Main Street Gazette: More spell cards to use in the Magic Kingdom

Ever since Walt Disney World opened in 1971 Disney has worked very hard to keep guests immersed in the park and resort experiences, with as little intrusion from the outside world as possible. An announcement late last week, however, shows that the boundaries of Walt Disney World?s appreciation of what guests want and need is expanding.

One of four game boards will be included in the packages, and will include instructions for how to play at home. These rules for play outside of the Magic Kingdom have been a long time coming. Many players and collectors have speculated since the game?s inception that the various type of attacks, boosts, and shields, and the number powers assigned to these various fields would eventually be a part of a play away from the park element. Since the game share elements with a variety of collectible card games, it only makes sense for these attack and defense pieces to be incorporated, but it would be very difficult to use these features during gameplay in the park when Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is tailored as a fast paced game for the whole family.

I?m really looking forward to picking up some of these packs, although I may have to wait until they make their way to the Disney Store to order them, and exploring the rules of the sorcerer battle royale. I imagine each player will still be mostly battling against the villain on the given board, but there may be a race element, a la Trouble or Candyland, to see which sorcerer in your family can bash the villain first. The other option, typical to collectible card games, is to go toe to toe with another sorcerer in your family, though this seems unlikely. My thought behind this is that Disney will still want to make this as easy for everyone in the family to play.

With the ten super-rare cards finally seeing the light of day and gameplay expanding into the home arena, the longevity of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is only beginning to be exposed. I would suspect to see expansion card sets and additional game boards to be rolled out in the next couple of years for those who wish to hone their sorcery skills at home. Back in the Magic Kingdom, I can only imagine more portals, perhaps even in more parks, with new villains and challenges to face off against!

Source: http://www.mainstgazette.com/2012/08/more-spell-cards-to-use-in-magic-kingdom.html

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Giant typhoon Saola and dwarf Damrey head for China

Nicola Guttridge, contributor

(Image: NASA Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team)

The forecast for the weekend may look a little bleak where you are, but spare a thought for those in China. These two swirling typhoons, named Saola and Damrey, will hurtle to landfall on either side of Shanghai in the next couple of days, ending up near Taiwan and southern Japan respectively.

This image, captured yesterday at 0200 UTC by NASA's Terra satellite, shows Saola as a giant mature cyclone, dwarfing the smaller Damrey. Saola also has an eye, although in this image clouds obscure it from view. NASA satellites have been tracking the two storms, imaging them in the visible, infared and microwave parts of the spectrum.

Damrey will make tracks just north of Shanghai tomorrow before winding its way towards southern Japan, with Saola following suit on a more southerly route to Taiwan the day after. Warnings have been posted for eight cities and 11 counties in Taiwan, two provinces in the Phillippines and several nearby islands.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Saola on 1 August at 0505 UTC and captured an infrared image of the storm. It showed strong, high, cold cloud tops of thunderstorms (purple) approaching Taiwan and stretched over the northern Philippines (Image: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen)

Saola's bulk is reflected in its super-fast wind speeds, which hit around 167 kilometres per hour, some 45 kilometres faster than Damrey's winds. Due to warm sea temperatures the bulky cyclone is going from strength to strength, and is thought likely to weaken only when it hits land tomorrow. In contrast, Damrey is expected to weaken by the end of today, when it travels through cooler areas of sea.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/21fbbd1e/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A80Ctyphoon0Esaola0Eand0Edamrey0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Conservation Areas may solve a form of prisoners' dilemma as all ...

Gabriel Ahlfeldt presents findings from a recent research report showing that property prices are generally higher inside conservation areas. The regulation is good news for policymakers as it?ensures collective action in maintaining?neighborhoods, making free-riding much harder to do.

Since the 1960s, over 9,800 Conservation Areas have been designated in England with the aim of preserving local historic or architectural character. It is argued that the specific heritage value of these areas needs to be protected in the interest of society, including current and future members.

Valuing this heritage and the policies put in place for its preservation is challenging. The key problem is that what these areas deliver to their surroundings ? and society as a whole ? is not directly traded on the market. And since there are no directly observable prices, it is difficult to put a number on people?s willingness to pay for their effects.

In a recent?report?commissioned by?English Heritage we have tried to unpick the economics of Conservation Areas using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques.

We therefore looked at observable market outcomes ? as reflected in more than 1m property transactions across England since 1995. Exploring more than 8000 conservation areas, we found that property prices are generally higher inside conservation areas ? about 9 per cent?controlling for other factors. Equivalently important, we were interested in how the value of these historically and architecturally particular building spills over to their surroundings. I believe an assessment of the external effects of heritage buildings must be at a heart of a preservation policy evaluation. The aesthetic quality of a building is a public good. It can be enjoyed free of charge by anyone living near to the building or even just passing by. Preserving this external value, which goes beyond the value the owner might attach to its property, is a key motivation for the designation of conservation areas.

Our results suggest that such an external value exists. Figure?1 illustrates how ? controlling for other factors ? property prices tend to increase the further one moves towards a conservation area. Prices increase up to 3 per cent?close to a conservation area. The effect diminishes with distance and disappears after about 600 meters.

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These effects closely resemble the results of one of my previous studies investigating the effects of about 16,000 listed buildings in Berlin, Germany. Figure?2 again points to a very similar pattern, both in terms of the percentage effect on prices as well as in the spatial impact. The effects become even stronger when focussing on particularly important prestigous buildings. In a recent study, I had a look at the external property price effects of 25 residential buildings by world famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago Oak Park. The result of this analysis: An increase in prices of nearby houses of up to 5 per cent?and even wider impact area than an average conservation area in England or an average listed building in Berlin.

Is it likely that these effects are really caused by the architecture of these buildings or may other (unobserved) factors such as a privilege location account for them? In the report for English Heritage we have analyzed 111 in-depth residential interviews conducted in 10 conservation areas to answer this question. Figure?4 compares our computed property price premiums in conservation areas relative to their surroundings to how residents ranked the attractiveness of the buildings in these areas. Evidently, our results suggest that the premium people pay for living in conservation areas rises with a neighborhood?s aesthetic quality.

All this is compelling evidence that there is a willingness to pay for the aesthetic quality and the historic character of the neighborhood, at least by those living in these areas.

Are there any downsides? For homeowners, Conservation Areas pretty significantly constrain the degree to which properties can be altered. We might expect these constraints could cause property values to decline following a designation. However, looking at over 900 recent designations across England, we couldn?t find any significant effect on prices. Owners we interviewed also generally express positive attitudes towards the planning constraints that come with designation, and the planning system more generally.

This is good news for policymakers, since it suggests Conservation Areas secure local social benefits without costs to individual homeowners. Rather, designation captures externalities that are then capitalised into house prices. In doing so, Conservation Areas solve a form of?prisoners? dilemma. If all local homeowners look after their historic houses, everyone is better off. But individual homeowners might be tempted to let their properties go to seed, while free-riding off nearby properties? ?character?.?A regulation that ensures collective action makes such free-riding much harder to do.

It?s harder to say whether more conservation area designations are in the interest of?society as a whole. For instance, we don?t know if Conservation Area designations?limit the supply of new housing?in some regions, or the country as a whole. If they do, too many designations may create gilded cages ? beautiful towns in which living space becomes unaffordable for the average household. More work needs to be done to answer this question.

Note: ?This article gives the views of the?author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics.?Please read our?comments policy?before posting.

About the author

Dr. Gabriel Ahlfeldt joined the Department of Geography and Environment in October 2009 as a Lecturer in Urban Economics and Land Development. Dr. Ahlfeldt is an Affiliate of the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC) and an associate of the Centre for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin. His research concentrates on the effect of large transport projects and architectural developments on local house prices, local political preferences and urban structure.

No related posts.

Source: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2012/08/02/conservation-areas-ahlfeldt/

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Double gold for Team GB from canoeing and shooting

Team GB struck double gold on Thursday with Olympic victory in the men's canoe double and trap shooting.

Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott splashed their way to gold at the Lee Valley white water centre, where their biggest challenge came from David Florence and Richard Hounslow.

Florence and Hounslow took the silver to make it a Team GB one-two in an event where the hosts have never previously won a medal. Pavol Hochschorner and Peter Hochschorner of Slovakia were the bronze medallists.

World record holder Peter Wilson, trained by Sheikh Ahmed al Maktoum, a member of the Dubai royal family, grabbed Great Britain's first Olympic shooting medal for 12 years, winning gold in the men's double trap at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Sweden's Hakan Dahlby took silver and Russia's Vasily Mosin won bronze after a shoot-off.

The three extra medals lifted Team GB to fifth in the medals table.

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "Fantastic news in the canoeslalom and doubletrap shooting. Let's hope we can get even more Olympic medals today."

His hopes were quickly rewarded when Gemma Gibbons pocketed silver in the women's under-78kg judo class at the ExCel Arena, though she had to concede gold to Kayla Harrison, winner of the first ever Olympic gold medal in judo for the United States.

Further Team GB medals were in prospect in the Olympic velodrome, where four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy and sprint queen Victoria Pendleton were lining up in the men's and women's team sprint finals.

"It's going to be very, very close but we're going to be at our best since Beijing," Hoy said. "Since the worlds it's been going really well. We've started making significant strides."

Olympic and six-time world sprint champion Pendleton is looking to claim her maiden gold of the Games when the women's two-lap equivalent, making its Games debut.

Pendleton and Jess Varnish set a new world record in their heat in a time of 32.526, only to be upstaged minutes later by China who powered over two laps to clock 32.447.

Hoy, with Kenny Jason and German-born Philip Hindes, set the fastest time in the men's qualifiers though not before their heat against Germany had to be restarted because of a mechanical fault with Hindes's bicycle.

The finals are scheduled for later Thursday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-hopes-golden-splashes-olympics-084403679--oly.html

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