Thoughts on Jumping

It may seem an odd subject to focus on, as jumping doesn't seem to be very important on the face of it ? cut it out of a game, though, and it can make a huge difference. Games in which players can?t jump, or at the very least dodge or roll, can seem painfully slow, dull and static. Games in which players can jump around and use that movement to interact with the environment can seem immeasurably more fun because of it.

Take Half-Life 2, for example. It?s a game which nearly everyone would agree is well-made, decently written, fun and fast to play through. Now cast your mind back to the first scene in Kliener?s lab, where Gordon is first properly introduced to his allies, where the plot is given its first proper push and where you?re gifted with the HEV suit again. It?s a busy sequence; lots to do, lots to take in. You?d expect most players to pay close attention, at least the first time around.

Instead, every single player I know spends most of the time jumping around. Sometimes they try to jump on the scenery or knock over objects, other times they just leapfrog around the room when a simple stroll would suffice.


The same behaviour holds true in most other games too, I?ve found. When I played Beyond Good and Evil for the first time I hardly walked anywhere across the surface of Hillys; I rolled. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, any hallway that involved walking for more than two seconds would be punctuated by periodic bounding. It seems like aberrant behaviour at first, yet it seems as though everyone does it. Why?

The reason, I think, is actually more to do with player speed than actually jumping. It?s not that people always like to move fast through games or that they enjoy spending time off the ground. Instead, it comes back to the original point ? games that don?t feature jumping can feel static and slow, so we use these features if they're present to help negate this effect. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a pretty fast-paced game, but running down a long corridor can still feel dull and empty; jumping as you run lets you vary the speed of the game. It creates tiny events of player agency and interaction, which stave off that staid feeling.

At the same time, adventure games that don?t feature anything so much as a sprint button? Don?t they seem increasingly slow and dated these days?


This isn?t the only reason why jumping is important, though. It helps you practice for later. It can be used to ward off boredom. It helps you to further explore the game space away from the key features. There's an abundance of smaller reasons; not least of which is possibly the fact that some people just have twitchy thumbs.

For the best games, though ? and this ties into a more overarching theory of mine about character speed ? the act of jumping can be a joy in itself. Master Chief?s jump, for example, is pleasantly floaty, while Dante?s can last for as long as you can hammer the attack buttons. Faith?s standing jump in Mirror?s Edge, however, is realistically awkward; she?s much better with running leaps.

Getting these nuances of player speed correct is one of the most subtle and important aspects of making a good game, especially for first person shooters. Trust me, I play a lot of really rubbish games and I can tell you that, if you throw all the cleverness away and boil it down to basic functionality, Half-Life 2 would still stand above Conspiracy Island 2 based solely on player speed. And the quality of the jumping.

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Starbucks UK launches contactless payment trial

We reported back in January that McDonalds was to be the first fast food chain to roll out contactless payments systems in the UK. Well, coffee chain Starbucks has just announced that it too is jumping on the near-field communication (NFC) bandwagon and will be trialling contactless credit and debit card payments in its UK stores.

Starbucks? deal with Barclaycard, in partnership with Visa Europe, will let customers pay for goods up to £15 simply by scanning their card across a special payment terminal.

We wrote on Friday that Barclaycard has also teamed up with Orange to offer contactless payment via mobile, a scheme that Starbucks initiated in its US-based stores earlier this year. The UK launch of Starbucks? mobile contactless payment trial is penciled in for early in 2012.

It seems that the contactless payments revolution is really starting to take shape, and we can expect to see many more retailers making similar announcements in the following months.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/uk/2011/05/24/starbucks-uk-launches-contactless-payment-trial/

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In Britain, Pomp for Obama but Serious Business Too

The ceremony inaugurated a two-day state visit by the American president, rich in pageantry but shadowed by concerns over the stalemate in Libya, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and deepening tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The queen and Mr. Obama emerged on to the west terrace of the palace just after 12:30, under a bright sky with a brisk wind that ruffled the bearskin hats on the heads of the honor guard. The first lady, Michelle Obama, walked with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

After the playing of the American national anthem, Mr. Obama and Prince Philip reviewed the Scots Guard, while the queen and Mrs. Obama watched from the terrace, putting their heads together to chat.

In a rare gesture, the queen has invited the Obamas to stay at Buckingham Palace while in London and a palace official told reporters that she gave them a tour of their six-room suite, used by Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duchess of Cambridge, on the night of the wedding.

?It may not be the same bed; it is the same suite,? said the aide, who, by custom, asked not to be identified by name.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama met briefly with the newlywed couple before stepping outside for the arrival ceremony, which was attended by Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

With its ruffles and flourishes, Mr. Obama?s state visit to Britain is meant to underline its ?special relationship? with the United States, even if that phrase has sometimes suggested more warmth and sympathy than actually exists between two strong-minded allies.

Mr. Obama and the British prime minister, David Cameron, prefer calling it an ?essential relationship,? a phrase they road-tested in a joint op-ed piece published Tuesday in The Times of London. Whether in Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan or fighting pirates off the Horn of Africa, the two leaders wrote, the United States and Britain are united by shared national interests.

?We can honestly say that despite being two leaders from two different political traditions, we see eye to eye,? Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron wrote. ?We look at the world in a similar way, share the same concerns, and see the same strategic possibilities.?

Indeed, as some British commentators have pointed out, aside from their youth, there is little natural affinity between Mr. Obama, the community organizer from Chicago, and Mr. Cameron, the conservative leader from a privileged background of private clubs.

Yet American officials insist that Mr. Obama gets along well with Mr. Cameron, talking regularly to him about the Libyan campaign, the Middle East peace process and other issues.

?They have a very, very effective relationship,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a senior director at the National Security Council. ?The president and David Cameron have an ongoing conversation.?

The two men will have a lot to talk about, not least the NATO bombing campaign in Libya, which escalated sharply on Tuesday morning, with heavy bombing raids in Tripoli, concentrated around the command compound of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Mr. Obama is also expected to explain his latest proposal for breaking the impasse in Middle East peace talks ? a formal endorsement of Israel?s pre-1967 borders, adjusted to account for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as the starting point for talks over a Palestinian state.

Europeans, who have been more receptive than the United States to a Palestinian campaign to win international recognition for a new state, generally welcomed Mr. Obama?s initiative.

The diplomatic business of the visit will mostly be conducted Wednesday, when Mr. Obama has a formal meeting with Mr. Cameron. But the two will meet briefly on Tuesday, and Mr. Obama is also expected to sit down with the leader of the Labour opposition, Ed Miliband.

On Tuesday evening, the queen is to host a state dinner for Mr. Obama. Sticklers for protocol were watching to see what gifts the Obamas presented to her. Some eyebrows were raised in 2009 when Mr. Obama presented her with an iPod. Likewise, Mrs. Obama ruffled a few feathers by putting her hand on the queen?s back ? an inappropriate gesture to a monarch ? though the two women were said to get along famously.

This time, the first couple and the royal couple exchanged gifts that were oddly similar in their high-mindedness.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama gave the queen a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs chronicling the 1939 visit to the United States by her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, according to the White House. The collection, bound in handmade leather, ?contains both historic and personal value,? the White House said in a statement.

The Obamas received a collection of letters between Queen Victoria and several American presidents, beginning with one from John Quincy Adams to Princess Victoria in 1834. The collection, drawn from the Royal Archives, is bound in red leather with gold lettering, though the staff of Buckingham Palace added, ?the letters are facsimiles.?

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 24, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the leader of Britain?s Labour opposition. He is Ed Miliband, not Milliband.

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The Caucus: Obama Consoles Tornado Victims From Afar

LONDON ? President Obama interrupted his European trip on Tuesday to express sympathy for victims of the tornadoes in the Midwest that have killed more than 100 people.

Speaking from London, where he arrived on Monday evening for a two-day state visit, Mr. Obama said, ?All we can do is let them know that all of America cares deeply about them and that we are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure that they recover.?

Mr. Obama said he would travel to Missouri on Sunday, a day after he returns from Europe, to meet with victims of the storms and to inspect the damage, which particularly devastated the city of Joplin.

?The devastation is comparable and may end up exceeding some of the devastation that we saw in Tuscaloosa, Ala., just a few weeks ago,? Mr. Obama said in remarks from Winfield House, the residence of the American ambassador to Britain.

The president said he had sent W. Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, to Missouri to help coordinate the federal response. Mr. Obama said he had telephoned the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon.

?We understand that there are more storms that are forecast today,? the president concluded. ?So the thing I think I want to emphasize more than anything else, it is critical that Americans in affected areas heed storm warnings and take the lead of your local officials.?

Mr. Obama?s own travel plans have been affected by the forces of nature. He cut short a visit to Ireland Monday and flew to London a day early to outrun a spreading ash cloud from a volcano eruption in Iceland.

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In Britain, Pomp for Obama but Serious Business Too

The ceremony inaugurated a two-day state visit by the American president, rich in pageantry but shadowed by concerns over the stalemate in Libya, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and deepening tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The queen and Mr. Obama emerged on to the west terrace of the palace just after 12:30, under a bright sky with a brisk wind that ruffled the bearskin hats on the heads of the honor guard. The first lady, Michelle Obama, walked with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

After the playing of the American national anthem, Mr. Obama and Prince Philip reviewed the Scots Guard, while the queen and Mrs. Obama watched from the terrace, putting their heads together to chat.

In a rare gesture, the queen has invited the Obamas to stay at Buckingham Palace while in London and a palace official told reporters that she gave them a tour of their six-room suite, used by Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duchess of Cambridge, on the night of the wedding.

?It may not be the same bed; it is the same suite,? said the aide, who, by custom, asked not to be identified by name.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama met briefly with the newlywed couple before stepping outside for the arrival ceremony, which was attended by Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

With its ruffles and flourishes, Mr. Obama?s state visit to Britain is meant to underline its ?special relationship? with the United States, even if that phrase has sometimes suggested more warmth and sympathy than actually exists between two strong-minded allies.

Mr. Obama and the British prime minister, David Cameron, prefer calling it an ?essential relationship,? a phrase they road-tested in a joint op-ed piece published Tuesday in The Times of London. Whether in Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan or fighting pirates off the Horn of Africa, the two leaders wrote, the United States and Britain are united by shared national interests.

?We can honestly say that despite being two leaders from two different political traditions, we see eye to eye,? Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron wrote. ?We look at the world in a similar way, share the same concerns, and see the same strategic possibilities.?

Indeed, as some British commentators have pointed out, aside from their youth, there is little natural affinity between Mr. Obama, the community organizer from Chicago, and Mr. Cameron, the conservative leader from a privileged background of private clubs.

Yet American officials insist that Mr. Obama gets along well with Mr. Cameron, talking regularly to him about the Libyan campaign, the Middle East peace process and other issues.

?They have a very, very effective relationship,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a senior director at the National Security Council. ?The president and David Cameron have an ongoing conversation.?

The two men will have a lot to talk about, not least the NATO bombing campaign in Libya, which escalated sharply on Tuesday morning, with heavy bombing raids in Tripoli, concentrated around the command compound of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Mr. Obama is also expected to explain his latest proposal for breaking the impasse in Middle East peace talks ? a formal endorsement of Israel?s pre-1967 borders, adjusted to account for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as the starting point for talks over a Palestinian state.

Europeans, who have been more receptive than the United States to a Palestinian campaign to win international recognition for a new state, generally welcomed Mr. Obama?s initiative.

The diplomatic business of the visit will mostly be conducted Wednesday, when Mr. Obama has a formal meeting with Mr. Cameron. But the two will meet briefly on Tuesday, and Mr. Obama is also expected to sit down with the leader of the Labour opposition, Ed Miliband.

On Tuesday evening, the queen is to host a state dinner for Mr. Obama. Sticklers for protocol were watching to see what gifts the Obamas presented to her. Some eyebrows were raised in 2009 when Mr. Obama presented her with an iPod. Likewise, Mrs. Obama ruffled a few feathers by putting her hand on the queen?s back ? an inappropriate gesture to a monarch ? though the two women were said to get along famously.

This time, the first couple and the royal couple exchanged gifts that were oddly similar in their high-mindedness.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama gave the queen a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs chronicling the 1939 visit to the United States by her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, according to the White House. The collection, bound in handmade leather, ?contains both historic and personal value,? the White House said in a statement.

The Obamas received a collection of letters between Queen Victoria and several American presidents, beginning with one from John Quincy Adams to Princess Victoria in 1834. The collection, drawn from the Royal Archives, is bound in red leather with gold lettering, though the staff of Buckingham Palace added, ?the letters are facsimiles.?

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 24, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the leader of Britain?s Labour opposition. He is Ed Miliband, not Milliband.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=61175af79a2867f9c086a08b9b8b1b77

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How Companies Are Using Data from Foursquare

When Foursquare began, it was easy to wonder what the point was beyond the game. It asked people to "check in" when visiting places like shops, bars, or restaurants and then gave them a chance to compete for virtual prizes, like badges and recognition as "mayor" after visiting a place more than anyone else. Now, with more than nine million users, Foursquare is beginning to prove its value to businesses. It is becoming the rare social-media service that lets them directly analyze whether promotions lead to sales.

Take RadioShack, a company aiming to survive the price wars in consumer electronics by driving in-store sales. It first partnered with Foursquare last August to offer a 10 percent discount to anyone who checked in on a phone at one of its locations and 20 percent to any RadioShack "mayor." By analyzing the resulting data, RadioShack found that Foursquare users generally spend 3.5 times as much as non-users per transaction. Also, they often buy wireless devices and accessories, products that lend themselves to repeat purchases.

After the initial promotion and a successful holiday campaign, the company launched a "newbie special" to target more Foursquare shoppers. Those who had never checked in at RadioShack before would receive a 20 percent discount on some purchases. The technology works in such a way that people who open the app on their phones can see the specials in their vicinity. According to RadioShack's social-media director, Adrian Parker, 50 to 60 percent of transactions by Foursquare users have been prompted by this campaign. The costs of such promotions on Foursquare are minimal, and the results are measured in dollars, not nebulous terms such as customers' level of "engagement." "We've seen excellent returns on our investment," Parker says.

Foursquare now provides its merchant platform to more than 300,000 businesses, which can track their customers through a newly launched analytics dashboard. Merchants can analyze various metrics over time, including how many check-ins are recorded each day, who the most recent and most frequent visitors are, how visitors who check in break down by gender, and what time of day the most people check in; businesses with multiple locations can aggregate statistics to fit their needs. Foursquare provides the same platform "for Joe's coffee shop and Starbucks," says Eric Friedman, Foursquare's director of business development, but companies use the tools and data in different ways, depending on their specific objectives. "Some people are using it directly to measure [differences between] top-performing stores and low-performing stores," Friedman says. Others might track geographic differences.

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Starbucks UK launches contactless payment trial

We reported back in January that McDonalds was to be the first fast food chain to roll out contactless payments systems in the UK. Well, coffee chain Starbucks has just announced that it too is jumping on the near-field communication (NFC) bandwagon and will be trialling contactless credit and debit card payments in its UK stores.

Starbucks? deal with Barclaycard, in partnership with Visa Europe, will let customers pay for goods up to £15 simply by scanning their card across a special payment terminal.

We wrote on Friday that Barclaycard has also teamed up with Orange to offer contactless payment via mobile, a scheme that Starbucks initiated in its US-based stores earlier this year. The UK launch of Starbucks? mobile contactless payment trial is penciled in for early in 2012.

It seems that the contactless payments revolution is really starting to take shape, and we can expect to see many more retailers making similar announcements in the following months.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/uk/2011/05/24/starbucks-uk-launches-contactless-payment-trial/

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In Britain, Pomp for Obama but Serious Business Too

The ceremony inaugurated a two-day state visit by the American president, rich in pageantry but shadowed by concerns over the stalemate in Libya, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and deepening tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The queen and Mr. Obama emerged on to the west terrace of the palace just after 12:30, under a bright sky with a brisk wind that ruffled the bearskin hats on the heads of the honor guard. The first lady, Michelle Obama, walked with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

After the playing of the American national anthem, Mr. Obama and Prince Philip reviewed the Scots Guard, while the queen and Mrs. Obama watched from the terrace, putting their heads together to chat.

In a rare gesture, the queen has invited the Obamas to stay at Buckingham Palace while in London and a palace official told reporters that she gave them a tour of their six-room suite, used by Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duchess of Cambridge, on the night of the wedding.

?It may not be the same bed; it is the same suite,? said the aide, who, by custom, asked not to be identified by name.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama met briefly with the newlywed couple before stepping outside for the arrival ceremony, which was attended by Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

With its ruffles and flourishes, Mr. Obama?s state visit to Britain is meant to underline its ?special relationship? with the United States, even if that phrase has sometimes suggested more warmth and sympathy than actually exists between two strong-minded allies.

Mr. Obama and the British prime minister, David Cameron, prefer calling it an ?essential relationship,? a phrase they road-tested in a joint op-ed piece published Tuesday in The Times of London. Whether in Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan or fighting pirates off the Horn of Africa, the two leaders wrote, the United States and Britain are united by shared national interests.

?We can honestly say that despite being two leaders from two different political traditions, we see eye to eye,? Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron wrote. ?We look at the world in a similar way, share the same concerns, and see the same strategic possibilities.?

Indeed, as some British commentators have pointed out, aside from their youth, there is little natural affinity between Mr. Obama, the community organizer from Chicago, and Mr. Cameron, the conservative leader from a privileged background of private clubs.

Yet American officials insist that Mr. Obama gets along well with Mr. Cameron, talking regularly to him about the Libyan campaign, the Middle East peace process and other issues.

?They have a very, very effective relationship,? said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a senior director at the National Security Council. ?The president and David Cameron have an ongoing conversation.?

The two men will have a lot to talk about, not least the NATO bombing campaign in Libya, which escalated sharply on Tuesday morning, with heavy bombing raids in Tripoli, concentrated around the command compound of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Mr. Obama is also expected to explain his latest proposal for breaking the impasse in Middle East peace talks ? a formal endorsement of Israel?s pre-1967 borders, adjusted to account for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as the starting point for talks over a Palestinian state.

Europeans, who have been more receptive than the United States to a Palestinian campaign to win international recognition for a new state, generally welcomed Mr. Obama?s initiative.

The diplomatic business of the visit will mostly be conducted Wednesday, when Mr. Obama has a formal meeting with Mr. Cameron. But the two will meet briefly on Tuesday, and Mr. Obama is also expected to sit down with the leader of the Labour opposition, Ed Miliband.

On Tuesday evening, the queen is to host a state dinner for Mr. Obama. Sticklers for protocol were watching to see what gifts the Obamas presented to her. Some eyebrows were raised in 2009 when Mr. Obama presented her with an iPod. Likewise, Mrs. Obama ruffled a few feathers by putting her hand on the queen?s back ? an inappropriate gesture to a monarch ? though the two women were said to get along famously.

This time, the first couple and the royal couple exchanged gifts that were oddly similar in their high-mindedness.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama gave the queen a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs chronicling the 1939 visit to the United States by her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, according to the White House. The collection, bound in handmade leather, ?contains both historic and personal value,? the White House said in a statement.

The Obamas received a collection of letters between Queen Victoria and several American presidents, beginning with one from John Quincy Adams to Princess Victoria in 1834. The collection, drawn from the Royal Archives, is bound in red leather with gold lettering, though the staff of Buckingham Palace added, ?the letters are facsimiles.?

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 24, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the leader of Britain?s Labour opposition. He is Ed Miliband, not Milliband.

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How Companies Are Using Data from Foursquare

When Foursquare began, it was easy to wonder what the point was beyond the game. It asked people to "check in" when visiting places like shops, bars, or restaurants and then gave them a chance to compete for virtual prizes, like badges and recognition as "mayor" after visiting a place more than anyone else. Now, with more than nine million users, Foursquare is beginning to prove its value to businesses. It is becoming the rare social-media service that lets them directly analyze whether promotions lead to sales.

Take RadioShack, a company aiming to survive the price wars in consumer electronics by driving in-store sales. It first partnered with Foursquare last August to offer a 10 percent discount to anyone who checked in on a phone at one of its locations and 20 percent to any RadioShack "mayor." By analyzing the resulting data, RadioShack found that Foursquare users generally spend 3.5 times as much as non-users per transaction. Also, they often buy wireless devices and accessories, products that lend themselves to repeat purchases.

After the initial promotion and a successful holiday campaign, the company launched a "newbie special" to target more Foursquare shoppers. Those who had never checked in at RadioShack before would receive a 20 percent discount on some purchases. The technology works in such a way that people who open the app on their phones can see the specials in their vicinity. According to RadioShack's social-media director, Adrian Parker, 50 to 60 percent of transactions by Foursquare users have been prompted by this campaign. The costs of such promotions on Foursquare are minimal, and the results are measured in dollars, not nebulous terms such as customers' level of "engagement." "We've seen excellent returns on our investment," Parker says.

Foursquare now provides its merchant platform to more than 300,000 businesses, which can track their customers through a newly launched analytics dashboard. Merchants can analyze various metrics over time, including how many check-ins are recorded each day, who the most recent and most frequent visitors are, how visitors who check in break down by gender, and what time of day the most people check in; businesses with multiple locations can aggregate statistics to fit their needs. Foursquare provides the same platform "for Joe's coffee shop and Starbucks," says Eric Friedman, Foursquare's director of business development, but companies use the tools and data in different ways, depending on their specific objectives. "Some people are using it directly to measure [differences between] top-performing stores and low-performing stores," Friedman says. Others might track geographic differences.

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Kucinich, Losing District, Looks Very Far Afield

?Run, Dennis, run,? urged Karen Pooley, a 48-year-old sales representative as Mr. Kucinich addressed her and other chanting protesters who were outside a Chase bank to rally against government policies that favor financial institutions while teachers are being laid off.

Mr. Kucinich is indeed thinking about running, but it would not be another try for president and maybe not even an eighth House race back in Ohio. Instead, the 64-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who first gained fame as the ?boy mayor? of Cleveland in the 1970s, is delicately examining the idea of running for Congress here in Washington State next year. Given Ohio?s loss of two House seats, his district is likely to disappear when new map lines are drawn.

But Washington is gaining a seat, and Mr. Kucinich figures his aggressive brand of antiwar, pro-working class politics could sell well in a solidly blue state where he has ideological allies and was popular in his White House bids in 2004 and 2008. It is a somewhat novel idea that could be summed up as: Have seniority, will travel.

?I think the issues that I speak about in terms of economic and social justice and peace and environmental quality are things that concern people all over the country, and I am grateful to be here with people of like mind,? Mr. Kucinich said on Saturday as he joined the crowd outside the bank in the heavily Democratic neighborhood of Wallingford.

While Mr. Kucinich?s case may be the most extreme example, he is not the only member of the House examining options for 2012. As happens every 10 years, the post-census redistricting is causing political dislocation for many incumbents as they watch state legislators chop up their districts.

In Iowa, Representative Tom Latham is planning to move into a nearby county to challenge a Democrat rather than a fellow Republican, Representative Steve King, after the two were thrown together in a redrawn district. Representative Joe Donnelly, Democrat of Indiana, entered his state?s Senate race after his district strength was diluted.

In Missouri, Representative Russ Carnahan, a member of a powerful Democratic family, saw his district vanish in what he viewed as gerrymandering by state Republicans. He is now eying a run for a new neighboring district that he said is about a five-minute drive from his St. Louis home. ?I am very confident that at the end of the process, I am going to have a good district to run in and continue to serve and fight for the people I represent in Missouri,? Mr. Carnahan said.

No one else in the House appears to be weighing the kind of cross-country move that Mr. Kucinich is exploring. And he, ever mindful that he still represents Ohio and could end up running there, says only that he is trying to find a way to remain a voice in Congress even if his district is dissolved.

?My district appears to be on the block, so I am looking at options, and I am not limiting those options to Ohio,? Mr. Kucinich said.

Mr. Kucinich?s effort would certainly be unusual. In the early days of Congress, a few House members won election years apart in two different states. But Ed Foreman, now a motivational speaker, was the last to do so, more than 40 years ago; elected as a Republican from Texas in 1962, he lost his re-election bid  in 1964, and then won one term in New Mexico in 1968. 

The idea that Mr. Kucinich would relocate to the Pacific Northwest before 2012, when his current term in Ohio ends, is not going over well with everyone in Democratic circles.

?Washingtonians are not going to be receptive to a sitting congressman from Ohio filing for office in our state,? said Dwight Pelz, chairman of the Washington Democratic Party.

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