Tech: Smell: I can smell the cookies just out of the oven

Hat Tip to The English Shop, Roel N. Leeuw, Tesseract Morbey, and other enjoyers ...

Timeline Photos (Oct31,2k12)

Satire: Jackie Chan: Mocks with silly face

Humour: Dark: Superstorm Sandy's vein of jokery on the Internet

Architecture: Historic old Jerusalem stone monument: Gets a stunning make-over

The author, Keshet Rosenblum, writes an architectural review of very high quality.  And the architect herself, who Rosenblum interviews, is a paragon of sensibility and articulateness.  Together, the one musing and commenting and interviewing, the other responding,. as in this snippet from the text:

Karmi-Melamede chose to focus on the space between the buildings and create a green axis leading from Ibn Gvirol Street to Kuzari Park. "What's between the buildings is as important as the buildings themselves," the architect says.

Another quote from the author:

"The most impressive aspect of the renovated building is the way soft, inviting spaces were created inside the rigid shell, and how moving between the spaces exposes visitors to differing levels of light. The only visible external addition is the new cafeteria - a wavy-shaped glass wall enclosing the space between the two sides of the interior courtyard. But it seems the addition does not serve Karmi-Melamede's purpose regarding the sight lines in the courtyard and the way light enters the building. Paradoxically, this noncommittal shape is not flexible enough to serve other future needs, and only highlights the flexibility of the original building."

The whole text is worth reading in full.

Haaretz, Jerusalem, Israel (Oct25,2k12)

Legendary architect lightens up 

an old Jerusalem stone monument

When Ada Karmi-Melamede redesigned Beit Hahalutzot, she looked to the sun for her principal building material.

By Keshet Rosenblum | 04:21 25.10.12 |  0

The light sprinkling of rain soon turned into a downpour. Under gray skies, the trees at the edge of Kuzari Park in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood looked fresher than ever, and the beading moisture restored the luster to the Jerusalem stone. Some girls on a Birthright trip were whispering in the cafeteria on the Yad Ben Zvi campus while sipping coffee from paper cups. Excited figures moved quickly in the interior courtyard, between the home of Israel's second president, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, with its stone building and two wooden cabins, and Beit Hahalutzot (the Pioneer Women's House ), making last-minute preparations for the dedication of the remodeled building, scheduled for today.

Read more .... Haaretz

Sports: Motorcyle racing: Australia's 2nd Moto Grand Prix

A new motorcycle racing emerges at Phillip Island, Austrtalia, where the 2nd Moto Grand Prix race resulted in a youngster coming in second to the retiring hero of the venue, while the rival smashed up in trying to make a tite turn.  Them's the breaks.

— Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports newspotter, analyst, and columnist

Hurriyet Daily News (Oct30,2k12)

Jorge Lorenzo seals 2nd Moto Grand Prix title

PHILLIP ISLAND, Australia- Reuters

Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo wins his second MotoGP title in the Australian GP, as his rival Dani Pedrosa crashes out of contention on the second lap of the race at the Phillip Island

Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo sealed his second MotoGP title by cruising to a runner-up finish at the  Australian Grand Prix yesterday after Dani Pedrosa, his only challenger to the title, crashed out of contention on the second lap.

Honda’s Pedrosa trailed fellow Spaniard Lorenzo by 23 points entering the race and had hoped to take the title battle to the final round, but his challenge ended when he lost control at the Phillip Island circuit’s hairpin turn four. Lorenzo narrowly avoided the flailing Pedrosa and that was the last of his troubles as he settled into a fuss-free run behind retiring local hero Casey Stoner, who delighted home fans by extending his record to a sixth straight victory in his Down Under swansong. 

After Stoner saluted a roaring gallery on the final straight, Lorenzo pulled a ‘wheelie’ and shook his fist in triumph as he crossed the line more than nine seconds behind under brilliant sunshine.

The ebullient 25-year-old continued the celebrations in the pit lane, burning his tyres to wrap himself in smoke as jubilant team mates and officials jumped up and down around him.

“I’m really, really happy with this championship because we know how difficult it is to fight with riders like Casey, like Dani and to fight with a factory like Honda. It is very hard,” Lorenzo, who won his first title in 2010, told reporters.

“You must be very consistent, never make a mistake and always try to finish the races and be very focused, so today is a very special day.”

Lorenzo takes an unassailable 43-point lead in the championship, rendering the final round a victory parade in front of Spanish fans in Valencia. Briton Cal Crutchlow finished third on another Yamaha, matching his best finish of the season.
While the championship belongs to Lorenzo, the day belonged to two-time MotoGP champion Stoner, who was greeted by record crowds at the picturesque seaside circuit. The championship was a two-horse race between Lorenzo and Stoner until the Australian injured ligaments in his right angle at the U.S. Grand Prix, sidelining him for three rounds before he returned at the Japan Grand Prix earlier this month.
 
Same corner 

Despite carrying the still-painful injury to Phillip Island and crashing during qualifying, Stoner underlined his mastery of the track by taking pole on Saturday, with Lorenzo second on the grid.

Lorenzo capitalised on a poor start by Stoner, however, and seized the lead at the first turn, but then had it quickly swiped by a desperate Pedrosa, who had won five of the previous six races to delay his countryman’s coronation.

Stoner roared past his Honda team mate in the final straight of the first lap and the wheels fell off for Pedrosa four turns later, and at the same corner where the Australian was thrown from his bike during qualifying.

Caution was Lorenzo’s watchword after qualifying, having endured a chequered history at Phillip Island, losing part of a finger in a sickening crash during morning practice last year and crashing out at the first turn in 2009.

Happy to concede the race to the local hero, Lorenzo also enjoyed a threat-free view in his mirrors, with fellow Yamaha rider Crutchlow keeping a safe distance.

“I just maintained a good gap to the guys behind and made sure it went up and was not going to push to follow Jorge because I think would have been sacked if anything happened,” Crutchlow quipped. Stoner, who announced his retirement in May, citing his disillusionment with the sport and the grind of touring, was hailed by a huge crowd in pit lane long after the chequered flag. “It’s been a fantastic buildup. It was very important for me to win a race before I retire and to do it at my home Grand Prix here was just a fairytale,” said Stoner, who won his first title with Ducati in 2007, and finishes his career at the age of 27.

“This whole weekend has gone almost ideally and the crowd of people, the fans, everything has just been amazing. “It gives me a great feeling and a great pride to be out there as an Aussie to make everybody proud.”

October/29/2012

Music: Pop: Taylor Swift — What kind of pop star will I be?

How long can she stay an ingénue? Ms Swift doesn't seem to be very swift, but she's got her niches and she is what she is and also she is what she isn't.  Musikos, refWrite Backpage music newspotter, analyst, and columnist.


New York Times (Oct24,2k12)

No More Kid Stuff for Taylor Swift

Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Christopher Polk/Getty Images, for Clear Channel

Taylor Swift in 2007, left, and last month, right.

By JON CARAMANICA

Published: October 24, 2012

AWE and amazement have been Taylor Swift’s grammar for years now. Whether singing about love or heartbreak — there has been no third subject — Ms. Swift has excelled at capturing the fresh sting, as if arriving at a feeling for the first time.

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Brian Doben

Taylor Swift has always been a pop star in a country context more than a country star.

But Ms. Swift is 22 now, and certainly she has seen some things. For most of “Red,” her fourth album, that’s not necessarily clear. Her growth is largely musical, not experiential.

There is a moment, though, on “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — the album’s lead single and, as it happens, her first No. 1 pop hit — where the cracks begin to show. At the bridge the song gives way to a conversation between Ms. Swift and friends in which she’s recalling how she shut down a persistent ex who wouldn’t stop calling.

“This is exhausting,” she tells him, emphasizing the middle syllable of the last word, like a car that’s just run out of gas. There is something different in Ms. Swift’s voice here: it’s serious and deep, and also shrewd. She has been through this before. She sounds like an adult.

It’s about time. Ms. Swift, now six years removed from her debut single, has become one of the most important pop artists of the last decade. But her evolution has been purposefully slow, making sure not to leave behind any of the young women who hold her up as a paragon of beauty, talent and civility. That she did this as a country singer was both savvy — the genre demands morals in a way pop doesn’t — and also, ultimately, limiting.

It was never a question of whether Ms. Swift would become a pure pop star; the only question was what sort. She’s without precedent: not as a country star looking for something bigger, but as a pop singer trying hard to maintain an air of innocence. Any young woman who’s tried to own similar space has done it by making choices — of subject matter, of outfits, of public melodrama — that Ms. Swift has gone out of her way to avoid. (You could make a case that Adele has skipped these steps too, but her music was never young and therefore never had to find a way to grow up.)

Read more ....New York Times

Sports: UK football [USA soccer]: Manchester City and Arsenal lose to 2nd tier Championship League, then return to top Premier League wins

The ups and downs of UK football teams were severe in recent days, but re-instatement in their own good graces had Man City and Arsenal zinging when back in stride in the Premiere League. — Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports newspotter, analyst, and columnist

Hurriet Daily News, Istanbul, Turkey (Oct30,2k12)

Manchester City, Arsenal 

ease Euro wounds

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Argentinian ace Carlos Tevez (C) scored the winning goal as Manchester United beat Swansea in the Premier League, three days after its defeat to Ajax. REUTERS photo

Manchester City and Arsenal bounced back from damaging Champions League defeats to return to winning ways in the Premier League on Oct. 27, although both sides were made to toil.

City put its 3-1 loss at Ajax behind them with a 1-0 success at home to Swansea City in the Premier League’s longest-ever game, while Arsenal celebrated Jack Wilshere’s return from a 17-month lay-off by edging bottom club Queens Park Rangers by the same scoreline.

Titleholder City moved up to second place and closed to within a point of leader Chelsea, while Arsenal climbed to fourth.

“It was important to get three points today after defeat in mid-week. We did not play well in the first half because we were so tired and we were better in the second half,” said City coach Roberto Mancini. 

Important result 

“In the end, the only important thing is the result. If you win, you are the best manager; if you lose, you are the worst.” 

Gael Clichy found Carlos Tevez, and the Argentine sent a shot dipping into the bottom-left corner to end a personal run of eight games without a goal.

The stoppages meant that over 12 minutes of injury time were played, breaking the Premier League record, but City managed to keep its slender lead intact.

At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal were made to wait until the 84th minute before Mikel Arteta’s goal took the team past QPR and enabled the Gunners to snap a two-game losing streak.

“We played quite well but lacked a little bit of the confidence you miss when you have lost two games,” said Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, whose side had lost to Norwich and Schalke in its previous two outings. “A draw would have been a big disappointment, but if we had lost today it would have been a crisis.” 

Wilshere made his first appearance since missing the whole of last season through injury.

Furniture: Big fat books: Require a specific set of shelves

Found foto (8-) — Ferdinand, refWrite Backpage funishings newspotter, analyst, and columnist

An elegant addition to anyone's furnishings, the shelves for big fat books that even a Sumo wrestler coud seat him/herself upon to read casually before dinner.

Sports: Soccer USA: Only 2 women WNT players to have 20 or more assists in a calendar year?

Posting and coasting today — Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports newspotter, analyst, and columnist

Timeline Photos asks:  Who are the only two USA soccer's Women's National Team players in history to have 20 or more assists in a calendar year.  Yes, it's a trivia question but its not trivial in American soccer history ... here they are:

    










Carin Gabarra            Mia Hamm

Music: New instrument: New at least to me. Amazing.

Light and charming!  A strange instrument (Mbira?) does well for A Simple Song.

— Musikos, refWrite Backpage music newspotter, analyst and columnist

Sports: MLB Pros: San Fran's Giants 4, Detroit Tigers 3, 10 innings

New York Times (Oct

GIANTS 4, TIGERS 3, 10 INNINGS

With a Sweep, 

Giants Are Champions Again

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Sergio Romo after striking out Miguel Cabrera to win the World Series.

By ANDREW KEH

Published: October 29, 2012

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DETROIT — Rain and bristly winds swirled. A hostile crowd grew feisty as the home team stirred to life. And still the San Francisco Giants remained calm. For all they had gone through in these last weeks, this was nothing.

Related

• With Game and Title on Line, Romo Turns Up Heat on Cabrera (October 29, 2012)

• On Baseball: A Heaping of Smarts, a Dollop of Luck (October 29, 2012)

• Ontario City Shares Detroit’s Thrills (Tigers) and Ills (Auto Industry) (October 29, 2012)

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Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Ryan Theriot scored the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

The Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, over 10 tense and taut innings Sunday night to claim their second World Series title in three years. The game, played before an announced crowd of 42,152 at Comerica Park, provided a short dose of intensity to a series that felt like an anticlimax to the team’s otherwise stunning postseason run. After flirting dangerously close to elimination in their two previous series, the Giants were cutthroat and businesslike against the Tigers, finishing off them off in the minimum four games.

And now, this storied franchise, born in New York, packed and moved to California in 1958, has its seventh World Series title, its second since upending the Texas Rangers in five games in 2010.

“To be world champions in two out the last three years, it’s amazing,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. “Believe me, I know how hard it is to get here, and I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys that were not going to be denied.”

Bochy, 57, a former catcher with a languid mien, will be further acknowledged as one of baseball’s elite tacticians. He pulled all of the necessary strings, mixing his players, keeping them afloat as they faced a two-games-to-none deficit in the Giants’ National League division series and a three-games-to-one disadvantage in the league championship series. The Giants won their last seven games of the year, a feat they never accomplished during the regular season.

After the game, Jim Leyland, the manager of the Tigers, was emphatic that the trophy was in the right hands.

“Obviously there was no doubt about it, they swept us,” Leyland said. “So there was certainly no bad breaks, no fluke. I tip my hat to them. Simple, they did better than we did.”

Tech: Apple: Why no design and producing of gaming consoles?

Moralizing in an Open Christian way, I woud say that maybe Apple choose to "ignore gaming' because it was a lesser moral-technical way of advancing its calling as an edifying yet capitalist company.  Maybe somewhere in the brains of the Apple industrial strategists gaming was seen as beleaguered with too much negative repercussions in kids lives.  I certainly coud go along with that moralview in our pluralistic society, were that the reason for Apple's demural in designing and producing digital games.  On the other hand, I am only interested in the thawt that the briliiant Don Reisinger puts into writing about this (for me) new phenom of this present evil age. But some say gaming improves eye/hand coordination, and trains up good sky pilots for the future (Wars).  I dunno.  But at least, in my case, intellectual curiosity at age 72 drives me to read Don's work — and pass a tidbit of it on to you, dear refWrite readers.  Go the Slashgear website and read the comments!  For techies, that;'s surely a treat, with Don as the provocateur of all these responses.

— Technowlb, refWrite Backpage tech newspotting, analyst, and columnist

Haaretz (Oct29,2k10)

Start-up of the week: 

Unleashing your inner gamer, without the console

Israeli start-up Playcast is integrating video game software into your home TV, and even moms are now getting hooked on gaming

Gamers – those bleary-eyed, tech-obsessed, gadget-hungry guys and girls who pass endless hours playing video and computer games – make up about 5 percent of the population. Their computer purchases tend to include powerful processors and high-quality graphics software, and they are happy to shell out wads of cash on top-of-the-line video game consoles. But the buck doesn't stop with the equipment....


Slashgear (Oct 28,2k12)

COLUMNS

Why Does Apple Ignore Gaming?

Don Reisinger, Oct 28th 2012 Discuss [19]

Apple finds itself in an extremely enviable position. For years now, the company has been the envy of companies that wish they could generate billions of dollars each quarter on products that make customers drool. Apple is a special case. And it seems that every market it enters, it’s successful in.

That’s precisely why I’m confused by Apple’s seeming unwillingness to jump into the gaming space.

Apple’s iOS platform is rather interesting. Although Apple didn’t really plan it this way, its mobile operating system has become one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world. For years, customers have been turning to their iPhones, iPads, and iPods to play titles. And with each new hardware improvement, developers have been jumping at the chance to increase the playability (and beauty) of their games.

And yet, Apple has done little to acknowledge that. Each year at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple invites game companies on stage to show off their new creations for the latest version of iOS, but Apple has balked at portraying itself as a gaming leader. Instead, it simply wants to allow game developers to succeed on its products without truly mentioning its important involvement.

I think that’s a mistake. Apple has become a gaming company, whether the firm wants to admit it or not. And Apple’s success in mobile gaming could very easily translate to success in the console market.

Think about it: whenever Apple launches hardware, customers flock to buy it. When the company unveiled a new iPad Mini recently, it took only hours before the white version’s initial supply was sold out. The iPhone 5 is still on backorder for some models.

"Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are coasting"

Right now, the gaming space is ripe for Apple’s involvement. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are coasting without focusing too much on dramatic improvement. Instead, the companies are content with iterative updates that might be appealing to customers now, but won’t be able to hold up over the long-term. After all, the Wii U can match the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but can it really be expected to compete with the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4?

Apple, meanwhile, has the cash and the know-how to do something special in gaming. The company could deliver a console that bests anything Microsoft and Sony might offer in the coming years. And with the billions in cash it has on hand, it wouldn’t take much for Apple to acquire a developer or two and get quality first-party titles onto store shelves.

And yet, Apple ignores gaming. The company seems content to deliver tablets, computers, smartphones, and music players, and couldn’t care less about consoles.

Hopefully things will change. Apple has all of the ingredients to become a leader in the console market. And its brand recognition is second to none. The company should jump into gaming and start putting pressure on the current competitors. After all, why wouldn’t it want to control another multibillion dollar market?

Author Bio

Don Reisinger is a technology and video game columnist. You can see what he's up to each day on Twitter by following him @donreisinger.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SlashGear