text:
EXCLUSIVE: We chat to Ethan Chislett

Born in Durban and left with his family aged just 6, AFC Wimbledon’s new acquisition Ethan Chislett is on the rise in England.

Over the past 3 years the 22-year-old has risen from Non League football playing for Metropolitan Police to playing in England’s League one (3rd tier) now.

FARPost’s international writer Prince Sobayeni caught up with the playmaker to hear about his journey and rise in the system in England.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: Ethan thanks for joining us mate hope you are good and safe.

ETHAN CHISLETT: Yeah I’m great mate thank you so much it’s an absolute pleasure to finally be in touch.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: So what kind of player would you say you are and what sets you apart from the rest ?

ETHAN CHISLETT: I am an attacking midfielder who wants to get and create goals. I believe that my biggest asset is my technical ability and vision. I started off with a local team then got the opportunity to play for Southampton academy. At U18 level I was playing for Met Police. After two years I went out to Spain to play for CF Reddis and Tecnifutbol academy.

After two seasons in Spain I returned to Met Police FC for a year then signed for Aldershot in the National League where I had a good season which gave me the opportunity to sign and play for AFC Wimbledon where I am currently in league.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: That’s a great story mate you have risen through the structures so smoothly which is great, so two more levels before the Premier League…

ETHAN CHISLETT: I don’t like to think about being close to the Premier League as I prefer to focus on where I am at the present moment. AFC Wimbledon is an amazing club with a brilliant history and I am proud to be here at the moment you know.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: Always brilliant to focus on what you are busy with so you don’t get carried away as mental strength is the best strength. But I’m sure you do have a dream team though.

ETHAN CHISLETT: My whole family are Liverpool fans so from a young age I have supported them – that’s the dream team I’d love to represent in future if God allows.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: You ever visited South Africa?

ETHAN CHISLETT: I try to visit as much as possible, I still have a lot of family living in Durban. However last time was around 3 years ago which is a very long time because usually I visit once every two years.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: It’s wonderful that you still visit bro it’s great to hear you are connected to your roots. Do you harbour any hopes of representing Bafana Bafana one day though?

ETHAN CHISLETT: I would love to man yhoo, I’d actually be really honoured to represent South Africa 🇿🇦 one day so will keep working hard.

PRINCE SOBAYENI: My bro thank you so my for taking time out to talk to us it’s been such a pleasure, we should catch up soon.

ETHAN CHISLETT: Thanks mate I enjoyed this and yeah definitely we’ll be in touch I’m a call away.

He made 37 starts for Aldershot United last season scoring 9 goals accompanied by 9 further strikes which took his overall to 18 for the 2019/20 season – which is impressive for a midfielder.

By Prince Sobayeni

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Full roll width is 53cm/21", roll length is 10m, pattern repeat is 29.7cm or 11 11/16", Available in 13 colourways.

Our traditional methods of crafting wallpaper can result in subtle but noticeable differences between batches of the same design. For the most consistent results, it’s best to order all the rolls you’ll need for your project in one go.

Tessella is rated 3.7 out of 5 by 30.
Colour Colour

All of the paper we use is sourced from sustainable forests and responsibly manufactured. When we print it, we do so with our own water based paints, and the finished roll contains no vinyl, meaning that any leftover paper can be easily recycled.

Wallpapers are usually made with ink, but not ours – we use our own richly pigmented paint, creating an effortless connection between paint and paper. The expert craftsmen at our Dorset factory use artisanal methods to print each roll, and finish with a fine coat of specially formulated glaze to ensure a durable, wipeable surface.

Rated 5 out of 5 by from Love The color I didn’t decide because I had a problem with a edil company, but I love so much tessella wallpaper.
Date published: 2021-06-04
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Tesella 3606 After reviewing the a4 sample we decided to go ahead with this on one wall and cornforth white on the remaining walls as a light grey to match. It is absolutely amazing. Looks lovely as a feature wall in our lounge. Highly recommended walk paper.
Date published: 2021-05-19
Rated 5 out of 5 by from great quality we loved the wide choice and the quality easy to use
Date published: 2021-04-06
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Beautiful paper I brought this for my kitchen / dining wall - it’s great quality and looks beautifully stylish.
Date published: 2020-12-27
Rated 5 out of 5 by from FABULOUS! Ordered sample as yes, quite expensive mistake if you need 10 rolls! Beautiful designs, fantastic quality & looks devine . . You get what you pay for, & with F&B papers (& paint) the quality of products show with the finished results, worth every single £€$!
Date published: 2020-11-22
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Exquisite wallpaper! As always the quality & design never disappoints with Farrow & Ball
Date published: 2020-11-15
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Fabulous paper We bought this a while ago byte colour and quality of the paper is fantastic. A luxury beautiful effect to put hall
Date published: 2020-11-07
Rated 5 out of 5 by from So far so good Hasn’t been used yet but ordering and delivery easy . Thank you
Date published: 2020-09-04
  • y_2021, m_7, d_31, h_19
  • bvseo_bulk, prod_bvrr, vn_bulk_3.0.18
  • cp_1, bvpage1
  • co_hasreviews, tv_3, tr_27
  • loc_en_GB, sid_TESSELLABP, prod, sort_[SortEntry(order=RATING, direction=DESCENDING), SortEntry(order=SUBMISSION_TIME, direction=DESCENDING)]
  • clientName_farrowball
  • bvseo_sdk, net_sdk,
  • CLOUD, getContent, 31ms

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-31
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for July/August 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-15.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Sendra Boots 5701A Bone Denver Tierra - brown

* Incl. VAT excl. Shipping
  • Order by 14.00 hrs, same day shipment
  • secure thanks to SSL encryption
  • DHL, GLS, DPD and Express shipping

Sendra Boots Men Shoes 5701A Omin Omin Pata Avestruz Bone Denver 075 Tierra - Brown.

Exotic men's western ankle boots with personality - Exotic design in classic, stylish presentation
This Sendra ostrich leather shoe is an eye-catcher in every respect. On the one hand a beautifully elegant men's ankle boot and on the other hand an exclusive, wild design that stands out.

The shaft is finished with a very pleasant pigskin leather and the front foot area with a textile lining. No exposed seams are created when the inner lining is processed. The use of a comfort intermediate insole and the partially padded insole considerably increases wearing comfort. The comfort insole is located between the insole (insole) and the outsole and gives the boot, after a certain run-in phase, a great flexibility.

The welted Sendra Boots 5701A Pata Avestruz Bone Denver Tierra has a two-tone lacquered cowhide leather upper. This results in
the used look optics.

At the foot area an ostrich leg leather was processed. The edges of the outsole and the leather heel were adapted to the overall picture of the Sendra Boots ankle boot.

The entry and exit is considerably facilitated by the approx. 17 cm long inner zipper. The single layer leather outsole is sewn to the outer frame. The pointed lasts of the Sendra Boots have a comfortable fit and normal instep height.

The 5701A Pata Avestruz Bone Denver Tierra Boots from Sendra Boots has a height of approx. 17 cm.
The wide heel has a height of approx. 4.5 cm.
The leather sole of the ankle boot has a thickness of approx. 0.4 cm.

Important hints and tips:

Due to the handcrafted production method of the Sendra Boots, differences in colour or design may occur compared to the illustrated boots!
Each pair of western ankle boots is unique!
With the welted manufacturing method (Good Year Welted) always a small running-in phase is to be considered!
Exotic types of leather (ostrich leather) require special care products.

By the use of exotic hides and meticulously worked out details, a certain caution is very important with the use of these articles.
The company Sendra Boots advises you to wear bootees with a protective leather or rubber sole for daily use. The soling of the boots should always be done after a running-in period!

Similar products


text:
Creating A Living Room The Whole Family Will Love

Spring is the season of refreshing and renewing, at least in my house it is. So you’ve just finished your spring cleaning but aren’t happy with the look and feel of your lounge? Don’t panic; it just needs a little makeover, that’s all. Your lounge should be somewhere that you love spending time in, alone and with your family. If it’s not a space that you love, then it’s time to rethink it a little.

The great thing about transforming your living room is that it doesn’t have to be a big project. Many people don’t realize it, but you can easily update your living room with just a few simple changes – all you need to do is get creative. To give your some living room design ideas, I thought I would put together this handy guide. Have a read, take these tips and ideas on board, and you can create a family living room that you love.

Look carefully at your flooring

Your choice of flooring is important to the look, the comfort and the warmth of your home. A classic carpet is still hard to beat when it comes to a little luxury beneath your feet, but if you want the look and style of a carpet, but are worried about the cost of fitting, or the maintenance, you could instead opt for carpet tiles.

JHS carpets create tiles that can be used in offices, but because they have cool, quirky colourways, and are hard working, they are also great in residential settings, especially if you have children or pets. Another good choice of tile is gradus genus, which is also known to be hard wearing and comes in stunning colours including Winter Fjord, a glorious dark blue shade.

Get the decor spot on

For a living room, you enjoy spending time in, getting the decor just right is important. If possible, avoid decorating in bright, bold colors, instead keep the decor neutral. You can add color and style later with accessories and furniture. It’s best to keep the space neutral so that should you decide to change the look of the space, it’s just a case of switching the accessories. If the paintwork doesn’t need redoing but you want to make the space feel a little different, consider adding an accent wall. This is a great way to change the look and feel of the space, without too much work. For inspiration have a browse on Pinterest.

Make it a comfortable, cozy space

The most important thing you can do to make your living room a space that the whole family loves, is ensure that it’s as comfortable and cozy as possible. This means selecting a sofa that fits everyone on and is family-friendly. Your best bet is to opt for a leather or faux leather design, as these types of sofas are easy to keep clean as they’re wipeable. If you need to add extra seating, consider investing in large floor pillows, bean bags, or an ottoman. Dot cushions around – you can use these to add style to the space, as well as blankets and throws.

Add a few little luxuries

If your living room is going to be somewhere that the whole family enjoys spending time in, it’s worth adding a few little luxuries. To create a space that everyone loves, it’s important to think about the needs of each family member. For instance, your husband and kids would probably love a big, flatscreen TV. Especially if it has a fantastic Sky package on it that caters to the whole family. You can guarantee that should you buy sky, your husband’s first question will be, “What channels are on Sky Sports?”. Or if for instance, you’re a big reader, add a lovely, large bookshelf to the room, so that you have plenty of books to choose from when you’re relaxing.

Make storage a priority

Last but not least, in a family living room storage should always be a priority. Kids make mess; that’s a fact, but that doesn’t mean your home has to be a mess. Ensure that your lounge has adequate storage space for your children’s toys, so that they can be easily put away. This is important as your living room needs to feel like an adult space, not a children’s play room.

Want to create a beautiful living room that you and your family will love? Then make sure to take the tips and advice above, on board.

Sharing is caring!


text:
Fashion Industry Network

The Fashion Industries Favorite Business Network ...

Share 'Looking for Journalists based in India'

© 2021   Created by Apparel1.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

  Thank you for using the Fashion Industry Network.  Have you helped another member today? Answer questions in the forum. It brings good luck.


text:
NEWS: McDonald’s – Spicy Nacho Cheese Wedges

mcdonalds-spicy-nacho-cheese-wedgesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland   For their latest promotion, McDonalds have introduced brand new Spicy Nacho Cheese Wedges!

Each serving of gets you four cheese wedges filled with spicy Jalapeno slices, served with a sour cream & chive dip.

It’s available after 10:30 am participating restaurants.

To try out the new burgers and to locate your closest McDonald’s store, click here. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried this out!

For more McDonald’s news, deals, vouchers and coupons, click on one of the following links:

NEWS: Chicken Deluxe NEWS: Mint Matchmaker McFlurry
peri-peri-836x327 DEAL: £1.99 Wrap of the Day mcdonalds-Big-Tasty-with-Bacon NEWS: Big Tasty & Big Tasty with Bacon
McDonalds UK Student DEAL: UNiDAYS - Free Cheeseburger, McFlurry or Mayo Chicken for Students with Meal Purchase McDonalds logo McDonald's Coupons, Vouchers & Deals

Visit and like us on Facebook for more of the latest fast food news, deals, vouchers and coupons!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!


text:
The right of Allaah upon you is greater

Shaykh Saalih al-‘Usaymee said:

Do not look in vain at your hard work [in doing righteous deeds], for [indeed] the right of Allaah upon you [that He alone be worshiped] is greater [than that].

- from London, UK. He is a graduate of the Islaamic University of Madeenah, having graduated from the Institute of Arabic Language, and later the Faculty of Sharee'ah in 2004.

Related posts


text:
A warm welcome to my personal blog. Here you will find my information about my work and interests. If you share similar interests or need to get in touch, feel free to contact me.

Sound – I work with my ears. I also get called for sound reinforcement projects, mainly as an F. O. H. (Front of House) Engineer.

InfoTech – I’ve been using computers since the early 1980s, starting with the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum, with which I developed an interest for coding. Moving on from PC-DOS to MS-DOS and the many versions of Microsoft Windows, I am current using Macs for work and play.

Music – I rarely play electric bass now, though I have 3 basses: an Ibanez SDGR (6-strings), an Ibanez (4-string) with EMG pickups and a Washburn Acoustic Bass Guitar. Used to play bass a profession.


text:
Are you planning to replace your old floors? Or are you about to install flooring in a newly-built home? In either case, when you look at the expense of your floor material and installation, you may well ask yourself, "Do I need a subfloor, too?" To make an informed decision, take a closer look at what a subfloor does and why it's important.

Do I need a subfloor? What does it actually do?

A subfloor is a structure attached to your floor joists which provides support for your finish (surface) flooring. Used alone, most finish flooring materials are not strong enough for the dead weight of furniture, cabinetry, appliances and other household objects plus the live weight of people and pets.

Your subfloor also provides stability and a level surface, which will make flooring installation easier, whether you hire a professional or do it yourself. Another function of subflooring is to protect your surface floor against moisture damage and mold in a damp environment.

Electrical wiring and plumbing pipes may be run through the subfloor.

What's the difference between subfloor and underlayment?

Don’t confuse the terms "subfloor" and "underlayment." Underlayment is an additional thin layer that is placed on top of the subfloor when you’re having tile, carpet or laminate flooring installed. The underlayment acts as a vapor barrier, helping to safeguard your floor against ambient moisture. It also adds an element of soundproofing and, in the case of carpeted floors, increases underfoot comfort.

What materials are used for subfloors?

Plywood is the material most commonly used for subflooring. Manufactured from thin sheets of wood glued together with the grain of each layer perpendicular to the previous one, plywood provides a strong support, a smooth surface and a reasonable cost.

Oriented strand board (OSB) is another popular subfloor material. Because it's made up of large wood chips adhered with resin, OSB offers a dense, smooth surface compared to plywood. When exposed to moisture, though, OSB takes longer to dry, which could lead to water damage for your subflooring and even your finish floor. However,  insulated subfloor paneling, consisting of OSB sheathing backed by foam insulation, is available — for a price.

Particleboard is not used as frequently as the previous two options. Although it is also manufactured from wood and is inexpensive, particleboard is composed of small chips, resulting in a weaker product which absorbs more moisture.

Do I need a subfloor over a concrete slab?

While a subfloor is not necessary to add structural strength when you'll be laying finish flooring on top of a concrete slab (as in a basement remodel), subflooring over concrete offers two other advantages:

— Dampness control. Install a vapor barrier of plastic sheeting before laying the subfloor. If necessary, place sleepers (mini-joists) to raise the subfloor above a very damp concrete slab. Waterproof sealer will also help keep out moisture.

— Temperature control. A subfloor will help insulate against a concrete floor that becomes overly cold in winter.

The concrete slab must be clean, sound, and level, with any serious cracking repaired, before you install your subfloor.

Subfloor installation tips

— Always check your local building code before choosing a particular subflooring material or design.

— As with many finish flooring materials, your subfloor may need 24 hours or more to acclimate to your home.

— The thickness of subflooring depends on the spacing of your joists. Minimum thickness should be 5/8 inches for plywood and 23/32 inches for OSB. When joists are spaced 16-19.2 inches apart, subfloor should be ¾ inches for both materials. With joist spacing of over 19.2, thickness of plywood should be 7/8 inches and of OSB, 1 inch.

— Always read through the subflooring manufacturer’s instructions prior to installation.

— Your finish flooring is only as good as your subfloor. Ensure that your  subfloor is smooth and sound before installing new flooring. If it is wet, you may be able to dry out the subfloor by opening up the drywall underneath it. However, patching is your best option for a severely damaged subfloor.

— Laura Firszt writes for networx.com.


text:
Are You Pale And Interesting?

How do you work your pastels? Do you go all pastel mixing pink, lemon and peppermint pastels all together? Or do you put pastel with a pop of colour? Or just prefer wearing your pastels with plain white.

Leap into spring with the perfect casual look wear a loose fitting pastel shirt with white jeans.


text:
Helpful Links for Parents

Great Links about Child Development

For Preschoolers

Parenting a preschooler: UW-Extension

ZERO TO THREE works to ensure that babies and toddlers benefit from the early connections that are critical to their well-being and development

Child development information from the Center of Disease and Control Prevention

Community Resources for Parents

Wisconsin Child Care Assistance:

Salvation Army (920) 497-7053: Food pantry, clothing, rental assistance, utility assistance, transitional housing, transportation, medical and seasonal assistance.

St.Vincent de Paul (920) 432-2579: Thrift shop, vouchers for household items, emergency rental assistance, etc.

Love Life (920) 497-1087/(920) 468-5414: Basic infant/toddler needs

Integrated Community Solutions (920) 498-3737: Rental assistance

Brown County Human Services 1(888) 794-5747: FoodShare, medical assistance, childcare assistance, and energy assistance.

WIC (920) 437-8368/(920) 431-0243: Food and formula vouchers for pregnant women, or women with children up to age 5.

Job Center/Forward Services(W-2) (920) 448-6760: Support in finding & keeping employment.

Foundations Health & Wholeness (920) 437-8256: Counseling services.

Supporting Families Together Association (888) 713.KIDS For childcare resources in Wisconsin but not Northeast Wisconsin please call.


text:
Stay Active in Winter

Get Children Active in Winter

By late January, it’s easy to get sick of the Wisconsin Winter and wish for hibernation.  When you have little ones at home, hibernation is not an option. It’s important to stay active for healthy development and to keep them from bouncing off the walls.

At Family and Childcare Resources of N.E.jW., we have been working with childcare providers in Northeast Wisconsin to provide low cost or no cost strategies and resources to promote at least 120 minutes of daily activity through the Active Early program.

Childcare providers have found that by incorporating more activity children are more focused and need less redirection. It’s also important to start healthy habits early to prevent childhood obesity. There are tips parents can use at home to make Wisconsin winters healthy and fun!

Fresh air benefits children even in winter so get outside and have fun. Ideas for getting active outside:

  • Sometimes the hardest part is getting on the mittens and gloves so make it fun with songs, stretches between mittens or a game of “Simon Says.”
  • Themed Walks: Focus on a particular theme such as colors, shadows, seeds, birds, footprints or discoveries under rocks. Or take a sensory walk where you focus on what you see, hear, smell, or feel.
  • Find activities that get everyone moving all the time! It’s no fair if one person just gets pulled in the sled or has to sit out an activity.
  • Fill a water bottle with water and a few drops of food coloring to draw in the snow. Have a theme or just get silly with it.
  • Can you find a blue house, a street with the letter “ s”, a tall oak tree, and a snowman in your neighborhood. Make a list of common things in your neighborhood then go on a scavenger hunt to find them. Who knows where the list will take you.

On days when wind chills get below 0 degrees it’s important to be safe and stay inside. Active ideas for inside:

  • Use paper plates as skates for an indoor skating party.
  • Have your kids help to create a story space at home. They can help move pillows or bean bag chairs and gather props to act out stories. Act out a favorite winter book such as The Mitten or Snowy Day.
  • Create an obstacle course with pillows, hula hoops and other items you have in the house.
  • Have a jar full of ideas of movements or characters to act out during transitions between activities.
  • Have a dance party, dress up and get down.
  • Play Quicksand. Pull all the cushions off the couch and chairs and jump between without touching the floor.
  • Build an indoor golf course with paper plates and paper towel tubes. Cut a hole in the center of the plate for the golf hole and use the paper tube to make a flag. Use balled up paper for the balls and brooms for the sticks.

Children learn by example so be active and have fun!

Tagged with: , , , ,


text:
Letter Carrier Achieves 50-Year Service Pin

Boyle Station Letter Carrier Sadao Nakasone achieved 50 years of service with the Postal Service.

Nineteenth century writer Josh Billings once said, “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”

Boyle Station Letter Carrier Sadao Nakasone has proven to be just like that postage stamp, sticking to the Postal Service for some 50 years with no plans of retiring in the near future.

Nakasone spent three years in the U.S. Army before he entered the Post Office Department back in the 1964 after receiving an application in the mail offering employment. He completed the application, took the test, and was hired a short time later. He spent two years working part-time before he became a permanent employee.

Nakasone started his career at Boyle Station and has been there ever since. He has only served two delivery routes his entire postal career.

He credits his parents for his excellent work ethic. “My dad worked on a sugar cane plantation in Hawaii when I was growing up. Even though he worked long, arduous days to care for our family, he never complained,” Nakasone said. “I learned from his tireless example.”

Nakasone was surprised recently when Los Angeles Postmaster Mark Anderson presented him with his 50-year service pin. “I was honored to have bestowed on Mr. Nakasone this outstanding achievement,” Postmaster Anderson said. “ It is quite a feat for an employee to dedicate his life to one organization for 50 years.”

“When I received the award, I felt wonderful. I thank God. I couldn’t believe it,” Nakasone said.

When asked what advice he would give to other employee’s, he said, “I would tell them to pay attention to their job, come to work every day and save your sick leave.”  Nakasone practices what he preaches. In his 50-year tenure with the Postal Service, he has rarely missed a day’s work and has saved over 4,000 hours of sick leave.

“I love to get up in the morning and come to work,” Nakasone said. “I just really love my job.”

About the Author

Meiko S. Patton is a writer for the federal government and the author of the #1 Amazon Best-Selling book, How a Postage Stamp Saved My Life.


text:
Task Force Proposes Eliminating FERS

A task force report urges major changes to the civil service system from pay and benefits to handling removal actions and appeals by federal employees.

Most readers are probably not aware of the Government, Efficiency, Accountability and Reform Task Force. There is no way of knowing what Congress will do, but this task force has issued a new report entitled 100+ Commonsense Solutions to a Better Government.

In large part, the report urges Congress to make changes that the authors say would create a more efficient government.

Some of the proposed changes would if enacted, directly impact federal employees. Here is a summary of some of the most significant proposals.

Reforming Personnel Policies

The report includes this statement:

Sadly, the behavior of the worst bad actors in the federal government undermines the commitment of our hardworking civil servants. The Task Force commends those federal workers that approach each day as an opportunity to serve the American people but are guided by the age-old truth that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. With this in mind, the Task Force seeks to advance reforms that ensure that the federal government has the strongest links possible for the sake of ensuring the American people are served by an efficient and accountable government.

Page 50 of 100+ Commonsense Solutions to a Better Government.

The report concludes that the process of hiring new federal employees is a mess. In part, this is based on these observations: “On average, it takes federal agencies three times longer than private entities, to complete the hiring process for a single employee. In 2017, it took an average of 106 days to complete a hire within a federal agency.”

To correct this, the task force cites a pilot program that was successful. This program put hiring managers and subject matter experts at the center of the hiring process.

The Department of Interior and Department of Health and Human Services placed eight subject matter experts in the hiring process for every two human resources staff. Selecting a new hire took an average 37 days in the tested categories. During the pilot, selection took 11 and 16 days respectively.

The task force also recommends maintaining a continuous flow of employees to meet current needs rather than just hiring when a new position is open. All federal agencies should continuously vet current civil servants for vacant roles across government: “Continuous vetting of federal employees would maximize the utility of the federal workforce and would likely be more efficient than passive recruiting efforts including non-targeted job postings.”

Removing Toxic Employees

The new report strongly emphasizes the passage of the Merit Act. The Merit Act would:

  • Streamline the process and shorten the amount of time required to remove underperforming employees.
  • Permit agencies to remove a senior executive for performance reasons, rather than just demoting them.
  • Limit retirement benefits of employees who are removed from their position due to a felony conviction related to their official duties.
  • Authorize agencies to recoup bonuses and awards when performance or conduct issues are discovered.
  • Extend the probationary period for competitive appointments and promotions from one year to two years so that there is adequate time to evaluate a new employee.
  • Curb the ability to use intermediaries to overrule or undermine Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) precedent.
  • Uphold critical whistleblower protections.

The report states that the Merit Act would shorten the timeframe necessary to remove a bad employee to 30 days. “On average, it currently takes over 300 days to remove a toxic federal worker” according to the report.

Firing Federal Employees Who Commit Crimes

The task force report states that “Under current law, agencies may indefinitely suspend without pay an individual who committed a serious crime, while their removal is processed.”

Currently, agencies sometimes claim they are required to keep employees in the workforce who are guilty of committing serious crimes as firing them would “equate to wrongful termination.”

Changing Evidentiary Standard for Removal

The government’s personnel policy “should be to provide the best possible value to the American taxpayer, not make Washington bureaucrats even less accountable for their actions.”

Currently, managers seeking to fire an employee must demonstrate with a “preponderance of evidence” to support the removal. The standard should be “substantial evidence” supporting the removal decision.

By creating a new evidentiary standard that appropriately entrusts a manager’s ability to make a judgement pertaining to efficiency while simply requiring reasonable grounds for that judgment, firing practices in the federal government will become more businesslike and less like arduous court proceedings.

Page 55 of Task Force Report

Ban Use of “Official Time” for Union Activity

The task force report states the “concept of ‘official time’ violates basic principles of stewardship to the American taxpayer. As such, it should be explicitly banned and treated as a fireable offense.”

The Report urges passage of the Official Time Reform Act that would place more restrictions on the use of official time by federal employees acting as a union representative.

Merit-Based Compensation for Federal Employees

Currently, the Report notes that “federal employees get a raise for merely not getting fired” through the step increase process that is virtually automatic based on an “acceptable level of competence.”

In addition, in most years federal employees receive an annual pay raise. With a compensation package that has little regard for performance, “employees have little incentive to perform at a higher level that would ultimately benefit the American taxpayer.”

Reform the GS Pay Scale to Attract Higher Performing Employees

The Report cites conclusions of the Congressional Budget Office that federal employees with a high school diploma or less receive pay 34 percent higher than those of their private-sector counterparts, while federal employees with advanced degrees are underpaid by an average of 24 percent.

The natural result of this system is to provide an incentive to less qualified and less competent people to remain as federal employees and driving away the best qualified and best-performing employees.

The Report urges expanding the GS system at both ends to accommodate the highest and lowest paid federal employees and also making greater use of Special Rates.

Reform the Federal Pension System

The Report states that “retirement benefits account for the largest benefit-based expense of the federal government.”

The authors of the Report strongly disagree with the current retirement structure. Federal employees also receive benefits worth about 14% percent of their salaries. The average retirement benefit for private-sector employees is 3%. The federal pension system also requires a very low rate of error based upon many assumptions to be correctly implemented.

The task force urges getting rid of the FERS system for future federal employees and offering an enhanced TSP-only system. This would raise the base federal TSP contribution as the current cap on federal government’s matching contribution. This approach would create savings for the taxpayer, and also provide “greater certainty to future contributors” according to the task force.

Restructure the Federal Employee Health Benefits System

Currently, the government pays about 70% of the cost of health insurance for federal employees. This remains the same whether the employee chooses an expensive health plan or a less expensive plan.

The task force recommends a different system. Under the proposed system, the federal government would offer a standard, flat federal contribution toward purchasing health insurance. Each employee would be responsible for paying the rest.

The purpose of this option would be to encourage employees to purchase plans with the amount of coverage they need and would save the government a significant amount of money each year.

The recommendation of the Government, Efficiency, Accountability and Reform Task Force would require Congressional action. That is unlikely to happen with one party controlling the House and another the Senate. Political divisions between the parties generally lead to a lack of action in Congress.

Democrats in the House are unlikely to support most (or any) of these proposed changes. It is also very unlikely all of the proposals would be passed in the Senate.

In the absence of a general agreement between the parties to take action on the structure of the federal civil service system, little change will be forthcoming. That could, of course, change after any national election and with a renewed drive to enact “good government” legislation.

At the moment, an action along those lines is unlikely.

About the Author

Ralph Smith has several decades of experience working with federal human resources issues. He has written extensively on a full range of human resources topics in books and newsletters and is a co-founder of two companies and several newsletters on federal human resources. Follow Ralph on Twitter: @RalphSmith47


text:
Professor Dimitra Simeonidou, Director of Smart Internet Lab and Professor Yaron Wolfsthal from the Department of Software and Information Systems in the Faculty of Engineering at BGU, are driving the collaboration between their respective institutions.

As a world-leading specialist in Smart City infrastructures, Professor Simeonidou shares an interest in ICT networks solutions of the future, with Professor Wolfstal, who is founder and Head of IBM's security research lab in Israel.

The Universities have established a strong working relationship through prior research collaboration and successful student exchanges. The desire to build on this and facilitate more joint activities, has led to the drafting of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The objective of the MoU is to enhance, encourage, and formalise scholarly and scientific interaction between the institutions through the promotion of exchange opportunities for academic staff, professional staff and students, and cooperative activities.

The Smart Internet Lab encourages bilateral exchanges of academic staff, researchers and PhD students. This year two PhD students attended a summer school on cybersecurity funded by Ben-Gurion.The activities and engagement are aligned with the UK Government’s bilateral collaboration with Israel.

Professor Simeonidou said:

“I am delighted with the announcement of this MoU between University of Bristol and Ben-Gurion University. Both Universities are recognised as research leaders in the fields of Telecommunications Networks, Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence. We have established numerous successful exchanges over the past years and we are now looking to scale-up our engagement and build collaborative research addressing key challenges in delivering future digital infrastructure”

Prof. Limor Aharonson-Daniel, BGU's Vice President for Global Engagement said:

“The envisaged modes of cooperation will include activities such as bidding for joint research projects, organizing joint lectures and seminars, exchanging students, faculty and staff, facilitating assisting and developing other academic activities that may be of joint interest.”

You may also be interested in these articles:

Sponsored Video

Register, Login or Login with your Social Media account:

Upcoming FE Events

Advertiser Skyscrapers

Newsroom Activity

Educating yourself in Prison: an inside job

Educating yourself in Prison: an inside job

FE News: The Future of Education News Channel had a status update on Twitter 2 days ago

RT @NCFE: ‘For as long as humans have worked, and whatever industry they may have worked in, success has always been predicated on having t…
View Original Tweet

Latest Education News

Further Education News

The FE News Channel gives you the latest education news and updates on emerging education strategies and the #FutureofEducation and the #FutureofWork.

Providing trustworthy and positive Further Education news and views since 2003, we are a digital news channel with a mixture of written word articles, podcasts and videos. Our specialisation is providing you with a mixture of the latest education news, our stance is always positive, sector building and sharing different perspectives and views from thought leaders, to provide you with a think tank of new ideas and solutions to bring the education sector together and come up with new innovative solutions and ideas.

FE News publish exclusive peer to peer thought leadership articles from our feature writers, as well as user generated content across our network of over 3000 Newsrooms, offering multiple sources of the latest education news across the Education and Employability sectors.

FE News also broadcast live events, podcasts with leading experts and thought leaders, webinars, video interviews and Further Education news bulletins so you receive the latest developments in Skills News and across the Apprenticeship, Further Education and Employability sectors.

Every week FE News has over 200 articles and new pieces of content per week. We are a news channel providing the latest Further Education News, giving insight from multiple sources on the latest education policy developments, latest strategies, through to our thought leaders who provide blue sky thinking strategy, best practice and innovation to help look into the future developments for education and the future of work.

In Jan 2021, FE News had over 173,000 unique visitors according to Google Analytics and over 200 new pieces of news content every week, from thought leadership articles, to the latest education news via written word, podcasts, video to press releases from across the sector, putting us in the top 2,000 websites in the UK.

We thought it would be helpful to explain how we tier our latest education news content and how you can get involved and understand how you can read the latest daily Further Education news and how we structure our FE Week of content:

Main Features

Our main features are exclusive and are thought leadership articles and blue sky thinking with experts writing peer to peer news articles about the future of education and the future of work. The focus is solution led thought leadership, sharing best practice, innovation and emerging strategy. These are often articles about the future of education and the future of work, they often then create future education news articles. We limit our main features to a maximum of 20 per week, as they are often about new concepts and new thought processes. Our main features are also exclusive articles responding to the latest education news, maybe an insight from an expert into a policy announcement or response to an education think tank report or a white paper.

FE Voices

FE Voices was originally set up as a section on FE News to give a voice back to the sector. As we now have over 3,000 newsrooms and contributors, FE Voices are usually thought leadership articles, they don’t necessarily have to be exclusive, but usually are, they are slightly shorter than Main Features. FE Voices can include more mixed media with the Further Education News articles, such as embedded podcasts and videos. Our sector response articles asking for different comments and opinions to education policy announcements or responding to a report of white paper are usually held in the FE Voices section. If we have a live podcast in an evening or a radio show such as SkillsWorldLive radio show, the next morning we place the FE podcast recording in the FE Voices section.

Sector News

In sector news we have a blend of content from Press Releases, education resources, reports, education research, white papers from a range of contributors. We have a lot of positive education news articles from colleges, awarding organisations and Apprenticeship Training Providers, press releases from DfE to Think Tanks giving the overview of a report, through to helpful resources to help you with delivering education strategies to your learners and students.

We have a range of education podcasts on FE News, from hour long full production FE podcasts such as SkillsWorldLive in conjunction with the Federation of Awarding Bodies, to weekly podcasts from experts and thought leaders, providing advice and guidance to leaders. FE News also record podcasts at conferences and events, giving you one on one podcasts with education and skills experts on the latest strategies and developments.

We have over 150 education podcasts on FE News, ranging from EdTech podcasts with experts discussing Education 4.0 and how technology is complimenting and transforming education, to podcasts with experts discussing education research, the future of work, how to develop skills systems for jobs of the future to interviews with the Apprenticeship and Skills Minister.

We record our own exclusive FE News podcasts, work in conjunction with sector partners such as FAB to create weekly podcasts and daily education podcasts, through to working with sector leaders creating exclusive education news podcasts.

Education Video Interviews

FE News have over 700 FE Video interviews and have been recording education video interviews with experts for over 12 years. These are usually vox pop video interviews with experts across education and work, discussing blue sky thinking ideas and views about the future of education and work.

FE News has a free events calendar to check out the latest conferences, webinars and events to keep up to date with the latest education news and strategies.

FE Newsrooms

The FE Newsroom is home to your content if you are a FE News contributor. It also help the audience develop relationship with either you as an individual or your organisation as they can click through and ‘box set’ consume all of your previous thought leadership articles, latest education news press releases, videos and education podcasts.

Do you want to contribute, share your ideas or vision or share a press release?

If you want to write a thought leadership article, share your ideas and vision for the future of education or the future of work, write a press release sharing the latest education news or contribute to a podcast, first of all you need to set up a FE Newsroom login (which is free): once the team have approved your newsroom (all content, newsrooms are all approved by a member of the FE News team- no robots are used in this process!), you can then start adding content (again all articles, videos and podcasts are all approved by the FE News editorial team before they go live on FE News). As all newsrooms and content are approved by the FE News team, there will be a slight delay on the team being able to review and approve content.

 RSS IconRSS Feed Selection Page


text:
FEST 2018

Festival of

Under the Patronage of

Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador John Marshall and the British Embassy Luxembourg

it’s a wonderful idea to organise a weekend festival of short English-language plays by school drama groups. So I’d like to congratulate
BGT English Theatre Company and ALEA (Association Luxembourgeoise des Enseignants Anglais) for their initiative and for implementing it so successfully. Congratulations too to the schools for volunteering, and in advance to the students, both performers and backstage, for what I am sure will be very accomplished and enjoyable performances.
I am aware that while for some of the performers English will be their mother tongue, for the majority it will not. Whether English is a language you are learning, or it is the language you speak at home I think there is a lot that performing English theatre can teach you about the language – in terms of the richness of its vocabulary, the diversity of its sounds and structures and the versatility of it usage. Performing plays in English will I am sure give everyone greater conﬁdence in using it.
I know too that for many students in Luxembourg, English may be the fourth or even ﬁfth language that they learn. I have huge admiration for those who master several languages and can only offer the reassurance that learning English, the lost commonly spoken language in the world, and the language of science, computers, ﬁnance, diplomacy and so many other sectors, it is well worth the effort. And hopefully performing English-language theatre will make learning even more rewarding and fun.
Thank you to everyone in the audience for supporting the Festival through your presence this weekend, to the Mierscher Kulturhaus for hosting the Festival, to the Minister of Education Mr Claude Meisch and his Ministry for their encouragement and to all sponsors, as set out in the programme, for their support.

Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador John Marshall

Friday 23th February

St Georges’ International school presents a reinvention of Shakespeare’s classic tale of betrayal, revenge and soul-searching. Hamlet’s Danish castle of Elsinore, Shakespeare’s original setting

for this play, exists only in the mind of our contemporary Hamlet. After Hamlet’s father has

died and his mother has married his uncle, Hamlet becomes increasingly disturbed, indicated onstage by the presence of medical staff and the hint of a 1900’s “mad-house”. The audience are given an insight into Hamlet’s ever troubled psychological state. When the ghost of his dead father tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his uncle, Hamlet swears to take revenge. The themes of madness and fate are communicated through the ensemble movement and choral speech, making sense of the challenging text which leads into the final duel scene where Hamlet’s fate is sealed. Dark, magical and disturbing.

Matteo Degregori • Ensemble Liaquat Hakeem • Ensemble Sacha Utting • Ensemble
Inge Van Doorn • Ensemble
Neo Roloff • Ensemble Eva Oskardottir • Ophelia Simon Svensson • Hamlet Isabel Scoble • Ensemble Euan Jenkins • Ensemble Sjoerd Van Doorn • Ensemble Blagoj Naumov • Ensemble

Clare Williams, Stephanie Chanter

Friday 23th February

by Lindsay Price

Produced by special agreement with Theatrefolk (www.theatrefolk.com) With thanks to Marcel Kramer and Isabelle Oberlé for their support

Jake is a normal teenage guy. But his world is turned upside down when he finds a suicide note in his mailbox which is not addressed to him. Who sent it? Is it a cry for help? And what should he do about it? As these questions begin to obsess him, driving a wedge between him and his closest friends; and this is made worse when he discovers that his closest friend had attempted suicide, but didn’t tell him. We are given a sometimes funny sometimes moving look at the often destructive effect which suicide has on the people touched by it.

CAST LIST Tim Heymans • Jake Ben Heinrich • Ken Anne Eyschen • Karen Liz Weiler • Mae

Corinne Louis • Beebee
Soraia Pina • Lisa Mathilde Raffaelli • Denise Hui Shan Zhou • Joan
Isabelle Xhonneux • Mrs Westlake/Mrs Arscott
Kathleen Correia Gonçalves • The Girl

Nathalie Bintener, Tony Kingston

Saturday 24th February

Adapted by Mike Goergen and Jenny Schank from the play by J.M. Barrie

A slightly new take on a story that everybody knows: Peter Pan is the boy who is eternally young and lives in Neverland with his companions the Lost Children and the fairy Tinkerbell. They live the ideal childhood life of fantasy and adventure, battling with their adversary Captain Hook. But when Peter brings Wendy Darling and her brothers to stay with them, the Lost Children begin to question their desire to never grow up…

Bryan Aries • Peter Pan
Angie Balthasar • Mrs Darling, Gladys, Pirate Luis Da Costa Almeida • Michael Jessica Dias Di Pinto • Tinker Bell Geneviève Heck • Chip
Nicolas Keiffer • Porkling Marko Popovic • John Andrew Schmitz • Sparrow Xenia Simon • Wendy
Pit Sinner • Mr Darling, Captain Hook Valentino Stamerra • Treasure, Shadow Joy Shannon Thom • Pearl
Jason Winchester • Gander

Mike Goergen, Lynn Peters, Jenny Schank

under the direction of Danielle Harsch Lena Bollinger • Rebecca Meis • Kelly Roesgen • Jose Santos Rocha • Mandy Simões Janeco

Catarina Lopes • Bruno Pinto Martins • Diego Prussen • Jana Salentiny • Béatrice Samimi • Jason Simões Rodrigues • Abigail Menem

performed by Cheryl Wagner

Saturday 24th February

Die Nibelungen – Reloaded. Part I

Devised by Sarah Lippert and Yann Ketter

Reluctantly Toby and Patty prepare a presentation of the ‚Nibelungen‘-story for their German Class. In general Toby would prefer any video-game to a book, but somehow the story about Siegfried, the dragon slayer, captures his attention. The story of Siegfried, Kriemhild, Gunter, Hagen and the Valkyrie Brunhild soon becomes so engrossing that Toby can no longer distinguish his reality from the

fictional world of the book. Everything becomes narration; the dividing lines between reader, narrator and narrative dangerously melt and Toby wonders if he has become part of a greater story himself…

Anna Margit Götz • Patty
Mike Stein • Toby Nils Elsen • Siegfried Paula Henkes • Brunhild Sine Kooy • Kriemhild Nicolas Lech • Hagen
Ana De Sousa Neves • Gunter Samuel Cerqueda de Oliveira • Gernot Lou Rippinger • Norn 1
Marie Kolber • Norn 2
Joana Da Silva Pinho • Norn 3
Laura Kuhlmann • Warrior 1
Sam Birden • Warrior 2

Sarah Lippert, Yann Ketter

Saturday 24th February

Devised by ISL students & Susi Muller

In this project 7 brave students set out to devise an original play, with nothing to start from but a working title and a vast, seemingly inexhaustible topic: individuality. In the devising process many questions were asked: What is individuality? What does individuality mean to me? My hair, my clothes, my opinions, my sensibility? Or my ability to build a computer, play an unusual instrument, or stand alone on stage? When am I my true self? How much bravery do I need to do things differently from everyone else? Is it still possible to be individual in a world where every idea seems to be stolen from somewhere else? Do I even want to be different from others, or do I like my box just fine?

un·boxed is the result of an intensive 6-week devising process using improvisation, play and experimentation;

both the process and the product were, literally, un·boxed! In this original, student-devised work, personal and fictional elements flow together to make a non-conventional performance.

Francesca Casalena • Jory Dele • Madalynn Harger • Bhuvi Jain • Kieran Jamieson • Ekaterina Kharina • Cerys Williams

Susi Muller

Saturday 24th February

by Bradley Hayward

Produced by special agreement with Theatrefolk (www.theatrefolk.com)

With thanks to the Federation of Parents’ Associations of the European Schools, Luxembourg (FAPEEEL)

Bradley Hayward’s tragi-comic play tracks the lives of nine teenagers dealing with the separation of

their parents and the break-up of their homes. Through a rapid sequence of short and often comic monologues and dialogues, we see how they react with aggression or sorrow, with defiance or cynicism or simply by

burying themselves in themselves. But underneath it all they all want the same thing … a home.

CAST LIST Villö Kozma • Priss Emma Nec¸sa • Hype

Johan Maggiore • Strange Nikola Zirdum • Flex Isabel Jenkin • Hands Zala Kodriˇc • Flair Bogdan Badale • Snark Ailsa Tyrrell • Chill
Ana-Maria Badea • Brood
Daniel Haselock • Flex’s Coach/Prison Officer/Flex’s Father/Chill’s Brother/Snark’s Friend
Claudia Bruno • Therapist/Hands’ Mum/Flex’s Girlfriend
Juliette Hardy-Kim • Hair Stylist/Hype’s Mother/Baby-Sitter
Emma Herbály • Theatre Director/A.A. Sponsor/Flair’s Mother/Priss’ Step-Sister/Rival
Sofia Foti • Waitress/Snark’s Step-Mother/Religious Minister
Ekin Cotuk • Doctor/Chill’s Mother/Strange’s Counsellor/Spiritual Guru
Angelique Natsinas • School Principal/Brood’s Foster Mother/Drunk Party-Goer

Tony Kingston

Saturday 24th February

by Dennis Kelly

This amateur production of “DNA” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.

A group of teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover

the whole thing up. But when they find that their cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their once fractious lives, where is the incentive to put things right?

CAST LIST Céleste Hagen • Maddy Nora Gillen • Jan Fernanda Anjos • Leah

Yannick Santos Morais • Phil Sara Dondelinger • Lou Max Molling • John Tate Léa Weber • Dani
Claire Pundel • Rebecca Maite Bonifas • Cathy Anne Lauer • Beth Emeline Trabut • A Girl

Heather Drewett, Teresa Annicchiarico

Saturday 24th February

by Nicole Quinn & Nina Shengold

Produced by special agreement with Playscripts, Inc. (www.playscripts.com) With thanks to Jean-Claude Hemmer for his support

On September 11th 2001 two planes were hijacked and flown directly into the World Trade Towers in New York City. In the months following this world-shattering event, two writers ran workshops with students from Roundout High School in New York State, charting their conflicting emotions as the events unfolded. Using the students’ own words, they created a piece of theatre tracing the feelings of ordinary people when their world is turned upside down … and reminding us that the repercussions are still with us today all around the world.

CAST LIST Zoé Niclou • Patriot Pol Bannasch • Jock Jasmin Sabri • Artist

Cassandra Koehler • Freshman Greta Reavis • Worrier Fortesa Alijaj • Firebrand Lyna Meyrer • Mother
Diogo Rodrigues • Slacker Dude Tessy Kuffer • Cheerleader Annik Schroeder • Bully
Jonas Sabri • Teacher
Ilaria Galeota • Introvert
Diogo Rodrigues • Hollywood Executive Pol Bannasch & Zoé Niclou • Screenwriters Jonas Sabri • Arab Man
Greta Reavis • Singer
Karl Pierce • Voice of PA Announcer

Elisabeth Heiter, Tony Kingston

Sunday 25th February

by Amy Sutton

Produced by arrangement with Lazy Bee Scripts

With thanks to Martin Wedel, Phil Taylor and the Federation of Parents’ Associations of the European Schools, Luxembourg (FAPEEEL)

The Writer works in a café, doing a tedious job while he tries to find the one great idea which will make his name. And he lives alone … except, of course, for all the voices and ideas that share his flat with him, desperately looking for a story to make them complete. At first just begging him to write, these voices slowly become more aggressive in their attempts to force him to write. Who is really in control: the writer or his ideas?

Sarah D’Aversa • Voice 1
Linda Lucius • Voice 2
Elena de Kort • Voice 3
Hanna Välilä • Voice 4
Valeria Masheva • Voice 5
Kateryna Yerofyeyeva • Voice 6
Marta Gilotti • Voice 7
Marks Polakovs • The Writer Kateryna Yerofyeyeva • Janis Linda Lucius • The Teacher

Tony Kingston

Sunday 25th February

Devised by the girls of the Notre Dame Sainte-Sophie English Drama Group

To fit in when you are a newcomer in a boarding school is not to be taken for granted. Singing is a passion for Grace but her classmates are not really ready for some new energy and new ideas in their comfortable group life. People say that music soothes the soul, so let’s check if this is true and let’s follow this bunch of girls who have taken up the challenge to create an original story for this occasion, from writing to staging and singing.

CAST LIST Anna Penzo • Alison Aoife Brady • Annie

Filippa Christensen • Grace
Maddie Adam • Jessica

Thaïs Voillemot • Lou • Penin ??????

Leonor Violette • Luna
Aaliyah Martin • Pepper

Nicholas Staentz, Bettina Richarme

F.E.S.T. organised by

FESTIVAL DIRECTORS Laure Schreiner (ALEA) & Tony Kingston (BGT)

TREASURER Valérie Olinger (ALEA)

BACKSTAGE TEAM Bjørn Clasen, Robin Edds, Manou Gonçalves, Helena O’Hare, Dorota Siewert, Arnaud Fis

With special thanks to Karin Kremer and all the staff of the Mierscher Kulturhaus for their support.

Under the Patronage of Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador John Marshall and the British Embassy Luxembourg

A very warm Thank You to our sponsors


text:
Soccer Camps - Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge - FFTW Development

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Hope you are all doing well.

Our third week is officially in the bag with all our age groups working on ground control and first touch.

Here are the coaching points below:

6-7/8-9 Age Groups:

- Control the ball with the inside of your foot
- Make contact with the middle of the ball (slightly lift your foot)
- Eyes on the ball at all times
- If you are trying to take your touch forward or to the sides, when you make impact with the inside of your foot, do a mini pass to yourself (slight push forward of the ball)
- To go right or left, open up your hips to the side you want to go and then make contact with the inside of your foot

10-13 Age Groups:

- Control the ball with the inside of your foot
- Your hips help you guide what direction you want to control the ball
- When going right, left and backwards specifically, remember to open your body up on angle to receive the ball
- When creating space away from a defender, ensure the passer plays the ball right when you check in/check out as if you are just standing there the defender will react straight away to your movement
- To ensure crisp control of the ball, make sure you are controlling the middle of the ball every time to create consistency in your first touch
- Check your shoulders/look around to see where the defender is allowing you to know which direction you can take your first touch away from the defender
- Use your back foot to protect the ball by getting your body in between the defender and the ball ***

6-7/8-9 Age Groups:

Comments from Coaches

The group did well to get the concept of controlling with the inside of the foot, especially the forward direction and controlling the ball directly at feet (a cushion touch which keeps the ball still). However when going to the right or the left, players have a bit of trouble with this technique and at this age, this will happen.

Players need to continue working on their body mechanics which we will continue to do in the upcoming weeks and to go right or to go left, players need to remember to angle (shift their hips) towards the direction they want to go. Don't forget the little touch out and then to accelerate away to get away from your defender.

To some this may be a bit advanced but there are definitely players in this group especially in the 8-9 group who should be working hard and perfecting this technique.

10-13 Age Groups:

Comments from Coaches

Both groups did very well as we worked a lot of repetition with our first touch ensuring crisp and sharp first touches with the addition of accelerating away once creating space away from our defender.

The main areas players need to focus on are knowing what direction they are going to go before they receive the ball as well as showing which foot they want it on. Although sometimes the passes were more of an issue than the touch itself, players need to ensure they are ready to receive the ball and depending on where the defender is, use the right surface of their foot (inside or other part depending on situation), getting a touch away and then accelerating.

We did a lot of work by adding defenders in allowing the players to then use their heads in terms of where to take their first touch and how sharp/big their touches could be. In the game, it was superb and a lot of players started using their back foot to receive the ball especially on the wings which was excellent. Players still heavily lack checking their shoulders however and that still needs to be worked on as that should be part of their overall game.

All in all, excellent job and see you all very soon!


text:
Fidalgo Summit Views

At 1,273 feet (388 m) Mount Erie is the highest point on Fidalgo Island.  Technically, it is a diorite pluton.  This is a mass of magma, heated by tectonic plate subduction, that rose up into the earth's crust and solidified.  It became igneous stone similar to granite.  Later it was exposed by uplift, glaciation and erosion.  It is part of a complex formation called Fidalgo ophiolite, a mixture of ocean crust and volcanic rocks that make up Fidalgo and the San Juan Islands.  Note that if the molten magma reaches the surface, a volcano is the result instead.  (As an editorial point, while I am comfortable with technical writings in medicine, chemistry and biology, I find those in geology to be uniquely impervious to understanding.  Please excuse my feeble attempt to clarify the basic concepts here.)

Mount Erie is an Anacortes City Park and a part of the Community Forest Lands.  It is a popular spot for hikers, rock climbers and hang gliders.  It is also possible to drive a steep, winding road to the summit.  There are overlooks providing spectacular views of the surroundings.  Above, Mount Baker presides over the North Cascades, Padilla Bay and the oil refineries on March's Point.

The morning of my visit to the summit was chilly, below freezing with patchy fog in some areas.  Looking northwest, Burrows Island and the Skyline neighborhood of Anacortes can be seen.  Beyond are the San Juan Islands.

An interesting sign on the road to the summit warms visitors of owl attacks during the early morning and evening hours.  Perhaps these are the original "angry birds."  I was spared their wrath during this visit.  A pair of transmission towers crowns the summit of Mount Erie.

To the east, the peaks of the North Cascades can be seen through lifting fog.

Finally, looking southeast is Skagit Bay which is my neighborhood.  Lake Campbell is in the foreground.  As we approach the winter solstice,  the low sun just out of view to the right is wreaking havoc with the camera.  Look carefully at the horizon towards the right.  I believe the peak barely visible in the fog is Mount Rainier, 118 miles/190 km away.  This is yet another attempt to get a really great photo of this view.  I guess I will need to keep trying.


text:
FighterControl - Terms of use

By accessing “FighterControl” (hereinafter “we”, “us”, “our”, “FighterControl”, “https://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum”), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use “FighterControl”. We may change these at any time and we’ll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage of “FighterControl” after changes mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended.

Our forums are powered by phpBB (hereinafter “they”, “them”, “their”, “phpBB software”, “www.phpbb.com”, “phpBB Limited”, “phpBB Teams”) which is a bulletin board solution released under the “GNU General Public License v2” (hereinafter “GPL”) and can be downloaded from www.phpbb.com. The phpBB software only facilitates internet based discussions; phpBB Limited is not responsible for what we allow and/or disallow as permissible content and/or conduct. For further information about phpBB, please see: https://www.phpbb.com/.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “FighterControl” is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “FighterControl” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither “FighterControl” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

Back to previous page


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Pro Tools
•Register a festival or a film
Submit film to festivals Promote for free or with Promo Packages

FILMFESTIVALS | 24/7 world wide coverage

Welcome !

Enjoy the best of both worlds: Portal for Film & Festival News, exploring the best of the festivals community.

An adventure exploring, from dreams to reality, the emerging talents in our community.

Launched in 1995, relentlessly connecting films to festivals, reporting and promoting festivals worldwide.

A brand new website will soon be available. Covid-19 is not helping, stay safe meanwhile.

For collaboration, editorial contributions, or publicity, please send us an email here

User login

RSS Feeds

Martin Scorsese Masterclass in Cannes

Presenting the website

How Glam Is Cannes?

It’s a funny place, Cannes. One minute, it’s a quiet-ish, seaside town, full of spotty boys on noisy mopeds. The next, legions of colorful individuals descend en masse, transforming it into a bizarre bazaar of film festivities. But is it glamorous? As per actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, it’s the most glamorous event an actress can attend. But beware.
Arriving more than a day beforehand, and staying longer than the festival run, is one sure way to dispel any illusions of glamour. The restaurants go quiet; the fun-lovers disappear; and Cannes is returned to its usual glory as a retiree’s paradise.
While earning a living quizzing the rich and famous can make it all seem every-day, even the most hardened reporter can still get a kick out of Cannes.
Stars are everywhere you turn: at parties, premieres even on the beach. Even the fans get their fair share of action at the Martinez hotel where some of the best stargazing in Cannes can be had.
Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar were met with humungous screams as they walked out onto the street Saturday. Inside, director Sidney Poitier tried to pass by unnoticed. Down the road at the Hilton, Chinese star Vivian Wu was greeting the press for her new television series. Over at the beach, rising star Catalina Sandino Moreno was getting swept away 6 P.M. cocktails, with the ferocious winds that hit the Riviera this weekend. The list goes on and on.
“It is kind of nice to get dressed up in your best dresses and all this make-up and hair,

The Bulletin Board

> The Bulletin Board Blog
> Partner festivals calling now
> Call for Entry Channel
> Film Showcase
 The Best for Fests

Meet our Fest Partners

Following News

Interview with AFM Director

Interview with Cannes Marche du Film Director

Interview with the Parasite director

Brad Pitt and Leonard Maltin Interviewed dailies live coverage from

> Live from India
> Live from LA
> IFFI Goa
> Lost World Film Festival
> Locarno
> Toronto
> Venice
> San Sebastian
> BFI London

> Film Festival Days
> Tallinn Black Nights

> Palm Springs Film Festival
> Kustendorf
> Rotterdam
> Sundance
Santa Barbara Film Festival SBIFF
> Berlin
> Fantasporto
Houston WorldFest
Cannes / Marche du film online

Useful links for the indies:

Big files transfer
> Celebrities / Headlines / News / Gossip
> Clients References
> Crowd Funding
> Deals

> Festivals Trailers Park
> Film Commissions
> Film Schools
> Financing
> Independent Filmmaking
> Motion Picture Companies and Studios
> Movie Sites
> Movie Theatre Programs
> Music/Soundtracks
> Posters and Collectibles
> Professional Resources
> Screenwriting
> Search Engines
> Self Distribution
> Search sites – Entertainment
> Short film
> Streaming Solutions
> Submit to festivals
> Videos, DVDs
> Web Magazines and TV

A question for Jennifer Aniston from Richard Hobert winner at SBIFF 2020 :

> Other resources

+ SUBSCRIBE to the weekly Newsletter
+ Connecting film to fest: Marketing & Promotion
Special offers and discounts
Festival Waiver service

About Liza Foreman


text:
Filmsite Movie Review
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Pages: (1) (2) (3)
The Story (continued)

After a dissolve, Hammer is in almost the same position, but in a dominating clench and kiss with a lustful, forcefully aggressive Velda in the center of the room. [Her name is Velda Wakeman - Wake Man. Her endless, desperate goal is to awaken his own sexuality.] As his 'girl Friday' - a woman who tolerates the pimping or prostituting she must commit for him, she has brought a folder with information about science reporter Ray Diker (Mort Marshall) who lives on Flower St. - "a reporter on the news...who used to write a science column... dropped out of sight," but had called while Hammer was hospitalized. Typically, Hammer is more interested in Diker than Velda. He also suggests that she set up - with some of her familiar "sincerity" - another session with a 'lover boy'/adulterous husband since an incriminating audio tape of them was lost. While he lies on the couch and aloofly stares at the ceiling, his loyal aide, sexually-frustrated Velda describes her research findings about the mystery girl:

Velda: Christina Georgina Rossetti. Poetess, English, born 1830, died 1894. Your Christina was being held in that hospital for interrogation... What's the point of all this, if it's any of my business?
Hammer: She told me if I dropped her off at the bus station, I could forget her. But if she didn't make it, she said, 'Remember me.'
Velda: (seductively) So, remember her. She's dead. But I'm not dead. Hey, remember me.
Hammer: (non-chalantly) Yeah. I remember you from somewhere.

He cooly avoids her enticing, aggressively masculine sexual advances, either fearful of her or uninterested, and reminds her of other frame-up assignments that she must conduct with an adulterous 'Mr. Friendly' - he also amuses himself by listening to her seedy tapes:

Maybe he'll give you some of that nice dialogue again. That honey talk. That tape sure was NICE.

That night (at about 2:10 am), Hammer drives his Corvette convertible to Ray Diker's residence at 121 Flower St. in downtown LA. He is followed from a newstand (that sells newspapers with portentious headlines about a earth-shaking quake in Eureka in N. California) by an unidentified, shadowy figure (Paul Richards). At a popcorn vendor's stand, Hammer purchases a dime bag of popcorn. [There are continuity errors in this scene. The clock behind Hammer changes time rapidly.] The camera follows the hood's footsteps down the sidewalk, and his reflection is cast in a cigarette vending-machine mirror. When the pursuer pulls out a switchblade, they engage in a hard-hitting fight. Hammer sprays the man's face with his popcorn, disarms the attacker, subdues him with his fists, repeatedly knocks the man's head against a concrete wall until he's senseless, and then mercilessly punches the man down a steep flight of stone steps. From the bottom of the long row of stairs, the camera catches the attacker as he catapults down. After the pummeling, Hammer smiles.

Later, Hammer finds the Ray Diker residence and climbs the stairs of the Victorian house to the man's door. A closeup of Diker's frightened, bleeding, ulcerated, battered face appears in the window - the reason, apparently, why he "dropped out of sight." Fearless of consequences, Hammer learns Christina Bailey's address at the last place she lived - 325 Bunker Hill - and her mortal fear:

You were with her the night she died. She knew she was gonna get killed. She must have talked and told you...If you knew, you'd be afraid like she was afraid. Like I am. You'd better go.

Hammer follows the trail to Christina's former home. He assists an old Italian furniture mover (Silvio Minciotti) to carry a trunk - who laments about death and mortality, and people's inconstancy and lack of roots:

Sixty-three years, I live in one place - the house of my body. Move in when I born, move out when I die....People, they always move. They never stand still. They move from here, from there and move, and move all the time.

He is told by Horace, the building's superintendent, that the police have already been through Christina's apartment. "Her lease still has a month to go," but the police said it could be rented again. Hammer looks for posthumous clues - African masks hanging on the wall and built-in bookcases filled with books. Her radio is set to play classical music: Schubert's Unfinished Symphony ("She always had it tuned to that station"). Her bird cage is empty: "Her roommate let it die." Christina's room-mate, Lily Carver suddenly moved away, according to Horace:

She moved out a couple of days ago. All of a sudden, the middle of the night. Didn't say where.

In Christina's bedroom is an X-figured painting above the bed [recalling Christina's middle-of-the-road pose as she flagged down Hammer's car] and a book on the bedstand, Sonnets of Christina Georgina Rossetti. As Hammer leaves, the furniture mover whom he had helped divulges a secret - the current whereabouts of Christina's former roommate: "The other girl, the roommate of Miss Christina, she tells me not to say. Afraid she is. Like somebody's afraid to die. I moved her. I'll tell you where."

Following the lead and trail to Christina's roommate, he enters Lily's front hall corridor outside her room in the Jalisco Hotel - a high-angled, overhead shot envelopes him within the stairway, banisters and balustrades. In the residence of Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers), the pixieish, waif-like blonde with closely cropped hair and a white, terry-cloth bathrobe with a sash reclines on a bed and has a gun pointed at his crotch. She is framed behind the bed post as she expresses her fear of the same men that pursued Christina. She assumes a vulnerable, high-pitched tone to her voice. [She has a striking resemblance to Christina in her trenchcoat. Although she is the alter-ego of Christina, she is a deceptive fraud - duping him with a false name, and by impersonating the dead woman's roommate - but Hammer doesn't know that until later.]

Lily: What do you want?
Hammer: I was with Christina the night she was killed. They tried to kill me, too. If you'd like, I'll show you the scars.
Lily: How'd you find me?
Hammer: I picked up the thread. Anybody could do it...
Lily: Christina was my friend.
Hammer: The bird in the cage. What happened to it?
Lily: (She lowers the gun) It was a nice bird. Used to eat out of my hand.
Hammer: You let it die. Why'd you let it die?
Lily: (She brings her hand up to her face and scratches her nose - her bent arm looks like a dysfunctional, pathetic bird wing of Christina's dead canary.) It reminded me of her every time it sang. She was a good kid. She was lots of fun. We worked together - a couple of jobs till she got sick. That's when I noticed that she started to change. You get on a merry-go-round. You think you can get off any old time. But then it starts going too fast. She was scared. She was more and more scared. She was afraid to go out. She'd go to the movies once in a while or out for groceries but never very far. And then the police came around. They asked questions, lots of questions. Then they took her away. After all, I had a feeling someone was watching the place. Then those men came.
Hammer: What did they want?
Lily: I didn't stick around to find out.
Hammer: Why was Christina so afraid? (Lily shrugs) It's all right, you can trust me.
Lily: I don't know.
Hammer: You want to get even for what happened to Christina, don't ya? I'll see what I can do.

Back at his apartment, another screened phone call (an unidentified caller) tells Hammer about the course of his investigation:

What does matter is that your work has been interrupted, your car wrecked, your life has been ruffled, to put it mildly. If you had not stopped to pick up Christina, not any of these things would have happened. So let's pretend you did not pick her up.

If Hammer pretends, his life "will go on as serenely as before." As a "token" of his intentions - and if Hammer stops his investigation - the gangster [later identified as conspirator/gangster Carl Evello] promises to reward him with a car the next morning in front of his apartment.

As promised, there's a black, shiny convertible on the curb the next day. Just in time, Nick is told to not start the ignition - the car has been planted with a rigged, explosive device ("torpedo") attached to the starter. And Hammer instinctively knows that the first "torpedo" is a precursor to a second, more deadly rigged mechanism. Back in the garage, Nick finds a trickier bomb device ("a sweet little kiss-off") set to explode at a high rate of speed. According to Nick, it explodes when they go "Va-va-Voom" - a portent of future disaster.

Hammer strides through a door into Velda's apartment with a black-and-white checkered tile floor - metaphoric of the chess game being played within the film. In an adjoining room with mirrored walls, a confusingly-reflected Velda (in a black and white striped shirt and black leotards) exercises and glistens with sweat in a ballet studio with classical music playing on a phonograph. Next to an exercise bar, she stretches one limber leg and arm up and down. As he leans back languidly while smoking, he instructs her to cancel her latest errands that squeeze big payoffs from husbands and wives in messy divorce and infidelity cases. She figuratively warns of the possible consequences of his risky investigation - a little thread will lead to a string and then to a rope by which he will be hanged:

Hammer: We're gonna steer away from these penny-ante divorce cases for a while. I've got a line on something better. That girl I picked up was mixed up in something big.
Velda: And a cut of something big could be something big.
Hammer: I want you to find out all you can about her.
Velda: (She breathlessly twirls playfully around a black, floor-to-ceiling, phallic-symbol pole and Hammer follows her spinning, teasing action with his eyes.) First, you find a little thread, the little thread leads you to a string, and the string leads you to a rope, and from the rope you hang by the neck. What kind of a girl was she, this friend of yours, Christina?

In the meantime, according to Velda, Ray Diker has phoned with additional names that Hammer might want to check up on:

Trying to inflame his passion, Velda purrs into Hammer's ear, but he non-chalantly pays no attention, takes in her warmth without reciprocating, and reacts with a non-sequitur. She looks at him with sexual dissatisfaction - her masquerading as a hooker has no effect on him, although it is paradoxically quite effective on adulterous husbands in their profession.

According to Velda, two of the men, Kawolsky and Raymondo, were killed under suspicious circumstances, similar to Christina's death:

Velda: ...but under any other name, would you be as sweet?
Hammer: Kawolsky.
Velda: Kawolsky. He was a professional fighter. His first name was Lee. Couldn't get anything on Raymondo. Don't know what he was.
Hammer: Why do you keep saying 'was'?
Velda: They both knew your Christina. They both died the same way she did.
Hammer: How's that?
Velda: The way you almost died. Traffic accident? One fell out of a cab, and the other was run over by a truck.
Hammer: Who's Carmen Trivago?
Velda: Carmen Trivago. A poor man's Caruso, an unemployed opera singer in search of an opera. Raymondo's friend.
Hammer: And who's Harvey Wallace?
Velda: He drove the truck that ran over Kawolsky.

Subsequently as he drinks the man's beer and joins the family at dinner, Hammer briefly questions truck driver Harvey Wallace (Strother Martin) about the truck 'accident' that killed Kawolsky. Wallace concurs that "maybe he was pushed."

In a second interview regarding Kawolsky's suspicious death, Hammer travels to a boxing gym - a sequence that opens with a man noisily punching a bag toward the camera. A tall, broad-shouldered black figure moves by and the camera follows him down the stairs - where it picks up Hammer climbing up the stairs as he saunters over to Eddie Yeager (Juano Hernandez), the black fight manager with an upwards-pointing cigar in his mouth. Hammer suspects that Yeager's next upcoming fighter Kid Nino will throw his next evening's bout "like you sold out all the others...wait until the odds build up until you can't resist."

When Hammer asks a concluding question about Lee Kawolsky, Yeager's ex-fighter who "was killed in an accident but it wasn't really an accident," Yeager's cigar drops in his mouth as an expression of his fear. Even though Yeager was recently intimidated, threatened, and told to shut up or die: "They said they'd let me breathe," he gives Hammer the names of the two hoodlum strong-arms, Charlie and Sugar, who do dirty-work for a local gangster named Carl Evello.

The next scene opens in blackness - until the pool-side, black-attired hostess walks away from the camera. Next to Carl Evello's (Paul Stewart) outdoor, elegant pool, Charlie Max (Jack Elam) and Sugar Smallhouse (Jack Lambert) are bickering with each other while playing gin rummy and listening to the horse races on the radio. [The poolside shot was deliberately created to frame together three top heavies in post-war Hollywood films - Elam, Lambert, and Stewart.] Hammer drives his sports car into the Doheny mansion driveway, followed closely by an amorous, nymphomaniac blonde named Friday (Marian Carr). After she is assured by the magnetic, alluring playboy that he doesn't bite, she kisses him on their first meeting and then compliments him: "You don't taste like anybody I know":

Hammer: How do you do, ma'am?
Friday: How do I do? Cra-zy. (They kiss)
Hammer: Don't be afraid. I won't bite.
Friday: You don't taste like anybody I know. That's all right. In fact, it's wonderful. Come on, Crazy. Seconds?
Hammer: OK. (They kiss again)
Friday: You sure we haven't met before?
Hammer: Never.
Friday: Who are you?
Hammer: Who am I? Who are you?
Friday: I'm Friday. I'd have been named Tuesday if I'd been born on Tuesday. I'm Carl's sister, half-sister. Same mother, different father. You know, you're not like the others - Carl's friends, I mean.
Hammer: Maybe that's because I'm not his friend.
Friday: Oh, wonderful. Then you can be my friend, all my nothing-to-do-with-Carl.

In the mobster's mansion, Hammer teaches an amorously-inviting Friday how to be unresponsive, cold and callous - like he is - by saying 'no':

Friday: Will you be my friend?
Hammer: What do I have to do?
Friday: I want to be a close friend. Ask me something.
Hammer: And no matter what it is, the answer's 'yes', isn't it?
Friday: Maybe.
Hammer: Let's see how good you are at spelling. Can you spell the word 'no'?
Friday: N - O spells 'no.'
Hammer: That's a good girl. Now you practice saying that. Because one of the best ways to be friendly is to know when to say no.

He is only there for information and asks whether her brother Carl wears blue suede shoes - she replies: "Hardly. He's more the black moccasin type." In the pool bath house, Hammer snoops around and surveys the shoes on the floor - in a camera pan from right to left, he finds no blue suede shoes. When Evello's thugs try to put him out of action, Hammer subdues Sugar with a judo chop. The mobster decides he will talk to Hammer in the house, not exactly knowing what Hammer is searching for - so Hammer explains (using Velda's terminology):

Yesterday, I was looking for a thread. Today, I'm looking for a piece of string.

Evello offers him a payoff: "What's it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?" Hammer bargains for a high fee: "I set my fee according to the case, and the longer I look at this one, the higher it gets." But then, the buy-off offer is withdrawn: "Suddenly, it's too late." Hammer realizes that Evello works for some higher-up.

Previous Page Next Page


text:
Financial Options Available
  • Affirm
  • Paypal Credit
Learn More
Requesting a Quote?
Looking for better pricing for an item? Create a new company account now to gain access to quoting, quick ordering, and more. Learn more details here.
See an issue on this page? Let us know.

Tiffen 4 x 5.65" Hyper Star Effect Glass Filter

Questions about this product?
  • Create multiple points of light
  • Perfect accessory for photographers
  • Weddings and mood, romance, and similar effects

The Tiffen 4 x 5.65" Hyper Star Effect Glass Filter is a camera filter that creates multiple points of light coming from the central light source. This is a perfect accessory for photographers looking to shoot weddings or any special events that is used for mood, romance, or effects desired.

Hyper Stars are best used with point light sources such as candles, matches, streetlights and similar venues.

  • The effect is produced by a series of thin lines etched into the flat optical surface of a clear filter
  • Exciting and dazzling star effects generated from original point or reflected light sources with the added glitter and sparkle of these exclusive, natural looking asymmetrical designs and shapes
  • Great for water scenes, candle flames, street lights, and more
  • Tiffen offers 4, 6, and 8 point symmetrical star effects as well as additional asymmetrical star patterns through their exclusive Hollywood FX Series (North, Hyper, Vector and Hollywood star effects)
In the Box
  • Tiffen 4 x 5.65" Hyper Star Effect Glass Filter
  • Ten-Year Warranty
More From Tiffen
View Page
More Information
SKU 22204
Brands Tiffen
Type Hyper Star
Size 4 x 5.65" (100 x 140 x 4 mm thick)
Effect Makes lighting within the scene take on a more glittering, glamorous appearance
Application Portraiture, wedding - Use with point-light source such as a candle
Construction ColorCore Glass
Customer Reviews
Copyright © 2021 Filmtools, a Magnasync/Moviola Company.


text:
Yakuza 0 Review: That’s rad

Yakuza 0's vibrant, neon-flooded 80s Tokyo shows SEGA has still got it.

We’re reader-supported and may be paid when you visit links to partner sites. We don’t compare all products in the market, but we’re working on it!

Yakuza 0 for PlayStation 4 is the video game equivalent of introducing your chain-smoking love interest to your conservative parents. Yes, at first glance they're a little rough around the edges. Fundamentally, they behave differently to what your traditional folks have come to expect and what they do for a crust is better left unsaid.

If first impressions are a video games' primary economy, your parents would encourage you to not waste another minute on Yakuza 0 and instead settle for a more conventional suitor, like Uncharted or even save yourself for someone special, like Horizon: Zero Dawn.

But they don't know Yakuza like you do. If they just gave it a chance they would see that it's actually really deep and most importantly, not afraid to have a bit of fun.

Yakuza also isn't the easiest series to get to know. The long-running brawler has 6 entries in its core series (including Yakuza 0) that span over 10 years. At its fifth title, Yakuza had seven years of characters, lore and complicated mob politics to catch up on. You will have no such problem with Yakuza 0. Set in the 1980s, Yakuza 0 is an origin story for series protagonist Kiryu Kazama and fan favourite Goro "Mad Dog" Majima and while there are certainly a few nods to old plots and characters, anyone can enjoy Yakuza 0 without so much as the shirt on their tattooed back.

Players alternate between controlling Kiryu and Goro every few chapters, guiding both wildly different personalities from the bottom rung of Kamurocho and Sotenbori's seedy underbellies (fictionalised versions of Kabukicho and Dotonbori).

Both cities bustle under a thick coat of opulent neon sheen. Drunkards and delinquents line the streets, essentially Yen-filled piñatas for Kiryu and Goro to wail on between missions. If you do manage to make from point A to B, you'll find a wealth of cultural touchstones like Sushi bars and Don Quijote general stores. While it looks lush and alive, each city has a dated PS3 vibe. Transitioning from the game's impressive cutscenes to the dustier in-game graphics doesn't make it any easier on the eye.

There's also the fact that Kiryu and Goro's actions are severely limited outside of combat. When you're travelling the streets by foot, all you can do is walk, run and interact with a select few pedestrians. There's also the odd choice of giving you a stamina meter in the city hub. If something would pursue you for more than five metres this would make sense but for the most part, you're just trying to make it to the next point of interest as quickly as possible. It's a slog already, made worse by Kiryu and Goro running out steam every five seconds.

We didn't miss beating on random passers-by but there's just nothing to do on the streets other than search for your next distraction.

However, that's where Yakuza 0's world shines, when you're burning time fumbling your way through a game of Shogi or visiting the local Club Sega arcade (where you can play old-school classics like Space Harrier or Out Run).

Crime drama that packs a punch

The multitude of smaller activities and Yakuza's brutal and addictive combat system combine to create an absurd and wonderful world at odds with itself. One moment you're slamming a thug's head in a car door, blood spraying over the sidewalk, and the next you're dressed up in a ludicrous costume belting out karaoke after too much sake.

It's small moments like these, whether it was the creative combat or bizarre activities, that pulled me through Yakuza 0's murky first-impressions and into the insane wonderland of Japanese pop-culture.

We've established that life outside of Yakuza's main missions is unhinged but when you steer away from the bright lights of Kamurocho and Sotenbori you will find a comparatively earnest crime drama. Both Kiryu and Goro are downtrodden mobsters who have been completely dicked on in one way or another (there may even be a scene where we find out how Goro lost that eye).

Facilitating their slow rise to the top is a rewarding adventure in its own right but you'll really come to root for Kiryu and Goro's characters by the end of your playthrough. Lucky for them they're both males because Yakuza does an inexcusably poor job of handling its female characters. Aside from the badass debt collector known as Miss Tatsu, female characters are reduced to quivering caricatures of helpless women.

I can't help feel that Yakuza would have benefited by making Miss Tatsu more central to the story. Her fighting technique is so impressive, it's immediately added to Kiryu's arsenal.

Kiryu and Goro acquire three battle styles each. Both start with a fairly standard all-rounder (Brawler and Thug) and go on to acquire speedy styles (Rush and Breaker) which get faster as you land more combos and a slower, more powerful style (Beast and Slugger).

No two styles are the same for either character. Kiryu's Rush is all about dodging and delivering lightning fast punches, whereas Goro's Breaker is a seamless flurry of offensive dance moves that's reminiscent of Eddy Gordo's capoeira (Tekken 3).

The combat in Yakuza 0 took me a little getting used to (as evidenced by the video above). On the surface, it seems like a game that begs to have its buttons mashed but if you dig a little deeper into each character's move sets, you will find a roster of combos and specials that later become key to taking down an especially difficult shakedown man.

If I haven't sold you on the wacky world of Yakuza, please remember there's a character called Walking Erection (or Mr. Libido) who walks around in nothing but white underpants and joggers, humping every inch of oxygen in his path.

We reviewed Yakuza 0 on PlayStation 4 with a copy provided by the publisher.

Yakuza 0

What we liked...

  • Brutal brawls ripped straight from an action movie
  • A most delicious spread of nostalgia to lap up
  • A range of fun minigames
  • Genuinely hilarious in its own weird way

What we didn't like...

  • In-game graphics have their own retro vibe
  • No autosave or save option in the menu. Actual in-game save points.

The alluring madness of Yakuza 0 isn't immediately obvious at first. In fact, its last-gen visuals and PS2 era gameplay will be more than enough to turn many away. They nearly turned me away. However, if you do manage to see past the dishevelled exterior of this deadbeat melodrama, you'll come out the other side with a newfound appreciation for its fantastic fisticuffs and undeniable charm.

Available for

PS4: $64.99

For more information on how finder scores games, check our review guidelines.

More guides on Finder

Ask an Expert

You are about to post a question on finder.com.au:

  • Do not enter personal information (eg. surname, phone number, bank details) as your question will be made public
  • finder.com.au is a financial comparison and information service, not a bank or product provider
  • We cannot provide you with personal advice or recommendations
  • Your answer might already be waiting – check previous questions below to see if yours has already been asked

Finder only provides general advice and factual information, so consider your own circumstances, or seek advice before you decide to act on our content. By submitting a question, you're accepting our Terms of Use, Disclaimer & Privacy Policy and Privacy & Cookies Policy.
Go to site