| Violence Errupts
We broke into small groups. First mistake: the decision to go over to the unknown soldier’s tomb separately, so as not to attract attention. It was a mile or so away. With Louis-Georges and a couple of Russian friends, let’s call them Boris and Serge, I bought token flowers, set out for the site. Nikolai had spent the morning negotiating in the hotel with police representatives. He’d described the afternoon’s plans; they’d assured him he would have adequate protection. One of them, I’m told, a Colonel Vyacheslav (he wouldn’t give his last name) specifically warned there would be right-wing demonstrators, but said they’d be kept separated. Under the Kremlin there’s an enormous… what? Morgue? Crypt? Bomb shelter? No, shopping mall.
Getting spellbound
Today, Sanders said, online Scrabble games draw the younger crowd away. "After a long day of work and having to drive 15-20 miles round-trip, many younger people prefer to play online," Sanders said.Getting to socialize When Marcia Allen read a story about the Scrabble club several years ago in the newspaper, she was interested in joining. But for six months, she debated whether to go. "I figured they were all pros and I wouldn't be able to keep up," said Allen, who hadn't played the game in more than 20 years. Allen used to play a lot during her lunch hour. However, when the lunch break was shortened to 30 minutes, her play stopped. She finally did join the club and hasn't stopped playing ever since. "I love to play Scrabble," she said. "To me it is a fun thing to do.
Eminent Domain: Tool to rebuild or land grab?
A C-5 takes off from Travis AFB above a home in the 4000 block of Peterson Road near the South Gate of the base. The property owner was offered $260, 000 for 13 acres and the home as part of an eminent domain expansion plan for the base. (Rick Roach/Reporter file photo) .
SEVERE WEATHER TEAM 9 BLOG
The ground surface must have an icy, crusty snow, on which falling snow cannot stick. About an inch or so of loose, wet snow must accumulate. Gusty and strong winds are needed to scoop out chunks of snow. Once the initial "seed" of the roller is started, it begins to roll. It collects additional snow from the ground as it rolls along, leaving trails behind it. The appearance is similar to building snowmen, except the snowball is more log-shaped rather than spherical, and many times they are hollow. They can be as small as a golf ball, or as large as a 30 gallon drum, but typically they are about 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Several photographs have been provided of these snow rollers. Check them out at Snow Rollers.
Email your weather questions toweather@wtov.com.
Season may be best ever for video game industry
Tech analysts say this may be the best holiday season yet for the video-game industry. A three-way war for next-gen dominance is already under way among Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, and gamers got an early start to the season when the Xbox-exclusive Halo franchise dropped in September - the anticipated third of its game trilogy. "It's going to be a darn good year for video games and definitely the best in the history of the industry," said David Riley, director of market research at global marketing and retail research group NPD. The industry is expected to top $18 billion in the United States alone, driven primarily by video game hardware sales, Riley said. "Who's going to perform the best? I guess that's really open to interpretation," he said.
Tech 'Solutions' Your Small Biz Can't Use
I just grew a little peach fuzz. Using my frequent-flier miles has always been a huge frustration, except for that one time I flew to Fargo, N.D., on a Saturday night in February. Baked potato chips? They taste like wood. Unfortunately, the disappointment extends well beyond consumer products. My life as a small business owner has been littered with stuff that doesn't work as billed, particularly technology. We business owners are subjected to an endless array of tools that never fail to disappoint. We're promised. We pay. And we're let down. The list of overhyped and underwhelming technology changes constantly. So here's a quick snapshot of 10, in no particular order, that don't work. At least this week. .
CES Dispatch--Toshiba's HD DVD Response
I'm in Las Vegas, doing the rounds of press conferences that kick off the annual Consumer Electronics Shows. Everyone lined up early for the most-anticipated one—Toshiba Corp.'s. If gadgets could look forlorn, Toshiba's three new HD DVD players looked just that sitting on stage ahead of the executives' speeches. Jody Sally, vice president of digital audio/visual equipment, which includes Toshiba HD DVD player lineup, looked on the verge of tears during her truncated three-minute presentation in which reports of HD DVD's sales progress became moot following Warner Brothers decision to exclusively support the rival Blu-ray high definition DVD format later this year. Sally tried to put on a good game face, though, noting that HD DVD unit sales over the holiday shopping period accounted for 49.3% of the market.
City, owners still looking for tenant to fill old Kmart spot
It's been the largest empty building in Carson City for four years and no businesses have promised to move in. Both the city and the owners of the former Kmart building say they want that to change, but Carson is out of up-front incentive money and the owners have a 169,000-square-foot space to fill.
Both say it's a challenge.
The windows of the North Town Plaza building on the corner of North Carson Street and College Parkway are boarded up and the gates are chained shut.
"We'd like to bring a dead building back to life," Mayor Marv Teixeira said.
"We'd like to get that being a highlight ... and not a black hole," City Supervisor Robin Williamson said.
Cypress Equities, a Dallas company, and Equity Group, of Las Vegas, bought the building for $6.7 million about a year ago.
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