Special thanks to Parker for guest starring and playing cello. I arranged this song for 3 voice parts, 3 cello parts, 2 violin parts, and 1 piano part, but somehow the song turned out to have 30 different audio tracks! If you would like a copy of the sheet music, comment below.

Also thanks to Derek for being our amazing cameraman!

As always, thank you so much for your support and we will be sure to post videos more often going forward!

According to police, the chaos started when the gunman killed two people at their home near the Santa Monica College and then lit their house on fire. The Los Angeles Times identified those victims as his brother and father.

After he left, he carjacked a lady’s car and forced her to drive him to the college. Along the way, he fired his gun out of the window at a city bus and wounded three.

When he got to the college, he shot and killed the driver of a red sports vehicle and wounded another, and killed another person at the college. Then police chased him down and killed him.

The shooting happened not very far from where President Obama was holding a fundraiser in the town, but the Secret Service said that they believed that the shooting was not related to this fundraiser and that it is a ‘local police matter’.

Police have not yet released the name of the shooter.

Read more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa-monica-shooting-20130608,0,714070.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-santa-monica-shooting-20130607,0,323148.story

Hello thar. Today we are going to go over Shen. The Split pushing champion and probably the only champion left with a true global. I will go over a top shen. Let’s start off with his abilities.

Stats

Damage: 54.5 (+3.375 / per level)
Health: 428 (+85 / per level)
Mana(Energy): 200 (+0 / per level)
Move Speed: 335
Armor: 15 (+4 / per level)
Spell Block: 30 (+0 / per level)
Health Regen: 7.45 (+0.55 / per level)
Mana Regen 50 (+0 / per level)

Abilites

(Q)Vorpal Blade – Damages target unit and life taps him, healing allies that attack the target.
Deals 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.6) magic damage to target unit and marks them for 5 seconds.

Allied spells and attacks against this target heal them for 6.0/10.0/14.0/18.0/22.0 (6/10/14/18/22 + 0.015 [1.5% of Shen's max Health]) over 3 seconds.

Killing an enemy with Vorpal Blade restores 33% of the normal Health instantly instead.
Cost
60 Energy
Range
475

This ability is really good for farming. Shen isn’t supposed to build damage, so you really need this low cooldown, reliable ability. You want to last hit with this ability, so you get health on hit. In teamfights, vorpal blading an enemy helps your team get some health.

(W)Feint-Shen shields himself, absorbing incoming damage for a few seconds.

Shen shields himself, absorbing the next 70/115/160/205/250 (+0.6) damage. Lasts up to 3 seconds.

While Feint holds, his attacks reduce Ki Strike’s cooldown by an additional 1.5 seconds.
Cost
50 Energy
Range
0

A pretty good shield for early game.

(E)Shadow Dash – Shen dashes rapidly toward a target location, taunting enemy champions he encounters and dealing minor damage.
Shen dashes in a direction, dealing 50/85/120/155/190 (+0.5) magic damage to champions and taunting champions he collides with for 1.5 second(s).

Taunted enemies are forced to attack Shen and deal 50% reduced damage.

Restores 40 Energy per champion affected.
Cost
120 Energy
Range
575

BIG BIG playmaker ability. Helps you escape if needed or taunt a crucial member for a key gank. Flash+taunt=huge pain if there is a good follow up. Also a good dualing ability as the taunt lowers the champions attack speed.

(R)Stand United – Shen shields target allied champion from incoming damage, and soon after teleports to their location.
Places a shield on target allied champion, absorbing 250/550/850 (+1.35) damage for 5 seconds. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen teleports to the target’s location.
Cost
No Cost
Range
25000

Ok so your probably thinking that Shen has no power abilities. Here it is. Pushing top lane and your bot lane needs trouble? Just put your ult on the lowest ally there, they get a shield, and you will be there in 3 seconds to turn the tables. In late game, you can push one lane while your team goes to another, and when a teamfight erupts, ult on someone diving in so you can be in the action too.

(Passive)Ki Strike – Every 8 seconds, Shen’s next attack deals bonus damage. Each time Shen attacks, Ki Strike’s cooldown is reduced.

Pretty good passive to help shen with last hitting also. Q+ passive is pretty much a lot of damage for Shen.

Masteries & Runes

Masteries

This page focuses on a lot of defense, health, and some damage for the laning phase.

Runes

Hybrid penetration reds because they would benefit the most in lane, trading, and last hitting. You get extra damage from your Vorpal Blades as well as your auto attacks. Armor Seals give Shen that much needed early game armor because he starts off with only 15. Scaling Magic Resist is pretty good because you would end up getting more than Flat Magic resist, and you really don’t need it early game because you have decent starting MR. Health Quints because Shen needs a lot of health. Feel free to use another quint because those Health Quints are expensive(2000IP).

Summoner Spells

Ignite is good for finishing off people in lane, shutting down carries, and dueling. Flash so good for escapes if your E doesn’t do the tricks, and…. FLASH TAUNTS SO GOOD.

Items

Starting

x1(300)+x5(175) ORx1(180)+x5(175)

Nerfed Elixer of Fortitude to the point where it isn’t a good starting item anymore. Its way too expensive, but you could still go Fort Pot and 3 health potions. I like Cloth Armor because Shen has a really poor starting armor. You can replace some health potions with a ward if the enemy jungler has really good lvl 2 -5 ganks. Rejuvenation Bead with five health potions gives you crazy sustain. They only allow you to buy five health potions now. Again, you can replace health pots with a ward.

CORE

 OR

Always ALWAYS get sunfire first. Health, Armor, and split pushing power? Yes PLZ! This item gives Shen so much stats. Getting a Warmogs some time is also crucial because you can’t have too much health. ^.^ Tabis or Mercs can be chosen, mostly depending on the situation.

Other finishing items

Randuins Omen(3000g)

I would suggest getting this item after you get the two above. Really strong stats and a good passive as well as an active. Activate the item’s active when you taunt into the enemy team.

Wit’s End/Statikk Shiv

Two good split pushing items. Most of the time, I would at most get the Wit’s End because it gives you some MR in your build and good damage, but if you’re really far ahead you can get the Shiv too.

Runic Bulwark

Not really that popular on Shen nowadays because S3 jungles can be useful just by buying auras like the Bulwark and Locket of the Iron Solari. But if you have a carry jungle(even thought they still should buy aura items), then buy this item for additional defenses and benefits for the team.

Trinity Force

If you’re really far ahead go ahead and get this item. All the stats benefit Shen.

Laning

Early Game

Your early game is surprisingly strong. A lot of people think of shen has a passive farmer who split pushes, but Shen can do quite a lot of damage. His Q and his passive allow for some good last hitting, while both can be used for dueling with your opponent. Using your W can neutralize your opponents abilities, but does require some practice. Using Shadow Dash can really force your opponent to duel you in a disadvantageous position. It’s also great for setting up jungle ganks.

Mid Game

Right when you reach lvl 6, you got some huge global pressure. However, your ultimate has a huge global cooldown(192 seconds) lvl 1. You want to make sure to use the ultimate wisely, but don’t feel too distraught if you used it and didn’t make any plays. You probably still burned a few summoners and saved someone.

Late Game

SPLIT PUSH!!! Just split push whenever your ultimate is up and then ult right in when the fight starts. Some map awareness is required, but usually when those green lights disappear(indicating if you ult is up or not), then a fight is occurring. Since you build will most likely have tons of armor and health, you will want to try and taunt the enemy ADC. Pop randuins and the whole enemy team will be slowed. You may not deal a lot of damage, but the more presence you give in their backline, the more likely the enemy won’t focus your important carries.

1. Give Life Back to Music:

A rocketing opener that excites and is sure to fill the room with passion for music.  Amazing Riffs and great vocoder work.

Michael’s Rating: 9/10

2. Game of Love:

A laid back track that after GLBTM seems like a let down.  Remember after One More Time how Aerodynamic took you further down an awesome journey?  GoL doesn’t do that.  A whiny/passionate vocoder lyric goes over throwback instruments.  It’s a grower.

Michael’s Rating: 7/10

3. Giorgio by Moroder

Strap in, bros.  Words don’t explain how awesome this track is.  Starting with an exclusive interview with Giorgio, and ending with an up-beat, catchy (and long) synth rhythm.

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

4. Within

What was that?  No, I didn’t need those feelings anyway.  Beautiful piano work and extremely moving lyrics.  Made me cry.

Michael’s Rating: 8/10

5. Instant Crush

Arguably the most “radio ready” track on here other than the instant classic Get Lucky.  Julian Casablanca’s vocals roboticized (is that even a word?) brings you to a danceable beat about moving on.

Michael’s Rating: 8.5/10

6. Lose Yourself to Dance

This guitar riff is catchy!  Teased in the Nile Collaborator video, this is the sound of the West coast that Daft Punk tried so hard to capture.  Over William Pharrell’s amazing vocals and the vocoder telling you to “c’mon”, you’ll probably end up actually losing yourself to dance when this song comes on.

Michael’s Rating: 9.5/10

7. Touch

The most ambitious track on the record.  It’s mighty weird and hard to get into it at first – but then again, I appear to be the only one out of the other fans I know who has issues with it.  If it wasn’t Daft Punk, I wouldn’t give it a second look.

Michael’s Rating: 7.5/10

8. Get Lucky

Instant classic, but everyone already knows that.  Do I even need to explain how good this song is?

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

9. Beyond

The follow up to a a song like Get Lucky is important.  It keeps the flow of the album going and keeps us interested.  This song does not do that, unfortunately.  Fairly boring, but has some nice lyric work.  Meh.

Michael’s Rating: 7.5/10

10. Motherboard

I would say that this song would be a “meh” extension to a “meh” track, it does get me into a groove and I think that the transition between parts of the song fit in nicely.

Michael’s Rating: 8/10

11. Fragments of Time

All of the sudden, there was a twangy track on the Daft Punk album.  Well.  i didn’t see this one coming, to be honest, since Todd Edwards is known for what he doesn’t do on this song.  It’s not necessarily a bad song, just different what people would expect.  Lyrics are neat-o, though, and the strange background vibes start to grow on you.

Michael’s Rating: 8.5/10

12. Doin’ it Right

Funky as ever.  The beautiful vocoder track narrates the song throughout it all, and the song really picks up when Panda Bear’s voice soars in a very Animal Collective-esque fashion.  It’s begging for a remix, and I’d love to see a rap-over.  A personal favorite.

Michael’s Rating: 10/10

13. Contact

This is it.  The song that will be played at the end of every upcoming (rumered) Daft Punk concert and everyone will loose their marbles to.  Theatrical and magnificent, this closer really brings the album up quite a bit.  The ending is very Downward Spiral esque, closing on a static and random noises until eventually, a silence; a wonderful end to one heck of a journey.

Michael’s Rating: 9.5/10

Overall Rating: 9/10

This album may not be for everyone, as there are few elements that remind us of the Discovery- or Homework-era Daft Punk, but we were warned that it was a departure from that scene.  I feel that Daft Punk does a good job of going back to the roots and getting that human touch to dance back.  Without the drops.  Without the headbangers.  Just nice, groovy jams.  Album of the year right here.  Deserves everyone to go check it out and listen to it one time through, and more.

“We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.  We were surprised and disappointed that Microsoft chose to launch an application that deliberately deprives content creators of their rightful earnings, especially given that Windows Phone 8 users already have access to a fully-functional YouTube application based upon industry-standard HTML5 through the Web browser.”

The letter stated violations of  YouTube and the YouTube App terms of service, including the blocking of advertisements – which is the way YouTube reaps revenue – allowing video downloads and playing videos that partners have blocked on certain mobile devices.

After Google’s demands became public, earlier today, Microsoft issued a statement:

“YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms,” Microsoft said via a spokeswoman. “Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs.”

The back-and-forth between these two large corporations has not ceased as of now.  Google’s current CEO, Larry Page, spoke out at his company’s I/O developers conference yesterday, threatening Microsoft for all of the “people milking off one company for their own benefit”,as he referred to Microsoft integrating Google Chat into its Outlook.com email service, while at the same time blocking efforts by others to tie into Skype. “We certainly struggle with people like Microsoft,” Page added.

Microsoft yesterday after Page’s bickering said that they looked forward to solving this matter together for Google and Microsoft’s mutual customers.

In fact, the two companies rely on each other more than the public dust-ups indicate. “There’s a lot of contested territory, but for Google to run their fundamental business model, they have to provide support for multiple platforms. So it’s not a zero-sum game. Windows benefits from YouTube on it, and Google benefits from YouTube on Windows,”  said Ezra Gottheil, analyst with Technology Business Research.

More info to come.  Keep posted!

~Michael~

This week’s game pick is…

Tiny Legends: Heroes!

This medieval-style RPG is one of mobile gaming’s best. The app brings the innovative touch-and-drag movement to sword-thrashing, shield-bashing and hammer smashing gameplay together. As a small hero, it is up to you to recruit team members and venture into the (what it seems) never-ending dungeon to slay the beast of all beasts.

At your base outside of the dungeon, you and your team members can rest, while you upgrade abilities, buy new weapons and armor, and recruit new team members. With a lot of experience, your warriors can grow to an unstoppable force!

The dungeon is divided into 44 floors, each with their’ own boss and multiple minions. Like other RPGs, the familiar way to battle is still in place: once you walk into an enemy (or they walk into you), you start a separate battle sequence than the walk-able dungeon.

The best part about this game is the ability to customize. Anyone can have a certain combination of items that increases different aspects of them. There are multiple possible armor types and how well they work against elements, and there are swords, bows, and staffs that work differently with types of enemies.

Whether you’re into RPGs, medieval or action-adventure games, Tiny Legends: Heroes is for you!*

Thanks for tuning in,
~Michael~

*You must have an iPhone, iPad, iPod, iWhatever, Nokia, Android, Samsung, Blackberry, AT&T or some other mobile product to play this game. But besides that, it’s free!

Image credit: Engadget

Today, Finnish phone company Nokia launched their brand-new flagship phone, the Lumia 925. It is an upgraded version of the Nokia Lumia 920, sporting a new aluminum body. Its internals are basically unchanged from the 900 – it has a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core Snapdragon processor, an 8.7 MP camera, and a 1280 x 768 screen resolution. The Lumia 925 will be available internationally, launching first in Europe and China in June and in the US shortly after that, with the carrier T-Mobile.

The option to go for aluminum will make this phone a lot lighter and thinner, attracting more people to the Lumia brand who didn’t like the heft of the 920. The phone feels great in your hand because of the curved back and edges.

The ClearBlack display makes it easy to view pictures without glare even in bright sunlight, unlike most other phones. Nokia has tweaked with the camera on the phone, improving the sensor and making the lens larger. The lenses are now as lightweight as possible, to make optical image stabilization (OIS) work better, and they have also added a sixth lens to give more clarity.

Nokia also has a few amazing apps exclusive to their Lumia phones – Nokia Music, City Lens, Drive+, and more. These are very high-quality apps which vastly improve the Windows Phone experience.

Disappointingly, it only comes with 16 GBs of non-expandable internal storage, and it only comes in black, gray, and white – no vivid colors like its predecessors. (To be fair, no other smartphones come in colors other than black, white, and gray, but it was still a nice differentiator between Lumia phones and the rest of the phone world.)

So, with its fashionable new metal body, improved camera, and lighter design, should you go out and trade your Lumia 920 out to buy the Nokia Lumia 925? While it’s a great phone, I would say no. It is an evolutionary update to the 920 which adds a couple of new features, and it is probably the last of the first-generation Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia. Plus, it was a poor choice to make it only have 16 GBs of storage without having an option to expand it. This phone can’t be called ‘revolutionary’ or a ‘hero phone’ by any means, so I recommend waiting until later on this year, when Nokia will release its second generation.

My advice would be to keep it. And that’s not just because I’m a total Apple freak, I have some valid points to back it up. First, Apple’s WWDC is coming up, and it is rumored that Apple will be releasing things like the iPhone 6S and the iPad Mini with Retina Display. These new products will definitely cause an increase in the share price.

Another reason you should not sell your stock in Apple is because even though the stocks are decreasing, Apple is still a very profitable company. They make a tremendous amount of money every year. This is why I believe you should not sell your stock in Apple.

One last thing, and this is heavily opinion. I am wondering, why would Harvard sell their stock so close to when Apple is releasing new products? Shouldn’t they have waited and sold after the new products were out to gain more money? Post in the comments why you think the University did what they did.

It’s set; Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, will be hosted in San Francisco from June 10th to June 14th. WWDC is where Apple shows off products like new iterations or updates to Mac OS X, new software, and up until October of 2011, the newest iPhone would also be shown off at WWDC. With Apple now unveiling iPhone’s in the fall, people aren’t expecting too much this time around besides purely developer applications and software.

In other news, Apple’s App Store was opened in July of 2008 and has been a great success for Apple. As of April 2013, around 45 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store, and the 10 billionth app was downloaded back in January of 2011. Now, with Apple about to reach 50 billion app downloads, this is a huge milestone. As such, Apple has a counter on the homepage of it’s website and on the App Store. To celebrate the occasion, Apple is giving away a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card to the person who downloads the 50 billionth app, and $500 iTunes Gift Cards to those who download the next 50 apps.