In the hands
of a lesser director,We also offer customized zentai suits. a
movie about a 4,000-mile walk might seem as arduous as the task the characters
undertake within the film.
But Australian auteur Peter Weir has a knack
for delivering epic stories with a personal stroke, and so THE WAY BACK (PG-13,
3 stars) develops into a compelling film revolving around a rather static event.
Now, before you go in expecting whiz-bang action, let me assure you that
this is not the case. This is a slow-burner – sometimes too slow – that you'll
enjoy if you can appreciate the emotional elements of the story and Weir's
sweeping direction, which gets a vivid showcase in the Blu-ray
presentation.Handmade oil paintings for
sale at museum quality,
Also, if you're looking for veracity, there
remains some question about whether this story is actually true, which means you
should come in from the approach of "fictional story with some true-life
elements" in order not to be disappointed.
Jim Sturgess stars as Janusz,
a Polish prisoner in a Russian gulag during World War II. There he meets an
eclectic cast of characters, including Russian actor Khabarov (Mark Strong);
American prisoner Mr. Smith (Ed Harris) and tough guy Valka (Colin Farrell).
Khabarov has a plan to escape that the rest of the inmates have pooh-poohed, but
one night Janusz decides to implement the plan, and before long, a host of
prisoners have hit the road.
Their plan consists of walking – lots and
lots of walking.Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had
reached pipeline deals They run across a young girl (Saoirse Ronan) who
convinces them to let her join the party. The journey carries them through
Siberia, into Mongolia and eventually India. Some will perish,This is
interesting cube puzzle and logical game.
others will find their limits reached. It's a remarkable story, one that
unfortunately has been proven false over the years.
Still, it shouldn't
prevent you from appreciating some fine acting work done by Sturgess,Not to be
confused with RUBBER MATS available
at your local hardware store Farrell and Harris – actors who live to sink their
teeth into meaty, hardscrabble roles like these.
The real star of the
show, however, is Weir's direction, which alternates between stunning wide shots
that serve to establish the sheer magnitude of the journey and treacherous
nature of making it on foot, and up-close-and-personal shots of the toll this
freedom march has taken on the individuals involved.
The film looks and
sounds great – it's heartening to see that even though the movie came and went
at cinemas, there was no expense spared to deliver a transfer worthy of Weir's
talents and your home theater system's capabilities.
"The Way Back" may
not be for everyone, but if you a patient moviegoer with an eye for visuals,
this will do the job.
SunSi Energies, Inc. ("SunSi")
(OTCQB:SSIE) announced today it is launching an investor relations campaign to
increase investor awareness and understanding of SunSi operations. Through its
operations in mainland China, SunSi manufactures tricholorsilane (TCS), a
critical intermediate compound used to produce extremely pure polysilicon.Not to
be confused with RUBBER MATS
available at your local hardware store TCS is a critical component of computer
chips and solar photovoltaic ("PV") cells and is an essential raw material used
in the manufacturing of approximately 75% of all solar panels worldwide.
David Natan, Sunsi's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are strongly
positioned to become a major supplier of TCS to the solar industry and believe
we can generate significant profitability from current operations through the
expansion of our Wendeng facility in Shandong Province.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum
quality, Once investors become aware of our competitive position, the size of
TCS' potential market, the Company's prospects for future growth, and our
current product sales to two clients each with over a billion dollars in annual
revenue, we believe this knowledge will translate to increased trading volume
and an increase in the price of our stock."
Richard St-Julien, President
of SunSi Energies Hong Kong Limited, stated, "Our campaign will be launched on a
number of fronts including investor outreach programs, increased website
visibility, and through greater exposure to the national media. We believe our
stock price is undervalued. On May 8th, Goldman Small Cap Research initiated
coverage on SunSi with a $6.00 price target."
About SunSi Energies Inc.
SunSi's focus is to acquire and develop a portfolio of high quality TCS
producing facilities that are strategically located and possess a potential for
future growth and expansion. SunSi now controls approximately 47,We also offer
customized zentai
suits.000 metric tons of TCS production, which is believed to be the largest
TCS-only company in China.
Relatively unknown, but essential to the
solar industry, TCS is a chemical primarily used in the production of
polysilicon, which is an essential raw material in the production of solar cells
for PV panels that convert sunlight to electricity. TCS is considered to be the
first product in the solar PV value chain before polysilicon, and is also the
principal source of ultrapure silicon in the semiconductor industry.We
specialize in providing third party merchant
account. SunSi believes it will become the first and only "pure play" public
company in the world focusing exclusively on the production and sales of
TCS.Houston-based Quicksilver
Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals
As NCsoft launches its Empyrean
Calling 2.5 update to Aion today, Gamasutra talks with the MMORPG's team about
the game's evolution in the past two years and localizing features for different
regions.
When Aion launched in North America in September 2009, many
praised the subscription-based online title for its polish and visual design,
but other criticized it for requiring players to grind for hours before reaching
more entertaining portions of the game.
Aion has made an effort to ease
the grind and expand its offerings through regular updates, like today's 2.5
patch that adds a mentor system for low-level characters, two new instances,
character customization and pet system enhancements, new skills, and more.
NCsoft is also introducing a 10-day free trial option to Aion tomorrow,
allowing new players to play the game with a 20-level cap.We specialize in
providing third party merchant account. The
MMORPG will begin hosting various in-game events designed to provide players
"with a true taste of the game", too.
Gamasutra sat down with associate
producer Adam Christensen, GameGuide lead Scott Hannus, and GameGuide content
writer Sean Orlikowski to discuss how Aion has changed since its launch, and
managing the different play styles of Korean and American users.
Aion
was a game where the push was to make sure the content was developed in concert
and localized in concert so the feedback was going bi-directionally with the
Korean team. How have those efforts panned out?
Adam Christensen: It's
kind of a living breathing thing that we slowly have to nurture, but the
relationship with the devs over in Korea, I would definitely say is getting
better for sure. We're making steps in the right direction with each significant
update. With developing the overseas build is a process of communication that's
constantly going back and forth between us and NCsoft West and NCsoft Seoul. And
we're in contact with them on a daily basis.
From the NC West
perspective, how have you felt about the uptake of the game and the audience
response in the U.S. market?
AC: We're definitely excited about it. We
want to try and provide the best experience that we can for the North American
players. That's something that we're always having to re-examine because there's
a huge significant different between the play styles of the players in South
Korea and the players here, so we're constantly having to examine that via the
community and the feedback we get directly from the players, whether it be on
the forums or submitted tickets from customer service.
We're always
trying to re-examine how we can make it a better experience for the North
American players. So, when we get feedback from the players, we try to wind it
around and spin it into a way that we can directly make an increase to the
quality of life within the game.
I've gotten the impression that there
is definitely a cultural difference in how players in different markets play
games, not just Korea and North America but also even in Europe and Japan and
other places. Trying to satisfy those different styles seems tricky.
AC:
Yeah. Totally tricky. I mean, if you want to look at something in particular,
look at like fortress sieges that we have within Aion. We have opportunities to
gather everyone together and take over a fortress. In Korea, if one faction has
owned the fortress for too long, there's even some instances where they'll
actually give it up just to keep the game fresh and new for everyone. So, if
they've had it for long enough, they basically just turn it over to the other
faction
I don't think the North American players would. You know, you'd
be hard-pressed to find a time where the North American players would just give
it out just because the game's health was dependent on it, you know what I mean?
So, to keep the gameplay fresh and everything like that, we're always trying to
come up with better ideas on how we can better maintain that quality of life.
Would you say that's due to the specific audience you've attracted? Or
is that more just a cultural North American thing?
AC: I think it would
probably be a mixture of both. When you talk about fortress sieges, of course
you're going to be referring to one specific audience within the Aion world, and
that would be people who are really into PvP. And so that audience is, you know,
pretty hardcore.
They care a lot about faction balance and everything
like that. They're going to do their best to maintain fortress ownership and
maintain faction supremacy and everything like that. But I think there's
definitely a little bit of both in there. There are cultural differences and
style of play differences.
The Korean seems to have a more general
casual PvP than we do, where a casual audience would approach PvP more openly.
AC: Oh yeah. That definitely plays a part in it, too. There are so many
different styles of play out there, so it's hard to pinpoint one contributing
factor. One thing we're always trying to do is work with community, as well.
Like I mentioned earlier, the direct player feedback that we get and how
we can spin that into improvements in the game, we try to maintain the interest
of both the PvPers and the PvPEers, and just the plain PvEers.Not to be confused
with RUBBER MATS available at your
local hardware store There's all those different audiences that we always have
to maintain balance with game content and everything like that.
The
community has actually been able to come up with some events that are trying to
appeal to those people. We run an event called "For War And Glory," which is the
rifting event where we actually open up the capability of rifting. Rifting is
basically teleporting to the opposite faction's territory,We also offer
customized zentai
suits. so you can go in and straight-up PvP.
That's something they
actually put the kibosh on in Korea, and we have buffs in place so that rifting
was significantly weakened. So, during these rifting events, we actually take
away those buffs. This is an opportunity that we want to give the players who
want to PvP to be able to go in and be able to do that.
Scott Hannus: I
think it's also worth mentioning that one of the reasons we did it is we sent
out these surveys to players, and it turned out that 70 percent of the
population in the Western territory like casual PvP or hardcore PvP from time to
time. So, by seeing that data, we said, "Hey, we need to put this back in."
AC: And right now we're running these events on kind of a week-on,
week-off basis so we can try to appeal to both.
You know, one thing I've
heard spoken about is the difference between the audience you want and the
audience you have.
AC: Right.
Which audience do you operate the
game for?
AC: All I can really say about that, like I've been
mentioning, that's one of the reasons why we're constantly trying to get
feedback, to take a proper gauge of what the audience is that we have.
There's almost this vocal minority. The people that speak on our forums
are not always going to be the majority of players. It's going to be the most
vocal. So, we want to try and find every way we can to really be in touch with
the pulse of the players and really find out what they need and what they want
for an enjoyable game experience.
SH: That's something both the game
guide and the community work on together. We play Aion. We see the changes in
the game.Houston-based Quicksilver
Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals Sean, he's played Aion
since...
Sean Orlikowski: Beta.
SH: ...the dawn of time.Handmade
oil paintings for sale at museum
quality, I mean, we all have an idea of, you know, what players want, what they
expect in the game.
SO: Mostly because it's what we want to do. So,
we're our own advocates in a lot of cases.
Having played Aion since the
dawn of time, has the shape it's been taking been satisfying?
SO: Yeah.
One thing I mentioned in earlier interviews is I just leveled another character
recently. I had two characters previously that I had leveled early on, and I
just went through and leveled another one. It's literally night and day how much
easier it is to level, how much more experience you get for the quests you're
doing, how much content there is to help you along toward the next level.
So, it's an unfortunate stigma that's stuck with this game since the
beginning when some of that content wasn't there. We've really been trying to
communicate that Aion is a very different game than what it was even a year ago
with all these player-driven content updates that we've come up with for
feedback.
Well, it's really hard to convince people to either come back.
I mean, I don't know how hard it is to convince people to hop on a train that's
still in motion, but it's definitely hard to get people to come back to it.
SH: Yeah. We have been very successful with our re-activation events,
re-activating accounts. Every time our population has seen a significant bump
from doing those. I think we are reaching out to that audience. We're hoping to
do that with 2.5 as well.
AC: And like you said about getting new people
to come in, we actually have a free trial system that we're going to be
implementing as well. It's something we haven't really done before. It's a
ten-day pretty much unrestricted free trial. You can get as far as you can. The
only restrictions are some safeguards.
That's interesting. I mean, at
this point, there are a lot of mature games in the market. There are a lot of
games with large audiences, so pulling people has got to be harder than it's
ever been, I think. And there's a lot of free games, and whether or not the free
games are any good, they're still free. And some of them are. At this point,
some of them are good also.
AC: Yeah.
Some of them are quite
good. Some are a lot better than they were two years ago.
SH: Yeah. For
sure.
It's interesting to see the evolution of a game and seeing people
keep a game going, and seeing a game take new shapes because ultimately very
often we only end up, you know, hearing about games when they launch.
Now in
its 12th year, the prestigious Rip Curl GromSearch continues to raise the bar to
a level unmatched by other youth surf contest series. With H2O Overdrive as the
presenQuality air impact socket tools
for any tough job.ting sponsor and Dragon Alliance, Kicker Audio, Power
Balance,We are professional Plastic
mould, Future Fins, and Wahoo's Fish Taco's on board, 2011 is materializing
with brilliance. This year's series bleed classic battles and new rivalries as
the best 16 and under groms from around the nation showcase their talent on the
elite Rip Curl GromSearch platform.
The four-stop series kicks off in
Huntington Beach, CA June 11th and 12th; heads across the Pacific to Hawaii July
9th; then jumps back to the Atlantic for the August 13th New Smyrna, FL event;
and wraps up the right coast to the Outerbanks of North Carolina on August 20th
for the final regional leg.what are the symptoms of Piles, The 2011 Rip Curl
GromSearch National Final will be held during the Rip Curl Pro Search Somewhere
in San Francisco in November.
Rip Curl GromSearch registration is open
at www.ripcurl.com/gromsearch and space is already filling up fast. With the
Huntington Beach event less than a month away, top performing RCGS vets are
already locked in like Kalani David, Taylor Clark, Parker Coffin, Jake Marshall
and last year's 16/under regional Champ, Colin Moran.An Insulator, also called a dielectric,
The prize money, winnings,How is TMJ pain treated? and sponsor swag are
more colossal than ever, and H2O Overdrive is back with hard cash for the
Maneuver of the Event winner. Space is limited so sign up early.
Ceramic tiles offer one of
the toughest floor and bathroom surfaces going,Polycore honeycomb panels are
manufactured as a single sheet, but traditional tile installations can suffer
from one major weakness when used in wet areas. Grout is the masonry-based
filler that's worked into the spaces between tiles, and grout can be responsible
for deterioration of tile installations in two ways. Understand how and why this
happens and you'll also appreciate the two things you can do to help tiles
retain their good looks at your house.
The main issue is that grout is
porous. Despite its physical strengths, grout absorbs liquids and let's them
pass right through. Although your bathroom walls or laundry room floor may be
covered with tiles that are completely impervious to water and grime, what good
is this when water sneaks through the grout?
Tactic 1: Create a
waterproof installation
Liquid grout sealing compounds have been
available for years, but most are like those water repellents that people put on
winter shoes. They work for a while, but need regular reapplication. As useful
and necessary as a good grout sealer is, you can't always rely on it exclusively
to keep water from seeping through grout and underneath tiles,We are
professional Plastic mould, causing leaks
and delamination. To guard against this trouble you need a waterproof membrane
worked right into the tile installation at the earliest stages.
This
same waterproofing action happens when Kerdi is installed underneath tiles as
they go down. It's especially useful behind tub enclosures and running several
inches up walls around the perimeter of a room. Kerdi is so effective that
floors in laundry rooms and entranceways can even be fitted with drains to allow
regular washing down of the floor, not just mopping.
Tactic 2: Deal with
bad grout
Most tile installations don't have Kerdi keeping water out,
and even they did, grout can still get saturated and mouldy, even if water
doesn't penetrate further. The mould hazard is especially potent in showers and
tub surrounds, where soap and shampoo residue feed microbe growth. Even in dry
locations, the porous nature of grout means that it picks up dirt, making the
entire installation look dingy. Cleaning and sealing is the answer.
GroutShield has been around since 1994 and it's handled in Canada by a
Canadian supplier with customer support on our side of the border. In my own
testing of the product on dirty grout in a tiled bathroom, I found it worked
quickly and easily. The basic kit ($56 including shipping) comes with a
plastic-bristled brush for scrubbing, with enough cleaning liquid and grout
sealer to deal with 250-square-feet of tiled area. Apply cleaner to dirty grout
lines, scrub it, wipe it, then let it dry.
In my case the look of my
sandy-coloured grout was greatly improved by cleaning alone, but further
difference happened with the colour-matched grout sealer. It looks like thick
hand creme, and you apply it directly to the grout line with a squeeze bottle.
Don't worry about getting a little on the tiles. Virtually all tiles are
impervious enough to resist absorbing the coloured sealer. Just squirt some
along the grout lines on a few square feet of tile, rub it in with your finger,
then wipe it off with the chamois provided in the kit. Despite the very
enthusiastic sales videos you'll see for GroutShield online,An Insulator, also called a dielectric, using the
product still requires work and patience. As long as you understand that
much,For all DVS Ventilation system in PDF
format. you'll be fine.
It's amazing how a little bit of home
improvement diligence pays off in better, more economical and more reliable
results.All Coated Abrasives products are
compiled of backing, And when it comes to ceramic tiles, a good installation and
the right maintenance program makes a world of difference.