Pittsburgh weather forces NHL to move Winter Classic to night - USA Today

PITTSBURGH — When it comes to NHL games, you win some, lose some and now some get postponed by rain.With weather forecasts calling for rain all day on New Year's Day, the NHL has moved the fourth annual Winter Classic outdoor game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET at Heinz Field. It will still be televised by NBC

"I don't care if they play at midnight," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Let's get going."

The AccuWeather.com forecast calls for a cloudy New Year's evening, with a gametime temperature of 41 degrees. There is no rain in the evening forecast.

That's a sharp contrast from the daytime forecast, which calls for rain from 4 a.m. until 6 p.m. There's a 24% chance of a thunderstorm.

A light rain will freeze quickly on the 22-degree ice, but a steady rain is dangerous because it creates pools of water and because it limits player visibility.

"It's the same risk for both teams," Boudreau said. "So if it was a gravel (surface) it wouldn't matter."

The decision on when to play is an important one for the NHL because the Winter Classic has become its best marketing day. The first three Winter Classics have drawn an average of 4 million television viewers. The game between Detroit and Chicago on Jan. 1, 2009, drew 4.4 million viewers, which made it the most watched NHL regular-season game in 35 years.

This will be the first primetime airing for the Winter Classic

"It would be a shame not to have a game this weekend," said Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemieux.

The NHL wanted the Washington vs. Pittsburgh matchup because the teams have a rivalry and Pittsburgh's captain Sidney Crosby and Washington's Alex Ovechkin are considered the NHL's top two players. The HBO reality series "24/7" has added more hype to the game.

"When you walked in here today. You saw thousands of people in the stands," Boudreau said. "You look at the enormity of the building and you go, 'Wow, this is going to be a real cool event.' "

Added Boudreau: "We're thinking in the room, when they have the Super Bowl and they've got a week of this before the buildup, I can't imagine."

Should the NHL not be able to hold an official game (at least two full periods) Saturday, the Winter Classic will be held Sunday (noon, NBC). The stadium is available because the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing in Cleveland.

But the Sunday scenario is far less appealing because the NHL would have to compete against NFL games instead of bowl games for viewers.

"Whatever the scenario is, we have all been pretty open minded to whatever happens," Crosby said. "We should be all enjoying ourselves not matter what scenario."

The teams will switch ends in the middle of the third period to assure fairness in dealing with the weather conditions.

Said Crosby: "I think everyone is ready for whatever comes."

An alumni game, plus Capitals and Penguins practices, were all held on the ice Friday with temperatures around 50 degrees.

"The ice was great," said Lemieux, who played in the alumni game. "A couple times in the neutral zone there was a little puddle, but they came out and fixed it."

The ice actually received mixed reviews. "Not too bad, what you would expect on a sheet on a football field," said Pittsburgh defenseman Alex Goligoski.

Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said the ice was soft, but the puck moved surprisingly well on it.

"The guys commented that, given the conditions, it was better than we thought it would be," Bylsma said. "… they were passing it fine."

Bylsma did note that goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said his slide across the crease was different because of the weather conditions.

But Bylsma said he felt like the conditions were good enough to play.

"It was an exciting day," he said. "I put it up there with a lot of my best experiences in hockey."

The Caps practiced last and found the conditions less than ideal. "The ice was not that good, but we have 24 hours," said Washington's Alex Ovechkin.

In the only competition news of the day, Bylsma said Jordan Staal's status will be a gametime decision. Staal has been practicing, but hasn't played this season because of injuries.

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

View the original article here

Obama to cap off year with family talent show - Los Angeles Times

President Obama will mark the end of an often tumultuous year with a distinctly lighthearted fete: a family talent show.

It's just the latest feature in a holiday vacation that has been a study in consistency. On Thursday, Obama traveled across Oahu for an annual barbecue with family, friends and staff – one year to the day when he did so in 2009. He celebrated Christmas with a surprise visit to dining servicemen at Marine Corps Base Hawaii – which was less of a surprise considering he's done so each of the last two visits as well.

He also made expected stops to the same "shave ice" stand and upscale restaurant locals have come to expect. Every day but one, he's started his morning with a workout on the nearby base. And, of course, there's been golf.

As for the talent show, White House spokesman Bill Burton offered only that it's another annual tradition. And it turns out that Obama, known for his oratorical gifts, is also apparently something of a singer as well. A Time magazine story said the president one year sang "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" when it was his turn to perform. The first lady opted for a hula hoop display.

The trip to Hawaii, which has been extended twice since Obama arrived late on Dec. 22, has definitely been a working vacation as well. But Obama is doing some reading beyond briefing papers and an evaluation of staff prepared for him by top aides. The White House shared Friday some additional selections from his recreational reading list: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet," by David Mitchell, and "Our Kind of Traitor," a Russian spy drama from John le Carre.

From the nonfiction genre, Obama is reading a biography of Ronald Reagan from Lou Cannon called, "The Role of a Lifetime."

Obama is set to depart Honolulu late on Monday.

mmemoli@tribune.com

twitter.com/mikememoli

View the original article here

Young Patriots Threaten Protests and More in Ivory Coast - Voice of America

Nico Colombant 31 December 2010

Young Patriots are threatening a return to the streets where they have won previous victories for incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. (File Photo)

So-called Young Patriots who support incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast are now threatening street protests against his rival, internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara.  

Friday, the Young Patriots leader who is now the Youth Minister in the disputed Gbagbo government, Charles Ble Goude, reiterated a warning against Mr. Ouattara and the United Nations. He says if after January first U.N. peacekeepers are still protecting Mr. Ouattara at the Golf Hotel in the main southern city Abidjan, Young Patriots will take their responsibilities in their own hands and liberate the compound.

Ble Goude says he is waiting to see if the peacekeepers will force Mr. Ouattara to leave.  If not, he says, Young Patriots will decide how to proceed.

The former student leader has been on a list of U.N. asset freeze and travel sanctions since 2006 for previously inciting mob violence.

After one of his previous actions several years ago forced international peace mediators to back down on requests they were making, Ble Goude had this to say to VOA. "Now this is a victory. Therefore I asked all the Young Patriots in discipline to leave the streets and to go home. The day I will see or I will feel the danger coming I will ask them to come back in the street again," he said.

Core members of the group include former and current student activists as well as unemployed young men from southern and western ethnic groups.

Stephen Smith, a U.S-based anthropologist who previously worked as a journalist in Ivory Coast says the Young Patriots could give the already worrisome Ivorian crisis a new dimension. "It is the struggle over the streets, it is the struggle of what Ivorians sometimes refer to as being the Ministry of the Street, which means who controls the public space, and if they can bring together the people maybe sometimes by paying but also obviously there are followers. (Mr.) Gbagbo got 45, 46 percent of the vote, so they are people who really stand behind him and if they all come together there can be 100,000, 200,000 people gathering in Abidjan, that intimidates, that makes other people feel that there is no way they will ever get (Mr.) Gbagbo to relinquish power," he said.

The Ivorian constitutional council threw out votes of the November, 28 election, from northern Ivory Coast, which remains under the control of former rebels, giving victory to Mr. Gbagbo.

But the United Nations which helped organize the vote said Mr. Ouattara, who is extremely popular in the north, had won the vote by a wide margin. International bodies are now threatening the use of force against Mr. Gbagbo if he does not leave power.

Daniel Chirot, a U.S.-based sociologist who saw Young Patriots up close during recent research he did in Ivory Coast, says a lot is at stake for their members. "You could see them, their leaders going around in nice cars, with guns, with pretty girls, and benefiting from the situation and they are not going to lie down. For them, if (Mr.) Gbagbo loses power, it is a disaster, because they lose their sources of revenue, their livelihood, and they are armed so it is not just a popular movement," he said.

The Young Patriots deny they are armed.  They say they are fighting for Africa's second independence from outside interference.  Their Ivorian political opponents say they are thugs who ally themselves with militias and mercenaries to create chaos whenever Mr. Gbagbo's power is under threat.  

Mr. Gbagbo's initial election victory in Ivory Coast in 2000 against a former military ruler was also marred by violence and confusion over ballot counting.  Two years later, the northern rebellion began, as did the Young Patriots southern-based movement.

* Required By using this form you agree to the following: All comments will be reviewed before posting. Be aware - not all submissions will be posted. VOA has the right to use your comments worldwide in any VOA produced media. Terms & Conditions

View the original article here

Report: iPad will grow 250% in 2011 at the expense of PCs - Apple Insider

Report: iPad will grow 250% in 2011 at the expense of PCs

By Daniel Eran Dilger

Published: 03:00 PM EST

A new report claims tablet sales will more than triple next year, but says Apple will hold on to its dominant position with the iPad, jumping from 14 million units in 2010 to 36 million next year.

The report, cited by John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal Digital Daily blog, was prepared by Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra.

"We model Apple?s iPad continuing to dominate [?] in 2011,? Cihra wrote. "iPad not only launched with phenomenal early uptake but effectively sent all wannabes back to the drawing board, delaying most competitive tablet launches well into CY11.

"Yet we now already look forward to the first iPad 2 refresh in March (i.e., establishing annual cadence for iPads in March, iPhone each June and iPods in Sept). An enormous multi-year opportunity, we continue to view iPads less about the ?product? but rather igniting an explosion toward ?thin-client? Access computing.?

Android licensees, including Acer, Motorola and possibly HTC, are expected to demo new tablets at CES, but those devices won't be ready until Google finishes Android OS 3.0 Honeycomb, which isn't expected for release until March 2011. RIM is still struggling to put its PlayBook technologies together, while HP prepares its first webOS tablet, expected to be named PalmPad. Microsoft is also believed to be attempting a second shot at launching tablets running Windows 7 at CES.

A large number of new competing mobile platforms will make it easier for Apple's iPad to stand up as an established product, with thousands of apps and mature enterprise support, in a sea of incompatible tablet designs attempting to deliver a wide range of screen sizes and other feature packages.

Tablets to expand at the expense of conventional PCs

Cihra estimates global tablet sales at 54 million in 2011, with Apple taking 67 percent market share with its iPad. That growth, he said, would come at the expense of PCs.

"We see cannibalization from ?thin-client? iPads/tablets, particularly vs. netbooks and in multi-PC homes, already growing to 1/7th the size of the overall PC market in 2011 and shaving 5 percentage points off what PC growth might otherwise have been,? Cihra wrote. PC growth, excluding tablets, is expected to drop from 14 percent this year to just 9 percent in 2011.

However, if tablets are defined as a new PC form factor they would turn the situation around, as Cihra presented graphically in the report (below).

Defining the iPad as a PC, which Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer did earlier this year, also more than doubles Apple's market share and establishes the company as the largest mobile PC maker in the US and the third largest worldwide, behind only HP and Acer, and just ahead of Dell.

While the iPad is devastating growth among low end notebooks and netbooks, they haven't had a discernible impact upon Apple's MacBook sales, which have been bolstered by the recent release of the MacBook Air. Apple doesn't sell any PCs on the extreme low end, isolating it from the cannibalization other PC makers are experiencing in the wake of the iPad's release. Instead, the iPad has bolstered Apple's earnings while appearing to only offer a halo effect that supports Mac sales and growth.

Five years of Apple: 2005 iPod to 2010 iPod touch
Report: iPad will grow 250% in 2011 at the expense of PCs
Apple to expand CPU design group beyond iPad A4
Last day for holiday discount pricing on Apple's entire family of Macs
Apple execs, officers donate over $3 million to charity for the holidays
HTC files for "Scribe" iPad competitor tablet trademark
Windows Phone 7 hits 5,000 apps in 2 months, equaling Palm's webOS
'Double-click' patent lawsuit attacks Apple's iPhone, iPad
Apple investigating Ping-like social networking for retail shops
RIM denies PlayBook tablet battery issues, promises "superior performance"
Skype for iPhone video calling now available; volume shutter app removed
New Android malware could produce Chinese botnet, harvest personal data
Apple expected to hold event by Valentine's Day to announce Verizon iPhone
Report: Apple slows iPad production, Kindle matches shipments
Radio Shack renews $50 popular iPhone promotion through Friday [u]
After initial success, magazine purchases on Apple iPad decline
Apple to add USB port to next-generation iPad - rumor
Lawsuit accuses SoHo Apple store of discriminating against employee
Apple's iTunes rental service believed to be 10% the size of Netflix
Report: Apple ordering 65 million iPad screens for 2011
Angry Birds developer says Apple will be No. 1 for a long time
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen re-files patent suit against Apple
Apple's iPhone most popular item on eBay in 2010
RIM struggling to fix PlayBook tablet battery issues, analyst says
iPod nano hacked, Apple allows iPhone app with volume button camera shutter
Apple seeks iOS developers to expand cloud-hosted services
Amazon Kindle sales strong, but many buyers already own Apple's iPad
Apple's next-gen iPad to have three models, including CDMA - rumor
Apple sued over privacy rights in iPhone ads case
1M Apple TV sales confirmed; Logitech denies it was asked to halt Google TV shipments
Apple targeting iPad at corporate buyers with Verizon
Samsung to rival Apple's iPod touch with Android Galaxy Player
Apple to report fiscal first quarter 2011 results Jan. 18
Report claims RIM was incredulous over Apple's original iPhone
Apple raises Q1 2011 iPhone shipments to 21 million
iPad tops Mossberg's list of best reviewed products of 2010
Apple TV challenge from Google falls flat in 2010
Skype rumored to take on Apple's FaceTime at CES
No contract iPhone in China; Mac App Store search in 10.6.6, iCal alerts on me.com
Apple partners with Cherokee tribe to put language on iPhones

View the original article here