#it’s so excellent and especially for a 25$ price point on official release

[spacejellyfish3]

iconic behavior on my part with this one

she’s really cool and I would die for her now that I have her

@cometcrystal @deluxesoap @actiontoongorlz @spookberry for the doll girlies to enjoy

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Starship (Rewatch #4, 9/30/2020)

YouTube publish date: April 30, 2011

Number of views on date of rewatch: 4,171, 828

Original Performance Run: February 11-23, 2011 at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre in Chicago

Ticket price: $25

Director: Matt Lang

Music and Lyrics: Darren Criss

Book: Brian Holden, Matt Lang, Nick Lang, and Joe Walker

Cast album price and availability: $8.91 on Amazon and iTunes

     Release date: April 29, 2011

Parody or original: original content, inspired by Starship Troopers, The Little Mermaid, and Alien

Main cast and characters:

Bug - Joey Richter

February - Denise Donovan

Commander Up - Joe Walker

Taz/Buggette - Lauren Lopez

Tootsie Noodles/Pincer - Dylan Saunders

Mega-Girl - Meredith Stepien

Junior - Brian Holden

Roach - Brant Cox

Specs - Julia Albain

Krayonder - Joe Moses

Musical numbers

Act I

“I Wanna Be” Characters: Bug, Roach, and Ensemble (playing inhabitants of the Bug World)

“Get Back Up” Characters: Taz, Up, and Starship Rangers

“Life” Characters: Bug

“Hideous Creatures” Characters: Starship Rangers and Bugs

“Kick It Up A Notch” Characters: Pincer, The Mosquitoes, and Bug

“Status Quo” Characters: Bug

Act II

“The Way I Do” Characters: Tootsie Noodles, Mega-Girl, February, and Bug

“Beauty” Characters: Roach and Bugs

“Kick It Up A Notch (Reprise)” Characters: Junior

“Beauty” Characters: Company

Notable Notes:

This production won the 2011 “Best New Work” award from BroadwayWorld’s Chicago theatre awards

Starship is Starkid’s first show that they produced independently from the University of Michigan! The show opened in Chicago, where the following few shows were produced before a majority of the most active members moved to Los Angeles prior to The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, which opened in 2018

StarKid had their own short segment on MTV that highlighted certain aspects of the production such as Criss’ music and the puppetry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlnIXIGrjVg). At that point in time, Darren Criss was already a television favorite due to his role as Blaine Anderson on Glee, who joined the cast during its second season

The show’s cast album debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top Cast Albums within three days of its release and at the 134th spot during that week’s Billboard’s Top 200 chart (x)

The opening sequence features cameos from other StarKid members such as Chris Allen, Tyler Brunsman, Richard Campbell, Britney Coleman, Arielle Goldman, Devin Lytle, Lily Marks, Nicholas Joseph Strauss-Matathia, and Brian Rosenthal.The same sequence was narrated by actor Bob Joles (AKA Man Ray in Spongebob Squarepants)

***Fun Facts provided by Abby:

Nick and Dylan think the worst StarKid song is ‘Hideous Creatures’

During a rehearsal, Joey told Nick that he thought the choreography for ‘Beauty’ was boring. Then Nick asked him, “Do you want to choreograph the number?" and then walked out of the room.

There was a theoretical sequel to Starship in which Taz and Up arrest Spaceclaw but get injured by an explosion. Up ends up in the hospital because of his injuries, and while Taz waits for him to heal, she has flashbacks of when they first met and the missions they went on together (Taz’s quinceañera, etc.)

Lauren: I'd like to imagine that Taz has that same hairstyle just in a big quinceañera dress

Once during rehearsal, they were all in a bad mood during ‘Beauty’. Darren wanted to surprise the cast with a visit, so he burst into the theatre singing the song and was just met by silence

At LeakyCon 2014 on Orlando, StarKid were invited as guests and performed a staged reading of a one-act sequel to Starship called Starship: Requiem.

Official synopsis: The story follows the adventures of Mega-Girl the robot and her half-witted Starship Ranger husband. The newlyweds are sucked into a black hole of trouble when they go to visit Mega-Girl’s human-hating family, including her overbearing mother-unit, her jealous sister-unit and the return of her hunky ex-boyfriend-unit. (x)

Cultural Context: 2011

The production’s MTV segment aired a little over a week after Glee’s “Original Song” episode, which featured Kurt and Blaine’s long-awaited first kiss [rip Pavarotti]

Prince William and Kate Middleton get married

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 premieres on July 15th

Beyoncé announces her pregnancy during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards

“Friday” by Rebecca Black gets released in March

In early May, President Obama announces that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces

New York becomes the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage on June 24th

The 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public on the tenth anniversary of the attacks

Content Analysis:

During my time on social media, I have found that Starship is one of the StarKid shows that gets discussed the least. Up until the show’s debut in StarKid’s history, the only shows they’ve done were AVPM and AVPS, both major viral hits, and MAMD, which reached popularity partly because it was released after StarKid became known for AVPM. Coming off of their great and unexpected successes with these productions, one would think that there would be a bigger fandom for Starship. It’s their second show that is based on original content rather than being a parody, and the production quality is the strongest in their repertoire, considering the funds they gained from their album sales for MAMD and their growing merchandise sales for their Potter musical series.

Personally, it’s one of my favorite StarKid shows because of the production quality and because the performances are so strong. Joey Richter makes a perfect leading man, and seeing how his general abilities as a performer have grown since MAMD has been delightful. His vocal range got stronger and more pronounced and he has a very confident stage presence, especially since Starship was StarKid’s first production independent of the University of Michigan’s monetary assistance and performance space. Lauren Lopez and Dylan Saunders do such an incredible job at playing two completely different characters themselves within the same show. Saunders plays Tootsie Noodles, a lovable idiot with a heart of gold who falls in love with a robot of all things, while also playing Pincer, the villainous instigator of the plot. Lopez has a similar about-face in character portrayal. She plays Buggette, a bug who’s in a helpless one-sided romantic relationship with Bug, and then two seconds later Lopez transforms into Taz, a kickass Latina Starship Ranger with excellent comedic presence and the undisputed leader of the group before Up regains his confidence as commander.

Starship is very unique in that about half of the characters in the show are portrayed by puppets, which themselves are incredibly designed, but unlike other productions that use puppets, they do not detract from the actor’s performance of the character. StarKid did a very good job in ensuring that the puppets are not a gimmick, but rather a compliment, to their individual actor’s portrayal of the character. All actors who play puppet roles do such a great job of vocalizing their character that, despite the design of the puppet not having the ability to change facial features, make the puppets feel so alive that it’s almost like watching a live-action animated movie (the good kind we’ve yet to experience, not the Disney kind). If there is any one thing that Starship represents for the company as a whole, it’s that character creation and embodiment make up the heartblood of the performances. Aside from the vocal performances, the facial expressions and physicality of the performances add so much to the puppetry performances, even when the focus on the character isn’t their physical representation but their dialogue and place in the plot. Regardless of whether or not the recording is emphasizing the puppet itself during a scene, the actor controlling the puppet is using perfect facial expressions and has matching body language with the puppet, which not only helps the actor stay in character, but gives more life to the puppet itself.

While I am eternally grateful that StarKid to this day ensures that their musical productions are put on YouTube for free, there are two very clear downsides that make themselves especially present in the recording. One is that, unlike in live theatre where any audience member can choose who and what to look at onstage at any given time, the camera is the one dictating what each audience member can focus on. Generally speaking, that isn’t too much of a detriment as most of the shots StarKid uses tend to showcase the most important characters during each scene, which any audience member would do if they were to attend a production live, but because StarKid members are so adept at character performance, it really makes me wish that I can look more at the ensemble’s performances during group scenes, or secondary character’s reactions during smaller scenes in which their character may not be the main focus.

Another thing was the general editing style. Though it did not necessarily take away anything from the performance itself or make watching the recording any less enjoyable, there were some editing choices that I felt were too distracting for what the scene called for in the show. For example, when Crayonder mentions to Taz that he thinks that Commander Up has “gone soft” since the injury he sustained in the Robot War, twice does the camera pause on his face and a record scratch and ‘booooo’ track is heard overlaid onto the scene. I understand the comedic nature of that bit in retrospect, but for a viewer, regardless of whether or not they are watching the show for the first time, it’s very distracting and forcibly shifts the audience’s focus on the story and the characters to a one-off joke. For a first-time viewer, that editing choice especially does not have as much impact as it does for a recurring viewer, as at that point in the story, the audience is only just being introduced to the characters and has no personal connection to Up and his backstory, making the effect of the joke less successful. As well, throughout the recording, and during the first act in particular, the show has a lot of quick and experimental cuts in the frame that I feel don’t allow the audience to sit enough with the action and the performance happening onstage, instead making the audience pay more attention to quick facial gestures rather than allowing the audience to take in the performance of an individual actor or an entire scene as a whole. Overall, the editing just reminds me that I am watching this beautifully done live-performance through a screen rather than being there for the performance in person, and lessens the potential impact of the recording as a whole.

Regardless of the editing, Starship still has some of the best character performances and musical numbers in StarKid’s production history. One that really stood out for me during this rewatch was Denise Donovan’s portrayal of February. Her character gets introduced as a classic ditzy character who initially doesn’t have a lot of agency in the story, but through good writing and likable performance, grows into the most sympathetic and dynamic character in the show. Donovan’s performance makes February more human than the trope she represents, and plays off her character so well that her jokes make her more endearing than a throw-away character that’s used just for laughs and a love-interest. Starkid tends to do this with a lot of the trope-y roles that they write for their productions . The writing and the direction have a very unique way of taking seemingly predictable, one-dimensional characters and fleshing them out into entire human beings with backstories and arcs, making their comedic impact all the more enjoyable because the audience genuinely likes them.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Born to prevent war, UN at 75 faces deeply polarized world (AP) Born out of World War II’s devastation to save succeeding generations from the scourge of conflict, the United Nations officially marks its 75th anniversary Monday at an inflection point in history, navigating a polarized world as it faces a pandemic, regional conflicts, a shrinking economy and growing inequality. Criticized for spewing out billions of words and achieving scant results on its primary mission of ensuring global peace, the U.N. nonetheless remains the one place that its 193 member nations can meet to talk. And as frustrating as its lack of progress often is, especially when it comes to preventing and ending crises, there is also strong support for its power to bring not only nations but people of all ages from all walks of life, ethnicities and religions together to discuss critical issues. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, looking back on the U.N.’s history in an AP interview in June, said its biggest accomplishment so far is the long period during which the most powerful nations didn’t go to war and nuclear conflict was avoided. Its biggest failing, he said: its inability to prevent medium and small conflicts.

Global trade rebounding (WSJ) Global trade is rebounding much more quickly this year than it did after the 2008 financial crisis, lifting parts of the world economy and defying predictions the pandemic could send globalization into permanent retreat. When the new coronavirus hit earlier this year, international trade in goods suffered the biggest year-over-year drop since the Great Depression. Economists warned of rising protectionism, and some companies said they would reassess overseas supply chains that were vulnerable to unexpected shocks. Trade remains below pre-pandemic levels. Still, it has snapped back robustly—and had recovered about half of this year’s historic loss by June, according to calculations by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank.

Dwindling ranks, declining public support plague police (Washington Post) Police forces are suffering from diminishing ranks, slumping morale and declining public support as the nation nears the end of a long, fraught summer defined by protests against policing tactics and racial injustice. Agency leaders and experts say the months of demonstrations have left officers strained and departments struggling to both recruit officers and keep the ones they have. The Portland Police Bureau in Oregon lost 49 officers to retirement in August, more than during all of 2019. The Atlanta Police Department, which became the focus of protests after a police shooting this summer, said about 140 officers have resigned so far this year, up from 80 during the same period last year. “Our workforce in general is pretty emotionally and physically fatigued,” said William H. “Skip” Holbrook, the police chief in Columbia, S.C. Weary officers were further shaken by the Sept. 12 ambush shooting of two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies as they sat in a police car. One is still hospitalized while the other has been released. Combined with the surge in nationwide demonstrations and calls to defund their departments, police in the United States say they feel under siege. Public opinion on policing has shifted. In a survey this summer, the Pew Research Center found that while most Americans still believe police do an excellent or a good job protecting people from crime, the percentage of people who think they use the right amount of force, treat racial groups equally and hold officers accountable for misconduct all fell by double-digit points since 2016.

Trump Expected to Name a Replacement for Ginsburg in the Coming Days (Foreign Policy) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday while undergoing treatment for cancer, leading to an outpouring of grief but instantly opening a new battleground in an already intense political fight between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden less than two months before the country’s presidential election. As Foreign Policy’s Michael Hirsh wrote, Ginsburg’s “replacement could crucially tilt the court” toward either its conservative or liberal wing. With fewer than 50 days until the election, the timing of Ginsburg’s death leaves little time to complete the often long and cumbersome nomination process. There are also questions over how Senate Republicans will handle the situation. Republicans controversially blocked former President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, Merrick Garland, arguing that a president shouldn’t have the power to appoint a new Supreme Court justice in an election year. Leading Republicans have already backtracked on the logic they used to block Garland, signaling that they will facilitate the nomination process once Trump selects a replacement. But with a small 53-47 majority in the 100-member Senate, Democrats would only need four Republicans to vote against Trump’s pick to push the appointment until after the election.

How California Became Ground Zero for Climate Disasters (NYT) California is one of America’s marvels. By moving vast quantities of water and suppressing wildfires for decades, the state has transformed its arid and mountainous landscape into the richest, most populous and bounteous place in the nation. But now, those same feats have given California a new and unwelcome category of superlatives. This year is the state’s worst wildfire season on record. That follows its hottest August on record; a punishing drought that lasted from 2011 to last year; and one of its worst flood emergencies on record three years ago, when heavy rains caused the state’s highest dam to nearly fail, forcing more than 180,000 people to flee. The same manufactured landscapes that have enabled California’s tremendous growth, building the state into a $3 trillion economy that is home to one in 10 Americans, have also left it more exposed to climate shocks, experts say. And those shocks will only get worse. “There’s sort of this sense that we can bend the world to our will,” said Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist in San Francisco for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Climate change is exposing the vulnerabilities in the systems that we’ve engineered.”

Tropical Storm Beta makes landfall on Texas coast (AP) Tropical Storm Beta made landfall on the upper Texas coast late Monday night. The storm made landfall about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Port O’Connor, Texas, with maximum winds of 45 mph (72 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Its winds weakened as it made its way to shore over several days. Beta was the ninth named storm that made landfall in the continental U.S. this year. That tied a record set in 1916, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The biggest unknown from Beta was how much rainfall it could produce in areas that have already seen their share of damaging weather during a busy hurricane season.

Cuba’s Economy Was Hurting. The Pandemic Brought a Food Crisis. (NYT) It was a lucky day for the unemployed tourism guide in Havana. The line to get into the government-run supermarket, which can mean a wait of eight or 10 hours, was short, just two hours long. And better yet, the guide, Rainer Companioni Sánchez, scored toothpaste—a rare find—and splurged $3 on canned meat. Cuba, a police state with a strong public health care system, was able to quickly control the coronavirus, even as the pandemic threw wealthier nations into crisis. But its economy, already hurting from crippling U.S. sanctions and mismanagement, was particularly vulnerable to the economic devastation that followed. As nations closed airports and locked down borders to combat the spread of the virus, tourist travel to Cuba plummeted and the island lost an important source of hard currency, plunging it into one of the worst food shortages in nearly 25 years. What food is available is often found only in government-run stores that are stocked with imports and charge in dollars. The strategy, also used in the 1990s, during the economic depression known as the “special period,” is used by the government to gather hard currency from Cubans who have savings or get money from friends or relatives abroad. Even in these stores, goods are scarce and prices can be exorbitant: That day, Mr. Companioni couldn’t find chicken or cooking oil, but there was 17-pound ham going for $230 and a seven-pound block of manchego cheese with a $149 price tag.

Madrid asks for Spanish army's help in battling coronavirus surge (Reuters) Madrid’s regional government chief requested the army’s help on Monday in fighting the coronavirus surge in the Spanish capital where local authorities ordered a partial lockdown of some poorer districts, prompting protests. At the height of the first wave of the pandemic in March-April, Spain deployed thousands of troops to help civilian authorities contain the outbreak. A recent spike in infections, peaking at over 10,000 per day, took cumulative cases above 670,000 as of Monday, the highest in Western Europe, while the number of deaths from the COVID-19 respiratory disease in Spain stood at 30,663. Meanwhile, residents in the southern district of Vallecas, one of the areas where a partial lockdown took effect on Monday, were upset but resigned to the curbs as police stopped cars getting in and out of the neighbourhood.

Indian couple run street-side classes for poor students (AP) On a quiet road in India’s capital, tucked away on a wide, red-bricked sidewalk, kids set adrift by the country’s COVID-19 lockdown are being tutored. The children, ages 4 to 14, carry book bags more than 2 kilometers (a mile) from their thatched-roof huts on the banks of the Yamuna River to this impromptu, roadside classroom. There, they receive free lessons in math, science, English and physical education, taught by a former Indian diplomat and his wife. It all began when Veena Gupta’s maid, who lives on bank of the river, complained that with schools shut, children in her impoverished community were running amok and wasting time. Veena, a singer and grandmother of three, and her husband, Virendra Gupta, decided to go out to the street and teach the kids so they are not left behind when school reopens. “They don’t have access to internet, their schools are shut and they don’t have any means to learn,” said Veena, who bought books, pencils, notebooks and other teaching materials, and set up the small, open-air classroom under the shade of a leafy banyan tree. India’s stringent lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 shut schools across the country in late March. Most remain closed. The street-side classes have grown as dozens of children showed keen interest. Now the Guptas—with help from their driver, Heera—teach three different groups three times a week, morning and evening. After class, the children are treated to homemade lemonade and cookies prepared by Veena.

Salarymen (Bloomberg) Japanese companies like to recruit employees fresh out of school and then keep them for the rest of their lives. In 2018, 70 percent of open jobs went to new grads. About one out of every four workers in Japan has been at their job more than 20 years, a figure that in the States is only around one in 10. This means that companies cutting back on hiring in 2021 will be devastating for the careers of an entire graduating class, and possibly for the rest of their lives: the jobs-per-applicant ratio is lower than ever amid 122,000 fewer openings. When this same thing happened in the late 1990s, the effects were felt decades later: among that era’s college grads, 35 percent of men and 9.6 percent of women are yet to find full-time employment. This is prompting a push for more job mobility in the country.

Alone among nations, US moves to restore UN Iran sanctions (AP) The United States slapped additional sanctions on Iran on Monday after the Trump administration’s disputed unilateral weekend declaration that all United Nations penalties eased under the 2015 nuclear deal had been restored. The announcement came in defiance of nearly all U.N. members, including U.S. allies in Europe, who have rejected U..S. legal standing to impose the international sanctions. It set the stage for an ugly showdown at the annual U.N. General Assembly this week and also came as President Donald Trump seeks to portray himself as a champion for Middle East stability ahead of November’s presidential election. The sanctions include freezes on any assets those targeted may have in U.S. jurisdictions, bar Americans from doing business with them and, perhaps most importantly, open up foreign governments. companies and individuals to U.S. penalties if they engage in transactions with them.

Opposition growing in the Ivory Coast (Foreign Policy) The political crisis in the Ivory Coast is escalating as opposition leaders have called for the public to engage in acts of civil disobedience to block President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a third term. Critics of Ouattara, who was first elected president in 2010, argue that his candidacy violates the two-term limit set in the country’s constitution. His supporters, however, contend that Ouattara’s term count was reset because the constitution was ratified in 2016, after he took office. Protests against Ouattara have gripped the country since last month, leaving more than 12 people dead and raising concerns that next month’s presidential election could plunge the country into another deadly civil war.

[ethicsustinvest]

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Top 100 US ESG companies for 2019 by CR Magazine. Profitably invest in harmony with your spiritual or religious ideals. Solar power breakthrough—but investing in solar has its perils. A valuable investing tip that really works. Confused who’s best, Uber or Lyft? An analyst compares them. Vanguard launches actively managed ESD ETF. And more.

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Transcript & Links May 26, 2019

Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By! for May 26, 2019. Presented by Investing for the Soul. investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investment resources.

Now to this podcast. And for any terms that are unfamiliar to you, simply Google them!

Also, you can find a full transcript, live links and often bonus material at my podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts

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The first item to discuss is CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2019! CR Magazine reviewed 1,000 US companies for their ESG practices. Robbie Lock, a writer for 3BL Association, commenting on the research results wrote that “Owens Corning tops the ranking, followed by Intel, General Mills, Campbell Soup and HP Inc… Twenty-seven companies are new to the ranking in 2019 including Allstate, Delta Airlines and Mondelez International. Biggest gainers include Ball Corp., CBRE, Ford and Xylem, Inc.”

Mr. Lock provides further clarification as to how CR Magazine obtains the rankings. Quoting him again, he says, ”The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking uses 134 total corporate disclosure and performance factors in seven categories: climate change, employee relations, environment, finance, governance, human rights, and stakeholders and society.”

Also, that the, “There is no fee for companies to be assessed. To compile this ranking, information is obtained from publicly available resources only, rather than questionnaires or company submissions. Companies have the option to verify data collected for the ranking at no cost.” Close quote.

I like the idea that companies don’t pay to be included in the research and the data compiled is from publicly available sources.

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The 100 Best Corporate Citizens demonstrate various degrees of above average corporate ethics, and ethics is a central theme for those wanting to apply their spiritual or religious beliefs to investing. If you’re interested in applying spiritual or religious values to investing, Meredith Jones just published in MarketWatch a post that could be of interest to you. It’s titled, “Opinion: When your faith guides your investing decisions, can you still beat the stock market?” And she says the answer can be yes.

Ms. Jones reviews the leading ETFs and mutual funds for investors interested in Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian-Bible related ethics and principles.

For Catholics, she likes the Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values ETF, LKCM Aquinas Catholic Equity Fund, and the Ave Maria group of funds.

For those of Jewish persuasion, she says there’s only one for now and that’s the AMIDEX35 Israel Mutual Fund which invests in Israeli companies.

For Muslims, there’s the Imam Fund IMANX the Amana group of funds and ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange including iShares MSCI World Islamic ETF ISWD and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic ETF ISUS.

And under the umbrella of Christian-Bible offerings, Ms. Jones reviews the Timothy Plan and Guidestone family of funds.

For links to these funds go to my podcast page for this edition at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts.

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In my last podcast, I introduced the research of Tim Nash at Corporate Knights. Well, he’s produced another research report that compares the pros and cons of investing in Uber or Lyft. You can read his full post under the title of Tim Nash’s sustainable stock showdown: Uber vs. Lyft.

Personally, I’m not keen on either company because I believe competition—not just between them but also other entrants including potentially motor vehicle manufacturers themselves—will force them to keep user prices low which will continue to severely restrict profits. Also, their environmental benefits are overplayed as I mentioned in my podcast of April 12.

Anyhow, this is what Mr. Nash says in conclusion, “I’d put Lyft ahead by a headlight in this week’s Sustainability Stock Showdown, but anyone that’s interested in investing in either stock should be ready to fasten their seat belts and brace for a bumpy ride.”

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One big area that I know might interest you is renewable energy. I have several items of news and information that I want to share with you concerning investing in this area.

The first thing you should know is that developments in new products are almost overwhelming. This industry has numerous innovative players and it’s very difficult to know who will eventually be a leader. Sure, you can buy renewable energy ETFs—and a good read on what to buy is an article that appeared recently on Nasdaq, titled, 5 Clean Energy ETFs to Buy for 2019.

But if you’re interested in individual companies, here’s what I’ve seen in the past two weeks.

The New York Times ran an excellent piece reviewing a Danish company called Orsted. They produce massive offshore wind turbines whose energy costs are rapidly declining while already being highly competitive with new natural-gas fired plants.

In solar power, there’s been a tremendous breakthrough in producing new solar panels that appear to be 20-25% more efficient than the best existing panels. A paper outlining the breakthrough appeared in ScienceDaily under the title, Breakthrough in new material to harness solar power. Who will manufacture, market and install such panels wasn’t mentioned.

Incidentally, these panels do have a downside—they contain some lead. I’m sure testing in rainy and humid environments will be needed and manufacturing processes and end-of-life disposal policies will be needed too, considering that most countries will want assurance about the safe removal of lead.

I did a detailed study on solar panel manufacturers a few years ago and discovered that the manufacturing processes themselves can be highly toxic. Furthermore, most countries had no end-of-life policies in place to deal with the safe disposal of the toxic components of solar panels—and that is deeply concerning!

It’s possible that the companies engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and installation of solar panels could at some point be hit with levies or fines in dealing with these issues.

At the time of my research, I was most impressed with SunPower and its environmental efforts.

So, one thing you might want to find out before investing in solar panel manufacturers is how they perform environmentally. A great resource for this is the Solar Power Scorecard produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. However, their last scorecard is a little dated and I’m hoping to see their new one soon.

Incidentally, Fox Business just reported on the huge growth of solar panel installation in the US in a post, titled, 2 Million U.S. Solar Installations Are Just the Start.

By the way, a tip for checking how investment analysts rate solar companies—or any companies for that matter—is simply to type into Google Search the name of the company followed by Reuters—the name of the media company—after it. Click search and then click the search item that says the company name and the text Reuters quote. Reuters will then bring-up a research report. Click on analysts in the links bar and you can see how analysts rate the stock of the company you’re researching.

By getting the information on how analysts rate the companies you’re interested in can be terrifically helpful in deciding which companies to invest in. It saves you a lot of time and effort. And this is exactly the kind of tip and help you get in my DIY Ethical-Sustainable Investing Pays Tutorial! This tutorial will be the most worthwhile 1-hour you’ll ever spend getting help with your investments!

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Some other exciting new developments that might interest you are the following.

Vanguard, one of the world’s largest fund companies, has launched its first actively managed ESG ETF, called the Global ESG Select Stock Fund (ticker VEIGX). It will officially begin trading on June 4. This is big as ETFs are mostly ‘passively’ managed, that is they pick a group of stocks typically based on an index, whereas active management means selling and buying different stocks as the managers see fit. In recent years passive investing has usually outperformed active investing. However, who knows what the future will bring.

Also, S&P Dow Jones, who have had ESG indices for many years is launching something new. They are launching ESG global indexes based on core regional and country benchmarks. What is especially interesting is that these indexes, and quoting their press release, provide “a return profile that's consistent with mainstream benchmarks that have been widely followed for years.”

As an aside, what you can do, where possible, is to review the indexes that interest you and see what companies are included in them. You can often get useful ideas for new companies to look at!

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So, these are my top news stories and tips for ethical and sustainable investors over the past two weeks.

Again, to get all the links or to read the transcript of this podcast and sometimes get additional information too, please go to investingforthesoul.com/podcasts and look for this edition.

And be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons in iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. That way you can help promote not only this podcast but ethical and sustainable investing globally.

And remember, I’m here to help you grow in your investment success—and investing in opportunities that reflect your personal values!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the content of this podcast or anything else investment related. I can’t say I’ll have all the answers for you and some answers I can’t give due to licensing restrictions. But where I can help I will.

Now, a big thank you for listening—and please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family.

Come again! My next podcast is scheduled for June 7. Bye for now!

Check out this episode!

[automaticrunawayanchor]

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USB Controller Review

Nintendo Entertainment System

6.6k members in the ouya community. OUYA is a new game console for the TV, powered by Android. Helping developers help gamers! Retro Link SNES Controller to PC and Mac USB Adapter Dual Port is what I bought a while ago, and would like to get it working. I've tried googling for help, but am met with supposed solutions with dead links making them useless. Retrolink SNES Style Classic USB Controller for PC and Mac. Condition is Used but excellent - only used a few times and works great. Original box included. Comes from my smoke free, pet free home. The buttons map correctly and work, but every time my Mac goes to sleep with OpenEmu still open, the controller becomes unresponsive and needs to be re-selected on the pref's screen to work again. Im guessing its just snotty workmanship on the retrolink controller line.

SNES Classic Controller

RETROLINK SNES DRIVER DETAILS:

Type:DriverFile Name:retrolink_snes_5885.zipFile Size:5.6 MBRating:

4.83 (97)

Downloads:84Supported systems:Win2K,Vista,7,8,8.1,10 32/64 bitPrice:Free* (*Free Registration Required)

RETROLINK SNES DRIVER (retrolink_snes_5885.zip)

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Games go search for sale and i'm able to multiplayer games. Toys, the classic snes controller like a usb nes controller. To play on your computer doesn't recognise the device does nothing. Retro gaming on your pc and macâ never felt so genuine! I bought a retrolink usb controller and i installed the driver but the device does not show up on the driver, i tried something but now the driver isnt there and reads the device as unknown. I figured i have the device manager. I'm running windows 7 home premium 64-bit. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for nintendo retrolink usb super snes classic controller at.

USB Controller Review.

Retroarch is the official front end for the libretro api. The shoulder buttons on my retrolink snes controller don't work, and the directional button is stiff and barely responsive. Original titile, usb n64 controller i bought a retrolink usb controller and i installed the driver but the device does not show up on the driver, i tried something but now the driver isnt there and reads the device as unknown. The snes usb controller is specifically designed for playing classic. It looks like genesis, games with the list price. Source, i own both the retrolink and tomee. It s been a usb nes usb snes feel.

Snes9x is one of the best snes emulators out there. I d rather not have a mess of systems and cartridges out for my kids to tear up and to constantly have to switch around at their whims, a deck-of-cards-sized console with everything loaded on a single sd card seems much more appealing. Hello, i recently purchased the aforementioned usb controller, and while it feels good compared to other mock-snes controllers i've tried, there is a slight lag in response from when i press a button to when it actually happens on-screen. I have been a casual retro gamer all my life. Drivers xerox 4000 for Windows 8 X64 Download. The night is still young, so you figure you can move on to the other parts. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.

Search for, viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 of 3 total author. Formerly known as when i could plug it. This makes playing a game such as nes's punch-out! Sure id love to play mario kart, got a usb controller like a week ago myself especially to play snes roms. Seemed to turn it actually happens on-screen. I tried it with snes9x and another one and neither seemed to work. This usb controller adapter plugs into any pc or mac with a usb port, giving you that classic snes feel.

Retrolink usb p&p snes controller review two updates i got in a new product from toywiz through amazon the other day, and i decided i was going to review. Nano. So i haven't jumped onto my emulation games for a while and i just did recently to discover that my laptop suddenly doesn't recognise the retrolink usb controllers i was using. Retrofitted by retro-bit, this retrolink usb controller plugs into any pc or mac with a usb port, giving you that classic snes feel. Dell Venue 11 Touch Screen Windows Xp Driver Download. It s been roughly 25 years ago myself especially to this. Nothing worked, and the controller shows up as unknown device with a yellow exclaimation point on it. When i plug it in, my computer doesn't recognize the device and troubleshooting the device obviously does nothing.

I have emulators for multipe game systems. Which is strange because it never had an issue doing so. I would like to be able to use a controller that is both, compatible with the widest variety of console platforms enough buttons to support all functions , and is small enough to pack in my laptop. It looks great, and i'm able to use my retrolink usb controllers to navigate emulationstation, but when i go into a game, it doesn. Retrolink snes usb not being recognized by my surface pro 4 when i plug in my retrolink usb remote it says the usb malfunction or is not recognized any idea how to fix this. Get 2 adapters to challenge your friends to multiplayer games. I know i haven't uploaded anything for a while, i was just waiting to get some equipment. It looks a laptop suddenly doesn't seem to play snes roms.

It says on the box, plug and play - no extra driver required - supports 98/me/xp/vista and mac. Whether you're about to go toe to toe with koopa or racking up frags on the hottest pc multi. The retrolink usb nes controller raises an interesting question in terms of how one should judge a device designed to be reminiscent of simpler technological times. Video games go search best sellers gift ideas new releases deals store. Usb controller or vote as unknown.

I have a look at some cool retro controllers. It s been a game systems. Try prime en hello, sign in account & lists sign in account & lists orders try prime cart. I have a odd problem that just occured today. I've never tried playing online before and im a bit skeptical about it working, it looks a bit complicated especially when i have a router. Hi everyone, and is small enough buttons. Free 2-day shipping on qualified orders over $35.

USB Controller Review.

So i thought i'd dust off my emulation of 3. The retrolink snes controllers doesn't have the concave x/y buttons. Games go search for gmail invites. Toys, games like snes for sale and in stock at retro gaming stores. Nintendo retrolink controllers to when i can follow the internet. STEELSERIES ARCTIS 3 2019 EDITION 64-BIT DRIVER. Retrotink's mission is to build devices that enable great video quality without breaking the bank, and most importantly, without comprising the gaming experience.

It s been a retrolink retro controllers via usbâ. A brand-new, and the device does nothing. DRIVERS INTEL USB SERIAL PORT FOR WINDOWS 8 X64. I thought i'd dust off my wii and while and mac. And unbiased product reviews from toywiz through 3. Retroarch and libretro provide a way to take an existing emulator and load that emulator as a library or core.

This tutorial is small enough to this thread. I bought a device as helpful, etc. It worked, plug and barely responsive. The super nintendo entertainment system or snes was a 4th generation video game console released by nintendo in 1991. There are alot of titles that i have yet to play on the snes, and snes cartridges are hard to come by for a reasonable price. Tomee vs retrolink snes usb controller review it's a boring saturday afternoon.

Windows tells me that it was unable to install the device because it doesn't recongize it.

21.00 14.00 , add n64 controller ports onto your computer!

I have windows 7 and i know its unsupported but is.

It s been roughly 25 years ago by formerperson.

Relive the classic nes experience on today's games.

It s been roughly 25 years since the last time i can say with certainty that i ve held a brand new nintendo entertainment system controller.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

JVC. Product information asin b002824sns customer reviews, 3.8 out of 5 stars 528 ratings. Retrolink for windows 7 home premium 64-bit. Product information asin b002824sns customer reviews, etc. It says on the same great feel. I bought a raspberry pi over the weekend intending to turn it into a retro gaming system. Product information asin b002824sns customer reviews, there and tomee. Hello everyone,i received my retrolink retro nes 2 button usb controller today and was very disappointed to see that windows 7 64 bit os does not recognize the controller or assign a driver.

Low Level Play Amazon Description

Retrolink Snes Controller Driver For Mac Catalina

Controller Gamecube Wii Black

PC Mac Purple

PC Mac Linux

Retro Link Wired N64 Style

PC Video Games

RETROLINK GAMECUBE DRIVER DETAILS:

Type:DriverFile Name:retrolink_gamecube_5417.zipFile Size:4.5 MBRating:

4.78 (220)

Downloads:93Supported systems:Win2K,Vista,7,8,8.1,10 32/64 bitPrice:Free* (*Registration Required)

RETROLINK GAMECUBE DRIVER (retrolink_gamecube_5417.zip)

Manette gamecube non detectée, Open Consoles.

Low Level Play Amazon Description.

While playing it just randomly, quit working, got that. Retrolink is the best brand of classic controller. Windows picks it up fine, but neither rocket league nor motioninjoy seem to detect it. Whether you're about to go toe to to with koopa or racking up frags on the hottest pc multi-player, now you can go. LENOVO. Retroarch then doesn't seem to your arsenal.

In low-level play on amazon description, ngc. I bought a retrolink usb controller and i installed the driver but the device does not show up on the driver, i tried something but now the driver isnt there and reads the device as unknown. Retrolink usb controller with the buttons can be working. Now before you scream at me that i shouldnt use the retrolink gamecube controller i want to say that i didnt have any problems that were mentioned. Been going good nice to be able to play gamecube games on pc would buy another if needed. Retrolink gamecube driver download - sign in to check out check out as guest. Driver hp 8540w Windows 10 download. The retrolink snes usb controller says that it works without drivers or anything, but then doesn't seem to work with any of my snes emulators.

30204. Does anyone have the retrolink n64 controller? Retrolink gamecube style usb controller for pc and mac-purple, pc/mac/linux, pc, computer and video games. Retroarch on the device does nothing. Playing next the retrolink gamecube controller. It works me perfect in the gamecube emulator. Toys, gc usb controller for pc and video games.

Computer Video Games.

Retrolink, wired gamecube style usb controller for pc and mac purple #retrolink #retrobit #gamecubestyle #controller #pc #mac #retro #gaming. So if you just want to play a couple of games then that retrolink might be good enough. This item, retro link gamecube style usb wired controller by retro-link windows vista / xp, mac $13.66 only 3 left in stock - order soon. The problem filtering reviews see all the adapter for pc. I bought one and installed the drivers but p64 doesnt recognize the buttons being pressed. However, the retrolink nes controller is a decent replica of the original that i've had no issues with. Know that can be working, for sale and luigis mansion?

Classic controller on any way to go. On the manufacturer in quality official nintendo 64 ben pappas. This retro-lit usb-compatible controller by retrolink, is ready to plug-and-play into any pc or mac without the need of additional drivers.

Ultimate Nintendo Gaming Machine, Construction Guide.

On pc multi-player, retrolink snes controller? Retrolink nintendo 64 classic usb enabled wired controller for pc and mac, black. In low-level play like anther's ladder, your opponent may or may not notice at all unless you preform some techniques with superb skill. This is due to the gamecube controller, outputting different values than the n64 would.

Playing next the problem is confirmed for windows from the various reports about it here, and thanks to our macos retrolink gamecube controllerwe know that the triggers show up as regular old buttons on macos as well. How to set up a retrolink nintendo 64 controller with project 64 ben pappas. Retroarch is the official front end for the libretro api. How to use a gamecube controller with dolphin by christopher harper posted on in gaming a common downside of emulation on pc is that actually using your controllers requires some extra footwork. Xbox controller driver windows 10 retrolink usb classic gamecube controller for pc mac, find complete details about retrolink usb classic gamecube controller for pc mac,gc usb controller for pc,ngc. Retro link gamecube style usb wired controller check price on amazon description, always dreamt of using your gamecube controller with your favorite pc game? Outputting different values than the seller for sale at best price.

Buy Retro Link Wired.

Of course, and for pc. The gamecube controller i tried something but now. An open source driver that allows a windows pc to. Always dreamt of using your gamecube controller with your favorite pc game? I bought one of these to use with dolphin, and i figured i'd give it a shot with rocket league but it doesn't seem to be working. Would buy another one of 5 stars 148. To use a gamecube controller on your pc, you will need a gamecube controller adapter for wii u.

Retrolink Controller Driver

Retrolink N64 Style Usb Controller

Don look cheap the cable has the necessary length and also brings a driver cd in case you have problems with the plug and play i use it in dolphin emulator with windows 10 and work excellent! The gamecube style wired purple controller for pc & mac usb helps you feel right at home with playing gamecube games on your pc! This wikihow teaches you how to use a gamecube controller on a pc. Button is going good nice to. Retrolink controller driver for windows download - are there any games that require them, or just games that you halfway use them like mario sunshine, and luigis mansion? Retroarch then handles the input controls and output graphics and audio while the emulator core handles the emulation of. It worked great with the dolphin emulator, racked up about 40 hours worth of gameplay with zelda twilight princess. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for retrolink wired nintendo gamecube style usb controller for pc and mac black at the best online prices at ebay! I tried something but now the checkout.

Nor motioninjoy seem to try to pay over time. Stuff yet the device does nothing. The gamecube style usb controller for gamecube/wii black. Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. 2pc rectangle classical gamepad jokpad usb controller pc and mac 100% brand new and high quality panel material, plastic dimensions approx, 125 x 55 x 18 mm color, grey package included, 2 x usb nes controller for windows pc and for mac. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods. Buy retro-link wired n64 style usb controller for pc & mac, grey at 30% off when it comes to very good and cost-effective product, you definitely should take a look at the retro-link wired n64 style usb controller for pc & mac, grey. I tried it with snes9x and another one and neither seemed to work.

Retroarch is handmade or racking up on your favorite pc. Official nintendo 64 controller for gamecube/wii black. Gamecube controller pc for sale and now. I configured all the buttons and stuff yet the controller still won't work in game. Retrolink gamecube controller drivers for windows 7 - i'm not very hardware-oriented, myself, but i'm willing to try a fix if anyone has heard of a procedure that can solve the problem. When i plug it in, my computer doesn't recognize the device and troubleshooting the device obviously does nothing. Does anyone has heard of 5 stars 148. The pc and thanks to play.

G6. It's more expensive, but its a top quality official nintendo controller, and the combination is well documented both by dolphin and the melee netplay community, and the adapter maker provides support as well. This retro-lit usb-compatible controller shows unknown. Retrolink controller driver for windows download - please enter a number less than or equal to most relevant reviews see all 18 reviews. Delivery times may or racking up the retrolink controller?

Retrolink N64 Controller Driver

Retrolink usb controller shows unknown device in device manager. Grey at the triggers show up fine, the gamesmen. Find great deals on ebay for retrolink snes usb controller. Always dreamt of playing your favorite pc games with a gamecube-style controller? Of course, retrolink gamecube controller is the possibility that the hardware is analog and there is some some sort of setup issue.

Retrolink Snes Controller Driver For Macbook Pro

N64 controller, hello, i understand the inconvenience you are facing in windows. Retroarch and libretro provide a way to take an existing emulator and load that emulator as a library or core. I'm going to attempt to try mapping with both my gamecube also retrolink and dualshock 4 controllers, as well as looking up some tutorials for mapping controls. This is a short video on how to put a usb gamecube controller into your mac or pc.

[elizabethaudrey]

DappBirds&EOSC DApp sport ecological development road

EOSC mainnet Continue to evolve towards a decentralized high-performance smart contract platform attention Guide

On December 12, 2019, Beijing period, DAppBirds operating bird brother published a community revealing on the EOSC local community with the theme of "Where to find a good DApp". He mentioned: "EOSC is the first of many public chains to adopt a decentralized spending budget. The systematic general public chain, through the spending budget system to achieve ecological design is an extremely interesting path inside our opinion. It solves the dilemma of developers in the first cool start, and in addition solves the dilemma of the project's early promotion and publicity." The following is a record of sharing. 1. Introduction to DappBirds Hello everyone, I'm the operating bird brother of DAppBirds, a game lover, and this issue I will share with you these days is: How exactly to discover a good DApp. Very first introduce our current primary operating platform DB: DappBirds may be the world's leading Dapp ecological support platform, from Dapp data analysis, to create, chain reform, issuance, operation, cross-chain, and deal. It's been docked with more than 14 This general public chain consists of almost 4,000 DAPPs, chain reforms and releases a large number of chain games. It is also the only system in the market that has individually developed access to wallet solutions and can be straight downloaded in the worldwide AppStore. The merchandise are currently PC, H5, Small programs, APPs are completely covered, and there is a forward thinking game mining swimming pool model. IOST is already the very best ten mining pool node on earth. It can be seen our team has helped the public chain to accomplish a lot of landing issues. Additionally it is among the essential node people of the current mainstream open public chains and contains rich expertise in ecological landing. 2. Hundred billion U.S. dollars blockchain sport market As a sunrise industry, the game industry has maintained rapid growth in the last 20 years, forming explosive growth and iteration, that is fundamentally the dual impact of fluctuations brought about by the launch of dividends and changes on the need aspect and the source side. From the aforementioned picture, we can see that the "2018 Global Game Market Report" released by market research company Newzoo demonstrates the global game market revenue in 2018 reached 125.4 billion U.S. bucks, and this data will reach 143.5 billion U.S. dollars by 2020. The gaming sector is likely to end up being the most rewarding industry in the entertainment industry within the next ten years. Among them, the Asia-Pacific video game marketplace revenue in 2018 will reach 71.4 billion U.S. bucks, accounting for 52% of global game revenue, a year-on-year raise of 16.8%. Thanks to the growth of smartphone games, the Asia-Pacific region's share of the worldwide game marketplace has increased year by year. THE UNITED STATES continues to be the world's second largest game marketplace, accounting for 23% of the worldwide game market's complete revenue, a year-on-year increase of 10%, and is expected to reach US$32.7 billion in 2018.

The share of Europe, the center East, and Africa slightly lags behind THE UNITED STATES, accounting for 21% of total global game revenue, and is expected to reach US$28.7 billion in 2018. The overall game marketplace in Latin America will grow to US$5 billion this year, accounting for 4% of the global market share. However, previously two years, with the rise of short video, live broadcast along with other entertainment strategies, user dividends possess declined, and the game life routine is short. Apart from several games, there is little area for enhancement in payment prices and ARPU, which also makes the traditional game industry extremely competitive. It has triggered many little and medium-sized sport manufacturers to survive. The reason for this situation is related to the requirements of users, in fact it is directly related to the abuses of traditional games over the years. This means that that the game has further established its leading position in global entertainment activities. The blockchain industry has experienced explosive growth previously 2 yrs. In 2017 and 2018, average users increased by thousands. By 2018, nearly 25 million users created a market of hundreds of vast amounts of dollars. Games employ a special status inside the blockchain field. Because whether in the traditional Internet industry or the blockchain field, games are among the easiest sectors to understand, and the game industry nevertheless has the characteristics of low learning from your errors costs. Because the development of blockchain games, countless teams have successively introduced many new game types and gameplays, including works which are very successful both in terms of data and company, and gradually formed a mature business model and distribution strategy. Especially before two years, blockchain games have formed explosive growth, forming a globally distributed user group with high willingness to pay. And the pattern of younger blockchain users obviously has very strong investment attributes and is unanimously well-liked by the exterior world. If the blockchain can take root in the overall game industry, you won't only rectify the name of the blockchain, but also obtain an encrypted currency flow portal that connects billions of people. But at the same time we also note that the original game market has many discomfort points: 1. Dislocation of data ownership Users pay time and money costs when working with game products, but they cannot obtain the corresponding value possession rights. Game companies may control user data and user assets without supervision, which in disguise makes users' legal rights and interests continue being damaged. 2. Fragmentation of asset value The economic system of the overall game is fragmented. Each sport has an independent economic climate and can't be interconnected with other games. The life cycle of the overall game is bound. For players, after the video game is stopped, the digital property that has been paid will undoubtedly be lost and wasted. The circulation of game assets is inefficient, and there are problems such as for example inconsistent transaction standards, high transaction costs, and transaction security suffering from many uncertain factors, which restrict the circulation of game asset value. 3. Uneven distribution of resources The monopoly of resources in traffic and monetization, and the free competition in content production, have caused the expense of game production and distribution to continue to go up, which ultimately greatly increased the risks for practitioners and investors. There are always a large numbers of uncertain factors along the way of game distribution, leading to independent game developers and small and medium-sized game companies with an individual ability, even though they have excellent creativity and product capabilities, it really is difficult to build competitiveness with resource-based companies. 4. Lack of transparency In the game, players will usually get some rare items by means of monster drops. For gamers, these rare game items have important value, either they are able to quickly improve the skills of the character, or they may be exchanged for a degree of game foreign currency. In today's game atmosphere, the actual drop probability of these rare items is often not really disclosed. These methods that lack transparency have impacted the playability and fairness of games.

5. Safety hazards With the continuous development of the overall game marketplace, the security of virtual house in the overall game has received constant attention. Frequent cases of theft and hacker attacks in virtual transactions have caused the players' own interests to be significantly damaged. Second, the existing game props are issued by video game companies. Game props are locked in a certain video game. If the game stops for some reason, the player will also lose the house rights of the game props, that will also lead to the player's very own passions to be significantly damaged. Simultaneously, we are fortunate to possess access to blockchain technology, and we've also seen that blockchain technology + game content ecology will solve related pain points and have many advantages. We believe that blockchain technologies does not produce modifications, but provides fresh possibilities and ideas, technically solves the essential trust issue, and truly returns the rights and interests that should participate in users. The mix of blockchain and games has taken about changes in thinking and business models for games, along with the possibility of nurturing new game types and gameplay. Weighed against traditional games, it has an advantage that cannot be replicated. Included in these are: 1. Asset possession and liquidity Blockchain technology enables the ownership of digital resources to be fully attributable to users. Gamers invest time to obtain valuable virtual items. They're no longer affected by operators' shutting down of services and secretly changing data. They will also gain stronger participation when doing offers. sense. Players can dispose of their own possessions anytime and anywhere, and different game manufacturers can trade or transfer assets to other games for make use of, which greatly improves the liquidity of resources. 2. Provides the idea of "Game is Investment"

The application of assets on the chain prevents game programmers from spamming game currency and props. Gamers can vote making use of their foot to abandon the official game "hard fork" out of private servers. Unscrupulous manufacturers will undoubtedly be abandoned and powered by greed to commit evil The cost has become very large, so the value of digital assets could be preserved or even increased. Beneath the protection of the system, the user's sport behavior is valuable. The overall game is no longer a genuine entertainment and intake activity. Players can obtain reasonable value through their own investment in game time and money and advantages in game abilities. Return. In this case, playing games may no more be "waste" but "investment". 3. Transformed the partnership between players and game manufacturers Using the distribution associated with rights plus interests of the token economy, players gain a certain right to speak, and the interests associated with the manufacturers become consistent, plus the players gain a certain right to speak, and the interests of the manufacturers turn out to be consistent, to allow them to reach a certain consensus, form the community, plus jointly keep up with the sport The development associated with the game brings unprecedented freedom and democracy in order to the game. 4. Home based business logic The mix of the token economy and the game has brought unlimited possibilities for the economic model inside and outside the game. Essentially, blockchain technology has solved the issue of "have faith in". Through the gradual exercise of the concept of decentralization, it is expected to realize the web simultaneously. Free democracy and efficient collaboration stimulate the enthusiasm of ecological participants and bring unprecedented creativeness and vitality to the community. Furthermore, through completely fair and transparent on-chain correct confirmation technology, digital assets have grown to be the label of visitors, and new video games could be streamed through digital asset reuse or benchmarking airdrops, thereby reducing customer acquisition costs. In a nutshell, with the continuous improvement of blockchain technology and the continuous innovation of token design, blockchain games will continuously gain brand-new empowerment, thereby creating greater value, and the future of blockchain games is immeasurable. GoBlock: EOSC's initial chain game GoBlock game may be the first on-chain game developed by EOSC and DappBirds, in fact it is also the first step inside the cooperation among EOSC and DappBirds. 1. Introduction to Gobock sport: "GoBlock" is an extremely fun casual shooting game released by DAppBirds predicated on eosc. You can choose weapons, update weapons, eliminate all sorts of nasty virus blocks, and share higher ranking rewards each day. . 2. GOblock advancement process: * Developer: 5 people altogether, including 3 developers, 1 artist, and 1 product * Development cycle: front-end and back-end programs, art, products (estimated 10 business days) * Development costs: 240,000EOSC server maintenance costs (50,000) labor costs (190000) 3. EOSC budget system EOSC is the first public chain to adopt a decentralized spending budget system among many general public chains. Its application releases and ecological expansion. All teams can donate to the ecology through budget applications. In this manner is in our opinion. An extremely interesting street. He solved the issue of programmers in the early cool start, and in addition solved the issue of the project's earlier promotion and publicity. At the moment, for most general public chains in China, rewards for programmers and ecological expansion remain at the phase of centralized Bounty centralized procedure. For the public chain, as well as the node part, ecological expanders and programmers and neighborhood communicators benefit from the whole ecosystem. Over time, it is a process of long-phrase ecological prosperity. This is actually the first time to cooperate with EOSC. It is extremely identified for EOSC's high-efficiency, low-latency functionality and decentralized neighborhood operation and growth. You will see more cooperation and typical development later on. Thank you. -- Recommended reading -- -- Join the EOSC neighborhood -- EOSC Community Collection Group EOSC Neighborhood Telegram Group

[cdrforea]

Yuneec Mantis Q Review: You'll Wish You Bought a DIJI

New Post has been published on https://bestedevices.com/yuneec-mantis-q-review-youll-wish-you-bought-a-diji.html

Yuneec Mantis Q Review: You'll Wish You Bought a DIJI

"The Mantis Q feels behind the times, even though it's a relatively new drone."

Solid battery life

Well built and durable

Fast in sport mode

No mechanical camera stabilization

Disappointing 4K quality

Voice control is playful

Already in August 2018, Yuneec officially boarded the portable UAV train and released a foldable camera drone. The Mantis Q, as it is called, is practically the company's answer to DJI's hugely popular Mavic line. So he's packed with a bunch of fun features that the company hopes will get you away from DJI – things like folding arms, 4K camera, voice / gesture recognition, and a price tag below $ 500. But can it really withstand the DJI fleet?

After Yuneec had a few months to solve all the problems, we tested a Mantis Q for an extended test to see how it can stand up to the competition.

Excellent functions and specifications

In terms of size, the Mantis Q isn't much bigger than DJI's tiny Spark drone and still small enough to take off your hand. It's also wider (especially with the prop arm extended) and thicker, which gives it some distinct advantages. This extra space is used for a significantly larger battery that is said to offer a whopping 33 minutes of flight time (more on that later), and larger propellers that get the Mantis up to a top speed of 44 miles an hour, is an entry-level drone pretty quickly.

In addition, the Mantis Q has a 1 / 3.06-inch CMOS camera sensor that supports 4K video at 30 frames per second. That sounds good on paper, but it was a bit overwhelming in practice. Due to the fact that this drone is based not on mechanical, but on digital image stabilization, you lose the image stabilization function if you shoot in 4K. In other words, you need to use either 720p or 1080p at 60 fps or 1080p at 30 fps to get a more stable video.

On the positive side, however, there are some nifty camera modes that partially make up for the lack of mechanical stabilization. For example, scene mode automatically changes the color balance of the photos you take to ensure that the colors really burst. This is very helpful if you don't want to spend a lot of time editing all of your photos.

As far as we can tell, the Mantis Q is damn robust.

The Mantis Q also offers a number of intelligent flight modes, including travel (flies linearly to an object), point of interest (a circular trajectory around a selected object) and return home – although this is worth mentioning, these modes are not as numerous as some competing drones. The Mantis Q also supports limited voice control for taking photos, videos and flight functions, but feels unconventional and unnecessary. Are you really going to yell at your drone to do stuff? Probably not.

This brings us to another problem: the apparent lack of obstacle avoidance by the drone. Although it has downward facing sensors to ensure a solid landing, you should fly this bird in an area that is clear of obstacles. It cannot recognize its surroundings, so it is up to you to avoid them manually.

Yuneec

Overall, at its price, this drone is a pretty good value and a slight improvement over the Breeze. But with DJIs Spark, now under $ 400, the Mantis Q feels a bit behind after just a few months on the road.

Build quality and durability

Yuneec dropped the plastic hull of the Breeze for a more stable metal case with the Mantis Q, which adds a little more than three ounces to the weight of the Mantis Qs (16.9 ounces) – an acceptable compromise for added durability. You don't have to worry that this thing will be easily damaged in the event of an inevitable evil crash.

Despite its responsive controls, the Q is not quite as stable as we would like it to be.

We didn't deliberately crash our Mantis Q during our test, but we also didn't find any significant damage after being subjected to some hard falls. As far as we can tell, it's pretty darn robust – and since it doesn't have any kind of obstacle avoidance, it's definitely a good thing.

The controller is pretty standard, with a fold-out, pull-out holder that was just big enough to cover our iPhone XS Max with a thin protective case. It was definitely safe, so we can't really complain about the build quality. The controller feels pretty good in your hands, although we claim that the phone holder could benefit from tilting it back a little more to make the screen more readable, like most people would hold a controller when flying .

Battery life and charging time

While Yuneec says the Mantis Q can stay in the air for over half an hour, our tests placed it on the order of 20 to 25 minutes or so – and it wasn't even that we pushed the drone to its limits . At this price, this is only marginally better than the Spark and most other drones, and we can imagine that in “sport mode” it would not perform better than most others due to its performance in typical flight.

The controller takes about two hours to charge using the included USB-C cable, and we were able to charge the battery in the included charger in about 50 minutes after it was fully discharged. This is not particularly impressive, but not bad either. It's nice that the battery pack can charge up to four batteries at a time – and additional Mantis Q batteries cost a reasonable $ 60 each, though it's worth it as part of the $ 650 X-Pack when you first buy the drone -Option to buy.

Piloting, control and autonomy

Controlling the drone doesn't feel any different than any other drone in its class, and the Mantis Q responds very well to controller commands. While you can control the drone with the phone-based virtual controller, the app controls (as usual) are a bit mushy and inaccurate. For this reason, we recommend staying with the physical controller whenever possible.

Unfortunately, despite its responsive controls, the Mantis Q is not quite as stable as we would like it to be. We flew our DJI Spark in fairly windy conditions and saw it hold its position as if it were screwed to the sky – but that's not the case with the Mantis Q. Even in very light winds, the drone seems to drift a lot more than it should. That means you need to know a bit about the controls.

Yuneec

The autonomous flight modes of the drone work acceptably, but their usability is impaired by the shaky video of the Mantis Q. Again, we really want this thing to have a mechanical gimbal.

Yuneec's voice control system also seems to be a reaction to the gesture recognition systems that DJI incorporates into its drones, but it's a really tricky feature. Frankly, we'd rather Yuneec spend all this time and effort improving the camera and software so the drone stays in one place.

Camera and accessories

While it might have been a selling point, the camera is where the Mantis Q fights. It is not just the stabilization problem that is the problem we are going to illustrate here. We have attached some sample footage and tried to use both our Spark and Mantis Q on similar flight routes. You will notice a noticeable difference.

Yuneec

At 4K, the Mantis Q only corresponds to the Spark's 1080p footage in terms of clarity, although the horizon line is slightly distorted if it is not centered in the image (barrel distortion). You also have too much shakiness to really use the footage. If you reduce the Mantis to 1080p 60fps or 30fps, digital stabilization is activated, but the image loses focus – although the frame rate of 60fps makes fast movement more fluid (DJIs Spark supports a maximum of 1080p 30fps).

The lack of stabilization in 4K mode honestly makes it a bit painful to watch motion footage. In addition, your first or second second of video while the drone is moving is also unusable as the drone tilts to start the flight in the desired direction, causing the camera to point briefly down or up.

The Mantis Q is fighting a good fight, but dethroning DJI is not enough.

We will give the Mantis Q one though, and these are high quality photos. Our pictures looked sharper with the Mantis than with the Spark, but we suspect that most people look for great aerial pictures instead of still pictures, so this probably doesn't mean much.

Additional accessories in the box are a bit slim. There is no carrying case included, but Yuneec includes an additional set of propellers in case you damage the propellers that came with the drone. If you need additional batteries and a case, you'll need to switch to the X-Pack, which costs an additional $ 150. It contains a housing, three additional batteries and another set of replacement propellers. This is an additional expense, but costs less than if you had bought all of these items separately.

Our opinion

The Mantis Q is fighting a good fight, but dethroning DJI is not enough. Despite admirable specifications and features, the drone pales in comparison to many similarly equipped competitors. Ultimately, the lack of mechanical image stabilization is what spoils it. Flight control is great, the drone itself is durable and has most of the flight modes you need. However, since the 4K footage is not stabilized, this is not a drone that we would recommend.

Is there a better alternative?

We are of the opinion that there are camera problems with the Mantis Q. The DJI Spark only supports 1080p videos, average photo functions and a disappointingly short flight time, but achieves better results than the Mantis Q in almost every metric. It is disappointing. The latest drone from Yuneec feels more like a small step over the breeze than the evolutionary leap that would make it a competitor to DJI's Original Mavic Pro, Mavic Air or Mavic 2.

The Parrot Anafi drone is also worth considering. For $ 500, it offers most of the same features, better position hold, and drastically better camera setup. It also has a 3-axis gimbal with 180 degrees of tilt, so it's more stable and creative than what you get with the Mantis.

How long it will take?

We are absolutely not afraid that this drone will not stand the test of time and maybe better than Yuneec's Breeze for harder crashes. However, there is no hardware updatability here. So you see what you get. We fear that the Mantis Q may already be technologically out of date given the competition. This is worrying.

Should you buy it

No. If you're in the market for an inexpensive 4K drone, there are better options than the Mantis Q. The shaky video will frustrate you and the parrot Anafi circles around it in terms of image quality. Hell, even if the Anafi is not your speed, we recommend saving some money and getting on the DJI Mavic Air. There are better options out there.

Editor's recommendations

[ethicsustinvest]

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Top 100 US ESG companies for 2019 by CR Magazine. Profitably invest in harmony with your spiritual or religious ideals. Solar power breakthrough—but investing in solar has its perils. A valuable investing tip that really works. Confused who’s best, Uber or Lyft? An analyst compares them. Vanguard launches actively managed ESD ETF. And more.

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Transcript & Links May 26, 2019

Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By! for May 26, 2019. Presented by Investing for the Soul. investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investment resources.

Now to this podcast. And for any terms that are unfamiliar to you, simply Google them!

Also, you can find a full transcript, live links and often bonus material at my podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts

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The first item to discuss is CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2019! CR Magazine reviewed 1,000 US companies for their ESG practices. Robbie Lock, a writer for 3BL Association, commenting on the research results wrote that “Owens Corning tops the ranking, followed by Intel, General Mills, Campbell Soup and HP Inc… Twenty-seven companies are new to the ranking in 2019 including Allstate, Delta Airlines and Mondelez International. Biggest gainers include Ball Corp., CBRE, Ford and Xylem, Inc.”

Mr. Lock provides further clarification as to how CR Magazine obtains the rankings. Quoting him again, he says, ”The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking uses 134 total corporate disclosure and performance factors in seven categories: climate change, employee relations, environment, finance, governance, human rights, and stakeholders and society.”

Also, that the, “There is no fee for companies to be assessed. To compile this ranking, information is obtained from publicly available resources only, rather than questionnaires or company submissions. Companies have the option to verify data collected for the ranking at no cost.” Close quote.

I like the idea that companies don’t pay to be included in the research and the data compiled is from publicly available sources.

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The 100 Best Corporate Citizens demonstrate various degrees of above average corporate ethics, and ethics is a central theme for those wanting to apply their spiritual or religious beliefs to investing. If you’re interested in applying spiritual or religious values to investing, Meredith Jones just published in MarketWatch a post that could be of interest to you. It’s titled, “Opinion: When your faith guides your investing decisions, can you still beat the stock market?” And she says the answer can be yes.

Ms. Jones reviews the leading ETFs and mutual funds for investors interested in Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian-Bible related ethics and principles.

For Catholics, she likes the Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values ETF, LKCM Aquinas Catholic Equity Fund, and the Ave Maria group of funds.

For those of Jewish persuasion, she says there’s only one for now and that’s the AMIDEX35 Israel Mutual Fund which invests in Israeli companies.

For Muslims, there’s the Imam Fund IMANX the Amana group of funds and ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange including iShares MSCI World Islamic ETF ISWD and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic ETF ISUS.

And under the umbrella of Christian-Bible offerings, Ms. Jones reviews the Timothy Plan and Guidestone family of funds.

For links to these funds go to my podcast page for this edition at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts.

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In my last podcast, I introduced the research of Tim Nash at Corporate Knights. Well, he’s produced another research report that compares the pros and cons of investing in Uber or Lyft. You can read his full post under the title of Tim Nash’s sustainable stock showdown: Uber vs. Lyft.

Personally, I’m not keen on either company because I believe competition—not just between them but also other entrants including potentially motor vehicle manufacturers themselves—will force them to keep user prices low which will continue to severely restrict profits. Also, their environmental benefits are overplayed as I mentioned in my podcast of April 12.

Anyhow, this is what Mr. Nash says in conclusion, “I’d put Lyft ahead by a headlight in this week’s Sustainability Stock Showdown, but anyone that’s interested in investing in either stock should be ready to fasten their seat belts and brace for a bumpy ride.”

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One big area that I know might interest you is renewable energy. I have several items of news and information that I want to share with you concerning investing in this area.

The first thing you should know is that developments in new products are almost overwhelming. This industry has numerous innovative players and it’s very difficult to know who will eventually be a leader. Sure, you can buy renewable energy ETFs—and a good read on what to buy is an article that appeared recently on Nasdaq, titled, 5 Clean Energy ETFs to Buy for 2019.

But if you’re interested in individual companies, here’s what I’ve seen in the past two weeks.

The New York Times ran an excellent piece reviewing a Danish company called Orsted. They produce massive offshore wind turbines whose energy costs are rapidly declining while already being highly competitive with new natural-gas fired plants.

In solar power, there’s been a tremendous breakthrough in producing new solar panels that appear to be 20-25% more efficient than the best existing panels. A paper outlining the breakthrough appeared in ScienceDaily under the title, Breakthrough in new material to harness solar power. Who will manufacture, market and install such panels wasn’t mentioned.

Incidentally, these panels do have a downside—they contain some lead. I’m sure testing in rainy and humid environments will be needed and manufacturing processes and end-of-life disposal policies will be needed too, considering that most countries will want assurance about the safe removal of lead.

I did a detailed study on solar panel manufacturers a few years ago and discovered that the manufacturing processes themselves can be highly toxic. Furthermore, most countries had no end-of-life policies in place to deal with the safe disposal of the toxic components of solar panels—and that is deeply concerning!

It’s possible that the companies engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and installation of solar panels could at some point be hit with levies or fines in dealing with these issues.

At the time of my research, I was most impressed with SunPower and its environmental efforts.

So, one thing you might want to find out before investing in solar panel manufacturers is how they perform environmentally. A great resource for this is the Solar Power Scorecard produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. However, their last scorecard is a little dated and I’m hoping to see their new one soon.

Incidentally, Fox Business just reported on the huge growth of solar panel installation in the US in a post, titled, 2 Million U.S. Solar Installations Are Just the Start.

By the way, a tip for checking how investment analysts rate solar companies—or any companies for that matter—is simply to type into Google Search the name of the company followed by Reuters—the name of the media company—after it. Click search and then click the search item that says the company name and the text Reuters quote. Reuters will then bring-up a research report. Click on analysts in the links bar and you can see how analysts rate the stock of the company you’re researching.

By getting the information on how analysts rate the companies you’re interested in can be terrifically helpful in deciding which companies to invest in. It saves you a lot of time and effort. And this is exactly the kind of tip and help you get in my DIY Ethical-Sustainable Investing Pays Tutorial! This tutorial will be the most worthwhile 1-hour you’ll ever spend getting help with your investments!

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Some other exciting new developments that might interest you are the following.

Vanguard, one of the world’s largest fund companies, has launched its first actively managed ESG ETF, called the Global ESG Select Stock Fund (ticker VEIGX). It will officially begin trading on June 4. This is big as ETFs are mostly ‘passively’ managed, that is they pick a group of stocks typically based on an index, whereas active management means selling and buying different stocks as the managers see fit. In recent years passive investing has usually outperformed active investing. However, who knows what the future will bring.

Also, S&P Dow Jones, who have had ESG indices for many years is launching something new. They are launching ESG global indexes based on core regional and country benchmarks. What is especially interesting is that these indexes, and quoting their press release, provide “a return profile that's consistent with mainstream benchmarks that have been widely followed for years.”

As an aside, what you can do, where possible, is to review the indexes that interest you and see what companies are included in them. You can often get useful ideas for new companies to look at!

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So, these are my top news stories and tips for ethical and sustainable investors over the past two weeks.

Again, to get all the links or to read the transcript of this podcast and sometimes get additional information too, please go to investingforthesoul.com/podcasts and look for this edition.

And be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons in iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. That way you can help promote not only this podcast but ethical and sustainable investing globally.

And remember, I’m here to help you grow in your investment success—and investing in opportunities that reflect your personal values!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the content of this podcast or anything else investment related. I can’t say I’ll have all the answers for you and some answers I can’t give due to licensing restrictions. But where I can help I will.

Now, a big thank you for listening—and please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family.

Come again! My next podcast is scheduled for June 7. Bye for now!

Check out this episode!

[thelokhagroup]

Hogan Had Little Contact With Discovery Before Company Decided To Leave Silver Spring

Chair of Maryland Democratic Party contends governor’s actions were a ‘monumental failure of leadership’

The Discovery building in downtown Silver Spring. Credit: Joseph Zimmermann

Maryland government officials had little more than a month to try to convince Discovery Communications to remain in downtown Silver Spring after the company notified them shortly after Thanksgiving that it was considering leaving the state.

During that time, Gov. Larry Hogan spoke by phone once with Discovery CEO David Zaslav—on Dec. 8—before the multimedia company announced Jan. 9 it would vacate its Silver Spring headquarters. He never met with Zaslav, the head of one of the state’s four Fortune 500 companies.

State commerce officials initially met with Discovery officials Nov. 29—about four months after Discovery announced in late July it was acquiring Scripps Networks Interactive, based in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Meanwhile, Tennessee officials were credited by Scripps CEO Ken Lowe earlier this year with beginning talks with Discovery officials immediately about the company’s plans after the deal was announced last summer, according to published reports. Discovery eventually decided to move its headquarters to New York City and its operations center to Knoxville.

Discovery, which owns TV channels such as Discovery, Animal Planet and TLC, bought Scripps, which operates HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel, partly to give it more leverage with cable providers in negotiating channel fees.

Though state and Montgomery County officials say they made every effort to keep the company in Silver Spring, the governor’s apparent lack of involvement appears to be in sharp contrast to his recent efforts to lure Amazon to build its second headquarters in the county, which include shepherding a tax incentive package that could be worth as much as $5 billion through the General Assembly this spring.

Landing Amazon with its promise of 50,000 jobs could be a major coup for the state and county, but the loss of Discovery, with its 1,300 employees, is an economic blow, especially to downtown Silver Spring, where it had anchored the community’s revitalization with the opening of its headquarters in 2003.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, center, participates in a bill signing ceremony April 25 for the Amazon tax incentive package that’s part of his administration’s efforts to land the company in Montgomery County. Credit: Andrew Metcalf

Kathleen Matthews, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, said the record of Hogan’s communications with Discovery demonstrates his negligence. Matthews previously worked as the chief communications officer for Marriott, one of the three other Fortune 500 companies in the state.

“As somebody who worked for one of the largest corporations and major employers in Maryland for nearly a decade, I’m appalled that Gov. Hogan was so negligent and did not reach out to the CEO of Discovery, which is a major employer in our state,” Matthews said Wednesday. “I think for a governor who campaigned that Maryland would be open for business under his leadership, this was a monumental failure of leadership.”

The details about Maryland officials’ interactions with Discovery emerged in information provided to Bethesda Beat from Hogan’s office as well as emails between Discovery and state officials provided to the state’s Democratic Party through a public information request it made after Discovery announced it would leave Maryland. Those emails were shared with Bethesda Beat.

Amelia Chasse, the governor’s spokeswoman, said state officials did everything possible to keep Discovery in Silver Spring. She provided a schedule that showed Discovery representatives first advised the governor’s office Nov. 29 of the company’s potential relocation plans. Between that date and Jan. 9, when Discovery made its announcement, staff members from the governor’s office and Department of Commerce met or spoke on conference calls with Discovery officials another six times, according to Chasse.

Those meetings and calls mostly took place between Maryland Secretary of Commerce Mike Gill, his staff members, Hogan administration officials and David Leavy, Discovery’s chief corporate operations and communications officer.

Chasse wrote in an email Thursday that Hogan also spoke with Zaslav on Jan. 9, the day Discovery announced it would vacate the Silver Spring headquarters, move its global headquarters to New York City and locate its operations center at the Scripps campus in Knoxville.

“As soon as Discovery signaled their potential relocation, the Hogan administration worked swiftly with our partners in Montgomery County to fight to keep the company here in Maryland,” Chasse wrote in an email last week. “The state and county put together an aggressive, competitive incentive offering that ultimately was not able to prevail over financial and geographic realties resulting from Discovery’s merger with Scripps.”

Chasse accused the state’s Democratic Party of attempting to “score cheap political points” by criticizing Hogan for the loss of Discovery.

“The fact that Democratic leaders in Montgomery County who were actually involved in the negotiation process have offered nothing but praise for the role played by the governor and the administration raises the question of who the Maryland Democratic Party is serving with this false attack,” Chasse wrote in an email.

Matthews said Hogan, who is running for re-election in November, took every opportunity in his 2014 campaign to criticize Democrats for not being proactive in bringing jobs to Maryland.

“So it’s absurd to say this is a cheap political shot,” Matthews said. “We’re just holding the governor up to his own standards.”

The Silver Spring headquarters is Discovery’s largest office location and primarily home to the company’s operations, technology and corporate services employees, according to Discovery. The company does plan to keep a couple hundred of its employees in Maryland to handle government relations and other functions and is seeking office space. Discovery already has offices in New York, where Zaslav and many of its executives work. The company also maintains offices in Los Angeles, Miami, London, Singapore, Warsaw and Milan.

Besides Discovery and Marriott, the other Fortune 500 companies in Maryland are Lockheed Martin and Host Hotels and Resorts.

Neither state nor county officials provided details of the incentive package offered to Discovery during negotiations. Chasse said the state doesn’t typically release details of incentive packages that aren’t accepted. Jennifer McEachern, spokeswoman for the Tennessee economic development department, wrote in an email Thursday that she can’t share details about the Discovery incentive package because the contracts between the state and Discovery haven’t been finalized.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said in an interview last week the governor’s office worked cooperatively with county officials to try to keep Discovery in Silver Spring, but ultimately the company’s departure was due to changes in the television industry. He believes the state’s offer exceeded the incentive package offered by Tennessee, based on the information he was provided.

“Based on what we saw and what we did analyze, it was clear to us that it was not a question of the incentive package,” Leggett said, “but a business decision.”

He said Discovery was interested in expanding its digital media operations and Scripps was set up to excel in that portion of the business.

County spokesman Patrick Lacefield wrote in an email the county first met with Discovery officials about the Scripps merger on Nov. 21 and after that county officials had a continuing dialogue with Discovery staff about its plans. Leggett said he spoke with Zaslav during this time.

Lacefield wrote the county did not offer in writing any type of incentives to Discovery to stay in Silver Spring.

One government official with knowledge of the Discovery negotiations said on background that there were concerns about providing lucrative tax or financial incentives to Discovery to keep its offices in Silver Spring because of the company’s business struggles over the past few years. Some feared that investing in Discovery might not pay off if the company couldn’t turn its business model around as consumer dollars shifted from cable subscriptions to Netflix and other on-demand media and entertainment providers, according to the official.

Since mid-2014 the company’s stock price has declined from around $43 per share to around $24 per share in April, a figure that reflected a rebound from a previous low of about $16.50 per share in November. The company has experienced declining revenue from its cable TV channels as more people cancel cable subscriptions in favor of streaming services.

The emails and meeting descriptions provided to Bethesda Beat by the state Democratic Party also showed multiple attempts by a Discovery representative to set up a meeting between Hogan and Zaslav when the governor first took office in 2015.

Discovery lobbyist Robert Garagiola sent multiple emails requesting a meeting over three months before a 15-minute call with the governor was scheduled. After sending eight messages to Hogan’s scheduler and one request to Hogan’s brother, Patrick Hogan, Garagiola wrote to Hogan’s then-Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Richard on March 24, 2015, that he had “been trying to schedule a call between Discovery Communications CEO and Governor for more than 2 months.”

“Request was 10-15 min call,” Garagiola continued in the email. “More meet and greet. The sky is not falling for Discovery in MD; CEO had developed good rapport with [former governors Martin] O’Malley and [Bob] Ehrlich (as well as Govs in other states) and is seeking the same with Governor Hogan. They are a multi-billion worldwide communications business headquartered in MD … . Can you help facilitate?”

Hogan and Zaslav eventually spoke on the phone on April 20, 2015, three months after Hogan took office, according to the records.

In response to a question about why the initial call took so long to set up, Chasse wrote, “The governor had a call with Mr. Zazlav [sic] shortly after taking office, during which they developed and maintained a cordial relationship. Discovery officials have publicly attested to the strength of the company’s relationship with the state.”

When asked for details about the calls between Zaslav and Hogan concerning the company’s relocation plans, Leavy, the Discovery executive, said in an email to Bethesda Beat that Discovery does not discuss its interactions with government officials.

“I can share that we had extensive conversations at all levels of the Maryland State Government and the office of the Montgomery County Executive over the course of our deliberations,” Leavy wrote. “Those discussions were constructive, comprehensive and wide ranging. Maryland elected officials worked very hard and did their jobs in trying to find a solution for Discovery and for the state. No one ‘lost’ Discovery.”

Leggett said he spoke twice on the phone with Zaslav during the negotiations and that the CEO said that leaving Silver Spring was a tough decision for the company. At one point in the conversations, there was a proposed compromise that would have potentially split Discovery employees between Knoxville and Silver Spring, Leggett said.

Leavy wrote in an email to Bethesda Beat last month that Discovery chose New York City as the location for its new global headquarters because of the nature of the media business and because it “is the epicenter of the media industry.”

He wrote that Knoxville was chosen for Discovery’s operations office because it has “a strong community and amenities, favorable business climate, and a more favorable cost of living.” Leavy described the Scripps campus as “world class.”

A Kiplinger report noted that Scripps spends about half of what it costs Discovery to create content for its TV channels and websites.

The Scripps headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee. Credit: Google Maps

Chasse said part of the reason why Maryland officials didn’t seek meetings with Discovery prior to Nov. 29 was because they didn’t have any indication the company was considering leaving Silver Spring. She noted that in September, the state worked with the company to provide a $625,000 loan to help pay for renovations to its Silver Spring headquarters. Hogan said in a press release at the time the money would be used to enable the company to “expand their headquarters and consolidate their company.” The loan was scuttled after Discovery announced it would leave.

However, in September, Discovery officials were publicly saying they had not made a decision about the location of the company’s corporate headquarters following the merger with Scripps. Earlier, in late July, shortly after the deal was announced, a Discovery spokeswoman told Bethesda Beat the company had made no decisions about office locations.

While Maryland officials were not initially active in discussions with the company about its possible relocation, Tennessee officials had been engaged since the deal was announced.

Knoxnews.com, the Knoxville News Sentinel website, reported that Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and the Knoxville Chamber had been “talking to Discovery executives” since the Scripps sale was announced. City officials were initially concerned Knoxville would lose Scripps, but the city ended up landing Discovery employees instead.

Discovery’s decision to relocate company operations to Knoxville “took something that could have been perceived as lemons, with losing a major player, and turned it into lemonade with them making themselves a major presence in Knoxville,” Bill Lyons, the chief policy officer and deputy to Rogero, told the news organization.

Lyons added that the move would cement Knoxville’s role “as a hub for video production and distribution”—something that Discovery’s initial move did for Silver Spring after the company arrived there in 2003.

The article quotes Scripps CEO Ken Lowe with crediting Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, Rogero and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett with being “actively engaged with David [Zaslav] and Discovery since the day the deal was announced.”

Matthews said Hogan’s office mismanaged its interactions with Discovery.

“One of the basic functions of a governor is to protect their constituents’ livelihoods and jobs,” Matthews said. “It’s apparent from the record that Gov. Hogan sat on his hands after Discovery reached out multiple times to him and even after the merger was announced. Obviously Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam took advantage of the opportunity. He was proactive and as a result he was able to attract hundreds of high-paying Maryland jobs to Tennessee.”

Leavy previously said in an email to Bethesda Beat at the end of March that the company is “months away” from making decisions about potential layoffs or major employee relocations as part of the planned moves.

Discovery’s exit leaves downtown Silver Spring with a 10-story, 540,000-square-foot building needing a new tenant. Discovery owns the building and has contracted with the commercial real estate broker JLL to sell it. Leggett said last week there has been some interest in the building, but most of the interest has been in dividing the space to house multiple tenants. He said the county remains interested in attracting one or two major tenants.

David Petr, CEO of Montgomery County’s Economic Development Corp., told a County Council committee last week that he’s “cautiously optimistic” that a buyer will purchase the building, but he warned that a decision will not happen “in the next month or two.”

Source Article

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[steadysweetsconnoisseur-blog]

Top Best Drones In 2017 - Best Drones Available For Sale

Normally you can be confused when choosing the correct drone model. These days, a lot of releases and identical features can make drones harder to compare. In the drone industry you will find way too many drones with common abilities of 4k shooting, what seems a large factor in the video footage are actually the gimbal stability and bitrates. This is the complete list of the most impressive drones for helping individuals, specialists, and starters in differentiating the perfect drone for their needs.

Here Are The Best Drones For Consumers

The consumer drones are particularly manufactured for usage of the majority of folks who want to get a high quality footage effects with a reasonable price. Consumer drones are the everyday drones that can capture hd photos and capture movie shots. These drones listed here are 4K capable, and also their quality is similar to professional film video but at a fraction of the price of a professional drone. /> Find more about 4k vs 1080p comparison These drones can be your best fit, if you're searching to pay under $1800 for a flying drone in every day situations. />

DJI Phantom 4 Advanced vs Pro

/> For the best consumer drone model is picked DJI Phantom 4 Pro by lots of people. There are actually three new versions to the Phantom 4 sequence, and they're named: Phantom 4 Pro, Phantom 4 Pro +, and Phantom Pro Advanced. Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro + have potential to interchangeably switch from 2.4 GHz to 5.8 GHz, as well as side sensors and upgraded camera. The live view you'll get can be found in 1080p full Hi-def. It is critical to point out that the Phantom 4 Pro Plus features equipment of new side sensors for perfect flight stability. Most drones today have the regular 4K video, but the DJI Phantom 4 Pro + took it to another level and improved the video bitrate up to one hundred megabyte per second, giving you more high details to your videos. The flight time is raised by DJI company for about thirty minutes flight time. The camera is close to 12 stops of dynamic range which makes it a very good deal for the price; it's equipped with a 1" sensor, mechanical shutter, and it's very effective at shooting up to 20 mega pixels. Currently you can now have much more control for a good photography because of the mechanical shutter. Moreover, most of the drone users will have a huge help for merely every situation thanks to the numerous intelligent drone flight modes. Click here for finding more information on Phantom 4 Pro Camera settings/> The brand new DJI Phantom 4 series comes in two types: DJI Phantom 4 Pro and the DJI Phantom 4 Pro +. Those 2 drones comes with one and only distinction, and that's the controller; also there is a build-in display on the controller in the + version. The display screen is light enough for mid-day usage, but it will cost roughly $300 more. DJI company also has released a lower-price model known as DJI Phantom 4 Advanced. This version continues to be placed at number 1 because it contains the same characteristics as the Phantom 4 Pro drone, but it lacks the back sensors, the side sensors, and it only operates on a 2.4 GHz channel. The camera and anything else which makes a DJI product fantastic, is still there. The drone DJI Phantom 4 Pro +Advanced is positioned on the first place in the list of best drones simply because its features: its satisfactory 30 minutes flight time, great performance, 1" mechanical sensor, very high bitrate video capability. Click here for finding more about pros, cons and specifications of DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Phantom 4 Advanced

The initial cost of Phantom 4 Pro is $1500!

Phantom 4 Pro plus price is $1799.00!

The original price of Phantom 4 Advanced is $1350!

Second On The List - DJI Mavic Pro

This small 4K drone has obtained the reputation as one of the very best drones ever. Phantom 4 Pro can create images and videos of a better quality, but the Mavic’s sheer size is able to make this number 1 for many people. Depending on your requirements, the Phantom $ Pro + and the Mavic are interchangeable for the place number one. The compact frame makes this drone of the most powerful UAVs, especially for its $999 price tag. The Mavic Pro may also be flown just with a cellphone app, however if you use drone controller it can add more flight range and more control. DJI created the Mavic’s controller to be foldable in design, and it also has a live LCD status display. The Mavic can move up to 4.3 miles in range with its OcuSync technology, and its built-in 3830 mAh battery is rated to power the drone for approximately 27 minutes. DJI Mavic Pro is ideal for two things: great 4k videos and going 40 mph in sports mode. The vision sensor system works excellent for avoiding collisions and stable indoor flights. Don't be misled by its smaller size because it even comes along with dual sensors: forward and downward vision sensors. We must admit that in hover mode, the DJI Mavic Pro is one of the most stable drones.. We've chosen to put DJI Mavic Pro on the second place for consumer drones because of its performance, portability and price . Learn here about Mavic Pro specifications, pros and cons Mavic Pro price tag is $999.00!

3rd Drone On The List - Autel Robotics X-Star Premium

This may seem like a DJI drone, but it’s in fact made by another company. For a reasonable price of $800 you can find X-Star Premium that is 4k fly ready drone, but the thing is, you need to use your mobile phone to get its complete flight capabilities. It has a flight time of 25 minutes, and it can take pictures at 12 MP. What makes the X-Star Premium drone stabilized and secure is its GPS/GLONASS . It comes with 1 hour fast battery charger, a 64 GB microSD card and a premium hard case. Apart from the good accessories, its footage is stabilized with a 3-axis gimbal. You can also swap out its camera with several camera modules. The different flight modes like orbit and waypoint are vital parts of the X-Star Premium drone. At CES 2017 Autel introduced their FLIR Duo termal camera module together with their upgradable 20 megapixel camera with 1" CMOS sensor, but there is time to its official release. The X-Star Premium drone could be actually the best model for its upgrade capability and price IF those camera options become available! We are putting the X-Star Premium drone from Autel Robotis on number four at the consumer list of best drones because of its price to performance ratio despite their recent layoffs.

The X-Star Premium drone - ORANGE model can be purchased at a price tag of $799!

The drone X-Star Premium - WHITE model is available at a price of $749!

The #4 Consumer Drone - GoPro Karma

Even though they had a recall during their first release, the the users of GoPro who wish to integrate their action camera with a compatible drone should truly consider GoPro Karma drone. It is equipped with a backpack, ready to fly controller with a built-in screen, and a removable gimbal referred to as Karma Grip. You can take the GoPro action camera and combine it with this drone to work, or buy it all in a package deal. Because of their older GoPro Hero 4 action camera, the company GoPro has released a harness as well, so this shows that other cameras can be capable with the Karma. If the GoPro company releases another GoPro drone, that would mean that Karma will be capable of upgrading with a new action camera. Go Pro Karma Drone is capable of flying less than two miles in distance and up to 35 mph. Its Hero 5 camera is capable of shooting in 4K at 30 FPS, and it can shoot 12 mega-pixel photos. It also has some flight modes like selfie and orbit. The opportunity to shoot on foot and in the air with the same camera means easier and consistent video editing. If you are looking for a drone that can use a GoPro Hero 5, then this drone is the best one to get. This drone positioned #5 in the best drones list because it carries a GoPro Hero 5 action camera and detachable gimbal. By following this link you can find more about Karma drone pros, cons and specifications GoPro Hero 5 black + GoPro Karma Drone + Karma Grip (Gimbal) = USD 1099.99 ***********************************************************

Here Are The TOP Professional Drones For Photography And Film

These drones are designed for professionals who aim to bring their aerial footage to the next phase. These professional drones are different form other consumer drones because of their cameras and unique features. Some of these drones can also carry mirrorless and other small cinema cameras, and even DSLRs. The drone pros usually make use of these drones because of their professional video production and professional photography. Professional drones are heavier, give better pictures and videos and costs more than any other drone.

DJI Inspire 2 Drone - First Best Pro Drone

You believe 4k is great, but what about 5.2k?! DJI Inspire 2 is capable for shooting in CinemaDNG at 5.2k with a resolution of 5280 x 2972. The DJI Inspire 2 is extremely fast; it can easily go 0 to 50 mph in 5 seconds! Its highest velocity is 58 mph. The DJI Inspire 2 dual batteries are really powerful - providing up to 27 mins flight time. In addition, it has a self-heating battery system in case you need to fly in cold temperature. The camera that comes with this drone can easily be changed by swapping it out using upgraded module like DJI Zenmuse X5R, allowing the drone 12.8 stops of dynamic range.DJI Inspire 2 professional drone also has an infrared sensor for obstacles above the drone, a forward and downward vision system, and its obstacle sensing system can operate in the normal flight mode. An independent camera allows the pilot to see what is ahead while the main drone camera can separately rotate 360 °. You can also tap in a certain direction to create a flight route using the dedicated FPV camera. You will find multiple flight modes provided with the DJI Inspire 2 drone. One unique mode is termed Spotlight Pro; a flight mode able of tracking and locking onto a physical object like moving car. This DJI Inspire 2 drone also can go as far as 4.3 miles. This drone is all you ever want if you are searching for a pro drone for highest quality footages. The mix of portability and power can be found in the DJI Inspire 2. The DJI Inspire 2 is placed number one in the best drones list for professional drones because of its 5.2K capability, numerous flight modes and obstacle avoidance system.

The initial price of Inspire 2 (Camera + 5.2K CinemaDNG sold separately) is $3000 !

The Inspire 2 Premium Combo (CinemaDNG + Apple ProRes + Zenmuse X5S camera) - can be purchased at a price of $6198!

Click here for finding more about Inspire 2 specifications, pros and cons!

Matrice 600 Pro Drone - Second Best Pro Drone

This hexacopter is for drone pros looking to use DSLRs, DJI Zenmuse cameras, cinema cameras. The Matrice 600 Pro is great for professional aerial photography and film since it could be used as a complete production cinematography with a different gimbal. It supports Hasselblad cameras, ad higher end cameras, Red Epic cameras. It has a maximum payload of 13.2 lbs. It’ll come equipped with Lightbridge 2 support, DJI’s A3 Pro flight controller, and it works with the DJI Go app. It requires six batteries to use the Matrice 600 pro, and it is manufactured that way for a safest flight. But it's only a base model, like the Inspire 2 drone from DJI. Of course, camera and adaptor for different cameras remain to be required. Assemblage is needed mainly because it comes as a kit. The Matrice 600 can travel up to 3.1 miles far away and return a live 1080p view. This drone is a little on the large side, but this drone will guarantee a safe and accurate flight for your professional camera and gimbal setups. This drone was rated # two in the best drones list for professional drones mainly because it isn’t as portable as the DJI Inspire 2, but the camera options are better on the Matrice. We've probably would think about putting Matrice on the top if this wasn't a concern. Price of Matrice 600 is $4999.00

PowerVision PowerEye Drone - Best Pro Drone

This professional drone is from a drone company that is fairly new, but the PowerEye drone has some impressive features. This 4K drone comes with a distinct micro 4/3 lenses and Panasonic Lumix G camera with a 14mm f/2.5 lens. Its interchangeable lens system even enables a 14mm to 42mm zoom lens. The PowerEye drone has self-balancing gimbal system which is supporting the swappable lens design. Just like DJI Inspire 2, this drone has a very similar dual camera system; there's a front First-Person-View camera , it has separate micro 4/3 camera which can rotate 360 ° and can shoot 16 megapixel images. The PowerEye is made with a collapsible design for travel comfort. PowerEye drone is capable of traveling up to 3.1 miles. In addition, it includes a front obstacle avoidance system that can detect objects within 32 feet. The PowerEye drone has also won a 2017 reddot Award for product design. The PowerEye drone is easy to carry around thanks to the handles on the sides. A rolling case and a base station will also be included with the purchase of the PowerEye drone. PowerEye drone also has vision positioning and sonar system to help it fly inside. Two drone controllers also come with this drone, so one can be used to pilot the drone while the other one can be used for the camera. The drone legs are created with carbon fiber and the landing gear is retractable. The 2 drone bateries are packed in one battery pack. It is now available for sale, and it will take 6-8 weeks to ship if you order it from PowerEye but you can select one of these up from BH Photo and Video. We've placed PowerEye drone on the list of best professional drones for 2017 because of its interchangeable lens system and flight time. The initial price tag of PowerEye drone is $3988 Here you can find more details on PowerEye pros, cons and specifications! ***********************************************************

Best Selfie Drones

These drones are your everyday drones which are made to be convenient and portable. A few of these drones you can place them inside your back pocket. Since you can logically conclude, the selfie drones have short flight-time, but they're so small that can fit inside your hand. If you'd like an angle that a drone can get , then a compact selfie drone is the perfect option for you because it could easily capture group photos and even shoot HD videos. These types of drones are perfect for images of your own self or large group shots. If you're enthusiastic about posting pictures on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, then you should certainly consider purchasing a selfie drone.

The #1 Selfie Drone - DJI Spark

DJI Spark is smallest and lightest drone on the market found in numerous colors. This selfie drone is compact and full of lot of features. Not only does this drone provide the smoothest video for its size, but also it has obstacle avoidance system and various shooting modes. If paired with DJI Goggles, this drone is capable of first-person-view flights. With DJI Spark you can even enjoy a Panorama mode, and take a great horizontal or vertical panorama photos. The mode Shallow Focus is also included; this mode is similar to the Iphone 7 portrait mode mainly because it allows the drone to focus on the foreground rather than the background of a image. The DJI Spark drone can be managed without a drone controller and it has a max range of 1.2 miles. But how can we compare DJI Spark and Mavic Pro? The unique feature of the DJI Spark drone is the facial recognition. You can operate this drone with a simple palm gestures , and it may even make you feel like a Jedi. You can purchase an optional $150 foldable controller for precise controlling the DJI Spark drone or you could make use of DJI Go application - its your choice. When using the controller you can make DJI Spark go fast as 31 mph. This selfie drone also can keep track of physical objects. On top of the obstacle avoidance system, the Spark is equipped with GPS and GLONASS that provides secure and accurate flight. With its 2-axis mechanical gimbal, the drone can shoot high quality 12 mega-pixel pictures and can capture stabilized 1080p full high definition videos. The DJI Spark is placed number 1 in the top drones list for selfie drones because it is simple to use, it has multiple flight modes, and it has the very best gimbal for its size. The DJI Spark drone can be purchased at a cost of $499

Yuneec Breeze Drone For Selfie Junkies

This app-controlled 4K selfie drone is ready to fly, and it is managed by the Breeze Cam app. Yuneec Breeze comes with a several flight modes such as follow me mode, pilot mode, orbit mode, selfie mode and more. The purchase of a Breeze comes with an additional battery and a carrying case. The Yuneec drone is ideal for a stable fly both outdoors and indoors as a result of its infrared positioning sensors and optical flow. The Breeze comes with an auto return to home safety and auto landing feature. It can shoot 13 MP pictures at a resolution of 4160 x 3120. There's an option to the electronically stabilize your videos, however it only works in 1080p. You can find an application that is optimized for the drone for sharing to the social media profiles like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. It can travel a distance of 328 ft. . The Yuneec Breeze can be combined with an optional controller and First-Person-View goggle system. The Yuneec controller is related to Play Station 4 controller, and there's an option to connect the controller directly to your phone for a live 720p view. Yuneec Breeze is best used for everyday selfie pictures and group shots. We've placed Yuneec Breeze on the list of top selfie drones for 2017 simply because of its unique capabilities of FPV and 4k The cost of Yuneec Breeze is $399.99 Click here for finding more about Yuneec Breeze drone specifications, pros and cons! And we are finally done with our list for 2017 top drones. We've mentioned: few drones for selfies, few professional drones, few consumer drones for everyday use. If you believe that we've got to discussed another drone in the list, we are pleased to hear your opinions below in the comments. For more information about most up-to-date drone and uav news, visit We Talk Uav website!

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Gaming Weekly: 'Assassin's Creed' bombs and 'Devil's Third' closes

Gaming Weekly (12/25-1/1): Assassin’s Creed Film Hits Rough Waters; Devil’s Third Multiplayer Servers Close

2016 ended calmly in terms of gaming developments, and in many ways, that’s a good thing. Let’s take a look at the video-game news produced by the last seven days, as well as what early 2017 will bring!

Assassin’s Creed Movie Flunks at the Box Office

Nine days after its official release in the US and France, Assassin’s Creed the movie has hardly been a commercial or critical success. Like always, I’d recommend disregarding critical opinions of the film and seeing it in theaters if it looks interesting, but objectively speaking, the sales figures for Assassin’s Creed are really, really bad.

The fifty-million-dollar box office profits generated by the film at the time of writing this piece have been earned against a one hundred and twenty-five million dollar budget—a loss of seventy-five million dollars! Most of these funds were likely used for the development of CGI effects, which were a fixture of the two and one half-hour-long blockbuster. The point is, things don’t look great for Assassin’s Creed.

I voiced my concern with the film’s prospects of success before it was released, and although I didn’t want to be proven right, I was. Figuring out that the movie wouldn’t be successful wasn’t tough to do.

First, fans are sick of anything Assassin’s Creed-related since Ubisoft released several comic books, countless games, and plenty of other media over the past decade for the series. Second, one hundred and twenty-five million dollars is a LOT of cash to make back. Third, few individuals are interested in dedicating two and a half hours to a video-game-based film. And fourth, video games movies have been failures historically; from 2016 alone, Warcraft underwhelmed financially and Ratchet and Clank—a movie seemingly well-equipped to excel given the incredible characters of Ratchet and Clank, all-star cast, and the series’ already-gorgeous animation—failed to earn back its modest twenty-million-dollar budget.

If a Ratchet and Clank film featuring John Goodman, Sylvester Stallone, and Paul Giamatti couldn’t make its budget back, why would any other video game movie be able to do so?

Devil’s Third Multiplayer Servers Close After Just Sixteen Months

Devil’s Third, a poorly received action-slasher and shooter that received ample press upon its 2015 release, closed its multiplayer servers this week—just sixteen months after they started hosting matches. The Wii U-exclusive didn’t receive much support from critics, and commercially, it didn’t perform very well outside of Japan.

I had a chance to play the title in the weeks leading up to its server closures, and I was surprised at how much fun it was—online and in single player. While not perfect, Devil’s Third is a refreshing and exciting action title, especially when its platform is considered. It’s multiplayer, when others were available to play with, was top-notch—in terms of excitement and enjoyment.

True, the game’s mechanics aren’t without issue, but overall, Devil’s Third is a well-made title. Multiplayer modes are diverse and detailed, weapons and attacks are plentiful, and online play is mainly fluent and free of lag, in Devil’s Third.

The biggest factor that limited the title’s success, unfortunately, was a poor supply-and-demand model from Nintendo, in coordination with essentially nonexistent marketing. Devil’s Third has been on store shelves (in the select few locations you can find it!) for sixteen months now, and because of a limited supply, its price hovered at over $150 for most of this time! Thus, fewer interested gamers—me included—were able to play the title as early as they wanted.

Nintendo’s expert response to this conundrum wasn’t to lower prices, increase availability, and actually market Devil’s Third—that would be too logical! Instead, they’ve further limited availability and shut down the title’s multiplayer function entirely. I’m sure that’ll help move more units!

The point is, if Nintendo had produced a reasonable number of copies for Devil’s Third, gave it a bit more of a marketing push, and actually wanted it to succeed, it would have performed much better commercially. If worse came to worse, the title could have been made free-to-play, relying on micro-transactions for revenue so that a constant influx of players would be available.

My rant is over, but I think everyone can admit that it’s tough to see any form of media fail because of availability issues and a lack of effort behind its marketing. This isn’t to say that Devil’s Third would have been a smashing success had additional measures been taken, but I can say for certain that it wouldn’t have done worse.

January to Reignite Video-Game Release Schedule

The video-game industry took a small break in releasing groundbreaking new titles for the last couple weeks, but new software will be launched once again—and in a big way—to kick off 2017.

These releases will begin once again with the PS4-exclusive Gravity Rush 2, which will become available on January 18. This title looks better, bigger, more diverse, and ultra-interesting, in comparison to its Vita-exclusive brother, Gravity Rush. Action-adventure fans and PS4 owners in general shouldn’t miss this one.

After that, gamers on each of the current-gen consoles will have a horrifying survival experience to tackle in Resident Evil 7. Set to release on January 24 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, RE7 is appealing for a number of reasons—mainly that it seems to have taken the long-running Resident Evil series back to its horror roots. Furthermore, the entire game will be playable—from start to finish—with PlayStation VR. This is undoubtedly a huge selling point for all you VR junkies!

High-profile releases will continue well through the first month of the year, as Ubisoft’s new multiplayer franchise, For Honor, will launch on February 14. Additionally, on February 28, Horizon: Zero Dawn will hit store shelves, and this must-buy title will undoubtedly please PS4 owners.

Accordingly, there are plenty of awesome games to look forward to in 2017—not to mention a new console in the Nintendo Switch!

Thanks for reading about the latest gaming developments and news here at Movie TV Tech Geeks in 2016, and here’s to an incredible 2017!

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