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On May 21, 2010, the company Google again surprised the world with the first interactive doodle which also was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. To start a game, they changed the button “I’m Feeling Lucky” to “Insert Coin.” The game takes place directly on the Google logo, which has been created in compliance with many of the features of the original Pac-Man, challenging users with 255 levels that make up the game. If you press twice “Insert Coin” can play a two-player version where you can guide Pacman and Ms. Pacman through the maze.

Over the years the Pac-Man became the biggest selling game of all time and its main character and the little ghosts that chase (historically known by the nicknames of Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) became a cultural icon.

It is said that the perfect game is completing the 256 levels with the highest score and without losing lives. The first person who could have done it is Billy Mitchell in 1999. After a six-hour marathon session, reached 3,333,360 points.

However, in December 1982, the 8 years old Jeffrey R. Yee received a letter from then U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on achieving a world record of 6,131,940 points, a score that can only be achieved if the player passes through the level of the split screen. Since then is hotly debated in video game circles on whether this actually took place or not. Billy Mitchell was offered $ 100,000 if he could complete the level of the split screen before January 1, 2000, but nobody could do it.

On June 5, 2007 was held in New York City, the world championship of Pac-Man, where the Mexican native of Pachuca, Hidalggo, Efren Cuz Bernardo Riveros, took home the tournament after being crowned by Toru Iwatani himself as the first and only world champion of Pac-Man.

Related posts:

1. Pac-Man 30th Anniversary! Insert Coin to Play Pacman Game Before…
2. Pac Man 30th Anniversary: ‘Insert coin’ for two player pacman free online game
3. PacMan 30th anniversary: Google PacMan game

Following nearly a year of contentious debate, the Democrats’ Wall Street reform bill stalled in the Senate last week, as all but two Republicans voted against the measure designed to overhaul the financial regulatory system.

Joining the GOP in preventing the advancement of the bill were two Democrats—Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.)—who oppose the legislation because they do not feel that it goes far enough.

Soon after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Republicans for blocking a piece of legislation that would prevent bailouts and strengthen consumer protections, according to CNN.com.

"Wall Street and, obviously, 39 out of 41 Republicans… think that things going on, on Wall Street, are just fine," Reid said. "I think that’s a real stretch to think the American people think that they want this to go on as in years past."

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the bill is just another example of the increasingly intrusive nature of big government.

"Not only does the bill still contain a massive new government agency with broad new powers over consumer spending and Main Street businesses, it does nothing to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the main protagonists in the financial meltdown," said McConnell.

Reid indicated that the Democrats plan to hold another vote on the bill in the coming days.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has found himself in a hot seat for the controversial comments he made in his latest book, where he compared President Barack Obama’s administration to the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

In To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine, Gingrich wrote that Obama and his closest Democratic collaborators, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), are implementing a socialist agenda, especially in areas such as the healthcare reform and economic stimulus, according to media reports.

In Gingrich’s view, these types of policies pose "a great threat" to America, and are comparable to those that characterized Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

His comments have provoked a strong reaction from many groups, including the American Jewish Council (AJC). David Harris, executive director of the AJC, said the analogy was "foolish and dangerous."

"It is vital that the Republican leadership say clearly that such analogies are unacceptable," Harris said. "Unfortunately, as the recent controversy over the new immigration law in Arizona also demonstrates, demonizing political opponents as Nazis is becoming all too common in American political debate."

Criticism has also come from Gingrich’s own political allies. Former GOP Congresswoman Susan Molinari told talk show host Joy Behar that she wanted to "distance myself from that remark. To compare anything that is going on in this country to the atrocities of Nazi Germany in any way, shape or form is just crazy," quoted by CNN.

President Barack Obama’s paternal aunt Zeituni Onyango, who is a citizen of Kenya and was living in the United States illegally, has been granted political asylum by a court in Boston.

The court accepted Onyango’s argument that she feared violence—she and Obama’s father, who was her half-brother, were members of the Luo tribe, a minority in Kenya—if she returned to that country. The ruling opens the way for her to apply for legal permanent residency in a year, according to The Boston Globe.

However, the court’s decision has angered immigration reform proponents, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The organization called it "a case study in how those seeking to evade U.S. immigration laws can manipulate the system," and demanded that the entire record of the case be made public.

FAIR representatives were particularly angered at the fact that Onyango was granted the asylum despite having her 2004 petition denied by a Federal immigration court, a ruling she ignored.

"[The] case is an all-too-typical example of how our asylum laws are used to thwart the enforcement [of] U.S. immigration laws," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR, adding that "the system allows people who defy our laws repeated opportunities to [come up with] new reasons to be granted legal permission to remain."

According to a new Cornell University study, older women may be able to significantly decrease their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by regularly taking vitamin E supplements.

For the study, researchers analyzed the medical data of more than 40,000 women over the age of 45 who were randomly assigned to take either 600 mg of vitamin E or a placebo every other day for several years.

At the conclusion of the research, the investigators found that participants who regularly took nutritional supplements had an approximately 10 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with COPD compared to those in the control group. However, vitamin E had no statistically significant effect on preventing the development of asthma.

"If results of this study are borne out by further research, clinicians may recommend that women take vitamin E supplements to prevent COPD," said lead author Anne Hermetet Agler.

She also noted that the benefits of vitamin E supplementation were apparent in smokers and non-smokers alike.

The findings will be presented at the ATS 2010 International Conference in New Orleans later this week.

Dear Bob

What about people who don’t have large sums of money to “invest” in your precious metals. What about the poor or the ones who struggle every day to get by. What do they do?

ALC

Dear ALC,

I understand that many are struggling to get by, especially those who are out of work or are on fixed incomes. However, you can still take steps to prepare for an uncertain future. Without knowing your specific situation I can’t give more than general advice. However, you should work to extricate yourself from debt. You should set aside a little non-perishable food (as much as you can afford) every time you go shopping. To invest in precious metals, I would recommend silver. Its price is around $17-$18 per ounce and you can buy it one ounce at a time, if that better fits your budget.

Best Wishes,
Bob

The administration of President Barack Obama has itself tied up in quite a knot.

The administration that opposes enhanced interrogations, that wants to treat terrorists caught both on the battlefield and in country as common criminals, that wants to try suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a New York City courtroom, that read Miranda rights to the foreign-born underwear bomber right away but delayed it for hours for the naturalized citizen Times Square bomber, has targeted an American citizen living in Yemen for assassination.

Of course, since the United States government has a policy against assassination that’s not what it’s being called. But what else do you call the order designating American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki as a target for a strike by a drone missile?

Awlaki is suspected by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of actively plotting violence. He is described in The New York Times as “a charismatic preacher who has said it is a religious duty to attack the United States.” The CIA says it believes Awlaki’s rhetoric inspired Times Square attempted-bomber Faisal Shahzad.

Of course Shahzad’s visit to Pakistan where he met with a member of an intelligence group with ties to the CIA surely had nothing to do with the bomb attack, but that is a topic for another day.

Whether Awlaki gets blown to bits by a Hellfire missile or shot in the head by a sniper, he’s dead and the U.S. government has become judge, jury and executioner.

To eavesdrop on Awlaki’s telephone calls the CIA—because of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—would first be required to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But to target him for death the CIA only needed approval from the National Security Council (NSC).

As former CIA lawyer Vicki Divoll told The Times, “Congress has protected Awlaki’s cell phone calls. But it has not provided any protections for his life. That makes no sense.”

I wonder if Awlaki will be read his Miranda rights before the missile explodes, or will Attorney General Eric Holder wait until afterwards and read them over Awlaki’s bits and pieces.

But wait. That might not be a problem because some in Congress want to take away Americans’ guaranteed citizenship rights if they target fellow citizens with terrorist violence.

Senator Joe Leiberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said recently, “If you’re attacking your fellow Americans in an act of war you lose the rights that come with citizenship.”

And this is where it gets really sticky. The Obama administration has yet to call the Times Square bomb plot an act of terrorism. On the White House website it is referred to as the “Times Square incident.” Or, to paraphrase Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, it was a potential man-caused disaster.

We are no longer sliding down a slippery slope. Now we are cascading down a steep mountainside.

It began soon after 9/11 with the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in the weeks following the attack. That act is already being used to strip U.S. citizens of their rights. Just ask Jose Padilla and Ashton Lundeby how that act is working out for them.

Now we have an administration that has shown a proclivity to use missile attacks from Predator drones to kill what it is calling insurgents or terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan—and killing innocents in the process—saying that it’s time to use them in a country we’re not currently at war with to kill an American citizen who hasn’t harmed anyone himself.

That same bunch doesn’t call planting a bomb in Times Square terrorism. But it warns that those who oppose its policies—and show their opposition by demonstrating and holding up signs outside the Capitol building and in cities and towns across the country—are potentially inciting attacks similar to Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

If they think the rhetoric of Tea partiers—or Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or whoever—is somehow inciting violence, how long is it before the administration starts authorizing drone missile attacks on them?

Apparently, all it takes to get on the CIA’s short list for a missile strike is for someone in the administration to decide you are inciting violence. That doesn’t bode well for a group that has drawn the ire of Obama, his administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid, who are on record as considering Tea partiers, former military members and anti-healthcare reform protestors as Nazis and terrorists.

American citizens… beware… this administration thinks you’re more dangerous and deserve fewer rights than foreigners planting bombs on U.S. soil. And if you hear the far-off hum of an airplane or the whoosh of a missile being fired, run like Satan himself is on your heels.

But if you’re al-Qaida don’t worry. Holder will read you your rights and have a court appointed attorney standing by.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said his administration will simplify the process whereby New Yorkers can obtain gun permits, reversing what gun rights advocates have long criticized as arcane and restrictive rules. However, his move appears to have failed to satisfy gun proponents.

The decision—which the administration explains is meant to increase efficiency by allowing for better investigation of applicants who might not qualify for a gun, while processing those fit to have them more swiftly—has been described as a reversal for Bloomberg who has been known for his anti-gun policies, according to The New York Times.

However, representatives of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) have said that on reviewing the new regulations they see the announcement as "a lot of flash and very little substance."

The program, which Bloomberg said will streamline licensing requirements, reduce renewal fees and speed up the application process, "sounds good on the surface," said SAF executive vice president Alan Gottlieb.

He noted, however, that there is only one handgun licensing office in Manhattan and only one office for registering and licensing rifles and shotguns in Queens.

"The handgun application fee is $340, and there is a $94.25 fingerprinting fee on top of that. This fee structure screams ‘for elites only’ because those fees are outrageously expensive for average citizens," Gottlieb concluded.

Filed under: Morning Scoop

Each morning, we dish out a few links we love.

Cheating on your diet is a cardinal sin … or is it? Here are some ways you can bend the rules and still lose weight.

We’ve all heard of airbrushing models to make them look slimmer, but here’s a … Read more

 

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Found under: Motorola, Droid, Android, Google, Froyo,

Good news or more like good expected news the Motorola DROID smartphone will be getting the Google Android 2.2 Froyo update but no date has been set as of yet my guess Months so you best sell that DROID and get a Nexus One.No word from Motorola on whether or not other Android devices from them will get the upgrade I also hope that every new phone from Motorola from as of now will have Froyo but due to the difference in the User Interface that is highly unlikely. Now you see why I

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Nexus brands A Sporting Life – a Health & Fitness Festival

We recently completed the design of the branding and all marketing materials for A Sporting Life event. Sponsored by the Encinitas Chamber of Commerce, AT&T and Clear Channel the event features a day packed with athletes, health & fitness activities, entertainment and music. Legendary, home town boy, skateboarder Tony Hawk and other skateboarding greats will be performing and over 30 world-class champion athletes will be on hand. We set out to design a really strong logo using bold colors and graphics depicting the excitement and vibrance of this sporting event. The graphic theme was integrated into all advertisements, flyers, on-site banners, posters as well as web banner ads and online graphics. Marilyn Phenow, Public Relations & Chamber Development Director said,“Thanks so much to Nexus for the time, effort, and amazing work they provided for all the graphics and marketing materials for A Sporting Life event. It’s a huge undertaking and Nexus was with us every step of the way.”  Get in the Game!

“The age of plenty is over,” said deputy PM Nick Clegg, as the new UK coalition government unveiled its first austerity budget.

According to The Telegraph, the government has announced its first £6 billion in spending cuts, with various civil servants bearing the brunt.

This will certainly have a short-term negative effect on the economy, though it’s seen as vital for the longterm health of the country.

So how does the government plan placate the masses?

They’re going to slow down on the installation of uber-unpopular traffic cams that catch automatically catch people speeding. That’s one spending cut everyone can get behind, and the hope is that this move dulls the pain a little.

Join the conversation about this story »

Three housing related reports will be released this week: existing home sales on Monday, Case-Shiller house prices on Tuesday, and new home sales on Wednesday.

On Monday, the April Chicago Fed National Activity Index will be released at 8:30 AM. This is a composite index of other data. At 10 AM the National Association for Realtors (NAR) will release the April existing home sales report. The consensus is for an increase to 5.6 million sales in April as a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). Also on Monday, the DOT will probably release the Vehicle Miles Driven for March. This has been showing declining Year-over-year miles driven.

On Tuesday, the March Case-Shiller house price index will be released at 9:00 AM. The consensus is for a slight decline in the house price index. At 10:00 AM, the Conference Board will release Consumer Confidence for May (consensus is for an increase to 59). Also on Tuesday, the FHFA house price index, and the Richmond Fed survey will be released.

On Wednesday, the April Durable Goods Orders will be released at 8:30 AM. The consensus is for a 1.5% increase. At 10 AM, the Census Bureau will release the April New Home sales report. The consensus is for an increase to 425K (SAAR) from 411K in March. Since new home sales are reported when a contract is signed, April was the last month that reported sales will be positively impacted by the tax credit.

On Thursday, the first revision of the Q1 GDP report will be released at 8:30 AM. The consensus is for an upward revision to 3.5% from the initially reported 3.2%. Also on Thursday, the closely watched initial weekly unemployment claims will be released. Consensus is for a decline to 450K from 471K last week.

And on Friday, the BEA will release the Personal Income and Outlayreport for April at 8:30 AM. Also on Friday the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for May will be released. And of course the FDIC will probably have another busy Friday afternoon …

There will be several Fed speeches this week, and a few other economic releases (trucking index, restaurant index).

And a summary of last week:

MBA Q1 2010: Record 14.69% of Mortgage Loans Delinquent or in Foreclosure

The MBA reported a record 14.69 percent of mortgage loans were either one payment delinquent or in the foreclosure process in Q1 2010 (seasonally adjusted).

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the percent loans delinquent by duration. Loans 30 days delinquent increased to 3.45%, about the same level as in Q4 2008.

Delinquent loans in the 60 day bucket increased too, and are also close to the Q4 2008 level. This suggests that the pipeline is still filling up at a high rate, but slightly below the rates of early 2009.

The 90+ day and ‘in foreclosure’ rates are at record levels. Obviously the lenders have been slow to start foreclosure proceedings – and the 90+ day delinquent bucket is very full. Also lenders have been slow to actually foreclose – and the ‘in foreclosure’ bucket is at record levels.

he second graph shows the delinquency rate by state (red is seriously delinquent: 90+ days or in foreclosure, blue is delinquent less than 90 days).

Thirty four states and the District of Columbia have total delinquency rates over 10%. This is a widespread problem.

Housing Starts increase in April

Total housing starts were at 672 thousand (SAAR) in April, up 5.8% from the revised March rate, and up 41% from the all time record low in April 2009 of 477 thousand (the lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking housing starts in 1959).

Single-family starts were at 593 thousand (SAAR) in April, up 10.2% from the revised February rate, and 65% above the record low in January 2009 (360 thousand).

Permits declined sharply suggesting that starts will decline next month.

NAHB Builder Confidence Increases in May

This graph shows the builder confidence index from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

The housing market index (HMI) was at 22 in May. This is an increase from 19 in April. This is the highest level since August 2007 – and builders were seen as depressed then!

The record low was 8 set in January 2009. This is still very low … Note: any number under 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good.

First American CoreLogic: House Prices Decline 0.3% in March

On a month-over-month basis, the national average home price index fell by 0.3 percent in March 2010 compared to February 2010.

This graph shows the national LoanPerformance data since 1976. January 2000 = 100.

The index is up 1.7% over the last year, and off 30.5% from the peak.

Moody’s: CRE Prices Decline 0.5% in March

Moody’s reported that the Moody’s/REAL All Property Type Aggregate Index declined 0.5% in March. This is a repeat sales measure of commercial real estate prices.

This is a comparison of the Moodys/REAL Commercial Property Price Index (CPPI) and the Case-Shiller composite 20 index. CRE prices only go back to December 2000.

Commercial real estate values are now down 25% over the last year, and down 42% from the peak in August 2007.

AIA: Architecture Billings Index shows less Contraction in April

The American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index increased to 48.5 in April from 46.1 in March. This index is a leading indicator for Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction.

According to the AIA, there is an “approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending” on non-residential construction. So there will probably be further declines in CRE investment through all of 2010, and probably into 2011.