We loved that idea so much that we asked if we could hire them and build a team around them.” “We brought them in and showed them the game and they came up with this amazing pitch of what would it feel like to step into one of your paintings and go into the world of the genies and carry on painting in full 3D all around you. “Jeff and I reached out to some old friends of ours we used to work with, Jeff Brown and Dave Smith,” says Robilliard. Unfortunately, the team was too small to handle the development of a VR option at the time, so they brought in some help. “Everyone very quickly made the connection of ‘wouldn’t Concrete Genie be awesome in VR?’ because of the painting mechanic in it,” Robilliard says. Concrete Genie offers two VR modes: a narrative-driven experience with one of the characters in the game and a free paint mode with multiple different locations from the main story. One of the features added was a VR component. He credits Sony Interactive’s Worldwide Studios, of which PixelOpus is a subsidiary, for allowing them the “extra time” to get the game where they wanted it. “It took us three attempts to get the painting mechanics where they are now,” says Robilliard. The game’s release was delayed a number of times as the team worked to get everything in order tweaking this, adding that. “It’s not just Ash’s artwork that the bullies are ruining in this game, it’s your artwork.” “We knew just from the very beginning that if we were going to take this on we’d have to make sure we had something meaningful to say about it in the gameplay,” adds Robilliard. Our main goal was to make anyone feel like they had that feeling of creativity and celebrate making artwork.” “We did quite a bit of pre-vis, as 2D stills, but also traditional hand-drawn animation to make sure that we made each brush stroke feel like it would come to life. “We were really inspired by stop-motion animation and particularly the way lighting hits a practical object,” says Sangalli. Denska is at times drab and oppressive, drenched in soggy grays and muted blues, but also vibrantly hued once Ash, aided by his genie pals, breathes color back into them. The game sports two very different aesthetics, both of which tie into its narrative. This story is really about Ash as an artist and the kids in the neighborhood.” “What became evident was that to make sure the city itself didn’t become too large of a character or too big in scale to overpower the story of the kids. “The whole world you see was built by two people on our team,” Jeff Sangalli, art director, shares. Artistic expression is a big part of the experience, but building the mechanics behind the magic was no easy task, particularly for a team of only 20 individuals (at its max - often, during development, the Concrete Genie dev group was only 10 employees). “We came up with a whole bunch of ideas, of which Concrete Genie was one, and one thing that became abundantly clear to us was that every single idea had some meaningful concept or idea at the heart of it.”Ĭoncrete Genie features a unique gameplay dynamic as players are offered a variety of options to construct Ash’s genies and bring them to life. “When we finished Entwined, we sat down as a group and agreed that we really, really wanted to grow our ambition with the second game,” says Robilliard. Unlike its first game (2014’s Entwined, which was, as Robilliard puts it, a “student project” in many ways), Concrete Genie was a much more ambitious undertaking from the get-go. “Those elements of an artist, the bullying and painting these living characters in the wall were right there from the very first day.” That was the first image ever created for the game,” PixelOpus creative director Dominic Robilliard tells The Hollywood Reporter. He was imagining they were sticking up for him. “The concept was a little boy being bullied and painting these huge characters on a wall. The concept for the game (and the main character’s name) came from a single painting done by PixelOpus VFX artist Ashwin Kumar. 'Angry Birds' Maker Rovio's Sale Talks With Israel's Playtika End, Strategic Review Continues
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The finance leaders of this third wave need a different set of tools to be successful and effective. While COVID-19 sped up cloud adoption curves, it also exposed these challenges, and has ushered in a new CFO persona. The Wave 2.0 tools have, on one hand, saved finance teams time and money, but they’ve also surfaced a whole new set of challenges, including an unwieldy amount of tools to manage, difficult data portability, and lack of real-time visibility. Additionally, during this time, fintech infrastructure tools also sprung up to enable more seamless payments (mostly payment acceptance, but also payouts). Notably, these tools did not require an army of people to implement and operate. Wave 2.0 tools built in additional analytics and automation capabilities to free up finance teams’ time to focus on more strategic and multi-dimensional activities. The core functions were disaggregated to create an ecosystem of best-of-breed players thriving off the sprawl of monolithic ERP systems. As a result, Wave 1.0 of the CFO stack emerged to “unbundle” the ERP with cloud-based solutions, similar to what we initially saw happen in the early days of fintech, which unbundled banks, or general workflow software, which unbundled Google and Microsoft. However, ERP platforms are still only mid-leap in modernizing and are saddled with legacy on-prem systems and version sprawl. Pre-2000, CFOs mostly relied on ERPs as their source of truth and core workflow tool. This implies that CFOs increasingly possess the cross-functional skillsets and dynamic characteristics that qualify them for the CEO role. While credentialing is a lagging indicator, we can look to another finding in the study as a leading indicator: more CFOs are being promoted to CEOs over time, with the percentage of CEOs rising through the CFO role increasing from 5.6% in 2012 to 8.1% in 2022. This Third Wave can be evidenced by a 2022 study by executive search firm Crist|Kolder Associates, which found that CFOs are increasingly credentialed with MBAs rather than CPAs, where the percentage of CFOs with MBAs have increased from 45.8% in 2017 to 51.5% in 2022, while those with CPAs declined slightly from 35.1% to 34.9% in the same period. just weekly / monthly batching) from different functional groups and geographies, which mostly sat in disparate systems. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic required CFOs to make faster decisions based on aggregated, real-time data (vs. This wave of CFOs must have:ġ) the ability to utilize data in increasingly complex waysģ) a developed “CXO” (chief everything else officer) level of contribution Wave 3.0 – Another shift has materialized in recent years.Additionally, introduction of ASC 606 revenue recognition standards in 2017 increased operational complexities, which resulted in more detailed record keeping needs that in turn, made errors even more expensive. Increased emphasis was placed on communication skills and FP&A experience. Coming out of the financial crisis, CFOs started to become more strategic, as companies relied on CFOs to manage risk, enhance liquidity, and position businesses for long-term growth.
Players will bring a Cold War arsenal of weapons and equipment into the next evolution of Treyarch’s signature Zombies co-operative experience.īlack Ops Cold War will also support and build on the hit, free-to-play experience Call of Duty: Warzone. Jump into the next generation of Global Combat. Heads up gameplay, automated healing, grounded operator movement plus innovative new systems bring the most cinematic moments to life and results in that signature Black Ops Combat.īlack Ops Cold War is set to support cross-platform and cross-generation play as well as cross-progression, breaking ground for the Call of Duty franchise as it introduces the next generation of global combat.ĭeniable Operations, Signature Black Ops Combat, a new take on gunsmith, new and fan favorite scorestreaks, new maps, new modes and a host of new characters to play as. Deniable Operations lie at the heart of this Multiplayer experience to build a unique but pure Black Ops experience with new modes and ways to play.īlack Ops Cold War takes that classic Black ops Multiplayer feel and brings it to new heights. Jump into a realistic and gritty world of off the books missions and off-the-record targets. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Standard Edition Activision PS4 Standard Edition 19.79 59. Nothing is ever as it seems in a gripping single-player Campaign, where players will come face-to-face with historical figures and hard truths, as they battle around the globe through iconic locales like East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey, Soviet KGB headquarters, and more. 'Know your history or be doomed to repeat it. Physical Game Format For Sony PlayStation 4 Single-Player Campaign Competitive Multiplayer Black Ops. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War Video Game genre: Action developer: Treyarch publisher: Activision Blizzard platform: PC, PS4, XONE, PS5, XSX More About Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War Tencent and Chinese Censorship of Video Games - A Growing Menace Chinese censorship is like taxes. Black Ops Cold War will drop fans into the depths of the Cold War's volatile geopolitical battle of the early 1980s. The iconic Black Ops series is back with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - the direct sequel to the original and fan-favorite Call of Duty. Activision Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PS4). So: I typically make a nice strong 10 oz cup of coffee with my 12g ofīeans containing a maximum of 120mg (or 1% of the coffee mass) caffeine. It means caffeine is 2.5-4.0% of the solids (380 mg) in an ounce of "optimal" brewed coffee or 5.0-8.3% of the solids (600 mg) in an ounce of espresso. says brewed coffee ends up with 8-15 mg caffeine per oz and espresso 30-50 mg caffeine per oz. On the other hand,the caffeine is probably more soluble than the other parts of the bean,so even though it's only 1% of the mass of the beans it's probably more than 1% of the dissolved solids. That would be the upper limit if the coffee solids were pure caffeine, but they can't be. (29.57 g) and contains 1-2% coffee solids (so about 300-600mg, or 380mg solids for optimal brewed coffee and 600mg solids for espresso). So 1 fl oz of brewed coffee or espresso weighs almost the same as water "a typical espresso will contain on average 1.8-2.2%" Typical American-style brewing methods and water ratios result inġ% (weak) to 1.65% (too strong) disolved coffee solids, with 1.25% That scoop of beans will have no more than 120mg caffeine. The strongest or biggest/weakest cup of coffee I can brew with That should be an upper limit to this estimationĮxercise. With any amount of water I will be consuming the 120 mg (1% of 12g) of caffeine So if I eat that scoop of beans or grind them finely and drink them Once and am not comparing light or dark roasts which will vary in weight One scoop ofīeans weighs about 12 grams (yes I tared the scoop, but I did only weigh I use a 2 Tbsp scoop to measure beans before I grind them. If you have a health concern like wanting to stay under the 300 mg guideline for pregnant women, you should be able to use this as the upper limit: each 10g of Arabica coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine. Though Robusta (less common and usually blended with Arabica in cheaper coffees) has Typical premium roasted Arabica coffee beans like mine contain close to 1% caffeine by mass when measured by spectrophotometer (p 311) 100% Robusta beans (uncommon) could be about double the caffeine.Įxplanation below: Maximum caffeine content These numbers are for typical 100% Arabica or mostly Arabica blends. Weakly extracted coffee might yield 0.6% of its weight in caffeine and very strongly extracted coffee might get close to 1% caffeine. For any amount of "good strength" American-style coffee by any brew method, weigh the dry coffee in grams and multiply by 0.008, or 80mg of caffeine for each 10g of dry coffee. I think it should be roughly ☒0% accurate. I read everyone's answer and did some of my own research to find an estimation method that satisfies me and might be helpful to others too. Using R600a high efficiency and low energy consumption compressor, this freezer can cool quickly. Low Noise& Energy Saving - Less or equal to 40dB,with lower noise level, you could hardly feel it.Can be controlled from -7.6℉ to 6.8℉(- 14℃ to - 22℃).the higher the level, the colder the temperature.The bottom drain makes defrosting easy. Temperature Adjustable - The 2.8 Cubic Feet chest freezer has adjustable 7-grade temperature control on the front of Freeze.It could be used to save seafood, ice cream, meat, etc. Large Capacity& Space Saving - Measures: 20.94"x17.32"x32.17", 2.8 cubic Feet Compact Freezer saving design allows you to put large amount of food in your kitchen.And 7*24h customer support, if there is any questions, just feel free to contact us. Before using the tiny freezer, leave it upright for at least 24 hours. 【Contents of the Package】1x deep freezer, 1x basket, 1x Ice shoveel are included in the package.To balance the freezer on an uneven surface, it has adjustable leveling legs. The contents of the meat freezer were easily visible beneath it. Small items can be kept, slid, and moved with ease in the removable storage basket. 【Design that is user-friendly】Our deep freezer chest's door hinges are angled at 45° to 90°.Furthermore, noise levels below 40 decibels guarantee a restful night's sleep. Per day, only 0.6 kilowatt-hours of power are required. 【Energy Saving & Quiet】This chest freezer can cool quickly thanks to the R600a high efficiency and low energy consumption compressor.The unit's power on (red) and run (green) lights show that it is operational. The temperature can be changed from 6.8 to -7.6☏. The freezer's cooling system is turned off by pressing "0" (OFF). "1" is the warmest number, and "7" is the coldest. 【Adjustable Thermostat Control】Using the 7-grade temperature control, set the desired temperature.It could be utilized at home, in dorms, in the kitchen, or at the office. The Large Capacity can be used for a variety of things, including breast milk, meat, aquatic items, cold drinks, rapid freezing, and more. 【Compact Design with a Big Capacity】The space-saving design of this 3.5 cubic foot free standing chest freezer measures 21" * 21.7" * 31". It is best to keep the mini fridge upright for at least 24 hours before use.
Heart rate and body temperature data can help wearers stay informed of their body’s performance stats and improve their performance over time.īiometric sensors can also send the electrical signal from the garment and into the muscle via Electrical Muscle Stimulation, commonly referred to as E-Stim or EMS. They can arm themselves with an alarm if their heart rate spikes or is too high and they need to take a break, such as during extensive hikes on difficult terrain or at different altitudes. Through measuring heart rate, users can measure when they’ve gotten to optimal heart rate intervals for warmup/cooldown, cardio, or weight loss levels. Conductive silver or carbon inks can be screen-printed into thin, flexible, wireless sensors that pick up biometric signals from the skin while worn within a wearable athletic garment, making this smart clothing technology not only wearable but also portable for athletes and gymgoers.This means that while the wearer is exercising, their fitness gear itself can measure heart rate, breath rate, or body temperature. While traditional wired biometric sensors have been used in hospitals and medical settings for decades, biometric sensors can also be made without wires via printed electronics. However, biometric sensors require no chemical presence and instead react on electrical signals coming from the body through contact with the skin. Two main types of these sensors are biosensors and biometric sensors, which sound similar but function differently.īiosensors refer to a sensor that reacts to a fluid or chemical present at the sensor’s location, such as a glucose monitor which reacts to blood, or a hydration sensor that measures the salinity of sweat. Several different types of sensors are used to measure health data on the body. Wearable Biometric Sensors for Informed Workout Data There are three main types of wearable technology best suited for sports and fitness applications: biometric sensors, flexible heaters, and force-sensing resistors. They are not only portable, lightweight, and comfortable, but they’re also waterproof - a key feature in any athletic garment that will be subject to sweat or rainy conditions. This smart clothing can be worn much like any other apparel option. By screen-printing wearable electronics from start to finish, the weight and wires of traditional electronics are gone. Inks like carbon and silver conduct electricity and can be screen-printed into thin, flexible circuitry before being incorporated into lightweight athletic clothing. Printed electronics manufacturing has revolutionized the smart clothing market by focusing on the user experience of athletes or fitness connoisseurs who have a desire for smart clothing. Your performance and experience will suffer anyways, nullifying any potential benefits. You can’t clear your mind and focus on the game with a computer tied to your arms or legs. A heavy piece of equipment, and the wires necessary to keep it functional, are the last thing you want to be distracted by, whether you’re a professional athlete on the field or simply opting for a morning jog. Not only can this data help people stay informed and healthy, but it can also improve their training and performance.When athletes are up and moving, they can’t be fumbling around in a mess of wires. The same technology in devices like heart pressure monitors at your local pharmacy or foot pressure monitors like those you see at running shoe stores can be applied to portable, wearable devices so that you can have this technology personalized to you and accessible no matter where you are. Popularized by smartwatches like the Apple Watch, wearables have become a staple of tech-conscious consumers as they function much like any smartphone or computer and track health data for the wearer. Wearables can also be called smart clothing, e-textiles, smart fabrics, or smart garments. Wearables are smart electronics worn close to or in direct contact with the skin and can consist of various technology solutions, such as a simple pair of Bluetooth headphones or a more complex electronic that analyzes body data or monitors changes in the wearer’s environment. Wearable technology, commonly referred to as “wearables”, has become incredibly popular with fitness-focused consumers in the past decade. Five modes of play include Turf Wars, Home Turf, Street Challenge Cup, Exhibition, and Multiplayer. Stringing together multiple moves in succession earns players skill points used to upgrade teams, unlock mini-games, and open up other bonuses. Each athlete can perform advanced moves, such as scissor kicks, midair juggles, bicycle kicks, and more with relative ease using a simplified control system designed for combos. Instead of organized teams, players choose from a motley group of 16 gangs, each wanting to prove once and for all who should rule the streets. Replacing the traditional fields of grass is an assortment of concrete battlegrounds with oil drums serving as goalposts. The game consists of four-on-four action with no rules to speak of other than to survive the match unharmed. The hard-hitting, gritty action of the streets is the focus of Urban Freestyle Soccer, which Acclaim hopes does for soccer what titles like NBA Street did for basketball. Always choose a spot downwind from your campsite.Clear away any sticks, leaves or scrubs from your firepit area.Look up and check that there are no low-hanging branches.Find a cleared area with little to no grass on the ground.In addition, you will need plenty of tinder, kindling, and logs or branches of varying widths.īegin the lesson by explaining how to choose a location for your campfire: Though there are several fire-starting tools, set your youngsters up for success by using the simplest of these: a long-stem lighter. The goal of this exercise is for kids to successfully build and maintain a fire. Once you feel your group has a firm grasp on orienteering, it’s time for their final test. Do not provide instruction unless necessary see if they can work it out on their own. For example, begin at a river marked on the map and have them make their way to a nearby road. Give simple directions in a small area such as “ travel 5 steps north, 10 steps west, and 8 steps south.” Make sure they can properly identify each direction and arrive in the proper place.Īdditionally, have them travel as a group from one landmark to another using a map and compass. Once the kids have a firm grasp on the cardinal directions and using the map and compass together, have them practice finding North on their own compass. Landmarks can include your house, a road, body of water, or whatever other identifiable locations you find yourself near. Introduce the kids to the concept of triangulation, or pinpointing your location, using the landmarks around them. Using these two tools, you can find your way from one location to another the use of a map and compass the travel from one point to another is called orienteering. Align the Northern direction on the map with the arrow on the compass. Once you’ve gone over the cardinal points, take out a map and direct their attention to the compass rose, which indicates the same cardinal directions on the map. You should also point out the midpoint directions like Northwest, Southeast, etc. Have the kids gather-round while you point out the cardinal points on a compass, explaining how the arrow on the compass always points North. JPM established a strategic plan to drive technological changes though Payment Trends, Digital Wallet, and Infrastructure Evolution. JPM developed operational and technical insights to further enhance client engagement, retail banking and retention. They also solidified strengths and identified opportunities to reinforce the banks’ role in local community. When mentoring Liberty bank, JPM worked to add Liberty Bank clients to the JPM ATM network, which allows Liberty Bank customers fee-free access to all JPM ATMs. When mentoring their protégé banks, JPM customized their approach by implementing specific strategies to serve each bank’s needs. JPM has offered their protégé banks a full array of collaborative opportunities to realize short term and long-term success. Morgan (JPM) announced its partnership with Harbor Bank of Maryland and Liberty Bank and Trust Company. JP Morgan – The Harbor Bank of Maryland and Liberty Bank Read more about the PNC-INB collaboration. INB’s eagerness to learn and the experience gained through participation with the current Financial Agent Agreement, resulted in PNC and INB meeting to assess opportunities to incorporate INB’s capabilities into new and existing Federal programs. The AVS implementation was no small feat, consisting of four months of daily implementation meetings with Fiscal and IRS, which included a real-time virtual security end-to-end assessment. INB has participated in Fiscal Service scheduled conference calls/events such as Industry Day, Covid-19 Update Calls, several FASP response preparation/submissions and on the Account Verification Service (AVS) implementation. Besides training opportunities, INB participates in Fiscal Service operations and events. PNC and INB have regular scheduled opportunity and training meetings to discuss Financial Agent selection process ( FASP) Response Preparation, Security Compliance, Agency Program Descriptions, and IT Connections. The PNC-INB partnership has grown through the years, starting with visits to both banks headquarter locations to tour operations facilities, discussions on PNC’s Financial Agent Programs, presentations on both banks service capabilities, and introductions to each other’s Executive Management teams. Also, read how BNY Mellon and Optus Bank are helping build a foundation for growth in the Optus Bank’s community. Read the press release about the BNY Mellon – Optus Bank collaboration. This ongoing collaboration has given BNY Mellon and Optus the opportunity to work even more closely together throughout 2020 and the pandemic, strengthening Optus’s consumer banking framework with the successful implementation of Account Validation Services (AVS) in April 2020. Mentor-Protégé Partnerships in Action BNY Mellon – Optus BankīNY Mellon and Optus Bank are working together to expand Optus’s capacity, market reach, and community reinvestment opportunities while taking advantage of BNY Mellon’s breadth of products, services, and infrastructure. Please enable JavaScript to use all features. Some features of this site will not work with JavaScript disabled. Funny, I’d remembered it by someone more famous, but can’t recall who I had in mind. I couldn’t remember who sang it an online search brought up someone called Erika Eigen. PS The novel reminded me (incongruously, given the darkness of its plot) of that jaunty, cheesy song ‘I want to marry a lighthouse keeper’. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’d rather read Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner. If Emma Stonex had trimmed the length considerably this could have worked as a Stephen King kind of mystery with spooky overtones. The boredom of the men’s routine seeps into the narrative in ways that renders it tedious. The narrative is flat and often tone deaf, despite some vivid descriptions of the seascapes. It should be a riveting thriller – but it’s often slack and unengaging. The women have tensions of their own between them too. A visit from a man purporting to be a repair engineer becomes a sort of demonic intrusion – he seems to know all their secrets. It’s structured in alternating time periods: 1972, in which the events leading up to the disappearance are narrated, from the viewpoint of the three keepers, and 1992, when the local writer interviews the widows of the two older men, and the woman who’d been the youngest’s girlfriend at the time.Īll three men have secrets and clandestine motives for either doing away with the others, or for feeling threatened by criminal or other menacing outside forces. I found the novel much too long, however. There’s probably a good short story or novella in here somewhere. Spectral figures and supernatural emanations are described – but these could also be a consequence of the keepers’ enforced solitude and increasingly fragile sanity. All kinds of outlandish theories about what happened to the men are aired, some of them as far-fetched as those that followed the Flannan Isle disappearance. Trident House, the organisation that administers the Cornish lighthouse, is intent on covering up what happened to the three men, and pays the widows hush money, admonishing them not to speak to outside investigators (like a local author, who has reasons of his own for investigating what happened). The three black seabirds – too large to be shags, says the poem, hinting at something sinister – seem to be the vanished keepers transformed. I remember reading it at school: it left a deep impression on me. There’s an epigraph at the start from the 1912 poem by WW Gibson, ‘Flannan Isle’, about a similarly strange disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a Victorian lighthouse off the Outer Hebrides. With a hint of the supernatural: strange white birds seem to haunt the place. It’s a classic ‘locked room (murder?) mystery’, then. Marc Calhoun, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons The lighthouse on Eilean Mor (Flannan Isles): attribution – |
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