Play Station 4 Sells Over 1 Million Units in First 24 Hours. Will Xbox One do the same?

Posted on November 18, 2013 by johnmenard

It’s winter and that means only one thing, new gamming consoles. Friday was the day Sony’s newest state of the art gaming console, the Play Station 4, was released and did it go off with a bang.

Sony reports that their new Play Station 4 sold over one million units within the first 24 hours of being for sale. People braved the elements waiting in lines outside of stores like Best Buy and Game Stop to get their hands on the newest gaming technology. This new Play Station 4 is supposed to be a huge upgrade from Sony’s previous gamming console, the Play Station 3. The Play Station 4 is supposed to have better graphics, faster load times, and hopefully not the bugs and other problems its predecessor had. Fans of the Play Station 4 will have plenty of new game titles that will be available just for Play Station 4 users that Xbox One, which is the newest gaming console from Microsoft, which is supposed to launch this Tuesday, will not have.

The big question arises though, what new generation gaming system should you buy. This really comes down to what you have been playing your whole life. If you have been using Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system you will most likely purchase the new Xbox One and if you have been using Sony’s Play Station’s you will most likely purchase the Play Station 4. The two systems will probably never be cross compatible so the two companies will most likely always have the same people buying their products.

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Recap and Analysis of San Diego Chargers vs. Miami Dolphins

Posted on November 17, 2013 by jmoore524

Today’s matchup against the San Diego Chargers held major playoff implications for both squads. Both teams entered the game with a 4-5 record each only a game back in the uber-competitive race for the AFC’s second wildcard spot.

The Dolphins came into the game off of an embarrassing Monday night loss to a previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers team and on the heels of their nationwide bullying scandal. To add insult to injury and further decimate their offensive line, center Mike Pouncey who has quickly become recognized as one of the best pass blocking and pulling linemen in the league was sidelined with an ailment on Friday and was unable to play in Sunday’s matchup.

Only serving to add more importance to the game, both the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets fell to their opponents earlier in the day which further opened the door in the AFC’s wildcard race.

The first half was relatively quiet for both teams as there was a major dearth iof big plays from both teams. Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace continued their struggles to hook up on a big play when Wallace got behind his man but was underthrown by at least three yards. The first half ended tied 10-10 with neither team taking any kind of decisive control in the contest.

The second half opened with a short 8 play drive for the Chargers when they were forced to punt after multiple penalties.

The Dolphins were able to capitalize on their next drive, scoring on a ridiculous 39 yard touchdown to Charles Clay who ran over two Chargers defenders on his way to the endzone.

The game ended 20-16 after a failed two-minute drill which was squelched by one Cameron Wake sack and ended on a beautifully defended last second pass by cornerback Brent Grimes.

The Dolphins are now tied with the Jets at 5-5, only being held out of the playoffs by virtue of the Jets’ division record.

 

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Early Success For The Portland Trailblazers

Posted on November 17, 2013 by jperez110

The Portland Trailblazers are off to a great start this season in the western conference. With 8 wins and only 2 losses, Portland is sitting in second place in the conference right behind the defending western conference champion San Antonio Spurs. Portland opened the season with a loss to the Phoenix Suns, but the next 2 games were much more important for the Blazers.

Portland defeated the Denver Nuggets by double digits in the next game. Denver is a team that many thought would make a run at the top spot in the west, but Portland dominated them. On the following day the Trailblazers faced off against the Spurs. Nicholas Batum recorded a triple-double and the Blazers beat the Spurs by 10 points. The Spurs were not happy with Batum, who made a 3 pointer at the buzzer giving him a triple-double. Many players for the Spurs said that what Batum did was disrespectful. Batum later apologized for his actions.

After a loss to the Houston Rockets, the Blazers went on a 6 game winning streak beating teams like Detroit and Boston. Much of the early success this season is because of second year point guard Damian Lillard from Weber State. Lillard won the Rookie of the Year award last season and has improved his game in many areas this season. His player efficiency rating has gone up, along with his rebounding numbers. The question for this Portland team is whether they can sustain this success over a long 82 game regular season.

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$950 Million Movie to Open November 22nd

Posted on November 17, 2013 by gabriellemotto

The second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy opens in theaters on Friday, November 22, 2013. Catching Fire is projected to gross $950 million in worldwide box office. It’s been one of the most talked about movies of this year and with good reason. The book series was a huge success a few years back. The series is about a girl named Katniss Everdeen. She lives in a world where every year, one boy and one girl from each district, is forced to enter a game of life and death for the entertainment of the people in the capital. In the first book, Katniss’ sister is chosen to be a part of the games, but Katniss then saves her by volunteering to play. She goes on to play and somehow manages to win the game, but also save the boy from her district. In doing this, she has defied the capital and has become the face of the rebellion that is starting within the districts.

This is where Catching Fire begins. Katniss’ story gets more exciting and action packed, as President Snow tries to eliminate the face of the rebellion that threatens to overthrow his reign. The movie promises to be great with all of the awesome actors that are in it. Katniss is played by Oscar winning actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Peeta Melllark is played by Josh Hutcherson, who you can watch on Saturday Night Live this Saturday. President Snow is played by Donald Sutherland. I’m super excited to see this movie! I cant wait!

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UCF Knights Make Astonishing Turn Around

Posted on November 17, 2013 by stephaniemmuniz

The Knights made a turn around during the last two minutes against Temple. To continue on their winning streak, seventeenth ranked Knights pulled an unbelievable touchdown during the fourth quarter. Knights receiver J.J. Worton single handily reached out for the ball and managed to score the last touchdown of the game from Blake Bortles. Kicker Shawn Moffitt also put UCF ahead in the final game moments with a twenty-three yeard field goal.  Excitement and emotions ran high on Lincoln Financial Field as the Knights made a come back changing the score during the final moments in their favor. Owls expected to win the victory but came short 39-36. The UCF Knights continue their winning streak this season making a name for themselves this year. American Report states UCF conference 5-0 and overall 8-1.

Knights football coach George O’Leary stated “someone is looking out for them. Those games don’t usually happen like that.” Victory against Happy Valley, Memphis, and Louisville have the Knights on high hopes and spirits for the remaining of the season. Just finishing up homecoming week, UCF has a lot of spirit and support to cheer on their team in their recent victories. The University of Central Florida’s football team has never been as big as their population but the Knights are making a come-up this season. With over fifty thousand students, the Knights will have a packed arena this Thursday night for their home game against Rutgers. The Knights will also play against another Florida team USF the following week. Their victory puts shine on the University of Central Florida’s pride and joy.

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Is It Possible To Be Friends With Benefits?

Posted on November 16, 2013 by bosimpson

Think of a situation where you are attracted to someone. You spend a lot of time with them and then one day you two decide you want to hook up. Why not? You guys have a great time around each other and the physical attraction is there. After all, hooking up is supposed to be a fun thing, right? So now you’re seeing each other more you’re hooking up on a constant basis. The both of you decided that a relationship wasn’t what you were looking for and said it was okay to hook up with other people as well. So what’s the problem?

It would seem like this is an perfect situation for anybody that doesn’t want a relationship so why is it that we never hear that these people just decide to stop hooking up one day and end on good terms and there was a perfect ending to a wonderful beginning. That’s because life barely works that way. My philopshy on friends with benefits is that it does not work. Not saying that it always doesn’t work because it may work for a select few but most of the time the versions of the stories that I’ve heard the end is much like a Sour Patch Kid. It can either be sweet or sour.

It can either end sweet where the two people fall for each other and end up getting into a relationship, which then again how sweet can that be if it’s not what you wanted in the first place and you based your relationship on sex before anything else first? Or it can end sour and this one is where things get messy. Emotions come into play, one person gets jealous of the other hooking up with other people even though that’s what they agreed on. They could possibly smash your car, or light your house on fire. Don’t be too alarmed, those are extremes; but you get the picture. They may not kill you in real life but they will repeatly murder you in their minds. People falling for someone that doesn’t want them back makes them psycho.

My advice would be to not do it. Unless you want to, then who am I to tell you not to. By all means, do it. I feel like it’s something that everyone may want to experience at some point in their lives. Even if everything turns to turmoil in the end, there’s almost one thing you can be certain of, it’ll be fun. Good or bad, happy or sappy ending, you will have a story to tell in the end with this experience. And that’s what our lives are all about in the end, right? The stories that we have to tell about what we’ve done. If we had no stories then what proof do we have that we’ve lived a great life?

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Danny Brown Coming to Orlando Following Release of Old

Posted on November 15, 2013 by robert sutton

Hip-hop artist Danny Brown will be performing at Plaza Live in Orlando on December 4. The tour follows the success of Danny Brown’s third full-length album “Old”, released in October on Fool’s Gold and Warner Records.

Danny Brown garnered critical acclaim following the underground success of his 2011 LP “XXX” or “30”. The first title makes reference to Danny Brown’s struggle with addiction while the latter references his age. Despite being 32 years old, Danny Brown has only recently gained recognition from the music community. Brown has become known for his zany pitches and unique vocal arrangements, which are complimented by his gap-toothed and unkempt appearance.

The 19-track long album, Old, features rap artists such as Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, A$AP Rocky and indie-pop singers Purity Ring and Charlie XCX. The album is basically split into two halves, the first being more introspective and the second more focused on trap and dubstep influenced party-anthems.

Tracks on the first half of the album such as “Side A (Old)”, “The Return”, “Lonely”, and “Clean Up” show a contemplative Brown who realizes the way his struggles with drug addiction have affected his relationships with his family. In particular, Brown sings about his daughter calling him while he ignores her calls to indulge his addiction on the track “Clean Up”. The listener gets an image of a man who has struggled throughout his life and doesn’t want to lose everything he’s worked for.

Unfortunately the second half of this album shows a Mr. Hyde side of Danny Brown that feels the need to rely on the drug culture that has gotten him to where he is. For example, tracks such as “Dip”, “Smokin & Drinkin”, and “Kush Coma” insight images of twerking, abusing drugs, and embracing a party lifestyle. Despite falling short lyrically, the second half of the album has many catchy hooks and production that is uniquely strange and catchy, a tone Danny Brown has capitalized on. The most redeeming track on the second half of the album is the sobering and reflective closer “Float On”. The track makes references back to the first half of the album and shows a human side of Danny Brown that is afraid of what his future might be yet optimistic that he’ll leave his mark on the hip-hop world.

In a way Danny Brown already has left his mark on the hip-hop world, if only for the time being. His album “Old” delivers a mix that is sure to please most hip-hop fans and well certainly get a crowd hyped and grooving. Tickets are available now for $18-$20. Again, the show is on Wednesday, December 4. Doors are at 8 pm and the show begins at 9 pm.

Tickets available at the link below:

Danny Brown

Listen to his 2013 album “Old”  in full here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aed6VatCHUY

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Social Media is this Generations Enemy

Posted on November 15, 2013 by elizabeth hannigan

Social interaction has changed drastically since the times before the Internet.  People once talked on landlines and now the most popular form of interaction is text messaging.  Social media networks have made face-to-face talking somewhat extinct, it’s so much more convenient to communicate via these social media networks.  One person can literally be talking to twenty different people all at the same time, without ever having to leave the comfort of their beds.  But where social media provides benefits, there are also negatives.

One new form of social media is an app known as Snapchat.  Snapchat allows users to take a picture or video and send it to another user of Snapchat knowing that the image or video will disappear after ten seconds.  However, the makers of Snapchat did not count on the fact that smartphones have a feature known as “screenshot or screencap”.  These features allow users to snap a picture of whatever is on the phones’ screen at the time, which in turn makes the seemingly disappearing Snapchat last forever.  The makers of Snapchat attempted to make a social media app that was safe and fun for everyone, but leave it to my generation to find loopholes and ruin it for everyone.

Ten boys, between the ages of 13 and 15, have been arrested in Montreal for taking and distributing child pornography.  The boys allegedly took Snapchats of their girlfriends in various stages of disrobe and sent them to other users of Snapchat. The other users in turn took screenshots of the images and sent them throughout the school.   Nowadays, anything you post on the Internet is going to be there forever and could easily cause more damage than intended.

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One of America’s Most Reliable News Program Makes Huge Mistake

Posted on November 14, 2013 by andreat

60 minutes is one of America’s most prestigious news programs.  They have been around for sixty years, are ranked 6th on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows, and have been one of the main sources of news for people in the United States.  But within the last few weeks they made a major mistake.

In the 60 minutes Benghazi report they had a segment that interviewed a supposed eyewitness of the terrorist attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi.  His name was Morgan Jones, aka Dylan Davies, and he had quite the story to tell.

Davies claimed he scaled a 12 foot wall, entered the terrorist ridden compound, took out a terrorist with the butt of his gun, and would eventually see the dead body of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.  It sounds like a great story and a great catch for Lara Logan and CBS, but it wasn’t true.

Other stations started questioning the validity of the report almost immediately after the show aired.  In fact one station said that the found an incident report that Davies gave his employer Blue Mountain that said he was no where near the compound and that he heard about Stevens’ body from a Libyan colleague.  Of course Davies said this was fault and he was the victim of a huge smear campaign.  Initially CBS stood by the story.

But eventually the truth would come out.  On November 7th CBS came out and said that they had made a mistake and that they would retract their story.  Lara Logan has apologized twice on live Television.  She had a 90 second apology on the Sunday show of 60 minutes.  Right now it is only getting worse for CBS and Lara Logan, who is one of the world’s best journalist.  They are under fierce criticism right now, and their credibility is at stake.  Hopefully they can right their wrong and I only think it happens is with time.  Good luck CBS.

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Dario Franchitti Forced to Retire From Racing

Posted on November 14, 2013 by marissanclark

Dario Franchitto, arguably one of the greatest Indy Car drivers of all time is now being urgued by doctors to retire from the sport he loves due to several injuries. He suffered several severe injuries from a crash in a race last month. Franchitto fractured his spine in a crash during a race on October 6th in Houston. His car made contact with another car in the final lap of the race and flew head on into the fences injuring Dario, an official, and several spectators.

Franchitto vowed he would race even into his late 40’s. Two of his closest friends were fellow Indy Racers, Greg Moore and Dan Wheldon. Both of which died in crashes through racing so Dario was keeping their spirits alive by continuing to compete. However due to this severe injuries his career will be stopped at the age of 40.

Franchitto has always been a very popular racer in Indy Car because of his link to Hollywood being married to actress Ashley Judd. The two recently announced their divorce however.

Dario Franchitto is a four time Indy Car Series winner and 2 time winner of the Indy 500. In total he has 31 race victories which ranks 8th on the all time list.He is already being offered job positions to become an adviser for several racing companies.

To sum it up, Dario is leaving an enormous legacy in Indy Car with bringing many of these races into the Hollywood spotlight. The dangerous nature of this sport is also brought up after a crash of this nature sidelining Dario for good. Of course the sport will continue without him, but there will be quite a large hole to be replaced without him.

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