Phone app turns tourism into location-based game

NORFOLK, VA. – Going nowhere fast in rush-hour traffic downtown, quickly losing hope that I'd reach yoga class on time, I was reminded by my iPhone that there was a little patch of peacefulness nearby.

I pulled off the main road and soon was sitting in a garden by a riverfront pagoda, a place I'd visited occasionally but hadn't thought about recently, until I started playing SCVNGR.

To play SCVNGR (pronounced "scavenger"), you download a free app for your iPhone or Android phone, then go to places and complete challenges to earn points and unlock virtual rewards, such as badges, and real-world rewards, such as discounts at restaurants. No iPhone or Android phone? You can play via text message.

Norfolk tourism officials worked with SCVNGR's developer to offer four interactive treks in one of the first partnerships nationwide between a convention and visitors bureau and a geo-gaming platform. A walking tour, a driving tour, a tour focusing on the Ghent neighborhood and a pub crawl lead players to museums, historic churches, shops and the city's "restaurant row" on Granby Street, among other attractions.

"We wanted to provide an opportunity for visitors — and residents, too — to learn more about Norfolk in a fun and mobile way," said Erin Filarecki, a spokeswoman for VisitNorfolk, the city's convention and visitors bureau. "This is taking touring to the next level trekking through a city, making it more fun, adventurous and fresh."

Christian Louboutin Boots

Subtle displays of wealth and low-income in academia

Along with the disappoint every academic inevitably feels that being a professor is not all about the "life of the mind," the second most taboo subject I've noticed is money/salary amongst faculty. I know in some cases, employees are not allowed to discuss salary, but our public institution makes all faculty salaries public. But there seem to be a huge number of other codes that suggest the socio-economic class people belonged to.
But I was wondering if other people noticed subtle displays of high wealth or low incomes with their colleagues and how did you notice it?
For example, I am from a (lower) middle class family and I had a scholarship for my undergrad degree. It was a fluke that I was in general proximity when the dot com wave hit, which then allowed me to go to a prestigious graduate program, funded by a research assistanship. To be honest, I never knew my family was "poor' until I was much older.
So there was a big learning curve - in addition to the field I was in - to essentially adopt some of the more priviledged ways of knowing (and likewise, being able to make an informed choice if I decided to resist it). For example, I never knew anyone who would hire someone to clean their house when I was growing up. My parents took care of us the best we could but they hadn't save for their children's college fund.
An ex of mine (who's still a good friend) made a nice chunk of change with his business and from a family that had done well, and he would always wear hoodies & tennis shoes, but he never wore slacks that were less than $800-1000 and they were always impeccably tailored and wore very expensive watches. He enjoyed looking casual but he said that other business people would recognize the cost of his wardrobe and accessories without having to point them out and they would immediately know he was successful.
In another case, a friend in grad school was one of the nicest, kindest people I met - she stayed with me for three days after my precious kitty passed to help me through the grief - and she seemed like any other grad student, coming to potlucks to save money, etc. When I had to go to a conference back east in a city that has high hotel rates (and grad students had limited funding), so said I was welcome at a place her family had. When I got to the place, it was essentially a penthouse...although I don't really know, the closest I had ever come to a penthouse before was a publisher's party. Later, another friend said that she was from a hugely wealthy family, but never talked about it.
I had come across some awful, entitled people before and generally thought the rich to be insufferable fools, and it was a major learning lesson for me.
On the other hand, there seems to be a converse situation where people want to display how little they make, as though it's a badge of honor to have a meager salary. I'm not talking about hardworking adjuncts or instructors who are grossly underpaid by the university, even though they do outstanding work with few resources. I'm talking about the loud mouth fellow faculty who loudly proclaim (complain) that they can't afford the cost of repairing their car or they have to clip coupons. I should say the ones who spout out "Well, I could be making more but then I'd be selling out." When I hear them say this, I wonder if they are trying to assert some type of authenticity to being poor or that they are too smart to worry about things so trifling as money.
There's a whole range of people who were rich and creepy/arrogant and had low-income and were nice. I was just thinking of the aberrations that were clear examples. 
What are some of the codes you've noticed?

Indonesia tsunami kills 113; scores more missing

PADANG, Indonesia – Rescuers battled rough seas Tuesday to reach remote Indonesian islands pounded by a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami that swept away homes, killing at least 113 people. Scores more were missing and information was only beginning to trickle in from the sparsely populated surfing destination, so casualties were expected to rise.

With few able to get to the islands to help with searches, fisherman were left to find the dead and look for the living. Corpses were strewn about since there were not enough people to dig graves, according to the Mentawai district chief, Edison Salelo Baja. More than 4,000 people expected to spend the night without shelter because tents and other supplies had also not arrived.

The fault that ruptured Monday on Sumatra island's coast also caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Though hundreds of disaster officials were unable to get to many of the villages on the Mentawai islands — reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride — they were preparing for the worst.

"We have 200 body bags on the way, just in case," said Mujiharto, who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center, shortly before announcing a five-fold increase in the death toll.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

The country's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east, started to erupt at dusk Tuesday as scientists warned that pressure building beneath its lava dome could trigger one of the most powerful blasts in years.

The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck late Monday just 13 miles (20 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor was followed by at least 14 aftershocks, the largest measuring 6.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Many panicked residents fled to high ground and were too afraid to return home.

 

The Scream

“The Scream” (Norwegian: Skrik), or translated the “Scream”, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s works in 1893. This painting is the famous works of expressionist painting.

Some people think that the work reflects the existential anxiety of modern intrusion was the mood. Red background from the 1883 Indian “nikelaketor” volcanic eruption, volcanic ash into the sky dyed. The location of the painting from the Eck Berry hill overlooking the Oslo Fjord.

Version
There are four versions of the works, which are hidden in the Oslo Munch Museum version (egg tempera, on paper, 83.5 x 66 cm), hidden in the National Gallery’s version (egg tempera, oil painting, pastels, paper, 91 x 73.5 cm), hidden in another version of Munch Museum, and Peter Olson’s collection of versions. The artist made in 1895 for print work to a large number of replication. Since 1994, two versions of which have stolen, but fortunately all recovered.

The group painted a wide range of subjects, to eulogize the “life, love and death” as the basic theme, the use of symbol and metaphor, reveals the human “end of the century,” the anxiety and fear. Munch’s 1893 painting “The Scream”, is this group of paintings is strongest and the most irritating one, is also an important representative of his works. In this painting, Munch to extremely exaggerated strokes, depicting a deformed image of the characters screaming, to the extreme of human loneliness and depression, and before that in the vast universe, feeling the fear, the performance of head . Munch himself had described the origin of this picture:
“One night I walk down the path – the city side of the road, on the other side is a fjord in my bottom. I was tired and ill stop side view towards the fjord – the sun was downhill – the cloud was stained was red, like blood, the same.
“I felt a shrill scream through the heavens and the earth; I thought I could hear the sound of screaming. I painted this painting – painting those same clouds as real blood. – Those colors Scream – This is the ‘life of painting’ in the painting “The Scream”. “(Thomas M. Messer of” Edvard Munch “, Harry N. Abrams, INC, Publishers, NewYork, p. 84. I translated. )
In this picture, there is no hint of any specific images caused by the screams of terror. Center of the screen image of the Thrillers. He seems to come from us, stretched far away to be turned to the railing. He covered their ears, the two barely audible pedestrian footsteps away, can not see the two boats and distant church steeples; otherwise, that the solitude of his tightly wound, might be able to be reduced slightly. The reality completely isolated loners, appears to have been deep inside his own extreme fear and complete conquest. This image is highly exaggerated, deformed and distorted screaming faces, is entirely comic style. That staring eyes and sunken cheeks, reminiscent of the skull associated with death. This is simply the ghost of a scream. “Can only be mad painting,” Munch painting in the sketches once wrote.
In this painting, Munch used to maintain the natural color and a certain degree of association. Although the blue water, brown, the green trees and red days, have been exaggerated expressive, but did not lose its color or less authenticity. Full-color picture is depressing: the thick red blood, suspended above the horizon, gives a sense of foreboding. It conflicts with the sea of purple shadows; the purple stretch far away because of the increasingly gloomy look. The same purple, repeated in Lonely clothes. His hands and head, then left in a pale, pale brown-gray.
No painting is not filled with a sense of instability. Twisting curves of sky and water, and the bridge form of thick, straight, in contrast to a slash. Rotating movement in the whole composition is full of rough, strong rhythm. Elements of all forms of TV drama seems to convey the voice of a shrill scream. Here is a painter can be said of visual symbols to convey the feeling of hearing, the screaming became miserable visible vibration. The acoustic image of the performance of the technique, perhaps with Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Starry Night” in the image of strength and energy performance linked. Munch here to that generated by the screaming of extreme internal anxiety, transformed into a compelling abstract images. So, he will show his emotions on the screen almost to the extreme.

17th century paintings

Part of the 17th century oil painting oil painting emphasizes the sense of light, the use of warm and cold color contrast, brightness intensity contrast, the thickness of layers to create a sense of contrast by light to form a picture dramatic atmosphere. Italian painter Caravaggio painting before he broke the orderly and harmonious in the sense of light effects, he strengthened the screen brightness contrast, often with a large flat screen dark background set off the bright prospects of the characters, it was painted in the bright light. Spanish painter El. Greco will be treated as in the scene under the mottled light and shadow, he is not from the light and dark are two decent, but from the discontinuous distribution of scattered light and dark shapes, colors form a continuous well-being but also the continuous changes in pen solemn, color level, squeezing each other in the infiltration of the screen gives the effect of confusing, or even filling the mysterious and disturbing atmosphere. Dutch painter Rembrandt also the painting of light and the performance of the mental state as a means, he made a lot of portraits, the characters are in the shadow of the large dark, only the performance of expression of the face, hands, etc. important part of showing a distinct brightness. His use of color in the dark calm multilayer thin coating, so that seems dark and deep, while the Ministry of painting light and draw a knife coated with a thick pile color method, resulting in heavy volume sense.
The same period, the use of brush strokes by many artists focus on exploration. Stroke is the oil paints on canvas with paint marks on the motion, full-size oil painting of the early part of a more consistent thickness of paint layers, brush uniform intensity, reveal almost no brush strokes. 17th century artist noted the movement of the stroke when the mood created by the rhythm and emotion driven, the painter in his paintings, the potential to produce the control pen touches the emotions, brush strokes of light, heavy, slow, anxious and direction are shaped not only the image of movement was born, stroke itself with artistic expression.

Van Gogh

Dutch representatives of the late Impressionism
Representative of "Sunflower", "postman Rouland", "Night Cafe", "wrapping the ears of the self-portrait," "Starry Night", "Van Gogh Bedroom at Arles", "Ouwei the church" and so on, all contain profound sense of tragedy and a strong personality and a unique form of pursuit. Although his work was very difficult to be accepted, but then the art of the 20th century the West has a profound impact.

Super typhoon to hit north Philippines on Monday

MANILA (Reuters) – The northern Philippines was lashed by heavy rains and strong winds from super typhoon Megi on Monday morning, and forecasters said the center of the storm was expected to make landfall before noon (12 a.m. EDT).

Megi, the 10th and strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, had slowed and changed course slightly overnight to be tracking west southwest, delaying its expected arrival in north Luzon, the country's main island, the state weather agency said.

At 6 a.m. (2200 GMT Sunday), the typhoon was 190 km east of Cagayan, and moving west southwest at 19 kph. Landslides blocking roads were reported in Apayao province.

Tropical Storm Risk said Megi was a category 5 super typhoon, the highest rating, with winds of more than 250 kph (155 mph) and would retain that strength as it crossed north Luzon on Monday.