Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. We get to celebrate and decorate for the entire month with Halloween landing on the 31st! That's 31 days of witches, bats, and ghosts, oh my!
With so many great ways to how to make halloween props a fright all throughout the month of October, what fun it would be to make a Halloween countdown? I've found 13 fantastically frightful ways to count down, making for a spooktacular Halloween!
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Quelque 12 millions de visiteurs sont attendus pour ce grand rendez-vous de septembre lors duquel 16.000 monuments et sites publics ou privés sont à découvrir en métropole et Outre-mer. Pas moins de 22.000 animations sont proposées pour attiser l'appétit déjà grand des Français pour le patrimoine.
En choisissant pour thème "1913-2013: cent ans de protection", la nouvelle édition des Journées du patrimoine rend hommage à la loi du 31 décembre 1913, pilier de la protection des monuments historiques en France. Grâce à elle, la France compte plus de 43.000 immeubles protégés au titre des monuments historiques, dont 14.000 classés et 29.000 inscrits. Quelque 260.000 objets sont également classés ou inscrits.
La Mairie de Paris présente ses richesses et les artisans qui les protègent...
Des manuscrits de Proust et Dreyfus Samedi matin, la ministre de la Culture Aurélie Filippetti a donné le coup d'envoi de ces Journées du patrimoine, en accueillant rue de Valois les visiteurs. Dans les salons du ministère, le public doit découvrir le manuscrit de "Du côté de chez Swann", que Marcel Proust a publié à compte d'auteur il y a cent ans, faute d'avoir trouvé un éditeur (prêt de la Bibliothèque nationale de France). Il pourra aussi se pencher sur le manuscrit des "Souvenirs" d'Alfred Dreyfus, dont le petit-fils du Capitaine a fait don à la BnF en juillet.
Le succès garanti des hauts lieux de pouvoir Comme tous les ans, l'Elysée, Matignon, l'Assemblée nationale et le Sénat attirent les foules, et ce, malgré la pluie ! À l'Elysée, le public peut voir pour la première fois une trentaine de présents offerts au président de la République par des chefs d'Etat étrangers. Les visiteurs pourront également approcher du collier de Grand-maître de la Légion d'honneur, prêté par la Grande Chancellerie. Une Berliet C2 et une Rochet-Schneider type 9000 Torpedo, très proches des véhicules utilisés par le Président Poincaré en 1913 seront montrées, tout comme une Citroën DS 5 hybride utilisée lors de l'investiture du Président François Hollande.
François Hollande salue des visiteurs au palais de l'Élysée, lors des Journées du patrimoine (14 septembre 2013)
François Hollande à la rencontre des visiteurs de l'Élysée Samedi matin, le chef de l'Etat est venu saluer les visiteurs de la présidence avec sa compagne Valérie Trierweiler. "La moindre des choses, c'est de venir à la rencontre de celles et ceux qui ont mis trois heures, parfois davantage, pour visiter, avec une météo qui n'est pas la meilleure", a-t-il confié sur BFMTV.
Versailles ouvre certaines galeries pour l'occasion Le château de Versailles ouvre exceptionnellement au public l'intégralité des galeries historiques de l'Aile du Midi, en visite libre. Ces salles ne sont accessibles que rarement, avec des conférenciers. De l'escalier de Provence à l'Attique, en passant par la galerie des Batailles et les salles Empire, le public pourra défiler devant les oeuvres rassemblées par Napoléon et Louis-Philippe et qui racontent l'histoire de France.
À l'occasion de ces Journées, le Premier ministre Jean-Marc Ayrault a souhaité qu'une très belle lanterne de 1784 installée dans l'escalier d'honneur de l'Hôtel de Matignon depuis 1935 rejoigne le château de Versailles pour être vue du plus grand nombre. Réalisée pour le cabinet intérieur de Louis XVI à Compiègne, cette lanterne de provenance royale sera accrochée dans les appartements de Mesdames, filles de Louis XV, au rez-de-chaussée du château de Versailles. En échange, une lanterne d'époque Empire du Château de Versailles éclaire désormais l'escalier d'honneur de l'Hôtel de Matignon.
Tunnel sous la Manche : plus de 1.100 inscrits Plus de 1.100 personnes se sont inscrites pour arpenter le tunnel sous la Manche ce week-end, avec pour la première fois un accès au tunnel de service et aux installations britanniques, a indiqué la société Eurotunnel. Le tunnel de service, qui passe entre les deux tunnels ferroviaires avec des entrées tous les 375 mètres, sert en temps normal à la maintenance et aux équipes de sécurité pour patrouiller.
Toutes les visites guidées, effectuées à bord d'autocars et présentées par des employés d'Eurotunnel, étaient pleines samedi côté français. Les visites au départ côté anglais sont programmées dimanche. Cette voie ferroviaire voit passer près de 400 trains par jour, qui relie Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais) à Folkestone (Kent) en 35 minutes. Le nombre de visites est en hausse, s'est réjoui le gestionnaire. L'an passé, environ 700 personnes avaient fait le déplacement.
Visiteurs dans le tunnel sous la Manche (14 septembre 2013)
Ailleurs dans les régions... De nombreux lieux ayant échappé de peu à la destruction grâce à un classement sont à découvrir dans toute la France. À Roubaix, la Villa Cavrois réalisée en 1932 par l'architecte Robert Mallet-Stevens et rachetée en 2001 par l'Etat est ouverte exceptionnellement (jusqu'au 29 septembre). Elle est actuellement fermée pour restauration.
À Lyon, la prison Montluc, ancien lieu de tortures et d'exécutions durant l'Occupation allemande, où fut détenu Jean Moulin, ouvre pour la première fois ses caves - deux cellules de 8 m2 éclairées par un soupirail. C'est là qu'étaient incarcérés le temps d'une nuit des prisonniers que les gardiens voulaient isoler à leur arrivée ou après les épreuves des interrogatoires. Plusieurs rescapés, dont la résistante Hélène Berthaud, membre du mouvement Combat, torturée et condamnée à mort avant d'être sauvée à la Libération, doivent témoigner durant le week-end.
L'ancien camp de concentration du Struthof (Bas-Rhin), en cours de restauration, ouvre exceptionnellement les vestiaires où les déportés devaient se déshabiller, ainsi qu'une partie de la sinistre baraque crématoire.
À Bordeaux, au lieu de marcher, on peut traverser la ville à bord de véhicules anciens, à raison de 35 euros par véhicule. Un circuit est également proposé dimanche à bord d'un autobus datant de 1935.
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence présente son patrimoine
À Nancy, la banque CIC-Est ouvre sa salle des coffres à la visite guidée... Gare aux braqueurs en herbe...
À Labry (Meurthe-et-Moselle), des passionnés de la Grande Guerre ont reconstitué un bivouac de poilus, tandis qu'au château de Pange, près de Metz, les visiteurs sont accueillis par des acteurs en costume de l'époque napoléonienne...
Par ailleurs, toute une série de sémaphores sont ouverts, dont celui de Ploumanac'h (Côte-d'Armor) sur la côte de granit rose, ou encore celui du Rosédo à Bréhat, haut de 32 mètres, dans le même département.
Quant au MuCem (Musée des civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée), à Marseille, il prévoit d'accueillir ce week-end son millionième visiteur sur son vaste site. Une réussite pour ce musée qui a été inauguré le 4 juin par François Hollande, il y a un peu plus de trois mois.
Les villes de France et d'outre mer s'essayent au "teaser" pour présenter leur patrimoine : ici, Saint-Denis de la Réunion
And yet in a political system designed to be forever new -- the regular rotation of House members in biennial elections, the immutable four-year rhythms of a presidential term -- there is something new but deeply unsettling about the capital as summer melts into autumn this month. It is as if the center of gravity of the political system has shifted, or as if a system of exquisite balance has been disrupted.
It isn't any one thing but an accumulation of factors that have contributed to the word that dare not speak its name -- the word (malaise) that Jimmy Carter never actually uttered in a 1979 speech remembered in presidential infamy.
In its modern incarnation it has robbed Barack Obama's second term of its new-car smell, added a dreary sense of deja vu to the looming budget showdown, stolen away in the night with America's reputation as the indispensable nation and transformed the last remaining shreds of contemplation into mere contention. Here are some of the symptoms:
-- The president has lost his gyroscope.
Even in the most discouraging moments of his first term, President Obama knew where he was going and had a sure notion of how to get there. No more, and the Syria episode, now being celebrated by some as an example of the president's shrewdness (the end of Syrian chemical weapons without the start of American bombing!), is the principal example. The president's moral outrage was appropriate after last month's gas attacks, and the nation shared his sense of shock even as Americans were not in awe of his response, which was changeable if not inscrutable.
Still unanswered: the real timetable for the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons, the real motive of Vladimir Putin and the resolution of Obama's vow that Bashar Assad should pay a price for his actions.
-- The country has lost, at least in the short term, its pre-eminence in world diplomacy.
For two generations, the American narrative -- this was decidedly not the Soviet narrative, nor, after 1989, the Russian narrative -- was that the United States continually had to respond to Moscow's nefarious gambits: 1956 in Hungary, 1968 in Czechoslovakia, 1980 in Afghanistan, along with shady episodes of agitation in Nicaragua and Africa and support for rebellions in Korea and Vietnam.
In all those situations, at least in their renderings in the West, Moscow wore the black hat or hid one in the top drawer or back closet. Now, Putin, no exemplar of democratic values, has upended the narrative. He's taken the initiative in Syria, and in the United Nations, too, and he's the one wearing the white hat. "The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker," the president whose style most resembles Putin's, Richard M. Nixon, said in his 1969 inaugural address. Putin is luxuriating in that title.
-- The president has lost his influence on Capitol Hill.
Obama plainly could not carry his own party on Syria, which is one reason reasonable people might wonder why he decided in the first place -- no, it was actually the second place -- to kick the Syria can up to Capitol Hill. In doing so he only increased the specific gravity of an extremely unlikely coalition of liberals and libertarian conservatives that was drawn together by concerns over the growth of government surveillance and now comprises an unwieldy peacenik-isolationist caucus that could be dangerous to Obama in the coming years.
Not that the president has the customary prerogatives granted to chief executives, such as the benefit of the doubt among members of his own party on important appointments. Only a day before Lawrence H. Summers withdrew from consideration as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, three members of the Senate Banking Committee, including a reliable ally, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, indicated they would not back the president's choice.
-- The president has little reason for hope for the way forward.
New tax, spending and debt-ceiling confrontations are just around a dangerous corner. The president has to be admired for his patience, commitment and resilience as he bounces from one economic crisis to another, but there is little hope he will get his way, or even get a reprieve from House Republicans, who are not inclined or motivated to compromise with him.
Instead, these House Republicans took heart from last week's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll underlining the deep skepticism Americans still feel about the health care law that has become known as Obamacare. (Ronald Reagan once marveled that the opponents who described his economic policies as Reaganomics abandoned the name once it seemed his policies were working. Obama no doubt harbors the same hope.)
That opinion poll showed that less than a third of Americans thought the measure was a good idea, as opposed to 44 percent who condemned it. This was accompanied by poll findings showing that two-thirds of those polled acknowledged they didn't understand the law very well or only partially -- not a good sign for the president nor testimony to his marketing acumen.
The House Republicans no doubt will vote to repeal Obamacare a few dozen more times, a meaningless gesture except that it reinforces their determination to frustrate the president. Until the Summers withdrawal, the president was pinning his hopes on gaining GOP support for his Fed choice in the Senate (which, unlike the House, has confirmation powers). The president cannot count on Republican support for anything in the House.
The result is a season of frustration for Obama and few prospects for improvements in the political atmosphere for the remainder of the year. Then comes winter. All signs point to a cold one.
If it's Friday then it must be time for Distribution Watch, our weekly wrap of distribution-related news and information. This week we're training our eyes on D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro (IM) and Avnet (AVT), so don't blink or you'll miss out.
D&H Distributing: Secure broadband networking, Internet access, connected home and routing products from zyxel.com/us/en/homepage.shtml">ZyXEL Communications are now being offered by D&H in Canada and the United States.
D&H will focus on ZyXEL's broad line of business class offerings, including firewalls, switches and business-class Access Points. ZyXEL's carrier-grade Ethernet switches include managed, smart web-managed and unmanaged Fast, Gigabit and 10G switches.
D&H also will distribute ZyXEL's enterprise wireless devices including indoor and outdoor access points, WLAN controllers and Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as ZyXEL's network security products including high-throughput firewall appliances and award-winning Unified Threat Management devices.
Ingram Micro: The distribution behemoth announced the addition of several new vendors to Promark's General Services Administration (GSA) schedule including Panasonic, Falconstor, Jabra and Whiptail.
The recent GSA schedule additions focus on in-demand technology categories such as communications, data protection, networking, ruggedized computing, storage and virtualization. Earlier this year, Ingram Micro announced Cisco Systems' portfolio of channel-friendly technology products and solutions were now featured as part of Promark's GSA schedule.
Ingram Micro acquired Promark, a value-added distributor with a core technology focus on data storage, data management and electronic document imaging products and services, in 2012.
Avnet: The distributor's Avnet Technology Solutions division has received the PolycomRealPresence Services Specialization (RPSS) designation and will now offer technical assistance center services including Level 1 and Level 2 support from Avnet's Polycom Video Conferencing Engineers (PCVE) certified technicians. These experts can assist with technical support and failure determination, and will be able to access a working lab to help with issues resolution.
The technical assistance center services are available to channel partners in the United States and Canada through Avnet Services. Avnet's RPSS designation will enable partners to provide value-added technical assistance center services for their unified communications customers without needing to develop these capabilities in house.
And so ends another edition of Distribution Watch. But never fear, we'll be back next week with more distribution-related news. Until then, stay safe.
We all like to live in the here and now. What is here and definitely now is patriots/">New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman. He is coming off a very nice game against the Buffalo Bills: seven receptions, 79 yards and two touchdowns. Despite those numbers, it is not smart to think Edelman can continue to produce like this.
First off, Julian Edelman was a quarterback at Kent State University. Bill Belichick drafted Edelman because he saw the potential for Edelman to become a slot receiver in the . So Edelman has always been in transition from QB to wide receiver, which has shown from time to time.
Edelman's best production has come as a punt returner. He has returned three punts for touchdowns, and is a consistent return threat. His game was at its best when he was a young backup to veteran slot receiver Wes Welker. That way, the pressure wasn't on Edelman to produce on offense.
Speaking of production on offense, Edelman hasn't had much of it. His best season was his rookie year, in which Edelman caught 37 passes for 359 yards and one touchdown. That was when Wes Welker missed a couple of games due to injury. Even then, Edelman was not able to make Patriots fans forget about Welker (though that is hard to do).
Edelman could not even make Belichick forget about wide receiver Deion Branch. After wide receiver Randy Moss was traded in 2010, Branch came back and immediately started opposite of Welker. For a season-and-a-half, Edelman was unable to wrench the No. 2 receiver job away from Branch. That isn't good considering that Branch was old and on the decline.
There was even a brief period in 2012 where Edelman was playing ahead of Welker. For some reason, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels thought that Edelman would be an upgrade over Welker. That clearly was not the case, and McDaniels soon promoted Welker back into the starting lineup.
So Edelman has had several opportunities to secure a starting wide receiver spot, and he has failed. He has proven time and again that he should be a backup slot receiver that should only play if the starting slot receiver is injured. That is the case for now, as Danny Amendola is nursing a groin injury. But once Amendola gets healthy, he should regain his job, pushing Edelman to fourth or fifth on the depth chart.
Philip Alexander is a New England Patriots writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @steely0906, "like" him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.Related:Julian Edelman Looks To Breakout in Amendola's Absence
Nobody is really expecting to be the next Oprah Winfrey because that's not going to happen, not even for Ms. Winfrey. But this fall, new aspirants are jostling for a perch on daytime television, and they seek a talk show less to cap a career than to expand their marketing horizons.
Like a cookbook, a perfume or a clothing label, the daily talk show has become the latest form of brand extension: product placement of the persona.
"The Queen Latifah Show" made its debut on Monday. bethenny Frankel, an alumna of "The Real Housewives of New York City," made her debut on Sept 9. Kris Jenner, mother of the Kardashian brood, ended a trial run last month.
New faces are popping up on even the oldest shows. "Today" introduced Carson Daly as a co-host on Monday, though he was partially eclipsed by the show's new blindingly bright orange set. Jenny McCarthy, an actress and former Playboy model who is better known these days as a champion of controversial alternative medical treatments, has joined "The View" as a host.
At the start-up end of the spectrum, Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain, began an on-the-road talk show on Saturday, called "Raising McCain," on Pivot, a new cable channel.
Back in the days of Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore and Phil Donahue, a talk show was a goal in itself, either as a second act for older stars or as the apex to years of climbing the show business ladder. Now it's added currency in the 24-hour-a-day business of being famous.
The field is crowded. Some of the most seasoned and popular television personalities - Anderson Cooper, Jeff Probst and Ricki Lake - recently tried to host their own talk shows and flopped. Katie Couric's show has held on, but the ratings are weaker than expected. At the moment, "Ellen" and "Dr. Phil" still lead the pack, but newer faces, including Wendy Williams and Steve Harvey, are holding their own. Like buying a lottery ticket, producing a talk show doesn't cost much, and somewhere, sometime, someone is going to win big.
What's striking about the newcomers is that their celebrity rests as much on commercial savvy as on conventional artistic talent. Even Queen Latifah, an accomplished movie actress and singer, has her own one-woman enterprise, with a line of CoverGirl cosmetics and two perfumes (Queen and Queen of Hearts). She is the star of an ad for Zyrtec, the allergy medication. She has also, despite the apparent contradiction, been a spokeswoman for both Pizza Hut and Jenny Craig.
For her debut, Queen Latifah chose to go old school. She asked one of Ms. Winfrey's favorite guests, John Travolta, to help kick off her talk show, and brought in Will Smith, an executive producer of her show, on Tuesday. Like Ms. Winfrey, she mingled celebrities and inspirational segments about deserving unknowns: she made over a classroom for a high school music teacher and his students, and helped war widows experience adventure travel. Tuesday's show was more animated than the premiere, but still surprisingly sluggish. The more dynamic moments were glossy CoverGirl ads that star the host and punctuate the show.
Ms. Frankel doesn't sing, dance or act, but she has parlayed her popularity on reality shows into an emporium of Skinnygirl products, from best-selling diet and advice books to her own Skinnygirl label of low-calorie wines, spirits and cocktails, which was bought by Beam, the company better known for bourbon.
Alternately brash, tearful, empathetic, zany, bossy and boastful, Ms. Frankel is a multipolar television personality. " Bethenny " is a dizzying carnival of girl-power news you can use and too much information, including where and how much Ms. Frankel waxes: she makes "Ellen" look like the "PBS NewsHour."
And Ms. Frankel seems to view her latest venture as a commitment she makes time for, not the pinnacle of her career. She said last week that she took a moment before each show to regroup, because, "I really want to be here for you, I want it to be kind of an hour that we just spend together, and I am focused and I am not thinking about anything else."
Ms. Jenner's trial run is over, and it seems unlikely that her show, " Kris," will be picked up. It turns out that without her boisterous Kardashian daughters, Ms. Jenner is poised, pleasant and about as exciting as a Sunday afternoon nap. Even an interview with her daughter Kim's famous boyfriend, Kanye West, couldn't liven up the show. The Kardashian brand may be golden on the E! channel, but it's a package deal.
"Brand" is an overused word, but it is so imprinted on the ethos of entertainment that those who have one no longer distinguish between a private label and a personal identity. When Mr. West made his star turn on "Kris," he didn't say that he and his girlfriend were from different worlds; he told Ms. Jenner that they are different "brands." He also said that he benefited from Kim Kardashian's lifestyle and personality, or, as he put it, "That's what I love about her brand."
Mr. West, like Mr. Darcy before him, was perhaps a little too candid about the downside of brand mixing, noting that love made him overlook warnings that dating Ms. Kardashian would damage his "credibility as an artist and a designer." Her mother didn't flinch, possibly because Mr. West publicly unveiled the first baby pictures of her granddaughter, North West, on her show.
Ms. McCain, a blogger who comes across as a Republican Party party animal, has an MTV-like show on Pivot, a channel with its own contradictions: it caters to younger viewers, the ones who don't watch conventional television. Ms. McCain poses as a bubbleheaded kook in grunge clothing who examines serious issues in a Holly Golightly manner. Her producers and film crew are all part of her on-camera inner circle, "TMZ"-style.
To her credit, Ms. McCain explores subjects like feminism and Internet privacy, not fashion or fads. But the effort to be both edifying and hip is a little strained, like recipes for kids that sneak spinach into brownies.
There are no rules to determine what works as a talk show. But increasingly, a talk show is something to be worked.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 17, 2013
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the child of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. North West is a girl, not a boy.
Clayton Kershaw struck out 10 in seven dominant innings, Yasiel Puig and A.J. Ellis hit two-run homers and the NL West champion Los Angeles dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 4-0 Saturday night.
Kershaw (15-9) lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.88. He leads the NL with 224 strikeouts.
Kershaw held San Diego in check on three hits after losing to the Padres in three other starts this season.
The left-hander is trying to become the first pitcher to lead the majors in ERA in three consecutive seasons since Atlanta's Greg Maddux from 1993-95.
Ellis homered in the fourth off rookie Burch Smith (1-2).
Puig then connected on a shot to center field off Tim Stauffer in the seventh that was estimated at 457 feet. Kershaw reached on a bunt single to lead off the inning.
Kershaw retired 14 of his last 15 batters. He was 0-3 with a 4.67 ERA in his first three starts against the Padres, while going 14-6 with a 1.71 ERA in his other starts.
Kershaw skipped his last scheduled start on Wednesday as the Dodgers attempt to give him rest heading into the postseason.
Relievers Ronald Belisario and Brian Wilson each pitched a perfect inning for the Dodgers.
Los Angeles played all of its starters, except shortstop Hanley Ramirez. The Dodgers held out all of their regulars in a 2-0 loss to the Padres on Friday night, one day after clinching their first division title since 2009.
Smith gave up two runs on three hits in six innings. The rookie struck out six and walked a career-high five.
NOTES: Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is resting Ramirez to help him recover from back and hamstring injuries that have plagued him throughout the season. Ramirez is expected to see limited playing time before the postseason. ... Dodgers OF Andre Ethier (sprained left ankle) missed his eighth straight game. Ethier, who took batting practice and did running drills before the game, could return when the Dodgers start a three-game series at San Francisco on Tuesday. ... Smith's third-inning single was his first major league hit. ... Dodgers RHP Zack Greinke (15-3, 2.75 ERA) will pitch at Petco Park for the first time since he sustained a broken left collarbone on April 11 during a brawl with Carlos Quentin, who was hit with a pitch and charged the mound. Quentin, who recently had knee surgery, is out of the season. ... RHP Andrew Cashner (10-8, 3.21) pitches for San Diego on Sunday.
Flipboard for Blackberry showed up on Blackberry Appworld earlier this month. The application was later pulled off from Blackberry World saying that it will be released soon for devices running BB OS 10. The application is live again in Blackberry Appworld, but there is a catch; the application requires BB OS 10.2 or higher. In short, it only works with Blackberry Z30.
The system requirements section of the application clearly states that it requires BB OS 10.2 or higher, which means that you must own a Blackberry Z30 that was announced earlier this week. Oh! Wait, the device is expected to launch next week in UK and Middle East. Currently, the handset is up for pre-orders of Selfridges and Carphone Warehouse in the UK with an expected shipment date of end-September. This means that there is hardly any user who owns a Z30 at this point.
Currently, there are only four BB10 devices including Z30, Z10, Q10 and Q5. Out of these four, three are running operating system lower than BB OS 10.2; however, all these devices are expected to get Blackberry 10.2 update by mid-October. It could be delayed due to carrier testing so you should expect the update to hit your device sometime in November, or maybe earlier if you're lucky.
The full list of fixes and additions has been revealed for the TU13 patch of minecraft-xbox-360-edition-tu13-patch-list-of-fixes-and-additions-revealed">"Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition." According to a message from the official Twitter page of 4J Studios on Sept. 20, the development of the latest title update is now finished. As a result, the TU13 patch has been passed on to Microsoft for certification testing.
To commemorate the completion of the title update, 4J Studios released a big list of fixes and additions for the newest version of " Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition." The TU13 patch mainly focuses on fixing several issues with the Xbox 360 port although some new contents were also introduced.
Some of the fixes involve a few of the items that were added to "Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition" with the TU12 patch: Ocelot, Iron Golem, Jungle biome in addition to the mash-up pack support. Several of the new additions include the ability to hide the aforementioned mash-up pack from the save list, adding real currency value to the digital store and more.
You can check out some screenshots of the open-world sandbox video game running on Microsoft's current-generation console in the slideshow near the top of this article and the full list of the TU13 change log below (courtesy of the Minecraft Forum):
Fix to generate Experience Orbs when breeding animals.
Fix for Zombie AI when in a house with the door closed.
Fix for Ocelot and Chicken AI problem causing heads to spin around.
Fix for Ocelot tooltips not properly showing the actions available.
Added sounds for hitting Ocelots.
Fix for graphical glitch with Fences.
Fix for graphical issue with upside down Pistons.
Fixed water in a Cauldron to be still, not flowing.
Fixed world generation problems with some seeds (e.g 'journey').
Added message saying you can't spawn enemies in Peaceful mode.
Raw Fish is no longer removed from the player's inventory when trying to tame an Ocelot in Creative mode.
Water will no longer be removed from a Water Bucket when filling a Cauldron in Creative Mode.
Fix for missing text in the message when a player is killed by an Iron Golem.
Fix for player shadow being displayed in the Inventory menu.
Fixed some lighting issues.
Fixed an issue with light and fire remaining after a lightning strike.
Made Jungle Wood Stairs flammable.
Fixed Silk Touch not working on Glass Blocks.
Fix for underwater filter when camera collides with blocks.
Added an option to hide a Mash-up Pack Themed World in the saves list, and an option to unhide all in the Settings menu.
Increased Minecart speed to double the normal speed.
Fixed some Redstone Lamp issues.
Chests won't open now if a Cat is sitting on them.
Added a limit to the number of Villagers spawned by breeding.
Added the hearts display when Villagers enter 'Love Mode'.
Fixed a problem with the rain sound not playing in some biomes.
Fix for re-appearing ores, lava and water after mining, if they are within five blocks from the world edge.
Fixed spawn positions in a saved Mash-up Pack world.
Fixed issue with a map placed in an item frame revealing the position of all players despite 'In-Game Gamertags' having been disabled.
Minecraft Store now displays the prices in the local currency, rather than Microsoft Points.
The TU13 patch of "Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition" will be released if it can manage to pass the certification process at Microsoft.
CEDAR RAPIDS | Sen. Tom Harkin plans to use a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to put the brakes on rising college costs and student debt.
Although the United States has had a world-class higher education system, "increasingly students and families are questioning whether it is working well for them, especially whether it's still affordable and a reliable pathway to the middle class," the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee told reporters shortly before convening the first of 12 hearings.
"Student debt keeps going up and up and up," Harkin said, leaving college graduates "embedded in debt" that prevents them from buying homes and cars and starting families.
If approved, this would be the ninth reauthorization of the Higher Education Act since 1965.
From previous hearings, Harkin knows that the lack of support from state government is one of the single largest factors in rising student debt.
States have "continually cut their support for higher education," the Iowa Democrat said. As tuition goes up, students and their families turn to the federal government for Pell Grants and loans.
In Iowa, the state is covering just 35 percent of the cost of a college education. Student tuition covers 60 percent, according to the board of regents.
The state's share has fallen from 77 percent in 1981 to 50 percent in 2003 to the current level. Tuition as a share of general higher education funding has nearly tripled from 21 percent in 1981.
His committee also will look at President Barack Obama's suggestion to somehow tie federal support of higher education to outcomes and what colleges and universities are doing to keep costs down."
"We'll look at all of these things and see how we can keep costs in line," he said. "College tuition costs have far exceeded the inflationary rate over the past 20 years, and we've got to put a halt to it."
A few weeks ago, RHA announced its new MA750i headphones (US$129.95). Last week I received a sample unit and have been testing them since. Having previously been really impressed with the MA150 and MA450i earphones and the SA950i on-ear headphones, I had high expectations for the Glasgow-based company's new premium-range hardware. And I was not disappointed.
Design
From the onset of receiving the MA750 I could tell RHA has taken things to the next level. Even in the packaging a great amount of thought and detail has been applied. The box's window flap opens to reveal the immaculately-presented earphones. A magnet on the inside insures that it stays shut when closed, and a small, orange flap of material that's affixed to the interior makes removal easy and elegant. The "premium" is apparent even before you use the headphones.
The MA750i look and feel fantastic. The earphone heads are machined from stainless steel, with RHA subtly inscribed on the sides of each head. The cabling is reinforced with steel, oxygen-free with a gold-plated, quarter-inch connector. The cabling is thick and feels extremely durable. The connector end is covered with a protective spring connector, while the earphone ends benefit from RHA's over-ear cable supports, which offer a comfortable, secure fit. The cabling is a contrast to some other manufacturers, which try to make the cable as light as possible. While not overly bulky, the MA750 cabling brings a reassuring weight and robustness.
On the MA750i model there's a built-in three-button remote control and mic, designed to work faultlessly with iOS devices. This, too, feels really sturdy and well made, allowing you to take calls, adjust the volume and play, pause and change music tracks on your iDevice.
The handmade 560.1 drivers reinforce RHA's Aerophonic design, inspired by airflow and the acoustic properties of a trumpet's bell. There's a promise of "precise, balanced and articulate sound reproduction with a great depth of soundstage."
The MA750i come with an attractive carrying case and a collection of various ear tips to suit every size and preferred feel.
Performance
Of course, what really counts is how the MA750 sound. The 560.1 drivers are "...designed to deliver a clear and natural sound. With high levels of spatial separation and distance...capable of reproducing audio with exceptional power and precision." And in my experience, that's exactly what I found.
When I tested the MA450, I was really struck by the bass response and depth. And overall, the production of a full and enjoyable sound (especially for the price point). However, it's fair to say the sound was not the most nuanced or precise.
With the MA750, things are much more controlled. In fact, I found the MA750 to be extremely well balanced, able to reach detailed lows that weren't exaggerated, mids that were spacious, yet present and well-rounded highs.
I'm going through a Stevie Ray Vaughan phase, revisiting some of my favorite tracks of his. Using the MA750, I loved hearing things accurately represented, with a real clarity, depth and broadness. It's hard to explain, but a few examples are subtleties like a low bass note that's full, warm and deep, and yet you can hear the player slightly hit the fret. Or the very occasional guitar fumble in the heat of spine tingling solo (Check out Tin Pan Alley aka Roughest Place In Town, but get a high quality version).
Practically speaking, I found the MA750 to be extremely comfortable. The over-ear system works really well, keeping the in-ears right in place. Noise isolation was really good too. The case is a nice extra, which is more than just a pouch. It offers good protection as well as doubling as a place to keep your spare ear tips, which are conveniently stored on a steel-tip holder (no more rummaging around to find matching tips).
Conclusion
Once more, RHA have delivered a fantastic in-ear headphone experience. This time, a truly premier (consumer) experience that lifts RHA into a new league. The MA750i sits right at the top, rightly so, as the cream of the RHA range. And they are superb value for money, too. In years gone by, I've spent more on headphones and they've not come close to what the MA750 has to offer. At this price point, everything is right about these headphones.
The MA750i is priced at US$129.95 and comes with the built-in remote and mic. The MA750 (minus the remote and mic) is priced at $119.95. In the US, both will be available from Amazon today and Apple Retail Stores from November. In the UK and Europe, both versions are available now from the Apple Online Store and Amazon in the UK as well as Apple Retail Stores.
Pros
Balanced, nuanced sound with depth and control
Durable, well made and full of attention to detail
Comfortable, with plenty of ear tips in various sizes and forms
There has been a great deal of confusion among ratepayers of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District No. 1.
Perhaps this is a result of poor communication by the ID1. Many customers have seen their rates go up substantially. It appears the angst among ratepayers is a direct result of this communication deficit.
I suspect that had the ID1 done a better job of explaining the rate increases prior to the board meeting in May, when the higher rates were voted on, it is likely the 1,441 valid letter complaints that would have stopped the increase might have been in hand.
In any event, that did not happen, and ratepayers must face that reality. There are now lots of rumored lawsuit threats circulating. I have no idea what the basis of a lawsuit might be. That is up to the lawyers.
The following is an attempt to provide a precise exposition of the new rates vs. the old. In this comparison of old and new, I will try to outline the differences and the escalation of costs. As an example, I have used residential/rural (RR) 2-inch pipe. Most residents can be qualified for this definition.
First, there is an 8-percent increase in meter rates on 2-inch R/R meters, with increases of 5 percent each year for the next four years. In the fourth year, the increase will be 28 percent.
Second, there is a 21-percent increase in consumption charges on base usage. The old consumption base was 70 cubic feet. This increases 5 percent each year for the next four years. In the fourth year, the increase will be 41 percent.
Third, there is a 109-percent increase in excess usage charges - usage over the base - with 5-percent increases over the next four years. In the fourth year, the increase will be 129 percent.
Therefore, a user of 70ccf would see an increase of 14.6 percent in their total water bill now. A user of 125ccf would see an increase of 50 percent in their total water bill now. A user of 175ccf would see an increase of 53 percent in their total water bill now.
The driver behind the much higher percentage increase for the 125ccf user is the additional 55ccf which is being charged at the higher rate of $1.13.
The remaining question you might ask the ID1 is why these rates have gone up to these levels, and where the additional money will go and why. I have found the ID1 manager very accessible and courteous. I can say the same about the staff and board.
WASHINGTON - House Republicans pushed through a stopgap spending bill Friday that would strip all funding for President Obama's health care law, setting up another bitter fiscal showdown just 10 days before much of the federal government is set to run out of money
The 230-to-189 vote set in motion a fiscal confrontation whose outcome is anything but clear. Two Democrats voted for the measure, and one Republican voted against it. With no resolution, large swathes of the government could shut down Oct. 1, and the nation's first default on federal debt could follow weeks later.
"We had a victory today for the American people, and frankly, we also had a victory for common sense," Speaker John A. Boehner said after the vote. He added, "Our message to the United States Senate is real simple: The American people don't want the government shutdown and they don't want Obamacare."
Even as the House muscled through its spending bill, House Republican leaders met behind closed doors with their rank and file on Friday to lay out the next step in the budget battle: a bill that would raise the government's statutory borrowing limit, delay implementation of the health care law for a year, and push a grab-bag of Republican initiatives like binding instructions to overhaul the tax code and mandatory construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
All of the measures tied to the debt-ceiling increase have passed the Republican-controlled House before, only to be ignored by the Senate. But this time, said Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, "we haven't applied it to a must-pass piece of legislation."
The two bills - to finance the government through Dec. 15 and raise the debt ceiling - were intended to unite House Republicans and placate an emboldened right wing of the party.
"The House has been fighting to stop Obamacare since 2009, and we have said over and over again, this law is going to increase the costs for the working middle class families of this country and we're now seeing it," Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, said after the vote. "We've said from the beginning that this law will harm our economy, and we're seeing our economy turn from a full-time job economy to a part-time job economy. That's why we are doing our job, and now it is up to Senate Democrats to show some responsibility and follow the House's lead."
But the gambit also sets Congress down a path with no definitive end, with stakes that rise by the day. Absent a deal between the House, Senate and White House, much of the government would shut down on Oct. 1. And by mid-October, the federal government would face its first debt default, an outcome that would roil the international economy and deal a blow to a domestic economy just getting to its feet.
"We are legislators. We have come here to do a job for the American people," pleaded Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader. "What is brought to the floor today is without a doubt a measure designed to shut down the government. It could have no other intent."
The House bill would keep the government operating at the current funding level, which reflects the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that took effect in March. It also would block spending on the health care law, just days before the uninsured begin signing up to purchase private health care coverage through insurance marketplaces known as exchanges.
Mr. Obama has already issued a threat to veto the bill, but it will never reach his desk. Even Senate Republican supporters say they cannot push it through the Democratic-controlled Senate. Instead, the Senate is likely to strip the health care provision from the bill next week and send it back to the House.
At that point, Mr. Boehner would face a choice: put a spending bill on the floor, unencumbered by other policy measures, and allow it to pass primarily with Democratic votes, or attach some other Republican measure and send it back to the Senate with the clock ticking toward a shutdown.
Senior Republicans say Mr. Boehner will most likely choose the latter course, possibly attaching a provision to delay tax penalties on uninsured Americans who decline to purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
But even before such next steps were worked out, House Republican leaders were driving their party toward the next showdown over the debt ceiling. That could prove an even more white-knuckled ride, since a default on Treasury debt would have far greater economic implications than a partial government shutdown.
The House debt ceiling bill is not complete, but as described to House Republicans on Friday morning, it will have something for every stripe of Republican in the diverse and often splintered House conference. It would block the health care law for a year, roll back environmental regulations on industrial boilers and coal ash, set forth binding parameters for the overhaul and simplification of the tax code, facilitate the construction of the Keystone pipeline from Canada's oil shale fields to export facilities and refineries in Louisiana, and possibly contain other items of a House Republican wish list that has grown long over three years of divided government.
The bill could come up for a vote as soon as late next week, House Republican leadership aides said. That could unite Republicans, many of whom have publicly expressed grave misgivings over another round of budgetary brinkmanship for which voters will most likely blame them.
But beneath the public display of unity, cracks were showing, especially between House and Senate Republicans. House Republicans continued to seethe over Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, whom they see as goading them into tying government funding to the gutting of the health care law only to turn his back and say he cannot help them get the linkage through the Senate.
"Right now we're on the right path," grumbled Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York. "If nothing else, we've vanquished Ted Cruz."
Indie developer The Astronauts set loose four new screenshots from their upcoming mystery game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and boy, do they look great. And creepy. Definitely creepy. These new screens, captured in-game, set the tone for what promises to be a beautiful and haunting indie horror/mystery game that here follows occult detective Paul Prospero as he investigates the disappearance of a young boy named Ethan. Check them out after the jump.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter comes to PC sometime later this year. If you haven't already, you should definitely check out the unsettling motion comic that sets the stage for the game. It's pretty great.
For Syria's divided and beleaguered rebels, the creeping realization that there will not be a decisive Western military intervention on their behalf is a huge psychological blow.
President Bashar Assad's regime has gained strength, largely because the world community is concerned that if he is toppled the result may be an Islamist Syria in the grip of al-Qaida.
The immediate result has been an uptick this week in fighting between moderate and jihadi rebels.
The long-term outcome is likely to be a prolonged war of attrition that continues the slow destruction of Syria as a coherent state and further fans the flames of sectarian hatred and extremism in a turbulent Middle East.
Only two weeks ago, the Obama administration appeared poised to launch a U.S. military strike against the Syrian regime in response to the Aug 21 chemical weapons attack it says was launched by Assad's forces, killing hundreds of civilians in opposition-controlled areas near Damascus.
President Barack Obama here reversed course after an ambitious agreement between the U.S. and Russia calling for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within a week, and for all its components to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014.
Assad immediately signed on, and on Friday sent the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an "initial declaration" outlining Syria's weapons program.
The agreement abruptly reshuffled the cards, baffling opposition forces who had held out hope that U.S.-led strikes would help tip the scales in the country's deadly stalemate. The conflict, now in its third year, has killed more than 100,000 people and uprooted millions of people from their homes.
Obama warned in August 2012 that any deployment of the Syrian government's chemical weapons stockpiles was a "red line" that would bring harsh consequences. Now, the realization that even a sarin attack the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people would not trigger military action has left rebels feeling bitter and powerless, and is likely to strengthen extremist trends in rebel ranks.
While the U.S. and Russia, a staunch Assad ally, have stepped up efforts to hold a peace conference for Syria, the Russian deal makes it less likely the Syrian sides will agree to talk. Opposition forces say the agreement effectively legitimizes Assad's regime, at least until mid-2014 when chemical weapons stockpiles are supposed to have been destroyed. Presidential elections are due around the same time, and Assad has suggested he may run again.
"This deal puts the regime front and center in the international diplomatic process," said Randa Slim, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. That makes it less likely Assad will feel the need to engage in issues dealing with a political transition.
"It also pushes the armed opposition groups away from seeking a deal that they believe will not favor them in this present configuration of Syrian actors," she said.
Opposition forces say that by agreeing to relinquish his chemical weapons stockpile, Assad successfully removed the threat of U.S. military action while giving up very little in exchange. Unlike the regime's warplanes, which have pushed back rebel advances and pummeled opposition-held territory, chemical weapons are not seen as crucial to the regime's survival or military strategy.
According to some new (and rather rare) benchmarks, the iPhone 5 is twice as responsive to touchscreen presses than the Samsung Galaxy S4, and even faster than other Android devices. Where an iPhone 5 can respond to your touches in just 55 milliseconds, the Galaxy S4 takes at least 114 milliseconds, with the here HTC One and Moto X clocking in at just over 120 ms. Even the three-year-old iPhone 4 is more responsive than the Android devices, at 85 ms. This is one of the reasons why typing on an iPhone or using an iOS app feels much more responsive than Android.
The testing, carried out by Agawi, uses their in-house Touchmarks benchmarking software and a custom-made Touchscope hardware probe. Basically, Agawi ran a simple app on all of the phones that turned the screen white as soon as it registered a touchscreen press. The presses were initiated by the Touchscope hardware (which looks like two metal probes controlled by an Arduino), and the response time was measured by a high-speed (240 fps) camera. Then, by watching the high-speed footage, the folks at Agawi could work out the responsiveness of each device.
While Touchmarks ostensibly tests touchscreen responsiveness, this is more a measure of the overall responsiveness of the touchscreen, the touchscreen controller, the SoC, the operating system, and the app runtime. At a hardware level, there is probably very little difference between the touchscreen implementations on the iPhone, Galaxy S4, and other Android devices. It is possible that Apple's hardware is better calibrated, but we suspect this isn't the case; Samsung easily has the expertise and resources to ensure that its hardware implementation is up to snuff. As we move towards the software stack, though, the implementation could be very different. Where the iOS keyboard and apps run much closer to the bare metal using Objective-C, Android apps run in the Dalvik (Java ) virtual machine. Running Java bytecode isn't that much slower than native code, but the difference is noticeable. This is probably what causes the huge disparity between the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4.
While the iPhone 5S hasn't been tested yet, we'd expect it to be just as responsive, or possibly even more so, thanks to its new A7 SoC. On the Android side of things, responsiveness is unlikely to improve. It's worth noting, however, that Agawi tested the responsiveness of their own app, which was executed under Dalvik; if they produced an app using native code, or tested some of Google's own built-in apps, the difference in responsiveness would likely be less exaggerated.
For the most part, though, iOS devices will probably always be more responsive than Android. Because Apple controls the whole software/hardware stack, it can optimize each piece of the puzzle to work perfectly with each other; with Android, just as with Windows, the code must be more generic and abstracted to cater for a wide range of component choices and form factors.
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Friday announced that it was not backing down from a confrontation with the coal industry and would press ahead with enacting the first federal carbon limits on the nation's power companies.
The proposed regulations, announced at the National Press Club by Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, are an aggressive move by Mr. Obama to bypass Congress on climate change with executive actions he promised in his inaugural address this year. The regulations are certain to be denounced by House Republicans and the industry as part of what they call the president's "war on coal."
In her speech, Ms. McCarthy unveiled the agency's proposal to limit new gas-fired power plants to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour and new coal plants to 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide. Industry officials say the average advanced coal plant currently emits about 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per hour.
"The president's Climate Action Plan calls on federal agencies to take steady, sensible, and pragmatic steps to cut the harmful here carbon pollution that fuels our changing climate, to prepare our communities for its unavoidable impacts, while continuing to provide affordable and reliable energy for all," Ms. McCarthy said.
Ms. McCarthy also announced a yearlong schedule for an environmental listening tour - a series of meetings across the country with the public, the industry and environmental groups as the agency works to establish emissions limits on existing power plants - a far more costly and controversial step. Mr. Obama has told officials he wants to see greenhouse gas limits on existing and new power plants by the time he leaves office in 2017.
"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Mr. Obama said in January. But he acknowledged that "the path toward sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult."
On Friday, Ms. McCarthy said: "We have proven time after time that setting fair Clean Air Act standards to protect public health does not cause the sky to fall. The economy does not crumble."
She also said: "The overwhelming judgment of science tells us that climate change is real, human activities are fueling that change, and we must take action to avoid the most devastating consequences. We know this is not just about melting glaciers. Climate change - caused by carbon pollution - is one of the most significant public health threats of our time. That's why E.P.A. has been called to action. And that's why today's action is so important for us to talk about."
The limits unveiled on Friday are a slightly more relaxed standard for coal plants than the administration first proposed in April 2012. Officials said the new plan, which came after the E.P.A. received more than 2.5 million comments from the public and industry, will give coal plant operators more flexibility to meet the limits over several years.
The rules on new power plants will soon face a 60-day public comment period, likely to be followed by intensive industry and environmental lobbying and possible court challenges. Officials said the rules could be finalized by the fall of 2014.
Once the rules are in place, coal power plants would be required to limit their emissions, likely by installing technology called "carbon capture and sequestration," which scrubs carbon dioxide from their emissions before they reach the plant smokestacks. The technology then pumps it into permanent storage underground.
The shakeup at the top of the broadcast networks' reality departments continues. Veteran ABC reality executive John Saade is leaving the network. For the past two here years, Jennifer Bresnanexiting. Saade served as EVP Alternative Series & Late Night Programming, overseeing solo all of ABC's primetime alternative/reality series and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He previously co-ran the department with Vicki Dummer who now runs current programming. "John is a very talented executive who has made enormous contributions to ABC and the reality genre, developing some truly innovative, buzz worthy programming and growing some of our most important franchises," ABC president Paul Lee said. "We will miss his passion and enthusiasm and wish him nothing but the very best. As the reality genre is struggling on broadcast, three of the four major networks have changed their top reality executives in the past couple of months, with Saade, Fox's Mike Darnell and CBS'
The jackal in me wanted to get to Nebraska on Saturday for the South Dakota State game, and not because of the game. South Dakota State may well be a salty opponent from the Football Championship Subdivision, but the Jackrabbits won't win Saturday. And even if I thought they would, an upset isn't what made me want to be in Lincoln.
The reaction is what made me want to be in Lincoln.
What was the crowd going to do, how furious was it going to be, when Huskers coach Bo Pelini jogged onto the field? Earlier this week Deadspin.com released audio of Pelini in 2011 when he blasted Nebraska fans with verbal grenades like, "F--- you, fans. F--- all of you."
The reaction on Saturday. That's the mystery I wanted to see unfold. Alas, travel arrangements didn't work out, and in the meantime I've talked to people all over Nebraska, inside and outside the athletic department -- so the mystery's gone. I know exactly what the crowd will do when Bo Pelini jogs onto the field Saturday, and now I'm crushed I won't be there to see it, and to hear it.
Because Nebraska fans are going to show Bo Pelini they love him. Still.
It's going to be a goose-bump experience, a moment where one of the most special fan bases in college football reminds us why we love the sport. It's the connection, the camaraderie, the sense of family between the school and community that make college football so awesome. The NFL is awesome in different ways, but not that way (except for Green Bay). The NFL has things the college game doesn't -- superior quality of play, and a more frenzied fan experience that swings in either direction -- but there isn't another American sport that can match the way a town and team come together like college football.
And it's happening Saturday in Lincoln. That's what people from that state are telling me. They're telling me fans in Nebraska were taken aback, and hurt, by Pelini's rant in 2011. As well they should've been. That was some bad stuff, nothing a coach should ever say about his fans, especially not a fan base that had just sold out Memorial Stadium for the 315th consecutive time since 1962.
Nebraska fans know Pelini runs hot but they've come to respect him for his genuine passion. (USATSI)
And especially not this fan base. Nebraska fans are known to be among the nicest in the country, and don't take it just from me. Here's a fan of Georgia, trying to fire up his own fan base before the Bulldogs played Nebraska last season in the Capital One Bowl. This guy listed five reasons, the fifth being the Nebraska fan base, which he described like so:
"They're too nice to dislike. Nebraska fans have a national reputation for being among the classiest in college football, and for being especially gracious to opposing fans. Every Cornhusker fan with whom I ever have come into contact seemed to be a genuinely nice person. They're polite to the point of being rude. I mean, really, people; we're trying to hate y'all over here. Do you mind?"
Those are the people Pelini ripped, here which is awful, but also his saving grace -- because those are the people Pelini ripped. Nice people. Forgiving. And Nebraska football is unique among big-time college football programs in that it's the biggest thing in the state, hands down. No NFL teams in Nebraska. No NBA, no MLB, no nothing. Nor is the Huskers basketball program a big deal. Nebraska football is what Alabama would be, if Alabama football didn't share a state with Auburn.
None of this is news to Nebraska fans. I suspect they're reading this (welcome), but this is for everyone else. For people like me, who didn't understand the relationship between Nebraska fans and Bo Pelini until his 2011 rant went public.
What they know in Nebraska is that the sellout streak will reach 329 against South Dakota State. That was assured months ago, but now it will happen in actual attendance, not just tickets sold. Memorial Stadium will be full Saturday, and that wasn't guaranteed -- there's a difference between a "sold-out stadium" and a "completely full stadium" -- until Pelini's 2011 rant went public.
Tickets were available online through the secondary market, and still are, but prices have gone up in the past few days. Fans wondering whether to go, because of the inferior quality of opponent or Nebraska's play in a disillusioning loss last week to UCLA, have made up their mind. They want to go to support Nebraska football, and that means supporting Bo Pelini.
Thing is, these people like Pelini. They always have. To some folks, to outsiders like me who know Pelini only for his angry demeanor on the sideline, this comes as a shock. But it's true. Nebraska football is a year-round existence, not just a toy that comes out 12 or 13 times a year, and year-round Bo Pelini is a likeable guy. Nebraska fans know this. He's genuine, he's honest, and he's not smooth when it comes to winning over the media -- not a bad thing in a state like Nebraska, where slick and backslapping is no way to go through life, son.
Around Nebraska they know Bo Pelini as the guy who cleaned up what had been an embarrassingly unruly program off the field, the guy whose team's graduation rate is good and gets better every year -- and the guy who received a verbal commitment from Class of 2014 quarterback Zack Darlington and then reaffirmed the scholarship offer even after Darlington suffered a pair of concussions that jeopardized his career. Whether he plays again or not, Darlington has a scholarship to Nebraska because that's how Pelini is. This is also who Pelini is, a tidbit in Jeremy Fowler's story this week on Darlington: Pelini calls the kid almost every day. Even now. During Nebraska's season.
That's who Pelini is. This is also who Pelini is, and this comes from somebody who visited the Camp of Champions, held every summer at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio. That's the small town, and that's the high school football juggernaut, that produced Pelini, the Stoops brothers -- Bob, Mark and Mike -- and a handful of current NFL players. And somebody who visited Cardinal Mooney for a recent Camp of Champions said of all the famous players and coaches there, of all the nice people on hand, there was one guy who was nicer, more giving of his time, than anyone else:
Bo Pelini.
Nebraska fans know who this guy is. They also know there are mitigating circumstances around that 2011 audio tape leaked to Deadspin. They know Pelini made those comments minutes after Nebraska had beaten Ohio State 34-27. They know that one week earlier Nebraska had been blown out by Wisconsin 48-17 when Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez had thrown three interceptions. In the week between the two games, fans called into local radio shows calling for backup quarterback Brion Carnes, and football writers wrote so many negative stories that Martinez's teammates were printing them and showing their quarterback, hoping to fire him up.
And Pelini stewed.
Then came the Ohio State game, when the nicest fan base in American booed the Cornhuskers into halftime after Martinez had thrown a late interception to set up an OSU field goal. The unranked Buckeyes, en route to a 6-7 season, led 20-6. It became 27-6, and fans left Memorial Stadium by the thousands.
And Pelini stewed some more.
After rallying to beat Ohio State -- behind Martinez's 191 passing yards, 101 rushing yards and three touchdowns overall -- Pelini was still stewing.
"Everyone wants to doubt him," Pelini told the media. "Whatever. You guys can choose to write whatever you want and attack him like the fans will, and now they'll praise him."
A grizzly protecting its cub, Pelini lashed out some more after the game in a private moment of pent-up frustration. Deadspin released the audio. Pelini was ugly, and he was wrong, but Nebraska fans understand. They get the big picture, a picture I didn't understand until I started looking into it. And even if Pelini's comments blurred the picture, legendary former coach Tom Osborne brought it back into focus this week with a statement urging "players, coaches and fans to pull together, as unity of purpose has been one of our major assets over the last 50 years."
Pelini might yet be replaced after this season, but not because of his rant. His teams have gone 9-4 or 10-4 in each of his first five seasons, and his sixth team has the same look -- good on offense, mediocre on defense, good enough to win nine or 10 games but bad enough to lose four. Most places, that gets you a contract extension. Nebraska isn't most places. What happens after the season, we'll just have to see.
What happens Saturday, I already know. Days after learning their coach had cursed them out in 2011, Nebraska fans will shower Bo Pelini with love.
The Columbus Dispatch Friday September 20, 2013 6:44 AM
Courtney Hergesheimer | DISPATCH
South-Western high-school students earned credit that would give them a jump-start on classes at Columbus State Community College, but then they failed to follow through.
Many of them applied to Columbus State in the spring only to not show up in the fall.
So officials at South-Western and Columbus State spent the past two years guiding the students into the college.
High-school students can now take Columbus State's entrance assessment at their school. They visit here campus to meet with advisers, tour classrooms and talk to college students. And scholarship deadlines have been extended.
It has paid off.
This year, 44 South-Western students completed agreements with Columbus State that spell out how many college credits they've earned for their high-school coursework. Only five students made those agreements last year.
This year, 87 students received scholarships that Columbus State awards only to students who participated in high-school career-technical programs and who plan to continue them in college. That's three times the number of students from 2012.
"We tell students, 'You're already here. You've got the transferrable credits,'" said Martin Maliwesky, dean of enrollment services at Columbus State. "The key is the coursework they took in high school can translate to college credit to give them a jump-start on a college degree. That saves both time and money to finish an associate's degree."
He said the college tested the outreach efforts with South-Western and now wants to employ the same approach with other districts.
Gail Schwartz, senior vice president for the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington, D.C., lauds the approach.
"States have been working on this for years, and it always seems to be fraught with obstacles," she said. "The smooth transition from high school to post-secondary, it is right up there as one of the most-important issues we are all looking at."
Officials at South-Western and Columbus State acknowledge that there's more work to do.
This past spring, 329 seniors were enrolled in the 12 career-technical programs that qualify for credit at Columbus State. Yet, 13 percent of those students pursued agreements with the college this school year.
That's a big gain over last year, but it's still not where they want to be.
"We don't think we're at the end of the road, but we're on the right road," Maliwesky said.
Sam Thompson wasn't keen on Columbus State when he started considering colleges. As a senior at South-Western Career Academy, he was leaning toward studying to become an audio engineer at the Recording Workshop, a music- and audio-production school in Chillicothe.
But over the course of his senior year, he learned more about Columbus State. He was relieved to take the college's Compass entrance exam in school.
During a campus tour, he was impressed with the quality of the students' work in the interactive-media program. He worked with a college adviser and discovered he'd already earned eight college-credit hours for his high-school work. His high-school counselor urged him to apply for scholarships, and he qualified for two at Columbus State.
The pathway was clear.
"They were laying out all the pieces, and it was really helpful," said Thompson, who plans to earn an associate's degree in interactive media. "It feels good to save money."
