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STAY BAD FOR EKBLAD
As I type this, the Oilers are losing 3-1 with just under a minute left in the game. Another tough loss for the NHL's second-worst worst team [thanks Buffalo, try to stop beating teams other than the Leafs! -ed], the Oilers have now lost 5 in a row, their record officially becomes worse than the 4-14 Eskimos were this season, and Dubnyk against gave up three or more goals in a game. (TSN kept charitably giving Dubby a break saying the defense let him down: having enviro-idiot Andrew Ferrance treat his goaltender like a top lends credit to that theory).
It wasn't all negative: for about 5 minutes in the 2nd period the Oilers played like a team that actually gave two shits about this "hockey thing" that they are paid to play. Nail Yakupov scored, making his asshole agent happy and preventing the Oilers from becoming the first team since 1927 to be shutout in 4 consecutive home games. (212 minutes, apparently. Back in the 20s they never kept much track of these things, and Justin Schultz scored with about 2 minutes left in the Washington game a couple weeks back, so it's hard to know specifically how this home shutout streak ranks precisely in league history)
Yet the negatives, as they are, continue to pile up: more lacklustre scoring by the "explosive Oilers offense" that every season preview writer kept promising, the great Moscovian Hope got shellacked in Oklahoma City today, and Ryan Smyth continues to have the hand-eye coordination of Michael J. Fox. Yakupov gets a goal and instantly draws a stupid 4-minute penalty: players are still lazily skating around the ice, there's no urgency by this team on almost every play, and I probably should mention that since I started typing the Oilers have, indeed, gotten around to officially losing the game. Meanwhile...well, if you read Grantland you should know that they charitably don't call this the most depressing CapGeek page day after day only out of mercy.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I haven't attended any Oilers games in person lately. In fact, I know exactly which game I went to last: Oilers vs. Pittsburgh, January 14th 2010. The Oilers were winning 2-0 after two periods, and then Crosby stood on his head and knocked us to the dirt. That was the game, that was the precise game when the fans realized that the season was over, and the only course of action available was to tank completely and gun for the first overall draft pick. This was 2010, and Tyler Seguin was a top-scoring centreman who might save the team. But the other guy had the more appropriate name.
"Fall for Hall" was born that night, and I was there. The Oilers did indeed fall to a lowly 27 wins on the season, picked Taylor Hall first overall, and have had two more #1 picks and a #6 pick since. Hall, RNH, Yakupov...and I've never seen any of them play live. That was the year I started the rule: If the Oilers are over .500 on New Year's Day, I'll go see a game. They weren't over .500 on January 1st 2011 (they made a push that year but fell short), and then tanked in March/April and got another #1 pick in RNH. January 1st 2012 they sure weren't over .500 again, and cruised to an easy #1 pick in Yakupov. January 1st 2013 the entire league had yet to play a game...which means they weren't over .500 and I won't be buying Oilers tickets in 2013.
Remember the good old days of this franchise? Forget Gretzky and Messier and Fuhr. Forget Pronger and Peca and Roloson. Hell, forget Todd Marchant scoring in OT in 1997, and Janne Niinma and Jason Smith and Mike Grier. Remember the good old days of January 2010 when we hadn't been a lock to be last place in the NHL yet? It's the midway point of November and we've written off the season. With 21 games to go, for the Oilers to get me to buy any tickets between January 1st and December 31st 2014, they will need to go 17-4 in their next 21 games of the year. Stick a fork in this disaster, they're done.
RNH didn't have a good chanting name, but "Fail for Nail" caught on a couple years back. In the half-season they played last year, the Oilers couldn't compete in the suck prize with teams like Colorado and Florida, but now we're right back into the stink of things: poised to be contending for that number one pick in the draft come June.
It's a weak draft, just the Oilers luck, with no clear standout like Yakupov to choose from. The November 2nd snapshot of rankings is available (from an Oilers blog, natch), and Sam Reinhart still tops the list, with Leon Draisaitl, Haydn Fleury, and Willie Nylander still holding down the top-10 rankings they've been holding for 4 months now. But remember last year when overall #1 consensus Seth Jones fell to 2nd place in the rankings with a week to go? There's some room to move here, and one name that really stands out. I've never seen him play hockey, can't name his team, and have no idea if he'd be a good fit in the Oilers dressing room (or even if he'd be a candidate to play right away). But he's perfect for the Oilers franchise this year. Why? Because of the chants.
So join with me Oilers fans who didn't read the post's title, and let's all begin practising our mocking cheers now:
STAY BAD FOR EKBLAD!
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THE AFONI CHILDREN OF HOPE FOUNDATION (ACOHOF) PARTNERS WITH THE MTN FOUNDATION AND DONATE TO DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN TATUM
On the 6th of October 2012, the population of Nkum Sub Division of Bui Division in the North West Region of Cameroon witnessed a special “YELLOW Back to School with ACOHOF 2012” for orphans and vulnerable children with great assistance from the MTN Foundation.
The ACOHOF Represented thanked the MTN Foundation for connecting with ACOHOF as their slogan MTN the better connection goes. He assured the MTN Foundation that their support will make a life-long difference in the lives of disadvantaged children, improve their self-esteem and aspirations thereby giving them the confidence they need to reach their full potentials.
Speaking for the MTN Foundation, the Foundation Program Officer Mr. Ekambi Thierry explained to the population of Tatum who came in their numbers to witness this event, that even though MTN Cameroon is a business with most of the people present at the occasion its customers, MTN Cameroon has a corporate social responsibility with programs that take care of social needs such as preparing and providing for the back to school for orphans and vulnerable children. He asserted that education is so important and MTN Cameroon also sees great need to promote it because all her workers need to be educated before they can be able to handle their various positions professionally. He officially handed the donations to ACOHOF for distribution and eventually made a symbolic handing over of the items directly to some of the beneficiaries.
The representative of the Divisional Officer for Nkum Sub Division Mr. Ngado Johnson who is the Delegate of Youths affairs and Civics Education expressed satisfaction for the choice of Tatum for the phase II of “Back to School with ACOHOF 2012” and thanked the MTN Foundation for the wonderful assistance to disadvantaged children while making a plea to ACOHOF and the MTN Foundation to extend the same gesture to other villages in Nkum Sub Division. He explained that the good initiative goes in line with the Government’s objective of fighting against the marginalization of children.
Other speakers at the occasion included the representative of the Divisional Delegate of Social Affairs (The Chief of Social Center for Bui Division). He praised the effort of ACOHOF and assured the MTN Foundation delegation of the credibility of ACOHOF as a partner with the Ministry of Social Affairs in attaining to the needs of the underprivileged people in our communities including orphans and vulnerable children who were to benefit from the MTN Foundation assistance. He explained that the government through the ministry of social Affairs alone without partners like ACOHOF cannot successfully reach out to the target population of his ministry.
The First Deputy Mayor of Nkum Council Mrs. Baye Hilda Burinyuy, also speaking in the same light thanked the MTN Foundation for this first appearance of YELLOW in Nkum Council area and appealed to the MTN Foundation to extend this magnificent initiative through ACOHOF to other villages of Nkum Council area.
The representative of teachers of Tatum Zone Mrs. Lukong Nancy on behalf of the teachers heartily thanked ACOHOF and the MTN Foundation and prayed that God should replenish the source of the MTN Foundation donations so that they can be able to extend this wonderful gesture to many more schools in our communities.
Finally the representative of the Tsen Memfu Traditional Rulers – Shufai Takun who made an allusion of the last cycling race whereby cyclist had to fight and scramble for the Yellow T-Shirts, but the Nkum population are so lucky to freely received their own Yellow T-Shirts, and school needs without any stress thanks to the partnership between ACOHOF and the MTN Foundation. He thanked the MTN Foundation for the provision of the school needs to his disadvantaged children and encouraged the beneficiaries to make worthy use of their gifts.
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All Maori
Auto-biography and Memoirs
Children Non-Fiction
Reference and Language
Auto-Biography and Biography
Children & Young Adult Fiction
All Pasifika
Pasifika Children's Fiction
Pasifika Culture
Pasifika Education
Pasifika Fiction
Pasifika History
Pasifika Myths and Legends
Kiwi Connections
All Kiwi Connections
Peter Brunt and Nicholas Thomas
From the remote shores of Rapa Nui to the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea, the islands of the Pacific are home to some of the most culturally diverse populations on the planet. The region embraces an extraordinary range of art forms, from delicate shell ornaments to spectacularly decorated canoes and meeting houses.These have fascinated outsiders since the exploratory voyages of Captain Cook, the first of which commenced 250 years ago in 1768, and went on to entrance Gauguin and a host of other European artists.
This volume accompanies a major survey in London and Paris of art from Oceania. It brings together the most up-to-date scholarship by the leading experts in the field, encompassing a dazzling array of objects from the region, including many that have never been published before.
Also included are many works that have historically been overlooked, such as painted and woven textiles, elaborate wicker assemblages and expressively sculpted vessels, alongside works by artists working in Oceania today. Objects of great aesthetic beauty, these artworks are the product of a complex web of social, mythological and historical influences.
Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of Making in New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania
Oceania: Imagining the Pacific
China and the Pacific: The View from Oceania
Oceania: An Important Part of the Pacific
Samoan Queer Lives
Guardians of Aotearoa
Tropic of Football: The Remarkable Rise of Samoans in the NFL
Polynesian Tattoos: 42 Modern Tribal Designs to Colour and Explore
The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook Vol. 2
The Tree of Life: My Journey of Grief
Little Kiwi and the Treaty
William's Waitangi Day
21-23 Enterprise Street
© 2020 Aotearoa Books | Academy Book Company
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Parramatta Council Archives
Museum & Art Collections
City of Parramatta Wards
Science and medicine in Parramatta
History of the Lancers
Waves of People
From Canton to Parramatta
Parramatta Square: its 200 year history
Cumberland Hospital & ‘Female Factory’ Precinct
Parramatta Stories Blog
The River Foreshore Parramatta
Parramatta and World War One
Centenary Square, Parramatta
Parramatta Gaol
Parramatta Mayors and Lord Mayors
Parramatta Anzacs
Parramatta Female Factory and ‘Insane Asylum’
Civic Place to Parramatta Square
Enquiry Service & Contact Information
Copyright & Policies
RCS Team
World War One – The Home Front – The Navy in Sydney Harbour
Australian Naval Headquarters, 1914-1918
At the outbreak of World War One, Port Jackson, Sydney, was viewed by the Commonwealth as the most vital Australian maritime centre and was safeguarded by the naval and military continuously right up to the end of the war. The Examination Service was allotted 8 officers and 225 men, and employed 43 small steamers (mostly pilot steamers attached to the several ports); in addition they had 19 motor launches.This was the least monotonous branch of the work, especially in the early days of the war, when a number of enemy vessels came into port without being aware that war had been declared. In one instance the German vessel S.S. Hobart, arrived off Port Phillip Heads before day-break 11 August 1914, and observing the searchlights, hesitated to enter. An armed boarding-party disguised as civilians boarded the ship and succeeded in “ bluffing ” the Germans into the belief that they were quarantine officials.
The ship, when safely under the land-batteries, was captured. It was hoped that the German captain, having been thus trapped, had not thrown overboard his secret codes and instructions. While placing the rest of the officers and crew under guard the captain was allowed more freedom than usual, in the hope that, thinking himself unwatched, he would attempt to destroy the secret documents and disclose their hiding-place. This in fact tuned out to be the case as in the early hours of the morning the German captain crept from his bunk, and, entering an inner cabin, slid back a panel behind which lay the papers. District Naval Officer, Captain Richardson, instantly covered him with a revolver and secured them. Amongst them was the code subsequently translated by Dr. Wheatley.However most of the work although important was far less exciting. In this case most of the duties revolved around patrols and maintaining dock defences. In Sydney this included the laying and the care of booms and nets as well as the provision of sentries and boat-patrols. About 500 people were engaged working for the naval brigade at Sydney whose work included: Examination Services; maintaining the Port War Signal Station; guarding Cockatoo Island, Spectacle Island, Garden Island, Gore Bay oil-tanks, Mort’s dock; managing the Pennant Hills wireless station, Woolwich dock, Admiralty House, Hawkesbury bridge, looking after interned enemy vessels and patrolling the Harbour.The sinking of the Cumberland off the coast of Australia in July, 1917, imposed on the naval brigade two new and extremely important duties. For some time the naval brigade was uncertain whether she had been sunk by the explosion of a bomb placed among her cargo or by collision with a mine and so precautions were taken against the recurrence of either danger. Initially preference was given to the bomb placed on board and as a result a Cabinet meeting was held which decided that the naval authorities should take over the duty of providing guards for all wharves and shipping, especially oversea shipping. The military who apparently had previously been attending to this duty were asked to supply the bulk of the guards but control of these was transferred to the navy.
The wireless stations of the Commonwealth were at the beginning of the war put in charge of the military but ttoward the end of 1916 the navy took over control of the principal stations at Townsville, Rockhampton, Brisbane, Sydney, and Adelaide. In February, 1917, a new regime was adopted at these stations which ensured a petty officer and four men were on duty night and day, with provision to increase this number in time of danger. In April it was decided to bring the guarding of the stations at Thursday Island, Cooktown, Melbourne, Hobart, and Perth under similar control. This left Darwin in control of the military and Port Moresby to the care of the local European constabulary, and the out-stations of Western Australia-Esperance on the Bight, Geraldton, Roebourne, Broome, and Wyndham-to night watchmen only.
The brigade at its moment of greatest expansion numbered 2,817 adults and 3,834 cadets. Many of these were at different times used for different services (a man being engaged, say, for six months in mine-sweeping, and three years in examination services), the enrolment by services shows a larger muster.
The Royal Australian Navy, Arthur W Jose, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1835
Geoff Barker, Coordinator Collections and Research Services, Parramatta City Council Heritage Centre, 2014
Unless noted all content on this site is released under a Creative Commons attribute and share-alike license, so feel free to use this material but please remember to quote sources and links.
Produced by City of Parramatta
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Both the Petterson-Palmquist and the Haldane methods are tab convenient, practical, and sufficiently accurate for all ordinary purposes. The disease seemed to exhaust itself, under jhe frequent use calomel and rhubarb"protected by opites." course of the disorders just narrated, the mpst prominent cua feature of practical indication, was the great and obstinate torpor of the patient's bowels. The tac author performed these operations in two cases, with recovery in both. If greasy, dip the brass side first in a boiling hot solution makes an excellent wash. Death and autopsy showed a dissecting aneurism of the thoracic aorta that had ruptured into the right pleural sac This patient had given a history of no previous pain or discomfort in this region and had been constantly at her work, that of a laundress, up to the day before she was sent to the hospital any of er the preceding. In the course of time (about two months) he fully recovered from that serious leg affliction from which he stated he had been suffering since the age of nineteen (cheap). Another addition is a chapter on the constitution and powers of the General Medical Council, "thuoc" which will prove most useful in view of the increasing surveillance exercised by that body over practitioners working under the National Insurance Act. Restrictions on photography, such as operated early mg in the history of the would seem to be unnecessary for safeguarding information, the Laboratory Division no doubt being as trustworthy as the Signal Corps. Young, Prostatectomy in "50" Unfavorable Cases. Medical department is about to begin an extensive campaign for recruits for service dung in the general Harriet Emily Ogden, of Elizabeth, N. The relief afforded was 10 striking.
The only authentic record "plendil" of the physical condition This report is for the months olt the influenza epidemic, and it shows that the total number of days lost from sickness for the months of October and November was relatively small.
12 - the drinking of too little water is a very While a polluted water may not carry specific germs, it may so undermine health or lower resistance as to favor infections not usually associated with the digestive tract, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis and the diseases responsible for infant mortality. Full information as to the quality and effects prices will be furnished upon application, as this firm gives particular attention,'to all Inquiries from As direct importers and manufacturers of fine essential oils, essences and pure soda water flavors and fountain requisites. The controlling body consists of an executive conmiittee appointed at the time of each annual meeting from among a small fee for incidental expenses which is paid by those who attend (5mg). There are many men in the Senate who can be Induced to present the matter in its true light, and it is the duty of every druggist to unite in a strong endeavof to fight any increase along the lines proposed: adverse. Bombs from alfroplanes and air attacks generally were a feature of the whole war period, but their effects tablets became more formidable in the West toward the end of some of them even while engaged in hospital and immediately under the protection of the Red Cross. They were described as "mf" softer than normal in fifteen cases.
' The hmgs of two men, tfie greatly impregnated with coaly matter ihe just concliisibli can- only be, that such matter is more extensively' diffused through the plus atmosphere than is apprehended. Whitmarsh's advice not to of buy his soda fountain till he had saved the money for it, would probably have ample time to make his selection, and should be able to appreciate his Rachel after the long years of waiting. Three days; thereafter half dram doses until still que greater improvement is obtained, when a further reduction is effected, say twenty minim doses, which are to be continued indefinitely, practically as long as the patient lives.
The absence para of ferments in milk indicates that it has been heated. Ramipril - if she is a primipara with a long and resisting cervix, and eliminative treatment for six or eight hours shows no improvement, and the child is living and in good condition, she may be delivered by abdominal Under no other condition should section be done. Sirve - the paper includes a detailed report of the best methods of cultivation, media to be employed, a description of the morphology, cultural properties, virulence, and viability and filterability of the organism.
Rabonik Plus Capsule Use
Norgestrel Acne
Dolor Al Penetrar Mujer
Aclasta Vs Prolia
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NEWSLETTER #62 - MARCH 2008
Members will have noticed that the US pages sometimes carry an earlier date than the main newsletter. This is because the US page is added to the main paper newsletter when it is circulated in the US in arrear of the UK edition, so it is actually published between UK paper editions.
January 2008 Newsletter US Division
Page 1 | Page 2
PRESTWICK PART 2 – JETS & COLOUR
The jets came before the colour as evidenced by the TCA DC-8 shown in December. In the same series from Valentine there were a BOAC 707 and, surprisingly, a United Caravelle. Presumably it just happened to be passing through on delivery when the photo session was in progress. The TCA DC-8 and BOAC 707 also appear together with a SAS CV440 and KLM DC-8, with a central piper, on a five view card .
The old terminal/tower made at least one appearance in colour on this card by Dixon. Mailed in 1960 the writer refers to “having a look round this place – takes me back a few years”
The first appearance of the new terminal was on a card issued by a hotel, the Towans hotel, shown in the foreground . Two DC-3s can be seen on the ramp. The first colour jets were also vertical with BOAC and PanAm 707s plus an Air Canada DC-8 on this one from Photo Precision. The DC-8 is in front of the transplanted Glasgow Exhibition Engineering building.
The new terminal gave rise to a number of cards of the interior and landside featuring the furniture and cars of the period. These were by Photo Precision and Valentine. Valentine also produced a set of airliner cards featuring DC-8s of SAS, KLM,PanAm and Air Canada together with a BOAC 707 and Comet 4. The Comet 4 is only
From this era there are also cards in two sizes from Dalling & Henderson of a KLM DC-8 and a ramp view from Hail caledonia including BOAC 707, SAS Caravelle, Ministry of Aviation Dove and Prince, unidentified Herons and a Cessna 310
With the coming of long range jets, traffic at Prestwick was reduced to that serving the Scottish market as the airport remained designated the long haul airport for Glasgow. From this time are two cards featuring 747s. The Pan Am 747 is by Hail Caledonia and also has in the background a short-body Ex Qantas Laker 707 being operated for Barbadan carrier Caribbean. Below a Northwest 747 accompanies DC-8s from US carrier Arrow Air and Canadian Quebecair on Dixon L6/SP7776 where the SP indicates that it was produced for a special customer, presumably the airport.
While the emphasis has been on Prestwick as a civil airport , its military connections go back to WWII and it continued to have major USAF activity afterwards. The Valentine new terminal series included one special card for use at , and showing, the US military transport service MATS own terminal.
Resident company Scottish Aviation progressed from a training and repair organisation through to design and manufacture of its own Pioneer and Twin Pioneer aircraft and later took over the Bulldog and Jetstream from Beagle and Handley Page respectively. In 1983 a set of cards was produced for the 25th anniversary of the company, by then part of B.Ae. This view, distorted by the camera angle is of two cards from that set.
Apart from retrospective airport views from among others, Carl McQuaide that ends the Prestwick postcard story. The airport’s latest incarnation, as the Ryanair base for Glasgow remains unrecorded.
SAIDE – THE ITALO-EGYPTIAN AIRLINE
By Leonardo Pinzauti, Firenze, Italy
SAIDE – Services Aeriens Internationeaux d Egypte was formed in February 1948 , the majority of the capital being subscribed by the Misr Bank. The remaining shares were controlled by two Italian aircraft companies : Cantieri Aeronavali of Venice – now a maintenance company but previously the designer and builder of a range of seaplanes, and SIAI Marchetti, heir to the Savoia – Marchetti company and its range of trimotors. Both provided technical and field assistance together with the existing Egyptian airline, Misr Airwork. – alias Misrair. As Misrair was a domestic and regional carrier, SAIDE planned to operate services to continental Europe and the Mediterranean basin.
The selection of aircraft was clearly influenced by the partners and two Italian types were selected – 4 three engined FIAT G.212’s and 5 four engined SIAI-Marchetti SM.95s. Although the best thatt Italy could offer, both were essentially pre war in their design and technology. The Fiats were delivered in 1948 and were of the CP “Monterosa” model with 26 / 38 seats. The SM95 fleet was complete by mid 1950. SAIDE issued this postcard of an SM95.
In summer 1948 SAIDE commenced a 1350 mile route to Rome via Alexandria and Athens. In the following year this was extended to Paris and a Libyan route opened to Tripoli and Benghazi., via Alexandria. In 1950 the Paris route was reactivated with a stop at Milan and the Libyan route extended to Tunis. In 1951 service was extended to Munich and Frankfurt. So, by Spring 1952 SAIDE had unduplicated route mileage of 3000.
The airline only had one major loss . In October 1949 a G.212 was damaged on take off at Alexandria and further deteriorated from corrosion in open storage and so was written off over a year later.
In the meantime the carrier had sought a newer and more reliable type. The USAF had surplus stocks of Curtiss C-46’s stored in Egypt and six were purchased. Ten years after the war end these C-46s were still being sold from desert stores and many passed through Heathrow on their way to the USA. SAIDE took at least three between 1949 and 1951.
The future of SAIDE was, however, to be determined by politics. In July 1952 the Egyptian monarchy was overthrown by the “Free officers” movement. In the consequent economic changes SAIDE was progressively merged into Misrair and all operations had ceased by 1953 and the company went into voluntary liquidation in December of that year. The Italian built fleet was sold in Egypt but had little use thereafter.
The Fiat G.12 – predecessor of the G.212, and the SM95 were both used by Alitalia and shown on the familiar history series of cards .
EGYPT - CONTINUED
Leonardo’s piece , plus the Egyptair anniversary DH Moth card issued this year, suggested a look at further cards with an Egyptian theme.
More Misr-Airwork Moths SU-AAH and ABO are shown on this card of Alexandria – Dehala Aerodrome by a local Greek? Photographer Grivas. There is also postal history interest as it was sent from carrier HMS Glorius and has a London postcard “Received from HM Ships” with a 1937 date.
The RAF also had a presence in Egypt with the Cairo base being at Heliopolis. A postcard-backed photo from there has the back text “ Cape to Cairo Flight Fairey IIID s”. This would have been the return flight to the Cape by a flight of Navy Fairey IIID s in 1926 . On the return leg the the flight departed Heliopolis for Aboukir where the wheels were exchanged for floats for the return to Lee-on-Solent.
Cards from the same source show a motley collection of ancient aircraft such as Bristol F2B’s and Avro 504’s apparently still in service in the 1930’s. Not surprisingly many cards feature wrecks . Even more modern types also succumbed such as this early mark Bristol Blenheim – the desert sand in which it has landed may well have played in part in bringing it down.
Egypt was a front line in WW2 , initially against Italian and later German forces. This artist card of a Wellington appears to have been produced in the Middle East for propaganda purposes. If we have any Arabic readers, the back text is shown .
If SAIDE was Italian connected, so Misr-Airwork/Misrair had British and French connections which resulted in purchase of fleets of Vickers Vikings and Sud-Est Languedocs. Misrair issued cards showing the French 4 engined transport edited over various landmarks – in this case the inevitable pyramids. This one was mailed to a boy in Sweden with a message in English from his mother who was in flight Baghdad-Cairo 1955.
Also written in flight, this time Tunis to Tripoli, this card was mailed to the US with a US forces postmark, presumably from a Libyan base . is this remarkably non-PC, PC from Misrair with an approximation of a Viking.
When Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic, Misrair became United Arab Airlines. Misrair had ordered Comet 4 s and produced this artist card with the obligatory pyramids.
UAA produced two Comet cards of which this is least common. One also featured on a Kruger card of Cairo Airport.
The current Egyptair continues to issue cards but spoilt this A340 by digitally changing the proportions of the long-thin A340 to fit the card, resulting in this bloated version.
<< Previous .... Worth A Second Glance
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Vicki Williamson
About Vicki
Home Travel blog VENICE BANS CRUISE SHIPS
VENICE BANS CRUISE SHIPS
It had to happen! Finally common sense has prevailed. Venice has placed a ban on cruise ships from entering the Grand Canal after protests from local residents. The Italian government has announced that large cruise ships will be banned from entering Venice's historic centre. Venetian residents have long wanted a ban on cruise ships, arguing they damage the city.
Ships weighing more than 1,000 tonnes will be re-routed away from certain waterways from September 2019, a move that comes after a year-long campaign by residents.
The protests against cruise ships intensified after an accident in June in which a ship collided with a dock, injuring five people, including two Australians.
Angry Venetians carried banners reading "Ships out of the lagoon" and "No big ships" while others took to rowboats in the Venetian Lagoon.
Venice hosted 594 cruise ships in 2018 – that’s way too many people in my opinion. The streets are over-crowded and it’s impossible to get into restaurants or coffee shops. The queues to get into the Duomo tell their own story.
Critics say the currents created as the ships pass by are damaging the Renaissance buildings. At last people are putting the city and its historic buildings first.
By Vicki Williamson
MTA Luxury Travel Expert
Uluwatu Clifftops, Temples and Sunsets
First Passage to the West at Leisure (Westbound)
The Soul of South Korea
Sri Lanka, the land of Serendipity - of happy surprises
Best of Japan
Connect with Vicki Williamson
Your MTA Luxury Travel Expert
This business is independently owned and operated by Vicki Ann Mitchell ABN 38 158 784 431 under licence from MTA - Mobile Travel Agents Pty Ltd ACN 603 064 044 trading as MTA Travel and Mobile Travel Agents.
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Everything including the kitchen sink... but with special attention paid to board games, Jesus Christ, my family, being a "professional" (and I use that word loosely) Christian, and the random firing of the 10% of the synapses I'm currently using.
Heroscape For Beginners (and Robo)
I received a very kind comment from Robo (another gamer dad) about Attacktix and A&A Minis (haven't tried those - with all of the systems I currently collect, a collectible minis game would be like putting a black hole directly into my wallet)... and about his plans to get into Heroscape this next year.
Well, as someone who has been into Heroscape from the beginning, I figured I would suggest a potential order of acquisition and a pair of hints about being sucked into this obsession. We'll start with the hints...
First, all the signs are good for continued support of the game & system by Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro... with a new Master Set coming out early next year and two more waves of figures definite, you should be able to feed your addiction for a long time to come.
Second, you need to know two web addresses: Heroscapers.com (a fan-run site... they have the most extensive collection of commentary, rulings, variants & maps for Heroscape out there) and Heroscape.com (the official site of the game).
OK, with those out of the way, let's get to the buying! Heroscape has been packaged in (primarily) three different formats:
Master Sets (which contain a decent amount of terrain as well as a variety of figures)
Large Expansion Sets (which focus on larger figures or specialized terrain)
Waves (which are sets of 4 figure packs, sometimes tied together thematically)
There are 3 Master Sets:
Rise of the Valkryie - this was the first set & probably the most important one for you to own. It contains a CHUNK of terrain as well as an interesting mix of characters.
Swarm of the Marro - this was the second set... it's not as vital as Rise (#1) but still has some good stuff in it - not the least of which is the amazing Marro Hive. This would be my second purchase if I was jumping into the game.
Marvel Heroscape - unless you want to play Heroscape with Marvel characters, I don't recommend this set. There is very little terrain & the villians vs heroes battles don't have much oomph to them - their range & movement is such that there's nowhere to hide and you just end up dicing it out. (Note: my son & I had a great time fighting a monster battle of Marvels vs Heroscapes... but that's not quite the same thing.) It doesn't look like they will be doing a 2nd Marvel set, either - sigh.
There is a fourth Master set on the way - Battle for the Underdark - which is tied to the current D&D universe but will be fully compatible with Heroscape. (Word on the street is that the next two Waves will also be D&D connected.) I don't mind as long as support for the game continues - bring on the Dora the Explorer & Diego Heroscape figs if that will keep it going!
There are 8 Large Expansion Sets... we'll start with the three that contain large characters: Orm's Return, Raknar's Vision & Acquilla Alliance. The reason I don't break them out is that they all contain 5 large figures (some of them 2 space figures) and are roughly equal in value. If you feel a need to give every faction (Heroscape divides the different characters into six different factions) a dragon (or dragon-ish) mini, then you'll want all three of these. I wouldn't start by buying these... but part of the joy of Heroscape is playing with the big figures against squads of smaller figs.
The 5 Large Expansion Sets that are terrain-based are:
Road to the Forgotten Forest - this one has trees, roads & a bridge. You need at least one if not two of these.
Volcarren Wasteland - this one adds lava & volcanic rock... and while it's nice to look at, we haven't found much use for it in game terms. Don't worry about getting this one.
Thaelenk Tundra - this one adds snow & ice & some cool-looking "glacier" pieces... I have one of these & wish I had two.
Fortress of the Archkyrie - this one gives you a bunch of pieces to build a castle with... one of these is nice (two would be better) but I'd put this farther down my list after getting more characters/squads.
Ticalla Jungle - this one adds palm trees & jungle bushes... I bought two and have used them a good bit, as they add some interesting cover issues to the game.
To sum up, you need at least one of Forgotten Forest, Tundra & Jungle... with plans to get Fortress & more terrain down the line.
Now we move onto the Waves... since each wave has 4 packs, I'll try to specify which ones I like & don't like in each set, then give you a buy/don't bother list at the end. Also, each Wave has at least one pack of "heroes" (individual figures) which is pretty much a guaranteed buy each time.
Wave One (Malliddon's Prophecy) - All three of the squad packs (Snipers/Vipers, Orc Gruts & Romans) work better if you have two of each pack. (Hey - no one said that this was going to be a cheap obsession, right?!)
Wave Two (Utgar's Rage) - the Minions of Utgar aren't all that great... and the Marro Drones that they're packaged w/really need 3 sets (seriously!) to be worth using, so you can wait on that pack. The other two packs are good to go out of the box (Swog Rider/Knights and Wolves/Massachusets Line).
Wave Three (Jandar's Oath) - the biggest problem here is that the Gorillanators (how cool are heavily armed gorillas!?) don't really shine until the addition of the Nakita Agents in Wave 6. Otherwise, a fine set of squad packs.
Wave Four (Zanafor's Discovery) - there were two packs of heroes this time... and another group (the Gladiatrons) who need a pack from another Wave (the Blastatrons from Wave 5) to work well. The Arnoc Vipers are cool but are paired with the Sacred Band - sigh. I'd buy the hero packs & wait on the squads here.
Wave Five (Thora's Vengeance) - a solid set of squads & heroes... we don't use the gladiators much, but they look really good.
Wave Six (Dawn of Darkness) - Zombies are here... and you may want two of them. (Can't skimp on the zombies, right?!) You don't need two of anything else... but this could well be one of my favorite waves.
Wave Seven (Fields of Valor) - The Ashigaru Spearman & Yari need Kato Katsuro (a hero from Wave 8) to work well... but are very effective with him. The Vampire clan (found in one squad pack + the hero pack) is fun to play with. I love the Templar Cavalry, but their use has to be confined to certain boards with large open spaces.
Wave Eight (Defenders of Kinsland) - Finally the Elves become a group worth putting together, thanks to the addition of a number of elf heroes... but overall you need to purchase Waves 7 & 8 together.
Wave Nine (Blackmoon Siege) - a great wave - I wouldn't miss out on any of these packs.
Wave Ten (Valkrill's Gambit) - the Heroes of Renown pack has two heroes & one squad that were only available through cons and/or special purchase previously - and the Warriors of Feldspar are repaints of the Yeti & Lava guys to make them (respectively) Sasquatch & Granite guys. The other two packs are reprints of earlier packs that are hard to find.
Finally, there are two figures that were released only at the summer conventions (Master Win Choo & Agent Skahen) that are difficult/impossible to find. There were also five "flagbearers" sold in individual boxes (along with a bag of faction dice) through Toys-R-Expensive that are now out of print. None of these are essential, though I will admit that the faction dice are pretty cool.
So, to sum up your buying list (with pricing & links from Wargamers HQ, who have done a great job in the past for me):
Buy Rise of the Valkryie ($30)
Buy Swarm of the Marro ($30)
Buy at least one Road to the Forgotten Forest ($18)
You've now spent roughly $70 and you've got enough to play a number of very enjoyable games of Heroscape. From there, do your reading (see the links above) and buy more terrain & figures. Anticipate tossing down $40 every 8 months or so for the newest wave or expansion.
And have fun!
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 11:33 PM 1 comment:
Habalicious: The "Experts" Chime In
Well, it's the Christmas shopping season & I know that regular readers of my blog realize that I will personally egg the houses of those folks who give their children Candyland or Chutes & Ladders for Christmas. So I thought I'd recommend some great Haba games for you to purchase.
Then I decided you've probably heard enough from me about kid games over the last 18 months... and the plan to bring in some guest experts was born!
Expert #1 is Braeden Jackson... my first born son. He had four years before his brother arrived in the world (plus a couple of years while Collin was too small to game) to be indoctrinated into the world of gaming. His tastes at eight and a half years run to Pandemic, Battle Masters, Star Wars: Epic Duels, Battle Ball, Heroscape & Battlelore. (Are you detecting a theme?)
What follows are his Top Ten Haba Games, complete with comments about what he likes best about the games. (The games w/links lead you to maukilo.com, who has an excellent selection of Haba games)
Casino Hot Dog - "The poop chip!"
Hungry Wolves - "Awesome... making noises & running around the table."
Turtle Twiddle - "The soccer game is my favorite."
Fleet Fins - "I like the SPEED."
At Full Throttle - "Very quick."
Castle Knights - "The pictures are funny."
Tolle Torte - "It's almost exactly like Fleet Fins except the stuff is moving."
The Suitcase Detectives - "I like being the crook & hiding the stuff."
Maus nach haus (Hula Hippos) - "The aim & luck part..."
Karambolage - "I like the aiming." (He's actually pretty good at this.)
Expert #2, Collin Jackson, is 4 years old. He wants to play the same games his big brother does... but his attention span is a bit shorter (read: normal). His imagination runs wild - he loves to get out games & use the pieces to make up stories. His favorite new game is Can You See What I See?
What follows are his Top Ten Haba Games, complete with comments about what he likes best about the games.
Drops & Co. - "I like that you have to get rid of all the candy."
Maus nach Haus - "I like that there is a hippo one now."
Fleet Fins - "I like that there's really scary teeth guys on the fish."
Marrakesh - "I like that it's really fun & really, really want to get the spices."
Cheese Snatching - "I like it because you're the same guy running away from the cat. You don't get any cheese if he catches you."
Chicken Squabble - "I really like to win because I won last night."
Animal Upon Animal - "I like the new animals (in the expansion) - they are all good."
Orchard: the Card Game - "I really like that you don't want the raven... you really want fruit."
Charly at the Zoo - "I really like that he gets to sleep but I don't win very much."
Little Thunder Witch - "I really would like to win."
You may have noticed that the only repeated game (Fleet Fins) is now out of print... sigh. It's not impossible to find, though... I tracked down a copy this morning at FunAgain Games. Maus nach haus is published in the USA by Gamewright as Hula Hippos. Karambolage is supposed to be coming back in at Fair Play Games. Marrakesh is tougher to locate... but Game Surplus comes through again!
Drops & Co. and Tolle Torte, OTOH, are both OOP and very difficult to locate. Good luck!
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 8:25 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Board Games, Habalicious
This is from the liturgy at the Easton Community Thanksgiving Service... my church is incredibly not liturgical (the whole written prayer is so NOT Baptist) but this was incredibly meaningful to me. (I meant to post this yesterday but the activities of the day got in the way.)
O God, when we have food, help us to remember the hungry. When we have work, help us to remember the jobless. When we have a home, help us to remember those who have no home at all. When we are without pain, help us to remember those who suffer. And remembering, help us to destroy our complacency, bestir our compassion, and be concerned enough to help. Remind us, at all times, that all we have is a gift from You to be used for Your glory. Guide us to attend to Your children who cry out for what we take for granted.
Labels: Deep Thoughts, Walking with Jesus
The Golden Geek Awards 2009: Fluff Daddy Does Commentary
The Golden Geek Awards were just announced last weekend during BGG.con... these are "game of the year" awards voted on by the folks who frequent Board Game Geek. What follows is my commentary on the awards (and some of the nominees).
Game of the Year and Card Game: Dominion
A very interesting deck-building card game that frankly lost a lot of points with me for how long it takes to set up & put away (sorting & re-sorting cards) and for the constant shuffling that really requires you spend a small fortune to put plastic card sleeves on the game. That said, Dominion is a BLAST to play online where the computer does the set-up, shuffling & score-keeping for you.
For Card Game, I'd probably have chosen Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm or Witch's Brew. For Game of the Year, I'd have to go with Pandemic.
Gamer's Game: Le Havre
This probably violates some kind of Geek law... but I haven't played Le Havre yet. I'm not against the game, or the theme... and I'm a huge fan of the designer. I just look at it set up at various cons & game nights and think to myself, "I'm not sure I want to get into that."
Of the nominees, I'd much prefered to see Endeavor or Space Alert win. (And don't give me any grief about Space Alert not being a "gamer's game" - YOU try teaching it to a bunch of non-gamers.)
Family Game: Pandemic
In a category filled with great games, it's nice to see them pick the one that is original, fun & appealing to a wide variety of folks. Pandemic is great - and made even better by the addition of the expansion, Pandemic: On The Brink... which won Best Expansion, naturally.
If Pandemic was put on the injured reserve list & couldn't play, I'd go with Fast Flowing Forest Fellers or Snow Tails - both splendid racing games.
2-Player Game and Best Artwork & Presentation: Space Hulk (3rd Edition)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I owned Space Hulk (the 1st edition) and played it. A lot. I never painted the minis (discretion is the better part of valor and/or I flunked out of kindergarden art) but that didn't lessen the fun we had with it. Eventually, though, the amount of cash I could score by selling it & the one expansion I had (about $400) outweighed how little I was playing it, and it went bye-bye thanks to eBay. Can't ever see myself plunking down $100 to own it again... esp. since one of the guys in my group so kindly opened his wallet and purchased it (thanks, Will!).
My dark horse (in other words: NOT going to win) favorite for 2 player games was Shanghaien... and as pretty as Space Hulk is (or can be in the right hands), Dixit or Tales of the Arabian Nights are much more stunning straight out of the box. (For that matter, Timber Tom is breathtaking, but never got a wide enough release to be considered.)
Wargame: Combat Commander: Pacific
I used to be a pretty serious wargamer back in the day (Squad Leader, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, Third Reich, Air Assault on Crete, etc.) but those days are pretty far gone. That said, I think is probably a pretty good pick and I'm looking forward to one of the guys in my group who's a major GMT nut (hi, Mike!) teaching me the system.
The games I've played from the nominees aren't "wargames" in the strictest sense of the term. However, I voted for Small World here because I really do enjoy it.
Party Game: Time's Up! Deluxe
I know it's considered cool in some circles now to trash R&R Games and Peter Sarrett for releasing a commercial version of the public domain game, Celebrities. I will not join in - because Peter took a good game and made it great by not simply picking an interesting set of names but also by tweaking the deck so that similar names/occupations/backgrounds appear... thus making for sweet, sweet confusion & much fun. Time's Up is "da bomb."
The nomination list for this category was as if the collective minds of the Geek had been smoking dope: Two thirds of the list aren't even really party games! Of the ones that actually are "party" games, I was partial to Dixit. (Hint: a game isn't a party game just because it can seat 6-8 players.)
Children's Game: Sorry! Sliders
I really like Sorry! Sliders (played it this weekend, in fact) but I've become concerned that the scoring system coupled with the "death corners" means that the game can completely bog down if you're playing defensively.
Just because gamer kids from gamer families can play the game does NOT make it a children's game: Aquaretto, Dixit, FITS, and Pack & Stack all spring to mind. I think the hands-down winner should have been Fluch der Mumie (noting that I haven't yet been able to try Das Magische Labyrinth or Zoowaboo.)
Print & Play: Dune Express
Commenting on this one is pretty well pointless, as I seldom play Print'n'Play games. I have not played Dune Express.
The one I wanted to win was Roll Through The Ages: The Late Bronze Age, which is an excellent PnP expansion for a great dice game.
Innovative: Space Alert
A real-time cooperative game with enough soundtracks to keep it replayable that morphs the whole Robo-Rally programmed movement mechanic into a Keystone Kops-like ballet of death on a slow-moving recon spaceship... yep, Space Alert deserves this award.
Other notable games that could have won if Space Alert was sucked into a black hole include Pandemic, Powerboats, Roll Through The Ages & Timber Tom. (Tales of the Arabian Nights was innovative 24 years ago, thanks.)
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 3:21 PM 3 comments:
Queen: A Night At The Television Set
Thanks to Chris Lohroff for pointing this out. It's an act of sheer genius, on par with this...
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 1:28 PM No comments:
Labels: Tunes, Whatever
Kid Game Reviews: Animal Upon Animal: The Duel
Animal Upon Animal - The Duel
designer: Klaus Miltenberger & Udo Peise
publisher: Haba
BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/6.04
# of players: 2
print status: in print
cost: $12.59 (maukilo.com)
I first saw Animal Upon Animal being played at Kublacon (a gaming convention in the San Francisco area) by four very excited adults... and over the next 10 minutes or so, the game (and the exuberant players) attracted a crowd of people. It would have #101 on the Kid Games 100... and if I were to re-do the list today, it would probably be there.
Animal Upon Animal - The Duel is a two-player version of the aforementioned Animal Upon Animal... with some similarities & some significant changes. First, the similarities:
cool wooden animal pieces... this time around it's an octopus, a goose, a lioness & a squirrel.
they're both stacking games
all players have an identical set of pieces to begin the game
dice determine how to place the pieces
they're made by Haba (ok, that one's painfully obvious)
And the differences:
The Duel is a race game - the two players both build in real-time, seeing which one can complete their assignment first.
the big alligator is AWOL - you simply use any flat surface (which makes this a great restaurant game)
there are two dice (of different sizes) rather than one
Game play is very simple - each player rolls one of the dice. The big die shows what animal has to go on the bottom of the stack & the small die shows which animal goes on the top. Question marks are "wild cards" (so to speak) and matching dice mean you can put the indicated animal at the top or the bottom.
As soon as the objective is clear, players begin building as fast as they can. No animal can touch more than 2 other animals & (just like the original game) they must be on their narrow sides. The first one to finish gets a gold coin (aka "wooden token"). The first player to accumulate 3 gold coins wins the game.
The stacking is trickier than with the original game - the octopus in particular can be difficult to get into position. And, of course, some combos are harder than others... it all depends on the dice.
I think the age number from Haba will work fine on a kid vs. kid level - but more than the original game, this game will reward better fine motor skills (aka "age"). When playing with adults, you could easily handicap it by requiring the older player to get more coins in order to win.
A number of folks over on Boardgamegeek have bought two copies of this to act as "Animal Upon Animal - The Expansion"... which is very cool if not a little pricey. Jeff Goris made some really good suggestions on how to use a single copy to expand the game in a discussion over there that is worth reading.
Do I like The Duel more/better than the original game? No. Have we had fun with it & am I glad I own it? Yes.
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 11:00 AM No comments:
Labels: Board Games, Habalicious, Review Copy Provided
Visual Learners
At some point in my education (probably seminary), I was given WAY too much information about learning styles. Some of us are "reading-writing preference learners" (that would be me, btw); other are "tactile" or "kinesthetic learners" (that would be my wife.) A few are "auditory learners" (probably no one in my congregation, he sez grinning) and finally there are the "visual learners." (With this paragraph, I'm reminded of Craig Ferguson's wee "Scottish finger rabbits" - if anyone can give us a link to the clip, I'd love to find it.)
For the visual learners in the audience, here are a couple of websites I've happened upon recently.
Cake Wrecks came up thanks to a conversation at a party on Saturday night (Happy Birthday once again, Lydia - 30 is the new 29!) which started being about spell-checking emails, then morphed into the TV shows ACE OF CAKES and CAKE BOSS... and finally led us to this completely gonzo website/blog. Be warned, some of the humor is a adult-edged... but the just plain WRONG things that are done in the name of cake decorating are absolutely hysterical.
A good place to start is Cupcake Cakes: Always Wrecktastic. Always. From there, you can move on to the right-hand sidebar menu, which contains a list of fan favorites & "classic" posts, including the pictured Naked Mohawk-Baby Carrot Jockeys, I Want Sprinkles, and The First Censored Cake Wreck. The last of these is wrong on SO many levels that it must be seen to be believed.
I heard about My Parents Were Awesome on NPR a few weeks ago... and instead of being a fount of laughter (for that, go directly to Cake Wrecks; do not pass Go; do not collect $200), it's a sweet trip down memory lane. I find myself looking at the pictures and wondering about the stories behind them.
Basically, the creator of the website just has folks sending pictures (and stories) about their parents when they were young. As he says, "Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome." It's nifty stuff.
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 9:10 AM No comments:
Labels: Blog-Related Woo-Haa, Whatever
Translation Party! - The Game Quiz (Answers)
If you want to play, go to the original post before reading the answers.
Translation Party! Game Quiz (Answers)
Get - ACQUIRE
Bad touch - A TOUCH OF EVIL
Hooks and crooks - BY HOOK OR BY CROOK
Manic Channel - CANAL MANIA
Chikinchachacha - CHICKEN CHA CHA CHA
Cause of the Universe - COSMIC ENCOUNTER
Drop: Dark Tour - DESCENT: JOURNEYS IN THE DARK
Banihamu the needs of the Devil - DEVIL BUNNY NEEDS A HAM
Foreign - DIPLOMACY
Town dying - DICE TOWN
Control: conspiracy - DOMINION: INTRIGUE
Erugurande - EL GRANDE
Social - HIGH SOCIETY
Hyundai - MODERN ART
Mutation: Castle Siege - MUTANT CHRONICLES: SIEGE OF THE CITADEL
The plot of the Queen - QUEEN'S GAMBIT
Gyarakushiresu - RACE FOR THE GALAXY
Role, through the Middle Ages - ROLL THROUGH THE AGES
Snow Fairy - SNOW TAILS
Warning capacity - SPACE ALERT
Neolithic - STONE AGE
Iron flow - TIDE OF IRON
The Night of Power - TWILIGHT IMPERIUM
Crucible - WITCH OF SALEM
Bet wisdom - WITS AND WAGERS
Viva Buymoria
Not only is CHUCK coming back early (January 10th!) but NBC has ordered 6 more episodes (for a total of 19). For more details, check out the video below and The Ausiello Files blog over on Entertainment Weekly's website.
I could not be happier right now.
Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes
Labels: The Tube
Translation Party! - The Game Quiz
Thanks to Wei-Hwa, I started playing around with Translation Party!... and came up with a way to entertain ourselves while all the BGG.con folks are gone. Here's what he said about it:
For translation back-and-forth fun, http://translationparty.com/ is strangely addictive. You put in a phrase and it puts it back-and-forth into Google Translate to Japanese and back, until it "stabilizies." I once put in a bunch of different quotes and created an "identify the original quotes" puzzle: http://onigame.livejournal.com/43395.html
I really liked his puzzle... and got inspired to create one of my own!
Translation Party! Game Quiz
Figure out the names of these "translated" games.
Bad touch
Hooks and crooks
Manic Channel
Chikinchachacha
Cause of the Universe
Drop: Dark Tour
Banihamu the needs of the Devil
Town dying
Control: conspiracy
Erugurande
Mutation: Castle Siege
The plot of the Queen
Gyarakushiresu
Role, through the Middle Ages
Warning capacity
The Night of Power
Bet wisdom
Here's the clues:
The answers are in alphabetical order.
The really difficult one is NOT an obscure game.
There is one game that is listed by the least common name out of multiple editions... sorry.
The number of words is not necessarily equivalent to the number of words in the original game name.
I'll post the answers tomorrow in a separate thread. Good luck!
Posted by Mark (aka pastor guy) at 11:42 AM 1 comment:
Kid Games Review: Hungry Wolves
Hungry Wolves (Würfelwölfe)
designer: Marco Teubner
# of players: 2-4
One of my favorite Haba games from 2008 was the delightful push-your-luck dice game, Cheese Snatching, which was part of the "Bring-Along" line from Haba. ("Bring-Along" is Haba-ese for "small yellow box that's slightly larger than a paperback book.") So when I saw that Haba was doing another dice game, I was very excited.
Hungry Wolves isn't a push-your-luck game, however... it's a real-time race, complete with player making animal noises & rushing about the room like, well, hungry wolves. It's also an absolute blast to play.
Each player gets a single custom die & a wooden dog. The board is put together (it's a 4 piece puzzle - it's not daunting, ok? My 4 year old can do it) and the dogs are placed on the track at an equal distance from each other. (A nice touch from the folks at Haba: the board is double sided. One side is for 2 players & the other side is for 3-4 players.) The sheep counters are placed next to the board... or, if you're the Jackson family, they're placed on the sheep pictures on the board, because that's the way Collin likes it.
At an agreed-upon signal (you can yell "Go!" or shake your fists a la Rock/Paper/Scissors while saying "Woof! Woof! Woof!"), all the players begin rolling their dice & doing the appropriate action:
If a player rolls a dog, he says "Woof!" and moves his dog one space forward.
If a player rolls a sheep, he says "Baa!" and does not move.
If a player rolls a wolf, he runs around the table. (Or, if space is tight, he stands up & spins around.)
Players roll & do their various actions simultaneously... and as quickly as possible. There are no turns, per se... as fast as you can roll, make animal noises & do whatever you're supposed to do, you can roll again.
When one of the dogs catches up to another dog, the player yells "Stop!" and the round ends. The player who ended the round gets a sheep token and the game is reset for another round of controlled mayhem. The first player to get three sheep tokens wins the game.
It is as loud & crazy as you can imagine... and kids as young as 4 can easily join in the fun. What's unusual with Hungry Wolves is that it works as well with 2 players as it does with 3 or 4 - typically, raucous "run around the table" games don't work as well with smaller numbers of players.
As always, games like this come with the standard "don't play in a room full of collectible knickknacks or valuable electronics" warning. Of course, I think that's a feature, not a bug.
Kid Games Review: At Full Throttle
At Full Throttle
designer: Robert Fraga
cost: $8.99 (maukilo.com)
Robert Fraga, the designer of At Full Throttle, is the Genius of Real-Time Gaming. He's the mad scientist behind Treasure, Ready, Go!, Dancing Eggs, Squad Seven & Trotofant. (For the non-gamers in the audience, "real time" games are those in which players are racing against each other simaltaneously. A common real-time game that a lot of non-gamers know is Double Solitaire, also known as Dutch Blitz or Ligretto.)
This time around, Mr. Fraga manages to wring an excellent little game from 14 cards, a color die & six tiny wooden cars. (There are actually 2 different fourteen card decks in the game - but you only use one at at time.) The colors on the die match the color of the six cars... and the pictures of the cars on each of the cards. Every card has 3 pairs of cars attached by squiggly lines that cross each other.
For each round, three cards (or more, if you're playing with the difficulty ramped up) are turned face up, then the color die is rolled. Starting on the leftmost card, players find the car that matches the color die & trace the line (mentally!) to the next car. Once they've found that car, they jump to the next card & trace the path from that car to the next car. Repeat that one more time... but when a player finds to the final car, he grabs the corresponding wooden car from the middle of the table.
The player who is correct gets one of the track cards to show that he has won a round... then you deal three new cards, roll the die & you're off to the races again. The first player to win three rounds wins the game.
Following a dashed line isn't difficult... or at least it shouldn't be difficult. But the time pressure & the competition conspire against my brain and I jump lines or mistake colors or just basically have a couple of synapses blow out, thus giving my son the opening he needs to beat me.
Once you've mastered the basic skills needed to play the game, you can move up to the second deck of cards, where the lines are MUCH more twisty. You can also play with longer races (more cards in the tableau).
The age recommendation (5+) seems spot on - my 4 year old thinks the cars look cool but otherwise doesn't enjoy this, while my 8 year old enjoys beating his old man and chortling about it. I especially like how portable it is - it's in a smaller box to start with & could easily be transferred to a baggie to make a great "waiting somewhere" game.
The Origins Project
Ancient Text. Present Context. Future Textures.
“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God…” (Acts 5:38-39 NIV)
Our Passions: Jesus, Humanity, and Innovation
Jesus: Jesus and the inspired Scriptures are our guide for everything we do.
Humanity: God's extreme love for people infuses this mission with urgency.
Innovation: Creativity will be normative for our mission.
First major Origins event - Los Angeles, July 22-24 2010
We have a date for our first major Origins event. It will be in Los Angeles on July 22-24, 2010. We will be announcing more details, but this will be an event that will be more of a festival than a "conference". It will have times of teaching, sharing, art, film, music, spoken word, poetry, think tanks, creating and dreaming together about the mission of Jesus and how we can be fully engaged in the world for the sake of others. We will be sharing more in the months ahead, but wanted to announce the date and place. (information from the Origins newsletter)
I've had the privilege over the years to know & learn from the folks & the churches at the heart of this community - and they mean what they say. I can't recommend connecting into this highly enough - check out The Origins Project.
Labels: Church
Monday Morning Download
Need to be working - have a sermon to write on generosity as well as small group curriculum to pick & leaders to recruit - but I need to download some random thoughts/observations from my brain to "clear the tracks" before any of that can happen.
I'm concerned that the whole Hidden Immunity Idol thing may have gone completely off the tracks (game-wise) on Survivor... but I can't argue that it's bad television. Thursday night's Tribal Council was a hoot & a half.
Don't want to spoil The Amazing Race for you - but travel & stress are not bringing out the best in Sam & Dave. This has been a great season, BTW - we're going into the final four with only one team (the aforementioned brothers) that I don't particularly like.
Speaking of the The Amazing Race, Linda Holmes (formerly known as "Miss Alli" over on TWOP) is recapping this season on her blog, Things What Things. (It's a "thank you" to folks who donated generously to an education website.) She is still the best recapper around.
My life is not just TV... though watching the Green Bay/Cowboys game did occupy a chunk of my time yesterday. Watching it also caused me to wonder if there was a rip in the fabric of time & space - the 2- 6 Titans smacked down the Bills while the 6-2 Cowboys rolled over & played dead for the Cheeseheads.
Braeden & I got in the next battle in our Battle Masters campaign. Braeden managed to finally kill my Ogre Champion, but I still won the battle and am left once again with 7 elite squads. With the score 2-0, the next battle has a "fog of war" start which should be interesting.
Shari & I saw The Time Traveler's Wife at the $3 movie theater on Saturday night. (Thank you once again to Anna & Chris for letting the boys have a sleepover with Canaan.) The movie raises more questions that it answers... and, like all time travel stories, has some pretty big plot holes. Still, the premise is interesting enough for Shari & I both to want to read the book.
Yet another quote for the National Outreach Convention: "Maturity is not based on age or experience but on the willingness to obey Jesus." (paraphrased from Eric Michael Bryant)
Labels: Board Games, Flicks, The Tube, Walking with Jesus
Kid Game Review: Can You See What I See?
Can You See What I See?
designer: Brian S. Spence, Garrett J. Donner & Michael S. Steer
publisher: Gamewright
cost: $14.07 (Amazon)
Good games for younger kids are hard to come by. Most of them are simple memory variants or spin'n'move (or roll'n'move) games, gussied up with some kind of licensed tie-in.I'm happy that while Can You See What I See? is a licensed tie-in (to the book series by Walter Wick), it doesn't feel like standard kid game fare. At the same time, it's simple enough for small kids to join in & play right along with everyone else at the table.
The game is easy to learn. Each player is dealt 10 "Keep Me" cards, each of which have 4-5 overlapping objects pictured on them. (With two players, each player gets 12 "Keep Me" cards.) Then you turn over the top tile in the "Find Me" deck, which has one object on it. Players who have that object on one or more of their "Keep Me" cards get to discard them. The first player to discard all of their cards wins.
I know what you're thinking... I can hear your thoughts shooting through the Internet. (Either that, or I left a podcast running on my iTunes.) Seriously, I know that doesn't sound like much. But my 4 year old son asks for it on a regular basis... and my wife & I actually enjoy playing it with him.
I have some theories about why this works as well as it does:
It is really well-made. Games published here in the USA (esp. those for kids) tend to be made out of flimsy cardboard & cheap cardstock. The cards & tiles here are thick and beautifully printed.
It is not terribly difficult to find the various objects... but does require a little bit of work from younger players. The designers have wisely calibrated that difficulty so that kids have the joy of discovery without the frustration of not being able to play well.
Honestly, it's a Bingo variant... and, though Bingo is barely a game, it's easy to enjoy the tension of "will the number I need be drawn next?" That's the heart of Can You See What I See?
Another excellent bit of design - the game is short enough to invite multiple plays in one sitting.
The game also includes a set of advanced rules, in which player have hands of tiles and claim cards from a central tableau. There's a little more "game" with these rules, but I think the game really shines with the base game & younger players.
Labels: Board Games, Review Copy Provided
The Chaos Army Is On the March!
I recently traded Martin Wallace's Mordred (not a bad game, mind you, but one I wasn't playing much) for a copy of Stephen Baker's Battle Masters... which has some flaws (the insanely random nature of the card draw/order system, for example) but is an absolute hoot to play. The huge plastic battle map and the truckload of plastic miniatures & flags make it a major "toy soldier" experience. (This is, BTW, the second time I've owned Battle Masters - I sold my original copy some years back because it was so hard to transport. Dumb, Mark, very dumb.)
You may be unaware of the designer, Stephen Baker - but he's become a hero of mine... this is one of the main guys behind Heroscape as well as Battle Ball, Risk - Lord of the Rings & Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier (The Battle of the Dinosaur Riders). If you love plastic miniature combat games, this is your guy.
Of course, Braeden (my 8 year old) instantly fell in love - we played a couple of games to get the hang of it and then we began the campaign. The first battle was actually fought to a stalemate - Braeden managed to kill all of my figures but my Ogre Champion before the aforementioned Ogre finished off his troops. However, the Ogre can't occupy the tower, which is the winning condition for the battle, so we declared it a draw.
We fought the second battle tonight, with his forces of good (the Imperial Army) attempting to contain my Chaos Army (led by the now-elite Ogre Champion) behind the river. A well-placed shot from the Mighty Cannon took out my Chaos Knights... but the Ogre did his work, cutting a big enough hole in the defenses to allow me to win the battle with seven units surviving & obtaining elite status.
The next battle is the free-for-all "no one starts on the board" massacre... this will cut into the advantage of my elite units if they get left off board for too long. As things stand, I'm winning the campaign 1-0. (Each of the first 3 battles are worth 1 point, the 4th battle is worth 3 pts & the last battle 5 pts.) I'll keep y'all posted.
Final note: there are two expansions for Battle Masters that I just found out about (thanks to Boardgamegeek): Imperial Lords & Chaos Warband. They were only published in Europe... so finding them is going to be a real challenge. Any help from my loyal readers is highly appreciated.
Have A Merry Christmas & A Haba New Year!
It's the time of year again - when the thoughts of children everywhere turn to what games they'll be getting under the tree.
OK, maybe not. And chances are pretty good that if they're getting games, it'll be Candyland (shudder, wince, groan) or Chutes & Ladders (a perfect game, btw, if you want to teach your child about predestination and/or the futility of meaningful choices in the face of the all-powerful hand of Fate.)
But, I, Mark Jackson (aka "pastor guy", aka "fluff daddy"), Doer of Good Deeds Where Kid Games Are Concerned, am here to remedy that... thanks to the help of Haba USA and Gamewright. (I apologize for not working Gamewright's name into the title of the post, but [a] it didn't parse very well when I did, and [b] Haba sent me more games.)
Over the next few weeks, I'll be reviewing some of the newest games from both companies... making your Christmas shopping oh so much easier. The posts won't come in any particular ranking or order, but I will use a format similar to the one I used for the Kid Games 100.
As always, your comments & questions are welcome!
Originally uploaded by jjlthree
Your service makes so much possible in my life & in our country.
You are not forgotten.
MIA #1: Cheese Snatching (Kaseklau!)
Cheese Snatching (Kaseklau!)
designer: Wolfgang Dirscherl
And we've reached #1 again - this time of the MIA (missing in action) games from the Kid Games 100. Once again, it's a Haba game (the Kid Games 100 #1 was Kayanak) and once again it has been a rousing success with every group of people I've roped into playing it, regardless of age or gaming background. In fact, I think this would almost have certainly have ended up in the top ten of the Kid Games 100 had I played it before I made the list.
The premise is simple & timeless: it's "Tom & Jerry" meets Can't Stop. In turn, players roll the dice & move the mouse and the cat clockwise. If the mouse ends up on a space without the cat, he can take the top cheese card on the pile. Then comes the big decision: keep scavenging for cheese or keep what you have?
You only get to take the cheese cards into your scoring pile when you end your turn... unless your turn ends by the cat & the mouse ending up on the same space. In that case, you lose all the cheese you collected that turn.
When 3 rooms (spaces) are empty, the game is over. You count up cheese (each card has 1-3 pieces on it) and the person with the most cheese wins.
OK, I'm a little worried that being able to explain the rules in 7 sentences will turn people away from this wonderful little game - but the simplicity is part of what makes it so darn likable. You can teach anyone how to play in less than 30 seconds... and the game takes no more than 10 minutes. It packs a nifty push-your-luck wallop into a very small time frame.
It also is highly portable. The box isn't huge to begin with, but for our last vacation I put the components in a sandwich bag & we played it in airports, on coffee tables & even in the floor of our bedroom.
Finally, the recommended age of 5 is only necessary for counting up score - the actual playing of the game is easy enough that a 3 year old can do it. At roughly $13.00, it'll be one of the best kid gaming investments you're likely to make this year.
Labels: Board Games, Habalicious, Kid Games 100, Review Copy Provided
MIA #2: Chicken Squabble (Zoff im Huhnerhof)
Chicken Squabble (Zoff im Huhnerhof)
BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 3349/6.35
It's a good thing that the crow is warning the chickens about the approach of the fox... otherwise they wouldn't have enough time to dash back to the hen house when he appears. Of course, you'd think the rubber-armed farmhand who's flinging wooden chicken feed at them would figure that out himself, but that's the way it goes in agribusiness.
Zoff im Huhnerhof (literally "Trouble in the Henhouse") brings this whole farming thing down to a very simple level - the individual chicken. Players are hungry hens who venture deep into the pen, hunting for spots where the lowly farmhand has thrown the feed. At the end of the game, the chicken with the most feed amassed wins the game.
So, other than sounding like the least interesting Agricola spin-off expansion ever, why would I put this game near the top of my MIA from the Kid Games 100 list? It really boils down to two things:
It is a gorgeous game - chunky wooden chips, a very responsive farmhand/flinging figure, and an inside-the-box playing area complete with individual "pits" for the feed, a hen house twice as high as the box side & the crow/fox timer built into the side of the board.
It is loads of fun - I happily played 3 games of this (with adults!) in one afternoon at a gaming convention... and with other "important" games calling for my attention. This just has such a high FPM (Fun Per Minute) ratio that I gladly jumped into it again & again.
Each player begins the game with 10 chicken feed - and, in turn, they flick a piece of feed onto/into the game board, both seeding the board for chickens to feed and, by the nature of the space they shoot into, determining how/if their chicken will move & if the crow (game timer) moves forward. Accuracy helps... you need your chicken to fly (so to speak) if they're going to get out to the highly profitable spaces that are seeded before the game with feed before the fox appears.
Wherever a chicken ends their move, they pick up the feed in that space & put it in their supply... the same supply they fling into the pen in order to move. So, a safety tip: you don't want a lot of turns where you aren't moving & picking up feed, because you're spending it regardless.
When the fox appears, the chickens turn & run back to the coop - only now they are in full panic, so they can't stop & pick up feed... so every turn burns feed until the chicken reaches the safety of the coop. Burning feed = bad, btw, since feed = end game score. (I'm so math-y.)
I think the game is playable by 4 year olds (as claimed by the box) but real accuracy won't kick in for a year or two after that. Of course, there are a number of adults who will never grok the Way of Feed-Throwing Farmer... doesn't lower the fun factor of this game one bit.
Labels: Board Games, Habalicious, Kid Games 100
Mark (aka pastor guy)
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
follower of Jesus, husband, father, "pastor", boardgamer, writer, Legomaniac, Disneyphile, voted most likely to have the same Christmas wish list at age 54 as he did at age 14
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Who Won Head of Household on Big Brother Last Night? 9/11/2016
By: L. A. Vess on September 11, 2016
Who won head of household on Big Brother tonight and slid their way into a guaranteed place in the Final Four of season 18? Grab that popcorn and make sure you have plenty of butter on hand as we bring you the spoilers on who won HoH on Big Brother tonight!
Big Brother 18 Head of Household (CBS)
Will the Paul Abrahamian and Victor Arroyo bromance live on for a another week or will this HoH challenge spell the end of ‘The Sitting Ducks’? Or will it be Nicole Franzel and Corey Brooks who finds their showmance duo in danger this week? Maybe, possibly, could it even be veteran James Huling who grabs the win and gets to take revenge for losing his flirtmance Natalie Negrotti in the last eviction?
The Head of Household Competition aired on CBS TV Sunday evening, which actually finished in real time back on Thursday night, was the infamous slip and slide endurance challenge. The houseguests were tasked with sliding back and forth across a slippery floor while transporting liquid butter from a big barrel to a bowl on the other side.
The houseguests had a choice this time around to either go directly for the large Head of Household bowl to fill, or to fill a smaller bowl first to get a larger scoop to use for the bigger bowl. Nicole and Paul decided to both go for filling the smaller bowl first, while James and Corey went directly for the big bowl. As the current Head of Household, of course, Victor was not allowed to play.
While the Head of Household Competition started out on Thursday night’s CBS TV show, it wasn’t over before it ended. The rest of the challenge (in part) was aired on Sunday night’s show instead, although we watched pretty much the whole thing play out on the Big Brother Live Feeds on Thursday evening.
The competition was even messier than I remember from last time around, and there were a tremendous amount of falls and spills. Several of the contestants, especially Paul and James, ended up doing a lot of crawling around on the slippery floor. Nicole actually did well, as she did in the comp during her season, but it was Corey who took a strong lead and quickly seemed the person to beat.
About 45 minutes into the competition, Nicole filled up her small bowl and got the big scoop to help her fill up the big bowl. That allowed her to start gaining ground on her showmance partner Corey, but it looked unlikely she would be able to catch him unless he slowed down significantly. It was obvious by this point that Paul was absolutely terrible at the competition, and James was not much better.
In the end, after over an hour of sliding around like crazy, the challenge went to the guy who dominated it from start to finish — Corey Brooks. He basically just wasted everyone, and made his win look, well, smooth as butter.
What will this mean for this week’s eviction nominations? Well, if you are ready to find out those Big Brother spoilers for who went up on the block, flip on over to find out which houseguests Corey decided to nominate for the next eviction!
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Tagged: big brother 18, big brother 2016, big brother 21 spoilers, Head of Household
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Home » Toy Reviews » Generation 2 » 1995
Generation 2 Space Case Toy Review
in 1995, Action Figure Review, Cyberjet, Decepticon, Generation 2
Price Point: $5.99 (varies depending on retailer)
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Kay Bee Toys etc.)
Accessories: Missiles x 2
Vehicle Mode
Vehicle Mode (Side)
Vehicle Mode (Back)
Vehicle Mode (Forward view)
Vehicle Mode (Angle view)
Vehicle Mode (Missiles on wings)
Vehicle Mode (Missiles on wings, side)
Vehicle Mode (Missiles on wings, back)
Vehicle Mode (Missiles on wings, forward view)
Robot Mode
Robot Mode (Side)
Robot Mode (Back)
Robot Mode (Close up)
Robot Mode (Close up on head)
Robot Mode (Angle view)
Robot Mode (Posed)
Robot Mode (Missile on wing)
When the Generation 2 era began, almost all the Transformers released were redecos and retools of Generation One figures. Towards the end of the line however, it was comprised of all new sculpts, some of which would still be used almost a decade after their original release. One of the new sub-groups introduced in G2 was the "Cyberjet" category. The first wave of Cyberjets was comprised of three Decepticons, each transforming into a jet with pressure launching missiles and (for the time) above average posability. Space Case was one of these new characters.
Space Case has a very distinctive looking vehicle mode. Instead of the standard fighter jet with backward swept wings, his wings are swept forward while his vertical stabilizers in the rear angle out to the sides. The result is the look of an "X" if you look at the figure from overhead. This vehicle mode is largely based on the Grumman X-29 jet. Space Case has many of the key design elements of the Grumman such as the forward swept wings and horizontal stabilizers sticking out the sides near the cockpit. The angled vertical stabilizers in the back are a design embelishment (most likely to avoid trademark issues) and of course, there are robot parts on the bottom that stick out a bit even if you view the figure from above.
There are some nice sculpted details worked into this figure, however the colors are a bit bright and make them a bit hard to see at times. If you look carefully at the top section, you'll find panels sculpted into the wings and smaller raised details towards the back by the thrusters. The cockpit window has a nice outline around the base and running from one side to the other, but unlike many modern Transformers jets there are no seats or control panels sculpted inside.
Generation 2 was the era of Transformers that often saw the bold use of bright colors, and Space Case is no exception. His primary plastic colors are white, red, black and translucent yellow. The entire top section including the cockpit and wings are cast in white. The cockpit cover is translucent yellow. A bit of black plastic peeks through on the connection point between the nosecone and the middle of the jet. Flip the figure over and you'll see red plastic on several robot parts and black plastic on landing gear and the pressure missile launcher (more on that in a bit).
Generation 2 was one of the last lines of Transformers to use paint and stickers in combination with each other to fill in details on figures. The most dramatic paint details on this figure is a cross hatch pattern of blue and black diamond shapes running from the front of the nosecone all the way to the rear stabilizers along the top of the vehicle. The side of the vertical stabilizers facing outward have stickers on them with white, red and blue detailing matching the diamond patterns on the top of the figure. However, this isn't quite enough to satisfy the dramatic look of the figure! Painted on top of the blue and black diamond patterns is a bold red bird. This is no cute critter, this bird has fierce looking eyes and its wings extend out as lightning bolts that spread all over the back of the figure. It's a very dynamic and eye catching pattern. If you think about the fact that this is the part of the figure you would see in the packaging in stores, it made sense to make it as eye catching as possible.
Space Case comes with two long missiles, each with a section that is ball shaped. This allows it to lock into the claw-like launcher on the bottom of the figure. To launch the missile, you push it out from the back. The four notches on the missile cause a bit of pressure to be built up so when it figures it achieves some distance. This is not as effective as a spring loaded launcher of course, but it serves the purpose while cutting the cost of having to set up a spring loaded system in the figure. The missiles can also be mounted on his wings, where the tabs sticking out on four sides help lock them into place. The missiles hold pretty well against the wings. Slight shaking won't force them off but if enough play and I'm sure they'll fall off if the figure is smashed into another or something.
Detach the missiles if attached.
Disconnect the rear thruster sections from the top of the vehicle.
Swing the entire red hip section down along with the robot legs.
Swing the claw arm to one side and the other arm to the other.
Rotate the section of the jet with the wings around.
Swing the section with the wings down on the black hinges, revealing the robot head and forming the back of the figure.
Rotate the lower robot legs so they face forward.
Rotate the forearms so the elbow joints can bend forward.
Missiles can be reconnected to the wings or held in the claw and hand.
On a side note for the transformation, some fans have enjoyed just swinging the legs down in various configurations to form Macross-esque "Gerwalk" modes.
Aside from their pressure launching missiles and jet-based vehicle modes, Cyberjets in general all had the same physical layout. The front of the jet would become their torso, wings would wind up in the back with at least one "claw" on a limb to store/fire their missile. Space Case has this layoug, with the nosecone section making up the majority of his upper body. His arms and legs are rather rectangular and blocky, which is almost refreshing to see considering most modern Transformers designs focus on being a bit more curved and organic looking. It's not so much that it's "better" but it is a nice reminder of where Transformers came from. With the wings on his back and rather thin feet, Space Case has a very sleek appearance that I like a lot. Even in robot mode everything about his design looks like he's built for speed and agility.
The head sculpt is the most complex sculpt out of the newly revealed parts. The helmet has a central crest with protrusions on the top and sides. The middle is a triangular shaped face which looks like a combination of visor eyes and a mouthplate in one. This was a very typical design used on many Transformers in G2 and I always found it to be a cool and slightly creepy looking design. Of course, this design was also meant to take advantage of the light piping ability of the head since it's cast in translucent plastic.
This mode reveals most of the red plastic hidden in vehicle mode. The red forms his upper arms and thighs while the forearms and lower legs are white. His head is cast in translucent yellow with the helmet section painted blue. This allows for some very nice light piping if you shine a light right onto the back of his head.
Space Case has nine points of articulation in this mode. That doesn't sound like a whole lot, but keep in mind that almost every point of articulation is a ball joint, allowing for a wide range of motion. This was not common at the time and the posability of the Cyberjets was one of their greatest assets as figures. As mentioned earlier, the missiles can be used as ballistic and melee weapons in this form. One missile can fit into the launcher attached to the right forearm while the other can be slipped into his other fist as a baton weapon or staff. If you wish to store them instead, they can be connected to the wings. That's a good chunk of functionality in a smaller figure.
I tend to think of the Cyberjets as one of the lines of Transformers that acted as a bridge between traditional G1 design (where posability and sculpting sometimes took a back seat to gimmicks) and future designs such as those from Beast Wars that combined posability and amazing sculpting to create awesome figures. It's also a very sleek and cool looking figure in its own right. Nowadays it's not too hard to find Space Case on the aftermarket, and indeed the sculpt was reused years later as part of the Transformers Universe toy line so the sculpt is not impossible to find if you look hard enough. I wouldn't say break the bank over it, but it's a nice sculpt to have in your collection. Highly recommended!
911 Police Car
Bullet Bike
GTP Racer
Ironhide (Powermaster)
Skyjack
Space Case
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High-tech ad signs coming to Denver International Airport
By Ann Schrader
advertising, airport, Colorado, Denver, Denver International Airport, travel
Denver International Airport plans to have something that no other airport has by year’s end or soon after.
Called digital LED video curtains, the high-tech advertising screens won’t fail to attract attention, particularly among those waiting in the security screening areas.
The paper-thin curtains, measuring 26 feet on the diagonal, will be mounted on the elevator towers in DIA’s main Jeppesen Terminal. In addition to ads, the curtains will be able to display crawlers, events such as exhibits and shows, and messages such as “Welcome home troops.”
“This will be like the Times Square of Denver International Airport,” said Denver City Councilmembers Chris Herndon.
DIA will reap the benefits of the 10-year, nine-month contract for the signage with Clear Channel. The Denver City Council will consider the contract in a few weeks.
The projected annual gross revenue over the contract’s term is $95 million. DIA estimates that revenue from the deal in 2016, when the ad program is fully implemented, will be $8 million compared to $4.5 million paid in rent by Clear Channel in 2010 for vinyl banners and static ads that the company has throughout the airport.
The contract also includes putting touch-screen technology – sort of giant iPads – in baggage claim areas so passengers can more easily book hotels and restaurants and learn about local attractions.
State-of-the-art digital advertising also will be displayed on the concourses with LCD panels featuring static signage elsewhere in the terminal.
Categories: Colorado Business
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Denver part of Stream Realty’s national expansion
Discussion (Add a comment)
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Disqus comments primer
Thank God! I was feeling a serious lack of commercial messaging while waiting in line to be groped.
Comment by Fablevayne — April 14, 2012 @ 1:36 am
Well, before they initiate this “Times Square of DIA” (as Councilman Chris Herndon calls this dog & pony show) inside the terminal, they really need to do something about that fading, antiquated, forlorn-looking NON-electronic signage indicating which airline is in which terminal and which way to go along Pena Blvd. leading to the terminal from I-70 … almost as pitiful as that horrific “45 Minute Cellphone Waiting Lot” (no phones, not even a single pop machine, just a scary-looking Port-O-Let there). I’ve asked the powers-that-be about these oversights, and the response from the city has been “awaiting funding” … yet now they want to adorn the inside of the terminal with “LED curtains” ??
Comment by Bruce — April 14, 2012 @ 2:05 am
Great. More visual blight. One more reason why I’ve largely stopped flying.
Comment by Anonymous — April 14, 2012 @ 2:50 am
Well, isn’t that special !!! I usually boycott advertisers, as I feel that the money used on ads could, instead, be credited to the price of the product. Also they annoy me, like the very special bottom of the screen popups that now appear on this website (and royally screw up my browser backspace key function). I make a point of never looking at who is tormenting me, so their advertising revenue is wasted. Do gillette blades need to cost $3.00 apiece? Does coke and pepsi need to cost over a dollar a can for sugar water? NO! Sc**w them, buy generic.
Use an electric soda can to shave with! Drink generic stubble! Foller me, I’m in the lead; woo-hoo!
Comment by Gregory — April 14, 2012 @ 6:37 am
DIA wastes more money than any other public venture I have seen in Denver. The parking garages are a mess. DIA’s solution is to keep raising prices to drive travelers to the uncovered Economy lots, which are just a blast with a foot or two of snow on the ground.
The Employee transportation system and parking lot is a similar disaster, they is no reason the trains should not have extended to the Employee lots.
They keep wasting money on “art” (the three “cloud” like billboards). DIA is much more interested in aesthetics than functionality. Not to mention we have some of the newest and least capable Air Traffic Controllers in the country. These Controllers wouldn’t last a day at Chicago (MDW or ORD), Atlanta, New York (LGA, JFK TEB, EWR) or even Orlando (MCO) because of thunderstorms.
Comment by Becca Holiday — April 14, 2012 @ 2:46 pm
No public bidding? Perhaps there are other companies that do this type of project and would provide a greater revenue share to the City of Denver. When was the last time this contract was put out to bid for other firms to consider the same or better visual product and service to the passengers at the airport
Comment by PdOflyer — April 15, 2012 @ 1:18 am
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Bitter Empire
Album Review: Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance – Belle and Sebastian
Lang Schmitt / January 21, 2015 / Critic / Leave a Comment
Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is Belle and Sebastian’s ninth studio album, after nearly five years off. Frontman Stuart Murdoch — he of the charming Scottish accent and the adorable tenor — took off a few years in there to work on the musical film God Help the Girl. But what were Belle and Sebastian doing all the rest of that time?
Oh, they were just reinventing their sound completely, apparently. Girls is a radical departure from Belle and Sebastian’s previous work, and it’s incredibly successful. The band’s past is full of incredibly strong work, but can feel too cute by half, full of happy jangling. This album pushes into territory that’s less cheerful and more hopeful, and far more musically sophisticated. We’d call it experimental, with how it plays with new instruments and styles, but they pull everything off with such confidence that you’d swear they’ve been doing this for years.
Appropriately for the title, this is the most danceable album of theirs yet, with subtle synth hooks. The album’s only single so far, “The Party Line”, features slinky rhythms and pounding drums.
“Enter Sylvia Plath” is (unexpectedly) so full of energy and brilliance, and yet so danceable, that we literally covered our ears and hyperventilated for a moment while listening, because we thought we’d overdose on feels.
The album’s produced by Ben H. Allen III, who’s working with the band for his first time. While we don’t normally crow about production around these parts, we’re amazed by how he moves the sound into psychedelia without it ever sounding overblown. “Perfect Couples,” a charming track with some spacey sounds, opens with some African-style drumming that would make David Byrne proud; it persists throughout but never overwhelms the song or wears out its welcome. “The Everlasting Muse” shifts between an intimate, jazzy feeling and a full-out oompah band with what we feel pretty sure are balalaikas, before it blends the two together seamlessly at the end. If that sounds impossible, give it a listen, because we’re 100% for real.
Girls is evidently a concept album, centering on the protagonist Allie, and whose titular track smacks of the Association. If the album fails, it’s in this concept – like a lot of Belle and Sebastian’s material, Girls is about a progression into adulthood and cultivating confidence in self and relationship with others, and if that’s not where your mind is you’ll likely find it lyrically and thematically uninteresting. But the payoff to all the angst is “The Book of You,” where a delightful love affair culminates in a dirty, ecstatic, orgiastic guitar solo – words we’d never associate with Belle and Sebastian before now. That’s where Girls succeeds: in the risks it takes.
Filed Under: Critic Tagged With: belle and sebastian, girls in peacetime want to dance
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Commentary :: Labor
Sweatshop Conditions in US Cities
by Stephen Lendman
Email: lendmanstephen (nospam) sbcglobal.net 09 Oct 2009
vicious labor exploitation
Sweatshop Conditions in US Cities - by Stephen Lendman
A new low-wage industry study by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment exposes the dark side of workforce exploitation in America's three largest cities - New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
From January through August 2008, researchers conducted 90-minute interviews with 4,387 "front-line" workers, aged 18 or older, using "innovative, rigorous methodology" to reach vulnerable people "often missed in standard surveys, such as (undocumented) immigrants and those paid in cash." The goal was to be as statistically representative of workplace violations as possible for a population of about 1.64 million workers, or 15% of the total workforce studied.
The report documented flagrant workplace violations, core protections most Americans take for granted, including a guaranteed minimum wage, overtime pay, regular meal and other breaks, worker compensation for on-the-job injuries, and the right to bargain collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Overall, the study found widespread labor law violations, including:
-- below minimum wage pay;
-- unpaid overtime;
-- denial of meal and other breaks;
-- illegal pay deductions;
-- tip stealing for tipped workers;
-- illegal employer retaliation against workers demanding their rights or attempting to form a union; and
-- some workers denied legal protection by being classified as independent contractors.
Workplace violations varied by industry and job type. Abuses were most common in apparel and textile manufacturing, personal and repair services, and private household employment. They were much lower in residential construction, social assistance, education, and home health care, and somewhat frequent at restaurants, retail and grocery stores, and warehouses.
Workers getting a flat weekly wage or cash experienced high violation rates compared to those paid a regular hourly rate or by company check.
Workers in firms with under 100 employees were more at risk than those at larger companies, but not all employers were scofflaws.
Immigrants, women, the foreign born, and others in vulnerable categories were most at risk, but all workers (even the better educated) face potential workplace abuses against which they can get little redress.
Weekly wage theft affects over two-thirds of workers, costing them an average 15% of their pay.
The following industries were studied:
-- restaurants and hotels;
-- apparel and textile manufacturing;
-- retail, grocery, and drug stores;
-- food and furniture manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing;
-- security, building and grounds services;
-- social assistance;
-- education;
-- residential construction;
-- personal and repair services;
-- home health care;
-- private households; and
-- other categories, including finance and other health care services.
The following jobs were studied:
-- cooks, food preparers, and dishwashers;
-- sewing and garment workers;
-- building services and grounds workers;
-- factory and packaging workers;
-- child care;
-- general construction;
-- retail sales and bank tellers;
-- maids and housekeepers;
-- cashiers;
-- waiters, cafeteria workers, and bartenders;
-- stock/office clerks and couriers;
-- car washing, parking lot attendants, and drivers;
-- beauty, dry cleaning, and general repair workers;
-- security guards; and
-- teachers' assistants.
In February 2009, Amish Markets, a leading New York gourmet grocery chain, agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million in unpaid wages to 550 workers. In the same month, the Los Angeles city attorney filed criminal charges against the owners of four car washes for failure to pay minimum wages and grant employees breaks. In Chicago, a large temporary staffing agency settled a class action suit by paying over 3,300 employees nearly half a million dollars.
In 2008, Wal-Mart settled 63 "off-the-clock" abuse cases in 42 states totaling $352 million in unpaid wages to hundreds of thousands of current and former employees. More details below. In the same year, a court-appointed official awarded more than 200 FedEx drivers $14.4 million for being illegally classified as independent contractors.
In large and small companies alike, these examples are commonplace, disturbing, and deteriorating further during hard economic times as recent reports suggest. Working Americans nationwide face increased exploitation as layoffs and cost cutting force unacceptable demands on them, unlikely to be easily reversed.
Prevalence of Workplace Violations
Labor laws since the New Deal aren't working. They're not enforced, have been greatly weakened, are out of date, exempt some industries and occupations partially or entirely, and leave the most vulnerable, like immigrants, minorities and women, subject to exploitation.
Violations found in the week prior to the survey included:
-- 26% got below minimum wage pay;
-- 73% experiencing an overtime violation got only their regular hourly rate;
-- 19% were unpaid for overtime, and 8% were underpaid or promised "comp time;"
-- 17% weren't paid for off-the-clock work;
-- 18% were denied meal breaks;
-- 11% experienced meal break interruptions by employers or supervisors;
-- 12% worked through their meal breaks;
-- 43% got shorter than legally required meal breaks;
-- 4% were paid late;
-- 57% got no pay stub;
-- 2% had illegal pay deductions;
-- 2% had tips stolen;
-- 6% of tipped workers were paid below their legal minimum wage; and
-- 77% of Los Angeles workers were denied or got a shortened rest break.
Violations in the previous 12-month period included:
-- 28% worked off-the-clock without pay;
-- 25% were paid late;
-- 17% were paid less than owed;
-- 6% weren't paid at all;
-- 3% were subjected to repeated verbal abuses;
-- 5% experienced employer retaliation for complaining or attempting to organize a union;
-- 5% were denied worker compensation for the most recent on-the-job injury; and
-- 6% of tipped workers were paid below their legal minimum wage.
Minimum Wage Violations
Employers must pay all workers (full or part-time, documented or undocumented) at or above federal or state minimum wages, whichever is higher. Yet 26% of those surveyed were underpaid, and the amounts weren't trivial as 60% lost on average $1.43 per hour.
Overtime Violations
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandates "time and a half" pay for all covered employees for weekly hours worked exceeding 40. Yet 73% of "at risk" workers weren't paid the legally required rate, and 19% overall were unpaid or underpaid for overtime.
"Off-the-Clock" Violations
This is work taking place before or after regular shifts. Employers are legally required to pay for all hours worked. Yet often they take advantage and don't.
Meal Break Violations
By law, New York, California and Illinois require employers to provide uninterrupted meal breaks for workers, although their length varies by state. Yet violations were frequent and took a variety of forms, including no break one or more times, shorter ones than mandated, employer interruptions, and having to work part of the time.
Other Pay Violations
As outlined above, they included late payments, no pay stubs, illegal deductions, and "tip stealing" from tipped workers.
Illegal Employer Retaliation
About 43% of workers complained about workplace abuses, and those attempting to form a union experienced employer or supervisor retaliation as follows:
-- 62% got pay cuts, less work, or worse assignments;
-- 47% experienced threats to be fired or to be reported to immigration authorities;
-- 35% were fired or suspended; and
-- 21% were otherwise harassed, abused, or given increased workloads.
Laws vary by state, but in most cases employers must contribute to state worker compensation funds and carry insurance to cover the costs of on-the-job injuries or illnesses. Yet only 8% of injured workers during the previous three years filed a claim for their most recent injury, a clear sign that the system is dysfunctional because of how employers work it to their advantage.
Around 43% of seriously injured workers said they were required to work in spite of it. Another 30% said their employer refused any help, 13% were fired shortly afterward, 10% were required to be at work even if unable to perform their duties, and 3% were told not to file a claim.
In the past three years, about 50% of respondents suffering an on-the-job injury experienced a worker comp violation for their most recent one. Only 55% of those seriously injured sought treatment, and only 40% of those said their employers paid all or part of their medical bills. Only 6% of injured workers had company insurance cover their medical expenses as required.
Violations Vary by Job Category and Industry
Minimum wage violations vary significantly - most flagrantly in apparel and textile manufacturing, personal and repair services, and private households; less often in residential construction, social assistance, education, and home health care. Other industries fall somewhere in between.
Violations also vary by job category. Faring worst are child care workers, beauty, dry cleaning and general repair workers, and those employed as sewing and garment workers. Best off are general construction workers, waiters, cafeteria workers, bartenders, and teachers' assistants.
Overall, 64% of workers got hourly wages. The rest received either a flat weekly or daily amount. Non-hourly workers fared worst as well as those paid in cash, not company checks, and "piece rate" employees, subjected to unattainable productivity levels to earn minimum wages. In addition, companies with less than 100 employees had almost double the violations rate of larger firms.
Overtime violations occur frequently as 76% of respondents exceeding 40 hours work during the previous week were denied time-and-a-half pay as required. Non-hourly workers fared worst, especially with jobs in personal and repair services, private households, retail and drug stores, and home health care. Best off were food and furniture manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing employees. Again, companies with under 100 employees were the most flagrant violators.
Off-the-clock violations were also commonplace, affecting 70% of workers surveyed, unpaid for exceeding their regular shifts, especially in private households, social assistance, and home health care jobs.
Meal break violations affected 69% of workers, denied breaks or having them shortened or interrupted. Overall, study findings revealed "routine violations of labor and employment laws across the wide range of industries, occupations and workplaces....But the low-wage labor market is not monolithic (as) 49% (of workers said) their employers offered them health insurance, provided paid vacation days, paid sick days, or had given them a raise in the past year."
Workplace Violations Related to Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Other Worker Characteristics
Not surprisingly, US-born workers and those best educated fared best, undocumented foreign-born ones (especially Latinos) worst, and women experienced more violations than men over minimum wages. In contrast, overtime, off-the-clock, and meal break violations varied much less demographically.
As noted above, it steals 15% of worker wages amounting to $2,634 annually on an average $17,616 total earnings. Also in a given week, over 1.1 million workers in the three cities studied experienced at least one pay-related violation costing them over $56 million in total - mostly over unpaid minimum wages but also the above cited abuses.
Protecting American Workers - What Can Be Done
The problem is endemic in key industries throughout the country, and has a profound effect on workers, their families and communities. The cities studied aren't unique as evidence nationwide suggests. Low-wage worker rights are compromised in jobs ranging from agriculture, meat and poultry processing, hotels, nursing homes, day care centers, retailing, and residential construction in every city where exploitive day labor hiring sites exist.
Ending employer abuses depends on strengthening labor laws and having federal and local governments enforce them. However, since passage of the landmark 1935 National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, workers have been disadvantaged ever since, more than ever today at a time of weak unions, empowered companies, and an economic crisis letting employers cut jobs, wages and benefits freely, and have government turn a blind eye to their most egregious violations.
Fixing these problems needs new leadership in charge of mass organizing, building unity and strength of numbers, and educating workers on what they've lost and how to win it back. In a globalized corporate world and hostile governments, workers must go on the offensive, take to the streets, go on strike, hold boycotts, demand more from elected officials, replace unresponsive ones, and battle the old-fashioned way for fair labor laws and government officials they can count on for enforcement. Short of that, labor rights will keep deteriorating until workers across the board are totally at the mercy of unscrupulous employers, while government remains indifferent to their plight. Conditions are well eroded already, and nothing short of total mass-commitment has a chance to reverse it.
Addendum on Wal-Mart
With over $400 billion in sales and about 2.1 million employees, the company ranks third globally in the 2009 Fortune 500 rankings behind Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil.
In 2008, Wal-Mart's average full-time Associate, its most common position, earned $10.84 an hour (for a 34-hour week) or an annual income of $19,165, $2,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of four. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2, 2008), the average full-time Wal-Mart Associate last year earned 16% less than the average retail wage. At the same time, its CEO Lee Scott (January 2000 - January 2009) earned $29.7 million in total compensation.
On December 23, 2008, the company announced that it settled 63 wage and hour class action lawsuits, representing about 86% of the 73 total pending. Through evidence obtained and employee testimonies, these cases revealed company ruthlessness in keeping labor costs down and unions out.
Legal documents showed that managers are rewarded for forcing employees to work off-the-clock, skip meal and rest breaks, then manipulate time and wage records to cut costs. They also overwork minors and keep them during school hours. An internal July 2000 company audit revealed that these violations were longstanding. Company executives engaged in illegal activity and hid the evidence to avoid liability.
Under terms of the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed pay at least $352 million and perhaps as much as $640 million to present and former employees. According to Professor Paul Secunda of Marquette's School of Law, the company settled to avoid an even worse defeat, including what unionization might cost.
On October 23, 2003 in a 21-state raid, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested more than 250 undocumented workers at 61 Wal-Mart stores. As cleaning crews and janitors, they were forced to work seven days a week under harsh conditions at below minimum wage rates, no overtime, and according to one employee "no benefits, no health insurance, no nothing."
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen (at) sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://republicbroadcasting.org/Global%20Research/index.php?cmd=archives
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com
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Kim: B | Grade It Now!
Let the Bons Mots Roll!
By Kim | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 01.07.2009
Group A is the first to cook, so they head out to shop. This group includes Melissa, Fabio, Jamie, Eugene, Hosea, and Radhika. Melissa explains that she went right for tuna so that she could make tacos. This is her fancy show-off dish. Fish tacos. Those better be some great tacos. Eugene wants to make a whole fish with daikon fettuccine and tomato-basil sauce. Jamie confides to Radhika that the daikon thing sounds weird, because normally you would eat it cold with soy, not warm with tomato-basil sauce.
They arrive at the kitchen and Jamie immediately stakes out her space, claiming that she's going to do whatever it takes to impress the new judge. Hosea is the first to detail his dish: halibut wrapped in bacon with roasted baby vegetables and a mustard-butter sauce. The cheftestants are all psyched that they don't have to deal with Stefan's loudness while cooking. Radhika is making a spicy crab bisque with a lemon crab salad. She's made it many times, so she's confident. Cue the stereotypical Italian music, so it must be time for Fabio! He's using his grandmother's five-hundred year old pasta recipe and then making some lamb in a sous-vide. For those of you who haven't read a food blog or magazine recently, Fabio explains that sous-vide means to cook the lamb in a vacuum-sealed bag in temperature-controlled water.
Meanwhile, Group B starts shopping. Jeff says he that he cooks family-style every day, and his idea is to do tapas, or small plates. I'm sensing a theme with Jeff; he does too much. He tries too hard. He needs to scale back. Carla decides to slow things down so she can "hear [her] intuition." So did she just admit to hearing voices? Carla explains that she wanted to do vegetarian, but she thinks the judges will ding her if she doesn't cook a protein, so she goes with scallops.
Back in the kitchen, Group A is slaving away. Jamie has decided to cook scallops AGAIN, so that she can show the judges she really does know how to cook them. Except it's a blind tasting, so I'm not sure that will work out like she's hoping. Fabio interviews, "All she does is scallops. For Christ's sake. Come on! This is Top Chef, it's not Top Scallops." Everyone loves Fabio. How can you not? Eugene thinks he's the most creative and original cheftestant, and he hopes to meld all the different cuisines he grew up with. He also congratulates himself for his crazy daikon dish. Eugene spends a lot of time in interviews talking about how awesome he is. Pride goeth before a fall, dude. Hosea thinks Melissa is making safe foods. Melissa interviews that ethnic foods are something that people love. I don't even know what that means. That's basically like saying that people love food, period. Fabio pulls his lamb out and realizes that it's undercooked. There's no time for him to cook more, but what he has is rare. He's in trouble.
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Home » Microsoft to propel CRM
Microsoft to propel CRM
Callaghan, Dennis
eWeek;12/22/2003, Vol. 20 Issue 51, p12
While experiencing growing pains related to its 10-month-old Microsoft CRM product, Microsoft Corp. is pushing ahead with technology enhancements to the customer relationship management software suite for small and midsize businesses. Microsoft over the next 16 months will add integration, client support and migration technologies that will build on usability and performance enhancements in a recent upgrade to MS CRM. By next quarter, Microsoft plans to offer back-office integration between MS CRM and the company's Solomon business applications.
Office 2003 bids for small biz. Galli, Peter // eWeek;10/20/2003, Vol. 20 Issue 42, p14
When Microsoft Corp. will announces this week the availability of its latest Office productivity upgrade, known as Office System 2003, a key target customer will be the small-business user. The Redmond, Washington, company has already signed up some large enterprises as Office 2003 customers,...
Early adopter reports benefits from MS CRM 3.0. Clark, Lindsay // Computer Weekly;11/29/2005, p12
The article reports that Essex Medical and Forensics Services, an early adopter of Microsoft Corp.'s CRM 3.0, has reported benefits from the ease of integration with Microsoft Outlook and simplified customisation compared with other CRM products. Steve Roberts, business director at Essex...
Microsoft turns to business. Evers, Liesbeth // Accountancy;Oct2002, Vol. 130 Issue 1310, p32
The article focuses on the entrance of computer software company Microsoft Corp. into the accountancy software market. With its recent acquisition of Navision, Microsoft has found a solid knowledge base of diversity in European accountancy needs, that has been embedded in its new business...
Integration takes hold in ERP. Ferguson, Renee Boucher // eWeek;12/22/2003, Vol. 20 Issue 51, p28
Following the consolidation in the enterprise resource planning sector this year, particularly in the midmarket, vendors are focusing their efforts on new and integrated products. PeopleSoft Inc., of Pleasanton, California, announced this month seven integrated offerings that combine its newly...
Blurring the Lines. TAYLOR, PAUL W. // Government Technology;Oct2008, Vol. 21 Issue 10, p58
This article presents the views of several personalities in information technology (IT) industry on Open eGov, the open source content management software developed by Newport News, Virginia. Stuart McKee, national technology officer of state and local government at Microsoft, said he would not...
Microsoft Woos Insurance Business. Trembly, Ara C. // National Underwriter / Life & Health Financial Services;6/14/2004, Vol. 108 Issue 23, p64
Reports on the call for involvement of the computer software industry in the insurance business in the U.S. Investment of Microsoft Corp. in the insurance industry; Cost-saving from the use of information technology among insurance companies; Transformation of insurance industry standards.
Microsoft ruling concerns Euro biz. // eWeek;06/12/2000, Vol. 17 Issue 24, p22
Reports on European businesses' expectations of the impact of the United States court-ordered split of software giant Microsoft Corp. Concerns over a changeable Windows configuration; Comments of information technology (IT) managers about the ruling.
The New Dynamics. Whiting, Rick // CRN;4/14/2008, Issue 1263, p4
The article examines the market status of Microsoft Dynamics applications from Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. These applications had udergone various developments and designed to provide the needs of not just small and midsize businesses. Microsoft assured it would be ready for the enterprise,...
No getting off the hook. Taylor, David // Computer Weekly;3/14/2002, p48
Focuses on the importance of customer perception management among the information technology suppliers and recruitment companies in Great Britain. Improvement of process re-engineering; Alteration of business approach and offerings; Honesty in negotiating costs and margins.
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Smart Girls Who Do Stupid Things
Mentionables
Author: Kate
Published: Jan 17th, 2011
Category: Stupid Things
The Golden Globes 2011, Or When Jennifer Love Hewitt Did Not Win For The Client List
Tags: 2011, aaron sorkin, al pacino, ari, blake, brad and angelina, cher, chris colfer, christian bale, christopher, emily, emma stone, glee, golden globes, helen mirren, jane fonda, jane lynch, jesse eisenberg, jessie, jim parsons, joseph gordon-levitt, justin bieber, kate, katey sagal, kb, kenneth the page, laura linney, mark wahlberg, megan fox, melissa leo, michael douglas, mila kunis, money never sleeps, natalie portman, paul giamatti, ricky gervais, robert deniro, robert downey jr., steve buscemi, the social network, toy story 3, trent reznor, unlive blog
Why weren’t we watching the NBC Red Carpet? It’s Carson Daly and Alexa Chung and some woman who looks like Lori Loughlin. Now the world, or this room full of people, will never know how much she’s actually like Lori Loughlin. Did she too star as the hot mom in a few choice CW series?
7:00 Of course Angelina and Brad are the first ones we see. They will remain in this half-hugging position for the whole night.
Ricky G. tells us that “It’s going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking.” Here’s hoping Ricky. He starts talking about Charlie Sheen, The Tourist and what a bad movie it was (pan to Johnny Depp, looking amused) and Burlesque, of course (“Do you want to go see Cher? No. Why not? Because it’s not 1975”). Moving on to other films not nominated, such as the SATC 2 poster airbrushing — “Girls, we know how old you are” — the censors do their job and bleep Christ’s sake, and we get a few John Travolta and Tom Cruise gay scientologist jokes. All in all, not reinventing the wheel, but everyone seems super uncomfortable, so win!
7:02 The Walking Dead is nominated. Shot of Steve Buscemi. Someone back there has a sense of humor.
7:05 And it’s time for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Duh, it’s Christian Bale, which means KB was the loser. Guys, money never ever sleeps.
KB screams “Geoffrey Rush is wearing a chapeau!” He is apparently bald underneath for a film.
Christian Bale makes some long weird comment about Deniro that the censors cut. We’ll never know…
7:09 LL Cool J and Julie Bowen are presenting together. Why, Bowen, why?
First upset of the night: Katey Sagal wins Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama. Loved her on 8 Simple Rules, but here she looks like Danielle from Real Housewives of New Jersey.
She says to her husband, the creator of Sons of Anarchy: “Sweetheart, I love you. I’m so glad you’re the boss of me.” Woah. They cut her off faster than they cut of Christian Bale. KB notes that that’s because they’re scared for their lives when it comes to Christian. No one has won this round.
Kenneth the page!
7:16 We’re introduced to this years Golden Globe Girl, aka, the lesser Golden Girl(s).
Carlos wins Best Foreign Language Film or whatever. Second upset! And we get to see Kenneth the page again, making that same manic face everytime.
KB: You know its a night of upsets when everyone is coming from the mezzanine.
7:21 Garrett Hedlund, my future husband.
Scott Caan. Jessie gets mad at Kate for not remembering that he was in Oceans 11. Whatever, apparently he has a super hairy chest.
Kenneth the page sighting number 3.
Chris Colfer wins Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Glee. He looks so genuinely shocked, and the cast is so excited for him (Lea Michele maybe is a good actress, methinks). He says, “I think I just droped my heart between Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, so if you could give it back to me….” Blake has won this round.
7:30 Michelle Pfeiffer is the most beautiful woman alive, except “her armpits go up to Toledo” says Jessie. I don’t know what that means. She will spend the rest of the show looking pissed though, so I don’t know what’s up with that.
Ricky G. makes a joke about the head of the Hollywood Foreign Press, who counters, “Ricky, next time you want me to help qualify your movies, go to another guy.”
7:33 Kevin Bacon is going to be in X-Men?
Steve Buscemi wins, and Boardwalk Empire wins, which mean Kate wins! Did you know my friend Talia used to shred his fan mail for him as an afterschool job? He says, “First of all, I have thank table 114. You guys are a lot of fun.” Apparently he has a relative named Tutti? Maybe he is in the mob.
7:39 Brad and Angie with the bow tie. They’re just like real people, these wax figurines.
7:45 Jesse Eisenberg has a soul patch. Dude stop it.
7:47 Burlesque wins for best song, that awful number where Cher just yells that you “Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me.” A Liza Minelli wannabe accepts, though I do love it when non-famous people win. Both Blake and Christopher get this round.
7:50 Best Score goes to The Social Network aka Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Jessie and Kate win this round duh. But it’s hilarious to see him in a suit.
Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical goes to Glee, which is pretty ridic. Ari says, “They’re going to cry over everything. They’re going to cry over tonal shifts in their episodes.”
7:55 Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Hailee Steinfeld and the J. Biebz. Jessie: This is why puberty is awkward, she’s two years younger than him, and like a foot taller.
Ari: I dont know how to feel about kids introducing animated features. AGEISM.
Jessie says, “Maybe Toy Story 3 won’t win”, right as it does. Everybody gets this round. The dude who runs up to accept looks like Ed Helms, and he remarks, “Wow, were you two even born when the first Toy Story came out?” Touché, good sir.
This is incredibly unfair. Because he’s not like, super famous, they are legit just cutting to famous people looking bored as he talks.
7:59 Look at Robert Downey Jr. swagger. Maybe it’s because he’s married to to Susan Lucci, right Jessie? He tells a very extensive joke about the women who are nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical, and how he’s connected to all of them. Gets awk, but I dig.
Someone notes that Al Pacino and Michael Douglas are slowly becoming the same person. That’s right: OLD WHITE MEN.
And Annette Bening wins! Which means KB, Blake, Christopher and Emily get points. Annette thanks “Mark Ruffalo, our awesome sperm donor, and “MY HUSBAND, WARREN BEATTY!” That’s right, stake your claim girlfriend.
8:11 It’s Tilda and Geoffrey Rush. What a dynamic duo.
Going back to Al Pacino, Ari wonders if it’s weird she always confuses him with Bob Dylan. Kate says no, they both look homeless.
8:16 And Claire Danes wins Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television, duh. She tells us, “I have to rattle these names off because everyone was so vitalllll,” emphasis on the vital. Slow camera pan in on J.Lo Hew, who is trying not to cry. As Kate was the only one to vote in this category, she wins by default and also brilliance.
8:23 Zac Efron looks like a boy band member. Ari and KB think his tie is too shiny, but Kate likes it.
8:25 Kenneth the page. If you’re trying to make this a drinking game, that’s the fourth sighting.
Steve Carell comes out with Tina Fey, and tells us “Don’t turn the channel! We’re still stars.” Yessir.
Aaron Sorkin wins for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture, which means KB, Blake, Christopher Shea, Francesca and Kate win. Where is JT?!
KB: Aaron, tell us who was better: Kristin Chenoweth or Maureen Dowd?
Kate: Ouch.
8:29 Jane Lynch wins Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Glee, with the group conclusion being that she’s better in other stuff, but we all like her. She says, “My cup runneth over”, but “I am nothing if not falsely humble.” I love a good prepared speech that seems natural and doesn’t require a piece of paper. She also thanks her family in Chicago, and we’re pretty sure she’s talking about us. On that note, Blake and Christopher have got this round.
8:35 Woman from Denmark wins something foreign. Kate says “Denmark. Is she Denmarkein?” It’s clarified that she’s in fact Danish.
8:38 Helen Mirren introduces Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical by explaining that these women are always “gorgeous, smart, beautiful.” Really? Do we need to superlatives about how attractive they are? ‘Cmon Helen. She also uses some weird terminology comparing this process to the lifecycle — inseminated, gestated, given birth — that gives us all a bit of a uncomfortable feeling.
Laura Linney wins for The Big C but couldn’t be bothered to show. (UPDATE: I’m a bitch. Her dad died recently.) Kate goes deaf as KB squeals in her ear. Jessie says that the show is, “about her living her life, like a free bitch.”
8:46 Jane Fonda aka my mother’s celebrity doppleganger hasn’t been at the Globes for 25 years. Guys, that’s embarrassing that you just admitted to losing her invite every year for that long.
Much debate occurs over whether you can see the top of her right nipple. It’s inconclusive. If you have picture evidence, holler at me.
Kaley Cuoco is so genuine about Jim Parsons winning for The Big Bang Theory. Watch this scene if you need convincing he’s worth the time. KB, Blake, Christopher and Kate win this round.
Kate: Hugh Laurie is bald. Accept it and move on.
8:50 Jeremy Irons. Jessie: Mufasaaaa!
Melissa Leo wins Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. She says, “All that and kissed by Jeremy Irons!” Cut to Mark Wahlberg drinking away. It must be sad that you’re surrounded by all this talent and know you won’t get a win boy. Melissa thanks someone for “those few hours we spent in the maritime hotel”, and then realizes what she has just said and clarifies, “No no no you dont know what kind of girl I am!” What kind of girl would that be, Melissa. She makes sure to say, “Mark Wahlberg, you are a prince.” Jessie: He does not like her.
8:59 Cecil B. Demille award and Robert Deniro makes a weird speech. In the introduction by Matt Damon, he tries to act out some of his best scenes. What is this, an audition? Temple Grandin is really bored, and Eva Longoria is sitting next to her? KB tries to start a rumor that something’s going on with those two.
Angelina is looking through Brad to find the waiter. “Bring me more Moet bitch!”
9:07 Deniro was bleeped. We don’t know what he said. but he was workin’ blue, according to Ari.
Ad for Abilify the anti-depressant. Ari says: Is that like Unobtainium?
9:12 Oreo commercial, entitled ‘Lick or be licked.” Kate starts down a dark path with this catchphrase.
Ari: Oreoes dont need to be advertised. The people that are going to buy them are going to buy them. If you see them you won’t suddenly like them. Discuss.
Kate: They totally picked Megan Fox to talk about The Tourist because she’s the poor man’s Angelina.
9:16 David Fincher wins Best Director, which means Blake, Christopher, Francesca and Kate are the champions. Is his speech 4 pages long, or is he blind?
9:18 Christopher: Modern Family is for homophobes.
HUGE outcry in the room.
9:24 Why is Alicia Keys here? Yes, she is a singer, to those in the room who seemed confused.
Paul Giamatti looks like he’s on coke or something, but its just Godiva chocolate? He won in the category that no one good was nominated in, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical, but Emily wins. They keep bleeping him out. For some reason he says, “Montreal, I dream about it. I salute the great nation of Canada.” That’s probably the first time it’s ever been saluted, so job well done.
As we cut to commercial break, we get a shot of Emma Stone and Mila Kunis who seem very happy to be there, jumping together.
9:28 Commercial for L’Oreal: ‘Imagine if you could grow young.” It’s “inspired by gene science.” This is followed by a commercial for Exboards, which are whiteboards. What has the world come to.
9:32 Joseph Gordon Levitt has a weird button on, and is talking like a weirdo. It’s cool though, he was in 3rd Rock from the Sun.
Jeff Bridges tells us that Natalie Portman has won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. We get some shots of him being positioned appropriately on the stage by Miss Golden Girls.
Natalie, you should stick to acting. She tells us, Thank you to Benjamin for helping me bring another life into this world” and “he’s the best actor, he totally wants to sleep with me!” She also thanks Mila “Sweet Lips” Kunis. Dear god. She does have a fabulous back, and Darren Aronofsky only has a horrible pedostache.
KB, Blake, Christopher and Emily win, but could have predicted such a horrendous speech?
9:46 Sandra!
KB: The Golden Globes is a 50/50 British/American. (Note: This was def the Sunny D and Andre talking. In no way do the awards shake out this way.)
9:54 Michael Douglas gets onstage. Everyone stands, which means KB was right about that. She starts violently hitting Kate while Michael tiredly says, “There’s gotta be an easier way to get a standing ovation.”
The Social Network wins for Best Picture — Drama.
Why is Kevin Spacey hugging Aaron Sorkin? Ari: Because he thinks that its the year 2000 and he won for American Beauty. Chris smiles slyly. Why are the fake Winklevoss’ up there and fucking Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield can’t stop being emo and get up there. David Fincher blames their “left brain combination.”
Ricky G. tells us it’s all over, and “Thank you to god, for making me an atheist.” Sure thing bro.
FINAL TALLY:
Blake, our dark horse from out West, wins with a resounding 15 correct answers! Christopher comes in a respectable 10, and Kate, our ever-fearless blogger, comes in with 9. Everyone else ties at 8
What should Blake’s prize be? The opportunity to take over Smart Girls for the day? A nice bottle of Moet (or Andre?) You decide!
[memedex: pollid#492919]
And thank you to Gawker for finding this clip. Now I can watch over and over and over again.
Appearance is almost everything
There Are So Many Inexplicable Moments In The Princess Diaries 2
Which Of These New Shows Is Fake?
This Kind Of Sums Up This Whole Character
Wise Observations Soon To Be All Over Tumblr
CHURCH GIRLS
Curmudgeon Says
Email feedback or general comments to kddries at gmail dot com. Tweet @ TheSSKate.
© 2009 Smart Girls Who Do Stupid Things. All Rights Reserved.
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The Justice Café & Library Opens its Doors in Phnom Penh
By Destination Justice on 27/07/2015 No Comments / 1460 views
On Friday, 3 July 2015, in a quiet corner of Phnom Penh, Destination Justice officially opened the doors to its new Justice Café & Library. The café brings to life a simple concept: to support, connect, and inspire young people advocating for better justice in Cambodia.
“In Cambodia, freedom of expression, association and thought are increasingly under threat. The Justice Café & Library is our response to that: it’s a safe and participatory space where young people can meet and develop ideas that can change the world,” said Destination Justice’s President Mr. Rodolphe Prom.
One way the Justice Café & Library hopes to inspire change is by providing access to resources. This includes free wifi, tablets, and a physical/electronic library focused on human rights, rule of law, education, innovative ideas, and social change stories. This is a rarity in a country with hardly any libraries at all and the first free resource centre in Cambodia dedicated to young people and advocating justice.
Destination Justice’s staff, who work next door, are on hand at the café to offer advice and research support. Another source of inspiration are the social changemakers who participate in the Justice Café & Library’s regular events including workshops, film screenings, and trivia and game nights. Most recently, on 17 and 18 July 2015, four young Cambodian justice leaders led interactive dialogues celebrating International Justice Day. The discussions engaged young people on the importance of international and local justice. Upcoming events at the café include a workshop on LGBT rights and a Mario Kart Wii tournament.
Ms. Sophanny Mom, a Justice Ambassador and Associate Consultant at Destination Justice, said that the Justice Café & Library offered “the perfect balance; it lets me grab my favourite cappuccino, fight off sleep, and appreciate all the great books and resources available at the café!”.
A striking feature of the café is that it was not only created for young people but also created by them. Most furniture and design features in the café were hand-built by Destination Justice’s young Cambodian and international team, who used local and recycled materials — and plenty of elbow grease and positive thinking — to transform an empty space into a vibrant epicentre for change in just a year’s time.
The other essential ingredient in the Justice Café & Library’s success has been sponsorship. In particular, French financial advisory firm CFIDEV provided a start-up grant to fund initial construction; countless individuals and organisations donated all of the available resources; graphic designers created the logo and other artwork free of charge; and several volunteers have helped build and now run the café. Further sponsorship in any form would be very welcome — whether it be through financial support, expertise, equipment or café stock, volunteers, or sponsorship of a scholarship for a Justice Ambassador.
The Justice Café & Library is the latest project from Destination Justice, a start-up non-profit law, governance and development organisation. Destination Justice aims to strengthen human rights and rule of law in a pragmatic, collaborative, sustainable and holistic way. It was established in 2011 with headquarters in France, a sister association in Australia, and a field office in Cambodia.
All profits from the Justice Café & Library are reinvested directly into Destination Justice’s advocacy for better justice in Cambodia, making our work sustainable in the long-term. Our work includes Justice Roadshows where Destination Justice’s team travels around Cambodia speaking to young people about what justice should be and what it means to them; and the Justice Ambassadors project, providing training and mentorship to young Cambodians interested in careers in the justice sector.
CONTACTS AND FURTHER INFORMATION:
Media and sponsorship inquiries should be directed to Rodolphe Prom at info [@] destinationjustice.org.
Further information on the Justice Café & Library can be found here:
Website: http://www.justice.cafe
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/justicecafepp
Instagram: http://instagram.com/justicecafepp
Ways to get involved or sponsor the café: http://justicecafe.destinationjustice.org/contribute
Latest events at the café: http://justicecafe.destinationjustice.org/events
Full list of materials in the library collection: http://justicecafe.destinationjustice.org/library
Further information on Destination Justice can be found here:
Website: http://destinationjustice.org
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/destinationjustice
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/destination-justice
Instagram: http://instagram.com/destinationjustice
Twitter: @DestnJustice
More photos on the Facebook pages of the Justice Café & Library and Destination Justice.
CFIDEV Justice Café & Library
The Justice Café’s Grand Opening
Advice of Cambodian Women of Power for Int’l Women’s Day
Celebrating International Justice Day 2015 in Cambodia #JusticeMatters
Lotus Sports Club: Queer Football in Cambodia
Open Letter to Facebook on World Press Freedom Day 2019: Don’t Give in to Censorship in Vietnam
Launching the Rainbow Legal Aid in Cambodia Report
The Annotated Cambodian Constitution: fostering sustainable change in the Cambodian judicial system
Young Cambodians make their voices heard on “Justice and Corruption” in the country
The Justice Matters Conference 2018 promotes better Access to Justice in Cambodia
Press Release: Justice Matters Conference Calls For Better Access to Justice in Cambodia
The Justice Matters Conference is back, with a special focus on youth and legal aid!
Destination Justice at the French Volunteers Day
Join our team – Justice Café Assistant
Join our team – Project Assistant
Join our team – Communications Intern
Dialogue on Public Policies to Promote LGBTIQ’s Rights in Cambodia
Revealing the Rainbow: The Human Rights Situation of LGBTIQ HRDs in SEA
The Changemakers Training Program is back!
Annotated Cambodian Constitution – Dissemination Workshops
Cambodia – Justice Matters in 2017
Press Release: Launch of the Annotated Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Destination Justice supports the Petition to the International Association of Prosecutors
Destination Justice is a social change organisation, as such we are changemakers who believe that justice is key to a peaceful society.
Destination Justice est une organisation pour le changement social, en tant que telle nous sommes des créateurs de changement pour qui la justice est clé pour une société en paix.
Copyright © 2011-2017 Destination Justice. All rights reserved.
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