Health Article and healthy TIps

Gold Price in Goldcoinsgain.com

2010-03-26T11:34:00.000+07:00

Gold as one of the most valuable gems, since hundreds years ago becomes something used to show the level of someone. People who have a lot of gold claimed as important people or royal family. Nowadays, people worship gold more to invest. It becomes one of the most profitable invest medias.

Because of the amount of people who invest gold are increasing during the time, and also because of the value of it, people who want or who have gold in their safe have to know about recent price of gold in the market. It is important thing to do to calculate if the invest gets profit or not. To see and check recent spot gold, people can visit Goldcoinsgain.com and read the statistics they give. People must also read about the information in the page this company provides.

The price of gold or gold spot in this company set up by 5 banks which claimed as the best banks in London. This company becomes the gold provider which always visit by gold investors from around the world because its service. People trust that this company can be relied to see and update recent gold prices in the market. If you are a gold investor, you must join with other investors to regularly visit this company and see the gold price.

Chronic Sinus Infection And Its Complications

2010-03-26T11:33:00.000+07:00

Have you ever suffered from sinus infection? If so, then you are already familiar how hard life can be dealing with its symptoms. Fortunately, most cases of sinus infection are acute, meaning the symptoms eventually go away on its own after a few days. But imagine yourself dealing with the pain and discomfort for a long period of time. If this is the case, you might already be suffering from chronic sinus infection.

Chronic Sinus Infection and Its Symptoms

May it be acute or chronic, having sinus infection means that the nasal cavities in your sinuses are infected or inflamed. If the infection is short-lived, most probably you have suffered from acute sinusitis. However, if the symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks or keep on coming back, chronic sinus infection is the usual diagnosis. So how do you recognize a chronic sinus infection? Difficulty in breathing because of nasal congestion is the usual complaint, along with thick nasal discharge from the nose or throat. Nasal obstruction can also lead to reduced sense of smell and taste for some. Pain, tenderness and swelling are also commonly felt especially around the eyes, cheeks, nose or forehead. Other symptoms to watch out for are toothache, ear pain, sore throat, bad breath, nausea, coughing and fatigue.

Complications of Chronic Sinus Infection

If you notice yourself exhibiting the signs and symptoms of chronic sinus infection, see your doctor immediately. It is not advisable to self-medicate, as this condition is especially hard to treat. Also, there is the danger of getting immune to drugs or overdosing. It is also important to be informed that chronic sinus infection, if left untreated, can have serious complications. For those suffering from asthma, chronic sinusitis can trigger an attack. Another possible complication is meningitis, or inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. Vision problems, such as double vision or blindness, are also likely especially when the infection reaches the eyes. There is also a higher risk of aneurysms or blood clots when the infection spreads to the veins and interferes with the blood supply to the brain.

For those of you suffering from chronic sinus infection, the good news is that there are lots of treatment options available that can help get rid of the infection. Combination of drug medications, steam treatment, nasal irrigation, and surgery are just some of the common treatments. To know which one is best for you, work with your doctor to get accurate diagnosis and determine the right course of action.

Prevention is also the best cure for chronic sinus infection. When sick with colds or flu, treat them immediately to avoid the condition from getting worse. If medications do not work as expected, consult a health professional at once. Leading a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy and exercising daily is also recommended for a stronger immune system.

Business Insurance for Connecticut

2010-03-13T13:02:00.000+07:00

I have been looking for insurance policies which are suitable with my requirements since a month ago. I have been shopping around for the quotes since then. But, there is no significant result of my journey. The insurance which I look for is not insurance for my personal security. It is insurance for my business, including my company building and my employees.

I really am in need of this insurance right now because I want to make sure that my business will develop well as I try to expand it. I try to use the internet to find CT business insurance quotes because I barely have time to come in and out of insurance companies around Connecticut these days. The insurance that I want to buy is Group Benefits Hartford, CT which can provide my business with long term insurance. Furthermore, the policy of Workers Comp Hartford, CT also seems perfect for my employees when anything unexpected happen in the office. In the middle of my searching for Commercial Property Middleton, CT, I find this attractive website. This website offers various quotes for business insurance and it seems capable to help me find the policies which I need.

The name of the website is Elliottinsgroup.com. Yes, it is the official website of Elliot Insurance Group. I think I am going to fill out the free quotes on the website now and if it is okay, I guess I will buy the premium right away! It means this paid article will end here!

Find All Kinds of Address Plaques Here

2010-01-29T22:16:00.000+07:00

A home is very important for people because this is the place where people will spend most of their time. Home can protect people from bad weather and you also can gather with your family at home. If you have a lot of families and friends, you should make your home attractive so people who want to visit your home can find it easily. If you don’t want cheerful color for your home, you can buy unique address plaque so people can find your home easily.

There are a lot of shops which sell the address plaques and you should find the right shop. Now a day, to ease you find the best address plaque easily you can get to your computer and check out Justaddressplaques.com. This website provides the largest selection of address plaques and you can buy the address plaque which has the best design and style. Besides the address plaques, you also can find the address sign from this website. You will find a lot of address signs which has unique design and shape so people can recognize your home based on the address sign.

The address plaque is the most reasonable idea to ease people finds your home. So you should buy the address plaque today and put it in front of your home.

Never fall for these ads

2010-01-25T14:18:00.000+07:00

It's hard to go anywhere on the internet without encountering some of these ads for products to produce "enhancements". The English language is a wonderful tool for describing something indirectly. Pity the poor marketer stuck with a language that only has one word meaning erection. Life would soon become so boring for all concerned. With English, the current in-word is enhancement. This manages the capture the idea you can take something relatively ordinary and, with a little help, make it extraordinary. The usual hook for all these magic products, whether they come as pills, liquids or creams, is that they transform a man into a sexual stallion who will be able to keep a woman satisfied the whole night through (and then some if she's not physically damaged). They are always described as natural. It's strange how we are supposed to trust something more because it's made out of grasses, berries, cactus and roots ground together, and doubt anything with artificial chemicals inside. But you will always see lists of Latin names for different plants and extracts, impressing us with the magic of names and labels. The final preparation will be shipped to us at high price but, we are assured, results are guaranteed.

Well, one of the happier tasks entrusted to the FDA is to monitor and control the way these products are marketed and sold. A dedicated team of researchers slaves away in laboratories, identifying all the ingredients and ensuring everything is as described on the label and not in the least bit dangerous for us to take. If the FDA finds a product misdescribed, it can instruct the manufacturer to change its ads. If the product is unsafe, it will be withdrawn from the market. Which brings us to Stiff Nights - a dietary supplement that, through its name and the advertizing copy, suggested it had magical properties in the bedroom. Those lab people have prodded and tweaked all the molecules in Stiff Nights and emerged with a list of all the ingredients. First, though, a slight diversion from the main thrust of this article. A question: did Stiff Nights work? Remarkably it did. In fact, users were impressed their sexual performance was very definitely enhanced. They kept ordering more. Why? Because the main ingredient identified by the FDA was sildenafil. For those of you not up with names, this is the generic name for viagra. Yes, those cunning manufacturers in Grand Rapids, Mich. were grinding up those little blue pills and mixing them in with all those natural, healthy plants and berries.

It's a sad fact of life that some unscrupulous people will buy cheap sildenafil and sell it on as expensive enhancement pills. Ignoring the excessive profiteering what with sildenafil being so cheap and Stiff Nights being so expensive, this was actually dangerous. Here was a product described as "all natural". Yet, if you took it at the same time as any other drug containing a nitrate or which reduced blood pressure, you could end up in your local emergency room. So the FDA has made the world safe for us yet again. The moral of this story? Never pay the high prices demanded by those who sell all natural dietary products to enhance your manhood. Buy viagra or its generic analog sildenafil and get a better result at a fraction the cost.

Time to cut down on sleeping pills

2010-01-15T09:38:00.000+07:00

The health story that had everyone's attention at the beginning of the year was the threat of swine flu. We all watched as the threat level inched up to pandemic. The number of people dying was like watching the latest lottery numbers to see how many lost. Yet, although millions of people have caught this flu, only a few tens of thousand have died. Our attention shifted elsewhere. But there is still interesting news about the pattern of deaths. The people most likely to die are young and, almost without exception, they are obese. Frankly, if you carry excess weight, this flu is a killer, which raises a more general question for you to chew on. No matter what you might choose to believe, the majority of people are overweight because of their lifestyles. They eat too much and exercise too little. So, the US is a country where individual liberty is the most important quality of life. It's up to every one of us to take personal responsibility for what we do and the consequences of those actions. So what personal responsibility should we take for our own health? Further, if we are against big government, should people who do not take care of their health just be allowed to die if they do not have enough money to pay for health insurance?

The latest statistics show that, as a nation, we spend about 16% of the gross domestic product on health care. This includes the cost of medications and is double the average in countries around the world. But we are not a healthy nation. Counting the number of prescriptions fulfilled through real world pharmacies, we consume more sleeping pills and antidepressants per head of population than any other nation. That's before we start guessing how many drugs are purchased on the internet. We are seriously overmedicated. The results are easy to see. Many drugs cause insomnia as an unintended side effect. So we all walk around like zombies and beg our doctors for relief. So now comes the difficult decision. Do you reduce the dosages of the drugs you are taking, or add ambien to the mixture to offset the side effects? The rational answer is to do without the first drug altogether. If it is interfering with your sleep and making you feel worse, you should stop taking it. Adding a second drug to balance out the side effects of the first is more expensive and potentially going to make you dependent on one or both drugs.

When there is very clear scientific evidence showing meditation and relaxation techniques as a completely effective treatment for insomnia, there should never be a need to take sleeping pills. People should go through the simple training program and emerge better able to control their sleep patterns. As a result, their general health will improve. But, as with everything, there are problems. The marketers have managed to convince the majority of us that drugs are the best form of treatment. We are taught to dismiss psychology as a waste of time. Worse, private health insurance often will not pay for the training sessions. At a time of recession, this leaves many with no choice. There is only enough to buy ambien and not enough to pay for training in something we do not trust.

Talk-talk is better than pill-pill

2010-01-14T13:55:00.000+07:00

For some reason, anxiety has become one of the most common medical problems of our age. It seems to have overtaken depression. One explanation is that people are less judgmental if you admit anxiety. There is considerable prejudice and some discrimination against people suffering with a depressive disorder. It's considered only one step away from madness and insanity which justifies locking up those affected in a hospital or institution - the public safety argument is that these people are a danger to themselves and others. The reaction of family, friends and employers is the unsympathetic view that depression is a sign of weakness, that with a little effort, people can snap out of their despair and turn their lives around. But we have all experienced some anxiety at some point in our lives and so are more accepting. It's strange that a change of label can make such a big difference. In many cases, there is nothing to choose between anxiety and depression, i.e. the depressed are often anxious and the anxious get depressed. But society feels less threatened by anxiety and is prepared to be more caring and supportive.

The results of a clinical trial in the north of England have just been published. It involved almost 4,000 patients with anxiety and depression. They were referred to a stepped program of psychological counseling. The majority received low level cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered over the telephone. Their progress was carefully monitored and those who did not respond well were referred to higher levels of CBT on a face-to-face basis. Over a twelve month period, the participants each received counseling lasting an average of 2 hours 45 minutes. The results show that 75% were either in remission or recovery. This is yet another piece of scientific research confirming psychological therapy to be the most effective way to treat anxiety disorders and depression. What is particularly interesting about this latest English study is that about two-thirds of those who improved only received therapy by telephone. Even a disembodied voice offering comfort and advice delivers effective treatment. As a result of this latest research, some 75,000 patients have now been enrolled in a national program of telephone therapy. The initial results are promising.

Now is the moment when we all put our prejudices aside. Yes, the British have socialized medicine and are treated by Stalinist-trained doctors, but this research is not unique to Britain. There is a rising tide a evidence to show talk-talk is better than a drug-based approach. The reason is not hard to find. People can self-medicate. They go online to buy xanax, the most advertized and so most popular of all the drugs used to treat anxiety. There is no need to produce a prescription. This cuts down the cost to a minimum. No hassles with the health insurance company in arguing whether psychological therapy is accepted, no co-payments and hospital bills. Just a few minutes online brings welcome relief a few days later. But there are just as many clinical trials showing xanax and the other drugs work best over the short term. People must either talk themselves better or get help. Therapy brings lasting cures. If the British are correct in finding telephone delivery just as effective as expensive face-to-face sessions for the majority suffering with anxiety disorders, we should be looking for this service in the US.

New research finds limits to the effectiveness of opioids

2010-01-11T11:03:00.000+07:00

Once formed, habits are difficult to break. It always just seems easier to go on as you have before. This can become a serious problem when science gets in the way of the habits. If you look at the world of adverts in print and the media, you will see opioids recommended as the sure-fire drugs to use as painkillers, no matter what the pain. It carries on in the venerable tradition of the slogan, "Beecham's Pills cure all ills". The idea of a panacea - one pill to rule them all, as The Dark Lord of Mordor might have said - has been around since the beginning of time. This is fair game for the marketers to use when talking to the public, but the same thinking has entered the training manuals for the medical profession. Sit in lectures for student doctors and you will hear the same story that opioids are the first line of defense when it comes to moderate to severe pain. Once you have the source of the prescriptions in on the group think, the habit is almost impossible to break.

The monitoring and review process put in place after a drug is released into the market is designed to catch any unexpected side effects. If evidence of problems emerges, the FDA can require the manufacturer to change the warnings on the label or, in the worst cases, withdraw the drug from the market. But this monitoring process is not designed to catch the drugs that are ineffective. If no-one has an adverse reaction when taking it, no report is filed with the FDA. It's safe so who cares whether it works. All this brings us to the Cochrane Collaboration. This is a non-profit group where researchers sift through and analyze existing published medical research to see whether there are any consistent patterns - what might not be apparent in one clinical trial involving two hundred participants might be identified when you compile the results from fifteen different trials, each involving two hundred participants. Two recently published Cochrane Reports have concluded that opioids should not be routinely prescribed to patients even with severe pain from hip and knee osteoarthritis.

In both Reports, the independent conclusions were that the adverse side effects outweighed the benefits and that tramadol, as the leading opioid, was no more effective than the strongest NSAIDs. The first Report consolidated the results from ten trials involving a total of just over 2,250 participants and concluded that there was little pain relief and minimal improvement in mobility. With higher dosages, one in twelve participants experienced adverse side effects. The second Report consolidated the results from eleven trials involving 1,020 participants and found little difference between the effectiveness of tramadol and the placebo. This leads to a somewhat controversial conclusion. That doctors should not routinely prescribe opioids for the treatment of hip and knee osteoarthritis. There should be a careful discussion of treatment options including weight loss, physical therapy and exercise, and a detailed explanation of all the adverse side effects to be expected. This new research does not change the general acceptance of tramadol as an effective painkiller. All it does is confirm that there is no such thing as one pill to cure all ills.

War is used to test every kind of technology

2010-01-11T11:01:00.000+07:00

It's a sad fact of life that war is good for business. Companies that manufacture weapons need to prove their technology works. So small wars are excellent testing grounds for both the current and new ideas. If everything performs as it should, other governments around the world will buy the systems for their own armed forces. But wars are not just about the latest guns, armored vehicles, ships or airplanes. They also test the people who fight. Despite the drive to keep fighters safe by using drones and other systems to kill the enemy from a safe distance, human beings still have to go face-to-face with the enemy in combat. Once you put people into real fighting situations, they get injured. For a while, this was not a problem but, as the engagement in both Iraq and Afghanistan has continued, the strain on the volunteer forces has increased. Military personnel are being rotated more rapidly with less time to recover from injury. As this is being written, President Obama is considering whether to increase the contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan. If an increase is authorized, this will put even more strain on the armed services.

The US Government Accountability Office is responsible for monitoring how effectively the Department of Defense uses its resources. Deployment strategies have seen more rapid rotations of soldiers into combat zones for longer tours of duty. This has led to an increasing chorus of complaints that there are not enough uninjured personnel to form an effective fighting force. In recent studies, some 15% of the enlisted personnel "resting" in the US were injured. These were not life-threatening conditions. The people were "walking wounded". But, when their time came to return to the combat zone, almost three-quarters were sent back even though still injured. Unfortunately, it's not for the GAO to review how commanders in the field use injured personnel. All that can be said is that all serve their country with honor.

Despite the efforts of the Department of Defense to reduce blogging by serving personnel, there has been a steady stream of evidence about the use of tramadol. Back home, families also give interviews in their local newspapers confirming they routinely end bottles of tramadol out to their family members. All this anecdotal evidence confirms the power of this drug to keep people mobile and active, even in a high-stress environment. Leaving aside the question of whether US personnel should be fighting overseas, the reality is that the freedom of the families to buy tramadol online is helping to keep soldiers at their fighting best. Because their pain is relieved, they sleep better and fight with greater distinction. Cheap tramadol may be old technology but, in these two wars, it's proving once again how effective it is to keep pain under control. So, if you also suffer from moderate to severe pain, you too can benefit from the use of tramadol - the most commonly used drug in combat zones is available to help you fight the pain on the home front. Get a better quality of life and buy tramadol online today.

2 Steps To Six Pack Abs

2009-12-31T15:21:00.000+07:00

First off, I want to mention that, for most people, getting six pack abs is not an easy task. It requires dedication, but it is possible! Below is a general 2-step guide that, if followed religiously for 3 months, will produce results.

Step 1: Nutrition

This is the single most important part of the puzzle, hands down. You can have the most impressive set of abs, but if they're covered with a layer of fat, you won't see them! Break up your day with 5 or 6 mini-meals

First off, I want to mention that, for most people, getting six pack abs is not an easy task. It requires dedication, but it is possible! Below is a general 2-step guide that, if followed religiously for 3 months, will produce results.

Step 1: Nutrition

This is the single most important part of the puzzle, hands down. You can have the most impressive set of abs, but if they're covered with a layer of fat, you won't see them! Break up your day with 5 or 6 mini-meals because this jump starts your metabolism. And stop eating the food that is preventing results: white bread, loads of pasta, soda, candy, fast food, hydrogenated oils, sugars and fructose corn syrup.

Instead, replace them with foods that will help you reach your goal: oatmeal, olive oil, whole grain breads, fruits, vegetables, nuts, eggs, natural peanut butter, chicken, fish, protein and water. Be realistic- you'll slip here and there, but make a conscious effort to radically improve your eating habits because getting a six pack will be impossible if you don't.

Step 2: Exercise

You need to concern yourself with 3 different exercises: cardio, weightlifting and ab exercises. And aim to workout 3- 4 times a week.

The cardio you do can be anything: walking, running, biking, swimming....whichever cardio you don't mind doing so that you'll stick with it. Aim for 30-45 minutes, a minimum of 2 times a week.

Weightlifting is important because 3 pounds of added muscle burns as many calories as a 1 mile jog...and this is while you're just sitting around! Aim for 30-45 minutes, a minimum of 2 times a week. If you're confused as to what exercises to do for each body part, check out out the following website. It features professional bodybuilders, but the information is great and can be used by anyone.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm

The last exercise you need to incorporate into your workout is ab exercises. Aim to work your abs a minimum of 3 times a week. There are a ton of different ab exercises you can do so try to find 3 or so that you enjoy doing so you can mix it up. A good database of different ab exercises is:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exername.php?MainMuscle=Abdominals

Tip: mix up your workout routine every 2 weeks to keep your body guessing and changing. Add or take away different weight or ab exercises, or at the very least, vary the weight, reps or form of cardio you do.

Well, there you have it. Follow the above for 3 months religiously, and while results will vary from person to person, you will experience improvement.

It will take dedication on your part, but imagine the feeling you'll get when you look in the mirror and like what you see.

Preparing For Pregnancy

2009-12-31T15:20:00.002+07:00

How childbirth is happiness for the parents; preparation for childbirth; change in lifestyle, diet, fitness regime; information on health background of the couple; information on stress, disorders, and anxiety in pregnancy.
Almost every woman is blessed with the capacity to bear a child at least once in her lifetime. It is considered to be one of the greatest gifts that a woman can give her husband. Bearing a child would make the couple more closer together, and at this certain point in their lives they can actually call themselves a family. Upon learning that the woman is pregnant, most couples enthusiastically start planning for her pregnancy and eventual childbirth.

When talking about pregnancy, it is important to know about preconception issues regarding on giving birth. A check up with the physician or midwife would be advisable for the woman in order to face facts on childbirth. Physical preparation is needed for giving birth, since this could really change the normal function of the woman's body. A caregiver would be helpful in preparing the woman's body in conceiving, and also impart information concerning potential problems in pregnancy. Anxiety is felt at this point, since the woman would really have to follow certain precautions in order to conceive a healthy baby. By seeking advice regarding on preconception, safety, lifestyle changes, prenatal vitamins, and the importance of folic acid, the woman could really prepare for giving birth.

In preparing for pregnancy, a change in the woman's lifestyle is needed. Smoking cigarettes is a definite no-no, and also the consumption of alcohol. These addictions can affect the health of both the woman and her unborn baby. A woman might need to lose or gain weight, according to her present weight relative to her height and build. Being too fat or too thin might bring complications for both the woman and the baby. A good start in preparing for childbirth would be to establish a fitness regime for the period of the pregnancy. Asking the physician about nutrition and working out would be recommended for possible questions regarding exercise and food intake.

Learning more about the woman's body while on the early stages of giving birth is essential for proper knowledge of the situation. Various parts of a woman's body have specific roles when it comes to pregnancy. Certain disorders from both prospective parents should be discussed with the physician for additional health background information. Anxiety and stress is also felt by the couple since this is a very critical stage for the woman. Preconception stress is normal in women about to give birth, considering factors such as scheduling, sexuality, and self esteem, among many others.

When preparing for pregnancy, the couple should be confident enough to know how to handle a child. Knowledge of early pregnancy symptoms are also important since these are signs that giving birth would happen in due time. When the couple feels that they are ready, then a visit to the Obstetrician/Gynecologist (OBGYN) would help in gleaning more information on pregnancy. At this point, the couple can make use of a pregnancy calendar in order to follow the due course of giving birth.
Anxiety is often felt by women when they know that they are pregnant. Feelings of worry and tension are usual signs that shows her being anxious about giving birth. But by spending time with your husband, regular visits to the OBGYN, finding time to relax and unwind, with good exercise, anxiety should not be a problem at all. All you have to worry about is what to name the baby?

Excitotoxicity and Autism | Autism Treatment

2009-12-08T14:34:00.000+07:00

The Autism and Alzheimer communities, as well as other groups affected neurologically, have a theory about the over excitability in the brain from something called glutamate. Glutamate is found commonly in our diet and is an amino acid. The brain has a significant concentration of glutamate, that amino acid is the most abundant in the brain.

In certain sensitive individuals, their receptors can be sensitive to glutamate exposure. The surface of the brain has receptors and those receptors receive information from other chemicals. It works very similarly to a lock and a key. Glutamate triggers the NMDA receptor which unlocks electrical activity in the brain cells. That electrical activity causes the transmission of chemical impulses. That is the normal brain function process.

But, if this electrical activity is happening too much due to glutamate exposure, premature cellular damage or even premature cellular death can occur. In Alzheimer’s it is understood that increased glutamate activation of the NMDA receptor can predispose individuals to neurological damage and dementia. And now there are several things that are used to help this glutamate sensitivity.

There is a medication that blocks the NMDA receptor from being over stimulated from glutamate called Namenda. It has been used in Alzheimer’s and Autism and can be helpful for behaviors such as aggression, stimming and excitability.

There are also natural alternatives to help with glutamate sensitivity. First natural alternative to glutamate sensitivity is something I have talked about in a previous recording, nutritional lithium. Nutritional, or elemental, lithium is not the same as the drug lithium. It can regulate or block NMDA receptor activity. You can also help regulated NMDA response to glutamate through a supplement called Theanine - an extract of green tea that serves to decrease the over stimulation that can occur with glutamate exposure. So the glutamate activates the NMDA receptors which lead to over stimulation of the brain cells. Both nutritional lithium and theanine have been shown to reduce that over excitability.

Bodybuilding and Steroids

2009-11-26T17:49:00.001+07:00

Everyone loves a shortcut. Anything that can help us shave time, money, and resources to allow us to get a job done more quickly is often a welcome thing indeed. Unfortunately, shortcuts don't always work out like we had planned in life and one of these areas is in improving our bodies through bodybuilding.

Many people want to improve their physique by gaining muscle and losing fat through the activity of bodybuilding which can be extremely effective at accomplishing both of these tasks. For some, the results they achieve simply don't come fast enough and they resort to taking steroids to speed up the process.

Steroids work on a cellular level to help greatly increase the size and often the strength of the muscles in your body. They have proven to be effective at this task through many years of clinical and personal research. While steroids can help you achieve your size and strength goals through bodybuilding, they carry with them some severely negative side effects that make using them a horrible decision for anyone.

First of all, because men are often involved in bodybuilding more than women, they are also more likely to be afflicted with the side effects of using these horrible drugs. One of the first and most profound side effects that can occur in men is that of infertility. Men can experience a huge diminished number of healthy sperm which may lead them to complete infertility over time. In addition, using steroids can actually cause man to start developing feminine features including large breasts and increased female hormones throughout the body. These side effects can truly scar some users for life.

Interestingly enough, steroid use reacts similarly in women by causing them to develop masculine features. They can experience increased production of testosterone which can lead to abnormal hair growth all over their bodies and a deepening of their voice as they begin to adopt more and more manly traits. Even more disturbing than these physical side effects for men and women are the internal ones that can be caused by taking steroids.

One of the more disturbing and harmful effects of steroid use is that of developing heart disease. Studies indicate that long-term steroid use has been directly related to heart disease and often of eventual heart attacks. The list of bodybuilders who has been stricken with some form of heart ailment is long and indeed growing. Aside from heart disease, some studies are showing possible evidence that steroid use can be linked with an increased risk of certain types of cancers as well.

So while steroids can be effective at achieving the goal of building muscle, they carry with them a huge price. The negatives of steroid use clearly outweigh the positives and it is important that you pay close attention to what the side effects are before you decide to do something that could ruin your life such as using steroids. The purpose of bodybuilding is to create a stronger and more visually pleasing body. Lying stiff in a coffin is probably not the result you are looking for, but is exactly the result you may get if you decide to use steroids.

Why Organic Natural Skin Care is Better

2009-11-19T20:03:00.000+07:00

Let’s face it. There is no question that organic natural skin care is a far better answer than the chemical laden products that are most frequently sold. If they are so much better, then why aren’t more people buying them? The answer to this question is that most people do not possess the knowledge about various cosmetics ingredients, and what it is that they do.

If more people understood how the ingredients in skin care products worked in order to keep their skin healthy then they would make far better buying decisions. Knowing what to look for in these products would also teach people what it is that they need to avoid. There are plenty of ingredients that are frequently used in the manufacture of cosmetics products that you should steer clear of.

The majority of the cosmetics companies do not develop organic natural skin care products; because they would cost the company far more than if they continued to fill their formulas with chemical agents and low grade synthetics. Natural ingredients have to be processed a certain way in order for them to be usable as ingredients in cosmetics, and this processing adds to the manufacturing expense of the product.

So in order to keep costs down, and profit margins up, most companies use ingredients in their products that are questionable at best. A long list of ingredients commonly used by the cosmetics industry in the United States, and in many areas of the world have been banned under ruling of the European Union. Let me tell you what some of these ingredients could do to you.

The chemicals typically found in cosmetics products have been proven during scientific studies to cause the development of cancer, organ toxicity, and nervous system damage. They have also been shown to have an estrogenic effect on the body. You will run the risk of none of these by using high quality organic natural skin care products.

These formulas are primarily plant based, and these oils, waxes, and extract have a healing effect on the skin. Plant compounds provide the skin with necessary nutrients which help to keep it healthy. They also provide a wealth of antioxidants, which aid in eliminating the UV produced free radicals which attacks the cells of your skin, and causes them to break down.

A truly effective organic natural skin care formula will also put to use various enzymes and proteins, which have been proven to positively affect your skin. One of the best of these types of ingredients is the keratin protein mixture known as Functional Keratin. This ingredient stimulates the production of the cells that are necessary for the growth of new collagen and elastin.

Make no mistake about it. You will never find an ingredient capable of promoting the growth of new connective tissue outside of an organic natural skin care formula. The products that flood the market right now are a waste of time and money, and the chance that you are taking in using them is simply not worth it. Do yourself a favor, and see what wonders natures ingredients can provide you with.

If you'd like to learn more about little known but clinically tested natural ingredients that are used for treating aging skin, visit my website today.

Hair Transplant Terminology

2009-11-19T18:01:00.000+07:00

Follicular Unit The follicular unit of the adult human scalp is a naturally occurring entity that consists of 1-4, and occasionally 5, terminal hair follicles, 1, or rarely 2, vellus follicles, the associated sebaceous lobules, the insertions of the arrector pili muscles, its neural and vascular plexuses, and the fine adventitial collagen which surrounds, and defines, the unit (the perifolliculum).

Follicular Unit Graft A graft that is obtained by dissecting out the individual, naturally occurring follicular unit. This is also referred to as a follicular unit implant, a term which implies that (unlike most grafts) the ratio of hair/skin is greater in the follicular unit implant than in the original donor area, since some of the non-hair bearing tissue has been trimmed away in the dissection.

Micrograft A 1-2 hair graft. It may consist of naturally occurring one and two-hair follicular units or be derived from larger units which are subdivided.

Minigraft A 3-6 hair graft derived from either a single follicular unit, multiple follicular units, or multiple, partial follicular units. As suggested by Walter Unger, this may be further classified into small minigrafts of 3-4 hairs, and large minigrafts of 5-6 hairs.

Slit-graft A 3-6 hair graft derived from either multiple follicular units, or multiple, partial follicular units where the dissection technique specifically attempts to produce a linear arrangement of follicles, or follicular units. This may be further classified into small slit-grafts of 3-4 hairs, and large slit-grafts of 5-6 hairs.

Follicular Unit Dissection A technique in which naturally occurring, individual follicular units are dissected from donor tissue that has been removed as a single strip (rather than with a multi-bladed knife of more than two blades) in order to keep the follicular units intact. Some non-hair bearing tissue is removed to decrease the overall bulk of the implant. Stereo-microscopic dissection is required.

Mini-Micrografts or Slit-grafts Cut to Size A dissection technique whereby the donor strip is subdivided to produce grafts of specific sizes as defined by the number of hairs they contain and/or the size of tissue that will fit into a specific recipient site. The removal of excess skin is not required. The dissection can be performed with or without magnification and the donor tissue may be removed as a single strip or with a multi-bladed knife.

Follicular Unit Transplantation A method of hair restoration surgery where hair is transplanted exclusively in its naturally occurring, individual follicular units. Single strip harvesting and stereo-microscopic dissection are required. The grafts must be placed into small recipient incisions.

Mini-Micrografting A method of hair transplantation which uses grafts containing 1-6 hairs, in groups that do not necessarily correspond to the naturally occurring follicular units. The recipient sites may be either incisions, excisions (tissue removed), or both.

Two Terminology Extremes: Science vs. Marketing

Soon after the publication, Seager suggested to add another term, the "Follicular Family Unit." (7) To paraphrase Dr. Seager:

When dissecting follicular units, it is sometimes unclear as to which unit a seemingly "stray" hair belongs. In other words, occasionally it is not completely obvious where one follicular unit ends, and an adjacent one begins. When one is specifically trying to create increased density, a stray hair would be included with an (unusually) close neighboring, larger follicular unit, containing possibly three hairs. This technique would create a four-haired unit, when there may have been no four-haired units there at all. One must find two separate units that look close enough to almost "belong together." If the two contiguous units are chosen correctly, the resulting unit can be very difficult, sometimes impossible, to distinguish from a naturally occurring follicular unit.

The key to success in this endeavor is the concept of the "Follicular Family Unit." If any ("non-family") two-follicular units are randomly doubled up, the resulting graft will be more the size of a minigraft, rather than a micrograft. It would need a larger recipient site, which would preclude dense packing because of both technical planting limitations and impairment of scalp vasculature. If, on the other hand, despite their larger size, they are forced into minute micrograft-sized recipient sites; they would be traumatized during attempts at insertion.

Although the term "follicular family unit" was introduced to account for the variability in the anatomy of the follicular unit and to take advantage of these variations in the surgery, other terms were not necessarily based on purely scientific considerations.

A blatant misrepresentation of the term follicular unit was "Follicular Unit Coupling - The Role of Slot Grafting in Hair Transplantation." (8) In this case, the author attached the new term to the original slot grafting method. This was a technique that used slit grafts harvested with a multi-bladed knife and then cut into thin pieces and placed into large slots of skin removed with a rectangular punch. The term was new and a marketing campaign followed, but the technique was the same as the original one, with no-attempt whatsoever to use, or preserve, follicular units.

Between these extremes, is the ongoing struggle to describe what we do in a clear, precise way - in the face of ever evolving concepts and techniques, and an ever increasing number of terms. The issue at hand is to be able to distinguish which terms are adding to the science and which are just blurring it.

Making Sense of the FU Salad

>From the opening list of acronyms, all used at the recent ISHRS meeting, it seems that we again need to step back and examine the new terms, to see which represent distinct ideas or techniques and which are, perhaps, redundant. What follows is a first-pass attempt at sorting out the six terms that, in our opinion, are the most confusing, and have the most overlap. They come in two groups: The first is FU Coupling, FU pairing, Double FUs (DFUs) and Multiple FUs (MFUs). The second group includes FUE and FIT.

With respect to the first group, we think that there are two distinct situations that doctor's are trying to communicate with these terms. The first is the technique of placing two separately dissected follicular unit grafts into one recipient site. This is distinct from the commonly used term "Doubling-up" which many doctors have used to refer to placing two micrografts in one site. Our suggestion is to use the term FU pairing to refer to the technique of placing two separately isolated follicular units into one recipient site. We suggest discarding the term FU Coupling as it has been incorrectly associated with slit grafting procedures in past literature and its use will be confusing.

The second situation is when a doctor places two (or more) follicular units, that have not been separated in the dissection, into one hole. In our view, this is clearly not follicular unit transplantation. The reason is that a main advantage of FUT was that in isolating FUs one would remove some of the non-hair bearing skin between FUs, to decrease the bulk of the graft. This, in turn, would allow the doctor to use a smaller recipient site, create less wounding, allow for safely transplanting a larger number of grafts in a single session etc, etc. Using multiple non-dissected follicular units, in our view, creates a larger wound and accomplishes none of these goals.

We are not suggesting that doctors should abandon this technique. Some excellent surgeons incorporate these grafts into their procedures. We are merely suggesting that it not be called FUT. Well then what should one call them? Our answer is to call them what they have always been called, namely micro-grafts, mini-grafts and slit grafts. If one argues that they are now different due to the use of the stereo-microscope, then we agree. In this case, the grafts should be called microscopically dissected micro-grafts, mini-grafts and slit grafts, to communicate the fact that follicular transection may be avoided. But these are still not follicular unit grafts any more than a pedicle flap is follicular unit transplantation. To avoid confusion, we suggest eliminating the terms DFUs and MFUs.

So what should we call eyebrow transplants? According to the technique used by most hair restoration surgeons, where they divide up the donor strip into single hairs, it should be called one-hair micrografting. If one uses the contra-lateral eyebrow for donor hair, then this can truly be referred to as FUT.

FUE and FIT

The increased transection rate of FUE harvesting techniques that use a sharp punch (relative to single-strip harvesting and stereomicroscopic dissection) had some doctors immediately question whether this procedure should be classified as a type of follicular unit transplantation. (9) With the introduction of the blunt dissection technique by Harris, that significantly decreased damage to follicles and increased the preservation of follicular units, the argument for classifying FUE as a type of FUT is considerably stronger - but certainly not bullet-proof - since in some cases significant transection remains and in others the entire follicular unit cannot be captured. (10)

The Follicular Isolation Technique (FIT), is a term used by Cole and Rose that refers to an FUE technique that uses a punch with a "stop" to limit the depth of penetration. Although these authors and other physicians question the need for a depth-stop in the extraction technique, FIT is possibly a better term than FUE if the entire unit is not being captured. In our view, when the goal is just to extract hair, rather than intact follicular units, the term FIT is preferable.

Conclusion

In sum, these authors suggest that the following four terms and definitions be added to the original classification.

Follicular Family Unit Two closely contiguous follicular units that are dissected as one graft, so that they can fit into the same size recipient site as the largest naturally occurring follicular unit normally used in the procedure.

FU pairing The technique of placing two separately isolated follicular units into one recipient site.

FUE Direct donor extraction procedures where the intent is to extract the entire follicular unit. If a depth stop is used, this should be indicated.

FIT Direct extraction procedures where the intent is to extract individual or multiple hairs smaller than the entire follicular unit. (In other words, the direct extraction of micro-grafts.) If a depth stop is used, this should be indicated.

Micro-grafts, mini-grafts and slit grafts that have been dissected microscopically to prevent follicular transection should be referred to just that, namely: microscopically dissected micro-grafts, mini-grafts and slit grafts. These authors do not feel that these procedures should be classified as a type of follicular unit transplantation. We also suggest that the terms FU Coupling, DFUs and MFUs are confusing and should be abandoned.

Be Skinny in Time For My Christmas Party

2009-11-19T15:00:00.000+07:00

If you are trying to battle the bulge and not succeeding then you are not alone. Despite the diet industry turning over billions each year it still has a poor success rate for its many followers.

So what is going wrong and what can be done to achieve permanent fat loss?

Fat loss has to begin with the individual's lifestyle. The only way to secure complete fat loss is to follow some basic guidelines to help build health within the body and apply some overlooked principles.

Some of these guidelines range from getting a good night sleep to managing stress levels. Both of which can contribute to an over production of fat storing hormones. The truth is you can go to the gym and eat a clean diet but if your hormones are working against what you are trying to achieve then you are fighting a losing battle with the bulge.

That is just one side to the fat loss phenomenon. The other side is nutrition. The secret to eating your way to fat loss is to eat foods with the greatest nutrient value available. That means you need to eat foods that offer the most bang for the buck and the best place to look is organic and natural foods. What I mean by natural foods is anything that hasn't been interfered with by man. Processed foods masked, as a health food needs to go from your diet straight away if you are serious about losing weight and inches.

Once your body begins to digest high amounts of nutrients from natural foods you will require less food to satisfy hunger.

That is just the beginning, once you get your lifestyle in check and introduce plenty of good foods in your diet you can then be concerned about what kind of exercise you choose to do.

The most effective way to exercise is to choose a type that is challenging but short in duration. There is a saying you can train long but not hard and vice versa. The best kind of exercise that will work best for fat loss are the kinds that will leave you sweating and increase your heart rate and breathing. There are different ways to skin a cat and experimenting with what suits you and what you respond best from is the way to go. From my experiences resistance exercises of any kind work the fastest for fat loss results.

How to Get Slim Fast

2009-11-19T13:59:00.000+07:00

I have thousands of hours experience witnessing what works and what doesn't work with different kinds of diets. Those who achieve the best results all have the same things in common and take action.

The top dieters have a clear idea of what they want. This ranges from the way they want to look like to how they want to feel once they have achieved their goal.

The most successful dieters decide how many weeks/months they want to achieve their goal in and set their minds to achieving it.

The dieters that get the quickest results know the exact reasons why they want to achieve their goal and then use the reasons to motivate themselves.

The dieters who seem to effortlessly lose fat are all familiar with the obstacles that could potentially stop them from achieving their goal and set about avoiding them at all costs.

You need to have substance, clarity and a clear-cut plan of action towards your goal. No one is going to get out of this world results plodding along at their own pace without any direction.

Here's how I do it and countless others who have achieved amazing results in the shortest possible time. If you are not seeing results after 10 days then you need to change something. In my opinion if you don't feel or look any different after following a certain approach for 10 days then you must be doing something wrong or not trying hard enough.

Divide your timescale into 10-day cycles and assess your speed of progress every 10 days. The more you do this the more you will become in tune with what works for your body and what works against it. You eventually end up with your very own blueprint for fat loss.

Guide to Wrinkle Skin Care at Home

2009-11-18T19:25:00.000+07:00

Not everyone has access to professional spas and other services that pamper the skin and body as a whole. That is why it is so important for every woman to learn proper wrinkle skin care techniques which can be used at home. And no, that does not mean you have to go off the deep end preparing your own products from scratch or eating like a rabbit for the rest of your life!

There is some benefit to eating a wide variety of fresh produce with vibrant, rich coloring if you are concerned with the health of your skin. Foods like dark colored berries and grapes, dark orange and red vegetables, and almonds are very rich in antioxidants which will have a powerful effect on the health of your skin.

There is also a lot of value in creating your own facial products, if you have the knowledge, time, and resources to do so. The knowledge is extremely important because you have to know not only what ingredients to use, but how much of each to use and how to combine them together for effective results.

Making your own completely natural products is never going to be the easiest or most cost effective way to go. If you can get your hands on natural wrinkle skin care products sold online or through select department stores, you can develop a system that is just as effective without the hassle or expense.

So, what are you looking for in a wrinkle skin care product? You want to find products which use natural ingredients and that eliminate parabens (a harmful category of preservatives), toxins, allergens, and unnecessary chemical fillers.

That may seem near impossible, but there are a few wrinkle skin care lines currently on the market that meet all of these guidelines, and they are sure to become more readily available in the future as demand increases. For right now, start by checking into brands such as Extend-Life.

If you want to see faster results with lasting long term effects, try a natural wrinkle remover cream. These creams will take all of those powerful antioxidants we talked about eating earlier and pack them as well as some other beneficial ingredients into one powerful, wrinkle-busing product.

If you find products that fit these guidelines and make some efforts to include antioxidant rich foods into your daily consumption, you will find it is not that difficult to develop a comprehensive wrinkle skin care system right in your own home!

How to Make Your Own Sports Drink

2009-11-18T17:21:00.000+07:00

I have been scouting for alternatives to commercial sports and protein drinks for a while. The reason is because just about all energy drinks and protein drinks on the market are full of sweeteners and artificial additives. I don't know about you but I don't think drinking anything containing artificial ingredients at a time when your body needs the nutrients the most is going to benefit you short term and definitely not long term.

Here is how to make Power Tea

This tea can be used for anyone and not just athletes. One of the main ingredients is Gelatin, Gelatin from Beef is the preferred choice but unless you live in the U.S.A. it can be difficult to get hold of. At the time of writing this I am not aware of anyone in the E.U. selling Gelatin from Beef. If anyone reading this knows anyone who supplies Gelatin from Beef in Europe please send me an email.

To make Power Tea dissolve one to two level tablespoons of Great Lakes Gelatin per cup of boiling water. If you prefer you could mix it into a little water at room temperature just before adding the boiling water.

You can flavour the tea with ginger; ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory herb. Or you could use peppermint herbal tea or both. You can also add half a tablespoon of coconut oil with each tea.

On the other hand you don't need to do either, you can just drink it straight. Power tea can be consumed 3 times daily and a way to make it convenient is to make a thermos with 3 cups in the morning and drink it throughout the day.

Power tea builds strong and powerful ligaments, tendons, cartilage and muscle. It can also help enhance mental and emotional power. The tea is complete protein and high in amino acids, your body will be able to absorb and make the most of all of it.

If you are a lean athlete in intensive training you may add 2 teaspoons of dextrose per cup of Power Tea.

Bodybuilding for Beginners

2009-11-18T15:19:00.000+07:00

Every day, all over the world, someone picks up a dumbbell for the first time and begins a quest to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. They imagine their bodies swelling up beyond belief and turning a once wiry frame into a molded piece of muscular artwork. Unfortunately, they quickly find out that the prospect is a bit harder than they first had thought. Achieving excellence in bodybuilding requires not only dedication, but intense physical exercise…A LOT of intense physical exercise. Because of this, we thought we would take some time to explain some basic principles that can help beginning bodybuilders get the RIGHT start on their new endeavor.

First of all, you should try to avoid your initial inclinations and simply start light. Most folks that start working out to build serious muscle often end up biting off more than they can chew, or in this case, lifting heavier weights than they should. It is extremely easy to go from working out to lying in the hospital with a torn muscle if you push yourself too hard. Starting off light, with weights you can handle, will allow you to make consistent and SAFE progress throughout your bodybuilding regimen.

One the next things that beginning bodybuilders do is try to build INDIVIDUAL muscles. They pick up a dumbbell and start doing arm curls until someone tells them to stop. Unfortunately, no one ever does, so more often than that, you see a nice set of guns on a puny body…come on, you know I’m right…working ONE muscle at a time is a mistake at this stage. Instead, you want to focus on COMPOUND movements, or ones that hit several large muscle groups at one time. The king of these is the squat. This exercise not only hits your entire lower body extremely effectively, it also works quite a few of the muscles in your upper body as well. No other single exercise can pack on as much quality muscle as the squat.

The next on your list of beginning bodybuilding moves is the bench press. This effective compound movement is not just for your chest, not by any means. Bench presses hit your chest, shoulders, triceps, forearms, and many of the stabilizing muscles in these areas as well. This workout can pack on muscle and make several key muscles much stronger to provide the strength needed as you further your bodybuilding endeavors.

Last on our list for beginning bodybuilding moves is the pull-up. Many folks HATE doing these, and there is a good reason…they can’t do them! Pulling off a set of 10 reps on the pull-up bar is not only impressive; it also has the ability to build some serious muscle. Cranking out rep after rep of pull-ups can do AMAZING things for your biceps, forearms, shoulders, and of course, your entire back. Once you get to the point of being able to do 25 or so, you can always add weight and continue to back on the beef. Think 25 sounds like a lot? Do pull-ups everyday and you WILL get there.

There you have it…a few basic for beginning bodybuilders that will serve your needs for years to come. Take is safe, take it slow, and follow these proven exercises to bodybuilding success.

3-Minute Abs Circuit For a Better Six Pack

2009-11-18T13:22:00.000+07:00

I have found a way of training the abs as hard as possible in only 3 minutes. You could try different abdominal exercises with the following method but my favorite way to do this circuit is to do 3 lower abdominal type exercises back to back. You get an unbelievable burn in your six-pack during this circuit, it is more difficult and beneficial for working the abs then the standard approach of doing a set and resting and repeating.

This is what to do:

Exercise #1 for 30 seconds

Exercise #2 for 30 seconds

Exercise #3 for 30 seconds

Repeat once with no rest between any of the exercises.

Move immediately from exercise 1, 2 and 3 and repeat them all making sure there are no gaps of rest. This will give you 3 minutes of hard work. A great way to get the most from exercising your abs whether you want to get ripped or shred body fat.

The 3 exercises I like to use are:

Exercise #1 Leg Lowering

Lie face up on the floor and place your hands underneath your low back. Rest on your elbows and forearms so your head is off the floor, your upper body remains in this position during the set. Now straighten you legs and begin to lift your legs off the floor. Aim to bring your legs around 2 feet high above the floor and return them towards the floor but don't touch the floor on the descent with your legs. The idea is to lift your straight legs up and down without touching the floor for 30 seconds.

It is important to keep pressure on your hands throughout the set, make sure your low back stays in contact with your hands at all times. If you feel your back arching bring your tummy in towards your spine. If you find it difficult to keep pressure on your hands try bending your legs a little.

Exercise #2 Reverse Crunch

Lie on your back with your head on the floor and arms by your side. Bend your knees so your feet are as close to your butt as possible. Now lift your feet off the floor so your thighs are vertical. This position is your start position for every rep; don't start each rep with your feet on the floor.

From the start position gently roll your low back off the floor and bring your knees towards your chest. When you reach the furthest position you are capable of achieving pause for a second before returning to the start position. Repeat for 30 seconds.

Exercise #3 Knee Push

For this exercise you need to be in the same position as the start position for the reverse crunch exercise. Lie on your back with your head in contact with the floor during the set. Keep the feet off the floor and thighs in a vertical position.

The aim of the exercise is to push your knees up towards the ceiling. Depending on the strength of your abs will determine whether your butt leaves the floor or not. You are striving to push your knees around one inch upwards, that is enough distance to work the exercise properly.

Keep the head and upper body as relaxed as possible during the exercise, this will make your abs work more. The tempo should be moderate and there shouldn't be any bouncing. Repeat for 30 seconds.

Don't forget when you have done the 3 exercises in a row go back to the first and repeat them all so you get a 3 minute workout.

You could do this workout at home, at the gym, in the office, hotel room, on the balcony, on the beach or outside in the park. There are no limitations with this workout

How to Build a Home Gym on the Cheap

2009-11-18T13:18:00.001+07:00

Going to the gym can be expensive. Some monthly gym memberships charge as much is $99 per month or more not including exorbitant setup fees of often hundreds of dollars. Even those much less expensive gyms that are in the $40 per month range can certainly add up over time especially if you factor in the amount of gas you use back and forth on each trip. Not only are they expensive, they can also be inconvenient. A majority of individuals who sign up for gym memberships never end up sticking to the workout routines because it can be so hard to fit going to the gym into your daily schedule. This makes building a home gym a perfect solution for many people.

Now, building a home gym does not have to be an expensive endeavor. You can often get away with very little equipment to start and simply add to it as you become more experienced with working out and your budget increases. For those who are new to working out, one of the best purchases can be a home gym system. These all in one equipment packages feature attachments that will allow you to work your entire body with one machine. Because of this, your home gym may end up being much smaller than if you had many pieces of equipment. Those who are a little more advanced may look to include free weights in their home gym setup.

For those that want to go the free weight route, you'll want to put down some padded flooring in the room you choose. Padded flooring can be bought in squares that are approximately 2' x 2' and join together like pieces of a puzzle. Oftentimes, you get all the workout you need just by buying a set of dumbbells and an adjustable bench. Just about every exercise known to man can be done with dumbbells and as long as you get weights that go up to a high enough number to allow you to make progress, your simple but effective home gym can last you months if not years with no improvements. For those that are looking to put on serious mass with their muscle building routines, you may want to purchase a weight bench and or a squat rack. Ample room is required for these larger pieces of equipment so locating a free weight gym in a basement or garage is usually the best idea.

But a home gym is really anything that you make it. Some people simply want to lose a little fat and may only have an exercise bike and some strength bands. The most important thing to include in your home gym is yourself. Make a commitment to work out in your private space each and every day. Now that you don't have to worry about the price of gas or working getting to the gym into your schedule, you can make a lifelong commitment to working out in your own private home gym.

Diet and Exercise for Prostate Cancer

2009-11-17T14:12:00.000+07:00

Men have a tendency to take care of their bodies on the outside. They go to the gym, lift weights and do various other exercises that will give them a great physique. But what do they do for their inner bodies? This may be one of the reasons that men come down with diseases that are often preventable with a little knowledge. As men, we need to do a little more research and have an understanding of what we can do to protect our inner bodies.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. At firdt the symptoms of the disease are asymptomatic; for this reason it is commonly referred to as the silent killer. Prostate cancer has very few early symptoms and those such as trouble urinating or painful ejaculation are also symptoms of much less serious disease such as enlarged prostate.

The function of the prostate is to close the urethra after ejection. It is also essential for ejaculation. There will be more than 200,000 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed this year that will result in over 30,000 deaths. Maintaining good prostate health requires us to have the necessary information available to us. We would like to review a few things that men can do to assure good prostate health.

1. GET SOME EXERCISE

We are all aware that exercise is good for getting our hearts pumping, lowering cholesterol and protecting us from heart attacks and strokes. But, did you know that exercise can also protect us from some forms of cancer, especially prostate cancer? Research has shown that men who maintain a daily exercise schedule have a 75% less chance of developing cancer and heart disease than men who do not participate in a regular program.

By participating in exercise you get the blood flowing to your vital organs. This has a beneficial effect because it enhances the exchange of nutrients and helps with the elimination of waste products from our cells and tissues. It can also keep our weight under control further reducing the risks of some types of cancers. Stronger muscles also generate better blood flow and circulation to our cells and tissues.

2. EAT A HEALTHY DIET

When we eat a diet high in vegetables and low in saturated fats we are actually reducing the risks of some forms of cancer. Scientists don't know why but men that eat a diet high in red meat are more likely to get prostate cancer. Some feel that there may be fats in red meat that are harmful to the prostate and others feel that chemicals produced during grilling may be responsible. It may also be that increasing the amount of red meat one consumes reduces the amount of fruits and vegetables we eat.

It is recommended that we eat 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Research has shown that men who follow this type of diet have much lower rates of cancer than men who do not. While consuming this many servings a day may be difficult for many, supplementation is also an option. Free radicals in the body have been shown to convert normal healthy cells into cancerous ones. For these reason tomatoes based products are particularly useful. They contain a high amount of Lycopene which is a powerful antioxidant that can reduce the number of free radicals in our bodies.

3. SPEAK TO YOUR DOCTOR

Screening is an important part of prevention. This involves looking for signs of the disease before symptom arise. There are a few ways this can be done now and your doctor will be able to suggest the one that best fits your situation. This is the time when treatment will be most effective.

He or she will be able to access any risk factors such as family history or race and put you on a screening schedule suited for your particular situation.

In conclusion, while prostate cancer can be a killer there are things that we can easily do to reduce the risk of us contracting it. The added benefit of some of the things suggested above is that they are also positives to your overall health in general. Just by reducing the risk of chronic heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancers with some simple lifestyle changes we can all live longer and healthier lives.

They want to be destroyed? The secret is rich in proteins

2009-11-17T14:08:00.001+07:00

Since the 1950s, builders have a diet rich in proteins, the recourse, in their pursuit of slenderness and more muscle definition. Steve Reeves followed a high protein / low carbohydrate diet before his Mr. America win. In 1960 Mr. Olympia Sergio Oliva was about the food, Precont rich in protein / carbohydrate in low season to a high protein and low carb change its definition in the three wins the Mr.Olympia to highlight it. Arnold Schwarzenegger was known for its high protein / low carbohydrate diet Precont in his seven Mr. Olympia wins. Frank Zane Bodybuilding Anatomy implementation of a standard card with the definition and is made with a zero-carb / high protein diet. Athletes, actors and actresses have been associated with high protein / low carbohydrate diets for weight control and weight loss in the last fifty years. The question is why this method has proven effective for many people for so long.

A high protein and low carbohydrate diet allows a person to reduce hunger and reduce calories. That is the premise behind the famous Atkins diet. These arrangements can feed a lot of kind of foods that meet at the same time losing weight. Check out the dishes that were used recently to lose about 35 pounds in two months, again.

Meal 1, 6 eggs with cheese. Meal 2, 1 chicken breast and a large salad. Meal 3, 8 oz hamburger in a spinach wrap. Meal 4, 10 oz broiled fish and steamed veggies. Meal 5, Muscle Milk protein supplement. Meal 6, 12 oz broiled tilapia and steamed veggies. By anybody's rating I ate plenty of food yet I was not hungry and I lost a good deal of weight. A recent study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrated that people lost weight and did not feel excessive hunger on a high protein. The proponents of this study determined that that a high protein diet created a greater degree of appetite satiation than did either a high carb or high fat diet. Lose weight without feeling hungry, is this the Holy Grail of weight loss? High protein diets even with low carbs gives the body everything it needs to rebuild itself. An individual can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time on a high protein low carb diet.

What does this mean for people trying to improve their bodies? This means with a little discipline and organization an individual can lose weight without starving and without getting weak and feeble. We all know as a nation, we collectively need to lose weight. I call on our leaders to do their part and direct the masses in embracing high protein/low carb lifestyle eating.

King County Election Results

2009-11-04T15:23:00.001+07:00

UPDATE: Despite the minimum margin to approve the atmosphere in Ref. 71 Games in Pravda, on Capitol Hill on the hand. Anne Levinson, chairman of the campaign sought to hear of a crowd.

"At this stage we will be a recount statewide. We have in 51 or 49," says Levinson. "There remains much to do control."

While the crowd had calmed down, he said: "I want those who refuse to shoulder with us in this kind of hate to thank shoulder. We got up and was strong."

State Rep. Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle, has taken the next step. "God bless the voters of Washington state, he said, and soon in a list of people who have worked hard, taken to uphold the law.

Decrease in the ref. 71 Games in Everett, said campaign manager Larry Stickney: "I do not know what else to do."

"We are still hunting," he said. "We are giving away."

Regardless of the importance of the choice of what was done here, "said Stickney, referring to the Supreme Court of the United States, the output of the R-71 can take signatures of the signatories of the petition.

In addition, "we have a new commitment to the community," he said, speaking of the political Christian conservative community. "We have a deflated movement" had past, he said.

He said it is too early to say what the next steps.

71 REF. has over 10 of the 39 circles in Washington, all in the Puget Sound. It ranges 2 to 1 on the King

My Dog Skip : Best Movies from Children’s Books

2009-11-02T15:11:00.002+07:00

My Dog Skip : Best Movies from Children’s Books- Everyone has plans for their offspring look like "weapons," Where The Wild Things Are, "the film based on the classic children's book by Maurice Sendak? This book is a staple in libraries for young people and now a film director Spike Jonze .

Why, then, a look at the best films on children's books one? To (To obtain this list, which considers not only live-action movies, cartoons.)
Undoubtedly, the movie most of the children I saw were when I was a kid, when my children were children. This can be several blocks of time that I do not find such deals in movies. (I must confess that I have never read or seen "where the red fern grows", which I am convinced, is high on the list of many.)

In addition, there have been some excellent books - like "Charlotte's Web" The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe "- which has rightly recognized for its quality. But I thought the movies were average. And do not expect either version by find "Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 'because I am in the minority, am impressed by both versions. (But do not worry fans of Dahl, the author included in the list.)

So let's get to my favorite movies to books for children. Once completed, please leave your suggestions. Thank you:
10. Harriet the Spy (1996), Louise Fitzhugh: A young woman has the habit of writing things in a notebook. If you lose, it will be by her classmates discovered the hurtful things said to the public. Michelle Trachtenberg (Gossip Girl, "" Buffy the Vampire Slayer ") plays a major role.
6. My Dog Skip (2000), Willie Morris, a shy boy (excellently played by Frankie Muniz of "Malcolm in the Middle") is his only friend in a dog, and both put in big adventures. The film also features a strong performance by Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane. Remember to bring your handkerchief!

Meb Keflezighi wins NYC Marathon

2009-11-02T15:03:00.001+07:00

Meb Keflezighi captured the New York Marathon on Sunday, became the first American in more than two decades to win the race.
Keflezighi clocked two hours, nine minutes and 15 seconds, so that Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya by 41 ticks.
Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia won the women from eight seconds to Ludmila Petrova, Russia, timing 2:28.52.
Paula Radcliffe, the last two New York City Marathon won fourth place.
Keflezighi was again on Sunday, wiped his tears after the marathon in New York - for his historic victory for his country, was able to by an injury that was feared to recover to end his career.
The 34-year-old Keflezighi was the first American since 1982, succeed in the marathon in New York, the latest twist in the story of a family that fled the war to win a new home.
Not "You can do better," said Keflezighi.
Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, the female winner, capping a sensational return to your account on the day a record field of more than 44,000 was the 40th began Edition of the race. Twice defending champion Paula Radcliffe dropped to fourth place, tied behind his left knee tendinitis.
Keflezighi won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, the first American to win a medal since 1976. Sunday's race showed how the United States now: With the doubling of the events like the national championship six Americans finished in the top 10 for the first time since '79.
Eleven years ago, Keflezighi has written a letter to Alberto Salazar to win, the last American man in New York. Salazar has with Nike, Keflezighi and told him that successful distance race in the United States to be, athletes need finance to enable them to train full time.
That same year, Keflezighi became a U.S. citizen. He was born in the African country of Eritrea, growing up in a shack without electricity. The soldiers surrounding his village looking for guys 12 years to draw the war.
When he was 10, his family moved to Italy, and two years later, came to the United States. Keflezighi ran in high school in San Diego and then play at UCLA.
"Without doubt, today the American people from Jersey," he said. "I definitely was with great honor and pride."
Tulu's victory came 17 years ago in the Barcelona Olympics where he won the 10,000 m, the first black African woman, a gold medal record. She won gold again in 2000, then won his title in the London Marathon early next year.
Tulu was struggling with his weight and strength after the birth of her second child three years ago. However, when he ran well in a half-marathon in Philadelphia, 20th September, 37, decides to New York.
Tulu is the oldest champion in 42 years, Priscilla Welch in 1987 and the first Ethiopian woman to win in New York.
On the significance of this victory, the question, Tulu, said he intends to compete in the Olympic Games in London in 2012, when she was 40th
"I hope that I bring another victory to my country," he said, "I hope you will put it on the same question.
It must also seek Ludmila Petrova for evidence that you can still succeed in this age to be. The 41-year-old Russian was the second place for the second year in a row, as Tulu mile outside of the end. Chris Daunay of France in third place.
Tulu won in 2 hours, 28 minutes, 52 seconds like winds to 14 mph with riders one days of the cold.
Radcliffe said he felt a point behind the left knee two weeks ago, when he finished his training for the marathon. I was hoping not to disturb the tendinitis on Sunday, but I began to feel pain in 11 miles.
He thought he still had a chance, if all were in the forefront, not the pace, but not keep pace when he finally left at mile 22nd
"What's really frustrating that I did not feel that tired," she said, but not my legs go faster. "
Radcliffe and Tulu are many duels in recent years in track and cross country. To keep Tulu, but never in a position to much time with the British in a marathon.
"I was disappointed to see it, falls back," said Tulu. "In fact, tried to encourage him to do in order to stay with us. Eventually it became clear that he is not capable of doing, and I'm really disappointed he could not run so well."
Keflezighi tore Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya at mile 23, win the four-time winner of the Boston Marathon by 41 seconds. His time of 2:09:15 was a personal best time.
Jaouad Gharib of Morocco in third place and Ryan Hall, who won the suit in New York two years ago, in fourth place. Defending champion Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil is not over yet.
Keflezighi limped to eighth place in the study two years ago and later he discovered a broken hip. The long day of rehabilitation followed, and not at 100 percent until the beginning of this year.
"Many people start writing with him, sort, say he is older and has too many injuries and all that said," Hall, neighbors and occasional training partner Keflezighi of Mammoth Lakes, California
Keflezighi made his marathon debut in New York in 2002, finished ninth. He finished second in 2004 and the third in 2005. After all that has happened in this city, what better place to win his first marathon victory important?
When he ran, where Shay stopped, crossed himself Keflezighi

Enjoy with the right shoes

2009-09-02T03:57:00.004+07:00

I'm a sport man, i really love to sport. When i do the sport, i always choose the right shoes to support it. The right shoes will help you to maximize your body and protect you from injuries. For example i will tell you my experience about my activities and my shoes.

I'd like to biking. It's make my leg stronger. In this sport, you must use a special shoes for biking. If you don't, you will get an injuries on your foot. A bike shoes is a good choice for this sport. You can buy it and choose the models. So i use it and i can enjoy my biking.

Two days ago my friend invites my to play a golf. I never play it, but i try to do this sport because I've been invited by my friend. If I play golf, i cant use a bike shoes, its different. So i buy a golf shoes. I get this shoes and I'm ready to play golf with my friend, even i an amateur on golf but i enjoy it because i use the right shoes.

The last, in my daily life, i used a casual shoes. And i always choose a sneakers. It's a easy shoes and comfortable. I suggest you to use it. It's a great shoes that you can use it in your daily activity.

Indonesian Terrorists Have No Chance

2009-08-22T19:23:00.002+07:00

Several terrorism experts on Friday refuted the theory that militants were planning to use snipers to attack US President Barack Obama’s convoy during his anticipated visit to Indonesia.

Dynno Chressbon, an intelligence analyst at the Center for Intelligence and National Security, said earlier that Ario Sudarso and Mohamad Syahrir, who were declared suspects in the July 17 JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel suicide bombings by police on Wednesday, had allegedly been prepared as snipers for an attack against Obama.

Obama is widely expected to visit Indonesia when he attends the APEC summit in Singapore in November.

Chressbon also said that the men planned to attack the convoy using MK-IIIs, a Russian-made rifle that has been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan and in Muslim conflict areas in the Philippines.

However, security analyst and terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said that although similar rifles had been used, the attacks in Afghanistan and the Philippines mainly targeted law enforcers and civilians with minimum security and protection.

“To target someone like Obama, they would need to infiltrate the US Secret Service and get the president’s security details,” Ismail said.

“The perpetrators also have to consider that the Secret Service would take extreme security measures and secure areas within shooting range from the president.”

Ismail said that although he was convinced Obama would be an ideal target for terrorists, carrying out such an attack would be near impossible.

“A plot like that would take years of preparations and planning,” he said. “They don’t have the resources to do it or the experience in targeting a head of state.”

Ken Conboy, author of “Inside Jemaah Islamiyah, Asia’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Network,” said that even if the two terrorists were able to obtain rifles, intense training was required before they could become snipers.

“Snipers don’t just need high-tech equipment, they also need a sniper’s mind-set,” Conboy said. “Even the military takes years to train their snipers. Where are the terrorists going to do their training here and avoid detection?”

Conboy added that even though terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan used snipers, plotting an attack in a city like Jakarta posed greater challenges.

“They need to avoid detection while waiting patiently for their prey. They would also need to plot out an escape plan and make their way through busy streets and crowds,” he said.

Three people have been arrested in connection with the July hotel bombings, while five people have been killed, including the two suicide bombers and a hotel florist, Ibrahim, who was shot down by police while hiding in a house in Temanggung, Central Java.

Five men remain at large, including the alleged mastermind, Noordin M Top, who is known as Asia’s most wanted man. Noordin is also believed to be behind several other high-profile terrorist attacks in the country.

Trade show booth supporrting your event

2009-08-19T16:36:00.004+07:00

If you want to hold an event, you need something to support it. Or you want to advertise some product on supermarket, presentation to you boss or clients, you must give all the best. But you need equipments to support you.

You need trade show booth accessories. Its will support you performance and make you looks like professional. You will feel more confident when you have it all.

Now, what you need to complete the accessories of trade show.

1. Table Skirt

Table Skirt is important, if your table is not good, it will affect on you event. You must adjust this table with the title of you event. It will make you event more beautifull.

2. Banner Stands

You will need this stuff to promote you event. To show them what is the event. It will make easier for visitors to know you event. It make easier for you too in you presentation.

3. Pipe and Drape

The last is the background. Display an elegant background. You can added the accessories for it to interesting the visitors.

So, have a nice event.

Meredith Kercher

2009-06-18T14:01:00.005+07:00

The body of Meredith Kercher was discovered by Italian police at the cottage that she shared with other students in Perugia on November 2, 2007. The 21-year-old British student, who was part of a university exchange programme, was found lying partially clothed under a duvet in her bedroom. Her windpipe had been crushed and throat partially slashed.

Following a murder investigation, police initially arrested two suspects, Kercher's American flatmate, Amanda Knox, and Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, then a third man, the owner of a local bar (who was later released without charge). A fourth suspect was later arrested after having fled to Germany, on the basis of DNA and fingerprint evidence found on the victim's body. The remaining three suspects were held in custody in Perugia charged with murder, sexual assault and theft. On 28 October 2008, one of the three accused, Rudy Hermann Guede, the only person whose fingerprints and DNA were found on the body, was convicted of conspiracy to murder Kercher in a "fast-track" trial and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The trial of the two remaining suspects, Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, began on January 16, 2009.

The case has received heavy media interest in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States

Background
Meredith Kercher
Born Southwark, London, England
Died Perugia, Italy
Nationality British

Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher was born in February 1986 in Southwark, London, England, and lived in Coulsdon, South London. She attended the University of Leeds. She had been part of the ERASMUS student exchange programme, and had gone to Italy to complete her degree course. Kercher made a cameo appearance in a music video for singer and friend Kristian Leontiou's song, Some Say, in 2007 just weeks before moving to Italy to study.

Murder and investigation

Kercher was murdered on the evening of 1 November 2007, with pathologists putting her time of death between 20:30 and 23:00.

The following morning, the Postal and Communication Police came to investigate the discovery of two mobile phones in a nearby garden, one of which was registered to Ms. Kercher. When they breached the door to Kercher's room, which had been locked from the inside, they reportedly found Kercher lying beneath a duvet in her room "soaked in blood."Police have said Kercher's throat was slit with a shard of glass or a pen-knife, but have not yet located the murder weapon. Police initially believed that the killer or killers escaped through a broken window in Kercher's room, since the door was locked when they arrived, but now suspect the break-in was staged. The following morning, Amanda Knox was spotted by two men at a laundromat on Via Fabretti washing clothes and a pair of shoes with a "North African" man.

A judge assigned to the case read the pathology report at a bail hearing for the suspects and ruled that Kercher's carotid artery had not been ruptured in the attack, and that she likely died a "relatively slow and agonizing death." Italian prosecutors allege that the lethal wound was inflicted by Amanda Knox while Kercher was held down by Guede and Sollecito. The prosecution points to violent literature, such as comic books, that they found in Sollecito’s apartment.Prosecutors allege that manga comics found in Sollecito's apartment recounted tales of killing female vampires on Halloween night and that many of the details in the comics were similar to the scene police discovered. Kercher had attended a number of Halloween parties dressed as a vampire the night of 31 October. Defence lawyers for Amanda Knox have dismissed the allegations of the prosecution, claiming that they are a "huge fantasy".

Patrick Diya Lumumba, 37, the owner of a bar at which Amanda Knox occasionally worked, was arrested on 6 November, having been implicated by Knox's version of events, and detained for two weeks until the arrest of Rudy Hermann Guede. Sixteen months later a court awarded Lumumba €8,000 in damages for unjust imprisonment.

The funeral service for Meredith Kercher was held on 14 December 2007 at the Croydon Parish Church in Coulsdon with over 300 people in attendance.

Prosecutorial bias

The lead prosecutor in the case, Giuliano Mignini, was also involved in the case of the serial killer known as "the Monster of Florence". The authors of a book about the Monster, journalists Mario Spezi and Douglas Preston, argue that Mignini was heavily influenced by an Internet conspiracy theorist and was determined to attribute the murders to a Satanic cult whereas evidence pointed to a single killer in most of the cases . Mignini is now being investigated for abuse of power and conflict of interest in the Monster investigation.

Defendants

Three of the suspects in the case are currently being held in separate Italian jails. Amanda Knox, an American student, is being held in Capanne prison near Perugia; Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian student and Knox's former boyfriend, is being held in Terni; and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native found guilty of the murder in October 2008, is being held in Viterbo.

Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox, age 21, a student from Seattle, Washington, USA, was arrested on the morning of 6 November for her alleged involvement in Kercher's murder. Knox is a student at the University of Washington and had been living with Kercher in Perugia while she was studying abroad in Italy. Knox told the police that she had been in the house when the murder took place and had "heard the screams"; however, she has subsequently given several different versions of the events of the night of the murder, saying her memory was clouded by having smoked hashish, and now asserts that she spent the whole evening and night with her boyfriend at his flat.

In one of her earlier statements to the police, Knox implicated Patrick Diya Lumumba in the murder saying:
“ I don't remember if my friend Meredith was already there or whether she came later. What I can say is that the two of them (Meredith and Patrick) went off together... Patrick and Meredith went off together into Meredith's room while I think I stayed in the kitchen. I can't remember how long they were in the bedroom together, I can only say that at a certain point I heard Meredith screaming and I was so frightened I put my fingers in my ears. I don't remember anything after that, my head is really confused. I don’t remember if Meredith called out or if I heard thuds because I was upset, but I can imagine what was happening...I'm not sure whether Raffaele was there too that evening but I do remember waking up at his house in his bed and that in the morning I went back to where I lived, where I found the door open. ”

Knox appeared before a magistrate on the morning of 9 November and was ordered to be held, along with Sollecito and Lumumba, for up to one year while the police continued their investigation. In a leaked report published by The Times, Judge Claudia Matteini suggested that Knox and Sollecito had been seeking to "experience extreme sensations, intense sexual relations which break up the monotony of everyday life," and had attempted to persuade Kercher to participate in a sexual encounter. The report continued:
“ They went together to the apartment on Via della Pergola 7, to which only Amanda had the key. It was roughly at this time that both Sollecito and Knox switched off their mobile phones until the following morning. ”

After Knox's arrest, salacious aspects of the case caused international media attention. Knox's MySpace site was subject to adverse character analysis.

According to a report of January 2008, at least one of Knox's parents had visited her twice a week for the previous three months. In an interview with The Sunday Times, seven months after her arrest, they affirmed their belief in her innocence. Amanda Knox is being represented in Italy by attorneys Luciano Ghirga and Carlo Dalla Vedova, as well as accepting the advice of high profile Seattle attorney Anne Bremner, who represents a group called "Friends of Amanda".

Knox proclaimed her innocence at the closed-door hearing on 17 October 2008.

Raffaele Sollecito

Raffaele Sollecito, 25 years old, from Giovinazzo, Bari, and at the point of completing a degree at Perugia University at the time of the murder, was Knox's boyfriend. The son of a urologist from Bari, and from an affluent family, he had known Knox for two weeks.

Sollecito says that he returned to his flat and spent the evening surfing the internet on the night of the murder. Detectives have said that his alibi is not substantiated by records of his internet service provider, though a private detective working for Sollecito disputes this. Like Knox, he admits to having smoked marijuana on the day of the murder.

Forensic investigators say that a footprint found in blood in Kercher's room is compatible with the footwear worn by Sollecito, but his legal team assert that it is not his. On 10 January Italian police released a statement which says that Sollecito's DNA was found on a piece of Kercher's bra. Several newspapers, including La Repubblica in June 2008 and Tiscali Web News in March 2009, report that Sollecito's influential family tried to upset the investigations. Phone taps reveal that Sollecito's sister, a high official in the Carabinieri, told her father that she intended to contact high profile politicians to ask them to get rid of the "troublesome" investigators and contaminate the police samples. Several members of Sollecito's family are now under investigation for a variety of infractions connected to the case.

Rudy Hermann Guede

Police arrested Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, originally from the Ivory Coast, on November 20. The Italian police announced that Guede had been arrested on a train near Wiesbaden, Germany, where he was caught riding without a ticket. Guede came to Perugia at the age of five with his father. After his father left Italy when Guede was 16, he was informally adopted by the family of a wealthy local businessman, Paolo Caporali. Caporali stated that he had been disappointed by Guede's behaviour, describing him as a "tremendous liar", skipping school and being reluctant to do any work. Guede played basketball for the local team which Caporali sponsored.

DNA tests indicate that Guede had sex with Kercher before her murder and that feces found in the toilet are his.

Guede's account of the evening was that he and the victim had consensual sex, after which he left the room to use the toilet where he listened to music on his iPod and thus did not hear the killer enter the house. He did, however, hear Kercher scream, and emerged to see the murderer, an Italian man whom he didn't know, stabbing Kercher. As the man escaped, he said "You're in trouble, you black bastard" after which Guede claims to have been so frightened that he fled the scene and made his way to Germany. The Investigators stated that Guede's version of events was "a highly improbable fantasy."

Trials and convictions

Rudy Hermann Guede elected for a 'fast track' trial on 16 October 2008, and on 28 October 2008 was found guilty of murdering and sexually assaulting Meredith Kercher and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Guede's lawyers want to appeal the conviction.

The trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito began on 16 January 2009 with much attention from the media; both Knox's and Sollecito's lawyers used the occasion to proclaim their clients' innocence. Guede has declined to testify in the trial. During the first session, judge Giancarlo Massei rejected a request by the Kercher family to hold the trial behind closed doors. He ruled that the trial will be public, but closed sessions will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Amanda Knox testified for the first time on 12 June 2009, again affirming her innocence. She told the court that she had been with Sollecito in his apartment on the night of the murder. She also stated that the police had intimidated and beaten her, causing her to give false testimony and to falsely accuse Patrick Lumumba.

Iran directly accused the United States

2009-06-18T07:57:00.002+07:00

Iran directly accused the United States of meddling in the deepening crisis over a disputed presidential election and broadened its media clampdown Wednesday to include blogs and news Web sites. But protesters took to the streets in growing defiance of the country's Islamic rulers.

The sweep of events — including more arrests and a call for another mass opposition march through Tehran — displayed the sharpening attacks by authorities but also the unprecedented challenges directed at the very heart of Iran's Islamic regime: its supreme leader and the cleric-run system.

Any serious shift of the protest anger toward Iran's non-elected theocracy would sharply change the stakes. Instead of a clash over the June 12 election results, it would become a showdown over the core premise of Iran's system of rule — the almost unlimited authority of the clerics at the top.

For the moment, however, both sides appear to be using the same tactics since the disputed results showed hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the landslide winner.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for another mass rally Thursday in defiance of Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has urged the nation to unite behind the Islamic state.

Authorities rounded up perceived dissidents and tried to further muzzle Web sites and other networks used by Mousavi's backers to share information and send out details of Iran's crisis after foreign journalists were banned from reporting in the streets.

Officials also stepped up claims that foreign hands have been behind the unrest.

An Iranian statement blamed Washington for "intolerable" interference in the showdown over allegations of vote-rigging and fraud. The report, on state-run Press TV, cited no evidence.

It said the government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference. The two countries severed diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The State Department this week asked Twitter to postpone a scheduled maintenance shutdown of its service to keep information flowing from inside Iran, three U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

A State Department spokesman said Washington was withholding judgment about the election and was not interfering in Iran's internal affairs. President Barack Obama has offered to open talks with Iranian leaders to end a nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze.

For nearly that entire time, Iran's ruling clerics held uncontested power over nearly every critical decision, including possible talks with Washington. But the upheavals have pushed them into unfamiliar territory.

Khamenei and his inner circle have been drawn into a messy and public crisis — with the election dispute even bringing possible splits within the theocracy.

Chances for a full-scale collapse are considered very remote. The ruling clerics still have deep public support and are defended by Iran's most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — and a vast network of militias.

But Mousavi's opposition movement has broken significant ground. It has forced Khamenei into the center of the escalating crisis and broken taboos about questioning his role as the final word on all critical matters.

"It's changing the way Iranians see the supreme leader and the system in general," said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian affairs analyst. "That opens up the system up in ways it's never faced before."

Javedanfar believes two key factors should be watched: whether the opposition movement can keep its show of strength on the streets for several more weeks and, more importantly, if it can bring in influential voices from the Islamic clergy.

Shortly after the election, Mousavi appealed for the backing of clerics in the holy city of Qom, Iran's seat of Islamic learning and a critical political base for the theocracy. But received shows of support from several prominent liberal and dissident religious figures, including Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who said that "no sound mind" would accept the election results.

But Mousavi, who was prime minister in the 1980s, has not captured widespread support among the Qom clerics. That doesn't mean, however, that they support Ahmadinejad, either.

The wild card for Mousavi's movement is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts — a cleric-run body that is empowered to choose or dismiss Iran's supreme leader. Khamenei is Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's successor, and the assembly has never used its power to remove Iran's highest authority.

Rafsanjani was a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad during the election, but has not publicly backed Mousavi. It is not known whether Mousavi has actively courted Rafsanjani or if they have held talks.

But Iranian TV showed pictures of Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani's daughter, speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini.

Robin Niblett, director of the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London, said he does not believe Mousavi wants to topple Iran's theocracy, but his allegations of vote fraud could undermine the authority and respect of Khamenei.

"It is a split itself over this election and the broader grand strategy of the country," Niblett said. "I don't believe the protesters want to overthrow the system at this time — although their ire at Khamenei may yet increase."

Mousavi urged followers to wear black Thursday to the planned rally in mourning for the alleged election fraud and the lives lost in the protests. Seven demonstrators were shot Monday by pro-regime militia in the first confirmed deaths since the unrest began.

His call followed a rare public appeal by Khamenei to unite behind the Islamic state. Khamenei usually remains aloof from direct involvement in political disputes, but the scope of crisis has pushed him into an unfamiliar role as mediator.

Mousavi's backers have now staged three straight days of major marches in Tehran, including hundreds of thousands of people Monday in a huge procession that recalled the protests of the Islamic Revolution.

An amateur video showed thousands marching Wednesday on an overpass in support of Mousavi's campaign.

A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the Revolutionary Guard saying that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove materials that "create tension" or face legal action.

In one high-profile display of apparent support for the opposition, several Iranian soccer players wrapped their wrists with green tape — the color of Mousavi's campaign — during a World Cup qualifying match in South Korea that was televised in Iran.

In Paris, demonstrators held banners saying "Freedom of Expression in Iran," and "Where is my vote?" near the Eiffel Tower. In Rome, about 300 people gathered to show solidarity with Mousavi.

The government has blocked certain Web sites, such as BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and several pro-Mousavi sites that are vital conduits for Iranians to tell the world about protests and violence. Many other sites, including Gmail and Yahoo, were unusually slow and rarely connect.

Mousavi condemned the blocking of Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.

The Revolutionary Guard, an elite force answering to Khamenei, said through the state news service that its investigators have taken action against "deviant news sites" that encouraged public disturbances. The Guard is a separate military with enormous domestic influence and control of Iran's most important defense programs. It is one of the establishment's key sources of power.

The statement alleged that dissident Web sites were backed by Canadian, U.S. and British interests, a frequent charge by hard-liners against the opposition.

"Legal action will be very strong and call on them to remove such materials," it said.

The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said several dozen noted figures associated with the reform movement have been arrested, among them politicians, intellectuals, activists and journalists.

Tehran-based analyst Saeed Leilaz, who is often quoted by Western media, was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers at his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi.

At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, Reporters Without Borders said.

The main electoral authority has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. The recount would be overseen by the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei.

Mousavi alleges the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated it supports Ahmadinejad. He wants an independent investigation.

David Letterman apologized

2009-06-18T07:52:00.002+07:00

David Letterman apologized on Monday for making a sexually charged joke about one of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's teenage daughters, as a group of Palin supporters planned a rally demanding the late-night TV show host be fired.

"I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception" of the joke by viewers, he said during Monday's taping of "Late Night with David Letterman," according to a transcript given to Reuters.

"And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke," he said. "It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault."

Last Tuesday, Letterman joked that New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez had "knocked up" the former vice-presidential nominee's daughter during a family trip to a baseball game.

But the daughter in question was 14-year-old Willow, not the intended target, 18-year-old unwed mother Bristol. Letterman said the following night that he was confused between the two and would never make sexual jokes about a 14-year-old.

Despite his explanation, Palin has charged that Letterman made "sexually perverted" comments.

In the transcript from Monday's show, Letterman also said he was sorry to Palin and both her daughters.

"I would like to apologize especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future," he said.

The apologies came as a group of Palin supporters, calling themselves FireDavidLetterman.com, planned a Tuesday protest outside the show's studio at the Ed Sullivan theater in New York's Times Square.

Palin and protest organizers, including Republican New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb, have said the comments were demeaning to women, and they are comparing Letterman's case to that of radio host Don Imus, who was fired from CBS radio for offensive comments about a black women's basketball team.

Representatives for Palin on Monday were not immediately available to comment on Letterman's apology.

Fathers Day

2009-06-18T06:46:00.003+07:00

Father's Day is a day honoring fathers, celebrated on the third Sunday of June in 52 of the world's countries and on other days elsewhere. It complements Mother's Day, the celebration honoring mothers.

History

Father's Day is a celebration inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.

The first observance of Father's Day is believed to have been held on July 5, 1908 in a church located in Fairmont, West Virginia, by Dr. Robert Webb of West Virginia at the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South of Fairmont. The church still exists under the name of Central United Methodist Church.

Sonora Smart Dodd of Washington thought independently of the holiday one Sunday in 1909 while listening to a Mother's Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church at Spokane, and she arranged a tribute for her father on June 19, 1910. She was the first to solicit the idea of having an official Father's Day observance to honor all fathers.

It took many years to make the holiday official. In spite of support from the YWCA, the YMCA and churches, it ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar. Where Mother's Day was met with enthusiasm, Father's Day was met with laughter. The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper Spokesman-Review. Many people saw it as just the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions like "Grandparents' Day", "Professional Secretaries' Day", etc., all the way down to "National Clean Your Desk Day."

A bill was introduced in 1913, US President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea in 1924, and a national committee was formed in the 1930s by trade groups in order to legitimize the holiday. It was made a federal holiday when President Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation in 1966.

In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries, most often on November 19.

Commercialization

The Associated Men's Wear Retailers formed a National Father's Day Committee in New York City in the 1930s, which was renamed in 1938 to National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day and incorporated several other trade groups. This council had the goals of legitimizing the holiday in the mind of the people and managing the holiday as a commercial event in a more systematic way, in order to boost the sales during the holiday. This council always had the support of Dodd, who had no problem with the commercialization of the holiday and endorsed several promotions to increase the amount of gifts. In this aspect she can be considered the opposite of Anna Jarvis, who actively opposed all commercialization of Mother's Day.

The merchants recognized the tendency to parody and satirize the holiday, and used it to their benefit by mocking the holiday on the same advertisements where they promoted the gifts for fathers. People felt compelled to buy gifts even though they saw through the commercial façade, and the custom of giving gifts on that day became progressively more accepted. By 1937 the Father's Day Council calculated that only one father in six had received a present on that day.[8] However, by the 1980s, the Council proclaimed that they had achieved their goal: the one-day event had become a three-week commercial event, a "second Christmas". Its executive director explained back in 1949 that, without the coordinated efforts of the Council and of the groups supporting it, the holiday would have disappeared.

Spelling

Although the name of the event is usually understood as a plural possessive (i.e. "day belonging to fathers"), which would under normal English punctuation guidelines be spelled "Fathers' Day", the most common spelling is "Father's Day", as if it were a singular possessive (i.e. "day belonging to Father"). Dodd used the "Fathers' Day" spelling on her original petition for the holiday, but the spelling "Father's Day" was already used in 1913 when a bill was introduced to the US Congress as the first attempt to establish the holiday, and it was still spelled the same way when its creator was commended in 2008 by the U.S. Congress.

International history and traditions

In a few Catholic countries, it is celebrated on the Feast of St. Joseph.

Argentina

Father's Day in Argentina is celebrated on the third Sunday of June, but there have been several attempts to change the date to August 24, to commemorate day in which the "Father of the Nation" José de San Martín became a father.

In 1953 the proposal to celebrate Father's Day in all educational establishments on August 24, in honor of José de San Martín, was raised to the General Direction of Schools of Mendoza Province. The day was celebrated for the first time in 1958, on the third Sunday of June, but it was not included in the school calendars due to pressure from several groups.

Schools in the Mendoza Province continued to celebrate Father's Day on August 24, and, in 1982, the Provincial Governor passed a law declaring Father's Day in the province to be celebrated on that day.

In 2004, several proposals to change the date to August 24 were presented to the Argentine Camara de Diputados as a single, unified project. After being approved, the project was passed to the Senate of Argentina for final review and approval. The Senate changed the proposed new date to the third Sunday of August, and scheduled the project for approval. However, the project was never addressed during the Senate's planned session, which caused its ultimate failure.

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the Unidad Social Cristiana party presented a bill to change the celebration of the day from the third Sunday of June to 19 March, the day of Saint Joseph. That was in order to give tribute to this saint, who gave name to the capital of the country San José, Costa Rica, and so family heads will be able to celebrate the Father's Day at the same time as the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. The official date is still third Sunday of June.

Germany

In Germany Father's Day is celebrated differently from other parts of the world. There are two terms and/or events of an older origin that while similar in name, have entirely different meanings. Vatertag, is always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday forty days after Easter), which is a federal holiday. Regionally, it is also called men's day, Männertag, or gentlemen's day, Herrentag. It is tradition to do a males-only hiking tour with one or more smaller wagons, Bollerwagen, pulled by manpower. In the wagons are wine or beer (according to region) and traditional regional food, Hausmannskost, which could be Saumagen, Leberwurst (Liverwurst), Blutwurst (Blood Sausage), vegetables, eggs, etc. Many men will use this holiday to get very drunk, to the point of having gangs of drunk people roaming the streets, causing much embarrassment to more conservative German people who don't participate. Police and emergency services are in high alert during the day, and some left-wing and feminist groups have asked for the banning of the holiday.

Some parts of Germany (such as Bavaria and the northern part of Germany) call this particular day "Vatertag", which is the literal equivalent to Father's Day.

Roman Catholic tradition

In the Roman Catholic tradition, Fathers are celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day, commonly called Feast of Saint Joseph, March 19, though in certain countries Father's Day has become a secular celebration.

Singapore

In Singapore, Father's Day is celebrated every third Sunday of June but is not a public holiday.

Taiwan

In Taiwan, Father's Day is not an official holiday, but is widely observed on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month of the year. In Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of the number 8 is bā. This pronunciation is very similar to the character "爸" "bà", which means "Papa" or "father". The Taiwanese, therefore, usually call August 8 by its nickname, "Bābā Day" (爸爸節).

Thailand

In Thailand, Father's Day is set as the birthday of the king. December 5 is the birthday of current king, Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX). Thais celebrate by giving their father or grandfather a Canna flower (Dok put ta ruk sa) which is considered to be a masculine flower. Thai people will wear yellow on this day to show respect for the king. This is because yellow is the Color of the day for Monday, the day on which king Bhumibol Adulyadej was born.

United States of America

In the US, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. The first modern Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia or on June 19 of the same year, in the state of Washington. Since then, Father's Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June.

In West Virginia, it was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was Mothers' Day, which had been celebrated for the first time two months prior in Grafton, West Virginia, a town about 15 miles (24 km) away.

Another driving force behind the establishment of the integration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who reared his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA, at the Spokane YMCA.

Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting greeting cards and male-oriented gifts such as electronics and tools. Schools and other children's programs commonly have activities to make Father's Day gifts.

2009-06-17T07:33:00.002+07:00

True Blood is an American television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on the Sookie Stackhouse book series (known as The Southern Vampire Mysteries) by Charlaine Harris. The show is broadcast on the premium cable network HBO in the United States. It is produced by HBO in association with Ball's production company, Your Face Goes Here Entertainment. It premiered on 7 September 2008.

The show's second 12-episode season premiered on 14 June 2009. Alan Ball has said that he plans to start shooting the third season before Christmas 2009.

True Blood details the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional small northern Louisiana town. The series centers on Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress at a bar, who falls in love with vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).

The first season received critical acclaim and won several awards, including one Golden Globe

Plot

Following the creation of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is a telepath and waitress at Merlotte's in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, owned by Sam Merlotte, a shapeshifter--though this secret is kept hidden. One night, Sookie meets Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome 173-year-old vampire who has returned to Bon Temps following the death of his last remaining relative. As she cannot hear his thoughts, she finds it easy to be in his company and over the first season, the two become romantically involved.

The main mystery of the first season concerns the murders of women connected to Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten). First Maudette Pickens, then Dawn Green, and Amy Burley, are all strangled shortly after having intercourse with Jason. Though the town sheriff suspects Jason is the killer, Jason and Sookie's grandmother is murdered shortly afterwards. At the end of the season it is revealed that Drew Marshall, posing as Rene Lenier, boyfriend of Arlene Fowler, is the killer.

In addition to the murders, the first season concentrates on Sookie's relationship with Bill, and Sam's relationship with Sookie's friend, Tara. Bill explains the rules of being a vampire to Sookie and, after he finds himself killing a vampire to defend Sookie, he is forced to sire a young girl as punishment. In the last episode of the season, the new vampire is left with Bill. After Maudette and Dawn's murders, Jason becomes addicted to vampire blood, "v-juice", and has a short relationship with another addict, Amy, which ends when she is murdered. At the end of season one, Jason joins the anti-vampire movement and seems to be clean.

The final episode ends with Detective Andy Bellefleur discovering a body in his car.

Cast and characters

Main characters

* Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress in a small-town restaurant.

* Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a vampire with whom Sookie falls in love.

* Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), the owner of Merlotte's, where Sookie works. He is a shapeshifter, often watching over Sookie in the form of a dog.

* Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten), Sookie's brother, road crew supervisor for Bon Temps.

* Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), Sookie's best friend, bartender at Merlotte's (played by Brook Kerr in the unaired pilot).

* Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård), Sheriff of one of the five vampire districts, he is very powerful in the vampire community.

* Detective Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer), the detective investigating Jason Stackhouse.

* Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), Tara's cousin, short order cook at Merlotte's, drug dealer and prostitute.

* Benedict "Eggs" Talley (Mehcad Brooks) (Season 2— )

* Daphne (Ashley Jones), a new waitress at Merlotte's and love interest for Sam (Season 2— )

* Dr. Ludwig (Marcia DeRousse) (Season 2— )

* Eden Hamby (Annalise Basso) Jessica's little sister (Season 2— )

* Godric (Allan Hyde), a 2,000 year old vampire who looks like a teenager (Season 2— )

* Hadley Hale, Sookie's cousin (Season 2— )

* Isabel Beaumont (Valerie Cruz), an elegant, Hispanic vampire (Season 2— )

* Rev. Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian), head of the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire church that Jason joins (Season 2— )

* Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp), wife of Rev. Steve Newlin (Season 2— )

* Sophie-Anne Leclerq (Evan Rachel Wood), the vampiric Queen of Louisiana, even more powerful than Eric (Season 2— )

* Stan (Ed Quinn), Godric's lieutenant in Texas (Season 2— )

Supporting characters

* Arlene Fowler (Carrie Preston), a waitress working with Sookie.

* Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack), a friend of Jason and Rene who works on the road crew.

* Sheriff Bud Dearborne (William Sanderson), the town sheriff.

* Pam (Kristin Bauer), assistant to Eric and bouncer in his bar; "made" (turned into a vampire) by Eric.

* Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes), a wealthy, mysterious "social worker."

* Lettie Mae Thornton (Adina Porter), Tara's abusive, alcoholic mother.

* Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe), cousin of Detective Andy Bellefleur, Iraq war veteran, and bartender at Merlotte's.

* Jessica Hamby (Deborah Ann Woll), a young vampire "made" by Bill as a part of his punishment for murdering a fellow vampire.

* Lorena (Mariana Klaveno), a cruel vampire, who "made" Bill at the end of the Civil War.

* Nan Flanagan (Jessica Tuck), the spokeswoman and 'face' of the America Vampire League.

* The Magister (Željko Ivanek), a vampire who sentenced Bill for murdering a fellow vampire.

Deceased characters

* Maudette Pickens (Danielle Sapia), a local woman who videotapes sexual encounters with vampire Liam and with Jason Stackhouse. Killed by Drew Marshall.

* Mack Rattray (James Jean Parks) and Denise Rattray (Karina Logue), a lowlife couple who attempt to drain Bill Compton of his blood. Killed by Bill.

* Dawn Green (Lynn Collins), Sookie's co-worker and friend, Jason's girlfriend. Killed by Drew Marshall.

* Adele Hale Stackhouse (Lois Smith), Sookie and Jason's grandmother, nicknamed "Gran". Killed by Drew Marshall.

* Uncle Bartlett (Cheyenne Wilbur), Sookie's pedophile great-uncle. Killed by Bill.

* Malcolm (Andrew Rothenberg), Liam (Graham Shiels) and Diane (Aunjanue Ellis), vampire acquaintances of Bill Compton who live together in a "nest" and don't wish to mainstream. Burnt alive with Neil Jones.

* Neil Jones (Kevin Michael McHale), coroner's assistant and closet fangbanger. Burnt alive with Malcolm, Liam and Diane.

* Longshadow (Raoul Trujillo), first bartender of Fangtasia. Staked by Bill.

* Eddie Gautier (Stephen Root), a vampire supplying V for Lafayette. Staked by Amy.

* Amy Burley (Lizzy Caplan), Jason Stackhouse's bohemian, drug-addicted love interest. Killed by Drew Marshall.

* Drew Marshall/Rene Lenier (Michael Raymond-James), Arlene's "Cajun" fiancee who works on the road crew with Jason Stackhouse. Beheaded by Sookie.

* Miss Jeanette (Aisha Hinds), a drugstore clerk who performs phony exorcisms on the side. Had her heart cut out.

Production

Development history

Series creator Alan Ball had previously worked with premium cable channel HBO on Six Feet Under, which ran for five seasons. In October 2005, after Six Feet Under's finale, Ball signed a two-year agreement with HBO to develop and produce original programming for the network. True Blood became the first project under the deal, after Ball became acquainted with Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mystery books. One day, while early for a dentist appointment, Ball was browsing through Barnes and Noble and came across Dead Until Dark, the first installment in Harris' series. Enjoying it, he read the following entries and became interested in "bringing Harris' vision to television." However, Harris had two other adaptation options for the books when Ball approached her. She said she chose to work with him, though, because "[Ball] really ‘got’ me. That’s how he convinced me to go with him. I just felt that he understood what I was doing with the books.”

The project's hour-long pilot was ordered concurrently with the finalization of the aforementioned development deal and was written, directed and produced by Ball. Cast members Paquin, Kwanten and Trammell were announced in February 2007 and Moyer later on in April. The pilot was shot in the early summer of 2007 and was officially ordered to series in August, at which point Ball had already written several more episodes. Production on the series began later that fall, with Brook Kerr, who portrayed Tara Thornton in the original pilot, being replaced by Rutina Wesley. Two more episodes of the series had been filmed before the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike shut production of the 12-episode first season down until 2008. That September, after only the first two episodes of the series aired, HBO placed a second season order of twelve episodes on the show and scheduled for production to commence in January 2009 for a summer premiere.

Opening title sequence

True Blood's title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show's deep South setting, is played to "Bad Things" by Jace Everett

onceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of "the whore in the house of prayer" by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of "a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows ..." Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism.

Most of the footage used in the sequence was filmed on location by Digital Kitchen. Crew members took a four-day trip to Louisiana to film and also shot at a Chicago church and on a stage and in a bar in Seattle. Additionally, several Digital Kitchen crew members made cameo appearances in the sequence: Executive Producer Mark Bashore portrays a bar patron who dances with a woman and later gets into a confrontation; Bashore's sons appear as young boys messily consuming red berries; a Digital Kitchen office assistant and an assistant editor appear as weeping religious women and two producers, in one of the sequence's final shots, portray men baptising a Cajun woman.

In editing the opening, Digital Kitchen wanted to express how "religious fanaticism" and "sexual energy" could corrupt humans and make them animalistic. Accordingly, several frames of some shots were cut to give movements a jittery feel, while other shots were simply played back very slowly. Individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood. The sequence's transitions were constructed differently, though; they were made with a Polaroid transfer technique. The last frame of one shot and the first frame of another were taken as a single Polaroid photo, which was then divided between emulsion and backing. The emulsion was then filmed being further separated by chemicals and those shots of this separation were placed back into the final edit.

Eight different typefaces, inspired by Southern road signage, were also created manually by Camm Rowland for cast and crew credits, as well as the show's title card.

Music

Gary Calamar, the music supervisor for the series, said his goal for the soundtrack to the show that is to create something "swampy, bluesy and spooky" and to feature local Louisiana musicians.

The main theme song is "Bad Things" by country music artist Jace Everett, from his 2005 self-titled debut.

Composer Nathan Barr writes the original score for the series which features cello, guitar, prepared piano and glass harmonica among other instruments, all of which he performs himself. Nathan Barr's original score for True Blood will be released on CD in August 2009.

Elektra/Atlantic Records released a True Blood soundtrack on May 19, 2009, the same day as the release of the DVD and Blu-Ray of the first season.

Both Nathan Barr and Jace Everett won 2009 awards from Broadcast Music Incorporated in the BMI Cable Awards category for, respectively, True Blood's original score and theme song.

Viral marketing campaign

he premiere of True Blood was prefaced with a viral marketing/alternate reality game (ARG) campaign, based at BloodCopy.com. This included setting up multiple websites, encoding web address into unmarked envelopes mailed to high profile blog writers and others, and even performances by a "vampire" who attempted to reach out to others of their kind, to discuss the recent creation of "TruBlood", a fictional beverage which is featured in the show.

A MySpace account with the username "Blood" had, as of June 19, uploaded two videos; one entitled "Vampire Taste Test - Tru Blood vs Human", and one called "BloodCopy Exclusive INTERVIEW WITH SAMSON THE VAMPIRE".

A prequel comic was handed out to attendees of the 2008 Comic-Con. The comic centers around an old vampire named Lamar, who tells the reader about how TruBlood surfaced and was discussed between many vampires before going public. At one point, Lamar wonders if TruBlood is making the world safe for vampires or from them.

Several commercials featured on HBO and Facebook.com aired prior to the series premiere, placing vampires in ads similar to those of beer and wine. Some beverage vending machines across the US were also fitted with cards indicating that they were "sold out" of TruBlood.

Thousands of DVDs of the first episode were handed out to attendees of Midnight Madness, a special screenings event of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Blockbuster Video provided free rental of the first episode of True Blood several days before it was broadcast on HBO. The video had a faint promotional watermark throughout the episode.

On April 16, 2009, HBO released the first teaser poster for Season 2. The image uses a perspective technique that shows observers one of two images.

A minute-long promotional video advertising season two, which featured Bob Dylan's "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," was released via Entertainment Tonight in early May.

Reception

The overall critical reception of True Blood has generally been favorable, despite the fact that initial impressions were mixed. The New York Post critic wrote of the opening episodes: "If HBO's new vampire show is any indication, there would still be countless deaths - especially among vampire hunters and the viewers who love them - because everyone would be dying of boredom. And so it is with HBO's new series from death-obsessed Alan Ball, creator of the legendary Six Feet Under, whose new show True Blood, won't so much make your blood run cold as it will leave you cold."

Whereas USA Today concluded: "Sexy, witty and unabashedly peculiar, True Blood is a blood-drenched Southern Gothic romantic parable set in a world where vampires are out and about and campaigning for equal rights. Part mystery, part fantasy, part comedy, and all wildly imaginative exaggeration, Blood proves that there's still vibrant life — or death — left in the "star-crossed lovers" paradigm. You just have to know where to stake your romantic claim."

By the end of the first series, True Blood had a score of 64. indicating generally favorable reviews, on Metacritic, the aggregator of critical responses.

Ratings

The first season of True Blood debuted at a very modest 1.44 million viewers compared to the network's past drama premiers such as Big Love which premiered at 4.56 million, and John from Cincinnati which debuted at 3.4 million.However, by late November 2008, 6.8 million a week were watching: this figure included repeat and on-demand viewings. The season finale's viewership was 2.4 million. True Blood has reportedly become HBO's most popular series since The Sopranos and Sex and the City.

The second season premiere of the series on June 14, 2009 was watched by 3.7 million viewers, making it the most watched program on HBO since the series finale of The Sopranos. The total number of viewers for the season premiere, including the late night replay, was 5.1 million.

Offbeat awards

True Blood won two 2009 awards at "Mr Skin's 10th Annual Anatomy Awards," which celebrate sex and nudity in motion pictures and television. True Blood won Best TV Show, and Lizzy Caplan won for "Best First-Time Nude Scene."

DVD release

The DVD and Blu-ray of Season One were released on May 19, 2009.

Bonnaroo Music Festival 2009

2009-06-17T07:24:00.001+07:00

The 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival was held June 11-14, 2009.

Lineup

The initial lineup was released on the festival's website at midnight on February 3, 2009.According to their official website, Phish will perform a traditional 2-set headlining spot on Sunday night as well as a late night set on Friday night. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will perform Saturday. According to the Bonnaroo Message Board, the lineup has not been fully announced and what has been announced is only half of the complete lineup. In a recent article a comparison of 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and 2009 Bonnaroo Music Festival, revealed evidence of Bonnaroo only being half done with their lineup. Further details of a date in which the complete lineup will be announced is not known at this time.

Down and The Ting Tings appeared on the initial lineup but were later removed.

* Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
* Phish (2 shows)
* Beastie Boys
* Nine Inch Nails * Last Tour
* David Byrne
* Wilco
* Al Green
* Snoop Dogg
* Elvis Costello Solo
* Erykah Badu
* Paul Oakenfold
* Ben Harper and Relentless7
* The Mars Volta
* TV on the Radio
* Yeah Yeah Yeahs
* MGMT
* moe. (late night on 6/13)
* Public Enemy
* Andrew Bird
* Band of Horses
* Gov't Mule
* Merle Haggard
* The Decemberists
* Ani DiFranco
* Girl Talk
* Bon Iver
* Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate
* Rodrigo y Gabriela
* Galactic
* The Del McCoury Band
* The Protomen
* of Montreal
* Allen Toussaint
* Coheed & Cambria
* Booker T & The Drive-By Truckers
* David Grisman Quintet

* Lucinda Williams
* Animal Collective
* Gomez
* Neko Case
* Jenny Lewis
* Amadou & Mariam
* Santigold
* Robert Earl Keen
* Shadows Fall
* Tony Rice Unit
* Citizen Cope
* Femi Kuti and the Positive Force
* High On Fire
* Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
* Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
* Kaki King
* Grizzly Bear
* King Sunny Adé & the African Beats
* Okkervil River
* St. Vincent
* Zac Brown Band
* Passion Pit
* Raphael Saadiq
* The Dillinger Escape Plan
* Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
* Crystal Castles
* Dirty Projectors
* Tift Merritt
* Brett Dennen
* Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue
* Toubab Krewe
* Wailing Souls
* People Under The Stairs
* Heartless Bastards
* Alejandro Escovedo

* The Features
* The Itals
* Vieux Farka Touré
* Elvis Perkins in Dearland
* Cherryholmes
* Yeasayer
* Todd Snider
* MURS
* Chairlift
* Portugal. The Man
* The SteelDrivers
* Midnite
* The Knux
* The Low Anthem
* Delta Spirit
* A.A. Bondy
* White Rabbits
* The Lovell Sisters
* Alberta Cross
* Janelle Monáe
* Hockey
* Pretty Lights
* Phoenix
* Dirty Guv'nahs
* Julia Nunes
* Tobacco
* Kraak & Smaak
* Aaron LaCrate
* Motion Potion
* Gypsyphonic Disko
* DJ Quickie Mart
* J. Boogie
* The Hood Internet
* Ilo & the Coral Reefer All Stars
* Heypenny
* The Black Lillies
* Jimmy Buffett

Comedy acts

* Jimmy Fallon
* Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Presents Bonnapoo 2009
* An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver & Rob Riggle
* Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter
* Aziz Ansari

* Kristen Schaal
* Arj Barker
* Todd Barry
* Rory Albanese
* Wayne Federman
* Nick Thune

* Nick Kroll
* Kurt Braunohler
* Amy Schumer
* Kumail Nanjiani
* Pete Homes

Bonnaroo Music Festival

2009-06-17T07:17:00.003+07:00

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual, four to five-day music festival, created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, first held in 2002. The festival is held at Great Stage Park on a 700 acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, electronica, and other alternative music. The festival began with a primary focus on jam bands, but has diversified greatly in recent years. The festival features craftsmen and artisans selling unique products, food and drink vendors, and many other activities including some put on by various sponsors. Sponsors of the festival are required to provide free activities for attendees.

History

The word Bonnaroo, popularized by New Orleans R&B giant Dr. John with his 1974 album Desitively Bonnaroo, is a slang word meaning "a really good time." The name was chosen for its literal meaning, and also to honor the rich Louisiana music tradition that inspired the organizers' desire to provide many styles of quality live music for appreciative fans. The word Bonnaroo is actually a New Orleans Ninth Ward slang construction taken from the French "bon" meaning "good", and "aroo" from the English "around", translating to "the best on the streets".

Economy

On January 10, 2007, Bonnaroo organizers Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment purchased a major portion of the site, where the annual music festival is held. The purchase of 530 acres (2.1 km2) encompassed all of the performance areas and much of the camping and parking area used for the annual festival; the festival will continue to lease another 250 acres (1.0 km2) that currently serve as additional parking and camping. Since its inception, Bonnaroo has contributed more than $1 million directly to Coffee County organizations. In addition to annual charitable contributions, the festival's activities provide annual revenue to the county. Measured in a 2005 study, the economic impact of the event on Coffee County was more than $14 million in business revenues and more than $4 million in personal income.

Environment

In recent years, festival organizers have placed great emphasis on recycling and 'greening' efforts during the event.

Accolades

In 2008, it was named “Best Festival” by Rolling Stone Magazine, calling it "the ultimate over-the-top summer festival."

Venues

The official venues located at Bonnaroo often change from year to year. The following are a few of the more permanent venues.

* Centeroo - The Central area of Bonnaroo. Serviced by two main entrances, nearly all of the festival activity is enclosed in this area. Various merchants and activities supplement the plethora of music related activities located within Centeroo. Only one stage, the What Stage, lies outside of Centeroo. While Centeroo is open 24 hours a day, musical artists generally only play from noon until the evening, followed by the unopposed headlining act. Afterwards, there are late-night sets, usually running from midnight until the early morning, sometimes as late as 5 or 6 AM.

* What Stage - The main stage of the festival, with a capacity of 100,000, is also the largest. What Stage is open from approximately noon until midnight. Traditionally, the headlining act each day will play on the What Stage with no other acts performing on any other stages.

* Which Stage - The second stage, with a capacity of 30,000. Which Stage is generally one of the last stages to finish before the headlining act each night. After the headlining act performs, a late night show generally follows here.

* This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent - These three tents serve as a combined tertiary tier for musical performances. Late night shows also generally occur in all three of these venues, along with the yearly Superjam, a one-off combination of various musicians performing at the festival.

* Comedy Tent - This tent is reserved strictly for comedy acts, such as stand up comedians.

Various other small tents and stages also exist, such as the Solar Stage and the Cinema tent. See the Bonnaroo website for further details on these venues.

Activities

Available to the Bonnaroo public throughout the week are various activity tents. These tents become most popular with the night crowd, with such activities set up as The Silent Disco tent and several other club or bar themed venues. The Silent Disco allows for participants to enjoy the excitement and fun of a dance club but without disturbing nearby campers. Each person upon entering the tent is given a set of headphones that syncs with the DJ and the music, so everyone is listening to the same song through the headphones while appearing from the outside to be dancing to no music at all. Other activities include the Comedy Tent where comedians from Mike Birbiglia to Flight of the Concords have performed. The Cinema tent showing a variety of mainstream and independent movies is also popular as it is one of the air conditioned tents. Activities like these provide an easy and fun way to hang around the Centeroo in between music performances.

See Bonaroo on 2009

H1N1 Flu Situation Update

2009-06-16T09:38:00.002+07:00

Weekly Influenza Activity Estimates Reported by State and Territorial Epidemiologists

[Activity levels indicate geographic spread of both seasonal and novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses]

A Pandemic Is Declared

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. A Phase 6 designation indicates that a global pandemic is underway.

More than 70 countries are now reporting cases of human infection with novel H1N1 flu. This number has been increasing over the past few weeks, but many of the cases reportedly had links to travel or were localized outbreaks without community spread. The WHO designation of a pandemic alert Phase 6 reflects the fact that there are now ongoing community level outbreaks in multiple parts of world.

WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus. It’s uncertain at this time how serious or severe this novel H1N1 pandemic will be in terms of how many people infected will develop serious complications or die from novel H1N1 infection. Experience with this virus so far is limited and influenza is unpredictable. However, because novel H1N1 is a new virus, many people may have little or no immunity against it, and illness may be more severe and widespread as a result. In addition, currently there is no vaccine to protect against novel H1N1 virus.

In the United States, most people who have become ill with the newly declared pandemic virus have recovered without requiring medical treatment, however, CDC anticipates that there will be more cases, more hospitalizations and more deaths associated with this pandemic in the coming days and weeks. In addition, this virus could cause significant illness with associated hospitalizations and deaths in the fall and winter during the U.S. influenza season.
Background

Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a new flu virus of swine origin that first caused illness in Mexico and the United States in March and April, 2009. It’s thought that novel influenza A (H1N1) flu spreads in the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread, mainly through the coughs and sneezes of people who are sick with the virus, but it may also be spread by touching infected objects and then touching your nose or mouth. Novel H1N1 infection has been reported to cause a wide range of flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. In addition, many people also have reported nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea.

The first novel H1N1 patient in the United States was confirmed by laboratory testing at CDC on April 15, 2009. The second patient was confirmed on April 17, 2009. It was quickly determined that the virus was spreading from person-to-person. On April 22, CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center to better coordinate the public health response. On April 26, 2009, the United States Government declared a public health emergency and has been actively and aggressively implementing the nation’s pandemic response plan.
Since the outbreak was first detected, an increasing number of U.S. states have reported cases of novel H1N1 influenza with associated hospitalizations and deaths. By June 3, 2009, all 50 states in the United States and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were reporting cases of novel H1N1 infection. While nationwide U.S. influenza surveillance systems indicate that overall influenza activity is decreasing in the country at this time, novel H1N1 outbreaks are ongoing in parts of the U.S., in some cases with intense activity.
CDC is continuing to watch the situation carefully, to support the public health response and to gather information about this virus and its characteristics. The Southern Hemisphere is just beginning its influenza season and the experience there may provide valuable clues about what may occur in the Northern Hemisphere this fall and winter.
CDC Response

CDC continues to take aggressive action to respond to the outbreak. CDC’s response goals are to reduce the spread and severity of illness, and to provide information to help health care providers, public health officials and the public address the challenges posed by this new public health threat.

CDC is issuing updated interim guidance in response to the rapidly evolving situation.
Clinician Guidance

CDC has issued interim guidance for clinicians on identifying and caring for patients with novel H1N1, in addition to providing interim guidance on the use of antiviral drugs. Influenza antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaled powder) with activity against influenza viruses, including novel influenza H1N1 viruses. The priority use for influenza antiviral drugs during this outbreak is to treat people hospitalized with influenza illness, and to treat people at increased risk of severe illness, including pregnant women, young children, and people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes and other metabolic diseases, heart or lung disease, kidney disease, weakened immune systems, and persons with neurologic or neuromuscular disease.
Public Guidance

CDC has provided guidance for the public on what to do if they become sick with flu-like symptoms, including infection with novel H1N1. CDC also has issued instructions on taking care of a sick person at home and the use of facemasks and respirators to reduce novel influenza A (H1n1) transmission. Everyone should take everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs, including frequent hand washing and people who are sick should stay home and avoid contact with others in order to limit further spread of the disease.
Testing

CDC has developed a PCR diagnostic test kit to detect this novel H1N1 virus and has now distributed test kits to all states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The test kits are being shipped internationally as well. This will allow states and other countries to test for this new virus.
Vaccine

Vaccines are a very important part of a response to pandemic influenza and the U.S. Government is aggressively taking early steps in the process to manufacture a novel H1N1 vaccine, working closely with manufacturers. CDC has isolated the new H1N1 virus, made a candidate vaccine virus that can be used to create vaccine, and has provided this virus to industry so they can begin scaling up for production of a vaccine, if necessary. Making vaccine is a long multi-step process requiring several months to complete.
Stockpile Deployment

CDC has deployed 25 percent of the supplies in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to all states in the continental United States and U.S. territories. This included antiviral drugs, personal protective equipment, and respiratory protection devices. The influenza A (H1N1) virus is susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. These supplies and medicines will help states and U.S. territories respond to novel H1N1 virus.
Surveillance

Novel influenza A (H1N1) activity is now being detected through CDC’s routine influenza surveillance systems and reported weekly in FluView. CDC tracks U.S. influenza activity through multiple systems across five categories. While our influenza surveillance systems indicate that overall influenza activity is decreasing in the United States, novel H1N1 outbreaks are ongoing in different parts of the U.S., in some cases with intense influenza-like activity. Most of the influenza viruses being detected now are novel H1N1 viruses.
Shared Responsibility

Individuals have an important role in protecting themselves and their families.

* Stay informed. Health officials will provide additional information as it becomes available.
* Everyone should take these everyday steps to protect your health and lessen the spread of this new virus:
o Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
o Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
o Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
o Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
o If you are sick with a flu-like illness, stay home for 7 days after your symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer. This is to keep from infecting others and spreading the virus further.
o Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

The Proposal

2009-06-16T09:34:00.001+07:00

The Proposal is an American comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher. The screenplay was written by Pete Chiarelli and stars Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The film is slated to be released on June 19, 2009 by Touchstone Pictures.

Plot synopsis

Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is the executive editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, Colden Books, who forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to avoid being deported to Canada. He grudgingly accepts in order to get the position of editor within the company. When the government investigates, the two are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Alaska in order to sell the lie, but start to fall genuinely in love as they spend time together.

Cast

* Sandra Bullock - Margaret "Maggie" Tate
* Ryan Reynolds - Andrew 'Andy' Paxton
* Malin Akerman - Gertrude 'Gertie'
* Mary Steenburgen - Grace Paxton
* Craig T. Nelson - Joe Paxton
* Oscar Nunez - Ramone
* Aasif Mandvi - Bob Thurber
* Betty White - Grandma Annie "Gammy"
* Denis O'Hare - Mr. Gilbertson
* Niecy Nash - Flight Attendant

Music

The score to The Proposal was composed by Aaron Zigman, who recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage

Defense of the Ancients (DotA)

2009-06-16T09:21:00.002+07:00

Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called "creeps". As in role-playing games, players level up their hero and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.

The scenario was developed with the "World Editor" of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of the expansion, The Frozen Throne. There have been many variations of the original concept; the most popular is DotA Allstars, which has been maintained by several authors during development. The current developer is known by his pseudonym as "IceFrog"; the map has strong community support.

Since its release, Allstars has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon and the Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution leagues; Gamasutra declared that DotA was perhaps the most popular "free, non-supported game mod in the world". The map has gone on to influence other maps and games, including the 2009 strategy game Demigod.

Gameplay

Defense of the Ancients pits two teams of players against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge. Players on the Sentinel team are based at the southwest corner of the map, and those on the Scourge team are based at the northeast corner. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units which guard the main paths leading to their base. In the center of each base is the "Ancient", a building that must be destroyed to win the game.

Each human player controls one Hero, a powerful unit with unique abilities. In Allstars, players on each side choose one of ninety-five heroes, each with different abilities and tactical advantages over other heroes. The scenario is highly team-oriented; it is difficult for one player to carry the team to victory alone. Nevertheless, some heroes, given enough time, can change the outcome single-handedly, while countering the opposing team's heroes. Defense of the Ancients allows up to ten players in a five versus five format and an additional two slots for referees or observers, often with an equal number of players on each side.

Because the gameplay revolves around strengthening individual heroes, it does not require one to focus on resource management and base-building, as in most traditional real-time strategy games. Killing computer-controlled or neutral units earns the player experience points; when enough experience is accumulated, the player gains a level. Leveling up improves the hero's toughness and the damage it can inflict, and allows players to upgrade their spells or skills. In addition to accumulating experience, players also manage a single resource: gold. The typical resource gathering of Warcraft III is replaced by a combat-oriented money system; in addition to a small periodic income, heroes earn gold by killing hostile units, base structures, and enemy heroes. Using gold, players buy items to strengthen their hero and gain abilities. Certain items can be combined with recipes to create more powerful items. Buying items that suit one's hero is an important tactical element of the scenario.

Allstars offers a variety of game modes, selected by the game host at the beginning of the match. The game modes dictate the difficulty of the scenario, as well as whether people can choose their hero or are assigned one randomly. Many game modes can be combined (for example, an easy difficulty level and a random hero pick), allowing more flexible options.

Development

Warcraft III is the third title in the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. As with Warcraft II, Blizzard included a free "world editor" in the game that allows players to create custom scenarios or "maps" for the game, which can be played online with other players through Battle.net. These custom scenarios can be simple terrain changes, which play like normal Warcraft games, or they can be entirely new game scenarios with custom objectives, units, items, and events, like Defense of the Ancients.

The first version of Defense of the Ancients was released in 2003 by a mapmaker under the alias Eul, who based the map on a previous StarCraft scenario known as "Aeon of Strife", After the release of Warcraft's expansion The Frozen Throne, which added new features to the World Editor, Eul did not update the scenario. Other mapmakers produced spinoffs that added new heroes, items, and features.

Among the DotA variants created in the wake of Eul's map included Allstars, developed by modder Steve Feak (under the alias Guinsoo); this version would become the most popular version of the map. Feak said when he began developing Allstars he had no idea how popular the game would eventually become; the emerging success of the gametype inspired him to design a new title around what he considered an emerging game genre. Feak added a recipe system for items so that player's equipment would scale as they grew more powerful, as well as a powerful boss character called Roshan (named after his bowling ball) who required an entire team to defeat.

Feak used a battle.net chat channel as a place for DotA players to congregate, but DotA Allstars had no official site for discussions and hosting. The leaders of the DotA Allstars clan, TDA, proposed that a dedicated web site be created to replace the various online alternatives that were infrequently updated or improperly maintained. TDA member Steve "Pendragon" Mescon created the official community site, dota-allstars.com, on October 14, 2004.

Towards the end of his association with the map, Feak primarily worked on optimizing the map before handing over control to another developer after version 6.01. The new author, IceFrog, added new features, heroes, and fixes. Each release is accompanied with a changelog. IceFrog is notoriously reclusive, refusing to give interviews; the only evidence of IceFrog's authorship was the map maker's email account on the official website and the name branded on the game's loading screen. Icefrog now interacts with players through a personal blog where he answers common questions players have about him and about the game. He has also posted information about upcoming map releases, including previews of new heroes and items.

Defense of the Ancients has strong community support, now maintained via official forums. Users can post ideas for new heroes or items, some of which are added to the map. Players have contributed icons and hero descriptions and created the artwork displayed while the map loads, and suggestions for changes to existing heroes or items are taken seriously; IceFrog once changed a new hero less than two weeks after the new version of the map was released. Versions of the scenario where enemy heroes are controlled by artificial intelligences have also been released. Mescon continues to maintain dota-allstars.com, which as of April 2009 has 1.5 million registered members and receives more than a million unique visitors each month. New team members have been added to roll out visual and system improvements to the site. IceFrog announced due to conflict of interest that he would be boycotting dota-allstars.com and starting his own web site while continuing game development.

Because Warcraft III custom games have none of the features designed to improve game quality (matchmaking players based on connection speed, etc.), various programs are used to maintain Defense of the Ancients. External tools ping player's locations, and games can be named to exclude geographic regions. Clans and committees such as TDA maintain their own official list of rules and regulations, and players can be kicked from matches by being placed on "banlists".

Reception and legacy

The popularity of Defense of the Ancients has increased over time. The scenario was featured by Computer Gaming World in a review of new maps and mods in Warcraft III, and has been called "the ultimate RTS" by game journalist and developer Luke Smith. Allstars has become an important tournament scenario, starting with its prominence at the debut of Blizzard's BlizzCon convention in 2005. Allstars was also featured in the Malaysia and Singapore World Cyber Games starting in 2005, and the World Cyber Games Asian Championships beginning with the 2006 season. Defense of the Ancients is now included in the game lineup for the internationally recognized Cyberathlete Amateur League and CyberEvolution leagues.Additionally, the scenario appeared in Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2008;Oliver Paradis, ESWC's competition manager, noted that the high level of community support behind the scenario, as well as its worldwide appeal, were among the reasons it was chosen.

The scenario is popular in many parts of the world; in the Philippines and Thailand, it is played as much as the game Counter-Strike. It is also popular in Sweden and other Northern European countries, where the Defense of the Ancients-inspired song "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" by Swedish musician Basshunter reached the European 2006 charts at #116 and cracked the top ten Singles Charts in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. LAN tournaments are a major part of worldwide play, including tournaments in Sweden and Russia; however, due to a lack of LAN tournaments and championships in North America, several teams have since disbanded. Blizzard points to DotA as an example of what dedicated mapmakers can create using developer's tools.

In June 2008, Michael Walbridge, writing for Gamasutra, stated that DotA "is likely the most popular and most-discussed free, non-supported game mod in the world".In pointing to the strong community built around the game, Walbridge stated that DotA shows it is much easier for a community game to be maintained by the community, and this is one of the maps' greatest strengths. Defense of the Ancients has been credited as one of the influences for the 2009 Gas Powered Games title Demigod, with the video game publication GameSpy noting the game's premise revolved around aspiring gods "[playing] DotA in real life". Guinsoo went on to apply many of the mechanics and lessons he learned from Defense of the Ancients to the upcoming Riot Games title League of Legends: Clash of Fates.

Carrie Prejean loses title

2009-06-16T09:19:00.002+07:00

Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, whose comments opposing gay marriage sparked controversy, has been stripped of her title, officials said today.

The action comes a month after Donald Trump, who runs the Miss USA pageant, announced she would retain the crown.

A spokesperson for K2 Productions, which operates the Miss California, confirmed to The Times that Prejean has been stripped of her crown because of "contract violations." Fox News reported that pageant officials contended that she failed to participate in pageant-related events.

The controversy began nearly a month ago, when Prejean was asked about her views on same-sex marriage during the nationally televised Miss USA pageant. Although she said she believed people were entitled to do as they liked, she said marriage should be recognized only as an institution between a man and a woman.

Trump said he had no problem with Prejean's comments. "She gave a very honest answer when asked a tough question," he said at a New York news conference with Prejean sitting next to him. "It was the same answer the president of the United States gave ... She has to be commended."

Trump also said he reviewed semi-nude photos of Prejean that have surfaced in recent days and concluded they should not disqualify her. "We are in the 21st century," said Trump, who owns the pageant. "We have determined that the pictures taken were fine."

Prejean, who has appeared on Fox News in recent weeks, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chastity Bono is undergoing a sex change

2009-06-16T09:12:00.002+07:00

Celebrity daughter Chastity Bono is undergoing a sex change to become a man, her publicist announced Thursday.

The gender-swap process began shortly after Bono's 40th birthday in March and more than a decade after she came out as a lesbian.

"Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity," spokesman Howard Bragman said in a statement using only male pronouns.

Chastity, the only child of the "I Got You, Babe" singing duo, will have gender reassignment surgery, according to Us magazine - although Bragman declined to confirm the operation.

"He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones," said Bragman, declining to answer any questions.

Bono became a vocal advocate of gay and transgendered rights after going public with her sexuality.

There was no immediate comment from Cher, who initially cringed at her daughter's lesbianism before making peace with Chastity. Her father, Sonny Bono, died in 1998.

Gay leaders hailed Bono's decision as courageous and "an important step forward."

"Coming out as a transgender is an extremely personal decision and one that is never made lightly," said Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"We look forward to hearing Chaz's story in his own words in the future."

"Transitioning," as gender switching is known, typically involves hormone therapy and sometimes - although not always - some surgical alteration.

"For some it's a medical transition," said Carrie Davis, director of adult services at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

"For others, it's just social. And for many, it's both."

Lakers won the 15th title

2009-06-16T08:06:00.002+07:00

Seven years after their last championship, five years after a series of humbling losses in Detroit, and 362 days after a futile Finals effort against Boston, the Lakers were back, in a big way.

A victory parade will proceed through Los Angeles on Wednesday, the celebration becoming official after the Lakers thumped the Orlando Magic on Sunday, 99-86, to win the NBA Finals, four games to one.

Undeniably, it was Kobe Bryant's night. He had 30 points, six rebounds, five assists, and one very important addition to his portfolio. He finally won a championship without Shaquille O'Neal.

Two years and a month after demanding to be traded from the Lakers, he smiled in the final minute of Game 5, turning to teammate Lamar Odom and saying, "It's over."

It was over, indeed, but successful for several Lakers, each of whom left the building having fulfilled his own story line.

For Bryant, it meant a fourth championship ring, leaving him one behind Magic Johnson and two behind Michael Jordan.

It was similarly triumphant for Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who earned a 10th championship ring, one more than Boston Celtics luminary Red Auerbach.

For Odom, it was the high point of a 10-year career that started with the Clippers, transitioned to Miami and was thrown fully into the spotlight when he was one of the names sent to the Lakers when they traded O'Neal.

For Derek Fisher, it was a fourth championship ring made all the more memorable by his clutch three-pointers in Game 4.

And for Pau Gasol, it meant the rewarding part of a voyage that began with his trade to the Lakers from a sagging Memphis franchise 16 months ago.

It was the Lakers' 15th championship (their 10th in L.A.), meaningful to Bryant for many reasons.

"I don't have to hear that idiotic criticism anymore," he said. "That's the biggest thing. I don't have to hear that stuff anymore. I can't believe this moment is here. They won't see us as losers. L.A. is brutal, man. Now when I go to Disney World and Disneyland, I can enjoy the moment. I don't have to answer questions about, 'What the hell happened to you guys?' "

Bryant can opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent July 1, though he offered a preview of the future when he talked about the Lakers' possibilities down the road.

"When next season comes around, we'll go from there," he said. "We'll be ready to work again, that's for sure."

Bryant can re-sign with the Lakers for five years and about $135 million, more than any other team can offer. The return of the Lakers as a dominant power will also affect Bryant's decision, according to sources close to the 13-year veteran.

The "M-V-P" chants from a surprisingly vocal contingent of Lakers fans again had meaning for Bryant after he was selected Finals MVP a month after Cleveland's LeBron James earned the regular-season award.

It's safe to say Bryant would rather have this one.

He was somber throughout the Finals, but, of course, it was just his definition of being focused.

"I was grumpy for a while," he said. "Now I'm just ecstatic, like a kid in a candy store."

After the game, Bryant embraced several teammates, Jackson watching it all while smiling. Bryant and Fisher then shared a long hug.

Jackson acknowledged the importance of passing Auerbach, calling it a "remarkable accomplishment," and then praised the Lakers.

"I think I've always said this before -- the journey is important," Jackson said. "This was no exception, this team."

A year after being demolished by Boston in Game 6 of the Finals, the Lakers handled the Magic to become the first team since Detroit in 1989 to win the championship the season after losing in the Finals.

The Lakers trailed halfway through the second quarter, 40-36, but took off on a 16-0 run that seemed to stun the Magic. Trevor Ariza had seven points during the run, and Fisher had five as the Magic went 4 minutes 25 seconds without scoring a point.

Orlando made a brief run early in the third quarter, cutting a 10-point deficit to five, but Odom answered with three-pointers on consecutive possessions and the Magic never threatened again. Odom had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Gasol had 14 points and 15 rebounds.

The victory marked the culmination of a twisting, turning postseason. The Lakers looked uninspired in getting past Utah in the first round before being taken to the maximum seven games by an undermanned Houston team.

But they won the Western Conference by breaking a 2-2 series tie against Denver with two impressive efforts.

Then came the Finals, and the restoration of the Lakers as a championship franchise.

Cristiano Ronaldo spend the night with Paris Hilton

2009-06-16T07:44:00.002+07:00

Paris Hilton may have hooked up with soccer stud, Cristiano Ronaldo.

The superstars were allegedly getting intimate at L.A. hotspot, MyHouse, last night. Apparently Paris, who broke up with Doug Reinhardt less than 24 hours ago, wants to cash in on Ronaldo’s success. The soccer stud is set to join the Real Madrid soccer team for a world record of 80 million pounds (approximately $132, 575, 998 dollars)!

Seems like Paris, finally got her way! Although Hilton's rep denied it, rumor is that the heiress has been head over heels for Ronaldo since they met him at a nightclub, last summer. Back then, sources say Ronaldo didn't pay much attention to the heiress. This time around things were apparently much different.

Sources told X17 Online: ‘Cristiano and Paris were all over each other swapping spit the entire night! His table needed every waitress in the building to service the large quantities of alcohol, and he spent an excess of 20 thousand dollars on champagne and drinks.'

Apparently the fun didn’t stop there. Paris and her sister, Nicky, reportedly left the club in a chauffeured car, while Ronaldo hopped in a cab around 3am! According to reports, Cristiano then went to Nicky’s residence in West Hollywood and didn’t leave until 5am. Paris has yet to be seen!

The Prototype

2009-06-16T07:25:00.001+07:00

A prototype is an original type, form, or instance of something serving as a typical example, basis, or standard for other things of the same category. The word derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον (prototypon), "archetype, original", neutral of πρωτότυπος (prototypos), "original, primitive", from πρώτος (protos), "first" + τύπος (typos), "impression"

Semantics

In semantics, prototypes or proto instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. Prototypes are typical instances of a category that serve as benchmarks against which the surrounding, less representative instances are categorized

Design and modeling

In many fields, there is great uncertainty as to whether a new design will actually do what is desired. New designs often have unexpected problems. A prototype is often used as part of the product design process to allow engineers and designers the ability to explore design alternatives, test theories and confirm performance prior to starting production of a new product. Engineers use their experience to tailor the prototype according to the specific unknowns still present in the intended design. For example, some prototypes are used to confirm and verify consumer interest in a proposed design where as other prototypes will attempt to verify the performance or suitability of a specific design approach.

In general, an iterative series of prototypes will be designed, constructed and tested as the final design emerges and is prepared for production. With rare exceptions, multiple iterations of prototypes are used to progressively refine the design. A common strategy is to design, test, evaluate and then modify the design based on analysis of the prototype.

In many products it is common to assign the prototype iterations Greek letters. For example, a first iteration prototype may be called an "Alpha" prototype. Often this iteration is not expected to perform as intended and some amount of failures or issues are anticipated. Subsequent prototyping iterations (Beta, Gamma, etc.) will be expected to resolve issues and perform closer to the final production intent.

In many product development organizations, prototyping specialists are employed - individuals with specialized skills and training in general fabrication techniques that can help bridge between theoretical designs and the fabrication of prototypes.

Basic Prototype Categories

There is no general agreement on what constitutes a "prototype" and the word is often used interchangeably with the word "model" which can cause confusion. In general, “prototypes” fall into four basic categories:

Proof-of-Principle Prototype (Model) (also called a breadboard). This type of prototype is used to test some aspect of the intended design without attempting to exactly simulate the visual appearance, choice of materials or intended manufacturing process. Such prototypes can be used to “prove” out a potential design approach such as range of motion, mechanics, sensors, architecture, etc. These types of models are often used to identify which design options will not work, or where further development and testing is necessary.

Form Study Prototype (Model). This type of prototype will allow designers to explore the basic size, look and feel of a product without simulating the actual function or exact visual appearance of the product. They can help assess ergonomic factors and provide insight into visual aspects of the product's final form. Form Study Prototypes are often hand-carved or machined models from easily sculpted, inexpensive materials (e.g., urethane foam), without representing the intended color, finish, or texture. Due to the materials used, these models are intended for internal decision making and are generally not durable enough or suitable for use by representative users or consumers.

Visual Prototype (Model) will capture the intended design aesthetic and simulate the appearance, color and surface textures of the intended product but will not actually embody the function(s) of the final product. These models will be suitable for use in market research, executive reviews and approval, packaging mock-ups, and photo shoots for sales literature.

Functional Prototype (Model) (also called a working prototype) will, to the greatest extent practical, attempt to simulate the final design, aesthetics, materials and functionality of the intended design. The functional prototype may be reduced in size (scaled down) in order to reduce costs. The construction of a fully working full-scale prototype and the ultimate test of concept, is the engineers' final check for design flaws and allows last-minute improvements to be made before larger production runs are ordered.

Differences between a prototype and a production design

In general, prototypes will differ from the final production variant in three fundamental ways:

Prototypes are often constructed via non-production intent materials. Production materials may require manufacturing processes involving higher capital costs than what is practical for prototyping. Instead, engineers of prototyping specialists will attempt to substitute materials with properties that simulate the intended final material.

Prototypes are generally constructed via non-production intent manufacturing processes. Often expensive and time consuming unique tooling is required to fabricate a custom design. Prototypes will often compromise by using more flexible processes.

Prototypes are generally constructed from a design that has been developed to a lower level of fidelity than production intent. Final production designs often require extensive effort to capture high volume manufacturing detail. Such detail is generally unwarranted for prototypes as some refinement to the design is to be expected. Often prototypes are built using very limited engineering detail as compared to final production intent.

Characteristics and Limitations of Prototypes

Engineers and prototyping specialists seek to understand the limitations of prototypes to exactly simulate the characteristics of their intended design. A degree of skill and experience is necessary to effectively use prototyping as a design verification tool.

It is important to realize that by their very definition, prototypes will represent some compromise from the final production design. Due to differences in materials, processes and design fidelity, it is possible that a prototype may fail to perform acceptably whereas the production design may have been sound. A counter-intuitive idea is that prototypes may actually perform acceptably whereas the production design may be flawed since prototyping materials and processes may occasionally outperform their production counterparts.

In general, it can be expected that individual prototype costs will be substantially greater than the final production costs due to inefficiencies in materials and processes. Prototypes are also used to revise the design for the purposes of reducing costs through optimization and refinement.

It is possible to use prototype testing to reduce the risk that a design may not perform acceptably, however prototypes generally cannot eliminate all risk. There are pragmatic and practical limitations to the ability of a prototype to match the intended final performance of the product and some allowances and engineering judgement are often required before moving forward with a production design.

Building the full design is often expensive and can be time-consuming, especially when repeated several times -- building the full design, figuring out what the problems are and how to solve them, then building another full design. As an alternative, "rapid-prototyping" or "rapid application development" techniques are used for the initial prototypes, which implement part, but not all, of the complete design. This allows designers and manufacturers to rapidly and inexpensively test the parts of the design that are most likely to have problems, solve those problems, and then build the full design.

Modern trends

With the recent advances in computer modeling it is becoming practical to eliminate the creation of a physical prototype (except possibly at greatly reduced scales for promotional purposes), instead modeling all aspects of the final product as a computer model. An example of such a development can be seen in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in which the first full sized physical realization is made on the series production line. Computer modeling is now being extensively used in automotive design, both for form (in the styling and aerodynamics of the vehicle) and in function — especially for improving vehicle crashworthiness and in weight reduction to improve mileage.

Mechanical and electrical engineering

The most common use of the word prototype is a functional, although experimental, version of a non-military machine (e.g., automobiles, domestic appliances, consumer electronics) whose designers would like to have built by mass production means, as opposed to a mockup, which is an inert representation of a machine's appearance, often made of some non-durable substance.

An electronics designer often builds the first prototype from breadboard or stripboard or perfboard, typically using "DIP" packages. However, more and more often the first functional prototype is built on a "prototype PCB" almost identical to the production PCB, as PCB manufacturing prices fall and as many components are not available in DIP packages, but only available in SMT packages optimized for placing on a PCB.

Builders of military machines and aviation prefer the terms "experimental" and "service test".

Electronics prototyping

In electronics, prototyping means building an actual circuit to a theoretical design to verify that it works, and to provide a physical platform for debugging it if it does not. The prototype is often constructed using techniques such as wire wrap or using veroboard or breadboard, that create an electrically correct circuit, but one that is not physically identical to the final product.

A useful tool to document electronic prototypes (especially the breadboard-based ones) and to move forward to the actual product is the open-source software Fritzing.

A technician can build a prototype (and make additions and modifications) much quicker with these techniques — however, it is much faster and usually cheaper to mass produce custom printed circuit boards than these other kinds of prototype boards. This is for the same reasons that writing a poem is fastest by hand for one or two, but faster by printing press if you need several thousand copies.

The proliferation of quick-turn pcb fab companies and quick-turn pcb assembly houses has enabled the concepts of rapid prototyping to be applied to electronic circuit design. It is now possible, even with the smallest passive components and largest fine-pitch packages, to have boards fabbed and parts assembled in a matter of days.

Computer Programming/Computer Science

In many programming languages, a function prototype is the declaration of a subroutine or function. (This term is rather C/C++-specific; other terms for this notion are signature, type and interface.) In prototype-based programming (a form of object-oriented programming), new objects are produced by cloning existing objects, which are called prototypes.

The term may also refer to the Prototype Javascript Framework.

Additionally, the term may refer to the prototype design pattern.

Prototype software is often referred to as alpha grade, meaning it is the first version to run. Often only a few functions are implemented, the primary focus of the alpha is to have a functional base code on to which features may be added. Once alpha grade software has most of the required features integrated into it, it becomes beta software for testing of the entire software and to adjust the program to respond correctly during situations unforeseen during development.

Often the end users may not be able to provide a complete set of application objectives, detailed input, processing, or output requirements in the initial stage. After the user evaluation, another prototype will be built based on feedback from users, and again the cycle returns to customer evaluation. The cycle starts by listening to the user, followed by building or revising a mock-up, and letting the user test the mock-up, then back. There is now a new generation of tools called Application Simulation Software which help quickly simulate application before their development.

Extreme programming uses iterative design to gradually add one feature at a time to the initial prototype.

Continuous learning approaches within organizations or businesses may also use the concept of business or process prototypes through software models.

Prototype, Software Prototyping and Alpha Software

Many argue over the fact that prototype software and alpha software is not the same things, due to the fact that they more or less are the same thing. The only differences between them are in general that prototype software is referred to as alpha software since the word and the meaning of the word prototype is in general used when one is talking about a physical showreel, or in some cases a simulation whereas the cost of making a full scale or a random size scale of the concept that was initially introduced in the start of the project.

For further more clarification on the subject of what a prototype is we can look at this comparisons since every project has different stages as to what or where they are in development.(take in consideration that these might not be 100% accurate)

But remember that new, updated versions of the products may also be distributed, ex. videogames will get bug fixes and possibly extra content which will be packed as a new, same, but "fixed" product, under a slightly different name like "Game of the Year" or "Special Edition"(not to be confused with an eventual "Special Edition" that may have been released when the game first launched, containing extra stuff from or for the game as promotion), and hardware might be modified and released under the name of the company that modifies it. Like Shelby is to Mustang, AMG is to Mercedes and Top Secret is to other cars.

This is just a more commonly used way of the word prototype(as to not being software), but in general alpha and prototype is the same thing.

Scale modeling

In the field of scale modeling (which includes model railroading, vehicle modeling, airplane modeling, military modeling, etc.), a prototype is the real-world basis or source for a scale model—such as the real EMD GP38-2 locomotive—which is the prototype of Athearn's (among other manufacturers) locomotive model. Technically, any non-living object can serve as a prototype for a model, including structures, equipment, and appliances, and so on, but generally prototypes have come to mean full-size real-world vehicles including automobiles (the prototype 1957 Chevy has spawned many models), military equipment (such as M4 Shermans, a favorite among US Military modelers), railroad equipment, motor trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, and space-ships (real-world such as Apollo/Saturn Vs, or the ISS).

There is debate whether 'fictional' or imaginary items can be considered prototypes (such as Star Wars or Star Trek starships, since the feature ships themselves are models or CGI-artifacts); however, humans and other living items are never called prototypes, even when they are the basis for models and dolls (especially - action figures).

As of 2005, conventional rapid prototype machines cost around £25,000.

Metrology

In the science and practice of metrology, a prototype is a human-made object that is used as the standard of measurement of some physical quantity to base all measurement of that physical quantity against. Sometimes this standard object is called an artifact. In the International System of Units (SI), the only prototype remaining in current use is the International Prototype Kilogram, a solid platinum-iridium cylinder kept at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) in Sèvres France (a suburb of Paris) that by definition is the mass of exactly one kilogram. Copies of this prototype are fashioned and issued to many nations to represent the national standard of the kilogram and are periodically compared to the Paris prototype.

Until 1960, the meter was defined by a platinum-iridium prototype bar with two scratch marks on it (that were, by definition, spaced apart by one meter), the International Prototype Metre, and in 1983 the meter was redefined to be the distance in free space covered by light in 1/299,792,458 of a second (thus defining the speed of light to be 299,792,458 meters per second).

It is widely believed that the kilogram prototype standard will be replaced by a definition of the kilogram that will define another physical constant (likely either Planck's constant or the elementary charge) to a defined constant, thus obviating the need for the prototype and removing the possibility of the prototype (and thus the standard and definition of the kilogram) changing very slightly over the years because of loss or gain of atoms.

Pathology

In pathology, prototype refers to a disease, virus, etc which sets a good example for the whole category. For example, the vaccina virus is regarded as the virus prototype of poxviridae.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of prototyping

* May provide the proof of concept necessary to attract funding
* Early visibility of the prototype gives users an idea of what the final system looks like
* Encourages active participation among users and producer
* Enables a higher output for user
* Cost effective (Development costs reduced)
* Increases system development speed
* Assists to identify any problems with the efficacy of earlier design, requirements analysis and coding activities
* Helps to refine the potential risks associated with the delivery of the system being developed
* Various aspects can be tested and quicker feedback can be got from the user
* Helps to deliver the product in quality easily
* User interaction available in during development cycle of prototype

Disadvantages of prototyping

* Producer might produce a system inadequate for overall organization needs
* User can get too involved whereas the program can not be to a high standard
* Structure of system can be damaged since many changes could be made
* Producer might get too attached to it (might cause legal involvement)
* Not suitable for large applications

James W Von Brunn kills guard at Holocaust museum

2009-06-16T07:11:00.002+07:00

An 88-year-old white supremacist and Holocaust denier opened fire in Washington’s Holocaust Museum yesterday, killing a security guard before being shot in the head.

James W von Brunn, who was convicted in 1983 for running towards the boardroom of Washington’s Federal Reserve building with a shotgun, entered the Holocaust Museum just before 1pm wearing a Confederate hat, and opened fire “indiscriminately” with a long rifle. Witnesses said that he had parked his red car directly outside, displaying a disabled badge.

A guard, named as Stephen Tyrone Johns, was hit and later died of his injuries. Two other security officers at the heavily guarded museum, less than a mile from the White House, hit von Brunn in the head with return fire. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital in a critical condition. Officials said he may not survive.

The shooting, at one of Washington’s most popular tourist destinations - filled with schoolchildren - came after a visit last week by President Obama to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Dresden, in Germany. It sparked alarm in the heart of the US capital and caused most of the National Mall to be closed down.

Von Brunn, who claims on his own website to have been a decorated PT-boat captain and lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, has written a book entitled ‘Kill the Best Gentiles!” According to its preface, its purpose it “to present WHITE YOUTH” with factual information to explain that an “age old CONSPIRACY does exist to destroy Western Civilisation.”

Von Brunn also has a Wikipedia user profile in which he champions the virtues of Western culture and the practice of eugenics. In another article he claims that Holocaust history is destroying Western civilization.

He is clearly a Holocaust denier - a belief decried by Mr Obama during his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week. Von Brunn bemoans that “Jews control all important sources of information”, and claims that there is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool. He also wrote: “America is a Third-World racial garbage-dump – stupid, ignorant, dead broke, and terminal. Whites LOVE their Enemies. Prepare to die, Whitey.” One of heroes he cites is World War II Real Admiral John Crommelin, a notorious anti-Semite who later ran for governor of Alabama.

In 1981, von Brunn entered the Federal Reserve in Washington with a shotgun to make a citizens arrest, he later said, to protest about high interest rates. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

On his website, he claims he was convicted by a “Negro jury, Jew /Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal.”

Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s White House spokesman, said the president was “saddened” by the attack, had “asked about the condition of the guard, and is obviously concerned for the security guard.”

The Holocaust Museum has had 28 million visitors since it was opened in 1993, including 88 heads of state. It houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust more than a half century ago, in which more than six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. It is well guarded by armed security officers and all visitors have to pass through metal detectors as they enter. The museum was due to be closed tomorrow as a mark of respect to the dead guard.

Cathy Lanier, Washington’s police chief said there had been no prior warning of the attack. Museum officials said the museum was full at the time of the shooting, with at least 2,000 visitors inside.

Adam Mitchel Lambert

2009-06-15T09:10:00.002+07:00

Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and actor residing in Los Angeles, California. In May 2009 he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol.

Early life and education

Lambert was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and lived there for a year before moving out West to California. He grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos, San Diego, California and attended Deer Canyon Elementary School, Mesa Verde Middle School, and Mt. Carmel High School, where he was in theater, choir, and frequently performed with the school's jazz band.

Lambert is Jewish and has performed in Hebrew at Jewish events, singing songs such as "Shir LaShalom".

Career

Early career

Lambert has been a stage actor since he was about ten years old; he was cast as Linus in San Diego's Lyceum Theater's production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He also played a part in The Ten Commandments: The Musical at the Kodak Theatre alongside Val Kilmer. He was the understudy for the part of Fiyero in the touring and Los Angeles casts of the musical Wicked. Since 2004, he has regularly performed at the Zodiac Show, which was co-created by Carmit Bachar of the Pussycat Dolls. He also performed at the Upright Cabaret.

Lambert has cited several musical influences, e.g. Queen, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

American Idol

Lambert auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol in San Francisco, California. During his initial audition, he sang "Rock with You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." In the semifinals, Lambert was voted into the Top 13, joining fellow Group 2 performers Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen. Lambert and Allen became roommates in the Idol mansion, with Allen stating it was due to their neatness.

During Michael Jackson week, he sang "Black or White" leading to praise from all four judges, with Paula Abdul predicting that he would go on to the finals. The following week, Lambert sang a version of "Ring of Fire". While Randy Jackson, DioGuardi, and Abdul all liked his performance, Cowell called it "indulgent rubbish". On Motown night, Lambert sang an acoustic version of The Miracles', "The Tracks of My Tears". The judges all liked it, and Smokey Robinson, the week's mentor and the original singer-songwriter, gave Lambert a standing ovation. For his Top 8 performance, Lambert sang the 2001 Gary Jules arrangement of "Mad World". Because the show had exceeded its time slot, only Cowell gave a critique, which he did by simply giving Lambert a standing ovation. During the results next night, the other judges agreed that a standing ovation was the best critique of Lambert's performance. For his second Top 7 performance, Lambert sang "If I Can't Have You", delivering what DioGuardi described as his "most memorable performance", while Cowell described his vocals as "immaculate". Abdul was reduced to tears, with host Ryan Seacrest joking that Lambert had melted her into a "pool of Abdul". In the Top 4, Lambert was the first to sing, performing "Whole Lotta Love". Cowell commented, "that was one of my favourite performances... nobody can top that now", while Abdul, punning on the song's title, described Lambert's performance as "a whole lotta perfect". Season 7 American Idol winner David Cook stated that Lambert and Allen are his favorites of Season 8. Country music singer and actress Reba McEntire has echoed the same opinions, also adding Iraheta to her list of favorites.

Photos of Lambert kissing a man were shown and discussed by commentators on The O'Reilly Factor; the panel agreed that the images would likely have no impact on the competition.Lambert confirmed that the photos were of him, stating he had nothing to hide and has always been open about his life. Mainstream media speculation centered on Lambert's sexuality; presuming he was gay, he would be the first gay American Idol. Much of the media focus regarded the readiness of American Idol voters for an openly gay winner. Asked by Rolling Stone whether the speculation surrounding his sexual orientation impacted the final vote, Lambert laughed and said "probably". Lambert confirmed that he was gay in a cover story interview with Rolling Stone, stating that "I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear I'm gay... I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me."

For the top three show, Lambert chose to sing at his alma mater, Mt. Carmel High School.While there, he performed both Michael Jackson's "Black or White", and the Gary Jules version of Tears for Fears' "Mad World." After his performance, San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders declared May 8 "Adam Lambert Day."

On May 20, 2009, Lambert was announced as the runner-up for the eighth season of American Idol. Lambert performed a medley of "Beth", "Detroit Rock City", and "Rock and Roll All Nite" with rock band KISS during the final episode. His version of the winning single "No Boundaries" was later released on iTunes alongside American Idol winner Kris Allen's version.

Upon winning, Allen said "Adam deserved this". Explaining this remark, Allen said that he thought Lambert deserved to win as much as he did, and that Lambert "was the most consistent person all year. He was seriously one of the most gifted performers that I've ever met."

Post-Idol

Billboard magazine confirmed on May 22 that Lambert is working on a solo album, which is expected to be released some time in 2009. He stated that he would love to work with Slash. He said "When I was working with Slash I felt at home." Lambert also stated that his solo album will have a variety of sounds. Rock group Queen, with whom Lambert performed on the season finale, are said to be considering asking Lambert to be their new frontman. Lambert was a guest in Larry King Live (guest hosted by Ryan Seacrest) along with winner Kris Allen, judge Paula Abdul, and the rest of the top ten finalists. He has said that he plans to create a multi-genre album calling it a "rock-pop-electronic-dance thing". His debut single, "No Boundaries", was released on May 20, 2009, on iTunes with Allen's version. In his Rolling Stone magazine cover article, Adam confirmed that he is in fact gay, saying he never came out as gay because he was always openly gay.

MLB Draft

2009-06-15T08:31:00.004+07:00

Tuesday, June 9th, marks the start of the MLB Draft (it’ll go on for a few days). And while the baseball draft doesn’t come with the anticipation, nor the glam and glitz, of the NFL or NBA draft, it’s still a fun time for fans to get a glimpse of what might be a team’s future. Granted, a lot of draft picks do not make much of an impact in the majors. And signability remains a huge concern, so much so, that the top talent often is not picked first. That makes the draft a bit unique among professional leagues, where it isn’t always about selecting the best player available. However, as college baseball continues to gain traction as an option for top athletes and as MLB continues to increase the exposure of the Rule IV amateur draft, there will always be more attention paid to what is hoped to be the next generation of baseball stars.

This year’s crop is considered a pretty weak one, save for one super-stud at the top, Steve Strasburg. After that, the pickings start to get slim between a bunch of disappointing hitters and a bevy of pitchers with questions marks. Although the standard tagline applies that most of these players will not make an impact for years, remember that David Price and Matt Wieters were 2007 draftees and are starting to make their impact felt in the Majors. Plus Gordon Beckham recently became the first 2008 draftee to debut for the White Sox. So things can happen fast. Here are ten players to keep an eye on for Tuesday to see where they land. These may not be the ten best players, but are some of the most interesting prospects worth monitoring. And if you’re really forward looking, check out this story on Bryce Harper, the “next big thing” in the world of baseball who may try and become eligible for the 2010 draft.

1. Stephen Strasburg, RHP, San Diego State

Steve StrasburgStrasburg has been called by some as the best pitching prospect in draft history and many consider him to be Major League ready right now. That’s how good he is. He absolutely dominated the college ranks, although one should note he did so for a non-major team in a secondary conference. Still, he can reach triple digits with his fastball, has outstanding command, and a pretty good breaking ball. Barring injury he should be a good one, maybe even one day the best pitcher in baseball. The downside? As BP’s Kevin Goldstein joked, “there’s no definitive proof that he’s not an android from a faraway planet bent on world destruction.” He’s going to be selected by the Washington Nationals with the #1 pick, he’s going to command a record setting signing bonus, and there’s a pretty good chance he makes at least a cameo appearance in the Majors this season. And yeah, that’s him above playing for Team USA in the Beijing Olympics.

2. Dustin Ackley, OF, North Carolina

dustin-ackleyThe Miss Congeniality of this year’s draft, Ackley has emerged as the best of the rest in the post-Strasburg derby. He’s also the only hitter critics can agree belongs in the top ten picks. The draft class is that weak on positional talent. Which doesn’t mean teams won’t reach for positional talent, it’s just that Ackley’s the onlysure thing. His combination of tools includes above-average power and speed, along with amazing hands that should make him an excellent hitter overall. His ideal home is in center field, but he’s largely untested there. The hope is that he develops into a smoothhitting centerfielder and an eventual multiple-time all-star. The Seattle Mariners will likely pay the price to find out, although there’s a slight chance he falls to the third pick and the San Diego Padres.

3. Aaron Crow, RHP, Fort Worth Cats

aaron-crowLast year, Crow was battling Brian Matusz for the rights to be the top pitcher off the 2008 draft board. Matusz won, going fourth overall to the Baltimore Orioles. Crow ended up going ninth to the Washington Nationals, but chose not to sign. Now, the top right-handed arm from 2008 is back, again showing a good fastball and above-average slider. The lost year of development doesn’t help, but in a weak draft class a polished college pitcher with good credentials is an attractive option. The former Missouri Tiger has looked good in the Indy leagues, and is poised for another top ten selection. He could go anywhere in the top ten starting with the secondpick, but seems most destined for the Baltimore Orioles at fifth overall this year.

4. Grant Green, SS, Southern California

grant-greenA mere six months ago, Green seemed like the clear #2 pick behind Strasburg. But a disappointing season has seen his stock plummet, to the point where he’s no longer even a guarantee to be picked in the top 10. Although a college shortstop, questions remain about his ability to remain at the position defensively. There are also questions about his power, making a switch to third not the best fit. What do you do with a light hitting player if he’s not in the middle infield? If you believe he can stay at short, and don’t put too much stock into a sub-par 2009, Green is still a solid choice. But if you see the current struggles and possible lack of range at short, he might not even be a Major League regular. A top ten selection is still likely given the complete lack of hitting choices, but where exactly he lands is anyone’s guess. Cincinnati is one possibility, although a better fit might actually be at #12 to the Kansas City Royals.

5. Tanner Scheppers, RHP, St. Paul Saints

tanner_scheppersLike Crow, Scheppers was a big time college pitcher seemingly headed for a big pay day last June. Then shoulder problems hit, and the Fresno State Bulldog saw his stock plummet. Teams became scared off by the injury, and he did not get picked until the 48th selection of last year’s draft. And to add insult to injury, he was picked by the perennial losers, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not satisfied with the money offered, he chose to try his hand again at the draft this spring. The decision seems to be a good one, as the electric fastball has returned, as has the power curve. Healthquestion marks remain, and that mystery makes him a very high risk factor. On pure talent, he might be the second best player in the draft. But the risk, combined with rumors he might try and leverage a contract with a Japanese pro team into a huge pay day have scared off some teams. Like Green, his final destination is a bit of a mystery, but the Tigers are never scared off by big price tags.

6. Donavan Tate, OF, Cartersville HS (GA)

donovan-tateTate is an old school general manager’s dream as he’s the best pure athlete in the draft, and thus the guy with the highest ceiling. With lackluster options, there’s some incentive to roll the dice and hope to win big with Tate. He has the raw power and speed to turn into a good one. But too often those players go the Corey Patterson route, more raw skills than actual baseball talent. And in such cases the pick has the highest chance of crapping out. Tate’s been strongly linked to San Diego at #3, but due to the lack of better options he probably lands in the Top 10 somewhere even if the Padres pass. The next step is to sign him and hope he chooses baseball over football.

7. Tyler Matzek, LHP, Capistrano Valley HS (CA)

tyler-matzekThe long, lean lefty sports a surprisingly deep arsenal for a high school arm. This includes a pretty good fastball-slider combination, plus a solid curve and decent change. With generally good command, if he can throw four decent offerings all from the left hand side, it’s hard to not see him becoming at least a useful piece on a big league roster. Provided he stays healthy. That’s the caveat. It’s always a risk with high school pitchers, but even moreso with Matzek who has a “high effort” delivery. The Orioles, Giants, and Reds are all possible landing spots.

8. Zach Wheeler, RHP, East Paulding HS (GA)

zach-wheelerWheeler is one of many high school power right-handers in this draft class, although he tends to rate near the top due to excellent command and good mechanics. He’s doesn’t sport much else behind a good fastball right now, but there’s enough to get many teams interested, including several in the top ten selections, like the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves. Projectability is the key here and if the Braves are interested, I would take a second look at the kid, even if he is a Georgia kid and there could be a little home cooking go on.

9. Jacob Turner, RHP, Westminster Academy (MO)

jacob-turnerTurner is Wheeler with a little more velocity, a little more polish, and a bit less control. Referred to by some as the top high school pitcher in the draft, he can reach 98 on the radar gun, and also has a good curve. Signability remains a bit of a concern, but he projects to be a frontline starter. Due to price tag concerns, he’s been linked to the Tigers in many mock drafts, and they are one of a few teams that can prevent Turner from joining a very strong Tarheel program in the fall.

10. Mike Leake, RHP, Arizona State

Mike LeakeLeake is not a sexy pick, but posted excellent numbers against top notch college competition. Scouts grade three of his pitches as plus, and he has good control. The problem? He’s an undersized right-hander, and those kind of pitchers tend to get overlooked. Even after the success of guys like Tim Hudson and Roy Oswalt. That and he probably won’t get much better than he is now. What you see is what you get. With that kind of pedigree, the Oakland A’s have been linked to him, although the Nationals at #10 make some sense too.

Weeds

2009-06-13T11:33:00.003+07:00

Weeds is a US comedy television series created by Jenji Kohan, produced by Lionsgate Television for the Showtime network.

The plot revolves around a widowed housewife (Mary-Louise Parker) from an affluent California suburb who becomes her neighborhood's marijuana dealer to make ends meet. The title is a play on words, referring to a commonly-used slang term for marijuana. It also refers to the tendency of American suburbs to grow quickly and pervasively, with the dwellings and their residents being almost as indistinguishable as weeds. This is mirrored in the show's theme song "Little Boxes" and opening credits, and is a recurring theme of the show itself. Going against this "all the same" theme, across the second and third seasons the theme song is performed by over twenty different artists.

Weeds currently comprises five seasons that began airing in August 2005. It was the highest rated series for Showtime its first year; its fourth-season premiere attracted 1.3 million viewers to Showtime, the channel's highest-ever viewership; the season as a whole averaged 962,000 viewers. Showtime announced on July 18, 2008 that two more seasons of thirteen episodes each will be produced. Season 5 premiered to 1.2 million viewers, with a rerun on the same night adding another 500,000 viewers for a cumulative 1.7 million.

Mary-Louise Parker won a Golden Globe for her performance on the show, and Jenji Kohan won a WGA award for her screenplay for the pilot episode.

Season 5 of Weeds premiered on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 10 p.m. on Showtime

Production

The exteriors for the show were shot almost exclusively in Stevenson Ranch, a suburban area of Santa Clarita Valley, California. The shot of the large fountain and Agrestic sign seen in the introduction of Seasons 1-3 was shot at the corner of Stevenson Ranch Parkway and Holmes Place. The name 'Stevenson Ranch', was digitally replaced with 'Agrestic' and with 'Majestic' in later episodes.

The overhead, satellite picture displayed at the beginning of the show's introduction (Seasons 1-3) is of "Calabasas Hills", a gated community in Calabasas, California.

Episodes

As of September 2008, 50 original episodes of Weeds have been produced and broadcast. The first season began August 8, 2005 and consisted of 10 episodes. The 12 episodes of the second season began on August 14, 2006., The third season began on August 13, 2007 and at 15 episodes, was the longest. The fourth season began June 16, 2008, and lasted 13 episodes. The fifth season began on June 8, 2009, and lasts 13 episodes. Creator Jenji Kohan has written 13 of the episodes, including each season's premiere and finale.

Episode leaks

The first episode of the third season was scheduled to air on August 13, 2007. On July 22, 2007, the first and second episodes of season 3 were leaked on the Internet. On July 24, 2007, the third episode was leaked, and on July 27, 2007, the fourth episode was leaked. The fourth episode was not a complete version; among other things, some dubbed lines were not complete (notably a voicemail message Nancy receives from U-Turn is spoken by a distinctly different actor, and in place of the end credits a card is inserted reading "End Credits" . As of December 2007, all 15 episodes of the third season were available online. Due to the high quality of the leaked episodes, downloaders of the torrents speculated that the episodes were leaked intentionally in order to garner interest in the show and to create an Internet buzz. Weeds creator Jenji Kohan has shown a positive interest in the Weeds episodes leaking online, saying, "Revenue aside, I don't expect to get rich on Weeds, I'm excited it's out there. Showtime is great, but it does have a limited audience." In 2006 before season 2 aired on Showtime, the first few episodes were also leaked online.

Main characters

Nancy Botwin Mary-Louise Parker (S1-5)

Nancy Botwin was an all-American PTA soccer mom until her husband Judah suddenly dropped dead. To maintain the suburban lifestyle to which she was accustomed, Nancy entered the dangerous world of drug dealing. Her regular clients include her accountant, her lawyer, and other soccer moms.

Celia Hodes Elizabeth Perkins (S1-5)

Celia is a suburban mother and (superficially) a friend of Nancy. She constantly criticizes her overweight daughter Isabelle, and is stuck in an unhappy marriage at the start of the series. Her primary outlets are alcoholism and random verbal abuse of others, and she occasionally undertakes mean-spirited subversive actions against people, ostensibly to teach them lessons.

Celia also has another daughter named Quinn, whom she sends to boarding school after the pilot episode, and who reappears in the fourth season.

Andy Botwin Justin Kirk (S1-5)

Andy Botwin is Nancy's brother-in-law, a fun-loving, irresponsible drifter. After Judah's death, Nancy reluctantly allows Andy to live at the house, and soon realizes his presence is needed for her business and as a father figure for the kids.

Silas Botwin Hunter Parrish (S1-5)

Silas, Nancy's oldest son, was traumatized by Judah's death, and takes it out on his mother and brother. Silas is impetuous and impulsive, and although always operating as though he knows everything, is extremely naïve. He is the stereotypical teenage male character, eager to participate in sports and premarital sex, and having trouble with school work.

During the series he has numerous bad break-ups with his girlfriends and constantly harasses Nancy about her job. Eventually he decides he too wants to be a drug dealer.

Shane Botwin Alexander Gould (S1-5)

Shane is Nancy's younger son and was with Judah at the time of his death. Shane takes out his grief in bizarre emotional ways, such as talking to his father even though he isn't alive. Shane is also very smart, and is often called "Strange Botwin" by his fellow students. He is viewed as a freak at school, and is the frequent target of bullies. At home, he remains appropriately isolated and neglected by his family and their drug businesses.

Doug Wilson Kevin Nealon (S1-5)

Doug is the fun-loving accountant and friend of Nancy, who as a "wake and baker" is also a steady weed buyer. Doug is a city councilman for Agrestic, but treats his position like a hobby and takes advantage of it for the perks. Doug also becomes business partners with Nancy, becoming her operation's treasurer. After this, he and Andy are frequently seen hanging out together. Doug has an unseen wife Dana who he loves very much but who won't have sex with him. He has an affair with Celia briefly but loves Dana too much to keep seeing Celia. Doug also has a gay teenaged son Josh (Justin Chatwin) who appeared only in the pilot episode.

Many of Doug Wilson's lines are improvised by Kevin Nealon.

Conrad Shepard Romany Malco (S1-3)

Conrad is Nancy's initial supplier, under supervision of his aunt. Nancy met him years earlier through Andy. Although Conrad is very knowledgeable about the intricacies of marijuana, his aunt never allowed him to grow plants, insisting that they keep their business small. Despite this, he has worked on developing his own signature genetic blend. Later, he becomes Nancy's business associate using this strain, and it is revealed that he has apparently held very strong feelings for Nancy for a long time.

Heylia James Tonye Patano (S1-3)

Heylia is Conrad's aunt and supplier for Nancy. When Conrad goes against Heylia's instructions and continues to see Nancy, and Nancy almost gets her in trouble with the police, she forms a grudge against her. Heylia and Nancy eventually become reluctant partners.

Isabelle Hodes Allie Grant (Guest S1-2, Regular S3-4)

Isabelle is Celia's younger daughter, who frustrates her mother with her proclaimed lesbianism and unwillingness to lose weight. She becomes close friends with Shane Botwin, who bond over their abnormal mothers. Isabelle resents her mother, but seems to enjoy her father's company.

Dean Hodes Andy Milder (Guest S1-2 and 4, Regular S3)

Dean is Isabelle's father and Celia's husband, as well as Nancy's lawyer and Doug's poker buddy. Dean loves Isabelle, but has a constantly antagonistic relationship with Celia, which eventually leads to a separation.

Season summaries

Season 1

The series takes place in the fictional Los Angeles, California suburb of Agrestic. It is home to Nancy Botwin, whose husband Judah suddenly died of a heart attack while jogging with his son Shane, prior to the start of the first season. Nancy's children Silas and Shane both attend Agrestic's public school system.

Nancy has begun dealing marijuana to her affluent neighbors and friends to support her upper middle class lifestyle. She buys from Heylia James, a major distributor in Los Angeles' West Adams district whom she met through Heylia's nephew, Conrad. When her best customers talk their way into a medical marijuana store with a variety of high-quality pot, Nancy's sales start to dry up, so she utilizes her baking skills and concocts pot-laced brownies and baked goods to sell off the low-quality product. Later, at the suggestion of her accountant, city councilman Doug Wilson, and with the aid of her attorney, her friend Celia Hodes' husband Dean, she opens a bakery as a front for her drug sales, buying the baked goods at Costco and putting them on her bakery's shelves as her own product. Silas begins dating Megan, an attractive deaf girl at his school. Shane, a witness to his father's death, is a more troubled child who has been known to act out. As a result, Shane has been given the nickname "Strange Botwin" at his school. In one instance, Shane bites the foot of another child in a martial-arts tournament.

Nancy has befriended the manic, image-obsessed, manipulative, and controlling Celia Hodes, who is the president of the Agrestic PTA and has a number of domestic problems. She does not get along with her cheating husband Dean; nor does she get along with her sexually active 15-year-old daughter, Quinn (Silas' previous girlfriend), whom she sends off to boarding school in Mexico in the pilot. Her younger daughter, 11-year-old Isabelle, is overweight, and it is revealed late in the season that she is a lesbian. Toward the end of the season, Celia is diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer, and before her surgery, she picks up Conrad and has sex with him. Conrad is long-time friends with Andy Botwin, the younger brother of Nancy's late husband and the black sheep of the family. Andy says he has moved into the Botwin household to help Nancy out, but actually seems to be there to free-load, and to disrupt Nancy's life. When he is notified to report immediately for his previously-agreed-upon military service (where he will be trained and then sent to Iraq), or be sentenced to a military prison, he announces that he is studying to become a rabbi as a dodge to avoid his military obligation.

Nancy expands her distribution to Valley College, and is then harassed by a rival drug dealer, with whom she then has a brief sexual encounter. At Valley College, her entire stash of product is stolen by a campus security cop during a fake arrest, threatening the survival of her lifestyle and family. Unbeknownst to her, Conrad and some of his friends go to Valley College and attack and severely beat the campus cop, who then (to Nancy's surprise) politely returns her marijuana to her, apologizing profusely and offering to assist her and her business in any way he can. She then has a mutual attraction with Peter Scottson, the single father of the kid bitten by Shane in a karate tournament. The season closes with Conrad convincing Nancy to expand by becoming a grower as well as a dealer. However, implementing this plan hits complications in the last minutes of the season when, because of her mounting frustration and stress, she gives in and decides to sleep with Peter. Immediately afterward, she walks into his bathroom and finds out that he's apparently an agent with the federal DEA.

Season 2

The second season, while still comedic, has a much darker tone, as Nancy becomes increasingly involved in the more dangerous aspects of the drug "underground". Ignoring Heylia's advice, Nancy and Conrad start their own small-scale growing operation and eventually rent a suburban grow-house. She welcomes other people into her business, including her brother-in-law Andy and Doug. During this season, Peter Scottson tells Nancy he knows she is a drug dealer, but considers her too small time to be worth busting, and the two are married as part of a deal to legally protect Nancy from Peter testifying in a court of law. While Nancy's drug activities increase, Celia runs for, and wins, Doug's spot on the town council: she launches a drug-free campaign across Agrestic complete with drug-free zone signs and surveillance cameras. After winning his seat back, Doug has a brief sexual affair with Celia.

Silas and Megan's relationship threatens to split apart once she leaves for college; he attempts to get her pregnant to circumvent this, but his success leads to an abortion and a violent confrontation with Megan's father, ending the relationship. Andy tries to develop a relationship with an attractive, sexually formidable instructor, Yael Hoffman, at his rabbinical school, which falls apart once he drops out due to an incident where a dog bites off two of his small toes, which he thinks will clear him from military duty.

As the season progresses, Nancy's children become more aware of her illegal activities, though the two sons deal with the issue in quite different ways. Shane continues to have problems fitting in at school, but ends up joining the debate team in order to get closer to Gretchen, who later ends up becoming Shane's girlfriend. Despite Shane's apparent interest in Gretchen, he breaks up with her because of his extreme interest in Andy's crazy ex-girlfriend, Kat. Silas, on the other hand, takes out his frustrations by committing acts of vandalism, most notably stealing Celia's drug-free zone signs and cameras.

Nancy and Conrad's drug business becomes a hit as Conrad's strain of plant (which Snoop Dogg dubs "MILFweed" during a happenstance meeting at a recording studio) pleases their customers; but their high profile causes trouble. Initially, Nancy's marriage to a DEA agent keeps her on top while her Armenian rivals are busted, but her marriage to Peter deteriorates as he pressures her to quit dealing. For Nancy, the final straw is when Peter comes over for dinner and manhandles Silas. Nancy calls Conrad and tells him that she doesn't love Peter but will string him along until the current harvest is done; Peter hears the conversation with wireless surveillance.

The season concludes with a complex series of betrayals, as Peter demands of Nancy and Conrad all of the cash from a quick sale of their crop. Secretly, Heylia hires Armenian mobsters to kill Peter in retaliation. Nancy's buyer, U-Turn, demands the entire crop of weed at gunpoint. Having just killed Peter, the Armenian mobsters arrive at the same time and expect the proceeds from the big sale to pay for their hit, but finding that U-Turn had decided to jack the weed and that there is no money, decide they will take the weed instead. Only then does Nancy discover that Silas has decided to force his way into the business by stealing the entire batch of weed and demanding to be part of the business. After hiding the batch in his car trunk, he is approached by Celia and a police officer for the theft of the drug-free zone signs and surveillance cameras, as Celia has footage of Silas stealing the last camera. This leaves Nancy at the grow house, in a Mexican standoff with both the gangsters and the mobsters pointing guns at her in a season-ending cliffhanger.

Season 3

The third season of Weeds begins with several subplots involving the fallout from the botched drug deal of the season two finale: Celia finds and destroys the entire harvest; U-Turn pays the mobsters to leave Nancy to him alone; Silas is arrested and sentenced to community service; in hiding, Sanjay realizes he is gay but is forced by U-Turn to have sex with a woman, who then becomes pregnant with his child.

The first half of the season sees Nancy under immense pressure as she works for U-Turn in order to pay off her debt, valued as the entire worth of the destroyed harvest. She gets a legitimate job working for Sullivan Groff (Matthew Modine), a crooked developer of rival neighboring community Majestic, and soon after begins a relationship with him, much to Celia's chagrin, as Groff had also started a relationship with her. Conrad and Heylia start their own new growing operation, initially at the behest of U-Turn.

The outlying Christian community of Majestic attempts a hostile takeover of Agrestic, with Doug leading the charge due to the large amount of money it will bring in. But Groff's gift to Celia leads to jealousy, and Doug begins sabotaging the Majestic city infrastructure, although it is already too late, as Celia brings it to a public referendum. Dean has a motorcycle accident, which forces Celia to take care of him against her will.

Silas begins selling pot for his mother using the alias Judah and meets Tara (Mary-Kate Olsen), a born-again Christian who enjoys smoking pot and helps him sell; Shane and Isabelle become outcasts at the heavily religious Majestic summer school and form a friendship, and Shane begins talking to his dead father as the stress on the family becomes too great.

As U-Turn begins training Nancy to become his drug runner, while simultaneously starting a war with rival Mexican dealers, his partner Marvin becomes jealous. When U-Turn has a heart attack, Marvin capitalizes on the situation by secretly suffocating him to death and becoming boss of their crew, but after Marvin botches an attempt to call a truce with the Mexicans Nancy takes advantage of the situation to clear all debts for her and Conrad and end the gang war.

Finally debt-free, Nancy begins to feel lonely, and attempts to befriend Peter's ex-wife Valerie. The friendship turns sour when Valerie demands the money from Peter's life-insurance payout. Nancy promises to give it to her, but has to first use most of it to replace money Doug "borrowed" from the Agrestic treasury to help Nancy get back in business. Despite giving her several smaller payments, Valerie believes that Nancy will never give her her full due and that Peter had an off-the-books stash of cash of which Nancy knows the location, so she hires a private investigator to trail Nancy. The investigator finds out Nancy is a drug dealer and blackmails her to not tell Valerie or the DEA for most of the remaining life-insurance money, which Nancy pays after ensuring the investigator won't come after her again by blackmailing him for blackmailing her. Nancy confronts Valerie by telling her that she would have gotten the money although Nancy has no obligation to give it to her, and that she no longer has it anyway thanks to Valerie's investigator.

Andy has a brief excursion into the pornographic film industry, and later befriends a group of bikers while trying to score with one of its members, who want him to start selling their weed.

Nancy turns to Guillermo (leader of the Mexican dealers) to get protection when the bikers threaten her family after she refuses to sell their low-quality ditch weed. Guillermo's drastic solution of burning down the biker's grow house causes a huge fire in Agrestic which results in a mandatory evacuation order. Nancy has to face the possibility that she may have to start over from scratch and has failed her family. In the final scene, she pours gasoline throughout her house and lights it with a match, ensuring that she and her family will be moving on.

Season 4

On November 5, 2007, it was confirmed that Showtime would air a fourth season of Weeds, to contain at least 13 episodes. The fourth season started airing on Monday, June 16, 2008 with the final episode airing on Monday, September 15, 2008. The first episode of this season, entitled "Mother Thinks the Birds are After Her," was the last time "Little Boxes" was used during the opening credits. Thereafter, each episode began with an animated title card in a scenario relating to the episode. Major changes to the cast were made, owing largely to the family's move. Mary-Kate Olsen and Matthew Modine no longer appeared in the show, and Romany Malco and Tonye Patano, who had key roles in the first three seasons, were no longer part of the main cast, and remain unseen. Albert Brooks was added as Andy's father, Lenny Botwin, who was seen in the first four episodes of the season. Guillermo Diaz and Jack Stehlin, who played minor recurring roles previously, play larger roles.

Nancy relocates her family to the fictional town of Ren Mar, located on the San Diego/Tijuana border,[12] after having set fire to her house and burning it down. She begins drug trafficking across the border for Guillermo, and must deal with Celia, who has been sent to spy on her in hopes of getting herself out of jail after Celia takes the fall for Nancy and Conrad's grow house. Andy begins a coyote business with Doug, who has moved to town to evade questions about Agrestic's finances. Silas sets up his own weed business and begins dating a local gourmet cheese shop owner, who is old enough to be his mother. Isabelle moves in with Celia because they will live near the beach. Shane has difficulty adjusting to the new location and pushes away Isabelle and Nancy, making friends with two more "dangerous" girls at school.

As the season progresses, Nancy's role changes as Guillermo's boss sets her up as a money-laundering front in a maternity store and Celia works there as a cashier. Guillermo's men catch Celia spying on them and Nancy convinces them to spare Celia's life. The maternity store is the endpoint for a drug trafficking tunnel to Tijuana, Mexico. When Nancy realizes that the tunnel is also being used to smuggle guns and young girls for prostitution, she decides to inform DEA Captain Roy Till, despite having a sexual relationship with the corrupt Mayor of Tijuana, Guillermo's boss. The DEA raids the maternity shop and a bloody shootout leaves several DEA agents and a Mexican drug runner dead. Shane has a threesome and is also masturbating to pictures of Nancy.

During this time, Doug and Andy's coyote business becomes very successful. Andy is worshiped by the immigrants they smuggle while Doug even manages to fall in love with one of the immigrants he named "Mermex". To his chagrin, the illegal immigrant falls for Andy instead of Doug, as Doug's personality, genital warts and unapologetic nature turn her away.

Meanwhile, Celia begins to develop a drug addiction and it becomes bad enough to prompt Isabelle and Dean to stage an intervention. After some initial reluctance, Celia starts to attend rehab and apologizes to Isabelle and Dean. However, Dean rejects her apology and instead suggests she say sorry to Quinn, who is still in Mexico after Celia sent her to boarding school at the end of the pilot episode. Celia decides to do so in the season finale but upon her arrival she is drugged and kidnapped by Quinn for revenge.

In the season finale, Nancy is called into the DEA for questioning. Roy Till threatens to kill the person responsible for his partner's death. Esteban, the mayor, discovers Nancy is the person who told the DEA about the drug tunnel. Moments after being confronted, Nancy informs Esteban that she is pregnant with his child, and that she thinks it's a boy. Back at home, Shane steals Silas' weed and started selling it to other kids with the two girls he met. Doug alerts the police to Mermex's illegal immigration after she rejected him and believes that his life has hit rock bottom. Doug realizes that having nothing means the people that are after him will not gain anything from pursuing him, and writes a letter to his separated wife daring her to bring it on. Andy contemplates whether or not he is in love with Nancy and questions his reasons for staying with the family for so long.

Season 5

Showtime announced at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour that Weeds would return on Monday, June 8, 2009 for its fifth season. Variety reports the upcoming Season 5 of Weeds will feature Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fast Times at Ridgemont High / Road to Perdition) in a new recurring role as Nancy's sister Jill Price-Gray. Leigh will appear in at least two episodes for Season 5.

Singer Alanis Morissette is also slated to appear in seven episodes as Nancy's obstetrician.

The Season 5 debut attracted 1.2 million viewers, with a rerun on the same night adding another 500,000 viewers for a cumulative 1.7 million. Season 4 of "weeds" attracted 1.3 million views its first night.

iphone 3gs

2009-06-13T11:13:00.003+07:00

iPhone fans got what they were waiting for June 8 when the third-generation model of Apple's popular handset made its debut during theWWDC 2009keynote. The iPhone 3G S, which will hit stores June 19, promises a faster iPhone with an extended battery life, more memory, and improved features. It looks exactly the same as the previous model, but both the 16GB ($199) and new 32GB ($299) models will come in white and black versions.

Though the jump from the iPhone 3G to the 3G S isn't quite as big as the jump from the first- to second-generation models, this latest handset still adds enough new features to make it a compelling upgrade for some users. And when you add in all the new features that will come with the iPhone OS 3.0(available June 17), we finally get an iPhone that can run thousands of snazzy applications and do something as basic as send a multimedia message.

Yet, we still have some concerns. A faster AT&T 3G network isn't going to happen overnight, and some features, like tethering and the aforementionedmultimedia messaging, won't happen right away. We also came away from the keynote without any mention of call quality, which, as any iPhone owner can tell you, remains far from perfect. But most importantly, the iPhone 3G S's price will vary widely depending on your eligibility. If you can get it at the lowest prices, it's worth your while. But if you're not yet eligible for a discounted upgrade, we suggest that you wait.

Speed

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, promised that iPhone 3G S (the "S" stand for speed) will be faster in a number of ways. Not only will a new processor enable it to load apps faster, but it will also utilize an upgraded AT&T 3G network for speedier Web browsing. We expected both of these improvements, so we're not surprised that they are the new model's prime selling points. I'll start with the processor.

Schiller didn't provide any hard metrics on the new processor, but he said that the 3G S would open applications two times faster than the previous two iPhones. Honestly, this isn't something that we've been pining for--we would much prefer to get Palm Pre-style multitasking--but we'll welcome it just the same. We'll have to wait for a review model to see how much faster the 3G S is.

On the other hand, we've eagerly been awaiting zippier 3G speeds, so we're glad to hear that they're on their way. Here, too, Schiller was short on specifics outside of mentioning AT&T's forthcoming HSPA network upgrade to 7.2Mbps. That is an important qualifier considering that AT&T won't start rolling out the faster network until later this year. What's more, full deployment is scheduled for 2011. Though we expect that urban areas will be first, coverage will vary widely for the next year, at least. As such, we don't predict any miracles soon.

Battery life

Though battery life on the first iPhone was mostly satisfactory, the iPhone 3Gsucks up juice rapidly. Indeed, you're lucky if your handset lasts longer than a day of heavy use. Luckily, the iPhone 3G S offers some hope. Schiller rattled off statistics that certainly sound promising. It should offer 9 hours of Wi-Fi battery life, 10 hours on video playback, 30 hours on audio playback, 12 hours 2G talk time, and 5 hours 3G talk time. Like with the processor, we'll have to wait for our review unit to see if these ratings hold up, but we like what we're hearing so far.

Camera

Up until now, the iPhone's camera has been good, but far from great. Though picture quality is decent, camera editing features on the first two iPhones are nonexistent. The minimalist shooters bothered us so much that we began to worry if Apple was leading a new trend of "dumbing down" cell phone cameras.

The iPhone 3G S, however, has helped put some of those fears to rest. Apple boosted the camera's resolution to 3 megapixels and it added an autofocus feature. In the future, you'll also get settings for white balance, exposure, low-light sensitivity, and a macro mode for close-up photos. The autofocus feature appeared to work well during the keynote so we're looking forward to testing it ourselves.

Video recording

When we last asked about video recording at the OS 3.0 announcementin March, Apple wouldn't comment on whether it would come to the iPhone. So we have to admit that we weren't expecting it to happen anytime soon. But thanks to its improved camera, the iPhone 3G S will offer the ability to record VGA clips at 30 frames per second. It also promises a nifty editing feature that will let you trim clips to your liking. And once you're done, you can upload them to YouTube with just a couple of clicks. Again, it looked good onstage so we're excited to check it out.

Voice Control

We've long berated Apple for not including voice dialing on the iPhone. So when we heard that it would be on the iPhone 3G S, our initial reaction was a cynical "it's about time." Yet, our hearts softened just the slightest bit when we saw that the new Voice Control feature will go far beyond just voice dialing and commands.

Sure, you'll be able to dial a contact using your voice, but you'll also be able to activate the iPod player by asking for a particular music track or artist. What's more, you can use Voice Control to identify a song by name and you can ask to play related tracks (as they're associated in the iTunes Genius feature). Seeing those additional features almost makes us forgive Apple for taking so long to add something as basic as voice dialing, but not quite.

Compass

We were a little skeptical when we heard that the new iPhone might offer a digital compass. Yet, Schiller confirmed that the rumors were true. Like any other compass it will automatically point to north, but it also will integrate with Google Maps to point you in the right direction. A nice touch, to be sure.

What didn't we get?

Fortunately, this list is getting shorter with each incarnation of the iPhone. Though OS 3.0 adds many notable missing features like multimedia messaging, turn-by-turn directions and stereo Bluetooth, there are a few capabilities still lacking. Flash support for the Safari browser, app folders for the home screen and USB mass storage are just a few. And hey, though we know that we'll never get it, we'll throw in a user-replaceable battery too.

So should you buy it?

Like we said earlier, the iPhone 3G S offers some notable feature improvements, but it doesn't offer quite the same leap that the iPhone 3G offered over the first-generation model. If you don't own an iPhone yet, and you've been waiting around to see what happens, now is the time to go for it. The same goes for iPhone Classic owners who never made the jump to the iPhone 3G.

But, if you're a current iPhone 3G owner, the answer isn't so clear. If you're eligible to upgrade at the cheaper prices ($199 or $299), then we suggest doing so, as long as you remember that a new two-year contract is required. If you own an iPhone 3G, but are not eligible for the upgrade yet, then we recommend waiting. As much as the iPhone 3G S brings, it's not worth the extra $200 that both the 16GB and 32GB models will cost you. In the meantime, you will get the new OS 3.0 features when they're released for the iPhone 3G on June 17. But not only that, you'll have extra money to spend on apps.

Britney Spears is dating her agent

2009-06-12T19:23:00.001+07:00

Britney Spears may be giving her agent a little more than 10%. And we're not talking about money.

According to reports, Britney is romantically involved with her agent, Jason Trawick. Yes, this is the same agent that she was linked to months ago, but the rumor ultimately died down.

The couple has apparently been dating for months on the down low, and the best part is Daddy Spears approves!

"They are totally and definitely dating," a source tells People. "Her dad loves him. He's the best thing that happened to her."

"They're very sweet together," the source says, adding that Britney "always had a crush" on Trawick, who is a childhood friend of her brother Bryan, since they first met a few years ago. "He makes Britney really happy, and he's great with the boys."

Trawick even accompanied Britney and her boys on vacation to the Bahamas back in May, so it sounds like things may already be serious between the two.

Trawick is 37 years old and well accomplished, so he's a refreshing change from the K-Fed's and loser paparazzi's Britney's been linked to in the past. Could Trawick be the one? What do you guys think about the relationship? Yes or No?

The National Suramadu Bridge

2009-06-12T18:44:00.002+07:00

When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inaugurates the 5.4-kilometer long Suramadu (Surabaya-Madura) bridge today (Wednesday), many Indonesians may sing “Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke” (From Sabang to Merauke) song, one of our national songs frequently sung by Indonesian children at elementary school. Let us forget – at least for a while – the presidential campaign, hum the popular song and imagine how we should connect our country’s 17,000 islands.

R. Suharjo, the song composer, wanted to provoke our awareness on how to unite our islands, of course not literally, but how to unite a population living in our many islands to live as one nation.

Dari Sabang sampai Merauke (From Sabang to Merauke)
Berjajar pulau pulau (Islands line up)
Sambung menyambung menjadi satu (They are connected)
Itulah Indonesia (to become Indonesia).

The Rp 4.7 trillion (US$466.6 million) Suramadu Bridge is indeed a mega project, which required about six years to construct. Our founding president Sukarno had thought about the project in 1960. His daughter, then president Megawati Soekarnoputri, officially started the project in August 2003. But the Suramadu project is only a small part of the bridging of gaps that we need to connect as many Indonesian islands as possible.

The Suramadu Bridge is not our first inter-island bridge. We already have the Barelang (Batam-Rempang-Galang) Bridge. The 2.26-kilometer bridge actually comprises six bridges which connect the islands of Batam, Tonton, Nipah, Setokok, Rempang, Galang and Galang Baru.

Providing sufficient land, sea and air transportation links is one of most pressing challenges the nation has to confront. There are islands that can be connected by bridges, but many more islands that can only be connected with the outside world by sea and air transportation. The fast growth of our airline industry proves how high the market demand is for affordable air transportation, although it is also worrying that we are still very far from being able to provide both quality and affordable air transportation for travelers.

There has long been an ambition to bring Java and Sumatra closer together by building a bridge which will connect Banten in Java and Lampung in Sumatra. People in Bali and Lombok, and people in other islands also dream of similar land bridge connections, although we never know whether or when we can achieve these ideal goals as they may be too expensive or unrealistic.

The presence of the new bridge will bring tremendous positive impacts especially for Madura. Four million people on Madura Island will enjoy the economic benefits of the new road. The movement and deployment of people will be much faster as they will no longer depend on ferry services. Of course there will also be negative impacts on social, cultural and other aspects of life.

Since the completion of the Cipularang turnpike, which makes it much easier and faster to travel to Bandung from Jakarta, Bandung’s economy has been progressively booming. But many people living along the old routes, which used to connect Jakarta and Bandung, are now suffering severe economic setbacks because many less people now need their business services.

The Suramadu Bridge is indeed a tremendous project. We want to salute and express our respect to all the parties who have made the bridge a reality. But, we also want to remind all of us that maintaining the bridge is also a huge task. We congratulate the people of East Java on the inauguration of the new bridge.

Rumor Updates on Apple WWDC '09

2009-06-12T16:23:00.004+07:00

Apple's WWDC 2009 liveblog is just a weekend away. On the menu: Definitely Snow Leopard, new iPhone, new iPhone OS, and maybe even a guest star appearance of Steve Jobs himself. Here are the latest updates:

1. The new iPhone

The biggest announcement and biggest question mark is the new version of the iPhone. A new model is coming for sure, but we don't know what will be in it.

Update: We knew that the new iPhone was coming already, but Walter Mossberg—who is well known for having a very tight relation with Apple—strongly suggested that the new hardware is a sure shot next week. He did it in his Palm Pre review, potentially offsetting the Pre's current advantages with unrevealed incoming features in the iPhone. The Financial Times, BGR, and Engadget also say their sources claim that $99 iPhones are on the pipeline.

a. External design

Most probably, the new Apple cell will keep its current design. Since Steve Jobs came to Apple, dramatic industrial design changes have only happened across various generations of gut changes. Historically, the iMac, the Powerbook/Macbook, or the Mac Pro went through several iterations before experiencing a complete redesign. It's too early for the iPhone to change its face dramatically, specially when the current form factor works so well. And, after all, there are only a few ways to do a touch-screen phone. The iPhone 3G's design is simple, elegant, and works extremely well, so there is no reason to see a big re-design now.

Other rumors point at something called "the unibody iPhone", which is a retarded notion at best. The iPhone is already "unibody." It may not be carved out of a single piece of aluminum, but there's no need for that. It is a single surface—which is made of plastic to make reception better—and a glass top. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

Update: There may be sightly different components in the design, as shown in the pages of a Chinese original components wholesaler.

b. Colors

Some people are talking about multiple color versions. With the iPod mini, nano, and shuffle, color became a way to convert the low-end hardware into fashion accessories. The iMac also went through that phase, which was later abandoned. The iPod, however, always stayed either white or black, becoming an icon on its own right. The iPhone is also a higher-end icon. Down the line—maybe in a different incarnation, as the iPhone OS product family expands—color will appear. But for now, looking at Apple's past history, logic dictates that the iPhone won't see the variety of colors that the iPod nano has now.

Update: The new iPhone may also experience a change of materials, going from shiny to matte.

c. New camera and magnetometer

Whatever minimal design changes come to the iPhone will be dictated by the new hardware. One of these changes will be an improved camera. I have no doubt that the iPhone will get this much needed upgrade. Just looking at the price range and features of other competing smartphones, a better camera is not only a technical- and economically-feasible option for Apple, it is a must have. They are seriously lagging behind in the photography and video departments, which will be perceived by consumers as a major flaw.

Not only that, but Apple betting heavily on geotagging in their iLife'09 software suite begs for a quality upgrade in their one and only image-acquiring device. In Apple's closed ecosystem, the iPhone seems like a potential candidate to be the perfect machine to shoot and record your life on the go. Expect a better sensor, better lens, and autofocus.

Another must-happen-or-else feature is video recording. This has been pointed out not only by rumors, but also by hints left in the Software Development Kit. More importantly, however, is that video recording is present every single cellphone out there. Apple can't afford not having video recording in the iPhone for an entire year. Not when an army of Android phones with this capability is going to be launching in 2009 and 2010.

Update: We can say—with 99% certainty—that the new iPhone will have a magnetometer and camera autofocus, according to the screenshots that show these components in action. These new features can only be enabled in the iPhone OS 3.0 software by using the actual hardware—the current iPhone camera can't do autofocus and it doesn't have a magnetometer. The images—which confirm previous sightings—also confirm that the new iPhone will also have video recording.

d. Videoconferencing

Update: There also has been some speculation about a front-facing videochat camera, but given AT&T current bandwidth problems, I doubt it, but I hope that this one is true. Maybe the 20Mbps AT&T 3G network will finally materialize for this.

e. Processor and storage

Speed and memory will be the other two pilars for the new next-generation iPhone. Both are logical, specially the increase in storage capacity and RAM for applications. As the iPhone OS market booms, bigger, more powerful applications and games will come in. Increased RAM will be a must for these apps. The increase in storage—specially as video recording becomes an official feature and the megapixel count increases for photography—is also a given.

A faster processor will also happen. Speed is often cited as the most important of iPhone's problems. Not because the current competition is faster—which it isn't—but because people want to access their applications instantly, not to talk about typing without any bloody delays when background tasks kick in. Faster chips—both the CPU and the multimedia processor—will make the next-generation iPhone fly. Not only that: They will be needed to guarantee more powerful applications, needed to support Apple's push on the gaming front and the new video capabilities.

f. Other features

Don't expect any magic hardware features, however—like OLED screen or backlit Apple logos—which just seem the type of thing that random people pull out of nowhere—and with "nowhere" I really mean "their asses."

2. The tablet

I always have had high hopes for the fabled Apple tablet. Heck, I've had actual dreams about this thing for years, since I got my first Newton Message Pad. Now, the technology is right to do it but maybe not at the price point that it needs to be successful. An Apple tablet will basically be a bigger iPhone that will serve as a casual and cheap computing device, confronting the netbook market with a nimbler, less cramped, and not-fugly device. Since we are consuming information most of the time, an iPhone OS-based tablet is something that could work better than netbooks—in fact, it seems that even works better for typing—bringing us closer to a new generation of devices that are less cumbersome than desktop-metaphor-oriented computers.

Unfortunately, Star Trek: The Next Generation's tablets will probably not come this year, even while WWDC may be the last step before the launch. At WWDC, Apple will be laying down the software foundations for this device—things like resolution-independent applications that can adapt to different screen sizes, and true multitasking that would allow you to run several applications and widgets concurrently.

So even while Digitimes and the usual wacky sources keep talking about the 10-inch screen deals between Apple and Wintek, I'm pessimistic about the tablet coming in San Jose. That said, I really hope it finally appears. Even if it is just a pre-announcement—like Apple did with the original iPhone. That way developers will start coding for the new form factor as soon as possible.

3. Mac OS X

There are other rumors about hardware and software. The latter area will obviously be dominated by Snow Leopard, the next big release of the Mac OS X operating system. Snow Leopard may show its new face at WWDC. In a World Wide Developers Conference, it will be the star, only eclipsed by iPhone OS.

4. New MacBook Pros

As for hardware, rumormongers are talking about new MacBooks with 3G capabilities built-in.

Update: We have received some photos showing updates for a new MacBook Pro Summer 2009 Unibody, with a flash memory card slot built-in. However, these are from an unconfirmed source.

5. Other hardware

There are also rumors about ypdates to the Apple Cinema Displays—moving everything to LED backlighting—and the iPod touch—which also needs to be updated, probably reaching the 64GB mark in the same way the iPhone will be doubling its capacity (the iPhone has one NAND RAM chip inside for two in the iPod touch).

6. Steve Jobs

Just with the new iPhone, an updated iPod touch, and Snow Leopard, WWDC 09 will be a solid show. One that everyone interested in these technologies should be excited about. But the thing I'm really hoping for is not hardware or software. I wish that, at the end of his presentation, Phil Schiller will pronounce the magic words, the classic "one more thing," and Steve Jobs would appear on stage, smiling and visibly recovered from his lastest health woes. That, more than anything else, would be amazingly good news for the tech world.

Roger Ferderer

2009-06-12T15:53:00.003+07:00

Roger Federer (pronounced /ˈrɒdʒə ˈfɛdərər/; born on August 8, 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He is a former World No. 1 ranked player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks. Federer is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.

Federer holds numerous records in men's singles, including 14 Grand Slam titles (3 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 5 Wimbledon, 5 US Open), equalling the all-time record set by Pete Sampras. Federer is the sixth player in history to achieve a career Grand Slam and the second to do so on three different surfaces after Andre Agassi. From 2005-07, Federer reached an all-time record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals and has currently reached 15 of the past 16. In doing so, Federer matched the record 19 (non-consecutive) Grand Slam finals of Ivan Lendl and is now the only player to reach the final of each Grand Slam tournament at least four times. Since 2004 Wimbledon, Federer has reached an unprecedented 20 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals, a streak spanning nearly five years.

As a result of Federer's successes in tennis, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for four consecutive years (2005–08).

Childhood and personal life

Federer was born in Binningen, near Basel, to Swiss national Robert Federer and South Africa-born Lynette Durand.

He grew up in suburban Münchenstein, near Basel and close to the French and German borders. Federer speaks Swiss German with his family. He also speaks German, French and English fluently, and conducts press conferences in all three. He was raised Catholic and met Pope Benedict XVI while playing the 2006 Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome.

In addition to tennis, he also played football as a boy and considered becoming a professional footballer before deciding to pursue a career in tennis. He is a fervent supporter of his hometown club FC Basel. As a youngster, he enjoyed watching former world #1 Chilean player Marcelo Ríos in action. Federer is also a fan of cricket, and played the game in 2006 with children displaced by the 2004 Tsunami in Tamil Nadu.

Federer supports various charities. He established the Roger Federer Foundation in 2003 to help disadvantaged people and to promote sports to youth. He was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 2006. Since then, he has visited South Africa and Tamil Nadu, one of the worst tsunami-affected areas in India. He has also appeared in UNICEF public messages to raise public awareness of AIDS.

In 2007, Federer was photographed by Annie Leibowitz as King Arthur. This was part of a series of photographs of celebrities for Disney's Year of a Million Dreams project.

Marriage

Federer is married to former Women's Tennis Association player Miroslava "Mirka" Vavrinec. They met while competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Vavrinec retired from the tour in 2002 because of a persistent foot injury and has since been working as Federer's public relations manager. They were married in Basel on 11 April 2009, surrounded by a small group of close friends and family at Wenkenhof Villa (municipality of Riehen), and are expecting their first child, which is rumoured to be a boy. Federer stated that he chooses not to wear a wedding ring while he is playing professional tennis for fear of losing it.

Junior tennis

Federer started playing tennis at the age of eight. He began participating in group lessons aged nine and began weekly private coaching the following year. He played football until the age of twelve when he decided to focus solely on tennis. At fourteen, he became the national champion of all groups in Switzerland and was chosen to train at the Swiss National Tennis Center in Ecublens. He joined the ITF junior tennis circuit in July 1996. In 1998, his final year as a junior, Federer won the junior Wimbledon title and the prestigious year-ending Orange Bowl. He was recognized as the ITF World Junior Tennis champion of the year.

Early Career in the ATP (July 1998- Oct. 2002)

In July 1998, Federer joined the ATP tour at Gstaad, where he lost to Lucas Arnold in straight sets. Although he played two more ATP tournaments in 1998, the majority of his matches were still at the Junior level.

In April he debuted for the Swiss Davis Cup team against Italy and finished the year ranked 66th. He was the youngest player in the top 100. He also competed in his first Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros, the French Open, but lost to Patrick Rafter in the first round. He also appeared for the first time in Wimbledon, losing in the first round to Czech Jiri Novak, then ranked 59th.

In January 2000, Federer competed for the first time in the Australian Open, losing to 49th ranked Arnaud Clement of France in the third round. He equaled this achievement in his first US Open, losing in the third round to 12th ranked Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. He reached the semifinals at the Sydney Olympics and lost the bronze medal match to Arnaud di Pasquale of France. Federer reached his first final in Marseille losing to Marc Rosset and was also the runner-up in Basel. He did, however, win the Harry Hopman Cup in Australia defeating Jan-Michael Gambill in the final in straight sets. He failed to make an impression at Grand Slams, although it was the first year he played in all four, and Masters Series tournaments, and ended the year ranked 29th.

Federer's first ATP tournament victory came in February 2001 defeating Julien Boutter in the final of the Milan Indoor. During the same month, he won three matches for his country in its 3–2 Davis Cup victory over the United States. He later reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, defeating four-time defending champion and seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round in a closely fought five set match. This defeat ended Sampras' 31-match winning streak in the tournament. He also reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros but still could get no further than the third round in the Australian and US Opens. He finished the year ranked 13th.

Federer reached his first Masters Series final in 2002 at the NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, where he lost to Andre Agassi. He won his next Masters final in Hamburg. He also won both his Davis Cup singles matches against former World No. 1 Russians Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. He had early-round exits at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open; Federer also suffered the devastating loss of his long-time Australian coach and mentor, Peter Carter, in a car crash in August.

Career in the ATP top 10 (Oct. 2002 - present)

2002

Federer reached No. 6 in the ATP Champions Race by the end of 2002. He jumped in the rankings from 13th at the end of September to 7th but the middle of October. This qualified him for the first time in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup. However, his run at the tournament was ended in the semi-finals by then World No. 1 and eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt.

2003

In the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, Federer lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open to David Nalbandian. He then won two hard court tournaments in Marseille and Dubai before being upset in early round matches at the Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne. On clay, Federer won the tournament in Munich, was the runner-up at the Masters Series tournament in Rome, and lost in the third round of the Masters Series tournament in Hamburg. Federer was seeded fifth at the French Open but lost to Luis Horna in the first round.

Federer was undefeated on grass in 2003, winning both of the grass court tournaments he played. A victory against Nicolas Kiefer in the final of the tournament in Halle was followed by his first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon. He defeated Roddick in the semifinals and Mark Philippoussis in the final and lost only one set during the tournament, to Mardy Fish in the third round.

During the North American summer hard court season, however, Federer lost to Roddick in the semifinals of the Masters Series tournament in Montreal and to Nalbandian in the second round of the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. At the US Open, Nalbandian again defeated Federer, this time in the fourth round.

During the autumn, Federer played four consecutive indoor tournaments in Europe. He won the tournament in Vienna but failed to reach the finals of the tournament in Basel and the Masters Series tournaments in Madrid and Paris. To end the year, Federer won the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston. As the third-seeded player, he defeated Andre Agassi, Nalbandian, and Ferrero during the round robin competition before beating World No. 1 Roddick in the semi-finals and Agassi in the final.

Federer challenged for the top ranking during 2003, finishing the year at World No. 2, just behind Andy Roddick and just ahead of Juan Carlos Ferrero.

2004

Federer had one of the most dominating and successful years in the open era of modern men's tennis. He won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments, did not lose a match to anyone ranked in the top ten, won every final he reached, and was named the ITF Tennis World Champion. His win–loss record for the year was 74–6 with 11 titles, which included three of the years four Grand Slams and three ATP Masters Series titles.

He won his first Australian Open singles title by defeating Marat Safin in the final in straight sets. This win saw him supplant Andy Roddick as the World No. 1, a ranking he would hold for four years until August 18, 2008. In March, he won the Dubai Tennis Open, defeating Spanish player Feliciano Lopez in the final. A week later, he would go on to claim the 2004 Pacific Life Open, defeating Tim Henman in straight sets to win the title. 2004 also marked the year where he first met rival Rafael Nadal, who defeated Federer in their first ever encounter at the tournament in Miami. Federer also won two titles in Germany, first at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and the Hamburg Masters, defeating World No. 4 ranked Guillermo Coria in the final to claim his second title at Hamburg. He then successfully defended his Wimbledon singles title, defeating Roddick in the final, and won his first US Open singles title, defeating Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6(3), 6-0 in the final.

Federer was the top-seeded player at the Athens Olympics but was upset in the second round to Czech Tomáš Berdych. He finished the year by taking the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston for the second consecutive year, defeating Hewitt in the final. Federer's only loss at a Grand Slam tournament during the year was during the third round of the French Open, where he lost to former World No. 1 and 3-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten in straight sets. (All results in 2004)

2005

At the start of the year, Federer hired former Australian player Tony Roche to coach him on a limited basis. He reached the Australian Open semifinals before falling to eventual winner Marat Safin 5–7, 6–4, 5–7, 7–6(6), 9–7. He rebounded to win the year's first two ATP Masters Series titles: Indian Wells defeating Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in straight sets and Key Biscayne, defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain in five sets after being down two sets to love, and two points from defeat. He won his third Hamburg clay court title in May by defeating Richard Gasquet, to whom he had earlier lost in Monte Carlo. He then entered the French Open as one of the favorites, but lost a four set semi-final to eventual winner Nadal.

Federer successfully defended his Wimbledon title, winning for the third consecutive year by defeating Andy Roddick in a rematch of the previous year's final. Federer also defeated Roddick in the final of the tournament in Cincinnati to take his fourth Masters Series title of the year (and sweep all the North American Masters events) and became the first player to win four Masters Series titles in one season. He then dropped only two sets en route to his second consecutive US Open title, defeating Andre Agassi in four sets in the final. He became the first man in the open era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years (2004 and 2005). He failed to defend his Tennis Masters Cup title, however, losing to David Nalbandian of Argentina in a four-and-a-half hour, five-set match. This loss prevented him from tying John McEnroe's 1984 record for the highest yearly winning percentage in the open era. This defeat also ended his streak of winning 24 consecutive finals, doubling the previous record.

2006

Federer won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments for the second time and ended the year ranked World No. 1, with his points being several thousand points greater than World No. 2 Nadal's total. Federer won the year's first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, by defeating Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. In March, Federer successfully defended his titles at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, and became the first player ever to win the Indian Wells-Key Biscayne double in consecutive years. Federer then started the clay-court season by reaching the final of the ATP Masters Series event at Monte Carlo losing in four sets to Rafael Nadal. He then reached the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome where he lost to Nadal in an epic five-set match that culminated in a decisive tiebreak. Federer chose not to defend his title at the Hamburg Masters, where he had won in the previous two years. At the French Open Federer advanced to the final for the first time but lost to defending champion Nadal in four sets. Although the clay Grand Slam title eluded him, Federer became one of only two active players who had reached the finals of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments, the other being Andre Agassi.

Federer entered Wimbledon as the top seed and reached the final without dropping a set. There, Federer beat Nadal in four sets to win the championship. This was Federer's fourth consecutive Wimbledon title. He then started his North American tour and won the Rogers Cup in Toronto, defeating Richard Gasquet of France in the final. In the year's last Grand Slam tournament, the US Open, he defeated American Andy Roddick in four sets for his third consecutive title at Flushing Meadows. During the open era, 2006 is the only year in which same man (Federer) and woman (Justine Henin) reached the finals of all four Grand Slams. At the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Federer defeated defending champion David Nalbandian in one of his three round robin matches and Nadal in the semifinals. Federer then defeated American James Blake 6–0, 6–3, 6–4 in the final to win his third Masters Cup title. During the year, Federer lost to only two players: Nadal in the French Open, Rome, Monte Carlo, and Dubai finals; and Andy Murray in the second round of the Masters Series tournament in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati loss to Murray was Federer's only straight-sets loss of the year and the only tournament out of 17 in which he did not reach the final.

2007

Federer won his third Australian Open and tenth Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set throughout the tournament. He defeated Fernando González of Chile in the final. He was the first man since Björn Borg in 1980 to win a Grand Slam singles tournament without losing a set. His winning streak of 41 consecutive matches ended when he lost to Guillermo Cañas in the second round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, after winning this tournament for three consecutive years. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Federer again lost to Cañas, this time in the fourth round in three sets. However, he was awarded four ATP Awards during a ceremony at the tournament, making him the first player to receive four awards during the same year.

Federer started his clay-court season by reaching his second consecutive final of the Monte Carlo Masters but lost, as in 2006, to second seed Rafael Nadal. Federer also lost in the third round of the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome to Filippo Volandri. This defeat meant he had gone four tournaments without a title, his longest stretch since becoming World No. 1. On May 20, 2007, however, Federer defeated Nadal on clay for the first time, winning the Hamburg Masters tournament. At the French Open, Federer reached the final for the second consecutive year but lost to Nadal for the second time. Despite this victory, the day after the final Federer announced that he was withdrawing from the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, which he had won the last four years. He cited fatigue and fear of getting an injury. He therefore entered Wimbledon for the first time without having played a warm-up grass-court tournament. Despite this, Federer once again defeated Nadal in five sets in the final. With the win over Nadal, Federer tied Björn Borg's record of five Wimbledons in a row.

Federer won the Cincinnati Masters title for the second time, beating James Blake in the final, to collect his 50th career singles title, his 14th ATP Masters Series title, and the 2007 US Open Series points race.

In the US Open final, Federer beat third seed Novak Djokovic. It was Federer's 12th Grand Slam title. As champion of the US Open Series points race, Federer received a bonus of $1 million, in addition to the $1.4 million prize for winning the US Open singles title. He became the only player in history to win three grand slams in three years (2004, 2006, 2007). Federer then finished the season at the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup. Despite losing for the first time in the round robin group, Federer then moved on to defeat rival Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and David Ferrer in the tournament finals to win his 4th Tennis Masters Cup title.

On November 19, 2007, in an exhibition match in Seoul between players recognized as among the greatest ever, Federer defeated former World No. 1 Pete Sampras 6–4, 6–3. This was the first of three exhibitions the two played in Asia. Sampras noted: "I feel pretty good ... I made it competitive, which was my goal. Obviously Roger is the best player in the world and I retired five years ago. I am grateful that he invited me." Federer was equally happy with the workout: "Pete was one of my idols growing up and it's great to play him. It wasn't easy for me, it wasn't easy for him as he's been retired five years. I am number one and everyone expects me to win." Two days later, Sampras again lost to Federer 7–6, 7–6. However, Sampras won the last match of the series 7–6(6), 6–4, although his stated goal was to just win a set.

2008

Federer began the year by attempting to defend his title at the Australian Open. He lost, however, in the semifinals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic 7–5, 6–3, 7–6(5). This ended his male record of ten consecutive Grand Slam finals.

In March, Federer revealed that he had recently been diagnosed with mononucleosis and that he may have suffered from it as early as December 2007. Federer also had an illness related to food poisoning prior to the start of the Australian Open. He noted, however, that he was now "medically cleared to compete".

Although Federer was seeded first and was the defending champion at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, he lost to Andy Murray in the first round with a score of 6–7(6), 6–3, 6–4. On March 10, Federer won his third exhibition match out of four against former World No. 1 Pete Sampras at Madison Square Garden in New York City 6–3, 6–7, 7–6.

At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, the first Tennis Masters Series event of the year, Federer lost in the semi-finals to American Mardy Fish for the first time. Federer's next tournament was the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Andy Roddick for the first time since 2003.

Federer began the clay court season at the Estoril Open in Portugal. This was his first tournament with coach José Higueras and his first non-Master Series clay-court tournament since Gstaad in 2004. Federer won his first tournament of the year when Nikolay Davydenko retired from the final while trailing 7–6, 1–2 with a leg ligament strain.

Federer then played three Masters Series tournaments on clay. At the Masters Series Monte Carlo, Federer lost to three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in the final in straight sets. Federer made 44 unforced errors, lost a 4–0 lead in the second set, and fell to 1–7 against Nadal on clay courts. At the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Federer lost in the quarter-finals to Radek Štěpánek 7–6(4), 7–6(7). Federer was the defending champion at the Masters Series Hamburg but lost to Rafael Nadal in the final. In the first set of the final, Federer built a 5–1 lead and served for the set twice. Nadal, however, won six consecutive games to win the set 7–5. Nadal again broke Federer's serve in the opening game of the second set, but Federer broke back and won the set 7–6(3). Nadal then won the third set 6–3 and the tournament.

At the French Open, Federer was defeated quickly by Nadal in the final 6–1, 6–3, 6–0. This was the fourth consecutive year that Federer and Nadal had played at the French Open, with Federer losing his third consecutive final to Nadal. Federer's record of 23–4 (2005–08) at the French Open is second only to Nadal's record of 28–0 during the same period.

Federer bounced back by winning the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany without dropping a set or a service game. This was the fifth time he had won this event. With this result, he tied Pete Sampras's record for most titles on grass in the open era with ten.

At Wimbledon, Federer reached his 17th consecutive Grand Slam singles semi-final and his 16th Grand Slam final, tying Björn Borg for fourth most in male tennis history. He once again played World No. 2 Nadal in the final. A victory for Federer would have meant his sixth consecutive Wimbledon singles title, breaking Borg's modern era record and equaling the all-time record held since 1886 by William Renshaw. Federer saved two championship points in the fourth set tiebreak but eventually lost the match 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–7(8), 9–7. The rain-delayed match ended in near darkness after 4 hours, 48 minutes of play, making it the longest (in terms of elapsed time) men's final in Wimbledon recorded history. It concluded 7 hours, 15 minutes after its scheduled start. The defeat also ended Federer's 65 match winning streak on grass. John McEnroe described the match as "The greatest match I've ever seen." After Nadal surpassed him as World No. 1 later in the year, Federer stated that his main goal would be to regain the Wimbledon title rather than the top spot.

Federer made early exits in his next two singles tournaments. At the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada, Federer lost in the second round to Gilles Simon after receiving a first round bye. At the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Federer was the defending champion but lost in the third round to Ivo Karlović for the first time in the duo's seven matches.

Federer was chosen to carry the national flag at the Beijing Olympics. At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Federer lost in the quarter-finals to James Blake for the first time in their nine matches. Federer however, finally won his first Olympic gold medal in the men's doubles when he and compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka upset the World No. 1 doubles team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the United States in the semifinals and defeated Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the final, 6–3, 6–4, 6–7(4), 6–3. The following day, Federer lost his World No. 1 ranking to Nadal after a record 237 consecutive weeks.

At the US Open, Federer reached the fourth round without dropping a set. In a rematch of the 2007 US Open final, he topped third-seeded Djokovic in the semi-finals 6–3, 5–7, 7–5, 6–2. On a Monday final, he defeated Murray 6–2, 7–5, 6–2 to win his 13th Grand Slam title and his fifth straight US Open title and extended his US Open winning streak to 34 matches. Federer became the first player in tennis history to have five consecutive wins at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

At the Mutua Madrileña Masters Madrid, Federer reached the semi-finals without losing a set. There he lost to Murray, 3–6, 6–3, 7–5. Meanwhile, he became the all-time leader in career prize money in men's tennis, earning over US$ 43.3 million at the end of the tournament and surpassing former World No. 1 and 14-time Grand Slam singles champion, Pete Sampras.

Federer won his 57th career title at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, beating David Nalbandian in the final, 6–3, 6–4. He became the only player in history to win the title three consecutive years. He reached the quarter-finals of his next event, the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris before withdrawing because of back pain. This was the first time in Federer's career of 763 matches that he had withdrawn from a tournament. This meant that 2008 was his first since 2003 in which he did not win a Masters Series title.

Federer entered the Tennis Masters Cup as the top-seeded player after Nadal withdrew from the tournament. He drew Simon, Murray, and Roddick in the Red Group. In his opening match, Federer lost to Simon but kept his hopes alive by defeating Roddick's replacement, Stepanek, 7–6(4), 6–4 in his second match. He lost his third match to Murray who won the match 4–6, 7–6(3), 7–5. Federer had received medical treatment for back and hip problems in the third set but lost after saving seven match points. This was the first time that Federer had not advanced to the semi-final stage of the event. However, Federer still ended the year ranked World No. 2.

2009

In preparation for the Australian Open, Federer played two exhibition tournaments and one official tournament. He lost to Andy Murray in the semifinals of the Capitala World Tennis exhibition in Abu Dhabi. He then lost in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour 250 series tournament in Doha, Qatar to Murray 6–7(6), 6–2, 6–2. Federer won the AAMI Classic exhibition in Melbourne when he defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the final 6–1, 6–3.

Federer defeated each of his first three opponents in straight sets at the Australian Open. In the fourth round, Federer rallied from two sets down to defeat Tomas Berdych 4–6, 6–7(5), 6–4, 6–4, 6–2, which was truly a showcase for his mental and physical abilities. Federer reached his record 19th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal by defeating eighth seeded Juan Martin del Potro in the quarterfinals 6–3, 6–0, 6–0 in only 80 minutes. In his 18th Grand Slam final, Federer was defeated by long-time rival Rafael Nadal in their first meeting on a hard court in a Grand Slam tournament. The match lasted over four hours with Nadal victorious in five sets. Federer broke down in tears during the trophy presentation and struggled to make his runner-up speech. Federer blamed the defeat on a lack of rhythm in his first serve. Federer withdrew from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and from Switzerland's Davis Cup tie against the U.S. because of a back injury he sustained in late 2008. He stated it was "a precautionary measure" to make sure his back is "fully rehabilitated ... for the rest of the 2009 season".

On March 4, Federer's agent, Tony Godsick, announced that the Australian tennis coach Darren Cahill was working with Federer, on a trial basis, at Federer's training base in Dubai. One week later, Cahill opted out of the coaching position, citing the travel commitment needed.

Federer played both of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series tournaments in the United States. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Federer lost to Murray in the semifinals 6–3, 4–6, 6–1. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Federer defeated his first three opponents in straight sets after receiving a first round bye. In the semi-finals against Novak Djokovic, Federer lost 3–6, 6–2, 6–3, a match that included Federer's smashing of his racket in frustration after missing a forehand approach shot by hitting it into the net, the same shot that cost him the 2008 Wimbledon final.

After initially deciding not to participate, Federer accepted a last-minute wildcard entry at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, his first clay court event of the year. He lost to Wawrinka for the first time in the third round 6–4, 7–5.

In the semi-finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, another ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series event on clay, Federer lost to Djokovic for the first time on clay 4–6, 6–3, 6–3.

Federer received a first-round bye in the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, the last ATP World Tour Masters 1000 series event on clay for the year. He defeated Rafael Nadal 6–4, 6–4 in the final. This ended Nadal's 33-match winning streak on clay, and for the second time Federer prevented Nadal from becoming the first man to win all 3 Masters Series on clay in the same year.

In the 2009 French Open, in a fourth round encounter, Federer had to come back from 2 sets to love down to defeat Tommy Haas, 6–7(4), 5–7, 6–4, 6–0, 6–2. He defeated Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals 7–6(6), 6–2, 6–4, to reach his 20th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final. He reached his fourth straight final in Paris by outlasting Juan Martin del Potro 3–6, 7–6(2), 2–6, 6–1, 6–4. He won the final by beating Robin Söderling 6–1, 7–6(1), 6–4. With this win, Federer equaled Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam titles and Ivan Lendl's record of 19 Grand Slam finals, and also became the sixth man in history to complete a Career Grand Slam. Owing to the overwhelming emotions and fatigue brought by the tournament, Federer withdrew from the Gerry Weber Open, his usual pre-Wimbledon tournament.

Rivalry with Rafael Nadal

Federer and Nadal have been playing each other since 2004, and this rivalry is a significant part of both men's careers. They are the only men in the open era who have played each other in 7 Grand Slam finals, with Nadal leading 5-2. Nadal leads their overall head-to-head series 13-7. Their 2008 Wimbledon final has been lauded as the greatest match of all time by many long-time tennis critics, while many critics consider their rivalry to be the greatest in tennis history.

Technique

Federer's versatility was epitomised by Jimmy Connors' statement: "In an era of specialists - you're either a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist or a hard court specialist... or you're Roger Federer". David Foster Wallace described Federer's exceptional speed, fluidity and brute force of this forehand motion as "a great liquid whip", while John McEnroe has referred to Federer's forehand as "the greatest shot in our sport". Federer plays with a single-handed backhand, and has an excellent slice, and can also fire top-spin winning shots. His serve is difficult to read because he tosses the ball in the same spot no matter where he intends to serve it and he turns his back to his opponents during his motion. His first serve is typically around 190 km/h (118 mph); however, he is capable of serving at 220 km/h (137 mph).

Equipment, apparel, and endorsements

Federer currently plays with a customized Wilson (K)Factor (K)Six-One Tour 90 tennis racquet, which is characterised by its smaller hitting surface of 90 square inches, heavy weight (customized to a 12.7 oz strung weight), and thin beam (18 mm). His grip size is 4 3/8" (L3). Federer strings his racquets at 24 to 28 kg (52.9 to 61.7 pounds) tension (depending on his opponent and surface) with natural gut main strings (Wilson Natural Gut 16 String) and polyester cross strings (Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power Rough 16L String). On his website, when asked about string tensions, Federer stated "this depends on how warm the days are and with what kind of balls I play and against who I play. So you can see – it depends on several factors and not just the surface; the feeling I have is most important."

Federer endorses Wilson tennis racquets and accessories with a lifetime contract and Nike footwear and apparel (he wears the Nike Air Vapor 6 and Nike Polo shirts). For the 2006 championships at Wimbledon, Nike designed a jacket emblazoned with a crest of three tennis racquets symbolizing the three Wimbledon Championships he had previously won. This jacket was updated in preparation for the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, with four racquets. In Wimbledon 2008, Nike continued this trend by making him a personalized cardigan. He now has his own logo, an R and F joined together. He also endorses Gillette and Jura, a Swiss based coffee machine company. In addition, he has had a long standing endorsement deal with Mercedes Benz. He also launched a fragrance called RF Cosmetics in 2003. Federer also endorses Rolex watches, although he is often seen wearing a Maurice Lacroix.

WWDC 2009

2009-06-11T17:50:00.003+07:00

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, commonly abbreviated WWDC, is a conference held annually in California by Apple Inc. The conference is primarily used by Apple to showcase its new software and technologies for developers, as well as offering hands-on labs and feedback sessions. The number of attendees usually varies between 2,000 to 4,200 developers; however, during WWDC 2007, Steve Jobs noted that there were over 5,000 attendees. WWDC 2009 is taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, and is scheduled to run June 8-12 of 2009.

Description

All attendees have to sign a non-disclosure agreement covering the sessions and other material handed out at WWDC. In the past, the keynote was also covered by the NDA, but Apple in recent years has webcast the keynote address to an audience much wider than just developers. Before 2002, WWDC was not a place for hardware announcements, but Apple deviated from that principle in 2002 when it announced the rack mounted server Xserve, in 2003 with the introduction of the consumer-oriented iSight and the Power Mac G5, in 2004 with the introduction of redesigned Apple Cinema Displays, in 2005, when an announcement was made that Apple Computer would start the transition of their computers from IBM's PowerPC microprocessor line to Intel's line of x86 processors, and in 2006 with the release of the Xeon-based Mac Pro and Xserve.

In 2003, WWDC was merged with another Apple trade show called QuickTime Live. The number of QuickTime sessions was increased, and the Apple Design Awards were joined by Apple Design Awards for QuickTime Content. At the same time, more enterprise-oriented content was added, focusing a lot on the Xserve and Mac OS X Server operating system.

History

The first WWDC was held in Monterey, California in 1983. Until 2002, WWDC was held in mid-May. From 2003 to 2005 it was held in June to better distribute Apple's show commitments. In 2006, WWDC was moved to August due to scheduling conflicts at the Moscone Center. Since 1998 the conference generally starts with a keynote presentation which has been delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, resulting in the event becoming known as "Stevenotes". Recent WWDC's have focused on demonstrating and distributing preview versions of upcoming Mac OS X versions.

WWDC 1996

WWDC'96 focused almost entirely on the Copland project, which by this time was able to be demonstrated to some degree. Gil Amelio stated that the system was on-schedule to ship in beta form in later summer with an initial commercial release in the very late fall. However, very few "live" demos were offered, and no beta of the operating system was offered.

WWDC 1997

WWDC'97 was the first show after the purchase of NeXT, and focused on the efforts to use OpenStep as the foundation of the next Mac OS. The plan at that time was to introduce a new system then known as Rhapsody, which would consist of a version of OpenStep modified with a more Mac-like look and feel, the Yellow Box, along with a Blue Box that allowed existing Mac applications to run under OS emulation.

The show focused primarily on the work in progress, including a short history of the development efforts since the two development teams had been merged on February 4. Several new additions to the system were also demonstrated, including tabbed and outline views, and a new object-based graphics layer (NSBezier).

WWDC 1998

In response to developer comments about the new operating system, the "big announcement" at WWDC'98 was the introduction of Carbon. Carbon was effectively a version of the "classic" Mac OS API implemented on OpenStep. Under the original Rhapsody plans, classic applications would run in sandboxed installation of the classic Mac OS, (called the Blue Box) and have no access to the new Mac OS X features. To receive new features, such as protected memory and preemptive multitasking, developers would have to rewrite their applications using the Yellow Box API. Developer complaints about the major porting effort to what was then a shrinking market and warnings that they might simply abandon the platform, led Apple to reconsider the original plan. Carbon addressed the problem by dramatically reducing the effort needed, while exposing some of the new functionality of the underlying OS.

Another major introduction at WWDC'98 was the Quartz imaging model, which replaced Display PostScript with something akin to "display PDF". Although the reasons for this switch remain unclear, Quartz also included better support for the existing QuickDraw model from the classic OS, as well (as it was later learned) as Java2D. Supporting QuickDraw directly in the graphics model also led to a related announcement, that the Blue Box would now be "invisible", integrated into the existing desktop as opposed to an entirely separate window.

WWDC 1999

WWDC'99 was essentially a "progress report" as the plans outlined in WWDC'98 came to fruition. Three major announcements were the "opening" of the operating system underlying the new OS as Darwin, improvements to the Macintosh Finder, and the replacement of QuickDraw 3D with OpenGL as the primary 3D API. The system formerly known as OpenStep, and referred to during development as "Yellow Box" was formally re-named "Cocoa".2563 developers attended.

WWDC 2000

Much the same as WWDC'99, 2000 was another "progress report" on the way to the upcoming release of Mac OS X. Recent changes included a modified Dock and improved versions of the developer tools. "Developer Preview 4" was released at the show, with the commercial release pushed back to January 2001. Additionally, WebObjects was dropped in price to a flat fee of $699 US. Approximately 3600 developers attended.

WWDC 2001

Mac OS X had only recently been released, but WWDC'01 added the first release of Mac OS X Server shipping and WebObjects 5. Over 4000 developers attended. Leather jackets with a large blue "X" embroidered on the back were distributed to attendees.

WWDC 2002

Mac OS X v.10.2 and QuickTime 6 were presented. Apple also said farewell to Mac OS 9 with a mock funeral, and told the developers that there would be no more Mac OS 9 development, reinforcing that the future of the Mac was now entirely on Mac OS X.

WWDC 2003

WWDC'03 demonstrated the PowerMac G5, distributed a preview of OS X Panther (10.3), and the introduction of the "iApps:" iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc. Rendezvous (now known as Bonjour) was also announced. Attendees received an iSight web camera.

WWDC 2004

WWDC 2004 took place from June 28 to July 2. Steve noted that 3500 developers attended and that was a 17% increase from 2003. New displays were introduced in 23 and 30-inch widescreen. Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) was also previewed. All attendees received a developer preview of Tiger, a simple grey t-shirt with the Apple logo on the front and "WWDC2004" on the back, a backpack capable of holding a 17-inch PowerBook, and a copy of Apple Remote Desktop 2.0.

WWDC 2005

WWDC 2005 took place from June 6 to June 10. After a basic market update, Jobs announced that Apple would transition to Intel processors and the x86 platform. The keynote featured developers from Wolfram Research, who discussed their experience porting Mathematica to Mac OS X on the Intel platform. 3800 attendees from 45 countries attended the event. There were 110 lab sessions, 95 presentation sessions, and 500+ Apple engineers on site.

WWDC 2006

WWDC 2006 took place from August 7 to August 11 in Moscone West, San Francisco with the keynote presentation hosted by Steve Jobs.

As expected, the Mac Pro was announced as a replacement to the PowerMac G5 that was previously Apple's "prosumer" desktop computer, and the last remaining PowerPC-based Mac. The standard Mac Pro featured two 2.66 GHz dual core Xeon (Woodcrest) processors, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, and a 256 MB video card. An Xserve update was also announced, based as well on the dual core Xeons. Redundant power and Lights Out Management were additional product improvements to Apple's server lineup.

While certain key Mac OS X improvements were kept "close to the vest," there were 10 improvements announced for OS X in its next iteration, Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard", including: Full 64-bit app support, Time Machine, Boot Camp, Front Row, and Photo Booth packaged with the OS, Spaces (Virtual Desktops), Spotlight enhancements, Core Animation, Universal Access enhancements, Mail enhancements, Dashboard enhancements, including Dashcode and iChat enhancements. Leopard was announced to most likely be released for sale in Spring 2007.

In addition to Leopard features that were announced, a major revision to the Mac OS X Server product was announced. Some new features in this product included: A simplified set-up process, iCal Server (based on the CalDAV standard), Teams (a set of web-based collaborative services), Spotlight Server, and Podcast Producer.

4200 developers from 48 countries attended the event. There were 140 sessions and 100 hands-on labs for developers. There were over 1000 Apple engineers present at the event.

WWDC 2007

WWDC 2007 took place from June 11 to June 15 in Moscone West, San Francisco with the keynote presentation hosted by Steve Jobs. Apple showed off a feature-complete beta of Mac OS v10.5 "Leopard", though its release date was pushed back to October. Jobs announced that Safari would now be available for Windows and announced support for third-party development for the then upcoming iPhone via online web applications through the iPhone's web browser. Jobs also announced the launch date for the iPhone, which he was widely expected to do, as June 29, 2007. Jobs also announced that Apple Safari, Apple's proprietary web browser, would run on the iPhone; and that Apple (at the time) had no plans to release an iPhone SDK, meaning that developers would have to use standard web protocols. Additionally Jobs noted during the keynote that over 5000 attendees were present at WWDC07, breaking the previous year's record.

WWDC 2008

WWDC 2008 took place from June 9 to June 13 at Moscone West, San Francisco.

Apple reported that, for the first time, the conference had sold out. There were three tracks for developers, iPhone, Mac, and IT.

Announcements at the keynote included the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch, the stable version of the iPhone SDK, a subsidized 3G version of the iPhone for Worldwide markets,version 2.0 of the iPhone OS, Mac OS X v10.6, and the replacement/rebranding of .Mac as MobileMe.

WWDC 2009

WWDC 2009 is taking place from June 8 to June 12 at Moscone West, San Francisco, and Apple reported that the 2009 conference sold out in late April. Announcements at the keynote included the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 software announced to developers in March, a demonstration of Mac OS X v10.6, the new 13" MacBook Pro, updates to the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros, and the new iPhone 3G S. Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP for Product Marketing, presented the WWDC keynote this year, instead of the traditional presenter Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, who has taken medical leave of absence since the beginning of the year.

Tagged

2009-06-11T17:44:00.002+07:00

Tagged.com is a social networking site founded in 2004. Tagged is the subject of numerous customer complaints for sending misleading bulk mai and is regarded as a phishing and spamming site by consumer anti-fraud advocates.

About the Company

Tagged was co-founded by Harvard graduates and entrepreneurs Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith. Tagged.com was launched in October 2004 by Tagged Inc. and is privately owned.

Tagged Inc. has raised $7 million in funding, from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Mayfield Fund. The site initially targeted US high school students but has since opened to all users worldwide age 13 and older. The company reached profitability in early 2007. The site allows its users to build and customize profiles, send messages, leave comments, post bulletins, customize status, browse photos, watch videos, play games, give gifts, give tags, chat and make friend. Early innovations include the use of third-party widgets and YouTube as a part of the site’s graphical interface.

Other partnerships include Slide, RockYou, PhotoBucket, Meebo, Razzand Jangl. As of July 2008, the site claims to have 70 million registered users. In late 2008, Tagged raised $5 million venture debt from Horizon Technology Finance and Leader Ventures.

In December 2008, Social Networking Watch reported that Tagged.com ranked 4th, 9th, and 19th by Hitwise, Nielsen, and Comscore respectively.In June 2009, TechCrunch ranked Tagged as the 6th most valuable social networking site in the world, according to their unique "social network valuation model", with estimated valuation up to $920,000,000.

It received a rating of C+ from the Better Business Bureau.

Controversy Surrounding Email Invitations

Tagged asks users for their email username and password and it will then check their email address books for contacts and repeatedly send email invitations to people who are not yet on Tagged, stating that they have been "added as a friend" or that the inviter had sent them photos on Tagged. This process has met some criticism in the technology press and from some users. The resemblance to a "virus" has been often been mentioned, including by urban legend sites like snopes.com.

In March 2008 Microsoft announced a commercial partnership with social networking sites Tagged, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, and hi5 regarding email contacts APIswhich has since been implemented.

Prior to Tagged, Greg Tseng was Co-Founder and CEO of Internet incubator Jumpstart Technologies. In March 2006, Jumpstart Technologies settled with the FTC on alleged violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, which included a $900,000 fine, but no admission of guilt.

From February 2009, Tagged.com has been blocked in the State of Qatar by the only ISP Qtel after a number of "complaints from the public”. Tagged.com is one of the 10 most visited sites in the State of Qatar.

Tetris

2009-06-10T16:02:00.005+07:00

Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov. It was created on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra- (all of the game's pieces, known as Tetrominoes, contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

The game (or one of its many variants) is available for nearly every video game console and computer operating system, as well as on devices such as graphing calculators, mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs and even as an Easter egg on non-media products like oscilloscopes. It has even been played on the sides of various buildings, with the record holder for the world's largest fully functional game of Tetris being an effort by Dutch students in 1995 that lit up all 15 floors of the Electrical Engineering department at Delft University of Technology.

While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time". In 2007, Tetris came in second place in IGN's "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time". It has sold more than 70 million copies.

Gameplay

A random sequence of tetrominoes (sometimes called "tetrads" in older versions)—shapes composed of four square blocks each—fall down the playing field (a rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrominoes, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. As the game progresses, the tetrominoes fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of tetrominoes reaches the top of the playing field and no new tetrominoes are able to enter.

Tetris game manuals refer to the seven one-sided tetrominoes in Tetris as I, J, L, O, S, T, and Z—due to their resembling letters of the alphabet—but players sometimes use other names for the pieces, such as "stick" for I or "snake" for S. All are capable of single and double clears. I, J, and L are able to clear triples. Only the I tetromino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris". (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of each specific Tetris implementation. For instance, in the Super Rotation System used in most recent implementations, called "Easy Spin" in Tetris Worlds, certain rare situations allow T, S and Z to 'snap' into tight spots and clear triples.)

Colors of tetrominoes

Pajitnov's original version for the Elektronika 60 computer used green brackets to represent blocks. Versions of Tetris on the original Game Boy and on most dedicated handheld games use monochrome or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation.

A random sequence of tetrominoes (sometimes called "tetrads" in older versions)—shapes composed of four square blocks each—fall down the playing field (a rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrominoes, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. As the game progresses, the tetrominoes fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of tetrominoes reaches the top of the playing field and no new tetrominoes are able to enter.

Tetris game manuals refer to the seven one-sided tetrominoes in Tetris as I, J, L, O, S, T, and Z—due to their resembling letters of the alphabet—but players sometimes use other names for the pieces, such as "stick" for I or "snake" for S. All are capable of single and double clears. I, J, and L are able to clear triples. Only the I tetromino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris". (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of each specific Tetris implementation. For instance, in the Super Rotation System used in most recent implementations, called "Easy Spin" in Tetris Worlds, certain rare situations allow T, S and Z to 'snap' into tight spots and clear triples.)

Colors of tetrominoes

Pajitnov's original version for the Elektronika 60 computer used green brackets to represent blocks. Versions of Tetris on the original Game Boy and on most dedicated handheld games use monochrome or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation.

Scoring

The scoring formula for the majority of Tetris products is built on the idea that more difficult line clears should be awarded more points. For example, a single line clear in Tetris Zone is worth 100 points, while a back-to-back Tetris is worth 1,200.

Nearly all Tetris games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current piece's descent, rather than waiting for it to fall. If the player can stop the increased speed before the piece reaches the floor by letting go of the button, this is a "soft drop"; otherwise, it is a "hard drop" (some games allow only soft drop or only hard drop; others have separate buttons). Many games award a number of points based on the height that the piece fell before locking.

Gravity

Traditional versions of Tetris move the stacks of blocks down by a distance exactly equal to the height of the cleared rows below them. Contrary to the laws of gravity, blocks may be left floating above gaps. Implementing a different algorithm that uses a flood fill to segment the playfield into connected regions will make each region fall individually, in parallel, until it touches the region at the bottom of the playfield. This opens up additional "chain-reaction" tactics involving blocks cascading to fill additional lines, which may be awarded as more valuable clears.

Easy spin dispute

Although not the first Tetris game to feature "easy spin" (see The Next Tetris), also called "infinite spin" by critics, Tetris Worlds was the first game to fall under major criticisms for it. Easy spin refers to the property of a tetromino to stop falling for a moment after left or right movement or rotation, effectively allowing someone to suspend the tetronimo while thinking on where to place it. This feature has been implemented into The Tetris Company's official guideline. This new type of play differs from traditional Tetris because it takes away the pressure of higher level speed. Some reviewers even went so far as to say that this mechanism broke the game. The goal in Tetris Worlds, however, has to do with completing a certain number of lines as fast as possible, so technically the ability to hold off a piece's placement will not make achieving that goal any faster. Later, GameSpot received "easy spin" more openly, saying "though the infinite spin issue honestly really affects only a few of the single-player gameplay modes in Tetris DS, because any competitive mode requires you to lay down pieces as quickly as humanly possible." In response to the issue, Henk Rogers stated in an interview that infinite spin was part of the guideline, giving a rationale:

So the problem is you get part way through the game, make one small mistake, 'Aw man, I blew it,' and restart. I think that's an annoying way to play the game. So we decided it's better to give them a way to recover from that small mistake, but you're losing time. So if you sat there and rotated for, I don't know, five seconds, you've just taken five seconds out of the game that you needed to score so many points. So you won't find in the top games any gratuitous spinning going on, it just doesn't happen. It helps the beginning player who's trying to figure out what to do. It's a useless feature (for competitive play); it only helps if you're taking the time to think. The better players don't take that much time to think, that's the difference.

History

Tetris has been involved in many legal battles. In June 1984, Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris on an Elektronika 60 while working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at their Computer Center in Moscow with Dmitry Pavlovsky, and Vadim Gerasimov ported it to the IBM PC. Gerasimov reports that Pajitnov chose the name "Tetris" as "a combination of 'tetramino' and 'tennis'." From there, the PC game exploded into popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. This version is available on Gerasimov's web site.

The IBM PC version eventually made its way to Budapest, Hungary, where it was ported to various platforms and was "discovered" by a British software house named Andromeda. They attempted to contact Pajitnov to secure the rights for the PC version, but before the deal was firmly settled, they had already sold the rights to Spectrum HoloByte. After failing to settle the deal with Pajitnov, Andromeda attempted to license it from the Hungarian programmers instead.

Meanwhile, before any legal rights were settled, the Spectrum HoloByte IBM PC version of Tetris was released in the United States in 1986. The game's popularity was tremendous, and many players were instantly hooked—it was a software blockbuster, with reviews such as in Computer Gaming World calling the game "deceptively simple and insidiously addictive".

The details of the licensing issues were uncertain by this point, but in 1987 Andromeda managed to obtain copyright licensing for the IBM PC version and any other home computer system.

For Amiga and Atari ST two different versions by Spectrum HoloByte and Mirrorsoft became available. The Mirrorsoft version did not feature any background graphics while the Holobyte version had a background picture related to Russian themes for each level. Games were sold as budget titles due to the game's simplicity. Spectrum's Apple II package actually contained three diskettes with three different versions of the game, for the Apple II+ and Apple IIe on separate DOS 3.3 and ProDOS 5-1/4" diskettes, and for the Apple IIgs on a 3-1/2" diskette, none of which were copy-protected: the included documentation specifically charged the purchaser on his or her honor to not give away or copy the extra diskettes.

By 1988, the Soviet government began to market the rights to Tetris through an organization called Elektronorgtechnica, or "Elorg" for short. Pajitnov had granted his rights to the Soviet Government, via the Computer Center he worked at for ten years. By this time Elorg had still seen no money from Andromeda, and yet Andromeda was licensing and sub-licensing rights that they themselves did not even have.

Nintendo

By 1989, half a dozen different companies claimed rights to create and distribute the Tetris software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. Elorg, meanwhile, held that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an arcade version, and signed those rights over to Atari Games, while it signed non-Japanese console and handheld rights over to Nintendo. Tetris was on show at the January 1988 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it was picked up by Dutch games publisher Henk Rogers, then based in Japan, which eventually led to an agreement brokered with Nintendo that saw Tetris bundled with every Game Boy.

Tengen (the console software division of Atari Games), regardless, applied for copyright for their Tetris game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, loosely based on the arcade version, and proceeded to market and distribute it under the name TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game (with faux Cyrillic typography incorporating the Cyrillic letter Ya), disregarding Nintendo's license from Elorg. Nintendo contacted Atari Games claiming they had stolen rights to Tetris, whereupon Atari Games sued, believing they had the rights. After only four weeks on the shelf, the courts ruled that Nintendo had the rights to Tetris on home game systems, and Tengen's TETЯIS game was recalled, with an unknown number of copies sold.

Nintendo released their version of Tetris for both the NES and the Game Boy (the Famicom and Game Boy versions were developed by Bullet-Proof Software, Inc., who held the Japanese license, despite Nintendo's license to the game) and sold more than three million copies; some players considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it lacked the side-by-side simultaneous play of Tengen's version, but Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris became arguably the most well-known version of Tetris, selling over 33 million copies. The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the Famicom/NES version carried on until 1993.

Sega also released a Tetris game for the Mega Drive; however, the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn.

The Tetris Company

In 1996 the rights to the game reverted from the Russian state to Pajitnov himself, who previously had made very little money from the game, even though Nintendo had done very well with it. In 1996, The Tetris Company LLC (TTC) was formed in an effort to derive revenue from Tetris. TTC is now the exclusive licensee of Tetris Holding, LLC, which owns copyright registrations for Tetris products in the United States and trademark registrations for Tetris in most every country in the world.[ Tetris Holding through TTC has licensed its intellectual property to a number of companies. The U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Customs have at times issued seizure orders to preclude knock-off Tetris games from being imported into the U.S., despite bulletins circulated by the U.S. Copyright Office stating that copyright does not apply to the rules of a game.

Due to the popularity of Tetris, there have also been many knock-off and lookalike games on the Internet, many with names confusingly similar to "Tetris". In order to stop this infringement, TTC and Tetris Holding have vigorously policed and enforced their rights and have sent cease-and-desist letters to websites that infringe the Tetris mark.

Variations

Tetris has been subject to many changes throughout releases since the 1980s. It is difficult to place a standard on the game, as newer releases frequently progress it either to make the game better or to keep players interested. Newer Tetris games have made the trend of pace rather than endurance. Older releases such as Game Boy or NES Tetris offer records according to points. Since the meter for points is set to only a certain number of digits, these game's records can be "maxed out" by an experienced player. The next big Game Boy release after Tetris, Tetris DX, in marathon mode—comparable to mode A in previous releases—allowed an additional digit for the point meter. Even so, players still maxed it to 9,999,999 points after hours of play. For The New Tetris, world record competitors have spent over 12 hours playing the same game. It is probably for this reason of seemingly everlasting play that in both Tetris DX and The New Tetris, the new modes sprint and ultra were added. These modes require the player to act under a timer—either to gain the most lines or points in that time. Recent releases like Tetris Worlds did away completely with point records. This particular game kept records by how fast a certain number of lines could be cleared depending on the level. A drawback of this deviation, along with some other newer features, is that many traditional players rejected these advances all together. Critics of Tetris Worlds said it was broken due to how a piece is able to hover over the bottom for as long as a player needs; although, players of the game generally do not mind this feature because exploiting it will only hinder play, which is unfavorable to making a record time. Tetris LLC has been juggling different features with different modes of play in past years trying to satisfy traditional and newer players alike.

There are many different modes of play added in recent years. Modes appearing in more than one major release include: classic marathon (game A), sprint (otherwise game B or 40 lines), ultra, square, and cascade.

The field dimension of Tetris is perhaps the least deviated among releases: almost always 10 cells wide by 20 high. Some releases on handheld platforms with small screens have smaller fields; for example, the Tetris Jr. keychain game has 8 by 12, and Tetris for Game Boy has 10 by 18.

Traditionally, blocks spawn within the four most central columns and the two highest rows. The I tetromino occupies columns 4, 5, 6 and 7, the O tetromino occupies columns 5 and 6, and the remaining 5 tetrominoes occupy columns 4, 5 and 6 (or in some, especially older, versions, 5, 6 and 7). In some more recent games, pieces spawn above the visible playfield.

In traditional games, a level-up would occur once every ten lines are cleared. During a level-up, the blocks fall slightly faster, and typically more points are given. In some newer games such as Tetris Worlds, the number of lines required vary upon each new level. For example, NES Tetris operates at 60 frames per second. At level 0, a piece falls one step every 48 frames, and at level 19, a piece falls one step every 2 frames. Level increments either terminate at a certain point (Game Boy Tetris tops off at level 20) or increase forever yet not in speed after a certain point. NES Tetris will level up in until the speed of level 29 (due to limitations of the game's engine, pieces are not capable of dropping faster than this), but tool-assisted emulation will show that the level indicator increases indefinitely—eventually leading to a glitch where the meter displays non-numeric characters. Modern games such as Tetris the Grand Master or Tetris Worlds, at their highest levels, opt to drop a piece more than one row per frame. Pieces will appear to reach the bottom as soon as they spawn. As a result, these games have a delay that lets the player slide the piece on the bottom for a moment to help deal with an otherwise unplayable fall speed. In some games, the hover time is regenerated after a piece is moved or rotated.

Soft drops were first implemented in Nintendo releases of Tetris so that pieces would be able to drop faster while not lock as to slide into gaps. The other option is hard dropping, which originated in early PC games such as Microsoft Tetris, a game developed by Dave Edson and bundled with Microsoft Entertainment Pack. With hard dropping, a piece falls and locks in one frame. Newer Tetris games feature both options. Some games have their locking roles reversed, with soft dropping making the pieces drop faster and locking down, and hard dropping making the pieces drop instantly but not lock.

Single direction rotation is an older restriction that has since been ruled out in nearly every new official release by the favor of separate buttons for clockwise and one for counterclockwise rotation. In traditional games, the unsymmetrical vertical orientation I-, Z-, and S-pieces will fill the same columns for each clockwise and counter clockwise rotation. Some games vary this by allowing two possible column orientations: one for counter clockwise and one for clockwise rotations. Double rotation, only seen in progressive clones such as Quadra and DTET, rotates the piece 180 degrees.

One of the features most appreciated by skilled players is wall kick, or the ability of rotating the pieces even if these touch the left or right walls. In the NES version, for example, if a Z piece is "vertically" aligned and falling touching the left wall, the player cannot rotate the piece, giving the impression that the rotate buttons are locked. In this situation, the player has to move the piece one position to the right before rotating it, losing precious time. Proper implementations of wall kick first appeared in the arcade version of Tetris by Atari Games.

Piece preview allows a look at the next piece to enter the field. This feature has been implemented since the earliest games, though in those early games, having the preview turned on made the score increase more slowly.

Newest features

Newer versions of Tetris add different scoring goals not present in traditional Tetris. As achieving these goals while not topping out becomes more difficult, these games usually add a few features to help the player.

The New Tetris and The Next Tetris are the first official Tetris games to feature multiple piece previews, showing 3 in advance. Tetris Worlds for PCs and game consoles add 5 more, while the GBA version retains the 3 piece preview. Tetris DS uses the 6-piece preview.

The New Tetris also introduced the "ghost piece", an obscuration in the shape of the current piece over where that piece would drop. The feature reduces mistakes, especially for beginners and high-speed players.

Hold piece is an optional ability to reserve a piece for later use, allowing a player to either avoid undesirable pieces or save desirable ones, usually the I piece or a piece needed to complete another goal. Some clones featured it as a powerup that the player could earn and use once. A hold piece available to the player at all times was first featured in The New Tetris. Most games that have hold piece activate it when the player presses a dedicated button, often a shoulder button; other games activate it when both rotate buttons are pressed simultaneously. When hold piece is activated, it causes the falling piece to move to the top and trade places with the hold piece. However, the feature cannot be activated twice in a row; it is disabled until the piece released from hold locks in the well.

Initial rotation and Initial hold are features that make the game accept rotation/hold button inputs while the next piece is still in the preview area. With initial rotation, when the player holds down the rotation button after the previous piece has locked down but before the next piece comes into the well, the next piece will come into the well in an already rotated state. Initial hold works similarly, as the piece will be already swapped with the hold piece when it enters the well. Initial rotation and Initial hold first appeared in the Tetris: The Grand Master series.

Tetris DS features wireless on-line play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection system. This new version also takes advantage of the touch screen in the added "Touch Mode," which has no time limit. Instead, every block is already placed in a tall tower, and the player uses the stylus from the Nintendo DS to shift blocks left and right and, in earlier towers, rotate blocks. The goal is to clear enough lines so that a cage of balloons reaches the ground (this mode is themed on the NES video game Balloon Fight, hence the cage of balloons).

Tetris DS also introduces the Metroid-themed "Catch Mode". In this mode, the pieces fall downward from the top screen to the touch screen, but the stack is moved and rotated instead. As the falling pieces bump against the stack, they get clustered into it. To clear blocks, there must be a solid area of the stack that is 4×4 or larger. When this happens, the blocks glow and the music changes. After ten seconds or upon pressing the X button, these blocks disappear and shoot a laser beam in a plus-shape, the horizontal part equal to the number of rows cleared and the vertical equal to the columns. This laser beam will move and rotate with the stack and destroy falling blocks and Metroid enemies in its path until it disappears a moment later. The parts of the stack not hit by the laser beam will be pulled in towards the center of the stack after the laser beam dies. If a piece reaches the bottom of the touch screen, the stack hits a falling block while rotating, or the stack hits a Metroid, the stack loses Energy. The player loses if the stack runs out of Energy or if the stack becomes so large that it can no longer fit on the touch screen.

Tetris Mania by EA Games brings back the Fusion and Sticky modes from Tetris Worlds. In Fusion, "atom" blocks must be activated, the number of those needing to be activated increases per level. Activated atoms wills also activate other atoms that they touch, and are generated two for every seven Tetriminoes. Gravity will not be activated until a line is cleared containing an atom of fusion block. In Sticky, based on The Next Tetris, you need to clear the bottom row of starting tiles. In each level there are more starting tiles that are harder to clear. The pieces in this game are made up of different colored minos that "stick" to those of the same color. Gravity is always a factor.

The Tetris arcade game by Atari Games offered different "puzzles" for selected rounds. The first three rounds are played normally, with no obstacles. At the start of round 4, eight bricks are placed vertically along each side of the well. Round 5 begins with ten bricks scattered throughout the bottom five rows. Round 6 begins with twenty bricks arranged in a pyramid. In rounds 7 through 9, the well starts out empty but single bricks will appear at random on top of your puzzle each time a piece lands that does not clear any lines, potentially thwarting any advance planning you may have done. In rounds 10 through 12, incomplete "garbage" lines will randomly pop up underneath your puzzle, pushing the puzzle upward, when a piece lands without clearing any lines. Rounds 13 through 15 begin with more blocks arranged in predetermined patterns, and the cycle continues throughout the remaining rounds in the game in groups of three.

Tetris variants

Main article: List of Tetris variants

Several Tetris variants exist. Some feature alternate rules and pieces, and others have completely different gameplay.

Because of its popularity and the relatively simple code required to produce the game, a game with nearly the same rules as Tetris is often used as a hello world project for programmers coding for a new system or programming language. This has resulted in the availability of a large number of ports for different platforms, most of which are not endorsed by The Tetris Company and are given away freely. For instance, µTorrent and GNU Emacs contain tetromino stacking games as easter eggs.

End of play

Players can lose a typical game of Tetris when they can no longer keep up with the increasing speed, and the tetrominoes stack up to the top of the playing field.

Would it be possible to play forever?

The question Would it be possible to play forever? was first encountered in a thesis by John Brzustowski in 1988 and has been more recently investigated in published articles by Walter Kosters. The conclusion reached was that a player is inevitably doomed to lose. The reason has to do with the S and Z tetrominoes. If a player receives a large sequence of S tetrominoes, the naïve gravity used by the standard game eventually forces the player to leave a hole in a corner.

Suppose that player then receives a large sequence of Z tetrominoes. Eventually, that player will be forced to leave a hole in the opposite corner without clearing the previous hole. Back and forth, the holes will necessarily stack to the top. If the pieces are distributed randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. Thus, if a game with an ideal, uniform, uncorrelated random number generator is played long enough, any player will top out.

In practice, this does not occur in most Tetris variants. Some variants allow the player to choose to play with only S and Z tetrominoes, and a good player may survive well over 150 consecutive tetrominoes this way. On an implementation with an ideal uniform randomizer, the probability at any given time of the next 150 tetrominoes being only S and Z is one in (2/7)150 (approximately 2×10-82). Most implementations use a pseudorandom number generator to generate the sequence of tetrominoes, and such an S–Z sequence is almost certainly not contained in the sequence produced by the 32-bit linear congruential generator in many implementations (which has roughly 4.2 × 109 states). In fact, newer Tetris brand games from 2001 and later tend to follow a new guideline such that the randomizer generates all seven tetrominoes in a permutation at one time, guaranteeing an even distribution over the short term,[citation needed] and this randomizer allows the player to continue a game indefinitely in theory, often clearing all blocks from the playfield. On the other hand, the "evil" algorithm in Bastet often starts a game with a series of more than seven Z pieces.

Recent versions of Tetris such as Tetris Worlds allow the player to continuously rotate a block once it hits the bottom of the playfield, without it locking into place (see Easy spin dispute, above). This permits a player to play for an infinite amount of time, though not necessarily to land an infinite number of blocks.

Effect of Tetris on the brain

According to intensive research from Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play. When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task.

In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr Emily Holmes reported in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hope to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in PTSD, but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.

The game can also cause a repetitive stress symptom in that the brain will involuntarily picture tetris combinations even when the player is not playing the game (the Tetris effect), although this can occur with any computer game showcasing repeated images or scenarios.

Popular culture

Tetris' popularity has resulted in its appearance in the media. It was featured in two episodes of the video-game oriented cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. It was also referenced in the Muppet Babies episode "It's Only Pretendo", The Simpsons episode "Strong Arms of the Ma" (where Homer uses the Tetris effect on his brain to fill his car with family and his shopping goods but fails to leave room for him) as well as "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", Family Guy episode "Prick Up Your Ears", and Futurama episode "Fear of a Bot Planet." Commercials also occasionally parody the game. Police Academy: Mission to Moscow alluded to Tetris by depicting the Russians trying to hypnotize Americans through a puzzle video game referred to as "The Game" in the movie. On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert's right-wing character mourned the passing of a more innocent time by remarking that in today's America, among other divisive factors, there is "no one game where when we close our eyes we still see the shapes falling." A Honda commercial showed pieces similar to the blocks in the Tetris games along with electronics, suitcases, pieces of furniture, and a hamster cage into a Honda Fit, the automobile the commercial was advertising. The commercial ends with a robotic voice proclaiming, "The Fit is Go!". Even other videogames have shown tributes to Tetris such as the character Ai from NeoGeo Battle Colosseum, who can summon and attack characters with various Tetris blocks.

In 2007, video game website GameFAQs hosted its sixth annual "Character Battle", in which the users nominate their favorite video game characters for a popularity contest in which characters participate. The L-shaped Tetris piece (or "L-Block" as it was called) entered the contest as a joke character, but on November 4, 2007, it won the contest.

In Japan, a hugely popular live-action game called Brain Wall (also referred to commonly as "Human Tetris") ran for a number of seasons on a Japanese variety show. Contestants would be assigned to teams (Red or Blue) and paired with recurring characters. Each team would then, in turn, face a wall of painted styrofoam with a Tetris-like shape carved out. The wall would advance on the contestant, who must pass through the opening by posing, squeezing or jumping. Later levels have a pool of water at the end of the run (the effect being to force the contestant into the pool if they fail.) The recurring characters provide running commentary, built-in rivalry and comic relief. Due to the game's popularity as a viral video, versions of the game have been exported around the world as a dedicated show, commonly known in English regions as Hole in the Wall.

Other viral video versions of the game have been created using stop-motion animation with Lego blocks.

In Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel, Against the Day, mention is made of a "Captain Igor Padzhitnoff" (presumably pronounced the same as Pajitnov) whose preferred method of causing trouble was "to arrange for bricks and masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his 'signature,' to fall on and damage targets designated by his superiors".

In 2008, the New Zealand Army published recruitment advertisements depicting troop movements and supply drops in Tetris-style formations.

In 2009, songwriter Jonathan Mann depicted the history of the game's development as a humorous musical narrative from the perspective of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. The account mentions several of the major players in Tetris' commercial success including Robert Maxwell, Robert Stein and Henk Rogers.

On June 6, 2009 Google honored Tetris' 25-year anniversary by changing its logotype to a version drawn with Tetris blocks - the "l" letter being the long Tetris block lowering into its place.

Awards

The long history of Tetris resulted in a Guinness World Record awarding the franchise nine world records in the Gamer's Edition. These records include, "Most Ported Video Game", "Game With the Most Official and Unofficial Variants", and "Longest Prison Sentence for Playing a Video Game", which is held by Faiz Chopdat, who was jailed for four months for playing Tetris on his cell phone while on a flight to Manchester, England. He refused to stop playing after being repeatedly warned by the cabin staff.

The Hangover

2009-06-09T17:18:00.006+07:00

The Warner Bros. comedy “The Hangover” drew bigger audiences than earlier projected to raise its weekend ticket sales to $45 million, about $1.8 million more than the studio estimated Sunday.

That made it the No. 1 draw for the weekend instead of Disney and Pixar Animation’s “Up,” which came in second with $44.3 million. Sunday studio estimates had “Up” edging “The Hangover” by about $1 million.

It’s rare that the first- and second-place movies on Sunday flip-flop when final numbers come out Monday. But strong attendance Sunday allowed “The Hangover” to pull ahead.

Overall revenues fell for the second weekend in a row, putting the brakes on what has been shaping up as a record revenue year for the movie business.

The top 12 movies took in $164 million, down 6 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Kung Fu Panda” opened on top with $60.2 million, according to box-office figures compiled by Hollywood.com.

For the year, Hollywood has taken in $4.3 billion, up 12.5 percent from 2008 revenues. But studios have been unable to maintain the red-hot pace of the year’s first four months.

“Definitely, things have slowed,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “But there are some potential saviors on the horizon.”

Three big sequels — “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” — open within three weeks of one another starting June 24.

With $137.3 million in the bank after just 10 days, “Up” is streaking toward the $200 million mark achieved by such previous Pixar hits as “WALL-E,” “Ratatouille,” “Cars” and “Toy Story 2.”

Revenues for most big movies typically drop 50 percent or more in the second weekend, but the audience for “Up” was down only 35 percent from its opening. That puts it in line with “Finding Nemo,” the top-grossing Disney-Pixar animated tale, said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

“Up” likely will finish in the top three among Pixar flicks, Viane said. Leading the Pixar slate now are “Finding Nemo” with $339.7 million, “The Incredibles” with $261.4 million and “Monsters, Inc.” with $255.8 million.

“The Hangover” features Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis as pals on a wild Las Vegas bachelor party, during which they misplace the groom (Justin Bartha) and run into all manner of misadventures.

Warner Bros. had expected “The Hangover” to finish at No. 3 behind “Up” and “Land of the Lost.” But the movie found a broad audience split almost evenly between men and women and those over and under 25, said Dan Fellman, Warner head of distribution.

“Sunday’s always good for a hangover,” Fellman said.

“The Hangover” was directed by Todd Phillips, whose 2003 comedy “Old School” featured a breakout role for Ferrell.

Yet Ferrell had one of his weaker openings with “Land of the Lost,” inspired by the 1970s children’s TV show about adventurers hurled back to an age of dinosaurs. Ferrell’s new twist generally was trashed by critics as a crude update.

Sony’s “Angels & Demons” took in $6.5 million domestically and $22.3 million overseas to hit $409 million overall, the first 2009 release to cross the $400 million mark worldwide.

In narrower release, Fox Searchlight’s romantic comedy “My Life in Ruins” had a so-so debut of $3.2 million, coming in at No. 9. The movie stars Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) as a discontented tour guide in Greece who unexpectedly finds love.

Focus Features’ road-trip romp “Away We Go” had a strong opening in limited release, pulling in $143,260 in four theaters for a healthy average of $35,815 a cinema.

That compares to an average of $11,588 in 3,818 theaters for “Up,” $13,238 in 3,269 cinemas for “The Hangover,” $5,545 in 3,521 locations for “Land of the Lost” and $2,771 in 1,164 theaters for “My Life in Ruins.”

“Away We Go,” starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as a couple searching out the best place in North America to raise a family, was directed by Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”). The film expands to more theaters Friday.