Nintendo pins hopes on holiday-ready "Wii U"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd will launch a console with a dedicated "Super Mario" game title for the first time in 16 years, as the struggling Japanese company hopes the new Wii U will score the rave reviews that helped make its predecessor the world's biggest gaming hit.

Nintendo, which was knocked off its perch at the pinnacle of gaming industry hardware by Microsoft Corp's Xbox in recent years, formally unveiled a white console on Tuesday, saying it will support two "GamePad" controllers designed to look and function like tablets.

The Wii U - which will carry video content from Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc's YouTube and Hulu - will hit store shelves in time for the holidays. The Japanese gaming company, however, left many in the audience for its presentation on Tuesday wanting more information on- especially on the cost, given that Nintendo is playing catch-up with Microsoft and Sony Corp's heavily discounted hardware.

Nintendo hopes the Wii will appeal to families as well as traditional gamers, global president Satoru Iwata said in an interview in Japanese on the sidelines of E3.

"The device has to win support from within the family. So we have to show the benefits of the Wii device from different angles in order to reach the mother, the father and the children," Iwata said.

But appealing to both core gamers who like to play shooter games as well as the audience that bowled in their living rooms and swung virtual golf clubs when the Wii was introduced in 2006, may be a challenge.

"I am still not convinced about whether they can retain the audience who bought the Wii, as well as hardcore gamers," said James Brightman, U.S. editor for trade publication Games Industry International.

The first console from Nintendo in six years will come with a social gaming network dubbed "Miiverse". But it will need a vast library of software - including the star of its stable, Super Mario - to have any hope of matching the Wii's success.

Nintendo's currently fending off upstart challengers like casual game makers and apps for mobile devices like Apple Inc's iPad, which are making inroads into the $78 billion videogame market.

Shigeru Miyamoto, famed video game designer and producer, said in Nintendo's press conference that making deeper games is important "in this era when consumers are said to be moving to lighter games."

To protect its position, it is coming out with a new "Super Mario" game featuring its namesake plumber traversing different adventure scenarios. It spearheaded Tuesday's presentation of a batch of games intended for the Wii U, including "Nintendo Land".

"Every time a new Nintendo home console is announced, we start hearing familiar feedback from long term fans: ?Sounds great but you've got to have a Mario game,'" Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told a packed theater at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles.

HOPING FOR A REVOLUTION

Analysts said Nintendo, which traces its origins back more than a century to the streets of Kyoto, badly needs a hit.

In 2011, it launched the 3DS handheld device to disappointing sales in part because it initially lacked new versions of its top games.

The original Wii revolutionized the industry by introducing motion-controlled gaming, and outsold rivals like the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 3. But sales have been slowing, triggering the company's first annual operating loss and a major stock slide.

While investor reaction has so far been lukewarm on the Wii U, the videogame industry is embracing the first console to hit the market in years. Ubisoft said this week it is developing eight games for the Wii U's launch.

Executives at Ubisoft said the company was lured by the chance to have players use two screens in one game.

"The Wii U is really interesting in terms of asymmetrical game play, with one player doing something and one other player doing something at the same time," Xavier Poix, studio director of Ubisoft France, said in an interview.

But after seeing Nintendo's presentation on Tuesday, M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon said Nintendo will need to work hard to explain why a second screen is necessary.

"It is kind of a complicated sell. You're asking people to play games in different ways," he said.

Nintendo has said it forecasts to sell 10.5 million units of Wii U and Wii consoles next year.

The last time Nintendo published a new Super Mario title when a home console was introduced was in 1996, with the Nintendo 64.

The tablet controller will also have a headphone jack, a camera in the front allowing for video chat, and a microphone and motion gaming capabilities and trigger buttons on the back of the tablet for shooter games.

But Nintendo focused less on the hardware on Tuesday and more on the games it will bring to the Wii U. The company did not give a release date for the latest Mario game but executives showed off different levels featuring its signature fixtures: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and gumbas.

The company also showed off games made by other companies built for the Wii U, such as Warner Brother's Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition.

(Additional reporting by Reiji Murai in Los Angeles and Mari Saito in Tokyo; editing by Edwin Chan, Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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Romney: Obama sat on GM stake to avoid loss before election

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Mint.com & Other Worthy Personal Finance Apps - Business Insider

We all aspire to better, simpler finances. These apps and tools can help.

1. Mint.com is the industry leader in the personal finance app space. I currently use Mint on my iPhone and iPad (occasionally logging into the full desktop site as well) in order to track where I am financially: Mint does a great job of showing you a "snapshot" of your total outstanding credit card debt versus your total assets/worth across all of your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts. As their site explains, "Mint does the work of importing your accounts and shows you everything in one place using a single password." The service is free; Mint makes its money by suggesting financial products that they think would be of interest to you.

2. Credit card comparison web sites. I'm obviously partial to Outlaw's credit card deals portal, where we rank and compare many of the top offers from major banks each week. Savvy credit card users are keen deal hunters, and the right 0% introductory balance transfer or cash back bonus could add a simple boost to your financial health. Competing sites offer a similar user experience; the important thing is that you compare offers somewhere. Blindly responding to "pre-approved" card offers in the mail seems archaic (and not at all precise).

3. BillGuard is an innovative "personal finance security service that analyzes millions of consumer billing complaints to find deceptive, erroneous and fraudulent charges on your credit card and debit card bills." You get monthly scan reports and real-time alerts to keep an eye on any "subscription charges" or other weird unwanted charges to your credit card that might be bogus. The free version of BillGuard allows you to monitor up to three of your cards; a paid service ($79/year) allows you to protect up to 10 accounts instead, and includes "priority support" should you need it. Yet another prudent way to keep thieves away from your hard-earned cash.

4. Banking apps. Some of the most useful personal finance apps these days come from the banks themselves. Chase's mobile banking app is speedy and slick, offering the ability to photograph and electronically deposit checks from your iPhone (ING DIRECT's app reportedly offers the same feature).

Capital One's newly upgraded app, which I wrote about here, includes money-saving deals and offers for cardholders from leading merchants.

5. Square. This beautiful, simply designed point-of-sale system allows store owners and individuals to accept credit cards via an iPhone, iPad, or Android device. They send you a free card reader (in the shape of a little square), the fee structure is simple (2.75% per swipe), and customers can sign using their finger on your iPhone or iPad touchscreen; after that, Square sends them a receipt.

Deposits into your bank account are ultra-fast and Square-using businesses can benefit from the marketing boost of being featured within Square's marketplace: Square users like to check out Square-using shops and vendors, since they tend to be independent, and you can pay in an innovative way (just say your name to the cashier; he or she looks you up in the Square system and compares you to the profile photo on file). Additionally, frequent Square shoppers can receive all kinds of discounts and perks from participating stores.

The Square system works with all major Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express cards. Square's competitors include Intuit GoPayment (2.7% per swipe) and PayPal Here (2.7% per swipe; service coming soon).

It has been said that credit cards will serve as the foundation for a revolution in person-to-person banking apps. I think we are already seeing a strong start to that prediction with the rise to prominence of Square.

Disclosures: We're a credit card promotions site, and as such we maintain financial relationships with numerous banks and financial institutions, including some of the offers and?cards mentioned or featured herein. This article originally appeared in slightly different form on?Credit Card Outlaw.

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Relationships: How much influence should my family have over who ...

Posted by The Hand on June 5, 2012 in Relationships |

Dear Neil: I am engaged to a wonderful, charming man. He is everything I want in a man: thoughtful, intelligent, funny, loving and handsome. We have been together more than four years and have seen each other through good times and bad. We have both been married and divorced previously, and we each have three children (ages 9 to 19). Our children all get along well, and we get along with each other?s children.

But I have been on a roller coaster when it comes to marrying him. One hesitation (from my family) is that he is not a Christian and I am. He has always been respectful of my religion and comes to church with me at times. I have no expectation that he will convert. I respect his stance on life and feel that we are compatible in our basic values in life. He is a very sincere and good man. Previously, I was married to a very religious but not so nice man.

The other hesitation from my family is that I should wait until all the kids are grown before we get married because of all of the difficulties of a step-family. Is it selfish for me to want to want to be married again when my kids are still young?

We also have different parenting styles. He has never been abusive toward his children or me, but he and his 13-year-old daughter don?t get along very well right now, and they will sometimes yell at each other. This troubles both my children and me. I wonder if it is wise to move in with another family that deals with problems much differently than we do. I am hoping that you can offer me advice on how to proceed.

Hesitating in Colorado

Dear Colorado: You mention three hesitations about getting married, and it sounds like two of them belong more to your family than they do to you.

I don?t mean to say that your family isn?t important or doesn?t count, but their opinion shouldn?t be more important than yours. If you?re OK with the religion issue, then that is good enough for me ? and I wouldn?t let that concern dictate whether you marry or not. It?s your marriage, after all, and you should be able to decide what you?re comfortable with and what you?re not.

And I would say the same thing about the blended-family issue. You say that all six kids get along and that the two of you get along with each other?s kids, as well. That sounds about as perfect as things are ever likely to get. If you were putting your kids through great disharmony or chronic fighting, not combining households would make more sense. But that?s not how you?re describing this situation. Yes, there will be behavioral challenges over the next nine or so years. Yes, not all the kids will get along all the time. Yes, you will not always be happy with his kids and he will not always be thrilled with yours. Yes, the kids are likely to act out ? perhaps outrageously. Yes, there will be kid-related headaches that the two of you will be forced to deal with, maybe many times.

But that is how things work when you are helping adolescents grow up ? and both of you will not always be so delighted with your own kids, by the way. And there might be some advantages about this arrangement for your kids. They may become close friends and companions and help one another through crises. So no, I don?t think it is selfish for you to marry before the kids leave home.

But perhaps it would be useful to have a conversation with your fiance and agree on ground rules for acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the household, how discipline should be handled and how you two want to respond if someone were to become disrespectful or hateful. Then you could say that he and his daughter yelling at each other is not an acceptable role model for your children and that he is going to have to find a better way to deal with a disrespectful 13-year-old if he wants to live with you and your kids. Perhaps then the two of you could address what is going on with his daughter and how he might handle the situation more effectively.

Don?t hesitate to get married because of the reasons your family is giving you. Perhaps they have cold feet, but you don?t have to have cold feet, also.

Neil Rosenthal is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Westminster and Boulder. His column is in its 20th year of publication, and is syndicated around the world. You can reach him at 303-758-8777, or email him through his website: www.heartrelationships.com.

Article source: http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20120604/AE/120609918/1078&ParentProfile=1062

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Top al Qaeda strategist may have been killed in Pakistan

PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN (Reuters) - Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of al Qaeda's top strategists and seen as the most prominent figure in the network after leader Ayman al Zawahri, may have been killed in a drone strike in Pakistan, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Tuesday.

If his death is confirmed it would be the biggest blow to al Qaeda since U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

U.S. sources said Libi, a Libyan cleric with a degree in chemistry who has survived previous attacks by drone aircraft, was a target of a strike early on Monday in northwest Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, home to some of the world's most notorious militant groups.

Sajjan Gohel, chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation security research consultancy, said Libi was one of the few remaining key figures within al Qaeda's core.

"Libi has also been at the center of al Qaeda's plans to reconstitute itself and try and remount a trans-national terror campaign. This is one of the reasons he was viewed as a high value target," he told Reuters by email.

Some U.S. officials describe Libi, whose real name is Mohamed Hassan Qaid, as number two to Zawahri, the former Egyptian doctor who took over al Qaeda after bin Laden's death.

Pakistani intelligence officials told Reuters they believe Libi, which means Libyan in Arabic, may have been among seven foreign militants killed in Monday's strike by a drone aircraft.

One of the officials said Pakistani authorities had intercepted telephone chatter about Libi, an al Qaeda theologian and expert on new media whose escape from a U.S.-run prison in Afghanistan in 2005 made him famous in al Qaeda circles.

"We intercepted some conversations between militants. They were talking about the death of a 'sheikh'," one of the Pakistani intelligence officials said, referring to the title given to senior religious leaders.

"They did not name this person but we have checked with our sources in the area and believe they are referring to Libi."

The intelligence official said according to informants, Libi was seriously wounded in the strike and was taken to a private hospital where he died.

MILITANT COMMANDER DENIES LIBI'S DEATH

A militant commander in North Waziristan closely associated with foreign fighters however said: "He has not been killed. This is not the first time claims have been made about his death. The Americans are suffering heavy losses in Afghanistan so they have resorted to making false claims."

It can take months to confirm whether drone strikes have killed an Islamist militant leader because the area of the attack is often sealed off by the Taliban in the lawless northwest of Pakistan.

Burials are quick in order to hide casualties and identities.

Residents of the village where Pakistani intelligence officials says Libi may have been killed, Hesokhel, noted an unusually high number of militants gathered there after the drone strike on Monday and they kept people away.

"They usually bury the bodies after a drone strike in the nearest graveyard," said one of the villagers, describing the aftermath of previous strikes in the area. "This time they put all the bodies in their cars and took them away."

A senior Taliban commander in North Waziristan said Libi had been living in Pakistan near the Afghan border since 2005 when he escaped along with three cell mates from the Bagram military base north of Kabul, where U.S. forces run what is considered the most secure U.S. prison in Afghanistan.

Militants often looked up to Libi because of his background as a religious scholar and sought his advice in resolving disputes, the Taliban commander said.

"MAN OF ACTION"

For the United States, Libi is one of al Qaeda's most dangerous figures. In September last year, the United States Treasury imposed financial sanctions against him. It said Libi, in his late 40s, released 68 public messages on al Qaeda's behalf and was second in visibility only to Zawahri.

Recently released letters written by bin Laden and captured during the U.S. raid in which he was killed last year show Libi to have been one of a handful of al Qaeda officials relied upon by bin Laden to argue al Qaeda's case to a worldwide audience of militants, in particular to the young.

Believed to have received more theological training than either bin Laden or Zawahri, Libi has a multi-faceted reputation as a man of action, a jihadi scholar and a populist propagandist.

He was also a unifying figure in al Qaeda, said Gohel.

"There has often been a terse relationship between the Libyan and Egyptian factions within al-Qaeda and it is believed that Libi had bridged that gap," said Gohel.

"His death 'if confirmed' will be another significant blow to al-Qaeda and another example that the controversial drone strike policy is working."

A Western expert on al-Libi, U.S. scholar Jarret Brachman, wrote on his blog: "If true (Libi's death), (this would be) a cataclysmic blow to the future of al-Qaeda's General Command. For my money, there's no recovering from this one."

Some analysts say the death of an al Qaeda leader does not necessarily spell disaster for the group, arguing it is de-centralized and offers inspiration to militants and not just logistical support or financing.

If a drone strike did kill Libi, it would bolster the American argument that the unmanned aircraft are a highly effective weapon against militants.

Pakistan says that, while the CIA-run drone campaign has some advantages, it fuels anti-American sentiment and is counterproductive because of collateral damage.

Drones are a sticking point in talks between the United States and Pakistan aimed at repairing ties damaged by a series of issues, including the recent imprisonment of the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA hunt down bin Laden.

According to reports from North Waziristan, which U.S. government sources did not contest, U.S. drones launched three attacks along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan from Saturday to Monday.

Reports from Pakistan said nearly 30 people were killed in the strikes, including 15 in the strike in which Libi was targeted.

Libi, reportedly born in 1963, made repeated appearances on al Qaeda videos and wrote prolifically, becoming one of the group's most prominent media warriors.

Brachman, also a biographer, says Libi was seen as having made al Qaeda "cool" for a younger generation.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON and William Maclean in LONDON; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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on{X}: The Coolest Thing to Happen to Android. Courtesy of? Microsoft Israel?

onXLook at your Android phone! Now back at this post! Imagine you could program your Android to text your wife when you left work. Now imagine your Android reminding you in the morning to grab your umbrella if it's going to rain later in the day. Now look back at your Android Phone! Now look at Microsoft! Wait, what? Microsoft? That's right, your favorite Redmond techno-giant is sitting on a horse. Backwards. Microsoft is today announcing the beta release of on{X} (pronounced 'on-ex'), a website and Android app combo that provides users with extended control of their Android phones via remote programming. The semi-geeky can hit the ground running with ready made 'recipes,' while the ultra-geeky can sink their teeth into a JavaScript API.

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UMD scientists create faster, more sensitive photodetector by tricking graphene

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lee Tune
301-405-4679
University of Maryland

Innovation promises better weapons detection and new instruments for studying dark energy & the structure of the universe

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Researchers at the Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials of the University of Maryland have developed a new type of hot electron bolometer a sensitive detector of infrared light, that can be used in a huge range of applications from detection of chemical and biochemical weapons from a distance and use in security imaging technologies such as airport body scanners, to chemical analysis in the laboratory and studying the structure of the universe through new telescopes.

The UMD researchers, led by Research Associate Jun Yan and Professors Michael Fuhrer and Dennis Drew, developed the bolometer using bilayer graphene--two atomic-thickness sheets of carbon. Due to graphene's unique properties, the bolometer is expected to be sensitive to a very broad range of light energies, ranging from terahertz frequencies or submillimeter waves through the infrared to visible light.

The graphene hot electron bolometer is particularly promising as a fast, sensitive, and low-noise detector of submillimeter waves, which are particularly difficult to detect. Because these photons are emitted by relatively cool interstellar molecules, submillimeter astronomy studies the early stages of formation of stars and galaxies by observing these interstellar clouds of molecules. Sensitive detectors of submillimeter waves are being sought for new observatories that will determine the redshifts and masses of very distant young galaxies and enable studies of dark energy and the development of structure in the universe.

Most photon detectors are based on semiconductors. Semiconductors are materials which have a range of energies that their electrons are forbidden to occupy, called a "band gap". The electrons in a semiconductor can absorb photons of light having energies greater than the band gap energy, and this property forms the basis of devices such as photovoltaic cells.

Graphene, a single atom-thick plane of graphite, is unique in that is has a bandgap of exactly zero energy; graphene can therefore absorb photons of any energy. This property makes graphene particularly attractive for absorbing very low energy photons (terahertz and infrared) which pass through most semiconductors. Graphene has another attractive property as a photon absorber: the electrons which absorb the energy are able to retain it efficiently, rather than losing energy to vibrations of the atoms of the material. This same property also leads to extremely low electrical resistance in graphene.

University of Maryland researchers exploited these two properties to devise the hot electron bolometer. It works by measuring the change in the resistance that results from the heating of the electrons as they absorb light. Normally, graphene's resistance is almost independent of temperature, unsuitable for a bolometer. So the Maryland researchers used a special trick: when bilayer graphene is exposed to an electric field it has a small band gap, large enough that its resistance becomes strongly temperature dependent, but small enough to maintain its ability to absorb low energy infrared photons.

The researchers found that their bilayer graphene hot electron bolometer operating at a temperature of 5 Kelvin had comparable sensitivity to existing bolometers operating at similar temperatures, but was more than a thousand times faster. They extrapolated the performance of the graphene bolometer to lower temperature and found that it may beat all existing technologies.

The Maryland team's findings are published in the June 3 issue of Nature Nanotechnology

Some challenges remain. The bilayer graphene bolometer has a higher electrical resistance than similar devices using other materials which may make it difficult to use at high frequencies. Additionally, bilayer graphene absorbs only a few percent of incident light. But the Maryland researchers are working on ways to get around these difficulties with new device designs, and are confident that a graphene has a bright future as a photo-detecting material.

###

Science Contact: Dr. Michael S. Fuhrer
Email: mfuhrer@umd.edu
Phone: (301) 405-6143
University of Maryland

Link to UMD web release:
http://newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=2706



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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Lee Tune
301-405-4679
University of Maryland

Innovation promises better weapons detection and new instruments for studying dark energy & the structure of the universe

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Researchers at the Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials of the University of Maryland have developed a new type of hot electron bolometer a sensitive detector of infrared light, that can be used in a huge range of applications from detection of chemical and biochemical weapons from a distance and use in security imaging technologies such as airport body scanners, to chemical analysis in the laboratory and studying the structure of the universe through new telescopes.

The UMD researchers, led by Research Associate Jun Yan and Professors Michael Fuhrer and Dennis Drew, developed the bolometer using bilayer graphene--two atomic-thickness sheets of carbon. Due to graphene's unique properties, the bolometer is expected to be sensitive to a very broad range of light energies, ranging from terahertz frequencies or submillimeter waves through the infrared to visible light.

The graphene hot electron bolometer is particularly promising as a fast, sensitive, and low-noise detector of submillimeter waves, which are particularly difficult to detect. Because these photons are emitted by relatively cool interstellar molecules, submillimeter astronomy studies the early stages of formation of stars and galaxies by observing these interstellar clouds of molecules. Sensitive detectors of submillimeter waves are being sought for new observatories that will determine the redshifts and masses of very distant young galaxies and enable studies of dark energy and the development of structure in the universe.

Most photon detectors are based on semiconductors. Semiconductors are materials which have a range of energies that their electrons are forbidden to occupy, called a "band gap". The electrons in a semiconductor can absorb photons of light having energies greater than the band gap energy, and this property forms the basis of devices such as photovoltaic cells.

Graphene, a single atom-thick plane of graphite, is unique in that is has a bandgap of exactly zero energy; graphene can therefore absorb photons of any energy. This property makes graphene particularly attractive for absorbing very low energy photons (terahertz and infrared) which pass through most semiconductors. Graphene has another attractive property as a photon absorber: the electrons which absorb the energy are able to retain it efficiently, rather than losing energy to vibrations of the atoms of the material. This same property also leads to extremely low electrical resistance in graphene.

University of Maryland researchers exploited these two properties to devise the hot electron bolometer. It works by measuring the change in the resistance that results from the heating of the electrons as they absorb light. Normally, graphene's resistance is almost independent of temperature, unsuitable for a bolometer. So the Maryland researchers used a special trick: when bilayer graphene is exposed to an electric field it has a small band gap, large enough that its resistance becomes strongly temperature dependent, but small enough to maintain its ability to absorb low energy infrared photons.

The researchers found that their bilayer graphene hot electron bolometer operating at a temperature of 5 Kelvin had comparable sensitivity to existing bolometers operating at similar temperatures, but was more than a thousand times faster. They extrapolated the performance of the graphene bolometer to lower temperature and found that it may beat all existing technologies.

The Maryland team's findings are published in the June 3 issue of Nature Nanotechnology

Some challenges remain. The bilayer graphene bolometer has a higher electrical resistance than similar devices using other materials which may make it difficult to use at high frequencies. Additionally, bilayer graphene absorbs only a few percent of incident light. But the Maryland researchers are working on ways to get around these difficulties with new device designs, and are confident that a graphene has a bright future as a photo-detecting material.

###

Science Contact: Dr. Michael S. Fuhrer
Email: mfuhrer@umd.edu
Phone: (301) 405-6143
University of Maryland

Link to UMD web release:
http://newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=2706



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Elissa Kravetz: Slow Down and Smile

Inspiration finds me in the oddest of places. Usually when I am calm, after a yoga class or meditation. And almost always when I'm by myself on a nice long breezy car ride. The inspiration for this blog came while I was spending the weekend at a holistic retreat in Palm Springs.

Those that are close to me know that I have an intense love for animals, all sorts of creatures. We have a "no bug killing" policy in our office. If you see a bug, you trap it and kindly put it back outside where it belongs.

Anyways, I was enjoying a lovely weekend in the desert and sat down to jot down some thoughts in my journal and I placed my journal right on top of an ant. I killed the ant. Not only did I kill the ant, but I started watching it and saw it struggling and this just ripped my heart open, because even though for the most part ants are pretty annoying pesky little guys, they are still living breathing creatures. So, needless to say, this upset me.

Now being away in the desert alone, away from work, away from the city, gives you time to think. I most likely wouldn't be spending time thinking about accidentally killing an ant if I was in the hustle and bustle of my everyday life.

I realized that this was a metaphor for something else. People do things that they simply do not mean to. People do things because they are moving too fast. People hurt others because for most of us, we are too wrapped up in ourselves to realize that our actions may be harming another.

We all need to stop. Stop and observe. Observe ourselves. How are we treating our family? Our friends? Our teachers, bosses, employees, the person at Starbucks? Are we rude or do we smile? Do we bother to make eye contact?

For those of you reading this, I hope for even just a few moments you pause and think about how you treat others. Be a little kinder today. Slow down. Breathe. Think about all of the wonderful things and blessings that are in your life. Especially all of the people around you. Realize that very rarely do the things that we are afraid of happen. Most people act in a state of fear all day, every day. Therefore their actions are fear based, we waste so much time worrying. We need to worry less and love more. Worry less and care more.

There's enough to go around. We are here to teach each other. Those who piss us off the most are our biggest teachers.

As we continue visiting schools with The Farley Project, I want to make sure that the kids observe how they are treating each other. Slow down. Smile. Think about your actions. We want to get through to the kids, that what they think may "not be a big deal" could be a very big deal to someone else. When kids go to school they learn about math, science and history. Why not learn about compassion, love and self esteem?! This is our message. We have been working with one school here in Los Angeles and we are ready to go city by city, school by school, until we make a real difference. If we all became a bit more mindful, the world would be a much sweeter place.

With so much love and smiles,

Elissa

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Follow Elissa Kravetz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/farleyproject

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PFT: Jags' Blackmon pleads not guilty to DUI

Cam NewtonAP

On Sunday, we passed along an item from Len Pasquarelli of the Sports Xchange regarding the question of whether and to what extent so-called ?offset? language applicable to guaranteed salaries was impacting the negotiations for the first eight players taken in the 2012 draft.

In short, the presence of an offset requirement saves the team money, if the player is released and signs with a new team. ?Without offset language, the player gets his guaranteed salary, and keeps anything else he earns from his next team, if he?s cut before his four-year rookie contract expires.

It looked at first blush like a genuine sticking point, especially since the Panthers at No. 9 omitted offset language from linebacker Luke Kuechly?s contract. ?Inspection of the contracts given to first-round picks in 2011, however, reveals that only a handful of first-round picks escaped the offset obligation.

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, the first overall pick, had no offset language on his fully-guaranteed contract. ?Rams defensive end Robert Quinn had no offset language for three of his four years of compensation: ?2011, 2012, and 2014. ?And a mere $79,000 of the money to be earned in 2014 by Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara, the 19th overall pick, is not subject to offset language.

Other players taken in later rounds had portions of guarantees not subject to the offset duty, including Raiders guard Stefan Wisniewski in round two, Vikings defensive tackle Christian Ballard in round four, Vikings cornerback Brandon Burton in round five, Vikings tackle DeMarcus Love in round six, Vikings safety Mistral Raymond in round six, Vikings center Brandon Fusco in round six, Vikings linebacker Ross Homan in round six, Vikings defensive end De?Aundre Reed in round seven, and Vikings receiver Stephen Burton in round seven.

This year, other than Kuechly, only one player obtained any ?no offset? language included in his deal. ?Steelers fourth-round defensive tackle Alameda Ta?amu has $19,980 of his 2013 base salary fully guaranteed, with no offset language.

And so the pendulum seems to have swung away from dropping the offset language, notwithstanding the Panthers? decision, for the second straight year, to give their first-round pick a fully-guaranteed four-year deal without any possible offset. ?The problem for the other eight teams is that the agents for the players taken before Kuechly can now try to push the absence of offset language all the way to the top of the board. ?The fact that Kuechly is represented by the same firm (CAA) that represents four of the top eight picks (Robert Griffin, III; Trent Richardson; Matt Kalil; and Mark Barron) could prompt the agents to dig in their heels.

Still, the only unsigned player in the top eight with a compelling argument for no offset language is quarterback Andrew Luck, given that the first pick enjoyed that perk in 2011. ?Picks No. 2 through No. 8 didn?t escape the offset language in 2011, and the fact that Kuechly finagled it in 2012 shouldn?t tie the hands of the other seven teams.

So the teams appear to have the better argument on this point. ?Still, it?s not about who?s right and who?s wrong but who?ll blink. ?Since, in the grand scheme of things, it?s not a major term, it would be foolish for anyone to take a hard-line position on this issue.

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