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Mardi Gras Invitations
When Is Mardi Gras?
Mardi Gras is actually a season that begins on the Twelfth Night, which occurs 12 days after Christmas (January 6). The celebration runs through Mardi Gras Day, which falls on a different day each year but is always 46 days before Easter and commonly known as Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras Day evolved as a day of food and festivities, because it is the day before Ash Wednesday.
What Mardi Gras Traditions Can You Incorporate Into Your Event?
Masquerade costume parties, beads, King's Cake, doubloons, the naming of a King and/or Queen, and lots of music are staples of Mardi Gras that you can make a part of your celebration. Hold a costume party, complete with distribution of feathered masks for the guests. Distribute beads in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of green, gold and purple (you can even toss them into the crowd like they are tossed from floats in the Mardi Gras parade).
Doubloons are brightly colored aluminum coins that are considered prized collectibles. In New Orleans, each "krewe" (or Carnival club) stamps its own doubloons, featuring the club logo on one side and the parade theme on the other. The clubs throw them from parade floats, and revelers try to collect as many different clubs' doubloons as possible. You can us doubloons as party favors at your event, or include one in the envelope with your Mardi Gras invitations for an extra special touch.
King's Cake is a tradition in New Orleans that begins on King's Day, January 6, the start of the Mardi Gras season. A tiny plastic baby is baked into a cinnamon filled cake shaped into a hollow circle, topped with glaze and sprinkled with purple, green and gold sugar. The person who is served the piece of cake containing the baby is considered the King or Queen of the party.
What Are the Traditional Colors of Mardi Gras?
Purple, green and gold are the colors of Mardi Gras, so use them liberally in your party decorations, costumes, and Mardi Gras stationery. Each color has a specific meaning. Purple symbolizes justice, green represents Faith, and gold signifies power.
What Kind Of Music Should You Have At Your Mardi Gras Party?
New Orleans is home to a vibrant music scene that kicks up a notch during Mardi Gras. The sounds of Zydeco and Jazz fill the streets of the Crescent City and will be a fitting soundtrack to your event. You can even use Mardi Gras invitations with imagery of saxophones and trumpets to set the party mood.
Creations by Leslie has Mardi Gras stationery to set the stage for a party as gloriously enjoyable as the new Orleans tradition that inspired the theme. For announcements that will build excitement for your event from the moment they are out of the envelope, order your customized Mardi Gras invitations from Creations by Leslie today.


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Destination guide: Valparaiso/Viña del mar, Chile
Vina del Mar is one of the most popular destinations for tourists visiting the central coast. They are attracted by its beautiful beaches, excellent climate and numerous places to have a good time with friends or family. Visit the Garden City and discover the charm of the Quinta Vergara, Cerro Castillo, Botanic Gardens and Renaca beach resort.
That's not all though. From Vina del Mar, you can visit Valparaiso, a bohemian port with pretty and colorful hills, as well as a wide range of art and culture.
Content provided by Lonely Planet
Valparaiso/Viña del mar
Clean, orderly Viña del Mar is a sharp contrast to the jumble of neighboring Valparaíso. Manicured boulevards lined with palm trees and beautiful expansive parks have earned it the nickname of Ciudad Jardín (Garden City). Its official name, which means 'vineyard by the sea', stems from the area's colonial origins as the hacienda of the Carrera family.
Viña remains a popular weekend and summer destination for well-to-do Santiaguinos, despite the fact that its beaches get seriously packed and the Humboldt Current causes waters chilly enough to put off most would-be swimmers.
Pablo Neruda said it best: 'Valparaíso,/how absurd/you are…you haven't/combed your hair,/you've never/had/time to get dressed,/life/has always/surprised you.' But Neruda wasn't the only artist to fall for Valparaíso's unexpected charms. Poets, painters and would-be philosophers have long been drawn to Chile's – no, Latin America's – most unusual city. Along with the ever-shifting port population of sailors, and dockworkers they've endowed gritty and gloriously spontaneous Valparaíso with an edgy air of 'anything goes.' Add to this the spectacular faded beauty of its chaotic cerros (hills), a maze of steep, sinuous streets, alleys and escaleras (stairways) piled high with crumbling mansions.and it's clear why some visitors are spendingtime here
Buy nowPurchase your ticket at LAN.com and discover all of the charm that Valparaiso/Viña del mar has to offer.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tomorrow we will be gathering with our entire Learning Leadership Team to start the school year. I always start with an address to set the tone and share my excitement and enthusiasm for the upcoming school year. In last week's blog post, Quality School Leadership, Teaching and Optimum Learning, I touched on the importance of being an instructional leader and therefore I would be remiss if I didn't focus on that role in tomorrow's address.
It is easy for people to hold on to the truth that the teacher the student has makes a difference. Research is pretty clear that the teacher has the most in school influence on student learning. Teaching quality matters! What is less well-known or ignored by some is the impact of leadership on student learning. While not as important as teaching quality, it is still number two!!!
Given the importance of school leadership on student learning, it makes great sense to support the role of instructional leader. That support must begin at the top, with the Superintendent of Schools and must be operationalized in a couple of ways. One, as I've stated before, is my own commitment to being an instructional leader and that comes from research AND practice. Although I still teach adults, I left the classroom in 2001 and so it is imperative that I keep up with current research on practice. Lead learner cannot just be a title, it must be the ongoing action of the superintendent. Practice comes not only from sharpening my own skills through cognitive coaching but also getting into schools and working elbow to elbow with our school leaders. I've committed to being in every school in our division (morning or afternoon) for formal instructional leadership work twice per year. It is in my schedule and principals will sign up their preferred dates tomorrow.
The second way to operationalize commitment to instructional leadership is my direction to senior staff. I've asked each of them to have the same focus on instructional leadership in their own work. In other words, it should be part of all that they do. Now, this makes sense for our educational leaders but I've also requested our business services personnel to do the same. Obviously they are not providing instructional leadership direct, but I have asked them to in essence, "Create efficiencies and effective processes to free up time for all leaders to focus their time and efforts on instructional leadership."
I'm not suggesting that because I've made this an expectation, it is going to suddenly free up time in our principals' days to become more involved in instructional leadership. Education is still a multi-billion dollar business and there are procedures that are non-negotiable and internal controls that are simply law. Insurance and liability concerns are grossly limiting learning opportunities in today's educational world and although new health and safety legislation is positive, the time commitment of our principals to support and manage is exceedingly high.
But, if there is not commitment from all senior staff and we are all singing from the same page, instructional leadership will fall down on the list of just another thing to do when there is time. My message tomorrow will be quite clear, "Quality teaching and optimum learning requires instructional leadership." Without clearing my own calendar and making it a priority, I can't ask any of my leaders to do the same. This year and going forward, make the commitment to support instructional leadership.


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12th August 18
"Yu's pulse reading and acupuncture" is a method of diagnosis & treatment established by Prof. Yu. It is based on the theories of the classic texts, combined with the findings of modern research, capturing the essence of the Huang Di Ni Jing and his own clinical experience. Pulse reading is the basis of this method: it determines diagnosis, point selection, method of needle stimulation, and even uses pulse diagnosis to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Yu's method of pulse reading and acupuncture is safe, relatively pain-free, and uses innovative techniques to improve the acceptance of acupuncture by achieving consistent results and improving treatment outcomes in chronic and difficult-to-treat conditions. The method has won acclaim for its clinical efficacy, particularly in the treatment of tumours and cancer. In this seminar, Prof. Yu will introduce this method and share his clinical experience.


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Aug. 25, 2016, marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, which manages 417 sites in the United States covering more than 84 million acres. The bureau's most prominent duty is maintaining the 59 designated national parks across the United States, in addition to scores of historical sites, national monuments, battlefields, and recreation areas, "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations," according to the act signed by President Woodrow Wilson that created the NPS in 1916.
To commemorate the NPS' centennial, Google creative director Nick Carbonaro envisioned the creation of an interactive web site. Executive creative director Ben Hughes of Stink Studios developed the project, landing producer Matt O'Connor and cinematographer/director Adam Newport-Berra from Brooklyn-based Ghost Robot. The site The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks combines 360° video with high-res 2D imagery in a tour de force that provides viewers with what plays like their own private tour of five national parks.
Newport-Berra, who often works as a director of photography, had less than a month, starting around July of last year, to complete all necessary shooting. "This was only the second project of this type Google had undertaken, which made our choices about how we would capture these environments very experimental as well as experiential. Piecing these things together was, therefore, a pretty big deal for producers and the agency," he recounts.
The matter of location selection revolved around access and familiarity. "Yellowstone would have been too crowded," Newport-Berra says. "We realized choosing parks that would let us into hard-to-access locations and that were not very well-traveled was a good combination. Another conversation we had with Stink and Google was about realizing the potential with any given park. We decided to put limits on how extreme we would go and intentionally did not apply for special access. We wanted people to see us doing things that they could in turn do themselves—or in the case of the ice crevasse sequence, things they could do while accompanied by a licensed guide to the park."
Shooting 360° video at Kenai Fjords National Park
The crevasse was captured in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska; the other four featured parks are Florida's Dry Tortugas, Utah's Bryce Canyon, New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Each video begins with a graphic that locates the park on a map, and an introductory flyover sequence. The flyovers were shot by helicopter; at present, drones are not approved for use in national parks. Newport-Berra filmed the aerials with a Cineflex in Hawaii and on camera operator Soren Nielsen's custom MoVI in the other parks. Non-360° footage was shot with ARRI Alexa Mini cameras outfitted with Zeiss Ultra Prime and Canon zoom lenses. The 360° video was shot with multicamera GoPro rigs and stitched together by Omega Darling creative director Zach Shukan.
Production acquired more than 11 TB of imagery. "When shooting digital, I shoot 'flat,'" the cinematographer explains. "I view with a LUT on set but always record raw on Alexa so we can color later, which gives us the most latitude. We also shot the VR stuff as neutral as possible, reducing the contrast and saturation so those could be bumped up as needed later on. If we had baked in a look, it would have complicated the stitching as well." Ghost Robot worked with colorist Mikey Rossiter of The Mill, who finessed the GoPro imagery to ensure it cut well with the Alexa-captured footage.
Adam Newport-Berra wears a VR rig on his helmet while descending into a crevasse in Kenai Fjords.
The filmmakers had considered employing an Alexa or RED 360° system to shoot the VR segment but ran into trouble with the size of the rig. Newport-Berra explains, "The whole idea of 360° for us is 'you are there'—but large rigs make it difficult to really achieve the human perspective you get with a head on a pair of shoulders as you look around. Add to that the fact we'd be in some pretty difficult shooting locations. So we researched camera rigs to see what could work in the most extreme situations—something that was nimble enough rig-wise to attach to a kayak or a helmet while still having the resolution and color space to deliver these vistas. GoPro was the answer."
The team used several different 360° GoPro rigs on the project, including a Kolor Abyss rig for underwater shots. Camera stabilization tools included a gyro-stabilizer from Kenyon Laboratories and a Travel Pole from Nodal Ninja.
Soren Nielsen shoots MoVI-stabilized footage at Dry Tortugas National Park.
"Our GoPros were set into three-, six- and 12-camera rigs," notes Newport-Berra. "The latter was preferable, since you'd have a higher resolution when the images were stitched together. The smaller rigs came into play on helmet-mounted shots and other shooting situations where we couldn't accommodate the weight of the larger system. For horseback riding shots on the canyon, a Steadicam-type harness would have been visible when the user looked 'down' in VR. Smaller footprints are easier to paint out, which influenced our rig selection."
Locations for 360° capture were carefully chosen for compositional aesthetics. "360° for me has to do with depth, so we set up for views that included objects both close to camera and far away from it. It became a kind of balancing act. We found that if the camera is too close to an object, it is difficult to seam the image together. As a result, we needed to maintain a certain level of distance. That made the shot within the crevasse very tough, since I was pretty much squeezed down inside the glacier itself."
Preparing the MoVI rig
Another factor that guided their shooting style was the potential for viewer nausea. "360° shots can become very disorienting, especially when the viewer is wearing VR goggles, so it is very important to maintain equilibrium," Newport-Berra reports. "That is pretty difficult when you're in a kayak rocking back and forth or up on a horse, since the horizon is bouncing around. Zach, our 360° stitcher, worked as we went, giving us notes on what we could do better, and he stabilized the images as well. But you can only stabilize so much—if you zoom in too far, you don't get the same overlap among the 12 cameras and image quality suffers.
"This project is about celebrating the parks and the inspiration they provide our citizens and other visitors, but more than that, it is also about making people aware of just how important the parks are and how important their continued stewardship remains," Newport-Berra says. "Getting people excited about exploring the national park system means that we at Google and Stink and Ghost Robot have really done our job."


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2-Day Holistic Massage Practitioner Diploma Course ~ £350 |£550 inc A & P
Two day course and optional online A & P home study.
Installment option available for this package - pay half on booking, and the balance one week before the course date.
This Holistic Massage Practitioner Diploma consists of an intensive 2-day practical course, with an assessment which consists of a client consultation and full body massage treatment. There is also a short written test. The theory course notes will be sent to you so that you can study for the required test before you attend on the course dates.
Our core manual, containing health and safety information along with other material which all therapists need to know, will be sent to you so that you can study before you attend on the course dates. Your course includes the theory required to become a professional massage therapist, including consultation, contraindications, aftercare, the history and benefits of massage and the characteristics and uses of a selection of carrier oils.
Holistic (or Swedish) Massage involves the manipulation of the body's soft tissue (the skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments) using the hands in a gentle, flowing massage technique that uses varying degrees of pressure and stretching movements. It is most commonly used for relaxation, improving well-being and lymphatic drainage.
This course is a Full Body Holistic Massage Practitioner's Diploma Course, and is designed for those who wish to become professional massage therapists. After being awarded this Diploma, students will be able to obtain insurance to practice full body Holistic/Swedish Massage professionally. Details will be given to you during the course.
Course content:
o Hygiene, health and safety
o Relevant anatomy and physiology
o Products and equipment required
o Consultation procedures
o Contra-indications to treatment
o Benefits of massage
o History of massage
o Massage sequence
o Client aftercare
o Test of knowledge
o Practical assessment
Duration: Two days and home study
Entry requirements: Interest in holistic body massage therapy
Without A & P: Professional Ethical Practitioners and Westminster Indemnity
With A & P: The Guild of Professional Beauty Therapists and The Guild of Holistic Therapists.
CPD points for the A & P inclusive course: 23
Venues: Richmond SW London AND Haworth


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Apologetics is the discipline that deals with a rational defense of Christian faith. It comes from the Greek word apologia which means to give a reason or defense. The most important reason to do apologetics is that God told us to do so.
The classic statement is 1 Peter 3:15, which says, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect"(1 Peter 3:15).
This verse tells us to be ready. Being ready is not just a matter of having the right information available, it is also an attitude of readiness and eagerness to share the truth of what we believe. This is essential to both pre-evangelism as well as evangelism in the 21st Post-Modern culture we find ourselves in today. (Norman Geisler, Bakers Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, pg. 37)


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Category Archives: Performances
Concerts, Performances, Talks in May
A busy May awaits Korhan Erel, with concerts, performances and a panel discussion in several cities in Germany. The first event is the premiere of Korhan's lecture sound performance stone paper scissors to be presented as a part of Irrzone, … Continue reading
Two Duos: Lotz/Erel and Babikyan/Erel
On February 1st, Korhan's long-time duo with flutist Mark Alban Lotz will resurface at Berlin's WATT Bar in Prenzlauerberg. The two musicians have met in 2010 and have played in duo as well as playing and recording with Korhan's Istanbul … Continue reading
Sound performance at Zilberman Gallery
On the occasion of Memed Erdener's exhibition BEAUTY OF BIGOTRY and his residency at Zilberman Gallery–Berlin, Korhan will be playing a sound performance at the closing event, where there will also be a exhibition tour and a conversation between curator … Continue reading
Concerts in December
Korhan Erel will have relatively less concerts in December compared to November, but will nevertheless play some really exciting ones. The first two concerts in December are with guitarist Eric Wong. Eric and Korhan had played several times in 2016 … Continue reading
Concerts in November
Korhan is going to play concerts in November that feature a diverse spectrum of genres. In the first concert of the month, Korhan is going to play in an improvising orchestra conducted by pianist/drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey in the JazzFest Berlin … Continue reading
Summer activities, concerts in the Fall
It was a relatively calm summer for Korhan in terms of performances, where most time was spent on rehearsing/playing sessions with new collaboration partners as well as researching and experimenting to develop the new laptop-less performance and composition setup. In … Continue reading
Concerts in Berlin in May
Korhan Erel will present some of his recent collaborations with Berlin-based improvisers in Spektrum and Officina Neukölln in May, as well as performing in a re-run of the Hide&Seek shows in the Jewish Museum. On May 30, he'll be part of … Continue reading
Empire plays in Amsterdam, Moers and Duisburg
Empire is an improvisation trio that came into existence when guitarist Thorsten Töpp invited trumpet player Liz Allbee and electronics player Korhan Erel to play two concerts with him in the Platzhirsch Festival in Duisburg in 2016. The … Continue reading
Female Voice of Iran, schimmernd in March
Korhan Erel will play some very exciting concerts in Berlin and various towns in Switzerland in two projects. The first series of concerts will be in the framework of "Female Voice of Iran" festival which is organized by Zeitgenössische Oper … Continue reading
Concerts in February
After an amazingly successful and satisfying, and last-ever concert at Miss Hecker with fantastic musicians and a 50-strong audience, Korhan Erel continues their concert series in February with the following performances in Berlin, Hannover, Istanbul and Ankara: February 9 / … Continue reading


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The Hydra Head
Every so often, driven by an inexplicable yearning, I go straight to one of my bookshelves and pull down a book I haven't read in years. Last week, the book I seemed to need was Carlos Fuentes' 1978 novel The Hydra Head (Farrar Straus Giroux). I had vague recollections of a complex and sinister spy story that involved Mexican petro-politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict. But what I remembered more distinctly from my reading and re-reading of that book some thirty years ago was an abrupt and almost shocking shift from third-person narrative to first-person. I was curious to read the book again and see how I reacted this time around.
The political backdrop of The Hydra Head is the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1973 oil crisis caused by the oil embargo imposed by the Organization of Arab Oil Exporting Countries. Fuentes framed his book around two distinctive and contrasting literatures: the plays of Shakespeare and the noir novels and films of the 19302 and 40s. Tellingly, the book is dedicated to the memory of Conrad Veldt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Claude Rains – four of the more compromised characters in the 1942 classic movies Casablanca.- and not to the film's triumphant but tragic heroes Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart. Everybody in The Hydra Head is compromised and duplicitous in their own way, whether in their politics, their marital infidelities, their allegiances, or their abuse of power, privilege and class – including the main character Felix Maldonado, a former specialist in Mexico's petroleum industry who is now a mid-level bureaucrat in the Office of Economic Development. Before long, needless to say, a naively over-confident Maldonado (his name means, more or less, "ill-favored) is swept up in a ever-shifting plot full of violence and intrigue. Portions of the dialogue are written in a pastiche of "tough-guy" conversation right out of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler or Casablanca, and it is clear that, for Fuentes, Mexico City seemed an ideal 1970s counterpart to the seedy ambitions of wartime Casablanca. But when Maldonado confers briefly on the telephone with his handler, the coded language they speak is a series of quotations from Shakespeare. Read more


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"We sell ads, not houses," Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff declared in a conference call with analysts three years ago.
But times change, and Rascoff is now singing another tune.
The online real estate juggernaut, commanding a $10 billion market value, is now buying and selling homes itself.
It's a big bet, and a risky move that some say is misguided.
But not Rascoff. He thinks Zillow — which has long made a majority of its revenue from advertising and lead generation tools for real estate agents — can now make a bundle in the volatile, and often unpredictable, housing market.
"We are confident that we can provide these consumers with a positive home selling experience," said Rascoff, explaining how it would start buying and selling homes in Phoenix and Las Vegas as part of its expanded Instant Offers program. "We believe that Zillow Group possesses structural advantages in this space."
The 12-year-old company showed its commitment to the new endeavor earlier this month when it revealed a new reporting segment in its financial results: "Homes," which is specifically for revenue Zillow makes from buying and selling homes.
But not everyone is buying into the idea. In a conference call last month after the new effort was announced, Deutsche Bank analyst Lloyd Walmsley told Rascoff that it seemed "like an awfully big pivot in terms of business model" and one that comes with "inventory risk" and could consume "a lot of capital."
"After deep study and consumer insights, we believe that there is a big opportunity here," responded Rascoff. "…I can say without exaggeration, that no company understands the American homebuyer and home seller better than Zillow Group."
Zillow does sit on mountains of real estate data, information it will surely use as guidance in the buying and selling of homes. It plans to use that data to source homes, and leverage other business lines like mortgage and advertising to grow its share of real estate transactions in the U.S. housing market. Consumers will benefit because Zillow can quickly take the pain out of the stressful home buying and selling process, while agents will be rewarded with a deep-pocketed buyer in Zillow, the company says.
Even so, some think Instant Offers is a distraction. And others warn that — as the winds of residential real estate change — Zillow could be left in the cold. Wall Street initially reacted poorly to Zillow's new side business, sending the stock down 13.5 percent the week following the announcement, but since then shares have recovered.
"I'm struggling to understand why Zillow would be attracted to a capital-intensive, low-margin business when it seems to be gaining market share in its much higher margin software and advertising businesses," wrote Matt Hylland in Seeking Alpha. "…This new venture requires tons of capital, does nothing to improve its market share in any current segments, potentially takes away from its ability to monetize its platform, and adds significant risk to the company's balance sheet."
In a note to investors, RBC Capital downgraded Zillow's stock and wrote that the company's direct buying and selling of homes "carries VERY high execution risk."
"Based in part on our tracking of Opendoor over the last few years, we believe the "On-Demand Home-Selling/Buying" market is exploding," the note reads. "And we believe Zillow has many of the competencies to succeed in this market, but it's unclear it has all of them. So we could see execution/digestion risk here — for both the company & stock."
Taking on Opendoor
Opendoor launched in 2014, building a tech platform that uses algorithms to give home-sellers a quick offer.
Backed with $320 million in venture funding and reportedly valued at $2 billion, Opendoor also resells houses, and says it has serviced more than 15,000 customers as it continues to expand into new markets. OfferPad is a similar company that just raised $150 million and ended its partnership with Zillow last month after the expansion of Instant Offers.
"Welcome, Zillow. Seriously," Opendoor CEO Eric Wu wrote in an email to GeekWire shortly after the expansion of Zillow's Instant Offers program. "We are genuinely excited, having invented this new category in 2014, and it's invigorating to see a host of others in the industry recognize the importance of removing hassle and time from the transaction."
While Zillow, Opendoor, Offerpad and others are genuinely excited about this new model for residential real estate, it's still unclear on whether it will catch on with a large swath of homebuyers and sellers. And while it may be a faster way to sell a home, it might not be the best, said Pete Crowe, executive vice president of business and product strategy at RE/MAX.
"While there are homeowners who value the convenience of a quick sale and are willing to take an offer below market value to achieve that, research shows the vast majority want the maximum return on their investments," Crowe told GeekWire.
Last year, 89 percent of sellers and 87 percent of buyers used a full-service agent, according to statistics from the National Association of Realtors.
"Having a professional agent with seasoned negotiation skills, neighborhood expertise, pricing strategies and serious hustle on behalf of a buyer or seller is a huge advantage, especially true in a tight market, where houses command multiple offers and often sell for more than the asking price," Crowe said.
Redfin, the Seattle-based tech-powered real estate brokerage, sees it both ways. It offers traditional real estate brokerage services, but also launched Redfin Now last year, which allows the company to buy and resell homes directly with customers.
"Homeowners are extremely price sensitive," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "We weren't sure when we launched [Redfin Now] whether they'd really do the math, but they always do. They try to figure out whether they get more money if they sell it themselves, than if they sell it to an institutional buyer like Redfin or Opendoor or anyone else."
In the first quarter of this year, Redfin purchased 15 homes, and it expects to double that number in the second quarter. From the fourth quarter, it has sold all but two of the homes it bought, and Redfin expects to sell those two by June. Redfin Now accounted for $3.1 million in revenue during the first quarter.
Kelman said it's the perfect time to launch something like Redfin Now given a strong sellers market and that businesses have freer access to capital than individual consumers. In that vein, he said Redfin acts as a "a provider of liquidity."
However, Kelman noted the potential downsides. "When we buy a house that we can't sell, that's a balance sheet risk," he said. Redfin is treading carefully.
"Everything that makes this business good can make this business bad," he added. "…If interest rates go up, it will drive a reversal in the market where it becomes a buyers market. It's really easy to have 100 or 1,000 homes on your balance sheet, and suddenly have creditors yapping at you for their money back while buyers can't get a loan."
Rascoff addressed that concern — also raised by Deutsche Bank's Walmsley — saying that they plan to hold onto homes for less than 90 days, and that Zillow can use its predictive analytics and consumer data to "see issues coming."
"We think we can weather any downside risk better than anyone," Rascoff said.
Entering Phoenix
Zillow started its new initiative last month with the Phoenix market, where homeowners can receive an offer directly from Zillow, which then gets a property ready to list on the open market and sells it with a local brokerage. The homes will be listed in the local MLS and on Zillow.
It's an expansion of Zillow's Instant Offers program, which launched last year and connects homeowners to offers from investors, as well as a comparative market analysis from a local real estate agent.
So why is Zillow injecting itself into the Instant Offers process, rather than relying on offers from third parties?
"We think the size of the prize is so significant that we don't want to share it," Rascoff said on Zillow's first quarter earnings call.
For 2018, Zillow expects to hold 300 to 1,000 homes in inventory related to the Homes segment, from which it expects $125 million to $255 million in new revenue.
A fresh coat of paint and a new carpet
"This new service has been welcomed by the real estate industry," Rascoff wrote in his prepared remarks for the company's first quarter earnings report. He indicated that, using $250,000 as an average home value, Zillow could produce nearly $1 billion in profit each year with the new business, given that there are 5.5 million annual home sales at $1.8 trillion in annual sale volume.
Zillow is focused on making small renovations to single-family houses in that $250,000 price range. Rascoff said the company isn't in the business of flipping homes.
"The way to think about this is a service to the seller," he explained. "We're basically doing the type of touch-ups that a seller would otherwise have to do on their own while readying their home for sale: cleaning carpets, a coat of paint, a couple thousand-dollar touch-ups to a home. We can do that more cheaply, of course, than an individual home owner because we'll do it at scale. We're doing the work that was going to be done already and we're essentially charging a fee for that work — and that fee is the net profit we're making on the buying and selling of a home."
Rascoff was peppered with questions about the new offering by analysts throughout the earnings call this month, after the company posted $299 million in first quarter revenue.
Analysts asked about gross margin on each transaction, and how Zillow would be able to grow that over time. Rascoff noted that Zillow will pay commissions that are "locally consistent with what other investor buyers pay at scale."
"Much more important to the unit economics than the commission is the other components of the transactions: what we pay for a home, what the light remodel is, what we sell the home for, how long we hold it for, what the debt used are," Rascoff added. "Those things are actually even bigger determinants of the unit profitability and return on equity than even the commission. We think there is an opportunity for significant return on equity from the homes business, given that we'll be putting 20-to-30 percent cash down and turning the capital at least four times a year."
Rascoff noted that seller demand has exceeded expectations so far in Phoenix, where Zillow has already signed a few purchase agreements.
As far as how the Instant Offers expansion will affect Zillow's core Premier Agent business — which brought in $213 million in revenue last quarter — Rascoff said he's not worried about cannibalization.
"Zillow says it will still use agents as part of Instant Offers," Bloomberg reported last month. "After it all, it has a robust advertising business to protect, and it certainly doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds it."
Rascoff said that agent reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and Zillow offers unique benefits over rivals that cut some agents out of the equation.
"This is a great way for an agent with an active listing to get a sale price from us," he said.


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You might be a HousePunk if…
[jetpack_subscription_form title="Come join my glittery world" subscribe_text="If you ARE a HousePunk subscribe to my mailing list and get freebies, offbeat crafts and diys, and behind-the scenes peeks into my glittery world." subscribe_button="Beam Me Up!"]
Our Shop: Handmade, offbeat schtuff – paper crafts, accessories, household items, and home decor.
Bloglovin HousePunkery
Etsy HousePunkery
Facebook HousePunkery
Google+ HousePunkery
Twitter HousePunkery
Flickr Liscat
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A plethora of styles including: steampunk, goth, victorian, boho, gypsy, retro, punk, emo, geek, alternative, fae…
I LOVE to make this stuff and I thrive on helping people, if you would like something custom made just let me know.
Thanks for visiting!


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It's Friday my good people! Time for another flashback post #fbf. Can you believe how quickly the week has flown by?! It's ridiculous!
So,I wore this look a while back and I was starting to feel guilty for not sharing. I've confessed before about my ridiculous obsession with utility jackets on previous posts(See Here) and now I'm letting you in on another one of my guilty pleasures, SKATES! Some people call them Vans but they really aren't all from the Vans company right? I prefer calling them Skates or Slip-On sneakers.


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On the 27th November, over 300 adopters, foster carers and social work staff attended the London Consortia Conference in Hammersmith to hear Kate Cairns talk about "Supporting Permanently Placed Children at Home and at School."
Kate is an author , speaker and trainer with an international reputation for her work around attachment, trauma and resilience. She was also a social worker for 40 years and, with her husband Brian, provided a permanent family for 12 children. It was an inspirational presentation and gave all who attended a wealth of knowledge , understanding and help about how to support our children who have experienced trauma and loss in their early years.


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What are some things to consider when buying a condo?
Is buying a condo a good investment? The recent news about Kitchener's newest condo (and tallest building) and a conversation I had with an…Read More
Is buying a condo a good investment? The recent news about Kitchener's newest condo (and tallest building) and a conversation I had with an…Read More
Some things to consider when preparing your condominium for sale Preparing your condominium for sale takes a lot of time, effort and planning. You…Read More
Until July 2010 when the HST was introduced there wasn't any GST on the purchase of new home. Buyers were only required to…Read More
Most homes are selling over asking price without conditions, but does that mean you have to forego looking at the status certificate when you…Read More
Can a buyer change his mind after he puts in an offer? It is a great question. The short answer is 'yes', usually, but be…Read More
Live in downtown Kitchener's Market District Located in the heart of downtown Kitchener's Market District, this spacious 2 bedroom condo end unit at 165…Read More
Although their intentions are muddleheaded and based not on good information, Toronto investors are actually great for our local real estate market. Keep reading….Read More
Condominium living offers a great lifestyle. You don't have to do anything. Just move in and enjoy. No lawn maintenance. No shovelling. If you…Read More
Currently there are 451 condo units for sale in Kitchener Waterloo. Which ones have the lowest condo fees? For the information below I've excluded condo units…Read More
I got this link from Condo in Waterloo in the comments section of my real estate blog the other day. I wasn't sure why it…Read More


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There are currently no listings available in Wedgewood. Save this Search to be notified by email as soon as new Wedgewood listings hit the market.
Wedgewood Housing Market Trends
|# Listings
|Average DOM
|Average Price
|Average $/SqFt
|Median Price
|Median $/SqFt
|Average % Reduced
|Active Listings
|Pending Listings
|Sold Last 6 Months (Unlock Sold Listings)
*Wedgewood Market Stats are based on Austin MLS data as of April 2nd, 2020 at 12:10am CDT.
Wedgewood Austin
Wedgewood is a small community of homes in Southwest Austin, close to many of this area's most popular attractions. This Travis County neighborhood is in the 78749 zip code and features homes on large, private lots.
Wedgewood homes for sale have construction from the 1970s through the 1990s, so each home is unique. Exteriors are mostly brick with architecture very traditional in design. These homes are snuggled into wooded areas and, combined with the oversized lots, offer residents enviable privacy and quiet. Outdoor features include covered patios, decks, sheds, and detached studio spaces.
Interiors range from 1,400 – 2,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Vaulted ceilings and open floor plans expand the interiors, while stone fireplaces add warmth and charm. Some models have upgrades while others are just waiting for a new owner to give them some shine.
Where is Wedgewood Austin TX?
Wedgewood homes for sale are in the 78749 zip code and are just 10 miles from Downtown Austin for work, live music, and cultural events. This neighborhood is along Hill Oaks Drive and Wolfcreek Pass near the split of Highway 290 and Highway 71. Travelers love that Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is just 15 miles away via Hwy 290.
Things to do near Wedgewood
Wedgewood homes for sale seem as though they are out in the country while in fact, they are very close to urban conveniences. Less than 1 mile away is Center of the Hills Shopping Center where residents grocery shop and run errands, while Jack Allen's Kitchen is 1 mile away and a popular place for locals to meet friends for dinner and happy hour. For outdoor recreation like hiking and biking, Dick Nichols District Park is less than 3 miles away. Austin Zoo is a quick 5-mile drive to visit over 100 different species of animals in a hill country setting, while Seton Southwest Hospital is less than 2 miles away with quality healthcare.
Wedgewood Schools
The Austin ISD serves the students of Wedgewood. Younger students attend Patton Elementary (PK-5) while older students attend Small Middle (6-8) and Austin High School (9-12). The high school enjoys an overall reputation for excellence and is particularly proud of its award-winning jazz band program. Private school options include less than 3 miles to Regents School of Austin (K-12) and St. Andrew's Episcopal School (1-12).


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Martin Bate makes a welcome return to RSAB with Ready Steady Mod. Due to his illness he is no longer available for a live show, but is now producing a 2 hour pre recorded show which goes out at 10.00 am every Sunday morning.
The music is as cool as ever - all killer no filler, a show featuring the very best Mod and Northern Soul tracks, some well known and some hidden gems, but every one will get you dancing round the kichen on a Sunday morning..


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I'm not making this up.
Frozen Spinach
Product Description »
In bright green color, plumy and in gook shape, without
spout, well glazed with ice.
Think I lie? Read it yourself.
Previously in this blog:
China Wants To Join The Rest Of The World
China Does The Right Thing
China: Will That Country Wind Up Killing Us All?
Kenneth Che-Tew Eng Is Pimping An Asian Mein Kampf Book Proposal!
The Day Will Come When The Suits Will Hang For Their Many Money-Grubbing Sins
When Your Child Dies, Remember To Thank Your Republican-Voting God For The Free Market!
The China Syndrome
The Algorithm Is Ask.com!
Today's Quote
Is It Happening In America?
The Answer Is Yes
Healthy, Immortal Chinese To Conquer Sick, Dying World
Yeah, I Know. But It's Just So Damned FUNNY!
China Sets Blog Record Here!
Hello To China
Another Fake
Fake iPod Nano Fondle


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Kauai Restaurants
One of my favorite Kauai Restaurants is the Hanalei Dolphin. At the Hanalei Dolphin you can choose from a variety of seafood such as fresh fish, shrimp and scallops. They also serve delicious chicken and beef. My favorite thing to order is the fresh sushi. They offer a variety of Hawaii sushi rolls, sashimi and nigiri. Be sure to ask for the daily sushi specials – they are amazing! The Hanalei Dolphin has a great atmosphere. It is located on the river and offers great views. Be sure to make sure the Hanalei Dolphin is on your list of Kauai Restaurants to check out on your Hawaii Vacation!
It is a great place for a romantic evening for those on a Hawaiian honeymoon yet it is also a fun place to take a group of people for a fun night on Kauai! I recommend ordering a variety of sushi and passing it around to share.
Hawaii Travel Tip: Get there early! They do not take reservations and it is one of the most popular Kauai Restaurants!
Check out my post about Best Oahu Restaurants to read about my other favorite Hawaii Sushi Restaurant – Sansei Sushi.


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Santa Monica considering dog beach, the second in L.A. County
Santa Monica officials are throwing pet lovers a bone with a proposal to let dogs to run loose in the sand and surf.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider working with the state to establish a pilot off-leash dog zone at the beach.
The idea was championed by Unleash the Beach, one of several Los Angeles-area groups that have campaigned for more space on the sand for dogs. Rosie's Dog Beach, a three-acre zone in Long Beach, is the only stretch of coastline in Los Angeles County where canines can legally run off-leash.
Dog lovers face an uphill battle because a California code prohibits unleashed dogs on state beaches without an order from a California State Parks superintendent. The agency, which owns Santa Monica State Beach, has vowed to oppose any efforts to relax the rules and allow dogs on the sand, citing concerns about safety, cleanliness and the environment.
Water quality groups also worry that dog feces could pollute beach water and sicken swimmers.
INTERACTIVE: Guide to Southern California's off-leash dog beaches
Dog owners say it is a matter of fairness, that L.A. County's 75- mile coastline should have more the one place for their dogs to romp in the sand. They have asked for a small patch of sand to use on a trial basis in order to prove they can be clean and responsible.
The proposal by Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tempore Gleam Davis and Councilman Terry O'Day would include environmental monitoring of the beach and the water during the pilot program.
"I want to see what we can do to find a way to make this work," O'Day told the Santa Monica Daily Press. "Obviously, there are a lot of folks in the community who would like to see it happen."
--Tony Barboza
Photo: Chester stands on his hind legs to catch a ball at Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach in August. Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times


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Chains & Accessories
Here's a collection of items that may be helpful for you to add to your purchase. The sterling silver chains will fit all sea glass and capture pendants on my site. Please note that sea glass and capture pendants do not come with a chain, but you can easily add one of these to your order. I also recommend purchasing a sterling silver polishing cloth to keep your jewelry looking its best. It can be used on all Made By Meg jewelry.


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APRALO Monthly Meeting
Date: Thursday, 21 April 2016
Time: 06:00 - 07:00 UTC (for the time in various timezones click here)
Meeting Number: AL.AP/CC.0416/1
How do I participate in this meeting?
English Conference ID = 1638
Chinese Conference ID = 2038
Adobe Connect Meeting Room: http://icann.adobeconnect.com/apralo
Action Items: EN
Transcript: EN, ZH
AC Chat Transcript: EN
EN: Siranush Vardanyan, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Maureen Hilyard, Holly Raiche, Satish Babu, Liu Conglun, Ali AlMeshal, Jee eun Choi, Nadira Alaraj, Kaili Kan, Tomohiro Fujisaki, Yasuichi Kitamura, Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Gunela Astbrink, Anupam Agrawal, Bikram Shrestha, Kelwin Wong, Will Tibben, Hong Xue
ZH: None
Apologies: Pavan Budhrani, Amal R. Al-saqqaf
Staff: Silvia Vivanco, Yeşim Nazlar
Call Management: Yeşim Nazlar
ZH Interpreter: Yiyi
1. Roll call - staff (2 min)
2. ALAC Policy Development update - Holly and Maureen (TBC), 15 min
- See: Policy Advice Page on New At-Large Website Beta
- See: Policy Advice Development Page
- See: ICANN Public Comment page
- Statements approved by the ALAC
- Draft Framework of Principles for Cross Community Working Groups - Adopted 11Y, 0N, 0A
- Statements in process: being drafted, in comment or in vote:
- Draft ICANN FY17 Operating Plan & Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update - Tijani Ben Jemaa drafting a Statement; Olivier Crepin-Leblond finalizing the Proposal for Multi-Year Budget Planning of RALO Face to Face Meetings as part of the ALAC response to this Public Comment proceeding (closes )
- Draft Report: New gTLD Program Safeguards to Mitigate DNS Abuse - Julie Hammer, with assistance from Olivier Crepin-Leblond, reviewing the public comment proceeding (closes )
- Final Report Recommendations of the Geographic Regions Review Working Group - ALAC conducting a ratification vote on the Statement (closes )
- Notice of Preliminary Determination To Grant Registrar Data Retention Waiver Request for Ascio Technologies, Inc. Danmark - filial af Ascio Technologies, Inc. USA - Roberto Gaetano drafting an Advice to the Board related to this topic, but not a direct response (closes )
- Statements that seem to be stalled:
- None
- Public Comment requests to which the ALAC decided not to submit Statements:
- New Public Comment requests requiring decision:
- Statements approved by the ALAC
3. APRALO Regional Elections 2016 - Silvia (5 mins)
4. APAC Hub- APRALO - next webinar - Kelvin (5 min)
See: 2016 APRALO-APAC HUB Webinars
5. Individual users in APRALO, ROP - Maureen (10 min.)
6. ICANN 57 - Sharing the PPt from Nick Tomasso - updates, Siranush (10 min)
7. ICANN FY17 Budget requests for APRALO - updates from staff, the process, deadlines - Silvia (5 min)
8. The first Asia-Pacific School on Internet Governance is being co-located with APTLD 2016 in mid-September 2016 at Bangkok - Satish (5 min.)
9. AOB (5 min)


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LUSHlife Properties Sky Heights will offer 119 residential apartments, coming up on ground + 12 floors, with 642 sq.ft to 1183 sq.ft.
Features and amenities include 24 hrs CCTV surveillance, intercom facility throughout campus, sewage treatment plant, rain water harvesting, infinity swimming pool with water cascade, yoga/meditation room, party lawn, barbecue area, clubhouse, children's play area, practice basketball court, gymnasium, landscaped garden with water fountain, indoor game room and gazebo.
The total price of an apartments has been set at Rs.26.5 lakhs* onward.
Location map, online discussion forums and contact details of the builder are all available at LUSHlife Properties Sky Heights Details [placetolive.in]


text: Your daughter will spread magic all around while she trick or treats in our fairies and princesses girls toddler Halloween costumes. Let her flutter her wings and sprinkle pixie dust all around in a toddler fairy costume. Or she can look like little royalty in our beautiful princess costumes. Whether you are looking for dress up time outfits or something for Halloween night, you will find the best princess and fairy girls toddler costumes from Spirit Halloween.


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The Philosopher - Woven Tee
This variant is currently sold out
To The Philosopher;
You are a thinker - always engaged in a question you can't answer. You never let life pass you by, because your childlike curiosity towards the world never cease to keep you looking beyond yourself.
A notebook in hand and a universe to explore, this shirt is dedicated to you.
Proudly Made in Canada. 🇨🇦
- Women's Linen woven tee with chest pocket and back pleat.
- 100% Linen, Black fabric. 3.7 oz.
- This pure linen cloth is amazingly soft and perfect for warm days and nights.
- Lightly slubbed for a natural finish, it is both strong and breathable, making shirts that have a loosely structured drape that soften even further with time.
- Wash cold + hang dry. Allow for up to 1/4" shrinkage on the length and 3/8" total shrinkage on the width.
- Model that wears an XS measures: bust = 30", waist = 24", hips = 37".
- Model that wears a 2XL measures: bust = 46", waist = 38", hips = 49".
- Woven Tee, based on the Proper Fit (view more).
- View more items in this fabric here.
*Please note that we do not accept returns or exchanges on sale items.


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Matthew Clegg was just 7 years old when he unexpectedly died.
According to McCordsville United Methodist Church, he loved Star Wars, Legos, and video games.
He also enjoyed being outdoors, going to parks, and swimming, so the church decided to install a playground to keep his memory alive.
Now in its fundraising phase, the project hopes to serve as a lasting tribute to Matthew, and provide fun and fellowship to children of all ages for years to come.
The church wants to raise $20,000 to cover equipment and installation costs, and will hold a dedication for the playground on Matthew's 10th birthday, which is June 7, 2018.
Donations can be made online, or checks can be made out to McCordsville United Methodist Church with "Playground Fund" noted on the memo line.
The church says Matthew is missed greatly by all who knew him and is talked about often. They hope this playground will give others the chance to get to know him and keep his memory alive.
Related Content
- Church raising money to build playground in memory of young boy
- Parkland Shooting Victim's Family Raising Money To Build Playground In Her Memory
- Elementary school raises money for inclusive playground
- Family foundation raising money for inclusive playground
- Congregation raising money to repair church featured in 'Footloose'
- Young boy waiting years for a wheelchair
- Video shows officers restrain young boy
- Fourth annual memorial ride for Phoebe Jonchuck to raise money for scholarship fund
- "We're behind you:" Community raising money to help 4-year-old boy get service dog
- Community Comes Together On Social Media, Raises Money To Replace Stolen Bike For Boy With Autism


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Tidak ada produk
Menghilangkan kotoran bermasalah dengan mudah Dengan air basah, mudah...
Efektif untuk membawa peralatan kebersihan Desain memudahkan penggunaan...
A medium-sized Twintec scrubber drier (230V) with a 40 litre capacity. The scrubbing brush has a 550mm diameter. 1000W brush motor / 1200W vacuum motor. Harga per Unit
• Full stainless steel chassis• Deck tilt system making brush changes quick and simple• 40 litre clean and dirty water heavy duty polyform tanks• 45cm scrub width• TwinFlo vacuum motor providing the exceptional wet pick up• Heavy duty brush motor• Simple On/Off trigger control• Flexifill Harga per Unit
This is about the most user friendly ride-on around, packed with sound common sense engineering yet bristling with technology. In simple terms the Twintec Vario ride-on rewrites the mathematical rule book proving once and for all that… 3 INTO 1 DOES GO! Harga per Unit
No down time! Swap the flat battery for the charged one and keep scrubbing. This means a very portable machine. This machine can virtually turn on the spot and the squeegee will swivel out to recover water on the outside of the turn. This feature makes it very easy for storage and transportation. Harga per Unit
This unit is ideal with for areas where a cabled machine would be impractical - workshops, shops or warehouses where a trailing cable would present a tripping hazard or where many obstacles would entangle a cabled machine. Harga per Unit
• 80 litre clean and dirty water heavy duty polyform tanks• Easy cleaning in those tight spaces• Anti-tip system• On-board charger port, hassle free charging• Flexifill extending and flexible filling hose, fill from any clean water outlet• TwinFlo vacuum motor, providing exceptional wet pick up Harga per Unit
ABILA 17" B A recent addition to the ever popular Abila range, Comac's new battery operated low noise scrubber drier Abila 17 is the small, innovative floor-cleaning machine manufactured by Comac Spa in Verona -In the segment of compact battery-operated machines Abila 17 can be appreciated for its quality, compact size, efficiency and strength. harga...
COMAC ABILA 50E Handal dengna kinerja yang tinggi Hening, menjadikan kenyamanan pada saat bekerja Mudah di gunakan Desain yang inovatif Biaya operasional yang murah harga per unit.
Abila 17/20/42/52 is an extremely quiet machine and therefore suitable for schools, hospitals and retirement homes since it complies with the strictest standards on noise pollution. Harga per Unit
you can clean faster surfaces up to 3,000 sq. m. - It requires little maintenance - It is built with top quality materials - It scrubs more square metres in the same time - It is comfortable, safe and user-friendly - It is fast, twice the speed of a walk behind scrubbing machine Harga per Unit
Innova 75 B are scrubbing machines which guarantee a dramatic reduction in the cost of cleaning thanks not only to an advantageous purchase price but also to the complete equipment of all Comac systems that reduce waste and consumption (automatic version). Harga per Unit


text:
Randy took off at a run, headed back to the Chandler house.
Fear pounded in his throat and face and chest. It pushed at him from behind and came at him from all around.
The day had grown distressingly dark. He could still see the sun through the trees, but it seemed dimmer.
He ran past neighbors coming out of their house, shadows in their eyes.
Was it his imagination, or did they all seem to moving unnaturally slowly?
Up ahead, the sight of a big portal sitting in the street made him gasp.
It looked wrong. Inside out. And why were all the houses feeding into it?
None of the other six worked any more. Too many rennovations.
The music notes wrapped around him, asking, pleading.
What did they want? The music was part of the portal.
He looked around, casting about for an idea. Any idea.
Cold chilled him. His neighbors had come out of their houses to see the portal. They were motionless.
One man had his foot in the air, about to take a step. Another was in the middle of a run.
It was eeriely quiet, except for the music. No lawn mowers. No cars driving. No children's voices.
It was like the world had stopped.
Why was he able to move?
Then he caught a flash of movement up ahead. Nikki.
Relief flooded through him.
Lights sparked around her. Yellow, with bits of black and red.
She needed help.


text:
Rajma Red Lobia are dark Red Kidney Beans they are large, have a deep reddish-brown color, and a soft texture. They also have a robust and full-bodied flavor.
(RAJ) (14014)Rajma (Red Lobia)Red kidny Bean 1kg
Currently we accept "Cash on Delivery" and Credit Card (using PayPal) payments. If you choose "Cash on Delivery", then please pay for your purchase directly to the delivery driver. Details
Purchases of 8,000 yen (including tax) or more are delivered "free of charge". However, since chilled parcel (refrigerated/frozen products) and regular parcel are billed separately, the purchase amount of each, rather than the total amount of both purchases, must be 8,000 yen (including tax) or more. Details
In principle, we do not accept return or replacement of any products. However, with the exception in the event that you have received defective product or the delivered product differs from the order description, return or replacement will be accepted. Even in this case, we shall not accept any refund or replacement if product is once used by the customers, or damaged or dirt made by the customers' responsibility. Details


text:
Everypony's favorite animation house is about to revive an old live-action favorite:
Canadian kids entertainment content firm DHX Media is banking on new Teletubby mania as it unveils plans to produce 60 new episodes of Teletubbies for CBeebies.
The move follows DHX Media last year acquiring Teletubbies owner Ragdoll Worldwide from BBC Worldwide and an investor group including founder Anne Wood for CAN$27.7 million (US$25.5 million).
Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po will return as live-action characters for the new series, with a "refreshed and contemporary look" and CGI enhancement, according to the Canadian producer.
All I can say is this: "Eh-oh!"


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Climate Change
'This interesting book should have this sub title: Everything you wanted to know about Climate Change but were afraid to ask. It covers the subject from every possible angle from the climate in the past and how it effected historical views, to the modern era where it focuses on the complex process that are and may have been the causes of climate change. It explains how these processes, once studied, can be used to make models of the complex systems giving useful predictions, which can be used to aid future environmental decisions. Despite being only 139 pages long the book covers a difficult and complex subject well with a stimulating and informative style accessible to the non-specialist.'
Sherkin Comment
'(…) In summary, this book is recommended for someone who wants an overview of the key points of the climate change issue and some broad perspectives on climate. The reader should be aware that some scientific aptitude would be helpful to understand some of the scientific details.'


text:
Most Recent
Most Popular
- North America
- South America
- Europe
- Asia
Hike Your Home State With the Ohio Hiking Guide
There are so many beautiful places to go hiking in Ohio if you know where to look! Discover the best hikes in Ohio, the most challenging trails, and more!
Read This Before Visiting Huaraz, Peru
Everything you need to know to plan your trip to Huaraz, Peru, from how to get there, where to hike, what to do, and so much more!
Meet Pravda, the Brewery That's Reinventing Ukrainian Beer
Pravda is an ambitious craft brewery with a goal to reinvent Ukrainian beer and share it with the world - this is how they're doing it.
UAE Budget Travel Guide (After 2 Years in the Country)
Discover free things to do in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, cheap attractions, budget accommodation, money-saving tips, and more in this UAE budget travel guide.


text: The Basenji is best known for being the "barkless dog" — when it does vocalize, rather than a typical bark, it makes more of a yodeling "barroo" sound. What isn't quite as well known is that this is an ancient breed of dog, arguably one of the oldest among recognized breeds. It originated in densely forested areas of the Congo Basin in Africa. It shares many characteristics of pariah dogs, which is why it falls in the kennel club categories of Sighhound and Pariah or Spitz and Primitive depending on the club. For instance, like wild dogs it reproduces only once a year, whereas domestic dogs can reproduce several times a year. The ancestors of the modern Basenji lived with humans for thousands of years as a helper in hunting by driving small game into nets or hunting down wounded prey. The fact that they are typically so silent is of course a desired trait for this work. Depictions of dogs with Basenji characteristics (the pricked ears and tightly curled tails) are found in Egyptian tombs, showing just how old this pariah breed is known to be.


text:
The CVMA
produces a number of statistical reports available to member company personnel
and subscribers. For publicly available industry statistics, please
click here
For members and subscribers, you will be
required to enter your User ID and Password to access the reports you have been
granted access to. Please click Enter.


text:
Make sure assets and _combinedfiles inside assets is writable by the webserver.
We've moved the forum!
Please use forum.silverstripe.org for any new questions
The forum archive will stick around, but will be read only.
You can also use our Slack channel
or StackOverflow to ask for help.
Check out our community overview for more options to contribute.
assets is 777 and _combinedfiles is 755 with apache as owner.
Should _combinedfiles be 777 as well?
This error indicates that certainly isn't right, something weird is clogging up the system. Flush your manifest with /dev/build?flush=all (or go manually delete all cache folders for SS), and run /dev/tests/.
Also do what Sean said.
Do you see anything additional if you add ?debug=1 instead of ?isDev=1?
Manually deleted cache, Did a dev/build and nothing helped. I don't get any new errors with debug.
Running dev/tests just gives me "Please install PHPUnit using pear" so I'll need my sysadmins to take care of that to get any feedback.
Keep going with a full reinstall from scratch. Something is not right with your copy of the code and your webserver/PHP installation, the installer will walk through all aspects of your environment and correct/identify it.
To lurkers, this is NOT typical.
Ok Will do.
True this is not typical. I currently have 10 different silverstripe sites running, plus at least as many on dev servers. And this is the only install causing probs :)
Cool, I can say that the error that is being thrown is in the core Controller class and that piece of code is pretty robust. Not having any controllers on the stack is plain bizarre, and seemingly impossible as that function can't be called until a controller is pushed on the stack.
Sometimes its easier to stop troubleshooting and start over... :) Good luck!
Hi guys,
I had a similar problem, changing the _combinedfiles folder rights to 777 and resetting the user solved my problem. :)


text:
WESTT SOLUTIONS for Mechanical Engineering courses
The DGEN turbofan engine features state-of-the-art mechanical components in a compact two-spool rotating structure. The wide range of competences involved in the engine's design and construction makes WESTT SEV and WESTT SE-HP solid building blocks for both introductory and in-depth courses in mechanics.
"Our teachers and students find great benefits in using the WESTT SE-HP stand for both theoretical and practical courses in engine structure and mechanical design."
dr inż. Robert Jakubowski, Professor, Rzeszow University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics
WESTT SEV School Engine with Validation
WESTT SEV contains a fully functionnal DGEN 380 turbofan engine, extensive documentation, standard and specific tools, storage rolling carts and an electronic unit to vent the engine.
By assembling the DGEN's complex mechanical system, students get to handle and analyse real turbomachinery components such as a centrifugal compressor, a reverse flow annular combustion chamber and a planetary gearbox.
Below are some examples of subjects that can be covered to various extents, depending on the study level.
- Study of technological parts
Bearings (computation, life expectancy, lubrication)
Gearbox (grooves analysis, ratio calculation, lubrication)
Shafts (balancing, vibration analysis)
Oil system (design, cooling, oil chambers, squeeze film)
Sealing (sealing types, joints materials, leakages)
- Thermal study of the mechanical system
Calculation of radial and axial expansion
Clearance and play evolution, materials' heat resistance
Study of shafts stress, use of extensometers
- Metrology
Tightening techniques (torque, hydraulic tensioner)
Use of metrology tools (caliper, depth gauge)
WESTT SE-HP Core Engine Assembly Station
WESTT SE-HP contains the High-Pressure spool of a DGEN turbofan engine, which consists of a turbine, a compressor, a shaft, a rotor and two bearings. The assembly station also comes equipped with extensive documentation, standard and specific tools and storage rolling carts,
WESTT SE-HP is thus an economical and compact solution which is ideal for the understanding of the basics of gas turbine mechanical construction as well as for realizing advanced mechanical studies on the core engine parts.


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4,000 Gravestone Photos Now Online
With the recent addition of records from the New Valley Cemetery in Greene, and the Sylvester Cemetery in Durham, the Gravestone Photo Project (under the "Online Collections" tab above) has reached a new milestone... 4,000 records are now online.. Thanks to more than 40 volunteers who have posted anywhere from one to hundreds of gravestone photos the project continues to grow.
And, if you have ancestors from North of the border, be sure to check out www.canadianheadstones.com. Utilizing the same software as the Gravestone Photo Project at earlyMaine.org, Jim McKane and his army of volunteers have amassed more than 75,000 records from across Canada in less than a year! i've been able to work with Jim on a few tweaks of the code to help work for his project, and I'm very excited and pleased with the progress his volunteer team is making. Perhaps you can find one of your Canadian Ancestors stones in this project. Or maybe you have a photo of a stone you'd like to contributes. Check out www.canadianheadstones.com for more information.
A Letter To The Pennell Descendant I Met This Weekend...
I'm sorry I didn't get your name or contact information, but you mentioned to me you would like to know information if you could find it about the shipbuilder, Robert Given. I found a short blurb about him in the Wheeler History of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell, Maine (1878) that I thought you might find interesting. On Page 333, there is the following paragraph:
3700+ Gravestone Records now online
With recent additions to the Gravestone Photo project, we've brought the number of records in this collection to more than 3700, and more are being added daily. Thank you to the volunteers who have submitted photos recently, and send me cd/dvds of photos for me to post to the site as well. With your help, we should be able to double the size of this collection this year (and that's just if I can post only what has already been sent to me for the project). Thanks to all!


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Announcements for July 2007
Comments (2) Visits (14097)
It's Tuesday, which means IBM makes its announcements. We had several for the IBM System Storage product line. Here's a quick recap.
I'm off to Denver, Colorado this week. I hope it is cooler there than it is down here in Tucson, Arizona.
technorati tags: IBM, disk, system, storage, SAS, FC, DS3000, DS3200, DS3400, EXP3000, NAS, EXN1000, tape, virtualization, library, TS7740, grid, Copy Export, throughput, TS3400, TS3200, mainframe, LTO, Ultrium, Cisco, MDS, 9124, Express, Advantage, DS4000, DS4700, TS3200, GAM, Grid Archive Manager, 3996, optical, WORM, Denver, Colorado, Tucson, Arizona, announcements


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Counting Down #060 to #041...
HEY! If you're looking for the first two installments of the countdown, you can find part one (counting down games 100-81) right HERE and part two (counting down games 80-61) right HERE
It's been 13 years to the month since the Sega Dreamcast was released in North America, and to commemorate the console's birthday, I decided to embark upon a journey to quantify and rank the 100 greatest titles the system had to offer. It was a gargantuan assignment, obviously, but it was also an absolute blast to take such an all-encompassing trip (really, more of an extended vacation) down memory lane; if you have half as much fun reading it as I had writing it, than I know I've made Ecco the Dolphin and Seaman proud.
At this point, what more can be said about the Dreamcast? It was the Kurt Cobain of gaming consoles, that amazing, stellar vision that arrived, changed the industry forever, and then faded away long before its time. It was radical, it was revolutionary, it was, for lack of a better term, freaking awesome, and believe you me - narrowing the list down to just 100 games was a challenge in and of itself.
Before we get down to business, a few notes about the countdown:
1. To make things less complicated, I tried to list ONLY Sega Dreamcast games that were given North American releases WHILE the console was still in production. So, if you're wondering why games like "Giant Gram 2000" and "Rent a Hero No. 1" didn't make the list…that's why.
2. There's no real set criteria for my rankings. Simply put, I just weighed the overall quality of the games with their influence on my youth, and arranged the countdown accordingly. Your list, most certainly, would differ.
3. Note that this is a list of the GREATEST Dreamcast games ever and NOT the best (which, by the way, is not an interchangeable term for "favorite," either.) You may think some of my selections are weak, and that's totally cool. If you disagree, feel free to drop a comment or two. Just try to be civil about it, OK!
4. And lastly, who out there kinda' wants to make a necklace out of an old VMU memory card? There's got to be somebody on Etsy that's game for that kind of commission, right?
And with the fine print out of the way, who is ready to party like it's 9/9/99?
How about this for an underserved subgenere: shoot 'em up role playing games!
There really aren't too many SHMUPRPGs in the marketplace, and "Armada" is certainly one of the finest I've ever encountered. For those of you that dig real time strategy games, you might really like this game, and if you enjoy hardcore space shooters, you will DEFINITELY love this one. All you purists that moan about the lack of "MUSHA" quality 3D SHMUPS really need to give this game a try, as it has some of the most INSANE fire fights I have ever experienced in a video game.
This is a really deep, rich game, with a downright fantastic combat system. Even if you don't have any friends, the single-player mode is robust enough to keep most players gaming for months, and if you do have some SHMUP loving comrades? The multiplayer in this game is among the most AWESOME you will find on the Dreamcast, providing a chaotic, anarchic hootenanny easily on par with multi-man ass kickers like "Cannon Spike" and the "Power Stone" titles.
"Bangai-O" is just old-school, hardcore arcade fun, through and through. The visuals, despite being minimalist, are very colorful, and the gameplay - although very, very straightforward - results in some sublimely addictive gaming runs.
"Bangai-O," essentially, is all about explosions, never letting go of the fire button, and collecting lots and lots of outer space apples. There are some pretty enjoyable boss fights, but nothing too severe on your table - although the latter stages can get incredibly frustrating, though.
It's really hard to explain what makes this game so unbelievably awesome. In fact, showing a video of the gameplay doesn't really do the title justice, either. This is just one of those games that you'll have to experience for yourself to see what all the hubbub is about - and I'm almost 100 percent certain that you'll be extremely pleased you went through the effort of tracking this cult classic (brought to you by the same geniuses that blessed us with "Gunstar Heroes" and "Radiant Silvergun") down.
Giga Wing 2
Four-player, 2.5D SHMUP action, with some of the most awesome visual effects and tricks to be found on the Dreamcast. Really, do I even NEED to go any more in-depth as to why this game is awesome?
This game is just insane arcade fun, and one of my all-time favorite multiplayer experiences on the console. There's just so much to love about this game, from the killer operatic soundtrack to the absolutely mind-melting boss fights to the never-ending (and I do mean absolutely freaking ceaseless) blasting action. The only thing keeping this title from being ranked even higher is that it's EXTREMELY short. As in, you can probably blow through the main arcade mode in less than 20 minutes.
Despite being absurdly brief, this is just a ridiculously fun game, and the sort of pick-up-and-play masterpiece that you can hop into pretty much whenever you feel like. That, and the game probably breaks some sort of record for highest possible score in ANY video game - believe it or not, there are people out there that have registered scores in the QUINTILLIONS on this one!
4x4 EVO
A truck racing game sounds about as much fun as a root canal. A bunch of gas-guzzlers, chugging along at a snail's pace, through brown terrain? That's cool, I'd rather go sort my socks or something instead.
"4X4 EVO," however, takes what sounds like a less than exciting prospect and turns it into a downright kick-ass sim-arcade hybrid, with tons of cars, a wealth of game modes (including an astoundingly in-depth career mode) and even network play, which at the time, provided some of the most seamless online racing to be found on the console market.
True enough, the game has some detractions. The soundtrack is pretty lame, and the visuals are nowhere near being the console's best. That said, the gameplay here is just so intricate and smooth, and the multiplayer remains some of the most cerebral to be found on the Dreamcast. Seriously, who would've thought that racing sport utility vehicles through rainy trailer parks and mountainous islands would have been this much fun?
Super Magnetic Neo
As perhaps the definition of a criminally underrated console, there were SCORES of criminally underrated games to be found on the Sega Dreamcast. In that, "Super Magnetic Neo" is not only one of the most absurdly underappreciated hidden gems on the console…it's also one of the most absurdly underappreciated platforming games of the early 2000s.
"Super Magnetic Neo" is a game that, simultaneously, feels really familiar and totally cutting-edge. While the rudimentary gameplay is quite comparable to games like "Klonoa" and "Crash Bandicoot," the title also throws in all sorts of aesthetic and mechanical wildcards - at times, feeling like the veritable precursor to games like "Psychonauts," "Katamari Damacy" and even "Super Mario Galaxy."
The game looks downright terrific, and while the audio is a tad repetitive, I still think it's pretty decent, overall. I guess the thing I dig most about the title is that it's one of the very few truly challenging 3D platforming games on the Dreamcast - as fun as it may be, be forewarned: you will be dying ALL THE TIME when you play this one.
Metropolis Street Racer
Oh, Bizarre Games…we hardly knew ye.
Unless you're an absolutely bitter Sony fan boy, you probably really, really enjoyed the "Project Gotham Racing" series on the Xbox and Xbox360. And if you didn't…you, good sir, have horrible taste. Of course, this game was, in many ways the "first" PGR game, as it was not only designed by the same people that later made the Microsoft titles, but featured many gameplay components that became hallmarks of the franchise (namely, the "Kudos" system.)
In addition to looking absolutely gorgeous, the game played like an absolute dream, too, with smooth controls, tons of game modes and racing mechanics that remain some of the best among arcade titles on the Dreamcast. If you're a racing fan - or hell, if you just like enjoyable things, period - this is a disc you DIRELY need to have wedged in your Dreamcast ASAP.
The House of the Dead 2
While nobody really remembers this game as a technical masterpiece, there is no denying that it's still a fun, twitch-based shooter. That, and it holds a pretty special place in my heart, as it was the very first Dreamcast game I ever got an opportunity to play.
Which you see is pretty much what you get with this, one of the marquee games released on the system's launch. It's certainly not up to snuff with some of the other 09/09/99 games (certainly, its graphics have not aged all that well), but the gameplay is just so satisfying that it's hard to hold anything against the title.
This game is just cheesy fun, through and through, with ridiculous boss fights and even more ridiculous voice acting One word of warning, though: although you can play the game with a standard VMU controller, I HIGHLY recommend using the MadCatz blaster if you can, as it totally changes the game dynamics for the better.
This game was just SO freaking awesome, and it pains me so to know that only me and about four other people on the planet have ever played it.
If you love horror (and if you don't, something is very, very wrong with you), you will absolutely adore this super-duper-innovative survival-action game, which incorporates influences of everything from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Tobe Hooper's "Funhouse" to, if you can believe it, "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Scooby Doo."
As I was saying, this is a really creative survival-horror game, which entails exploration of these gigantic, haunted carnival worlds. The game space is littered with all sorts of death traps, which you can detect using a really ingenious "senses" system - so you can literally SMELL your way out of precarious predicaments. With an unorthodox (although enjoyable) combat system and some of the spookiest atmospherics on the Dreamcast, "Illbleed" is a game that is pretty much required gaming come Halloween time - or really, any other major holiday, I suggest.
Virtua Fighter 3tb
The "tb," in case you were wondering, stands for "team battle," - which is a component of the game that allows players to create "stables" of fighters, for no other reason, I suppose, then the fact that the "Marvel Vs. Capcom" games were really, really popular at the time.
"Virtua Fighter 3" is a really undervalued entry in the series, wedged between the outstanding second game and the absolutely sublime fourth installment (which I consider, pound for pound, to probably be the best fighting game ever made.) While this game isn't quite as legendary as its older and younger siblings, it's still a really sound fighting game - and perhaps the best technical fighter to be found on the console.
There's a lot of really neat additions to the gameplay, like the inclined stages, the ability to toy with the camera mid-fight and even the ability to knock apparel of your adversaries (who goes into a karate death fight wearing fedoras, anyway?) By now, we all know that "Virtua Fighter" equates fantastic fighting action, and this installment is certainly no exception. Besides, everybody needs to see sumo wrestlers take on blondes in mini skirts and knee high boots every now and then, don't we?
Chu Chu Rocket
While there wasn't necessarily a surplus of great puzzle games on the Dreamcast, I think this game is certainly the console's towering achievement within the genre. And if not, there's no denying that it's the absolute kookiest, that's for sure.
I guess the best way to describe "Chu Chu Rocket" is Mouse Trap…on drugs. Lots and lots of psychotropic drugs. As the player, it's your duty to drop these little tiles on the game space, which direct the mice around the board. The object of the game is to round up as many mice in a rocket as possible, which is complicated just a bit by an in-game spinner that occasionally drops predatory cats on the board, as well as a random shifter that either speeds up or slows down the tempo of the game. The single-player experience is an outright trip, but just you wait - this thing supports FOUR PERSON MULTIPLAYER, too.
This is a downright phenomenal party game, and one of the most addictive titles to be found on the Dreamcast. Simply put, I've never played anything quite like it before or since…which is reason alone, I suppose, to give this cult classic disc a spin.
Samba de Amigo
Long, long before "Guitar Hero," "Rock Band," and even "Donkey Konga," there was this off-kilter Dreamcast original, which had players rocking out to Ricky Martin alongside a maraca shaking simian. And of course, the game came bundled with a set of plastic maracas, making the experience twenty thousand times more surreal…and in hindsight, pretty damn revolutionary, too.
I guess the gameplay of "Samba de Amigo" explains itself, but at the time, it was one of the most staggeringly unique games to be found on the market. The graphics were also really well done, and the rhythm action gameplay was complex enough to provide a challenging, yet accessible, experience for pretty much everybody that played it.
And then, of course, there's the soundtrack, which remains one of the absolute best on the console (and believe you me, that is definitely saying something.) Banging some plastic equipment, while blaring Chumbawamba, Reel Big Fish and Richie goddamn Valens at full volume - really, does life get any better than that?
Space Channel 5
You know, there just aren't that many space-spoof-dancing-satires about broadcast journalism out there, and I don't necessarily think that any developer out there could produce a better title within the sub-sub-sub-sub-genre than "Space Channel 5."
Ultimately, the game is nothing more than a glossy, higher-tech variation of "Simon Says," but there is just so much style and weirdness alongside the gameplay that this game is almost impossible to resist. From the pink-haired protagonist (who may or may not be that one chick that sang "Groove is in the Heart") to the dénouement in which it's your duty to rescue Michael Jackson (yes, the same one that was in "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing 2") from outer space terrorists, you just know you have your hands on something special right here.
Granted, the gameplay is probably a little too basic for you kids that grew up on "Call of Duty" and "Halo," but it remains a pretty fun - and quite challenging - experience today. Besides - how many go-go dancer-space-shooters-tabloid-journalism-technology-parables-in-video-game-form are out there, exactly?
Crazy Taxi 2
While the sequel to the much-beloved Sega arcade game had considerably less "All I Want" in it than the original, it was still a very, very good game - in fact, in many areas, it can be considered a marked improvement over its predecessor.
For one, you have more playable characters, which is always a positive. And the newly designed city - this time around, a stand-in for New York City as opposed to a facsimile for San Francisco - is far more diverse than the locale in the first title.
Sega changed pretty much NOTHING about the gameplay here (outside of the newfangled ability to make your car "jump" over obstacles), which is definitely a good thing. There really wasn't anything broken about the original, and I think Sega made the right call by making this game, essentially, the exact same as the original. In that, the title is more or less "more of the same," but really…when the "same" is this damned satisfying, who cares if it lacks all that ingenuity?
Sega Marine Fishing
So maybe bass fishing isn't the most exciting thing in the world to you, but you have one of those Dreamcast reel and rod controllers lying around the place anyway. Might I suggest this entry in Sega's arcade-fishing series to put that peripheral to good use?
As with the "Sega Bass Fishing" games, "Sega Marine Fishing" is a relatively simplistic game to grasp, but one that remains infinitely enjoyable because the core gameplay is so satisfying and addictive. The graphics are also pretty great, and the audio is way better than you'd expect it to be. All in all, this game looks and sounds better than most of the first party Wii games out there.
I really have a hard time establishing just how addictive this game is. The allure of reeling in a new record for heaviest marlin is, in and of itself, pretty tempting, but once you factor in all of the unlockables and mini-game challenges, this game becomes staggeringly compelling. Oh, the man hours that went into FINALLY unlocking the Sonic the Hedgehog jig, my friends…
As a gargantuan hockey fan, this was a game I was absolutely pumped to play. Although the loss of the EA series on the Dreamcast was a very big blow, this first-party offering from Sega was probably just as good - if not better - than the Electronic Arts NHL games from the same time frame.
For one thing, the goaltending in the game was just superb, and on the highest difficulty setting, this thing became positively riveting. I really didn't have that many memorable multiplayer experiences with the game (primarily, because all of my friends in junior high weren't into hockey), but as far as single player experiences go? Good lord, did I get my money's worth out of this one.
Since Sega skipped a year to release an update of the game, I ended up gleefully playing this one for a solid two years, in the process guiding the Red Wings to THREE consecutive undefeated seasons and ultimately guiding the Kings (back when they had STEPHANE FISET in goal) to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships. Needless to say, this is a game you definitely need to check out if you have even the slightest interest in the National Hockey League.
"NBA 2K2" was one of the last true must-have releases for the Dreamcast, and it remains one of the system's finest sports games today.
For starters, the defensive schemes were completely changed up, so actual man-to-man coverage could now be a possibility. The inclusion of double-team options and half-court traps really moved the series closer towards being a technical basketball sim, and it made games - especially online - far more strategic and cerebral affairs.
Of course, there was still plenty of fun to be had on the offensive side of the ball, especially with the newfangled ability to call in-game offensive plays, like picks and crossovers. And since the game had a litany of NBA legends on the roster - including heavies such as Michael Jordan, Dr. J and Magic Johnson - there were definitely some entertaining fantasy match-ups going down at my place all the time. Heck, even if you're not a through-and-through NBA fan, you can still have tons of fun with the "Street Ball" mode - which cut into so many hours of homework time way back when that I kind of feel shameful reflecting on it.
OK, so technically, this game was PAL-only release (despite being ported to the PS2 in the States shortly after the Dreamcast's demise), but it's such an awesome, insanely underrated action game that I simply couldn't assemble a list of the system's best offerings and leave it off the table.
For the most part, the gameplay elements of "Headhunter" are cobbled together from any number of gaming franchises. You have the stealth element from "Metal Gear" and "Syphon Filter," the open-world exploration of "Grand Theft Auto," and even some light-puzzle solving, a la "Resident Evil." The gun play feels a lot like "Max Payne," which is pretty peculiar, since this game came out a good year before Rockstar's title.
But the real reason to play "Headhunter" is the story. If you're sick of the generic, "Matrix" and "Buffy" level elementary plot structures of most early 2000s games, then this game - basically, a politically charged "Blade Runner" - is a refreshing change of pace. There aren't too many Paul Verhoeven quality social satire sci-fi action games out there about class warfare and corporatism - and off the top of my head, "Headhunter" is the only one I can think of that's actually any good.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Well, you have to give Capcom all the credit in the world - when they include the word "bizarre" in the title of one of their games, that make DAMN SURE it's going to live up to the namesake.
This game is actually something of a compilation disc, as it contains two separate fighting games (the eponymous offering and an earlier iteration called "JoJo's Venture." Both games have multiple gaming modes - a story mode, a challenge mode, and of course, some multiplayer options. "JoJo" is a very solid fighting game (it's made by Capcom, how could it not be?), but that's not necessarily THE reason why you should check it out. That reason, you may be pondering? Because this game may very well be the most messed up fighting game I've ever played, that's why.
The attacks in this game are so out-there that, by comparison, it makes "Guilty Gear" look like "Fight Night." That, and the cast is absolutely amazing, from a naked gypsy named after Bette Midler that throws tractors, scissors and Cadillacs as projectiles to a dude that lets his octopus-shaped shadow do all the fighting for him to an Indiana Jones facsimile to a puppy that attacks you with its dragon aura. Really, what more could you want out of a 2D brawler than that?
The last football game released on the Dreamcast by Sega, "NFL 2K2" was our final opportunity to hear "Dan Stevens" and "Peter O'Keefe" call 78-0 blowouts on the system the "2K" series was intended for. Even today, it's a bittersweet event booting this little sucker up.
Admittedly, there wasn't that much innovation here, as the online integration and gameplay was pretty much the same as it was in 2K1. That said, I really like how some of the menus were redesigned (especially the play-selection screen), and some of the minor tweaks to the offensive side of the ball (particularly the run game), made the game an immensely enjoyable experience (albeit, one that routinely led to games with Arena Football League scores, but what the hell ever.)
Of the three 2K games released on the Dreamcast, this is definitely the one I played the least (probably because I never owned it in middle and high school.) Well it didn't have the appeal that the first two games in the series had for me, there's no denying that it's a deeply rewarding and addictive football game - and one that plays just as fantastically as it did more than a decade ago.
The Typing of the Dead
Just the concept here is reason enough to include it on the countdown. If I lived to be a million, not once would I have ever thought of merging "The House of the Dead" with "learning to type" edu-software - once and for all proving that the masterminds at Sega are no doubt some insane geniuses.
When Sega brought out it's Seganet Keyboard, I don't think anybody really expected a "House of the Dead 2" relaunch to be the peripheral's "killer app," but what do you know? Not only is "Typing of the Dead" an astonishingly weird idea for a game, it actually results in a pretty damn enjoyable title, too.
I could spend the next 10,000 words trying to explain to you the inherent weirdness/awesomeness of the game, but it's to no avail. Basically, you're getting all of the rapid-fire arcade gameplay and B-horror cheese that you'd get from a typical "House of the Dead" title, only with the characters running around with Dreamcasts tied to their backs and lugging around electro-keyboards that blast away zombies when you type in "Pickles" and "Tongue Mashing." The boss fights are particularly surreal, as you blast away giant baddies by spelling out pun-loaded sentences and absolutely bizarre phrases such as "open up your fruit cage." As unfathomable as it may sound, a degenerate version of "Mavis Beacon" really did become one of my all-time favorite Dreamcast offerings - too bad the console died out before we got "Altered Beast" revamped as a "Math Blaster" clone…
And that folks, is our update for this week. Be sure to tune in next Friday for the fourth installment of the countdown, where we will countdown #040-#021 on our ever-dwindling list of the greatest Sega Dreamcast games of all-time. Until then, don't forget: it's still thinking…
And that folks, is our update for this week. Be sure to tune in next Friday for the fourth installment of the countdown, where we will countdown #040-#021 on our ever-dwindling list of the greatest Sega Dreamcast games of all-time. Until then, don't forget: it's still thinking…


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"Bioactive polyurethanes trough new functionalisation stretegies", in Biotechnical functionalisation of renewable polymeric materials, 2007.,
"Biomaterials fabrication and processing handbook", 2008, p. –.,
"Biomimetic materials for tissue engineering through enzyme mediated protein modification", in European Polymer Congress 2007 , Portoroz, Slovenia, 2007.,
"Biomimicking of the Breast Tumor Microenvironment", Current Molecular Biology Reports, vol. 1 (2), pp. 71-76, 2015.,
"Biomimicry of PAM Microfabricated Hydrogel Scaffolds", in International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies Conference Proceedings, 2008, p. –.,
"Bone scaffolds with homogeneous and discrete gradient mechanical properties", MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. C, BIOMIMETIC MATERIALS, SENSORS AND SYSTEMS, vol. 1, pp. 28–36, 2013.,