LONDON , November 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Sky 3D

27.11.11 18.30,  03.12.11 19.00 and 18.12.11 19.00

UK box office smash hit, The Lion King, roars into living rooms nationwide on Sky 3D for the first time ever in spine tingling 3D TV from 27^th November. Forget your worries and be reunited with Nala and Simba as they continue to complete their own 'circle of life'.

This highly anticipated film follows Disney's critically acclaimed re-mastered The Lion King3D, which has totalled a mighty £137.3million at the global box office!  Now you can become part of the awe-inspiring 3D entertainment and jump into the magic with family and friends from the comfort of your own home.

Fall in love again with the unforgettable story of this beloved classic with award-winning music and breathtaking scenes like never before as beloved characters Simba, Mufasa, Nala, Scar, Timon and Pumbaa are brought to life in this epic masterpiece in a brand new and unique way.

LION KING SYNOPSIS:

From the moment The Lion King was first released in 1994 it became an instant Disney classic, with audiences the world over falling in love with the characters, story and amazing animation.  The film was joined by an award-winning soundtrack that introduced us all to the magic of the Circle of Life and taught us about Timon, Pumbaa and Simba's Problem Free Philosophy, Hakuna Matata .  The Lion King is a rip-roaring comedy with an uplifting message of courage, loyalty and hope, an ageless tale for all ages. 

About Sky 3D

Sky launched Sky 3D, Europe's first domestic 3D channel to millions of Sky homes in October 2010 with a diverse line-up of movies, documentaries, live sport and further content spanning entertainment and the arts. All Sky+HD viewers with a 3D TV are able to receive Sky 3D, as no set-top box upgrade is required. At no extra charge, customers who subscribe to Sky's top channel and HD pack can receive access to a wide range of 3D movies, entertainment and sports. Sky 3D is compatible with all of the 3D TVs being introduced by Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic and works with both 'active' and 'passive' 3D formats. Sky 3D is now available in more than 2,000 pubs and clubs across the UK and Ireland following the world's first commercial launch in April 2010 .

About the Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: studio entertainment, media networks, consumer products, interactive media group, and parks and resorts. TWDC has had a strong presence in the UK for more than 75 years and currently employs over 3,500 people. TWDC UK is a major film distributor with recent successes including 'Toy Story 3' and 'Alice in Wonderland'.

For stills and further information please contact:

Sky 3D: amy.holland@bskyb.com, +44(0)207-705-3000

Sky Movies: megan.macleod@bskyb.com, +44(0)207-705-3000

For the third time in less than two weeks, the San Antonio area received significant rainfall Saturday morning — as much as one inch in some parts.

The city has gotten somewhat consistent rain in November: 0.46 inches on Nov. 15 and 0.19 inches on Nov. 21, according to the National Weather Service. The last time the city received more than an inch was Oct. 9, with about 3.06 inches recorded at the San Antonio International Airport.

The rain slickened roads for much of the morning Saturday, especially on the city's North Side. A fuel spill on the eastbound lanes of Wurzbach Parkway made already wet roads even more slippery, prompting police to close off a section.

The spill occurred about 10:30 a.m. along the freeway between Wetmore and Weidner roads. Ramps leading to the freeway along that area remained shut for several hours, but by about 1:40 p.m. police appeared to have cleared the area.

An officer at the scene said police were unsure where the fuel came from, and he said the spill likely occurred during a morning rain shower.

Drivers were reportedly sliding out of control on the slippery road, causing about four minor wrecks before police arrived to block off the road. No one was seriously injured.

Most of the rain fell on the North Side of the city, where the average rainfall was about an inch. Overall, San Antonio received about a half-inch to an inch. Forecasters do not predict more rain in the next few days, which should be cool, dry and breezy.

A wind advisory was in effect for the region until about 6 p.m., and gusts were expected to produce near-critical fire conditions through most of Sunday.

On Tuesday, a cold front is expected to reach the city, with lows in the 30s and highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s.

The new dungeon can be reached north of the Duel Arena bank, with most of its contents requiring a high level in various skills. The inhabitants are non-aggressive, however, allowing any and all members to take a look at the place freely. Other updates include an improvement to the Slayer interface and the UI option to switch bloom lighting on or off, which should help improve your overall experience whether or not you decide to go mushroom hunting.& & & &

By: Jennifer Hong
11/30/2011 07:05 AM ET

Oklahoma Earthquakes – Oklahoma has been hit by nine earthquakes since last Monday, most of them concentrated in the area just east of Oklahoma City, according to the United States Geological Survey. The generally placid, well-mannered state has developed a very West Coast habit of late: the state, it seems, has got the shakes. There's been 9 big ones since Monday.

The recent tremors have all been slight — the strongest, which hit Thursday, had a magnitude of 3.7 — the sort of event that makes a water glass tremble, but will not knock the wedding china to the floor. Nonetheless, residents accustomed to more stable ground beneath their feet have been startled.

"It's certainly getting a lot of people's attention," said Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

Oklahoma lies in the middle of the North American tectonic plate, as opposed to more quake-prone areas like Japan or California, where plates rub together. But there are fault lines that run through the state.

Last week's quakes came as part of a larger period of increased activity that stretches back at least six weeks, the National Earthquake Information Center said. This month, at least 23 earthquakes were recorded in a single weekend, one with a magnitude of 5.6. That Sunday, Oklahoma residents awoke to collapsed chimneys and sections of buckled highway.

"It's been going on for quite a while," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center. "We don't know exactly why it occurs, but it doesn't indicate that anything huge and terrible is going to happen."

But Mr. Holland said that increased earthquake activity in Oklahoma could be traced back as far as two years. Possible causes, including the process of extracting oil and gas from the ground below, are still under investigation, he said.

"It keeps me up at night," Mr. Holland said. But Oklahoma residents should not be nervous, he added. "It's because I'm curious."

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Netflix Viewing Seen Swelling Cable Bills

Time Warner Cable Inc. and U.S. pay-TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix Inc. and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most.

Time Warner Cable Inc. and U.S. pay-TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix Inc. and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most. Photographer: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

 

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, talks about Netflix Inc.'s agreement to sell $400 million in stock and convertible notes to bolster cash as it increases spending for online rights to films and TV shows. Pachter speaks with Jon Erlichman on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

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Time Warner Cable Mulls Web Toll Booth on Netflix Users

Cable operators are rethinking their Internet pricing strategy because Netflix and Hulu's subscription services have driven up usage at peak hours once reserved for watching TV. Photo: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Cable operators are rethinking their Internet pricing strategy because Netflix and Hulu's subscription services have driven up usage at peak hours once reserved for watching TV. Photo: Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) and U.S. pay- TV companies, weighing how to profit from surging Internet demand spurred by Netflix Inc. (NFLX) and Hulu, are on the verge of instituting new fees on Web-access customers who use the most.

At least one major cable operator will institute so-called usage-based billing next year, predicts Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. He said Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) or Time Warner Cable may be first to charge Web-access customers for the amount of data they consume, not just transmission speed.

"As more video shifts to the Web, the cable operators will inevitably align their pricing models," Moffett said in an interview. "With the right usage-based pricing plan, they can embrace the transition instead of resisting it."

U.S. providers like Time Warner Cable have weighed usage- based plans for years as a way to squeeze more profit from Web access, and to counter slowing growth and rising program costs in the TV business. While customer complaints hampered earlier attempts, pay-TV companies are testing usage caps and price structures that point to the advent of permanent fees.

"We're basically a broadband provider," Peter Stern, chief strategy officer for New York-based Time Warner Cable, said Nov. 17 at the Future of Television conference in New York. "As a convenience for our customers, we package and distribute television and provide service around that."

Google (GOOG) Deterrent

Rogers Communications Inc., the largest Canadian cable company, has been billing broadband customers based on consumption since 2008. U.S. providers AT&T Inc. (T) and St. Louis- based Suddenlink Communications LLC are experimenting with usage-based plans.

Cable companies see usage-based billing as a way to limit the appeal of online services like Netflix and Hulu LLC, and reduce the threat from new entrants like Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Google Inc.

"It's the reason why Apple or Google would inevitably be reticent about committing a significant amount of capital to an online video model," Moffett said. "You can't simply assume just because you can buy the content more cheaply, you can offer a product that's cheaper to the end user."

Netflix and Hulu's subscription services have driven up Web usage at peak hours once reserved for watching TV. Google, Amazon, Apple (AAPL) Inc. and premium channels HBO and Showtime have also put shows online and followed viewers onto mobile devices like iPads and Android tablets.

Web Demand

While demand for Web service grows, cable operators are battling to preserve profit in the mature pay-TV business and withstand competition from satellite carrier DirecTV (DTV), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)'s FiOS and AT&T's U-Verse. Programmers like Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN are also demanding higher fees.

Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable operator behind Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), lost 126,000 pay-TV accounts in the third quarter.

The incentives to focus on Web access are compelling. Cable's broadband gross margins are about 95 percent, versus 60 percent for video, according to Moffett. As programming costs increase nearly 10 percent a year, video margins are crimped, he said.

Time Warner Cable is testing meters to measure broadband consumption for the purpose of tiered pricing, Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said in June. In April, he said usage-based billing is "inevitable." A previous attempt in 2009 was abandoned amid customer complaints.

Low-Impact Users

"Some form of usage-based billing might have some utility for customers who use the Internet very little, or only use low- bandwidth applications like e-mail," said Alex Dudley, a Time Warner Cable spokesman.

AT&T, based in Dallas, charges digital subscriber line, or DSL, customers who exceed a monthly limit of 150 gigabytes in three consecutive months $10 extra for every additional 50 gigabytes of data they use.

Suddenlink, with about 1.4 million customers in states including Missouri, Arizona, Texas and North Carolina, began instituting usage caps in some markets in October. Users pay $10 for each 50 gigabytes they use over their monthly allowance.

Data usage is surging by almost 50 percent a year, Chief Executive Officer Jerry Kent said in an interview. Suddenlink's broadband revenue rose 12 percent in the third quarter, versus a 1.6 percent gain from pay-TV.

"Our video business is challenged," Kent said. "My broadband margins are double my video margins."

Movie Quotas

Cox, the third-largest U.S. cable company, segments Web- access customers based on data speed, allowing those who purchase faster service to use more data overall.

While those who exceed the caps aren't charged, they are told to reduce usage or choose a different plan, said Todd Smith, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Cox. He wouldn't say whether Cox will start charging based on total data used.

Comcast, based in Philadelphia, and St. Louis-based Charter, No. 4 in the U.S., have instituted caps large enough that most customers aren't affected. Neither charges overage fees, nor do they have near-term plans to charge subscribers based on consumption, according to Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury and Charter's Anita Lamont.

The standard cap for Comcast, Charter, Cox and Suddenlink is 250 gigabytes per month. That's enough for a household to send or receive 12,000 one-page e-mails and watch 60 standard- definition movies with excess capacity for other tasks, according to Suddenlink.

Netflix Protests

Netflix steers customers with enough bandwidth toward high- definition movies, which soak up about double the data. If the average U.S. household, which watches more than five hours of television a day, were to transfer all that viewing to an online, high-definition source, their usage would total almost 10 gigabytes a day and break through the current caps.

Charging by Web usage, cable companies may discourage customers from dropping traditional pay-TV service and slow the growth of Netflix, Hulu and an expanding list of online alternatives, Moffett said.

The possibility of usage-based pricing has brought protests from Los Gatos, California-based Netflix and warnings from Charlie Ergen, chairman of rival Dish Network Corp. (DISH), which operates the Blockbuster movie-rental business.

$20 Surcharge?

"That Netflix subscription of $7.99 could go to an extra $20 a month for bit streaming," Ergen said during Dish's conference call on Nov. 7, making a total monthly subscription "the equivalent of $27.99."

Consumption-based pricing is anti-competitive if the goal of broadband providers is to boost revenue by diminishing the value of rivals, wrote Netflix General Counsel David Hyman in a July Wall Street Journal editorial.

The practice "is not in the consumer's best interest as consumers deserve unfettered access to a robust Internet at reasonable rates," said Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski publicly supported usage-based pricing in December, a victory for cable companies concerned that usage-based billing would run afoul of net neutrality rules prohibiting Internet services from favoring one form of content for another.

While lower caps may slow the online shift, cable companies won't be able to stop it. According to media researcher SNL Kagan, about 12.1 million U.S. households will receive TV shows and movies from Internet services rather than a traditional pay TV provider by 2015, up from 2.5 million homes at the end of 2010, SNL Kagan estimates.

Cable's best option is to find ways to profit from the online shift, said Moffett. If the companies were to lose all of their video customers, the revenue decline would be more than offset by a lower programming fees and set-top box spending, he said.

"In the end, it will be the best thing that ever happened to the cable industry," Moffett said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net; Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net

     - Hospitals
     - Commercial/Private Labs
     - Physician Offices
     - Public Health Labs

For each country, in addition to test volume and sales projections, the report presents sales and market share estimates for major suppliers of Gonorrhea tests.

Also, the report examines the market applications of DNA Probes, Monoclonal Antibodies, Immunoassays, IT and other technologies; profiles leading suppliers and recent market entrants developing innovative technologies and products; and identifies emerging business expansion opportunities, alternative market penetration strategies, market entry barriers and risks, and strategic planning issues and concerns.

Click for report details: Global Gonorrhea Diagnostics Market: Growth Opportuinites and Business Expansion Strategies&

This interview was originally broadcast on September 15, 2011.

Nick Lowe's songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke and Diana Ross, to name just a few. But the English singer-songwriter, who wrote the hits "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," doesn't only write songs. He's also recorded quite a few critically acclaimed pop albums of his own.

On Fresh Air, Lowe joins Terry Gross for an in-studio interview and performance featuring several songs from his 13th solo album, The Old Magic.

Interview Highlights

On Writing His Songs

"I'm not an autobiographical writer, really. I'm an old-fashioned hack. I do actually make it up. But I know what I'm singing about. I know what it means to have your heart broken and feel blue and feel happy and overexcited and all those sort of things. But the [songs] are characters I've made up and put into situations."

On Covers

"It's a funny thing when somebody covers your songs, though I'm extremely happy when anybody does it, of course, because I'm a professional songwriter. But sometimes, it's disappointing when people do it, because they do it too much like my version. And I always like when people take it somewhere else."

On Going Mainstream

"Because of the way I like my records to sound, I will never be a mainstream artist. Whereas some people are delighted by the homemade quality of my records, other people feel kind of nervous. Because they've been trained to hear thoughtless recordings, because most of them are made on computers and they don't have any mistakes on them unless they're really by design. Whereas I record with real musicians in a recording studio; I go out of my way to try and get an atmosphere where you can hear humans have had something to do with it. I don't want to sound like I'm a Luddite, because I know there are great records made in the modern way. But this is the way that suits me, and I think it sounds really good."

On Buddy Holly

"I had an older sister who ... who used to bring the records home. She had a real taste for Pat Boone singing. But Buddy Holly, when she brought that home, I got it straight away. There were all sorts of reasons why he was very popular in the U.K. One of them was the fact that he looked like the way he did. People really liked that he had glasses and that he was kind of geeky. And the other thing was, I always think of him as the first kind of rock 'n' roll fan who made records. There's a picture of him at a record store waiting to get Elvis Presley's autograph. And I think that's really important. He's like the first guy who was just after the first wave, but his songs really were timeless."

On Fame

"I knew I wasn't going to be one of those people like Elton John or Cher or Neil Diamond, whose careers just span the decades in pop. I knew I wasn't one of those people. And I knew the end was coming. ... Even so, when it did come, I had very mixed feelings. I was sorry to see it go. You know the public has gotten fed up with you and moved on. On the other hand, it had made me ill. It had made me completely exhausted and washed out. So I was relieved on one hand, so I could lie low."

Will cloud computing, a topic frequently referred to in all kinds of conferences, be applied by CIOs in their corporations soon? Will cloud computing affect CIOs in a good or bad way?

Present in the recent IFIP World CIO Forum held by Chinese Institute of Electronics were CIOs from both home and abroad. Many foreign CIOs remain conservative about the large-scale application of cloud computing, while Chinese CIOs stays optimistic on its prospect and are planning to have a try. However, this optimism is mixed with doubt too, since cloud computing means not just changes in technology but also changes in IT department and CIOs' role.

For many Chinese corporations, there is no unified planning in their IT construction, and it is hard for CIOs to persuade CEOs into an overall upgrade of their IT infrastructure. The situation can be improved through the application of cloud computing, as its great resource-integrating ability, flexibility, easy maintenance and low cost are good reasons for CIOs to convince CEOs of the necessity of upgrading their IT infrastructure.

On the other hand, if cloud computing gradually makes IT simpler, CIOs' daily IT work will be much less complex than before. With such simplicity at IT work, how will CIOs' value be shown?

It is agreed by most people that in an age of cloud computing, it is certain that CIOs should make some changes to their role. According to Wu Jichuan, the director-general of Chinese Institute of Electronics, "while the development of cloud computing and IT technology is accelerating the formation of the 'global village', it also puts new responsibility on CIOs."

Lei Wanyun, CIO of China Pharmaceutical Group and author of  two books on cloud computing, said "CIOs need not care too much about the title CIO. They should keep increasing their own value along with the development of cloud computing, thus integrating IT with corporations' business."

We have sorted out three aspects of CIOs' transformation, based on the interviews with ten CIOs:

1. Follow closely the trend of IT consumerization and learn more about mobile technology. IT corporations, such as Huawei and Lenovo, estimate that more consumption technology will enter the market, and that more individual terminals will get into corporations' cloud platforms. Therefore, CIOs need to keep track of the technology and application of mobile terminals rather than just the servers.

2. From CIO to CPO. August-Wilhelm Scheer, expert from the Association of Business Process Management, delivered a speech about the transformation from CIO to CPO, which pointed to a new direction for Chinese corporations. Cloud computing directs CIOs' attention to the management of business process, making them the CPO (Chief Public relation Officer) of the companies.

3. Cloud computing makes real CIOs. Since the title 'CIO' is not clearly defined in most of China's corporation, it is often interpreted as Chief IT Officer rather than Chief Information Officer, with their work confined in IT level. But this problem can be solved by cloud computing. With cloud computing, Chinese CIOs can better focus on information rather than information technology, thus becoming an information manager and estimating the future of the corporation in a broader perspective.

In addition, many CIOs believe that there will be more female CIOs. In fact, a popular saying goes like this: It is hard to be a woman, while it is even harder to be a woman CIO, resulting in the small number of women engaged in information technology. Of all the CIOs I know, the ration of male to female is 35:1. Now as the technology requirements have dropped with the help of cloud computing, more women CIOs will come onto stage and put on great shows with their good management and accurate judgment.

For Chinese corporations and CIOs, cloud computing means more about changes in people's minds than in company structure. While cloud computing cannot be applied to corporations altogether, CIOs can take this opportunity to make a fantastic turn.

Of course, it is a big challenge as well.

By: Jonathan Leo Toyad, GameSpot Asia - Posted on Nov 15, 2011

In the first of a new series focusing on Asia's biggest free-to-play (or F2P) titles, we take a look at one of the massively multiplayer online games that started it all: the almost ubiquitous MapleStory.

& In this day and age, gamers are seeing more and more free-to-play titles on a daily basis. Not all of these are for the casual market; hardcore-tailored shooters, like Firefall and Ghost Recon Online are currently in development by top-tier talent and studios, and they will be using the "freemium" method of distribution. In a nutshell, gamers will be able to play the games for free but can invest some real money to either get exclusive items and other amenities to enhance the experience. &

& Of course, the free-to-play model has been operating in Asia for quite some time now. In the first in a new series of recurring features on Asia's most popular and well-known free online titles, we take a look at one of the pioneers of the free-to-play system: MapleStory. &

& Overview: Imagine if the developers of World of Warcraft made a game using visuals inspired by a mishmash of all known forms of Asian animation and caricatures while presenting the gameplay as a 2D platformer. That's MapleStory in a nutshell. &

& MapleStory was first released in April 29, 2003, in its native land of South Korea, and it was developed by a company called Wizet under the publishing label of Nexon. In the game, players control a resident in the Maple World as they level up to kill all sorts of creatures and enemies ranging from the world's esoteric wildlife to factions like the Black Wings. &

& There are now over 100 million subscribers worldwide, which truly makes MapleStory a gaming force with which to be reckoned. And it's not just huge in the PC gaming world; the franchise has an anime series that aired in 2007, a DS spin-off focused solely on single-player, a trading card game, two iOS spin-offs, and a Facebook equivalent that currently has 1,700,000 monthly active users since its inception this year. &

& How Does It Play: If you know how to play a 2D platformer, you'll get into the swing of things in MapleStory. Players control an avatar and are given a choice of six different factions at the start of the game. Each faction has its own individual classes to master throughout the course of the gameworld. For example, picking the Resistance faction will not only make you start off in the town of Edelstein, but you'll also get to choose among the battle mage class (close-range spellcaster), the wild hunter class (long-range user with a mount), and mechanic class (a soldier who pilots his or her own robot). &

& Like all massively multiplayer online games, there is no definitive best class; updates and tweaks have been made throughout the game's life span to make sure each class was variable in its skill sets and abilities. Having said that, some factions have different ways of leveling up; a warrior in a Cygnus Knight faction can dual-class into a level 50 explorer upon reaching level 120. Being a pirate in the Explorer faction allows more options for power-ups at the cost of the player not being able to branch out into other classes for extra abilities. &

& The enemies you kill in the game are a huge mishmash of whatever the developers could come up with and "cute-ify" in the process. You'll see talking candle monsters, killer potted plants, sheep, and pink wind-up killer teddy bears here. Even though it's presented in the style of a 2D platformer, it's still an MMOG at heart. This means that combat and numbers takes precedence over movement, so you will have to get used to the sluggish controls. Still, hotkeys are easily customizable, thanks to the recent patch called Big Bang.&

& Like Blizzard's MMOG, players can also form parties and guilds to form that sense of community while having people around to help you kill bosses with high hit points. If players wish to do so, they can join their avatars in holy matrimony through the in-game Amoria wedding system for imperishable rings that grant the couple high stats increases and unique abilities. &

& How Free Is It? While it's free, the game has microtransactions in the form of the Cash Shop. Here, you can buy custom items and enhancements to make your pirate look different from other pirates and warriors. You can also buy digital pets and in-game items like potions. In addition, players can buy a shop permit that allows them to set up a store in the game's Free Market area to sell their wares. Most convenience stores in Asia sell special cash cards that add in money to your MapleStory account. &

& How Big Is It in Asia? It's huge. Despite the hardcore gamer's disdain toward its graphics, the developers were obviously catering toward the casual crowd when it was released for each region, which in turn got them a lot of subscribers and players. According to distributor Asiasoft, the bulk of microtransactions are from gamers still in both primary and high school. These transactions, which are done on the game's Cash Shop and Maple Trading System tab, are mostly on resurrection and healing potions, as well as customization options for clothes and accessories for an avatar.&

& Asiasoft also went out of its way to engage gamers with marketing activities like giving away exclusive MapleStory content through expos and road shows like the Asiasoft Games Festival last year in Singapore. Given the game's "all ages" rating and content, it would be silly not to do community events in crowded shopping malls all across Asia for the purpose of recruiting new fans and would-be gamers. Be it the hardcore MapleStory player or the little kid who seems drawn into the game's subjective art style, you definitely can't fault the distributors for being shy about promoting the MMO role-playing game. &

& When you add to the fact that the game now has a Facebook spin-off, you have the publisher's transparent motive to sustain the brand while getting more people from that specific market. This is to the point where Asiasoft declares the game as a AAA title just based on the amount of content it has up, including the recent update, despite its age-old engine. To Asiasoft's credit, the developers did spend a lot of time not only refining the title for its audience, but also adding in a lot more activities like the aforementioned wedding system and minigames to change up the "kill an undefined number of mobs and bosses for experience" routine. &

& What's Up Ahead? Nothing at the moment. The big updates for the game, Big Bang and Ascension, have more or less been unleashed in the MapleStory servers in most Asian countries. The former is a huge revamp on the game's UI and world, while the latter focuses on changes for the warrior, magician, and bowman classes. &

& Should You Play It? It depends on your tolerance for old-school MMO mechanics with a dated presentation. We can confirm, however, that it is a title suitable for really young players who cannot afford console or PC games requiring high-end rigs. With its free-to-play approach and aimed-at-children aesthetics, it's a good and cost-effective entry-level title for a young kid before he or she moves on to bigger and better affairs. &

Kobe Bryant serves as the perfect symbol for the argument by the players' union that they drive the NBA's popularity. Yet, the Lakers star reportedly urged his colleagues to accept a 50-50 split in basketball-related income.

Bryant definitely loves making money, and is paid lots of it, ranging from his remaining three years, $83.5 million with the Lakers and his Nike endorsement deals. But he also recognizes he has limited years left in winning as many championships as possible. Whether Bryant wants to admit it, time also appears closing in on his chance to climb up the NBA's all-time scoring list. 

He is sixth on the list with 27,868 points, trailing Shaquille O'Neal (28,596), Wilt Chamberlain (31,419), Michael Jordan (32,292), Karl Malone (36,928) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387). So it's only realistic he can pass O'Neal this season and possibly throw a parting shot at his former nemesis and teammate. Even with a compressed 66-game schedule, however, Bryant will likely surpass Chamberlain and Jordan before his contract ends.

It remains unclear to what degree Bryant's prolonged off-season and innovative procedure on his right knee will do to his game. But just for the sake of playing it safe, let's assume Bryant can maintain the 25.3 points per game average he posted last season through the rest of his career. Through 230 regular-season games, Bryant would score 5,819 points in 230 regular-season games, putting him still in third place ahead of Jordan with 33,282 points. It's never fair to compare Bryant and Jordan since they're players of their own time, but that milestone and Bryant's quest for a sixth championship ring will inevitably spark that debate. 

But it's unlikely given Bryant's nature that he'll be satisfied with only passing Jordan. Surpassing Karl Malone and Abdul-Jabbar, however, remain unrealistic should Bryant play for only three more seasons. He would have to average 39.39 points through 230 regular-season games to eclipse Malone and 45.73 points in that span to surpass Abdul-Jabbar. 

Of course, this all presumes Bryant won't sit out a game and won't suffer any more serious injuries. Something tells me Bryant has prepared for this challenge. 

RELATED:

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Shaquille O'Neal calls Kobe Bryant 'greatest Laker of all time'

Kobe Bryant still needs to pace himself during 2011-2012 season

--Mark Medina

Email the Lakers blog at mgmedin@gmail.com

Photo: Kobe Bryant and the Lakers will be one of the first teams to hear from fans when they are part of a season-opening tripleheader on Christmas Day. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

::::::::

I know police will commit perjury four in a row to ruin a self-employed person, a home owner, a landlord, and a father while protecting the prostitution business, drug trade, coddling organized crime from my own experiences observing police in action. I know that police listen to your phone calls, monitor your internet for retaliation, or if they have the hots for a young girl, woman, or want to steal something owned by someone else. Police don't oversee themselves well, how did it work out for Germany leading up to, and including World War II?

The US Police State has control of your tax dollars and they want more. They don't want you to get in the way of their thefts, so they'll take away all of your rights. Complain, and you may be officially murdered. They intend to legislate an okay for what they have already got accustomed to doing. They own you. If they own you, they own all that you think they own, can dispose of you, use you, and may even harvest your organs. It is all to prevent the terrorist threat, right?

The terrorists are the ones who bought, use, and present us our elected officials.

In the former USSR, cops raped women with immunity, stole whatever they pleased. What is different about what is now going on in the USA?

Has the Pentagon declared war on taxpayers who fund their own abuse?& &

Americans to be Targeted As Terrorists Under NDAA Bill - Infowars Nightly News& & &

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& Uploaded by TheAlexJonesChannel& on Nov 28, 2011 & &