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Wii U, we hardly know you.

Of all the companies showcasing new games and hardware at the E3 video game convention this week, none face as much pressure as Nintendo. The once -mighty Wii may have left an indelible mark on the game industry by broadening the very definition of a gamer, but it's been on a downhill slide for years now. After toiling away in its top-selling shadow, Microsoft and Sony's more mature consoles are now proving their worth in terms of sheer staying power, trouncing the Wii on the charts month after month.

But with the first new home console in six years coming out this holiday, Nintendo has a chance to leapfrog the competition with the Wii U and define what the next generation of gaming will look like. It's a risky position, but one that could pay off big time if the company plays the game well.

So far, it isn't. Instead of giving fans a launch lineup, a deep feature dive, a sophisticated online network reveal and possibly a price and a release date at E3, the company merely asked us to wait longer, to remain patient, and to trust in Mario.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, no one's buying it. Despite high hopes for a big presence at E3, the company's stock dipped 2% after their disappointing media briefing Tuesday. While new Mario and Pikmin games have fans excited, the press has had a field day taking shots at the company's lack of a coherent message. What is the Wii U, exactly, and who is it for?


It's a problem Nintendo hasn't faced in ages. The Wii connected immediately. You wave the remote, you hit a tennis ball. Innovative enough to wow gamers yet digestible enough for those who last played a Mario game in 1985, it bridged a gap and brought countless new players into the fold. They kept it simple with the 3DS, too: it's a handheld system with a glasses-free 3D screen and fancier processing guts. "Forget that pricey Sony nonsense," the company seemed to say, "because we figured it out already." The thing just clicked.

But the Wii U? It's a game console that you play with a tablet controller, though Nintendo's disproportionate emphasis on the tablet has led some outlets, like CNN, to misconstrue the device as being an add-on for the Wii you have gathering dust on your shelf. Others think the tablet is the console itself. Actually trotting out the console — you know, the piece of hardware you'll actually buy and connect to your TV and have sitting in your living room — and doling out some more thorough specs would have helped. Bandying about wonky terms like 'asymmetric gameplay,' where the experience of a player using the tablet differs from those using Wii remotes? Not exactly the catchy simplicity Nintendo is known for.


But how about the games? Nintendo showed off 23 Wii U experiences at E3, including an assortment of titles from third parties like Ubisoft and EA. Many of these fell flat, though. An upcoming Wii U version of 2011 masterpiece Batman: Arkham City isn't exactly a system seller in 2012. Mass Effect 3 is a tremendous game, but by the time it releases for the Wii U it will be a good 8 months old. Even the flagship New Super Mario Bros U -- essentially a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. Wii -- feels a bit underwhelming, especially when compared to past system-defining Mario games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World.

Perhaps most damning was the mild reception of Nintendoland, the collection of mini-games Nintendo hopes will do for the Wii U what Wii Sports did for the Wii. The company ended its press conference with an overlong look at the title, awkwardly wrapping it all up with a fake firework display that left the crowd baffled.

It's just the latest gaffe from a company struggling to recapture the glory days of the Wii in its prime. A 3DS price drop only four months into that system's life was considered a desperation move (it has since paid off, at least in terms of goosing sales), prompting company CEO Satoru Iwata to take a whopping 50% pay cut. Earlier this year the company reported its first annual operating loss in 30 years. It's been a tough ride for Nintendo, yet they inexplicably keep making it tougher.

And the challenges are only growing now that the competition smells blood. Microsoft's SmartGlass technology essentially mimics the Wii U's second screen functionality by letting you use your smartphone or tablet to control games or enjoy tangential content. Sony's Cross-Play between the PS3 and the Vita lets you save games to the cloud and take them with you on the go — a step beyond the Wii U's living room limitations. A year after its first reveal, and suddenly the Wii U isn't quite so innovative. Waste enough tech time and eventually you'll be lapped.

Nintendo needed to change that perception with an unmistakable win at E3. The world wanted to get to know the only new system of 2012, but we're left with more questions than answers. By failing to produce, it's left the future in doubt — and that's no way to start the next generation.

Eleven bottles of some of the world’s oldest champagne sold for more than $156,000 at an auction in Finland today after 170 years at the bottom of the sea.

Six bottles were Juglar, a house that disappeared in 1829, four were Veuve Clicquot and one was Heidsieck. With interest from Champagne makers, the sellers were watching after a 30,000 euro ($37,720) a bottle record set in the last sale, though the Paris-based auction house of Artcurial Briest-Poulain-F.Tajan had placed an estimate of just 10,000 euros each.

The Champagne was perfectly stored horizontally in cold, dark Baltic waters after a shipwreck. It was sold in Mariehamn, the only town in Aaland, an archipelago of 6,500 islands between Finland and Sweden. The first bottle, the Heidsieck, made 11,500 euros and the highest-priced Clicquot was 15,000 euros. The total for all the bottles was 125,500 euros.


Divers exploring the wreck of a schooner discovered a total of 162 bottles in 2010. Of these, 79 were drinkable. Aaland plans to retain some bottles and to sell others for maritime archaeology and for Baltic Sea environmental projects.

“We didn’t know what we had found at first,” said diver Christian Ekstroem, 33, who manages the pub in the Stallhagen brewery, outside Mariehamn. “I brought a bottle up and the closer I got to the surface, I had to hold the cork down with my thumb. It popped when I was in the boat, so we poured some into cups. We had no idea how valuable it was.”


The brewery is in a forest, housed in an old barracks that was home to Russian coastal artillery a century ago. Ekstroem said that wrecks more than 100 years old belong to the government, and none of the eight divers who discovered the Champagne has received any compensation.

“We’ve had nothing, not even a thank you,” Ekstroem said in an interview at the brewery last month. “It’s not even about the money.”

Five bottles of beer were also recovered and Stallhagen is working on recipes based upon them, said Ekstroem, who will take a day off work today to attend the auction.

I sipped the Juglar when I first visited Aaland in November 2010, when two bottles were opened for tasting. It’s aromatic and sweet, like a dessert wine, and it’s deep and rich, with notes of orange and raisin, like a Christmas cake.

The Veuve Clicquot (MC) sold for a world record for a single bottle of Champagne of 30,000 euros at auction in Mariehamn on June 3 last year. A bottle of Juglar went for 24,000 euros.

Maritime History
“Most people don’t know where Aaland is or even that it exists, so we’re very happy to have this opportunity to share our maritime cultural history and finally put Aaland on the map,” said Lina Dumas, who is managing the Champagne project.

She showed off a display, including two of the Champagne bottles, at the Aaland Maritime Museum, a 10-minute walk from the Culture and Congress House where the sale will take place.

The original twin-mast sailing vessel was schooner-rigged with a hull typical of the early 1800s in the Nordic region. Veuve Clicquot has dated its corks to the period 1831-1841.

[Related: What $1 million buys you]

Aaland is a Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Finland, with its own stamps and license plates. There are 27,500 inhabitants, of whom about 11,000 live in Mariehamn.

The capital is situated on a narrow peninsula. It’s a charming, quiet and spacious town where motor vehicles will sometimes slow if they spot a pedestrian, except during the summer, when as many as 1.5 million people visit. A main avenue is lined with Linden trees and one resident told me his childhood treat was to visit the archipelago’s only escalator.

Shipping lanes around the islands are filled with ferries or you can fly in on an Aaland Air Saab 340A. On one of the three visits I’ve made in the past two years, the road to the tiny airport for an early-morning flight was covered in snow, with barely a tire track to be seen. At night, the sky is black.

The United States and the Philippines called for freedom of navigation in the tense South China Sea as the White House offered a robust show of support for President Benigno Aquino.

President Barack Obama welcomed Aquino to the White House in the latest high-profile gesture to put a focus on US ties to Asia, where a number of countries are embroiled in territorial conflicts with a rising China.

Addressing reporters next to Aquino in the Oval Office, Obama said the two leaders spoke about "trying to make sure that we have a strong set of international norms and rules governing maritime disputes in the region."

In a joint statement released afterward, the two leaders "underscored the importance of the principles of ensuring freedom of navigation, respect for international law and unimpeded lawful commerce."

Aquino and Obama called for diplomacy to resolve territorial disputes "without coercion or the use of force."

China claims virtually all of the South China Sea up to Southeast Asian nations' shores and tensions have soared in recent years with both the Philippines and Vietnam.

The Philippines and China recently pulled back vessels after a standoff over the Scarborough Shoal, which lies near the main Philippine island of Luzon.

Aquino's visit to the United States was closely watched in China, where some policymakers suspect -- despite official US denials -- that the United States is seeking to encircle the growing Asian power.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, toasting Aquino earlier Friday at a luncheon in his honor, credited Aquino with defusing tensions over the rock formation.

The United States and the Philippines signed agreements to step up cooperation on science and technology and to boost the number of Peace Corps volunteers in the former US colony.

But Aquino's visit was largely symbolic, with many US policymakers believing that the son of democracy heroine Corazon Aquino has revitalized an often overlooked relationship by tackling hard issues.

Aquino recently won a major battle in his campaign against corruption with the sacking of the country's top judge. Aquino has also agreed to let more US troops rotate -- but not be based -- in the Philippines despite the historical baggage.

"I've always found President Aquino to be a thoughtful and very helpful partner," Obama said.

"And I think that as a consequence of the meeting today in which we discussed not only military and economic issues, but also regional issues -- for example, trying to make sure that we have a strong set of international norms and rules governing maritime disputes in the region -- that I'm very confident that we're going to see continued friendship and strong cooperation between our two countries," he said.

Aquino said his meeting with Obama has "deepened and strengthened a very long relationship we have, especially as we face the challenges that are before both our countries in the current situation."

Clinton and Obama both voiced support for efforts by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to reach a code of conduct with China on managing disputes in the South China Sea, through which half of the world's trade flows.

ASEAN and China agreed in 2002 to negotiate a code of conduct. But there has been little progress, with a rising China preferring to negotiate with each country individually instead of dealing with the unified bloc.

In the statement, Obama also pledged US support for Aquino's efforts to upgrade the notoriously antiquated Philippine military and build a "minimum credible defense posture."

The United States has stepped up military aid, including last year delivering a decommissioned coast guard cutter -- which the Philippines rechristened the Gregario del Pilar and replaced a World War II-era vessel as its navy's biggest ship.

The Obama administration has focused on building relations in Asia. In the next week alone, the United States will separately welcome the foreign ministers of Cambodia, India, South Korea and Thailand.

This decade's biggest business will take place on the Internet, in the yoga studio, or around the supermarket aisle. So says IBISWorld, the market research firm that releases an annual report of the fastest-growing industries, based on absolute revenue growth, established growth for the last 10 years, and expected performance for the next five years. The list of 10 industries serves as a good measure of our fiscal and social priorities. For example, several industries promote technological innovation, while others reflect our desire to take better care of ourselves as well as the environment. Here's a breakdown of the hottest industries to watch, plus a few suggestions in each field of related occupations with good job prospects.

10. Online Eyeglasses & Contact Lens Sales

You can now buy everything from gadgets to groceries online; all you need is a reliable Internet connection and an at-the-ready credit card. IBISWorld predicts online sales for eyewear and contact lenses will flourish, especially with new technologies that allow customers to upload their image and virtually test how they'll look in the eyewear they're browsing. Revenue for the online eyewear and contact lens sales industry has grown by 28.2 percent, on average, annually for the last 10 years. Up to 2017, revenue is expected to grow 8.8 percent annually.

Related Jobs: The online marketplace has become more sophisticated, and requires techy know-how about site navigation and design to keep us enticed and clicking. If you're a Web developer, you might want to search for openings at top industry players like 1-800-Contacts.com or Walgreen Company.

9. Green & Sustainable Building Construction

"Going green" is both fashionable and necessary. According to IBISWorld, the demand for energy-efficient buildings has skyrocketed, and government programs like Energy Star provide further incentive for corporations to design, build, and operate their buildings in a more responsible manner. Green and sustainable building construction grew 28.9 percent annually from 2002 to present. From 2012 to 2017, this industry should grow at an average annual rate of 22.8 percent.

Related Jobs: Shedding 28,000 positions this May, the entire construction industry has been in a fragile state. Still, there's promise in the green and sustainable pocket of the sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts we'll see a hiring renaissance for occupations like carpenters, plumbers, and cost estimators.

8. Hot Sauce Production

We're in to eating. Terms like "food porn" and "nom nom nom" have entered the vernacular, and a simple diet of meat and potatoes just doesn't cut it if pho and sushi are options. A growing immigrant population with different consumption habits has contributed to our now-assorted taste buds, as its also changed the landscape of restaurants available and the items sold in our supermarkets. We've changed our ordering habits, broadened our cooking repertoire, and created a demand for the ingredients most needed to create these dishes. Production for one such ingredient--hot sauce--has seen average revenue growth of 9.3 percent per year from 2002 to present, and production is projected to continue swelling at an annual rate of 4.1 percent for the next five years.

Related Jobs: Looking to capitalize on this foodie trend? The BLS reports the potential for more than 117,000 jobs for restaurant cooks from now to 2020. Hiring prospects are best for cooks with formal and specialized training.

7. Social Network Game Development

Social networking games are genius. They give the gaming industry a stake in the hysteria over websites like Facebook, offering members free-to-play online games at a time when purchasing gaming consoles is a luxury for some. These social network games then profit with onscreen advertising and by selling virtual goods that could be used during the course of play. IBISWorld found that this industry's revenue increased an average annual 128 percent from 2002 to 2012, and expects it to grow at an annual rate of 22 percent for the next five years.

Related Jobs: Software developers and computer programmers are needed to develop games similar to Mob Wars and Farmville. Are you interested in this line of work? Check job boards for openings at major companies like Booyah, Electronic Arts, and Zynga, Inc.

6. 3D Printer Manufacturing

3D printing is the vanguard process of converting a digital file into a three-dimensional object, and it introduces the possibility for streamlining the manufacturing for many products across industries. For example, 3D printers could be used to generate models from blueprints for architects, or jewelry for fashion designers. In the last 10 years, this industry experienced an average 8.8 percent revenue growth each year, and its average annual revenue is expected to grow by 14 percent for the next five years.

Related Jobs: Healthcare is another sector that could be revolutionized by the use of 3D printing. For example, occupational therapists can now use the technology to design prosthetic parts for their patients. Sound interesting? Keep in mind this is a profession that should grow 33.5 percent this decade.

5. Self-Tanning Product Manufacturing

Will our grandchildren smirk at our tanning practices, just like we gape at the incessant smoking on Mad Men? Study after scary study released by the National Cancer Institute cry of the health risks involved in using lamps and beds to attain that perfect summertime complexion, and our spending practices show that we're finally getting the picture. Self-tanning lotions and gels have had a good 10 years, with annual revenue growth for the manufacturing of these products reported at 22.7 percent. For the next five years, revenue growth for manufacturing self-tanning products should be 10.7 percent, on average.

Related Jobs: Increased production of these beauty products will also require more sales representatives to promote them. According to the BLS, there should be 223,400 new sales rep jobs this decade.

4. Pilates & Yoga Studios

Yoga and Pilates studios didn't fare poorly in the recession. These days, many offices offer incentives for their employees to join health clubs. And the trend for taking these classes has also blossomed among baby boomers seeking a low-impact exercise regimen. Revenue in this industry grew at an average rate of 12.1 percent over the last 10 years. Up to 2017, industry revenue is poised to grow at an average annual rate of 4.8 percent.

Related Jobs: There's good news for you if you'd consider working as a Pilates or yoga instructor. These types of professions receive some of the highest marks for job satisfaction of any of our Best Jobs of 2012. And the BLS forecasts 60,400 new openings for instructors up to the year 2020.

3. For-Profit Universities

For-profit universities are somewhat controversial. Critics say graduates tend to make lower salaries than their counterparts who graduated from nonprofit institutions, and that they're also more likely to default on their loans. Those who support these educational programs say they run more efficiently than nonprofit universities, and that they're accessibility increases the number of workers and high school students who may receive a higher education. Taking classes with a for-profit university became a popular alternative for those who were less-than-eager to join a stymied job market during the recession. For-profit universities have experienced average revenue growth of 13.6 percent from 2002 to 2012, and they should see 5 percent revenue growth annually in the coming years, according to IBISWorld.

Related Jobs: Counselors are needed at all types of schools, including those that run for profit. In addition to earning comfortable salaries, school counselors also have high job satisfaction. Employment growth in this position is expected to jump 19 percent by 2020, the BLS reports.

2. Solar Panel Manufacturing

Our most dominant energy sources come from non-renewables like coal and petroleum, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to power equipment with regenerative sources. Case in point: Revenue for solar panel manufacturing has grown at an annual rate of 32.3 percent for the last 10 years, and it's expected to continue growing by about 8.2 percent each year until 2017.

Recent Jobs: According to a BLS report, "jobs are expected to grow in all the major sectors of the solar power industry: manufacturing, project development, construction, operation and maintenance, and installation." Within manufacturing, glaziers are responsible for selecting, cutting, installing, and replacing glass or glass-like materials. And this profession is expected to grow by an impressive 42 percent from 2010 to 2020.

1. Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

The U.S. population is aging quickly--the median age has jumped from 35.3 years in 2000 to 37.2 years in 2010, according to the Census Bureau--and as it does, the need for prescription drugs also increases. Generic pharmaceutical manufacturing has sustained growth since 2002 because it reduces the out-of-pocket healthcare costs for the consumer. On average, this industry experienced annual revenue growth of 9.6 percent, and it's expected to see an average of 6.3 percent growth from now to 2017.

Related Jobs: Top companies like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Mylan Inc. are looking for project managers to facilitate the development of new products.

In the movie "Prometheus," a sci-fi thriller and prequel to "Alien," moviegoers may be wondering about the meaning of the name.

The story focuses on a galactic ship called "Prometheus," which is on a search for the origins of humanity. Things don't exactly turn out as planned: The explorers must deal with some kind of alien menace outside the ship, along with fear and loathing that sets in with the crew.


So why are the space vessel and the movie named for a figure in Greek mythology?

The myth itself is this: Prometheus, a Titan, is credited with having made the human race out of clay. According to Edith Hamilton's book "Mythology," the name Prometheus means "forethought," and he was "very wise, wiser even than the gods."

Prometheus was said to have been so enthralled by his human creation that he stole fire from the gods to help the humans along.

Zeus punished Prometheus for his crime with an unimaginable torture -- chaining him to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver. The organ grew back at night, and every day, the eagle came back to peck it out.


In modern times, the story of the Titan has tended to be more of a cautionary tale for humans as the unintended consequences of scientific discovery. In fact, the full title of Mary Shelley's book "Frankenstein" is "The Modern Prometheus."

The ship isn't the first to be named from mythology. In "Alien," the escape craft is called "Narcissus."

In the latest Ridley Scott movie, we can probably take the name of the ship to be a subtle hint of what's to come. It's safe to say it's nothing good.