Blog - Mangos 'n' Mangroves

Too Big to Fail, or Too Trifling for Oversight?

But over the last several months, executives from more than two dozen financial companies and their trade groups have paraded into the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies to try to persuade top regulators that they are not large or risky enough to threaten the financial system if they should ever collapse.

Big insurers like the Mass Mutual Financial Group and Zurich Financial Services; hedge funds like Citadel and Paulson & Company; and mutual-fund companies like BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Pacific Investment Management Company have all been making the rounds, according to documents filed by the regulatory agencies.

What they are all hoping to avoid is being designated ?systemically important? by a council of financial regulators. That would require them to face stricter federal oversight and keep more cash on hand, which they fear would erode profits.

Jeffrey A. Goldstein, the Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, finds the arguments so familiar that he has opened some meetings by asking the firms if they would like to designate themselves as systemically important. ?I can?t recall a firm that came in and said yes,? he said.

Hedge fund managers, for example, normally pride themselves on being Masters of the Universe. But armed with PowerPoint presentations and financial studies, representatives from some of Wall Street?s most powerful funds, including D.E. Shaw and Company, Elliott Management and Caxton Associates, met with Federal Reserve staff members earlier this year to make one point: We?re too small to matter.

The hedge funds insisted their activities would not threaten the financial system because they control $1.7 trillion in assets, a drop in the bucket next to the $21.4 trillion overseen by the global mutual fund industry, according to documents they filed with regulators that cited figures from 2010.

Two insurance giants took even stronger steps. They unloaded savings banks they owned as a preemptive strike against tougher federal supervision.

Regulators involved in the determination process say they are skeptical. ?It is as if they are the Sisters of the Charity,? said one government official who has participated in meetings with financial companies. ?They present themselves as if they don?t do anything complicated. They are playing a very interesting strategy game that nobody believes.?

It?s no secret that big banks with more than $50 billion in assets ? Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, among others ? are automatically part of the club. But a wide variety of financial companies that are not banks are trying to avoid membership ? or at least reduce their burdens. Besides the big insurers, hedge funds and mutual fund companies, major commercial lenders like General Electric have revved up their lobbying efforts.

There have also been a few surprises, like Boeing, I.B.M. and Caterpillar, which operate large finance businesses for their customers. Student lenders like Sallie Mae, auto finance companies like Ford Motor Credit and even quasi-government enterprises like the Federal Home Loan Banks have raised concerns about the designation process.

Deciding which firms should be deemed ?systemically important? is at the heart of a package of new financial rules that aim to prevent a repeat of the recent financial crisis. But the lack of specific criteria from regulators so far has created uncertainty about who will get tagged.

More clarity may come later this summer when regulators are expected to put out a more detailed proposal. Criteria like size, how connected the firms are to each other, and overall risk levels will be more carefully defined.

Then, after regulators analyze the data, the designated companies will be notified and given a chance to argue why they do not pose a major financial threat. This means final determinations will not be made until the middle of 2012, at the earliest. That, of course, is just fine with many of the companies involved.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7796f886ab43f582b6cd2697d8aeea60

lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell

Best Buy issues cease and desist over Newegg ad, logo

Although Newegg has long been the one-stop-shop for system builders and hardware buffs, the California-based e-tailer is still relatively unknown among less tech-savvy crowds. In an effort to attract such customers, the company recently launched a new marketing campaign that compares the quality of Newegg's service with major brick-and-mortar chains such as Best Buy -- a common destination for typical electronics shoppers.

The commercial shows a customer asking a blue-shirted employee for a comparison between two notebooks. The worker stumbles for a few moments before admitting he doesn't know and the clip ends by saying "Newegg.com. Come for the expert reviews, buy for the excellent prices." A second commercial sends the same message: retail sales staff are uneducated and unhelpful, while Newegg offers the opinions of bona fide geeks.

Unsurprisingly, Best Buy hasn't taken kindly to the advertisment. The company has issued a cease and desist demanding that Newegg "promptly" and "permanently" abandon the commercial as it depicts Best Buy's employees as "slovenly" and "uninformed." Frankly, we think "slovenly" is somewhat of an exaggeration, but most tech enthusiasts would agree that the average Best Buy employee isn't particularly knowledgeable.

Along with the commercials, Newegg's campaign includes a new "Geek On" logo, which uses an orange, black and white color scheme and features a power button in place of the "O" in "On". Best Buy has an issue with this too, noting that it's awfully similar to various Geek Squad trademarks. Not only does Geek Squad use the same colors for its logos, but it also uses a power button design for its "Black Tie Protection" service.

Best Buy demands that Newegg cease all use of the Geek On logo and any other mark that combines the word "geek" with the color orange or a power button. "Your misuse of our valuable trademarks and your negative portrayal of our employees violate our trademark rights and misleads consumers about ours services," Best Buy said. It's unclear if Newegg will comply, but the e-tailer has defiantly posted the letter on Facebook.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44205-best-buy-issues-cease-and-desist-over-newegg-ad-logo.html

thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious

Weekend Open Forum: Who had the strongest showing at E3?

There's been a barrage of announcements coming out of E3 this past week from all the big names in gaming. Here's a brief recount if you missed our coverage: Nintendo talked up its next generation console, the Wii U, putting a lot of emphasis on its new controller concept and their intention to target both casual and hardcore gamers. The company also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Zelda and announced a bunch of games.

Sony, after apologizing once again for the recent security breach, revealed 'Vita' as the official name for its PSP successor and announced that pricing for the quad-core handheld will start at $250. Thay also announced a PlayStation-branded 3DTV that can generate two totally different images at the same time, so combined with the included glasses each player will see an image that's only viewable through their lenses.

Microsoft didn't have any hardware announcements to make and instead focused on a bevy of Kinect-friendly titles, while also announcing a new Halo trilogy that is set to begin with Halo 4 in the fourth quarter of 2012. Besides software titles, the company revealed additional Dashboard features and live television streaming in the U.S. for the Xbox 360.

While the focus of the show was decidedly on consoles, PC gamers can also look forward to dozens of titles hitting the platform in the coming months, as you can see on our recent compilation of game trailers. All in all there was a little something for everybody so without dragging this on our question to you is: who do you think had the strongest showing at E3? Vote in the poll and comment below to let us know what you are looking forward to the most.

Who had the strongest showing at E3?survey software

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44208-weekend-open-forum-who-had-the-strongest-showing-at-e3.html

stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette

For Republicans, Redistricting Offers Few Gains

But those gains are likely to add up to fewer than 10 seats in the House of Representatives, largely because Republicans took so many seats from Democrats in 2010 that there are not many left to change hands through redistricting.

As a result, Republican leaders are focusing on making sure that incumbents, especially their 87 freshmen, end up defending districts with even more Republican voters than they had in the last election, with the hope of ensuring that they maintain control of the House for the long term.

?The overwhelming success of Republicans in 2010 actually poses a problem for them,? said Michael McDonald, a senior fellow and redistricting expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ?They can?t go much farther than they are, but that doesn?t mean they can?t use redistricting to shore up their incumbents and those who seem most vulnerable.?

Compounding the Republicans? problem, much of the nation?s population gains have been among Hispanics, who have tended to vote Democratic, or in areas where voters tend to be less friendly to Republicans.

Strict federal laws concerning areas that are dominated by minorities will also be an obstacle for the party in some states. For the first time since the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965, a Democrat controls the Justice Department, which enforces the law, during a redistricting year.

Redistricting ? a tedious and often litigious process that follows every 10-year census cycle ? is largely a game of math and hope. Redistricting experts work for months to create new maps based on population and demographic changes that have reshaped much of the country over the decade, preceded in more than a few cases by local party leaders hunkering down in back rooms over takeout food and considering their own fates along with those of their rivals.

While some states, notably California, have turned the process over to redistricting commissions or have laws that provide a counterweight to the political will of the majority party, most redistricting plans will come from state legislatures, 26 of which are held by Republicans, with party politics setting the agenda.

For states that have gained population in the last decade, and thus new Congressional seats ? like Florida, Nevada and Texas ? the goal is to concentrate a party?s own voters into districts that party has newly won, or to place more voters of the opposing party into the new districts to strengthen the party?s chances in the old districts.

For instance, Texas Republicans are trying to make the best of their four new seats ? gained almost exclusively through growth in Hispanic residents ? by making sure that two Democratic-leaning districts that Republicans won in the last election, in south and west Texas, are stuffed with more Republicans. They can do this in part by moving Hispanics out of those districts and consolidating them into one Democratic stronghold.

At the same time, in the Dallas area, Republicans are also seeking to scatter Hispanics into districts dominated by Republicans, to diffuse the influence of Hispanic voters there and protect Republican freshmen.

For states losing population, like Michigan and New York, the goal is to force sitting members of the opposing party to face off in one compressed district.

Perhaps the most aggressive example of partisan maneuvering is in Illinois, which lost one of its 19 seats. Democrats have redrawn maps to hurt five Republican incumbents, making many of them face more Democratic voters in 2012.

This does not always happen neatly. In Louisiana, for instance, Republicans were forced to cut the state?s districts from seven to six, but they were unable to carve up the one district held by a Democrat in the predominantly black areas of New Orleans because of the protection of minority-dominated districts under the Voting Rights Act.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b716015c02d79a3f789b540d393d2329

freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish

Next Patch Tuesday includes 9 critical bulletins, plugs 34 holes

Microsoft announced yesterday that it's preparing to unleash a whopping 16 bulletins next week. Slated for June 14, this month's Patch Tuesday will address 34 vulnerabilities across many products. The update follows a comparatively light cycle in May, which included only two security bulletins.

Of the 16 patches, nine are labeled "critical," Microsoft's highest severity rating, while the remaining seven are deemed "important." All of the critical flaws can lead to remote code execution, while the others can enable denial of service attacks, information disclosure and elevation of privilege.

Seemingly every supported version of Windows is affected, spanning from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 SP1 and their respective Server counterparts. IE6 through 9, Silverlight, Visual Studio 2005 SP1 through 2010, as well as all supported versions of Office for Windows and Mac are also listed.

IT professionals can expect a busy day, as more than half of the updates will require a reboot. In fact, June as a whole will be quite hectic. Adobe's quarterly patch is due next week and you can expect various fixes for Adobe Reader X, Acrobat X and earlier versions for both Windows and Mac systems.

Next week will also bring a new version of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool. Earlier this week, Adobe released an out-of-band patch for Flash to address a vulnerability being actively exploited, and Oracle shipped a bundle of critical updates for Java SE covering various versions of JDK and JRE. 

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44204-next-patch-tuesday-includes-9-critical-bulletins-plugs-34-holes.html

lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell

Weekend Open Forum: Who had the strongest showing at E3?

There's been a barrage of announcements coming out of E3 this past week from all the big names in gaming. Here's a brief recount if you missed our coverage: Nintendo talked up its next generation console, the Wii U, putting a lot of emphasis on its new controller concept and their intention to target both casual and hardcore gamers. The company also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Zelda and announced a bunch of games.

Sony, after apologizing once again for the recent security breach, revealed 'Vita' as the official name for its PSP successor and announced that pricing for the quad-core handheld will start at $250. Thay also announced a PlayStation-branded 3DTV that can generate two totally different images at the same time, so combined with the included glasses each player will see an image that's only viewable through their lenses.

Microsoft didn't have any hardware announcements to make and instead focused on a bevy of Kinect-friendly titles, while also announcing a new Halo trilogy that is set to begin with Halo 4 in the fourth quarter of 2012. Besides software titles, the company revealed additional Dashboard features and live television streaming in the U.S. for the Xbox 360.

While the focus of the show was decidedly on consoles, PC gamers can also look forward to dozens of titles hitting the platform in the coming months, as you can see on our recent compilation of game trailers. All in all there was a little something for everybody so without dragging this on our question to you is: who do you think had the strongest showing at E3? Vote in the poll and comment below to let us know what you are looking forward to the most.

Who had the strongest showing at E3?survey software

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44208-weekend-open-forum-who-had-the-strongest-showing-at-e3.html

david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum

Two New Tools for Self-Tracking

As Nadeem Kassam sauntered down the hall of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, over Memorial Day weekend, all attention was on his wrist. The museum was host to the first annual Quantified Self conference, a gathering of people who use different tools to record a variety of personal metrics with the goal of improving their health, happiness, and productivity.

Kassam was sporting the hottest new fitness monitoring gadget: a device that looks and acts like a watch, but which also measures heart rate and other physiological factors. The monitor, made by self-tracking startup called Basis (which Kassam cofounded), is unique in the number of metrics it tracks; it detects heart rate from the wrist using near infrared spectroscopy, along with both skin and ambient temperature, and galvanic skin response, a measure of sweat on the skin that is linked to both physical activity and stress or excitement. Only a few people have been selected as beta testers for the device, which is slated to come out "soon."

"We analyze five different data streams and figure out what people are doing in the context of life," says Julie Wilner, product director at Basis. "High heart rate and temperature probably means someone is exercising." Low activity, as recorded by the accelerometer, suggests the wearer is sleeping. The device also tracks quality of sleep based on movement during this phase. It combines various measures to calculate the number of calories burned during the course of a day. Accompanying software helps users track and visualize how they are progressing over time. "Are they becoming more active?" says Wilner. "Do they get better or worse sleep on certain day of the week?"

The Basis watch is one of a growing number of new tools that seeks to passively collect data on the wearer's health and behavior with the aim of helping them to change it for the better. These devices are part of the new movement in self-tracking, enabled by a new generation of wireless devices and smart phone apps to track exercise, nutrition, sleep, mood, and other variables.  "In the past, only a motivated few would keep a diary for more than a few weeks," says Wilner. "We want to bring these tools to people who wouldn't do this on their own, people who make New Year's resolutions but don't keep them."

Green Goose is another startup with technology that generated a big buzz at the conference. The company takes a different tack on self-tracking, with cheap, sensor-laden stickers for everything from your toothbrush to the dog's leash. The sensors have an embedded accelerometer, along with an ultralow power wireless transmitter to send data on the object's movement to a central base station.

The company's ultimate idea is to transform healthy behavior into a game. Users can set specific goals?walk the dog twice a day, brush after every meal?and software will award points for successful completion. Green Goose cofounder Brian Krejcarek said at the conference that the company is working on a couple of initial applications for the sensors, but it also plans to partner with others to create a variety of games and other applications. 

"Once you get low enough in price, imagination explodes in terms of what you can do with the sensors," said Krejcarek.

One of the benefits of Green Goose's approach is that because the stickers become an embedded part of everyday objects (each sticker has a year's worth of battery power), they can't be tossed in a drawer once the novelty wears off. "If you stop looking at the data, you can jump right back in again," said Krejcarek. They expect to have the stickers on the market next year.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=a99442fe16ddb0d63a7c39f6bb79205d

jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings

How blogging gives student journalists an edge in the job market

At an event in London late last year, three young journalists discussed how blogging helped to kickstart their careers. As reported at the time by Journalism.co.uk, Guardian technology and media reporter Josh Halliday stated that ?The most important thing I did at university, including my degree, was to blog and get online. That?s what got me the job.?

The growing list of student bloggers who have found their way into good ?pro? jobs also includes Hannah Waldram, who founded the Bournville Village blog, ended up taking to professional local blogging as the Cardiff ?beatblogger? for The Guardian?s now mothballed Local project before becoming a community coordinator for the same newspaper, and Dave Lee, who founded The Linc newspaper and website in his university town of Lincoln before moving on to a varied career that currently sees him covering technology news for the BBC.

So, is blogging the perfect way for student journalists to get a foot on the ladder? Paul Bradshaw, leader of the MA Journalism course at Birmingham City University and Visiting Professor at City University London in the UK, believes so. ?It?s definitely something I?ve been encouraging my students to do for a few years now,? he says.

?I think students entering the marketplace who have never run their own news website are at an increasing disadvantage,? explains Bradshaw. ?Pretty much every employer I talk to says that they would ask serious questions about why an applicant was not already doing their journalism on some sort of online platform. There?s also a new opportunity for students to build assets ? a URL, a network, a reputation ? that employers will be looking for.?

The ability for anyone to set up a blog in minutes, at no cost, makes it a no-brainer that someone wanting to find paid work as a journalist would want to cut their teeth with some form of news blogging.

Taking on local media

Local newspaper sales have fallen, due in part to a decline in classified ads heralded by Web-based platforms such as Gumtree, so students now seem particularly attracted to covering local news. Kellie Maddox studies journalism at Birmingham City University and started Hednesford News in February this year as part of her final year project, with the aim of continuing and developing the site after graduation.

?With the decline in local print news coverage and the increasing boom of online news, it seemed a natural transition to start up a blog to provide focused content on a specific town or area, particularly when Hednesford (the town where I live) is currently undergoing huge regeneration which local residents are clearly interested/concerned about,? she explains.

?During my second year at university, I began to hear more about hyperlocal blogging and started to network with some of the key hyperlocal figures in the Midlands through social media and networking events,? Maddox says. ?Having seen the success of blogs close to my home, such as The Lichfield Blog (now Lichfield Live) and seen how responsive people are to it and how vital a service it provides the community, I was keen to find out more and wanted to start a blog of my own. Hyperlocal blogging allows me, as a journalism student, to write and produce content, and publish to an audience quite freely, whenever I want and to provide a service which has currently been absent in my local area.?

Joseph Stashko is a journalism student at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, UK. As a blogger at Blog Preston, he covers local news in the city on a daily basis. He admits that getting into blogging ?was just something to do,? but he was spurred into it by the 2010 UK General Election.

?Blog Preston was already up and running without my involvement, but had leant towards more feature-based and local history pieces rather than information or journalism. With the elections coming up I got in touch with the original founder, Ed Walker, and asked him whether I could run a live blog along with a few others to have some dynamic election coverage. It culminated in a live blog that took in audio, video clips, text updates and photos. That was my introduction to local blogging and after that I was asked by Ed to take over running of the blog.?

Self-made work experience

Stashko sees his reporting for Blog Preston as being more than just work experience ? he sees it as being potentially better than the opportunities a traditional short stint in a local paper newsroom might offer. ?In journalism, work experience is touted as a key part of the process that you need to follow in order to land a job. Local coverage allows you to do arguably more than you?d ever do in a newspaper office because you can be more experimental and have a free choice about what you cover. It also gives you a sense about what people care about on a local level ? something that may not be important to you might be a burning community issue, so it teaches you basic news values.?

To date, Stashko is most proud of the coverage Blog Preston gave to a march by the controversial English Defence League. ?It was an opportunity to go to town on both live coverage and follow-up content. So on the day I was live tweeting and sending out photos, which helped to build a live picture for people following the coverage. Afterwards there was enough content to make a short video package, an audio slideshow, a local business angle and a general report of the event. Our live coverage ended up being so good that it ended up being followed and used by big local media outlets who weren?t even covering it live.?

Stashko has even had the opportunity to experiment with new ways of reporting in a way that many fast-moving professional newsrooms may not have time for. In particular, geolocation-based reporting has been trialled of late on Blog Preston. Reviews and articles containing background information relevant to locations around Preston are posted to Foursquare, while Stashko recently mapped out the city?s most unhygienic restaurants and takeaways, including it on the site in an embedded Google map.

?There was little journalism involved ? all it meant was me digging around in the Food Standards Agency for lots of results ? what made it special was rather than just publishing the information I made it easy for the end user by visualising it on a map. Stuff like that also had a strong social element where people were curious to see how their favourite place to go stacked up, or share it with friends,? Stashko explains. ?I think a lot of people underestimate the popularity of just being a useful source of information, rather than necessarily having to pursue hardcore journalism all the time.?

Work-life-work balance

One of the problems of maintaining a blog in your spare time is that, no matter how much you enjoy it, the rest of your life can get in the way. Stashkko admits that balancing his studies, a student social life and voluntary blogging is sometimes a challenge.

?It?s always a struggle, sometimes I get in at 11 or 12 and realise I have to write something up otherwise there?ll be nothing on the site the next day, and that?s a pain ? but ultimately I enjoy doing it, so for the most part that means it?s never too much of a bother.

?For me my studies will take priority in that I want to end university with a good degree, but the value that I?ve got from Blog Preston is very tangible ? it?s led to some paid work, got me known as someone who?s doing things within the hyperlocal space as well as giving me the opportunity to use online tools that?d probably either be frowned upon or looked at as time-consuming in a traditional newsroom.?

Kellie Maddox, blogging single-handedly at Hednesford News, has decided to take a short break from the site while she completes her degree, although she plans to return to it, monetising the project via the Addiply advertising platform, which is aimed at local and niche Web publishers.

Leaving it all behind

Of course, at some point, if all goes well, that experience of running a successful, self-started blog will pay off in the form of good job, but what happens to the blog the students spent so long toiling over? More importantly, what of the audience the blog built up? Are they left stranded?

Luckily, at least in some cases, it seems that local blogs can become something of a legacy for the students who started them once they leave town. Hannah Waldram?s Bournville Village blog is still operating under a new editor, while Dave Lee?s The Linc has gone from humble beginnings in 2007 to become a thriving publication which was shortlisted in the Guardian Student Media Awards in 2009 and recognised by the BBC in 2010 for its General Election coverage.

No longer a novelty?

While blogging certainly helps student journalists hone the skills they learn in lectures, the novelty of ?a student who blogs? must have worn off a little for employers now. Is that a problem?

?I think several years ago employers would?ve been bowled over by the fact that you even had a blog (as long as the content was half decent) ? now it?s a lot more difficult to separate yourself in a world when lots of journalism students are on twitter, have a blog and use other social media,? Joseph Stashko says.

Paul Bradshaw believes that students can still stand out through using new and innovative reporting techniques. ?It?s still easy to stand out from the crowd if you can get great stories or engage a community in powerful ways. Too few students do the latter. The students who are doing data journalism and visualisation are standing out, and also multimedia work.?

?Producing a regular blog allows me to develop my own journalism skills, be creative in terms of the content I produce, such as mapping, audio and video, and to demonstrate my commitment to the cause, my enjoyment and interest and my determination,? says Kellie Maddox.

Maybe that?s it ? in the end, it?s all down to showing that you love what you do so much that you?ll fill your spare time with it, and that?s always going to score bonus points from any employer.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/06/11/how-blogging-gives-student-journalists-an-edge-in-the-job-market/

nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk

Chicks vs. Kittens iPhone Review

Chicks vs. Kittens iPhone Review

Posted on 7th Jun 2011 at 07:53 by David Hing with 4 comments

In Gaming Digits' Chicks vs. Kittens you?re charged with ensuring the safety of a mother bird defending her nest against a hoard of poultry-hungry kittens. This is achieved by hatching chicks and weaponising your offspring against the feline invaders. As you do.

Games for iOS live and die by their personality, though, not whether their premises make sense, and Chicks vs. Kittens has plenty of personality. Your ammunition flaps around happily while it waits to drop onto enemies, while the climbing kittens are more lovable than sneezing baby pandas, with animations that are clear and crisp even when they?re blown up to iPad size.

As far as the controls and gameplay go, Chicks vs. Kittens is a simple reaction test with a little bit of tower defence strategy thrown in to boot. The influence of the latter is manifested in the way you equip your chicks to perform different roles through the use of hats. Hats can be used to increase the strength of chicks, to upgrade your leaf-based economy or to change the way they attack kittens. Variations are constantly added throughout the game.


However, while Gaming Digits has gone to some lengths to layer a sense of strategy into the game, there?s no escaping the fact that Chicks vs. Kittens is a casual game at its root. It quickly becomes tedious if you play it for any length of time, even though it?s initially very fun. The longer you play, the more the constant introduction of new hats and ideas starts to feel like feature creep, rather than legitimate expansions to the scope of the game.

The level design is also rather minimalist. Every level is similar, with backgrounds only swapping out in every few levels, and only minor differences separating them otherwise. Some trees, for example, don?t shed the leaves you need to grow your economy, meaning you have to shake your iDevice to get them loose ? one of Game Digits? nicer ideas. Other levels vary the wind or speed at which leaves drop, which varies the pace, but does little to actually affect the game at large. The controls are intuitive, though, and the game-speed is occasionally enough to plumb you into a Zen state of tapping ? one which can only be spoiled by an errant finger.


However, there are a few bugs that plague the game, which undermines the slickness of the controls and animations, and ultimately prevented us from finishing all 60 levels. The biggest problem involved levels that just don?t seem to end, despite the halt of advancing kittens. These bugs are likely to be ironed out in the next update, but for now it?s hard to overlook errors such as these.

Verdict: Chicks vs. Kittens is a pleasant distraction if you need to kill time on the bus everyday; it's a fun game with a casual core at its heart. However, its charm isn?t enough to recommend it when there are bugs that mar the experience to this degree and plentiful similar titles on the AppStore.

Chicks vs. Kittens is available from the Apple AppStore for 59p or 99c.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/BFgLvh8vUjI/

issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish the game bet lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son