NEWS - LATEST 'CALL OF DUTY' GAME BREAKS SALES RECORDS

Latest 'Call of Duty' game breaks sales record

 NEW YORK (AP) — By the third time around, it really shouldn't be a surprise. The latest "Call of Duty" video game set a first-day sales record this week, generating $400 million in sales in its first 24 hours in stores. That breaks the record its predecessor set this time last year.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" is the third game in the military shooter series to set such a record. Last year, "Call of Duty: Black Ops" raked in $360 million in its first 24 hours on sale. "Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2," sold 4.7 million copies in its first 24 hours to reap $310 million

The latest installment of the game from Activision Blizzard Inc. went on sale at midnight Tuesday in North America and the U.K.

Activision said Friday the game sold 6.4 million units in its first 24 hours.

A rival shooter game from Electronic Arts Inc., "Battlefield 3," meanwhile, sold 5 million units in its first week in stores last month, making it the fastest-selling game in EA's history.

The figures show there's a big appetite for big shooter games this holiday season, boding well for their publishers and retailers such as GameStop Corp.

Shares of Activision Blizzard slipped 16 cents to $12.82 in morning trading Friday.

NEWS - EARTHQUAKE, AFTERSHOCKS FELT ACROSS OKLAHOMA REGION

Earthquake, aftershocks felt across Oklahoma, region

Multiple earthquakes shook much of central Oklahoma early Saturday, rousing people from their sleep. It was felt as far away as Pleasant Hill, Mo.

FROM STAFF REPORTS    

Published: November 5, 2011

A 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled homes across central Oklahoma early Saturday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial quake was centered about six miles north of Prague about 2:12 a.m.
That quake was followed by a series of aftershocks. A 3.4 magnitude aftershock was felt moments later followed by another 2.7 magnitude aftershock about five miles southeast of Sparks. Sparks is east of the metro area in Lincoln County.
And those aftershocks continued as a 3.6 magnitude quake struck about 8:36 a.m., also centered about two miles southeast of Sparks.
The National Weather Service in Norman said via its Facebook page the earthquake was felt in Norman and also as far away as weather offices in Topeka, Kan., and Pleasant Hill, Mo.
There have been no reports of significant damage caused by the quake. According to OG&E's System Watch webpage it did not cause power outages anywhere in that company's coverage area across the state. Oklahoma Natural Gas is not reporting any gas leaks or service outages.
Tom Foster was awakened in his southwest Oklahoma City home by what he believes was an aftershock.
"It was a little later than what they say was the initial quake so I think I felt one of the aftershocks," he said. "The bigger quake didn't wake me up. But I know we've already had several phone calls from out of state relatives wondering what happened. I guess it's more interesting than anything that was dangerous."
Heather Spicer of Sapulpa said the quake woke her son and dog up.
"At first I thought and airplane had crashed nearby," she said. "But now I believe it was an earthquake because the whole house just kept vibrating with what sounded like distant thunder outside."
Matt Hoover of Perkins was wrapping birthday presents at 2:20 a.m. when he felt the quake. He thought the experience, his first with a quake, was exciting.
"The whole house started to shake and a low rumble could be heard throughout the house," he said. "It lasted about 20 seconds."

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yup, its true, we FELT this one..weve had reporst the entire time weve lived here of earthquakes, and may have heard a "pop" or a "bump" sound and that was all, but THIS one we felt, and we felt it good.

craig was in the bathroom, daniel was playing a game in the livingroom, and i was right here at my PC when i heard, what i thought was allot of movement and sound from my livingroom, like  rough housing. i was about to ask daniel what the heck he was doing when the floor started to roll...my chair was rolling in circles, and the windows were ratteling, and the house shook for a good 90 seconds..

just after it subsided. craig ran into the doorframe looking at me, asking "DID YOU FEEL THAT EARTHQUAKE?!?!?!" 

umm, yes, the house felt it..lol

then right behind him was daniel running in the same doorway, looking at me saying " WAS THAT AN EARTHQUAKE?!?!?!"

yes...lol

for whatever reason, it didnt concern, me, it was exciting, and different and memorable..and to some degree, fun.

im sure because no harm nor damage was done..but still. i had NO concernes whatso ever when it hit...i just  rode it through..

just as it was hitting and right behind it facebook was all a buzz with connections and status updates and thoughts about it..

it was amazing, to me...

 took a screen print shot of the page the report for the quake was on.

and one 24 hours later (roughly, to show all the aftershocks)

my home location, in realtation to the epicenter of this big earthquake

some humor

MICHELLE

NEWS - CALL OF DUTY TO LET GAMERS COMPETE ACROSS PLATFORMS

'Call of Duty' to let gamers compete across platforms

Mark Milian, CNN
Fri November 4, 2011

(CNN) -- The "Call of Duty" franchise is a perennial blockbuster, with more than 65 million units sold so far in the United States and hordes of fans lining up each fall to buy the latest installment of the war-simulation video game.
Now, Activision Publishing will find out whether fans who are accustomed to dropping $60 on a new "CoD" game each year will also cough up an extra $50 to keep their game content fresh.
The much-hyped "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" is set to arrive in stores on Tuesday. As usual, players get inside the helmets of soldiers -- in this case, fighting a near-futuristic global war against Russian forces who have invaded multiple countries, including the United States.
The storyline, with battles in London, New York and Paris, is a continuation of its 2009 predecessor.
But "Modern Warfare 3" will be the first game in the series to launch with a new member service called "Call of Duty Elite."
Players will be able to sign up for a free social network that encapsulates the new game, last year's "Black Ops" and future "Call of Duty" games. They'll be able to create a profile that extensively tracks gameplay statistics for multiple "CoD" games across the various console platforms for which they're available.

Stat systems are typically maintained by console developers, like Microsoft and Sony, which means Xbox 360 gamers cannot rank themselves against PlayStation 3 players. The Elite service bridges that gap, although gamers still will not be able to play against someone using a different type of console.
Elite users will also be able to share videos or screen shots captured within the game and download "Call of Duty" stat-tracking applications to their smartphones or tablets. Microsoft and Bungie maintain a similar dedicated service for "Halo."
Despite competition this fall from fellow first-person shooter game "Battlefield 3," which sold 5 million units in its first week, Activision is confident the "Call of Duty" franchise has enough muscle to persuade customers to spend the $50 per year for premium services.
"'Call of Duty' is a franchise that's grown every year of its existence," Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said in a recent interview. "I think that we are finding that people have a very healthy appetite for content."
Subscribers will be served a new piece of content they can download each month and use to participate in competitions. The content will include new maps and gameplay modes.
"The things that we're charging for are things that we really wouldn't be able to provide if we didn't," Hirshberg said. "It's not modeled after anything. It's kind of a new entry into the model here."
Activision has been working on the Elite service, which was previously called Project Beachhead, for two years, Hirshberg has said. The company formed a division called Beachhead Studio to maintain its development. "Black Ops" players were able to beta test Elite until mid-October, when Activision shut down parts of the service in advance of "Modern Warfare 3's" debut.
Subscription gaming has proliferated in a genre called massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMO, or MMOG), the most prominent being "World of Warcraft." That game happens to be owned by Activision's Blizzard arm, allowing the Beachhead team to learn from the pros.
"There are a lot of big brains that we picked down at Blizzard," Hirshberg said. "They've done this kind of relationship with consumers, with gamers, very well, probably better than anybody."
Sony has tried to marry the first-person shooter genre with vast online worlds in a game called "PlanetSide." It wasn't a hit, but the company announced a sequel this summer. Activision believes it has found a sweet spot that won't muck with the "Call of Duty" formula but will still spur gamers to open their wallets.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" will be available Tuesday for PCs and the PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles. The game retails for $60 and is rated Mature, meaning it contains content suitable for people ages 17 and older.

NEWS - 7 BILLIONTH PERSON BORN (maybe More, Maybe Less. Who Knows)

7 Billionth Person Born (Or Maybe More. Or Less. Who Knows?)

 Published October 31, 2011

| FoxNews.com

With the birth of Danica May Camacho in Manila at two minutes before midnight, the United Nations Population Fund announced that the world's population had hit a new landmark: 7 billion people now fill the blue spinning globe we call home.

Or maybe not.

The U.S. Census Bureau comes to a very different conclusion, pegging the world's current population at 6,971,933,858 -- a difference of more than 28 million people. In other words, the U.S. Census Bureau guesses that the U.N. has overcounted by more than twice the current population of California. It argues that the world's population won't reach 7 billion until sometime in March of 2012.

Other estimates are even further off.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, an Austrian group that studies world population, argues that the world's 7 billionth person might not be born until July 2014.

The U.N.'s number has many scratching their heads, and asking how the agency counts people. Just how did the U.N. reach its conclusion?

The U.N. admits the number is only an estimate.

Amid the millions of births and deaths around the world each day -- and the poor demographic information currently being gathered -- it's impossible to pinpoint the arrival of the globe's 7 billionth occupant with any sort of accuracy. 

"All demographic projections suffer from two kinds of potential errors," wrote Sergei Scherbov, director of demographic analysis at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, in a recent paper. He argues that uncertain projections and incorrect data about the current population make it a challenge to precisely pin down an exact number.

"The sizes of many populations today are not known with high accuracy, including the population billionaires China and India and many countries particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa," he pointed out.

Indeed, to reflect the inaccuracy in its guess, the U.N. chose Monday to mark the day with a string of festivities worldwide -- and not one, but a series of symbolic 7-billionth babies being born.

In Uttar Pradesh, India -- the most populous state in the world's second-most populous country -- officials said they would appoint seven girls born Monday to join Danica as symbols of the seven billion.

"It would be a fitting moment if the seven billionth baby is a girl born in rural India," said Dr. Madhu Gupta, an Uttar Pradesh gynecologist. "It would help in bringing the global focus back on girls, who are subject to inequality and bias."

Demographers say it took until 1804 for the world to reach its first billion people, and a century more until it hit 2 billion in 1927. The twentieth century, though, saw things begin to cascade: 3 billion in 1959; 4 billion in 1974; 5 billion in 1987; 6 billion in 1998.

Now the rate of change seems to be slowing, the U.N. estimates.

"The rate of increase appears to be slowing. But the large number of people now in their reproductive years, 3.7 billion, means world population will keep growing for several more decades," a recent agency report states.

The U.N. estimates the world's population will reach 8 billion by 2025 and 10 billion by 2083. But the numbers could vary widely, depending on everything from life expectancy to access to birth control to infant mortality rates.

Dr. Eric Tayag of the Philippines' Department of Health said the birth came with a warning.

"Seven billion is a number we should think about deeply," he said.

"We should really focus on the question of whether there will be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life for every child," he said. "If the answer is 'no,' it would be better for people to look at easing this population explosion."

 

THE CAT - By: Dwight Nelson

The Cat
========

Dwight Nelson recently told a true story about the pastor of his church.

He had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and then was afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc. The kitty would not come down.

The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.

He did all this, checking his progress in the car frequently, then figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree
would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten.

But as he moved a little further forward, the rope broke.

The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air  - out of sight.

The pastor felt terrible.

He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. No. Nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business.

A few days later he was at the grocery store and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. Now this woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?"

She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the Mom finally told her little girl, "Well if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it?"

(Can you see where this is heading?)

She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes.

A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her."

Never underestimate the Power of God and what may appear to be breaking on one end, is answering prayer on another.

HUMOR - POSSESSED COMPUTER!

For a computer programming class, I sat directly across from someone, and our computers were facing away from each other. A few minutes into the class, she got up to leave the room. I reached between our computers and switched the inputs for the keyboards. She came back and started typing and immediately got a distressed look on her face.

She called the teacher over and explained that no matter what she typed, nothing would happen. The teacher tried everything. By this time I was hiding behind my monitor and quaking red-faced.

I started to type, "Leave me alone!"

They both jumped back, silenced. "What the . . . " the teacher said.

I typed, "I said leave me alone!"

The kid got real upset. "I didn't do anything to it, I swear!" It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. The conversation between them and HAL 2000 went on for an amazing five minutes.

Me: "Don't touch me!"

Her: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit your keys that hard."

Me: "Who do you think you are anyway?!" Etc. Finally, I couldn't contain myself any longer and fell out of my chair laughing.

After they had realized what I had done, they both turned beet red.

Funny, I never got more than a C- in that class.

NEWS - 2 EARTHQUAKES REPORTED IN OKLAHOMA

 Two earthquakes reported in Oklahoma

A 3.5-magnitude earthquake has been reported Friday by the U.S. Geological Survey.

FROM STAFF REPORTS  

Published: October 28, 2011

A 3.5-magnitude earthquake has been reported Friday by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake was at 3:18 a.m. Friday 2 miles north of Spencer and 4 miles northwest of Nicoma Park. No reports of property damage or injuries were made.
Also, a 3.3 magnitude earthquake was reported at 12:24 a.m. a mile northeast of Spencer.

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pretty sure i really felt this one! would be my 2nd id have ever felt thus far. this one lasted a while. like about 5 seconds, rattled the bed and the window.

MICHELLE