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Top Items:
Scott Gu / ScottGu's Blog:
Releasing the Source Code for the .NET Framework Libraries — One of the things my team has been working to enable has been the ability for .NET developers to download and browse the source code of the .NET Framework libraries, and to easily enable debugging support in them.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer: Scoble is a big .NET idiot
Harrison Hoffman / Webware.com: MICROSOFT'S .NET GETS THE SHARED SOURCE TREATMENT
Sepideh Saremi / Searchviews: Microsoft To Reveal .NET Framework
Ryan Stewart / The Universal Desktop: Microsoft opens the .NET Framework libraries
Marshall Kirkpatrick / Read/WriteWeb: Microsoft Open Sourcing .NET
Podtech / John Furrier: Is Microsoft on the March?
Wyatt Barnett / SitePoint Blogs: .NET Framework Source Code to be Released!
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / eWEEK.com:
Microsoft's Open-Source Trap for Mono — Opinion: Microsoft wants to destroy open-source by opening its code for examination, but not for use. — Microsoft is claiming that releasing the .NET Framework reference source code under the Microsoft Reference License will give developers the opportunity to understand more about .NET.
Discussion: InfoWorld, Computerworld, Open Source, Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect and PC Magazine
Dave Rosenberg / InfoWorld: A patent trolling dream—Microsoft lets you look but not touch .NET libraries
Paul Krill / Computerworld: Microsoft opening up .Net Framework libraries
Dana Blankenhorn / Open Source: You can look but you better not touch
Dana Gardner / Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect: Microsoft opens kimono to show athletic supporter with iron-clad cup
Darryl K. Taft / PC Magazine: Microsoft Reveals .Net Source Code
open.NET? Microsoft To Make .NET Libraries Available Under "Open Source"
open.NET? Microsoft To Make .NET Libraries Available Under "Open Source"
Discussion: The Open Road and Slashdot
ScuttleMonkey / Slashdot: Open.NET — .NET Libraries Go "Open Source"
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft to release .Net as Shared Source
Microsoft to release .Net as Shared Source
Discussion: Scobleizer
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer: Microsoft: releasing source after everyone else?
Brad Stone / New York Times:
In Facebook, Investing in a Theory — The Facebook frenzy is spreading. — Thousands of software developers are creating features for Facebook, the rapidly growing social network, many hoping to strike it rich alongside Facebook's own employees. — Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif. …
Discussion: John Cook's Venture Blog
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Judge bars RIAA president from testifying in Capitol Records v. Thomas — Duluth, Minnesota — Testimony in Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas wrapped up today after Judge Michael J. Davis decided against allowing RIAA president Cary Sherman to testify in the case.
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com, p2pnet, The Technology Liberation …, Recording Industry vs … and Digg
Sean P. Aune / TECH.BLORGE.com: RIAA Test Case Ready For the Jury
Tim Lee / The Technology Liberation Front: She Did It — Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman has been doing …
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Defendant's counsel hammers away at piracy picture painted by RIAA
Defendant's counsel hammers away at piracy picture painted by RIAA
Discussion: p2pnet and Recording Industry vs …
Christoph Oehler / Google LatLong:
Google Transit Graduates from Labs — It may be back-to-school season, but Google Transit has just graduated from Google Labs! We're excited to say it's now a fully integrated feature in Google Maps. This means that when you look up directions for areas where we have transit coverage you'll …
Discussion: Business Communities …, Googlified, Webware.com, Download Squad, TechCrunch, Between the Lines, webmapper, Demo Girl, The Map Room and Mashable!
Haochi / Googlified: Google Transit Graduates From Labs
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com: PUBLIC TRANSIT ARRIVES (LATE) ON GOOGLE MAPS
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch: Google Transit Graduates From Google Labs
Dan Farber / Between the Lines: Google Transit now public
Edward / webmapper: Public transport: an alternative?
Jonathan Crowe / The Map Room: Google Updates: Imagery and Transit
Andy Angelos / Mashable!: Google Labs Graduates Public Transportation Feature
Joanna Stern / Mobile Technology News:
Exclusive: Zune Tattoo Guy Sounds Off on New Players — The biggest Zune fan, displaying three Zune tattoos, tells us what he loves about the new devices, and also lets us in on his upcoming ass ink for Apple. — There may be only one man who can really impart the significance of the new Zune launch.
Discussion: Morning Paper, CrunchGear and Brier Dudley's blog
Aaron J. Walker / Morning Paper: Arghh!! The Zune guy returns ARGGHH!!!
Matt Hickey / CrunchGear: Zune Tattoo Guy to get more Zune tattoos, less girls
Brier Dudley / Brier Dudley's blog: Zune Tattoo Guy on new models and tats
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Zune vs. iPod specification smackdown
Zune vs. iPod specification smackdown
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter: New tunes for Zune's players
Chris Leckness / Mobility Site: Zune2 80gb vs iPod 80gb
Robert Gorell / Future Now's GrokDotCom: Ballmer: I Wear My Zune Glasses @ Night
Jason Chen / Gizmodo: First-Gen Zune Getting All The New Features: This is How You Treat Your Customers
Nathan Weinberg / InsideMicrosoft: New Zunes Launched — Microsoft has launched the second version …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
'Zune' Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry
'Zune' Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry
Discussion: Bits and Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
Saul Hansell / Bits: Microsoft Sings a New Zune
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
UC Berkeley first to post full lectures to YouTube — YouTube is now an important teaching tool at UC Berkeley. — The school announced on Wednesday that it has begun posting entire course lectures on the Web's No.1 video-sharing site. — Berkeley officials claimed in a statement …
Discussion: How To Split An Atom, TechCrunch, Valleywag, blognation, Download Squad, Sydney Morning Herald, Podcasting News, NewTeeVee, Mashable!, Slashdot and Hightouch
Steve Spalding / How To Split An Atom: How To Get A Digital Education — CNET reports that UC Berkeley …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch: UC Berkeley Puts Courses On YouTube
Brad Linder / Download Squad: Waste time and learn something with YouTube
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee: Miss Class? Visit YouTube
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: UC Berkeley's YouTube Channel Offers Full-Course Lectures
ScuttleMonkey / Slashdot: UC Berkeley Posts Full Lectures to YouTube
Kevin Gamble / Hightouch: UC Berkeley lectures on YouTube
John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:
Zucker: NBC 'Ripping Apart' Old Business Models — NBC Universal President Concerned About Digital Piracy — NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker said NBC has been "ripping apart old business models" and trying "radically new" ones as it attempts to hold on to an increasingly fragmenting audience.
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Lost Remote
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee: Battling Piracy, BayTSP-Style
Michael Gay / Lost Remote: Zucker wants AT&T to filter their lines
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
NBC chief urges all-hands assault on piracy
NBC chief urges all-hands assault on piracy
Discussion: CNN, Hollywood Reporter, IP Democracy, Digital Daily, Washington Post, Mashable! and GigaLaw.com Daily News
Brooks Boliek / Hollywood Reporter: Zucker: 'We are losing' piracy battle
Cynthia Brumfield / IP Democracy: NBC's Zucker Wants Everybody to Police Content
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily: New NBC Series to Feature World's Smallest Violin Playing World's Saddest Song
Frank Ahrens / Washington Post: With Video, Music Piracy on the Rise, NBC Chief Calls for Tougher Penalties
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!: NBC Exec Heats Up Battle Against Piracy
Doug Isenberg / GigaLaw.com Daily News: NBC's CEO Urges Greater Action Against Piracy
The Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry 9000 whispers in our ear — No, it doesn't have the amount of hype and speculation an iPhone did before its release, but we don't think there has even been this much anticipation for a BlackBerry, ever. The hidden-in-a-dark-secret-underground- lab BlackBerry 9xxx has sent …
Discussion: Gizmodo, Gadget Lab and CrunchGear
Adrian Covert / Gizmodo: Rumor: Blackberry Spy Shots Leaked...Maybe?
Nicholas Deleon / CrunchGear: Could be: BlackBerry 9000 to have stateside 3G, due early next year
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
The AT&T Tilt, October 5 for $299.99 — Bringing all of the HTC Kaiser's joy to AT&T, the Tilt has finally been set for an October 5 launch. Besides the obvious feature of a tilting display — hence the name — the spec sheet reveals a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, HSDPA, stereo Bluetooth …
Discussion: Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi, CrunchGear and Morning Paper
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi: At&T launches a big 3G phone dubbed Tilt
Matt Hickey / CrunchGear: Hands-on with the AT&T Tilt
Sheldon Strickland / Morning Paper: The HTC Tilt October 5th
Drew Cullen / The Register:
Vista Business sales soar like leaping dachshund — August numbers are in from Context, the European PC market watcher, and they show that the Vista is anything but Buena for Microsoft. Vista Business, the, um, business version of Vista, Microsoft's new operating system, slowed during the month …
Discussion: Ars Technica, All about Microsoft and One Microsoft Way
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft: Accounted for: The five mystery Vista updates to be added to SP1
Paul McNamara / Network World:
Federal 'fix' knocks ca.gov for a loop — Even the government shudders when someone says they're from the government and they're here to help. — Case in point: A hacker's diversion of traffic from a California county government Web site to a porn purveyor spiraled into IT chaos yesterday …
Discussion: Slashdot
Samzenpus / Slashdot: Federal Government Inadvertently Deleted Ca.Gov
Ashlee Vance / The Register:
ARM to bash 'non-issue' Intel with multi-core chip — ARM's big reveal today of its latest processor design came with the clear message that the company will use its market weight and mobile heritage to fend off challenges from Intel. — Speaking here at the ARM Developers Conference …
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
New iMacs plagued by interface freezing issues — A growing number of users have reported that Apple's aluminum all-in-one computers suffer from a flaw that locks up the interface, rendering the system all but inert until a reboot. — Customers participating in Apple's official support discussions …
Discussion: O'Grady's PowerPage and Infinite Loop
Chris Barylick / O'Grady's PowerPage: Aluminum iMac Users Reporting Interface Freezes
Iljitsch van Beijnum / Infinite Loop: New iMacs (and others?) locking up

subset: commoncrawl


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Chimney Caps Atlanta
Crown Your Home With Style
Since 1977, we have been taking care Atlanta's chimneys and homes.
We fabricate and install chimney caps, custom chimney caps, single flue caps, decorative caps, rain pans, shrouds, decorative shrouds and more.
We also repair or replace defective or leaky chimney dampers. We have energy saving, top mounted dampers that seal 100% of your heating and cooling inside your home.
And, top sealing dampers are surprisingly affordable.
We also offer chimney services, such as chimney sweeping, gas log installation and repairs to the fireplace.
Our specialty is chimney leak repair.
What ever your chimney or fireplace needs, give us a call today.
Business Name:
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About Atlanta
Atlanta ( at-LAN-tə) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, although a portion of the city extends into neighboring DeKalb County. With a population of 498,715 living within the city limits, it is the eighth most populous city in the Southeast and 38th most populous city in the United States according to the 2020 U.S. census. It is the core of the much larger Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to more than 6.1 million people, making it the eighth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Situated among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of just over 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, it features unique topography that includes rolling hills, lush greenery, and the most dense urban tree coverage of any major city in the United States.Atlanta was originally founded as the terminus of a major state-sponsored railroad, but it soon became the convergence point among several railroads, spurring its rapid growth.
Neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia
Adair Park, Almond Park, Ansley Park, Baker Hills, Bankhead, Beecher Hills, Ben Hill Acres, Ben Hill Pines, Benteen, Blandtown, Bolton Hills, Boulevard Heights, Brookhaven, Bush Mountain, Carver Hills
Things to do in Atlanta, Georgia
Our Newest Profiles


text:
With Elements Organizer, you can easily view and manage your ever-growing collection of photos and videos in many ways. You can organize your related photos and videos in ways that you find interesting and useful. For example, you can create an album for photos and videos you shot last summer on a visit to Europe. You can also sort and manage photos and video clips based on people, places, events, and keywords.
Take a moment to become familiar with the Elements Organizer workspace. There are four views in the Elements Organizer workspace: Media, People, Places, and Events.
The Media view displays all your imported photos and videos. You can view and organize them, make one-click edits, and perform other operations. For more information, see Elements Organizer Help.
The People view helps you view and organize your photos by marking faces of the people in the photos. When you import your photos, Elements Organizer can automatically create People stacks by identifying similar-looking faces in the photos. For more information, see Mark faces in photos and organize people stacks in Elements Organizer Help.
In the Places view, you can add location information to your photos. This makes it easy to find photos taken at a location that you would love to revisit or a trip that you would love to remember. For more information, see Add information about places in Elements Organizer Help.
The Events view helps you create stacks of photos for different events. For example, you can create an event Birthday Celebration and tag photos that you want to associate with that event. All of the photos with the Birthday Celebration tag can then be quickly accessed as a stack in the Events view. For more information, see Add event information to your media files in Elements Organizer Help.


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A Pierson Township man woke up Sunday morning, at about 4:30 a.m., to the sound of spinning tires. And with good reason—he saw a white male, possibly under the influence of alcohol, who had his vehicle stuck on top of a mailbox post and road sign.
The man who saw the truck reported it at 8:46 a.m. Montcalm County Deputies responded to the scene at the intersection of Kimball and Daggett Roads, in Pierson Township. They found the Chevrolet S -10 on top of the mailbox post and road sign, but the driver was nowhere to be seen.
Deputies later located the driver, Jacob Isiah-Wilson Jordan, 27, of Sand Lake, at his home. He was cited for failing to report an accident as well as violation of the basic speed law. Alcohol may have been a factor in the accident. There were no reported injuries.


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Annual Federal Charity Drive Launches With Tempered Expectations
- By Eric Katz September 6, 2013
The Combined Federal Campaign — the 52nd annual federal employee charity drive — kicked into gear this week, hoping to reverse the recent trend of decreasing donations and participation. But the fundraiser comes during an ongoing pay freeze and the mandatory furloughs of hundreds of thousands of workers.
Elaine Kaplan, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management — which administers the CFC — sent a memorandum to human resources representatives across government, spelling out tips to encourage employees and managers to play their part in making the 2013 campaign a success. Kaplan suggested playing up the ability to spread out donations over the entire year, the ease of giving online and the message CFC sends to Americans about the benevolence of federal employees. Managers should encourage their employees to not just donate but volunteer on the operational side of the campaign, she said.
"The CFC would not be successful without the administrative support of federal employees at each department/agency," Kaplan wrote in a suggested message for managers to send to the rank-and-file.
At the Defense Department, officials recognized the difficulty of asking the workforce to donate after a majority of civilians — about 650,000 — were forced to take six days of unpaid leave.
"This is a funny year," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at a CFC kickoff event at the Pentagon. "I was thinking about, 'Ash, how can you ask our people once again to make a contribution this year after all you've been through, after all we're put through personally and institutionally at this particular time?' It's a good, good question. We've had furloughs, which are a terrible thing, terrible thanks for the country to give to people who are giving so much already to the country by what they do all day."
He added: "But I dare to ask, and I'm confident you'll come through because of what the DoD family is."
Despite his confidence, the campaign has reduced its goal for the department's national capital region. In 2012, the Defense personnel in the D.C. area donated $15.3 million; in 2013, the goal is $12.5 million.
"We are hoping to exceed that," Carter said, "but we thought we need to be realistic about it."
In 2012, 848,000 federal employees donated $258 million to the CFC, down from the 959,000 feds who gave $272 million in 2011. The 2012 haul was the lowest total since 2004.
OPM in April proposed 13 changes to improve the charity drive, though the suggestions have not yet gone into effect. Proposals included moving the solicitation period back a month to include the holiday period, creating a disaster relief program to allow employees to donate within hours of a catastrophe and building a new oversight structure that will consolidate Local Federal Coordinating Committees into regional ones.
(Image via elisekurenbina/Shutterstock.com)


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New Esri story map analyzes forest products in southern US
A new story map developed by U.S. Forest Service researchers allows users to interactively chart the ebb and flow of forest products across the southern U.S. — and visually tells the story of the decline of the forest products industry in the South over the last decades.
Using Forest Service Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data loaded onto the Esri ArcGIS Online (AGOL) platform, the Southern Forest Products map provides a constantly updated guide to southern timber product outputs and the mills that process them, as well as showing change over the past decades.
"This is the first of a suite of AGOL-based story maps we're developing using FIA data," said Chris Oswalt, research forester with the Forest Service Southern Research Station FIA unit. "The story map platform allows us to tell a more captivating story, which increases the reach of the data and engages partners we haven't worked with before."
The Southern Products story map uses layers of maps to show total outputs of different forest products – hardwood and softwood roundwood, sawlogs, pulpwood and veneer – down to the county level. Users can access layers already developed for a product and map information for specific products at the county, state and region levels.
"From the story map, a user can download the FIA data and layers in different formats such as maps and PDFs that can be used in presentations and other communication products," Oswalt said. "In addition to telling a story, the interface helps us provide the current information our industry, state and other partners are already asking for in a format they can adapt to their own purposes."
The story map includes a layer on primary wood processing in the South that allows the user to click on an individual mill for information on the type of wood mix used. The user can also click on each state for information on the number of mills and the number of people employed in wood processing mills in that state, as well as links to FIA harvest and utilization reports. The layer also includes a link to the mill directory developed and maintained by the Southern Group of State Foresters.
"This AGOL product will go a long way in promoting the valuable data that FIA collects in order to monitor forest products in and around the region" said forester James Bentley, who leads the FIA Timber Product Output (TPO) group. "We hope to use the functionality of the AGOL platform to increase the visibility of our TPO data and highlight the strength of our relationships with the state forestry agencies in the southern region."
A special set of maps in Southern Forest Products illustrates the decline in number of mills operating in southern states in the period since FIA started collecting data. Another set of maps tells the story of how wood flows from one state to another, with statistics for each state on production versus amount retained within the state.
"These maps illustrate the storytelling power of using FIA data with AGOL," Oswalt said. "Southern Forest Products charts the history of southern forest products, mills and the people who depend on them, as well as forecasting changes in areas such as bioenergy. One of the great strengths of the AGOL platform is the ability to update or generate new maps as soon as data is updated or added."


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"It's hard to imagine someone would purposely do the kind of damage that was done to the Industry Standard's brand…. Then again, what do I know about business? I was just an editor at a business magazine."
Former Industry Standard editor Mark Robinson, on the company's humiliating bankruptcy and sale of assets back to erstwhile owner International Data Group, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 September 2001


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Welcome to Pretty Things {13}
if you are new here welcome!
Remember our Frugal Ain't Cheap
How To Take A Pallet Apart
by Frugal Ain't Cheap
~Party Time~
- Your family-friendly tips, tutorials and projects are welcome.
- Please make sure and keep the content fresh each week.
- If you made it, and it's home and garden related (decorating, crafts, upcycle, refashion, diy, recipes, cooking…you see where I am going with this:) then link up baby! Please link directly to your post URL, not your main blog URL, and make sure that you only link up awesome stuff that you are making and sharing, no selling, giveaway's, etc.. exception to this is if you are selling what you link up, it must be in a tutorial post from your blog.
- By linking up to Pretty Things you are giving me permission to feature you on my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc…with no further permission.


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European Leaders Stun European Importance
The EU is now officially headed by an aubergine, and a turnip. It's actually two people, really, and I am sure they are worthy of all praises, but the fact that their notoriety was strictly limited to local phone directories and the immediate family suggests that 27 European leaders can only agree on names nobody will ever be satisfied with (and never mind they look like Gary Larson's characters too).
The end result will be two-and-a-half years in which hundreds of millions of European will be represented on the world stage literally by Nobody. Could anybody please tell me who is ever going to listen to "Nobody"?
Expect 30 months of European daze.
Congratulations to all those not selected, as it indicates they were candidates of some importance. And please do keep the President of the EU away from the President of the USA, as in terms of charisma they are the respective antiparticle. If they'll just shake their hands, they'll annihilate!


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Marianne Sullivan was disappointed but not all that surprised. When the literature teacher at Penn Manor High School, in Millersville, Pennsylvania, gave a vocabulary test last year, she noticed a student pulling crib notes from under his sleeve when he thought she wasn't looking. "I went over and just took his paper away," says Sullivan. "I didn't say anything, and neither did he. He knew he was done."
Later Sullivan met with the student and asked him the same question she poses to all "busted" cheaters: Why did you do it? "He told me he forgot about the test until too late and didn't have a chance to study," she says. The student received a zero on the test, and his parents were notified. Sadly, says Sullivan, this is far from an isolated case. At her school, she has seen a steady increase of students taking ethical shortcuts.
National statistics tell a similar story. According to Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, in Los Angeles, 74 percent of 10,000 high school students surveyed in 2002 had cheated on a test in the previous 12 months. In another survey published a year earlier by Donald McCabe, founding president of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, 74 percent of high school students and 75 percent of college students admitted to using dishonest means to achieve better grades.
Cheating is nothing new, of course, but schools are seeing some unprecedented high-tech variations. There are students who store key test information on electronic pagers and then program the devices to signal them on vibration mode with the answers. Others download crib notes to their hand-held computers and, if they feel like sharing the wealth, instant-message the answers to their friends' hand-held machines. Still others record test material on cassette tapes right over their favorite music and receive homemade Cliff's Notes through their headphones as they take the test.
More From Good Housekeeping
Where are the teachers? you may ask. Why do they let these electronic aids in the room? "Many teachers around the country aren't up to speed on the latest forms of cheating," says Kathleen Foss, coauthor, along with Ann Lathrop, of Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, and a school librarian for 31 years in Los Alamitos, California. Many teachers haven't caught on to the headphone and pager scams, and it's not so easy to ban the smaller electronic aids from the classroom anyway. "What are they going to do — start frisking students?" asks Foss. Then there's the fact that teachers often use exam time to catch up on other work and don't want to play detective.
While the cheating epidemic is troubling, students' attitudes are even more disturbing to teachers and administrators. "A lot of students don't think they're doing something wrong enough to worry about," says McCabe, a professor at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. "They think we should focus on the big picture — the politicians and businessmen — not cheating in schools. 'People cheat,' the students say. 'Get over it.'"
Experts blame schools and parents, many of whom haven't been tough enough in catching and punishing cheaters. "There's a lot of lip service that honesty is important, but the adults often don't follow through," says Josephson. "When parents find out their kid has cheated, they should want the cheating rules enforced, not threaten the school or even call a lawyer, as many do."
And are parents themselves partly to blame for the uptick in cheating by pushing their children too hard? "Kids who feel relentless pressure from parents to excel, to get an A and only an A, might very well resort to cheating," says Diane Waryold, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity.
Many experts point to a more pragmatic reason: the time crunch. "Kids will sign up for advanced-placement courses and join clubs, hold down a part-time job, play football or field hockey — when are they going to get their homework done or find time to study for a test?" asks Foss. "Cheating suddenly becomes an option."
As it does for the otherwise law-abiding kids who see fellow students fattening up their GPAs through dishonest means. Experts call this the cheating effect. It's not unlike the crisis in professional sports — some athletes fear that if they don't take steroids or other illegal performance drugs, they will suffer in comparison with those who do. "Honest kids feel they have to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to grades," says McCabe. "So if a bunch of kids decide to cheat, other kids may follow in their footsteps."
How do we call a halt? Get tougher, urge the experts. "Parents should band together and talk to school administrators to make them address the issue," says Josephson. "If a school's funding were dependent on solving the cheating problem, they would get creative very quickly."
While increased surveillance at schools could help bring many of the offenders to justice, prevention is ultimately more effective. And experts agree on where the campaign should start — at home. Here are several steps every parent should take:
Talk the talk. Some 34 percent of parents don't talk to their kids about cheating because they believe their child would never engage in it. The statistics don't support this optimism. "Parents have to make it clear that cheating is wrong and that they would be deeply disappointed if their child did it," says Josephson.
Teach by example. Living honestly rubs off. "Cheating on taxes or lying about your child's age at the movie theater to save money on the ticket — these are behaviors that your child may pick up on and use to justify cheating in school," says Foss.
Support the school. "Parents frequently want to enforce the rules when another kid gets caught, but not when it's their own child," says Marvin Berkowitz, Ph.D., a professor of character education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. But teachers are more willing to take on cheating if they know the parents are fully behind the crackdown.
Listen to a cheating child. If your teen is caught cheating, ask why he did it — and really listen. Sometimes a child resorts to dishonesty because of an undiagnosed learning disability. Or he might be having serious social or emotional problems at school, distracting him from his studies.
Impose consequences. For the kid guilty of cheating without mitigating circumstances, you must come up with a sanction that leaves him saying "It isn't worth it." Figure out what he really values, whether it's driving privileges or a ski trip. And stick to your guns. When you're serious about something, your kid knows it.


text: College report: Khan leads Rochester squash Faraz Khan (Brunswick) is 11-2 with the Rochester men's lacrosse team (8-5) and is a two-time Liberty League Rookie of the Week selection. Michael Petrick (Brunswick) had wins against Amherst and Wesleyan as Williams (12-8) won the Little Three men's men's squash title. Sarah McEvoy (Greenwich) picked up points in the 1000 freestyle and 200 butterfly as the Hamilton women's swim team got past Union. Mina Shakarsky (Greenwich Academy) recorded wins in each match as the Brown women's squash team defeated Bowdoin and Bates. Clayton Graham (Greenwich) is averaging 2.2 points and 1.9 rebounds with the Colgate basketball team (8-14). Ben Ketchum (Greenwich\/Salisbury) has three goals and five assists with the Sacred Heart hockey team (0-22-2). Ricky Riscia (Greenwich) has been named captain of the Keystone baseball team that has been ranked 12th in two preseason NCAA Division III polls. Local golf: Bruce Park women The Bruce Women's Golf Association will kick off its 2013 season at the Griffith E. Harris Golf Course on Tuesday April 9 at 8:30 a.m. A continental breakfast will be served followed by open golf. Nine and 18 hole players are welcome. Dues for 2013 remain at $75 for all members. For information about joining the BWGA, contact Roni Tiedemann at 203-661-6868 or Beverly Jomo 203-324-9960. Holiday program: Boys basketball The Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation announced the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center is registering boys and girls in 1st through 4th grades for a basketball clinic during the school break winter recess Monday Feb. 11-Friday Feb. 15. It will run from 9 a.m. to noon and space is limited. Players will be split up according to ability and age, and taught basketball fundamentals and skills. The program will be under the direction of John Czarnecki. The cost for the five-day program is $225. For more information please contact the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center at 203-532-1259 or visit www.greenwichct.org OGRCC programs: Recreational soccer Recreational soccer programs for children ages 3 and up. Programs include: Soccer for Tots (age 3 only) Tue. 1:45-2:30 p.m., Little Stars (ages 4-5) Thurs. 2-3 p.m. and Fri. 2-3 p.m.; Kiddy Kick (Kindergarteners only) Fri. 3:40-4:40 p.m., Co-ed (Grades 1 to 2) Tue. 3:40- 4:40 p.m. and Fri. 4:50- 5:50 p.m., (Co-ed grades 3 to 4) Tue. 4:50-5:50 p.m. Mickey Kydes Soccer (MKS) curriculums are customized taking in to consideration the developmental stages of each age group, and with an emphasis on soccer skills, responsibility, sportsmanship and fun. MKS has over 19 years of on field experience and is the Coaching Director for our recreational soccer program. For information go to www.myogrcc.org, or contact the office @myogrcc.org, or call 203-637-3659. Fitness: Greenwich Track Club The Snowflake Fitness program for children in grade 2-12 will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays until March 7 at the Greenwich Family YMCA. Greenwich Cup Series: New events scheduled The Betteridge Greenwich Cup 2013 series of races has added several events while expanding from 10 to 12 this year and registration is now available for the first two new events. The YMCA of Greenwich Mile Swim & Pool Party will take place from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on March 3 at the Greenwich YMCA. Registration is also available for the Greenwich Half Marathon (13.1 miles) that begins at 7 a.m. April 7 at Greenwich Point. More information may be obtained at the www.threadsandtreads.com website or by calling 203-661-0142. The third event of the series is the Cancer Care Walk\/Run for Hope (5K Run\/Walk, Kids Half Mile) at 9 a.m. on May 5 at Greenwich Point. The other nine events are: the 49th annual Jim Fixx Memorial Day Run (5-mile run, Kids Half Mile) at 8:15 a.m. May 27 on Greenwich Ave.; the Whole Foods Cook Your Buns (3-mile run, Kids Mile) at 6:30 p.m. June 7 at Greenwich Point; the Greenwich Point Mile Swim at 7:30 a.m. July 20; the Betteridge Greenwich Cup Triathlon (half-mile swim, 15-mile bike, 3-mile run) at 6:30 a.m. July 28 at Greenwich Point; and the HSS Tour de Greenwich XXIX (20 miles) at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 15 at Greenwich High School. Also, the Muddy Up 4 Kids II (5K Mud Run) at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 29 at Camp Simmons; Susannah's Run (3-mile run, Kids Half Mile) at 9 a.m. on Oct. 13 at Greenwich Point; the Back Country Bushwhack (4-mile run, Kids Mile) at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 10 at Camp Simmons; and the Jingle Bell Jog for Pathways (3-mile run) at 9 a.m. Dec. 8 at Threads and Treads. The Betteridge Greenwich Cup 2013 is presented by Hospital for Special Surgery and hosted by Threads and Treads. To submit an item for the local sports roundup, please email the information to firstname.lastname@example.com


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There's a reason we never heard much about the Scottie and Larsa Pippen reality show after We Tv announced it in December 2012: WE Tv quietly decided not to pick the show up.
"This show was in development at WE Tv last year," said Jaime Saberito, vice president of corporate communications for AMC Networks, which owns WE Tv. "A series was not ordered."
WE Tv is home to several reality shows starring celebrities, including "Braxton Family Values," "Kendra On Top" and "SWV Reunited." "Big Pippen" revolved around the Bulls legend and his wife, who was part of the first season of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Miami." According to the Hollywood Reporter, Scottie's family from Arkansas and Larsa's "overbearing" family would also play a role in "Big Pippen."
"Big Pippen" was created by Left/Right Productions, which was behind Style Network's "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane" and VH1's "I Want to Work for Diddy."
firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter @TribLuis
For more celebrity news and sightings in Chicago, go to chicagotribune.com/luis


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Todd Van PoppelDecember 31, 2008
What'd you get?
This is a common question at this time of year among kids, those purest of getters from our getting-crazed society. At a certain point we're supposed to become givers, I guess, at least for one day a year, but the constant rhythm of getting that riddles the modern world reveals that we're all still kids at heart, happy and hungry to get.
Me, I got a lot of good and useful stuff from the kind givers in my life, but the gift that may have given me the most pleasure is the stack of baseball cards that my wife's aunt gave me. She was in a store that had several cellophane-wrapped stacks, and she bought the one that had a Red Sox player on top (some guy from the strike-fouled years of 1994 and 1995 that I actually don't remember: Carlos Rodriguez). In the stack were cards from 1987, 1990, and 1995, plus a couple basketball cards and several football cards.
My obsession with my distant personal past has prompted me to be somewhat rigid in my unsaid policy that my baseball card collection is closed, that I'm not making any additions beyond the cards that came to me when I was a child. But if there's one lesson I can learn from the year that's about to end, it's that it's good to be open to new gifts. Cards keep coming to me, either half-buried in the mud or torn up at a bus stop or from kind readers offering to fill in glaring gaps in my collection. This latest gift was no exception. The cards were all more recent than the cards I collected as a kid, but since I neither collected these newer cards when they came out nor dwelled on them constantly in my writing they seemed to come from a more distant time. Tom Brunansky? Ron Kittle? Juan Berenguer? These names all seemed to be singing to me from a farther and more mysterious remove than the now-familiar names of the more distant past. Each card in the stack gave me something–hilarity, excitement, even joy–but none sent a shiver through me like the card shown here.
Todd Van Poppel stands out in my memory above all the other hyped prospects that have come and gone in my lifetime. I'm too young to have noticed the similar ambiguous ascension of David Clyde in the early 1970s (though I was around to witness the aftermath), and somehow the explosion of baseball information available through the internet has dulled the impact on me of any noise about talented prospects in most of the years since Van Poppel debuted as a 19-year-old in 1991.
That's the year I got out of college and entered the so-called real world. I must have read about Van Poppel in the newspapers I plucked off the top of street-corner garbage cans on my way home from the graveyard shift at the UPS warehouse up in Hell's Kitchen.
I'd get off at eight or nine in the morning, depending on how many packages had to get loaded that day, grab a discarded newspaper, check it for heinous residue, buy some three-for-a-dollar mac and cheese and the cheapest beer and hot dogs I could find, and carry my goods up six flights to the narrow railroad apartment I shared with my brother, who by then had left for his office job, and there I'd wolf down my chemical-glutted feast and guzzle beer in the morning light and read about Todd Van Poppel.
Todd Van Poppel was going to be great. There was no doubt.
When there was nothing left to read or eat or drink, I'd go to the back of the apartment and pull out the futon and pass out for several hours, until it was time for my new work day to begin at dusk with a shower and oatmeal and the 5:30 rerun of Charles in Charge.
There's nothing like a supremely dominant high school pitcher. I'm talking about myth, the kind of myth that offers the illusion of the obliteration of doubt. Myths can rise up around a dominant high school slugger, but somehow it's not quite the same, as an observer will be more likely to discount their outrageous statistics as the byproduct of lesser competition. But the image of a pitcher mowing down high schoolers before a scattering of family members on aluminum bleachers seems to transfer more easily to an image of that same pitcher mowing down pros in front of a roaring stadium, probably because a key element of a pitcher's gifts can be measured: the velocity of his pitches. And if a mere high schooler is already making radar guns short-circuit orgasmically, then it seems a given that he'll continue to throw unhittable smoke in the majors. But there's something else about the dominant high school pitcher that makes him more of a mythic figure than any other prospect. Alone out there, standing tall on the mound, unhittable, he's what we all dream of being. To have that power in our fingers. To have the future seem like something that will only come to life with our powerful touch. To have it waiting for us and us alone.
To be a fan is to dream. Who didn't want Todd Van Poppel to become a legend? Who didn't want to dream through Todd Van Poppel?
This 1995 card shows Van Poppel's first three seasons in the pros, none of them revealing much promise. The amazing thing about Van Poppel, who is generally and cruelly thought of as the gold standard of busts, is that he ended up lasting for a long time in the majors. He even (mysteriously, given his struggles before and after) had two strong seasons as a reliever with the Cubs in 2000 and 2001. In all he logged 11 seasons at the highest level of his supremely competitive profession, his career spanning 14 years, all the way from 1991 to 2004.
I'm tempted to fall into withering comparisons between those years for Todd Van Poppel and those years for me. But on this special day, the last day of the year, I want to try to limit my focus to the card-slim moment between past and future. Today's a good day for this. Among all the baseball-card-shaped squares on the calendar, the last day of the year is the one most like a baseball card. The past is simplified to a series of lists such as the statistics and highlights on the back of a card, and the future has no more depth than a card-front photo of a figure standing tall, hands on hips, gazing sternly off into the distance.
Who doesn't at some point on this day hope that somewhere in the back-of-the-card stats there is some subtle upward trend, some sign that the coming year will be better than the ones that have come before?
"After dropping his first three decisions in the Majors," states the text on the back of the card shown here, "Van Poppel capped the 1993 season with six victories in his last nine decisions."
There is no mention of the following season, in which Van Poppel went 7 and 10 with a 6.09 ERA. This is a normal omission for baseball cards and last days of the year. You try not to dwell on things like failure, humiliation, disappointment, regret.
Likewise, you think of the future not as a minefield of anxiety and discouragement but as an uncomplicated distance to stride across, a mountain to scale, a series of batters to fan, a line for the back of the card that will make all the lines preceding it seem like a strange, soulful prelude to happiness.


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I remember the moment Steve Jobs scrolled through his music and uttered those magical words – "scrolls like butter" – while illustrating the beauty of the original iPhone.
It's moments like this that you lived for, as a technology obsessed professional in Silicon Valley. And with Jobs we got to watch the Michael Jordan of technology, courtside, at his best. iPods, iPhones, iPads, the hits kept coming and Jobs made them look great.
So, it's a pet peeve of mine these days when companies try to rip off Steve Jobs' launch style. Not Apple's style because the new PR machinery at Apple leaves a lot to be desired. But what Jobs created, no one else can put together, because it was and will always be classic Jobs.
Jobs in the above video is the same age as Zuckerberg is today. Incomparable!
Why "Public Relations" sucks?
Kevin Roose writes of the Applefication of Facebook PR in light of today's Facebook press conference.
I'm sitting in the Facebook headquarters, in Menlo Park, in a room filled with the symphonic clicking of keys produced by hundreds of tech bloggers, all writing the same stories and updating the same live-blogs on identical Apple laptops.
Go on…
Zuckerberg has long departed — he was disappeared from a teeming pile of reporters and cameras and out a back door like a sitting president — so now it's just us and the PR Borg. Oh, the PR Borg. Facebook's communications staffers are paired up with reporters at demo stations, showing off Graph on a series of computers. The spares are milling around the room. There must be 50 of them — a phalanx of fresh-faced professionals with smiles on their faces and carefully scripted responses to our questions in their hip pockets.
These are today's news factories. These are things I'd hoped would change with social media but frankly the hand that runs the machine continues to operate with an old playbook. And that sucks…
- Because companies take your time for granted and insult your intelligence by throwing pablum like "three pillars," and "graph search" at these press junkets
- Because most of the press and the media invited to these junkets regurgitate this bullshit
- Because investigative journalism is dead
- Because empty sensationalism seems to be the only way to run a blog these days and no one's held accountable
- Because access is the currency of public relations and will never change
- Because press releases will continue to work since they scale
But wasn't social media meant to change these things… Hold that thought.
Because no company can ever be Apple with Jobs
I never went to an Apple event in the Steve Jobs era, but I gather that the pitch is nearly identical: the charismatic founder, the well-paced presentation, the subtle way that certain media outlets are subtly given preference. (This time, major news outlets — this one not included — were given off-the-record briefings about Social Graph.) It's all drawn from a playbook that was developed a decade ago and has been used to transform a smallish computer company into the largest corporation in the world.
Not so fast. This playbook copied by every large company from Amazon to Facebook forgets three key elements for this communication to work: killer product, charismatic founder, real user values.
The magic with Steve Jobs was his effortless communication. A passionate user himself whose demos communicated his wonder around Apple products that truly changed the way we interact with technology.
Yes, Apple had their PR machinery but the difference was Jobs.
- The difference was the simple email responses that Jobs would personally send users who wrote him about Apple products.
- The difference was Jobs' passionate discourse with just about any user on all things Apple.
- The difference was in the conversational way Jobs wrote his controversy-defusing missives when the situation demanded.
- The difference was in backing up those missives by publicly sparring, evangelizing and winning over developers or journalists when they called him on it.
- The difference was a holistic approach at communicating openly to users by treating them as adults.
Wasn't that the utopian goal of social media? To help companies talk one-on-one with their users. Instead here we are, still mass producing press releases around giant product announcements, trying to reach the lowest common denominator at the lowest possible price. In some cases, at the ridiculously low price of $100.00!
Welcome to the future of social media communication.
[Disclosure: I own public stock in Facebook, I do not own stock in Apple. This blog holds my my personal thoughts on all things marketing and communications since 2006.]
Filed under: Best-of, Facebook, Public Relations, Social PR, corporate communications, Mark Zuckerberg, public relations, Steve Jobs


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BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Verizon Wireless has entered into an agreement with Alltel Corporation and Atlantis Holdings LLC, an affiliate of private investment firm TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners, to acquire Alltel Corporation in a cash merger. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).
Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon Wireless will acquire the equity of Alltel for approximately $5.9 billion. Based on Alltel's projected net debt at closing of $22.2 billion, the aggregate value of the transaction is $28.1 billion.
The parties are targeting completion of the merger by the end of the year, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals.
Once this transaction closes, customers of both companies will have access to an expanded range of products and services, including a premier lineup of basic and advanced devices and an expanded IN Network calling community. Alltel customers also will benefit from advanced services including over-the-air downloadable music from a three-million-song library, and a network that is nationwide, for a uniform coast-to-coast experience. They also will be able to take advantage of industry-leading consumer policies, including Test Drive and Worry Free Guarantee®.
"This move will create an enhanced platform of network coverage, spectrum and customer care to better serve the growing needs of both Alltel and Verizon Wireless customers for reliable basic and advanced broadband wireless services," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and chief executive officer.
Alltel serves more than 13 million customers in markets in 34 states. This includes 57 primarily rural markets that Verizon Wireless does not serve. The transaction puts the Alltel markets and customers on a path to advanced 4th generation services as Verizon Wireless deploys LTE technology throughout its network over the next several years. Alltel's customers also will reap the benefits of Verizon Wireless' Open Development initiative, which welcomes third-party devices and services to use the Verizon Wireless network.
Verizon Communications, the owner of the majority stake in Verizon Wireless, expects that the transaction will be immediately accretive, excluding transaction and integration costs. "This is a perfect fit, with Alltel's high-value post-paid customer base, its solid financials, our common network technology, and significant, readily attainable synergies," said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chief executive officer and chairman of the Verizon board. "Verizon Wireless' acquisition of Alltel clearly provides opportunities for enhanced value for Verizon shareholders."
Alltel President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford will continue in his current position as head of Alltel until the merger is completed.
"Both Alltel and Verizon Wireless have long track records of delivering a high-quality customer experience in the marketplace," Ford said. "The combination of our two companies will continue and improve upon that heritage as, together, we can more quickly deliver an expanded range of innovative products and services to our customers."
Verizon Wireless expects to realize synergies with a net present value, after integration costs, of more than $9 billion driven by reduced capital and operating expense savings. Synergies are expected to generate incremental cost savings of $1 billion in the second year after closing.
Alltel and Verizon Wireless both use a common network technology, which provides advantages of a seamless transition for Alltel customers, ease in integrating the two companies' networks, and scale efficiencies in operating the larger integrated network.
Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Verizon Wireless on this transaction and is providing bridge financing. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisor to Verizon Wireless.
Citibank, Goldman Sachs and RBS advised the sellers on the transaction. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisor to Alltel, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisors to the sellers.
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 67.2 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 69,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.
About Alltel
Alltel delivers voice and advanced data services nationwide to more than 13 million customers. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Alltel is a Forbes 500 company with annual revenues of nearly $9 billion.
About TPG Capital
TPG Capital is the global buyout group of TPG, a leading private investment firm founded in 1992 with more than $50 billion of assets under management and offices in San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, New York, Minneapolis, Fort Worth, Menlo Park, Washington, D.C., Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Luxembourg, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG Capital has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, joint ventures and restructurings. TPG Capital's investments span a variety of industries including media and communications, financial services, travel and entertainment, technology, industrials, retail, consumer and healthcare. Please visit www.tpg.com.
About GS Capital Partners
Since 1986, Goldman Sachs has raised fourteen private equity and mezzanine investment funds aggregating $69 billion of capital and leverage commitments. GS Capital Partners is the private equity vehicle through which The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. conducts its privately negotiated corporate equity investment activities. GS Capital Partners is currently investing its GS Capital Partners VI fund. GS Capital Partners is a global private equity group with a focus on large, sophisticated business opportunities in which value can be created through leveraging the resources of Goldman Sachs.
NOTE: This news release contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following important factors could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: materially adverse changes in economic and industry conditions and labor matters, including workforce levels and labor negotiations, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact, in the markets served by us or by companies in which we have substantial investments; material changes in available technology, including disruption of our suppliers' provisioning of critical products or services; the impact of natural or man-made disasters or litigation and any resulting financial impact not covered by insurance; technology substitution; an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited ratings organizations; the final results of federal and state regulatory proceedings concerning our provision of retail and wholesale services and judicial review of those results; the effects of competition in our markets; the timing, scope and financial impacts of our deployment of fiber-to-the-premises broadband technology; the ability of Verizon Wireless to continue to obtain sufficient spectrum resources; changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings; and the ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions.


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|System: PS3, PC, Xbox 360
|Dev: Spicy Horse
|Pub: Electronic Arts
|Release: June 14, 2011
|Players: 1
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
|Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
With that said, the combat is actually very satisfying. Switching between weapons is a breeze, mainly because there are so few to choose from, and striking enemies with any of the game's four weapons feels powerful. This becomes especially true as you start using the teeth you've collected to upgrade your arsenal. There are two close-ranged weapons: the Vorpal Blade is a quick and deadly knife, and the Hobby Horse is a defense-smashing hammer. The two ranged weapons are the Pepper Grinder, which is basically a machine gun, and the Teapot Cannon, which is exactly what it sounds like—a defense-breaking cannon.
The constant platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving are sometimes broken up by the random unexpected segment of gameplay. Seemingly out of the blue, you'll be asked to play a tune like you're performing a track in Guitar Hero, slip down long slides covered by groups of deadly obstacles, or fight off sharks and crabs with cannon arms as your ship dives deep below the sea. You'll even get to do some of your platforming in a gorgeous 2D envisioned Wonderland. For me, these 2D areas were the most memorable parts of the game, and they broke up the repetitive gameplay very well. The only problem is they're too few and far between.
One of the game's strongest assets is its sound design. The music varies from one level to the next; it's a beautiful distraction when it needs to be and provides an epic backdrop to the fight sequences. The voice work is just as strong as the well-written dialogue, and both come together perfectly to make the characters that inhabit Wonderland feel alive. I found myself grinding through the platforming sections just so I could get another piece of the story, meet an interesting new character or watch one of the game's many stunning cinematics.
In the end, Alice's second trip into madness isn't quite as satisfying or fresh as her first. Everything feels dated and there's an unfinished, even hurried quality to the game that's more than a little disappointing. That doesn't mean there's a shortage of great moments or fantastic ideas, because Madness Returns has both in spades. It's just that the overall experience is bogged down by slow pacing, repetitive gameplay, and visuals that could've used a little more work. But if you're looking for a fun, unique adventure filled with beautiful worlds and entertaining characters, Madness Returns won't disappoint.
Adam Dodd
CCC Contributing Writer
Game Features:


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Our buddies at LaptopMag have just published details about the long-rumored, US bound, Windows XP Eee PC. The Windows XP version will go on sale at Best Buy for $399, and you won't have to wait too long either, as Asus expects the systems to ship on April 9th. The system that will run the Windows XP OS shall be the standard Eee PC 4G, which LaptopMag have been putting through its paces for over a month. The machine makes a solid impression overall, however, the disk space is a bit limited to run Windows XP and additional applications on top. Asus are considering dropping in a 4GB SD card to aid in the disk space shortage, but nothing has been confirmed to that end. Jump for the complete spec of the Windows XP Asus Eee PC.
Colors: Pearl White, Black
LCD Size / Type: 7 Wide
LCD Resolution: 800 x 480 (~WVGA)
LCD Type: TFT
Graphic: Intel UMA
Chipset: Intel Mobile Chipset
Processor: Intel Mobile CPU
Memory: 512MB DDR2
S.S.D Storage (Solid State Disk): 4GB
OS: Windows XP Home Preloaded
Software: MS Works, Windows Live
Audio: High-Definition Audio CODEC
Microphone: 1 Internal Microphone
Speakers: 2 Internal Stereo Speakers
Audio Jack-Out (3.5mm)
Audio Jack-In (3.5mm)
Wireless Included: 802.11 b/g
LAN / Connector: 10/100 Mbps / RJ-45
3 USB 2.0 ports
Memory Card Reader: MMC/SD(SDHC)
VGA Port 1 (D-sub 15 pin)
Integrated Camera
Battery: four-cell 4400mAh
Battery Life: 2.8 hours
AC Adapter Output: 9.5V, 22W
AC Adapter Input: 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz universal
Unit Weight: 2.0 lbs (with battery)
Unit Dimensions: 8.86 x 6.30 x 0.79 ~ 1.26 inches
If all you wanted for Christmas was an Asus Eee PC running Windows XP, then Santa's delivered. Yes, it's a little late, but like a faltering parachute, it's better late than never. Checkout the hands on by clicking through to number two. (Dr Dre, I can rhyme all sorts of stuff, call me.) [LaptopMag; 1, 2]


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Tebow Throws 2 TDs as Patriots Beat Giants 28-20
Tim Tebow threw two touchdown passes and one interception and theNew England Patriots beat the New York Giants 28-20 on Thursday night.
In an up-and-down performance in both teams' last preseason game, Tebow had a 52-yard touchdown pass and a 13-yard run. He was 6 for 11 for 91 yards. He also gained 30 yards on six carries for the Patriots (3-1).
The third-string quarterback also was sacked four times. But he ended his game with a 9-yard touchdown pass with 6 seconds left.
Tebow's future with the team wasn't much clearer than before the game started.
All teams must reduce their rosters to the regular-season limit of 53 players by 6 p.m. EDT Saturday, and coach Bill Belichick has given no indication of whether he will keep Tebow.
[Associated Press]


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When the Hofmann Dam removal project was being planned, much time, effort and money was spent on dealing with the contaminated sediment that has accumulated above the various dams.
Dozens of pages of each subsequent plan were given over to listing this data and the contaminants, estimating their volume and describing various methods for their removal and safe disposal.
When the village board finally met to grant the easements for the project, the plan they based their decision on stated that there were 21,000 cubic yards of sediment above the dam containing dozens of toxics.
It called out the removal, dewatering and hauling away to an approved site 3,000 cubic yards of sediment – 15 percent of the total – and, as mandated by the EPA, the covering over of approximately 8.8 acres of newly exposed sediments with 9 inches of clean fill.
Now, miraculously, the Army Corps says there are no toxic sediments that need to be removed. How can that be? Where did they go?
Similarly, the Corps engineers argued for years that the reductions in the depth and width of the river above the dam, once it is "notched", would not materially affect the quality of life for the residents.
But the IEPA report says the backup from the dam extends 6.5 miles upriver and creates a surface area of 12 acres. It warns that the removal of 150 feet of the dam and the resulting lowering of the surface of the river … when the opening is removed to bedrock will cause the upstream river to be reduced by half – and much more at low water levels.
This condition will prevail far beyond the Corps work limits and far beyond Riverside.
The Army Corps scoffed at my predictions, saying the river rarely got to such low levels, then eventually came close and in some cases exceeded what I had forecast for what the new river depth and width will be after removal.
But they still conclude that their estimates of low water would rarely, if ever, be reached. They even provided charts to that effect which are posted on the village web site.
Well, gentlemen, today, April 9, 2012, the river gage at Riverside operated by the USGS is stating that the river is 2.36 ft. deep (near Millbridge Road) and is running at a flow of 127 cfs.
The river has been hovering around this level for a few weeks now, and over the years I have seen similar readings in every month from April to November. Today we have the 7Q10 flow they said we almost never get. And it is only April.
Let me be clear. If this project goes forward, on a day like today with the dam removed, we will experience drastic changes in the depth and width of the river above the dam. I confidently predict:
From the railroad bridge down river to Salt Creek, the river will be 2.5 to 3.5 feet shallower and 75 feet narrower than it is now. From Salt Creek to the dam it will be up to four feet shallower and 70 to 200 feet narrower than it is now.
In some places where today there is broad water it will be less than 50 feet wide and there will be acres of odorous mud and debris exposed all along both sides of the river, both within their work zone and far above it.
If you want to see what it is going to look like, take a look at the land that is already exposed right above the dam on the Fairbank shoreline, or look down into the water from the Lyons side or from the bridge. You can see all manner of trash and debris now, and much, much more will be exposed when the surface of the water at the dam will be 10 to 11 feet lower than it is now. Cleaning and removal is not in the project.
I was not able to place markers north of the railroad bridge because of private property, but I expect that on a day when the river is flowing as it is today, the river walls of the homes along Maplewood will be 40 to 50 feet from the water.
In between will be mud and debris that has been tossed there over the last 100 years. All along the river, in the First Division, along West and Maplewood, up in North Riverside and at the Golf Club and far beyond, significant changes are going to cause a vastly different riverscape and views.
This thing is almost here. They are starting to fence the staging area. Don't say nobody warned you.
Donald Spatny


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A private yard where native and mediterranean plants will grow full, provide seasonal colors, and attract wildlife.
Initially, the backyard was empty with weeds and a few perimeter trees. Now, it's a wonderful place to hang out and enjoy the sunshine.
From piles of dirt with debris from prior construction work to sifted soil transformed into fertile painting beds.
A new wing had been added to the home. We cleaned and amended the piles of 'dirt' and concrete, removing little from the site --a key 'Bay-Friendly Landscaping' practice.
Screening piles of soil already on site from prior construction of a new wing on the home.
here we screened the piles, removing rocks and other debris. The result was excellent native soil to be used to build planting beds.
Simultaneous activities, building the new patio and cleaning the pre-existing piles of soil.
In the background, you can see us building the new raised beds, or berms, created from the screened native soil.
Building out the new paver patio.
After selecting pavers that nicely match the home, we demo'd out the original broken concrete patio to install a nice modern one.
Building out the patio while the soil continues to be screened and preserved.
Lots of work going on simultaneously.
Almost done with the main patio.
The soil is used to build flowing, interconnected planting beds around the perimeter of the yard.
Stabilizing the finished patio.
Notice one of the other paver paths installed in the background. Can you guess what it's for?
Beginning to build up the planting beds with the freshly screened soil.
Pre-existing surface gravel and weeds, yet we had a plan to eliminate them permanently.
Installing steel edging to the planting circle in the middle of the yard.
Notice the other paver path radiating out to future seating areas under the trees in the back corners of the yard.
Installing and testing the new drip irrigation system.
Notice the wet spots as we ensure all is working now that the plants have arrived.
Drip irrigation on a 'smart' irrigation controller plus low-water use plants.
The plants were carefully chosen to provide colorful seasonal flowers and to attract birds, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other beneficial wildlife.
Watering in the new, drought-tolerant ground cover.
This bed has efficient overhead sprinklers for which the water district provides a rebate. The perimeter beds are all planted, too.
Weed cloth to prevent old weeds from reemerging.
All non-planted areas were covered with weed cloth to minimize future maintenance requirements.
Attractive mulches pull it all together.
Notice how attractive mulches calm and beautify what's now a balanced and flowing 'garden' with destinations, not just a flat, open lot.
Another perspective from one of the new garden sitting areas.
Notice the flowing, integrated planting beds, or berms, interrupted only to enable easy walking from place to place.
Another perspective looking back to the home and its new versatile patio.
Another perspective to the new design, plants and garden (still in its infancy.)
The flowing planting beds will evolve into a verdant and colorful ring around the yard as the new plantings grow in the coming seasons.
Flowers, colors, and foliage were chosen to evolve seasonally.
A nice new place to hang out and catch some rays.


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By Jareen Imam, CNN
Silver fireballs will streak over the Northern Hemisphere on Saturday and Sunday. The much-anticipated Orionid meteor shower is scheduled to peak over the weekend, greeting October skies and stargazers with a brilliant show.
The Orionid meteor shower will peak about 12:00 a.m. PST Sunday, although there may be meteor sightings before and after, says Karen Randall, director of special projects at SETI Institute. The "shooting stars" will be even more visually prominent because the new moon will be setting about midnight Saturday, allowing for a view unaffected by bright moonlight, according to NASA.
The best time to view is Sunday morning, NASA says: Wake up an hour or two before the sun comes up; the constellation Orion will be high in the sky. You don't even need a telescope; you can just lie down and look up.
The Orionid meteor shower appears annually as the planet moves through an area of space that is littered with ancient remnants from Halley's Comet. The debris from the famed comet, which last visited Earth in 1986, helps produce up to 25 meteors per hour during the Orionid meteor shower.
The cosmic show will be even more visually spectacular as the entry of the meteors into the atmosphere will lend them green and orange hues as they pass overhead. Tracing the meteors backward, they will tend to come from the club of the constellation Orion the Hunter, according to Earth Sky.
The skies will not only dazzle with streaks of meteoric flares, the night will also be studded with an array of other celestial phenomena. You might see Venus; Mars; Sirius, the brightest star in the sky; and other winter constellations like Gemini, Taurus and of course Orion.
For those of us in dense urban areas with obstructed or nebulous night skies, have no fear. You can still see the Orionid meteor shower live on Ustream. The stream is made possible by a camera mounted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
With that link, astronomy lovers will not only have a chance to watch the Orionid meteor shower, they can participate in a live chat with NASA astronomer Mitzi Adams. She will be answering people's questions about the meteor shower via live Web chat from 11 p.m. ET Saturday to 3 a.m. ET Sunday.
Interested in photographing this cosmic experience? iReport recently held a live chat with astrophotographer Jay GaBany, who set down the basics of photographing stars. He suggested that photographers gear up with a tripod and a DSLR, and try photographing outside the city for the best chance at great shots of the astronomical activity.
So make sure to grab your camera and a sweater for the meteor shower this weekend. It's a great opportunity to capture those long-exposure shots of streaking stars and time-lapse videos of the astronomical activity overhead. Then make sure to share your photos and videos with CNN iReport. Your iReports may be featured on CNN.
Google Images is a search service created by Google and introduced in July 2001, that allows users to search the Web for image content. The keywords for the image search are based on the filename of the image, the link text pointing to the image, and text adjacent to the image. When searching for an image, a thumbnail of each matching image is displayed. When the user clicks on a thumbnail, the image is displayed in a box over the website that it came from. The user can then close the box and browse the website, or view the full-sized image."
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You really make it seem really easy together with your presentation however I to find this topic to be really one thing that I believe I'd never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very huge for me. I'm taking a look forward on your next submit, I will try to get the hang of it!
The time that the Earth passes through the greatest concentration of Orionid meteoroids is 11pm EDT. but this does NOT mean that this is the best time to see them for us here in North America. At that time , we are at the 'back' of the Earth, looking out at that part of space where the Earth has just travelled as it orbits the Sun. It is like looking out of the rear window of a vehicle travelling down the highway. It is not until after midnight that we begin to get to the 'front' part of the Earth and just like a windshield we start to see the 'raindrops' or meteors hitting the Earth's atmosphere. The very best time is just before dawn when we are right at the 'front'.
Romney wll BLAME OBAMA.....................
You are a small person.
The only important tip: Get about 500 miles away from any civilization, because no matter how many times they write this same stupid story in advance of every meteor shower and comet, you can't see a single thing anywhere near typical city lights.
To all of you folks who (with good intention) cite a specific time zone (PST, etc.), you are in error.
The best viewing time does not depend on a fixed time zone. The best viewing time is based on celestial mechanics. After local midnight is the best time. The Earth's west-to-east rotation makes your location "chase" the radiant of the shower as the Earth orbits the sun, thereby intercepting more particles in the shower's stream which is fixed in the Earth's orbital path.
so where the snot do you look up to; likei really know where orians club is
If the video attached to this article is in real time, the phenomenon may actually be that of an Iridium satellite passing overhead. Iridium satellites are communication satellites with three highly reflective flat antennas that are about 2 meters high by 1 meter wide. These satellites orbit the Earth with regularity. When passing overhead, the antennas reflect the sun's light – beginning dim, brightening to a peak luminosity, then fading – similar to an airborne flare. All this happens at a constant rate of travel, which the video exhibits. For more information about Iridium flares, visit http://www.heavens-above.com. That website can predict when Iridium flares will be visible at your location (clear sky permitting). I've seen many meteors. They travel much faster than the video shows.
It was a meteor. In other images you'll clearly see it burning up. The track was plotted. Etc etc. It was a rock.
Thanks for the info about other images. One would think that with all the resources CNN has at its disposal, they could provide unambiguous images/video.
I'm pretty sure that was a meteor. I saw this from Hawaii. It was pretty spectacular.
Can you see the shower from Las Vegas nv and what time would be the best time to watch it .. .
There IS NOT a New Moon tonight. The moon phase is Waxing Crescent (the New Moon was on the 15th). The New Moon sets at sunset (approximately), BY DEFINITION.
Of course, I guess it's too much to ask for reporters to actually get their facts right. We've come to expect that our news be dumbed down.
They had to dumb down in order to cover the Romney campaign. However, since nature abhors a vacuum in our regular day to day lives, there is a limit to how close they will be able to get to a face to face with Romney.
I'm glad that the moonlight from the new moon won't be a problem since it will be setting before the peak time of the meteor shower. . . :/
lol! 🙂
The meteors can potentially be seen in any area of the sky... However, for the most part, when you see one, if you were to draw a line backwards across the sky from where it came, they would all come from the same area... With this shower, they would all intersect around the constellation Orion... As such, the shower is named after a constellation near their point of origin - not necessarily where you will actually see them... The Perseids shower in August is hands down the best - last year we saw nearly 100 in less than an hour while sitting in a large dark meadow outside of Yellowstone park! Have fun!
What would be a good time to watch for someone in st louis, MO? Thank you.
Tina, Peak time is around midnight PST that would be around 2:00Am Sunday in St Louis. Wishing you clear sky's and warm company.
Tina & Brian, the best viewing time does not depend on a fixed (PT, CT, etc.) time zone. The best viewing time is based on celestial mechanics. After local midnight is the best time. The Earth's west-to-east rotation makes your location "chase" the radiant of the shower as the Earth orbits the sun, thereby intercepting more particles in the shower's stream which is fixed in the Earth's orbital path.
Reading you talk and share information about this celestial event makes smiles here. If the sky is clear in southeastern Minn., we'll be watching with you.
cant wait I am going to be using my slr and good ol fashioned film to catch some photos
It's no coincidence that this year's second Astronomy Day coincides with the Orionids meteor shower.
To celebrate Astronomy Day, I'll be broadcasting an 11hr marathon of live astronomy on Saturday (starting at 12:30PM PDT and ending at 11:30PM PDT).
We'll be watching for Orionid meteors in the observatory AllSky camera while we also watch live colour images of comets, asteroids, the planet Jupiter and its moons, galaxies, nebulae, supernovae remnants, and just about every other type of celestial object!
There seems to be very little written about Astronomy Day, which is a great pity as we need to take every opportunity to engage a wider audience to astronomy and science. It's always a fun day which lives up to its tagline "Bringing astronomy to the people".
Everyone is welcome to the free public shows tomorrow – there's more info here: http://goo.gl/8vhi6
I can be contacted at email@example.com
Yes,i have see it before,but now they show very late and my eyes is very tired for to remain open...good night to you stars! Some other time perhaps.
I've found great viewing information on this site: http://www.spacedex.com/orionids – Hope you all enjoy the show!
This report is inaccurate, it's going to be a half moon, not a new moon, that was last weekend.
Orion looks like this.....
* * *
* * *
* * *
* *
* *
* *
Vermont guy... look to your S.W. Straight up
Steve, Orion looks nothing like that, brother.
You need to be away from the city lights. They ruin the sight from their reflection from the atmosphere. The darker the spot the better.
If you have an android phone get Google Sky.
Download Google Skymap for location of the constellations!
I keep looking for the location of this event. The only thing they say is look in the Orion area. All stars are the same to me. Please give me North, South, East, West. I am in Norfolk, VA so where do I look and don't say at Orion?
Orion isn't a star, it's a constellation. And the reason why they refer to "Orion" is because the constellations move across the night sky the same as the moon does.
Look up "Orion" in google images so you can get an idea of what the constellation looks like. It's fairly easy to spot in the sky (it's one of the more recognizable constellations going). Once you figure out where it is, look a little bit to the left of the grouping, above the three stars that make up the "belt". That's where the meteorites will appear to originate from.
Hope that helps. Good luck to you.
Look for the Three Wisemen of Mythical Lore... that is the Belt of Orion. When in doubt, always ask Google. It's kinda hard to explain things for us non-astronomer folks. Like I said, best to use Google...they can tell you everything.
Joe, The direction to look for Orion will depend upon what time you are viewing it. If you are viewing at 03:00 am EDT in Norfolk, you should look at the Southern part of the sky and there is where you will see Orion's "belt" identified by 3 fairly bright stars in a line slanted from east upward toward the west with the 3 more somewhat dim stars hanging straight down from the line of the "belt". This dim line of three stars is the "sword" hanging from the 'belt". Now look straight above the "belt" and toward the east and you will see a bright redish star (Betelgeuse) that is Orion's "hand" which holding a "club". The "club" is another star straight above Orion's "hand" . This area around this "club" is likely to be where most of the meteors will originate. Keep in mind, however that during a meteor shower, stray meteors can appear ANYWHERE in the sky! So the best strategy might to lay down on a chase lounge or blanket facing south and keep looking up!
Around midnight look straight up. I live in NC not far from you. It is easy to spot Orion as it tends to be a bit brighter than the surrounding star field. There is a straight line of three stars that form the 'belt'. In fat those three stars are what the Egyptians used to align the three great pyramids at Geza. One of the stars is slightly less bright, hence the smallest of the three pyramids at Geza is much.
Wish I was on the Outer Banks to watch. A friend of mine has a beach house a little north of Corolla. Here in Norfolk where I live trees obscure 75% of the sky. Going somewhere else would be the thing to do.
Normally, my big city view would suck...but I'll actually be in rural SC this weekend! Should be awesome.
nice area to see it
1) Make sure you are in an area away from city lights, 2) Don't be disappointed if you don't see very many or if you live in an urban or suburban area...
Was in northern Maine last week.... Clear, dark, cloudless sky. Milky way in all her glory... It was fabulous and the meteors were quite remarkable even then. My son and I spotted about 12 in an hour....Not quite as stunning as this shower, but wonderful none the less. Wish I could go back and see this display!
Anytime's a great time to go back to northern Maine 😉
I hear the Zumba up there is awesome as well!
I would be a lot more interesting if they were to land in the middle or Iran......and do some good.
Most of the meteors you will be seeing are the size of a grain of sand. They already have plenty of sand in Iran...
Wonderful how most of the posts here are in anticipation of seeing a glorious celestial event, and all you can think of is destruction. Thanks.
New moons don't set around midnight; first quarter moons do.
Live! Orionids Meteor Shower 10/21/2012
LOOK!!! Up in the sky, it's bird! No, it's a plane! No it's a drone!!!!!!
In addition to watching the event (live or online), it is also possible to listen to meteor activity online. A google search will find those who are broadcasting live audio of meteors, but two meteor radars broadcasting live audio in the US are:
From Alabama: spaceweather.com/glossary/nasameteorradar.html
From Texas: spaceweatherradio.com/index.php
Even if the weather doesn't cooperate, you can always listen to meteor showers online (day or night).
@Alaskan, best time for observing Orionids is anytime after local midnight.
Seriously, this article leaves a lot out.
It's midnight where ever you are. That's when your little part of the earth is facing in the optimal direction, and also when the moon will set in your area.
Thanx for giving such a complete report on time, location, and background information for this event!
Midnight, huh? Care to give a timezone?
What's up Alaskan ? sounds like around 7:00pm – 11:00pm our time. Should be able to see it we have clear skies in the forcast.
You guys are goobers. It's midnight local time. Wherever you are, it doesn't matter. It peaks around midnight.
It says 12:00 PST
You are right, I was stupid. I am very stupid...
Bob, that means the peak will favor those who happen to be in that timezone because that it when the Earth will pass through the densest part of the material. However, Joe is correct. During the entire period of the shower, local midnight to early morning is when your part of the planet is facing into the debris.


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How to redeem a Complimentary Lounge Invitation
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You can access the portal when you log into your Frquent Flyer account (under Quick Links) or visit qantas.com/freeloungeinvite.
Invitations must be linked at least 24 hours before departure of your eligible flight. You'll find your eligible Qantas bookings displayed in the Portal. Simply click "Link invitation" next to the flight you wish to redeem your lounge pass on.
If your Qantas booking isn't listed, go to manage your booking to ensure your Frequent Flyer number is attached to your passenger details.
Tip: If you have a multi-city flight, only the first city will show. Click "Link invitation" to view your other flight segments.
If you have a Jetstar booking, fill out the form ensuring enter all details correctly as incorrect details cannot be changed.
You will need to select the available Complimentary Invitation you wish to use – take note that the type of Complimentary Invitation determines which lounge you can access.
Ensure your email address is entered correctly, so you can receive the confirmation email to present with your boarding pass at the lounge entrance.
Once the invitation is linked successfully, you can access your selected lounge from when check-in for your flight opens until when your flight starts boarding. Double- check the operating hours and locations of Qantas Club lounges before going to the airport.
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