"Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" (Ubisoft, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, $15) makes that connection more explicit. It's an affectionate tribute to a cinematic era in which one guy with a lot of guns could solve all the world's problems.

The musclehead here is Rex "Power" Colt, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier who's sent to a remote island to prevent a madman from building an unstoppable army. Rex is voiced by Michael Biehn, a veteran of genuine '80s classics like "The Terminator" and "Aliens," and his growly one-liners contribute as much to the atmosphere as the game's pulsing synth-heavy soundtrack.

The story has everything you could want from the genre, including a painfully awkward sex scene, a montage of Rex training and a flamboyantly over-the-top climax. The plot is laid out in pixelated, minimally animated cut scenes, although most of the action takes place in the fully up-to-date engine Ubisoft created for last year's "Far Cry 3."

You don't need that game to play "Blood Dragon." Instead, your $15 buys you a scaled-down version of "FC3" with a smaller map, fewer weapons and a streamlined leveling-up system. It takes just six hours or so to play through, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you felt "FC3" dragged on too long.

"Blood Dragon" is an intriguing experiment in downloadable content from a big publisher like Ubisoft. If you loved the parent game, you get a fresh new adventure using the same mechanics. If you didn't play "Far Cry 3," you get a solid sample for one-quarter of the price. Either way, it's hard to resist. Three stars out of four.

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Here are a few more inexpensive, downloadable releases that evoke memories of gaming in the '80s:

"Guacamelee!" (Drinkbox Studios, PS3, Vita, $15) combines the two-dimensional fisticuffs of, say, "Double Dragon" with the exploration of "Metroid." It's a fast-paced romp with gorgeous graphics drawn from Mexican mythology.

"Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine" (Pocketwatch Games, Xbox, PC, $15) takes the top-down perspective of early maze games like "Robotron: 2084" and applies it to a nerve-racking heist caper. You can play solo, but it's much livelier when you cooperate online with three other thieves.

"Thomas Was Alone" (Curve Studios, PS3, Vita, PC, Mac, $10) boils down the running-and-jumping platform game to simple visuals that could have worked on an Atari 2600. Its heroes are simply colored rectangles but as the game proceeds, they develop distinctive, endearing personalities.

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Online:

http://far-cry.ubi.com/fc3blooddragon/

http://www.guacamelee.com/

http://www.pocketwatchgames.com/Monaco/

http://www.thomaswasalone.com/

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Follow Lou Kesten on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lkesten

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar ended weaker against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday after briefly touching its strongest level in more than two months, with traders looking to Friday's key domestic jobs report to set direction for the currency.

The Canadian currency took its direction from weaker prices for some commodities and a pullback in global stock markets, which slipped from recent record levels.

"We don't have much in the way of domestic drivers today. The equity markets began to lose a bit of their steam, that was the primary factor," said Mark Chandler, head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital.

"We've come a long way really, and we have a pretty important release tomorrow."

The Canadian dollar ended the North American session at C$1.0075, or 99.26 U.S. cents, nearly half a cent weaker than Wednesday's close of C$1.0033, or 99.67 U.S. cents.

The currency earlier in the session hit C$1.0014 to the U.S. dollar, its strongest level in nearly three months. The Canadian dollar had gained some 2-1/2 cents on the U.S. dollar since late April before the afternoon retrenchment.

Over the longer term, the Canadian dollar is expected to weaken against the greenback in the year ahead, according to a Reuters poll published on Wednesday. Forecasters cited concern about the economy's slow rate of growth compared with that of the United States.

Chandler said focus is now on the Canadian employment report due out on Friday, which is expected to show the economy added 15,000 jobs in April, according to a Reuters survey of analysts, after a steep decline notched in March.

But he said even a strong report may not be enough to push the currency to fresh highs, given that the Bank of Canada has long said no rate hikes are on the immediate horizon.

"We're in a bit of a limbo situation with the Bank of Canada so it is really not about monetary policy. It's just about risk-on, risk-off and whether generally North America is going to look better in Q2," Chandler said.

"We've had a good run of better data that had people believing Q2 might be a bit of a pleasant surprise compared to what they had thought. But a weaker number in the employment data may take some shine off."

Prices for Canadian government bonds were mixed. The two-year bond was unchanged to yield 0.976 percent, while the benchmark 10-year bond rose 5 Canadian cents to yield 1.806 percent.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)

SAN JOSE (Reuters) - The Venezuelan government's suggestion that an American citizen it has detained is a spy is "ridiculous," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a television interview recorded on Saturday during a visit to Costa Rica.

Venezuela said late last month it had detained an American called Timothy Hallet Tracy, accusing him of financing opposition student demonstrations after April's disputed presidential election and saying he had clearly been trained as an intelligence agent.

Venezuela said Tracy, 35, from Michigan, had received money from a foreign non-profit organization and had redirected those funds toward student organizations, seeking to provoke "civil war".

Relatives and friends of Tracy have described him to U.S. media as a documentary maker who was in Venezuela to make a film about the presidential election.

"This U.S. citizen who apparently has been detained, we will handle (it) like ... every situation where we get a U.S. citizen who gets into some sort of legal tangle in a foreign country," Obama told Noticias Telemundo in an interview set to be aired on Sunday.

"The notion that this individual is some spy is ridiculous," Obama added as he wrapped up a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. "We've seen some of this rhetoric occasionally come out of Venezuela."

U.S. officials say the matter is being handled privately, rather than government-to-government, and they are unaware of details of the case. They are, however, seeking consular access to Tracy.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, elected in April by a narrow margin, has accused former U.S. officials of fomenting plans to assassinate him and also said Washington is supporting efforts to destabilize Venezuela.

FLOOD OF ACCUSATIONS

The U.S. government has denied that, and Venezuela's opposition has derided the torrent of accusations as a smokescreen to distract people from difficult domestic issues.

Obama said in a separate interview with Univision News, aired on Friday, that the United States was watching "crackdowns on the opposition" in Venezuela, when asked if he considered newly elected Maduro to be the country's legitimate president.

The United States angered Maduro when it last month held back recognition of his narrow victory over Capriles.

"What we want for Venezuela is ... Venezuelans ... able to choose their own leadership in fair and free elections a democratic process that is credible," Obama told Noticias Telemundo. "We have not tried to interfere in any way with what happens there."

"What we've said is, you know, let's make sure that the rules are being followed, that people are not being thrown into jail or intimidated, that the press is allowed to report fairly on what happens, that the ruling party doesn't resort to intimidation in terms of skewing results."

Maduro responded to Obama's criticism of Venezuela's democratic credentials with an angry denunciation of the U.S. leader's "insolence" on Saturday during a government "cadena" broadcast that all local television channels are obliged to show live.

"There's now no doubt that Obama himself, as the puppet of that imperial power, is behind the financing in dollars of this right wing that wants to mess with and destroy Venezuela's democracy," he said.

Maduro said he would not let up in his defense of Venezuela's sovereignty and constitution, and was prepared to talk with Washington despite its antagonism towards him.

"We can sit down even with the devils' major-general, Obama," he said in a speech to red-shirted workers who chanted "Obama, fascist" as he wound up.

A later statement by the Venezuelan government accused Obama of turning a blind eye to deaths that occurred in opposition-led protests the day after Maduro's election, and showing hypocrisy on human rights given his failure to close a prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(With reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Eric Walsh)

This year, Carnegie Corporation, a philanthropic foundation committed to advancing education, along with more than 40 leading education nonprofits, is encouraging teachers, students, parents, and anyone else interested in great teaching to participate in a crowdsourced photo sharing project called Picture This! Great Teaching.

At a time when so much of the discussion on education is focused on challenges around standards and funding, for example, this week provides an important opportunity to remind each other that excellent, hardworking teachers are inspiring students coast-to-coast; in urban and rural areas; in elementary, middle, high schools; and beyond.

To recognize great teaching, people everywhere are invited to simply upload a photo to thesite that "visually" completes one of these statements:

When I picture great teaching I see ________.When my teaching is inspired I ________.My teacher inspires me when ________.

The person submitting the photo and description selected as best depicting inspired teaching can also win $3,500 for a K-12 public school of his or her choice.

Picture This! a collaborative effort among nonprofits, educators, students, parents, and othersaims to celebrate the great teachers who change students' lives.

People can explore the site for inspiration and also share photos via Instagram with the hashtag #GreatTeaching.

CONTACT: George Soule, 1-212-207-6344,

SOURCE Carnegie Corporation of New York

Though it focuses on the human element, MyMoneyCircles is anythingbut soft and fuzzy. The website refers to its approach as a "boot camp"for personal finance. But what exactly does a personal finance boot campentail?

The boot camp method at MyMoneyCircles involves pushing participantsto get their personal finances in the best shape possible. And the bootcamp analogy is apt, because it highlights the simple fact that , and building robustis often an act of sacrifice.

MyMoneyCircles will conduct a series of boot camps to address a variety of financial goals, including:

The personalized support system at MyMoneyCircles is designed to helpusers make the changes necessary to meet these goals. By engagingparticipants throughout the process, and providing advice tailored totheir needs, the site aims to lead them each step of the way toward .

Here are some of the methods MyMoneyCircles will use to engage,encourage, and energize those who want to improve their personalfinances:

Central to the program is the expertise of Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.Khalfani-Cox, also known as "The Money ," is a best-selling authorand frequently-quoted expert in the national media. Khalfani-Cox's inputdrives both the design and content of MyMoneyCircles, and she willanswer individual participant questions too. A variety of financialspecialists--full disclosure, this author will be one of them--will alsobe available to provide advice.

Access to this expertise will begin in early January, but those interested can sign up for the first boot camp now at .

The original article can be found at : ""

The uncertainty adds to challenges the Chinese government is facing in trying to control the spread of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has already killed 17 people and infected 70 others in the country, mostly along the eastern seaboard.

"To me, the biggest question is the link between the virus in birds and how it gets to humans. This is not clear," said Dr. Bai Chunxue, a prominent respiratory expert in Shanghai who treated one of the first cases of the virus, a family cluster involving an 87-year-old man and his two sons. Bai said other family members he talked to said the patients had no contact with birds or poultry.

"So this is indeed a mystery," Bai said in a telephone interview.

Theories about how the virus may be spreading run from the ways poultry is slaughtered in markets to infected droppings from migratory birds.

Understanding how the H7N9 bird flu virus is spreading is a goal of international and Chinese experts assembled by the World Health Organization as they begin a weeklong investigation Friday.

Helen Yu, the World Health Organization's spokeswoman in China, said the experts, who started arriving Thursday, will visit laboratories and affected areas in Beijing and Shanghai.

China announced the first known cases on March 31, sparking concern worldwide because it was the first time the H7N9 strain of bird flu has been known to infect humans. Experts fear the virus could mutate in a way that allows it to spread easily among people, but so far there has been no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission.

Chinese health officials have said people may be getting sick from direct contact with infected live birds, pointing to cases of patients who have been working in the poultry trade. The virus has been detected in live poultry, leading to mass slaughters and closures of live fowl markets.

However, as China continues to report new cases, about 40 percent of patients have no apparent history of exposure to poultry or other birds, making the virus "very difficult to understand," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of WHO's influenza research center in Tokyo.

Tashiro noted that proof of the assertion that contact with birds is causing the cases is missing. "They didn't show any direct evidence. That's only speculation still. It's possible, likely, but there's no evidence," he said.

A leading Chinese official in the government's bird flu emergency response effort, Feng Zijian, said there are difficulties in gathering reliable evidence of how much contact, if any, patients have had with birds. Patients don't always have clear recollections of their activities, he said, while in some cases, doctors have had to rely on secondhand accounts from relatives when patients were too severely ill to answer questions.

Authorities believe that patients who live in cities are most likely to have been exposed to the virus at live poultry markets where birds are slaughtered upon purchase, said Feng, director of the emergency response center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a briefing with Chinese reporters Wednesday, Feng cited as an example of a potential infection source the machines Chinese poultry sellers commonly use to remove feathers from chickens. The birds are dipped into hot water in tubs that spin at high speeds, and liquid particles containing the virus could be dispersed in a spray, he said.

"If there is a virus, it can be easily inhaled this way," Feng said. "This is what we suspect to be a major environmental exposure that causes human infections."

Migratory birds flying north over people's homes and gardens could also be spreading the virus through their droppings, said David Hui, an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People can still get exposed to the fecal material with viruses without noticing it or without direct contact with poultry or wild birds themselves," Hui said.

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Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at twitter.com/gillianwong

The unmannedwas poised to launch into orbit Saturday afternoon from a new seaside pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility along Virginia's Eastern Shore when the foul weather intervened. The rocket's next chance to launch occurs Sunday (April 21) at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).

Orbital Sciences had hoped to launch Antares at 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, but unacceptably strong winds in the upper atmosphere which could pose a risk to the rocket in mid-flight prompted them to delay liftoff by an hour at first, then call off the attempt altogether. []

It is the second delay in three days for Antares' debut launch. A minor equipment glitch led Orbital officials to call off a launch try on Wednesday (April 17) when a data cable at the pad separated from the rocket earlier than planned.

Built by the Dulles, Va.-based spaceflight firm Orbital Sciences Corp., the Antares rocket is a 13-story booster designed to launch the company's unmanned Cygnus spacecraft on cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station. Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract to provide at least eight cargo delivery flights to the station using Cygnus and Antares.

For this first flight, the Antares rocket will not be carrying an activeinto orbit. Instead, the rocket is topped with a cylindrical "mass simulator" that mimics the shape and weight of an actual Cygnus vehicle, officials said. The mockup is also equipped with 70 sensors to measure the effects of launch on an Antares vehicle.

Orbital has also added three tiny NASA satellites coffee-cup-size Phonesats and a small commercial cubesat called Dove-1 to the mass simulator for this test flight. The miniature satellites will be deployed in orbit after launch, Orbital officials said.

NASA's Phonesats are experiments designed to test how well commercial smartphones can be used as the main computers on cheap satellites.

is one of two American spaceflight companies with NASA contracts for commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station. The other firm is Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., which has a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least 12 cargo delivery missions to the space station using its Falcon 9 rockets and robotic Dragon space capsules.

SpaceX launched its first test flight to the station in May 2012 and has flown two official cargo deliveries since then. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011 and is relying on private spacecraft to keep the space station stocked with supplies. The space agency also plans to begin flying American astronauts to the station on commercial spacecraft by 2017.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him andFollow us , and . Original article on

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Supreme Court case that challenges a law requiring anti-prostitution policies for HIV/AIDS programs seeking federal money has generated a split among nonprofit groups that counsel sex workers overseas.

The case involves a 2003 law that bars funding for groups that work on HIV/AIDS prevention but do not have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.

It has pitted two non-governmental organizations that operate programs overseas, backed by umbrella organizations representing others like them, against 46 organizations that have sided with the federal government in defending the law.

"The split is about whether you support the sex industry," Norma Ramos, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, one of the groups siding with the government.

"Prostitution is the end point of sex trafficking" and cannot be separated out from efforts to fight public health problems, including the spread of HIV/AIDS, she said.

The organizations challenging the provision on First Amendment grounds do not want to take a stand on prostitution. They say the law interferes with their work providing advice and counseling to prostitutes about the risks of HIV infection.

The court on April 22 will consider whether the requirement, which has not been enforced since a 2006 injunction, is valid under the U.S. Constitution.

The 2003 law outlined a plan to fight the spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, part of which would involve providing funding for non-governmental organizations. Congress so far has provided $63 billion. Some entities that receive funding, including the World Health Organization, were exempted from the provision.

The Alliance for Open Society International and Pathfinder International - NGOs that receive funding for overseas HIV/AIDS prevention - sued in 2005, citing the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.

The two groups have since been joined in the litigation by the Global Health Council and InterAction, two sizable alliances of NGOs that work in developing countries. InterAction has almost 200 member organizations that, between them, receive more than $1 billion a year in funding from the U.S. government, according to court papers.

But when the justices review the court papers, they will see that Ramos' group and 45 others have filed a brief in support of the government. Many of the groups focus on women's rights, especially in the context of prostitution, violence and sex trafficking.

DIFFERENT VIEWS

In response to their criticism, Punima Mane, the president and CEO of Pathfinder, said it would be a "gross misinterpretation" to suggest her group was somehow supportive of the sex industry or sex trafficking.

She said Pathfinder would likely not have a problem if the policy related only to sex trafficking. The reference to prostitution raises obstacles because of the work the organization does with sex workers, she said. Pathfinder runs programs that, among other things, have taught sex workers how to avoid HIV infections.

"We would not want to condemn the groups we work with and for," Mane said. Such a move would threaten her organization's ability to provide "life-saving health services" to a vulnerable population, she added.

The main United Nations body that coordinates anti-HIV/AIDS action, known as the UNAIDS Secretariat, supports the groups challenging the law. It has filed a brief echoing Mane's sentiments, noting that programs "work best when they involve, and do not stigmatize, the affected populations."

Outside the courtroom, a group representing sex workers started a petition to reverse the policy, saying it has "resulted in the reduction or complete elimination of HIV prevention and treatment services for sex workers in numerous countries."

The U.S. government "is preventing the delivery of successful health programs and important resources to sex workers worldwide," according the petition, which has been endorsed by around 150 nonprofit groups including some representing sex workers.

PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

So far, Pathfinder and its allies have had success in pursuing the argument that the law violates the First Amendment.

A federal judge ruled in 2006 that under First Amendment precedents, the law was infringing on private speech because it compelled the groups to accept the government's policy position on prostitution. The restriction applies across all programs an NGO operates, even those not funded by the federal government.

The judge imposed a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the provision, which remains in effect.

The George W. Bush administration tried to circumvent the issue by issuing guidelines, updated by the Obama administration in 2010, that allow groups to set up affiliates that are not bound by the anti-prostitution policy.

But in July 2011, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the injunction.

In court papers, the Obama administration maintained there was no First Amendment violation because groups "have been given a voluntary choice" of whether to participate in the program.

"Offering private entities that type of choice does not violate the First Amendment," Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote. He said Congress has "wide latitude to attach conditions to the receipt of federal funds."

Justice Elena Kagan is recused, most likely due to her previous role as solicitor general, meaning only eight justices will hear the case.

The case is U.S. AID v. Alliance for Open Society International, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-10.

For petitioners: Donald Verrilli, solicitor general, Department of Justice.

For respondents: David Bowker, WilmerHale.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Doina Chiacu)

“Digital Marketer headquarters is buzzing with excitement and action, and we’re hoping to begin rolling out some awesome stuff for our followers soon,” wrote Deiss in the post. “Meanwhile, I’m always setting aside several noteworthy blog posts and online articles to read over the weekend, and here’s that list so you can check them out too.”

The collection of online posts are recommended as valuable reading for anyone in the marketing arena, and Deiss personally suggests checking them out to stay ahead of the game.

Information like this is available for instant access on the , where the best of the best online marketing gurus share their ideas on trends and news flowing through the Internet. It’s part of Digital Marketer’s continuing efforts to keep marketers across the globe up to date on what’s affecting their business on every landscape.

Digital Marketer’s blog is available to anyone, but becoming a member of Digital Marketer Labs gains access to information from the brightest minds in the industry, as well as a collection of Special Reports on how to combine marketing with major Internet players like Apple, Amazon, Google, and YouTube. Also included in the membership are split test results, website reviews, and access to RAW Trainings that are available anytime from any online device.

Digital Marketer releases informational and educational materials to help businesses and entrepreneurs gain insight and information on the trends, data, and strategies that can take them to the top of their industry. Through their RAW Training courses, strategic plans, blogs, newsletters, site reviews, and Special Reports, Digital Marketer supercharges every single marketing campaign it touches. For more information, visit .

Eric PickhartzDigital Marketing Labs, LLC512-892-3022

This isn't the first time that Dell has sold PCs witha free computer operating system based on Linux. Not too long after it bought out Alienware, then an independent maker of gaming PCs, it started selling Ubuntu-powered desktop and laptop PCs, but only online, and only on a limited selection of models.

Recently, Dell launched itsa MacBook Air-style ultrabook that's preloaded with Ubuntu and tools for developers. Its latest offering, however, is a little less "work" and a little more "play."

Pre-empting "Steambox" PCs like the Piston by several months, the Alienware X51 is a box roughly the size of a game console, but with actual PC hardware and a PC operating system inside. It comes in a variety of price points, depending on how powerful that hardware is, but the least expensive one-- $100 less than the

What kind of specs does it have?

An Intel Core i3 processor clocked at 3.3 GHz, 6 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM, a 1 TB 7200 RPM hard drive, and a 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645 are the highlights. More expensive configurations have more powerful hardware, and don't match the available Windows configurations 1:1, possibly due to driver issues.

Does it count as a Steambox?

Dell isn't advertising it as being such, although the promo shots show it running Valve's Steam digital distribution service. Since the grand opening of Steam on Linux, it's gotten "over 165" titles, including some of Valve's finest like Team Fortress 2. Most Humble Bundle games and many indie titles also run on Linux.

What about Windows-only games?

One option is to put Windows on the X51 after buying it. You'd need to buy your own copy, though, and you might have to pay the full retail price since a PC manufactured by Alienware might not qualify for OEM licensing (and the price discount that you get by foregoing Microsoft technical support).

Another option is thewhich can let you run some Windows games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2. This is unofficial, however, and may require some troubleshooting.

What other options are there for Linux gaming systems?

System76, a small PC vendor which has been making Ubuntu PCs for more than five years now, sells thegaming laptop for $1,499. Home-built gaming rigs can also be made to support Linux by checking sites likefor benchmarks and compatibility of hardware components.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.