For the second time the city its Silvestival: Ten venues, it is in a core clock time 21-2 (Late Night in the City Hall clock to 4) to explore. The direction is posed by the Nuremberg town hall in the predominantly Sebalder old to new venues such as the Pellerhaus, the John Scharrer Gymnasium, the cornerstone and the Jazz Studio. The island is the largest bulk with free admission outdoor venue.
"There are about 500 remaining tickets," says the project office of the city. If it rains, as announced, is a bit, then all fit into the ribbon-holders covered venues. Advance tickets cost 15 plus presale tickets at the box office 19 .
If you like it even more contemplative, is in good hands with the churches of St. Sebald and St. Giles: For the New Year's Eve concerts by 22 clock Tickets are still available, just for the concert at the Reformation Memorial Church at Berliner Platz. There, works by Bach and Handel are listed.
In St. Giles is a buffet for New Year's Eve concert, the musical motto is: "Behold, thou art fair, my love," can be heard love songs of the Renaissance with works by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, etc. At midnight, champagne and served jointly celebrated the new year.
St. Sebald is New Year's Eve in an organ concert of works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The performers of the evening Bernard Butt Man are on the organ, and Rev. Gerhard Schorr speaks the words of the year.
In the Meistersingerhalle the restaurant presents for the first time under new management with New Year's Eve menu and buffet. In the Great Hall is magic time: "Magic Unlimited" guest appearances at 19.30 clock. After the show it's in the lobby with live music by the band "Members", dance and fireworks continued into the new year.
The small hall fills the Upper Palatinate comedian Lizzy Aumeier. The best of the programs "AufBass'd", "Racer Girl" and "full on it" - award-winning cabaret.
Is sold out, "My Fair Lady" at the Opera House, as the event in the intimate theater. Remaining tickets are still for "Peer Gynt" at 18.30 clock in the theater.
There are no tickets for the theater salt and pepper, in S'Baggers is the single-party canceled, instead it gives food a la carte, the events are sold out at the Hilton on Valznerweiher well as Maritim Hotel. There are still tickets for the New Year's Eve buffet at the Sheraton, with piano music to 85 .
Cinecitta in the cards for the big party cost 16 , 18 box office, with cinema ticket, it costs 23.50, the facilities are fully booked for the menu.
In contrast, there is a gala dinner at the Grand Hotel still places. Under the theme "Opera Ball" is supplied in a festive wardrobe for 139 per person, midnight champagne reception and lunch included. In Provenza on the main market, there are fine Italian buffet, plus music by Pino Barone and an open dance floor. The card costs 69 , however, are almost all gone.
The New Year's Eve at the Park Café starts at 22 clock, entrance costs 16.50 and there's most wanted hits with DJ Cube House with DJ Icee, 2011 White roses and a welcome drink. Culinary, the Park Café until midnight, a finger-food buffet for 5,50 and long drinks.
Deer ends in the old year with 20 hours New Year's Eve for electronic 12.20. In the Vineria for "Red Passion Party New Year's Eve" at midnight and admission is free, before it costs 99 . Quite passionately celebrated in Red and best in evening dress. If you just want to dance into the New Year can do so in the Rock factory, but also the Mach 1 has revealed the clock from 22 dance floors.
2011年12月29日星期四
2011年12月28日星期三
Russ Choka created what we all yearn for – a place of community
On Friday, Russ Choka was laid to his rest, a much-deserved one. The gray skies reflected the somber mood at the morning vigil outside his restaurant, later at his funeral in the cathedral and finally at his grave in the Catholic cemetery.
So what was it then? Homage to Mr. Choka or simply that old familiar craving for a coney dog that drove us downtown three nights before Christmas? I don't know, but whatever it was when we pulled into the last space in the darkened parking lot, it was evident we were not alone. The place was jam-packed!
We stumbled through the back door, down the steps, through the kitchen, past the stove with the huge pots and the counter with tubs of dirty dishes into the restaurant, where we joined half of Fort Wayne. There was no room at this inn. We latecomers huddled together at the front and rear entrances of the old-timey establishment, eyeing the crowded tables, wondering “how long,” eager for our chance at the trough.
I'm telling you, that blazing Santa Claus sign was the slickest promotion Choka ever devised, shooting his revenue through the roof every December.
There were big-bellied Steelers fans chomping down dogs. Small shepherds and wise men with their worn-out parents chomping down dogs. Hot-shot high-schoolers in letter jackets with their girlfriends, businessmen, a woman in a fur coat, the ragged, the rich, the young and the old, all chomping down dogs. Why, it was “weinermania”! A fat baby in a high chair with a hot dog in one hand and pacifier in the other. An 89-year-old Leo Lion retelling the tale of his 1940 championship season when the whole team celebrated at this very establishment.
Knowledge handed down from one generation to the next is a beautiful thing to behold, and I watched as a doting grandfather hoisted his little angel onto a barstool at the counter. It took the child three seconds flat to discover the mystery of the motion of the swiveling stool, as she looked up in gratitude at her grandpa.
It had now been almost 10 hours since the vigil, and still the exhausted staff displayed a professionalism that would put the high-class joints in town to shame. In their soiled aprons and sweaty T-shirts proclaiming “Our buns are steamed,” I observed as they smiled patiently doing their best to satisfy all comers, sorting out Rubik's-cube orders — “Twenty- one coneys, nine with mustard, four without, five no onion.”
Thank heavens, a righteous man in a dark suit and tie, obviously straight from the church, was helping out, acting as maitre'd and busboy, alternately wiping tables and his brow.
Soon it was our turn to be seated, and in just an instant, like magic, our chili and coney dogs were placed before us. Gloria in the highest! Those dogs are the world's best!
Confirmed by the neon “World Famous Coney” sign blinking back in the window, I surveyed the scene. Only Norman Rockwell could have captured the magnitude of the neighborliness — friends sharing tall tales, strangers invited to pull up a chair, the laughter, the hugs, the “Merry Christmases”…
It was then I spotted her looking down on all of us — Mary with her baby, on a memorial blanket hung on a wall at the far end. Now my husband thinks I'm goofy, tearing up at the most inappropriate times, but honestly, that did it — that and the knowledge that Choka had chopped 50 pounds of onions seven days a week for more than 50 years!
And in that instant I knew why the place was packed, why business was booming, why the children would bring their children. The recipe was simple. With a humble hotdog, a spoonful of sauce and a fresh bun, Russ Choka had created what we all yearn for: a place of community.
So what was it then? Homage to Mr. Choka or simply that old familiar craving for a coney dog that drove us downtown three nights before Christmas? I don't know, but whatever it was when we pulled into the last space in the darkened parking lot, it was evident we were not alone. The place was jam-packed!
We stumbled through the back door, down the steps, through the kitchen, past the stove with the huge pots and the counter with tubs of dirty dishes into the restaurant, where we joined half of Fort Wayne. There was no room at this inn. We latecomers huddled together at the front and rear entrances of the old-timey establishment, eyeing the crowded tables, wondering “how long,” eager for our chance at the trough.
I'm telling you, that blazing Santa Claus sign was the slickest promotion Choka ever devised, shooting his revenue through the roof every December.
There were big-bellied Steelers fans chomping down dogs. Small shepherds and wise men with their worn-out parents chomping down dogs. Hot-shot high-schoolers in letter jackets with their girlfriends, businessmen, a woman in a fur coat, the ragged, the rich, the young and the old, all chomping down dogs. Why, it was “weinermania”! A fat baby in a high chair with a hot dog in one hand and pacifier in the other. An 89-year-old Leo Lion retelling the tale of his 1940 championship season when the whole team celebrated at this very establishment.
Knowledge handed down from one generation to the next is a beautiful thing to behold, and I watched as a doting grandfather hoisted his little angel onto a barstool at the counter. It took the child three seconds flat to discover the mystery of the motion of the swiveling stool, as she looked up in gratitude at her grandpa.
It had now been almost 10 hours since the vigil, and still the exhausted staff displayed a professionalism that would put the high-class joints in town to shame. In their soiled aprons and sweaty T-shirts proclaiming “Our buns are steamed,” I observed as they smiled patiently doing their best to satisfy all comers, sorting out Rubik's-cube orders — “Twenty- one coneys, nine with mustard, four without, five no onion.”
Thank heavens, a righteous man in a dark suit and tie, obviously straight from the church, was helping out, acting as maitre'd and busboy, alternately wiping tables and his brow.
Soon it was our turn to be seated, and in just an instant, like magic, our chili and coney dogs were placed before us. Gloria in the highest! Those dogs are the world's best!
Confirmed by the neon “World Famous Coney” sign blinking back in the window, I surveyed the scene. Only Norman Rockwell could have captured the magnitude of the neighborliness — friends sharing tall tales, strangers invited to pull up a chair, the laughter, the hugs, the “Merry Christmases”…
It was then I spotted her looking down on all of us — Mary with her baby, on a memorial blanket hung on a wall at the far end. Now my husband thinks I'm goofy, tearing up at the most inappropriate times, but honestly, that did it — that and the knowledge that Choka had chopped 50 pounds of onions seven days a week for more than 50 years!
And in that instant I knew why the place was packed, why business was booming, why the children would bring their children. The recipe was simple. With a humble hotdog, a spoonful of sauce and a fresh bun, Russ Choka had created what we all yearn for: a place of community.
2011年12月27日星期二
Indie Ink: Office Queen
Anna Lee strutted into the office, her heels clicking obnoxiously. Heads popped up like gophers throughout the cube farm, silently observing. She scanned the room before settling into her own space. No matter if no one liked her personally, they would come flocking all in good time.
She booted up her system and read through the emails. Another bug found in the database. She shook her head in disgust. Morons. The company paid thousands of dollars for worthless software.
A tap at her entrance grabber her attention and she swiveled around, pasting a huge fake smile on her face. Her crimson caked lips spread to expose just enough of her gleaming white teeth. A young girl stood at the door, her feet shuffling and her hands twisting around her fingers. Lank, nondescript hair fell in a waterfall across her face.
Anna Lee quirked an eyebrow, wondering where the hell the company found these losers. “Can I help you?” She asked, her voice dripping with saccharine. The girl started, her head flying up, her wide brown eyes meeting Anna Lee’s cold, calculating ones.
“Uhm…my system…it’s not working. And David over there,” she pointed in a vague direction off to the right. “He said…he said you could fix it?”
“Why yes, I do believe I have that ability,” Anna Lee purred. She stood and straightened her skirt. The girl looked at her with a faint sense of hero worship. Anna Lee felt her heart melt, just a touch. She once was this girl, unsure and shy with bad hair and worse fashion sense. Leaning in conspiratorially she wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulder and pulled her in close.
“I’ll show you a trick,” she said kindly. The two walked in silence to the girl’s cubicle. Once there, Anna Lee saw the familiar sight of the blue screen and green writing. She sat down and waved the girl close. With a few deft clicks she had the system unfrozen and operating normally. The girl’s eyes widened.
“How come IT doesn’t know that trick? Why does everyone come to you to fix their systems?” she asked.
Anna Lee smiled. “I can’t fix everything, just this one problem. I’ve tried explaining it,” she lied. “But they just don’t get it. So I try to make myself useful to the rest of the department.”
“Wow,” the girl breathed. “Thanks, Anna Lee.”
“You’re welcome sugar. Tell me, what’s your name?”
“Juliet,” she mumbled, ducking her head. Anna Lee smiled and patted her on the arm. She stepped out of Juliet’s cube and encountered other members of her department. The spoke over each other, trying to get her attention.
“Anna Lee, I need you.”
“No, me first, Anna Lee! I have that deadline.”
“But you pass right by my cube, come fix my system first!”
Anna Lee entered the office, the same as always. She walked with her familiar arrogance, eyeing the occupants of the cubes with superiority. The heads of her colleagues remained down, eyes averted. She plopped down in her chair and went through her morning routines. There was a pile of files stacked up in her inbox but she brought out her nail file instead. Someone would do her work for her, as always.
She leaned back and waited for that first breathless “Anna Lee could you…”
Her perfectly arched brows furrowed in confusion. She opened her email, her eyes flicking over the subject lines looking for an announcement about the database. Nothing.
She stood and walked down the aisle towards the break room. Everyone was studiously working, fingers clicking on the keyboard. She absently poured a cup of coffee, stirring in the cream halfheartedly. As she lifted it for a sip she heard that familiar electronic bong and the accompanying “Shit”. Her lips curved into a smile and she set down her coffee, waiting for the plaintive, “Anna Lee.”
Juliet passed by the door to the break room and hung a left at the entrance to the cube where the expletive had emerged. Anna Lee could hear murmured voices and she edged close enough to hear, “Thanks Juliet. That’s so simple. I won’t need anyone help to fix the system now.”
Juliet exited the cube, almost skipping down the aisle. She caught sight of Anna Lee hovering in the door and smiled broadly, saying nothing. Anna Lee watched her continue towards her own cube only to be stopped by an imploring hand. All along the aisle, Juliet paused periodically to help her colleagues with their systems.
She booted up her system and read through the emails. Another bug found in the database. She shook her head in disgust. Morons. The company paid thousands of dollars for worthless software.
A tap at her entrance grabber her attention and she swiveled around, pasting a huge fake smile on her face. Her crimson caked lips spread to expose just enough of her gleaming white teeth. A young girl stood at the door, her feet shuffling and her hands twisting around her fingers. Lank, nondescript hair fell in a waterfall across her face.
Anna Lee quirked an eyebrow, wondering where the hell the company found these losers. “Can I help you?” She asked, her voice dripping with saccharine. The girl started, her head flying up, her wide brown eyes meeting Anna Lee’s cold, calculating ones.
“Uhm…my system…it’s not working. And David over there,” she pointed in a vague direction off to the right. “He said…he said you could fix it?”
“Why yes, I do believe I have that ability,” Anna Lee purred. She stood and straightened her skirt. The girl looked at her with a faint sense of hero worship. Anna Lee felt her heart melt, just a touch. She once was this girl, unsure and shy with bad hair and worse fashion sense. Leaning in conspiratorially she wrapped an arm around the girl’s shoulder and pulled her in close.
“I’ll show you a trick,” she said kindly. The two walked in silence to the girl’s cubicle. Once there, Anna Lee saw the familiar sight of the blue screen and green writing. She sat down and waved the girl close. With a few deft clicks she had the system unfrozen and operating normally. The girl’s eyes widened.
“How come IT doesn’t know that trick? Why does everyone come to you to fix their systems?” she asked.
Anna Lee smiled. “I can’t fix everything, just this one problem. I’ve tried explaining it,” she lied. “But they just don’t get it. So I try to make myself useful to the rest of the department.”
“Wow,” the girl breathed. “Thanks, Anna Lee.”
“You’re welcome sugar. Tell me, what’s your name?”
“Juliet,” she mumbled, ducking her head. Anna Lee smiled and patted her on the arm. She stepped out of Juliet’s cube and encountered other members of her department. The spoke over each other, trying to get her attention.
“Anna Lee, I need you.”
“No, me first, Anna Lee! I have that deadline.”
“But you pass right by my cube, come fix my system first!”
Anna Lee entered the office, the same as always. She walked with her familiar arrogance, eyeing the occupants of the cubes with superiority. The heads of her colleagues remained down, eyes averted. She plopped down in her chair and went through her morning routines. There was a pile of files stacked up in her inbox but she brought out her nail file instead. Someone would do her work for her, as always.
She leaned back and waited for that first breathless “Anna Lee could you…”
Her perfectly arched brows furrowed in confusion. She opened her email, her eyes flicking over the subject lines looking for an announcement about the database. Nothing.
She stood and walked down the aisle towards the break room. Everyone was studiously working, fingers clicking on the keyboard. She absently poured a cup of coffee, stirring in the cream halfheartedly. As she lifted it for a sip she heard that familiar electronic bong and the accompanying “Shit”. Her lips curved into a smile and she set down her coffee, waiting for the plaintive, “Anna Lee.”
Juliet passed by the door to the break room and hung a left at the entrance to the cube where the expletive had emerged. Anna Lee could hear murmured voices and she edged close enough to hear, “Thanks Juliet. That’s so simple. I won’t need anyone help to fix the system now.”
Juliet exited the cube, almost skipping down the aisle. She caught sight of Anna Lee hovering in the door and smiled broadly, saying nothing. Anna Lee watched her continue towards her own cube only to be stopped by an imploring hand. All along the aisle, Juliet paused periodically to help her colleagues with their systems.
2011年12月26日星期一
Incredibooths' Photo Booth New York Division Offers Discounted Rate
Photo Booth Rentals have spiked in popularity and the Metro New York area is no exception. From the poshest parties to the most elegant of affairs photo booths have claimed their rightful place on any events check list. The smiles and memories captured in a photo booth are different from any type of professional photography and also are a world a way from a step and repeat. The photo booth set up allows guests to pile into the photo booth, draw the curtain and let the magic happen. This nostalgic past-time is loved by all. From the classic kissy faces to the most unusual silly faces one thing is always certain: a photo booth rental is a great time. And now Incredibooths: New York's Ultimate Photo Booth Experience, is offering its luxury photo booth new yorkrentals at a reduced price just in time for the holidays.
"Our photo booths are extremely popular and thankfully because of that we are able to make this offer" says Dennis of Incredibooths. "We figured we'd make a great offer in the spirit of the holidays, this will allow some folks to same some money while still getting the luxury they deserve. It's our gift to our customers."
Incredibooths luxury photo booth rentals are completely revolutionary and modern with their hallmark all white design and clean modern exteriors. The Capture Cube and Capture Curve both use the best photography equipment available as well. The photo booths are packed with technology like a Canon DSLR camera, professional flash ring, huge color touchscreen, High-definition external slideshow displays and professional dye-sublimation printers boasting pro quality glossy photo prints in just about 7 seconds! The high end technology in the booths definitely matches the high end look and finishes of the luxury photo booth rentals.
Guest both young and old all love a photo booth and they make great favors. Even those with a shy streak tend to loosen up and get a little wild after piling into the photo booth to strike a pose. Everyone will get in the booth! Guests go home with an instant memento of the event which often includes a customized event logo or monogram and the date. For weddings this type of customization is great as it allows the bride and groom to fully personalize the experience. A luxury photo booth rental new york is a unique and fun experience that adds an extra level of excitement that you and your guests will talk about for years.
"Our photo booths are extremely popular and thankfully because of that we are able to make this offer" says Dennis of Incredibooths. "We figured we'd make a great offer in the spirit of the holidays, this will allow some folks to same some money while still getting the luxury they deserve. It's our gift to our customers."
Incredibooths luxury photo booth rentals are completely revolutionary and modern with their hallmark all white design and clean modern exteriors. The Capture Cube and Capture Curve both use the best photography equipment available as well. The photo booths are packed with technology like a Canon DSLR camera, professional flash ring, huge color touchscreen, High-definition external slideshow displays and professional dye-sublimation printers boasting pro quality glossy photo prints in just about 7 seconds! The high end technology in the booths definitely matches the high end look and finishes of the luxury photo booth rentals.
Guest both young and old all love a photo booth and they make great favors. Even those with a shy streak tend to loosen up and get a little wild after piling into the photo booth to strike a pose. Everyone will get in the booth! Guests go home with an instant memento of the event which often includes a customized event logo or monogram and the date. For weddings this type of customization is great as it allows the bride and groom to fully personalize the experience. A luxury photo booth rental new york is a unique and fun experience that adds an extra level of excitement that you and your guests will talk about for years.
2011年12月25日星期日
Hackers hit US security company
Stratfor urged its members to notify authorities about any suspicious credit card activities
The activist hacker group Anonymous says it has stolen thousands of emails, passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank.
The hackers claim they were able to obtain the information because the company, Stratfor, did not encrypt it.
They say Stratfor’s clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agencies and media organisations.
The Austin-based company says it has now suspended the operation on its servers and email.
An alleged member of Anonymous posted an online message, claiming that the group had used Stratfor clients’ credit card details to make “over a million dollars” in donations to different charities.
Stratfor later announced that it would keep its email and servers suspended for some time.
It also said the disclosure was “merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor”.
Anonymous has previously claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on financial institutions seen as enemies of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.
The activist hacker group Anonymous says it has stolen thousands of emails, passwords and credit card details from a US-based security think-tank.
The hackers claim they were able to obtain the information because the company, Stratfor, did not encrypt it.
They say Stratfor’s clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agencies and media organisations.
The Austin-based company says it has now suspended the operation on its servers and email.
An alleged member of Anonymous posted an online message, claiming that the group had used Stratfor clients’ credit card details to make “over a million dollars” in donations to different charities.
Stratfor later announced that it would keep its email and servers suspended for some time.
It also said the disclosure was “merely a list of some of the members that have purchased our publications and does not comprise a list of individuals or entities that have a relationship with Stratfor”.
Anonymous has previously claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on financial institutions seen as enemies of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.
2011年12月22日星期四
HSL Supplies the 2011 British Military Tournament
UK lighting rental company HSL supplied all lighting equipment to the 2011 British Military Tournament at Earls Court in London … for LD Steve Sinclair’s dynamic design which helped showcase the action presented by a cast of 700 troops, 100 horses, massed bands and featuring the famous ‘field gun run’.
HSL tendered and won the contract for lighting contractor, which was project managed for them by Thor-Andre “Spantax” Saether. “It was a great honour to be involved in a project with such long traditions and we are proud to have picked up the ball on this contemporary version,” he says referring to its origins as The Royal Tournament, a spectacle that ran from 1880 to 1999 returning to the live event calendar last year in this new format.
Spantax adds that it was also good to be working with Sinclair again following HSL’s recent supply of lights to Top Gear Live in Birmingham and London, for which Sinclair is also the LD.
Sinclair said, “HSL did an excellent job. They really came up with the goods, and I’m delighted with the results”.
The action packed show, directed by Christopher Joll and produced by IMG, was themed around the special relationship between the British and American armed forces, and contained an eclectic mix of entertainment including the traditional field gun run that was so iconic to the Royal Tournament; a large horse orientated section including the Musical Drive of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery; the White Helmet Army Motorcycle Display Team; the incredible US Army Drill Team and their flying rifles, plus several battle re-enactments from the American Civil War to the current conflict in Afghanistan.
It was a hugely challenging environment to light and required a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on techniques from theatre to stadium lighting and all things in-between!
For certain sections of the three hour show, Sinclair had to close the performance area right down almost to a black box studio theatre environment, and for others it had to be almost a daylight arena.
The technical challenges included a 21 metre trim height for the trusses, needed to maintain sightlines all around, so fixtures that could really cut a punch were chosen. The floor was filled with a turf mix so it was soft underfoot for the horses, but this soon swallowed any amount of lumens thrown at it, so a large rig was needed to lay down the base washes.
The lightshow also had to be designed around an amount of scenic gear and props that were flown out of the way in the roof.
Two 64 metre trusses traversed the long sides of the arena in Earls Court 1, and there was also a T truss at either end, each with a 21.5 metre stem and a 9 metre cross piece. Sinclair additionally used the mother grid supporting a video cube in the centre to position some lights.
The basic arena washes were created using 44 x 6-lamp PAR bars. There were also 44 4-lite Moles and 20 Source Four profiles for key lighting and specials.
The moving lights were 50 Martin Professional MAC 2K XBs – among Sinclair’s ‘new favourite’ lights -part of a recent large investment in Martin by HSL.
Thirty Four of Robes ColorSpot 2500E ATs provided powerful coverage all over the arena floor, and there were also 12 MAC IIIs, eight in the air and four on the floor, one in each corner of the arena.
In the entrance / exit tunnels either end, were Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes attached to the scaffolding supports of the seating tribunes, along with Chroma-Q Color Force 72 LED battens and 2K fresnels. Smoke machines were also allocated to each entrance.
Four Robert Juliat Lancelot follow spots were stationed at the back corners of the lower seating bleachers. Operated by local crew, they worked extremely hard throughout the performance. They were positioned specifically to spot the horses, which do not mind lights in their eyes but don’t like shadows, so could not be highlighted from above.
Sinclair controlled all lighting from a Whole Hog Full Boar console with a second Full Boar running as a tracking back-up. His programming schedule was hectic and the light show evolved – some of it organically – as the show unfolded and rehearsals progressed.
To heighten the drama of the Drill Team’s performance, they were very tightly and moodily lit at one the end of the arena. No light at all could be in their eyes as this would have impeded their ability to catch the flying rifles – all of which were fitted with combat-ready razor sharp bayonets! They were therefore lit almost entirely with back light from the ROBIN 600 LEDWashes, Color Force 72s and fresnels. Sinclair watched one run through, listened to the lighting cues requested by the Troop Commander, and then added his own magic in two hours of plotting that evening resulting in 28 cues in the desk. After the first in-situ run through with lights at the next day’s rehearsals … he had to tweak just one cue.
HSL supplied six crew for the in and out who worked alongside three of Sinclair’s own regular technicians, chiefed by Paul Makin, who looked after the show for the three day run of five performances, the first attended by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
To save time and optimise the get in operation, all the conventional lights and cabling were loaded in first, followed a couple of days later by the moving lights – all before the equestrian floor went down, which would have made it difficult to push cases across the arena floor and generated lots of flying particles!
The event was another great success, and the latest in a run of top level projects that HSL has serviced this autumn / winter covering a diversity of music tours, theatre / television productions and special events.
HSL tendered and won the contract for lighting contractor, which was project managed for them by Thor-Andre “Spantax” Saether. “It was a great honour to be involved in a project with such long traditions and we are proud to have picked up the ball on this contemporary version,” he says referring to its origins as The Royal Tournament, a spectacle that ran from 1880 to 1999 returning to the live event calendar last year in this new format.
Spantax adds that it was also good to be working with Sinclair again following HSL’s recent supply of lights to Top Gear Live in Birmingham and London, for which Sinclair is also the LD.
Sinclair said, “HSL did an excellent job. They really came up with the goods, and I’m delighted with the results”.
The action packed show, directed by Christopher Joll and produced by IMG, was themed around the special relationship between the British and American armed forces, and contained an eclectic mix of entertainment including the traditional field gun run that was so iconic to the Royal Tournament; a large horse orientated section including the Musical Drive of the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery; the White Helmet Army Motorcycle Display Team; the incredible US Army Drill Team and their flying rifles, plus several battle re-enactments from the American Civil War to the current conflict in Afghanistan.
It was a hugely challenging environment to light and required a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on techniques from theatre to stadium lighting and all things in-between!
For certain sections of the three hour show, Sinclair had to close the performance area right down almost to a black box studio theatre environment, and for others it had to be almost a daylight arena.
The technical challenges included a 21 metre trim height for the trusses, needed to maintain sightlines all around, so fixtures that could really cut a punch were chosen. The floor was filled with a turf mix so it was soft underfoot for the horses, but this soon swallowed any amount of lumens thrown at it, so a large rig was needed to lay down the base washes.
The lightshow also had to be designed around an amount of scenic gear and props that were flown out of the way in the roof.
Two 64 metre trusses traversed the long sides of the arena in Earls Court 1, and there was also a T truss at either end, each with a 21.5 metre stem and a 9 metre cross piece. Sinclair additionally used the mother grid supporting a video cube in the centre to position some lights.
The basic arena washes were created using 44 x 6-lamp PAR bars. There were also 44 4-lite Moles and 20 Source Four profiles for key lighting and specials.
The moving lights were 50 Martin Professional MAC 2K XBs – among Sinclair’s ‘new favourite’ lights -part of a recent large investment in Martin by HSL.
Thirty Four of Robes ColorSpot 2500E ATs provided powerful coverage all over the arena floor, and there were also 12 MAC IIIs, eight in the air and four on the floor, one in each corner of the arena.
In the entrance / exit tunnels either end, were Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes attached to the scaffolding supports of the seating tribunes, along with Chroma-Q Color Force 72 LED battens and 2K fresnels. Smoke machines were also allocated to each entrance.
Four Robert Juliat Lancelot follow spots were stationed at the back corners of the lower seating bleachers. Operated by local crew, they worked extremely hard throughout the performance. They were positioned specifically to spot the horses, which do not mind lights in their eyes but don’t like shadows, so could not be highlighted from above.
Sinclair controlled all lighting from a Whole Hog Full Boar console with a second Full Boar running as a tracking back-up. His programming schedule was hectic and the light show evolved – some of it organically – as the show unfolded and rehearsals progressed.
To heighten the drama of the Drill Team’s performance, they were very tightly and moodily lit at one the end of the arena. No light at all could be in their eyes as this would have impeded their ability to catch the flying rifles – all of which were fitted with combat-ready razor sharp bayonets! They were therefore lit almost entirely with back light from the ROBIN 600 LEDWashes, Color Force 72s and fresnels. Sinclair watched one run through, listened to the lighting cues requested by the Troop Commander, and then added his own magic in two hours of plotting that evening resulting in 28 cues in the desk. After the first in-situ run through with lights at the next day’s rehearsals … he had to tweak just one cue.
HSL supplied six crew for the in and out who worked alongside three of Sinclair’s own regular technicians, chiefed by Paul Makin, who looked after the show for the three day run of five performances, the first attended by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
To save time and optimise the get in operation, all the conventional lights and cabling were loaded in first, followed a couple of days later by the moving lights – all before the equestrian floor went down, which would have made it difficult to push cases across the arena floor and generated lots of flying particles!
The event was another great success, and the latest in a run of top level projects that HSL has serviced this autumn / winter covering a diversity of music tours, theatre / television productions and special events.
2011年12月21日星期三
Sports photographer gains world of exposure
It was the fall of 1996 and Bob Sibilia was the sports editor at the Martinez News-Gazette. But this story isn’t about Sibilia; it is about Tod Fierner, who still currently works with the Martinez News-Gazette.
Fierner and Sibilia were at an Oakland Raiders game, there first year back from Los Angeles, when Fierner was talking to Sibilia’s girlfriend. She introduced Fierner to Sibilia, and asked Fierner if he wanted to do game coverage with photos. Fierner kindly accepted the offer even though he had no prior camera experience, or even a camera to take pictures with.
Fierner met with Sibilia the following week and told him to go to the game and shoot some pictures, with a camera that Sibilia had lent Fierner. If Sibilia liked the pictures Fierner would have a gig with the gazette, if not he would have had some exposure to the real world of sports photography.
Fierner went to the Raiders game the following week and snapped some shots, brought them back to the Gazette and Sibilia. Sibilia liked the photos Fierner had taken and took him on as his apprentice. “Bob was a wartime photo journalist, he didn’t want to do all the photos for sports, that’s where I came in,” said Tod Fierner.
Fierner worked with Sibilia for a year before he bought his first camera, and after another year Sibilia left the gazette, but Fierner stayed. “When Bob left I stayed, I kept shooting pictures for the gazette, whether it be professional sports or Alhambra or College Park, I was shooting sports,” said Fierner.
To this day Fierner has still never taken a photography class, or a journalism class. “It’s all trial and error, everything I’ve done,” said Fierner. The trial and error has worked in his favor.
Currently, Fierner is currently employed by, St. Mary’s college in Moraga. He is their photographer for all of their collegiate sports. “I expanded, marketed myself and my work and got in contact with St. Mary’s, to be where I am today,” said Fierner.
Fierner has been many places throughout his photographic career, including two super bowls, a Sweet 16 appearance with St. Mary’s, countless 49ers and Raiders games. College games from San Jose State, California Berkeley, Stanford, and Oregon. Fierner was also at an NFL Alumni golf tournament back in 2008 before the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, where he was the only photographer at the event. “It was cool, we had eight police escorts around the bus I was in,” said Fierner. “When I got out all the fans were like who is this?”
Fierner has been shooting NFL games since 1996 with the Oakland Raiders, and 2005 when he finally got in with the San Francisco 49ers. At the Raiders game Fierner also has special duties that include taking pictures of Ice Cube, a long time Raiders fan. “I’ve been shooting for Ice Cube for three years, every time he’s at the coliseum,” said Fierner. “Cube is a cool guy, he is not who you think he would be.”
Fierner has met a lot of famous people while working, “Magic Johnson was probably the coolest person, he is very personable, he asks about you, how your doing, he gets to know you,” said Fierner. Fierner met Johnson while working a Raiders game in 2010.
Fierner has also met athletes like Reggie Jackson, Mike Ditka, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Warren Sapp and Ladanian Tomlinson. All of whom asked to get their photo’s taken. “I met Tim at a Giants game, he was pitching and came into the dugout and saw me taking pictures, he asked if I had any good ones, which I thought was odd because pitchers are usually quiet when they are working that day, but I showed him some of the pictures and he told me to hook him up,” said Fierner.
Because of the work Fierner does he has been requested to travel to other side of the country on occasion, “I went to Providence, Rhode Island with St. Mary’s basketball team for the 2010 NCAA tournament,” said Fierner.
Fierner has shot almost every sport from baseball to volleyball, “I went to Wrigley Field in Chicago to shoot a Cubs game that was cool,” said Fierner. “I never take my work for granted though, everyday is probably the coolest day when your watching sports.”
Cool indeed, but some sports are difficult, I asked Fierner which sport was the most difficult, “Volleyball,” said Fierner. “You never know where the ball is going.”
I asked Tod which guys he thought through his lens looked like they were going to be studs at the next level, “When Ryan Leaf was as Washington, I could have swore he was going to make it big,” said Fierner. “I also thought Kyle Boller was going to be something big when he was at Cal and Atari Kellen, I saw him in high school.”
I also asked Tod if there was ever a moment he got too close to the action, “In San Francisco, I was covering a 49ers game, I was on the sidelines and I got run over by the special teams unit,” said Fierner. “They blocked the punt, and I got run over.”
Fierner has also had some opportunities to shoot other things besides sports, “I was invited to the Play Boy Mansion once to shoot a party, but I cancelled because St. Mary’s was going to the WCC Tournament in Vegas,” said Fierner. “My wife doesn’t believe me that I ever had the chance, but I did.”
Fierner currently has four cameras, all Cannon and all digital, “It’s a long way from my first camera, which was a classic filmstrip Cannon,” said Fierner.
Some events or sports Fierner would like to do in the future are, a boxing match, UFC fights, a World Series and the Olympics.
Fierner’s work has even been seen on the other side of the world in Australia, “I’ve had some pictures in the Aussie newspapers because of the Australian guys on St. Mary’s,” said Tod Fierner. “Everything I do today would not be possible without the Gazette.”
Fierner and Sibilia were at an Oakland Raiders game, there first year back from Los Angeles, when Fierner was talking to Sibilia’s girlfriend. She introduced Fierner to Sibilia, and asked Fierner if he wanted to do game coverage with photos. Fierner kindly accepted the offer even though he had no prior camera experience, or even a camera to take pictures with.
Fierner met with Sibilia the following week and told him to go to the game and shoot some pictures, with a camera that Sibilia had lent Fierner. If Sibilia liked the pictures Fierner would have a gig with the gazette, if not he would have had some exposure to the real world of sports photography.
Fierner went to the Raiders game the following week and snapped some shots, brought them back to the Gazette and Sibilia. Sibilia liked the photos Fierner had taken and took him on as his apprentice. “Bob was a wartime photo journalist, he didn’t want to do all the photos for sports, that’s where I came in,” said Tod Fierner.
Fierner worked with Sibilia for a year before he bought his first camera, and after another year Sibilia left the gazette, but Fierner stayed. “When Bob left I stayed, I kept shooting pictures for the gazette, whether it be professional sports or Alhambra or College Park, I was shooting sports,” said Fierner.
To this day Fierner has still never taken a photography class, or a journalism class. “It’s all trial and error, everything I’ve done,” said Fierner. The trial and error has worked in his favor.
Currently, Fierner is currently employed by, St. Mary’s college in Moraga. He is their photographer for all of their collegiate sports. “I expanded, marketed myself and my work and got in contact with St. Mary’s, to be where I am today,” said Fierner.
Fierner has been many places throughout his photographic career, including two super bowls, a Sweet 16 appearance with St. Mary’s, countless 49ers and Raiders games. College games from San Jose State, California Berkeley, Stanford, and Oregon. Fierner was also at an NFL Alumni golf tournament back in 2008 before the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, where he was the only photographer at the event. “It was cool, we had eight police escorts around the bus I was in,” said Fierner. “When I got out all the fans were like who is this?”
Fierner has been shooting NFL games since 1996 with the Oakland Raiders, and 2005 when he finally got in with the San Francisco 49ers. At the Raiders game Fierner also has special duties that include taking pictures of Ice Cube, a long time Raiders fan. “I’ve been shooting for Ice Cube for three years, every time he’s at the coliseum,” said Fierner. “Cube is a cool guy, he is not who you think he would be.”
Fierner has met a lot of famous people while working, “Magic Johnson was probably the coolest person, he is very personable, he asks about you, how your doing, he gets to know you,” said Fierner. Fierner met Johnson while working a Raiders game in 2010.
Fierner has also met athletes like Reggie Jackson, Mike Ditka, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Warren Sapp and Ladanian Tomlinson. All of whom asked to get their photo’s taken. “I met Tim at a Giants game, he was pitching and came into the dugout and saw me taking pictures, he asked if I had any good ones, which I thought was odd because pitchers are usually quiet when they are working that day, but I showed him some of the pictures and he told me to hook him up,” said Fierner.
Because of the work Fierner does he has been requested to travel to other side of the country on occasion, “I went to Providence, Rhode Island with St. Mary’s basketball team for the 2010 NCAA tournament,” said Fierner.
Fierner has shot almost every sport from baseball to volleyball, “I went to Wrigley Field in Chicago to shoot a Cubs game that was cool,” said Fierner. “I never take my work for granted though, everyday is probably the coolest day when your watching sports.”
Cool indeed, but some sports are difficult, I asked Fierner which sport was the most difficult, “Volleyball,” said Fierner. “You never know where the ball is going.”
I asked Tod which guys he thought through his lens looked like they were going to be studs at the next level, “When Ryan Leaf was as Washington, I could have swore he was going to make it big,” said Fierner. “I also thought Kyle Boller was going to be something big when he was at Cal and Atari Kellen, I saw him in high school.”
I also asked Tod if there was ever a moment he got too close to the action, “In San Francisco, I was covering a 49ers game, I was on the sidelines and I got run over by the special teams unit,” said Fierner. “They blocked the punt, and I got run over.”
Fierner has also had some opportunities to shoot other things besides sports, “I was invited to the Play Boy Mansion once to shoot a party, but I cancelled because St. Mary’s was going to the WCC Tournament in Vegas,” said Fierner. “My wife doesn’t believe me that I ever had the chance, but I did.”
Fierner currently has four cameras, all Cannon and all digital, “It’s a long way from my first camera, which was a classic filmstrip Cannon,” said Fierner.
Some events or sports Fierner would like to do in the future are, a boxing match, UFC fights, a World Series and the Olympics.
Fierner’s work has even been seen on the other side of the world in Australia, “I’ve had some pictures in the Aussie newspapers because of the Australian guys on St. Mary’s,” said Tod Fierner. “Everything I do today would not be possible without the Gazette.”
2011年12月20日星期二
Upheaval from Koch scandal could slow Vikings stadium discussion
Upheaval within Senate Republican ranks could delay work on a Minnesota Vikings football stadium.
“Obviously, it’s a bump in the road,” said Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, who is chief House point man for a stadium bill.
Sen. Amy Koch, who resigned last week as majority leader, had become involved in stadium talks during the past month, Lanning said Tuesday, so without knowing who will replace her, questions arise.
“Sen. Koch was engaged in trying to work out a solution,” Lanning said.
Koch left the job on Thursday, then on Friday four fellow senators told reporters the resignation followed them confronting Koch with allegations that she had carried on an improper relationship with a male Senate employee she supervised.
Two questions arise as Senate Republicans face a Dec. 29 deadline for picking a new leader:
-- Will the caucus settle down enough to deal with a stadium when it also must work through the Koch scandal and the need to cut $2 million from its budget?
-- Will the new majority leader support a stadium? One senator mentioned for the job, David Hann of Eden Prairie, does not support public financial involvement, which could slow stadium progress.
Koch was instrumental in setting up recent hearings about stadium location and funding, Lanning said.
The Senate GOP situation “has the potential of causing some added delay,” the representative said. However, he held out hope that a bill could be ready for a special legislative session before the regular session begins on Jan. 24.
Last week, Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, said Democrats need to join Republican stadium supporters because there are not enough votes from either party to pass stadium legislation.
“There is no magic formula that we have suddenly discovered,” Michel said, calling the issue “a huge political Rubik’s Cube.”
Holding a special session before Jan. 24 would be tough, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove said.
“That’s what Morrie wants,” Zellers said, but it is not clear what Democrats want.
“Circling a date on the calendar” does not provide enough votes. Zellers added, saying that is what Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton did this fall when he sought a pre-Thanksgiving special session.
The Vikings’ Metrodome lease expires Feb. 1 and team officials say they need a resolution to the issue soon. They say they cannot make enough money at the Metrodome.
Lanning, however, said the Vikings will not leave after this season. He said they will be play in the Metrodome at least one more season, but after that the team could be up for sale, and likely would move.
Lanning said a stadium agreement must come by the time legislators adjourn in 2012, which a tentative calendar sets at April 30.
The Vikings say they will put $425 million toward building a publically owned stadium, with state and local governments coming up with the rest of the $1.1 billion cost.
“Obviously, it’s a bump in the road,” said Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, who is chief House point man for a stadium bill.
Sen. Amy Koch, who resigned last week as majority leader, had become involved in stadium talks during the past month, Lanning said Tuesday, so without knowing who will replace her, questions arise.
“Sen. Koch was engaged in trying to work out a solution,” Lanning said.
Koch left the job on Thursday, then on Friday four fellow senators told reporters the resignation followed them confronting Koch with allegations that she had carried on an improper relationship with a male Senate employee she supervised.
Two questions arise as Senate Republicans face a Dec. 29 deadline for picking a new leader:
-- Will the caucus settle down enough to deal with a stadium when it also must work through the Koch scandal and the need to cut $2 million from its budget?
-- Will the new majority leader support a stadium? One senator mentioned for the job, David Hann of Eden Prairie, does not support public financial involvement, which could slow stadium progress.
Koch was instrumental in setting up recent hearings about stadium location and funding, Lanning said.
The Senate GOP situation “has the potential of causing some added delay,” the representative said. However, he held out hope that a bill could be ready for a special legislative session before the regular session begins on Jan. 24.
Last week, Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, said Democrats need to join Republican stadium supporters because there are not enough votes from either party to pass stadium legislation.
“There is no magic formula that we have suddenly discovered,” Michel said, calling the issue “a huge political Rubik’s Cube.”
Holding a special session before Jan. 24 would be tough, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove said.
“That’s what Morrie wants,” Zellers said, but it is not clear what Democrats want.
“Circling a date on the calendar” does not provide enough votes. Zellers added, saying that is what Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton did this fall when he sought a pre-Thanksgiving special session.
The Vikings’ Metrodome lease expires Feb. 1 and team officials say they need a resolution to the issue soon. They say they cannot make enough money at the Metrodome.
Lanning, however, said the Vikings will not leave after this season. He said they will be play in the Metrodome at least one more season, but after that the team could be up for sale, and likely would move.
Lanning said a stadium agreement must come by the time legislators adjourn in 2012, which a tentative calendar sets at April 30.
The Vikings say they will put $425 million toward building a publically owned stadium, with state and local governments coming up with the rest of the $1.1 billion cost.
2011年12月19日星期一
Maine Discovery Museum offering programs over holiday break
If you are looking for something fun to do with your children during the holiday break, you might want to consider stopping by the Maine Discovery Museum.
Next week the museum will be holding a week-long series of day program for kids. Kids can come by any day or be signed up for the entire week.
Here are a list of the programs being offered:
A painting, drawing and sculpting class where kids can design art and learn new ways to express their creativity.
Tuesday --- December 27: Underwater Adventures
Meet the creatures under the deep blue sea! Peek inside a shark and feel his fearsome teeth. Find out why filter feeders are important, who lives in a coral reef and why the ocean is blue. Kids can create their own underwater diorama to take home.
Bamboozle and razzle-dazzle your family with slick tricks and amazing illusions. Discover the science behind such crowd pleasers as the disappearing thumb, the comeback can and scared pepper. Kids can make a wand, hat and plenty of magic props to put on their own show.
The Science of Sweets! Candy and chemistry come together as the museum explores sugar crystal formation, pull taffy, glue together sugar cube castles and watch honeycomb caramel crackle up. Museum staff will examine the good, bad and in-between sides of all things sugar and cook up some sensible treats to take home.
Design and build things that stand tall, carry loads and span space! Plan and construct a dazzling marble maze racetrack to bring home. Use wood, stone, cardboard and your ingenuity to engineer the impossible and practical as you learn about the secret of the Roam arch and earthquake proof skyscrapers. Kids can solve challenging, fun engineering problems with the tools of the trade.
Next week the museum will be holding a week-long series of day program for kids. Kids can come by any day or be signed up for the entire week.
Here are a list of the programs being offered:
A painting, drawing and sculpting class where kids can design art and learn new ways to express their creativity.
Tuesday --- December 27: Underwater Adventures
Meet the creatures under the deep blue sea! Peek inside a shark and feel his fearsome teeth. Find out why filter feeders are important, who lives in a coral reef and why the ocean is blue. Kids can create their own underwater diorama to take home.
Bamboozle and razzle-dazzle your family with slick tricks and amazing illusions. Discover the science behind such crowd pleasers as the disappearing thumb, the comeback can and scared pepper. Kids can make a wand, hat and plenty of magic props to put on their own show.
The Science of Sweets! Candy and chemistry come together as the museum explores sugar crystal formation, pull taffy, glue together sugar cube castles and watch honeycomb caramel crackle up. Museum staff will examine the good, bad and in-between sides of all things sugar and cook up some sensible treats to take home.
Design and build things that stand tall, carry loads and span space! Plan and construct a dazzling marble maze racetrack to bring home. Use wood, stone, cardboard and your ingenuity to engineer the impossible and practical as you learn about the secret of the Roam arch and earthquake proof skyscrapers. Kids can solve challenging, fun engineering problems with the tools of the trade.
2011年12月18日星期日
Cubitek Magic Cube 3HDD review
The chassis market is a huge yet complex one. People are picky and want original things hence the massive choice you get in the stores. Lately cases have been shifting more towards high-end and stylish design here in Europe, because hey ... we all want something unique and special.
Cubitek figured, heck .. it's all in our own brand name, let's design a modular chassis series under the name Magic Cube. One main chassis will be housing your motherboard and PSU, and two other smaller 'cubes' will house HDDs and Optical storage units and such. That completely overhauls the design of any regular chassis, as all of the sudden .. you have three units housing your PC. The motherboard cubes also resemble one another, being equipped with several fans and even support for up to EATX platforms and an I/O panel on the top, which has eSATA, audio, mic and even two USB 3.0 ports.
Basically, the HDD cube is what distinguished between the two siblings, as the B210 can house three drives and has one 80 mm fan, while the B211 can handle up to eight and has two 140 mm spinners.
Cubitek then figured, well quality is everything so they want for an all aluminum (black) design to make sure this chassis series is amongst the best of the best (aluminum chassis are great for heat transfer). So available in 3 and 8 HDD versions the Magic cube series was born.
Both products are constructed out of aluminum with an anodized black coating and have removable panels, meaning that overclockers and enthusiasts can use them as test benches as well. The Cubes are priced at at 179.90 for the 3HDD and 199.90 for the 9HDD version..
Anyway, have a peek and then let's head onwards into the review.
Cubitek figured, heck .. it's all in our own brand name, let's design a modular chassis series under the name Magic Cube. One main chassis will be housing your motherboard and PSU, and two other smaller 'cubes' will house HDDs and Optical storage units and such. That completely overhauls the design of any regular chassis, as all of the sudden .. you have three units housing your PC. The motherboard cubes also resemble one another, being equipped with several fans and even support for up to EATX platforms and an I/O panel on the top, which has eSATA, audio, mic and even two USB 3.0 ports.
Basically, the HDD cube is what distinguished between the two siblings, as the B210 can house three drives and has one 80 mm fan, while the B211 can handle up to eight and has two 140 mm spinners.
Cubitek then figured, well quality is everything so they want for an all aluminum (black) design to make sure this chassis series is amongst the best of the best (aluminum chassis are great for heat transfer). So available in 3 and 8 HDD versions the Magic cube series was born.
Both products are constructed out of aluminum with an anodized black coating and have removable panels, meaning that overclockers and enthusiasts can use them as test benches as well. The Cubes are priced at at 179.90 for the 3HDD and 199.90 for the 9HDD version..
Anyway, have a peek and then let's head onwards into the review.
2011年12月15日星期四
Top 5 Ice Hotels
This is the original ice hotel and the world's largest hotel made of ice and snow (over 5,500sqm). It is built afresh every December with ice from the Torne River in Jukkasjrvi, northern Sweden, 200km north of the Arctic Circle.
Sleep on ice blocks covered in reindeer skins in -5C temperatures. The rooms are decorated with artwork and the furniture is all sculpted from ice.
Swedish Lapland is also Santa's homeland, with fairy-tale landscapes, Christmas attractions and magic in the cold, cold air. It also claims to be one of the best areas in the world to see the elusive Northern Lights.
The stunning Ice Hotel by Romania's Balea Lake, with a backdrop of The Fagaras Mountains, is rebuilt every year – so no two years are the same. If you're looking to get away from it all, then you're in luck as Ice Hotel Romania's location is seriously remote; at over 2000m can be reached only by cable car in the winter, making it an exclusive 10-14 room hotel. The designers use sculpture and lighting to create a unique style and temperatures are held at -2C (it can drop to -20C outside!). Guests stay cosy inside with animal skins, blankets and sleeping bags.
Have a drink in an ice cube glass at the hotel's super-cool ice bar decorated with hand-carved ice sculptures inspired by leading Romanian artist, Constantin Brancusi. There's even an Ice Chapel for marriages or vow renewals.
While you're there explore the charming capital of Bucharest, take an excursion to Bran 'Dracula's' Castle and sky at Poiana Brasov.
The Ice hotel in Canada's Quebec is constructed in a beautiful park just a few minutes from downtown Quebec City and claims to be the most accessible ice hotel in the world.
With 36 rooms and theme suites, the Htel de Glace offers lots of ways to experience the incomparable thrill of a night spent inside an ice hotel. Experience igloo life in a simple, but spectacular, room (protected from the cold by thick fur pelts) or opt for a themed suite, complete with a fireplace, allowing you to enjoy the fascinating interplay between fire and ice. You can even get married in one of the most spectacular 'Ice chapels' on earth!
Norway has not one but three ice hotels (well, one ice hotel and two ice lodges). The Kirkenes Snow Hotel is in the eastmost town of Norway, close to the Norwegian-Russian border and boasts 20 individually decorated rooms and the largest snow dome in Norway.
The Ice Lodge is one of the largest in Norway and part of the Bjorligard Hotel. It has a longer season than most ice hotels because of its altitude (1,250 meters above sea level). The ice hotel is situated by the banks of the Alta River on the edge of the Arctic Circle and its interior and exterior are made entirely out of ice and snow. Inside the ice hotel you'll find majestic sculptures of Norwegian wildlife and ice chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
The Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel in Alta has been rebuilt yearly since 2000. It is Europe's northernmost ice hotel, as it is located in the Finnmark region and is approximately 250km from North Cape. The 2,000-square-metre hotel has 30 rooms, including two suites and it is decorated with ice sculptures and ice furnishings, including lighting systems which enhance the different types of crystalline formations.
Sleep on ice blocks covered in reindeer skins in -5C temperatures. The rooms are decorated with artwork and the furniture is all sculpted from ice.
Swedish Lapland is also Santa's homeland, with fairy-tale landscapes, Christmas attractions and magic in the cold, cold air. It also claims to be one of the best areas in the world to see the elusive Northern Lights.
The stunning Ice Hotel by Romania's Balea Lake, with a backdrop of The Fagaras Mountains, is rebuilt every year – so no two years are the same. If you're looking to get away from it all, then you're in luck as Ice Hotel Romania's location is seriously remote; at over 2000m can be reached only by cable car in the winter, making it an exclusive 10-14 room hotel. The designers use sculpture and lighting to create a unique style and temperatures are held at -2C (it can drop to -20C outside!). Guests stay cosy inside with animal skins, blankets and sleeping bags.
Have a drink in an ice cube glass at the hotel's super-cool ice bar decorated with hand-carved ice sculptures inspired by leading Romanian artist, Constantin Brancusi. There's even an Ice Chapel for marriages or vow renewals.
While you're there explore the charming capital of Bucharest, take an excursion to Bran 'Dracula's' Castle and sky at Poiana Brasov.
The Ice hotel in Canada's Quebec is constructed in a beautiful park just a few minutes from downtown Quebec City and claims to be the most accessible ice hotel in the world.
With 36 rooms and theme suites, the Htel de Glace offers lots of ways to experience the incomparable thrill of a night spent inside an ice hotel. Experience igloo life in a simple, but spectacular, room (protected from the cold by thick fur pelts) or opt for a themed suite, complete with a fireplace, allowing you to enjoy the fascinating interplay between fire and ice. You can even get married in one of the most spectacular 'Ice chapels' on earth!
Norway has not one but three ice hotels (well, one ice hotel and two ice lodges). The Kirkenes Snow Hotel is in the eastmost town of Norway, close to the Norwegian-Russian border and boasts 20 individually decorated rooms and the largest snow dome in Norway.
The Ice Lodge is one of the largest in Norway and part of the Bjorligard Hotel. It has a longer season than most ice hotels because of its altitude (1,250 meters above sea level). The ice hotel is situated by the banks of the Alta River on the edge of the Arctic Circle and its interior and exterior are made entirely out of ice and snow. Inside the ice hotel you'll find majestic sculptures of Norwegian wildlife and ice chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
The Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel in Alta has been rebuilt yearly since 2000. It is Europe's northernmost ice hotel, as it is located in the Finnmark region and is approximately 250km from North Cape. The 2,000-square-metre hotel has 30 rooms, including two suites and it is decorated with ice sculptures and ice furnishings, including lighting systems which enhance the different types of crystalline formations.
2011年12月14日星期三
Hot toys through the ages
The story is legend: Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt went on a Mississippi hunting trip, where he refused to shoot a black bear that had been caught and tied up for
him. The incident was satirized in a political cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman, but in subsequent printings the bear was made smaller and cuter.
The cartoon inspired candy seller and aspiring toymaker Morris Mitchum, a Russian Jewish immigrant, to create a small stuffed bear and put it in his shop window, calling it “Teddy’s bear.” Sales were so brisk that Mr. Mitchum was able to found the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., which went on the manufacture such hits as the Magic 8 Ball and the Rubik’s cube.
By 1906, Teddy bears were a full-on craze, and not just for children: High society women carried them as accessories, and Roosevelt used one as the mascot for his 1906 reelection campaign. Teddy bears even inspired music, like composer J.K. Bratton’s “The Teddy Bear Two-Step” for piano. Lyrics were added and the song became “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”
Teddy bears remain popular today, but they have undergone a few cosmetic changes over the past century or so. Early teddy bears had more bearlike features,
like elongated snouts and beady eyes. Today’s bears are more likely to be pudgier and more human-like than their predecessors, with larger eyes and shortened snouts.
him. The incident was satirized in a political cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman, but in subsequent printings the bear was made smaller and cuter.
The cartoon inspired candy seller and aspiring toymaker Morris Mitchum, a Russian Jewish immigrant, to create a small stuffed bear and put it in his shop window, calling it “Teddy’s bear.” Sales were so brisk that Mr. Mitchum was able to found the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., which went on the manufacture such hits as the Magic 8 Ball and the Rubik’s cube.
By 1906, Teddy bears were a full-on craze, and not just for children: High society women carried them as accessories, and Roosevelt used one as the mascot for his 1906 reelection campaign. Teddy bears even inspired music, like composer J.K. Bratton’s “The Teddy Bear Two-Step” for piano. Lyrics were added and the song became “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”
Teddy bears remain popular today, but they have undergone a few cosmetic changes over the past century or so. Early teddy bears had more bearlike features,
like elongated snouts and beady eyes. Today’s bears are more likely to be pudgier and more human-like than their predecessors, with larger eyes and shortened snouts.
2011年12月13日星期二
Angelo should retire before Hanie's offense gets him fired
Hanie appears to have little feel in the pocket. He also appears to have no ability to generate a consistent rhythm. He holds the ball too long and has yet to figure out that shuffle-slide move in the pocket that Cutler uses to keep plays alive.
But wait. There’s more. He’s regularly high and wide over the middle. He regularly overthrows wide-open pass catchers.
Hanie can’t play in the NFL. Not for a team that has playoff hopes, anyway. Martz apparently figured this out a lot sooner than Angelo. How did Angelo play this one so idiotically? How long have the Bears been feeding Hanie?
Bears coach Lovie Smith, of course, thought Hanie showed improvement Sunday. What Hanie showed was he could play less badly. He threw for 115 yards on 12-of-19 passes. There was not a 20-yard completion in the bunch.
“They weren’t terrible ,’’ Smith said, and I’m thinking, that’s like focusing on the interesting green hue of the road apple in question.
But I guess anything short of three interceptions counts as improvement in Smith’s half-full glass of hemlock.
So, Martz has been forced to design a game plan that directs the player in the most important position on the team not to lose the game.
Interesting timing for that story about Jerry Angelo’s potential retirement, huh?
Angelo’s choice to back up the most important position in the game is someone who has forced the coaches to resort to a game plan that cannot score. Hanie Bears have one touchdown in the last two games and have converted two third downs in the last two weeks. Just to clarify: not a good thing.
Angelo’s choice to back up the most important position in the game is someone the coaches cannot trust to win a game. Hanie’s Bears have lost three in a row.
If you want to blame Hanie’s tools, then you can nail Angelo for failing to assemble a respectable corps of wide receivers, too. I mean, Devin Hester as a No. 1 receiver is a joke, and a joke seems like a probable Angelo legacy. We're fidning out hows much better Jay Cutler made those mediocre receviers and deodorized Angelo's awful personnel decisions.
And then there’s Angelo’s choice of a No. 2 running back who doesn’t know how to stay in bounds or hold on to the ball when it matters most.
And don’t forget that offensive line. High draft choices on the line get hurt or stink, or both. The rest of it looks like Angelo was playing Rubik’s Cube. Or maybe he was seeking draft advice from a Magic 8-Ball.
How embarrassing has it been that Angelo could be smart enough to make the deal that landed Jay Cutler and repeatedly prove dumb enough not to ensure he was protected? You don’t buy a diamond and then try to have it set at White Castle.
Quick, someone tell Angelo there’s no rule against drafting capable backups. T.J. Yates and Tyler Palko have won more games than Angelo’s No. 2 quarterback. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Angelo tried to knock down talk of his potential retirement Sunday morning, but by Sunday evening, the Bears offense that reeks of Angelo’s geniusness promptly put a jet pack on it.
But wait. There’s more. He’s regularly high and wide over the middle. He regularly overthrows wide-open pass catchers.
Hanie can’t play in the NFL. Not for a team that has playoff hopes, anyway. Martz apparently figured this out a lot sooner than Angelo. How did Angelo play this one so idiotically? How long have the Bears been feeding Hanie?
Bears coach Lovie Smith, of course, thought Hanie showed improvement Sunday. What Hanie showed was he could play less badly. He threw for 115 yards on 12-of-19 passes. There was not a 20-yard completion in the bunch.
“They weren’t terrible ,’’ Smith said, and I’m thinking, that’s like focusing on the interesting green hue of the road apple in question.
But I guess anything short of three interceptions counts as improvement in Smith’s half-full glass of hemlock.
So, Martz has been forced to design a game plan that directs the player in the most important position on the team not to lose the game.
Interesting timing for that story about Jerry Angelo’s potential retirement, huh?
Angelo’s choice to back up the most important position in the game is someone who has forced the coaches to resort to a game plan that cannot score. Hanie Bears have one touchdown in the last two games and have converted two third downs in the last two weeks. Just to clarify: not a good thing.
Angelo’s choice to back up the most important position in the game is someone the coaches cannot trust to win a game. Hanie’s Bears have lost three in a row.
If you want to blame Hanie’s tools, then you can nail Angelo for failing to assemble a respectable corps of wide receivers, too. I mean, Devin Hester as a No. 1 receiver is a joke, and a joke seems like a probable Angelo legacy. We're fidning out hows much better Jay Cutler made those mediocre receviers and deodorized Angelo's awful personnel decisions.
And then there’s Angelo’s choice of a No. 2 running back who doesn’t know how to stay in bounds or hold on to the ball when it matters most.
And don’t forget that offensive line. High draft choices on the line get hurt or stink, or both. The rest of it looks like Angelo was playing Rubik’s Cube. Or maybe he was seeking draft advice from a Magic 8-Ball.
How embarrassing has it been that Angelo could be smart enough to make the deal that landed Jay Cutler and repeatedly prove dumb enough not to ensure he was protected? You don’t buy a diamond and then try to have it set at White Castle.
Quick, someone tell Angelo there’s no rule against drafting capable backups. T.J. Yates and Tyler Palko have won more games than Angelo’s No. 2 quarterback. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Angelo tried to knock down talk of his potential retirement Sunday morning, but by Sunday evening, the Bears offense that reeks of Angelo’s geniusness promptly put a jet pack on it.
2011年12月12日星期一
This Cube Made of Gears Shouldn’t Work, But It Does
Watching this cube slowly turn itself inside out as its internal gears mesh together is a mesmerizing and puzzling experience. It looks like it should never work, but it does.
I have a degree in engineering. Hell, I have a PhD in engineering. I (kind of) know how it works. But it still looks like magic to me.
It's of little practical use, sure — but it does illustrate how powerful 3D printing, the process used to create this thing of wonder, can be. The beauty of 3D printing is the way it can turn a theoretical, abstract idea into something tangible without the need for craft skills. In fact, in that vein, over at Thingiverse there's a bit of a trend for using 3D printers to turn all kinds of solid shapes into complex gear systems.
Though I wouldn't spend too long trying to design your own, because the 3D CAD files are freely available online. Now all you need is a 3D printer.
I have a degree in engineering. Hell, I have a PhD in engineering. I (kind of) know how it works. But it still looks like magic to me.
It's of little practical use, sure — but it does illustrate how powerful 3D printing, the process used to create this thing of wonder, can be. The beauty of 3D printing is the way it can turn a theoretical, abstract idea into something tangible without the need for craft skills. In fact, in that vein, over at Thingiverse there's a bit of a trend for using 3D printers to turn all kinds of solid shapes into complex gear systems.
Though I wouldn't spend too long trying to design your own, because the 3D CAD files are freely available online. Now all you need is a 3D printer.
2011年12月11日星期日
Exciting day for Sabah fans at alternative hobby convention
It was an exciting day for Japanese Manga and Anime and costume play (cosplay) fans in the State when the Hobbycon 2011, the State's arguably biggest alternative hobby convention, kicked off in Suria Sabah, Saturday.
The first day of the two-day event, which ends today (Sunday), saw various Anime-related activities such as singing, dancing and individual cosplay competition performances.
In addition, many booths were set up showcasing various types of Anime and related items and activities such as games, toys, artworks, fortune-telling, comics, wall art, demos and many more. Judging from the first day, an increasingly large number of the cosplayers appear to be of the fairer sex.
"Gurren Lagan" cosplayers Becky as Yoko Littner and Leone as Kamina said they did the costumes themselves and that both their outfits and props cost each of them under RM200.
"We took about a month or two to do our costumes and props and yes, we are big fans of the Anime and Manga," said Becky.
Another Cosplayer was Cassandra whose character was Mortred the Phantom Assassin of DOTA fame. "I spent less than RM150 on my costume which I made by myself from items including a hula hoop, cardboard, paint and paper," she said.
The occasion also saw some rather offbeat characters including a cosplayer named Massy who cosplayed as an "evil" Ronald McDonald character along the lines of the "Joker" of Batman Movies.
"I spent about RM200 on my outfit which was tailored, she said, adding that she thought the theme was unique.
Another cosplayer Jnalee, who was cosplaying as a Repentia Battle Sister character, said she did her outfit which cost less than RM200 from various bits and pieces and also with some help from her friend Nex who was also good in making props.
According to Hobbycon 2011 event organiser Julian Lee, there was a few "firsts" in store for this year's convention as compared to previous years.
"The highlights of this year's event include bringing in a special guest in the form of Japanese 'Seiiyu' (voice actress) from Japan, Aimi Terakawa, who is the voice of 'Suiko' in 'Cardfight!! Vanguard' who will be performing and also having autograph sessions for her fans both on Saturday and today (Sunday).
"Also we are having probably the first in Malaysia an 'All Star' march where cosplayers do a march in for the opening ceremony.
"We are also going to have a anime quiz and rubics cube competition in addition to Earth Realms Mortal Combat PS3 competition, Magic the Gathering competition and Warhammer 40K and Fantasy Demo, Rigzone computer and console demo, Engetsu Character Design game and Japan TCG Card Board Game.
"We also have 12-15 friends from Sarawak coming to support us which is coming from 'Gunpla' - a Gundam Modeling Group who are here to showcase their hobbies.
Julian said members of the public are invited to come over to enjoy themselves at the event which starts at 9.30am till 5.30pm on Sunday.
The first day of the two-day event, which ends today (Sunday), saw various Anime-related activities such as singing, dancing and individual cosplay competition performances.
In addition, many booths were set up showcasing various types of Anime and related items and activities such as games, toys, artworks, fortune-telling, comics, wall art, demos and many more. Judging from the first day, an increasingly large number of the cosplayers appear to be of the fairer sex.
"Gurren Lagan" cosplayers Becky as Yoko Littner and Leone as Kamina said they did the costumes themselves and that both their outfits and props cost each of them under RM200.
"We took about a month or two to do our costumes and props and yes, we are big fans of the Anime and Manga," said Becky.
Another Cosplayer was Cassandra whose character was Mortred the Phantom Assassin of DOTA fame. "I spent less than RM150 on my costume which I made by myself from items including a hula hoop, cardboard, paint and paper," she said.
The occasion also saw some rather offbeat characters including a cosplayer named Massy who cosplayed as an "evil" Ronald McDonald character along the lines of the "Joker" of Batman Movies.
"I spent about RM200 on my outfit which was tailored, she said, adding that she thought the theme was unique.
Another cosplayer Jnalee, who was cosplaying as a Repentia Battle Sister character, said she did her outfit which cost less than RM200 from various bits and pieces and also with some help from her friend Nex who was also good in making props.
According to Hobbycon 2011 event organiser Julian Lee, there was a few "firsts" in store for this year's convention as compared to previous years.
"The highlights of this year's event include bringing in a special guest in the form of Japanese 'Seiiyu' (voice actress) from Japan, Aimi Terakawa, who is the voice of 'Suiko' in 'Cardfight!! Vanguard' who will be performing and also having autograph sessions for her fans both on Saturday and today (Sunday).
"Also we are having probably the first in Malaysia an 'All Star' march where cosplayers do a march in for the opening ceremony.
"We are also going to have a anime quiz and rubics cube competition in addition to Earth Realms Mortal Combat PS3 competition, Magic the Gathering competition and Warhammer 40K and Fantasy Demo, Rigzone computer and console demo, Engetsu Character Design game and Japan TCG Card Board Game.
"We also have 12-15 friends from Sarawak coming to support us which is coming from 'Gunpla' - a Gundam Modeling Group who are here to showcase their hobbies.
Julian said members of the public are invited to come over to enjoy themselves at the event which starts at 9.30am till 5.30pm on Sunday.
2011年12月8日星期四
How to make your own Alaska ice lanterns
Ice lanterns are an easy way to brighten any winter setting. They’re also easy to make, as staff at Alaska Dispatch has discovered during three years of field tests.
We like them because there is something magical about the warm glow of light and fire cutting through the dark depths of winter. In Norse mythology, the space where the worlds of fire and ice meet is the place of creation, a place of light, air and warmth.
Whether gracing a patio, walkway, or adorning an ice skating lake or wintery trail, ice lanterns are a fitting way to dress up the surroundings. With a lit candle inside, they emit a warm glow, and each ice creation captures and reflects the light in its own, unique pattern.
Lanterns can be used to illuminate a runway path for Santa and his reindeer to land, add cheer to your individual home or brighten an entire neighborhood over the holidays.
Building one is simple. Fill a container with water, and set outside to freeze. The goal is to allow the outermost layer freeze. Different thickness will produce different effects, but some liquid must remain in order for the mold to produce a hollowed shape that will become the lantern. Think of a half-frozen ice cube and you've got the idea. Bigger molds container larger volumes of water will take longer to freeze than smaller ones.
Ice globes, made using balloons, are a particularly intriguing spin on the tradition of ice luminaries. Start now, and with a few supplies and a little patience, you'll have a unique lantern ready for Christmas or New Year's Eve. To make your own globe lantern, you'll need a balloon, candle and matches. (Heavy duty balloons like those found in party stores work best.)
Fill the balloon with water, blow a small puff of air in and tie it off. Then, set it either outside or in the freezer. The goal is to leave the balloon in the cold long enough for ice to form and take shape, but before it freezes solid.
Metal cooking bowls work well as a holding shell - they help the globe maintain its shape and naturally create a flat bottom -- but are not necessary. The longer you leave the globe in the cold, the thicker the walls become. Thin ice shells are pretty, but thick walls allow for more light play.
After 12 hours or so, check the balloon. When the ice is the thickness you want, drain the water from the center by creating a hole in the weakest layer of ice, which should be at the bottom of the lantern and may not be entirely frozen yet. The hole needs to be large enough to slip over the candle you’ve selected.
Next, make a chimney at the top of the globe for air flow. This can be done with the candle itself (using the flame to melt a hole), a small drill, or carefully with a stream of warm water (be careful, water can cause the ice to crack).
You're ready to light the lantern and enjoy!
One thing we really like about this project is that even the duds are pretty. Cracks, oblong shapes, unusual crystals -- they all add character and catch light in different ways.
One final word of advice - don't display the lanterns directly on wood. Give them a snow cushion or some branches to rest on, otherwise you risk freezing them firmly to the surface.
We like them because there is something magical about the warm glow of light and fire cutting through the dark depths of winter. In Norse mythology, the space where the worlds of fire and ice meet is the place of creation, a place of light, air and warmth.
Whether gracing a patio, walkway, or adorning an ice skating lake or wintery trail, ice lanterns are a fitting way to dress up the surroundings. With a lit candle inside, they emit a warm glow, and each ice creation captures and reflects the light in its own, unique pattern.
Lanterns can be used to illuminate a runway path for Santa and his reindeer to land, add cheer to your individual home or brighten an entire neighborhood over the holidays.
Building one is simple. Fill a container with water, and set outside to freeze. The goal is to allow the outermost layer freeze. Different thickness will produce different effects, but some liquid must remain in order for the mold to produce a hollowed shape that will become the lantern. Think of a half-frozen ice cube and you've got the idea. Bigger molds container larger volumes of water will take longer to freeze than smaller ones.
Ice globes, made using balloons, are a particularly intriguing spin on the tradition of ice luminaries. Start now, and with a few supplies and a little patience, you'll have a unique lantern ready for Christmas or New Year's Eve. To make your own globe lantern, you'll need a balloon, candle and matches. (Heavy duty balloons like those found in party stores work best.)
Fill the balloon with water, blow a small puff of air in and tie it off. Then, set it either outside or in the freezer. The goal is to leave the balloon in the cold long enough for ice to form and take shape, but before it freezes solid.
Metal cooking bowls work well as a holding shell - they help the globe maintain its shape and naturally create a flat bottom -- but are not necessary. The longer you leave the globe in the cold, the thicker the walls become. Thin ice shells are pretty, but thick walls allow for more light play.
After 12 hours or so, check the balloon. When the ice is the thickness you want, drain the water from the center by creating a hole in the weakest layer of ice, which should be at the bottom of the lantern and may not be entirely frozen yet. The hole needs to be large enough to slip over the candle you’ve selected.
Next, make a chimney at the top of the globe for air flow. This can be done with the candle itself (using the flame to melt a hole), a small drill, or carefully with a stream of warm water (be careful, water can cause the ice to crack).
You're ready to light the lantern and enjoy!
One thing we really like about this project is that even the duds are pretty. Cracks, oblong shapes, unusual crystals -- they all add character and catch light in different ways.
One final word of advice - don't display the lanterns directly on wood. Give them a snow cushion or some branches to rest on, otherwise you risk freezing them firmly to the surface.
2011年12月7日星期三
Dudes and chicks for fun
I would not be blogging about the various and amusing differences between dudes and chicks for fun and profit if it were not for a boss who dressed like she was ready to hit a late-’90s girl power soft rock music festival at a moment’s notice.
When I moved to New York 15 years ago, I was lucky to find any work. I had no connections, no money, and no marketable skills. I had a degree in playwriting which qualified me to brood. I was too sweaty to wait tables, too goofy to work in sales, and when the temp agency put me in front of a computer, I looked like a monkey with a Rubik’s cube. I tied my only tie with all of the grace of a hangman. That tie was baboon ass red.
Those are what I call my “Dickensian” years. My daily budget was a series of stacked quarters on the desk of the room I was renting in a hotel where I shared a bathroom with an entire floor of junkies, shut-ins, and frail old women who managed to cram their lives into one small room. Cell phones were extravagances in 1996, and I would spend half my quarters cold calling temp agencies and setting up appointments that felt like tribunals where my value as a human being was accessed. My other quarters went to hot dogs. After weeks of fruitless hustling, my funds were fumes. I was forced to consider the inconsiderable, a fate worse than failure. A move back to Texas.
The temp jobs I went to were thoroughly unimpressed with me. The fashion designer showroom didn’t like my clothes folding skills. I operated a freight elevator clumsily. I was a terrible telemarketer. First of all, the scripts they provided when I would cold call people I picked from a random page ripped from the phone book lacked a little pizazz. Pizazz is not an asset in telemarketing. Also: when the annoyed person whose dinner I was interrupting would say “No thank you,” I was too quick to apologize over and over again.
Money, connections, and skills are valuable. But it’s not like I didn’t have any talents. Other 23-year-olds I would meet in those years had trust funds, or Ivy League pedigree, or degrees in finance or marketing. I had faith. The kind of faith reserved for drunks and children and sailors in tiny boats lost in violent seas. I meet kids who’ve just moved to this ridiculous concrete carousel all the time. Many of them are smarter than I ever was, and they are so tightly wound that their inevitable unspooling will be some therapist’s profit. Some people get all the breaks, and the rest just get broke. I also meet plenty of men and women 10 or more years my junior who are all fear and hunger and faith. A few will bail after toiling for months or years. But then there are the sweet and savage knuckleheads who head-butt doors until they crash open. I root for you.
I root for you because I know, from years of playing video games, all you really have to do is keep pressing buttons, keep shooting laser bursts and punching stuff, until the tips of your fingers hurt, and eventually you’ll unlock a hidden door or discover a bag of magic. You’ll get lucky. If I can get lucky, you can get lucky. Slog forth, brothers and sisters.
I caught a break first because a very nice woman at a temp agency briefly treated me like a human being and suggested that I might make an excellent receptionist. She made this suggestion because a recent employer had complained to her that I was “talkative.” Being a receptionist fit my skillsets: I could answer phones. I could smile. I could answer phones. She tried me out as a receptionist at a couple of companies. Granted, those employers were a little shocked to see Oliver Twist answering phone calls, but eventually, my mix of desperate-to-please charm and ability to arrive at work on time won over. She sent me to work at a small publishing company that produced magazines about the brave new world of laptop computing and “networks.”
Seeing as I wanted to be a writer, I figured that being close to writing, any writing, was a pretty good gig. I hate to brag, but I was an amazing receptionist. My fingers were fast. I was a Southerner born and bred, so I had manners beaten into me. I was friendly, and since I was making hundreds of dollars a week, my stomach wasn’t constantly trying to eat itself. I had one tie, sure. My two dress shirts were always wrinkled, I admit this. I was a reception prodigy, but I still looked like a corporate hobo.
Karen was just a few years older than me. She was the office manager. Her hair was short, she wore flowery hippie dresses, and her breasts were perfect. I was terrified to even glance at them, though. It would have been inappropriate. She was my superior. My first boss in the big city. A real live making it in New York person who offered me, free of charge, her respect and I returned it as often as I could.
Karen was bright and chirpy. She joked with me, taught me some computer programs, and had the nicest way of telling me I was screwing up. Her training mantra was “this isn’t really hard.” After a while, I believed her. Her easy confidence and mellow demeanor was a revelation. Everything had been hard since I had arrived in New York on a fall day when 1,000 other ne’er-do-wells probably showed up with post-college delusions of grandeur. Karen talked to me like a peer, while at the same time, wearing her authority the way she wore her assortment of skirts with little bells on them.
When I moved to New York 15 years ago, I was lucky to find any work. I had no connections, no money, and no marketable skills. I had a degree in playwriting which qualified me to brood. I was too sweaty to wait tables, too goofy to work in sales, and when the temp agency put me in front of a computer, I looked like a monkey with a Rubik’s cube. I tied my only tie with all of the grace of a hangman. That tie was baboon ass red.
Those are what I call my “Dickensian” years. My daily budget was a series of stacked quarters on the desk of the room I was renting in a hotel where I shared a bathroom with an entire floor of junkies, shut-ins, and frail old women who managed to cram their lives into one small room. Cell phones were extravagances in 1996, and I would spend half my quarters cold calling temp agencies and setting up appointments that felt like tribunals where my value as a human being was accessed. My other quarters went to hot dogs. After weeks of fruitless hustling, my funds were fumes. I was forced to consider the inconsiderable, a fate worse than failure. A move back to Texas.
The temp jobs I went to were thoroughly unimpressed with me. The fashion designer showroom didn’t like my clothes folding skills. I operated a freight elevator clumsily. I was a terrible telemarketer. First of all, the scripts they provided when I would cold call people I picked from a random page ripped from the phone book lacked a little pizazz. Pizazz is not an asset in telemarketing. Also: when the annoyed person whose dinner I was interrupting would say “No thank you,” I was too quick to apologize over and over again.
Money, connections, and skills are valuable. But it’s not like I didn’t have any talents. Other 23-year-olds I would meet in those years had trust funds, or Ivy League pedigree, or degrees in finance or marketing. I had faith. The kind of faith reserved for drunks and children and sailors in tiny boats lost in violent seas. I meet kids who’ve just moved to this ridiculous concrete carousel all the time. Many of them are smarter than I ever was, and they are so tightly wound that their inevitable unspooling will be some therapist’s profit. Some people get all the breaks, and the rest just get broke. I also meet plenty of men and women 10 or more years my junior who are all fear and hunger and faith. A few will bail after toiling for months or years. But then there are the sweet and savage knuckleheads who head-butt doors until they crash open. I root for you.
I root for you because I know, from years of playing video games, all you really have to do is keep pressing buttons, keep shooting laser bursts and punching stuff, until the tips of your fingers hurt, and eventually you’ll unlock a hidden door or discover a bag of magic. You’ll get lucky. If I can get lucky, you can get lucky. Slog forth, brothers and sisters.
I caught a break first because a very nice woman at a temp agency briefly treated me like a human being and suggested that I might make an excellent receptionist. She made this suggestion because a recent employer had complained to her that I was “talkative.” Being a receptionist fit my skillsets: I could answer phones. I could smile. I could answer phones. She tried me out as a receptionist at a couple of companies. Granted, those employers were a little shocked to see Oliver Twist answering phone calls, but eventually, my mix of desperate-to-please charm and ability to arrive at work on time won over. She sent me to work at a small publishing company that produced magazines about the brave new world of laptop computing and “networks.”
Seeing as I wanted to be a writer, I figured that being close to writing, any writing, was a pretty good gig. I hate to brag, but I was an amazing receptionist. My fingers were fast. I was a Southerner born and bred, so I had manners beaten into me. I was friendly, and since I was making hundreds of dollars a week, my stomach wasn’t constantly trying to eat itself. I had one tie, sure. My two dress shirts were always wrinkled, I admit this. I was a reception prodigy, but I still looked like a corporate hobo.
Karen was just a few years older than me. She was the office manager. Her hair was short, she wore flowery hippie dresses, and her breasts were perfect. I was terrified to even glance at them, though. It would have been inappropriate. She was my superior. My first boss in the big city. A real live making it in New York person who offered me, free of charge, her respect and I returned it as often as I could.
Karen was bright and chirpy. She joked with me, taught me some computer programs, and had the nicest way of telling me I was screwing up. Her training mantra was “this isn’t really hard.” After a while, I believed her. Her easy confidence and mellow demeanor was a revelation. Everything had been hard since I had arrived in New York on a fall day when 1,000 other ne’er-do-wells probably showed up with post-college delusions of grandeur. Karen talked to me like a peer, while at the same time, wearing her authority the way she wore her assortment of skirts with little bells on them.
2011年12月6日星期二
Eat Like No One’s Watching
Even though we are having an Indian summer of sorts here in Manhattan, the lure of December inevitably brings uncontrollable desires to indulge. Tis the season, after all. Don't you get those cravings for sinful meals you want to dive right into without the pressure of anyone watching?
Sometimes it's good to be bad, really bad. Skip the health and exercise regimens and start exploring these spots that are sure to warm your belly, and then some. For those who are trekking to tropical destinations over winter break, my apologies, and for the rest of you, don't worry, swimsuit season is plenty of months away.
The Ace Hotel has become quite the swanky watering hole for glitterati and hipsters alike, but the real gem of the compound is The Breslin. Helmed by the killer female chef (yes, a rarity!), April Bloomfield delivers fierce animal-centric cuisine. This is not for the faint of heart. Putting a gourmet and playful spin on pub grub coupled with an inventive and potent cocktail program, it's easy to devour yourself into losing all sense of space and time. There is no better way to begin a meal than with "snacks" of caramel popcorn, chicken liver parfait, and boiled peanuts in pork fat. The big guns arrive with Bloomfield's famous terrine board (don't bother worrying about the details), succulent pig's foot and dry aged ribeye for two.
Topping it off with thrice cooked chips (the secret is the duck fat frying finale for the potatoes), I dare you to conquer dessert before you fall into a blissful food coma. For those really looking to live on the wild side, the whole suckling pig and whole lamb dinners are worth the adventure, though you will have to share with about ten of your closest friends you wouldn't mind taking down a true head-to-tail meal with. And consider yourself warned, those that do opt in for these family meals must endure a spotlighted "chef's table" in the middle of the establishment, exposing your dirty little secret to a bevy of diners.
Harlem may now be trendy with the opening of Red Rooster, but the original foodie magnet is famed Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. This roadie shack of heaven that evokes a middle-of-the-country highway motorcycle joint will certainly rev your engine, and it's no wonder with its founders being former Harley-Davidson diehards. The roots of the dishes are Southern, but the barbecued goods take liberty with global influences delivering the perfect fusion of flavors that has built its legacy.
The options are endless, and to make the decision process even harder there is truly nothing they can't do. In particular, the bbq chicken wings are insane (embarrassingly I ordered two full plates for myself!) as are the fried green tomatoes, and don't miss the opportunity to experiment with their many signature sauces. Be ready to dig in with your hands and dump yourself in a trough after all the mess is said and done.
If you aren't familiar with David Chang, you have been living under a rock in New York. Now with four critically-acclaimed restaurants (Ko even has two Michelin stars), there is still something irresistibly nostalgic about his first venture, Momofuku Noodle Bar.
Chang was artfully on the cutting edge of the wave of low-key, subtly designed casual restaurants where it's all about the food, which is anything but ordinary. In the vein of this democratic ethos, where anyone should be able to enjoy modern creativity and elevated flavors of fine dining, you may have to bear a substantial wait to get a chance to taste Chang's creations.
If you can be patient, though, Korean-inspired magic awaits, choreographed to a funky pop music soundtrack that will have you bopping uncontrollably on your barren wooden stool. The famous hoisin pork buns are not to be missed and the various ramen bowls are bountiful, hearty and always packing a punch.
Sometimes it's good to be bad, really bad. Skip the health and exercise regimens and start exploring these spots that are sure to warm your belly, and then some. For those who are trekking to tropical destinations over winter break, my apologies, and for the rest of you, don't worry, swimsuit season is plenty of months away.
The Ace Hotel has become quite the swanky watering hole for glitterati and hipsters alike, but the real gem of the compound is The Breslin. Helmed by the killer female chef (yes, a rarity!), April Bloomfield delivers fierce animal-centric cuisine. This is not for the faint of heart. Putting a gourmet and playful spin on pub grub coupled with an inventive and potent cocktail program, it's easy to devour yourself into losing all sense of space and time. There is no better way to begin a meal than with "snacks" of caramel popcorn, chicken liver parfait, and boiled peanuts in pork fat. The big guns arrive with Bloomfield's famous terrine board (don't bother worrying about the details), succulent pig's foot and dry aged ribeye for two.
Topping it off with thrice cooked chips (the secret is the duck fat frying finale for the potatoes), I dare you to conquer dessert before you fall into a blissful food coma. For those really looking to live on the wild side, the whole suckling pig and whole lamb dinners are worth the adventure, though you will have to share with about ten of your closest friends you wouldn't mind taking down a true head-to-tail meal with. And consider yourself warned, those that do opt in for these family meals must endure a spotlighted "chef's table" in the middle of the establishment, exposing your dirty little secret to a bevy of diners.
Harlem may now be trendy with the opening of Red Rooster, but the original foodie magnet is famed Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. This roadie shack of heaven that evokes a middle-of-the-country highway motorcycle joint will certainly rev your engine, and it's no wonder with its founders being former Harley-Davidson diehards. The roots of the dishes are Southern, but the barbecued goods take liberty with global influences delivering the perfect fusion of flavors that has built its legacy.
The options are endless, and to make the decision process even harder there is truly nothing they can't do. In particular, the bbq chicken wings are insane (embarrassingly I ordered two full plates for myself!) as are the fried green tomatoes, and don't miss the opportunity to experiment with their many signature sauces. Be ready to dig in with your hands and dump yourself in a trough after all the mess is said and done.
If you aren't familiar with David Chang, you have been living under a rock in New York. Now with four critically-acclaimed restaurants (Ko even has two Michelin stars), there is still something irresistibly nostalgic about his first venture, Momofuku Noodle Bar.
Chang was artfully on the cutting edge of the wave of low-key, subtly designed casual restaurants where it's all about the food, which is anything but ordinary. In the vein of this democratic ethos, where anyone should be able to enjoy modern creativity and elevated flavors of fine dining, you may have to bear a substantial wait to get a chance to taste Chang's creations.
If you can be patient, though, Korean-inspired magic awaits, choreographed to a funky pop music soundtrack that will have you bopping uncontrollably on your barren wooden stool. The famous hoisin pork buns are not to be missed and the various ramen bowls are bountiful, hearty and always packing a punch.
2011年12月5日星期一
Celluon Magic Cube Virtual Bluetooth Keyboard
We’ve seen an Apple iPhone 5 prototype and were very hopeful that Apple would bring it to life for us. The prototype featured a virtual keyboard that projected onto any opaque surface and works like a true to life keyboard. Apple didn’t product the iPhone with this technology but technology Celluon tried their hand at the projected keyboard and it looks like they’ve done a good job with their Magic Cube.
The Magic Cube is the size of a small computer speaker that projects a virtual full sized keyboard onto your desk and connects to your iPhone+iPad computer, notebooks, smart phone or tablet via USB and Bluetooth. The Celluon Magic Cube has already been produced and is for sale at Amazon for $169.99.
The Magic Cube is the size of a small computer speaker that projects a virtual full sized keyboard onto your desk and connects to your iPhone+iPad computer, notebooks, smart phone or tablet via USB and Bluetooth. The Celluon Magic Cube has already been produced and is for sale at Amazon for $169.99.
2011年12月4日星期日
Glass sculptures go to your head
Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien produces poetic sculptures with complex narratives.
“E-Echo,” a new selection of his challenging glassworks, is on view Downtown in Hawk Galleries.
Using a sand-casting process, Vallien creates forms that seem predominantly rough-hewn and ancient. Polishing and smoothing specific areas on each piece allows him to create dramatic contrasts between opacity and transparency. The effect is ethereal and dreamlike.
Light bounces around the internal structure of many works, refracting and reflecting sculpted shapes. Often, the focus of Vallien’s imagery is the human head. In Solitude, a polished cube of clear glass reveals a stylized face. Recessed into a corner of the cube, the single face looks like two or three faces when viewed from different angles.
Born in 1938 in Sweden, Vallien studied art and design in his native country before traveling to California to work as a ceramic designer. He returned to Sweden in 1963 to work at the Afors glass factory and soon became acquainted with the studio-glass movement. While designing functional glassware, he developed his own work around the notion that glass absorbs light.
Nowhere is Vallien’s relationship with light more evident than in his series of stylized human heads. Head 6 is polished and smoothed in areas to reveal an internal structure and unexpected internal light. As one moves around the piece, surprises — architectural and anatomical details — emerge.
Themes of travel and journey are also present in Vallien’s work. Indeed, the exhibit title — “ E-Echo” — is a term for a maritime signal, referring to the altering of one’s course.
Escape II is shaped like the hull of a boat. The interior reveals small shapes resembling ladders or calligraphic runes. A face toward the top of the piece suggests a relic or tribute to the departed.
Circular like a life buoy, Harbor 1-09 resembles a miniature world map. A line trails over the surface of the form, eventually leading to a small house — perhaps a metaphor for safety and security.
Other works are totemlike, suggesting ritual and magic. Watcher I resembles a fetish figure with several protrusions and seemingly sharp spikes.
Idols, consisting of 12 figurative forms, looks like a collection of artifacts.
A strong show, “E-Echo” demonstrates Vallien’s versatility and an ability to communicate human desire. Each piece suggests a journey and search for life’s meaning.
“E-Echo,” a new selection of his challenging glassworks, is on view Downtown in Hawk Galleries.
Using a sand-casting process, Vallien creates forms that seem predominantly rough-hewn and ancient. Polishing and smoothing specific areas on each piece allows him to create dramatic contrasts between opacity and transparency. The effect is ethereal and dreamlike.
Light bounces around the internal structure of many works, refracting and reflecting sculpted shapes. Often, the focus of Vallien’s imagery is the human head. In Solitude, a polished cube of clear glass reveals a stylized face. Recessed into a corner of the cube, the single face looks like two or three faces when viewed from different angles.
Born in 1938 in Sweden, Vallien studied art and design in his native country before traveling to California to work as a ceramic designer. He returned to Sweden in 1963 to work at the Afors glass factory and soon became acquainted with the studio-glass movement. While designing functional glassware, he developed his own work around the notion that glass absorbs light.
Nowhere is Vallien’s relationship with light more evident than in his series of stylized human heads. Head 6 is polished and smoothed in areas to reveal an internal structure and unexpected internal light. As one moves around the piece, surprises — architectural and anatomical details — emerge.
Themes of travel and journey are also present in Vallien’s work. Indeed, the exhibit title — “ E-Echo” — is a term for a maritime signal, referring to the altering of one’s course.
Escape II is shaped like the hull of a boat. The interior reveals small shapes resembling ladders or calligraphic runes. A face toward the top of the piece suggests a relic or tribute to the departed.
Circular like a life buoy, Harbor 1-09 resembles a miniature world map. A line trails over the surface of the form, eventually leading to a small house — perhaps a metaphor for safety and security.
Other works are totemlike, suggesting ritual and magic. Watcher I resembles a fetish figure with several protrusions and seemingly sharp spikes.
Idols, consisting of 12 figurative forms, looks like a collection of artifacts.
A strong show, “E-Echo” demonstrates Vallien’s versatility and an ability to communicate human desire. Each piece suggests a journey and search for life’s meaning.
2011年12月1日星期四
Meet Celebrity Barber Curtis Smith
Have you ever walked past a poster, driven past a billboard or glanced at an ad in a magazine, and it was a man’s haircut that made you look twice? Well, if that man was Diddy, Usher or any number of other entertainers or athletes, then it was the work of Curtis Smith that caught your attention. Smith is hip-hop’s barber to the stars, but his impressive clientele also includes actors, sports figures and entertainment industry executives, making him one of today’s key cultural influencers. He has been Diddy’s barber and close friend for over 13 years, and as such has seen his cuts on album covers, movie posters and fashion ads the world over, supporting brands from Bad Boy Entertainment to Ciroc Vodka. Some would say Smith’s greatest creation was the “9CHawkie” haircut he developed for Diddy during 2004’s “Vote or Die” campaign. Smith’s original take on the mohawk went on to become a staple in hip-hop and sports, turning up seemingly everywhere you looked over the course of the next several years. As huge as that style became, Smith might have just done it again with the “South of France” cut that was created for Usher’s 2010-11 world tour and has since garnered international acclaim.
Smith values his personal relationships with his clients, as the perfect look is always to some degree an extension of the individual. In addition to Diddy and Usher, other celebrities and athletes who regularly ask Curtis Smith to work his magic include Will Smith, The Jacksons, Ray J, Ice Cube, Fonzworth Bentley, Russell Simmons, Swizz Beats, Derek Luke, Allen Iverson, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard—and the list goes on. Smith is the recipient of the 2001 NAACP Small Business Award, the 2004 Oster Golden Clippers and the 2009 Gillette Man of Style Award. In addition to his work grooming his clients, Smith spends time grooming the next generation of top barbers. To this end, Smith founded the Barbers Round Table, a forum for networking among barbers, which meets twice annually in Atlanta.
The Braun Cruzer “Beard and Head” model is the perfect fit for Smith, who is always careful to explore every angle in crafting a cut, allowing a single style to take on different personalities when seen from different perspectives. Here he applies the “Beard and Head” to Complex Market Editor Matthew Henson at NYC's Blind Barber, giving him a hot new look that is fresh, clean and vintage Curtis Smith.
Smith values his personal relationships with his clients, as the perfect look is always to some degree an extension of the individual. In addition to Diddy and Usher, other celebrities and athletes who regularly ask Curtis Smith to work his magic include Will Smith, The Jacksons, Ray J, Ice Cube, Fonzworth Bentley, Russell Simmons, Swizz Beats, Derek Luke, Allen Iverson, Dwayne Wade, Dwight Howard—and the list goes on. Smith is the recipient of the 2001 NAACP Small Business Award, the 2004 Oster Golden Clippers and the 2009 Gillette Man of Style Award. In addition to his work grooming his clients, Smith spends time grooming the next generation of top barbers. To this end, Smith founded the Barbers Round Table, a forum for networking among barbers, which meets twice annually in Atlanta.
The Braun Cruzer “Beard and Head” model is the perfect fit for Smith, who is always careful to explore every angle in crafting a cut, allowing a single style to take on different personalities when seen from different perspectives. Here he applies the “Beard and Head” to Complex Market Editor Matthew Henson at NYC's Blind Barber, giving him a hot new look that is fresh, clean and vintage Curtis Smith.
2011年11月30日星期三
A keyboard in the palm of your hand
It's not unusual these days to see virtual keyboards on the touch screens of portable devices like tablets and phones. These devices lack a physical keyboard but make up for it by displaying a picture of one on the screen and letting the user tap away on that.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
2011年11月29日星期二
Blizzard’s plans to satisfy their fanbase and still deliver a fresh experience
Waiting in the lobby of Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters, I was overcome by nostalgic reverence. Where most businesses have a mountain of months-old magazines, Blizzard has a museum. It was nothing too extravagant, mind you, but the frames lining the walls were like windows to my childhood. Each piece of classic Diablo art conjured up fond memories of the franchise that’s marking its 15th birthday this November.
It wasn’t always this way, however. Blizzard certainly didn’t begin its existence as a gaming giant responsible for both this generation’s Dungeons & Dragons and the game that has become South Korea’s national sport. Over the years, the company has seen both growth spurts and growing pains, both successes and, er, whatever Warcraft Adventures was. Many incredibly talented people have come and gone.
This is the environment Diablo III has evolved in. To track its development is to see a balancing act made all the more precarious by countless shifts and upheavals. One thing, however, has always remained constant: fandom. I’m not just referring to Diablo’s near-militant community—Diablo’s story is one of diehard dedication on both sides of the table. Most of the original Diablo team, you see, is now gone. In its place is a band of folks who grew up playing Diablo and Diablo II as fans, just like you or I. Now they’re shaping the franchise’s present and future, but—thanks to that ridiculously passionate community—they’re also trying their damndest to avoid losing sight of the past.
“When we started, we really inherited this big scary game,” explained game director Jay Wilson. “There are very few of us who actually worked on the previous Diablo games, so a lot of us came at it more as fans. When you’re building something that you didn’t originate, the struggle that you have is, how do you remain true to it while also being true to your own creative nature? If you make something, you can’t just copy. You have to infuse it with your own personality, your own interests, your own opinions, your own desires. If you don’t, then it will be soulless.”
It almost seems fitting—a game about, you know, the devil that sells its own soul. Sorry, though, Satan: this just isn’t your day.
Everybody’s had those first moments with a new game that really define the entire experience. Diablo III’s origins, then, lie not in some linear extension of the original Diablo’s creative vision, but in those player-driven experiences. Hearing Wilson describe his love affair with the first Diablo drove that point home.
“It was when I bought Warcraft II,” he said. “On the back of the CD case they had an ad for Diablo. It had a picture of the warrior with his sword and shield, standing in front of the church door with the red light streaming out of it. That image was so compelling to me that I wanted to play that game. I didn’t even know what it was and I wanted to play it. I remember, back then there was so little information. You just didn’t know a lot about games before they came out. So to have an image so compel me, I always remember that.
“The day I installed it, I told my wife ‘You need to leave the house, because it’s Diablo time now.’ ‘Diablo’ spoken in hushed tones. And it was all the classic moments: the first encounter with the butcher, the first encounter with the Skeleton King, the first time a hundred goatmen come running at you and you manage to survive by the skin of your teeth. The first time you griefed somebody who was your teammate. There are all those great moments that I think everyone had.”
Hindsight, however, stops being 20/20 when rose-tinted glasses are involved. For Wilson and the rest of Diablo III’s development team, avoiding that trap is the biggest challenge. When is it appropriate to give diehard fans precisely what they want? And—perhaps more importantly—when do you fire back with a stern “No”?
It wasn’t always this way, however. Blizzard certainly didn’t begin its existence as a gaming giant responsible for both this generation’s Dungeons & Dragons and the game that has become South Korea’s national sport. Over the years, the company has seen both growth spurts and growing pains, both successes and, er, whatever Warcraft Adventures was. Many incredibly talented people have come and gone.
This is the environment Diablo III has evolved in. To track its development is to see a balancing act made all the more precarious by countless shifts and upheavals. One thing, however, has always remained constant: fandom. I’m not just referring to Diablo’s near-militant community—Diablo’s story is one of diehard dedication on both sides of the table. Most of the original Diablo team, you see, is now gone. In its place is a band of folks who grew up playing Diablo and Diablo II as fans, just like you or I. Now they’re shaping the franchise’s present and future, but—thanks to that ridiculously passionate community—they’re also trying their damndest to avoid losing sight of the past.
“When we started, we really inherited this big scary game,” explained game director Jay Wilson. “There are very few of us who actually worked on the previous Diablo games, so a lot of us came at it more as fans. When you’re building something that you didn’t originate, the struggle that you have is, how do you remain true to it while also being true to your own creative nature? If you make something, you can’t just copy. You have to infuse it with your own personality, your own interests, your own opinions, your own desires. If you don’t, then it will be soulless.”
It almost seems fitting—a game about, you know, the devil that sells its own soul. Sorry, though, Satan: this just isn’t your day.
Everybody’s had those first moments with a new game that really define the entire experience. Diablo III’s origins, then, lie not in some linear extension of the original Diablo’s creative vision, but in those player-driven experiences. Hearing Wilson describe his love affair with the first Diablo drove that point home.
“It was when I bought Warcraft II,” he said. “On the back of the CD case they had an ad for Diablo. It had a picture of the warrior with his sword and shield, standing in front of the church door with the red light streaming out of it. That image was so compelling to me that I wanted to play that game. I didn’t even know what it was and I wanted to play it. I remember, back then there was so little information. You just didn’t know a lot about games before they came out. So to have an image so compel me, I always remember that.
“The day I installed it, I told my wife ‘You need to leave the house, because it’s Diablo time now.’ ‘Diablo’ spoken in hushed tones. And it was all the classic moments: the first encounter with the butcher, the first encounter with the Skeleton King, the first time a hundred goatmen come running at you and you manage to survive by the skin of your teeth. The first time you griefed somebody who was your teammate. There are all those great moments that I think everyone had.”
Hindsight, however, stops being 20/20 when rose-tinted glasses are involved. For Wilson and the rest of Diablo III’s development team, avoiding that trap is the biggest challenge. When is it appropriate to give diehard fans precisely what they want? And—perhaps more importantly—when do you fire back with a stern “No”?
2011年11月28日星期一
Keys to the unseen future
It's not unusual these days to see virtual keyboards on the touch screens of portable devices like tablets and phones. These devices lack a physical keyboard but make up for it by displaying a picture of one on the screen and letting the user tap away on that.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
But virtual keyboards are not just constrained to the screen. Today almost anything can become a keyboard – from a table top to the palm of your hand.
Korean company Celluon has been developing virtual keyboards for several years and their latest product is the Magic Cube, a small box that fits in your hand yet provides a full-size keyboard when needed.
Switch it on, sit it on a desk and it projects an image of a keyboard on to the surface in front of it. Tap the virtual keys and the corresponding characters are communicated wirelessly to any compatible device, from a laptop to a smartphone.
The principles involved are very simple. The projection of the keyboard is just that – made by a tiny projector at the top of the box. At the bottom of the box beams of infrared light are emitted just above the surface of the desk. As your fingers tap the surface they cut through these beams which are reflected up to a camera in the middle of the box. The camera sees the reflection and works out from its position which key you have "pressed".
Though the Magic Cube is clever it is essentially just a very portable replacement for a real keyboard.
More radical possibilities are on the horizon. Microsoft researchers Hrvoje Benko and Andrew Wilson, along with Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, recently showed off a system they call OmniTouch, which turns any surface into a touch screen.
OmniTouch is made up of a shoulder-mounted projector and depth-sensing camera combination. The projector displays interactive images on any nearby surface – a wall, a table, a pad or even parts of the user's body. The camera tracks the user's fingers, working out where and when they touch other objects.
Putting it all together allows the user to, for example, dial a phone number on a keypad displayed on the palm of their hand, or draw projected pictures on an ordinary paper pad.
Pretty much anything, in fact, that you can do with an ordinary touch-sensitive display, except that the display itself can be any suitable surface.
We take it for granted that the size of portable devices is a compromise between compactness and usability. But if the display and controls need not be physically part of the device, all bets are off. It's too early to tell whether systems like OmniTouch will take off. But in a few years they may virtually replace their physical counterparts in many situations, in more ways than one.
2011年11月27日星期日
5th Avenue Apple Store Unveils New Glass Cube
Apple unveiled its revamped glass cube at the Fifth Avenue flagship store this morning after five months of renovations. The project began in mid-June and cost Apple a reported $6.7 million. The largest, though not greatly noticeable change, is the replacement of the cube's iconic glass panels from 90 panes with 15 larger, seamless glass panels. Additionally, Apple removed protective bollards, installed new pavers around the site, and reinstalled surrounding water drains. FINALLY—those old drains were always making the store crash.
The flagship is normally open 24/7 but closed yesterday evening at 10 p.m. to complete renovations; as a result, employees were met with a hungry crowd of consumers when it reopened at 10 a.m. this morning. One Apple fanatic, a Brazilian man named Glauver Moreira, told us he was hoping to purchase the iHealth blood pressure cuff designed for the iPad for a friend back home. Gazing at the store from the street, he told us, "It's beautiful. I heard that Steve Jobs spent a lot of money just for the glass [referring to the redesign]. And it's underground. In Brazil we don't have stuff like that."
A longtime user of Apple's mobile products, Moreira declared he had three iPhones before purchasing the iPhone 4 this summer, without a contract. While he finds it frustrating that the latest iPhone must be jail-broken before using without a contract, Moreira says he will continue to support Apple. "It's the magic of marketing", he said. Asked about his reaction to the news of Steve Jobs's death, Moreira replied, "I was in my English classes in Brazil and I came back to my room. I was watching the global news and it was the first story. I was upset. The hair on my arms stood up." After shaking hands, he beelined for the door, passing would-be customers waiting on a reservation line for the iPhone 4S.
Inside, not much has changed. Flocks of people crowded around Apple equipment, many to check their email and Facebook accounts, while others received one-on-one tutorials in a variety of languages. Those in the checkout line shuffled forward as the line snaked through the store. Cameras flashed every so often.
As one of the most photographed locations in New York City, the Apple cube continues to draw attention from visiting enthusiasts. Some might consider it Jobs's final hurrah as his legacy of small—though costly and controversial—tweaks in the name of simplicity live on.
The flagship is normally open 24/7 but closed yesterday evening at 10 p.m. to complete renovations; as a result, employees were met with a hungry crowd of consumers when it reopened at 10 a.m. this morning. One Apple fanatic, a Brazilian man named Glauver Moreira, told us he was hoping to purchase the iHealth blood pressure cuff designed for the iPad for a friend back home. Gazing at the store from the street, he told us, "It's beautiful. I heard that Steve Jobs spent a lot of money just for the glass [referring to the redesign]. And it's underground. In Brazil we don't have stuff like that."
A longtime user of Apple's mobile products, Moreira declared he had three iPhones before purchasing the iPhone 4 this summer, without a contract. While he finds it frustrating that the latest iPhone must be jail-broken before using without a contract, Moreira says he will continue to support Apple. "It's the magic of marketing", he said. Asked about his reaction to the news of Steve Jobs's death, Moreira replied, "I was in my English classes in Brazil and I came back to my room. I was watching the global news and it was the first story. I was upset. The hair on my arms stood up." After shaking hands, he beelined for the door, passing would-be customers waiting on a reservation line for the iPhone 4S.
Inside, not much has changed. Flocks of people crowded around Apple equipment, many to check their email and Facebook accounts, while others received one-on-one tutorials in a variety of languages. Those in the checkout line shuffled forward as the line snaked through the store. Cameras flashed every so often.
As one of the most photographed locations in New York City, the Apple cube continues to draw attention from visiting enthusiasts. Some might consider it Jobs's final hurrah as his legacy of small—though costly and controversial—tweaks in the name of simplicity live on.
2011年11月24日星期四
Local massage therapist has magic in her fingers
"It started about 10 years ago. My husband Mark owns his own business. He came home stressed and very tight in his neck, shoulders and back. I gave him massages to help relieve his stress,” says Terri LaBell. “Amazingly, giving the massage was a release for me as well. I went into a zone and could relax doing the work. I found it very rewarding.”
For eight years Terri, who lives in Avon, worked on her husband at home. As she put it, “I pretended I was a real massage therapist.” During the day she worked as a purchasing agent for one of the area’s biggest design and automation companies. This was 2006 and she had spent the last 23 years working in a cubicle and decided she needed a change. A drastic change.
Terri spent the next two years attending professional massage school after work at the Onondaga Massage School here in Rochester. In 2008 she shut down her cubicle once and for all and began her new career as a licensed massage therapist.
“It’s so rewarding when people email or text me the next day to tell me they are pain free. It makes up for the 23 years I spent in a cube and it’s a great affirmation that I’ve made the right decision. I’m helping people every day, and that feels great.”
Earlier this year the former owner of Massage on University decided to sell the business when she moved to Vermont. Her hope was to sell the business to someone who would run it with as much care as she had for the past 10 years.
Having spent two years learning the ropes, Terri jumped at the opportunity to own the full-service relaxation center that offers more than a half dozen services from scrubs to facials, waxing, manicures, pedicures and, of course, full-body massage. On Oct. 1 Terri officially became the owner of Massage on University, the same place where she worked for the last two years.
“Human touch is so important. I’ve read studies of monkeys who were deprived of social interaction and touch. Ones that were touched, they thrived. The isolated monkeys did far worse,” Terri says, speaking of the famous Harlow experiments performed by American psychologist Harry Harlow.
“I think humans are the same way. It’s a disservice that massage is not readily covered by health insurance. Pills are prescribed freely but massage is held in a different regard when in all actuality many pain sufferers need therapy once a week but just can’t afford it,” she continues.
For eight years Terri, who lives in Avon, worked on her husband at home. As she put it, “I pretended I was a real massage therapist.” During the day she worked as a purchasing agent for one of the area’s biggest design and automation companies. This was 2006 and she had spent the last 23 years working in a cubicle and decided she needed a change. A drastic change.
Terri spent the next two years attending professional massage school after work at the Onondaga Massage School here in Rochester. In 2008 she shut down her cubicle once and for all and began her new career as a licensed massage therapist.
“It’s so rewarding when people email or text me the next day to tell me they are pain free. It makes up for the 23 years I spent in a cube and it’s a great affirmation that I’ve made the right decision. I’m helping people every day, and that feels great.”
Earlier this year the former owner of Massage on University decided to sell the business when she moved to Vermont. Her hope was to sell the business to someone who would run it with as much care as she had for the past 10 years.
Having spent two years learning the ropes, Terri jumped at the opportunity to own the full-service relaxation center that offers more than a half dozen services from scrubs to facials, waxing, manicures, pedicures and, of course, full-body massage. On Oct. 1 Terri officially became the owner of Massage on University, the same place where she worked for the last two years.
“Human touch is so important. I’ve read studies of monkeys who were deprived of social interaction and touch. Ones that were touched, they thrived. The isolated monkeys did far worse,” Terri says, speaking of the famous Harlow experiments performed by American psychologist Harry Harlow.
“I think humans are the same way. It’s a disservice that massage is not readily covered by health insurance. Pills are prescribed freely but massage is held in a different regard when in all actuality many pain sufferers need therapy once a week but just can’t afford it,” she continues.
2011年11月23日星期三
Alter Reality with Augment for Android
There are a lot of different Android apps out there from productivity apps to music players, the selection is vast. Occasionally, I come across an app that’s extremely cool and that’s the case with an app called Augment from AugmenteDev. Augment lets you preview objects & products from the comfort of your home with a simple but futuristic approach.
The first thing you’ll want to do after downloading the app is go to their site and print off a marker. The object you’re trying to view will be bound to the marker (paper) and there are several different sizes you can print off and use. Once you’ve got your marker, pick the object you want to augment in the form of a poster or cube and prepare to be amazed. All you need to do to view your image is press augment, then find the marker in the viewfinder of your phone. You can use posters for a quick view of some premade stuff you can use posters from AllPosters or pre-made cubes from the cubes gallery.
If you want get crazy with it you can do your own poster or your own cube; the cubes are fully customizable as you can set the height, width, and depth along with adding any image to any side of the cube. There are quite a few options like cropping and rotating your custom images, and you can take/save pictures of anything you create. I’m not sure exactly how it works on the technical side of things and knowing would take the fun out of it, so I’m just going to tell you the whole process is done by some sort of funky android magic or narwhals… whichever you prefer.
Augment is by far one of the coolest things we’ve seen in an Android app, and it’s definitely an app that will impress your friends. We had quite a bit of fun playing with it, and never ceased to be amazed when we “augmented” a new image. Augment is a blast to fool around with, and it allows you to do practically anything with an image as you can see by a cubed (and crazy) Gary Busey next to my dog Boo. I highly recommend everyone check out Augment as it’s definitely one of the coolest apps that’s come out for Android. You can grab Augment from the Android market for free.
The first thing you’ll want to do after downloading the app is go to their site and print off a marker. The object you’re trying to view will be bound to the marker (paper) and there are several different sizes you can print off and use. Once you’ve got your marker, pick the object you want to augment in the form of a poster or cube and prepare to be amazed. All you need to do to view your image is press augment, then find the marker in the viewfinder of your phone. You can use posters for a quick view of some premade stuff you can use posters from AllPosters or pre-made cubes from the cubes gallery.
If you want get crazy with it you can do your own poster or your own cube; the cubes are fully customizable as you can set the height, width, and depth along with adding any image to any side of the cube. There are quite a few options like cropping and rotating your custom images, and you can take/save pictures of anything you create. I’m not sure exactly how it works on the technical side of things and knowing would take the fun out of it, so I’m just going to tell you the whole process is done by some sort of funky android magic or narwhals… whichever you prefer.
Augment is by far one of the coolest things we’ve seen in an Android app, and it’s definitely an app that will impress your friends. We had quite a bit of fun playing with it, and never ceased to be amazed when we “augmented” a new image. Augment is a blast to fool around with, and it allows you to do practically anything with an image as you can see by a cubed (and crazy) Gary Busey next to my dog Boo. I highly recommend everyone check out Augment as it’s definitely one of the coolest apps that’s come out for Android. You can grab Augment from the Android market for free.
2011年11月22日星期二
A study in contrasts
If Mitt Romney is weak broth, Newt Gingrich is a bouillon cube. Watching the two Republican presidential front-runners in New Hampshire over two days has been a study in contrasts. Romney is a known conservative ingredient suitable in a main dish. Gingrich is a powerful dose of partisan flavor to be used sparingly.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the "Republican Ideas Man." But when you listen to those ideas--the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch--you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they're too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama "said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition," Romney said. "Well, I'm here to collect."
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner." This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Liveskit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em-sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he's ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don't need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney's turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good--but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the "Republican Ideas Man." But when you listen to those ideas--the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch--you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they're too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama "said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition," Romney said. "Well, I'm here to collect."
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner." This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Liveskit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em-sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he's ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don't need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney's turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good--but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
2011年11月21日星期一
Opposites Attract
If Mitt Romney is weak broth, Newt Gingrich is a bouillon cube. Watching the two Republican presidential front-runners in New Hampshire over two days has been a study in contrasts. Romney is a known conservative ingredient suitable in a main dish. Gingrich is a powerful dose of partisan flavor to be used sparingly.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the “Republican Ideas Man.” But when you listen to those ideas—the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch—you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they’re too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama “said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition,” Romney said. “Well, I’m here to collect.”
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner.” This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Live skit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em–sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he’s ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don’t need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney’s turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good—but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
Gingrich is having his moment now because he offers punchy answers and ready solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. If he endures an examination of his personal baggage, his record on the issues, and his private-sector career, it will be in part because he is the “Republican Ideas Man.” But when you listen to those ideas—the scope of the change he is proposing, and the punch with which he delivers his pitch—you get the sense that that voters may not be interested in the Gingrich past because they’re too scared of the Gingrich future.
As Romney finished a four-day campaign swing through the state where he has dominated the polls, he touted his recent spending reduction plan and offered his carefully honed lines. President Obama “said if he was unable to get this economy turned around, he would be looking at a one-term proposition,” Romney said. “Well, I’m here to collect.”
Romney is the safe and steady candidate, and he joked about that when handing out sandwiches at a local diner.” This is Mitt Romney "raw and unleashed," he said, referring to a Saturday Night Live skit that made fun of his boring personality. (It's true: There are reports he returned a VCR tape in the late 1980s without rewinding.)
Listening to Gingrich is a more rock-'em–sock-'em experience. He's a whirring dispensary of ideas and insults. He's going to eliminate White House czars on his first day in office. The supercommittee "is the single dumbest legislative idea" he’s ever heard of. Government retraining will be available for lawyers who lose their jobs because of tort reform. The delay in building a border fence is "utterly stupid."
It's easy to see why Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters. They don’t need to imagine the stupidity in Washington that Gingrich lampoons. His ideas sound thoughtful. He is good with a political attack or jibe, which is appealing to voters trying to find the magic trick to beating an incumbent. So when Gingrich boasts that he is the best candidate because he can beat President Obama in debates, he adds that Obama won't possibly say no to his suggested three-hour Lincoln-Douglas-style debate because an Ivy Leaguer would never admit to being "afraid to be on the same platform with a guy who taught at West Georgia College."
Gingrich is competing on Romney’s turf with that claim about debates. Polls regularly show that voters believe Romney is one who can beat Obama. His business background gives him a good pitch on the economy. Gingrich is trying to leverage his impressive performances in the debates into an argument for why he can go the distance.
Like many of Gingrich's theories, it sounds good—but general election debates will have a different audience. Gingrich won't be pitching to conservatives looking for a fighting champion. He'll be talking to independent and undecided voters. Do they really want Gingrich's message of big change, brusquely delivered?
In scope and personality Gingrich asks a lot. He's talking about profound change. (His boldness is a regular theme of his talks.) But people are already bounced around by change. Do voters really want a constant flow of it from the professor? Even if the strategy is to make government more efficient and get it out of your life, the main takeaway of the Gingrich idea flurry is that everything is going to get thrown upside down.
2011年11月20日星期日
Sticky Braves
There are wonders to be had at your local Target. For a mere dollar, you can buy the type of joy that can only be found in foil packs. Yes, your one dollar will get you eight 2011 Topps stickers, and trust me, there’s no better, more exciting purchase you can make in the realm of card collecting right now.
Over the years, Topps has periodically put out sticker sets, but they haven’t put out a set of baseball stickers since 1991. In the past, Topps didn’t always get the stickers right. They would often place two stickers on one card, and the back was a card for a different player. This wasn’t a big deal if you put the stickers in the album that was also on sale. If, however, you tried to collect the stickers like cards, this was a pain in the ass and made it hard to know whether you had a complete set or not. (On the other hand, I’d argue that anyone who wants to collect stickers but not put them in an album is a weirdo. That’s the whole point!)
This year, Topps got the design right. The stickers are not only great looking, but they are printed as one sticker per card, and the backs don’t include player information. If you want to collect these like cards (you weirdo), then you can do so easily. Every team is represented with a representative starting nine and there is a set of nine foil stickers featuring many of the legends of the game. There are also stickers featuring each of the teams logos.
This is the best value in card collecting and you should jump aboard the train now. (Even better news: Topps has already announced that the stickers will return next year.) Let’s take a look at the Braves starting nine.
Three men have defined the Braves since their arrival in Atlanta. In the early days, it was, obviously, Hank Aaron. In the 80s, Dale Murphy was the face of the franchise. For the Bobby Cox years, that man is Chipper Jones. I still find it hard to believe that Chipper Jones is nearing the end of his playing career. I have a hard time accepting that there are players younger than me who are contemplating retirement, let alone one of the Braves all time greats.
Brian McCann, on the other hand, is the Braves best hitter and was still, despite a hard slump following his injury, the best hitting catcher in baseball. Before he was hurt, McCann was one of the best players in the National League, and was going to receive serious attention in the race for MVP. As good as he is though, I doubt he will ever become the face of the franchise in the same manner as Aaron, Murphy and Chipper. Catchers simply don’t have the shelf life. I think it is far more likely that Freeman or Heyward will be the next face of the franchise.
This is a great shot of Chipper having fun and clowning around. I love Topps move to include so many great, close up, action shots in most of their products, but shots like this one humanize a player and increase the enjoyment of a card. As for the McCann shot, I can’t quite figure it out. He looks like he’s smiling. Perhaps, he just watched Alex Gonzalez make a great play in the field? It certainly wouldn’t be the proper reaction if he had just watched Scott Proctor get bitten by a gopher. No one in a Braves uniform would smile at that.
Over the years, Topps has periodically put out sticker sets, but they haven’t put out a set of baseball stickers since 1991. In the past, Topps didn’t always get the stickers right. They would often place two stickers on one card, and the back was a card for a different player. This wasn’t a big deal if you put the stickers in the album that was also on sale. If, however, you tried to collect the stickers like cards, this was a pain in the ass and made it hard to know whether you had a complete set or not. (On the other hand, I’d argue that anyone who wants to collect stickers but not put them in an album is a weirdo. That’s the whole point!)
This year, Topps got the design right. The stickers are not only great looking, but they are printed as one sticker per card, and the backs don’t include player information. If you want to collect these like cards (you weirdo), then you can do so easily. Every team is represented with a representative starting nine and there is a set of nine foil stickers featuring many of the legends of the game. There are also stickers featuring each of the teams logos.
This is the best value in card collecting and you should jump aboard the train now. (Even better news: Topps has already announced that the stickers will return next year.) Let’s take a look at the Braves starting nine.
Three men have defined the Braves since their arrival in Atlanta. In the early days, it was, obviously, Hank Aaron. In the 80s, Dale Murphy was the face of the franchise. For the Bobby Cox years, that man is Chipper Jones. I still find it hard to believe that Chipper Jones is nearing the end of his playing career. I have a hard time accepting that there are players younger than me who are contemplating retirement, let alone one of the Braves all time greats.
Brian McCann, on the other hand, is the Braves best hitter and was still, despite a hard slump following his injury, the best hitting catcher in baseball. Before he was hurt, McCann was one of the best players in the National League, and was going to receive serious attention in the race for MVP. As good as he is though, I doubt he will ever become the face of the franchise in the same manner as Aaron, Murphy and Chipper. Catchers simply don’t have the shelf life. I think it is far more likely that Freeman or Heyward will be the next face of the franchise.
This is a great shot of Chipper having fun and clowning around. I love Topps move to include so many great, close up, action shots in most of their products, but shots like this one humanize a player and increase the enjoyment of a card. As for the McCann shot, I can’t quite figure it out. He looks like he’s smiling. Perhaps, he just watched Alex Gonzalez make a great play in the field? It certainly wouldn’t be the proper reaction if he had just watched Scott Proctor get bitten by a gopher. No one in a Braves uniform would smile at that.
2011年11月17日星期四
Novotel invites you into the room of the future !
Take part in a world first by trying out a completely new experience in the hotel room of the future. Created and brought to life
by Novotel and Microsoft, the room of the future packs the best
of new technologies into an outside-of-the-box architectural concept.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor's new strategic objective to become the global benchmark in hotels and revolutionize the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel is offering a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional hotel thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
"We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies," explains Grégoire Champetier Global Chief Marketing Officer. "It's crucial to take our customers' changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means re-thinking our rooms in digital terms.
Guests can try out this revolutionary, yet perfectly realistic experience in the pilot room for the next three months. All of the equipment is fully functional and could be deployed throughout the Novotel network in the near future. Microsoft was at the center of the room's design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. This partnership between Novotel and Microsoft is the logical next step in a relationship that began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels.
"In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and center," says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. "In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best tech- nologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design.
Discover the unique ambiance of Room 3120 as you walk into the entrance, designed to serve as a decompression chamber between the outside world and a spacious sensorial environment filled with ingenious practical features and interactive technology that surrounds you without being overwhelming.
"We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative that would unleash people's energy," explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. "We started by re-thinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa.
Although the innovative nature of the experiences available in Room 3120 may be surprising, they are extremely intuitive and ergonomic. The features are also designed for families, so they can play, surf or be entertained simply and easily.
It will only take you a few seconds to get used to the Kinect interface and take command of the Xbox 360 console. You can also try out the brand new Sensorit mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. Want to play with the kids? The Surface multimedia table offers numerous pos- sibilities for two more players.
There's plenty for the grown-ups too, with fingertip access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France's leading business and financial news media, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
by Novotel and Microsoft, the room of the future packs the best
of new technologies into an outside-of-the-box architectural concept.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor's new strategic objective to become the global benchmark in hotels and revolutionize the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel is offering a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional hotel thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
"We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies," explains Grégoire Champetier Global Chief Marketing Officer. "It's crucial to take our customers' changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means re-thinking our rooms in digital terms.
Guests can try out this revolutionary, yet perfectly realistic experience in the pilot room for the next three months. All of the equipment is fully functional and could be deployed throughout the Novotel network in the near future. Microsoft was at the center of the room's design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. This partnership between Novotel and Microsoft is the logical next step in a relationship that began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels.
"In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and center," says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. "In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best tech- nologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design.
Discover the unique ambiance of Room 3120 as you walk into the entrance, designed to serve as a decompression chamber between the outside world and a spacious sensorial environment filled with ingenious practical features and interactive technology that surrounds you without being overwhelming.
"We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative that would unleash people's energy," explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. "We started by re-thinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa.
Although the innovative nature of the experiences available in Room 3120 may be surprising, they are extremely intuitive and ergonomic. The features are also designed for families, so they can play, surf or be entertained simply and easily.
It will only take you a few seconds to get used to the Kinect interface and take command of the Xbox 360 console. You can also try out the brand new Sensorit mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. Want to play with the kids? The Surface multimedia table offers numerous pos- sibilities for two more players.
There's plenty for the grown-ups too, with fingertip access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France's leading business and financial news media, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
2011年11月16日星期三
Novotel invites guests into the room of the future
Novotel has launched a world first: the hotel room of the future. Created in collaboration with Microsoft, the room, named Room 3120, showcases the latest in cutting-edge technology and innovative design.
Novotel and Microsoft have worked closely together to create the revolutionary room that allows guests to sample the ultimate in hi-tech hotel rooms. The visionary room will take guests on a technological journey with cutting-edge features including a Kinect interface, Sensorit mirror based on Kinect technology, a fitness interface and a Surface multimedia table.
In keeping with the forward-looking theme, the room also includes a brand new, state of the art bed system, which is hidden away from view until it is required.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor’s new strategic objective to become the global benchmark for the hotel industry and revolutionise the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel has created a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
“We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies,” explains Grégoire Champetier, Global Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s crucial to take our customers’ changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means rethinking our rooms in digital terms."
Microsoft was at the centre of the room’s design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. Novotel’s relationship with Microsoft began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels and this project takes the partnership to the next level.
“In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and centre,” says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. “In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best technologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design."
“We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative,” explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. “We started by rethinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa."
The other features of the room include Kinect interface and an Xbox 360 console. Guests can also try out the brand new SensorIT interactive mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. The features in the room are also designed for families, so they can play, surf the internet and be entertained by using the Surface multimedia table for two or more players.
There’s plenty for the grown-ups too, with access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France’s leading business and financial news outlet, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
Novotel and Microsoft have worked closely together to create the revolutionary room that allows guests to sample the ultimate in hi-tech hotel rooms. The visionary room will take guests on a technological journey with cutting-edge features including a Kinect interface, Sensorit mirror based on Kinect technology, a fitness interface and a Surface multimedia table.
In keeping with the forward-looking theme, the room also includes a brand new, state of the art bed system, which is hidden away from view until it is required.
Last September, Denis Hennequin announced Accor’s new strategic objective to become the global benchmark for the hotel industry and revolutionise the customer experience. In line with this commitment to innovation, Novotel has created a new type of room that makes a clean break with traditional thinking by redefining the use of space and adding cutting edge technologies and amenities.
“We wanted to reinvent the hotel room experience by harmoniously melding design and new digital technologies,” explains Grégoire Champetier, Global Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s crucial to take our customers’ changing habits and expectations into account. In particular, this means rethinking our rooms in digital terms."
Microsoft was at the centre of the room’s design, notably with the integration of the Xbox 360 console and its revolutionary Kinect sensor, which uses body gesture and voice recognition to control games and entertainment. Novotel’s relationship with Microsoft began four years ago when Novotel started offering Xbox 360 consoles in the public areas of its hotels and this project takes the partnership to the next level.
“In the era of technological convergence, Microsoft is as always front and centre,” says Eric Boustouller, CEO of Microsoft France. “In our partnership with Novotel, we are taking this innovative room concept to a higher level with our best technologies. This new-generation room is an invitation to discover the latest advances in consumer technologies in a creative universe with a unique design."
“We wanted to do something fresh, surprising and imaginative,” explains Marcelo Joulia, head of Nao, the architecture firm chosen by Novotel to design Room 3120. “We started by rethinking the basic space, which meant leaving the stuffy old cube behind. We also worked with light and found ways to keep the furniture from being in the way. Multifunctional, flexible and unhindered, Room 3120 adapts to the guest's desires, not vice-versa."
The other features of the room include Kinect interface and an Xbox 360 console. Guests can also try out the brand new SensorIT interactive mirror, also based on Kinect technology, where information tags seem to appear by magic, or turn on the fitness interface. The features in the room are also designed for families, so they can play, surf the internet and be entertained by using the Surface multimedia table for two or more players.
There’s plenty for the grown-ups too, with access to a wide range of multimedia content, as well as music and news. Radio station NOVA (Le Grand Mix) and BFM Business, France’s leading business and financial news outlet, have chosen to partner the Room 3120 project, which makes a point of providing rapid access to world news.
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