From the imagination of the developer Goichi Suda, better known as SUDA 51 and CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture – Killer is Dead is the most insane assassination game that could ever be produced, so much so that after playing the first few chapters you will need to take a long rest to get over it and soak up the inexplicable sights to behold! I could describe it as an eccentric take on a James Bond movie where the environments feel like a collection of retro olden day vampire scenes to which the madness then just continues to develop further the more you dive into the alien-futuristic-criminal-underworld. This still does not put into words the oddity of the character artwork and level design that had me convinced I was in a trance!
In simple terms, Killer is Dead is a unique hack and slash in the third person view, but the complexity of the story unravels over the course of twelve very different missions and additional side missions. Throughout the game you are an assassin named Mondo, the main protagonist who takes on a different contract with each mission to assassinate an evil force, cyborg or some other part human mechanical being for a large cash sum. He does have a rather dumb female assistant too, not that it’s a 2 player experience because it is not, but this dumb sidekick appears in cuts scenes and voice overs – however both character are fearless with clearly a strong stomach for the on-going gore-fest of each mission! It will take you a few chapters to get to grips with the gameplay experience because there is nothing quite like it for a multifaceted view on a world where your income is determined by your successful killing sprees and your whole life a continuous spiraling hallucinating mind-fuck! If you’re familiar with anything from SUDA 51 you’ll know to expect the unexpected and thinking outside the box really means a million miles away from any logical perception. This is just plain weird!
Each mission within the game is organised by your employers, Bryan Execution Firm, run by – (you guessed it) a Bryan, and he himself is a powerful cyborg who commands you into this introspective nightmare world of danger. On your journey to complete what you are paid to do – KILL – you also start to learn a few home truths and discoveries of your past revealed through cut scenes and dreamlike gameplay. Every mission is a separate chapter of the game and you are graded and scored by time of completion, number of collectables found, and how many kills and so on. Before you start you are given a brief sheet of information detailing your target and a short cut scene will update you on the story within that mission. The whole presentation style is that of short series of movies, an adventure broken down into shorts with gameplay that is arcade style. Some chapters last only minutes where as others can last for hours depending upon your retries due to the difficult nature of your targets – some feel as though they are born invincible and might never go down. Or, you just have to rethink your strategy for another attempt. On the whole, it is a game about just killing as much as you can with a bloody great Katana and a cybernetic left arm that can be tooled up for drilling, shooting and aiming with a variety of sub weapons. The gameplay is nothing you haven’t done before with a similar style to Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, only with more violence and plenty of blood!
Attacking your enemies or well, job lots could be a better description – is all about taking a slash; lunging forward with the Katana and perfectly timing your strikes whilst using Guard and Dodge to defend yourself. You can heal yourself with the blood of others when health is running low and you will often find objects that will aid your survival and mission requirements by examining them at close inspection. The action is fast paced and keeps you on your toes with a disposal of character upgrades to your Attack and Skills at your disposal too. There are Special Skills to unlock that will improve your gameplay style and different button combo’s to present your deathly strike to the enemy. However, I feel that for the most part you will just button mash your way through it because you will not have the time to think about what buttons to press other than one to just kill the fuckers!
This really is a unique game that will appeal to SUDA 51 fans, those who have likely witnessed other mad plots such as Lollipop Chainsaw, and it is in the midst of that eccentricity that makes it work for you, where the curiosity of always wanting to know what screwed up psychological chapter comes next, and how does this story unfold, or where or when will this journey end for the overworked assassin that is Mondo? If ever there was a leaderboard for being a cold hearted pathological murderer he’d top it…but then, even more insanity comes with the missions where you must blatantly stare at the tits of women at bars, sitting romantically outdoors and showering them with expensive gifts to win their affection. These Gigolo missions form some of the most embarrassing parts of the game which neither add substance or real relevance but you will grab yourself a few Achievements for taking part. If anything it shows that Mondo is a red blooded male who is really needs some form of sexual activity badly. I didn’t find any kind of romance in these missions; it was just a man after a very expensive night of passion.
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2013年8月27日星期二
2013年8月25日星期日
More Complex Than You’d Think
I expected two things out of Divekick: Diving and Kicking. In Divekick, the dive button dives (jumps) straight up, and the kick button will have your character spring back if you press it on the ground or kick in a forward moving fashion. A single hit would bring defeat to you or your opponent. This is all I knew before I started playing, and frankly, I was excited. I figured that if a game focused entirely around one attack, with characters given different angles and properties to play with, there would still be enough there to make for some interesting fights with friends.
It would remove a significant barrier to entry, allowing players to focus simply on their character’s fundamentals and learn how to deal with each opponent’s diving and kicking style. However, it turns out there’s a lot more to Divekick than I initially thought.
In addition to diving and kicking (which some characters need to charge or adjust their angle to do), each character has a couple of special abilities they can perform by pressing both buttons simultaneously. These range from simply building meter (which, when full, will activate the speed and jump-increasing Kickfactor) to a parry that will practically guarantee a headshot on any opponent if it blocks an incoming kick. By the way, a successful headshot will drain your opponent’s meter, make them jump lower and move slower for a short while, and forbid them from using any abilities, regardless of if they use meter or not, during that time.
On top of that, you need to keep the gems that you and your opponent select in mind, because a 10% boost to dive speed, kick speed, or meter gain is going to impact the way that they play, as should the one you pick. Not as simple as it first seemed, is it? Honestly, I felt a bit betrayed by Divekick at first. It seemed more complex than it needed to be, and I was frustrated by the fact that people were teleporting around and searching the ground and tossing projectiles like Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 looking for evidence.
However, once I played a few characters Story Modes (sadly, the only single-player option available in the game, which means that you can’t practice certain matchups against the computer unless you get to them somewhat at random), I started to get a feel for how everyone operated, and things that I once thought were chaotic and overly complex began to make sense.
For instance, Redacted is a basically a human sized wolverine who smokes cigars and stands and dive kicks a lot like Wolverine in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. She is obscenely fast, jumps and backjumps insanely high, and her kick is very shallow. Her ground special just has her growl and build meter for a while. At first, I didn’t think this made much sense, because her aerial special is just a short wall-cling, and that didn’t even require much meter usage… but then I hit Kickfactor and realized exactly how dangerous she could be. With Markman, I had a similar experience. His ground special has him search the ground for an item to build a “kickbox” with (think a Divekick two-button arcade stick).
When he doesn’t find one of the parts necessary for the kickbox, he just tosses it, creating an annoying obstacle in the middle of the battlefield. A vial of poison will drain whoever gets to close’s meter, a vial of glue will stick the person to the ground for a second, oil will add a bit of randomness to a player’s jumps and landings, springs will annoyingly have the player on top of them short hop in place until they kick off of it, and holes in the ground just drop a player perpetually from the floor through the ceiling until they kick away from it or it disappears. However, the fun begins when you complete the hitbox. His regular Divekick is kind of shallow and slow (unless you kick on just the right frame of the dive that speeds it up and surrounds it with lightning), so if you miss from a high angle, you basically sign your death warrant.
When the hitbox is complete, you’ve got a little bit of time where your specials are replaced with rising kicks which can be activated from the ground or the air. This means that you can start baiting an opponent into leaping above you mid-divekick, then use the rising kick to take them out as they try to land a headshot.
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It would remove a significant barrier to entry, allowing players to focus simply on their character’s fundamentals and learn how to deal with each opponent’s diving and kicking style. However, it turns out there’s a lot more to Divekick than I initially thought.
In addition to diving and kicking (which some characters need to charge or adjust their angle to do), each character has a couple of special abilities they can perform by pressing both buttons simultaneously. These range from simply building meter (which, when full, will activate the speed and jump-increasing Kickfactor) to a parry that will practically guarantee a headshot on any opponent if it blocks an incoming kick. By the way, a successful headshot will drain your opponent’s meter, make them jump lower and move slower for a short while, and forbid them from using any abilities, regardless of if they use meter or not, during that time.
On top of that, you need to keep the gems that you and your opponent select in mind, because a 10% boost to dive speed, kick speed, or meter gain is going to impact the way that they play, as should the one you pick. Not as simple as it first seemed, is it? Honestly, I felt a bit betrayed by Divekick at first. It seemed more complex than it needed to be, and I was frustrated by the fact that people were teleporting around and searching the ground and tossing projectiles like Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 looking for evidence.
However, once I played a few characters Story Modes (sadly, the only single-player option available in the game, which means that you can’t practice certain matchups against the computer unless you get to them somewhat at random), I started to get a feel for how everyone operated, and things that I once thought were chaotic and overly complex began to make sense.
For instance, Redacted is a basically a human sized wolverine who smokes cigars and stands and dive kicks a lot like Wolverine in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. She is obscenely fast, jumps and backjumps insanely high, and her kick is very shallow. Her ground special just has her growl and build meter for a while. At first, I didn’t think this made much sense, because her aerial special is just a short wall-cling, and that didn’t even require much meter usage… but then I hit Kickfactor and realized exactly how dangerous she could be. With Markman, I had a similar experience. His ground special has him search the ground for an item to build a “kickbox” with (think a Divekick two-button arcade stick).
When he doesn’t find one of the parts necessary for the kickbox, he just tosses it, creating an annoying obstacle in the middle of the battlefield. A vial of poison will drain whoever gets to close’s meter, a vial of glue will stick the person to the ground for a second, oil will add a bit of randomness to a player’s jumps and landings, springs will annoyingly have the player on top of them short hop in place until they kick off of it, and holes in the ground just drop a player perpetually from the floor through the ceiling until they kick away from it or it disappears. However, the fun begins when you complete the hitbox. His regular Divekick is kind of shallow and slow (unless you kick on just the right frame of the dive that speeds it up and surrounds it with lightning), so if you miss from a high angle, you basically sign your death warrant.
When the hitbox is complete, you’ve got a little bit of time where your specials are replaced with rising kicks which can be activated from the ground or the air. This means that you can start baiting an opponent into leaping above you mid-divekick, then use the rising kick to take them out as they try to land a headshot.
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Chaos eventually erupted in the barnyard
Once upon a time, my kids had what was then considered a high-tech gizmo: one of those See ‘n Say toys, where you dial an image of a certain animal, such as a cow, pull a string, and out would come something along the lines of, “The cow says ‘moo.’” ?
Chaos eventually erupted in the barnyard after the toy developed a low-tech malfunction, resulting in chickens making “moo” sounds, cows making “baa” sounds ? and so forth.
We’ve come a long way since then, perhaps too long a way. Witness complaints by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood over claims that certain mobile apps can help babies learn.
As recently reported by ?The Associated Press, this is the same group that mobilized against those “Baby Einstein” videos a few years ago, leading to nationwide consumer refunds. According to the AP, the American Academy of Pediatrics has also weighed in, discouraging any “screen time” for kids under 2.
If this includes smartphones, that battle is already lost. Last winter, my youngest grandson, then 23 months old, could grab his mother’s phone, speed dial his other grandmother in Colorado, then carry on a somewhat disjointed conversation of sighs, grunts? and an occasional recognizable word. Meanwhile, his older brother, closing in on age 4, regards the home computer as just another fun device among his arsenal of toys.
None of this, of course, was available when my own kids were little. The best toys my son ever had were Legos, which he fashioned into every sort of object you could imagine, from trucks to fire stations to rocket ships. Alas, even good old Lego has now gone digital, allowing kids to design hundreds of virtual models without ever having to touch a real Lego.
As for my daughter, her favorite toy throughout her childhood was an old doll named “Baby,” tossed aside by an aunt who had no use for such creatures. I don’t know if our daughter took Baby on her honeymoon but it sure went with her when she moved out of the house.
Mr. Potato Head and an occasional Cootie — as in the game — were the only items I ever assembled as a kid, although my younger brother, who would go on to become a civil engineer, did have an Erector set.
Then, as now, it can be argued that the best toy a kid can have is not the toy but the cardboard box it came in. Never more has that been proven than with the case of Caine Monroy, who at age 9 started building an arcade out of discarded cardboard in his dad’s East L.A. used auto parts store.
As recently outlined in myriad national news reports, young Caine had few visitors to his arcade that summer of 2011 until a filmmaker by the name of Nirvan Mullick wandered in looking for a used door handle. Not long after, Mullick made a film about the arcade and also organized a flash mob of customers.
Naturally, the thing went viral, raising more than $225,000 in college scholarship money for Caine. More importantly, Caine’s arcade has jumpstarted a wave of cardboard creativity through the non-profit Imagination Foundation, which inspires kids around the world to “think outside the box.”
Last year kids from 41 countries participated in the foundation’s “cardboard challenge,” churning out everything from football tables to robots and claw machines.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” Caine recently told NBC News. “All you need is cardboard and your imagination.”
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Game machines,welcome to contact us!
Chaos eventually erupted in the barnyard after the toy developed a low-tech malfunction, resulting in chickens making “moo” sounds, cows making “baa” sounds ? and so forth.
We’ve come a long way since then, perhaps too long a way. Witness complaints by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood over claims that certain mobile apps can help babies learn.
As recently reported by ?The Associated Press, this is the same group that mobilized against those “Baby Einstein” videos a few years ago, leading to nationwide consumer refunds. According to the AP, the American Academy of Pediatrics has also weighed in, discouraging any “screen time” for kids under 2.
If this includes smartphones, that battle is already lost. Last winter, my youngest grandson, then 23 months old, could grab his mother’s phone, speed dial his other grandmother in Colorado, then carry on a somewhat disjointed conversation of sighs, grunts? and an occasional recognizable word. Meanwhile, his older brother, closing in on age 4, regards the home computer as just another fun device among his arsenal of toys.
None of this, of course, was available when my own kids were little. The best toys my son ever had were Legos, which he fashioned into every sort of object you could imagine, from trucks to fire stations to rocket ships. Alas, even good old Lego has now gone digital, allowing kids to design hundreds of virtual models without ever having to touch a real Lego.
As for my daughter, her favorite toy throughout her childhood was an old doll named “Baby,” tossed aside by an aunt who had no use for such creatures. I don’t know if our daughter took Baby on her honeymoon but it sure went with her when she moved out of the house.
Mr. Potato Head and an occasional Cootie — as in the game — were the only items I ever assembled as a kid, although my younger brother, who would go on to become a civil engineer, did have an Erector set.
Then, as now, it can be argued that the best toy a kid can have is not the toy but the cardboard box it came in. Never more has that been proven than with the case of Caine Monroy, who at age 9 started building an arcade out of discarded cardboard in his dad’s East L.A. used auto parts store.
As recently outlined in myriad national news reports, young Caine had few visitors to his arcade that summer of 2011 until a filmmaker by the name of Nirvan Mullick wandered in looking for a used door handle. Not long after, Mullick made a film about the arcade and also organized a flash mob of customers.
Naturally, the thing went viral, raising more than $225,000 in college scholarship money for Caine. More importantly, Caine’s arcade has jumpstarted a wave of cardboard creativity through the non-profit Imagination Foundation, which inspires kids around the world to “think outside the box.”
Last year kids from 41 countries participated in the foundation’s “cardboard challenge,” churning out everything from football tables to robots and claw machines.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” Caine recently told NBC News. “All you need is cardboard and your imagination.”
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Game machines,welcome to contact us!
2013年8月20日星期二
Bomb goes off in Midsayap
An improvised explosive device went off in Barangay Nes, Midsayap, North Cotabato around 9 p.m. Sunday, the second blast that hit the town this month, police said.
No one was injured or killed in the blast, the police said.
Midsayap police chief Supt. Reinante Delos Santos, in a phone interview, said the bomb exploded in front of a sari-sari store owned by Jeffrey Fontanilla, damaging its roof and concrete wall.
Police investigation showed that before the explosion two unidentified men bought cigarettes and candies at the store and left on board a motorcycle towards the national highway.
The Army’s 66th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Division said the bomb was made of a 60 mm mortar and a mobile phone was used as the triggering device.
No one has claimed responsibility for the incident.
On August 7, 2013, a bomb also exploded in front of a pawnshop in Midsayap. No one was injured in the blast.
Aside from the latest blast in Midsayap, at least five other explosions have rocked parts of Mindanao since late last month.
Eight persons were killed and 46 others were injured in the Cagayan de Oro City blast in a resto-bar in Rosario Arcade, Limketkai Center on July 26.
Another eight people were killed and 30 were injured in Cotabato City on August 5 in a bombing that apparently targeted city administrator Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi.
Seven soldiers were injured in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao on August 7. There were no reported casualties in the explosion of improvised bombs in Midsayap, North Cotabato and Datu Piang in Maguindanao on August 7.
Fast Towards Heaven
While “Fast Towards Heaven” is definitely the most musically-upbeat tune on the EP, it focuses lyrically on a hard-to-swallow realization: that there are some old attachments that you can never fully move on from, as hard as you might try – that first love that you never really forgot; that grudge you never gave up; the parts of your old teenage self that you cover up like a shameful bruise. It’s those things you’re most afraid of revealing to other people that often say much more about you than anything you might willingly tell. “Fast Towards Heaven” is about being, unwittingly and unwillingly, under the magnetic hold of those strong past affections and memories long after you thought they had vanished.
Safe
“Safe” is an elegy to a past self, to the teenage years when you shed previous versions of your identity with frightening frequency in an attempt to outrun the impending stasis of adulthood, as if once you leave high school you’ll harden into the person that you’ll have to be for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. If you’re a bookish nerd one day, there’s little preventing you from reinventing yourself into something else the next. This is mostly just adolescent exploration without long-term consequence, and while most of those changes are harmless, some are not. “Safe” is a song about coming to painful grips with the things you’ve changed about yourself that you can’t erase.
Please visit his website at www.happmart.com.
No one was injured or killed in the blast, the police said.
Midsayap police chief Supt. Reinante Delos Santos, in a phone interview, said the bomb exploded in front of a sari-sari store owned by Jeffrey Fontanilla, damaging its roof and concrete wall.
Police investigation showed that before the explosion two unidentified men bought cigarettes and candies at the store and left on board a motorcycle towards the national highway.
The Army’s 66th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Division said the bomb was made of a 60 mm mortar and a mobile phone was used as the triggering device.
No one has claimed responsibility for the incident.
On August 7, 2013, a bomb also exploded in front of a pawnshop in Midsayap. No one was injured in the blast.
Aside from the latest blast in Midsayap, at least five other explosions have rocked parts of Mindanao since late last month.
Eight persons were killed and 46 others were injured in the Cagayan de Oro City blast in a resto-bar in Rosario Arcade, Limketkai Center on July 26.
Another eight people were killed and 30 were injured in Cotabato City on August 5 in a bombing that apparently targeted city administrator Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi.
Seven soldiers were injured in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao on August 7. There were no reported casualties in the explosion of improvised bombs in Midsayap, North Cotabato and Datu Piang in Maguindanao on August 7.
Fast Towards Heaven
While “Fast Towards Heaven” is definitely the most musically-upbeat tune on the EP, it focuses lyrically on a hard-to-swallow realization: that there are some old attachments that you can never fully move on from, as hard as you might try – that first love that you never really forgot; that grudge you never gave up; the parts of your old teenage self that you cover up like a shameful bruise. It’s those things you’re most afraid of revealing to other people that often say much more about you than anything you might willingly tell. “Fast Towards Heaven” is about being, unwittingly and unwillingly, under the magnetic hold of those strong past affections and memories long after you thought they had vanished.
Safe
“Safe” is an elegy to a past self, to the teenage years when you shed previous versions of your identity with frightening frequency in an attempt to outrun the impending stasis of adulthood, as if once you leave high school you’ll harden into the person that you’ll have to be for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not. If you’re a bookish nerd one day, there’s little preventing you from reinventing yourself into something else the next. This is mostly just adolescent exploration without long-term consequence, and while most of those changes are harmless, some are not. “Safe” is a song about coming to painful grips with the things you’ve changed about yourself that you can’t erase.
Please visit his website at www.happmart.com.
Merge Country
On a soft July evening in Durham, North Carolina, shortly before the singing of our National Anthem, John Darnielle holds forth on baseball and breakfast. "Where have you eaten since you've been in Durham?" he asks, adjusting his glasses. "You didn't happen to stop by Loaf this morning, did you? Because if you did, and there weren't any peanut-butter-and-chocolate croissants left, I apologize: I grabbed the last few. They're insane."
The voice and face of much-beloved rock band the Mountain Goats, Darnielle is publicly passionate about a great many things, generous with deftly phrased opinions on sports and music and animal rights. But as he comes alive in Durham Bulls Athletic Park, touting his adopted hometown's ongoing renaissance from within its jewel-box minor-league-baseball stadium, his enthusiasm borders on the evangelical.
"We have so much good food in this town, it is crazy," he enthuses, between bites of a squishy veggie burger, as his sturdy two-year-old son, Roman, "our cookie sommelier," bulldozes a path to a platter of chocolate-chips just within his reach. "You go to these restaurants and you have profoundly good meals. You go to Loaf, you get the best loaf of bread you've ever had for five bucks."
A few blocks away, past the center-field bleachers, the city's once-abandoned downtown is now teeming with vibrant local businesses, including a staggering array of first-rate, farm-to-fork destinations, often natural extensions of already-successful vendors in the bustling Durham Farmer's Market and rapidly expanding swarm of food trucks. Bars, breweries, galleries, and urban farms have sprouted up, while the arrival of luxury condominiums is both luring new residents downtown and providing cause for concern among other Durhamites. Substantial retail operations seem to be finding some footing, and, not far from DBAP, you'll find the Durham Performing Arts Center, a recently built, Carnegie Hall-sized auditorium that has ranked nationally in ticket sales since opening in 2008.
But tonight is the Bulls organization's first official collaboration with another Durham institution: Merge Records, formerly and famously of neighboring Chapel Hill, 10 miles to the southwest, and label home to Spoon, Wild Flag, Arcade Fire, the Mountain Goats, and Superchunk, the pioneering 24-year-old punk-rock band of label co-founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. Both of whom are here as well, mulling over the catering options alongside Darnielle in the luxury box allotted to the label. At the Bulls' request, Merge has tapped its coveted back catalogue, providing the songs to which every Durham batter will stride to the plate tonight.
The entire stadium is gleaming in high definition, from the pink towers of cotton candy tottering through the aisles to the sweaty trains of light beer changing hands to the batting helmets of the visiting Pawtucket Red Sox, a team whose first, fruitless few at-bats are soundtracked only by narcotic crowd murmurs. But when a relatively propulsive snippet of the Mountain Goats' "The Brothers Diaz" cues up the approach of Bulls third baseman and leadoff hitter Cole Figueroa, all seems right in the Merge box. "Figueroa's got an older brother in the Big Show," Darnielle says to Ballance and her husband, Luc, an esteemed sound-engineer-turned-local-wine-importer. "We want him to go yard at least once tonight, so that he can say to the world that he owes it all to the Mountain Goats." Ballance, bratwurst in hand, cracks a smile and laughs. "John," she says slowly, "This is so weird."
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade parts,welcome to contact us!
The voice and face of much-beloved rock band the Mountain Goats, Darnielle is publicly passionate about a great many things, generous with deftly phrased opinions on sports and music and animal rights. But as he comes alive in Durham Bulls Athletic Park, touting his adopted hometown's ongoing renaissance from within its jewel-box minor-league-baseball stadium, his enthusiasm borders on the evangelical.
"We have so much good food in this town, it is crazy," he enthuses, between bites of a squishy veggie burger, as his sturdy two-year-old son, Roman, "our cookie sommelier," bulldozes a path to a platter of chocolate-chips just within his reach. "You go to these restaurants and you have profoundly good meals. You go to Loaf, you get the best loaf of bread you've ever had for five bucks."
A few blocks away, past the center-field bleachers, the city's once-abandoned downtown is now teeming with vibrant local businesses, including a staggering array of first-rate, farm-to-fork destinations, often natural extensions of already-successful vendors in the bustling Durham Farmer's Market and rapidly expanding swarm of food trucks. Bars, breweries, galleries, and urban farms have sprouted up, while the arrival of luxury condominiums is both luring new residents downtown and providing cause for concern among other Durhamites. Substantial retail operations seem to be finding some footing, and, not far from DBAP, you'll find the Durham Performing Arts Center, a recently built, Carnegie Hall-sized auditorium that has ranked nationally in ticket sales since opening in 2008.
But tonight is the Bulls organization's first official collaboration with another Durham institution: Merge Records, formerly and famously of neighboring Chapel Hill, 10 miles to the southwest, and label home to Spoon, Wild Flag, Arcade Fire, the Mountain Goats, and Superchunk, the pioneering 24-year-old punk-rock band of label co-founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. Both of whom are here as well, mulling over the catering options alongside Darnielle in the luxury box allotted to the label. At the Bulls' request, Merge has tapped its coveted back catalogue, providing the songs to which every Durham batter will stride to the plate tonight.
The entire stadium is gleaming in high definition, from the pink towers of cotton candy tottering through the aisles to the sweaty trains of light beer changing hands to the batting helmets of the visiting Pawtucket Red Sox, a team whose first, fruitless few at-bats are soundtracked only by narcotic crowd murmurs. But when a relatively propulsive snippet of the Mountain Goats' "The Brothers Diaz" cues up the approach of Bulls third baseman and leadoff hitter Cole Figueroa, all seems right in the Merge box. "Figueroa's got an older brother in the Big Show," Darnielle says to Ballance and her husband, Luc, an esteemed sound-engineer-turned-local-wine-importer. "We want him to go yard at least once tonight, so that he can say to the world that he owes it all to the Mountain Goats." Ballance, bratwurst in hand, cracks a smile and laughs. "John," she says slowly, "This is so weird."
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade parts,welcome to contact us!
2013年8月16日星期五
Naval architect in Muskegon
A field of wind turbines floating on Lake Michigan isn’t that far off, a naval architect and engineer told a crowd of about 45 people in Muskegon Thursday, Aug. 15.
Or, at least, the technology is nearly ready, said Glosten Associates naval architect and marine engineer Charles Nordstrom. There’s still no state mechanism to regulate such a project.
“There is not a framework for proceeding with a project,” Nordstrom said. “We’d love to.”
Glosten in 2012 had a partnership with Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and Michigan Technological University for a federal grant to test its floating wind turbine technology on the Great Lakes, but the U.S. Department of Energy did not fund the grant.
Glosten is now completing engineering work on a demonstration project to put floating wind turbines using its PelaStar technology off the southeast coast of England. PelaStar works using tension-weight platforms, buoy-like hollow steel bases, anchored to the sea floor by cables.
PelaStar would work best where the lake is more than 160 feet deep, Nordstrom said. That contrasts to turbines with solid-construction foundations in the sea bottom, which become unfeasible before 160 feet of depth.
The depth of the water needed for PelaStar could place the floating turbines far enough out into the Great Lakes as to be nearly invisible from shore, Nordstrom said.
He pointed to maps that show strong wind conditions off the thumb of the Michigan mitten and off the coast of Southeast Michigan. The deep water in those areas starts 12 miles from shore.
“Pretty much can’t see these machines from the shoreline at 15 miles from shore,” he said, adding that the wind is also stronger. “It’s cheaper and deeper.”
The past debate over a proposal for the Scandia Offshore Wind project in Lake Michigan off the West Michigan coastline was a major controversy and ended with opposition to being able to see the turbines from shore. With deep-water deployment, wind turbines could be put on Lake Michigan without any detection from shoreline properties or public beaches, MAREC Director Arn Boezaart has said.
“(Land-based wind energy) is here to stay, the horses are out,” Boezaart said on Thursday. “But I think we’re at the point where offshore wind is a reality.”
Glosten is designing its turbines to be easily and more cheaply installed than others in the past. Nordstrom tried to show how close the floating turbines are to being feasible by comparing current electricity prices with the target prices Glosten is designing toward.
“This is not something that is just too expensive, and doesn’t work, messes up my view,” he said. “The conversation needs to change. This is not going to happen tomorrow, but let’s keep talking about it.”
For Dr Johann Overath, principal managing director of the Bundesverband Glasindustrie e.V. (Federal Association of the German Glass Industry), this show is just the right forum for verifying these requirements: "Glass packaging has always been a part of the beverages market. For wine, sparkling wine, beer and spirits, almost exclusively glass bottles are used. For this reason drinktec, too, is very important for us, because the customers of the glass-container industry come to this forum.”
In the view of Dr. Johann Overath there are currently two main trends in glass packaging: "On the one hand there is increasing public focus on sustainability. And on the other, in particular as regards mineral water, we are seeing a real renaissance in glass. And in trend beverages, too, we are seeing glass bottles being used for new and innovative drinks."
Popularity of cans on the up again
Glass is 100% recyclable, and so, too, are beverage cans. Germany is seeing a return to the use of cans as containers for beverages. Since the introduction of deposits on disposable containers in 2003, beverage-can sales have only now broken back through the billion barrier. In 2011 sales of this type of can were at over 1.1bn, a rise of around 19% or 175m, over the previous year.
Even back in 2006 the three biggest beverage can manufacturers – Europe′s Ball Packaging Europe, Rexam Beverage Can Europe & Asia and Crown Bevcan Europe & Middle East – were seeing an upwards trend. These companies are members of BCME, and all of them will be at Drinktec 2013.
For Welf Jung, spokesman for BCME Deutschland and sales and marketing director for Germany at Rexam Beverage Can Europe, the advantages for cans lie in their variety of formats and designs, the ideal product protection they offer and in terms of convenience and recycling: "Increasing mobility, the global battle against food wastage and a rising awareness of sustainability are trends in society and good reasons why people are choosing the beverage can. New segments where cans are currently making good ground include health drinks with sensitive ingredients and wines. With the latter in particular the can is the key to reaching a young, mobile target group."
Manufacturers are currently working on functional improvements to cans, in terms of better convenience and reduced material consumption. They are also trying out innovative new looks and even a new feel for cans.
One example is the development of thermochromic beverages cans, which change colour as they cool down. Another idea is for fluorescent cans that glow in UV light, for use in particular in discotheques and clubs. Tactile cans feel different because of their raised surface designs and they also have visual appeal. All-round modelling, for example, can be used to suggest to the consumer, both visually and through touch, that he is holding an orange, for example.
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade pcb,welcome to contact us!
Or, at least, the technology is nearly ready, said Glosten Associates naval architect and marine engineer Charles Nordstrom. There’s still no state mechanism to regulate such a project.
“There is not a framework for proceeding with a project,” Nordstrom said. “We’d love to.”
Glosten in 2012 had a partnership with Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and Michigan Technological University for a federal grant to test its floating wind turbine technology on the Great Lakes, but the U.S. Department of Energy did not fund the grant.
Glosten is now completing engineering work on a demonstration project to put floating wind turbines using its PelaStar technology off the southeast coast of England. PelaStar works using tension-weight platforms, buoy-like hollow steel bases, anchored to the sea floor by cables.
PelaStar would work best where the lake is more than 160 feet deep, Nordstrom said. That contrasts to turbines with solid-construction foundations in the sea bottom, which become unfeasible before 160 feet of depth.
The depth of the water needed for PelaStar could place the floating turbines far enough out into the Great Lakes as to be nearly invisible from shore, Nordstrom said.
He pointed to maps that show strong wind conditions off the thumb of the Michigan mitten and off the coast of Southeast Michigan. The deep water in those areas starts 12 miles from shore.
“Pretty much can’t see these machines from the shoreline at 15 miles from shore,” he said, adding that the wind is also stronger. “It’s cheaper and deeper.”
The past debate over a proposal for the Scandia Offshore Wind project in Lake Michigan off the West Michigan coastline was a major controversy and ended with opposition to being able to see the turbines from shore. With deep-water deployment, wind turbines could be put on Lake Michigan without any detection from shoreline properties or public beaches, MAREC Director Arn Boezaart has said.
“(Land-based wind energy) is here to stay, the horses are out,” Boezaart said on Thursday. “But I think we’re at the point where offshore wind is a reality.”
Glosten is designing its turbines to be easily and more cheaply installed than others in the past. Nordstrom tried to show how close the floating turbines are to being feasible by comparing current electricity prices with the target prices Glosten is designing toward.
“This is not something that is just too expensive, and doesn’t work, messes up my view,” he said. “The conversation needs to change. This is not going to happen tomorrow, but let’s keep talking about it.”
For Dr Johann Overath, principal managing director of the Bundesverband Glasindustrie e.V. (Federal Association of the German Glass Industry), this show is just the right forum for verifying these requirements: "Glass packaging has always been a part of the beverages market. For wine, sparkling wine, beer and spirits, almost exclusively glass bottles are used. For this reason drinktec, too, is very important for us, because the customers of the glass-container industry come to this forum.”
In the view of Dr. Johann Overath there are currently two main trends in glass packaging: "On the one hand there is increasing public focus on sustainability. And on the other, in particular as regards mineral water, we are seeing a real renaissance in glass. And in trend beverages, too, we are seeing glass bottles being used for new and innovative drinks."
Popularity of cans on the up again
Glass is 100% recyclable, and so, too, are beverage cans. Germany is seeing a return to the use of cans as containers for beverages. Since the introduction of deposits on disposable containers in 2003, beverage-can sales have only now broken back through the billion barrier. In 2011 sales of this type of can were at over 1.1bn, a rise of around 19% or 175m, over the previous year.
Even back in 2006 the three biggest beverage can manufacturers – Europe′s Ball Packaging Europe, Rexam Beverage Can Europe & Asia and Crown Bevcan Europe & Middle East – were seeing an upwards trend. These companies are members of BCME, and all of them will be at Drinktec 2013.
For Welf Jung, spokesman for BCME Deutschland and sales and marketing director for Germany at Rexam Beverage Can Europe, the advantages for cans lie in their variety of formats and designs, the ideal product protection they offer and in terms of convenience and recycling: "Increasing mobility, the global battle against food wastage and a rising awareness of sustainability are trends in society and good reasons why people are choosing the beverage can. New segments where cans are currently making good ground include health drinks with sensitive ingredients and wines. With the latter in particular the can is the key to reaching a young, mobile target group."
Manufacturers are currently working on functional improvements to cans, in terms of better convenience and reduced material consumption. They are also trying out innovative new looks and even a new feel for cans.
One example is the development of thermochromic beverages cans, which change colour as they cool down. Another idea is for fluorescent cans that glow in UV light, for use in particular in discotheques and clubs. Tactile cans feel different because of their raised surface designs and they also have visual appeal. All-round modelling, for example, can be used to suggest to the consumer, both visually and through touch, that he is holding an orange, for example.
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade pcb,welcome to contact us!
LEEDCo has begun work
A LEEDCo official said more than 3,000 people in Northeast Ohio so far have signed up to pledge to buy a portion of their future electricity needs from offshore wind power.
The Power Pledge helps the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. gauge community support and demonstrate a strong market in Northeast Ohio for local clean electricity generated on Lake Erie, said LEEDCo President Lorry Wagner.
LEEDCo has begun work on a five to nine turbine wind energy demonstration project in Lake Erie named "Icebreaker," which is slated to be completed in 2017. It would be the first freshwater offshore wind project in the nation.
The Icebreaker project involves the installation of six 3-megawatt American-made Siemens wind turbines approximately 7 miles off the coast of downtown Cleveland in Lake Erie. Officials also have a 1,000 megawatt target in mind by 2020.
Officials from LEEDCo said the project is expected to create 525 construction, installation and permanent jobs, provide $79.9 million in gross regional product from construction, and $7.3 million of annual gross regional product impact.
Once completed in 2017, LEEDCo said the project would be the catalyst for a new regional industry that improves the environment, creates local jobs and advances U.S. energy security.
There is no obligation or cost to take the pledge, but it would allow people to be first in line when the wind power becomes available through their local power providers, Wagner said.
"About 60 percent of the people we contact are signing up for it," he said.
LEEDCo plans to use the pledges to encourage local electricity suppliers to make that source of electricity available to their customers, who would have the chance to be among the project's first customers.
The project already has received a round of investment from its private partners and the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the initial engineering design and permit application process.
In May 2014, the Department of Energy plans to invest up to an additional $46 million in each of three offshore wind projects that it believes would catalyze the U.S. offshore wind energy industry.LEEDCo, which was founded in 2009 as a nonprofit organization, also represents a public and private partnership.
Members of the organization include Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lorain and Lake counties, the city of Cleveland, The Cleveland Foundation and NorTech.Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, also will be on hand for a public event at 1 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Cleveland Convention Center called "POWER UP for Offshore Wind" to support the project and to encourage people to take the pledge."The mayor has always supported the project, saying it's one of his important initiatives," Wagner said.LEEDCo kicked off the Power Pledge drive in April during Northeast Ohio's Earthfest at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea.
Technology meets marketing: The Innovation Flow Lounge
Packaging is about much more than simply the material from which it is made. It also transports emotional messages to the end consumer. An ideal packaging has to be attractive and informative, and it has to be able to carry the desired brand messages. There are many ways of achieving this: through the printing, print-finishing and even choice of unusual shapes – modern technology is making many things possible and giving marketeers a huge range of options for implementing creative ideas. And because the packaging has such a critical role to play in the consumer′s decision to purchase or not, then much depends on the dialog between the technical people and the marketing professionals. The show has set itself the goal of promoting and facilitating that dialog.
Rather than leaving that dialog between technicians and marketeers to chance, the organiser is providing a structured forum in which this can happen.
Among the many events, for example, are chaired panel discussions. In the future it will be even more important for technology experts and product developers to develop a feeling for the needs of marketing – and vice versa. Focus on Packaging and Marketing is the title of a forum event in the afternoon of September 19 in hall A2.
Rising trends
A key trend that is becoming ever more important in this context is the digitalization of marketing communication. QR codes on packaging are spreading rapidly. Drinktec will also be the place to find out about these new techniques and technologies.
One of these visitors is Uwe Stoffels, Spokesman for Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) Deutschland and manager marketing communications at Ball Packaging Europe. He has high hopes of Drinktec: "Drinktec is a must for us and the ideal platform for talking with experts from the sector. We are looking forward to picking up some new and exciting ideas this year in September."
Other dominant trends in packaging to be witnessed at drinktec 2013 are: intelligent product protection, consumer convenience and resource-efficient technology, the latter of course including recycling.
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade parts,welcome to contact us!
The Power Pledge helps the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. gauge community support and demonstrate a strong market in Northeast Ohio for local clean electricity generated on Lake Erie, said LEEDCo President Lorry Wagner.
LEEDCo has begun work on a five to nine turbine wind energy demonstration project in Lake Erie named "Icebreaker," which is slated to be completed in 2017. It would be the first freshwater offshore wind project in the nation.
The Icebreaker project involves the installation of six 3-megawatt American-made Siemens wind turbines approximately 7 miles off the coast of downtown Cleveland in Lake Erie. Officials also have a 1,000 megawatt target in mind by 2020.
Officials from LEEDCo said the project is expected to create 525 construction, installation and permanent jobs, provide $79.9 million in gross regional product from construction, and $7.3 million of annual gross regional product impact.
Once completed in 2017, LEEDCo said the project would be the catalyst for a new regional industry that improves the environment, creates local jobs and advances U.S. energy security.
There is no obligation or cost to take the pledge, but it would allow people to be first in line when the wind power becomes available through their local power providers, Wagner said.
"About 60 percent of the people we contact are signing up for it," he said.
LEEDCo plans to use the pledges to encourage local electricity suppliers to make that source of electricity available to their customers, who would have the chance to be among the project's first customers.
The project already has received a round of investment from its private partners and the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the initial engineering design and permit application process.
In May 2014, the Department of Energy plans to invest up to an additional $46 million in each of three offshore wind projects that it believes would catalyze the U.S. offshore wind energy industry.LEEDCo, which was founded in 2009 as a nonprofit organization, also represents a public and private partnership.
Members of the organization include Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Lorain and Lake counties, the city of Cleveland, The Cleveland Foundation and NorTech.Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, also will be on hand for a public event at 1 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Cleveland Convention Center called "POWER UP for Offshore Wind" to support the project and to encourage people to take the pledge."The mayor has always supported the project, saying it's one of his important initiatives," Wagner said.LEEDCo kicked off the Power Pledge drive in April during Northeast Ohio's Earthfest at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea.
Technology meets marketing: The Innovation Flow Lounge
Packaging is about much more than simply the material from which it is made. It also transports emotional messages to the end consumer. An ideal packaging has to be attractive and informative, and it has to be able to carry the desired brand messages. There are many ways of achieving this: through the printing, print-finishing and even choice of unusual shapes – modern technology is making many things possible and giving marketeers a huge range of options for implementing creative ideas. And because the packaging has such a critical role to play in the consumer′s decision to purchase or not, then much depends on the dialog between the technical people and the marketing professionals. The show has set itself the goal of promoting and facilitating that dialog.
Rather than leaving that dialog between technicians and marketeers to chance, the organiser is providing a structured forum in which this can happen.
Among the many events, for example, are chaired panel discussions. In the future it will be even more important for technology experts and product developers to develop a feeling for the needs of marketing – and vice versa. Focus on Packaging and Marketing is the title of a forum event in the afternoon of September 19 in hall A2.
Rising trends
A key trend that is becoming ever more important in this context is the digitalization of marketing communication. QR codes on packaging are spreading rapidly. Drinktec will also be the place to find out about these new techniques and technologies.
One of these visitors is Uwe Stoffels, Spokesman for Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) Deutschland and manager marketing communications at Ball Packaging Europe. He has high hopes of Drinktec: "Drinktec is a must for us and the ideal platform for talking with experts from the sector. We are looking forward to picking up some new and exciting ideas this year in September."
Other dominant trends in packaging to be witnessed at drinktec 2013 are: intelligent product protection, consumer convenience and resource-efficient technology, the latter of course including recycling.
Welcome to www.happmart.com Web.If you love Arcade parts,welcome to contact us!
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