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WoodWeek 28 August 2019
Click to Subscribe - It's FREE!Greetings from your WoodWeek news team. Plenty of wood-based news updates for you this week, with quite a bit of it focused on log markets. But first, FOA president Peter Weir says the Royal Society's just released report on gene editing should be taken seriously by anyone concerned about the state of the environment.
Moving onto markets with the facts from Statistics NZ. Last month, log prices tumbled in China. Log exports fell $67 million (19 percent). Eighty percent of logs exported in the last year went to China. Values to China fell $39 million (15 percent) as prices fell, after a period of relative stability. The quantity exported to China rose 5.9 percent. The average value of logs sent to China has dropped from almost $180 per cubic metre at the start of the calendar year to less than $140 per cubic metre in July.
Adding commentary to the figures, we have links to log market news from both Radio NZ and PF Olsen. Take your pick – read the summary, go on to read more in the links or click on the radio link and listen.
To add to today's news haul, we also have commentary from Russia and Canada on China markets. Russia could ban timber exports to China unless Beijing takes action to help mitigate the effects of illegal logging, a Russian government minister said in an interview published on last week.
Wood markets forecaster Russ Taylor from FEA Canada summarises the year to date succinctly saying, "Exporters from Canada, Europe and Russia have oversupplied the China lumber market, and New Zealand has (almost singlehandedly) oversupplied China's log market."
To round out this week's issue we have a carbon market update from Carbon Match and some general interest wood stories. Enjoy!
This week we have for you:
FOA: We need gene editingForesters says gene editing valuable against climate change – A forest industry leader is calling for serious public debate on the advantages of using gene editing to combat wilding pines and in the broader context of fighting climate change through carbon sequestration.
Forest Owners Association President Peter Weir says the Royal Society's just released report on gene editing should be taken seriously by anyone concerned about the state of the environment.
'The Royal Society has highlighted the problem of wilding conifers, where, despite the millions of dollars spend on a control programme, these tree weeds continue to spread from old farm shelter belts, old catchment board soil conservation plantings and from old state forests, onto land where they are not wanted, including our native forests."
"If the fertility was switched off in these trees through a gene edit, then not only would the spread of wildings from new plantations be curtailed, but as the Royal Society quite rightly points out, the tree would divert more energy into growing wood. That adds to the carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere and helps combat climate change," Peter Weir says.
He says the current regulatory regime around gene editing in the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act is one of the most restrictive in the world.
"Not only that, the view of the Environmental Protection Authority, which administers the Act, is that there should be a zero-risk oversight, and that is contrary to the expressed view of the High Court in 2011."
"There is some research already on sterile wildings. But we are caught with an EPA requirement that the experimental trees are destroyed as soon as the cones appear, so we can't confirm we are producing sterile trees. But without that proof we are not going to be allowed to release them. That is crazy."
"If the EPA persist in its attitude that the risks of not conducting a particular piece of research and using the result are irrelevant, then the government has an obligation to direct the EPA as an Agent of the Crown to balance risks of gene editing against the risk of not researching that gene editing."
Logging contractors feeling the pinchLogging contractors are letting staff go or are working on reduced hours after the sudden fall in log prices earlier this year, and some are having trouble meeting their loan repayments on capital equipment, a spokesperson for the Forest Industry Contractors Association said.
The association, which has 200 members who are responsible for about 75 per cent of the annual harvest, said the sudden fall had caught many unawares.
Many forest owners have put their harvest on hold in the hope that prices will soon recover.
Chief executive Prue Younger said about 20 per cent of the association's membership had made workers redundant, were working on reduced hours, or were struggling to make capital repayments on their equipment.
About 3000 people are employed by the association's members, which tend to be the bigger contractors. Most FIEA members have one to eight crews, and each crew comprising eight to 10 workers.
The sector is no stranger to market downturns - there have been three over the last 20 years, but Younger said this one is different.
"It's such a rapid drop this time," she said.
More >>
Source: NZ Herald
PF Olsen: Log markets updateMarket Summary (courtesy of PFOlsen via 'Wood Matters' news) - The CFR sale prices in China for New Zealand logs has increased to around 113 USD per JAS m3 for A grade. Log supply into China has reduced considerably while log demand is still relatively healthy as they progress through their hotter months of the year. As demand in China increases and the log inventory reduces we expect CFR prices to increase further.
The trade war and now potentially a currency war between China and the US could have an impact on log buyer confidence, and the resultant movements in the relative exchange rates will likely have a significant effect on September AWG prices.
There will likely be an increase in sawn timber inventory in NZ as some sawmills have signed-up to a supply of logs at lower prices yet don't have the sawn timber sales to match. The domestic market is currently two paced with reasonable demand for structural sawn timber yet weak demand for industrial grade sawn timber.
Due to the increase in the AWG prices the PF Olsen Log Price Index for August increased $2 to $114. The index is currently $14 below the two-year average, $13 below the three-year average, and $6 lower than the five-year average.
Export Log Market Update: China - The CFR sale price for A grade logs in China has recently increased and now sits around 113 USD per JASm3 and expected to increase next month. However, the more recent depreciation in the CNY against the USD is of concern as this has reduced the buying power of the Chinese log buyers. There was a similar sudden depreciation of the CNY this time last year which caused a drop in CFR and resulting AWG prices for one month. The market recovered quite quickly then due to steady demand and the stabilisation of the CNY against the USD.
There was a wide range of August AWG prices offered by log exporters with higher prices in some locations as exporters manoeuvred to maintain their position in the supply chain or made up shortfalls of volumes for pre-ordered vessels. We have also fixed modest increases in AWG with some exporters over the next three months to provide some owners with certainty.
Total softwood inventory in China is around 4.5million m3 so has only risen about 600K over the last month. Daily consumption is currently 65-70k m3 per day which is the same as this time last year. While the daily usage has dropped from the 73-74k m3 per day used at the start of July, this was expected as the temperature increases in China. The demand is still reasonably healthy for this time of year in China.
For a more comprehensive market analysis and summary of factors including port inventories, search Wood Matters on the PF Olsen website or click the link below:
More >>
Source: PF Olsen - Wood Matters
Logs tumbled in July; recovered in AugustFrom StatsNZ - Log prices tumble in China - Log exports fell $67 million (19 percent). Eighty percent of logs exported in the last year went to China.
Values to China fell $39 million (15 percent) as prices fell, after a period of relative stability. The quantity exported to China rose 5.9 percent. The average value of logs sent to China has dropped from almost $180 per cubic metre at the start of the calendar year to less than $140 per cubic metre in July.
More >>
Source: Statistics NZ
Now to bring you up to date for August, we have the RNZ Rural Report on radio here is the latest log market update from earlier this week:
"After taking a big tumble last month, log prices have recovered slightly ... "
Click here to listen
Source: RadioNZ
Russia warns China over illegal loggingRussia warns China it could ban timber exports over illegal logging - Russia could ban timber exports to China unless Beijing takes action to help mitigate the effects of illegal logging, a Russian government minister said in an interview published on last week.
Russian authorities this month attributed some of the vast wildfires that have engulfed portions of Siberia in recent weeks to arsonists trying to conceal illegal logging activity.
Dmitry Kobylkin, Russia's minister of natural resources and environment, used an interview with the daily Vedomosti newspaper published on Thursday to complain about what he said was China's unsatisfactory attitude towards the problem.
"They come, buy up the (illegal) timber and leave us to clear up the debris," Kobylkin said of Chinese loggers.
"China must clearly understand that if they don't take part in resolving this issue, then we will have no other option but to completely ban timber exports."
Kobylkin added that he wanted China to help Russia plant saplings on the Russian side of their shared border to compensate for the damage caused by illegal logging in order to restore the area for "our children and grandchildren."
Russia exported 17.4 million tonnes of timber in the first half of 2019, according to data from the Federal Customs Service.
Source: Reuters Moscow
US China trade wars - Blowout?(Canada) It is now clear that 2019 so far has been a blowout, with company results splattered with red ink from weak sales prices to key markets (especially the US and China). Wood products companies have been operating their sawmills at or below cash costs for strategic reasons for part of this year. "Burning cash," especially for lengthy periods, is always a complicated decision, and companies analyze the pros and cons of it before considering curtailments.
Some of the objectives of not curtailing include maintaining (or even gaining) market share during weak markets (at the expense of higher-cost competitors); this in turn forces higher- cost or less capitalized companies to take downtime first. Also, during unsettled markets, companies want to hold on to their key employees, and perhaps even pick up some skilled workers from mills that do curtail or close. The same applies to contractors: losing a key partner can be problematic when it's time to restart operations.
For some companies, cash-flow can be a requirement to meet commitments to financial institutions, so mills often continue operating at large losses long past when they should have curtailed. This is why the decision to do so can be a least-desired company strategy and will be delayed as long as possible — until, eventually, it simply needs to happen. When companies delay right-sizing their lumber output to balance overall market demand with supply, it puts more product in the market for longer, exacerbating oversupply.
This seems to be the pattern since 2018-Q4: lumber (and more recently OSB) markets have consistently been oversupplied, keeping prices at low and unsustainable levels. The resulting reduced prices (below breakeven or shut-down costs) eventually lead to capacity closures and longer-term curtailments. However, firms tend to delay these decisions until it is far too late, so low prices start to become semi-permanent.
Looking at the financial results of wood products companies in H1-2019, it is clear that business and market conditions have been a financial blowout thus far. Some companies in the lumber segment have reported losses, with most just barely in the black (on an EBITDA basis). Within any company, this means there are some regions/operations that are more profitable than others, so a below-breakeven situation requires reducing capacity in high-cost or negative- margin areas.
It is apparent from various public companies' quarterly analyst calls, as well as transcripts and releases over the last four quarters, that some firms have been generally too bullish in their expectations for a U.S. market recovery — and, well, everywhere else. Hoped-for demand increases (in housing starts, repair and remodeling, industrial applications, export markets and even mass timber) have collectively failed to materialize due to a wide variety of unanticipated, uncontrollable factors that have stalled or slowed demand in 2019.
Business strategies that are more heavily weighted to a strategy of waiting for demand improvements can easily fail given that such factors as weather, global politics, etc., cannot be controlled. A dangerous herd mentality can emerge, and if too many producers remain overly optimistic in unsettled times, relatively few negative events are needed to topple market momentum. Furthermore, reacting to unplanned events takes time, so inventories tend to go up while prices drop. A low-cost production strategy works well when you are the highest-margin supplier (versus other mills or regions when markets are more balanced).
In North America, the US South has held this position (at least until recently), while other regions have faced skinny to negative lumber margins. As the FEA global sawmill cost benchmarking analysis shows (full report to be released in 2019-Q4), various European countries are now positioned as the second-lowest-cost lumber suppliers to the US South (after the South itself), while the highest-cost mills are mainly in the BC Interior. Until more capacity is removed, lumber operating rates will continue to drop until market demand improves; they are also being hampered by steadily rising offshore imports (also a factor in the US plywood market).
Expanding offshore exports can be another strategy to balance domestic markets, i.e., shipping incremental volumes away from the prime North America market to reduce domestic supply. However, exporters from Canada, Europe and Russia have oversupplied the China lumber market, and New Zealand has (almost singlehandedly) oversupplied China's log market.
Like the industry in general, FEA (in both the US and Canada) remains mildly optimistic that Q4- 2019 and (especially) 2020 could surprise to the upside, but there is currently too much supply chasing oversaturated markets. More curtailments/closures are likely (and will eventually reduce the oversupply), but it is the last thing companies really want to do! So … onward the cycle goes.
Source: Russ Taylor, Managing Director, FEA Canada
NZ: More farms for forestryAnother one bites the dust – Well-known businessman, Sir Michael Fay, has obtained Overseas Investment Office approval to sell his Lagoon Hill Station near Martinborough in the Wairarapa.
The Lagoon Hill deal was set up by rural property manager Craigmore Sustainables for Swiss company Kauri Forestry LP, which has also bought a Northland farm owned by a member of the wealthy Spencer family.
Lagoon Hill will be managed by Craigmore which says it will create jobs planting more pine trees. This is controversial because some farmers in the area say converted properties will never return to stock production.
"Climate change is undisputed and carbon sequestration through tree planting is one of the most cost-effective tools to address it," Craigmore chief executive Che Charteris said." He added they will obtain good management Forest Stewardship Council Certification within 36 months and would work to a higher standard.
It would make forested areas available for grazing once trees were established, plant up to 100,000 native trees in 30 metre wide swathes along waterways, rehabilitate wetlands and boost pest protection. Harvesting will be spread over a longer time for more stable full-time employment, and to reduce post-harvest erosion.
Craigmore would engage with tangata whenua to protect important sites, and create opportunities for bee-keepers, and local tourism operators. Also on the agenda was mountain biking and hiking for nearby communities and Wellingtonians, Charteris said.
More >>
Carbon Match: Riding the UpdraftLooking to the latest carbon market trading activity thanks to the team at Carbon Match - NZUs have firmed again, last trading yesterday at $24.35 on Carbon Match, check back at 1pm for an update.
We are not seeing significant supply much below $24.50 so if you've some to let go by all means get in touch and it'll find a new home on Carbon Match.
The previous week had seen a bit of a stand-off, with good supply shown at $24.50 and higher but buyers sitting stoically lower, or off the board altogether. Many have made the argument that on paper it would be better to wait and just pay the FPO in May. But yesterday saw several buyers just get on with it and pick up what was available up the $24.35 mark.
Can we remind the buy-side again of the risks you face:
- we are a closed domestic scheme currently without the safety valve that a formal link to international supply could provide;
- to date the only plan for NZU generation that could be scaled up significantly is forest sequestration but that's a slow process;
- forest owners have now endured a number of policy changes that not all have appreciated and to our mind, are engaging with ever-increasing caution in the ETS. Witness the disappointment of owners of older forests who now find that they are not to have the option of "averaging", but rather will continue to face harvest liabilities in respect of forests planted before 2019. This won't help supply;
- buyers have been put on notice that the days of the fixed price option are numbered. To date there has been great security for a buyer in knowing that if push came to shove, it would be possible to comply by simply paying the $25. Yes, at lower price levels that would have hurt, but even out of the money options have value;
- the CCR will be an entirely different beast and is not directly comparable to the very simple sleep-easy-at-night FPO.
On the flipside, sellers need to keep real. 2020 is an election year, and anything can happen. And in this very politically driven market, if things DO get too hard, history has shown us that there could be some kind of response.
As a seller, you need to bear in mind that the removal of the FPO appears to peg off the commencement of auctions.
The MfE has said that they are aiming to have auctions up and running by the end of 2020, but if that timeframe slips we could well see the fixed price option continue for longer. If that were to be the case it would continue likewise to keep a lid on prices, artificially depressing prices below the cost of most of the real abatement opportunities this country can pursue.
So while there is a general sense of optimism among NZU holders, it's certainly not silly to be a seller of something at some level - NZUs are not cash in the bank until they are sold.
Carbon Match - every weekday from 1-5pm.
Investors grow on trees but money doesn't always(Ireland) Sell-off of forestry funds leaves shareholders asking why they believed the hype - It turns out that money doesn't grow on trees after all.
Forestry investment funds were all the rage in the late 1990s and early noughties, as thousands of retail investors were lured by suggestions of huge returns after lock-in periods of typically up to 30 years. One of the main operators in the sector, Irish Forestry Funds (IFF), co-founded by industry veteran Paul Brosnan, suggested in some of its early prospectuses that investors might receive compounded annual returns of up to 14.6 per cent.
Such "illustrative returns" aren't cast-iron legal guarantees. But the inclusion of these lofty figures in an official 1997 prospectus is evidence of the hype surrounding the sector at that time.
To the surprise of many of the 12,400 shareholders who pitched in over the years, IFF has just sold its portfolio of 18 funds to Axa Investment Managers. Shareholders, who thought they were locked in for years still to come, weren't consulted ahead of the sale, which was decided by Brosnan and IFF co-director Trevor McHugh. The directors say the decision was legally mandated to them.
IFF investors' cheques arrived in the post on last week, and, judging from correspondence to this newspaper (The Irish Times) and on online forums, many are furious with the outcome.The Axa deal has resulted in annual returns of between 2 and 3 per cent in most cases. That's a far cry from the huge "illustrative returns" in the marketing bumph.
McHugh insists there are many headwinds affecting the sector, from Brexit to crop disease to the US-China trade war. He defended the sale and the returns by saying IFF had "locked in value" for investors. Veon, a company in which McHugh and Brosnan are involved, is being kept on by Axa to provide "technical" forestry management services.
More >>
Source: The Irish Times
BC new fee-in-lieu for exported logs(Canada) - In British Columbia, the provincial government is taking the first step toward ensuring that more BC logs are processed in BC, creating jobs for British Columbians by applying a new, targeted fee-in-lieu of manufacturing for exported logs harvested from a coastal BC Timber Sales licence.
"British Columbians believe that BC workers and the communities they live in should be first in line to benefit from our natural resources, and for too long government policies encouraged exporting logs even when there were local mills that couldn't get access to fibre," said Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. "This change will give BC mills more opportunity to get the fibre they need."
The fee-in-lieu is one of the changes that came out of the Coast revitalization initiative government launched last year, with the aim of transforming the Coast's seminal forest sector. The fee will be dependent on the economics of individual stands. Stands containing high- value species and that are easily accessible will have a higher fee than stands with low-value species that are remote and difficult to access.
Forest communities in more remote areas of the BC coast will benefit from other changes government has made to allow the continued harvest of timber in uneconomical areas, which will help maintain jobs and make additional logs available to local mills.
"As part of our revitalization of the Coast forest sector, we're making sure these forest communities can continue to harvest in uneconomical areas so they have access to timber that otherwise wouldn't normally be harvested," said Donaldson.
While log exports will likely continue in areas that are remote and difficult for forest companies to access, the change will allow continued timber harvesting in coastal forests that have low- grade timber, so that forest communities facing economic challenges can maintain jobs in the harvesting sector and provide fibre to local mills. Stands of timber in more remote areas of the Coast may not be economical to harvest if they have a high proportion of low-grade wood and operating costs are high to harvest that wood. This will be in effect for five years, starting July 31, 2019. Companies will still have to demonstrate that stands are uneconomical to qualify.
Forest communities that will benefit from the change on the BC coast are in Nass, mid- Coast, North Coast, northwest Interior and Haida Gwaii. As well, the Soo Timber Supply Area is now included to allow continued harvesting in otherwise uneconomical stands in that area.
The coastal forest sector is an integral part of the BC economy. In 2017, it generated more than 24,000 direct jobs and $3.1 billion in gross domestic product. However, over most of the last two decades, timber harvesting on Crown land has declined and lumber and pulp production has diminished, resulting in reduced employment and significant increases in log exports. Under the Coast Forest Sector Revitalization Initiative, government is making changes to create more jobs from every log harvested and processed.
Source: BC News
almost finally ... get paid to borrow money???A Danish bank is effectively paying home buyers to borrow money - Jyske Bank, which is Denmark's third-largest lender, is handing out 10-year loans at an annual rate of -0.5% — the world's first negative interest mortgage. Nordea Bank, another Nordic bank, is offering 20-year mortgages at 0%.
Buy and Sell
... and finally ... people you meet on airplanes
As our jet was flying over Arizona on a clear day, the copilot was providing
passengers with a running commentary about landmarks over the PA system.
A lawyer is at an airport and starts feeling really bored while waiting for his flight. He notices that he's sitting next to a blonde woman.
She's reading a book. He assumes that the woman is an idiot because she's a blonde.
"Hey, I want to play a game. I'll ask you a question, and then you ask me a question, and we'll see who answers the most right."
"Thanks but no thanks, I'm trying read this book."
"How about this, if we don't know the answer, we'll give each other $5?"
The blonde woman shakes her head.
"How about you give me $5 if you don't know the answer and I give you $500 if I don't know the answer."
The blonde woman shrugs, "Alright."
"What countries neighbor Tajikistan?"
The woman gives him $5 and he laughs.
"What has 12 legs at birth but loses 1 every time it rains?"
The lawyer looks at her with a confused expression. He repeats the question to himself multiple times and starts to look it up on the internet. The woman goes back to reading while the lawyer reads every single website he could find. He spent hours searching and started calling friends and family members to see if they knew. Eventually, his flight arrived. The lawyer sighed in defeat and handed the woman $500. She smiled and took his money. "So what's the answer?"
She gave him $5.
A blonde rings up an airline and asks: "How long are your flights from America to England?"
The woman on the other end of the phone replies: "Just a minute". The blonde thanks her and hangs up.
That's all for this week's wood news.
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Helicopter Flight Dynamics: The Theory and Application of Flying Qualities and Simulation Modelling
John Wiley & Sons, Apr 15, 2008 - Technology & Engineering - 680 pages
The behaviour of helicopters is so complex that understanding the physical mechanisms at work in trim, stability and response, and thus the prediction of Flying Qualities, requires a framework of analytical and numerical modelling and simulation. Good Flying Qualities are vital for ensuring that mission performance is achievable with safety and, in the first edition of Helicopter Flight Dynamics, a comprehensive treatment of design criteria was presented. In this second edition, the author complements this with a new Chapter on Degraded Flying Qualities, drawing examples from flight in poor visibility, failure of control functions and encounters with severe atmospheric disturbances. Fully embracing the consequences of Degraded Flying Qualities during the design phase will contribute positively to safety.
The accurate prediction and assessment of Flying Qualities draws on the modelling and simulation discipline on the one hand and testing methodologies on the other. Checking predictions in flight requires clearly defined 'mission-task-elements', derived from missions with realistic performance requirements. High fidelity simulations also form the basis for the design of stability and control augmentation systems, essential for conferring Level 1 Flying Qualities. The integrated description of flight dynamic modelling, simulation and flying qualities forms the subject of this book, which will be of interest to engineers in research laboratories and manufacturing industry, test pilots and flight test engineers, and as a reference for graduate and postgraduate students in aerospace engineering.
The Author
Gareth Padfield, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, is the Bibby Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Liverpool. He is an aeronautical engineer by training and has spent his career to date researching the theory and practice of flight for both fixed-wing aeroplanes and rotorcraft. During his years with the UK's Royal Aircraft Establishment and Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, he conducted research into rotorcraft dynamics, handling qualities and flight control. His work has involved a mix of flight testing, creating and testing simulation models and developing analytic approximations to describe flight behaviour and handling qualities. Much of his research has been conducted in the context of international collaboration – with the Technical Co-operation Programme, AGARD and GARTEUR as well as more informal collaborations with industry, universities and research centres worldwide. He is very aware that many accomplishments, including this book, could not have been achieved without the global networking that aerospace research affords. During the last 8 years as an academic, the author has continued to develop his knowledge and understanding in flight dynamics, not only through research, but also through teaching the subject at undergraduate level; an experience that affords a new and deeper kind of learning that, hopefully, readers of this book will benefit from.
What people are saying - Write a review
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G. D. Padfield
No preview available - 2007
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
August 4, 2020
Camp H.O.P.E.
105 Prospect Rd
Centerport,NY 11721
A FREE two day, professionally run camp for children ages 5-17 who have experienced the death of an immediate family member is being offered by the Good Shepherd Hospice.
Saturday, July 14, 2018, and Sunday, July 15, 2018
Camp Alvernia, Centerport, NY
Children must be accompanied by one parent/legal caregiver/guardian.
We are lucky enough to have bi-lingual Bereavement Specialists who can accommodate Spanish speaking families.
Should you have any questions or if you wish us to send you an application do not hesitate to contact:
Maribeth McKeever, LCSW-R, ACHP-SW
Director of Bereavement, Good Shepherd Hospice
110 Bi-County Blvd, Suite 114
Farmingdale, New York 11735
(631) 828-7628


text:
Miss me fellow football fiends?
It seems a cruel twist of fate that football season AND my beloved laptop should both meet such uncermonious ends at the same time, eh?
I fried my motherboard and the team at Best Buy is fixing it. Thank God for warranties.
My Superbowl Pick? The Pats. I hope to find some computer time before Sunday to tell you why.
-Your Gridiron Goddess


text:
The Mystery of the Mummy
Review by Skinny Minnie
January 2003
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are camping overnight in a secluded
forest area. Watson, nestled snugly in his sleeping bag, stares
up at the darkened sky and waxes poetic.
"Sherlock," he asks, "What are you thinking about
as you gaze at the moon and stars? Are you naming off the ancient
constellations? Are you thinking of all the men that have made
their way by the same moon and stars throughout the ages?"
Sherlock pauses for a moment, then answers:
"I am actually thinking, Watson, that someone stole our
Well, somebody apparently steals Watson, too, at least for the
bulk of your journey through Frogwares' first excursion into PC
gaming, the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Mystery of the Mummy.
However, despite the fact that my review's introduction featured
more of Watson than you will see during the whole game, Mummy
still offers a good, old-fashioned, point and click, first-person
adventure gaming time. (By the way, aren't you surprised that
I would work some sort of camping theme into my adventure game
It appears that Elisabeth Montcalfe, daughter of famed and wealthy
archeologist Lord Montcalfe, is soon to marry Sherlock's cousin.
She is also quite perturbed by local police, who have recently
pronounced her missing father dead via self-immolation. Elisabeth,
unconvinced by this announcement since Lord Montcalfe's remains
have yet to be recovered, writes to Sherlock and implores him
to search her father's mansion for proof that he still lives.
As the opening cutscenes finish off, Sherlock alights from his
horse and carriage, commenting about the ease of keeping this
family matter private as Watson is away on vacation (perhaps Watson
likes camping as much as I do or is even more prone to getting
lost in forests).
From the moment you first enter Lord Montcalfe's mansion (which
is, incidentally, where Mummy's demo deposits you as well),
basic puzzles abound. Although starting out simply enough and
mostly resulting in key collecting to get into other of the mansion's
35 explorable rooms, even the beginning puzzles tie in with the
back story and the written clues left about. It appears that Lord
Montcalfe, quite the Egyptian artifact collector, was getting
paranoid and perhaps a tad senile before his disappearance. He
also seems to have become inveigled by some rather unsavory characters
belonging to an ancient cult, but you will encounter more about
him as the story deepens and the puzzle difficulty ramps up toward
game's end.
As the dozens of puzzles and escalating story cohesively and
collectively progress, the lines between right and wrong begin
to blur. However, one thing becomes certain: Sherlock is not alone
in the mansion. I am a people person. I like character interaction
in games. However, every stinking time I started to get lonely
in Mummy, some dastardly character came along and made
me live to regret it. On a side note, you can save your game anywhere,
in any of the six save game slots. Consider yourself warned.
I haven't played a game with this many puzzles in it since Pandora's
Box. The Mystery of the Mummy makes Post
Mortem and Syberia
seem like interactive movies by comparison, although Mummy
doesn't match up to their graphical glory. However, with respect
to basic conundrums around every corner, there are tons of locked
secret cubbies, rooms and areas, all made admissible for entry
through streamlined puzzle-solving. Finding hidden seals and installing
them in coded order on doors and walls, using sometimes tiny (and
hard to spot) but realistic household items in unusual ways to
get behind pictures, woodworking and the like, and doing your
fair share of outright breaking into things are but a few of the
ways to gain admittance to new areas.
There have also been measures taken within the mansion to ensure
that invaders will not gain access to hidden treasures or the
real story of Lord Montcalfe's dealings. These take the form of
water-and-bottle weight puzzles, a numeric tile coloring puzzle,
clock, chess, and mechanical puzzles, tricks with mirrors, code
breakers, anagrams, cryptograms, and a room that rotates every
time you click in a direction to take a step!
Yes, there are some timed puzzles and two sliders as well, but
save your game as you come upon new challenges and don't sweat
it too much; enough time usually is allotted to finish, unless
you're getting interrupted by real-world demands, in which case
you can pause the game without penalty. You will also defuse traps
and bombs and make your way back down through the mansion's five
expansive levels after an explosion, avoiding dangerous assailants
all the while.
Although Sherlock can die at various points, I am not the most
coordinated gamer on the planet and he managed to stay alive throughout
most of the game for me (and I'm a save freak anyway so it didn't
matter). On the plus side, never shall you encounter a dreaded
maze, if that makes you feel any better ...
Hey! You can come out from under your desk now! I'm done describing
all of the deadly puzzles! Yoo-hoo!
There are also tons of clickable hotspots, most not there only
for show; many give clues for puzzles later. Moreover, mummies
and statues in this game have a way of moving with your clickable
help or even without it! Remember where you see things that aren't
clickable at first, as you may need and be granted access to them
in a hurry later. You also will collect items for inventory puzzles,
and items will disappear once used if they are no longer needed.
The inventory screen is very basic and easy to use, with all
items showing at once. It is accessible from Sherlock's brown
leather bag at the bottom left of the game screen. The green notebook
beside the bag is for perusing Sherlock's previous comments plus
written correspondences and clues collected throughout the game,
and it houses load, save and exit game options as well.
Voiceovers, although not nearly as prolific in number as they
would be in a more populated, conversation-oriented game, are
excellent nonetheless. Burgeoning actor John Bell, who also voices
end-of-story party crasher Dr. Watson as well as some other characters,
pulls off Sherlock's proper British accent and occasional dry
humor with enthusiastic aplomb. Even if you might want to yell,
"For God's sake, Sherlock, enough with the calm facade; run
from that freaking mummy already, will you?" at least you
won't be mistaking Sherlock for Faust from Jazz
and Faust.
Sound effects are quite sparse, but the elegantly layered, new-age
musical orchestrations offer harps, horns, flutes, and pianos
and vary with each of the five levels of the mansion. The music
is quite relaxing overall, not that you'd need that in this
adventure game, mind you.
Graphics can be blurry at times, although they are colorful and
richly detailed nonetheless. Although not a game of cutting-edge
visuals, it is apparent by the level of detail and amount of accessories
in any given scene that much care went into the creation of every
backdrop, and character models themselves look quite good.
Probably the worst aspect of this game is its Byzantine:
The Betrayal-esque, 360-degree panning interface, which
is as vertigo-inducing here as it ever was in Istanbul. Unfortunately,
The Mystery of the Mummy's packaging, in its Wanadoo DVD-style
case incarnation anyway, harbors little room for optional extras
like Dramamine, so you will have to bear with the woozy up-down-whip-around
motion unless you care to make a separate trip to the drugstore.
In Mummy's defense, it does make better use of ceiling-to-floor
sweeps than other recent 360-degree games like Zelehngorm
and Post Mortem have, as far as placing clickable items
goes, even if it is not nearly as gentle with its motion.
Despite being plunged once again into the dizzying swirl of an
interface-whipping adventure game, I enjoyed my sometimes-perilous
trip through Lord Montcalfe's mansion. Although the puzzles are
organic to the storyline and not too farfetched for the most part,
they are on the easy side for a seasoned adventurer. It is only
the ending puzzles that present a greater challenge.
However, the story is stronger than in most first-person puzzle
games and has brief cutscenes showing Sherlock at various stages
during the game, both of which help to hold interest. This game
also ran flawlessly under Windows XP, with very quick load times
and smooth scene transitions.
I hereby award The Mystery of the Mummy a Thumb Up, even
though the closest thing to a campfire in this story actually
is the supposed self-immolation of Lord Montcalfe!
The Verdict
The Lowdown
Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: Wanadoo
Release Date: December 2002
Available for:
Four Fat Chicks Links
with Wael Amr
System Requirements
Pentium or AMD 350 MHz
130 MB free hard disk space
CD-ROM drive
Sound card
8 MB video card
Where to Find It
Links provided for informational purposes only.
FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into
by any party(ies).


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Today's route – Weston Super Mare to Ross-on-Wye, via the Severn Suspension Bridge. After a tour of a housing estate in north WsM, we set off on busy roads to start with, gradually out into lovely countryside. The big objective was the Bridge. To get there, we had to sample the tourist delights of Portishead and Avonmouth plus undergraduate level Garmin navigation problems. The cycle path over the Avon motorway bridge was noisy and long. Stopped halfway over for photos and video. Onward to the next bridge, the original Severn Suspension Bridge, which I watched being built in the early 1960's from my office at Oldbury Power Station. Memories flooded back on reaching the middle of the bridge and seeing the Station in the distance. A few photos and stuff before pressing on to Chepstow for sustainance. It had been a long morning and a rest was welcome. The afternoon "half" of the ride was lovely – weather improving, pleasant countryside, blue skies, windproof discarded. Another great ride to the Premier Inn just past Ross-on-Wye. 108km covered and 1,181 metres climbed.
Yet another potentially show-stopping mechanical today. Phillip's replacement bike had somehow lost a nut from the rear wheel securing bolt. Not an ordinary skewer, as on my bike, but a bolt through the wheel and two holes in the frame. Very similar to the method on my daughter Jen's Ribble Sportiva. Amazingly Chris and he were able to find a bike shop with one in stock! (Normal delivery quoted – October!!). So Phillip was back on the road at the Severn Bridge having lost only a few hours of biking.


text:
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text:
Curis, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, is having a very bad day. The company's stock plunged more than 40 percent today after its experimental cancer drug failed to reach its goal in a clinical trial conducted by its partner, Roche, and its U.S.-based Genentech unit.
Curis (NASDAQ: CRIS) said that its experimental therapy, GDC-0449, failed to slow the spread of tumors or help people live longer, when it was added to a combo regimen with chemotherapy and Roche's bevacizumab (Avastin). The study tested 199 patients who were getting their first round of treatment for colorectal cancer that has spread through the body.
This is a big setback for Curis, which was testing the cutting-edge idea of whether its small-molecule drug could help patients by blocking signals from a target called hedgehog. Many companies are hotly pursuing this target for cancer drugs, which is involved in embryonic development. This biological pathway is thought to be central to how cells differentiate and proliferate, and it is thought that in cancer patients, it can essentially get flipped into an overdrive position that helps the tumor overcome existing therapies. Curis sought to put a brave face on today's news by saying that it's possible certain tumor types may be more dependent on hedgehog signaling, so it's possible the strategy may work better in another patient population. Roche and Genentech are running another study using the Curis treatment among patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma.
"Despite these disappointing results in metastatic colorectal cancer, we remain encouraged that Genentech and Roche's clinical development of GDC-0449 in other cancers continues to make good progress," said Dan Passeri, Curis' CEO, in a statement.
Shares of Curis dropped 41 percent, to $1.91 a share just before Noon Eastern time today. That left Curis with a market valuation of just under $150 million.


text:
Champions league betting preview & a big betting night ahead. Two previews here!
It's not every monday that we get a game in Italy Serie A.
We hope you find this Premier league preview both helpful and profitable. Follow the proven winners….
We had a fantastic regular season in the NBA and we're just getting started! Read our thoughts on the Playoffs and we've even included a few series/futures bets!
This advice is for people who want to bet seriously, it's not intended for someone who wants to give their money to the bookmaker.
If you are professional gamblers out to win big money from football, you should join our paid football syndicate!
Do you want to beat the bookmaker and start winning at betting. If the answer is yes, you should check out our educational resources.
Anyone signing up to a Arbitrage Betting Services shouldn't expect much has at the end of the day everyone is chasing the same bets.
We've all felt compelled at some point to bet on the big game just because. But should you?


text:
EarthArk a nonprofit public corporation, Earthark Project, Saving Humanity, Saving seeds, Saving the Earth, Saving the future world
The EarthArk is a storage place for all of the good things that the Earth has provided and modern humanity has created. It is designed so that when the future brings changes to our present Earth the future people will be able to choose from those things and rebuild the best of what we now have.
The environment is changing, as it always has and it always will, but if we create a place where all of the good things about our present life are preserved then the world that will come into being in the future can become a much better place. For example, if we take small amounts of seeds from our currently vast agricultural supply and also from the wild things and store them in a very cold place they will remain viable for a very long time into the future. The EarthArk Project is an all inclusive plan that aims to ultimately store the genomes and seeds of every species on Earth. Also to be included are examples of modern technology and complete library of books. Because it is impossible to know exactly what will be needed in the future the aim is to store a sample of everything.
Seeds of agricultural plants like rice, wheat and corn will obviously be needed so should be stored in large quantities, including some of every genetic variety. There should be enough of these commercial seeds to start a really substantial crop. Most of the living things of the Earth are not agricultural crops but these other living things also need to be saved. Every place on our planet has its own unique plants and animals that are adapted to that locality and they need to have their genomes and seeds stored if they are to be available in the future.
The goal of the EarthArk is to store seeds and soil from every square kilometer of the Earth because every place is unique. The way to do this requires that a few people from everywhere to travel about their local area and collect samples. They then deposit them to some local collection place, like a school, which in turn ships these items to a central shipping container. This container when filled is shipped to a designated cold storage spot. The best long term storage places are in Antarctica so the containers will be shipped to the ports on that continent's shores and taken inland to remote high and permanently cold places.
The total cost for this enormous project is very small in terms of money or effort for any given person because all of the collecting is done by people living near where they collect their samples. The collection samples can be quite small because only a relatively few seeds of any particular item is all that is necessary from a given locality. The containers could be small plastic bags, either discarded local containers or heavier duty specially made containers. Every item should be labeled as to the exact locality where found but this isn't a severe problem because when brought to the local collection station they will be placed in a larger container which is labeled for its general locality.
The cost of the shipping containers could be paid for by a general plea to the public for money in small amounts or by asking people to will their money, at death, to the project. That would be appealing, because most people want to be remembered for leaving a positive impact on the world. This can be done naming each container with the name of the donor who purchased the container and paid for its shipment. This naming of packages can be carried all the way to each item which would have the name of the person collecting it. Their names could be attached to the larger package and that list copied onto the shipping container's manifest. That in turn could be uploaded to a worldwide list of names of contributors.
Many people are interested in helping to preserve humanity and the Earth for the future and this EarthArk Project gives them a very visible and meaningful way to accomplish that end.
Help save the Earth for the future by supporting the EarthArk Project.


text:
- Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
- Area(s) of Law: Post-Conviction Relief
- Date Filed: 05-18-2016
- Case #:
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Armstrong, P.J. for the Court; & Egan and Shorr, JJ.
Defendant appealed a trial court's denial of Defendant's motion under ORS 138.690 for DNA testing of evidence used against him, assigning error to the trial court's determination that Defendant's motion under ORS 138.690 consituted a "collateral attack" to Defendant's conviction under Oregon's Post Conviction Relief Act, ORS 138.510 to 138.680, in violation of Defendant's plea agreement which barred any "collateral attack[s] . . . with regards to the validity of the sentence . . . the validity of these convictions and any attack on the validity of the proceedings involved underlying his plea of no contest . . . ." The Court held that a successful motion under ORS 138.690 yields, at most, a DNA test of evidence used at trial, which does present a collateral attack on the validity of the sentence or proceedings; that it may lead to a collateral attack on the underlying convictions is irrelevant. The court declined to reach the question of whether a filing for a new trial based on exculpatory evidence produced by a successful motion under ORS 138.690 would constitute a collateral attack on the validity of the underlying conviction or proceedings in violation of a plea agreement. Reversed and remanded.


text:
Wilma Erasmus
MSc PT
Wilma Erasmus is a physiotherapist who qualified from Pretoria University in 1982. She is in private practice in Witbank. In 1998 she completed the Advance Certificate in Business Management from the Business School of Manchester University.
For the past 8 years she has been an expert witness for the HPCSA and involved in tariff and ethical related matters for the SASP. Wilma is a part time lecturer at Wits University where she lectures in Practice Management and ethical matters. Wilma also gives lectures in Practice Management for health care workers throughout South Africa for the last 10 years. Business ethics is one of her passions and firmly entrenched in the value and mission statement of her private practice.
Physiotherapist University of Pretoria.
Enrolled as a student at WITS for Masters in Physiotherapy (ICU) through dissertation.
Successfully completed the Advance Management Program from Manchester Business School in 1999.
Committees & Membership:
Actively involved in the affairs of the SASP since 1995 up to 2010 and hold the following portfolio's:
SASP Tariff Committee Chairman
SASP Tariff Consultant
PhysioFocus Chairman. (Twice)
SASP Vice President
SASP President
Act as an expert witness for the HPCSA since 2000 on ethical and tariff related issues.
External examiner WITS for final year physiotherapy students for their practice management block 2007 and 2008.
Part time lecturer WITS final year physiotherapy students: Practice management and ethical issues.


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28 Jan The Decisive Indecision of a Neurotic Consumer
It's not surprising that someone as picky as me returns purchases as often as I do. I probably return things more often than I keep them. It's quite neurotic actually but I can't stand keeping something I don't like in the end. I don't discriminate either. Shoes, pants, shirts, electronics, furniture, accent items, even books. It doesn't matter: if I can return it, I probably will. I'd return a bad movie if I could. I'd return a house purchase if I could.
Recently we purchased a new bed. That makes it sound like we had an old bed before the new bed but that's not true. We have been married for 12 years and have never purchased a bed like proper grown ups. So last week we purchased a bed for the first time and it arrived on Thursday. We were pretty excited but my wife was ecstatic because she wants to create a sanctuary in our room now that we've finally extricated all the children from our bed/room.
After the delivery guys put the bed together I went up to have a look and it looked great. Later on, when everyone else returned home, kids and wife, they went upstairs to check out the bed. Liadan couldn't even get on it. As the day went on I started to think it looked a little high. When I eventually slept on it I felt like I might be able to touch the ceiling. Granted, we've been on the floor but at least on a box spring and tall mattress that still put us at a reasaonble height.
The next day the bed seemed to get higher and higher and higher. I was annoyed. It didn't look like that in the store. Our box spring and mattress on top of the bed frame was too much. I now hated the bed. It was ridiculous. It's also not real wood and when you lean against the back and it bends a bit. What's the point? This is when I get neurotic and obsessed with my decision making and what to do. I'm not sure we can return it, or if we want to. We could get a more low profile box spring and that would make it better.
But my neurosis and poor purchasing ability also reminded me that all the images of interiors that I love on pinterest or in magazines don't show beds like the one I purchased. So what was I thinking? Every time we buy stuff for our house I can never get it right when it comes to the interior design look I value the most. So now it's not even just that the bed is Mount Everest and I need rappelling gear to get down, but it's not even what I want! I want more low profile, minimalism, clean lines, simple, but comfortable.
The following are texts I sent to my wife the other night when I got into bed and was completely annoyed by the fact that we had a grown-up loft bed:
– "My nose is bleeding."
– "I'm getting altitude sickness."
– "I might need to rappel down in the middle of the night."
– "I'm stealing the kids ladder." (for their bunk bed)
– "It's like a high-dive."
– "The dog won't pee! What am I supposed to do? He always pees!"
– "Hold on, let me get down."
– "Jump!"
So this morning I emailed the store to ask what their return policy was and they said I could return it. I often feel embarrassed when it's mostly my pickiness that needs to return something instead of a defect or something. But my desire to not be stuck with something I don't want allows me to swallow my pride in a way more profound than any other time. It's actually a very interesting emotional skill I have developed at this point since I have returned so many things.
For example, just a couple weeks ago I bought a rug for our living room. It didn't match so I took it back. The same woman helped me and I got the same rug in a different color. Took that home and we didn't like that either. I took the second rug back and felt uncomfortable but made jokes and just committed to getting what I want. I got a third color version of the same rug and took it home. This was all in one day while it was snowing outside. I get a one-track mind and want to get things done all in one day. We tried the third one for at least a day and decided the rug was just not as comfy as our previous one.
Seriously? I'm going to return a third rug to the same store? I decided it was Kristi's turn and assigned her this duty sometime in the week. Well, she never got around to it, so because I had a week off from feeling embarrassed, and a now replenished humble pie reserve, I took the rug back myself. The same woman was there and I just decided to ignore my embarrassment and make a joke of it. I still felt stupid so I hurried through the process and got myself out of there. I took three different rugs back to the same store and left with my money for all their time. I would hate me if I was the service agent — she was cool about it.
So today, we're trying to figure out if we want a bed that could be used to clean windows on a tall building, or if we want a simpler bed with clean lines and a minimalist look. And if we do decide to return it, I will squeeze that fucker into my mini van and carry it awkwardly into the store with my tail between my legs because my satisfaction outweighs my pride. If the frame doesn't fit in my van I will just carry the damn thing all the way back to the store, on my back, through the snow and cold.
This is called decisive indecision and there's a small part of me that is proud of it.


text:
Homeless Man Starts First Day At McDonald's After Policeman Helped Him Prepare For Interview
A homeless man who was hired at McDonald's after help from a policeman has had his first day on the job.
Phil was due to interview at a McDonald's in Florida a couple of weeks ago, where he was told that if he turned up freshly shaven, he could have the opportunity to get the job.
Phil had bought a second hand razor so he could prepare for his big moment, but unfortunately found that the razor was broken. He turned to a policeman for help, and asked Officer Carlson if he knew anything about how to fix razors.
The policeman managed to fix the razor, and even went a step further to help out Phil.
Check out the video below:
The Tallahassee police officer realised Phil was struggling to shave without a mirror, so offered to shave for him.
Officer Carlson later appeared in a video posted by the Tallahassee police department on Facebook, where he explained further what happened.
He said:
He seemed excited about [the job]…if he's wanting to help himself, I need to be helpful and try to help him out the best I can.
He was excited that there was a chance that he was gonna get a job if he just did this simple thing of trying to clean up.
Phil was offered the job at McDonald's, but there was still something standing in his way – he didn't have a government ID or social security card, the appropriate identification he needed.
The owner of the McDonald's, Raphael Vasquez, spoke to Today, explaining the situation.
He said:
[Phil] came back on Monday fully shaved. He interviewed and he did everything great. He just needs to complete the ID process and he has the job.
Fantastically, the work of the internet and some very kind people helped Phil over this hurdle. When his story went viral, it caught the attention of US Senator Marco Rubio, and the Senator's office offered to help out.
#GoodNews Phillip aka "Phil" started his new job today at McDonald's! We couldn't be more proud! The way #Tallahassee…
Posted by City of Tallahassee Police Department on Friday, 27 July 2018
Posting to Facebook, Officer Carlson explained:
I then told Phil I had good news about that and told him I had been contacted by Senator Marco Rubio's office here in town.
They stated they had also seen the story and wanted to help Phil get his ID and Social Security card.
I told Phil when I got to work on Thursday I would print out the paperwork they emailed to me and bring it by for Phil to fill out.
Ok so everybody has been wanting an update on Phil, so here it is: This evening I was going to dinner with the family…
Posted by Tony Carlson on Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Goodwill provided the hopeful man with some dress clothes, and he headed to Florida State Capitol where he filled out his paperwork:
FINDING PHIL: We caught up with Phillip "Phil" March as he and City of Tallahassee Police Department Officer Tony Carlson headed to the Social Security Office to get his paperwork ready for McDonald's. You'll hear from him tonight.
Posted by WTXL Tallahassee on Thursday, 26 July 2018
Once he'd secured everything he needed, Phil started his janitorial job at the restaurant on Friday, July 27.
The Tallahassee police department posted that he is 'doing great & enjoying his new job at McDonald's'.
A former officer of the Tallahassee police department presented Phil with some gift cards that other restaurants had generously donated.
#UPDATE We talked to Phil today! He's doing great & enjoying his new job at McDonald's. We received some gift cards for…
Posted by City of Tallahassee Police Department on Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Vasquez has explained that if the new employee remains with the company for at least 90 days, working 15 hours a week, he'll qualify for the fast food restaurant's Archways to Opportunity programme.
The programme can assist Phil in gaining a high school diploma, college tuition and even the chance to plan a career.
The kind actions of Officer Carlson and everyone else who helped Phil secure his new job have been praised by people all over the world.
One person wrote:
Thank you for what you are doing for Phil. God Bless the two of YOU.
When speaking about his good deed, the officer said:
Just because he's homeless, doesn't mean he isn't a part of the community.
This story just shows how far one small act of kindness can go.
Congratulations on the new job, Phil!
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to [email protected]
Topics: Life, Viral Video


text:
Why do I receive an error "The application could not be installed because the installer file is damaged" when installing the Classroom Presentation Tool?
When attempting to install the Classroom Presentation Tool you may receive an error message: Sorry, an error has occurred. The application could not ...
Mon, 30 Jul, 2018 at 2:11 PM


text:
News In and Around CSD
A version of Carnegie Mellon University's Libratus, which in January became the first artificial intelligence to defeat top poker pros at Heads-Up, No-Limit Texas Hold'em, will play six top Chinese players for a $290,000 winner-take-all purse.
The 36,000-hand exhibition featuring a different AI, named Lengpudashi or "cold poker master," will take place April 6–10 on the island province of Hainan, China.
The human... Read More
Two Carnegie Mellon University students outcoded more than a hundred of their peers at the 2017 Global CodeCon Finals — a two-hour long coding competition at Bloomberg's offices in New York City and London. Raymond Kang, a junior studying computer science and mathematical sciences, earned ninth place; and Gabriele Farina, a Ph.D. student in computer science, came in 13th. Kang took first place in... Read More
Lenore Blum will join a panel, "Mothers of Invention: Celebrating Women Innovators," hosted by the Congressional Inventions Caucus on Wednesday, March 22, in Washington, D.C. Blum will speak about Project Olympus and Women@SCS and the roles they play in increasing the participation of women in computer science and entrepreneurship. Blum is founding director of Project Olympus, an incubator for CMU startups, and co-founder of Women... Read More
The Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) Fellowship Program has announced that two School of Computer Science undergraduates are among the fellows in its 2017 Engineering Fellows Program.
Allison Wang and Serena Wang are among 54 students selected from almost 2,000 applicants across the country to represent their universities this summer in Silicon Valley. The three-month summer program helps fellows develop their technical and design skills under the mentorship of innovative Silicon Valley startups.
Junior Allison... Read More
The Computing Research Association has selected Carnegie Mellon University's Carol Frieze as the recipient of its 2017 A. Nico Habermann Award, recognizing her sustained, successful efforts to promote diversity in computer science.
Frieze directs Women@SCS, a student/faculty organization that promotes opportunities for women, and... Read More
Takeo Kanade, Carnegie Mellon University's U. A. and Helen Whitaker Professor of Robotics and Computer Science, has been named the 2017 recipient of the IEEE Founder's Medal — one of IEEE's highest honors.
The medal, which will be presented at the annual IEEE Honors Ceremony on Thursday, May 25, in San Francisco, recognizes Kanade "for pioneering and seminal contributions to computer vision and robotics for automotive safety, facial recognition, virtual reality and medical robotics."
The Founder's Medal,... Read More
"A major milestone for AI."
"A powerful and rather unsettling proposition: a machine that can out-bluff a human."
"Libratus's main attribute as a poker player is that it's inhumanly good."
These are just some of the observations that have appeared in the news media since a Carnegie Mellon University artificial intelligence called Libratus decisively defeated four... Read More
Libratus, an artificial intelligence developed by Carnegie Mellon University, made history by defeating four of the world's best professional poker players in a marathon 20-day poker competition called "Brains vs. Artificial Intelligence: Upping the Ante" at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.
Once the last of 120,000 hands of Heads-up, No-Limit Texas Hold'em were played on Jan. 30, Libratus led the pros by a collective $1,766,250 in chips. The developers of Libratus —... Read More
Three School of Computer Science graduate students have been named to the 2017 class of Facebook fellows.
Founded in 2010, the Facebook Fellowship program is designed to help foster ties with the academic community, encourage and support promising Ph.D. students engaged in research across computer science and engineering, and provide those students with opportunities to work with Facebook on problems relevant to their research. Since its inception, the program has supported more than 50... Read More
With more than half the competition in the rearview mirror, Carnegie Mellon University's AI program Libratus has built up a substantial lead against four top poker professionals in Brains vs. Artificial Intelligence: Upping the Ante.
In our latest video, Computer Science Professor Tuomas Sandholm and two of the poker professionals reflect on the competition to date and what it means for the future of artificial intelligence.
"You really have to pry every chip you can out of Libratus' hands, and... Read More


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Ikaruga has long been considered a classic within the shoot'em up (SHMUP) genre, and it is not hard to see why after playing it only a short time. The genre itself is almost as old as video games, and before Ikaruga it had not changed much. Most changes to the genre came simply in how many bullets were flying at once, and in what directions they are going. Ikaruga was one of the few games in the genre that really added a truly different mechanic, which is "polarity". To be fair, Ikaruga was not the first game that used that mechanic, but it was the first one that crafted it into an iconic experience that has endured for nearly two decades.
Originally released in arcades in 2001 and then on the Sega Dreamcast in 2002 Ikaruga has aged well over the years as it has gradually been re-released on new systems. The most recent console to be graced by its presence is the Nintendo Switch, and as it turns out this is the perfect system for Ikaruga. In fact, if the game was not so old I could easily be convinced that it was designed for the Switch from the beginning. The game features a simple three-button control system which works perfectly with the Joy-Cons, and runs beautifully in both docked and portable modes. The short nature of individual runs in the game also lends itself to road trips. Lastly, thanks to the simple controls it is an excellent two-person co-op game with each player using a single Joy-Con (Pro controllers are also supported).
It is worth keeping in mind that Ikaruga is brutally difficult. The game is easy to pick up and learn, but the twitch reflexes needed to survive the hail of bullets coming from all sides only come after hours of practice. This is all thanks to the polarity system, which assigns each enemy and bullet one of two colors. You much switch your ship's polarity to match the incoming colors of the bullets, while also being the opposite color of the enemy ships so you can deal bonus damage. The system is simple to understand, but when hundreds of bullets are on-screen your ability to flip between polarities at the right time will become tested quickly. I recommend playing the game in docked mode to begin with so you do not accidentally throw your Switch in frustration (like I almost did a few times). If you do play in portable mode you can choose to play it horizontally or vertically, which is a nice touch.
This latest release of Ikaruga adds some new features to the game which will make it a bit more appealing to the casual crowd. The options menu is surprisingly robust and even gives you the option of having unlimited continues. While not as game-changing as a rewind feature like in the Disney Afternoon Collection, it does give any player a chance to beat the entire game regardless of their skill level. On the flip side, that does disable the game's leaderboards, which are arguably one of the game's biggest selling points. Once you are good enough at the game that you can start posting respectable scores it can be wildly addictive. Just hope your friend who has been playing Ikaruga since 2001 does not decide to grab the game and make you question all of your life decisions when they post impossibly high scores. If you do happen to be one of those gamers who has already mastered Ikaruga there is something new for you, too. The "Prototype" mode takes away your unlimited ammo and makes you conserve your precious resources. If you are able to handle this mode then I do not think we can ever have a decent conversation because you are clearly not human.
Ikaruga Nintendo Switch Review Final Thoughts:
The bottom line is that Ikaruga for the Nintendo Switch is the definitive version of the game. They wisely did not change the core game at all, but merely gave you new ways to play it. The graphics have aged far better than you would expect for such an old title. Although the aspect ratio leaves a lot of unused screen real estate the game does not suffer from it. However, having said all that it is worth keeping in mind that Ikaruga is a niche title, and it will not be for everyone. Much like Monster Hunter World, it is a near perfect representation of what its genre can offer, but it will do little to convert you to the genre if you are not already a fan. If you are into SHMUPs then this game is a no-brainer and you should buy it without hesitation. If you are a more casual fan or curious about the genre then waiting for a sale is not a terrible idea, although $14.99 is a reasonable price for this title. Although no physical version of the game has been announced, this seems like a shoe-in for a company like Limited Run Games to snatch up and do a special edition of, so keep that in mind if you prefer physical media.
Ikaruga on Nintendo Switch
- The definitive release for this title.
- Great co-op experience, even in portable mode.
- One of the best SHMUPs of all time.
- Variety of options to make it more palatable for a casual audience.
- The brutal difficulty in the default settings can be off-putting.
- Lots of wasted screen space due to the original aspect ratio.
- May cause you to break your Switch in frustration.


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Zoey's a horny California cutie who's ripe and ready to bone
Zoey's a horny California cutie who's ripe and ready to bone
"I lost my virginity in kind of a spontaneous way, to my first boyfriend in a bathroom stall at a McDonald's. It wasn't all that great. Kind of rushed and fumbling, but I've been doing it more and it keeps getting better. I was so excited when you guys asked me to come in and get boned on camera. I had a guy record us once while we were having sex and I thought it was so hot. Knowing that I'm being watched really turns me on." We're so glad it does, Zoey, because we love watching that beautiful pink cunny of yours spread wide open!
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Featuring: Zoey Paige and Rocky
Date: April 30th, 2013
Duration: 55


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Stash has always been the fastest and most secure Git repository management tool available, and now, it's also the most scalable. Announcing the release of Stash Data Center (available today in beta)! With clustering built-in, the Data Center deployment option for Stash is designed for massive scale to meet enterprise needs.
High availability
Stash Data Center provides active-active clustering to ensure users have access to their Git repositories at all times. With load balancing and redundancy mechanisms, Data Center reduces the risk of unexpected system downtime due to hardware failures. Combined with industry standard technologies for database clustering and shared file systems, Stash eliminates single points of failure. Setting up clustering is a straight-forward part of the initial set-up process of Stash Data Center, so teams get up and running in no time. In addition, you can scale usage by adding or taking down nodes with no downtime, so you won't disrupt your development teams or build processes.
Performance at scale
As an organization rolls out Git-based solutions to more and more teams, the volume of traffic from developers and build servers can increase rapidly, putting pressure on resources. Stash Data Center can handle greater application throughput during periods of sustained or peak demand, so additional users and builds will not affect overall application performance. Because Data Center is licensed per user and not per server or CPU like other solutions, your costs remain predictable as you grow.
Is your company's dependence on Git growing? Fire up an additional node. Getting hammered by your continuous integration server? Add nodes to support extra builds. Customize your system to your needs so the team gets the best quality and experience without added software costs. The instant scalability means never worrying about performance regardless of size.
Best of breed security & workflows
Stash Data Center is the only Git solution that provides true enterprise-grade security and collaborative workflows. As an on-premise solution, your repositories are always protected by the safety of your firewall. Stash also has a unique, four-tiered approach to security, with customizable permissions at the global, project, repository, and branch level. This provides the flexibility and security needed for the diverse range of workflows used in enterprise contexts. When coupled with the ability to connect with your LDAP system, Data Center is the perfect fit for any enterprise environment.
As with Stash, Data Center still provides each team with the option to work with any (or multiple) workflows. It provides best practices for branch-based workflows and pull requests, while remaining flexible for your team's specific needs. Push-button branching and optional pull request enforcements available in Stash Data Center help cater to every team's Git workflow needs.
Starting today, a beta version of Stash Data Center is available for trial purposes. Once released, Stash Data Center can be purchased with Atlassian premier level customer support, technical account management, or authorized enterprise partners. It will offer the same great value pricing as Jira Data Center and Confluence Data Center – priced at $24,000 per year, per 1,000 users. To sign up for the Stash Data Center beta or for more information, visit go.atlassian.com/StashDC


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Ryan McGarvey
"Mystic Dream"
Here's the print of Ryan McGarvey, one of the hottest new emerging guitar slingers of the century, a top up and comer on the blues rock scene..
Ryan and I talked, and decided it was time we finally put this painting together. (Thanks to the photographer from Germany, Wilfried Schuller for his provided images to inspire this.)
And, thank you to Jill White for providing the name…Mystic Dream
Ryan McGarvey has in a relatively short amount of time not only gained an international fan base, but admiration from his personal idols as well, sharing the bill with such top name acts as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Joe Bonamassa, Gov't Mule, etc, etc.
Ryan McGarvey has won countless awards and toured Internationally as a well respected, original blues/rock singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 2010 Ryan was picked from over 4,000 artists to play at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago.
Here's an amazing list of recent accomplishments:
:: 2014 Best Guitarist (European Blues Awards)
:: 2013 Best New Talent (Guitar Player Magazine)
:: 2012 Best Musician (Albuquerque The Magazine)
:: 2012 Best Blues (Local I.Q. Magazine)
:: 2011 Best Vocalist (Albuquerque The Magazine)
:: 2010 Ernie Ball Play Crossroads Winner (Eric Clapton's Crossroads)
:: 2010 Best Musician (Albuquerque The Magazine)
:: 2010 Blues Act Of The Year (The Weekly Alibi)
:: 2009 Blues Act Of The Year (The Weekly Alibi)
:: 2009 Best Guitarist Of The Year (The Weekly Alibi)
:: 2008 Best Musician (Albuquerque The Magazine)
:: 2008 Blues Act Of The Year (The Weekly Alibi)
:: 2007 Blues Act Of The Year (The Weekly Alibi)
:: 2007 NM Music Award Winner (Blues Song Of The Year)
:: 2006 Guitarmaggeddon Champion Of NM (Guitar Center)
His critically acclaimed album releases have earned him admiration from fans and peers alike worldwide. Ryan continues to grow as an artist, expanding his already established name in music.
I hope you like what has come together here.
Click the Buy Now button.


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I had been dying to read this book when I realised it was a classic that I hadn't picked up. I thought to myself that it was only 150 pages in length and I would have it done in no time, I was definitely wrong. This book may be short but it is a jam-packed plot and takes time for appreciation and understanding.
A Clockwork Orange looks at Alex and his gang of friends who terrorise the neighbourhood and local citizens, taking what they want and doing what they want. In a bid to reform Alex he is captured by authorities in a hope to change his personality and character. With a futuristic view of violence and technology, this book is at times disturbing and thought-provoking asking the reader at what price is freedom and free will, whilst questioning the powers of good and evil.
I struggled an awful lot with this book and originally when I read the blurb of the book I thought it was something I wouldn't enjoy. The violence alone was a massive sign that I would find this book difficult to read as it's just not something I like to see in movies or read about in books. I sometimes find written violence worse as the descriptions are usually long and hard to avoid compared to visual violence on a screen that I can avoid just from covering my face with my hand.
This book not only was difficult to digest with regards to the plot but the language was hard to follow at times too. Burgess practically invented his own slang that required a glossary to follow along with the dialogue and conversations. At first when I started the book it took me a good 10-20 pages to fully understand what was happening because the slang was so thick but after a while I got used to it and could easily follow the plot. This use of language really interested me and after a bit of research I found that Burgess based this slang on biblical, Shakespearian and Russian language.
The language in this book is philosophical on many levels and definitely stands out for its written standard. I also found the writing to be lyrical in places and any many chapters contained beautiful lines such as "Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?" or "We can destroy what we have written but we cannot unwrite it."
I know this book is considered to be a classic or one of the best books of the past century however I just didn't enjoy it as much as others. In saying that I can reflect on it and appreciate the book for what it is. I wonder what way it was received when it was first published as this book must have been a shock in 1962 given that I find it shocking in 2016. It's a dystopian setting, a linguistic adventure, an authoritarian explorations and a unimaginably violent read so it definitely dips into areas unknown in that time and era. Although I didn't enjoy this book wholeheartedly I do appreciate it and gave it a 3 out of 5 stars on goodreads. I would recommend it and I do believe it will be a hit or a miss read for many others too.


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LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — Kevin Harvick held off Denny Hamlin at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.
After the two made contact coming out of the final turn, Harvick finished 0.210 seconds ahead for his 46th series victory and first since November at Texas.
Driving a backup car after wrecking during a practice lap Friday, Hamlin led 113 laps, but couldn't catch Harvick after pitting on a caution after Kyle Larson blew a tire on the 265th lap.
The 43-year-old Harvick led the final 41 laps in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for his second straight victory at the track. He has four victories at the mile oval to tie the record set by Jeff Burton.
Harvick won at New Hampshire last year after a late bump from behind knocked Kyle Busch off the lead. On Sunday, Harvick had a late bump again, but this time it was nudging Hamlin just enough to the side coming out of the final turn.
"I'm like, 'You're not getting under me again." And he drove to the outside of me, and I waited until he got near me, and I just put a wheel on him," Harvick said.
Erik Jones was third, and Ryan Blaney fourth.
Joey Logano was ninth. He has a three-point lead over Kyle Busch in the point standings. Busch, who won the first stage Sunday after qualifying second, finished eighth.
NASCAR paid tribute to crew chief Nick Harrison, who died overnight after Saturday's Xfinity Series race.
NASCAR announced Harrison's death during the drivers' meeting before the race Sunday and honored him with a moment of silence. No details were given.
The 37-year-old Harrison was the crew chief for Justin Haley, who finished in 13th Saturday. In Harrison's first season with Kaulig Racing, Haley had two top-five finishes and finished 12 times in the top 10.
"Not just a crew chief, but a friend to everyone who knew him," Haley wrote on Twitter. "I, and everyone at Kaulig Racing are devastated. He will be greatly missed."
Harrison was a veteran crew chief with all three NASCAR national series since 2006. His teams won five Xfinity Series races with drivers Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Kurt Busch, who were all driving Sunday.
"We all lost a friend last night. We love you Nick Harrison. You were a leader, and a great friend to all," Kurt Busch posted on Twitter. "Nick really helped me rebuild my career when I was at a low point. RIP."


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"Home seller Matt B. switched the tables on incentives, with the help of a recently launched Web service. …on HungryAgents.com, a web service where real estate agents 'bid' for sellers' business with their commisions." Dorothy Bourdet, The Detriot News
"Sellers can register their properties online and invite realtors to bid for the right to represent them." Reported by Les Christie, CNNMoney.com
"After registering their home with HungryAgents.com, based in St.Louis, sellers wait for real estate agents in their area to bid." Hillary Wicai, Morning Edition International Marketplace
"Mack used a new internet site called HungryAgents.com to find a local agent to sell his home for a 3.5% commission, saving Mack about $10,000." Diane Eastabrook, PBS Nightly Business Report
"An area internet startup hopes to pit real estate agents against each other in bidding wars for the lowest commission they will accept to sell a house." Shera Dalin, St.Louis Post-Dispatch
"A seller lists the house and agents bid at the rate of commission they're willing to take. Sellers have a basic profession biography of each agent, but no name. The winning agent learns the seller's identity only if contacted by the seller." Adolfo Pesquera, Express-News Business Writer
"Home sellers who list their house with HungryAgents.com don't generally pay the 6.5 percent commission that is typical fare..." Joe Light, Florida Times-Union
"A new site, HungryAgents.com, encourages brokers to bid aggressively for your business." Jane Bryant Quinn, Newsweek
"Realtors using HunryAgents.com... compete for clients based on home much they are willing to reduce their commissions." Glenn Roberts, Jr., Inman News