Many Americans have throwback Fourth without power

Christ Natale enjoys a hot dog at Miller Playground after the Port Carbon Citizens Committee's annual Fourth of July Parade nicknamed the "Baby Parade" in Port Carbon, Pa. Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Republican-Herald, Jacqueline Dormer)

Christ Natale enjoys a hot dog at Miller Playground after the Port Carbon Citizens Committee's annual Fourth of July Parade nicknamed the "Baby Parade" in Port Carbon, Pa. Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Republican-Herald, Jacqueline Dormer)

Harper Yondura participates in the Port Carbon Citizens Committee's annual Fourth of July Parade nicknamed the "Baby Parade" in Port Carbon, Pa. Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Republican-Herald, Jacqueline Dormer)

Brianna Honis participates in the Port Carbon Citizens Committee's annual Fourth of July Parade nicknamed the "Baby Parade" in Port Carbon, Pa. Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Republican-Herald, Jacqueline Dormer)

Fourth of July fireworks are set off on Lake Winnipesaukee, Tuesday, July 3, 2012 in Alton Bay, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Fireworks light up the sky against the backdrop of a full moon during a Fourth of July celebration in Kansas City, Kan., Tuesday, July 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) ? George Washington never had air conditioning, but he knew how to keep cool: a mansion with lots of windows elevated on the banks of a wide, rolling river and lots of ice cream, maybe with a little brandy.

It was a little like the old days without electricity Wednesday, as the nation's capital region celebrated Independence Day the better part of a week into a widespread blackout that left millions of residents sweltering in 90-plus degree heat without air conditioning. Utilities have slowly been restoring service knocked out by a freak storm Friday from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic, and at least 26 people have died in the storm or its aftermath.

At George Washington's Mount Vernon estate, one of the most popular Fourth of July attractions was a demonstration of 18th-century ice cream making, one of Washington's favorite desserts. Historical interpreters Gail Cassidy and Anette Ahrens showed the crowds how cocoa beans were roasted and ground into a paste for chocolate ice cream, made using ice hauled up in massive blocks from the Potomac River and stored underground to last as long into the summer as possible.

As for beverages, Washington was no stranger to alcohol, enjoying imported Madeira wine from Portugal, distilling his own whiskey and enjoying a fruity brandy cocktail called Cherry Bounce.

Washington was his own architect at Mount Vernon, "and he was very good at it," said Dennis Pogue, associate director for preservation at Mount Vernon. The piazza, which runs the length of the mansion, is "kind of California living in the 18th century," Pogue said.

The location, atop a sloping hill along the Potomac, catches cool breezes. Lots of windows and shutters allow for the regulation of sun and wind. And the distinctive cupola on the mansion roof serves as the mansion's air conditioning unit, funneling hot air out the top and drawing cooler air in at the ground level.

Visitors on Wednesday gathered on the mansion's back porch, a piazza overlooking the Potomac where breezes rolled through.

"It feels good out here. It's the same thing we do in Texas," said Chris Moore of Austin, Texas, sitting with his wife, Dina. The two had come to Virginia to see their son graduate from officer training at The Basic School at Quantico Marine Corps Base.

Moore said he opted for the smaller crowds at Mount Vernon as opposed to the massive Fourth of July Celebration on the National Mall because it afforded a better place to relax and contemplate the founding of the nation, especially since Mount Vernon on Wednesday hosted a naturalization ceremony for 100 new citizens from 47 different countries.

"This place is incredible. It's just the kind of place that people need to see," he said, noting the divided nature of the country's current politics. "We all need to step back and look at where we started."

Up the river in Washington, President Barack Obama also attended a naturalization ceremony at the White House, this one for active service members from 17 countries. Military families were invited for a barbecue and to watch fireworks on the South Lawn.

Obama said the varied backgrounds of those taking the oath typified America's long tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world to its shores.

"Unless you are one of the first Americans, a native American, we are all descended from folks who came from somewhere else," he said. "The story of immigrants in America isn't a story of them. It's a story of us."

Presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has spent most of the week off the campaign trail with his family in in Wolfeboro, N.H., but took time Wednesday to march in the town's Fourth of July parade.

In New York, about a dozen disabled soldiers ? most triple or quadruple amputees ? visited ground zero ahead of the usual throng of tourists. The visit was intended to salute service members who survived the post-9/11 wars to become miracles of modern medicine, and to promote two charities raising money for homes custom-built to ease their burdens.

On Coney Island, Joey Chestnut ate his way to a sixth straight win at the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, tying his personal best in a sweaty, gag-inducing spectacle. The 28-year-old nicknamed "Jaws" scarfed down 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes in the sweltering summer heat to take home $10,000 and the mustard-yellow belt.

The city's celebration was expected to capped with the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show off Manhattan later in the night, with 40,000 aerial shells will be launched from five barges.

Many Americans abandoned their holiday plans after going without power from violent storms that hit Friday across the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Jeanette Oliver had planned to have her relatives over to her Vineland, N.J., home, but the ongoing power outage forced her to change those plans on the fly this week.

"They had been saying most people would have (electrical) service back by Wednesday, but we didn't want to risk having a big party in a home where you couldn't turn on the air conditioning, you couldn't turn on a TV or a computer," Oliver said outside a supermarket early Wednesday. "Several people in our family are elderly, and you don't want them suffering with the heat and being uncomfortable."

Sarah Lenkay and her roommates, who lost power in Columbus, Ohio, Friday evening, didn't have power back until around midnight Wednesday. They weren't too excited about the holiday, because the last few days have been so miserable.

"I'm just enjoying the comfort of my home right now, and cleaning and getting things in order," she said. "So I'm not really doing much. It feels great."

___

Associated Press Writers Tom Hays and Colleen Long in New York, Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, N.J., Julie Pace in Washington, Kasie Hunt in Wolfeboro, N.H., and Barbara Rodriguez in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-07-04-Fourth%20of%20July/id-47ec5b5735204f4e9337292d908be476

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Israel's Netanyahu faces coalition crisis

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's prime minister on Tuesday moved to contain the first major crisis in his newly expanded coalition government after his most significant partner threatened to quit in a dispute over how to overhaul the country's military draft.

Benjamin Netanyahu is rushing to meet an Aug. 1 court deadline to end a contentious system that has exempted tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from serving in the army.

The explosive issue is threatening to drive Netanyahu's new coalition partner, Kadima, out of the government. Kadima, led by Shaul Mofaz, a former military chief of staff, joined the coalition just two months ago with the aim of reforming the draft.

"If Netanyahu doesn't keep his promises, then the crisis is going to be severe and there won't be a partnership. There's no middle ground here," Mofaz told the Yediot Ahronot daily.

The issue of the exemptions has become a major point of division in Israeli society.

Under a long-standing arrangement, ultra-Orthodox seminary students are permitted to skip mandatory military service in order to pursue religious studies.

This system, begun six decades ago by Israel's founding fathers, was originally meant to allow several hundred gifted scholars to revive institutions of Jewish learning following the killing of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

The numbers of exemptions have swelled over the years, and today, more than 60,000 young religious men are exempt from military service.

These exemptions, combined with a refusal to enter the workforce and a sense that they are trying to force their strict religious mores on the general public, have bred resentment among Israel's secular majority, where men are required to serve three years in the military, and women just under two years. Many must serve additional decades as reservists.

Modern Orthodox Jews, who make up about 15 percent of the Jewish population, serve in the military.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled the current system illegal and gave the government until Aug. 1 to formulate a new law.

Netanyahu put Kadima in charge of a special parliamentary committee created to draft the new legislation. But on Monday, he disbanded the committee over deep disagreements among its members.

Ultra-Orthodox parties oppose any change in the current system and refuse to cooperate with the committee. Two other parties quit the panel because the new law might not apply to Israel's minority Arabs, who also do not serve in the military.

Following Netanyahu's decision, Mofaz said the disbanded committee would still issue its recommendations on Wednesday. He said if Netanyahu did not take the "necessary step" of using the report as the basis for a new draft system, "the national unity government will come to an end."

An Israeli official said that Netanyahu was working to resolve the standoff. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said Netanyahu planned a series of meetings with coalition partners this week.

He said Netanyahu remains committed to key principles worked out with Kadima: Ensuring that all sectors of Israeli society share the burden of military and national service, implementing any changes gradually and maintaining national unity.

Officials have said they expect a final compromise to reduce, but not eliminate, draft exemptions for the religious and create some sort of civilian national service for Israeli Arabs.

It remains unclear whether Kadima will truly bolt the government. With 29 seats in the 120-member chamber, Kadima is the largest party in parliament. Recent polls have forecast it would plunge to roughly 10 seats if new elections are held.

Although Netanyahu would retain a narrow parliamentary majority, Kadima's departure would be deeply embarrassing and rob him of a key moderating force in a coalition otherwise dominated by religious and nationalist hard-liners.

As he draws up a new draft law, without Kadima Netanyahu would also be subject to even more intense pressure from the remaining factions in the coalition, including the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and the fiercely secular Yisrael Beitenu.

Neither showed any signs of bending.

"We will not compromise on a partial solution. We will not agree to any postponement," Yisrael Beitenu's leader, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, told Army Radio. "At age 18, everyone needs to serve."

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, said prayer and religious study had saved the country. "The state ... would not have been established without the Torah of Israel," he said.

Avraham Diskin, a professor of political science at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya college, said that with so much at stake, he expected Netanyahu to somehow forge a compromise.

"There is a possibility that the collation will lose its majority; that the government will collapse and they will call new elections," Diskin said, "but if I had to bet, I would bet that they would reach some sort of temporary formula or delay by the courts."

___

Federman can be followed at www.twitter.com/joseffederman

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israels-netanyahu-faces-coalition-crisis-095705895.html

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Fun and games for youth at Gateway Church: The youth at Gateway Community Church...

bit.ly

The youth at Gateway Community Church youth have fun activities planned for the summer. Movie night starts Sunday, July 8. Sunday will be movie night for the rest of the month. Game night is planned from 6-8 p.m. every other Saturday starting this week. Saturday, July 7 features video games. Saturda?

Source: http://www.facebook.com/HCNews/posts/10151082325001667

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Google Nexus 7

Google's Nexus 7 ($199 for 8GB, $249 for 16GB) is a game-changer. The first tablet?with Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean," it's the most bang for the buck you can get in the market right now. It's versatile, well-built, fast, and a lot of fun to use. It basically renders every 7-inch tablet priced at more than $300 pretty much irrelevant. If you're looking for a small tablet to surf the Internet and play games, this is the one to buy. It easily unseats the Amazon Kindle Fire ($199, 4 stars)?as our Editors' Choice for small tablets.

Physical Features and Internet
The Nexus 7 feels well-built, even classy for a $200 tablet?and trust me, I've handled plenty of cheap tablets. Kudos go to the hardware manufacturer, Asus, a company that typically builds good stuff. A Gorilla Glass screen dominates the front of the tablet, and around back, there's a slightly grippy, stippled black rubber panel. At 7.8 by 4.7 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 12 ounces, it's comfortable to hold in one hand for long periods.?

Turn the tablet on using the prominent Power button at the top right corner, and you'll see a perfectly fine 1280-by-800, 7-inch IPS LCD with a huge black bezel around it. The screen is higher-res than the Kindle Fire, which clocks in at 1280-by-600. This is one monster of a bezel, and it makes you wonder if the screen could have been larger, or the tablet smaller. The answer is "probably not for $200."?

The display is bright enough to see indoors and out, on par with the Kindle Fire's, although it's more reflective and less saturated than the high-end AMOLED screens used by the far more expensive tablets like the Toshiba Excite 7.7 ($499.99, 3.5 stars) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 ($699.99, 3.5 stars).?

A Wi-Fi-only device, the Nexus 7 connects to the Internet using 802.11 b/g/n, albeit only on the 2.4GHz band. I had no problem hooking into several WPA2-protected networks, although it dropped off of one of them at one point during testing.?The tablet supports Bluetooth for audio and NFC to transfer files to other NFC-equipped Android devices. Interestingly, Google Wallet doesn't appear in Google Play on the Nexus 7, so, for now, at least, it doesn't look like you can make NFC credit-card payments here.

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Performance and Apps
The quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset inside is one of the fastest mobile processors around. This unit runs at 1.3GHz in single core mode, and 1.2GHz when two to four cores are active. It's far faster than the Kindle Fire's older dual-core chipset. While our Antutu system benchmark won't run on the new version of Android, we ran a bunch of other benchmarks, including Geekbench and Quadrant for system scores, Browsermark and Sunspider for the Web, and Nenamark for graphics.

System-wise, the Nexus 7 performed on par with other recent Tegra 3 tablets like the Toshiba Excite 7.7 . Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark, and the Tegra 3 tablets score considerably higher on it than the dual-core Apple iPad does?in this case, 1,472 to the iPad's 761. Graphics performance was rock-solid with a 55.9 fps rating in Nenamark, higher than the Excite 7.7 and the Asus Transformer Pad TF300 ($379, 4 stars).

Games just rock here. I downloaded a few of Nvidia's Tegra Zone titles, and both Zen Pinball and Riptide GP had the smooth ease of control which marks a really good gaming experience. There was no jerkiness, no lag, and no compromises. The Kindle Fire has games, but they aren't as glamorous as the Tegra Zone entries.

This is the first Google device to install Chrome as the default browser, and that's great; it's about 30 percent faster than the older stock Android browser, and it has a better tab interface.

The performance news gets even better with Android 4.1 thanks to "Butter." That's Google's code-name for a project that makes everything in the Android UI smoother, and it works. Screen transitions are indeed smoother, and there's no lag with the touch keyboard. The whole experience feels more polished and professional than previous Android iterations.

Butter doesn't solve everything, though. Android has problems with processing stylus touch inputs that can make it difficult to use drawing programs. I tried Sketchbook Pro with a stylus and still saw a lag.?Android 4.1 apparently fixes this, but consumers won't see the advantage yet because the apps involved need to be retooled for the new OS.?

Thus we get to the stickiest issue with Android tablets: The perpetual lack of great apps designed to use high-end hardware. This is less of a problem with Tegra-powered 7-inch tablets than with larger tablets, or those with different chipsets, but it's still an issue. Apps designed for 4-inch phone screens don't look so bad on 7-inch tablets (although they don't look great), and Nvidia has been busily helping developers churn out a few dozen super-high-end games for its chips.

You're going to find the range of apps designed for Android tablets to be in the single-digit thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands you'll find on the iPad. But the success of this tablet might improve that, and you certainly have some decent apps to start working with. The list on the Tablified Market ($1.49, 4 stars) is an excellent starting point.

For more on the many improvements in Android, see our full review of?Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" (4.5 stars).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Fah0hpb8TBA/0,2817,2406552,00.asp

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Real Fake Supercars for the Shameless Set

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Crave a supercar but lack the seven-figure funds to realize your exotic car dreams?

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If you don't mind the inauthenticity of imitation, look no further than south of the border: a shop based in Tempatitl?n, Mexico will build you a Lamborghini Reventon ($45,000) or a Ferrari 458 Italia ($68,000) using hand-laid fiberglass bodies. The bargain basement prices include most exterior and interior trim, but chassis and powertrain components are sold (and installed) separately.

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Afraid your psuedo ride might be detected by those in the know? Try driving faster; nothing throws 'em off like a blurry wedge, and coupled with a donor powerplant like a small-block Chevy V8, these wannabe supercars should likely make for decently quick getaways.

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Source: GT Spirit

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Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/real-fake-supercars-for-the-shameless-set?src=rss

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The Numerous Features Of A Hand Held Console | yousail.co.uk

The nintendo first came in 1985 when the first system was released, this was referred to as NES. A portable version of a game console was later produced in 1989, this was known as the gameboy and is still used a good deal today. Tetris sold in excess of 150 million units across the world yet still is considered the most successful game ever launched.

Producers of gaming systems went on with their productions by launching the game boy advance as well as the nintendo DS. Nintendo took a big step into producing an innovative solution, for the reason that they were able to complete a console that was wifi and additionally touch screen. You could be pleasantly surprised to learn that these portable consoles were specially designed to enable people to play all of their slightly older games on their much more modern DS console.

The nintendo dsi was another console to be produced, this resourceful item was introduced in 2009 but the individuals in Japan seemed to have had the chance to test this console before any other people did. This dsi console includes a range of ground breaking qualities, including Wifi access, SD card space, 2 touch screens, cameras and also the capability to shoot pictures and even videos. You can additionally get a hold of available games and downloads on the web.

The gaming system referred to as the nintendo 3DS was then launched in February 2011. This is the Third make of the Nintendo DSI, with this games system you are able to play your normal DSI games using the brand new and improved console this is essential to some people because they have such a variety of games to mess around with. The nintendo 3DS delivers the capabilities of playing 3D games on what is a significant increase in technology when compared to older models.

Another console which is popular is Sony, this producer has still managed to keep up to date by making the consoles for the playstation?s, 1, 2 and even 3. Their innovative Sony PS Vita was launched in 2012, it has made a great impact on the way individuals play their handheld gaming consoles. This gaming console is most possibly one of the greatest and most impressive consoles in the marketplace right now. This new system has an integrated quad core processor in addition to a 5 inch screen. This product in fact has blue tooth functions along with duel sticks and additionally 2 touch monitors.

You should definitely keep your eyes open for even more gaming systems to be created, enhancements are being produced every day plus there is also talk of Sony making a gaming console that provides remote play. The idea of playing your PS3 games on the Vita is really incredible and if that function does appear on the market it will master almost every other portable device for several years to come.

For more game information, you should see Nintendo?s awesome video game beat the beat for Wii which will be available across Europe on the sixth of July.

Source: http://yousail.co.uk/the-numerous-features-of-a-hand-held-console/

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Google patent filing would identify faces in videos, spot the You in YouTube

Face detection is a common sight in still photography, but it's a rarity in video outside of certain research projects. Google may be keen to take some of the mystery out of those clips through a just-published patent application: its technique usees video frames to generate clusters of face representations that are attached to a given person. By knowing what a subject looks like from various angles, Google could then attach a name to a face whenever it shows up in a clip, even at different angles and in strange lighting conditions. The most obvious purpose would be to give YouTube viewers a Flickr-like option to tag people in videos, but it could also be used to spot people in augmented reality apps and get their details -- imagine never being at a loss for information about a new friend as long as you're wearing Project Glass. As a patent, it's not a definitive roadmap for where Google is going with any of its properties, but it could be a clue as to the search giant's thinking. Don't be surprised if YouTube can eventually prove that a Google+ friend really did streak across the stage at a concert.

Google patent filing would identify faces in videos, spot the You in YouTube originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/03/google-patent-filing-would-identify-faces-in-videos/

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