#plot synergy: 75

[sapphireshineonao3]

AHHHHH!!

CHASCA CAME HOME BEFORE ORORON!

And I'm at 40 pity again and still only at C0 Ororon... But I'm still happy. I have them both!

3/4 of the Saurian Quartet are assembled! You better come home too IFA!!!

[noparg]

Here, I'll copypaste my original review. Just so you get an idea of how much I enjoyed this game: It got me out of a massive burnout when I was completely done with reviews (and putting up with my editor)

I'mma be honest. This review doesn't do it justice. This game gave me pure joy. It was incredibly fun to play. It made me buy the collector's edition. Me, the cheapskate who'd rather wait years to buy games he loves at 75% off.

Story

Dungeon Munchies’ story is surprisingly good. While not especially deep or a literary masterpiece, it is a pretty fun take on a post-apocalypse filled with eldritch horrors, talking plants and cooking ghosts. Mostly going for a tongue-in-cheek humorous tone, most of the jokes land pretty well thanks to the visual humor and straight deliveries that don’t disrupt the flow of the actual plot.

Said plot mainly involves the player, a recently resurrected zombie, as he helps the ghostly chef Simmer escape the dungeon they’re all living in by using stargates built before the demise of humanity. However, while attempting to locate and power on the remaining gate, a biohazard entity manages to escape containment, forcing the player to find and destroy it before it thwarts the plan.

Graphics

The game’s graphics consist of both pixelart during gameplay and static images a-la visual novel for dialogues and cutscenes. Both of the styles are consistently high quality, with the cutscene sprites being particularly praiseworthy for their ability to convey physical humor. The only letdown in the game comes with its areas, which despite featuring varied and plentiful environments, tend to be a bit repetitive or rather run too long while only using a handful of assets.

Sound

Dungeon Munchies’ sound design is the most questionable part of the game. Although it seemingly features a full soundtrack, the tendency the music has to stop playing and never come back makes it rather hard to notice. Besides this, there is no voice acting and, while sufficient, the SFX are nothing to write home about.

Gameplay

Dungeon Munchie’s is a linear hack-n’-slash game with some metroidvania mechanics, such as introducing movement options, double jumps and more. That said, those mechanics are only necessary for the areas they’re obtained in and those after, not the ones before. Instead of making players backtrack, any optional pickups can be obtained by exploring a bit. This, combined with the smooth controls and fun combat with ample room for different builds, makes the game a breeze to play.

The main gimmick of the game is that players will be able to create dishes with enemy parts. Said dishes will grant special abilities and bonuses to the player, such as mana regeneration, sword combos or simply more health. As the game progresses, more dishes and upgrades for the old ones are unlocked as new enemies are introduced. From these dishes, players will be able to select a handful to make their loadout, alongside a main and secondary weapon.

Said weapons also offer a wide variety of options, including straightforward swords, damage over time or even magical weapons that consume mana. Depending on how players form their loadout, incredibly powerful synergies can be formed. However, this does require unlocking all of the blueprints and recipes, tying neatly with the aforementioned exploration, which is always rewarded with a new tool. It should also be mentioned that in order to craft any recipe players will need “Insight”, obtained from exploring and killing enemies, although its plentiful nature makes being short on it rare.

Besides this, the game is relatively simple, players will be tasked with going through the linear areas while wiping out the enemies and surviving the platforming challenges. The game itself is not particularly hard thanks to the plentiful respawn points and the possibility of simply ignoring enemies and making a run for it. While this will leave the players missing some resources, it is offset by the also common fast travel points which make bracktracking for missed items or monster pieces rather comfortable.

 At the end of each story segment, players will also encounter bosses. These are not too common, with only a handful for the whole game. During bossfights, players will mainly have to whittle down the bosses until their health runs out (obviously), after which a bullet hell phase will start. Said phases last for as long as the timer that replaces the boss’ health lasts, although the time can be reduced by continuing to hit the enemy. However, that is easier said than done, since the bullet hell phase tends to be much harder than the rest of the fight.

Conclusion

 Dungeon Munchies is a rather enjoyable hack-n’-slash title with a fun story and entertaining gameplay. Although perhaps not as good as an indie darling or an AAA title, it is still a rather enjoyable experience. Sold for €16,79/$19,99/£15,49, the title is not particularly expensive and offers a decent enough amount of content to be worth it at around 8+ hours.

Personal Opinion

“I honestly had a lot of fun with Dungeon Munchies, the story is bonkers (in a good way) and would carry everything by itself. That said, it’s not like it needs to, since the gameplay itself is also pretty fun. Although some areas can run on for a bit too long, the build possibilities make blowing up enemies pretty fun. While I started with a sword and poison build and tried working around all the combo dishes, I ultimately ended with an absurdly broken build that let me spam the most powerful magic weapon at no cost while having regenerating health. That kind of freedom is always welcome and makes things more fun. There is not a moment where you go ‘Oh I’ll stick with this’ for too long until endgame, since the new weapons and dishes make you want to try stuff out.”

Hey.

Go play Dungeon Munchies

No, it's not related to Dungeon Meshi, but how fantastic is it that there are two pieces of media about eating monsters in a dungeon with the same initials and both are fantastic?

[biomedgrid]

Biomed Grid | Automatic Generation of Drug Concentration Gradient by a Modified Ink-jet Printer and its Application in Drug Screening

Abstract

Manual preparation of drug concentration gradient is labor-intensive and limits the efficiency of a drug screening to some extent, especially at large scale. In this study, we reported an automatic method to generate drug concentration gradient in 24-well plate. We loaded drug solution in a modified hot ink-jet printer, designed printing pattern in the WORD software, customized the concentration gradient in the WORD software by RGB coding, and finally printed the drug concentration gradient in the 24-well plate. A drug concentration gradient can be automatically generated within 5s in arbitrary pattern. Based on this flexible technology, we developed an ink-jet printer-based drug screening assay. Concentration gradient of 5-fluorouracil, as well as Mcf-7 cells, were printed in the 24-well plate, and the inhibition rate of Mcf-7 cells was measured by MTT method. This was the first time that hot inkjet printing technology was used in drug screening.

Keywords: Bioprinting; Drug screening; Concentration gradient; Ink-jet printer; RGB

Introduction

Preparation of a concentration gradient of drug candidate is a prerequisite to study cell-drug interaction quantitatively. Currently, this step is manually operated in the laboratory, which is labor intensive and annoying. Automation is desirable in practice. Derringer et al. developed an automatic method to generate concentration gradient [1], and Ye et al. [2] used this method in drug screening [2,3], however, this method was only applicable in microfluidic device, not in 96-well or 24-well plate, thus its applications were limited. Previously, we established drug screening device based on biomedical engineering methods [4]. In this study, we developed a method to generate concentration gradient in plate automatically, using normal commercial ink-jet printer and WORD software. We also used the same printer to print the cell suspension, thus we finally developed a drug screening assay based on hot ink-jet printing. Hot ink-jet printing technique is useful for printing cells in biomedical engineering. It works by the principle in which the heating element turns the “biological inks” into bubbles at bottom of the nozzle instantly and the pressure generated makes a certain amount of inks free from the surface tension there and pushed from the nozzle. As an approach for cell printing, hot ink-jet printer has been used in tissue engineering [5], biological microarray construction [6], stem cell research [7] and gene transcription [8]. However, there are few reports in its application in drug screening at cellular level

In this paper, a hot ink-jet printer was custom-modified as an automatic dispensing tool for the engineering of cell arrays and generation of concentration gradient of drugs in a 24-well plate. By means of this apparatus, cell/drug composite arrays can be automatically generated for drug screening. RGB value was used as the output gauge of drug concentrations for the first time. A Mcf-7 cell/5-fluorouracil composite array was engineered to demonstrate the applicability of the hot ink-jet printer in the drug screening.

Experimental

Materials

Hoechst 33342 fluorescence dye and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) were purchased from Kubolai inc. Beijing. Propidium iodide was obtained from Jingchun technology inc. Shanghai. 5-fluorouracil was purchased from Sigma- Aldrich, United Kingdom. Phosphorate buffer saline (pH7.4) was prepared and sterilized in lab. DMEM cell culture medium and fetal bovine serum from HyClone, New Zealand, was used in this study. Methanol of HPLC grade from local company was used. Ultrapure water was obtained with Millipore water purification system.

Instruments

Canon PIXMA ip 1980 ink-jet printer with PG830 ink box from Canon, Japan, was modified in this study. Inverted fluorescence microscope IX71 from Olympus, Japan, was used. Agilent 1200 HPLC was from Agilent, USA. Synergy H1 microplate reader was from BioTek, USA (Figure 1). A Canon PIXMA ip 1980 printer and a Canon PG830 ink box for biological printing after modification. The white plate was a 24-well plate used as “paper”.

Modification of the Printer and the Cartridge

A Canon PIXMA ip 1980 hot-injet printer was modified as follows the front cover, paper support, rear tray, paper thickness lever and paper guide were dissembled sequentially while cartridge holder and paper sensor being kept intact. The printer after modification was shown as in Figure 1 (left part). Before use, the body of the printer was sterilized and kept inside an ultraviolet-lighted laminar hood overnight. A Canon PG830 ink box was modified as follows: after the top cover of the ink box was ripped from the main body of the box, the sponge inside the ink box was discarded and the metal filter at the bottom of the box was dismantled with the ink reservoir exposed, followed by a thorough cleanup. The ink box after modification was shown as in Figure 1 (right part). Prior to use, the box was emerged in 75% ethanol and air dried in a laminar airflow, followed by being exposed with ultraviolet light for at least 30 mins.

Figure 1: A Canon PIXMA Ip 1980 Printer and a Canon PG830 Ink Box.

Printing Concentration Gradient of 5-Fluorouracil in the 24-Well Plate

10ml 8mg/ml 5-fluorouracil solution was precisely obtained when 0.08g 5-fluorouracil was dissolved in PBS solution in a 10 ml volumetric flask and filtered through a 0.22 μm diameter membrane to remove possible bacteria. This working solution was loaded in the ink box. The printing pattern was designed in the WORD software with designated RGB values. Clicked the “print” button in the WORD software and the concentration gradient of 5-fluorouracil was automated created in the 24-well plate within 5s. We collected the drug solution printed in each well and analyzed their concentrations with HPLC. In a typical setup, a SB-C18 HPLC column (4.6mm diameter, 250mm long) was used and the sample was detected by ultraviolet absorption with a single wavelength of 265 nm. The temperature of the column was set at 35℃. The volume of each sample was 10 μl and the mobile phase was made of methanol and water (5:95) with a flow rate of 1.0ml/min.

Preparation and Printing of Cell Suspension

Mcf-7 cells of the third generation with a high viability was chosen as the main raw material for preparation of the cell suspension. Prior to being loaded into the ink box, a Mcf-7 cell suspension were prepared by pancreatic digestion, centrifuging, collection, counting and re-suspending. The Mcf-7 cell suspensions were prepared at four different concentrations, 3×106, 6×106, 9×106 and 1.2×107/ml. Following the pattern of a round spot with the diameter of 5 mm, the cell suspension with different densities were printed into a 24-well plate with the modified printer as above. Observation was made with an inverted microscope equipped with a X4 zoom objective.

Counting of Printed Cell Numbers and Viability Analysis

400 μl 10% NCBS culture media was added into the plate loaded with the printed Mcf-7 cells to keep their viability. And 10μl 0.4mg/ml Hoechst 33342 solution was added into the plate at 37℃ for 35mins in the dark, followed by the addition of 10 μl 0.2mg/ ml PI solution for another 10 mins. Then the cell suspension in the plate were collected and centrifuged. The cells from the bottom of centrifuge tube were collected and washed with PBS solution for 3 times. Then the cells washed were re-suspended in 1 ml cell culture medium to form a new cell suspension. 20μl new cell suspension was pipetted out and added dropwise onto a cell counter. Counting of cell number and observation of cells were conducted with an inverted fluorescence microscope with a X 10 zoom objective.

Procedure of Drug Screening

Mcf-7 cells with a high viability was selected for construction of cell/drug arrays. The Mcf-7 cell suspension were prepared by pancreatic digestion, centrifuging, collection, counting, and resuspension with a concentration of 9×106/ml. The Mcf-7 cell suspension was loaded into sterilized a PG830 ink box and printed into 5-mm-diameter round spots in a 24-well plate to form a Mcf-7 cell array. 400μl 10% NCBS culture media was immediately loaded into the plate. After being cultured at 37℃ under 5% CO2 for 24hrs, 8 mg/ml 5-fluorouracil solution were printed into the plate which were already loaded with Mcf-7 cells, with different RGB codes. As a result, cell/drug composite arrays (n=3) were formed. After being at 37℃, 5% CO2 for another 48 hrs, 40μl 5mg/ml MTT solution were loaded into the plate and incubated at 37℃ for 4hrs. Then the supernatant was discarded and 500 μl DMSO was added. The plate was shaken for 15mins to achieve DMSO thoroughly dissolved. Then 200 μl supernatant was collected and transferred into a 96-well plate and the adsorption under 490 nm wavelength was recorded.

Results

Printed Concentration Gradient of 5-Fluorouracil

The printing pattern was designed in WORD software, as shown in Figure 2. Each round spot, corresponding to a well in 24-well plate in location, was 5mm in diameter. These round spots varied in RGB values. We printed drugs following the pattern in Figure 2 and measured the concentration of drug in each well. We plotted the drug concentration in each well, as shown in Figure 3. This technology has five advantages compared to manual method

a) It is automatic;

b) We can obtain arbitrary concentration gradient by customizing the RGB values (Figure 3 A-D);

c) The RGB code value was linearly related to the concentration of printed 5-fluorouracil. This can be expressed as Y = -0.7691X+53.975 with R2 being equal to 0.9878 (Figure 3A);

d) It is fast, and a concentration gradient can be generated within 5s;

e) THE hot inkjet printer was cheaper than a micropipette which is used for manual preparation. (Figure 2)

Figure 2: The Printing Pattern Designed in The WORD Software.

Figure 3: Different Types of Drug Concentration Gradient Printed in the 24-Well Plate.

The printing pattern designed in the WORD software. Each row was designed for generation a specific drug concentration gradient. In the first row, the RGB values from left to right were (20,20,20), (30,30,30), (40,40,40), (50,50,50), (60,60,60), (70,70,70). In the second row, the RGB values from left to right were (70,70,70), (20,20,20), (70,70,70), (70,70,70), (20,20,20), (70,70,70). In the third row, the RGB values from left to right were (20,20,20), (20,20,20), (50,50,50), (50,50,50), (70,70,70), (70,70,70). In the fourth row, the RGB values from left to right were (70,70,70), (70,70,70), (50,50,50), (50,50,50), (20,20,20), (20,20,20). (Figure 3) On the top of each plot was the printing pattern designed in the WORD software, and the number below was RGB value. (Figure 4) (from left to right: 3×106/ml, 6×106 /ml,9×106 /ml), scale bar: 500 μm.

Printing of Mcf-7 Cell Suspension

Figure 4: The Bright Field Images of Printed Round Spots of Mcf-7 Cells with Varied Cell Concentration.

Figure 4 shows the printed pattern of Mcf-7 cells, with different concentration of Mcf-7 suspension loaded in the printer. When the concentrations were 3×106 /ml and 6×106 /ml, the printed round spots were incompletely constructed with sparse distributions of cells. It might be caused by the low concentration of cell suspension. When the concentration was 1.2×107/ml, few inks were injected from the nozzle and the printed round spot was hard to be identified. It might be attributed to the high concentration of the cell suspension which jammed the nozzle. However, when the concentration was 9×106/ml, the printed round spot was full of well-distributed cells. It showed that the cell suspension with a concentration of 9×106/ml is the best-performed one and should be adopted in the experiment.

After counting, the average number of cells in each round spot in the cell array was 3×104. After printing, the viability of the cells was the main gauge which reflects the validity of the cell printing process. Hot ink-jet printing was suspected to cause heat damage or mechanical damage on cells [8]. Hoechst33342 is a membrane permissive dye and emits blue fluorescence under 350 nm excitation after combining with DNA in cells. And PI is only capable of penetrating into dead cells. After PI combines with DNA in cells and emits red fluorescence under 543 nm excitation. Therefore, we can investigate the viability of cells when coupling Hoechst33342 and PI dyes after cell printing. As seen in Figure 5, the number of dead cells which emit red fluorescence is negligible and it supports that the negative effect of our cell printing technique on the viability of printed cells can be ignored (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Microscopic observations of printed cells dyed by Hoechst33342(left) and PI (right), under excitations of 350 nm and 543 nm wavelengths, respectively. Scale bar: 500 μm.

Drug Screening Assay Based on Printing

Table 1: Absorbance by MTT and relative inhibition rate (n = 3).

The concentration of the printed 5-fluorouracil can be pretuned with the RGB code setup from the WORD software. A Mcf-7 cell/5-fluorouracil composite array was formed after incubation for 48 hrs. And the inhibition rate of the experimental group at varied concentrations and the control group were tested with MTT method. And the statistics of their optical absorbance at different RGB values and the relative inhibition rates were listed in Table 1. It can be seen from Table 1 that within the range we investigated, the biological viability of the cells in the composite array increased as the RGB value ramped up. In our experimental setup in which RGB code value was kept between 20 and 70, the concentration of the printed 5-fluorouracil increased as the RGB value dropped. In another word, a low RGB value yielded a cell/drug composite array with a relatively high concentration and dose of 5-fluorouracil. Therefore, as the RGB value was lowered, a stronger interaction between Mcf-7 and 5-fluorouracil was achieved, and a higher inhibition phenomenon occurred. This suggested that the Mcf-7 cell/5-fluorouracil composite array established by our method can be used for the inhibition study of 5-fluorouracil at different concentrations and it possessed the potential of evaluating in vitro cellular viability.

Discussion

Cell printing technique has demonstrated remarkable advantages as following :

a) High precision, cells can be precisely localized and distributed in three dimensions [9];

b) Rapid speed, tissue samples with biological viability can be constructed in a short time;

c) High automation grade, it has the possibility to be industrialized at a large scale [10];

d) Simple to be established and operated, it is straightforward to be modified or upgraded [11].

In our experiment, RGB tuning was used for controlling the output doses of 5-fluorouracil and the hot inkjet technique was adopted to build cell/drug composite arrays. And the viability of the cells in the composite arrays were evaluated. Inspired by the model from Boland ‘s group [11,12], a Canon hot inkjet printer and an ink box were successfully modified into a biological printer. And a Mcf- 7 cell suspension with a concentration of 9×106 cells/ml showed the best printing performance in cell distribution and density on the array. The printed cell array demonstrated patterns with the most complete morphology. By testing the concentration of drug solutions with HPLC, we were able to identify the concentration of 5-fluorouracil on the printed matrix produced from different RGB code value. The results show that high-definition Mcf-7 cell arrays can be constructed with our modified printer and ink box. And moreover, the concentration of 5-fluorouracil arrays can be tuned by changing the RGB color code value. The viability of cells by printing is the major indicator for the feasibility of the printing operation. We used Hoechst33342 and PI to dye the printed cells and applied excitations of 350 nm and 543 nm, respectively. The results showed that hot inkjet printing has little damage on the Mcf-7 cells, and they are in consistency with the literatures [13,14]. Also, we used MTT method to identify the inhibition rate of 5-fluorouracil on Mcf- 7 in the cell/drug array. When RGB code value was 30, the dose of the 5-fluorouracil was 30.09±2.69 μg/ml with a relative inhibition rate of 49.02%. These results supported the feasibility of applying the cell/drug printing method in investigating in vitro cellular viability and it provides new possibility of drug screening based on biological printing.

Conclusion

In this study, we developed an automatic method to generate drug concentration gradient in 24-well plate based on hot inkjet printer. The total time was less than 5s. Arbitrary concentration gradient can be easily generated by RGB coding. The cost of printing equipment was very low. This method is expected to make drug screening experiment more user-friendly.

Read More About this Article: https://biomedgrid.com/fulltext/volume5/automatic-generation-of-drug-concentration-gradient-by-a-modified-ink-jet-printer-and-its-application-in-drug-screening.000876.php

For more about: Journals on Biomedical Science :Biomed Grid | Current Issue

[architectnews]

Centre sportif des Poissonniers, Paris

Centre Sportif Poissonnier Paris, Parisian Sport Building Design Photos

Centre sportif des Poissonniers

23 Oct 2020

Centre sportif des Poissonniers Building

Design: Archi5

Address: Stade des Poissonniers, 2 Rue Jean Cocteau, 75018 Paris, France

Poissonniers Sports Center Paris

The Poissonniers sports center is designed to meet the requirements of a new generation of flexible, multi-purpose facilities. The project is an initial part of the neighborhood’s future outlines, with new synergies facilitating new pathways.

The site plays a pivotal role in a broadly open landscape with far-reaching views and a classic urban grid on the south side. Located bedside train tracks, the city has opened the view onto the railway landscape on the east side and the public garden on the west side.

The landscape project is designed for the entire plot as a single entity, composed of staggered sequences. The building becomes a hill rising toward the sky. The vegetation is planted on the talus and the building’s sides, with the denser planting at the ground level becoming more mineral on the upper levels. It is a practicable landscape building; it is fully integrated into its green environment and dialogues with the surrounding built area.

The new facility is place where the place term “practice” takes on its full meaning. First of all, it is for sports, with simple and easy to use spaces. Warm and sunlit areas where flows are managed as closely as possible to uses. Le gymnasium and multipurpose hall, clad in wood with clerestory windows provides a serene context in which to practice sports.

Centre sportif des Poissonniers Paris – Building Information

Client: Ville de Paris Architects : archi5 Program : Sports center, social areas, garden Surface areas: 2,595 sq mt + 788 sq mt (landscaping) Cost: €8,200,000 excl. VAT

Calendar: Competition won in 2016 Delivered in 2020

General building company: Léon Grosse Economist, all trades coordination: Cotec

Photo credits: Sergio Grazia

Address: Stade des Poissonniers, 2 Rue Jean Cocteau, 75018 Paris, France Phone: +33 1 42 51 24 68

23 Oct 2020

Jaurès Petit

Design: Archi5

Construction of 83 private dwellings

Address: Avenue Jaurès, Paris XIXe, Paris, France

Jaurès Petit Paris

Located on a plot in the heart of a city block occupied by a 9-story parking garage, the project includes two parts: one of 75 apartments for first-time buyers and another of 74 units of social housing. The building with the social housing has a wooden structure whereas the one for buyers conserves the pre-existing concrete structure. The new apartments face east-west. Two broad lateral corridors enable a full-scale greening of the site.

In addition to the quality of the new apartments, the project is aimed at improving the existing built environment, creating harmony and balance between the new and original inhabitants of the site. The building’s footprint, perpendicular to the older building offers broad perspectives.

The wooden building on the Jaurès side, displays a visible wooden grid, replicating aesthetic conventions of the older built environment and its visible framework has been transformed into the supporting structure of the balconies. With the strong commitment to preservation and compliance with HQE construction, this project contributes ethical, sustainable and quality architecture to its location. Wood ensures the building’s passive environmental qualities while giving it a warm and visually enhanced appearance.

Jaurès Petit Housing – Building Information

Client: Paris Habitat OPH & Emerige Architects :archi5 / Encore Heureux architectes General building company: GTM & Arbonis Program: 75 social housing units (car park rehabilitation), 74 social housing units (wooden structure) and commercial space Address: Avenue Jaurès, Paris XIXe

Surface areas: Social housing 4,402 sq mt Housing 4,229 sq mt

Cost: Social housing €11,591,576 excl. VAT Housing €14,459,579 excl. VAT

Calendar: Competition won in 2016 Delivery in 2021

Centre sportif des Poissonniers, Paris images / information from archi5

Location: Paris, France

New Paris Architecture

Contemporary Paris Architecture

Paris Architectural Designs – chronological list

Paris Architecture Tours by e-architect

Paris Building News

Paris Architect

Another Paris sports building by Archi5 on e-architect:

College Sports Hall Villetaneuse

Another Parisian sports building on e-architect:

Rue Pajol sports centre, north-central Paris Design: Brisac Gonzalez Architects Paris sports centre building

Sports Centre Buildings

Paris Architecture – Selection

Musée du quai Branly Design: Ateliers Jean Nouvel Musée du quai Branly

Projet Triangle Design: Herzog & de Meuron Projet Triangle

Philharmonie de Paris Design: Ateliers Jean Nouvel Philharmonie de Paris

Groupe scolaire Lucie Aubrac Nanterre

Comments / photos for the Centre sportif des Poissonniers, Paris – Parisian Sport Complex page welcome

Website: Visit Paris

The post Centre sportif des Poissonniers, Paris appeared first on e-architect.

[tatzelwyrm]

For the videogame meme: 2, 4, 16.

2) Name a game that you liked, but wouldn’t recommend to others.

Hm, most recently that’d be Owlboy. I enjoyed playing it, I’m utterly in love with the art and the soundtrack (oh, the soundtrack!), plus the owls are super cute (like, so, so cute, especially Otis and Solus) but it definitely didn’t live up to the hype. If you can get it super cheap during a sale, yeah, it’ll definitely be worth it (as I said, I like it, just not that much). But full-price? I’d want more gameplay variety and a less vague story to recommend this at full-price. (Get the sound-track though, regardless of whether or not you get the game) ^^

4) Name a game that everyone else loved that you didn’t care for.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. I even prefer the much maligned Dragon Age 2. That one had a lot of recycles areas and enemies and a stupid wave combat system, but at least it wasn’t the 932823457th rehash of the “save the entire wooooorld” plot, and you know what was great about those recycled ares? At least there was stuff to find/fight. The gameplay (mainly combat) was better in DA2 in general. DA: I offers you even less options to combine skills or take advantage of cross-class synergies. If it weren’t for the likable companion NPCs DA: I would be the most empty, boring game in existence. Oh, and it made mounts entirely useless by preventing any and all banter from takin place while you ride, and not implementing at least a rudimentary mounted combat system. It’s hard to believe that this thing was released only half a year before Witcher 3.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is also a strong contender. I got this game partly because I liked the first game in the rebooted series, but mainly because tumblr loves it so much (otherwise I would have waited for a better discount before buying it). If DA: I nearly misses the award for the most boring game in existence, Rise of the Tomb Raider takes it. I threw it off my computer at about 75% completion because I needed the disk space for better games. D:

16) Name a game you wish you liked better.

So many latter installments of a series: Gothic 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Trine 3... I was looking forward to playing all of these games - sucking up all the info I could find in advance because I loved the previous installments so much - that turned out to be extreme disappointments. Even the devs admitted that Trine 3 is only a third of a finished game. It’s heart-breaking.

[thesecretbookstore]

This Week’s Expert Picks

Okay, FULL DISCLOSURE, I thought this one was called ‘The Virgins’ but it is, in fact, titled ‘The Virginians’, however I am pretty sure those could very easily be interchangeable.

Also, I gotta be honest. Not an enjoyable read. Thackeray, you’re a bore. Sorry. This is historical British fiction which when you combine those three nouns automatically equals ‘painful to the eyes’.

Basically, some closeted guy is trying to hook up with an older and classier broad, as the British are apt to do, and his twin grandsons are raising hell, and he just decides to enlist in the Army during the American War of Independence and he takes the revolutionary side. Oh, but then get this: His brother is a British Officer and he can’t really fight his own flesh and blood so he just quits.

What a non-story. Like the majority of all British Literature. Ugh. I’m soooooooo happy I wasted this week diving into this “classic”.

Tally-ho, Motherfuckers. LW

Lauren is a writer and author of a number of titles. She is also owner and proprietor of The Secret Bookstore, Paradisiac Publishing and publisher of The Gaslamp Quarterly.

The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965–1971 is a collection of poetry by Allen Ginsberg, published by City Lights in 1973, for which Ginsberg shared the annual U.S. National Book Award for Poetry. It is a spot-on group of grounded poems to tackle and tickle your heart and brain in this specific moment in time. Replete with thrills and condemnation, it is a special book to read and dissect in the foul year of forever, 2020. With a synergy between changes in America and the loss of friends with age and decay, each poem is a continuation towards fucking with your head in a gloriously modern way. This book will live forever, as it should, well beyond these terrible times and crimes, and I encourage all to read with bleeding but open eyes. RB

Ryan Buynak is a rock & roll poet and the author of a number of poetry collections. In his latest collaboration, he facilitated a poetry writing workshop in early 2019. Grammatical Siblings documents 8 weeks where 3 students became poets, 1 teacher found his purpose, and 4 people left as lifelong friends.

The first of the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and it is a fantastic start to a series. The plot is an intricate story that gets better the further you read. Jemisin has created a world of high fantasy and sci-fi with an original plot filled with detailed characters.

I will say, you need to get through the first 60-75 pages to become invested, understanding the world. Jemisin crafts a unique world with vivid characters and types of magic that take time to flesh out. Her use of second-person narrative structure in alternating sequences is very unique and something you don’t often see. This is a type of media that with a reread you will catch even more things than you do with an initial sit-through.

It is a tale of an alternate Earth called “The Stillness” which is plagued by constant seismic activity. This leads to near-extinction events called “Fifth Seasons” that keep everyone on edge. Past civilizations litter the planet, ruined cities, ‘stonelore’ handed down, and strange obelisks that float through the atmosphere that serve no apparent purpose. The book focuses on people with powers called orogenes who can start and stop earthquakes, along with other elemental powers. There are guardians who hold the orogenes accountable, because often orogens are hunted down to serve in the Fulcrum which is a training ground for the empire.

Many people are represented giving visibility to a lot of different versions of how a family can look and it’s importance, especially those you may not have been born into. Each chapter represents a different point of view. Essun, whose story is told in second-person narration, who travels with two mysterious people Hoa and Tonkee. Demaya, who is taken from her parents and brought to the Fulcrum (a type of training grounds). Syenite, who grew up at the Fulcrum is traveling with a companion Alabaster which explores their relationship.

Each book in this trilogy won a Hugo award which is an unheard-of achievement. The book creates a unique world filled with magic, action, suspense, and is an extremely rewarding read. I definitely understand why The Fifth Season won the Hugo, now I must find out why the other two of the trilogy are just as deserving. CJH

Callahan J. Herrig is a writer from Iowa. He is here to tell you more about nothing and less about everything. He owns CallahanCreative.

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall is a must-read by everyone who believes in equity. This is the game plan for the revolution and the play book for all who call ourselves the F-word. Kendall manages to gently work with an audience that may not want to hear what she has to say and she has created a masterpiece that we should reference until the fight is won. We owe it to the future to follow Kendall's advices, to read with humility, and to grow together. SE

Sarah Elgatian is a writer living in Iowa. She currently spends her days in isolation wondering how long her hair will get before quarantine ends.

[erwinoglesby1-blog]

How Our experts Devote $3,400,000,000,000.

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More suggestions, you can get in touch with us at our website. pinimg.com/236x/e7/02/75/e7027539a3029ba8c25e6d1c8d76e223.jpg" width="281" alt="monthly calendar 2017"/> Shadowy Pluto goes backward from April 16 to September 24 in your seventh home from contracts as well as alliances. Connect with: Name, ChairpersonMusic In Our Schools MonthAddressPhone Amount. But remain tuned: On January 31, 2018, a complete LUNAR (moon) eclipse will carry every little thing in addition to a definitive thrive. When Trump declared a black-voter outreach operation, he mostly delivered his information to overwhelmingly white colored viewers in white places, and also used a series of racialist as well as old fashions concerning urban unlawful act, hardship, as well as lack of education, in exactly what he showed up to feel represented benign patronization. While eclipses press our company to earn significant relocations, retrogrades cue us to reduce-- a bizarre pacing concern that might toss your power off. Problem Days: August 2: Uranus retrograde until January 2, 2018 This bothersome retrograde might carry an unexpected expenditure or outdated debt to the fore. The remainder might decrease." Those feature the significant public universities set up since the 1860s, when a federal grant allocated land for all of them in every state. Disruptive Uranus, which resides in Aries, creates its own annual U-turn coming from August 2 until January 2. Uranus is turning around with your eleventh house of synergy and technology, which can shock your internal circle.

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There are actually pair of game-changing eclipses (/ learn-astrology/solar-and-lunar- darkens/ ); Mercury AND ALSO Uranus turn reversed (/ learn-astrology/retrogrades/ ); plus our team'll must get through the last installation from three intense Jupiter-Pluto squares (- pluto-square-2016/ ). Everybody will be actually all over the map, because eclipses deliver abrupt plot twists and backward electricity pushes us to handle unsolved issues. Though the information denotes a shift off Trump's even more aggressive unsupported claims regarding Muslims-- Trump as a candidate referred setting up a computer system registry of all Muslims in the USA, declared that Islam despises our company," and also has looked for to impose a trip restriction on citizens from 6 Muslim-majority nations that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals stated drips with religious prejudice, animus, and also prejudice"-- this nevertheless signals a change coming from the method the White Residence has actually commonly honored the vacation. To be clear regarding the significance from my comparison, I failed to plan that the means John Godfrey Saxe did when he stated Rule, like sausages, discontinue to motivate regard in proportion as we understand just how they are made." Exactly what is actually going in the top of the meat-grinder upcoming month isn't a lot of proposed laws, however the Trump administration itself.

[pearlsdiamonds]

This makes sense from a financial point of view. The most profitable in the diamond business are mining and jewelry retailing, and the production sector of the pipeline is an activity often associated with all sorts of financial problems. In it, profit margins are sometimes expressed in single digits, and often lower, and mining and retail trade generate profits, expressed in double-digit or even three-digit numbers.

As often happened in the diamond business, De Beers was the first. Together with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a luxury retailer, in 2001, she created De Beers Diamond Jewelery. In subsequent years, she opened 40 stores in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

This week, it expanded its network, opening a branch in Bahrain, after opening a store in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, held on July 2. The opening followed the steps of other luxury retailers to exploit the immense wealth created in the oil-rich Central Asian state.

As for Harry Winston Diamond Corp., it supplies rough diamonds to the world market from the Diavik diamond mine, which owns a 40 percent stake, while its diamond jewelry and luxury watches are sold in salons located in key Places, including New York, Paris, London, Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beverly Hills.

Its unique business model gives the company important competitive advantages, in which sales of its diamond mining and diamond production enterprises give it information about the market, which further contributes to overall performance. In addition, as a leading supplier of diamonds, it can influence relationships with its customers to provide the highest quality diamonds for its luxury brand office. Linking the production and retailing of diamonds, Harry Winston Diamond Corporation benefits from market synergy, being a diamond producer, a diamond buyer and a retailer of exquisite diamond jewelry.

The Dyavik mine has proven reserves and ore bodies, which are considered to be among the highest in terms of diamond content and value in the world. It has reserves of diamonds in excess of 50 million carats in existing kimberlite pipes being developed, and the average price of diamonds from reserves is approximately $ 195 per carat. According to the current plan for the mine, it is expected that its operation will last at least until 2022. The company claims that estimated and estimated reserves of about 22 million carats are awaiting a re-classification of the status of reserves.

In addition, it has other sources of supply of diamonds covering an area of ​​over 2,400 square kilometers in other joint ventures. It also has a plot of 915 square kilometers south-west of the existing mine.

This year, the company increased its diamond mining and supply capacity by signing an exclusive agreement with Diamond Asset Advisors, Zurich. The self-managed fund will examine diamonds from Harry Winston for the purchase of the fund. In the portfolio, 75 percent are diamonds ranging in size from 0.50 to 5.99 carats, and 25 percent are fancy color stones or a larger size. Diamonds will be transferred to Harry Winston, which will act as a keeper and use diamonds in its products. When Harry Winston sells the jewelry, she will pay the fund at the current wholesale replacement prices.

These measures also create a new source of diamond reserves to expand the network of stores, without creating additional working capital requirements, and to support the expanding business of wedding items, where the customer prefers to watch a wide range of diamonds in each salon. In addition, the financial costs for inventories are reduced and the return on investment is increased.

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28 Social Housing Units in Courbevoie, Paris

28 Social Housing Units, Parisian Apartment Homes, French Real Estate Development Photos

28 Social Housing Units in Courbevoie

Courbevoie Residential Architecture Development in Paris design by Koz architectes, France

19 Aug 2020

28 Social Housing Units, Courbevoie

Architects: Koz architectes

Location: Courbevoie, Paris, France

28 Social Housing Units

In 2007, Groupe 3F and the Courbevoie Town Council launched a competition for a social housing project on the last remaining plot in the urban development zone of Les Fauvelles. The instructions given to the teams were as follows: « the project must present new approaches for social housing in densely occupied urban settings». The proposal was selected over those offered by SOA Architectes and LAN Architecture.

The right response to the right question From the start, the exercise involved defining the intrinsic qualities of individual housing, with a view to adapting them to collective living. Four such qualities seemed to us to be essential:

Quality of use Flexibility is the key strength of individual housing: you do as you please in a house, and you feel fully “at home”. You can change how you use bedrooms and living areas as your family grows, and depending on the lifestyle and hobbies of each family member: the spare room becomes a nursery when a new child is born, a small bedroom is converted into an office.

Altenratively, a growing teenager moves into the bedroom next to the living room because he prefers to be separate from the sleeping area used by the rest of the family, a wall is knocked down to make an open-plan kitchen, you can put a green house in the garden or play music in the garage.

You can walk around it Being able to walk around the outside of a house gives people a particular sense of belonging. But circumnavigability also involves the presence of various kinds of external features: front lawns, courtyards, gardens, terraces, etc.

A house is supposed to be unique It looks different from the others; you can recognize it when you look down the street; you can point it out. It is individual, and it also has an individualizing effect that strengthens one’s sense of belonging

In a house, you have neighbours Your neighbours remain for a long time, and with them you gradually form bonds: you chat over the hedge, you do each other favours, your children play together. Neighbours build a relationship of mutual trust.

Once this initial exercise had been carried out, our aim was now to apply these 4 cardinal virtues of the individual house to a collective housing project. The building forms part of the urban development zone called Les Fauvelles in Courbevoie, a stone’s throw from the skyscrapers and frenzied activity of the La Défense business district. All around, the 12-storey residential buildings in the Faubourg de l’Arche development zone form both a skyline and an urban clearing. Behind it stands a building belonging to a French car manufacturer.

The project consists of two units with rather undefined outlines, further blurred by the criss-crossed green strengthening rods that have been used as sculptural guardrails for the various walkways and loggias. Opting for two buildings instead of one enabled us to increase the surface area of the façades, to give an enhanced feeling of transparency, to ensure a variety of orientations and views, and also to get closer to the more intimate qualities of use and scale characteristic of individual houses. Both units are built on a sculpted base and stand out against the sky like a pair of funny giants reaching out to each other.

Quality of use The key feature is that flats with at least 4 rooms have a white cantilevered cube affixed apparently at random to the façade. This contains a room “plugged into” the living room whose use can change according to the desires and changing size of the family unit. Its partition wall is not load-bearing and can be removed with the agreement of the owner (and who knows, maybe in 50 years the tenants will have become the owners). This extra room gives the living space flexibility and elasticity.

All the flats have a triple aspect and living rooms all have two aspects; most are corner rooms. All rooms including bathrooms have natural light. Underfloor heating has been used, and the wood and aluminum window surrounds are fully watertight.

Every flat has its own loggia, an outside space that has a ready-made screen (reminiscent of the reed screens often used on balconies in France) for added privacy: the space can be used as a greenhouse, a conservatory, a DIY workshop, a fitness area, etc. This freely usable space can be used in a similar way to a basement, an attic or a courtyard: features that are generally characteristic of individual houses.

Circumnavigability Private walkways run round the apartments and are directly accessible from all rooms, including the bedrooms and kitchen. This means you can walk round your ‘house’, take strategic shortcuts, play hide-and-seek, and play tricks on people. Access to each apartment is via a wide suspended open-air landing that affords views of the entire volume of the living space. This means that the building has a number of different exterior spaces (loggias, balconies, and landings), which increase the usable surface area and give residents the impression of living in the open air, with uninterrupted vistas of western Paris.

Individualisation Each flat is instantly recognizable from outside; the buildings have different outlines, volumes appear loosely structured, and the stepped, irregular shapes have an almost random feel.

Neighbourliness Behind the design of these residential units lies a firm belief in sociability. Each landing serves two units (except on the first floor, which is given over to small flats) hoping that they will extend their social life on the concrete boardwalk that gives access to the staircases and hosts a flower shop and a small scale kindergarten ; landings are very large (10 sq m, three times the usual size) and thus can easily be used in a variety of ways. Because they are set well back, any items placed on the landings will not affect the integrity of the la facade or the building’s overall appearance.

28 Social Housing Units, Paris – Building Information

Architects: KOZ architectes project manager: Elsa Junod

Client: Groupe 3F Chef de Projet: Stéphanie Demeure dit Latte

Structure: EVP Ingénierie fluides: Cferm Economist: Cabinet Ripeau Acoustic: Peutz Sustainability: Bio-concept

Location: Zac des Fauvelles, 75-83 avenue de l’Arche ilot B 23 92 400 Courbevoie – France

Entreprises Gros oeuvre: KILIC Ravts: Fernandes Facade: Fernandes Frame: Bourgogne couverture Etanchéité: SAS Windows opening: S.T.B.A C.M.B. Walls: FARIA Floor / paintings: DE SOUSA Metal work: Atelier De Pierre Services: A.C.P.C Electricity: Paternoster Lift: OTIS

Schedule Concours: mai 2007 Construction time: 20 month Completion: septembre 2010

Project 28 housing units

Surfaces Floor area housing: 2 378,00 m2 Floor area retail: 440 m2 28 housings: 8 F2, 10 F3, 7 F4, 3F5 28 parking places

Cost 4 356 734,66 € HT housing: 3 806734,66 € retail: 550 000,00 € No demolitions

Key points The complex comprises 28 apartments, a shop, a business premises and a basement for parking. Reinforced concrete structural system. Coloured high-density laminated panels. Rain-water collection, planted roof, heated flooring, external wood/aluminium joinery, loggia and private walkways for all apartments.

Environmental quality THPE RT2005: 70 kwh/m2/year; systematic exterior insulation, including parapet; thermal bridge breakers; heated flooring; natural lighting of all rooms and stairwells; double or even triple orientation, corner living room; maximization of glazed surfaces; air permeability tested in accordance with Effinergie requirements.

About KOZ: KOZ architectes was founded in 1999 by Christophe Ouhayoun and Nicolas Ziesel, both of whom: – graduated from the Paris-Belleville School of Architecture ; – lived in the USA when they were children; – are well-versed in 3D imagery and urban cultures; – and are completely at home in the debate about managing climate change priorities in the urban environment.

KOZ is a founding member of the PLAN01 Architects Collective, created in 2001 with the Atelier du Pont, Bocabeille-Prégo Architectures and Philéas agencies. With PLAN01 they founded PLAN02, an in-house eco-design engineering office providing real time feedback and orientations for social and environmental responsibility in their projects.

KOZ creates non-typical, friendly and sensitive buildings that redefine public spaces and emphasize the diversity of their uses. KOZ champions architecture that is aware of context and creates surprise and “added value” in terms of function, by making use of residual areas that are easily adapted to stimulate the imagination of local residents, users and visitors.

KOZ regularly carries out wide ranging assignments, including project management, site management, auditing, signage, and furniture Work is organised in accordance with the tenets of precision and autonomy, placing value on skill and creativity. The team is made up of 8 to 12 persons – architects, computer graphics designers, liaison officer and manager. Everyone is involved in information coordination and participation in decision-making throughout the project.

KOZ makes good use of the synergy and experience of the PLAN01 agencies in a 600 sq m workspace on the Paris Right Bank.

Photographer © Guillaume Grasset and Jean-Baptiste Pellerin

28 Social Housing Units in Courbevoie, Paris images / information received from Koz architectes

Location: Paris, France

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