text:
using Common.Logging;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Ipfs.CoreApi;
using System.Globalization;

namespace Ipfs.Http
{

    class DagApi : IDagApi
    {
        IpfsClient ipfs;

        internal DagApi(IpfsClient ipfs)
        {
            this.ipfs = ipfs;
        }

        public async Task<Cid> PutAsync(
            JObject data,
            string contentType = "dag-cbor",
            string multiHash = MultiHash.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            string encoding = MultiBase.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            bool pin = true,
            CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                using (var sw = new StreamWriter(ms, new UTF8Encoding(false), 4096, true) { AutoFlush = true })
                using (var jw = new JsonTextWriter(sw))
                {
                    var serializer = new JsonSerializer
                    {
                        Culture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
                    };
                    serializer.Serialize(jw, data);
                }
                ms.Position = 0;
                return await PutAsync(ms, contentType, multiHash, encoding, pin, cancel);
            }
        }

        public async Task<Cid> PutAsync(
            object data,
            string contentType = "dag-cbor",
            string multiHash = MultiHash.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            string encoding = MultiBase.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            bool pin = true,
            CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            using (var ms = new MemoryStream(
                Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data)),
                false))
            {
                return await PutAsync(ms, contentType, multiHash, encoding, pin, cancel);
            }
        }

        public async Task<Cid> PutAsync(
            Stream data,
            string contentType = "dag-cbor",
            string multiHash = MultiHash.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            string encoding = MultiBase.DefaultAlgorithmName,
            bool pin = true,
            CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            var json = await ipfs.UploadAsync("dag/put", cancel,
                data, null,
                $"format={contentType}",
                $"pin={pin.ToString().ToLowerInvariant()}",
                $"hash={multiHash}",
                $"cid-base={encoding}");
            var result = JObject.Parse(json);
            return (Cid)(string)result["Cid"]["/"];
        }

        public async Task<JObject> GetAsync(
            Cid id,
            CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            var json = await ipfs.DoCommandAsync("dag/get", cancel, id);
            return JObject.Parse(json);
        }

        public async Task<JToken> GetAsync(
            string path,
            CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            var json = await ipfs.DoCommandAsync("dag/get", cancel, path);
            return JToken.Parse(json);
        }

        public async Task<T> GetAsync<T>(Cid id, CancellationToken cancel = default(CancellationToken))
        {
            var json = await ipfs.DoCommandAsync("dag/get", cancel, id);
            return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(json);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This charming ensemble is a great look for your Little Darling at Christmas. The dress is made of a lovely Christmas tree in wreath pattern in red and forest green on green cotton. The bodice has tiny straps at the shoulders and is fully lined. The skirt features red ruffled ribbon adorned with tree print green ribbon above the hemline. The dress fastens in back with buttons. Wear the dress alone or pair with the matching blouse. The blouse is made of a red polka dot print cotton. The blouse features a peter pan collar and contrast sleeve bands in Christmas wreath print. The blouse fastens down the front with buttons. Tie the green organza ribbon in her hair for a sweet and simple hairstyle.
Red ankle strap shoes with red, green and white polka dot tights are include to complete the outfit. The tights are made by Wendy at Doll Secrets.


text:
Get ready for redistricting
The next special session starts Monday, and we should expect to see proposed redistricting maps. It's going to be a rough few weeks, in part because the guardrails are gone, which will allow Republicans to run amuck.
The 2020 census captured a Texas that does not exist in its halls of power: a diverse state that is growing almost exclusively because of people of color and where the Hispanic and white populations are nearly equal in size.
But when the Texas Legislature convenes Monday to do the work of incorporating a decade's worth of population growth into new political maps, the Republicans in charge — nearly all of whom are white — will have a freer hand to cement their power and try to shield themselves from the change that growth represents.
The 2021 redistricting cycle will mark the first time in nearly half a century that a Legislature with a lengthy record of discriminating against voters of color will be able to redraw political districts without federal oversight designed to keep harmful maps from immediately going into effect.
And now, once those maps are enacted, the voters of color and civil rights groups that for decades have fought discrimination in the courts may face a federal judiciary less willing to doubt lawmakers' partisan motivations — even if they come at the expense of Hispanic and Black Texans.
"I hate to be an alarmist. I want to look for the silver lining, but I don't see one," said Jose Garza, a veteran civil rights attorney who has represented the Texas House's Mexican American Legislative Caucus for a decade. "I think that this is a time of great opportunity for the Republicans."
You can read the rest – none of it is unfamiliar. Tensions are already high due to the quorum break plus the general unhinged racism from state leadership. The early word is that State Senators have already seen a draft map, which will be drawn to be 20-11 for the Republicans, a net loss of two seats for the Dems if it works out that way. The Cook Political Report expects the eventual Congressional map to add two Republican seats to the existing total. It's going to be fun, just wait and see.
All this assumes that the Lege is allowed to draw non-Congressional maps, which remains a matter of dispute.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two Democratic state senators against Gov. Greg Abbott over his plan to redraw political districts during an upcoming special session of the Legislature.
In a Wednesday motion, the attorney general's office argued that the lawsuit is "wrong about Texas law" and is "inconsistent with past practice and judicial precedent." It asks that the lawsuit be dismissed or suspended until after the redistricting process is concluded.
The lawsuit — filed Sept. 1 by Sens. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, and Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio — argues that the state constitution explicitly requires political districts in the state to be redrawn during the first regular session after the publication of the U.S. census.
The lawsuit argues that a federal judge has the "exclusive obligation" to draw temporary maps to be used in the 2022 elections and that the legislative redistricting process should wait until 2023, when the next regular session is scheduled to occur.
The senators' "theory — which seeks to exploit delays in the federal census caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — turns the Texas Constitution on its head," reads the motion from the attorney general's office. "That provision prescribes what the Legislature must do, but neither it nor any other provision prohibits the Legislature from redistricting at other times when circumstances call for it."
See here for the background. I have to assume some kind of ruling is close at hand, if only to prevent future messes. I have not seen any indication of a hearing date, however, so who knows. In any event, enjoy your last weekend before new maps get drawn.
The wrong track
Interesting, but there are some key questions left unasked.
According to a poll conducted by Texas 2036, at least 92 percent of Texas voters said they were concerned about the future of the state, with 58 percent also stating they felt extremely concerned about it.
The Texas 2036 is a nonprofit organization that aims to build long-term, data-driven strategies to secure Texas' prosperity. They recently commissioned a poll to longtime GOP pollster Mike Baselice's firm, and who has worked with both Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the past.
The poll results, which were released on Tuesday, paint a grim picture of what Texans feel right now and their hopes for the future. It had 1,001 participants and was made 43% by cell phone, 23% by landline, and 34% through the web. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
The report shows that for the first time in the six years the question has been asked, more Texas voters (26%) said they feel financially worse off than they did the year before. Only 20 percent of the people being polled said they believe they are better off.
52 percent of voters said they believe that Texas is worse off than it was this time last year, a truly concerning fact considering last year the pandemic was at a considerable height and vaccines were not yet released. Only 13 percent said they thought the state was headed in a better direction.
The overwhelming majority of Texas voters agree with using federal COVID-19 relief money to fund large-scale projects and promote the state's economy. This is something that state lawmakers can actually do in the upcoming third special session of the legislature.
The poll landing page is here, the press release for it is here, and all the data provided can be found here and here. It's interesting and easy to read, so go check them out. The main thing that I came away thinking is "but who will the voters blame for their negative feelings?" I've noted the flip side of this question before, when I've asserted that the best hope for Democrats in general and Texas Democrats in particular is a strong performance by President Biden and a good economy to go with it. That works to a point, but only to the extent that the President gets the lion's share of the credit for those good things. You can be sure Greg Abbott and his minions will do everything they can to grab that credit, and it will be up to the voters to decide who deserves it. The same is true for the blame – do you pin it on the Governor or the President? I can't answer that question, and the pollsters don't ask.
There are no electoral questions, and this is the first poll of its kind, so we don't have any bases for comparison. One can certainly argue that this is a tricky spot for statewide Republican incumbents to be in, since they're the closest ones to the situation and the ones that voters can take out their frustrations on in 2022. But again, they get to have a say in that, and they will do what they can to redirect and distract, as anyone in their position would. This is the kind of place where having a gubernatorial candidate would really help, since there would be a natural conduit for the message that the blame should apply to the guys in charge of the state. We don't have that yet, so that task needs to be diffused outward for the time being. The point here is that this kind of data can be used by anyone, and so there needs to be a coherent message and a recognized messenger to get the viewpoint you like out into the discourse. For now at least, that's on all of us. Robert Rivard has more.
Galveston ISD mask mandate remains, Round Rock gets halted
A Galveston County judge Thursday denied an attempt by Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop Galveston ISD from requiring masks, according to a court document.
Judge Kerry Neves ruled against Texas' request for a temporary restraining order on mask mandates in the district.
According to court documents, a hearing on the matter is set for Sept. 28.
See here for the background. That's the whole Chron story – the Galveston County News covered this as well, but they're behind a paywall so I can't see it. Paxton scored an initial win against Paris ISD in his second round of lawsuits, though that happened without Paris ISD being in the courtroom. It would seem he used that same tactic in Round Rock.
A state district judge in Williamson County has temporarily blocked the Round Rock school district from enforcing its mask mandate, according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued the school district.
In a tweet Thursday night, Paxton's office declared "Another WIN!" in its legal fight against school districts that have defied Gov. Greg Abbott's executive orders banning schools from requiring masks. Paxton sued Round Rock along with Elgin and other school districts with mask mandates last Friday.
In a statement, Round Rock school district leaders said they had not been officially served or notified by Paxton's office of the order. District officials also said they were not given the opportunity attend any court proceedings to oppose the order, but they said they would "comply with any lawfully issued court order."
"We will also use all proper and available legal proceedings to challenge this order and vigorously defend its long-established lawful authority to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for Round Rock ISD students and staff, including during this pandemic," the statement said. "The district continues to strongly encourage and recommend the use of masks in accordance with guidance from our local health authorities."
I totally get Paxton playing dirty, but what is up with these judges letting it happen? Do they have no responsibility to at least inquire why there's no opposing counsel? I'm puzzled, to say the least.
As for the other affected districts, I did a quick Google News search and didn't see any news for them. I would assume there will be more rulings in the coming days, but for now as far as I can tell this is where we are.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to fetch top n records for each category I have a table like below, placed at SQL FIDDLE
id  empid proj  file  rating
~~  ~~~~~ ~~~~  ~~~~  ~~~~~~
1   1863   G1   file1    1
2   P4645  G1   file2    1
3   P6682  G1   file3    1
4   P6682  G1   file4    1
5   P4645  G1   file5    1
6   P4645  G1   file6    1
7   1863   G1   file7    1
8   1863   G1   file8    1
9   1863   G1   file19   1
10  P6682  G2   file21   1
11  1863   G2   file55   1
12  P6682  G2   file60   1
13  P4645  G2   file85   1
14  P6682  G2   file91   1
15  P4645  G2   file93   1
16  P4645  G3   file95   1
17  P4645  G3   file100  1
18  P4645  G3   file125  1
19  1863   G3   file131  1
20  1863   G3   file150  1
21  P6682  G3   file193  1
21  P6682  G3   file193  1

I need an SQL to retrieve top n (say top 2) ratings count from the above table for each category (proj)
Desired OP as below
proj  empid  ratings
~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~~~
 G1   1863      4
 G1   P4645     3
 G2   P6682     3
 G2   P4645     2
 G3   P4645     3
 G3   1863      2
 G3   P6682     2

Tried to follow the meathod in this thread but could not achive from the table desing i have.

A: Try this query
select * from
(select @rn:=if(@prv=Proj, @rn+1, 1) as rId,
@prv:=Proj,
empid,
stars
from
(SELECT
          starRatings.Proj
        , starRatings.empid
        , count(*) as stars
    FROM achivement as starRatings
    group by starRatings.Proj,starRatings.empid
order by proj, stars desc)a
join
(select @rn:=0, @prv:='') tmp
)tmp where rid <= 2

SQL FIDDLE
select * from
(select @rn:=if(@prv=Proj, if(@prvv=stars, @rn, @rn+1), 1) as rId,
@prv:=Proj,
empid,
@prvv:=stars
from
(SELECT
          starRatings.Proj
        , starRatings.empid
        , count(*) as stars
    FROM achivement as starRatings
    group by starRatings.Proj,starRatings.empid
    order by proj, stars desc)t
join
(select @rn:=0, @prv:='', @prvv:=0) tmp
)tmp where rid <= 2

SQL FIDDLE:
| RID | @PRV:=PROJ | EMPID | @PRVV:=STARS |
-------------------------------------------
|   1 |         G1 |  1863 |            4 |
|   2 |         G1 | P4645 |            3 |
|   1 |         G2 | P6682 |            3 |
|   2 |         G2 | P4645 |            2 |
|   1 |         G3 | P4645 |            3 |
|   2 |         G3 |  1863 |            2 |
|   2 |         G3 | P6682 |            2 |

A: Use this:-
(
  select proj,empid,rating,count(rating)
  from achivement
  where `proj` =  'G1'
  group by empid
  order by count(rating) desc
  LIMIT 2
)
UNION ALL
(
  select proj,empid,rating,count(rating)
  from achivement
  where `proj` =  'G2'
  group by empid
  order by count(rating) desc
  LIMIT 2
)
UNION ALL
    (
      select proj,empid,rating,count(rating)
      from achivement
      where `proj` =  'G3'
      group by empid
      order by count(rating) desc
      LIMIT 2
    )

SQL FIDDLE
Screenshot

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Binance will start Round 7 of the "Community Coin Vote". Based on feedback received from the previous Community Votes, we have modified the format of this upcoming vote. The votes cast by users will be multiplied by a Final Multiplier based on the amount of BNB held in the users' account, up to a maximum of 500x.
Application deadline: 2018/06/15 4:00 AM (UTC).
Voting time: From 2018/06/15 10:00 AM (UTC) to 2018/06/19 0:00 AM (UTC).
For example, at the time of snapshot, a user having 3.9 BNB in balance will have a Final Multiple of 3. A user having 1000 BNB in balance will have a Final Multiple of 500.


The Hershey Company unveiled a new logo on Friday to give the choco-corporate powerhouse a more modern look.
The new logo isn't a huge change from the old one, which featured a three-dimensional Hershey's kiss in front of "Hershey's" lettering. The new one has gone flat - like many other brands that have dropped shadowing and embossing - and it will be incorporated throughout the company in its stores, offices, and websites, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"Our updated company brand and refreshed visual identity is an expression of our progression to a modern, innovative company that positively impacts our local communities as we continue to grow globally," said Mike Wege, a senior marketing officer at the company, in a statement.


text:
Welcome to St. Cloud is in-between a campaign setting and a scenario and can be adapted to any system, though it already includes stats for the Actual Fucking Monsters role-playing game. It is surreal horror in nature, since it was heavily inspired by David Lynch's cult TV show Twin Peaks (1990), but it leans on other sources, like John Carpenter's The Fog (1980), The League of Gentleman (1999), Carnivàle (2003) and 1970s slasher flicks. There isn't a specific mythology and even the amount of supernatural and/or paranormal phenomena can be easily modified to suit different tastes.
What's presented in this book is a detailed description of the titular small town of St. Cloud, WA, and its inhabitants, which provides multiple story seeds. At the end, there's a much more developed, but unstructured, plot hook which encompasses a series of events set in motion after the death of a local pre-teen girl. The final chapter, (Not) Wrapped in Plastic, is a plotline designed for those who want to play St. Cloud with a distinct Twin Peak's feeling, but without instantly giving away the whole story.
If this and some of the characters' descriptions sound familiar at a glance (you're right, of course it does!), that's only a superficial similarity, however. Surely the inspiration isn't masqueraded, but St. Cloud can be run even if in your group there are players familiar with Lynch's work, since the characters and the town's dirty little secrets are quite different from the source. What remains very similar are the bizarre atmosphere and the overall semblance of a soap opera gone insane.


text:
Q: PayPal IPN $_POST['txn_id'] not set I'm using the PayPal sandbox to do a subscribe button and then when I get the IPN response for a subscription or a subscription cancelation $_POST['txn_id'] is never set.
So I don't know how to identify transactions to only accept unique ones
Thanks!
EDIT: for example all the info that I have in POST for a subscr_cancel are : amount1, amount3 , address_status, subscr_date,  payer_id, address_street, mc_amount1, mc_amount3, charset, address_zip, first_name, reattempt, address_country_code, address_name, otify_version
subscr_id
custom
payer_status
business
address_country
address_city
verify_sign
payer_email
btn_id
last_name
address_state
receiver_email
recurring
txn_type
item_name
mc_currency
residence_country
test_ipn
period1
period3
correlation_id

A: According to Table 2. Summary of subscription variables:

For subscription variables, the transaction ID (txn_id) is only available for USD Payment and
  Multi-Currency Payment transaction types (txn_type).

As expected, PayPal will not send the txn_id to your IPN for the transaction type, subscr_cancel, and will only send txn_id if the transaction type is subscr_payment.
For further explanation on which variables are sent to your IPN URL based on your transaction, please check out IPN and PDT Variables.

A: Have you checked $_REQUEST['txn_id'] as this may be sent to your server via GET.


text:
"""
nwid.terminal.screen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This module contains functions responsible for clearing the screen and getting
its size.
"""

from __future__ import absolute_import

from . import codes as code
from nwid import Size

def size():
    """Returns the size of the window as a Size object (rows, cols).
    Note that this is the actual size; in order to get the bottom right corner,
    you must subtract 1 from both the rows and the columns."""
    try:
        from struct import unpack
        from fcntl import ioctl
        from termios import TIOCGWINSZ
        from os import ctermid

        with open(ctermid()) as fd:
            size = unpack('hh', ioctl(fd, TIOCGWINSZ, '----'))
            return Size(size[0], size[1])

    except ImportError:
        from os import environ
        try:
            return Size(environ['COLUMNS'], environ['LINES'])
        except KeyError:
            return Size(25, 80)  # just send back a best guess

def clear():
    """Clears the entire screen."""
    code.CLEAR_SCREEN()

def clear_down():
    """Clears the screen from the cursor down."""
    code.CLEAR_DOWN()

def clear_up():
    """Clears the screen from the cursor down."""
    code.CLEAR_UP()

def clear_line():
    """Clears the entire line."""
    code.CLEAR_LINE()

def clear_line_forward():
    """Clears the line from the cursor forward."""
    # TODO: inclusive or exclusive?
    code.CLEAR_LINE_FORWARD()

def clear_line_backward():
    """Clears the line from the cursor backward."""
    # TODO: inclusive or exclusive?
    code.CLEAR_LINE_BACKWARD()

def reset():
    """Clears the entire screen and places cursor at top left corner."""
    code.CLEAR_SCREEN()
    code.CURSOR_SET_POSITION(0, 0)


"Content Management System" is simply a system built for easy and fast editing with no need of coding knowledge.
We can take your current "static" site and migrate it to a CMS system. This will allow you to update and change parts of your site by logging in and simply clicking a button. This gives YOU full control and will save you in web costs related to a web master.
No time to do it yourself? We can help by updating on a per task or retainer basis. Click here for our website help section.


text:
Q: MySQL Case Statement for proper bucketing reposting this question as I am still struggling to find the right solution.
I was able to isolate the 'OA' only scenarios and flag them appropriately as NA. However I am having trouble isolating the 'I' only events as well as properly aging the EquipID's that have both I and OA events.
This is the logic I am using for aging right now and it works great for 'I' only events, but properly isolating the 'I' and 'OA' EquipID's and then getting the difference between the two dates is eluding me.
datediff(curdate(),concat(left(eventDateTime,4),'-',mid(eventDateTime,5,2),'-',mid(eventDateTime,7,2))) as age_in_depot
I tried grouping by the EquipID but of course that gives me only one eventDateTime result and it is always the first result, which in the case of an 'I' and 'OA' it's only the 'I' eventDateTime.
I also have logic to identify the 'I' and 'OA' events, but this only works correctly if I am intending on grouping the EquipmentID's together to one line, which noted above, drops the 2nd eventDateTime entry needed to properly age these EquipID's.
GROUP_CONCAT( DISTINCT StatusCD) as StatusCD

Any help or insight is greatly appreciated. Once I have this 'I' only event flagged and aging I can finally finish out this dashboard I am building for our team.
Thank you in advance.
J

A: Pivot the table so you get the in and out dates into separate columns for the same EquipID. Then you can subtract them, and apply appropriate defaults for the missing dates.
SELECT EquipID, InDate, OutDate, StatusCD_N,
    CASE WHEN InDate AND OutDate THEN DATEDIFF(OutDate, InDate)
         WHEN InDate THEN DATEDIFF(CURDATE(), InDate)
         ELSE 'N/A' -- only OutDate
    END AS AgeInDepot
FROM (
    SELECT EquipID, GROUP_CONCAT(StatusCD) AS StatsuCD_N,
        MAX(IF(StatusCD = 'I', DATE(STR_TO_DATE(eventDateTime, '%Y%m%d%H%i')), NULL) AS InDate,
        MAX(IF(StatusCD = 'OA', DATE(STR_TO_DATE(eventDateTime, '%Y%m%d%H%i')), NULL) AS OutDate
    FROM yourTable
    GROUP BY EquipID
) AS x


Zivo Bioscience, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops natural bioactive ingredients derived from its proprietary algal cultures. The company focuses on licensing and selling its natural bioactive ingredients to animal, human and dietary supplement, and medical food manufacturers; and license its bioactive molecules as lead compounds or templates for synthetic variants intended for therapeutic applications. It is also involved in developing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling tests that allow individuals to optimize their health and identify future health risks, as well as provides insurers, employers, and healthcare providers with timely information to intervene with wellness programs, fitness regimes, or other preventative measures. The company was formerly known as Health Enhancement Products, Inc. and changed its name to Zivo Bioscience, Inc. in November 2014. Zivo Bioscience, Inc. is headquartered in Keego Harbor, Michigan.
Sign-up to receive the latest news and ratings for ZIVO and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
What is Zivo Bioscience's stock symbol?
Zivo Bioscience trades on the OTCMKTS under the ticker symbol "ZIVO."
Has Zivo Bioscience been receiving favorable news coverage?
Media coverage about ZIVO stock has been trending somewhat negative on Wednesday, InfoTrie Sentiment Analysis reports. The research group rates the sentiment of media coverage by monitoring more than six thousand news and blog sources in real time. The firm ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative five to five, with scores closest to five being the most favorable. Zivo Bioscience earned a media sentiment score of -1.4 on InfoTrie's scale. They also gave news stories about the biotechnology company a news buzz of 2.0 out of 10, indicating that recent media coverage is very unlikely to have an effect on the stock's share price in the near future.
Who are some of Zivo Bioscience's key competitors?
Some companies that are related to Zivo Bioscience include Amira Nature Foods (ANFI), TDH (PETZ), Nutrastar International (NUIN), Blue Buffalo Pet Products (BUFF) and Pinnacle Foods (PF).
What other stocks do shareholders of Zivo Bioscience own?
Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Zivo Bioscience investors own include Collegium Pharmaceutical (COLL), Pfizer (PFE), Marks and Spencer Group (MKS), Ctrip.Com International (CTRP), Micron Technology (MU), Roku (ROKU), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Mcdonald's (MCD) and Weight Watchers International (WTW).
Who are Zivo Bioscience's key executives?
How do I buy shares of Zivo Bioscience?
Shares of ZIVO can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.
What is Zivo Bioscience's stock price today?
One share of ZIVO stock can currently be purchased for approximately $0.1216.
How big of a company is Zivo Bioscience?
Zivo Bioscience has a market capitalization of $21.88 million. Zivo Bioscience employs 4 workers across the globe.
What is Zivo Bioscience's official website?
The official website for Zivo Bioscience is http://www.zivobioscience.com.
How can I contact Zivo Bioscience?
Zivo Bioscience's mailing address is 2804 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD SUITE 202, KEEGO HARBOR MI, 48320. The biotechnology company can be reached via phone at 248-452-9866 or via email at [email protected]ivobioscience.com.
MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Zivo Bioscience and other stocks. Vote "Outperform" if you believe ZIVO will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote "Underperform" if you believe ZIVO will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days.


text:
CRAWLEY TOWN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION - ANNUAL REVIEW
The sense of community, individual pride, identity, and belonging the Foundation conjures truly inspires us all.
We have a team of around 20 committed and passionate full time members of staff and a dozen coaches, delivering exciting programmes and services in health and wellbeing, education, employment and skills, community safety, equalities and inclusion, sports participation, and regeneration.
There is no doubt about the reach and power football and sport has to help make positive changes to people and our communities.
The Premier League recently committed a further investment of £300,000 into the Foundation over the next 3 years, through the Kicks and Primary Stars programmes, helping to tackle crime on the streets of Crawley and to support health, wellbeing and education in our primary schools.
This reflects the trust and confidence the Premier League has in the Foundation to support the local area.
We exclusively and successfully delivered the National Citizen Service (NCS) contract in Crawley, worth around £1 million over 3 years, directly creating over 1,000 opportunities of social action for those aged 15 – 17 years old.
Anyone who has been on the NCS programme or is related to someone who has been involved with it will tell you how life changing the experience is.
We continue to be at the forefront of innovation with projects.
The EFL commissioned us as one of 12 EFL clubs to pilot Extra Time Hubs, which offers a range of services to those aged 55+.
Move the Goalposts helps those at risk or those who have been diagnosed with mental health, and this project has provided many positive outcomes for so many people.
Of course, who can forget our very own Crawley Old Girls (COGS), who since being formed through the Foundation, have been empowered to go on to achieve so much for women and girls through recreational football.
All of these projects have been acknowledged, and some even won awards, at local, regional, national and international level.
Our programmes not only provide so much joy, so many exciting opportunities and positive experiences for so many people, they positively promote the Crawley Town brand.
Last season alone, the Foundation invested £491,602 of external funding into Crawley and to surrounding areas.
This took the total figure to £1,461,602 since 2016, helping to support the local community over a sustained period of time.
Another way to gauge the Foundation's contribution to the community is through social value, a concept we have been working on with partners 4global to develop Data Hub.
Through this partnership, we are able to generate the social cost savings achieved through engagement in sport and activity, and via the programmes and services we work in.
The total social value generated for 2018-19 was £524,568, up slightly from £523,093 the previous year.
Since 2017, we have generated a social value of £1,494,448 to Crawley and surrounding areas.
That is almost £1.5m of savings to services since 2017.
With both financial investment and social value, the Foundation has clearly made a significant impact in Crawley, supporting the community during uncertain times particularly with cuts to the public sector and austerity.
Whilst there has been a very small drop in registered users and aggregate attendances on our courses and at events, we discovered that the number of contact hours and average contact hours per participant have increased.
This would indicate that we have successfully reduced sessions that were not so popular, and focused our attention, energy and resources on those making up the rest of our sessions. In essence, we have improved our efficiency, effectiveness and reach.
We have around 2,982 registered users and members, and together with our events, we had an aggregate attendance of over 60,000 in 2018-19. This equates to over 1,100 opportunities created every week.
It is the individual journeys that gives us the most satisfaction, from our youngest participant of 2 up to our eldest at 85 and through engaging some of the most challenging and difficult to reach.
These individual and collective achievements inspired us so much that we decided to commission local company Stone Empire to film a video to celebrate the amazing feats of our participants.
These are featured on our website www.ctcommunityfoundation.com
Over the course of the year, the Foundation has also been through a journey of its own.
We have been working towards achieving the required industry standards of Capability Code of Practice through the EFL and Premier League, which provides a range of governance, safeguarding, finance, health and safety, and various other best practice and legislation we must adhere to.
Increasingly we are being held accountable for the investment being made into the Foundation, and from the board of trustees to staff and through to our participants, we are working hard to achieve and maintain the highest possible levels of professionalism, behaviour and conduct.
I am delighted to report back that the Foundation currently sits in the top 24 EFL clubs from 72, which equates to EFL Championship level!
It is our aim to move ahead over the next year, and to develop plans to take us forward into the next exciting chapter of the Foundation.
We aim to continue to nurture existing relationships and develop new partnerships at national, regional and local levels, through agencies who entrust us to deliver various social and sporting agendas.
The professionalism, dedication and endeavour of all our staff will continue to drive us forward, and enable us to deliver so many more programmes for the community.
Birtug Kazim
Crawley Town Community CEO
Crawley Town need your vote in the Crawley Community Awards as Charity of the Year, so please be sure to nominate us and show your support #VoteForCrawleyTown
https://crawleycommunityawards.org/nomination/
To look back on the past season go to - https://www.ctcommunityfoundation.com/
Or to watch our fantastic Promo Video in partnership with Stone Empire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOUhBgXo4jQ&t=7s


text:
. J . >
Jetel
J. Thibouville-Lamy & Co.
Current Violin Website
Jetel 8 Banjolele
Long Scale JeTel
J. Thibouville-Lamy & Co. were a firm that was established in Paris in 1790 and opened an office in 10 Charterhouse Street, London, in 1880. In France they were manufacturers of every type of brass and wood instrument, who advertised their extensive "steam factories at Grenelle, La Couture and Mirecourt." At the latter they made a wide range of Guitars, Mandolins and Ukuleles. Soon after they opened their London house they added Banjos in their catalogue but these were made for them by British makers like George Houghton & Sons. The majority of the instruments sold under their name, including Ukuleles, were made in their own factories in France but not Banjos and Banjoleles. (it also appears likely that they were the OEM for some Ukuleles to be distributed by some of the UK firms?)
Jetel was probably their biggest brand name and they used in on a lot of chordophones including Ukuleles, (made in France and possibly Spain?), and Banjoleles, (made by GH&S), I have also seen them use Jetelele on some of the most basic models but they usually just assigned a number to signify the level of decoration the 8 was the fanciest
Victory and Lamy are other brand names that I have seen them use, again on GH&S Banjoleles and I suspect them of being JTC-L and having something to do with Down Souths and Handels but I have no firm proof? They also produced a line of Ukuleles called Virtuosa in the 1930's


text:
Q: Transposing tables in place in Word using VBA I'm trying to write a method to transpose tables in Word using Visual Basic and the Excel object model. However, I'm having trouble using paste special with the copied Word object, since its not just plain text.
Is it possible to force a plain text paste with transpose? Is there a better way to do this?
My current code is as follows:
Public Sub transposeTable()

Selection.Copy
Dim oXlApp As New Excel.Application
Dim oXlBook As Excel.Workbook
Set oXlApp = CreateObject(Class:="Excel.Application")
Set oXlBook = oXlApp.Workbooks.Add
oXlBook.Sheets(1).Range("A1").Select
oXlApp.ActiveCell.PasteSpecial Transpose:=True
oXlBook.Sheets(1).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants).Select
oXlApp.Selection.Copy
Selection.Paste
End Sub

The error I'm recieving is:
Run-time error '1004':
PasteSpecial method of Range class failed

A: Have you tried pasting without the formatting?
oXlApp.ActiveCell.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Transpose:=True

A: I've managed to get it working now, using an intermediate paste step.
Public Sub transposeTable()

Selection.Cut
Dim oXlApp As New Excel.Application
Dim oXlBook As Excel.Workbook
Set oXlApp = CreateObject(Class:="Excel.Application")
Set oXlBook = oXlApp.Workbooks.Add
oXlBook.Sheets(1).Range("A1").Select
oXlApp.ActiveSheet.Paste
oXlBook.Sheets(1).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants).Select
oXlApp.Selection.Copy
oXlBook.Sheets(2).Select
oXlBook.Sheets(2).Range("A1").Select
oXlApp.ActiveCell.PasteSpecial Transpose:=True
oXlBook.Sheets(2).Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants).Select
oXlApp.Selection.Copy
Selection.Paste
oXlBook.Close (False)
oXlApp.Quit
End Sub


text:
Oromhegyes (szerbül Трешњевац / Trešnjevac) település Szerbiában, Vajdaságban, az Észak-bánsági körzetben, Magyarkanizsa községben. 2002-ben lakosságának több mint 96%-a magyar nemzetiségű volt.

Elhelyezkedése
Szerbia északi részén helyezkedik el 102 méter tengerszint feletti magasságon. Közigazgatásilag Magyarkanizsa községhez tartozik. Zentától 10 km re, Adorjántól 5 km-re és Tóthfalutól 5 km-re fekszik.

A Magyarkanizsa-Zenta regionális úttól 3 km-re fekszik, aszfaltozott út köti össze Tóthfaluval, Orommal és Szabadkával.

Népessége

 1948-ban 2542 lakos
 1961-ben 2357 lakos
 1971-ben 2304 lakos
 1981-ben 2135 lakos
 1991-ben 2028 lakosából 1953 magyar, 32 szerb
 2002-ben 1868 lakosából 1797 magyar, 25 szerb
 2011-ben 1763 lakos (a népszámlálás elsődleges adatai alapján)

Nevének eredete
Nevét a bácskai löszfennsíkon kiemelkedő Orompartról kapta. Kezdetben Siposfalva, vele párhuzamosan (nem messze attól) Zákóföld(je), együtt pedig Tetőhegy(es) néven emlegették. Ezt követően jelennek meg a Kishegyes és Kis-Hegyes nevek, de habár már létezett egy ilyen nevű település, mégsem amiatt, hanem az 1904-es névadási kötelezettség miatt ifjú Tóth József földbirtokos (ő alapította Tóthfalut) javaslatára Oromhegyesre változtatták (ahogyan Ókanizsa elnevezést is Magyarkanizsa névre). Levéltárban fellelhető névváltozatai (időrendi sorrendben):

 Siposfalva
 Zákóföld(je)
 Tetőhegy(es)
 Kishegyes
 Kis-Hegyes
 Oromhegyes
 Uzunovićevo
 Oromhegyes
 Senćanski Trešnjevac
 Trešnjevac
 Oromhegyes

Története
Oromhegyes területe már az őskorban lakott hely volt, amit a csiszolt kőkorszaki leletek is bizonyítanak, amelyek az Általános Iskola építésekor kerültek elő. Az első településre vonatkozó okirat 1271-ből származik, ugyanis ekkor Ket-Adryan névvel jelöltek két település Ol- és Feel-Adryant. Dudás Gyula XIX. századi jeles történész szerint Feel-Adryan (Felső-Adorján) a mai Oromhegyes területén helyezkedhetett el.

A település létrejötte
A mai falu kialakulása az 1848/49-es forradalom leveréséhez kötődik. A szóbeli hagyományok szerint Magyarkanizsa város legelőjéből Rózsa Sándor szétszéledt bandája telkeket szakított ki, majd pedig két szerb kisnemes (Sipos és Zákó) földterületeiket kimérették telkeknek és azokat olcsón eladták. A Sipos nevű kisbirtokos 6 lánc szántóföldjét és szőlejét adta el házhelyeknek, majd ezekre kezdtek el építkezni az ide sereglett szegény emberek, minden engedély és jogcím nélkül; ennek eredményeként 1857-ben már 437-en voltak.

Az így kialakult Siposfalva és Zákóföld települések önállósodását Magyarkanizsa mezőváros vezetői, különösen Huszágh Miklós községi képviselő, nem nézték jó szemmel, hiszen elveszíteni látszott a városi legelő, valamint az olcsó munkaerő.

Kanizsa képviselő testülete végül belenyugodott a megváltoztathatatlanba, és a falu 1857-ben már tanítót is kapott Kálmán János személyében (a faluban lakók alkalmazták a képesítés nélküli személyt saját költségükön), majd pár év elteltével Kanizsa mezőváros képviselői gyűlése tanítói munkahelyet rendszeresített a településen – az adorjáni plébános felügyelete mellett –, ahová felvették Magyar Imre altanítót. A települést kezdetben Hegyes, Kis-Hegyes néven ismerték, de mivel már akkor létezett Kishegyes, így az itt lakók Tetőhegyes néven kezdték nevezni a falut. Magyarkanizsa elöljárói hatására Tetűhegyes csúfnevet kapta a falu (a feljegyzések alapján nem is alaptalanul), ezért a település lakosai Oromhegyes-ként kezdték emlegetni azt a XIX. század végén.

20. század eleje
A következő évtizedekben kisipari műhelyek nyíltak, malom épült, artézi kutakat fúrtak, rendőrállomás, iskolaépület létesült. 1908-ban a templom épült amit még ebben az évben Szent Mihály tiszteletére szenteltek föl. Lassan kialakult a település magja, ebből pedig az utcák a régi Zentai úton, a Velebit felé vezető dűlőkön és az Orompart lábánál, illetve az adorjáni állomás felé húzódó út mentén.

A falu főutcáján található ártézi kutat 1912-ben fúrták.

Az első világháborút követően 1921-ben Likából szerb telepesek (önkéntesek = dobrovoljacok) érkeznek a faluba, akik az akkori királyi belügyminiszter(Uzunović) tiszteletére megváltoztatták a falu nevét Uzunovićevora. A falu ezen a néven volt ismert 1941-ig, a visszacsatolásig, akkor visszakapja az Oromhegyes nevet.

A II. világháború után
A II. világháború alatt nagyon sok szerb lakost Sárvárra hurcoltak, majd a háború végén a beérkező partizánok ártatlanokat mészároltak le bosszúból. Ekkor "önkénteseket" toboroztak a Petőfi-brigádba, akik közül sokan életüket vesztették a Bezdán környéki harcokban.
A falu központja
A háború végén a bevonuló szerb partizánok 14 helyi lakost mészároltak le, annak ellenére hogy 1941. áprilisában (és később se a magyar fennhatóság alatt) semmilyen incidens sem történt a szerb lakosság ellen.

Az 1940-es évek második felében parancsba adták, hogy minden magyar településnek kell hogy legyen szerb neve is. Mivel az akkori bíró parasztszekéren ment a járási központban, Zentán megtartott összejövetelre, egész úton azon gondolkodott, milyen szerb név lehetne elfogadható, de semmi sem jutott az eszébe. Kocsisa hívta fel figyelmét arra, hogy a háza előtt egy nagy cseresznyefa áll, ezért lehetne akár Cseresznyés-nek (Trešnjevac) is nevezni. Így lett a falu szerb neve 1946-tól kezdetben Senćanski Trešnjevac (Zentai Cseresznyés), majd a járások megszűnését követően csak egyszerűen Trešnjevac.

20. század vége
Oromhegyes madártávlatból
A boszniai háború alatt a falu nőinek bátor fellépésnek köszönhetően az akkor egyedüli biliárdterem és pizzéria, a Zitzer Club a háborúellenes ellenállás egyik központjává vált (1992. május 10. után). A tartalékosok 93 napig laktak ebben a barakképületben, eközben létrehozták a Zitzer Szellemi Köztársaságot, ami miatt a külföldi média is figyelemmel kísérte ezt az eseményt.

Jelenkor
A helyi közösségnek, a fő utcáján kívül, még hat aszfaltozott utcája van. Mindegyik utcában járdák vannak kiépítve. A háztartásokba be van vezetve a villanyáram- és a vízhálózat is. A többi településhez hasonlóan úgyszintén itt is ki lett építve a gázhálózat, amelyet a lakosságnak több mint a fele használ. Digitális telefonközponttal is rendelkezik a falu.

Általános iskolája, óvodája, egészségháza és gyógyszertára is van a helyi közösségnek. Nagyon fejlett az állattenyésztés, különösen a marha-, és sertéstenyésztés és nagy múltja van a juhászatnak is. Van termelőszövetkezete, legelterjedtebb a búza és iparinövény-termesztés, de a zöldségfélék termesztése is nagyon népszerű.

A falu néprajzi hagyományai gazdagok és sokfélék. Mindezt híven, avatottan őrzi a helybeli Petőfi Sándor Művelődési Egyesület, amely az egész község részvételével minden évben megszervezi a Gazdag Ág szemlét a tárgyi és szellemi néprajz ápolásának részeként.

Címere
Oromhegyes település címerét 2007-ben dolgozták ki, legújabb változatát 2009. 01. 09-én fogadták el.

A kék alapon található hármas halom a főutca két oldalán található dombos területet és a Csákó-halmot (az I. zentai csata – 1686. október 19. vagy 20. – feltételezett helyszínét) jelképezi, míg a templom a valamikori Fel-Adryan területén elhelyezkedő templomok közül az egyiket. A címerben található kosfej a juhászoknak állít emléket, míg a két szimmetrikus búzakalász a település lakóinak fő foglalkozását, a mezőgazdaságot szimbolizálja.

Oromhegyes zászlaja

Galéria

Népesség

Demográfiai változások

Etnikai összetétel

Jegyzetek

További információk
 Oromhegyes története

Testvér települése:Jászladány

Az Észak-bánsági körzet települései

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Facebook mobile advertising will be a game changer
Christopher Reynolds | March 18, 2012
Last month saw social network giant Facebook finally announce its entry into mobile advertising, causing a mixture of intrigue, relief and anger. Intrigue because the last thing the mobile ad industry seems to need is more inventory, relief because according to Facebook's IPO mobile represents an investment strategy risk, and anger because, well, that's just the default reaction of most Facebook users to any new feature on the social network.
Facebook's mobile ads tie into its new Premium ads solution, which allows brands to promote themselves directly in the user's news feed, as opposed to using traditional ads that display on the right-hand-side of the page. This solves Facebook's main problem of ads clogging-up real-estate on smaller mobile screens and also gives brands a much more visible and engaging channel.
But will Facebook be able to replicate its online success in the mobile space? It didn't take long for Zuckerberg and Co to seriously shake-up the traditional online ad space, going from virtually nothing to one of the biggest ad networks on the internet in the space of just a few years. According to eMarketer, the company is set to grab the largest share of online display market in 2012 for the second year running. So it's no surprise that the mobile ad industry is watching Facebook very closely.
Will Facebook mobile ads be a game changer?
More inventory
As we mentioned above, the mobile ad industry is facing something of a demand-side crisis. Apps and mobile sites are being pumped out at a tremendous rate, but advertisers are still somewhat coy on mobile spend. So in the short term, Facebook's entry into the mobile ad world will be sure to drive down prices for advertisers across other mobile ad networks. Hopefully this will provide the impetus for more advertisers to get on-board with mobile, and for other ad networks and mobile ad tech companies to up their game.
Location, Location
Needless to say, Facebook offers an incredible level of demographic targeting when it comes to mobile and this will surely mean that other mobile ad platforms will need to innovate in order to keep up. But Facebook's most exciting targeting features will revolve around hyper-local ads. Borrell Associates are predicting local mobile ad spend to increase to $3.1 billion in 2013 and it doesn't take long to imagine the possibilities a platform like Facebook opens-up. Brands could offer incentivised check-ins at local branches ('check-in with four friends at a local restaurant and get a discount'), send hyper-local offers once a user checks-in to a shopping centre, and push local traffic to under-performing branches by offering branch-specific deals or coupons. Facebook has the critical mass to make hyper-local mobile promotions work a treat.
In such a fragmented space, Facebook's mobile eco-system offers an neatly unified solution for advertisers to drive engagement. It has everything from apps to Places, as well as Events, mobile profiles, virtual currency and push notifications. Not to mention the fact that users could seamlessly continue an ad experience from their mobile to their desktop and vice versa, with each experience able to leverage its respective strengths.
The biggest threat to Facebook's mobile offering in the short term will be user antipathy toward ads in their news feed. But according to some sources, Facebook's Premium ads are seeing already 5 to 10 times higher click through rate. In the long term, Facebook may find it needs to strike a careful balance when it comes to ads becoming more location-based and integrated with other aspect of the social network. Like Google, it needs to watch the "creepiness level". But either way, it's hard to see Facebook's entry into mobile ads being anything other than a success and indeed a game changer.
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A classic and stylish Goku Dragon Ball Z Hoodie. Perfect gift to yourself or somebody who loves the Dragon Ball Z Franchise. This hoodie features Goku on a white background with highly saturated colours. The hoodie is comfortable to wear, looks fashionable and is wearable anywhere. It was designed for both male and female.


text:
, was Data East's "house band" composed of Data East music composers. Its name is a pun of "game" and "delicious". They were like "Oh My Deco" in the name of the candidate bands.

See also
 S.S.T. Band - Sega's house band.
 Zuntata - Taito's house band.
 Konami Kukeiha Club - Konami's house band.
 Alph Lyla - Capcom's house band.
 J.D.K. Band - Nihon Falcom's house band.
 Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan - SNK's house band before becoming Playmore and then SNK Playmore.
 ADK Sound Factory - ADK's house band.
 Scitron - Known for publishing music albums officially by Gamadelic.

References

Japanese instrumental musical groups
Japanese rock music groups
Video game composers
Video game music cover bands
Video game musicians


text:
IV. třída okresu Havlíčkův Brod tvořila společně s ostatními skupinami čtvrté třídy nejnižší (desátou nejvyšší) fotbalovou soutěž v České republice. Byla řízena Okresním fotbalovým svazem Havlíčkův Brod. Hrála se každý rok od léta do jara se zimní přestávkou, počet účastníků nebyl stálý. Zanikla po sezoně 2016/17. Vítěz postupoval do III. třídy okresu Havlíčkův Brod.

Vítězové

 IV. třída okresu Havlíčkův Brod skupina A  IV. třída okresu Havlíčkův Brod skupina B

Externí odkazy
 IV. třída okresu Havlíčkův Brod skupina A
 IV. třída okresu Havlíčkův Brod skupina B

Havlíčkův Brod
Fotbal v okrese Havlíčkův Brod
Sportovní soutěže v Kraji Vysočina


In Drupal 7, the challenge in display custom views when working with Drupal Commerce is that the Commerce fields by default are programatically separated and distinct from content fields and entities of your usual Drupal content types - including for instance the Product Display content type. In this example, we have a Content Type > Product Display, with referenced Commerce Product fields. Needless to say each has its own set of fields, normally the Commerce fields are rendered inside your Product Display, as the common and preferred setup for D7.
Product Display fields - a generic "outer container" of information with fields such as: Product Title, general Category, Brand, Body / Description, etc.
Other Settings - proceed with other usual Views settings and configurations as needed - block name, menu for page, aggregate, query settings, expose filters, etc.


Telltale Games' Game of Thrones will echo the complexity of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels by including five playable protagonists, whose choices will affect every other member of the game's central family. The word comes from Steve Allison, Telltale's senior vice president of publishing, in an interview that was actually about the recent console releases The Walking Dead Season Two.
"Tales from the Borderlands adds multi-protagonist storytelling for us layered into the tailored narrative design established with The Walking Dead and it works amazingly well with two playable characters," Allison told IBTimes, describing the evolution of Telltale's style of storytelling. "In Game of Thrones we're taking that multi-protagonist design even further with five playable characters from the same family whose choices affect everyone in the family, and that adds a whole new layer to things that we're really excited about."
Unfortunately, he didn't reveal which family those five members will come from, but we won't be long before we find out: Telltale confirmed earlier this week that Game of Thrones will be out before the end of the year.


Today, I am sharing the EASIEST way to make delicious shredded chicken in the slow cooker. I use this method all the time and we use the chicken in salads, pastas, soups, and so much more. For those of you who like to meal prep on Sundays or cook in bulk for your families, this is a great option because it takes no time to prep in the morning and you let the slow cooker do all the work!
Pour one cup of low-sodium chicken broth over the chicken breasts. Then season the chicken with salt, pepper, and any other herbs you like. Here, I added fresh rosemary. For additional flavor you can also add some crushed garlic and chopped onions, but I usually don't bother when I am in a hurry.
Place the lid on the slow cooker and set it to HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for 5-6 hours.
Once the timer goes off, remove the lid and the chicken breasts will be cooked through. You will notice that some fat will be surrounding the breasts – no biggie, it will fall right off the chicken when you remove it from the slow cooker.
Remove the chicken and place it on a cutting board or large plate. Using two forks, shred the chicken breasts. Make sure you reserve some of the broth and chicken juices from the slow cooker. I always add a few tablespoons of it to the shredded chicken to make it nice and moist.
Season the chicken as desired and use the chicken in salads, pastas, whatever you want! You can also toss it with some BBQ sauce or pesto and add it to lettuce wraps or sandwiches – I'm full of ideas!
How easy was that? A weekday meal cooked while you're not even home!
The easiest and most delicious way to make slow cooker shredded chicken! It requires only two ingredients and five minutes of prep time. Use the shredded chicken in salads, sandwiches and soups.
Place chicken breasts at the bottom of the slow cooker. Pour one cup of low-sodium chicken broth over the chicken. Season the breasts with salt, pepper, and any other herbs you like.
Remove the chicken, and use two forks to shred the breasts. Make sure you reserve some of the broth and chicken juices from the slow cooker to add it to the shredded chicken for extra moisture.
I've done something similar with salsa chicken in the slow cooker before, but it's never occurred to me to branch out into different flavors! Thanks for the great recipe and inspiration!
Thanks Kari! I haven't tried salsa – I'll have to do that!


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Home > ETDS > 113
Effect of Triclosan-Tolerant Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria on Triclosan Degradation in Soils
Ashley Marie Garcia
Master of Science in Biology (MS)
Mendez, Monica O.
Triclosan (TCS), an antimicrobial found in commercial products, can also be found in freshwater systems used for crop irrigation. Thus, TCS may accumulate over time in soils, potentially affecting plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs). Bacterial isolates from a previous study which demonstrated PGPR activity and TCS tolerance (TPGPRs) were chosen to evaluate the use of triclosan as a sole carbon source on a minimal salts medium (MSMT). TPGPRs, which demonstrated TCS utilization, were chosen for inoculation into soil microcosm for triclosan degradation (TD-PGPRs). Soil microcosms were arranged in a 2 x 5 factorial randomized block design and irrigated with triclosan treatments (0 µg or 1.5 µg of total TCS) and five inoculation treatments (no inoculation [CTRL], individual rhizobacteria isolates [OT1-11C2, OT2-03A, OT2-17], and a microbial consortium of all selected isolates [OT-MIX]). Soils were subsampled every three days during a 30-day period for triclosan and methyl TCS extraction, followed by GCMS analysis. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA determined that inoculum and inoculum x concentration was significant across all treatments and time points for mean heterotrophic bacterial counts (p < 0.0200), with the exception of day 0 R2AT 15 ng g-1. There was an observed increase in mean heterotrophic bacterial counts for total (R2A) and triclosan tolerant populations (R2AT 1.50 µg L-1 TCS and R2AT 15 µg L-1 TCS) in OTMIX and OT1-11C2 for days 15 and 30. The data suggests that triclosan is still accumulating even with the presence of TD-PGPRs. However, by day 30 samples inoculated with OTMIX (14.22 ng g-1) demonstrated a higher triclosan reduction when compared to the CTRL (26.03 ng g-1). Methyl triclosan (initial biodegradation by product of bacteria) was observed to increase overtime for all treatments, indicating that TCS degradation is still occurring even in uninoculated soils (CTRL). However, TCS breakdown was less efficient in the CTRL treatment with 21.89 ng g-1 of MeTCS to 28.19 ng g-1 in the OTMIX soils. This study was the first to confirm the TCS degradative capabilities of the isolated TD-PGPRs. The use of these TD-PGPRs assisted in the elucidation of the fate of triclosan and by-product formation in irrigated soils.
Garcia, Ashley Marie, "Effect of Triclosan-Tolerant Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria on Triclosan Degradation in Soils" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 113.
https://rio.tamiu.edu/etds/113


It was 9 September, 2009. A young boy had just squandered a winning position against an experienced Indian grandmaster. With the draw, he had missed out on making his first grandmaster norm. The 14-year-old signed the scoresheets and went into the corner of the hall. Sitting with his back to the wall, he wept uncontrollably. No amount of coaxing from his mother or friends could relieve his sadness.
The talented youngster from Nashik has come a long way from that evening in Kolkata. Vidit Gujrathi's acumen for the game of chess was unquestionable. His hunger for victory was evident right from the days when he took his first steps in chess. The game changer has been his balanced mindset and the ability to take losses in his stride and fight back. This has made Vidit a well-rounded player and favourable results have started to flow.
At the World Rapid Championships 2016, Vidit began with a bang. He beat Baadur Jobava, Vladislav Artemiev and Vladimir Akopian on day one. When the second day started, he was pitted against the formidable Alexander Grischuk. Vidit lost that game. But he didn't lose his cool. He first played a safe game against the World Championship challenger Sergey Karjakin. By drawing that game he got his momentum back. In the eighth round, he slayed the Polish number one Radoslaw Wojtaszek. A draw with Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov was followed by another huge win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
These 2,750-plus rated players like Wojtaszek and Vachier-Lagrave are extremely strong even in this short time format. They calculate at the speed of light and it's very difficult to trick them. Against such well-established opposition Vidit was able to convert equal endgames into wins. This is very surprising, because it's usually the lower rated players who make errors in equal positions. Vidit proved to everyone that he is much stronger than his rapid rating of 2,643 and that with his quick sight, and fast thinking skills, he can be right at the top of the chess world. He will gain 56 Elo points and is on the verge of crossing 2,700 Elo in Rapid chess.
Viswanathan Anand's progress has been not particularly smooth at this event, but he hasn't lost a game yet. With four wins and six draws, Anand is on 7.0/10 and is on the eighth position. Anand will play Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the 11th round. With both Vidit and Anand on 7.0/10, there are high chances that the two would play against each other in one of the next five rounds. While Anand would clearly be the favourite, Vidit's form is not to be underestimated. In terms of an Indian finishing on the podium, this might not be the best of matchups, but to witness a battle between two different generations of Indian chess is quite mouth-watering!
As far as women's section is concerned, both Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli haven't been able to showcase their best chess. They are surely considered as two of the best women players in the world today. However, they are struggling to make a mark. Humpy is on the 22nd position and Harika on 16th. They will definitely need a lot of will power in the remaining four rounds in order to win a medal.
The last five rounds will be played in the open section on Wednesday. Vidit and Anand are the only two Indians who can win a medal. What are the chances of them succeeding? As far as Anand is concerned, he has been in such pressure situations throughout his career. That's the reason why I have a feeling that Anand should finish in the top three. For Vidit this is a new scenario. He wouldn't have imagined that after two-thirds of the tournament he would be among the leaders. This will be a big test for the boy from Nashik.
Standings in the women section after round eight. Full pairings.
Standings after round ten for open section. Full pairings.
Sagar Shah, is an International Master and co-founder of ChessBase India.


text:
tempest in a teacup
the pointless musings of a strange recluse
An old opinion, now backed up by empirical evidence
September 15th, 2009 | Category: Gaming
I posted a while back that I was rather unimpressed by what I had seen of LittleBigPlanet. One of the common replies I got was that I couldn't make a proper judgement without playing it first, which is a reasonable response. I was loath to spend $50 to buy a game that I wasn't sure about, though, particularly when my gaming backlog is already a mile long.
Well, Sony released a LittleBigPlanet demo on PSN last week, and I downloaded it and finally got to play through some of the levels. And…
(cue drumroll)
…I still don't see what the big deal is. The platforming is pretty slippery, imprecise even. I mean, I can compare it to Sonic Unleashed and confidently say that even that game has tighter controls in its 2D sections. I can make precise jumps reasonably easily in Unleashed, whereas LBP's 'on ice' movement and floaty jumps mean that I tend to be slip-sliding through levels rather than navigating through them with precise timing.
Stephen Fry's voiceovers are great, though.
And for anyone who would retort that I'm missing the point because I haven't played any of the levels online with four players – attaching a collaborative level design toolkit to Daikatana doesn't magically turn it into Half-Life.
With that said, I suspect that's the last I'll have to say on the subject of LBP. Unless a copy ends up falling into my lap.
If this is what they mean by 're-birth', screw reincarnation
July 28th, 2009 | Category: Gaming
Ever find your skepticism to be completely justified?
Everything about KOFXII's game system feels weird. The game is definitely slower than XI, 98 and 2K2, no doubt about that. On top of that even stuff like jumping has had its timings changed. When I do what used to be a hyperhop in XI or '98UM my character flies across the screen to get an uppercut up his ass. On top of that timings for things as basic as Terry's dB, dA, df+C, QCB+A combo have changed. The first KOF that comes to mind when I think of an equivalent in the games I've played is probably KOF2003, and considering how bad that game was I don't think that's a good sign.
I took a spin through single player mode, and immediately recalled KOF XI's pretty good AI on normal difficulty – while not awesome, it at least tried to use human-like attack patterns on you. Iori would pressure you with hop Cs and Ds, Gato would regularly do his tap combo into punch super every time he got an opening, Kyo would try to stuff your pokes with his QCF+A autoguard, and so on. The reason I remembered this is because KOFXII's normal difficulty AI is dumb as a brick. It jumps around randomly, spamming pokes and rolling out of the blue for no reason (making it perfect bait for a down B combo on recovery). Athena basically did her reflector something like five times in a row, only stopping after I smacked her with a DM. The only exception was Daimon who would use the bullshit autoguard on his HCF+P to blow through absolutely everything I did to him – even jump attacks.
Also if the AI somehow manages to land a critical counter on you it's terrible of taking advantage of it. Andy tagged me with a counter close C so that he could do f+C….forward roll, nothing. And it doesn't even get better as you get further in the game.
OK, fine, AI in fighting games isn't typically known for being great, and the point of fighting games is versus mode anyway. But seriously, everything about this game screams 'WE DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO FINISH THIS, BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY.' Practice mode doesn't save your training settings (it did in previous KOF ports), there's no way to go back to the character select menu from Practice mode, and there's random slowdown all over the place in the front end, which looks like it was designed by some guy with a copy of Photoshop and a hard-on for Times New Roman.
The game also has some weird hitbox issues. I could swear my opponent and I passed through each other in mid-jump, and the hitboxes on ground attacks are messed up against opponents landing behind you. I managed to score a counter hit on someone who jumped over my Terry's crouch C because he landed behind me and got smacked by the tail end of the hitbox while trying to poke me. Go figure.
And then of course there's shit like this:
And on top of all that, I still think this game is a net loss in terms of depth from KOF XI.
I haven't tried it online yet, mainly because I don't know anyone else who has it on PS3 and because of the horror stories I've been hearing about people who have played it online. BlazBlue lets me play laglessly against my friend in Japan – I doubt KOF XII will give me anywhere near the same connection quality.
Oh, and regarding the sprite issue I brought up in an earlier post – I have a HDTV at home, and it is rather obvious that KOFXII's sprites have been scaled up. While I can't make out individual pixels on the BB sprites at about 5 feet away, it's pretty easy in KOFXII.
On a happier note, I scored an S-video cable for my PS3 so I'm going to see if I can record some of the BlazBlue (and maybe KOFXII, if they ever fix the netcode) matches that I've been saving. In particular xephyris and myself had a great set of matches last weekend…I'll be sure to post them up here once I've uploaded them somewhere.
I tried playing online. The lag was so bad that the game was running at less than 1/2 speed, and some fuckwit who didn't know how to play managed to beat me with his laggy Joe after I beat his other two characters with Kyo alone. RAGE
I'll post more thoughts about BlazBlue later
For now, let me just say 'omg the netcode in this game is really good.'
I just played 5 pretty much lag-free (or lag-really-well-hidden) matches. Lost 4 of them, but I'm a crappy player so that's to be expected I guess :p
If you have the PS3 version, hit me up with an invite if you see me online. PSN ID is SonicTempest.
And yes, I use Ragna the Sol Badguy.
Incoherent rambling
June 28th, 2009 | Category: Anime,Gaming,Randomness,Real life stuff,Science/Tech
About time for one of these posts, I think.
I've found a new place in downtown Seattle that I'll be moving to next month. My current complex is honestly not that bad except for two problems:
The ISP choices are terrible (I currently have 1.5Mbps DSL, which is the highest speed available)
There isn't really much of anything within reasonable walking distance
The new place has a supermarket on the ground floor (yay) and a few restaurants within walking distance. The ISP is Comcast, which may be dubious to some but I'm willing to go through the annoying setup process if it means I get a download rate from this century. The only downside is that I'll either need to take a bus or a company shuttle to work, but eh, I need to start getting up earlier anyway. Getting all my stuff moved over is going to be a pain though…the number of my possessions has increased considerably since I moved to Seattle.
Speaking of Internet, I braved uTorrent a while back to watch some fansubbed anime, namely the first two episodes of K-On! I like it, but I probably won't be able to watch the rest of it since BitTorrent basically nukes my connection (for reasons I haven't figured out yet).
Still waiting for Sony to patch in PS2 support for the Madcatz SF4 sticks…I figure if it doesn't come within another few patches I may just sell this to buy a HRAP3 (which does work for PS2 games). As it stands I need to use my old Tekken 5 stick over an adapter, and going from the awesome Sanwa joystick + buttons to the decent-ish Hori stick and buttons is…well, it's like owning a Ferrari and driving a Honda instead, if you get my drift.
Installed iPhone OS 3.0 last week. My phone seems to be a lot more responsive now, so it's obvious they've put some work into performance. I don't use copy/paste much, but the push notifications have been very handy – I finally installed an IM client (Beejive) on my phone thanks to this new feature. Of course, if the damn thing supported background tasks in the first place this wouldn't be an issue…
That said, I kind of wish AT&T didn't want $400 from me for the 3GS. That new camera and faster CPU are really enticing.
I took out my guitar for the first time in months today, and all I can say for now is 'wtf I suck.' Hopefully this will change.
Back on the leash, sort of
June 23rd, 2009 | Category: Gaming
So today's the 18th anniversary of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive/Genesis. It seems fitting, therefore, that I have some thoughts on one of the more recent Sonic games (which I bought after I traded in a bunch of Wii games) – Sonic Unleashed for PS3.
I find the core platforming mechanics (at least those in the daytime stages) to be much improved over Sonic 2006 – for one, Sonic Team has finally realised that modern gamepads have more than two buttons on them, and therefore all your face buttons are now used for non-overlapping actions. Not having to start the level from scratch because the game thought you wanted to do a bounce attack instead of a light dash even though you were in mid-air right next to a line of rings is definitely an improvement. On top of that, the game also shows you when your homing attack will actually hit something, as opposed to previous games where it was pretty much luck of the draw.
The daytime stages also draw more from Sonic Adventure 2 than Sonic 2006 – no more lifebars on enemies, and a much bigger emphasis on having to know the 'best' route through a stage in order to get an S-rank. However, it also takes a significant feature from Sonic Rush – the boost system. Knowing when to boost can sometimes be important (for instance, boosting off a ramp can help you reach alternate routes or items that are higher up), but otherwise it doesn't really add to the game much. Much like in Rush, there isn't any reason why you wouldn't want to be holding down boost all the time (the only exception is when you need to drift).
Fortunately, there are at least some stages where the game at least tries to make it harder for you to hold down boost, either by tossing numerous obstacles like spike traps and gaps that need to be maneuvred in quick succession, or by limiting the amount of rings present in a stage so that your boost capability is limited. These stages are usually found through town missions – while these mostly consisted of idiotic, mundane tasks in Sonic 2006, in Unleashed they typically whisk you off into a modified version of one of the daytime stages – versions that have usually been modified to be somewhat harder, containing more obstacles or featuring stringent time limits. Overall, the daytime stages are a pretty fun romp, and definitely the most fun I've had with a 3D Sonic since SA2.
That said, I still think the nighttime stages have no business being in this game. They're a drag on the entire experience, and are not anywhere near as entertaining as the daytime stages. The platforming is very pedestrian, with nothing really special about it (and also features some weird control bugs), and the combat mainly consists of mindlessly mashing the same buttons over and over. There's no real lock-on system, so flailing madly is pretty much the best strategy in most situations. There's a block button and tons of combos, but there are one or two combos that overpower basically everything else in your arsenal, and you almost never need to block as there are very few things that can do significant amounts of damage to you. There are fewer nighttime stages than daytime stages, but they make up for the lack of number by being annoyingly long. Their length, combined with their utter blandness, only serves to make me wonder why these levels exist. Would it not have been better to include more obstacle-based platforming areas in the daytime stages?
Other changes that have been added to the game include an experience and level up system, although this only really matters for the nighttime stages – daytime Sonic has only two attributes, which control his top speed and the length of his boost meter, and leveling them up didn't affect my experience of the game much. The Werehog has many more attributes, although the only really important ones are the ones that control attack power and learning new moves. If the Werehog weren't in this game, there would be even less reason for this system to exist than there is now.
The visuals and audio are definitely an upgrade from Sonic 2006, featuring things like dynamic shadows, proper bump mapping and a very detailed set of stages for you to run around in. The draw distance is impressive, with very little of the pop-in that plagued Sonic Teams's earlier current-generation console effort. The PS3 version of Unleashed does have some odd framerate issues – while the framerate isn't locked to 30fps like the 360 version's is, it experiences ridiculous amounts of slowdown in some of the hub areas and Werehog stages, as well as some of the more effect-intensive stages like Adabat.
Overall, Unleashed feels like two steps forward and one step back, really. The daytime stages are entertaining and occasionally challenging (an attribute that is rare in Sonic games these days) but the whole package would really be better off for the exclusion of the nighttime stages. The effort spent on developing them would have been better spent on improving the daytime stages – I'd have loved to see some of the alternate routes from the Wii version make an appearance here, for instance.
The E3 post I should have written a month ago
June 22nd, 2009 | Category: Gaming
Yeah, I'm late. I've been busy :p
There was some interesting stuff at E3, I guess. Of particular interest to me were the following:
Left 4 Dead 2 – yeah, I'm looking forward to it. There's been a lot of bitching about the timing of the release (just a year after the first game came out) and I understand some of it, particularly since L4D has only gotten two significant updates since its release (the first being the major patch that buffed the Infected in versus mode, and the second being the Survival Pack). However, the point of a sequel is to improve upon the original's mechanics, and it looks like L4D2 will do this, with more weapons, more enemy types (the new Charger special Infected should make corner camping a fair bit harder) and the Director now being able to control the weather (which affects visibility) and the routes you can take through the level. Given that, I'm very much willing to shell out another $50 to try it.
Metroid: Other M – This came out of nowhere, really. The fact that Team Ninja is developing something for the Wii is pretty much enough to get me excited. While my experience with Ninja Gaiden is limited to the DS version (lol) and the demo for Ninja Gaiden Sigma, as well as an hour or so playing Ninja Gaiden II on my friend's 360, and if this new Metroid game is anything like it then it will definitely be worth playing.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 – more Mario Galaxy? Yes please.
Mass Effect 2 – I thought Mass Effect was a game that failed to live up to what it could have been – it had an enormous universe to explore…which mostly consisted of barren planets with abandoned mines/military bases/laboratories, all of which must have been built with prefabs or something seeing how they repeated the same 4 level layouts again and again. The combat system was decent enough, although the much-hyped dialogue tree system wasn't really anything that hadn't been done before. If anything I'd have preferred a system that didn't separate your options into 'Obvious Good Choice', 'Obvious Neutral Choice' and 'Obvious Bad Choice.' There have been games that have done this already, and I'm not sure why so many devs seems to be married to it. In any case, Bioware claims that ME2 will have less barren planets, and that the choices you made in ME1 will have actual consequences for your ME2 game. On top of that they've apparently beefed up the combat with new features like location-based damage and an improved cover system. I guess I'll keep an eye on it.
Assassin's Creed II – I'm playing the first game right now, and while it's a pretty fun action game, all the people who called out the pointless overworld (which can fortunately be skipped after you've visited all the cities) and the lack of investigation types are pretty much right on the money. While this game seems to have added a bunch of new combat moves, I don't know that it's addressed the real problems with the game. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it has, but interviews like this don't really do much for my confidence.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The first Uncharted is still one of the best PS3 exclusives out there, and its sequel seems to improve on it with a more involved melee system and more enemy variation. Hopefully the combat set-pieces are just as exciting as the first game's.
That's basically it, I guess. Borderlands seems kind of interesting, but I want to know more about it before I decide whether I should look forward to it or not – right now it seems to be a first-person Diablo II with guns.
Tomorrow being a 'special occasion', I'll have a more in-depth post on a game I've been playing on my PS3 for the last week or so.
Gaming odds and ends
March 13th, 2009 | Category: Gaming
This post might be a little disjointed – I've been playing a bunch of games recently and thought I'd just pen down my thoughts in one single post since I don't really want to write five separate posts in one night.
Valve has patched the game twice since the Scout update, yet the Sandman remains unfixed (although they did manage to break rocket jumping while trying to fix an exploit that made it harder for Snipers to get headshots, and they did break Natascha's slowdown effect yet again). I've played in a few big games since the update, and I'd say the stun is overpowered even if you discount the fact that it affects ubercharges. I have not yet seen a single Scout that doesn't try to tag me with the ball the moment I see them, and in a few circumstances they've managed to stun me for extended periods at close range, allowing them a free kill. One particular incident that comes to mind occurred on the second point of the second stage of Dustbowl – I was playing Soldier and standing on the point when a Scout ran out from the central tunnel, ran up to the point and threw his ball at me. I was stunned for a good 3 seconds or so, and this was from being tagged at close range.
The response from the competitive community has been very clear. CEVO has banned the Sandman, and from what I've heard a bunch of the other leagues like ETF2L have followed suit. Keep in mind that this is the first unlockable weapon that they've actually banned. If I recall correctly they didn't even ban the Pyro's Backburner back when it granted a ridiculous 50-point health bonus.
The response from the rest of the TF2 community has been less distinct. While there are a few players who recognise that the weapon is clearly overpowered, the vast majority of the community's response has been 'LOL LERN2TEAMWORK.' By this they're implying that somehow Pyros need to have their entire team with them when they try to circle behind enemy lines to attempt an ambush, so that they can successfully fend off a class that they were previously on a reasonably even footing against. And of course, if your Medic successfully builds up an ubercharge by being a good healer and deploys it on a friendly Demoman in order to take out a Sentry farm, only to have his uber rendered useless by a flying baseball, that's his fault for not being a team player.
Surely the absurdity is obvious.
I'm hoping that, like they did with the Backburner, Valve will realise what a terrible beast they've unleashed and make some sort of fix. A popular suggestion seems to be to change the stun effect to something akin to the effect of Team Fortress Classic's concussion grenades, but honestly I think they need to go back to the drawing board with this unlock. Never mind that there are a few achievements that depend on it – go back to the design phase and get it right this time. And for God's sake stop getting your unlock ideas from the Steam forums.
I'm starting to wonder if I should be playing Fortress Forever instead…
This was recently on sale on Steam for the irresistable price of $5. I'd only ever played the demo previous to this, and I thought it was alright, so I decided to see what the full game was like (even though the superior Colonies Edition is out now). I've played the first few missions, and it's not too bad. I can't quite get 60fps out of it, but shooting up giant bugs in snowy wastelands is pretty fun. My main complaints so far are that the game is kind of easy (I haven't died once yet) and that Wayne's default movement speed is a little on the slow side, even when he's piloting one of the giant VS mechs. I guess I'll see if these continue to be problems as I progress through the game.
Still, this has me interested in the recently-announced sequel – I wonder what improvements Capcom will bring to the table.
King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
I started playing KOF (and indeed, fighting games) with King of Fighters '99, but I respect KOF'98's place in the order of things. Given that disclaimer, I rather like '98UM. It doesn't have most of my favourite characters, but the (remarkably solid) system changes they've made to the original game make this a must-buy for any KOF fan, I'd say. Most of the changes they've made revolve around making Extra mode more interesting, and it seems to have worked. Extra mode users now benefit from the ability to cancel normals into dodges, and to cancel certain special attacks directly into MAX mode. On top of that they can choose when they want to break stock unlike vanilla '98 where the bar started draining as soon as it filled up.
In addition, the new Ultimate mode, which allows you to mix-and-match subsystems from both modes, poses some interesting possibilities. Do you want the mobility afforded by the roll, or will you trade that for the ability to dodge and quickly counterattack (and extend your combos using the quick dodge)? Do you want the ability to do SDMs at any life level, or would you rather have the ability to max out in mid-combo for the possibility of turning your otherwise staid B&B combo into a more damaging variant?
As for the quality of the port itself, fortunately the US version of the game seems to have turned out pretty well – progressive scan support is intact, and as far as I can tell the game has been brought over more or less unmolested, which should be a relief for anyone who was horrified by Ignition's handling of the PAL versions of King of Fighters XI and NeoGeo Battle Coliseum.
So yeah, if you don't have the import version already, go out and get this one. It's $20 – you really have no excuse if you claim to be a KOF fan.
I'm still getting used to the physics and timings, but at the very least my win ratio seems to have improved a little (in that it is no longer zero). My MadCatz Tournament Edition FightStick arrived two weeks late, but I used the Amazon gift certificate I was given as compensation to buy a PS2->PS3 controller adapter so I could use my old Tekken 5 Hori stick with the game until it arrived (makes me wonder why I didn't do it earlier, actually). So far I've mainly been sticking to Ryu and Abel, with some failed attempts at using Fei Long and Dhalsim (both of whom apparently have a pretty steep learning curve). I've played a few games online, mainly against Orochinagi members; I've played a few random strangers, although I haven't run into any of the Ken players of legend. I suppose I should be thankful.
On a side note, the MadCatz stick doesn't work for PS2 games. I don't know why I didn't see this coming, as this was also the case for the Sega Virtua Stick and the Hori PS3 sticks when they were released. The best I can hope for is for support to be added in the next PS3 firmware update, I guess.
Now, I haven't actually had a chance to play this game yet, but PS3 and 360 ports were announced recently. A lot of fighter fans are understandably excited about this, but a potential issue with the port has already been raised. The arcade version of BlazBlue runs at 1280×768/768p, while both current-generation consoles are locked to outputting at 1280×720/720p (and indeed, won't let you play the game at its native resolution). The full extent of the problem is laid out pretty clearly over at the Insomnia forums.
In short, it looks like the great sprites and backgrounds are in danger of being butchered by scaling. If the blurry upscaled sprites in all of SNK Playmore's Atomiswave releases bugged you, well, this is just as bad. Possibly worse, since it's one of the first high-definition 2D fighters, and really deserves more respect.
At this point, given that ArcSys can't go back in time and re-program the game to output 720p in the first place, the only real thing they can do is to crop 48 lines from the top and bottom of the display to avoid affecting the sprites. This is what they seem to have done, but the screenshots still lack the definition of the arcade version. A rep from Aksys (the company handling the US release) has gone on the record as saying that apparently the screenshots they released of the 360 and PS3 versions were smaller in size to make them 'download friendly'. This just seems ridiculous to me, given that stuff like this is typically distributed through special press FTP servers where presumably bandwidth wouldn't be a concern.
We'll have to see how this shakes out, but I am rather worried that we'll end up getting a butchered port of one of the first high-def 2D fighters.
I have Street Fighter IV
February 22nd, 2009 | Category: Gaming
More coherent thoughts later, but here are some initial impressions:
The physics seem weird, even for a Street Fighter game. I don't recall having this much trouble timing jump-ins the few times I played Third Strike.
The challenge mode is kind of useful in that it tells you which normals are cancellable, gives you a bunch of combos and links, and has you try to do them. I don't think it's as robust as Virtua Fighter 4's which actually had you practice using your moves/strings in different situations, but the combo lists did help at the very least.
The network features seem pretty robust, only hampered by PSN's crappy interface for sending invites (it piggybacks on top of the normal instant messaging system).
I'm probably going to take some flak for this, but I'm still not a huge fan of the art style used in-game. It looks polished and all, but some part of me is still wondering what this game might have looked like had it been in 2D.
Having to unlock a third of the roster by slogging through single-player modes that I don't have much interest in is kind of annoying.
In any case, I'm not really going to be playing online until I get my PS3 stick, which should arrive on Tuesday (playing on the Dual Shock controller is starting to give my right hand cramps). I've unlocked everyone except Gouken and Seth by this point, so I'm trying to figure out who I want to learn how to play. I'm thinking Ryu (lol), Abel or Fei Long…
So I just played the RE5 demo on my PS3
February 03rd, 2009 | Category: Gaming
I've only played the Wii version of Resident Evil 4, so someone please tell me – were the aiming controls as sluggish in the PS2 and GameCube versions of RE4 as they are in RE5? I don't mind that you can't run and gun like you can in Uncharted, but seriously even on the 'Fastest' setting the cursor moves way too slowly.
The Wii version supports classic controllers, so I suppose I could go figure that out for myself…
On another, happier note, Valve has updated Team Fortress 2 today with what most people would regard as a surprisingly good update. Among the changes are a couple of things that the competitive crowd has been asking for for a long time:
The ability to turn off random damage at the server level (something which I alluded to in an earlier post)
The ability to turn off weapon models or adjust the weapon models' FOV (to improve the viewing area)
The ability to turn off the 'nemesis' icon above characters' heads (this was giving away enemy positions)
In addition, they've made changes to how critical hits and random damage work in the normal game – the ranges for random damage have been reduced from ±25% to ±10%, meaning that we should no longer see the Demoman occasionally one-shotting Scouts and Snipers with his grenades. On top of that critical hits have been changed, and for the better, I think. The base chance to crit that every player has has been reduced from 5% to 2%, and the maximum it can go is now 12% as opposed to 20% before. On the other hand, Valve has also reduced the amount of damage you need to deal in order to get a bonus to your crit chance. The idea (according to them) is to make crits less random and more based on recent performance, which is a good idea – in theory, at least.
There are a bunch of other fixes, most of which are assorted class buffs and bugfixes. They're mostly being overshadowed by the stuff I mentioned above, though – the Steam forums are honestly going nuts right now. And this is before the Scout update has even been revealed…
Whittling down the backlog
January 30th, 2009 | Category: Gaming
This past weekend I cleared another couple of games off my backlog – Metal Gear Solid 3 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
First off, here's what I thought of MGS3 as a whole.
The removal of the passive radar system from all previous games makes the game somewhat harder since you'll have to lurk unseen to figure out what the guards' patrol routes are. On the other hand, though, I thought the food and camouflage systems were pretty useless – the former is basically there to annoy the hell out of you by forcing you to hunt for food every few minutes and the latter is redundant since the camouflage types come equipped with a handy percentage value to tell you exactly what you should be wearing when. The cure system seems similarly ultimately pointless since the game pretty much tells you exactly what you need to use to cure your wound – and I never ran out of supplies (at least on Normal difficulty).
That said, it did have some great moments – the boss battles are way better than MGS2's for sure (with the exception of one), and I found the lack of backtracking through the same areas (for the most part) to be an improvement over the first two games' almost excessive use of it. The action sequences are generally less awkward than those in the first two games, although the first part of the game (when silencers are in short supply) is somewhat harder than the rest of the game.
So yeah, I thought it was a decent game, with some odd trappings that didn't really make sense.
As for Uncharted, I thought it was generally a well-polished third-person shooter. It's not quite like Resident Evil 4 where you have an inventory and can stock up on items, guns and other such stuff, nor can you really buy items. Healing and weapons are handled similarly to the Halo series, in that you can only have 2 weapons at any given time (one single-handed weapon and one double-handed weapon), and that you recover health gradually after avoiding damage for a certain period of time. In addition, unlike RE4 you can move while in 'aiming mode', and can also 'fire from the hip' while running. The game also features a Gears of War-like cover mechanic, which is pretty much the main way you avoid taking damage during combat.
Overall, as Yahtzee mentioned in his review, it's a game that borrows extensively from games that came before it, and ends up being somewhat greater than the sum of its parts. I actually think it isn't quite as challenging as RE4, partly because the enemy AI is somewhat retarded and partly because of all the additional abilities Nathan Drake has over Leon Kennedy. Still, I'd say it's definitely worth checking out if you have a PS3.
So I've beaten the only PS3 game that I have…I suppose I could get Metal Gear Solid 4 if I wanted to.
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What others think
sonictempest on I haven't done anything for the last six months
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NeoChaos on Pot, Kettle, etc
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