Nook HD review: a high-def tablet with the heart of a reader

Barnes & Noble knows where it stands in the tablet race. Sure, the company has been plugging away at the space since the day the Nook Color made its transformation into a full-fledged tablet, but the Nook, it seems, is rarely mentioned in the same breath as the Kindle Fire or Nexus 7, when discussing low-cost tablets. As such, the company seems to rarely mention its devices without discussing the competition -- Amazon in particular. In fact, at the launch event for the Nook HD and HD+, reps trotted out Kindle Fire HDs at every possible opportunity.

Seeing the two devices side by side, there's no question that Nook trumps the Fire in a number of categories, and the bookseller has gone a ways toward making the Nook HD stand out in a field full of bigger players. For one thing, the device is far more focused on the reading experience than the competition, a fact reflected in both hardware and UI decisions. The company has also taken a more aggressive approach toward marketing the device toward families. The question, then, is whether these features are enough to capture marketshare from the more prominent devices. See how the Nook HD stacks up after the break.

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Nook HD review: a high-def tablet with the heart of a reader originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/30/nook-hd-review/

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Business branding colours ? meaning of brown | Karen Haller | Blog ...

Naturally thinking of who would use the colour brown, I thought it has to be chocolate brands. ?Whilst some do, it was interesting to see the majority use brown as one of their main secondary colours. And even more interesting, there is a brand that is actually called ?The Big Brown? and they have nothing to do with chocolate?

chocolate brown
You only have to look at the many chocolate brands to see either the use of brown as their main brand colour, or heavily used to connect their customers to their product. The most used brown appears to be a rich, dark brown which we have come to call chocolate brown.? This tone just oozes decadence and luxury.?Even every day brands want to give that feeling of pure indulgence.

who is the Big Brown?
I?couldn?t?talk about branding and brown and not mention the brand who is known as the Big Brown.? And that is UPS.

Brown became their identifying brand colour in 1916 when it was chosen as they believed the colour reflected class, elegance and professionalism. This was to emulate how they saw the Pullman luxury rail car brand.

The original UPS logo features an eagle carrying a package with the words ?SAFE, SWIFT, SURE? emblazoned on the side. Those qualities of reliable service endure today. This is what brown is communicating ? safe, reliable, and dependable.

Oh and apparently they say the brown hides the dirt ? nothing like being practical.

UPS | Known as the Big Brown. They even capture it in their strap line 'What can brown do for you?'

UPS are another company who have trademarked their tone of brown. Brands usually do this so that no other company within their industry can use their signature colour.

Let?s not ignore the prominent use of gold as their secondary brand colour, representing quality, prestige and value.

British Pullman | You can see where UPS got their brown & gold branding colours from.

colour balance
Do you have another colour or colours making up your brand identity? Take care when selecting other colours and their tones as they will also have their own psychological properties. You could, inadvertently being sending out a completely different message to the one you intended.

It?s not surprising big brands understand the importance of colour, some going so far as to trademark their brand colours. Branding colours can be that strong, only the colour is needed for the brand to be identified.

brand analysis
If you would like to know if green is the right colour for your business brand and just as important the exact tone of green, then why not see if a brand colour analysis is right for you. My clients find when they get their branding colours right, they really get how it represents their brand?s personality and how the right tone will increase brand recognition, attracting their target clientele and lead to increased sales.

To find out more about the effects colour has on your brand download my free?e-book?7 mistakes most business owners make with their branding colours.

If you enjoyed reading this article you may also be interested in other articles relating to?colour in business branding.

Images:?UPS and?British Pullman.

Source: http://karenhaller.co.uk/blog/business-branding-colours-meaning-of-brown/

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Pets and social media: it's more than just cute cat pictures | Our ...

This is a guest post by Matt Rhodes, Strategy Director at Fresh Networks. Matt is speaking at this week?s?Social Media Marketing conference?in London.

There are a lot of cute cat pictures in social media, and a lot of cute cat videos. People, it would appear, like looking at cute cats and their owners like sharing these photos. So what happens when you get a group of cat owners together ? you might expect cat overload as they compete to share the cutest photos of the cutest cats. And you do get this, but more importantly you learn something about how people meet and interact in social media and?what the?value of this can be.

We worked with?the?team at?PetNet?to develop and launch a space for cat owners (Scratching Post)?to share more than just cute pictures. By looking at how they interact with each other about the highs and lows of pet ownership we can learn a few things about how consumers interact online:

1. Photos and text make good stories?? in a world of instagram and camera phones, it often seems that images are replacing text in many interactions online, and whilst cute cat photos are obviously popular we attract long stories just as often. People like sharing and writing stories either about the joys of cat ownership or sharing and asking for advice about more difficult situations.
2. Cats can type?? not really, and more an observation about how community members will develop their own?behaviours. Perhaps the most surprising development was with these stories, after a few months we noticed that some started to be written ?by the cat? ? first person narratives written from their point-of-view. And this wasn?t just an isolated example with lots of the content being penned from the cat?s point of view. What is going on is actually quite clever ? members of the community (organically) started to write the stories of joy from the cat?s point of view and the more serious questions and enquiries (for example about health issues) from the owner?s point of view. An unplanned for development that has then been used to inform the UI and changes we?ve made to the community.
3. Expert advice is critical?? a real success of Scratching Post is that community members can balance questions and advice from fellow cat owners with an expert view. The weekly ?surgeries? (with vets, behviouralists and others) are the most popular times of week on the site with people coming together for a two hour period to ask questions of and interact with these experts.
4. We can provide an outlet for people?s passions?? one community member put this quite nicely saying that Scratching Post allowed her to ?bring out the crazy cat woman inside?. And she?s right. We use the different communities and networks we are part of for different reasons ? you might not flood your Facebook friends with your cat photos, questions and experiences so a safe environment with other cat owners is perfect for this side of your character.

Overall, the Scratching Post site is a microcosm of the kind of interactions that happen across the internet and more so in true and valuable communities. Perhaps most important is that it provides a space for people to come together and share a common passion. And it is helping to stem the cute cat pictures that might otherwise be flooding their friend?s Facebook?news feeds.

I?ll be talking more about cute cats and social media (and how to balance the needs of a community with commercial needs) at?Social Media Marketing London?on 25th October.

Source: http://oursocialtimes.com/index.php/2012/10/pets-and-social-media-its-more-than-just-cute-cat-pictures/

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I Could Use a Deal: NFL Breast Cancer Awareness Double-Wall Tumblers 44% off | Groupon National Deal

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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The Global Banking Leaders of the Future - Richard Lumb - Harvard ...

by Richard Lumb??|?? 7:00 AM October 24, 2012

The global banking industry faces two opposing truths. On one hand, regardless of current economic concerns, emerging markets are where long-term growth opportunities lie. On the other, the crisis in the euro zone has forced banks to rethink their investments in numerous markets, if not retreat from them altogether. The result is a chasm of opportunity ? a vacuum ready to be filled by banks from both the emerging and developed worlds.

Largely free of the debt and de-leveraging that have undermined growth in the West, emerging economies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America remain among the few areas experiencing relatively good growth. Even amidst the euro crisis, the World Bank (PDF) expects developing economies to grow at a rate nearly four times that of the developed world over the next year.

While European banks were among the first to move into emerging markets, the euro zone crisis has led many to recoil or switch course. Recent headlines have been foreboding, highlighting concerns that the retrenchment could leave the most promising engines of global economic growth sputtering. Indeed, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) figures for the last quarter of 2011 showed that cross-border lending to emerging economies had declined by $75 billion ? its steepest fall since the Lehman collapse.

And yet three months later the same report showed a reversal: cross-border lending to emerging economies in the first quarter of 2012 increased by $86 billion. Lending from Europe remained flat, and the gap was filled from elsewhere ? largely Asian offshore centers and the U.K.

Filling the Gap

A combination of healthy Western banks and the players operating in and around emerging markets are targeting opportunity beyond the euro zone crisis. Their movements could potentially create a new class of global banking leaders for the next decade. Which are the likeliest to seize the opportunity?

Japanese banks.
In some respects, the retrenchment by European banks bears similarities to the plight of Japanese institutions in the 1990s, when the contraction of the nation's domestic economy undercut its international banking giants. As the Japanese retreated home, European and other Western banks moved onto the global stage. Now the situation has reversed. Several of Japan's major banks, which have a surplus of deposits, are again expanding internationally and buying up loan portfolios from Western banks. Key players include Sumitomo Mitsui (PDF), Mitsubishi UFJ, and Mizuho.

Emerging market players. The banking vacuum might be filled from within, as the European retreat provides unprecedented opportunity for emerging market banks looking to form regional hubs and replace outbound international institutions. Take Russia's Sberbank: Last year it agreed to buy the operations of Austria's Volksbank in eight Eastern European countries for about $800 million. Likewise, BTG Pactual in Brazil has been clear about its intent to become the largest investment bank in emerging markets by the end of the decade. It recently bought Bolsa y Renta (PDF), a Columbian securities firm, and paid $600 million for Celfin Capital, a Chilean firm. In the East, Chinese banks and players like Singapore's DBS Bank and Malaysia's CIMB Bank are opening overseas branches and making more and more regional acquisitions.

Forward-looking Western banks. A handful of mature Western institutions are reinventing themselves as global players. Aside from the well-known players that have long profited from emerging markets (BBVA, HSBC, Santander, Standard Chartered), new names are emerging. For example, Wells Fargo plans to expand into 20 new markets, including China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, and Singapore. JP Morgan has reported plans to assert itself throughout Asia, Latin America, and Africa to capture $1 billion in annual pre-tax profit over five years. Barclays has bold plans for investment and expansion in Africa (PDF).

These banks face a common challenge, too: Customers in emerging markets have proven especially fickle. Accenture research shows that bank customers in these economies are twice as likely as those in mature markets to switch to another bank for new products.

The winners of this global challenge must minimize churn and excel at customer retention. To do so, they will need to acquire genuine local-market knowledge and exhibit a disciplined approach to acquisitions. This might also be accomplished through joint ventures with trusted local brands. Ensuring customer support through cutting-edge systems and IT will be critical, as will the ability to tap online, mobile, social, and analytic innovations. Institutions that successfully fill the vacuum to capture future growth in emerging markets will join a new class of global banking leaders.

Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/the_global_banking_leaders_of.html

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Insurer Centene's 3Q profit plunges 87 percent

Centene Corp. said Tuesday it is suing Kentucky, a state that has generated heavy losses for the Medicaid coverage provider, as it reported an 87 percent plunge in third-quarter earnings.

The St. Louis-based managed care company also cut its 2012 earnings forecast again, but its stock climbed on a down trading day for the market.

Centene said it filed a lawsuit against Kentucky over the state's "failure to completely and accurately disclose material information." The company said last week that it is planning to end its contract to administer Medicaid coverage in the state.

"In our two decades working with states, this is the first time we have failed to achieve a partnership with the state," Centene Chairman and CEO Michael F. Neidorff said during a conference call with analysts. "We have experienced significantly higher than expected medical costs in Kentucky."

Medicaid is the state and federally funded program that provides health coverage to poor and disabled people. States typically hire private insurers to administer the coverage.

The insurer's Kentucky subsidiary has lost more than $120 million since it started the Medicaid contract Nov. 1, according to the lawsuit filed in Kentucky state court. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Kentucky officials misrepresented the volume of Medicaid neonatal intensive care admissions and emergency room use when the subsidiary was preparing a bid to cover the population.

Those categories can both generate expensive claims for insurers.

A spokeswoman for the Kentucky attorney general's office said they don't comment on pending litigation.

Neidorff said Centene also is dealing with an "unprecedented amount of retroactively assigned members" in Kentucky.

Uninsured patients are retroactively assigned to a Medicaid coverage provider after they go to a hospital to seek medical care. The insurer then becomes responsible for all medical services the patient receives, and this population can hurt an insurer if it generates more in claims than the insurer receives in premiums.

On Tuesday, Centene said it took a $63 million hit in the third quarter because the premiums it is collecting in Kentucky aren't matching the medical costs it is incurring for coverage in the state. The company last week warned that it expected such a hit due to its Kentucky operations.

Centene's net income dropped to $3.8 million, or 7 cents per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compares to earnings of nearly $29 million, or 55 cents per share, in last year's quarter. Not counting the Kentucky hit and some one-time benefits, the company earned 47 cents per share.

Centene's revenue climbed 88 percent in the quarter to $2.45 billion, as the insurer added members in several states.

Analysts expected, on average, earnings of 47 cents per share on $2.22 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Centene wound up with a "very messy quarter," as expected, Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch said in a research note. He added that the company's underlying growth prospects remain strong despite the operating issues it faces.

Centene cut its annual earnings forecast in June and lowered it again on Tuesday but also raised its revenue guidance. It now expects 2012 earnings to range between 56 cents and 66 cents per share. That compares with a forecast it made in July for earnings of 95 cents to $1.15 per share.

The company expects premium and service revenue to range between $8.1 billion and $8.3 billion, up from $7.7 billion to $8.1 billion.

Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $1.50 per share on $8.3 billion in revenue.

Centene shares climbed 15 cents to $38.56 Tuesday afternoon, while broader trading indexes fell more than 1 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insurer-centenes-3q-profit-plunges-87-percent-121401939--finance.html

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Russell Means, Indian activist and actor, dies at 72

Joshua Lott / Reuters file

American Indian activist Russell Means, seen here at his Scottsdale, Ariz., home in October 2011, helped lead protests for Native American rights.

By NBC News staff and news services

Russell Means, the American Indian activist who helped lead the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee and who later became a Hollywood actor, has died. He was 72.

Means died Monday at his ranch in Porcupine, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Oglala Sioux Tribe spokeswoman Donna Salomon said. The firebrand former leader of the American Indian Movement and one-time Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. president had been battling advanced esophageal cancer.

?

---

Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,?Means joined the American Indian Movement in 1968 and soon became one of the group's prominent leaders. He took part in an occupation of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington in 1972, and helped lead the 71-day standoff with federal authorities at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge in 1973.

He found himself dogged for decades by questions about AIM?s alleged involvement in the slaying of a tribe member and the several gun battles with federal officers during the occupation of Wounded Knee, but denied the group ever promoted violence.

"You people who want to continue to put AIM in this certain pocket of illegality, I can't stand you people," Means said, lashing out an at audience member question during an April gathering commemorating the uprising's 40th anniversary. "I wish I was a little bit healthier and a little bit younger, because I wouldn't just talk."

Feb. 27, 1983: NBC's Chris Wallace and Fred Briggs look back at Wounded Knee South Dakota on the 10th anniversary of the takeover that was led by Russell Means of the American Indian Movement.?

Means told The Associated Press in 2011 that before AIM, there had been no advocate on a national or international scale for American Indians, and that Native Americans were ashamed of their heritage.

"No one except Hollywood stars and very rich Texans wore Indian jewelry," Means said. "And there was a plethora of dozens if not hundreds of athletic teams that in essence were insulting us, from grade schools to college. That's all changed."

The movement eventually faded away, the result of Native Americans becoming self-aware and self-determined, Means said.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

Means had fought for Native American rights since the 1960s, when he first protested college and professional sports teams' use of Indian images as mascots, which he said were demeaning caricatures of his people.

Agence France Presse / Getty Images file

Leaders of the American Indian Movement, from left, Dennis Banks, Russell Means and an unidentified third man appear at a press conference to list demands of the federal government for an increase in financial aid for the town of Wounded Knee, S.D., on March 16, 1973.

Means was arrested numerous times during his long career of protest and spent several periods in jail.

He ran unsuccessfully for president of his tribe and sought the Libertarian nomination for U.S. president, losing to Congressman Ron Paul at the party's 1987 national convention.

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Means? acting career began in 1992 when he portrayed Chingachgook alongside Daniel Day-Lewis' Hawkeye in "The Last of the Mohicans." He also appeared in the 1994 film "Natural Born Killers," voiced Chief Powhatan in the 1995 animated film "Pocahontas" and guest-starred in 2004 on the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Means kept busy with his Hollywood career even as he battled the cancer that finally took his life.?The Internet Movie Database reports that Means had recently completed projects, and had more in the works.

Means appeared in a film called "Tiger Eyes," which was based on a Judy Blume novel. Means' son, Tatanka Means, starred. The film screened Sunday at the Sante Fe Independent Film Festival.

The Means duo also are credited in "Winnetou: The Beginning," set for a 2013 release.

Means recounted his life in the book "Where White Men Fear to Tread." He said he pulled no punches in his autobiography, admitting to his frailties and evils but also acknowledging his successes.

"I tell the truth, and I expose myself as a weak, misguided, misdirected, dysfunctional human being I used to be," he said.

Salomon, the tribal spokeswoman, called Means' death a "great loss" for the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/22/14620980-russell-means-indian-activist-and-actor-dies-at-72?lite

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Oil falls below $90; pump prices continue to drop

The price of oil is falling Monday, tracking the small declines in U.S. stocks.

Benchmark oil fell 60 cents to $89.45 a barrel in midday trading in New York. The contract fell $2.05 to end at $90.05 per barrel on Friday.

U.S. drivers are finally seeing relief at the gas pump. The nationwide average for a gallon of gas fell nearly 5 cents over the weekend to $3.665. That's the lowest price since early August.

In London Brent crude fell 28 cents to $109.86 on the ICE Futures exchange.

U.S. stock markets are slightly lower as investors gear up for another week of earnings. Caterpillar, the world's biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, said it doesn't expect the global economy to improve until the second half of next year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-22-Oil%20Prices/id-1f53b0cd4edd4eb2abec09ec5ad07409

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Early Metaphysical Ideas

Are our actions the result of circumstances or are we directed by external influences such as Cosmic vibrations? There are individuals who are masters and creators of their destinies for part of their lives, and innocent victims of fate at other times.

Some individuals believe it is the environment that has gradually molded our civilization and made mankind what it is. Others believe you may want to lay aside that belief and think again. There is an ancient system of self-mastery that contains fundamental principles that suggest you have complete control over your fate and that mankind has always had it.

These fundamental principles were recorded centuries ago and were evolved through observation over time. The principles were founded and perfected by test and application and reveal that all life and all existence within the universe are expressed in cycles.

It was determined that the cyclic periods are equivalent to certain measured rhythmic stresses and cosmic impulses . So, at a certain time of the day there is a cosmic impulse that is specific for reaping the benefits of a specific human activity. Go work out at the gym during the G period on Friday, for example.

Enthusiasts who believe in these principles might set a wedding ceremony to begin at 5:30 pm on a Thursday in order to reap all the positive influences for their union. They have become masters of their fate because they have timed their union to begin when the cosmos is most in favor of marriage.

According to the true believers the newlyweds will have the advantage over couples who marry without this knowledge. The newlyweds believe there are cosmic vibrations that have negative effects on couples who marry during a time of negative influences related to marriage.

Modern scientists have found that there is a definite rhythm to the human breathing process and heart action that closely resembles the more pronounced rhythms of cosmic energy. These findings suggest that these vibrations influence all living things on the planet ? including plants. The findings also suggest that the influences can be timed and measured.

The ancients who studied these influences were convinced that we can become master of our fate by designing our activities around the daily cycles and time periods suggested in these studies. These studies began with ?The order of The Rosicrucians.? Further information regarding The Rosicrucians is available online.

Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/reference-and-education/early-metaphysical-ideas

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Susan Sarandon: Vote So 'Old Folks' Don't Decide Your Fate

'You've gotta get out there and have a voice,' actress tells MTV News as part of our Power of 12 countdown to Election Day on November 6.
By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Kara Warner

Susan Sarandon
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1695915/susan-sarandon-young-voters-advice.jhtml

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Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel to Wed This Week in Italy

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Expalination for ball lightning

Friday, October 19, 2012

Australian scientists have unveiled a new theory which explains the mysterious phenomenon known as ball lightning. ightings of ball lightning have been made for centuries around the world ? usually the size of a grapefruit and lasting up to twenty seconds ? but no explanation of how it occurs has been universally accepted by science.

In a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres entitled 'The Birth of Ball Lightning' CSIRO and Australia National University scientists present a new mathematical theory which explains how and why it occurs. Previous competing theories have cited microwave radiation from thunderclouds, oxidising aerosols, nuclear energy, dark matter, antimatter, and even black holes as possible causes.

Led by CSIRO scientist John Lowke, the new theory focuses on how ball lightning occurs in houses and aeroplanes ? and how it can pass through glass. His theory also proposes that ball lightning is caused when leftover ions (electric energy), which are very dense, are swept to the ground following a lightning strike.

"A crucial proof of any theory of ball lightning would be if the theory could be used to make ball lightning. This is the first paper which gives a mathematical solution explaining the birth or initiation of ball lighting," says Lowke.

Lowke proposes that ball lightning occurs in houses and aeroplanes when a stream of ions accumulates on the outside of a glass window and the resulting electric field on the other side excites air molecules to form a ball discharge. The discharge requires a driving electric field of about a million volts.

"Other theories have suggested ball lightning is created by slowly burning particles of silicon formed in a lightning strike, but this is flawed. One of the ball lightning observations cited in this paper occurred when there was no thunderstorm and was driven by ions from the aircraft radar operated at maximum power during a dense fog."

Lowke used eye-witness accounts of ball lightning by two former US Air Force pilots to verify the theory. Former US Air Force lieutenant Don Smith recalls: "After flying for about 15 minutes, there developed on the randome (radar cover) two horns of Saint Elmo's fire. It looked as if the airplane now had bull's horns...they were glowing with the blue of electricity."

Lowke's paper gives the first mathematical solution explaining the birth or initiation of ball lightning using standard equations for the motion of electrons and ions. He argues it is unique because it not only explains the birth of the ball but also how it can form on glass and appear to pass through glass resulting in globes of light in people's homes or in aeroplane cockpits.

###

CSIRO Australia: http://www.csiro.au

Thanks to CSIRO Australia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 41 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124651/Expalination_for_ball_lightning

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Sony's Japanese restructuring: Minokamo camera lens plant to close, 2,000 jobs to be shed before March 2013

Kaz Hirai's "One Sony" rescue plan was designed to unite the many disparate arms of the conglomerate, shed 10,000 jobs and make cost savings wherever it could. Facilities in Sweden and the UK have already been closed, so now the company is shifting focus to its operations in Japan. Sony will close its Minokamo site, which currently produces camera lenses for DSLRs and smartphones, with production being moved to factories in Kohida and Kisarazu, 840 staff will lose their jobs. The company is also instituting an early retirement program across its various Japanese businesses in order to push the domestic total to 2,000 -- which it must do before a self-imposed deadline of March 2013.

Continue reading Sony's Japanese restructuring: Minokamo camera lens plant to close, 2,000 jobs to be shed before March 2013

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Sony

Sony's Japanese restructuring: Minokamo camera lens plant to close, 2,000 jobs to be shed before March 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/19/sony-japan-restructuring/

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Another Big Loss For Nokia In Q3: $754M Operating Loss, Only 2.9M Lumias Sold As It Waits On WP8 Launch

The former world number one mobile maker Nokia has announced its Q3 financial results today, reporting yet another quarterly loss -- posting an operating loss of ?576 million ($754 million). Net sales for the quarter were ?7.239 billion ($9.49 billion).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7Pk5rtos18I/

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Happy Birthday, Lance Olsen! ? BIG OTHER

October 14, 2012 by John Madera

Today, October 14, 2012, marks Lance Olsen?s 56th birthday. In celebration of him and his work, and with a nod to a quote by Roland Barthes, I?ve turned most of the sentences found in the first chapter of Olsen?s The Architectures of Possibility into questions without answers. (You?ll also find that I?ve altered quotations, found in the selfsame chapter, from Brian Evenson, Fredric Jameson, and Curtis White, as well as the abovementioned Barthes).

1. What would happen if you didn?t follow what most textbooks on fiction tell you?
2. What would ?opaque? language that doesn?t focus on your protagonist?s psychology read like?
3. Why not produce a protagonist that is jagged, nonresonant, unbelievable, and/or anything outside of middle or lower-middle class?
4. Aren?t there other settings besides the urban or suburban rendered with the precision of a photograph in which to set your fiction?
5. What are some ways to alter the form your narrative takes so that it isn?t predictable, so patterned by convention, as to be virtually invisible.
6. Why produce yet another fiction that has a beginning, a muddle, and an ending through which your character will travel in order to learn something about himself, herself, or his or her relationship to society or nature?
7. Can you conceive of something other than version of realism: a genre of averages?a genre about middle-of-the-road people living on Main Street in Middletown, Middle America?
8. Have you considered detours away from Main Street?
9. What would be the result of rejecting a pragmatic, empirical understanding of the universe that emphasizes individual experience and consciousness?
10. What would a narrative that few might relate to look like?
11. What are some ways to free your text from the various tyrannies of thought?
12. Why not question or even reject the idea that human actions and human life is somehow a complete, interlocking whole, a single formed, meaningful substance?
13. Does it follow that satisfaction with the completeness of plot is therefore a kind of satisfaction with society as well?
14. What ways can you shape?or, perhaps more productively, misshape?what a narrative means?
15. Are you aware that every narrative strategy implies political and metaphysical ones?
16. If creative writing is nothing but a series of choices, what do the choices you?re making in your writing say about what you believe as a whole?
17. If writing one way rather than another conveys not simply an aesthetics, but a course of thinking, a course of being in the world, then what does your approach to writing say about how you think, about the your course of being in the world.
18. What approach(es) to ?reality? have you privileged over another?
19. Given the Heraclitean techno-global, multi-cultural, multi-gendered, multi-genred pluriverse our fluid selves navigate, the question thereby becomes: is the Balzacian Mode the most useful choice for capturing what it feels like to be alive here, now, in the midst of the twenty-first century?
20. Do you still intuit existence as necessarily meaningful?
21. Are you satisfied with society?
22. So why should you write as if you do and are?
23. Shouldn?t our task as authors rather be to explore approaches to creativity that accurately reflect our own sense of lived experience?
24. If so, what might those approaches look like?
25. Why not conceive of writing as a possibility space where everything can and should be considered, attempted, and troubled?
26. Why not push as close to ?failure? as you can in your work, thereby opening up myriad options you simply can?t imagine while adopting conventional methods of narrativity?
27. Why not take chances?
28. Why not try to compose in alternative, surprising, revelatory directions?
29. Why not try to move out of your comfort zone to discover what might lie on the other side?
30. Are you trying again, failing again, failing better?
31. Where are we in space and time?
32. How might we most effectively capture that place and point in our own writing?
33. Did you know that as writers we work in a post-genre culture, where there is no longer a significant difference between prose and poetry, between fiction and nonfiction?
34. Did you know that writing is always-already a kind of theorizing?
35. What are some ways of re-imagining what creative writing is and can be, and how, and why?
36. How might writing be considered a manner of reading and vice-versa?
37. Why are we often asked to read and write easier, more naively, less rigorously?
38. Why are we often asked to understand without taking the time and energy to understand?
39. What are the results of deliberately slowing and complicating reading, hearing, and/or viewing so that we are challenged to re-think and re-feel form and experience?
40. What are the results of deliberately accelerating and simplifying reading, hearing, and/or viewing so we don?t have to think about or feel very much of anything at all except, maybe, the adrenalin rush before spectacle?
41. What is the distance between David Foster Wallace?s Infinite Jest and Dan Brown?s The Lost Symbol; between David Lynch?s Lost Highway and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
42. Do stories generated and sustained by the American political system, entertainment industry, and academic trade (which might be characterized by their insidious simplicity, plainness, and ubiquity) teach us how not to think for ourselves?
43. How willing are you to endure boredom?and to pay for it?
44. What are the consequences of this dissemination of corporate consciousness?
45. Is making money is what it?s all about?
46. Why are we often asked to eschew close, meticulous engagement with the page; to search texts ?for symptoms supporting the sociopolitical or theoretical template of the critic?; to flatten out distinctions between, say, the value of studying James Joyce, Lydia Davis, and Ben Marcus, on the one hand, and Britney Spears, The Bachelorette, and that feisty gang from South Park, on the other?
47. Why do so many embrace and maintain the globalized corporate culture?
48. Why not access the ?Difficult Imagination??that dense space within which we are asked continuously to envision the text of the text, the text of our lives, and the text of the world other than they are, and thus contemplate the idea of fundamental change in all three?
49. What are some ways to make objects ?unfamiliar,? to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception?
50. What questions without answers are you asking?
51. What if literature were neither the question nor the answer?
52. When was the last time you found yourself standing in a kind of baffled wonder before something that insisted upon a slightly new method of apprehending, a slightly new means of speaking, to capture what it is you have just witnessed?
53. Does your writing pose problems?ethical, linguistic, epistemological, ontological?
54. Are you willing to draw on everything around you to pose tentative answers to these problems and, by way of them, pose problems of your own?
55. How might we use our marginal status as innovationists to find an optic through which we can re-involve ourselves with the world, history, and technique, present ourselves as a constant prompt to ourselves and to others that things can always be different, more intriguing, than they seem?
56. What are you doing with the imperceptible, nearly ahistorical clicks in consciousness that come when you make or meet an explosive, puzzling, challenging, enlightening writing thought experiment?

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Big Other, Birthday, Brian Evenson, Curtis White, Fredric Jameson, John Madera, Lance Olsen, The Architectures of Possibility | Leave a Comment

Source: http://bigother.com/2012/10/14/happy-birthday-lance-olsen/

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POLL: Would You Shop at a Rodeo Drive '99 Cents Only' Store ...

Whether or not a "99 Cents Only" store comes to Rodeo Drive, the discount retailer has certainly drummed up publicity with its talk of opening a location in Beverly Hills.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The City of Commerce retailer, which has thrived in the economic downturn, announced that it was scouting real estate on the iconic street in Beverly Hills to open its flagship store, said Eric Schiffer, the company's chief executive.

Schiffer told the Times that "posh customers" from Beverly Hills frequent the 99 Cents Only store on Wilshire Boulevard just outside the city limits. He added that the Wilshire shop is the chain's top performer, bringing in nearly $12 million in sales last year, compared with an average of $5.2 million.

Patch touched on the issue last year in a post from a resident who discussed her desire for a 99 Cents Only store to open in town.?

Would you shop at a 99 Cents Only store on Rodeo Drive? Tell us in the comments section and vote in our poll below.

Be sure to follow?Beverly Hills?Patch on?Twitter?and "Like" us on?Facebook.

Source: http://beverlyhills.patch.com/articles/poll-would-you-shop-at-a-rodeo-drive-99-cents-only-store

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Sept. 11 trial rules under scrutiny at Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) ? A U.S. military judge is considering broad security rules for the war crimes tribunal of five Guantanamo prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, including measures to prevent the accused from publicly revealing what happened to them in the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons.

Prosecutors have asked the judge at a pretrial hearing starting Monday to approve what is known as a protective order that is intended to prevent the release of classified information during the eventual trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has portrayed himself as the mastermind of the terror attacks, and four co-defendants.

Lawyers for the defendants say the rules, as proposed, will hobble their defense. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a challenge to the protective order, says the restrictions will prevent the public from learning what happened to Mohammed and his co-defendants during several years of CIA confinement and interrogation.

The protective order requires the court to use a 40-second delay during court proceedings so that spectators, who watch behind sound-proof glass, can be prevented from hearing ? from officials, lawyers or the defendants themselves ? the still-classified details of the CIA's rendition and detention program.

"What we are challenging is the censorship of the defendant's testimony based on their personal knowledge of the government's torture and detention of them," said Hina Shamsi, an ACLU attorney who will be arguing against the protective order during the pretrial hearing at the U.S. base in Cuba.

The protective order, which is also being challenged by a coalition of media organizations that includes The Associated Press, is overly broad because it would "classify the defendants own knowledge, thoughts and experience," Shamsi said in an interview.

"It's a truly extraordinary and chilling proposal that the government is asking the court to accept," she said.

Protective orders are standard method in civilian and military trials to set rules for handling evidence for the prosecution and defense. Military prosecutors argue in court papers that the Sept. 11 trial requires additional security because the accused have personal knowledge of classified information such as interrogation techniques and knowledge about which other countries provided assistance in their capture.

"Each of the accused is in the unique position of having had access to classified intelligence sources and methods," the prosecution says in court papers. "The government, like the defense, must protect that classified information from disclosure."

The U.S. government has acknowledged that before the defendants were taken to Guantanamo in September 2006 they were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as the simulated drowning method known as water-boarding. Defense attorneys say the treatment will be used to form the basis of their defense but the proposed protective order limits their ability to make that case in court and in public advocacy on behalf of their clients.

"It's a way in which the government can hide what it did to these men during the period of detention by the CIA," said Army Capt. Jason Wright, a Pentagon-appointed attorney for Mohammed. "I think we need to bring the truth to the light of day on these issues."

The judge's approval of the protective order, which may not happen this week, must occur before the Sept. 11 case can move forward. Defense lawyers cannot begin to review classified evidence against their clients until it is in place.

The protective order is the most contentious of about two dozen preliminary motions scheduled to be heard during a pretrial hearing expected to run through Friday. Other matters include whether the defendants can be required to attend court sessions, what clothing they are allowed to wear and defense requests for additional resources for what is considered one of the most significant terrorism prosecutions in U.S. history.

The families of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks have been invited to military installations in the U.S. states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York City to watch the pretrial hearings, which are closed to the general public. An earlier round of hearings in May was also transmitted to viewing locations for relatives of the victims, survivors of the attacks, and emergency personnel who responded to the disaster.

Mohammed and his four co-defendants are being prosecuted in a special military tribunal for war-time offenses known as a military commission. They were arraigned May 5 on charges that include terrorism, conspiracy and 2,976 counts of murder in violation of the law of war, one count for each known victim of the Sept. 11 attacks at the time the charges were filed. They could get the death penalty if convicted.

Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in North Carolina, has told military officials that he planned the Sept. 11 attacks "from A to Z" and was involved in about 30 other terrorist plots. He has said, among other things, that he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The other defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh; Walid bin Attash; Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi; and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali.

Their arraignment was an unruly, 13-hour proceeding in which the defendants stalled proceedings by refusing the use the court translation system and ignoring the judge. Subsequent hearings to handle pretrial motions were postponed because of scheduling conflicts, the Muslim holy period of Ramadan and Tropical Storm Isaac. Several more pretrial hearings must be held to litigate hundreds of motions before the start of the trial, which is likely at least a year away.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-14-Guantanamo-Sept%2011%20Trial/id-828295ce24f04400a0ae6e3038c2ff46

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C/++, you're on notice! - Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

Smartalex Sea Gull Joined: Apr 12, 2012 Age: 28 Posts: 249	Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:54 pm?? ?Post subject: C/++, you're on notice! Grievances with C; I have to tell you NOT do do something?!? That's stupid. I'm the programmer, I tell you what to do. "VOID" SETUP or "VOID" LOOP? I'll tell you what C, if I want you to bring me back a value, I, will tell YOU, to bring me back a value. Don't go doing stuff on your own! INT, integer, really?!? The last time I paid attention to math class was fifth grade. Call it "name" or "address" or anything better than "InTEger". You might as well just write the language in Greek. C/++, you're on notice!
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MyFutureSelfnMe Phoenix Joined: Feb 27, 2010 Posts: 1219 Location: NYC	Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:22 pm?? ?Post subject: Re: C/++, you're on notice! Smartalex wrote: Grievances with C; I have to tell you NOT do do something?!? That's stupid. I'm the programmer, I tell you what to do. "VOID" SETUP or "VOID" LOOP? I'll tell you what C, if I want you to bring me back a value, I, will tell YOU, to bring me back a value. Don't go doing stuff on your own! INT, integer, really?!? The last time I paid attention to math class was fifth grade. Call it "name" or "address" or anything better than "InTEger". You might as well just write the language in Greek. C/++, you're on notice! C++ doesn't "do something on its own", the return type is required. "Void" is specific and helps avoid ambiguity. How is "name" or "address" better than "int"? If "int" is "name" then what is "float"? What is "long"? Addresses are pointers, they are not integers. It seems to me you have a grievance with C++'s level of control, while complaining about the lack of it. If you have a problem with integers, go back to math class.
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Smartalex Sea Gull Joined: Apr 12, 2012 Age: 28 Posts: 249	Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:37 pm?? ?Post subject: Re: C/++, you're on notice! MyFutureSelfnMe wrote: Smartalex wrote: Grievances with C; I have to tell you NOT do do something?!? That's stupid. I'm the programmer, I tell you what to do. "VOID" SETUP or "VOID" LOOP? I'll tell you what C, if I want you to bring me back a value, I, will tell YOU, to bring me back a value. Don't go doing stuff on your own! INT, integer, really?!? The last time I paid attention to math class was fifth grade. Call it "name" or "address" or anything better than "InTEger". You might as well just write the language in Greek. C/++, you're on notice! C++ doesn't "do something on its own", the return type is required. "Void" is specific and helps avoid ambiguity. How is "name" or "address" better than "int"? If "int" is "name" then what is "float"? What is "long"? Addresses are pointers, they are not integers. It seems to me you have a grievance with C++'s level of control, while complaining about the lack of it. If you have a problem with integers, go back to math class. You do realize this is a rather humorour attempt at saying C has some wierd names right?
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MyFutureSelfnMe Phoenix Joined: Feb 27, 2010 Posts: 1219 Location: NYC	Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:39 pm?? ?Post subject: Re: C/++, you're on notice! Smartalex wrote: MyFutureSelfnMe wrote: Smartalex wrote: Grievances with C; I have to tell you NOT do do something?!? That's stupid. I'm the programmer, I tell you what to do. "VOID" SETUP or "VOID" LOOP? I'll tell you what C, if I want you to bring me back a value, I, will tell YOU, to bring me back a value. Don't go doing stuff on your own! INT, integer, really?!? The last time I paid attention to math class was fifth grade. Call it "name" or "address" or anything better than "InTEger". You might as well just write the language in Greek. C/++, you're on notice! C++ doesn't "do something on its own", the return type is required. "Void" is specific and helps avoid ambiguity. How is "name" or "address" better than "int"? If "int" is "name" then what is "float"? What is "long"? Addresses are pointers, they are not integers. It seems to me you have a grievance with C++'s level of control, while complaining about the lack of it. If you have a problem with integers, go back to math class. You do realize this is a rather humorour attempt at saying C has some wierd names right? Aspie Humor! Sometimes I get lost... I don't find C's keywords weird, I think they're brief and to the point
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Smartalex Sea Gull Joined: Apr 12, 2012 Age: 28 Posts: 249	Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:01 pm?? ?Post subject: It's not actually C's fault. Here's my problem, I purchased an arduino for my students, highschool, I'm a student teacher. I want to introduce the students to electronics and the programming process in the hopes that they can build things on their own, and have some ownership and pride. So the arduino uses C for the programs. I don't really understand c that well but my students are having an even tougher time. The sad thing is, they get the board, the get the pin outs, it's that language that is tripping them up. I was told arduino is for "lay people." Friday, I came in and I told the students to forget everything I tried to explain to them, "Integer is just a way of 'naming' a pin or a piece of information... And the Arduino's language is stupid, you have to tell it NOT to do something, that's why you write VOID in front of setup or loop, otherwise it's gonna search for some address or value". The kids got it. They started making stuff on their own or adapting projects. I wish there was a language that was better for lay people, that was written in not percise technical terms that are accurate, but rather are in simple and conventional phrases. The phrases that C has that are more conventional such as SETUP, the kids got that. So it's not really C's, fault, it was designed for another purpose.
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Smartalex Sea Gull Joined: Apr 12, 2012 Age: 28 Posts: 249
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Source: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt212508.html

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To Discover Luxury Decoration of Design For Your Home ...

Home is where the heart is for most. Indulging in selected pieces to fill your home with special design and decoration is part of giving your home a personal touch. You can collect pieces from all over the world, silk carpets handmade from the Middle East, the trunk of the passenger Moroccan motifs or simply interesting or light crystal lamp London.

How to make a room an instant lift that gives an air of luxury introduce a wall or two delicate wallcoverings. You do not need to go to projects of a wallpaper interesting, you can produce an elegant touch of class with a custom laser cut patterns and experimenting with textures like silk and metal. Entire walls should not be covered completely, mali leaves scattering melancholy or grass can be very effective. Introducing the mirrors in your design in areas strategically placed around the room to create the illusion of space and give a little more brightness.

Egyptian cotton towels made rich with a luxurious softness for all bathrooms. Tie a piece of tape around them in a pretty bow to keep them in place and stack them one on top of another, the largest on the bottom increases the overall impression of comfort organized, fresh and usable.

It is difficult to find a balance of more than decorating your home so that it becomes dirty and the effect is lost. Look around your home and determine your style and personalize the decor of their conformity. Each room should complement each other and walk around your home should feel the style fits. Buy fabrics can provide a fresh feel to your cushions and pillows. Using contrasting fabric on both sides of the pads allows them to deliver, depending on your mood, color scheme and season. Adding detailed molds their pillows or bed comforter can put the passion back into your room.

Create the right atmosphere in your rooms can be done by buying some bulbs choices. Depending on the size, shape and intensity of light that can serve as a focal point in your room or take a gentle heat subtle sheen. A little more artistic down the role of art, ranging from traditional Japanese origami book or sculpture. Depending on the size of pieces that can be placed on tables or inside the box and hanging on the wall. Art paper can range from miniature to large landscapes nature episodes.

Luxury decoration does not require a lot of spending, careful gathering prized pieces once displayed in your home that you want to give encouragement.

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Source: http://ourlawrence.com/to-discover-luxury-decoration-of-design-for-your-home/

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Rivalry time for No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 15 Texas

Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)

Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)

Texas coach Mack Brown talks to officials during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Texas' Jaxon Shipley (8) runs around West Virginia defender Josh Francis (4) during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops gestures as he answers a question during an NCAA college football news conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, Oct. 8, 2012. Having avenged last season's loss to Texas Tech and moved on from the first loss of this season, No. 13 Oklahoma faces a pivotal Red River Rivalry showdown Saturday against No. 15 Texas as both teams try for the conference title. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma's Damien Williams finds the open field ahead of Texas Tech's D.J. Johnson during an NCAA college football game in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Scott MacWatters) LOCAL TV OUT

DALLAS (AP) ? Consider it a sign of how much Bob Stoops and Mack Brown have raised the bar in the Red River Rivalry when Oklahoma and Texas are playing each other without any real national title implications.

For the first time since 1999, when Stoops was in his first season coaching the Sooners and Brown was in Year 2 at Texas, neither team will be ranked in the top 10 for Saturday's clash at the Cotton Bowl. It's just the second time in 15 years that both teams will arrive already with a conference loss ? both at home, no less.

Yet there's still plenty on the line when the No. 13 Sooners (3-1, 1-1 Big 12) and No. 15 Longhorns (4-1, 1-1) square off for the 107th time in one of college football's most colorful rivalries.

First of all, it's a struggle for Big 12 survival with No. 5 West Virginia (which beat Texas) and No. 6 Kansas State (which beat Oklahoma) already leading the pack. And maybe, just maybe, the winner keeps the glimmer of hope alive that enough teams lose to make a national championship a possibility.

Even if all players had to look forward to was the incomparable feeling of putting the Golden Hat trophy on their heads, that would be enough.

"All the games are fun for me, but this one hits me deep," Texas safety Kenny Vaccaro said. "This is a good rivalry. It's rich. I think just the tradition throughout the many years, the battles back and forth."

Since Stoops and Brown have been around, the rivalry has reached a new level ? such that a game pitting two top-15 teams is a tiny bit of a letdown. But before 2000, it had been 16 years since both teams came in ranked in the top 15. Since then, eight out of 11 games have featured at least one team in the top 5, with both teams ranked that high four times.

"It's one of the biggest games of the season. We all look forward to this game," Sooners defensive end David King said. "The atmosphere, there's nothing like it."

Let King tell you a little about it.

For participants, the experience starts with a bus ride to the stadium, inside the State Fair of Texas. Fans from both teams will surround the buses, hardly holding back their opinions.

"You get so many middle fingers it's ridiculous," King said.

The atmosphere inside the Cotton Bowl is as colorful as outside of it, with the fair's traditional corny dogs and funnel cakes. The stands are split along the 50-yard line with all of Texas' burnt orange on one side and Oklahoma's crimson on the other.

Just walking down the tunnel to the field is a lifelong memory for most who play. It's a chance to stare down your bitter rival while the most boisterous of fans rain down a mixture of insults and praise.

"You come out, you're on the OU side and you run down the field and you go take your knee, say your prayer and you're right in a sea of orange," King said. "You know they're just saying some of the most inappropriate things. But I'm sure our fans are saying inappropriate things to the Texas players when they're walking out."

And that's all before the game even gets started.

The Sooners have won the last two meetings. The Longhorns had claimed four of the previous five showdowns.

Brown's Longhorns were also off to a promising start a year ago when Oklahoma delivered a reality check by scoring three defensive touchdowns in a 55-17 blowout. Texas scuffled to another mediocre season, by its standards, but emerged from the Holiday Bowl with David Ash appearing as though he has finally stabilized the quarterback position.

So far this season, he's been far from the biggest problem for the Longhorns. He's third in the nation in passing efficiency and has thrown for 11 touchdowns with only one interception. It's been a talented defense that hasn't lived up to expectations, and the placekicking has been a question mark, too.

"It should be a great matchup, where last year we laid an egg in the OU game because they played much better than we did," Brown said. "There were a lot of turnovers, and we were out of the game before we even got in it."

For Oklahoma, quarterback Landry Jones is on the brink of setting the school record for wins. He's 32-8 in his career and his next victory will push him past Steve Davis, who went 32-1-1 and won two national championship in the 1970s. Jones can also become the fourth Sooners QB to go 3-0 as a starter against Texas. He also relieved an injured Sam Bradford in the 2009 loss.

Whether Jones performs like the school's winningest quarterback or is turnover-prone, as he was in the loss to Kansas State, could go a long way toward determining the outcome.

"They're going to get their shots, we're going to take our hits and it's just going to be who keeps swinging is going to win this game," Sooners defensive end R.J. Washington said. "Who wants to fight more than anyone else?"

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-12-T25-Texas-Oklahoma/id-746a42930a754eacbe6ca9b127dd569e

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