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This is an elegant quilt set featuring ruffle work on solid ground, an lovely addition to your bedroom.
"I love this site. Amazing products at an amazing value. If I had gone to a high-end store, would have paid 4-5 times higher and probably not including such things as the extra throw pillows. Great quality! My first set I ordered a few weeks ago had a test.....the cat threw up on it, lol, (furballs), and so, I pulled the king-sized spread off of the bed and spot cleaned it in the sink...Amazing, cleaned up beautifully, just like a high-quality product should."
-Customer Review


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Ironman Louisville
With its new fall date, IRONMAN Louisville will shed its reputation as a hot, difficult race. Louisville locals rave about the near-perfect conditions the race will take advantage of with its new October date. You'll enjoy a calm, rolling swim start on the banks of the Ohio River where you'll begin your 140.6-mile race in a unique "first come, first served" model. Upon exiting the water, you'll head into transition located on the Great Lawn, the centerpiece of Waterfront Park, before heading off for 112 miles of scenic cycling.
A mixture of rolling hills and flat pastures characterizes the Louisville bike course, and you can expect to be challenged as they traverse the Louisville Metro area and Oldham County. As part of the two-loop portion of the course, La Grange will offer a boost of energy: You'll be greeted here by thousands of cheering spectators and volunteers.
After finishing the bike, you'll only have one thing separating you from a memorable finish on Fourth Street Live!, the race's unique downtown finish: 26.2 miles of flat running. Passing Churchill Downs, home of the famous Kentucky Derby, and the University of Louisville, there will be no shortage of distractions. Finally, spectators and volunteers bring each athlete in to realize their dream of becoming an IRONMAN.
Join us in Louisville and tick one of our most iconic races off your bucket list.
How to enter the Ironman Louisville
- Triathlon: Swim 3.8km, Bike 180km, Run 42km
Event Details
Questions & answers
Get answers from our team or a member of our dedicated community.
Ironman Louisville weather forecast
Clear throughout the day.
Meet the organizer
Ironman are ranked #35 in the UK out of 536 organizers
Ironman Louisville reviews
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How was Ironman Louisville?

subset: commoncrawl


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2180 South Constitution Blvd., Salt Lake City, UT 84119
Phone: 801-328-8788 | Toll Free: 800-326-4403 | Fax: 801-886-2530
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All posts are fabricated from 16 gauge carbon steel with grooves on 1" increments. Numbers are printed between grooves for quick assembly. Leveling legs are enclosed with all posts. Leveling legs cannot be used in conjunction with stem casters. FOB Shipping Point.
CHROME FINISH A bright and shiny surface which comes from a plating process where hard chrome is deposited over a nickel surface. This finish is the most popularly utilized due to its extreme durability and ability to be used in almost any type of application.
PROFORM FINISH A solution for high humidity or wet environments. The carbon steel is treated with a zinc phosphate base. A hybrid epoxy with an antibacterial agent is electrostatically applied over the treated surface offering antimicrobial protection. Color is light Green.
Treated with an iron phosphate and the powder coated black epoxy is electrostatically applied, baked and cured to a hard surface.
See Related Items tab for Chrome, Proform & Black Wire Shelving, Wire Shelving Mobile Kit and Quantum Storage Chrome Wire Shelving.
Items may be subject to current China tariffs in place. Please contact us.


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Planning for Energy Efficient Cities (PLEEC)
uses an integrative approach to achieve the sustainable, energy–efficient, smart city.
The PLEEC project is finished - a final summary report is currently in review and will be published soon. Our homepage including all resources will be kept online for a while and occasionally also some relevant news will be posted here.
|This time we would like to highlight a new service offered to finished FP7/H2020 projects in the field of energy, similar as PLEEC. The "Support Service for Research Projects in Energy" (SSERR) is targeted towards the exploitation of project results and is free of charge. Activities which can be financed include e.g. Project Risk Analysis, Exploitation Strategy Seminars, Business Plan Development, Assistance for Patenting and Brokerage Events.
The special issue "Planning for Resource Efficient Cities" of the Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning (no. 5/2016) contains several PLEEC-based scientific articles. The open access journal is published by the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. The special issue edited by PLEEC partners and is available online.
The PLEEC project has now come to an end.
We are proud of our results achieved and the great cooperation among the project consortium. Hereby we would like to thank everybody who has participated in any manner in our work during the last three years!
Download here the PLEEC project factsheet with the final results.
|PLEEC Factsheet: Summary of Results
(Date: 25.05.2016 - File size: 151.38 KB - Hits: 3764)
We are looking forward to an energy efficient future. All the best!
The PLEEC model is a guide for city planners in European cities to develop their Energy Efficiency Action Plan (EEAP) in order to meet the EU 20-20-20 goals. The guide consists of the PLEEC partners´ joint experiences from developing six EEAPs. By taking part of the model content, through literature studies, checklists, movies and city partners' advice, the reader gets a strong base to initiate the Action Plan. One of the lessons from PLEEC is that understanding local conditions in different cities is key to developing an EEAP that can be successfully implemented. No action can be copied from one city to another but by sharing experiences we can come a long way towards a more energy efficient future.
The PLEEC model is one of the core outputs of the PLEEC project.
Check out the PLEEC model at model.pleecproject.eu
Through the run of the PLEEC project all six PLEEC partner cities have been working in joint and intense efforts on developing and writing an Energy Efficiency Action Plan (EEAP) for their city – a plan which will guide them their way to become energy smart.
The EEAP´s are the results of three years project work and base upon the findings of the smart city analyses ("Smart City Profiles") in WP2 and the best matching energy efficiency recommendations from WP3, 4, and 5 taking the cities´ technological, structural and behavioral capabilities into account.
Get the EEAP´s here and get inspired for your own city´s journey towards an energy efficient future!


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What U.S.-China Auditing Dispute Means for Chinese Business Culture
By Stanley Lubman
The ongoing dispute over fraud-tainted audits of Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges raises a fundamental question about China's business culture: Can it change to adapt to standard Western business and accounting practices?
The dispute arises from the refusal of Chinese regulators to let the U.S. Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspect the audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies performed by China-based auditors, as U.S. law requires. In addition, there is the difficulty of tracing the sources of the frauds to the accounting firms, the audited companies or both.
China wants to encourage both inbound foreign investment and outbound Chinese investment, but it has been painfully slow to allow "convergence" of Chinese accounting standards with internationally recognized ones. China's Finance Minister in April 2012 said that China is "dedicated" to establishing "internationally recognized auditing standards and professional ethics [and] an examination system that is in line with international standards."
In September 2012 a member of the PCAOB announced that to advance cooperation, the PCAOB had "tentatively agreed on "observational visits" at which inspectors from each country could observe inspectors from the other at work. Negotiations, however, between the SEC and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) have stalled. The outgoing Chairman of the SEC, Mary Schapiro has said that the needed "level of cooperation" has not been achieved.
A larger issue underlies the accounting controversy: While business practices and legal institutions consistent with Western economies are slowly developing within the private sector, corruption and evasion of the law remain widespread throughout the country. (Mark Dixon's account of the challenges of "tunneling to true profit in China" is worth a read). It is well-documented that connections among the families of high-ranking officials have led to "the ability of regime insiders to work the system for their own personal gain -- and make a mockery of the legal system in China," to quote John Garnaut.
With the decay of Communist ideology and the rise of state-directed capitalism, frequent reports tell of the production and sale of counterfeit products such as cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, and, of course, unsafe food products. Law evasion occurs not only in the private sector; dangerous atmospheric pollution and water contamination may be overlooked by local governments to avoid reducing revenue received from the polluters and the outcomes of cases in the courts are sometimes skewed to protect local revenues. There are laws against these actions, but as I've written previously, the number and frequency of frauds of various types reflects a social and economic environment in which legal rules are as often as not disregarded. Professor Minxin Pei, writing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2007, estimated the cost of corruption at $86 billion yearly. It is unknown whether the faulty audits targeted by the SEC reflect a refusal to confront illegal conduct, corruption or both.
The accounting scandals are examples of how Chinese tolerance of fraud cannot be accepted in international transactions. The SEC and PCAOB should continue to insist on applying American law to Chinese accounting frauds. A recent op-ed in the Financial Times criticized the SEC "for insisting that its laws should take precedence over those of other countries." But that view overlooks the fact that the SEC is only protecting American investors in U.S.-listed securities
The U.S. should emphasize to Chinese regulators that it is in Chinese interests to adopt and adhere to international norms of transparency and cooperation. Doing so will benefit Chinese investors in all foreign countries that adhere to such norms. In the U.S. between January 1, 2007 and March 31, 2010, 159 Chinese companies entered U.S. securities markets using reverse mergers, and generated market capitalization of $12.8 billion. In the same period, 56 Chinese companies completed U.S. IPOs with an aggregate market capitalization of $27.2 billion. Since then, multiple accounting frauds in the financial statements of some of these Chinese US-listed companies came to light. As of early December, no fewer than 126 of those companies were delisted or are no longer filing current reports with the SEC. This is a sorry track history that Chinese regulators would surely rather not repeat, whether in the U.S. or any other overseas market.
Although China deserves criticism for its stonewalling on proper financial disclosure, it has made progress in accepting international norms. Before China was allowed to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S led successful efforts to obtain Chinese agreement to adopt measures to increase transparency. These included creating a requirement that all laws relating to trade and certain trade-related issues had to be published before they came into effect, establishing a central point to which inquiry could be directed, and allowing a right to comment before such laws are implemented. (see Sijie Chen's "China's Compliance with WTO Transparency Requirements: Institution-Related Impediments" from last year.) Since China's accession to the WTO, the number of neibu, or "internal," laws and regulations noticeably decreased.
The U.S. and China have also begun to cooperate bilaterally on a number of economic issues. For example, cooperation on food safety has evolved: The FDA and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine of China (AQSIQ) have recently renewed an earlier agreement under which the FDA can, among other activities, identify high-risk food and other products entering the United States from China, and collaborate on inspection of facilities that process and produce food.
The Chinese law on "state secrets" presents a different problem. U.S. accounting firms claim that the law prevents disclosure of audit documents to the SEC. It is a special bar if only because so many Chinese investments abroad are by state-owned enterprises. Illustratively, 90% of the value of Chinese investments in the U.S. between 2007 and 2011 were made by state-owned companies in the industrial-machinery, aerospace, automobile and logistics industries, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. But the reasons for not disclosing audits of private sector companies have not been sufficiently explained.
Just as China had to accept international practices when it entered the WTO, it will have to adjust to requirements of openness by its trade partners in the auditing of Chinese companies when they invest outside China. This does not mean that Chinese business culture will change quickly, but change it must, and cooperation in the current dispute should help to foster improvement.
Stanley Lubman, a long-time specialist on Chinese law, is a Distinguished Lecturer in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He is the author of "Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China After Mao" (Stanford University Press, 1999) and editor of "The Evolution of Law Reform in China: An Uncertain Path" (Elgar, 2012).
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Main Content
Take the first steps toward a great college experience.
It all starts here with New Student Orientation, your fun and informative two-day introduction to campus life. Parents get their own one-day Parent Orientation session, held at the same time. And, once you're on campus for the start of classes, the entire first-year class will come together for the New Student Convocation, an inspiring ceremony to celebrate the traditions of academia . . . followed by a student involvement and club fair.


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Student Veteran & Military Student Services
The Office of Student Affairs has assigned each of its staff members to serve as a liaison between particular student groups and the University in an effort to reach out and serve these students in the best way possible through regular communication and targeted programming and events. If students have any questions or need more information, the Student Veteran liaison is:
Zauyah Waite, Ph.D.
Chatham University
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Office of Student Affairs
Carriage House, 1st Floor
Woodland Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15232
412-365-2794 (p) 412-365-1620 (f) 419-309-7207 (cell)
In a nationwide survey conducted by the National Association of Student Affairs Professionals titled From Soldier to Student: Easing the Transition of Service Members of Campus (April 2012), Chatham comparably offers most initiatives necessary to support this transition for Student Veterans. For answers on how these services are provided click the links below:
Has Chatham increased the number of veteran services, programs and staff on campus?
Chatham University offers a variety of services to all Military Students which are marketed through the Military Student Experience Website and Brochure. There are also appointed resource staff members and liaisons in departments such as Student Affairs and Admissions. Military Student specific programming is offered all year round.
Are there increased counseling services or off-campus referral programs?
All members of the Counseling Services staff and interns have completed a Veteran specific online training course. Plus there are connections with the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Are there Established Marketing and Outreach Strategies?
Chatham has a dedicated Student Veterans Admissions Counselor, Military Student Experience Website and marketing brochure.
Are there trained counseling staff to assist students with PTSD, brain injuries and other health issues?
All members of the University's Counseling services staff have completed the online courses Military Cultural Competence and Working with Service Members and Veterans with PTSD from the training website: www.realwarriors.net/healthprofessionals/militaryculture/onlinelearning.php.
Is there an established office or department specifically for student veterans, dependents or students in the reserves?
Although there is not one office dedicated specifically to military students, there are many services and departments that accommodate all the unique needs set forth for students.
- Office of Student Affairs and Dean of Students sends out regular e-communications and activities specific for military students, as well as oversee orientation programs for all students
- PACE offers support for students that are necessary to achieve academic excellence
- Academic Affairs works with active duty and veteran students for instances of quick re-enrollment to Chatham and with the student deployment policy
- Office of Student Accounts works with the GI Bill® and Yellow Ribbon Program to ensure that military students and dependents are aware of all financial aids available to them
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government Web site at www.benefits.va.gov/gibill
- Office of the Registrar works with current and incoming students to ensure that their Certificate of Eligibility is on file so that students receive all of their veteran benefits
Are alternative curriculum delivery formats such as online education and or weekend/evening classes available?
Both online education and evening/weekend classes are offered in the undergraduate and graduate programs. The Student Veteran specific admissions counselor and academic advisors can assist with scheduling classes. An admission representative also does outreach at the Military Expo in Pittsburgh to recruit and communicate related information with incoming students.
Does Chatham award credit for military training and occupational experience?
Students may earn credit for military training via the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) program.
Does Chatham have provisions for coursework completed at later dates in the case of being called to service?
The respective academic deans allow for students to complete their course work at later dates as stated in the Student Deployment Policy supported by Academic Affairs.
What is Chatham's Student Deployment Policy?
When a student in the Reserves or in the National Guard is called to active duty, the student must notify the Program Director and provide proof of deployment prior to being deployed. The proof may be faxed, mailed, or hand-carried to the Program Director and forwarded to the office of the Dean, who will then forward it to the Registrar. Proof may take the form of general orders cut by the company commander. When a student is activated during the term, Financial Aid, Registrar, and Student Accounts policies will take effect. Please contact these three offices for specific information. If a student is called to active duty near the end of the term, the student and faculty members may determine that incomplete (I) grades are more appropriate. In this case, tuition will not be waived. For more information connect with the Office of Academic Affairs or connect with your college dean.
Does Chatham offer an expedited re-enrollment process?
If a student is on leave for less than one year, she/he will need clearance from Academic Affairs to return. If more than one year, Admission verifies with Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and Student Accounts that the student is in good standing and re-enrollment is expeditiously granted.
Does Chatham offer career planning or career services?
Career services are offered to all students. Visit the Career Development Web site for more information.
Does Chatham offer tutoring and academic support?
The PACE Center provides services for all students.
Does Chatham host campus socials and cultural events?
Chatham hosts multiple events that are open to all students which can be found on the Activities Calendar, my.chatham.edu Intranet, as well as emails and bulletin board flyers. In addition there are several events hosted throughout the fall and spring semesters that are dedicated to bringing awareness and honor to all of the Chatham community veterans.


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Women's Outdoor T&F Athletes of the Week - No. 6
By Chad Waller, NAIA Director of Communications & Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Gabriella Dixson of Concordia (Ore.) has been named the NAIA National Women's Outdoor Field Athlete of The Week and Jura Levy of Oklahoma Baptist has been honored as the NAIA National Women's Track Athlete of The Week, the national office announced Wednesday. Dixson and Levy were selected based on their performances from April 16 - 22. Levy becomes the fourth-consecutive Bison to win the outdoor track weekly honor.
Dixson, a junior from Battle Ground, Wash., strengthened her hold on the No. 1 spot on the NAIA season chart in the discus throw event. Her toss of 179' 1" was good for 10th among 30 competitors at the Mt. SAC Relays hosted by Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. She set a season best by 17 feet and a career best by 15 feet and now holds a 22-foot lead over the No. 2 thrower in the NAIA this year. Dixson placed as the third highest collegian in the field, which also featured professional and international competitors.
Levy, a freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, collects her second award of the 2012 indoor and outdoor season after she was named on Jan. 25, 2012. In the event hosted by NCAA Division I Baylor University (Texas), Levy turned in a US Olympic "A" standard qualifying time in the 100-meters (11.27) and beat Adidas' Tiffany Townsend, who has the third best time in the event in USA Track and Field. Levy finished first overall and holds the No. 1 mark in the NAIA this year in the 100-meters. All three of her events, which also included the 4x100-meter relays (45.48) and the 4x440-yard relay (3:37.51), were NAIA qualifying standards.
Track Nominees: Jordan Arnold, Friends (Kan.); Aspen Frey, McPherson (Kan.); Sarah Tortorich, Loyola (La.); Tyler Sloan, Baker (Kan.); Jessica Davis, Texas Wesleyan; Alexis Davis, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.); Myelle Vann, Ashford (Iowa); Junia Limage, Concordia (Ore.); Adriana Romero, Central Methodist (Mo.); Obsie Birru, Grand View (Iowa); Lauren Kachel, Cumberlands (Ky.); Cassandra Hallam, Oklahoma Christian; Seena Frantz, Southern Oregon; Jocelynn Smith, Corban (Ore.); Jasmine Sibert, College of Idaho; LaStacy Freeman, Iowa Wesleyan; Dearra McNeal, Langston (Okla.); Hannah Schaap, Trinity Christian (Ill.); Gillian Giffen, Milligan (Tenn.); Stephanie Kenney, Taylor (Ind.); Mariah Toussaint, Midland (Neb.); Jena Schwalenberg, Concordia (Neb.); MariJean Wegert, Grace (Ind.); Beka Bentle, Indiana Wesleyan; Karen Hutson, Northwestern (Iowa); Zalika Dixon, Indiana Tech; Carissa Hudson, Spring Arbor (Mich.); Harmony Mead, Siena Heights (Mich.); Courtney Rouse, Illinois Tech; Julie Oosterhouse, Cornerstone (Mich.); Hilary Halford, St. Francis (Ill.); Breanna Leslie, Azusa Pacific (Calif.).
Field Nominees: Kenney Meigs, Oklahoma Baptist; Neeia Cooperwood, Morningside (Iowa); Stephanie Nelson, Baker (Kan.); Rachel Carmen, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.); Courtney Cox, Ottawa (Kan.); Samantha Gatewood, Ashford (Iowa); Shelby Garrigus, Central Methodist (Mo.); Janada Acree, Cumberlands (Ky.); Makenzie Brown, Oklahoma Christian; Rachel Newby, Corban (Ore.); Audrey Youren, College of Idaho; Hannah Mason, Southern Oregon; Brooke Randall, Eastern Oregon; Mandy Streu, St. Ambrose (Iowa); Vanessa Legg, Indiana East; Esme Walls, Langston (Okla.); Cailey Wilkinson, Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.); Janie Smith, Milligan (Tenn.); Helen Weber, Union (Ky.); Lauren Eickemeyer, Concordia (Neb.); Emily Smith, Aquinas (Mich.); Karmen Lawver, Doane (Neb.); Victoria Lee, Indiana Wesleyan; Elizabeth Stevens, Northwestern (Iowa); Ashley Watley, Indiana Tech; Latanya Nation, Wayland Baptist (Texas); Larissa Wilden, Mount Mercy (Iowa); Nichole Cavins, Siena Heights (Mich.); Joelle Swanson, Oregon Tech; Tiffanie Nyssen, Warner Pacific (Ore.); Jennifer Maag, Hastings (Neb.); Brittany Simmons, Concordia (Mich.); Chelsea Rimington, St. Francis (Ill.).
2012 Composite Award Winners (Outdoor Track / Outdoor Field)
Week 1: Adella King, Indiana Tech / Stacia Murray; Indiana Tech
Week 2: Leandria Lee, Wayland Baptist (Texas) / Sharayah Kenady, Concordia (Ore.)
Week 3: Evan Shimanek, Oklahoma Baptist / Adella King, Indiana Tech
Week 4: Stacy Warrior, Oklahoma Baptist / Kimmy Moore, Eastern Oregon
Week 5: Verone Chambers, Oklahoma Baptist / Tiosha Beasley, Campbellsville (Ky.)
Week 6: Jura Levy, Oklahoma Baptist / Gabriella Dixson, Concordia (Ore.)


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SHERMAN, TX-Hog hunting is growing in popularity as a sport and as a way to help area farmers protect property. But now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning hog hunters of an unseen threat that could be more dangerous than the hogs themselves.
According to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, feral hogs can cause up to $52 million in agricultural damages. If you're hunting those hogs, you're also putting your health at risk.
John Mayo of Howe has been hog hunting for four and a half years. His hobby started as a way to help area farmers whose crops have been damaged by feral hogs.
"I've seen farmers plant 300 acres of corn and have a hundred acres rooted up the same night they planted the seed," he said.
Hunting the big beasts can be dangerous since some grow to weigh 500 pounds, but that's not the only danger they pose.
The C.D.C. said they can carry a bacterial illness called brucellosis.
"People get it from being exposed to cattle: cattle, pigs, hogs."
Infectious Diseases Specialist, Dr. Aditi Swami said people can get it when they're exposed to an infected animals' blood and organs.
"They need to protect themselves by wearing masks and wearing gloves when they're around animals, washing their hands," she said.
Dr. Swami said the symptoms are flu-like.
"It's usually a chronic low-grade fever. You can have undulating fever, the fever can go up and down and just be chronic. Fatigue, generalized body aches and pains, muscle body aches and pains, bone pain is also very common," she said.
But it can lead to more severe infections.
"It can lead to encephalitis, that's usually what it leads to. Meningoencephalitis," she said.
If diagnosed early, Swami said treatment is possible but recovery may take a few weeks to several months.
"For brucellosis, there's a lot of antibiotic treatments or tetracyclines and doxycyclines is a very good antibiotic that we use to treat brucella," she said.
Mayo said he knows how serious the illness can be, that's why he takes extra precautions and urges other hunters to do the same.
"We try to prevent that by using gloves when we gut, taking the entrails out and we soak the meat in ice for several days," he said.
Dr. Swami said if you think you have brucellosis, call your doctor immediately.


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Medical advice for a serious race preparation
o Visit your doctor for a physical examination with an emphasis on heart health before participating. Unrecognized heart problems are the primary cause of sports-related sudden cardiac death.
o Consult with your doctor about any warning signs during training such as chest pain/discomfort, shortness of breath, light-headedness, or blacking out.
o Your health, fitness level, and preparation should guide your selection of an appropriate race or event.
o Your race plan should be consistent with your health, fitness level, and preparation.
o Choose an event because it places an emphasis on athlete safety, and is sanctioned by a federation or WTC.
o Practice and prepare for open water swim venues. Race day must not be your first exposure to an open-water swim competition.
o Thoroughly review the race's website and all pre-race communications so you are knowledgable on the timetable for race day arrival and preparations.
o Utilize all checklists and information from the event, your triathlon federation and your coach to mentally prepare for the competition.
o Make certain your equipment is safe and working properly. Make certain your wetsuit fits properly. Get your bike checked before the event.
o During the event, STOP at the first sign of a medical problem such as chest pain/discomfort, breathing difficulties, light-headedness, or unusually high heart rate and seek medical attention. Your life may depend on it. This is particularly important during a race swim, in which rescue poses unique challenges.
o During the event, tend to a fellow athlete who has a medical problem.
Learn CPR and be prepared to use those skills when needed. Ask your family and other supporters to do the same.


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Eight years later, the Xbox 360's successor — and Microsoft's latest bid to take over your living room — is here. Somehow it's both worth the wait and quite not fully baked.
Editor's Note: This is the US review of the Xbox One.
We'll have an Australian review for you tomorrow morning!
What Is It?
Uh, it's the Xbox One. The crazy ambitious follow-up to the Xbox 360, a wildly successful console and arguably the winner of last generation's console war. A box for playing games but also bossing around your television. A future machine.
Why Does It Matter?
The Xbox One is not only the heir to an absolutely enormous console hardware empire, it's also an ambitious strike out at the future. It's a Kinect-driven, media-focused, cable-TV-gobbling machine. It does more than any console before ever has, and does it admirably. At least, when it's working the way it should.
The first thing you'll notice about the Xbox One is that it is large. Comically large. It looks like a Xbox 360 ate an Xbox 360 slim. It's more VCR than Blu-ray player. And that's in addition to the external power brick, itself a heaping chunk of hardware. It makes me nostalgic for my SEGA Saturn in ways I don't fully understand. And it's waaay bigger than the PS4. But if all the extra space means none of the red-ringing, overheating problems the Xbox 360 had, it's more than worth it.
Other than its large size though, the Xbox One's actual console design is pretty subtle, even unremarkable. There are no pronounced angles here, no curves, nothing really to catch your eye. Unlike its predecessors, which aspired in one way or another to be shaped sort of like an X, the Xbox One leans heavily towards box. From the front, it's little more than just a black rectangle, matte on one side, glossy on the other. It'll sit under your TV and melt away into the background.
The other part of the system that will live beneath your TV is the Xbox One's included Kinect camera, which is remarkably large as well. It's roughly the size (and weight!) of a Maglite, but shorter at just 10 inches long.
Fortunately, unlike the original Kinect, this one has no automated, moving parts, so it won't pivot around or bow to you when you're starting up the system or playing games. Instead it just sits still and looks like a robot face out of Wall-E, or a drunk Johnny 5. A face that will dumbly stare back at you as you dumbly stare at your TV.
But how the console — which you will only rarely interact with and hardly ever notice — looks is peanuts next to the controller and oh my god the controller. While it's roughly the same size as an the already fantastic Xbox 360 controller, the Xbox One controller feels more compact, a little heavier, and more solid, all in a way that's utterly fantastic.
The most obvious changes include a new D-Pad that's actually a D-Pad, instead of the disc-shaped monstrosity that's plagued Xbox controllers until now, a guide button that's moved a little closer to the top of the controller, and the two new "Start" and "Select" replacements: the three-horizontal-lines button and the box-overlaying-another-box button. Annoyingly neither seems to have an actual name (all in game prompts are just pictures of the icon), but both are mercifully in the exact same place as their previous-generation analogues.
The Xbox One's thumbsticks are smaller and easier to move than the Xbox 360's, but in a way that doesn't sacrifice that feeling of tightness. They also have the most delightful grippy texture around their edges.
Then there are the new triggers, which rumble! Like the sticks, they're easier to pull down, and you'll notice they're quieter and issue a soft thud when fully depressed, unlike the almost-squeaky, spring-loaded, almost gun-like clicks you'd get from a 360 controller. It's definitely different, but still great. Meanwhile the bumpers just above the triggers are slightly larger than they used to be, but still delightfully clicky.
It's not as huge a step forward as the DualShock 3 to DualShock 4, but the DS3 was crap, and Xbox 360 controller was already arguably (I will argue it) the best controller ever. I'm not sure if the Xbox One's is better yet, but it's close. It's hard to tell because I've spent so long loving its predecessor.
Using It
As did the PS4, this thing is going to blow your gat-dang hair back. All the games we tried (Forza 5, Dead Rising 3, Crimson Dragon, and a few titles we're not allowed to talk about yet) looked beautiful, without exception. You can get graphics like this out of a powerhouse PC, sure. But in the console world the Xbox One — and the PS4 — is like whoa. Then again, after eight years, you'd expect it to be.
Some titles embrace the future better than others. It's an unfortunate fact that Dead Rising 3, one of the cornerstones of the Xbox One's launch line-up, runs in 720p (upscaled to 1080), locked at 30fps. That's not bad, but it's not the kind of HOLY FREAKIN WOW you necessarily expect out of your new $599 box. That said, there's still plenty of HOLY FREAKIN WOW to Dead Rising 3; it boasts massive crowds of zombies on screen at a time, while only occasionally (but still occasionally) stopping to chug if you're really cruising through the scenery in a car or armoured tank or whatever. That's a different kind of impressive. And it's worth noting that Killzone: Shadow Fall did its fair share of chugging too on the PS4, albeit in native 1080p.
Unlike the PS4's DualShock 4 and its touchpad, glowy-light, share button, and whatnot, the Xbox One controller has no real huge functional tricks up its sleeve. Sitting down to play games on your Xbox One is virtually identical to playing them on a Xbox 360 so far as your hands are concerned. And that's good! Playing games on 360 was great. What little subtle changes Microsoft has made to its controller mostly melt away once you start to play, in the best possible way.
Basic actions like holding the sticks forward are improved by the new textures around the sticks' rims, but it's nothing you think about. The rumbling triggers are a little more noticeable, on the rare occasion that they actually start rumbling (at this point, mostly when you're driving a vehicle, in pretty much every game that has vehicles). It's cool but it almost always feels like a gimmick. Of course that's how rumble felt too, before it became a standard.
That's the hardest part of reviewing a console at launch; the Xbox One hasn't quite settled into itself yet. It was the same way for the PS4. The potential is clearly present in both of them, but how well either fulfils it depends on what's around the corner, the big games coming up, and how effectively devs can learn to harness the true power hidden inside these boxes. But for now, it's still hella fun.
If you're playing games on the Xbox, chances are you've got some friends who are doing so too. The Xbox One has a few new social hooks to make keeping tabs on them a little easier. For one, the friends cap is way higher now: 1000 cronies. Which should be enough for even the most popular Mr. Popular. You can even amass "followers," people who keep tabs on you but don't count toward your friend cap because you blissfully ignore them. It's all very high school cafeteria.
And what are you doing with all of these friends and frenemies? Well, the new activity feed offers you a whole faceful off what your they've been up to, whether it's watching TV, using apps, playing games, scoring achievements, or whathaveyou. Nothing about that sharing is particularly new, but it's nice to see them being applied in Xbox One more seamlessly than ever.
Last but not least, there's the ability to share game clips via the Project Upload app. At any given time during a game, you can say "Xbox, record that!" and the 30 seconds before the command will be saved for later, at which point you can go and add in voiceover, or picture in picture commentary, even filters, before you push your clips into the activity feeds of all your friends. And if that's not good enough, you can save your clips to SkyDrive and share them with the rest of the uncaring internet.
A notable absence though, is streaming. Xbox One has a deal with Twitch, but the actual ability to use it got pushed back until next year. Meanwhile, the PS4 has Twitch and Ustream at launch. Better a delay than a busted app, but that's a missing feature that's leaving a bit of a hole.
The Xbox One's dashboard is an obvious evolution from the latest version of the Xbox 360's UI, but it's also very much its own entity. The tiles on the Xbox one are far more starkly Windows 8 than anything on the 360. It's a change that's fresh, but not alienating.
From the moment the Xbox One wakes up, everything is right at your fingertips. Apps, games, notifications, and yeah, a couple of "featured items" that Microsoft would be more than happy for you to purchase. The whole thing can feel a little busy, but it's easy to pick up and use.
And moreover it's fast. Apps can take a while to load — 5 to 10 seconds depending on how intense it is — but you can positively zoooooom around the dashboard with no hiccups whatsoever. And while the tiles here aren't as "live" as they are on a Windows Phone or Windows PC — they don't update with helpful real-time info — the tiled setup accommodates a lot of clickables on screen at the same time, with little to no wasted space.
We had a few issues with apps crashing or locking up (specifically SkyDrive and Internet Explorer), but our review unit was running pre-release firmware and getting updates at least once a day, so hopefully these kinks are ironed out by launch. Similarly, the "Snap" feature that lets you put TV next to your games, or Internet Explorer next to your Xbox Music, has some real bugs. Snapping an app, unsnapping it, and then loading it up on its own will often bring up the app it was previously snapped to. It can be hard — in a buggy sort of way — to break the two apart.
The UI has some nice little flairs, like colour settings that you can change to pair with different gamertags. It's small, but it goes a long way in making it immediately clear who is logged in and driving things. That's super handy considering that Kinect decides who's in charge in background with its crazy cyber-eyes, and it's nice to have a visual clue to confirm at a glance that it's working (or that it's not).
Speaking of Kinect, the UI is supplemented by a seriously impressive list of voice commands, so no matter what you're looking at, anything you want is just a yelp or two away. The UI doesn't rely on voice — you never need to talk to your homescreen — but it's always there when you want it.
Voice control
Kinect is ostensibly a camera first, but its voice recognition prowess is a huge selling point for the Xbox One, and it is incredible — when it's working. It's very clear that Kinect, and its always-listening capabilities, have been a huge part of the Xbox One vision from the start, because this stuff goes deep. Wonderfully deep.
In optimal circumstances, Kinect voice recognition is freaking fantastic. Like, sit-in-stunned-amazement-barking-commands-and-pausing-to-squeal-with-glee fantastic. There is hardly anything you can't do on the Xbox One using voice commands. The only place I ran into a hard stop was the settings menu, and one weird button in another Kinect configuration window. Just about everything else though — switching apps, opening games, customising your avatar, checking notifications, going to Netflix, making Skype calls, pulling up videos from your SkyDrive — is voice-enabled, and functional as hell.
Here's how a good example of how deep this stuff goes. In Internet Explorer you can actually use a voice commands like "Browse to Gizmodo" and "Click on [linked text]." It's the first time TV web-browsing has been halfway viable, and that's not even the best thing about it. The best thing is that there are hardly any limits. And that comes in so handy, when your filthy paws are covered in Dorito dust.
That's not to say it's all intuitive; there's a bit of a learning curve. When the Xbox is listening ("Xbox, select!), and you can just say any green text on-screen, it's easy. But global commands always, always, always require you to say "Xbox" first. "Go to Skype" will never work, for example, even if Xbox is listening already; it's always "Xbox, go to Skype." And games? Full name always please. Never "Xbox go to Forza" always "Xbox go to Forza Motorsport 5." Devs, please dispense with the subtitles, thank you.
There's a speech tutorial you can download from the store, and you'll need it, but even then you'll need a little more time — maybe a half hour of just trying stuff out — to get a feel for it. That will help, but it's inevitable that you'll still run up against a failed command, repeat yourself more loudly, and then realise that you're asking the wrong way.
When it comes to listening, Kinect has one hell of a keen ear, but it's dumb as a rock at dealing with background noise. In the best of conditions (in my smallish-but-not-tiny apartment, alone) Kinect voice commands work with 90-95 per cent accuracy, and at absurd distances, quiet volumes, even with pretty poor annunciation. I was able to lay in bed, some 30 feet away, around a corner, and still use "Xbox go home" successfully without really raising my voice. I was able to tell Xbox to pause music from in the bathroom with the door open. But not while I was peeing, because that noise was enough to mess it up.
It's not that Microsoft didn't take background noise into account. During setup, the Kinect listens for it (but says, "No. Be quieter!" if there is too much), and also listens to sound from your TV, ostensibly so it can cancel it out later. The result is that booming explosions from a game don't mess up Kinect — you'll shout in-game Kinect commands even though you don't need to — but so much as a podcast playing (quietly!) through phone speakers in the same room, our photographer walking around on my hardwood floor with his shoes on, or my girlfriend coughing in the other room because she has a cold, was enough to throw Kinect for a total loop. It generally won't mis-register commands; it's more like it just stops listening when it's confused.
When we threw ourselves a little Gizmodo "let's play with and test out the Xbox One" party to put it through its paces, the Kinect seemed to stop listening after just a few minutes of moderate noise, and not even coming up within two inches of the thing and screaming at it, or chanting as a group would help. It didn't work again reliably until we were able to manage a level of noiselessness quieter than the tamest book club meeting.
So if your gaming zone is reasonably quiet, you are in for an almost Star Trek experience. But if you've got roommates, or kids, or dogs, or whatever, you're probably going to have a lot of "everybody be quiet while I talk to the TV" moments, which really ruins the magic. That's a shame, because it is magic.
But the Kinect is a camera! It does camera stuff too, and also very well in optimal circumstances. The single best thing Kinect does is recognise and sign in players. Automatically. In the background. All the time. With a pretty good success rate, though sometimes with a 10-15 second delay.
There are no words to describe how I feel when I sit down in front of the Xbox One for a little gaming and it pops up "Welcome fatty limes!" because it knows me. OK on second thought, let me try some words: awesome, super-duper, righteous, futuristic.
Part of what makes it so impressive is how seamless it is to train. There's no "stare at the camera and move your face around so we can see all sides of it." Nope. Kinect just shows you what it sees on screen, and tries to guess who you are. If it there are multiple people in the room, or it guesses wrong, you just raise your hand to correct it. That's it. That is the totality of the calibration. And it works well, for the most part. Sometimes you'll have to correct the Kinect if it doesn't recognise you, but every correction makes it better.
On the one hand this is awesome, but it can also get in the way when you're hanging out with friends. There's a long video game tradition of screwing with your bud by messing with the second controller, and Kinect can exacerbate this because instead of messing with you on purpose by pressing buttons, your bud can mess with you accidentally just by virtue of being in the same room and having a face.
And while the Kinect is pretty good at identifying everyone who's sitting on a couch (so long as they all have profiles and have their faces loaded into the Kinect), it has a hard time deciding who's driving sometimes. On a couch next to our own Nick Stango, I was able to use the "show my stuff" command, and still get his stuff on a fairly regular basis. We make the same dumb faces, but we don't exactly have the same dumb face:
Likewise I had the same trouble using the Xbox One with my girlfriend (who thankfully looks nothing like me or Stango). But after several times where it apparently confused me for her and showed her stuff when I used the "show my stuff" command, it just went on to work perfectly for 5 more minutes before we stopped the test, seemingly out of nowhere.
It's unclear what's causing this, but the Kinect works by figuring out who's talking based on mouth movement, and then recognising the face. No voice recognition involved. In both tests we started pretty close, and wound up like three feet apart, and there were still errors. It's a shame Kinect can't do Moto X-style voice recognition, because maybe then this wouldn't be an issue at all.
Then, on the grander scale, the Kinect doesn't need as much room as it used to for working most of its magic. At least for smaller gestures and stuff that doesn't involve, say, dancing. I generally game on my smallish, oldish TV by sitting two feet away from it in a computer chair with my legs crossed, and Kinect never had a problem recognising just me. It also works well at more exaggerated living room distances of six feet or so.
There are Kinect gestures baked into the UI, and selecting things by pushing your hand at the screen is more viable than ever, but that doesn't mean it's good. In fact, it's still pretty dumb, and I found myself repeatedly trying to wave my hands around for just about 10 seconds before giving up. Considering that you probably have a controller nearby, and if not, you probably have a voice, the gestures are a joke even if you do get used to them.
In Kinect-based games, the Kinect tech is better than ever. You can tell that it's understanding you as a person's skeleton in a wholistic sort of way. In Kinect Sports Rivals Preseasons, for instance, you do some jetskiing, and the Kinect is smart enough to turn you left if you lean left, or even if you keep your upper body totally straight and just kick out your left hip. But even with the better tech, you still end up bumping up against the weird problems inherent to controller-less play. Like the fact that there's no feedback, or no default zero position. Those are still problems, and they still keep Kinect games from being more than a triviality.
In games that aren't Kinect showcases, the Kinect is mostly superfluous, or at least underused. Granted this is just launch, but from the games we played, the native Kinect implementation mainly boiled down to shouting commands (that were also mapped to buttons) or some sort of motion-control approximation a la Six-Axis on the PS4. Shouting at zombies to distract them in Dead Rising 3 is fun, but non-essential, and an idea that's been around as long as consoles have had microphones. And unfortunately, since Microsoft wimped out about requiring the Kinect to be kinected, creative uses might not ever progress much further beyond this.
AU Editor's Note: Be warned, this is still a US review. Aussies miss out on a lot of this. We've left it in so you can see what you're missing.
One of the primary reasons you might be interested in an Xbox One has nothing to do with games. It's a full-on living room general, one that commandeers your television and gives it superpowers you'd never dreamed of. That's the idea, anyway. And it works! Mostly. Especially if you have cable.
Xbox One's TV features come in two flavours. If you don't have cable, the functionality is limited but still awesome in its own subtle way. Thanks to a built-in IR blaster, the Xbox One will control your TV, and the setup is a dream. All you have to do is tell the 'box what make your TV is — with a little bit of trial and error — and BOOM, you're good to go.
From there, your Xbox can do most of the most basic stuff your remote would; turning your TV on, turning it off, changing the volume, muting, unmuting, etc. And you can do all that from your controller or with your voice. Saying "volume down" is handy but not life-changing, but things like waking your TV with an "Xbox on" command or muting at a moment's notice with no remote in sight is. You'll wonder how you ever got along without it.
The Xbox One's biggest play for "the one box you need in your living room" only really hits home, though, if you have cable. The OneGuide — which will replace your cable box menu if you let it — is a wonder, if not implemented quite as smoothly as you might have hoped.
Like setting up your TV, setting up the OneGuide is basically as simple as telling the Xbox your cable provider and make of your cable box. And once the Xbox has slurped up the listing your cable company already makes publicly available for DVRs, the OneGuide's Metro Modern glory is your new TV interface.
The biggest advantage here is being able to make a special menu of just the channels that matter to you, with some streaming app options (your Netflix queue, for instance) thrown in for good measure. This is fantastic. I don't have to explain to you how great it is to never have to scroll past Nick Jr. ever again, do I?
There's a trade-off though. The OneGuide is slow. Molasses slow. The Xbox One isn't actually your cable box (yet) and so it's not really replacing anything; it's sitting on top. Which means that when you pick out a channel in the One Guide, there's a bit of a lag and then you see your ugly old cable box interface popping up while the Xbox essentially types in the channel number. The functionality offers a wonderful glimpse at what all cable menus should be, but the application feels hacked together. Mainly because it sorta is. But it works.
The other downside is that if you don't have cable, like me (*high five*), you don't get to use this. You can have the OneGuide make a faux-cable menu of your favourite on-demand apps, but the lack of HDMI input from a cable box means that the Xbox One can't put anything on top of your live TV. That means no "Xbox watch TV" command to change input. And that is a huge drag.
The Xbox One also has an all new Smartglass app, that's already out for Windows Phone 8, iOS, and Android. It's the same basic concept as OG Smartglass — control your Xbox with your phone/tablet — but it's got a new look, and some new talents.
First, it's matched (roughly) to your Xbox One's main screen in a way that's way more one-to-one than ever before. You've got pins, recent apps, and all the social stuff like messaging and notifications that's attached to your Xbox Live account.
But most importantly, it's a more useful remote than ever before. Not only can it just emulate your controller in a way that's not superb but still damn handy, but it can also help you manage the apps you may have snapped together. So you can navigate around Netflix, and still type in URLs for the snapped IE address bar all at the same time.
More than anything though, Smartglass is just yet another way you can control your Xbox without a controller at hand, if for some reason voice doesn't cut it. And it's by far the best keyboard option you have for your Xbox One. So while you might never use it, the option is great to have, and better than anything you've had to work with before.
Media Apps
AU Editor's Note: You'll miss out on a few TV apps if you're an Aussie, too. Here is the list of TV apps Australians will get.
When it comes to on-demand apps, the Xbox One has pretty much everything you've come to expect from a streaming device, and a little more. You've got your Netflix, your Hulu Plus, your Amazon Instant, and even HBO Go (*coming soon). And they're all functional versions of the services you expect, but some take more advantage of the Xbox One's special talents than others.
But it's unfortunate and worth noting that none of them have any sort of "voice search" options. Whether that's because they didn't add any or because Microsoft won't lend Bing's power to searching anything but the Microsoft store is anyone's guess. But it's a bummer that there's no "Xbox watch Archer on Netflix" capabilities anywhere. At least, not yet.
That said, it's also hard to knock Xbox for offering up a totally good library of apps that totally functions with traditional controls. But it's also hard to not wish there was more Xbox One magic in here.
Netflix has a snazzy new tile-based look for the Xbox One, but underneath that flashy surface it's actually a pretty bad version of the app, at least for now. Instead of showing your queue on the front page — or anywhere? we couldn't find it — the Xbox One's Netflix app defaults to "Popular on Netflix" and lets you swipe through a series of genre-based pages. Which is questionably useful if you've got something you specifically want to watch.
If that's the case, you have to type out your choice from a row of letters. It works, but it means that neither smartglass or voice can save you from arduously chicken-pecking your query. It's a real bummer. Hopefully it'll change sometime in the near future, because it's functional but sort of a joke right now. Way too old-fashioned for such a new-fashioned device.
Amazon Instant Video
The Amazon Instant Video app harbors no real surprises. It's a pretty standard interface, much like the one we saw on the PS4, and it's particularly suited to browsing with a controller if you're just cruising to see what's up for grabs.
Unfortunately it suffers the exact same keyboard issue as Netflix, and opts for some BS line of letters instead of leveraging the built-in Xbox One keyboard that pipes back to Smartglass. It's totally functional, it just doesn't take advantage of all the goodies the Xbox One provides.
Hulu Plus
Luckily the Hulu Plus situation is a little bit better, and the rather traditional layout the app sports comes with moderately robust voice commands you can use to scroll around the page if that's what you're into. But you'd be better off just picking up a controller or going to search.
If you want to search for something, though, you'll wind up having to use a keyboard again, but at least Smartglass can ease your pain a little bit. Again, it's totally functional — and fortunately better than Netflix — but you'll want your controller, unfortunately.
Of course, streaming apps are all old hat. The Xbox 360 had 'em, and the PS3. But the Xbox One does have a unique advantage to bring to the table SkyDrive. Got some old .mpegs, a couple old .avis, some pictures even? If they're on SkyDrive, they're as good as on your TV. That's huge for Windows Phone 8 smartphone photographers, but also lets face it: pirates. But if you're either of the two, it's something worth getting excited about — and worth using SkyDrive for.
The Xbox One is a future machine. It plays games and plays them well, but it's also so much more, in this really wildly ambitious way that it mostly manages to pull off. The voice commands and Kinect functionality is baked into the Xbox One so deeply it feels positively space-age. The first time you start zooming around the interface by voice just to see how much you can do is a revelation, and every time the Kinect logs you in by face is a joy.
And that's only a fraction of the extras the Xbox One has in store. If you have cable, the ability to replace your horrible channel menu is a god-send, and even if you don't, the Xbox One's most basic level of TV control is an absolute joy. It's really amazing how much this one box does and does competently, if not always perfectly.
But if godlike voice control over your dashboard and the future of television interfaces aren't your thing (you maniac!) they're also completely avoidable. You can just play games with a controller. You never have to talk to your Xbox One, or wave at it. You can put a blanket over the Kinect, or even disconnect it entirely — though for the record, you'd be missing out. And what's more is that this is all working out of the box, with a setup that's easy as pie. The Xbox One feels like the future, and it feels like it now.
No Like
For as well as the Xbox One executes on its promises on day one in optimal circumstances, it's not always perfect; every hiccup brings you crashing back down to Earth in an instant. Unresponsive voice commands are rare under good circumstances, misconstrued ones are rarer. But they do happen — almost invariably when there's someone else in the room that you are trying to show them off to — and it's a gigantic bummer when they do. As a rule of thumb, Kinect lives up to its potential only if you're alone.
The Xbox One is certainly a powerhouse compared to your 360, but there are little exceptions in the launch lineup that are troubling. Like Dead Rising 3's 720p-ness. Likewise, Call Of Duty: Ghosts is upscaled 720p too, as opposed to native 1080p like it is on the PS4. Xbox One games still look amazing, but it's worrying that a cross-platform blockbuster like COD is explicitly toned down on the Xbox One.
Xbox Live is also still a ripoff, and the Xbox One doesn't change that. In fact, it makes it worse. Sure, the PS4 is charging for multiplayer this time around, unlike on the PS3, but for the Xbox One to hide streaming apps behind a paywall while still trying so hard to be a media box is truly absurd.
Should You Buy It?
Not yet. It's generally dumb to buy any new console right at launch. PS4's have been having issues with a "blue light of death," and for all we know the Xbox One could have its own issues as well; the sting of the red ring of death is still fresh in most memories. Besides, the launch line-up of games — while a little better than the PS4's — is a bit soft. The real gotta-play system-sellers like Watchdogs, Destiny, and Titanfall, are still a few months out. Halo 5 is a mere glint on the horizon.
The software is still in flux too. We experienced a little jank with a few apps. Twitch streaming isn't coming until sometime early 2014. HBO Go is "coming soon" but hasn't shown up yet. These consoles are coming in hot, so just chill. Theoretically all will get fixed with time; hopefully right around when a game you just have to have finally gets released.
For now, the Xbox One is one impressive living room box machine — and it more than justifies its $US500 dollar price with the inclusion of at least $US100-worth of set-top boxitude — but you're going to be better off waiting for a little while to see how things shake out.
But — and this is admittedly a sizable but — if the Xbox One can straighten the few little quirks it has with some software tweaks, this thing is going to be unstoppable in a way the PS4 could never touch. It's too versatile, too feature-ridden, too future. So wait, yes. But while you do, go ahead and start clearing out plenty of space underneath your television.


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MINNEAPOLIS – UMBC freshman Emily Escobedo (New Rochelle, N.Y./Maria Regina) continued competition at her first-ever NCAA meet by swimming the 100-yd. breaststroke, Friday afternoon on Day Two of the Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota's University Aquatic Center.
Escobedo, who broke her own school record in the 200 IM (2:00.25) yesterday, placed 44th overall in the prelims of the 100 breaststroke with time 1:01.93. The time ranks behind only Escobedo's own school record of 1:01.58 in the UMBC record book.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Emily McClellan led the prelims of the 100-yd. breaststroke with a time of 57.81.
The Retriever freshman is just the third UMBC female swimmer, and fourth overall, in program history to compete at the NCAA Championships. Jacque Wisnauskus was the first when she swam at the 1990 championships, and Lindsey Prather followed in 2002. Escobedo broke Prather's school record of 2:15.84 in the 200-yd. breaststroke earlier this year and will swim the event tomorrow on the final day of competition. Escobedo enters with a top time of 2:10.05.
Senior Mohamed Hussein (Cairo, Egypt/Victory College), who last year became the first Retriever male swimmer to reach the NCAA Championships, will compete next week at the men's national meet in Austin, Texas (March 27-29).


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Thanks to K.L. Caley of new2writing for hosting #Mayday prompts. Today's theme is a battle or fight of some kind. Also, Part 2 of a continuing series After The Plane Crash. Read Part 1 here. The battle I'm showing is the main characters fight through her fever and aches from being lost in the wild two weeks.
Please read Part 1 here.
"Young lady are you awake." A woman's voice whispered to me quietly. "What's your name?"
I make a noise, not wanting to leave the land of my dreams. It's safe and peaceful here. Danny is with me and we're drinking a beer together like old times. I know my friend is not real but I don't want to admit to myself in my dreams; Danny is dead.
A gentle hand feels my forehead. "She has a high fever. I'm not surprised being out in the wilderness that long. She's sweating. I think it was an excellent thing the doctor got here so fast and we were able to hook her up to an IV to get some fluid and nutrition into her body."
The woman's voice was soft and sensible. She sounded like the voice of a lady who was a mother. She smoothed back my hair and I sighed in my state of half sleep. I was cold and sweating at the same time. Iceness overcame me and I shivered trying to pull plush blankets around me as I sweated.
"Aunt Tabitha, what can we do? If we keep giving her the IV as the doctor said, and introduce her to some soup and other food in a few days, do you think she'll be alright?"
The voice I heard speaking was the deep male voice I had heard before I passed out. The voice had a rich timber, it sounded young and attractive.
A small smile shaped my lips, then I groaned as cold sweat overcame me. "Poor thing," Aunt Tabitha said. "I'll take care of her Eric. Don't worry, your Auntie took care of you when you were ill as a child and I would do the same for this poor young woman."
"I appreciate it Aunt Tabitha. I really do. I didn't know who else to call. The workers wanted nothing to do with her.They thought she had some awful disease the way she appeared to them."
Tabitha gave a harsh laugh. "Ha, those locals are full of stories and superstitions which have no basis in reality. This woman will be fine. When I clean her up a bit and later when she can wash her hair, I imagine she's a beautiful girl, Eric. I hope the man who died in that plane crash wasn't her boyfriend."
" I don't know . . ." Eric said softly. "I'll leave you too it." I heard him walk away and a door shutting.
I was awake but not fully. I faded in and out of feverish dreams, nightmares where I was trapped in a never ending forest. No animals in sight. Nothing edible and carrying no water. Only dead silence filling my ears.
I was dressed in a bra and panties and had nothing else on — not even shoes. Darkness descended and it began to snow and my body was wracked by cold as the wind picked up and the snow built up around me. I couldn't move. I was so cold I was frozen stiff like an ice sculpture; I shrieked aloud.
Eons pass where I am stuck inbetween what's real and what's in my dreams. I dream about my Mom and Dad, how worried they would be about me. I know it's been past two-weeks now since the plane crash. My feaver hasn't abated for days but Aunt Tabitha dutifully stays at my side. At night there is a hired nurse. A thin bird-like woman who doesn't speak English but sees to my needs.
Aunt Tabitha is with me whenever she can be. I'm aware of her reading on her tablet. Sometimes she reads to me, but I want to tell her she's only giving my mind more material for nightmares.
I know she has asked me my name several times but I have trouble finding a voice strong enough to answer her when I feel semi-lucid. Only when nightmares overwhelm me do I scream and plead for them to stop using my voice loudly.
Today my head feels much clearer. I look to see the IV attached to my arm and am thankful it's giving me nutrients because I think food would repulse me right now. With heavy eyes I scan the room. Strangely, Aunt Tabitha isn't here.
I move my head and neck gently, testing my muscles which ache from being in bed too long and from hiking through the woods. I wiggle my toes and stretch my legs. I straighten my arms infront of me and put my arms above my head, stretching my whole body like a cat. I feel a jolt of pain in my side.
Pain throughout my body becomes apparent. Bruises and scrapes mostly. I look at my one wrist and see it's wrapped in a bandage.I must have sprained it. I'm not sure why I didn't notice when the sprain occurred.
I feel dirty and have the urge to scrub my body until my skin is pink. A bath would be heavenly. My hair is limp and greasy on my head, I can't remember ever having hair this scungy.
I lean up in bed regarding the room around me. It's a large bedroom and the room, a work of art and design. The room has a peaceful ambiance, painted in grey-blue.
The furniture including the head board behind me is bleached wood like drift wood from the ocean. I feel relaxed in this place, gazing towards a giant white window with a padded blue window seat full of pillows matching my bed's dark ink blue duvet and silver and white striped sheets.
I haven't seen the sun in days. The bright white light of the sun bathes me through the window, but is too bright for my eyes. I shade my face with my hand and gaze in awe at the lush greeness of the mansions front yard. They're fountains and flowers in the distance.
"Wow," I say and my voice feels gravelly. I start saying random words and sentences aloud to make my voice sound normal but I can't seem to rid my voice of its weakness.
I raise my body into a sitting position, crossing my legs under the bed covers. My body cooperates slowly and with aches, but I manage.
I have decided to have a bath or showe. I'm certain I can stand and walk. On careful feet as if I were a toddler, I slip out of the bed and start walking to the bathroom I spied at the end of the room.
It feels so far away at first but my legs remember how to walk quickly and my steps are more assured as I go. Resting against the door frame, I peer into the bathroom.
There is a large tiled glass shower with a wooden bench inside; I am thankful for the bench.The bathroom is designed well with a heavy marble countertop, twin sinks, and dark blue cabinets underneath the counter. A vanity table near by, holds a few cosmetics, clearly for a woman. The toilet is inside a closet in the corner of the bathroom.
I drop my clothes on the wood floor, carefully removing them as my muscles are still sore. The loose grey sweat pants and large white T-shirt are far too roomy to be my clothing and I leave them on the floor.
I open up the shower door and hobble over to the bench where I sit turning on the shower nozzle convienantly located near my head. The shower is hot, too hot at first. But the showerhead gives a cleansing rainfall shower. I sigh in pleasure as the water washes over me. Picking up a puff hanging on the wall, I squirt jasmine scented Dior body wash on it. I scrub my body free of natures dirt and fevers sweat.
My body's skin is as pink as I imagined, when I reach for Dior face wash and volumizing shampoo. I wash my hair four-times before I'm satisfied it's clean and I condition it, letting the conditioner soak into my dry long brunette strands before washing it out. The sun has caused some of my brunette strands to bleach blond.
When I'm done washing, I relax and let the hot rainfall water run massaging my muscles which ache. I stay inside the shower longer then necessary but I haven't felt this well in forever.
"Are you ever coming out?" a deep voice asks outside the shower chuckling.
I gasp and quickly turn the shower off fumbling. I cover myself with my hands uselessly. Eric is outside the glass shower and I'm naked inside, no towel within reach.
©Mandibelle16. (2016) All Rights Reserved.


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The context
Tajikistan remains the poorest nation in Central Asia. Its civil war in the 1990s severely damaged the country's already weak economic infrastructure and caused a sharp decline in industrial and agricultural production. Uneven implementation of structural reforms and widespread unemployment have kept the economy in a fragile condition and left families struggling with extreme poverty, poor healthcare and isolation. The country is also vulnerable to earthquakes, floods, avalanches, mudslides, energy shortages, locusts and crop failure leading to increasing food insecurity.
Our work
- Conflict & Governance: Creating community cohesiveness by engaging groups on water, land and energy improvements
- Disaster preparedness: Helping remote villages create response plans in the event of natural disasters
- Health: Supporting clinics and training health workers to improve childbirth outcomes and address postpartum depression
- Women & Gender: Educate adolescent girls about their rights and the risks of early marriage and pregnancy
Tajikistan: Train a teacher, teach a community
Faiziniso Ruziboeva has always dreamed of becoming a doctor. However, there is only one medical school in all of Tajikistan, which located in the nation's capital, Dushanbe.
Tajikistan: A leader emerges
Zokasjon Ergaschev sits at a desk in his small office surrounded by images of mothers and children with headlines such as "Wash Your Hands" and "Immunize Your Child" in Tajik and Russian.
Tajikistan: Turning water into cash
"For the last three years, my yields have been 30 percent of what they were before," says Sabur Kumischev, as he makes a sweeping motion with his hand indicating the land where his crops are grown. "All I could grow was corn. The other farmers could only grow corn.
Tajikistan: In Central Asia's hidden treasure
As a Desk Officer going on a field visit for the very first time, I could not have asked for a better place to visit than Tajikistan. I've come to think of it as a lost and/or hidden treasure in the middle of Central Asia.
Tajikistan: In a pickle no more
Tajikistan: Dress for success
Sitting in a room with four other girls, Gulshan Chorieva holds up a dress that she and the other sewing students have been working on under guidance of the master seamstress.
Tajikistan: Through a Caring Lens
Tajikistan: What is community?
Tajikistan: It's wedding season — Tajik style!
Tajikistan: Where the road ends
After four hours of winding through bumpy dirt roads heading east from the capital of Tajikistan — Dushanbe — hugging mountain sides with sharp drop-offs to a rushing river, you'll find yourself in Gharm. It's a small, conservative town by most standards.


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How to Place Centerpieces on Your Holiday Table
On Christmas and Thanksgiving tables you can use home-made centerpieces of fruit, pine cones and evergreen boughs, leaves, and other natural items. Holiday table centerpieces can also feature candles, a grouping of ornaments, or a clever arrangement of food. To maximize the effect, determine the proper placement, size, and height of your arrangement.
Consider these tips when planning your holiday centerpieces:
Place an arrangement of some sort on every surface that serves guests. An entry table with a guest book, a bar where drinks are served, and a buffet table are just a few examples of where centerpieces are appropriate or can be placed.
One small arrangement is enough for these tables. Though small, these centerpieces pull a room together and soften blank areas when they're not in use.
Keep the top of centerpiece below eye level if it sets directly on the table. If you want a tall centerpiece, raise the base of it above eye level, so that people can see each other without craning their necks.
You can't go wrong with smaller, low-profile arrangements on dining tables. They don't interfere with guests mingling while standing up or sitting down, and they draw attention down to beautiful table settings.
Choose tall candlesticks or short votives rather than placing flickering candles in an eye-level area. You don't want to blind yourself while chatting with guests.
For smaller tables (seating two to four people), one medium-sized centerpiece, approximately 18 inches in diameter, will do. You don't want to crowd a table with an oversized centerpiece arrangement that doesn't allow for any shifting in stemware or place settings.
For larger tables (seating six or more people), go by the one-for-every-six rule, making the arrangement itself just a bit larger or fuller (20 to 24 inches and up). A table that seats six can fit one medium- to large-sized centerpiece (18 to 24 inches) without crowding the table.Centerpiece placement for a table of six guests.
For banquet seating where you have very long tables or tables that are connected end to end, place a centerpiece in the middle of every six place settings, not counting chairs at the heads of tables. Centerpieces need to be medium- to large-sized ones (20 to 24 inches or more).
Space between centerpieces can easily be filled with votives or other small items. Be careful not to go overboard, though. You need to leave room for butter dishes, salt and pepper shakers, gravy boats, and so on.Centerpiece placement for banquet tables.


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Kelty Red Cloud 5400
I've packed with the 5400 for the last 12 years. I…
Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $185
I've packed with the 5400 for the last 12 years. I carry from 60 to 75 lbs. It finally wore out. I'm old enough to get one a little smaller so I can't carry so much.
- Durable
- Comfortable
- Adjustable
- Reliable
- Well built
- Detachable top
- Too much space to pack in more weight
Fit: Adjustable, so as I got older, I could adjust for comfort.
Capacity: Too much, I carried maximum 75 lbs. This pack is the work horse of backpacks.
Welcome to Trailspace, Charles.
3 years ago
13 years, I love this thing. I've had this pack for…
Source: received it as a personal gift
13 years, I love this thing.
- Very durable
- Comfortable
- High volume
I've had this pack for 13 years. I got it when I was young, and didn't know much about packs, and have become quite experienced since.
I've tried on dozens of friends' packs, loaded, and there are some that are slightly more comfortable, or somewhat lighter, but never have I considered replacing the Kelty. This pack is fantastic. Comfortable, extremely durable, not overly heavy (5.6 lbs), and definitely roomy. The side pockets are huge, and the top lid is too. I do wish it had a bladder slot, but the exterior pocket works for that purpose.
I love this pack, and it will see many more miles of abuse in the future.
Great durable pack. I have had this pack for twelve…
Source: bought it new
Price Paid: Less than $100 with employee discount.
Great durable pack.
- Extremely durable
- Large load capability
- Inexpensive
- Waist belt not the most comfortable for a bigger guy.
I have had this pack for twelve years now. It is a work horse in every sense. I have carried 70+ pounds on two-week off-trail expeditions in the Alaskan backcountry and countless weekend trips in the Sierras. This pack has traveled more than 1,000 miles on my back.
The only cons is over time the waterproofness has become less, but that could probably be fixed with spray. And it is heavy, but only due to the quality of the materials
This is an absolutely phenomenal pack. I've taken…
Price Paid: My mom bought it while I was a Scout... can't remember.
This is an absolutely phenomenal pack. I've taken it on two Philmont 12-day treks, one trip to Boundary Waters and dozens of other backpacking and overnight trips.
On the latter Philmont Trek in 2004, I was able to fit approx. 80 lb of gear in and on my pack. Due to a couple of slackers, I had to carry a full 2.5 gallon collapsible water jug. I strapped the handle to my sternum strap and kept on truckin. That gives you the idea of the materials Kelty uses. Carrying 20 lbs on a 1/2 inch webbing might not fly with just any other manufacturer.
I haven't had an issue with seams breaking, holes being worn in the material, flaws in any buckles or webbing. I did have the displeasure of dropping it in the lake while unloading it from a canoe, everything inside was dry as a bone.
I have no qualms taking this pack anywhere I need to go.
This is a great pack. I've taken it on several trips,…
Design: Internal Frame
Size: 5400 ci
Number of Pockets: at least 8, plus main and lower compartments
Max. Load Carried: 35 lbs
Height of Owner: 5'8"
This is a great pack. I've taken it on several trips, ranging from a quick overnighter to a week long Trans-Sierra trip.
It balances weight very well, is comfortable, has tons of pockets and is convenient and easy to pack. Compression straps make attaching tent poles, fishing pole, sleeping mat, etc to the outside of the pack very easy.
The front and side pockets are easily accessible on the trail for snacks and water. It can accommodate a hydration bladder, although I have yet to use one with it. I love the detachable top section that can be used for day hikes- it's plenty large enough for a water bottle, lunch, a camera, light jacket, whatever.
The only downside of this pack is that it's a BEAST. Taking it on a quick weekend or overnight trip is really overkill. It's much too big for that- if that's all you really go for, go with something smaller (unless you plan on taking your kitchen sink along with you).
For a longer trip, though- this pack is amazing. It can hold a LOT of stuff very comfortably. I love pretty much everything about it.
I recently climbed Mt Fuji in Japan and brought this…
Number of Pockets: 5
Max. Load Carried: 30 pounds
Height of Owner: 6 feet
Price Paid: Free
I recently climbed Mt Fuji in Japan and brought this backpack along. I am glad that I did. I carried food, water and many layers due to the temperature change from 7,200 feet to 12,395 feet. It performed spectacularly. Neither my back nor shoulders were sore and I carried about 30 pounds.
Absolutely great pack! Have hiked up and down the…
Size: 5400
Height of Owner: 6'0"
Price Paid: $185
Absolutely great pack! Have hiked up and down the Southeast with it loaded with 40+ lbs and it distributes weight perfectly. A great product...
This is a great pack. The many strap adjustments and…
Design: top load
Size: 5400
Number of Pockets: 3
Max. Load Carried: 45
Height of Owner: 5'11"
Price Paid: $135
This is a great pack. The many strap adjustments and the adjustable torso length make for a fine tuned fit. Carries the weight like a dream. And the price was an excellent value. You won't find a better pack under $200.
the best pack ever. carries weight like a dream. the…
Design: top loading
Size: 5400
Number of Pockets: 5
Max. Load Carried: 45 lbs
Height of Owner: 5'11in
Price Paid: $150
the best pack ever. carries weight like a dream. the only thing i did was remove the two side pockets they tempted me to over pack.
I have been very high on Kelty gear in the past but…
Design: Internal
Size: 5400 c.i.
Number of Pockets: several
Max. Load Carried: 35 lbs
Height of Owner: 6'2"
Price Paid: $150
I have been very high on Kelty gear in the past but I returned this product. During a test hike I had a feeling that one of the shoulder straps was shorter than the other, and closer examination at home proved I was correct. Should you want to look at one, check the attachment of the shoulder straps to the framesheet carefully. It looked kinda cheesy to me, the mesh area cut unevenly and the upper attachment points for the shoulder straps offset vertically a full centimeter as a result. Not a lot, but enough to be noticable during use.
On the plus side, under a moderate load it proved to be at least fairly stable and with plenty of room, it appeared to be well constructed (apart from the flaw in the shoulder straps) and it would fit a wide range of torso lengths.
I must admit I've had this pack very long, so it's…
Design: internal
Size: 5400
Number of Pockets: 6
Max. Load Carried: 50 lbs.
Height of Owner: 5'11''
Price Paid: $150
I must admit I've had this pack very long, so it's lasting qualities I can't yet comment on. As for its first strenuous trip, I was very surprised at the performance and comfort for the price. I followed the included fitting directions exactly and as stated in them, I was able to attain a "God-like" fit. This pack was amazingly comfortable, easily adjustable and very solid. I experienced no wobbling or shifting whatsoever.
I took this pack to Philmont this summer and it carried…
Design: Internal
Size: 4900 (5400 when extended)
Number of Pockets: one main w/slpg. bag divideder + 5 external pockets
Max. Load Carried: 42 pounds
Height of Owner: 5' 6''
Price Paid: $150
I took this pack to Philmont this summer and it carried the load well, considering the weight I carried. Its two titanium stays stay in place and the adjustable torso feature is simple to change. The five external pockets come in handy for water bottles, cooking gear, and for small items that I often use. Although the top external pocket comes off, it isn't a daypack, but with some work, I made it into one. Good pack and seems sturdy, but I've only put 100 miles on it.
I carried this pack with 50 lbs for about 9 miles…
Design: internal
Size: 5400
Number of Pockets: 5
Max. Load Carried: 50 lbs.
Height of Owner: 6'3''
Price Paid: $140 US
I carried this pack with 50 lbs for about 9 miles of rugged terrain. The pack had some nice features, including lots of exterior pockets, but I couldn't get the hip belt to fit right and it had thin padding in the lumbar region, which gave me sore spots on the back of my hips. This pack might be OK for occasional use, but if you intend to do a lot of backpacking or to carry a lot of weight, get a better pack. (I would suggest the Gregory Shasta or Osprey Silhouette if you can afford them.)
Where to Buy
The Red Cloud 5400 has been discontinued.MSRP:
The Kelty Red Cloud 5400 is not available from the stores we monitor. It was last seen December 18, 2007 at GearTrade.