain Federation is secure, policy-regulated collaboration between multiple enterprises or public domains that enables the exchange of messaging and presence information between users. Federation is achieved by mediating between services or across a large number of proprietary or standards-based protocols. These domains may be in separate enterprises or represent subdomains within the same enterprise.
Aricent's Unified Communications (UC) Federation allows enterprises to federate their disparate UC platforms with other enterprises to create a new collaborative environment. This paper discusses the new enterprise experience, in which inter-domain federation is established between multiple UC Platforms across enterprises.
Unified Communications is becoming the solution of choice for not only high-flying enterprises with shrinking travel budgets, but for small and medium businesses as well. Adoption of UC in enterprises is accelerating as more and more enterprises embrace the need for software-powered communications beyond their network boundaries to facilitate communication and collaboration anytime, anywhere among colleagues, vendors, and customers around the globe. Forward-looking enterprises are deploying enterprise UC solutions to improve communications, increase collaboration, and improve worker productivity. A further step would be to collaborate seamlessly internally and across corporate boundaries.
The need to integrate information across IT, telephony, and mobile devices has led more and more enterprises to implement UC. Enterprises require user presence information to be reflected across fixed, mobile, and IP networks so that users are contacted at appropriate times. Presence federation becomes challenging when service providers try to integrate proprietary vendor solutions across multiple devices. The availability of diverse enterprise systems (OCS, IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Cisco, and Jabber) and public systems (GTalk, Yahoo) poses a challenge for information exchange between systems and creates the need for an integrated environment.
Because UC platforms support voice and video calls, users should be able to escalate their chat sessions to voice or video through the click of a button. Peer-to-peer and multi-party voice and video calls, and ad hoc conferences across enterprise boundaries, will add a new dimension to communication across diverse and disparate UC platforms.
In addition to presence, enterprises are looking for exchange of data between multiple UC vendor platforms, both public and enterprise. Users should be able to easily exchange documents, images, and videos across platforms subject to security and data model preferences. Also, enterprises need interoperable platforms that can seamlessly integrate with their current and future IT infrastructure, thereby minimizing the risk of platform dependency. Currently, many enterprise UC solutions use proprietary protocols, which makes the UC system very rigid. Enterprises are demanding protocol convergence across different proprietary standards. Service providers will need to start selling systems based on open standards like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) to serve a wide range of buyers.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Kitsch villa belonging to mafia mobster
Inside the two home - which according to land registry records was listed as a council house - officers discovered dozens of hand made silk ties, shirts and shoes.
The house was owned by Nicola Schivaone, 34, son of jailed godfather Francesco, the head of the feared Casalesi clan responsible for dozens of murders and who are said to be worth billions through drugs, extortion and arms trafficking. The younger Schivaone has now also been jailed.
The three bedroom house is decorated in an over the top and questionable style with kitsch murals and pictures - including a calendar illustrated with photographs of Nicola Schiavone's wedding.
Furniture included velvet upholstered armchairs with bizarre star and moon motifs, leather sofas, designer glass coffee tables and a floor to ceiling picture showing the face of an ancient Roman.
The bathrooms had all been painstakingly hand tiled with tiny blue and white squares to create a mosaic effect, with a flaming sun taking pride of place in the centre of the wall.
There was also a TV which could switch between satellite channels and a CCTV security system that had been installed while all the bathroom fixtures and fittings were marble and gold.
The floors of the house were all tiled with top of the range tiles from Tuscany's finest marble quarries or walnut wood panels and in the wardrobes were dozens of designer label shirts, jackets and ties while the shoe rack was stacked with Gucci or Hogan.
Outside in the garden police were also greeted by the sight of four potted giant 12 feet high cycas plants - with officers having to call in an army transport unit in to take them away.
One police officer involved in clearing out the contents of the house said:''It was like walking into a museum of contemporary art and design. All the furniture and fittings were designer and there were also several modern works of art on the walls.
"The villa was listed as a council house and from the outside it didn't look very much - apart from a specially built reinforced concrete wall but inside it was something else - it was like something out of Scarface.
"We are used to seeing mobster's villas decorated in over the top kitsch style but this was one of the most over the top that we have seen.''
Anti mafia prosecutors Antonello Ardituro and Marco Del Gaudio had ordered the seizure of the interior of the villa which was at Casal di Principe, north of Naples, the heartland of the local mafia known as the Camorra.
Officials said the contents of the house would be auctioned off with the money going to state funds or they would be given to local charities.
Nicola's father Francesco, 58, was one of Italy's most wanted gangsters and was captured in 1998 but even though he has been behind bars for more than 14 years he still carries influence in his patch over the clan he controlled.
During his 10 year trial on charges of murder, assault and extortion five people were murdered and journalists and a judge received death threats.
The house was owned by Nicola Schivaone, 34, son of jailed godfather Francesco, the head of the feared Casalesi clan responsible for dozens of murders and who are said to be worth billions through drugs, extortion and arms trafficking. The younger Schivaone has now also been jailed.
The three bedroom house is decorated in an over the top and questionable style with kitsch murals and pictures - including a calendar illustrated with photographs of Nicola Schiavone's wedding.
Furniture included velvet upholstered armchairs with bizarre star and moon motifs, leather sofas, designer glass coffee tables and a floor to ceiling picture showing the face of an ancient Roman.
The bathrooms had all been painstakingly hand tiled with tiny blue and white squares to create a mosaic effect, with a flaming sun taking pride of place in the centre of the wall.
There was also a TV which could switch between satellite channels and a CCTV security system that had been installed while all the bathroom fixtures and fittings were marble and gold.
The floors of the house were all tiled with top of the range tiles from Tuscany's finest marble quarries or walnut wood panels and in the wardrobes were dozens of designer label shirts, jackets and ties while the shoe rack was stacked with Gucci or Hogan.
Outside in the garden police were also greeted by the sight of four potted giant 12 feet high cycas plants - with officers having to call in an army transport unit in to take them away.
One police officer involved in clearing out the contents of the house said:''It was like walking into a museum of contemporary art and design. All the furniture and fittings were designer and there were also several modern works of art on the walls.
"The villa was listed as a council house and from the outside it didn't look very much - apart from a specially built reinforced concrete wall but inside it was something else - it was like something out of Scarface.
"We are used to seeing mobster's villas decorated in over the top kitsch style but this was one of the most over the top that we have seen.''
Anti mafia prosecutors Antonello Ardituro and Marco Del Gaudio had ordered the seizure of the interior of the villa which was at Casal di Principe, north of Naples, the heartland of the local mafia known as the Camorra.
Officials said the contents of the house would be auctioned off with the money going to state funds or they would be given to local charities.
Nicola's father Francesco, 58, was one of Italy's most wanted gangsters and was captured in 1998 but even though he has been behind bars for more than 14 years he still carries influence in his patch over the clan he controlled.
During his 10 year trial on charges of murder, assault and extortion five people were murdered and journalists and a judge received death threats.
Monday, May 7, 2012
A New Police Story
Here's a little-known factoid for you about Sleeping Dogs. It didn't actually start life as True Crime: Hong Kong, but as another game called 'Orange Lotus', before Activision decided to rebrand the game to tie-in with an already established franchise. That was before the publisher then decided to chuck the whole thing in the bin. Enter Square Enix who rescued the game from extinction, renamed it Sleeping Dogs and pushed the project forward, giving United Front Games the support it needed to get the job done. And based on what we've seen and played so far, it might just be an incredibly canny decision on Square Enix's part.
It's not been that long since we last played Sleeping Dogs at GDC, sampling the free-running chase to take down Ming and a street race, but this time around we're allowed off the leash a little more, presented with some new sequences and a chance to explore the vibrant, bustling city of Hong Kong. As undercover cop Wei Shen, you're job is to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organisation, taking down the Red Poles (Triad lieutenants) and working your way up to the Dragon head, who's the Triad big cheese.
In the first part of our demo, we're shown a mission in which we have to grab the treacherous Johnny the Ratface for the menacing Mrs. Chu. Johnny's gone AWOL though, which means Shen needs to track him down by triangulating the signal on his mobile phone to draw a bead on him. This involves a little mini-game that means scanning for a signal and then listening in on phone calls around the city. Once you hear something suspicious, you can zone in on it, and hopefully find your target in the process.
Tracking Johnny, Wei Shen eventually pursues him in a car chase that concludes at Ratface's hideout. At this point, Wei Shen has Johnny's thugs to deal with, so he pulls out a tyre iron from the trunk of his car and sets to work rearranging their faces. Handily, every car has a tyre iron in its trunk, so if you ever need a weapon, you'll know exactly where to look. However, Wei Shen can handle himself in a fight with or without a weapon, and he's not averse to finishing enemies in brutal, often grotesque ways, like mashing someone's face into a ventilation fan. It's messy, but it does the job.
Apprehending Ratface, we stuff him into the trunk of our car, whisk him back to Mrs. Chu and leave him to acquaint himself with the Triad matriarch's cleaver. Nasty stuff. Successfully completing the mission grants you three kinds of XP, namely Triad XP, Police XP and Face XP. Triad and Police XP is awarded for completing tasks on behalf of the criminal organisation and law enforcement respectively, so rising through the Triad ranks while taking a villain off the streets will earn you XP for both, whereas Face XP is rewarded based on your style, image and methods. Face XP increases your fame in a sense, meaning you'll be recognised as a member of the Triads and gain access to side-missions called 'Favors'.
Our hands-off section concluded, we're subsequently left to our own devices, picking up with a sequence that has Wei Shen smartly dressed for a meeting with a high-ranking Triad named Tong. Of course, the entire meeting turns out to be a set-up that Shen walks straight into. Knocked unconscious, Wei Shen awakes to find Tong readying his torture tools that include pliers, scalpels and a power drill. A fortuitous distraction later however, and Shen finds himself on the floor, crawling towards a saw blade to cut through the ropes bonding his hands together.
It's not been that long since we last played Sleeping Dogs at GDC, sampling the free-running chase to take down Ming and a street race, but this time around we're allowed off the leash a little more, presented with some new sequences and a chance to explore the vibrant, bustling city of Hong Kong. As undercover cop Wei Shen, you're job is to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organisation, taking down the Red Poles (Triad lieutenants) and working your way up to the Dragon head, who's the Triad big cheese.
In the first part of our demo, we're shown a mission in which we have to grab the treacherous Johnny the Ratface for the menacing Mrs. Chu. Johnny's gone AWOL though, which means Shen needs to track him down by triangulating the signal on his mobile phone to draw a bead on him. This involves a little mini-game that means scanning for a signal and then listening in on phone calls around the city. Once you hear something suspicious, you can zone in on it, and hopefully find your target in the process.
Tracking Johnny, Wei Shen eventually pursues him in a car chase that concludes at Ratface's hideout. At this point, Wei Shen has Johnny's thugs to deal with, so he pulls out a tyre iron from the trunk of his car and sets to work rearranging their faces. Handily, every car has a tyre iron in its trunk, so if you ever need a weapon, you'll know exactly where to look. However, Wei Shen can handle himself in a fight with or without a weapon, and he's not averse to finishing enemies in brutal, often grotesque ways, like mashing someone's face into a ventilation fan. It's messy, but it does the job.
Apprehending Ratface, we stuff him into the trunk of our car, whisk him back to Mrs. Chu and leave him to acquaint himself with the Triad matriarch's cleaver. Nasty stuff. Successfully completing the mission grants you three kinds of XP, namely Triad XP, Police XP and Face XP. Triad and Police XP is awarded for completing tasks on behalf of the criminal organisation and law enforcement respectively, so rising through the Triad ranks while taking a villain off the streets will earn you XP for both, whereas Face XP is rewarded based on your style, image and methods. Face XP increases your fame in a sense, meaning you'll be recognised as a member of the Triads and gain access to side-missions called 'Favors'.
Our hands-off section concluded, we're subsequently left to our own devices, picking up with a sequence that has Wei Shen smartly dressed for a meeting with a high-ranking Triad named Tong. Of course, the entire meeting turns out to be a set-up that Shen walks straight into. Knocked unconscious, Wei Shen awakes to find Tong readying his torture tools that include pliers, scalpels and a power drill. A fortuitous distraction later however, and Shen finds himself on the floor, crawling towards a saw blade to cut through the ropes bonding his hands together.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Compounding the Bill Buckner error
The ball that rolled by Bill Buckner in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series was auctioned Friday. An unidentified buyer forked over a whopping $418,250 to own a piece of history that until just a few years ago represented the touchstone for decades of misery embedded in the broken souls of Red Sox Nation.
“There’s a little roller up along first . . . behind the bag . . . it gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight . . . and the Mets win it!
That was Vin Scully’s call the night of Oct. 25, 1986, at Shea Stadium, when Mookie Wilson sent Bob Stanley’s pitch bouncing Buckner’s way. The first baseman muffed it, the ball skittering down the right-field line, and Ray Knight scooted around from second to score. The Mets subsequently won Game 7, and the Red Sox were denied their first World Series title in 68 years, their dreams put on hold for another 18 Octobers.
The Dallas-based auction house that sold the ball last week did not reveal the buyer’s name, or what he/she intends to do with it. But the previous owner, songwriter Seth Swirsky, who bought it a dozen years earlier for about $64,000, dubbed it an “American culture piece and sounded convinced that we’ll eventually learn the new owner’s identity.
Obviously, other than Buckner, who wouldn’t want their name attached to it?
“Once somebody points out that they have the ball, noted Swirsky to the Associated Press, “people will surround them at every party, telling them their experience of where they were.
Like most New Englanders, I don’t need to see the ball again to remember. I was at Shea Stadium, part of the Globe’s expansive reporting contingent. Only minutes earlier, when things looked inexplicably ducky for the Sox, I dashed to a stadium pay phone to share the glorious moment with my father.
The Sox had a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the 10th, and my dad, born in 1922, had never seen them win it all. I was only 33 years into the joy ride.
We had gone to Fenway together since 1962, rollicked on its lawn the day the Sox won the 1967 pennant, stood side by side in Section 29 the night Carlton’s Fisk homer rattled off the foul pole to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.
Our meeting point in life, in all things, was baseball. Catch in the backyard. The Red Sox. The trips to Fenway. The succession of seasons, mostly fun, all of them failures. The game on the radio on hot summer nights.
Now here they were, at the edge of victory.
“Why’re you calling now? he said flatly, as a man who generally treated the phone with suspicion, an intrusion. “Game’s still on. You’re working, right.?
“Well, yeah, I said, “but, I mean, come on, they’re gonna win. It’s 5-3 and . . .
“Maybe, but it’s not over yet, he said, voice just as flat, edging toward irritation. “We’ll see. Here, talk to your mom.
I didn’t call back until late the next day, not so much to commiserate, but just to hear him once more lament, “What a bunch o’ bums.
He died three years later, and the Sox were still bums, and I know he was OK with that because, honestly, it’s how he knew them, how he liked them. My father was a man who appreciated consistency, dependability, routine, and the Red Sox delivered on all that for every one of his 67 years.
Had one of those years ended with a win, I’m sure he would have enjoyed it, but briefly, and from there it would have been an oddly uncomfortable fit in his life, a tuxedo placed in his closet next to the modest sport jacket for church on Sunday and work pants for the rest of the week.
Largely because of that appreciation in our family for what the Sox always were - infuriating but lovable bums, Sisyphus in red stirrups - I never bought into the whole vilification of Buckner.
Yeah, he booted one, badly, outrageously. He also made it worse later with the excuse-making that his glove malfunctioned and his speculation that Stanley probably wouldn’t have made it to first in time to handle his throw ahead of Wilson.
So rich. So typically Red Sox. No one succeeded at failing like the Red Sox, which was their charm, their hold. In that sense, Buckner wasn’t a demon, just another tiny tile in a cherished but fractured mosaic.
Stanley, of course, had just seen catcher Rich Gedman mishandle an inside pitch on Wilson, the ball blowing by him and allowing Kevin Mitchell to score from third, only to have Gedman’s boo-boo recorded as Stanley’s wild pitch.
Clearly a passed ball. Gedman’s bad.
Then came Wilson’s ball to first, which began as a high chop, then weirdly flattened, skipped . . . rolled.
Honestly, as I write this now, I am crying with laughter, at the thought of how my father’s eyes must have bugged out as these follies unfolded on TV that night.
Not that anything compares to being one out away from a Series title, but we don’t get that kind of drama and lore a quarter-century later at Fenway. These days, it’s a bland and underperforming lineup, and most of the fan/media focus is on owners, the general manager, front-office employees, and manager. Mercy.
Time for someone to serve up a heapin’ helpin’ of Wade Boggs and the Delta Force. Imagine the fun ol’ Boggsy would have set free in the clubhouse with an iPhone.
The Buckner ball, marked with a tiny “x near one of its stitches by right-field umpire Ed Montague, for years was owned by Mets executive Arthur Richman. Actor Charlie Sheen (“Winning!) bought it in 1992 for nearly $94,000, and Swirsky picked it up on a short hop eight years later at roughly a $30,000 discount.
Swirsky tried to auction it on eBay last October for $1 million, didn’t succeed, then folded it into a much bigger baseball memorabilia auction that last week brought in a total of some $1.2 million.
And though it forever will be known as the Buckner ball, it was signed by Wilson for Richman, and it reads, “To Arthur, the ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson 10/25/86.
It was British poet Alexander Pope who wrote, “To err is human; to forgive divine. In that same piece, “An Essay on Criticism, Pope also penned such memorable phrases as, ‘’A little learning is a dangerous thing and “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Not a bad day of writing. Three lines that will live far longer than one man’s gaffe.
“There’s a little roller up along first . . . behind the bag . . . it gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight . . . and the Mets win it!
That was Vin Scully’s call the night of Oct. 25, 1986, at Shea Stadium, when Mookie Wilson sent Bob Stanley’s pitch bouncing Buckner’s way. The first baseman muffed it, the ball skittering down the right-field line, and Ray Knight scooted around from second to score. The Mets subsequently won Game 7, and the Red Sox were denied their first World Series title in 68 years, their dreams put on hold for another 18 Octobers.
The Dallas-based auction house that sold the ball last week did not reveal the buyer’s name, or what he/she intends to do with it. But the previous owner, songwriter Seth Swirsky, who bought it a dozen years earlier for about $64,000, dubbed it an “American culture piece and sounded convinced that we’ll eventually learn the new owner’s identity.
Obviously, other than Buckner, who wouldn’t want their name attached to it?
“Once somebody points out that they have the ball, noted Swirsky to the Associated Press, “people will surround them at every party, telling them their experience of where they were.
Like most New Englanders, I don’t need to see the ball again to remember. I was at Shea Stadium, part of the Globe’s expansive reporting contingent. Only minutes earlier, when things looked inexplicably ducky for the Sox, I dashed to a stadium pay phone to share the glorious moment with my father.
The Sox had a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the 10th, and my dad, born in 1922, had never seen them win it all. I was only 33 years into the joy ride.
We had gone to Fenway together since 1962, rollicked on its lawn the day the Sox won the 1967 pennant, stood side by side in Section 29 the night Carlton’s Fisk homer rattled off the foul pole to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.
Our meeting point in life, in all things, was baseball. Catch in the backyard. The Red Sox. The trips to Fenway. The succession of seasons, mostly fun, all of them failures. The game on the radio on hot summer nights.
Now here they were, at the edge of victory.
“Why’re you calling now? he said flatly, as a man who generally treated the phone with suspicion, an intrusion. “Game’s still on. You’re working, right.?
“Well, yeah, I said, “but, I mean, come on, they’re gonna win. It’s 5-3 and . . .
“Maybe, but it’s not over yet, he said, voice just as flat, edging toward irritation. “We’ll see. Here, talk to your mom.
I didn’t call back until late the next day, not so much to commiserate, but just to hear him once more lament, “What a bunch o’ bums.
He died three years later, and the Sox were still bums, and I know he was OK with that because, honestly, it’s how he knew them, how he liked them. My father was a man who appreciated consistency, dependability, routine, and the Red Sox delivered on all that for every one of his 67 years.
Had one of those years ended with a win, I’m sure he would have enjoyed it, but briefly, and from there it would have been an oddly uncomfortable fit in his life, a tuxedo placed in his closet next to the modest sport jacket for church on Sunday and work pants for the rest of the week.
Largely because of that appreciation in our family for what the Sox always were - infuriating but lovable bums, Sisyphus in red stirrups - I never bought into the whole vilification of Buckner.
Yeah, he booted one, badly, outrageously. He also made it worse later with the excuse-making that his glove malfunctioned and his speculation that Stanley probably wouldn’t have made it to first in time to handle his throw ahead of Wilson.
So rich. So typically Red Sox. No one succeeded at failing like the Red Sox, which was their charm, their hold. In that sense, Buckner wasn’t a demon, just another tiny tile in a cherished but fractured mosaic.
Stanley, of course, had just seen catcher Rich Gedman mishandle an inside pitch on Wilson, the ball blowing by him and allowing Kevin Mitchell to score from third, only to have Gedman’s boo-boo recorded as Stanley’s wild pitch.
Clearly a passed ball. Gedman’s bad.
Then came Wilson’s ball to first, which began as a high chop, then weirdly flattened, skipped . . . rolled.
Honestly, as I write this now, I am crying with laughter, at the thought of how my father’s eyes must have bugged out as these follies unfolded on TV that night.
Not that anything compares to being one out away from a Series title, but we don’t get that kind of drama and lore a quarter-century later at Fenway. These days, it’s a bland and underperforming lineup, and most of the fan/media focus is on owners, the general manager, front-office employees, and manager. Mercy.
Time for someone to serve up a heapin’ helpin’ of Wade Boggs and the Delta Force. Imagine the fun ol’ Boggsy would have set free in the clubhouse with an iPhone.
The Buckner ball, marked with a tiny “x near one of its stitches by right-field umpire Ed Montague, for years was owned by Mets executive Arthur Richman. Actor Charlie Sheen (“Winning!) bought it in 1992 for nearly $94,000, and Swirsky picked it up on a short hop eight years later at roughly a $30,000 discount.
Swirsky tried to auction it on eBay last October for $1 million, didn’t succeed, then folded it into a much bigger baseball memorabilia auction that last week brought in a total of some $1.2 million.
And though it forever will be known as the Buckner ball, it was signed by Wilson for Richman, and it reads, “To Arthur, the ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson 10/25/86.
It was British poet Alexander Pope who wrote, “To err is human; to forgive divine. In that same piece, “An Essay on Criticism, Pope also penned such memorable phrases as, ‘’A little learning is a dangerous thing and “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Not a bad day of writing. Three lines that will live far longer than one man’s gaffe.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Honda Civic remains number one
While the Honda Civic has been the top selling car in Canada for the past 14 years, it has come under significant pressure from newcomers like the Chevy Cruze, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Focus. Given the unprecedented problems caused by last year's tsunami, the subsequent earthquake in Japan and the resulting loss of production, it would be understandable if the completely redesigned, 2012, ninth generation Civic lost some momentum coming out of the gate. That was the big question. No problem; the Civic continues in first place and looks like a sure bet to stay there. Having set the pace in compact sedan design, performance and affordability for so long, the new 2012 model has, very sensibly, taken those attributes as a starting point to build on.
Stylistically the new model bears the unmistakable Civic 'look' but with a number of subtle refinements. The sloping hood is longer with a smaller grille opening while the A pillars, supporting the windshield are thinner, providing better forward vision when turning. The front, integrated bumper is reshaped with a shallower air intake and flanking fog lamp pods. Compared to the previous model, the new profile has a more aggressive, pitched-forward look with a roofline that is more coupe than sedan. While overall length and height remain unchanged, Honda designers managed to add some width to the body providing more shoulder room for front and three rear seat occupants (three children would be quite comfortable, three adults not so much).
For 2012, the Civic Sedan comes in 6 flavours: DX (starting at $16,485), LX, EX, EX-L, Si and Hybrid while the coupe is available in LX (starting at $19,375) EX, EX-L and Si models. All models - except Si - come with Honda's 140 horsepower, 1.8-litre DOHC, four-cylinder engine and standard five-speed manual transmission (except EX-L) or optional five-speed Automatic. The high performance Si models up the ante with the 201 horsepower, 2.4-litre DOHC, four-cylinder engine and six-speed, close ratio manual transmission.
Our tester was the Civic Coupe EX-L with navigation system, and standard five speed automatic, finished in taffeta white with grey leather trimmed seats. Slightly shorter than the sedan, the Coupe features a shorter, steeply raked hood with a deeper, lower air intake and 16-inch, 10-spoke aluminum alloy wheels. The cockpit features the Civic's unique two-tier, i-MID (intelligent Multi-Informational Display) dashboard.
The upper tier is positioned at eye level as before, with a bold digital speedometer reading directly above the lower level analog tachometer. New for 2012 is the additional readout to the right of the digital speedometer with an analog clock plus digital readout for time, date, day and year plus all the trip functions like odometer readings, instant and average fuel economy, ambient temperature, and range. The i-MID is your "mission control" for Bluetooth, hands-free connectivity, accessing your phone book, streaming your playlist, plugging in your MP3 device and using the bi-lingual, voice-activated Navigation System. More importantly, virtually all this information can now be controlled by fingertip steering wheel controls.
The centre stack houses the 6.5-inch screen for the Navigation and premium 360-watt, sevenspeaker Audio System consisting of AM/FM/CD/ WMA and 3 months complimentary XM Satellite Radio. Conventional controls for the multi-mode Heating and A/C functions are positioned below.
The cabin is finished in a pleasing mix of charcoal, black and grey surfaces complemented by the Grey Leather upholstery and brushed metal trim for the main gauges, secondary switchgear and steering wheel controls. Fit and finish is excellent and all the controls have a pleasing tactile feel.
The manually-adjustable, heated front bucket seats provide excellent under-thigh and torso support with height and lumbar control for the driver while the front passenger seat folds and slides forward at a touch to provide easy access to the rear seats.
Acceleration is prompt thanks to the drive-bywire throttle control and the re-engineered fivespeed Overdrive Automatic with 100 km/h coming up in under 9.0 seconds. With four-wheel independent suspension featuring variable, gas-filled struts up front and a multi-link, double wishbone set up at the rear plus front and rear stabilizer bars, I expected a stiffer ride. But while the ride is sedanlike, the Coupe carves its way around corners accurately thanks to the precise, electric variableassist, rack-and-pinion steering. Better mid-range torque also adds to the improved performance across the board.
The five-speed automatic provides seamless shifts and with its Grade Logic Control, automatically holds lower gears for long hill climbs or descents. In Drive, the engine is just loafing along at 2000 rpm and using only 5.0 L/100 km (56 mpg), down from 5.7 L/100 km (50 mpg) in the previous model. Want to save even more? Push that green ECO button on the dash and the Civic will shortshift gears and monitor fuel flow to use even less gasoline. Four-wheel power-assisted disc brakes (ventilated front and solid rear) with ABS, Electronic Brake Force Distribution and Brake Assist provide confident and controlled stops. Traction Control prevents acceleration slippage and VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist) corrects understeer (when front wheels drift wide) and oversteer (when the rear wheels slide out).
Standard equipment includes all the usual power amenities and remote keyless entry; power door locks and windows with driver one-touch up/down; power glass moonroof; heated, power outside mirrors; CFC-free A/C with air filter; remote trunk and fuel door releases and anti-theft security system. Multi-stage front seat airbags, side seat airbags and side curtain airbags take care of security along with the LATCH system for child seat anchors.
"The 2012 Civic is a better buy than ever," says Paul Robson of Nanaimo Honda. "It's better equipped, more fun to drive, gets better fuel economy and it's more affordable than ever."
Stylistically the new model bears the unmistakable Civic 'look' but with a number of subtle refinements. The sloping hood is longer with a smaller grille opening while the A pillars, supporting the windshield are thinner, providing better forward vision when turning. The front, integrated bumper is reshaped with a shallower air intake and flanking fog lamp pods. Compared to the previous model, the new profile has a more aggressive, pitched-forward look with a roofline that is more coupe than sedan. While overall length and height remain unchanged, Honda designers managed to add some width to the body providing more shoulder room for front and three rear seat occupants (three children would be quite comfortable, three adults not so much).
For 2012, the Civic Sedan comes in 6 flavours: DX (starting at $16,485), LX, EX, EX-L, Si and Hybrid while the coupe is available in LX (starting at $19,375) EX, EX-L and Si models. All models - except Si - come with Honda's 140 horsepower, 1.8-litre DOHC, four-cylinder engine and standard five-speed manual transmission (except EX-L) or optional five-speed Automatic. The high performance Si models up the ante with the 201 horsepower, 2.4-litre DOHC, four-cylinder engine and six-speed, close ratio manual transmission.
Our tester was the Civic Coupe EX-L with navigation system, and standard five speed automatic, finished in taffeta white with grey leather trimmed seats. Slightly shorter than the sedan, the Coupe features a shorter, steeply raked hood with a deeper, lower air intake and 16-inch, 10-spoke aluminum alloy wheels. The cockpit features the Civic's unique two-tier, i-MID (intelligent Multi-Informational Display) dashboard.
The upper tier is positioned at eye level as before, with a bold digital speedometer reading directly above the lower level analog tachometer. New for 2012 is the additional readout to the right of the digital speedometer with an analog clock plus digital readout for time, date, day and year plus all the trip functions like odometer readings, instant and average fuel economy, ambient temperature, and range. The i-MID is your "mission control" for Bluetooth, hands-free connectivity, accessing your phone book, streaming your playlist, plugging in your MP3 device and using the bi-lingual, voice-activated Navigation System. More importantly, virtually all this information can now be controlled by fingertip steering wheel controls.
The centre stack houses the 6.5-inch screen for the Navigation and premium 360-watt, sevenspeaker Audio System consisting of AM/FM/CD/ WMA and 3 months complimentary XM Satellite Radio. Conventional controls for the multi-mode Heating and A/C functions are positioned below.
The cabin is finished in a pleasing mix of charcoal, black and grey surfaces complemented by the Grey Leather upholstery and brushed metal trim for the main gauges, secondary switchgear and steering wheel controls. Fit and finish is excellent and all the controls have a pleasing tactile feel.
The manually-adjustable, heated front bucket seats provide excellent under-thigh and torso support with height and lumbar control for the driver while the front passenger seat folds and slides forward at a touch to provide easy access to the rear seats.
Acceleration is prompt thanks to the drive-bywire throttle control and the re-engineered fivespeed Overdrive Automatic with 100 km/h coming up in under 9.0 seconds. With four-wheel independent suspension featuring variable, gas-filled struts up front and a multi-link, double wishbone set up at the rear plus front and rear stabilizer bars, I expected a stiffer ride. But while the ride is sedanlike, the Coupe carves its way around corners accurately thanks to the precise, electric variableassist, rack-and-pinion steering. Better mid-range torque also adds to the improved performance across the board.
The five-speed automatic provides seamless shifts and with its Grade Logic Control, automatically holds lower gears for long hill climbs or descents. In Drive, the engine is just loafing along at 2000 rpm and using only 5.0 L/100 km (56 mpg), down from 5.7 L/100 km (50 mpg) in the previous model. Want to save even more? Push that green ECO button on the dash and the Civic will shortshift gears and monitor fuel flow to use even less gasoline. Four-wheel power-assisted disc brakes (ventilated front and solid rear) with ABS, Electronic Brake Force Distribution and Brake Assist provide confident and controlled stops. Traction Control prevents acceleration slippage and VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist) corrects understeer (when front wheels drift wide) and oversteer (when the rear wheels slide out).
Standard equipment includes all the usual power amenities and remote keyless entry; power door locks and windows with driver one-touch up/down; power glass moonroof; heated, power outside mirrors; CFC-free A/C with air filter; remote trunk and fuel door releases and anti-theft security system. Multi-stage front seat airbags, side seat airbags and side curtain airbags take care of security along with the LATCH system for child seat anchors.
"The 2012 Civic is a better buy than ever," says Paul Robson of Nanaimo Honda. "It's better equipped, more fun to drive, gets better fuel economy and it's more affordable than ever."
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Disabled memorizing Qur’an ‘remarkable’
“They are those who have overcome their psychological disabilities more than their physical disabilities and succeeded in displaying some great skills. They are, in fact, children with special skills, not handicapped,” the prince added while speaking at the concluding ceremony for the Prince Sultan bin Salman Qur’an Memorization contest for disabled children in Makkah on April 11.
Prince Salman, while speaking to Arab News, said that the Qur’an Memorization contest for disabled children is a remarkable event. “This is truly a very important event, the event of the disabled children who are now reading the Qur’an and who are now memorizing parts of the Qur’an. It is joyful event for me to attend every time, mainly because to us as Saudis, the Qur’an is really a way of life rather than reading a book. The Qur’an to us is a foundation of our country, it’s a foundation of our humanity and it is the values that the Qur’an preaches are the most important to us in Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi Arabia was founded on values of Islam. Islamic values basically are values that are far reaching in terms of issues of human rights, issues of family, issues of community, issues of economic and social tolerance and issues of equality.
“The world has been looking at Islam from different angles and different perspectives that is not necessarily always in line with what we believe Islam to be,” the prince said.
“Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion for tolerance. Islam is a very joyful religion and I always thought to be a Muslim you must be a happy person.
“Islam is a religion people can not only practice but can think of as a way of life and people in Saudi Arabia believe that the binding agent that brings people together in this country is Islam and it has brought this country together. This very vast and very complex country with multiple communities and colorful cultures is bound by the values of Islam. Values of how people can live with each other and can grow and can prosper.
“What we see today is Saudi Arabia being a country, a very prosperous country, that is growing very, very fast and that Islam enabled the people of this land, the Arabian Peninsula, to spread the light of Islam to the communities of the world. People rarely know that Islam literally conquered, and I use the word in a soft way, the emotions and the spirits of the people peacefully.
“And countries that has the vast majority of Muslims today like Indonesia, China, India and Pakistan are countries that Islam came to through word of mouth, through peaceful means and so too in other parts of the world.
“We are very proud in Saudi Arabia of our multiple culture and very colorful mosaic of demography and heritage and accents and people and languages, but mostly proud of what has been achieved in this country with people of multiple backgrounds and cultures and huge geographic area comprising mostly the Arabian Peninsula brought together long before the discovery of oil under the umbrella of Islamic values.
“This country today, as we see it, is the most prosperous, most secure and most coherent country in the region and we look forward as Saudis to young, middle aged and older people to shape a very bright future, as we are literally and still are working our way through many of our issues in reconciling our heritage and our religion with issues of the future and Islam has never been a stumbling block.
“Islam came to the Arabian Peninsula and most of the great achievement of Muslims happened in these countries after they embraced Islam — scientific, specifically, and cultural.
“Saudi Arabia has been made stronger as a nation because of Islam. We are now probably the most technologically advanced in the Middle East, the largest investor nation in the Middle East, and probably the most developed nation in the region, in the sense of literacy, in the sense of infrastructure development and in the sense of education and so on.
Prince Salman, while speaking to Arab News, said that the Qur’an Memorization contest for disabled children is a remarkable event. “This is truly a very important event, the event of the disabled children who are now reading the Qur’an and who are now memorizing parts of the Qur’an. It is joyful event for me to attend every time, mainly because to us as Saudis, the Qur’an is really a way of life rather than reading a book. The Qur’an to us is a foundation of our country, it’s a foundation of our humanity and it is the values that the Qur’an preaches are the most important to us in Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi Arabia was founded on values of Islam. Islamic values basically are values that are far reaching in terms of issues of human rights, issues of family, issues of community, issues of economic and social tolerance and issues of equality.
“The world has been looking at Islam from different angles and different perspectives that is not necessarily always in line with what we believe Islam to be,” the prince said.
“Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is a religion for tolerance. Islam is a very joyful religion and I always thought to be a Muslim you must be a happy person.
“Islam is a religion people can not only practice but can think of as a way of life and people in Saudi Arabia believe that the binding agent that brings people together in this country is Islam and it has brought this country together. This very vast and very complex country with multiple communities and colorful cultures is bound by the values of Islam. Values of how people can live with each other and can grow and can prosper.
“What we see today is Saudi Arabia being a country, a very prosperous country, that is growing very, very fast and that Islam enabled the people of this land, the Arabian Peninsula, to spread the light of Islam to the communities of the world. People rarely know that Islam literally conquered, and I use the word in a soft way, the emotions and the spirits of the people peacefully.
“And countries that has the vast majority of Muslims today like Indonesia, China, India and Pakistan are countries that Islam came to through word of mouth, through peaceful means and so too in other parts of the world.
“We are very proud in Saudi Arabia of our multiple culture and very colorful mosaic of demography and heritage and accents and people and languages, but mostly proud of what has been achieved in this country with people of multiple backgrounds and cultures and huge geographic area comprising mostly the Arabian Peninsula brought together long before the discovery of oil under the umbrella of Islamic values.
“This country today, as we see it, is the most prosperous, most secure and most coherent country in the region and we look forward as Saudis to young, middle aged and older people to shape a very bright future, as we are literally and still are working our way through many of our issues in reconciling our heritage and our religion with issues of the future and Islam has never been a stumbling block.
“Islam came to the Arabian Peninsula and most of the great achievement of Muslims happened in these countries after they embraced Islam — scientific, specifically, and cultural.
“Saudi Arabia has been made stronger as a nation because of Islam. We are now probably the most technologically advanced in the Middle East, the largest investor nation in the Middle East, and probably the most developed nation in the region, in the sense of literacy, in the sense of infrastructure development and in the sense of education and so on.
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