Amazing Leonid Meteor Shower Photos Captured By Stargazers

The Leonid meteor shower peaked early Saturday (Nov. 17), and some night sky watchers caught a great view.

The Leonids are a yearly meteor display of shooting stars that appear to radiate out of the constellation Leo. They are created when Earth crosses the path of debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings through the inner solar system every 33 years.

This year, the Leonids are offering an especially good show because the moon is only in its crescent phase right now (so its light isn't too bright to wash out the meteors) and it sets in the west long before the constellation Leo begins to rise into the night sky.

One skywatcher, photographer Scott Tully in rural Connecticut, was delighted to snap a photo of a bright Leonid meteor as it streaked overhead just after 5 a.m. EST on Saturday. He summed the experience up in one word: "Amazing!"

Another observer, Mike Hankey of Freeland, Md., also snapped gorgeous photos of the Leonids before dawn Saturday morning.

While the first peak time to see the Leonids this year passed this morning, there's still a chance of catching a good show. These meteors are expected to offer a second peak of activity this coming Tuesday morning, Nov. 20.

Editor's note:?If you snap an amazing photo of the Leonid meteor shower and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a possible story or image gallery, send images, comments and location information to managing editor Tariq Malik at?tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.?Follow SPACE.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazing-leonid-meteor-shower-photos-captured-stargazers-163450853.html

juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting mark martin cleveland news daytona race the cutting edge fox 8 news

How To Have Success At Robert Griffin III Jersey Internet Marketing ...

Utilizing the strength of the web in order to Robert Griffin III Jersey advertise your business could bring you big coverage and most likely, big earnings. You may not should be a technology pro to make web marketing meet your needs sometimes. Easy suggestions, like the versions in this post, can help any company owner make use of the tremendous marketing prospects on the net.

To build up an excellent website marketing technique, invest some time learning just what the competition is performing. Track where they can be obtaining their links. Possibly the majority of their targeted traffic arises from a particular article or a comment they kept anywhere. Replicate this strategy for taking some of their guests and draw in new ones aimed at your website.

A great Robert Griffin III Jersey web marketing suggestion regardless of what you are attempting to market would be to understand who particularly your target audience is. Knowing your target audience, you may cater particularly to that particular demographic to boost the success of your web advertising campaign. Think about creating a client user profile that you could reference.

Though it may be real that many Internet marketers can easily promote their web sites and products without spending dollars whatsoever, this is something that is exceedingly uncommon. Weblog businesses managed on free of charge web sites which make 50k each year are just about perishing off. You will need to spend a few bucks, if perhaps for a genuine website Robert Griffin III Jersey and a few keyword strategies.

The grade of the writing on your internet site will immediately have an effect on your small business, because of it affects your trustworthiness and professionalism and trust. If you will find confused or sloppy sentences, spelling and punctuation problems?these deflate the best objectives in the buyer making him wonder if your online business is properly work and reputable. Proofread anything you publish in your site meticulously.

As an excellent marketer on the net, track your statistics and info. Maintaining information of everything you possibly can is important for understanding what does work. Keep track of what marketing techniques you employ and just how Robert Griffin III Jersey they have an effect on people. Record what exactly you sent or introduced or placed, when, to which men and women and in what develop. Monitor who clicks, who responds, who purchases, and when and how and just how many people acquire every single distinct activity in response for your advertising promotions. The greater you already know, the better you?ll see what you must because of enhance your recovery rate.

To find out who the competition is within a web organization, ensure that you?re always basically while using keywords you find and check for others utilizing them. By comprehending your competition, you can begin to apart from the rest, by fine-tuning your promotion, to prevent straight contending for ratings.

If you are Robert Griffin III Jersey jogging an online-only organization or just extending your existing business on the internet, online marketing can do the job. A good internet marketing marketing campaign can achieve potential clients worldwide or show up refreshing buyers right in your garden. Whomever you would like to reach, discovering the tricks of the world wide web marketing buy and sell can assist you reach them more efficiently.

Acknowledged http://www.washingtonredskinteamjerseys.com Shop presents all types of cheap Brian Orakpo Jersey right away with Super fast Delivery, Risk-free Checkout & Superior Customer Service.

Source: http://www.aeroyoga.cl/?p=11055

julia gillard julia gillard pecan pie the hobbit trailer red velvet cake recipe josh krajcik porphyria

One Problem With Steven Sinofsky's Run At Microsoft That No One Seems To Mention (MSFT)

Microsoft's decision to push out Steven Sinofsky is a really big mistake, says Farhad Manjoo at Slate:

With Sinofsky?s departure, Microsoft is rudderless at a time of intense competition. He was the firm?s most thoughtful executive, certainly more perceptive about technology than Ballmer. Sinofsky had a firm vision about where the PC industry should go.

The problem with this idea is that Sinofsky isn't really a visionary. Here's a take from our big profile of Sinofsky:

The only trouble with [a comparison to Steve Jobs], according to detractors, is that Sinofsky lacks the vision of Steve Jobs. His products keep the business going, but they don?t inspire.

One person who left recently puts it like this: ?His delivery track record is exceptional. But the excitement level is not. There hasn?t been a lot of excitement around his products.?

A former exec explains, ?He's not a creative guy, he's not going to inspire creativity in others.?

A different former exec says Sinofsky's strengths are elsewhere. ?Steven is much, much stronger at fixing and refining and tuning and improving.?

For all the scorn directed at Steve Ballmer for missing the rise of the iPhone and iPad, an equal amount of scorn should be aimed at Sinofsky. He was at Microsoft the whole time Apple and Google upended the computing markets with their mobile operating systems.

Windows 7, Sinofsky's biggest claim to fame at Microsoft, came out in July 2009. Six months later Apple released the iPad, which ultimately sent Microsoft scrambling to catch up, producing the Surface.

If Sinofsky had his hand on the tiller, and knew what was happening in the PC market, why didn't he make Windows 7 more touch-friendly? Why didn't he get Microsoft to make the Surface in 2009?

Don't Miss: Microsoft's Incredible Brain Drain

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/steven-sinofskys-vision-2012-11

Ryder Cup 2012 Johnny Lewis pnc Honey Boo Boo yom kippur yom kippur avengers

Four military vets killed in Texas train crash during U.S. troops parade

You are here: Home / News / National News / Four military vets killed in Texas train crash during U.S. troops parade

November 16, 2012 at 10:01 AM by AHN ? ?

Raquel Erhard ? Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor

Midland, TX, United States (4E) ? Four military veterans died and 16 people were injured Thursday after a freight train slammed into a parade float filled with participants of a Texas event honoring U.S. troops.

According to a police spokesman, 37-year-old Gary Stouffer and 47-year-old Lawrence Boivin were declared dead at the scene while another two, 34-year-old Joshua Michael and 43-year-old Williams Lubbers died later at a nearby hospital.

Officials confirmed that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident that happened around 4:30 p.m. at a railroad crossing along Garfield Street and Industrial Avenue in Midland.

The first trailer in the ?Hunt for Heroes? event parade passed the crossing, but the second trailer, with 26 people, was hit by an eastbound train.

Police said some people in the truck were able to jump off safely.

Marcy Madrid, a hospital spokeswoman, said four people were admitted at Midland Memorial Hospital, one in critical condition and three were in stable condition.

Another person in serious condition was taken to a Lubbock hospital on Thursday night while 11 others have been released.

The group Show of Support said the event, which also include a banquet and an ?all expense paid whitetail deer hunt,? were created to honor members of all branches of the U.S. military.

Tom Lange, a spokesman for the Union Pacific Railroad, said the Union Pacific freight train, with more than 80 rail cars transporting double-stacked containers, was heading east toward Shreveport, Louisiana.

Initial investigation by the company revealed that the lights and gates at the crossing were functioning properly at the time of the crash and that the train crew had properly sounded the locomotive horn.

Lange added Union Pacific is investigating why the trailer was in the crossing and plans to review the video from a camera in the locomotive?s cab.

The train employee was not injured in the crash.

Investigators from the NTSB arrived on the site Thursday night and the rest of the team will follow on Friday, said Peter Knudson, a board spokesman.

NTSB has not confirmed whether the crossing gates and signals were working when the accident happened.

Article ? AHN ? All Rights Reserved

-->

Source: http://gantdaily.com/2012/11/16/four-military-vets-killed-in-texas-train-crash-during-u-s-troops-parade/

alabama football danielle fishel dow jones Bbc News Selena Gomez ariel winter Paige Butcher

Double-centurion Cheteshwar Pujara helps India grind England into the Gujarati dust before visitors lose early wickets

Sometimes, revenge may be a dish eaten hot and dusty. India, of course, have denied that it is even on the menu. From the way events panned out in the First Test today, it is safe to assume that they would not mind having it for starters, main course and dessert.

Having batted for more than five sessions in two uneven parts, the second of which was graced by a perfectly tailored double century from their new number three, Cheteshwar Pujara, India declared their first innings at 521 for 8. By the time the second day was done at Motera Stadium, they had reduced England to 41 for 3, still 281 short of averting the follow on.

To sound remotely attainable, it needed to be said as quickly as the wickets fell. Any dwelling on it and the gap seemed ominous and daunting beyond degree. The suggestion that England had learned the lessons of the recent past and were now some kind of post-modern experts in playing spin bowling in sub-continental conditions, the impression given in the three weeks before the match, looked slightly askew.

All three wickets went to the India spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, in the space of 13 balls, taking their joint tally of wickets in only their sixth Test together to 76. Batsmen may be advised to worry that they are both still only 26 years old.

Ashwin bowled the poor debutant Nick Compton, who had faced 53 balls with painstaking application, through the gap between bat and pad with a sizzling off break. He then had an indeterminate Jonathan Trott caught off bat and pad at short leg. Ojha removed the hapless Jimmy Anderson, also held at short leg, begging the question why Anderson was there in the first place.

India?s spinners were in voracious mood with so little of the day left, fielders were crowding greedily round the bat like reporters doorstepping BBC director generals, and the England dressing room thought it a good idea to send in Anderson, presumably because George Entwistle was unavailable. If the state of play was insufficient to persuade them otherwise, the fact that Anderson had recently bowled 27 overs in searing hear might have done the trick. He lasted six balls, the only wonder that it was so long.

This conclusion to the day was probably predictable after England had spent 10 hours 40 minutes in the field and bowled 160 overs. They had seen nothing like it since The Oval last summer when South Africa detained them for 189 overs and they lost by an innings.

Back in 2005 England made the mistake of winning the Ashes. They might not have thought it was an error at the time given that it ended 16 years (and 42 days, never forget the 42 days) of misery against Australia, the open-topped bus rides, the gongs they bagged and the general outpouring of jubilation.

Ricky Ponting, Australia?s captain, brooded and plotted for 18 months. Australia won the return series 5-0. Ponting always declined to say but this was revenge pure and simple.

Only last year in England ? it seems a light year ago ? India were pushed from pillar to post and capitulated to a 4-0 defeat. On the back of it, England became the top ranked side in the world and how we rejoiced. Like Ponting before him, MS Dhoni, the captain of India, will not have forgotten that and he will know of what his team are capable in their own conditions

The latter part of India?s innings was dominated by Pujara. He completed his century in the sixth over of the day, which he started on 98, and never looked like doing anything other than making it a double. He faced 389 balls and hit 21 fours.

Pujara will face greater challenges in less familiar conditions but in its way this was a perfect construction. There had been one false shot early on, which Anderson misjudged but blemishes thereafter were few. He defended well, he attacked intermittently, doubtless following the game plan.

India had started at a lick and their first 250 runs came from 60 overs. It took another 110 overs to make the next 321, partly because they were happy to drop the tempo, partly because England defended well with defensive fields.

But the scheme to have three seam bowlers and one specialist spinner took another battering. For most of the day it seemed that England would fail to take a wicket with seam in an opponent?s first innings for the first time since 1974 in Trinidad. Three overs before the declaration, Anderson struck to render that null and void.

Graeme Swann took five wickets for the 14th time in a Test innings when he bowled Dhoni sweeping. He bowled four of his victims in all, the first spinner to do so for England in an innings since the Lancashire off spinner Roy Tattersall in 1952, also in India.

Swann will have a lot more bowling to do before this series is out and whatever happens he can expect the company of Monty Panesar. India have set out their stall, as they demonstrated by opening the bowling with Ashwin, a ploy they may well use throughout. Last night they were thinking only of taking a lead in the series but it can be taken as read that Dhoni and his troops have big plans beyond that.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/266/f/3792/s/25a61340/l/0L0Sindependent0O0Csport0Ccricket0Cdoublecenturion0Echeteshwar0Epujara0Ehelps0Eindia0Egrind0Eengland0Einto0Ethe0Egujarati0Edust0Ebefore0Evisitors0Elose0Eearly0Ewickets0E83231940Bhtml/story01.htm

f 18 crash virginia tenebrae the lake house petrino arkansas roy williams matt lauer divine mercy chaplet

Corrections

Red pen

Photograph by Gabriela Insuratelu.

In a Nov. 15 "Movies," Dana Stevens misspelled Thomas Kinkade's last name.

In a Nov. 15 ?Culturebox,? a headline originally said three Oscar winners are trying their hands at Edward Ford. They are Oscar nominees.

In a Nov. 15 ?Brow Beat? post, Forrest Wickman stated, incorrectly, that Netflix?s House of Cards will air on the BBC in the United Kingdom. In the U.K. it will play on Netflix, not on the BBC.

In a Nov. 14 ?History,? Jeff Turrentine used a paraphrase of a Rick Perry quote that read, "Nice country you got there. Be a real shame if something happened to it." That line closely resembles one from a 2009 New Yorker article by Hendrik Hertzberg about Texas' secession movement, which paraphrased the same quotation from Perry. Hertzberg's line read: "Nice little Union you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it." The author contends the echo was unintentional, but given the context, the article should have avoided the line or cited Hertzberg's article. The passage has been removed.

In a Nov. 14 "XX Factor" post, Amanda Hess incorrectly referred to an io9 blogger as Analee Lewis. Her name is Annalee Newitz. Hess also misspelled the website?s name as i09. It is io9.

In a Nov. 14 ?Weigel,? David Weigel misspelled Tulsi Gabbard?s first name.

In a Nov. 13 ?Reckoning,? Michael Moran misspelled Jon Huntsman?s first name.

In a Nov. 12 ?Moneybox,? Matthew Yglesias misspelled the first names of William Cohan and Eliot Spitzer.

In a Nov. 12 ?Slatest,? Josh Voorhees misspelled the name of the technology website Gizmodo.

In a Nov. 12 ?View From Chicago,? Richard A. Posner incorrectly stated that a tie occurred in the Electoral College in 1824. Rather, in that year, four candidates got electoral votes, no candidate had a majority, and the winner had to be decided by the House of Representatives. He also misstated the situation in which candidates would have an incentive to seek a recount if the winner were determined by the popular vote. Thanks to Texas State Representative Scott Hochberg and Barnard professor Scott Minkoff for the corrections.

In the Nov. 11 ?New Scientist,? Tiffany O?Callaghan gave an outdated academic affiliation for Oliver Sacks. He is a professor at New York University School of Medicine, not Columbia University.

In a Nov. 10 ?Politics,? Fred Kaplan said Paula Broadwell joined the light infantry officers' corps upon graduation from West Point. She did not.

In a Nov. 9 ?Jurisprudence,? Emily Bazelon misstated the number of House seats allotted for both Pennsylvania and Ohio and how many of those seats Republicans control. In Pennsylvania, Republicans control 13 of 18 seats, not eight of 12. In Ohio, Republicans control 12 of 16 seats, not 14 of 18. She also quoted Nathaniel Persily as saying Democrats and Republicans control a certain number of congressional seats. They control the line-drawing process for those seats.

In a Nov. 7 ?Weigel,? David Weigel misstated Pennsylvania's representation in the House. The state has 18 seats, not 13. He also misstated the number of House seats Republicans hold in Ohio. Republicans control 12 seats, not 14.

Slate?strives to correct all errors of fact. If you've seen an error in our pages, let us know at?corrections@slate.com. General comments should be?posted?in our comments sections at the bottom of each article.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d224ca075968f8fb477687ae4fcca482

jerry angelo work it amy chua iowa gop meteor shower tonight annie oakley edc

You Amplified: Everything You Need To Know About Self Improvement

Are you attempting to live a life of higher quality? The following article will help you develop your personal attributes.

You should seek to be surrounded by like-minded people. This will allow you to stay motivated and keep you away from those that might hinder your self improvement.

TIP! Don?t be a shopaholic like those people on Hoarders. If you practice something you like instead of shopping, you will not spend a lot of money and get into debt.

Search for the texts and literature that encourage and inspire you. Whether it is a religious book or a favorite novel, find a book that inspires you. Having something tangible that you can return to when you need encouragement helps you to get in a better state of mind, which means you can handle life better.

TIP! Make your goals specific; this way, they can lead to personal development success. Having goals will allow you to better problem solve on how to get there.

Getting healthier is a personal development step that can have far-reaching positive repercussions. A healthy lifestyle often results in feeling better, which contributes to a more positive frame of mind. Healthy bodies and minds let you think clearly and avoid trips to the doctor. Make a healthy lifestyle one of your high-priority self improvement goals.

TIP! It?s important not to let unneeded stress get the best of you. Over-reacting to a bad situation will just make it seem worse and cause more stress.

Consider your personal character attributes when determining what you want to change. Your aesthetics can be changed quicker than your personality can! In the end, your looks do not matter that much. However, the personality you cultivate will be the one thing you are ultimately judged on. Your priority should be the enhancement of your inner beauty. Your outer beauty can be dealt with at a later time.

TIP! The true path to personal development is one of consciously choosing beneficial change. We need to choose the change if we expect to really grow.

Avoiding a decision means missing out on an opportunity when engaging in self improvement. Even if your knowledge is not what it could be, have the courage to make choices. Being able to make good decisions sometime requires you to trust your instincts. Even mistakes are valuable as they are instructive learning decisions. A bad choice will just open up the door for a better one.

TIP! Stress can be the opposite of happiness a lot of the time. When our minds are busy dealing with stress, we are causing damage to our entire body, both mentally and physically.

If you desire to be successful in life, you will need a respectable coach who knows what he or she is doing. All champions have awesome coaches or mentors behind them, and this is very important. It is important for people who are educated in a certain field to pass on their knowledge to people entering the field. Sharing knowledge can helping others realize and achieve their goals is crucial. Behind every star, there is a spectacular coach.

TIP! When you start your personal development journey, always remember to focus on the fact that you are worthy of nothing less than the very best in life. Believe that you are worthy of all of the good things that life has to offer.

Reading books on the subject of self improvement or self-improvement is good for you. The best of these types of books can truly give you new advice and ideas that work for improving your specific life situations and challenges. Always check serious reviews of a book before you buy it because some books are very poorly written.

TIP! Focus on improving yourself first; you deserve to be happy! This doesn?t mean that you should only think of yourself, but in some cases, you really need to put yourself first. They key is to stay true to your beliefs, and then you can have a much greater chance at happiness in your personal development.

As you have seen, helping yourself live a better life is not as scary as it may appear. The really important thing is to keep your mind focused on the great benefits to your well-being and satisfaction that a rigorous program of self-improvement will provide

Source: http://voooz.com/2012/11/15/you-amplified-everything-you-need-to-know-about-self-improvement/

amazing race maya angelou mary kay ash tiny houses bon iver joan of arc tony robbins

The Fascinating History of Online Role-Playing Games

Ultima Online

When we think of massive multiplayer online role-playing games ? more frequently referred by their acronym, MMORPGs ? we think of the biggest: Real-time, beautifully rendered 3D games like World of Warcraft, which has more than 10 million active players and has generated billions of dollars in revenue for owner Activision Blizzard since it launched in late 2004.

MMORPGs are relatively recent phenomenons, made possible through steady advancements in computer hardware, software and networks. The term ?MMORPGs? didn?t enter the lexicon until 1997, when Richard Garriott used it to describe the launch of one of the most successful online multiplayer games to date, Ultima Online.

MMORPGs have their roots in early, text-based roleplaying games played by a small number of users on local networks, frequently at universities. Many owe inspiration to offline sources, too: Namely, Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop game invented in 1974 that involved characters and settings inspired by the work of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. Using a set of dice, players sent characters of their own devising on quests and adventures under the direction of a game leader, or ?dungeon master.? Over time, characters gain ?experience points,? weapons and skills, the objects of many a modern-day MMORPG, Everquest and World of Warcraft included.

Early Prototypes: Text-Based and Simple Graphic Games

The earliest online multiplayer games were called Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs: Text-based or simple graphic adventures that began cropping up in the late 1970s. Most games lacked graphics and thus depended heavily on textual descriptions and players? imaginations to illustrate characters and environments; players typed in a pre-defined range of actions ? like ?n? for move north, or ?attack? to fight ? as they traveled through virtual rooms and completed tasks.

Among the first and best-known of these games was written by Roy Trubshaw in a programming language called MACRO-10. The game, simply called MUD and later licensed to Internet provider CompuServe under the name British Legends, was written on a DEC PDP-10 computer installed at Essex University in the UK in the fall 1978, according to Richard Bartle, who later revised it and assumed the title of co-creator.

MUD was originally ?little more than a series of inter-connected locations where you could move and chat,? says Bartle. In later revisions ? version three was written in a more memory-efficient language, BCPL, between 1979 and 1980 ? it assumed a more complex environment, and Bartle and his colleagues were able to invite more outsiders to play after Essex hooked up its network to ARPANET, a precusor of the modern-day Internet.

Maze War, which was released four years prior to MUD and also ran on ARPANET, was another early online multiplayer game ? but as a first-person shooter, it doesn?t technically qualify as an RPG. The game is, however, credited with popularizing first-person 3D perspective, which was copied by many early RPGs and has since become the standard view for many MMORPGs. Maze War was also one of the earliest online games to use graphics and introduce avatars, i.e. representational images for characters.

Other early popular MUDs include Colossal Cave Adventure (sometimes just called Adventure), a text-based game released in 1976; and Island of Kesmai, a graphical, six-player game based on D&D that was built at the University of Virginia in 1980. Others, including Oubliette, Avatar and Moira, ran on the PLATO network. Moira could support up to 15 players in the same game simultaneously.

The issue, as this Yahoo article points out, is that these games weren?t yet ?massive.? The graphic ones especially could also be expensive to play: Island of Kesmai, which was one of the first commercial games and profiled in a 1988 episode of Computer Chronicles (above), cost $12 per hour to play through CompuServe. Text-based games were thus more popular because they required less bandwidth and could run on basic personal computers.

Early Commercialization

Pool of Radiance

In 1985, the owners of Dungeons & Dragons began licensing the game to software developers, including Electronic Arts and Sierra. Inspired by growing sales of personal computers and the success of the Ultima game franchise, they also developed their own 13-game commercial series, Gold Box. The first of these, Pool of Radiance, was released in 1988 for Commodore 64, Apple II series and IBM PC-compatible computers. A Macintosh edition was released a year later.

Pool of Radiance was a relatively faithful adaption of D&D. Players could choose between four classes ? fighter, cleric, magic user and thief ? as they made their way through a virtual town, fighting enemies and ultimately a master ?Boss.? Gameplay wasn?t simultaneous: Users made moves on a turn-by-turn basis. By today?s standards, Pool of Radiance?s graphics were painfully elementary, but at the time they were thought ?gorgeous.? A 28-page introductory booklet came with the game ? amazing, when you think that most games today don?t necessarily require any sort of instructional manual.

In 1991, the owners of Dungeons & Dragons partnered with AOL and two game developers, Stormfront Studios and Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI), to create what is considered the first true graphical MMORPG, Neverwinter Nights. It cost $6 per hour to play. By the time it shut down in 1997, the game had 150,000 registered players.

Meanwhile, sales of personal computers were growing ? by the end of 1990, some 54 million computers had been installed in American households, according to Collier?s. By comparison, there were just 2 million personal computers in use nine years before. Bandwidth was also becoming less expensive: In the early 1990s, CompuServe dropped its hourly play rate from $12 per hour to $1.95 per hour. By 1995, 3 million people were paying the company for Internet access, making it one of the largest Internet service providers in the U.S.

Going Truly ?Massive?

World of Warcraft

The late ?90s saw the rise of the first commercial bestsellers: Ultima Online (UO) which was born out of what was already a very successful computer game franchise from Origin Systems in 1997; Everquest, released by Sony in 1999; and Asheron?s Call, deployed by Microsoft in late 1999.

These games were expensive to make: In 2003, it was estimated that the cost of developing a commercial MMORPG could ?easily exceed? $10 million dollars, not including post-release expenses. To cover those costs, developers charged players fees for installation software as well as monthly subscriptions in the range of $10 to $15 per month.

The first decade of 2000 saw the release of several high-profile games similar those released in the ?90s, including Dark Ages of Camelot (2001), Final Fantasy XI (2002), Everquest II (2004), World of Warcraft (2004), Guild Wars (2005), Dungeons & Dragons Online (2006) and Vanguard (2007), the last of which has been something of a commercial disaster for its owner, Sony, and is now available to play for free.

In gameplay and graphic style, these games are remarkably similar, all based on the old D&D model: Players choose characters from a range of races (say, elf or troll), classes (like rogue or priest) and gain experience points and skills by killing monsters in a medieval fantasy environment. Thousands of players are able to play simultaneously on a single server, and are frequently tasked to complete quests in groups as small as two and as large as 80. Although most gameplay involves battles against non-player characters, player-versus-player competition is also popular in many of these games.

The most successful of the games launched to date is World of Warcraft, which has released four software expansions and has more than 10 million players paying between $12.99 and $14.99 per month for access. (By comparison, Everquest, the most popular MMORPG between 2000 and 2004, had around 500,000 subscribers at its peak.) Unlike most other MMORPGs at the time, which were only available on Windows, WoW released editions for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows to start.

What has made WoW so successful, in my view, is its superior user experience. Before WoW, MMORPG players expected to encounter bugs and crashes frequently, and gameplay was often interrupted by ?zoning,? a practice instituted to help ease server lag by dividing up geographical regions into separate zones for interaction. WoW was remarkable for releasing a nearly flawless game from the start in painful contrast to Everquest II, which was released the same month in 2004. It is also much easier to play than Everquest or UO, making it more accessible to casual and younger gamers.

No MMORPG since WoW has been able to overtake it, neither in the volume of players nor in commercial success. That?s especially impressive given the emergence of so many subscription-free games, like Guild Wars, which are underwritten by in-game purchases and advertising. There?s plenty of room for entry into the market, however; talk to a long-time WoW player, and she will likely tell you that she?s bored with the game, but that there are few to none alternatives out there.

Do you play MMORPGs? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Gamasutra, Wikimedia Commons, Blizzard.

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/11/14/mmorpgs-history/

Foo Canoodle Isaac path Tropical Storm Isaac path Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Isaac Path Isaac Hurricane

Housing for the Younger Generation: Locked Out and No Way Back ...

Liz Emerson lays out the causes of the current housing squeeze, why this matters profoundly to society at large, and what should be done about it.

??A factor is quietly at work that has the potential to profoundly shape the longer-term nature of home-ownership and mortgage lending in the UK. Housing wealth is slowly but surely becoming more concentrated in the hands of older households, and the number of older households with housing wealth is growing fast.? The Council of Mortgage Lenders.

This article explains why the phenomenon of?housing wealth creeping up the age divide is of major concern to UK society as a whole, and cuts across all politics.

In October 2011, IF rose to national prominence with research that revealed that the UK has 25 million unoccupied bedrooms in the UK. That?s in addition to the national bedroom standard of one spare room allocated for each person in a household. A media furore unfolded, as the subject was hotly debated around kitchen tables the length and breadth of the UK. It seemed everyone had an opinion ? from Any Questions to Private Eye.

IF had put its finger on one of many new fault lines opening up between the generations. No longer could traditional left/right politics deal with the phenomenon. Some academics refused to accept this fault line?s existence. Instead, they called it a ?trope? used to disguise the real phenomenon of class politics between rich and poor. Not so: it is now an old rich and young poor phenomenon that is starting to have serious socio-economic effects across the generations and is starting to put intergenerational fairness at risk.

So why should housing be the frontline between the generations? For the simple reason that housing is the place where the pressures between the generations can be felt the most. IF figures reveal that 37% of the total English housing stock is under-occupied. Everyone wants one, no one wants to share one, not enough are being built to go round and everyone will hopefully be living longer in one.

In order to understand how the intergenerational schism has developed it?s important to follow housing over the last 70 years.

Your Home is Your Castle

The British love of housing really took off with Anthony Eden?s ?property owning democracy? in the 1940s. Not for us the European model of renting. We?ll buy a flat or a house if we?re lucky. As the island?s population increased, so too did our housing aspirations.

Increase in Divorce and Single Occupancy

Increase in divorce and the growth of single-parent families post-WWII put additional pressure on housing. Separated couples needed bedrooms for their offspring. So instead of one house being occupied we now have two per previously married couple. But our hopes over the amount of space we required were growing too.

The Baby Boomers

The sense of self-entitlement of the baby-boomer (post-war population bulge) generation provided additional pressure on housing. Young people were leaving home earlier in life, striking out on their own and demanding independence.

At the same time, older generations who were traditionally meant to sit meekly in their children?s homes, to be looked after well into old age before they shuffled off to the local nursing home, were now seeking independence. They chose to remain in their own homes and public policy has supported their expectations ever since.

Thatcher?s Britain

Fast-forward to Thatcher?s Right-To-Buy scheme with the city bubble of the 1980s and unprecedented housing wealth grew in the UK. Suddenly the value of your house was the key discussion point at dinner parties around the country. New estate agents, new payment vehicles and interest-only mortgages started to appear on the market making a home of your own an aspiration that all classes could buy into. As demand grew, so too did prices. But what was not growing was the amount of new housing being built.

Downsizing US-Style

Over in the US downsizing is culturally deeply ingrained. Upping sticks and moving to the condo in warmer Floridian climes is not a stigma, and is expected. Back home,?UK older generations are half as likely to downsize.

Why should this be a problem? As British families grew up and left home Mum and Dad chose to stay in the larger family house, hopeful for regular visits from children and grandchildren. And why would anyone move from their primary asset if they can see it appreciating before their eyes?

Equitable Life

Then along came the demise of Equitable Life. When it collapsed so too did the pensions of many hard-working middle-class professional members of society who saw their retirement futures destroyed overnight. With no faith in pensions as a retirement savings vehicle, the professional classes looked around and saw housing values rapidly increasing from the 1980s onwards. The logical conclusion was to put their savings into housing.

Housing as an Investment Choice

According to the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit housing equity was roughly equal to UK GDP in 1980, but by 2007 housing wealth was equivalent to 185% of GDP. Martin Weale, Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member, and Director of the National Institute for Social and Economic Research, went further and said that if house prices had increased at the same level as the stock market over the last two decades they would be worth only half of what they are now. A housing bubble had been created through investing, improving and up-sizing to housing nirvana.

Buy-To-Let Boom

As pension-pessimist asset-rich home owners saw their properties double in price over 10 years, they realised that others were taking advantage of the rising market and got swept along by the buy-to-let market as an easy means towards building up their retirement income. Buy-to-letters owned so much equity in their homes they were seen as a?safe bet? by mortgage companies. It meant they could leapfrog first time buyers. Who can blame them? It?s worth noting that buy-to-letters also receive tax relief, further fuelling interest in the market.

Lack of Building

Alongside this housing boom was the decreasing number of new homes being built. The systematic lack of building in the UK over the last 50 years has been the subject of much debate. The Policy Exchange?s latest report Why Aren?t We Building Enough Attractive Houses provides a comprehensive overview of where we are now. What is clear from the report is that just 6-10% of England has been developed and only 2.3% has been ?concreted over?. There is therefore no overall shortage of land. Our present housing crisis is due to developers? land banks, the reliance on rising land prices and planning blockages fuelled by government policy too often left in the hands of ageing local councillors, some of whom may have a vested interest in protecting their own housing assets to the detriment of younger first time buyers.

Increasing Longevity

Whilst the charge towards property as an investment vehicle went into full throttle, another powerful phenomenon was beginning to shift society. This came in the form of increasing longevity. The post-war babies were breaking all records over the lengths of their lives. Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are making it more often into their 90s. Whilst this is welcome news to all of us lucky enough to have our relatives around, the impact on the housing market has been the strangulation of intergenerational wealth passing down the generations, and that wealth not passing down at the right time of life.

The Rise of Generation Rent

Speak to anyone in their 20s or 30s and most will say they are caught in the rental market, especially in the South East of the UK. Current estimates place average monthly rent demands at just shy of ?1,000, meaning that ? after all other bills ? there is little left to save for a deposit for buying a home. An Affinity Sutton report goes further and suggests that the private rental market is now unaffordable for many low-income families, putting ever-greater strain on social housing.

First-Time Buyers

According to Yorkshire Building Society it will take someone saving ?250 a month eight years to save the 20% deposit required to get on the housing ladder. What is laughable is the idea young people will have that kind of disposable income to spare. For university graduates ? who might traditionally have counted on becoming home-owners ? the trebling of most tuition fees will leave them with an estimated post-degree debt of at least ?40,000. Now nearly 40 years of age before they can expect to get on the housing ladder, professional couples are putting off having children until they feel they have the property security required (near the schools and services they need for long-term family welfare). A Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2012 study predicts more than 1 million under 30s will be locked out of home ownership by 2020.

The Financial Crisis

The Treasury?s launch of a ?80 billion Funding for Lending Scheme after 2007?s global financial crisis has done little to help the housing market except to send a clear signal that falling house prices are not an option. A housing market fall would put ?untouchable? grey voters? retirement savings ? locked into housing ? at risk, and any government would have to be brave indeed to take on their core voters in order to help young people who vote less.

Turning the Key

As well as build, build, build and unblock planning, there are other options to help re-balance housing more fairly across the generations. Encouraging more downsizing is one solution that would mean offspring could claim back the space they need to thrive in larger family homes. IF recommended a number of nudge policies including stamp duty holidays for those downsizing and greater government help for those (and there are many) who wish to downsize but find the very idea too overwhelming to consider.

Increased intergenerational living is another option and government could encourage greater take-up by increasing the Rent-a-Room tax allowance from ?4,250, unreformed since the 1980s. Intergenerational living is a win-win argument for society as a whole. Schemes already exist where young people exchange time and chores for a reduced rent whilst also reducing the isolation felt by sole older occupiers.

Finally, tax breaks in return for more stable, long-term tenancies should be considered, so good landlords are rewarded.

IF?s position is simple.?UK young people are facing a juggernaut of liabilities hurtling down the generations ??from pensions and education to taxation, the environment and housing. All political parties are guilty of placing short-term gain before sustainability. Intergenerational fairness crosses all party lines. Unbalanced housing wealth is helping to break the ?British Promise? that each generation should be better off than the one before. We may be seeing the first generation to have lower living standards to those of their parents.

?

Source: http://www.if.org.uk/archives/2802/housing-for-the-younger-generation-locked-out-and-no-way-back

marlon byrd charles colson humber raffi torres michael mcdonald jon jones vs rashad evans earth day 2012

AIG Returns Core Insurance Operations to AIG Brand, Reveals New ...

NEW YORK?(BUSINESS WIRE)?

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) currently announced that AIG
is again a go-to-market code of a tellurian skill misadventure business
in many locations, and that a company?s life and retirement shred is
now AIG Life and Retirement.

As partial of a rebrand, AIG has also introduced a new code promise:
Bring on tomorrow.

?AIG as a tellurian word code is back,? pronounced AIG President and Chief
Executive Officer Robert H. Benmosche. ?The re-launch of a AIG name
outlines a poignant feat for a company. ?Bring on tomorrow?
underscores AIG?s endless persistence and aspiration ? to solve problems,
to innovate for a advantage of a clients, and to act as a powerful,
tellurian team. These are a attributes that have enabled AIG to succeed
in creation America whole on a investment in a company, and a
certain lapse of some-more than $15 billion.

?Now we demeanour to tomorrow, and we?re vehement about a intensity we see
there. We?re vehement to get to work on seeing, building, and securing a
improved destiny ? for a customers, for ourselves, and for communities
around a world. we trust that a suggestion of expertise and
affability during a core of AIG will move opportunities and open doors
that will redefine what?s possible, assisting a business flower and
make a many of each day.?

Starting today, AIG?s tellurian skill misadventure authorization will start to
use a AIG name, and muster a company?s new trademark and code guarantee in
selling and promotion as appropriate. Other brands in a AIG
family, including VALIC, Lexington Insurance, American General,
SunAmerica, and Western National, will continue unchanged.

AIG Property Casualty Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock said, ?We
are really vehement to applaud a prolonged story and strength of a AIG
name with a business around a world. With a investment in the
latest information technology, sum with a suggestion of inventiveness, we
consider we?re good positioned to assistance them accommodate a hurdles of
tomorrow.?

?The AIG name represents clever values, tough work, and gripping our
promises. AIG Life and Retirement continues to consolidate those values,?
pronounced AIG Life and Retirement President and Chief Executive Officer Jay
Wintrob. ?Our guarantee to ?Bring on tomorrow? fits good with a purpose as
a premier provider of protection, investment, and income solutions that
ready a business for a successful future.?

The sum certified U.S. supervision assistance to AIG of $182 billion
has been entirely repaid, and a Federal Reserve and United States
Department of a Treasury have to date perceived a sum positive
lapse of approximately $15.9 billion on their investments in the
company.

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a heading international
word classification portion business in some-more than 130 countries and
jurisdictions. AIG companies offer commercial, institutional, and
particular business by one of a many endless worldwide
property-casualty networks of any insurer. In addition, AIG companies
are heading providers of life word and retirement services in the
United States. AIG common batch is listed on a New York Stock Exchange
and a Tokyo Stock Exchange.

AIG is a selling name for a worldwide property-casualty, life and
retirement, and ubiquitous word operations of American International
Group, Inc. For additional information, greatfully revisit a website at
www.aig.com. All products and services are created or supposing by
subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc.
Products or services might not be accessible in all jurisdictions, and
coverage is theme to tangible process language. Non-insurance products
and services might be supposing by eccentric third parties. Certain
property-casualty coverages might be supposing by a over-abundance lines insurer.
Surplus lines insurers do not generally attend in state guaranty
funds, and insureds are therefore not stable by such funds.

Source: http://www.echoyfamily.org/index.php/aig-returns-core-insurance-operations-to-aig-brand-reveals-new-brand-promise/

peeps nhl playoffs masters 2012 masters the borgias shroud of turin warren sapp