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I Am Charlotte Simmons
- Lu par : Dylan Baker
- Durée : 31 h et 43 min
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As Charlotte encounters Dupont's privileged elite, her roommate, Beverly, a fleshy, Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's god-like basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turn of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennial Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock-obsessed campus, she gains a new, revelatory sense of her own power, that of her difference and of her very innocence, but little does she realize that she will act as a catalyst in all of their lives.
With his signature eye for detail, Tom Wolfe draws on extensive observation of campuses across the country to immortalize college life in the '00s. I Am Charlotte Simmons is the much-anticipated triumph of America's master chronicler.
- Audie Award Finalist, Fiction (unabridged), 2005
"Like everything Wolfe writes, I Am Charlotte Simmons grabs your interest at the outset and saps the desire to do anything else until you finish." (The New York Times Book Review)
"The book is brilliant, wicked, true, and, like everything Wolfe writes, thematically coherent, cunningly well plotted, and delightfully told." (Atlantic Monthly)
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- Clemence
- 06/01/2023
An excellent young adult book
I had to read it for school and honestly, it's one of my favorite young adult books! Charlotte is so sweet. You'll have a lovely journey with her, don't hesitate to read this book!!
- Eric
- 18/11/2004
Decadence through the eyes of a ?good girl?
The account of college life in this book is as authentic as it can be. In order to be so true-to-life, though, it has to be very vulgar. Do not read this book if you intend on avoiding foul language and extreme sexual content?it is filled with both. The sex is not very steamy or erotic either; it is as unromantic as can be, just like it is on campus. ?Charlotte Simmons? is a thorough survey of the most self-destructive and immoral environment imaginable?the modern university.
If one can bear the vulgarity and decadence, one will be treated to superb story telling and a fine display of literary genius. Wolfe combines the bland, vulgar statements of the characters with his own witty and enlightening additions. His commentary makes the foolish characters somewhat coherent to the non-college student and provides some insight into the reasons for this dismal state of affairs.
Most of all, however, Wolfe sticks to description of characters and events and draws the audience in with the most colorful word manipulation. The audience is compelled to root for the good girl even as her path takes her further into trouble. Indeed, the innocent protagonist does not figure out a way to avoid being contaminated by the dirty culture. But even through this painful fall, the audience receives a great tool in figuring out what goes on at college and perhaps that is all one needs to invent their own way of dealing with the challenges such an environment presents.
74 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Gene
- 28/11/2004
Tom Wolfe Delivers
I would have liked to give this 3+ stars; it doesn't quite meet my four-star criteria, but three stars would be an injustice. It's a well-written update on college life, as a small-town girl collides with a major university. This is not Tom Wolfe at his best or funniest, but it is thought-provoking and fun. If there is anyone left who is bothered by bad language, this will bother them. The reading is very well done.
15 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Chip Atkinson
- 01/10/2005
Charlotte Is Worth Getting To Know
Audible.com Read (Most Excellently) by Dylan Baker
Just finished Tom Wolfe's latest classic, I Am Charlotte Simmons two weeks ago. Again I listened to this one on an MP3 from Audible. Incredibly funny and relevant, perhaps too much so.
The story is about the beautiful, genius and naive? student from Sparta, NC, (Charlotte Simmons), experiences in her first year at an Ivy League caliber school in Pa. The novel exposes the absurdity of today's amoral campus life and the lower standards of the higher echelon of academia.
At the end of the audible version of the book, Wolfe is interviewed about his research. This is where it gets personal. He spent a lot of time interviewing students at Stanford, a little at several Ivy League campuses and over a month at UNC-CH! My 19 year old daughter is a frosh at Carolina.
To be fair, Carolina has a prof who is country's leading authority on slang. Still, the 74 year old explored the sexual and substance excesses at Carolina and found an alarming ambivalence in its students. For instance, a large part of the book explores the foolishness of co-ed living. Lander lives in a Co-ed dorm where every other suite is inhabited by guys.
Think about it. Where in adult life do men and women who are complete strangers live together in such intimate and lecherous surroundings? Such a lifestyle does nothing to prepare students for life. Yet it is the universally accepted form of student housing across the country.
Nevertheless, it was an incredible ride through a wonderful girl's freshman year.
12 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Ellen
- 08/04/2009
A rare miss for Wolfe
I love, love, love, Wolfe's essays and criticism, but alas, this book was a disappointment because Wolfe gets young women so completely, absolutely wrong.
He gets the young college women in wrong in so may ways. Where do I start?
Let's start with the wealthy roommates who are all "I HAVE to hook up with an athlete tonight!" I am going to be bold like Wolfe in his essays and go out on a limb and skewer a sacred belief right now. These young women who act like they are into sex for sex's sake, it is a lie. Wolfe paints the roommate character as wishing to drink and hook up for a good time's sake. It would be more realistic if the roommate character were portrayed as being extremely insecure instead of ruthless partiers. These young women drink to dull the feelings of low self-esteem, and to give themselves an "out" if they do meet a guy and hook up. I think they drink to escape all that noise in their head about judgment. Also, women like the roommate character are actually nicer to the Charlottes of the world than Wolfe portrays. Meanwhile, the Charlotte character is so haughty and self-righteous I wanted to smack her. In real life, the Charlottes of the world are way too savvy to be the goody-goody Charlotte acted like. I don't think there are any women on Earth as innocent, clueless, and un-savvy as Wolfe portrays Charlotte, and yet neither are there any as ruthlessly testosterone-driven (or if you will, sex-pursuing-for-its-own-sake) as Wolfe portrays the party girls. Read "Confessions of a Video Vixen" for how party girls really feel. They know they are being used and caught in a desperation cycle of low self-esteem and they have self-knowledge about it. I don't know how to explain all the ways Wolfe got young women wrong, but it just all feels off. Charlotte would know better than to moon around being such a sad sack. And the basketball guy would not fall for her, either
10 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- karen
- 27/12/2004
Academy award for reader Dylan Baker
If Oscars were given for acting out books, Baker would go home with the golden statue -- he's great. Just great. With so many different people populating this book -- Southern homefolk, Boston elite, Jewish professors, black athletes, little-guy reporters -- it was nothing short of fascinating to realize how much you learned about each character from just listening to them speak -- through Baker, of course. Very well done.
That said, this was one of the few books I've ever encountered that shoulda been shorter, by about a third. We are treated to three separate episodes of play-by-play basketball, which maybe some sports nuts loved, but got intensly boring after just a few minutes. And some of the love -- make that sex -- scenes were disgusting and way overdone, even though one has to suppose that writing these sex and sport scenes must have been great fun for Wolfe. If I'd been reading the book, I would have skipped ahead, but with an audio book, you have no way of knowing how long it's going to continue.
None of this should deter you from experiencing this book, in one format or another. "Charlotte" is a very very good book, and one that surely will cause some heartburn among the denizens of the hallowed halls of ivy. It's surely one of those situations in which a book of fiction will bring about more reform, long run, than a dry, academic critique ever could.
Read it, or listen to it, but don't miss "I Am Charlotte Simmons".
9 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Christina
- 21/11/2004
looking back and forward
Reading this book helps a little, I think, in understanding the peer pressures my daughter is facing in college. My husband benefited somewhat from the hours I spent listening to the book, in that the long passages concerning sex are pretty effective. The reader does an excellent job with all the male voices. I would've enjoyed hearing another voice, however, for most of the females. The reader's vocal range is limited to unpleasant female voices, in my opinion.
In contrast to the fictional difficulties Charlotte Simmons faces, I hope colleges are doing a better job of providing moral support to incoming students, especially those with very limited financial resources.
8 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Steven
- 20/12/2004
This is the best production of an audio book I have heard. Excellent audio quality, fantastic characterization of the protagonist by the reader, and excellent story all add up to make this a great audio book.
7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Jeff
- 01/12/2007
The best audio book ever
Ok, this is it, the Mona Lisa, the Mount Everest, the Bill Gates of audiobooks. I've got around 2.3 million audiobooks in my library and this is the best one by far. The writing is sublime -- hilarious beyond belief and completely absorbing.
And the narration? Perfect from word one. I simply can't reccomend this book more strongly.
5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Murasaki
- 26/04/2010
Silly story of shallow college life. After the wonderful Bonfire, this is truly a disappointment.
4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- Ana Petrova
- 10/02/2005
Gomer Pyle Goes to College
The author should get rid of his Thesaurus and hire an editor, cut cut cut. 31 hours? He seems like he wants to impress with words rather than tell a good story.
Besides he graduated in 1951 from college why does he think he can capture today's youth? I think it's an old man's opinion of what the kids may be like today.
So if you liked Gomer Pyle USMC television show from the 60's you'll like Charlotte.
4 personnes ont trouvé cela utile
- 01/10/2022
not that I dropped the book
Tom Wolfe ist an outstanding artist to compose words, sounds and images. One might argue, that the high density of stereotypes is used as means of irony ... or not.


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CODEPINK Speaks : Displaying 254-273 of 273
|Acceptance Speach for Bread and Roses award
by Jodie Evans
March 27th, 2004
I am proud to represent all the women of CODEPINK whose tireless and courageous work this year has brought this recognition to me, and honored to be here with these two extraordinary women who do the work in the trenches for our children and in the constant struggle for the rights of workers.
|Day For Marching
by Medea Benjamin, Page A23 - Washington Post
March 20th, 2004
Thousands of Americans today will mark the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by marching against the war
|Womens Rights In Iraq and at Home Going Backwards
by Carol Norris
January 22nd, 2004
In his State of the Union address, George Bush proclaimed that with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the people of Iraq are free. He told us, Today our coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic law, with a bill of rights.
|Arnold and Bush's Numbers Don't Add Up
by Carol Norris
January 17th, 2004
Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently announcing his state budget proposal, has his hands where they shouldn't be yet again--non-consensually groping the coffers of programs that assist many of our most vulnerable.
|10 Good Things About a Bad Year
by Medea Benjamin
December 31st, 2003
As we greet the new year, lets remember and celebrate some of our hard-fought victories in a time of adversity.
|Saddam is Captured, Let the Liberation Begin
by Medea Benjamin
December 15th, 2003
After floundering around in search for justifications for the war in Iraq that ranged from fighting terrorism to ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, George Bush finally settled on a goal of liberating the Iraqi people.
|The World is His Battlefield
by CAROL NORRIS
February 27th, 2003
He found his higher calling: to rid the world of terrorism. And he proclaimed this calling to the world in no uncertain terms. Finally, he would be more than the son of George Bush I, more than the son who rode his father's political coattails into office.
|'End the Iraq War: People Can Topple Pillars - Huffington Post'
codepink - Google News
End the Iraq War: People Can Topple PillarsHuffington Post, NY - Mar 2, 2007... Amman between a US peace delegation and members of Iraq's Parliament, sheiks, and torture victims, that was organized by Global Exchange and CODEPINK . ...
|'Linda Milazzo: My questions for our candidates: first of all, do ... - BuzzFlash'
codepink - Google News
OpEdNewsLinda Milazzo: My questions for our candidates: first of all, do ...BuzzFlash, IL - 21 minutes agoHer writing has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and domestic and international journals. She's a member of CODEPINK Women For Peace and ...MY QUESTIONS FOR OUR CANDIDATES: FIRST OF ALL, DO YOU CARE? OpEdNewsall 4 news articles
|June 2005: Phase II of the Anti-War Movement
By Medea Benjamin
For the history books, mark down June 2005 as the moment the US movement against the occupation of Iraq got its second wind. In June, the US public became solidly anti-war, Bushs approval rating took a nosedive, and a significant number of Congresspeople started to call for an exit strategy. This marks a seismic shift from just one month ago, when Congress overwhelmingly passed another $82 billion for warwith only 44 members of the House and not one Senator dissenting.
|Withdraw U.S. Troops, by Medea Benjamin
Published on April 30, 2005 by the Miami Herald / Florida
Two years have passed since President Bush stood atop an aircraft carrier (May 1, 2003) and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Since that "mission accomplished" photo-op, more than 1,400 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians have died. And just recently, the Pentagon acknowledged that insurgent attacks have again increased to last year's levels of some 400 attacks per week.
|Same Old Song in Sacramento?
by Carol Norris
When the news of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 30-year-long history of alleged sexual harassment broke, he denied it. Then he said he couldn't remember. Next, he flippantly apologized.
|A New Milestone in Iraq:
by Medea Benjamin
A new milestone was reached in Iraq this week: the death toll for US soldiers reached the 500 mark. Most of these deaths have occurred since President Bush declared an end to the major hostilities on May 1.
|Give that Man a Pink Slip!
by Medea Benjamin
Bushs speech to the nation was a combination of platitudes, exaggerations, half-truths and downright lies. Afghans would be curious to hear that their country is now free and prosperous, not a dangerous, fractured nations governed by warlords and fueled by opium.
|January 21, 2003- CODEPINK's Reaction to Bush's State of the Union Address:
by Medea Benjamin
On March 8, 2003, international women's day, Iraqi women had little to celebrate.
|On International Women's Day, Do Something Good for Iraqi Women
by Medea Benjamin
Iraqi and US women have a lot in common. Both list safety as a top concern, and are worried about the increasing violence and militarization of their societies. Both see jobs and health care as top priorities, and feel uncertain about their economic security. And both are grossly underrepresented in the halls of power.
|Hugo Chavez could teach US leaders a thing or two about winning votes
by Medea Benjamin
I knew that the administration of Hugo Chavez had won my heart when I met Olivia Delfino in one of the poor barrios in Caracas.
|An Open Letter to Congress:
by Carol Norris
Do Your Job, Investigate the Voter Fraud Allegations
|Peace in a Time of Perpetual War
by Medea Benjamin*
Immediately after George Bush declared victory on November 2, 2004, his administration gave the green light for an all-out attack on the Iraqi rebel town of Fallujah. The town was virtually leveled, hundreds of civilians were killed, and over 150,000 became desperate refugees suffering from hunger, cold and disease. And all this after Bush supposedly won the election because of his strong moral values!
|A message of healing to the victims of the Tsunami
All of us at CODEPINK wish to express our deepest sadness at the incomprehensible tragedy of the recent tsunami. We are sickened knowing some of the worlds poorest, war torn peoples, who already dealing with so much are faced with such devastation.
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Outlawing Latinos' HeritageArizona's latest attempt to put Latinos in their place is an oppressive new law that imposes restrictions on the teaching of history.
At least we don't have to pretend anymore. Arizona's passing of that mean-spirited new immigration law wasn't about high-minded principle or the need to maintain public order. Apparently, it was all about putting Latinos in their place.
It's hard to reach any other conclusion following the state's latest swipe at Latinos. On Tuesday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a measure making it illegal for any course in the public schools to "advocate ethnic solidarity." Arizona's top education official, Tom Horne, fought for the new law as a weapon against a program in Tucson that teaches Mexican-American students about their history and culture.
Horne claims the Tucson classes teach "ethnic chauvinism." He has complained that young Mexican-Americans are falsely being led to believe that they belong to an oppressed minority. The way to dispel that notion, it seems, is to pass oppressive new legislation aimed squarely at Mexican-Americans. That'll teach the kids a lesson, all right: We have power. You don't.
Arizona is already facing criticism and boycotts over its "breathing while Latino" law, which in essence requires police to identify and jail undocumented immigrants. Now the state adds insult to that injury.
The education bill begins with a bizarre piece of nonsense, making it illegal for public or charter schools to offer courses that "promote the overthrow of the United States government." Then it shifts from weird to offensive, prohibiting classes that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" and that "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." When you try to parse those words, the effect is chilling.
Is it permissible, under the new law, to teach basic history? More than half the students in the Tucson Unified School District are Latino, the great majority of them Mexican-American. The land that is now Arizona once belonged to Mexico. Might teaching that fact "promote resentment" among students of Mexican descent? What about a class that taught students how activists fought to end discrimination against Latinos in Arizona and other Western states? Would that illegally encourage students to resent the way their parents and grandparents were treated?
The legislation has an answer: Mexican-American students, it seems, should not be taught to be proud of their heritage.
This angry anti-Latino spasm in Arizona is only partly about illegal immigration, which has fallen substantially in the past few years. It's really about fear and denial.
About 30 percent of the state's population is Latino, and that number continues to rise. This demographic shift has induced culture shock among some Arizonans who see the old Anglo power structure losing control. It is evidently threatening, to some people, that Mexican-Americans would see themselves as a group with common interests and grievances — and even more threatening that they might see themselves as distant heirs to the men and women who lived in Arizona long before the first Anglos arrived.
To counter the threat, solidarity among Mexican-Americans has to be delegitimized. The group itself has to be atomized — has to be taught to see itself as a population of unaffiliated individuals. The social, cultural and historical ties that have united people across the border since long before there was a border must be denied.
Every minority group's struggle for acceptance is distinctive, but I can't avoid hearing echoes of the Jim Crow era in the South. Whites went to great lengths to try to keep "agitators" from awakening African-Americans' sense of pride and injustice. They failed, just as the new Arizona law will fail.
It's important to distinguish between Arizona officials' legitimate concerns and their illegitimate ones. The state does have a real problem with illegal immigration, and the federal government has ignored its responsibility to enact comprehensive reform that would make the border more secure. But Arizona is lashing out with measures that will not just punish the undocumented, but also negatively impact Mexican-American citizens whose local roots are generations deep.
The new education law is gratuitous and absurd. Arizona can't be picked up and moved to the Midwest; it's next to Mexico. There have always been families and traditions that straddle the two societies, and there always will be. Mexican-Americans are inevitably going to feel proud of who they are and where they came from — even if acknowledging and encouraging such pride in the classroom are against the law.
You know kids. They'll just learn it in the street.
Eugene Robinson's e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.
© 2010, Washington Post Writers GroupWait, before you go…
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NEW YORK — Thrill seekers looking for the ultimate rocket ride may soon turn that dream into a reality aboard a new suborbital spaceship, a winged rocket plane slated to start launching space tourists from California and a tiny Caribbean island by 2014.
The Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR Aerospace is developing the suborbital Lynx space plane to carry paying passengers to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, to altitudes up to and exceeding 62 miles (100 kilometers). XCOR is aiming to begin operational Lynx flights from California's Mojave Spaceport in 2013 and from the Dutch-controlled island of Curacao in the Caribbean a year later, said Andrew Nelson, XCOR's chief operating officer.
XCOR officials unveiled their launch targets Thursday (June 7) during a news briefing here to announce a new partnership with Space Expedition Corporation (SXC, formerly Space Expedition Curacao), a Netherlands-based space tourism firm that will now act as the sales agent for future Lynx flights. The swanky event was held at the Park Avenue Armory, where artist Tom Sachs is currently showcasing his "Space Program: Mars" art installation on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
As part of the agreement, SXC will be responsible for selling seats aboard the Lynx space plane for flights departing from Mojave and from the picturesque island of Curacao, a territory that remains under the Kingdom of the Netherlands. [Photos: XCOR Aerospace's Lynx Space Plane]
"Today, we are at the dawn of a new space age," Nelson told an audience that included officials from Curacao and the Mojave Spaceport, and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut and the current president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "The old ways of government-designed space exploration are slowly drifting away, and a new commercial space industry is being born right before you."
XCOR's two-seat Lynx space plane is designed to carry one pilot and one passenger, making it an intimate and extremely personal journey, he added. The reusable vehicle will be capable of flying up to four flights per day, and is able to take off and land on a conventional airport runway.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the saying 'the sky is the limit' is something of the past," said Abdul Nasser El Hakim, Curacao's Minister of Economic Development. "In Curacao, we say 'the space is the limit.'"
Watchmaker Luminox also recently announced a partnership with SXC to provide special timepieces for the firm's space tourists. The watches are being developed to withstand the G-forces that will be encountered during the flight.
A ride aboard Lynx will retail at $95,000, company officials said, which includes the cost of pre-flight training sessions to prepare passengers for the experience. While this may seem like a steep ticket price, it is still cheaper than the company's competitors, such as Virgin Galactic's $200,000 price tag for a seat aboard its SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane.
Virgin Galactic is expected to carry out a series of critical tests later this year and could begin flying paying customers by the end of 2013, company officials have said.
By providing lower cost suborbital flights, XCOR and SXC are hoping to make commercial spaceflight more accessible to the public, said Michiel Mol, CEO of Space Expedition Corporation. XCOR and SXC together have taken over 175 reservations from clients eager to launch aboard the Lynx spacecraft.
"It's becoming available to all," Nelson of XCOR said. "Space, in a certain era, was something you saw and you were amazed [by], but perhaps you didn't feel like you were really going to be the one to participate in. But now, we can transfer ourselves into the faces and the names and the sights that we're seeing develop in front of us. I think it's going to revolutionize the way we view space, the way we approach space, the way we create new industries."
And as the development of commercial suborbital and orbital vehicles continues at an aggressive pace, the possibilities for this burgeoning private industry are limitless, said Rick Searfoss, a former NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander, and XCOR's chief test pilot.
"The world, in general, doesn't realize how quickly it will be upon us," Searfoss said. "We just don't know — we cannot imagine what this might lead to. Who knows where we might go, where we might be 20 to 30 years from now?"
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.


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There is little to make a sandwich wonderful other than fantastic bread, well thought out seasonings and spreads, and a filling that should be unsurpassed. When deciding a list of our favorites, it seemed a more daunting task than originally thought. So much more came to mind as the list was settled.
With all the heartache of selecting which can stand alone as the very best, we humbly submit in no particular order sandwiches that we enjoy. Tell us your favorites and we will run out today and sample one. Continue reading


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The development team didn't need to read a dozen reviews, all saying the same thing, to know where NCAA Football stood. A single presentation, in a creative debriefing shortly after the game's July release, said enough.
Four screenshots were shown, from NCAA 10 in 2009 to NCAA 13 this year. Guess which one comes from which game, the presenter asked.
He didn't get an answer, and he didn't need to. They all looked the same. And NCAA 13 was, frankly, more of the same, rather than anything truly new. Still playable, still good, still recommendable on those merits, sure. In sports, consistent performance year-to-year is a virtue. In sports video games, it's almost the worst thing that can be said about you.
"It was a pretty powerful demonstration," Ben Haumiller, the NCAA 13 producer, told me over the weekend. "We kind of knew where we stood right before the reviews came in, but seeing that really made the point."
On this console generation, NCAA Football has been one of the most even-keeled and deeply replayable series offered by EA Sports, especially coming out of a Tiburon studio known for badly missing the last console shift in 2005 with Madden NFL and struggling to find traction since.
This year, video game football's big brother gave little brother a noogie. Madden suffers heavy forum abuse by virtue of an exclusive license that critics say keeps the series complacent and lazy. NCAA Football has run unopposed since for a decade, but that's because 2K Sports, then under Sega, gave up on college football after College Football 2K2.
Yet this year Madden rolled out two huge changes—finally introducing a real-time physics engine, and then a multi-modal career setting that has no imitator in another title.
"It was hard," Haumilller said, "when Madden came out with a game that had two very new things [physics and Connected Careers], and we had one new mode [The Heisman Challenge] and then a lot more of what people saw last year."
Last weekend, Haumiller showed up in Raleigh, my old stomping ground, to do some in-person asset-gathering for NCAA 14. That's a fancy term for attending three college football games—at North Carolina, Duke and N.C. State—all on the same day, to capture crowd audio and also judge the stadium's atmospheres more holistically.
Haumiller was under strict orders not to discuss any specific features for NCAA 14, especially this far away from release date. Real-time physics are definitely coming to the college game next year—that much has been said by EA Sports' general manager for American football. But even if NCAA will get the "Infinity" physics engine after a year's worth of tuning, weeding out some of the more comical animations and post-play pile separations, that will not be enough to distinguish next year's game.
They're not going to be able to do it just with a new mode of play, either. "Heisman Challenge" this year demonstrated that. It was the first time named college football players appeared in the game, on the disc, at release. As I understand its inception, though, it was borne of a remark relayed by a marketing partner back to EA Tiburon, largely outfitted with existing plans the team had for its Road to Glory singleplayer career mode—including the bullet-time mechanic introduced this year.
The prominence of Heisman Challenge in this year's edition was almost entirely because of marketing, and, no doubt, a label looking to recover the money it spent paying more than a dozen all-time greats to appear in the game. And some intriguing interview moments notwithstanding (including, as I have heard, a mammoth tale involving a Big Ten school that had to be cut), it all just didn't stand up. NCAA 13 was too much like NCAA 12.
If the game isn't going to offer new modes of play, and Haumiller was tightlipped about all of that, then it has to play to two unique strengths: The tremendous variety of gameday experience offered by more than 120 teams, and in the compact four-season career it offers in "Road to Glory," the game's singleplayer mode.
Next year will likely be the last one to see NCAA published entirely on this hardware generation. That doesn't put the series in much of a position to try dramatically new things, because whatever is innovated next year must be recreated on another piece of hardware.
This may be why, when I pressed Haumiller for specifics, he offered vague comparisons to EA Canada titles like NHL and FIFA which have completely different menu presentation, meant to get you into the action faster. NCAA is probably the sports video game most weighed down by menu sludge, considering the time one spends in its recruiting simulator. This in no way sells a game, but considering the amount of time you spend in menus in NCAA, and how that homogenized experience can reinforce the feeling of playing the same game year after year, an overhaul there is in fact necessary.
The sameness of experience doesn't stop in the menus. When games feel the same—outside of pregame runouts and commentary—across 120 different venues, that's deadly. If the slam on NCAA 13 is that it felt too much like NCAA 12, then at least it has ten dozen stadiums, all with different cultures, to broaden the experience. That's about double the real-word stadiums offered in FIFA. And even though I went to one of the universities on Tobacco Road, I can tell you that only seeing three games, back-to-back-to-back on the same day, impresses on you the difference in how much football matters to each school. Yet outside of the field markings and the fight songs, you don't really feel that in NCAA Football. Not this year, anyway.
A year ago, in my review of NCAA Football 12, I wrote that the game was showing signs of something approaching the point of diminishing returns on the current console generation. NCAA 13 definitely overshot the mark, and now must retrench for one final year before Microsoft and Sony remake the landscape with new hardware offerings. I would not expect anything dramatically different in gameplay. But I wouldn't expect something that looks, sounds or feels like the past four years, either.


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Today, we travel up the elegant stairway to the pinnacle of fine dining at Walt Disney World, Victoria & Albert's at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.
Join me for an unparalleled experience as I take you behind the opulence to the excitement and camaraderie of the Chef's Table! And let me tell you… it's AWESOME!!
Victoria and Albert's is the crown jewel in Disney's culinary offerings. And while it is certainly expensive (that might be an understatement), I aim to show you that for the true food lover, the Chef's Table experience is worth every penny.
By the way, if you read through this review and decide the Chef's Table is not for you, you can also dine in the Dining Room to the more intimate Queen Victoria Room.
Reservations for Victoria and Albert's go quickly. It is recommended that you book as close to 180 days out as possible. As for cost, the menu is prix fixe, meaning that you pay a set price for the meal. Expect your meal to begin at $135 per person for the Dining Room, with an additional charge of $65 for wine pairings. That price includes six courses. Queen Victoria's Room and the Chef's Table menus may include up to thirteen courses, and prices start at $210/person for dinner and $105 for wine pairings. Keep in mind that these prices do not reflect tax or gratuity, so be prepared.
While Queen Victoria's Room offers the height of elegant dining, the Chef's Table provides interested guests full access to the restaurant's culinary team in a meal that is as much performance as it is sustenance.
Once you check in for your reservation at the Chef's Table, you are escorted through the well appointed (and very quiet!) main dining room. You'll notice low light, beautiful fresh flowers, and the strains of harp music. The whole effect is quite romantic and very formal. There is a strict dress code here, and men must wear jackets.
The Dining Room consists of a mere fourteen tables, beautifully set with spotless crystal and china. Very chi chi.
We followed the debonaire Maître d'hôtel, Israel Perez, through this space and into the brightly lit kitchen. At that time, we were informed that Chef de Cuisine Scott Hunnel would not be joining us because of a conflicting event. In his place, Sous Chef Aimée Rivera would guide us through our meal.
Both Mr. Perez and Chef Rivera were phenomenal, and it's clear that their passion and driving force is the comfort and enjoyment of their guests. Chef Rivera invited us to interact at will with the kitchen staff, and suggested that we voice any and all questions that we might have (Mua ha ha ha!!! She didn't know just how annoying I can be!).
An interesting fact: once you are seated, you can't [Read more…]


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Browse: Home / Automotive
How Internet Marketing Has Improved An Automotive Group; Interview with the President of the McNatt Auto Group
By Melissa on June 30, 2008
Jim McNatt has been in the automotive business for over 40 years. He has created extremely successful car dealerships and sold them for record breaking amounts. I chose the owner of the McNatt Auto Group for this interview because he is shockingly Internet savvy for his age group (not saying he is old; just advanced for his generation).
Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged Automotive, Internet marketing, mcnatt auto group | Leave a response


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You never know where the next emerging wine State will be here in the U.S. but if this wine is representative of the wines coming out of Kentucky these days, this might be the place. Given as a gift from the parents of a friend of my son visiting over the holiday break, the wine is a blend of Spanish and French varieties grown near Lexington, Kentucky. Since the winery also makes Petite Sirah and Zinfandel, Eastern Kentucky must have a more extended growing season than other States in the region. Indeed, the most surprising thing for me about this wine was how big it is, both in fruit concentration and in alcohol.
There's not a lot written about Jean Farris winery aside from their website and a few other blogger notes (I think I'm the first to review Tempest). But I think you will hear more from this winery given the quality of the wine here. The rather unconventional blend of Tempranillo works well with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. I hope to have the chance to sample some of their other wines soon.
Tasting Notes:
Jean Farris Winery, "Tempest", Red Wine, Kentucky 2007 ($35) – A blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. Garnet in color with aromas of blackberry, blackcurrant, sage and cedar. Bold blackberry fruit with cassis, white pepper and vanilla finishing with moderate tannins, nice acidity and just a hint of heat. Shows that world class wine can be made in the land of Bourbon.
Synthetic cork closure
Score: 87


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Traditional Iroquois way of growing works for today's farmers, providing valuable ecological lessons, says Cornell researcher
By David Brand
SEATTLE -- Most agronomists look to their laboratories, greenhouses or research farms for innovative new cropping techniques. But Jane Mt. Pleasant, professor of horticulture and director of the American Indian Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., has taken a different path, mining her Iroquois heritage for planting and cultivation methods that work for today's farmers.
Mt. Pleasant studies what traditionally are known as the "three sisters": beans, corn and squash. These staples of Iroquois cropping are traditionally grown together on a single plot, mimicking natural systems in what agronomists call a polyculture. Though the Iroquois technique was not developed scientifically, Mt. Pleasant notes that it is "agronomically sound." The three sisters cropping system embodies all the things needed to make crops grow in the Northeast, she says.
She presented her work today (Feb. 15) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. The talk, "Polycultural Cropping Systems From an Indigenous Perspective: Using Iroquois Worldview to Understand the Three Sisters," was part of a symposium on research methods in native science. This is the second year that such a symposium has been held at the AAAS.
Corn and beans are used throughout the Western Hemisphere, said Mt. Pleasant. "Both do better when they are grown together." Corn provides protection from weeds and insects and acts as a scaffold to support twining bean plants. The beans, in turn, produce nitrogen, essential for plant growth. Adding squash to the mix also controls the growth of weeds, and recycling crop residues (the "leftovers" of a harvest) back into the soil promotes fertility. A monoculture, in which only one crop variety is grown on a plot of land, is a relatively recent agricultural technique, noted Mt. Pleasant. Though it is suited to high-yield mechanized harvests, it leaves crops vulnerable to disease and insects. A polyculture reduces the risk of an entire harvest being wiped out in this way.
The role of the three sisters in the Iroquois diet is mirrored by the crops' place in Iroquois worldview and culture, where they are visualized as three siblings with very different personalities. Corn is austere, standing straight and tall; shy Beans clings to her legs; Squash is the "wild and impish" troublemaker. In the Iroquois creation story, they are the seeds that issue life on Earth, and they are woven into the laws that bind the Iroquois Confederacy. The three sisters are thanked for the sustenance they provide in the Thanksgiving Address recited at the beginning and end of ceremonial Iroquois meetings.
Indigenous culture holds broader lessons for our relationship with our environment as well, said Mt. Pleasant. Iroquois people have always recognized that they are part of an ecological system, she observed. "As we watch a lot of the ecological problems coming," like global warming and water contamination, "we recognize that we have a contract" with the Earth, "not domination" over it.
This realization, she said, has fueled an upsurge in interest in native science. "More and more young native people are questioning conventional science" as tribal colleges include native teachings in their curriculums, said Mt. Pleasant. She noted, however, that only a few non-Native American scientists attended last year's AAAS symposium on the subject.
As scientists begin to recognize the connections between systems they formerly studied in isolation, Mt. Pleasant hopes they will see what indigenous peoples have known all along: "We're all in this web, and when you pull on one part and it breaks, the whole web falls apart."
This release was prepared by Cornell News Service science writer intern Kate Becker.