Having graduated with honors from The Citadel in 1987, Kevin D. Wise, is well prepared for the combat theatres of the courtroom. A fearless litigator who has recovered millions for his clients, Mr. Wise has a zeal for protecting the injured. For over two decades, he has assured a better future for those who have been unfairly victimized by the negligence of others, whether through motor vehicle crashes, products liability, wrongful death, worker's compensation, catastrophic tractor trailer accidents, or railroad collisions.
Mr. Wise earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of Maryland School of Law in 1990. He is admitted to practice with the Maryland Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a member of the Maryland Association for Justice, the American Association of Justice, and the Maryland State Bar Association.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Mr. Wise is a founding member of the Citadel Inn of Court and was awarded the James K. Coleman Award for Excellence in Constitutional Law.
Mr. Wise is held in high esteem by his colleagues, as evidenced by his BV Distinguished Rating by Martindale Hubble's national lawyer-rating service.
When Mr. Wise is not busy fighting for the rights of his injured clients, he is heavily involved with his son's Boy Scout Troup as an Assistant Scoutmaster.
Our staff is the first line of defense for Wise Law. Equipped with several decades of experience, our staff maneuvers a high volume of cases through the complicated web of corporate hurdles. Our staff is empathetic and entirely committed to the cause of our clients. So if you want paralegals with punch and power on your side, prepare to go the Wise Staff.
Personal Injury – serious MVAs, tractor trailer accidents, train accidents/ FELA cases, slip & falls, products liability, animal attacks, medical malpractice.
Because someone else's negligence can severely compromise your ability to make a living and provide for your family, protecting you is our passion. We use the full power of our knowledge, skills, and talent to help you recover everything you deserve within the law. As lawyers with a long history of representing people who've been hurt, we understand the many ways negligence can find you: You can be injured at work, harmed in a traffic accident, or hurt by a faulty product or repair. Maybe you are suffering because someone made a mistake during medical treatment, or as the result of a slip and fall on a wet floor or pavement? Our first course is always to pursue a peaceful and fair settlement. But when there are unreasonable parties on the other side that are insensitive to your loss, we are prepared to pursue aggressive legal action on your behalf, filing suits as necessary, and doing everything in our power to help you recover. And remember, there is no fee unless you get a recovery.
Protecting your legal rights in the immediate aftermath of an automobile accident is fraught with difficulties. That's because you have a lot to consider: Have you or any of your passengers been injured? Is your vehicle damaged? Will your automobile insurance cover all issues? Does the person who hit you even have insurance? Will the police handle the matter properly?
With so much on your mind, we're always there for you to ensure your rights are protected. We think about the things you can't, such as determining who might have been responsible, investigating theories of liability, and helping you to navigate the complexities of insurance coverage.
While a catastrophe may have just befallen you, you can feel like you're on solid footing with at least one thing: At Wise Law, LLC, our lawyers and staff are highly experienced in handling just these issues. When you choose to work with us, you are choosing lawyers who have been down these perilous roads before. In a legal sense, we've been the jaws of life, ripping through the wreckage to lend a hand and pull our clients to a better place.
Personal Injury Protection: Does your auto insurance include Personal Injury Protection coverage? While most have this in their policy to provide for medical costs or lost wages in the event of an accident, some do not. If you do have it a fixed sum (usually $2,500) is provided to you without risk of your premium going up. If you don't have it, however, we are adept at finding you the coverage you need.
Property Damage: If your vehicle is damaged, we can help you ensure that the responsible party pays for repairs. Even if your car is so severely damaged it's considered 'totaled,' we can advise you about the vehicle's value, and negotiate with the appropriate insurance company on your behalf. We're there to make sure you recover everything you can in the situation to become mobile again as soon as possible.
Defendant's Insurance: If someone hits you we will do whatever it takes to track down that errant motorist and contact his or her insurance company. At Wise Law, LLC, we often provide a speedy solution to your property damage and rental car issues. We also run interference between you and the insurance company so that your privacy and peace of mind are not compromised. We keep the insurance company apprised of the progress of your case on an as needed basis.
Your Insurance: If the party responsible for your injuries is uninsured, or does not have adequate insurance to pay for your injuries, we will engage with your insurance company to secure your uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits. If the other party's insurance company does not accept responsibility for the accident, we can process your rental car and property damage issues directly with your insurance company until the case is resolved by lawsuit or settlement.
Your Injuries: Our work doesn't end with lawyers or insurance carriers. If you are hurt in a collision, we'll work with all of your medical providers, including hospitals, emergency departments, the primary care physician, orthopedist and physical therapist or chiropractor. Our job is to understand the medical treatment they provided you, and pay them through your PIP coverage. If it is warranted, we will also bring medical personnel from your case to trial in order to testify.
Not to scare you, but getting into your automobile, even for a short trip, is dangerous business. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, someone in the United States is involved in a car accident every 10 seconds.
If it happens to you, you need a lawyer who is going to stand his ground. You need Wise.
Serious auto accidents can cause everything from minor scrapes to permanent injuries to death. The only good news is that if someone's negligence has resulted in your injury or the death of someone you love, the law may provide you with the right to recover monetary compensation.
First, let's make one thing clear: No amount of money can compensate for pain or suffering. And it certainly can't make up for the loss of someone we love dearly.
But compensation is nevertheless extremely important. It can even make up for the loss of income a healthy, living person would have earned to provide for his or her family over the span of an uninterrupted lifetime.
Why should I hire a lawyer after a serious automobile accident?
The insurance company of the person responsible for causing the accident will start an investigation immediately. They will work tirelessly to limit your recovery to the lowest amount possible without regard to your need or suffering. Many insurance companies purposely stall the compensation process for as long as possible in hopes that you will lose interest or give up any hope of recovery. When liability is admitted, insurance companies rarely pay enough money to adequately compensate victims of auto accidents for their losses. Your attorney will seek to protect your rights through competent and aggressive legal representation. We are dedicated to pursuing the maximum recovery possible for each and every client.
Crippling accidents involving big trucks in the United States are remarkably common. An American is injured or killed by one of these large vehicles every single minute in this country. Handling the aftermath, however, takes uncommon knowledge and skill. That's because there are unique liability issues and complex laws associated with these cases.
At Wise Law we have the experience to understand it all, including familiarity with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). We have already successfully litigated many trucking accidents. The road can be a dangerous place, but at least you can have a companion and a protector on the road to justice.
Traveling by rail is as alluring and steeped in American tradition as any transportation mode. But like the real road, the railroad can present peril and danger. Train accidents can have a devastating effect on your health. Collisions at car crossings are unfortunately common.
And even pedestrians who are not on the train are at risk since it has been reported that as much 80% of all railroad crossings do not have the proper warning devices. Add to all of this conductor negligence and you have the possibility of catastrophic injury. Located in one of the world's great railroad centers, the lawyers of Wise Law are familiar with train scenarios and procedures. So don't let anyone run you out on a rail. If you have been injured on a train or by a train, we can help.
Somebody else's cute and cuddly pet can be the snapping, snarling cause of your pain and suffering. If this has happened to you, let Wise Law be your legal bulldog.
We know what it takes to master the circumstances, successfully make your case, and recover compensation for you from the pet's owner. We conduct a thorough investigation to make key determinations such as: Who owns the animal, who owns the property it came from, whether that 'pet' has a vicious past, and whether those responsible for the animal have insurance. At Wise Law our legal strategies have real teeth. We'll use the legal system to make them all heel, till you get what you deserve.
Healing yourself after a physician or other healthcare provider has harmed you through wrongful acts, omissions, breaches of duty, or malpractice due to negligence begins with strong legal assistance.
You can make an errant practitioner pay for what they might have done to harm you, but you must prove their liability, i.e. that they had a duty to you, the patient, and that such duty was breached by failing to conform to the required standard of care. You need to show that negligent conduct caused you harm so that you can receive compensation for the damages you suffered.
Although we see many difficult situations for our clients, there is nothing worse than when a responsible breadwinner, working to provide for his or her family, is injured on the job. Instead of gratitude for their sacrifice they are often met with their employer's formidable lawyers. These lawyers have a single purpose: To keep their client from paying for the work-related injury. Sometimes a coworker or manager will even advise you against filing a claim.
That's why you need to get Wise and lessen your worries.
We'll help you document your claim and file the necessary claims forms for you so that you may receive the payment of your benefits, such as lost wages, and medical, and rehabilitation expense reimbursements. When it comes to representing your interests in these situations, no one is more Wise than our lawyers. Our years of experience in these matters make an enormous difference in protecting your interests.
Best of all, fees are governed by statute and must be approved by the Workers Compensation Commission.
Anyone who has ever fallen on a wet floor knows how unavoidable the accident can be, and how potentially devastating the injury. Compounding all this can be the realization that it was unnecessarily caused by some property owner who allowed their floor to become slippery.
The law is very clear: Businesses are responsible for making reasonable efforts to keep their floors safe. In Maryland you must prove that the property owner was aware of the condition of the floor but did not adequately protect you from the dangerous condition. In other words, the legal process can be slippery, too. It takes a skillful lawyer to help you collect what you may need to recover from their negligence.
At Wise Law we know how to methodically make and prove a case so that you get what the law provides for your pain, suffering and lost wages. So if someone has made things slippery for you, we'll help them get a grip on their responsibilities.
Willie worked for a huge electronics manufacturer and was so valued by his employer he was asked to fly to San Francisco to work on a major product line. Unfortunately, while there, a drunk driver hit him in a head-on collision. His leg was crushed and his days of hard physical work were over. Making matters even worse, the driver only had $15,000 in coverage.
That's when Mr. Wise sprung into action.
All of this hard work really paid off. In a situation where nothing was initially offered to him, Willie collected more than $1 million in total benefits thanks to Mr. Wise's hard-working efforts. Willie's leg may have been crushed but he walked away with his head held as high as ever.
"Reginald" held the kind of job that other men wish they had. The Baltimore native wore a uniform to work, collected a steady paycheck and benefits, and was held in esteem by everyone who knew him. He was a train conductor, and he was proud.
But one hard day it all came to a crashing halt.
When the train company left a piece of its equipment on the tracks in Chester, Pennsylvania, Reginald's trained derailed. And he was injured in more ways than one. In addition to damage to his knee and back, he was hurt psychologically, too. He could no longer bring himself to get back on a train.
In a single day his long and successful career was over.
In a flash, Mr. Wise aggressively came to the table. He immediately filed suit for injuries in Maryland. When the railroad's lawyers attempted to move the case to federal court, a more favorable venue for the company, Mr. Wise quickly blocked them.
With the leverage of these victories Reginald settled the case on his own terms.
Fortunately for Reginald he had Kevin Wise on his team and when you're with Wise you don't get railroaded.
There's nothing like the freedom of the motorcycle. It's you and a rumbling engine and wind and sky and open road. Or so it seems.
In fact, motorcyclists share the road with heavier vehicles guided by distracted drivers and zoom down a dangerous network of highways. They have great freedom but very little protection.
And somewhere looming behind it all is a nervous mother.
One of them, "Janet," came to Wise Law for help after her son was killed when a car collided with his motorcycle.
Though the driver of the car was at fault, his insurance company did not want to take financial responsibility. With their deep pockets they provided formidable defenses hoping to avoid liability and damages.
They didn't count on dealing with a Wise lawyer.
Wise Law Attorney Kevin Wise effectively used depositions to strengthen key arguments. He also quickly retained the services of an expert on pre-impact fright to win his case.
When "Travon" left for work one Wednesday it all seemed so ordinary. He was going to do what he always did: Make home improvements for a big box retailer.
Unfortunately the day ended up as anything but typical.
While installing equipment at the home Travon slipped and fell. But he didn't trip over his own two feet. The homeowner had loose carpeting on the steps.
Far from a minor injury, Travon suffered a complex fracture in his leg. All of a sudden this reliable working man now had to worry about his career and paycheck His ability to provide for his family going forward, something that had never been in question, was now compromised.
Then he called Wise Law.
Immediately Travon's Wise lawyer filed a workers' compensation claim on his behalf. With strong, effective council he was able to recover more than $300,000 in the case.
© 2019 Wise Law, LLC. All Rights Reserved.


Wonder Woman hasn't even been out for a month and work has already begun on the sequel. According to Geoff Johns, the president and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics, the treatment for Wonder Woman 2 is currently being written.
Following its third weekend, Wonder Woman has grossed over $573 million at the worldwide box office, and is already the sixth highest-grossing film of the year. As the fourth installment of the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman has received glowing praise from critics for the performances of its stars (Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor), the directing, the story, the characters, and the humor.
Patty and I are writing the treatment right now. The goal is to make another great "Wonder Woman" film. I had a blast making it with Patty the first time. We've got a cool idea for the second one.
Related: Could Steve Trevor Return in Wonder Woman 2?
As a character that has been in comics books since 1941, there is so much source material that it's hard to say where a sequel could take Diana Prince or what that "cool idea" could be. Wonder Woman also has a strong rogues' gallery full of options for potential antagonists for Wonder Woman 2, including Cheetah, Giganta, and Circe. The sequel could also see the return of Doctor Poison, played by Elena Anaya.
Fans are already wondering what the setting will be for Wonder Woman 2. The first film took place in World War I, but the sequel could be set in modern times, much like Captain America: The Winter Soldier took place 70 years after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger. Putting the film in a different time period would give the film a completely new supporting cast, which means that the Amazons would be the only characters likely to return.
While fans wait for more news of Wonder Woman 2, the Diana character will return later this year in Justice League. Gal Gadot will reprise her role as Wonder Woman in that movie, along with Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta and Robin Wright as Antiope.


Alexander MacDonell or Alexander Ruardh (Red Alexander) succeeded his father John as thirteenth chief of Glengarry. He became an officer in the Royal Scots, a regiment in the French army. His plans to lead his clan in Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite rising were foiled when his ship was taken by the British navy. He was incarcerated in the Tower of London until hostilities ended. After his release he became aware of how little income was generated by his Highland estates and returned to France. Despite petitioning the exiled Stuart court he failed to gain a commission in the French army. His constant to-ing and fro-ing between France and Britain gave rise to suspicions that he was a Hanoverian spy who used the code-name 'Pickle'. This seems unlikely as he died in relative poverty. He didn't marry and his successor was his nephew, Duncan.


text:
, officially abbreviated as Z.O.E., is a 2001 third-person shooter hack-and-slash video game that was developed and published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation 2. The game is based around mecha combat in outer space. Over the course of the game, the player obtains new weapons and has to protect towns from enemies.

The story is set in the space around Jupiter and follows a young colonist named Leo Stenbuck, one of the few survivors from his colony after it was attacked by the military force BAHRAM. The player controls the Orbital Frame known as Jehuty. Surviving using a mecha, Leo is on a mission to return Jehuty to the Space Force and uses the Frame to protect civilians. The game was created with the intention of having a more serious and realistic focus on the mecha genre. The mechas were designed by Yoji Shinkawa, the character and mechanical designer for the Metal Gear series.

The critical reaction to Zone of the Enders was positive. While the combat and graphics were generally well received, its short length and poor localization were the areas most commonly receiving criticism. The game spawned two follow-ups: The Fist of Mars, a spin-off for the Game Boy Advance, and The 2nd Runner, a direct sequel for the PlayStation 2. The Japanese animation studio Sunrise also produced two works related to Zone of the Enders. The game was re-released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 alongside its direct sequel, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, in October 2012 as part of the Zone of the Enders HD Collection.

Gameplay

Zone of the Enders is a hack and slash and third-person shooter game in which the player takes follows Leo Steanbuck, a child who becomes the pilot of the advanced mecha, or Frame, known as Jehuty. Jehuty is capable of three-dimensional movement, flying, and hovering. Leo uses Jehuty to traverse across different areas of a space colony orbiting Jupiter while attacking rogue Orbital Frames using its advanced weaponry. In some stages of the story, there is also the objective of minimizing damage to nearby buildings and civilians, encouraging more strategic combat. Players are given ranked depending on how many buildings and civilians were destroyed or spared. This grading affects the ending sequence outcome. Additionally, the player is given options to first take different areas where to fight in order to avoid linearity. In order to restore Jehuty's health, an item known as Metatron Ore can be found and used in every area.

In battle, Jehuty locks-on to a single enemy Frame and is able to perform advanced maneuvers such as grabbing and throwing enemies, deploying an energy shield, and using booster jets to move quickly and dodge enemy attacks. It is equipped with an energy sword, an energy projectile, and various sub-weapons. As the player progresses, Jehuty's arsenal grows and its abilities expand by obtaining programs alongside their respective code. Every time Jehuty defeats an enemy it gains experience; after gaining a determined amount of experience, it levels up, improving most of its qualities.

Upon completion of the game, a Versus Mode is unlocked. The player can use it to compete with the artificial intelligence (AI) bots or another player while controlling two Frames.

Plot
The game takes place in the year 2172; mankind has colonized Earth's, Mars', and Jupiter's moons. A military force known as BAHRAM sends its primary offensive unit to attack Antilia, a Jupiter colony, in an attempt to secure two advanced machines known as Orbital Frames. One of the few colony survivors, a young boy named Leo Stenbuck, witnesses a falling Laborious Extra-Orbital Vehicle (LEV) killing his friends. He flees to a hangar, where he finds an Orbital Frame by the name of Jehuty. Using this suit and its built-in intelligence, A.D.A, he fends off the BAHRAM forces led by officer Viola who seek to claim Jehuty on the orders of their leader, Nohman. Leo is then contacted by Elena Weinberg, the commander of the civilian transport vessel Atlantis; it belongs to Earth's military forces, the United Nations Space Force. As Jehuty's original pilot died during the attack, Elena requests Leo's assistance to deliver Jehuty back to them so they can take it to Mars. Leo, however, refuses to kill enemies.

Battling through Antilia, Leo rescues civilians, including Celvice Klein, a friend; he defends the colony from destruction, defeating the BAHRAM forces and their commanders one by one. Before reaching Atlantis, Leo encounters Viola, who seeks a rematch; Leo defeats Viola and spares her. Later, Atlantis pilot Rock Thunderheart meets Leo in person, revealing that BAHRAM forces are still determined to obtain Jehuty and are threatening to destroy the colony. Thunderheart requests Leo's help to pilot Jehuty, as he has realized Leo's skills are superior. Viola then appears, shooting Celvice this time, forcing Leo to fight again. Celvice is taken by Thunderheart to be treated while Leo goes to save the colony.

Leo goes to the docks and Viola battles him once more. However, Viola is defeated again and killed when a leftover bomb blows her out of the colony and into Jupiter's atmosphere. Nohman himself then appears in Jehuty's superior twin Frame Anubis, forcing Jehuty's escape. As Jehuty is docking, A.D.A. reveals to Leo its programming: when taken to the fortress Aumaan on Mars, the mechas is to eject its pilot and self-destruct Jehuty, destroying the frame and the fortress. Leo leaves Jehuty's cockpit and meets up with the crew of the Atlantis and Celvice, who survived a gunshot wound.

Development
Zone of the Enders entered development for the PlayStation and PC, but in actuality Konami had no intentions of releasing them for those platforms. Early prototypes of the game were built on Dreamcast. The game's focus is on anime-style robots with an emphasis on realism compared to common sci-fi works. Development staff were advised by professionals who had done scientific research for other anime series. Director and scenario writer Noriaki Okamura wanted to write a serious story featuring people with complicated lives; its main theme examines the purpose and nature of life, as reflected in Leo's hardships during the game. To support this message, multiple endings for the main narrative were avoided, although side quests could feature different endings. Despite this, two other endings can be unlocked depending on the player's performance when protecting civilians. In contrast to other 3D games, the team worked to give players the sensation that they are controlling a fast robot; this demanded a year of camera work to achieve.

Okamura designed Zone of the Enders to tell a story through gameplay sequences, rather than during cutscenes. As such, the staff focused on adding details such as the destroyed buildings to inform the player's objectives. Character designer Nobuyoshi Nishimura expressed difficulties in designing characters who would both fit the mechas and the 3D models. In order to take advantage of the 3D space, Nishimura sought to move the camera as often as possible. He tried not to "go overboard" during cutscenes to emphasize the appeal of the mechas during gameplay. During development of the game, producer Hideo Kojima assisted the team.

Yoji Shinkawa was in charge of designing the Orbital Frames, the games mechas. Initially, the Frames were to feature unique transformations, but he determined that flying and skating with Jehuty was enjoyable on its own. As a joke, Shinkawa placed the cockpit in the Frames' crotch region. The staff first had the idea of naming a Frame Anubis based on Egyptian mythology; this led to the name Jehuty for the main Frame, a reference to the Egyptian deity, Djehuti. LEVs were intended to appear during the gameplay as weak, easy opponents that would target Jehuty and the Raptors; however, they ultimately appeared only during cutscenes.

Zone of the Enders was originally set to release in Japan on February 1, 2001, but was delayed to March 1, 2001. The Japanese edition premium package contains an original video animation titled ZOE: 2167 IDOLO; produced by Sunrise, it is set five years before the events on the game. Okamura was satisfied with Sunrise's work, noting their experience in producing robot anime. During the animation's production, Shinkawa suggested a design for the titular Frame, IDOLO, to ensure style continuity between the animation and the video game. The English versions of Zone of the Enders were released on March 23, 2001 in Europe and March 27, 2001 in North America. They were originally sold packaged with a preview demo of the then-upcoming Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The game's soundtrack was released in Japan on April 25, 2001 by Konami Music Entertainment. According to director Okamura, the music is calm during normal situations, with new tracks added in combat situations to increase the complexity of the music while fighting. The main theme, "Kiss Me Sunlights", was composed and performed by Heart of Air.

Reception

Zone of the Enders

The original Zone of the Enders received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Chester "Chet" Barber of NextGen called it "a great action game that any gamer will surely enjoy. Unless you simply hate anything with mechs, this is one game you shouldn't miss." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 31 out of 40.

The game's fighting system was praised for its use of 3D camerawork and Jehuty's fast movements. GamePro found it superior to the PlayStation 2's other mecha game released by the release, Armored Core 2 thanks to its responsive controls and quick combat. The visual design has also been praised as highly detailed. The game was critically acclaimed by Justin Leeper of Game Informer, who remarked Zone of the Enders as one of the most appealing games and found its visuals as ones of the best ones ever found in the PlayStation 2 and added praise to its fighting. However, the presentation has been a major area of criticism; the game's localization was criticized, with the English script being regarded as repetitive and the voice acting "emotionless" by David Smith, writing for IGN. He also reported being annoyed by Leo's English voice acting. The story has been disliked by reviewers with Smith finding the main characters inferior to the ones from other mecha series such as Mobile Suit Gundam whereas Snackdawg of GameZone disliked the story as he stated that despite its dark parts such as the deaths of Leo's friends, his father and his friend being shot, it instead made everyone "simply seems whiny". While liking the game, Leeper recommended players to skip the cutscenes. Despite these complaints, Smith considered it one of the best mecha games he had ever played.

The combat was also considered too easy due to poor enemy AI, lack of variety, and an excessive number of tactical options, and the game has been found to be too short without an increase in challenge on higher difficulty settings. PSX Extreme writer Patrick Klepek criticized the game's open ending, suggesting that the project had been rushed and that it would have been better to increase the game's length and fill in missing plot elements. Shawn Sanders felt the game verged on being "a better rental than purchase," but that the included Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty demo made the game worth buying. The versus mode was better received, with Shane Satterfield of GameSpot praising its competitiveness and its accentuation of the singleplayer campaign's strengths with Klepek giving similar responses. On the other hand, GameZone criticized this mode stating it was not worth the wait to unlock it.

During 2001, it was the 81st bestselling game in Japan, with a total of 120,658 units sold. It was the sixth best selling game in North America during March 2001; sales were boosted by the inclusion of a demo for the highly-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 2.

The game was nominated for the "Most Disappointing Game" award at GameSpots Best and Worst of 2001 Awards, which went to Luigi's Mansion.

Legacy
In June 2001, Konami announced a spin-off game titled Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars for the Game Boy Advance to be developed by Sunrise Interactive. Sunrise also produced an animated television series titled Z.O.E. Dolores,i in 2001. Although there were no plans for a sequel to the original game, in May 2002, Konami announced Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner; it was released for the PlayStation 2 in February 2003. To bridge the two games, Konami published an intersequel following Leo's activities with Atlantis and witnessing his growth as a pilot.

HD Collection
Zone of the Enders was ported to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 alongside The 2nd Runner as part of the HD Collection in 2012. A sequel to The 2nd Runner was announced in May 2012 as "The Enders Project," but was cancelled a year later due to difficulty with the HD ports.

Reception

The Xbox 360 version of the HD Collection received "generally favorable reviews", while the PlayStation 3 version received above-average reviews, according to Metacritic.

Notes

References

External links

2001 video games
Cancelled Dreamcast games
Cancelled PlayStation Vita games
Hack and slash games
Video games about mecha
Multiplayer and single-player video games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 3 games
Third-person shooters
Video games produced by Hideo Kojima
Video games set in the 22nd century
Xbox 360 games
Zone of the Enders games
Konami games
Video games developed in Japan

ja:ZONE OF THE ENDERS#ZONE OF THE ENDERS Z.O.E

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Select "corner" elements of a 2D NumPy array I am trying to extract the four corner elements of a NumPy 2D array:
import numpy as np
data = np.arange(16).reshape((4, -1))
#array([[ 0,  1,  2,  3],
#       [ 4,  5,  6,  7],
#       [ 8,  9, 10, 11],
#       [12, 13, 14, 15]])

The expected output is either [[0,3],[12,15]] or [0,3,12,15] (anything goes). True 2D fancy indexing delivers only the ends of the main diagonal:
data[[0,-1],[0,-1]]
#array([ 0, 15])

Pseudo-2D fancy indexing (first row-wise, then column-wise) delivers the right answer, but looks awkward:
data[[0,-1]][:,[0,-1]]
#array([[ 0,  3],
#       [12, 15]])

Is there a way to use true fancy indexing, such as data[XXX,YYY], where XXX and YYY are lists/arrays/slices, to extract all four corners?

A: You can do:
data[[0, 0, -1, -1], [0, -1, 0, -1]]

A: Here are two possibilities. (Ok, first one isn't actually fancy):
>>> a = np.arange(9).reshape(3, 3)
>>>
>>> m, n = a.shape
>>> a[::m-1, ::n-1]
array([[0, 2],
       [6, 8]])
>>>
>>> a[np.ix_((0,-1), (0,-1))]
array([[0, 2],
       [6, 8]])

More explicitly:
>>> idx = np.ix_((0,-1), (0,-1))
>>> idx
(array([[ 0],
       [-1]]), array([[ 0, -1]]))
>>> a[idx]
array([[0, 2],
       [6, 8]])

The trick is to leverage broadcasting on the indices. np.ix_ knows the details of how to do it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BlackBerry KeyOne is the latest BB phone from TCL. It is the first BlackBerry phone since the PRIV and the first from TCL to feature a physical QWERTY keyboard. BlackBerry KeyOne has a 4.5-inch display and runs on Android 7.1.
BlackBerry KeyOne features the same touchscreen and physical QWERTY keyboard combo of the BlackBerry Priv. However, the keyboard does not slide-in like in the later.
This rigid keyboard design results in a much smaller screen in order to accommodate the QWERTY keys. BlackBerry KeyOne has a 4.5-inch IPS display with 1080 x 1620 pixels resolution.
The display is covered in Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The four-row physical QWERTY keyboard is located below the screen with the space bar of the keyboard also doubling as a fingerprint sensor.
BlackBerry KeyOne has a 12 megapixel camera on the back (Sony Sensor) and an 8 megapixels camera on the front. The rear camera features Phase Detection autofocus, dual-tone LED flash, HDR, Panorama, and Face Detection.
Both cameras record 1080p HD videos.
BlackBerry KeyOne runs Android 7.1 (Nougat) on the 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset with 3GB RAM. The Android smartphone sports 32GB built-in storage with support for up to 256GB memory card.
BlackBerry KeyOne supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type C, and NFC. The phone support download speeds of up to 450Mbps on 4G LTE with most LTE bands supported depending on region or country. In Nigeria it supports all the 4G networks including MTN, Etisalat, Glo, NTel, Smile, and InterC.
BlackBerry KeyOne is pre-loaded with the DTEK security software that was made popular by earlier phones by TCL like the BlackBerry DTEK50 and BlackBerry DTEK60. While TCL did the design and build, BlackBerry focused on the software.
BlackBerry KeyOne will launch on April 2017 starting at a price of around $549. We currently have no data on pricing and availability for Nigeria, Ghana, or Kenya. When available, you can buy the smartphone at leading online stores in the countries. BlackBerry KeyOne Price in Nigeria is expected to range from 195,000 Naira to 300,000 Naira depending on your location in the country.


yes.. i must use the Mingw 7.2.0 version(from Mingw home page) for compile correctly some code.
Re: why the codeblocks-17.12mingw-setup.exe don't have the Mingw updated?
Because there is no newer version of mingw . At least not of TDM-MinGW, and thats the compiler they are currently using to build CodeBlocks. You are talking about MinGW-w64, CodeBlocks can be used with a lot of compiler and they cant make a release for every possible compiler combination.
the codeblocks-17.12mingw-setup.exe came with Mingw 5.1.0 version.
but maybe you have right... the Code Blocks came with 64 bits?
"At least not of TDM-MinGW, and thats the compiler they are currently using to build CodeBlocks."


You can use this word track to buy a car online, via regular mail, over the telephone, or in person. I strongly recommend that you use online but I know that some car buyers, seniors like me, are not as comfortable with buying over the Internet. Using this word track in person can work, but it will be much more difficult and take a lot longer. Only a person with a very strong will, stamina, and a very thick skin should attempt this. I strongly recommend that you don't.
(1) Dear Car Salesman, "Within the next two weeks (enter your own time frame), I will be purchasing (leasing) a (fill in the specific make, year, model and optional accessories)." You should carefully research the vehicle that you decide to purchase using all sources of information available such as Consumer Reports. You should also test drive the car to be sure it feels and drives the way you want it to. It is vital that you not change your mind during the purchasing process. If you do change your mind, you must begin all over again. Never let a car salesman change your mind for you. That is one of their favorite ways to charge you more money than you had anticipated paying.
Almost everyone that buys a new or used car looks at the purchase as a single transaction. But it's not; it's THREE transactions. Those are (1) Getting the lowest price for the used or new car you have decided to buy. (2) Getting the highest price when you sell your trade-in. (3) Getting the lowest interest rate when you finance your purchase.
Car dealers depend on you looking at the purchase of your car, the trading in of your old car and the financing as one transaction done with them. This allows them to sell you a new car at a very low price (even below their true cost) if they can get your trade-in for less than it's really worth. The vernacular that car dealers use for this practice is "stealing the trade". The same thing is true if they can finance your purchase at an interest rate higher than normal. Car dealers get "kick-backs" from banks when they charge an interest rate higher than the lowest interest rate the bank offers. In fact, car dealers make more money from the financing of cars than they do from the cars they sell.
Car dealers know that most prospective car buyers have a "hot button" when it comes to buying a car. With many it's the monthly payment. With some it's "How much can you allow me for my trade?" Some are mainly focused on the price of the car their buying. Some are actually focused only on how small a down payment they have to make. With others, it's the lowest interest rate. The salesman's job is to find your hot button. Once they know that, they can give you what you're focused on, like high trade-in allowance, but still make a much bigger profit on the overall transaction than you should be willing to pay.
You've seen and heard the advertisement. "$3,000 Over Kelly Blue Book for your trade-in, Minimum $10,000 trade-in if you can push, pull, or drag it in, or We need your (fill in the blank of any year-make-model) and will pay you $5,000 over book." All those ads are designed to do are get you into the dealership based on your hot button. They can actually give you a high trade-in allowance just by marking up the car you're buying enough to offset how much extra they give you for your trade.
The same thing sort of trickery applies to any one single hot button. A low monthly payment can generate a huge amount of profit to the dealer with a long enough terms (84 months for example) or a high interest rate. A low price on the car you're buying is offset by "stealing your trade", allowing you thousands less than your trade is really worth. A low down payment leaves the door open too. You've all seen the 0% financing ads, but this means nothing if you overpay for the car you're buying or let go of your trade for too little.
The only save way to get the lowest total transaction price is to negotiate each price separately…the car, the trade-in, and the financing. When you're shopping for the lowest price for your car, tell the car dealers you don't have a trade-in and you're paying cash. When you're shopping for the highest price on your trade-in, tell the car dealers that you don't want to buy a car, just sell the one you have. When you are shopping for the lowest interest rate, check with you own bank or credit union and another bank or credit union for their best rate before you ask the dealer what his lowest rate is.
After you're armed with all of this information, go to the car dealer who offered you the lowest price on the car you want to buy. Then ask him if he can meet or beat the highest price you have quoted on your trade-in. Similarly, ask if he can meet or beat the lowest rate you have on your financing. When you've done all this, you can be assured you have the best total transaction price. There's one caveat on the trade-in. In Florida, you pay 6% sales tax on the difference between the trade in and the price of the car. Therefore the dealer you trade the car to can be 6% lower than the high bid on your trade from another dealer and still match it, because you will lose the sales tax savings if you sell your car to another dealer since you won't have a trade.


Wilder and Harry Kurnitz co-wrote Witness for the Prosecution's screenplay, with adaptation work by Larry Marcus. Set in London, five years in the past (1952), the film features curmudgeonly (though endearing) master barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton), who has recently returned to work after some major health issues, and is under the care of nurse Miss Plimsoll (Laughton's real-life wife Elsa Lanchester). Sir Wilfred is defending Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), who was charged with the murder of a rich widowed woman he'd recently befriended. Vole's German-born wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) is initially called upon to corroberate her husband's alibi for the night of the murder.
The script is absolutely compelling. The taut dialogue keeps the mystery running swiftly, and is peppered with great moments of humour and wit, which balance so wonderfully against the suspenseful dramatic elements. Much of the film's action takes place in a courtroom at the Old Bailey, where Sir Wilfred is in his element. He in fact has the best lines of the film.
A strong script is the best foundation for a great film, but it would be nowhere without skilled direction. Wilder was a master director, and his work on Witness for the Prosecution was simply magnificent. There's a lot going on in this film: flashbacks, comic scenes, dramatic rants, dry wit, crowd scenes, and even a musical number - and Wilder makes it all work together seamlessly.
Witness for the Prosecution was the last of the dozen films that Laughton and Lanchester worked together on. They are an absolutely marvelous team. Their timing is spot-on, and their rapport is seamless (their chemistry evident even when playing adversaries). Both were Oscar-nominated for their roles in this film. Though neither won (Laughton lost out to Alec Guinness for Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lanchester to Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara), Lanchester did go on to win a Golden Globe (Best Supporting Actress) for her role.
The rapid-fire, quick-witted dialogue between Laughton's Sir Wilfred and Lanchester's Miss Plimsoll is just delicious – evident from their very first appearance in a taxi in the opening scene. The Wilfred/Plimsoll schtick is basically: she fusses over him, and he is annoyed by, and insults her. The thing about their banter, however, is that even though they are constantly fighting, it doesn't come across as mean-spirited. Wilfred snaps at her, but it's done in such a way that it doesn't come across as ugly or misogynistic.
Wilfred might by grumpy, but there's something about him that's endearing too. His (eventual) delighted response to trying out his newly-installed electric staircase is quite lovely. One minute he's a crusty old bugger, and their next he's like an excited little kid. Laughton's best work in Witness for the Prosecution, however, is in the court scenes. It's like he was born in the wig and gown. He's just so perfectly suited to this role.
There was no Miss Plimsoll role in the Agatha Christie play: it was added to the film to capitalise on Lanchester's extensive talents. Her scenes with her husband are such delightful moments of comedy, and they work so well when juxtaposed against the film's dramatic, tense scenes.
Marlene Deitrich's work in Witness for the Prosecution is breathtaking. She's absolutely commanding as Christine, from her very first entrance. It's a fabulous moment, when we actually hear her voice moments before we see her. Christine says one line unseen, then we see her standing defiantly in Wilfred's doorway. She then delivers her next line as she walks in his direction, towards the camera (as it closes in on her, ending in a mid-shot). Her manner is steely and mesmerising.
Such 'present day' scenes for Christine are contrasted with flashback scenes of her time as a cabaret performer in war-time Germany. Christine sings a song to a room of drunken servicemen, in which her costume is torn, exposing one of Dietrich's famous legs. Christine's manner in the flashback scenes, like her other scenes, is determined – but there's also a subtle difference in Dietrich's acting style when she's playing her character as almost a decade younger than in the present day scenes.
[SIDE NOTE: Dietrich's costumes for Witness for the Prosecution were designed by 8-time Academy Award winner and Five Star Films favourite Edith Head. Head is actually the only creative who's worked on six different films that have been chosen as GwP classic Five Star Films. For a list of the other film's we've featured that Head worked on, see Section 5 here].
Some critics and viewers malign Tyrone Power's performance in Witness for the Prosecution, calling it weak or melodramatic. I disagree. Vole is a complex role, and I think a lot of the criticism is unfair. I love Power's performance, and feel it shows incredible range: from the comic/light scene where he demonstrates an eggbeater, to the young, swaggering impossibly handsome armed services officer, to a middle-aged man, stressfully facing the death penalty.
Witness for the Prosecution was the last film Tyrone Power completed. Sadly, in November 1958, at the age of 44, Power died of a heard attack in Spain, while on the set of King Vidor's Solomon and Sheba. The latter film was released in 1959, with Yul Brynner replacing Power.
I can't give any details about the tremendous final scene of Witness for the Prosecution, for fear of spoiling it for viewers who haven't had the pleasure of seeing it.
The management of this theatre suggests that for the greater entertainment of your friends who have not yet seen the picture, you will not divulge, to anyone, the secret of the ending of Witness for the Prosecution.
If you have seen it, you know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't seen it, you must. I mean it. Get a hold of a copy and watch it. You'll thank me.


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The X-20: America's Space Fighter
Everyone knows space fighters are an absurd idea, right? It's practically the first rule of hard science fiction: this isn't Star Wars you're writing, so no fighters, period. They make no economic or military sense, and they're exceedingly small and vulnerable, and they're not nearly as maneuverable as you'd think because space has no air to fly in. Just terrible, really. Your best option for small craft is probably unmanned laser satellites, or something.
It turned out that the US and USSR both took a while to get that memo. The history of the early Space Age is littered with attempts to weaponize low Earth orbit (and beyond!), with plans for, variously, cannon-armed space stations, manned spy satellites, anti-satellite missiles, and an Army base on the freakin' Moon1. Mixed in with the proposals were what essentially amounted to orbital fighter craft: the Soviets had the Spiral2 spaceplane, and the Americans had the X-20 Dyna-Soar—the subject of today's exploration.
Simple schematic of the X-20, showing the delta-wing design.
I guess if you want to get into the weeds here, it was less an X-Wing and more a proto-Space Shuttle operated by the military, but still. My point stands. The X-20, developed by Bell Aircraft and later Boeing between 1957-ish and 1963, was intended to be a multirole reusable space vehicle for the United States Air Force, conducting peacetime operations such as strategic reconnaissance, space rescue, and maintenance of on-orbit assets. If war broke out, it would have served instead as a satellite interceptor and intercontinental nuclear bomber. It was pretty much the jack-of-all-trades of Earth-orbit operations, and it needed to be, since the engineers at Bell and Boeing were always struggling to find some new way to justify their project's enormous budget.
The development of Dyna-Soar actually started in Nazi Germany, towards the beginning of World War II. The Luftwaffe was soliciting bids for the Amerika Bomber3 project, and engineers Eugen Sanger and Irene Bredt submitted by far the strangest proposal: a sled-launched rocket plane which would soar to the edge of space, release a four-ton bomb over New York, and then land somewhere in the territory of the Japanese Empire. This was the "Silbervogel," or "silver bird." Someday I will write a dedicated blog post on it, but what's important right now is that two other German rocket scientists, Walter Dornberger and Krafft Ehricke, brought the concept to America after the war. In 1952 they proposed a vertical-launch version of the Silbervogel to Bell Aircraft, calling their design the "Bomber Missile."
This concept eventually split off into three varieties of rocket-boosted suborbital spaceplane. These comprised a bomber and a reconnaissance craft, plus a technology testbed; in October 1957 they were all merged back together into the Dyna-Soar. At this point Dyna-Soar remained suborbital-only, with the end goal being an operational intercontinental strike force by 1974—combining the speed and range of an ICBM with the accuracy and flexibility of a bomber. In 1958 the Air Force began the process of selecting a contractor to complete and build the spaceplane. By 1959 it came down to a heated struggle between Bell and Boeing, who had nearly identical proposals, and in a shocking upset Boeing was selected, rather than Bell which had actually incubated and developed the Dyna-Soar project up to this point.
The X-20 launches atop one of the many, many boosters that were under consideration. Note the wings on the bottom, for stability.
Sometime around 1960 or 1961 the focus shifted from suborbital flights to orbital ones. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Astronautica are unclear as to when, exactly, this transition took place, but the final version leading up to 1963 was very much an orbital craft. It was a visionary design, foreshadowing later developments such as the Space Shuttle; though it was considerably smaller, with a mass of five tons and a crew of one, it pioneered a similar flat-bottomed delta-wing layout. The structural frame was made from a nickel alloy similar to that used in the Mercury spacecraft, while molybdenum served as the material for the bottom surface. There was also a heat shield over the nose of the craft, blocking the window—the pilot would only have been able to see out the sides—and this only would have been jettisoned on the landing approach.
The X-20, about to land. Most or all Dyna-Soar missions were intended to end at Edwards AFB in California.
Notably, the X-20 did not have landing gear, the concern being that the rubber would melt during reentry. Instead it used retractable wire-brush skids, a little like those of the ME-163 rocket fighter of World War II. For takeoff it would have been placed in LEO by a two-stage system, comprising the Titan III4 booster, derived from an ICBM, and a powerful second stage, with a whopping two km/s delta-v even after the orbital insertion. The idea here was for the X-20 to perform major trajectory changes, making it far harder to anticipate and shoot down. To this end, the Air Force also suggested an exotic form of aerobraking, whereby the X-20 would dip into the upper atmosphere and leverage the air itself to change inclination—ordinarily a very expensive maneuver in terms of fuel. To my knowledge, no subsequent spacecraft have attempted to do this.
Development of the X-20 did get far enough for serious mission planning to take place. In 1964 the Air Force would have carried out a drop test from a B-52, and they intended to launch the first manned flight by 1966, contemporaneous with NASA's Gemini program. Seven experienced pilots made the shortlist to fly these missions. Among them was a young Korean War veteran, Neil Armstrong, who of course never went on to accomplish anything of importance.
He was also involved in the X-15 program around the same time; it was a shame his career ended so early, the man had a lot of potential.
Had the X-20 program continued to fruition, it could well have had a long and decently successful career in military reconnaissance, with additional roles in satellite inspection, disabling hostile spacecraft, and carrying out rescue operations. A follow-up design called the X-20X would have entirely rearranged the interior, enabling it to carry four additional passengers for station ferry missions by the end of the 1960s.
Of course, the exceedingly costly X-20 program (to the tune of $5.5 billion in today's money) ran into a problem quite common to these sorts of zany big-budget research projects: it lacked a clearly definable purpose. The Air Force had a plan to get into space and return, but very little to do while there. The reconnaissance role was already being fulfilled by cheap, expendable spy satellites, and with ICBMs becoming far more accurate and reliable, there was no serious need for a space bomber. Orbital rescue and satellite sabotage remained too fanciful to justify the cost on their own. The Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, saw all these problems quite clearly, and ultimately canceled it on December 10, 1963.
What came after? Well, as the decade went on there wasn't much more interest in manned military spaceflight, save for the also-canceled Manned Orbiting Laboratory (derived from Gemini). The idea of a one-man space fighter was relegated to the fringes, never again being taken as seriously as it was in the Dyna-Soar years. Bell and Boeing's reentry research proved quite useful, however, with the Space Shuttle building upon their aerodynamic data, and later on the European Space Agency loosely modeled their never-flown Hermes spaceplane after the X-20. Since the 2010s, the closest thing we've had is the X-375, an unmanned five-ton glider which flies top-secret orbital missions for the US Space Force. Exact specifications and possible armament are a mystery; hopefully it can carry a laser to zap stuff, because that would be pretty cool.
An X-37 on the tarmac in 2010.
Even more recently, I built my own version in Kerbal Space Program. Despite a different appearance, my K-21 design has a very similar mission profile to the X-20: launch atop a large booster stage, enter orbit, do spy stuff, and then glide back to the surface. It flies beautifully:
Behold the K-21! Complete with reconnaissance cameras (modded) and sometimes a missile (not modded, surprisingly).
The X-20 Dyna-Soar, despite its silly name, marked a pivotal advance in the history of orbital flight. It was a design ahead of its time, a fully functional spaceplane in an era when the Space Race contestants flew only conical or spherical capsules; the concept is even more impressive given the unknown aerodynamics involved, and the fact that for much of its existence, until April 1961, manned spaceflight still occupied the realm of the hypothetical. Suffice it to say that space history could have taken a markedly different course, had this project been given the go-ahead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar#Legacy
http://astronautix.com/d/dynasoar.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_–JI_aolOU (1962 promotional video for the X-20. Very fun!)
Project Horizon was a wild time. Its doom came about in a similar way to the X-20, actually: despite the engineers' clear enthusiasm for the project, there wasn't actually much of a point in military terms. This will be the subject of a later post!
Spiral will get its own subsequent post, though it will probably be a lot shorter. Being a Soviet design project (and a poorly fleshed-out one, at that), there's much less information to work with.
Compass Games actually has a board game where you play the pilot of an Amerika Bomber. Sadly you cannot fly the Silbervogel.
It took Boeing a while to settle on this one, though. Various other Titan rocket iterations were considered, as well as the Saturn I.
Also by Boeing.
Published by Nic Quattromani
Aspiring author, space nerd, freelance writer for hire. View all posts by Nic Quattromani
cold war, military, orbital launch, Space Travel
Icy Mysteries of Europa
Short Film Review: The Adjustable Cosmos (2010)
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Book Review: At the Mountains of Madness
Short Story: The Return
The Cosmic Weirdness of Neutron Stars
Classic Sci-Fi: Asimov's Galactic Empire
Short Story: The Devil in the Archives
Sci-Fi Film Review: Ad Astra (2019)
The Cosmic Dark Ages
Short Story: Selected Communications of the Zygaran High Command

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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In the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and international activists in al-'Awja. Israeli settlers also threw stones at homes and vehicles in Tuqu', causing damage. Israeli forces violently dispersed Palestinian protesters during a raid in Biddu, causing tear-gas related injuries. Israeli forces also seized a solar panel in Wadi al-Faw. (WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 10/24; PCHR 10/27; UNOCHA 11/1)
The Israeli military suspended 3 soldiers after a video surfaced of 1 of them attacking a Palestinian police officer in Hebron while the 2 others stood by without preventing the attack. (HA 10/24)
5 PA ministers visited Nablus to examine the consequences of the Israeli-imposed siege of the city. For the last 2 weeks, Israel has closed several entrances to the city, forcing residents and visitors to travel through checkpoints to get in and out. (WAFA 10/24; MEMO 10/25)
In Syria, Israeli forces conducted air strikes in Damascus, injuring 1 soldier and causing damage. The Syrian military said its air defense had shot down several Israeli missiles. (AP, HA, MEMO, REU 10/24)
Yarkon River
Tuqu'
Biddu
Preventive Security Force
Anti-aircraft


PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh Post/ANN) – While hunting in the Kingdom's wildlife sanctuaries has abated, the use of traps have become widespread. That, coupled with deforestation, has caused grave concerns among conservationists who fear the extinction of the endangered yellow-cheeked crested gibbons.
The rare gibbon species – native to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia – live in tropical forests and swing from tree to tree foraging for fruits. In 1995, they were found living in the southern part of Laos and Vietnam and did not have a large presence in Cambodia.
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Country Director Ken Serey Rotha said around 1,000 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons were found in the Keo Seima and Phnom Prich wildlife sanctuaries in Mondulkiri province.
He said the number of yellow-cheeked crested gibbons has not increased in recent years, prompting WCS to work in partnership with a local community on an eco-tourism project aimed at conserving the species.
"Keo Seima and Phnom Prich are the last wildlife sanctuaries that serve as habitats for the species. All parties need to participate and conserve the endangered species by eliminating hunting, consumption and trafficking so that they can continue to exist for our next generations to see," he said.
He said WCS is working with the Andong Kraloeng eco-tourism community on a project aimed at raising awareness among the general public.
Serey Rotha holds out high hopes that the project will discourage people from hunting, trapping, trafficking and eating wild animals, and instead help contribute to the concerted conservation efforts.


Some examples include a request to improve the ranking of a company who was considering trading as "European Golf Tour" – the 3 main key words they predicted people would search to find their website. Others include Essex-based photographers who generally want to rank for phrases such as "wedding photographer essex". We also have a huge request from printing companies who want to rank for phrases such as "colour printing" or "leaflet printing".
e.g. the user want to go directly to a website e.g. Apple, BBC, Mercedes.
e.g. how fast can a cheetah run? What year was the Battle of Waterloo fought?
Or as Google referes to them: entertainment, enlightenment or information. Which I find incorporates the above categories.
So, if Google determines that a search query deserves a navigational result (one that will show the brand owner's website at No.1 position, then no matter what SEO you do, you will not knock that website off the top spot.
To make this clearer try searching for "eurpean golf tour". You will see that europeantour.com is at the top spot. This has nothing to do with SEO directly. This is what Google's calculates that the majority of its users would want navigate to when using those keywords in that exact combination. And I'm sure they're right.
My point is, is doesn't matter how much effort you put into optimising your website for a given set of keywords, you will never out-rank a site that falls within a different category to the one your site is classified as (or optimised for).
Broad commercial keywords have saturated billions of web pages in an attempt to optimise websites. Google doesn't want to show results to its users that are not relevant to a user's search query.
Babolat AeroPro Drive GT – a very specific product query which strongly indicated the user would like to see prices and therefore a possible purchase – and deserves a transactional result from search engines.
The downside to the long tail is it will not generally yield high volumes of traffic, which provides enough brand awareness and / or space for advertisers. However the main point of this post was to persuade you to consider your own branding when looking into SEO.
Historically, marketing agencies would focus heavily on brand recognition across channels such as direct mail, TV ads, POS etc., without a successful method of measuring their ROI (return-on-investment).
Since search marketing gained momentum (around 1999) more and more marketing budgets have been allocated towards SEO and PPC. Apart from being measurable, an ROI can start within minutes of deploying a campaign.
Going back to my European Golf Tour example, a company called Hi 5 Golf Tours has done a great job of positioning themselves fairly high within their marketplace. For the same query: "european golf tour" they are ranked no. 4.
We've been working on brand awareness for a handful of our clients and have reported significant shifts in search behaviour for those client's products and services. An increasing number of non-branded keywords which were formally used are being switched for branded keyword searches. This trend, I believe, will grow over the coming year.


Masks of Morality is getting a Makeover!
There are also a couple minor tweaks in the cover design. Rather than be branded as a "Political Twister," it is simply "A Novel." This decision was based on feedback I received by a reader who loved the story-line, but was disappointed that it was not actually political. Although I was delighted to hear this since my story was not meant to be political so much as how corrupt politics affect society, it made me wonder: How many other readers were deceived by the cover expecting something else?
I love feedback, whether positive or negative. Constructive criticism only helps me hone this craft called writing. Every day I learn something new, especially through my weekly writer's circle. In the end, my new friends in that support group have been my best editors.
Thank you for reading, and please offer any critiques you may have as well!


It's great location - 10 min walking from South Station where your bus arrives.
The apartment is spacious. There is all you need - laundry, iron, microwave, kettle, dishes, TV, a fridge. 3 beds, 2 arm-chairs, dinning table and 2 sofas.
I can be your guide around the region and city for special price.


Fairy Garden White Fence ~ Miniature Wood Picket Fencing ~ Little Wood Fence Metal Privacy Screen Decorative Panel Garden Fence Decor Art - Square2.
Garden Accents, Add charm to your garden and yard with our selection of Small Wrought Iron Garden Obelisk 61"H Cast Iron Fleur-de-lis Garden Fence.
A little imagination can go a long way around your property. Here, a Walpole customer chose an Oyster Bay accent radius fence section with a convex top.
Give your garden a new look with this Wam Bam Zippity Garden Fence. Made from Quickview. This complete vinyl fence kit is perfect to confine small pets or enclose a small garden. The wire creates a dramatic accent with its bold design.
$10.99. Amagabeli Decorative Garden Fence 32 in x 20 ft. . Folding Wire Patio Fencing Border Edge Sections Edging Flower Bed Barrier Decor Patio Fences.
The humble garden fence, our gardens have them but we neglect them.Yes we may For small gardens this is a great space saver solution.
Shop for garden fences fencing and other hardware and building materials products at Wrought Iron Garden Fence Edging (Diamond), Black, Outdoor Décor.
Results 1 - 60 of 1383 ALEKO 6'X150' Aluminum Eye Fence Privacy Outdoor Backyard Green Screen .. Yard Gard B 28 inches x 50 feet Galvanized Small Animal Greensmart Decor Artificial Fern Foliage Wall Panels (Set of 4).
25 Creative ideas for garden fences and walls: unique ways to add an 25 Creative Ideas For Garden Fences | Use shelves to show off your decor This little mask works perfectly on this expanse of black fence and gate.


Periodontal dentistry is a branch of dentistry that deals mainly with conditions affecting the gum and surrounding tissues. Before any dentist can perform periodontal dentistry West Hollywood, they must have undergone specialized training for treating gum related conditions. At Smile Dzine, we ensure that every one of our periodontist professionals has undergone three extra years in periodontal learning and training before they can practice their craft on the general public.
You can get various benefits when working with a periodontist including dental services that require dental surgery.
We offer periodontal services for both dental treatment and cosmetic treatment. Most of the time, however, periodontal treatment is usually directed toward dental prevention practices. Below are a variety of dental treatments that you can get from our periodontists.
A gum graft surgery refers to a dental procedure that replaces some gum tissue from one area to another. Gum graft surgery is usually widespread in periodontal dentistry West Hollywood. In most cases, we apply gum graft surgery in the treatment of receded gums.
During the procedure, the dentist will remove some bits of gum from the inside tissues of the mouth then place them on the base of the tooth. This procedure doesn't take a lot of time and may be over in a single session. For the best gum graft services throughout the city, you can rely on us.
Our periodontists are well skilled in surgical procedures that are applied in dental treatment. Dental implant surgery is one of the few cosmetic procedures that our periodontists perform.
Since periodontal dentistry West Hollywood is all about gum treatment and repair, dental implant fitting is mostly related to the state of the gum and how well the implant adheres to the gum and jawbone. If you intend on getting a dental implant, you can rely on our team of professionals at Smile Dzine for the best dental treatment.
Our periodontic specialists also perform laser treatment in the event of certain conditions like gingival display. The gingival display also known as a gummy smile refers to a situation where a large part of the gum is exposed making your smile look very gummy. In periodontal dentistry West Hollywood, laser treatment is a very convenient and fast treatment process which has exquisite results.
You can check for before and after pictures for laser treatment to determine how well the procedure may suit you. Alternatively, our dental experts can help you in determining the benefits of laser treatment and how well this treatment method can suit you.
Periodontists also perform crown lengthening as a cosmetic procedure. Crown lengthening is aimed at making your smile more attractive by increasing the length of the crown on the front teeth. To do this, our periodontist will have to remove some of the gum from the bottom of the tooth to reveal more of the tooth making it appear longer. This procedure is not usually long and can take a single session depending on the number of teeth that you want to be lengthened.


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Reading machine
A reading machine is a piece of assistive technology that allows blind people to access printed materials. It scans text, converts the image into text by means of optical character recognition and uses a speech synthesizer to read out what it has found.
The first prototype of reading machine, called optophone, was developed by Dr. Edmund Fournier d'Albe of Birmingham University in 1913. Five vertically-aligned photo-detectors were used to scan a line of printed text. Each cell generated a different tone (G, C, D, E, G8) when detecting black print, so that each character was associated with a specific time-varying chords of tones. With some practice, blind users were able to interpret this audio output as a meaningful message. However, the reading speed of this device was very slow (approximately one word per minute).[1][2]
From 1944 until up to the 1970s, new prototypes of reading machine were developed at Haskins Laboratories under contract from the Veterans Administration. The research project was conducted by Caryl Parker Haskins, Franklin S. Cooper and Alvin Liberman. Their first attempts to improve the optophone all ended in failures[2], and users were still unable to read more than 5 words per minutes in average, even after long training sessions[1]. This observation led Alvin Liberman to suppose that the limitation was cognitive rather than technical, and to formulate his Motor theory of speech perception. He realized that the speech signal was not heard like an acoustic "alphabet" or "cipher," but as a "code" of overlapping speech gestures, due to coarticulation. Therefore, a reading machine cannot simply convert the printed characters into a series of abstract sounds, rather it must be able to identify the characters and to produce a speech sound as output using a speech synthesizer.
The first commercial reading machine for the blind was developed by Kurzweil Computer Products (later acquired by Xerox Corporation) in 1975. Walter Cronkite used this machine to give his signature soundoff, "And that's the way it is, January 13, 1976." [3]
In the mid-1960s, Francis F. Lee joined Dr. Samuel Jefferson Mason's Cognitive Information Processing Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT to work on a reading machine for the blind, the first system that would scan text and produce continuous speech.[4] Early reading machines were desk-based and large, found in libraries, schools, and hospitals or owned by wealthy individuals. In 2009, a cellphone running Kurzweil-NFB software works as a reading machine.[5]
^ a b Shankweiler, D; Fowler, CA (February 2015). "Seeking a reading machine for the blind and discovering the speech code". History of psychology. 18 (1): 78–99. doi:10.1037/a0038299. PMID 25528275.
^ a b Cooper, FS; Gaitenby, JH; Nye, PW (May 1984). "Evolution of reading machines for the blind: Haskins Laboratories' research as a case history". Journal of rehabilitation research and development. 21 (1): 51–87. PMID 6396402.
^ http://www.kurzweiltech.com/kcp.html
^ RLE Timeline 1960-1979 http://www.rle.mit.edu/about/history/timeline-1960-1[permanent dead link] Retrieved 3 January 2015
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reading_machine&oldid=892733493"
Blindness equipment
This page was last edited on 16 April 2019, at 14:34 (UTC).


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Home / Technology / Tech-news / Social media metrics for new-age firms
Social media metrics for new-age firms
3 min read . Updated: 01 Oct 2018, 01:30 AM IST Umang Bedi
Photo: iStock
Social media management platforms have matured substantially and use AI-powered analytics tools
In recent years, a central feature of the digital strategy of new-age companies has been brand building using powerful social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. This has created a potent platform for companies and their brands to connect with their digital audience.
Today's consumers are demanding and expect companies to engage with them 24X7, making their brand experience personal and sincere. This has largely been possible due to the advent of social media that has turbo-charged companies to explore innovative branding strategies. New-age companies also use multiple machine learning algorithms to generate user media feeds and analyse consumer behaviour.
Organizations have come to recognize social media as possibly the central tool for gathering insights about and reaching out to customers —both B2B and B2C—and guiding them from discovery to retention.
Today's new-age companies leverage social media to analyse their online performance metrics and gather critical information about their target audience. These metrics are classified under four basic categories:
•Awareness: Metrics that estimate the amount of share of voice about your company/brand among your current and potential target audience.
•Engagement: Metrics that explain how audiences are interacting with your content. (A metric which is most important for content creators/media publishers)
•Conversion: Metrics that demonstrate the effectiveness of your social engagement on popular platforms such as Facebook/LinkedIn.
•Consumer: Metrics that reflect how active customers think and feel about your brand.
Role of social media metrics Today's organizations must work hard to differentiate themselves from competition in a sea of digital content. They should leverage the power of social media platforms to connect with their target audience who are available for engagement on multiple touch points through social media. This will help make their presence felt in the face of stiff competition, offering superlative content across varied platforms.
Why qualitative content remains 'king' New-age companies should have a keen understanding of their target audience--where they consume, what they want to consume and when they consume.
Originality, volume, velocity and veracity of content is the secret recipe to win in this category, as high audience reach with low content quality can prove to be detrimental to the overall brand perception across social media circles.
The real challenge starts after you have grabbed the customer's attention. While it may appear that a host of players are competing in the same space, the target audience gets associated with each brand, publisher and platform at different levels. It is, therefore, imperative for each brand to create a social media identity of its own.
For example, AIB will not be looked at as Terribly Tiny Tales is, and so on. It is also important to collaborate with multiple yet like-minded content partners, carrying a unique identity of their own, while catering to niche demands of customers. Adding videos is fast turning out to be the new game changer and the most effective way to reach the target audience.
Dynamics: content creators and content aggregator Social media amplification is a win-win situation for both. News publishers use personalized alerts to reach a vast audience by tracking their online behaviour through social media analytics tools. Content aggregators are used to access a variety of news sources and keep track of breaking news alerts around the world.
What lies ahead Social media management platforms have matured substantially and use AI-powered analytics tools to sift through millions of data points to identify trends and consumer sentiment. If new-age digital content-focused businesses continue to follow a multi-layered approach, with each aspect of the business aligned with the corresponding metric, social media will proliferate further into the consumer's consciousness.
Umang Bedi is president of Dailyhunt.
To read more stories from Digital Dossier, click here.
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4/03/2016 · Rehraas Sahib along with Complete Translation in Punjabi.... Read the English Translation Table of Contents Browse the index of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, where you can click on any of the hyperlinks to jump to a section or page number of the translation.
Rehras, commonly known as Rehras Sahib or Sodar Rehras, is the daily evening prayer of the Sikhs and is part of Nitnem. It includes hymns from Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth.
Read the English Translation Table of Contents Browse the index of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, where you can click on any of the hyperlinks to jump to a section or page number of the translation.


It looked like something of a breakthrough on solving the vexing problem of consumers paying exorbitant sums for electricity when Commonwealth Edison agreed over the summer to put its comparable energy price on the electric bills of households buying from non-utility suppliers.
Guess we should have read the fine print. Because that's where consumers will need to look on their bills to find ComEd's price-to-compare if they start to suspect they're paying too much to keep the lights on.
That section currently includes items like what ComEd number to call to get definitions of terms in your electric bill and where to find ComEd's environmental disclosure statement. It's anything but a prominent feature a typical customer will scan when receiving his or her electric bill.
How will this help the thousands of residential customers who have no clue they're paying far too much for electricity after they've signed up with an alternative supplier? It's not a stretch to say that it won't.
So why is ComEd doing this, particularly after a second-straight annual ICC report showing households getting their power from non-utility suppliers collectively paying well over $100 million more than they would with ComEd?
Might it have something to do with the fact that ComEd's sister company, Constellation Energy, is the largest retail electric supplier in Illinois? The opposition of Chicago-based Exelon, parent of both ComEd and Constellation and arguably the most politically potent corporation in the state, has prevented meaningful reform in Springfield of an industry in desperate need of it.
The ICC issued a "call to action" in July petitioning utilities to "prominently" display their price next to the price consumers were paying their suppliers.
Madigan has long called for posting the utility's price on all bills so that customers of retail suppliers can keep an eye on whether they're saving or not—a position ComEd opposed until the summer. More recently, she's called for legislation to end the retail power market for households entirely, given evidence of widespread misleading marketing and other bad practices.
ComEd is proposing to begin adding the information to electric bills in December. The ICC still must rule on the request before it can go forward.


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Q: How to rank players highest score I have two tables
Players
id     Player
1      Jack
2      Anna
3      Sam

Scores
id     player_id     score
1      1             500
2      1             200
3      2             300
4      2             200
5      3             750

I would like the output to look like
1   Sam     750
2   Jack    500
3   Anna    300

Currently my code looks like
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY S.score DESC, P.name), P.name, S.score
FROM Players P, Scores S
WHERE P.id = S.player_id;

but my output is
1   Sam    750
2   Jack   500
3   Anna   300
4   Anna   200
5   Jack   200

I'm not sure how to get distinct player names, my attempts at using DISTINCT have not been working out. I'm just learning so apologies if this is something really obvious, i've tried to look for answers without success.

A: SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY x.score DESC, x.name), x.name, x.score
FROM (
   SELECT P.Name, Max(S.Score) as score
   FROM Players P, Scores S
   WHERE P.id = S.player_id
   GROUP BY P.Name ) x
ORDER BY x.score DESC, x.Name

First get the highest score per user, than rank the stuff.

A: I think you should use rank()instead of row_number() to handle ties.
Then, you should learn to use proper, explicit, standard, readable join syntax.
One method uses a subquery:
SELECT RANK() OVER (ORDER BY s.max_score DESC), p.name, s.max_score
FROM (SELECT s.player_id, MAX(s.score) as max_score
      FROM Scores s
      GROUP BY s.player_id
     ) s JOIN
     Players P
     ON P.id = S.player_id
ORDER BY s.max_score DESC, P.Name;

You are using window functions, so you can do this without GROUP BY as:
SELECT RANK() OVER (ORDER BY s.max_score DESC), p.name, s.max_score
FROM (SELECT s.*, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY s.player_id ORDER BY s.score DESC) as seqnum
      FROM Scores s
      GROUP BY s.player_id
     ) s JOIN
     Players P
     ON P.id = S.player_id
WHERE seqnum = 1
ORDER BY s.max_score DESC, P.Name;

A: My first inclination would be to use a subquery like the other suggested answers, but the following also seems to work, at least in SQL Server:
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY MAX(S.score) DESC), P.name, MAX(S.score)
FROM Players P INNER JOIN Scores S ON P.id = S.player_id
GROUP BY P.Name;

A: You need to find highest score by each player and sort it by marks.

*

*Find the highest score by each player from scores table

*Get the player name from Player table and Sort it by Highest score

*Use Rank
SELECT RANK() OVER (ORDER BY s.Score desc) as Rank, P.Player,S.score
    from (SELECT player_id, Max(Score) as score
       FROM Scores
       GROUP BY player_id) S
       INNER JOIN PLAYERS P
       ON P.id = S.player_id
       ORDER BY score desc
.


Indiana Youth Soccer implemented the new age matrix starting in the 2016-2017 seasonal year.
Effective January 2017, the grouping of players will change nationwide, with encouraged adoption of best practices in August of 2016. U.S. Soccer has mandated that all United States youth soccer programs go back to calendar birth years to align with international standards and Youth National Team programs.
US Youth Soccer and Indiana Youth Soccer will implement the best practice of calendar year age grouping for player registration beginning with the 2016-2017 soccer year for US Youth Soccer programs and competitions. The new matrix will come into effect beginning August 1, 2016.
US Soccer explains that birth year registration should be calculated based on the year in which the season ENDS. For example, if a season begins in the fall of 2016 and ends in the summer of 2017 (ex: 2016-2017 season), the players would be registered based on their age in the year 2017. Competitions that take place in a single year (ex: fall of 2017 only) should use that year to determine birth year. To simplify determining the age group, just subtract the birth year from the year the season ends.
Players born from January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2003 will be labeled as Under-16s.
Players born from January 1, 2004 – December 31, 2004 will be labeled as Under-15s.
Players born from January 1, 2005 – December 31, 2005 will be labeled as Under-14s.
Players born from January 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006 will be labeled as Under-13s.
Players born from January 1, 2007 – December 31, 2008 will be labeled as Under-12s.
Players born from January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2008 will be labeled as Under-11s.
With the exception of the US Youth Soccer Under-19/20s, the age group "label" will be determined by subtracting the year in which the players participating in the competition were born from the year in which competition ends.