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Sam & Max Save the World Remastered Review
by Daire Behan December 2, 2020 December 2, 2020
Sam & Max have been left dormant for too long, 10 years in fact, an unfortunate consequence of the death of traditional adventure games. Thankfully, LucasArts alumni studios, such as Double Fine Productions and Terrible Toybox, along with dedicated independent developers, have managed to keep the genre afloat thanks to excellent titles such as Broken Age, Thimbleweed Park, and 2064: Read Only Memories. Now, former Telltale games staff, including co-founder Dan Connors, have reassembled to form Skunkape Games, all while bringing the freelance police back in style. Namely, a remaster of their first outing under Telltale's wing in Sam & Max Save the World Remastered for Nintendo Switch and PC.
Sam & Max Save the World, originally released episodically in 2006 (and often noted as the first successful episodic video game release,) features the freelance police agents solving a series of local mysteries wrapped in an ongoing hypnosis conspiracy. While the six episodes included are completely standalone, each episode includes overarching narrative elements that tie together in the final episode, not that there is much incentive to play them out of order to begin with.
One episode you will be trying to join the Mafia to save an undercover agent, the next you'll be trying to stop an animated Abraham Lincoln statue from winning the U.S. presidential election, held together by the fast and witty humour made a series staple by Steve Purcell's original comic book series. It's refreshing after all this time to see the two characters back in action (even if it is through replaying their previous adventures) as there are few video games nowadays as genuinely hilarious in both deadpan and immaturity. Not all jokes land perfectly, unfortunately; however Skunkape has taken extra care in this remaster to update the game's engine (the decade and a half old Telltale Tool fans of the developer's later games came to dread) to allow for better comedic timing, new camera angles, and new music cues, all adding to the impact of the game's mostly excellently aged writing.
Being Telltale Games' earliest adventure game, Sam & Max is free of all the choice and consequence dramatic storytelling the studio would become known for before its unfortunate closure in 2018. This is a tried-and-true adventure game, long-winded puzzles and all. Thankfully, Sam & Max has never been known for its soft-locking, painstaking puzzles as pretty much all of the puzzles found in Save the World and its sequels are pretty straightforward, making the game a perfect entry for series and genre newcomers. The number of locations found in each episode is never enough to make players too confused as to where to go next, nor the amount of items the player is given ever overwhelming.
Skunkape have done an excellent job remastering Sam & Max for modern PCs and the Nintendo Switch. While the core game and its animations are all left untouched, the updated visuals and lighting amount to a noticeably different experience, especially when compared to the 2006 original. The added colours and lighting leave the original game looking dull and overall give the remaster a presentation more comparable to Purcell's classic 1980/1990s comic books. The titular protagonists have even received updated character designs supervised by Purcell himself. Characters still animate as well as they always have; however, the aforementioned changes to camera angles and comedic timing hugely improve the experience in ways even the most diehard of returning fans probably won't even notice but, again, keep the jokes from aging under the engine's technical limitations.
The only real issue with Sam & Max Save the World's presentation is that the human NPC characters still look out of place beside the anthropomorphic protagonists. While this isn't the first piece of Sam & Max media to feature human characters, the designs of the characters feel like leftovers of the engine's limitations, and the models haven't aged perfectly despite their stylized designs. Frame rate issues found in the original PC and console releases are also completely erased, leaving an overall smooth and clean looking experience. The game's music still fits the fun, 1970s buddy cop TV show style the franchise is known for, and the remaster even comes with new tracks from the game's original composer, Jared Emerson-Johnson. The only character to receive a dramatic change in the remaster is Bosco's Inconvenience Store owner, Bosco, who has been replaced to great effect with an actor who better represents the character.
Sam & Max Save the World Remastered is an excellent comeback from the cult classic icons, showing that despite their time away, the adventures of the freelance police still hold up a decade later. Skunkape Games have done a wonderful job lovingly remastering these six episodes for modern PCs and the Nintendo Switch while further leaning into the art style of Steve Purcell's classic comic books with the visual improvements.
Developers: Telltale Games (original), Skunkape Games (remaster)
Publishers: Telltale Games (original), Skunkape Games (remaster)
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 2nd December 2020
Daire Behan
Fun, witty writing and charming storylines
Straightforward puzzles that hearken back to classic adventure games
Remastered visuals pop and replicate the comic book style
NPC character designs can look somewhat mismatched with the main cast
8.0	4.00 5
Gaming Respawn's copy of Sam & Max Save the World Remastered was supplied by the publisher.
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Daire is an Irish editor who's been obsessed with everything gaming almost since birth. You'll usually find them reviewing strange Japanese games or ranting about weird anime and manga on Twitter.
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Located just blocks off the historic downtown Sonoma plaza, the O'Neill residence passive house retrofit stands as an example of a growing movement to design and build super efficient structures that take energy savings to a whole new level.
The passive house concept draws on the ideas of super-insulation, low energy and passive solar projects from North America and Europe in the 1970s and '80s. Professors Bo Adamson of Sweden and Wolfgang Feist of Germany created the first passive house (dubbed "Passivhaus" in Europe) in the early 1990s in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1996, Dr. Feist founded the Passivhaus Institut in Germany, fostering a growing trend that led to the design and construction of an estimated 20,000 passive house projects to date, predominantly in Europe and Scandinavia.
The passive house approach has been applied to both residential and commercial projects, including multifamily housing, retail stores, factories, schools, churches and government buildings in addition to private residences. As recommended by European Parliament in January 2008, the energy efficiency standard achieved by the passive house will be required for all new public building construction throughout European countries beginning in 2011 and beyond.
Just more than a decade after passive house debuted in Europe, German-trained architect Katrin Klingenberg designed the first certified passive house in North America — a 1,200-square-foot home in Urbana, Ill., constructed in 2003. Klingenberg established the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) in Urbana with builder Mike Kernagis. In January 2008, the Passivhaus Institut in Germany authorized PHIUS to be the official and sole certifier of passive houses in the United States.
The passive house is a super insulated, virtually airtight structure that uses passive solar gains and the heat created by occupants living in the space, along with the building's appliances, electronic devices and more, to heat and cool the structure. In lieu of conventional "active" heating and cooling systems, a passive house uses a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system, which transfers the temperature and moisture from a home's outgoing air stream to an incoming fresh air stream. In effect, the building's exhausted air is reused to heat or cool the incoming fresh, filtered air — providing superior indoor air quality as a result.
Given a passive house's air-tight construction, proper ventilation is critical and can be achieved either by a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) or energy recover ventilator (ERV), which differ primarily based on the way the heat exchanger works. With the ERV, the heat exchanger transfers some water vapor along with heat energy, while the HRV only transfers heat.
A passive house achieves its extremely high degree of energy efficiency by aggressively combining high levels of structural insulation, airtight construction and heat or energy recovery ventilation along with passive solar gains achieved through high performance, triple paned windows, solar orientation, shading and various other features. Particular attention is given to eliminating thermal bridges, which result when building materials that are poor insulators come in contact, allowing heat to flow through the path created and escape from a structure.
2) The total primary (source) energy must not exceed 120 kWh/m2/year, or 38,000 Btu/ft2/yr. This includes water heating, lighting and plug loads. Source energy encompasses the energy required to produce and deliver energy to the site; it can be offset with solar thermal and other measures, including photovoltaics.
3) The building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour at 50 Pascals of pressure.
The passive house is modeled in the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP), a Microsoft Excel energy calculation tool. The program performs its calculations, taking into account virtually every component of the structure, from the site weather patterns and solar orientation, to the construction mode and materials, to the ventilation system design and everything in between. This modeling program is essential to the design process; the space heating requirement of 15 kWh, for example, can only be verified by modeling the proposed design within PHPP. In order to be certified, a structure must demonstrate (via compliance reports generated from the PHPP modeling software) that it complies with the rigid passive house energy consumption requirement. An on-site blower door test conducted by a third party is also required to verify that that the building performs to the extremely rigid passive house airtightness standard of 0.6 ACH50, which is about 10 times tighter than the average house.
The passive house concept represents a paradigm shift from the traditional design approach for the mechanical system, according to architect Jarrod Denton with St. Helena, Calif.,-based Lail Design Group, the firm involved with the Sonoma passive house remodel. The house is designed for the heating core, rather than the heating core being designed to fit the leaky house.
For the companies involved in the O'Neill passive house retrofit project in Sonoma, pooled resources were key to the project's success, as the team worked to meet the targeted completion date of July 2010. "This is probably the best example in my history of a collaborative effort; everybody involved with the project has had to be on the same page, pulling toward the same goals," Denton says.
The project team includes Denton; contractor Rick Milburn, owner of Napa-based Solar Knights Construction, who is the first builder in California to be certified by the PHIUS; and certified passive house consultant Graham Irwin of Essential Habitat Consulting of Fairfax, Calif., along with several other key consultants.
From the outset, owner Cathy O'Neill expressed her desire to create a comfortable and environmentally friendly home. After learning about the advantages of passive house, she decided to make hers a model home that set a new benchmark for energy efficiency in America.
The existing house that was selected for the transformation offered strong potential, including its proximity to downtown and it direct access to a "pocket park" off the back yard, among other features — but it also offered some formidable challenges, according to Milburn.
Constructed in the 1960s, the O'Neill residence was originally two structures linked by a covered breezeway. It was set on an un-insulated slab foundation that provided little option for adding insulation underneath. This required the extra insulation to be layered on top, while adequate floor-to-ceiling heights still had to be maintained. "This was the worst case scenario for a passive house in Northern California," says Milburn. "This is as bad as it will get." The remodel updates and unites the two structures, converting the breezeway into a framed kitchen and expanding the final floor plan to around 2,400 square feet, wrapped around a Mediterranean style courtyard.
Designed to achieve "site net zero" electrical usage, the complete overhaul project included, among other things, the addition of extensive amounts of insulation, ultra efficient windows and doors, new roofing made from recycled content, new flooring, the addition of a passive solar thermal hot water heater and a new mechanical ventilation system featuring the energy recovery ventilator, the "UltimateAir™ Recoup Aerator®", manufactured by Stirling Technology, Inc. of Athens, Ohio. This system runs on the equivalent of a 100-watt light bulb in normal usage. A small backup heating and cooling system is also included.
A full 100 percent of the structure's electrical needs will be met from the ultra-low energy design combined with a dozen grid-tied photovoltaic panels. Among the numerous other sustainable and energy efficient features are high efficiency lighting and appliances; locally fabricated casework, as well as salvaged and recycled finishes used throughout; drought resistant landscaping; and rainwater harvesting via a catchment system under the driveway that will capture an estimated 25 to 35 percent of the irrigation water needed for the residence. The contractor was able to retain approximately 40 percent of the existing exterior wall framing on the structure.
While Irwin says the house is modeled for a minimum 70 percent total energy reduction from a standard California house, he points out that the solar hot water system that will also contribute to space heating is not factored into those savings and will likely bring the total savings closer to the 80 to 90 percent range. The actual savings will be measured and tracked in the coming years as a part of the U.S. DOE's Build America program.
As with most new building systems, passive house design and construction in the U.S. does cost more upfront — a premium estimated at anywhere from 10 to 20 percent over the cost of a conventional approach when it comes to a residential remodel, according to Milburn. He estimates the cost premium of new residential construction at "less than 10 percent" and perhaps even less for commercial and multi-family projects after the initial learning curve about passive house is met. "The first project is going to cost in education, but after that we should be able to match what they are doing in Europe, which is no additional cost," Milburn says.
As for the Sonoma project, "right now we're within our 20 percent delta of what it was going to be to retrofit this house (conventionally)," Milburn says. However the savings achieved through reduced life cycle and operating costs of the structure will help balance that initial output over the long term. And the passive house project is built to last, reducing the maintenance and repair costs in the long haul. "All of the materials in a passive house are selected either for recycled content, longevity or durability," Denton notes. "This performance level has to be maintained for a period of 20 to 50 years." The airtight standard in passive house, combined with its ventilation system effectively keeps out moisture, eliminating the problem of mold that has spawned a growing number of lawsuits in the residential and commercial building sectors in recent years.
Cost premium or not, the need to dramatically reduce energy consumption and stem CO2 emissions in the built environment is becoming more critical with each passing year. The state of California Public Utilities Commission, following California's "Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006" (AB 32), has mandated that by 2020, all new residential construction must achieve net zero energy, with a similar requirement for all new commercial construction by 2030. This follows along the lines of the "2030 Challenge," in which the nonprofit organization Architecture 2030 called for no fossil fuel use for buildings by that target year.
Carbon neutrality is the ultimate goal and it may be mandated — but is it doable? "With passive house, I think absolutely it is realistic," Ferreira says. "Without passive house, I don't think we have much of a chance of getting there. There's no other codified system that will deliver consistent results in place at all.


We've been redesigning this record of best iPhone applications now, yet we'll never stay informed concerning Apple. We've lost track of what number of applications are on the iPhone, however there are well over a large part of a million by now. We've been scouring the App Store and of the applications we've been ready to go for, the aforementioned are our top picks.


Christ this takes me back. Dinosaur Jr's Where You Been was one of the first albums I bought on CD as an acne-ridden teenager. Before I bought it I hadn't even heard the music, just heard the band talked about by cooler people at school. The cover looked pretty scary - a Munch-esque hitchhiker standing on a long dark road. It took me a while to get over how heavy it was, and J Mascis' voice was unlike anything I'd ever heard before, but I still reckon it's an excellent album. Along with Without A Sound, this period of Dinosaur Jr is the one that introduced me to the band, and is still my favourite.
At the time I didn't know the backstory, and I'm not an old Dinosaur/Sebadoh fan, so I can't even fill you in now... Suffice to say it sounds like a lot of bad feeling went down around the time Lou Barlow departed. However, with Beyond it feels like Dinosaur Jr should never really have been anything other than Mascis, Barlow and Murph, such is the triumphant, fist-pumping glory of this new release.
Like most Dinosaur albums, you've got the major-key anthems, the minor-key anthems, the more sparse country-esque tracks, and oodles of loosely spooling solos, glistening from Mascis's fingers. Awesome. It all sounds the same as ever, but this time you can listen in the knowledge that fifteen years have passed since Where You Been. And where have they been? It sounds like nowhere! Still the same great Dinosaur Jr sound - ear-bleeding country, to quote the name of their best of CD from a few years back.
I guess the big difference for me is hearing two Lou Barlow tracks amid the Mascis squall. They sit here perfectly, but with Lou's sweeter vocal, and predictably less soloing. "Lightning Bulb" in particular is ace.
This is prime Dinosaur Jr, and that's a wonderful thing.
You may also want to check out our Dinosaur Jr. articles/reviews: Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not, Melbourne Forum, Melbourne, AU, 12.7.07.


50 Cent accidentally did $1,000 of damage to a mixer when he landed on it during a show at Miami nightclub Ora over the weekend.
50 Cent broke $1,000 of DJ equipment over the weekend.
The 'In Da Club' rapper accidentally did the damage when he leapt onto a mixer while performing at an event at Miami's Ora nightclub on Saturday night (09.12.17) put on by karaoke lounge Blind Dragon, and he offered to pay for the broken device.
A source said: ''[50 Cent] jumped from the speaker to a VIP table and to the top of the DJ booth, he landed right on the mixer.
Despite offering to pay for the damage, club owner Ryan Van Milligen rejected his gesture and said 50 - whose real name is Curtis Jackson - was ''worth every penny'', and has even been invited back to do the same again one day.
He told the New York Post's Page Six column: ''The broken mixer was worth every penny.
While Ryan is keen to see 50 again, someone the rapper might like to see is Dame Helen Mirren after he recently praised her ''sexiness'' after meeting her at the Monte Carlo TV Festival.
He said: ''She just has this thing, man - this sexiness. Like, Hollywood - when you look at her she embodies the whole thing.
''She has an elegance that connects to the red carpet. You find out when you see her.


YSR Congress Party chief, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy properties especially his companies, his Lotus Pond House in Banjara Hills will be taken over by government soon. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a public notice under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking possession of YS Jagan's properties in connection with quid pro quo investments case. ED has alleged that companies owned by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has received benefits in the form of investments for the favours done by late Chief Minister, YS Rajasekhar Reddy. It is being said that 10 days time has given as per the procedure for possession.
However, YS Jagan's auditor, V Vijay Sai Reddy has said that High court has already issued a stay in regards to the fixed deposits possession. He said that they will approach the court regarding the notice on the immovable properties too. Vijay Sai Reddy mentioned that as per rules enough time should be given to take the possession of the immovable properties.


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Home Business Education & Training At STLE, Tribologists Hear Calling
At STLE, Tribologists Hear Calling
Tim Sullivan - May 22, 2019
Nashville, TENNESSEE – Lubricant formulators, marketers and researchers gathered here this week for the annual meeting and exhibition of the Society of Tribologists and Engineers. The event offered a snapshot of an industry hearing calls to help society address important challenges.
STLE's new president, Mike Duncan, talked during an interview about the roles of the industry and the association. Organizers said that more than 1,600 people attended this year's meeting.
Demand volumes in the global lubricants industry grow modestly if at all, but this five-day meeting, the hemisphere's largest conference and trade show for lubes, featured much discussion about big tasks placed before tribology. Duncan, who began a one-year term on Tuesday, cited a few of the topics addressed by approximately 300 technical papers.
Electric vehicle manufacturers are looking for coolants to handle the high heat loads expected to be generated by tomorrow's models, as well as lubricants that can withstand their electric currents. Automakers continue pushing for lower-viscosity engine oils to help improve fuel economy in vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. The power generation industry is still searching for lubricants that can adequately protect wind turbines, which are growing in size and number.
The size of those turbines is going to continue to increase, and that means the stresses on their components, which is already enormous, will continue to grow, Duncan said. But beyond those hot-button issues, there is still a lot of work to be done on all kinds of lubricants – for all kinds of applications: extending drain intervals, dealing with increasing temperatures, accommodating health and safety standards. There's no shortage of challenges to tackle.
With so much need for innovation, education and training are high priorities. STLE has long offered courses on the basics of tribology – the study of friction and lubrication – but is working now to upgrade them.
"We have about 350 people taking courses here this week," Duncan said. "Until now, those courses have all been put together by volunteers on a volunteer basis. Some of the material was reviewed, and all of the information is likely pretty good, but its not polished."
During the past year the organization contracted experts to redevelop the content. It now has a one-day course on the basics of lubrication, plans to extend it to three days this year and intends eventually increase it to five.
"We want more standardized control over what's covered in those courses," said Duncan, who is executive vice president of technology for Daubert Chemical Co. "If were going to teach people, we want to make sure the material is good and consistent. Because the expectations of the students are that the quality be very high."
Lubricant companies have worried in recent years that the industry relies on the expertise of a personnel bubble that is approaching retirement age and is not sufficiently being replaced – partly because of difficulty attracting new workers. In an effort to help address that, Duncan said STLE has undertaken this year to establish a program that will connect university students with potential employers. The organization has extensive ties with academics as well as business.
"We still need to work out the details, but the idea is to provide internships so that students who might consider a career in this industry can get work in the summer, get some real meaningful experience and by the time they graduate have a sense of whether this is a field they would like to get into," he said. "And if it is, then the company already has a connection with them."
The association is also working to increase participation in its local chapters. Its membership turnover averages around 10 percent annually, with most of the departures being young members. This year STLE handed added new awards at Tuesday's banquet to recognize innovative chapters. One was awarded for publishing a handbook on how to attract members, others for jointly organizing education events.
"To thrive as an organization we need to continue to attract young people and to keep them," Duncan said.
Business Education & Training Finished Lubricants
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By Steve Haffner
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By Daniel Bland

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Itasca Ellipse has been discontinued by Winnebago Industries.CLICK HERE to see a full listing of Class A Diesel Models currently available.
Refinement at its Very Best, the Itasca Ellipse by Winnebago Industries. Attention to detail has never looked so good. Of course, the foundation of its beauty lies in the revolutionary Maxum tag-axle chassis with lowered-rail construction that delivers a superior ride with astonishing exterior storage capacity.
Call 1-844-343-6255 for more information.
In the town known for building Winnebago's, we're the dealership known for selling them. We are located only 1 mile from the Winnebago Factory in Forest City, Iowa. Winnebago Industries named Lichtsinn RV The #1 Dealer of Winnebago Motor Homes in North America for the past 4 years.
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All of the top 8 seeds advanced, except for Oregon State, which capitalized on Florida's mistakes for the win.
Here are all the individual qualifiers, which are the result of a tiebreaking system that was utilized several times due to the number of ties involved. Only four AAers and 16 individuals are allowed in the Championships.


They also opine that someone that is crazy about another will stick with one no matter what happens and will adore one till the last days. He will always put you first and won't allow even an insect come close to you. You will never have to wonder where such person's loyalty lies because it will be so obvious it is with you. What they fail to talk about is the place of passion and attraction, which in their opinion doesn't matter at all.
On the other hand, someone that you love more than the person loves you can leave you feeling so drained and unfulfilled because you will always wonder how loyal they are to you. You will find yourself going to extra miles for a person that isn't even ready to take a step. It can fast become a sticky situation that can turn you into an insecure wretch as you will never feel like they are fully committed to you. You may find yourself second-guessing their actions, thus, causing deep dissatisfaction and unhappiness in the long run.
So, the question is, will you rather go with your heart and follow your passion through with the one you love but isn't so into you or go with your head and marry the one that loves you but you don't love?
Frankly, the two don't look like great choices.
Why should you have to endure a relationship because you know the other person will go through Ogunshukshuku forest to get you the tears of the oldest ant? The people that advice this say love grows and that you may be inspired by the other person's love to reciprocate but that can be a long shot. They apparently ignore the fact that agreeing to spend the rest of your life with such person that you do not love can translate to giving room for all kinds of what ifs and temptation that may ultimately lead to giving in to temptation and ruining your life forever.
Marriage should be about two people in love, not one person hoping to give enough love for the two to survive.
Bearing this in mind, getting married requires using your heart and head. You need to find a balance, great chemistry isn't enough and your marriage won't survive without love and this love needs to be love between the two people involved. One of the greatest mistakes anyone can ever make is to get married for the wrong reasons. Do not set your marriage up for failure by choosing wrongly.
Above all, listen closely to your spirit. What is it telling you? Don't ignore the signs. If you feel badly about it, then it probably won't work out.
It doesn't make sense seeing a burning fire and jumping right in the middle of it. The heart does grow fonder but not in every instance. Be sure you understand what you are getting into. A lot can be damaged while you are trying to show love or cajole the other person to meet your intensity.
*Ogunshukushuku forest: a coined name for the scariest and darkest forest in the world.


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2. Football Matches in Rome
3. AS Roma
4. Skip the lines in Rome
5. The Vatican
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Colosseum in Rome is an amazing place to visit. Colosseum has a lot to offer and is so rich in history. Here you can find our easy skip the line tickets if you like to see Colosseum on your own, or what about one of our many guided tours? We also offer our popular combination tickets for both Colosseum and the Vatican!
Colosseum & Roman Forum: Fast Track
at Colosseum: Fast Track, Sun, 19 Jan 2020 - Fri, 31 Jan 2020
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Rome in a day - 7 hours
at Rome in a Day, Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sat, 18 Jul 2020
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at Best of Rome and the Vatican, Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sat, 18 Jul 2020
This tour combines the best of Rome with the Vatican for a comprehensive trip through the city. Skip the long lines to the Colosseum and Vatican City. Let the experts guide you through the Roman Forum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and more!
Colosseum & Roman Forum: Guided - Gladiator's gate
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Take a guided tour of the Colosseum. Your expert guide will give you an efficient, but thorough, lesson on this top sight; plus, you get access to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The only thing missing from this tour are the long lines!
Colosseum & Roman Forum: Ancient Rome - 3.5 hours
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Experience the best of Rome, including the Colosseum, on this comprehensive tour. It's the perfect option for those looking to boost their knowledge of the ancient history. Your guide will take you past the major landmarks, then lead you into the Colosseum (skipping the line at the entrance!)
2-in-1 Vatican & Colosseum: Skip the line
at Vatican & Colosseum: Skip the line, Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sat, 18 Jul 2020
Skip the line to two of the most popular attractions in Rome - the Vatican and the Colosseum! The 2,000-year-old Colosseum is one of the most popular attractions in the world. The Vatican Museums boast the world's largest art collection, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. As a bonus, you can explore the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.
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at Vatican Tour & Colosseum with skip-the-line, Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sat, 18 Jul 2020
This 2-in-1 ticket and tour experience combines one of our most popular Vatican tours, which includes a visit to St. Peter's Basilica, with a skip-the-line ticket to the Colosseum. The Colosseum ticket also gives you access to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. This is one of our most popular tours, so be sure to book your tickets in advance!
Colosseum & Roman Forum: All of ancient Rome - 8 hours
at Rome in a Day: Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill, Tue, 21 Jan 2020 - Sun, 17 Jan 2021
Experience the best attractions of Rome in just one day - and save time and money! Skip the line to the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and Pantheon! On this guided city walking tour you also see Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain and many more highlights of the Italian capital!
Colosseum & Roman Forum: Guided Highlights - 3 hours
at , Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sun, 17 Jan 2021
Experience some of the most important sites in ancient Rome on this half-day guided tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Avoid wasting your time waiting in long lines! This popular 3-hour tour, led by an expert guide, covers all three sites.
Colosseum & Roman Forum: Audio Guide
at Colosseum & Roman Forum: Audio Guide, Sun, 19 Jan 2020 - Tue, 31 Mar 2020
Save time when you visit the Colosseum, the 2,000-year-old icon of Ancient Rome, with our priority tickets! This one ticket also gets you access to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Plus, the ticket is valid for two consecutive days, so no need to rush through!
2-in-1 Guided Colosseum & Vatican: Skip the line
at , Mon, 20 Jan 2020 - Sat, 18 Jul 2020
The Colosseum and the Vatican: 2 attractions, 1 unique sightseeing experience. Get both a guided tour and the opportunity to explore on your own. Skip the lines and check off some of Rome's top sights in an afternoon.
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An annual event by Ben & Jerry's - the Free Cone Day! This year, you can redeem your cone Ben and Jerry's icecream absolutely free at all Ben & Jerry's stores in Singapore on 9th April 2013. Mark this date down on your calendar.
A weird tasting scoop of Mango and a scoop of yummy cookies and cream icecream.


What both of these incidents have in common is that they reflect the discomfort our society currently has with the notion of sin. In some sermons, this would be the place where I would lament that we now live in a world in which there is no more difference between right and wrong, that we live in a culture where there are no absolutes, and all morality is now relative. But it is not true that contemporary society has no absolutes or does not believe in the difference between right and wrong. Contemporary culture certainly has absolutes. Phil Robertson was castigated because he had violated one of those absolutes in an egregious way. Contemporary culture definitely believes in right and wrong, and it definitely believes that there is such a thing as evil. What it has trouble with is the notion of sin.
What is the essential difference between evil and sin? Evil is horizontal language. Sin is vertical language. Sin always has reference primarily to God. An atheist can reject evil, but an atheist cannot reject sin. By abandoning sin language, the new baptismal rite of the Church of England has abandoned that vertical dimension that makes Christianity Christian. The heated response to Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson's comments made clear that the culture no longer understands the language of sin. By using the language of sin, Robertson was using vertical language. He was saying that there are certain kinds of behavior that God does not approve of. In all the critical responses to Robinson that I have read, he was interpreted as using horizontal language. Robinson was accused of bigotry because he was interpreted as saying that he personally disapproved of or hated particular kinds of individuals.
If the one absolute value is autonomy and freedom from restraint, and, since people have not only the choice, but the responsibility to define their own existence or meaning, the one threat that must be resisted is anything that would restrict those choices, or any hint that there would be a transcendent source of meaning or value above those individual choices that would define these things for us instead of letting us define them for ourselves. This is the real reason, I think, for the heated reaction to the Duck Dynasty interview. It also explains why the Church of England baptismal rite uses only horizontal language, and does not talk about sin.
Autonomous individualism also makes it difficult to form communities, or to get people to be loyal to any cause that demands personal sacrifice in order to benefit a community. People need something transcendent to their own individuality in order to motivate them to act in a way that benefits others. Since the need to create our own values does not allow us to find this transcendence by using the vertical language of God, we need to create horizontal substitutes for transcendence instead.
The recent Avengers movie provides an example of the way that popular culture demonstrates this need to create substitutes for divine transcendence as a corrective to unrestrained autonomy. In the movie, a bunch of individualist super-heroes are confronted by the threat of an evil invasion that could destroy the planet earth, but the very individualism that makes them such great super-heroes is keeping them from working together. They need a common cause to unite them. It is only after the death of a minor character in the movie, agent Phil Coulson, that they are finally motivated to put aside their differences to work together as a team. The threatened destruction of the entire planet was not enough to bring them together, but the death of a single individual was.
There is another paradox here. Contemporary autonomous individualism leads to both a desire for community, and a distrust of community. Communities are desired because individualism leads to loneliness, and autonomy also makes it impossible to cooperate to get anything done. But community is feared because it is believed that those who have power in communities are simply trying to impose their own agenda on others, thus violating the individual's freedom, which is, again, the one absolute value. If you saw the Avengers movie, you'll remember that one of the concerns that the various super-heroes had was that they were not quite sure that they could trust Nick Fury, the head of the organization S.H.I.E.L.D, who had brought them together, because S.H.I.E.L.D was a secretive bureaucracy with its own agenda. How could they be sure they were not being lied to? And in fact they were. We found out after the movie was released that Agent Coulson had not really died after all because he had to appear in a new television series. Nick Fury had falsely led the Avengers to believe that Coulson had died so that he could give them a cause to believe in so that they would work together. And apparently that lie was okay because it produced the desired result. So paradoxically, the entire premise of the movie, that the Avengers needed a cause transcendent to their own individualism in order to get them to work together, and to overcome their fear of being lied to, was itself based on a lie.
The biblical writers lived in a world that could not have imagined the value that Western culture puts on autonomy and unrestrained freedom. Ancient Mediterranean culture was a culture of families, communities, and cultural groups, not of independent individuals. Some of the key themes in the New Testament have to do with how the gospel addresses divisions between such groups, for instance, Jews and Gentiles. Nonetheless, it is surprising just how well the New Testament addresses both the concerns and the inherent contradictions of contemporary autonomous individualism. Let's look at the gospel of John as an example.
First, John's gospel addresses the need for a transcendent source of meaning that points beyond the autonomy of the individualist self. Turning again to this morning's gospel passage, we read, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). It is Jesus who provides that transcendent meaning, but he does not do so in a straightforward way that simply contrasts the vertical language of the divine with the horizontal language of humanity. Rather, Jesus is the one in whom both the vertical and horizontal come together in a single person. If we turn to the beginning of John's gospel, we discover that Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning with God, and who is God (John 1:1). Jesus is also the creator, both of the universe and of humanity: "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (vs. 3-4). John's gospel tells us that this divine Word became a human being. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory of the only Son from the father, full of grace and truth." (1:14) So Jesus can provide a genuine transcendence that can reach beyond the limits of our mere human individuality. He is the Word made flesh, the one through whom our world has been made. And yet Jesus is not foreign to us. The Word of God is not simply the divine omnipotence bearing down on hapless human beings in a way that would crush our freedom and dignity. He is the Word who has become one of us. He is the one who has made the unknown transcendent known by coming to us as a fellow human being. As John wrote, "No one has seen God at any time. The only Son who in the bosom of the Father, has made him known." (1:18).
Jesus also addresses our need for community, but in a way that overcomes the fear of distrust of others that is one of the inherent tensions of contemporary individualism. First, the kind of divine transcendence that Jesus represents is not that of an isolated monad, an all-powerful individual who comes down from the sky to impose his despotic will on us like one of the pagan gods. (He is not like Loki in the Avengers movie.) Nor is Jesus the impersonal Unmoved Mover of Aristotle or the Neoplatonic One of Plotinus. Rather, Jesus' divine transcendence is that of a love based in an eternal community of the Trinitarian persons. This is also a major theme in John's gospel. In the high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus prays to the Father: "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." (17:5). In Jesus' last supper discourse, he promises his disciples: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (14:16). We encounter this triune community in today's gospel reading, when John the Baptist says at the event of Jesus' baptism, "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." (1:32-34).
It is this trinitarian love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that provides the motivating factor in Jesus' mission throughout John's gospel. The most famous verse in the gospel reminds us that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life (3:16). The Father's purpose in sending the Son into the world is not for our destruction, but for our salvation: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (v. 17). This love that motivated the Father to give his Son for the salvation of humanity is poured out for us on the cross, the place where the divine love demonstrates itself to its fullest. In another saying that we find in the last supper discourse, Jesus tells his disciples, clearly referring to his own death: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (15:13).
John's gospel makes clear that it is this community of love between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, that provides the ground for a community of disciples that gathers around Jesus. Jesus says to his followers: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." (15: 9,10). There is no other way to become partners in this love between the Father and Son except that of discipleship, the way of following Jesus. Becoming disciples of Jesus is not a matter of becoming slaves to a domineering tyrant who wants to limit our choices, but of becoming friends with him and with his Father: "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." And this friendship plays itself out not only on the vertical level, but on the horizontal level as well. It is precisely through loving one another as Jesus has loved us that we demonstrate that we are his disciples: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34, 35).
We see the beginnings of this theme of discipleship appearing in this morning's gospel reading. John the Baptist speaks to two of his own disciples: "Behold, the Lamb of God," and they turn from following John to become followers of Jesus. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, then goes to Peter to tell him, "We have found the Messiah." (1:36,41). Jesus is the transcendent source of meaning who links the divine vertical and the human horizontal to make possible a new community in which those who become his disciples discover that they are his friends who have come to share in the divine love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those who follow Jesus obey his commandments because those commandments flow out of God's love, and this vertical love expresses itself horizontally as well. As the writer of John's gospel also writes in 1 John, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world." (1 John 5:2-4).
It might seem that we have wandered quite a bit from the question with which we began this sermon: "What about sin?" But before we could talk about sin, it was necessary to lay out the trinitarian and communitarian context within which sin makes sense, and without which, it makes no sense. As I mentioned earlier, apart from some kind of genuine transcendent basis for our decisions, it is impossible to move beyond the contradictions of individualism and autonomy to do such things as create community or find motivation for actions that demand sacrifice. And such a transcendent basis must be genuine. The substitutes that modern Western culture regularly tries to provide are simply not adequate to the task because they are all horizontal. You can't lift yourself by your own bootstraps.
But once admit such a genuine transcendent alternative to mere human autonomy, and the notion of sin makes sense. Sin is not simply something that interferes with an individual's ability fully to actualize his or her own individual potential or to create their own values. Sin is a violation of love. Specifically, sin is a violation of the love that created heaven and earth, and has come to us in Jesus to call us out of our individualism and autonomy in order that we might become his disciples. It is only in coming to share in the trinitarian love between Jesus, his Father and the Spirit of truth as we become his friends that we can also begin to love one another as he has loved us.
This leads, finally, to a brief discussion of freedom, which, along which autonomy, is the one self-evident value in contemporary secular culture. Much of what I have been trying to say in this sermon is that mere autonomy is an incoherent value. It is only through relations with others, and specifically through a relationship, first, with the triune God, made possible through Jesus Christ, and, second with Jesus's friends, that human beings can flourish. But I also want to say that the notion of freedom that is embraced by contemporary culture is an incoherent notion. In our culture, freedom simply means the ability to do whatever I want without restraints. In the modern Western world, freedom makes you free. Contemporary people find the notion of sin to be objectionable because labeling something as sin restrains that freedom. To the contrary, in John's gospel, Jesus defines freedom in a very different way, in terms of discipleship. Jesus says, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32). When Jesus' opponents protest against this that they are not slaves because they are descendents of Abraham, Jesus replies: "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." (v. 34). The statement that the truth will make you free is one that even modern secularists love to quote, but they ignore the first half of Jesus' saying. According to Jesus, the kind of autonomous individualism that our culture embraces does not make you free. It makes you a slave of sin. It is following Jesus that makes you free. And Jesus can set you free because he is the way, the truth and the life who can deliver us from the sin of enslavement to the insistence on our own independence and unrestrained autonomy. But that actually means that talk about sin is not bad news, but good news because, if I am a slave to sin, it is good news that Jesus has come to set me free. Jesus came to set me free from the slavery of my self-imprisonment. If I am guilty of sin, it is good news to hear the word of Jesus in John's gospel, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (3:17).


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Home/Lists/New Anime to Love, Minus the Tropes You Don't
New Anime to Love, Minus the Tropes You Don't
Kara DennisonJuly 31, 2019
It's a brand new season of anime, and you know what that means: sifting through the tons of new content to find the show that's just right for you. This season is looking pretty good, with a mix of magical action, slice of life comedy and drama, and plenty of people punching things in a wide variety of settings.
Of course, along with finding the show you love comes dodging the tropes you don't. Of course, anime tropes aren't bad in themselves. But maybe you're fed up with certain ones or, for whatever reason, you'd simply like to avoid them.
So instead of recommending anime based on what you want to see, I'm taking a look at this summer's docket with an eye to what you don't.
Sub or Dub: Neon Genesis Evangelion – Which Should You Watch?
Buddhas and Baseball: Two New Anime Based on Mobile Games
Kiki's Delivery Service is More Relevant Than Ever 30 Years Ago
Struggling with pervy high school anime? Try O Maidens in Your Savage Season
Anyone who's been a high school girl knows that, yeah, high school girls talk a lot about sex. You're getting to a point in your school career when pretty much all worthwhile literature has at least low-key erotica in it, crushes are starting to happen, and your peer group is becoming more vocal about what they get up to. So technically when a show like My Girlfriend Is Shobitch or Ao-chan Can't Study comes along, they're not entirely out of left field.
Still, shows like that usually get it wrong. They're largely a catalogue of pervy jokes aimed at male viewers, and (with a few exceptions — there's all sorts of people in this world, after all) don't really reflect how girls talk to each other at this age.
O Maidens in Your Savage Season comes from a manga by Mari Okada (Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms), and former high school girls will feel right at home with it. All the same topics are discussed just as frequently, but in a way that's much truer to the mindset of characters of that age. Some cover their embarrassment with anger; others struggled not to be shocked because they feel they aren't meant to be. Some speak freely; others feel undereducated and treat it like a new area of serious study.
It comes with all the humor, awkwardness, and honesty that this stage of growing up really does come with, as opposed to scene after scene of busty, shiny-kneed girls getting splashed in the face with yogurt. Because girls be like that… but not necessarily like that like that.
Tired of nerds and jocks fighting? Try Dr. Stone
We assume a lot of things to be at odds in our society that aren't necessarily opposing forces: STEM and the arts, sports and geek stuff, and so on. But the prevailing rivalry that really doesn't have to be one is nerds vs. jocks. If you're as tired of it as I am, Dr. Stone is proving that brains and brawn work best in harmony.
The new shonen manga adaptation takes place in a distant future, thousands of years after a mysterious Event turned the world's human population to stone. Bitter brainiac Senku Ishigami and cuddly tough guy Taiju Oki are the first to break free of their stone prisons, and together they're going to speed-run human evolution.
The two have a very comedy duo dynamic, but it's clear they respect each other and their personal strengths. Each episode includes real science facts from Senku, with his experiments enabled by Taiju's strength and quick thinking. And opposing them? The equally strong and clever Tsukasa — showing it's not what you've got that makes you a better person, but how you use it.
Wish guys didn't get all the giant robot fun? Try GRANBELM
It is a truth universally acknowledged that chicks dig giant robots. And yet, despite this, female characters are woefully underrepresented as giant robot pilots in anime. With the exception of shows like Gunbuster, Evangelion, and Magic Knights Rayearth, you'll get maybe one female mecha pilot in your show at best… and she'll probably be relegated to a support unit or early death.
Fortunately, this season has GRANBELM, in which everyone's a magical girl and they all have giant robots. In particular, they live in a version of our world where magic was done away with centuries ago, and heirs to the last remaining magical families do battle in magically-powered mechs for dominance.
If the character designs look familiar, it's for good reason. The series, which itself is completely original, comes from the director and original light novel illustrator of Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-.
Need idol anime with a kick? Try Symphogear
Although, honestly, just try Symphogear no matter how you're feeling.
The music-centric series is the brainchild of Noriyasu Agematsu, a founding member of music production group Elements Garden. Agematsu and his company have worked on idol anime including BanG Dream! and Uta no Prince-sama, as well as producing music for lots of other series and games.
Basically, Symphogear is what would happen if Macross just cut to the chase and combined the robots and the girls. Idol singers summon armor that weaponizes their singing to fight the alien creatures known as the Noise. Idol fangirl Hibiki ends up getting a piece of Symphogear armor lodged in her chest when one of these idols dies defending her, and goes on to take up the mantle herself.
The mix of awesome music and intense action has earned Symphogear a massive fan following, though it's only this year that the series has gotten an official US release. Which means you have plenty to watch before you run out!
Dr. StoneGranbelmO Maidens In Your Savage SeasonSymphogear
Kara Dennison
GRANBELM Recaptures What Made Madoka Magica So Special
Anime Takes on Life in a Post-Collapse World With Dr. Stone and 7SEEDS
Five Reasons Science Nerds Will Love Dr. Stone
7 New Anime Series to Check Out This Summer
Late Lunch July 31, 2019: David Cage's Spider-Man
New Street Fighter V Characters Leak Ahead of EVO 2019


JK Rowling was born in 1965 near Bristol, England and grew up in Gloucestershire and South Wales. She loved to read, and especially loved the fantasy books her parents read to her, so she began creating stories to tell her younger sister Di. She wrote her first story when she was six-years old about a rabbit named Rabbit. The rest, as they saw is history.
We've all read the books, seen the movies, and visited the theme parks. Harry Potter is a worldwide phenomenon. But Joanna "Jo" Rowling lived a life of struggle before hitting it big with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She studied French and Literature at Exeter University and worked at a number of secretarial jobs after college. She had a habit of losing herself in the stories she was writing down and neglecting work, leading to her being fired multiple times.
Though Rowling got the idea for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – the first book in the series – during a train trip, she didn't write it until several years later. Rowling's mother died on New Year's Eve 1990 after a 10-year battle with multiple sclerosis. She was just 45, and Rowling was devastated. Rowling left England to teach English in Portugal. While in Portugal, she met her first husband, a journalist named Jorges Arantes and continued to write.
Rowling's daughter Jessica was born in 1993 and her marriage ended soon after. She packed up and moved to Edinburgh to be closer to her sister Di. In Edinburgh, Rowling continued to write, but her circumstances were deteriorating. She was a single mother living off welfare in a dingy government subsidized apartment. While her daughter slept in her carriage, Rowling would write in a coffee shop, where she had to battle the owners to stay, as they didn't want her there all day, writing in longhand, while ordering only one cup of coffee.
Her determination and belief in herself as a write would of course eventually pay off, but can you imagine writing out a roughly 700 page book by longhand and then typing it up on a manual typewriter? She applied for a grant from the Scottish Arts Council that helped her buy a typewriter and she meticulously transcribed her longhand notes into the typed manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
It was 1995, and the manuscript was finished. Rowling secured an agent at the Christopher Little Literary Agency and they submitted the magical manuscript to 12 publishers. It was rejected at all 12. After a year, Harry Potter finally found a home at Bloomsbury. Rowling was granted a $1500 advance, which seems ridiculous in hindsight with all the money the series has made and worldwide acclaim it has accumulated. Her publisher advised her to keep her day job, as there just isn't much money in children's literature.
The first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone had a run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which were sent to libraries. Today, those original 1,000 books are worth $16,000 to $25,000. In early 1998, an auction was held in the U.S. for the rights to publish the book. Scholastic, Inc won and paid Rowling $105,000. The book was published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The money from the U.S. sale enabled Rowling and her daughter to move into a new home.
We all know what happened. Worldwide success. Legions of fans. Movies. Theme parks. Harry Potter took over the world and made Rowling a very rich woman. In fact, in 2004 Forbes named Rowling the first person to become a billionaire by writing books. She has donated more than $160 million of her fortune to charities including those supporting single parents and multiple sclerosis.
In 2006, Rowling released the seventh and final book in the series that has sold more than 400 million books worldwide. In fact, the last two books, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sold nine and eleven million copies within 24 hours of their releases. Harry Potter has been translated into 65 languages.
In 2001, Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray at their mansion in Perth, Scotland. The couple have a son, David and a daughter, Mackenzie.
Through an unshakable believe in herself and an ambition that drove her to keep writing even when life looked its bleakest, Joanne "JK" Rowling became a billionaire, a celebrity, a philanthropist, and created characters and a world beloved by millions of fans of her books and their film adaptations. JK Rowling is worth $1 billion dollars thanks to her boy wizard.


Dream of being lazy all day foretells that the dreamer might become very busy soon.
For a student to dream of being very lazy, symbolizes that the dreamer will be able to achieve outstanding examination results.
For a married woman to dream of being lazy, foretells that the dreamer will become pregnant.
For a single woman to dream of being lazy, suggests that the dreamer will find her Mr. Right.


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Travel Impressions Closes a Tough Year at Cancun Event and Looks Toward a Better 2020
by David Cogswell / December 02, 2019
Photo: David Cogswell/TMR
It was a challenging year for Travel Impressions, but when the vacation wholesaler opened its 24th annual "Best of the Best" event at Secrets Maroma on Riviera Maya, Mexico, Nov. 21-24, there was a sense of relief that it was over the hump and on its way to a smoother 2020.
It was a year marked by change, growing pains and a series of external problems that assaulted the company almost nonstop throughout the year.
The "Best of the Best" event, an annual gathering to reward Travel Impressions' top-producing agents, provided an opportunity for executives to reconnect with partners, freshen up relationships, and provide updates on changes and plans. Representatives of 153 agencies attended.
Jacki Marks, executive vice president for Travel Impressions' parent company Apple Leisure Group (ALG), told attendees at the opening session: "It was probably the hardest year of my career. It was the merger; it was the DR media crisis; it was the sargassum seaweed issue; the MAX 8 grounding. I felt like everything that was going to hit us, hit us in 2019. We couldn't catch our breath."
The biggest challenge was the task of migrating to a new booking platform. When ALG acquired the Mark Travel Corporation in early 2018, it also acquired VAX VacationAccess, the internet-based booking system developed by TriSept Solutions, Mark Travel's technology development division.
VAX is acknowledged to be vastly more powerful than the Quest system that Travel Impressions previously used. But gaining its empowering benefits required a learning curve. In the hyper-competitive retail travel industry, every micro-moment counts and some of Travel Impressions' partner agents suffered frustrating setbacks. But now a year after the introduction of the system, the pains are starting to subside and the benefits are rolling in.
Scott Wiseman address the asssembly during Travel Impression's 24th annual "Best of the Best" event at Secrets Maroma on Riviera Maya, Mexico, last week. Photo: David Cogswell
Rebuilding trust
At the opening session, Travel Impressions' President Scott Wiseman apologized for trying the patience of its most loyal partners. But he promised that the pain would be worth the gain and that Travel Impressions will rebuild their trust.
Trust, he said, is like a bank account you build little by little over time.
"I've had lifelong friends and sometimes they disappoint me," he said, "but I don't wipe out that relationship over those issues. We keep powering through. Our relationship's the same. We know the trust account today might be lower than it should be. But we both want it to grow. And we know it's imperative that we deliver on lots of different things and give you more reasons than ever to continue to deposit into that trust bank."
Any migration to a new technology brings difficulties, he said.
"We knew that people loved the previous system," said Wiseman. "But it was like a one-trick pony, if you will. We knew there was so much opportunity for agents to earn more and we wanted to see those rewards. So, we pushed Travel Impressions to get ready for next year's peak season. Everywhere I've ever been, no matter how you plan for the perfect integration of new technology, it's going to have some bumps in the road."
Now the benefits are starting to accrue.
"I can see today that you guys are capitalizing on what we meant when we were pushing through the tough stuff with VAX," Wiseman told the agents. "I can see you making more money with the added commission tool. I can see this expanding domestic and Europe inventory that came through, that helped you capture more share for you clients, and easily booking through VAX things that you maybe wouldn't have touched before."
An uptick in business proves that the transitional hump is passed and advisors are now reaping the benefits.
"We've got two proofs," said Wiseman. "One is the numbers. Particularly in the last eight to ten weeks, we've really taken off. One year that we've lapped on the new system, we're starting to see agents adapting. And we are asking, 'What's your confidence today compared to what it was?' It's a lot more positive this year because there is one more year of stability on the system. The verbal confidence level is very strong compared to last year, and the numbers are proving that out."
Meanwhile, the incorporation of Mark Travel into ALG has brought many benefits, such as the addition of many new hotels into the company's inventory in Europe and the domestic U.S.
Rethinking groups
One of the biggest changes still on the horizon is the way Travel Impressions handles group travel. The company has received a lot of feedback that it needs to improve its systems for handling groups.
Alejandro Reynal, who was appointed chief executive officer of ALG last September, spent a lot of time in his first months on the job talking to travel agents, and "got bombarded with feedback about what we were doing and how we could do it better." After that, Marks was asked to take on the group department.
"I ran the group department at Mark Travel and it was something I was very passionate about. I knew that we could make changes. I knew we had the opportunity to be something really special," said Marks.
So, Travel Impressions' group department is headed for a major overhaul.
"We have a roadmap and I think there are a lot of great things coming for the ALG/TI group department," Marks said.
Keep the change
Travel Impressions' partners stayed loyal as the company went through a series of major changes, beginning with its merger with the Apple Leisure Group in 2013, which closely followed ALG's acquisition by Bain Capital that was announced in late 2012.
Wiseman, who had previously headed Abercrombie & Kent and later Cox & Kings USA, joined Travel Impressions as president in summer 2016, in time to begin to sort out all the changes that were cascading down one on top of the other. Bain sold ALG in December of that year to two private equity companies, KSL Capital Partners and KKR.
Still more major changes came in April 2018, when the Apple Leisure Group acquired the Mark Travel Corporation, one of ALG's strongest competitors. One key element of the acquisitions was Mark Travel's technology division, TriSept Solutions, and VAX VacationAccess.
Marks, as executive vice president of ALG, was part of the development team of VAX. She reassured agents that although change is essential for Travel Impressions and its partners to stay competitive, the period of intense changes will now calm down a bit.
"Some of you may argue that not all the changes Travel Impressions went through were positive," said Marks, "but I will tell you, having learned everything I have learned in the last few years, that every change we made was necessary. Travel Impressions is a better and stronger brand than we were back then. Making TI a profitable, sustainable company for the future that can invest in you – as a travel agent-only brand – we had to go through a lot of changes to get to where we are today."
But now, Marks said, things should settle into more stability.
"We have gone through so many changes that I do believe we are going to slow down a bit, because it has been a lot," she said. "There's been tech changes, process changes, people changes, a lot to digest in a short period of time. But I'll also tell you we won't stop changing. We are going to keep making TI the absolute best brand that it can be so we can fight back against the OTAs, and we can be the company that can support you for the very long, long future."
But, she acknowledged, we owe it all to you, and it's all about the travel advisors. "You've obviously built this company," she said. "You've made this company successful. I'm excited about all we've accomplished, but I'm really excited about where we're going."
U.S. Issues Travel Advisory for Brazil
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How One Travel Advisor is Dealing with the Fires Raging Across Australia
Delta Air Lines CEO Talks the Future of Free WiFi, AI and More at CES 2020
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Bans Smoking
Boeing CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, Resigns Amid 737 MAX Scandal
American Airlines Enters Codeshare Agreement with Royal Air Maroc
JetBlue Airways to Launch Up to 10 Daily Roundtrips Between New York and Boston
United Airlines Announces New Service Connecting San Francisco and Dublin
10 Tax Tips for Travel Advisors for 2020
Check out travelagentcafe.com for the latest news, incentives & promos to make your business soar!
Delve into breathtaking Colombia with Luxury Gold's New 2020 journey #luxurygoldmoments
Award-winning land journeys, river & small ship cruises. Because how you see the world matters.
Three Nights in St. Lucia from $990 per Person with Travel Impression.
Save up to $500 per person* on Collette Tours. View Tours.
One Agent's 'Nightmare' with Excite Holidays as Wholesaler Suspends Operations
Canceled bookings, a 26-hour wait on chat, and no response from the tour operator's BDM or director of sales made for a ruined holiday vacation abroad.
With a Surge in Thailand Bookings, Avanti Boosts Offerings
Five new customizable itineraries include such experiences as sampling Bangkok's street food by tuk-tuk; a private day in an agricultural village; and a James Bond-themed tour of waterfalls by long-tail boat.
Pleasant Holidays Introduces Cancel for Any Reason, Commission Protection
Pre-departure travel arrangement and waiver benefits begin at $59 per adult.
Globus Rides to a Record Year
The tour operator is already halfway into its best year of the century, and its CMO cites four drivers behind the company's current growth wave.
Perillo Tours on Changing Seasons and New Booking Technology
A conversation with Steve Perillo reveals where the company is headed, how its new booking engine can help agents, and its dream of making FITs the same price as tours.
Travel Impressions Launches New Website to Enhance Advisor Productivity
The new website debuts with increased functionality, better sorting, and more flexibility for its users.
Air Transat Launches 'Vacation Intervention' Campaign
Intrepid Offering $1 Deposits for 2020 Trips
USTOA Extends Deadline For Cox & Kings, The Americas Traveler Claims
New Booking Incentive from Collette
U.S. China Travel Service Resigns USTOA Membership
Perillo Travel VR Rebrands to Travel World


Size Zero Account. . Size Zero. Logo. Anmelden. Passwort vergessen? Noch nicht registriert? Hier erfährst du mehr. Size Zero Account. . Size Zero. Dein ultimatives Online-Trainings- und Ernährungskonzept zu deiner Traumfigur. Anmelden / Login Als Gast benutzen. Size Zero Account. Apr 27, 2018 - Will new authentication technologies that recognize users on the basis of their behaviors finally mean the death of the despised password? Sep 15, 2017 - A model has spoken out to say that banning size zero models from working is a form of body shaming. Just last week, two luxury French fashion . Size Zero Paanipuri is on Facebook. To connect with Size Zero Paanipuri, log in or create an account. Log In. or. Create New Account. Size Zero Paanipuri is on . Nov 30, 2015 - How dare the editor of Vogue - a purveyor of the kind of fashion and lifestyle few can afford - stick up for skinny elite: those few 'size zero' . Size zero or size 0 is a women's clothing size in the US catalog sizes system. Size 0 and 00 Not logged in; Talk · Contributions · Create account · Log in .


text:
Q: Silverstripe 3.1 Spam Protection I can't get any of the spam protection modules to show a captcha / maths test etc for page comments.
I have a default install of the comments module, spamprotection module & iv'e tried the mollum, recaptcha and maths spam protectors
I'm setting the site config like this:
SpamProtectorManager::set_spam_protector('MollomSpamProtector');

and setting the various api keys, visiting: dev/build/flush=all and testing in a different browser so i'm not logged in as admin. Iv'e cleared the cache and have the site in dev mode.
At no point has any spam protection shown up. I know it doesn't by default with Mollum so i tried to trigger it with some nice spammy looking content but I can't trigger the captcha. The Molluum report doesn't get listed in the admin/reports area either.
What am I doing wrong here? I must be missing something in setting up the base spamprotection module right? Or the Comments module?

A: Thanks to simon welsh on irc, I found the answer.
in your _config.php file, do this:
CommentingController::add_extension('CommentSpamProtection');

and the spam protection is enabled for comments.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Indoor dining area Fireside, Bistro and Barrel Room.
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*Recommendations on rental options if additional tables & chairs are required.
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Key points We share our research on the potential impact from climate-related risks on three markets, aided by advances in data and climate science. The European Central Bank kept its policy unchanged and signalled the potential for more dovish moves.
In this issue Lessons from Illinois Sino-Nippon Trade Relations The Fed's New Face(s)?
Uncommon truths The global auto cycle appears to have peaked and not just in China. This was in fact preceded by weakness in global auto share prices and could do more than trade tensions to explain the end-2018 economic deceleration.
Weekly Bond Bulletin China's monetary and fiscal efforts to manoeuvre a soft landing and cope with pressure from increased trade tensions are beginning to pay off. What are the broader implications?


text:
Author Bickmore, A. Travels in the East Indian Archipelago.
(Excl. 9% VAT)
London, John Murray, 1868. Thick 8vo (22.2 x 14.5 cm). 560 pp.; wood-engraved frontispiece, two folded maps and 31 attractive engraved plates and three smaller illustrations in the text. Original pictorial cloth. Brown endpapers. Rare true first edition in – even rarer – the original binding in good condition, of this well-documented and well-illustrated book on Indonesia. An important travel book, describing the flora, fauna and anthropology of the Indonesian islands, including Java, Sumatra, Timor, Celebes [Sulawesi] and the Moluccas [Maluku], as well as Singapore. In the rear, several appendices, including a list of birds collected by the author on the island of Buru; a list of the population by island and race, in 1865; the highest mountains, etc.. Written by the American naturalist and founder of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Albert Smith Bickmore (1839-1914). Bickmore travelled in the Moluccas with a specific goal in mind: to gather specimens collected and described two centuries earlier by Georg Everhard Rumphius, 'The Indian Pliny', a sobriquet first given to Rumphius here by Bickmore (p. 250). In the preface, Bickmore writes: "I was going to Batavia, to sail thence to the Spice Islands...for the purpose of collecting the beautiful shells of those seas. I had chosen that in preference to any other part of the world, because the first collection of shells from the East that was ever described and figured with sufficient accuracy to be of scientific value was made by Rumphius." Bickmore must have had a keen interest in palm trees too: no fewer than four illustrations show these trees. The two maps show the Malay archipelago, and the island of Sumatra. The later, 1869 New York (Appleton) edition is more common. Library stamps of the Dutch Tweede Kamer (House of Commons) erased and cancellation stamp pasted over, on the title-page. Some light spotting to a few page and the frontispiece, otherwise a very nice and clean copy. Leupe, Georgius Everardus Rumphius, Ambonsch natuurkundige der zeventiende eeuw , pp. 1-2. Not in Bastin and Brommer. In search of Rumphius
Bickmore, A.
Travels in the East Indian Archipelago.
London, John Murray, 1868. Thick 8vo (22.2 x 14.5 cm). 560 pp.; wood-engraved frontispiece, two folded maps and 31 attractive engraved plates and three smaller illustrations in the text. Original pictorial cloth. Brown endpapers.
In search of Rumphius