There are simple ways to gain access

Australians are treated as second-class citizens when it comes to online video, but with a little trickery you can tap into a whole world of content.

Geo-blocking stops Australians enjoying great overseas online video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video and BBC iPlayer. Australian video services such as Quickflix try to fill the gap, but we still end up paying more while getting less to watch.

Consumer watchdog Choice has joined the call for US-only services such as Netflix to abandon their geo-blocking restrictions and open their doors to Australia. Thankfully, it's not hard to take matters into your own hands, but Netflix might not be the Holy Grail you're dreaming of. There's a wide range of TV shows to choose from, but it's slim pickings when it comes to movies, even old ones. To avoid disappointment, it's better to browse what's available and find something worth watching rather than to go looking for a particular movie.

If you are keen to see how the other half lives, it takes two steps to tap into US-only services such as Netflix. The first is bypassing geo-blocking restrictions to trick foreign services into thinking you're a local. The second is bypassing the need for a US credit card.

One option for bypassing geo-blocking is to mask your location using a virtual private network (VPN) or a proxy server. Running VPN software on your computer lets you make an encrypted link to the US - which also stops your ISP snooping on what you're doing online. Free VPN options include Hotspot Shield and VPNBook, while paid options include WiTopia and StrongVPN. Alternatively, you can use a proxy service such as HideMyAss, which doesn't encrypt your traffic but simply redirects it to hide your indoor positioning system.

One drawback of VPNs and proxy servers is that you're at the mercy of their internet connection - if it's slow or congested then you might struggle with smooth video streaming. An alternative is to use a free web-browser plug in such as Hola or Media Hint. These only use a proxy server briefly when requesting geo-blocked videos. Once your video starts playing, they switch back to a direct connection so your internet speed isn't hampered.

These are all useful geo-dodging options, but they generally won't help you if you're trying to watch videos on your internet-enabled television, Blu-ray or media player. This is where you might turn to a Domain Name System-based service such as Unblock-Us, UnoTelly or Tunlr. They work with any internet-enabled device that lets you change its DNS settings. Many new internet TVs and Blu-ray players offer access to the likes of Hulu and Netflix once you change the DNS settings, as does the Apple TV media player.

Slipping past geo-blocking restrictions lets you enjoy free sites such as Hulu and BBC iPlayer, but you'll need to get your hands on virtual greenbacks to pay for services such as Netflix, HuluPlus and Amazon Instant Video. Some US-only services have unofficially relaxed their restriction on foreign credit cards, so it's worth trying your Australian credit card - perhaps using your Australian street address but a US state and zip code (opt for Delaware or Oregon to avoid state-based sales tax). You might get a call from your bank, but only because you've used your credit card overseas; and it is possible a provider may cancel your account if circumventing geo-blocking is against their terms.

Alternatively, you might be able to pay your monthly subscription using PayPal, but you'll still need a valid credit card. Some video services check to see if that credit card is issued in the US, but others don't.

If you can't get around the need for a US credit card, a pre-paid international Visa card from your bank might do the trick. You could also try a pre-paid Visa Load&Go card from your local post office. With a little persistence it's not that hard to trick US-only services into thinking you're in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

For example, this month, COSI Columbus will unveil a 4,000-square-foot exhibit focusing on energy, said John Shaw, director of experience and production at the Columbus science museum. To help show kids how and why to make environmentally conscious decisions, COSI commissioned Boss to create an energy display in which children will try to fix a neighborhood blackout.

The challenge, Shaw said, will be that returning electricity to one area could knock out the power to another area, teaching the children about the distribution of electricity. The children can continue to press buttons to turn lights off and on in an effort to return all of the power.“We try to create different levels of interaction at COSI,” he said. The exhibit has children choose a character and make decisions, such as which transportation to use or which energy-using products to buy.

Another Boss Display exhibit at COSI is a water table, which squirts water out of different spots and around a spiral, creating a small current. Children can aim a tube squirting water to make items like a small windmill spin or try to grab at items that are moving around. The goal of that display is to demonstrate physics principles.

“You want to get the message across and still keep it fun,” Boss Display President Tom Durfee said. Carl Boss founded Boss Display in Columbus in 1934, and then sold the company to Ohio State University graduates Bill Tucker and Dennis Kennedy in 1978. Durfee, who had been working there since 1986, bought the company in 2002.

“I thought the company was a good fit for the creative side of me,” said Durfee, 57, who received a bachelor’s in business from East Carolina University, but also had an interest in design and construction. He came to Ohio after working for a trade-show group in Dallas.

Boss Display is one of only a handful of companies in the world that builds interactive and meticulously assembled designs, mostly for children’s museums but also for trade shows and others needing interactive displays.

Boss Display builds 50 to 75 displays a year, depending on size and complexity. Those displays, which can range in price from $10,000 to more than $50,000, can take about 10 to 12 weeks to make from design to finish. About 80 percent of the displays are made for locations in the U.S., and the rest are for locations abroad, a figure that Durfee said has increased during the past few years.

Click on their website http://www.ecived.com/en/.

Porter strike ends after contract ratified

The 22 members of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union who work for Porter Fixed Based Operations Ltd., a subsidiary of Porter Aviation Holdings Inc., were trying to negotiate a first contract when they walked off the job on Jan. 10.

The main issue was wages, though Porter spokesman Brad Cicero would not disclose any details of the settlement.“It’s not dissimilar to another contract that was reached with the cleaning and facilities group earlier this year,” he said. “It’s in line with our principle of making sure we have similar agreements with different groups of the company.”

When the strike began, the union said 11 employees earned $12 an hour and 11 other workers who have a higher qualification earned $14.50 an hour. The union says the workers’ average annual income is $28,000.According to the union’s Twitter feed, the strikers voted 85 per cent to ratify the real time Location system.

Cicero added that a transition plan for workers to return work will be implemented, but added at least two or three individuals resigned during the strike.“I don’t think anybody would have expected the strike to last as long as it did,” he said.

A $4 million defamation suit filed by Porter in April against the union and a COPE staffer Mary Stalteri for comments including ones posted to Twitter have now been dropped.The union, which hired lawyer Clayton Ruby to defend the case, called the lawsuit a diversionary tactic. “The purpose is not to get redress in the courts, but it’s to silence people,” Ruby said in a May interview.

The executive, Chip Starnes of Specialty Medical Supplies, denied the workers’ allegations of two months of unpaid wages as he endured a fifth day of captivity at the plant in the capital’s northeastern suburbs, peering out from behind the bars of his office window.

About 100 workers are demanding back pay and severance packages identical to those offered 30 workers being laid off from the Coral Springs, Fla.-based company’s plastics division. The demands followed rumors that the entire plant was being closed, despite Starnes’ assertion that the company doesn’t plan to lay off the others.

Inside one of the plant’s buildings, about 30 workers, mostly women, hung around, their arms crossed. One worker, Gao Ping, told reporters inside an administrative office that she wanted to quit because she hadn’t been paid for two months.

Dressed in blue overalls and sitting down at a desk, Gao said her division – which makes alcohol prep pads, used for cleaning skin before injections – had not been doing well and that she wanted her salary and compensation.

Workers in other divisions saw her division doing badly, thought the whole company was faring poorly and also wanted to quit and get compensation, said Gao, who had been working for the company for six years.

Chu Lixiang, a local union official representing the workers in talks with Starnes, said the workers were demanding the portion of their salaries yet to be paid and a “reasonable” level of compensation before leaving their jobs. Neither gave details on the amounts demanded.

Chu said workers believed the plant was closing and that Starnes would run away without paying severance. Starnes’ attorney arrived Tuesday afternoon. Chu later told reporters that there would be no negotiations for the rest of the day.

Starnes said that since Saturday morning, about 80 workers had blocked every exit around the clock and deprived him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office.

The standoff points to long-ingrained habits among Chinese workers who are sometimes left unprotected when factories close without severance or wages owed. Such incidents have been rarer as labor protections improve, although disputes still occur and local governments have at times barred foreign executives from leaving until they are resolved.

Fast forward 40 years, though, and the six-tower TD Centre complex had begun to show its age and even looked somewhat dated next to the latest crop of towers in the downtown core.

The modernist monument could have been relegated to B-class commercial property obscurity. That is, until owner Cadillac Fairview, the development and property management giant, hit upon an innovative plan to revitalize the distinctive towers – giving the original black Mies masterworks a green reimagining.

“We work in a very competitive industry where green is a given and we wanted to differentiate this property,” explains David Hoffman, Cadillac Fairview’s general manager of the Toronto-Dominion Centre. “The entire financial sector was built around the TD Centre and I think many people still believe incorrectly that TD Centre is old and not environmentally friendly, but that’s not the case.”

Beginning with 77 King St. West in 2010, Cadillac Fairview embarked on an ambitious multi-year revitalization program borne as much of altruism – saving energy, cutting waste and promoting sweeping sustainability initiatives across the complex – as pragmatism.

The latter is driven by the business need to maintain TD Centre’s tenant attractiveness, preserve its top-tier property status, and ensure strong, stable rental rates.To date, two towers – 77 King St. West and 100 Wellington St. West – have achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold and platinum certification, respectively, in the existing building operations and maintenance category.

To acknowledge these accomplishments, Cadillac Fairview was recently honoured by its peers with the REX Green Award for sustainability work at the TD Centre. It was the first time the NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter’s accolade was awarded to an existing building instead of a new-build.

The move to retrofit aging buildings such as the TD Centre is a growing trend, explains Pierre Bergevin, the Toronto-based president and CEO of commercial property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Ltd.

“In Montreal you’re going to see it because you have older stock … you’ll see more retrofitting across the country. These are buildings that are more than 40 years old, but they have an advantage with their location.”

As Mr. Bergevin explains, the move to reimagine aging buildings is made possible by the nature of their ownership – many fall within the portfolios of very well-capitalized institutional owners such as pension funds, who understand the cost-saving and tenant-luring value of making those improvements. And they have pockets deep enough to embark on costly renovations.

My Republican Weekend

As we walked through the bland doors of the Hyatt Regency, we had no idea what was waiting for us on the other side. Imagine for one moment a Turkish bazaar, right after it rear ends a traveling medicine show. Carnival barkers swarmed around, chanting names and phrases over and over while handing out pieces of paper.

We barely had time to register this before we also came to the unfortunate realization that we had entered the wrong door. It had to be the wrong door because everyone was walking in the exact opposite direction we were walking in. We were the salmon, they were the falls. We steered ourselves and plowed into the mob heading towards us, all of them sporting patriotic pins and clothing, gripping wine glasses and beer bottles with a steely determination, and all thinking the same thing...Karl...Karl...Karl.

"We" in this case referred to me and Melissa Griffin, ace political writer for the San Francisco Examiner. And we were trying to get our press passes so that we could join in the crowd barreling toward that ballroom.

Ok, I need to back up here for a moment. When I found out that the Republicans were having their confab right down the road in Sacramento, I knew I had to go. Now stop the wagging of heads and rolling of eyes. I know you think is a "Democrat goes to Sacramento to make fun of the Republicans" story, but that was not my intention. Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did want to make fun of Karl Rove. The rest, though, I was determined to keep an open mind about. I mean, and the end of the day they put on their L.L. Bean pants one leg a time just like us, right? And I was curious to see this legendary fractionalization up front, this divisive split between Rove's Victory Project and the Tea Partiers that I've been reading about. We in the fourth estate love nothing more than a train wreck, and from all accounts you can hear the screeching brakes on the GOP from a mile down the track. Of course there is the additional benefit of the media being demonized by the GOP at every turn. Put that all together, and I was sharpening my knives the whole way up from San Francisco.

I had great hopes too. Besides the aforementioned Karl Rove, there were threats of frenzied GOP parties late into the night, and knickknacks for sale such as bumper stickers that said things like "Keep Honking, I'm Reloading" -- all of which made me completely ill-prepared for the chaos we had just walked into. Although by all counts election of the major officers was pretty much a done deal, the walls of the Hyatt were plastered with campaign posters like an election at a high school (paging Tracy Flick, paging Ms. Tracy Flick). The campaign staffers would descend and feverishly push paper into your hands. Campaign flyers? Nope. Positions and issues? Um, no. The flyers were announcing where that candidate's party was that night.

That's right, the battle for the hearts and minds over the future leaders of the Republican Caucus was apparently a battle over their livers. This was not terribly surprising given a chat with a bartender later that day. Apparently, when the staff arrived to set up the bar (which opened at 10:30 a.m.) hey found people waiting. They commenced serving drinks at 10:31, and went nonstop until they started prying glasses out of people's hands at 2:30 a.m. Which would explain the gimlet-eyed nature of the clientele. They really were gimlets. Could we be looking at the first coalition of the swilling?

There was no time to ponder this, as the wine-toting crowd swelled into the ballroom to hear the words of Karl. The press was barricaded up against the back wall, with a rope making sure we were kept far away from Rove. He powered up to the stage while the room wobbled to their feet and gave him a less than thunderous response. It turned out to be completely warranted as Rove spent almost half an hour insulting California at every turn, while the room quietly pushed their salads around their plates. When he wasn't blasting California, he was extolling his home state of Texas and telling everyone how happy he was that businesses were going to leave California. He glared at the room and informed us that "California used to lead the country, but no longer, and I say good!" I expected a riot to break out, but a few of the people around us had actually fallen asleep. Finally the mighty Rove told the room to get off their asses, and get back in the game. Then he got back in his car and scrammed as fast as he could.

"He Who Shall Not Be Named" had lived up to everything I hoped. He displayed every bit of arrogance, spite, and complete disregard for his audience that I had hoped for. He made a joke about Al Gore and the Internet. He made jokes about Democrats doing "goofy things." He trotted out the (at this point cliché) "we are turning into Greece" schtick. He made fun of the president. It was all sadly predictable.

And then their savior blew town as fast as his PAC-funded airline ticket could manage. The room suddenly deflated, and were left standing wondering what to do next. The only answer was of course to head back out to the carnival outside. The show in the hallways between the candidates' conference rooms was a lesson in surreal excess. There were purses, festooned with enough faux bling to make Liberace blush. The bumper stickers with their strident slogans. On a table were dozens of photos of grinning delegates posing with the now departed Rove. In the corner was a vendor from Orlando selling pins and jewelry, alongside some truly heroic paintings of George W., Reagan, and Lincoln done in a vaguely "color by numbers" fashion. When I asked him if he was doing well, he sadly shook his head. Given the wares, I inquired if he had also attended the Republican national convention in Tampa. "They didn't want vendors there," he said. "It's not for small business." Ok, so much for that platform.

It turned out we were not the only salmon swimming upstream in that building. There was an undercurrent of understanding that things were not going the way they had envisioned just a short 12 months ago. The previous year, the powers that be told these exact people that inevitable victory was coming that fall, that the forces of conservatism would once again resonate with the electorate, and their Mormon chosen one would lead them back. And instead, as one candidate put it, "we got our asses kicked."

And then just like that, it turned around. One of the many press flacks that trolled the crowd accosted Melissa and I. He was introducing the press to Marcelino Valdez. Valdez is 33 years old, living in Fresno, and just got elected Central Valley Region vice chairman. He is being groomed by the GOP, and not just for the obvious reason. Yes, he is Latino, and yes the GOP got their clock cleaned last year in part because they only got about 11 Latino votes The need to get right with this important voting block was palatable. On Friday night a mariachi band entertained the delegates. Get it?

Moving Into The Cloud

Many of us use ‘cloud computing’ every day without even realising it. Web-based e mail and social media sites such as Facebook and Spotify all use the technology to store data such as pictures, videos and text files. But what exactly is ‘the cloud’? Even many people who have heard of the concept aren’t always sure about what it involves.

Cloud computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. In cloud computing, the word cloud (also phrased as “the cloud”) is used as a metaphor for “the Internet,” so the phrase cloud computing actually means “a type of Internet-based computing,” where different services – such as servers, storage and applications – are delivered to an organisation’s computers and devices through the Internet. The files are stored in massive data centres containing hundreds of servers and storage systems that are compatible with nearly all computer software. When you wish to access your information, you simply connect to the ‘cloud’ from your PC, smartphone or tablet.

The advantages are numerous. Users for example don’t have to buy or maintain expensive servers and data-storage systems. For corporations, the technology helps them lower their costs by reducing the need for in-house IT support and extra office space.

The European Commission’s Digital Agenda is the EU’s strategy to help digital technologies, including the internet, to deliver sustainable economic growth. The reduction in the cost and complexity of mobile application development using cloud technologies is one of the objectives of the European Commission. The 4.45M Mobicloud project, co-funded under the ICT Policy Support Programme (PSP) Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), aims to do just that.

The project’s objective is to stimulate the provision of new mobile services in the cloud and help support the emergence of a European ecosystem of mobile cloud application developers. With MobiCloud, it will become feasible for smaller companies, and not only global enterprise resource planning vendors, to quickly develop and market mobile extensions of their existing business applications. The Commission therefore aims to enable and facilitate faster adoption of cloud computing throughout all sectors of the economy. This will have the knock-on effect of cutting ICT costs, and boosting productivity, growth and jobs when combined with new digital business practices.

MobiCloud will become an online technology marketplace where end-users, mobile developers, application vendors, system integrators and cloud service providers can collaborate to develop end-to-end solutions with high return on investment (ROI). This collaborative platform will develop, deploy and manage mobile cloud applications for business-critical scenarios such as public transport, field service or construction. Its initial demonstration scenarios focus on industries where collaborative mobile applications can support a more efficient, greener organisation. It provides a composite screen (mobile mash-up) that aggregates data from various corporate IT systems. Depending on context the application displays different services which react in real-time to changes.

Despite its ubiquity, cloud computing is at an early stage. As analyst firm Gartner puts it: “Many factors, including advances in cloud, mobile, information and social technologies, change how applications can be built and the value they can deliver to the enterprise. To keep their enterprises competitive, application development leaders must continuously embrace new technologies and disciplines.” Through the Mobicloud project, this is exactly what Europe is doing.

If Magpul Industries follows through on its threat to leave Colorado, it could harm more than a dozen Front Range firms specializing in plastic injection molding and reduce the region's capacity in that manufacturing process.

The Erie company, which makes weapons components and high-capacity ammunition magazines, has threatened to leave if the state bans individuals from owning magazines with more than 15 rounds.

"It is an if/then statement at this point. We don't have a choice," said Duane Liptak, the company's director of product management and marketing.

Magpul employs 200 people directly, ranging from basic assembly workers to product designers and other professionals specializing in weapons-related components, Liptak said.

As much as possible, the company tries to contract with Colorado vendors, who represent about 90 percent of its supply chain, he said. Those suppliers received about $46 million last year from Magpul, with the company projecting that number to reach $85 million for 2013, Liptak said.

A large share of those dollars goes to manufacturers that mold the company's mostly plastic components, including the controversial cases that can hold more than 15 rounds.

North Denver's Alfred Manufacturing Co. has grown from 40 employees in 2008 to 150 largely because of the work provided by Magpul, said the company's third-generation chief executive, Greg Alfred.

Eco Building Products Receives Customer Purchase

Eco Building Products continues to provide protected lumber, now meeting building code requirements for wood-rot decay and termites coupled with the industry's first mold and fire protection in an all in one application for the entire structure. E Build & Truss continue to supply superior framing services building a quality product for Brookfield Homes. The Company continues to secure additional home builder contracts leveraging the recent accomplishments of Eco Building Products, Inc.

"As the Home Builder news indicates signs of recovery and our releases continually increase our Eco Red Shield is making more and more news in the national supply chain. ECOB is very involved in the rebuild efforts on the east coast, hosting town hall meetings to educate contractors and homeowners on embracing defensive building practices and technologies like Eco Red Shield rather than rebuilding with raw lumber," stated Steve Conboy, President and CEO of Eco Building Products. "ECOB's press release last week introduced an open web floor truss built with Eco Red Shield lumber now QAI listed for Class A fire protection. This demonstrates another way of building defensive especially on the east coast for the Hurricane Sandy rebuild when other products subjected to water and fire cannot hold up as good as our open web assemblies," added Conboy.

About Eco Building Products, Inc.Eco Building Products, Inc. is a manufacturer of proprietary wood products treated with an eco-friendly proprietary chemistry that protects against fire, mold/mycotoxins, fungus, rot-decay, wood ingesting insects and termites with ECOB WoodSurfaceFilm(TM) and FRC(TM) technology (Fire Retardant Coating). Eco Building products, "Eco Red Shield" utilizing patent pending technology is the ultimate in wood protection, preservation, and fire safety to building components constructed of wood; from joists, beams and paneling, to floors and ceilings.

Safe Harbor Statement: This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act, and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Any statements made in this news release other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. ECOB takes no obligation to update or correct forward-looking statements, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties.

The start comes on the same day that an interview Gasol gave the Los Angeles Times' T.J. Simers was published. In it, Gasol doesn't try to sugarcoat his unhappiness or lie about his motivations. He's just refreshingly honest that he doesn't see eye-to-eye with coach Mike D'Antoni -- who opted to put Gasol in the second unit because he prefers a smaller lineup -- but also says that he'll do his best to make it work while he is still on the Lakers roster.

"He has his philosophy and system, and the Lakers hired him," Gasol tells Simers. "It's not his fault. His philosophy is to play with one big guy and four guys spread out, so then he had to make a decision: Dwight or Pau?"
Gasol also acknowledges that if both D'Antoni and Howard return next season, it would be difficult for him to accept being back.

"It would be hard for me to deal with another season knowing the facts you just mentioned," Gasol said.

Gasol gave the kind of straight-forward answers you don't get much from athletes anymore. Contrast this to the answer Howard gave ESPN's Stephen A. Smith when asked about his departure, after repeated stops and starts, from Orlando.

"I'm not a crybaby," Howard told Smith. "I didn't try to cry my way out of Orlando. That was never my intention, or not what I did at all. And I understand everybody thought it was that way because of what was being put out there. I'm not indecisive. I love this game. You know I play it because it inspires me; it inspires millions of kids around me, adults and all. And, I'm going to have fun while I do it."

 "I've been hated on my whole life," Hunter tells Spears. "Why should it be any different now? I don't care. But if people aren't hating on you that means you're not making an impact. Prominent people in our country were hated on because they made an impact."

The circumstances of the coaching change were about as sloppy as possible. After Gentry was fired, players reportedly wanted assistant Dan Majerle to get the spot, while another assistant, Elston Turner, had been under the impression that he would be first in line after the Suns had blocked an interview to join Rick Adelman's staff in Minnesota.

Hunter does have support. Spears points out that Hunter got texts from Larry Brown, Rip Hamilton, Grant Hill and Rasheed Wallace, and has also spoken to Mark Jackson and Doc Rivers.

Spears notes that the Suns could have their pick of Avery Johnson, Mike Brown, Stan Van Gundy and Nate McMillan as their next coach, but Hunter is determined to try his best to keep the position.

"You got to fight," Hunter said. "No matter what, you have to battle and people have to know that win, lose or draw they have something on their hands. That's the way I approach this thing and that's the reason why they chose me."

If you're one of those fans who likes to keep an eye on what former Blazers are doing in the league, well, the Knicks have been disappointing for that, unless you really enjoy seeing what Kurt Thomas is doing (11 points against Sacramento on Saturday!).

That's starting to change, though, as New York's three other former Blazers are starting to work their way back into the lineup. In fact, point guard Raymond Felton is already there, having returned Jan. 26 from his right pinkie break. However, Felton aggravated the same finger Saturday against Sacramento, and there was concern that he could lost for the season if he suffered another break.

Rudy Gay heads to Toronto in Grizzlies' makeover

Rudy Gay is on his way to Toronto in the latest and most dramatic move in the Memphis Grizzlies' money-motivated makeover.

The Grizzlies agreed to trade their star swingman to the Raptors on Wednesday, parting with the leading scorer on a team that has aspirations of making a run in the powerful Western Conference.

The Raptors gave up point guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis in the deal that also included Grizzlies backup center Hamed Haddadi, and Memphis then shipped Calderon to Detroit for Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince. Memphis general manager Chris Wallace thanked both Gay and Haddaddi for their time with the Grizzlies.

"We are excited to add three players who bring with them a tremendous amount of value to our team and have achieved incredible success on the pro, college and Olympic levels," Wallace said in a statement Wednesday night. "In these players, we welcome NBA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Tayshaun Prince, as well as up-and-coming athletic forwards Ed Davis, who won an NCAA title at North Carolina, and Austin Daye."

"It's been my home for eight years," Calderon said in Atlanta, shortly before leaving the arena. "I've done everything possible for this team. It's tough. The fans have been with me since Day 1. It's tough."

Prince and Daye have both spent their entire careers with Detroit, and Prince was the last link to the proud championship team of 2003-04.

"Trading a player like Tayshaun Prince, who has meant so much to our organization and contributed to our championship success, is never easy," Pistons president Joe Dumars said in a statement. "We want to thank Tayshaun for his professionalism and contributions over the last 10 years. We also appreciate everything that Austin Daye has done for our team both on and off the court over the past three-plus years."

Gay, averaging 17.2 points and 5.9 rebounds, signed a five-year, $82 million maximum contract in July 2010 with Memphis. The 6-foot-8 small forward is due $16.5 million this season with $37 million more over the next two years. That's a big number for new owner Robert Pera, who took over the franchise last November and has quickly started addressing the team's salary situation.

Just over a week ago, the Grizzlies sent valuable reserve Marreese Speights and two other players to Cleveland in a move that cleared $6.4 million in salary and avoided a $4 million luxury tax hit this season. Team officials said that move put the Grizzlies in position not to have to make a move this season.

Memphis coach Lionel Hollins had been lobbying to keep his five starters together the rest of this season, but he apparently lost that fight. It's a significant move for a team that was fourth in the Western Conference and three games behind the third-place Clippers.

Trading away Gay also eases a luxury tax hit due next season, while concentrating the team around center Marc Gasol and All-Star forward Zach Randolph. The Grizzlies had their best playoff run in 2011 when they knocked off then-No. 1 seed San Antonio before losing to Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western semifinals — all with Gay on the bench after needing season-ending shoulder surgery.

The collective bargaining agreement negotiated after last year's lockout makes the penalties for exceeding the salary cap far more punitive, and the system begins in earnest next season. Playing in a smaller market, the Grizzlies don't have the extra revenue from lavish television contracts like teams in Los Angeles or New York, which makes it that much more difficult to go over the cap. But even teams such as the Lakers and Bulls will likely have to be more responsible with their spending under the new deal, where repeat offenders are taxed at rates that multiply with each consecutive year they go over the cap.

The first domino fell before the season, when Oklahoma City sent James Harden to Houston instead of signing him to a big-money extension, and more are sure to follow.

All told, the Grizzlies shaved nearly $40 million over the next three years after the two trades.

They'll get a hard-nosed defender in return in Prince, the 32-year-old forward who was drafted by the Pistons in the first round in 2002. He is averaging 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this season. Bringing in Calderon gives them a veteran mentor for young point guard Brandon Knight.

"We are pleased to welcome Jose Calderon, knowing that he fits our mold as a high character individual who is a great competitor," Dumars said. "Jose is a great facilitator at the guard position and a player that we feel gives us tremendous flexibility on the court when added to the core of guards we have on the roster."

Calderon joined the Raptors from Spain in 2005 and has been a fan favorite and trusted veteran on the team. He is averaging 11.1 points and 7.4 assists this season for the Raptors (16-29), who are desperately trying to scratch their way into the playoff picture. Toronto was in 11th place before the games were played Wednesday, 5? games behind Boston for the eight seed.

Calderon and Davis had both been starting for the Raptors, but they do have Kyle Lowry waiting in the wings at point guard and likely see Gay's scoring punch as the key to vaulting back into the discussion in a mediocre conference.

Coach Dwane Casey will have to deal with a bit of a log jam with Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Landry Fields and Alan Anderson as wing players with similar skill sets. But getting a player with Gay's natural scoring talent, even at the expense of parting with a valued player like Calderon, proved too enticing to pass up.

The Inside Pitch

The grass runs the entire stretch of the outfield and diamond; its fertility uninterrupted by players or unsightly patches of decay. The baseball field, moist from lazy coastal showers, bounces the refracted sunlight back onto the thin December cloud cover overhead with an almost artificial emerald hue, lending the grass the miraculous contrast of abrupt color in an otherwise monochrome world. In a bout of synesthesia, one smells the color in the fecund waft of freshly sown seed. Given the recent planting, the blades shoot up tall and wild – at least by the standards of a well-manicured baseball field like this one. While the grounds crew must patiently wait for the right moment to trim the verdure to code, it is by no means unkempt. This grass is still short enough to satisfy even the residents of the orderly Pleasantville planned around the university.

Nestled in a corner past the empty third base dugout, beyond the fence that runs to the outfield wall, standing parallel to the left field line, there is a batting cage. The University of California, Irvine’s Anteater Ballpark is in full off-season dormancy except for the periodic cracks, thwocks and thuds issuing from within the cage. The stadium’s massive analog clock beyond the center field wall remains on Daylight Savings Time through the first Monday of the month, marking the last resistance of this men’s game of spring, summer and autumn to winter’s dominion — such that it is in mild Orange County. Despite the general lack of cold, the last few weeks have brought persistent precipitation that has kept the players off the raw, healing grassland and inside the shelter of the cage.

Two adjacent vertical strips, separated only by safety netting, run the length of the cage. On one half, a pair of hitters take turns tossing each other sets of easy lobs from a short distance, ensuring solid contact on each drive. In the other half, junior right-hander Phil Ferragamo is the first member of the pitching staff to put in his time today fulfilling the day’s mandatory, but officially “non-mandatory,” supervised “unsupervised” workout.

Year round, the players train six out of seven days a week under the watchful eyes of their coaches, who are technically supposed to be absent during offseason workouts but unable to resist monitoring their burgeoning talent. The pitchers stay tuned with practice throwing sessions without a batter — simply known as “bullpens” — on half of these days. Ferragamo towers over the mound at six-foot-eight-inches and hurls the ball with intensity commensurate to his massive frame, sometimes wildly out of play but mostly in line with the target set by the catcher’s mitt.

Newly hired pitching coach Danny Bibona paces behind the batting cage pitching rubber, offering a gentle guiding voice to Ferragamo and spitting on the ground frequently as baseball players are known to do. He periodically calls out a number, challenging Ferragamo to hit the corresponding pitch location, following the attempt with positivity no matter the outcome. An even-keeled guy, Bibona earnestly hopes he doesn’t have to have a blow-up this season and that his pitchers stay in line and put in the work he expects of them.

The mold for what constitutes a pitcher at the highest levels of baseball varies widely, perhaps more than any other position in sports. The good fortune of major league pitching success has been visited upon the nearly obese, the freakishly tall and the impossibly old — but not so often diminutive, unassuming guys like Bibona. Although he stands 6 feet tall, he possesses a narrow and wiry build that, in a generic warm-up top and windbreaker pants, casts the image of a soccer player or cross country runner, lean and humble enough to last through endless miles of running. He certainly doesn’t strike you as a two-time college All-American pitcher and eighth round major league draft pick, and as a soft-spoken 24-year-old, he’s also not your typical Division I pitching coach.

Bibona was the smallest player on all of his teams growing up. As a freshman in high school, he stood just five feet tall and weighed ninety-five pounds. He didn’t elicit much attention, as he was not one to throw blazing fastballs past hitters or smash home runs from a young age. As an eight-year-old who loved pitching, he pestered his coach to let him pitch every game only to be repeatedly rebuffed. When he finally had his chance on the mound, he did well enough to earn a spot pitching every week. From there, Bibona made all-star teams, but didn’t garner significant playing time.

At private Santa Margarita High School in nearby Lake Forest, he had the fortune of a growth spurt, as well as playing alongside four teammates bound for Division I careers. They pushed each other, practicing at night after official practice, taking extra batting practice and hitting the weight room, addicted to doing whatever work was necessary to rise to the top of the game.

UC Irvine recruited Bibona as a two-way player to split time between the outfield and pitching, but a senior year injury to his non-throwing arm gave him pause. By the time he arrived at school, his right arm was better and he was hitting again, but the jump to a higher level of play led him to focus his efforts solely on pitching. Without the physical gifts of power to hit home runs out of college ballparks and speed to run the bases and patrol the outfield, Bibona saw it wise to focus his energy on pitching. While he was recruited by the Irvine coaches, he had to walk on to the program and earn his scholarship by proving himself as a freshman in 2007.

Bibona fought to prove to himself and everyone that he deserved the label and buzz given to top recruits. Being left-handed certainly helped. The world is predominated by righties, so increased competition demands they throw harder and simply be better. For the same reason, hitters don’t have the luxury of practicing against left-handed pitching, so lefties are a valuable commodity in the baseball world, proving to be more difficult for their opponents with perhaps less objective talent than their right-handed counterparts.

Bibona struggled his first season, despite holding his own in the preseason against teammates from a recruiting class that was one of the best in the nation and veterans that would lead the team to the cusp of a national championship. His successful, mature performances in fall intrasquad scrimmages translated into the coveted Saturday starter role once the season rolled around in February. During the season, important conference games are scheduled in series of three weekend games, with non-conference filler games left to Tuesdays.

The first Saturday start threw him right into the fire against a big name opponent: Cal, shorthand for Irvine’s big-brother UC branch in Berkeley. It was mind-boggling for Bibona to step up from high school competition to facing a school from the big-time Pac-10 conference whose football team he watched on Saturdays. He strayed from what made him successful in the fall. He tried to pitch beyond himself and struggled mightily, giving up four runs in the first inning and leaving the game early after surrendering a fifth score.

Of course, he would have liked to do well, but making the roster for all the road trips and sitting in the dugout held its own value. Bibona was able to watch a lot of well-played baseball.

Bibona went on to pitch out of the bullpen for most of his first season, coming on in relief towards the end of games for short appearances. Despite his struggles, he was handed the ball on college baseball’s biggest stage — the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska — the season-ending tournament that crowns the national champion.

Having already lost once to Arizona State in a tournament where a second loss sends a team home, Irvine was down 4-3 heading into the eighth inning, leaving them only six outs at bat to save their season and no margin for error on the defensive side of the ball. Star reliever Blair Erickson had just allowed three runs and recorded only two outs. With a runner on second sure to score on a base hit, Danny was tasked with ending the damage and preserving his team’s slim hopes for survival. As if the tension was lacking, he had to subdue the Sun Devils’ star player Brett Wallace — the best hitter in college baseball.

In front of a crowd of 29,034 people — the second largest in College World Series history —Bibona emerged from the bullpen knowing he was going to get Wallace out. In the regional tournaments leading up to Omaha, he acclimated to the gravity of 10,000 fans at games in Round Rock, Texas and Wichita, Kansas. The local University of Texas fans didn’t play a factor in Round Rock, but Wichita presented an entirely different atmosphere.

Without a nearby team making up one of the eight World Series participants, the fans of Omaha adopted the upstart squad from Orange County making their first appearance in the tournament, energized after witnessing them pull off a dramatic extra-innings victory against Cal State Fullerton the night before. Nonetheless, as Bibona threw his warm-up pitches, he had nerves inching up the back of his neck.

Head coach Dave Serrano watched him loosen and had some last words before he headed back to the dugout, “You’ve put in the hard work in the bullpen, just have fun. And happy birthday.”

On the biggest stage, against the most formidable opponent, the last thing running through Bibona’s mind was his 19th birthday. But hearing that relaxed him a little bit. His first pitch was a curveball — ball one. The second, a fastball away from Wallace — called strike one. Then, on a curveball that he recalls as not very good, he jammed Wallace into a fly ball that center fielder Ollie Linton secured with a diving catch to end the inning.

The Anteaters rallied to tie the game in the bottom half of the eighth inning with a four-run surge, and Linton concluded the improbable comeback in the 10th inning with a game-winning walk-off single to right field. This, their second extra-innings win in as many nights, was a College World Series first and revived their feel-good story with a push into the national semifinal game.

A sobering six-run rout at the hands of eventual champion Oregon State quickly followed and brought their run to an abrupt conclusion. A loss so close to the national championship surely meant heartbreak for those leaving because of graduation or entry into the Major League amateur draft, but for freshmen like Bibona, this deep run in Omaha was an inspiring preview of the next few years.

‘Amish Mafia,’ a real exercise in pop culture exploitation

The week before Christmas, 3 million people watched the Discovery Channel’s new reality show, “Amish Mafia,” making it the second-most-viewed cable show that night, after the trashy hit “Moonshiners.” This is surprising for two reasons: First, it reveals Americans’ enduring fetish with all things Amish; there are 250,000 Amish in North America, putting the number of people watching “Amish Mafia” at more than 10 times the number of actual Amish people. And second, the show is really so awful, it doesn’t deserve to be on TV.

The fourth episode, which aired this week, reached new lows of ludicrousness. The Amish mafia don Lebanon Levi absconds to Florida with Esther, the girl he loves, who at the beach discards her traditional “plain” garb for a 1940s pinup-style one piece. Meanwhile, back in Lancaster County, Levi’s colleagues are organizing horse-and-buggy drag races and throwing illicit parties (for cash) in authentically Amish venues.

If ever a commercial enterprise could be accused of turning religion into a freak show, “Amish Mafia” is it. In the last 10 minutes of the show, a small-in-stature Amish person gives the film crew a tour of his house, which includes a glimpse of the kitchen, where water comes out of a hand pump, and of the unplumbed bathroom, where three holes are cut, side by side, into a wooden box. This one scene, in which religious-minority status and outhouse humor collide, should have been widely criticized as offensive, not tweeted about with low-brow glee. Imagine if the tour guide to the toilet had been an Orthodox Jew. Or a Muslim. Or a Mormon.

The media buzz about “Amish Mafia” centers on whether it’s “real.” Are there really tough-guy enforcers (with guns) living within the Amish community and outside the law, collecting debts and protecting the virtue of their women? Lancaster Amish say no. Ira Wagler, author of last year’s memoir “Growing Up Amish,” has close ties to the Lancaster Amish community. “When it came out, I went to my closest friends,” Wagler said. “These know Lebanon Levi, and they said the whole thing is completely made up.”

Discovery says yes. “They are actual people,” a Discovery spokeswoman told a reporter recently. “These are real people in the Amish and Mennonite communities.” In any case, the show posts disclaimers all over the place.

But what “Amish Mafia” shows me is how very far Americans are from anything resembling what the pundits and policymakers optimistically call “interfaith understanding.” The Amish don’t look like Americans, they don’t live like us and they don’t, by and large, want to talk about it. This means that Americans can idealize the Amish — or any other unfamiliar group of believers — and tear them down at will, making judgments without knowledge.

On the one hand, Americans regard the Amish are a peace-loving clan of country folk who eat dinner together every night by lantern light; they are a tourist attraction. A yearning for this old-fashioned simplicity explains why sales of romance novels set in Amish country were all the rage for so many years. Forty-nine authors are now engaged writing what are called “bonnet rippers” – Harlequin Romance-type novels without the sex, says Steve Oates, vice president of marketing at the Christian publisher Bethany House. This idealization persists, despite the fact that the community struggles, according to an essay by Michael Shank in this newspaper, with “physical and sexual abuse, mental disabilities, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.”

And when the Amish show themselves to be craven, fallen individuals (like the rest of us), Americans react with a sensationalistic schadenfreude, as if finally, finally, those perfect people are revealing their true selves. “When one of them has a failure, it’s like ha-ha-ha,” Oates says. Last year’s story of members of a breakaway Amish sect in Ohio imprisoned for forcibly cutting the hair and beards of dissidents was an Internet phenomenon. Even now, a month before their sentencing, the phrase “beard cutting” generates 10 million hits on Google, the first 10 pages devoted exclusively to the Amish. Neither perspective comes anywhere near the truth.

Rich Brooks laid the foundation of Oregon's program beginning in 1977. When he left for the NFL in 1995, his offensive coordinator, Mike Bellotti, took over and broke the school's career record for victories that was owned by Brooks.

Bellotti took the Ducks to 12 bowl games in his 14 seasons before deciding to move into the athletic director's office, handing the program down to his offensive coordinator, Kelly, after the 2008 season.

We all know what Kelly has done. But each time a new guy has taken over the program seems only to have gotten better. And all the while, Oregon has operated with the advantage of Nike Chairman Phil Knight's financial support.

Now, Helfrich is next in the line of succession and was even reportedly told he had the job when Kelly was mulling that Tampa Bay offer a year ago.

"There's no doubt in our mind that if Chip leaves, this program is going to keep rolling," sophomore wide receiver Keanon Lowe said. "We're going to work just as hard as we have in the past. He is a great coach, and we have a lot of great coaches.

"But he's not the one on the field doing all the work, so we're going to continue to keep our philosophies and continue working the way we do regardless of who the coach is."

Senior running back Kenjon Barner said the continuity means a lot to players and is something they consider in the recruiting process.

"It sets the tone for each player, and that means a lot," Barner said. "You always know what you're going to be a part of. You don't ever have to feel like you're starting from scratch.

Scott Fujita's Cleveland connection provides

Mary Jo Elmo was driving her Subaru Outback home from work 10 months ago, listening to sports talk radio when her curiosity and Scott Fujita's advocacy intersected somewhere on the road to Lyndhurst.

Elmo, a lifelong Browns fan and University Hospitals nurse practitioner, heard the hosts discussing a Super Bowl pregame feature NBC had aired on former New Orleans Saints special teams ace Steve Gleason. A year earlier, he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal disease that erodes the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement and leads to paralysis. The hosts mentioned Gleason was a good friend of Fujita, the Browns linebacker who had done countless interviews promoting the fight against ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Fujita had become one of Elmo's favorite players in part because she considers him so well spoken. And, also really cute. In terms of her football evaluation, Elmo admits to being "shallow" that way.

But that night, as she typed the keywords "Fujita" and "friend" and "ALS" into her computer, she was driven by empathy. For nine years, she had worked for Dr. Raymond Onders, who helped developed the Diaphragm Pacing System, which has allowed hundreds of spinal cord and ALS patients to breathe easier through electrical stimulation.

Onders had been performing the procedure at University Hospitals since 2000. His third patient was Superman, or at least the actor who portrayed him.

As her research expanded, Elmo discovered Gleason was a celebrity, too. She learned how his blocked punt in the Saints' first home game after Hurricane Katrina is considered one of the franchise's greatest plays. How he lives by the mantras, "No White Flags" and "Awesome Ain't Easy." How he created a video journal for his son, Rivers, knowing he probably would not live long enough to see the boy graduate from high school.

Elmo wondered that night if Gleason was aware of diaphragm pacing or that the doctor most accomplished in the field lived in Cleveland. Locating Fujita's website, she wrote him an email, outlining the benefits and attaching corresponding links.

As Elmo pressed send, she had no idea what the next 10 months held in store. She could not have foreseen Fujita's challenges or Gleason's triumphs and travails.

Fujita always gets a smile on his face when he remembers meeting Gleason. He had just signed a free-agent deal with a franchise that, like so many of New Orleans' residents, had been displaced from its home in the fall of 2005 due to Katrina.

Some tried to dissuade him on New Orleans, citing the city's upheaval. But Fujita and his wife, Jaclyn, wanted to be part of the Gulf Coast's rebirth. One of the first persons to befriend them was the city's patron Saint.

Fujita was taking part in a conditioning program during the spring of 2006 when he met Gleason. Almost all his new teammates were in the weight room except for a free spirit who sat in the fieldhouse doing yoga.

"I said, 'Who is the guy with long hair?' and people said, 'That's Steve Gleason, he's on his own program,' " Fujita recalled. "I thought right then, 'I could get into this guy.' "

The Fujitas moved downtown and Gleason served as their tour guide to its vibrant culture. Everybody knew Gleason and Gleason knew everybody, his autographed picture hanging like a seal of approval in so many bars and restaurants. The player who Fujita calls the "adopted son of New Orleans" even married a local girl, Michel Varisco.

In Katrina's wake, Gleason's foundation launched "Backpacks for Hope," an initiative providing relief to young hurricane victims in the form of school supplies.

Gleason played seven NFL seasons, all with the Saints. He is best remembered for one play, a blocked punt in the team's first game back in the Superdome on Sept. 25, 2006, that resulted in a touchdown. The moment, captured on national television, became so synonymous with the city's comeback a bronze statue would be erected outside the stadium.

    "I never want to overstate football's importance but there was such a connection between the team and the city that year," Fujita said. "It was an emotional wave that carried the team and the city through the rebuilding effort."

Gleason retired in 2008 and the next year began working as a consultant for a clean-energy company. Fujita shares Gleason's passion for environmental issues, as any Browns rookie caught throwing a Styrofoam container in the recycle bin can attest.

Fujita joined the Browns in 2010 after helping deliver a Super Bowl to New Orleans. He returned to the Bayou with his new team that season and played one of his best games as Brown. On that trip, however, Gleason confided that he had begun to experience odd twitching in the muscles of his upper arm and chest.

As doctors began ruling out possible causes, Fujita recalled losing an uncle to ALS, a disease that kills about two in every 100,000 people annually, according to the ALS Association. The average life expectancy is two to five years from time of diagnosis.

In the first week of January 2011, Fujita was at his California home when he received news from Gleason. The linebacker wept so uncontrollably his wife ran into living room assuming a close relative had died.

"We are football guys, we've always been in this football culture and at some point you want to hear someone say, 'Get back on that line and run another gasser, get back on the line and keep running.' " Fujita recalled. "Steve said to me, 'At some point, Bro, I might need you to keep me running,' And that's where we both kind of lost it on the phone.

As Fujita helped his friend connect with medical personnel at University Hospitals in February 2012, he took a moment to consider "how the stars had to align" to make it possible.

What were the odds that Mary Jo Elmo, who helps treat ALS patients with a new technology, would be listening to Cleveland sports talk radio at the exact moment the hosts were discussing his friendship with Gleason?

Fujita is a board member of Team Gleason, a foundation that advocates for technological advances benefiting Lou Gehrig patients. Until Elmo's email, Gleason and his supporters were unaware of the pacing system, which received Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of ALS last year.

Through a series of correspondences, Elmo and Onders explained to the Gleasons how the device works. Four electrodes, or stainless steel wires as thin as dental floss, are implanted in the diaphragm. They are controlled by a hand-held, battery-powered external pulse generator that stimulates the diaphragm and causes the muscles to contract. Clinical trials showed patients delayed the need for tracheotomy ventilation by 16 months.

Ascend Right Now That You Couldn't Do a Month Ago

Ascend remains one of our favorite free-to-play shooters, in part because of the fast-and-furious pace that Hi-Rez is making tweaks and adding new stuff. The last two updates made major changes that have jolted players out of their comfort zones with disruptive new gear and modes, giving us a ton of new tactics to make use of and counter. Here are some of the best game-changing things I've seen and done in Tribes that just weren't possible before.

Blitz mode isn't complex on the surface: every time your flag is captured by the enemy team, it respawns at a new location -- often times one that's easier to defend (and consequently harder for enemies to grab). This simple mechanic changes nearly every tactic, from where to place a defensive turret to the routes you take to get speed for a quick flag grab. On the Drydock map, one flag location is set up in the middle of the main bunker, or as I call it, the meat grinder. This bottleneck funnels enemy flag carriers into a tight spot which is perfect for my sadistic need for spamming Juggernaut mortar shells and Brute fractal grenades. I racked up a ton of explosive kills quickly while my team turned a zero-to-four score into an exciting five-to-four comeback.

Playing the Technician can feel like you're juggling 10 things at once. You have to defend the generator, repair base turrets, replace your own deployable turrets as they're destroyed, repair the base radar dish, all while avoiding and killing every piece of enemy shazbot flying your way. The new repair kit -- a belt item that will automatically repair any base structure near where it's deployed -- allows me to be in two places at once. I plop down the little machine next to a turret and attend to other repairs or the defense of our generator while it does the busywork. Likewise, I've found that placing a repair kit next to my deployable light turret helps give it a little extra time to put the hurt on the enemy -- it won't save the turret from a direct Spinfusor hit, but every little bit helps.

An alternative to the deployable light turret, the new EXR rocket turret is a great mechanism of destruction for the second or third Technician on the battlefield. The advantage of an EXR becomes obvious in the halls of a generator room when combined with other Tech's light turrets. Tight corridors make the rockets' splash damage more effective, and each rocket has enough knockback to disorient unprepared invaders. I try and place these turrets in tight corners that are harder for the enemy to quickly check on their way to the generator. They may not be terribly lethal on their own, but a few rockets to the backside will give you and the light turrets some extra time to frag the intruder.

This is by far my favorite primary Technician weapon: the TC24 fires short-ranged explosive rounds, and carries four shots per magazine. The damage is lighter than the fan-favorite Thumper, but the high fire rate (due to a lack of reloading after every shot) makes it an excellent choice when I'm stuck in a tight spot against jerks trying to blow up my generator. The TC24 has great splash damage, and the sheer size of the projectile size makes it easier to score Air Mail accolades against those annoying players hovering in the sky, and those hits give just enough knockback to keep the enemy on their toes while trying to return fire. The best aspect of this weapon is that it allows you to use the air to your advantage, much like the TCN4 SMG does. My favorite position is directly above the enemy, raining down one explosive clip after another.

Yes, Permafrost and Dangerous Crossing are old maps to the Tribes universe, but now you can play them in Tribes: Ascend quick-play rotation. Dangerous Crossing is my new (old) favorite -- steep rolling hills make it easy for heavy and light classes to move quickly to the enemy base, which is quite possibly the simplest base design in any Tribes: Ascend map. The base only allows for side-to-side flag capture routes, there is no generator, and only a solitary base turret. This means more people are defending an already easy-to-defend flag, and the result is a spectacular game of CTF.

Sentinel was my favorite class early on -- I loved the power of sniping down attempted enemy flag carriers just before they could get their hands on my precious piece of cloth. Unfortunately, my micro-aiming skills aren't the best, so I need a gun that makes every hit count. This is where the new SAP20 sniper rifle comes in handy: it's a modified version of the older Phase Rifle that uses more energy per shot and has a smaller clip size, but the tradeoff is a whopping 575 maximum damage per shot -- if you connect, they'll really feel it. The only real downside to this beauty was the constant whining of players I shot right out of the sky.

When the enemies get close, nothing helps defend your favorite camping spot better than a powerful shotgun. The aptly named Accurized Shotgun is a satisfying alternative to the Sentinel's Nova Pistols and Falcon SMG. It has better accuracy than any other shotgun, still and packs a nice punch. I love using this gun on bulkier, easier-to-hit heavy classes after I weaken them down with my SAP20 -- a well placed shot can land a total of 560 damage, just enough to put some doubt into anyone looking for a revenge kill.

More not necessarily bigger for 'Step Up'

With "Step Up Revolution," their additional summertime at-bat afterwards "Rock of Ages," producers Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot acknowledgment to one of the things they do best _ authoritative adolescent unknowns attending like the next big thing. In its fourth installment, however, the "Step Up" authorization has traded an air of authoritativeness for one of predictability. While die-hard admirers and ball fanatics will acknowledge on the aperture weekend, advancing antagonism from superheroes and beautiful animation characters may apathetic drive in consecutive weeks.

After dancing its way beyond Baltimore and New York City in antecedent iterations, "Step Up" moves to Miami, area homeboys Sean and Eddy accept been best buds back toddler-hood and now advance a bounded ball beam mob accepted as, well, "The Mob," just to accumulate things simple. Together with their crew, including choreographers, beheld artists and a DJ, the guys accept been busting out abruptness ball numbers all over Miami and cutting video to attack in a YouTube challenge to win $1 million.

Sean's day job as a aide at a affluence auberge helps abutment his ball addiction and pay the hire on the abode he shares with his single-mom sister and niece. When Emily Anderson turns up at the auberge _ endemic by her ancestor Bill , a adamant real-estate developer _ for a summer of bartending while advancing to audience for a coveted atom with a high-toned bounded ball company, allure accordingly blaze amid the two.

As it turns out, above Emily needs Sean's advice added than she suspects. Seems that the ball aggregation administrator thinks Emily is a accomplished aerialist but anguish a bit too deeply to be absolutely creative. So if she wants to accomplish it assimilate the roster, Emily is traveling to charge some new moves, which she abstracts Sean can advice bear already she discovers he's one of the motivators abaft The Mob. Afterwards her video debut, a adult amount in a crowded, adorned restaurant, draws millions of hits online, Emily's brought on with the accumulation as they plan their next abandoned "mission."

However there's one above obstacle looming over the pair's adventurous beatitude and able success: Emily's dad is bent to body a new affluence development afterwards razing the multiracial association area Sean lives and hangs out with added Mob members. Although Sean agrees to accumulate Emily's character buried while she rehearses and performs with his crew, if chat gets out, his artery cred will be absolutely shot, which could complicate that business about acceptable the YouTube video contest. Emily has addition idea, though, auspicious Sean and The Mob to angle up to her dad's development affairs with some proactive ball interventions.

Much like hit-making music producers, Shankman and Gibgot accept orchestrated a decidedly acceptable alternation that takes able filmmakers and performers and turns them into apparent professionals, like administering alum John M. Chu and above man-candy ballerina Channing Tatum. Authoritative his feature-filmmaking debut, music-video and TV administrator Scott Speer acquits himself adequately, decidedly back the cine is added affiliated to a long-form video project.

Playwright and first-time biographer Amanda Brody plays it safe, abrogation the pyrotechnics to the choreography aggregation and afraid to the franchise's accurate dance-romance formula, which offers few surprises but delivers effectively. The attack to add a atom of amusing appliance to an about airy ball car by staging ball protests adjoin the resort development is appealing abundant a nonstarter, decidedly back there's no adumbration that The Mob's actionable assemblies are alluring the atomic law-enforcement attention.

Abercrombie & Fitch archetypal Guzman looks every bit the metrosexual adventurous lead, but aswell makes a aboveboard accomplice for "So You Think You Can Dance" brilliant McCormick. Fortunately, neither is alleged aloft to amplitude too far in the acting administration and both are able to get by with acceptable looks and blatant moves. Supporting cast-members are able if not outstanding, but it's the choreographers, led by authorization vet Jamal Sims, who absolutely put the flash on the production.

"Revolution's" mix of choreography, allegory avant-garde ball and street-style achievement that incorporates hip-hop, step, acrobatic moves and Cirque du Soleil-style aeriform stunts, forms an energetic, consistently alive mosaic. Several above set pieces, including the aperture city Miami arrangement absorption about a array of low-riders, advice ballast cogent artifice developments, even if they add little anecdotal impetus.

By now, however, 3-D ball performances are accepted for the brand and with the barring of a few notable aeriform tricks, "Revolution" doesn't action abounding stylistic innovations, although the soundtrack featuring performances by Far East Movement Timbaland and J-Lo, is appropriately propulsive.

Corruption, Jonathan and the blow of us

Corruption is the big affair in the Nigerian system. As a amount of fact,its appearing non-ending attendance seems to accept annoyed out all Nigerians.

Like all others afore him, Admiral Goodluck Jonathan, in 2011, promised to appoint bribery in a individual combat.

After a year down the line, the acumen on the president’s achievement sheet, on his activity adjoin corruption, still swings like a pendulum. Nigerians who admiration actual and apparent furnishings of the president’s efforts, anticipate there is rather a let up in the fight, while some others who adjudicator from the common and deep-rootedness of bribery in the arrangement say the admiral is systematically hitting the appropriate buttons.

All Nigerians, after exaggerating, would ambition that bribery be zapped, so that the development of the nation can alpha in abounding swing. It is, however, delusionary to anticipate that the activity adjoin it would not be able-bodied and effectively resisted by the actual abounding intricate web of its beneficiaries, back it acutely runs in the nation’s clandestine and accessible sectors.

The acumen that the government’s anti-corruption efforts are not barometer up to the people’s demand, calls for understanding, as the amenable agency for this, lie added with the consequence and the appearing never-changing face of bribery in the system, than with government’s measures and the acknowledgment time. The absurdity of this affair is that, while the articulation of just about every Nigerian is black the base system, and the government in its ability is angry it, an boilerplate Nigerian in the aforementioned animation is absolute on authoritative abundance by any agency possible. It aswell applies in abounding instances, that the man, who may be shouting hardest adjoin the government for not angry corruption, may just be accomplishing so to bandy anybody off the aroma of bribery that oozes from aggregate he has anytime done for a living.

It is banal to accompaniment that the accuracy in Nigerians to grab opportunities bribery presents, rather makes us acquisition accessibility in casual the accusation for the constant bribery on what is believed to be the government’s abridgement of able will to accouterment it. What we abridgement the affirmation to buy is that the botheration of bribery was partly fabricated communicable and awkward by the aggregate depression of our values.

Irrespective of all the criticisms, it is arch to abjure the Jonathan-led government’s will ability and approach currently deploying to ride out the claiming of bribery in the system. In agreement of repositioning the anti-corruption agencies, it is calmly appreciable that EFCC and ICPC accept never been accustomed chargeless easily to accomplish by any government that preceded that of Jonathan. Rather than arrange their operations, the present government gives them all the things they crave to activity at optimum. This comes in agreement of able allotment and deepening of their administering cadres. For instance, it was for the closing acumen that Ibrahim Lamorde was brought in to yield over from Farida Waziri. Nigerians still abide affiliated in their assessment that the change was appropriate and able-bodied anticipation out.

Same with the ICPC. It was all too axiomatic that the arrangement of Ekpo Unaowo Nta, as the acting administrator of the agency followed a accurate and assiduous seek for the appropriate man to put the Agency in the groove.

To absolve the oil industry as commendations the House of Representatives’ address on ammunition subsidy, the government, admitting all the controversies that accept trailed the allegation of the committee, readily pushed the address to the EFCC for action.

Thus acceptable that no one, nor organisation accusable in the address would by no agency escape prosecution. The ache to ensure this cleansing appropriately collection the Jonathan government to instituting a clandestine subsidy administering delving committee, via the Ministry of Finance, headed by Aigboje Imoukhuede, managing administrator and arch controlling administrator of Access Bank. Though the address of the Imoukhuede lath is still actual beginning with the government, but, there has been an affirmation that the active of the accusable would roll, afterward the findings.

Before the Imoukhuede lath which was put in abode in May, the government had in February, acerb answerable the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to axle its searchlight on the Petroleum Products Price Regulating Agency (PPPRA), which oversees the administering of the fraud-infested subsidy regime. Going by the charge of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke in this regard, the EFCC is “to anon analysis all payments fabricated in account of subsidies on PMS and kerosene, and to yield all all-important accomplish to prosecuting any accident of malfeasance, fraud, over-invoicing, and accompanying illegalities in an accessible and cellophane manner”.

Late July, the president, afterward the activities of the Dotun Sulaiman-led assignment force and in band with the recommendations of the House subsidy delving report, sacked the administration and lath of the NNPC in one fell. The Sulaiman-led assignment force, constituted in February by the Federal Government was a part of added things, answerable with reviewing all administration controls aural the NNPC and its subsidiaries. It was aswell answerable with the designing of a new accumulated babyminding cipher that would ensure abounding transparency, acceptable babyminding and all-around best practices aural the corporation. It will architecture a adapt for amid action from operations in the association and its subsidiaries; set key achievement indices for the association and its subsidiaries, and architecture a adapt for eliminating all rent-seeking opportunities and arbitrage in the NNPC operations. The appropriate assignment force was aswell tasked and asked to appear up with a adapt for professionalizsng managements and agents personnels in the NNPC and its subsidiaries. It is a complete delving of the NNPC and its operations.

Despite the decades of cardinal by Nigerians over the cesspool the NNPC is, this delving instituted by the present government is the aboriginal of such back the association was accustomed 34 years ago.

Girls Around Me App Is a Wake-Up Call

As far as I can tell, the app "Girls Around Me" wasn't violating any laws. But it was high on the creepy scale when, according to reports, women's identity, photographs and location were being revealed to strangers, even though the women never opted into the service. Although the developer, Moscow-based I-Free, hardly deserves any awards, the app's a good wake-up call for people to use the privacy settings of legitimate social networking and location services.

The app mashed together information people posted about themselves publicly on Foursquare and Facebook and created a map showing the location and photographs of nearby women. On its website, the company brags that the app can be used to "Browse photos of lovely local ladies and tap their thumbnail to find out more about them." It's offered for those "In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand." An image that resembles a radar screen with a silhouette of an apparently naked woman adorns the home page.

Late last month Foursquare cut off access to the app so that it can no longer collect the company's publicly accessible data. In a statement, Foursquare said "This is a violation of our API (application programming interface)." Apple subsequently removed the app from its app store.

Foursquare is a location service typically used to share information about restaurants and other places people visit. It's common for people to use Foursquare to "check-in" to a location and share that information with their friends. Restaurant-goers often use it to recommend specific meals; and it's possible to use the service to let friends locate you in real-time, perhaps to stop by to say hello or share a drink or a meal.

Foursquare users can connect their account to Facebook and, when they do, they are asked to specify who can see their information. When I checked, it was set to "Friends." But you can also set it to Public, which means anyone can see it, or "only me," which hides it from everyone but yourself. It's also possible to link Foursquare with Twitter. Although it's possible to limit who can see your tweets, the default setting -- which very few Twitter users change -- is for tweets to be public.

The fracas behind the Girls Around Me app is a reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect our own privacy. I'm not condoning their tasteless and tacky service, but from everything I can tell, the company didn't hack into any servers or tap into anyone's private information. Everything it did was based on information people posted for public consumption.

Let this be yet another reminder for people to think about over-sharing. To me, it's obvious that connecting your Foursquare account with Twitter is tantamount to broadcasting your whereabouts. I've done that, but I did so knowingly. But it never hurts to remind people to put thought into whether they really want to publicly share where they are and, by implication, where they're not. And parents, this is yet another good opportunity to share a bit of digital literacy with your kids. "What's important in the 'Girls Around Me' story for parents and kids to consider together is that an app was using people's publicly available information without their knowledge," wrote my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews. And, considering the number of mobile apps being created all the time, "this is not the last time that will happen," she added.

Aside from safety and privacy concerns, location can also be embarrassing, as I realized a few years ago when I went to a particular holiday party instead of another party that some people thought I "should" have gone to. Without thinking, I used Facebook to "check-in" to the party and then realized that my would-be hosts from the other party might see it. To save face, I quickly jumped in my car and drove 35 miles to put in an appearance at the other party.

10 Fun Games You Might Have Missed

Last year I celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of the Sony Playstation with a piece entitled, “15 Years of the Sony Playstation – 15 Fun Games You Might Have Missed.” It proved to be a pretty popular piece with readers, so this year, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the Microsoft Xbox, we’re going to do something very similar.

Please note this is not a “Top 10″ list highlighting what I consider the absolute best games available on the original Xbox. Rather, this is a look at ten games that have had a strong cult following since they were released on the Xbox, even if they are obscure or unheard of by the mainstream or casual gamer. This list will only include games that were Xbox console exclusives. This means no remakes, no cross-console titles, and no titles that have been re-released on XBLA as a digital download. I’ve also tried to make sure the games are available for thirty dollars or less, so that any gamer can pick them up and see why these titles still hold up a decade later. There is one big exception to that rule though… These ten games will also be covered in alphabetical order, so as not to give the impression that one game is better than another. The unintended side effect of this is that we’ll be starting with the first Xbox game I ever reviewed and ending with the last. Odd coincidence, no? The goal of this piece is to inspire a combination of conversation amongst older gamers, nostalgia over titles both loved and forgotten, and hopefully exposing younger gamers to ten titles that might not have had the largest advertising but still have a loyal following due to their quality. Who knows? If you missed one (or more) of these ten games, perhaps this piece will inspire you to track them down and see why they hold a special place in the hearts of gamers who experienced them.

You might not recognize the name Arkane Studios, but they are the team behind the upcoming first person stealth game Dishonored (being published by Bethesda) and they did the art design for Bioshock 2. This little French development company got its start with this partially open source first person RPG that was originally intended to be Ultima Underworld III. Ultima Underworld might not be a familiar title to younger gamers, but mention it to someone who works in the industry and they’ll probably talk your ear off about it. The Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, Gears of War, Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, and World of Warcraft were all inspired by Ultima Underworld. It’s one of the most influential games ever and it saddens me to see how forgotten it is by the average gamer. Arx Fatalis was meant to be the third game in the series, but Electronic Arts decided not to give Arkane Studios the license or publish the game. A little retooling and rescripting later, and Arx Fatalis was born. Thank Cthulhu for that, as it ended up being one of the best RPGs for the Xbox.

Arx Fatalis takes place in another world – one where the sun is no more. All life on the planet now lives in a series of connected subterranean caverns built by the dwarves of a time long since past. Humans, trolls, goblins, wererats and more now live in these caves, using magic to grow crops and stay alive. The game begins long after the underearth has been settled. You begin by seeing your character enveloped in a blue light and learn he is an amnesiac who knows nothing of the world or its history. Cheesy and cliche, but an easy way to make you learn the history of Arx Fatalis. You are a prisoner of goblins. You escape. You wander around. You discover a Human outpost where everyone was slaughtered horribly. Then slowly a conspiracy unfolds itself…

There are two big things that make the game memorable. The first is the sheer level of detail. Straight out of old SSI AD&D games like Eye of the Beholder, you have to eat. Of course, you don’t want to eat raw food, so you not only half to kill your meat, but cook it too. You also have to mix ingredients to make anything from bread to potions. You’ll have to learn to repair armour, create a fishing pole and many other things in order to reach your ultimate goal – defeating an avatar of the god of destruction. The depth even extends into spell casting. Taking a page right out of 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, your character will need to trace runes in the air and in real time in order to cast a spell, so there aren’t any instantaneous fireballs here. I loved this back in 2003 and I still love it now. It simulates the time and precision needed to cast magic and forces you to consider timing and location rather than just button mashing. If this turned out to be too hard for a gamer, they had the option of memorizing a spell by doing the runes in a more peaceful situation and then pressing Y to memorize it for a quick release down the road. If even that wasn’t enough, you could turn on arcade magic, which just gave you a menu for quickly selecting spells. So no matter your skill level, you still could wield magic properly. I loved the attention to detail in this game, as including so many small things that most RPGs ignore or forget really helped the kingdom of Arx to come alive for me.

Juggler Philip Anderson is featured entertainer in this weeks Street Performers Series

As the month of June winds down, the Downtown Holland Street Performer Series, sponsored by Gentex Corporation, is showing no signs of doing the same!   The weekly Series continues Thursday, June 30 from 6:30 p.m . to  8:30 p.m, with close to thirty different artists and groups from all backgrounds entertaining the crowds on Eighth Street.  In addition to the scheduled performers, contact juggler Philip Anderson will also make an appearance this Thursday as the “Gentex Performer of the Week.”

Contact juggling focuses on the movement of objects, such as orbs, in contact with the body.  It differs from regular juggling in the fact that the moving objects or props are not released into the air. Contact juggling involves three main techniques: body rolling, palm spinning, and isolation.  Body rolling is when an orb is manipulated around a juggler’s hands, arms and body, while palm spinning is when graceful and fluid movements are used while an object is kept in motion.  Isolation is when an orb is manipulated so that it appears suspended in place.

A seasoned performer from Grand Rapids, Anderson spends many hours a week practicing contact juggling, along with magic, comedy, and acrobatics.  He is thrilled to be able to show off his contact juggling skills at the Series for the first time. “I’ve heard about the Series for years and have always wanted to be a part of it,” said Anderson.  “Friends who have performed in Downtown Holland have encouraged me to participate. I can see why, as I’m already falling in love with Holland!”

Also making their debut at the Street Performer Series this Thursday will be The Daredevil Circus Company.  This Grand Rapids-based group of highly trained artists has traveled around the world performing their act, which includes aerial silks, hoops, and trapeze, fire eating, acrobatics, contortion, and more.  They will be joined at the Series this week by gospel musicians, henna tattoo artists, balloon twisters, steel guitarists, mimes, and many other talented performers.  While the Series is free for all to attend, tipping the performers is highly encouraged.

ISU freshmen start Rubik's Cube Club

His hands moved in a dizzying motion.

The colors on the plastic block switched with each move.

Right-inverted, down-inverted, right and down.

The seconds hand passed by the top of the clock.

Up, right, up-inverted, left-inverted; up, right-inverted, up-inverted and left.

The color patterns changed quickly from a mess of colorful stickers to a solid white side and half-and-half blues and reds.

Holding the nearly-completed cube still, he carefully but quickly thought about the next course of action.

And it continued; left-inverted, up, left, up, front, up-inverted and front-inverted.

"It's really not that hard," said Rohan Sharma, freshman in aerospace engineering, while fumbling around with a 2-by-2 cube right before going step-by-step, slowly explaining the different situations and patterns a first-time "Cuber" would need to know.

Sharma's 2-by-2 Rubik's Cube was solved, yellow the opposite of white, red opposite of orange, blue across from green, and the seconds hand was still trying to keep up, not even getting halfway around the circle.

Putting the pieces together

Sharma, president of ISU Rubik's Cube Club and freshman in aerospace engineering, found his father's 1982 Rubik's cube when he was in the 11th grade.

After pulling it out of a box in their home garage, Sharma took about five days to solve the cube.

Only a couple years later, Sharma is focused on speed-cubing, which involves solving a Rubik's Cube while competing against the time clock; he is already third in state ranking for 3-by-3.

Instead of solving the cubes using the standard patterns or "cheat sheets" he first learned with, he is now looking for new puzzles and something unique to work on.

Sharma and the club don't limit themselves to just using standard cubes though. Sharma pulled out a puzzle, "Rubik's Magic," where the goal is to get three rings detached and back together again. Sharma says his record time is 1.15 seconds and then retracts his statement.

"Wait, wait; I actually think it's, 2.15 seconds. Yeah," he said.

He has also explored cubing with your feet, underwater, one-handed, blindfolded and upside-down, which Sharma says is intense once all the blood has rushed to your head mid-solve.

Today, Sharma can solve and is working on improving his time on a 7-by-7 puzzle and is looking for an 11-by-11 cube; not the Rubik's Cubes from Walmart, the nice ones that smoothly switch — from a company in Oregon — or the discounts they get from a dealer in China.

"You're always looking for something that is unique," he said. "Something that sets you apart almost."

Sharma got the idea and laid down the plan for the club in the fall semester of 2010; he elected temporary officers and met with people as a collective group.

Since the beginning of the semester, he said the club has been growing like a spider web; where one person tells another and then they tell two people.

He saw that there wasn't a Rubik's Cube club at Iowa State, and he was surprised later on to find out that with 28 members, his club had more members than MIT's club, which has 15 members and has existed for five years.

Sharma describes the club as an underground community similar to that of a poker club.

The nerd stereotypes following the club members around aren't something Sharma has ever experienced.

Most people want to learn how to cube and think it's cool, he said.

With the help of Sharma and other seasoned cubers, new members are beginning to solve their 3-by-3 cubes in less than two minutes and making great friends in the process.

Last week, the club went in front of the Government of the Student Body to ask for more money to increase inventory to provide each member with a 3-by-3 cube and to buy more complicated puzzles, but was turned down.

The previous time the club spoke to GSB, one of the members said in his speech to the senators, "Solving a cube is something you can show on a date."

From then on, the joke circulating the club members was that it was a goal for each single member to get a date with each cube success.

Sharma laughs and says he doesn't know of anyone who has actually done that but knows that members of the group, such as Malcolm Kelly — freshman in mechanical engineering — have posted statuses on Facebook that read, "Hey ladies, guess who just solved a Rubik's cube for the first time?!"

Although they didn't get the money they asked for, they sparked the interest of a few GSB members.

"We were rather shocked," Sharma said, in response to the GSB members who called them "cute" freshmen; and after denying them, came up to ask about how they could be a part of the club.

"In the long run, we want to host a competition that's nationally recognized and put the university's name out there," he said.

Not only does the club want to host competitions, but they'd like to be able to go on trips to experience what the Rubik's Cube world is like outside Iowa State.

The club will travel to Clinton — not to Flav's Fried Chicken — but to a mock competition April 16, using their personal money.

Sharma said that it's important to show what a real competition looks like and how it feels to compete in one; adding he was "scared as hell" at his first competition.

"It's literally a party," he said.