DT Fine Art

By

Ron Rop | The Muskegon Chronicle

The Muskegon Chronicle

Follow

As the sun blazes above Hermosa Beach on Tuesday, it will have appeared to reach its highest point in the sky, marking this years summer solstice.

#13;

The solstice marks the first day of summer, when the earths tilt toward the sun is at a maximum. As a result, the sunlight will produce the longest day of the year.

#13;

On Tuesday, the sun is expected to rise at 5:43 am and set at 8:08 pm, according to the US Naval Observatory.

#13;

Want to take advantage of the daylight? Here are some Hermosa Beach happenings taking place Tuesday.

#13;

Beach volleyball

#13;

Grab a spot on the sand early Tuesday for one of Hermosa Beachs favorite pastimes. Plus, registration is open until July 1 to enroll youngsters between ages 7 and 15 in the US Youth Volleyball League for the fall.

#13;

Last day of school

#13;

Classes end for the summer Tuesday at Hermosa View and Valley schools. The Hermosa Valley eighth grade graduation ceremony will be held at Mira Costa High Schools auditorium at 6:30 pm Then, the accompanying school dance will be at 8 pm in the Clark Building on Valley Drive

#13;

Wine tasting

#13;

Saint Rocke is hosting a night of California Zinfandel wines, gourmet food and live music at 7 pm Limited space is available. The event is for people 21 and older.

Americans believe federal lawmakers should operate the way American households do, which is with a budget, with a plan and with a clear framework for how they manage their lives and expenses. They believe the federal budget situation is out of control and in a certain sense, the American people are closer to those financial elites who suggest we could be heading toward Armageddon if we do not get our problems with the debt and deficit under control.

We stand with the American people and believe that if Washington were able to get control of its spending addiction, Americans would feel better about the economy and their own financial situations. Its no coincidence that the Misery Index recently reached a 28-year high. Americans are scared to death that politicians in Washington are literally watching America fall into bankruptcy.

A poll released in early June by ABC and The Washington Post found 69% of Americans are either dissatisfied (44%) or angry (25%) with the way government works. Only 30% are enthusiastic (3%) or satisfied (27%).

These numbers are unsurprising to us.

Our individual organizations have just completed our own polls that show that voters are deeply concerned about out-of-control federal spending, the possibility of default and the consequences they know will result – and these concerns are making Americans more nervous about their own situations.

A recent proposal to close Golden Gate and McClaren parks at night has made its way to the trash heap, but that doesn’t mean the late-night violence in parks has ceased.

So, if you can’t change the rules, throw more resources at the problem, says the San Francisco Police Department.

“San Francisco’s Parks, and especially Golden Gate Park, are international icons that play a role in drawing tens of thousands of tourists to San Francisco,” reads a press release sent out Tuesday. “Golden Gate Park is a place of safety which attracts people who wish engage in recreational pastimes and enjoy social and cultural activities. In fact, the more folks that use the park for these purposes, the safer it becomes.”

To encourage more visitors, the Police Department, park rangers, officers from the Department of Animal Care and Control and the Department of Public Health will be providing “increased public safety presence” this summer.

That increased visibility of officers and rangers is meant to enhance the visitors’ sense of safety. Now, if they could only do something about the fog.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved a controversial firm which scours social media sites to check on job applicants.

It means anything youve ever said in public on sites including Facebook, Twitter and even Craigslist could be seen by your would-be employer.

The Washington-based commission has ruled the firm, Social Intelligence Corporation, complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act – even though it keeps the results of its searches on file for seven years.

The Olympic Day Celebration this year came with dynamic benefits as former Olympians Kate MacKenzie and Aaron Parchem were the featured guests at the Novi Parks event on Thursday evening.

Kate MacKenzie is a 2004 Olympian in rowing and Aaron Parchem is a 2006 Olympian in Pairs Figure Skating.

The event attendees who participated in four Olympic sports could receive a certificate from the United States Olympic Committee and have it signed by the Olympians. And according to Kate MacKenzie, We had a blast!

It was the kids, she continued. They were so positive and into the event, along with being upbeat and happy. Novi is my home town and its nice to see them join in the Olympic spirit and values.

Emily Stevens, Recreation Supervisor, and a Certified Parks and Recreation Professional, agrees. It was awesome! The small crowd made for an intimate event. The Olympians liked that and brought all the kids up closer. Everyone really had a one on one with the Olympians. And having a conversation made them feel kind of special.

It was well worth it, MacKenzie remarked. It allows us to share the Olympic spirit and values, and show that people can get along and compete.

To prepare and compete at this level, Kate shares that she devoted 10 years of her life. We came in 9th out of 10 in Athens. We beat the French. It was a close race. We were .15 seconds out of 7th place. Going on she said, I overcame a lot to go and the journey continued even after I went (to the Olympics).

MacKenzie also shares that Aaron Parchem trained for 4 years to shave .46 points off of his total points. That training and perseverance worked and he made the Olympics,

I am so grateful as I have no fear to get what I want. I have a total belief that people can strive to get what they want because hard work is the biggest part of it. Summing it up, thats what Kate felt got her to Athens in 2004.

Olympic Day, itself, is celebrated all across the United States and in 160 countries, in commemoration of the birth of the modern Olympic games. It is not only a celebration but an international effort to promote fitness and well being in addition to the Olympic ideals of fair play, perseverance, respect and sportsmanship.

In that vein, Stevens went on to say that Mayor Pro Tem, Bob Gatt introduced the Olympians, who did a great job speaking and they played all of the games.

In speaking about the games, MacKenzie laughingly shares that Those Karate kids were kicking my butt and making me sweat.

Besides the Karate program, put on by the Family Self Defense Center, the United States Professional Tennis Association held a Fun Start Tennis Program, the Novi Ice Arena brought a shooter tooter and sponsored the Hockey Program, and the City of Novis Camp Lake Shore sponsored the discus program.

The event itself was made possible by the United States Olympic Committee, who made the arrangements for the two Olympians to speak.

Stevens concluded saying, Everyone was really happy and the Olympians made the event by showing that they werent untouchable and had ups and downs, too. They were very truthful and explained that with passion, perseverance and hard work, anyone can do anything.

And to show that exact point, Lois Arnold, CEO of Special Olympics Michigan (SOMI) was thrilled to share that three of their Olympians are in Athens at this moment to compete in the World Games, whose Opening Ceremonies are today, June 25 from 1pm to 4 pm Eastern Time, and will be covered by ESPN.com and ESPN3.com, per ESPN Corporate Outreach. Similarly, the closing ceremonies to be held on July 4 from 1 pm to 4 pm will also be covered by ESPN.

Currently the only real complaint that OnLive gamers have been talking about, really has nothing to do with OnLive, but with their current ISPs. OnLive is supposed to be able to stream games to HDTVs with connection speeds of 3-5 Mbps. Most ISPs today (70% +) support these speeds. However, there are times during internet congestion that the ISPs cant ensure a 5 Mbps connection to all of their users. This is when OnLive appears to be laggy.

The facts are, however, that it isnt OnLive that is laggy. It is the speed at which gamers are connecting to OnLive through their current ISPs. Its not OnLives fault, but the ISPs fault for dropping connection speeds for their users.

However, OnLive is working on a new algorithm to their system that will allow games to be streamed to HDTVs on connections as low as 2 Mbps.

In an interview at the Columbia University Engineering School on June 4, 2011, OnLive CEO Founder Steve Perlman talked briefly about this. While he did not say when the new algorithm would be active, those who listened to him talk were lead to believe that it will be sooner rather than later.

Steve Perlman explained, The beauty of having cloud computing, is you get to keep evolving the algorithm, and the products (OnLive) get better.

Whenever this new algorithm is released, it should make OnLive playable to the majority of those who currently do not have the current connection speeds to play the cloud game system.

Perlman also discussed many other things in his speech at the engineering school. He talked about a new radio technology that his company is working on. It is similar to current Wi-Fi, but can be used at distances up to 250 miles away. If all goes as planned we could see an eventual replacement for 3G and 4G technology. The speeds at which this new radio system works is incredible. Instead of the 150 millisecond latency with 3G, and 40 millisecond latency times with 4G, this new technology will decrease these times to merely 7 milliseconds, if all goes as planned.

Let us know what you think about the prospects of being able to connect to OnLive via a 2 Mbps connection, and watch the entire video of Perlmans speech at our OnLiveFans.com Forum

US Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said today he sees “a lot of progress” in bipartisan
spending and deficit talks that have been taking place in
Washington.

Geithner, speaking at an event in Washington, said that the
government’s Aug. 2 limit for borrowing is “imposed by
reality” unless there is Congressional action to raise the debt
ceiling.

“We are making a lot of progress” on a plan to cut the
deficit and raise the government’s borrowing limit, Geithner
said. “We’re getting closer.”

Vice President Joe Biden’s bi-partisan deficit-reduction
group has been holding meetings since May 5 to reach a
compromise that would clear the way for a vote in Congress to
raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Republicans are
demanding trillions of dollars in budget savings, while
Democrats are resisting any changes to Medicare, the long-term
driver of the debt.

Geithner expressed confidence in raising the debt limit,
saying that the alternative, a possible US government default,
is unthinkable.

The Treasury secretary said that a strong US dollar
“will always be in the interest of the U.S,” while encouraging
a “more unified” voice from Europe as it seeks to resolve its
debt crisis.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Cheyenne Hopkins in Washington at
chopkins19@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kevin Costelloe at
kcostelloe@bloomberg.net

Your heart is a muscle, and it benefits from the e
word-exercise. If that is a bad word in your vocabulary, consider
that there are many different pastimes that can be considered as
personal interests that are also good as exercises.

You may be surprised to find that an activity you already enjoy is
also benefitting your heart. So, without even giving too much
thought to the fact that it is exercise, you can plan to increase
that hobby somewhat and count it as exercise.

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. June 21, 2011

Aeria Games, a leading global publisher of
microtransaction based online games, today released details about
the hero called HaZzard in
Realm of the Titans, its latest free-to-play action
strategy title.
Realm of the Titans is a
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) style game and is scheduled
to enter Closed Beta this summer.

HaZzard packs a heavy punch for a floating torso of fire.
Borne from an ancient lava pool and enchanted with form-capturing
spells, HaZzards favorite pastimes now include
hurling rings of fire and spawning waves of fast-moving flames. His
soul burns for vengeance (well, mostly it just burns). Use
HaZzard as a strong ranged hero on the battlefield in
Realm of the Titans, where team strategy is key to
capturing your enemys base first.

HaZzards skills are each linked to a keyboard
shortcut, shown in parentheses:

• Lava Spout (Q) Places a Lava Spout on
  the ground. After a short time lava shoots up, stunning and slowing
  enemies.
• Emperors Power (W) Stuns and damages
  enemies facing away from you at a range of 1050.
• Ring of Fire (E) Summons a shield to
  protect you. When destroyed, the shield spews fire damaging nearby
  enemies.
• Thousand Flames
  
  ^reg;
  Releases a spreading wave of fire from your location.

HaZzard is the seventh hero released since Closed Beta
registration began for
Realm of the Titans earlier this year. View all of
the Hero Showcases and sign up for Closed Beta at the
Realm of the Titans website:
RealmoftheTitans.AeriaGames.com.

About Aeria Games

Aeria Games, a leading destination for interactive online
entertainment, provides an unrivaled MMO gaming experience to a
growing community of tens of millions of gamers. Our portal offers
a broad selection of fun, high-quality games, including fantasy
MMORPGs, FPS casual MMOs and browser games. Aeria Games is
committed to bringing high-quality, innovative content and
outstanding customer service.

Based in Silicon Valley, Calif., Aeria Games
Entertainment, Inc. was founded in 2006 and has offices in the
United States, Germany, and Brazil. More information about Aeria
Games can be found at
www.aeriagames.com.

###