Razer's Project Fiona: A Tablet From Portable Gaming's Alternate ...

Unless your head?s in the sand, you know where portable video games are headed: Cheaper to develop, less expensive to sell, easier to pick up and less time consuming to play. Smartphones and tablets are slowly pushing the established games industry in that direction.

Razer is proudly not participating in that version of the future with Project Fiona, a concept Windows-based tablet that plays high-end PC games. The tablet has controller handles on either side of the 10.1-inch display, each with their own thumbsticks, buttons and triggers. Inside, there?s enough processing power to run games like Warhammer 40000: Space Marine and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on high settings.

When Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan was telling me all this a couple weeks before the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, I didn?t entirely believe the company could pull it off. But then I played with Project Fiona myself at Razer?s booth. I don?t know how the company did it?and I dare not fathom at what cost?but the concept actually works.

Well, here are a couple guesses: The tablet is roughly an inch thick, so there?s plenty of room to pack meaty specs inside, along with a fan to keep the system cool. Also, whenever I asked about battery life, I couldn?t get a straight answer. Razer is targeting a not-unreasonable sub-$1,000 price for the final product, so somewhere, there?s got to be a compromise to make this kind of tablet happen.

In fact, that?s what Razer will be figuring out before it brings an actual product to market toward the end of the year. As Razer?s Alex Shows told me at CES, there?s a balance to be struck between thinness and performance, and it?s also not clear yet whether Fiona?s winged controllers will be detachable. Razer plans to give concept tablets to developers and other partners to figure out what works best.

For now, though, I like the concept. Developers will be able to add touch screen enhancements for their games, but they won?t be required, and most games should work out of the box. Razer is also working on a partnership with the streaming game service OnLive, which raises the very cool possibility of starting to play a game on a home PC or TV, then resuming progress immediately on the tablet. The finished product will ship with Windows 8, so the touch screen will have a proper tablet operating system to run with.

The other thing to consider is that Razer primarily is in the PC gaming peripheral business, so I?m sure it?s dawned on the company to sell tablet controller attachments in addition to full-fledged gaming devices. For that to make sense, however, tablets need to be powerful enough to run high-end PC games in the first place. I?m glad someone is trying to make it happen.

Here are some more photos of Razer?s Project Fiona:

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Source: http://technologizer.com/2012/01/13/razers-project-fiona-a-tablet-from-portable-gamings-alternate-future/

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Peru court sentences Van der Sloot to 28 years (AP)

LIMA, Peru ? Joran van der Sloot knew his guilty plea in the strangulation death of a young woman he met at a Lima casino was a big gamble as he tried to get a reduced sentence. On Friday, the poker-loving Dutchman lost.

A three-judge panel sentenced him to 28 years in prison, discarding his claims of contrition in a killing his lawyer said was triggered by trauma from being the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway.

Asked if he accepted the sentence, Van der Sloot, standing in a green T-shirt and faded jeans in a hot Lima courtroom, said he would appeal.

The sentencing marked the latest chapter in the tabloid-sustaining saga and came a day after a judge in Alabama declared Holloway legally dead as her parents try to bring Van der Sloot, 24, to the U.S. for a related crime.

"I believe he is beyond rehabilitation," Dave Holloway in Birmingham, Ala., after that hearing.

The Peruvian judges said Friday that due to time already served, van der Sloot's sentence would end in June 2038.

While the parents of Holloway and Flores want him to experience the greater deprivation of a U.S. prison, they will have to wait for him to serve his time before any extradition on U.S. charges related to his alleged extortion of Holloway's mother, a Peruvian legal expert said.

Late Friday, prison authorities told the AP that Van der Sloot had been transferred to the high-security Piedras Gordas prison in northern Lima in response to reports that he had enjoyed privileges like television, internet access and a cell phone in Castro Castro prison. Piedras Gordas holds local crime bosses and terrorism convicts, including Shining Path guerrillas.

"He will be in an individual cell at Piedras Gordas to give authorities greater control of him and cut off some of the facilities he has had in Castro Castro," said prison service spokeswoman Janeth Sanchez.

Earlier Friday, the three female judges showed no sign of believing his contrition for the May 2010 killing of Stephany Flores. Their sentence, which took a clerk nearly two hours to read as Van der Sloot repeatedly wiped sweat from his brow, said he was guilty of "first-degree murder with aggravating factors of ferocity and great cruelty."

Van der Sloot stood passively as the clerk detailed how he elbowed Flores, a 21-year-old business student, in the face, beat her repeatedly, then strangled her with his bloodied shirt.

Van der Sloot's expression didn't change when the sentence was rendered, including the judges' order to pay $75,000 in reparations to the victim's family. No members of Van der Sloot's family attended the trial.

It is the first sentence ever imposed on Van der Sloot despite repeated efforts to prove he was involved in Holloway's apparent death on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba where he grew up. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with him.

The Peruvian victim's father, Ricardo Flores, complained after the sentencing that Van der Sloot was living well in a Lima prison, where he has been segregated from the general population.

"A jail isn't a five-star hotel," Ricardo Flores told reporters. "Since the first day, we've been complaining about the excessive privileges" Van der Sloot allegedly enjoyed in jail.

Unconfirmed news reports, denied by penal authorities, say Van der Sloot has had a cell phone, television, a video gaming console and Internet access in his cell. A Peruvian TV station published a photo Friday it says was taken by Van der Sloot himself of his prison cell that shows a 42-inch LCD television, a Blu-ray player and an Internet modem.

Flores said that "everything they showed on the TV has been proven" but that he would not have documentation of it to present to the news media until Monday.

Van der Sloot's attorney, Jose Jimenez, said he is not familiar with his client's prison cell.

As in many developing nations, foreigners with money can buy superior treatment in Peru's prisons, including decent food, while the vast majority of inmates suffer overcrowding and constant peril from criminal gangs.

Under Peru's penal system, Van der Sloot could become eligible for parole after serving half the sentence with good behavior, including work and study. The judges specified that Van der Sloot, as a foreigner, be expelled from Peru after serving his sentence.

Peruvian criminal law expert Luis Lamas said Peru's legal code specifies that Van der Sloot serve his time before he can be extradited.

But Ken Randall, dean of University of Alabama law school, said he believes Peru's extradition treaty with the United States would allow for Van der Sloot to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial on the extortion and fraud charges before his sentence ends.

"In this extraordinary case of Natalee Holloway, Peru would be well advised to do so," he said.

There is no indication U.S. officials have moved to seek to extradite Van der Sloot.

Van der Sloot was indicted on those charges in Alabama the same day he was arrested for the Flores murder. He is accused of accepting $25,000 in return for a promise to lead a lawyer for Holloway's mother to her daughter's remains.

Van der Sloot didn't deliver on the offer, and U.S. authorities say he may have used some of the money to fly to Peru two weeks before the Flores murder. After killing the Lima woman, he took nearly $300 in cash from Flores as well as credit cards, and was captured four days later in Chile.

Van der Sloot told police he flew into a rage when she discovered his connection to Holloway while they were playing online poker in his hotel room. He had received an instant message from someone about the case.

Police forensic experts disputed that story, and the judges who sentenced him noted that Van der Sloot later recanted the confession, claiming it was exacted under duress and without an official translator. The victim's family contends Van der Sloot killed Flores so he could rob her.

The imposing young man raised on a tourist island has been a staple of tabloids and true crime TV, as well as the subject of several books about Holloway.

The 18-year-old from a wealthy Birmingham suburb disappeared on May 30, 2005, during a high school graduation trip. Her body was never found and repeated searches turned up nothing even as the case garnered worldwide attention.

Van der Sloot said he was involved in her disappearance in a videotape clandestinely made by a Dutch journalist. He later denied it, however, and has told several interviewers that he is a pathological liar. A homicide investigation into her death remains open in Aruba though there has been no recent activity, officials said.

___

Associated Press Writers Martin Villena, Carla Salazar and Franklin Briceno contributed to this report.

___

Online:

AP interactive: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/natalee-holloway

___

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_peru_van_der_sloot

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Community Bank System extends contract with CEO

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The upstate banking chain Community Bank System Inc. has extended its contract with CEO Mark E. Tryniski through 2014.

His previous contract with the Onondaga County-based financial institution expired at the end of 2011.

Under his new contract, Tryniski will receive base pay of $620,000 a year, plus incentive compensation.

Source: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120109/BUSINESS/120109003/1007/RSS02

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Forward Community Investments Makes Largest Loan to Date [January 3, 2012]

Business Report

SHINE Medical to Decide on Location by Month's End

1/9/12

Executives at SHINE Medical Technologies say they could make a decision about where to build their new isotope facility ? Janesville or Stevens Point ? by the end of January, according to a report in the Stevens Point Journal.

SHINE Medical, based in Middleton, plans to manufacture radioisotopes used in medical procedures to help detect cancer, heart disease, and other conditions. The $80 million facility is highly coveted because it would bring an estimated 100 new jobs to the chosen community, with an average salary of between $50,000 and $60,000.

Company officials said no matter what city is chosen, SHINE Medical will need public assistance from the local municipality. Both communities have taken steps to lure the development. Janesville already has authorized its city administrator to purchase an 84-acre site, while Stevens Point has put together what city officials have called "a very aggressive" incentive package. Details of that package have not been disclosed.

December Jobs Report: Economy Adds 200,000 New Jobs

1/6/12

Thanks in part to growing consumer demand, the U.S. economy added 200,000 new jobs in December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and the official unemployment rate decreased to 8.5% from the revised 8.7% rate in November.

The results were above economists' expectations for 150,000 new jobs. Labor experts estimate that approximately 150,000 new jobs are needed each month just to keep up with changes in the labor market, and that about 250,000 new jobs are needed each month to quickly bring down the unemployment rate.

Throughout December, there were signs that the labor market was improving, including better-than-expected holiday sales and a drop in weekly applications for unemployment benefits. While the extent to which holiday retail sales improved will become clearer in mid to late January, applications for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonably adjusted 372,000 in the last week of December, 11% lower than the same period in 2010.

In December, 50,000 jobs were added in the transportation-warehousing industry, 23,000 were added in manufacturing, and perhaps most encouraging, 23,000 jobs were added in the struggling construction industry.

For the year, 1.6 million new jobs were added, an improvement over the 940,000 new jobs added in 2010.

Meanwhile, an estimated 2.1 million new jobs are forecast for 2012.

WMC Survey Reveals 44% of CEOs Plan to Add Jobs in First Half of 2012

1/3/12

With the economy being their number one concern, a poll of Wisconsin CEOs in the latest Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Economic Outlook Survey shows 94% of respondents believing the state is heading in the right direction. At the same time, 7% of the surveyed CEOs believe recall reform and ending ?political instability? would help the business climate, according to a WMC release.

Asked if Wisconsin is pro-business, 86% agreed, with 44% claiming they would be adding jobs in the next six months (49% reported no anticipated job changes). Forty-three percent said that despite high unemployment, they are having a difficult time hiring qualified employees. Reducing taxes and regulations was cited most often as a means for the state to improve the business climate. The survey of 1,167 CEOs was conducted in November, with 281 responses generated, making it statistically valid.

Cogdell Spencer Erdman to Be Purchased by Ventas

1/3/12

Charlotte, N.C.-based Cogdell Spencer Erdman, which purchased Madison-based Marshall Erdman and Associates in 2008, will itself be purchased by Chicago-based Ventas, a health care real estate investment trust, for $4.25 per share, or between $760 million and $770 million. The deal means Erdman, Cogdell Spencer?s design-build and development arm, must be sold first, in a separate transaction.

An affiliate of Lubar & Co., a Milwaukee private equity firm, agreed to buy back Erdman ?for nominal consideration,? though if Cogdell Spencer receives a higher bid within the next 45 days, Lubar?s deal could be nullified. As it stands, Lubar & Co., whose president, David Lubar, previously held an equity stake in Erdman, would purchase all assets and liabilities of the Erdman business, including about $11 million in projected net working capital on Erdman?s balance sheet. Cogdell would also contribute about $12 million to its equity capitalization, with roughly an equal amount contributed by an affiliate of Lubar & Co.

Brewers Rank 17th in Player Salaries

1/3/12

The Milwaukee Brewers are no longer at or near the bottom of MLB?s payroll ranks. According to USA Today, with an $85.5 million payroll, the Brewers rank No. 17, with the average player salary being $2.8 million. That puts the franchise in the middle of the pack, between ? not surprisingly ? the New York Yankees ($202.7 million) and the Kansas City Royals, who bring up the rear at $36.1 million. Incidentally, the Chicago Cubs payroll led the Central Division, at $125 million.

Source: http://ibmadison.com/businessreport?businessreport_id=2184

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A Radical Solution For America’s Worsening College Tuition Bubble

Over the last three decades, through good economic times and bad, one of the few constants in American life has been the relentless rise in the price of higher education. The numbers are stark: According to the non-profit College Board, public four-year universities raised tuition and fees by 8.3 percent this year, more than double the rate of inflation. This was typical: Over the last decade, public university tuition grew by an average of 5.6 percent above inflation every year. And the problem is also getting worse: In the 1990s, the annual real increase was 3.2 percent. In the 1980s, it was 4.5 percent.

Even as the economy has reorganized itself to make college degrees increasingly indispensable for the pursuit of a decent career, federal financial aid programs and family income haven?t been able to keep up with incredibly buoyant tuition bills. Students and families have been left with only one recourse: borrowing. The federal government is now lending college students over $100 billion per year, a 56 percent per-student increase, after adjusting for inflation, from just ten years ago. Most undergraduates borrow today, and leave college with an average of over $25,000 in debt. And as the many signs displayed by the Occupy movement attest, some young people owe much more than that. For a growing number of students, entering the lucrative college-educated realms of the economy is like being smuggled across the border?you can get to the promised land if you try hard enough, but you arrive in a state of indentured servitude to the shady operators who overcharged you for the trip.

Politicians are taking note of the rise in public outrage. Several weeks ago, at a student financial aid conference in (appropriately enough) Las Vegas, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan exhorted the nation?s colleges and universities to work with more urgency and creativity to ?contain the spiraling costs of college and reduce the burden of student debt.? The next week, President Obama held a private meeting with a small group of college presidents to discuss the issue. Vice President Biden followed a few days later, telling a group of parents that ?The incredible cost of college education is for the first time crushing hundreds of parents.? (He meant hundreds of thousands, presumably.)

But while the administration has done a great deal to mitigate rising college prices by increasing funding for Pell grants and making it easier for students to pay back loans, it has done little to restrain the growth of college prices themselves. The recent communications blitz has raised the profile of the issue, but solutions that might actually bend the higher education price curve remain in short supply. And that?s because tuition addiction is a function of basic structural elements of the higher education system that will require equally foundational changes to alter.

But the severity of the problem should not be a deterrent to finding a solution. The best thing federal policymakers can do is help colleges hit rock bottom as quickly as possible, before the opportunity for recovery is lost. That will mean creating a new policy structure allowing for new higher education providers?not all of them colleges?to help students learn.

?

BACK-BREAKING TUITION increases are, in many ways, an inevitable consequence of the way our higher education system is currently designed. Imagine you?re in the business of selling apples that cost $1 on the open market. Then the government decides that more people should have the opportunity to buy apples and society would benefit from a net increase in apple consumption. So it decides to drop the price of apples to 60 cents. Sometimes it does this by giving you 40 cents for every apple you sell, on the condition that you start selling apples for 60 cents. Sometimes it gives people vouchers worth 40 cents that can only be used to purchase apples from approved vendors.

At first, the policy works splendidly. Apples are effectively less expensive so more people buy them and the nation is suffused with apple goodness. But then you, the apple vendor, look at the situation and say ?Hey, the market price of an apple is still $1. Wouldn?t it be great if I could charge $1 for apples, but still get 40 cents from the government for every apple I sell?? Raising the price all the way from 60 cents back to $1 in a single year would be too obvious and jeopardize political support for the apple subsidy program. So you start raising prices by three, four, or five percent above inflation annually. When annoyed public officials begin asking why, you explain that apple production is an expensive, labor-intensive business, and that all of the extra money is being used to produce the very best apples money can buy. Since apple quality is substantially a matter of taste, this is a hard claim to refute.

Meanwhile, you use some of your new profits to sponsor crowd-pleasing sports events on weekends, building public goodwill. Other profits are used to hire professional lobbyists to plead for both more subsidies and more freedom to set prices. You also convince the government to allow you and other incumbent apple sellers to form a private organization with the authority to decide whether new sellers can become ?approved apple vendors? for the purposes of receiving public subsidies. Unsurprisingly, few new sellers are approved.?

But eventually things start to break down. As time passes and price increases accumulate, the public starts to notice that while the taxes they pay to support apple subsidies are staying the same, the price of subsidized apples is creeping closer to the market price. This seems unreasonable. Meanwhile, when the economy turns sour, available tax receipts for apple subsidization decline. Instead of raising taxes to make up the difference, public officials drop the per-apple subsidy to 30 cents. This is bad for you, because it means you either have to spend less money on the exotic orchid greenhouse you?ve built next to the apple orchard?the reason, truth be told, you got into the apple business in the first place?or raise prices even further. Luckily, since you?ve kept new vendors out of the market and prices are still below the market rate, you can get away with raising prices, and so you do.

This is essentially the story of public higher education over the last thirty years. Diplomas are, of course, not apples. But they are more like apples than colleges like to pretend. In particular, highly-profitable lower division courses in common subjects like Economics, Calculus, and Psychology have similar curricula at most colleges and rely on many of the same nationally-marketed textbooks. They are often taught by people with no formal training in teaching. These courses are, in the education context, commodities.

It?s true that we also have many private non-profit and for-profit colleges and universities in this country. But they, too, are afflicted with the craving for increased tuition. In part, that?s because they benefit from many of the same subsidies. Non-profit colleges don?t pay taxes, even when they have billions of dollars in the bank. People can use their publicly-financed college vouchers?and, increasingly, claim lucrative tax credits?for private college tuition. Because nobody really knows which colleges provide the best education, consumers have been trained to think of colleges like a luxury good: The best are the most expensive, by definition.

Non-profit colleges also don?t have shareholders demanding that they maximize the difference between revenues and expenses. Instead, they?re run by administrators and faculty who are most interested in competing for status with other colleges, which is determined by the size, expense, and ornateness of the academic greenhouses in which basic research and scholarship are produced.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5725453566&f=378

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ASUS scooping out Ice Cream Sandwich to Transformer Prime now!

Prime
Have you been waiting -- nay -- yearning for a paper-wrapped serving of Ice Cream Sandwich for your Transformer Prime? Now is the time. ASUS has started rolling out the update to proud (though possibly lost) owners, like David, who was kind enough to send us a screenshot proving he his pride. Got your update yet? Go check, we'll wait.

[Thanks, David]

ASUS scooping out Ice Cream Sandwich to Transformer Prime now! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/asus-scooping-out-ice-cream-sandwich-to-transformer-prime-now/

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Alaska towns deal with cruel grip of winter

In this Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 photo provided by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a house is buried in snow in the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska. Residents have turned to the state to help them dig out of massive snow levels that have collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and even covered doors, trapping some people in their homes. (AP Photo/Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Erv Petty)

In this Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 photo provided by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a house is buried in snow in the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska. Residents have turned to the state to help them dig out of massive snow levels that have collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and even covered doors, trapping some people in their homes. (AP Photo/Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Erv Petty)

In this Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 photo provided by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, vehicles move down snow-covered streets in the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska. Residents have turned to the state to help them dig out of massive snow levels that have collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and even covered doors, trapping some people in their homes. (AP Photo/Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Kim Weibl)

In this Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 photo provided by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, people work to clear snow from the roof of the Cordova volunteer fire department in the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska. Residents have turned to the state to help them dig out of massive snow levels that have collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and even covered doors, trapping some people in their homes. (AP Photo/Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Erv Petty)

Maj. Gen. Thomas H. Katkus, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, briefs members of the Alaska National Guard Joint Operations Center in Camp Denali, Alaska Jan. 7, 2012 on operations to support the citizens of Cordova following record snow falls. The state of Alaska is responding to requests for help from the small fishing community of Cordova after weeks of record snowfall have left it buried in more than 18 feet of snow. (AP Photo/Capt. Amy Slinker, Alaska Army National Guard)

Personnel in the Alaska National Guard?s Joint Operation Center work to resource a request from the Alaska State Emergency Operation Center to send more than 50 Guard members, supplies and equipment to Cordova Jan. 7, 2012. The state of Alaska is responding to requests for help from the small fishing community of Cordova after weeks of record snowfall have left it buried in more than 18 feet of snow. (AP Photo/Capt. Amy Slinker, Alaska Army National Guard)

(AP) ? One town is buried in snow. Another is iced in. This year's winter is being meaner than usual for at least two Alaska communities.

Now, residents are looking for outside help.

Dozens of National Guard members are helping the fishing town of Cordova dig out from mountains of snow that collapsed roofs, triggered avalanches and trapped some people in homes.

By one count, more than 10 feet of snow has fallen in the town of 2,000 in the last few weeks.

With high winds, more snow and possibly rain in the forecast, responders and local volunteers were trying Monday to shovel out buildings considered most at risk.

Almost 700 miles to the northwest, the old gold rush town of Nome is iced-in, awaiting the arrival of a Russian fuel tanker that's barely inching along in its mission to deliver fuel.

A Coast Guard vessel is cutting a path in the thick ice of the Bering Sea, but ship crews are encountering challenges that are sometimes forcing the vessels to come to a complete stop.

All of it means that the town could potentially face a fuel shortage.

This winter, almost 15 feet of snow has fallen on Cordova, with a series of bursts that ended with a rain drenching over the weekend that added substantial weight to the snow and slicked up the landscape.

The town issued a disaster declaration Friday, prompting the National Guard to send more than 70 troops Sunday. Heavy equipment, including a snow-melting machine, also arrived Sunday to supplement local resources.

"It's just been relentless, just nonstop," city spokesman Allen Marquette said Monday. "This year is just accumulating."

Some roofs have collapsed or partially caved-in under the wet snow that's at least six feet high on some buildings. So far, no injuries have been reported.

At the Coho Caf? restaurant and bar, the roof of a back shed caved in when snow from the restaurant's pitched roof slid off and hit it Saturday evening. The restaurant wasn't opened and no one was hurt.

Kara White, a waitress and bar tender, heard the surreal roar of the collapse. "There's no description for it," she said, during a break from shoveling.

At the First National Bank branch, workers arrived Monday to find an interior wall had buckled.

Bank spokeswoman Cheri Gillian said the steel-frame building is considered structurally sound, but the bank will remain closed ? possibly operating out of a nearby church ? until someone can inspect it.

Meanwhile, shifting ice in the Bering Sea was making it more difficult for the Russian tanker to deliver fuel to Nome.

Nome needs diesel and unleaded gasoline after a fall fuel delivery by barge was delayed by a storm. By the time the weather had improved, barge delivery to an iced-in town of about 3,500 people was impossible.

The Coast Guard's only functioning icebreaker was leading the way Monday and providing a path for the tanker as the two vessels moved slowly toward Nome. The 370-foot tanker is loaded with 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products. Around noon Monday, the vessels were about 150 miles from Nome.

A Coast Guard spokesman said the tanker and the Coast Guard Cutter Healy were encountering "some really dynamic ice" that is slowing the mission.

The icebreaker is creating a path for the tanker, which is following as closely as is safe. But as the tanker moves forward, the ice is shifting and at times pinching the sides, the Coast Guard said. The icebreaker has had to double back and open another channel to take pressure off the tanker.

"As long as we're making progress, we're going to Nome," said Anchorage Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class David Mosley. "The Coast Guard cutter Healy has the ability to make it all the way to Nome."

Nome has enough fuel for now and is not in dire need. However, if the delivery is not made, the community probably will run short of certain petroleum products before a barge delivery in late spring.

Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., the company arranging for the fuel delivery, was optimistic Monday. "I think we are getting to Nome," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-09-Buried%20In%20Snow/id-99b987cb574c4bbaafc720711de7c66e

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Sony Ericsson MT27i [Pepper]: Images Leaked | Ready2beat.com

During the ongoing year, Sony Ericsson is preparing for the introduction of its new Smartphone which will be the successor of previous year's Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V. This latest Smartphone might be launched by Sony Ericsson at CES in Las Vegas, or else at MWC in February. This Smartphone is named as Sony Ericsson MT27i and Sony Ericsson also gave a codename ?Pepper? to this device. The images of Pepper have been leaked recently, but no official details about the device have come out until now. However, it seems that this latest device will become available in the market very soon. Until that takes place, though, we can take a glance at this latest device through the aforesaid leaked pictures that are harmonized with some rumored specs of device.

It is expected that the device will be packed with 1GHz dual-core CPU with an ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 chipset and a full 1GB of RAM. When comes to graphical power courtesy, this device will come with an Adreno 220 GPU. According to the sources, the hardware of prototype device along with the sharp corners and hard edges (as shown in the images) will place the Pepper below the Nozomi, but will also share many aspects with its predecessor, the neo V. It will contain in-built user storage of 16GB but no SD slot, according to rumors.

Furthermore, the Pepper will sport a 3.7? touchscreen display with the FWVGA resolution of 480x854 pixels. This upcoming Sony Ericsson device is supposed to feature a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus & LED flash, and it will be also capable to record 720p HD video at 30fps. It is said that the Pepper will run on Google's Android operating system; initially it is expected to run on Gingerbread, however an update to Ice Cream Sandwich could get there almost immediately after launch. At the front side, the device sports 3 capacitive buttons for menu, home and back functions. It also sports a front-facing camera that is situated adjacent to the LED notification light, as seen in the image.

Source: http://ready2beat.com/technology/mobile/sony-ericsson-mt27i-pepper-images-leaked

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Golf Club residents wary of KOTS move

Key West is taking steps not only to relocate its overnight homeless shelter to the former Easter Seals building on College Road, but to add a comprehensive center where the poorest citizens on the island can eat meals, spend the day and receive services.

"To me, it's the best location," said Mayor Craig Cates, who calls the comprehensive model for the homeless the only logical solution. "It's going to have to be somewhere. This is the ideal location. It's large enough, there are no houses adjacent to it, no families or kids running around. It's separated by a golf course and commercial property."

The all-in-one center would reduce homeless people's treks all over the island to access scattered services.

About 140 men and women hunker down nightly at the Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS), where they can rely on a hot shower and a thin vinyl mattress. But for meals, they have to walk to the St. Mary's soup kitchen on Flagler Avenue, and panhandling is always better in Old Town than on Stock Island.

The Stock Island neighborhood includes the local animal shelter, Cates noted.

"We can have animals around there, but not humans?" the mayor mused.

For now, KOTS remains on the Monroe County Sheriff's Office property across from the jail, and the city remains the prime defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the nearby Sunset Marina and Waterfront Residences association, which wants the shelter closed.

At issue is whether the city went through the proper permitting channels to build the bunkhouses, which went up in 2004 as a way to ensure that jail wasn't the only place police could take homeless women and men to sleep.

The city last week filed its answer to the August lawsuit, claiming immunity from such a suit and arguing that the statute of limitations ran out years ago for the legal action.

Cates recently coasted into a second term, urging residents to support more services for the homeless, along with persuading the City Commission to toughen local laws on public drinking and camping. The two-prong approach to the homeless problem -- jail for the troublemakers and help for the truly down-and-out -- hasn't ended. Cates promised to soon bring the commission a proposed ordinance forcing all panhandlers to beg in highly visible, designated "zones" downtown, or face the clink.

The mayor has been quietly, but firmly, collecting community support for the all-in-one homeless center.

"It's on the table," City Commissioner Mark Rossi said of the Easter Seals location for a new homeless shelter. "It's up to the Planning Commission to make that decision through the city planner. But it is on the table."

Ultimately, the commissioners would have to approve it as well. Rossi, one of the more vocal opponents to moving KOTS, said there are logistical issues in the way of the mayor's plan.

"I don't think you're going to be able to do it," said Rossi.

The Planning Commission is expected to vote Jan. 19 on a proposed zoning amendment, which includes declaring the Easter Seals parcel available for "homeless shelters." Cates said the city attorney believes the spot is already zoned to include KOTS, but he wants it clarified.

Cates said he couldn't estimate even a ballpark figure of what the homeless center would cost.

"The county is very supportive of having a location like that," said Cates. "Hopefully they'll help fund it."

Golf Club reaction

Key West golf course-area residents plan to meet Monday evening to collect information -- and they've already lawyered up.

"We're trying to get a feel as to what our homeowners would like to happen," said Robert Munson, president of the Key West Golf Club Homeowners Association, which represents 390 residences. One-third are year-round residents, another third are snowbirds and the rest are renters.

Munson, who has lived at the golf course for a decade, said the association hasn't made a decision over whether to support or fight the proposal.

"A lot of our homeowners are concerned," said Munson. "I would say they are more concerned about the method being done versus what may be done. It just seems it's not being done out in the open."

The group has hired attorney Barton Smith to advise on "the steps we should take to protect our interests in this volatile issue," according to an email circulated last week by a homeowner.

Smith is the attorney who filed suit against the city on behalf of Sunset Marina.

Under new management since Oct. 1, when the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League agreed to take over KOTS with input from three other nonprofits, the shelter remains the same as it has for years: a threadbare but safe place to sleep, even if the guests are drunk or high. Staff members, called "monitors," keep a close watch on the nightly crowd, ejecting anyone who misbehaves and at times helping bandage wounds or calm a detoxing man.

KOTS last week received a brand-new trailer filled with showers to replace the one that was disintegrating from age and abuse.

When the city maintenance crews went to remove the original trailer, which Director Nancy Banks said was at least five years old, it actually crumbled on the spot. The crews had to demolish it on-site.

The recent winter holidays and the Keys' cold snap didn't bring higher numbers of homeless to KOTS, she said.

"Surprisingly not," said Banks, who tallied the numbers as consistently around 140. "Although, traditionally at this time of year, the numbers stay the same. Some people manage to go somewhere for the holidays. We're not turning anybody away."

gfilosa@keysnews.com

Source: http://keysnews.com/node/37059

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