Google Nexus 4 Android smartphone sold out quickly in Australia and the U.K.
Want the new Google Nexus 4?
You'd better get your credit card ready. The device, which is the latest
to ship with a stock version of Android, goes on sale via the Google
Play Store at 12 noon Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. It is likely to sell out
quickly.
The device went on sale first in Australia, where it sold out in several
hours. Later, the Nexus 4 hit the Play Store in the U.K., where it also
sold out in about an hour. In addition to the quick sellouts,
disappointed would-be Nexus 4 shoppers complained of slow performance of
the Google Play Store website, which strained under the demand for the
Nexus 4.
Why so much fuss over an Android smartphone? Google releases only one Nexus-branded handset per year. It is meant to serve as the developer device for its Android smartphone platform. Previous versions include the Galaxy Nexus (released in November 2011), Nexus S (December 2010), and the Nexus One (January 2010).
The Nexus 4 and its predecessors all run a clean, stock version of Android. In the Nexus 4's case, that means Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Nexus devices are free of carrier and manufacturer bloatware. They are also the first devices to receive major and minor system updates and features throughout the year. In other words, if you want to be on the cutting edge of all things Android, the latest Nexus is the device you want.
The Nexus 4 is being sold for an incredibly low price: The 8GB model costs $299 and the 16GB model costs $349. These are the prices to own the device outright, which is being sold unlocked and without a carrier contract. That means the Nexus 4 can be used on most any GSM-based network.
In the U.S., it is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile's 2G/3G networks, which includes their fastest HSPA+ mobile broadband. While HSPA+ is fast, however, LTE is much faster. The Nexus 4 lacks LTE support for any network.
Features of the Nexus 4 include a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 pixel display, 1.5-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2 GB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, and wireless charging.
Summary:Buyers have snapped up all the Nexus 4 smartphones
offered via the Google Play Store, the company has confirmed, after
people claimed on Twitter the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 handset sold out
within minutes after its launch.
The LG-made Nexus 4 has sold out on Google's store on the day of the smartphone's launch in the UK, Google has confirmed.
Would-be customers posted on Twitter when they realised the handset was no longer available to buy through the Google Play store, with many saying it was out of stock within 30 minutes of going online on Tuesday morning.
Nexus 4 sold out in the UK already, only on sale for 15 minutes! — Jason McCabe (@Mini_J) November 13, 2012
Would-be customers posted on Twitter when they realised the handset was no longer available to buy through the Google Play store, with many saying it was out of stock within 30 minutes of going online on Tuesday morning.
Both the 8GB and the 16GB models of the Nexus 4, which cost £239 and £279 respectively, displayed a dead 'order' button and a live 'notify me' stock alert button to visitors.
Google confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that it no longer has any inventory of the Jelly Bean Android 4.2 phone to sell.
"The Nexus 4 is sold out on the Google Play store in the UK," a Google spokeswoman told ZDNet. "We're not sure when it will be available again."
However, the smartphone is still in stock at O2, the only network provider with rights to carry the phone right now. People can get the phone for free on contracts over £36 a month, via O2's online or high street outlets.
In addition, online retailer Carphone Warehouse is offering the Nexus 4 on plans from O2, Vodafone and Three, with a free handset on tariffs over £31 a month.
The LG-built Nexus 4 has an 8-megapixel camera, NFC capability and wireless charging. The smartphone, Google's fourth, runs the latest Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.2.
eBay listings
Already, listings have appeared on eBay for Nexus 4 handsets, with the sellers saying they bought them from the Google Play Store. At the time of writing, for example, an 8GB model had a bid of £270 (a £31 premium) with 18 hours of the auction still to go, while a 16GB version had an offer of £350 (a £71 premium) with 20 hours left.
Tuesday also saw the release of the Google Nexus 10 on the UK Google Play store, though the tablet is still on sale for £319 for the 16GB model and £389 for the 32GB version. The Google Nexus 10, reviewed by ZDNet earlier this month, comes with an A15 processor, a 10-inch display and the highest screen resolution of any tablet on the market.
Call of Duty continues to march out a game every year, but has it managed to stay in line with what gamers expect from the series? How do you keep a game fresh, while keeping it the same? Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 a game you'll want to buy or put on your wishlist? Find out in our full review below! Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review: The Call of Duty franchise has continually steamrolled the competition, and as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 releases this holiday season, it enters a field crowded with competition. Just the past few weeks alone have brought us Borderlands 2, Halo 4 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, with two of those games dominating our free time, and the other one… not. And that’s just the recent FPS lineup. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of games to divert your attention right now.
There’s a 2 on the Box For A Reason!
Black Ops 2 is a sequel in both title and story, although it does not pick up immediately where the first game left off. Instead, we’re years in the future, where the present time is now 2025. You’re still playing as Mason, although this time it’s David Mason, son of Alex Mason from the original Black Ops. He’s visiting Frank Woods, his father’s old (literally) partner who has information about Raul Menendez, and possibly a terrorist attack on the United States.
That’s where the train begins to pull out of the station in Black Ops 2, and it will take you on a wild ride around the world, and jump through multiple points in time. You’ll be back in the boots of Alex Mason, running missions again alongside Woods, and you’ll encounter historical figures in the game, like Oliver North and Manuel Noriega, who they casually nickname “Pineapple Face.”
You’ll see the bond between Woods and the elder Mason deepen, based on missions they carried out post Black Ops, and you’ll also find out just who Raul Menendez is, and why Treyarch considers him to be “the most dangerous terrorist since Bin Laden.” Although you’ve played through the campaign at least once, you’ll probably conclude that Menendez is much, much worse.
But for the majority of the game, you’ll be doing duty as David Mason and often following directly in your father’s footsteps as you trail Menendez and try to stop a global terrorist event by his hands. During your time as David, you’ll be partnered up with fellow soldier Harper, voiced by and modeled after Michael Rooker who does a fantastic job throughout this game. We’re just glad he never went full Merle Dixon on us.
The team was extremely proud to be able to bring screenwriter David S. Goyer in as a story consultant on this title, and it shows in the plot. This is a massive story with some truly horrific moments embedded in it. It entwines a fantastic story into the plotlines of Black Ops, and does a commendable job of pushing us 13 years into the future. While the Rare Earth Elements storyline might seem farfetched at first, if you do a little digging into the science behind it, you’ll find that it is eerily on target.
Little things like the fact that some of the missions (and a multiplayer map) take place aboard an aircraft carrier named the USS Obama, and the usage of biometric identity bracelets that insert your image into advertisements aboard a luxurious floating city seem grounded in the reality of today. Then there’s all of the future tech you’ll get to play with, like wing suits and flechette guns with exploding rounds. Most of the really nifty toys aren’t available in multiplayer, giving the campaign another notch in its replayability belt.
Replay’s The Thing
Speaking of replay, while the game has a fairly epic campaign that should take about eight hours to complete in full, for the first time in a Call of Duty game, there are finally reasons to replay the campaign besides just upping the difficulty level. There are branching decisions throughout that will affect your story, and ultimately the ending of the game.
Some of these decisions will also trigger Strike Force levels, which are optional levels that will appear from time to time within the game. While you don’t have to take part in these at all, your decisions here will also affect the endgame. Plus, you can also fail these levels, although you can try to replay them if you have the resources. But they will only be available for a limited time, and once the window closes, they are gone forever.
The branching events in the campaign are where the story treads into the “interactive storytelling” realm. Sometimes these can be somewhat trivial and cosmetic, and at other times they can have a bearing on future campaign events and on Strike Force levels. You can easily identify these moments as they happen in the campaign with certain achievements, or you can see them in the level menus where your progress is marked.
Case in point on the trivial side: During a later mission to a luxurious floating city, Harper remarks that if he was on his own time, he would get some “hot chick” action. When I replayed the game, in an earlier mission, where we were fleeing the wrath of Menendez, I accidentally steered our car under a jet of flame, badly burning half of Harper’s face. When made our way to the floating city, and Harper makes his “hot chick” remark, one of the other characters quips, “Not with that face.” Ouch!
With these decisions and levels boil down to is a first for the franchise: multiple endings. While it isn’t a new idea in the video game industry, it’s a novel approach for Call of Duty, and it will make you want to replay the campaign more than once.
A Strike Against Strike Force
While we fully support branching storylines and welcome decisions that have a direct affect on the outcome of your game, unfortunately these Strike Force levels are a bit of a misstep. First of all, they are meant to be strategic. Offering the player a satellite level top-down view of the battlefield, you can issue rudimentary commands to your units like move and attack.
Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence in these units just isn’t enough to get the job done, and after much frustration you’ll find that it is often much easier to jump down into a single soldier unit to get the job done. A good example of this was in a level where we had to plant three beacons at different locations on at a cargo ship port. After issuing movie commands to our units, they would frequently get pinned down by enemy fire, or easily taken out by gunfire.
While part many Call of Duty multiplayer matches involves you lone-wolfing it, we didn’t expect to be leaving squads and units behind in the campaign in order to secure or complete objectives. Thankfully you can gain the ability to continue trying Strike Force levels as you complete campaign missions, but they vanish after you progress past a certain point so if you’re a completist you’ll have to act fast or forego that level forever.
Our advice: after beginning a Strike Force level, figure out the objective, and then issue rough move commands to your units before jumping into a single soldier and then go Rambo on the situation.
Loading Out
Another first for the Call of Duty series is the ability to change up your loadouts before missions, giving you variety to how you play the single player missions. You’ll encounter challenges in each mission that will require certain weapons, and besides just completing a missions, you can now stat-track each one as well to see what your “score” was. While this doesn’t create a massive different, it is nice to see some variety here, and to select your preferred weapon set before launching a mission.
The loadout changes carry over into multiplayer as well, where the biggest change to that mode comes in the form of the new “Pick 10” system. Now you can pick only ten different items: weapons, perks, attachments, wildcards, etc. to outfit yourself with before a match begins. As you progress through multiplayer, you can gain wildcards that allow you to carry two primary weapons, or have more than one Perk 1 and so one, but you continually have to juggle your ten so you don’t go over.
Multipass, No Leeloo Dallas Required
If you’ve ever glanced at the top of the online gaming charts for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, then you know that Call of Duty titles frequently own the top slot. But this presents the developers with a unique problem where they need to innovate, while adhering to the adage ‘If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.” So while they haven’t radically changed multiplayer, they have definitely kicked it up several notches.
First and foremost is through the Pick 10 system, which introduces arguably the largest change to single player since perks were first introduced. The one real effect that the system has is that it will cause you to constantly fiddle with your loadouts. In Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2 and so on, players tended to find a loadout they preferred, and would just stick with it.
With Pick 10, you’ll find yourself diving into the menus between matches to change something minor, or alter your loadout completely by equipping two primary weapons, or by equipping no weapons whatsoever (which equips your melee blade by default) and trying to rank up your knife. It’s a simple system, but one that provides a ton of variety. We just wish it had a giant slot machine handle built in that could dial up a random loadout at any time.
There are multiple new attachments in the game that are unlockable as you rank up your weapons, many of which are new to the game. These include millimeter-wave scanners that can show enemies through obstacles, and shock charge grenades that stun enemies that get near them. Taking a page from Gears of War, your assault shields can now be embedded in the ground as well, giving you portable cover that you can move and place at will.
Scorestreaks are now replacing Killstreaks, and those have been tweaked as you would expect and updated with “future” 2025 weaponry. Some of these changes are small, but extremely welcomed. Sentry Guns now fight autonomously, or you can jump into them at any time to take control. The same goes for the Autonomous Ground Robot drone that you can jump in and out of.
Easily the most useful and devious Scorestreak at our disposal was the Guardian. This sets up a microwave-based turret that can be aimed in one direction. It will cause an enemy to slow down, become disoriented, and if they don’t get out of the way of the beam fast enough it will kill them. In one of our Search & Destroy matches, a teammate planted the bomb and set up a Guardian on the bombsite. He was subsequently killed, but the lone remaining enemy could not get close enough to disarm the bomb without cooking himself. Ultimately, he sacrificed himself while trying, giving us the win.
A La Mode
Multiplayer has also shaken up the modes this time around, and thankfully gone is the CoD Cash/Points system from the original Black Ops. So instead of Wager Matches you just have Party Games, but they bring back Sharpshooter, Gun Game, One in the Chamber, and Stick & Stones. Combat Training is also more integral to multiplayer as well, with up to three live players and three bots being able to take part in Bootcamp, where you can also rank up from one to ten. You can also play Objective modes with bots beyond level ten, although you’ll only earn half XP.
Objective modes are now round-based, so for instance in Domination, players will now switch sides in the attack and defend back and forth. There are some new modes as well, including Hardpoint, which is basically King of the Hill with a constantly changing target. Or it might be more appropriate to call it Headquarters… without the Headquarters. Custom Games are back as well, with multiple options to tweak including bots in all game modes, and the ability to change Pick 10 to Pick 3 up to Pick 17.
Also new is League Play, where you can team up and rank up as a league. There’s a large, ladder-based tier system in play here, framed loosely after the Diamond etc. ladders in StarCraft 2. However in our brief time with the game, we weren’t able to see how accurately it rates your play here. Although like StarCraft, you do have to participate in a number of placement matches before you get an actual ranking, which is promising. Hardcore Clan players, this is probably where you’ll want to take your teams to play.
Another addition is Multi-Team play, which has up to 18 players and six teams competing with each other. It’s somewhat chaotic when multiple teams are on the map, sometimes forcing you to try and work with another team if one of the others starts to pull way ahead. At least, it forces you to do that as much as you can in CoD multiplayer, where kill first, ask for cooperation later is normally the rule of thumb.
The Theater mode has been tweaked as well, with players able to store 20 clips (which can all be merged into one big clip), and the ability to attach the camera to objects in the game, like the Dragonfire quad-copter scorestreak, or the RCDX remote control car. You can also now CoDcast recorded games, which
But easily our favorite addition was the ability to create an instant highlight reel. Simply pull up a match and select this option, and a reel of your best moments in the game will be created on the fly. You can play with the settings for the moments it captures, but right out of the box it does a fine job of making a brag reel to share without all of the video scrubbing and editing.
How Prestigious is Prestige?
Prestige has also been revamped here, with level 55 as the target number for Prestige, and at 10 levels deep. But this time hitting Prestige does not wipe your slate clean. It now continues your level progression, and your weapon XP and attachments are not reset, nor are the challenges. Your unlocks stay unlocked. You’ll be able to choose one of three rewards whenever you hit the magic number, allowing you to add a new Create a Class slot (up to 5), get a Refund of unlock tokens, or get a Fresh Start which actually does reset all of your stats and kicks you back to level one.
eSports Are eHarmony For Some, Not For Others
Treyarch has bent over backwards to satisfy the eSports community with Black Ops 2, which includes the aforementioned League Play and also encompasses shoutcasting and livestreaming as well. With CoDcasting (their version of shoutcasting), there are multiple controls in the game that allow a commentator to navigate through any game with a variety of tools including picture-in-picture, map view, a score panel, name plates, and the ability to drop in and out of player conversations.
During our review event, professional shoutcaster Hastro watched a match we played in, and then CoDcasted out the entire game in commentary mode, and we captured the video here for you to watch. While it might only be a very small group of gamers that take advantage of this mode, expect it to pop up frequently as people try it out. One thing we learned: it’s tough to make an entire Call of Duty multiplayer match sound exciting the whole time.
You can also livestream your matches out directly to the web, giving everyone the ability to become a YouTube superstar. Again, this is going to result in a ton of content, but it will be up to you to separate the good from the bad.
The Undead Just Keep On Coming
Much has been ballyhooed about the new Zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and while it initially feels huge, it’s not quite what we were hoping for. Black Ops provided a rich undead experience with so much Zombie DLC for the game made available after launch, including the fan-favorite Call of the Dead, and the Rezurrection DLC which was only zombie maps.
We fully expect that trend to continue, as right now Zombies in this game feels like only part of a sprawling puzzle that has yet to be unlocked. That doesn’t mean that the zombies aren’t fun here, we just expected something bigger given that the mode now has it’s own menu screen and selection system. Although it’s a statement unto itself that we’ve come to expect to much from this game mode, which almost felt like an afterthought when it was included with Call of Duty: World at War.
The largest change to Zombies is the Tranzit system, which finds you and up to three other survivors struggling to stay alive at several different locations, which can be visited via an automated bus on a looping route. Starting out at a semi-destroyed bus depot, the animatronic bus driver (think Johnny Cab from Total Recall and voiced by Nolan North) will kindly honk before pulling out and taking the journey to the next stop. You can opt to stay on the bus (yes, it will get attacked by zombies on the way and while stopped), or stay at your locations. But as a warning: if you try to run from location to location without the bus, you’ll get attacked by these nightmare-inducing baby things that leap onto your skull. Don’t try it unless you have a death wish.
But Zombies is all about exploration, and to augment that fact the team has created “Buildables” in the world of Zombies now, giving players the chance to combine parts at workbenches in order to create useful items. For instance an electric fan and a dressmaker’s mannequin make a power turbine. Naturally, right? You can also find single-use items such as a ladder that can be attached to your bus to allow rooftop access, or a wedge for the front of the bus to shove zombies aside.
There are a wealth of secrets to unlock in here, just like any good zombies map, and while we like to think it will keep gamers busy for weeks, we have no doubt that there will be full unlock guides on YouTube by the end of launch day, augemented by the fact that Zombie games can now be loaded in the Theater. The development team definitely played coy with us here, and there’s still a lot to find even after our team managed to stay alive through 15 waves of zombies.
Zombies also adds a new grief mode where you can play another team of four (it’s always the FBI vs. the CDC, as an FYI) in humans vs. humans vs. zombies. The goal here is to outlast the other team, and thankfully there are some mechanics to aid you in that goal, like chucks of meat you can find and toss into the midst of the enemy team, bringing with it rabid hordes of the undead.
What we recommend: Jump into Survival which has up to four players trying to survive waves in the locations from Tranzit. The Buildables are still there, and it will give your team a chance to learn how they work without having to worry about multiple locations for now.
All On Accounta Pullin’ A Trigger
Honestly, the most impressive thing about Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is that Treyarch and Activision didn’t just dump a few new maps and weapons in here and slap a “TWO” on the box. A ton of work has gone into this game from top to bottom, and it stands as a real testament to the developers who didn’t want to just coattail this one into the books. Nearly every system and aspect of the game has been tweaked or overhauled, and it certainly shows in the final product.
While the Strike Force levels are welcomed because of their eventual affect on the outcome of the game, the presentation and AI in them needs a serious overhaul. Call of Duty has always been about the first-person shooting experience, and attempting to add a strategic element to that could work at some point, but it doesn’t really come together here. Likewise, the Zombies mode feels slightly hobbled, and while that will probably be filled out via DLC, we would like a more complete package out of the box.
But despite the slight dings in Strike Missions and Zombies, the series continues to shine with its incredibly ambitious, globe-spanning, epic single player campaign, which is now augmented with an incredibly high replay factor. And it should come as no surprise that the multiplayer continues to shine, and will dominate the online game boards in the weeks and months to come. The series has come to be strongly identified by its online multiplayer, and the same holds true in this latest release. They’ve perfected the scratch to the itch you have when you feel the need to jump online and shoot things.
And as with most Call of Duty titles, stay tuned after the credits for something extra. Although this time, be prepared for the truly bizarre. Seriously. It still has us simultaneously scratching our heads and tapping our toes.
Earlier this year, the world was introduced to real-life living Barbie doll Valeria Lukyanova. The Ukrainian girl rose to international fame and recognition when pictures of her unrealistic body features surface. The 21-year-old "human Barbie" doll will be featured in the latest issue of V magazine, which is slated to hit newsstands on November 15.
Many had speculated whether Lukyanova was actually real, with many claiming her to be an internet hoax. However, V magazine wrote in its "Living Doll" feature, "The truth is that Valeria is very much real."
V magazine wrote: "We brought this viral phenom to New York City, entranced by her unnaturally thin waist, dramatic curves, and trendy, new age sense of style, which often includes pastel spaghetti-strap crop tops, navel piercings, and bindis."
When asked about whether Lukyanova had plastic surgery to achieve her doll-like looks, she told V: "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves." She also went on to say, "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves. It's hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. But I don't take them seriously. I'm even flattered! It's what success is like. I'm happy I seem unreal to them, it means I'm doing a good job."
Since pictures of Lukyanova surfaced, many people have followed in her footsteps to imitate the Barbie look. She told V: "Indeed, I've noticed a trend. Every good-looking woman with fine features and a slim figure looks like a doll. I won't deny that I play along with people's perceptions. I'm amused by the reactions. I don't take it seriously."
Before Valeria Lukyanova became an internet sensation by achieving the first human barbie doll look, pictures of her before her extensive plastic surgery and procedures had also emerged.
In the photos, she appears to look healthy and normal. Although she reportedly denies the claim that she had any surgical procedures carried out, the photos on this site show that she looked like a healthy normal girl.
According to Dr. Anthony LaBruna, a Plastic Surgeon Director of Manhattan Plastic Surgery, "A women needs to get breast enhancements to be a 38DD and cut some ribs out to get an 18" waist, make the hips wider and change her face. Of course, the woman would have to go blonde like Barbie." LaBruna appeared on "Good Morning America" earlier this week and said he reckons the cost of surgery would be somewhere in the $100,000s.
She's a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. She definitely looks plastic, and it's, uh ... fantastic? Valeria Lukyanova says she's the "most famous woman of the Russian-speaking Internet," and it's easy to see why.
Known online as the "real-life Barbie," Lukyanova boasts a shockingly tiny waist coupled with Barbie's famous -- and realistically disproportionate -- curves. Interestingly, V Magazine decided to photograph and interview Lukyanova for their "Girl Power" issue, which features a wet, topless Scarlett Johansson on its cover, and a nude S&M photo spread with Rihanna and Kate Moss.
In the interview, Lukyanova responds -- sort of -- to detractors who criticize her overly artificial appearance. "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves," says Valeria. "It's hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. This is how they justify not wanting to strive for self-improvement."
The living Barbie doll claims she's not obsessed with appearance. "People don't understand that it has nothing to do with looks," says Lukyanova. "There are many good-looking young women, but why are they completely unknown? Because looks are just a bonus."'
But, aren't Valeria's looks exactly how she became well known enough for V Magazine to fly her to New York for the photo shoot?
Well, now that we know she's not obsessed with her appearance, just what does Lukyanova do all day, besides post photos of herself online? "In the morning I work on my face and I get a massage, then I spend some time on the Internet. I meditate and travel in my astral body, and after that I work out at the gym." See? Meditiation and astral body travel -- it's not all about looks.
Valeria purports to be an out-of-body traveler, who teaches others spiritual travel techniques. In her spare time, she's also a "professional mountain climber." OK, then.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon avoided suspension Monday when NASCAR instead fined him $100,000 and docked him 25 points for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer at Phoenix International Raceway.
Gordon was also placed on probation through Dec. 31. But he'll be allowed to close out the season Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway despite his actions in Sunday's race, which triggered a fight in the garage area between the two crews.
"I take responsibility for my actions on the racetrack," Gordon said in a statement. "I accept NASCAR's decision and look forward to ending the season on a high note at Homestead."
Rick Hendrick was also docked 25 car owner points, and crew chief Alan Gustafson was placed on probation through the end of the year.
"I've always respected Jeff for standing his ground," said Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "We also respect that NASCAR needs to police the sport and send a message when situations like this occur. It's been a great year, and we're going to put our focus on finishing in a positive way this weekend."
Bowyer crew chief Brian Pattie was fined $25,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year.
NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton considered the matter closed after issuing the penalties.
"There's no doubt that a unique set of circumstances combined with a championship battle on the line resulted in raw emotions coming into play," he said. "We consider the penalties appropriate and those involved understand our decision and we expect them to abide by them."
Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski was fined $25,000 and placed on probation for having an electronic device inside the car — the phone he used to tweet during a red flag period caused by Gordon wrecking Bowyer. Keselowski first did it during a red flag at the season-opening Daytona 500, and NASCAR later banned the practice.
These are far from sunny days for the Sesame Street crew.
Kevin Clash, the beloved puppeteer behind Elmo and his memorable voice, has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a man that began when his accuser was 16 years old.
Although Clash has acknowledged his romantic dalliance with the unidentified man, he has denied any sort of underage hookup, and the puppeteer is now on leave from the iconic children's show.
He's not the show's first scandal: Here are eight other controversies that have no doubt ruffled Big Bird's feathers.
Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash exits Sesame Street, denies inappropriate relationship with 16-year-old boy
Katy Perry Flashes Her Muppets, Gets the Ax: The pop star got the hot-and-cold treatment from the show when, after shooting a "Hot N Cold" spoof with Elmo while wearing a sorta-racy dress, the show's execs pulled the plug on the segment for its, um, revealing content. That didn't stop a clip of the canned skit from going viral, and Perry herself spoofed the brouhaha with an appropriately boobalicious appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Bert and Ernie Aren't Gay, They're Just Roomies: Sesame Street's perennial roomies, have been dogged by rumblings that they're secretly a couple for, well, since forever. In 1993, the show's producers went as far as to issue a statement insisting that the duo "do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future." Things came to a head in 2002 when show honchos threatened to sue a filmmaker of a documentary spoof called Ernest and Bertram, about eerily familiar puppets who get hot and heavy with each other.
Million Puppet March rallies for PBS and Sesame Street following Mitt Romney's proposed budget cuts
Mitt Romney Flips the (Big) Bird: During the first presidential debate last month, the Republican candidate incited the ire of Muppet fans everywhere—not to mention advocates of public broadcasting—when he proposed to slash funding to Sesame Street's home network, PBS. Faster than you can say "Oscar the Grouch," critics were up in arms, spurring tons of memes that quickly went viral and prompting a Million Muppet March in Washington, D.C., to protest the proposal. Of course, Romney lost, and we can't help but think that somewhere, Elmo is tickled with laughter.
Kami Becomes the World's First HIV-Positive Puppet: The bright-yellow fuzzball, who debuted in 2002 on the show's South African edition, incited a storm of controversy for purposefully being created as an HIV-positive character. Kami, whose backstory includes a South African upbringing as well as a mother who died of AIDS, was meant to educate children on the disease. Her arrival fired up conservative critics, who accused the show of promoting homosexuality and prematurely educating youngsters on AIDS. But Kami had no shortage of supporters of her own, including Bill Clinton, who starred alongside the Muppet in an HIV/AIDS PSA.
Forget Big Bird: Five other Muppets we'd rather see get fired
Muppets Tackle Diversity, Come Under Fire for Racial Stereotypes: Muppets, they're just like us—they fight for equal-opportunity representation! Back in the early '70s, the show introduced an African-American Muppet named Roosevelt Franklin, who taught lessons like the African geography. But within five years, he was yanked after parents complained that the character, who was often portrayed as a rowdy kid stuck in detention, promoted negative stereotypes of black children. Thirty years later, the show would come under fire again, this time for its seeming lack of lead female Muppets. Enter Abby Cadabby, a fairy muppet with wings and a magic wand who was the show's big bid for Grover-level female stardom. Natch, Abby herself faced criticism for supposedly pandering to girlie stereotypes of pink-hued, fairy-dust fluff. Can't please everybody, huh?
Bert's Osama Bin Laden Connection: Poor, Bert: When he's not skirting gay rumors, he's being labeled a terrorist. The mild-mannered chap was literally used as hapless puppet in an anti-U.S. protest when he popped up next to Bin Laden on a placard at a 2001 rally in Bangladesh. Talk about keeping bad company! Needless to say, the folks behind Sesame Street were none too pleased, huffing that they were "outraged" at the Muppet's inclusion in the rally.
Sesame Street tells Obama campaign to take down Mitt Romney Big Bird ads
Cookie Monster Chucks the Cookies...Sorta: "Me want cookie," Cookie Monster famously chants. Parents, on the other hand, wanted anything but. After enduring rampant criticism for the blue glutton's high-calorie, high-sugar cravings, Sesame's Street's producers dramatically switched up his diet in 2005 with loads of fruits instead and also introduced a new theme song titled "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food." Eh? A rep for the show quickly rushed to Cookie Monster's defense, saying, "We're not taking cookies away from Cookie. It's about teaching moderation. We are not about intervention, we are about prevention." We still want those cookies, though.
Sesame Street's YouTube Channel Hacked and Swapped With Porn: Cue those big bird jokes! In October 2011, visitors to the site's YouTube page got quite the shock when they discovered that not only had it been hacked but that all its content had been replaced with porn. The site was briefly shut down, but as soon as it was up and running, it posted a note that announcing that "our channel was temporarily compromised" and trumping the return of "the rest of the fuzzy, feathered, and googly-eyed friends you remember from childhood." No doubt, traumatized fans were still googly-eyed from the whole debacle.
The father of modern sculpture's best-known masterpieces include The Kiss, The Thinker and The Burghers of Calais
Father of modern sculpture: Auguste Rodin
Google is celebrating the 172nd birthday of Auguste Rodin, the universally accepted father of modern sculpture.
The French sculptor's work was initially unpopular, but in his later years he became a world-renowned artist.
Today's Google doodle iincorporates one of Rodin's best-known works, The Kiss.
Tribute: Google's version of The Kiss
Here we take a closer look at Rodin's five most famous sculptures.
The Kiss
This 1889 marble sculpture of an embracing couple depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman Francesca da Rimini from Dante's Inferno, who falls in love with her husband's younger brother Paolo.
The couple are discovered and killed by Francesca's husband.
The lovers' lips do not actually touch in the sculpture, suggesting that they were interrupted and met their demise without them ever having kissed.
The Kiss
The Thinker
Probably the best known of Rodin's monumental works, this depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle.
First conceived circa 1880–1881 as a depiction of Dante, the image evolved to represent all poets and creators.
It now lives in the Rodin Museum in Paris, and is often used to represent philosophy.
The Thinker
The Burghers of Calais
Also completed in 1889, this sculpture serves as a monument to the moment in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War when Calais was captured by the English.
Edward III offered to spare the people if any six of the French port's top leaders would surrender themselves to him almost naked, with nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle.
One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers soon followed suit, stripping down to their breeches.
This poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death was captured by Rodin in his sculpture.
Burghers of Calais
The Gates of Hell
This sculptural group work depicts a scene from "The Inferno" and contains 180 figures ranging in size from 15cm high up to more than one metre.
It was commissioned in 1880 and was meant to be delivered in 1885, but Rodin continued to work on and off on the project for 37 years until his death in 1917.
Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell at the Hôtel Biron in Paris, and in 1919, two years after his death, the hotel became the Musée Rodin for the world to enjoy his work.
The Gates of Hell
The Age of Bronze
This bronze statue of a life-size nude man was first exhibited in 1877 in Paris, when Rodin was falsely accused of having made it by casting a living model.
He vigorously denied the charge, but the controversy benefited him, as members of the public were so eager to see his work and decide for themselves.
The figure was created to suggest heroism and suffering, what many of Rodin's countrymen went through while fighting in the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871.
NEW DELHI: Google doodles today to celebrate the popular French sculptor Auguste Rodin's 172nd birthday.
Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin, better known as Auguste Rodin was born into a working-class family in Paris on 12 November 1840.
Auguste Rodin has an inclination towards art from his early age and pursued drawing and painting at the Petite Ecole, a school specializing in art and mathematics.
His first sculpture was displayed in 1864 with the subject The Man with the Broken Nose, to the Paris Salon. It was an unconventional bronze piece of art work that emphasized the emotional state and texture of the subject. But unfortunately, his first work was rejected.
Among his various works, the best known included The Thinker and The Kiss.
Today's Auguste Rodin doodle commemorates the sculpture The Thinker (1879-1889) which is among the most recognized creation of his works. It is a marble and bronze sculpture and is now in the Musee Rodin in Paris.
'The Thinker' depicts a man in sober meditation and often interpreted as philosophy. It is represented in many public places.
Rodin is appreciated for his manner of dealing with the subject and muse.
He hardly considered conventional academic postures as his inspiration rather preferred his sculpture to move naturally.
Rodin also emphasized to capture the intellectual force of his subject.
Thus to commemorate Rodin's artistic legacy and celebrate his 172nd birthday on November 12th, 2012, Google has displayed a doodle featuring The Thinker on its homepage.
Fantasy football owners usually have no one to blame but themselves when their teams struggles to put up points. Did you forget a bye week? Not realize that the San Francisco 49ers are the stingiest team in the league when it comes to opposing QB points? Or just pick the wrong running back in a timeshare? Regardless of the reason, fantasy football losses fall on the shoulders of armchair Lombardis out there.
Not this week.
With Yahoo! experiencing some technical difficulties, many fantasy football owners have a new scapegoat. Those who participate in fantasy football leagues hosted by Yahoo! were out of luck when they attempted to set their rosters before the 1 p.m. EST games began. As the confusion on social media blossomed into an uproar, Yahoo! acknowledged this issue.
As the afternoon wore on, updates were not promising.
Before the beginning of the 2012 football season, Fox Business reported that fantasy football is now "generating profits in excess of $1 billion through cable deals, advertisements, draft guides, buy-in fees and various endorsements." Many of the people who laid out some of those dollars were not happy about their inability to make roster moves.
