They are found on every continent except Antarctica. There are about 3,000 species of dragonflies. They teach us to look at life from a whole new angle and to discover the joy that is all that we have to offer. As we carry on in our lives, they remind us that we can fly high with our true colors if we just light our eyes and lift our spirits. One possibility is that they mistake light for the sun, which they use as a navigational aid.ĭragonflies are reminders that transformation is possible. However, it is not clear why they would be attracted to light. One study found that dragonflies were more likely to fly towards a light source than away from it. There is some evidence that dragonflies are drawn to light. When one does, the dragonfly will dart out its long tongue and snatch the insect in midair. It will perch on a branch or leaf, and wait for an unsuspecting insect to fly by. How Does A Dragonfly Obtain Energy?Ī dragonfly typically eats smaller insects, such as mosquitoes, flies, and moths. They don’t fly if the light source is turned off, but they do stay still if it’s turned on. They can be in groups and in solitary confinement at times. Insects, such as bees, dragonflies, wasps, and others, attract light in large numbers. Large dragonflies will shivering before takeoff will produce heat. Most thorax species are active at night and bask in the sun to cool down, but no species can tolerate a temperature of more than 25 degrees Celsius. It is critical that dragonflies are kept warm. ![]() These insects prefer to perch on a sunny branch, a grass stem, a rock pile, or a patch of bare earth in the morning, soaking up the sun’s rays. The dragonfly, like turtles, snakes, and humans, enjoys basking in the sun. So next time you see a dragonfly zipping around, remember that it is powered by the sun! They use a process called solar power to convert sunlight into the energy they need to fly. That’s right, dragonflies get their energy from the sun. But how do dragonflies do it? What gives them the power to fly so well? It turns out that one of the things that makes dragonflies such great flyers is the fact that they are powered by the sun. It’s no wonder that people have long been fascinated by these creatures and their flying abilities. ![]() They can zip around at high speeds, change directions quickly, and even hover in midair. As anyone who has ever seen a dragonfly knows, these insects are amazing flyers.
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![]() My pessimism has nothing to do with my personal ambitions but the national behemoth called Nigeria. ![]() Now, let me make a confession: I am one of the most pessimistic Nigerians alive. In my quiet times, I try to sift through daily issues as reported by my industry – the media. I know because my favourite past time is to read opinions on the comment section of online reports where people hide under the anonymity provided to unleash ethnic vomit on public spaces. Take it or leave it, the sectional interests championed by our founding fathers will never go away – even if you legislate against it as has been done in Rwanda. I have long accepted this reality but many Nigerians will not. Today, several decades after those seminal stages, we are still being confronted by the historic, perhaps permanent, hangover of those times, our foundation years. We have not recovered from that detour, and never will. The men who held the light in the path to a great future were the same who put out the light in their epic ego battle. For me, it remains a historic irony that the foundation for the present socio-political malaise in the country was laid by the best men Nigeria has yet produced. Now, you can begin to decipher where and when the trouble with Nigeria began. However, their intellectual firepower remained intact – something agonizingly missing today. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, and Tafawa Balewa (Ahmadu Bello’s proxy) – all fell into this unfortunate descent. Their ideas of national progress became defined or determined by their localized sensibility. And from their local platforms, they launched the frenetic aspiration to become national leaders. Thus the great African leaders who set out to be continental champions became local deities. Whatever may have happened to their vision remains a mystery but what is not a mystery is that at some point the idealism which powered the struggle for national independence gave way to ethnic bigotry, acquisitiveness, and megalomania. So great was the optimism! But, alas, they never reckoned with the booby-traps of imperialism and their own narcissistic instinct. The future which they saw was awesome – a future of African renaissance. ![]() They had great ideas of the future and the people were fascinated by them. Those were the promising days and the leaders of thought were also the leaders of the people – they showed the light and the people followed. And their imagination was fired by the ideal of racial equality, freedom, and egalitarianism. The leaders then were the best their societies could offer in that they were educated and confident, and could hold their own in every situation. To be honest, it seems to me rather mischievous to refuse to admit that progress has been made in our political evolution no, much progress has been made but in one direction: backward.Īll the real progress Nigeria has made occurred in the era of nationalism when western educated Nigerian leaders became voices of their people and fought European colonialists with intellectual weapons: knowledge, ideas, and a compulsive sense of mission. Maybe that distinction should actually be assigned to the Kwankwasiyya leader, Rabiu Kwankwaso, whose influence however is not as widely spread – but of course we have seen the opium effect he appears to have on his followers in some Northern states, especially Kano. Where, for instance, Sir Ahmadu Bello exerted an unquestionable pull amongst his loyalists, the same cannot be said of his modern day role player whose supporters are just as inconsistent as himself. Well, you could make allowance for the obvious deficit in the charisma of the current progenies. So, in the main, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) reincarnated as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Action Group (AG) as the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) as the Labour Party (LP). Coincidentally, the unfortunate re-appearance of three leading candidates from the dominant three groups ensured that the dramaturgy of political perfidy took almost exact shape as it did then. The two phases of electoral farce this year were only too evocative of the violent and raw ethnic campaigns of the country’s early years of pseudo-independence, and more tragic. If any evidence was required to buttress the fact that Nigeria has not moved beyond 1960 in political development, the shameful elections of February 25 and March 18 were just enough. ![]() ![]() ![]() Browse this page carefully and find the best Promo Codes or Coupons that matches your need. Click the "Get Code" button, and then click "Copy Code" button to copy the coupon code to your clipboard on the pop-up page.How to use a Muse Paintbar Special Offer?Īdd your chosen product in to the cart at. Up to 30% off Muse Paintbar Coupons & Special Offers.Muse Paintbar also works with many fundraising events so if you have any fundraising ideas, you can always email them!Muse Paintbar Promo Code 2018 here, now star your shopping now and find your favorites products.Įxample Coupons - Muse Paintbar Coupons as Below: Muse Paintbar also never forgets to share its blessing to the community by giving 5% of their total profit to local causes. Muse Paintbar also offers over 20 beers and wines for your enjoyment! On its menu, it has Dips ‘N Things (hummus platter, chips & salsa, chips & guacamole, chips with guac and salsa, and baby carrots and ranch), Hot Stuff (spinach and feta triangles, beef dogs in puff pastry, mozzarella sticks, soft pretzels, and chicken fingers), flat breads (cheese pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and bruschetta), meatballs, and Sweet Things such as warm fudge brownie and ice cream. Muse Paintbar, aside from art inclinations, also offers a variety of food, beers, and wine on-site. With Muse Paintbar, you can also plan private parties with your friends for any type of occasions- may it be a birthday party, bachelor’s party, kiddie party, fundraisers, work events, and many more! Muse Paintbar combines painting instructions with restaurant and bar- hosting painting sessions seven days a week while catering to the needs of their hungry customers. Surprise! You can do it all in one place! Go eat and paint at Muse Paintbar!Ĭombining art and food is Muse Paintbar’s game. Do you have a calling for both art and food? Or do you just want to eat and paint at the same? The Northern Moonsnail is the largest moonsnail species to 14 cm long (Neverita lewisii). They need such a big foot to dig for their clam prey AND for females to construct their egg collars below the sand. Through the rapid uptake of seawater, the foot of can inflate up to four times the size of what it is when in the shell The water is expelled when moonsnails squeeze back into their shells. You might be wondering how a snail THAT big can fit into their shell. What has catalyzed my finally also adding this content to my blog is that Mickie Donley shared her video with me showing a female Northern Moonsnail pushing her eggs to the surface. Photos taken in British Columbia, Canada but there are moonsnail species, and their collars, off so many coasts.” ![]() The moonsnail species in the photo above is the Northern Moonsnail whose shell can be up to 14 cm wide (Neverita lewisii is also known as Lewis’ Moonsnail). There is contradictory information on how long it takes the eggs to hatch (one reliable source relays about 1 week while another reports up to 1.5 months). The larvae are plankton for 4 to 5 weeks and then settle to the ocean bottom to develop further. The collar disintegrates when the larvae hatch. When the egg collar is intact as you seen in the images above, the young have NOT hatched out. The process of making the egg collar takes 10 to 14 hours and reportedly starts at the beginning of a flood tide.Īs long as conditions are good, the egg collars found on beaches are likely to have embryos developing inside them (if they are still rubbery and moist). The thousands of eggs develop in the the sand-mucus matrix. The female forms the collar under the sand and then forces it above the sand when done. They are wondrous constructions to house and protect moonsnail embryos (of several moonsnail species on our coast).ĭetail: The female moonsnail forms one layer of the collar by gluing together sand grains with mucus then the fertilized eggs are laid on this layer and THEN she seals them in with another layer of sand and mucus! With recent low tides it has surfaced again that (mostly) well-intentioned people are moving or “cleaning up” moonsnail egg collars. From a museum family who made it clear this wasn’t a choice, but a privilege, Larry Eifert now believes he has more art in America’s National Parks and Preserves than any other artist.Text provided with the above image: “ Oh oh. ![]() This is about a guy who has been driven to paint nature for a very long time. His work can be seen in many national parks across America. Larry paints and blogs about wild places at. Keep your eyes open for this stuff on your next anchorage beach walk. This 6” inner tube-shaped thing has the eggs hiding beneath, but it will never be a complete circle shape because the snail starts laying its eggs at one side and finishes without joining the ends. ![]() This snail puts its eggs in a mucus glob that is then molded by the foot into a round ‘collar’. The ‘foot’ is actually the snail’s trap door and transportation all rolled into one. Finding a target, the moon snail uses its foot to surround the victim, then a toothed ‘tongue’ or radula drills a perfect hole to get at the inhabitant. These big predatory mollusks can be 7” across with a large foot it uses to plow along searching for clams. What the heck? Then I found a few shells with perfectly rounded holes in them, like someone with a countersink bit had spent time trying it out. I walked a sandy beach recently and ran across what appeared to be a little gray inner tube. ![]() This CPU integration has cut motherboard manufacturers' costs. Integrated video has moved from a motherboard slotted peripheral to graphics-enabled CPUs.ĪMD's Ryzen has a system-on-a-chip design that also makes the Southbridge chipset optional. Some memory controllers are now built into CPUs that has eliminated the Northbridge chips that provided memory management from the motherboard. Other form factor designers include the following: Motherboard designs in desktop computers typically are the ATX motherboard, which is Intel's improved version of IBM's AT design. Choosing a motherboard often determines many features a computer will support. This is done through point-to-point interconnects such as HyperTransport, Intel's QuickPath Interconnect and Ultra Path Interconnect. The CPU is generally connected to double data rate 3 (DDR3), DDR4, DDR5 or onboard LPDDRx RAM and PCIe. Typically motherboards offer additional connectivity through a Southbridge chip such as PCI, Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or SATA, Thunderbolt, USB and other interfaces. PCI Express slots on a motherboardĪ heatsink and fan manage the heat components such as the CPU generate. These include processor sockets dual in-line memory modules Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI Express ( PCIe) and solid-state drive M.2 slots as well as power supply connections. Other components get added to a motherboard through expansion slots. The PCB of a large motherboard may include six to 14 layers of fiberglass, copper connecting traces and copper planes for power and signal isolation. Motherboard manufacturers include Acer, ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte Technology, Intel and Micro-Star International. The external peripherals include Wi-Fi, Ethernet and graphics cards with the graphics processing unit, or GPU. The components that connect through them include chipsets, central processing units ( CPU) and memory. Motherboards can be found in virtually all computers, especially desktop and laptop PCs. The motherboard is a computer's central communications backbone connectivity point, through which all components and external peripherals connect. A motherboard is the main printed circuit board ( PCB) in a computer. ![]() We believe that NWTN’s insights on the value of the passenger-centric experience will drive NWTN into a blue ocean market with enormous opportunity, functioning as the hub of future intelligent mobility life,” said Xiaoma “Sherman” Lu, Chief Executive Officer of East Stone. “In NWTN we have found a company that has the vision, courage and talent to change the automobile industry. To achieve this objective, our experienced international team and reputable strategic partners have been working relentlessly on our SPVs, a segment with remarkably untapped market potential where NWTN continues to lead.” Its first model SEVEN and second model MUSE have received industrywide recognition at various global auto shows.Ĭommenting on today’s announcement, NWTN’s Founder and Chairman, Alan Wu, said, “NWTN was born with a mission to bringing a passenger-centric green premium mobility solution to the world. NWTN’s primary target consumers are technology-savvy families and businesses who are becoming increasingly environmentally-conscious. All these technical elements, along with unique design language, contribute to NWTN’s vision of passenger-centric experience. NWTN’s core technology advantages are characterized by modular pure electric platform, digital on-board connectivity system, continuously-upgraded electric and electronic architecture as well as autonomous driving technology. ![]() Headquartered in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), NWTN is a green mobility technology company which defines the Smart Passenger Vehicle (“SPV”) as a vehicle concept emphasizing AI technologies, autonomous driving and personalized passenger experience. The transaction represents a post-combination valuation of $2.5 billion ($2,500,000,000) for NWTN upon closing, subject to adjustment. The outstanding shares of NWTN and East Stone will be converted into the right to receive shares of the Pubco. Upon consummation of the two mergers and the other transaction contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement (the “Business Combination”), NWTN, Inc., a newly formed subsidiary (the “Pubco”) will seek to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. More information is available upon request.Burlington, MA and Dubai, UAE, Ap(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - East Stone Acquisition Corporation (Nasdaq: ESSC) (“East Stone”), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, and ICONIQ Holding Limited (“NWTN”) announced today that they have entered into a definitive Business Combination Agreement (the “Business Combination Agreement”). The universe of investors considered in this analysis excludes early-stage venture investors and other investors with an active focus beyond growth equity including public equities. Had ICONIQ Strategic Partners Funds existed at the time of investment, this investment would have been offered and allocated to ICONIQ Strategic Partners Funds. Solely based on ICONIQ’s analysis of information available from Crunchbase and Pitchbook data and includes any company listed on Forbes’ Cloud 100 Best Private Companies from 2016-2021 includes 38 ICONIQ Strategic Partners investments as well as Survey Monkey - ICONIQ advised funds invested in SurveyMonkey prior to the existence of ICONIQ Strategic Partners Funds. ![]() ![]() The financial score is then factored in alongside a people and culture score using third-party data providers, and a market leadership score determined by several dozen of the list nominees’ public CEO peers, who are no longer eligible for the list themselves. Nominated companies submit qualitative and quantitative data (within given ranges) to generate a financial score considering the companies’ valuation, revenue, and growth rate. The Forbes Cloud 100 submissions were accepted during May 2021. An easy and effective way to provide these opportunities in the preschool classroom is to give children free-choice time. They areĬhildren need many opportunities to engage in play and to follow their interests. ![]() There are six elements of an effective schedule. This lesson will also address how to create and support your classroom routines. Both elements help to promote autonomy and self-regulation in children. Routines help provide a pattern and predictability to one’s day. Routines, on the other hand, are the steps done along the way to complete the schedule. The schedule is the big picture of the main activities you and the children engage in daily. Then you will have a chance to consider how best to arrange these pieces for your classroom. This lesson will introduce you to the six elements of an effective schedule. The order and style of those elements are up to you. There are certain “ingredients,” or elements that go into an effective schedule. ![]() 11).Ĭreating an effective schedule is like putting together a puzzle or a favorite recipe. Providing a daily schedule will “allow for long, focused investigation periods and clear routines that children can count on for communicating with peers in whole-group experiences, some in which all will gather to discuss topics and processes related to the emergent inquiry,” (Broderick & Hong, 2020, p. To help preschool children develop the diverse skills they need to succeed, they should be exposed to different settings and activities throughout the school day. This means that preschool-age children are likely to have unique learning experiences when involved in various types of activities. Preschool children are sensitive to their settings, and their behaviors and interactions with other children and adults are often different in different situations (Vitiello, Booren, Downer, & Williford, 2012). ![]() Just try them out – you’ll see what I mean. There are multiple different options you can choose from, each with a completely unique style: reverses, glitches, distortions, and much more. It’s not quite a normal piano when you first load it up. Feel free to check out the other pianos and instruments they have available too.ĭownload Free Now Spitfire Labs Modular PianoĪnother creative and experimental option from Spitfire – this piano takes things to the next level. You can download this for Kontakt, as a soundfont or as a standalone VST. Great for emotional film-inspired stuff and ballad-electronic stuff alike.Īlso from bigcat Instruments (creator of Iowa Piano), this piano sounds great for a dramatic, soft piano. This one is semi-bright while maintaining a realistic and soft sound. This one is only available for Kontakt, so make sure you have a copy of that first. Recommended: Ableton Live Piano Roll: 19 Tips AmoreĪmore is a solid piano option, created by Precision Sound. Once again, this one is it’s own plugin, so plug and play. Not necessarily what you want if you’re looking for the richest piano, or the best interface, however. Great for layering and for adding a bit more high-end texture to something. It’s only got the one sound, but it’s a solid one. ![]() Modelled off of the infamous Steinway Grand Piano, this great yet tiny piano plugin instrument might be exactly the free plugin you’re looking for. The plugin is available in both Windows and Mac formats, except the Mac format seems to only be 32 bit. Keyzone Classic from Bitsonic Audio is another sample-based piano plugin with 5 different pianos that you can switch between. (The file size is also tiny, which is another benefit of physical modelling). Although it seems to function normally, it’s a bit older, so hopefully it still continues to work on future Windows and Mac operating systems. It’s also got it’s own free standalone VST plugin, so no need for any other plugins or downloads. This one is also a lot more ‘lively-sounding’ than the other options out there, likely due to the fact that it’s a physically-modeled piano, rather than sampled. The 4Front piano is a quality, full-bodied upright piano plugin and is great for capturing a live feel in your own productions. For many you’ll need a full version of NI Kontakt, for others you’ll need Logic’s EXS24 sampler (which you can convert to Ableton, if you’re a Live user). The only downside? There’s no universal format. This project was started by Christian Hensen of Spitfire Audio (who we already mentioned), and has a lot of free pianos and other instruments sampled by a growing community. Less of a specific piano, but more of an entire library of pianos. It also comes as it’s own VST/AU plugin for Mac and Windows, so no stuffing around with third-party samplers. It’s solid, rich and expressive, and loved by many. ![]() It’s sampled from a Yamaha C7 concert grand – one of the most ubiquitous pianos out there. This was my first free piano VST plugin, and I used it solely for a very long time. Note that you will need the paid version of Kontakt (not Kontakt Player) to run this, even though the library itself is free.Īlternatively, you can download it as a free soundfont and load it into your favourite soundfont player. This library has a great realistic sound (recorded from a Steinway Model B) due to the nice room ambience it was recorded with. One of the best free Grand Piano libraries/plugins available courtesy of Ivy Audio. Recommended: Can I Learn Music Production from YouTube & Google Only? Piano in 162 You can grab it + many more sampled instruments on the LABS website – you will have to download the free LABS software first. I actually used it on my track ‘ The Retreat‘, and it’s been a studio staple since. This piano plugin sounds great for film-inspired, ambient and the more chill side of music. It’s not the ‘full version’, but it’s ‘streamlined’ according to their description.ĭownload Free Now Spitfire Labs Soft PianoĪ personal favourite of mine – the free Soft Piano is a beautifully-sampled intimate piano from the industry staple Spitfire, available as a part of their free LABS instrument. Hybrid Keys is included with the Komplete Start bundle, which NI currently has available for free on their website. These are a creative set of keyboard instruments that work with the free version of Kontakt called Kontakt Player. ![]() Yet they’ve also got a free option as well – Hybrid Keys. Native Instruments is the staple of many producers’ studios, and they are known for their quality paid piano plugin instruments that perfectly integrate into their sampler – Kontakt. Download for free Free Piano Plugins Native Instruments Komplete Start – Hybrid Keys Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it. And given that Spiderweb Software is largely a single-person company, I guess that's a pretty good reason. Well, besides effort of implementation, of course. Still no reason why they couldn't have replaced one or two of the conic AoE spells in the game with a multitarget bolt spell. Once you make that decision, there's somewhat less room to have multiple spells that do basically similar things, and both AoE and multi-target spells are "hit multiple targets with damage" spells, which is frankly pretty similar. Oh sure, and the original games did have both, while the reremakes only have AoE and single-target spells.oh well! I guess this is a side-effect of the decision to have each spell have multiple levels, one of which has to be found or received as a reward (instead of being bought). Resource cost being equal, I think that true AoEs should be more powerful while being obviously riskier and requiring tactical planning, while multi-target spells are the safer but less potent option. JustJeff88 posted: I actually see room for both. THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES In general, aside from the seamless bit, 4 through 6 are much more similar to what we're seeing here in this LP, than they are to remake 1 through 3. Towns and dungeons are integrated into a seamless map in Avernum 4 through 6 (which neither had an Exile version nor have gotten a reremake), but in all versions of 1 through 3, you zone in to a different map for towns and dungeons. The Avernum # remakes and the Avernum: Subtitle reremakes had 4 party members. The original Exile: Subtitle games had 6 party members. Instead, you get multiple independently-targeted bolt spells, which isn't as interesting. It's not necessary to win the game though.Īlso the remakes, unlike the originals and the reremakes, utterly lack AoE attack spells. If you're a twink, then you'll want to save some skillpoints in reserve for those skills. For example, there's an Anatomy skill that makes your attacks way more effective against humanoids, and an IIRC "Magery" skill that makes your spells significantly more powerful. Specifically for skills, in the first set of remakes ("Avernum", without the subtitle), there are "secret" skills that you can't train in unless you've found a trainer to teach you at least one point. General differences, off the top of my head: the spell and skill lists are vastly different, you have to get items identified before you know what they do, the party limit is larger, the text is somewhat less detailed, towns and dungeons exist directly on the overworld map instead of having separate zones, you find secret doors by bashing your head against the wall instead of by pressing buttons. ![]() Pierzak posted: Also, if I may, I have a request: is there any collection of changes from remakes to reremakes? Specifically, I just finished Crystal Souls, want to continue the series with the older Avernums, and would appreciate info about any engine/mechanics pitfalls that were removed in the reremakes. Someone doesn't like a shitty gimmick I like? Is Escape from the Pit the remade version or the old one? Once you get some levels under your belts - and the survivability, damage, and utility options that come with them - you're much better able to adapt to tough situations.Īvernum is on sale for about a euro and a half this week I'm very tempted to pick it up. ![]() ![]() My guess is that you're intended to wander around in all these various directions, feel out what you can do, gradually get more powerful all the while, and then loop back around to clean up house when you're strong enough.Īlso, much like many similar games, the very first few levels are arguably the hardest. I can think of at least one other nearby example, in another direction, of "this is okay for a fairly low level party so long as you don't get in too deep, but your poo poo will get hosed up if you push it". East is obviously out from looking at the map, but there's some semi-accessible but still kinda challenging stuff in each of the other directions. Fully clearing out the fort? Eh, maybe not.Īside from the Silver/Duvno area which is obviously easy stuff (deeper parts of bat cave notwithstanding), there are a few directions you can go to gradually ramp up the difficulty. Should we even be in this town yet?ĭoing this quest, at least stealthily? Sure. Yeah, it does seem like we've run into a much heavier level of resistance. |