House Republicans were expected to announce their own plan Tuesday to end the partial government shutdown and avert a default on the national debt. But House Speaker John Boehner came to the microphones and kept things very vague.
PlayStation 3. Xbox 360. Wii. Over the past eight years, electronic boxes wearing one of those three brands came to occupy space in the entertainment centers of millions of people around the world. They were the heralds of the most innovative, occasionally uncomfortable, undeniably exciting era in video game history. That era is finally nearing its end.
The seventh gaming console generation, which began nearly eight years ago in 2005 is, at long last, entering its twilight stages. It's time to look back.
Welcome to "Last-Gen Heroes," Kotaku's new monthlong retrospective series celebrating the best and the worst of the past gaming console generation. Starting today, we'll be writing a wide-ranging series of articles focusing on the many things we loved and hated about playing games on our Wiis, our PlayStation 3s and our Xbox 360s. Our entire editorial staff will be contributing, and we'll be running articles daily during the week until the PlayStation 4 is released on November 15. That date, to us, marks the official start of the next generation of console gaming, along with the Xbox One's launch the following week on the 22nd.
Some of these articles will focus on big ideas, on the innovations and trends that came to define gaming at large. Some of these articles will focus on small ideas—they'll recognize the little things that deserve no less recognition for their small stature. We'll talk about games in addition to hardware—our favorite characters and stories, and the best ideas and worlds that came into being. Basically, we'll talk about everything.
Needless to say, we're all pretty psyched.
Of course, it's not all sunshine and rose-petals—we'll also focus on the stuff that sucked, the stuff we hated. Running in tandem will be the Last-Gen Zeroes series, in which we'll identify and surgically dismantle every single thing we hated about the last console generation. We hope to run a pretty even balance of positive and negative posts—after all, it's been an exciting eight years, but it's also been loaded with missteps, annoyances, disappointments and, for lack of a better word, bullshit.
Everyone ready? Okay, let's get going. This should be fun.
To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.
Source: http://kotaku.com/the-best-and-worst-of-the-last-generation-of-gaming-1445011784Washington (AFP) - Rival Republican and Democratic Senate leaders Monday said they were optimistic they could agree a deal to stave off a debt default that would shred US credibility and rock the global economy.
Signs of hope emerged three days before a deadline to raise the US government's borrowing limit and with a partial government shutdown on the cusp of entering its third week.
After several failed attempts to end the impasse, veteran political prize fighters Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and his Republican opposite number Mitch McConnell conducted low key talks aimed at saving the day, over the weekend and into Monday.
"I'm very optimistic we will reach an agreement that's reasonable in nature this week to reopen the government, pay the nation's bills and begin long-term negotiations to put our country on sound fiscal footing," Reid said.
McConnell added: "I share his optimism that we are going to get a result that will be acceptable to both sides."
Their comments were the most concrete sign yet that Republicans and Democrats, in the Senate at least -- want to end the damaging political crisis.
Should the Democratic-led Senate coalesce on a deal, the question would then become could Republican House Speaker John Boehner secure sufficient support from his restive conservative coalition in the House to send it to Obama's desk?
With progress apparent, Obama canceled a meeting he had called with Reid, McConnell, Boehner and Democratic House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.
An official said the talks were put off to "allow leaders in the Senate time to continue making important progress towards a solution that raises the debt limit and reopens the government."
The sudden optimism contrasted with Obama's terse tone of a few hours earlier, when he lambasted Republicans and warned of the consequences if a deal was not soon reached.
"If Republicans aren't willing to set aside their partisan concerns in order to do what's right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting and defaulting could have a potentially... devastating affect on our economy," Obama said.
During a visit to an anti-poverty charity in Washington, Obama said he would tell the leaders to "open the government and urge them to make sure that the United States government is paying its bills."
If Congress does not raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by Thursday, the US government will begin to run out of money and could start defaulting on its obligations.
The Politico news organization however reported Monday, that Reid had offered a compromise plan to McConnell.
The initiative would raise the debt ceiling for six to nine months and the government would be reopened until mid-to-late December.
The proposal would launch long-term budget talks between Democrats and Republicans, and could include a delay of a medical device tax used to help pay for Obama's health care reform law.
Signs of hopes cheered investors, after uncertainty on Wall Street. Increasing concern over the fiscal showdown pulled the Dow Jones Industrial Average down early on, but amid talk of negotiations on Capitol Hill, stocks rose a quarter percent by mid afternoon.
Republican Senator Roger Wicker told MSNBC he was hopeful of seeing "something meaningful by the end of the day" from the Senate talks.
"There are sweet spots that Republicans and Democrats agree on," he said.
Around the world, however, signs of alarm were mounting.
China and Japan -- which between them hold more than $2.4 trillion of US debt -- have urged Washington to get its house in order.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying took a chance in Beijing to caution Washington.
"The United States is the largest economy in the world and we hope that it can show its responsibility," Hua told reporters.
And Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer warned of dire consequences if there was no solution.
A default would be "a thunderbolt on the financial markets" that would set off "extremely violent and profound turbulence worldwide," he told the daily Le Figaro.
In Asia, markets in Sydney, Seoul and Singapore were down in part over the deadlocked talks. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Jakarta were closed for public holidays.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told the International Monetary Fund last week that Washington understood its reputation as a safe harbor was at risk.
A man who is suspected of being a notorious pirate in Somalia has been arrested in Belgium, after an apparent sting operation that included a ruse that investigators were making a film. The pirate nicknamed "Big Mouth" is believed to have made millions in ransom money by hijacking ships off east Africa's coast.
From Brussels, Teri Schultz filed this report for NPR's Newscast:
"The pirate kingpin known as 'Big Mouth' — Mohamed Abdi Hassan — and another man were taken into custody at Brussels Airport as they arrived on a flight from Nairobi. They're expected to be charged with piracy and hostage-taking.
"Hassan is believed to have been the leader of the 2009 hijacking of the Belgian dredging vessel Pompeii north of the Seychelles. The ship and its crew were held for 70 days before being released in exchange for an amount of money rumored to be more than $2 million.
"Local media report Hassan was lured to Belgium as part of an undercover operation which asked him to come take part in a movie about life as a pirate on the high seas."
The actor and his wife go for a stroll! Check out more pics of Hollywood's tightest twosomes.
Source: http://www.ivillage.com/star-snapshots-celebrity-couples-photos-2013/1-b-469173?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Astar-snapshots-celebrity-couples-photos-2013-469173In the NFL, the best action is often far away from the ball. Such was the case in Sunday night's/Monday morning's San Diego-Oakland game, where the Chargers' D.J. Fluker pulled off the best wrestling move of the year.
Fluker was guarding Philip Rivers on the right side when Oakland linebacker Sio Moore made the ill-advised decision to go right at Fluker. The beast lifted Moore up — by his neck or his shoulder pads, we can't quite tell — and threw him to the ground from about 6 feet up. It was vicious and penalty-worthy, and easily trumps William Moore's spinebreaker from earlier this season.
Now, granted, violence in the NFL is a matter of concern, and had this gone unpenalized, that'd be one more step toward anarchy. Be honest, though: if you can throw around someone the size of an NFL linebacker like that, wouldn't you be doing it every chance you get? Grocery stores, coffee shop lines, concerts ... you name it, there'd be some slamming. Yeah, probably better that we leave this to the professionals.
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The days of the new Sony Mobile are now long past. Two years in, and the company appears to have hit a stride with its smartphone portfolio, churning out new Xperias on a consistent basis. And today is no different with the unveiling of the Xperia L, a mid- to low-end effort that places a heavy emphasis on the camera experience. Carrying on the Arc's legacy, this 4.3-inch handset packs an FWVGA display, dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 1,700mAh battery, 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), NFC and an 8-megapixel rear shooter with Exmor RS sensor into a conspicuously curved body rounded off with that signature Xperia power key.
Though it lacks the greater resolution and screen size of its 720p sibling the SP, this more budget-friendly device does enjoy an exclusive perk: HDR stills and video. A feature Sony's included to make the L an attractive point-and-shoot option for budget-minded consumers concerned with style points and not LTE or raw performance. Unsurprisingly, it comes pre-loaded with a trio of Sony's own media apps -- Walkman, Movies and Album -- a precedent it set at IFA last year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sony, Google
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/18/sony-xperia-l/
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