Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Spotted: Fabolous, Lil Jon, Chingy, Daymond John during ?Xpensive Habits Party & Daymond John Bday Bash? All Star Weekend

Celebrity business mogul, fashion entrepreneur and the star of ABC hit reality TV show Shark Tank’s Daymond John throws an exclusive “Xpensive Habits Party & Birthday Bash” during All Star Weekend. Party highlights: Performances by Fabolous, music by Lil Jon & DJ Irie. NBA ball players Kevin Durant of Okalahoma City Thunder, Stevie J of [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/spotted-fabolous-lil-jon-chingy-daymond-john-during-xpensive-habits-party-daymond-john-bday-bash-all-star-weekend/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spotted-fabolous-lil-jon-chingy-daymond-john-during-xpensive-habits-party-daymond-john-bday-bash-all-star-weekend

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The smartphone with an astonishing 41-megapixel camera: Is Nokia crazy?  (The Week)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Week - The new 808 PureView is packing loads more pixels than the competition. Is it really a "mobile photographer's dream" come true?If you consider your iPhone's photos consistently underwhelming, Nokia wants you. The Finnish mobile phone maker is introducing a cameraphone, the 808 PureView, equipped with an impressive 41-megapixel sensor. Will cramming advanced imaging technology into a mobile device usher in a new era for phone photography? Or are all those megapixels just a gimmick? Here's what you should know:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120229/cm_theweek/224943

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Cautious confidence, and some exuberance, at Romney?s election night rally: Scenes from the Michigan and Arizona primaries (The Ticket)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Ticket - NOVI, Mich.???From far away, it looked like an overzealous Jazzercise class. There was leaping and whooping and what looked like efforts, as some might say, to "raise the roof"--and this was almost two hours before Mitt Romney was set to take the stage at his Michigan election night rally. Fueled by a soundtrack that was [...]

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20120229/el_yblog_theticket/scenes-from-the-2012-michigan-and-arizona-primaries

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Isis mobile payment system to launch mid-2012, lists Chase, Capitol One, and Barclaycard as partners

Isis

Isis Mobile Wallet, the service backed by AT&T, T-Mobile US, and Verizon has announced new launch partners and it's long awaited trial launch date. New financial partners Chase, Capitol One, and Barclaycard join Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express for the  trials in Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah which are expected to begin sometime in mid-2012. Isis isn't sharing much past that, as they say the nationwide rollout will follow the trial with no further details.

Isis partners will allow users to program both credit and debit cards into the mobile system, which gives it another leg up on Google Wallet. Add in the fact that Isis has carrier backing and pre-approval, and chances are that this will be the mobile NFC-based payment system we'll see on our devices when and if it catches on, at least in the US. That doesn't mean Google Wallet will disappear, but being available and being relevant are two different animals.

This doesn't mean that Isis is inherently bad, though. It may turn out to be an excellent product, and I'm excited to give it a try. We have to remember that Google Wallet isn't open and lovable, it is a for-profit venture from Google, much like Isis is a for-profit venture for its backers. When it comes to finances, few things are open and best for the consumer. The best product will be defined by the users and that's the one that will win out. 

The full press release follows the break.

via BusinessWire

read more



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/fIuvn0L9M8Y/story01.htm

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

IndianVideoGamer | Video Game News, Video Game Reviews ...

It won?t change your life, nor is it a waste of time. 38 Studios? debut effort manages to tightrope both extremes with aplomb and does a great job of keeping you entertained.

Game Info

  • Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
  • Publisher: EA
  • Distributor: Milestone Interactive/Redington
  • Genre: RPG
  • Age Rating: 18+

Available On

All it takes to suck the creativity out of making video games is success.

Have one blockbuster hit and soon enough, everyone else is trying to do the same thing. We?ve seen it with Doom, GTA and Call of Duty. Before you know it, the market is filled with cookie cutter games, clones that have few buyers, followed by publishers and developers shutting shop and people moaning about how the industry is dying. At the first glance, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning appears to be one such game.

The art direction is a dead ringer for World of Warcraft; the combat is slovenly inspired by God of War III; and the character design (and voiceovers) is reminiscent of Fable. This would perhaps be the most apt description of the game if you just had one look at it. Spend a little time and you?d realise how foolish you were to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, a game from its presentation. Open the box and you?re greeted by a code that lets you download the House of Valors questline, also known as a slap in the face for someone buying an offline-only game to discover that a part of the content is gated behind EA?s online servers. In a word, uncool.

Nevertheless, what makes Reckoning unique is its lore. You?re in a world where everyone believes in their fate, that their lives follow a linear path where everything is predestined, and that there is no deviation from it. So much so that an entire side-quest is devoted to the House of Ballads, a sect of Fae? an immortal race of elf-like creatures and their need to reenact key moments in their history over and over.

Unlike everyone else, you?re an anomaly in the system. You are not bound by fate as you?ve been resurrected from the dead by a device known as the Well of Souls. With it comes great power, such as being able to change the destiny of others, namely the Tuatha, a radical clan of Fae hellbent on dominating all the other races in the name of their yet to be born god, Tirnoch. How do you go about achieving this noble cause, you ask? Simple; by beating the crap out of every assassin, soldier or troll (non-Internet variety, sadly) that stands in your way.

And beat you shall. The combat mechanics of Reckoning are easy to grasp. It?s all in real-time, with no rules, time gauge, VATS or party members to worry about. You block with the left trigger, dodge by pressing B, mash on X or Y to attack opponents with your primary or secondary weapon respectively, and hold down the right trigger and Y to unleash magic spells. You can seamlessly switch between spewing fireballs and pummeling foes quicker than you can say, ?fus roh d?oh!?

Rain death on enough hostiles and you can enter Reckoning mode, which happens when a purple bar known as a fate meter becomes full. Hold down both trigger buttons and the screen is bathed in a violet-pinkish hue and enemies start taking a lot more damage than they usually would. Oh, and it?s all in slow-motion too. Stun an enemy in this mode and you can QTE your way to a very gory (and stylish) kill that?s a pleasure to watch.

As I mentioned earlier, it ends up being similar to God of War and that isn?t a bad thing. It is very visceral with no slowdown whatsoever even with an entire horde of enemies filling the screen. In a big fight, the camera is prone to losing direction every now and then, being a hindrance. Luckily, you can manually adjust it with a flick of an analog stick. This aside, combat is one of the game?s most enjoyable features.

Like most western RPGs, you choose your character class and skills. Unlike most western RPGs, you?re not stuck to one solitary class or set of abilities. Character stats and abilities are dependent on might, finesse and magic. You can very well have a balanced build that has a degree of proficiency in all three without any penalties in combat. For example, you can be a rogue, sporting lightweight mana regenerating armour that lets you pick up the pace in combat with a slew of spells where your heavy axe left off.

Such flexibility fits in well with the game?s mantra of letting you choose your own fate and is a welcome, if subtle, addition to the gameplay. On reaching a requisite number of points in might, finesse and magic, you can choose your fate card. This allows for additional perks such as bog standard ones like a lower cost of casting spells to more interesting choices such as replacing dodge with teleporting across the battlefield. If you?re not happy with your character progression, you can visit a fate weaver (the game?s version of a soothsayer) and reset your stats.

Also, there are skills such as lockpicking, persuasion and blacksmithing, and each time you level up, you get a point to spend on a skill, which has an impact on how you play. Investing in a skill like sagecrafting allows you to create gems that could be used to power your weapons or amour with additional bonuses such as fire damage or greater health; or you could max out your smithing skills, which allows you to create your own weapons. And on the topic of weapons, the game gives you access to a wealth of loot. From poison-tipped daggers or greatswords that deal elemental damage, there?s a generous amount to be picked from chests or the corpses of your enemies.

Along with this, there?s a rather large number of quests to undertake that should keep you playing this game long after the main quest ends, which in itself is around 18-20 hours. These range from the usual and mundane fetching of items, to some epic, memorable quest lines such as the aforementioned House of Ballads.

There?s a firm focus on freedom; so much so that you can accomplish these even when you?re done with the game?s core story and they?re available thick and fast. I had about 30-odd side-quests to keep me busy well after the main story did. It?s a meaty game with a lot to keep you interested. The story takes a while to pick up, but when it does, it becomes an involving tale with a cornucopia of characters to interact with and some nicely written dialogue to keep it going.

You?ll rendezvous with a hot dark elf who knows more about your past than she lets on, help a down and out fate weaver change his life around, and meet a Fae prince with a macabre sense of humour and a kingdom to reclaim. RPG veterans won?t find anything spanking new, but there?s more than enough to see you through the closing credits. It?s a pity that it ends on a slightly weak note, because for most of the part, it works.

Another thing that works is the welcome lack of bugs. My entire playthrough was a stable, crash-free affair. Given the number of issues people have had with other open-world RPGs such as Fallout and Skyrim, this was quite a pleasant experience. There?s a level of spit and polish that would put Bethesda to shame.

Conclusion

Reckoning isn?t the most creative of games, and it isn?t the most derivative either. It won?t change your life, nor is it a waste of time. 38 Studios? debut effort manages to tightrope both extremes with aplomb and more importantly, does a great job of keeping you entertained. After all, that?s what gaming is about, isn?t it?

  • Great combat
  • Versatility in character progression
  • Interesting lore
  • Plot takes awhile to pick up
  • ...much like the camera in big battles
  • Ending could've been better
  • Online pass nonsense?

IVG Verdict

8

Buy
Playing it will give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Tags: 38 studios, ea, india, ivg, kingdoms of amalur, reckoning, review, rpg

Source: http://www.indianvideogamer.com/reviews/review-kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning/

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The Best Food Blog | FREE PRESS RELEASE

Description:
Great home made food recipes, amazingly quick & tasty food, restaurant reviews and the odd delicious cake ? Jelly Good Food

About us:
Ellie has the bravado of a conquistador and will try anything at least twice (because some things are an acquired taste). A Food Blog about, well, food! We love food and drink, and we eat out a lot, and try to cook a lot at home. You?ll find reviews of restaurants from around the world (probably mostly London though, our home ground!). Although theres some interesting ones from places like Singapore or Malaysia.

Food Blog is a diverse country that lies almost centrally in the Food Blog region, between its more popular neigh bours Food Blog, we eat day in day out, probably more than the recommended 3 times a day. Food is always on our mind, with people talking about their next meal before the current meal is over.What makes special is that it has 3 different races living together in one country, each with very different cultures and styles of food. It?s because of this diversity that Food Blog has such a wide variety of foods and restaurants to choose from. In Food Blog is a very big part of the lifestyle and culture of the people.

And in the past few years, with the rise and popularity of the Internet, Food Blog are coming up in popularity, with people expressing their love for food and all things tasty with pictures, comments, videos and reviews on their personal blogs.

Perhaps the most popular Food Blog is the humble street food where the original stall/outlet was probably on wheels, by the side of the road somewhere selling to passer-bys. There tends to be a lot of history behind alot of these simple street food stalls and with generations upon generations of people going there, they?ll be around as long as someone takes over the stall again to sell to the next generation.Food Blog are also starting to feature more Western influenced foods, such as western cafes, steak houses, Italian restaurants and even fusion foods. In and around themselves, these blogs are starting to get more attention from businesses and the media, with food bloggers being invited to more and more events and food tasting sessions.

As the Internet continues to become the definitive place to get information, the popularity of individuals expressing their ideas via the Web as a media source, the amount of food blogs is just going to keep on increasing.

For More Information contact us:
Name : jellygoodfood
Website: http://www.jellygoodfood.com/

Source: http://www.communique-presse.mooteur.net/en/2012/02/27/the-best-food-blog/

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JerseyJetsFan: RT @Brocrastinator1: People still celebrating Whitney Houston while -20 year olds die of cancer and in Afghanistan? That's a joke..

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People still celebrating Whitney Houston while -20 year olds die of cancer and in Afghanistan? That's a joke.. Brocrastinator1

BROcrastinator

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Source: http://twitter.com/JerseyJetsFan/statuses/173625534541078528

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BP oil spill trial adjourned for a week (Reuters)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - Oil major BP said on Sunday that the start of hearings in litigation related to its Gulf of Mexico oil spill were being delayed for a week to allow more time to cut a deal with individuals and businesses affected by the disaster.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120226/bs_nm/us_bp

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Writing and Speaking Go Hand in Hand

Many will say they are really good speakers and yet, they feel they are very poor writers. Many extremely good writers exhibit very poor speaking skills. For instance, if you watch C-SPAN book review you will see some of the best writers you could ever imagine are not very good speakers all. And yet sometimes you see a very good storytellers on the book review channel, which has written a very good book.

Before I started doing a lot of writing, I was a very good speaker and having dabbled in politics I?ve given quite a few speeches in my life to audiences of all sizes up to about 1000 people. And I?ve done many TV interviews, one of which was seen by 60 million people. I always considered myself a very good speaker for some reason, perhaps all the practice I got in my own business, but never really considered myself a very good writer.

One day I realized that writing and speaking are very similar and if you write as if you are talking to a group of people or an audience you?re writing takes on a whole different shape and meaning.

And believe it or not it is even also better received. For some reason people like to be talked to or converse with the writer. If you write as if you?re having a conversation with them they are more apt to read what you?re writing.

This is why writing and speaking go hand-in-hand, even if you often observe people that are good at one or the other, but not both. A very good writer can become a very good speaker or a very good speaker can become a very good writer. This is because the skills involved are methods of communication and our language. I hope you will understand this and think about it on a philosophical basis because I guarantee you it will either improve your writing or your speaking, or both at the same time.

Lance Winslow ? Lance Winslow?s Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Car Wash Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; http://www.carwashguys.com/history/founder.html/.

Source: http://www.a1article.net/writing-speaking/writing-and-speaking-go-hand-in-hand-5157.html

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2 US troops shot in Kabul; NATO pulls workers

An Afghan medic carries a protestor wounded during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

An Afghan medic carries a protestor wounded during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan policemen march towards an anti-U.S. demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan policemen run towards an anti-U.S. demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

(AP) ? A gunman killed two American military advisers with shots to the back of the head Saturday inside a heavily guarded ministry building, and NATO ordered military workers out of Afghan ministries as protests raged for a fifth day over the burning of copies of the Quran at a U.S. army base.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Interior Ministry attack, saying it was retaliation for the Quran burnings, after the U.S. servicemen ? a lieutenant colonel and a major ? were found dead on the floor of an office that only people who know a numerical combination can get into, Afghan and Western officials said.

The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces recalled all international military personnel from the ministries, an unprecedented action in the decade-long war that highlights the growing friction between Afghans and their foreign partners at a critical juncture in the war.

The U.S.-led coalition is trying to mentor and strengthen Afghan security forces so they can lead the fight against the Taliban and foreign troops can go home. That mission, however, requires a measure of trust at a time when anti-Western sentiment is at an all-time high.

Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak called U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to apologize for the shooting and offer his condolences, Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement released in Washington.

"This act is unacceptable and the United States condemns it in the strongest possible terms," Little said.

Security is tight in the capital, which is covered in snow, and foreigners working at the U.S. Embassy and at international organizations have been banned from leaving their compounds.

U.S. officials said they were searching for the assailant, who has not been identified by name or nationality.

The two American service members were found by another foreigner who went into the room, according to the Afghan official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details about the shootings. They were shot in the back of the head, according to Western officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information. Authorities were poring over security camera video for clues, the Afghan official said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid identified the shooter as one of their sympathizers, Abdul Rahman. He said an accomplice inside the ministry helped Rahman get inside the compound to kill the Americans in retaliation for the Quran burnings.

"After the attack, Rahman informed us by telephone that he was able to kill four high-ranking American advisers," Mujahid said. The Taliban often inflate death tolls and sometimes claim responsibility for killings they did not conduct.

Little, the Pentagon press secretary, said Wardak indicated that President Hamid Karzai was assembling religious leaders and other senior Afghan officials to take urgent steps to protect coalition forces.

U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, met with Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, who offered both his condolences to the families of the victims and his apologies, Little said.

Afghanistan's interior and defense ministers are expected in Washington next week.

Allen said he recalled all NATO personnel from the ministries "for obvious force protection reasons" but also said the alliance remains committed to its partnership with the Afghan government. NATO forces have advisers embedded in many Afghan ministries. The advisers are helping to develop the ministries so that Afghans can take the lead by the end of 2014, when foreign combat forces are to transfer control of security to Afghan security forces.

At least 28 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Tuesday, when it first emerged that Qurans and other religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul.

President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials have apologized for what they said was a mistake, but their regrets have not quelled the deadly protests.

An Afghan soldier turned his gun on foreign troops, killing two American soldiers, during one riot outside a U.S. base in Nangarhar province on Thursday. It was the latest in a rising number of incidents where Afghan soldiers or policemen, or gunmen wearing their uniforms, have killed NATO forces. Last month, France suspended its training program and threatened to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan a year ahead of schedule after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers on a base in the east.

Karzai has said that the Afghan people have a right to protest the Quran burnings, but he urged them to demonstrate peacefully and refrain from destroying property. In a statement on Saturday, Karzai urged Afghan security forces to be patient with the protesters.

Hundreds of demonstrators staged peaceful protests in Afghanistan, but ones in Laghman, Kunduz and Logar provinces turned violent.

"The culprits of the burning of the holy Quran should be arrested and hanged to death in public," said Mohammad Karim, one of 1,000 protesters who burned tires and threw stones at Afghan police in Mohammad Agha district of Logar province, south of Kabul. "We don't accept it when they say 'We apologize. We apologize.' We don't want Americans here at all."

Laghman provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said about 1,000 protesters threw stones at Afghan security forces, smashed windows of government buildings and tried to attack the nearby governor's house in the provincial capital of Mehterlam.

In Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province in northeastern Afghanistan, more than 1,000 protesters threw rocks at government buildings and a U.N. office, said Sarwer Hussaini, a spokesman for the provincial police. He said the police fired into the air to try to disperse the crowd. Dr. Saad Mukhtar, health department director in Kunduz, said at least three protesters died and 50 others were injured in the melee.

In a statement, the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said the U.N. had deep respect for the Islamic faith and understood why Muslims were upset about the desecration of their holy book, but urged the demonstrators to exercise self-restraint and not let militants use the protests to foment violence.

___

Associated Press writers Patrick Quinn, Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah in Kabul, Robert Burns in Washington and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-25-AS-Afghanistan/id-35e9a3d4fb5e4e96a20d8b06d0153e2c

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3 Good Weight Loss Fitness Exercise | Exercise for Health and Fitness

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