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In addition, we also keep track of requests for assets and make them available to our community of authors. Here are some matching requests that you can vote for or comment on.
Asset Requests
An asset that enables you to insert different values for parameters, and then it creates a playblast using them, which is them combined into one file. A good example is something like Pyro or Fluid settings, as you could look develop different values, and then see the results all at once in one video file.
Tool set to build, texture and animate trees, bushes, plants etc. something along the lines of speed tree functionality ( not asking too much )
There should be a crowd asset from Houdini pipeline. All available crowd plugins are not that handy of what Houdini based OTL will be. There should be self collision with a path map and some controls for speed variation, motion offsets. It needs support Houdini Engine for Maya.
Ice crystals and other crystals that can grow procedurally.
I would love to have a tool that help Baking Maps, like Illumination, Ambient occlusion, Normals, etc, that can me used in game engines.
Hello hello, I'm a houdini newbie trying to recreate a fluid dynamic called Rayleigh-Benard Convection where in a fluid container there is a temperature gradient between the top and bottom layers. This gradient produces a flow that creates these beautiful cells to form that I want to render. References below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93B%C3%A9nard_convection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0l2YPVMf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=v2vMXmuC818 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-yXOEsDivs Any help or direction to go in with Houdini would be wonderful! Will pay for a working asset!
Please, someone make an asset to up-res an Flip simulation, in total, or in defined bbox areas. Thanks!
Something like https://vimeo.com/72472846, https://vimeo.com/81464923, http://www.basefount.com/miarmy.html, http://golaem.com/
Spherical camera for c4d that works with physical/standard renderer.Similar function to vray dome camera.
I would love for something in the lines of this script for 3ds max: http://vimeo.com/102691168 I think its something that a quality Houdini asset would do as good as if not better. Its something that benefits any scene and saves artists time.
A tool to create rock procedurally using noise maps.
The compact car HDA seems more functional than the older vehicle rig HDA, however it would be good if this asset was converted into a more versatile one, easy to apply to any car model.
Would be nice to have an asset that allow multiple lighting setup at a single click with tools to chose the size and scale of the setup and containing many setup based on real life professional studio photography.
I would like to have an asset to measure the world space between any two points. You should be able to toggle between inches, feet, meters etc. with a simple dropdown. Helps me gauge real world size. It could work very similarly to mayas distance tool.
I'm looking for an asset which is able to model the mixing of particles, each with different assignable interaction parameters and density.
Need An Airplane Cockpit For Free
Procedurally generate characters using tools similar to those found in The Sims, Saint's Row, makehuman.org and Mixamo's new "Fuse". Body types can be generated by blending in different attributes, like sex, height, muscle & fat. Face structure can be customized using attributes like mouth width, eye spacing, forehead height, etc. However, customization tools can go beyond this by utilizing many of Houdini's built in tools. Skeleton & generated mesh can be exported in formats that are compatable with packages and services like Unity or Maya. Examples MakeHuman (open source) http://makehuman.org SIMS - character creation walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPE00whn2VI Mixamo's FUSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSLe5_CQ9os
glass cup
I'm sure many people have seen the cool work done by Freek Hoekstra and Mark Knoop ( source http://freekhoekstra.blogspot.co.at/2013/04/housebuilding-creator-toolset-demo.html ) - would really like to see this kind of asset on Orbolt.com An asset where you have a basic polygon shape, defining the outer walls, with windows, inner walls and the furniture (all of course tweak-able and fully procedural).
a procedural tree/plant making tool would be great, where you have enough control to create low rez, high rez and customization assets that can be photoreal or art directed to be more stylized.
I've been looking for an importer that can import libraries of Real Displacement Textures. There should be something universal -game engines have them, Mari has their own for RDT etc Usually the importer will allow you to specify a naming convention with for example anything that has _nm or _normalmap will be read from the textures and automatically imported for the right channel(s) I have thousands of textures not only from RDT but others as well and it would be insane to import them all 1 by 1. With RDT correct displacement levels should be applied. With RDT textures the naming convention is a suffix of _AO_8k.jpg Bump_8K.jpg _COLOR_8k.jpg _HI-GLOSS_8k.jpg (metallic) _NORMAL_8k.jpg _ROUGHNESS_8k.jpg _DEPTH_8k.tif Displacement is greybased .5 displaced inward & outward.
It would be great to have some prebuilt tools for motion graphics. Something like MoGraph in Cinema4D but on steroids.
I am looking for a tool that can roll and unroll an surface like a roll of paper
as seen here for example http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/volumetric-cloud-max/1061749
An asset that would allow morphing between multiple geometry that have velocities/direction controlled by a particle system or spring node. Allowing something like paper or ash to morph into birds. Not easy I'm sure.
I want a lamp post with all possible parameter.
Hello there :) I need exactly this Sun Asset done here like it is seen in the Tutorial. You may ask, why I just dont do it after the tutorial, the answer is, its incomplete. So anybody who is able to make such a sun asset with large sun erruptions should please contact me asap. We will discuss the pricing and creation time frame accordingly to the client needs. Thanks a lot for your time dudes, iam looking forward to hear from you soon. Cheers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUbAuK0B-s&t=4s
A tool to automate render settings in Mantra with lots of presets for different scenario: effets, interior, exterior, texture with lots of details, motion blur, preview render etc.
Camera rig that simulates motion and movement to real film cameras to get similar cinematic and dynamic shots
an autorig for the typical issues encountered in a bird rig asset, flexible enough to cover hummingbirds and ostriches. Slots for manually modeled flight feathers, IK/FK head and neck with manully determined number of control points, wing open/close poses that can be then tweaked so that they fit in pose.
A useful Orbolt tool would be a utility that eases the import/export of sculpting data from a standalone application like ZBrush or Mudbox. It could transfer the base subdivision mesh and automate the process of aligning texture and displacement maps. https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=33778
Like UNFOLD3D , have Advanced algorithm. At lest it must have "Least squares conformal map (LSCM)" algorithm. Houdini never have LSCM uv tool. Procedure modeling is very inconvenient.
A procedural paint assets where you can paint brush strokes on surfaces or in the viewport that generate geometry based on preset settings. This can be used to make trees on ground, flowers, grass, hair, buildings or whatever you like. The idea is that the asset comes with a couple of good presets with customizable attributes but it should also be easy to create your own presets and share it with the community.
I would like to import molecular format. http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do http://www.wwpdb.org/documentation/annotation
A tool that automatically creates decimated meshes and resizes textures based on the camera distance or user specifications.
Would be great to have a caves generator: you set splines and you get a procedurally generated caves something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfqAJSBm2I
Hello everyone, I recently started using Houdini for a test, how can I connect the edges between segments that I created through Voronoi fracture? I want to get something similar to what Akira Saito is doing, generating a hard surface, but without any unnecessary settings for me . Just connect the edges, it is better with 1 segment in the middle but it can be without. Here is the model now: https://ibb.co/9V94xPf This is how the model should look like: https://ibb.co/GRNwBZg https://ibb.co/j6kgwqX Thanks in advance for the answers
Insert edge flow, or make edge loop match curvature. Houdini's polysplit doesn't have this curvature option. This is a function used oftenly when modeling, so please help !!! Thanks in advance
trying to make a hybrid minotaur wereboar
An asset to create a layer of snow on any object would be great. From thin to thick, dry or wet any type of snow.
I need an Asset to creates underwater bubbles based on pyro simulations here is the example: https://vimeo.com/80782713
Rain, snow, fog and dust with some optional collisions could be really handy...
Hello Friends I am looking for Super Sweep node. Its not visible in the assets menu. Please help
Upgrade Houdini file from non commercial file to commercial version.. I guess very clear what it is supposed to do isn it? Yes, its a really a pity, why isn it notpossible or you have to use so much tricks? And what about people who start using a non commercial version and whoare switching after? Such time lost indeed... Looking forward your suggestion and opinion, cheers email@example.com
What happened to CityGen? Would like something like that created again, more advanced but as it was, it was a quick and dirty way to check shading.
Rain that can be set from light rain to torrential rain. Thrown in light with random (to simulate lightning) for good measure.
It is very common to see many TDs trying to optimize their collision meshes. Most people and new users tends to use only the Shelf tools to make collision geo, but in most cases the default settings are not enough either the SDF wont have enough res or wont cover the geo etc, Then we go the VDB way convert to VDB add the fields, connect it to the solver etc. Change the Volume to -1 all the other stuff. What I am suggesting is to have a Tool that outputs an accurate representation of the Collision Geometry that would work on whatever solver is requesting it. With easy way to visualize it.
Toolset for 1) creating virtual HDR Lightsetups similar to the Hdrlightstudio and 2) a smart asset for an HDR workflow, like SPI "localized HDR Lighting" (which is the extraction of very light areas of an HDR Image including the possibilty to position these extracted area lights localized in 3D scene) A smart asset solution could enhance and add to the classical HDR workflow.
Just a typical quadruped dragon model that can be animated. If you want to go the extra mile scaling properties for the neck wings tail, etc. would be nice. Also, I don't know it this can be done, but if someone could create a way to choose overall muscle and bulk values like in DAZ Studio, that would be exceptional.
Quick tool for fracture, Debris And Dust Generator, houdini is powerful and is time that Vfx artist or ohter 3d package see it. this tool with option for Fracture (from image, path based, total voronoi fracture, etc.) glue option for segments, plus 1: emit debris from pieces, plus 2 emit dust. plus 3 Geo displacement. Like rayfire or PDI wtih the plus of debris & dust / smoke emition from pieces http://rayfirestudios.com/ http://www.pulldownit.com/ fracture with dust reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEPEz83t8Kg
Can anyone build this in Houdini? Set up so that you just need to drag your static object boat around, and the foam/spray gets calculated in a Flip tank, and rendered with the underlying ocean?
A full package of physically accurate (energy conserving) procedural mantra materials would be great to have. Each material could have procedural displacement maps and parametric attributes in order to give artistic freedom and also be ready to use. It may contain woods, metals, plastics, organic surfaces, rough surfaces etc. I believe no other software package has such a backbone as houdini to achieve a procedural diversity in a material asset package.


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Country newcomer Jana Kramer has made quite a splash with her debut single, "Why Ya Wanna."
The lead single from Jana's self-titled debut album (which was released this past June), "Why Ya Wanna" has been working its way up the country charts all summer. Just this week, it reached an impressive Number 3 on the country singles chart. And in doing so, the song broke a record previously owned by Taylor Swift.
Talking to CBS Local this week from her home in Nashville, Jana explained exactly what that record-breaking feat was all about.
"Taylor's first single was 'Tim McGraw,'" she says. "It went to Number 5 on the Mediabase chart. And that's the highest that any female has been able to get" with their debut single. "Why Ya Wanna," though, has made it two notches further–thus breaking the record.
"Of course we're shooting for Number One," Jana says, but at the same time, she's more than thrilled with how well the song has done already. (On top of the chart success, the single has also gone gold.)
"The fact that we got to where we're at [on the chart] has just been crazy. It just shows that the Warner staff has been great [she is signed to Warner Music Nashville]. And country radio embracing it the way they have, I'm super thankful."
Another thing that Jana is grateful for is the role she previously held as Alex Dupre on the TV show One Tree Hill. Because the role evolved into that of a singer, One Tree Hill wound up serving as a fantastic launching pad for Jana's music career–which, after years of acting in TV and movies, she had decided was the career she was most eager to pursue.
At one point, she says, "I told the [One Tree Hill] creator, 'I've been going to Nashville, and I really want to be a singer, so when the show's over I'm gonna do the music.' He listened to the songs, and that's when he turned my character into a singer on the show. And I'm super grateful for that, because it gave me more eyes in Nashville. It helped me out."
"Why Ya Wanna" was one of three songs that she says were offered for her character to initially sing on the show, but they ultimately went with a song called "Whiskey." That song–which is also on Jana's debut album–is now set to be Jana's next radio single.
"Whiskey" was written by Catt Gravitt, the same songwriter behind "Why Ya Wanna." (Gravitt has written songs for Jake Owen, Edens Edge, and Kelly Clarkson, among many others.)
"She's a very dear friend of mine," Jana says of Catt. "We'd written a bunch of songs together, too. And when I heard ['Whiskey'] I was like, 'oh please can I have that.'"
Jana Kramer is currently on tour through early December.
– Kurt Wolff, CBS Local

subset: commoncrawl


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SwaggaBoys (BayAreasOwn) Strength To Walk Away - 3 Life Scenarios [Unsigned Hype]
Website: OfficialSwaggaBoys.com
DownLoad Free MixTape (Sweat&Blood) on Datpiff/Swaggaboys2011
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Hello SD Aunt!Faster horses wrote:He always answers prayers, SB, just not always the way we want.
Yes, you are right about God answering our prayers. In His time not my own. I know He does because when I hear my mom talk about Jesus, I can hear the excitement in her voice and I am in awe because God answered that prayer. Define Thanksgiving, my passion for God was uncomfortable and now, we can share it with each other and talk about God in a way I never though possible. She sent me a book titled "Waiting on God" and it arrived on Saturday. I know God is using this book to speak to me; I have learned soooo much about Him and " why" the waiting is needed.
There are 5 reasons God asks of us to wait:
1. " Listen to the Father and receive His clear direction"
2. "Walking in step with the Lord's schedule"
3. " To prepare for his blessings"
4. "To strengthened our faith"
5. "To sift our motives and desires"
I know that he is definitely working on numbers 2 and 4 in my life.
May you'll have a blessed week,


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I wanted to just write something quick for one of my new favorite fried chicken places in the city - Sweet Chick! I never made it to the Williamsburg location when I lived in that neighborhood, but finally, I could not resist the lure of their chicken and waffles any longer after finding their LES spot.
THREE delicious flavored butters come with your waffle order (our flavors were lemon - my favorite, berry and herb), and it is well worth your while to try each and every one of them with your waffle.
Okay, bossy (just kidding, I love you very much)! The chicken is good!! Nice and crispy, a little thin on the batter but plenty crunchy, and well-seasoned.
But the real perk is the waffle. Crispy and light and perfect to soak up all that BUTTERRRRR. I put a little pat in each cube and then drench all that in syrup, but you feel free to eat it however you like (just make sure you use all that BUTTERRRR).
And definitely! Save room for dessert !! !!! ! !!
The toffee pudding is the best - a jarful of HOT HEAVEN drenched in toffee caramel and oozy goozy yumminess.
The peanut butter pie is a healthy portion of love in a bowl also, but gets quickly outshined by the toffee pudding. Please. eat. that. now.
I've since been to both locations of Sweet Chick (LES one takes reservations!) and love them both, because the chicken is consistent, the butters remain amazing, and the toffee pudding keeps me going on in life, because just knowing it is always there is all I need in life.
Han's Nonsensical Rating: Solid fried chicken, perfect waffles, and incredible toffee pudding.
178 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002


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Devoxx4Kids Raspberry Pi and NAO Workshopsteveonjava | February 19, 2014
With the help of some local parents, I ran a Raspberry Pi and NAO Robot workshop for teach programming to 10-14 year old children. By the end of the 4 hour session, all of the kids were able to assemble a Raspberry Pi and touchscreen, program changes to a simple Java-based game, and create behaviors that ran on the NAO humanoid robot. Not bad for a sleepy vacation day. 🙂
We were fortunate enough to the team from Aldebaran Robotics who flew in all the way from France to help out. Also, the kids were great, exceeding my expectations, and even impressing the Aldebaran guys.
Here are some photos from the event:
The updated slide deck for teaching Java on the Raspberry Pi is here:
And the English translated version of the NAO robotics programming workshop is here:
(Credit to Daniel De Luca for content creation and Nicolas Rigaud on translation)
Special thanks to Nina Shulman for all her hard work coordinating the workshop!


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Getting lucky: Two locals scheme for fame
SC on the Boombox
January 3, 2004
If talent were the deciding factor in who became the next radio mega star, I probably would listen to the radio more often. It takes more than talent. It takes networking, business savvy, and a little luck.
A few years back, luck fell into the hands of one local MC by the name of Anonymous. A major label had come to scout his group. The label set the group up with a studio in a plush hotel. But at the time, Anonymous and his crew weren't ready. His producer wasn't familiar with the high dollar equipment staring them in the face. And so, alas, that opportunity was blown because of youth and inexperience.
Anonymous spent the next few years traveling around Virginia linking up with various local crews. He's laid tracks from Norfolk to Petersburg and stops in between. Most recently he's found a partner in Scheme, a producer with talent beyond his means.
The two linked up doing songs over the phone- Scheme would beat-box to Anonymous' rhymes. Eventually Scheme invested in a Casio keyboard and began constructing beats electronically. It wasn't long before the two had enough material to put together an EP.
The lo-fi sound of the EP only adds to the gritty content of Anonymous' verses and Scheme's multi-layered production. Together they have produced hard-core hiphop that stands out as something much fresher and more original than the majority of the garbage being pumped on the street right now.
I met Scheme months ago through the it's-a-small-world network. It was in front of the Lucky Seven on Market, and he was excited to have finally finished the EP. He popped it in my stereo right there.
This past weekend, I met Anonymous playing basketball at Washington Park. He mentioned he rapped. I asked him to play me his stuff, and I recognized the sound instantly as what I had heard at the Lucky Seven. He and Scheme were headed over to WNRN, 91.9, that night to play a few songs for the BoomBox show, so I met them down there.
The vibe was incredible. Taking the first of many steps to make their dream come true, they had already hit the streets, and now they had locked down a little radio play. With a lot of work and a little luck, the group, Supreme Council, will be in the right position to call the shots the next time a major label comes to town.
Scheme and Anonymous jamming


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Hotels in San Juan
Find a place to stay
Top neighborhoods in San Juan
Top landmarks in San Juan
Find out more about San Juan
Reaching out into the vast blue Atlantic Ocean, San Juan is a busy city with white, high-rise hotels perched on perfect sandy beaches with blue seas and swaying palm trees. This means your vacation schedule can be packed full of lazy days in the sunshine, shopping, exploring historic sights, followed by partying the night away in the many stylish clubs and bars around the city.
Things to see
On the north coast of Puerto Rico, you'll find Old San Juan, an island connected to the mainland by bridges. This is the oldest settlement in the country, with narrow, winding streets full of colorful buildings, and brick paved roads leading down to the coast. Condado Beach is a long, sandy beach with some areas offering rocks and rough waves, and others with pristine beaches and shallow waters. Not far east you'll also find Ocean Park, a popular spot with windsurfers and other water sports enthusiasts, with a palm tree lined shore that's perfect for relaxing. If you've forgotten to pack anything, or just need some retail therapy, head to Plaza las Americas, an upscale mall with 3 floors of stores from around the world. Many American favorites are here, including major department stores, and the bright modern building is full of tall palm trees, bringing the outdoors inside.
Hotels in San Juan
San Juan is host to many major resorts which have everything you need for a relaxing vacation. With outdoor pools featuring swim up bars and waterslides, casinos, fitness centers, and several restaurants, you don't even need to leave the resort if you don't want to. These San Juan hotels often have rooms with balconies and extras such as flatscreen televisions, coffee makes, in-room safes, free WiFi, and room service. Those on a tight budget could look for the smaller, independent hotels, many of which are still close to the seafront. With extras such as complimentary breakfast, tea and coffee in the lobbies, guest parking, and air-conditioned rooms, these properties offer a comfortable stay at a reasonable price.
Where to stay
Condado is set on the oceanfront, with many pedestrianized areas and high-quality resorts. The area features many high-end boutiques and nightclubs, with luxurious homes and apartment buildings wherever you look. Isla Verde is a popular resort due to its sandy beaches and blue oceans, and as you walk along the sea front you'll see many larger hotel chains in amongst more traditional, colorful buildings. San Juan Antiguo is an area in the old part of the city with dramatic cliffs and rocky areas surrounding the harbor, and pleasant streets full of traditional, colorful buildings packed into narrow spaces.
How to get to San Juan
San Juan (SIG-Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci) is a small airport with connections to local islands, making it ideal for those who are traveling around the area. Most international flights arrive via San Juan International Airport, which is less than 15 minutes away from the heart of San Juan by car or taxi, and there are plenty of rental car desks in each terminal. If you're booked to stay in one of the major hotels or resorts, then a shuttle service is sometimes provided, otherwise you can easily book a private shuttle to take you door to door.


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'Jane By Design' Creator: What Fans Would Have Seen In Season 2
Creator April Blair reveals what she had planned for Jane & Billy's first kiss, Ben & Rita's race to the altar, and more.
Jane By Design fans were crushed last week when ABC Family announced the show wouldn't be returning for a second season — I coped with carbs — but fortunately, creator April Blair was more than happy to give HollywoodLife.com an exclusive breakdown of what we would have seen in season two. And trust me, it would have been awesome.
1. Eli to the rescue: Curious how Jane (Erica Dasher) was going to explain to Gray (Andie MacDowell) and Eli (Bryan Dechart) why she was backstage at a high-school play? "Our idea was that Eli was going to cover for her," April says. "There were moments in episode 18 where he looked at the costumes crookedly, and throughout the play he pieced it together."
2. Jane & Billy's big moment: It sounds like Jane and Billy's (Nick Roux) shippers would have been very happy with the show's second season. "For two [finales], we really pulled the rug out from under people," April admits. "But [in the second season], we wanted to give people that kiss, the moment they both acknowledge they have feelings for each other. We were really excited to do that, and give that to the fans."
3. Wedding bells for Ben & Rita: April says there was a lot of discussion about Ben's (David Clayton Rogers) future with Rita (Smith Cho), now that he decided to stay in town: "Do they get engaged? Will Rita become a bit of a bridezilla, obsessed with planning her wedding? We definitely wanted to have Ben propose next season."
4. Jeremy & India: Things between Jeremy (Rowly Dennis) and India (India de Beaufort) would only become more complicated in season two. "Jeremy would come back and start his own independent label, becoming a competitor for Donovan Decker," April reveals. "His romance with India would grow, and they would become more serious — but at the same time, they would become professional rivals."
5. Amanda, please: Amanda Clark (Briga Heelan) may not have found love with Ben, but April says there would definitely have been romance in her future. "We were thinking of maybe having Amanda begin dating Todd [the other teacher originally vying for Rita's attention], and it would become a competitive couple thing. When you're engaged or dating, you always have a friend that tries to one-up you. So we'd keep Amanda and Rita's competition alive, but it would be less about Ben, and more about the rivalry between the two women."
6. Mom's back: "We were hoping to have [Jane's mom] make a reappearance," April says. Teri Hatcher was contracted to direct an episode of season two, but actually having her appear as Kate in front of the camera "would really be subject to Teri's availability."
How do you feel about Jane ending before its time was really up? Which of these potential story lines would you have loved to see? Drop me a comment with your thoughts! (We can get through this together.)
— Andy Swift
More Jane By Design:


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Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter
Who Will Handle the Wages?
Once Xuan Tian Ming said this, some people immediately rushed over to Chen Yu and picked her up off the ground. Without worrying if she was conscious or unconscious, they dragged her along the ground and walked toward the palace's main gates. There were still some people that could not bear to watch this. After all, Chen Yu's face was too beautiful. It was so beautiful that it caused a large number of people to both forget and forgive all of the things that she had done.
Feng Chen Yu woke up while being dragged along. After glancing around the crowd, she immediately noticed their solemn expressions. She had always known how to make use of her own appearance. Even though she was in a terrible state, she was still able to cast a wink at the people that had pitied her because of her looks. This caused three people to immediately say in unison: "Wait, wait a moment!" Then, one of them spoke toward the hall and pleaded on her behalf, saying: "Perhaps eldest young miss Feng has been plotted against by someone. Please forgive her! She…"
Before he could even finish speaking, a figure suddenly rushed from inside the hall. Nobody could get a clear look, but they only saw that figure flick a whip right at the person that had pleaded for her forgiveness. In the blink of an eye, the person that had been speaking suddenly stopped. His mouth was opened, and a bloody tongue was ripped out immediately after by the whip.
That person passed away after losing his tongue. When he fell, the last thing he saw was a face covered by a gold mask.
"Is there anyone else who wishes to plead for Feng Chen Yu?" Xuan Tian Ming stood in the middle of the yard and looked around the crowd. The whip in his hand was still curled around that person's tongue.
The other two that had also been pleading had lowered their heads long ago. They no longer dared to say another word. Just a simple plea caused that person to lose his life. Someone recognized the person that had been whipped to death. It was actually a secondary-class second rank official. Everyone knew how much time and effort was required to climb to such a position. In the end, dying like this, was it not regrettable?
Feng Chen Yu was already dragged away, and the heartbreaking cries suddenly stopped. All that remained was the celebratory atmosphere that had cooled off. Princess Xiang took the initiative to stand in the yard and raise her voice, saying: "Today's matter is a great humiliation for my Xiang Palace. For the secondary princess being brought in to not have been inspected beforehand was my mistake as the official princess. I will naturally go into the imperial palace to beg for forgiveness from father Emperor. Would everyone please go back."
With an order for the guests to leave, nobody had any reason to remain. The third prince had already become furious, and the ninth prince had already begun killing people. If they continued to remain, they feared that there would be a bad outcome.
Everyone left, including the princes, who had returned to their own palaces. Yu Qian Yin tugged on Xuan Tian Hua's sleeve and said: "Seventh brother, let's go back too."
Xuan Tian Hua glanced at her but did not say anything; however, he began walking out. When passing by Xuan Tian Ming, he only said: "We will be going back first." Thus he left the Xiang Palace with Yu Qian Yin.
This was the first time that Feng Yu Heng had paid attention to Yu Qian Yin's parting figure. She always felt that it was a bit familiar; however, she was unable to understand where this familiarity came from.
At this time, the palace's granny also bid farewell and left. Princess Xiang glanced at Feng Yu Heng then turned to Feng Jin Yuan and said: "Having tarnished the imperial family's reputation, I will be going into the palace to beg for forgiveness. Lord Feng shouldn't be thinking of fleeing the battle, right?"
Feng Jin Yuan spoke with a solemn expression: "This prime minister will naturally be going into the palace along with princess." Although he said this, he had absolutely no grasp of this situation. He subconsciously turned his gaze to the Cheng shi sisters; however, those two did not look at him in the slightest. Instead, both were talking with Feng Yu Heng. There was nothing that Feng Jin Yuan could do aside from sigh and follow Princess Xiang out.
Xuan Tian Ming pulled on Feng Yu Heng's hand, "Let's return. The fengshui in this place is bad."
These words nearly caused the third prince's lungs to explode from anger, as he then heard Feng Yu Heng say: "I originally thought that since this was my own sister getting married, and she would be marrying third brother. I thought that I would return the jade mine. Who knew that this sort of thing would happen. It seems that the heavens do not want me to go bankrupt!" After saying this, she slyly laughed then followed Xuan Tian Ming and swaggered off. The Cheng shi sisters followed behind them and returned to the Feng manor.
Inside the Xiang Palace, the red silk banners were still hanging, and the word fortune was also hung up. The third prince's wedding robe was still on his body, but it was no longer lively. The entire area was filled with a deathly silence. In fact, not a single person spoke. Even Duan Mu Qing was completely silent.
Not long later, one of the musicians summoned some courage and went forward, carefully asking: "May I ask, who should I speak to in order to settle the troupe's wages?"
When Feng Yu Heng and the Cheng shi sisters returned to the Feng manor, the matriarch led everyone to wait at the manor's entrance. Seeing the three return, she immediately went forward to ask. Cheng Jun Man pulled the matriarch back to Peony courtyard's main hall. At the same time, she recited everything that had happened at the Xiang Palace.
There was nothing for her to avoid speaking about. This matter would most likely spread around the entire capital.
When the matriarch entered the hall, she did not even have a chance to sit down before she fell from hearing this news. Cheng Jun Man did not have a good grasp on her, and the matriarch dropped to the ground. Following this, she endlessly screamed: "What sort of sin was committed! Exactly what sort of sin was committed!"
Fen Dai listened to this and felt that the situation was not quite right. Based on Feng Chen Yu's personality, if she was not certain that her body had already recovered completely, she would not dare to marry into the Xiang Palace with that much confidence. Could it be that someone had done something?
Subconsciously glancing in Feng Yu Heng's direction, she found that her second sister was sitting there and drinking tea, as though nothing had happened. Fen Dai thought about it in her mind, and the desire to ridicule Feng Chen Yu disappeared. She just sat at Han shi's side while listening to the matriarch endlessly cry.
The matriarch cried for a while then felt that there was no longer any point. After thinking, who knew how she was thinking, but she suddenly pointed at Feng Yu Heng and loudly asked: "You were also there at that time. Why did you not help speak up for your eldest sister? She was clearly harmed by someone, she…" As she spoke, the matriarch suddenly recalled how Feng Jin Yuan had previously told her that Chen Yu had clearly told him that she had recovered completely, and the person that had helped her was Feng Yu Heng. At that time, they were very at ease and very assured. Now, this sort of thing happened. Could it be that it was Feng Yu Heng that had done this? Once this thought surfaced, no matter how she thought, she felt that this was the case. The matriarch suddenly became infuriated and let out a yelp before screaming: "It was you! Right? It was you that wanted to kill your eldest sister!"
Feng Yu Heng suddenly slammed her cup of tea on the table. This large and sudden movement caused everyone to leap in fear.
The matriarch trembled. At first, she wanted to say a few more words, but the words that had reached her lips were forcefully swallowed back down, nearly causing her to bite her own tongue. She began to feel regret. Chen Yu was already worthless, yet she had questioned Feng Yu Heng for the sake of a worthless person. Had she gone crazy?
While thinking, Feng Yu Heng stood up and walked over toward her. Her gaze was a sharp as a knife, scaring the matriarch into wanting to retreat, but Chen Jun Mei was supporting her from behind, leaving her no place to run.
Finally, Feng Yu Heng arrived in front of her. Squatting down, she partially kneeled on one knee. Looking forward, a cold air surged forth, causing the matriarch's teeth to endlessly chatter.
Feng Yu Heng gently used her hand to support the matriarch's hand and said: "Don't be scared."
She said not to be scared, but the matriarch became even more scared.
Feng Yu Heng laughed, "Could it be that you feel that you have misspoken? Otherwise, why would you become so scared like this? A-Heng is not a man-eating monster. The reason you are afraid of me is that you have a guilty conscience. What do you mean I want to harm my eldest sister? Grandmother, you could have learned from anyone, yet you had to learn from father. With blinded eyes and a biased heart, even when you have gone to hell, King Yama will not forgive you!"
The matriarch's entire body trembled. She moved her arm a few times to try and get out of Feng Yu Heng's grasp; however, this was a wasted effort. It did not look like Feng Yu Heng put in much strength, but it was as though her hand was held in a vice. After being clamped, it would not be released. She turned to request help from the Cheng shi sisters, but the two shook their heads in unison, expressing that they were powerless.
Presently, in the Feng manor, under Feng Yu Heng's oppression, there was nobody that could help the matriarch. Moreover, the matriarch's earlier words were not very well received. It was exactly as Feng Yu Heng had asked, what did she mean by trying to harm Feng Chen Yu? Feng Chen Yu was the one that sought death by doing such a shameless thing. If it was seen through, the blame would be tossed on someone else?
An shi coldly said: "If it really is like this, second young miss is the one that has been harmed the entire time. For her to be able to live until today, that was truly not easy."
Feng Yu Heng curled her lips up into a sneer, beginning to provide examples for the matriarch. She started with the driver that was to bring her back to the manor, all the way to Feng Chen Yu collaborating with the Chen family to kill Zi Rui. One by one, she listed out the attempts clearly. In fact, she was even able to provide the day, time, the mastermind and accomplices of each event, as well as who was favored afterward. It was as though there was not a single thing in this world that could escape her eyes.
Everyone in the Feng family sat there, listening in shock. By the end, even Fen Dai began to agree with what An shi had said. Along the way, the one that had been harmed the most was Feng Yu Heng!
"To be able to live until today is thanks to my ability." Feng Yu Heng let go of the matriarch's hand then stood up straight. Raising her body, she looked down, "That's why you should not hope that I feel any gratitude in my heart. Me not taking revenge is already enough of a grace. Feng Chen Yu deserved her punishment. Treat it as a warning. If the Feng family is sensible, I will keep our familial relations in mind and allow you to live peacefully. But if you do not know how to do this, you should not fear me standing off to the side and not caring. In fact, I may add oil to the fire."
Paralyzed by fear, the matriarch was feeling unreconciled and asked: "You are the daughter of the Feng family. What is the benefit for you if the Feng family falls?"
"Haha!" Feng Yu Heng let out a loud laugh, "If the Feng family falls? Even if the Feng family does not fall, what sort of benefit is there for me? There is no need for you to worry. Even if there is a day when everyone within nine relations of the Feng family is exterminated, I will not be exterminated. That too is my ability."
Feng Yu Heng's warning made it very clear to everyone in the Feng family. Kang Yi had a crisis, Feng Chen Yu was to be executed, and Feng Jin Yuan was currently in the palace pleading for forgiveness… An shi was also a little panicked, reminding the matriarch: "We should worry a bit more about husband. Who knows if the Emperor will add in the previous debts and settle them all now."
These words caused the matriarch's heart to sink to the bottom.
At this time, in the capital's prison for condemned prisoners, an exceedingly limp voice spoke up: "Elder brother, the button on my shirt has come undone. Can you help me button it up?"


text:
William Henry Bartlett Collection
- Bartlett MSS
- Coleção
- c.1809-1854
Bartlett, William Henry
27 resultados com objetos digitais Mostrar resultados com objetos digitais
William Henry Bartlett Collection
Bartlett, William Henry
Aylward Manley Blackman Collection
Blackman, Aylward Manley
1) Bonomi drawings and paintings: 52 handmade 'portfolios' containing pencil and pastel drawings, watercolours, tracings and commercial prints, almost certainly arranged by Bonomi, some later rearrangement was done by Bonomi's descendants [Bonomi MSS 1-52].
2) Typescript of diary: carbon-copy(?) typescript of extracts from Joseph Bonomi's diary, entries for periods in Egypt dating between 25th March 1829 to 26th May 1834 [Bonomi MSS 53].
Bonomi, Joseph
Typescript in 7 folders of a complete synopsis of Theban tomb scenes, also three letters.
Scharff, Alexander
(a) 20 folders containing handwritten notes, pencil drawings, negatives, photographs, and postcards of furniture from the tomb of Tutankhamun (= MSS 1-20) (1935).
(b) 18 folders containing notes, drawings, negatives and photographs of thrones, chairs, stools and footstools mainly from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (1935) and the British Museum in London (1936), as well as from other collections, and material gathered from publications; 1 index card box with Segal's reference notes for his furniture records; and letter from T. G. H. James to M. Eaton-Krauss regarding Segal correspondence in the British Museum along with photocopies of the letters.
Segal, Walter
James Parker Simpson Photographs Collection
53 black & white photographs.
Simpson, James Parker
Notebook containing the transcription and notes on papyrus Reisner I.
Smither, Paul Cecil
Wilhelm Spiegelberg Collection
Two diaries made in 1898-9 during the Marquis of Northampton's excavations at Thebes, and squeezes made in 1895 of some scenes in TT11, 12, 20, 50, 157, and 163.
Spiegelberg, Wilhelm
Notebooks, negatives, photographs, maps, and drawings made during the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun. For other material, refer to the catalogue.
Carter, Howard
Two portfolios containing drawings and plans, and three illustrated notebooks.
Wild, James William
153 black & white negatives taken in Egypt, Palestine, and Greece. Boxes marked with the date 1910. Most of the Egyptian negatives show Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx.
Bound manuscript on Egyptian hieroglyphs and related topics (Roman obelisks, Iseum in Rome, Isiac pomp described by Apuleius, Egyptian rites, mummies, etc.). Left unfinished.
Bracci, Pietro
Three notebooks.
Cooper, (Revd) Basil Henry
Four xerox copies of sketches of Philae drawn on 26 January 1846.
Coyet, Adolf
Francis Giesler Newton Collection
Article on churches in Sardinia, with additional notes and drawings, and watercolours and drawings of Italian towns, churches and architectural features, as well as view of the ziggurat at Ur. Non-Egyptological.
Newton, Francis Giesler
Copies of some stelae in the British Museum. Within Sir A. H. Gardiner MSS Collection.
Porter, Bertha
Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford Collection
Maps, plans and drawings.
Crawford, Osbert Guy Stanhope
Norman de Garis and Nina Davies Collection
Papers, including notebooks, notes, tracings and squeezes, made in Theban tombs and elsewhere, photographs, collection of coloured hieroglyphic signs, indexes of scenes in Theban tombs, etc.
Davies, Norman de Garis
Manuscript of his original text on the architecture of The Five Graves at Sendschirli (Zincirli). Non-Egyptological.
Jacoby, Gustav
Material (mostly photographic) on the Luristan bronzes. It appears to relate to a planned joint publication with Frank Savery, paid by the Griffith Institute. The material was eventually published by Roger Moorey. Non-Egyptological.
Jacobsthal, Paul
Hittite index. Non-Egyptological.
Zuntz, Leonie
Notes and correspondence.
Rhoné, Arthur
Vladimir Semionovich Golenishchev Collection
Copies of texts, mostly from Theban tombs.
Golenischchev, Vladimir Semionovich
Glass negatives of temple of Dendera.
Sem título
Karl Richard Lepsius Collection
Photocopy of diary by K. R. Lepsius, Oct. 30 to Dec. 7, 1844, discovered too late for use in L.D. Text.
Lepsius, Karl Richard
Griffith Institute Miscellanea Collection
Items which cannot be incorporated into other GI series.
Jean-Jacques Hess von Wyss Collection
Notebooks and notes on demotic and Meroitic, including copies of papyri and squeezes.
Hess von Wyss, Jean-Jacques
Typescript of journals (1827-1829) and negatives of drawings, chiefly of Upper Nubia by Major Felix (1828).
Prudhoe, Lord
Framed watercolour showing John Garstang's dig house at Abydos (1909).
Schliephack, Horst
Newspapers cuttings.
Moss, (Col) W. E.


text:
David "Zeb" Cook is a game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. He is particularly known for his lead in the work on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition role-playing game and Planescape campaign setting. He was also known as the lead designer on the City of Villains computer game for Cryptic Studios. After he left Cryptic, he joined Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment as the lead systems designer for the Stargate Worlds video game. [1]
References Edit
External linksEdit
- Bibliography at Pen & Paper.
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


text:
|Sofa Length
|73.6" Inch
|Sofa Width
|32.3" Inch
|Sofa Height
|31.8" Inch
|Seating Depth
|20" Inch
|Eucalyptus Wood
|Black-Plated Iron
|Medium Density Foam
|100% Polyester Linen
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Once you place your order, we will contact you by phone and email to arrange and schedule the delivery date and time that works best for you.
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Loving it! I've converted my over-cluttered condo into a relaxing lounge.
Experience overall was wonderful! Price, service, everything. Very excited for this new business!
The couch is great! We use it all the time. Our entire shopping experience up to when the sofa was delivered was awesome and so easy.


text:
Injured Cespedes starts Texas series on bench
OAKLAND -- Slugging A's outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was on the bench to start Monday's series opener against the Rangers, a day after exiting early due to a bruised right heel. Left-handed hitting Brandon Moss made the start against Texas righty Yu Darvish in Cespedes' place, batting fifth.
Cespedes first showed signs of heel discomfort in the A's clubhouse following an April 6 contest against the Mariners, but still played in every inning of the season until leaving Sunday's contest.
"He's gone back and forth with it," manager Bob Melvin said. "Some days it bothers him and some days it doesn't. It hasn't for several days and then it popped up it again, so I think it's best served if we give him a day."
Cespedes has shown signs of wear and tear since beginning his MLB career in 2012, making two trips to the 15-day disabled list and missing 60 games in that span. Melvin said Cespedes' injury affects him especially when he's running, but that the outfielder would be a potential late-game substitution on Monday.
It's just the latest issue for what's been a banged up outfield for Melvin. Craig Gentry (back) started the season on the 15-day disabled list and has been getting more playing time lately now that starting center fielder Coco Crisp has been limited by left wrist issues.


text: Photoshop CS6: Move tool targeting imprecise Move Tool annoyance in Photoshop CS6. I use the move tool alot in my work, with high fidelity mockups for interface design. I rely on p... Ulrik Groth Andersen, 8 years ago Last reply: Žilvinas Jogėla, 4 years ago 77 77 me toos 74 74 replies Problem Solved


text: Over and over again our clients are telling us that better photographs are helping sell their products faster, for more profit, and with less trouble. It's no different if you are non profit looking to raise money. Editors across the country rely on me to tell their stories, quickly and accurately. Something I have tried to do since that first news photographer job back in 1967.


text:
WASHINGTON -- Yoga may be more effective than a self-care book for improving function and reducing chronic low back pain, according to new research published in the December 20 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Authors recruited patients who had a recent primary care visit for low back pain and randomly assigned 101 to yoga or conventional exercise or a self-care book. Patients in the yoga and exercise groups reported good adherence at 26 weeks. Compared with self-care, symptoms were milder and function was better with yoga. The exercise group had intermediate outcomes. Symptoms improved between 12 and 26 weeks only with yoga. Researchers developed a series of yoga classes that used simple poses from a therapeutically oriented style of yoga, viniyoga, and avoided the use of poses that would be inappropriate for patients with back pain.
"We do not know whether a different yoga regimen would have reaped similar benefits. Westerners practice various styles of yoga that differ in their approach to the practice of yoga postures and breathing exercises. It is important to note that some styles, such as Bikram and vinyasa, may be too vigorous for patients with back pain who are unfamiliar with yoga whereas other styles may need modification from normal practice to be appropriate for patients with back pain," the authors cautioned. "Dozens of classically identified yoga postures exist, and there are numerous variations in the way these postures can be practiced."


text:
I have always loved ribbon embroidery, I love it's texture and vintage feeling. As many of you know, we just moved our stores into a bigger space in New York and one of the perks is that we get to carry some items we never had room for before. When I saw that we were now carrying little packets of silk ribbon for embroidery I knew I wanted to try it out so I took a handful of beautiful colors home for some research. It turns out that ribbon embroidery is very similar to regular embroidery, which I absolutely love, so it wasn't long before I was hooked!
Armed with my new skill, I wanted to make something pretty that could show off what makes ribbon embroidery so special. I decided on pillow cases because they are such a fun and easy warm weather project and a perfect blank canvas. I used a solid white in the silky smooth Organic Cotton by Cloud 9 Fabrics for the pillowcases. This fabric feels so amazing, like the sheets at a really fancy hotel! I embroidered a simple little bunch of flowers in cheery colors and then sewed the pillow cases with a deep hem.I love the results! This is one of those projects I'm going to be making over and over again, it's practical, easy to sew, and beautiful! –Molly
To make Two 20-inch by 31-inch pillow cases:
- 2-yards solid quilt weight fabric in white (you don't have to use white but your fabric must be double sided and not have a right or wrong side.)
- Nine packets of 4mm silk ribbon in various colors. I used colors, 002, 009, 014, 063, 070, 102, 114, 117, 122
- A water soluble fabric marker
- 100% cotton thread in color 100
- A 4-inch Embroidery Hoop
Cutting and Marking
Cut the fabric into four 36-inch by 21-inch pieces. Put two of them aside, you will use them for the second pillow. For the remaining two pick one piece to be the back and the other to be the front.
For the back piece of the pillow: Lay the piece horizontally. Using the water soluble marker make three vertical marks at a 1/2-inch, 4 1/2-inches and 9-inches from the right hand 21-inch side.
For the front piece of the pillow: Mark the piece in same way as for the back only start from the left hand 21-inch side. Then mark a 6-inch tall by 4 1/2-inch wide rectangle at the bottom left corner. Finally, mark a 1/2-inch line horizontally at the bottom of the rectangle. This rectangle is the area for the embroidery.
Draw 8 to 11 very simple five-pointed flower shapes with stems as shown above. Do not draw them too close to the edges of the marked rectangle.
Place the marked bottom left corner of the front piece into an embroidery hoop and thread an embroidery needle with a 16-inch length of silk ribbon.
The flowers are all embroidered with the Lazy Daisy Stitch:
Enter the fabric with your needle from the back through the center of one of the flowers. Pull the ribbon all the way through and then turn around, placing your needle back into the same place you came out of originally but don't pull yet. Poke your needle through vertically to to top of the petal marking as shown above.
Pull needle out and pull the ribbon until the little loop looks like a small petal as shown above and then place the needle back into the same spot where you just came out.
You've now got one petal.
Do this for all five petals, always starting each petal at the same middle point.
To embroider the centers use a French Knot (click on this link if you need a little more help with this stitch):
Thread your needle with another color of ribbon. Enter the fabric from the back at the flower's center point as shown above.
Wrap the ribbon around the needle a couple of times very close to the fabric. Poke the needle back into the center point with the ribbon still wrapped around it and pull it through to the other side.
You'll have this beautiful little knot in the center.
The stems are made with a large Backstitch (click on this link for a more indepth explanation):
Thread your needle with a third color of ribbon (most likely green). Enter the fabric from the back to the front, about half way down your marked stem.
Poke your needle back into the fabric at the top of the marked stem.
Then come out again at the bottom of the stem, and then place your needle at the beginning point of your first stem stitch and pull the ribbon through.
The stem is now finished!
To add a leaf use the Ribbon Stitch:
Pull the ribbon out somewhere along the bottom of the stem. Then pierce the center of the ribbons width as you stick your needle back into the fabric about 1/4-inch from where you came out as shown above.
Do not pull this ribbon stitch very tight, or else it's pretty end will dissappear.
Your full flower is now complete.
Repeat these steps for all of the flowers you drew on in the marking step.
Sewing the Pillows
Turn the front pillow piece over so the wrong side of the embroidery is facing up and is oriented at the lower right had side of the piece. Fold and press down a 1/2-inch vertical fold (along the first marking) towards the left.
Then fold the embroidered section over along the second marked line and line up the folded edge with the final vertical marking. The right side of the embroidery will now be facing up and the raw edge will be folded inside this deep hem. Press and pin the fold down.
Sew the fold down with a 1/4-inch seam allowance.
Fold and sew the marked edge of the back piece in the same manner along the markings. The side with the fold on top is now the right side.
Pin the front and back pieces right sides together, with their deep hems lined up. Sew them along the three raw sides with a 1/2-inch seam allowance and then zig zag stitch along the raw edges for a neater finish.
Turn the pillow case right side out and press it flat.
Repeat all steps to make the second pillow case and you're all done!


text:
Civil rights advocate Felmers Chaney dies
Milwaukee civil rights advocate Felmers Chaney has died. Chaney became the city's first black police sergeant and a longtime leader of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Milwaukee's mayor released a statement on Chaney's death Wednesday afternoon.
"Milwaukee has lost one of its most prominent and influential citizens. Felmers Chaney was an accomplished leader and a passionate advocate. He was a tireless champion of civil rights who dedicated his life to enriching the lives of fellow Milwaukeeans. His influence was wide-spread and he had a profound impact on countless Milwaukee organizations and institutions," Tom Barrett said.
"He leaves a strong and positive legacy for others to follow -- a legacy that I believe will live on for many years," Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines said in a written statement.
Funeral services are being planned for this weekend.
Chaneywas 94 years old.


text:
Workday Raises Share Price Range Ahead of Imminent IPO, Nears $5 Billion Valuation
Workday, the most-watched IPO in the tech world since Facebook, says its stock will bow in at between $24 and $26 a share, raising north of $590 million and nudging its overall valuation toward the
$4 billion $5 billion mark. The disclosure came in an updated S1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It will trade under the ticker symbol WDAY.
Workday has been on a steady march toward this moment since it took an $85 million institutional investment round last year when it was valued at a then eye-popping $2 billion.
Co-CEOs Aneel Bhusri and Dave Duffield will control about 67 percent of the proxy through a two-layered share structure that gives holders of Class B shares 10 votes to every one vote for a typical Class A shareholder.
Workday should price any day now.
Update: I updated the headline and the text to reflect Workday's valuation as being closer to $5 billion than $4 billion.


text:
Back in February, I took my first shot at attempting to rank players for fantasy purposes. After a full season, I thought it wise to take a look back at how they went, and compare them to how it actually turned out and see if there is anything to be gained from it. The last position up for review is the relief pitchers, and you can find my preseason rankings here. Note that I have removed any starting pitchers who appeared in these rankings due to previous season qualifications.
Yahoo's Top 15 Relief Pitchers
1. Billy Wagner
2. Rafael Soriano
3. Heath Bell
4. Brian Wilson
5. Neftali Feliz
6. Carlos Marmol
7. Joakim Soria
8. Mariano Rivera
9. Hong-Chih Kuo
10. Matt Capps
11. John Axford
12. Chris Perez
13. Joaquin Benoit
14. Francisco Rodriguez
15. Andrew Bailey
Of my top 15 preseason ranks, Jonathan Broxton (1), Huston Street (8), Brian Fuentes (12), Francisco Cordero (13), Trevor Hoffman (14), and Ryan Franklin (15) all finished out of the top 15. Continue reading


text:
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Alcohol consumption among HIV-positive pregnant women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: prevalence and correlates


text:
Despite promising signs that the two-year credit crunch is easing, small doses of debt can't soothe the suffering commercial real estate industry. Buyers and sellers remain paralyzed by a gap between bids and asking prices, and anemic sales volume is compounding the stalemate by depriving investors of sales data needed to set pricing.
Transaction volume across property types totaled just $2.1 billion in May, a fraction of the $9 billion in deals closed in May 2008, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics.
A wave of distressed asset sales could break the spell by providing data that can be adjusted to help close deals on healthier properties, but those liquidations will come at the expense of owners and lenders who must purge assets in order to survive.
"There are going to be buying opportunities coming that we've never seen in our lifetime, and the long-term result will be a huge transfer of wealth," predicts Gary Mozer, principal and managing director at Los Angeles-based real estate investment banking firm George Smith Partners. "But a lot of pain has to be felt, and that's going to be in foreclosures and bank failures."
When will distress reach a breaking point and usher in renewed investment activity? And when will demand for commercial space boost occupancy and bring rent growth back to the market?
The answers to those questions lie in an elusive economic recovery, one that will support rent growth while it bolsters lender balance sheets to handle losses they must realize in liquidation sales.
Pain before gain
Landlords are certainly suffering. The longest recession since the Great Depression has knocked the legs out from under property fundamentals while investors are still grappling with deflated prices. Asset values had fallen 29.5% through April since their peak in October 2007, according to the Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Index.
Shrinking income has left many investors unable to keep up with payments on loan balances that may well exceed their property's value. The volume of commercial real estate in foreclosure, owner bankruptcy and other crises more than doubled to $108 billion during the first six months of 2009, according to Real Capital Analytics.
The reason swarms of distressed owners haven't sold their properties is that today's conservative underwriting for acquisition loans requires adequate debt-service coverage from the outset. In other words, investors can't get loans to buy properties with no cash flow.
Unless a non-performing property carries an assumable loan or the seller can provide financing, buyers must use cash or equity to close. Buyers expect double-digit returns on equity to reflect their risk, but the sums they bid are too small to help borrowers out of their troubles. "On a broken asset, there's hardly any financing available," Mozer explains. "So buyers have to earn equity-like returns on the majority of their money."
By the same token, lenders have been reluctant to sell foreclosed properties, which would force them to realize losses. More than 525 U.S. office properties representing almost $18 billion have fallen into distress since February 2008, according to Real Capital. In the first half of 2009, banks sold just 13 of those real estate owned (REO) office properties to third-party buyers.
"The bank will want to get 60 or 80 cents on the dollar of its loan amount and the buyers want to pay 30 to 50 cents, so we're seeing very few deals transact," Mozer says. "Most of the banks aren't strong enough right now and that's why we've seen this stalemate. They don't have enough profits to offset their losses."
Lenders will open the floodgates to investment sales when they are strong enough to stomach the losses that will come with selling their real estate owned properties at depressed prices. And thanks in part to government loans to lenders under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other measures to stimulate lending, many banks are beginning to heal.
Credit comeback?
Through the first week of July, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had closed 48 lending institutions, nearly double the 25 it closed in all of 2008. Lenders are growing stronger as a whole, however.
FDIC-insured institutions posted $7.6 billion in net income during the first quarter, the strongest performance of the past four quarters and a dramatic comeback from the fourth quarter's $32.1 billion net losses. While individual performance varied, four out of five banks profited in the first quarter. Troubled loans are weighing on the industry, but net interest income, non-interest income and gains on securities all rose, according to the FDIC.
The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which banks charge to lend to one another, fell to 0.6% in June from its peak of 4.8% last October. That shows that lenders perceive diminishing risk, says Jamie Woodwell, vice president of commercial real estate research at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Gradual loosening of credit hasn't boosted commercial mortgage origination volume, which continues to fall, albeit at a slowing pace. Origination fell 26% in the first quarter of 2009 after falling 65% in the fourth quarter, according to the MBA. Year-over-year, lending was down 70% from January through March.
Demand for acquisition loans is down and declining asset values have made refinancing difficult, especially for borrowers with maturing debt arranged in the investment flurry of 2006 and 2007. Today's loan-to-value ratios at approximately 60% don't provide enough proceeds to pay off balloon maturities on loans arranged at 90% loan-to-value.
Rather than foreclose on borrowers unable to make their balloon payments, lenders are granting short-term extensions on loans in hopes that healthier fundamentals and asset values down the road will enable their borrowers to refinance.
Economic outlook
How long property owners must wait for rental growth depends on how closely job creation follows gains in gross domestic product (GDP). Employment continues to wither, with 467,000 non-farm jobs eliminated in June alone. The nation has lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 and the unemployment rate now stands at 9.5%.
At least the negative news is beginning to abate. The GDP shrank 5.5% in the first quarter, slower than the previous quarter's 6.3% contraction, and forecasters expect positive growth by the end of the year. And employment losses have tapered dramatically from the average of 670,000 in monthly cuts that bled the nation from November through March.
In the last two recessions, net job losses continued for more than a year after the economy had established a positive growth trajectory. So even if GDP rallies before the end of 2009, it could take another two or three quarters before employment reverses course, and even longer before companies begin to soak up excess commercial space.
"Gross domestic product may be positive in the fourth quarter this year, but it won't feel like a recovery because the job market will still be declining," says Bob Bach, senior vice president and chief economist at Grubb & Ellis. "There's a lot of pain to be felt in commercial real estate and that will continue through next year."
V, U or L-shaped?
The recessions of 1990 and 2001 were U-shaped, or shallow dips in GDP followed by slow growth while employers increased productivity through greater efficiency rather than hiring.
In the downturn of the early 1980s, heavy job losses and limited production depleted inventories of manufactured goods. When pent-up business and consumer demand returned, production and services had to ramp up quickly.
A minority of forecasters believes that the nation is in the midst of the latter type of V-shaped recession, according to Bach. After all, consumers have benefitted this year from tax cuts, larger than normal tax refunds and falling prices. Prices for consumer purchases decreased 1% in the first quarter and 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Consumers may be poised to boost spending.
Bach doesn't subscribe to those economic views, however: "I'm in the majority camp of economists that thinks it's going to be a slow and halting recovery because there are still a lot of problems out there."
What Bach describes is an L-shaped recovery, in which nearly two years of recession and staggering job losses will be followed by below-trend GDP growth of perhaps 2% per year. Why not a return to the historical average of 3% annual growth? Because consumer spending accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy and consumers are reeling.
Retail dilemma
Economists warn that the severity of the current recession will bring a profound change in discretionary consumer spending. Retailers that sold mostly luxury items to middle-class consumers will suffer, as will their landlords, predicts Edward Leamer, professor of management, economics and statistics at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
"People with relatively modest incomes were buying $2,000 purses," he says. "Now consumers are rethinking those kinds of purchases. Lower-end retail is going to do better than higher end, and that will be a relatively permanent change."
Consumers have become thrifty. The personal savings rate hit a 15-year high of 6.9% in May as a percentage of discretionary income, up from zero a year earlier.
"If savings rates continue to get higher, which they really should, the retail sector is going to be troubled for half a dozen years until economic growth brings enough consumers in to support the infrastructure that already exists," Leamer says.
That mindset will affect tenants in other property types that relied on high-end consumer spending, such as mortgage professionals and title insurers. Even businesses that thrive after the recession may shy away from properties that project an ostentatious image, according to Josh Scoville, director of strategic research at Property & Portfolio Research. "Frugalnomics is the new cool," he says.
Eyes on the consumer
Investors waiting for the recession to end before moving back into commercial real estate should follow consumer spending as well as real estate fundamentals, says Ben Breslau, research director for the Americas at Jones Lang LaSalle.
"This was a consumer-led downturn rather than a business-led downturn, the first time that's happened since World War II," he says. "Everybody is thinking about corporate indicators, but consumer credit and consumer confidence are going to be critical for signaling the turnaround."
June brought a promising sign on the consumer front when Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that the pace of price declines in the nation's major markets slowed to 18% in April, a slight improvement from 18.7% in March.
Loan watch
The introduction of AAA-rated commercial mortgage-backed securities in the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility or TALF sends an important message to investors that the government is actively working to repair the financial markets, says Victor Calanog, director of research and chief economist at Reis. "It's critical to play that signaling game right now because the worst thing for the market is uncertainty."
In practice, federal incentives have had little, if any, direct impact on commercial real estate, says Dan Gorczycki, managing director in the New York office of real estate services firm Savills. "The effect of TARP and TALF on financing in the commercial real estate markets is purely psychological."
The few deals closing today typically involve an opportunistic buyer and a distressed seller or lender seeking to liquidate a property after foreclosure, according to Ed Padilla, CEO of financial intermediary NorthMarq Capital in Minneapolis.
Those deals often involve buyers with cash or sellers willing to provide financing. The signal that commercial real estate is returning in earnest will be the successful use of acquisition loans, he says.
"When someone is ready to put new equity into an acquisition and someone else is willing to make the loan on that new acquisition, that's when we'll start to see the market turn," he says. "We're not quite there yet, but I do expect to see some of that by the end of this year."
There's no question that commercial real estate service providers and investors are struggling, Padilla says, but buying opportunities are coming for investors able to close a deal. "We still view this as an incredibly opportunistic market where a lot of money will be made as these transactions start to occur."
Matt Hudgins is an Austin-based writer.
Treasuries Defy Fed's Mortgage Strategy
NREI asked four forecasters to predict the near-term direction of key indices. Here are their responses:
Robert Bach
Chief Economist, Grubb & Ellis
"The economic risk lies in a long, sluggish and halting recovery, not in a near-term spike that ignites inflation."
Joshua Scoville
Director, Strategic Research, Property & Portfolio Research
"Ironically, the opportunities over the next two years will be much greater than the opportunities investors were feverishly chasing in 2006 and 2007."
Ted Jones
Chief Economist, Stewart Title
"Gasoline prices at more than $5 per gallon in the next 36 to 48 months, if not sooner."
Victor Calanog
Chief Economist, Reis
"National office vacancy rates will exceed 17% by the end of 2009."
GDP growth: 0.5%*
Core CPI inflation rate: 1.5%
Monthly job gains/losses: -150,000
10-year Treasury yield: 3.5%
Crude oil ($ per barrel): $65
GDP growth: 0.4%*
Core CPI inflation rate: 1.79%
Monthly job gains/losses: 324,000
10-year Treasury yield: 5.32%
Crude oil ($ per barrel): $87.07
GDP growth: 1%*
Core CPI inflation rate: 2.5%
Monthly job gains/losses: 65,000
10-year Treasury yield: 4.5%
Crude oil ($ per barrel): $80
GDP growth: -3.3%*
Core CPI inflation rate: 1.4%
Monthly job gains/losses: -180,000
10-year Treasury yield: 3.6% to 4.0%
Crude oil ($ per barrel): $70 to $75
* GDP figures are on an annualized basis
Treasuries Defy Fed's Mortgage Strategy
Even the Federal Reserve has limits when it comes to influencing benchmark interest rates. Despite federal efforts to keep residential and commercial mortgage rates down, long-term Treasury rates threaten to choke borrowers with a higher cost of capital.
The 10-year Treasury rate, a benchmark for commercial real estate lending, climbed to 3.76% in June from 2.42% in December. Some forecasters say interest rates will climb another 100 basis points or more by the end of this year due to the amount of government debt being issued to finance record budget deficits.
The 10-year Treasury rate, a benchmark for commercial real estate lending, climbed to 3.76% in June from 2.42% in December. Some forecasters say interest rates will climb another 100 basis points or more by the end of this year due to the amount of government debt being issued to finance record budget deficits.
"This is a simple supply and demand issue," says Sam Chandan, president of Real Estate Econometrics. "If the Treasury increases debt issuance fourfold, for the market to clear, the price of Treasuries has to fall."
Observers worry that escalating borrowing costs will hinder Washington's attempts to stimulate the economy. The rise in interest rates was enough to prompt the Mortgage Bankers Association to slash its projections for residential and commercial real estate lending volume this year by $700 billion.
In June, the MBA projected mortgage originations this year will total $2.03 trillion, down from a March forecast calling for $3 trillion.
Some forecasters are more sanguine. The 10-year Treasury rate retreated slightly to 3.5% in late June. Bob Bach, chief economist at Grubb & Ellis, expects the rate to remain near that level through the end of the year.
"If interest rates rise, that's going to jeopardize the recovery," Bach says. "So the Federal Reserve is going to do what it has to do to keep interest rates down."
The Fed has one hand tied behind its back, however. The overnight Fed funds rate — the only interest rate it can lower directly — is already below 0.25%. The only means available now to reduce long-term interest rates is quantitative easing, or manipulating the supply and demand factors that investors use to determine pricing.
If the Fed can buy up enough Treasury bonds, then investor demand for the bonds still available for purchase will keep yields in check. That strategy has failed to contain Treasury rates, although the Fed has kept down mortgage rate spreads through a similar program of buying mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The Fed has purchased 85% of MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae since the end of the first quarter, according to the MBA.
Those securities are backed by both single-family and multifamily residential loans. The Fed only purchased about half of Treasury debt issued in that same period, however, and may be nearing its self-imposed ceiling of $300 billion for Treasury purchases.
In March, the MBA warned that inflation expectations and a shrinking dollar could make investors shy away from Treasuries, curtailing last year's drop in interest rates and reducing the outlook for mortgage lending. Now, as MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkman observes in the MBA's revised mortgage forecast, "that has proven to be the case."