Father's Day: How to choose second TV for dad

21 hrs.

What do you get the dad who has everything? ?More tools, a tablet computer, cologne? No, get him a second, smaller TV. While many dads already have a big-screen, flat-panel TV that's?42 inches and up, it's usually in the family room. Get him is own for his workroom, basement or wherever he wants to place it.?

The most popular selling TV size is still 32?inches, and that means there are some great deals to be had. ?The HD Guru explains the features need to know to help you choose the right HDTV and picks the best all-around models, best deal and the cheapest model you can get and still not feel ashamed.

With over?10 million 32-inch HDTVs forecast to be sold this year (Source: Quixel Research) there are dozens of models from many vendors with a number of advanced features available. Before our picks, here the most important criteria you should consider.

Resolution
32-inch HDTVs are available in 720p or 1080p, the latter with twice as many pixels for a sharper image. The 1080p models are more expensive. Does dad need it? Assuming pop still has near normal vision, the decision will depend on how far his chair will be from the TV. Our HD Viewing Chart (link) shows dad will need to be no further than 50?inches from the screen to see all the resolution with a 1080p 32-incher. He can be up to 75 inches from the screen to see all the detail on a 720p model. So if dad will be viewing six feet or further from his new TV, a 720p model will provide all the resolution needed.

Viewing Angle
?If you think dad wants to be alone when watching his new TV, viewing angle doesn?t matter. All 32-inchers look good when viewed straight-on. However, if he sits at an off-angle or others will be viewing, too, you?re best off with a wide-viewing angle TV. The medium-viewing angle sets listed have a somewhat narrower viewing cone that can still accommodate three to four viewers.

Inputs
Most 32-inch TVs have two HDMI inputs, good for a cable or satellite box and a Blu-ray player. Most "smart" models have an Ethernet connection and Wi-Fi. Some models also include USB connections too, used to view photos, home videos and other content.

Check out our How to Pick the Right HDTV article for more information when choosing larger screen sizes.

Best Deal
We pick the 720p Panasonic TC-L32C5 LCD TV?at $299.99. Features include 2 HDMI inputs, 1 USB input and a PC input and medium-viewing angle.

For 1080p, go with the LG 32CS560 LCD TV at $349.?Features include 2 HDMI inputs, one 1 USB input, room light sensor, and built-in self calibration tools for easy set up.

Bargain Model
For shoppers seeking the least expensive 32-incher you can find, there are a number of no-name brand models for around $230 to?$250. We pick the Haier L32D1120?at $249.99 from Amazon direct with free shipping. Haier is a Chinese company that makes a wide range of products. This 32-Inch set?comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty. Buying any no-name brand can be risky; learn more here and here.

Taking a nod from Hallmark, pick this one, when you want to get him the very cheapest.

Luxury Models
The LG 32LM6200?is a full-featured 1080p LED LCD. It includes wide-angle viewing, 3-D with 6 pair of?glasses, Smart TV with streaming video apps and built-in Wi-Fi, four HDMI inputs, 3 USB inputs, two-player gaming, 1.4-inch depth and more. For those that want the top 32-inch available today and can afford to give it to pop, the 32LM6200 will set you back $619.

The Samsung UN32ES6500 is the most expensive 32-inch consumer HDTV available that we're recommending. Besides 1080p resolution, it offers a medium viewing angle, 2.5-inch deep cabinet, active 3-D with two pairs of glasses included, LED backlight, 120 Hz refresh and scanning, Internet ready (for movie services) plus a Web browser, Skype video-compatible (with camera sold separately) and three HDMI inputs. The UN32ES6500 sells for $899.99 and is available from Crutchfield.

Pick any of these HDTVs and dad will always be able to watch his TV programs whenever he wants.

Have a question for the HD Guru??Send an?email

More from HD Guru:

Copyright ?2012 HD Guru Inc. All rights reserved. HDGURU is a registered trademark.

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Sleepwalking used as defense in attempted robbery

(AP) ? A Connecticut man accused of attempting to rob a woman at knifepoint in an elevator at the Mohegan Sun casino says he was sleepwalking at the time.

Attorney Nicholas D'Amato told a judge Wednesday that he plans to use a medical defense for Winston Riley based on that claim, the Norwich Bulletin reported in Thursday's editions.

The Bridgeport man was arrested on March 18 after the woman told police he had flashed a large knife and tried to grab her purse while the two were alone in a parking garage elevator, police said.

Riley said he was awakened by the woman when she ran away in confusion and fright, D'Amato said.

The lawyer said he's confirmed with Riley's family that the 27-year-old has had a problem with sleepwalking since he was a child. The lawyer said he's in the early stages of gathering medical records in his attempt to convince prosecutors they should take the claim seriously.

"It is the first time we've encountered this," D'Amato said. "This is a legitimate medical condition."

Riley's bond was lowered Wednesday to $85,000 from $100,000. He is due back in court July 17.

Police said Riley confessed to the crime after he was arrested and told them he "just wanted some money."

D'Amato said the facts don't add up, since his client has no criminal record and is married.

"I told the judge and prosecutor... 'Do you honestly think he woke up one morning, drove across the state and decided to rob a woman in a place full of security cameras?'" D'Amato told the newspaper. "It doesn't make sense if you think about it rationally."

___

Information from: Norwich Bulletin, http://www.norwichbulletin.com

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mist cooling - Some Key Advantages of Mist Cooling Systems

Needless to say, extreme heat conditions can lead to physical fatigue, exhaustion and dehydration. In hot summer days, you are prone to dry skin, pimples, constipation, loose motions and headache due to the scorching heat. But what to do avoid heat? Well, you have to opt for a mist cooling system to keep you and your family safe from the hot and humid conditions. Mist systems will not only bring down temperature of your area, but they will also remove dust, flying insects such as flies, mosquitoes and bad odor from your home. They can bring down temperature as much as 30 degrees to cool your place.

When it comes to choosing outdoor cooling systems, there generally three categories- high-pressure misting systems, mid pressure and low pressure mist systems. Cooling products with high-pressure systems are extremely effective in lowering the temperature at an outdoor patio by up to 30 degrees. They often come equipped with a patented ceramic nozzle that quickly converts water into fine mist, which evaporates in the air immediately to provide users with cool breeze. The high-pressure misting fans enable you and your family to relax and spend long time while chatting, playing or just sitting. This is why mist systems are now commonly used across the world to reduce heat and in turn cool a place.

Mist cooling systems are chosen for various applications. They are often used where the maximum cooling is needed. Outdoor cooling systems are ideal for places such as residential complexes, restaurants, amusement parks, playgrounds, sports stadium, greenhouses, warehouses, hotels, fairs, and resorts to mention a few. Mist products with low-pressure pump are recommended mostly for household use, not for commercial or industrial purposes. If you require cooling at industrial units, you need to choose high-pressure cooling devices. High-pressure systems can more effectively control odors, insects, fire, smoke, frost and dust. They are the most effective devices for greater cooling effect.

One of the chief advantages of high-pressure misting cooling systems is that they can drop air temperature by a whopping 35 degrees. Another added advantage of using them is that they will drive away many insects like mosquitoes, flies, wasps, hornets, cockroaches, and spiders from the area. They not only clean the surrounding area from dust, smoke, and other common pollutants, but they also bring immense relief to pets, individuals, livestock and plants suffering from oppressive heat. Outdoor cooling systems are great to cool people at sporting events, hotels and fairs. They are commonly used in warehouses to cool various types of items and workers. The best thing is that they are less expensive to install and equally less costly to operate compared to air-conditioners. They consume less electricity than air conditioning. For more information pricing and offers on mist systems, visit internet.

Rosy jenith is the author of this article. She has published many articles on Outdoor cooling systems. She often writes on the utility of various types of mist cooling and portable cooling systems on the market.

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Those faster-than-light neutrinos ... aren't

The final nail in the coffin may have been dealt to the idea that neutrino particles can travel faster than light.

The same lab that first reported the shocking results last September, which could have upended much of modern physics, has now reported that the subatomic particles called neutrinos "respect the cosmic speed limit."

Physicist Sergio Bertolucci, research director at Switzerland's CERN physics lab, presented the results Friday at the 25th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Kyoto, Japan.

"Although this result isn't as exciting as some would have liked, it is what we all expected deep down," Bertolucci said in a statement.

The new findings come from four experiments that study streams of neutrinos sent from CERN in Geneva to the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. All four, including the experiment behind the first faster-than-light findings, called OPERA, found that this time around, the nearly massless neutrinos traveled quickly, but not that quickly. [ 10 Implications of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos ]

Last year, OPERA measured that neutrinos were making the 454-mile (730-kilometer) underground trip between the two labs more speedily than light, arriving there 60 nanoseconds earlier than a beam of light would.

At the time, the physicists were stunned because such a result seemed to break Einstein's prediction that nothing could travel faster than light. This idea is at the heart of his theory of special relativity, on which much of our modern technology and scientific understanding is based.

The OPERA researchers weren't sure what could explain their anomalous results, having checked and rechecked their work, so they released their findings to the larger community of physicists in hopes that experts around the world could help them figure it out.

"The story captured the public imagination, and has given people the opportunity to see the scientific method in action ? an unexpected result was put up for scrutiny, thoroughly investigated and resolved in part thanks to collaboration between normally competing experiments," Bertolucci said. "That's how science moves forward."

  1. More science news from msnbc.com

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Labs around the world, including the other experiments at Gran Sasso ? called Borexino, ICARUS and LVD ? as well as the MINOS experiment in Illinois and the T2K project in Japan, tried to re-create the OPERA findings. None were able to do so: Every time, neutrinos appeared to obey the speed limit of light.

Now, the OPERA scientists think their original measurement can be written off as owing to a faulty element of the experiment?s fiber-optic timing system.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

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Canada?s jobless rate stuck at 7.3 per cent as economy as 7,700 jobs in May

Dana Flavelle Business Reporter

Canada?s job creation machine churned out a modest but better than expected 7,700 jobs in May after two months of very strong gains

It wasn?t enough to budge the country?s relatively high unemployment rate of 7.3 per cent, according to data supplied by Statistics Canada Friday.

However, there were some bright spots among the data.

May?s narrow jobs gain came on the heels of two eye-popping increases in March and April when Canada added 140,000 jobs for the biggest back-to-back gains in three decades.

?After two months of massive/unbelievable job gains, some cooling is far from a shock. Perhaps the bigger story here is that Canada added to the totals despite the gathering uncertainty about the global economy,? deputy chief economist Doug Porter, at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research note.

Economists had expected the market to create just 5,000 jobs, while unemployment was supposed to edge higher to 7.4 per cent as more people were encouraged to look for work.

Details of the release were mixed. Most of the growth was in part-time jobs and self-employment, both considered less desirable than full-time paid work.

On the other hand, hours worked edged up slightly and average hourly wages were 3 per cent higher than a year ago.

Among sectors, Canada?s beleaguered manufacturing industry added 36,000 jobs in May, its sixth straight month of gains. Still, only a fraction of the factory jobs lost in the past five years have been recovered.

Educational services across the country rose 26,000 and agriculture grew 11,000.

Construction hiring fell by 27,000 after getting off to an earlier than usual start this year. Employment in culture and recreation also fell 27,000. Compared to a year ago, neither industry has made significant gains.

Provincially, Alberta led the way, with 9,800 new jobs, while Ontario lost a bit of ground. The unemployment rate in Albert fell slightly to 4.5 per cent, while Ontario was unchanged at 7.8 per cent

In an early preview of the summer job scene for students, this year looks a lot like last year though the market has improved since the recession.

The unemployment rate for students aged 20 to 24 was 14.9 per cent in May, similar to the rate in May 2011, but well below the 18.2 per cent rate in May 2009, when the labour market hit a low.

Among youths, aged 15 to 24, unemployment grew 1.4 percentage points over April to 14.3 per cent.

May?s overall figures show job growth in Canada will remain modest this year, an economist said.

?Future job growth is on shaky ground. Expected job cuts in the public sector along with economic uncertainty in Europe and slow-growing Asia will keep job growth at a muted pace this year,? Arlene Kish, senior principal economist at IHS Global Insight wrote in a note to clients.

Labour economist Erin Weir said May?s report was not good news for Canada?s 1.4 million unemployed.

?The economy is not creating enough jobs to get unemployed Canadians back to work. The federal government is aggravating this problem by making it easier for employers to import temporary foreign workers and more difficult for unemployed Canadians to access Employment Insurance,? said Weir, an economist with the United Steelworkers union.

By the numbers

New jobs created: 7,700

Canada?s unemployment rate: 7.3 per cent

Ontario?s unemployment rate: 7.8 per cent

Youth unemployment (age 15 ? 24): 14.3 per cent

Summer students (age 20 ? 24) unemployment: 14.9 per cent

Statistics Canada

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Dodgers complete four-game sweep of struggling Phillies | Baseball notebook

PHILADELPHIA ? This was one nifty day for Aaron Harang and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was simply more of the same for the sliding Philadelphia Phillies.

Harang pitched six effective innings to earn his 100th career victory and the Dodgers won 8-3 Thursday to complete their first four-game sweep in Philadelphia in 66 years.

Juan Rivera, Jerry Hairston Jr., Matt Treanor and James Loney had two hits apiece for the Dodgers, who had not swept a four-game series in Philadelphia since Brooklyn accomplished the feat May 24-26, 1946, according to STATS LLC.

Manager Don Mattingly was not aware of the significance of the sweep until told by reporters afterward, and acknowledged it was "pretty cool."

Los Angeles, which improved its major-league-best record to 37-21, scored three runs in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead, then broke it open with four more runs in the ninth.

The Phillies have dropped a season-high six straight games. They are 12-19 at Citizens Bank Park for the worst home mark in the NL.

Asked about his frustration level, manager Charlie Manuel said: "I never put it up to a level. I just feel how hot my face gets." And it is, he said, "pretty damn hot."

He also said that while teams used to fear facing the Phillies in their cozy ballpark, that is no longer the case.

"We don't scare (anybody)," he said.

Notes

? SS Carlos Correa, taken by Houston with the top pick in this week's amateur draft, agreed to a contract with the Astros for a signing bonus of $4.8 million.

Also signing Thursday were RHP Kyle Zimmer, taken at No. 5 by the Royals ($3 million bonus); and RHP Lucas Sims, taken at No. 21 by the Braves ($1.65 million).

? The Rangers placed LHP Derek Holland on the 15-day disabled list because of a fatigued left shoulder.

? The Cardinals placed LHP Jaime Garcia on the 15-day DL with a shoulder strain.

? Braves 1B Freddie Freeman is expected to rejoin the lineup soon after X-rays of his left index finger showed no fractures.

? The Nationals reshuffled their bullpen, reinstating RHP Brad Lidge from the DL and putting RHP Henry Rodriguez on the DL with a strained index finger.

? Major League Baseball and its players' association announced changes to their drug agreement in the wake of the February decision by arbitrator Shyam Das to overturn Brewers slugger Ryan Braun's 50-game suspension for a positive drug test. As part of the deal, the sides agreed privately that Das, who was fired last month, will not issue a written opinion in the case.

The new agreement replaces that language with "absent unusual circumstances, the specimens should be sent by FedEx to the laboratory on the same day they are collected." It also says unusual circumstances may include "inclement weather," "a personal emergency," "traffic accident" or "completion of the collection at a time when the collector was unable to reach either of the two FedEx offices identified by (Comprehensive Drug Testing) prior to their closing."

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Qubits live long, silicon quantum computers prosper

Long live the qubit! The world record for how long the quantum computing equivalent of a bit can be trapped within a sliver of silicon has been smashed.

The previous record for one of these delicate quantum states lasting inside a material was a few seconds, making qubits tricky to work with. Now a team has coaxed them into existing for over 3 minutes. The feat could be a huge step towards silicon-based quantum computers, which would be many orders of magnitude faster than classical ones.

John Morton of the University of Oxford and colleagues used a sample of ultra-pure silicon-28 that contained some phosphorus atoms. Silicon-28 is not magnetic so the atoms had almost no effect on the magnetic moment, or nuclear spin, of the phosphorus, meaning that these atoms behaved as though they were in a vacuum.

The team aligned the spins of the phosphorus atoms and deduced the radio-frequency pulse that could flip the spins by 180 degrees. They then applied half this pulse, causing the spins to enter a superposition of two states: flipped and not flipped ? the definition of a qubit.

They were able to maintain the superposition for 192 seconds by applying a series of pulses that prevented the qubits from interacting with the silicon. Though similar times have been achieved in qubits made of atoms in a vacuum, this is a record for qubits in a material. "Not only is it a real material, it's the same material that current computers are made of," says Morton.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1217635

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Could Insurance Coverage Hobble Commercial Space Flights?

Insurance deals in risks, not unknowns or certainties. There is a fine line between the two that is frequently misunderstood. A risk is an event whose probability you can calculate; an unknown is an event whose probability you cannot calculate; a certainty is, well, certain to occur.

We know for instance, with a statistically meaningful sample, that a certain percentage of the population dies or has a car accident each year. They follow near perfect gaussian distributions, and therefor are risks. You can price them appropriately and a private insurance take care of them.

From a mathematical standpoint, an insurance company's usefulness begins and ends here: guaussian distribution, large enough sample. This can be priced; nothing else can. Collecting an insurance coupon for anything else is gambling, leeching, or both -- and on the tax payer's back, more often than not.

Earthquakes or stock market moves, for instance, follow power laws, and therefor are unknowns. You cannot price them appropriately and a private insurance cannot credibly take them. When it does, you end up with lavish profits and dividends in good years (heads, I win), and State emergencies / AIGs in bad years (tails, you lose).

Health follows a power law too (diseases are contagious, health degrades with health issues) with the added twist of certainties (e.g., the majority of one's health care costs are concentrated in the last few years of one's life). These are unknowns and certainties, not risks. As such, they cannot be priced appropriately from an insurance's standpoint. For healthy people, the best an insurance can do is gamble (heads, I win); for the elderly or chronic diseases, it needs to price (or refuse to "insure") the inevitable (tails, you lose).

Yet other things, such as space flight accidents, might arguably follow gaussian distributions. They could be insured in theory -- if gaussian indeed. In practice however, the sample is too small to know the precise risk. Until it's larger, this risk cannot be adequately priced. And the best a private insurance can do is gamble. The insurance might over-price the risk and over-provision for catastrophes (heads, I win, tails, you win; yay!). It might also under-price the risk and distribute lavish dividends (heads, I win) and go bust when a space ship crashes into a nuclear power plant (tails, you lose). It simply lacks the data to take the appropriate decision; it's an unknow.

So the real question is: is the tax payer comfortable with someone winning on heads, without knowing if he'll win or lose on tails?

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