About FIFA 19 for Mac
Play head-to-head with friends, build your Ultimate Team, join a league or turn real world soccer action into in-game rewards with adidas GMR! Build your Ultimate Team™, train any player to be a superstar, and then join in a League or play through more than 650 events in.
Gamecern.com is proud to present FIFA 19 for Mac OS x. You can now enjoy the best sports game in you mac os x devices like iMac and macbooks. FIFA 19 is a football stimulation game developed and published by EA sports. FIFA 19 for Mac brings another year of amazing football video game in your Mac os x, this year we bring you Champions League for the first time in the series. Players can now take part in the worlds most prestigious club competition and get can chance to become legends of the game by winning the champions league.
Gameplay Of FIFA 19 for Mac
On this page you can download FIFA 18 for Mac OS X! Full version of game FIFA 18 MAC Download Free. Link at the bottom of the page! About This Game: FIFA 18 is a sports game that simulates association football. The game features 52 fully licensed stadiums from 12 countries, including new stadiums, plus 30 generic fields equals to a total of 82. FIFA 15 For Mac may be the game for individuals who're fans of soccer. They can acquire the real playing experience with playing around the fields with this game. It's an amazing game that takes fun one step further.
FIFA 19 for Mac is a football stimulation game where players can enjoy the world of football through various modes in the game. Like every year FIFA 19 for Mac has brought alot of new features in the game some of them like active touch system where the balls control of the players are overhauled, time finishing where players can choose to time the kick to perfection by pressing the shoot button again as the player is about to hit the ball the timing determined the accuracy and power the the shot. Players can also switch between different tactics in real time during a match. With some minor gameplay tweaks which make the game in more realistic the popular story mode the journey has also a new feature this year, players can now choose between 3 characters, the players can continue as Alex Hunter or play as Kim Hunter Alex’s sister or play as Danny williams, which will bring some new stories and new journey in the game.
Download FIFA 19 for Mac
Download FIFA 19 for Mac now and enjoy the best football/soccer game in the world today. Just click the Download Button below and play this realistic and amazing game with some of the most real life graphics and game physics which resembles the real thing that will have you at the edge of your seat at all time, play to become the best player or the best coach of your favorite team by winning all the trophies along your journey and become a legend of the game in your Mac devices.
Greetings to all the FIFA lovers! The title of this article tells everything that you will find here: How To Play FIFA 20 on macOS without virtual machines! From here, you can get the most acclaimed and awaited football simulator of the year. We are sure that until now, you have tried different methods to play games on your Macbook/iMac. From virtual machines to fake files that are harmful to your computer. The internet is full of bad content, malware, and scam offers. STOP wasting your time with that! We are a team of programmers who offers TOP games for Mac for more than four years. You can browse our categories and see the big titles that are available. FIFA 20 Mac OS X is one of the most complexes and successful sports simulators for os x ever made. Get it now and try the new features and improvements!
FIFA 20 – Improvements since the last title
The last title, FIFA 19 Mac OS X, gathered more approx. 30.000 downloads until FIFA 20 Mac OS X was released. That was an average performance, compared to FIFA 18. Because of the significant improvements in gameplay mechanics and graphics, the 27th title in the series promise to be the biggest success ever. FIFA 20 fixes the majority of bugs from the previous titles. Wrong directed forward passes, clumsy goalkeepers, player’s clinches, and many others no longer exist or are very rare. These improvements make from this game the best football simulator we have ever played.
FIFA 20 – MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015) Gameplay
The goalkeepers are much complex, having adaptive dynamic movements. Being harder to score a goal can be only entertaining for gameplay. The passes are also more realistic, allowing players to create and implement easier the attack/defense tactics. Download now FIFA 20 for macOS, we guarantee that you will not regret it!
FIFA 20 for macOS
– VOLTA Football –
The newest and the most important feature of FIFA 20 Mac OS X is the VOLTA Football mode. This is a tribute to the “oldie but goldie” FIFA Street, which promises to come on mobile. As you probably know, FIFA Street was all about street football, full of spectacle, and skills. That’s VOLTA: skills, special moves, and individual-based gameplay. You will play with futsal rules in matches three vs. three / four vs. four or five vs. five. This is new in FIFA games and combined with nowadays graphics and gameplay mechanics… simply amazing!
This mode can also be played in story mode, replacing the “The Journey” from the previous titles. Similar to it, you will create and customize every detail of your character. Then, your path to become the best street footballer begins. The story is even better than the acclaimed “The Journey”, so you must give it at least a try. Do that by downloading FIFA 20 Mac OS from the button below. Enjoy!
FIFA 20 Mac OS X
– Minimum System Requirements –
|CPU:||Core i3-2100 / Phenom II X4 965|
|CPU Speed:||2.6 GHz|
|OS:||OS X 10.10|
Fifa For Mac
|Video Card:||Radeon HD 7850 / GeForce GTX 660|
|HDD Space:||51 GB|
Fifa For Macbook Pro
NOTE: This game is FREE TO DOWNLOAD, but to get access to this game, you need to create a FREE account (more details on the download page). In this way, you will receive any new additional content (if available) and a lot more games and software for your Macbook/iMac.


Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment
Why in news?
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) asteroid researchers and spacecraft engineers have come together to check the progress in the mission which is known as Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA).
- An asteroid hit is widely acknowledged as one of the most likely, among all the causes that may eventually cause the extinction of life on Earth,
- In general, there are two different ways of planetary defence against an asteroid.
- Blowing up the asteroid before it reaches Earth,
- Deflecting it off its Earth-bound course by hitting it with a spacecraft.
- Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) aims to study the viability of diverting an asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into its surface.
- The project aims to deflect the orbit of one of the two Didymos asteroids between Earth and Mars, with an observer craft gauging the effect of the impact more effectively than ground-based observers could manage.
- The project aims to deflect the orbit of the smaller body through an impact by one spacecraft.
- NASA is building the Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART) spacecraft for this.
- Then a second spacecraft will survey the crash site and gather the maximum possible data on the effect of this collision.
- ESA’s contribution is a mission called Hera, which will perform a close-up survey of the post-impact asteroid.
- Hera will also deploy a pair of CubeSats for close-up asteroid surveys. This would allow researchers to model the efficiency of the collision.
Artemis- NASA’s next Moon Mission
Why in news?
NASA has announced new plan to establish a permanent lunar presence and put an American on the Moon. The project is named Artemis.
NASA wants to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by the year 2024, which it plans on doing through the Artemis lunar exploration program.
ARTEMIS stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun.
The main objective is to measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it.
Solar Orbiter Mission
Why in news?
Solar Orbiter mission was launched recently.
- The mission is a collaboration between ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA.
- The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
- It will observe the Sun with high spatial resolution telescopes and capture observations in the environment directly surrounding the spacecraft to know how the Sun can affect the space environment throughout the solar system.
- It also intends to give a better understanding of how stars can affect the space environment throughout the solar system.
- The spacecraft also will be the first to provide images of the Sun’s poles.
The mapping of Sun’s pole could allow for the first time to observe the concentrated source of solar wind that permeates our solar system.
The solar wind is the mixture of charged particles that are highly concentrated at the poles and beam through our solar system, affecting satellites and electronic devices on Earth.
- The mission will also study the magnetic environment around the Sun, which in turn will provide information about the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and its periodic outpouring of solar storms.
Solar Orbiter answer following questions:
- What drives the solar wind and where does the coronal magnetic field originate from?
- How do solar transients drive heliosphere variability?
- How do solar eruptions produce energetic particle radiation that fills the heliosphere?
- How does the solar dynamo work and drive connections between the Sun and the heliosphere?
Solar Orbiter follows the Ulysses spacecraft, another collaboration between ESA and NASA that launched in 1990 and also flew over the sun’s poles. Ulysses completed three passes of the sun before its mission ended in 2009, but its view was limited to what it could see from the sun’s equator.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
- MRO is a multipurpose spacecraft of NASA designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit.
- Launched in 2005, it carried instruments for studying the atmosphere of Mars and to search for signs of water on planet.
- The scientific goals of MRO, according to NASA, are
- Search for evidence of past or present life in Mars.
- Understand the climate and volatile history of Mars.
- To Characterize the geology of Mars.
To accomplish these goals, MRO carries multiple instruments and it has 3 cameras,
- High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
- Context Camera (CTX)
- Mars Color Imager (MARCI)
MRO has also has
- A spectrometer called ‘Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars’ (CRISM),
- A radiometer called the ‘Mars Climate Sounder’ (MCS), and
- A radar instrument called ‘Shallow Radar’ (SHARAD).
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)- A camera aboard Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured the image of the InSight lander, which recently touched down on the Red Planet.
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE):
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) will photograph hundreds of targeted swaths of Mars’ surface in unprecedented detail.
HiRISE operates in visible wavelengths, the same as human eyes, but with a telescopic lens that will produce images at resolutions never before seen in planetary exploration missions.
- HiRISE also makes observations at near-infrared wavelengths to obtain information on the mineral groups present.
- These new, high-resolution images will provide unprecedented views of layered materials, gullies, channels, and other science targets, as well as characterize possible future landing sites.
Other Missions to Mars
- Mars Missions by NASA
- Mars Resonance Orbiter
- In-Sights Lander
- Curiosity Rover
- Mars Missions by ISRO
- Mangalyaan ( Mars Orbiter Mission)
NASA’s InSight Mars Mission
Why in news?
- NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander touched down on Mars at the end of 2018.
- It is a two year mission that will study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with rocky surfaces, including Earth and the Moon, formed.
- The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program (1992).
- InSight is the first mission dedicated to looking deep beneath the Martian surface.
- Among its science tools are a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, a magnetometer, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature.
- It is being supported by a number of European partners, which include France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).
- Mars trembles more often than expected, but also more mildly. Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles.
Methane in the Martian Air
Why in news?
NASA’s Curiosity rover recently discovered high amounts of methane in the air on Mars, leading to excitement whether this was an indication of life on the Red Planet, or beneath its surface. However, later it was confirmed that the methane had fallen back to usual levels.
The Curiosity rover has found 21 parts per billion of methane, or three times the 2013 finding.
The gas seems to rise and fall with the red planet’s seasons.
Curiosity unfortunately doesn’t have the instruments to determine whether the source of methane is biological or geological. Further, scientists have yet to figure out a pattern for Martian’s transient plumes.
Significance of its discovery on Mars:
Since the time the gas was first detected on Mars, it has been considered a potential biomarker.
Scientists are hoping to detect the source of the gas, and in the process clues that might point to the existence of life on the Red Planet.
NASA Curiosity Mission
- The Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars. It landed on Mars in August, 2012.
- The purpose of the mission is to find chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe
Why in news?
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed a year in service.
- It is part of NASA’s “Living with a Star” programme that explores different aspects of the Sun-Earth system.
- The probe seeks to gather information about the Sun’s atmosphere and NASA says that it “will revolutionise our understanding of the Sun”.
- It is also the closest a human-made object has ever gone to the Sun.
- During the spacecraft’s first two solar encounters, the instruments were turned on when Parker was about 0.25 AU from the Sun and powered off again at the same distance on the outbound side of the orbit.
- For this third solar encounter, the mission team turned on the instruments when the spacecraft was around 0.45 AU from the Sun on the inbound side of its orbit.
- It will turn them off when the spacecraft is about 0.5 AU from the Sun on the outbound side.
New Frontiers program
- The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System bodies, including the dwarf planet Pluto.
- There are currently three New Frontiers missions in progress.
New Horizons, which was launched in 2006 and reached Pluto in 2015,
Juno, which was launched in 2011 and entered Jupiter orbit in 2016, and
OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016 towards asteroid Bennu for detailed studies from 2018 to 2021 and a sample return to Earth in 2023.
NASA New Horizons
Why in news?
On January 1, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft became the first explorer to fly past the mysterious object- Ultima Thule, located some 4 billion miles from Earth.
- This is a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind.
Ultima Thule is located in the Kuiper belt in the outermost regions of the Solar System, beyond the orbit of Neptune.
- It measures approximately 30 km in diameter, and is irregularly shaped.
- Ultima Thule has a reddish color, probably caused by exposure of hydrocarbons to sunlight over billions of years.
- Ultima Thule belongs to a class of Kuiper belt objects called the “cold classicals”, which have nearly circular orbits with low inclinations to the solar plane.
- Ultima Thule will be the farthest world ever explored by humankind, no spacecraft has visited anything so primitive.
- Pluto is barely in the Kuiper Belt, the so-called Twilight Zone stretching beyond Neptune, Ultima Thule is in the Twilight Zone’s heart.
- The color of Ultima Thule is expected to be darker than coal, burned by eons of cosmic rays, with a reddish hue.
- The Kuiper Belt is a region of the Solar System that exists beyond the eight major planets.
- It is similar to the asteroid belt, in that it contains many small bodies, all remnants from the Solar System’s formation.
- But unlike the Asteroid Belt, it is much larger – 20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive.
Its mission is to measure Jupiter’s composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
The objectives of the mission are
1. Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere
2. Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
3. Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
4. Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights.
It has sent new images of volcanic plume on Jupiter‘s moon Io, which is the most volcanic body in our solar system.
Cyclones in Jupiter
- NASA’s Juno probe was launched in 2016 to reveal the story of Jupiter’s formation and evolution.
- When Juno first arrived in Jupiter, it discovered giant cyclones encircling the planet’s poles (9 in the north and 6 in the south).
- Each is nearly as wide as the continental US.
- It was discovered using data from Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument.
- It has recently discovered a new cyclone on Jupiter’s South pole on its 22nd flyby of the planet. Now the South Pole has 7 cyclones.
Why in news?
The US space agency NASA has announced that its asteroid probe OSIRIS-REx set a new record for the closest-ever orbit of a planetary body made by a man-made spacecraft.
The recent maneuver has placed the spacecraft into an orbit 680 meters above the asteroid Bennu’s surface for about seven weeks.
OSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers program, which previously sent the New Horizons spacecraft zooming by Pluto and the Juno spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter.
Why was Bennu chosen?
Bennu was selected for a the OSIRIS-REx mission from over 500,000 known asteroids, due to it fitting a number of key criteria. These include:
Proximity to Earth: In order for OSIRIS-REx to reach its destination in a reasonable timeframe, NASA needed to find an asteroid which had a similar orbit to Earth.
Size: Small asteroids, those less than 200m in diameter, typically spin much faster than larger asteroids, meaning the regolith material can be ejected into space. Bennu is around 500m in diameter, so rotates slowly enough to ensure that the regolith stays on its surface.
Composition: Bennu is a primitive asteroid, meaning it hasn’t significantly changed since the beginning of the Solar System (over 4 billion years ago). It is also very carbon-rich, meaning it may contain organic molecules, which could have been precursors to life on Earth.
Additionally, Bennu is of interest as it is a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA). Every 6 years, Bennu’s orbit brings it within 200,000 miles of the Earth, which means it has a high probability of impacting Earth in the late 22nd Century.
- Voyager 2 is the space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
- In 2018, It has passed an incredible milestone in its journey to explore the solar system by entering interstellar space (exited the heliosphere).
- Voyager probes (Voyager 1 and 2) are the first spacecraft to date that humans have sent to this boundary, called the heliopause.
- Recent developments – Scientists have decoded the signals sent by Voyager 2 from interstellar space.
- The signals will help scientists paint a clearer picture of cosmic shoreline, where the heliosphere ends, and interstellar space begins.
- The findings also confirmed that the plasma inside the heliosphere is significantly less dense and less cold than the plasma in local interstellar space.
- Another surprising revelation was the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere.
Heliosphere, Heliopause and Interstellar Space
- The sun creates heliosphere by sending a constant flow of particles and a magnetic field out into space at over 670,000 miles per hour. This stream is called the ‘solar wind.’
- Heliopause marks the end of a region created by our sun that is called the heliosphere.
- It is the boundary between our Solar System and the interstellar medium.
- It is the place where the sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings.
- Interstellar Space is the part of space that exists between stars with cold particles around it.
- Inside the heliosphere, the solar particles are hot but less concentrated. Outside of the bubble, they are very much colder but more concentrated.
- Once an object arrives in interstellar space, there would be an increase of “cold” particles around it.
- Buyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration (BRUIE) is a robot developed by NASA for underwater exploration in extra-terrestrial, icy waters.
- It will search for life in ocean worlds beyond Earth.
- It could be used to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
- As these moons are believed to have liquid water oceans beneath thick crusts of ice, they may be the most promising locations in our solar system to search for evidence of extra-terrestrial life.
- It will be rolling into Antarctica soon to performdriving upside down under sea ice, since they are the closest Earth analog to the seas of an icy moon which makes them an ideal testing ground for it.
- It uses buoyancy to remain anchored against the ice and is impervious to most currents.
- NASA is already constructing the Europa Clipper orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2025 to study Jupiter’s moon Europa, laying the groundwork for a future mission that could search for life beneath the ice.
- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) is a spacecraft developed by NASA that went into orbit around mars to study the planet’s atmosphere.
- Mission goals include determining how the atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.
- MAVEN was launched aboard an atlas v launch vehicle in 2013 it reached Mars in 2014.
- Data from maven shows that the deterioration of mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms.
- Dawn mission was launched by NASAdeploying spacecrafts to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planetCeres.
- It is the only mission ever to orbit two extraterrestrial targets and will characterize the early solar system andthe processes that dominated its formation.
- Vesta and Ceres are celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system.
- Dawn orbited giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months from 2011 to 2012, then continued on to Ceres, where it hasbeen in orbit since March 2015.
- The spacecraft is likely to run out of a key fuel known as hydrazine which keeps it oriented and in communication with Earth.
Ceres and Vesta
- Ceres is the earliest known and smallest of the dwarf planet.
- It is also the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- Thus Ceres is both dwarf planet and asteroid.
- Vesta is the second most massive body in the asteroid belt, surpassed only by Ceres.
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a NASA mission that will look for planets orbiting the brightest stars in Earth’s sky. It was led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with seed funding from Google.
Mission: The mission will monitor at least 200,000 stars for signs of exoplanets, ranging from Earth-sized rocky worlds to huge gas giant planets. TESS, however, will focus on stars that are 30 to 100 times brighter than those Kepler examined. This will help astronomers better understand the structure of solar systems outside of our Earth, and provide insights into how our own solar system formed.
Orbit: TESS will occupy a never-before-used orbit high above Earth. The elliptical orbit, called P/2, is exactly half of the moon’s orbital period; this means that TESS will orbit Earth every 13.7 days. Its closest point to Earth (67,000 miles or 108,000 kilometers) is about triple the distance of geosynchronous orbit, where most communications satellites operate.
How it works? It will use transit method to detect exoplanets. It watches distant stars for small dips in brightness, which can indicate that planet has passed in front of them. Repeated dips will indicate planet passing in front of its star. This data has to be validated by repeated observations and verified by scientists.
CubeSats are miniature satellites intended as a standard, inexpensive design that can easily fit alongside larger satellites aboard launch vehicles.
- The CubeSat model has given student groups, hobbyist organizations, and research teams operating with limited funding or experience unprecedented access to space.
- CubeSats are built from a modular structure of 10x10x10cm cubes and feature a wide variety of commercially available off-the-shelf components, designed to fit the structure from various manufacturers.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft
Why in news?
Data from NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reveal new information about the lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
- The small liquid lakes in Titan’s northern hemisphere are more than 100 meters deep, perched atop plateaus and filled with methane. They also appear to be seasonal. And the bodies of liquid on one side of the northern hemisphere are completely different than those on the other side.
Launched in 1997, the Cassini mission — a cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — has sent back thousands of stunning images and made numerous discoveries about the ringed planet and its moons.
- The spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System.
- Cassini–Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn.
- Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit.
- Its design includes a Saturn orbiter and a lander for the moon Titan. The lander, called Huygens, landed on Titan in 2005.
Objectives of the mission:
- Determine the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the rings of Saturn.
- Determine the composition of the satellite surfaces and the geological history of each object.
- Determine the nature and origin of the dark material on Iapetus’s leading hemisphere.
- Measure the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the magnetosphere.
- Study the dynamic behavior of Saturn’s atmosphere at cloud level.
- Study the time variability of Titan’s clouds and hazes.
- Characterize Titan’s surface on a regional scale.
Launch of ExoMars rover delayed to 2022.
About the rover:
- The European-built Rosalind Franklin rover, named for the famed British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work contributed to DNA research, recently passed final pre-launch thermal and vacuum tests at an Airbus facility in Toulouse, France.
- Rosalind Franklin is the first European Mars rover.
It is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
The primary goal of the ExoMars programme is to address the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars.
Components of the mission:
The programme comprises two missions.
- The first launched in March 2016 and consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module.
- TGO’s main objectives are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes. The Schiaparelli probe crashed during its attempt to land on Mars.
- The second, comprising a rover and surface platform, is planned for 2022. Together they will address the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars.
Other Mars Missions:
Despite the delay in the second ExoMars launch until 2022, three other Mars missions remain scheduled for launch during this year’s planetary launch window in July and August.
- NASA’s Perseverance rover, formerly known as Mars 2020, will take off in July from Cape Canaveral.
- A Chinese Mars rover is also being prepared for launch later this year.
- The United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars orbiter is slated to launch on a Japanese H-2A rocket this summer.
Why in news?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that it will launch the ‘Hope Probe’, the Arab world’s first spacecraft to Mars, in July 2020.
- The space programme, also known as the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), aims at collecting information on Mars, meteorological layers and study the causes of loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases — the two main constituents of water — from the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere.
- The mission, if successful, will become the first space exploration programme to take a picture of the Mars atmosphere.
- The ‘Hope Probe’ will be launched into orbit in mid-July 2020. The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars orbit in the first quarter of 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE.
Why in news?
- Tiangong-2 was a manned Chinese space station that was destroyed upon its controlled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on July 19.
- Tiangong-2 was retired from service after it had completed its experiments in space.
- Tiangong means “Heavenly Palace”. It was 10.4 metres long and 3.35 metres wide at its widest point, and weighed 8.6 metric tonnes.
- It was launched on September 15, 2016 and, in late 2016, hosted two Chinese astronauts for 30 days in what was China’s longest manned space mission so far.
- The recently decommissioned space lab followed the Tiangong-1, China’s first space station, which crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean on April 1, 2018 after Chinese scientists lost control of the spacecraft.
- China had launched Tiangong-1 in 2011 as proof-of-concept of technologies for future stations. The lab was visited by two teams of Chinese astronauts for 11 days and 13 days respectively.
Why in news?
In January, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — became the first ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface.
- China landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s south pole — home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system.
- They detected materials such as olivine and low-calcium pyroxene that are rare elsewhere on the surface. Researchers suggest that these materials were ejected from the Moon’s upper mantle when it was struck by a meteor.
How was moon born?
The most widely accepted theory is that moon was born when a massive protoplanet slammed into young Earth, sending plenty of terrestrial building blocks into orbit around it.
Scientists suspect that the moon was covered in a magma ocean during its very early days. As it progressively cooled and solidified, denser minerals remained in the ocean’s depths while less dense minerals floated to the surface. This meant the geochemical compositions of the eventual mantle and crust layers turned out to be distinct from each other.
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5. A view of the concrete balconies in the Marina City
residential towers. Every habitable room in the towers opens onto a balcony. 6. The steel frame supporting the sprayed concrete lead-sheeted roof of the theater building. 7. The circular parking structure and the beginning of the apartment levels which both surround the already completed core structure. 8. Schematic floor plan of the structure of the apartment buildings.
Just communities. Just cities. Just connections between country and city. Also, the weird and wonderful.


The Ebonyi State Police Command, on Thursday, confirmed the death of two persons of electrocution at the Kings Agro Factory located on Nise Street in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The victims, whose names were simply given as Justice and Usulor Chukwudi, hailed from the Ezza North and Ikwo local government areas of the state, respectively.
The incident, Southern City News gathered, also affected two other persons, who were currently receiving treatment at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.
Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Loveth Odah, said Justice and Chukwudi died at the AE-FUTHA, while the other two persons were currently receiving treatment in the same hospital.
It was further gathered that the victims are staff of the Kings Agro Factory.
They were working with their boss, Onyebuchi Anworo, when the ladder they were working with fell on top of naked electric wire.
The police spokesperson stated, “It was 6pm on Friday, July 26, 2019, that one Onyebuchi Anworo of Ukwuansi Street, Abakalki, an engineer with Aguegbo Chisco Aluminium Company, came to the Eke-Aba Central Police Station and reported that on the same date, while they were fixing widows at the Kings Agro Factory on Nise Street by the Afikpo Road, in company with four of his workers, a metal ladder, which they used in working, fell on a naked electric wire and electrocuted four of the workers, who became unconscious.
“The victims were rushed to the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki. The victims are Akochi Chineme from the Ezza South LGA; Onwe Emmanuel; Usulor Chukwudi of the Ezza North LGA; and one Justice from the Ikwo LGA.”
“He said two of them were confirmed dead at the FETHA, while the other two were responding to treatment. The DPO led operatives to the area, visited the scene of the crime and the hospital, and the two others are in stable condition.
“Onyebuchi was taken to the police station for questioning and the matter is under investigation to ascertain if there was a foul play.”


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Do you remember MapleStory?
Back in 2003, the original free-to-play 2D side-scrolling MMO was hugely popular. Developed by the South Korean development team, Wizet, the game featured tons of grinding and esoteric farming routines that hardcore players fully embraced. However, the optimistic world and fanciful aesthetic that allowed players to create their perfect avatar attracted a casual crowd as well that primarily played to socialize and style their avatar. In 2005, the game was released to Western audiences and, in Runescape-esque fashion, it became a cult classic.
Fast forward to 2015 and MapleStory 2 was released in South Korea. The game was a massive departure from the original grind fest. The leveling curve was made easier thanks to an abundance of quest and players found themselves managing combat resources as opposed to just spam clicking attacks on enemies all day.
However, the most apparent change was the graphics -- gone were the side-scrolling screens and, in their place, stood a fully 3D environment with Minecraft inspired geography. Naturally, an extra dimension added another layer of combat maneuverability and, for the first time, the MapleStory franchise felt like a modern MMO.
Sure, it's cutesy charm and emphasis on styling your avatar will turn off some Western fans, but those who manage to embrace the aesthetic might be surprised at how authentically social an MMO can feel when every avatar is a visual representation of the player behind the keyboard. Players are recognized for how their avatar looks, moves and emotes and, I've been told that this extra layer of personality is one of MapleStory 2's biggest strengths.
A Maplestory... Battle Royale?
I had a chance to interview the development team of MapleStory 2 during a launch party of sorts on August, 21st. It was an invite-only gathering of top MapleStory 2 streamers, content creators, and influencers and I am certainly not any of these things.
Initially, it was a bit surreal seeing so much enthusiasm and die-hard fanaticism over MapleStory.
"They're are not that many casual MMO games out there and we are very proud to provide one"
In hindsight, it shouldn't have been all that surprising. the original MapleStory, to date, boasts more than 273 million characters created and is easily one of the most popular MMO's of all time. MapleStory 2 has been thriving in South Korea and China for the past three years and, after two recent beta periods for Western audiences, it was finally time to launch a definitively global Maple Story 2 version.
And no game would be complete without a stand-alone Battle Royale mode. After all, MapleStory 2 is trying to attract Western gamers in 2018 and the universe is currently in unanimous agreement that Battle Royales are the way to do it. Not even MapleStory 2 is safe from the seemingly omnipotent genre.
However, in creating their version of the worlds most inaccurate chicken dinner maker, MapleStory developers have made a conscious decision to keep it casual, playful, and not too mechanically intensive.
Lead Game Designer Miyoung Oh, elaborates on the decision:
"We know it's a common genre right now and we have played those games. However, in all of them, you use guns. I've always found guns difficult to use but, in MapleStory 2 it's not like that -- attacks are easy to hit with wide areas. If you want, they're even very low level AI you can fight for a very light, casual Battle Royale experience.
It's a very unique mode. It doesn't require you to aim at exact points and we expect players to create something new out of it."
Maplestory 2 developers have already released their seperate Mushking Royale Pre-Season client (you can download it on the Nexon launcher) and it will be live until the games full launch (which still includes the game mode) on October 10th. The adorable battle to the death features squad mode, tracked stats, leaderboards and exclusive prizes for the players who manage to gain their regions #1 spot.
YouTuber Jaeky playing Mushking Royale. If Fortnite can pivot from the initial premise of their game and succeed as a Battle Royale, why can't MapleStory 2?
For a casual game (though Korean developers describing their MMO as casual may actually translate to "normal" by Western standards) Mushking Royale can get surprisingly intense. Potentially unfair PvP encounters have knack for creating that intensity and the "me-against-the-world" allure of the Battle Royale genre isn't completely lessened by adorable Mushrooms and anime aesthetics.
When asked about whether or not Mushking Royale may have the ability to eclipse the core MMO gameplay of MapleStory 2, Lead Designer Oh seemed open to the possibility:
"Sure, it would be great if Mushking Royale mode became really popular but we really want it to be both. We are still focusing on the primary MapleStory 2 gameplay the most."
I'm sure Epic Games would have said the same thing before the wildfire success of their cartoonish Battle Royale. Come to think of it, MapleStory 2 already has unlockable emotes (some of them are dances) and the games dizzying array of their avatar outfits simply can't be matched. Perhaps Nexon America's decision to keep things casual will be the saving grace that distinguishes the game from all of the other Battle Royales being released this year.
Aspiring Mushking's who download and play MushKing Royal enjoy the added benefit of reserving their MapleStory 2 in-game name before the official October launch, so if you even have a passing interesting in Maple Story 2, checking out their lite Battle Royale seems is a smart play.
Warcraft 3 is my one true love and I will challenge anyone to a game of Super Smash Brothers Melee.

domain: game


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2 original photos. taken near Jamestown Indiana in 1906 tipped in. , 20pp. Duplicated in purple mimeograph. 8vo. Orange wrappers> Fine Item #354095
Inscribed on title-page by C.N.Hickman to Margaret Stoddard
This narrative was first published in the Danville Gazette in 1944 detailing a trip from Indiana to Texas in 1878 by way of sending along the better wagons and horses from Lizton, Indiana to a new one in Brasos country Texas. Recounted for this retelling by two of the 4 travelers that made the journey. Two large tipped in photos on photographic paper show the men as they gathered in Indiana in 1906 and again in 1924.
Price: $600.00 Free International Delivery

domain: geography


KIUTRANext-generation Cooling Devices
kiutra develops and manufactures B2B cooling systems for extremely low (Milli-Kelvin and Sub-Kelvin) temperatures to be used mainly in Quantum Technology. kiutra has developed a novel refrigeration system based on a cryogen-free magnetic cooling process known as Continuous Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigeration.
Dr. Alexander Regnat
Trumpf Venture, Verve Ventures, HTGF, UnternehmerTUM
Quantum Computing, Cryogenic Cooling, Hardware


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|NUMBER:||34||BIRTHDATE:||February 13, 1977|
|HEIGHT:||5' 11"||BIRTHPLACE:||Thief River Falls, MN, United States|
|WEIGHT:||205||DRAFTED:||PHX / 1997 NHL Entry Draft|
|Shoots:||Left||ROUND:||9th (233rd overall)|
Take a look and see who brought home hardware from the NHL Awards! WATCH NOW ›
I love you. I think we [climbed] as high as we possibly can.

domain: sports


text:
To get tender notifications and more sign up to now.
|Tile||United Kingdom-Edinburgh: Building and facilities management services|
|Type||Invitation to tender|
|Nature Of Contract||Service contract|
|Awarding Criteria||The most economic tender|
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|79993000; 79993100; 45210000; 45262700; 50700000; 50710000; 71315000; Building and facilities management services; Facilities management services; Building construction work; Building alteration work; Repair and maintenance services of building installations; Repair and maintenance services of electrical and mechanical building installations; Building services;|
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Roll Grinding Controller
Over the years, Jubilee have designed and produced many roll grinding control systems for the paper and rubber industries. These rollers require that their diameter in the centre be very slightly larger than at the ends (referred to as a crown). The crown profile varies with the application. It is usually derived from a cosine curve and close compliance is paramount.
The amount of crown applied to a roll is usually very small. A difference of less than 100 microns is typical for a 4 metre roll. Our controller can be programmed with any required profile (cosine, compound cosine, circular, parallel etc.), and then have a three stage finishing program to rough cut, medium and super-finish the roll being ground.
The grinding controller uses an encoder to measure the position of the grinding wheel along the length of the roll, and a stepper motor to position the grinding wheel to less than 1 micron accuracy, better than one thousandth of a millimetre!
Another mode of operation in our controller that required extensive design work is fully automatic current control. This mode closely mimics the way that operators have manually re-ground rolls for many years; maintaining a constant load current on the grinding wheel motor, so the regrind very closely follows the original profile on the roller.
If you would like to discuss any of our past projects or enquire about our services please do not hesitate to Contact Us...


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UK Border Agency to split into two new groups
The UK Border Agency is to be split into two separate entities – an immigration and visa service and an immigration law enforcement organisation – as part of a package of recently announced changes.
Further changes include removing its agency status and bringing the new organisations into the Home Office, reporting to ministers.
Additionally there will be improvements to the IT systems across the whole immigration system and clarification of the policy and legal framework within which the system operates through an Immigration Bill in the next session of Parliament.
In a statement to Parliament, Home Secretary Theresa May said:
“Since 2010 we have introduced a limit on economic migration from outside the EU, cut out abuse of student visas and reformed family visas. As a result net migration is down by a third.
“We have also started to get to grips with the performance of the organisations that enforce our immigration laws. Since we split the Border Force from UKBA last year, 98% of passengers go through passport control within target times and Border Force meets all of its passenger service targets.”
“But the performance of what remains of UKBA is still not good enough. By creating two entities instead of one, we will be able to create distinct cultures.
“First, a high-volume service that makes high-quality decisions about who comes here, with a culture of customer satisfaction for businessmen and visitors who want to come here legally. And second, an organisation that has law enforcement at its heart and gets tough on those who break our immigration laws.
“It will take many years to clear the backlogs and fix the system – but I believe the changes I have announced today will put us in a much stronger position to do so.”
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.

domain: law


Risho has low modulus + high thermal conductive material which can prevent solder joint crack. With MCPCB, we may have a CTE mismatch between big components and aluminum plates which causes solder joint crack on the solder pad. This material can absorb the stress caused by this CTE mismatch and can prevent solder joint crack.
2W/mK with Ultra Low Modulus (0.08 GPa) Al-Base MCPCB and RCC
3W/mK with Low Modulus (2.4 GPa) Al-Base CCL, Bonding Sheet, RCC and CCL


Volga-Dnepr Freighter Helps ACS to Deliver Drilling Machine to Mining Project in India
Destined for Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, the sensitive piece of mining equipment measured over 15 metres in length and was more than three metres high. Experts from Volga-Dnepr’s Cargo Planning Centre created a special loading plan to ensure the safe positioning of the machinery into the IL-76TD-90VD’s cargo cabin, taking into account the minimal clearance between the height of the shipment and the aircraft’s rear loading door. The drilling machine was pulled into the aircraft using the IL-76TD-90VD’s onboard winches.
Shahvez Jafary, Commercial Director ACS India, said: “Weeks of planning went into the charter and we worked very closely with the Volga-Dnepr loadmaster on the day to make sure that the awkward-shaped drilling machine was loaded with the minimum of fuss. Our client had initially asked for an An-124 to move their cargo, but we saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars by suggesting Volga-Dnepr’s IL-76.”


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Happy Friday, wonderful readers, and welcome to our third discussion-based Open Mic! Join in the conversation at any time during the weekend, and invite your friends — the stage is open to all. Guest posts will return next week with flash fiction from Ja’Nese Dixon.
Last week we explored our toughest challenges, what holds us back in life. This week, let’s go in the other direction and uncover our impulses toward growth and creation.
First off, by way of introducing yourself to the group: Do you call yourself an artist (if you like, substitute writer, painter, dancer, etc)?
Second, regardless of your answer to the first question: How does creativity manifest itself in your life? Is it too much (you’re often overwhelmed by projects)? Is it too little (you know you’re creative but haven’t found the perfect outlet)? Or is it a good balance?
Get thee to the comments and share! Remember, comments are threaded so you can reply to others, and I encourage you to do so. Converse!

domain: psychology


It's always fascinating to see a vehicle that an automaker develops but decides not to bring to market. As an example, this video highlights the Porsche 965, which is an unproduced model for slotting between the 911 Turbo and the famous 959 supercar (gallery below). If it had gone on sale, this machine would have had a rear-mounted, liquid-cooled V8 engine.
This specific vehicle is the last remaining prototype and goes by the nickname the black bomber for obvious reasons as soon as you look at the matte-finished exterior. The design primarily evokes the 959, but the shape of the cabin is like the 911 of this period. Oddly, the lighting in the front fascia appears to be from the 928.
Gallery: Porsche 959: Supercar Sunday
The powertrain would have made the 965 really special. It would have shared the 959's all-wheel-drive system and self-leveling suspension. An early iteration of Porsche's dual-clutch gearbox would have been an option.
The 965 was supposed to go on sale in 1990. If it actually arrived at dealers, Porsche would have marketed the machine as the 969 because the vehicle was blending elements of the 964 and 959. The company expected to sell 2,500 of them a year.
The prototype in this video was for radiator testing. The cooling devices behind the front inlet have a cylindrical shape. Presumably, this layout is to maximize the surface area in the limited amount of space.
This car uses an Audi-sourced V8. Although, this was just for testing. The production version would have had a Porsche-built, eight-cylinder powerplant. The mill would have pushed the vehicle to a top speed of 180 miles per hour (290 kilometers per hour), which would have been good by 1990 standards.
The 965 project's costs forced Porsche to cancel the model. Instead, the company focused on the comparatively easy development of the 911 Turbo for the 964 generation.


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Last September, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with a colleague, work remotely, and research my next novel. During one of our day-tripping adventures, we visited a place called Civita di Bagnoregio, a place sometimes called “the dying town.” This city rests atop a hill that is slowly eroding, and the place itself is nothing short of breathtaking.
As my friend Maria and I explored the city, I suddenly stopped short. There, to my right, were the remains of a manager.
A manger. The scene seemed taken right out of a nativity story set in Bethlehem, and yet here we were in Italy. As I soaked at the moment, a few realizations struck me. Though perhaps I’d already known them, I hadn’t taken them to heart before. Maybe you can relate.
The manger was a commonplace chosen for an anything-but-uncommon Christ.
Jesus could have been born anywhere else. People expected that the Messiah would come as king and break Rome’s oppression. They expected a palatial birth with pomp and circumstance. As a result, they couldn’t even recognize His birth in a stable, among animals and dirt, to a simple girl and her carpenter-husband.
I get caught up in my expectations sometimes, too. I expect God to provide a certain way, and when He doesn’t, I feel confused and frustrated. Yet God’s uncommon methods are the very means He uses to accomplish His will back then and today.
The manger stands as a challenge for simplicity and personal humility.
For introverts like me, Christmastime can overwhelm the senses with programs, white-elephant gift exchanges, Sunday school parties, special services, shopping, and everything that we’ve come to expect. Granted, those things may all have a time and place, but they often distract from the main reason we celebrate.
Related Post: Bear With One Another in Love.
When I looked at the manger, all I saw was a rickety feeding trough that did double-duty as the Messiah’s crib. Its bare simplicity reminded me what a humble birthplace Christ accepted. It reminded me of these verses from Philippians where the Apostle Paul challenged his writers to adopt the mindset of Christ:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7 NKJV).
Is that mind in me? Is it in you? If I’m honest, it often isn’t. I prefer things my way, on my schedule, for my convenience. Yet Jesus exercised humility even though He was equal to God! How much more should humility characterize my thoughts and actions?
Back in Italy that day, I felt reluctant to leave this manger-like scene. However, I don’t have to relegate the manger to once-a-year Christmas stories and pageants. I can strive to apply the truths it represents every day of the year. So can you.
May you experience the joy of God’s unexpected blessings this Christmas and always!
Question from Kristen Hogrefe Parnell, the author.
What is your biggest takeaway from this post? Share below in a comment!

domain: literature


text:
After Miss Julie
After Miss Julie – Theater Review
The Millers (Sienna and Jonny Lee) star in the story of a spoiled rich girl whose relations with her family’s servants expose the cruelty of the class divide.
After Miss Julie is an update or a version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie by Phillip Marber. It’s set in England in 1945 and it is completely missable. Strindberg’s play was considered shocking at the time, sort of the Lady Chatterly’s lover of the theatre, but updating is, uprooting doesn’t work. The casting of it doesn’t work. The acting doesn’t work. It’s 90 minutes, it seems like it goes on forever and the only reason I’m giving it one star versus none is because its live theatre — no, I’m giving it no stars. I can’t do it. I can’t in conscious send you to it.

domain: artistic


More companies, including contractors, are leveraging digital twin technologies for a host of reasons, including boosting productivity while meeting their sustainability goals.
The market size for digital twins—virtual replicas of physical systems—exceeded $5 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow by more than 36%, on average, over the next five years, according to the report, “Digital Twins: Adding Intelligence to the Real World,” from information technology company Capgemini.
“Digital twin deployments are being driven by both top and bottom lines, as well as safety, sustainability and brand reputation,” according to the report.
The metrics are impressive: companies that have employed digital twins have reported that sales, turnaround time and operational efficiency improved an average of 15%, and system performance improved as much as 25%, according to Capgemini’s survey of 1,000 companies. Sustainability also improved by an average of 16% by using digital twins to find ways to reduce waste and increase efficiencies.
“However, since digital twins are powered by intangible assets like data and collaboration, they provide a unique opportunity to increase profitability, while limiting the use of resources along the value chain,” the authors wrote.
More than half of the companies surveyed believe that leveraging digital twin technologies will help them achieve their environmental sustainability goals, and 57% say that improving sustainability efforts is one of the key drivers of their digital twin investments.
“Many organizations are already invested in their quest to use this technology to advance their sustainability agendas, with 34% having implemented digital twins at scale to understand and predict their energy consumption and emissions,” according to the report.
Leveraging digital twin management systems that are connected to internet of things sensors within facilities can also improve sustainability goals as the facility structures are changed over time.
For instance, if a building’s interior environment shifts, the digital twin can simulate modifications in heating and cooling, people flow and energy use, such as when solar power is installed or when electric vehicle charging stations are added. Building managers can then conduct scenario analysis and test an idea before anyone goes on site. Contractors can thereby provide a valuable source for facility owners to go beyond initial construction to maintenance and analysis.


He noted that the MPs "abolished economic slavery".
"I want to thank each of our MPs from the Servant of the People party. Today was a challenging job. We do not even realize at this time that you have abolished economic slavery," Zelensky said.
President of Ukraine believes that "every Ukrainian will become the owner of his land”.
As we reported earlier, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the committee bill on the opening of the agricultural land market № 2178-10 as a basis. 227 MPs from the Servant of the People party and 13 nonparty MPs voted in favor of it, 240 in total.
The live broadcast of the plenary session was provided by 112 Ukraine TV Channel.
According to the draft law, by January 1, 2024 citizens of Ukraine and Ukrainian legal entities, as well as foreign citizens or companies, who have been using Ukrainian lands for at least 3 years (for example, renting it), will be able to acquire ownership rights of agricultural land.


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1. Madecassoside has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, it can effectively alleviate inflammatory response on CIA, and anti-inflammatory effects of MA can be attributed, at least partially, to the inhibition of pro-inflammatory mediators, including COX-2 expression, PGE2 production, TNF-αand IL-6 levels and the up-regulation anti-inflammatory molecule IL-10.
2. Madecassoside is a mechanism-based inhibitor of CYP2C19 and CYP3A4, suggests that madecassoside can cause drug-drug interactions via inhibition of CYP2C19 and CYP3A4.
3. Madecassoside has significant wound-healing activity and is one of the major reasons for the use of C. ASIATICA herbs in the successful treatment of burn injury, the effect of madecassoside on wound healing may involve several mechanisms including antioxidative activity, collagen synthesis and angiogenesis.
4. Madecassoside has the protective effect on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, this protection ability possibly due to its anti-lipid peroxidation, anti-inflammation and anti-apoptosis function and the enhancement of SOD activity.
5. Madecassoside can suppress LPS-induced TNF-αproduction in cardiomyocytes through inhibition of ERK, p38, and NF-κB activity, it may have cardioprotective effects in LPS-mediated .
6. Madecassoside is neuroprotective and may be useful in reducing the damage caused by stroke.
1. Tyrosol is a potential hypo-pigmenting agent.
2. Tyrosol has antioxidant effect, can decrease hyperglycemia.
3. Tyrosol has anti-allergic inflammatory effects by inhibiting the degranulation of mast cells and expression of inflammatory cytokines
4. Tyrosol significantly protects dopaminergic neurons from MPP(+)-induced degradation, and reveals potential neuroprotective mechanism of Tyrosol.
5. Tyrosol has cytoprotective effect in I/R-caused myocyte mortality was involved with the mitigation of ROS, prohibition of the activation of ERK, JNK and caspase-8, and elevation of Hsp70 and Bcl-2/Bax ratio.
6. Tyrosol is a quorum-sensing molecule in Candida albicans, it has important implications on the dynamics of growth and morphogenesis in Candida.
1. Timosaponin BII has antioxidant activity, can inhibit the up-regulation of BACE1 and reduced the over-production of β-CTF and Aβ in rat retina, which was induced by FeCl₃.
2. Timosaponin BII may be useful for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
3. Timosaponin BII can significantly reduce the neurotoxicity induced by beta amyloid peptide 25-35 in primary neurons, the mechanism of which may be related with resisting oxidative damage and regulating the cholinergic system.
4. Timosaponin BII can improve the neurological symptoms of cerebral ischemic rat, reduce infarct size, relieve brain water edema, improve hemorheology, reduce inflammatory injury of cerebral ischemia; it could be used in the preparation of a medicament or product for the prevention and treatment of stroke.
1. High Folic acid inhibits MTHFR activity in vitro, and MTHFR protein was reduced in FASD-fed mice.
2. The combined use of enalapril and Folic acid, compared with enalapril alone, significantly reduced the risk of first stroke.
3. Both local perfusion of 5-MTHF and supplementation with Folic acid increase vasodilatation in ageing individuals through NO-dependent mechanisms.
4. Folic acid deficiency and homocysteine impair DNA repair in hippocampal neurons and sensitize them to amyloid toxicity in experimental models of Alzheimer's disease.
5. Folic acid supplementation improves arterial endothelial function in adults with relative hyperhomocystinemia, with potentially beneficial effects on the atherosclerotic process.
1. Morusinol may significantly inhibit arterial thrombosis in vivo due to antiplatelet activity, may exert beneficial effects on transient ischemic attacks or stroke via the modulation of platelet activation.

domain: health


Re: Mystery Team Rumors
Originally Posted by blumj
Because you're picturing dozens of shortstops riding unicycles and Billy Beane wandering around kicking at their wheels without managing to knock any of them over?
Probably because it's the most vague tweet I've seen thus far at the winter meetings.
“Our next home stand follows this road trip.”
“I just want to tell everyone Happy Easter and Happy Hanukkah.” says on the day before Easter


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Hard to believe that September's already half over. Time to assess my progress on the Grand Pre-Revision Plan (GPRP):
I've finished all the Character and Setting work, and am chipping away at the mountain of Plot work I'd hoped to do. I finished the goal/motivation/conflict charts, and have been working my way through problem/solution chains for all the characters' goals. This is not a step I originally had on the GPRP, but it's really helped to tease out all the plot threads and work out each one step by step, and seeing what steps overlap and clash with other characters' steps.
Using the scene grid as a starting place, and keeping the problem/solution chains in mind, I've drawn up a list of all the scenes that belong in the book. There are 52, 9 of which will be completely new scenes.
I still have a ton of plot stuff left. Next up is going to be a voice exercise that will probably take me all of a Son school day to do. I feel sheepish admitting this, but I'm still not sure what voice to use. I wrote the first draft in third person, but I've started daydreaming the scenes in Willa's voice, and it's given them so much more life that it's left me wondering if I should switch to first person.


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Home Baxzaar Capitola Cottage Birdhouse
Capitola bills itself as California's oldest beach resort. It features trendy shops and restaurants on its shore directly connecting to a fishing wharf and its large, sandy beach. In the summer of 1961 hundreds of birds attacked the town. Alfred Hitchcock, who was a regular visitor to nearby Santa Cruz, read about this episode and went on to direct a film--The Birds--based on the idea of hundreds of birds attacking humans. The reason for this attack remained unknown for over 25 years until it was discovered that the birds had been affected by domoic acid, a toxin produced by red algae. This yellow house with a red door and light blue window frames comes equipped with a mounting bracket for easy installation. A 1 1/4" hole will allow wrens, finches, chickadees, nuthatches and titmice to nest. The roof is topped with sturdy pine shingles. Ventilation, drainage and a removable back wall make this house fully equipped for years of use.
Item Dimensions: 7.75 in L x 5.875 in W x 8.75 in H
Be the first person to review this item! Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Avian Housing reaches new heights with our distinctive line of architectural birdhouses, bird feeders, and related garden accessories. Take a bird's eye view of our Victorian designs enhanced by authentic scrollwork and turn-of-the-century, cottage inspired embellishments. All of our birding products are designed for outdoor use in the garden or can be enjoyed in the home as a decorative accessory. Our birdhouses, birdfeeders, garden pedestals, and garden outdoor furniture will transform your backyard into a haven for nesting for many years to come.
A Victorian Cottage birdhouse with miniature birdhouses in front, a Farmhouse birdhouse with an adorable potted plant on the front porch and the White House recreated as functional birdhouses with exacting detail are just a few of the spectacular garden decorations to be found at Home Bazaar.
A solid wood, outdoor furniture group featuring a cottage bench, cottage chair, butterfly "Settee" bench, cottage tables and a signature mailbox frame comprise our "Scrollwork Garden Collection".
Each of our larger bird houses and bird feeders can be complimented with a dramatic pedestal that will perfectly match and support the home. The Cape Cod Cottage and Honeymoon Cottage are equipped with a decorative bracket for easy mounting.
Wrens, Chickadees, Finches, Nuthatches and Titmice will all be thrilled to find these bird dwellings equipped with removable back walls, unpainted natural interiors and non-toxic outdoor grade paint. Topping off our pieces is a western red cedar shingled roof that will patina to a silvery gray color with sun-bleaching.
Why buy from Backyard Chirper?
- Extraordinary Customer Service - We don't just sell bird feeders, we eat, sleep and breathe birding. Call us and a real person will answer the phone.
- Easy Returns for 30 Days - If your birds aren't delighted with your feeder, then neither are we. At Backyard Chirper, we offer a 30-day no-questions-asked money back guarantee.
- Small Business Values - There are plenty of nameless, faceless corporations out there. We're not one of them.
- Over 7,000 Birding Supplies in Stock - We carry a huge selection of birding gear from the world's best brands.
- BBB "A+" Rating - We've been a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business since 2005 with a lifetime "A+" rating.
We’re a company built on bird lovers. When he’s not updating the blog, our director of community is out birdwatching in the mountains of Southern California. Just the slightest glimpse of a bird at one of my feeders fills me with joy. To us, birds are more than a means to sell products; birds are a way to connect with nature. Warren Sager, Owner of Backyard Chirper

domain: hobby


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A Brooklyn man is accused of stabbing his 80-year-old grandfather to death at the elderly man’s home on Long Island, police said Wednesday.
Park Slope resident Christopher Clarke was visiting his grandfather, John Pilgrim, in Pilgrim’s home in Shirley, L.I. when he stabbed him multiple times about 7:45 p.m. Monday, Suffolk County police said.
Clarke fled the home but was nabbed at the Long Island Rail Road station in Shirley two hours later, police said.
He was charged with murder and ordered held without bail during a brief arraignment on Tuesday.
Before his arraignment, Clarke smiled broadly, according to a report from News 12 Long Island.
“All I know is I love the most high, and I am Jesus Christ,” Clarke told the channel.
The victim’s niece saw Clarke sitting with his grandfather in the bedroom shortly before the killing. She left the home to run an errand. When she returned, she told police, Pilgrim was bleeding out from multiple stab wounds.
Clarke had already left the home, she told police, adding that no one else was in the home at the time of the slaying.
Pilgrim died at the scene.
Relatives told News 12 that Clarke has struggled with mental health issues and abused drugs in the past.
“Dealing with the mental issue, he did call (his grandfather) a demon, so I feel like in his mind he felt he had to make sacrifices,” Clarke’s sister, Erica Quill told the channel.

domain: news


In the past week new accounts of the heartbreak of family and friends of Victorian bushfire victims have come to light. These are distressing accounts of people waiting to bury their dead.
They are waiting for the State Coroner to release bodies they know are their loved ones and the waiting itself leaves them in a limbo of shock and horror at the ugliness of death. They are unable to lay their dead to rest or properly grieve.
The Coroner explains the coronial process in a specially written information brochure for “family and friends” available on the coronial website. The dedicated teams of forensic experts — scientists, pathologists, anthropologists, endologists (dentists) and technical staff are working around the clock to identify bodies using the clearly defined protocol developed by Interpol called Disaster Victim Identification (DVI). This system of is based on the identification of bodies through visual recognition using such markers as build, hair and eye colour, scars and tattoos; physical evidence such as dental examination and fingerprints; circumstantial evidence such as clothing jewellery and pocket contents (a weaker form of evidence); and DNA identity testing.
However, given the intensity of the bushfires, most of these techniques are ineffective at best. Even the use of DNA identification — the most powerful technological tool in the toolkit — may not be adequate in many cases. The coroner’s office warns that, despite their best effort and long delays of “many months”, “in some cases, identification will not be possible due to the extent of the fires”. Despite this, the forensic teams are undertaking the painstaking work of identifying all remains as it is clearly set out for them — matching bodies and body parts to DNA samples from the person’s effects or records or to DNA samples from parents or children.
All identification processes are focussed on bodies and their physical, structural and genetic composition. What is missing from evidence taken into account though is place — where the victim’s bodies were found. They were where they were expected to be and where family and friends knew them to be and where, in most cases, they chose to be. They were in their own homes defending their properties or simply trapped there, but nonetheless known to be there.
No foul play; no swapping identities to disappear; no mysteries. It was simple, plain and sudden misfortune that happened to people in their own private and personal place. They were victims of a terrible and unexpected disaster. Family and friends know this. For them there is absolutely no doubt about who was in the home and who died there.
Many, if not all victims had been in contact with family or friends when the disaster was approaching. In one distressing case a mother reported on ABC radio that she was talking on the phone to her son who was in the kitchen when a fireball hit and she heard the windows implode before the final silence.
Two others reported to the media that parents, in one case, and friends, in the other, were at home defending their property. In each case the bodies were found in the house and their respective cars on the property. There is no evidence at all to suggest that the identities of the bodies need to be questioned. The accounts given by family and friends are the most likely scenario in the majority of cases where homes or personal places were destroyed.
Of the 210 bodies discovered there were of course many out of place. They were visitors to someone else’s place or were found in a public or semi-public place. This is precisely where the forensic teams need to focus their identification efforts because the science here is essential to reveal what is not known. This is the scenario that the DVI protocols were set up for — to identify bodies that were out of place, bodies that were not closely connected to home or in communication with family and friends and who did not choose to be there when disaster struck.
The bodies of victims of the Victorian bushfire disaster are not just objective biological bodies only knowable and identifiable through scientific evaluation of them. Nor are they uncommunicative bodies out of place. They are bodies who were connected in time and space with families and friends at, or shortly before, their sudden deaths. With these bodies mass DNA identity testing is unnecessary. The coroner and her forensic teams are following DVI protocol — that is their job — but the protocols they are following apply to circumstances where bodies are unknown or out of place.
DNA identity testing is a powerful technology that can be used in the service of humankind to tell us what we don’t know. To insist on its use to verify what is already known to many families and friends is to allow the technology to drive human action (the response to tragedy) to determine how we know about things and what we do about them. It is, and will be, of little comfort to the grieving friends and relatives to have the scientific confirmation of what they already know (or indeed what has been found to be scientifically unknowable) some months down the track.
The coroner’s office states that “[a] structured, systematic approach must be undertaken to avoid misidentification and the trauma this would inflict on families”. In practice though, because place (that is, people being where they were known to be) and the confirmation of place through electronic and other communications (that is, people informing family and friends where they were) are not being taken into account, more trauma than is necessary is already being inflicted on grieving families. It would seem that there are a lot of families suffering unnecessarily in the service of the (remote) possibility of making one mistake.
What this disaster requires is a human response as well as a scientific one. In the circumstances, there would seem to be little reason for the grieving families to provide misinformation. Where families can give solid circumstantial evidence of location (place) and communication with the victim/s, and the body count matches that information, then this is surely enough evidence for the Coroner to accept in the “reconciliation” process in order to release the remains of the victims of this tragedy to their families.
Dr Lynette Turney is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology.


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Finding Your Force: A Journey To Love by Alicia Anabel Santos
I want to tell you a story about Cielo and her favorite box…
Cielo is little girl with dark eyes and no smile. She has beautiful brown hair that feels like silk. Her skin is like caramel. She came to me the other day and we sat. She sat in front me and didn’t say a word. I could tell she wanted to laugh at my funny faces but she was afraid to. I wanted to play with Cielo, but she has never played with anyone. Cielo has been in prison since the day she left the womb. Her life story was revealed to me with out the use of words, through her eyes because she couldn’t speak. I have never heard her voice. She said nothing the entire time we were together… but her eyes told me everything. They told me that she was sad, that she was lonely, that something was missing, that someone had taken something very special from her. She told me that she has never once held a doll.
No one talks to Cielo.
No one visits Cielo.
No one looks at Cielo.
No one sees Cielo.
No one asks Cielo if she’s happy.
No one asks Cielo if there is anything she needs.
No one asks Cielo if she wants to play.
No one asks Cielo what she wants to be when she grows up.
No one asks Cielo what her dreams are.
No one has ever told Cielo that she is special.
No one has ever told Cielo that she is beautiful.
I kept visiting her. I kept listening to her silence. And one day her eyes smiled at me when I said, Cielo, I love you! If no one has ever told you that… allow me to be the first…
Cielo you are magnificent.
Cielo you can be anything you want be.
Cielo I love playing with you.
Cielo you are my best friend.
Cielo your eyes are kind.
Cielo you are special.
Cielo you are beautiful.
Cielo you were born for greatness.
Cielo you are love.
KNOW THAT YOU ARE LOVED~
Her eyes started to get watery. A tear fell down her face. “Cielo what did I do? Have I hurt your feelings? Don’t be sad. What is it? Are you hurt? I can see the pain in you. I see it in the blood from your tears. Who has hurt you? I will protect you. Don’t cry. You will have all you desire. All your dreams will come true. The pain that you are feeling will eventually go away in time.
She carries a box and holds on to it tight. She would not let me hold it. She wouldn’t let me see what was inside of the box. She was protecting it. Cielo was afraid that if he found out what she carries in that box he would take it from her. I wondered if it was lonely for her walking in the world alone. A girl should never walk alone when she’s only in the 4th grade and can’t speak. A lot can happen to a little girl who walks the woods alone. Stripped of her core, her personality hidden, forced to be who she’s not.
Cielo will go through life gripping her box, never opening it.
A Child’s Playground
I was riding the train one day when I saw this beautiful Central American girl. She had dark hair and dark eyes. She must have been 4 years old. She was just swinging around a pole… smiling and laughing… she had no worries in the world – she was so happy. The D train was her playground and it didn’t matter who was around looking. Nothing could take away her happiness. She kept playing and playing. In that moment I couldn’t help but think about all the kids I see daily. The cute Asian boy sitting next to his mother who was sleeping while he drew these incredible sketches of what I can only imagine will be a video game he will develop in the future. I also remember a family sitting across from me on the train a little girl, her mom and dad all playing together acting silly – it was beautiful to watch. There was a little baby in the stroller who was with angry parents who were arguing yelling at each other on the train when suddenly, the baby looked at me, I just smiled and she smiled back and in THAT moment I knew that nothing else mattered but the two of us smiling back and forth while the grown ups were piss’t off at each other.
Some other moments I’m recalling, are of the little boy who was walking with his father who a minute ago was happy and then got slapped in the face for speaking in a tone that his dad didn’t like. Then there’s a three-year-old boy walking with his mother being yelled at in Spanish. As they approached a restaurant she said to him, “habre esa puerta! Silve pa algo!” (Open that door – – be worth something – – be good for something). The worst moment for me though was the day I actually saw a mother slap her child in the face. Just imagine the sounds echoing loudly over the 125th Street a noise. The slap was heard above the sounds of buses, and horns honking, a noise that went directly through me, a noise that felt like she just slapped me. All I kept thinking about was that little boy. What will he grow up to believe about himself? Will he think that he’s special? Will he know that he’s gifted? Will he believe that he can be anything he wants to be? Where will he find his sense of worth when the people closest to him are stripping him of that?
For a long time Cielo felt like she was fighting for her life. She’s been keeping it safe in that box. She won’t let anyone near it. I wanted to ask her how she could love someone who beats her. But I knew the answer…
You tend to love them anyway. You tend to love them more. You forgive them easily. You will do just about anything to gain their love. Even take their abuse. You want them to love you and you want them to stop beating you.
Peace, Love & Light~
Purchase the complete memoir, Finding Your Force, here.


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Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of The Cars, died on Sunday at his New York townhouse, police said. The singer was 75 years old. The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and were a mainstay on the pop charts for more than a decade thanks to hits like "Just What I Needed," "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Good Times Roll."
Police told NBC New York they got a call at around 4 p.m. about an unconscious male at a home on East 19th Street. Ocasek was pronounced dead at the scene. Law enforcement sources confirmed to NBC New York that Ocasek was the deceased.
Sources told Page Six the cause of death appears to be natural causes. Page Six reports Ocasek's estranged wife, Paulina Porizkova, discovered him.
The Cars, made up of Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, David Robinson and Benjamin Orr, released one of the most successful debut albums ever with their 1978 self-titled album. The Cars included "Just What I Needed," "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Good Times Roll," all hits still played on the radio daily. Their 1979 follow-up Candy-O was just as successful, with the singles "Double Life," "It's All I Can Do" and "Let's Go."
The group first broke up in 1988, but reunited in 2010 to record their final album, Move Like This. In 2018, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, reuniting one final time.
"Any time you get an award for something, whether its a bowling trophy or whatever, you feel a little special from it, I suppose," Ocasek told Rolling Stone in 2017, after the group's induction was announced. "It's certainly a wonderful feeling to be accepted by peers and you see the people that are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who gets inducted, it's a positive feeling that you get. I think it's kind of a big thing for me and the band. I know Ben would have been flipped out by it. I think everyone will be, but I haven't even spoke to the band today. It's certainly a very positive thing."
Ocasek also recorded a handful of solo albums, with his last, Nexterday, released in 2005. His biggest solo hit was 1986's "Emotion in Motion."
In that same Rolling Stone interview, Ocasek said the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction would be a "good cap on the bottle" of the Cars' career.
"I thought, 'I kind of started playing here and I could stop playing here, in Cleveland. This could be the bookends. One guy on a guitar playing bad songs and then I'm in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 45 years later,'" he said.
Ocasek is survived by Porizkova. Last year, Ocasek and Porizkova announced their separation after 29 years of marriage. He has six sons, two from his first marriage, two from his second and two with Porzikova.
Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images

domain: celebrity


text:
Royal Oak City Council Keeps Medical Marijuana Rulings But Protest Will Continue
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domain: medical


Copyright: David Lawson – Autumn 2001Home Page
This has made many developers pause for thought after several years of frenetic activity. Rapid growth in office construction since 1999 appears to be peaking, says DTZ central Europe research co-ordinator Peter Murphy – the first time since the mid-Nineties that supply has fallen year-on-year. Completions will rise again in 2002 but a fall heavily in the following 12 months developers postpone schemes in the face of oversupply created during the rush to become a European office centre. Takeup has soaked up the output in the past and is expected to break 150,000 sq metres this year, pushing prime rents to DM36/sq metre but occupiers are beginning to draw into their shells. The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, combined with economic slowdown and upcoming elections next spring have replaced buoyancy with caution for next year, and letting decisions are being put off.
The elections will come at a crucial time. Faced with a slowdown of GDP growth from almost 4.5% at the beginning of the year to less than 3% in 2001, the government has been trying to fill the gap by boosting public spending. Interest rates have also come down.
The trick will be to keep control of inflation. This remains one of the more positive factors, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, which expects a reduction to 6% by the end of next year. Another bright note is the prospective erosion of supply. The overall vacancy rate remains high but has fallen to 17.8%, says JLL, predicting that this will continue as developers hold back. The changing balance has already slowed decline in prime office rents from minus 5% in the first quarter to minus 2.6% in the three months to June, settling at DM 38/sq metre.
Budapest is by no means awash with the amounts of space seen in many western cities. ‘But you have to remember that these are relatively small markets,’ says Darren Battle, JLL central Europe research manager. Another 40,000 sq metres predicted by DTZ for completion this year plus next year’s commitments will still take total stock of modern offices to only 1.152m sq metres. Beyond that, increases will be closely tied to revival of occupier confidence, as funders are unwilling to back schemes unless they are at least one-third pre-let.
That might be expected to please investors wary of oversupply but, ironically, slower growth in stock could be just as frustrating A snap poll of more than 100 international fund managers at a JLL conference in Budapest last month revealed that 70% were keen to taste the relatively high yields of 8.75-9.25% but few have managed it. Even this, the most mature of central European office centres, has yet to develop a secondary market because developers either build and hold or ask too high a price.
. While more than US$21.5bn of foreign capital has flowed into Hungary in the last decade, only a handful of property deals have taken place since the investment market was born in 1999. Prominent among those, DGI bought the 11,500 sq metre Raiffeisen office development at a reported yield of less than 9.5% and HypoVereinsbank took the Ericsson’s 8931 sq metre building at a reported 10%. JLL says a new benchmark could be set when DGI completes purchase of MOM Park, a mixed-use development of 28,000 sq metres of offices and 18,000 sq metres of retail this year.
Despite the enthusiasm shown by investors at the JLL conference, Budapest offices could remain low on their list of priorities. One manager putting together a European fund admitted the sector was off his scale. ‘Even though yields appear to be stabilising, the blight of oversupply could be emphasised by the economic slowdown, and there are other cities – and sectors – which show more promise,’ he said
The fact that Marks & Spencer continues to flourish in Budapest while withdrawing elsewhere speaks volumes for the potential that international retailers see in this historic capital city, which has made astonishing progress in restoring its prestige in the last five years. Tesco has invested HUF 100 billion in Hungary, while Dixons and a Debenhams franchise are just being launched. Most of the fashionable high street names like Mango, Benetton and Esprit have staked a claim as consumer spending continues to rise at around 4% a year. The only ones missing are Zara and Hennes, says Charles Taylor at Healey & Baker’s Budapest office, who obviously believes it won’t be long before the list will be complete.
The irony is that Budapest’s weakness is its high streets. The downtown area is restricted by older buildings, limited supply and lease structure. That has thrown the emphasis on fringe shopping centres, where development has been nothing short of frenetic. Eight centres have opened since 1996, doubling space to more than 400,000 sq metres as local and foreign investors piled in. Add to that a slew of individual hypermarket developments and over-supply begins to loom for a city which only boasts around 2m people.
‘We are close to saturation,’ admits Taylor. But there is still room for one more centre, he adds – providing it is in the right location. A 22,000 sq metre extension to the Mammut centre, 3km west of the centre, has just opened fully let because it is close to relatively prosperous customers and linked to public transport. Others which are less well designed, managed or located could fare less well as the novelty value wears off. ‘Some centres have been trading poorly in the last 18 months,’ says Taylor.
Introduction of department stores or large lifestyle operators like Hermes could help. Existing centres don’t have these UK-style anchors: the Mamut extension is centred on a sports retailer. Bolting on hypermarkets are another possibility. Development began earlier than other central European capitals like Prague and Warsaw, so foodstores found their own sites. Habits are changing, as consumers adjust to the Western idea of multiple-choice shopping, so combined centres may suit suite operators. The other alternative is expansion on retail warehouse parks as food stores sell or develop surrounding land. This is still a fledgling market, dominated by hypermarkets, DIY and furniture. But electrical and sports retailers are now eying these locations around the city fringes. Several developers are competing to create the first factory outlet in Hungary.
The investment market is moribund, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, and while funds are increasingly keen on central European shopping centres, Budapest raises concerns over potential oversupply. ‘There remains concern that many of the rents agreed in shopping centres over the last three years are not sustainable in the long term,’ says Peter Chatfield, national director in Budapest.
One bright point is that further development is restricted. Investors will now need to sort existing wheat from chaff. The strong will survive but some will fail in the medium term, he says. Retail warehousing could be a more productive sector. While nothing of significance has yet emerged, retailers could soon begin searching for ways to offload freeholds. Lack of deals in this new market makes evidence scarce but Healey & Baker cites prime yields of 10.75% off rents of DM 18/sq metre compared with 10.5% at rents of DM 80/sq metre in Duna Plaza Shopping Centre, the only real benchmark since disposal to the Plaza Centres..
TrizecHahn’s decision to sell its shopping centres will provide further evidence for other international investors. The North American group spent more than US350m with local partners Granit Polus and TriGranit creating two centres in an early enthusiasm for central European investment but is now retreating back to its home market. Budapest’s WestEnd centre, which boasts rents of DM 110/ sq metre, is rumoured to be under offer to French investors for HUF130 billion [US$458m] but H&B insists that the field is still open and nothing will be completed this year. Meanwhile, the high street will also claim attention. The main Vaci utca, where rents are already hitting DM160/ sq metre – three times anywhere else in the city – is set for dramatic improvement over the next six months, as big names open new stores.
Speculative development reached significant levels for the first time this year as investors responded to an influx of international operators layered onto an expanding local market. The bad news is that this has pushed down rents for older space and this could spread to newer stock. Some 64,500 sq metres was completed in the six months to June of which around half is speculative, says Jones Lang LaSalle. Prime rents remain stable at around DM12/sq metre but are expected to show a small decline as choice of premises widens. Vacancy rates have already increased slightly to 5.2%.The city is rich in international tenants such as P&O and Rynart, Holland’s biggest logistics firm, however, which have been extremely active in the last 18 months. ProLogis has recently taken a site close to the airport to develop a 100,000 sq metre park. But purpose-built schemes remain dominant. No significant institutional investments have been made in the sector up to the middle of this year, says JLL.


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Hong Kong Med J 1997;3:195-200 | Number 2, June 1997
SEMINAR PAPERS--MOLECULAR MEDICINE
Molecular detection of minimal residual disease for patients with leukaemia and lymphoma
R Liang, D Chan, YL Kwong, V Chan
Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Although a complete clinical remission can often be achieved with chemotherapy for patients with leukaemia and lymphoma, relapses still occur. Residual tumour cells probably have survived therapy and account for subsequent disease relapse. The sensitivity of conventioned ways of detecting residual tumour cells, such as morphological studies, immunophenotyping, and cytogenetics, is only about 1% to 5% and may be inadequate. Polymerase chain reaction technology had provided a simple and highly sensitive means for the detection of minimal residual disease. The technology has been successfully applied to study biopsy samples obtained from patients with leukaemia and lymphpma. Its clinical usefulness, however, requires further evaluation by prospective clinical studies.
Key words: Neoplasm, residual; Leukaemia; Lymphoma; Polymerase chain reaction
View this abstract indexed in MEDLINE:


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Pretty in Pastels Playroom - Project Nursery
A pretty in pastels playroom. When I designed Elena's Preschool Inspired Playroom, I wanted the room to mimic her days at preschool and it did just that!
Fantasy Fields - Enchanted Woodland Thematic Kids Wooden Bookshelf with Storage - Imagination Inspiring Hand Painted Forest Animal Design , 3-Tier Shelf Bookcase and Toy Storage Drawer, Blue
Fantasy Fields Enchanted Woodland Bookshelf