 are made using a 3D printer.
Coleg Cambria is also using innovative laser cutting machinery to shape face masks for hospital staff.
Large supplies of goggles, gloves, aprons and face masks from the college’s science departments have been given to the NHS and local healthcare facilities.
And tables and chairs earmarked for exams have been donated to the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at Broughton to ensure social distancing as Airbus steps up its ventilator challenge and 150 people prepare to begin training and testing on-site.
More than 50 visors can be printed per day.
Chief Executive Yana Williams thanked staff for their contribution and ingenuity in going “over and above” to support essential workers and frontline staff in the region.
“We are at the heart of the community so it’s important we do all we can to help those who need it most during this extraordinary and challenging period in our lives,” said Ms Williams.
“I am overawed by the kindness, as always, of our amazing staff, but also their ability and inventiveness in finding ways to provide a solution to what is a national issue.
“We will continue to do all we can to support and inspire those who need it most and hope all of our students and staff at home self-isolating remain safe and well.
Visit www.cambria.ac.uk for the latest from Coleg Cambria and how to apply online for courses and qualifications.The program creates a tangible opportunity where the students can be matched to a mentor that will expose them to professional life after graduation. Students will be able to explore career opportunities that exist within the Pittsburgh region, learn how to network and get connected to professionals. Mentors will serve as coaches, advisers and connectors, helping students expand their networks and prepare for the transition from college to career.
Click HERE to go to the Mentorship Program platform for more information and to register as a mentee or volunteer mentor.David Kweksilber’s playing takes him from Mozart to mach 5 improv. He enjoys the rich sound world and musical possibilities of all saxophones and clarinets. He is a member of New Cool Collective Big Band, Asko|Schönberg, and a diverse array of chamber music groups/bands. His David Kweksilber Big Band, consisting of 25 soloists from jazz and contemporary music, plays new music with improvisation. As of now 140 compositions have been written for the DKBB by a wide palette of composers, jazz and classical, resulting in a unique repertoire celebrating music of the moment.
I started this post two weeks ago now but then the weather stole my internet and was quickly followed by Storm Jake keeping it away and an impromptu trip to see family in England delayed access even more. Life really does not like me attempting to get organised about things!!!
I spent the beginning of February experimenting with my new stash of cotton yarn. It called out to be made into Mandalas. And Mothers Day seemed the perfect excuse to make loads! Not that any of them actually made it anywhere. They have been sat slightly forlornly on the sitting room window sill since I finished them. I’ll find a home for them eventually.
The patterns for the top Mandalas and the hearts can both be found for free online here and here. The last mandala is from Simply Crochet issue 14 and the ravelry page for it is here.
I’ve also been busy adding loads and loads of small granny squares to my little sisters Birthday present. I’m allowed to share it on here because as it is now 6 months late she receives progress updates rather than waiting for the surprise. Starting it 3 weeks before her birthday really was a little bit over optimistic. Since this pic was taken I’ve joined enough squares for it to be 3 rows deep on 2 ends and 2 rows on the other. And I’ve finally sewn in most of the ends. I need make more squares though, as the blanket needs be square to make the rest of the pattern work without putting in any odd extra rows. I’ve been working on it for so long now that I am so so so impatient to get to the next section. Unfortunately I’m too much of a perfectionist to cut corners. So more squares must be made.
I’ve also been experimenting with felting some projects. They are currently in the washing machine so fingers crossed they work out!
These are beautiful! I have been looking for a larger mandala pattern for a while – as I have been using thread not wool I keep using a standard pattern and ending up with tiny mandalas!
I’m so tempted to try some of these in thread! I’ve never worked with anything thinner than 4ply. Really like the look of thinner and more delicate plys. Have you looked on Ravelry? I’ve made a few mandalas from there with dk that were designed for thread. Theres quite a few thread doily patterns there.
I keep seeing links to Ravelry but haven’t signed up yet, I feel like I’m missing a trick! I really like using thread, it looks really neat and delicate!BIGBEN and EKO Software’s Warhammer Chaosbane wears its inspirations on its sleeve. There is no question whatsoever that the team behind Chaosbane took a long, hard look at Diablo 3 – studying the things they enjoyed and determining what tweaks they could add to give their game its own identity. The end result is a mixed bag – a very solid foundation for further installments that feels as though some of those tweaks should be un-tweaked.
Dungeon-crawling and loot-gathering are inherently fun, and Warhammer Chaosbane hits all the notes needed to keep the action flowing, but long time fans of the genre may find themselves longing for a bit more variety as the game wears on.
Starting Chaosbane, players are able to choose between four archetypical fantasy characters – a relatively small stable for a game of this type. There are a snooty high-elf wizard, a dwarf berserker, a ranger, and a general soldier-type. While this selection is somewhat limited, each of these characters has an extensive set of both active and passive skills to learn, enabling any number of specialized builds.
Speaking of builds, how about a build that focuses on BREATHING FIRE?
Warhammer Chaosbane is broken up into several chapters, each of which contains twelve or so missions, culminating in a fairly complex boss fight. In between missions, the player is shuttled back to a hub area to sell off spare loot, watch a bit of story-based dialogue, and then head back out into the fray. The hub areas are nicely drawn, but don’t offer much to do beyond chatting with the local leader and unloading your junk.
Missions are played out in beautifully rendered environments – but here is where some of the cracks in Chaosbane’s armor start appearing. Each hub world has an accompanying specific mission environment. The first hub sends you into the sewers, the second into the cursed, burning city of Praag, the third into a snowy forest, and so on.
Each of these environments has a number of templated background tiles, which are shuffled and re-shuffled for each mission. Once you have gone into the sewers for the first few missions, you have seen all of the tiles several times in several configurations. Then the game sends you into the sewers seven or eight more times, fighting your way through the same enemies in the same environment, and picking up a lot of similar loot.
It is still fun to wade into an ocean of bad guys, firing off AOE attacks and wiping out entire populations in seconds. Just don’t expect new levels of visual splendor as you do so. The levels are appropriately grimdark – in keeping with the franchise – but the gloom does become a bit relentless after some time. And the fact that they are entering a sewer remix for the umpteenth time might have players rolling their eyes a bit.
I chose to go with the elf mage, leaning heavily on his fire-based skills and sinking most of my skill points into developing those attacks. Each character has a special ability mapped to the right stick, and the mage has the ability to direct his spells. While the AI help out a bit, directing your projectiles if you don’t want to bother, you will find yourself infinitely more effective if you take full advantage of your abilities.
 Of course, the fact that I did this endlessly prevented me from using some of my other more advanced skills, but it just works so darn well.
Hmmm…looks like some monsters are getting close. Did I mention that I BREATHE FIRE?
And that’s the rub with the skills in Warhammer Chaosbane. The game forces you to choose where to sink your acquired skill points in such specialized ways that it starts to feel restrictive.
Here’s how it works: each character has a number of ability slots. There are six slots for active abilities, which are mapped to various buttons on the DualShock. There are three slots for passive abilities – buffs and such. Skill points are doled out each time your character pops a level. Things start out just fine, but before long you will start feeling the squeeze. For most of the game, you are sorely low on skill points, to the point where I always had several active ability slots left completely empty in order to prioritize my points into buffs.
To be fair, the skill points can be allocated and re-allocated at will, giving the player the ability to change things around