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Source: http://twitter.com/ProgressTX/statuses/252100672638566402
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Spain crisis fuels Catalan separatist sentiment
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Three weeks after a massive Catalan separatist march in Barcelona ? the biggest since the 1970s ? the independence flags still flutter from balconies across Spain's second largest city.
Spain's crushing recession has had this divisive consequence: soaring popular sentiment in Catalonia that the affluent region would be better off as separate nation.
On Thursday, regional lawmakers voted to hold a referendum for Catalonia's seven million citizens to decide whether they want to break away from Spain. The Spanish government says that the referendum would be unconstitutional. And it's unclear if the "Yes" vote would win ? even in these restless times.
But it looks more likely than ever that Catalonia may ask to go its own way.
"I have a big Catalan flag on the balcony. I put it up a week before the demonstration on Sept. 11 and it is still hanging there," said Gemma Mondon, 46, a mother of two. "I think we would be better off if we can manage our money. I think we would do much better."
Catalonia, a northeastern region that is historically one of Spain's wealthiest and most industrialized, has always harbored a strong nationalist streak. Separatism is especially entrenched in the rural towns and villages outside its more cosmopolitan capital Barcelona, where people switch between speaking Spanish and Catalan with ease and at times without even noticing.
In the peaceful transition from the Franco dictatorship to prosperous democracy, Catalans were content just to recover the freedom to openly speak, teach and publish in their own Catalan language, a right denied under Franco for over 30 years.
But now, generations-old grievances for more self-government and recognition of their culture are rising to the surface as the economic downturn bites.
Many Catalans feel their quest for a sense for nationhood has been frustrated by the intransigence of the central government in Madrid. The most recent of these clashes came in 2010 when Spain's Constitutional Court weakened the Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia, a sweeping package of laws that devolved more power to the region and would have recognized Catalonia as a nation, albeit one within Spain.
Spain's slump, which has led to a spike in unemployment and harsh austerity cuts, has proven to be the tipping point for many Catalans who used to be against or ambivalent about seeking their own state.
Mondon, who works for a family run real estate management firm, said that just over a year ago she voted "No" in a nonbinding referendum organized by pro-independence groups. Now, she says she has changed her mind.
"I always felt Spanish and Catalan and I never had the urge to be independent. A year ago I just wanted to be left alone to speak my language and raise my children in a Catalan school," said Mondon. "My attitude was 'don't bother me,' but now that has changed."
Catalonia will go to the polls on Nov. 25, with regional president Artur Mas' center-right nationalist party Convergencia i Unio expected to increase its hold of the regional parliament. Mas has said he will hold a referendum on Catalonia's self-determination, whether the Spanish government permits it or not. The date has yet to be set.
"If the Spanish government authorizes (the referendum), more the better," said Mas. "If the Spanish government turns its back on us and doesn't authorize a referendum or another type of vote, well, we will do it anyway."
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insists the country's constitution doesn't allow a region to secede on its own, and experts say it would be virtually impossible for Catalan separatists to get it changed. Spain's Basque region, the other part of the country with a strong separatist movement, tried to get such a move approved in Parliament in 2005 but failed.
"It's not a scenario planned by the constitution," said Francisco Perez-Latre, a communications professor at the University of Navarra who has closely monitored the Catalan independence movement for years.
The new political uncertainty about the economically important region and major tourism destination is unsettling for investors already worried about Rajoy's ability to keep his country's shaky economy afloat, and within the euro currency club.
There are also doubts about how well-equipped Catalonia would be to go it alone.
Catalonia, sitting on its own mountain of debt, has in fact asked Spain for a ?5.9 billion bailout. But many Catalans argue that the region is only heavily indebted because it has to pay more than its fair due in taxes compared to services and funding it gets in return. Spain's other better-off regions also give more than they receive. Rajoy, however, has emboldened Catalan separatists by flatly rejecting demands for more power in levying tax revenues and deciding how it is spent, privileges granted to two other Spanish regions: the Basque Country and Navarra.
Rajoy's stance has combined with Spain's gloomy prospects to push Catalans who never wanted to break away from Spain before to conclude that the country itself is a failure.
"I put the Catalan flag on my balcony for the first time. Normally, I have been very discreet with my political ideas. But I think now I have to go a step further," said architect Albert Estanyol, 48, whose mother came from southern Spain. "Before, when asked about independence, I would say 'Why?' Now, I say, 'Why not?'"
Catalonia has over 800,000 unemployed, almost 22 percent of its population. That's slightly lower than Spain's national jobless rate, but the back-to-back recessions have been particularly hard on young workers in Catalonia. Since 2007, over 100,000 Catalans under 25 have lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate for workers under 25 has skyrocketed to over 50 percent, close to the national level for the same age bracket.
"I have looked for work. Since I was 18 I have had six or seven jobs, they have all been unstable, poorly paid, like filling in for two weeks at IKEA. They have had nothing to do with what I studied," said Roger Cervino, a 23-year-old who holds a degree in history.
"The economic situation is bad and one of the solutions to ending the crisis is secession. It would be complicated, but Catalonia has the capacity to reach full employment," he said. "What stops it is Spain, and above all the Spanish government, which has been a disaster."
___
Alan Clendenning contributed from Madrid.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spain-crisis-fuels-catalan-separatist-sentiment-073933870.html
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Saturday, September 29, 2012
Great Pyrenees pup!! | Lone Tree | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 23683016
Gorgeous female Pyr. pup - just turned one year old. She is spayed, UTD on shots (will need rabies booster soon), housebroken, and an excellent dog. She is very big and weighs somewhere around 90lbs. Incredible with kids and loves to play with other dogs. Sorry, no idea how she does with cats. Completely healthy, has had regular grooming by our groomer, and is a very happy dog. She is an excellent guard dog but is not aggressive in any way. She will keep coyotes, foxes, and critters off your land and keep the bunnies out of your garden. Our dog can come inside or stay outside but she prefers the outdoors.
We are rehoming her due to the fact that we can't teach her not to chase horses and she's been kicked at too many times. She is a livestock protection dog and is NOT a herding dog so this behavior is not typical and something that is unsafe for her. If you don't have horses or goats (she chases them too) then you won't have any problems.
We considered rehoming her once before and posted the ad but then decided to try more training to stop her from chasing the horses. Nothing we've tried has worked so this time we have no choice. We are sad about that but it is in her best interest. My apologies if you had contacted me previously.
She will come with elevated food bowls, food, leash, and collar.
Source: http://denver.ebayclassifieds.com/dogs-puppies/lone-tree/great-pyrenees-pup/?ad=23683016
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Uygulama Haber 24. B?l?m "En iyi iOS ve Android uygulamalar?"
Android ve iOS i?letim sistemli cihazlarda kullanabilece?iniz haftan?n en iyi oyun ve uygulamalar? ?tan?tt???m?z Uygulama Haber program?m?z?n 24. B?l?m?nde sizleri birbirinden farkl? oyun ve uygulamalar bekliyor
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Source: http://www.donanimhaber.com/Uygulama_Haber_24_Bolum_En_iyi_iOS_ve_Android_uygulamalari-36581.htm
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Princess Anne urges commitment to graft fight | Times of Zambia
?
?PRINCESS Anne (insert) addresses parliamentarians yesterday.
By CHILA NAMAIKO? ?
PRINCESS Anne of Great Britain has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to continue showing exemplary commitment in the fight against corruption by drafting adequate and effective laws.
And Government chief whip, Yamfwa Mukanga has hailed Britain?s plans to help Zambia with about 59 million British Pounds annually until 2015 to help hasten her achievement to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS).
Speaking in Lusaka yesterday at Parliament buildings when she addressed MPs, Princess Anne said Zambia had made considerable achievements in many sectors of the economy.
Princess Anne was impressed with the continued dedication exhibited by the Government and parliamentarians to fight corruption in areas such as reinstatement of the abuse of authority of office clause.
?May I congratulate you for the commitment to fighting corruption by reviewing the constitutional process which should happen on a regular basis,? Princess Anne said.
The Princess, who is the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (UK), was on a four-day tour of duty in Zambia and was expected to leave the country today.
At Parliament, she was flanked by Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini. Among other dignitaries who attended the parliamentarians? meeting in the auditorium, was leader of Government business and Vice-President Guy Scott.
Princess Anne said Zambia was scoring considerable achievements in various sectors and that the country had potential to grow further because of fertile and abundant land coupled with rich natural resources.
She was happy with Zambia for the peaceful transfer of power from former MMD regime to newly elected Patriotic Front (PF) Government under the leadership of President Michael Sata.
Princess Anne hailed the country for its continued role played in peacekeeping missions and was happy with the solid and cordial bilateral relationship enjoyed between Zambia and the UK.
On the recent Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Anne thanked President Sata for being among hundreds of heads of State who attended the colourful event.
The Princess?s visit to Zambia was part of the celebrations of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II?s Diamond Jubilee. Her Majesty last visited Zambia in 1979.
Mr Mukanga who is Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister said Zambia was gratified with the British government for its plans of spending an average of 59 million Pounds annually until 2015 in Zambia to attain MDG targets on poverty, maternal and mortality and sanitation.
He said Zambia was thankful to her Majesty for being instrumental in supporting the Government deliver better services to its citizens.
?Her Majesty?s government support through the Department for International Development (DfID) is very welcome as it will help to support our Government improve its systems and use its resources to deliver better services,? he said.
He said Britain?s commitment to help Zambia tackle corruption and increase transparency and accountability to its citizens was in line with the PF Government?s zero tolerance for corruption.
Mr Mukanga hailed Britain for the supported it had rendered to Parliament?s reform programme in conjunction with other cooperating partners to enable Zambian Government become a real Parliament.
He said her Majesty the Queen?s role as head of the Commonwealth was appreciated by all member States like Zambia as she had shown dedicated service and leadership in her 60 years reign.
The minister said the Queen had shown unsurpassed personal and unwavering commitment to all that the Commonwealth represented in areas of shared values of democracy, development and diversity.
?It is for this reason that we wish her Majesty long life so that she can continue to render her invaluable service to the Commonwealth family,? Mr Mukanga said.
The Commonwealth remains a relevant organisation in helping all its 54 independent member States to tackle challenges of the modern world.
He said Zambia and the UK were adapting to challenges such as continued economic growth, climate change, threats from crime and lawlessness, unemployment, human rights, abuses that cemented the cherished relationships.
And Dr Scott is this morning expected to move a motion to adjoun Parliament to enable MPs attend Mama Betty Kaunda?s burial.
Source: http://www.times.co.zm/?p=13918
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Friday, September 28, 2012
10 percent of all online traffic is bots, says study
3 hrs.
A new study by advertising company Solve Media indicates that one out of 10 hits on any given website is a bot or automated script. No matter how you look at it, that's a lot of robo-clicks.
"Bots" aren't actual robots sitting at a computer, of course. They're a kind of?specialized software that can do anything from clicking an ad thousands of times to commenting or registering for an account. They're everywhere; Facebook recently revealed that it has over 83 million fake users, many of which are certainly bots. There are also friendly bots, like the ones Google uses to index sites, but they generally try to stay out sight and not cause trouble.
Solve Media works in the CAPTCHA world ? those "type what you see" tests that purport to check that you're human ? so it has had many occasions to study bots'?behavior. Its 10 percent number is based on looking at more than?100 million unique visitors a month across its ad network for over a year, applying hundreds of what they call "attack vectors" to identify bots.
Solve Media's CEO told AdWeek that as the same bots get encountered again and again, the company gets get "more and more reputation data and a valuable understanding of who they are and what they are." In other words, they don't just count the bots, they get to know them.
Most bots are based in the U.S., they said, but U.S.?websites aren't actually the highest in bot activity, with around?16 percent off traffic attributable to them. In Singapore and Taiwan, Solve Media found bot rates of more than?50 percent. And it's rising: the company?says "aberrant traffic" rose 400 percent during the 18-month study.
That's bad news for advertisers who have spent their money on display ads. If half the visitors to a site are fake, that's half their money wasted! Solve Media, naturally enough, recommends its own platform for controlling such fraudulent activity, but if even a top-shelf website like Facebook has trouble doing it, the problem may be getting out of control.
Devin Coldewey is a?contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/10-percent-all-online-traffic-bots-says-study-6176354
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Thursday, September 27, 2012
Dot Earth Blog: Priest Included in Philippines Investigation of Ivory Smuggling
7:04 p.m. | Updated below |
There?s an important development in the global ivory wars, stemming directly from the great National Geographic article (explored on Dot Earth recently) that focused on the demand created by the market for religious icons carved from elephant tusks. A Catholic priest, whose statements about ways to illicitly ship ivory to the United States were featured in the magazine article, is being investigated by government authorities in the Philippines. Here are the details, as reported by Floyd Whaley out of Manila for The Times:
MANILA ? Philippine law enforcement officials said on Wednesday that they were investigating whether a senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church was involved in the smuggling of elephant ivory to feed country?s passion for religious icons.
The investigation was prompted by an article in the October issue of National Geographic magazine that quotes Msgr. Crist?bal Garcia, a senior church official on the central Philippine island of Cebu, as telling an American reporter how to smuggle illegal elephant ivory figurines into the United States. ?Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,? he is quoted as saying, to deter inspection.
The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation and the country?s wildlife protection agency are investigating the claims made in the article, government officials said. [Read the rest.]
6:03 p.m. |Update
There?s an update on another issue that has dogged Garcia for 20 years:
CEBU CITY, Philippines? Msgr. Cristobal Garcia has been suspended and stripped of his positions in the archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican while the Holy See investigates accusations he molested altar boys more than 20 years ago in the United States.
Msgr. Achilles Dakay, the archdiocese?s media liaison officer, said Garcia?s suspension came months before the priest was implicated by a National Geographic article in illegal trade of ivory in the Philippines. [Read the rest.]
7:03 p.m. |Update
Bryan Christy, the author of the article that triggered the new ivory inquiries in the Philippines, has a post up at National Geographic Web site. Here?s an excerpt:
Earlier today Jose S. Palma, Archbishop of Cebu, held a press conference, ?Ivory Worship and Msgr. Cris Garcia? (see below), in which he reportedly announced that ivory collector Monsignor Garcia had been suspended and stripped of his position in the archdiocese of Cebu on orders of the Vatican. Palma emphasized that this move was not the result of my investigation, which features Garcia, but rather is the result of Garcia?s sexual abuse of minor boys while serving in Los Angeles, California in the 1980s. The case was exposed by Brooks Egerton of the Dallas Morning News as part of that newspaper?s 2005 series, ?Runaway Priests: Hiding in Plain Sight.? My story cited the Dallas Morning News story and reiterated Garcia?s past. [Read the rest.]
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WHY IT MATTERS: Gun control
The issue:
Frightening episodes of gun violence have been splayed across front pages with alarming frequency this campaign season: the movie theater killings in Colorado, the Sikh temple shootings in Wisconsin, the gun battle outside the Empire State Building, and more. Guns are used in two-thirds of homicides, according to the FBI. But the murder rate is less than half what it was two decades ago.
___
Where they stand:
Neither President Barack Obama nor Republican Mitt Romney has had much to say about guns during the campaign, except when prodded by high-profile events such as the Colorado shootings. Obama hasn't pushed gun control measures as president, and Romney says he doesn't think the nation needs new gun laws. Both style themselves as defenders of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Obama has signed laws letting people carry concealed weapons in national parks and in checked bags on Amtrak trains. He's voiced support for a renewed ban on assault-type weapons but hasn't tried to get that done. He blames Congress for opposing such measures.
Romney suggested after the Colorado shootings that he favors tougher enforcement of existing gun laws. He said he doubts whether new laws would help. The key, he said, is to identify deranged or distressed people and then "keep them from carrying out terrible acts." It's a big shift in tone from his days as Massachusetts governor, when he vowed to protect the state's "tough gun laws" and signed a ban on assault weapons.
___
Why it matters:
Don't expect gun control to be high on the presidential agenda no matter who wins in November. Although Obama is more open to gun ownership restrictions than Romney, neither seems inclined to push it. That's not to say it makes no difference who gets elected when it comes to gun control. Supreme Court appointments could make a big difference.
But it has faded as a political issue. Crime just isn't the public concern it was years ago. And it's getting harder to make the argument that stricter gun laws are needed when violent crime has been decreasing without them.
Although high-profile shootings inevitably stir up talk about tighter gun controls, over time the public has shifted in favor of the right to own guns and away from increased limitations on gun ownership.
In 1990, 78 percent of Americans said laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter, and 19 percent said they should remain the same or be loosened, according to a Gallup poll. By the fall of 2004, support for tougher laws had dropped to 54 percent. In last year's sounding, 43 percent said they should be stricter, and 55 percent said they should stay the same or be made more lenient.
Still, odds are good that the next president will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat, and the current court is narrowly divided on gun-control questions. In a 5-4 vote two years ago, for example, the court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live, expanding the conservative court's embrace of gun rights. The court left unresolved questions about what kinds of gun-control laws fit comfortably with the Second Amendment.
An Obama appointee could be expected to be friendlier to gun controls than would a Romney nominee.
Obama could decide to push for an assault weapons ban in a second term, when he wouldn't have to worry about re-election repercussions. But it still would be unlikely to advance through a House that is expected to remain firmly in Republican hands.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ One in a series examining issues at stake in the election and their impact on people
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-matters-gun-control-065838220--election.html
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The difference between amateur and PRO!
To listen to the audio version of this blog, click here.
Monday was the first day of teaching my new Love Uni-versity course called "Discover the Wisdom of Your Fear" and a woman raised her hand who was a writer and asked me why she wasn't living her dream even though she was taking all the steps.
After a little bit of questioning, I finally found out that she hadn't written anything of her own for over three months.
And if we take a step back, just a few moments ago she told me in the most convincing way that she was "taking all the right steps."? As a writer, I can tell you that if you aren't writing EVERY DAY, you're not really dedicated to your craft. It's something that MUST happen EVERY DAY.
And I went into a whole break down of the most amazing book called "The War of Art". Stop what you're doing right now and click here to grab a copy.
The author, Steven Pressfield - show us how to battle with an inner critic known as "Resistance." It's a BRILLIANT book and one that helped me become a writer.
The basic idea is this... There are two types of creative people. Amateurs and pros. Amateurs create when they feel like it, let resistance get them down and come up with all kinds of excuses about why they can't create.
Pros on the other hand create every day, no matter how they are feeling. They are in a conscious effort to rise above resistance and are determined to conquer this force that holds us back.
So, when I was talking to the woman from Love U, it was clear to me that even though she THOUGHT she was doing all the right things, she was violating the rule of amateur vs. pro and this is a MAJOR contribution to why she was not where she wanted to be in her writing career.
There's this idea that we can only write when inspiration falls and that a moment will magically come when it all falls into place. And that line of thinking is perhaps the greatest dream killer of them all. Living your dreams is earned every single day as we conquer resistance and overcome fear. We have to EARN it - and not in the same amount of time that it takes to tweet or text - it's in our own dedicated time life will change.
But the first step is SHOWING UP every day no matter WHAT for your dream - even if it's for only an hour or half hour a day. Over time you will put in A LOT of effort that will slowly start to pay off!
So, in your own life - where are you being an amateur and not a pro? Where are you letting resistance get the best of you? And what new schedule and covenant do you need to make for yourself so that you are showing up for your dreams every day? TDL really comes alive in the comment section below, so leave a comment and let me know! Also if you need any help from anyone ask for it! The Daily Lovers LOVE to help you out!
Lots of LOVE! And here's to being PRO!
Mastin
# # #
Mastin Kipp is the CEO and Founder of?The Daily?Love.?Follow him on Twitter?here.
Take what resonates with you in this blog and leave the rest.
If you are ready to kick fear in the butt (lovingly, of course)? ? join me September 24 ? 28 for my latest virtual course?Love?Uni-versity:?Discover the Wisdom of your Fear!?Click here?to check it out!
It?s a RAD 5 Day immersion class to turn your fear into power! AND ? if you are in LA and want to join me for?super private?Group Mentoring?LIVE?in Hollywood!?Click here??to join me LIVE in LA!
Source: http://thedailylove.com/the-difference-between-amateur-and-pro/
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
'I care,' Romney declares, as he duels with Obama in Ohio
Both Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama campaigned in Ohio on Wednesday. With Obama gaining more and more of an edge in the polls, Romney tried to appeal to voters, telling them he cares about all Americans.
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at American Spring Wire, Wednesday in Bedford Heights, Ohio.
David Richard/AP
EnlargeSlipping in states that could sink his presidential bid, Republican Mitt Romney declared Wednesday that "I care about the people of America" and can do more than President Barack Obama to improve their lives. In an all-day Ohio duel, Obama scoffed that a challenger who calls half the nation "victims" was unlikely to be of much help.
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Romney's approach reflected what he is up against: a widening Obama lead in polls in key states such as Ohio, the backlash from a leaked video in which he disparages Obama supporters as government-dependent people who see themselves as victims, and a campaign imperative to make his policy plans more plain.
With under six weeks to go, and just one week before the first big debate, Obama's campaign reveled in the latest public polling ? but tried to crush any sense of overconfidence. "If we need to pass out horse blinders to all of our staff, we will do that," said campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The day's setting was Ohio, where Obama's momentum has seemed to be growing. It's also a state no Republican has won the White House without carrying.
Romney, eager to project confidence and brush aside suggestions that he was faltering, went after working-class voters outside Columbus and Cleveland before rolling to Toledo. Obama rallied college crowds at Bowling Green State University and Kent State University, reminding Ohioans their state allows them to start cast ballots next week. Early voting has already begun in more than two dozen other states.
For Romney, in his appearances and in a new TV ad in which he appeals straight to the camera, it was time for plain talk to contrast himself with Obama, and to mince no words about his expectations.
"There are so many people in our country who are hurting right now. I want to help them. I know what it takes," Romney told the crowd in Westerville. "I care about the people of America, and the difference between me and Barack Obama is I know what to do."
That message so late in the campaign ? a presidential nominee declaring his concern for all the people of the country ? was part of his widening effort to rebound from his caught-on-video comments at a fundraiser.
In those comments, made last May but only recently revealed, Romney said "47 percent of the people" pay no federal income tax, will vote for Obama no matter what, see themselves as victims, think the government must care for them and do not "take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
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'Moon River' crooner Andy Williams dies at age 84
ST. LOUIS (AP) ? With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.
"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," the singer once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred ? not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."
Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and wholesome, middle-America appeal helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and such fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas TV specials, and continued to perform in his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo.
In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year: His 75th in show business.
Williams died Tuesday night at his home in Branson following a yearlong battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84.
He became a major star the same year as Elvis Presley, 1956, with the Sinatra-like swing "Canadian Sunset," and for a time he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."
But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style," and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had given up and (temporarily) retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records and three platinum, was nominated for five Grammy awards and hosted the Grammy ceremonies for several years.
Movie songs became a specialty, from "Love Story" and "Days of Wine and Roses" to "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.
The song was first performed by Audrey Hepburn in the beloved 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," but Mancini thought "Moon River" ideal for Williams, who recorded it in "pretty much one take" and also sang it at the 1962 Academy Awards. Although "Moon River" was covered by countless artists and became a hit single for Jerry Butler, Williams made the song his personal brand. In fact, he insisted on it.
"When I hear anybody else sing it, it's all I can to do stop myself from shouting at the television screen, 'No! That's my song!'" Williams wrote in his 2009 memoir, titled, fittingly, "Moon River and Me."
"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted in various formats through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams alternately performing his stable of hits and bantering casually with his guest stars.
It was on that show that Williams ? who launched his own career as part of an all-brother quartet ? introduced the world to another clean-cut act ? the original four singing Osmond Brothers of Utah. Their younger sibling Donny also made his debut on Williams' show, in 1963 when he was 6 years old. Four decades later, the Osmonds and Williams would find themselves in close proximity again, sharing Williams' theater in Branson.
Williams did book some rock and soul acts, including the Beach Boys, the Temptations and Smokey Robinson. On one show, in 1970, Williams sang "Heaven Help Us All" with Ray Charles, Mama Cass and a then-little known Elton John, a vision to Williams in his rhinestone glasses and black cape. But Williams liked him and his breakthrough hit "Your Song" enough to record it himself.
Williams' act was, apparently, not an act. The singer's unflappable manner on television and in concert was mirrored offstage.
"I guess I've never really been aggressive, although almost everybody else in show business fights and gouges and knees to get where they want to be," he once said. "My trouble is, I'm not constructed temperamentally along those lines
His wholesome image endured one jarring interlude. In 1976, his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot and killed her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich. The Rolling Stones mocked the tragedy in "Claudine," a song so pitiless that it wasn't released until decades later. Longet, who said it was an accident, spent only a week in jail. Williams stood by her. He escorted her to the courthouse, testified on her behalf and provided support for her and their children, Noelle, Christian and Robert.
Also in the 1970s, Williams was seen frequently in the company of Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow. The singer denied any romantic involvement.
He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. In his memoir, Williams remembered himself as a shy boy who concealed his insecurity "behind a veneer of cheek and self-confidence." Of Wall Lake, Williams joked that it was so small, and had so little to do, that crowds would gather just to watch someone get a haircut.
Williams began performing with his older brothers Dick, Bob and Don in the local Presbyterian church choir. Their father, postal worker and insurance man Jay Emerson Williams, was the choirmaster and the force behind his children's career.
When Andy was 8, Williams' father brought the kids for an audition on Des Moines radio station WHO's Iowa Barn Dance. They were initially turned down, but Jay Emerson Williams and the young quartet kept returning and they were finally accepted, their show bringing them attention from Chicago, Cincinnati and Hollywood. Another star at WHO was a young sportscaster named Ronald Reagan, who would later praise Williams as a "national treasure."
The brothers joined Bing Crosby in recording the hit "Swinging on a Star" in 1944 for Crosby's film "Going My Way," and Andy, barely a teenager, was picked to dub Lauren Bacall's voice on a song for the film "To Have and Have Not." His voice stayed in the film until the preview, when it was cut because it didn't sound like Bacall's.
Later the brothers worked with Kay Thompson of eventual "Eloise" fame, then a singer who had taken a position as vocal coach at MGM studios, working with Judy Garland, June Allyson and others. After three months of training, Thompson and the Williams Brothers broke in their show at the El Rancho Room in Las Vegas to a huge ovation. They drew rave reviews in New York, Los Angeles and across the nation, earning a peak of $25,000 a week.
Williams, analyzing their success, once said: "Somehow we managed to work up and sustain an almost unbearable pitch of speed and rhythm."
After five years, the three older brothers, who were starting their own families, had tired of the constant travel and left to pursue other careers.
Williams initially struggled as a solo act and was so broke at one point that he resorted to eating food intended for his two dogs.
"I had no money for food, so I ate it," he recalled in 2001, "and it actually was damned good."
A two-year TV stint on Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" and a contract with Cadence Records turned things around. Williams later formed his own label, Barnaby Records, which released music by the Everly Brothers, Ray Stevens and Jimmy Buffett.
Williams was a lifelong Republican who once accused President Obama of "following Marxist theory." But he acknowledged experimenting with LSD, opposed the Nixon administration's efforts in the 1970s to deport John Lennon, and, in 1968, was an energetic supporter of Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. When Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968, just after winning the California Democratic primary, Williams sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at his funeral.
"We chose that song because he used it on the campaign trail," Williams later said of Kennedy, who had been a close friend. "He had a terrible voice but he loved to sing that song. The only way I got through singing in church that day was by saying, 'This is my job. I can't let emotion get in the way of the song.' I really concentrated on not thinking about him."
After leaving TV, Williams headed back on the road, where his many Christmas shows and albums made him a huge draw during the holidays. One year in Des Moines, however, a snowstorm kept the customers away, and the band's equipment failed to reach Chicago in time for the next night's show, forcing the musicians to borrow instruments from a high school band.
"No more tours," Williams decreed.
He decided to settle in Branson, the self-proclaimed "live entertainment capital of the country," with its dozens of theaters featuring live music, comedy and magic acts.
When he arrived in 1992, the town was dominated by country music performers, but Williams changed that, building the classy, $13 million Andy Williams Moon River Theater in the heart of the city's entertainment district and performing two shows a night, six days a week, nine months of the year. Only in recent years did he begin to cut back to one show a night.
Not surprisingly, his most popular time of the year was Christmas, although he acknowledged that not everyone in Hollywood accepted his move to the Midwest.
"The fact is most of my friends in L.A. still think I'm nuts for coming here," he told The Associated Press in 1998.
He and his second wife, the former Debbie Haas, divided their time between homes in Branson and Palm Springs, where he spent his leisure hours on the golf course when Branson's theaters were dark during the winter months following Christmas.
Retirement was not on his schedule. As he told the AP in 2001: "I'll keep going until I get to the point where I can't get out on stage."
Williams is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children, Robert, Noelle and Christian.
___
Thomas reported from Los Angeles. AP Entertainment Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody contributed to this report from Nashville, Tenn.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/moon-river-crooner-andy-williams-dies-age-84-142235804.html
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Nigeria: suicide bombing targets Catholic cathedral : News ...
CWN - September 24, 2012
Three people were killed and 46 injured in a suicide bombing at the Catholic cathedral in Bauchi, a city of 500,000 in north-central Nigeria. Two policemen who had been guarding the cathedral in the largely Muslim city were among the injured.
The Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the attack.
?Christians are attacked on a weekly basis,? said Rt. Rev. Musa Tula, the local Anglican bishop. ?We need prayers because real protection can only come from God. We urgently need prayers from our brethren around the world for the peace of Bauchi State.?
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Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=15693
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Certifications and University degree.
Hi all
,I like to hear your opinion about this because I do have a discrepancy in my education.
Ok i graduated in Economy, but i work as a network engineer and I'm really good at it. I have some industrial certifications, like juniper, cisco and linux.
I just want your opinion guys should i go and get master degree in computer science or should i continue with industrial certifications more exactly should i go for CCIE/JNCIE or Master Degree in computer science ?
I'm confused right right now 
, because most of the guys that do have a degree in computer science they are... hmm somehow they are mad at me for working as a network engineer(or i just misunderstood them), although I'm better than them.
If I chose one road the other must go on halt, and btw I already made my choice, which is -going with industrial certifications. For one obvious reason, they are more likely to give u a job because you are a professional and you really know what you're doing if you posses a certification, and for my master degree i can get it when I'm 33 or 35 years old 
.
But i just wanna hear your opinion, what do you guys think ?
Source: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/81868-certifications-university-degree.html
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Post free classified ads ? Party Food Recipes ? Online ? Health ...
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Monday, September 24, 2012
SAVAGE PIXELS #14: Get Gaming Again? plus Stay+ and ...
Writing in issue 99 of Retro Gamer, columnist and previous Savage Pixels interviewee Iain Lee asks: ?Was there a point where you gave up on computer games??
There was for me. Sometime between the PlayStation?s launch and the Dreamcast?s demise, I just? fell out of love with gaming. Sure, sports games were okay; and I?d often steal a turn on Resident Evil 3 or Grand Theft Auto 2, just to keep a toe dipped in the contemporary scene. But the best part of a (golden) generation of games passed me by, and I can?t even really explain why. I?m playing catch-up today, having bought Metroid: Prime for the GameCube and Shenmue 2 for the Xbox since the last of these columns.
And I can?t wait to get stuck into them because, at 32, I don?t think I?ve ever been more enthused by gaming. Perhaps it?s because the real world I know now, compared to that of my late-teens and early 20s, is so very different: and as responsibilities increase, so the lure of escape into wonderful worlds of pixels and polygons becomes that much more irresistible. When the wife and kid are in bed, I?m blistering thumbs working my way through the games you see reviewed below, and so many more besides.
Which leads me to: you, assuming you?re in a situation where, right now, games are strange, alien constructs, the playthings of terrible geeks, dorky losers and spotty loners. I frequently see comments on The Guardian?s games coverage from readers basically saying: if you?re into this sort of stuff, there must be something wrong with you. I picture them all wearing Liam Gallagher masks, for some reason. But this oddly black and white attitude ? one where people either like games, or don?t, with no middle ground (for those who love Tetris, but aren?t so taken with Tekken) ? robs its ?owner? of some magical, memorable experiences.
So, below I?ve highlighted eight games ? really fantastic, breathtaking, beguiling pieces of high-definition art ? which, I hope, will tempt readers currently using their 360 exclusively to play FIFA, or the occasional triple-A release that?s made its way into Tesco at a price you can?t refuse, into investigating rather more esoteric, innovative and downright amazing titles. These games will, given the opportunity, get you back into gaming with a bump. And from there? well, it?s not so far to hello eBay, goodbye savings.
Some of these have fallen victim to poor sales, leading to job losses and developer closures; some have been knocked by a couple of reviews and landed a Metacritic average that might put the casual gamer off taking a punt. But to these eyes, ears, fingers and thumbs, they?re essential cornerstones of any current-generation console collection.
?
Get Gaming Again: Part One
Blur
(Bizarre Creations, Activision Blizzard; 2010)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Racing games today are tremendous simulators. Codemasters? F1 series is the closest the likes of you or I will probably ever come to emulating the successes of those multi-millionaires in their (as good as) flying machines; and the Project Gotham and Gran Turismo titles have traded in car porn for years now. But they?re all a bit? serious, aren?t they? Wouldn?t it be awesome if a game came along that combined amazing visuals, real-life vehicles and recognisable locations with the kind of gameplay that one used to be wowed by on the likes of Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing? In 2010, Bizarre Creations delivered just that title in Blur ? and were subsequently let go by Activision as their brilliant product sold bugger all copies. Today you can get Blur for around a tenner. Please, do. And then marvel as your Mustang launches a missile from its grill, and your Hummer releases a mine from its rear axle. No other racing game of this generation is this much fun. Serious.
Bayonetta
(Platinum Games/Nex Entertainment, Sega; 2009/10)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Trying to remember that last game that had me sweating through button-mashing and crying tears of laughter? Oh, yeah, Bayonetta. With Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya at the helm, the action?s never less than frantic; and so easy is the game to simply pick up and play, combat as refined or as chaotic as your own digital dexterity allows it to be, that this rightly celebrated release leaves a considerable first impression. Bayonetta has a real arcade feel to it ? Sega?s role as publisher feels right, as there are certainly elements of Golden Axe and even Altered Beast at play here. The supernatural storyline is almost impenetrably bonkers ? but it doesn?t matter, as understanding the ?why? behind what?s unfolding is a distant second in one?s enjoyment of this to dishing out the ?how?, with fists, heels, guns and hair. Yes, hair. The accolades in the video below: Bayonetta deserves them all.
Dear Esther
(thechineseroom/Robert Briscoe, Steam; 2012)
Platforms: Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, OnLive
My choices so far have been high-speed affairs requiring quick reactions to really get the most out of them. Dear Esther is something? else. Like Limbo, detailed later in this column, this is a game that leads its players to ask: is this a game? And like Limbo, it?s faintly unsettling, characterised by an elegant eeriness. But unlike Limbo, which plays as a puzzle-platformer at its core, not a great deal happens ? not like it does in most games, anyway. The player ? the explorer, the narrator (?) ? constructs their own plot from a series of scattered letters, fleeting insights into what may have happened on Dear Esther?s beautiful, and haunted (again, ?), Hebridean setting. One is left to wander (albeit via subtle prompts, tugging at today?s gamer?s appetite for exploration), viewing the landscape from a first-person perspective, accompanied only by the sound of the surrounding sea, occasional interjections of dialogue, and a score that wonderfully underpins the slow-reveal of Dear Esther?s secrets. It?s not a game that will take you long to ?complete?, but this is one that?ll stay long in the memory, and perhaps the strongest argument yet that ?games? are very capable of qualifying as ?art?. Utterly unique ? and as compelling to watch as to play.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
(Ignition Tokyo, UTV Ignition Entertainment; 2011)
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
(Briefly mentioned in Savage Pixels #3)
Well received critically but a commercial non-event, El Shaddai?s elementary mechanics (in other words: it has easy controls that one can pick up within minutes) and repetitive combat might have marked it as a makeweight title. But the 3D/2D hack-and-slash (and run and gun) gameplay came wrapped in some of the most (divisibly, admittedly) beautiful visuals to ever grace an action title. Also: it?s fun. It might sound like a simple enough element in videogames, but it?s amazing how many developers seem to put enjoyment some places behind perceived innovation and aesthetic frills in their priorities (read: list of gamer demands). El Shaddai?s plot is inspired by the Book of Enoch, but you need not have encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient Jewish texts to make sense of what?s happening; and, brilliantly, if you want to you can just sit back and let the game?s amazing visuals teleport you somewhere entirely new. It?s like? it?s like? if Roger Dean and Jordan Mechner made a game together, after pulling an all-nighter on the God of War series. And if you?re after a final stamp of quality assurance, members of the team behind this (including its art director) worked on the PlayStation 2 classic Okami, one of the Best Games Of All Time.
?
Fantastic Five ? Homeboy Sandman
Queens-born and Stones Throw-signed MC Homeboy Sandman (his most excellent real name is Angel Del Villar II) has been actively releasing material since 2007; but it?s only now, in 2012, that he?s attracting the attention that his inspired rhymes and laidback beats have long deserved. Following a couple of EP releases this year, his first long-player for Stones Throw, First of a Living Breed, was released in the UK on September 17 to positive reviews (Check out the BBC Music verdict here).
Asked for his five favourite videogames of all time, here?s what the one-time law student turned full-time rapper had to say?
?Due to financial constraints I ain't really get Nintendo until it was kinda played out. Yet, even still??
Bill Walsh College Football
(Multi-format; Wikipedia)
?Bill Walsh College Football on Sega Genesis? I used to play this in high school. I ain?t have it, but this kid Bolduc had it. I would use Auburn ?83 and would be unstoppable running with Bo Jackson. It wasn?t even fair.?
Contra
(Arcade, multi-format for home conversion; Wikipedia)
?I know Contra is a clich? but obviously there?s the 30 lives code, and then I was also feeling the gun assortment. The lazer I felt, but obviously the spread was the most practical.?
NOT Zelda
(N/A)
?I hated Zelda, sun. How could cats love playing Zelda so much? So boring.?
R.C. Pro-AM
(NES, Mega Drive; Wikipedia)
?I used to smoke cats in R.C. Pro-AM.?
Mike Tyson?s Punch Out!!
(NES; Wikipedia)
?I never beat this game. But I used to get to Mike Tyson a lot, but then he'd bust me. My timing punching Bald Bull in the stomach when he'd charge though was mad precise.?
Homeboy Sandman is on this internet thing here, Facebook here, and First of a Living Breed can be purchased direct from Stones Throw here.
?
Review ? Sleeping Dogs
(United Front Games, Square Enix)
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows
A chimera of an offering with a tumultuous development history spanning four years, Sleeping Dogs has no right to be as good as it is. Borrowing ? to be polite ? from a succession of preceding titles, originality at a premium, it should be a muddled proposition swiftly dispatched to the rising pile of middle-tier titles only usually picked up when found for a fiver. Yet I found myself exploring every square inch of its wonderfully presented Hong Kong, chasing collectibles and even caring about the fate of a few characters. That wasn?t in the brochure.
A third-person sandbox affair set in the aforementioned former British colony, or at least an exaggerated vision of it, Sleeping Dogs is immediately aesthetically reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto IV, and its combat ? mostly melee-style ? is unashamedly based on Rocksteady?s Batman games, Arkham Asylum and City. The island can be explored via a wide variety of vehicles; taxis can be hired to fast-travel to a desired destination; and the player-controlled protagonist, undercover cop Wei Shen, acquires more impressive homes as the game progresses. There are echoes of the PlayStation 2?s Yakuza and its sequel, likewise the two Shenmue games. It all sounds too familiar to comprise a hit, too second-hand to encourage several-hour sessions of play. But a hit this has been, topping the UK chart on its first week of release; and my 24 hours spent in its company before writing these words is suggestive of a few late nights and foggy mornings.
The success of Sleeping Dogs lies not in any singular feature ? unlike, say, the Max Payne series, which makes such a USP out of its bullet time mechanic (successfully appropriated here, actually). It?s the whole package that leaves a distinct impression. It?s not the prettiest game to look at; cars aren?t as responsive as those found in comparable releases; the shooting sections can be clumsy and, generally, Sleeping Dogs doesn?t go out of its way to challenge its player. Yet everything?s done to a high-enough standard; and more pertinently is successfully gelled into a complete experience that never feels like a series of set-pieces ill-balanced with downtime distractions.
The plot ? Shen is undercover within a Triad gang, with the aim being to bring them down from the inside ? is predictable enough, but it?s well fleshed and the main characters around Shen, on both the criminal and crime-fighting sides, feel more three-dimensional than your usual suspects. Worthy of applause for his wicked voicing of Police Superintendent Thomas Pendrew is Tom Wilkinson, one of a handful of US/UK actors involved with some impressive credits to their name. Also voicing roles are Lucy Liu and Emma Stone, though both US film stars are arguably underused. Will Yun Lee impresses as Shen ? an experienced TV actor in the States, this role could open more doors for him than Thief or Bionic Woman ever could.
The game is broken into ?missions? ? much like the structure of the sandbox GTA games. Police cases can be taken on in addition to the main plot ? four in total, and completing these increases Shen?s police experience ? while favours can be performed for more shady sorts, like stealing vans and aiding getaways. These criminal acts increase Shen?s Triad experience ? and both this and his police experience unlock abilities as they build. Shen can earn extra experience by dressing a certain way, and a separate Face meter measuring his overall reputation goes towards some pretty handy perks like having a car delivered to (near enough) any location, and improved combat performance.
Collectibles are scattered around Hong Kong, to be found both as the main plot unfolds and as side pursuits to the game?s narrative backbone. Health shrines boost (yup) Shen?s overall health, ultimately doubling the punishment he can take if all are discovered; and Jade statues, when returned to the dojo they were stolen from, unlock new martial arts techniques. If you?re willing to put the story of Sleeping Dogs aside for a while, ticking off these ?extras? will give you a distinct advantage over the harder opponents encountered in the game?s final few hours. Lock boxes contain money and clothing, and sometimes firearms, and are scattered all over Hong Kong ? play through enough, and eventually all of them become marked on your map, for easy discovery.
Exactly when one completes Sleeping Dogs will depend on how much time is spent building up Shen?s offensive and defensive capabilities. It?s possible that one could breeze through in something like 15 or 16 hours (I?m not sold on the claims by some magazines that the game can be beaten in 12), but it?s more likely that a figure around 20 will be reached, allowing for a smattering of side-quest completion (as achievements are available for completing certain percentages of optional police cases and Triad activities).
On the topic of achievements, some are easily met ? drive around the island and you?ll score one for exploration; change your whole outfit in a single wardrobe visit and you?ll unlock another; win $50k on a single cockfight gamble and, yup, another one. But some are incredibly tough ? 100% completion isn?t something that the average player is going to get out of Sleeping Dogs. It?s actually amazingly difficult to drive for a full two minutes, at speed, without scraping another vehicle or bumping a traffic light. (As, yes, there?s an achievement available for doing just that? don?t try for it while driving a stolen bus.)
A handful of irritations do present themselves. Shen is an athletic fellow (a couple of small side-missions have him completing free-run courses for a drugged-up cameraman), but despite being able to scale pretty sizeable piles of bricks and mortar, some comparatively small hops are inexplicably beyond him. Also, there are parts of the city where street lights are near walls, with enough of a gap between them for a man to slip through easily; yet an invisible barrier stops Shen in his tracks, which is a pain indeed when one is being pursued by gun-wielding assailants. Waypoints aren?t always clear, and Shen has to be stood in just the right place to open car doors and lockboxes ? again, frustrating under pressure. These bugs (quirks if you prefer) shouldn?t really be present in a game that?s spent as long as it has in development; but they don?t spoil the end product particularly, never provoking rage-quit fits.
One question presents itself upon completion of Sleeping Dogs: Did I enjoy that because it?s a genuinely good game, or because it?s the first halfway decent effort to follow a seasonal desert devoid of digital treats? Some from A, some from B, I suppose ? but United Front must be proud of their achievements here, not least of all because there was once a very strong possibility of Sleeping Dogs not even reaching release. That is has is the greatest triumph; that the end product is an engaging, accessible game that uses established mechanics in a way that doesn?t feel like shameless robbery, and tells a convincing tale of twists and turns, affections and deceptions, in a style unexpected from titles realised under stress, is a superb bonus.
?
Fantastic Five ? STAY+
Matt Farthing is the musical muscle of Stay+, a Manchester-based (or are they?) duo whose electronic fare manages to feel both familiar and envelope-pushing, the latter impression aided in no small part by their predilection for dynamic, innovative visuals.
Matt?s no stranger to the videogames world, and evidently enjoyed listing his Fantastic Five?
Team Fortress Classic (HL 1 Mod)
(Windows; Wikipedia)
?From quite a young age I was heavily into the idea of online gaming. I'd install demos of Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem and Doom and ? full of wide-eyed childish hope and the belief that everything to do with computers was somehow magical ? I'd try to connect to multiplayer servers. Even though we didn't 'have' the internet.
?When we finally 'got' the internet, technology had left us behind. The family's shit old Pentium 90 didn't have a 3D card so my online gaming experience was restricted to trolling chatrooms and getting into message board flame wars for sport. I'd hang at my mate's houses playing Quake 2 CTF for days at a time, marvelling at the coloured lighting, almost believable curved edges and rocking out to Sonic Mayhem.
?Then Half Life came out. No 3D card necessary. I'd play the living shit out of Team Fortress Classic (haven't got the fine motor skills/patience for CS). Joined a 'clan' [UKD], played as an engineer on a screen the size of a postage stamp. That game was pure class.?
Pok?mon Red
(Game Boy; Wikipedia)
?I think that this franchise, alongside Final Fantasy VII, was like a gateway drug to the depraved world of RPGs for a lot of people I know. This was digital crack in a little red cartridge. From that all important first decision in Prof. Oak's laboratory, to the unbridled tension when you fight that Red Gyarados or the glitched-out MissingNo (you only got one chance in the entire game to catch them), it was un-put-down-able. Then factor in the trading system, the cards, the TV show... us kids didn't stand a chance.
?But the really amazing thing is that, under all the pomp and media assault, this is actually a fantastic game. A rich world to explore, great art style, a good story, 151 individual Pok?mon to collect and a well fleshed-out combat system.?
DayZ (ARMA 2 mod)
(Windows; Wikipedia)
?This is a weird choice as it's the only game to make my 30-plus long shortlist that I haven't actually... played. What I have done, however, is watch 20-something hours of gameplay of it on YouTube. What I absolutely love about this game is what it represents. There's a lack of recent games on my list, because games are getting stupider. The Call of Duty franchise reaches new depths of stupidity with every iteration. Partially through catering for the casual, backwards-cap wearing, jock crowd and partially through this 'blockbuster' cinematic bullshit experience that everyone seems to think they crave that, in reality, just snatches the controller out of your hand every time something interesting happens.?
?DayZ is an incredibly unforgiving first person zombie survival simulator modded off the back of an incredibly unforgiving realistic modern war simulator. This game is fucking hard. If you charge into the field, you're gonna die. If you make too much noise, you're gonna die. If you get injured - you're gonna bleed out and die. You might crawl towards another player (finding them is rare, the closest a lot of people come to interaction being the sound of far-off and desperate gunfire) with the hope that he/she will take pity and toss you a blood bag. Most likely they'll stave your head in with a pipe (ammo is scarce) and thieve all your shit. It's emergent gameplay that relies on real people to provide the drama, not pretty cut scenes.?
?It's... amazing, and cold-hearted, and it plays into the worst sides of human nature. Watch "The Days Ahead" play through videos on YouTube. You'll get addicted.?
Doom 2
(Nightmare difficulty co-op over serial link, running Simpsons.wad, at 3am when you're 12-years-old)
(Multi-format; Wikipedia)
?Doom 1/2 is an obvious choice. A defining experience for any 90s gamer. Doom 2 running the Simpsons.wad in your PJs on nightmare difficultly with you and your cousin's computers all linked up with serial cables, whilst not particularly good, was pretty much the most fun I've ever had playing a computer game. You had to roll your sleeves up and type some pretty complicated shit into DOS but they were some good times.?
Minecraft
(Multi-format; Wikipedia)
?A game with no point. A developer with no publisher. On paper, niche at best; in reality, one of the most popular games of all time. This game is more than the some of its parts, of which there are many. This game makes you feel vulnerable, and sad, and lonely; but also gives you the most amazing sense of achievement and freedom. Much like DayZ the gameplay is emergent. Most of the time you are reacting to situations of your own creation, or random chance. Only, with purist Minecraft, there are no other people rolling the dice along with you. You just, sorta, live in it for as long as you want. It's a startlingly beautiful game. Without it I probably would have written about six albums by now.?
Matt?s found some time away from Minecraft to crack on with some music-making. A new Stay+ single is (or soon will be!) available via Black Butter, and they?re working on an AV EP, details of which will be posted at their Tumblr.
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?
Review ? Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
(High Moon Studios, Activision)
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
High Moon?s 2010 Transformers game, War for Cybertron, was something of an anomaly amongst games featuring the seemingly never-ending conflict between (the heroic) Autobots and (the evil) Decepticons: it was (very) good. The official games of the Michael Bay movies? Terrible, awful things. But War for? successfully captured the spirit of fun that should run through any game where you get to play as a huge transforming robot with a massive gun or some at your disposal, and also delivered a storyline which fans of the 1980s comic and cartoon could enjoy with guilty pleasure-like relish. It was the best TF game since Melbourne House/Atari?s 2004 effort for the PlayStation 2.
And Fall of Cybertron is even more impressive than its predecessor ? and, like it, is presented as an over-the-shoulder third-person shooter. As its title implies, the situation on the Transformers? home planet has become desperate, and the race is on between the warring factions to escape their dying world for a new start somewhere across the galaxy. Hey! Guess where they?re headed!?
Yup, as Cliffjumper discovers during his stealth mission ? the player gets to control a variety of characters, each with their own special abilities; the small, red Bumblebee-alike can turn invisible, allowing him to sneak past most enemies ? the hulking metal ?bots are off to Earth. Albeit an Earth that appears to be in a Mesozoic-like continental arrangement (0.55 on the launch trailer, embedded below) ? didn?t they crash land four million years ago, rather than 250 million?
Such a small aesthetic oversight can?t take anything away from a game that, at times, stuns with its graphical presentation. Even when stationary, parts of each Transformer whirr and buzz, always on the move. Transformations themselves are great ? there are few third-person gaming moments as great as running along as a character like Starscream or Vortex, shooting down an opponent before leaping into the air, transforming and soaring skywards to rain fire down upon more adversaries. It?s a very geeky variety of digital poetry in user-controlled motion. Jazz is great fun to play as, switching between speedy car-like mode and a robot form with the use of a Bionic Commando-like grappling gun.
If it wasn?t clear from the above words, I?m something of a TF aficionado. And Fall of? certainly plays its fan service card with gleeful regularity. Characters, well-voiced throughout (Ironhide aside ? where?s the grumpiness?) quote lines from the 1986 animated movie ? Grimlock and fellow Dinobot Slag, here renamed Slug, argue the toss over ?caesium salami? and ?beryllium baloney?, with Wheelie mercifully nowhere to be seen or heard; Megatron gatecrashes a crown-topped Starscream?s leadership party and reels off Galvatron?s movie line: ?Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.? (Find it at 0.38 here.) And to print any more examples is to ruin the fun to be had spotting the references yourself.
But even if Transformers was never a part of your childhood, this is still a really enjoyable, at times incredibly challenging action/adventure game. Each player-controlled Transformer has access to two weapons at any time, a regular one and a heavy weapon (less ammo, more power), plus a close-range melee attack. Every Transformer can attack in vehicle mode, but naturally tanks pack more of a punch than sporty hatchbacks.
Environments are (pleasingly) more varied than the winding corridors of War for? ? a particularly great level has the player controlling an airborne character as he attempts to bring down a bridge, while late on a session as Starscream has the Decepticon air commander attacking a multi-levelled installation run by Shockwave, necessitating both nifty flying and close-quarters combat. Controls aren?t the most intuitive amongst games of this type, but any who?s played War for? will feel at home, and newcomers should click with it after 20 minutes or so. As there?s a lot of clicking to be done (the right stick on a 360 pad melees; the left transforms).
If you?re really after holes to pick at? Identikit enemies are a drag, but what is High Moon expected to do? Invent a raft of new Transformers and then kill them off three seconds after each has made an appearance? Save points are regular enough, but not always where they might be expected, which can hinder progress on occasion. The collision detection isn?t always perfect, and a couple of times it wasn?t clear, at all, where I was supposed to point my Transformer at in order to proceed.
Particularly annoying was a moment, or two, with Grimlock. To get through a half-open door a switch had to be struck on the other side, by hurling a barrel at it with amazing precision. Get the throw wrong, the door closes, and you have to start again (by hitting a switch on your own side of the barrier first). This comes after it?s been made clear, when Jazz and Cliffjumper track the AWOL Dinobot, that Grimlock can basically carve through whatever?s put in front of him. High Moon, please? If I miss the switch three times, can I please just kick the bloody door in? The ending?s a bit of an anticlimax but it sets up a third game in this series well enough. Hey! Guess where that?ll be set?
But really, I?m nitpicking. If you?re a TF fan, Fall of Cybertron is about as important to your 2012 as your Soundwave duvet cover was your 1987. And if you?re simply a fan of immersive, inventive and (and this is important!) entertaining third-person shooters, it?s got a load to offer you, too.
Sideswipe is in it. Wheelie isn?t. ?The Touch? plays over the credits while Jazz does a loose-hipped Cybertronian version of Peter Crouch's robotic dance moves. Excellent.
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Get Gaming Again: Part Two
Back to Iain Lee. Closing his Retro Gamer column of issue 99, he writes: ?I suspect a few of you out there have, at some point, turned your back on gaming. But we are back now, and I guess that?s all that matters.? Certainly eyes have been opened in recent times to the potential of games ? to the depths they can explore, the emotions that they can stir. Yet it?s rare indeed that a title of ingenuity, integrity and against-the-grain extraordinariness tops the sales charts.
And it?s perhaps always been this way, certainly for the past couple of hardware cycles. Back in April 2003 Edge ran a cover feature titled, Bored to death of videogames?, examining the gaming world?s ?mid-life crisis?. Then like now, sports simulations and awful (but) licensed games were amongst the most successful releases ? the likes of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, FIFA, WWE and James Bond were big sellers. But the magazine offered alternatives to these box-tickers, listing 10 releases ?capable of rekindling that old gaming passion?. In no particular order, they were: Pikmin, Ico, Super Monkey Ball, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (yes, really), Metroid Prime, GTA: Vice City, Luigi?s Mansion, Vib Ribbon, Halo: Combat Evolved and Rez.
As you can probably guess, this feature was the main inspiration for my Get Gaming Again list. Which continues?
Limbo
(Playdead, Microsoft Games Studios; 2010)
Platforms: OS X, Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
A puzzle-platformer like no other puzzle-platformer you?ve ever played, or will do again, Limbo is a beautiful, shocking, invigorating, distressing, enthralling and utterly original piece of? well, if this isn?t art in videogame form, I don?t know what is. Monochromatic, hazy visuals and extremely minimalist audio unsettle the player; devious puzzles lop our tiny hero?s head off, split him in two, crush him, splat him, impale him? Death is instant, and way more brutal than what?s seen in games quite obviously aimed at ?mature? players. The story is what you choose to make of it ? all that?s clear is that the boy, the wide-eyed, blindly-fumbling-onwards protagonist of this exquisite piece, must continue from left to right until, finally, he reaches his goal. And then: blackness, nothing. A perfect rainy day game, Limbo can be beaten in three hours. But the emptiness it leaves on ?completion? lasts far, far longer.
Mirror?s Edge
(EA Digital Illusions CE, Electronic Arts; 2008)
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
It?s hard, some years after completing it, to remember the frustration that accompanied a play through of this innovative, if deeply flawed, first-person platformer. For a start, making leaps from A to B in such a perspective could be a nightmare; add to that level designs not always conducive to elegant parkour-style traversing, and cops with guns doing their utmost to bring you down mid-jump, and? Oh, there you go. The red mist has descended again. So why highlight Mirror?s Edge as a game that stands out as one of this generation?s very best? Because it?s got balls. Nobody had made a game like it before, and nobody has since ? albeit for very good reasons, as not everything worked. It rewards avoiding conflict. And because it looks stunning, the bleached-white buildings of its high-rise playgrounds contrasted by flashes of bright blues, reds and oranges. Quoted in issue 126 of Games TM, Half Life 2 and Dishonored art director Viktor Antonov called this game ?an example of pure design? It?s about experiencing a city and its architecture in a meaningful way, rather than having it as a backdrop to the game?. The environment is the game, and that in itself is a pretty radical concept.
Child of Eden
(Q Entertainment, Ubisoft; 2011)
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Say the word Rez to a certain breed of gamer and you?ll be stuck with them for a good 10 minutes. If you?ve ever played Tetsuya Mizuguchi?s unprecedented rail-shooter-cum-rhythm-action classic, released for PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast in 2001/2 (and in HD via Xbox Live Arcade in 2008), you?ve got plenty to say about it. Only, getting the words out doesn?t come easily. It?s a simple thing ? line targets up in your sights, shoot them, proceed to next stage. Easy. Pure. And Rez is both of these things. Its packaging was inspired, though. As visually arresting over a shoulder as when you?re playing the thing, Rez also harnessed the emotional connect of electronic music, embellishing it with player-determined sound effects, to result in an experience unrivalled in 21st century gaming. Until Child of Eden came along, anyway. It might not be a big-seller, but Child of Eden is the best Kinect-compatible title available for the 360, and it works well enough with the PlayStation Move set-up, and with regular controllers too. Like Rez, there?s no plot to speak of; but if it?s complete immersion in a fantastical digital world you?re after, this is your game.
Batman: Arkham City
(Rocksteady, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment; 2011)
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Wii U (forthcoming)
(Reviewed in Savage Pixels #5)
Yes, I know. Rocksteady?s second sandbox Batman adventure was a huge commercial success, reaching sales of two million in October and over six million by February 2012, and was one of the highest-rated games of 2011. So why is it here? Because? Around Arkham City?s release I somehow managed to have two copies in my possession. Being the kind-hearted soul I am (and because you can?t sell PS3 promos to a certain high-street chain trading in second-hand games) I gave a copy to my then-neighbour. I moved house in January, but returned to my old haunt a few months later, meeting said neighbour-of-recent-past for a drink or some in what was once my local. I asked him if he?d played this yet, as I?d done so and loved every second. No, he told me. He really only bought his PlayStation 3 for the driving games. I?m sure I didn?t spill my pint, but in my mind?s eye my jaw was certainly detached and rolling about the pub?s garden. So! If you see your own attitude to gaming reflected in this story, reader, do please take a chance on something different. Take a chance on Arkham City! Over six million players can?t be wrong. And they?re not.
There are more. Way more. Please do list your own examples of contemporary games capturing that ?old gaming passion?. Rayman: Origins? Little King?s Story? Vanquish? Maaan, I love Platinum Games. Maybe I need to run a Developers Special, soon.
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Next time! Resident Evil 6 and the decline of survival horror. And some other stuff. Maybe Dishonored. Probably Dishonored. Can someone send me a copy of Dishonored, please?
I?m on that Twitter.
Homeboy Sandman photo by Eric Coleman
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