Let your mouth speak archive

While the British Columbia Lottery Corporation knew their online gambling website would be a smash hit and garner tons of popularity, they had not prepared their servers for the traffic they had received. So many players had visited their site after it had opened its digital doors that they had experienced a server crash. :1orglaugh

Age of Heroes Online is a multiplatform online RPG-strategy based on series of mobile games «Age of Heroes» by Qplaze ®.

It is based on profoundly developed fantasy world with its unique history, geography, magic and traditionally intricate political situation.

Age of Heroes Online is built on the basis of one of the most popular settings in fantasy style – a story of huge world inhabited by humans, elves, orcs and gnomes.

Controls elements used in the game are simple and intuitive… history of the world and game features are presented to the player gradually, step by step.

For player are available all the races in game and plenty of development ways for every game class. With almost every NPC or object in game player can interact – talk, fight, look over.

Age of Heroes Online is available both for users of PC and different mobile devices – mobile phones, pocket PC, communicators – at any time and almost in any place;

The list of supported platform includes – Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile 5-6, Symbian OS. Also Age of Heroes Online successfully works on most of mobile phones with Java MIDP 2.0 support and Internet access. However, game functionality on different devices is completely the same and gives no advantages to any of the players.

For Age of Heroes Online players is available an enormous game world that greatly exceeds the sizes of other multiplatform MMORPG:

· More than 60 locations with more than 200 unique maps for travelling and exploring;

· More than 60 buildings and objects – from palaces to tombs, from tradesmen shops to gladiators’ arenas.

· 9 different types of locality and game landscape vividly illustrating the differences between game races;

· More than 25 types of battle fields completely depended on type of locality.

Gameplay of Age of Heroes Online can surprise with its variety even experienced players of online PC games:

· In game there are more than 100 creatures with most of which player can not only fight but also hire them to his army;

· 4 races of Age of Heroes Online not only have their own set of creatures but also unique locations, architecture, cities, heroes and magic schools;

· For player there are available more than 130 unique quests and tasks of different degree of complexity and in different localities full of danger and adventures;

· Player can select from 12 unique heroes with more than hundred of different skills and special abilities available for development;

· More than 100 different animated effects go with battle actions – spectacular magic, explosions, lightning, special heroes’ abilities and many others, - creating truly epic battle canvas;

· In the world exist 400 different magic objects and artifacts all of which can be found, purchased or gained by player in the battle.

Is Sims 3 considered an RPG? Thats much more my style. Besides, I have an addictive personality and playing a game like that would consume me too much.

Of course when I was raised, sitting on the porch was part of life. Now I see people sitting on the porch I assume they don't have cable or internet. I have both and think this is the main reason I don't sit on the porch. I have wireless internet connection and still I choose to sit in the house with the AC and big screen TV mumbling something in the background. I remember sitting on the porch and the conversations of the elders as we swatted mosquitoes, with maybe an old radio playing in the window. You could hear kids playing under the street lights and the women gossiping after a hard day of working, cleaning, cooking and mothering. Those where happy go lucky times and I miss them something awful. X




Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind

by Michele Norris


On a hot summer night in Washington, D.C., a group of teenagers are hanging out on a front porch at Kenndra Powell's row house. Powell, 19, leans on the railing to point out porches up and down the street. Each, she says, has its own personality.


"That porch is the nosy house," she says. She points out the loud porch, the chill porch.

She says a house without a porch is boring.


"They're missing the fun that we're having out here," Powell says, before debating a friend about the merits of a porch versus a big yard — a discussion that goes on some time.


Porches, debate and democracy go together. And it's no surprise the tradition of gracing an American home with a front porch goes back to the early days of the country's history.

This summer, All Things Considered is examining the front porch: its history, its role in American life and literature and its rich symbolism.


Porches were a necessity before air conditioning, whether it was the screened sleeping porch or the broad, columned veranda where iced tea — and gossip — were plentiful.


In the mid-1800s, a well-known landscape gardener named Andrew Jackson Downing began writing about his vision of the American home — and how it could stand apart from English architecture. The porch was key.


It functions as an important "transitional space between the private world of the family and the public realm of the street," notes David Schuyler, author of a biography of Dowling.

But today, many homes don't have that transitional space, and air-conditioning, television, computers and other enticements draw people inside the home. American porch culture isn't what it used to be. Claude Stephens is trying to change that.


By day, he's education director at an arboretum in Louisville, Ky. By evening, he's known as Crow Hollister, his "porch-sitting alias." Stephens is founder of the Professional Porch Sitters Union Local 1339. The group doesn't have a motto, just a suggestion: "Sit down a spell. That can wait."

"The Professional Porch Sitters Union is about not planning anything. Anybody can call a meeting at any time, and attendance is optional," Stephens says.

One of the major steps in passing new online gambling legislation in the US will ride on the ability to convince Nevada Congressman and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that it would be beneficial to Nevada. Reid has opposed online gambling in the past, but some believe that he could be open to changing his stance.

Senator Reid has opposed Internet gambling in the past because he represents the state of Nevada. Las Vegas is the largest and most lucrative land-based casino area in the US, and for a long time Las Vegas casinos wanted nothing to do with online gambling regulations.

Now, however, the casino owners have softened their stance on the issue. The economic recession has affected land-based casinos immensely, and company's such as Harrah's Entertainment have taken to the Internet to help increase revenue.

:dirol

One of the world’s largest online gambling companies (PartyGaming), has reported their six month, half year report. Their revenue breakdown has shown a 26 percent increase in overall revenue.

😁

Harrah's Entertainment launched their online casino sites several months ago, and although they do not accept US gamblers, the company is appealing to US online gamers. Harrah's has started running advertisements for their World Series of Poker website.

Harrah's became the first of the big Las Vegas casino corporations to enter the Internet gambling market. The company has unveiled sites, some using the Caesar's brand name in European countries where Internet gambling is regulated by the government.

:dirol

They want to be in place,Im guessing,expecting the UIGEA to be trashed as it should have from the beginning of it.I hope the new law is not too strict for most of us.Wait n see what the feds come up with in the end.If something gets in place,perhaps it can be updated later ,if most of us dont agree with the new laws.

They want to be in place,Im guessing,expecting the UIGEA to be trashed as it should have from the beginning of it.I hope the new law is not too strict for most of us.Wait n see what the feds come up with in the end.If something gets in place,perhaps it can be updated later ,if most of us dont agree with the new laws.


Harrah's gets it all 😄

A new company, Ultrinsic, will let students do just that, according to the Associated Press. College students can register with the site, upload their class schedules and provide access to their school records. Based on a school's history and what it can find out about the difficulty of their classes, Ultrinsic calculates the odds a student will get a specific grade. Students decide how much to pony up for a wager.

The company started last year at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, and plans to expand to 36 schools this year. A problem? It could be illegal if classified as "online gambling." Ultrinsic's CEO denies that label, since every wager involves a skill and students are betting on themselves.

Will students win big if they study hard? It's up to them.

Do you loathe getting up every morning to go to work? Do customers treat you like crap? Do you dream of giving a speech where you tell them all to f-off? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your new hero might be Steve Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who told a customer off over the intercom, grabbed two beers, then activated the plane's escape slide and slid away from the life he had seemingly grown to hate.

After landing at JFK airport coming from Pittsburgh, Slater's JetBlue airplane was taxing when a female passenger got up and started trying to take her luggage out of the overhead compartment. Slater walked over to tell her to sit down, when the luggage hit him in the head and Slater asked for an apology but the passenger refused, instead, hurling profanities at him. That's when 39-year-old Slater got on the intercom and announced, "To the passenger who called me a muther************************er, ************************ you."

Slater grabbed two beers, activated the planes escape slide and drove home. Later, police took a smiling Slater from his home in Belle Harbor, Queens, and charged him with trespass, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment.

Meanwhile, Americans frustrated with their own jobs are quickly becoming fans of Slater, who now has a Facebook fan page while "Free Steven Slater" T-shirts are already being hawked. Yes, move over Sully Sullenberger. Steve Slater might just be America's next hero.

Slater has apparently worked as a flight attendant for 28 years. Slater's parents both worked in the airline industry and he has recently been caring for his dying mother, a retired flight attendant, and had also cared for his dying father, a pilot.

As an aside: the reason you must remain seated until a full stop is for the same reason you keep your seatbelt on in the car – taxing airplanes can have accidents. Why not arrest the offending passenger for verbal assault and breaking FAA rules?

😄

Supermodel Naomi Campbell was brought before a war crimes court in Holland to confess about a gift she accepted from Liberian Warlord Charles Taylor almost 13 years ago at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela. The Liberian leader gave her a set of “dirty stones” that apparently weren’t shiny enough to for our beloved Supermodel, Naomi Campbell. 

Naomi’s confession is not standing up in court especially after evidence brought forward by her longtime agent and a confession from actress, Mia Farrow, blew her claims out of the water. From the beginning, Naomi had denied the charges of receiving the diamonds but as time went on her story started changing.

During Naomi’s testimony on Thursday, she claimed that she did not know the man’s identity which she sat next to and flirted with during the dinner. She also claims that she had accepted some “dirty stones” from a couple of men that came to her hotel room in the middle of the night but she had no idea who had sent them.

According to Carol White, Campbell’s agent, she mentioned how the Supermodel was fully aware of the gift that was coming her way since she overheard that part of their conversation. White also attested testified that Campbell was eagerly awaiting the delivery but was disappointed once they arrived because they just weren’t shiny enough. Actress, Mia Farrow also took the stand testifying that Campbell was bragging the next morning about receiving these diamonds which came from Charles Taylor. 

Charles Taylor by the way is a warlord accused of funding his bloody wars with “blood diamonds” and is being charged with 11 counts of murder and many other atrocious crimes to humanity. Campbell originally refused to testify in court because she was afraid for her safety and has since requested for special security measures to be taken during her time in Holland.

:dirol

Student affairs experts have said that gambling is an unhealthy habit among college students, especially in the age of online poker. But what about if instead of a virtual hands, the students were betting on their ability to meet or exceed a certain grade?

One company, called Ultrinsic, is offering students to chance to do just that. And it is arguing that such wager-making will be a healthful tool for students who might require an extra nudge to hit the books. But some in higher ed think the venture, whose sustainability depends on more students failing to reach their goals than succeeding, could create unintended ill effects and ultimately harm more students than it helps.

-------------------------

Ultrinsic, which is one year old and still in its beta phase, invites students to make bets on whether they can make or exceed a certain grade in a course. As a prerequisite, the company has non-freshmen fill out a list of courses they have taken since arriving at college and their corresponding grades (first-year students are treated equally in terms of assumed skill). Ultrinsic then uses a formula — taking into account that history (which it checks against an official transcript before any payout) along with other factors including any available data on grade distribution for various departments, courses, and professors — to calculate the odds that the student will be able to earn his expected grade. (There is a demo available on the company's website.)

If a student makes the grade, Ultrinsic pays him according to the calculated handicap; if not, the student pays the company. The rub is that, as in most gambling arrangements, while students can certainly beat the house on a case-to-case basis, the formula is designed so that Ultrinsic wins more, on balance, than the students do (although one user's comments to the Associated Press suggest the formula might not be foolproof).

The company last year piloted its service at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, drawing about 600 students in all. It has plans to expand to 34 new campuses this fall, including other high-profile institutions such as Princeton University, Duke University, and Stanford University. The universities are not involved in the deployment, though Ultrinsic says it welcomes offers of collaboration.

The proliferation of such a service strikes Kevin Kruger, associate director of the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, as ominous. "The concern I have is that academic success and grades are serious endeavors — an important part of college experience," Kruger says. "Certainly, for many students, the pursuit of good grades is not always incidental to the pursuit of knowledge," he says, but turning it into a betting game "seems a little antithetical to the spirit of the academic mission."

Ultrinsic nevertheless feels no need to dodge professors or administrators on these campuses, says co-founder and president Jeremy Gelbart, because it is confident in its argument that the betting system will improve student performance by creating incentives to do better. "The administrators and professors we've spoken to so far have for the most part said, 'If this is going to help out my students and help them have a better college experience, I'm all for it,' " Gelbart says.

Insofar as universities are doing their jobs to combat the existing hazards of grade-based assessments — such as cheating, grade-grubbing and bribery — Ultrinsic should prompt student bettors to do more work, which should improve learning, he says.

Alexander C. McCormick, director of the National Survey for Student Engagement, calls that a "cop-out." True, Ultrinsic would not be inventing grade-grubbing, McCormick says, but it would likely exacerbate the problem of letter-grade obsession that already exists — possibly pushing some professors to give up on resisting grade inflation in the face of more and more nagging.

Likewise, increasing the import of the letter grade might deal a blow to the battle against cheating, McCormick says. "Students who are determined to be academically dishonest can find out all sort of creative ways to do it," he says. "This might create even more incentive to figure out how to cheat the system."

There are studies that suggest using cash incentives can inspire students to get better grades. At the K-12 level, Harvard University economist Roland Fryer has experimented with the idea in several major public-school systems, with promising results in some trials. Eric Bettinger, an associate professor of economics and education at Stanford, several years ago found that paying third- through sixth-graders to score well on standardized tests had a positive effect on grades similar to that of reducing class size. At the higher ed level, the research group MDRC is currently studying the effects of performance-based scholarships — where money is paid directly to students in increments if their grades are up to snuff at checkpoints throughout the year — on achievement at two- and four-year colleges in several states. The group plans to announce its findings next year.

But while using cash rewards to encourage higher achievement might be a legitimate experiment, it is one better left in the hands of nonprofit researchers than entrepreneurs, says Bridget Terry Long, a professor of economics and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It is not that placing wagers won't prompt students to pursue better grades, Long says; it is that Ultrinsic's business model depends on its ability to tempt students into making irrationally optimistic bets, since it needs the majority of wagers to fail. This, she says, is what distinguishes an Ultrinsic bet from a tuition payment: Colleges — most of them, anyway — take money only from students they believe will succeed.

"The idea is interesting, there is certainly a need to figure out how to improve achievement, but you really need to be

From 21-24 September 2010 The Barcelona Summit is hosting her 3rd International Conference for the Online Entertainment Industries.

Be part of where the industry leaders get together.

We are expecting:

500+ participants
300+ companies
30+ countries

For more information visit us at SPAM

NEW MEMBER, FIRST POST WITH LINK...sounds fishy to me...I dont think I will be clicking on that:confused:

The same here AAUPMYSLEAVE

Unfortunately if you're a cheating and possibly racist reality show star you can't hide from the tabloids, even in Las Vegas.

Jesse James, the motorcycle innovator who was creeping on actress Sandra Bullock, was seen chilling with L.A. Ink star Kat Von D at N9NE in the Palms Casino.

Both them are tatted up all over the place, so this should be a match made in heaven. Of course Von D's rep denied they are an item.

"They did have dinner, but they are just friends," says the rep. "They've always remained good friends, there is no romance there with Jesse."

The two were holding hands though but the rep says that Von D has "been seen holding hands with friends before." Right.

The pair were also seen at Bodies The Exhibition at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. We doubt girl and guy "pals" hang out in Vegas, let alone for an entire weekend and check out the sites. James had his divorce finalized from Bullock in June.

With the agreements already approved by state legislative officials and Governor David Paterson, it looks like casino gambling will be happening in New York City. About 4,000 video slot machines are expected to be set up at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens by Genting New York.........


Read more: New York Gets Ready for Casino Gambling


:dirol

He’s the Oscar-nominated actor who made the grand announcement on the Late Show with David Letterman that he was quitting his career as an actor to pursue his newfound passion for hip-hop music. Is it now MC J or Daddy J? No one really knows what’s going on with Phoenix except maybe Casey Affleck, the director of the documentary I’m Still Here, which takes audiences on a very graphic journey of the lost year of Joaquin Phoenix.

After Phoenix’s sloppy appearance on Letterman, many thought the respected actor was having some kind of breakdown or just got a hold of a really good stash but we can all see now that his intentions where a lot more brilliant than we expected. His latest project, directed by his brother-in-law, Casey Affleck is some sort of documentary or mockumentary about the one year where Phoenix’s new persona decides to take a year off to take the next step in his career as a rap artist. 

There have been rumors that the actor has actually admitted that the whole year he spent fumbling around night clubs and talk shows was actually a hoax and his true motivation was to help promote I’m Still Here which probably makes more sense. The documentary has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures, who is set to release the film on the 10th of September and according to Magnolia President, Eamonn Bowles: 

"It is going to get a lot of attention, but it is not some cheap stunt where they said, 'Let's do some wild stuff and film it,' " he explained. "It is extreme behavior, but really good filmmaking as well. Frankly, some of the behavior is very extreme. But it is in the context of the insanity of being in Joaquin's life for that period of time. It is a unique piece of work that is going to surprise people in different ways."


:dirol

How come i cant get access