Hasta La Gadget!

Alan Simpson, along with Erskine Bowles, represents a well-funded cadre of spokespeople who are only willing to present a narrow band of corporate- and billionaire-friendly economic policies. There’s just one approach in their world, one which Simpson and Bowles reiterated just this week: Medicare and Social Security benefit cuts for seniors and the disabled and the gutting of middle-class tax breaks, paired with further tax reductions for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

This cynical agenda is all that Simpson represents. If he brings anything else to the table, it isn’t immediately visible. He lacks subject matter knowledge in any of the fields a person must understand to speak knowledgeably on budget issues. He’s not an expert in finance, economics, health care, or social welfare.

Instead, Simpson has demonstrated an embarrassing lack of expertise in the topics he speaks about. That can be seen in his video confrontation with activist Alex Lawson, and it can be inferred from his refusal to publicly debate any of his opponents – or even to acknowledge the many budget solutions which are more popular and more practical than his own (but which are less corporate- and billionaire-friendly).

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LeBron James and Dwyane Wade still seem to be in All-Star mode.

The Heat duo showed off in the second quarter of Miami’s first game back since the All-Star break against Atlanta. Wade jumped into the passing lane and picked off a pass from Jeff Teague, blowing by him down the left side of the court. With nobody but James trailing behind him, Wade decided to get fancy.

He tossed the ball off the backboard while LeBron soared through the air for the two-handed dunk.

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By Keith Coffman

DENVER, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The leading edge of a large, powerful winter storm descended on the western United States on Wednesday, dropping snow as far south as Tucson, Arizona, and snarling evening rush-hour traffic in Denver.

A rare snowfall sweeping the southeastern corner of Arizona blanketed the saguaro cactus-studded high desert with several inches of white stuff, leading the Professional Golfers’ Association to cancel play at a tournament near Tucson.

“I don’t think I have (ever seen anything like this), to be honest,” competitor Ian Poulter said of the first-round interruption of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play tournament.

“It’s absolutely remarkable to think one minute we’re playing golf, albeit it’s a little cool, and then within a space of 25 minutes, it turns from playable to cold drizzle to sleet and to snow. And within an hour and a half of all that starting, you’ve got 2 inches of snow plus on the ground. It’s just bizarre.”

Play at the course in Marana, Arizona, was expected to resume on Thursday.

The Tucson area, a popular winter refuge for “snow bird” residents of northern U.S. states and Canada, rarely gets snow.

But a winter storm warning in effect through 11 p.m. local time called for up to 7 inches of snow in low-lying areas of Tucson, with up to 19 inches predicted for elevations above 7,000 feet. Wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour were forecast.

Up to 10 inches of snow also fell early on Wednesday in the mountains of San Diego County, California, with lighter dustings reported in high desert and inland valley areas.

There were no reports of airline flight cancellations or major traffic accidents as of Wednesday afternoon.

Snow began falling in Denver by mid-afternoon, and 2 inches had accumulated by the start of the evening commute, with bridges and overpasses icing up, said Mindy Crane, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

SNOWPLOWS IN PLACE

Crane said 4 to 8 inches of snow were forecast for the Denver metropolitan area by the time the storm moves east, but no roads had been closed as of nightfall.

Snowplows were stationed throughout Colorado should heavy accumulations mount, she said.

The heaviest snowfall was forecast to hit the High Plains of eastern Colorado in the evening and overnight hours before sweeping into Nebraska and Kansas, according to the National Weather Service.

Between 5 and 6 inches of snow was measured in parts of western Kansas by early Wednesday evening, packed down on road surfaces by winds of up to 30 mph, said Michael Scott, a weather service meteorologist in Dodge City.

“Areas of blowing and drifting snow will cause hazardous driving conditions,” the weather service warned. Scott said an additional foot of snow could fall overnight in a second band of precipitation moving up from Arizona and New Mexico.

“It’s definitely going to pack a punch for this area,” he said.

In anticipation of the storm, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback announced that state offices would be closed on Thursday.

The snow is good news for the drought-stricken region of eastern Colorado, said Bob Koopmeiners, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“The more it snows, the better,” he said. (Writing by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor and Kevin Murphy; Editing by Steve Gorman and Philip Barbara)

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Huawei’s first attempt at rolling out a Windows Phone 8 smartphone to the masses appears in the form of the Huawei Ascend W1, where it debuted at CES 2013 earlier this year. Thing is, the Huawei Ascend W1 is not equipped to function like a high end device simply because this is an entry-level handset, and we have good news. Having passed through the tests that have been put forward by the FCC, this means that the Windows Phone 8-powered Huawei Ascend W1 will no longer be limited to countries such as Russia, China and India, and those of us living in the US ought to be able to grab hold of it soon.

In fact, the Huawei Ascend W1’s recent FCC approval was spotted with a rather obvious TracFone branding on it, and it does seem as though it will be hitting the markets under the guise of the Net10 low-cost brand. It will only feature HSDPA connectivity instead of 4G LTE, but assuming the Huawei Ascend W1 commands a relatively affordable price tag to suit its place in the smartphone hierarchy, the hardware specifications do seem to be in line with its pricing territory.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More Huawei Ascend P2 Specifications Revealed, GooPhone N2 Lite A Blatant Galaxy Note 2 Clone,

All right, we have heard our fair share of rumors concerning the Chromebook from Google, and the most recent one would be a Chromebook Pixel promo video that touts a touchscreen with a whopping 2560 x 1700 resolution, and the folks over at the Wall Street Journal have reported that such a device, and even devices, are in the pipeline. This is not a surefire confirmation, but it is a step closer in the right direction for sure. Prior to a Google press event that is held tomorrow in San Francisco, the WSJ claimed that “the first touchscreen laptops powered by its Chrome operating system to be sold later this year”.

This is not the first time that mainstream media has revealed more information than it should before an official announcement, and we are quite sure that it will not be the last, either. In fact, as the event is being held at Obscura Digital, it could definitely prove to be a subtle method of letting the world know of a touchscreen Chromebook. Do you think a touchscreen Chromebook will be able to sell by the truckloads?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: WSJ “Confirms” Google’s Retail Store Plans, Google Rumored To Be Opening Their Own Retail Stores This Year,