Shani Davis wearing the Under Armour suit in question, in the race that placed him eighth overall. NBC The Under Armor speed skating suits meant to help US Olympic team members win may have actually been slowing them down, writes the Wall Street Journal in a report . A “design flaw” meant to aid with one element of the skaters’ physics may be hurting them in another way, resulting in no US skaters finishing higher than seventh place despite high rankings going in. The US requested a change on Thursday, and in the early hours of Saturday it was decided that the team could revert to the suits they used in previous World cup events, also made by Under Armour. The suits were designed with a vent on the back that is supposed to allow heat to escape. But the WSJ now suggests that the same vent may be letting air into the suit, creating drag and affecting skaters’ low stance. Kevin Haley, senior vice president of Under Armour, already copped to the problem, telling the WSJ “we’ll move heaven and earth to make them better.” Long-track team coach Ryan Shimabukuro refused to criticize the suits, but skater and 1,000-meter world-record holder Shani Davis claimed to have had his fastest start ever in the 1,000 meter race Wednesday while wearing the suit. An NBC commentator speaking over the event’s delayed broadcast in the US also asserted that the start was “the fastest [he’d] seen [Davis] open up this year.” Still, he finished eighth. Heather Richardson, the top-ranked women’s skater, finished seventh in the 1000m event; Brittany Bowe, the world record-holder for the same event, finished eighth. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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US team to switch speed skating suits due to poor physics
In 2011-12, the VFX company Rhythm & Hues created the astounding effects for Ang Lee’s gorgeous movie The Life of Pi . Then they went bankrupt, fired their staff, and went out of business. Two weeks later they won an Oscar. The new documentary Life After Pi shows how this insanity was made possible. Read more… 
Microsoft marketing chief Tami Reller announced that the company has sold 200 million Windows 8 licenses in the 15 or so months that it has been on the market. This number includes only OEM and retail copies of the operating system and excludes volume licenses. The company previously announced that Windows 8 had reached 100 million copies sold in May of last year, a rate of sales that matched Windows 7. That operating system, however, reached 240 million sales within the first 12 months, demonstrating that Windows 8 is clearly not selling as fast. Still, in a PC market that’s shrinking—and which started shrinking even before the release of Windows 8—200 million copies is perhaps not too shabby. PCs as a whole are not selling as fast as they were during Windows 7’s heyday, and both Windows and Office are suffering as a result. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments 
William Cormier III was convicted this week of killing journalist Sean Dugas, burying his body in a concrete-covered pit in Georgia, then selling off his rare Magic: The Gathering playing cards , part of a set valued at $100,000. Defense attorneys said during closing arguments that prosecutors didn’t prove that Cormier killed Dugas, and instead suggested his twin was responsible. Cormier’s twin brother, Christopher, pleaded no contest to charges of helping his brother move Dugas’ body from Florida to Georgia. Christopher Cormier has not been sentenced yet. Dugas’ body was unearthed more than a month after his 2012 death in the backyard of Cormier’s father’s home in Winder, Ga., which is about 300 miles northeast of Pensacola. Cormier was the only witness to testify for the defense. He told jurors Wednesday he was acting under the direction of his twin and that he did not know Dugas’ was dead when he sold more than $12,000 of his cards and cleaned out his home.