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173 gestrande Belgen eindelijk thuis na quarantaine in Tenerife: “Regering liet ons aan ons lot over. We hebben twee maanden op ons terras moeten doorbrengen” - Het Laatste Nieuws

  1. 173 gestrande Belgen eindelijk thuis na quarantaine in Tenerife: “Regering liet ons aan ons lot over. We hebben twee maanden op ons terras moeten doorbrengen”  Het Laatste Nieuws
  2. 173 gestrande Belgen eindelijk thuis na quarantaine in Tenerife: “Regering heeft te weinig gedaan!”  Het Laatste Nieuws
  3. Na quarantaine in Tenerife: 173 Belgen eindelijk weer thuis  De Morgen
  4. Belgen die vastzaten op Tenerife charterden zelf vliegtuig naar huis  De Standaard
  5. West-Vlaming regelt repatriëring gestrande Belgen  Focus en WTV
  6. Hele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws














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A Last Minute Ten, Nine, Eight … Point Transit Plan

The mayor's list of ideas to alleviate crowding offers little relief in the short term.

Mayor John Tory announced a ten-point plan to fight congestion and delays on the TTC at a press conference just before Toronto Council began its final debates on the 2018 budget. Through the entire budget process, starting with Tory’s cohort on the TTC Board and continuing through the City Budget and Executive committees, transit has […]

The post A Last Minute Ten, Nine, Eight … Point Transit Plan appeared first on Torontoist.




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Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition

Mayoral foibles, Google's urban charm offensive, finalists for George Brown's new wood building, and how many avocado toasts will you need to give up?

1 Please don’t poke the mayor – Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson found himself criticized in light of calling George Bemi’s award-winning Ottawa Library a “Stalin-ist bunker”. Watson’s rebuke wasn’t so elegant, but the following debate explored how contemporary ideas of wellness and accessibility requires real investment in restoration and renovation. Here in Toronto, Mayor John […]

The post Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition appeared first on Torontoist.




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Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, May 8, 2020

Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, May 8, 2020




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Analysis: Tennis pros' US return amid pandemic no true model

Analysis: Tennis pros' US return amid pandemic no true model




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Family Reunion

 Digging through a box of figures yesterday I found an old Grenadier Orc that I had painted back in 1986 or so. Well, I thought time to draft you into the army my son!
It was only when I brought him down stairs to the painting table I realised I had bought some orcs from EBay that matched him exactly. In fact I think the sculpt had been cut up to create the other as from the head down to the belt were identical. Well not being one to break up a family, this lot will be based together on the same base. The range is an old Grenadier box set I think.

 I will rebase him, but I did have to stop and take a trip down memory lane as I studied his base. Back then rather than painting hordes of figures, I would spend hours on just one. This one is based on a piece of cardboard cut from an art pad. Polly filler was then used for the grass and pricked with a needle to create grass, then painted. Boy, now I just wash and go with new improved ground mix from Luke’s APS.
I used to spend hours and days on just one character at a time, glad to say those days are long behind me but it was quite moving looking at the way I used to work as a teenager.




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Another batch of Union troops for the Dip

Experimenting with different techniques with this second batch. The strong tone brown is quite dark so is great for clothes but I feel some areas of the mini need a stronger contrast. So with this second group I gave their muskets a wash of black. Also their equipment is very dark too so while I had the ink on the brush I tried on their blue uniforms and a little on their faces. Watching a lot of references and from my own re-enactments, I know the black power gets all over the face with biting cartridges etc, so a bit of black contrast on the face wouldn’t go a miss.

This extra shade on the face did bring out the expressions and characters of the figures a lot more. Again, really quick to do and gave another level of detail to the mini. I will compare the two batches at the end and see which I prefer.

I’m finding that painting them in little strips of five or six minis is actually really fun and gives a much more instant and rewarding experience.

As I paint these guys I try to use the brush in such a way that I leave areas of black undercoat still showing in the recesses. This should help the should help the shading later with the brown tone.

There is one more technique I would like to try on a third batch, using two tones of Army Painter at the same time. A black Dark tone for the equipment/uniform areas and a Strong tone for the trousers etc.



  • American Civil War
  • Dip

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Researching Bonnie Blue Flag rules

A while back I bought a copy of ‘Bonnie Blue Flag’ from Cavalier books and I have to say I really liked what I saw. The rules seem to give me everything I was looking for in a ACW rule set, I decided then even though I must have 15 plus ACW rule sets, this was going to be the one for me. I became a Kevin Calder fanboy over night and quickly snapped up his other Sudan rule set too. I constantly patrol Cavalier books looking out for any other variants of the rule set that may of been released. Although, the rules are so adaptable that you could use them for a multitude of other eras.

The only down side though is that because they are a small rule set by Cavalier Books there doesn’t seem to be much support for them. This lead me to do my own research to clean details, however small, from the internet to help outline some of the rules in the book. A big break through came when I found Kevins blog ‘The Iron Brigade’. This was full of nice pictures of his games which gave loads of extra details into the system. I have created this post on here so I can dump any relevant information to save me trolling around in the future. Other like minded souls had made the same connection and had gone to the Facebook site to ask questions, these were not answered though. So here I have gathered images from various games Kevin has done and each one is a wealth of extra information and details for the rule set.



A Crazed stalker raids the internet for more information.
 It’s interesting to see here the use of skirmishers. They are kept on the table and placed around the parent unit at all times, unless destroyed. This wasn’t made very clear in the rule book, I thought you just took them off once they rejoined their regiment.

 It’s also good to see the mini dice in play. I think pictures like this would of been a better choice rather than the stock Cavalier book ACW illustrations in the rule book. It would of really helped define things. Also, Cavalier Books released another set of ACW rules and included the same illustrations... a bit poor I thought.
 This is interesting, dismounted cavalry on 40mm round bases. This shows their looser structure on the field. This is a nice touch and gave me some good ideas about basing units of sharpshooters. Everybody knows the green clad Berdan’s sharpshooters, but by basing up a Confederate unit of marksman in this way would really help define them from the other units.

 A photo taken from a Napoleonic battle hosted by Kevin, it again shows that with a few minor weapon range tweaks, these rules can be used for most horse and musket periods. I also noticed in one of these games that skirmishers could be based two to a base rather than singly. This is quite helpful to me as single figures are quite hard to store and keep safe. Two figures on a 40mm base are a lot more stable and also give the chance of a diorama.
Also interesting that this small unit of sharpshooters only has one skirmisher rather than three to reflect its small size. I will tag this post and keep adding to it, if and when I find out anything new. These rules are great and well worth a look.

Below is a great picture showing the game in process. Note that some skirmishers have been based as units of ‘comrades in arms’, multiple figures in groups of skirmishers, loading and firing to maintain a constant fire. This is an idea I will play with for sure.



  • Bonnie Blue Flag

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Basing night!

This was the second time trying out Luke APS basing material, again I was greatly impressed. The arid grassland mix seemed perfect for American ground. On top of this I put patches of summer grass flock and then patches of mixed herbs. Mixed herbs from the kitchen cupboard act as great leaf/fern cover on the base. A nice touch is to put some around twigs so it looks like the branch has started to break down.
These are still not finished yet, later I will get my flock box out and give them clumps of 4-6mm static grass.
I have been hanging onto an old bonsai tree that died twenty years ago for the purpose of basing. Now these fantasy bases were the perfect excuse to dig it out and use it. It’s twisty roots were perfect for a good Middle Earth look.







  • lord Of The Rings

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Basing night


The results of the Dip were pleasing to look upon. I have almost doubled my Federal army in one go...result!.
These will be given some patches of 4mm grass today to finish them off.

The Regimental Fire and Fury way of generic basing is a good one. This bases will be able to represent a multitude of Union regiments. Although I have put together a hand picked group to represent the Irish Brigade, using the fantastic heads from Steve Barber models. That’s to come later, hopefully I can wizz through them with the Dip.



  • American Civil War

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Flock Box night

 After the bases were covered in ground mix yesterday, tonight I brought out the Flock box to give them some long field grass. This is a lot of extra work but I think it really helps finish off that American look.



 I think the Flock box really comes into its own on larger bases.






  • American Civil War

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Communication formats

Today's xkcd: Mouseover title: "DOWNSIDES: Adobe people may periodically email your newsroom to ask you to call it an 'Adobe® PDF document,' but they'll reverse course once they learn how sarcastically you can pronounce the registered trademark symbol." My own pet peeve, speaking of how normal humans choose to communicate, is people who send an […]



  • Linguistics in the comics

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Greedy Cloud’s Hidden Spring Furniture and Garden Décor Items Discovered!

Dear Idea Seeker or Ally of the Idea Seekers, I have great news!  Greedy Cloud has been chased away and Spec and Tra discovered some new spring time house and garden items that he was hiding from everyone. Check them out in my house and garden, or go see Spec, Tra and Skeeter’s houses. Here […]





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Squeeze More Earnings Out Of Your Adsense Account In 5 Minutes Or Less (Blog Post)

Google Adsense it’s usually the first place people go who want to monetize their websites and blogs with the hope those Adsense earnings will net them some big cash. Normally these ads will be matched to your site based on the content and browsing history of the people visiting your site. The goal is to tailor make ads that will hopefully be appealing for people to click on......................




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Dead Island "Feminist Whore" Skill?

The game Dead Island, a game set on a fictional tropical island where you get to kill zombies hasn’t had very much luck with its recent release. Those who’ve purchased the game on Steam downloaded an incorrect build of the game full of bugs and glitches. On top of that most couldn’t connect online to play multiplayer.............







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Should You Get A Nintendo Switch Lite If You Can’t Find Switch Availability? It Depends - Forbes

  1. Should You Get A Nintendo Switch Lite If You Can’t Find Switch Availability? It Depends  Forbes
  2. Nintendo Switch Lite is in stock at Amazon and Best Buy: Latest inventory update  CNET
  3. Best Switch Games So Far In 2020  Trusted Reviews
  4. Nintendo Switch Capture Cards: How to Record Video of Your Gameplay  Screen Rant
  5. View Full coverage on Google News




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Dodging the flu shot doesn't make you an anti-vaxxer, says union - The Age

  1. Dodging the flu shot doesn't make you an anti-vaxxer, says union  The Age
  2. Shop owners in virus-free towns plead to reopen  The Age
  3. UFC 249 preview - Ferguson v Gaethje, Cejudo v Cruz and…  BT Sport
  4. Why the best team won't win in a year that will be mental as anything  Sydney Morning Herald
  5. Wellbeing hit: modelling reveals huge cost of school closures  Sydney Morning Herald
  6. View Full coverage on Google News





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Laid bare: How the Dean Laidley story reveals cultural change - Sydney Morning Herald

  1. Laid bare: How the Dean Laidley story reveals cultural change  Sydney Morning Herald
  2. Dean Laidley police photo leak: Fourth officer suspended  NEWS.com.au
  3. 'Gross stupidity': Fresh investigation into Dean Laidley photo leak  Yahoo Sport Australia
  4. Vic watchdog to probe leaked Laidley pics  AFL
  5. IBAC to investigate leaked Laidley photos  Yass Tribune
  6. View Full coverage on Google News





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Daredevil 'Mad Mike' Hughes dies in crash of his homemade rocket in California

"Mad Mike" Hughes, a self-styled explorer and daredevil bent on proving that the earth is flat was killed over the weekend when his homemade rocket crashed in the California desert over the weekend.




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Who let the dogs out? A few Spaniards defy coronavirus lockdown

Under partial lockdown due to the spiraling coronavirus pandemic, Spaniards are allowed to leave home only for essential outings, walking a dog being one of them.




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Novelty toilet roll cakes keep Finnish baker in business

A quick-thinking Helsinki bakery has saved itself from financial ruin due to the new coronavirus pandemic by creating a cake that looks like a toilet roll.




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President queries Tanzania coronavirus kits after goat test

Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.




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Five-year-old stopped on U.S. highway wanted to buy Lamborghini, police say

A trooper stopping a car with a suspected "impaired driver" on a U.S. highway on Monday was bemused to find a 5-year-old in the driver's seat, the Utah Highway Patrol tweeted.




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A Simple Weekend Embroidery Finish

An idea has been bubbling around in my brain for a while. And since this past weekend was a perfect …





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It's True, Canadians Are the Nicest People



  • Canada
  • random act of kindness
  • cars
  • nice
  • restoring faith in humanity week

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A University Professor Super-Sized Tetris to be 29-Stories Tall

Frank Lee designed this gigantic version of Tetris for Philly Tech Week 2014 in Pennsylvania.






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Is AI rejecting your job application? Here’s how to avoid being digitally denied – and impress once in human hands

We’ve all heard the statistic that employers only spend a few seconds reviewing your résumé. Now, thanks to technology, artificially intelligent algorithms scan it even quicker. With more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies and over 70% of large employers using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help manage their recruitment and hiring processes, making your way […]

The post Is AI rejecting your job application? Here’s how to avoid being digitally denied – and impress once in human hands appeared first on DiversityJobs.com.