Paradigm Shift e3m

Paradigm is well known in the hi-fi audio realm for making some of the most affordable, excellent-sounding speakers under $1000, the Mini Monitors. Recently, Paradigm announced a more affordable line of speakers and?in a first for the company?earphones. The line is called Paradigm Shift, and the e3m, at $129.99 (direct), is the most expensive of the three earphone pairs the company unveiled at CES 2012. Fans of the signature smooth bass response of Paradigm speakers will not be disappointed, as the e3m offers plenty of clean, robust low-end that never distorts, even at top volume. Some listeners might prefer a bit more brightness or high frequency presence, but the response is not so muted in the highs that it could be called muffled. Overall, the e3m is a strong debut for Paradigm in the earphone realm.

Design
Offered in white or black (ours was black), the e3m features earpieces with aluminum housings for the 8-mm super-neodymium drivers. They're metallic-covered at the base, where the ear tips slide on, and black on the ends, with the Paradigm Shift logo emblazoned in silver on each earpiece. Red plastic, hidden by the eartips, marks the right earpiece. One tip in each ear tip pair?there are three differently-sized pairs included?also has red on it to keep things straight. The earpieces provide a secure seal and decent passive noise reduction, with the cable extending straight down from the ear. (Paradigm will also offer earhooks as an accessory for the Shift earphone line?rubberized sleeves for the cable that fit over the top of the ear, for those who prefer to wear the earphones upside down, with the cable shooting up and behind the ear.) The cable is covered in black, tangle-resistant cloth. It's not tangle-proof, but it should be easier to keep the e3m's cable more tidy than a typical earphone cable.

Along the right ear's cable, there is a small compartment housing a microphone and a single-button control system for answering calls. It works with most modern, popular phones, including the iPhone, but since it's not designed for one phone in particular, it doesn't handle any of them particularly gracefully. On the iPhone 4S, for instance, the single button needs to be tapped rapidly twice to skip a song, and three times to accomplish other tasks. The three-button iPhone controls included on most earphone pairs these days are far more efficient. The trade-off is that Paradigm's earphones will also work with most smartphones. Still, it feels like a control system from a few years back, and will likely annoy iPhone users who are familiar with the modern controls on other earphones. The 3.5mm connection is straight and narrow, which makes it ideal for mobile phones with bulkier cases. The e3m also comes with a compact, padded travel case.

Performance
One thing newcomers to the earphone realm often get wrong is bass performance?not just how much or how little bass to include in the earphones' sound signature, but also how well the drivers will handle deep bass at higher volumes. It's refreshing to see Paradigm get this right on the first try. Not only does the e3m offer exemplary bass response with articulate but powerful lows, but there is never any distortion. Even on tracks with seriously deep bass, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," and even at maximum volume, the e3m's remain clean.

Bass response isn't everything, though, and one thing audiophiles might find lacking is the high frequency response. When bass is intense and the higher frequencies lack the same amount of presence in the overall response, the result is often described as muddy or muffled. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the e3m sounds muffled, but there is less of an emphasis on the higher frequencies and crispness of vocals and percussion than you will find in similarly priced-models, like the Shure SE215 (4 stars, $119) and the Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones (4.5 stars, $179.95). Both of those pairs won Editors' Choice awards and offer a much crisper high frequency response without sacrificing the low end. The e3m, however, sounds almost refreshing for dialing back the highs a bit?a sound sometimes attributed to vinyl and referred to as "warmth." If you're seeking the opposite of warmth, the Etymotic ER-4PT (4.5, $299)?another Editors' Choice?though far more expensive, is an industry standard for flat response, and has a distinctive crisp response with subtle, less intense low-end.

So, we'll call this a matter of taste. If you favor crisp, super-articulate highs, the e3m is probably not for you. If you're looking for a warmer sound, favoring the bass frequencies without getting muddy, the e3m may be just what you're looking for. If all the aforementioned options are all out of your budget, perhaps you should check out another PCMag Editors' Choice, the AKG K 325 (4 stars, $79.95)?at about $50 less, it's a steal, and still delivers laudable bass response and overall clarity.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/L-TSMkvpe2c/0,2817,2399165,00.asp

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NBC Nightly News: Economy trumps all in S.C.

NBC News

NBC's Tom Brokaw caught up with voters at Bailey's sports bar in Greenville, S.C. for his second report in the

?

By Tom Brokaw
NBC News
Columbia, S.C.

There are only two days left until South Carolina?s Republican presidential primary and a new NBC News/Marist poll shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is gaining ground. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a 10-point lead over Gingrich, but Gingrich now has the support of 24 percent of likely Republican primary voters in the state ? and the support of the latest candidate to drop-out, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

I spent two?full days in South Carolina, from Greenville-Spartanburg to Columbia and many stops between, including the old mill towns of Laurens and Newberry.?The Palmetto?State has so many parts?--?the coastal areas, the midlands, the western front -- and they're all distinct in?their geography and culture.?But after speaking?with people throughout the region, I found nearly everyone agreed that this year the economy trumps all in South Carolina, a deeply religious state where social issues such as abortion and gay rights have played larger roles in the past.

NBC News

NBC's Tom Brokaw interviews Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Ernie Segars,?the county administrator in Laurens, S.C., said although religious issues are ?very important? to voters, ?jobs and the economy are the major issues right now.?

?I think when the economy?s better and things are improved, and certainly the social issues are important and will have a role,? Segars said.

Watch Tom Brokaw tonight on ?Nightly News? as he connects with voters in the political battleground of South Carolina, the second in a series of reports called ?Main Street, USA.?? Click HERE to watch the first report, from Iowa.

Gov. Nikki Haley, a Tea Party darling who has struggled with her ratings her first year in office,?echoed that sentiment.

?We?re looking for a president that understands it?s all about jobs,? said Haley, who has endorsed Romney. ??The hardest part about my job has been the Obama administration ? The people of South Carolina saw that we passed by the will of the people legal immigration reform and the Department of Justice stopped it ? The people have experienced the mandates and the stops of the federal government and they?re frustrated with it. And so they?re looking for someone that can go in day one and say, ?Lay off the states, let them do their jobs and let?s get people back to work.??

South Carolina's unemployment rate has hovered close to?10?percent, even with a new BMW plant and the arrival of some support industries.???

I also spoke with?the state?s U.S.?Sen. Lindsey Graham,?a Republican?who is being criticized by?his?own party and a variety of other party activists for his occasional departure from Republican orthodoxy.

?The question for the Republican party, would we put raising revenue on the table to solve our entitlement problem?? he asked.??Will our Democratic friends put on the table working longer and reducing benefits? And every time you put these ideas on the table, people come at you pretty hard.?

After two days spent talking with dozens of people, I encountered the most passionate opinions at?a Ron Paul debate party at Bailey?s sports bar in Greenville: all working class and mostly young, many of whom had not been involved in politics before.

I asked Sandy Monroe what she found so appealing about Ron Paul.

?He challenged my ideas,? she said. ??He sent me back to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and to the Founding Fathers ? He could win if the people understood what he stood for.? If people like me would actually go study what he says, it makes sense.? And it?s our freedom that he?s talking about.?

But for Robert Whitney, ?it?s a trust issue.?

?Everything that Romney says, he?s flip-flopped too much,? Whitney said. ?When there?s big government people saying that Ron Paul has integrity, that he?s a man that stands by his word, then I mean, I think that?s all the proof you need.?

Tune in to ?Nightly News? tonight for more of Tom Brokaw?s reporting from South Carolina and join the conversation on the ?Nightly News? Facebook page.

Source: http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10191957-economy-trumps-all-in-south-carolina

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Missing teenager Natalee Holloway declared dead (AP)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? The parents of Natalee Holloway looked on somberly as a judge on Thursday declared their child dead, more than six years after the American teenager vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

"We've been dealing with her death for the last six and a half years," Dave Holloway said after a brief hearing. He said the judge's order closes one chapter in a long ordeal, but added: "We've still got a long way to go to get justice.

Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba on May 30, 2005. The 18-year-old was last seen leaving a bar early that morning with a young Dutchman, Joran van der Sloot. Her body was never found and the ensuing searches for the young woman would reap intense media scrutiny and worldwide attention.

Thursday's hearing was scheduled long before van der Sloot ? a suspect questioned in Holloway's disappearance ? pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 murder of a woman he met at a casino in Lima. Stephany Flores, 21, was killed five years to the day after Holloway, an 18-year-old from the wealthy Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, disappeared.

Shortly after Flores' death on May 30, 2010, van der Sloot told police he killed the woman in Peru in a fit of rage after she discovered on his laptop his connection to the disappearance of Holloway. Police forensic experts disputed the claim.

Dave Holloway told the judge in September he believed his daughter had died and he wanted to stop payments on her medical insurance and use her $2,000 college fund to help her younger brother.

The teen's mother originally objected, but her lawyer, Charlie DeBardeleben, said she subsequently changed her mind once she understood her husband's intentions.

Natalee Holloway's parents were divorced in 1993 and Beth Holloway sat in the back row of the courtroom, mostly staring at her hands in her lap through the hearing Thursday afternoon in a probate court in Birmingham.

Although Beth Holloway declined to speak to journalists, her attorney signaled it was a difficult moment for her to witness a judge signing the order declaring her daughter dead.

"She's ready to move on from this," DeBardeleben added.

Mark White, an attorney for Dave Holloway, told the judge just before he announced his decision, that there was no evidence that Holloway was alive.

"Despite all that no evidence has been found Natalee Holloway is alive," he told the judge, noting that exhaustive searches, blanket international media coverage and even the offer of rewards had turned up nothing new.

King had ruled in September that Dave Holloway had met the legal presumption of death for his daughter and it was up to someone to prove she didn't die on a high school graduation trip. He had set the hearing after a period of several months in the event anyone might come forward with new information.

However, investigators have long worked from the assumption that the young woman was dead in Aruba, where the case was officially classified as a homicide investigation.

That investigation remains open, though there has been no recent activity, said Solicitor General Taco Stein, an official with the prosecutor's office on the Dutch Caribbean island.

"The team that was acting in that investigation still is functioning as a team and they get together whenever there is information or things are needed in the case or a new tip arrives," Stein said in a phone interview Thursday.

Dave Holloway said he hopes the 24-year-old van der Sloot, who is awaiting sentencing in Lima, gets a 30-year prison term sought by Peruvian prosecutors.

"Everybody knows his personality. I believe he is beyond rehabilitation," Holloway said.

Attorneys said both parents also expressed hope that van der Sloot's next stop is Birmingham, where he faces federal charges accusing him of extorting $25,000 from Beth Holloway to reveal the location of her daughter's body.

Prosecutors said the money was paid, but nothing was disclosed about the missing woman's whereabouts.

"I expect to see him in Birmingham," Dave Holloway said Thursday.

____

Online: AP interactive - http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/natalee-holloway

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_re_us/us_missing_teen_aruba

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'Sweet Valley High' To Be A Musical, Diablo Cody Confirms

'It's going to blow people's minds,' screenwriter tells MTV News about the in-the-works adaptation.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Diablo Cody
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

Diablo Cody explored the life of one particular "Young Adult" author in her screenplay for the Charlize Theron film. Next up, she herself is taking on the challenge of adapting a beloved young-adult franchise, "Sweet Valley High," for the big screen.

And while she's knee-deep in work for the project, when MTV News caught up with the screenwriter at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards on Thursday night in Los Angeles, she revealed one very juicy detail about the adaptation.

"Oh my gosh! OK, so I am so excited about 'Sweet Valley High.' There's original songs being written for it right now, which is the most exciting development. They're amazing. They're being written by these Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning songwriters from Broadway who are the best," she gushed, confirming that the film will be a musical version of the novels. "Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, who wrote [the Broadway show] 'Next to Normal'; they're amazing and I'm sorry, I could go on and on. But I'm very excited about 'Sweet Valley High.' It's going to blow people's minds. I haven't really had the chance to talk about this yet, so it's exciting."

The Francine Pascal novels (which debuted in 1983) follow the lives of twin teenagers, Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who live in Sweet Valley, California. The series is full of puppy love, teen angst and the kind of drama and comedy that keeps people tuning into the CW and ABC Family week after week. If you've never read the books before, Cody assures you that you can still love the movie. "It [has] a lot of familiar '80s awesomeness for fans of the series, and if you've never heard of 'Sweet Valley High' you will want to," she said, noting that casting plans are still to be determined.

"Obviously I will be playing the twins. Old-fashioned '60s-style split screen," she joked.

Check out everything we've got on "Sweet Valley High."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677283/sweet-valley-high-musical-diablo-cody.jhtml

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Brazil: Checking email after hours? It's overtime

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Brazilian workers who find themselves answering work emails on their smartphones after the end of their shifts can qualify for overtime under a new law.

The new legislation was approved by President Dilma Rousseff last month.

It says that company emails to workers are equivalent to orders given directly to the employee. Labor attorneys told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper this makes it possible for workers answering emails after hours to ask for overtime pay.

This issue has come up in the United States as well. In May, Chicago policeman Jeffrey Allen filed a class action suit against the city, asking for unpaid overtime compensation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-12-LT-Brazil-Smartphone-Overtime/id-84a79a6340c94487b3e083069ab0c452

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Mont. school district: Missing teacher is dead

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Sidney High School math teacher Sherry Arnold, 43.

SIDNEY, Mont. -- Montana school district officials say?the high school math teacher who went missing last?weekend is dead, and the FBI announced it has one man in custody and is questioning another in connection with her disappearance.

Sidney Public School officials posted a statement on the school website saying they learned of Sherry Arnold's death about 9:30 a.m. Friday after authorities had notified family members. There has been no official police announcement that a body had been found.

"This has been a very challenging time for our family and we would appreciate some privacy and time to process what has happened," Karen Arnold Truax told msnbc.com on Friday.

Arnold Truax, who is the daughter of Sherry Arnold's?husband, Gary, said the outpouring of support has overwhelmed the family.

"We want to thank everyone across the country for their support, time and prayers," she said.?"With the support of family, friends and God, we will?get through this."?

FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of Salt Lake City?said a tip from the public led to the suspects, according to?a statement released by the FBI.

Authorities had been investigating the possibility Arnold?had been?abducted.

Hundreds of residents, police, firefighters and others combed the northeast Montana town and surrounding countryside earlier this week for the popular 43-year-old teacher, who went missing after a weekend run, after recovering only a single running shoe.

The school district lent buses to transport members of search teams and set up a fund to defer expenses.

The district posted on its website: "In response to this news, the District will be in session until 2:00 PM. All route busses will operate at 2:00 PM. Additional counselors are on hand this morning in all buildings and parents, if needed, may check their students out from each building. Friday games are cancelled."

The Associated Press contributed to this report, as did msnbc.com's Sevil Omer.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/13/10149920-montana-school-district-missing-teacher-is-dead

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Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Ford's Paul Mascarenas

Not enough car talk yesterday? Good news, Ford's chief technical officer Paul Mascarenas will be stopping by the booth today to talk cars with Tim. Join in at 5PM ET today after the break.

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Ford's Paul Mascarenas

Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Ford's Paul Mascarenas originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YkS4inlDExI/

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