Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Latest Turn of the Screw (talking-points-memo)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/306913157?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Brazil probes rumor that set off panic run on state bank

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Monday she ordered the Federal Police to investigate the source of a rumor that sent thousands of poor Brazilians running to state bank branches seeking payment of a monthly family stipend.

A rumor that payments of the Bolsa Familia program would be ended led crowds to line up over the weekend at branches of the Caixa Economica Federal government bank to get their money. The rumor spread by word of mouth and cellphone text messages.

Angry beneficiaries smashed glass doors and automatic teller machines in some branches on Saturday in a surprising outburst that reminded Brazilians of chaotic scenes in crowded banks during financial crises two decades ago before Brazil stabilized its economy.

The program of cash transfers to families on the condition they send their children to school and get them vaccinated has helped lift 30 million Brazilians from poverty over a decade.

Brazil's social policy has helped maintained widespread support for Rousseff's ruling Workers' Party and is a key platform in her re-election plans next year. Reacting quickly, her government allowed stipends scheduled for later this month to be paid out at ATM's over the weekend to stop the panic.

"This government money is sacred. We guarantee these payments. We will not give up the Bolsa Familia," Rousseff vowed in a speech at a shipyard. She called the rumor "inhuman."

"We have put the Federal Police on the case to find out who started this rumor that was aimed at unsettling Brazilians who have been rising from extreme poverty for 10 years," she said.

Caixa Economica Vice President Jos? Urbano Duarte said close to 1 million families got their Bolsa Familia cash grant this weekend. The rumors caused panic lines at bank branches in 12 of Brazil's 26 states, mainly in the poor Northeast of the country, despite government assurances that the rumor was false.

About 50 million Brazilian, almost one-quarter of the South American country's population, benefit from the program which pays out a minimum of 70 reais ($34.42) a month to qualifying families.

Brazil's deteriorating fiscal situation and heavy tax burden have led economists to advocate cuts in public spending to allow more investment and boost sluggish growth in the world's seventh-largest economy. Some economists say social programs will have to give for the country to invest more in industrial output and upgrade its dilapidated infrastructure to be competitive.

($1 = 2.03 Brazilian reais)

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-probes-rumor-set-off-panic-run-state-185052832.html

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Friday, May 17, 2013

'Sonic the Hedgehog' vid games coming to Nintendo

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Sonic the Hedgehog is rolling with Nintendo.

Sega says it will exclusively release the next three games starring the popular blue critter on Nintendo platforms. The first title will be called "Sonic Lost World" and is set for release on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS later this year.

"With 'Sonic Lost World,' we're going to introduce new gameplay and enemies, which is always fun," said John Cheng, president and chief financial officer of Sega of America Inc. "In terms of Sonic and his friends, he'll have his same friends there, and I think there'll be some new ones as well. It's not a reiteration. It's going to be all new."

The original fast-paced side-scrolling "Sonic the Hedgehog" debuted in 1991. The twirling, ring-hoarding hedgehog became Sega's mascot and a video-game icon rivaling the likes of Mario and Pac-Man.

While his recent interactive exploits haven't achieved the same level of success as previous "Sonic" outings, the character has remained a presence in pop culture, appearing in cartoons, downloadable games and the Disney film "Wreck-It Ralph."

Sonic has competed against Nintendo's mustachioed spokesman Mario since 2007 in the "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" mini-game series. Cheng said the characters would be back for more match-ups in "Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games."

Over the past 22 years, Sonic and his friends have starred in dozens of games, including the hallmark 1992 sequel "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," 1997 3-D racer "Sonic R," 2002 hand-held adventure "Sonic Advance" and 2011 anniversary mash-up "Sonic Generations."

Sega says more than 75 million games and smartphone apps featuring Sonic have been sold worldwide. After the publisher stopped producing its own game consoles in 2001, Sega began releasing "Sonic" games for other systems, including Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox.

Microsoft is expected to unveil a new Xbox console at an event in Seattle next week, following Sony's tease of the forthcoming PlayStation 4 earlier this year in New York.

Last fall, Nintendo launched the next generation of gaming consoles with the Wii U, which comes with a tabletlike controller called the GamePad. Nintendo said last March it has sold 3.45 million units worldwide, a disappointing start for the first of a new generation of gaming systems. Sega's Cheng believes bringing Sonic exclusively to the Wii U will help Nintendo.

"It should be a win-win situation," said Cheng. "Don't count Nintendo out."

___

Online:

http://www.facebook.com/sonic

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sonic-hedgehog-vid-games-coming-nintendo-144202899.html

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

New Post: PipeFiction now available for Windows 8/RT (x86, x64 and ARM) on the Windows Store

A MonoGame port of PipeFiction, an iOS pipe building puzzler released a year ago, is now available in the Windows Store. PipeFiction follows the long tradition of good old pipe building games.

Link: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/pipefiction/d2c6c95d-3009-4f82-b370-537a455c307f

Feedback is very much appreciated!

Some insights:
In the original version (iOS), we used Objective-C and Cocos2D, in the XNA/MonoGame port we used Cocos2D-xna. Transition went smooth.

Some of the issues we had to solve for the Win8 port:

  • adapt to the async file i/o
  • integrate with native Win8 features like the Charms bar and data exchange with other apps
  • handle snapped view
  • use .NET i18n features
It took us 3 attempts to get the app through the review. It was rejected the first 2 times due to a missing privacy policy, a missing "pause" screen (for snapped view) and some globalization issues.

Looks interesting -- add a trial mode and I'll give it a try. :-)

Hm, wasn't even aware of that possibility... Thanx for the heads up, will definitely look into how to add a trial mode for a win store app!

Source: http://monogame.codeplex.com/discussions/442906

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Cleveland kidnapping victims endured decade of isolation, rape, beatings

By Kim Palmer and Kevin Gray

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three young women newly freed from a decade-long kidnapping ordeal in Cleveland endured their captivity in the dungeon-like squalid confines of a house, where they were raped, starved, beaten and kept in chains by the man who abducted them, authorities said on Wednesday.

Their accused tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, a veteran school bus driver fired from his job last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women, who were rescued from his house on Monday evening shortly before his arrest.

His two brothers, initially arrested as suspects in the case, were not charged, and police said investigators had determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women.

The three victims, abducted separately from the surrounding neighborhood and completely cut off from the outside world during their captivity, were found alive together when neighbors were alerted by cries for help from one of the women, Amanda Berry.

She told police that her escape two days ago was her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned in the house, during which time she conceived and gave birth to a daughter, now 6, authorities said.

The little girl was rescued along with Berry, 27, who was a day shy of her 17th birthday when she disappeared in 2003, and the two other women - Gina DeJesus, 23, who went missing at age 14 in 2004, and Michelle Knight, 32, who was 20 years old when she vanished in 2002.

Chilling new details of their captivity emerged as two of the women were treated to jubilant celebrations with relatives - Berry and her daughter arriving at her sister's house and DeJesus at her mother's home in separate homecomings captured on national television.

Knight remained in a Cleveland hospital, where she was listed in good condition.

BRUTAL MISCARRIAGES

Berry's pregnancy with her daughter was not an isolated incident, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who said he had read portions of a police report from the initial investigation and was briefed by numerous police department sources.

Cummins said one of the three women - he did not know who - had suffered at least five miscarriages, which Castro is accused of inducing by starving her for weeks and beating her in the abdomen.

Berry's baby was born in a plastic inflatable kiddy pool on Christmas Day, 2006, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father.

All three women were held in the home's basement for long periods, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cummins. He added that the victims were kept apart from each other in the house until their captor at some point gained sufficient confidence in his control over them to allow them to mingle.

Moreover, the councilman said all three women were abducted by Castro when he offered them rides in a vehicle.

Cummins said much of their ordeal was recounted by the three women as soon as they were freed.

"En route to the hospital there was just a flood of information shared by these victims immediately," he said. "One can only imagine the mental distress and eruptions of joy and emotions."

Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbors to live there alone. Berry has said she only managed to call for help when he briefly left the premises on Monday.

"The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped," Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the news conference. "They don't believe that they've been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively."

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the confines of the house just twice during their captivity, on both occasions to go into a garage on the small lot while disguised in wigs and hats.

Tomba said that during their separation in the house, the three women were kept in different rooms but were aware of the others' presence.

TELEVISED HOMECOMINGS

Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister's house and entering through a back door.

DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting "Gina. Gina."

Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.

"I want to thank everybody that believed," she said. "Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they're the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there."

Neither Berry, who was last seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant, nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school, spoke publicly.

Castro faced arraignment on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house, which Tomba said was "in quite a bit of disarray," but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

The three brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women's escape. However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.

However, the two brothers were slated to appear in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

"There is nothing that leads us to believe that they were involved or had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, their statements and the brothers' statements," Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez said, adding, "Ariel would have kept everybody at a distance."

Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing on the frantic emergency call she made to a 911 operator after a neighbor heard her scream and helped her break through a locked screen door.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

In 2005, Castro was named in a complaint of domestic violence in a custody dispute with his ex-wife that accused him of breaking her nose twice, knocking out her tooth, dislocating her shoulder twice and threatening to kill her and her daughters several times.

The complaint was eventually dismissed.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Steve Gorman; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-captive-tells-police-she-took-first-chance-000104440.html

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Friday, May 3, 2013

There's Already a Google Glass App That Lets You Take Photos With a Wink

Last week we reported that the ability to control Google Glass with the wink of an eye was a very real possibility. Now, an enterprising chap by the name of Mike DiGiovanni has made that a reality.

The developer has created an app called Winky, which lets you power up Glass from standby and take a picture with just a single wink. There's even a video of the process in action. Clearly, a long deliberate wink is required?so as not to misinterpret blinking, presumably?but it's pretty neat that it's possible to command the device without touch or voice.

Indeed, DiGiovanni thinks that it "really changes things", and one suspects that it won't do much to help ease the privacy concerns surrounding Glass. But we'll be able to find out in real time, because DiGiovanni has made the source code for the app available on GitHub, so that early adopters will be able to take as many wink-triggered pictures as they like. Creep shots have never been so easy. [Google+ via Verge]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/theres-already-a-google-glass-app-that-lets-you-take-p-486869013

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Kutcher's company settles suit against CA DMV

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Ashton Kutcher's production company has settled a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles over a planned reality series focusing on the agency's offices.

Court records in Los Angeles show Kutcher's production company Katalyst Media Inc. has settled its case for undisclosed terms. The company sued the DMV in June claiming it reneged on a reality show deal worth at least $1.4 million.

The lawsuit stated the DMV backed out of the reality show on claims it was no longer in the agency's best interests, but it had already been promised to the TruTV channel.

Katalyst's attorney Michael E. Weinstein declined to comment in an email message.

The DMV wrote in a statement that the case was amicably resolved and no further comments would be issued.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kutchers-company-settles-suit-against-ca-dmv-223627680.html

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