End of an Era: Singer, songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed dies at 71

 
The New York Times reports - Lou Reed, the singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life, died on Sunday(October 27,2013) at his home in Amagansett, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 71.

The cause was liver disease, said Dr. Charles Miller of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where Mr. Reed had liver transplant surgery this year and was being treated again until a few days ago.

It was also reported that Reed’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said that the musician had been in frail health for months. Sadly, it was determined that Reed’s end-stage liver disease could no longer be treated, and he decided to return to the home he shared with his wife, fellow musician Laurie Anderson

Best of Lou Reed: The essentials

No Formula for Indian GP, it stops at Pit Shop: Indian GP 2013, Vettel clenches title

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany drove an impeccable race to win his third straight Indian Grand Prix and become the undisputed Formula 1 drivers' champion.

Vettel, who finished the race with an impressive time, became the youngest ever four-time world champion and also matched the prestigious record of legends Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio of winning 4 consecutive titles.

Vettel's teammate Mark Webber led the race for the most part but a gearbox problem in lap 40 forced the Australian to retire and thereby shatter his dreams of gaining an Indian podium finish.

Sahara Force India's Adrian Sutil too impressed with his driving as the German was in the top 5 until the 41st lap. However, a change in medium set of tyres force him to drop down the roster. (As reported by TOI.) 

It was a close match,especially Lap 31-35: When Webber sets the fastest lap but was still 10 seconds behind Vettel. At this point, Vettel went to the pits for the second time handing the lead to his teammate. However, Webber made his second pit stop on the following lap handing back the lead to Vettel. On lap 34, Vettel was informed by his team that he needs to preserve the tyres for the entire race after setting the fastest lap. In all,  Sutil was holding on to his fourth position but was yet to make a pit stop. 

Match Tally

 

But whats in the future! No GP in 2014

F1 big boss Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that the 2014 Indian Formula1 Grand Prix edition  won’t be  coming to India. Instead, the next two editions of the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit could be deferred to March 2015 and March 2016 respectively. In the meantime, Jaypee Sports, the body that owns the Buddh F1 Circuit and runs the F1 race in India will have to fix the taxation related issues. The F1 teams are said to be unhappy with the Indian government.

Until then, Indian motorsport fans will have to make do with the WSBK motorcycle races scheduled for November. 

Celebrity Quotient Lacking

Celebrity quotient was found to be lacking in this edition. However, all eyes were on a sari-clad Jessica Michibata, a fashion model and girlfriend of McLaren driver Jenson Button. The shutterbugs couldn't keep there eyes off her. 

Among others celebrities who were spotted at the BIC were actress Gul Panag, Union Minister Shahi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar, ace double trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, chairman of Sahara India Pariwar and part owner of Sahara Force India team Subrata Roy and his wife Sapna Roy and Force India team principal Vijay Mallya. 

'Batman: Arkham Origins': Game gets bigger, but just a lil better from the past

The Verdict in Short -

There is much frenzy going on about this new game in town. It is good, but not great, just pretty good. You will enjoy it, but you won't go ga ga over it. Next to Arkham City, Arkham Origins is a bit of a disappointment. But you still should try it.


So what's the storyline - (buy it from Amazon)

The story takes place on Christmas Eve, with Black Mask putting out a $50 million bounty on Batman's head and 8 of the top assassins in Batman's rogue's gallery gunning for him. It's up to a younger Batman, in his 2nd year on the streets, to put an end to the night and take back control. This is Batman in his 2nd year, so he is still on bad terms with the police but does have Alfred to talk to for help and a full Batcave to train in. Having wrapped up the main campaign, I think it's overall a improvement on what we got from Arkham City in terms of game design. There were plenty of fun little twists and cameos that will make any Batman fan happy to see. I really liked that you had pretty much free reign to run around and tackle challenges as you please, and just stop what you're doing and tackle an ongoing crime if you wanted to. There's lots of side stuff to do for the Batman fans/completionists. One thing that is kind of jarring is that there's no one but criminals out on the streets, nor any traffic at all. It would have been great to see some life in the city, but they put in a plot device to explain that.

What people have to say about it -

Good Game, Bad Multiplayer says- Chance Woods -

So i preorderd the game earlier this summer and got it at the midnight release, i went home and played it until 6 in the morning only to realize i was only 10% done with the campaign, from the first 6 hours the game was amazing i assume there are at least 60 hours in the campaign or more.
After a while i headed over to the multiplayer, you have to go in to a lobby and out again about two or three times before actually getting into a game, but once in the multiplayer is good, going for around a 7/10 the game is quite thrilling never knowing when Batman or Robin could take you out, but after it all the game getting a 4/5 is good, i took a star out because of the loading times of the multiplayer and some bad gameplay mechanics, but overall this is an amazing game and one of the few coming out on Xbox 360 before the Xbox One hits stores. Good game i highly recommend it!

What else!

 A solid Batman game in its own right says - Genryu

WB Montreal had a big task taking over the reigns from Rocksteady, the original studio behind Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The result is that Arkham Origins feels like a tweaked and polished version of Arkham City, with new voices, new gadgets, a fresh open storyline, a new environment, and other bonuses like detective investigations. The same great combat system that made the first two games great is still there largely untouched, just with a combat grading system and training area to help build you up for the boss fights and really become Batman at his prime. I've read some mixed reviews on the game, but as a Batman fan and action-adventure game fan Arkham Origins gets my approval. I've put a summary of the different aspects of the game below in some more detail. I plan to keep this spoiler free as best I can.