The writer and producer has written movies for both indie and Hollywood studios, including scripts for Fox, Sony, Warner Brothers, and Paramount.
His most recent film – What If, a comedy starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, and Mackenzie Davis – premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. Elan won the Canadian Academy Award and the Writers Guild of Canada Award for his script, and the movie played in over 30 countries.
His new novel – All Our Wrong Todays – is a sci-fi tinged, time-travel romance and much buzzed about debut that is rumored to have landed the writer a seven-figure book deal worth north of a million dollars.
The book has been described as "Dark Matter meets Back to the Future," and even prior to the book's publication, the film rights were sold to Paramount Pictures.
Kelton Reid: Welcome back to The Writer Files. I'm your host, Kelton Reid, here to take you on another tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of renowned writers. The award-winning screenwriter and author of the debut novel, All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai, dropped by the show this week to talk about his fiction debut, the science of time travel, and finding inspiration in dark places. The writer and producer has written movies for both indie and Hollywood studios including scripts for Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., and Paramount. His most recent film, What If, a comedy starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, and Mackenzie Davis, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.
In part one of this file, Elan and I discuss his grandfather's vintage sci-fi collection and how it inspired him, how he launched his screenwriting career by translating Pulp Fiction into a kid's movie, why writers need to know their weaknesses, how the busy screenwriter and producer found time to write a novel, and the hard science of time travel and storytelling. If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews as soon as they're published.
We are rolling on The Writer Files today with Elan Mastai, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, author extraordinaire, screenwriter, and author of this fantastic new book that we're going to talk about here shortly. Thanks for joining us.
Elan Mastai: Thanks for having me.
Elan Mastai: Sure, yeah. By its very nature, it's a book … there's a lot of things going on in the book, and I wanted to write something where the place you and the character are when it starts and where it ends is unexpected, you wouldn't be believe where we go with it. So that is what I was going for when I was writing it, as a very unexpected, twisted journey. But of course, it does make summing it up a little challenging.
But basically, the book opens in the present day in 2016. But it's the 2016 that people in the 1950s and 60s thought we were going to have, this sort of techno-utopian future of flying cars and robot maids and teleportation, where all of humanity's problems have basically been solved by technology. Doesn't mean that everything's perfect, people still have their own individual problems, romantic problems, family challenges, personal obstacles. But the big picture has been solved.
And there's all this incredible technology, which of course I get into, and my protagonist, Tom, ends up working for his father, who is developing, basically, time travel vacations. And of course, whenever you introduce time travel into the mix, things get complicated. Through basically a time travel accident, Tom finds himself stranded in what appears to him to be a terrible, dystopian alternate reality, but which we recognize immediately as just the real world, our version of 2016, which to him seems like everything has gone horrible awry.
And so here … He's not from the future, he's from the present, but it's a very, very different present where the last 50 years of history went off on a totally different trajectory and then trying to find his way back to the world we're supposed to have, or at least what he always thought we were supposed to have. But of course, as he finds himself increasingly enmeshed in our messy version of 2016, it starts to get complicated, and he starts to question exactly what kind of future he really wants to have.
Kelton Reid: The buzz … At the time of publishing this, it will be coming out very shortly. Man, if you like … Well, I guess it's been described as reminiscent of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I don't think that really pays it justice, but it's also been kind of described as a … Well, you described it as a cross between Vonnegut and Tropper, who I understand is a friend of yours.
Elan Mastai: And so we described it as Dark Matter meets Back to the Future, and I thought that was a pretty good description.
Kelton Reid: Yes. Oh, that's perfect. I love it. Okay, cool. So, listeners, writers, readers can find it out there for pre-order. Oh man, it is a lot of fun, it's just wild. Let's go back a little bit in time ourselves. Talk a bit about your origins as a writer. I know that you have done screenwriting, and you've produced movies yourself, a pretty impressive slate there. Let's go back a little bit and talk about your origins as a writer. How did you get here?
But even in the 80s, I knew there was a disconnect, that the future that these writers and artists in the 40s and 50s and 60s had imagined, it didn't actually come true. I did not get a jetpack for my 12th birthday, and it seemed a terrible injustice. I just found myself really interested in that disconnect. What happened to the future we were supposed to have?
It was something that I had thinking about well before I ever decided to turn those questions into a novel. My mom, when I was young, was an actress in the theatre, and so we were around people who were making narrative art, playwrights and directors and actors. I didn't really know anybody in the movie business, per se, but the theatre community was something that was around me. So that idea that, "Oh, the art, entertainment that I enjoy, like, somebody's making that. That's like a job you can have." And I just was really compelled by that.
But even so, to be honest, when I was growing up, and even when I went away to college, the idea of being a writer, that being your profession, like you could actually make a living doing it, It seemed very far off. It seemed kind of impossible. How do you actually do that? Who's going to take a chance on you when there's so many terrific writers out there? Who's going to give you a shot?
Elan Mastai: He's inevitably … The best case scenario was he would steal my idea and hire a real writer. But he liked the idea and he thought about it and the next day they'd called me and said, "Would you take what you said in the meeting and write it down, and we'll pay you to write an outline." So I had to find out what an outline was. And they liked my outline, so they hired me to write the movie. And at every step of the way, I kept thinking I was going to get fired. At some point, someone's going to realize I don't know what I'm doing.
I knew so little about screenwriting, I went out … One of my favorite movies of the time was Pulp Fiction. So I went out and bought the published screenplay. Nowadays you can get any screenplay online. But at the time it was actually hard to find a screenplay. But they had published Pulp Fiction. So I figured Tarantino does basically everything in that movie, anything you could do in a movie, he does in that movie. So I figured if I had to figure out what something looked like, I'd would just look it up in Pulp Fiction.
So this is a kid's movie, but I followed Tarantino's model to the point where … You know, Pulp Fiction is 134 pages, so I made my screenplay 134 pages, which, if you know anything about screenplays, is really, really long.
Elan Mastai: Yeah, a kid's movie should be about 80, 85 pages long. And the producer described it as "War and Peace, with chimps." But, fortunately, he thought there's enough of a movie in there that once we sort of cut about half of my ideas out of it, there was something to hone.
And so it all happened very quickly. I wrote like three drafts of the script in five weeks, constantly assuming I was going to get fired. And then the movie got green-lit. And I found myself in this position of being on set … I only went to set like once or twi- …. I think I was on set maybe twice. It wasn't a situation where I was on set doing re-writes. It was very much the classic, I wrote the script, they said, "Thank you very much," and went off and made the movie.
Elan Mastai: I did come to set but I found myself in this weird position of … I'm on set. I had named all the characters after my friends, my roommates from college. I'd named locations, the shops after just people in my life. Because, I just assumed someone was going to rewrite all of this. But here I am, on set, with characters named after my friends, delivering dialogue that I wrote, in locations that I had imagined. It was like walking around inside your own dream. And even though writing kid's movies was not my ambition, that feeling of dozens and dozens of people scurrying around building this story that had only existed in my head, but in the real world, it was this magical moment. And I feel like my entire career as a screenwriter was to keep trying to recapture that dazzling feeling of wonder that I'd actually, while awake, walked into my own dream.
Elan Mastai: And even though that movie, it's a silly kid's movie, it did well enough that inspired some sequels. I didn't write any of them, because writing kid … I mean, I really appreciated the opportunity, but once I'd been through the process, I'd realized writing kid's movies wasn't my personal … It wasn't really what I wanted to do. But I'd had a movie made, and Warner Bros. picked it up for international distribution, and that really kickstarted my screenwriting career.
So I had this thing where I felt a bit like Chauncey Gardiner, from Being There, or Forrest Gump, except that was like … I kind of stumbled into this career, and did this opportunity anyways, and then once I'd had the opportunity, which, I have to admit, looking back, I was still a college student. I didn't take it that seriously at the time. And then suddenly I was like, "Oh. I could actually do this." I had no idea how you could even start a writing career, but I somehow stumbled into it.
Elan Mastai: Now I have to actually really start taking this seriously. It's not just a lark. It's not an exam that you tell everybody you only started studying for the night before to protect yourself if you do badly. Now I could actually do something. The door is open a crack. And the only way to get through it is to just get to be a much better writer. That's the other thing about … There's nothing like seeing actors on set and people spending all this money and delivering your dialogue to make you aware in the most cringe-worthy fashion, that your writing sounded a lot better in your head.
Elan Mastai: Because people are speaking it out loud. And so that experience, in addition to the sort of magical sense of being in this waking dream, it was also the sort of kick in the pants that, yeah, I need to work a lot harder and get to be a much better writer if I'm ever going to write the kinds of movies or the kinds of anything that could compare to the things that made me want to do it in the first place.
So then I went through a very intensive period. I was lucky I had a great early opportunity. But I went through a real intensive period of just trying to get better as a writer, trying to close that gap between what I wanted it to feel like in my head and what was actually coming out on the page. I got a couple other movies made and I got better and I just worked really hard. It's just that thing … The movie business, I mean really in anything, in the movie business, but in any kind of writing field, you have so little control over how your work is received. But what you can control is the actual writing itself.
Elan Mastai: Each word, one at a time. That's what you can control, and that became my mantra. Just focus on the writing, figure out what your strengths are, figure out what your weaknesses are, try to make your strengths better, try to make your weaknesses stronger, and just keep plugging away, basically, and not even worry so much about how it's going to be received, what the reviews are going be like. Just worry about every single day, doing the best writing you can.
Kelton Reid: Yeah, wow. That's a good takeaway. You've had so much success, it seems. You've written for Fox, Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount. And then you had a film premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, is that right?
Elan Mastai: Yeah, that's right.
Kelton Reid: And got to tour around with it, and it was very well received. It's a lot of fun, it would seem. So you were on the set for that movie.
Elan Mastai: Yeah. What I learned through a couple movies … I had a few movies made early on in my career where I really just handed off the script. I didn't have a lot to do with it. What I realized was that wasn't fully satisfying to me. I started taking more and more of a role on my projects, and that turned into a producing role. I started being on set for the entire shoot, being involved from the very beginning in budgeting and casting and hiring crew, and on the other side of production in editing and even just the marketing and promotion. I made the decision to team up with people who were looking for a partner.
Also, on What If, I was working with a director … I didn't know Mike Dowse before we started working on it, but we became very close, and we became real creative partners. So I was able to be on set every day, and be at the monitors, and be an integral part of the production process, not just somebody who hands the script off. Producing a movie is not super fun. It makes you want to tear your hair out.
Elan Mastai: So that I always have the opportunity to protect it, even if I don't need to. You don't get an alarm system installed in your house while the break-in is happening.
Kelton Reid: Because that's a great point.
Kelton Reid: Well, you've clearly been influenced by some great romantic comedy directors and producers yourself, that being a romantic comedy, What If, that actually won a Canadian Academy Award. You won a Writer's Guild Award as well.
Kelton Reid: So you found success there, but then how did you make the jump? Were you working on the novel that whole time, or did you decide to take a break to work on the novel?
Elan Mastai: No, actually. I started the novel actually during the press tour for What If. I was on a press tour. I had never been on a press tour before. None of the movies I'd ever written had invited me along to be a part of this multi-city promotional process that happened when the movie comes out. But on What If, I was invited along.
Being on a press tour is weird, especially if you're not used to it. Someone like Daniel Radcliffe has been doing it since he was a kid, and he knows exactly what he's doing. He's got it all on lockdown. When you watch him handle interviews, it's like you're watching a competitive swimmer.
Elan Mastai: But, I wasn't like that. It was a weird process. I also found that I didn't have any time to write. You're scheduled in almost 15 or 30 minute blocks, someone's always telling you where to go, who to talk to, where to sit. And I like to write every single day.
Elan Mastai: One might even say I need to write every single day, if one was perhaps a psychologist. So I found that I had very little time to write, but at the same time I also had intentionally not taken on any screenwriting projects, because I knew the promotion was going to take up a lot of time, and I didn't want to get behind on deadlines, or have promised something to somebody that I couldn't deliver, so I took a little break.
I think it was just my mind … I was travelling a lot, I was in new cities, I was meeting all kinds of people. And I just started thinking about this story. And the more I started thinking about it, the more I got excited about it. But I also realized that there was a way I wanted to tell this story, and it wasn't a movie. It could be a movie down the line, and I think it will be a great movie. I sold the rights for the movie to Paramount and I'm working on that right now. But, I realized that I wanted to tell the story as a novel, particularly as a first person kind of faux-memoir that I wanted to not just be a story that I was telling, but a story that the protagonist was telling about this thing that happened to him.
So while I was on the press tour, it was this sort of weird fugue state where it wasn't like my real life. My real life does not involve dinners and screenings and interviews and staying in hotels. That's not my regular life. This is the sort of alternate reality that I'd been thrust in. So whenever I'd have a little break, I started the process of thinking about … And started writing this novel, in little spurts. In fact, if you read the novel, the chapters are very short, and I really embraced that, those short chapters. But the actual original reason the chapters are so short is that I only usually had 15 or 20 minutes of time to write. So each chapter was just how much time I had to write that day.
So I started just trying to do it every single day. If I could just take 15, 20 minutes, if I could just write 250 or 500 words a day, then I would feel that I got something done and that I was just challenging myself, pushing myself, trying something new, while I was in this weird state that was outside my regular daily writing routine. And I started to like the idea of the short chapters, aesthetically, I started to really enjoy it. And I started to like what I was writing.
So the press tour ended and I didn't want to stop. Like a lot of people, I had a day job. I'm like a lot of people; my day job is writing movies. I'm a working screenwriter. I have contracts, I have deadlines, I have things I have to deliver to people. So I just started writing the novel basically evenings and weekends. Every day I would carve out half an hour, 45 minutes. I set myself a word count of 250 to 500 words, not a lot, very small, manageable, but I did it every single day. So just on the side, I started writing this book. You do it every single day. After five months, you start to actually have … I had a rough draft of this novel. It needed a lot of work, it needed a lot of massaging and polishing.
Elan Mastai: I cut tons, I added new stuff, I moved stuff around. But, by doing it a tiny little bit every single day, while I was doing my day job, which is writing movies, I actually was able to complete a very rough but finished first draft.
Kelton Reid: Wow, wow. Well, it's an incredibly impressive debut. I love how people talk about the overnight success, and obviously you've been working in film and narrative storytelling itself for quite a while, so it wasn't a surprise that you put together this fantastic story.
Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Well, it is really fun. I will point back to your website, I think, Elanmastai.com, where you can pre-order the book and/or order it if you're listening to this after it's been published on all these fantastic platforms. It seems like a lot of research went into some of these things. Now, I haven't asked Andy Weir what he thinks about the science behind it, but I would be curious. But he did plug it. He loved it. He said it was a "thrilling tale of time travel, alternate timelines, with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity's future." He was also a guest on this show, which I will point to in the show notes for listeners also. But, tell me about the science. Were you just having lot of fun? It seems like you were just having so much fun writing this. But were you also consulting, like, Wikipedia from time to time on the time travel stuff?
Elan Mastai: But, yeah. My grandfather, who was the one who really introduced me to science fiction when I was a kid was a chemist; he was a scientist by trade, and he loved science fiction. But he often would complain that these sci-fi books are terrific, but they get the science all wrong. They don't even try. And in fact, the science is very interesting and if they would just … He was always going on about it. If they would just take a little bit of time to figure out the science, they would actually find their story would be more interesting. Because it would be grounded in reality.
I guess that's always been in the back of my mind. So when I started writing I would definitely just write where my imagination took me, and I would just run with it. But then I made the decision, I'm going to figure out how as much of this stuff as possible would actually work. So whether that's what traffic patterns might be like in a world with flying cars, or how exactly radiation works. Most specifically, creating a model of time travel that takes into consideration that the planet moves. And not just that the earth is constantly moving, but that it's moving very, very quickly. At its equator, the earth rotates on its axis at a 1000 miles an hour. Every second of the day, the earth is rotating around the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour. So that's very, very fast, and that's not even taking into consideration how fast the sun is moving through the galaxy.
I'd never really seen a time-tr- … I love time travel stories; I read lot of them. I had never personally found one that actually acknowledged that the earth is constantly moving. And if you're going to throw somebody back in time, you're actually also throwing them back in space, and not just a short distance; thousands, tens of thousands, millions, even billions of miles, literally, back in space to land very precisely on the spinning outer crust on our planet, and not embedded inside the planet, not so far high up in the atmosphere that you fall to your death, not in an ocean, not in an object, not out in the empty vacuum of space, but actually right on the planet in the exact spot.
And I thought, "Well, this is very complicated. It involves math. I'm not a mathematician or a physicist, but if I'm going to ask my reader to read this, I'm going to figure it out. I want to see if I can come up with a model of time travel that actually takes into consideration orbital mechanics and astrodynamics." And by doing that, I opened up all these other really cool areas of storytelling that I wouldn't have actually found in the writing process had I not started that process of actually trying to work out the orbital mechanics.
Kelton Reid: Thanks so much for joining me for this half of a tour through the writer's process. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please subscribe to the show and leave us a rating or a review on iTunes to help other writers find us. For more episodes or to just leave a comment or a question, you can drop by WriterFiles.FM and you can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. Talk to you next week.


text:
Hypostomus is een geslacht van straalvinnige vissen uit de familie van harnasmeervallen (Loricariidae).

Soorten
 Hypostomus affinis (, 1877)
 Hypostomus agna (, 1907)
 Hypostomus alatus , 1855
 Hypostomus albopunctatus (, 1908)
 Hypostomus ancistroides (, 1911)
 Hypostomus angipinnatus (, 1922)
 Hypostomus argus (, 1943)
 Hypostomus asperatus (, 1855)
 Hypostomus aspilogaster (, 1894)
 Hypostomus atropinnis (, 1890)
 Hypostomus auroguttatus , 1854
 Hypostomus bolivianus (, 1924)
 Hypostomus borellii (, 1897)
 Hypostomus boulengeri (, 1903)
 Hypostomus brevicauda (, 1864)
 Hypostomus brevis (, 1919)
 Hypostomus carinatus (, 1881)
 Hypostomus carvalhoi (, 1937)
 Hypostomus chrysostiktos , 2007
 Hypostomus cochliodon , 1854
 Hypostomus commersoni , 1836
 Hypostomus commersonoides (, 1933)
 Hypostomus coppenamensis , 1969
 Hypostomus corantijni , 1968
 Hypostomus cordovae (, 1880)
 Hypostomus crassicauda , 1968
 Hypostomus denticulatus , 2008
 Hypostomus derbyi (, 1911)
 Hypostomus dlouhyi (, 1985)
 Hypostomus eptingi (, 1941)
 Hypostomus ericae , 2005
 Hypostomus ericius , 2003
 Hypostomus faveolus , 2008
 Hypostomus fluviatilis (, 1964)
 Hypostomus fonchii , 2002
 Hypostomus francisci (, 1874)
 Hypostomus garmani (, 1904)
 Hypostomus goyazensis (, 1908)
 Hypostomus gymnorhynchus (, 1926)
 Hypostomus hemicochliodon , 2003
 Hypostomus hemiurus (, 1912)
 Hypostomus heraldoi , 2008
 Hypostomus hermanni (, 1905)
 Hypostomus hondae (, 1912)
 Hypostomus hoplonites , 1988
 Hypostomus iheringii (, 1908)
 Hypostomus interruptus (, 1918)
 Hypostomus isbrueckeri , 1990
 Hypostomus itacua , 1836
 Hypostomus jaguribensis (, 1915)
 Hypostomus johnii (, 1877)
 Hypostomus kopeyaka , 2010
 Hypostomus laplatae (, 1907)
 Hypostomus latifrons , 1986
 Hypostomus latirostris (, 1904)
 Hypostomus levis (, 1924)
 Hypostomus lexi (, 1911)
 Hypostomus lima (, 1874)
 Hypostomus limosus (, 1888)
 Hypostomus longiradiatus (, 1929)
 Hypostomus luetkeni (, 1877)
 Hypostomus luteomaculatus (, 1942)
 Hypostomus luteus (, 1980)
 Hypostomus macrophthalmus , 1968
 Hypostomus macrops (, 1888)
 Hypostomus macushi , 2005
 Hypostomus margaritifer (, 1908)
 Hypostomus meleagris (, 1933)
 Hypostomus micromaculatus , 1968
 Hypostomus microstomus , 1987
 Hypostomus multidens , 2007
 Hypostomus mutucae , 1999
 Hypostomus myersi (, 1947)
 Hypostomus nematopterus , 1984
 Hypostomus niceforoi (, 1943)
 Hypostomus nickeriensis , 1969
 Hypostomus niger (, 1933)
 Hypostomus nigromaculatus (, 1964)
 Hypostomus nudiventris (, 1941)
 Hypostomus obtusirostris (, 1907)
 Hypostomus occidentalis , 1968
 Hypostomus oculeus (, 1943)
 Hypostomus pagei , 2003
 Hypostomus pantherinus , 1854
 Hypostomus papariae (, 1941)
 Hypostomus paranensis , 1877
 Hypostomus paucimaculatus , 1968
 Hypostomus paucipunctatus , 2005
 Hypostomus paulinus (, 1905)
 Hypostomus peckoltoides , 2010
 Hypostomus piratatu , 1986
 Hypostomus plecostomoides (, 1922)
 Hypostomus plecostomus (, 1758)
 Hypostomus pospisili (, 1944)
 Hypostomus pseudohemiurus , 1968
 Hypostomus punctatus , 1840
 Hypostomus pusarum (, 1913)
 Hypostomus pyrineusi (, 1920)
 Hypostomus regani (, 1905)
 Hypostomus rhantos , 2007
 Hypostomus robinii , 1840 (Teta)
 Hypostomus rondoni (, 1912)
 Hypostomus roseopunctatus , 1990
 Hypostomus saramaccensis , 1968
 Hypostomus scabriceps (, 1888)
 Hypostomus scaphyceps (, 1919)
 Hypostomus sculpodon , 2003
 Hypostomus seminudus (, 1888)
 Hypostomus simios , 2005
 Hypostomus sipaliwinii , 1968
 Hypostomus soniae , 2005
 Hypostomus strigaticeps (, 1908)
 Hypostomus subcarinatus , 1855
 Hypostomus surinamensis , 1968
 Hypostomus tapanahoniensis , 1969
 Hypostomus taphorni (, 1984)
 Hypostomus tapijara , 2005
 Hypostomus ternetzi (, 1895)
 Hypostomus tietensis (, 1905)
 Hypostomus topavae (, 1969)
 Hypostomus unae (, 1878)
 Hypostomus uruguayensis , 1990
 Hypostomus vaillanti (, 1877)
 Hypostomus variipictus (, 1911)
 Hypostomus varimaculosus (, 1945)
 Hypostomus variostictus (, 1912)
 Hypostomus ventromaculatus , 1968
 Hypostomus vermicularis (, 1888)
 Hypostomus waiampi , 2005
 Hypostomus watwata , 1828
 Hypostomus weberi , 2010
 Hypostomus winzi (, 1945)
 Hypostomus wuchereri (, 1864)

Harnasmeervallen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our conference is located in the Segal Rooms at the Harbour Centre SFU Vancouver Campus.
By Air - Getting here couldn't be easier - flights into Vancouver International Airport (YVR) are frequent, and downtown Vancouver is only half an hour from the aiport on public transport, with the Sky Train station only steps away.
By Train or Bus - Trains and buses to Vancouver come from Portland or Seattle, or locations in Canada, both arriving to Pacific Central Station. From there it is a short public transport ride to the downtown conference location.
By Car - Parking in downtown Vancouver can be hard to find, and expensive, although there are a number of public pay car parks close to the conference location if necessary. However, we strongly recommend using public transport where possible.
Public Transport Planner - please use the Translink website here for planning your journey within Vancouver.


text:
Q: Best practices when using drawRect I have recently started creating my own controls and I seem to have a bit of trouble understanding how I should use drawRect.
Basically I have 3 Questions.

*

*Is it a good idea to have conditional drawRect's? ie. different drawing code based on properties or instance variables.

*What is the best method for animating changes to the drawRect's drawing? For example, a fuel gauge control with animated fill and un-fill.

*And, finally, the examples I have seen for animating with drawRect tend to use timers, is that really a good method in practice? It seems like the heavier apps would have issues with that method.
I guess a 4th would be, is there, perhaps, a better place to do this kind of stuff?

A:
Is it a good idea to have conditional drawRect's? ie. different drawing code based on properties or instance variables.

Sure, why not? If your drawRect: method becomes unwieldy, you could split it into multiple methods that you then call from drawRect: depending on the properties of your view. E.g. you could have methods like drawBackground, drawTitle, etc.

What is the best method for animating changes to the drawRect's drawing? For example, a fuel gauge control with animated fill and un-fill.

That depends. For very small views, you could call setNeedsDisplay from a timer, but for larger views, you'll often run into performance issues with this approach.
Animating changes is often better done by compositing your view out of multiple subviews or layers that can be animated with Core Animation (or the simplified UIView animation methods).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
SPIDER-MAN SPRITES 1991-98
He's friendly, he lives in your neighbourhood and he does whatever a spider can. Yes, it's The Punisher! No, of course not, it's Spider-Man. Everyone's favourite web-slinger has had a lot of videogames over the years, some excellent and some... not so much, but I was raised on the Spider-Man cartoon and any opportunity to swing around and make wisecracks is something I enjoy. So here are some of his sprites. You will notice I have made a concerted effort to remember to include the hyphen in his name, because his name is Spider-hyphen-Man. It's very, very important, and for every time I forget to include the hyphen I will jam a compass into my thigh as penance.
Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six, 1992, Master System, B.I.T.S.
Spider-podge, Spider-podge. That's quite the gut he's got there. The little button nose makes him look like he'd fit right in on Sesame Street. A muppet version of Spider-Man would be pretty excellent, actually. And what's going on with his right arm? It's strangely bulbous, and he doesn't appear to have an elbow, giving him something of a Stretch Armstrong look. Still, he looks great compared to...
Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six, 1992, NES, B.I.T.S.
... the same sprite from the NES version. That front-on view is just peculiar, making him look as though he has suction cups for feet. If suction-cup feet are redundant on anyone, it's Spider-Man. The side-on view isn't much better, with him still displaying very rubbery arms and a long, long torso.
Maximum Carnage, 1994, SNES, Software Creations
Maximum Carnage is the first Spider-Man game I really remember playing, partly due to the fact it was so hard I may have a had some kind of aneurysm. Maybe my rage has passed directly into the sprite, because Spider-Man looks pretty furious there. It's a good job Spidey has super-reflexes, because a normal human would never be able to stand upright on those tiny feet. Other than that, it's a fairly good sprite, even with his strangely prominent knees.
Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes, 1994, SNES, Epoch
Lethal Foes was only released in Japan, in case you were wondering why you've never heard of it. It's the best sprite so far, where some kind of effort has been expended in giving him a Spider-Man-esque pose. He also looks good when swinging from a thread:
Unfortunately, they do appear to have put his left hand on backwards.
Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, 1993, MegaDrive, Software Creations
A slightly generic incarnation, looking a bit like he might be a bootleg toy of Spidey and not the real thing. At least there was an attempt to give the red bits of his costume a web pattern. At least I think that's what that is, he might be wearing his quilted velvet costume.
Separation Anxiety, 1995, SNES, Software Creations
¡El rey del cuadrilátero, Hombre de Araña! Yes, Spider-Man looks like a luchador, and that is awesome. It's the running-with-arms-raised pose that does it; I expect him to knock a goon over, run up a wall (because he can do that, being Spider-Man and all,) and moonsault onto him. His left arm is overlapping in a strange fashion there, making it look like his arm ends in a Spider-Stump.
Spider-Man the Animated Series, 1995, MegaDrive, Software Creations
Whoa there Spidey, been hitting the 'roids? Whatever you've been doing, it can't be healthy. You look like 300 kilos of sausagemeat stuffed into a pair of tights. Poor Spidey has taken a serious Leifelding there. And why so dark? It's kind of difficult to tell where Spider-Man ends and the background begins. No, I don't like this one. Whatever he is, he certainly isn't your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man; he's the menacing brute Spider-Man from the other side of town, the one that went to school with you but was a year or two ahead, and you'd always hear stories about how he punched a policeman or drove a scramble-bike into a pensioner's flat. And what kind of hero would that make you, Spidey?
Spider-Man, 1991, Arcade, Sega
Or Droopy-Man, as he is more commonly known. He reminds me of something, now what was it...?
Oh yes, that's right.
Marvel vs Capcom, 1998, Arcade, Capcom.
I've saved the best for last. How do you know it's the best? Because it's by Capcom, that's how. Looking at those thighs, I should be using him in a team with Chun-Li more often. He's probably the best-looking computerised verion of Spidey ever, and I'm including the CG one that swings around in the films. They really captured the look of the animated Spider-Man, while still giving him a slightly unique feel. That leaves only one question: will you be any good in Marvel vs Capcom 3, Spidey?
Well, you're a lot of help.
That's all for today, and I think I spelled Spider-Man right enough times for my thigh to remain un-stabbed. If you feel like it, check out these other sprite-based articles:
Robocop Sprites
Aliens Sprites
Batman Sprites
Labels: capcom, comic, marvel, sega, spider-man, Sprites
FIVE GREAT INTRO MOVIES
Here, in no particular order, are five videogame intros that I really like.
Super Street Fighter 2, SNES
Short but oh-so-sweet, the SSF2 intro may not seem like much to the masses raised on hour-long high-definition FMV cutscenes, but back in 1994 this was a sight that make me fair tremble with excitement. I think it's the giant, beautifully animated sprite that does it. It certainly makes it seem as though Ryu is really intent on kicking your ass, and the huge "SUPER" that follows left you in no doubt as to just how good the game was going to be.
Ninja Gaiden, NES
This was probably the first videogame I played that attempted to be cinematic in its cutscenes, and it just blew me away. Plus it starts with two ninjas with swords throwing themselves at eachother, so I was always going to be impressed. The way the music changes as Ryu starts telling his sad tale is expertly done, and the whole thing sets up Ninja Gaiden's plot quickly and impressively.
Mega Man 8, PS1
First off, this is the Japanese version, which is superior because it contains the "Electrical Communication" theme song instead of the fairly generic music that replaced it in the other releases. Secondly, it's like a little Mega Man cartoon! That's the sort of thing that makes me happy. Seeing a bunch of the old Robot Masters is nice, and it even includes Shade Man. I have to wonder about Pharaoh Man though, just standing there while Mega Man throws a train at him. I suppose it's not the kind of thing pharaohs are used to dealing with.
Neo Contra, PS2
Four minutes of glorious madness introduces you to Konami's not-actually-awful Contra reboot. You want missiles being chopped in half by sword? Gymnastics performed on artillery guns? Men riding atom bombs? Well, you got it. You also get some woman wailing "NEO CONNNNTRAAAA!" but you'll just have to excuse them for that. This is what all intro movies for action games should be like; balls-out, testosterone-fuelled insanity which ends in some slightly homoerotic hand-clasping. Brilliant.
Resident Evil, PS1
I really have saved the best for last here. This is my favourite video in any videogame ever, and it is at the same time both hilarious, terrifying and the coolest thing I have ever seen. No matter what Capcom do to Wesker's character, no matter what Matrix-esque powers they give him, to me he will always, always be that bored-looking guy at the end of this video. This intro raises a lot of questions, too, such as "Why does Jill shout "JOSEAHH!?"" and "Why do the dogs stop attacking them while our heroes stare at the departing helicopter?", but these are not questions that need answers. Indeed, to answer them would only sully the joy that is the Resident Evil intro. All in all, it is a truly glorious thing. But I doubt we will ever see its kind again, and that's sort of sad. Plus, it's better than all the live-action RE moves combined. These people can act better than Milla Jovovich, that's for sure.
Labels: contra, intro, megaman, movies, ninja gaiden, Resident Evil, street fighter
In 1992, Taito released a game with the misleading title of Silent Dragon. It was not, I discovered, the touching tale of a mythical beast who joins a Trappist monastery to work through some deep spiritual trauma, but rather a side-scrolling beat-em-up in which some vaguely martial-arty types punch some guys. Oh well, I've inserted my credit now. Let's see what awaits us, shall we?
Would you care to guess the plot? Go on, give it a try. If you said "[Main Character]'s girlfriend has been kidnapped! You must fight to get her back! And also for justice!" then you are correct. So far, Silent Dragon is off to a very generic start. Let's have a look at our fighters, then:
So, we've got Joe, whose fighting style is apparently "Fighter". There's Lee, the kung fu master, which means he'll be rubbish. For some bizarre reason, in the majority of side-scrolling beat-em-ups "kug fu master" is equivalent to "punching bag". Poor Lee has wasted his life. Next is Kato the ninja, who is shushing us in that picture. What a rude ninja. Finally we have Sonny, a GI who is slowly falling out of frame. These are the men tasked with defeating the evil Dr. Bio and saving the world. Who is Dr. Bio? Well, apart from possibly being Baby Bio's father, he is this guy:
The effeminate Joker-looking guy, I mean, not the blonde damsel. That'd be a great turnaround, though; fluffy blonde girlfriend snaps and kidnaps respected bioengineer. It's almost M. Night Shyamalan-esque. I quite like Dr. Bio. He's certainly a little different from the normal villain that you might expect to find in this kind of situation. So, you chooses a character and the game begins.
Stage One starts with you jumping off a boat, which is a pretty high-octane way to start. I went with Joe for most of the game, partly because he's got the best balance of power and speed and partly because he throws out a Shoryuken at the end of every basic combo he does. The controls are pretty straight forward: attack, jump and a special that drains your health a little when used (in Joe's case, it's a forward flip kick thing, and very useful it is too). As you make your way through the docks, of course some enemies step out to try and destroy you, and they are punks. Street punks of course, the same as always, and these ones are even more generic than usual. There's a guy in a kind of boxing pose, and a guy with spiky hair... and that's about it, really. Granted, I can Dragon Punch them into the sunset like in the picture above, but a little variety wouldn't hurt. Oh, I almost forgot, there is an enemy who is essentially E. Honda in bondage gear, but the less said about that the better, I think. As you move through the stage, the sun slowly sets, which is a nice touch. The second part of the stage starts with you blowing up a Ferrari which someone had inconsiderately parked across the street. I don't know what it says about me, but as soon as I saw the Ferrari, I ran straight over to it and started punching it, ignoring the punks who were trying to hit me. Why did I do that? Have I been mentally conditioned to want to punch expensive cars? The car-smashing minigame in Street Fighter probably isn't helping. I can only hope it doesn't start seeping into my actual life. Eventually you reach the stage's boss, and what a freak he is.
According to the arcade flyer, this guy is called Animal Cupid. Now, that is a name that brings up a lot of questions, and most of them are about bestiality. The kind of questions that you don't want to know the answers to. Dark questions. Let's just stop thinking about it, shall we? Please, stop thinking about what that man did to get the name "Animal Cupid" and just pray to God he runs some kind of animal dating service. He's wearing bandages and nothing else, and the graphics people at Taito went to the extra trouble of giving him a bandage thong. Someone sat down to design this guy and though "You know what he needs?" Exposed buttocks." Thank you, That Guy, wherever you are. Quite posssibly a secure facility somewhere.
Stage two next, and Joe is still travelling through the city. The first thing to notice here is the appearance of the obligatory dominatrix. Every single side-scroller like this has them; I guess just whipping your regular customers isn't enough to pay the bills, and you need to do a bit of freelance evil on the side. To help you dispatch these women, the game lets you pick up a car battery to clobber them with, a weapon which ranks up there with The Punisher's bag of fertilizer as an odd offensive tool. As you hit them with the battery, some construction workers in the background cheer you on, and I end up feeling like a mysogynistic douchebag. Thanks, Taito.
The second half of the stage takes you through a fashion boutique, where more bondage Hondas wait to slap you across the room. It's a short area, and then it's time for the boss, a lion-maned Fist of the North Star wannabe with knives on his wrists. He looks pretty damn cheerful about being a boss, so maybe he was only recently promoted. It was at this point that I noticed that the sprites get smaller as you move into the background, a technique that was used surprisingly rarely and is one of the few things that Silent Dragon does a little differently. The boss is easily defeated, despite his ablility to scale his sprite, and it's on to stage three.
This stage is in the back of a truck, a truck which is apparently impervious to the large piles of dynamite which are constantly exploding inside it. Considering that this truck deposited some enemies during the previous stage, it has a lot of punks inside. Like a clown truck, but instead of clowns it's full of vicious psychopaths. So, like a normal clown car, then. I realised that the enemies don't have names above their health bars in Silent Dragon, and that is disappointing, because it means I can't apply my theory that the enemy names that do appear are chosen by the protagonist when he sees the enemy for the first time. You just lost points, Silent Dragon.
After a while, the sides of the truck fall off and enemies are dropped off by guys on motorcycles, like some kind of evil courier service - goons when you need them, if you like. Then a helicopter appears and shoots missiles at you. It's all go on this truck, I tell you. But who's that jumping down from the chopper? Why it's the stage's boss, and he's pretty god-damn familiar looking.
He's just a palette-and-head swap of the previous boss, but with that swapping they have turned him in to Jagi from Fist of the North Star / Hokuto no Ken. Here's a picture of Jagi:
Okay, so maybe it's just a coincidence and he looks a bit Jagi-esque. Well, here's the bosses profile picture.
Yep, they just ripped him right off, and that's great, because I love Jagi. The boss's name is Wolfkid, and according to the arcade flyer, "He can't be seen in the daytime". I have no idea what that means; does sunlight somehow render him invisible? Is he a vampire? Or does he just stay in bed all day like a shiftless, dole-scrounging scumbag? Well, it's a moot point, because I'm clearly fighting him in the middle of the day and I CAN SEE HIM JUST FINE. As he is Jagi, that means he knows Hokuto Shinken, which may explain why this boss battle is so hard. He's much, much tougher than the last boss, even without having a shotgun. He attacks with combos of little fireballs which seem to be able to hit you when you should be out of range, and they do a lot of damage, too. But, y'know, Hokuto Shinken. What can you do? It turns out what I can do is keep pumping credits in and spamming Joe's special attack, and soon enough the way to stage four is open.
Stage four starts with a monkey throwing a Molotov cocktail at you. No, really. There he is at the top-right of the picture, looking down on the destruction he has wrought, savouring the smell of buring flesh as he breathes deeply with his simian lungs.
What a bastard. Just as you've gotten used to the concept of a dangerous ape with petrol bombs, he changes tack and starts throwing delicious, health-regenerating apples down to you instead. You're messing with my head, monkey-man. Look at you, sitting up there with mischief in your fickle monkey heart like some furry incarnation of Fate. I hate you, Molotov monkey.
The stage continues through the mountains, over a rope bridge that you can boot enemies off of, until you come to a lava-filled cave. In the lava cave lurks a mid-boss. He's a fire-breathing armadillo dragon thing!
After the previous couple of bosses, he's a bit more interesting. As he is an armadillo, you know his attack pattern is going to involve curling into a ball and rolling into you while being invincible, and so it proves. Just once, I'd like an armadillo boss that tries to beat you with laser eye-beams or something. He's easy enough to beat, much easier than Jagi at any rate, and the stage moves on to some kind of Joel Schumacher-inspired neon Indian burial ground. It looks like Sitting Bull should be throwing shapes to some bangin' techno beats nearby, but instead of proud native chiefs, Joe has to face two bosses at once: the Man-Bat who ran (flapped?) away earlier, and a green, bandage-covered, stretchy-armed fella called Frankenman.
Frankenman is pretty cool, actually. I usually like the "hideous creature swathed in bandages" look, like Jennety from Captain Commando or Marco from Kaiser Knuckle. Animal Cupid is a rare exception, but Frankenman pulls it back for bandaged freaks everywhere. But still they are easier to defeat that Wolfkid/Jagi, probably due to Frankenman's terrible posture, which can't be good for his back. With those two defeated, it's on to the final stage.
The final stage is set in the Technodrome, apparently, and it's the fairly standard "assault on the villain's base" setup. You get a bunch of regular punks, and of course you have to re-fight most of the bosses again too. Oh joy. The game shows mercy by not making you fight Wolfkid again, thank god.
There's an airlock that you can open, and then you can hit the goons so they lose their footing and get sucked out. That's all well and good, except that the base is on ground level. Okay, it might be up in the mountains a bit, but it's certainly not in space. Maybe I just don't understand the subtle science of vacuum aerodynamics, but I'm pretty sure that if you open a door at the top of a skyscraper you aren't immediately sucked out into the air. It's at this point that I would be expecting to face the one thing that I thought tied all side-scrolling beat-em-ups together, the one thread that connected them all, from the mighty Final Fights right up to the modern Scott Pilgrims. That thing is an elevator in which you travel while enemies pour in from all sides. Silent Dragon does not have one. I am broken, bereft, destroyed. It's like everything I believed in has been swept away with one sweep of a badly-designed punching animation.
Despite this trauma, I managed to drag myself on until I reached the head honcho, Dr. Bio himself.
He's riding what I can only describe as a Space-Segway. It looks like it should make theremin noises when he moves about. As this game was released in 1992, it's safe to say that Taito predicted the arrival of the Segway by a good eight or nine years, showing how truly ahead of its time Silent Dragon was. I really like Dr. Bio, mostly because he's an effeminate, purple-haired psychopath wearing a lime green zoot suit and an eyepatch with a gun for an arm. Forget your James Bonds, that's cool right there. That isn't Dr. Bio's true form, or course. No, after a few hits all his skin falls off and he is revealed to be a Terminator.
Stomp stomp, punch punch, you get the drill. He's actually really easy to beat by taking advantage of the invincibility offered by your special move to avoid his attacks and then bashing him with a standard combo. I gotta say, I much preferred the first iteration of Dr. Bio, but once his robot form is defeated, that's the end of the game. Boo.
With all the stages complete, I'm still none the wiser as to why this game is called Silent Dragon. It features no dragons, unless you count the armadillo thing, which you shouldn't because HE'S AN ARMADILLO. He's certainly not silent, either. Maybe the Dragon of the title refers to our hero, but he's not silent either. It is a mystery that will never be solved, or more likely it is two English words that Taito liked the sound of together. I think a more appropriate name for Silent Dragon would be No Sleeves: The Game. Seriously, look at the screenshots and you will see that Dr. Bio himself is the only character with sleeves. This game has a real obsession with bare arms. All the enemies have bare arms or are armadillos, all the bosses have bare arms, all the heroes have bare arms. There are more sleeveless jackets here than in the whole of the ninties combined.
The ending? Our hero makes out with a girl. That's the whole ending, that picture. You will notice that the girl is wearing a sleeveless dress. Wait a second, that sleeveless red outfit, those muscular arms, that blonde hair... I think Joe is making out with Ken from Street Fighter. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Well, No Sleeves: The Game is exactly what you would think it is from this rambling article. Short, generic to the point of plagarism and just all round a bit forgettable. But still, I had fun with it, and as it is so short, it doesn't have time to outstay its welcome. Plus, Dr. Bio is a cool, Space Segway ridin' kinda guy. And he has sleeves, making him better than everyone else involved in this game. So give it a go, or not; you probably won't remember it either way.
Here are the arcade flyers:
And here's some gameplay footage. Enjoy!
P.S. Don't forget about the VGJUNK Tumblr!
Labels: Arcade, beat em up, coin-op, I HATE SLEEVES, silent dragon, taito
MY TOP 5 OVERLOOKED MEGA MAN MUSIC TRACKS
I think it's fair to say that I'm a fan of the music of the Mega Man series. You know why it's fair to say that? Because I think every Mega Man soundtrack in the original series is a work of genius. For anyone to produce music that good, that catchy and that complex through the NES soundchip... it's a thing of beauty, it really is. Considering they were composed to be throwaway background music, produced decades ago for a long-obsolete console, the fact that people are still listening to them, remixing them and even creating whole albums around them is pretty amazing.
Some of these Mega Man tracks get more attention than others. The soundtrack for Mega Man 2, for example, has had every track remixed, re-mastered and reinterpreted a million different ways. Magnet Man and Spark Man from Mega Man 3 seem to get a lot of love. However, put those famous tracks out of your mind, because this article is about five of my favourite Mega Man tracks that seem to get repeatedly overlooked in the harsh, unforgiving wilderness of the internet.
Hard Man - Mega Man 3
No sniggering in the back, please. He's called Hard Man because he's supposed to be a cement mixer (I think) and cement is hard. I distinctly remember trying to record this music from my television as a child, using the very ineffective method of holding a TalkBoy up to the TV speakers. It didn't work, and I had to wait for the internet to come along before I could listen it during the rare moments when I wasn't actually playing Mega Man 3.
His theme is just some funky and light-seeming, totally at odds with the mountainous theme of the level. Perhaps it is my fault for judging a man based upon the content of his level.
Dive Man, Mega Man 4
Yo ho ho, a submarine boss.
I love the way the NES noise channel sounds like drums and waves at the same time. That's really making the most of the equipment you have available. The little tom fills are excellent, too.
Charge Man, Mega Man 5
Another vehicle-themed boss, Charge Man is a train and he charges into you a lot. He looks like Thomas The Tank Engine's demented brother, and his music sounds like this:
More excellent use of the NES noise channel for the hi-hats at the start. There's an almost nostalgic feel to it, which I guess is supposed to evoke feelings of the long-gone Age of Steam, and possibly to distract you from Dr. Wily's stupidity in building a fighting robot that needs fossil fuels to operate in the far future. It's like taking the engine out of your car and getting a horse to pull it along instead.
Yamato Man, Mega Man 6
Yamato Man is a samurai robot, but his theme doesn't sound nearly as sterotypically Japanese as you might expect.
The chorus effect that comes in at about 0:32 is pretty excellent.
Shade Man, Mega Man 7
He's a robot vampire. That's pretty cool in and of itself, but then he gets this truly excellent theme:
It's like some kind of beautiful bastard child born of nasty musical sex between Mega Man and Castlevania. I think I want this played at my funeral. The section from 0:40 to 1:00 is one of my favourite twenty seconds of music I've ever heard. But that wasn't enough for Capcom. Oh no. Shade Man's stage features an easter egg, and if you hold B while selecting his stage, the regular music is replaced with Stage One music from Super Ghouls n' Ghosts. So he becomes the only Robot Master to get two different (and incredibly awesome) theme songs, thus cementing his status as Best Robot Ever.
So, those are my five favourite overlooked Mega Man tracks. Feel free to disagree with my choices or even simply not care. That's a valid choice too. No doubt someone will now tell me that these tracks aren't overlooked at all, and then direct me to some vast cache of remixes. Actually, that'd be great, please do that.
Labels: capcom, megaman, music, NES, SNES
The very first game I wrote about on VGJUNK was Konami's excellent cartoon cowboy game Sunset Riders. As that was five months ago, I think it's about time I got my rootin'-tootin' back on, so here's a quick look at the NES version of Capcom's 1988 Clint-Eastwood-em-up Gun.Smoke. Yes, the dot is important! It's to differentiate it from some TV show I've never seen. I'd class that as important, but then I am a deeply pathetic individual.
At its heart, Gun.Smoke is a vertically scrolling shooter, very similar to Commando, except the screen scrolls upwards. You scroll upward with it, and in a rare morsel of generosity from a game of this age, you don't instantly die if you get trapped in the scenery. Joy! You just teleport free like some kind of ancient yoga master of the Old West. You also shoot a lot of people, but then I suspect you might have already figured that out.
The firing mechanic is interesting: pressing the B button fires two rows of shots out at a diagonal to the left, pressing A fires them to the right and pressing them both together fires straight forward. The arcade version has an expanded 3-button system, where each combination of button presses results in a different firing pattern. That was far too much for my feeble mind to comprehend, though, so you're getting the NES version. Hah.
You play as a cowboy called called Billie Bob (no, really), a tough talkin', hard-fightin', widow-makin' gunslinger who rolls into the town of Hicksville (no, really) one "windy afternoon" and decides to take out the evil Wingates and his henchmen. With bullets. Lots of bullets, and the occasional horse.
So, cowboying, then. At the start of each stage, you're shown a wanted poster of the level's boss. The first stage is rule by Bandit Bill, world's smuggest cowboy:
He looks like he's balancing a hard-boiled egg on his head. All that and a jaunty cravat too. Truly a bandit of taste and refinement. To get to him, you have to move upwards through the town of Hicksville, pumping lead into anything that moves. The enemies are all fairly straightforward; there are little green dudes who fire single shots, cyan guys who prance around in a truly... flamboyant manner and dynamite throwers. Everytime I see the dynamite enemies, they remind me of former WWF superstars the Legion of Doom.
Man, the ninties were great awful great.
The gameplay is as simple as you like, but that doesn't stop it being fun. The first stage isn't all that difficult either, so you're introduced to the bloody, lawless wasteland of the Old West fairly gently. It helps that the first stage has some excellent NES-produced "cowboy" music. Personally, I think it's great.
Of course, there are powerups. There are icons to increase you firing range and stopping power, as well as a shotgun, maghine gun and Mag Num to buy. I believe the Mag Num is a large, powerful handgun of some kind. Best of all, though, is the horse. A beautiful, noble steed who soaks up bullets better than Kleenex soaks up salty emo tears. He takes damage instead of you, valiantly struggling on as his bullet-riddled body slowly bleeds out, until finally he can take no more and he collapses under you. Of course, you move on straight away and leave him to the buzzards. Ah, the cruelty of the scrolling screen. There is one final item, however: the Wanted Poster. You see, the first time I played Gun.Smoke, I dutifully trudged along for a while until I noticed that the scenery was looking rather familiar. Then I realised that the level keeps on looping round until you find the Wanted Poster. You can buy it from the shop lady for an extortionate price, or you can try and find it somewhere on the stage. Good luck with the latter, though, because, like a bulletproof leprechaun, it is invisible and you have to shoot it eight times before it appears. Just pay the lady so we can move on. It does raise the nice mental image of the lone lawman riding into town, ready to deal some justice... and then proceeding to spend the next few days wandering around in a circle because he can't find the boss. Well, what do you expect with a name like Billie Bob? With poster in hand, you soon reach your target. Bandit Bill is a tricky customer, because he has a secret move up his sleeve. That move is lying down. Yes, his strategy is to lay down in front of you. As stupid as that sounds, it works thanks to one crucial element: Billie Bob is even dumber than Bandit Bill. Our hero cannot, sadly, aim downwards. Perhaps he missed that day of Cowboy School, along with the day they taught lessons on proper horse maintenace. He stands up occasionally, so you just have to pick your moment and blast him. The level ends, you shoot up the very expensive wanted poster and collect your bounty, and then it's on to the next stage. The gameplay doesn't change from here on out: it just shooting, shooting and more shooting, for that authentic taste of the Old West. Sadly there is no sasparilla-drinking minigame, nor is there the option to leave hundreds of Chinese miners trapped in a cave after a landslide. I suppose we're still awaiting that true cowboy sim. Here are the rest of the (suddenly wildly inaccurate-seeming) levels.
It's out into the desert for stage 2, where this lumpy fellow named Cutter awaits.
Good god, he's a phrenologist's nightmare! Those two lump above his eyes look disturbingly like proud buttocks. He fights with boomerangs, which are always a good choice against guns.
Next it's Comanche country, and you battle the game's mandatory Native American chief.
He is called Devil Hawk, and he can shoot fireballs, a well-know technique of the proud Native American race. His stage is a bit more verdant than the previous two, and it's filled with teepees so narrow you wouldn't be able to lay down in them, thus making them the worst house in the world that wasn't once owned by Josef Fritzl. There's no buffalo, though, The white man killed them all. What a bastard.
Stage four, and Capcom suddenly decide that what Gun.Smoke really needs to give it that extra bit of pep is ninjas.
Damn right too. There aren't many things that aren't improved by adding ninjas. With surprising originality, the boss is a ninja called Ninja. I guess Capcom used up all their creative juices coming with the genius-fuelled braingasm that led to them putting ninjas in the game in the first place. The stage takes place on Death Mountain, and the name does not disappoint. This is where the game starts getting tricky, because ninjas. Ninjas everywhere, like a purple herd of buffalo that once used to roam these great plains before the white man killed them all. What a selfish prick.
It's also around this point that I realised I was paying more for the wanted poster than the bounty on the boss's head. I can only hope Billie Bob isn't in it for the money.
Stage five is patrolled by Fatman Joe:
GET DOWN HE'S GOING TO BLOW. He has a cannon, along with around one hundred thousand cowboy associates with no greater desire in the world than to see Billie Bob in a pine box. He also looks sort of Dragonball Z / Super Saiyan-esque. I think it's the veins.
Finally, stage 6 arrives, and it's time to go mano-a-mano with Wingates himself, with our hero determined to make him pay for his vaguely-defined crimes.
I've just invented my own backstory where Wingates is Mike Haggar's evil twin brother who travelled back in time. I think it holds up pretty well! Wingates is hiding out in a cemetary, and his deadliest weapon turns out to be the stage itself. How so? Well, look at this screenshot:
The white brick pattern covers 80% on the stage. Not only is it pretty painful to look at, (I think my eyes keep trying to resolve it as some kind of Magic Eye puzzle,) but it is almost exactly the same colour as the enemy projectiles, so you can't see the bullets flying towards you face. I've just noticed that those graves have crosses on them, in defiance of Nintendo's infamous "No religion" policy. Way to stick it to the man, Capcom. The final boss appears and, slightly underwhelmingly, it's a guy with a machine gun. You kill him, and he reappears as a guy with a machine gun that fires slightly more bullets. Deal with him, and it's game over. Billie Bob has saved the town of Hicksville, and he is left to contemplate his crippling wanted-poster-incurred debts. I think it would be fair to say he could be regarded as a podner. Then, it classic NES tradition, the game kicks you back to the start. You shouldn't play through it again, though. Go outside and get some exercise, your mother and I are starting to worry about you.
So, Gun.Smoke. It's pretty good fun! You should try it out, just don't expect Red Dead Redemption. Kids these days don't know they're born, etc, etc. The gameplay is solid, it controls well, and it isn't quite as punishingly difficult as other NES games of the time, Plus, you get to play as a cowboy called Billie Bob. What more could you ask for? Well, here's something else: a rather nice remix of the first stage music.
And with that, I shall ride off into the sunset on my meat-shield of a horse. Adios, gringos!
Labels: capcom, gun.smoke, gunsmoke, NES, Shooter, Western
KENSEI: SACRED FIST: BLANDEST CHARACTERS EVER
GAUNTLET 2: FRIEND-MURDERING AND BUM-SHOUTING
THE SUPER SPY

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


FineWP is clean and elegant, responsive, magazine WordPress theme for gallery/grid websites. It is Theme Customizer compatible, so you can easily change theme options and see live results, before applying them into your website. FineWP has a 2 navigation menus, slider, neat post summaries, full-width layout for posts/pages, sticky menu and sticky sidebar, 4 columns footer, top and bottom social icons, scroll-to-top button and more. With FineWP PRO version you will get color and font options, 2/3/4/5 columns layouts for post grids, horizontal/square/vertical/auto-height thumbnail styles for post grids, featured posts widgets with grid-layout options and thumbnail style options, social profile widget, about me widget, tabbed widget, different layout options for singular and non-singular pages, more custom page/post templates, 3 header layouts, more slider options, share buttons, built-in contact form, related posts with thumbnails and more features.


The Connelly Theater is one of the longest standing theaters in New York City. It opened its doors in the late 19th century and has hosted many productions throughout the years. It continues to be a hub for theater productions, film projects, and non-profit arts education programs. When it came time to breathe new life into this theater space they came to Steeldeck® for help. We supervised their crew to install a new seating riser system that is fully demountable and able to be reconfigured to conform to whatever their current production needs.


Melt half the butter in a non-stick skillet; add the green onions, red bell pepper and artichoke hearts, stirring until onions are wilted.
Add the smoked salmon and continue to stir until heated through.
Remove salmon mixture to a small dish and keep warm while preparing the eggs.
In a medium bowl beat the eggs or egg substitute with the yogurt and basil adding salt and pepper to taste.
Wipe the skillet with a paper towel and over medium heat, melt the remaining butter and pour the beaten eggs into skillet.
As the eggs began to set and curds develop, pull to the center of the pan. Repeat until eggs are almost set.
Gently stir in the salmon mixture, crumble feta cheese on top and gently stir once of twice to distribute evenly.


Details: 3% cashback on your entire order.
Details: Use promo code MET to qualify for 3% Cashback On All Orders On G2A.
Details: Don't miss out on your chance to save. Action Games starting from $4.43.
Details: Fantastic special offer! Puzzle Games starting from $0.19.
Get more from your game with G2A.
Merry XMAS you too ! Thanks Cashbasckk..


text:
Tabatinga x-littera är en skalbaggsart som beskrevs av Lane 1966. Tabatinga x-littera ingår i släktet Tabatinga och familjen långhorningar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Långhorningar
x-littera


Parameter 3 Remote data type.
Parameter 4 Consolidated data type.
In order to properly complete the synchronization request, the MobiLink server has remapped the column type. This remapping may decrease synchronization performance. See the documentation for information about data type mapping between consolidated and remote databases.


text:
Q: openocd fails to load board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg Has anyone got openocd to work with the TI cc2640r2 launchpad? I built the latest openocd source but it fails to initialise.
OS is Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS and openocd was built with
configure --enable-xds110 --enable-cmsis-dap
make
make install

Running
openocd -f board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg

gets the output
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-00676-g346ce2f1 (2019-02-05-00:53)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
adapter speed: 2500 kHz
Error: The 'jtag configure' command must be used after 'init'.

placing 'debug level 3' statements inside the script files show that it is failing within target/ti_cc26x0.cfg at line 25, which is
jtag configure $_CHIPNAME.cpu -event tap-enable "icepick_c_tapenable $_CHIPNAME.jrc 0"

The scripts must have worked (at least once) as they are part of the source distribution.

A: I use the zephyr folk of open-ocd:
git clone https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/openocd.git
cd open-ocd
configure
make
make install

I also needed to reduce the JTAG clock speed:
diff --git a/tcl/board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg b/tcl/board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg
index 3613a47f7..2580faa52 100644
--- a/tcl/board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg
+++ b/tcl/board/ti_cc26x0_launchpad.cfg
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@
 # TI CC26x0 LaunchPad Evaluation Kit
 #
 source [find interface/xds110.cfg]
-adapter_khz 2500
+adapter_khz 1500
 transport select jtag
 source [find target/ti_cc26x0.cfg]


text:
Examples of Jurisdictional Projects
Canada - The Order Responds to Haïti Relief
When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti an appeal went out from the Grand Prior to the members of the Order of St. Lazarus - Grand Priory Of Canada to help in the Haitian relief effort. Members of the Order responded with their typical generosity.
Based on the advice of the Government of Canada, the money was then sent to the Humanitarian Coalition for Haiti. The Order tracked the charitable donation to ensure it was used for its intended purpose. The Order's donation was directed towards water, sanitation and hygiene. Hygiene being key to fighting the spread of diseases and helping families stay healthy.
It is truly amazing how far a charitable donation can stretch. The Order's donation helped deliver water, sanitation and hygiene services to 51 relief camps. The Order's contribution helped in the construction 1,027 latrines, 89 hand-washing stations, 342 showers, and started 32 children's clubs and 33 mother's clubs to promote hygiene.


Philip Kingsley draws on over 55 years of experience treating severe hair and scalp conditions to develop its products. This mask is perfect for those with sensitive skin - the stimulating ingredients encourage blood circulation to improve your hair's texture and vitality, while a potent blend of vitamins and minerals soothe and calm irritation. Massage into your roots and leave for 10-20 minutes to achieve fuller, healthier tresses.


text:
Куанг Нам () е виетнамска провинция разположена в регион Нам Чунг Бо. На север граничи с провинциите Да Нанг и Тхуа Тхиен-Хюе, на юг с провинциите Кон Тум и Куанг Нгай, на запад с Лаос, а на изток с Южнокитайско море. Населението е 1 493 800 жители (по приблизителна оценка за юли 2017 г.).

В Куанг Нам се намират два обекта включени в програмата на ЮНЕСКО за Световното наследство:
 Старият град Хой Ан
 Храмовият комплекс Ми Сон

Административно деление
Провинция Куанг Нам се състои от един самостоятелен град Там Ки, градчето Хой Ан и 15 окръга:
 Бак Ча Ми
 Ду Суйен
 Дай Лок
 Диен Бан
 Донг Жианг
 Хиеп Дук
 Нам Жианг
 Нам Ча Ми
 Нуй Тхан
 Фу Нин
 Фуок Сон
 Куе Сон
 Тай Жианг
 Тханг Бин
 Тиен Фуок

Източници

Провинции във Виетнам


Includes unlimited streaming of ℞ (AHT099) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Spawning from a murky brain-bath of puréed emotional static and cloudy undigested apparitions, here is the new full-length LP from Grimoire-esque, ℞.
℞'s beats are dense and engaging, creating a rich patchwork of stuttering samples and webbed percussion. The huge variety of textures on display, both alien and human, mark a workflow that is at once easily-recognizable, yet difficult to classify. The result is unlike anything else you'll hear this year – a strangely compelling organism where half the fun is attempting to dissect it and make sense of what's what.


One of Evan's largest desk lamp designs, this Octopod stands 14" tall & 12" across with a spun copper body and hand fabricated portholes with clear blown glass and cast bronze tentacles.
Some of Evan's lamp designs are individual, one-of-a-kind and never to be made again, while others are part of a numbered run. Lamps that are part of an ongoing collection are stamped with their edition number to keep track of how many have been made. Because each piece is made by hand it will differ slightly in finish, feet/tentacle positioning from the one photographed here.
Evan Chambers has always been attracted to objects that have gained their value through the meticulous design and labor of the craft person rather than through the inherent value of the materials used. In his own artwork, Evan combines Copper, Bronze and Glass in this meticulous way to create the one-of-a-kind lamps and art objects you see here in his designer collection.


Auricular acupuncture and auriculotherapy is the therapeutic method using the ear pinna for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases that affect the entire body.
Auricular therapy is widely used for many conditions, including addiction treatment, mood disorders, obesity, pain, and other conditions.
This medical system emphasizes a holistic approach to medicine, an approach that treats the whole person. The acupuncture points found on the ear help to regulate the body's internal organs, structures, and functions.
In France, auricular therapy has been used methodically and systematically, by world renowned Dr. Paul Nogier, also known as "The Father of Auriculotherapy" from the 1950s.
The pinna of the ear is very well innervated and therefore has numerous nerve endings and receptors. It represents a microsystem of the whole organism.
What are the advantages of Auriculotherapy?
Excellent results in cases of stress (stress) and insomnia.
It has a continuing therapeutic effect even when the patient is at home.
Nowadays auricular acupuncture is very popular as a very effective medical treatment for slimming and for smoking cessation.


text:
The Shaftesbury Papers
By the South Carolina Historical Society
6×9, 546 pages, paper
The Shaftesbury Papers is an invaluable resource for historians, genealogists, and those interested in South Carolina's early years. This reprint edition includes a new preface by Robert M. Weir, professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina, and a new introduction by Charles H. Lesser of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. It is relevant for coastal communities (Myrtle Beach, Georgetown, Mt. Pleasant, Charleston, Bluffton and Beaufort) and academic centers (Columbia, Clemson and Charleston).
The Shaftesbury Papers, first published in 1897 as volume five of the Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, is the most important and sweeping accumulation of correspondence relating to South Carolina's founding as a proprietary colony. It is composed largely of the papers of Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury and foremost of the proprietors responsible for the colony's founding. It details, as no other published document can, the proprietary colony's struggle to survive the Lowcountry's harsh environment and establish a civilization that in many ways resembled England's wealthiest Caribbean colony, Barbados.
Lessons from the Angel Oak
The Fabric of Liberty: The Society of the Cincinnati of the State of South Carolina
Carolina Sunrise
homehousepress@gmail.com
© 2020 Home House Press. All Rights Reserved. Website by Hearsay Communications.


text:
Atlantic County briefs
Current students may add classes to their fall schedules starting Sept 5, at any Atlantic Cape Community College location: Mays Landing Campus, 5100 Black Horse Pike; Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus
Atlantic County briefs Current students may add classes to their fall schedules starting Sept 5, at any Atlantic Cape Community College location: Mays Landing Campus, 5100 Black Horse Pike; Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus Check out this story on thehammontonnews.com: https://www.thehammontonnews.com/story/news/2018/09/04/atlantic-county-briefs/37713237/
Vineland Daily Journal Published 7:55 p.m. ET Sept. 4, 2018
In collaboration with Atlantic City and Councilman Jesse O. Kurtz, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority's Special Improvement Division purchased and installed an Americans with Disabilities Act-approved Beach Access Mat to increase beach accessibility. The trial location is Bertram Avenue.(Photo: Provided)
Add courses to your fall Atlantic Cape schedule
Current students may add classes to their fall schedules starting Sept 5, at any Atlantic Cape Community College location: Mays Landing Campus, 5100 Black Horse Pike; Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus, 1535 Bacharach Blvd.; and Cape May County Campus, 341 Court House-South Dennis Road, Cape May Court House. Add a class takes place at all three campuses from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 5 to 10 and online until Sept. 10.
Payment is due at the time of registration.
To register or view an updated schedule of fall courses, visit www.atlantic.edu/fall.
For information, email admissions@atlantic.edu or call (609) 343-5000 or (609) 625-1111, ext. 5000.
Bellview Winery to host Vinyasa and Vino
BUENA - Bellview Winery will host Vinyasa and Vino, for ages 21 and older. from 11 a.m. to noon Sept. 16, Oct. 7, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2 at the winery at 150 Atlantic St., in Landisville.
Tickets are $20, includes yoga, souvenir glass and a glass of wine.
For information, call (856) 697-7172 or visit www.bellviewwinery.com.
TheBestColleges.org ranks Atlantic Cape Community College
MAYS LANDING - TheBestColleges.org recently ranked Atlantic Cape Community College 10th overall best online community college in New Jersey. Factors such as admissions, student loan default, retention and graduation rates, as well as students enrolled in online courses determined the ranking. TheBestColleges.org is a resource for people seeking information about online colleges and degree programs that best suit their educational needs.
Atlantic Cape offers the following 15 degree programs entirely online: Business Administration, Child Development/Child Care Option, Computer Applications, Computer Programming, Criminal Justice, Database Design and Development, Elementary/Middle School Education Option, English, General Studies, Office Systems Technology, Preschool–Grade 3 Education Option, Psychology, Secondary Education Option and Social Science.
To register for an online course for fall semester visit www.atlantic.edu/fall or visit a campus from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursdays. Campuses are at: 5100 Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing; Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus, 1535 Bacharach Blvd.; or Cape May County Campus, 341 Court House-South Dennis Road, Cape May Court House. Payment is due at registration.
Don't miss Vintage Base Ball Game at Batsto
HAMMONTON - Batsto Citizens Committee will host a Vintage Base Ball Game, Monmouth Furnace vs. New Brunswick Liberty, at noon Sept. 15 at Historic Batsto Village at 31 Batsto Road. The game will feature 1864 rules, no gloves and "one bounce and you're out!"
For information, call (609) 561-0024.
Noyes Museum hosting Hammonton Plein Air Event
HAMMONTON - The Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University at Kramer Hall will host the 2018 Hammonton Plein Air Event from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 8. In its 10th year, this competition attracts artists from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, who will set up their easels at various locations in Hammonton.
Cash awards totaling $2,000 will be awarded. All of the paintings created during the event will be included in an exhibition, which runs from Sept. 11 through Dec. 2 at 30 Front St. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 20.
Eagle Theatre going 3D with 'NOIR' thriller
HAMMONTON - Eagle Theatre's upcoming original world premiere allows audiences to wear 3D glasses, feel the wind in their hair, and play with flying bubbles.
"NOIR: The 3D/4D Semi-Cinematic Satirical Thriller" will blend live action comedy with three-dimensional cinematography, using interactive in-theater 4D special effects to fully immerse the audience, including; wind, mist, scent, bubbles, seat sensors, surround sound, and projection mapping. The show will be presented Sept. 14 through Oct. 14 at the theater at 208 Vine St.
Ted Wioncek III, artistic director, Eagle Theatre, and creator/co-writer of "NOIR," said, "We hope to create a form of entertainment so viscerally intoxicating that it gives your imagination permission to set sail and never return."
The first incarnation of "NOIR," a 20-minute proof of concept, debuted at the first official Jersey Fringe Festival in 2016, lauded immediate praise and attention from creatives and critics alike. Soon after, Eagle Theatre agreed to further develop "NOIR" into a full-length production.
Wioncek concludes, "We tell stories in hopes of forming a connection … a bond. Theme Park Theater strengthens that bond. Some say we're addicted to 'pushing the envelope' for our audience. But, if you're not going to push the envelope for your audience, then for whom are you pushing?"
Tickets are $19 to $39.
For tickets or information, call (609) 704-5012 or visit www.eagletheatre.org.
MLK Community Center invites veterans to breakfast
BUENA VISTA - The Martin Luther King Community Center invites all veterans to attend its fourth annual Veterans Appreciation Breakfast at 10 a.m. Sept. 22 at 661 Jackson Road in Newtonville.
Reservations are requested by Sept. 15.
For reservations, call (609) 704-7262.
Yard sale at Hammonton ShopRite to benefit food bank
Hammonton Shoprite will hold its annual Partners In Caring Yard Sale this month.
The event will be held Sept. 22 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The price is $25 per parking space.
The event is to help support local food bank. If you want to reserve a spot, you will need to go to the customer service desk at the Hammonton ShopRite.
Learn to navigate Medicare system at free workshop
Atlantic County residents interested in learning how to navigate the Medicare system and make informed decisions about their Medicare coverage are invited to attend a free workshop, "New to Medicare."
The workshops are sponsored by the Atlantic County Division of Intergenerational Services in an effort to help newly enrolled Medicare participants or those who are soon to be eligible obtain a better understanding of the choices available to them. The workshops will address enrollment, Medicare Parts A and B, Part D prescription drug coverage, supplemental coverage and Medicare Advantage Plans. Information about programs that help low-income beneficiaries offset the cost of Medicare premiums and co-pays will also be provided.
The schedule includes:
5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 11, Atlantic County Library, 306 E. Jimmie Leeds Road, Galloway.
5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 3, Atlantic County Library, 40 Farragut Ave., Mays Landing.
Two more mosquito samples test positive for West Nile Virus
Two more mosquito samples in Atlantic County have tested positive for West Nile Virus, bringing to nine the total number of positive sample locations this year. The latest samples were collected in Northfield in the 1200 block of Zion Road and the 700 block of Debora Street.
Previous positive samples were found in Hammonton, Pleasantville, Linwood and Northfield, where the county's Division of Public Health has conducted further outreach and education.
West Nile Virus is carried by infected mosquitoes and can be transmitted to birds, animals and humans. Most infected humans will not develop symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but those who do may experience a fever, headache and body aches, vomiting, diarrhea or rash.
Health officials encourage residents to reduce their risk and the spread of West Nile Virus by following these tips:
Use an insect repellent whenever going outdoors. Repellents are an important tool to assist people in protecting themselves from mosquito-borne diseases. The Centers for Disease Control recommends the use of products containing active ingredients which have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use as repellents applied to skin and clothing and approved for efficacy and human safety when applied as directed. Be sure to follow product directions carefully and consult with your child's doctor prior to using on children.
Rid properties of mosquito breeding grounds by draining standing water.
Mosquitoes do not travel far from where they breed. Buckets, bird baths, flower pots and other containers can hold water and provide an ideal environment for mosquitoes. Be sure to empty these containers regularly.
Clean clogged gutters; check and repair screen doors.
For information about West Nile Virus, visit www.aclink.org/publichealth or call the Division of Public Health at (609) 645-5971. If you need assistance in removing stagnant puddles or floodwater from your property, call the Office of Mosquito Control at (609) 645-5948.
Somers Point sponsoring Richard Somers Day on Sept. 9
SOMERS POINT - The City of Somers Point and the Somers Point Historical Society will sponsor the annual Richard Somers Day at 2 p.m. Sept. 9 at Richard Somers Memorial Park at 801 Shore Road. The ceremony will feature information about Barbary War hero Richard Somers, who was born in Somers Point, an honor guard and more. For information, call (609) 927-2900.
Also, the Somers Point Historical Museum is now closed for the season.
Somers Point unveils new website to promote the city
SOMERS POINT - The City of Somers Point unveiled a new website to promote the city's attractions, fun things to do and places to eat.
Visitsomerspoint.com offers clear and concise, desktop and mobile-friendly information on where to dine, play, stay and shop in Somers Point. Information on Somers Point's business and medical services plus city-wide events are available. Each section of the site is home to a complete list of businesses, their addresses, phone numbers and websites. Information on events, news, frequently asked questions, directions, and history are also a part of the new site.
"The new website utilizes the latest technology combined with a simple, easy-to-use design," said Greg Sykora, chair, Somers Point Economic Development Advisory Commission. "It serves as a central place for important information about the businesses and events that make Somers Point so unique."
Somers Point business owners looking to add their business or information to the website should email EDAC@visitsomerspoint.com to request a link to the online form.
The website was designed by Suasion Communications Group of Somers Point and Haddonfield.
Stockton announces test-optional policy for freshmen
GALLOWAY - Stockton University will adopt a test-optional policy for freshman admission that will begin for the fall 2019 class, and be implemented gradually during the next two years.
Students will not be required to provide SAT or ACT scores when they apply for admission for 2019-20. Once accepted, they will have to submit standardized test scores, or take the Accuplacer subject-specific exam, to determine placement for freshman math and writing courses.
For the fall 2019 class, Stockton will require standardized test scores for consideration into certain academic majors as well as most institutional scholarships.
During the next academic year, Stockton will develop alternatives to SAT and ACT scores for course-placement purposes. These additional changes would go into effect for the Fall 2020 class.
The university's decision to adopt a test-optional policy is the result of recommendations by a year-long faculty senate task force as well as research by the offices of the Provost, Enrollment Management, Planning and Research.
"I am very pleased with the work of the faculty senate task force and I am certain this will offer an application review process that is more inclusive and more supportive of our students," said Lori Vermeulen, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
The Office of Enrollment Management will continue to use a comprehensive and integrated approach to application review, evaluating each student's transcript, letters of recommendation, essay and extracurricular participation. Although Stockton does not require a minimum grade-point average for freshman admission, students who exhibit a consistent and rigorous academic performance throughout their high school career will be in a strong position for acceptance.
For information about Stockton admissions, visit admissions.stockton.edu.
For information about the test-optional policy, visit stockton.edu/testoptional.
Academy of Culinary Arts offers noncredit training programs
ATLANTIC CITY - The Academy of Culinary Arts will offer two four-month noncredit training programs at its new facility at Atlantic Cape Community College's Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus, 1535 Bacharach Blvd. The Culinary Training Program and the Baking and Pastry Training Program both begin Sept. 10.
Learn the skills you need to start a career with confidence as a cook, pastry cook or baker in 17 weeks, at a lower cost than other local culinary training options. All students earn ServSafe certification and learn interview skills. A job fair at the end of the training is scheduled for quick entry into the field.
The Culinary Training Program provides an overview of basic culinary terminology and skills; pantry production; the use and benefits of kitchen gardens; hot food production and short order cooking; preparation of stocks and sauces; cooking methods of meat, poultry and seafood; and the fundamentals of baking.
The Baking and Pastry Training Program covers basic culinary terminology and skills as they apply to the bakeshop; organization and scaling as it pertains to production of bread; leavening agents; proper mixing methods for crusts and cookies; cake decorating; plated desserts as well as chocolate and sugar work.
Classes meet 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Cost is $4,995; visit the local One-Stop Center for funding information.
To register or for information, call Judy DeSalvo at (609) 343-5624 or email desalvo@atlantic.edu.
Read or Share this story: https://www.thehammontonnews.com/story/news/2018/09/04/atlantic-county-briefs/37713237/
Pumpkin craft makes smashing hit at library
Amazon needs to fill 2,000 jobs at South Jersey complex
Paving way from past to the future
Lucy the Elephant welcomes visitors
Tribute to hero dog from South Jersey on display at 9/11 Museum
Program connects with seniors to provide reassurance


Last month, Sahar Sabet, a 19-year-old Iranian-American woman, was improperly prevented from buying an iPad at an Apple store in Alpharetta, Ga. After she had gone over the various options with two Apple sales clerks, a third clerk, who had overheard Ms. Sabet speaking Persian to her uncle, intervened. He asked what language they were speaking and, when he found out it was the language of Iran, he said she could not buy anything because "our countries do not have good relations" — never mind that she intended to give it to her sister in North Carolina.
Ironic considering the attitudes that many American Iranians hold towards the current government in Iran. For some perspective 1/4 of the Iranians that immigrated here from 1980-2004 did so with refugee or asylee status. Further most American Iranians see promoting human rights and democracy as the most important aspect of US-Iran relations. Treating this group as some sort of secret wing of the Ministry of Intelligence is absurd.
Whether this is corporate policy or not it's pretty disturbing. I'm guessing that some vague policy came down from Cupertino which has caused some over zealous retail employees1 to make some poor choices but that is pure conjecture. Either way Apple needs to make it clear to its employees that discrimination like this is not only wrong but illegal.
But it is also illegal in the United States for a private company to discriminate against individuals based on race, color, religion or national origin under the Civil Rights Act. This protection extends of course to retail stores.
You are currently reading Why Is Apple Discriminating Against Iranian-Americans? – NYTimes.com at Thomas Paine Rants.


text:
Договор ВОИС по исполнениям и фонограммам (ДИФ) () — международное соглашение по охране авторских и смежных прав исполнителей и производителей фонограмм, разработанное Всемирной организацией интеллектуальной собственности (ВОИС) и принятое на Дипломатической конференции организации 20 декабря 1996 года. Широко известен также как «Договор ВОИС в области Интернета» (наряду с Договором ВОИС по авторскому праву), так как дополняет традиционные международные соглашения в области охраны авторского права в соответствии с требованиями интернет-эпохи.

В настоящее время администрируется Всемирной организацией интеллектуальной собственности.

ДИФ призван был стать дополнением к Римской конвенции, однако в отличие от неё не включил в себя положения относящиеся к вещательным организациям.

Для России ДИФ вступил в силу с 5 февраля 2009 года. Российская Федерация в соответствии с пунктом 3 статьи 5 Конвенции заявила, что не будет применять критерий записи, предусмотренный в подпункте «b» пункта 1 статьи 5 Конвенции.

По состоянию на 2022 год участниками являются 111 государств.

Литература

Примечания

См. также
 Всемирная организация интеллектуальной собственности
 Бернская конвенция 1886 года
 Договор по авторскому праву
 Авторское право

Ссылки
 Текст Договора ВОИС по исполнениям и фонограммам в базе данных WIPO Lex — официальный сайт ВОИС.

Авторское право
Право интеллектуальной собственности
Международные договоры
Международные соглашения, администрируемые ВОИС
Договоры по алфавиту


Free Home Design software for Mac Unique Free Download 3d Interior Design software 2016 Goodhomez is free HD wallpaper. This wallpaper was upload at February 07, 2019 upload by admin in Home Plans.
Description: Free Home Design software for Mac Unique Free Download 3d Interior Design software 2016 Goodhomez from the above resolutions which is part of the Home Plans. Download this image for free in HD resolution the choice "download button" below. If you do not find the exact resolution you are looking for, then go for a native or higher resolution.
Download Free Home Design software for Mac Unique Free Download 3d Interior Design software 2016 Goodhomez with original resolution Click Here!
63 Photos of "Free Home Design software for Mac Unique Free Download 3d Interior Design software 2016 Goodhomez"
Related Posts of "Free Home Design software for Mac Unique Free Download 3d Interior Design software 2016 Goodhomez"


Super Fine Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth is a Super fine off white powder, Sterilized for consuming.
This grade is a nice finely ground powder similar to Talc powder consistency and easily disperses in water or juice.
Diatomaceous Earth is a natural Pest & Parasite control, for all pets and humans, suitable for dusting pets and livestock, dusting the house and garden, feeding pets and consuming.
No diatomaceous earth in Australia has been evaluated for consuming by the FDA.
Our Diatomaceous Earth is supplied by Fossil Power.
This is very similar to the Diatomaceous Earth that has been approved for human consumption in America by the FDA.