Is Halo 3: ODST worth it?

Think you finished the fight? Sorry, but you've got at least one battle left.

The follow-up to blockbuster shooter Halo 3 arrives this Tuesday, two years after its forebear stormed billboards, flyers, commercial breaks, 7-11s, and, occasionally, living rooms to usher in the biggest single launch day in entertainment history (a record eventually broken by GTA IV.) But while that game brought the official Halo trilogy to an end, the franchise is hardly finished exploring the game's rich world -- or its rich fans.

Watch the Halo 3 ODST live-action trailer

Set between Halo 2 and Halo 3, ODST takes the series in a new direction, trading series star Master Chief for a group of elite soldiers (the "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers" referenced in the title) who battle familiar Covenant foes in the ravaged city of New Mombasa. In addition to the new story campaign, the game also includes two dozen Halo 3 multiplayer maps and one brand new multiplayer mode -- a decent amount of stuff, but is it worth $60?

For the most part, yes it is -- or so say game critics. Though it can’t quite live up to Halo 3's stellar showing, ODST is currently scoring well enough (about 87% on gamerankings.com) to make fans temporarily forget about Master Chief and drop coin on his surrogates.

It will also make them very, very happy. In their 9/10 review, IGN called ODST "the definition of fan service" that "no Halo fan should be without." Giant Bomb (4/5) concurs, adding that "if you liked Halo 3 and have any interest in the expanded Halo universe, you'll enjoy the new things that ODST has to offer."

So what new things, exactly? How about the plot? Gamespy, who gave it a 4/5, called the game's humanistic story "more interesting and coherent than Halo's narrative has ever been." Eurogamer (8/10) insists it's "a marvelous campaign, and its clever pacing, shifting focus and expert storytelling all heave effortlessly under cover of wisdom inherited from the phenomenal Halo 3." Phew.

Everyone seems just as enamored with ODST's new Firefight online mode. Worthplaying, who fell hard with a 9.5/10, consider it "a true test of skill." Game blog Kotaku agrees, noting that "Firefight with a group of players is a blast," while Edge Online (9/10) believes it's "so good it instantly cements its place in future Halo installments" (although at the moment, only one new Halo game, 2010's Halo: Reach, has been announced.)

In terms of new gameplay, however, Halo 3: ODST starts to lose its luster. Gamedaily (8/10) is "a little disappointed that Bungie didn't introduce something radically different. Most of Halo 3: ODST's missions feel similar to those from previous Halos..." Games Radar and their grumpy 7/10 review feels much the same way, calling it "the same basic game you’ve been playing since 2001." Even TeamXbox, who largely raved in a 9.4/10 piece, couldn’t hold back. "There aren’t really any new weapons...or vehicles...not that there necessarily need to be, but the early promise for the game was going to be one that did not play like other games in the series. As far as I can tell, that’s not true..." And though everyone is fine with the extra maps, they too are more of the same, as only three are actually new (Halo 3 players have been able to download the others for some time now).

So it's got a cool new plot, a great new mode and mostly plays the same. Should you buy it? That seems to boil down to that whole fan thing again. "Halo 3: ODST does not feel like a full game" to Games Radar, and Eurogamer believes it's "that price tag that ultimately does for Halo 3: ODST." Still, most reviewers don't think the expansion-pack nature of the game makes it any less worth the money. "If you're on the fence about buying it, drop your reservations and go snag a copy," implores IGN.

by Ben Silverman

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/is-halo-3-odst-worth-it-/1356254

Stolen Aussie Olympic gold back after 25 years

MELBOURNE (AFP) – An Olympic gold medal won by Australian swimming legend John Konrads in 1960 has been returned to its rightful owner 25 years after it was stolen, police said Tuesday.

The 1500 metre freestyle medal from the Rome Olympics and 15 other medals, taken from Konrads' Melbourne home in 1984, were found after a woman tried to sell them on the Internet to a US sports enthusiast, police said.

They said the US collector contacted Konrads to check if he was aware of the sale and the swimmer then called police, who seized the medals in the regional city of Geelong before they were shipped overseas.

The woman told police that she bought the medals 10 years ago at a bric-a-brac sale in Brisbane, about 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) to the north, and thought they were fakes with little or no value.

Melbourne's Age newspaper reported the medals were worth more than 100,000 dollars (86,000 US).

Detective senior constable Nick Uebergang said Konrads was "thrilled" at the medals' return, thinking they had long ago been melted down or disappeared onto the black market.

"He believed he was never going to see them again," Uebergang told national news agency AAP.

Police said they did not expect to lay any charges following the retrieval of the medals, which will now go on display at the National Sports Museum in Melbourne.

The International Olympic Committee created replicas of the stolen medals for Konrads after the theft, which he later sold.

Konrads, 67, was a swimming prodigy who broke every freestyle world record from 200 metres to 1,500 metres by the time he was 15, going on to win gold in the 1500 metres in Rome, as well as bronze in the 400m and the 4x200m relay.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090922/sp_wl_afp/swimausolycrimekonrads_20090922080303

Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse

Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team.

Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic (KIE-yuk) was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.

"The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it's a frozen moment in time."

The ancient, or "classic" Maya were part of a Central American civilization best known for stepped pyramids, beautiful carvings and murals and the widespread abandonment of cities around 900 A.D. in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. They headed for the northern Yucatan, where Spanish conquistadors met their descendants in the 1500s (6 million modern Maya still live in Central America today).

Past work by the team, led by Bey and Tomas Gallareta of Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History, shows the Maya had inhabited the Puuc region since 500 B.C. So why they headed for the coast with their brethren is just part of the mystery of the Maya collapse.

New clues may come from Kiuic, where the archaeologists explored two pyramids and, most intriguingly, plantation palaces on the ridges ringing the center. Of particular interest: a hilltop complex nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven" by Gallareta (that's "Escalera al Cieloa" for Spanish-speaking Led Zeppelin fans) because of a long staircase leading from Kiuic to a central plaza nearly a mile away.

Both the pyramids and the palaces look like latter-day additions to Kiuic, built in the 9th century, just as Maya centers farther south were being abandoned. "The influx of wealth (at Kiuic) may spring from immigration," Bey says, as Maya headed north. One pyramid was built atop what was originally a palace, allowing the rulers of Kiuic to simultaneously celebrate their forebears and move to fancier digs in the hills.

When the team started exploring the hilltop palaces, five vaulted homes to the south of the hilltop plaza and four to the north, the archaeologists found tools, stone knives and axes, corn-grinder stones called metates (muh-TAH-taze) and pots still sitting in place. "It was completely unexpected," Bey says. "It looks like they just turned the metates on their sides and left things waiting for them to come back."

"Their finds look very interesting and promising," says archaeologist Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona, who is not part of the project. "If it indeed represents rapid abandonment, it provides important implications about the social circumstance at that time and promises detailed data on the way people lived."

Inomata is part of a team exploring Aguateca, an abandoned Maya center in Guatemala renowned for its preservation. "I should add that the identification of rapid abandonment is not easy. There are other types of deposits — particularly ritual deposits — that result in very similar kinds of artifact assemblages," Inomata cautions, by email.

Bey and colleagues presented some of their findings earlier this year at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in Atlanta. The team hopes to publish its results and dig further at Kiuic to prove their finding of rapid abandonment there. "I think you could compare it to Pompeii, where people locked their doors and fled, taking some things but leaving others," Bey says.

So far, what drove people to leave the site remains a mystery, as it is for the rest of the ancient Maya. The only sign of warfare is a collection of spear points found in the central plaza of Kiuic. There are signs that construction halted there — a stucco-floored plaza sits half-complete, for example. "Drought seems more likely, that would halt construction," Bey says.

Having climbed the "Stairway to Heaven" a few times, Bey can answer one minor mystery, however. Why weren't the palace sites looted as so many other Maya sites have been? "The hills are a good climb," he says. "People just didn't bother to climb the hills to search the rooms."

By Dan Vergano

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2009-09-19-mayan-collapse_N.htm?se=yahoorefer

Seasonal Cold or Swine Flu? Moms Face Tough Calls

I sent my 11-year-old son to school today with a stuffy nose and mild cough, as I've done countless times in the past. Now, though, I'm wondering whether I should have kept him home. How do I know it's really a garden-variety cold and not the swine flu?

"That's a great question," says Richard Wenzel, a swine flu expert and former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "You really have no way of knowing if it's the flu or just a cold." Given that we're in the middle of an H1N1 epidemic, he estimates that my son's chances of having this flu are considerable, since some of his friends have had confirmed cases--maybe even as high as 50/50. Even though he doesn't have fever? I press. "At the beginning of the outbreak in Mexico, only 30 percent of patients hospitalized with the infection had fever initially," he tells me, "and 15 percent of patients never developed a fever at all." What usually sent them to the hospital was shortness of breath or chest pain. In Chile, he adds, about half of those with confirmed H1N1 had no fever; many just had a headache and runny nose.

To truly contain the spread of this virus, he says, it would have been smart for me to keep my son home from school. While I can work effectively from home, many working parents can't. I wonder if this is why the government isn't recommending that we keep ourselves or our kids home at the first sign of a sniffle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says: "Those with flulike illness should stay home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medicines." That implies that hacking coughs and runny noses shouldn't keep us away from others.

"The CDC is stuck. They've defined flu as having a fever, which means they're going to miss a lot of cases," Wenzel says. To be fair, the CDC does list the following as symptoms of H1N1: cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue, and, in some people, diarrhea and vomiting. But fever seems to be the determining factor in whether we should isolate ourselves.

Since most doctors aren't testing for H1N1, we must use our own judgment to decide if that mild cold warrants taking sick days and keeping our kids home from school for up to a week. We might be helping prevent the spread of a potentially deadly virus. Then again, it might be pointless if others are going about their usual day coughing and sneezing around others. (Hopefully, they're washing their hands frequently and coughing into their elbows.) After speaking with Wenzel, I might keep my son home tomorrow--especially if his symptoms get worse.

"This flu seems to spread more easily than a cold virus or seasonal flu," says Wenzel, "most likely because so few people have been exposed to it in the past." Kids are slated to be among the first to get the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available in early October--a nasal spray vaccine called FluMist will the first on the market. But many will probably already have been infected before they can get immunized; Wenzel predicts the outbreak will last another four to eight weeks before tapering off. Unfortunately, that's just around the time when the vaccine will be available in large quantities. It seems that despite the government's best efforts to get the vaccine out quickly, it missed the boat on this one.

Yes, the CDC will still stick with its recommendation to get any children over the age of 6 months vaccinated--and pregnant women too--unless a previous infection was confirmed via a lab test. But Wenzel says parents may decide on their own to pass up the immunization if their child recently had a respiratory infection that appeared to be swine flu. "These kids probably don't need the vaccine," he adds, "but there's a level of uncertainty, and parents may still be wise to choose immunization just to be on the safe side."

While most cases of H1N1 are mild, this virus has the potential to cause severe complications, including death. The CDC says warning signs in children that warrant immediate medical attention include fast breathing or trouble breathing; bluish or gray skin color; not drinking enough fluids; severe or persistent vomiting; not waking up or interacting; a child so irritable that he does not want to be held; and flulike symptoms that improve but then return with fever and a worse cough. Warning signs in adults include difficulty breathing or chest pain, purple or blue discoloration of the lips, vomiting and inability to keep liquids down, and signs of dehydration, such as feeling dizzy when standing or being unable to urinate.

By Deborah Kotz

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090921/ts_usnews/seasonalcoldorswineflumomsfacetoughcalls

Beyoncé Is...Sasha Nice

Beyoncé may be known as a "Diva," as she proclaims on one of the hottest songs on her album "I Am...Sasha Fierce," but it is her gentler alter ego that has been making headlines lately.

When closing out her Friday tour stop at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, Beyoncé dedicated her song "Halo" to a young girl battling leukemia.

For the first run through of the song that pays homage to a personal hero, Beyoncé acknowledged Michael Jackson, as she has done at previous concerts.

Afterwards, Beyoncé invited a young girl named Chelsea on stage, knelt beside her and asked if it was okay to sing her a song.

Beyoncé sang "Halo" while hugging Chelsea, and looked her eyes as she sang "I got my angel now," before resting her head on Chelsea's chest. She also added the child's name to the lyric, "[Chelsea] I can see your halo, you know you're my saving grace."

"There was not a dry eye in the house," Sydney's The Daily Telegraph reported about the 14,000 member audience.

Last week, Beyoncé also earned good girl stripes at the MTV Music Video Awards when she helped Taylor Swift recover from her run-in with Kanye West who interrupted her Best Female Video acceptance speech to say the honor was owed to Beyoncé.

The Kanye outburst left a shocked and embarrassed Taylor on stage at a loss for words. When Beyoncé received the Best Video trophy at the end of the night, she had her own "Halo" moment.

"Wow, this is amazing," Beyoncé said when receiving her award. "I remember being 17-years-old and up for my first MTV award with Destiny's Child. It was one of the most exciting moments in my life. So, I'd like for Taylor to come out and have her moment."

Taylor joined Beyoncé on stage, and gave her a hug, before offering her second run at of acceptance speech.

Good job Beyoncé.

Billy Johnson, Jr

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/219587/beyonce-issasha-nice/

Why Your Resume Gets Tossed

The average recruiter sees 5,000 resumes a year. Any legitimate reason she finds to make one disappear makes her life that much easier -- and yours that much harder. Here, top-level recruiters reveal how candidates blow their chances to get a foot in the door.

Numbers Don't Add Up

If accomplishments can be quantified, do it -- but use discretion. Brandishing borderline performance numbers signals a lack of experience and bad judgment. "Phrases like 'managed a budget of $500,000' or 'led a team of two' might catch my eye in a bad way," warns Olaf Weckesser, a former recruiter for McKinsey & Co. Better to spin it as "managed company's largest budget."

Adds Alexandra DeMarino, a Citigroup recruiter: "If a small number is impressive, you absolutely have to put it in context." Because you can't provide context for academic numbers, don't include GMAT scores below 650 if you're targeting a top firm. DeMarino suggests bragging about nothing less than a 3.7 GPA.

Formality Takes a Vacation

Don't succumb to the informality of email. "If you send a cover letter by email that starts with 'Hi,' it and your resume will probably end up in the trash," says Cynthia Shore, an assistant dean at the University at Buffalo School of Management and former director of its career-resource center. Treat an email as you would a proper letter: Instead of "Hi," write "Dear Mr. Case." Instead of "Thanks," conclude with "Sincerely."

Keywords Are Overused

It's true that recruiters sometimes use scanners to sort through resumes looking for certain keywords. But resumes appear contrived when candidates consciously try to include them. Describing a business-development position using such terms as "needs assessment" and "contract analysis" in order to squeeze in more keywords is a misguided strategy. Assume that a human being -- not a computer -- will be reading the resume. After all, these days fewer than 25 percent of all recruiters even use scanners.

Things Get Too Personal

"If you mention your age, we have to trash your resume," says Jeremy Eskenazi, vice president of talent acquisition at Idealab!, the California incubator firm. Since it's illegal for a company to solicit a candidate's age, race, or marital status during the hiring process, firms have adopted a "don't tell" policy to avoid potential bias suits. Many won't risk even having it handed to them.

It Looks Too Fancy

"A recruiter who receives resumes in pretty plastic folders will likely toss them," says Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet, an online executive recruiting service. "I don't have time to take the damn things apart." Another faux pas: Folding a resume so that it fits into a standard business envelope. Heavy-stock paper that retains its crease can be a nuisance. Says Opton: "They're easier to store and photocopy if they're flat."

Also, don't try to differentiate your resume with boxes or ornate lettering. When recruiters see a resume that's designed differently, they think the person's trying to hide something. Instead, focus on content. Your resume will rise to the top of the pile.

by Sara Goldsmith,

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-why_your_resume_gets_tossed-968

U.S. scientists net giant squid in Gulf of Mexico

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. scientists in the Gulf of Mexico unexpectedly netted a 19.5-foot (5.9-meter) giant squid off the coast of Louisiana, the Interior Department said on Monday, showing how little is known about life in the deep waters of the Gulf.

Not since 1954, when a giant squid was found floating dead off the Mississippi Delta, has the rare species been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico.

The squid, weighing in at 103 pounds (46.7 kg), was caught July 30 in a trawl net more than 1,500 feet underwater as it was pulled by a research vessel.

The giant squid, which did not survive the rapid change in water depth when brought to the surface, was preserved and sent to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History for further study.

Scientists aboard -- from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service -- were participating in a pilot study on the diets of sperm whales.

"As the trawl net rose out of the water, I could see that we had something big in there ... really big," Anthony Martinez, a marine mammal scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the chief scientist on the research cruise, said in a statement.

Remnants of giant squid have been found in the stomachs of its predators in the waters of the Gulf, Caribbean and Florida Keys so scientists were aware of their presence in the Gulf.

The squid discovered by the researchers is significant because the species are difficult to catch, leaving much to be learned about them.

Michael Vecchione, director of NOAA's Fisheries Service's National Systematics Laboratory, the squid was an important addition to the worldwide study of squids.

"This find illustrates how little we know about what is swimming around in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico," he said.

Giant squid, which can be 40 feet long, are usually found in deep-water fisheries, such as off Spain and New Zealand.

"This is the first time one has actually been captured during scientific research in the Gulf of Mexico," he said.

The joint NOAA-MMS pilot study responsible for the find is part of a two-year, $550,000 study to determine the abundance and diversity of the type of fish and squid that sperm whales seek as prey.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090921/sc_nm/us_usa_giantsquid

9 deaths blamed on Southeast storm; flood lingers

AUSTELL, Ga. – Neighborhoods, schools and even roller coasters at Six Flags over Georgia remained awash in several feet of murky, brown water Tuesday, even as an emerging sun shed light on the widespread flood damage.

So far, at least nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama were blamed on the torrential downpours in the Southeast. The storms finally relented and relief was in sight with just a slight chance of rain overnight, but the onslaught left many parts of the region in stagnant water.

In Tennessee, a man was still missing after jumping into the fast-moving water as part of a bet. Boats and trucks evacuated 120 residents from a retirement center as nearby creeks rose, and several hundred others were ferried from low-lying neighborhoods and motels to dry land.

Several hundred people in Georgia took refuge at shelters and officials worked to clean up and repair washed out roads and bridges. Georgia officials estimated $250 million in damages.

The storm left nine people dead in its wake, including a toddler swept from his father's arms. On Tuesday, rescuers found the body of 14-year-old Nicholas Osley who was swimming in the Chattooga River, along with another woman who was swept from her car in Douglas County just west of Atlanta.

Authorities also released a 15-minute 911 call of another storm victim's last moments. Seydi Burciaga, 39, screamed to a dispatcher as water rose to her neck. The dispatcher advised her to try to break a window, but she can't.

"I don't want to drown here, please!" Burciaga said.

After several days of steady rain, the ground was saturated from Alabama through Georgia into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The floods came just months after an epic two-year drought in the region ended with winter rains.

Georgia emergency officials warned residents not to return to their homes too soon because the lingering water was still dangerous. Some ignored officials and had to be rescued.

"We had people who were out safely but decided they wanted to get back in danger," said Charley English, head of Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

The devastation surrounding Atlanta was widespread. In Austell, about 17 miles west of downtown Atlanta, Sweetwater Creek overflowed its banks, sending muddy water rushing into a nearby mobile home park where several trailers were almost completely submerged.

"We don't know what to do," said Jenny Roque, 30, who lived there with her husband and four children. "The only thing we have left is our truck."

Just down the road, in the Mulberry Creek subdivision, large houses built just five years ago were partially underwater. Some residents tried to salvage anything.

"There's things that you can't replace, but it's just stuff," said Deborah Golden, whose split-level home was mostly underwater. "But there are four people in our family and we're all safe so we're glad for that."

As Peachtree Creek in Atlanta began to recede, residents were packing moving vans with furniture and commiserating about water-logged apartments.

"I'm toast," said Penny Freeman, who moved into a first-floor unit five days ago. "I don't have a place to stay. I'm losing my mind right now."

Washed-out roads and flooded freeways around metro Atlanta caused commuters headaches. Gov. Sonny Perdue asked President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Georgia.

At one of the largest shelters at the Cobb County Civic Center, Shirley Jones sat with others on green cots, chatting about the fate of their homes. Around them, children played games, oblivious to the destruction.

"When I saw the water rising, it brought back bad memories," said Jones, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The 72-year-old had moved to the area two months ago.

Jones said rescue efforts this time went much more smoothly. A boat retrieved her from a family member's house.

Before being evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband Christopher moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home. The couple waded through knee-deep water before a raft picked them up.

"I feel lost," she said. "I feel homeless."

By KATE BRUMBACK,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_heavy_rain_southeast