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Home Jingtian & Gongcheng Overview of Sino-US judicial reciprocity
Overview of Sino-US judicial reciprocity
By Zhang Jinhui and Zhang Guanglei, Jingtian & Gongcheng
Judgments rendered by foreign courts may be recognised and enforced by courts in China based on international treaties to which China is a party, or the principle of reciprocity, according to articles 288 and 289 of the Civil Procedural Law.
As no treaty yet exists between China and the US in respect of mutual recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments, for now Chinese courts rely on the principle of reciprocity to recognise and enforce judgments originating from US courts.
APPLICATION OF RECIPROCITY
Zhang Jinhui
There is no specific, clear-cut provision in Chinese law regarding the principle of reciprocity. When handling requests for recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments, Chinese courts typically exhibit considerable discretion in determining reciprocal relationship between China and other countries.
In its responses to requests for recognition and enforcement of a Japanese ruling by Gomi Akira in 1995, and a request for recognition and enforcement of an Australian ruling by DNT France Power Engine in 2006, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) made it clear that the key to determining reciprocal relationship lies in precedence where Chinese court judgments were recognised and enforced by courts in the country of origin. The SPC's ruling was largely followed by Chinese courts when handling such cases.
However, with increased cross-border judicial assistance and the launch of Belt and Road Initiative policies, the SPC has in recent years encouraged advancing of the reciprocity principle on multiple occasions.
This development is evidenced by the SPC's Several Opinions on Providing Judicial Services and Guarantees for the Belt and Road Initiative, issued on 16 June 2015; the Opinions on Further Providing Judicial Services and Guarantees for the Belt and Road Initiative, issued on 9 December 2019; and the Nanning Statement of the 2nd China-ASEAN Justice Forum on 8 June 2017, which was arrived at with the SPC's participation.
Accordingly, Chinese courts may take the lead in recognising and enforcing foreign judgments, even without precedence of Chinese court judgments being recognised and enforced by courts of the relevant foreign country.
PAST PRACTICE
In recognising and enforcing judgments of US courts, Chinese courts have in the past acknowledged the reciprocal relationship between China and the US, but on other occasions have also reached the opposite conclusion.
Zhang Guanglei
For example, in Liu Li v Tao Li and Tong Wu (2015), the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court determined that a Sino-US reciprocal relationship existed, on the ground that a US court had in 2011 recognised and enforced the Chinese judgment in Hubei Gezhouba Sanlian and Hubei Pinghu Cruise v Robinson Helicopter (2009).
Likewise, in Wen Xiaochuan v Huang Kefeng and WBV International (2018), the Sino-US reciprocal relationship was re-affirmed by Ningbo Intermediate People's Court based on precedence of a US court recognising and enforcing Chinese court decisions.
Nevertheless, in Kolmar Group v Jiangsu Textile Industry (Group) Import & Export (2016), heard at about the same period, the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court determined that a reciprocal relationship did not exist between China and the US – a polar opposite conclusion from its Wuhan counterpart, despite having received an application to recognise and enforce a US court decision, along with evidence of precedence where the above Gezhouba Sanlian case rendering was recognised and enforced by a US court. It is noteworthy that the Nanchang court did not elaborate on a reason.
This seems to suggest that when dealing with such cases, Chinese courts will determine reciprocity on a case-by-case basis, instead of simply following precedence.
Reciprocity means exchange for mutual benefit, which by definition must be achieved from both sides. Recognition and enforcement of Chinese court decisions by US courts is highly relevant to determining the Sino-US reciprocal relationship by Chinese courts. There have been a number of such precedents in the US, including the above-mentioned Gezhouba Sanlian case, as well as Global Material Technologies v Dahzeng Metal Fibre (2015), Qiu Qinrong v Zhang Hongying et al (2017), and Liu Huizhi v Guan Guoqing et al (2020). However, in April 2015, the New York County Supreme Court determined, in Shanghai Yongrun Investment Management v Kashi Galaxy Venture Capital, that Chinese courts cannot provide fair judicial decisions on a level matching the US due process, and declined to recognise and enforce the relevant 2019 decision by the Beijing Higher People's Court.
The first-instance decision of this case led to heated discussion, concerned that it would become a hindrance for Chinese courts to determine Sino-US reciprocity. But the Yongrun case took a turn on 10 March 2022, with the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court reversing its first-instance ruling on appeal.
The ruling concluded that: (1) the defendants had the opportunity to be heard, were represented by counsel, and had a right to appeal in China's underlying proceedings, which was sufficient to support that the basic requisites of due process were met; (2) the court should not have dismissed the action on the ground that the human rights reports of the US State Department conclusively refuted the plaintiff's allegation; (3) the reports did not constitute documentary evidence under New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules; and (4) in any event, the reports do not utterly refute the plaintiff's allegation that the civil law system governing the breach of contract business dispute was fair.
The second-instance ruling of the Yongrun case was not only yet another Chinese court decision recognised and enforced in the US, but also a positive addition to US courts' judicial rules when it comes to recognising Chinese court rulings.
Undoubtedly, this will in future shed positive light on the prospect of Chinese courts' determination of Sino-US reciprocity, as well as the recognition and enforcement of US court judgments in China.
Zhang Guanglei is a partner and Zhang Jinhui is an associate at Jingtian & Gongcheng. Guanglei is also an arbitrator of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, Shanghai International Arbitration Centre and Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration.
77 Jianguo Road
Beijing 100025, China
E-mail: zhang.guanglei@jingtian.com
Chinese courts
Cross-border Dispute Resolution
New York Supreme Court
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Q: Django related objects are missing from celery task (race condition?) Strange behavior, that I don't know how to explain. I've got a model, Track, with some related points. I call a celery task to performs some calculations with points, and they seem to be perfectly reachable in the method itself, but unavailable in celery task.
@shared_task
def my_task(track):
    print 'in the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()

def some_method():
    t = Track()
    t.save()
    t = fill_with_points(t)  # creating points, attaching them to a Track
    t.save()
    print 'before the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()
    my_task.delay(t)

That prints the following:
before the task, 21346, 2971
in the task, 21346, 0

Strange thing though, when I put a time.sleep(10) at the first line of my_task or before calling my_task at all, it works out well, like there's some race condition. But the first printed line clearly says that points are available in the database, when it makes a select query (track.points.all().count()).

A: I'm going to assume this is due to transaction isolation.
Django transactions by default are tied to requests; and while a transaction is active, no other process will see the changes until the transaction is committed. If you're in the middle of a save method, and there are quite a lot of other actions that take place before the request finishes, it seems likely that Celery starts processing the task before the transaction is committed. You could fix this by committing manually or by delaying the task.

A: You should NEVER pass model objects to celery tasks. This is because the session might expire (or be different) in the celery task compared to your Django application and this object will not be linked to the session and thus may not be available/beheave badly. What you should do is send the id. So something like track_id and then get the object from the database by issuing a query. That should most likely solve your problem.
@shared_task
def my_task(track_id):
    track = Track.query.get(track_id)  # Or how ever the query should be
    print 'in the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()

def some_method():
    t = Track()
    t.save()
    t = fill_with_points(t)  # creating points, attaching them to a Track
    t.save()
    print 'before the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()
    my_task.delay(t.id)  # Pass the id here, not the object

A: So, I've solved it using django-transaction-hooks. It still looks kinda scary to replace my DB backend, but django-celery-transactions seems to be broken in Django 1.6. Now my setup looks like this:
settings.py:
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'transaction_hooks.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'foo',
        },
    }
SOUTH_DATABASE_ADAPTERS = {'default':'south.db.postgresql_psycopg2'}  # this is required, or South breaks

models.py:
from django.db import connection

@shared_task
def my_task(track):
    print 'in the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()

def some_method():
    t = Track()
    t.save()
    t = fill_with_points(t)  # creating points, attaching them to a Track
    t.save()
    print 'before the task', track.id, track.points.all().count()
    connection.on_commit(lambda: my_task.delay(t))

Results:
before the task, 21346, 2971
in the task, 21346, 2971

It still seems strange that such a common use case has no native celery or Django solution.

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Summer Walker Releases Her New "CLEAR" EP.
Summer Walker of Atlanta, Ga is seeing her star rise with the release of her more than personal tales of heartache over contemporary jazz ballads. Her voice paired with her personal, crafty and very relatable songwriting is the perfect recipe for great music. While the EP is four songs long, listening more than one time in a setting is highly encouraged. My personal favorite is the track titled "Grave" and here Walker sings about dudes not backing up all their words with actions. She channels her fed up attitude into a clear and concise idea, put up or stfu.
All in all, you will find this EP as refreshing and if you're new to Summer Walker check out her debut album Last Day of Summer. Listen to her latest EP below.


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A waste of air...
I am going to spend a moment to talk about Paris Hilton. That's right. Paris Hilton. I didn't want to. But I am forced by events to comment on this walking bag of uselessness.
I was happily minding my own business, checking CNN to see the news of the day. There's lots going on in the world and I was hoping for some updates. How's the G8 summit going? Will the shuttle launch on time? Is Alberto Gonzales out of a job yet? But I couldn't get any information about these news items because Paris Fucking Hilton was there in all her file footage glory. I waited, but that sack of antlers wouldn't go away. Why not? I actually tuned in my brain for a moment.
It seems that Paris was going to jail. Why? Well apparently she was busted for DUI. She got probation, a fine and had to take a class. Then she got caught driving on a suspended license. They she was pulled over for doing 70 in a 35 zone while STILL suspended.
So a judge said,"You going to jail" and sentenced her to 45 days in the pokey. According to her loyal friends and fans, this was akin to sending her to Gitmo. She showed up, spent four days in jail, and was released, supposedly for "medical reasons" and would apparently serve the rest of her 45 days under house arrest.
I'd like to take a moment to clarify some things. First. It's very likely she would only spend 23 days in jail. The jails are very crowded in California and they was to save space for the violent offenders. Two. For anyone worried she was being raped or at risk of being shived. She wasn't. She was in a segregated section reserved for celebrities, police, politicians or anyone else is likely to be hassled while serving time.
By now you're saying "What the fuck?" and rightly so. The judge wasn't very pleased either and had her hauled back to court this morning. After that, she was thrown back in the pokey for the full 45 days.
I will admit that at this point, I'm hooked. I want to know what happens next to Paris Hilton. You've won, mass media. I can't help it. What should have been a simple life lesson about why we shouldn't drink and drive, and drive... and drive... has turned into a fiasco.
There is some confusion about who has authority with regards to early prisoner release. It may be that the sheriff has a certain amount of discretion in these cases. But the judge had specifically stated that she wouldn't be getting off with a suspended sentence, or house arrest. The prosecutor asked the judge if maybe the sheriff was in contempt of court. That's pretty serious. The prosecutors office fielded hundreds of angry calls and emails about this bullshit, and rightly so.
Luckily the judges order seems to be the final word. She's in jail and will remain there. She was apparently in tears and they took her from the courtroom saying "It's not fair!" and calling for her "Mommy".
I would like to point out that I have no problem with the segregated accommodations she got. And I am not so cold that I would insist a sick person remain imprisoned without medical attention. If she's sick, get her a doctor. If she's unhappy, well that's just too fucking bad. Jail isn't Disneyland.
And crying and screaming for her mom? This woman is 26 years old. Show some fortitude. You'll live. Consider growing up.
I am curious to know exactly how this situation went from routine to fucked up so fast.
It's easy at this point to swing right into a rant about what a stupid, spoiled rich slut she is. But I will refrain. It's wrong to hang your morals on someone else. Yes, she recorded herself having sex and then marketed it herself. Where some would se an opportunistic slut, others would see a market savvy entrepreneur. Maybe her parents have a more European view about sex. Fair enough. And her drug use? Same thing. Neither of my parents has berated me upon learning that I tried marijuana. Of course, that's all I have tried. Paris Hilton parents must be VERY European to be cool with cocaine, heroin or bulimia.
And it's certainly not a requirement that you do something useful with your life and the millions you get just for existing. It's weird. Paris stands there and is a beloved celebutante. Bill Gates has given away BILLIONS for charitable causes and is still viewed as the Antichrist.
So your life consists of a TV show that repeatedly shows you to be vapid, shallow and stupid. You are paid to be pretty. You incessantly party. You take drugs and engage in videotaped sex. You use racist terms a lot when you think people aren't watching.
It's your life. But once you get behind the wheel of a car drunk, you've crossed a line. And when you ignore the rules and reality in general, you cross another line. So when you get sent to jail for breaking the law, you really have no reason to complain. You had your chance. You blew it. Sorry you got dicked around for a day, but oh well. Lot's of people get dicked around by the legal system every day. Some people spend years in jail on false evidence. Shit happens. You'll get over it kid.
This won't stop the circus of course. There are high priced attorneys to be hired, tearful interviews with her parents, lawsuits to be filed, scandalous tabloids to be printed. Protests, online petitions and a swarm of media gnats buzzing around every aspect of this case like flies around shit.
In all of this I really can't but wonder about the parents. I know parents love their children, even their fucked up ones. They often love and support them, even when they do stupid, illegal and morally questionable things. But at some point you have to realise you've fucked up. Yes, she may be genetically defective. But you raised her and so the finger points mostly to you. Maybe shielding her from the world isn't the answer guys. Maybe she needs to learn her lesson. It doesn't mean you don't love her. It just mean you won't be her enablers.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog
Labels: Rant
That's okay...I hear she's "found God"...(I frankly didn't know He/She was lost...but...) Oh...the fact that she is 10 times more expensive to keep in prison (the average cost spent on a female inmate at that facility is around $99.60) is no never mind I'm sure to the tax payers...tho I hope they bill her directly...
"I found God, he was hiding behind the sofa".
It may be that house arrest is cheaper to the taxpayer than jail. But if she truly fears the consequences of her actions it is unlikely she will repeat them, which would make it money well spent.
Actually...I heard it was for her "special" needs...meds, and such. According to TMZ News
http://www.tmz.com/category/paris-hilton/:
It costs more than 10 times the normal amount to jail Paris Hilton.
TMZ contacted the Sheriff's Department to determine just how much money the County is spending on Hilton -- and it's way more than it costs to stay at a Hilton!
Sheriff's spokesperson Steve Whitmore tells TMZ the average cost per day for a female inmate is $99.64. Paris, well, ain't no bargain. It costs $1,109.78 to keep her locked up. The costs include medical treatment and staff associated with her needs.
By the way, if Hilton were under house arrest, it would cost taxpayers zilch. The inmate shells out the cost of doing time at home.
All this and now her Talent Agency dropped her (she has talent??!) Hmm...rather large serving of "Reality" for someone who did a "reality" show...Maybe network execs will come up with a new reality show "Stars behind Bars"!
(Hey, at least it rhymes...)
Squeee!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Синячи́ха — посёлок в Алапаевском районе Свердловской области России, входящий в муниципальное образование Алапаевское. Расположен при одноимённой железнодорожной станции. Подчиняется Нижнесинячихинскому территориальному управлению.

География
Посёлок Синячиха располагается в нижнем правобережье реки Синячихи, находится к северо-востоку от Екатеринбурга и Нижнего Тагила, в 10 километрах к северу от города Алапаевска, в 1 километре к юго-западу от развилки региональных дорог Алапаевск — Нижняя Салда и Верхняя Синячиха — Ирбит. В посёлке  располагается железнодорожная станция Синячиха исторической Богословско-Сосьвинской железной дороги (прежнее название Межная) и современной Свердловской железной дороги.

История

В ближайших окрестностях посёлка, в заброшенной шахте, в начале XX века были убиты большевиками члены российской императорской семьи великие князья и княжна Елизавета Фёдоровна. В настоящее время на месте их гибели построен мужской монастырь. Несмотря на то, что монастырь находится в полутора километрах от станционного посёлка к северо-западу, он относится к посёлку Синячиха.

Уличная сеть
Две улицы Синячихи: Вокзальная и Синячихинская — проходят параллельно железной дороге.

Население

Известные люди

 Заякин-Уральский, Павел Иванович (1877—1920) — русский уральский поэт и журналист.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Краткая справка о посёлке Синячиха
 Wikimapia\\посёлок Синячиха

Населённые пункты муниципального образования Алапаевское
Синячиха (посёлок)

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The National in Parktown North, Joburg, is no longer. But loyal fans need not despair, because its replacement is still a James Diack creation.
Named after his grandfathers, Douglas + Hale marks the chef's entry into the wine bar space, with a simple menu of signature provenance-inspired food to match, all sourced from his family's Brightside farm in the Magaliesberg.
What was the reason for replacing The National with Douglas + Hale?
The National opened three years ago, which is a really good run for a Joburg restaurant. I've had the idea for a wine bar in my head for a while – I originally studied viticulture, so I have a passion for wine, and now seemed as good a time as any.
We'd planned a refresh for The National, but I decided to make a complete change instead, and I'm really pleased with the result.
What's your overall vision for it?
To create a small, simple space where people can come and enjoy a great glass of wine, or a phenomenal cocktail, in beautiful surroundings. The delicious provenance-inspired food is a bonus.


Hi All! Do you know that Zalora is going to have a 24-Hour Beauty Sale!!!! All Beauty Items will be at 25% off!
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Antimatter trapped
By The Astronomist on Thursday, November 18, 2010
A Nature letter recently reported on trapping antihydrogen. Researchers at CERN snagged 38 antihydrogen atoms in magnetic trap in what promises to the begining of fruitful research on deep symmetries in nature like charge, parity and time. I wrote up an article discussing the research for Ars Technia (where I am now an occasional contributor in case you hadn't heard) and I figure I should shamelessly self promote. From the article:
Researchers at CERN have created and trapped antihydrogen in an attempt to study the underpinnings of the standard model of physics. Antihydrogen is made of antiparticles, specifically an antiproton and a positron, instead of the proton and an electron that are present in natural hydrogen. It has the same mass but opposite charge of its normal matter counterparts.
Antimatter has a bad reputation for being dangerous because it annihilates on contact with regular matter, releasing prodigious amounts of energy. However, the clever reader will note that they have not been annihilated by the antimatter produced at CERN. The reality is that if you gathered all of the antimatter CERN has ever created, you wouldn't garner enough energy to power your laptop through reading this article.
The Universe seems to be made of mostly regular matter, so any antimatter encounters matter and is annihilated immediately after it has been created. Production and detection of cold antihydrogen atoms also happened at CERN in 2002, but those were short-lived. The new Nature letter describes how to overcome the difficulty of containing antihydrogen so that it isn't immediately destroyed.
Continue reading CERN snags 38 antihydrogen atoms in magnetic trap.
Tags: particle physics, physics
A possible young black hole
By The Astronomist on Monday, November 15, 2010
Thirty years ago a supernova exploded 50 million light years away (right, so it actually exploded 50 million plus thirty years ago if you take into account the space and time like separation from this event) in the grand spiral design galaxy M100. A year ago a paper titled Evidence for a Black Hole Remnant in the Type IIL Supernova 1979C appeared on the astrophysics preprint archive claiming that the continued X-ray emission from the object was consistent with a 5-10 solar mass black hole. Five days ago NASA announced it was going to make an an announcement. Today NASA made a press release claiming that NASA's Chandra satellite had found the youngest black hole ever. It is a beautiful discovery.
Or is it? Lets peer inside to see the inner beauty of this discovery. The original version of the paper was submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters , but was not accepted and only after a revision was it submitted again this time to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters. Today along with the press release a third revision of the paper went up. The excitement really just boils down to the fact that SN1979c has been a remarkably consistent and bright X-ray source for its 30 year lifetime.
The object seems to have been an approximately 20 solar mass star before it collapsed, but the core which really counts when a star collapse was around 3 solar masses. A core that is much larger than 3 solar masses would collapse into a black hole, a core a little less than 3 solar masses would form a neutron star, but there is no way to know the exact size of the progenitor star's core. Previous theories suspected the object was a magnetar or pulsar wherein the super hot dense objected emitted vast amounts of energy as it cooled and hence this induced the X-ray brightness. The new theory posits that the object is an accreting black hole remnant.
But seriously, an announcement of an accoutrement? It is a little sad how this paper hiding in plane sight was overlooked by bloggers and science writers alike. Even blogs, like Bad Astronomy, that normally expose flimsy stories like this have taken it easy. I think all press releases should come with a warning, science in progress.
Tags: astrophysics
Milky Way Hides Gamma Ray Lobes
By The Astronomist on Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Milky Way has some nerve (or after you see the picture you may think, excuse my language, big cojones) for hiding a massive structure that about equals the size of the visible Milky Way. The Fermi gamma ray satellite observed the structure mired in a fog of gamma rays which are pervasive through our sky. Fermi has been making a survey of the complete sky for some time, but only through careful data analysis and removal of diffuse sources were the lobes readily apparent.
Spotting the lobes inside the Milky Way was difficult because from our view within we can't see the forest for the trees, but astrophysics expect that some galaxies have gamma ray lobes and Fermi has spotted such lobe structures like this in other galaxies such as Centarus A. So this result isn't that unexpected, except that it is. These gamma ray lobes are comparable to the entire size of our galaxy and they are just now being seen for the first time.
The structures are orthogonal to the plane of the Milky Way and have distinct edges; they are surprisingly geometrically perfect. They span about 7.5 kiloparsecs (or 25,000 light years). The lobes are composed of gamma rays which are super high energy photons; the photons obtain such high energies by interacting with particles, like free electrons, which are themselves moving close to the speed of light which then interact with the lower energy photons in their vicinity to boost the photons up to gamma ray energies.
The distinct edges of the lobes are indicative of a large and rapid formation event. The structures may have been formed by a massive burst of star formation followed by stellar explosions which seeded the lobes with gas, dust, and hot electrons over millions of years. There is a supper massive black hole at the center of many galaxies, including the Milky Way, which may create high energy lobes, but those lobes would only form when the black hole is actively undergoing accretion of matter. So this may be evidence that the 4 million solar mass black hole at the center of our galaxy underwent an active period where it accreted a large amount of matter and simultaneously released massive jets of energetic particles just a few million years ago.
It is an exciting discovery, but I don't have anything other than a press release to go on as of yet though a paper is accepted for publication in ApJ so more to come.
Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, observation


Vlambeer's first release is more frenetic than a headless chicken on steroids. If you enjoy action-packed platforming and generally kicking arse, you won't want to stop playing this piece of pixel perfection.
Super Crate Box is a platformer in which you score points by collecting crates. Sounds mediocre, right? Not when the crates contain any of a huge array of weapons! From katanas to revolvers to grenade launchers, this Mario Bros.-esque mini-game-of-sorts packs in almost everything. Interestingly, you don't score any points for destroying the hordes of enemies flung at you (thank heavens the controls are responsive) but that doesn't mean shooting stuff takes the form of a pointless add-on. No, every time you don't bother to shoot an enemy down, it will fall back through the level going twice as fast; if you want to score decently, there's no option but to fire away. The fact that crates make you obligatorily take control of the held weapon gives the game a bit of strategic depth, too; if there's a flock of onrushing bad guys coming to get you, you may think twice about grabbing the crate and show them something called a bazooka, instead.
After surviving the surprisingly intense tutorial, you're thrown into the thick of it. You'll start off with a relatively small range of weapons which will be greatly expanded upon as your crate-count rises, through the magic of unlockables. The weapons are remarkably balanced considering how different some of them are, although over-powered guns are in there for good fun. Some unlockable characters are also included, even if the only point of unlocking them is to laugh at their outrageous running animations. The platformer features three different stages with slightly different layouts and graphical themes; you'll need to collect a certain amount of crates in one stage to unlock the next. Oh, and for the extreme players out there, collecting a high number of crates in one game will unlock the SFMT and ambush modes (sadly, this was too much to ask of me).
As evidence for the amount of effort put into Super Crate Box, the game has it's own fully-fledged website. You can find all relevant information here as well as global highscores, which banks on the platformer's addictive arcadey attributes.
Thanks to Roy Nathan de Groot and Paul Veer (who put forward their talents for the graphics and animations respectively), this game is visually superb. Whilst it won't attract those obsessed with 'realistic' graphics, anybody with an eye for nice chunky pixels will be impressed. Vast effort has clearly been put into weapon effects (the flamethrower was my favourite) and they live up to the fast-paced gameplay admirably. The only thing I will criticise about Super Crate Box's presentation is the underwhelming main menu. Other than that, the chiptune music is absolutely fantastic, capturing the theme and pace perfectly whilst complementing the retro-tastic sound effects.
Jan Willem Nijman is 50% of Vlambeer.
This game was made with Game Maker? Neat.
Not sure why I'm surprised to learn that as well. Go Game Maker!


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Happy New Year from Box of Tricks!	29/12/2014
SEASONS GREETINGS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ALL OF US AT BOX OF TRICKS!!!
We may not have had a production on in 2014, but we've been extremely busy behind-the-scenes this year. With support from Arts Council England, we've been gearing up for a new start through our organisational development which has enabled us to improve our infrastructure and future sustainability. We'll be kicking off early next year with a new board, new website and new branding from Holden & Sons. More on this soon…
Through our New Tricks programme, we've developed three new plays with support from leading North West theatres: Plastic Figurines by Ella Carmen Greenhill (supported by the Lowry), Chip Shop Chips by Becky Prestwich (developed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton) and Narvik by Lizzie Nunnery (in association with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse). These plays will form the backbone of our 2015-16 season. Watch this space! We've also supported three Manchester playwrights through the pilot of PlayBox, a writer-on-attachment scheme developing new plays with promising local writers.
We've hit the road in 2014: heading on various road trips across the country and a cultural sojourn to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. We also got an early Christmas present in the shape of Amy Fisher, a trainee Associate Producer, who will be joining us part-time from January thanks to being awarded a prestigious BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship.
Thank you so much for your support this year. Keep your eyes peeled for more exciting announcements in 2015!
Have a fantastic New Year's Eve and a wonderful start to the year.
Adam, Hannah and Amy
Box of Tricks
BBC Performing Arts Fellowship: Amy Fisher
Season Launch 2015-16


SAY WORD! PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA NOMINATES SEN. JOHN KERRY AS SECRETARY OF STATE!
President Obama was spotted at Potomac Yards shopping center in Alexandria, VA on Wed. (Dec. 21st). Mr. President was strolling through the complex picking up a few last minute gifts for his daughter's & the first family dog Bo.


Names for seven craters in the Apollo basin on the Moon have been provisionally approved by the International Astronomical Union to honor the seven Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts. The names can be seen in the list of lunar crater names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
The names are: Husband, McCool, Chawla, L. Clark, M. Anderson, D. Brown, Ramon.
Note: the crater "Onizuka" is incorrectly identified in this video. Rather, "Onizuka" is the crater next and to the right of the one labled in the video as "The Onizuka". The map below shows the craters around Apollo Basin that have been named after the crew of Challenger.
Technoarchaeology: Where is the True "First" Picture taken by Tiros 1?
TIROS 1, the Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite, was launched 50 years ago on April 1, 1960 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first satellite designed to observe clouds from space and is the precursor to dozens of meteorological operational and research satellites. TIROS only lasted 3 months, but it made 1,392 orbits and took nearly 23,000 pictures. The NASA Goddard Library has a rare and unique collection of 26 bound volumes of TIROS 1 photography prepared by the Navy in 1961 specifically for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This talk will highlight the collection, attempts contemplated to preserve it, and revelations that the "first" image from TIROS, widely distributed around the internet (and even by NOAA and NASA), was not the first photo, nor even taken on the first day of operations!
In 2010, the coordinates of the named features in the lunar portion of the nomenclature database were updated from values from historical sources to values in the coordinate frame of the Unified Lunar Control Network 2005 (ULCN 2005, see http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1367/). The purpose of this work was to facilitate the identification of named lunar features. Dots representing the coordinates of the centers of named features will fall in the centers of the features when displayed on any map product that was created using the same ULCN 2005 control network.
There are many excellent maps and atlases of the Moon in print and online, with each addressing a particular objective or community. Some maps were created for lunar astronomical observers, some feature a specific type of image, and others concentrate on global coverage or a particular region of the Moon. However, none of these sources provides an up-to-date and comprehensive picture of lunar nomenclature. The lunar maps presented here have two purposes: (1) to bring together the wealth of information on the locations of named features on the Moon into a single source and (2) to keep this source current so users have access to the most recent changes in lunar nomenclature.


Lovely and simple! Beautiful mint bodice with a heart cutout in the back and two mint covered buttons on the left shoulder. Embellished all the way around the heart with hydrangea blossoms. The full skirt has box pleats at the top. The back holds true to tradition with a blue and pink IBT puff bow. Three layers of tulle and a cotton lining give the perfect amount of fullness for this dress. This dress is all about the little details!
Hi, thank you for the amazing outfit.
The shipping was fast and the dresses are beautiful and a very good fabric . I can't wait for my daughter to wear them .
I love this dress!! Thank you!


Steven Mendelsohn, M.D., chief executive officer/medical director of Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology, New York, explains his commitment to dose reduction and why he believes a change in attitudes will be driven by patients rather than radiology professionals.
With more than 60 years' experience in the field of radiology, Zwanger-Pesiri is one of the largest non-hospital based radiology practices in the United States today. Committed to investing in only the latest technology, its 12 Long Island sites serve 2,000 patients a day. Its staff of 60 radiologists comprises a number of specialties including vascular imaging, interventional radiology, neuroradiology, musculoskeletal imaging, abdominal radiology, cardiovascular radiology and breast imaging.
With such a diverse and large patient base and so many radiologists to manage, workflow is a key consideration, which is why the DX-D 300 DR system, with its Cesium Iodide detector technology and immediate image availability, was its solution of choice.
"We installed our first Agfa HealthCare DR solution, the DX-D 300, in our Elmont site in August of 2013," said Mendelsohn. "We chose it primarily because the workflow was so efficient, it was very easy for the technologists to set up and the images were quickly available. At the time, Agfa HealthCare was telling me about its dose reduction capabilities, but, to be frank, I didn't really believe them. But they kept on telling me about it so we decided to set up a study to compare the results.
"We had two competitive units from other suppliers available on the same site, so that provided the ideal opportunity to test out what we were being told," he continued.
The study sought to determine if the DX-D 300 required less exposure and patient dose versus two other systems in use at Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology. It also compared the doses used to those used for similar examinations in other facilities, based on available published studies. The study comprised PA chest, lateral skull and AP hand exposures taken on phantoms used to simulate patient exposures. In each case the phantom was positioned just as a patient would be and the standard exposure made.
The results showed that while the amount varied depending on the type of exam, the average dose on most was 41% lower with the Agfa HealthCare system versus the other systems — an admittedly unexpected result for Zwanger-Pesiri.
And dose reduction is a subject on which Mendelsohn believes patients are becoming increasingly well-informed.
Sufficiently concerned was Mendelsohn over the need to reduce dose that six years ago he tried an experiment in dose reduction himself at the Zwanger-Pesiri sites. "As we got new CT equipment in, little by little we began lowering the radiation dose used in our studies. We didn't tell anyone we were doing it and gradually the images became grainier year-on-year.
Mendelsohn does acknowledge, however, that with the advent of Cesium Iodide phosphor detectors and MUSICA imaging processing software used as part of the DX-D 300 solution, Zwanger-Pesiri is now able to achieve the best of both worlds — significant dose reduction while still achieving the high quality images that radiologists have come to expect and are more comfortable working with.
And MUSICA is software that has also proven its worth to both Jeanine Santorelli, Zwanger-Pesiri's chief technical officer and lead X-ray technologist Mark Morales, who works out of Zwanger-Pesiri's Patchogue site.
Mark agrees: "The capabilities created by Agfa HealthCare's NX workstation with MUSICA software — the fact that it's user-friendly, easy to use when correcting errors, has a fairly standardized intuitive user interface and self-explanatory color coded dose bar, as well as its dose reduction capabilities — means that we can get the best image in the shortest possible time. It's what I like to call 'set it and forget it' — you hit a button and it walks you through what you need to do. It's a lot less cumbersome than others I have used.
And a happy patient is Zwanger-Pesiri's ultimate aim, as Jeanine explained. "With the advent of Google and other information sites, patients are becoming more knowledgeable and more prepared to question their dose exposure. It's great to be able to say that we are using the lowest possible dose for their images. With the automation and accuracy offered by the DX-D 300 with Cesium Iodide detectors and MUSICA, we can speed them through the process and make it easier for referrers to access their information.


COAST needs your help to move Ohio toward a strong and healthy economy. Please join us at our Greater Cincinnati Area-West phone bank at 3012 Glenmore Avenue and help us tell others why Issue 2 (upholding Senate Bill 5) and Issue 3 (the Health Care Freedom Amendment) are critical in moving Ohio forward and creating a brighter future for all of us. The phone bank is open now until the election.
When: phone bank hours are Monday-Saturday 9-9 and Sunday 12-4.
Questions: If you want to volunteer, but another time works better for you, or if you have questions or would prefer to make calls from home, please contact AFP-Ohio Field Coordinator Jason Gloyd at jason.gloyd@gmail.com.
Issue 2 (to uphold Senate Bill 5) will help bring more accountability to government, give taxpayers a greater voice in how their tax dollars are spent, help us reign in government spending, avoid job-killing tax hikes that Ohioans just can't afford, and make Ohio more competitive for attracting much-needed jobs into the state.
Issue 3 (the Health Care Freedom Amendment) is an amendment in response to the Federal Health Care Plan that mandates every Ohioan purchase health insurance.
Issues 2 and 3 will be won by Ohioans talking with those in their communities about the importance of these issues. Please help us spread the word! The calls are dialed for you and you only have to ask a couple of quick questions, very easy and painless. Any time you can spare between now and the election would greatly appreciated.
We are strongly against Issue 2. We want union leaders deciding how taxpayer money is spent, not our elected officials.
NAACP and Smitherman do it again!
Schmidt named one of Congress' "most corrupt"