Dec 26
Dec 26
LOS ANGELES — Federal regulators Wednesday pressed the operator of the San Onofre nuclear power plant for more analysis on its damaged steam generators, as the government considers when, or if, one of the seaside reactors can be restarted safely.
San Onofre, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, hasn’t produced electricity since January, after a tiny radiation leak led to the discovery of excessive wear on hundreds of generator tubes that carry radioactive water.
Dec 26
DES MOINES, Iowa — Republicans and Democrats in state capitals across the country are talking ambitiously about what they’ll do next year with the unchecked power they amassed in the fall elections. In more states than not, one party now has full control of government.
But you won’t hear much brash talk in Des Moines. Here, party leaders are warning supporters about what they shouldn’t look forward to next year and speaking mildly about compromises.
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Dec 26
You already saw Apple’s selection for best apps of the year 2012—which were kind of crappy and ridiculous. Here’s Google’s own list of best apps for Android. It’s not much better than Apple’s. Check them out and tell us what you think in the comments. More »
Dec 26
Paper Hearts For Newtown Collected By Montana Group To Show Support After Sandy Hook Shooting
Posted in: Today's ChiliBILLINGS, Mont. — It started as a way for one Montana family to talk about the tragic school shooting of 26 children and adults. Now it’s blossoming into an international movement to build a chain of handmade paper hearts to stretch almost across the country.
Gala Thompson and her family’s Paper Hearts Across America estimate it would take about 19 million small paper hearts to connect Billings, Mont., to Newtown, Conn. They’re hoping to gather that many hearts so they can deliver them to the residents of Newtown and show them there’s still good in the world.
Dec 26
Hobby Lobby Health Care Request: Justice Refuses To Block Morning-After Pill Rule
Posted in: Today's ChiliWASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday denied a request to block part of the federal health care law that requires employee health-care plans to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar emergency contraception pills.
Hobby Lobby Stores and a sister company, Mardel Inc., sued the government, claiming the mandate violates the religious beliefs of its owners.
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Dec 26
NVIDIA TegraZone hits Windows RT: beastly tablet gaming at your fingertips!
Posted in: Today's ChiliAs it has been for many moons with the Tegra-enhanced Android universe, so too does Windows RT get the NVIDIA TegraZone treatment: a listing of games made great for your Tegra processor-toting tablet! This listing of games opens in an extremely simplified display with touch-friendly pushing and pulling in mind. What you’re getting here is a guide to games that will work fabulously on your device that’s working with both Windows RT (that Windows 8 operating system made for your tablet specifically) and an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood – like the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT, for example – hot stuff!
The NVIDIA TegraZone being available for Windows RT means that NVIDIA will be pushing developers to their limits with a cross-promotional bit of excellence on all Tegra 3-toting devices. If you’ve got a Windows RT tablet with Tegra 3 (regardless of manufacturer), you’ll have a precise collection of games ready and waiting for you to peruse that you’ll know were made with your device in mind. In many cases, this means that the game has features above and beyond what it’d have working with any other processor-toting device.
Here at the launch of the NVIDIA TegraZone for Windows RT, you’ve got a selection of the following awesome collection of games: Judge Dredd vs Zombies, Pinball FX 2, Reckless Racing Ultimate, Riptide GP, Soulcraft, Space Ark, Sprinkle and Vendetta Online. Each of these games is offered for sale in the Windows Store but through the TegraZone is detailed with Tegra-only enhanced features. These features include enhanced physics in water, smoke, and cloth, dynamic lighting and particle effects – and more!
As it was with the original NVIDIA TegraZone, this version of the interface is made for the current most fabulous Tegra processor, but will keep up-to-date with the best of the best in the future. That means here that while the Tegra 3 quad-core processor is king (and has been throughout 2012), we’ll likely see a new beast from the NVIDIA crew for mobile devices in 2013 – currently code-named Wayne, as it were. Keep an eye out! Once that processor is out, developers working with NVIDIA will still be busting out the best of the best, so the TegraZone is up on the greatest no matter when you see it!
The most important part of this whole equation is the relationship that the folks at NVIDIA have with the developers behind these hard-hitting games, and the amazing apps they create as a result of said relationships for you, the user. You can download the TegraZone app from the Windows Store right this minute – have at it!
Also have a peek at the TegraZone path that’s been forged on SlashGear in a small sampling from Slashgear in the timeline below for Android – and hit our own NVIDIA [Tegra Portal] to take in the full NVIDIA Tegra environment, top to bottom!
[via NVIDIA]
NVIDIA TegraZone hits Windows RT: beastly tablet gaming at your fingertips! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Dec 26
There’s more closure in the case of some Toyota cars falling victim to “unintended acceleration,” as the company has agreed to pay out a whopping $1.1 billion to settle lawsuits centering around the flaw. For those who have forgotten, Toyota was forced to recall a ton of 2010 Lexus RX 350s and 450s after it was discovered that the floor mats can entangle the pedals and force the cars to accelerate. Unfortunately, a flaw like this is normally discovered after drivers have accidents, which is why Toyota was hit with a number of lawsuits.
USA Today explains that for some of the cars involved in the case, Toyota will pay to have them retrofit with technology that aids in stopping the car in an emergency situation. For other cars that can’t be retrofitted with this tech, the owners will be getting cold hard cash. The important thing for Toyota was showing that this wasn’t a defect with the cars’ computers, but rather an issue with floor mats. With that little bullet point on the books, Toyota has agreed to pay out these settlements and put the whole thing behind them.
Toyota was recently fined $17.35 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report the flaw in the allowed time frame, which is the largest fine the NHTSA can impose. The company now must meet with the NHTSA regularly to report its progress in fixing the issue, so a lot of headway has been made in this case lately.
It’s great to see Toyota doing things like this to get the issue resolved, but we’re sure the company just wants to move on from all of this controversy as quickly as possible. We probably won’t be hearing too much about this case now that Toyota has agreed to both the settlement and the NHTSA’s fine since there’s not much left for the company to resolve. Still, if you need a recap, you can find posts about the issue in our story timeline below.
Toyota paying out $1.1 billion to settle acceleration lawsuits is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Dec 26
Most kids, heck, even most adults, don’t like going to the doctor’s office. The girl in the video above is no exception.
But what happens when the doctor in question — a dermatologist — starts tickling the bottom of the patient’s feet? Said pig-tailed patient goes from crying to laughing in a matter of seconds. And then continues to adorably alternate between crying and laughing for the rest of the visit.
According to the YouTube description of the video, the girl was visiting the dermatologist to have the calluses around a wart ‘scraped.’ She was terrified it would hurt.
Dec 26
One Direction Prank: Teen’s Family Puts On Boy Band Masks During Christmas Lunch
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhen Beth, a teenager from the U.K., stepped away from the table during her family Christmas lunch to use the bathroom, this is the image she returned to:
Beth — a huge One Direction fan who prefers to stay anonymous — shared the adorable backstory with us via email:
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