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CRITTENDEN, Ky. (AP) - Cody Shively doesn't swim or play soccer anymore.
His life changed when the school bus he was riding in crashed in January. Since then, Cody receives physical, occupational and speech therapy three times a week. He faces more surgeries, but hopes to make it back to school to start his eighth-grade year.
"I'm going back to school," the 12-year-old northern Kentucky boy said. "I'm going back all five days. I'm staying all day."
Cody was injured when bus driver Angelynna Young, with drugs in her system, crashed the vehicle into a pole along U.S. 25 in Dry Ridge in Grant County on Jan. 17.
In all, the crash sent two middle school students to the hospital and injured 15 others.
Young, 29, was sentenced to 22 years in prison this month after pleading guilty to 25 counts of drug possession, wanton endangerment and assault. Prosecutors said she had taken drugs, including cocaine, the night before the accident and that morning.
Another student injured in the crash, 14-year-old Jake Clise, cannot completely close his left eye when he sleeps. He has trouble falling asleep because a sliver of light comes in through the space where his eyelid used to be.
Jake has steel titanium plates in his head. He can't taste or smell, and he suffered brain damage. Jake spent 11 days in a Lexington hospital and now lives with his father and stepmother in Glencoe.
"He's very strong," said Jake's grandmother, Donna Yeager. "He's doing good, under the circumstances. But he doesn't want the fuss."
Cody Shively was the most severely injured student in the crash.
After three months recuperating at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cody has been living at home the past three months. But there are more surgeries to come, and more obstacles to overcome.
"Sometimes he gets frustrated," said his mother, Tammy Shively, "but we tell him that if he wants to go back to school in the fall, he has to keep working."
Yeager said Jake will undergo more surgery in August to attempt to correct the eyelid he lost in the crash.
But other incidents have happened in the Clise family since January that might not have occurred if not for the accident, Yeager said.
Stacey Clise, Jake's 38-year-old mother, was found unconscious in her Crittenden home March 23 and died a day later at St. Luke Hospital West. An autopsy revealed she had overdosed on OxyContin. It is unclear whether the overdose was intentional.
"I hope it was accidental," said Yeager, Stacey Clise's mother. "But I feel that no matter what, it wouldn't have happened if not for the bus crash and the stress she went through."
The Clises, Shivelys and parents of at least five other students in the crash have sued Young and Grant County school district officials for punitive damages.
"Based upon the fact this woman pled guilty, there isn't many other issues to be decided," said Independence attorney Eric Deters, who represents the Clise family.
Meanwhile, the Shively family continues to adjust to changes.
When Cody sleeps, he cannot roll over on his left side. If he does, he could do further damage to his skull and brain. To keep him from rolling over, his parents have installed rails on his bed to keep him in place.
Every other day, Cody goes to therapy. His father, Steve, who works for a heating and air conditioning company, probably won't go back to work. His 9-year-old brother, Dustin, has grown up quickly, and has been seen comforting relatives at court hearings. His mom, Tammy, tries to keep Cody motivated.
"He was so active before the accident," Tammy Shively said. "He was a great soccer player, and he was a worker. He loved to cut the grass. Now, he can't do those things, so we try different things to motivate him."
Cody will undergo surgery July 23 to have a piece of his skull reattached. The piece is being held in a freezer at the hospital.
After that, more surgeries are inevitable, Tammy Shively said.
"We really don't know when it'll all be finished," she said.
Tammy Shively, who works for the Internal Revenue Service, will head back to work, she says. She's lucky because co-workers have donated vacation time to her.
The bus driver's recent sentencing put an end to a chapter of their saga, Steve Shively said, but there is still much more to go - for Cody, Jake and their families.
"Nobody can really tell you how long all of this is going to take," Tammy Shively said. "Thankfully, our lives weren't ruined - our son is still here. Our lives were just changed, and it's hard because you want to fix it, but you can't fix it.
"We're just doing all we can to make it better."
Information from: The Kentucky Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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2004 WYCUP Scholarship Winners Announced
August 04, 2004
Nassau, Bahamas-For an exciting close to the 2004 International Leadership Institute, World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU) announced this year's winners of the WOCCU Young Credit Union People Program (WYCUP) scholarship on August 4.
Every year since 2001, WOCCU has honored five bright, ambitious young credit union leaders from around the world with an all-expense-paid trip to the following year's Institute. This year's winners, who will attend the 2005 meeting in Italy, were chosen from a pool of 34 talented credit union professionals under the age of 35.
They are Glenn Bolger, Newfoundland & Labrador Credit Union (Canada); Catherine Coffey, Killarney Credit Union (Ireland); Hillary Jalafi, MUSCCO(Malawi); Dorwin Manzano, SFCCU CU Cooperative Society (Trinidad) and Irwing Pinares-Silva (Peru).
Other nominees included Peter Allen (Jamaica), Leslie Bailey (Australia), Catherine Bannon (Ireland), Monika Bentkowska (Poland), Leann Boutilier (Canada), Danielle Brown (U.S.), Michelle Cassel (Canada), Jacinta Clarke (Bahamas), Donal Coghlan (Ireland), Robert Folsom (U.S.), Freda Fong Kit-ling (China), Dirk Haack (Canada), Andrew Hadley (Australia), Oonagh Hanna (Ireland), Jacqueline Jardine (Canada), Anna Jessop (Australia), Tara Keirn (Canada), Jaroslaw Lech (Poland), Brynn Leehan (U.S.), Morris Livingston (Jamaica), Charlene Loui-Ying (Canada), Paul Maxwell (West Indies), Nicholas May (Australia), Yolanda Meraz (U.S.), Cathal O'Connell (Ireland), Lisa Patterson (Canada), Adrianne Rexius (U.S.), Samantha Spanner (Australia) and Wesley Withrow (U.S.).
Last year's winners, who attended the Bahamas Institute free of charge, were Justine Conley (Australia), Jeanne Kim (United States), Jan Knowles (Bahamas), Malcolm Stoffman (Canada) and Katarzyna Uniwersal (Poland). In addition to networking activities and participation in regular breakout sessions and workshops, these featured guests were also treated to a special afternoon tea in their honor.
All of this year's WYCUP nominees had the chance to participate in networking and recreational events, such as the "WYCUP Challenge," a lighthearted competition involving close to 50 participants. The night before the winners were announced, there was a reception for both old and new program participants that allowed nominees to meet the WOCCU board of directors, as well as the judges of the scholarship competition.
Judges included Grzegorz Bierecki (Poland), Marcel Chorel (Canada), Ron Hance (U.S.), Sylvester Kadzola (Malawi) and Jim McMahon (Ireland).
"The WYCUP program is an essential tool for retaining young talent in our organization and creating a strong future for the credit union movement," said Gregorz Bierecki, WYCUP chairman. "It is good to see the program still attracting so much enthusiasm four years after its creation."
World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions' financial performance and increase their outreach.
World Council has implemented 300+ technical assistance programs in 89 countries. Worldwide, 68,882 credit unions in 109 countries serve 235 million people. Learn more about World Council's impact around the world at www.woccu.org.

subset: commoncrawl


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We're here to tell you, being a traveling mixologist? It's exactly as awesome as it sounds. Outfit yourself appropriately with this cocktail kit (and handy canvas bag) and hit the road. The sturdy bag is constructed with sturdy canvas and durable leather –– which is to say, it's fit for wanderin'.
Kit contains:
- Canvas and leather carrier
- Mason Shaker (32 oz.)
- Muddler (10 in.)
- Jigger (0.75 oz. / 1.5 oz.)
- A pair of linen cocktail napkins
- A pair of cocktail coupes (5.5 oz.)
Bag details:
- Wide opening doctor/tool frame bag
- Choose from Forest Green Canvas & Brown Leather, Navy Canvas & Bone Leather, White Canvas & Tan Leather
- Two short leather carrying handles
- Buckle closures
- Removable long leather strap
- 1 interior pocket
This product ships from the maker within 4 days, via USPS
If you're not happy with this item for any reason, you may return it for a full refund within 14 days.


text:
The Vinyl Outlet
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We fabricate and custom make our own railings and fences. We are a family owned and operated business that takes great pride in the research and development that we put into the vinyl products we use. We have over 22 years of fence and railing ownership and installations. We are the Elite vinyl contractors in the Western New York area. When it come to vinyl trust our reputation and quality – buy from the professionals. Purchasing vinyl could be a costly mistake if it is installed wrong or if you hire a railing company that has inferior products.
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Tree removal in Reds Meadow area to begin as soon as Monday
Removal of some of the dead and down trees in Reds Meadow that were dropped by the enormous windstorm last year begins Monday, according to the Inyo National Forest. The tree removal work will take place on approximately 220 acres and will be accomplished under a contract known as the Red Devil Stewardship Sale, according to a press release from the forest service.
"For safety, visitors to the Reds Meadow Valley are urged to not enter areas where tree removal work is in progress and to drive slowly on the Reds Meadow Road because of increased traffic associated with tree removal activities," the press release states.
"Visitors should expect short traffic delays as a result of tree removal work. Traffic may be intermittently stopped for 15 to 20 minutes at the Minaret Vista Entrance Station, while loaded log trucks travel the single lane portion of Reds Meadow Road.
Call 760-924-5522 for more information.


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Nokia Remains On Life Support
Nokia's fall from grace continued as the Finnish communications company finished No. 10 in smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2013, according to a report from Gartner.
"Nokia's mobile phone share dropped 4.9 percentage points in the first quarter of 2013 mainly due to a steep decline in feature phone sales," the research firm said.
The company did finish No. 2 in overall mobile phone shipment sales. However, the former worldwide leader is losing major market share to Samsung, which captured 23.6 percent. Nokia came in at 14.8 percent. It held a 19.7 percent share in the same quarter last year.


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Columbia City defeats Central Noble
COLUMBIA CITY — It was a banner day for the Columbia City boys golf team.The Eagles beat Central Noble, 150-186, at Eagle Glen Golf Course Tuesday, coming together for an impressive team effort.Columbia City was led by medalist Spencer Klimek, who shot a 34, good for two-under par. Teammate Tyler Green was right at par with a 36.All told, the five Eagle varsity golfers outscored the top Cougar golfer, as Max Dryer and Matt Benedict both had scores of 40 and Cameron Slavich was at 43. The top Central Noble golfer shot 44.To read the rest of this story, see the May 29 issue of The Post and Mail. Don't have a subscription? Call (260) 244-5153 or subscribe to our e-edition. For breaking news, sports updates and additional coverage, bookmark the homepage and find us on facebook and twitter.


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Jim Vena, CN senior vice-president, CN Southern Region, said, "CN expects the merger will lead to operational efficiencies and service improvements through the integration of distinct work forces in and around the Twin Ports region of Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., where DMIR, DWP and WC operate today. A unified workforce will allow better management of crew staffing and more efficient and reliable rail service to customers throughout the region, including those in the Mesabi iron ore range and beyond."
The merger was authorized through a notice of exemption for transactions within a corporate family filed with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board on April 8, 2011, that became effective May 8, 2011.


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Rams to Host 3rd Annual Pink Zone Basketball
Wednesday, February 16th - vs. St. Joseph's
Women's game at 6:00 p.m.
Men's game at 8:00 p.m.
There will be a $1 admission fee at the door
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The Farmingdale State basketball teams will be participating in this years' Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Pink Zone initiative in honor of breast cancer awareness and to raise money for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
The Rams will host Skyline Conference rival St. Joseph's on
Wednesday, February 16th, with the women's game at 6:00 p.m. and
the men's game at 8:00 p.m. This will mark the 3rd annual Pink Zone
game at Farmingdale State, raising over $800 per game in the
Come support the Rams and the Farmingdale State S.A.A.C. (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) in their efforts with this event. Halftime contests will be held during both games, as well as 50/50 Raffles and .
All proceeds will be donated to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.
The concession stand will also be open for the night.
The WBCA Pink Zone™ initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.
The WBCA began the WBCA Pink Zone™, formerly known as "Think Pink", in 2007 as an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women's basketball, on campuses and in communities. In 2007, more than 120 schools unified for this effort and helped make the inaugural year a success. In 2008, over 1,200 teams and organizations participated, reaching over 830,000 fans and raising over $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research.
Donation Information
The WBCA's charity of choice is the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund™, in partnership with The V Foundation. For more information on the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund™, click HERE.
We hope to see you there! And WEAR PINK!


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Begich Works to Shave Millions from Budget 3/20/13
Begich Works to Shave Millions from Budget
Determined to cut more waste in the next round
The Senate version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (HR933) passed today with a 73-26 vote. The bill decreases funding across government agencies by nearly $30 billion from FY12 spending levels, including more than 600 cuts to the Pentagon's budget.
"While I am pleased to see my colleagues come together and make some progress on reducing federal spending today, it is not enough," said Senator Begich. "As we turn to the larger budget debate, I will not be shy about calling out waste and inefficiency as I see it. If my colleagues are serious about getting our federal spending under control then we'll all have to make sacrifices and feel the pain."
Sen. Begich attempted to reduce the FY12 budget even further in today's bill. He co-led an amendment with Sen. Ayotte (R-NH) to decrease Army spending on the Medium-Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) by $381 million. MEADS is an over-budget, behind-schedule weapons program the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to fund despite test failures, cost overruns and lack of warfighter value. Unfortunately, the amendment was not included in the final bill. Still, the additional 671 cuts made to the Pentagon's budget by Sen. Begich and his colleagues brought spending down by $29 billion compared to FY12 for DOD.
Like the House version, the Senate bill includes the remainder of the fiscal year (FY) appropriations for the DOD and Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill also includes the remainder of FY13 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture, Department of Justice, and the Department of Commerce. All other agencies were funded at FY12 levels through the continuing resolution.
By including annual appropriations for certain agencies the bill allows for lowering overall spending while reallocating spending to the priority areas for those agencies.
Begich also supported cuts to other agency budgets including:
· $17 million from the screening technology budget for the Transportation Security Administration;
· $500 million from the Customs and Border Patrol headquarters, management and administration costs.
In addition to making meaningful cuts to federal spending, this bill also included support for some key Alaska priorities:
- $18 million was provided for construction of firing training ranges for soldiers stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Fort Wainwright; and
- $53 million in funding for staffing new Indian Health Services facilities including those in Alaska.
The House of Representatives is expected to accept the Senate changes to the bill.


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Want to remind yourself or a friend about this program? Fill out this simple form and klru will email you a reminder on the day that it will air.
Happy Holiday Meal
series: Jazzy Vegetarian
air date: 1/04/13 9:30 AM
Host Laura Theodore's holiday meal features petite "Acorn Squash with Mushroom, Walnut and Celery Stuffing." On the side, sweet cinnamon and maple glazed "Yummy Yam Casserole" is topped with crunchy pecans. "Green Beans Almondine" stand in for the traditional green bean casserole. Light as air, "Holiday Sandies," are sweet and crisp cookies that make a tempting dessert for kids of all ages.
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When you've got the CEO bragging about how sleazy they've been, I think that's enough to explain the boycotts.
Me? Never played any of them, don't plan to. Company's evil, and the wisest thing to do would be for everyone to stay away until they disintegrate.
Oh there are plenty more deserving.
Me? Never played any of them, don't plan to. Company's evil, and the wisest thing to do would be for everyone to stay away until they disintegrate.
Keep up the good work. It won't be long before they listen to our demands!
" Collapsing under the weight of over 26 million users, Zynga has been scrambling to thwart hard-core gamers who reverse-engineer URLs or script the game to optimize their enjoyment. Many of the workarounds have annoyed users who were accustomed to various game features, and even worse, the hastily-deployed changes have resulted in many players losing access to the game, in-game prizes, or statistics. Fed up with a software company seemingly bent on discouraging people from enjoying their product, a number
"scrambling to thwart hard-core gamers who reverse-engineer URLs"
Personally, my favorite are the games which take you to a high score page with a URL something like this: facebook.com/silly_game/score.php?score=1364
Replace that with facebook.com/silly_game/score.php?score=999999999 and instantly top the leaderboards. Hooray! I don't see why that would be part of the game if they didn't intend for me to do that...
So they're trying to get the unethical types to stop playing a game where you play a gangster? Brilliant! It's like trying to get fishermen to stop using radar, or NASA engineers to stop playing with rockets even after they get home.
Uh, no. Just like someone would be annoyed that someone in World of Warcraft got all the best gear by REing the game and using bots and exploits...same with this. It doesn't matter if you are playing a game about being a gangster of it is a game about magical ponies, if it has a multiplayer element to it, people want a level playing field.
A level playing field? In an MMO? Yeah, you're dreaming-- if you want to compete with other people on a 'level playing field', play a game that's actually designed to do [crispygamer.com]
What, people play games on Facebook?
I thought those were bots designed to annoy you with "gifts" and spam your friends' pages with garbage.
It's "going to the mat." As in the wrestling mat.
Not "going to the mattress" which is something I generally associate with getting screwed.
I think your intepretation of the saying is wrong. Going to the mattress was slang for going to get the guns. People would keep their long guns under the mattress.
Mario Puzo explained it along the lines of JoshuaZ in the book version of "The Godfather."
I don't know if this is actually a genuine term, but it is quite old. It is used in the original Godfather. So whether or not it is a real term, it makes sense given that we are talking about a Facebook game that revolves around a glorified fantasy version of the Mafia.
Seems like I've heard the phrase wrong all of my life, and some Googling seems to confirm what you are saying.
I bow to your superior knowledge.
Going to the mat is also a legitimate phrase, and does indeed have the meaning you bring up, It just isn't applicable in this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gallo#Gallo-Profaci_war [wikipedia.org]
http://tomfolsom.com/blog/ [tomfolsom.com]
The actual history of "going to the mattresses" comes from the Joey Gallo and the war between him and the Profaci family. The term appeared in the headlines in the early 60's in the headlines in New York newspapers.
Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gallo#Gallo-Profaci_war [wikipedia.org] http://tomfolsom.com/blog/ [tomfolsom.com]
Also, this term appeared in the book "The Valachi Papers". From what I recall, it is supposed to mean getting serious about a mob war, where the various mob soldiers would live in rented houses/apartments, sleeping on mattresses, for the duration of the war.
I can't stand needy people, and I can't stand needy programs that NEED to be on my wall and whore for attention.
The only "App" I still use on Facebook is the movie app, yeah, I right a few movie reviews, find out what the movies are about and rate them. I don't want addicting Mafia, Farm, Navel Gazing crap.
I right a few movie reviews
I'm sure their great.
Crap, I can't believe I did that. Of all the SNAFUs I usually make that's normally not one of them.
...protests about Facebook on Facebook tend to work out very well. It's just like those "don't buy gas on day X" chain letters that get bounced around whenever gas prices take a hike upwards.
Well, gas isn't $4 a gallon any more is it?
Well, gas isn't $4 a gallon any more is it?
You absolutely right! On an unrelated note, I've recently come into possession of an amazing tiger-repellant rock that I'd be willing to sell you...
To make FB usable for its original purpose you have to block and hide metric f*cktonnes of spam from friends who wanted to find out what Harry Potter character they are or who think some picture of an egg (with free spam subscription!) is a nice gift to send a friend. Add to that the significant loss of privacy that comes with actually posting anything; I'd cancel my account right away if FB weren't the only way I can keep up with some of my friends and family.
Gee, the telephone, email, or snail mail isn't working for you? (...even if you originally GOT their contact information from FB)
No, they aren't working for me. These people never check their emails, and I hate talking on the phone.
There's also the fact that sometimes I want to keep in touch without giving away my real email adddress or my mobile #.
I remember hearing about tribe.net, it was hilarious to see the video on techcrunch with the interview where they mentioned that Pincus started two other internet startups, only mentioned tribe.net by name and didn't mention the tragic end of that company. Let's not even get into how EVERY SINGLE GAME that zynga has made is a rip-off of another previously successful game. They've not got a single original title to their name. God bless techcrunch for blowing this company wide open.
Zynga is basically the EA of Facebook...
So would be this be the social contract where it is A-OK for power gamers to abuse and exploit the game because if they can do it they are supposed to be doing because otherwise they wouldn't be able to do it and then the game company gets to try to crack down on the power gamers which doesn't work except for pissing off the normal players, correct? And then the power gamers get all indignant when anyone tells them they shouldn't be doing something because it is the power gamer's responsibility to not be responsible for anything but doing what is most advantageous for them no matter the cost to everyone else?
I've seen this statement popping up a lot recently but this is exactly why we can't have nice things.
A lot of the games are not really prone to abuse or exploits AFAIK... Mafia Wars, for instance. To do anything - PvE, PvP, etc. - requires some sort of resource such as Energy or Stamina. It takes time for it to replenish, typically. I can't see how a powergamer would stress the resources other than using them as soon as they come into play.
You completely missed the point of his post.
In the summary, it states
At issue is the social contract between software companies and their devoted user base.
Well, that social contract goes both ways. The player side of the social contract is that they will play the game by the rules and as intended. So, now you have players who are breaking the social contract complaining that the company who made the game is breaking the social contract by trying to prevent players from breaking the social contract by usin
I don't think facebook games fall into the category of "nice things."
In fact, if I could somehow ensure that I can't have what you define as "nice things," I feel that I would take every necessary step to do so. Facebook (and MySpace!) would be much less retarded, in my opinion.
The problem at hand here is that zynga has created two games that encourage cheating.
MafiaWars is the worst because of the combat system. If you don't have at least 500 friends who play and are added to your "mafia" then you're shafted from the outset. This encourages the dangerous practice of adding people you don't know to your personal facebook account OR breaking facebook ToS by creating a second account for yourself.
Then you have the weight in the combat formula of the equipment being much higher than the weight of your stats. A person with lousy combat stats but maxed equipment will beat somebody with twice their stats but lousy equipment. They also have free trading of items between players with items that require (at my last calculation) over a year of play to be able to get the best equipment available.
To top things off their game isn't in flash or something that's not easily machine readable, their entire game is presented in an iframe, so it's relatively simple to create scripts that interact with the game directly using greasemonkey or bookmarklets with javascript. The best examples of these is the Mafia Wars AutoPlayer (http://www.mafiawarsplayer.org/) or Spockholm's bookmarklets (http://www.spockholm.com/mafia/bookmarklets.php)
Combine that with a game that's designed to appeal to highly competitive players and you have the perfect recipe for disaster for rampant cheating. Whether it's people who buy their combat items or people who run multiple accounts to "farm" items for their own use, it's all against the rules. The hilarity for me is watching zynga "combat" the cheaters and the bots when they could fix the game mechanics to make the cheating and bots unnecessary. Even if it was something as simple as offering the loot for sale in their ingame store, they would put the cheaters and under-the-table loot sellers out of business, and actually be honest about their microtransaction business model. People would complain that the richest player would be the one to win, but that's the way it is right now, so why not own up to it?
FarmVille is a different beast, in that they've got just about the worst leveling system I've seen in a game yet. A plant crop that grows in four hours will give you the same experience to grow, and more money per hour, than a crop that grows in 24 hours. That's just a broken game.
The clicks required for farmville are what is most astonishing. The average person will click 1200+ times per DAY playing that stupid game. The best thing they have to minimize that is the farm equipment, which naturally require gas to run that you have to buy, but even with that you're forced to click 300+ times in the best case scenario. I'm trying to make easy to use tools with autohotkey that I'm hosting on my site (http://www.kort-pleco.com/) but it's a challenge finding the time to do that. There's other people who sell full fledged farmville autoplayers, but the point is that it's still the game that is broken and should be changed to fix these problems.
A great example of a fun game that's NOT click intensive is happy aquarium by crowdstar or zynga's rollercoaster kingdom. They've both struck a great balance how much use you get per click, and I think it's a step in the right direction for facebook games in general.
Zynga is a game maker yes, but it doesn't mean that their popularity corresponds to the quality of their games. It just means they're able to out advertise everybody else using money they scammed from their players.
It is completely possible to play Mafia Wars and totally ignore the PvP aspects of it. You'll lose a negligible amount of money from people beating you up, but money really isn't that big a deal and is completely safe if you put it in the bank. I decided quite early that I didn't care for the PvP aspects and mostly ignore them. I'm almost done with the New York missions and will not be playing it any further once I complete those.
MafiaWars is the worst because of the combat system. If you don't have at least 500 friends who play and are added to your "mafia" then you're shafted from the outset.
There are a number of *Wars games, of which MafiaWars is only one (albeit probably the most well-known). The same applies to others, such as Vampire Wars.
Progress Quest [progressquest.com] is the best game ever. I play it all day and night!
So a game called "Mafia wars", which is about mafia, stops players from using mafia tactics (cheating) to win?
Zynga has been scrambling to thwart hard-core gamers who reverse-engineer URLs or script the game to optimize their enjoyment.
What about the player side of the social contract? You know, the side that says players will not try to garner an unfair advantage and will play the game as intended.
Or, is this just another case of mass hypocrisy?
And since when did the mafias played with the rules?
1997 called, it wants its site design back.
1990 called, it wants its line back.
If you want to complain about the game because it's stupid, I'm with you. (But in that case, I'd suggest forgetting about the temporary boycot; easier to just not play stupid games.)
If you want to complain about the company because it manipulates the game in ways that abuse the players to extract cash from them (which the company's executives brag about doing), I'm with you. (Again, the solution is not a temporary boycot; if you don't want to be taken advantage of, don't.)
But if you want to complain that
the hastily-deployed changes
You never hyphenate with an adverb ending in -ly. This is one hard and fast rule of the English language.
The purpose of the hyphen in this construct is to remove ambiguity over which words are paired. Since "The hastily changes" makes no sense semantically, there's no purpose served by the hyphen (that isn't served by the -ly suffix itself, i.e. "The haste changes" or more clearly "The haste deployed changes," vs. "The haste-deployed changes...").
"Family-owned restaurant" is correct because "Family" is not
You misspelled "cheater" as "hardcore gamer."
"I shall expect a chemical cure for psychopathic behavior by 10 A.M. tomorrow, or I'll have your guts for spaghetti." -- a comic panel by Cotham


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Department of Music
The Bucknell Gamelan Ensemble invites students of all majors and backgrounds to learn and perform traditional and new music of Indonesia.
Each semester, members have the opportunity to develop playing technique on a variety of traditional instruments, including metallophones, pitched gongs, gong chimes, bamboo flutes, and drums. The ensemble plays a range of styles and repertoires, including pieces for Balinese angklung, Balinese gender wayang, Javanese soran-style pieces, adapted works, and new pieces for gamelan. The music is taught aurally (without the aid of written notation), and no previous experience with gamelan or formal musical training is required.
Interested members of the Bucknell faculty, staff, and members of the local community are also welcome to join the ensemble.
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DES MOINES (AP) — The Salvation Army will begin unscheduled checks of busy kettle locations in the Des Moines area after the theft of two kettles.
One kettle was stolen Nov. 16 from a Des Moines Hy-Vee store and the other was taken Friday from a West Des Moines Walmart.
In response, the Salvation Army will make random checks to ensure paid bell-ringers and volunteers are watching over kettles.
Salvation Army spokesman Arvid Huisman says someone should have been staffing the Walmart kettle when it was stolen. The other kettle was stolen overnight. Besides money in the kettles, each container and stand cost more than $160 to replace.
The Salvation Army in Des Moines relies on kettle donations for about 40 percent of its holiday revenue.


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More enlightenment via Sister's Role in Jihaad (www.islaam.org.uk).
The question here is not whether women's participation in Jihâd these days is an obligation or not, but rather, how can Muslim women participate in this noble cause and prevent themselves from falling into the sin of abandoning Jihâd.
Thus, it follows that women and men are supporters of one another in the important obligation of Jihâd in accordance with the spirit of the Qur'ân and Prophetic traditions.
3. Encourage Loved Ones to go for Jihâd
This, again, can be done in various ways:
Naseehah – by patiently and untiringly encouraging the men of their families, reminding them of their duty to Allâh and other Muslims, reminding them of the blessings of Paradise and the torments of this world and the next – all in a way that encourages them and does not make them feel pressured or causes them to turn away. Remember that we cannot force anyone to go, as firstly, that is contrary to the role Allâh has assigned women, and secondly, if the men go unwillingly and under pressure, they may not be useful to the Mujahideen and may even become an unwanted burden.
Dua – Ask Allâh , The Most Powerful, to change the hearts of unwilling men, make them and their families steadfast, and guide all Muslims! It is only Allâh , The Most High, Who can change hearts around and give the ability to do what needs to be done.
Patience – Know that when one's caretaker goes out for Jihâd, it is a time for much patience for his family, especially his mother, wife, and sisters. Encourage your men by being strong, confident, and patient, so they can focus on their mission and not worry about the anxiety of their women.
Skills – While Islâm does not require women to learn any technical skills or get an education in order to get a job, however, if a woman will do so with the intention of supporting the family if her father or husband or brothers go for Jihâd, then, Insha-Allâh that can be counted as her participation. Ideally, sponsors should take care of the families of the Mujahideen and Shuhadaa', as according to the Prophet (peace be upon him), taking care of the family of a Mujahid and equipping a Mujahid are also Jihâd. However, given the present unfortunate times where women are expected to fend for themselves in need, it is not a bad idea for a Muslim woman to acquire some skill provided the intention is correct.
Tawakkul – Tawakkal 'alallah! Rely on Allâh, for He Alone is enough for His servants. Refresh belief in Qada wal Qadr (Islâmic concept of Destiny and Pre-Ordination)- that whatever Allâh has decreed to happen will happen and none can avert it. If a woman's loved one is to get injured or die, that will happen at the time and place appointed. Not going to Jihâd will not avert that. If one has to face financial difficulty, that will happen even if the husband or father is around – so don't stop them out of such fears – remind yourselves, make some sacrifices for Allâh (Paradise is not all that cheap), and do what needs to be done!
A Special Section for Special Sisters:
True stories of some heroic contemporary women whose husbands are either engaged in fighting or have attained the ultimate success of martyrdom:
This section is added to give a real-life flavour of the lives of some of those women who participate in Jihâd in the background, by taking care of their husbands' children and property in his absence, by encouraging their men, and by patiently bearing all the consequences thereof. The information has been extracted almost ditto from the diary of a certain sister who has personally known or met these sisters. Some information has been changed/omitted in an effort to hide the true identity of the sisters mentioned below:
Umm Saburah – Wife of a Shaheed
Q. So what do you want your sons to be when they grow up?
Umm Saburah: (Firmly) They will be Mujahideen insha'Allah. That was their father's wish and there is no choice about it.
Q. How will you ensure that they do take that route?
Umm Saburah: They do have other brothers (in Islâm) who were my husband's friends and they have already instilled in them these values. They look up to their father and what he did with admiration and respect, and they look up to his friends now. My daughter feels angry at the whole situation though and I am working on trying to give as much love as I can to all my children. It's hard, but Alhamdulillah.
What's your jihad?
Part I here – #MyJihad – Raising Mujahid Children


text: Thanks for coming here and showing us what we have been missing in the leadoff spot for the last two decades or more. Thanks for switching positions in the OF and doing so quietly and effieciently. Thanks for helping us make the playoffs again despite many players going down to injury throughout the year which hadnt happened in the last 3-4 years. Thanks for ALL that you have done on the field for us the Reds Fans. WE APPRECIATE YOU AND DESPERATELY WANT YOU BACK IN A REDS UNIFORM IN 2014!!!!!!!!


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University News
Switzer Obituary
October 23, 2013
MACOMB, IL – Former Western Illinois University Director of Graduate and Foreign Admissions Dolores K. Switzer, 91, passed away in Macomb Saturday, Oct. 20.
Switzer began her time at WIU in 1948, joining the staff as secretary to the registrar and eventually being promoted to registrar. In 1969 she was appointed the University's first director of graduate and foreign admissions, a job she held until her retirement in 1982.
Switzer was also an alumna of the University, receiving both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Western. She was a volunteer with the McDonough District Hospital Auxiliary, working in the hospital's surgical waiting room for more than 20 years, and served as secretary for the hospital's Health Careers Committee for 18 years.
In addition to her husband, Richard, Switzer is survived by one niece and three nephews.
Cremation will be accorded and burial will be at a later date at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Farmington.
Clugston Tibbitts Funeral Home in Macomb is in charge of arrangements.
Posted By: WIU News (email@example.com)
Office of University Relations


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PR Newswire's Business Technology Round-up, 3 January 2013
Jan 03, 2013, 09:00 ET from PR Newswire
LONDON, January 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Hyundai integrate Google Maps into software, crowd-funded projects to be exhibited and LG to unveil new robotic vacuum
Hyundai have enlisted the help of internet giants Google to aid American drivers in finding their way around in their latest line-up of motors.
The car manufacturing company announced yesterday that Google Maps application programming interfaces (APIs) will be utilised in their Blue Link telematics platform, which is based in the US and allows drivers to find routes to their chosen destination quicker.
The Hyundai Blue Link will receive a number of new features thanks to its integration of the Google Maps APIs including Local Search by Voice, Point of Interest Search and Send to Car. The technology will be exhibited by Hyundai at the 2013 International CES next week in Las Vegas.
Also being exhibited at the CES are a couple of innovations that have benefited from the investment of fledgling philanthropists on crowdfunding website IndieGoGo.com.
One of the inventions, Stick-N-Find, has managed to raise $450,000 via the web platform. The total is more than six times the original campaign goal.
The invention consists of a small Bluetooth sticker that can be attached or inserted into objects such as wallets and phones, enabling users to locate the objects through the related mobile app on a radar-style screen interface. The device is currently in production and will be delivered for distribution and promotion in March 2013.
Another innovation, MeterPlug, which plugs into power outlets and sends consumption usage and cost data directly to an app on user's smartphones, launched only a week ago and has already received more than $50,000 in funds backing its production.
Finally, in addition to their new range of Smart TVs and a number of other devices, LG will be demonstrating something designed to share the burden of keeping the home clean and tidy.
The LG HOM-BOT Square is the latest of the electronics company's robotic vacuums which clean rooms of the home autonomously.
The latest model, which has been completely redesigned from its predecessor, benefits from much-improved cleaning technologies, including Dual Eye 2.0™ cameras, which scan and map rooms as well and ultrasonic and infrared sensors which help the machine avoid colliding with obstacles.
A Turbo Mode can be selected in the vacuum's settings, allowing the owner to adjust the machine to work more effectively on their type of flooring, while a larger-capacity Easy-out Dust Bin and improved Lithium Ion battery mean that the device will run for longer before needing to be emptied or have its battery charged.
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SOURCE PR Newswire


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'Sequestration: A Threat to Florida and the Nation'
Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, in conjunction with the Aerospace Industries Association, hosted a "Second to None" rally for more than 300 employees on Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Fla. The rally highlighted the critical contribution of the aerospace and defense industry to the U.S. economy and spread the word about the potential impact of budget sequestration.
The speaking program included U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida, Pratt & Whitney President David Hess, Tom Burbage, executive vice president and general manager, Joint Strike Fighter Program Integration, Lockheed Martin and Scott Starrett, vice president, Washington Operations & Government Business Development, Sikorsky, all of whom were joined on stage by 50 U.S. veterans. The veterans, who are also Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky employees, were publicly recognized for their military service by each of the speakers, and by their fellow employees. Hess, who also serves as chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, urged employees to join the fight against sequestration by contacting their elected officials.
"Massive sequestration budget cuts are a threat to American jobs, the economy and U.S. national security," Hess said. "We need you, our employees, to raise your voices loud and clear, and tell our elected officials that what we need is an alternative to sequestration that keeps us on the path of continued job creation, growth and innovation."
Good morning and thank you all for joining us. It's great to be in West Palm Beach.
As most of you know, I'm David Hess, president of Pratt & Whitney. I am also honored this year to serve as board chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, which is continuing to spread the word about federal budget policies that could have a dramatic impact on each and every one of us.
I'll say more about that in a minute, but first I'd like to recognize the leaders who have joined us here today. In addition to Tom and Scott, I want to offer a special welcome to Representative Allen West. Congressman West has been an outspoken advocate of our nation's men and women in uniform and a strong supporter of the industrial base needed to support the troops. This is a view I wish every one of our elected officials shared.
At a time when our leaders in Washington, as well as all of us, are facing some of the most severe fiscal challenges in a generation – it is critical that we continue to join together to make our voices heard about the importance of your hard work, and how it keeps our nation strong and safe and our economy moving forward.
Make no mistake, massive sequestration budget cuts are a threat to American jobs, the economy and U.S. national security.
It can be averted, but frankly, we're running out of time.
The clock is counting down to January 2nd, when another $500 billion defense cut will kick in, and there is simply too much on the line to stand by and watch it happen.
Our jobs and our communities are at stake. A number of recent studies support that assertion, concluding that:
In short, it has the potential to send America over the edge of what some are calling a "fiscal cliff" and potentially drive the country back into recession.
There is still time for a solution that keeps us safely away from the edge, but the time for action is now.
It is abundantly clear that a strong defense and aerospace industry means a strong U.S. economy. Our aerospace industry:
The industry is also critical for Florida:
The industry in Palm Beach County alone:
But today, rather than celebrating these heartening numbers, some are viewing Florida's defense and aerospace industry as an attractive target for sequestration cuts.
Florida is one of the top ten states that will be most affected if sequestration comes to pass in 2013.
At a time when the U.S. needs job creation and economic growth more than ever, now is not the time to push the self-destruct button on the aerospace and defense industry in Florida or anywhere else.
Among the pundits in Washington, sequestration has been called the "sword of Damocles," a "forcing function," a "deterrent" and even a "test of Congress."
Congressman West would probably agree that the last thing Congress needs right now is another test.
What we need is a solution. An alternative to sequestration must be found that keeps us on the path of continued job creation, growth and innovation.
We must ensure that everyone hears your voices and stands up for working families in Palm Beach County and across the nation. Let's put an end to sequestration and keep our industry, our families and our country moving forward.
Thank you.


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Submission + - Best cross-platform (or only Linux) audio software? 1
blogologue writes: I have played the guitar for some years now, and these days I think it's good therapy to be creative with music learning the piano and singing as well. So far I've been using Audacity as the tool to compose improvisations and demos, I haven't done much audio work before but it is already becoming too limited for my needs. Being a Linux-fanboi since the middle nineties I'm now looking for a good audio processing/editing/enhancing setup that can run on different platforms, the most important being Linux (yes, voting for Linux with my dollar). Are there any suggestions for Open Source or proprietary audio editing software that runs Linux?


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BOSTON (AP) — State public health officials say reported cases of the flu have dropped in Massachusetts for a second consecutive week, yet remain higher than at this time in recent years.
New state figures released on Friday show the percentage of people visiting health care providers with flu-like symptoms dropped to 2.4 percent after reaching nearly 4.5 percent earlier in the month. A small decline in flu-related hospitalizations was also reported.
Health officials say while the decline is encouraging, they point out that the flu can be unpredictable and that it too soon to say whether flu season in Massachusetts has peaked.
Officials say it also not too late to get a flu vaccine.
A widespread outbreak of flu in Boston prompted the city to declare a public health emergency last week.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.


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Going Public
If the shutdown continues for more than a few weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission will most likely run out of funds, according to an SEC statement. While the countdown has already started, the last shutdown, between 1995 and 1996, lasted 27 days.
This will affect the companies currently filing for IPOs, most notably Twitter, which announced on Sept. 12 that it had already filed the paperwork through, what else, a tweet.
Even though the SEC will remain open until extra funds run out, close to 94 percent of its employees are furloughed during the government shutdown.


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If it's not an LCD, then there's an 'electron gun' at the back of the tube. It needs to be hot enough so that the electrons jump off it, and they can be formed into a beam that can scan the picture out 50-60 times a second.
If they didn't keep that hot, then it would take a minute or
I've read that many VCR's, DVD's, etc. use as much electricity when "off" as they do when in use, with the difference being as little as the amount of electricity used by the electric motors actually used to spin the DVD or move the tape.
That's not USUALLY the case. The culprits tend to be the ultra-cheap Chinese brands like "Apex", which I've wrestled with many times.
IMHO, the problem is much more than just the power draw... In an enclosed A/V cabinet, those devices will heat up an enclosed space even wh
The problem isn't the clock in the device. The clock logic and LED display use up a tiny fraction of one watt. The problem is the power supply.
Take the microwave for example: people expect to be able to walk up and start punching in a cooking time without first having to push a huge mechanical power switch. (The manufacturer doesn't want to design in a costly extra power switch either.)
This means that the electronics need to be powered on at all times. That wouldn't be a problem, but most appliances use a simple transformer to drive their power supplies. Inexpensive transformers are leaky even when they are supplying no current to the secondary, so the microwave's transformer is probably wasting a couple of watts at all times. The solution to the problem is a better power supply, not omitting the clock or desoldering LEDs.
Some recent wall warts and power bricks that I've got weigh almost nothing and don't seem to get hot. I presume that they've put in switching power circuits and eliminated the 60Hz transformer altogether. Putting that kind of power supply in every appliance would go a long way towards solving this problem.
It depends on where you live. In the middle of the sahara solar power would be the way to go. West coast of Ireland: can't go wrong with wind power. Here in Mebourne a combination of the two works quite well. Communities on French Island, east of here all use solar/wind power systems for their homes.
I have considered building a simple DC supply out of a solar battery charger and a car battery. It should be good en
Until the wind stops. Then your VCR starts blinking 12:00
You can climb the 40 foot ladder, while I'll stay safely on the ground.
Why? When I turn on a light it is for one of two reasons. Either I'm passing through the room, or I'm going to spend time in it. If I'm passing through I just need a nightlight to keep my from tripping on the cat. If I'm going to spend time in the room, by the time I sit down and arrange my books there is full light, which is when I need it.
It would be nice if the cheap lamps were instant on - I agree. However 30 seconds is a big deal.
The most compelling reason for using the "Kill-A-Watt" over a multimeter is safety. We had someone at work who wanted to brew up a power line wattmeter, and I persuaded him that it would be cheaper and much safer to buy a ready made wattmeter. The project did ge
If you live in southern California this is a good idea, paybacks in as little as 4 years. (Including government subsidies) If you live in MN like I do, you are looking at a 30 year payback if all goes well - which is longer than many roofs last. If you shovel the roof you might do better, but that is both dangerous (Don't fall off the roof), and harmful to the panels (which tend to be easily damaged when walked on).
If you live in areas with a lot of sun you are stupid not to investigate this. Many people live in climates where they do not pay off.
Suppose a transformer wall wart uses 4 watts and you can replace it with a solid-state ferrite switcher that uses
Oh, and about back feeding the line, you could probably get away with a small amount of back feed and just don't tell anyone about it. If you put up a serious solar panel setup and plan to back feed enough that the power company will notice, they get real, real huffy about that. In fact, they are supposed to by law buy back your power, but they really hate that. I was at an alternate energy fair where the local utility was touting their wind mills (you pay extra for the bragging rights of getting "green power"), and when I asked the utility dude about home solar panels and back feeds, he was telling me about all kinds of restrictions (two meter arrangements where you pay more for incoming and get back less on outgoing), and when I mentioned the laws regulating buyback, the fellow got in my face an I thought I would get punched. So much for committment to green power.
"How do I turn it off"
"Press the 'power' button"
"I did that, but there's still a light on."
"That's the 'standby' light."
"The what?"
"That's the light that comes on to tell you that the appliance is off."
"I don't know why."
"You mean one light or another is going to be on the entire time we own this appliance, unless we unplug it?"
"Yep. Get used to it. Everything's that way now."
It used to be that the power button was just a switch that did the same thing as unplugging it, to save you the inconvenience. They've now thoughtfully removed that feature; if you really want it OFF, you have to go back to unplugging it again.
All of this coincided with a preponderance of clocks. I can see two engineers somewhere having a conversation:
"Have you noticed how cheap digital clocks have gotten?"
"Yeah! Let's put them in everything!"
I remember when my neighbor's old analogue kitchen wall clock died, so he said he'd better shop for a new one. I asked him if he really needed another, because there were already digital clocks on his coffee machine, oven, range top, microwave, radio, and even toaster oven. Pretty much everything that used electricity in the kitchen except the refrigerator and mixer had their own LED clock.
They still replaced the wall clock. It's the only one they looked at. It came as news to them that they already had six clocks in their kitchen. They'd never noticed them.
Feature-creep didn't originate with software.
Translated in human language: In the typical house that's 100 W.
By definition, watts are independant of time. Joules are a quantity of energy, and 1 watt = 1 Joule per second.
It's sad to see that the tech section of one of the US's largest newspaper feels the need to dumb down its writing, or maybe just hires incompetent writers. Drool-proof paper cannot be far.
On the plus side, no units in the article were compared to a football field or a the Library of Congress, for once. That's progress, I suppose.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,87100,0 0.asp [extremetech.com]
Bush also inadvertently coined a great spoonerism about power-stealing vampires when talking about this initiative.
I don't get it -- what's the spoonerism? It's not "wall wart" is it? It can't be "wall wart" because that article is from July, 2001, and the term "wall wart" was around many years before that. Go search Google Groups -- I found two uses of the term as far back as 1989.
And for what it's worth, a transformer that is inline (a
Friction is a drag.


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DEAR DOCTOR K: I'm a snorer. I read recently that treating snoring can affect blood pressure. Can you explain the connection?
DEAR READER: Severe snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). If you have OSA, then your breathing is blocked temporarily several (sometimes hundreds) of times per night. What happens is that muscles in your upper airway (the back of the throat) relax too much. Normally, these muscles hold your airway open, so that air moves in and out of your lungs without obstruction.
When your breathing is blocked, oxygen levels in your lungs and blood start falling. Your brain sees this happening and causes adrenaline to surge into your bloodstream. This stimulates the breathing center in your brain: It's a "breathe now!" signal. You awaken briefly and gasp for air before falling back to sleep.
That's bad enough. But surges of adrenaline also make your heart beat faster and raise your blood pressure. As a result, your blood pressure swings up and down.
Some people have what's called treatment-resistant hypertension. This is blood pressure that remains high despite taking several blood pressure medications. It turns out that many people with treatment-resistant hypertension also have OSA.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that treating OSA can help people with high blood pressure that's difficult to control. In the study, researchers provided 12 weeks of the standard treatment for OSA to nearly 200 men and women with OSA and treatment-resistant hypertension.
The standard treatment was continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). With CPAP, you wear a mask that covers your nose. A small machine delivers continuous air pressure that prevents the collapse of your airway.
After 12 weeks of CPAP, average blood pressures were a few ticks lower. Study participants also had healthier nighttime blood pressure patterns.
Many people find CPAP uncomfortable. As a result, they use CPAP inconsistently, or not at all.
The key is to find a mask you like. These days, you can choose from a variety of mask options, including nasal masks, full-face masks and twin tubes that deliver air to each nostril. If you don't like the first mask you try, keep at it. You may have to try several different masks until you find one you can live — and sleep — with.
Given that we spend about a third of our entire lives asleep, it's not surprising that our sleep could affect our health. Many studies show that getting enough good quality sleep on a regular basis brings many health benefits. It protects against heart disease and diabetes, and perhaps against dementia as well. Sleep experts generally recommend an average of seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night as the target to shoot for.
Dr. Komaroff is a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School. To send questions, go to AskDoctorK.com, or write: Ask Doctor K, 10 Shattuck St., Second Floor, Boston, MA 02115.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
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It legitimizes the patents in question and if I want to abide by the license I have to use them ONLY to implement VP8, not a fork of VP8 which doesn't obey the VP8 specification
On the contrary, the "horse's head" already hit the bed, when the MPEG LA all-but-threatened to sue if Google STFU-and-GTFO'd them. So Google bent over, let 'em through the skirt, and paid the "protection" fee.
Seems like Horn was..."pleased for the opportunity [slashdot.org]" to shake down even more video-format developers.
TFA indicates that MS was only holding back on WebRTC (which uses VP8) because of patent concerns, so they may now move forward on it.
That seems to defy history. MS drags its feet and tries to undercut every new web tech it can. That's just MS - their strength is the desktop and they see the web and the Internet in general as a threat.
I can well believe that MS said that patents were the reason, but making random excuses for why they won't support a web tech - and then creating new ones as necessary - is just how MS operates when it comes to the web and open standards.
No this won't change a thing. Microsoft will make up another excuse.
They are a significant party of MPEG LA after all. If they were concerned they could have done this ages ago.
That seems to defy history. MS drags its feet and tries to undercut every new web tech it can.
I'm not sure this is true. It's true MS has the reputation for that, but the fact is until Microsoft basically decided with IE6 that there was no need to ever do anything again in the web browser world, that IE6 was perfect and any flaws weren't an issue because the whole world was using IE anyway, Internet Explorer was more standards compliant than its biggest rival, Netscape Communicator 4.x.
This isn't to say
In some future scenario when Google stops paying the licensing fees, what happens to the (developers/users/businesses/etc) who are using/developing with VP8/9/10/*/etc. Are these entities going to now be at risk?
Depends how long in the future. Patents have a pretty short shelf-life.
In some future scenario when Google stops paying the licensing fees, what happens to the (developers/users/businesses/etc) who are using/developing with VP8/9/10/*/etc. Are these entities going to now be at risk?
The agreement appears to cover all use of VP8 and the still-in-development VP9 forever (or, well, for the life of any of the notional patents that MPEG LA members may or may not have that impact VP8 or VP9), so I don't think there is any risk of that for VP8/9
VP10+ would require a new agreement, pre
Pretty good timing for Renesas.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2253238/renesas-announces-low-latency-vp8-hardware-encoder [theinquirer.net]
I would be absolutely amazed if Google can deliver a competitive codec before HEVC/H.265 becomes entrenched.
H.264's great strength is that it reaches far beyond the web.
Theatrical production. Broadcast, cable and satellite distribution. Home video. Industrial applications and so on. WebM is for all practical purposes a transcode for YouTube and that in the end is simply not enough.
It's a bit more complicated than that...
For those not familar with what is going on in the video compression standards group, there were 2 independent efforts: HEVC (the so-called high-efficiency video codec to update H.264) and the IVC (internet video codec). IVC was not meant to replace HEVC, but be optimized for internet applications. Many folks seem to be confusing these in their responses.
One of the goals for IVC was for it to acheive so-called "type-1" licensing (basically free-as-in-beer) which would require all those that contribute to the standard to freely licence their patents. Of course the ISO/IEC groups that standardize this stuff (aka the MPEG group) cannot assure that the standard is free of patents, but only that no contributor to the standard will charge for the use of their patents in conjunction with the use of the standard.
The original baseline for IVC was a stripped down version of MPEG2 (basically MPEG1++ or MPEG2-- depending on your point of view) that was thought to be unencumbered by patents (MPEG1 is really old and some of the patents that cover it are even older and expired). Google submitted their VP8 for consideration for IVC. Needless to say, the ITM (IVC Test Model used to experiment with IVC) didn't perform very well relative to the more modern VP8 in recent comparison tests in Bit-Distortion modeling.
I would venture to guess that Google decided that it needed to clear the air with MPEG-LA (not related to ISO/IEC, but a separate patent-pool/licensing company created by the owners of the patents of original MPEG standard and some other corporations) so that it did not hinder its proposal for being considered as the baseline IVC codec for the test model.
Lest folks think that current VP8 is going to get through unscathed by the MPEG group, I believe that they will warp it a bit so that it isn't exactly the same as the current VP8 (as that's what the ISO/IEC group's charter is to develop new standards). That's one of the reasons why Microsoft didn't try to standardize WM9/10 codecs with the ISO/IEC standards body and they instead went to SMPTE (which has a history of just stamping "standard" on proprietary implementations). Unsuprisingly, SMPTE dutifuly stamped Microsoft's codec as SMPTE 421M (aka VC-1) w/o any substantial changes.
ISO/MPEG has a huge problem with NIH syndrome
H.263+ was better than MPEG4, H.264 was better before MPEG involvement
âoeThis is a significant milestone in Googleâ(TM)s efforts to establish VP8 as a widely-deployed web video format,â said Allen Lo, Googleâ(TM)s deputy general counsel for patents. âoeWe appreciate MPEG LAâ(TM)s cooperation in making this happen.â
âoeWe are pleased for the opportunity to facilitate agreements with Google to make VP8 widely available to users,â said MPEG LA President and CEO Larry Horn.
I LOLed.
.. which patents MPEG LA were claiming to be essential?
From a technical standpoint VP8 doesn't do anything significantly better than h.264, and isn't as good as h.264 in a number of ways. The only real advantage it ostensibly possessed was its licensing terms... and most people simply don't care about that.
One of the major reasons Apple and Microsoft have been anti-WebM was because of "license uncertainty". Given that they manage two of the four major browsers (in Apple's case I'm more concerned about the iOS version of Safari FWIW), this has been a major blow to WebM and a major blow to HTML5 video.
Now, to be fair, Apple has also criticized the power of WebM, but at this point simply arguing that a particular codec isn't as powerful as another one isn't really a good reason to refuse to support it if ther
I'll add my own thoughts here, also posted at http://xiphmont.livejournal.com/59893.html [livejournal.com]
"After a decade of the MPEG LA saying they were coming to destroy the FOSS codec movement, with none other than the late Steve Jobs himself chiming in, today the Licensing Authority announced what we already knew.
They got nothing. There will be no Theora patent pool. There will be no VP8 patent pool. There will be no VPnext patent pool.
We knew that of course, we always did. It's just that I never, in a million years, expected them to put it in writing and walk away. The wording suggests Google paid some money to grease this along, and the agreement wording is interesting [and instructive] but make no mistake: Google won. Full stop.
This is not an unconditional win for FOSS, of course, the LA narrowed the scope of the agreement as much as they could in return for agreeing to stop being a pissy, anti-competetive brat. But this is still huge. We can work with this.
For at least the immediate future, I shall have to think some uncharacteristically nice things about the MPEG LA.*
*Apologies to Rep. Barney Frank"
If Google won, full-stop, then why have they felt it necessary to license the MPEG-LA patents, and why is this license restricted to VP8 and one successor generation? Your spin on it is interesting, especially as it comes from reading the announcement by WebM which isn't exactly without interest.
Here is the press release http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130307006192/en/Google-MPEG-LA-Announce-Agreement-Covering-VP8 [businesswire.com].
Far from the rosy picture you are painting this seems to say that Google have recognis
When MPEG LA first announced the VP8 pool formation, a rush of companies applied to be in the pool, partly because everyone wanted to see what everyone else had. That gave way to some amount of disappointment. And by 'some amount' I mean 'rather a lot really, more than the MPEG-LA would care to admit.'
Eventually, things whittled down to a few holdouts. Those '11 patent holders' do not assert they have patents that cover the spec. They said '_may_ cover'. The press release itself repeats this. Then these patent holders said 'and we're willing to make that vague threat go away for a little cash'. Google paid the cash. This is what lawyers do.
That's why it's a huge newsworthy deal when companies like NewEgg actually take the more expensive out and litigate a patent. It is always more expensive than settling, even if you'd win the case, and very few companies are willing or able to do it. Google was probably able, but not willing.
We deal with this in the IETF all the time. Someone files a draft and a slew of companies file IPR statements that claim they have patents that 'may' read on the draft. Unlike other SDOs though, the IETF requires them to actually list the patent numbers so we can analyze and refute. And despite unequivocal third-party analyses stating 'there is no possibility patent X applies', these companies still present their discredited IPR statements to 'customers' and mention that these customers may be sued if they don't license. This is not the exception; this is standard operating procedure in the industry. These licensing tactics, for example, account for more than half of Qualcomm's total corporate income.
It's this last threat that Google paid a nominal sum to make go away. It's the best anyone can hope for in a broken system. If those 11 patent holders had a strong claim, it is exceedingly unlikely they would have agreed to a perpetual, transferable, royalty free license.
Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.


text:
Amend the bill, as and if amended, Part IA, Section 110, AID TO SUBDIVISIONS - STATE TREASURER, page 323, by inserting after line 28,
Column 7 Column 8
/Income Tax Rebate Fund 50,000,000 50,000,000/
Amend the bill further, as and if amended, Part IB, Section 110, STATE TREASURER - AID TO SUBDIVISIONS, page 495, after line 32, by adding an appropriately numbered new proviso to read:
/ 110.___. (AS-TREAS: Tax Relief) (A) There is created a separate and distinct fund in the State Treasury known as the Income Tax Rebate Fund. The fund is comprised of monies directed to the fund by this act. The fund must be used to provide an income tax rebate to all South Carolina income taxpayers. The rebate shall be the amount produced when multiplying a fraction in which the number of taxpayers on the return is the numerator and the denominator is the number of total taxpayers in the most completed tax year, multiplied by the balance in the Income Tax Rebate Fund.
(B) The rebate must be made to each South Carolina income taxpayer as soon as practicable after the taxpayer files a South Carolina income tax return for the 2013 tax year, and no later than June 30, 2014, and may be combined with any rebate due to the taxpayer. An income taxpayer who files an income tax form or requests an extension after the filing deadline is not eligible for the rebate provided by this provision. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend sections, totals and title to conform.


text:
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Jason Hamlin of Gold Stock Bull reports that, following the U.S. Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint has begun rationing its silver coin production:
It's not that silver isn't available. It seems to be that the mints don't want to buy the metal necessary to meet coin demand, lest they allow the price of silver to be pushed up to jeopardize the government-backstopped price suppression scheme.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.


text:
Graeme McDowell, G-Mac/Dunn/ Getty Images
Graeme McDowell, G-Mac, finished with a 4-under par round of 68, and a tournament total of -17 under par, to win the Tiger Woods World Challenge presented by Northwestern Mutual by three shots on Sunday. It was Graeme's first title in two years, he was determined to win as he held off the challenge of Keegan Bradley. G-Mac was really happy with this result;
"This really caps off my season, we try not to put winning on a pedestal, but this one feels very sweet because it's been a grind all year. Certainly I will draw some confidence from this one, the game hasn't given me a huge amount this year. My dollar average around this country club is fairly high, I'm probably right up there in the top-five in the world in California, no doubt about it. We'll have to look at playing a little bit more here on the West Coast. I'm over the moon to get the job done, for two years I've been saying things like processes and trying to get better and be patient and hopefully the wins will come. So I guess I got fed up with telling everybody that I'm playing well. I guess I'm relieved to get across the line and take some nice confidence into this little off period I've got coming up."
Graeme won for the first time since he beat Tiger Woods in a playoff at Sherwood Country Club to close out a dream season in 2010, that included his first major at the U.S. Open and the winning point for Europe at the Ryder Cup.
Second placed Keegan Bradley was at -14 under par for the tournament after his final round of -3 under par 69. Bo Van Pelt finished alone in third spot at -10 under par, with a last round of -2 under par 70.
Tournament host Tiger Woods finished tied in fourth place at -9 under par, with Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler, Tiger admitted he had struggled a bit this week;
"I struggled with my game a little bit this week, I just managed myself well to get around in these conditions. It's been a long year, and I've played a lot, and just really looking forward to a break. Just having nothing to do with golf for a few weeks, just put the clubs away, enjoy the holidays, be with my kids and just really enjoy that. Then after that I'll start cranking back up again and start focusing on my shots."


text:
NEW YORK — The NHL, the players' association, and now even federal mediators agree on one thing: the bickering sides are nowhere near a deal that would put hockey back on the ice.
The league and the union wrapped up two days of talks on Thursday in New Jersey, with help from mediators, but moved no closer to a solution to save the hockey season that has already been delayed and shortened.
Two members from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, deputy director Scot Beckenbaugh and director of mediation services John Sweeney, joined the discussions on Wednesday and Thursday but couldn't bring the sides any closer.
''After spending several hours with both sides over two days, the presiding mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress toward a resolution could be made through further mediation at this point in time,'' NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. ''We are disappointed that the mediation process was not successful.''
Players' association executive director Donald Fehr echoed Daly's remarks without offering insight as to where the process might head next.
''This afternoon, the mediators informed the parties that they did not think it was productive to continue the discussions further today,'' Fehr said in a statement. ''The mediators indicated that they would stay in contact with the league and the NHLPA, and would call the parties back together when they thought the time was right.''
The bottom line is that, 75 days into the owners' lockout of players, there is no end in sight. The lockout has already forced the cancellation of games through Dec. 14, the New Year's Day Winter Classic, and the All-Star weekend in January.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman offered the union a meeting that would consist of only owners and players — without the presence of leaders on both sides of the dispute — Daly told The Associated Press in an e-mail. He added that the union was considering the proposal.
''We will be discussing all matters regarding the last two days of mediation as well as potential next steps with the Executive Board and Negotiating Committee,'' NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said.
After agreeing to help from mediators on Monday, the league and the union returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday for their first face-to-face talks in a week. Those discussions lasted for about six hours.
They met again Thursday morning until late afternoon before breaking off.
The next sure thing on the hockey calendar is the NHL board of governors, scheduled next Wednesday in New York. Meanwhile, the players could seek to decertify the union and challenge the lockout in court.
Either way, the sides are getting close to losing another season to labor strife. The NHL is already the only major North American sports league to cancel a season because of such a dispute — when the 2004-05 schedule was wiped out.
Mediation didn't work back then either, though the collective bargaining agreement that recently expired was ultimately hammered out. Mediators were summoned in February, shortly before the season was canceled.
' Mediators concluded that the parties remained far apart, and that no progress . . . could be made through further mediation.'
In discussions last week, the players' association made a new comprehensive proposal that was quickly rejected by the NHL.
Fehr said the sides were $182 million apart on a five-year deal, which comes to $1.2 million annually for each of the 30 teams.
On Oct. 16, the NHL proposed a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue, down from the players' 57 percent portion of $3.3 billion last season. With guaranteed contracts likely to push the players' share over the halfway mark at the start of the next deal, management wants that money to come out of future years to bring the overall percentage down to an even split over the length of an agreement.
Players previously had proposed they receive a guaranteed amount of income each year.
Owners want a seven-year deal, which the union says is too long because less than half the current players will be active by the last season.


text:
Hello all,
Has anyone been succesfull in installing linux on a Toshiba Satellite C670-10H laptop? The processor is an AMD E350. (HD = 640GB ; 6GB Ram)
Any advice would be wellcome.
Thanks in advance.
Help, discussion, magazine feedback and more
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text:
Terri Booth came to the Destin boat junkyard looking for a fixer upper. Instead, she began looking for a tissue.
"When I see something like this, I'm sad. It just breaks my heart to think that someone loved, and now just a fraction of a 24-hour period it's gone."
In the next two weeks, Boat-Us will tow almost 70 damaged boats to the Lucky Snapper parking lot in Destin. Hurricane Ivan left his mark on all of these boats ranging from smalls holes and cracks to bigger holes and cracks.
On September 23, the boats will be available for public inspection and soon after, an Internet auction will be held. Auction officials expect most buyers will in turn sell the boats as scrap.
"If you've got a boat that's 14-20 years old, you can't buy parts for it anywhere. You have to go to a salvage, much like a junkyard for a car, you go to a salvage company to buy these parts and so these salvage buyers buy these boats."
The majority of these boats will never sail again, but you might find something worthwhile like an engine or something, but as Terri found out, you might not want to get your hopes up too much.
"You take a look at it and say it's not too bad but then you go around and just say wow, we may end up just buying a new one."
Auction officials say while this scratch and dent sale may not be for everyone, a little imagination could go a long way. National Liquidators estimates that almost 7,000 boats in Florida have been damaged due to Hurricane Ivan.
For more information on the Destin boat auction, visit www.yacht-auctions.com.


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Bargain hunt begins online as spending nears $2 billion
CHRISTMAS spending was expected to reach $2 billion before the Boxing Day sales even began, the Australian National Retailers Association said.
But a fast internet connection could prove more valuable in securing a bargain than sharp elbows and an eye for a sale tag, as retailers increasingly move sales online.
David Jones, Myer and Dick Smith were among the retailers who began their sales online as early as Monday.
Food, coffee machines and electronic gadgets such as iPods were the big sellers before Christmas, the chief executive of the association, Margy Osmond, said.
The proportion of online sales had increased, with about 8 per cent of Christmas spending heading overseas.
"The overseas sales figures grow every year," Ms Osmond said. Despite a late surge in spending, Ms Osmond said retailers expected a fairly flat Christmas: "Christmas this year will look solid, but it won't be the exciting kind we'd be hoping for in 2013," she said.
Retailers would be keenly watching what products consumers bought on Wednesday.
Investment in big ticket homeware items could indicate confidence had improved.
A spokesman for Myer, Steve Carey, said Christmas Day in 2011 was one of the store's biggest online trading days for the year, and that it was expecting a similar result this year. "Some people use the website to shop, others use it to browse and come into store at their convenience as they see fit," he said. "The web store is an avenue for people to get ahead of the crowds."
It is estimated that about 1.5 million customers nationwide will visit a Myer store on the first day of the stocktake sale.
David Jones has 80,000 products and 1000 brands on its site. The group executive operations for the David Jones Group, Cate Daniels, said the organisation had revamped the website to cater to the online market.
"There's no doubt we were operating with a legacy system, but that has been totally replaced," she said.
Google Australia said nearly 40 per cent of shopping-related Google searches now come from smartphones or tablets.
It said 2012 would be Australia's biggest online Christmas yet with shopping-related searches increasing by 20 per cent year over year.
Google Australia's Ross McDonald said it was no longer enough for retailers to be online, they needed to be on all screens including smartphones and tablets. Google estimates that among large advertisers only one in three has a mobile-friendly website.
The NSW Minister for Fair Trading, Anthony Roberts, warned consumers that no matter where they did their shopping, they should be aware of their rights.
"If an item is displayed for sale with more than one price tag, you are entitled to purchase the item at the lower price," he said.
"The same applies when an item scans at a different price to that marked on the shelf."
Customers were not automatically entitled to a refund if they were returning an unwanted Christmas gift. Fair Trading received 5206 complaints over refunds in the past year, with more than 1300 recorded between December 1 and February 28, Mr Roberts said.
Fair Trading's ShopSmart app has information on warranties, refunds and online shopping.
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Evolution Hoax
Everyone on it will pass away; but the Face of your Lord will remain , Master of Majesty and Generosity. ( Surat ar-Rahman, 55:26-27)
All of creation has an end. People are born, live for a certain period of time, and then die. This is also true of plants and animals. For instance, a tree may live for hundreds of years and then fulfill its destiny by dying at its appointed time. Similarly, non-living things also will meet their end, for time wears them all out. In addition, what remains of ancient nations is only their ruins. Allah calls our attention to this fact: "How many wrongdoing cities We destroyed, and now all their roofs and walls are fallen in; how many abandoned wells and stuccoed palaces!" ( Surat al-Hajj, 22:45)
The universe also has an end. All of the meteors, stars, and suns hurtling through space will one day exhaust their energy and disappear. Or, for another reason, Allah will destroy this universe and keep His promise regarding the Day of Judgment. He can do this, for He is the Creator and sole Owner of infinity, as the Qur'an reveals:
2009-08-18 22:25:24
Anything you have been given is only the enjoyment of this world's life and finery. What is with Allah is better and longer lasting. So, will you not use your intellect? ( Surat al-Qasas, 28:60)


text:
Maybe you've heard the joke about the religious man who tried to escape a flood by climbing on his roof and praying for God to save him.
A man with a canoe comes by and offers assistance, but the homeowner says no thanks, "God will save me!"
"Flight"★ ★ ★ ½
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, John Goodman, Nadine Velazquez
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated R for substance abuse, language, nudity, sexual situations. 93 minutes
A motorboat and a helicopter come by, but he tells them the same thing.
So the man drowns, goes to heaven and he angrily confronts God.
"I prayed for you to save me and you let me drown!" he shouts.
"I sent you a canoe, a motorboat and a helicopter," God replies. "What more did you want?"
This joke constitutes the essence of Robert Zemeckis' bold and excellent drama "Flight," which leads us into thinking that the story centers around an airline catastrophe prevented by a heroic pilot, despite the fact he had a couple of drinks before the flight.
If you listen carefully, John Gatins' screenplay is riddled with references to God, many of them delivered by Denzel Washington's airline pilot, Whip Whitaker, who has, charitably, a contentious relationship with the Almighty.
Whitaker hasn't exactly been a paragon of godly values. His drinking and coke problem forced his wife to divorce him. His son disowns him as a drunkard and womanizer. Whitaker takes comfort in two things: booze and a knock-dead gorgeous member of the flight crew Katerina (Nadine Velazquez) with whom he has an ongoing affair during layovers.
They prepare for their next flight. Just before slipping into the cockpit, Whitaker downs two single-serving bottles of booze for the road and practically falls asleep in his chair.
A storm rocks the airliner as it climbs to a safe altitude. Without warning, the jet drops into free fall. Through this white-knuckle plunge to certain death, Whitaker keeps his wits, never panics and saves the plane by thinking outside of the vortex.
He inverts the jet, flying it upside down to keep it aloft long enough to make it to an open field -- next to a Pentecostal church. (Symbolism alert!)
The harrowing crash sequence is Zemeckis' magnificent show piece in "Flight," a spectacular collision of special effects, high drama and conflicting human emotions.
Afterward, "Flight" does something courageous and unexpected. It alters course.
It diverts from "Airport" and dives into "Days of Wine and Roses," a searing personal story about a man's struggle to overcome his addictions, subdue his inner demons and recover his damaged soul.
The question I kept coming back to was: Could the jet's equipment failure be God's canoe to Whitaker? The pilot continues to inexplicably get more chances to save himself.
The pilots' union rep (Bruce Greenwood) and his sharp attorney (Don Cheadle) quash the drug test proving Whitaker was loaded with coke and alcohol. (Could this be the motorboat?)
On it goes, with Whitaker passing up on metaphorical helicopters, rafts and life preservers, until, finally, Whitaker bottoms out, as many alcoholics do. At least the lucky ones.
"Flight" represents more than an entertaining movie. It's a subversive ethics exercise that insidiously aligns us with Washington's sympathetic villain. Then, it adds layer after layer of banal evil to test us, to see just how far we, as audience members, will go to stay on Whitaker's side.
John Goodman nearly ventures into caricature as Whitaker's supplier, the brash and overly cocky Harling Mays. The always amazing Melissa Leo is almost wasted in a small role as the official in charge of a final hearing that will either send Whitaker to jail for manslaughter, or hail him as a national hero.
Like Zemeckis' "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks, "Flight" depends on the main actor to carry the weight of the film.
Washington manages that with deceptive ease, becoming a clear window into a lost man's soul and creating an amazingly graceful performance illustrating what can happen to a good heart when coagulated by bad judgments, all enabled by addiction.


text:
Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork is apparently off the free agent market.
According to Tom Curren's twitter page, the former University of Miami standout has been franchised today. ESPN.com is reporting Wilfork received the non-exclusive tender, which means a team can still host Wilfork on a free agent visit, but would then have to pay two No. 1 picks for the right to sign the Pro Bowl player.
The Dolphins are not paying two No. 1 picks for Vince Wilfork -- or practically anyone else.
All this was an expected move. It was a move that I wrote would likely happen over the weekend.
But it still hurts.
Not only will the Dolphins not be adding an outstanding player, but they'll likely be playing that same outstanding player twice a year for the near future.
By the way, you better believe Wilfork will not be happy.
Bianca Wilfork, of Miami, has responded to the tag on her husband on her twitter page.
"The franchise tag has been applied. After six years of dedicated service, I do understand this is a business," Wilfork's wife wrote. "With that being said it is my hope that the tag is applied for its true purpose: For the purpose of alotting more time for us to continue our talks and be able to reach a long-term agreement. Only time will tell what the final result will be."
The Dolphins search for a nose tackle, meanwhile, will have to turn elsewhere.


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The Toronto Maple Leafs will attempt to build off an impressive victory in Pittsburgh, as they return home Thursday to battle the New York Islanders at Air Canada Centre.
The Maple Leafs used a strong performance from James van Riemsdyk en route to a 5-2 rout of the Penguins on Wednesday. Van Riemsdyk netted two goals and one assist to spoil the home opener at CONSOL Energy Center.
Van Riemsdyk, the second overall pick of the 2007 draft, was acquired from Philadelphia last June for defenseman Luke Schenn. The former Flyer had gone without a point in his first two games with Toronto before breaking out in Pittsburgh.
"It's always nice when you have a conversation with a player and he comes out and scores two goals and has a three-point night," Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle said about his budding star. "It wasn't to criticize the player; he understood it. It's not like he's been terrible, it's just that he needed to step up his game."
Clarke MacArthur, Mikhail Grabovski and Tyler Bozak also tallied for the Maple Leafs, who were coming off a 2-1 home loss to Buffalo on Monday.
Nikolai Kulemin added three assists to back a 28-save performance from James Reimer, who was making his first start of the season. Ben Scrivens could be back in net for Toronto on Thursday.
The Maple Leafs were hit with some bad news following Wednesday's win, as forward Joffrey Lupul is expected to miss at least six weeks with a broken forearm. The injury occurred after Lupul was hit with a shot from the stick of teammate Dion Phaneuf.
Lupul, who had a career-high 67 points with Toronto in 2011-12, signed a five- year, $26.25 million contract extension with the Maple Leafs on Jan. 20.
The Islanders have been idle since posting a home win over Tampa Bay on Monday and Thursday's test marks the start of a five-game road trip for the club. New York was 17-19-5 as the road club in 2011-12.
After beginning the season with a 2-1 setback to visiting New Jersey, the Isles were able to post a 4-3 win over the Lightning.
Michael Grabner, Matt Martin and Kyle Okposo all scored during a three-goal second period and New York led 4-0 early in the third period before Tampa mounted a comeback. The Lightning scored three times in a span of 5:38, but New York ultimately was able to hold on for the win.
David Ullstrom also scored and John Tavares notched two assists for the Islanders, who registered their first win of the young season with head coach Jack Capuano back behind the bench. Capuano missed New York's 2-1 loss to New Jersey in Saturday's opener after undergoing surgery to treat a kidney stone.
The Islanders outshot the Lightning by a 44-26 count, with Evgeni Nabokov stopping 23 shots to pick up the win despite surrendering three goals in the third period.
"I thought it was a total team effort today," said Capuano. "I give credit to our guys. We distributed the minutes well today. We matched up well throughout the game. A lot of guys stayed with it, and a lot of guys played key minutes in key roles tonight."
Nabokov has started both games for the Isles over Rick DiPietro and could get the call again on Thursday.
The Maple Leafs won three of four matchups against the Isles in 2011-12 and have taken five of seven overall in this series. Toronto has won five of the last eight encounters at Air Canada Centre.


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A boy and girl allegedly locked in a bathroom and starved for years look like Nazi death camp survivors, according to a doctor who's part of a medical team helping the children to recover.
"I've seen pictures of the Holocaust. That's exactly what these
children look like," Dr. Kathi Amrhein said Monday in describing
the 16-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, who are both
about half their normal size. The girl weighs about 40 pounds and
the boy about 30 pounds.
"It's the next worst thing to being dead, as far as I'm
concerned," the pediatrician said, adding that damage to the
children's' health could be irreversible and it will take months to
return them to "a semi-normal state."
Mary Woods, Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Center spokeswoman,
said the children remained in stable condition Monday following
their hospitalization on Thursday. Woods declined to go into detail
about the children's mental state, but said, "These kids are
happier than they've ever been."
Regina Rios, 33, the mother of the children, her boyfriend,
Tomas Granados, 33, and Rios' mother, Esther Rios, 56, remained in
jail in lieu of $100,000 bail apiece, isolated from other inmates
"for their own safety," Carson City Undersheriff Steve Albertsen
They've been charged with felony child neglect and false
imprisonment, and face a Feb. 3 preliminary hearing.
Albertsen, who joined Amrhein, Woods and other hospital
representatives at a news conference, said investigators are
continuing to sift through evidence gathered at the three-bedroom,
two-bath apartment where the children lived. He said he wouldn't
speculate on a motive for the alleged abuse.
Three other children, 17- and 9-year-old boys and a 12-year-old
girl who appeared to be healthy, have been placed in child
protective custody. Asked whether the 17-year-old might be charged,
Albertsen said that would be up to prosecutors.
Deputies were led to the home after getting a report of a little
girl pushing a shopping cart full of food along a city street on
Thursday. It turned out to be the 16-year-old, who said she was
running away from home.
Sheriff Ken Furlong said evidence gathered so far bolsters the
girl's story of being locked in a bathroom with her brother and
starved for years. He also said it's one of the worst cases he's
seen in nearly 30 years of law enforcement work.
The girl hadn't attended school since her family moved to Carson
City from Los Angeles in about 2000. Her 11-year-old brother also
wasn't in school, although the other children were.
Child Starvation Case Ghastly
A boy and girl allegedly locked in a bathroom and starved for years look like Nazi death camp survivors, according to a doctor who's part of a medical team helping the children to recover.