text:
The Mental Attic
Think Better, Think Bigger!
Ultimate Beastmaster – Gaming Edition
Annoying Game Mechanics
Awesome Game Mechanics
The Weekly Puzzle
YouTube & Twitch
Rezzed 2016 – Versus Evil and The Indie Room
Rezzed is a gaming event and there are AAA titles on show, but ultimately it's about indie developers and their products and much like last year, the number of amazing […]
Rezzed is a gaming event and there are AAA titles on show, but ultimately it's about indie developers and their products and much like last year, the number of amazing titles was simply astounding. From the ones independently published to those in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign, they all had something new and interesting to offer to our beloved industry.
One of the stops on my first day was the Versus Evil room, as they had not only The Banner Saga 2 there, which I previewed recently—and the reason I'm not including it in today's write-up—but also a couple of new games I wanted to try. After that, I went to what would become my usual haunt during the following days: The Indie Room, where they collected most of the indie developers that weren't part of another group, such as the Square Enix Collective sponsored developers.
Here are the games I saw while visiting the Versus Evil folks and the massive indie room!
Like a Boss (Fire Horse Games | Versus Evil) tugged at my World of Warcraft heartstrings. As WoW players, we've gone into terrifying raids and challenged monsters for which we were but gnats. We came out on top and conquered them and got that sweet, sweet loot. Then we farmed them to oblivion. But how, do you suppose, are things from the Bosses' point of view? It's probably an endless stream of mediocre to intimidating raiders every day of every week, to the point where it feels like they're just fighting endless waves of them.
Stand in bad, raiders! Stand in bad!
That's what Like a Boss is all about, as you don't play as the raiders but the bosses, the giant menacing creatures inhabiting the dungeons. You chill around in your boss room and then the waves come. You need to take out the healers, then crash through the tanks, make the DPS stand in fire and kill them. Gain experience, level up and unlock new monstrous abilities as more raiders come and fight you, with ever-increasing abilities and health.
The only problem for you is their unending chatter. "Heals, plz," and other such nonsense on a regular basis, but there's one easy fix for that: kill the healers.
Die!!
Ok, in all seriousness, Like a Boss is a mobile/table action RPG game—much like Diablo—that puts you in the shoes of a myriad of MMO-style bosses as you fight wave after wave of hopeful raiders.
It's a lot of fun, and WoW players will get a tremendous kick out of it.
Let Them Come (Klemen Lozar | Versus Evil) was on alpha version at Rezzed, and yet what we had there showed the core mechanics perfectly. You stand at the end of a corridor, with a machinegun and your favourite tunes on the radio. Down the tunnel come swarms of alien insects. Imagine yourself in one of those hopeless scenes in Starship Troopers, and you get the idea of what Let Them Come is like.
The more you shoot, the longer you survive and the more stuff you unlock to help you survive even bigger onslaughts.
Come get some!!
Let Them Come's has a one-man development team, and at the time of writing, he still doesn't have his own studio, though Versus Evil officials told me they're helping him set one up. It's a simple game, sure, the mechanics are straightforward, but having played it for a little while I can assure you it's going to be an addictive thing once it's complete.
It'll be one of those, "I'll just do one more wave," kind of games.
Man O' War: Corsair (Evil Twin Artworks) There were a few Warhammer games at Rezzed, but while I like Vermintide and find Total War: Warhammer (aka Total Warhammer) intriguing, Man O' War is my favourite of the lot. Taking place in an era in the past of Warhammer Fantasy before Chaos had come in and wrecked the place, the game puts you in charge of a ship and its crew as you take jobs and fight menaces on the seas.
And when I say menaces, I don't just mean Orcs, though the lovable greenskins are here with their cobbled-together and highly lethal ships, but also giant sea monsters. The demo had you fight a Megalodon of all things, with both canons and the captain with a blunderbuss. Talk about making an impact in a demo. I loved it!
But what really makes this game so cool for me is that since playing the Kenway Saga of Assassin's Creed, I've taken a big liking to naval combat games, and Man O' War combines that new fascination of mine with the Warhammer universe. The only thing that could top that, for me, would be having the Warcraft universe instead!
Expeditions: Viking (Logic Artists) is the latest entry into the Expeditions series. I'll be honest, I had only heard of the other Expedition games but Viking was the first one I tried. You control the leader of a band of Vikings raiding lands in search for gold and glory and the demo on show at Rezzed had one such mission, where you had to travel into a burial mound and claim the treasure therein. The problem is, the local hamlet didn't like people going into their sacred place and when you ask him about the sweet, sweet booty inside, he demands a sacrifice.
For glory!!!
I'm all about respecting people's traditions, but I smelled something fishy here so I said no, plundered the mountain and came out and brought the hamlet leadership to their knees. Why? Because I knew it was a trick, they just liked killing people. Their focus wasn't on protecting their riches or even their customs and the "sacred spirits," as they're more than happy to trade it all for someone to kill.
And in making me take those choices, in presenting me with scenarios where I could analyse the morality of the situation and make my own judgement, Expeditions: Viking hooked me in. I was only sad that I couldn't keep playing, the demo ended there, because I wanted to know more, to take my Viking to his land and build and improve my settlement.
Trippy mountain. Are those elves?
The combat was tactical, moving fighters in a hex grid, and very fun. I did recommend them adding in panning, to move around the area with the mouse, as it's how most of us would explore battleground in these kind of games. They mentioned tabbing between units as another option they were considering and I told them it was a brilliant idea.
Expeditions: Viking is still some time away from release and even previews, but when it's available, I'll be showing it to you, because you have to see it. It is frankly great and I know for certain that I've only skimmed the surface of what the title has to offer.
Frozen Synapse 2 (Mode 7 Games) was very strange for me. I remember playing Rainbow Six and planning where my soldiers would go, where they'd use their grenades and where they'd take out enemies. And I remember those plans always failing. But what if I could control what's happening on a turn-by-turn basis? I could set where my guys are going, then once that action resolves I can then change my strategy. That's what you do in Frozen Synapse 2. Even more, you can run simulations on the enemies themselves, try out different scenarios depending on their own behaviour. It's quite good, and I know many people, my brother-in-law among them, who would spend hours carefully designing the right strategy to fight enemy soldiers.
Massive city to explore and, I hope, CONQUER!
I mention my brother-in-law and I realise this would be the game for him for a second reason, and that is that Frozen Synapse 2 features a massive city with different factions, forces, allies and enemies to interact with, via either negotiation or hostility in a way that is very reminiscent—and a clear inspiration according to Mode 7 Games—to XCOM Apocalypse, where things shift over time, particularly the markets and the balance of power.
If you like this sort of complex and intriguing take on the strategy and tactics genre, then you should really keep an eye out for Frozen Synapse 2. For me it's a game I'll enjoy with the danger of staying in an endless loop of retrying scenarios.
Tokyo 42 (SMAC Games) mixes a ton of action games, classics in the genre like Grand Theft Auto, with action movies of the 90s and many more sources of inspiration, but it does so in a "micro" way, at least that's how the developers put it. There are assassinations and disguises with the same rules as Hitman, but condensed into its simplest form possible, there are stealth mechanics and fortresses like those in Ubisoft titles, but again, in its simples and smallest unit. You have gunfights and bullet hells, but you take one shot and it's done my friend.
Combine this with a 3D-modelled isometric and extremely colourful and charming version of Tokyo and you start getting the idea of what makes Tokyo 42 so special. The 3D environment lets you change the perspective and find new ways to explore. Your character can jump impossible heights and survive deadly falls because they want you to explore, to find all the secrets and play the game as you want it, with your own playstyle at the front.
Agent 42 lines the shot!
The demo had a small section of a futuristic Tokyo, which is bright and colourful in the daylight, because, as the developers said it, "In Blade Runner it's always night, but you know, there are also days, or at least there are in our universe!" But as they mentioned to me in our chat, the game will have a city that is about ten times as big as the demo, with factions, missions and much more, all for you to explore. There's even a nudist colony!
It's big, silly and very, very fun!
Perpetual Night (Studio Genkan) is a curious game, a 2D platforming adventure currently in development and Kickstarter. The game stars a young girl transported to a mysterious dimension-travelling castle that kidnaps people from different realms and forces them to work within its walls in menial tasks. The protagonist is looking for her brother, another hapless victim of the fortress and its master.
But as the castle is not normal and travels to dangerous places, the light within its walls isn't normal either and so to protect the girl, and presumably all its workers, the castle grants her the ability to transform into a satyr-like shadow beast while under certain light spectrums. The new form is a painful and even dehumanising transformation for the girl, but it comes in handy for its greater agility.
She looks cute now, wait until the light shines!
Perpetual Night impressed me considerably, because its demo was very good, very long and showed all mechanics perfectly, and it's still in Kickstarter. With so many projects on the platform without even a prototype, it's refreshing and quite exciting to see one with such a degree of work already done. And not only that but the story is interesting and the gameplay, combining careful timing and tricky platforming, is very fun. Yes, there's still lots of work left to do on Perpetual Night, but I'm confident they can pull it off!
Doctor Kvorak's Obliteration Game (Freekstorm) has the funniest and cruelest concept I've seen in adventure gaming in a long while. You play as a little blue alien, captured from your home world by a deity so bored with eternity that it's decided to create a reality TV show and force the universe to watch it. The Obliteration Game is so named because failure to complete the tasks will result in planets exploding.
Our lord and master!
The game takes place on a giant arena separated into a myriad of rooms, each with traps and puzzles you have to overcome, and pieces of Saviour Stones to collect to save the planets. What I liked about this approach is that you can clearly see how much more you'll have to go through before the game's end. Your little blue alien waddles his way pushing buttons, changing power sources, moving boxes and solving logic puzzles. It can jump but any fall higher than a few inches will cause it to collapse. I wasn't a big fan of this, particularly as some puzzles involve some backtracking and jumping down platforms would've helped immensely, but I do agree with the developers at Freekstorm, that the weakness matches the character's build and design. It is a tender chubby little thing.
Isn't he cute?
I played through the full demo and found the puzzles quite interesting, not very hard but unique in their approach, as sometimes to collect a Saviour Stone shard you need to drag elements from one puzzle to another to power a mechanism. It reminds me of collecting stars in The Talos Principle, only here the Saviour Stone shards are obligatory to progress.
Speaking of stars though, Doctor Kvorak's Obliteration Game has gems, stars and other collectibles strewn across the different puzzle levels, and collecting all of them unlocks new skins for the characters. While making my alien look like a panda is funny, I would like these collectibles to have a deeper meaning, a greater use or have them removed entirely. It's my opinion of course.
On a final note, the game is available for VR and I gave it a shot…only to remove the Oculus Rift about ten seconds later because I was already queasy. The Rift does not love me!
Seraph (Dreadbit Games) is a game I really liked when I saw it. The developers describe it as an "acrobatic shooter." Your character, the angel Seraph—could use a better name there, guys—needs to escape her demon-infested prison and recover her powers, and she'll do so with grace, aplomb and the ability to double jump and dash in any direction.
It's a pretty fast-paced game and platforming is precise and challenging. Combat is interesting with the character auto-aiming at enemies, leaving you to only shoot, which you can do mid-jump or during one of her dashes. If you keep moving and firing, it's beauty and violence in motion. It's the closest we'll ever get to the Gun-Katas of Equilibrium.
And I dig that!
The Black Death (Small Impact Games) is not my kind of game. I know it's a terrible way to start a description but it's the truth. It's a survival game, and I thoroughly hate this genre, I dislike micromanaging my resources, keeping my character well fed and hydrated. I have enough stress doing that in real life—though my issue is usually not with starving as it is overeating but that's another story entirely—to add them into a game.
Having said so, I think it's a brilliant direction for the genre. The Black Death is a medieval survival game. What does this mean? No preservatives, no canned food, stuff rots fairly easily and if you eat something bad you might get an infection, same if you get hurt. And what happens to someone in medieval times who gets an infection? He learns to live with it…for as long as that life lasts anyway.
Make sure you cook that!
It makes for a very tense game, one where you have to be careful about what you pick up, what trouble you get into and how your keep your guy healthy. And while that is great in theory, for me, it's nightmarish in practice.
But if survival is your game, you should probably give this a shot!
Not a good place to get in trouble
Syndrome (Camel 101) is perhaps my favourite survival horror in the past few years. The reason is simple: you're not helpless. You can pick up weapons and defend yourself. But, and this is the big one, resources are limited so hiding and running away is always an option to save up on ammo and other stuff. The time I spent playing Syndrome showed me that I had a choice in how I played the game, how I approached every moment against a scary thing.
I like that and I hope it doesn't suffer from the "armoury" issue that plagues most weapons-ready survival horrors, where you carry so much stuff on you that you have no reason to fear anything. The scarcity will help.
Looks creepy as hell!
But beyond that, Syndrome also has a wonderful atmosphere and when I mentioned it reminded me a lot of Event Horizon—the most amazing sci-fi horror film of all time, no arguments allowed—they mentioned it inspired them a bit, with Virus being the heaviest source of film inspiration.
The atmosphere was so good, so strong on the fear factor that Art Director, and fellow Croatian (though he's the real kind, not Croatian-lite like me) Boris Raguza had to tell me not to worry because we were on the safe part of the game, no scary bits yet, just so I would keep moving with more confidence instead of creeping around every single corner.
Antioch: Scarlet Bay (Mi-Clos Studios) is a game I read about but didn't actually play at the event. But I caught up with a couple of friends while they were enjoying the title and being the opportunist that I am, I decided to interview the developer right there while their attention was on the game.
Antioch: Scarlet Bay is a detective story but uniquely, it's a co-op one. Played on mobiles with a friend, the game presents the story and choices in text form, with your combined choices affecting the story in a myriad of ways. According to the developer, your partner can even derail your carefully crafted and planned plot, sending you on tangents you never even knew existed.
Amazing artwork!
But it's not just text, but also comic-book-style stills of locations and people and if you scroll up to see your earlier choices or some conversations with key information, you can see them appear in comic-book panels.
Pretty genius if you ask me. As for my companions, they were impressed as well!
When I play this, I'm sure my partner will screw me over!
Tomorrow I'm closing my coverage of Rezzed by telling you which games were my "Best of Rezzed," but I realised that to do so, I needed to give you all the candidates.
And now you have them.
I love how diverse and innovative indie gaming is. It's refreshing in ways the AAA sector of the industry rarely achieves.
Posted on April 14, 2016 5 By Kevin	Gaming Posted in Gaming Tagged #Antioch: Scarlet Bay, Demo, Doctor Kvorak's Obliteration Game, Expeditions: Viking, Frozen Synapse 2, Gaming, Indie, Let Them Come, Like a Boss, longreads, Man O' War: Corsair, Perpetual Night, Rezzed, Rezzed 2016, Seraph, Syndrome, The Black Death, Tokyo 42, Versus Evil, Video game
I love everything readable, writeable, playable and of course, edible! I search for happiness, or Pizza, because it's pretty much the same thing!
I write and ramble on The Mental Attic and broadcast on my Twitch channel, TheLawfulGeek
Expeditions sounds like something I would enjoy.
I'm hoping to get a preview build for it soon so you can see it in action. It's very cool
Pingback: Preview: Man O' War: Corsair | The Mental Attic
Pingback: Preview: Perpetual Night | The Mental Attic
Pingback: Review: Syndrome | The Mental Attic
Next Post Rezzed 2016 – Square Enix Collective
Previous Post Rezzed 2016 – Best of Rezzed
The Lawful Geek's Twittter
Geekout South-West
Quotes from the Tabletop
The Archaeology of Tomb Raider


text:
UGLY BY ACCIDENT?
Posted on December 20, 2015 by thinwahtruth
You do not get this spiritually and socially ugly by accident…. It is basic ISLAMIC belief to conduct jihad in such manner to be a truly devout Muslim. The Ayatollah Khomeini, who dedicated his entire life to studying Islam, said that non-Muslims rank somewhere between "feces" and the "sweat of a camel that has consumed impure food." The Qur'an dehumanizes non-Muslims, describing them as "animals" and beasts:
Those who disbelieve from among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein. They are the worst of creatures. (98:6)
Surely the vilest of animals in Allah's sight are those who disbelieve. (8:55)
Verse 7:176 compares unbelievers to "panting dogs" with regard to their idiocy and worthlessness. Verse 7:179 says they are like "cattle" only worse.
Verse 5:60 says the unbelievers are unclean. Verse 6:111 says they are ignorant. Verse 23:55 says they are helpers of the devil.
Verse 5:60 even says that Allah transformed Jews of the past into apes and pigs. This is echoed by verses 7:166 and 2:65.
According to Islamic law non-Muslims may be owned as property by Muslims. Christians and Jews are not considered fully human. Non-Muslims are to be encroached on, pressured and punished by the Muslims: We shall punish them gradually from directions they perceive not. (68:44) And He made you heirs to their land and their dwellings and their property, and (to) a land which you have not yet trodden, and Allah has power over all things. (33:27, See also Bukhari 53:392)
CANADA: YOU HAVE INVITED THIS IN THROUGH ONCE AGAIN BEING DUPED BY ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA EMPLOYING SYRIAN CHILDREN.
You have bitten off a big chunk of stupid if you think ISIS supporters are not true adherents to the surah as they only emulate their insane prophet Muhammad. A hadith (Bukhari 54:524) says that Muhammad believed rats to be "mutated Jews". Verses 46:29-35 even say that unbelieving men are worse than the demons who believe in Muhammad. The Qur'an says that people of other religions are to be violently punished in this world. Allah himself fights against the unbelievers (9:30), so why should Muslims not fight in his cause rather than in the cause of evil (4:76)?
Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies and others besides, whom ye may not know (8:60)
Strive hard (Jihad) against the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is Hell, an evil refuge indeed. (66:9, See also 9:73)
Muslims are to expect a reward in this life as well as the next (4:134), so it makes sense to them that unbelievers should be punished in this life as well. There are at least two places in the Quran where the violent death of non-Muslims is referred to as Allah's reward for unbelief (2:191, 9:26), as in "such is the reward for unbelievers." Verse 3:56, bluntly states that "those who reject faith" will be "punished with terrible agony in this world" (a vow that Muhammad and his companions personally took it upon themselves to fulfill).
The Quran tells Muslims that Allah uses them to violently punish others: Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace… (9:14)
Allah could slay unbelievers himself, but he makes it a test for Muslims to prove their faith: "If it had been Allah's Will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you). But (He lets you fight), in order to test you, by means of others. But those who are killed in the Way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost" (47:4)
Non-Muslims are to be fought until all religion is only for Allah. Those with "diseased hearts" – which include Christians and Jews according to 5:52 – are to be "seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter" (33:60-62) along with "hypocrites" (Muslims who are judged not to be true believers by their associations with unbelievers or their unwillingness to engage in Jihad). In the end, all beings on heaven and earth will be forced to bow down to Allah, either willingly or by force: And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly (13:15) One of the most violent chapters in the Quran charges Muhammad and his followers with making Islam "superior over all religions" (9:33).
CANADA: YOU HAVE INVITED THIS IN THROUGH ONCE AGAIN BEING DUPED BY ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA EMPLOYING SYRIAN CHILDREN AND WOMEN.
ISIS are the current Islamic terrorist flavor to savor for the devout Muslim, but our African Boko Haram boys have killed far more than our …Middle Eastern Islamic Camel Jockey terrorist jerks…. But what difference does it make where the Muslim enacts his killer instincts? Islam incorporates the ultimate devaluation of non-Muslims in the most obvious way by teaching that while a Muslim may be punished with death for murdering a fellow Muslim (Bukhari 83:17), no Muslim can be put to death for killing a non-Muslim (Bukhari 83:50, 3:111 – Muhammad: "No Muslim can be killed for killing a kafir."). The Quran's "Law of Equality," which assigns human value and rights based on gender, religion and status, is the polar opposite of equality in the sense intended by Western liberal tradition, which ideally respects no such distinction. The Qur'an says that not all men are equal according to Islam. This even applies to Muslims with regard to their aggressiveness toward unbelievers. Those who kill or are killed on behalf of Islam are more pleasing to Allah: Not equal are those of the believers who sit at home… and those who strive hard and fight in the Cause of Allah with their wealth and lives" (4:95)
Allah provides instructions to Muslims for dealing with unbelievers who are unwilling to accept Islamic rule: Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them." This because they contended against Allah and His Messenger: If any contend against Allah and His Messenger, Allah is strict in punishment. (8:12-13)
CANADA: YOU HAVE INVITED THIS IN THROUGH ONCE AGAIN BEING DUPED BY ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA EMPLOYING SYRIAN CHILDREN, WOMEN AND OLD PERSONS.
No matter which park they play in the 'old Islamic ballgame' entails but three strikes…..your ultimate submission, conversion or death…. About 19% of the Qur'an is devoted to the violent conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims. The pattern of violence and aggressive disregard for human suffering that is persistent in Muslim history and contemporary attitude toward non-believers reflects the message of the Qur'an, which is one of personal superiority and arrogance. Defeating non-Muslims should be easy for true believers because the Qur'an says Muslims are superior in intelligence and understanding: O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred, and if there be of you a hundred (steadfast) they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they (the disbelievers) are a folk without intelligence (8:65)
CANADA, THE SYRIAN MUSLIMS BELIEVE YOU 'ARE A FOLK WITHOUT INTELLIGENCE'……YOU NOT ONLY INVITE THEM IN, BUT YOU ARE ALSO PAYING THEIR WAY IN TO BRING MORE QUICKLY YOUR ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION. IT WOULD APPEAR THEY ARE CORRECT ABOUT YOUR INTELLIGENCE!
"In today's world, Muslim dominance is characterized by the oppression and discrimination of non-Muslims, while Muslim minorities within larger societies are distinguished by their varying degrees of petulant demand, discord and armed rebellion. Few Muslims are truly uncomfortable with this blatant double standard, in which Islam either plays the victim or unapologetically victimizes others, depending on its position of power – and the reason is obvious. Islam is a supremacist ideology in which the role of non-believers is subordinate to the position of Muslims. Those who resist Islamic rule are to be fought until they are either killed or fully humiliated and forced to acknowledge their inferior status by converting to Islam or by paying a poll-tax and otherwise accepting the subjugation of their own religion.
There is simply no other religion on earth that draws such sharp distinction between its own members and others, or devotes as much of its holiest text toward condemning and dehumanizing those who merely choose not to follow its dogma. So much about Islamic terrorism and the general indifference of the broader Muslim community toward the violence makes sense only against this dual nature of Islam. Loyalty to one's own identity group is valued above all else.
If this is a "misunderstanding" of Islam by modern-day "radicals," then it is an error that the founder of Islam made as well. In Muhammad's time, non-Muslims were put to death merely for speaking out against the new religion and its self-proclaimed prophet. Likewise, the Jews of Qurayza were summarily rounded-up and executed on Muhammad's order, even though they had not even fought in battle. Since the life of a non-Muslim is cheap, actual physical harm to a Muslim is not necessary to justify murder according to the example of Muhammad."
TheReligionofPeace.com Home Page
This is a fear maddened world and your only emergency exit from this Islamic insanity remains the Lord Jesus Christ! Repent Canada and ask him to be the Lord of your life!
"Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"
This entry was posted in Uncategorized by thinwahtruth. Bookmark the permalink.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
HomeBarclays ATP World Tour Finals
ATP World Tour Finals Players Preview: (#1) Novak Djokovic
The final article previewing the World Tour Finals takes a look at the year of Novak Djokovic. The Serb recently recovered the No.1 spot in the ATP rankings from Roger Federer after falling to No.2 in July. While Djokovic hasn't quite played to the level of his outstanding 2011 (and it shows in his title count), he has still played excellent and will be a deserved year end No.1.
Titles: Australian Open (Hard), Miami (Hard), Toronto (Hard), Beijing (Hard), Shanghai (Hard)
Djokovic would begin at the Australian Open, dropping just one set (vs Lleyton Hewitt) on his way to the semi finals. Despite going down 2-1 in sets against Andy Murray, he would recover and eventually win in just under five hours. After Murray failed to break at 5-5 in the decider, the Serb would punish him for his wastefulness breaking the very next game to take the final set 7-5. After a marathon semi final, it was an even longer final as he and Nadal slugged it out for 5 hours and 53 minutes – the longest Australian Open match ever. Djokovic failed to close the match out in a fourth set tie break but would seal the title with a 7-5 win in the final set to earn his third win in as many finals against Nadal.
He would fail to defend his titles in Dubai and Indian Wells, being knocked out at the semi final stage in both competitons. While the loss to Andy Murray in Dubai wasn't totally unexpected, losing to John Isner in Indian Wells definitely was. It was an inspired performance from the American though, who came out on top in three sets thanks to tie breaks in the first and third set. However, he would defend Miami gaining revenge on Andy Murray 6-1 7-6 in the final in a tournament where he did not drop one set. David Ferrer and Juan Monaco would also have chances in tie breaks in the quarter final and semi final respectively but would be unable to take advantage.
One of the most astonishing things about his 2011 was his dominance over Rafael Nadal, even on his beloved clay where the Spaniard didn't win a set. However, Nadal would reassert himself beginning with Monte Carlo. He broke 5 times in a 6-3 6-1 win over Djokovic and would also reclaim the title in Rome in straight sets. Between this was the controversial tournament in Madrid, where Djokovic lost to his countryman Janko Tipsarevic in straights. The last chance for a title on the dirt would be in Roland Garros. There were some unconvincing performances including against Andreas Seppi, where he would need to come from two sets down to defeat the Italian. In the next round, he would save four set points against the home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Between him and the final would be Roger Federer, but it would be a fairly easy straight sets victory. Rafael Nadal however would deny Djokovic the only slam title he still doesn't have with a victory in four sets. From 0-2, Djokovic seemingly had momentum at 1-2 and a break up before the weather struck and forced them to delay the match until tomorrow. On resumption, it would be fairly easy for Nadal who picked up the French Open once more.
It was after Wimbledon that Djokovic picked up the No.1 spot last year, and he would eventually lose it after the very same time after 53 weeks on top. He would run into a Roger Federer on top form, who would defeat Djokovic in four on his way to winning a seventh Wimbledon title and picking up the No.1 ranking for the first time since 2010. He would also exit at the other grass event of the summer in the London Olympics, failing to break Andy Murray once in a 7-5 7-5 win to fall into the Bronze Medal match against Juan Martin Del Potro. Del Potro recovered from his four hour epic the previous match to defeat Djokovic in straights.
The return to his favoured hard courts would see Djokovic up his charge for the year end No.1 spot and began with taking the Toronto Masters in what was somewhat of a depleted field. To show his dominance on hard courts – his three set victory over Tommy Haas was the first set he had lost in nine hard court matches. He eventually went in the final to defeat Richard Gasquet in a comfortable 6-3 6-2 where he wasn't broke once. Roger Federer would pull away for a bit longer, defeating Djokovic in straight sets. More surprising than this was the fact that the opening set saw Federer hand out a bagel. Julien Benneteau, Stanislas Wawrinka, Juan Martin Del Potro and David Ferrer amongst others were defeated for the loss of just one set in his run to the final where he would face Andy Murray. Murray would be pegged back from a 2-0 lead as a fifth set would decide the fate of the final slam of the year. A slow start in the fifth would hurt Djokovic, with an early break being key allowing Murray to run away with the set to finally win his first slam of his career.
Consecutive titles were taken in the Asian swing in the form of Beijing and Shanghai. A straight sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sealed the first while in Shanghai he found himself down multiple match points in the final, including on the serve of his opponent Andy Murray. After finally coming out on top in the tie break 13-11, it would be a fairly comfortable third set to take his second title in two weeks.
Djokovic would finally replace Federer at the top of the rankings once more after the Swiss announced his withdrawal from the Paris Masters. He would lose in his opening match to Sam Querrey from 6-0 2-0 up, although personal issues suggest his mind may have been elsewhere.
Tennis Quotes From Last Week Vol.7
Murray beats Berdych in first match of ATP World Tour Finals


This project dealt with timing, frequency, and the phenomenon of persistence of vision. The project required a platform for spinning the display, the display, and the code to run the display.
The base platform is made from sections of 2×4 which provide a sturdy mounting point for the rest of the apparatus. The motor used to spin the LED's platform is mounted on the wood base. Two ATMega328P boards are used, one for the motor and one for the LEDs. The LEDs are mounted in a breadboard on a separate section of light wood. The light wood and attached components all spin with an external battery allowing for two separate sections of the project.
Successfully getting the persistence of vision words displaying correctly required significant tuning to get the right timing. Another challenge was balancing the spinning section which was solved with weights on the opposite end. The complete product works and demonstrates the fascinating nature of persistence of vision.
An application was also made in the Unity Engine to help generate the necessary characters in a reasonable amount of time.
To create our spinning LED display we needed to create a way for the board to communicate with each LED individually. It was important to use an odd number of LEDs so that we could create letters and numbers with a center arm, like E, H, and A. We decided to use 7 LEDs because this number creates a nice height for each letter, and makes the display readable at a distance. The LED display was constructed by creating a ground bus on one side of the breadboard and connecting the cathode of each LED to it. The anode of each LED was then connected to a 100Ω resistor, which in turn connected to a wire which led to the input pin that would control the LED. (refer to schematic below) In this way we were able to send information to each individual LED.
We also needed a simple way to turn the motor on and off, we decided on a slide switch to meet that need. This was created by connecting the positive wire from the motor to ground and the negative end to the center pin of the slide switch. The leftmost pin of this switch was connected to ground while the rightmost pin was connected to 5V. For a bit of fun we created an on/off LED, which was accomplished by running a resistor from the center pin of the switch to the anode of the LED and the cathode was connect to ground. We would advise caution not supply the ground and 5V required to run this circuit from your microcontroller as this practice permanently disabled one of our boards. Rather use some other source of power and ground, like the large breadboards supplied in the lab.
Since our project had to be able to display various characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, , ., ?, !), it was obvious that individually defining each character through its five frames would be time consuming. Thus, a supplementary application was created in Unity to provide the team with a easy-to-use interface that allowed us to "draw" each character and receive a binary/hexadecimal equivalent that would be stored in the code.
This object was attached to each of the buttons in the scene. It kept track of whether a button has been enabled or disabled and dynamically updates the color of the button depending on its state (this allows the user to draw the image).
This object, once attached to a button, closes the application when pressed.
This object continuously communicated with each of the 'bits' on the screen and translated them into binary and hexadecimal before updating the text boxes present on the application.
The code is located here (https://github.com/ahuynh15/IconToBinary) and can be compiled and built into a standalone application.


The Jews, who regard themselves as the chosen people among the nations, and that too because they are the moral genius among the nations (in virtue of their capacity for despising the human in themselves more than any other people) the Jews have a pleasure in their divine monarch and saint similar to that which the French nobility had in Louis XIV. This nobility had allowed its power and autocracy to be taken from it, and had become contemptible: in order not to feel this, in order to be able to forget it, an un equalled royal magnificence, royal authority and plenitude of power was needed, to which there was access only for the nobility. As in accordance with this privilege they raised themselves to the elevation of the court, and from that elevation saw everything under them, saw everything contemptible, they got beyond all uneasiness of con science. They thus elevated intentionally the tower of the royal power more and more into the clouds, and set the final coping stone of their own power thereon.


It's been almost a year since Greenbury's last murder. Detective Peter Decker has been enjoying the slower pace of life in upstate New York … until two kids find a dead body in the woods.
Identifying the body takes Decker and his former partner Tyler McAdams into the cryptic world of mathematics at Kneed Loft College – a sphere of scheming academics, a beguiling student who sets her sights on McAdams, and a dangerous underworld.
A while back my F2F reading group won copies from the publisher, of The Theory of Death by Faye Kellerman.
I enjoyed the book and found it an easy read and rather wish I'd read the previous book in the series which (I think) introduced Decker's (annoying) young partner McAdams.
Big Bang meets Diagnosis Murder.
Got bored with the maths.
Quite good - I like Faye Kellerman.
Like the small-town feel of the college setting.
[the student] was very irritating - what was Faye Kellerman thinking?
Glad that Peter Decker is still going.
and a handed in written review: Readable, formulaic, overlong. Flagged at times. Characters likeable enough but had no depth. Ending a little disappointing and predictable.
So a mixed response but overall the response was positive.
I'd like to thank the publisher (HarperCollins) for the books and thus the opportunity for the group to all read the same book. Usually, as we're library based, we have to go with a selection of titles to have enough copies to go round.
The year is 1796. It is midnight on Romney Marsh, Kent, on England's south-east coast in the darkness of a new moon. Smugglers' boats bring their illicit cargoes of brandy and tobacco from France to land on the beaches of the Channel coast. Suddenly, shots ring out in the night. The rector of St Mary in the Marsh, the Reverend Hardcastle opens his front door to find a young man dying on his doorstep and is lucky to avoid another shot himself.
The young man lives long enough to utter four words. "Tell Peter...mark...trace..."
What do those four words mean? Who is the young man? Where did he come from, and who killed him? Why, five minutes later, was a Customs officer shot and killed out on the Marsh? And who are the mysterious group of smugglers known as the 'Twelve Apostles', and where does their allegiance lie? When the rector investigates, aided by his faithful allies:- Mrs Amelia Chaytor, a local widow, and the young painter William Turner, he quickly finds himself involved in a world of smuggling, espionage...and danger.
This book was absolutely gripping in the historical details which were really fascinating and the one thing I was absolutely amazed about was the huge volume of alcohol that was consumed by the Reverend Hardcastle. He often drank a pint of claret with his breakfast and was sipping port or brandy all day long and getting through several bottles each day!! The joint authors say that people in the eighteenth-century drank, and not tea and coffee, but very large volumes of alcohol. They really drank. Not just trebles all round; beer for breakfast was not unusual among the lower orders, while those who could afford it might start the day with a tankard of claret, or even port. And throughout the remainder of the day, alcohol was consumed in vast quantities at all levels of society.
This was a really exciting and truly atmospheric historical mystery that had me transfixed from page one until the final conclusion. The plot was hugely imaginative and the characters were very believable. Whilst the rector and Mrs Chaynor investigate all the various clues to the mystery that they unearth, the plot twists one way and then goes off in another direction and the reader has no alternative but to read on and I just did not want this book to conclude but unfortunately it did and I only am comforted by the fact that further books are promised by these very talented new authors.
Because of the time that the story was set in when there were great worries that the French might invade and the modern appliances that we take for granted such as the internet, DNA, newspapers, TV and other modern conveniences were refreshingly absent at that time solving a crime was particularly difficult and word of mouth was extremely important. So the Reverend Hardcastle and his allies had great difficulty in their investigations and this made the story so much more interesting. I look forward to reading many more books in the future by this very exciting author.
Another corker from Craig Robertson and covering a topic that is gruesome to say the very least. The central theme of the novel hovers around the unsavoury habit of collecting artifacts from murders – pieces of clothing, jewellery, hair, weapons. Even bricks from houses where murders took place. The list goes on and the prices paid can be astronomical. Robertson admits to having looked into this murky world as part of the research for his book. It is impossible to imagine what he found or, indeed, why people want to collect such things.
MURDERABILIA continues Robertson's series featuring crime photographer Tony Winter and his detective girlfriend Rachel Narey. Tony lost his job with the police in the last book and is now trying his hand at journalism. Getting a lead for a good story is not proving to be particularly successful for him and he doesn't feel cut out for the job. But then, one morning, a body suspended from a bridge in Glasgow city centre shocks the early commuters and the whole city finds itself reeling. The deceased is the son of a high profile politician and Tony's photograph of the pile of clothes left neatly folded beneath the body proves to be an instant media hit. Narey, now pregnant, is removed from the case and, much to her disgust, made to endure forced bed rest after collapsing at work. She must stay calm at all costs to keep her baby safe but staying out of things proves to be too difficult for her – especially with her nemesis Denny Kelbie brought in to save the day.
Close scrutiny of Tony's photo soon reveals that not everything is as it should be. Key pieces of clothing are missing from the pile and pretty soon they appear for sale on a somewhat dodgy website. Armed with her laptop and going out of her mind with boredom, Rachel starts to dig and is soon out of her depth in the Dark Web, shocked at what she finds. She sends Tony to do her investigating and both of them are soon caught up in a world where murder is a collectible art and people seem to be willing to pay very high prices for their coveted prize. Rachel, drawn in by the irresistible lure of the objects she finds, is soon buying murderabilia. But her questions have been noticed and it is not long before somebody is watching her closely as well. Can she and Tony solve the case before it is too late or will her fate end up being the same as that of Sharon Tate, who was infamously murdered when pregnant, and is now haunting her dreams?
An absorbing and engrossing book, this is one of Craig Robertson's finest works. It has so many twists and turns that you must stay on your toes to keep up but the ever-increasing pace, that winds up slowly then reaches a screaming crescendo, will keep you up at night to find out what happens. I have read all of Craig Robertson's books and am always delighted to be asked to review another one. He is a talented wordsmith and I am enjoying watching him develop his craft.
Here are some British traditional mysteries published this year, that I'm looking forward to reading. The first two are historicals and the last two are modern day and all are first in series (though I'm not sure if A Dangerous Crossing is actually a standalone.).
The Riviera Express by TP Fielden published in February 2017 by HQ.
A Dangerous Crossing by (Tamar/Tammy Cohen writing as) Rachel Rhys, published in March 2017 by Doubleday.
Date with Death by (Julia Stagg writing as) Julia Chapman, also published in March, by Pan.
The Prime of Ms Dolly Greene by (Daisy Waugh) writing as E V Harte publishing in September by Constable.
In the heart of South West London, just a short stroll from the Thames, lies an enclosed and overgrown bike path and a single row of cottages. Its name is Tinderbox Lane. Foremost among the Lane's hotpotch of loyal residents is professional Tarot reader, Dolly Greene: divorced and permanently broke, she shares her tiny house with her 21-year-old daughter Pippa.
When, one stiflingly hot summer's day, Dolly reads the cards for the voluptuous and highly-sexed Nikki, her usually professional patter is interrupted by a sudden vision - a flash of Nikki's face, covered in blood and bruises. Death hangs over the magnificent Nikki - but there is an etiquette to reading Tarot and Dolly will not talk of murder to her client.
A few days later when the body of a battered woman is washed up by Chiswick Bridge, Dolly is haunted by the belief that Nikki's time may have come. . . but can she be sure? How far is Dolly prepared to go to act on her intuition? And will Sergeant Raff Williams, the officer assigned to investigate the murder, think Dolly's hunch insane?
It feels like summer's on its way when the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year longlist appears!
Now in its 13th year, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created to celebrate the very best in crime fiction and is open to UK and Irish crime authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2017.
We are delighted to share with you the 18 titles that have made their way onto this year's longlist!
The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 20 May, followed by a seven-week promotion in libraries and WHSmith stores nationwide from 1 June.
The winner will be announced at an award ceremony hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 20 July on the opening night of the 15th Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
In the baking hot summer of 1976 a young girl, Chrissie, is reluctantly having botanical art lessons with Mr Watson who works at Kew Gardens. The lessons have been arranged by her father, a taxi driver, who wants her to have the best chances in life. He enrols her in a private school where she meets new friends, Bella and Emily, and as she tries to equal their backgrounds and lifestyles, she soon finds her stories are growing out of control and pretends that Mr and Mrs Watson are her parents and that she lives in their big house. One day as she waits for her friends, she sees a woman being murdered, but the body disappears.
In November 2014, Stella Darnell owns a very successful cleaning company which has just won the contract to clean at Kew Gardens. Before his death, her father was a senior police detective and Stella and her close friend Jack, have had some success in solving mysteries in their spare time. Jack is a train driver, as well as working as a cleaner for Stella's company. He is also jealous of Detective Superintendent Cashman's close connection with Stella. Cashman was a friend of Stella's father and feels that it is his duty to look after her. Early one morning when cleaning one of the galleries at Kew on her own, Stella finds the body of a man.
The two strands of the story, 1976 and 2014 are told side by side. For most of the book, I felt as if I was reading two separate stories and found the experience annoying. I think that if an author adopts this sort of device then they need to ensure that some of the connections are clear enough to pick up, otherwise it is easy for the reader to lose track of the various strands. For me, the book only came alive, when I started to recognise and understand the connections between the characters and this was quite late in the story. I haven't read this author before, but I will be reading another since I did like the characters and this encourages me to give the author another chance.
This author never ceases to amaze me with the high quality of his writing even though he is currently researching and preparing two main series of books. There is this series with Marc Portman and also the 'Cruxys Solutions Investigations' series the last one named THE BID which was published in paperback in February 2017.
Marc Portman's latest assignment is providing back-up for a French intelligence agent sent to recover a hard drive from one of the most dangerous cities on the planet: Mogadishu in Somalia. What he hasn't been told is that the device records secret negotiations between two leading western nations and a hard-line terrorist organisation responsible for killing thousands of innocent people.
When the decision is taken to abandon the talks, anybody in the know immediately becomes a target to be silenced.
It is a book that once started it is almost impossible to put down and I was up until quite late at night before I finally reached the very gripping conclusion.
The main attraction I have in reading this author's work is that the stories are completely unpredictable, in the middle of this one I remember thinking - what is going to happen next? And having no idea at all except that whatever it is will be highly imaginative and take the story in a fresh direction entirely.
This very exciting and sensationally well plotted creation rushes on to its final dramatic conclusion. I have had the privilege of reviewing many of this author's books and I hope to read yet more of this very gifted author's stories, whether it is in this new series or any of the previous ones or completely in a new direction soon. If you want to start reading an exciting book that is exceedingly difficult to put down once started then buy this one. Very strongly recommended.
In the Mire, the atmospheric Swedish debut which prompted a Europe-wide frenzy for rights at last week's London Book Fair, has been snapped up by Hodder & Stoughton after a three-way auction.
Crime and thriller publisher Ruth Tross bought British and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, as part of a two-book deal and will publish In the Mire by Susanne Jansson on the Mulholland list in early 2019.
Susanne Jansson debut IN THE MIRE, following a young biologist who returns to the rural town where she grew up in order to make up with her traumatic past, only to get pulled into the hunt for a serial killer who draws inspiration from the Iron Age when people buried their human sacrifices in peat bogs - a natural ecosystem that preserves bodies for thousands of years, to Grand Central.
Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in April 2017 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). April and future months (and years) can be found on the Future Releases page. If I've missed anything do please leave a comment.
• Clare, Alys - The Devil's Cup #17 Abbess Helewise and Sir Josse d'Acquin, 12th Century England.
CrimeFest have kindly donated a pair of weekend passes to the upcoming event in Bristol on 18-21 May 2017.
Each pass includes admittance to all panels and interviews Thursday to Sunday, as well as a delegate goody bag and a programme, and is worth £195.
2017's featured guest authors include Ann Cleeves, Anthony Horowitz and Peter Lovesey.
The competition will close on 14 April 2017 at 11.59pm.
Who won the 2016 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year?
The winner of the 2017 Petrona Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner (tickets available separately).


text:
Join The Audience Get Tickets To See This Show
Free TV Tickets For Saturday Night Live SNL
Saturday Night Live SNL Summary
Saturday Night Live SNL is 1.5 hrs long
1 Taping(s) per week
Opened October 11, 1975
Comedy Skit Show
TV Broadcast
Saturday Night Live (SNL), is a weekly comedy sketch TV show with guest stars and guest hosts from Hollywood, aired on NBC every Saturday night.
Saturday Night Live SNL Broadcast Time
The show is broadcast in front of a live audience on Saturday nights at 8:00PM for dress rehearsal and 11:30PM for the live show. The show is transmitted live on NBC and the NBC Affiliates across the United States. The show is broadcast live in New York and Chicago and is aired at different times across the US time zones. Comedy Central owns rights to rebroadcast the shows from the first thirty seasons(1975 - 2005).
Saturday Night Live SNL Host Profile
The host varies every week for this show.
Saturday Night Live SNL Background
The current cast members of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a great show to see live with amazing guest hosts and a talented cast of comedic actors. Getting tickets to this popular show is tricky, but is quite achievable if you are prepared to give some effort to it. The show producers actually prefer dedicated audience members who are motivated to see the show, although some of the hoops to getting tickets can be quite tricky. Given the SNL's popularity, it does not provide snacks or drinks in the studio or while in line. Inside the studio, getting to the bathroom can be tricky as you have to stay seated the whole time. Audience members often complain of being treated like cattle. There are two seating areas, one in the stands and the other is on the studio floor. There are only 150 seats in total available for this show, so ticket demand far outstrips availability.
The season opener and season finale shows are often the best experience and have an after-party where everyone is invited, including, staff, crew, producers and sometimes the audience. The party starts directly after the show finishes airing and is usually at a local restaurant or space located close to the NBC studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
The hour and a half long comedy show, which broadcasts live from Studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Center on Saturday nights, has become such a staple of American TV that it is often referred to as just SNL. The show's skits are often water cooler conversation comes Monday morning at the office and each episode features a celebrity guest host and a musical act. Occasionally the host and the act have been one and the same person, as was the case with Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, and Justin Timberlake who all performed on the show both in skits and as the musical guest. SNL is full of many ongoing traditions including the opening sketch which always ends with the famous phrase "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" and the closing scene where the players and guests make their goodbye's.
Saturday Night Live SNL Notes
The Lonely Island:
Composed of SNL former cast members Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, this group of friends put together musical "Digital Shorts" on SNL from 2005 - 2011. They included big stars in their music videos such as Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Akon and Adam Levine. Their major hits, "Jizz in My Pants", "Like a Boss" and "YOLO" were hilarious sketches that went viral on YouTube almost instantly. It appears that the music industry was missing a group that pokes fun at pop culture so The Lonely Island fit very well into this market. The trio also released three comedy albums in the span of 5 years; Incredibad in 2009, Turtleneck & Chain in 2011 and The Wack Album in 2013.
Tape Delay:
When the show has controversial hosts or artists, a seven second tape delay is used to allow the director to "dump out" of transmitting the offending piece live on air.
Famous Shows Where The Dump Button Was Used:
The seven-second tape delay dumps have only been intentionally used in three episodes with guest hosts Richard Pryor in 1975, Sam Kinison in 1986, and Andrew "Dice" Clay in 1990. Creator Lorne Michaels isn't fond of using the seven second delay dump, so it has only been used for guest hosts that cause a ruckus or controversial stars.
The famous Sinead O'Connor piece in 1992 caught NBC off-guard and they re-instated the requirement for the dump to be available
SNL Controversies:
December 1975: Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase play a racist word-association game that escalates from funny to offensive. Race relations repercussions are still felt years later.
January 1976: During a famous SNL "Samurai Futaba" sketch, John Belushi accidentally cut Buck Henry on the face with his "stunt" Samurai sword.
October 1992: Sinead O'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II during her live musical performance of "War"
March 1994: Martin Lawrence's monologue gets cut off due to too-crude-for-tv comments about Lorena Bobbitt and details about female hygiene. Lawrence was subsequently banned from SNL.
October 2004: Ashlee Simpson is caught lip syncing during her performance of "Autobiography"
Seeing The Live Show or Seeing The Rehearsal Show:
Long time audience members and fans of SNL (like Louis Klein who has been to over 600 tapings) will tell you that the rehearsal show is a great deal more enjoyable to watch than the live show. In the rehearsal show they leave in more skits in the show, the actors and host are more relaxed and it is a generally a more enjoyable experience than the live show that can feel rushed, controlled and beholden to commercial breaks.
Rehearsal Audience:
The audience for the rehearsal show are often bigger SNL fans. These fans have shown their devotion by standing on the standby line for the show for many hours. The live show fans usually just turn up with their ticket at the allotted time. The rehearsal fans are a more engaged audience than the somewhat muted live show audience and therefore the producers, director, host and cast prefer the rehearsal audience. The rehearsal show is taped, just in case the live show is not able to be broadcast. This tape has only been used three times in the past eight hundred shows since 1975.
The Most Frequent Hosts On Saturday Night Live:
The Five Timers Club is full of guest hosts on Saturday Night Live who have hosted 5 times (or more). These include big stars like Alec Baldwin(16), Steve Martin(15), John Goodman(13), Buck Henry(10), and Tom Hanks(8) that have won over the SNL demographic. The club was first introduced in Tom Hank's 5th appearance in December 1990. The Five Timers Club was most recently mentioned when Justin Timberlake made his 5th debut as host in March 2013 in his monologue. The sketch included iconic five-timers such as Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Paul Simon. Buck Henry was also the first to host SNL five times after it became a tradition for him to host the last episode of each season
Noteworthy Show Dates:
October 11,1975 - Show premiere; George Carlin hosts
November 8,1975 - First woman to host; Candice Bergen
December 6, 2000 - TV Funhouse first episode
October 2005 - Show began airing in High-Definition
August 2014 - Long-time announcer Don Pardo dies
October 3, 2015 - Season 41 of SNL premieres with host Miley Cyrus
October 1, 2016 - Premiere of Season 42 with host Margot Robbie
February 15, 2015 - SNL 40th anniversary show
Five Timers Club:
There are eleven members of the "five timers" host club, who have hosted the show over five times:
Buck Henry
NBC Studio 8H
Directions: Take the B, D, F, or M train to the 47-50th Street - Rockefeller Center and walk up 6th Ave towards W 50th Street. Or take the 1 train to the 50th Street stop and walk East on 50th Street towards 5th Ave. Take the N, Q, or R train to the 49th Street stop and walk up 7th Ave to 50th Street, then walk East on W 50th Street towards 5th Ave.
Saturday Night Live SNL Ticket Information
You can get free tickets in advance for the live SNL show. Tickets for the live show can only be garnered by going through SNL's official ticket process, which is tricky to navigate. Standby tickets are available for unfilled seats for the live show and and all the seats in the studio for the rehearsal show
The rehearsal show begins at 8PM and is recorded to tape, just in case the live show has a problem airing . You can get tickets to the rehearsal only on-the-day on the standby line.
Saturday Night Live SNL Show Schedule
The show tapes every year from September through May with a 3-month summer hiatus.
Michael Che
Pete Davidson
Alex Moffat
Luke Null
Cecily Strong
Melissa Villasenor
Show Announcer
Darrell Hammond
The Saturday Night Live Band
Past Cast Members
Vanessa Bayer
Sasheer Zamata
Lorne Michaels
Steve Higgins
Erik Kenward
Supervising Producer:
Ken Aymong
SNL Studios/Universal Television/Broadway Video
Don Roy King
Musical Directors
Lenny Pickett
Eli Brueggemann
Leon Pendarvis
Eric Justian
Tom Broecker
Head Writers
Rob Klein
Bryan Tucker


Jamie founded The Hering Homes Team not long after becoming one of the top REALTORS in Lake County. To date, she has sold over 200 homes and has ranked as the #1 Realtor in Grayslake the last two years. She sells houses all over Lake, Cook, and McHenry County! Her passion for excellence stands behind everything she does. HUSTLE is her favorite word and she loves selling homes. She was featured in Top Agent Magazine in September 2018 as well as being named among American's Top Agents by Real Trend.
She is married to Aaron and they have 3 kids. Jamie and her family live in Grayslake– not far from her favorite spots– Jones Island and The Freeze. She serves regularly with the high school student ministries at The Chapel Grayslake and enjoys sitting in the freezing Chicago weather watching youth soccer.


text:
Ticket Prices for the first two pre-season friendlies at The Hive announced!
Barnet to take on both Peterborough and MK Dons at The Hive.
Barnet FC are delighted to be able to confirm details of two pre-season friendlies that will be taking place at The Hive over the summer as the Bees get ready for life back in the Football League!
As part of an exciting pre-season schedule, the first two dates in the diary will see Barnet prepare for the challenges of the new campaign with home fixtures against both Peterborough United and Milton Keynes Dons.
The Bees will be taking on Peterborough United on Tuesday 21st July in an evening kick-off at The Hive, as the Posh prepare for their season in League One.
Barnet will then welcome MK Dons to The Hive the following weekend on Saturday 25th July, as Karl Robinson's side look to get ready for their first ever season in the Championship following a dramatic promotion from League One on the final day of last season.
Tickets for the announced pre-season friendlies are priced at £10 for adults and £5 for concessions & U14s. Members go free and are able to gain access by scanning their membership card at the turnstiles.
Confirmed pre-season friendlies:
Barnet v Peterborough – Tues 21st July (19:45 KO)
Barnet v MK Dons – Sat 25th July 15 (15:00 KO)
We will be bringing you further updates on additional pre-season friendlies both at The Hive and elsewhere shortly.
Ticket Details: Bromley (A)
The Bees are on their travels this weekend as they return to Vanarama National League action to face Bromley FC. You can find all the ticket information ahead of Saturday's match, below.
Ticket Details: Farsley Celtic (H)
We face Farsley Celtic this Tuesday night (14th January), for our Second Round Replay in this season's Buildbase FA Trophy. Ticket details for the home tie can be found below.
January home tickets now on sale
Tickets for our home fixtures with Boreham Wood and Dagenham and Redbridge are now on sale.
Ticket News: Farsley Celtic (A)
Here is all the ticket information for this weekend's Buildbase FA Trophy trip to Farsley Celtic.


Over 200 of the world's landfills are already filled. If you get the opportunity to reduce the amount of trash produced in the world, you should take advantage. There are also lots of things that have other uses instead of throwing them out.
A garage is a place most use for storage or parking their garage in. Here are some tips on making your garage green.
For those who use the garage as storage, instead of going out and buying boxes and bins to store things in, there are other options… You can use storage with things you already own.
If you create art of have an office, you can keep your supplies such as paint brushes, markers, and scissors in old jars. You can also use jars to organize things such as your nails, screws, and other small items.
A way to organize your supplies but still see everything is a pegboard. It is a board that hangs on the wall and there are pegs coming out to hang things on. You can hang up an array of materials from hammers, screw drivers, and wrenches. If you want to be very organized, you can outline the tools that hang so you know if something is missing. A pegboard can easily be made. All you need is a big piece of cork board and nails. You can hammer the nails in rows, or however way you feel.
If you have broken things lying around that you don't use, don't throw them out, make something out of them. A metal bow rake that does not have a handle can still be in use. If you hang it up on the wall, you can use it to hang garden tools, or anything else you need to organize.
Metal garbage cans can be used for storage of bags of soil or fertilizer. Holes have to be cut at the bottom so the soil can still breathe. They can also be used to make your own compost.
Do you have old tires lying around? Did you know they can be used as mulch? Rubber mulch is more expensive because it can last for up to ten years. The mulch is heavier and it does not fade. You can also make gardening hoses out of old tires.
Everyone plays a part in protecting the earth. If everyone puts in effort to help minimize the amount of trash produced, the earth will be a lot healthier and our supplies such as water will last longer.


The Godspeed Athlete Performance Program (AP Program) is a proprietary training system and software refined for over 11 years. The AP Program utilizes years of on the field training experience reinforced by current sports science research to build an adaptive, holistic system that evaluates, educates and progresses athletes along 6 Pillars of athlete development - Activation, Build, Skill, Energy, Regen, Fuel through the athletic season (Pre, During, Post).
Learn benefits of AP Team system, review your school's training location and equipment, and discuss pricing structure.
After completeing the evaluation, each athlete will be prescribed a progressive program designed to prevent injury, promote recovery and increase performance through a multi facited periodized program.
After completing the evaluation, each athlete will be prescribed a progressive program designed to prevent injury, promote recovery, and increase performance through a multifaceted periodized program.


A luxury stay in the heart of Adelaide awaits you at Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury. Within steps you'll find Victoria Square and Adelaide Town Hall. Highlights at this romantic property include a restaurant, an indoor swimming pool, and a bar/lounge.
Each apartment features free WiFi, a sitting area, and an LCD TV. A minibar provides refreshments, and in-room dining is easy with amenities like a fridge, a microwave, and room service. Nice touches to enhance your stay include free toiletries and premium bedding. A coffee/tea maker, in-room massages, and a safe are also available.
The restaurant, Treasury Restaurant, is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Enjoy the fitness centre, spa tub, and sauna. Other amenities include free WiFi in public areas and laundry facilities. Cooked-to-order breakfast is available on weekdays between 6:30 AM and 10 AM and on weekends between 8 AM and 11 AM. There's also the convenience of self parking.
Sights within a 10-minute walk of this 4.5-star Adelaide Central Business District property include Adelaide Central Market and Rundle Mall.
The Adina is so well priced for a high quality hotel. Accommodation is fantastic and the staff are just beautiful. So friendly and helpful.
Amazing history and character in this property. Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff.
I liked the professionalism act of all and the beautiful building close to all.
Literally the most-pleasant check-in experience I've ever had. The staff were wonderful. The room was fantastic as well. Will definitely be staying there in future.
The room was fantastic split level - very large comfortable apartment - lovely decor - all staff in restaurant, reception, porter were friendly and keen to assist.
A good hotel. Not 5 star but very clean, very well positioned and pleasant staff. I will definitely stay here again. My room was large and spacious bathroom. Fluffy towels! Getting to be a bit dated however in very well maintained condition.
A very quiet property in a quiet city. Staff are efficient and almost invisible, until I need something, where-upon they appear and help me.
Thank you for your feedback. We hope to see you back again very soon.
Thank you for staying, we look forward to welcoming you back very soon.
As a guest of Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury, you'll find an indoor pool, a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness centre. There's a restaurant on site. You can enjoy a drink at the bar/lounge. WiFi is free in public spaces. Event space at this apartment measures 0 square feet (0 square metres) and includes conference rooms. The luxury Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury also features tour or ticket assistance, laundry facilities, and dry cleaning/laundry services. For a fee, parking is available. This 4.5-star Adelaide apartment is smoke free.
Adina Apartment Hotel Adelaide Treasury offers 79 forms of air-conditioned accommodation with minibars and a safe. This accommodation offers separate sitting areas and includes desks. Beds feature premium bedding. Fridges, microwaves and coffee/tea makers are provided. Bathrooms include a combined bath/shower unit, complimentary toiletries and a hairdryer. This Adelaide apartment provides complimentary wireless Internet access. LCD televisions are featured in guestrooms. Housekeeping is offered on a daily basis and in-room massages can be requested.
For a fee, guests can enjoy cooked-to-order breakfast on weekdays from 6:30 AM to 10 AM and at the weekend from 8 AM to 11 AM.
Treasury Restaurant – This restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
An indoor pool and a spa tub are on site. Other recreational amenities include a sauna and a fitness centre.
Rollaway/extra beds are available for AUD 50.00 per night.
WiFi Policy: Up to 100mbs data is complimentary per 24 hours, per room; up to 4 devices can connect. Additional data is available for the remainder of the 24 hour period (surcharge).
Additional policies and fees may apply when booking 9 or more rooms. For more details, please contact the property using the information on the reservation confirmation received after booking.


Laptop Screen Protector for all 13-15" Laptop Models - Full Screen Design.
Laptop Screen Protector for all 11-12" Laptop Models - Full Screen Design.
Laptop Screen Protector for all Laptops with compact keyboard - Keyboard Only Design.
Top Quality, Glove Soft Leather screen protector. Made in USA. 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty.


text:
Q: How to prevent routing in blazor I create a nested layout in blazer.
blazor route to one of the navigation menus, and there is another menu in it.
When I click the navigation menu, it is routed to a specific page,
There is another menu on the routed page.
Clicking that menu loads the newly routed page in the nested layout.
However, clicking the topmost menu again loads the top route into the innermost layout.
Here is my code.
MainLayout.razor:
@inherits LayoutComponentBase

    <NavMenu />

        About

        @Body

NavMenu.razor:

    <NavLink class="nav-link" href="sub">
         Sub
    </NavLink>

SubMenu.razor:
@page "/sub"

@layout MainLayout
@inherits LayoutComponentBase

SubLayout

            <NavLink class="nav-link" href="/sub/mypage" Match="NavLinkMatch.All">
                 go to sub of sub
            </NavLink>

    @Body

Mypage.razor:
@page "/sub/mypage"
@layout SubLayout

This is Mypage

This is the execution result:

Why is the page in the top navigation menu loaded into the sublayout?
Is there any way to prevent this?

A: Without seeing your SubLayout you are specifying in Mypage.razor I think the issue is that your trying to use a routable component as a layout. I basically just separated these.
SubMenu.razor
@page "/sub"

<SubLayout />

SubLayout.razor
Note the nesting by specifying @layout MainLayout
@layout MainLayout
@inherits LayoutComponentBase

SubLayout

            <NavLink class="nav-link" href="/sub/mypage" Match="NavLinkMatch.All">
                 go to sub of sub
            </NavLink>

    @Body

Docs are here

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Following the release of his first album in the UK, 'Hum Tum', Indian singer and Bollywood legend Kumar Sanu is back with new single 'Rangleni'.
An accessible, light Indian classical song based on traditional ragas, the song also has a huge crossover appeal for Western audiences – full of sweeping orchestration and drama similar in sound to some of the most iconic Bond themes.
The sing is released in partnership with long-time collaborator – and another household name in the world of Bollywood – Pyarelal Ji. Working as producer, he brings to the track immense experience having composed music for about 635 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998. Impressively, 14 of the "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks" compiled by Planet Bollywood were written by Pyarelal and his writing partner Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar – it's little wonder that 'Rangleni' has such a cinematic touch.
Vocalist and songwriter Kumar Sanu is no stranger to success. A living legend who has performed over 20,000 songs in more than 24 languages for Bollywood movies, he has won an unprecedented collection of awards including the Filmfare Award for the Best Playback Singer in 1990, '91,'92, '93 and '94 – a consecutive record that still stands in the Bollywood industry to this day.
With additional charity work that includes Tsunami Victims Support, Cancer Research donations and school & orphanage development programmes, Kumar Sanu was recognised by the Indian government in 2009 when he was awarded the Padma Shri award – the 4th largest civilian award it is possible to receive from the Government in India.
With all this behind him, Sanu is making no plans to slow down – single Rangleni is coming soon.


Enjoy your piano practice with the Piano Diary app!
Practicing piano is hard work. But when you see how much you have done, when somebody tells you how well you play, when you notice that you have improved, you can feel a real sense of accomplishment. And that is the key to enjoying your piano. Piano Diary enables you to notice your everyday improvement by recording your performances and keeping track of your activities, which will lead to an enjoyable piano practice.
You can also share your performances by making original slide shows and uploading them to YouTube. I'm sure your Twitter/Facebook friends would love to listen to your performances.
Note: You will need a core MIDI compliant iPhone MIDI interface to use the full functionality of this application.
Available countries More than 60 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America (Version 1.7 is currently being prepared).
Supported instruments You can use the app together with a suitable cable with any pianos that support MIDI or USB; such as Silent Pianos and pianos with automatic performance capabilities. However, please note, the app is designed specifically for piano, and does not support advanced parameters of more complex MIDI instruments.


What help do you provide a family in crisis?
We offer a calm and attentive ear. Most of our staff are parents of children/young people who have Down syndrome. We will follow this up with a text, email, phone call or home visit. If needed, we will support you in a referral to social services.


text:
Angelina's World
Angelina Facchiano, Staff Writer
Hi I'm Angelina, and this is my blog where I will be sharing my hobbies and interests with you guys. I like certain Netflix series, and I like certain sports, such as football and basketball. Also I love animals, especially kittens so I will definitely be talking about baby cats. Also I support the LGBT community, so I will be discussing that as well. These are just a few ideas, and there will be more topics I will discuss!
Pros and Cons of Tiktok
Tiktok has blown up so much during the last year. It could be a very supportive community, but it could also be the worst community ever. People all around are addicted to this app because it can be so entertaining and funny, and can also spread awareness about important topics. But there is a side of Tiktok that could damage teenagers' mental health. For example, many kids don't agree with other kid...
Paper Lion • Copyright 2023 • FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO • Log in


The agency's Board of Directors began their regular monthly meeting this morning but Board Chairman Ara Najarian called for a recess after several minutes of often angry public testimony from members of the Bus Rider Union (BRU).
The BRU has several dozen members at the meeting. They are calling for the Board of Directors to rescind the fare increase scheduled for July 1, although no vote has been scheduled. The increase was originally approved in 2007 and then was delayed from July 1 of 2009 to this July 1 as part of the Measure R sales tax increase.
Here's the new fare structure. As we've written on several occasions, even with the increase Metro fares are in line with the fares of other major transit agencies in the nation. It is also worth noting that fares for students, the disabled, seniors and Medicare recipients remain frozen — another provision of Measure R — until July 1, 2013. Only 48% of Metro users will pay a higher fare beginning in July.
In addition, Metro also has a separate set of low fares for qualifying low-income transit users.


This section of the report looks specifically at Violence Against Women and Girls. The full report is available to download here.
The VAWG working group prepared factsheets on key issues ahead of CSW57 in 2013.


A WILMSLOW cabbie is planning to appeal against a £70 parking ticket dished out by an "overzealous" traffic warden after he left his taxi parked up at an official rank.
Ged Rivett, 49, claimed he left his cab outside the town's Blockbuster store for a brief spell while he carried out a personal errand. On his return he found that a council warden had slapped him with the huge fine.
Ged, owner of Wilmslow CabCo since 1989, claims the new traffic wardens are victimising cabbies in a desperate attempt to meet their targets.
He said: "I was parked in a taxi rank down the road from Hoopers with my badges and roof sign clearly displayed. I left the vehicle for personal reasons and on my return I found I had been issued with a parking ticket. I approached the enforcement officer and asked why he had issued the ticket on a vehicle that was legally parked and he replied that because the vehicle was unattended it was not for hire. I then told him that the vehicle was for hire and that occasionally taxi drivers may leave their vehicles to maybe get some refreshments or to answer a call of nature. It seems a bit unfair that we have to stay in our vehicles at all times especially if you need to use the toilet and you have to leave the rank and therefore lose your place after waiting sometimes up to an hour before somebody requires a taxi. Not only that, but the warden didn't wait to see how long I'd been gone and just gave me the ticket the minute he saw that the vehicle was empty at 10.07am which is against the council's own rules. They should give you five minutes between observing the vehicle and issuing the ticket.
"This job is difficult enough as it is without having to worry about getting parking tickets and I would hope that the council will accept this and cancel this ticket." He added: "The taxi rank is in effect my office and because I am not allowed to either drink, smoke nor eat in my taxi it is reasonable to assume that I would try to find a place where I can do these things. In order to do this it means that I may well have to leave my taxi unattended. As far as I am concerned I was legally parked and I've already put an appeal in. I want to draw attention to this madness that is happening in Wilmslow now the new wardens have taken over. This just illustrates the money-making approach of Macclesfield Borough Council."
Borough council parking enforcement manager James Howard said that all taxi drivers will be given a ticket if they leave their vehicles for longer than five minutes.
He said: "A taxi which is locked and without a driver is no longer a taxi because they are not plying their trade. The wardens do not usually issue the tickets straight away. Either they observe the vehicle and then wait five minutes for the driver to return. If they don't return in that time then they will be ticketed. Drivers can appeal against it in exceptional circumstances But that taxi rank is there for taxi drivers plying their trade."


text:
Q: How to turn an object into an array using map()? I have a function that captures images from the camera and gallery, but when choosing an image or capturing a photo my function is returning an object, I need to use map() so that it returns an array containing all the information from the image's URI . How could I implement map() in this case?
This is my function:
const [uriImg, setUriImg] = useState('');

function imagePickerCallback(data) {

if (data.didCancel) {
    return;
  }

  if (data.error) {
    return;
  }

  if (!data.uri) {
    return;
  }
  setUriImg(data);

}

This is where I call the function
<Image
    source = {{
    uri: uriImg
    ? uriImg.uri
    : 'https://socialistmodernism.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/07/placeholder-image.png?w=640'}}
    style={styles.placeholderImage}
 />

      <View style={styles.optionsCamera}>
        <TouchableOpacity
          style={styles.button}
          onPress={() =>
          ImagePicker.launchCamera({},imagePickerCallback)
          }>
          <Text style={styles.buttonText}>Abrir câmera</Text>
        </TouchableOpacity>

        <TouchableOpacity
          style={styles.button}
          onPress={() =>
          ImagePicker.launchImageLibrary({},imagePickerCallback)
          }>
          <Text style={styles.buttonText}>Escolher imagem</Text>
        </TouchableOpacity>
      </View>

This is what appears in the console when choosing or capturing an image,  an object.
LOG  {"assets": [{"fileName": "rn_image_picker_lib_temp_bbd3b196-997f-4227-80aa-f0d86824969a.jpg", "fileSize": 622543, "height": 2289, "type": "image/jpeg", "uri": "file:///data/user/0/com.francaservices/cache/rn_image_picker_lib_temp_bbd3b196-997f-4227-80aa-f0d86824969a.jpg", "width": 2289}]}

A: A JavaScript Object type does not have a .map() function. Instead you can iterate through an Object using Object.entries(...) to get the keys and value. There are multiple ways to do this:

data = {"assets": [{"fileName": "rn_image_picker_lib_temp_bbd3b196-997f-4227-80aa-f0d86824969a.jpg", "fileSize": 622543, "height": 2289, "type": "image/jpeg", "uri": "file:///data/user/0/com.francaservices/cache/rn_image_picker_lib_temp_bbd3b196-997f-4227-80aa-f0d86824969a.jpg", "width": 2289}]}
array = [] // A new array to store the values

// Assume 'data' is the object returned when an image is updated
Object.entries(data.assets[0]).forEach(([key, value]) => {
   array.push([key, value]); // Stores each key and value as an array pair
});

// Map over the new array printing out the keys and values
array.map(val => {console.log("Key:",val[0]+",","Value:",val[1])})

A: Solved only with:
data.assets[0]


text:
SolarWorld supplies 10.5 MW of modules for solar project in Oregon
BookmarkHILLSBORO, Oregon — SolarWorld will supply 10.5 megawatts (DC) of 72-cell solar panels to power a project located near Lakeview, Oregon, in the state's south-central high-desert outback. Working with project developer Obsidian Renewables, SolarWorld will provide solar technology to go into an 8 MW (AC) project that is expected to produce about 20.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year – enough to power more than 1,800 homes. SolarWorld began marketing 72-cell solar panels in mid-2014, and the company has dramatically increased production and sales of that product since then. The company is ramping a new factory to produce them at […]
HILLSBORO, Oregon — SolarWorld will supply 10.5 megawatts (DC) of 72-cell solar panels to power a project located near Lakeview, Oregon, in the state's south-central high-desert outback.
Working with project developer Obsidian Renewables, SolarWorld will provide solar technology to go into an 8 MW (AC) project that is expected to produce about 20.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year – enough to power more than 1,800 homes.
SolarWorld began marketing 72-cell solar panels in mid-2014, and the company has dramatically increased production and sales of that product since then. The company is ramping a new factory to produce them at its U.S. hub in Hillsboro, Oregon, just to keep up with current demand, expanding annual module production capacity to 550 megawatts there.
"Obsidian Renewables is the exact type of customer we had in mind when we entered the 72-cell market, and working with customers like them we will continue to increase production and employment here in the USA," said Ardes Johnson, SolarWorld's U.S. vice president for sales and marketing. "Obsidian values the high quality and efficiency that comes from a company with more than 40 years of industry-leading experience."
Obsidian Renewables, based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is developing the ground-mounted Black Cap II system, adjacent to a similar, earlier project. Construction of the new system is expected to finish in 2016. Obsidian will sell the system's power to PacifiCorp under a long-term power purchase agreement.
"SolarWorld's reputation for high technological quality precedes it," said David Brown, senior principal of Obsidian Renewables. "The market-leading output of its 72-cell product will translate into higher energy yield and therefore cost savings. The technology is ideal for tapping the solar resource at this well-located site."
The site, formerly used for seasonal grazing, enjoys some of the Northwest's best solar radiation, Brown said. The project, he said, has strong support from the city of Lakeview, Lake County, the Lake County Resources Initiative and the Oregon Department of Energy.
About SolarWorld REAL VALUE:
SolarWorld manufactures and sells high-tech solar power solutions and, in doing so, contributes to a cleaner energy supply worldwide. The group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, employs about 3,700 people and carries out production in Freiberg, Germany; Arnstadt, Germany; and Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. From raw material silicon to solar wafers, cells and modules, SolarWorld manages all stages of production ‒ including its own research and development. Through an international distribution network with locations in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Japan and South Africa, SolarWorld supplies customers all over the world. The company maintains high social standards at all locations across the globe, and it has committed itself to resource- and energy-efficient production.
Shunfeng Solar Project Shortlisted for ARENA's AUD100 Million Solar Program in Australia
E-Ton Solar Tech. announces a new product line of 6″ Mono PERC Solar Cell with 20.2 % conversion efficiency.


text:
WVTX (88.7 FM) is a radio station in Colchester, Vermont, just outside Burlington owned by Vermont Public Radio. The station, established in 1974 by Saint Michael's College as the original FM home of its campus radio station WWPV-FM, currently airs a classical format from the VPR Classical network.

History

WWPV-FM

WWPV's roots lie in a carrier current AM station with the call letters WSSE, created in the 1950s. This station was initially run by the Edmundite priests that founded Saint Michael's, before becoming more of a student station in later years. In 1973, the college obtained a license to operate on 88.7 FM and put it on the air as WWPV-FM, replacing WSSE. A new station was built in an old military barracks on the college's North Campus, located at Fort Ethan Allen. In 1988, the station moved to the St. Michael's main campus with a new studio space in the newly constructed St. Edmund's Hall.

As WWPV-FM, 88.7 FM operated as a campus radio station under the nickname The Mike. The station allowed any student, faculty, or staff member of SMC to be a DJ, as well as members of the local community. Throughout its existence, WWPV's programming has been freeform in nature, playing music that can't be heard on any commercial or mainstream radio stations in the Burlington area, including indie, jazz, blues, and folk.  Each show has its own specialty, so a jazz show might be followed by an indie show, which then might be followed by a punk rock show.

Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and most of the 90s, the station aired live shows throughout the day, but had dead air during overnight hours or during other times when no live DJs were in the studio.  This changed in 1999, when WWPV entered a partnership with Vermont Public Radio, in which VPR broadcast its BBC World Service feed at 88.7 FM when there were no live shows being aired. In May 2009, VPR and WWPV mutually agreed to terminate this relationship.  WWPV now airs music programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an automated mix of music from the station's music library when there are no DJs in the studio. VPR later shifted its BBC World Service programming to a dedicated HD Radio channel.

WWPV put on free concerts every spring at St. Michael's, a tradition that started in 2007 with a free Zox show.  In spring 2008, the station won a nationwide college/university contest through the independent digital music retailer Mytracks.com, winning $5,000 to put towards a concert. The station beat out radio stations and programming boards at prestigious large universities such as Ole Miss, Michigan State, and Kentucky. With its winnings, WWPV brought State Radio to the college to perform a concert at the St. Michael's gymnasium that April.

The WWPV concert took a hiatus in 2009, although the station organized a smaller concert featuring Grimis right before Christmas.  Station staff has announced that the concert will be back in 2010, and this time will take place outdoors.

Spring 2007 VPR buyout controversy
In March 2007, WWPV attracted local attention when Vermont Public Radio approached the college's president, Marc vanderHeyden, and the Board of Trustees with an interest in purchasing the frequency to turn it into a 24-hour classical station. After word of this potential sale became public in the Burlington Free Press and the St. Michael's online magazine, The Echo, SMC students, faculty, and staff rallied against the sale in an effort to preserve the station as a student-run, freeform college station.  Numerous letters were written to the Free Press, posters were put up around campus, and a large Facebook group was created to mobilize students.  Because of the outcry, vanderHeyden recommended to the board that the station not be sold, effectively ending the possibility of a deal. Vermont Public Radio instead bought 90.9 FM, now known as WOXR, to run the classical format.

Donation to Vermont Public Radio
On February 12, 2014, Saint Michael's College was granted a construction permit for a low-power FM station on 92.5 FM in Colchester. Under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, the college was required to divest the 88.7 FM facility upon constructing the new station; on April 8, 2015, it agreed to donate the WWPV-FM license to Vermont Public Radio. On September 14, 2015, WWPV's programming moved to the new WWPV-LP; the following day, WWPV-FM went silent. VPR officially took control of 88.7 FM on September 17, 2015 and changed the station's call sign to WVTX; it intends to move the station's transmitter from the Saint Michael's campus to an as-yet-undetermined location, and will keep WVTX silent until this move is completed. As of June 2018, WVTX was airing VPR Classical programming.

References

Cain, Jacqueline. "St. Michael's radio station to go automated", "The Echo", April 28, 2009. Accessed August 15, 2009.

External links

VTX
Radio stations established in 1974
1974 establishments in Vermont
Classical music radio stations in the United States
NPR member stations

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


If you have a Nest Thermostat you may have read about the recent problems and may be living in fear of the dreaded technology glitch that is causing many Nest users to lose heat in the dead of winter.
Nest Support has published an instructional page with the very convenient title "What to do if your Nest Thermostat has become slow, unresponsive, or won't turn on." Could you crack that code?
Nest Thermostats that were updated recently to software version 5.1.3 or later have been having some issues, including becoming unresponsive, not correctly charging the battery, or shutting down completely. Nest recommends recharging and restarting your thermostat to rectify the problem and get it up and running again.
If your Nest Thermostat will turn on but you can't control it or it's slow, try manually restarting it by turning the thermostat off and then back on again. If your Nest Thermostat is off and won't turn on, take the thermostat off the base and charge it using a USB cable plugged into a wall charger or a computer.
After around 10 minutes of charging, detach the Nest Thermostat from the USB cable. If the thermostat has turned on during this time, shut it down and then turn it back on again, manually restarting the system. Once it has fully restarted, plug it back in to reach full charge. After another 60 minutes of charging, detach the Nest Thermostat and reconnect it to its base.
You should be good to go and this point, but again, for more completed instructions and information, please visit Nest Support.
If you have attempted both of these processes and the Nest Thermostat is still showing signs of problems, you will need to bring in some backup. Enter us! If Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning installed your Nest Thermostat, please reach out to us at 905-453-6700 or schedule an appointment online. If your Nest Thermostat was not put in by Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning, please reach out to Nest Support here.
Finally, do not let this matter concern you about your Nest's reliability. By owning and properly using Nest, your thermostat is honestly saving money for you daily. When set it up properly, Nest intelligently learns your lifestyle, then adapts your heating and cooling use to optimize energy savings constantly, which typically results in payback within the first year. And, Nest is still one of the only thermostats under $300 on the market that does this. So don't let one incident get you down. You were smart to invest in a Nest, because a smart thermostat is still one of the prime investments in your home that you can make.