Dave Woodhall looks back at this weekend in Villa's history.

No description available.

This item belongs to: movies/nppany.

This item has files of the following types: Metadata

El mandatario aseguró que lo más posible es que, la cantidad de contagios sigan aumentando.

Predicting this year's biggest Oscar villains, a Métis comedian addresses Lynn Beyak, how China built two hospitals in two weeks in Wuhan, a profile of the woman defending Harvey Weinstein in court, Nigeria's burgeoning tech sector, the guy who created Comic Sans and more.

They were on holidays on the other side of the world, or with their families, and living their lives. But when coronavirus called, they answered.

A 60-year-old Perth man is jailed for life for bashing his elderly retirement village neighbour to death with a hammer while in the throes of methamphetamine bender that had left him awake for more than a week.

Could the coronavirus lock down make the community more sympathetic to the position of prison inmates? Also, why history can complicate the prejudices we all hold dear. And, George Pell says a so-called culture war over sex and gender was part of a campaign against him. Is he right?

On the 17th March Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel will appear in court, charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Despite the charges his party won the most seats in the recent election. So why is he so popular and what does it tell us about Israel politics?

Every year, Australian truck drivers and their families converge on the small farming town of Tarcutta to remember their fallen.

Comic book characters were brought to life when cosplayer's converged on Mackay's annual pop-culture convention. Witnessing the event was like entering a portal into a different dimension - a world where super heroes and villains get along.

Riverland youngsters stepped back in time this week to make butter, fly kites and learn about the past when the Loxton Historical Village opened its doors for its annual Kids Day Out.

An 85-year-old woman in rural Victoria campaigns for a bus stop outside her retirement village.

A north-east Victorian alpine village says it will welcome visitors when restrictions allow despite uncertainty whether the ski season will go ahead at all.

Residents at a retirement village in New South Wales say life is becoming more like science fiction as an automated vehicle changes the way they stay connected.

Six people have been charged following the alleged assault of two off-duty police officers at Burnside Village shopping centre in Adelaide's eastern suburbs.

Police are called after medical equipment is stripped from the walls of the Earle Haven Retirement Village, where 70 elderly people some bedridden and living with dementia reside.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirmed an arbitrator’s decision sustaining plaintiff’s removal from employment as a corrections officer with the Bureau of Prisons. The Federal Circuit reasoned that there was no claim of prejudice for the delay between the notice of employment infractions and the date of termination and it found plaintiff’s other arguments unpersuasive.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a shareholder derivative action against officers and directors of Countrywide Financial Corporations, alleging that defendants had mismanaged the company's mortgage lending business and other claims, trial court's dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) pursuant to the continuous ownership rule, plaintiff had no standing to maintain shareholder derivative claims on behalf of Countrywide after its acquisition by Bank of America Corporation and merger into another corporation; and 2) Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v Caiafa cannot be read to support plaintiff's contention that he has adequately alleged a factual basis for application of the fraud exception to the continuous ownership rule based on dicta in that case.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Affirmed, reversed, and remanded in part. Largely affirming the dismissal of claims alleging a conspiracy between a city and alarm companies, but reversing the dismissal of a contracts clause claim against the city.

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirming the district court's denial of qualified immunity regarding alleged due process violations in the case of the firing of emergency personnel officers involved in a group text-message chain that questioned the competence to perform various emergency services, workout tips, sexual gibes, and other inappropriate content, but concluding that the district court erred in holding that officials were not entitled to qualified immunity as to First Amendment retaliation claims and reversing and remanding on those grounds.

Village Roadshow Limited (ASX: VRL), a leading Australian entertainment company, has selected IBM Cloud (NYSE: IBM) to host its business infrastructure, providing scale and speed to support a premium entertainment experience for customers. The IBM Cloud provides the platform for key operations spanning the diverse needs of Village Roadshow’s four key business divisions - Cinema Exhibition, Theme Parks, Film Distribution and Marketing Solutions.

Machine Elf 16 – Creator of Worlds | Trey Ratcliff & Sam Wave “Creator of Worlds” explores chaos and order and creation from nothing. The actual work is a high resolution physical installation about 75 inches across and is embedded in a wall, running in a continuous loop forever. Here’s a photo of what the […]

My husband Chris and I played another game of Disney Villainous last night.

It’s another mass market game release from Ravensburger.

Refresher: mass market games are those that are typically published by a major toy company (vs a dedicated board gaming publisher),  have a lower price point, cheaper components, uncredited or corporate designers and artists, weak narrative, and are light to medium weight in complexity.

In Villainous, players take on the role of Disney Villains who are competing against each other to be the first to complete their character specific objectives. These objectives align neatly with the narratives of the Disney movies from which the characters have been borrowed. For example, Ursula must find the Trident and the Crown and place them in her lair. And she gets rid of her enemies by using binding contracts! There are six villains included in the base game (more are available through the expansions) and turn sequence for each villain is pretty simple. There are 4 actions spaces on every villains board, and a character token is used to move between them. On your turn, you move your token to a new action space, take as many of the actions visible in the space that you wish, and then draw back up to your hand size limit. Actions include:

• gaining power tokens (the game’s currency);
• playing a card from your hand as a one time effect or to your villain tableau (the 4 columns below your actions spaces);
• activating a card in your tableau;
• moving a card in your tableau to another column;
• playing a card from another player’s fate deck as a one time effect or to their fate tableau (the 4 columns above their action spaces; when you play a card here it covers up some of the actions on the action space below, hampering their success);
• moving a card previously played to your fate tableau;
• vanquishing (discarding) a card previously played to your fate tableau by matching/beating the strength value of the card with eligible card(s) in your villain tableau (cards used to match/beat must be discarded).

The game ends as soon as a player has met their objective.

Since The Little Mermaid  is one of my favorite Disney movies, I played Ursula the first time we got Disney Villainous  on the table.

I really thought I had a great strategy to bring home the victory. That was a six player game that took hours and hours and I lost, as did everyone else, to the Queen of Hearts. But that first game was all it took for me to get hooked; I really enjoy playing this game. Which is odd, because I was worried it wouldn’t click with me after my last foray into mass market gaming (see my review for Horrified, also from Ravensburger, here). So how is it that a gamer girl who thought she was done with mass market games fell for a new one? I think it’s the connection I have with the Disney IP. The iconic artwork. The characters and their backstories provided in all the Disney movies I’ve watched. Their cast of allies and foes. I also feel like every player is immersed in their own narrative when playing Disney Villainous and the narratives are good. We’re all playing simultaneously but each of us is wholly encapsulated in our own storyline that makes sense, based on the movies. Horrified  presented differently; in that game all the IP was mashed up together in one setting and it didn’t make any sense. I also love the component quality in Villainous, especially the artsy character tokens, cast in jewel toned acrylic. Lovely! 

Even though Ravensburger sent me the game to play a few months ago and we’ve played with the kids and our friends before, last night was the first time Chris and I played 1 on 1 against each other. Chris played Jafar and I played Prince John.

His character’s goal was to find and arrange some specific cards in his villain tableau while mine was to accumulate power tokens. I needed to attack him repeatedly with fate cards to stop him but for several turns I was limited in doing so because of a rule we unfortunately misapplied. We didn’t permit consecutive fate attacks against the same player. This is a rule designed to protect players from being attacked repeatedly by multiple opponents but it applies only at higher player counts. Because we learned how to play the game at 6 players, we internalized the rule and forgot to drop it when playing with just 2 players. We didn’t realize and correct our error until halfway through the game and I’m convinced that is at least part of the reason Prince John (and I) lost. I also think that my character is better suited for higher player counts as it’s easier to use the cards in both my villain and fate decks to grab power tokens when there are multiple players gathering tokens themselves (one of my cards lets me get 3 tokens anytime another player has 6 or more) and when there are several players laying fate down against me (one of my cards lets me gain 1 token for every hero fate card laid down against my tableau.  By the way, you’ll be happy to know the two player games takes less than an hour. Four players is probably the sweet spot when it comes to player count for Disney Villainous  - large enough to provide more opportunities to make the most of villain and fate decks, but not small enough to allow for a reasonable length of game.

There isn’t too much analysis paralysis in the game, but players can stretch out turns from time to time when they’re grasping for a winning strategy.

Replayability might be the one weakness in Villainous. No matter which of the six characters are selected for a given session, it’s likely players will run through their entire villain deck by game’s end, leaving nothing new to discover in future games. As soon as you’ve played the game a few times, you start to understand the strength and weaknesses of each villain and fate deck and things feel less exciting. This is definitely a game where you’ll want to pick up one or more of the expansions to reinvigorate gameplay.

My kids love this game. They enjoy playing with the adults and also with each other. It’s very kid friendly. It’s easy to learn and I like that it’s a pretty gentle introduction to the take-that mechanism (as compared to say, Broom Service, which is marketed to kids but is SO BRUTAL in its take-that actions that my kids end up in tears every single time they play).

Components include plastic coated cards, paper player pamphlets, cardboard player boards and power tokens, and the aforementioned acrylic character tokens. Everything is bright and colorful and the raised lettering and fancy font on the box and other components lends an upscale feeling to the game. The rulebook is well written with detailed explanations and setup instructions.

Disney Villainous  is equally challenging and fun for all ages.

-------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-6
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): varies widely depending on player count, 45 minutes to 3 hours per game
Game type: take that, hand management, mass market

Rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

Dressed as "Star Wars" characters, local officials in the Philippines are out and about to enforce strict quarantine measures while also handing out relief packages.

The following is a guest essay by Evan Villarrubia. “I feel stupid! And contagious!” — Nirvana The panic and lockdown state we are just exiting in Dali (southwestern China) has been by far the most intense historical episode I’ve ever experienced. I’ve gone through several deep emotional phase changes throughout this time. If I’d written more »

The post Guest Post — Lockdown! An American in China Caught in the Corona Virus Emergency — by Evan Villarrubia appeared first on Kunstler.

Silicon Valley-based ReGen Villages has teamed up with Swedish architecture firm White Arkitekter to develop ReGen Villages Sweden, a vision for smart, self-sufficient communities throughout the Scandinavian country. Developed to meet the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the proposal combines a wide variety of high- and low-tech environmentally friendly systems from organic gardens for local food production to the integration of artificial intelligence on a community-wide scale. The two firms hope to break ground on a ReGen Villages Sweden pilot project in 2020. [...]

Australian architect Chuck Anderson has created a beautiful, solar-powered floating villa that has us dreaming of brighter days. Anchored just north of Sydney’s Palm Beach, the Lilypad is meant for those travelers who are looking to spend a little down time on serene waters while staying true to their sustainable lifestyles.[...]

Reggie Jackson doesn't care if he's perceived as a villain by some around the NBA. His focus is on helping the Clippers win games.

In the Beverly Hills Post Office area, a Mediterranean-style villa once owned by entrepreneur Damon Dash is asking $4.995 million.

Actor Kevin Sorbo, famous for playing Hercules, is asking $3.95 million for his Mediterranean villa in Westlake Village.

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis has listed his estate in Westlake Village for $7.995 million. The gated, 2.33-acre compound features a basketball gymnasium and infinity-edge swimming pool.

Peter Whittingham is fighting for his life in hospital, the South Wales Police have confirmed.

Peter Whittingham has died following a head injury from an accidental fall.

Wayne Rooney is set to start for Derby against Manchester United tonight in their FA Cup clash.

Watford become the third team to publicly oppose the use of neutral venues when Premier League football returns.

The Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission voted Thursday to subpoena L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva for testimony regarding the coronavirus outbreak in the jails.

1. Virat Kohli shares a cuddly throwback photo with Anushka Sharma from their swiss vacay and we are in awe  PINKVILLA
2. Virat, Anushka donate Rs 5L each for Mumbai police welfare  Hindustan Times
3. Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma contribute 10 lakhs to Welfare of Mumbai Police Personnel - Republic World  Republic World
4. Virat Kohli shares an unmissable throwback picture with wife Anushka Sharma from their Swiss vacation  Times of India
5. Anushka Sharma, Virat Kohli kiss and cuddle in throwback pic from a snowy vacation  Hindustan Times
6. View Full coverage on Google News

The director's New York Times op-ed reveals a longing for an age before tent-pole movies and streaming services.