Xi3′s PISTON Console, something many have referred to as the first Steam Box, went up for pre-order in March. While details on the console have been given in bits and pieces over the months, Xi3 has published a large round of FAQ on its upcoming console, covering questions ranging from hardware to support and back […]
TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration on Monday asked New Jersey’s top state court to take an appeal of a judge’s ruling that the state must allow gay marriage.
Citing “far-reaching implications,” Acting Attorney General John Hoffman made the request in a letter to the state Supreme Court, which usually does not weigh in on cases until after an appeals court has made a ruling on them.
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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) orchestrated the government shutdowns of the 1990s, when Republicans went head to head against then-President Bill Clinton. In an interview on Monday, Gingrich was critical of the current Republican strategy that could result in a government shutdown on Tuesday.
“You see people sort of stumbling around,” Gingrich said on Sean Hannity’s radio show. “There is no grand strategy here. Part of the difference was when we came out of the 1994 election, we had a clear commitment in the context of America to a balanced budget, so we knew what we were driving towards. We knew what we were fighting over.”
“I think here you got a lot more confusion and a lot more uncertainty, and I think that’s a big part of what we’re living through,” he said. “Folks aren’t sure how this is going to work out.”
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WASHINGTON — House Republicans aren’t attaching a birth control provision to the latest version of their government-funding bill.
The so-called “conscience clause,” which allows employers to opt out of providing health care services that they find morally or religiously objectionable, including birth control, was quietly rolled into the last funding bill that cleared the House. The provision was part of a broader one-year delay of Obamacare that Republicans attached to their bill. The Senate ultimately stripped the whole thing out though, and Republicans have refocused on adding in another anti-Obamacare provision — a delay of the health care law’s individual mandate — that doesn’t directly target contraception.
A House Republican leadership aide said the birth control language isn’t in the latest bill because it was “an outgrowth of a one-year delay” of Obamacare, which is no longer part of the bill.
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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
As Stanford cruised to an easy 55-17 blowout win over Washington State Saturday night, cameras caught a sloppy Cougars fan sitting by himself and downing a bag of popcorn in the rain. It looked like he was having a pretty good time.
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A California high school pool was closed by the city after students reported symptoms including burning eyes, bleached hair and a loss of body hair.
Berkeleyside reported that parents of the Berkeley High School water polo team sent a letter to the principal expressing concern over their children’s alleged symptoms.
One parent told Berkeleyside that her son had lost all of the hair on his arms and legs and that the his eyes were continuously watering and stinging due to irritation from the pool.
WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Monday to back legislation to fund the government for six weeks and to vote on it quickly to avoid a government shutdown in hours.
The White House said Obama, in a phone call to the top Republican in Congress, asked Boehner to drop House Republican attempts to tie continued funding of the government to cutting money for Obama’s signature healthcare law, the central obstacle holding up an agreement.
“The president made clear to the Republican leadership that they must act, as the Senate has, to pass the bill that funds the government for six weeks that doesn’t include any extraneous ideological riders,” a White House statement said.
Obama urged the House to bring up for a vote quickly Senate legislation that funds the government but does not cut the healthcare funding, in order to “keep the government open and avoid a shutdown,” the White House said.
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By Tim Gaynor
Sept 30 (Reuters) – As fans readied to see how chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White would meet his end in the tense finale of “Breaking Bad” on Sunday night, one Albuquerque donut maker had a rush of customers on her hands.
“It was insane,” said Carrie Mettling, the co-owner of the city’s Rebel Donut chain, which sold $10,000 worth of its blue frosted and crystal rock candy-slathered “blue sky” donuts in the hours before showtime. “Our sales were probably quadruple what they are on a normal Sunday.”
The local business is among many in the wake of the runaway success of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” – a show both set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico – whose profit margins have been so good lately they are almost criminal.
The chain, whose donuts are named for Walt’s top-notch “blue sky” methamphetamine, is among several Albuquerque businesses that have felt a rush to their bottom line with the success of the Emmy-winning show
“Breaking Bad” has enjoyed a surge in viewers in the past year, as an average of 5.2 million people tuned into the last half of the fifth and final season to see cancer-stricken Walt complete his metamorphosis from a mild-mannered high school teacher to the murderous drug kingpin known as Heisenberg.
Love for the gritty drama triggered a tourism surge in Albuquerque and has helped several niche businesses.
Bakers, candy makers, tour operators and even a spa that produces bath salts in the city have done a roaring trade in products they have cooked up to meet the growing demand from an influx of “Breaking Bad” fans from across the United States, Europe and Asia.
“Business now is crazy good,” said Albuquerque spa products firm owner Keith West-Harrison, who began manufacturing Bathing Bad bath salts with his partner to pay for the renovation of the vacant building they bought for their skin products business.
“In order to pay for this renovation, we asked ourselves ‘What would Walter White do?’ We decided meth probably wasn’t good for us, because we’re not chemists, we know that it blows things up and smells bad … so we decided bath salts were better,” he told Reuters.
After a tentative start turning out bath salt batches in a gallon bucket, the partners now use a cement mixer to churn out batches of 50 pounds (22.7 kilos) at a time, which sell well across the United States and in 19 countries, in show-themed plastic baggies.
LIMO TOURS
Also cashing in on “Breaking Bad” is Debbie Ball, the owner of the Candy Lady store in old town Albuquerque. Ball made rock candy that was used as a stand-in for Walt’s meth during two seasons of the show, and which she now sells to tourists in “dollar dime bags.”
“We like to have fun with it; it’s such a bad subject,” said Ball, who reckons she has sold 35,000 to 40,000 bags in just over a year. She also runs a limousine tour taking fans to locations from the program, including White’s home, although she said the owner has now tired of the procession of visitors beating a path to the front door
Sunday’s final episode was watched by 10.3 million viewers as Walt, played by Bryan Cranston, tied up the loose ends of his crumbling drug empire and died from a bullet wound just as the police finally caught up with him. But while Walt’s death spelled the end of the hit show, local business owners are optimistic the commercial high will last.
“We still watch ‘The Sopranos’ reruns, we still watch ‘Sex and the City.’ Those have been going on for years,” said West-Harrison, who now has three generations of his family churning out bath salts upstairs at the business. “So I’m thinking it’s going to have a staying power.”
Mettling first baked the blue donuts as a gift for Aaron Paul, the actor who played Walt’s drug partner Jesse Pinkman, at the show’s wrap party last year. She now sells them at an Albuquerque building used as a location for the Drug Enforcement Administration office in the show, and is also upbeat despite the show’s conclusion.
“Albuquerque fell in love with that show, and I will not have a problem keeping that donut on the menu,” she told Reuters. “It’s got some longevity.”
Ball agrees, pointing out that the final series has not yet aired in all global markets and that a spinoff series is in the works.
“The business is not going to go away just because the show has ended. There’s too many fans, and it’s not going stop any time soon. I’m going to continue to deal.” (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Cynthia Osterman)
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The government is hours away from its first shutdown since 1996. Here’s why it would be awful:
1. HUGE NUMBER OF FURLOUGHS: As many as 800,000 of the country’s 2.1 million federal workers could be furloughed as the result of a shutdown.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ON HOLD: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says that the regulator would “effectively shut down” without a deal to fund the government. The EPA wouldn’t be able to pay its employees and most of its regulatory functions would be put on hold until a deal is reached.
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