The lovely shores of Lake Como have been home to many iconic film scenes.
Lake Como's stunning landscapes bewitch directors as well as tourists, and have done for many decades. The sweeping hillsides, crisp lakes, imposing mountains and spectacular villas make for a film location of a lifetime. There's nothing quite like an Italian backdrop to frame class and luxury, vivid action and poignant romance.
It was in the short window of time between 1903 and 1908 that the film industry in Italy began to take hold. The three organisations at the head of this movement were Italia Film, the Roman Cines and the Ambrosio of Turin. Milan and Naples based film companies soon followed suit and an industry began to blossom, giving Italy a Mediterranean-Hollywood status. This old school glamour and elevating stardom lead to the well-known companies becoming renowned for their high quality and fast-paced production process, meaning that they were soon able to sell their films internationally, as well as being well-respected in Italy.
The trend began with historical films, such as Filoteo Alberini's 'La presa di Roma, 20 settembre 1870.' This feature about the capture of Rome was filmed in 1905 and was quickly followed by more films portraying historical figures such as Nero, Messalina, Spartacus, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Actresses didn't quite have the celebrity status they do today, but were almost more untouchable and beautiful thanks to the less invasive nature of media back in the day. Women such as Francesca Bertini, Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli were seen as goddesses of cinema and were particularly well-known for their roles in passionate tragedies. For years now the lovely shores of Lake Como have been home to iconic film scenes and are a much sought after outlook by directors around the globe.
This touching romantic comedy portrays a group of individuals helplessly pursuing fated love interests during the month of April 1937.
Miss Bentley, a middle-aged English lady, spends much of her time fending off the amorous advances of a striking young Italian man. Major Wilshaw is in fact the real object of Miss Bentley's affections, yet he only has eyes for the flirtatious young American woman, Miss Beaumont. Things get complicated.
This tale of misplaced affection dances across the springtime shores of Lake Como which act as a glorious natural stage for the wonderful Vanessa Redgrave, who stars.
Long lakeside promenades with mountain views fill the screen and the location is even paid homage to in the film as Redgrave's character regularly takes photographs of her surroundings, giving the location a conscious role in the feature. In the final scenes, Miss Bentley, Redgrave's character, and the Colonel slowly dance along the very same promenade; proving a touching symmetry between the characters' fates and the Italian lakes.
Three locations were used for Attack of the Clones; the beautiful Villa Balbianello, Tremezzo Public Garden and the Picnic Meadow. Sadly, the Tremezzo scenes were cut in the final edit, but Lake Como itself firmly remains a part of the epic Star Wars legacy.
It was the Varykino, or Lake Retreat, scenes which were filmed at Lake Como. According to Star Wars legacy, Varykino is an island in the Lake Country of Naboo which is home to the Nabierre's family retreat house.
'That is Varykino, a prize of the Lake Country. Once owned by the poet Omar Berenko, and presently occupied by the Nabierre family.' Cosinga Palpatine, to Hego Damask.
Such a glorified statement suggests that Lake Como was honoured to be chosen for such an integral and archaic location.
Villa Balbianello in Lake Como welcomed Daniel Craig's debut as Bond. Scenes for Quantum of Solace were also filmed here, as well as in the nearby Lake Garda.
In Casino Royale, Villa Balbianello doubles as a hospital where James Bond (Daniel Craig) is recuperating with Vesper (Eva Green), as well as being the location for where the Swiss banker, who is dangerously funding terrorist organisations, comes to claim a code to transfer money. The overarching theme of the film is that Bond must fight the banker, Le Chiffre's, network by winning at poker in Casino Royale. The villa's imposing position at the tip of a promontory overlooking Lake Como blesses it with the dramatic grandeur required of a man who likes his cocktails shaken rather than stirred.
This classic 1938 film, also known as 'Old-fashioned World', starred a 17 year old Alida Valli. The Italian drama was directed by Mario Soldati and was based on Antonio Fogazzaro's 1895 novel. Piccolo Mondo Antico was one of the first tour de forces in Italian cinema, setting a trend for an Italian age of Hollywood.
The film, set in nineteenth century Lombardy, is about the marriage between a nobleman and the daughter of a humble clerk, which occurs against his grandmother's, the Marquess Orsola Maironi's, wishes. The old lady is determined to make the newlyweds' lives miserable and the young man is eventually forced to flee to Turin to find work, temporarily leaving his wife and newborn daughter behind. Their daughter tragically drowns in Lake Lugano, casting a tragic wedge between the couple. After years of tumult and estrangement the couple eventually meet again at Lake Maggiore, where they make love and create a child once more, before Franco, the husband, must leave to fight in the Italian War of Independence, unsure of whether he will ever be able to return. Only somewhere like Lake Como has the capacity to stage a film which fuses hope and sadness with such intensity.
The beginning scenes of the fabulous Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, were filmed in Lake Como. Not only will you be able to admire the brilliant topography of Lake Como, you will also be able to drool over delicious foodie scenes as the film is based around the lives of chefs Julia Child and Julie Powell.
The final scenes of Ocean's Twelve, those featuring Night Fox's mansion, were shot on Lake Como in the Villa Erba area. Thank goodness the Brad Pitt trivia doesn't stop there, as the city of Bellagio was also the inspiration for the Bellagio Casino in Vegas, which is the site of the heist in Ocean's Eleven. Clooney still hangs out in Como today.
The series about the former Prime Minister couldn't resist being partly shot in Como, as this is where famous Winston spent much of his leisure time. The cinematography in this biopic reveals very quickly why the astute individual was so drawn to the place, with its captivating subtleties and arresting complexities. There are even clips of the man himself in Lake Como.
The film itself is an action thriller based on the novel by A. J. Quinnell.
This Marleen Gorris film showcases the jewels of Lake Como. Northern Italy's romance plays the setting of The Luzhin Defence, a film loosely based on Vladimir Nabokov's novel. The film depicts an international chess championship set at a spectacular villa on Lake Como during the 1920's. The plot explores an unlikely romance between grandmaster Alexander Luzhin (John Turtorro) and socialite Natalia Karkhov (Emily Watson), yielding an intriguing insight into the world of social expectation and the questionable necessity of artifice, as well as the vulnerable nature of its absence.
Despite not being a hugely well known film, The Luzhin Defence acutely captures the absorbing beauty of Lake Como. Viewers can drink in the striking shoreline of Lake Como and soak up its cinematic potential.
Of course, there's nothing quite like visiting the place for yourself, becoming a film star in your own right by dressing up to the nines and sipping cocktails in one of the splendid villas. Act the part and the rest will follow. At this rate, Lake Como is such a popular location for screen, that you could find yourself being recruited as an extra on a casual visit!


Thanks to its sweetness, this apple is particularly loved by children as well as by adults; additionally, it contains vitamins, which prevent skin aging.
From yellow-green to golden-yellow in color, with some red tones too; smooth and thin peel; elongated or oval in shape; medium to large sized; white pulp.
Sweet, slightly tart; subtly aromatic, lightly fragrant.


NEW YORK (AP) -- A Georgia man who told police he and Tyra Banks "had a thing together" was convicted today of stalking the supermodel-turned-TV host.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A Georgia man who told police he and Tyra Banks "had a thing together" was convicted Thursday of stalking the supermodel-turned-TV host.
Brady Green, 39, of Dublin, Ga., was convicted by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge James Burke, who heard the case without a jury, of stalking, harassment, criminal trespass and attempted aggravated harassment.
Green faces as many as 90 days in jail when he is sentenced on June 18. His lawyer said an appeal is planned.
Banks testified that she feared for her safety, and for that of her staff and family.
Authorities said Green, 39, repeatedly called Banks' studio, showed up there, and sent her flowers and letters.
Green was arrested March 18, 2008, at a McDonald's restaurant near Banks' studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. He told officers he and Banks "had a thing together," police said.
Banks said she was about to leave the studio that day when her staff warned her about Green. She said they had previously shown her Green's photograph, told her he had threatened one of her employees and was "somebody I should watch out for."
The former Sports Illustrated cover girl said she told officers at the scene that she was scared.
"I didn't know what to do. How do I live my life when I leave this building? I had never experienced anything like this before," she said.
Calm and smiling frequently as she testified, Banks said security "has changed significantly" around her and her workplaces because of Green.
She said that her company has hired more security staff and that her studio audiences are vetted more thoroughly.
Banks said she is now followed everywhere by security guards, even when she runs and exercises outdoors. Even though she is a public person, "I don't live that kind of sheltered, protected life," she said. "I like to walk around."
Green testified that Banks' shows on racism and homelessness had moved him and he wanted to contact her. He said his attempts to get tickets for her show had been misunderstood.
He also said he never threatened Banks, never intended to scare her and never tried to date her.
Assistant District Attorney Sean McMahon got Green to admit that he rode a bus for four days from Los Angeles to New York, where he had no friends, relatives and no job, and that the first he thing he did was go to the building that houses Banks' studio.
Banks is executive producer and host of two popular TV shows, "America's Next Top Model" and "The Tyra Banks Show."


text:
Alfred Newman
Birthday: March 17th, 1901 Date of Death: February 17th, 1970 Place of Birth: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music. From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Academy Awards and was nominated forty-three times.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Newman composed the scores for over 200 motion pictures. Some of his most famous scores include Wuthering Heights, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Mark of Zorro, How Green Was My Valley, The Song of Bernadette, Captain from Castile, All About Eve, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Anastasia, The Diary of Anne Frank, How The West Was Won, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and his final score, Airport, all of which were nominated for or won Academy Awards.
Newman was also highly regarded as a conductor, and arranged and conducted many scores by other composers, including George Gershwin, Charlie Chaplin, and Irving Berlin. He also conducted the music for many film adaptations of Broadway musicals (having worked on Broadway for ten years before coming to Hollywood), as well as many original Hollywood musicals.
He was among the first musicians to compose and conduct original music during Hollywood's Golden Age of movies, later becoming a respected and powerful music director in the history of Hollywood. Newman and two of his fellow composers, Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, were considered the "three godfathers of film music"
They Shall Have Music (1939)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
2010/11 Reading List
Reflections from the Hinterland
Reading, Writing, and life in general
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Words For Wednesday »
The Forrests
June 10, 2013 by pburt
Their father balanced behind the movie camera, shouting directions as he walked backwards and forwards in front of them. He handled the Kodak, their most valuable possession, as though i were an undulating live animal, a ferret or a snake, and it was leading him. The children took turns hunching under a cardboard box in the back garden for a sequence he told them would be funny later. When it was Dorothy's turn she crouched like a turtle on the grass, forehead pressed into her bony knees, arms tucked down by her sides, and breathed hotly into her own skin, whole Michael lifted the box and placed it over her, a warm shadow, a rare private place. She inhaled it. (page 1)
The Forrests is Emily Perkins' fourth novel, longlisted for the 2013 Women's Fiction Prize. My mother got the book for her birthday and I borrowed it to read myself and now find myself wishing that more of Perkins' work was readily available in the US. I find it particularity apt that Perkins starts her novel with a scene of a parent making a film of his children at play. This novel is a series of snapshots or videos documenting the life of a family – principally the life of Dorothy Forrest. While told in a linear fashion, there are gaps as the story skips through Dorothy's life picking up and leaving off effortlessly. If you are a person who needs to know the complete story, this novel may not be for you as readers know they are not getting a complete accounting. However, if you just go with the flow that Perkins establishes, it will be well worth your effort.
The novel starts in Aukland when Dorothy is seven years old. Her family has just relocated from New York City where her father was part of a wealthy family. There is a sense that the family has fled for some unknown reason. There are hints of needing independence from the family trust as well as hints of money issues which trouble the family through Dorothy's childhood. The parents are distinctly odd with the father not truly connected to the realities of life. The parents relationship also seems volatile with the father disappearing for a time and the mother taking the children to a woman's commune in the country. Dorothy, her sister Evelyn (whom she considers a"twin"), their older brother Michael, the youngest sister Ruth, and Danny – a neighbor boy who becomes part of the family, make their way through childhood, adolescence, and finally adulthood.
While Perkins does occasionally speak through other characters, it is Dorothy who is the focus of The Forrests. Three things characterize Dorothy, the sensual physical world around her, her sister Evelyn, and her relationship with Danny. As the narrative moves through her marriage, her children and grandchildren, to her old age – these are the three touchstones of her existence and these are the threads that hold the snapshots together.
This is the book of an ordinary life with the familiar highlights of the timeline (marriage, birth, death) as well as spotlighting the ordinary such as child tending, dinner making – all the flotsam and jetsam of the everyday. This is what makes the writing of the book remarkable. Perkins takes the ordinary and transforms it into sheer poetry:
'Come on darlings, breakfast time,' Dorothy said, picking up toys on the way to the windows. 'Feed the fish. And then you need to get ready for school.' Her body operated in space, not her. The tangibility of the mini stegosaurus and cloth doll, the need to remove them from the floor before someone turned an ankle or broke the wing of a kitset airplane, the silver light in her eyes after pulling the curtains, the lid of the fish-food jar to replace, the rumpled pillows and sheets to straighten, bedside books to pile, the papery skin of oatmeal that lined the saucepan as porridge thickened on the stove, the faces of rubbish day, and buying a board for Amy's science project and letting gorgeous, leggy Grace cycle off without laying anxiety shit all over her independence and knowing already how much she was going to miss that girl and school bells and bus timetables and volunteer morning with crossing duty, these things saved her. (pages 191-192)
Through circumstance and incident, holes are left in our lives. Holes left by unsatisfactory upbringing. Holes left by loss – both permanent and temporary. Holes left by bad experiences. Holes left by the mere passage of time. Holes left by denying who you are. Perkins exposes those holes and fills them with the basics of life. Unfortunately, at times, this leaves you wondering who you are, where have you left yourself, and does anybody know the true you including yourself. What do you know and what have you invented?
Perhaps subconsciously she had known that this day would come, although that morning she had been told that there was no such thing as fate, no stories in anybody's lives other than the ones they invented. Maybe she had invented herself into this place. (pages 201-202)
She had wanted to – what, to keep something of her sister but now Ruth was leaving and she was once again glossy, s o controlled, and since the mention of the will they hadn't had a meaningful conversation and she felt stupidly scared of sitting in a cafe with her, of ordering watery quiche and attempting to introduce the real things, the state of her marriage, the hole left by Eve, her fear that she had lived her life on the inside, ruled by the fantasy that someone out there knew her, held her true self. (pages 262-263)
I found an interview with the author and she states, "I'm really interested in how we construct ourselves, the building up of identity and how much we live as a known quantity and how much we're mysteries to ourselves and how much we invent ourselves and live in other people." In her work, The Forrests, Emily Perkins has given the reader a platform to explore this notion of identity with beautiful language and an unforgettable character.
Sunday Caught My Interest
A Guy's Moleshine Notebook
Bookstack: A Ravenous Reader
Bostion Bibliophile
Caribou's Mom
Devourer of Books
Dove Grey Reader Scribbles
Farmlane Books
Fleur Fisher
Hungry like the Woolf
Kevin from Canada
Leeswammes
Lizzy's Literary Life
Reading on a Rainy Day
Savidereads
SKrishna's Books


Leo Laporte: Coming up, the best Before You Buy ever! We've got the Amazon Echo, the YotaPhone, an electric scooter, a Bluetooth smart-blood pressure monitor. And I'm going to review the HP Stream 11. Oh my goodness! It's time to watch Before You Buy!
Net casts you love. From people you trust. This is TWiT. Bandwidth for Before You Buy is brought to you by Cache Fly at cachefly.com.
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Leo: Wow. A harassment of riches on Before You Buy today, some really interesting products. I think that happens. There's product release cycles. And there's some times of the year when we get all sorts of interesting stuff. And then there's some times when you just flow in the doldrums. Mike Elgin is going to be going to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March. We'll see a lot of new smartphones but one thing you probably won't have is an ink-based smartphone. That's what Miriam Juarez is going to review in just a little bit. But let's start with this which I think got a lot of attention when it was first announced. From Amazon, this is the Echo.
Mike Elgan: The Amazon Echo. This is really two products. So there's a Bluetooth speaker with a microphone in it. That's one part of the product. The other part of the product is a Siri or Google Now-like assistant called Alexa. So they come together. You can't get them separately yet but I imagine that Alexa will show up on Amazon TV and so on. But for now it's just an appliance that goes into your home and lets you talk to it. It talks to you back. You can get information, play music, do all kinds of things, the kinds of things you would do with Siri. But with some caveats. It's really an interesting product.
Leo: There's not a lot of controls. There's an on-off switch and a mute button.
Mike: That's right. The dial on the top is for volume although you can control the volume with your voice. You can do all kinds of random stuff like: Alexa, tell us a joke. Alexa? Tell us a joke.
What is black and white and red all over? An educated penguin.
Mike: Yea, they're not good jokes but they are jokes. And so yea, so there's all kinds of stuff you can do. People are judging this on the quality of the Bluetooth speaker. And on that account, it's okay. It's pretty good for its size. This is $99 if you a Prime member and get an invitation. It's $200, $199 if you're not a Prime member.
Leo: I would liken it to the Jawbone speaker which is like almost $200. So if you get it with the Prime price, it's a good deal.
Leo: It's a decent-sounding speaker.
Mike: The most compelling thing about it in my opinion, in addition to the fact that the audio's very high-quality, you notice that her voice sounds perfect. It's optimized for her voice.
Leo: It's actually the best voice synthesizer I've ever heard.
Mike: It's got good bass to it. Really high-quality voice.
Mike: We used it and tested it in our kitchen-dining room. Across the kitchen, you could ask it questions. You could hear very clearly what the answer was. It's nice and loud. So that's really nice. But the biggest thing is this is the future. All homes are going to have speakers and microphones with personal assistants on the other end of it. And you're going to be able to talk to it. Right now this is a unique product. There's nothing else like it. And it's exactly the product that's going to exist for the rest of our lives.
Leo: It does feel that way. I first experience it in your kitchen. And almost immediately though, wow, I want this. But not just in the kitchen; I want it everywhere I go. But I do in a way, don't I? Because I have a phone that I can wake up with either Siri or Google Now. How is this different from that?
Mike: The biggest thing is the fact that it's just such high-quality audio. And it's loud and there. You don't have to pull your phone out. You don't have to think about if your phone is charged, do you have your phone? It's just pure convenience. You don't even have to care where the device is physically located. Just talk to the room; the room talks back. You feel it when you use it. That's more compelling. If this was $500 or $400, then I would say don't even think about it. But at this price point, it's really a fantastic thing. Let me give you an example of what a great podcast or net cast appliance this is. Alexa, play This Week in Tech on Tune In.
Getting the latest episode of This Week in Tech. Here it is.
Leo: To your Tune In account. Wow!
Leo: It does Pandora too, right? If you have an account.
Mike: That's right. It does Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and Tune In. And also there's a news function that will give you news from NPR and BBC plus Alexa herself will read the news to you as well.
Leo: Oh wow, I'm really liking that. Let me hear Alexa read some news.
Mike: Okay. Alexa: let's see what is the command for that.
Here's your flash briefing: NPR news from Tune In. From NPR news in Washington, the White House says President Obama.
Leo: This is really great. I want this!
Leo: Because this is the kind of thing you might do in the kitchen.
Continuing with your flash briefing. BBC News from Tune In. BBC News.
Leo: Alexa, shut up. She doesn't understand that, huh? I thought you could swear at her.
Leo: Sound is great on voice. That I would listen to in my kitchen without any problem at all.
Mike: And since it's in the kitchen, you can do stuff like this. Alexa, how many tablespoons in a cup?
One cup equals 16 tablespoons.
Leo: That does raise one issue. It doesn't know recipes yet.
Mike: This is the beauty of this device. All the upgrades that are required for this are in the cloud or in software. All of it will be upgraded as they upgrade it. And we hope they do. They're also going to roll out third party developers so you don't know what kind of arbitrary capabilities this will gain. Meanwhile, it's a great speaker and great microphone. And you can just buy one. I imagine it will be great for a decade with upgrades.
Leo: I would love to see for instance open table making apps so I can say Alexa I need a reservation for dinner for two tonight at Pueblo.
Mike: Exactly. One of the ways that it differs from Siri or Google Now is she's a little dumber than those others. It doesn't have a complete sort of knowledge that Google Now does.
Leo: Well Google's been watching me for a long time which Alexa has not.
Mike: But Alexa will give you some Wikipedia results. For example, Alexa, Wikipedia Leo Laporte.
Leo Gordon Laporte is an American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur.
Leo: But Google Now will do exactly the same thing and give you the same result.
Mike: In Google Now you probably don't even have to say Wikipedia.
Leo: Siri will do that.
Mike: And she won't. You have to specify Wikipedia.
Leo: You need Wi-Fi I presume?
Mike: You need Wi-Fi. Without an internet connection, this is useless. It's a paperweight.
Leo: Do you have to have a smartphone app to go along?
Mike: I guess you do because you need to do the setup and it will connect via Bluetooth. Then you can do all kinds of setup.
Leo: So you set it up through the smartphone.
Mike: You set up the Wi-Fi connection for example through the smartphone.
Leo: So Android and iOS?
Mike: Yes. And the Fire OS devices.
Leo: Of course. I set it up with my app. This was one thing people were worried about? In fact this was in the parody video which we all remember. Alexa, buy some pens.
Pens added to your shopping list.
Leo: Now that was one concern because maybe I would get pen two days from now because Amazon would just send me some.
Mike: But you won't. What it does is puts it on a shopping list. Notice it's not on your wish list; it doesn't use Amazon language for that. It uses Echo language. So the shopping list exists on your phone app. Nothing will happen until you go to the phone app and say here are the pens I want, how many I want, the shipping options that I want to choose. And then it will come to you.
Leo: Does it work with Audible?
Leo: I'm telling you Sonos need to do a deal because Sonos is the speaker system in every room of my house. If they had the Alexa microphone built-in. Now I want to compare and contrast the two different synthesis. Because I have to say the voice is so good. Let me ask Siri something. How old is Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson died June 25, 2009 at age 50.
Leo: Alexa, how old is Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson died in Westwood, California on June 25, 2009 from cardiac arrest. He was 50 years, 9 months, and 27 days old when he died.
Leo: Despite the over-answer, you have to admit that sounds much more human.
Mike: It does and it doesn't have that tinny distant quality to it. It just fills the room very nicely. Especially, this thing gets loud. You put it in a big room like a kitchen, it's very satisfying to listen to.
Leo: I'm telling you, it's Hal-9000. It feels like the future. As long as it gets better.
Mike: Let's listen to some music. Now I'm controlling this from the app. If you have iHeart Radio, it will do specific songs, channels, genres through iHeart Radio. Tune In doesn't do that yet but you can do Tune In music through the app. So this is Tune In radio.
Leo: The music quality is actually not bad. It's like a Jambox, a Jawbone Jambox. It's a little tinnier. You're not going to get deep bass out of something like that.
Mike: Alexa, volume two. You can choose a number or you can saw louder, quieter.
Mike: That's right. But pressing the button and whispering into the remote, you can avoid yelling across the room.
Leo: Oh, that's the point.
Mike: Yea. Somebody's sleeping next to you, it'd be great for a bedroom. It's great for a kitchen. Personally at $99, if I could get multiple devices, I'd get three. I'd get one for the bedroom, one for the kitchen, and I'd have one in the office. I've had it in my office all day today; it's been fantastic in the office.
Leo: Yea. And I feel like we're going to get closer and closer to a personal assistant where I could say Alexa, send an email to Mike.
Mike: And it knows you.
Leo: You can't do that yet?
Mike: No, nothing like that. But you will get to the-I imagine-you'll do Amazon-y things. For example, you'll say send so-and-so a birthday present. And Amazon will know what that other person has on their wish list. You can get it wrapped, shipped, and paid for.
Leo: But you don't even know what you bought?
Leo: It's just whatever's on the wish list.
Mike: Who knows? But that's the kind of thing that I can imagine Amazon doing. They really want to facilitate the purchasing things on Amazon obviously.
Leo: Samsung recently got a lot of heat that we just talked about on Security Now. Because their TVs have a very similar feature to the Fire TV, the Fire Phone, and Alexa. You can talk to the TV and it will do stuff. And Samsung had a rather elaborate disclaimer which they said things like stuff you say may be sent to a third-party. I presume all of these things work the same way.
Mike: Yes, they do. And Amazon is not particularly shy about hanging onto your data, your audio and all that kind of stuff. In fact, the app will show you every command you ever have given it.
Leo: Oh so it really does keep track.
Mike: It does. And I expect Amazon to use that information to improve the quality of the commands. And also it has to be said that you can train it with your voice to improve recognition. There's a little training app on the app. A little training feature. And you can sort of refine and fine-tune how it understands you.
Leo: Can I just say something like, Alexa, play Uptown Funk. Will it just play a song?
Leo: Oh it's shuffling music.
Mike: My guess is it's going to play… well I couldn't guess that. This is the soundtrack to Tron for some reason. It's not exactly funk. But you know, close enough.
Leo: I think Skynet is here. It knows!
Mike: Do you know why it's playing that? Because I own that. I bought that album from Amazon. And it's probably one of the only things.
Leo: Now I use Amazon's music service. If you use it, everything you have on that will be available, right?
Mike: Exactly. And you can do samples and stuff like that.
Leo: Alexa, stop. Alexa, stop. Thank you.
Mike: So it's really, all this kind of stuff. And of course arbitrary knowledge. Alexa, when is Valentine's Day?
Valentine's Day will be on Saturday, February 14, 2015.
Leo: This one's good. Alexa, when is Easter?
Easter will be on Sunday, April 5, 2015.
Mike: Sunday? I didn't see that coming.
Leo: What's nice is that's the kind of thing where maybe you're not sure. I can't probably yet add appointments to my calendar and things like that?
Leo: And I can't make phone calls because it's not a phone?
Mike: Exactly. And it would be great to be able to do all that stuff. You can imagine all kinds of capabilities. For now we can't review it based on what it might have in the future. So right now it doesn't have those things.
Leo: It would be really easy for Google or Apple to make an external unit that ties to your phone and does all of those things.
Mike: It's a little shocking that Google hasn't done this already. This is the kind of thing that I would have expected Google to roll out at some Google IO like three years ago or something. But they haven't.
Leo: I got to say, it seems somewhat compelling to me. Let's get the pros and cons.
Mike: Okay, so the pros generally speaking are that people-although people complain about the speaker quality-I think the speaker quality is fantastic. Especially since it's optimized for the voice. And it's really nice to talk to a personal assistant where it sounds like a human being in the room talking to you. That's how good the quality is. They are going to open it up to third-party developers. And it's uniquely future-proof. We talk about all kinds of products, we talk about smartphones and stuff like that; next year the new processors and graphics chips and screens are going to obsolete everything that we're talking about today. That's not the case with this; this is still going to be great in five years. And it will be 10 times better because they're going to upgrade the cloud services, the performance, and the apps.
Leo: All the work is being done off-site anyway. You don't need to have a processor.
Mike: It's not something you'll need to replace every two years.
Leo: Incidentally, one of our chatters, Joe, says he uses his because it's paired to your phone via Bluetooth, it can be used as a Bluetooth headset. So you can make calls in the sense that you've got a microphone and a speaker and you can place a call. What are the cons on this?
Mike: The cons are that it's easily scratchable. Now this belongs to Anthony Nielson and we thank him for sacrificing it for a week. This is his personal unit. He was really quick to get on the list there. And so this has not been scratched. But I read a lot of people that say a little nick or scratch and it looks really visible.
Leo: Not so fast man. There's a little scratch right there. Anthony, we're going to… by the way and I want to tell Anthony this, Lisa, let's give Anthony a check for his Alexa. Because I think that given that he's given it up for a whole week just so you can review it, we won't keep it. We'll give it back to you Anthony but we'll also pay for it.
Mike: Okay, so Alexa is not as powerful as Siri or Google Now. So in the world of virtual assistants, Alexa is a little bit of a laggard. She's listening because I mentioned her name. She's not context-aware. So if you say how old is Michael Jackson and you follow-up with how tall is he, she has no idea who you're talking about.
Mike: Exactly. It has big gaps in knowledge. So once it gets it right, it's beautiful. Often times she goes eh, I don't know what you're talking about. It's not mobile. There are no batteries. So if it's not plugged in, it's nothing. It can't do anything. If it's not connected to the internet it can't do anything. So that's kind of a downside. So yea, those are the pros and cons. It's a fantastically handy thing. It costs $100 or $200.
Leo: It makes more sense if you're a Prime member already. By the way you have to get an invitation. So I immediately applied for an invitation.
Mike: Yes, you apply and they may or may not give you one. And if you do get on the list it's going to be a few months before you get it.
Leo: By then I bet you Apple and Google have made something that does exactly this. In fact I think with Chromecast you're really close to having something like this already.
Mike: And there's always going to be an opportunity to sell. For example, Alexa, tell me a story.
You can find a lot of great books on amazon.com.
Mike: Really? Didn't see that coming.
Leo: Buy? Try? Don't buy?
Mike: Okay, this is an easy one. Alexa, put an Echo on my shopping list.
I've added an Echo to your shopping list.
Mike: This is a definite buy. This is a great device. It's one of a kind. And I think everybody should get it.
Leo: I also think we're seeing the future. You can easily see, it's already kind of fun. You can easily see it becoming something you can't live without.
Mike: Absolutely. And I want this in my living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, car, the office. I just want to be able to talk no matter where I am and have this kind of information and action and so on to happen every time.
Leo: Amazon's first to the party. But I have the feeling you're going to hear from other players quickly.
Leo: Microsoft, Apple, and Google all have similar technologies with Cortana, Google Now, and Siri. And I can bet you there are already somebody working hard to make something like this.
Mike: And as you said, this is a natural fit for Sonos. Either Amazon should buy Sonos or Sonos should build this in. Something like that.
Leo: Thank you! Mike Elgin, he is our news director and heads the Tech News Today show each and every Monday through Friday, 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern time, 1800 UTC. Or just Alexa, listen to TNT.
Leo: What do I say, on Tune In?
Mike: Alexa, stop. Alexa, play Tech News Today on Tune In.
Getting the latest episode of Tech News Today. Here it is from Tune In.
Mike: It's today's. It does the latest. You can also go, Alexa, skip. And it will go play yesterday's.
Leo: It goes backwards. That is so cool. I think for podcast listening alone in the kitchen while you're working or cooking, this will be amazing!
Leo: Alexa, stop. Thank you, Mike. We've got lots more to come. This is a jam-packed show. But before we do that I want to tell you about my mattress. It ain't just any old mattress; it's a Casper. It's the best mattress you can get at a fraction of the cost of those mattresses in the showrooms. Casper is online, Casper doesn't need a showroom. You go to casper.com/beforeyoubuy, and you're taking a look at some amazing mattresses, obsessively engineered mattresses at a fair price. They combine latex with memory foam so you get a firm mattress but just the right sink-in balance. Here's my Casper. We got the queen. Actually we put it in the guest room and it's just fabulous. It comes in a box so small… somebody was telling me we got a Casper because we couldn't get a king-size bed upstairs into our bedroom. We had to put in two twins. The Casper comes in a box so small. It's easy! You just schlep it up the stairs, you open it up and there's your mattress. Soft, comfortable. You may say wait Leo, I want to try the mattress before I buy. You can! You get free delivery and painless returns within a 100-day period. So you get 100 days to decide if you're Casper is right for you. Statistically lying in a bed in a showroom is not connected in any way to whether you're going to like that mattress. You've got to sleep on it for a few nights. Casper's mattresses are made in the USA. Even Ozzy adores it. In fact, I liked it so much I got one for my son. He's in college. And he just loves it. Casper.com/beforeyoubuy. Casper mattresses are affordable to begin with. $500 for a twin, $950 for a king-size. That's a lot less than that premium mattress at the showroom. But when you use the offer code BEFOREYOUBUY at check-out, you're going to save $50 even more. Casper.com/beforeyoubuy. Use the offer code BEFOREYOUBUY when you check-out. I cannot recommend it more highly. We love our Casper mattresses. Now, it's time for another product. And we're going to bring in Myriam Joire. Myriam is really rapidly becoming our phone expert. She was here last week with a new, old Blackberry Classis. We gave her a really odd assignment on this one. The YotaPhone 2. Two screens. Let's take a look. Myriam?
Myriam Joire: Hey there it's Myriam with Before You Buy. Check it out, I've got the YotaPhone 2 today. This is a dual-screen phone. Check it out. E Ink in the back; OLED in front. In terms of spec it's pretty much a Nexus 5. Let me show you a bit closer and personal, how this phone stacks up. So it's a pretty high-end device. It's pretty competitive today. On top you've got a 1080p five-inch OLED panel. It's a really beautiful panel. You'd expect that from OLED. You can see the blacks are black and the colors pop. But they don't pop overly so this is a really well-sorted five-inch OLED panel. You've got the usual speaker up here. Two-megapixel front-facing camera. A bunch of sensors to detect your face and light. No buttons obviously. These are all on-screen. Like more and more phones are doing. And then if you flip it over obviously you have this E Ink display. And the E Ink is really interesting because it consumes no power when it's just static. Only when the display gets refreshed which is really interesting because it means this phone can go on the back display for several days in a row. Also you can choose. You can say I want to maybe read a book in sunlight where this display's going to be a lot more usable. Or you can choose to save power when you decide to. So that's kind of the shtick here. I'll show you for example one of the cool things. If I start the camera in the front, the back changes to this graphic. Sometimes it says smile, sometimes it shows a camera. So that way you're kind of aware; the people you're taking a picture of are aware you're taking a shot of them. It's kind of a cool little interaction. And obviously the camera app was reworked to use a back-display to do that. There's a bunch of other configuration apps you can throw at it: RSS feeds, notifications to the back of the phone. Right now I've got the time, the weather, quick shortcuts for phone calls, messages, etcetera. So I don't have to always unlock my phone; I can just use the back-display. As you can see it's a 4.7-inch. It's a little smaller than the front display. And it's QHD resolution that's 960x540 pixels. You have an eight-megapixel camera at the top here with an LED flash. It's a bit of a downgrade from the first generation device which had a 13-megapixel camera. But one of the big differences compared to the YotaPhone 1 is that the entire touch panel is touch-sensitive rather than just the bottom strip like the original was. That means that this phone can do something that the old one couldn't. And this is mirror the entire Android experience right in the back. So you can decide to have these widgets appear while you use the front screen. Basically it's a completely seamless Android experience on an E Ink display. And again you're drawing so little power. If you look at the battery consumption on your Android phones, typically the screens-it's labeled displays in your battery stats-is the killer, right? It's what draws most of the power. So this device can save you quite a bit of battery that way. Now, continuing around in terms of specs, there is usual assortment of buttons. Let me walk you through: there is a headphone jack on the top here. Pretty standard fair stuff. Nothing at all on-let me think-this is the left side if you're holding it from the front display; the right side if you're holding the back display. And then you have a power/lock key and a volume locker on the right-hand side or the left-hand side depending on how you hold the phone. What's unique about the volume rocker, two years ago the YotaPhone had the SIM tree incorporated in the power/lock key. And this year they've got it in the volume rocker. So you can put a little pin in the volume rocker, pull out the SIM. It's a nano SIM this time. Previously it was a micro SIM. Still no micro SD storage on this device. At the bottom here you have micro USB charge and data port with a set of speakers. Obviously microphones are in there too when you want to make phone calls. What's inside? Snapdragon 8.01. Two gigs of ram, 32 gigs of built-in storage, so no micro SD but it's a pretty reasonable amount of storage. I'm not quite sure what we're going to get when we get this phone in the U.S. if we get this phone in the U.S. There have been rumors that this phone is coming to the U.S. This model is a European model. I've got an AT&T SIM in here right now. As you can see it's HSPA-plus. There's LTE bands on this device but they're not compatible with the U.S. Obviously if it comes to the U.S. it will have LTE-capability. So if it does have LTE, I expect that it will be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile. Or maybe they'll work out a carrier deal. The one thing you should keep in mind, sure you're looking at a flagship. Pretty much last year's kind of spec in terms of flagship. So you're looking at essentially what a Nexus 5 would be like. But what you're getting is this extra display. That costs you money. And you know the prices right now are really hard to tell because it's a Russian company: YotaPhone. The rules vary a lot in price. So it's $600-700 best case scenario right now to import this phone. And you still won't get LTE. So keep that in mind if you're getting this perhaps waiting for the carrier version in the U.S. might be a better way to go. In terms of pros, I think the killer app on this phone is the back-display, this E Ink panel. It seems gimmicky, but when you start using it especially with a full touch, it becomes very useful. The mirror option, bright sunlight it's beautiful. You save a lot of energy. You can have your favorite books ready to read in the back here as PDFs or as e-books. And of course YotaPhone has an API that lets developers take advantage of this back display while the front display is in use. There's a lot of potential here in the future. And to me that's the biggest pro. The other pro is it is a pretty full-featured phone. You can't go wrong. Plain Android, all the specs you can expect. It's kind of last year's spec but it's still good today and this year. Cons: the camera, the main camera is eight-megapixel. It was 13 last year. You know it's not about megapixels but I find this camera a little disappointing. Last year's YotaPhone, generation, was passable for a 13. But this seems to be a little bit worse. But you know, it's serviceable. But we get so spoiled with cameras today that I would say if you're into photography this is something you should be aware of. The other con is the price. Right now it's $600-700 at least best case. Unlocked, imported, without LTE support for the U.S. So unless we have some pricing and announcing on the U.S. carrier like it's been rumored, it's really hard to tell. So in a nutshell this is a pretty state-of-the-art phone. It's a little pricy. Should you buy it? Yes, perhaps. I would say a try is the best until we get this in the U.S. on a carrier. And we have proper LTE band support. But compared to its original YotaPhone 1, this is a thoroughly better phone. A much better experience and yes, as such I recommend it as a try.
Leo: So as Myriam pointed out, not sure whether it will have full LTE support in the United States. It is expensive. On the other hand, she really liked that E Ink screen. So a try; thank you, Myriam. Myriam Joire who is now a regular not only on this show but on All About Android and we're really glad to have her on our team. You ready to scoot? Alright, Brian Burnett who is… is he still our technical director? This is a mobile device. We give Brian all the things that are dangerous because he's like a motorcycle guy. We thought we would give him an electric scooter. This is the EcoReco M3 scooter. Here he comes. Here comes Brian Burnett on the EcoReco!
Bryan Burnett: This is Brian Burnett for Before You Buy and today I'm taking a look at the EcoReco M3. No, not the M3 like the car, but this little speedy scooter is plenty fast. The EcoReco M3 is a scooter meant for helping those who have that last mile to get to and from commuting on the train or just getting across town and don't necessarily want to take a bike or walk there. The underlying design of the EcoReco is it has a very sturdy aluminum frame. But it's pretty much if you've ever ridden one of those Razor scooters around town, it's like that with an electric motor strapped to it. It has a 250 watt Hub motor which means it's fairly easy to pull wheelies when you're not even trying. And the top speed has been rated at 20 miles per hour. The top speed for me was about 15 which was scary enough. But I'm sure with a little downward slant and the wind behind you, you'd easily hit 20 miles per hour. The estimated distance for the battery is about 20 miles and it takes 2.5 hours to charge up to 85%. Or 4.5 hours to charge to full, which was plenty or my testing needs. So with its sturdy aluminum frame, with the battery enclosed in the base of the EcoReco, it has a very low center of gravity meaning it handled relatively well but still was a little scary going over some bumps and things like that. And it took a little practice to not get twitchy steering it. The front of the EcoReco has these little spring suspension setup on the front. And it helped a little bit with some of the bumps but really wasn't going to soak up very much. And the rear doesn't have any suspension at all. But for getting around town and going over little cracks in the pavement it was fine. And you can even hop curbs if you have enough momentum going along. But deeper potholes and things like that definitely upset the rideability. Plug it in the, the EcoReco is pretty simple. You've got a three-prong input here and like I said it doesn't take too long to charge up to full. Also the EcoReco is designed to be fairly portable where you can take down the top of the stock to the base of the scooter. And then you can also fold down the handles if need be. So if you have to get on a train or a bus or something like that, you can fold it up. It does come in at a weight of 35 pounds which doesn't sound too heavy. But when you're lugging it around for a little while it does start to wear on you. So I wouldn't recommend getting this if you had to carry it for a long period of time. As for controls, it has a finger throttle on the right with a display showing your speed and trip. It also has a handy little icon for how much battery life you have. And on the left is the brakes which control the rear wheel. Fortunately not the front because you'd probably be doing a couple of stoppies otherwise. Altogether the EcoReco feels really well-made and put together. It's been through its fair share of crashes and bumps and bruises being tested here at TWiT. And it handled it with a plumb. To really test it, me and Padre took it out to an off-road section and had a little bit of fun. And even raced a bicycle with a gas motor attached to it, which he won. But it was close. Also I wouldn't be doing our loyal followers any justice if I didn't test the Reco to its limits or my own. And while trying to do a wheelie, I definitely took a little spill. But it was okay. No damage done. As far as hill climbing it did struggle a little bit. But as long as I peddle a little bit with my foot going uphill it wasn't too bad at all. As for the pros and cons, the number one pro I can think of is quality. It feels very sturdily-built and definitely handled all the difficult things that we put through it. And the next pro would be it's just fun. Everyone who hopped on it around the studio really enjoyed it. And it was great for getting around town quickly. If not looking a little goofy. As for cons, it was a little scary with the steering because if you can imagine a Razor scooter with a motor strapped to it. Those are already a little twitchy whereas this is the same kind of thing. But once you get the hang of it it's a lot of fun. And the second con would be it is heavy when you're trying to carry it around for a prolonged amount of time. If you're just folding it up and putting it on a train or a bus and then unfolding it, it's not a big deal. But if you had to carry this over a long distance it would definitely wear on you. And finally the price. The price would be the last con as this scooter does come in at $1000. But you don't feel like they cheaped out on any part of it at that price. And compared to other e-commuting devices like electric bikes and things like that, $1000 really isn't too bad of a price. So would I give it a buy, try, or don't buy? After all the fun we've had with this scooter, I would definitely give it a buy. If you're in the market for a scooter to get you around where you don't have to worry about a lot of maintenance or a flat tire or something like that, this could be the perfect last-mile commuting device for you. And thanks to Burke for trying to kill me by making a ramp in the basement. Which we totally had to jump. This has been Brian Burnett from Before You Buy. Thanks for watching.
Leo: Well a definite yow for the EcoReco M3 scooter. Brian says you can't send it back. It's $1000. I think you could hurt yourself. But he didn't. So that's why next week Brian Burnett will be reviewing powered roller skates. Are we just going to keep throwing stuff at him until he's…?
Leo: A giant life-size hamster wheel. It's got to be amazing, rolling down the streets of Petaluma. I can't wait.
Chad: Yea, and firework-proof gloves after that.
Leo: Fantastic! Hey, look at the old redhead, Chad Johnson is here. He is the host of OMG Craft. You can find him on YouTube, youtube.com/omgcraft. Also on patron.com/omgchad where he raises money for his efforts to help school children all over the world get better at Mind Craft.
Chad: School children watch me on Mind Craft.
Leo: Do you love the HoloLens? Do you want to wear the Microsoft HoloLens and do Mind Craft?
Leo: It makes me want to do it on Mind Craft. I just think it looks so cool. You saw, they did the demo of when you can look through the windows of the Mind Craft castle and inside they scrape away the wall. I mean it's incredible!
Chad: Right. Part of me wants Mind Craft 2.0. Like if they come out with Mind Craft 2. Because I'm sure if they used a different engine other than Java, they could really optimize some cool effects.
Leo: Microsoft, they have some programmers over there.
Chad: They have a few, I hear.
Leo: How's your blood pressure?
Chad: Not so good actually. I have high blood pressure.
Chad: I've always had high blood pressure.
Leo: You're 12 years old. How can you have high blood pressure?
Chad: It runs in the family.
Leo: Pork rinds, I'm sure. You come from Austin.
Chad: And the diet sodas I'm sure are for high blood pressure.
Leo: I have high blood pressure too. Anybody who has high blood pressure knows, when you go to the doctor it's the worst time to measure. You're nervous and scared. And they call it white coat hypertension. So my doctor has said to me many times, please get a blood pressure monitor and a fibril-thermometer. A fibo-mo-mometor. You get it at the drug store for $60. Take it home and take blood pressure readings and mail it to me because that will be more accurate.
Chad: So this is basically an updated version of that.
Leo: This is that but instead, it's smart!
Chad: Right, this is the Pile Health blood pressure monitor.
Leo: In fact, Pile has been around for a long time making these.
Chad: Yes, brand name company. This is the PHBPB 20. If you want to be able to find it, it has no other name other than that. So that's how you find it. And it's inexpensive. This comes in online around $70. $69.99.
Leo: So that's about what you pay for a decent, comparable blood pressure monitor and it doesn't have the Bluetooth feature.
Chad: Yea, so the cool feature about this is that it connects via an app. You have a Pile Health app that you open. iOS and Android. And when you're logged in one of the cool things is you can have multiple user accounts. So let's say you have multiple people in the family who want to use this, they can have multiple accounts. You enter into your account and it's actually a really nice app. It puts you on the measure page and so I hit blood pressure. Now we're going to wait. Set this off to the side and take your blood pressure.
Leo: So it has a cuff which is the way to do it. In fact this is just like the other store-bought guys. Take your sleeve up.
Leo: The kids at home are saying take off the shirt, Chad.
Leo: All the ladies. Come on, Chad!
Chad: I haven't touched it in a while so it's going into power-save mode. It does this where it looks like it's taking a reading but it doesn't. Anyway, you hit the power button. Also you can notice I'm in this page-one. You can have four different users on the device.
Leo: Oh that's nice. The whole family can do this.
Chad: Right. So you can see that it's connected via Bluetooth. It gives me a little animation of what it's doing.
Leo: And now it's filling the cuff, right?
Chad: Absolutely. So now this cuff is filled with air. It's doing its job. It's actually filling more with air. You're not supposed to talk when you're doing this so I may get a really weird reading. And then they also suggest that you keep both feet on the floor.
Leo: There's your systolic. Now you're going to do your diastolic and you'll get your reading. And the nice thing about these is because it goes to the phone it's much easier to tell your doctor. To say here's my log.
Chad: Right. So I have very high blood pressure right now.
Leo: Quick, doctor! That's not your blood pressure, is it?
Leo: So 197 over 116 and your pulse rate is 99.
Leo: I think if this were not television, we'd probably send you to the hospital right now.
Chad: Say what are you doing?!
Leo: But because it's television, you have a license to die.
Chad: Yea, that would be interesting television, wouldn't it? So it gives you a history. So normally, the highest before this had been 170 over 86.
Leo: Oh that's not bad.
Chad: That's not too bad.
Leo: This is because you're under pressure. And this is one of the reasons you want to measure your pressure a lot. It's different for different times of day, different blood pressure, different stressful conditions. Generally speaking, your blood pressure on television is not recommended.
Chad: You can see how the graph goes up a bit.
Leo: Not your normal BP.
Leo: Oh that's interesting. So you don't have to use the phone because you have a read-out.
Chad: You don't have to.
Leo: I have a Wi-Fi thing that does this but it has no display. As a result you have to be tied to a device to do it.
Chad: Right, this will capture. The one issue I've had is if I take a measurement and I don't have the phone over here unlocked with the app ready, it will not sync the data over. And that's been my issue is that once I take a measurement and it didn't sync over, it's basically lost. I have no way to… now it does have storage but there's no way to really send it back over, or send this to the phone so it can have.
Leo: It has a log on it.
Chad: Yea, so you can choose between the different people over here. So I'm number one. You can also choose between averages. So if I want to see my hour average, my day average, my seven-day average. So you can see this is a little bit better than what I just look.
Leo: That's nice. And again, the doctor really loves to see this. Because your blood pressure is higher after you wake up or after a cup of coffee. You want to see it after a couple days and over a couple weeks so you get a sense of how soon Chad's going to have a heart attack.
Chad: Exactly. One of the things I don't like is sometimes it's difficult to determine which one is selected and which one isn't. So here you go; this is the graph I can give to my doctor, which is really nice.
Leo: Just tell him that was the TV appearance.
Chad: Right, that was when I was on air.
Leo: It was a really cute nurse measuring it.
Chad: Right, so that's basically what it does. Inside of the app they also offer other things like a scale.
Leo: They have other devices.
Chad: They have other devices: glucose and cholesterol. And also a thermometer.
Leo: Does this tie to Health Book?
Chad: It does not, that's a con. It will not. And Health Book has an area for blood pressure but it does not tie in to Health Book.
Chad: The pros are this device will work all on its own if you want. Battery life is really long. It takes four double-A batteries and I used it for way over a week and it never needed replacements. And that it connects to your phone with Bluetooth. On the cons side, if you take a measurement and your phone isn't ready, there's no way to transfer the data back over. And it does not sync in with Health Book. The price is around $70.
Chad: Yea, I think it's a great price. Buy, try, don't buy? For the Pile Health blood pressure monitor, I'm going to say buy. I like it.
Leo: Yea. Very nice. Now will you please go to the hospital?
Chad: Yea, I need to go. Call an ambulance.
Leo: it just goes to show that that's the whole thing about blood pressure is it goes up.
Leo: Oh good they're on their way. Doctor mom called them. No, this is serious stuff. You want to take it seriously and it's great to have that and it ties in nicely. I think that's good. The Pile…letters and numbers.
Chad: Yea, the Pile-we'll say-PHBPB 20. Yes. Start automatic wireless Bluetooth blood pressure monitor with inflatable arm cuff.
Leo: Thank you, Chad. OMG Chad, you can find OMG Craft on YouTube at youtube.com/omgcraft. And his Patron is OMG Chad. That's his name. Chad Johnson that was your off-the-cuff review. Or was it on the cuff?
Chad: I guess yea, the cuff was on the review.
Leo: Of the Pile blood pressure monitor. We're going to review this HP Stream 13 in just a second. Kind of pretty blue, huh? That's nice. But first a word from Blue Apron. Ladies and gentlemen, Blue Apron, I love Blue Apron because I like to cook. But I don't like to shop. And actually even when I like to shop I don't have the time to shop because we work late. You get home, you're tired. You want dinner and then you have to go shop. Blue Apron solves that by sending ingredients for a delicious meal to your home for less than $10 a meal. The freshest ingredients perfectly proportioned. Even the meats and the fish, they're not frozen. They come in a refrigerated box so they're completely fresh. If you're not going to be there that week or that day, don't worry. They work around your schedule with the ingredients you get step-by-step instructions. They have beautiful laminated cards suitable for collection so you can put together a Blue Apron cookbook. It is great. And there is no waste from unused ingredients. And they're delicious! In fact if you go to blueapron.com/twit, you can take a look at the deals they're offering this week. You'll never get the same meal twice by the way. Shipping is free, the menu is updated regularly. Cooking everything is about a half hour. Look at that, chicken pot pie! Shrimp po-boy sandwiches! How about roast chicken supreme with rutabaga and maple-glazed carrots? This is stuff that you probably attempt but trust me it's easy because you've got the pictures, the step-by-step instructions. Even the salt and pepper, everything you need to make it is there. You could start in an empty kitchen and make a delicious meal in half an hour. Blueapron.com/twit. It's great for date night, it's great if you want to show off, impress somebody. I feel like they're teaching people to cook one menu item, one meal at a time. I really like them. Blueapron.com/twit. And we thank them so much for their support of Before You Buy. My mouth is watering thinking about that chicken biscuit that looked good.
Chad: It's a perfect thing. The thing that I hate the most is getting back from the grocery store and going I forgot that, I forgot that thing that I needed.
Leo: Or like on Sunday, I always say on Sunday I'm going to meal-plan and figure out everything I'm going to make. I'm going to go to the grocery store; and I never do it. I never do it. So folks here it is, this is something we've been thinking about and talking about probably since CES, the new HP Streamline. HP is basically making, the best way to understand this is, it's a Chrome Book level computer. Celeron processor, 1080 screen, no touch. It's a Chrome Book-class computer, around $200. But instead of running Chrome OS, it's running a full version of Windows 8. With Windows 8 I always want to touch something so I have to get out of that habit. These HP Streams are great for a student because they're colorful and kids like that. If you're watching the video you'll see some blinking on the screen. That is in fact not a problem with the computer, it's the way our cameras are interacting with it. The screen is rock-solid. It's not a bad screen, it's LED backlit. It's not a great screen either. But again, $200 and up. This is about $229 the one we're looking at. Battery life, they're claiming 7 hours 45 minutes. It's five or six. But that's pretty good, very lightweight. It has SD card reader. The traditional proprietary power plug unfortunately. You can't go out and get standardized on this. Look at this though, HDMI out and two USB 3 ports. That's pretty sweet. Plus of course a microphone-headphone jack, dual headphone jack. Speakers are somewhere here, somewhere hidden inside here. They say DTS studio sound. Not my studio. But again, what would you expect? And also, because this is an HP, you're going to get and it's so inexpensive, you're going to get trial ware they call it. So HP's connected drive, music, photo, get Dropbox offer, HP Office Jet Pro 8630 offer, HP Smart Friend, McAfee. You've got shop for supplies, Snap Fish, Trip Advisor, Amazon is on here. So here's the HP stuff that you can see. There's games and other things on here. The trackpad works pretty well in lieu of touch. You swipe in from the right to get the charms bar. You swipe in from the left to do the task switching. You know, it's very much like what you'd expect. In fact I think it's more than what you'd expect considering it's $229. Part of this is really due to Microsoft. Microsoft now offers OEMs at very low cost versions, sometimes it says $0 in fact. Called Windows 8.1 with Bing, that's the version you're getting here. They also subsidize it with the trial ware. They're using Intel Celeron processors. There's only two gigs of RAM. It's a student-class laptop. I think on the pros side, they're beautiful design, lightweight. The keyboard actually is pretty good. Not backlit, but pretty good. It's got a very usable trackpad. The screen is not touch but it's good enough for what it is. It's kind of like a low-cost student computer. On the cons, the sound is a little tinny. The screen isn't a touch screen. And it doesn't have a great angle of viewing. It's an inexpensive computer. Battery life is decent, not great. Oh and the storage is minimal. Two gigs of RAM is terrible but it only has 32 gigs of storage for $229. And that's not great either. This is really a cloud system. It does come, and thank you again Microsoft with Office 365. So you do get a full version of Microsoft Office on here. That's pretty cool. Let's launch Office, you'll see how long it takes. Not too bad. Oh I didn't activate it yet but we can try it. With Office 365 comes a terabyte of OneDrive storage. Very much like the offer that Google makes for its Chrome Books. If you're a student, and I've got to say it's for a student-it's not for an adult-but if your student wants Windows, doesn't want Chrome OS, wants perhaps to play Mind Craft that you can't play on Chrome OS, I think this is a very competitive offer. It comes with different colors. It's light, it's portable. I don't think anybody would be embarrassed to have this under their arm. And I think it's totally usable.
Chad: It was the purple color.
Chad: Maybe you should be embarrassed.
Leo: I don't know. It just depends on the person I guess. So it's a little under-powered but I have to say it's a try. I don't think, I really have to caution people because I think a lot of people see oh, $200 and I can get a Windows laptop. That's it, that's all I'm willing to spend on a computer. And I think for a lot of people that's a big mistake. $200 that you never use is worse than $1200 for something you use all the time. You know what I mean? That extra thousand bucks-I know money's tight-but if you don't use this that's $200 thrown away. And I think that sometimes happens with these less-expensive computers. But on the other hand, if it's the second or third computer in the house and it's for a student, you're concerned about it getting lost or stolen, it's a little breath of fresh air to say well it was only $229. And they'll probably get a full year out of it. So I would say this is in its niche, a definite buy. There aren't many choices at that price range like this. But I think you should try it if you're considering it for yourself as an adult and maybe spend a little more money to get a nicer system. That Dell XPS 13 that I reviewed last week starts at $799 and is a much better computer in every respect. You're going to like it a lot better. But kudos to HP and to Microsoft for creating a product that's useful at that very low price point. A definite try for the HP Stream 13. And that concludes this edition of Before You Buy. We had a lot of great stuff. Thank you, Chad, Brian Burnett, Mike Elgin, Myriam Joire. Great to have you here too. We do this show Tuesdays so you can subscribe and get it every Tuesday evening after we produce it. By the way, we edited it up so you can get it on youtube.com/beforeyoubuy. Not only the full half hour to hour-long show but also each individual product review. So it's suitable for sharing. We also offer you subscriptions as always for all of our shows and on-demand versions too. Go to twit.tv/byb to find out more. If there's a product you'd like to see us review, Myriam's going to be doing a lot more phone stuff if you want to see her do something mobile for instance, email byb@twit.tv and let us know. We'll get that product and get it out to one of our crack reviewers. Thanks for being here and we'll see you next time. Remember, you've got to watch Before You Buy. I'm Leo Laporte. Take care!


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I am a retired engineer. The date in my ID says that I'm 70 this year. But I'll tell you a secret – sometimes I feel like a teenager. Maybe my meter is jammed and my soul is not aging. However the look discloses that I have been in this world for a while. My parents implanted in me the desire to explore. I had a lot of hobbies, to which I sometimes return. I was a glider-pilot, parachutist, cyclist, sailor and a helmsman. However kayaking is my biggest passion.
I became a kayaker relatively late, after thirty. However I instantly felt in love with this sport and so it remained like this up till now. That is my biggest passion, my life, my dreams, which I consequently fulfill. Dreams are my driving force, so I keep telling everybody – don't be afraid of dreaming!
I am thankful to all, who supported me with their word in the realization of my ambitious plans – particularly to my family and friends. I am very glad, that my accomplishments motivate others.
I am also glad, that I inspired a lot of wonderful people, thanks to whose votes I received the title of the "Traveler of the year 2015 National Geographic". You can read more about that here: Adventure National Geographic.
However earlier, already in 2013, I was honored with "Super Kolos"- the most prestigious award for travellers in Poland.
Remember: "Life is too short to drink cheap wine :-)".


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FROM THE FRONTLINES
The women activists fighting for equality amid crisis
In conflicts and crises, women and girls are almost always hit hardest.
Two in three women experience gender-based violence in crisis situations. That is double the global average in regular settings, which is already disturbingly high. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women were nearly twice as likely as men to lose their jobs, and there's been an increase in their experiences of violence. The pandemic is expected to result in an extra 13 million child marriages between 2020 and 2030.
Even before COVID-19, the world was seeing an unprecedented rise in conflict, fragility, violent extremism and climate-related tensions. Approximately 15 percent of the world's total population – or 1.2 billion people – live in conflict-affected areas, and 100 million people are forcibly displaced. From Afghanistan to Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Syria to Venezuela and Yemen, the majority of those fleeing are women and children.
Like other violent conflicts, the war in Ukraine is inflicting deep harm and is affecting women and girls disproportionately. More than 8 million women have been displaced within and outside of the country. Alarming levels of sexual violence, including exploitation and trafficking, have been reported.
The climate emergency is another example of how women and girls face greater hardship in times of crisis. As many as 80 percent of people displaced by climate change are women, and countries report higher rates of food insecurity for women than men, with a gap of more than 4 percentage points in 2021 according to WFP.
Yet, around the world women are at the front of climate action.
Women comprise more than 40 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries and 47 percent of the fisheries workforce, even though their roles in agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are often unrecognized. Globally, women represent only 15 percent of all landholders. Yet, it's been established that given equal access to resources, women farmers would lift 150 million people out of hunger.
In many disasters, women are the first responders, and their knowledge and leadership are critical to mobilizing local communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. But they are often invisible in preparedness and risk reduction decision-making processes.
Women's participation in peace negotiations leads to more durable peace. Evidence shows that when women are at the negotiating table, resulting peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years.
When it comes to the pandemic recovery, data from the UNDP-UN Women gender tracker shows that countries with greater women's participation on COVID-19 taskforces are more effective in responding to the virus. Yet at the present rate, it will take about 145 years to reach gender parity in political representation.
Women are our doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, women of letters, you name it. They are sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers. And beyond the bodies, minds and lives affected, society as a whole suffers the consequences.
This year's 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is a renewed effort to call attention to the most pervasive breach of human rights worldwide. Don't miss this opportunity to meet 16 of the millions of changemakers, partners and advocates who tirelessly fight to make a difference from the frontlines of crises.
The Activist
"Today they are trying to set us back, after two decades of achievements. But today's Afghan women are more educated, more powerful, doing advocacy and continuing our struggles."
Asila
Wardak
The LGBTQI+ Defender
"I am an optimist. I believe it is only a matter of time before we achieve more inclusion and respect for the rights and needs of trans people."
Imanni da Silva
The Indigenous Leader
"Even though we have learned to communicate the struggles and efforts of women, our work is often behind the scenes and happens in silence."
Maricela Fernández Fernández
The Entrepreneur
"In 2010, I felt quite anguished, and I had the impression that the earthquake had deprived me of all my resources, a feeling that lingered until I joined the 'Women Entrepreneurs' project."
Marie Carmelle
The Healthcare Provider
"I can say that my work and the way I work has completely transformed. We were not able to keep track of vaccine supplies and their temperatures in storage, but now I can view and manage it all easily on my smartphone."
Amrit Kaur
The Educator
"I want to provide internet and electricity services inside the school. Especially to those that cannot attend. I want my students to dream big."
Sana'a Abdulrazaq Abdullah
"As women, our economic participation is undeniably crucial, and that's exactly why we will keep grabbing every opportunity, every talent, every dream, and turning them into an accomplishment."
Ghada El Khoury
The Storyteller
"The most shocking event in my life happened when I was 4 years old. This was my experience with female genital mutilation. I was not too aware of what was happening in my environment, but I knew it was not fair."
Sadya Touré
The Landowner
"I want campesina women to receive the recognition they deserve and help them become political players and peacebuilders on the ground. I firmly believe that we all have the capacity to participate in local and national decision-making processes."
Yimis Severiche
The Cosmetologist
"I plan to take what I've learned to empower and train more young girls in my community and hope that my journey can become an inspiration to others."
Aisha Abubakar
The Community Leader
"I would like to mobilize and sensitize other people, neighbours, so that they do not lose hope. Everything is a process. Where there is life, there is hope."
Cecília
The Peace builder
"All of my life, I've lived in conflict, hearing gunfire at night. We might not always see eye to eye, but resolving the conflicts within all of us can help resolve the conflicts around us."
Charmaine Mae Dagapioso-Baconga
The Harvester
"Women are the backbone in our farming community. Through our tears and sacrifices, we have been determined to ensure that every season, our lands produce a harvest that benefits our entire community."
Pradeepa Nilmini
"For the first time, we have a space where we feel safe, physically and mentally. Never before have Somali female journalists been given the freedom, opportunity and power to decide what stories they want to tell and how they want to tell them."
Nasrin Mohamed Ibrahim
The Firefighter
"When I came for an interview, they told me it would be hard. I answered: it's OK, I'm ready. I've made a good job choice."
Viktoria Kucheriava
The Influencer
"Do not stand where you fail. Strive with determination and confidence, and your dreams will come true."
Iman Hadi
Each woman's story is unique.
As new layers of uncertainty are stacking up and interacting to unsettle life around the world in unprecedented ways, it's clear that sustainable peace and resilience cannot happen without ensuring the human rights of half of the world's population.
Change is possible. And as these stories show, it's already happening.
For the world to build back better in the wake of crises, women's rights need to be preserved and women's voices need to be heard. Because, when they are, development thrives, economies grow and peace prevails.
Join the conversation online.
Share this story with the hashtag #FromTheFrontlines.
© 2022 United Nations Development Programme


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I Think I Love You Book Review
Jaiden Crabtree, Mirada Staff • January 12, 2022
"I Think I Love You," the debut novel from Auriane Desombre that was published earlier this year, tells a familiar story of new-found teenage love but adds plenty of twists. This enemies-to-lovers...
Should MLB Players Who Used PEDs Be Allowed In The Hall Of Fame?
Gavin Dormann, Mirada Staff • December 8, 2021
With MLB Hall Of Fame induction coming up, it is still in question whether players who used Performance Enhancing Drugs should be allowed into the Hall Of Fame. From around 1998 to 2003, players in the...
Gabby Petito: Another Case of "Missing White Woman Syndrome"
Olivia Schlieman, Mirada Staff • November 30, 2021
Yes: Gabby Petito was murdered. Yes: she deserves justice. Yes: the public has a right to investigate. No: she is not the only one. Nearly 40 percent of missing persons in the US are people of color....
SB 8 disregards standard health rights
Grace Ann Lesser, Mirada Staff • October 11, 2021
On Sep. 1, Texas State Senate Bill 8, known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, went into effect. Passed in May of this year, this bill prohibits the performance of abortions if the fetus' heartbeat can be detected,...
Season 52: Seasonal Flop or Seasonal Saint?
Jaiden Crabtree, Mirada Staff • September 20, 2021
Seasons 52 is a well-received restaurant according to the locals online, but just how good is it really? In my opinion, the reviews weren't lying. I've been multiple times and it seems like every...
Spaying and Neutering: The Undisputed Answer
Lydia Ellis, Guest Writer • May 13, 2021
Take a walk down the crowded rows of an animal shelter to see just how serious the pet overpopulation problem in the U.S. remains. Sadly, we have reached a point where there's controversy over whether...
Morning Melodies
Sierra Witte • May 12, 2021
"I tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen / Pour myself a cup of ambition / Yawn and stretch and try to come to life." The opening lyrics from this iconic Dolly Parton song "9 to 5" accompany...
I wish I Could Have Written This by Hand
Darya Pahlavan, Guest Writer • April 20, 2021
I won't sugarcoat it. My handwriting is bad. I've tried to deny this in the past, but I have finally come to terms with the fact that I will never have the ability to write in beautiful fonts. I know...
Conspiracy Theories: Social Media's Next Big Headache
Ajeeth Iyer, Guest Writer • April 12, 2021
"Oh, Nancy! Nancy! Where are you, Nancy?" shouted a rioter, as he and hundreds of others hunted for members of Congress during the January 6 Capitol riots. As I watched on TV the acts of terrorism...
Stricter gun laws save lives
Alyssa Diaz, Mirada Staff • April 9, 2021
Gun violence is felt everywhere in America. On Nov. 27, Rio's community fell victim to gun violence. Dewayne James Jr. and his younger brother Sa'quan Reed-James were shot and killed at Arden...
Capitalism Isn't Working–But It Can be Saved
Darya Pahlavan, Guest Writer • March 28, 2021
American's pride themselves on the economic freedom that comes with capitalism. What's not to love? It brings efficiency, innovation, economic growth and more. While it is ingrained in every American...
The US cannot ignore trouble in Haiti
Claire Fouché, Guest Writer • March 20, 2021
My aunt risks her life every day to go to work. My cousins cannot go to school. They survive in fear, every day. This is the current reality of living in Haiti.


Home » Health » Why Visit an Optometrist in Smyrna, TN?
Why Visit an Optometrist in Smyrna, TN?
Many people are confused when it comes to deciding whether they need to go to an ophthalmologist, an optician, or an optometrist in Smyrna, TN. While all three professions deal with eye care, there are major differences in the types of eye care they specialize in. Ophthalmologists provide basic eye and vision care, and their training levels are quite different when compared with that of an optician. They are licensed medical professionals who can offer a wide range of treatments. Optometrists, on the other hand, are not medical doctors, though they specialize in vision correction and sight testing. They primarily perform vision tests and eye exams. Opticians are trained to design and fit different types of eyeglasses to improve a person's vision. Here are a few reasons why you might need to visit an optometrist.
If you are not able to see correctly and feel that your vision is impaired, you should set an appointment with a local optometrist. It's important that you visit the website of any eye clinic and find out about the optometrist's qualifications as well as the different services they offer before making your decision. You should immediately visit their clinic if you notice changes in your vision, or if there's an unusual strain on your eyes.
If your eyes are constantly watering, you might want to think about visiting an optometrist in Smyrna, TN. They will check your eyes and give you drops that can be used to relieve the constant watering. This usually happens if your eyes have gotten dry. If there's an infection or a major problem brewing, going in early will ensure it is detected early on and treated quickly to prevent it from becoming a bigger issue.


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Shocking Footage Shows a Tesla Model S Run Down By a Semi Truck
Bill Scott/ Tesla
Jack Crosbie
Bill Scott is lucky to be alive. He was headed to his office in Annapolis, Maryland, last April when a box truck rear-ended him in heavy traffic, sending his Tesla Model S P85D spinning into the path of a massive semi-truck hauling two jet engines on the freeway. Scott's Tesla was mangled beyond recognition, but he survived the crash with only minor injuries. And thanks to some after-market tinkering by Tesla hacking engineer Jason Hughes, the crash was caught on camera.
Scott's car took heavy impacts on both the front and back ends, but his wife Michelle says that Tesla's design probably saved his life.
"The Tesla is built like a protective capsule around the driver," Michelle wrote in a customer story on the Tesla website. "And it saved my husband, the father of our kids."
Hughes regularly shops around for salvaged Teslas on the East Coast. Back in September, he discovered that Tesla's Autopilot cameras automatically store data from the last seconds before a crash, and figured out a process to extract the data. The images from Scott's mangled car were too good to share, and he tweeted them out on Tuesday.
Hughes bought Scott's crushed Tesla at a scrap yard in Maryland, but didn't realize it was the same vehicle from the customer story until he posted the footage online Tuesday.


Those who vote illegally sometimes do so unwittingly.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's a bold statement, but one that both federal and state officials keep repeating: security for the 2018 midterm elections is the strongest its ever been in history.
"We are in the best position than we've ever been in as a state," Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, asserts to the ABC11 I-Team. "We don't know what threats lurk out there, but we feel like we've done everything we can to detect and respond to any incident in North Carolina."
Kirstjen Nielsen, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, echoed that sentiment last week in a speech in Washington.
"Everyone should vote. Everyone should feel confident that state and local officials are doing everything they can to secure the infrastructure," Nielsen said. "Because a very important thing here is the adversary wins if we don't vote, right?"
Indeed, the pivotal midterm elections is the climax of a long and divisive campaign season, and it's also the first major national election since the 2016 presidential election, which was mired in controversy surrounding allegations of voter fraud and a roundly-accepted intelligence assessments of coordinated attempts by foreign governments to interfere in the election.
"My biggest concern," Nielsen said, "is that a foreign entity will take the opportunity after the election or the night of the election to attempt to sow discord through social media by suggesting that something did not work as it should in a certain area."
Preparations for the 2018 midterms actually started almost immediately after 2016, when state officials opened a wide-ranging audit of the presidential election.
Among the report's conclusions, officials reported nearly 4.8 million N.C. voters participated in the 2016 general election - the largest number in state history - and suspected cases of ineligible voters casting ballots and/or committing fraud represented a "tiny fraction" of overall turnout.
But it still happened: 441 open cases of voting by suspected active felons, 41 non-citizens with legal status (green card, etc.) casting ballots, 24 substantiated cases of double-voting, and two cases of voter impersonation. The report found "no evidence" of ballot stuffing or equipment tampering.
The information was passed on to prosecutors, who filed several charges leading to a series of convictions and plea deals.
Neko Rogers, who lives near Mebane in Alamance County, was one of the illegal voters in 2016, casting a ballot while on felony probation. She attests that she did not know that her probation meant she could not vote, and she says she even showed her driver's license to register at an early-voting site.
"I don't think anyone of us who voted maliciously voted," Rogers says to ABC11. "I don't think any of us were voting intentionally knowing we committed voter fraud."
Patrick Gannon, the spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, acknowledges that the audit found the vast majority of illegal voters were not aware of the rules - and there weren't enough resources at the time for poll workers to identify issues.
"Most of what the audit found was that people were out of jail but on probation or parole or post-release supervision of some sort," he says. "There didn't used to be an immediate check or near-immediate check of felon status. We've updated our systems to have a more immediate check and we've worked extensively with the Department of Public Safety to ensure their people, their parole and probation officers are notifying folks that when they're convicted felons they can't vote until their sentence is completed, including probation, parole, post-release supervision.
As for the foreign nationals voting, Gannon says most of those who voted also did so without fully understanding their citizenship status.
"Some people may not understand the nuance between being a permanent resident or a legal resident and being a U.S. citizen."
The I-Team spoke directly with one of 19 foreign nationals charged - a woman from Germany who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years. Attorneys representing several of the others charged also maintained their clients' honest mistake of not knowing they were ineligible to vote.
Thanks to a federal grant, the State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement received nearly $11 million from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and state matching dollars to enhance overall election security.
According to Gannon, the funding is key in the ongoing modernization of North Carolina's election management system, known as SEIMS, which manages nearly every aspect of elections. Gannon adds this is the largest IT project conducted by the State Board in nearly two decades, resulting in improvements to the functionality and security of the state's elections systems.
The memo on the HAVA Security Grant details a number of other investments, including $3.5 million in cyber security personnel and training.
Also new in 2018, the state is benefiting from increasing coordination with the National Guard and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which sent a "hunt team" to the State Board office in Raleigh conducting a thorough review of their systems.
In a letter posted on the Board's website, NCSBE Director Kim Westbrook Stratch writes: "At the State Board, our goal has always been making sure elections are accessible, fair and accurate. That mission will not be undercut by domestic or foreign threats. You have the right to be confident that your vote counts, and we promise to remain vigilant on your behalf."


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More Home Football Grassroots sport More
Football London Popular
Best Indoor Football Pitches in London
3 October 2018 • By - Nathan Alder
Read time 3 minutes
Autumn has arrived, and with it brings crisp leaves and cold nights. Thus, turning your once pleasant activity, football practice, now being turned into a chilly chore. However, this does not need to be the case. London is now home to some fantastic indoor venues to play football so the fear of the cold is eliminated. Check out these Playfinder indoor football venue we have to offer.
Powerleague Nine Elms
A very new member to the Playfinder roster. Powerleague Nine Elms. Based in Wandsworth, central London. This is a state of the art 3G Astroturf to play football on in those ever approaching bleak evenings. Equipped with three indoor pitches, you're spoilt for choice. Furthermore, changing rooms on site allows you to come and play straight from work.
Powerleague Docklands
Powerleague Docklands, set in the heart of the Isle of Dogs, London. You have the pick of three fantastic football pitches, helping you through those winter months. Powerleague Docklands is very easy to get to with the nearest train station being Crossharbour DLR Station, which is 328 feet away (1-minute walk) making it very accessible. The venue is open Monday-Thursday 09:00-22:30, Friday 09:00-18:00 and Saturday 10:00-18:00.
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre
It is not just the athletics stadium that should be lauded in Crystal Palace. The indoor 3G Astroturf is a sight to behold. The area is 54.4m long by 35.7m wide. 5-a-side and 9-a-side can be played. This space-aged like facility will be like nothing you'd of ever experienced before. So get yourself down there and experience it for yourself. Even better still, you are able to block book, therefore, playing on such a pristine pitch regularly is made even easier.
Nescot College
Slightly different to the other indoor football pitches on the list, yet, it this by no mean diminishes what a brilliant sporting facility it is. Firstly, the playing surface is different. The MUGA creates a quicker, slicker outfield. As well as playing football, MUGA enables you to play all kinds of sports on this playing surface from Hockey to Netball to Basketball. Although, not necessarily an indoor pitch, more of a sheltered venue. This is still a venue that is a must play.
White City Tiger Turf
White City Tiger Turf is an excellent venue located in West London. Containing both 11-a-side and 7-a-side 3G astroturf pitches, the centre also boasts a quality 5-a-side indoor pitch available for hire. When the weather takes a turn for the worst, head indoors to play the beautiful game in perfect conditions. Perfect for either training or small sided games, Tiger Turf is a pitch you need to check out. The venue remains open until 22:00 on weekdays, representing the perfect opportunity for a post-work kick about. Free parking is also available to any customers driving, but if you're using public transport then White City tube station is located just a short walk away.
Like the look of any of these wonderfully unique indoor football pitches, we have on offer in London? Wanting to play socially or competitively? Then don't get worried about the dark nights and cold weather. Take advantage of the brilliant facilities London has to offer. Head over to Playfinder to not miss out.
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