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Harvard downed Princeton, 79-67, to earn at least a share of its first Ivy League title (Gil Talbot).
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard men's basketball team claimed a share of its first Ivy League title in program history, defeating the visiting Princeton Tigers, 79-67, at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday night. Kyle Casey led the Crimson with 24 points, while Brandyn Curry added a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists.
With the victory Harvard claims at least a share of its first Ivy League title. Princeton heads to Penn for a Tuesday matchup to wrap up the regular season. A Tigers victory will force a one-game playoff between Princeton and Harvard. A Quakers win will give the Crimson the Ivy League title outright and its first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1946.
Harvard finishes its regular season with a 23-5, 12-2 Ivy record and went undefeated at Lavietes Pavilon (14-0). The Crimson, which has won 17 in a row at home, improves on its season-high victories in a season total (23) with Saturday's win and established a new program record for Ivy wins in a year (12).
Keith Wright added a career-high six blocks and scored 13 for the Crimson, while Oliver McNally tallied 15 points. going 10-for-10 from the foul line in the win. Dan Mavraides led Princeton (23-6, 11-2 Ivy) with 25 points.
After McNally drilled two free throws to give Harvard an early 4-3 lead, the Tigers answered with a 3-pointer to grab a 6-4 advantage. Curry came right down the floor and hit a trey of his own to put the Crimson back on top, 7-6. A few minutes later, Curry found Wright for a layup under the basket to make it 11-10 in favor of Harvard, as the Crimson made four of its first five field-goal attempts. The Tigers went up 17-15 with a triple with just under 14 minutes left, but Casey answered with a jump shot from the right side to knot the score.
With 11:52 remaining in the half, Curry dished out his sixth assist, as he lobbed a pass to Casey for an alley-oop tip-in, as Harvard went back on top, 21-19. Christian Webster made a jumper in the lane with 10:43 left, as the Crimson went up by four, 23-19. The Tigers grabbed a one-point advantage, 27-26, with five minutes to play, and increased its lead to 29-26 when Princeton's Dan Mavraides hit two from the line. On the next Harvard possession, Laurent Rivard made a high arching 3-pointer to tie the game with 4:07 to go in the half. With 3:09 left, Casey made an acrobatic layup while being fouled and hit the free throw to give Harvard a three-point edge, 32-29.
The Tigers scored seven of the next nine points to take a 36-34 lead, but Rivard was fouled trying a 3-pointer with one second left in the half and made all three from the charity stripe to give Harvard a 37-36 advantage heading into the locker room. Harvard shot 54.5 percent in the first half and was 11-of-13 from the line (.846). The Tigers owned a large advantage in rebounds, 17-9, after the first 20 minutes. Casey was Harvard's leading scorer at the break with 17 points, while Curry had six assists after one half.
Curry dribbled the length of the floor before hitting a jumper to give Harvard a 41-38 edge at the 18:46 mark of the second half. With 17:19 left, Curry found McNally for a wide open trey from the right wing as the Crimson went up by four, 44-40. Less than 30 seconds later, Casey had a highlight reel one-handed slam with contact and made the foul shot to give Harvard a five-point lead, 47-42. McNally added two more free throws to build Harvard's lead up to seven, 51-44.
With 13:24 left, Matt Brown hit a fallaway 3-pointer just as the shot clock was expiring to give Harvard its largest lead to that point, 56-47. Wright made a layup after receiving a pass from Brown, as the Crimson continued to remain in control, 60-50. Casey sank a jumper off a screen to push Harvard lead to 12, 64-52, with 9:45 remaining.
The Tigers pulled back within six, 64-58, with six minutes to go, and Princeton's Ian Hummer 1-of-2 at the line to cut the Harvard lead to just five. On the Crimson's next trip down the floor, Curry dribbled through the Princeton defense and hit a layup while drawing a foul. Curry made the ensuing foul shot and then found Wright for a basket as Harvard increased its lead back to 10, 69-59, with 4:22 to play.
With 1:34 left, Princeton's Mack Darrow converted a conventional three-point play to cut the Crimson's advantage to six, 73-67. Brown was fouled with 46.7 ticks left on the clock and connected on both foul shots to put the game out of reach, 75-67.
Princeton was unable to convert again from the field, while Harvard added four more from the charity stripe to give the Crimson a 79-67 victory.
Harvard shot 60 percent from the floor (24-of-40) and 90 percent from the charity stripe (27-of-30).


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An earthquake shakes Petersburg sending residents to higher ground
Petersburg residents began seeking higher ground after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit just before midnight Friday evening.
This major earthquake struck 58 miles west of Craig and 203 miles south of Juneau and immediately prompted a tsunami warning for almost the entire southeast region of Alaska.
"After realizing this was an earthquake, I immediately grabbed the phone and called dispatch, knowing they would be inundated with calls," Petersburg EMS Director Sandy Dixson said. "I just wanted to make sure they knew I was on my way and asked if they had called the Chief."
Dixson paged out the fire department volunteers and had them standby at the fire station.
"EMS assisted the hospital in evacuating its patients to Mountain View Manor," Dixson said. "The CodeRED system worked but it didn't contact everyone so that is something we will have to troubleshoot with the company to make sure it works properly next time."
Dixson suggests that anyone who has already registered for the CodeRED system but were not contacted, double check your registration and make sure all of the information and numbers are correct.
Petersburg Police Chief Jim Agner called the dispatcher and was relieved that they answered the phone.
"One of my concerns was whether the building was still standing," Agner stated. "When I realized all was well with the building, I contacted the Borough Manager and we received official notification of the tsunami warning."
The chief and borough manager had issues with the CodeRED system due to the siren not working to notify residents of the warning.
"We were unable to get the siren to work until we were able to send a person to the school personally to test the system and that is when the siren sounded," Agner stated. "We sent patrol vehicles through town with sirens and PAs and sent people to the ball fields."
Agner explained that the ball field has always been the official place for evacuation due to the rules stating to be one mile inland or over 100 feet in elevation.
"Of course there were too many people for the ball field, so we also sent people to alternative sites such as Hammer and Wikan, the Post Office, Airport and landfill area," Agner stated. "We had people in all of these areas to keep everyone informed of what was going on and to maintain calm."
According to Agner, the town evacuated smoothly.
"I was very pleased that we didn't have too many issues," Agner stated. "There were some people that didn't have transportation and we had to do something about that, but for the most part it went really well."
An alternate dispatch site was set up at the fire hall as well.
"We were able to bring out the communications trailer, which was purchased with a grant, and set it up," Dixson said. "Our communications room was treated as a dispatch site."
According to Agner, this was ground zero for a tsunami.
"We switched all communications to the alternate site and the communications trailer and shut this facility down," Agner stated. "We had the phone working out of the fire hall and the radios out of the trailer that was parked there and for the first time in the 50 years this building has been here there was no one here. We locked the door and walked away."
"There is some personal responsibility that needs to be taken even if it isn't a city wide evacuation," Dixson stated. "There are things that everyone needs to think about that are needed regardless of what it is, an earthquake, tsunami or a personal emergency. What are some things you will need to take with you that you can grab on your way out the door?"
Both Agner and Dixson stressed the need to have a go-bag ready at all times. A list of things that could be needed in an emergency can be found at http://www.readyalaska.gov along with other pertinent information that could be helpful in any situation.
"A general rule of thumb with earthquakes is if you shake for more than a minute or have difficulty standing up, people should not be waiting for us to tell them to go to higher ground," Dixson stated. "The chance of it happening may be slim but if it does happen it will be bad."
According to Dixson, the worst part of this evacuation was that it happened in the middle of the night.
"Luckily the weather wasn't too bad," Dixson stated. "And what better time to learn and grow and next time it will go even better."
Agner explained that he was proud of the community and its response in this matter.
"The community of Petersburg did an excellent job," Agner stated. "This evacuation was orderly and people were polite and helped their neighbors, we couldn't have asked for things to turn out better."
Over 50 employees of the Petersburg Medical Center showed up for duty to move 18 patients from the hospital to Mountain View Manor.
"It was such a smooth transition," PMC CEO Liz Woodyard said. "I am so very impressed with the staff here, everyone did a wonderful job.
Woodyard explained that Liz Bacom became the incident commander and was able to lead everyone to manage the task quickly and smoothly.
"This evacuation was done in a short amount of time," Bacom stated. "It took about 20 minutes to get all of the patients out of the hospital and another 10 minutes to get them settled at the manor."
Woodyard also stated that the CodeRED system worked well for the hospital staff.
"We will have to work the bugs out with the company for all of the other problems," Bacom stated. "We want the public to know that we are ready here. There was no anxiety for the patients, the staff was calm, cool and collected and the move went very well."
The police chief and EMS director would like the public to know all of the things that can be done to make evacuation even easier in the future.

subset: commoncrawl


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ROME, Ga. -- One of the best seasons in Greenville football history came to a disappointing close Saturday as the Panthers succumbed to the NCAA Division II Azusa Pacific Cougars 67-0 in the 2013 NCCAA Victory Bowl. Azusa's shutout was the first in NCCAA Victory Bowl history.
Junior running back Watson was named the Outstanding Offensive Player of the game, and sophomore linebacker Jonathan Uperesa was named the Outstanding Defensive Player of the game.
The Cougars scored on each of their first three possessions, jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Greenville's defense forced a punt on Azusa's fourth possession, but APU rattled off three successive touchdowns and then a field goal to take a commanding 44-0 lead into halftime.
Greenville's defense played better in the second half as it limited APU to just two offensive touchdowns and a field goal. Azusa's other score came on an interception return.
Azusa offensively set the record for most points scored in an NCCAA Victory Bowl. Greenville had a total of 111 offensive yards, with the quarterback Brendan Chambers earning 97 of those yards (29 passing and 68 rushing). Azusa posted 388 yards offensively with the running back Terrell Watson rushing for 110 yards and earning three of the nine touchdowns.
Uperesa collected six and a half tackles, including two for a loss of yards.
Overall, the NCCAA Victory Bowl left a positive mark on the city of Rome through the NCCAA Christian Service Project Food Drive conducted on Friday by the two participating teams. A total of 2,756 cans of food were donated to Rome's Community Kitchen.
(Photo Credit: Avery Marie Photography)


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Adaptive Theater
A majority of Grinnell students end up studying off campus sometime during their four years at the College. Some, winners of special fellowships, travel on special educational missions even after they graduate.
Teddy Hoffman '14, Grinnell's most recent Watson fellow, will spend the year following his graduation studying adaptive theatre in South Africa, New Zealand, India, and Ghana.
Hoffman, a double major in English and theatre, found that the application process for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship helped him hone his varied interests into a strong application.
Initially, Hoffman was looking at dramatic therapy, but that ended up being too research-focused and didn't fit the Watson mold. He then shifted his proposal's focus to adaptive theatre, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had a true passion for it.
Hoffman has volunteered with the Edina, Minn. Parks and Recreation's adaptive theatre for several years. At first he thought it simply was nice to encourage people with physical disabilities and non-neurotypical individuals to perform onstage. After seeing their performances, the illusion that this was just nice was destroyed. "I still consider the definitive rendition of "Maria" from West Side Story to be the one that was belted by a young man with Down syndrome. I could see Maria when he sang about her," Hoffman says.
"Everyone has a story to tell," Hoffman says. But often, people with physical disabilities or those who are non-neurotypical aren't given the opportunity to tell their own stories. Look at Hollywood. In movies like Forrest Gump, I Am Sam, My Left Foot, and Rain Man, physically able, neurotypical actors played characters with disabilities. Although their performances were inspiring and received high praise, they are indicative of a problem. Why is the stage dominated by neurotypical and 'normal bodied' actors? Why are those labeled as 'disabled' limited to workshops and kept out of the spotlight?" Hoffman asks.
In his international study of adaptive theatre programs, Hoffman hopes to gain insight into how other countries view these imaginations. "While a year abroad is not enough to grasp the entire scope of global disability rights, I want to come back with a picture of how other countries treat their differently-abled citizens through theater, and how such a perspective can open minds both artistically and socially," he says.
Teddy Hoffman '14 is a double major in English and theatre from Edina, Minn.


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A Cape Fear Community College instructor is no longer with the college after he falsified records
A Cape Fear Community College instructor is no longer with the college after he falsified records and gave a student a boat motor donated to the college, according to a report from the office of the state auditor.
According to the report, in April 2011, the instructor gave a marine technology student a boat motor that had been donated by Yamaha Motor Corporation to the college in July 2009. The instructor, Robert Parker, also reported in annual inventory records that the boat motor was on the college campus when it was actually in the student's possession. The office of the state auditor began investigating the incident in April 2013 after receiving a call to its hotline. The instructor, who worked in CFCC's marine technology department, retired from the college as of May 17, said David Hardin, spokesman for the college.
Jason Rogers, the chairman of the marine technology department, also received a disciplinary letter in relation to the incident.
When Yamaha Motor Corporation donated the motor, valued at $6,000, to the college in 2009, the donor agreement stated that the motor be used "for technical training purposes only. The Product shall not be used or operated for either transportation or recreation," according to the auditor's report. Parker told audit investigators that the motor was larger than what his classes typically worked on, and he didn't have much use for it.
A student approached Parker about putting the motor on his personal boat, and the instructor emailed Rogers about giving the motor to the student, according to the report. Rogers seemed to OK this in an email response, and the student was given the motor in April 2011. But Rogers told audit investigators that he "did not recall that email or any prior conversations" and "may have skimmed over the email without noticing the part about furnishing a student with a motor," according to the report.
College policy requires all departments to complete annual inventory reports on college-owned equipment. Parker indicated that the motor was on campus during the 2012 and 2013 inventory reports, when the student actually had the motor. Policy also requires that written requests must be submitted and approved to take equipment off campus. Parker did not submit any requests between April 2011 and April 2013, when the auditor's office began investigating the incident.
The motor was returned to the college in April, when audit investigators began looking into the incident, Hardin said.
"College employees are receiving training from their supervisor as to the proper procedures for allowing college assets and equipment to be taken off campus as well as the importance of following college inventory procedures," wrote CFCC President Ted Spring in a response to the investigation. "We are confident that this was an isolated incident."ing in a response to the investigation. "We are confident that this was an isolated incident."
Pressley Baird: 343-2328
On Twitter: @PressleyBaird


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March 1, 2013, 3:19 pm
Day's Best: Groupon chief's candid goodbye
Some are saying the outgoing Groupon CEO has written the best goodbye letter ever.
We're not going to argue with that.
Instead of relying on hackneyed and unbelievable reasons for departing, Andrew Mason was refreshingly blunt.
"After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you're wondering why… you haven't been paying attention."
Mason, the irreverent chief executive of the deal-of-the-day website, went on to describe his own shortcomings and wish the company well. (full text after jump)
The letter is an all-too-rare example of candor and self-effacement. Corporate America, are you taking notes?
Read more…


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They've cruised on their name, they've went with gimmicks, they've stubbornly stuck with being the kids console, they've put only a half-hearted effort into online play, they've all-but-resigned themselves to staying in the last gen, etc. And, most woefully of all, they seem to have put little to no thought into WHERE THEY FIT IN NOW.
Methinks they need something they probably haven't had in a long time--a conclave of their board and big-wigs to ask themselves some fundamental questions about what their mission is, how they are going to accomplish it, and how they're going to compete in the modern gaming market.
I think actually their primary problem now, in 2013, is that their business is making games consoles. It doesn't matter whether it's cheap, has "gimmicks" (can we lay that one to rest BTW? Innovation isn't gimmickry, the DS killed the PSP, and the introduction of the Wii basically forced Microsoft to go in a new direction), or anything else. The problem is they're making games consoles. And the concept really doesn't have anywhere to go, not usefully anyway.
If I wanted something more powerful than a Wii I'd have already bought am Xbox 360. But in all honesty, what I want has changed in the last five years. We have tablets and smartphones. Our PCs are no longer hooked up to 15-19" CRTs, they have 1080p 25" widescreens. Oh, and the PCs have Steam on them.
Given these entertainment options, the attractiveness of a locked down box you plug into the living room TV, requiring the consent of the entire household to do so, to play games is really going out of the window.
Sony and Microsoft need to take note, because realistically, unless their next game consoles are significantly different from the box-with-controllers-and-some-way-to-insert-a-game-and-a-TV-out model, they'll flop too.
It doesn't help that Nintendo apparently can't comprehend software to save their miserable lives. They can make games; but their grasp of the non-game software components is tragicomedic even compared to Sony, and that's saying something.
DRM is always user-hostile; but Nintendo's is just hilarious(even as their consoles are markedly easier to crack than Sony's or Microsoft's). Downloaded material is permanently locked to the hardware it was downloaded on. Even now that the Wii U has 'Nintendo network accounts' those are locked to the device they were created on. There is a transfer process for certain sorts of material; but it's the most ass-backwards and error-prone exercise one can imagine. Even better, the 'virtual' Wii within the Wii U, for backwards compatibility, counts as a separate device and is almost entirely non-integrated. It's just terrible at every step.
Sony's 'well, we could download updates in the background; but instead we'll make you watch' also isn't a masterpiece, and Microsoft is clearly sucking at the ad-money teat a bit too much in laying out their atrocious 'dashboard'; but that's at least evil rather than cluelessness.
I just traded my Wii U for a comparable Xbox/kinect system. My kids are already getting more enjoyment and use from the Xbox.
The Wii U is half baked. Maybe the hardware gets figured out by developers, and even Nintendo, but right now the shortcomings are to visible. Right from system menu navigation being so slow and frustrating that it made me not want to boot up the system. So yeah, Nintendo doesn't do well with the system software designed for their own System.
I was one of the unfortunate ones to get a system that kept locking up - luckily after over a week being sent from the East to West then back East, I got a working system - but while the system didn't crash anymore, it was still a pain to navigate, and the games were underwhelming.
It actually wasn't an easy decision to trade the system. Nintendo may work everything out... The gamepad was a unique feature, but not so unique now that Microsoft seems committed to "SmartGlass." But my final decision to give up on the Wii U came down to the kids --- do I get a system they can have fun and variety with now, or do I pay $60 - $70 for half baked ports that may or may not play properly and cross my fingers the kids can have a comparable experience 6 months, a year, 2 years down the road... Nintendo dropped the ball on this system...
On the other side of things -- maybe they do work it out. I had an Xbox 360 up until about 3 years ago - and the experience on the one I just traded for is much better than the one I got rid of. But I have a hard time thinking Nintendo can fully recover from this one with the PS4 and the next gen Xbox right around the corner... Add in the Steambox and the explosion of tablet gaming and it doesn't look good for the Wii U.
Exact opposite happening here. Our Xbox 360 is collecting dust (except occasionally when the kids want to play Tekken 6) & the kids are really digging the Wii U. They play NintendoLand, Super Mario Wii U & Sonic Racing all the time. 5 player gaming that doesn't involve the internet is a big hit at our house. Personally, I'm not too big on the Wiimotes, but I love the Wii U's GamePad. I also like the fact that I can, as of this weekend, get my retro F-Zero fix while the kids are watching TV, without having to fire up an emulator. Can't wait to see what else they release on the Virtual Console.
If Tekken or possibly Mortal Kombat ever comes out for the Wii U we may as well pack the 360 up for all the use it will get.
I thought it was cool that you could use the Gamepad to play (certain) titles just on the gamepad - but the range really isn't that good. We are in a smaller apartment, and I couldn't move past the living room and get a decent connection. annoying.
I had the Sonic Racing game as well, and while we liked it, the same game is available on Steam and Xbox cheaper than it was on the Wii U.. The gamepad didn't add much to it to warrant $20 more.
That's the other big issue moving forward (for all the next gen con
DRM is always user-hostile; but Nintendo's is just hilarious(even as their consoles are markedly easier to crack than Sony's or Microsoft's). Downloaded material is permanently locked to the hardware it was downloaded on. Even now that the Wii U has 'Nintendo network accounts' those are locked to the device they were created on. There is a transfer process for certain sorts of material; but it's the most ass-backwards and error-prone exercise one can imagine. Even better, the 'virtual' Wii within the Wii U,
You don't need to remind DS and Wii owners that Nintendo doesn't comprehend software. Even at a lower level, it's clear they don't understand the fairly common OS concept of hardware abstraction, and that they stubbornly refuse to figure it out.
The DS was released back when WPA/WPA2 was... okay, maybe not "new". When the DS was planned, yes, WPA/WPA2 was probably "new". So, the DS couldn't connect to WPA/WPA2 wifi points, only unencrypted or WEP. Fair enough. So then the DSi comes out. Hooray! It can support WPA/WPA2, finally! Except... all old DS games can't. Apparently, DS games THEMSELVES make explicit calls to the wifi hardware with no layer of abstraction between them. That is, a DS game can't just ask the console "Give me a network connection, I don't care what the underlying encryption standard is", it reads data from the OS and makes its own calls to set it up, and Nintendo couldn't even be arsed to come up with an emulation layer to trick those games into using the DSi's WPA/WPA2 network access. No, their answer is to present an entirely separate configuration screen just for DS games in the DSi interface, going so far as to start the DS emulation just to load this screen. Worse, they figured this was as good an idea as they could get, as the exact same setup STILL EXISTS IN THE 3DS!
The Wii's SDHC support, though, that's another story. At first, the Wii only supported plain SD cards (no SDHC). This worked well enough for a while, right until Guitar Hero World Tour came out. DLC songs sure ate up the size limits of non-HC SD cards quick (and Nintendo wanted to push WiiWare more), so Nintendo released a firmware update that allowed SDHC cards to work. But, of course, you can probably guess where I'm going with this: Any Wii game released before the update that supports SD cards? They couldn't figure out SDHC cards at all. Even if the console understood the card, the older games wouldn't, apparently because nobody at Nintendo bothered to look up filesystem abstraction. Hell, I only had ONE class in very, very basic OS design back in college, and even I know why this is necessary in a modern OS, yet this is a company with supposedly thirty or so years of computer experience under their belts!
I'm completely convinced that if Nintendo gave up on hardware and went third-party, they'd fail. Badly. It'd make Sega look like their old selves by comparison. From what I've seen of their crazy broken hardware ("broken" in terms of "services not directly related to playing the game"), it seems to me that Nintendo's got a very, very stubborn culture and developers who entirely depend on having complete and total communication with the hardware designers, just like the old days. In fact, it just seems like Nintendo wants to pretend like it's the old days, and that things like XBox Live, Steam, smartphones, tablets, and the internet itself don't exist.
Frankly, I say, if you've always liked Nintendo in the past, like I have, then you'd better enjoy them now while they're still around. They won't be around much longer unless they get their heads out of their asses in a timer-just-reached-100 hurry.
has "gimmicks" (can we lay that one to rest BTW? Innovation isn't gimmickry, the DS killed the PSP, and the introduction of the Wii basically forced Microsoft to go in a new direction)
No, because it's still Nintendo's primary problem. The DS didn't kill the PSP. The PSP was the first successful non-Nintendo gaming handheld, and by "successful" I mean "sold substantially in the popular market", "had a lot of games", and "has a successor". That's pretty successful. The PSP may not have beat the DS in sales figures, but that's still a pretty huge win given the wasteland of other failed non-Nintendo handhelds.
Innovation isn't gimmickry, but the Wii was gimmickry. It did most certainly not force Microsoft to do anything. Sure, they came out with the Kinect. The number of good games using it? Zero. Sure, it's found a lot of non-gaming use, but that's irrelevant. It's irrelevant to gaming. Nintendo only finally at the end of the Wii's lifecycle managed to show motion controls could work
Sony and Microsoft need to take note, because realistically, unless their next game consoles are significantly different from the box-with-controllers-and-some-way-to-insert-a-game-and-a-TV-out model, they'll flop too.
For the casual market, maybe something like Ouya is sufficient. Even my Roku XS plays Angry Birds. But this is buying the Nintendo Lie: that everyone is a casual gamer. If anything, fewer people are becoming casual gamers, since so many people are growing up with video games. It's no longer just for nerds.
In the end, Microsoft and Sony only need to do one thing: make sure their consoles have games that Nintendo doesn't, or even just that they play games better than Nintendo. Given the last three generations of Nintendo consoles (Wii, Cube, N64), this is hardly a stretch.
Sure, they came out with the Kinect. The number of good games using it? Zero.
Correction: The number of good games (series) using the Kinect is one. The Dance Central series is hands down the best use of the Kinect as a peripheral to create a game that literally could not be done any other way. The problem is the same as most games on the Wii. Most developers use motion controls as a substitution for pushing buttons instead of starting with the concept that you can do things based on movement and designing a game solely working off that basis.
Fruit Ninja Kinect is awesome. Kinect Party is pretty fun with kids. Kinect Adventures is sort of fun. I certainly play any of those three titles more than I ever play with the Wii.
a locked down box you plug into the living room TV, requiring the consent of the entire household to do so, to play games is really going out of the window.
I think that's why they went with the gamepad and the second screen option. Gabe from Penny arcade said he'll buy every game that supports that for Wii U over anything else because he doesn't have to stop playing if the family takes over the main TV... he can stream it to the gamepad and keep going.
Yup. My kids and I absolutely love that feature;
I would never have guessed how much we would use that feature. It wasn't a selling point of the WiiU at all for us.
But it gets used pretty almost daily.
I bought a PC in 2008 and have made one single upgrade of the video card. Its basically a Core2 E8400 (3GHz) with a Nvidia 275GTX. There have been exactly zero PC games in the last 5 years that have not run smoothly on this machine. Worrying about specs for PC games is more or less a thing of the past, these days if you can play one decent game you can play them all.
Because a lot of family-friendly and all-ages content shows up on the Wii, and as every teenager will tell you, 'all-ages' and 'family-friendly' is just code for 'games for babies'
Which is why they also appeal to older, never owned a gaming console, generations looking for "That thing that lets you bowl at home..."
How old is that? Games consoles were around in the 1970's - that is 40 years ago!
The issue here is "Jaded oldies who find the average game no more exciting than writing PHP" (which is just like the BASIC they grew up with, apart from the client-server concept and the internet). They dont think today's console games are a heap better than Leisure Suit Larry, but find playing "Tiger Woods Golf 2009" to unlock the secret girlfriends is good exercise compared
Graphics quality come into it too. I've noticed Wii graphics aren't as good as X360/PS3. Look at the recent Ghostbusters video game on the X360 or P3 vs. the Wii...
Have you heard of the game "Transformers: War for Cybertron"? The Wii version is called "Transformers: Cybertron Adventures."
If you bought "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" for Wii, you might notice some substantial differences between it and the other platforms (e.g., PC). Blood and gore is practically non-existent, and the bad guys actually say "I'm sorry" after Wolverine's done tearing through them. I wish I were making that up.
There are exceptions -- take "Madworld," for example -- but by and large, "family-friendly" pretty much does mean content-neutered.
Because the 16-22 year old male can't see any reason for games that don't pander to him. If it does not have pointless levels of violence and lots of bewbs they are not interested.
Sure violence and sex can be fun in a game, but for them that is all there is. Games that are just fun are not on their radar. Worse yet are games that a child or family could enjoy because they are trying to prove to the world they are Real Men, which is why they behave like children.
I have actually got a Wii, I got it for last story. That was good... but I had to hook it up to a small display because else the graphics were just not acceptable anymore.
There is no such thing as a gamer, what one loves, the other hates but the Wii mostly seems to appeal to the extreme casual market. And that hurt the console because not many can afford to buy a console for just one game like me.
And the casual market is huge but Nintendo sells casual games for 40 bucks. The iPad sells them for a dollar o
They've cruised on their name
I'm sorry, which console maker hasn't and how do you determine who is "cruising" and who isn't? Playstation to Playstation 4? That's not cruising on their name? They've been in the game a lot longer than Microsoft or Sony
they've went with gimmicks
I know, right. It's like those tired rhythm music games were only available on the Wii. Oh, and Sony and Microsoft keep leveraging innovative titles like Call of Duty 18 and Battlefield 5 and Medal of Honor: Get On 'Er.
they've stubbornly stuck with being the kids console
Right and if they hadn't, everyone would be criticizing them for not sticking to their bread and butter. It's cool you don't like those games but that's a market share and equals $$$.
they've all-but-resigned themselves to staying in the last gen, etc.
By releasing the Wii U a year before the XBox 720 and PS4? I don't get it. I think they're trying to offset themselves by a year and give consumers some breathing room to enjoy all consoles instead of making a choice. Sure, something released a year later better have good specs but can you point out the publishers that claim Nintendo just lacks the hardcore power for their titles? I haven't heard a lot of complaints and frankly, I own a Wii, Xbox 360 and a PS3
And, most woefully of all, they seem to have put little to no thought into WHERE THEY FIT IN NOW.
I get it, you like first person shooters. Enjoy. I like how you totally overlooked the obvious to me: Nintendo games are games that I play when my friends come over and want to drink and have fun. The wiimotes are fun in person and the Kinect is actually trying to break into this market. You are explaining this from one of the most narrow and convoluted false narratives I've come across.
You're attacking Nintendo for owning their market share while the other two consoles do exactly the same thing. Hell, it's arguable that Sony and Microsoft are gutting each other by fighting over the same user base while Nintendo chugs along owning one. How are those XBox 360 and PS3 sales? Through the roof right now?
If Nintendo is making all the right moves (as you seem to contend), why has their stock been dropping steadily for the last 5 years (from a high of over $72 to $12 now)? Obviously SOMEONE thinks they're screwing up, and it ain't just me. Maybe it has something to do with headlines like this [joystiq.com] and this [joystiq.com]?
Face it, they're NOT on the right path right now.
graphics are rarely a factor for me in which title I play.
Graphics aren't, but I admit that resolution is. We have our 480p Wii feeding into a 720p TV via component cables (which are abundantly sufficient to carry the Wii's low-res graphics in near-perfect detail), and it looks expectedly awful and blurry. I don't care about trillions of polygons or infinite FPS, but it'd be nice to run it at my TV's native resolution. I can imagine how it'd look on a newer 1280 line display, and my mental image isn't pretty.
Hi, parent here.
I can buy a Wii for a lower price than the XBox or PS. I'm 8 years from angsty teenagers, so I don't have to deal with the desire for mature rated games for a long time. The Wii games are more fun for the tipsy adults when we have friends over.
The Wii U doesn't appeal to me because it looks more complicated and it costs more than twice as much. Talk to me when it is $150. I'd also prefer it didn't have big easy-to-break-looking, drain-its-batteries-all-the-time controller tv things.
I'd also prefer it didn't have big easy-to-break-looking, drain-its-batteries-all-the-time controller tv things.
As a Wii U owner w/ 4 children, let me just say, you're wrong on both of these points regarding the GamePad.
From the great 20th century author C.S. Lewis:
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
Likewise, I'm in my 30s and I have zero interest in the PS4 right now because the vast majority of the games shown were violent M rated games or sports games. That's fine if that's what you
I would have bought one already if it was a little cheaper. Nintendo stuff is supposed to be cheap and cheerful. $349 is too much, and the $299 version is too crippled to justify even building much less buying.
Drop $50 and I will take one today.
Good point. I thought the Wii launched in about the same price range, but looks like it was actually $249, which is an inflation-adjusted $282. So the Wii U is priced about 20% higher in real terms.
If the $349 version was $249 I would already have one, even $282 would have been fine.
I almost bought the $299 version until I realized that would be a mistake.
Why they can't just let me upgrade using standard internal hard drives like the PS3, I don't understand.
The next Zelda title is coming out in December and it's a re-release of Wind Waker, a *Gamecube* game. They really dropped the ball on getting 1st party titles out there.
I have a few ideas, but my favorite one is: Put a Tetris game on there that I can play from another room on the controller. I'd buy that. That's what sold a lot of Game Boys, remember?
It seems like the next generation MS and Sony consoles essentially run high-end commodity PC x86(-64) hardware with Blu-Ray drives and huge gobs of system and video memory (8GB combined GDDR5 in the case of PS4). No more Cell, powerpc, whatever have you and horrible graphics memory limitations (like 256MB, wtf).
So yeah, porting for those and PC will be relatively painless while the Wii U is stuck with Xbox 360 launch specs.
Nintendo has missed the boat.
Furthermore, the launch slate of games for Nintendo is terrible again, as usual, and this year there will be like 3 Wii U titles or something? And the next Zelda release is yet another port/remake?
Nintendo hasn't made a good case that the Wii U was necessary. For the casual gamers that made the Wii a hit, the Wii is still good enough for anything they want to do. Super Mario Galaxy III would work just as well on the Wii as SMG-I did. For those of us who want games with depth, we're still better off with a 360, PS3, or PC than a Wii-U. Does the Wii-U have anything in the works that could compete with the recent X-com? The upcoming Wasteland 2?
One of the problems that the Wii U faces right now is that it's not the cheapest option. I'm sure Nintendo would like it to be, but it's not. For less money, you can get an XBox 360 or PS3, and while they sure are old at this point, they still have tons of life left in them. We'll be seeing new releases on those consoles for many more years to come. In addition to that, you get blu-ray (ps3) or dvd (xbox) player, netflix, amazon, vudu, last.fm (xbox), hbo (xbox), Syfy (xbox), VEVO (xbox), Youtube, ESPN (xb
Anyone have any guesses as to what new feature the Sony or Microsoft offerings could come up with to lockout the Wii U? I mean, there's no new disc standard or input device idea that I'm missing, is there? That'd be the only case where the Wii U would be in trouble -- if there was some new feature X like VR goggles that a consumer just had to have at all costs.
I honestly can't imagine, right now, how the next Xbox is going to be that substantially different from the PS4. And frankly, the Xbox 360 and PS3 aren't all that different, either. They've become different over time, but from the get-go they were both similarly-powered, championed online-play, and were basically both competing for exclusive contracts with the Big Studios for the Big Games. Nintendo decided to stay out of this rivalry of the giants and go in a different direction. It worked for them.
This co
Why is this story given the Microsoft icon?
I agree. The Super Mario Brothers game on the Wii U is great, and.... theres not much else out there. Nintendoland got boring after a few weeks.
The Wii U however is a great Netflix device (no extra charges like the xbox), and would be an awesome youtube viewing device if the interface weren't staggeringly bad.
The browser's ok too.
But here's the real rub. We're still using our old Wii because we'll be damned to move our stuff over "once and only once" to the Wii U. What a load of horsecrap. We use the W
This is why we haven't migrated and sold the Wii. Now, because of this hostility, my daughter and I have a half-finished game of Lego LOTR that we probably will never finish, because it's just not convenient to go to the other TV (my wife's TV in the bedroom) nor is it convenient to put 2 Wiis on the same TV, nor is it convenient to migrate (not to mention how long starting Wii mode takes), nor start the game over, since we were halfway through already. It just makes me depressed about the whole thing, to
This. As an owner, I can tell you there are 2 problems:
1. No launch titles except Mario. I hear ZombiiU is good, but since I think the whole zombie thing is ridiculous, I'll never know. Seriously, my brother got us a bunch of games after finding out we were getting one, and they all suck. This could be fixed by putting out a few more great games. It also could have been fixed by making Wii games run hi-res on the WiiU, because then I might actually buy more Wii titles in the meantime, but they didn't
It's hard to predict what would happen if MS went with the cheap low tech Nintendo style option, but I don't think that's going to happen.
My prediction is that Sony wins this next generation handily. With the current generation, the PS3 came out a year later, at a significantly higher cost, but was still comparable in hardware specs. It was also much harder to develop for. Despite this, on average it's been outselling the 360 slightly and has nearly caught up to the 360.
In the upcoming generation, they won'
I'd be surprised if the XBox 720 launches for $200. The XBox 360 launched at $300 in 2005, which is $350 if you adjust for inflation. Can they really afford to launch the 720 at barely more than half that?
Nintendo has done some marketing? Pictures or it didn't happen!
The system on demo at Best Buy just didn't do it for me. Why they decided to make a simple (if beautiful) side-scroller the only playable demo (the rest are just videos) is beyond me, when the title that supposedly comes with the system is meant to showcase the possibilities.
I was perplexed as to why they didn't put a game on there that really showed what the machine brings to gaming. When the first Wii came out, people were eagerly waiting in line for a turn to roll a bowling ball or play some tennis. There was often a small group cheering on whoever was currently playing.
It's almost as if they are intentionally not enticing me to buy the Wii U.
My family and I considered getting one for Xmas, but as others and TFA points out, there weren't any games we were interested in. I appreciate that Nintendo always seems to make Zelda and Metroid games "right", but any guesses as to when there will be a Wii U Zelda? Also, didn't they say they were rebooting Zelda, so that makes more more willing to hold off.
Heck, I (might) get it for Mario Kart, but no, gotta wait for that too. Maybe when Zelda and Mario Kart is available I'd get a used Wii U, as I'm not su
Maybe it's just me (and I know it supports the old wii-motes), but I think the big controller is too weird and too big.
I'm looking forward to ouya console or the steam console.
and Nintendo is seemingly unaware.
Every kid I know want's either a smartphone or tablet. From my observation the only people playing consoles anymore are teenagers and adults that grew up with consoles many of which are increasingly shifting their attention to mobile. The younger kids have ditched their DSi for iTouches over the last two years and are playing casual and social games. When I visit family I am bombarded by nephews and nieces that want to play my iPad.
Nintendo is trying with a tablet but doing it horribly wrong. Instead of focusing on their hardware they need to focus on their software on established mobile hardware and ecosystems.
Every year more mobile devices activate than all consoles sold combined. Mobile devices also iterate with a much higher frequency. Most modern mobile devices are fully capable of rendering any Nintendo title if adapted for it.
My prediction is none of the new consoles will sell as well as the prior version and all will likely flop. They will fail for the reason that they focus on a living room that has become mostly vacant.
No, Nintendo doesn't care about people who want to buy Halo 27 or CoD 12, they're more interested in the people that want Mario 33, or Mario Kart 18, or Paperboy
You say this, but I never really saw anything like Journey, Flower or Unfinished Swan on the Wii. They've always seemed happier creating lots of versions of their classic line-up, and for a lot of people that seems enough.
You young'ns fail to remember what happened with the Gamecube: decent launch followed by a drought of games in Jan/Feb, in fact I seem to recall the Gamecube drought lasting through April. The Wii U has had no new games, of signifigance, released since its launch. Next month brings Lego City Undercover on 3/18 and Monster Hunter the day after. It's nothing more than the usual post-launch drought for any console.
Personally, i'm enjoying the Wii U, the off-TV gameplay using the gamepad is the unexpected kille
It's likely the PS4 and Xbox 720 won't sell that well either.
The manufacturers are aware of this, which is why their new consoles aren't as costly as the previous ones.
Make revolutionary games, and people will come. But what's left to revolutionize anymore?
If the PS4 ends up being cheaper than the original PS3 (and I wouldn't count on it just yet), it would only be because the Blu-Ray technology has come way down in price, they're certainly sparing little expense based on the other specs they've released.
Nintendo should have released the Wii U 1-2 years ago when the Wii was just starting to decline. At that time, it would have been a perfect mid-generation console upgrade adding HD support, competing with the Kinect/PS-Move, and riding the general buzz of the time while giving it the power-boost needed to compete with traditional games on the other consoles.
Now it's simply too little too late, particularly at their given prices. Once the PS4 and Xbox720 are released Nintendo will be back to being the unde
ALL consoles suck their first year or year and a half. If you're lucky, a console will launch with a fantastic game or two, and then games for the system will stagnate for a year or year and a half. ALL consoles follow this trend. The Nintendo DS did this. The Nintendo Wii did this. The Xbox 360 did this. The Playstation 3's games problem lasted for years. Going back as far as I remember, to the NES, we had this problem. The latest system to do this was the Nintendo 3DS. Now the 3DS is taking off like a rocket, and we all see that reports of the system's death were greatly exaggerated.
The Nintendo Wii U did not have a stellar launch lineup. This is not exceptional. Most systems have crappy launch lineups, and all systems suffer from a year or a year and a half of game drought. I do no claim to predict the future success of the Wii U, but I can tell you that tales of a console's death prior to its 2nd year birthday are almost always uncalled for.
There was basically zero advertising. People still thought it was just an accessory for the Wii even a couple months after it was released. There were almost no games worth buying in the launch window. You had games hardcore players had already bought for their 360/PS3 months ago, another 2D Mario platformer that was barely different from the last 4 "New" Super Mario Bros. games released in the past couple years, a tech demo minigame collection, and ZombiU (which, even if it is a decent game, has a retarded name and, again, basically zero advertising).
Most critically, they've abandoned what made the Wii such a big fad: an interface so intuitive that your grandma can play the game with you at Thanksgiving/Christmas. WiiU minigames are much more complex and much more "gamey," often requiring players to simultaneously be aware of the action on two screens at once, and with an interface that somehow manages to be even more complex than a standard 360/PS3 controller-based game. Wii's success was completely predicated on the fact that actions performed with the controller mimicked real world physical actions, such as swinging a golf club, tennis racket, or rolling a bowling ball. This type of gameplay has been completely abandoned on the WiiU.
Combine all this with the global economic recession and the obviously impending announcements of the PS4 and Durango, and you have a recipe for disaster for Nintendo. A recipe which says very little about the future of video games in general or the potential future success of said PS4/Durango. We're looking at another GameCube at best. A Dreamcast at worst.
In less than a century, computers will be making substantial progress on ... the overriding problem of war and peace. -- James Slagle


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Monday, November 14, 2011
Sabres Learn An Old Lesson
So the Buffalo Sabres are getting it from all corners of the hockey world for failing to act on Milan Lucic's hit that knocked out their franchise player and number one goalie Ryan Miller on Saturday. Pundits are calling the Sabres "soft", "gutless" and a few other things that aren't printable in your average family newspaper.
Sound familiar Sens fans?
It should, because Ottawa had a reputation for a long time of being a team that failed to protect its star players from predatory hits and cheapshots (and oh there were many over the years). That changed a little when Zdeno Chara and Brian McGrattan provided some muscle in the mid-2000's but after a few incidents with Daniel Alfredsson in recent years (such as the Mark Bell hit and the Wojtek Wolski elbow) that were not fully addressed on the ice, either at the time or in subsequent matches, the Senators are not exactly a shining example of frontier justice anymore either. But more on that in a moment.
Miller, who is now out with a concussion, fired the first "gutless" shot at Milan Lucic himself, saying "He has 50 pounds on me and he runs me like that?... That was gutless." Lucic, who was given a few love-taps by the Sabres on the ice immediately after the hit, fired back with "We wouldn't accept anything like that. We would have [taken] care of business. But we're a different team than they are."
The reason Lucic can say that with complete confidence? He knows the Sabres won't do anything about it. Who says intimidation doesn't work in hockey? Boston won the game 6-2.
Perhaps the Sabres were counting on the referees to take care of them but Lucic only got a two-minute penalty for charging and the Sabres didn't do anything with the power-play, as can often happen when a team is demoralized like that.
You can perhaps forgive the Sabres for thinking the refs would come to their rescue, just like some teams who don't employ tough guys believe that the league will dole out the proper punishment to players taking cheap shots at their stars. But even in this era of heightened sensitivity and super-suspensions, the league is still powerless to act if they deem the hit to be a legal one.
That's exactly what happened to the Ottawa Senators when Brendan Shanahan decided that the New York Rangers Wojtek Wolski was "bracing himself" instead of intentionally elbowing Ottawa's own franchise player in the chops and concussing him for five games (of which they lost 4 in a row).
So right there you can quickly see a grey area where old school "vigilante justice" may still have a role in the NHL. If your star player is lying on the ice and the league sees nothing wrong with it, what are you supposed to do? Just sit back and take it?
Of course not. That's a loser mentality. Even if your star player gets hit cleanly, it's important for his teammates to let the other team know that's still unacceptable. That doesn't make sense to a lot of fans who see everybody as fair game as long as it's within the rules but hockey players certainly don't think like that. The proof is out there on the ice. A lot of people complain about the fights that happen after clean hits, and in a way it has gotten a little ridiculous. In the 80's for instance, fights always happened if a star player got hit cleanly but was usually let go when a third or fourth line player got lit up at centre ice (give or take a few bench clearing brawls between the Canadiens and the Nordiques of course).
Now even those hits are ending up in fights a lot of times, but behind it all is a reasonable motivation. If teams let every clean hit go without fighting back, the league would be littered with star players (and third liners) on the sidelines. Those fights, or the threat of them, make some players think twice before really laying the body on someone (although some players just aren't wired that way, like Patrick Kaleta). It acts as a deterrent and keeps the game from turning into a roller derby every night.
And that's just the clean hits. If you let the dirty ones go unpunished, what does that say for your team? To count on the league to play enforcer is plain folly. Even if the guy who hit your star gets suspended, it seems like little solace in the end. Players don't want the league to do their dirty work. They'd much rather take care of it themselves in the traditional way that hockey has always allowed, even after the instigator penalty was instituted (although to a lesser degree).
So why didn't the Sabres respond to Ryan Miller getting knocked out of the game? Beats me. They'll get a chance to do that later in the season but it seems like it's already too late. They've been labeled and teams won't have much fear going into that rink and maybe giving Thomas Vanek that extra shot that they know will go unpunished. On the other hand, maybe this incident serves to wake up the Sabres and they come together as a team. It can work both ways.
And why did the Senators seem to shy away from getting tough on the Rangers just weeks after Alfredsson was knocked out of commission? Maybe it had something to do with Wolski being out of the lineup for surgery but that shouldn't have had any bearing on the situation. Brad Richards had a fairly comfortable game, as did Marian Gaborik. Zenon Konopka and Jared Cowen stepped up and took on the Rangers but it still felt like a missed opportunity to make a stand as a team. The Senators fell apart shortly after that and erased their great October with a brutal start to November with Alfie on the shelf.
In essence, it's not the fighting that's important, it's the idea of coming together and making a statement to the league. They could have done that without any fights at all. All they had to do was make life miserable for the Rangers on the boards and within the rules. Winning that game on their own turf would have been enough. That didn't happen either.
To be fair to the Senators, they have a lot of young guys trying to stay in the league. Nobody wants to be the guy who takes a stupid penalty and puts his team down a man. Nobody wants to get hammered by Shanahan. The league seems to be in a flux right now and a lot of players don't know how to act.
But at some point for both the Sabres and the Senators, you have to come together as a team and let it be known that if you mess with one, you have to face the rest. That's a cliché as old as hockey itself, but it's one lesson that seems to get taught year after year after year.
6 comments:
I think that the Lucic hit deserved a spontaneous response. And, I'd even say that next game, Lucic needs to keep his head up.
That said, the whole frontier justice mentally is kinda stupid. If the play is against the rules, it should be punished accordingly.
I think that the NHL is taking incremental steps in the right direction, when it could really address these issues by consistently enforcing the rules.
My understanding is that Miller is concussed. You'll never eliminate concussions completely, but is the Lucic hit a play that the game could do without? If it is, then it needs to be punished.
Twelve years ago, the biggest profile player in the game, Eric Lindros, was ridiculed for his sensitivity to being hit in the head. Fast forward to today and the highest profile player, Sidney Crosby, could be at 95% and he's still deemed not ready for action. People seem supportive and understanding. That's progress. It took some time, but still progress.
The game is what it is today. But, I'd bet that the Lucic hit will not be tolerated as the game evolves. You have young players who are growing up with a higher level of consciousness with regards to the effects of head injuries. That's going to eventually works its way through the system.
I think that the resistance to punishing hits like Lucic and Wolski comes from the old guard. Just my opinion. I think that Shanahan has been influenced. Just an opinion again, supported with no inside knowledge just observation.
As the old guard gets replaced with a younger crew, I think that new attitudes and actions will emerge in the NHL power structure.
Another point about "vigilante justice" or the lack of it, may be that nowadays there is so much player mobility, that players have friends on other teams. I'm not saying that is the explanation, but it may be a factor that scales down the hate it bit.
Also, let's face it, Lucic is a pretty tough dude. Who wants to mess with him?
- November 14, 2011 at 8:23 PM
- Jeremy Milks said...
Here's an interesting opinion on the whole "frontier justice" thing from Hall Of Famer Mark Howe:
"I like the game a little better in our era, mostly because the players policed the game. I think there's so much onus put on the officials right now ... I don't mind the fighting in the game, I know they're trying to take a lot of it out. The game in the old days got rid of the pretenders and the guys who do the whacking and the hacking, guys that are chirping back. That stuff got eliminated years ago. If somebody was taking a shot at your best player, somebody got rid of that right away."
- November 14, 2011 at 9:32 PM
- Oman said...
"...a shining example of frontier justice... " ugh.
Nothing shiny about vigilante justice IMHO.
But that is the Typical analysis you get here on Black Aces: don't question the authorities... just blame the victim!
Mr Milks: " If you let the dirty ones go unpunished, what does that say for your team?"
Me: "If you let the dirty ones go unpunished, what does that say about the LEAGUE?!!!"
Have to agree with Anon. If Beauchemin, Lucic and Wolski get suspended this whole mess starts to go away. Fail to act and the bullies just get worse.
Right now they're doing NOTHING to prevent the kind of situation Sidney Crosby has end up in (like Kariya and so many skilled "targets" before him).
Illegal play (ie. get's a penalty on the ice) + principle contact to the head + concussion MUST = at least minimum suspension, intent or no intent. If there's intent, or you're a repeat offender, then throw the book at them.
Re. the old boy take: It's not just the "pretenders" that we should be worried about in today's game. It's the thugs like Chara and Lucic that are allowed to smash heads with impunity. To go vigilante, you need to get bigger, badder SOB's on your team to take them on... and hockey just gets uglier.
With all the money in today's game, you just CAN'T let the players police themselves. It would become a brutal arms race in no time. The game as we know it would degenerate into UFC on ice (it's already pretty dam close at times).
I love watching professional hockey too much to want to see it turn into the wild west. I wan't to see good battles and clean hits, and maybe the odd scuffle and spur-of-the-moment fight, but most of all I want to see fast, skilled players making amazing hockey plays. IMO that's what make hockey the moste exciting game in the world.
Ugly hits followed up by ugly brawls, and revenge attacks every game... with skilled players regularly injured and out of the line-up, making way for bigger, tougher, less skilled pluggers engaged in gang warfare on ice... no thanks.
(Dammit Milks, you sucked me in again! Back to work!)
- November 15, 2011 at 9:44 AM
- Jeremy Milks said...
Oman, glad to be of service.
I think you're getting a little carried away though. Tough guys create a balance. They don't necessarily turn the game into the wild west. Some players will tell you a lack of tough guys and the accountability they bring is what really turns the game into a circus. This article was mostly about what happens when the league doesn't step in. The league can't and won't take care of every situation that happens on the ice. That's a pipe dream. There are times when a hit is technically legal but still must be addressed. When the league doesn't do it, the players have to. That was the point I was trying to make.
Not sure why you would call Chara and Lucic "thugs". They're both world class players who also happen to be tough but clean. And they also happen to be Stanley Cup champions. "Winners" is the word you were looking for.
- November 15, 2011 at 10:36 AM
- Thomas Gamble said...
I appreciate that you taking the time to write this article , it has valuable information.
- November 15, 2011 at 2:25 PM
well said in the blog.
I personally don't believe that goalies should be given a free pass everywhere they roam. That being said it shouldnt be open season on them out of the crease either.
My final comment is Lucic is a mean huge prick and he can play hockey as well. No one on the sabres responded because they would simply get the piss beat out of them. Same if anyone, yes ANYONE, on the senators tried to mess with big ML. We desperately need a player like that on the Senators...
- November 15, 2011 at 5:02 PM


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Review: Kensington Proximo Fob & Tag Starter Kit
Company: Kensington
Website: www.Kensington.com
Model: Proximo Starter Kit
Price: $60
Compatible: iPhone 4S/5
As the latest accessory to leverage low-power Bluetooth 4/Smart wireless technology, Kensington's Proximo Starter Kit ($60, aka Fob & Tag Kit) is a proximity monitoring system marketed towards iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 users. Proximo consists of two primary pieces -- a keychain fob and a separate tag -- plus one watch-sized battery for each unit, and a screwdriver to make battery insertion and replacement easy. You put the batteries into the units, attach the fob to your keys, and then use a free app to link your iPhone to the fob and tag. The concept is similar to the company's earlier BungeeAir Power, minus the earlier product's battery case.
The Proximo system can track up to four tags at the same time, each with its own customized name, icon, and sound effect; additional tags are sold for $25 each. Kensington expects that you'll carry the fob around, and should you leave your iPhone behind, the fob will sound an alert; similarly, the iPhone can set off alerts on the fob or tags when you need to find them or if you move out of a designated range. Should you lose something, the app can be used to show you its last-known location for the fob or tag, and provide guidance to that location. The fob and tag can run for up to 6 months on CR2032 batteries thanks to Bluetooth 4; this does prevent them from being used with pre-Bluetooth 4 iPhones, iPods, and iPads, though.
In our tests, the Proximo system worked just as expected. Once you move out of the selected range, the appropriate accessory begins to make noise. It's worth mentioning that every noise option is incredibly annoying—each one is a grating, synthesized sound, possibly a deliberate design decision by Kensington to help attract your attention. Also important to note: the app has to be running in order to track the fob and tag, either actively or in the background. If you force quit the app, or iOS automatically quits the app to reduce memory usage, the Bluetooth connection will be broken. Perhaps this is why it displays the message, "Check back with Proximo often to keep track of your valuables." Doing so keeps it running, and the fact that this isn't purely automatic without the need for user interaction will remain a sticking point for some users. If you're going to forget your keys or bag often enough to need proximity sensor assistance, you'll probably forget to re-launch the app, too.
We're still not sold on the idea of iOS-based proximity monitoring systems being totally practical or necessary, but if you're in the market for one, Proximo is a fine but somewhat pricey option. The system is simple, and the fob and tag work how they're supposed to, at least when the app is being used as expected. Hopefully, Kensington will continue to iterate on the idea and come up with even more affordable components, some different sounds, and a practical way to maintain tracking despite iOS's managed approach to multitasking. For the time being, this merits a limited recommendation, but if the price comes down and the software improves, it might be worthy of more serious consideration.
Editors' Note: iLounge only reviews products in "final" form, but many companies now change their offerings - sometimes several times - after our reviews have been published. This iLounge article provides more information on this practice, known as revving.


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BY John Prizer
Despite its politically correct trappings, Ever After still casts a charming spell
Considering current Hollywood trends, it finally had to happen: a politically correct Cinderella. After Disney perfected this revisionist type of storytelling in its animated versions of classic folk tales with heroines (Pocohantas, Mulan, etc.), live-action producers aiming at the same youth market niche were bound to do likewise.
Regarding Cinderella, first you have to dump the fairy godmother and the magic pumpkins. Post-feminist heroines who rise from rags to riches must do so on their own — even if the action is set in the 16th century. They can't let some sappy, supernatural creature wave a silly wand and make it all come out right.
Next, you can't permit an intelligent, liberated young woman to wait passively for Prince Charming to make his move. She must be an activist in all things, particularly romance. It's her energy that has to push the courtship forward, and if he refuses to treat her as an absolute equal, the whole thing must be called off lest her self-esteem be damaged. The surprising thing about the use of this post-feminist ideology is how little harm it does to the original tale. Ever After: A Cinderella Story — which is P.C. to the max — proves that the romantic elements of the fairy tale are virtually indestructible. The audience winds up rooting for the good-hearted young woman to best her wicked stepmother and grab the prince despite the ideologically fashionable packaging.
Writer-director Andy Tennant (Fools Rush In) and co-screenwriters Susanah Grant and Rick Parks invent a 19th-century prologue in which an unnamed aristocrat (Jeanne Moreau) tells the Brothers Grimm that Cinderella was a real person, her ancestor, and that certain key elements of their story are wrong. Now, the noblewoman has decided, is the time to set things right.
The action flashes back to Renaissance France where we meet the real-life Cinderella named Danielle. An eight-year-old tomboy, she has been raised by her loving father, Auguste (Jeroen Krabbe), who has taught her to read and think for herself. His favorite book is Sir Thomas More's Utopia, which she has learned contains great wisdom.
Auguste is remarried to a haughty Belgian, Rodmilla (Anjelica Huston), whose two daughters are the kind of perfect, feminine little ladies Danielle and the filmmakers despise. Almost immediately, Auguste dies of natural causes, and Danielle is left to be raised by her stepmother.
Ten years pass, and Danielle (Drew Barrymore) is treated as a servant in what was once her father's house. She waits on her stepsisters, the beautiful Marguerite (Megan Dodds), and the plain-looking Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey), who've nicknamed her "Cindersoot" because she's dirty from sleeping with the pigs.
The action cuts away to the crown prince of France, Henry (Dougray Scott), who's rebelling against his father's wish that he marry a Spanish princess for political reasons. The young hunk wants "nothing more than to be free of my gilded cage" and runs away to be his own person.
Pursued by the king's guards, Henry steals a horse from Danielle's manor. She stops his escape by beaning him with an apple. He, of course, is taken with her feistiness, but she doesn't yet reciprocate even though she knows he is the prince.
To make sure we grasp that Danielle is the equivalent of a feminist for her time period, the filmmakers show her using Utopia as a handbook for political action. When her cruel stepmother sells to the royal family a servant who had worked for her father, she rushes off to the court where she delivers to Prince Henry a lecture on human rights that would bring cheers at a present-day Amnesty International meeting. The family retainer is quickly freed.
Henry's father takes pity on his son and decides to allow him to marry the woman of his choice if he can make up his mind within five days. Rodmilla pushes forward her darling Marguerite, but the prince pines for Danielle whose true identity is unknown to him.
The filmmakers engineer a series of encounters between the two. Moments of dewy-eyed romance alternate with lectures from Danielle on the responsibilities of privilege, and as a result of her influence, the young royal asks his parents to endow a university for the poor.
During one romantic interlude, the couple is kidnapped by gypsies. After both prove their physical prowess in fighting the outlaws, Danielle rescues Henry by literally carrying him on her shoulders. But the two decide to stay and party, and Danielle, ever politically correct, teaches him not to be so prejudiced against people from another ethnic background.
Also present at the royal court is Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) whom the couple befriend. Leonardo, though carrying a canvas of the Mona Lisa, seems less involved with painting than with his visionary, screwball inventions that provide everyone with a few laughs.
In keeping with the legend, the evil stepmother manages to thwart Danielle's plans on the night of the big ball. The filmmakers have Leonardo assume part of the fairy godmother's traditional role in helping her overcome obstacles. He even designs for her a breathtaking costume that includes another holdover from the original, the glass slipper.
Credibility is sometimes stretched as the filmmakers try to construct a happy ending without any kind of rescue by the prince, and the dialogue occasionally sounds more like a TV soap than the conversation of the 16th-century upper classes. But the movie's most significant departure from the original is to make the Cinderella character seem almost too good for her Prince Charming. This may reinforce certain post-feminist prejudices about the general superiority of women to men. However, it's also an excellent dramatic device which traditional romances have often employed with telling effect.
Most importantly, in this version as in all others, Cinderella's prince recognizes her beauty and virtues that have been hidden from the world by her stepmother, and he makes a special effort to win her heart. The trappings may be politically trendy, but how can we resist?
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.
Ever After: A Cinderella Story is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America.


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This article or section needs more/new/more-detailed sources to conform to a higher standard and to provide proof for claims made.
|Physical Description
|as all men
|Average height
|smaller in stature than other men
|Images of Dunlendings
Dunlendings were the ferocious, stunted and vicious men that lived in Dunland, close to Rohan. Also called the Wild Men of Dunland, they have long been enemies of the Rohirrim, becuase they are jealous that the rich lands of the old Númenórean province of Calenardhon were granted by the Gondorians to the Rohirrim instead of them.
The ancestors of the Dunlendings are also the ancestors of the Haladin, the second of the Three Houses of the Edain who led her people from East Beleriand to Brethil. They were a reclusive folk, dark-haired but smaller in stature than the Bëorians or the Marachians. They kept separate from the other Men. Their language was different from the ones that used by the other Edain.
After the fall of Beleriand, the survivors went to Númenor but those who didn't cross the Ered Luin settled upon either side of the Gwathló or in the Ered Nimrais. In the First Age, the Drúedain lived among them and shared close relationship, more than with any other race of men.
Númenórean contact
In ancient times the peoples who were the ancestors of the Dunlendings ranged over much Eriador and what later became Gondor, but they were increasingly driven back by the Númenóreans. Offshoots of these peoples survived in isolated places like the hilly country of Dunland or in the White Mountains: thus the Oathbreakers are akin to the ancient Dunlendings.
During the advance of the Númenóreans, many people overcame their fear of the Elves and fled from Minhiriath into the dark woods of the great Cape of Eryn Vorn. Those from Enedwaith took refuge in the eastern mountains that would become Dunland.[1] Interestingly, the Men of Bree are themselves actually an offshoot of the Dunlendings, who moved even further north until they reached what became the Bree-land, and were absorbed into Arnor.
Some of the Pre-Númenóreans were absorbed into the population of Gondor, and some stayed in the White Mountains. There are few records of the Dunlending language, due to their lack of a written history and poor oral tradition.
They remained unaffected, independent and even unfriendly to the Dúnedain, holding their own manners and Dunlendish language[2]. However the Dunlendings also remained hostile to those with Orc-blood[3]. The Dunlendings also dwelled alongside the Stoor Hobbits during their Wandering Days and the latter even formed a related language to theirs.[2]
The Dunlendings suffered from the Great Plague less than other peoples owing to their isolation[2] and were still found in the foothills of the Misty Mountains. By the time of the Ruling Stewards they ceased to be subjects of Gondor and, being surrounded by barbarous folk[4], they moved to settle the region of Calenardhon as Gondor ceased to man the garrisons during the Watchful Peace.[5]
Arrival of the Rohirrim
In T.A. 1944, Calenardhon passed to the Northern Eotheod who came from Rhovanion and the wild hillmen and herd-folk who were the Dunlendings view them as competitors and usurpers. Kings Brego and Aldor drove the Dunlendings out of Rohan beyond the Isen until Enedwaith. As the ensuing enmity did not concern the Stewards, the Dunlendings kept hostilities to the Rohirrim and attacked whenever the latter were weak or in trouble[5].
After the death of King Aldor, and as Isengard became more friendly to them, the Dunlendings passed and settled northern Westfold, the mountain glens around the Ring, and southern eaves of Fangorn Forest, becoming openly hostile.[5] This allowed the two peoples to mingle in some peaceful circumstances; and the dark-haired Landlord Freca was said to have Dunlendish blood[6] But the Dunlendings began raiding over the Isen during the reign of King Déor, and when it became clear that the raiders were coming from near Isengard, in T.A. 2710 Déor led an expedition to the north. He found and defeated a host of Dunlendings, but discovered that Isengard was held by hostile forces. He was unable to drive them out as Steward Egalmoth could not send help.[5]
The worst of these incidents was when Freca's son, Wulf, allied with the Corsairs of Umbar who were in turn stirred by Sauron, keeping safe his properties at Adorn. Joining his kin from outside of Rohan with enemies of Gondor that had landed in the mouths of Lefnui and Isen, Rohan was invaded from the East, the Isen and Isengard, and finally Wulf took Edoras in T.A. 2758. Gondor, fighting Corsair fleets, could not help[6]. as the people of Rohan survived the crisis due to the leadership of King Helm Hammerhand, the usurping Dunlendings were reduced after the Long Winter and finished off by Fréaláf. The Rohirrim now kept a strong force in north Westfold.[5]
Eventually many Dunlendings were found later in the west-march, until again Folcwine, aided by Gondor, reconquered it.[6] But the people remaining between Isen and Adorn were largely of mixed blood, and not loyal to Edoras.[5]
The Dunlendings were employed by the wizard Saruman to attack and raid the cities and settlements of Rohan. Since Gríma Wormtongue had corrupted the mind of King Théoden, the Rohirrim were absent for the most part, and the farm boys and old men who picked up rusty swords proved to be little contest to the ferocious Dunlendings.
Wild Men were also present at the Battle of the Hornburg (Battle of Helm's Deep), as well as an odd breed of Half-orcs, derived from Orcs and the Men of Dunland. They fought viciously against their old enemy, but when Gandalf stormed down the hill with a thousand Rohirrim at his back and his staff shining piercing light into the eyes of the Dunlendings, they dropped their weapons and surrendured. This proved to be a wise decision, as the Orcs who fled were killed by a massive forest of Huorns that blocked the entrance to the valley.
After Saruman's downfall, the Dunlendings retreated back into their homeland and did not trouble the people of Rohan. When the wizard Saruman attempted to take over the Shire, there were a number of Dunlendings with him. However, they were slain or driven away by Hobbits, Saruman died at the hands of his own servant, Wormtongue, Sauron, the basis of all evil, had fallen, and King Elessar took the throne of Gondor, the Dunlendings agreed never to trouble the free peoples of Middle-earth again, and their old and evil power was finally broken.
A Sindarin name for the Dunlendings was Gwathuirim (gwathui "shadowy" + rim "people").[7][8]
It is possible that the rivalry between the primitive Dunlendings and the blonde-haired, pseudo-Anglo-Saxon Rohirrim who migrated into the lands neighboring them was meant by Tolkien to be analagous to the real life conflicts that arose between the Anglo-Saxons in England and neighboring Celtic peoples.
This is supported by the fact that placenames of Bree-land like Bree, Archet and Combe are Celtic. The Stoor Hobbits (who had stayed long in Dunland), have Celtic elements in their names. Tolkien mentioned that the survival of traces of the older language of the Stoors and the Bree-men resembled the survival of Celtic elements in England.
See also
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The Hunt for the Ring"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "The Battles of the Fords of Isen"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "The House of Eorl", "The Kings of the Mark"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "Of Dwarves and Men", p. 330 (note 76)
- ↑ Hiswelókë's Sindarin Dictionary (accessed 31 December 2010)


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Four Dodgers' pitchers combined for a two-hit shutout as Los Angeles blanked the San Diego Padres, 1-0, to take the rubber match of a three-game set from Petro Park.
Zack Greinke went just five innings in preparation for the postseason, allowing both hits and a walk while striking out three.
"He's going on regular rest, even short rest if you consider coming back for a day game after pitching in a night game. He'll get an extra day the next two times." Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Greinke.
J.P. Howell (4-1) needed only nine pitches to get through the sixth and Chris Withrow fanned a pair in two innings before Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the ninth for his 27th save.
Andrew Cashner (10-9), who has been one of the hottest pitchers in baseball since the beginning of August, was terrific again albeit in defeat. Cashner struck out seven over seven frames, yielding just a run on four hits. The 27- year old righty has surrendered two runs or less in six straight starts.
"He's come a long ways. It's been great to see the development," Padres manager Bud Black said of Cashner.
The Dodgers broke a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh inning. Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp struck out around an Adrian Gonzalez single for Michael Young, who belted a two-out double over Will Venable's head in right field. Gonzalez originally slowed down to stop at third, but advanced home when Venable had trouble getting the ball back to the infield.
Withrow nearly gave the run back a half inning later when Venable led off with a walk, stole second and moved to third on Jedd Gyorko's groundout. Tommy Medica then drew a walk to put runners on the corners, but Logan Forsythe struck out and pinch-hitting Mark Kotsay grounded softly back to Withrow to retire the side.
Game Notes
Withrow returned to the team on Saturday after missing three days for the birth of his son ... San Diego hit 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base while LA went 0-for-3 with RISP, leaving three on ... Greinke hit his third double of the season in his only at-bat ... The Dodgers struck out 13 times and didn't register an RBI.


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Pelosi Remarks at Communications Workers of America Biennial Legislative Conference
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Biennial Legislative Conference:
"How can it be that the Republicans are saying: 'we can't have the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans unless we pay for it, but we are renewing tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent in our country, and not paying for that. And by the way, tax cuts for the wealthy aren't paid for, that's their jobs program. Ask them what they want to do to create jobs? Give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country, unpaid for, that's what they said. All it does is deepen the deficit. And it's important for you to know, and I've said this to some of you in our telephone conference before, in the second year of the Obama Administration, we don't have all the figures for the third year, in the second year of the Obama Administration, more jobs were created in the private sector then in the whole eight years of the Bush Administration. We have not seen a jobs bill from the Republican majority in the Congress, in the House of Representatives. Extend the payroll tax cut.
"The next thing we want to do, is to extend unemployment benefits for those who are out of work through no fault of their own. Millions of Americans are depending on that. Traditionally, we have not paid for the unemployment benefit, people have paid into that, it is their due. But nonetheless, Republicans are now saying we have to pay for that. No touching tax cuts for the wealthy, but pay again for the middle class, for the unemployment benefit. These two elements: the payroll tax cut and the unemployment insurance benefits extension, would do more to create jobs because people will spend that money, inject demand into the economy, create jobs. It's not only good for the individual, it's necessary for our economic growth. We must do that. I'd rather not do it paid for, I'm prepared to do it almost at any cost.
"We must work to extend to tens of millions of seniors their opportunity to see their doctor under Medicare. This is very, very important.
"So, that's right now. What we're talking about right now is happening here. Legislators are meeting to come to a conclusion. I think it should be very simple. You want to pay for it, pay for it with a surcharge on the wealthiest people in our country. If you don't want to pay for it that way, let's hear what you have to say. But we're not going grant to the middle class with one hand–the payroll tax cut, and unemployment benefits, and the ability to see their doctors–and take from them with the other hand by saying: 'and now you're going to have pay for the costs,' by seniors paying or whatever it is. For two reasons: it's just not fair, but it would also blunt the stimulative effect of what these measures would do.
"So let's just talk about the Republican attack on workers. We know that, the fight is about the payroll tax, the unemployment benefits and all the rest. And we hope that that will be resolved very soon. And like we said, in another week or two.
"Last September, we talked about our reigniting the American dream so that all workers have the opportunity to succeed. Republicans have a different agenda. Last September, they passed what so many–George Miller, a real champion for workers in our country–we relabeled it the 'Outsourcers Bill of Rights,' I went further then that and called the bill: the 'Outsourcers Bill of Wrongs.' It would gut the National Labor Relations Board, it would make it easier for corporations to ship jobs overseas. Imagine that the Republicans had, as the law that they passed, and we must overturn, giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. Is that insane? We must change that. And then it would allow employers to punish employees for simply exercising their right to organize, to demand better benefits and safer working conditions, to ensure a full days' pay for a full days' work. That's what they proposed in September.
"But it's been a consistent message for them. And some of it, they just want to extend, what they did long ago. So, while Republicans want to make it easier to outsource jobs, Democrats are instead saying: 'Make It In America.' Make It In America. Because we know, Democrats know, that when we make it–as my deputy, the Democratic Whip, Mr. Hoyer says: 'when we Make It In America,' manufactured here, 'people can Make It In America.' Democrats–it's as simple as A, B, C to us: A: American made, B: build the infrastructure of America, C: community leadership to get this done. And that takes us to your campaign for clean campaigns and taking back our country. On the subject of making it in America, we must stop the outsourcing of jobs, from call centers, to manufacturing, to software development, and start insourcing jobs. We must stop the erosion of our manufacturing, and technological, and industrial base. And we must support our small businesses and entrepreneurs–the engines of economic growth–providing incentives for them to do new hires here. And ensuring they can grow and thrive. So that our middle class can grow and thrive.
"In November, Republicans passed legislation to stack the deck against workers in work place elections. This legislation would deny workers their right to free and fair elections to form a union. It adds extensive delays to the process of workers organizing, with the clear intention, as my friend, former Chairman–soon to be Chairman again–George Miller said, 'wearing down workers so that they give up fighting for a better deal.' Well, no matter what the deal is, the CWA and your friends in Congress, your Democratic friends in Congress, will never stop fighting for a better deal. They will not wear us down.
"And, as you probably know, from my opening comments, I have great respect for the visionary leadership of Larry Cohen and of the CWA. I have for years. You've been there for America's workers, seventy years at least now, and a brilliant future ahead.
"I do believe that the fight that we have, and I come here to thank you for your leadership role in what is happening now. We're never really going to have a day, or shot to get, what we need for fairness in our economy, opportunity for all people, respect and value of work, until we change the political climate in our country. It must be done. In fact, the special interests in our country can spend unlimited, unidentified money from God knows where–maybe he doesn't even know where–to spend on campaigns. To deluge, just flood campaigns with endless money to the tune of tens of hundreds of millions of dollars, to dampen, to lessen the voice of the people.
"And they've coupled that with their initiatives to suppress the vote throughout the country. You know this very well, you are in the lead in this fight. But I've come here to thank you for that leadership, and to commit to you, that we cannot reignite the American dream and do all we want for ladders of opportunity, unless we offset that money. And offsetting means: we have to win the election; to reform the system, to amend the Constitution, so that the constitutional–the Citizens United decision–will not stand. This undermines the voices of the American people. Both by the use of money, and by initiatives that throw up barriers–making it harder for people to have access to the voting booth. We have, under the leadership of Jim Clyburn, our Assistant Leader, he has set up an arrangement where we, he's gone around the country, we complain about the policy, we think it's wrong, we want to win to reverse it. But in the meantime, we're going to make sure that people who are able to vote, have the right to vote, can vote, and that their vote will be counted.
"So we have an initiative right now, to say: Disclose. The American people have a right to know whose money is coming in from these special interests in the elections. In the last election, one of the biggest sources of money, of course we had Wall Street coming in against us and Big Oil–the usual suspects, but there was an enormous amount of money coming in from people who were against the Employee Free Choice Act, the card check. They feared, they don't want to have the inconvenience, in their view, of workers having the right to bargain collectively. It's just plain wrong. It's just plain wrong. It's just plain wrong.
"So we had to diminish, but people would tell me, you were at the table. I said: 'you think it's just Wall Street, Big Oil, big insurance–health insurance–and it is, but it's also all this other anti-labor money that is coming in. Well, if they want to send that money that way, the American people, their employees, their customers, should know that. Because that visibility, I think, will help us defeat them. In California, where we do have the disclosure law, for state elections.
"So, disclose right now. We demand to know. Win. Win the election, and then, one of the first bills we would put on the floor would be to reform the system. We want our legislation to be a new politics free of the special interests money in politics. Amplifying the voice of the American people. And as I said, amend the Constitution, which is a longer road, but an organizing tool for us, to capture the spirit in our country, that our democracy is not well served by the voices of the people being drowned out by this unlimited money. And again, as you are doing, we must strike to remove those obstacles to voter participation, which President Cohen called 'democracy blocks.' Together, we must fight–oh, by the way, to my sisters who are in the audience, I believe that if we reform the campaign system, and if we have, what we call 'clean elections,' where we have diminished the role of money in campaigns, we will do more to increase the number of elected women in public office. We want more women in public office.
"I believe that nothing is more wholesome for the political process then the increased participation of women and minorities, reflecting the full faith of America in our elective body, making decisions for our families. So, again, we don't want to think incrementally about, 'oh hopefully we can elect five more women, or ten more women this time, this many more Hispanics and that many more African-Americans in the U.S. We want to think in a transformative way. When our country was founded and people went to Congress, by and large it was white men. By and large our country were white people who had the right to vote, that's not what the situation is now. So, we want, why can't we have our country's representatives be representative of our country?
"My sisters in the crowd will understand my reference to this: it's nine months until the election. My Members of Congress quiver when I do these kinds of, shall we say, non-sports references. Nine months. And you know what nine months is symbolic of? That every single day has to be a strengthening, nourishing day, to bring us closer to our victory on that Tuesday in November.
"So much is at stake. Fairness. Opportunity. The thriving middle class which is the backbone of our democracy. And I dare say, as you well know, and I love this, I can't wait to take it back to my colleagues [Leader Pelosi holds up a copy of the CWA newsletter]–broken democracy. We have to fix it. And we can only fix it if we win the election. And we can only win the election if we have the voice of many more people participating. So, what you are doing. The power of your ideas. The strength of the mobilizations into your communities to encourage people to vote, to participate, and aren't we proud of what's happening in Wisconsin? Isn't that just a beautiful display.
"We come here to pay respects to what people did many years ago. Decades ago. To create the CWA. And in doing so, strengthen working families in America. Strengthen our middle class, strengthen our democracy. We owe it to our founders, to keep it going for our democracy. Not to sit back and watch it be broken by unlimited secret money.
"We owe it to our men and women in uniform, to bring a future worthy of the sacrifice that they make for our country. And aren't we grateful to our men and women in uniform? And thank you, to many of you in the audience, who have served our country. They fight for our freedoms. They make us the land of the free and the home of the brave. And when they come home, you know in the military there's an expression: 'on the battlefield we leave no soldier behind.' And when they come home, we leave no veteran behind. That doesn't just mean veteran's benefits, as committed as we are to that, having increased more than, since the G.I. Bill, that means being able for them to get a job. Because we owe them a paycheck. To have a family. Again, serving them. Honoring them. We, again, strengthen our country.
"And, in addition to honoring the vision of our founders, the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, it's about the aspirations of our children, coming back to that American dream. Our founders had this in mind and they declared that our country would exist for the ages. That's what they said… on the great seal of the United States: 'for the ages.' And it was predicated on the idea that every generation, again, I keep saying, had a responsibility to make the future better for the next. And that was always the case. And it soon became known as the American dream. People flocked to our shores in search of it. And every immigrant who came, and does come now, with their optimism, their hope, their determination to make the future better for their families, makes America more American. By their energy, and their family values, and their commitment to a better future.
"So, thank you for your support of the DREAM Act, for our kids of newcomers to our country. Thank you so very much. Because, whether its specific legislation, or it's the bigger vision under which all of this legislation will get, it's all about having a better public policy to improve the lives of the American people. To reignite the American dream. In order to do that, we have to win the election. I feel very good about that. How do you feel?
"Are you ready for a great Democratic victory in November? Are you ready for another Democratic majority? As Vice President Biden said the other day, 'you'll not only be the first woman Speaker of the House, you'll be the second woman Speaker of the House.'
"But it's not about me. It's about the American people and the need for us to have a Democratic majority. Whoever is in charge. So that we can work together with newly reelected President Barack Obama to reignite the American dream.
"Thank you CWA! Thank you Larry! God bless you! God bless America!"