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That's the quintessential word of choice describing what I think about this trailer, and even the movie for that matter. Today we get our first look at what the Dragonball movie is shaping up to be, with the release of the first teaser trailer.
The trailer does nothing right for me. I actually think it looks awful and terribly cheap. With that in mind, I do have to admit that I am not a fan of the anime cartoon shows so I guess I could be biased.
I know it's just an early teaser trailer and that it may be kind of unfair to judge a movie based on that. However, a trailer does share with us a lot of information such as how its filmed, the style and tone, what the effects look like, how the characters look and act, etc.
Take a look and see what you think before I really tell you how I really feel:
From all of those aspects, I have very little faith in this film and from what I'm reading online, neither do most others (including fans of the tv shows). The scenes shown here really make it look like they're trying to imitate so many other movies but none of it really works.
So if that's the case, who is this film appealing to? I would imagine most movie-goers aren't excited about this, and if actual dragonball fans are worried as well... then I can't see this doing very well at the box-office.
I will keep an open mind and see what future trailers have to offer. Perhaps its too early to throw down the hammer on this. But from the start, I have had nothing but negative feelings toward the promotional material and this trailer just adds to my feelings about this.
Dragonball is based off a successful manga series that lasted from the mid-eighties to mid-nineties which evolved into several anime television series' and multiple video games.
The live-action Dragonball film hits theaters April 10, 2009.
So what do you think? Am I being too harsh?
Source: DBtheMovie.com


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Sullivan Collection on Vivarium
Clemens Library at the College of Saint Benedict is home to this collection of religious icons from the estate of Mary Sullivan. Mary Sullivan focused her collecting activity on Orthodox icons but also acquired other religious artifacts. Works in the collection represent both Eastern and Western Christian understanding of the sacred image, as well as cross-pollinations and creative interpretations. The items in the collection have been gathered from Russia, the Ukraine, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Peru, El Salvador and the United States.
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Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Education
Critical Issues in Education
Three semester hours.
This course examines understanding the social, cultural, political and economic conditions that are shaping the contemporary world and are the context for our present educational reforms, agenda and public discourse. Students will have opportunities to develop their own understanding and skills in becoming more effective leaders and to develop a strategies process to address emerging themes in education. Prerequisite(s): EDAM 5301, EDAM 5305, EDAM 5320, and EDGR 5320. Course may substitute for one of the following: EDGR 5308, EDAM 5313, EDAM 5321, EDAM 5332 or EDAM 5338.
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Shakespeare's plays will become contemporary novels, as the transatlantic Hogarth Press, an imprint of Random House, has announced it is commissioning prominent writers to adapt the Elizabethan plays.
So far, the Guardian reports, Anne Tyler has signed on to adapt "The Taming of the Shrew," while Jeanette Winterson will tackle "The Winter's Tale." These first two novelistic versions of Shakespeare will be published in 2016, 400 years after the Bard's passing.
What's potentially problematic about this project is that it asks famous writers to essentially best the greatest of their forefathers --- by grappling with his own oeuvre. It could become a losing proposition, with novelists struggling to escape Shakespeare's infinite shadow, even as they try to do something original with his words. It would be a shame to think that, say, a "Romeo and Juliet" by Salman Rushdie will be judged as lightly as Baz Luhrmann's cinematic version of the same play.
Clara Farmer, who heads the UK arm of Hogarth, said, "We're very much leaving it up to the imaginations of the authors. We have talked with them about following the spirit of the plays, but it isn't helpful for them to have to paint by numbers. We want them to bring all of their imaginations and different points of view."
Those who cringe at such tinkering with Shakespeare's works should remember that similar audacity has infected everyone from high school drama teachers to Luhrmann, whose "Romeo + Juliet" was, in fact, not a disaster. Moreover, Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," a play about two minor characters in "Hamlet," is widely recognized as a classic of postwar British theater.
Moreover, despite the originality of Shakespeare's language, his plays often hew to familiar stories. "Macbeth" and "King Lear" rely to some degree on "Holinshed's Chronicles," while classical plays such as "Julius Caesar" lean on Plutarch's histories of the ancient world. And "Hamlet" is believed by some to be a retelling of Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy," which had been published about a decade before.
Nevertheless, a project as ambitious and systematic as that undertaken by Hogarth has not been conceived in recent memory. It is not clear whether all 37 plays will be modernized, but Farmer said those that are will be "a coherent series."
It is not clear, however, who else besides Tyler and Winterson has been enlisted.
"We need people to step up for the tragedies," Farmer said. Some are surely brave enough to answer that call. William T. Vollmann, perhaps?
DOMA, John Rechy and the land of the free
Q&A: Nathan Rabin talks Juggalos, Phisheads and fandom


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"From Earth" takes place close to the year 3,000 when one woman and one man, Zenaida and Anthony, are sent to a remote alien planet. After fifty years in cold sleep, they find themselves on a recently industrialised world being hunted by an alien government. They have only their wits, athleticism and the remains of their equipment to keep them alive. In this first person singleplayer experience, the player takes control of Zenaida Liu upon arriving on the planet. From Earth's gameplay is very much about your relationship to this world and its technology, requiring you to figure out how it all works and encouraging cooperation with the local population. Nothing about the alien technology is explained to players. It's about experimentation and learning what's what and how things on this planet work. The player also has some athletic abilities, such as climbing, wall running, hanging on ledges and so on.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.
concept by Daniel 'CzechDeath' Tejnicky


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TWU equips students to be leaders in their communities, and enables them to use their skills to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Students benefit from a close campus community, empowering role models, life-changing experiences and the opportunity to establish friendships that can last a lifetime.
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PMT Wheels (Rims)For Radio (Remote) Control Models
In Competitive Radio Controlled Model Racing, you have to consider every aspect of your car and how to improve its performance to give you the edge on your competitors and that includes your choice of Wheel-Rims.
My article below explains why and how the type of rims you put on your model car can influence its handling and what type you should be looking to have.
Hints and Tips
When it comes to wheels, the majority of people tend to go for what looks good, something that will make their car stand out from the crowd, but are they the best wheels for you when it comes to winning races on the track?
Quite a number of years ago I read an article in an RC magazine about RC model wheels and how important it is to have the right ones on your car. I was so impressed by that article that I immediately sold off all my old wheels and bought a batch of new ones why? Read on.
In order for a tire to maintain grip, it needs to preserve the downward pressure through the cars suspension onto the road surface. To do this, not only must the wheels be concentric, they have to be totally rigid. So, if you accept that premise as fact, you will realise that the majority of the flashy wheel designs available for all types of RC model cars are not exactly what you might call rigid. In point of fact, they are down right flimsy.
If you take a good hard look at some of those multi spoked pressure injected plastic wheels you have in your car box, you will soon see what I mean. Just take one in your hand, squeeze it just a little and you will realise how weak and feeble the construction of these cheap and nasty things are. Looks aren't everything. If you want to be up there with the best you have to strive for the best and that doesn't necessarily mean the most expensive. There are lots of wheels out there at reasonable prices that can give you that rigidity you need. Okay, they might not look pretty, but they will perform better and give you that extra one percent that could mean the difference between winning and losing. You have to ask yourself, what you want your car to be, the one that everyone admires for its flashy good looks, or the one that gets you to the top.
So there you have it, rigid wheels are the thing to go for. They may be heavier and provide a more dynamic rotating mass, requiring more braking than those flimsy lightweight wheels out there but then, that is a whole new subject.


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|Leptolalax maoershanensis
Yuan, Sun, Chen, Rowley, Wu, Hou & Che, 2017
We describe a new species of megophryid frog from Maoershan Nature Reserve in southern China. Leptolalax maoershanensis sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological characters: medium size (SVL 25.2–30.4 mm in eight adult males and 29.1 mm in one adult female); head longer than wide; externally distinct tympanum; distinct black supratympanic line present; dorsal skin shagreened with small tubercles and longitudinal folds; distinct dark spots on the flank; creamy-white chest and belly with irregular black spots; grey-pinkish to dark brownish-violet ventral skin of limbs with numerous whitish speckles; distinct ventrolateral glands forming a white line; finger webbing and fringes absent; toe webbing rudimentary and lateral fringes narrow; longitudinal ridges indistinct under toes and not interrupted at the articulations; and a bicolored iris. The new species differs from all known congeners by an uncorrected p-distance of >6.6% at the 16S rRNA gene fragment examined, and phylogenetic analysis clusters the new species with L. laui and L. liui. At present, the new species is known from montane small bamboo forest in Maoershan Nature Reserve at about 1550 m elevation.
Keywords: Amphibia, Leptolalax maoershanensis sp. nov., taxonomy, Maoershan, phylogeny
|Maoershan Leaf-litter Frog (Leptolalax maoershanensis), from southern China.
Photograph: Zhiyong Yuan
Zhiyong Yuan, Ruida Sun, Jinmin Chen, Jodi J. L. Rowley, Zhengjun Wu, Shaobing Hou and Jing Che. 2017. A New Species of the Genus Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from Guangxi, China. Zootaxa. 4300(4); 551–570. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4300.4.5


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Politics & Government
Obama says 'all options on table' to aid Iraq, but others say that's not really true
Despite some expressions of concern in Congress and a pledge from President Barack Obama that "all options are on the table" for ways to help Iraq's government beat back a determined advance by Islamist fighters, there were few signs Thursday that Washington was eager to re-engage its military in Iraq.
Pentagon officials said there was no change in the scheduled September delivery of six F-16 fighters to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, no revisions to training plans for Iraqi special forces in Jordan later this month, and no alteration in the summer timetable for leasing Apache attack helicopters to Iraq for training purposes. White House spokesman Jay Carney ruled out sending ground troops as one of the options Obama referred to when he said he didn't "rule out anything" in considering what the U.S. might do for Iraq.
"What we've seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help," Obama told reporters before he met in the Oval Office with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. "It's going to need more help from us, and it's going to need more help from the international community."
U.S. military officers voiced frustration at unfolding events in Iraq, not surprising since most of those now serving had been deployed there during the eight-year U.S. occupation that ended less than three years ago. Yet Pentagon officials and independent observers said there were few options for the U.S. military in Iraq today, both practically and politically. Many instead proposed encouraging Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, to bridge the deep political divide that has helped drive Sunni discontent with his government _ something that events in Iraq suggested was too little, too late.
Some variation of "What is it you would propose we do?" was the response from Pentagon officials to questions about whether the United States was considering helping Iraqi security forces fend off the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which since Monday has taken control much of northern Iraq, including Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, Saddam Hussein's hometown, Tikrit, and began marching toward Baghdad.
With Obama ruling out ground forces, but suggesting the United States needed to help, many floated a U.S. air campaign to bolster the Iraqi forces. Such a strike, perhaps with armed drones, could hit ISIS military targets outside urban centers, though hitting forces concentrated in cities such as Mosul would be far too risky, endangering civilians. But observers said that such a campaign, even in the outskirts, would have to be followed by Iraqi ground forces to take back the cities _ an unlikely prospect given that as many as four Iraqi divisions had abandoned their posts and slipped back into the civilian population.
On Capitol Hill, frustration with the Maliki government and its management of the security forces crossed party lines.
"It's unclear how airstrikes on our part can succeed unless the Iraqi army is willing to fight, and that's uncertain given the fact that several Iraqi army divisions have melted away," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "While all options should be considered, the problem in Iraq has not been so much a lack of direct U.S. military involvement, but a lack of reconciliation on the part of Iraqi leaders."
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the United States should exact a promise of inclusivity from Maliki before agreeing to help.
"In Iraq, hopefully this is a wakeup call for Prime Minister Maliki, who has practiced exclusive politics, contrary to U.S. counsel. He needs to engage immediately in a multi-pronged approach to address the ISIL threat, which includes a commitment to political inclusion, targeted security operations against ISIL targets, and a pledge to protect all Iraqi citizens," Kaine said a statement, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. "The United States should work with allies and regional partners to provide appropriate support once there is a commitment from Maliki to this set of principles."
Others proposed that the United States provide more weapons, air systems and ammunition to fend off the ISIS threat. But the Iraqis already have lost control of an undetermined amount of U.S.-supplied weapons to ISIS forces who were quick to post purported photos of fighters driving off with U.S.-supplied Humvees, now bearing the Islamic State flag. Moreover, such systems require time to train those using them. Events appear to be moving too quickly for that.
"You can't solve this problem with just material support," said Jessica Lewis, research director for the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. Moreover, "ISIS is moving fast. This is going to look different next week."
Still others suggested that the United States share more intelligence with its Iraqi counterparts. But as Lewis noted: "The shortcoming is not information. ISIS is out in the open. The shortcoming is a campaign design."
In addition to the apparent military limitations are concerns about how much the United States should help a prime minister whose divisiveness helped create the situation that allowed large swaths of Sunni-dominated areas to fall into ISIS hands. There were reports Thursday that Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards special forces, was in Baghdad to help the Maliki government mount a counterattack and protect the capital. Suleimani's presence, if confirmed, would likely stoke sectarian fears among Sunnis.
Obama himself made reference to the political problems that contributed to ISIS' rise. And in the White House summary of a phone call between Maliki and Vice President Joe Biden, who has been the U.S. point man on Iraq, the administration stressed political dialogue, saying: "The vice president underscored that it will be critically important for all of Iraq's communities to reach a lasting political accommodation and to be united in order to defeat their common enemy."
"This should be also a wakeup call for the Iraqi government," Obama said. "There has to be a political component to this so that Sunni and Shia who care about building a functioning state that can bring about security and prosperity to all people inside of Iraq. . . . And that is going to require concessions on the part of both Shia and Sunni that we haven't seen so far."
Others felt that advice overlooked Maliki's own contribution to the problem. "We cannot help as long as Maliki is leading," Lewis said.
The lack of U.S. military options did not stop Republicans on Capitol Hill from attacking the president for allowing parts of Iraq to fall into jihadist hands, though there were no proposed solutions to stop it.
House Speak John Boehner, R-Ohio, suggested the administration was taking a nap, while Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said the president's national security team should resign.
"It's a colossal failure of American security policy," McCain said.


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Cold-EEZE Cold Remedy
Description: Cold-EEZE Cold Remedy is an all-natural cold remedy that when taken at the first sign, or anytime, is clinically proven to shorten the duration of a cold by almost half! The effective proprietary formula, Zinc Gluconate, reduces the duration of the common cold and severity of cold symptoms including cough, sore throat, hoarseness, nasal congestion and/or post nasal drip. Cold-EEZE Cold Remedy comes in a number of forms including Lozenges, Oral Spray, and the NEW Daytime/Nighttime QuickMelts. Cold-EEZE Cold Remedy can be found at major retailers and online at www.coldeeze.com.
Price: $6.99 to $11.99


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EZ Shorties
Pattern: Baby Leggings from Knitter's Almanac
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino in camel
Needles: US size 5 circs
Gauge: Between 5 and 5 1/5 stitches per inch
Unstretched measurements: 16" waist, 21" hip (widest part, at last increase), 20" rise. It fits my 14-month-old son perfectly (but with not a whole lot of room to grow, so it would probably fit a younger baby as well).
Mods: Increased the number of stitches set aside for the crotch to 14 front and back; 5 stitches just doesn't seem like enough for an active toddler. Also did just 7 rows of ribbing after dividing for the legs to make shorties instead of longies.
The rise is indeed long, as I've read elsewhere, but I decided to just knit the pattern as written (with the exception of the mods mentioned above) the first time just to see how it turns out. It's really not that long after blocking, and since I used merino, I know it'll shorten some with the felting from regular wear anyway, so I'll probably be thankful for the extra length down the road.
This was a fun and easy pattern, and it turned out really cute. So far I give it a thumbs up, but my little man hasn't worn it yet. I'm interested to see how it fits and behaves on a babe in action.
Labels: Baby leggings, cloth diapering


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Advance care planning information for the state of Minnesota
Five Wishes meets the legal requirements for an advance directive in Minnesota. Just like in most other states, you can use Five Wishes in Minnesota to express how you want to be treated if you are seriously ill and unable to speak for yourself, using a document that is easy to understand. All you need to do is check a box, circle a direction, or write a few sentences.
Once it is signed and witnessed, your Five Wishes is a legal document.
Get Your Five Wishes Now


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Fire0nice228 wrote:-MAF was pretty good IMO. First goal flukey (but we say that alot it seems) and second goal was a nice hard rising wrister that handcuffed him a bit. He got a piece but not enough. Came back and stoned Alfie to keep the game close. Huge save and good to see him recover from 2 quick ones to make that point blank save with the leg.
He made some big saves, but both goals were horrific. Until he eliminates these from his nightly repertoire he remains a huge question mark. That kind of goal cannot be overcome in the playoffs. He has to be better. If he only gave one of these up every 10 starts I wouldn't care, but he makes great saves and then gives up a bad goal every night it seems. That is why he has so few shutouts. He clearly deserved one last night if he had made two routine plays more
To anyone thinking Cooke did that one purpose, what exactly would his motivation be to throw away a year + of clean work on that play? Was it revenge on Karlsson...no, the kid barely touches anyone out there. Was it because that game was so important that it was worth risking his career with a new suspension that would surely end his time in Pittsburgh.....no. Was there a subtext of cheap play going on that would lead him to exact revenge on their best player....no. There's just no reason he would have stepped out of his recent character for that moment willingly.


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The best way to learn a language is to live it. To do that, you need to explore the language across its cultural range.
The Betty Ashbury Jones MA '86 School of French reflects the diversity and richness of both France and the greater Francophone world. In class, you'll rapidly build fluency with the help of teachers from France, Africa, the French Caribbean, Lebanon, The Maghreb and Canada, benefitting from their expertise and insight as you gain a deeper understanding of French language and culture, past and present.
Outside the classroom, you'll participate in organized in-language cocurricular activities—such as soccer, singing, and even baking pastries—each designed to help you build new vocabulary while developing cultural fluency. You'll also interact with our visiting lecturers, including Francophone artists, musicians, writers, and scholars.
Through the Language Pledge and 24/7 immersion, the Betty Ashbury Jones MA '86 School of French is proud to offer what no other program can—the opportunity to join a close-knit community of French-speakers all focused on a single goal: achieving linguistic and cultural fluency.


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- PVC Tablecloths / Oilcloths
- Vinyl Tablecloths
- Table Protector
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- Restaurant Images
Oilcloth Tablecloths | PVC Tablecloths | Vinyl Tablecloths | Table Protector
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Sent Folded by Royal Mail or Crease Free on a Cardboard Core
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Free Shipping On Orders Over £72.00
Despatched Next Day on TRACKED Royal Mail 24 , 48 or Courier
Product Code: 1495
A wipeclean pvc tablecloth or oilcloth tablecloth
A MATT PVC coated on to 100% cotton fabric
Allow for the drop when choosing your tablecloth. We recommend 20cm each side. This would mean adding 40cm to each dimension to arrive at the size of tablecloth. But the drop you choose is up to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always ask for samples. What you see on the screen can not reproduce the colour and texture of the actual cloth. We will happily send up to 5 samples FOC
Do not launder, hand wash or dry clean Just wipeclean using a cloth with a little detergent. This will clean and maintain hygiene. Do not iron. Do not tumble dry. Left outside the cloth will degrade. Sunlight will cause the colour to fade. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The "INFORMATION" tab in the main menu contains more information on how to look after the pvc tablecloth.
We deliver folded or crease free on a cardboard core. Folded is sent using the Royal Mail Signed For Service. Crease Free is either APC or UPS --------------------------------------------------------------------- Full details on the " DELIVERIES & RETURNS" section below.


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Tag Archives: Johannes Pipudi
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Early medievalist's thoughts and ponderings, by Jonathan Jarrett
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Home >> Course Descriptions >> College of Education
Reading Comprehension.
Three semester hours. (SP)
Theories of comprehension as they pertain to instruction are explored. Students learn a variety of strategies and approaches for teaching reading comprehension to children across grade levels.Prerequisites: Admission to College of Education, 2.7 overall grade point average, EDRD 3300 and EDRD 3309.
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Penn State heritage tree gains international support
Penn State heritage tree gains international support
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Invited Japanese master gardeners Kurato Fujimoto and Dr. Kibo Hagino worked with the Penn State Department of Landscape Architecture and Office of Physical Plant staff, teaching traditional tree preservation techniques and then installing traditional support braces on a threatened maple tree on the University Park campus. The crutches and braces were installed this week.
The Japanese maple, estimated at more than 100 years old, is situated on the south side of Penn State's Deike Building. This year, a significant branch of the tree was damaged and had to be removed. The other branches of this heritage tree were deemed to be threatened by winds and snow loads.
In a joint conservation project sponsored by the Stuckeman School's Department of Landscape Architecture and the Office of Physical Plant, gardeners Fujimoto and Hagino traveled from Japan to perform workshops and demonstrations of traditional Japanese tree support structures such as braces, crutches and rope tenting (yukitsuri). As part of this cultural and technological exchange, University staff worked alongside the visiting gardeners to fit the branch-supporting braces to the tree.


text: When I saw this video, it took me back to those days when I was the bat boy for a local college team. The guys were always fucking around, Slapping each other with towels, pulling their balls out to compare who had the biggest. Ahh yes, it brings me back. This time we have 5 gorgeous looking guys, in a room jerking it to win money. One fearless member of the group gets this great idea to throw a party, and have a circle jerk to submit it to win 10,000 dollars. After a bit of resistance, and some coercion from the girls, they finally go for it. I think these girls wanted to see it too. With a little help, these boys do a bang up job. The 2 guys in the middle end up being who I would consider our top performers. Ripped with huge cocks, they steal the show. And that chalk board target for the contest...well, I will just let you see for yourselves. Hot jocks, jerking off, who can cum the furthest. Hot bodies and BIG cocks.


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Related Product Information
Isolate or deplete murine CD4+ T cells directly from spleen or lymph node cell suspensions. The Dynabeads® can be detached using DETACHaBEAD® (not supplied, available separately as Cat. no. 124.06D). Isolated cells are bead and antibody-free, phenotypically unaltered and ideal for any downstream application including flow cytometry, functional studies and expansion.
Principle of Isolation
Dynabeads are mixed with the cell sample in a tube. The Dynabeads® will bind to the target cells during a short incubation, and then the bead-bound cells are separated by a magnet.
- Depletion – discard the bead-bound cells and use the remaining, untouched cells for any application.
- Positive isolation – discard the supernatant and use the bead-bound cells for downstream applications (e.g. molecular analysis or cell culture).
- Detachment (optional) – Positively isolated cells are gently released using DETACHaBEAD® Mouse CD4 (Cat. no. 124.06D).
Description of Materials
Dynabeads® Mouse CD4 (L3T4) are uniform, superparamagnetic polystyrene beads (4.5 μm diameter) coated with a rat monoclonal antibody. This antibody is specific for the L3T4 membrane antigen expressed on thymocytes and the T helper subpopulation of mature T cells of all common mouse strains.
Material Suppled
- 5 ml Dynabeads® Mouse CD4 (L3T4)- 4 x 108 Dynabeads/ml in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.4, containing 0.1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) and 0.02% sodium azide (NaN3).
- The product will process up to 2 x 109 leucocytes
Additional Materials Required
- DynaMag™ magnet:: See www.lifetechnologies.com/magnets for magnet recommendation.
- Recommended culture media: RPMI 1640 or DMEM with 10% FCS and CO2 incubation.
- Mixer allowing both tilting and rotation.
- Isolation buffer: Ca2+ and Mg2+ free phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (e.g. Gibco Cat. no. 14190-094) supplemented with 0.1% BSA and 2mM EDTA.
- DETACHaBEAD® Mouse CD4 – Cat. no. 124.06 (optional, to release cells from the beads after positive isolation).
Important Notes:
- Keep the buffers cold.
- BSA can be replaced by human serum albumin (HSA) or 2 % FBS/FCS.
- EDTA can be replaced by 0.6 % sodium citrate.
- PBS containing Ca2+ or Mg2+ is not recommended.
Critical notes:
- The Dynabeads® should be washed before use (see 'Dynabeads® Washing Procedure')
- Use a mixer that provides tilting and rotation of the tubes to ensure that Dynabeads® do not settle in the tube.
- This product should not be used with the Dynal MPC™-1 (Cat. no. 120.01D).
- Follow the recommended volumes and incubation times.
- Never use less than 25 μl Dynabeads® per ml cell sample.
- Avoid air bubbles during pipetting.
- Keep the temperature at 2-8°C when incubation Dynabeads® and cells, to minimize phagocytic activity and other metabolic processes.
Dynabeads® Washing Procedure
- Resuspend the Dynabeads® in the vial.
- Transfer the desired volume of Dynabeads® to a tube.
- Add the same volume of Isolation buffer, or at least 1 ml, and mix.
- Place the tube in a magnet for 1 min and discard the supernatant.
- Remove the tube from the magnet and resuspend the washed Dynabeads ® in the same volume of Isolation buffer as the initial volume of Dynabeads®.
Mouse cells are generally obtained from spleen, thymus or lymph node, but other sources can also be used. Resuspend the cells at 1 x 107 cells per ml Isolation buffer.
Isolation Procedure
The protocol presented below describes depletion and/or positive isolation of mouse CD4+ T cells.
|Positive isolation
|Volume of cell sample (up to 1 x 107 cells/ml)
|1 ml
|1 ml
|Volume of Dynabeads® per 107 cells
|25 μl
|50 μl
|Total no. of cells processed per product (5 ml)
|2 x 109
|1 x 109
Table 1: Volume of Dynabeads® added per 1 ml cell sample. The volumes can be scaled up as required.
This protocol is based on using 1 x 107 cells. When working with fewer cells than 1 x 107, use the same volumes as indicated. When working with higher cell numbers, scale up all reagent and total volumes accordingly.
- For positive isolation, add 25 μl Dynabeads® to the prepared cell sample (for depletion, use 50 μl Dynabeads®).
- Incubate for 20 min (positive isolation) or 30 min (depletion) at 2-8°C with gentle tilting and rotation.
- Place the tube in a magnet for 2 min.
- For depletion, transfer supernatant to a new tube for further use.
- For positive isolation, discard the supernatant and wash the beadbound cells 3 times by resuspending in 1 ml Isolation buffer and separate using a magnet.
For release of Dynabeads® from positively isolated cells, see DETACHaBEAD® Mouse CD4 package insert for protocol (Cat. no. 124.06D). For molecular studies, lyse cells while still attached to the beads and transfer supernatant to a new tube for further mRNA, protein or other subcellular isolations. For other recommended sample preparation procedures, visit /cellisolation.
This product is stable until the expiry date stated on the label when stored unopened at 2-8°C. Store opened vials at 2-8°C and avoid bacterial contamination. Keep Dynabeads in liquid suspension during storage and all handling steps, as drying will result in reduced performance. Resuspend well before use.
Warnings And Limitations
This kit is for research use only.
Follow appropriate laboratory guidelines. This product contains 0.02% sodium azide as a preservative, which is cytotoxic. Avoid pipetting by mouth! Sodium azide may react with lead and copper plumbing to form highly explosive metal azides. When disposing through plumbing drains, flush with large volumes of water to prevent azide build up.
Avoid pipetting by mouth!
Certificate of Analysis (CoA) is available upon request. Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is available at .
- Chandra AP et al (2007) Chemokine and toll-like receptor signaling in macrophage mediated islet xenograft rejection. Xenotranspl. 14:48-59.
- Dooms H et al (2007) Interleukin-2 enhances CD4+ T cell memory by promoting the generation of IL-7Ra-expressing cells. JEM 204 (3):547-557.
- Gwack Y et al (2007) Biochemical and Functional Characterization of Orai Proteins. J.Biol.Chem. 282 (22):16232-16243.
- Harrington LE et al (2005) Interleukin 17-producing CD4+ effector T cells develop via a linage distinct from the T helper type 1 and 2 lineages. Nat. Immunol. 6 (11):1123-1132.
- Henderson WR et al (2007) Importance of group X-secreted phospholipase A2 in allergen-induced airway inflammation and remodeling in a mouse asthma model. JEM 204 (4):865-877.
- Maynard CL et al (2007) Regulatory T cells expressing interleukin 10 develop from Foxp3+ and Foxp3- precursor cells in the absence of interleukin 10. Nat. Immunol. 8 (9):931-941.
- Oeckinghouse A et al (2007) Malt1 ubiquination triggers NF-kB signaling upon T-cell activation. EMBO J. 26:4634-4645.
- Roan NR and Starnbach MN (2006) Antigen-Specific CD8+ T Cells Respond to Chlamydia trachomatis in the Genital Mucosa. J.Immunol. 177:7974-7979.
- Schillaci R et al (2006) Immunization with Murine Breast Cancer Cells Treated with Antisense Oligodeoxynucleotides to type I Insulin-Like Growth Factor Receptor Induced an Antitumoral Effect Mediated by a CD8+ Response Involving Fas/Fas Ligand Cytotoxic Pathway. J. Immunol. 176:3426-3437.
- Tager AM et al (2008) The lysophosphatidic acid receptor LPA1 links pulmonary fibrosis to lung injury by mediating fibroblast recruitment and vascular leak. Nat. Med. 14 (19):45-53.
- Tanaka Y et al (2007) T helper type 2 differentiation and intracellular trafficking of the interleukin 4 receptor-a subunit controlled by the Rac activator Dock 2. Nat. Immunol. 8 (10):1067-1075.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.


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�All gave some...some gave all� was the program message for those attending Memorial Day 2013 ceremonies at the New Bern National Cemetery Monday.
�All gave some...some gave all� was the program message for those attending Memorial Day 2013 ceremonies at the New Bern National Cemetery Monday.
With sunny skies, morning temperatures in the low 70s and a new contingent of veterans and military service families from wars in Iraqand Afghanistan, about 500 people � more than twice the number of programs printed for it � attended the event.
Those approaching the picturesque venue could hear the Havelock Community Band playing patriotic songs. They could be seen standing a little taller as sounds like �This Is My Country� filled the same air that waved the hundreds of American flags hanging on street poles and placed carefully in front of each white gravestone by Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
Even the always impressive Cherry Point Marine Corps Rifle Team, bugler and Color Guard seemed to be striving harder for perfection with their own Sgt. Maj. Holly C. Prafke as the featured speaker of the day.
Retired Marine Chief Warrant Officer Owen Smith, who introduced the speaker, said that when Prafke retires after 30 years next month, she and husband Sgt. Maj. Brad Prafke will be the first Marine Corps couple to both reach that rank.
Dean Randgaard, program support assistant at National Cemetery, welcomed those attending, and Craven County Veterans Council Chairman Tommy Broom introduced U.S. Navy Chaplain Carl P. Koch, who prayed in poem. Craven County Veterans Council�s Howard Carrier Jr. led the Pledge of Allegiance with those attending, almost all of whom had their hands to forehead in salute or over heart.
Samuel Lewis boomed out the National Anthem with those who cared to sing along before Koch introduced the Gold Star Mothers who had lost children in war.
The recognized included Mabel Harris, mother of the late Micheal A. Harris, and Thelma Ware Ward, mother of the late Bobby Maurice Ware, both of whom died in the Persian Gulf, and Theresa Croyle, whose son Daniel Smith died in the war for Iraqi freedom.
In 1929, Gold Star Mothers began officially to honor those who died in war when the day of recognition was known as �Decoration Day.�
Prafke said there had always been a running debate between her grandmother and World War II and Vietnam War veteran father about the official name for the day. Congress declared �Memorial Day� as a national holiday in 1971.
Regardless of the name it is called, she said, �we remember the fallen, pray for the wounded and thank those still in the service.�
Andrea Becton, chaplain for Craven County Veterans Council, led the placing of the wreaths as �A grateful nation remembers...the freedom for which so many made the supreme sacrifice.�
But individuals also came with personal recollections and flowers for family, like Gina Ronning and Susan Hart, Morehead City daughters of a late Marine Corps staff sergeant who died from Agent Orange in 2008 at age 73.
�We come every Memorial Day and other times,� said Hart. �We are so grateful to him for fighting and proud of all the veterans.�
Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.
Havelock marks Memorial Day. To read more, click HERE.


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This 'N That
Ervin Santana pitching for Rancho Cucamonga in July 2003.
Just checking in …
I'm going to be rather scarce in the next few days trying to get the Tempe photos processed. The photos from Day 1 of the trip (July 20) will be on-line tonight in the FutureAngels.com Digital Photo Gallery. Two more games to go, July 21 and July 22.
At the same time, I'm working with my mortgage lender and a property broker in Florida on a possible transaction next month. My wife and I have long-range plans to retire and move to somewhere in the Cape Canaveral area, which is known for obvious reasons as the "Space Coast." We'll be flying out for a couple days in mid-September to look at properties.
I've noticed on some fan boards that certain people are trying to dismiss Ervin Santana as just another Ramon Ortiz, as usual without bothering to do their homework. So I'll do it for them.
I've preached many times that PCL stats have to be taken in context because of the many high-altitude ballparks. You can't just look at home/away splits. Even though Salt Lake is at 4,500 feet altitude, there are other notoriously hitter-friendly parks — in particular, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Tucson, and Albuquerque.
So far in his Triple-A assignment, Ervin has made two home starts and three on the road — but one of those road starts was at Albuquerque, at an elevation of 5,300 feet.
Here's what you get when you combine the three high-altitude starts (two at Salt Lake, one at Albuquerque) and compare them to the two "normal" elevation starts (one at Sacramento, one at Round Rock).
In the high-altitude parks, Ervin has a 7.36 ERA in 18 1/3 innings, giving up 15 runs on 31 hits including three homers. His SO:BB ratio is 16:6, which isn't bad especially when you consider he's whiffing batters at a rate of 7.8 per 9 IP.
In the "normal" parks, Ervin has a 1.93 ERA in 14 IP, giving up three runs on 8 hits including one homer. His SO:BB ratio is 16:4, or 10.3 Ks per 9 IP.
Hmmm …
I didn't see much value in sending him to Triple-A for this reason. The high-altitude parks would distort his numbers, and he'd dominate in the "normal" parks because his stuff is better than Triple-A.
On the other hand, it was clear his lackluster performance in the majors was hurting the ballclub, so he had to come out of the rotation. Going to the bullpen wouldn't do him much good, because right now he's in that #6 starter role occupied most of the year by Joe Saunders. (Let's not forget that the high-altitude parks distorted Joe's Triple-A numbers too.)
So all sending him to Triple-A would accomplish is taking him out of a death spiral. Going to Salt Lake is the equivalent of giving a child a "time out." Ervin needed a mental breather, and the chance to work on his stuff without the pressure of a pennant race (well, a major league pennant race — the Bees are in their own playoff hunt).
In any case, my point is not to get all hysterical when Ervin gets lit up at Salt Lake or other high-altitude parks. Look past the runs and hits to see (1) where he's pitching, and (2) what are his SO:BB ratios. That'll tell you more about how he's progressing.
Juan Rivera was supposed to start a rehab stint tonight at Rancho Cucamonga, while Howie Kendrick has moved on to Salt Lake to continue his rehab. Hopefully the Angels can survive the rest of the season without any more catastrophic injuries, but that isn't likely. They'll be in a world of hurt if Vlad Guerrero goes down.
Finally, watch the clock through Wednesday, August 15. That's the deadline for major league clubs to sign their 2007 draft picks. This is a new wrinkle in the annual draft. Under the old rules, high school graduates and college junior/seniors could be signed until they attended school. Junior college players could go to school and were still eligible until one week before the next draft, hence the phrase "draft-and-follow."
But no more hanky-panky. It's much more straightforward now — sign by August 15 or go back into the draft next year and hope you don't hurt yourself in the mean time.
I guess this means college graduates who don't sign have no choice but to go to independent ball.
The Angels are hoping to snag third-round pick RHP Matt Harvey, who would have gone in the first round except his advisor is Scott Boras. But the Angels have had good luck in the past negotiating with Boras clients, e.g. Chris Bootcheck and Jered Weaver, so I'm optimistic.


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Yes, SOPA Breaks The Internet: By Breaking The Belief In Trust And Sharing That Is The Internet
from the great-point deptVenture capitalist Brad Burnham has a brilliant blog post that explains how SOPA really breaks the internet. It isn't just the technical aspects of it. SOPA is an attack on the fundamental belief system that underlies the internet, and much of what makes it successful:
At a dinner earlier this week, Joi Ito, the head of the Media Lab at MIT described the Internet as a "belief system" and I suddenly understood. The Internet is not just a series of pipes. It's core architecture embeds an assumption about human nature. The Internet is designed to empower individuals not control them. It assumes that the if individuals are empowered, they will do the right thing the vast majority of the time. Services like eBay, Craigslist, Etsy and AirBnB are built on the assumption that most people are honest. Other services like Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Wordpress, and Soundcloud assume people will be generous with their ideas, insights and creations. Wikipedia has proven that people will share their knowledge. Companies like Kickstarter show that people will even be generous with their money. This does not mean that there are not bad people out there. All of these companies spend a lot of time and money to battle spam and fraud. The companies are simply betting that there are many more good people than bad. The architecture of the Internet shares this assumption. It could have been designed to prevent bad behavior. Instead its design empowers good behavior.That encapsulates the point wonderfully. And SOPA is really about suggesting that that "belief system" built on trust and sharing isn't worth keeping around. I think this is a fundamental issue that people who understand the internet fully get: that it's more than the "series of tubes" or the specific technology that holds it together. It's built on a philosophy of openness and sharing. And that is a worldview that some businesses just don't grasp.
The entertainment industry does not share this view of human nature.
Whether you agree with me that the vast majority of people are good or with my friend that given a chance many people will steal is not really important. What is important is that PIPA, and SOPA, the legislation the content industry is currently pushing through Congress, will not allow me to architect a service and build a relationship with consumers that reflects my core beliefs about human nature. If I am a search engine and I remove sites from my index, I am essentially lying to my users. If I am a social media site and I remove links my users have posted to sites that some authority has deemed illegal, I am breaking a promise.It really is this that's the issue at hand. The "breaking" is of this recognition of the wonderful aspects built on the fact that people really are, for the most part, good. And when you treat them as being good -- rather than treating them as criminals -- you get rewarded for it. Are there some people who take advantage? Sure. But should we break the whole system just to stop those few people, when it will hinder all the wonderful things built on trust? That, unfortunately, appears to be the position the pro-SOPA folks are taking.
I am sympathetic to the content industries struggles with piracy, but my belief system tells me the answer is to capitalize on the great strengths of the Internet to create a healthy and profitable relationship with their users not to sue them. No matter how strongly I believe that, however, I do not think I have the right to tell them how to run their business. Apparently, they do not feel the same way about our businesses. The current legislation in Congress does not just create an administrative burden, it requires service providers who have built wonderful businesses on a deep conviction about human nature to change their relationship with their users in a way that subverts their core values.
My only beef with Brad's piece is that he claims "the content industry" doesn't believe in the internet of trust and sharing. I disagree with that. I am a a part of the content industry. As is Brad. The new content industry absolutely gets it. It's why it embraces these platforms, uses them to create, distribute, promote, connect and monetize. It's the old gatekeepers who don't believe in this view of the internet.
Filed Under: brad burnham, culture, internet, sharing, sopa, trust


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newarenanow wrote:I'm 34 and would like to retire by 62 or so. How much money do I need to retire if I plan on having my house paid off and just want to do some casual travel and live a reasonable lifestyle (maybe $50-60K in todays dollars) to retire?
How much should I have right now?
Does anyone have any of those calculators or a good site to point me to?
The first question is: do you have a pension? That significantly changes how much/aggressively you need to be investing.


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Sixteen Shelby County girls will compete in the Miss Shelby County Teen pageant at the fair Tuesday. The winner will compete in the Miss Teen Kentucky County Fair pageant. The contestants, 13- to 16-years-old who all attend Shelby County High School, are judged on beauty, poise and personality.
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Hello all: thanks very much to all 24 people who commented on the 5-year-anniversary entry! So good to read all the positive things people have done and made, particularly at a time of year where it's easy to be dull and gloomy
And sorry for being a very crap blogger over the last couple of weeks. Work has been really busy, I've been knitting away like mad over a Christmas present which is routinely kicking my arse (can't show you as the recipient reads this), and on the rare occasions I've been home it's been much more tempting to curl up in front of the wood stove in the dining room with knitting and a good book than venture out to the living room to blog...
Some knitting has been done though - and it's been received so I can show you. These are for Baby Eliza (I blogged about hearing about her arrival while SusieH and I were in Norwich Cathedral).
One baby blanket (the Chalice pattern by Lykkefanten) in James Brett Marble. E's big brother got the "heirloom" type one so this time I was going for washable, practical, soft and likely to get used over the winter. And the same consideration came into play with these three burp/dribble-cloths. No point in not having pretty ones, though!
OK - back to the comments draw.
The winner in the random number generator is Comment #11 by wuthering_alice (AKA Steph - you can't fool me with your clever Victorian wiles, my dear...) Congrats, Steph! PM me on Ravelry with your address, or use the link in my profile to send me an e-mail, and a packet of goodies will be winging its way to you in the next few days.
The winner in the completely non-impartial "comment I liked" is Valerie, who pointed out very sensibly that it's better to make as much time as you can for an activity rather than whining that you haven't time; but accept you're never going to do everything you want to all at once! I might know you in real life, Valerie (and your freeform stuff sounds very intriguing) but I don't think I know how to contact you online. If you're on Ravelry, I'm greensideknits - drop me a PM with your postal address - and if not, my e-mail address is in my profile (button on the top right of the blog).
I've foolishly signed up for NaBloPoMo again this November, so will definitely get round to telling you about my personal bests then.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
5-year draw results!
Posted by Liz at 4:11 pm 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: birthdays, competitions, NaBloPoMo
Monday, October 18, 2010
Take two
It's not often you knit a whole sleeve on a day's commute. Today was one of those days; but then, when the sleeve's only this long...
The tomato-soup coloured All Seasons Cotton is re-knitting up nicely to be an Alpaka Tunic (from the Fall 2009 Interweave Knits). I've needed to go down three (three!!!) needle sizes to get gauge, which is a bit unprecedented... I'm doing a couple of rows of moss-stitch rather than the slightly rolled edges in the original.
A couple of people asked about reskeining/washing after unravelling. I've never bothered if it's not been washed and worn, as it doesn't seem to go too kinky. I suppose if it had been washed and pressed and so on, I might reskein, but it's still enjoyable to knit with... I wind straight onto the ball-winder as I unravel, and that keeps the yarn slightly under tension, too.
Posted by Liz at 11:04 pm 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: alpaka tunic
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Reverse engineering
As part of thinking about the best things I've made (in the knitting sense), I was also forced to admit today that there are some things which are less than best. In fact, there are three sweaters I've made over the last 5 years or so which didn't even get fully sewn-up because I was already aware that they were All Wrong.
One was going to be a long-forgotten dark blue All Seasons Cotton sweater (having already been a failed jacket); one a Ragna in cardigan version in Wendy Aran, and one a She Gansey in red All Seasons Cotton. In all cases they were too big, or the wrong shape, or I'd just completely fallen out of love with the pattern by the time I'd got to the end. Here they are in their awful glory.
And here they were a couple of hours later. Back left, 776 grammes/1550 metres of Wendy Aran with Wool in a nice green/grey tweed. Back right, 764 grammes/1400 metres of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in dark Air Force blue. Front, 490 grammes/880 metres of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in Paprika (orangey red); I do have another unopened 500 gramme bag of that one having bought two packs in Liberty's sale a few years ago.
Half of me is happy to have reclaimed three sweaters' worth of yarns. The other half of me looks at 2030 grammes and 3,830 metres of unravelled, never-worn sweater, with all the time, effort and hope involved, and marvels What was I thinking??
Knitters' denial - it's an amazing thing.
Just a reminder of the blog giveaway from the last post. Leave a comment over there about the best thing you've made over the last 5 years for a chance of a prize.
Posted by Liz at 10:54 pm 4 comments: Links to this post
Labels: knitters' denial, unravelling
Friday, October 15, 2010
Five; and a giveaway...
Well, it's five years today since I opened my Blogger account, and 505 posts down the road, here I still am. I didn't put up my first post for a few days, so it's not quite my full five-year anniversary, but I'm at home today on a day's holiday so I thought I'd celebrate early, having spent the morning fiddling with the template.
I thought the blog needed a bit of a freshen-up for its birthday though - so I've stripped the Victorian wallpaper and gone for a cleaner look. Let me know if you like it!
I've done some stuff I never thought I would over the last five years; I've gained friends, and even family (3 little ones to knit for this Christmas!). I've met some wonderful knitters both online and in real life, gone to some excellent and/or interesting events, visited Venice, and Canada, and Vienna (which weirdly, I really didn't blog despite taking huge numbers of photos - here's the Flickr set though!).
I've also changed jobs for one which is both much more fun and much more structured, and where I'm finally using my qualifications fully; I've become a commuter, and Establishment, and have surprisingly found I enjoy both of those things. I've overhauled my garden (the back bedroom is next on the list) and learned to spin yarn which is actually knittable (more on that later, I hope).
Anyway, five years is a long time; and as with all these things, deserves some sort of contest/giveaway thing, to thank you for reading, and for continuing to read, particularly when I'm just maundering on about my garden, or showing you the next foot of unblocked lace in a big heap with a cat sitting on top of it.
So, please add a comment to this post before the end of October 30, telling me about the best thing you've made in the last five years. It might be a sweater, a baby, a pie, a decision... I'll use the random number generator to choose one prize, and give the other one to my personal favourite comment. The prizes are secret (largely because I don't know what they are yet) but will be yarn-related and fun.
Over the next few days I'll blog about two or three of the best things I've made over that time, too.
Posted by Liz at 12:15 pm 24 comments: Links to this post
Labels: birthdays, competitions
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sahar: proof positive of knitting life...
I have been knitting; honestly. I'm just aware I haven't blogged any for ages. Some of this has been that delay you get where you knit a present, or do a test knit, and then can't present it for ages. Some of it has just been indolence. Most of it, frankly, has just been that all my blogging time (and honestly, most of my energy) over the summer and since has been sucked into the whole KnitCamp experience, and the earlier and later fiascos. Even from the point of view of a student and observer, it's been completely knackering. I hope to catch up at some point. And some of the things I've made have been really lovely even if I say so as shouldn't.
However, just about a month ago, Franklin put up a pattern on Ravelry for download which somehow just screamed "KNIT ME!!" in a way very few things have recently, despite the huge wealth of patterns out there, particularly as I knew exactly which yarn I was going to use. So despite having 114 things in the Ravelry queue ahead of this, and a lot of yarn at home, I found myself in John Lewis buying Rowan Felted Tweed a couple of days later, and casting on in the pub (yes, I had brought appropriate needles and the waste yarn with me. I was a Brownie and a Guide. On occasions, I am Prepared).
That evening I had this
and was sort of entranced. There's a switch every 6 rows in the first pattern which stops you falling into complacency, but it's a switch like the end of a long seam in sewing, or (for those of us just old enough to remember) the ding of the bell of the typewriter at the end of a row; not too jarring, just a little reminder that something needs to be done.
There's not too much of any part of the pattern to be boring (Summer into Fall and Wibbo's as-yet-unpublished Gallimaufry compare with it for sheer enjoyment) but the DK weight yarn also makes it a comparatively fast knit. There's a provisional cast-on at each end, grafting/Kitchener stitch in the middle, and then picking up and knitting around the edge to make a border (which isn't a huge border, but still takes up about a quarter of the yarn). The picking up and knitting is dead easy if you just follow the instructions. I found a tiny error on one square of the final row of the border; which is, of course, fixed now.
A little over a fortnight after casting on I had this:Pictures are clickable to embiggen (despite the Firefox upgrade which means I'm having to go back to IE to link to Flickr...)
Bravo, Franklin, and thanks for the pattern. It's been a while since I was this single-minded about a piece of knitting; I think this stole will be lounging negligently around on the sofa this winter, on the rare occasions when it's not wrapped around my neck.
Posted by Liz at 8:24 pm 1 comment: Links to this post
Sunday, October 10, 2010
2010 books, #66-70
Ash and bone, by John Harvey. London: Heinemann, 2005.
Another one in this tremendous series; this time based around conservation versus logging, and land transfer deals. Clare's personal life also becomes steadily more complicated. Some of the plotting here seems less realistic than with the other novels, but the characters have almost become more interesting than the plot. (The next two books in the series are in the post from the US.)
A non-Resnick novel (although Resnick appears in a cameo), with the same characters as his earlier Flesh and Blood. Frank Elder is again persuaded out of retirement in Cornwall, this time to investigate the murder of an ex-colleague. Meanwhile, his own daughter is facing a drugs charge in Nottingham. This is very tightly plotted with some interesting characters, and well up to John Harvey's standard.
Little girl lost, by Susan Kelly. London: Allison and Busby, 2002.
It seems simple enough: a child is abducted from her home by her social worker, while her father is asleep. But it all becomes much more complicated, and things which had been known as facts turn out to have been so many lies. Another Greg Summers novel; Summers is an interesting character, and the relationships between the different police staff are as interesting as those between the protagonists. There's a heartbreaking side story about Alzheimer's, too.
To darkness and to death, by Julia Spencer-Fleming. New York: St Martin's, 2005.
Nemesis, by Lindsey Davis [audiobook]. Read by Christian Rodska. Oxford: Isis, 2010.
I put on the first CD of this book expecting the usual slightly comic opening to the most recent (20th!) Falco historical detective novel. I didn't expect to be reaching for the tissues within 10 minutes! The opening is amazingly touching, and the rest of the novel is excellent, too. Falco is now at a bit of a crossroads, established in his home life and now moneyed, but still with the sense of adventure which has led him into so much trouble. The sub-plot involving Albia, his adopted British daughter, is a great touch, too. Christian Rodska's reading is superb as ever - when I realised who the reader was, I happily waited the extra time for the audio version to come from the library. He gives Falco just the right slightly-wrong-side-of-the-tracks edge without caricature.
Things fall apart, by Chinua Achebe. London: Penguin, 2006.
Posted by Liz at 2:48 pm 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: books
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Meeting Across the River
Weirdly, as I walked over the Golden Jubilee Walkways from the north to the south bank of the Thames, this song came on the iPod. Seemed very appropriate
It was a grim day, which looked like midwinter...
But I was heading to the Royal Festival Hall for lunch, drinks and knitting with a friend. Anyone who knows this particular friend will probably work out who it was by this photo...
Yes, it was indeed Yvonne (aka Stash on Ravelry); accessorising her purple cast with her beautiful new purple Louët yarn, and making an experimental foray into the centre of town since her unfortunate altercation with an unfriendly kerb.
And this was the view we had to gaze out on - or at least, part of the view. This bit wasn't entirely populated by people earnestly tapping on their MacBooks (or whatever those Mac laptops are called)...
The people-watching was excellent though - we didn't see anyone we could positively identify, but there were definitely Telly People arranging interviews and so on...
And on the way out, there was an exhibition of art made by young offenders, which was really interesting. This one was definitely one for Sparkleduck though!
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Mudding around
By Liza| 2017-08-07T19:46:41+00:00 August 7th, 2017|0 Comments
About the Author: Liza
Hi there I'm Liza or better known as Li, the blogger behind Living DeliciousLi. I'm a mom to 3, wife to Nick, psychologist and restaurant owner. I love colours, simple effortless living and hope I can connect with other mothers and creative souls out there and share our lifestyle and creativity with you all. This little spot is where I would love to share cool ideas, tips and parts of my life that will add value to your day. God blessed me by being a super mom and getting on with things, so helping others in need is my biggest gift I can give you. Coming up with life hacks and super cool ways to make your life easier is what I love. so stick around cause life just became a heck of a lot easier and definitely more delicious!


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Offerings From The Sea
limited edtion
You're walking in the heart of NYC. Sounds of the city and the heat radiating off the pavement engulf you. The shimmering pattern of seal fur and sterling silver glistens against your neck. You float free in the breeze as the spirit of the ocean flows with you down the street. Moving through a sea of people, the seal fur earrings echo your beauty, your strength. The handcrafted earrings traveled thousands of miles from a distant indigenous culture. You feel the labor of love and the respect from the hunter in every curve: honoring tradition, ancestry, life, art and Spirit. The earrings deepen the connection you have with everything in the Universe. For anything that is real, anything of true value is never lost.
earring length 4" from top of ear wire to bottom of earring drop
widest part of earring 1"
made of sterling silver and seal fur
Note These one-of-a-kind works of art are individually handmade from wild animals. Sizes and "imperfections" may vary and are reflective of a natural, unique, and creative process that is not factory produced. Photos are for representational purpose, colors may sing differently in real life.
Care instructions: Sterling silver should be stored in a dry place. Use a silver polishing cloth to remove tarnish. Take to a professional silver polisher for heavy tarnish. Seal fur is incredibly durable. It's okay if it gets wet; just slowly dry it out. Fur should be stored in a cool, dry place with air flow -not in a plastic bag. If the fur gets too dried out by heat or lack of air it may crack. If it curls, press it with a stack of books, being careful not to bend the sterling silver. For professional cleaning take fur to a furrier. Due to international regulations, seal handicrafts cannot be exported out of the United States.
Sustainable Fur The designer sources fur by asking the animal for its life before hunting and skinning it with his own hands. Ancient rituals, such as smudging with Labrador Tea and giving the animal its last drink of water in prayer, honor the animal. Shaman Furs upholds Yup'ik Eskimo tradition of a spiritual and respectful relationship with seals that has been celebrated for thousands of years. This incredibly personal connection is carried throughout its journey to you. Shaman Furs' unique business ethics and standards of quality have created a story and relationship not found in typical fashion houses. Alaska Native tribal groups have exclusive rights to hunt and work with seal fur. In Southeast Alaska, where Shaman Furs harvests seals for food and fur, seals are not listed as an endangered species. Ranging in shade from white to gold with energetic patterns and a sleek texture, seal fur is an ideal material for one-of-a-kind looks. Handcrafting fur from rare and expensive materials, Shaman Furs takes high quality construction to a unique place.
Free Shipping We offer free shipping on all orders. Items are shipped from Alaska directly to you. We use USPS Priority Mail. Purchases are shipped within three business days. Shaman Furs does not ship outside the United States due to regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and CITES.
No Hassle Return Policy Returning an item is easy. You may return any stock item for any reason for store credit only, no questions asked as long as you have it back to us within 12 days of the purchase date. Item must be in the same condition as when we sent it to you. Return shipping is paid by the purchaser.
Items will not be accepted for returns if the item is in not in like condition and or not received within 12 days of the purchase. Send returns to:
Shaman Furs
PO Box 6233
Sitka, AK 99835


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#119 Learn with Lynda: Go Deeper in Excel with COUNTIF
April 12, 2012
While Excel's COUNT formula is very helpful, sometimes it doesn't go far enough. Learn how to use more advanced functions like COUNTIF dig deeper into your data. COUNTIF can be used to count the number of "Yes" responses in a column containing a variety of answers.
Tabulating information on a single criterion with COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF
Excel 2010: Advanced Formulas and Functions | by Dennis Taylor


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Golden Gryphon
- Binds when picked up
- Unique
- Mount (Flying)
- Use: Teaches you how to summon this mount. The capabilities of this mount depend on your Riding skill and location.
The page you're viewing is not yet available on the new World of Warcraft website. Sorry for the inconvenience!


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Subscribe To Mariah Carey Hates On American Idol, Calls The Experience Hell Updates
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American Idol was a hot mess last time around. The ratings were a borderline disaster. Longtime producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe were forced out at the end of the season, and Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey spent as much time making wild statements to the press and glaring at each other as they did giving meaningful feedback to the contestants. At various points, rumors swirled that the women may have been playing it up a bit for the sake of the cameras, but months after officially leaving the program, they're still holding the same grudges.
Carey appeared on Hot 97 this week to talk about her upcoming album, but during the sitdown, she was asked a series of questions about her time on the hit reality program. She did not hold back her feelings. At all. Apparently, she was led to believe it would be a three person panel consisting of her, her longtime friend Randy Jackson and someone else she could get along with. Instead, it turned into a four person panel that, well, I'll use her exact words, as per Entertainment Weekly…
"It was like hell. It was like going to work every day in hell with Satan."
In addition, Carey also apparently had problems with the show because producers let certain people through and denied others for "political reasons". I would interpret that to mean because they either looked good on camera or had an interesting backstory, but she didn't really clarify her opinion with enough specifics to know for sure exactly what she was talking about.
Regardless, I think we can all agree doing American Idol was a miserable experience for her and for everyone who was forced to watch her wishy-washy, uninteresting opinions for the entire season. It was just a complete failure for everyone involved, and personally, I'm really glad the show is trying something different.
If you're interested in listening to the full interview with Carey, I've gone ahead and embedded the video below. The majority of the chat does not involve American Idol, but if you're a Carey fan, it's all interesting enough, as radio interviews go. If you're directly looking for the AI conversation, it starts at the 9:45 mark…


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By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 2, 2009; A01
One night last fall, thousands of fans walked into FedEx Field carrying gold towels. From the opening kickoff, it was clear that they were not part of the Washington Redskins burgundy-and-gold. The towel-waving throng cheered for the Pittsburgh Steelers, so loudly that on some downs the Redskins couldn't hear quarterback Jason Campbell call the signals.
Redskins players and many others were puzzled that Steelers fans were able to get their hands on so many coveted tickets. For more than 70 years, the Washington Redskins have boasted that they have sold out every game. Seats are so scarce, the team says, that the waiting list for general admission season tickets has 160,000 names on it.
But the reality is that those who want tickets can often find them online through ticket resellers such as StubHub. And in recent years, the Redskins ticket office itself has sold tickets into this secondary market, making it easier for fans of opposing teams to invade FedEx.
Thousands of general admission tickets were sold to brokers, who resold them on the secondary market, often at higher-than-retail prices, according to interviews and internal Redskin documents. These were often tickets to the very seats that Redskins fans have waited years to get.
The Redskins acknowledged that the sales were made but said they were against team policy.
Redskins General Counsel David Donovan said the prohibited sales were discovered in the spring during an internal audit of last season's ticket contracts and involved about 15 ticket brokering companies. He said the ticket sales employees involved were disciplined. He declined to name the employees or specify the discipline because it was a personnel matter.
"Somebody in the ticket office was doing something they shouldn't have been doing, and when it was discovered, it was all dealt with," Redskins Senior Vice President Karl Swanson said. "If the story is, this is a scandal, uncovered by Redskins, verified by The Post, or whatever, yeah, we're telling you: People got tickets who shouldn't have gotten tickets, and they were dealt with."
Donovan said Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder was unaware of sales to brokers. When he found out, Donovan said, "he was livid" and tried to have the accounts canceled immediately.
"When Mr. Snyder found out about it," Donovan said, "he made it clear to me that that was priority number one."
Snyder declined an interview request from The Post.
The Washington Post was able to document the sales by one ticket broker, ASC Ticket of Gaithersburg, which bought at least 5,000 tickets for nearly $600,000 during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, team records show. The tickets included 1,690 for general admission seats in the 100 sections of FedEx Field's lower bowl, among the most coveted seats in the stadium.
"We canceled at least a dozen accounts that collectively had hundreds and hundreds of tickets," Donovan said. He added that the numbers amount to a relatively small portion of the roughly 910,000 tickets that the team sells each year. "You do realize that there's 91,000 seats in the stadium," he said. "These are insignificant amounts."
The troubles in the Redskins ticket office provide a look into the high-pressure world of selling premium-priced tickets for a high-powered team. The practices illustrate how the burgeoning, Internet-driven secondary market is changing the way people get tickets to the best games, sometimes at the expense of loyal fans going through the team's own ticketing channels.
The crown jewel of Washington professional sports, the Redskins are one of the most storied and financially successful franchises in the National Football League. A ticket to a Redskins game has long been one of the toughest and most prestigious to get. Fans have kept season tickets after moving away and then traveled back for games.
The Redskins say that demand is so great for tickets that people spend five to seven years on the waiting list, which is only for those seeking season tickets for general admission seating. Generally, ticket holders who make it through the list are offered seats in the stadium's upper deck. At that point, they are considered off the list and have to negotiate with the ticket office to get better seats as they become available.
Donovan said someone in the ticket office could have diverted lower bowl general admission tickets to the brokers by using several account names. "Over the course of the year, if you're so inclined, you could siphon off hundreds of tickets, easily," he said. "There's no reason that person couldn't skate under the radar for quite a while."
The Redskins go to great lengths to maximize revenue. There are at least a half-dozen seating arrangements, from $44 upper deck general admission to $500 on-the-field "dream seats." Among the wide array of amenities are private bathrooms, climate-controlled seats and all-you-can-eat buffets.
The greatest demand is for the $99 lower bowl general admission tickets, which are close to the action and offer the best value. Season passes for these seats stay in families for generations. The Redskins work hard to channel the excess demand for lower bowl seats toward pricier options, such as the harder-to-sell premium tickets, which cost between $280 and $500 apiece. Premium tickets include the club seats in the gold band above the lower bowl.
ASC owner Jeff Greenberg, one of the brokers who bought tickets from the Redskins, told The Post that he was offered the lower bowl seats on the condition that he also buy club seats.
"I was forced to buy club seats," Greenberg said. "There were strings attached to this."
Donovan said most of the brokers' contracts for bulk tickets were canceled. But some brokers -- Donovan would not say how many -- have been permitted to continue to buy hundreds of Redskins season tickets because they demanded that their contracts be honored and threatened legal action.
"We don't have any problem selling tickets to fans," Donovan said. "We have 150,000-160,000 fans on a waiting list. We would much rather put tickets in the hands of fans than someone who flips them at a profit."
The NFL has no policies governing sales on the secondary market, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Teams have sold directly to brokers for years -- just not publicly, said Don Vaccaro, chief executive of Ticket Network, one of the larger online firms in the $2 billion secondary market. He has been a broker for more than two decades in the New York area.
"Teams and leagues don't want those tickets discounted in the primary market," Vaccaro said. "On the secondary market, it's okay. It is aftermarket. Very standard."
This year, teams are struggling and offering more tickets to the secondary market, he said.
"I see major sports teams, the major leagues, are going to look to get tickets out, put butts in seats, without lowering the prices that their season ticket holders are paying," Vaccaro said.Fabled Waiting List
One of the things that gives the Redskins prestige is the team's waiting list, which goes back decades.
The general admission waiting list, which famously included Snyder before he bought the team a decade ago, is considered one of the Redskins' most valuable assets. It is held up by the team as a symbol of unwavering demand for Redskins tickets. The team has the highest season ticket-renewal rate in the NFL.
Bloggers, fans in online chat rooms and others have often expressed doubt that the list is as long as advertised, especially in recent years, as the team has gone through tough seasons and played only one postseason home game since winning the Super Bowl in 1992. In recent months, numerous people have contacted The Post and said they have been repeatedly solicited to buy Redskins season tickets, even though they did not sign up to be on the waiting list.
"Redskins are sold out -- in theory," said ASC's Greenberg. "This year, they sent letters to everybody on the lower level to add more tickets to their account. The Redskins have done a great job of keeping that aura that they're sold out."
Redskins officials defended the list but acknowledged that some people's names could be on it more than once. They invited a reporter to look at it. Located in a locked storage room, the list is a computer printout that occupies 16 binders kept in banker's boxes.
In the business of pro football, tickets are a major source of revenue, and different tickets benefit teams in different ways. The tickets that generate the most profit are for the premium seats -- both because they cost the most and because the teams don't have to share as much of the revenue with the NFL.
There is no wait for most premium tickets. At many games over the years, empty gold club seats were noticeable between the burgundy-colored lower bowl and upper deck. Swanson said about 5 to 7 percent of club seats remain available for sale this year.
Many teams rely on premium ticket sales and multiyear contracts to help line up financing for both stadium construction and the daily operations of a sports franchise. Snyder took on a hefty debt when he purchased the team for $800 million. FedEx Field was built for $210 million in private money.
In addition, teams that finance their own stadiums, such as the Redskins, usually are granted substantial relief from the league revenue-sharing agreement on premium seats. In general, revenue sharing requires teams to give the league one-third of the price of each ticket. In the case of the Redskins, that amount is capped at $33, even on premium seats that cost up to $500.
Premium seats also help teams compete with scalpers by offering fans with money alternatives when tickets become scarce and high-priced. But the higher prices make them harder to sell for routine games.
And FedEx Field, after seating expansions by Snyder, has among the most premium seats and suites in the league. There are 20,000 premium seats and 243 suites at FedEx.
Many of the people who end up buying premium seats signed up on the waiting list to purchase general admission tickets.
"I was trying to get one of the regular seats, in the regular part of the stadium," said Alonzo Webb, a 60-year-old investigator for the Department of Homeland Security. "They said that you had to go on a waiting list of thousands of people. However, they had seats available in the club section. There was no waiting list."Ticket Broker's Tale
The story of one ticket broker shows how employees of the Redskins ticket office bundled club seats with general admission to make sales.
ASC owner Jeff Greenberg said a Redskins official first reached out to him in 2007 because sales agents were having trouble selling premium-priced club seats, with many fans declining to renew 10-year contracts signed when the stadium opened in 1997.
Greenberg, 42, who has been a ticket broker for 17 years, works out of a storefront in a building he owns in Gaithersburg. The company, which occupies two floors and has 12 employees, sells tickets to concerts, shows and sports events in almost every major venue in the United States.
Constantly switching between his cellphone and land lines, he sits before three computer screens, listing every ticket he buys or sells.
The 2007 arrangement that Greenberg had with the Redskins covered 1,360 individual tickets that he bought for about $60,000, team records show. Most of them were general admission tickets -- 710 in the upper deck and 366 in the lower bowl.
In 2008, ASC bought 217 season tickets (for 10 games) and 2,000 seats to individual games during the season. About half of those seats were in the lower bowl, with most in sections 101 to 142. About 40 percent of the seats were premium, and the rest were in the upper deck.
Greenberg said the contracts required him to buy the premium seats for two years in exchange for being allowed to buy the 169 lower bowl season tickets "in perpetuity."
The ticket sales appear in printouts of an account with ASC's address in Gaithersburg, and the account is listed to Dennis Wipprecht, an employee of ASC. The Redskins account representative is listed as Jason Friedman, vice president for premium seating in the Redskins ticket office.
Wipprecht said Greenberg handled all of the dealings with Friedman. He said that many ASC employees acquire tickets for the firm in their own names and that over the past year, the team kept offering more tickets for sale. Greenberg confirmed that Friedman was his point of contact for the tickets.
Friedman did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The arrangements did more than just bundle premium seats with general admission seats. The ticket office also offered less-popular games with the understanding that the brokers would get tickets to blockbuster matchups.
ASC was sold hard-to-get tickets for games with popular opponents, such as archrival Dallas and Pittsburgh, as well as tickets for games that received less interest, such as against New Orleans and St. Louis.
"Many sports teams use the practice of tying in sales to non-popular games in order for brokers to buy popular games," Vacarro said. "Brokers would make premiums on the good games and make losses on the substandard games, but all in all they would net out a small profit margin."
Greenberg's firm sold 443 to last fall's Pittsburgh game.
"It really is very hard to get single-game tickets from the Redskins, especially for a game like Pittsburgh," Greenberg said. "So the only way you could get tickets to that game if we, the secondary market, didn't exist, would be if you bought whole-season tickets. But if you only wanted to go to one game, why shouldn't you be able pay whatever its worth?"
For Greenberg, the Redskins account for the biggest part of his business, but he said the tickets he bought from the team did not bring a significant profit. The bulk sales from the team were mostly a wash, he said, because club and premium seats typically were resold at a loss.
He said that he bought more than five times as many tickets from Redskins season ticket holders and that he made more money on those sales, reaping a 35 percent profit on $3.2 million in sales.
He continued to buy from the Redskins to preserve his access.
That changed early this year, when the team attempted to cancel his contracts for 217 season tickets. Greenberg had a theory about why the team canceled his contracts. "I don't think they were happy about the Pittsburgh game last year," he said.
Donovan said that was incorrect. "That's ridiculous," Donovan said. "How the hell would he know? Baloney!"
Greenberg thought he had an enforceable contract, and he hired attorney Jack Garson of Rockville, who reached a settlement with the team this year that allowed ASC to buy about 150 season tickets (to two preseason and eight regular season games, for a total of 1,500 tickets).
The contracts with ASC were stamped with the signature of Mitch Gershman, the club's chief operating officer. But Gershman said he was unaware of the contracts until they turned up in the audit. "I did not personally sign any of those agreements," he said.
Donovan, the Redskins attorney, said that when ASC threatened legal action over canceled contracts, he argued that the agent who entered into the contracts was not authorized by the team.
"The problem was the terms of the contract were beyond the authority of the person who entered into the contract," Donovan said. "There were other issues with those contracts, which were beyond the authority of the salesperson. . . . One of those [issues] was sales to brokers."
Redskins ticket agents worked on commission at the time.
"The motive is money and laziness," Donovan said. "It is a lot easier to sell a package of 50 club seats along with 200 general admission tickets than it is to find 25 fans to buy two tickets each."
Some Redskins tickets sold directly to ASC previously belonged to season ticket holders who no longer could afford premium-priced tickets. Scores of people who tried to get out of their contracts were sued by the Redskins. In five cases examined by The Post, seats formerly belonging to season ticket holders who were sued ended up in ASC's inventory.
Club seat tickets once held by developer Randy Clarno were sold to ASC for three games last fall after the Redskins sued him for the balance of a 10-year contract that ends in 2016. Clarno said it was "unbelievable" that the Redskins would "resell the ticket and hang me up for $60,000."Fan-to-Fan Sales Outlet
In addition to selling to brokers, the team sells a small number of tickets directly on StubHub, a popular Web site designed for fan-to-fan ticket sales.
Gershman said the team sells some tickets returned from 1,200 set aside each week for VIPS and the players and coaches of the two teams.
"The week of the game, there is a cutoff where your own players need to tell you how many you're buying," Gershman said. "We try to sell every one of them. We obviously are trying to accommodate fans who are trying to come to the game. This includes parking passes. We put them out on StubHub, but we try to do it at face value."
StubHub is advertised as a place where fans can buy tickets from other fans. In 2006, StubHub paid $5 million to the Redskins for a five-year contract to be the preferred marketplace for Redskins fans to sell tickets to other fans.
StubHub spokesman Sean Pate said the company's marketing agreement with the Redskins does not prohibit the team from selling directly on the Web site.
"It is not something that is part and parcel to the arrangement," Pate said. "It is up to the discretion of the team. We don't prohibit them from doing so."
The team's StubHub sales were made from an account called AS Interactive, with the AS standing for "alternate sales."
Separately, ticket office employees were also using StubHub to sell Redskins tickets. According to documents obtained by The Post, they used the pseudonym "Joe Redskin" in a Yahoo e-mail account to sell single-game seats on StubHub.
The Post obtained copies of e-mails outlining the sales of more than 50 tickets and parking passes worth more than $20,000.
More than two dozen tickets to the Nov. 3 Steelers game, which Washington lost, 23-6, were sold from the Joe Redskin account, according to an e-mail. Some of the tickets to the game televised on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" went for more than double their face value.
Order 17908658 involved four tickets with face value of $79 each: upper level, Section 423, Row 1, seats 13, 14, 15, 16. The cost was $170 each for a total sale of $680.
"I have no knowledge of tickets being sold [by the Redskins] above face value," Donovan said.
The bottom of the automated e-mail generated by the StubHub system indicated that the check for the sale was made out to the Washington Redskins. The e-mail also said the check was mailed to a residence in Springfield that is the home of a former employee.
Redskins officials said they uncovered the employee sales on StubHub about the same time they found the broker accounts.
"We conducted an investigation, we took some actions against some employees, and that's really all I can say," Donovan said. "I'm not saying we took action against any employee regarding the Joe Redskin account, per se. There were issues in the ticket office with regard to broker transactions. There were issues in the ticket office with respect to sales of tickets by individuals on the club's account."
Former staff writer Jason La Canfora and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this article. La Canfora now works for NFL Network.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.


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An ever expanding world of assassination awaits you.
Hitman is back and this time he's got a lot of overtime.
Everyone's favourite assassin is back in all his next gen glory and as part of an ever-expanding world of contract killings.
The newest chapter in the acclaimed stealth series sees Agent 47 get a new mission every month throughout 2016.
With the 'Full Experience' players get access to all of the year's content, beginning with the Prologue and Paris before travelling to Sapienza in April and Marrakesh in May.
From there it will be on to Thailand, United States and concluding in Japan with seven episodes released this year.
The Hitman world will continue to grow, deepen and evolve over time, where players perform contract hits on powerful, high profile targets in exotic locations around the world.
It is an intriguing new direction for the franchise will will undoubtedly give it unprecedented longevity.
The game itself is everything we have come to know and love from Hitman, warts and all.
The graphics aren't mind blowing and everything feels a bit basic and last gen from that respect.
But you will never tire of the numerous ways to take out your targets, the hundreds of in-mission challenges or the hundreds of thousands of high-quality community created contracts.
The "Complete freedom of approach" is a major corner stone of the gameplay this time.
The gameplay is fluid and instantly enjoyable and the storyline as intriguing as ever as you are thrust in at the very start, 20 years before the original game.
It is clear everything the developers have learned over the course of more than 15 years of the franchise has been considered when making the latest installment.
It remains to be seen whether the rest of the episodes are as engaging as the first.
But you will undoubtedly love every minute trying to find out.


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Daily Reflection with Fr. Tomas Del Valle-Reyes
Dear Friends: Praying is not easy. Our daily routine calls for our full attention. And the world around us puts little value on prayer; our lives are full of material things but at the same time are getting emptier in God's value.
For this reason, I will post a daily reflection and as you visit this site may the Holy Spirit within you come to your aid and guide you gently to the God who loves you.
Monday, December 26, 2011
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