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Pink Polo

07 mercoledì 2015 visualizzazioni:
Events

Viareggio Beach Polo (2014)Le donne approdano anche sui campi di Polo e con che stile lo fanno! Un incredibile torneo sulle coste toscane accompagnato da una corsa nautica e da una cena di Gala in compagnia del maestro Andrea Bocelli.

Le quote rosa, come ben sappiamo, stanno allargando sempre di più i loro “campi di gioco”; dal mondo del lavoro, alla politica fino allo sport. Partendo da sport prettamente più femminili come la pallavolo, hanno ormai conquistato molte altre discipline, il tennis ad esempio, nel quale abbiamo da poco assistito al trionfo dell’italiana Flavia Pennetta sui campi New Yorkesi; perfino il calcio non è più un tabù per il mondo femminile: il gentil sesso vanta infatti direttori di gara in serie A maschile, ma ancora più importanti sono i campionati interamente femminili che hanno conquistato una certa audience anche da parte del pubblico maschile. Nuovo fronte di conquista è il nobile sport del Polo. Uno sport difficile, per pochi, pochi e uomini, fino a non molto tempo fa. Ma le donne, si sa, se hanno un talento ci mettono passione e grinta, fino a raggiungere il massimo dei risultati, talvolta anche con più determinazione dei colleghi maschi. Per chi volesse assistere ad una dimostrazione del talento di molte ragazze in questo sport elegante, non potrà farsi scappare l’emozionante VII edizione della “Viareggio Polo Beach Cup – Viareggio Beach PoloVersilia Tuscany”, che si terrà sul stupendo arenile degli stabilimenti balneari Ariston, Bragozzo, Tucano, Bragozzo di Ponente e Orizzonte. Appassionati e curiosi potranno assistervi il 9,10 e 11 Ottobre; la suggestiva location è l’ unica competizione su sabbia in Europa ed ha come corrispondente il torneo di Miami. Atleti di alto livello, tra le quali le famose Ginevra D’Orazio e Tessa Elser e sponsor di alto prestigio tra cui Ermanno Scervino e Gancia sono un’ottima garanzia per un evento che già di per sé non avrebbe bisogno di conferme. Le squadre che si sfideranno tra le dune delle spiagge toscane sono: Fipa Group, Engel&Voelkers – Versilia&Siena, Dr. Vranjes e Park Hotel Villa Ariston, le quali giocheranno in un campo di sabbia compatta dotato di transenne di legno, permettendo al pubblico di assistere da un’incredibile distanza ravvicinata e di godersi appieno lo spettacolo. I ritmi della sfida saranno molto elevati ed incalzanti grazie alle caratteristiche del particolare campo da gioco, momenti che garantiranno emozioni ed adrenalina per gli spettatori. La cerimonia d’apertura si terrà giovedì 8 Ottobre con la consegna delle maglie ai giocatori, mentre le premiazioni si svolgeranno domenica 11 al termine della competizione. In concomitanza con questo stupendo ed emozionante torneo si terrà la regata “Polo Star”, la quale vedrà coinvolti i migliori campioni di questa disciplina. La regata si terrà sulle acque antistanti ai campi di Polo a Lido di Camaiore, il 10 e l’11, sarà perciò possibile assistere alla regata dalla spiaggia, la quale sarà una stimolante cornice ad 20141010_RK_00143una location già magica di per sé. Cavalli e cavalieri lotteranno tra le nuvole di sabbia da un lato, mentre le imbarcazioni sfrecceranno sulle onde dall’altro. Due lati, due discipline che si incontreranno nella serata di Gala del 10 Ottobre, presso il “Park Hotel Villa”. Durante la serata verrà versato un contributo per restaurare l’anfiteatro di Pompei, dove si esibirà per l’apertura Andrea Bocelli, l’artista inoltre sarà ospite della serata di Gala ed incanterà con la sua voce i partecipanti.

Il Polo è poco conosciuto e praticato nel bel Paese, un vero peccato per uno sport che regala molte emozioni; il torneo di Viareggio è un’ottima occasione per avvicinarsi e conoscere questa disciplina che sta finalmente dando spazio anche alle donne. Mare, sport di alto livello, musica, locations affascinanti e tanto divertimento accompagneranno questa favolosa esperienza da non perdere assolutamente.

Ad organizzare il bellissimo evento ci ha pensato l’instancabile Patrizia Lencioni, grande appassionata di cavalli e di Polo, la quale ha preso l’idea dell’originale location sulla sabbia dal continente americano.

Tutte le info su http://www.viareggiopolobeach.com/

di Marco Trevisan

7/10/2015 

 

Next generation gadgets for kids: foam furniture, city turds

07 mercoledì 2015 visualizzazioni:
Lifestyle

This simple, lightweight chair is made by slotting together flat sections of plywood. These are then pulled together by fastening elements for a more ergonomic, curved shape.

Constructed from recycled cardboard that’s been processed into a pulp, then coloured with natural dyes, these seats are sculpted around a North American hardwood handle. Designer Michael Neville designed his Yin and Yang rockers to be almost entirely biodegradable

But now the sounds inside had ceased, and a thin circle of bright metal showed between the top and the body of the cylinder. Air was either entering or escaping at the rim with a thin, sizzling sound. They listened, rapped on the scaly burnt metal with a stick, and, meeting with no response, they both concluded the man or men inside must be insensible or dead. Of course the two were quite unable to do anything.

Henderson went into the railway station at once, in order to telegraph the news to London. The newspaper articles had prepared men’s minds for the reception of the idea. I found a little crowd of perhaps twenty people surrounding the huge hole in which the cylinder lay.

Gregg the butcher and his little boy

I think they perceived that nothing was to be done for the present, and had gone away to breakfast at Henderson’s house. There were four or five boys sitting on the edge of the Pit, with their feet dangling, and amusing themselves–until I stopped them–by throwing stones at the giant mass. After I had spoken to them about it, they began playing at “touch” in and out of the group of bystanders. Among these were a couple of cyclists, a jobbing gardener I employed sometimes, a girl carrying a baby, Gregg the butcher and his little boy, and two or three loafers and golf caddies who were accustomed to hang about the railway station. There was very little talking. Few of the common people in England had anything but the vaguest astronomical ideas in those days. Most of them were staring quietly at the big table like end of the cylinder, which was still as Ogilvy and Henderson had left it.

I fancy the popular expectation of a heap of charred corpses was disappointed at this inanimate bulk. Some went away while I was there, and other people came. I clambered into the pit and fancied I heard a faint movement under my feet.

[blockquote author=”DALAI LAMA” pull=”normal”]Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.[/blockquote]

It was only when I got thus close to it that the strangeness of this object was at all evident to me. At the first glance it was really no more exciting than an overturned carriage or a tree blown across the road. Not so much so, indeed. It looked like a rusty gas float. It required a certain amount of scientific education to perceive that the grey scale of the Thing was no common oxide, that the yellowish-white metal that gleamed in the crack between the lid and the cylinder had an unfamiliar hue.

Here Are The Crazy Games That Made All The Difference In Baseball’s Tightest Races

07 mercoledì 2015 visualizzazioni:
Interviews

Sometime this offseason, when you’€™re staring out the window waiting for spring or you’€™re watching one of our lesser sports, you’€™re going to start thinking.

The offseason is good for that, and baseball thoughts are usually good thoughts, especially if your team made the playoffs. You’€™ll think back on a game that got them there — maybe one that they had no business winning and in some cases, proved to be the difference between going on and going home, or home-field advantage and a long plane trip.

Then there are those other thoughts. The game that they should have had — either they blew it or they couldn’€™t take care of the team that was supposed to be an easy mark on the schedule.

There were 2,429 games this year to think back on — the baseball gods owe us one more next time we see them — and a few of them were that game for a team that just missed or a team that just made it.

And for the second straight year, we present the games to remember that made the entire difference in the standings. For each team that either earned a spot or home field by one game, you’€™ll see the following:

  1. The escape from defeat. This was the game in which they had the lowest win probability at any point among the games they won.
  2. The win in which they were the biggest underdog coming in according to the wagering line.
  3. Luckiest win — This isn’€™t always 100 percent luck, but it’€™s the win in which they were most outplayed. We’€™ll use the biggest gaps in true average between the teams instead of just the hit total to account for walks, hit by pitches, etc.
  4. Miscellaneous — a stretch that saved their season, a good team that they owned, a notable game against the team they edged out, etc.

For the teams that came up a game short, it’€™s going to be the opposite — the most excruciating blown game, the loss in which they were the biggest favorite, the loss with their highest TAv advantage and a piece of miscellaneous misfortune that you won’€™t want to remember.

Starting with the single game that had the biggest impact on the postseason picture — the only single game that meant the difference between the ballfield and the golf course.

A trait carried over from their debut, luckily for us listeners

Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, with mild stun’sails spread, floated across the tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances.

That it was only then, on the homeward voyage, after the encounter, that the final monomania seized him, seems all but certain from the fact that, at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic; and, though unlimbed of a leg, yet such vital strength yet lurked in his Egyptian chest, and was moreover intensified by his delirium, that his mates were forced to lace him fast, even there, as he sailed, raving in his hammock. In a strait-jacket, he swung to the mad rockings of the gales. And, when running into more sufferable latitudes, the ship, with mild stun’sails spread, floated across the tranquil tropics, and, to all appearances, the old man’s delirium seemed left behind him with the Cape Horn swells.

Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge.

Lauren Mayberry’s lyrics touches on elements of heartbreak

God the direful madness was now gone; even then, Ahab, in his hidden self, raved on. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. Ahab’s full lunacy subsided not, but deepeningly contracted; like the unabated Hudson, when that noble Northman flows narrowly, but unfathomably through the Highland gorge.

But, as in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of Ahab’s broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished. That before living agent, now became the living instrument. If such a furious trope may stand, his special lunacy stormed his general sanity, and carried it, and turned all its concentred cannon upon its own mad mark. I knew the Indians would soon discover that they were on the wrong trail and that the search for me would be renewed in the right direction as soon as they located my tracks. I had gone but a short distance further when what seemed to be an excellent trail opened up around the face of a high cliff. The trail was level and quite broad and led upward and in the general direction I wished to go. The cliff arose for several hundred feet on my right, and on my left was an equal and nearly perpendicular drop to the bottom of a rocky ravine.

Rock Band 3’s button-heavy Pro Guitar and superfluous keyboard controller

06 martedì 2015 visualizzazioni:
Interviews

I can’t stop listening to The Protomen. I’ve known about this band and their Mega Man-inspired tunes for years now, but I never really gave them a chance until ”Light Up the Night” popped up during a Rock Band set.

Turns out that song is perfect: triumphant sing-along vocals, driving synths straight out of an ‘80s training montage, pounding drums that subtly ramp up the song’s unstoppable intensity. It’s an absolute blast both to hear and to play, and without experiencing the song through the immediacy of Rock Band, I may never have fallen in love with it; then the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, and its great eyes half shut.

An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes, and feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. ‘Poor little thing!’ said Alice, in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it; but she was terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.

Still got your cymbals? Mad Catz add-ons worked for us!

Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off all its feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick, and made believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself from being run over; and the moment she appeared on the other side, the puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its hurry to get hold of it. So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house, and found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside.

Unfortunately, therein lies the problem. Great as that gameplay may be, Rock Band 4 does little to distinguish itself from its predecessors outside of a handful of hit-or-miss ideas and, in some cases, even takes a small step backwards.

The poor little Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving it something out of a bottle. They all made a rush at Alice the moment she appeared; but she ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself safe in a thick wood. The first thing I’ve got to do, said Alice to herself, as she wandered about in the wood, is to grow to my right size again; and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I think that will be the best plan. It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and simply arranged; the only difficulty was, that she had not the smallest idea how to set about it; and while she was peering about anxiously among the trees, a little sharp bark just over her head made her look up in a great hurry. Alice, thinking it was very like having a game of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be trampled under its feet, ran round the thistle again; then the puppy began a series of short charges at the stick, running a very little way forwards each time and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat down a good way off, panting.

Sure these characters look cool, but the customization options are actually pretty limited.

Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his deformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural terror, as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to specific accounts, he had over and over again evinced in his assaults. More than all, his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than perhaps aught else. For, when swimming before his exulting pursuers, with every apparent symptom of alarm, he had several times been known to turn round suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave their boats to splinters, or drive them back in consternation to their ship.

It’s a novel idea that occasionally proved convenient, but it’s also kind of pointless when you’re standing in the same room as the rest of your band. Rock Band 4 eliminates synchronous online multiplayer, and while that’s not a huge loss, it does mean anytime you’re playing with other people you can just turn to one another and ask, ”Okay, what’s next?” Like the campaign’s story elements, this mode doesn’t diminish your ability to enjoy the gameplay, but it also doesn’t add much to the overall experience.

Beyond those modes, Rock Band 4 feels a bit content light. Bafflingly, you won’t find a practice mode, for instance, or anything resembling, say, Rocksmith 2014’s collection of Guitarcade mini-games. You will, however, find a couple of crucial tutorials for Rock Band 4’s one truly original and truly exceptional idea: Freestyle Solos. In the past, the team at Harmonix painstakingly authored each and every note of a song’s recorded solo. That style is still an option, but Freestyle Solos are now on by default.