Google's Lightning-fast Fiber Network Now Live in Kansas City

By Melanie Pinola, PCWorld  

Google is launching its ultra-fast 1Gb-per-second Google Fiber Internet and Fiber TV service today in Kansas City.

Google announced last week that the gigabit network was coming, and here it is. Lucky residents of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, can pre-register now at the Google Fiber websiteand rally their neighbors to pre-register to get Google Fiber (Google is building the network by demand).

Google Fiber promises to be 100 times faster than the average American broadband speed. To put this into perspective, using Google Fiber is sort of like driving from New York City to San Francisco in under a half hour.

The Google Fiber network box that comes with the service has four 1Gb Ethernet ports, but you can also connect your computers over Wi-Fi at 360Mb per second. The network box also offers a gigabit firewall.

Google is offering three plans. The Gigabit + TV service is $120 a month, with a $300 construction fee waived if you sign a two-year contract. The Fiber TV service offers a large selection of network and some cable channels in HD, including Showtime and Starz. Along with the package, Google is throwing in a free Nexus 7 (which isn't easy to find) and a TV box that records up to 500 hours and eight shows at once on its two terabytes of storage.

If you only want the Internet service, that'll run you $70 a month, again with the waived $300 construction fee with contract.

A free plan is also offered, but limits you to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds, and requires the $300 construction fee. This might work if you can't afford the gigabit service, since the average Internet speed is only 5.8Mbps anyway, but it's difficult to give up a service that's 100 times faster.

Imagine: instantaneous downloads, video uploading in the blink of an eye, and immediate file sharing.

Google also suggests Google Fiber customers pick up a Chromebook, such as the refreshed Samsung Chromebook Series 5. With an Internet connection that fast, the inexpensive web-centric laptop may make a lot more sense.

'Bachelorette' Recap: Emily Maynard picks a prince, breaks a heart

By Abigail Forget

Emily Maynard (X17 ONLINE)

The season finale of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” Sunday was unlike any other of its kind. 

Contrary to the proposals that took place on dramatic mountaintops or cliffs overlooking the ocean in seasons past, the climax of this season’s last episode took place on a quaint street corner in the Caribbean island of Curacao.

And on that corner, southern belle Bachelorette Emily Maynard said yes – to Jef Holm, a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Utah, who remained a consistent frontrunner for his edgy style and witty personality throughout the season. 

“I’m so grateful that you came here and put your heart on the line one more time,” Jef said. “What I’m about to ask you aren’t just empty words. What I’m about to ask you is a forever thing.”

Jef then dropped down to one knee with a Neil Lane diamond and popped the question, to which the blonde beauty responded: “Yes.”

The underlying theme of this season involved Emily’s 7-year-old daughter, Ricki, whom she gave birth to shortly after the sudden death of her fiancé, NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick. Emily stressed to the contenders throughout the season that this was not just about marriage, but about completing her family. 

So, it only seemed fitting that little Ricki rushed around the corner following Jef’s proposal to her mother and joined the pair, walking down the street hand in hand into the distance.

But, the episode was far from smooth sailing.

Although Jef and runner-up Arie Luyendyk Jr. were both well received when meeting Emily’s parents, the Bachelorette’s date with Jef in which she let the suitor meet Ricki for the first time sealed the deal. 

In a teary conversation injected into the middle of the show, Emily disclosed to host Chris Harrison that she had already made her decision.  No final date was necessary with Arie, and she was going to spare him the embarrassment of proposing by sending him home a day early.

“It’s just not fair to him,” Emily said choking up.  “As much as I love him, I’ve fallen in love with someone else just a little bit more.”

The Bachelorette headed to her date with Arie to send him home – Arie didn’t see it coming.

“Tomorrow, I’m getting engaged,” he said beaming in his testimonial, as he completed a love potion with a local resident to give to Emily.

No, seriously.

“I feel like when I tell her I love her I can see it in her eyes,” he said. 

Emily’s expression upon her arrival quickly shed light on her decision. 

“I don’t know what to do and I don’t know what to say,” she said sobbing. “For so long I thought it was going to be me and you.”

“Thank you for sparing me the embarrassment tomorrow,” Arie responded sarcastically before walking away. “I appreciate that.”

Emily was able to sit down and speak with Arie on Monday, however.

In another new move, “The Bachelorette” finale featured a live “After the Final Rose” special – instead of its typically pre-taped version – which aired immediately after the finale.

In a sit-down interview, Arie said that speaking with Emily and Jef on the phone after taping was over helped with his healing process.

“Just hearing how they were doing helped to give me closure,” he said.

Next, Jef was finally able to join Emily on stage for their first public appearance. 

“He inspires me to do better and he makes me laugh,” Emily said, never letting go of her fiancé’s hand. 

“She’s the most amazing girl in the world,” Jef said. “We’re so perfect for each other.”

“And now that everyone knows…” he added, grabbing Emily and going in for a long kiss.

The couple announced that Jef is going to move to Emily’s hometown of Charlotte and get his own apartment, as they begin to plan their wedding.

Emily did not give a specific time frame, because “people will hold [them] to it.”

“But I would like a spring wedding,” she said smiling.

“Bachelor” fans get no break from the franchise, with the new season of “Bachelor Pad” kicking off Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC.

The Finding Nemo 2-John Carter Connection: Could the Beloved Fish Be Cursed?

Disney/Pixar; Frank Carter/Disney

Look who's ready to take the plunge again!

Disney is still smarting from the colossal bomb that was John Carter, a whopper of a stinker that cost upward of $250 million, grossed an embarrassingly paltry $73 million domestically, seemingly cost the Mouse House's studio boss his job, and earned a hallowed spot among themost notorious movie failures in Hollywood history.

But if there's one thing we know, it's that Hollywood has a short memory, because now comes word that John Carter's director, Andrew Stanton, is apparently back in Disney's good graces. He's reportedly on board to helm a sequel to Finding Nemo.

Deadline is reporting that Stanton has signed on to direct Finding Nemo 2, which could provide exactly the kind of redemption that the director needs right now.

Stanton won an Oscar for helming the first Finding Nemo, Disney-Pixar's beloved 2003 maritime fable that went on to gross $876 million worldwide and score some of the best reviews for the vaunted animated studio. (A third Nemo installment is also on the drawing board, but no word yet on who will be directing that one.)

The original fishy flick still ranks as Pixar's second-highest-grossing movie, right behind Toy Story 3, and is widely considered the project that put Stanton on the map. (He later directedWall-E, which nabbed him another Oscar.)

"It's the Pixar brand that trumps everything," says Hollywood.com box-office president Paul Dergarabedian of the sequel's prospects. "Every Pixar movie has opened at No. 1, so I think the track record will be maintained, and I think it's great news for fans."

Dergarabedian also notes that one box-office misfire doesn't necessary translate into a death knell for a director's career.

"Everyone's entitled to a bomb in their careers," he explains. "And [Stanton's] totally in his wheelhouse with Finding Nemo 2. I don't think that audiences buy a ticket based on the director's track record. They base it on the brand, and how that brand resonates with them over the years. And I think that Andrew Stanton is a terrific director, and if he directs Finding Nemo 2, they'll be lining up, just like audiences have for every other Pixar movie."

Stanton's also got one other thing going for him: Finding Nemo will be rereleased in 3-D this September, which should hopefully juice up excitement for a sequel.

Could Finding Nemo 2 finally signal some smooth sailing ahead for Stanton and Disney, post–John Carter?

Perhaps. But if anything, it at least proves that the studio ain't done trying to fish for a hit from this Oscar-winning director.

Tom Hardy packed on 30 pounds to become villain Bane in 'The Dark Rises

The actor also fainted in the summer swelter while he filmed a key scene of the Christopher Nolan Batman flick

By Ethan Sacks / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tom Hardy as Bane in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

IT WASN’T all bang! bam! pow! for actor Tom Hardy while playing the hulking villain Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises.”

One scene still sticks in his mind.

Hardy as Bane climbed atop the Batmobile to rally a throng of escaped prisoners — and then promptly crumpled.

The actor, who packed on 30 pounds of muscle for the film, had fainted in the sweltering summer heat.

“I was wearing that big long gray coat and my body armor,” he told The News at Monday’s similarly wilting world premiere of the epic finale of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.

“Not that dissimilar to today’s weather. Anyway, I passed out. I was unconscious for most of the afternoon.”

Other than that brief setback, however, not much has stood in Hardy’s way.

Not the physically grueling training.

Not the tight mask that was molded for his face, which Bane uses to continually pump gas to alleviate otherwise crippling pain.

And not the shadow of the late Heath Ledger’s Academy Award-winning performance as Batman’s last arch-nemesis, the Joker, in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

Nolan and his screenwriters, Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer, deliberately chose Bane as the villain because he was so strikingly different from the Joker.

While Goyer told Empire magazine that some studio execs suggested the Riddler early on, the filmmakers had no interest in being derivative.

Where the Joker wanted to mess with Batman’s head, Bane is trying to tear it from the superhero’s shoulders.

This is a villain, created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and artist Graham Nolan, who rocked comic book fans’ worlds in his 1993 debut by breaking Batman’s back during a fight.

“Bane is the first adversary who you recognize could physically destroy Batman,” says the Dark Knight himself, actor Christian Bale.

Although he’s soon to be a name on the lips of millions of moviegoers, it turns out the creators of the comic book character originally were planning on calling him Venom — until an editor phoned back with some bad news.

“We were embarrassed to find out Spider-Man already had a high-profile villain named Venom,” says Moench. “We didn’t know. Chuck pulled thesaurus and found “Bane” was one of the synonyms for poison and it’s a great sounding name.”

A great sounding name for a muscular intimidator who seemed right out a Mexican wrestling ring. Which is unfortunately a look that doesn’t translate well onto the big screen. (Exhibit A is the cartoonish Bane played by Jeep Swenson, and mercifully with little screen time, in 1997’s “Batman & Robin.”)

Hardy’s version would be much, much different.

“The Lucha Libre mask? Nolan said ignore that, I have an idea,” says Hardy, laughing. “His idea was a lateral take on it, and I didn’t wear the Lucha mask and I didn’t wear the Lycra pants.”

With or without Lycra pants, Hardy trained relentlessly for four months to fill his costume before cameras started rolling on “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“Tom is one of those actors who’s a transformative actor,” says producer Emma Thomas. “When we were doing costume fittings for Bane, for example, he’d come in — and this is before he had put on much of the bulk — he would walk in and he’d look quite slim and slender… then he would hold his body in a different way and sort of stick his gut out, do something with his shoulders and suddenly you’d see exactly what it is he’s going to do.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/tom-hardy-packed-30-pounds-villain-bane-dark-knight-rises-article-1.1117794#ixzz21CRc9B

British Open 2012: Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson Struggle On Friday At Open Championship

By Jeff Babineau, Golfweek

Rory McIlroy walks to the 11th tee during the second
 round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham
 St Annes, England, Friday, July 20, 2012.

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- There are some things in life that are just plain difficult to explain. Like why some parents with dark hair bear blonde-haired children. Like why pitcher Mariano Rivera is so unhittable. Like why those flying swallows don’t take one summer and visit a destination other than Capistrano.

Rory McIlroy spent roughly half his Friday at the 141st Open Championship immersed in some of Royal Lytham’s 205 bunkers, so when he sighed and declared it “just one of those days,” everyone within earshot knew exactly what he meant. Ditto Phil Mickelson. Having chopped his way around in 78 strokes, his highest score in relation to par at this tournament since the Carnoustie craziness of 1999, Mickelson threw his hands up in surrender and didn’t really know what to say.

Thus, about 8-10 times mere minutes after he finished, Mickelson would ponder his growing summer woes, pause, and state, “I don’t know what to say right now.”
Strangely enough, we understand. Outside of American Brandt Snedeker (64) blistering the storied links at Lytham Friday, mostly with his red-hot putter, not many of the 156 players could sustain success at Royal Lytham. It was difficult to pinpoint why, exactly, that was. Yes, the course was tricky. Yes, there was the standing water in several bunkers. Sure, some hole locations were difficult to access. And though the early northwest winds never did dial up to typical Open strength, they blew in from a direction that was opposite a day earlier.

“It felt like every hole we played was into the wind,” McIlroy said.

A day after jumping out to a promising start with 67, McIlroy shot 75, hovering near the potential cut line down the homestretch. Thursday, he’d had but one blemish on his card; a day later, he was loose and all over the place. He made five bogeys and tacked on a double at the par-3 ninth when it required two swipes to escape one of the five bunkers he found.

He said the ninth was a turning point, and not for the good. “I couldn’t really recover from that,” he admitted.

He could have, of course, but he did not, making three bogeys and needing 39 strokes on the way in. The darling of last summer’s U.S. Open at Congressional, where he blitzed the field by eight, McIlroy has struggled in trying to land a second major. In four major starts since Congressional, he has yet to finish better than T-25; at the U.S. Open at Olympic, he didn’t make the cut.

“It’s tough when you’re trying to get something going and it’s just not quite happening,” McIlroy said. He was speaking about Friday, but it seemed applicable to a bigger picture. “You’re just sort of trying to force it a little bit.”

Mickelson, who began his day at 3 over and needed to play well just to make the cut, said he hit the ball more solidly than he had a day earlier, but he struggled to get anything out of his round. When he doubled the par-4 13th and then tacked on another double at 14, where he had to play out backwards from a greenside bunker, his fate was sealed.

“I felt I was going to have a little better round than I did,” said Mickelson, who’d worked late into the evening Thursday with instructor Butch Harmon to address a few flaws, including his ball position. In two days, he hit only 12 fairways and 15/36 greens. “It (the round) certainly got away from me the last five holes. I don’t know what to say.”

There, he said it again. Mickelson’s dossier at this championship is quite pedestrian (only two top 10s in 18 previous starts), but he usually works the weekend. This was his only his second missed cut at the Open since 1999. In fact, Mickelson had made the cut in each of his last 18 major championship starts. South African Charles Schwartzel was the only other player who’d survived the cut in each of the last 11 majors consecutively. (Mickelson did not play the 2009 Open at Turnberry.)

Next stop for Mickelson will be the WGC-Bridgestone in Akron in two weeks. There’s a good deal of work to do before then if he is to emerge from his post-Masters funk.

“I’ll work with Butch here in the next week and see if I can get some direction, and see if I can get into a little better play heading into these next two months, because we have some big tournaments,” he said.

As for McIlroy, he’ll have two more days at Lytham to right his game.

Quick story: Thursday, McIlroy struck a fan named Jason Blue in the head with an errant drive at the 15th hole, the ball bounding out of bounds. Later in the day, McIlroy and his management team were able to get in touch with the 16-year-old from Bristol and move Blue from his damp tent accommodations into the cozy comforts of a nearby hotel. McIlroy even peeled off 100 pounds and change for young Blue and his buddy to enjoy a nice meal.

“Nice touch,” said McIlroy’s manager, Conor Ridge.

Explained McIlroy, “It was the least I could do. If someone gave me a big hole in my head, I wouldn’t be too happy.”

Before he headed to the practice tee Friday, McIlroy met with the smiling lad, posed for some pictures, and wished him well. “Are you here for the weekend?” McIlroy asked Blue. Blue said he was. “Then enjoy the next couple of days.”

McIlroy hopes he can do the same. And Mickelson wishes he’d had the opportunity.

Gustav Klimt 'The Kiss' Google Logo Honors Artist's 150th Birthday (PHOTO)

Google is paying homage to Austrian artistGustav Klimt with a "Google Doodle" of one of his most popular paintings: "The Kiss."

Born on July 14, 1862, Gustav worked with gold leaf in some of his most well-known pieces, such as "The Kiss" and the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." Today would mark the artist's 150th birthday.

"The Kiss" was created between 1907 and 1908, during the "highpoint" of the artist's "Golden Period," according to the Klimt Museum. The piece incorporates oil paint and gold leaf and is currently on display at the Belvedere in Vienna.

In the past, Klimt's pieces have sold for $135 million. The "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" was bought for New York's Neue Galerie at the record price in 2006, theNew York Times reports. Ronald S. Lauder purchased the painting, which features the wife of a Jewish sugar industrialist.

Although the artist died in 1918, his paintings are still reproduced on prints, shirts, jewelry and other products, Mashable notes.

Google regularly honors some of the world's greatest minds with "doodles" displayed on the search engine's page.

The company recently featured an interactive homepage logo for Dr. Robert Moog's 78th birthday, in which users could press keys and share their musical creations with family and friends.

Learn more about Gustav Klimt and his works by visiting HuffPost Arts.

It’s Friday the 13th, the last for 2012

Today is Friday the 13th, the third and last of three this year.
Of course, most folks know that today is supposed to be unlucky, but why is lost in the mists of time and misfortune.
Still, the superstition persists and is so widespread that experts have come up with two names for the fear of Friday the 13th - friggatriskaidekaphobia and paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Talk about mouthfuls. (The irrational fear of things associated with the number 13 is known as triskaidekaphobia.)
It is hard to find an awful major event that occurred on a Friday the 13th, but that has not stopped many from believing that bad things could happen to them on the day.
According to Donald Dossey, the behavioral scientist who coined paraskevidekatriaphobia, as many as 21 million Americans have some measure of fear for Friday the 13th.
Dossey, who runs the Management Center/Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., estimates that fear costs the economy hundreds of millions of dollars because those afraid of Friday the 13th are inclined to stay home and do nothing rather than tempting the fates by venturing out.
That means they don't drive, fly, eat at restaurants or even go to work.
There is no Friday the 13th on the calendar until September, 2013, 14 months from now.